Is Lou Dobbs Jewish?

No, judging from his background we feel it is safe to say that Lou Dobbs is not a Jew.

Dobbs claims he was born in Childress County, Texas, son of Frank Dobbs, a co-owner of a propane business, and Lydia Mae Hensley, a bookkeeper. When Dobbs was 12 he claims his family moved to Rupert, Idaho. He claims to have attended Minico High School in Minidoka County, and claims to have earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University in 1967. We have not seen his birth certificate or his high school or college transcripts and diplomas, so we cannot vouch for any of these claims.

We cannot watch this guy on CNN.

UPDATE: And we won't be able to - because he is leaving!

He calls himself as a populist but we call him a droner, incessantly babbling on subjects that are out of the mainstream. He spouts off his personal views on American immigration policy, international trade and off-shoring.

Of late Dobbs has been under fire for joining the kooky birthers in questioning the birthplace of President Barack Obama.

Lou Dobbs challenges his own CNN network
By DAVID BAUDER (AP)

NEW YORK — He's become a publicity nightmare for CNN, embarrassed his boss and hosted a show that seemed to contradict the network's "no bias" brand. And on top of all that, his ratings are slipping.

How does Lou Dobbs keep his job?

It's not a simple answer. CNN insists it is standing behind Dobbs, despite calls for his head from critics of his reporting on "birthers" — those who believe President Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States despite convincing evidence to the contrary. The "birthers" believe Obama was born in Kenya, and thus not eligible to be president.

Dobbs' work has been so unpopular that even Ann Coulter has criticized him...more...

//orig post 8/5/09//

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D'Souza: Is there life after death?

Newsweek reviewed Dinesh D'Souza's new book (Life After Death: The Evidence) which answers the question, Is there life after death? Yes, there is, he says.

...D'Souza takes it as given that we are all consumed with wondering what will happen to us after death, the way all Europeans were in medieval times, and D'Souza himself still is. Believers, of course, need no convincing on the subject of life after death, so D'Souza must address himself to skeptics, who presumably have made their peace with the expectation of personal annihilation. Skeptics may object to D'Souza's mode of argument, which is to state a proposition, present the evidence for both sides with an elaborate if spurious show of impartiality, and proceed briskly to the conclusion that his own preference is obviously the winner. But on some level, D'Souza believes, even skeptics would like to be convinced...

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Joseph B. Soloveitchik on REDEMPTION, PRAYER, TALMUD TORAH

In 1978, my teacher, Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik published an essay titled REDEMPTION, PRAYER, TALMUD TORAH. It began,

Redemption is a fundamental category in Judaic historical thinking and experiencing. Our history was initiated by a Divine act of redemption and, we are confident, will reach its finale in a Divine act of ultimate redemption.

What is redemption?

Redemption involves a movement by an individual or a community from the periphery of history to its center; or, to employ a term from physics, redemption is a centripetal movement. To be on the periphery means to be a non-history-making entity, while movement toward the center renders the same entity history-making and history-conscious. Naturally the question arises: What is meant by a history-making people or community? A history-making people is one that leads a speaking, story-telling, communing free existence, while a non- history-making, non history-involved group leads a non-communing, and therefore a silent, unfree existence...

I decided to reread this essay because I thought I might add it to the readings in a seminar that I am teaching at JTS. I decided not to. The reasons - for just about every paragraph, I either don't understand the author's intent or I don't agree with how he characterizes Judaism.

To start with, I don't know what a fundamental category is, what Judaic historical thinking is or what experiencing is. It could be that he means to say in sentence one, "God's redemption of Israel is a prominent theme in Judaism." Or maybe not.

It could be that he means to continue in sentence two, "We believe God redeemed us in the past from slavery in Egypt and that he will redeem us in the future in the Messianic age." Or maybe not.

I simply disagree with the claims of the next paragraph. I just never heard anyone define redemption as moving to the center of history - becoming history-making and conscious - being able to speak, tell stories and commune and be free. And actually I do not know what all that means. But even so - I disagree with it, and I think that the physics example doesn't help matters.

