Two Men Shot Outside North Hollywood Shul

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Luke Ford

The Los Angeles Times reports:

A gunman approached a North Hollywood synagogue this morning and shot two people before fleeing, according to police, who are investigating the attack as a hate crime. 

The shooting occurred at 6:20 a.m. at the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic synagogue in the 12000 block of Sylvan Street.

Two men about 30 years old were each shot in the lower torso and were taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition, according to an LAPD spokesperson. The LAPD described them as Jewish.

LAPD sources told The Times that the gunman approached the victims as they were about to enter the temple for morning prayers. The sources said the gunman pulled out his weapon and fired. The gun jammed at first, then he fired again.

Joe emails:

The shul is run by Rabbi Gabay. It is a Sephardic synagogue so that a lot of the people you will hear on the TV and radio are not going to the be Ph.d. types you might find at a YICC or Bnai David. These are salt of the earth arabic jews who make a living in the garment and jewelry district. Rabbi Gabay is a saint as he runs a day school with an annual tuition of less than $10,000. His wife is also a very nice woman, she is a real estate agent. It has been around forever in the valley, it used to be even farther north on whitsett in a building the size of your apartment, but it moved to its present location probably 20 years ago. There is a mikveh at the shul, i think.

It is in, for want of a better word, a crumby area. North of Oxnard in the valley is essentially the third world. The shul is in the middle of an area that would best be described as being in a clash of civilizations. There are fewer and fewer whites, with the rising tide of armenians and latinos mostly moving in. The Jews who do live in the area are more middle class than the upper middle class Jews who worship at Shaarey Tzedek just one mile south.

In the middle of the area are a few strip clubs that benefit from the lack of a strong home owner base that would prevent such establishments from operating. There is a general air of riff raff in the area, with lots of homeless or petty thieves around. All the banks in the area have extreme security measures, and all the nice stores have gotten the hell out. It is not a place you would want to be walking around after dusk without a sixth sense or a six shooter, and it is a testament to our latino mayor and the latino councilperson for the area that the area has only gotten worse under their control – no resources are allocated to the area at all – it is probably the only area in L.A. that offers a strip club notorious for prostitution and drug dealing and a church in the same parking lot. There is more garbage on the streets, more run down businesses, more chickens in the front yards, more massage parlors, etc. – a real source of latino pride.

Most likely the chap who figured he would cap some jews was a resident miscreant and in an intoxicated state, decided that his problems were due to Moroccan-born Jews who like to get up early to pray to God. It is a problem for synagogues in bad areas – the third-world mentality of living among garbage and therefore treating other human beings like garbage is incongruent with a Jewish holy place. Until the city of Los Angeles decides to remain in the first world, which is unlikely given our mayor and the mess of a city council, i say, in the immortal words of Rabbi Kahane "every Jew a .22".

THE JEWISH JOURNAL REPORTS:

Avi Barkay, a nephew of Rabbi Amram Gabay, the synagogue’s rabbi, identified the victims as Maor Ben-Nissan, 37, and Allen Lasry. Both men were wounded in the legs.

The victims were taken to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center and Valley Presbyterian Hospital, said Rabbi Yossi Malka, a chaplain with the LAPD. Ben-Nissan is currently at Holy Cross in Mission Hills, where he is recovering from surgery…

…The shooter was described as an African American male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt.

Adat Yeshurun is the spritual home of 150 families from Cuba, Argentina, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico, Morocco, Algiers, Tunisia, Libya and Israel.

Kevin Roderick notes: "The Journal previously reported that there were twi gunmen, but revised its story to agree with other media and the LAPD that there was one suspect."

I checked out Dennis Prager’s radio show for moral guidance on this story but Dennis had taken the day off.

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Dennis Prager Disagrees With Giving Jewish Kids Distinctively Jewish Names

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Luke Ford

Dennis said on his radio show today that he disagrees with Jewish parents who give their kids distinctively Jewish names. I guess he means names such as Dovid or Shmuel or Dov.

