May 11, 2012 Wearing The Best Dresses Luke Ford No sacred cows.

Wearing The Best Dresses

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Luke Ford

Jane emails:

Spring is here and summer is on it’s way, are you and your closet prepared? The hottest trends are just around the corner and I’m here to tell you about a few trends that are already hot and are sure to last throughout the rest of the year. Have you checked out bodycon dresses yet? There is a huge selection of them amoung stores’ cheap summer dresses sections. If you want to look super hot this summer (and I don’t mean from the weather), you should get some of these dresses into your closet as soon as possible. They are all beautifully made and come in a great variety of colors and styles. Don’t worry if you think you think clothes that no one else does, dresses come in all different kinds and there will surely be some that fit your stylish needs. Make sure to go shopping with a friend! Everything is more fun when you can take turns trying on different clothes and seeing someone else’s individual style (or maybe just get matching dresses!). When it come to finding an awesome clothing outlet, there are tons of different places that you can look. If you don’t like the stores at malls around you, try online! If you’ve never shopped online before, you are surely missing out. Personally, I do almost all my clothes shopping online since I can not only usually find thing much cheaper than in stores, but also find unique clothes so that I never have to worry about matching with some random stranger. If you have a party coming up, make sure to try your best at shopping online since a unique dress is imperative to showing up at a party. No girl wants to be wearing the same dress when they go out unless they are best friends. There are tons of designer out there and I’m sure that you will find one with a style similar to yours. I dont really like any designer labels, I go more for a “genre” kind of look. Dressing alternative has kind of always been my thing, but maybe it’s yours too! In that case I suggest searching on a search engine for cool online shopping stores to sort through and find your next treasure!

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What You Don’t Know About Israel’s New Government; What We Do Know About the Frum Teacher Arrested for Child Porn

Posted on May 11, 2012 by TheJewishChannel

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The Miracle Of Israel

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Luke Ford

Rabbi Eliyahu Safran writes:

For me, Israel is personal.

I was born as Israel’s War of Independence raged, just weeks after the state’s miraculous birth. As I lay in the hospital room with my mother, the windows shattered with the relentless attacks of those who sought, once again, to destroy us – this time not on their bloodstained soil but on our own sacred land. Once again, by God’s hand, we prevailed. The few against the many. The weak against the so-called strong.

My parents arrived in Palestine on the very last boat to sail from Romania. They were broken, demeaned and degraded but they were determined to find renewal in the holy land. For my family, galut and geulah are not chapters in a history book. They are real life experiences.

For us, Yom HaShoah and Yom Ha’Atzmaut were not mere dates on the calendar but days filled with piercing memories that called for reflection, remembrance, and, ultimately, celebration.

For many years, my family was not alone in fervently claiming these dates, these searing modern commemorations, as our own. Growing up in Forest Hills, New York, I remember the crowds of Jews – all Jews, of every age and background – that came together in synagogues and sanctuaries to remember, to pray, and to promise.

I remember the power those long-ago days held for those of us who gathered to commemorate and to celebrate them. But now? Many progressive Jewish communities continue to celebrate Israel, but in the majority of today’s major Orthodox communities it’s rare to find recognition – let alone active celebration – of these most sacred days.

How do we explain this Orthodox response, or lack of it, to the state of Israel? Can any of us deny the miracle Israel represents? For the first time in two thousand years the ingathering of exiles is realized as Jews have returned home to the land promised by God. The city of Jerusalem is rebuilt. The desert once again blooms.

All this on the heels of the greatest churban in Jewish history, the Holocaust.

Posted in Israel, Orthodoxy | Tagged forest hills new york, galut, ingathering of exiles, orthodox communities, rabbi eliyahu safran, sacred days | Comments Off

Israel’s Crackdown On Right-Wing Publications

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Luke Ford

The Jewish Press writes: Rabbi Hanan Herbst, a Chabad emissary and resident of Ma’ale Levona in the Binyamin region who returned with his wife and children Thursday morning from half a year of outreach work in India, was arrested at Ben-Gurion airport in Lod. After negotiations between the police and a Honenu attorney the emissary was released.