The Rav goes on in the essay to speak about slaves and slavery - how slaves are mute and have no narratives, makes a passing reference to concentration camps, and how free people speak and have a voice, and a word, and a logos, how that is what prayer is all about and how prayer is related to the study of Torah.

And he tells us there is another type, an existential slave, whose world is in chaos because he is ignored and anonymous. Man is lost, sin is born until man "finds himself" through prayer in which he finds his needs awareness. Prayer makes man "feel whole" and it is where "God claims man."

My best estimate of what the Rav tried to do here - this is his exercise in insinuating an existentialist  philosophical reflection into a contemplation of Jewish prayer.

The Rav wrote more about prayer elsewhere, some of which I will assign to my seminar, just not this article.

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Is Raphael Golb Guilty?

No, as we see it Raphael Golb, accused of identity theft and harassment of Lawrence Schiffman is not guilty of any crime or tort.

The Times reports on the strange case of the feud of the Dead Sea Scrolls Scholars and concludes with this:

...But what about the injury Mr. Golb apparently tried to inflict on Lawrence H. Schiffman, the chairman of Judaic studies at N.Y.U.? Someone wrote from larry.schiffman@gmail.com to Professor Schiffman’s graduate students and dean, alerting them to an article that suggested he had committed plagiarism. Perhaps two things go without saying: The article was actually written under one of Raphael Golb’s pseudonyms, and Professor Schiffman has been critical of the theories of Golb père.

The defense claims that the e-mail messages were transparent parodies, and that in any event, injury to a reputation is a civil matter, not a criminal violation.

“He writes letters in my names in which I am admitting to horrendous offenses,” Professor Schiffman said Friday. “This is the rough-and-tumble of the Internet?”

Talmudic analysis: If the professor suffered a loss due to Golb's actions he has recourse in the civil courts. If he did not suffer a tangible loss, then he was the victim of a strange vendetta, not of identity theft or harassment. Unless Golb made charges to Schiffman's credit cards or physically stalked the man, there is no crime.

In fact, Schiffman is a public figure who has been on TV numerous times and has sought out public notoriety with vigor and enthusiasm based on his claims to expertise in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Like any public figure, he has less of an expectation of privacy, he is fair game for impersonators. And he also has to prove a high level of malice to even raise the issue of defamation.

George Bush laughs heartily when he sees mimics saying nasty things in their impersonations of him. So should the Professor laugh when accused by an impersonator of plagiarism, and he should move on, not take a complaint to the police.

And Golb has the right to his opinion about Schiffman. If he thinks that Schiffman plagiarized, he should say so in public. [Note that he would not have much trouble making a case for that since a large proportion of scholarly output in the humanities would be deemed plagiarism by the average joe on a jury.]

What Golb did was highly creepy, but not a crime and not a tort.

Postscript: Creepy on both sides of this dispute? You decide. Professor Schiffman called us today (11-10) to explain to us how wrong we are and how uninformed about the case we are. He went on and on. We thanked him for his call and wished him a good day.

Update: Here is the Kuby response. A post from this blog is cited in footnote 4 on pages 4-5.

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Was Martin Heidegger a Nazi?

Yes, philosopher Martin Heidegger was a Nazi. A newly translated book argues that his work should be shunned and that all work based on his philosophy is tainted. We agree.

From the Times:

An Ethical Question: Does a Nazi Deserve a Place Among Philosophers?
By PATRICIA COHEN

For decades the German philosopher Martin Heidegger has been the subject of passionate debate. His critique of Western thought and technology has penetrated deeply into architecture, psychology and literary theory and inspired some of the most influential intellectual movements of the 20th century. Yet he was also a fervent Nazi.

Now a soon-to-be published book in English has revived the long-running debate about whether the man can be separated from his philosophy. Drawing on new evidence, the author, Emmanuel Faye, argues fascist and racist ideas are so woven into the fabric of Heidegger’s theories that they no longer deserve to be called philosophy. As a result Mr. Faye declares, Heidegger’s works and the many fields built on them need to be re-examined lest they spread sinister ideas as dangerous to modern thought as “the Nazi movement was to the physical existence of the exterminated peoples.”...more...

