Forbes: Greenberg to Jews - China Good!

If I recall correctly, a good deal of Hank Greenberg's wealth stems from the businesses he built up for AIG in China.

Businessweek reported for instance,

Long Yongtu, the chief negotiator for China's entry into the WTO -- is quick to note that "Mr. Greenberg is the most famous U.S. business leader in this country. Perhaps most important, he is a long-standing friend of the Chinese people."

That he does not mention that aspect of his biography in his Forbes Op-Ed article, detracts from the authority of Greenberg's opinion that we should not boycott the Olympics and that Jews should not call for such a boycott.

Anyway, I agree with MRG on this issue.

Commentary
Jews: Don't Boycott The Olympics!
Maurice R. ''Hank'' Greenberg

I am angered by the ill-advised suggestion by the group of rabbis and other Jewish leaders who have said that the U.S. should boycott the Olympic Games in China. The idea that the Tibet issues in China have any similarity to the Nazi Holocaust demonstrates an appalling misunderstanding of history....more

Chicago Tribune: Not all Goerings were Nazis

We were just talking the other day about how Adolf used to be a popular Jewish name. No more. History does have an impact on us in so many ways.

This name I carry: Amid the hovering questions, not all Goerings were Nazis
By Laurie Goering

NEW DELHI—I have a notable last name, one that, in my 20s, sent me searching through family records with some trepidation. Nobody wants to be related to a monster, and Hermann Goering, Adolph Hitler's second-in-command, was certainly that.

After 45 years of carrying my name, though, I've gotten used to it. So used to it, in fact, that I don't often stop to think about how it affects people.

Occasionally there's a reminder, when someone gets the nerve to ask. I remember Fidel Castro raising a bushy eyebrow when I introduced myself to him in Havana while on assignment there. "A famous name!" he offered. "An infamous name!" I joked back. He clapped me on the back, laughed and that was that.

Mostly, though, the reaction to my name is a pause on the other end of the phone or a question swallowed so quickly and subtly I often miss it. Few dare to ask bluntly what plenty are probably thinking: "Were your ancestors Nazis?"

The other day, though, someone reminded me of the unspoken pain and questions that hover, silently, around any Goering, around anyone who shares one of history's sinister surnames. The note landed like a bomb in my e-mail in box.

"In all the years I have seen your articles . . . I have yet to read one of them," it said. "I would like to tell you why."

The writer said his mother's family had been murdered by the Nazis—more than 50 aunts, uncles, cousins and great-grandparents gone. The notorious Nazi leader who shares my family name "is a monster of history," he wrote. "The name Goering literally makes me nauseous, nauseous with pain and anger."

"I don't think you are evil," he went on. "I also know that your name is just a name, that you did not choose it and that you should not be burdened with the evils that some people associate with it." But as a writer, he said, I should understand "the power of words, the meaning and connotations that they carry and the emotional impact that they can have. "Goering," he said, "is a word that, next to Hitler, evokes that horror more vividly than any word I know. Perhaps no one has ever written or told you this. You should, however, know it. I would think that you might care."

I finished the note shaken and moved, shaken at the realization that my name was more painful to some than I had realized and moved at the note's undercurrent of appeal for understanding. This was no crackpot. This was someone courageous enough to ask the unspoken question and try to work through the answer, for both of us.

I thought a long time about what I wanted to say to him, and by proxy to everybody out there who has wondered.

The truth is this: My family members weren't Nazis. My great-great-grandfather, Johann Georg Goering, fled Germany in 1865, quite possibly to get his three sons, the eldest of whom was of fighting age, away from the looming Franco-Prussian War. In southwest Germany, my ancestors had been making wine for generations; in eastern Nebraska, where they settled, they became struggling grain farmers. By the time World War II got under way, my Nebraska-born grandfather Herman Goering, who surely suffered at sharing that notorious name, was raising wheat, chickens and seven kids on a farm that was just being wired for electricity.

A few months ago, an uncle found a diary from 1941 written by my Nebraska grandmother, who died long before I was born.

Amid brief entries early that year noting the birth of a calf and recording having spent $2.45 for a pair of children's shoes, she expresses revulsion at a "money war" in Europe. She hated conflict, my uncles remember, not least out of deep concern for the safety of her five sons, some of them approaching fighting age.

I didn't think the family history—the denial, in essence—was quite enough of an answer, though. After all, I'm married. I've had the chance to change my name and have chosen to keep it. So I simply wrote what for me is the truth, that "for all the horror of it for many people, I know it as the name of lovely, decent, caring family members that I am deeply proud of. Not all Goerings were monsters; it took just one to tarnish the name. The rest of us are still trying to undo the damage."

I braced myself when his next e-mail appeared, but his answer was a relief.

"Frankly, I did not expect a response from you, and certainly not one that was sympathetic to my perspective but warmly and deeply committed to your own. I did not expect a response that I could accept intellectually and emotionally," he wrote. For the first time, he gave his real name—he is a Chicago lawyer—and said he would now look at my articles in the newspaper with new eyes.

