Yom
Ha’atzmaut Edition
April 29, 2006 – Iyar
1, 5766
Happy 58th,
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman,
Send your friends and relatives the gift of Jewish awareness -- a
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SUNDAY APRIL 30TH 8:45AM- 12:45PM
“Give
the ‘Gift of Life”. Get
involved in a short term mitzvah project that will
save lives.
Call
Cheryl Wolff today at 203-968-6361 to schedule a donation time.
2006 Dinner Dance Honoring
Past Presidents
Photos are now up
at
Contents
of the Shabbat O Gram:
(Click
to scroll down)
Just
the Facts (service schedule)
Mitzvah/Tzedakkah Opportunities
Required Reading and Action Items (links
to key articles on Israel and Jewish life)
Announcements (goings on in and around
TBE)
Quote for the Week
Last
week at Dan’s Bar Mitzvah, I recited a poem written by my cousin Jeff Avick, a Stamford
As
people and as men
We
inhabit our lives
For
but a speck –
The
eye of a needle’s space
Of
time
Seeking,
as we do –
Each
in our own way –
Some
greater speck,
Some
greater space,
Some
way to live beyond ourselves,
We
live our lives.
Of
all the acts seeking extension,
The
giving of love is greatest:
Love
does not crumble as marble,
Change
as language,
Fall
as empires;
It
is absolute and breeds itself
And thus survives the giver.
This
is the true road to immortality,
You
have taken – and shared it.
Jeffrey
Avick z’l
1976
Shabbat
Rosh Hodesh Iyar
We welcome Cantor Littman back this
Shabbat
Friday Evening
Candle lighting: 7:29pm
on Friday, 28 April 2006 - Havdalah is at 8:32
pm on Saturday evening. For candle lighting times,
other Jewish calendar information, and to download a Jewish calendar to your
PDA, click on http://www.hebcal.com/. To see the festivals of other faiths as
well, go to http://www.interfaithcalendar.org/
Kabbalat Shabbat: 6:30 PM – in the sanctuary
Tot
Shabbat featuring - 6:45, in the chapel
Tot Shabbat will be
hosted this week by Karen and Howie Schwartz in honor
of their children, Alexa and Jason. Thank you to the Schwartz family!
Shabbat
Morning: 9:30 AM – Mazal tov to Billie Katz and Ross Neugeboren, who
will become B’nai Mitzvah this Shabbat
morning!
Children’s services: 10:30
Torah Portion: Tazria
– Metzora - Leviticus 12:1 - 15:33
1: 13:40-46
2: 13:47-54
3: 13:55-59
4: 14:1-5
5: 14:6-12
6: 14:13-20
7: 14:21-32
maf: for Rosh Hodesh - Numbers 28:9-15
Haftarah - Isaiah 66:1 - 66:24
See a weekly commentary
from the UJC Rabbinic Cabinet, at www.ujc.org/mekorchaim. Read the Masorti
commentary at http://www.masorti.org/mason/torah/index.asp. University of Judaism, JTS commentary is at: http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/parashah/. USCJ Torah
For online Parsha quizzes from Pardes in Israel, go to http://www.pardes.org.il/online_learning/parsha_quizzes/ Torah for Kids: http://www.torah4kids.net/ Weekly Lesson of Popular Israeli Rabbi Mordechai Elon: http://www.elon.org/archives/archives.htm - and his parsha sheets: http://www.mibereshit.org/special/download_eng_pdf.htm From Bar Ilan University: http://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/; http://www.torahproductions.com/weekly_article.jsp
THE ENTIRE
HEBREW BIBLE (AS WELL AS OTHER JEWISH SOURCES) CAN BE FOUND WITH SIDE-BY-SIDE
TRANSLATION AT
Morning Minyan: Weekdays at 7:30, Sundays at
9:30 AM
TO ENSURE A “GUARANTEED MINYAN” FOR
THE DAY OF YOUR YAHRZEIT – GO TO THE ROSNER MINYAN MAKER AT WWW.TBE.ORG
AND ALSO CONTACT ME AT RABBI@TBE.ORG.
