How to Describe the Self-hating Jew? – Op-Ed

You could conceivably quote the dubious opinions of Thomas Friedman and the New York Times relative to the State of Israel and the so-called “peace process” that began on the White House lawn, September,1993.

You could refer to the zoa.org OpEd, After Gaza, reviewing an article written by Ms. Oz-Salzberger that recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

You could direct them to an article by Leon Wieseltier that just appeared in The New Republic (TNR) of September 2, 2005. Excerpts from that article appear below. Weiseltier is commenting upon the withdrawal from Gaza. His opening paragraph reads:

President Bush Salutes Chabad’s Rescue Efforts

Speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s 20th Anniversary Celebration on Wednesday, President George Bush applauded the Jewish community’s participation in Hurricane Katrina’s relief efforts. The President’s speech, which addressed in particular, the work of Chabad-Lubavitch, followed the invocation by Rabbi Levi Shemtov, director of American Friends of Lubavitch in Washington.

In his remarks, President Bush said:

“Our nation’s armies of compassion have rallied and have come to the aid of people who are in desperate need of help. Our charities and houses of worship and idealistic people have opened up their homes, wallets and their hearts. It’s been an amazing, amazing outpouring of help. And the Jewish community of this country has been on the forefront of the efforts.

Jewish slave labourers’ grave found near US base

Workers at a US army base in Germany have found a wartime grave thought to contain Jewish slave labourers, police said yesterday.

An unknown number of remains were dug up during work next to Stuttgart airport, southern Germany. Tests indicate the bodies are the right age to be Jews used as forced labourers in the area.

Jewish inmates from a sub-camp of the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp were used at the airbase between November 1944 and February 1945, a state police spokesman said, adding that more than 100 are known to have died of hunger and typhus.

Education 101

Education in the eyes of the Educator

Handwritten Torah finished in Poughkeepsie

About 200 people from different Jewish congregations and affiliations turned out Sunday in Poughkeepsie to witness the completion of a handwritten Torah scroll.

They saw a rabbi from Montreal, Canada write the last of the 600,000 characters in Hebrew letters for the Mid-Hudson Valley Community Torah.

A police escort then led the Torah on a parade through Poughkeepsie’s business district to the Chabad House where a celebration was held.

Hindy Borenstein of the Chabad House said the Torah, written on parchment, is the same unaltered text for thousands of years, regardless of Jewish affiliation.

Holocaust Survivor Simon Wiesenthal Dies

Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor who helped track down Nazi war criminals following World War II, then spent the later decades of his life fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people, died Tuesday. He was 96.

Wiesenthal, who helped find one-time SS leader Adolf Eichmann and the policeman who arrested Anne Frank, died in his sleep at his home in Vienna, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

“I think he’ll be remembered as the conscience of the Holocaust. In a way he became the permanent representative of the victims of the Holocaust, determined to bring the perpetrators of the greatest crime to justice,” Hier told The Associated Press.

A survivor of five Nazi death camps, Wiesenthal changed his life’s mission after the war, dedicating himself to tracking down Nazi war criminals and to being a voice for the 6 million Jews who died during the onslaught. He himself lost 89 relatives in the Holocaust.

Police Commander Retires; Racial Tensions Simmer at Precinct

Deputy Inspector William McClellan, Commanding Officer of the 71st Precinct, has resigned from the police force to accept a job in the private sector, it was announced at Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting of the 71st Precinct Community Council, an organization that serves as a liaison between the civilian community and the local precinct. The precinct’s Executive Officer, Captain Daniel Sosnowik – an Orthodox Jew who wears a yarmulke with his police uniform – has been in charge pending the scheduled arrival this week of a new Commanding Officer, another Deputy Inspector.

Most police precincts in New York City are commanded by a Captain. However, the 71st precinct, which includes all of Jewish Crown Heights south of Eastern Parkway, has long been considered a particularly responsible post, in part because of the potentially volatile mix of races and religions within its borders. Accordingly, the Commanding Officer in Crown Heights has, for many years, consistently been someone of the rank of Deputy Inspector (the next higher rank above Captain).

Inflation In Lubavitch, High Holiday Seats In 770 Going Up 11%

Anash and visitors who are interested in purchasing seats in 770 for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur 5766 will have to pay 11% more than they did last year.

This year, seats are going for $250, while last year they sold for $225 each. The price includes membership, which can be purchased on its own for $100 for those who don’t buy seats.

In a letter signed by the Gaboyim they write that the price increase is “due to the increased costs of maintaining the Shul.”

According to a reliable source who spoke to SNS on the condition of anonymity, in total, there are about 1400 seats sold and the hope is that the extra $25 per seat will bring in another $35,000 of much needed funds.