Since then we have been building a dialogue. I have learned about his father, a Jewish-American soldier who fought Germans, face to face, during World War II; he has looked into the stories of the infamous Luftwaffe commander's two lesser-known brothers: Karl, who immigrated to the United States and whose son Werner flew bombing missions over Europe during World War II, and Albert, who abhorred Nazism and forged his infamous brother's signature on transit papers to allow persecuted Jews to escape.

With the name I carry, I've always been hesitant to consider working in the newspaper's Jerusalem bureau one day. But my new correspondent suggests I would be welcome there, if only "by Jews who are aware of your perspective."

These days I'm listening again for the pauses after I introduce myself, paying attention. I can't change history. I won't change my name. But it's good to know it feels a touch less painful, even for just one person.

Laurie Goering is a Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent based in New Delhi.

BOOHOO - no Yahoo for Microsoft

I've always been wary of Yahoo's management and do not have a dollar invested in their equities - precisely because they are so quixotic and unpredictable.

Bloomberg reports that the stock may drop $8 on open on Monday because of the failure of the deal with Microsoft.

That is probably the end of the line for Yahoo as an independent company.

The only questions now are how will they fold their tents and when will they sell off their assets?

Coen Brothers May Abandon Minnesota for Next Film

Say it ain't so Ethan and Joel. You can't shoot a film about a Minnesota Professor (your dad?) in Wisconsin!

Ed Coen, the boys' dad, was an esteemed and respected colleague of mine at the University of Minnesota, a proudly identified Jew on our campus.

Coen brothers considering Milwaukee instead of Minnesota for film set in St. Louis Park, Minn.
By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. - First Johnny Depp came to Wisconsin. Could the Coen brothers be next?

Fresh off their Oscar wins for "No Country for Old Men," the film-making brothers Joel and Ethan Coen are scouting Milwaukee suburbs for a movie to come out in 2009, said Scott Robbe, director of the Film Wisconsin office.

Minnesota Film and TV Board director Lucinda Winter announced in September that the movie would shoot in Minnesota, the filmmakers' home state.

But Winter later warned that unless the Legislature approved a $500,000 incentive, the Coens could look elsewhere.

Wisconsin may be where they land with the film "A Serious Man," a story set in their hometown of St. Louis Park, Minn.

The film's producer, Bob Graf, has requested photos and other information from the Film Wisconsin office about possible locations in north Milwaukee suburbs, Robbe said. The Coens have not visited Wisconsin, he said.

The filmmakers are probably comparing both sites and the incentives being offered, said Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, chairwoman of the state arts board.

Minnesota would provide a 20 percent rebate if the Coens spent more than $5 million in the state and possibly a $500,000 payment, should a bill working its way through the Legislature pass.

Graf said in April that the $500,000 would improve the state's chance of landing the film but it's not a lock. He did not immediately respond to an e-mail sent Friday seeking comment.

Winter said her current understanding was the film was still being shot in Minnesota.

"I have not heard that they're not shooting here," she said.

The fact that the Coens are also looking at Wisconsin is not surprising and just shows they are doing their due dilligence," Winter said.

Robbe said Wisconsin's incentive plan, which gives a 25 percent tax credit for qualifying film production expenses, would add up to more than Minnesota's offer.

Wisconsin's tax credit helped lure Depp's "Public Enemies," which has been filming across the state since March. The movie is expected to generate about $20 million for the state's economy.

Robbe said he hasn't heard from Graf in a couple of months, but he expects a decision on where the film will be shot soon. The fact that the Coens are considering Wisconsin shows that the state is gaining a reputation as being film-friendly, he said.

The Coens won Oscars this year for writing and directing "No Country for Old Men," which also won best picture.

Their next film is "Burn After Reading," which is set to open this summer. That is to be followed by "A Serious Man," tentatively scheduled to open in 2009.

"A Serious Man" is about a Jewish college professor during the 1960s. According to the online entertainment journal FilmJerk.com, the main character is bedeviled by children who lift his wallet, a wife who wants a divorce, an intense graduate student and a neighbor who sunbathes in the nude.

Following up the Depp movie with a Coen brothers film in Wisconsin would be "my dream come true," Lawton said. "This would be nothing but good for us in Wisconsin."

The Happiness of Being a Sandek

I'm was so happy to have been the sandek at my grandson's bris 2 Iyar 5766.

For those who are not expert in such things, the sandek holds the baby while the mohel circumcises him. I briefly spoke after the bris and explained what I had learned courtesy of Michelle Klein in A Time to Be Born: Customs and Folklore of Jewish Birth. Most of this is in one of her footnotes:

Sometimes the father performs the job of sandek, but more often it is a grandparent or a rabbi or some other person who will serve as a role model for the boy.

The word sandek derives from the Greek syndikos, which is the same word in Late Latin and means a delegate, someone entrusted with a special affair.