A special thank you
from my family to all who helped make Dan’s Bar Mitzvah last Shabbat such
a special day, for us, for our family and for the community.
|
Yom HaShoah
Meets Earth Day |
The following
Jewish Week article is an adapted version of my sermon given last weekend. It can also be found online at
http://www.thejewishweek.com/top/editletcontent.php3?artid=4986
|
This year, Earth Day (April 22) and Holocaust Remembrance Day
(April 24-25) fall just a couple of days apart, giving us an opportunity to
explore some connections between the two. |
The New
Chancellor of JTS –
Since I’ve last O-grammed, the
Jewish Theological Seminary announced a surprise choice as its new chancellor,
Arnold Eisen, a professor at
Unlike the other candidates for chancellor -- who in addition to Rabbi
[Gordon] Tucker have included JTS Provost Jack Wertheimer; Rabbi
David Wolpe, a Los Angeles pulpit rabbi; and Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, who is dean of
the rabbinical school at Los Angeles’ University of Judaism -- Eisen has no publicly entrenched ideological views
on the issues currently occupying the Conservative movement.
“Arnie is a
personality who can transcend many of the intra-Conservative boundaries
and transcend Conservative and non-Conservative boundaries,” said Steven
M. Cohen, a fellow academic who co-authored the book with Eisen, “The
Jew Within: Self, Family and Continuity in America."
. . .
Eisen said he had done some fundraising for
the Stanford Hillel, and that
professionals had told him it “involves getting people excited
about a vision, and matching their passions and your excitement. I am looking forward to this
responsibility.” One goal
will be to “re-energize the synagogues,” which Eisen noted “have nowhere to go but up,”
in part because “we are wasting our laity and there is no [sense
of] community.” . . . Another is “to inspire
Jewish leadership.”
The Conservative movement has seen a steep drop in its numbers
over the past decade, although there are many synagogues, including ours, that
have found new ways to reenergize themselves. Here’s hoping this out-of-the-box
can help reverse the movement wide decline.
From the Masorti Movement:
Kotel in Court - Editor's Note
The Masorti Movement in
For several years after the agreement, Masorti
Jews were able to worship at the "Kotel Masorti" during most hours of the day without having
to pay. However, in the last year and half they have they been forced to
pay the 30
The Masorti Movement intends to show that
the present restrictions and cost constitute a serious infringement on our
religious freedom. This is especially true since there is nowhere else to
go -- the government's current policy prohibits Masorti
Jews from having egalitarian services even at the back of the
Rabbi Paul Arberman
Editor, e-masorti
COMING THIS FALL!!
For more information, go to www.starsynagogue.org
If you are interested in participating in our steering
committee or would like an info packet, contact me at rabbi@tbe.org
Mitzvah/Tzedakkah Opportunties
Beth El Cares
Cathy Satz (968-9191; csscounsel@yahoo.com)Cheryl Wolff (968-6361; cwolff@optonline.net)BETH EL CARES co-chairs Blood Drive – this weekend!!!!Give the Gift of Life! Get involved in a short term mitzvah project that will save lives. Who benefits from these blood donations? People who are born prematurely, people with auto-immune and other blood disorders, people involved in accidents… Many people, including temple members, have received blood transfusions in the past and some people need regular blood transfusions. On Sunday, April 30th between 8:30 am and 1:30 pm we need 125 healthy adults who are at least 17 years old,
weigh at least 110 pounds and have not given blood since the beginning of March.
The Red Cross will provide the “beds”; we need to put “arms in the beds”. Contact Cheryl Wolff to schedule your donation time or to volunteer to help.
Lock of Love
Todah Rabah to Rebecca
Satz, the latest
Rebecca just couldn’t wait until Sunday May 7 when Beth El
Cares will be hosting another group donation
for children and
teens to cut their hair for “Locks of Love”. If your hair is
10” or longer (in a ponytail),
join us on Sunday May 7.
Guy Sasson & Company will be coming
to
Advance sign-up is required. Mother and daughter teams will
be accepted-Cathy will volunteer to “adopt a daughter” for her
team!
Contact Cathy Satz to schedule your appointment.
Cathy Satz
968-9191 (
Sunday,
June 4, 2006
The
The
Walk/Run will be on June 4, 2006 in the morning at Shippan.