Dennis says they should have their Hebrew names and then their English names, which they use in the wider American culture.

Dennis also does not wear a yarmulke in the public sphere. He likes such distinctive things to kept for home. Dennis does wear a yarmulke around the house.

There’s an ancient Jewish teaching that one of the reasons the Israelites merited the redemption from Egypt was that they kept their Hebrew names. Orthodoxy is very particularistic and gives great merit to making particularistic choices at the cost of integrating smoothly into the wider culture.

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Orit Arfa Given The Brush-Off By Millionaire Matchmaker Patti Stanger

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Luke Ford

Orit Arfa writes a fascinating and heartfelt blog post on a recent debate at Stephen S. Wise temple:

“Hi Patti,” I said as I approached her. “My colleague at the Jewish Journal once interviewed you, and I thought I’d introduce myself….”

“Thanks,” she said curtly with no smile, looking tense, barely looking me in the eye. She dashed off to the stage. 

What a bitch! I thought. I would have preferred something like: “I can’t talk now because I’m about to go up, but thank you for saying hello.”

…At the end of the evening, girls flocked to Stanger’s book signing table to say “hi”, and I decided to give my my “hi” one more try while offering my business card, even though at that point I wondered if I would still want to be her client. I took her cold shoulder less personally when I noticed she treated most every other girl there with curt, smile-less one-liners bereft of sincere eye contact, unless they brought a copy of the book to sign. She could have had a bad day, but still. Meanwhile, Boteach greeted every person with warmth and chit-chat. Then again, his table was relatively empty, which in and of itself may offer commentary on what women really want.

It’s always nice when people more famous and powerful than you take the time to talk to you nicely. People in this category who come to my mind include Rabbi Boteach, Dennis Prager, Steve Young and Mike Adamle.

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The Most Eloquent Return To Conservatism Since Reagan

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Luke Ford

Dennis Prager noted that this is taking place under the most left-wing president in US history. About 40% of Americans now call themselves conservative. On all ten major issues confronting the country according to one poll, Republicans were deemed better at handling them than Democrats.

This president’s attempt to use a crisis to transform America has backfired.

Dennis: "I still think I’m a liberal. I don’t know any position I hold that isn’t liberal."

"It’s hard for me to see Harry Reid’s public option [passing]. They’re thinking of changing the name. Nobody changes names as much as the Left. They don’t even call themselves liberal anymore. They’re progressive. It’s no longer global warming, it’s climate change. Black became African-American. Everything is changed because it’s all sales."

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African-American

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Luke Ford

On Dennis Prager’s radio show Oct. 22, Larry Elder said: "I never use the term African-American. It’s a term that is divisive. I’m an American. I was born and raised in Los Angeles… Obviously I have ancestors who come from Africa, but you don’t find Americans of Italian descent being referred to as Italian-American or Americans of Greek descent being referred to as Greek-Americans. This thing is very annoying and condescending, as though I am very insecure and have to attach myself to a continent where I have never been. Most American blacks have never been to Africa."

Dennis: "The only reason I do use the term is because I don’t want the listener who thinks it is a morally obligatory term to be turned off."

Larry: "If people want to be called that, fine."

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Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Luke Ford

I read this book when it came out. It’s a good read and a good window into post-apartheid South Africa and the World Cup rugby final that united a nation.

Now it is being made into a movie directed by Clint Eastwood — Invictus.

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The Toxic Price Of Fame

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Luke Ford

On Oct. 22, 2009, Dennis Prager had Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on his radio to talk about his new book "The Michael Jackson Tapes."

Shmuley: "You and I have had endless conversations about fame. You are very open about how you were never bit by the fame drug. For the vast majority of our culture, fame is what we live for…. The life of Michael Jackson was a tragic window into the price that people pay for fame, how it cuts you off from the people who love you and may want to criticize you to curb your excess. Fame was Michael’s drug of choice.