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Is Goldman Sachs Jewish?

No, Goldman Sachs is a corporation hence it has no religion and cannot be Jewish.

But yes, Goldman Sachs was founded by Jews.

And now we learn from the London Times in a long and penetrating article that the current CEO thinks that he is on a religious mission: "I'm doing 'God's work'. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs."

Confused? That is right where they want you to be. From the article...

...The bank was founded in New York in 1869 by a Jewish immigrant from Bavaria, Marcus Goldman. His son-in-law, Samuel Sachs, later joined him. Shut out of the clubby, largely Protestant world of stock and bond trading, Goldman established a profitable, if unglamorous, niche buying and selling short-term corporate IOUs, known as commercial paper. By the turn of the century, the firm was pioneering the market for initial public offerings, handling the stock-market debuts of blue-chip companies such as Sears and Ford.

As Goldman started outside the cosy Wall Street establishment, it hired the smartest, most driven people it could find, who learnt to exploit market loopholes, snatch business from rivals and win favours from friends in high places. Under Sidney Weinberg, chief executive from 1930 to 1969, the bank forged top business graduates into ad-hoc teams that would work around the clock for clients ...more...

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Is Mitch Albom Jewish?

Yes, best selling author Mitch Albom is a Jew from New Jersey.

We highly recommend his latest work, Have a Little Faith: A True Story By Mitch Albom. This is a truly penetrating book about prayer as lived in the lives of two apparently average but actually utterly saintly clergymen.

Americans have run away from their clergy for decades. Albom's writing will warm your heart and bring tears to your eyes. And it will restore some of the lost dignity to the profession of the cloth.

The Reb, Rabbi Albert Lewis was Albom's hometown rabbi in suburban New Jersey. As a boy and young man Albom did all he could to avoid the rabbi. Now he seeks out the man's insights into life.

Henry Covington is an  African-American Detroit pastor, a reformed drug dealer and convict who  preaches in a decaying church with a hole in its roof and the heat turned off.  Albom seems concerned about how to trust him, yet determined to find ways to understand and to help him.

The book description says, "Albom observes how these very different men employ faith similarly in fighting for survival: the older, suburban rabbi embracing it as death approaches; the younger, inner-city pastor relying on it to keep himself and his church afloat."

"Albom and the two men of God explore issues that perplex modern man: how to endure when difficult things happen; what heaven is; intermarriage; forgiveness; doubting God; and the importance of faith in trying times."

The book seeks God and finds him incarnate in the beliefs and actions of two ordinary men of faith. It's a profound theological statement and number one on the New York Times best seller list.
You can read a little of the book here...

Mitch Albom's web site is here.

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Times: British Jews in a civil war over conversion

Raw Jewish identity politics at play in Britain. And this is not such a complicated case. It's a shame they let this issue get so far and become so public without reaching a conciliation within the community.

Who Is a Jew? Court Ruling in Britain Raises Question
By SARAH LYALL

LONDON — The questions before the judges in Courtroom No. 1 of Britain’s Supreme Court were as ancient and as complex as Judaism itself.

Who is a Jew? And who gets to decide?

On the surface, the court was considering a straightforward challenge to the admissions policy of a Jewish high school in London. But the case, in which arguments concluded Oct. 30, has potential repercussions for thousands of other parochial schools across Britain. And in addressing issues at the heart of Jewish identity, it has exposed bitter divisions in Britain’s community of 300,000 or so Jews, pitting members of various Jewish denominations against one another.

“This is potentially the biggest case in the British Jewish community’s modern history,” said Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle newspaper here. “It speaks directly to the right of the state to intervene in how a religion operates.”

The case began when a 12-year-old boy, an observant Jew whose father is Jewish and whose mother is a Jewish convert, applied to the school, JFS. Founded in 1732 as the Jews’ Free School, it is a centerpiece of North London’s Jewish community. It has around 1,900 students, but it gets far more applicants than it accepts...more

[hat tip to mimi]

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Thanksgiving Hagaddah and Thanksgiving Mishnah for Jews

I. Thanksgiving Hagaddah

In 2006 if you checked your NY Times Magazine or your New Yorker Magazine at this time you found a copy of America's Table stapled inside.