Each year TBE members walk together to raise money for cancer
patients and their families. In 2005, we had 51 walkers and our
team raised over $5,200!! This year our goal is
to raise $6,000.
We welcome
all new and past walkers to come together to form the
Sisterhood’s TBE Walk Team. We always have a great time for a good
cause. You can walk at your own pace and you will have other TBE members
to walk with! The course is either 3 or 5 miles (your choice).
See the special
TBE Walk and Run webpage at http://shf.convio.net/site/TR/819699896?pg=team&fr_id=1030&team_id=1110. You can pre-register there as well as
read a message from Beth Silver – she can also be reached at 967-8852, beth@silverconsulting.net.
Looking forward to having YOU on the team!
In Need
of a New Kidney
This plea comes via
Marcia and Michael Zlotnick, who know this family:
My 14 year old daughter Sophia has
end stage renal disease (kidney disease). She was
first diagnosed when she was six years old. Slowly,
over the last eight years, this disease has destroyed her kidneys. Recently, her kidneys failed. She
is now on dialysis every day and in need of a kidney transplant.
Unfortunately, neither my wife and
I, nor any of our close relatives, extended family or friends are a
“match”. The first hurdle to being a donor
match is blood type. Possible
donors must be in good health and have either blood type “O” or a
subset of “A” referred to as A2. Whether
or not a person’s blood type is classified as “negative” or
“positive” is not relevant. Adults are
able to donate a kidney to children and sex is not an issue. Males
can donate to females and visa versa. I know it is a lot to ask, and really
more than should be expected, but she is my daughter and she needs help. If anybody is interested in possibly donating a kidney
(the first step being a simple blood test) or if you simply want to learn more
about the process, the contact to call at Yale is:
Ms.
Joyce Albert
Transplant
Coordinator
Phone:
203-688-8373
(emails should indicate subject “Corsaro”)
All
communication with the Transplant Coordinator is confidential.
Yale will not contact us in any way, unless specifically instructed to
do so by the donor candidate. There
is no cost for a donor or donor candidate. If you or
anyone else would like more information on the topic of organ donation /
transplantation, please note the following internet web links:
The
www.unos.org
web site is very informative. The
PDF booklet “What Every Patient Needs to Know”, found in the United
Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) web site is particularly good. It takes a long time to download, but it has a good deal
of information for both the patient and potential donor. It
can be found as follows:
Resources
Publications
Patient
Brochures
PDF
“What Every Patient Needs to Know”
Other relevant web links include:
www.unos.org/resources/FactSheets.asp
Sincerely
Francis
and Irene Corsaro
Yom Ha’atzmaut
Here are some
sites that will help us all to usher in Israel
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/festivls/zkatz/atz/
-- from the Jewish Agency
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/festivls/zkatz/ZK/index.html
- On Yom Ha-Zikaron (Memorial Day - Tuesday)
http://learn.jtsa.edu/yomhaatzmaut/
-- includes Israel
http://www.jrf.org/israel/independence-day-main.html
-- a Reconstructionist slant
The highlight
for me is the annual Bible Quiz.
Jewish youth from around the world gather for the finals, featuring
questions about some of the most obscure and difficult passages of the
Bible. It is the ultimate test of
biblical knowledge. Each year I
tape it from Israeli television and last year my kids and I managed to get a
couple of right answers! We were so
proud.
Did I mention
Israeli TV? If
you haven’t discovered the Israeli Network, head on over to http://www.theisraelinetwork.com/. All of the programming is in Hebrew, but
for those who are Hebraically-impaired, (and this is a great way to improve your Hebrew)
there often are subtitles and lots and lots of music and sports. Today, Maccabee
Tel Aviv, Israel ’s
best basketball team, will be competing in the European Final Four in Prague
From Eretz Magazine, the National Geographic of Israel
Why Does Judaism Not Accept
Cremation?
This week I was asked a question that I receive frequently. A congregant has a close relative who is
dying and the relative has asked to be cremated. What can be done in such a situation?
We seem to have two colliding Jewish values here: our tradition
frowns on cremation but calls upon us to honor our parents. What to do?
First it is
important to know that honoring parents has limits. When a parent asks a child to go against
Jewish law, the child is not obligated to fulfill that wish. Still, when cremation is a dying wish it
is much harder to disregard. So the first response I would have is that it is much better
to discuss cremation long before we reach the crisis point of impending
death.