"In this book, Michael talks about how he never had a childhood because he was taught to be an attention-seeker at such a young age. The Jackson Five performed in places such as stripclubs when Michael was five. The price he paid for fame…demanded his life…

"Michael reached for higher things in life but fame held him down because his management always told him that what was most important was his brand. Whenever he sought to consecrate his fame to a higher cause, he was told and he came to believe that it got in the way of his fame. By becoming ubiquituous, if he went to charity events, I took him to Oxford University, to Carnegie Hall where he gave a major lecture about parents need to spend more time with his kids… His management consistently told him that that kind of ubiquitousness would undermine his mysteriousness and he would be less famous."

"I believe that what killed Michael was the absence of purpose in his life. When the whole purpose is to get people’s attention, then what? If you can’t consecrate your fame to a higher cause like Bono did, your fame becomes a burden. Bono is married 25 years to the same woman. His name has become synonymous with third-world debt relief. When you can’t do that, your fame becomes a burden.

"People are not created to be worshiped, to only have adulation. The beauty of the Hebrew Bible is that everyone is flawed. Michael was surrounded by so much adulation it was impossible to crack through it so he could make the changes necessary in his life."

"Our childhoods are becoming more and more broken. Our parents are working longer hours… They come home without energy and they veg in front of the TV. Attention is a substitute for love. We feel love when we get attention. Little do we realize that we are not loved for what we are but we are loved for what we do. Love makes you strong because it validates your being. Attention makes you weak because it validates your doing.

"That’s why Michael Jackson died. Most of the stories that made him so weird in the public’s mind — walking around with a giraffe, Bubbles the Chimp, sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber — were done purposefully to get more attention. It was attention at any cost. But Michael Jackson woke up one day and he said to himself, ‘Ohmigod, people think I’m a weirdo. I want to be taken seriously. I want to be speak for important causes.’ But nobody would associate themselves with him. This was well before the child-molestation charges. I never believed them. He had destroyed his name with all this strange stuff. In Michael’s case, it was clearly because he had no childhood. He was on the stage from the age of five. He had no normalcy."

Dennis: "People don’t feel alive if they’re not on television. That validates their existence. I don’t think it is so much a pursuit of love as it is of validation."

Shmuley: "Everyone wants to matter. When you walk down the street and people notice you, you feel like you matter…. The validation that comes from fame is artificial and it doesn’t last and leads to self-loathing. After a while, you know that all these people who love you don’t even know you."

This slays me because it is so true for me. While my mother was dying of cancer during my first four years and I was moved around a dozen different families, something got broken. I did not bond with my parents. My mom was dying. My dad was busy looking after my mom. I got left behind.

So I grew up thirsty for attention. As long as I can remember, I’ve longed for attention. I’m wired to think — what can I do or write in this moment to get the maximum of attention?

This is destructive. I wrote on the pornography industry in part because I figured that was the way to get the maximum amount of attention.

When I build up the semblance of a normal life, normally through Orthodox Judaism and bonding with families therein, the attention-seeking beast within me is somewhat stilled.

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Yisroel Pensack: Berkeley Orthodox Mohel Chanan Feld Dies of Oral Cancer at 53

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Yisroel Pensack

I received this email this afternoon from the Berkeley Beit Midrash Ohr HaChaim, which was co-founded by Chanan Feld and his wife and another couple:

Chanan Velvel Simcha ben Eliahu, Rabbi Feld, our precious teacher and beloved friend, left the world today, Yud Cheshvan, at about noon. The burial and shiva will be in the Holy Land.

HaShem Hu HaElokim.

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When Was The Last Time A Conservative Ran On ‘Hope’?

Posted on October 27, 2009 by Luke Ford

Dennis Prager said on his radio show today: "Their arguments are not based on reality. They believe that higher taxes will help the economy. Paul Krugman won a Nobel prize in economics and he believes that.