It was a "Thanksgiving Reader" that you could take to the dinner table and take turns reading.

Sounds like a Passover Hagaddah, no? You can go to the AJC web site and download the booklet as a PDF file.

The Jewish Standard had an article by Lois Goldrich about the booklet which described how the project took shape. The contents as described by Goldrich are,

The format — a "universal" narration, which remains constant each year, accompanied by profiles of men and women whose lives "illustrate the power of diversity and democratic values" — was designed to help Americans find common ground in a world where, often, differences are considered threatening, said Schept. The people profiled are recommended by AJCommittee chapters and are largely drawn from their interfaith contacts.

I found the readings so-so. There are so many classical statements of our "diverse roots and shared values" that could have been used in the booklet. And many stories of great Americans that should have been included. Take a look. Maybe it works for you.

II. Thanksgiving Mishnah

One year when I was teaching a course called Intro to Judaism at the University of Minnesota I asked the students to write a little creative assignment -- a Mishnah chapter for Thanksgiving based on what they were studying in their course readings.

The text we used was meant to teach the characteristics of the Mishnah is chapter 8 of Berakhot which contains the disputes between the Houses of Hillel and Shammai concerning the detailed order of the rituals and mannerisms of the Sabbath meal.

All the students did a wonderful job devising their own Mishnahs -- except for one. Surprisingly she was an Israeli student who actually knew what Mishnah was even before taking my course.

Here is the twist. When she came to me to discuss why she could not do the assignment she said, "Sure I know what is Mishnah. I learned about it in school is Israel.

"The problem is that I just came to the US and I have no idea what is Thanksgiving."

Ah, the problems of teaching at the multi-national midwestern university. [Annual repost.]

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Picture of a Pile of Murdered Jews on a Banner - "National Socialist Health Care Dachau Germany 1945" at Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachman's Anti Health Care Reform Protest Rally

Just broadcast on MSNBC - An outrageous picture of a pile of murdered Jews on a banner labeled - "National Socialist Health Care Dachau Germany 1945"displayed by people attending Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachman's Anti Health Care Reform Protest Rally.

I cannot think of any more offensive violation of human dignity in the pursuit of a perverse political agenda.

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Harris Epstein the Inventor

I am named after my great-grandfather, Harris (Tzvee) Epstein, aka, the inventor who lived in New York City and Spring Valley.

He was the inventor and patent holder of many practical items.

Here are examples with their links from the Google Patent search:


SIGNALING APPARATUS US Pat. 1060898 - H. EPSTEIN. SIGNALING APPARATUS, APPLICATION PILED JAN. 26, 19.11. Patented May 6,1913.

EXTENSION LADDER US Pat. 949529 - Filed Feb 10, 1909

VEGETABLE GRATER US Pat. 1799963 - Filed Apr 4, 1930... UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HARRIS EPSTEIN, OF ROCKAWAY BEACH, NEW YORK VEGETABLE GRATER

GAS-CONTROLLING DEVICE US Pat. 968457 - Filed Jan 11, 1910

Papa Epstein sure would have liked the age of the personal computer and the Internet.

I undoubtedly get my technical curiosity from Harris Epstein.

-repost from 12/17/06

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Was Claude Lévi-Strauss Jewish?

Yes, the great anthropologist who just passed away at age 100, Claude Lévi-Strauss was a Jew and the grandson of a rabbi.

The Times' obituary article describes with great clarity the methodology and substance of his work and the highlights and impact of his career, including the following:

...Claude Lévi-Strauss was born on Nov. 28, 1908, in Belgium to Raymond Lévi-Strauss and the former Emma Levy. He grew up in France, near Versailles, where his grandfather was a rabbi and his father a portrait painter. His great-grandfather Isaac Strauss was a Strasbourg violinist mentioned by Berlioz in his memoirs. As a child, he loved to collect disparate objects and juxtapose them. “I had a passion for exotic curios,” he says in “Conversations.” “My small savings all went to the secondhand shops.” A large collection of Jewish antiquities from his family’s collection, he said, was displayed in the Musée de Cluny; others were looted after France fell to the Nazis in 1940.