The basic Jewish argument against cremation is that the body is not
only sacred, it is on loan from God. It doesn’t just house the soul; it
is the soul’s partner, in a sense.
In other traditions, including Christianity and Hinduism, the body is
seen as the soul’s temporary “prison,” subject to temptation
and essentially evil. That is not
the case in Judaism, which views the body as an integral part of who we
are. We do not have the right to
desecrate the body, much less to destroy it. We shouldn’t pollute it with
drugs, abuse it with tattoos or destroy it through suicide or cremation.
The prime value we place on the body stands in stark contrast to
those who do not, in particular the Nazis.
It is hard for em to fathom how any Jew who
can defend cremation as a Jewish practice just one generation after millions of
our people were burned in the ovens of
The Rabbinical Assembly has clear guidelines about rabbis not
participating in cremation services.
Still, congregants should know that out of compassion to the mourners, I
will always work with the family to find sensitive
ways to memorialize a loved one with dignity – and with my participation
– even when cremation is going to take place.
Let’s
begin with GOOD NEWS from
Technology | Note-taking made easy, the Israeli way
College lecture halls will never be the same, thanks to the technology of
Israeli startup Tegrity which enables students to
take notes using a sensor enhanced digital pen while videotaping lectures. After class, students can call up notes recorded by the
pen's sensors while instantaneously reviewing the lecture on archived
university websites using technologically-integrated mediums.
The Tegrity Campus system, already used in
several leading American universities, is boosting grades - and even
enrollment. More...
Technology | Israeli digital software on crest of media
revolution
Olive Software bridges the gap between the paper past and digital future - and
hundreds of newspapers across the US are utilizing the Israeli company's
platforms to create digital editions of their journals and to update and
preserve their rich archival heritage. Say goodbye to
looking for information in dark, musty rooms with crumbling old papers, and say
hello to the comforts of your own desktop. More...
Seeing stars in Jerusalem - Allison
Kaplan Sommer - 
Celebrities like Will Smith send the message that visiting
From Nigel Savage of the
Jewish environmental group Hazon:
In honor of the end of
Pesach, the clear arrival of spring, the ongoing counting of the omer, and the fact that today is Earth Day – here are
four newspaper clippings from the last week that we wanted to share with you. The first two are amazing pieces on Tuv
Ha’Aretz, Hazon’s
Community-Supported Agriculture Program, which is underway now in five
different communities around the country. They give
you a great sense of how readdressing the issue of what is kosher – of
what is fit for us to eat – can
both renew Jewish life and make a real and measurable difference to the world
around us. The third piece gives some sense of Earth
Day in a religious context. And the fourth piece is a
wonderful op-ed co-written by Rabbi Leon Morris and Scott Korb,
a Catholic friend of
- Tuv Ha’Aretz and the
greening of Congregation Tifereth
- How Tuv Ha’Aretz
is changing the lives of two organic farmers and impacting the members of
JCC
- How a growing number of Christians are linking their
faith with their environmental ethics and action (published in the Contra
Costa Times).http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/living/science/14385406.htm
- An op-ed about reinventing and reinvigorating religion
in America, published in the Baltimore Sun (& also in the Philadelphia
Enquirer) and co-written by Rabbi Leon Morris, director of the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Education (and a Hazon Ride participant) and Scott Korb:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.religion12apr12,0,5027042.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines
now for the rest
From Ari Shavit,
"And so, the End is Near," Haaretz, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/705679.html,
(April 14, 2006) – thanks to Joe Heyison for recommending this thoughtful
piece.
E-Masorti - In this month's
edition
- Kotel in Court - Editor's Note
- Israel
Spiritual Heroes - a Dvar Torah
- Kehillat Eshel Avraham Celebrates 30 Years
- Festi-NOAM in Jerusalem
- Rain
Can't Dampen Marom Hikers' Spirits
- Women
of Israel's Three Great Religions Meet at Kehillat
HaKrayot
- Women's
Seders in the Negev
- Contact
information
- Subscriptions
and distribution
Anti-Semitism
watch - From Jonathan Ostroff - I heard about this video game, which is allows the player to go around
killing Latinos, blacks, and at the next level, Jews... http://www.resistance.com/ethniccleansing/catalog.htm
"Judgment
Day": Iran's Secret Plan If Attacked by U.S. - Ali Nouri Zadeh (Asharq Al-Awsat-UK)
Eight fundamentalist Islamist organizations have received large
sums of money in the last month from the Iranian intelligence services as part
of a project to strike Israel, the U.S., and Europe if Iran is attacked, a
senior source in the Iranian armed forces revealed.
