Why Did Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz Leave Kehilat Israel?

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Luke Ford

President Steve Osman writes in the shul bulletin in 2013:

This article will formally announce to those who do not already know, that Rabbi Yanklowitz has resigned his position as
Senior Rabbi. On Friday, May 17 a verbal agreement was reached and was affirmed by a written letter of resignation. Those attending
Shabbat Services on May 18 heard me read the following letter:

4/26/2013
To the Board, Officers, Staff, and Congregants of Kehilath Israel
From: Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz
My dear friends,
It is with heavy heart that I inform you that I am resigning as Senior Rabbi of the congregation. Due to misunderstandings regarding the application of the synagogue’s policies and procedures as outlined in its Constitution and my Engagement Agreement, I believe I must move on.

Shoshana and I were very blessed to have had eight wonderful months with you. So many of you have touched our hearts and become true partners and friends. We are very grateful to you and will miss you very much. We wish you all good health, long life, growth, and happiness. You will always have a special place in our hearts.
With deep gratitude and appreciation, wishing you all many blessings,

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz

Do social justice and scandal go together? It would be funny if the rabbi did something unethical. Reading between the lines, it sounds like some sort of financial problem. I wonder if YCT moved in, paid money all over the place and had articles removed from the web to save him as he is one of their biggest stars.

In July of 2013, came this announcement from Phoenix:

Valley Beit Midrash hires one of ‘America’s top 50 rabbis’

Earlier this year, Newsweek named him one of “America’s Top 50 Rabbis” for the second year in a row. And now, starting in July, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, founder and president of the social justice organization Uri L’Tzedek, will be executive director of Valley Beit Midrash.
Yanklowitz, 31, was described by Newsweek as “Orthodoxy’s most prominent voice on social justice” who “has a resume longer than many rabbinic leaders twice his age.”
This resume includes a master’s degree in leadership, moral development and psychology from Harvard University and a master’s in Jewish philosophy from Yeshiva University. He received ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School (the same school as his predecessor Rabbi Darren Kleinberg), as well as a second one from Rabbi Shlomo Riskin in Efrat, Israel, and a third from Rabbi Nathan Lopez Cardozo of Jerusalem. Last year, he received a doctorate in epistemology, moral development and developmental psychology from Columbia University.
He is also the author of “Jewish Ethics & Social Justice: A Guide for the 21st Century” and serves as CEO of the Shamayim V’Aretz Institute, which focuses on preventive health, kosher veganism, animal welfare, activism and preservation of the environment.
In the past decade, he has been the director of Jewish life and senior Jewish educator at the Hillel at the University of California, Los Angeles; a chaplain in the U.S. Army; a hospital chaplain; and a congregational rabbi.
Valley Beit Midrash, founded in 2007, describes itself on its website, valleybeitmidrash.org, as “a collaborative organization that brings new, exciting and relevant Jewish programming to the Greater Phoenix Jewish community in a diverse welcoming, engaging and pluralistic setting” and partners with a number of local synagogues and Jewish organizations to provide this programming.

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The White Death

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Luke Ford

Comments: I remember the “Greatest Generation” drank, constantly. They also chain smoked.

The generation after them I think is called “The Quiet Generation” — they seemed more abstemious.

My fellow Boomers, many of them picked up the drug habit and never stopped. But the drug habit isn’t just any particular drug, it’s the idea that you have to self-medicate constantly. And many do. I can think of at least a couple cases where peers just dropped dead in their ’50′s from excessive “self medication.” I don’t believe that heroin was the cause (but I know some of those, too.) But it may well have been decades of alcohol, MJ, pain pills, meth, and cocaine abuse.

I am going to guess that many of these deaths involve people either in young or later middle age who really don’t have anything to do in their lives. That’s the sad truth for a lot of people, even if they have kids, once the kids grow up and leave. However, you might be right that many of these people have a nearer connection to obtaining various types of drugs that keeps the Quiet Ones alive.