From 1927 to 1932, Claude obtained degrees in law and philosophy at the University of Paris, then taught in a local high school, the Lycée Janson de Sailly, where his fellow teachers included Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. He later became a professor of sociology at the French-founded University of São Paulo in Brazil...more...

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Scripture in the Prayers of the Synagogue

It seems obvious to us that scriptural passages from the Tanakh should be cited liberally in the prayers of the synagogue. The Tanakh is replete with examples of prayer and praying.

There is a short book of collected essays on the subject that calls the process of using biblical verses in Jewish prayer "scripturalization". We call it citing and interspersing Tanakh passages into prayers.

Just to see how the verses of scripture are interspersed in the prayers more graphically for the Shaharit service (morning prayers) we put the references into a spread sheet.

Our columns are prayer name, page in Koren/Sacks Siddur, biblical (or occasional Talmudic) source, and comment (on whether or not it uses a full chapter).

Scripture in Shaharit

In the cases listed - there is little to no distinction or demarcation between the rabbinic prayers and the earlier biblical passages. Some uses of scripture are obvious and stand out and some intermingling of verses is seamless and would not be recognized by the average reader without a reference to point it out.

The choice of what verses and chapters to use was not accidental. Accordingly they analysis of the materials tells us a great deal about the theology of the framers of the prayer services.

We also wanted to have handy a catalog of the explicit annual Torah and Prophetic readings in the synagogue. So we culled this table and put it out there as well. It is based on a yearly cycle that most Orthodox synagogues employ. Keep in mind that the triennial cycle of Torah readings was practiced until the middle ages.

Torah and Prophets in the Synagogue

The processes by which the prophetic materials were selected appear for many instances to be based on a straightforward thematic coherence with the Torah portion for the week. Beyond that, where selection is not based on obvious associative principles, by examining the selections we can learn something about the theological agenda of the later synagogue leaders who canonized the haftarot.

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Was Leo Frank Jewish?

Yes, Leo Frank was a Jew. He was convicted of a murder and then lynched in Georgia by an angry anti-Semitic  mob in 1915.

The story will be dramatized on PBS TV show tonight.

Television Review
Reverberations of a Trial and Its Shocking Aftermath
By NEIL GENZLINGER

“This case has it all,” someone will often say about a particularly gruesome or scandalous court proceeding — the O. J. Simpson trial, for instance, or anything involving John Gotti Jr. But you won’t find a case with more “all” than the one nearly a century ago surrounding an Atlanta pencil factory superintendent named Leo Frank. It is mesmerizingly recreated and explored Monday on PBS in “The People v. Leo Frank,” a film by Ben Loeterman that even those already familiar with this ugly piece of history are likely to find unsettling. ...more...

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Gawker and Radaronline.com: Nobody Shows up as Public Rejects Misuse of Religion by Celebrities Jon Gosselin and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

New Yorkers are remarkable people with a strong sense of propriety. That was proved tonight as our local people ignored an evening of confessions with Jon Gosselin and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

BREAKING NEWS: Jon Gosselin Changes Mind On Appearance; Sparse Crowd Shows Up

Jon Gosselin had a last minute change of heart and showed up for his confessional with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach at the West Side Jewish Center in New York Sunday night.

Gosselin's appearance was announced days ago but the Jon & Kate Plus 8 star got cold feet as the 7 PM Sunday start time approached and he almost didn't make it. He eventually did, looking nervous and more than 30 minutes late. He blamed the NYC Marathon traffic for his delay.

Maybe he shouldn't have bothered. The hall that had been booked for the event was only about one-quarter full, one eyewitness told RadarOnline.com. "And of that, there were about 75 media people there and only about 50 members of the paying public."