"The notion of hope. Have we had in my lifetime a Republican hope president? Remember Bill Clinton? The man from Hope, Arkansas. The candidate of hope, it was the most famous bumper sticker and poster of Barack Obama. How come there are never hope candidates from the Republican party? Because we do not use that rhetoric. We’re not into dreams, into hopes, into dogma. Those are more the provinces of the Left. We are sober in our assessment of the perfectability of human beings. We have a much less romantic view of humanity. Leftists and liberals believe in world opinion. World opinion is either bored with human suffering or on the side of the cruel."

Dennis Prager writes this week:

How is one to rationally explain the Democrats’ belief that the government taking over another one-sixth of the American economy is a good thing?

The answer is religion.

Given the huge economic failures that the left itself attributes to Medicare and Medicaid and given the economic collapse or near collapse of these systems in other countries, the left’s prescriptions can only be explained in one way: The left has made its views a form of religion.

Most individuals on the left are not religious, but virtually all people, secular and religious, liberal and conservative, yearn to believe in dogma, i.e., absolute beliefs that transcend reason. For people on the left in Europe, the United States and elsewhere, belief in the state — the notion that the state can do a better job at helping people and making a good society — is one such dogma. This applies especially to educating the young and to health care.

Examples of left-wing dogmas that transcend reason are as numerous as any religion’s catechism. One example is the belief that men and women, boys and girls, are basically the same, that the vast majority of characteristics we ascribe to male and female natures are in fact socially induced. This irrational dogma was virtually universally believed and taught by the left-wing faculty when I attended college, and remains so today.

Another is the belief that manmade carbon dioxide emissions are heating the world to the point of imminent worldwide catastrophe, including island nations disappearing underwater, mass starvation, inundation of the world’s major coastal areas and much more. The fact that the world has been getting colder for the last eight years is as irrelevant to most people on the left as the absence of archaeological evidence for the biblical exodus is irrelevant to believing Jews and Christians. That includes me; I do not believe in the Hebrew exodus from Egypt because of scientific evidence, but because of faith. But unlike the left’s belief in manmade carbon emissions leading to unprecedented and calamitous heating of the planet, I admit my belief is a leap of faith. And my belief in the exodus will not ruin Western economies. In other words, my non-scientific belief in the Jews’ exodus is innocuous while the left’s non-scientific beliefs (though shrouded in scientific jargon and promulgated by scientists who put dogma over science) are forced on societies.

Jeff emails: Why do we always have to read all this dennis prager nonsense on your site? You are more interesting than him, especially these days. Why did Obama have to run on hope? Because Bush drove the country into the sewers running up the biggest deficit of all time (after Clinton had it balanced!- its time to correctly label the

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Jewish School Refuses To Admit Boy On Religious Grounds

Posted on October 27, 2009 by Luke Ford

From The Guardian:

Britain’s most successful Jewish school told the supreme court today it had discriminated against a 12-year-old boy on religious rather than racial grounds.

Lord Pannick QC, representing the JFS, told nine judges and a standing-room-only crowd that the school denied the boy a place because the chief rabbi regarded his mother’s conversion to Judaism as invalid. The court heard the JFS had twice the number of applicants to places, so children whose mothers were recognised as Jewish by the chief rabbi were prioritised. The boy, known as M, did not fall into this category. Pannick told the court: "The chief rabbi is not involved in some kind of sham. He is only interested in the application of religious law."

Some of the judges questioned why M and his father, who kept kosher, said prayers and attended synagogue, did not qualify as Jewish. One said: "M would be regarded as Jewish by almost everybody as Jewish. The people who don’t regard him as Jewish are the Orthodox community."

The chief rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, heard some of the proceedings before leaving for his introduction in the House of Lords as a life peer. He listened attentively during his 40-minute visit, sometimes with his head in his hands, as he heard the defence argue that the issue at stake was religious status and not observance.

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