Honenu is a not-for-profit legal aid organization

According to Honenu’s report, Hanan Herbst and his family spent the past six months operating a Chabad House – teaching and also running a kosher restaurant for the benefit of Jews traveling in the area, the city of Dharamsala, India, a spiritual and mystical center which attracts a large number of travelers from all over the world, among them many Jews.

On Thursday morning, the family landed at the Ben-Gurion airport where an unpleasant surprise awaited them. Airport police informed Harbest that the National Unit for Serious and International Crime Investigations had declared him “wanted for an interrogation” which is why he was being detained. After a short discussion, Herbst learned that the investigation concerned the publication of articles supposedly calling for violence, in “HaKol HaYehudi” (“The Jewish Voice”) more than a year ago.

“HaKol HaYehudi” is a right wing publication focusing on providing an alternative to Israel’s mainstream media for news and opinion. The publication has been under widespread investigation for about a year, including raids on its offices, confiscation of equipment and arrests of staff members.

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The Wealth Blueprint – Creating Long-Term Financial Security By Design

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Luke Ford

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Why Are Non-Gay So Passionate About Gay Marriage?

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Luke Ford

On his radio show today, Dennis Prager gave two reasons. One, compassion for gays. Two, opposition to religion affecting anything in public policy. “The hatred for Americans who get their values from the Bible is so deep… The moment people offer an argument based on the Bible to support the male-female definition of marriage, they are dismissed as if they had cited alchemy instead of chemistry. It is not possible to overstate the contempt for Bible-based values on the left. They suspect that at the heart of the reason for not changing the definition of marriage is a religious outlook on life and this must be smashed.”

“Gays can raise good children? Orphanages can raise good children but the ideal is to have a mom and a dad.”

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Converting Through Reform Judaism

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Luke Ford

Joe emails: “Hey, I was wondering. Can I join Reform Judaism and Also be considered a “real” jew, only to join the Reform Synagogue to study the Torah and go threw the conversion process to learn, BUT NOT agree with them about same-sex marrige or not keeping kosher ect. I will keep kosher, and Study, I’m very devout. But you see it is not my fault for joining them, im 17 and there is absolutaly NO other Jewish Synagogue within 150miles. I wan’t to be Orthodox or Modern Orthodox, but as I said there is NO synagogue within driving distance…..it’s a mess.”

Sure. That’s a fine way to start. That’s what I did. And when you live next to an Orthodox synagogue, you can convert Orthodox and then all Jews will consider you Jewish. If you do a Reform conversion, non-Orthodox Jews will usually consider you Jewish and even many Orthodox Jews will consider you socially Jewish, if not halachicly Jewish.

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People Only Try To Set Me Up With Age-Appropriate Women

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Luke Ford

By age appropriate, I mean 45 years and older.

A friend: Yeah, and isn’t that depressing?
“Stop looking at that tasty fresh peach over there and take a bit out of this old moldy one the dog was sitting on.”

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Rebel Without A Shul

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Luke Ford

A friend messages: I downloaded a sample of your memoir on my iPhone. Fifteen different forwards. Is Cathy Seipp writing a new one for the ebook edition? You should ask Dennis Prager.
I think it would read something like this . . .
“During the moral bank failures in 2008, one institution held firm: Luke Ford. He never lent to people with a high credit risk, nor did he get involved in the subprime crisis. He’s a rock.”

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Hard To Read

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Luke Ford

I love being around people who are easy to read. I love people who don’t have double-agendas. I love people like the director of my Alexander Technique training school. Just straight-forward.

I’m the opposite of this. I’m devious and under-handed. I keep my thoughts and feelings to myself most of the time when I interact with people. This is a result of my early childhood. When my mother was diagnosed with cancer when I was turned one year old, I got sent to live with about 20 different homes over the next three years. Some of those homes were horrific. If I didn’t hide what I was thinking and feeling, I got beaten.

I learned how to be unreadable. I learned how to say things so that people would not know that I was putting them down. I learned how to get away with stuff. I learned to take joy out of baiting people. I learned rage against authority. I learned to constantly throw myself against authority and try to tear it down.

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