* I was watching a documentary recently about the death of the actor Heath Ledger. The main drugs found in his system were anti-anxiety drugs and painkillers. Doctors these days don’t like to give out drugs like Valium because they have the potential for addiction. However, a medical expert on the documentary pointed out that it was very unlikely someone could actually die from overdosing on doctor-perscribed sedatives like Valium. What killed Ledger was probably an overdose of high power pain killers (of a type usually only given to cancer patients) which he somehow acquired illegally. Interestingly pain killers not only help to dull physical pain, but they can also help to dull psychological pain, since the two types of pain are closely connected from a neurological perspective.

* The deep trough in the early ’70s is interesting. I was born in ’76. That was the era where drugs weren’t quite so cool (perhaps “Just Say No” was more effective than lefties give Nancy credit for) and when sex was honest to God deadly, with AIDS deaths peaking ca. 1987-1993. I pretty much assume that every other male celebrity who died during that time frame died from AIDS. AIDs definitely contributed at least a little to the spike in the ’50s.

People born in the early to mid-70s were flooded with propaganda discouraging us from drugs and unsafe sex, as well as the fitness boom. We had seat belts, airbags, anti-lock brakes, and never had to go to war.

Social media seems to be weakening the effect of old school anti-drug propaganda, though. People seem to take a rather casual attitude towards drug and alcohol abuse these days, and are quite happy to brag about it on Facebook and elsewhere. The legalization of pot in several states is one consequence of that.

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Christianity Under Attack

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Luke Ford

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America Needs A Black King

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Luke Ford

Steve Sailer writes: Back in the 1990s, I proposed that America have a Head of State distinct from the Head of Government, who would embody the ceremonial majesty of the country.

I think a ten year appointive term with an unwritten tradition that it would be filled by senior black celebrities would be satisfying to the public: such as in 1996 James Earl Jones, in 2006 Oprah, and in 2016 Samuel L. Jackson or Denzel Washington, with, say, Will Smith or David Robinson on deck for 2026; for 2036 LeBron James, Russell Wilson or Viola Davis?

This might be a good solution to the problem that has been emerging for the Democratic Party of white candidates having to abase themselves in front of demented black protestors, which is related to the problem the Academy Awards have been having: the black feeling of megalomaniacal entitlement that once you go black you can never go back.

But of course there’s not such a surplus of black competence that these strongly felt emotions can safely be accommodated.

However, there is no shortage of blacks with kingly or queenly affects.

So, create important ceremonial positions only open, by tradition, to black celebrities.

COMMENTS:

* A big part of the Trump movement is the result of the masses believing that we no longer have a constitutional republic. Too many thousand-page bills and trade deals that no one gets to read are rubber stamped. The federal government refuses to enforce existing laws, or at the least picks and chooses which laws to enforce. De facto amnesty has been granted to millions of people who don’t belong.

Yet the Trump supporters are the problem? Trump only needs to enforce existing laws to make an impact. Yet enforcing laws seems to be autocratic by Douthat. Oh, and throw in a reference to Putin. That’s double-plus-bad.

We get it. We are supposed to shut up, let the rulers replace our population and outsource our industry all while trying to start a war with Russia.

* The Douther is a real moron.

If people want a king, it’s because a king focuses on the kingdom.

What we have is an empire, and the imperial presidency has turned the president into an emperor(albeit a puppet-emperor) of the GLOB order.

I think it’s better to have a ‘king’ than an ‘emperor’.

Emperor is too focused on the world to care about the security and interests of his own kingdom.
Once the rulers become addicted to World Power, that of the empire, then one’ s own kingdom or republic seems so puny and small. Addiction to scale.

So, the paradox of Trump is he wants to be the big man to focus on the little people of his ‘kingdom’. He wants ‘kingdom first’ than ‘empire always’.

And that is the good side of Putin. He wants to be the Russian leader of Russia, not the world.

It is the US that is an empire, and it is US presidents who’ve been acting like globo-emperors.