As soon as Iranian nuclear installations
are hit, Hizballah is to launch hundreds of rockets
against military and economic targets in
According to the source, if the U.S.
military attacks continue, more than 50 Shihab-3 missiles will be targeted
against Israel, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' al-Quds
Brigades will give the go-ahead for more than 50 terrorist cells in Canada, the
U.S., and Europe to attack civil and industrial targets in these countries.
U.S.:
Hamas, Iran Rekindling Hatred of Jews
Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick used a
See also Remarks of
Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick
(State Department)
Coalition Calls
for Sudan Action
A coalition of rabbis, activists, and political leaders in
Israel
Supreme Court: No Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza - Dan Izenberg
See also Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights: Agenda and Funding
Al-Mezan follows a radical anti-Israel agenda
including promoting claims of "Israeli war crimes," inflammatory
pictures, and incitement justifying terrorism. The
group is funded by the Ford Foundation ($100,000), Swiss Agency for Development
and Cooperation (SDC), International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Netherlands Representative
Former Military Chief: Palestinians
Still Striving to Destroy Israel - Ori Nir
Moshe Yaalon, the recently retired chief of staff of
the Israeli military, is credited in many circles as the military leader most
responsible for Israel's success in curbing Palestinian terrorism in the past
few years. As chief of staff, Yaalon
coined the phrase that
Only when Palestinians give up the dream
of reclaiming their pre-1948 communities inside
Yaalon, a kibbutznik from a Labor movement background, said his
analysis is based on realism - not ideology - stemming from a deep sense of
disillusionment with the Palestinians. When the
After he became the commander of
Israel's Central Command, responsible for the West Bank, he became so convinced
of Arafat's belligerent intentions that in the summer of 1999 he wrote a memo
warning that around September 2000, Arafat would launch a terrorism war against
Israel. (Forward)
Palestinian
Duplicity: The Sequel - Walter Reich
Hamas' ideology is clear. What it considers to be
occupied territory isn't just the West Bank (the Israelis have left
But getting Hamas to genuinely change
its goals is far less feasible. Hamas is even more
dedicated to
And Now
for Some Facts - Benny Morris
John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt's "The
The Palestinian story was different. The Palestinian national movement, from its inception up
to 2000, rejected a two-state solution. There was no
great debate. The Palestinian leadership rejected the
1937 and 1947 partition plans (and the Begin-Sadat
"autonomy plan" of 1978, which would have led to a two-state
solution), and insisted that the Jews had no right to even an inch of
From Mearsheimer
and Walt, you would never suspect that the creation of the Palestinian refugee
problem in 1948 occurred against the backdrop, and as the result, of a war that
for the Jews was a matter of survival, and which those same Palestinians and
their Arab brothers had launched. To omit this
historical background is stark dishonesty. (New
Republic)
Handbook of Hamas
Palestinian Legislative Council Members (Washington
Institute for Near East Policy)
REFLECTING
ON
DIASPORA-ISRAEL
RELATIONS
Editorial from the Forward:
“Deeper Than We Know”
April 28, 2006
Mainstream
Stewart, who makes his Jewishness and
his liberalism regular parts of his ongoing shtick, showed an almost puppylike enthusiasm in welcoming a real, live Israeli
warrior onto the set. Usually a master of facial
deadpan, he couldn't stop grinning as he peppered the former Mossad chief with softball questions and snappy one-liners
— most of which fell flat in the face of Halevy's
clipped, deadly earnest responses. Stewart, a
relentless critic of the Iraq War, was left slack-jawed and speechless when the
Israeli hero before him said that
There was never a hint, as so often
surfaces when a television interview stalls, that either one wished he were
somewhere else. Neither one ever stopped grinning. And yet, neither had a clue what to make of the other.
