Many Jews Don’t Care About Israel

Posted on September 5, 2016 by Luke Ford

A third of Jews in America don’t care about Israel and about a third care passionately. My guess is that a majority of American Jews identify more with America than with the Jewish state.

Comments: * Many Jews believe that Israel has no right to control its borders, or even exist. See e.g. Mondoweiss (a website on Unz’s blogroll), the so-called campus ‘Jewish Voice for Peace,’ any number of communist university faculty, etc.

* Israel is only doing what is in the best interest of Israel. And they are right in limiting immigration. Would that we would adopt such a policy! The problem is that there are people who have a misconception (and in using that word I’m being kind) that we should let anybody and everybody in, regardless of educational level or job skill. This is a policy that would have suited the US of 1816 or even 1916—not 2016.

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Rabbi seeks royalties for Japanese Olympic gymnast’s ‘immodest’ use of his melody

Posted on September 5, 2016 by Luke Ford

How do you think religious Christians feel about Jews writing Christmas music taking Christ out of the equation?

(JTA) — A Jerusalem rabbi said he would seek royalties from Japan’s delegation to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro for its allegedly unauthorized use of a melody he composed.

Rabbi Baruch Chait, according to the Shirunt website of Israeli songs, composed the melody to the popular song “Kol Ha’Olam Kulo Gesher Tzar Me’od” to words attributed to the late founder of the Breslover Hasidic movement, Rabbi Nachman.

A recording of the melody, played by a klezmer band, featured in the performance of Sae Miyakawa, a 16-year-old Japanese gymnast in the Rio Olympics, that ended on August 22.

But in an interview published Thursday by Ynet, Chait said that the gymnast never asked his permission to use the song, which he added he never would have granted because he considers her performance immodest and incompatible with the values promoted by the 18th-century rabbi who is believed to have been the author of the lyrics.

“It’s a disgrace,” the 70-year-old rabbi told Ynet, adding he will “fight for what he is owed” in terms of royalties. “This was not exactly the intention of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, to have his words play at the Olympics,” he said of the routine, which featured only the melody of the song. “And it’s not very modest.”

As a head of a yeshiva, a religious seminary, he said, he finds the use of his melody “inappropriate. Clearly, this is a matter of sanctity that cannot be used for just anything. It is known in Hasidic circles that melody also has sanctity.”

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From Albany to Kansas City, the Jewish Community Is Stepping Up for Refugees

Posted on September 5, 2016 by Luke Ford

Rabbi Jennie Rosenn is the Vice President for Community Engagement at HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees. She writes:

One year ago, a photograph of a small Syrian refugee boy woke up the world. Our hearts were broken open by the picture of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose body washed up on the Turkish shore after he drowned trying to reach safety. A litany of photographs soon followed: refugees in the back of trucks, on trains and on foot — desperately trying to cross European borders.

For American Jews, these images eerily echoed our tragic past, and our community woke up to a refugee crisis that had been going on for years. Many were moved, and over the span of only a year, the Jewish response to the refugee crisis has become a national movement, involving thousands of volunteers, rabbis, synagogues, organizations and advocates.

Against a backdrop of increased fear and unease about refugees, the American Jewish community has stepped up to the challenge, because we understand what’s at stake.

This spring, almost 200 congregations from coast to coast joined the HIAS Welcome Campaign. The members of these synagogues have not only pledged their support for welcoming refugees, but also committed to taking action — whether by supporting families resettling in their local communities, raising awareness and education, or joining advocacy initiatives to encourage our government to take leadership — as befits a nation with a long history of welcoming refugees.

There is not a word in this piece about Israel taking in any of these refugees. Why not? Why is the Jewish state off the hook?

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Two Killed, Several Others Injured During J’Ouvert Festivities In Crown Heights

Posted on September 5, 2016 by Luke Ford

Shocking! I’ve never gone to this. I might go to the PR Day Parade because their girls know how to dress for the occasion. But this is not for me. Also, it is on the very street that the Rebbe called home. Just think of the bittel Torah that this causes as yidden end up fleeing for the weekend!

Gothamist: A man and a woman were killed during the J’Ouvert celebrations in Brooklyn earlier this morning. At least four other people were injured as well, as thousands gathered for this pre-West Indian American Day Parade festivity.
Just before 4 a.m., at Empire Boulevard and Flatbush Avenue, three people were shot: a 17-year-old boy, Tyreke Borel, died from a gunshot wound to the chest while a 66-year-old was shot in the arm and a 72-year-old woman was injured as she tried to get away.
Then, around 4:15 a.m., Tiarah Poyau, 22, died after being shot in the face.
Near Ocean Avenue and Eastern Parkway, a 23-year-old woman was reportedly stabbed in the back at 4:20 a.m. And a man in his 20s was apparently shot in the leg at Clarkson and Rogers Avenues around 4 a.m.
Two people were killed during last year’s J’Ouvert, including an aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo. Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio had promised a “massive NYPD presence” to ensure this would be “the safest J’Ouvert ever.” The NYPD’s 71st Precinct also distributed a flyer telling revelers, “Do not shoot anyone. Do not stab anyone.”

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The Philippines launches a “REAL” war on drugs

Posted on September 5, 2016 by Luke Ford

BLOG: via Daily Mail.

But Duterte warned that he is a leader of a sovereign country and is answerable only to the Filipino people.

‘Who is he to confront me?’ he said, adding that the Philippines had not received an apology for misdeeds committed during its U.S. colonization.

I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony. I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody.

‘You must be respectful. Do not just throw questions. Putang ina I will swear at you in that forum,’ he said, using the Tagalog phrase for son of a bitch.

And then this.

‘Until the (last) drug manufacturer is killed we will continue,’ Duterte told reporters before leaving for a regional summit in Laos, where he is due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday.
The White House had no immediate reaction to Duterte’s comments. Obama has been attending a meeting of the Group of 20 nations in Hangzhou, China.
Duterte won elections in May and immediately promised a law-and-order crackdown on drugs.
‘These sons of w****s are destroying our children. I warn you, don’t go into that, even if you’re a policeman, because I will really kill you,’ the president told an audience during a speech in the country’s capital, Manila.
Duterte made it clear he would pardon police if they were charged with human rights violations for carrying out his merciless orders.
Nearly 60,000 Filipino drug addicts surrendered themselves last month to the government after President Duterte urged citizens to ‘go ahead and kill’ drug dealers and users.

This is fascinating.

Ignore the demeaning talk directed toward our President (as offensive as it is) and focus on the results. 60K drug addicts have surrendered to authorities.

Drug dealers are being terrorized instead of communities.

Is this the first real deal war on drugs that we’ve seen anywhere on this planet? Is this what happens when a nation decides to directly confront a problem and eradicate it?

There are lessons to be learned here. Duterte might be a mad man but he might be onto something.

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