No more emperors trying to rule the world. Better to have kings focusing on the kingdom.

As the Romans found out, when you conquer the world, the world conquers you. All roads that lead out from Rome also lead to Rome.

* Of course we’re dealing with the “NYT affect” whereby any pundit, no matter how boring or worthless, is deemed IMPORTANT because they are published in the newspaper.

We can start with the fact that Ross is only published in the NYT, because he is a “reasonable” Conservative. That is, he agrees with rich liberals on everything that matters, but disagrees with them on stuff that doesn’t.

So, of course, Ross thinks Trump is the greatest threat to the USA, ever, ever, because Trump opposes open borders and bad trade deals.

The truth is that Trump is a moderate Republican who wants some sanity in our Government dealings regarding trade and immigration but otherwise is a pretty reasonable, middle of the road, american billionaire.

But evidently, even the slightest disagreement with the status quo means you’re “just like Hitler!!”

* Sometimes, maybe most of the time, I have no idea what Douhat is saying, or why he is saying it.

There’s an inherent obscurantism in the guy. As the Good Dr. Nietzsche would have it, he muddies his waters that they might appear deep.

* There’s another interpretation than “the cult of the presidency”. There’s the real-world observation that the presidency keeps getting more powerful, so it’s logical to assume if your guy wins he’ll have at least as much power as the last guy.

The only thing that obscures this observation is that recent GOP presidents think small domestically. Their biggest domestic accomplishments are either stuff Dems wanted too (raising social security taxes to extend the program, creating the department of homeland security) or temporary (Reagan’s tax cuts; W’s top rate tax cuts). But Obama shows what’s possible. He created the biggest new entitlement since LBJ and imported millions of future voters for his party by deciding not to enforce some immigration laws.

* Reflecting back on the Obama presidency, I’ve come to the conclusion that Obama cared very little about governing but cared a lot about trolling whitey. Indeed, he spent the bulk of his time very visibly enjoying the perks of office, burning through more tax payer money on vacations than all the presidents of the 20th century combined. Truly, he was the first Hip Hop president with his Secret Service posse, and his own private 747. His goal was to be a proxy Everynegro living the lifestyle every black man and woman thinks he/she is entitled to.

So as an improvement to our democracy, I propose a copy of Versailles be built somewhere on the National Mall to accommodate this new head of state. And I recommend that he stand for election during regular presidential Election years but 1) the vote be conducted on the first Monday of Nov. and 2) the head of state can be reelected as many times as he wishes to run. This will divert the black electorate toward more pressing matters like who has the best pimp style, who is keeping it real, and whose First Hootchie Mama has the phattest ass. Come back to the polls on Tue to vote in a second election for some boring chief executive? Fuhgeddaboudit!

* Obama claim to fame is master of the passive aggressive troll. Obama could be as lazy, as golfing, as hoops shooting as he wanted to be because he appointed energetic true believer leftists and race hustlers working under him. Such as Hillary messing up Libya and Syria, causing the migrant invasion of Europe. Thomas Perez and Holder at Justice. Valerie Jarrette who is Obama’s brains. Scores of gay, lesbian, black and other types of minority appointees at Justice, State and everywhere. So Obama is vacationing up at Martha’s Vineyard eating ice cream for two weeks? So what, because his appointed termites keep busy gnawing away every day of the year. Call this “The Art Of The Laze”.

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Larry Wilmore at White House Correspondent Dinner 2016 [WHCD FULL SPEECH]

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Luke Ford

— “Welcome to Negro Night here in Washington. Or as Fox News will report, ‘Two thugs disrupt elegant dinner in DC.’”

— “Nice to be here, though, at the White House correspondents’ dinner where, as you know, they’re gonna call it next year, ‘Donald Trump Hosts a Luxurious Dinner Paid For By Mexico.’”

— “A little bit about me: I am a black man who replaced a white man who pretended to be a TV newscaster. So yeah, in that way, Lester Holt and I have a lot in common.”