That, essentially, is the state of
relations between
They are different beings, these two
communities. One is a sovereign state of enormous
vitality and strength. The other is a confident,
influential minority within the world's greatest superpower. Over
the decades, under the influence of these two differing environments, Judaism
has come to mean very different things in the two places. Here
it is a voluntary network of associations, beliefs, practices and loyalties. There it is, above all, an existential condition, a fact
of everyday life and a challenge to survive.
For all that, the partnership between
them is almost limitless in its potential. Never have
cross-border understanding and cultural exchange been easier than in this age
of instant communications.
In truth, we do not communicate much. Sometimes we talk, mostly past one another. Sometimes we use each other — American Jews as
It would be easy to sound a note of
alarm. But the underlying ties are stronger and more
enduring than the surface would suggest. If few American
Jews consider
OLMERT’S
FRACTURED
David Horovitz
…Dore Gold
and Uri Savir, two experienced diplomats from two
very different parts of the political spectrum [recently] offered two
conflicting analyses of the election results.
For Savir,
the 2006 elections most strikingly reflected an unprecedented readiness by much
of the [Israelis] for even greater concessions to the Palestinians than those
anticipated in the
For Gold, this was absolutely not
the case. Socioeconomic and other domestic issues, he
insisted, "completely trumped the past political preoccupation with
peacemaking and national security." This
assertion, Gold went on, was confirmed by the robust performance of those
parties that had highlighted a social agenda—“Labor, Shas, the Gil Pensioners Party and even Avigdor
Lieberman” of
The official election results,
published on Wednesday, indicate that there is value in both interpretations,
but that the full story lies somewhere in between. What
those results underline, more than anything else, is how divided a nation we
have become, and thus the gravity of the task facing our incoming prime
minister.
We are increasingly split,
geographically, along lines of religious observance: The capital of Orthodox
Israel, Jerusalem, gave 18.6 percent of its votes to United Torah Judaism,
15.1% to Shas and 12.4% to the National
Union-National Religious Party alliance as its top three parties. In the capital of secular
Tel Aviv's top three, sharing well
over half that city's allegiance, were Kadima (27.9%), Labor (19.7%) and the
Pensioners (9.1%)—parties which between them managed barely a quarter of
the votes cast in Jerusalem. Tellingly, the Likud failed to crack the top three in
As scenes of Holocaust survivors
lining up for pre-Pessah handouts have demonstrated
only too well in recent days, we are also horribly divided economically. Kadima fared especially well in
The Gil Pensioners Party, the new
would-be champions of the mistreated, fared abysmally in those areas as well,
emphasizing how much of its support stemmed from its clever "cool"
appeal in Tel Aviv (9.1%), and how little came from areas at the bottom of the
nationwide economic scale. Beersheba gave Gil 4.2% of its
votes; Dimona, 2%; Yeroham
1.8%, and Sderot, 1.1%.
In areas like these, the
much-hyped social agenda of Labor's Amir Peretz paid dividends: His home town,
Sderot, gave Labor 25.3%; Dimona
voted 17.9% Labor and
But along with
Labor, the parties of choice for disadvantaged Israelis—that swathe of
the electorate that helped Menachem Begin's Likud to power in 1977
and kept it there for much of the time since—are now plainly Shas and Israel Beiteinu, each
polling up to a fifth of the vote, and sometimes more, in many development
towns and poor neighborhoods.