N.Y. Independence Party Ousts Fulani

A woman accused of making anti-Semitic remarks was removed Sunday from the executive committee of New York’s small but politically influential Independence Party.

Lenora Fulani’s comments had drawn criticism not only from fellow Independence Party members, but also from powerful Democrats such as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and from Republicans including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Fulani has been accused of saying Jews “function as mass murderers of people of color” and “had to sell their souls” to acquire Israel.

Detained Gaza Protester Tells His Story

Jonathan Silverman attended Stony Brook from 2000-2004. The Chabad Lubavitch, with the help of Stony Brook’s Rabbi Adam, organized a trip to the Gaza Strip to protest the forced evacuation of Israelis from the territory during mid-August. Jon, with roughly a dozen other Jewish Americans, flew to Gaza to join the thousands of people who staged non-violent protests against this policy.

Jew’s story in America is a story of America itself

Speaking at the national dinner organised celebrating 350 years of Jewish life in the U.S., the American President George W. Bush hailed the contribution of Jews in the country, saying that the story of the Jewish people in America is a story of America itself.

“The story of the Jewish people in America is a story of America itself. The pilgrims considered this nation a new Israel, a refuge from persecution in Europe. Jewish Americans have made countless contributions to our land,” Bush said.

The gala dinner, held in the national building museum, concludes a year of events all over the U.S., marking 350 years since Jewish refugees fcoming from Brazil settled settled in the United States, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Sighted

On the major cross street of 4th Ave. in downtown Brooklyn and 9th St.

L’chayim

Jews split by a messianic message

Rabbi Ramy Banin, a big man with a long grey beard, is sitting in his office switching easily between English, Italian, Hebrew and Yiddish as he chats with visitors who walk through its open door. Outside, the late-summer sun slants across the small square of Venice’s Jewish Ghetto, warming the red and yellow walls of the tall buildings and the 500-year-old synagogue, past the memorial to the Jews deported in the Second World War and past shops selling menorah, stars of David and other Hebraica.

A Venezuelan stops by the rabbi’s office to introduce his Polish wife – ‘a good Jewish girl, of course,’ he says. An American woman wanders in and leaves with a handful of pamphlets. Outside, a group of schoolchildren sing a few lines of a religious song.

India’s lost tribe recognised as Jews
after 2,700 years

With a cry of “Mazeltov” and a Rabbi’s congratulatory handshake, hundreds of tribal people from India’s north-east were formally converted to Judaism this week after being recognised as descendants of the 10 Lost Tribes exiled from Israel 2,700 years ago.

A rabbinical court, dispatched with the blessing of Israel’s Chief Rabbi, travelled 3,500 miles to Mizoram on India’s border with Burma to perform the conversions using a Mikvah – ritual bath – built specially for the purpose.

There were emotional scenes as the Oriental-looking hill people professed their faith, repeating the oath from Deuteronomy: “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.”

After 55-year wait,
Jewish veteran to receive Medal of Honor

Tibor Rubin kept his promise to join the U.S. Army after American troops late in World War II freed him from the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.

A Hungarian Jew, Rubin immigrated to New York after the war, joined the Army and fought as an infantryman on the frontlines in the Korean War. In 1951, Chinese troops captured Cpl. Rubin and other U.S. soldiers and he became a prisoner of war for 2½ years.

Drawing from his experience at the Nazi concentration camp, Rubin daily risked his own life by stealing food from his captors and provided hope and crude medical care that kept more than 40 U.S. soldiers alive.

Hi-Tech NYPD Joins Pod People

Meet the new, funky NYPD — now available on your MP3 player.

The Police Department yesterday introduced a podcast featuring traffic reports, public-service announcements and features on its work.

The podcasts can be downloaded from the NYPD’s Web site and played on any MP3 player or over the Internet for those without the latest high-tech toy.

They will be updated every Saturday, although Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the series may be updated more regularly if big events or the number of users warrant it.

NOTE: To subscribe to the PodCast please visit NYPD website by CLICKING HERE

Nature’s Wrath, Or God’s

When Israel’s most prominent Sephardic rabbi described Hurricane Katrina as America’s punishment for supporting Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza — and condemned its mainly black victims for failing to study Torah — many Jewish leaders here were appalled.

But in Israel, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s view linking the worst natural disaster in American history to U.S. support for the Gaza withdrawal is not unique among rabbis.

Rabbi Joseph Gerlitzky, the leader of the Lubavitch chasidic sect’s center in central Tel-Aviv, among others, gave a sermon from his pulpit soon after the hurricane voicing the same theme. A popular radio rabbi echoed him. And a noted Jerusalem kabbalist reportedly also made similar comments.