John McCain’s Position On Gay Marriage

I just got this via email.

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Teaching Hip Hop To Orthodox Jewish Girls

There’s a dance academy in Beverly Hills that has a class for Orthodox girls. They’re all covered up and they’re not allowed to move their hips. Yet they had a class in Hip Hop. Imagine doing hip hop dancing without moving your hips!

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Is Obama A Victim Of White Republican Racism?

Charles Krauthammer writes:

Let me get this straight. A couple of agitated yahoos in a rally of thousands yell something offensive and incendiary, and John McCain and Sarah Palin are not just guilty by association — with total strangers, mind you — but worse: guilty according to the New York Times of "race-baiting and xenophobia."

But should you bring up Barack Obama’s real associations — 20 years with Jeremiah Wright, working on two foundations and distributing money with William Ayers, citing the raving Michael Pfleger as one who helps him keep his moral compass (Chicago Sun-Times, April 2004) and the long-standing relationship with the left-wing vote-fraud specialist ACORN — you have crossed the line into illegitimate guilt by association. Moreover, it is tinged with racism.

The fact that, when John McCain actually heard one of those nasty things said about Obama, he incurred the boos of his own crowd by insisting that Obama is "a decent person . . . that you do not have to be scared [of] as president" makes no difference. It surely did not stop John Lewis from comparing McCain to George Wallace.

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The Torah’s Position On Illegal Immigration

The Torah’s Minutemen. Guarding the borders of Israel. Serious protection. Safeguarding the Homeland. Would the Torah encourage us to build a fence on the Rio Grande? Full video here.

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Monica Talks About Her Journey To Judaism

Midrash gave her a way to love the God of the Hebrew Bible. Is Franz Rosenzweig the way in to Torah? ‘The Star of Redemption.’ He’s elusive. Monica loves Immanuel Levinas. Full video here.

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36 Key Jews In The 2008 Election

From Haaretz:

Eli Pariser: He heads MoveOn.org, a liberal on-line advocacy group that has raised large sums for Democratic candidates.

Martin Peretz: The editor of The New Republic, he wrote an influential article entitled "Can friends of Israel – and Jews – trust Obama? In a word, Yes."

Dennis Prager: He is an influential, outspoken and often strident nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. Despite reservations over McCain’s campaign reform bill, he has thrown his weight behind the GOP ticket.

Penny Pritzker: She is the national finance chair of the Obama campaign. A billionaire executive, pioneer Obama supporter and scion of a well-known Jewish mega-donor family, she has taken flak over the degree of her involvement in a the failure of a bank driven by sub-prime mortgages.

Ed Rendell: The governor of the key swing state of Pennsylvania, he is former head of the Democratic National Committee and a top Democratic campaign spokesman.

Denise Rich: The socialite and ex-wife of disgraced billionaire Marc Rich is a Democratic megafundraiser.

Dennis Ross and Dan Kurtzer: They are the center-right and center-left anchors of Obama’s Middle East advisory staff.

Robert Rubin: The top Obama economics advisor has unsurpassed knowledge of the workings of Wall Street and was treasury secretary in the Clinton administration.

Dan Shapiro: A former Clinton administration National Security Council official, he is a senior Mideast policy advisor and Jewish outreach coordinator for the Obama campaign. He is said to have co-written Obama’s speech before AIPAC (the pro-Israel lobby), in which the candidate declared "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided" – a statement Obama later partially recanted.

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Monica Loves Immanuel Levinas

Monica found Levinas life-changing. I find Levinas inscrutable. Monica recommends his books "Nine Talmudic Questions" and "Difficult Freedom." Full video here.

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On Torah Talk Next Thursday Afternoon, Will Monica & Helen Do An Interpretative Dance About What ‘Bereshit’ Means To Them?

Tune in around 2:30 p.m. on my live cam Oct. 23.

Why is God hiding Moshe? Why did God bury Moshe? The Torah does not want us to worship Moses, so his burial place is hidden. We’re Jews, not Mosesites. Full video here.

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Judaism’s Balance Between Individual Freedom & Communal Needs

My dad would say: "In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity." Judaism has this balance down. It records minority opinions in the Talmud. Full video here.

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Judaism & Tribalism

Joey Kurtzman launches into system analysis. Monica relates Native American views on collective responsibility. We all killed Jesus. Some of us are glad. Full video here.

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