Much as Binyamin Netanyahu asserted
that he had saved the nation from economic collapse as finance minister, the
fact is that he hurt many traditional Likud voters in
their pockets, and they did not forgive him. The Likud scored around 10% of the vote in many neighborhoods
of former staunch party territory. There's a lesson
here for Peretz, if he's listening,
and a warning from the electorate for Labor, the Likud
and Kadima: Exacerbate
The familiar Israeli divide over
how to handle the Palestinians was overshadowed by economic concerns in poorer
areas, but was still a major factor in many others—especially,
inevitably, those most directly affected. The more
ideological the settlement, the greater the preponderance of support for the
NU-NRP alliance. That this partnership, nonetheless,
failed to achieve more than nine seats in all confirms the gulf between the
dominant passion of a motivated minority and the relative indifference of the
rest of the nation. The NU-NRP took 76.9% of the vote
in Shilo, for instance, and 73% in Eilon Moreh, settlements beyond
the route of the security barrier and outside the parameters of the Olmert "convergence" plan. Even
Efrat, "safely" within Olmert's
Evidently, the residents of the
largest of all settlements, Ma'aleh Adumim, are relatively more sanguine, voting 19.6% for the
NU-NRP, 19.2% for the Likud, and 15.5% each for
Kadima and
The fact that the center-left bloc
of Kadima, Labor, Pensioners and Meretz wound up,
after this week's final adjustments of the national total, with precisely 60 of
the 120 Knesset seats, rather compromises Savir's
talk of a "vast majority" backing further withdrawal, even when the
10 seats won by Arab parties are added to the equation. But
that absent wider resonance, across the country, of the core Likud and NU-NRP platform, suggests that there is
nonetheless a vast majority of sorts—a vast majority for whom maintenance
of the entire settlement enterprise is not an overwhelming priority…
Amir Peretz was apparently just about the only man in the
country who failed to appreciate that Labor had lost the election, and flirted
pathetically, albeit briefly, with the notion of assembling a coalition,
excluding Olmert, in breach of all the principles he
had repeatedly stressed on the campaign trail. This is
the man [now the new Defense Minister—ed.]
on whom the presumptive prime minister must rely as his foremost coalition
ally…
Prime minister after prime
minister here in recent years has seen his term in office cut short by
disintegrating coalitions, and several of them started off on more solid ground
than the voters gave Olmert…
MYTH
#216
"Hamas is a threat only to
FACT
While attention is correctly focused on the
threat Hamas
poses to Israel
because of its commitment
to the destruction of the Jewish State, and its active involvement in terrorism
to accomplish that goal, the radical Islamic organization also is viewed as a
grave danger to the stability of Jordan.
The Jordanians have no illusions about Hamas
and, in late April 2006, arrested several members of the organization it
suspected of planning a terrorist attack against senior members of the
government on orders from Hamas
leaders in Damascus (Jerusalem Post, April 25, 2006). This followed an
earlier threat uncovered when Jordanian officials learned that Hamas
had smuggled weapons, including bombs and rockets, into the kingdom. That discovery led Jordan
to cancel a planned visit by Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar of Hamas
(AP, April 18, 2006).
Tensions between Hamas
and Jordan
are nothing new. In 1998, the government warned leaders of the Islamic
resistance movement in Jordan
to refrain from making statements inciting violence or obstructing the Palestinian-Israeli
Wye River peace deal that had just been signed.
The admonition came after a Hamas
bomb attack on an Israeli school bus in the Gaza
Strip, and a statement by the Hamas
politburo chief in Amman, Khalid Mashal, condemning the
Wye agreement and vowing to continue the war against
Israel (Jordan Times, November 2, 1998).
In 1999, five commercial offices in
Jordanian officials were growing
increasingly worried about the close ties that Hamas
was developing with the radical Muslim Brotherhood and the group’s close
ties with Iran
and Syria.
Computer files confiscated from the Hamas
offices contained sensitive information about the kingdom and Jordanian
figures, records indicating that around $70 million had been transferred to Hamas
from abroad over the previous five years, and the locations of arms and
explosives caches around the kingdom (Middle East Intelligence Bulletin,
September 1999).
Subsequently, Hamas
became an “illegal and non-Jordanian” organization whose presence
was no longer tolerated (Middle East Intelligence Bulletin,
August/September 2001).
This article can be found at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths2/exclusives.html#a53
Source: REVISED
Myths & Facts Online -- A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict by
Mitchell G. Bard.
To order a copy of the NEW paperback
edition of Myths and Facts, click HERE. The previous edition of Myths
ADL APPLAUDS THE ENACTMENT OF PUBLIC ACT 06-5, "AN
ACT PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION IN LIFE INSURANCE BASED ON LAWFUL TRAVEL
DESTINATIONS"
Hamden,
CT, April 26, 2005 ... The Anti-Defamation League applauds the Connecticut
state legislature for passing and Governor M. Jodi Rell
for signing into law Public Act 06-5, "An Act Prohibiting Discrimination
in Life Insurance Based on Lawful Travel Destinations." The
legislation was passed on consent in the state Senate and by a vote of 144 to 0 in the state House of Representatives, and was signed into
law by Governor Rell on April 21, 2006.