Tickets were advertised for $25 in advance or at the door, but with so few fans attending, they didn't even bother to collect at the door, the source said.

Gosselin spoke for more than an hour....

But wait. It gets worse. Gawker, not happy that people voted with their feet went out of its way to seriously disrespect the rabbi and his celeb. Really - have they no respect for the clergy?

Jon Gosselin's Public Shot at Forgiveness With Celebrity-Obsessed Rabbi Shmuley

"I feel guilty," Jon Gosselin laments to "America's Rabbi," Shmuley Boteach. Rabbi Shmuley talked to Jon on his bima about asking the world for forgiveness. We dispatched. Our Black Ops spy to the scene. One word: Wow. This is absurd.

Jon Gosselin is an incredible, oblivious ass, and this Rabbi is a ridiculous fameball crook.

Forget the fact that Gosselin—not Jewish—sought out a Magical Jew to help him sort out his problems, and forget the fact that this Rabbi, who was once a punchline on 30 Rock, who has nine children, who is a fame-mongering celebrity in his own right, embraced this with open arms. Just go to the game tape and you'll see. [Video - spy quality]

Gawker Black Ops video intern Sergio Hernandez, who went armed with $20 for admission and a FlipCam, described the scene as such:

Gosselin was 40 minutes late. A strange British woman who was inappropriately underdressed for a synagogue told us he was "stuck in traffic" and "delayed by the New York City marathon," and there was buzz that Gosselin had actually canceled his appearance. He did, eventually, show up to a stampede of paparazzi and entertainment cameras (by my count, at least Entertainment Tonight, Extra, TMZ, and FOX News were all there).

The event was, ostensibly, a discussion about the effect of fame and celebrity on religious and moral values. Jon opened by saying he wasn't a fameseeker and neither asked for nor invited his newfound celebrity (but nonetheless thanked the cameras in the room for showing up.)

Then Shmuley brought up Jon's divorce and basically tried to get him to blame his marital problems on fame and the pressure from TLC to draw in more ratings. Gosselin, for the most part, was pretty gracious about not villainizing Kate too much; he talked about going to therapy and learning about the mistakes he made during their marriage.

But Shmuley, who peppered the discussion with way too many smug, self-referential jokes, basically tried to excuse Jon's post-divorce, uh, behavior, with Kate's emasculation. Of course, you'd think if Shmuley and Gosselin hated all this attention so much, they might've, you know, not prostrated themselves in front of a few dozen cameras and charged $20 a person for it? But what would be the fun in losing out on that?

Especially interesting that Shmuley tried to paint TLC as the Bad People, because, you know, he's kinda been in bed with them before. And did they cancel Shalom In The Home? Well, it aired two seasons, and hasn't been on the air since 2007. So: you tell me. Again, a crook. Also: a misogynist, a snake-oil salesman, and a publicity whore. Come to think of it, that might be both of them. I'm not sure which behavior here begets the other, but whatever it is, wherever it comes from, this can't be good for The Kids, The Jews, and I don't know, Anybody Who's Ever Devoted Faith To Anything. This is really, really sad.

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Video: Check Writer and Mega-Blowhard Michael Steinhardt Disrespects Jewish Leadership for Doing Gournisht

A highly flawed self-serving survey came out claiming a program called Birthright Israel which sends Jewish youth on free trips to Israel has diminished intermarriage.

Nonsense. The kids who elected to go on these trips already decided to affirm their Jewish identities by choosing to participate. The program's cohort is skewed from the get-go towards those youth who decided being Jewish is a high value. The program itself probably had little to  no measurable effect on these already decided committed young people.

About this softly articulated but strongly insulting video clip, Steven I. Weiss says, "Billionaire philanthropist Michael Steinhardt delivered a bold speech indicting Jewish leadership for not doing enough on Monday. The speech came at an event touting a study claiming Birthright Israel, which was founded in part by Steinhardt, has ... achieved quite a lot to combat intermarriage."