— “I can’t understand why everybody treats Donald Trump with kid gloves. Then I realize they’re the only gloves that will fit his stupid little baby hands.”

— To Obama: “I saw you hanging out with NBA players like Steph Curry, Golden State Warriors. That was cool. You know, it kind of makes sense too, because both of you like raining down bombs on people from long distances.”

— “Speaking of drones, how is Wolf Blitzer still on television? Ask a follow up question! Hey Wolf, I’m ready to project tonight’s winner: Anyone that isn’t watching ‘The Situation Room.’”

— “I have to say about the first lady, it is so nice to have dinner with you. She is the epitome of grace, class, and poise. Isn’t she? She really is. Not to be confused with future first gentleman Bill Clinton whose three favorite strippers are named Grace, Class, and Poise.”

— “Some of America’s finest black journalists are here tonight. Don Lemon’s here, too.”

— “Hillary [Clinton] was flustered when a Black Lives Matter protester challenged her. I haven’t seen a white lady that upset over being blindsided by a black person since Kelly Ripa.”

— “The Treasury promised to put Harriet Tubman’s face on the $10 bill, but now we have to wait until 2030 for the $20 bill. Man, women haven’t been this deceived by a Bill since Cosby.”

— “Chris Christie was supposed to be here tonight. I don’t know if he made it. He RSVPd for three: He, his wife, and Donald Trump’s dry-cleaning. I shouldn’t make fun. Chris lost a lot of weight recently, didn’t he? This is what he said, he said he just eliminated everything from his routine that wasn’t necessary. Like his self-pride and dignity.”

— “Man, everybody hates Ted Cruz. Even OJ Simpson said, ‘That guy is just hard to like.’”

— “There’s a joke going around the Internet that Ted Cruz is actually the Zodiac Killer. I’m not making that up. Come on, that is absurd. Some people actually liked the Zodiac Killer.”

— “John Boehner came out of retirement and described Ted Cruz as Lucifer in the flesh. Lucifer. I mean that is not fair, man. Lucifer is horrible — but he’s not the Zodiac Killer.”

— “MSNBC is here tonight. Yep, which actually now stands for ‘Missing a Significant Number of Black Correspondents’. . . MSNBC got rid of so many black people, I thought Boko Haram was running that network.”

— “You look terrible, Mr. President. No, you do, man. Look at you. Your hair is so white it tried to punch me at a Trump rally.”

— “I am impressed with the people in this room. There are so many rich, powerful people in this room. You know, it’s nice to finally match the names to the faces in the Panama Papers.”

— “C-SPAN, of course, is carrying tonight’s dinner live. . . Which is ironic because most of the viewers are not. It is true, guys. C-SPAN is the number-one network among people who died watching TV and no one‘s found them yet. No, but it is good to be on C-SPAN. I am glad I am not on your rival network ‘No Input HDMI-1.’”

— “CNN’s here tonight. I have not watched CNN for a long time. I used to watch it back when it was a news network. I don’t know about you guys, but I cannot get enough of that CNN countdown clock. Now we can see exactly when they hit zero in the ratings.”

— “I am confused with Bernie Sanders’s stance on guns. He seems to be anti-gun everywhere except Vermont. Bernie doesn’t care who gets a gun in Vermont. [fake whispers] There are no black people in Vermont.”

— “Bernie got in trouble for saying Hillary Clinton was unqualified. She is extremely qualified. In fact, when you factor in all of her policy flip-flops, she is at least several of the most qualified candidates ever to run for president.”

— “Donald Trump looks like the rich dad in every episode of ‘Law & Order’ where the frat kid accidentally strangles a hooker. Or as they say here at the Washington Hilton, Tuesdays.”

— “The president and first lady will return to private life. It is going to be different for you guys. Nobody to wash the dishes or change the bed linens, sweep the floors. You are going to miss Joe Biden.”

— “I just got a note from the president saying that if you want another drink you should order it now because the bar will be closing down. Of course, he said the same thing about Guantanamo so you have at least another eight years.”

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