Major life
insurance companies have been denying new or renewed life insurance policies to
anyone who has recently traveled or who has plans to go to any country about
which the
Public Act 06-5
prohibits life insurance companies from using a person's travel history or
current travel plans as a reason to deny life insurance coverage unless the
rejection is based on sound actuarial principles or is related to actual or
reasonably anticipated experience. Similar laws have
been passed in
Waren added "Public Act 06-5 is an important milestone in
ceasing discrimination in the issuance and renewal of life insurance policies
based on applicants' lawful travel destinations. It balances the need of
The
Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization
fighting anti-Semitism and discrimination through programs and services that
counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
This week
April 30
9:00
AM “Judaism for Everyone”
The Holocaust
and
10:00 AM Pirke
Avot
At Borders
The topic for the session:,
Jesus and Muhammad, will carry over May 9 at 7:30
First
Ever! Sisterhood Cookbook
Delicious
Recipes! Kosher! Family Favorites!
Please
help to defray the costs
\be
a sponsor, place an ad, order your copies now ($18 each).
**Proceeds
to fund kitchen renovation and other TBE capital improvements**
**Call
Beth Silver 967-8852 for information**
DUTIFUL
DAUGHTERS / MAXED-OUT MOMS
CARING
FOR YOUR FAMILY WITHOUT LOSING YOURSELF
How many of us find ourselves today caring for an
aging parent, juggling our children’s and family’s schedules and
running the house, while desperately trying to find time for ourselves?
A unique program is being offered in our
community, dedicated to women of the “
Facilitated by professionals: Roni Lang, Betsy Stone, Isrella Knopf, Netta Stern, Susan
R. Greenwald, Susan Sirlin and
The program is being co-sponsored by Jewish Family Service and the Sisterhood of
Join us when we discuss
the various aspects of the relationship between adult daughters and their
elderly parents with the goal of becoming more knowledgeable, self-confident,
and directed so that you may plan a more certain future with your parents.
Rally to
Stop Genocide
Sunday,
April 30th
1:30 pm
- 4:00 pm
THE MALL
TOGETHER,
WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
by Showing Our Solidarity With The People of
Group transportation will be organized for the CT
delegation.
Transportation from
@ jfact@mcmgmt.com /860-727-5770.
Bus transportation from
Bus transportation from Westport, Contact Rabbi Orkand
@
CT Coalition to Save Darfur
website - http://jfact.org/darfur
Genocide: "NOT ON OUR WATCH!"
Organized
by the SAVE
SAVE
Save the date – June 1 at 8:00 PM
Our Annual Tikkun Leyl
Shavuot
Shavuot service, dessert and study session
Joined by
“Spirituality, Religion, Ethnicity and Identity:
Does one have to be “religious” to be Jewish?”
A Woody Allen Monologue from the 1960s |
|
|
"Here's
a story you're not going to believe. I shot a moose
once. I was hunting in upstate "And I strap him onto the
fender of my car, and I'm driving along the West Side Highway. But what I didn't realize was that the bullet did not
penetrate the moose. It just creased his scalp,
knocking him unconscious. And I'm driving through
the Holland Tunnel and the moose wakes up. "So I'm driving with a live
moose on my fender and the moose is signaling for a turn. And
there's a law in "Twelve o'clock comes, they
give out prizes for the best costume of the night. First
prize goes to the Berkowitzes, a married couple
dressed as a moose. The moose comes in second. The moose is furious. He and
the Berkowitzes lock antlers in the living room. They knock each other unconscious. Now,
I figure, here's my chance. I grab the moose, strap
him on my fender, and shoot back to the woods. But
I've got the Berkowitzes. So
I'm driving along with two Jewish people on my fender. And
there's a law in "The following morning, the
Berkowitzes wake up in the woods in a moose suit. Mr. Berkowitz is shot, stuffed, and mounted at the New
York Athletic Club. And the joke is on them, 'cause
it's restricted." |
Previous Shabbat-O-Grams can be accessed directly from our web site
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