The notion that Birthright created change and nothing else matters is just baloney. Guys like Steinhardt want to feel good about the checks they wrote. Credible researchers are happy to oblige with studies that validate the expenditures and programs. Nobody faults a rich guy for wanting to feel good about his lucre at the end of his greedy life. Philanthropy can be a virtuous afterthought of a life of bullying and stepping all over weaker and more naive people.

What is going to change the appalling level of Jewish education in the non-Orthodox world Steinhardt asks? Simple. Get Jews to read more books every day. Taking a trip is a nice vacation and recreation and yes may be informative. But it ends and the youth go back and either they read books or they don't. Schools and courses and tedious hard study will alleviate ignorance.

Three minutes of saying, "I did something useful by writing a check and none of you guys do anything meaningful in your sustained careers," - well the only reasoned answer those Jewish professionals and academics can possibly have to that claim is, "Go to hell Steinhardt."

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Video: The Jewish Channel Newsdesk Week in Review

These guys like Steven I. Weiss at TJC are doing a great job and getting better at it each week.

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QB Tim Tebow and John 3:16

We have the greatest respect for Florida quarterback Tim Tebow as an athlete and as a humanitarian. He sets a great example for all of us.

Just one tiny little thing Tim.

You had inscribed for all of us to see during the championship game last year in the black glare block under your eyes the reference to "John" under one eye and "3:16" under the other.

We know you mean this to be an affirmation of your faith. But, Tim the verse is a bit of a put down to us Jews.

The implication of that New Testament verse you cite on your face is that we who do not believe in Jesus will perish and will not have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

That Bible text does not include us to say the least.

So how about next time considering another reference to wear under both your eyes during a nationally televised game?

How about Deuteronomy 6:4 -- just to even things out?

By the way, we still think you are great.

//repost//

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Is Jon Gosselin Jewish?

Jon Gosselin says he is half Jew and half Korean, according to one online article. Wikipedia does not corroborate this saying, "Gosselin was born and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania to a father of French and Welsh descent and a Korean mother."

Jon Gosselin Wants to Find Religion
Justin Carbone

Gosselin to find inner self

Everyone’s favorite reality star Jon Gosselin is at it again. This time, it’s to turn a new leaf and find himself some inner spiritual guidance.

Gosselin, the father of 8 and former star of TLC’s Jon & Kate Plus 8 claims that the excess of fame have gone to his head, and that he needs to center himself and find his inner being.

He says that he is half Korean and half Jewish and that its time for him to come to terms with his behavior of the past few months.

“I am well aware that my behavior over the past few months has not always reflected my personal and religious values. I further accept that I have allowed myself to become somewhat severed from my own moral anchor and be carried away by the challenges of fame,” he told USMagazine.com. ...

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Windows 7 Upgrade a Success

We recall sitting on the floor in 1995 and struggling to figure out how to complete our horrifying upgrade to Windows 95. It was not a happy day.

This latest experience - upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 - was much better. The whole process took about four hours. The "advisor" told us to uninstall iTunes - which we had to do before it would let us continue. The actual chugging of the program went on unattended for about three hours. After that things looked pretty good. Trend Micro did not work. It took a while until we found the right upgrade on their site. Norton Ghost did not work at first. Now it does - we think we upgraded it. Our HAVA remote TV system refused to operate. We actually called human support for that and went through a barrage of firewall settings. Then after a reboot, even that started working.

The best surprise was the Windows Media center. We have a TV card in the computer and it asked if we want Windows to configure it. Wc clicked on the 'Sure, why not' button? Windows took the liberty of deciding to look for the digital HD Clear Qam channels that our cable operator sends us - instead of configuring the normal non-digital cable channels that we had before. So we were surprised to find 23 channels in HD after the config concluded. Really eye-popping quality.

As to the actual features of the operating system - we never had that much difficulty with Vista - maybe one of the few fans of the system. 7 is faster booting and has more eye candy than Vista. For an XP user, the difference will be striking in a good way. We are still finding nice surprises and we are certain that there are some not so nice ones lurking. But all told, this was a good run.

Next experiment. We are hoping to take our 10 inch Dell 10V netbook ($250) and make it into a Hackintosh with the help of our number two son and mac expert.

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