This name, which was not mentioned in the Talmud, implies that this role was formalized in Byzantine times. Yalkut Shimoni (Jerusalem: 1960), vol. 2, Psalm. 35 discussed the origins of this word.

Judeo-Arabic speakers have said the word comes from the Arabic word sandouk, meaning a box, because it was once the custom for the mohel to bring all his equipment in a long narrow box.

After emptying the box in the room of the circumcision, he placed it below the mezuzzah, and the sandek sat on this during the rite.

The sandek was thus he who sat on the sandouk.

Another explanation is that sandek is derived from the Hebrew shen dak, literally a "thin tooth," which refers to the thin tooth of flint used by Zipporah to circumcise her son (Exodus 4:25): Ben R. Simhon, 1994, op. cit., p. 92. ...

A kabbalistic interpretation proposed that the four Hebrew letters of the word form the initials of four Hebrew words--sod, nah?ash, dam, kodesh, which depict mystical aspects of the rite, in kabbalistic imagery: Pritzker, A., "Brito shel Avraham avinu," Yeda Am 1 (1954): 22. [repost from 5/06]

NYT: Muzzle the Reverends

Clyde Haberman is a sane man. His NYC article in today's times hits the nail on the head.

NYC
First Thing, Muzzle the Clergy?
By CLYDE HABERMAN

Wouldn’t it be nice if, in the name of ecumenism, certain clergymen could reach an understanding about why 3,000 people died on Sept. 11, 2001? Most New Yorkers probably never thought that the victims had it coming. But some gentlemen of the cloth seem to know better.

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Senator Barack Obama’s former pastor-cum-present millstone, suggested once again the other day that the United States brought the pain on itself by engaging in, as he put it, overseas terrorism of its own....more

JTA: ADL Says China is not Nazi Germany

Well, doh, what were the rabbis thinking?

The ADL zaps the China boycott rabbis.

ADL rejects Beijing boycott call

The Anti-Defamation League rejected a call for Jewish tourists to boycott the Beijing Olympics.

The group's statement Thursday came a day after 185 Jewish leaders, mostly clergy representing the major movements, called on Jews not to attend the Olympics. The leaders cited China's role in propping up the Sudan regime while the genocide continues in Sudan's Darfur region, as well as repression in Tibet.

The ADL also said their comparisons with the 1936 Berlin games were inappropriate....

Columbia Dean Coatsworth: "Sure I would have invited Hitler to Speak."

It's in the ABC News interview video but not in the printed story.

This guy has been fully appointed on April 29, 2008. He is no longer acting dean.

Columbia Dean Coatsworth is one sick puppy.

Of course when I hear an academic espouse admiration for Hitler I immediately assume he has a Harvard connection. Harvard invited the nazis onto campus from their ships out in the harbor prior to the war.

Here is what his bio at SIPA has to say about his Harvard connection:

At Harvard, he served as the founding director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies from its creation in 1994 until 2006. He also chaired the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies.

Aha. Suspicions confirmed. This buddy is new to Columbia, fresh from Harvard.

What a disgrace.

Two Summer Camps for Rabbis

Where do rabbis go to sit around a campfire and sing Kumbaya?

There are two places, according to the Jewish Week.

One is brand new, the other is nearly new.

Brand new - but not competing with anyone mind you, just a summer camp, "a place to grow":

New rabbinical group launched to counter rightward shift in Modern Orthodoxy
by Gary Rosenblatt

In a move certain to be seen as an effort to compete with the Rabbinical Council of America — the largest group of Orthodox rabbis — two vocal critics this week launched a clerical group called the International Rabbinic Fellowship.

But Rabbis Avi Weiss of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale and Marc Angel, rabbi emeritus of Shearith Israel of New York, insist that the new fellowship, which attracted about 75 rabbis from North America, Israel and Columbia to a two-day conference in West Palm Beach, Fla., was created not to compete with the RCA but more broadly to counter what they see as a rightward shift in the Orthodox community and the centralization of the rabbinate.

They say they intend to maintain membership in the RCA — Rabbi Angel is a past president of the group. But they believe the new fellowship is filling a vacuum, as indicated by the large turnout, for rabbis who feel “claustrophobic” in their roles, according to Rabbi Angel.

“Rabbis need a place to grow, they can’t operate out of fear,” he said, predicting that the new group will soon grow to at least 150 members. ...

“We have created an open space where rabbis don’t have to look over their shoulders and feel intimidated” by rabbinic authorities who would marginalize them, said Rabbi Weiss. “We want to empower them to think for themselves.”

He noted that when as a young rabbi, he would ask a halachic question of his rebbe, the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveichik, the revered dean of Modern Orthodoxy, the response would be: “What do you think, Avraham?”...

Not so new, and truly embracing the ethos of summer camp, where you can get "a group hug," a program of Yeshiva University:

... the Yarchei Kallah Program led by Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter, senior scholar at Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future... brings together about 30 young Orthodox rabbis (under 40) twice a year to discuss issues of importance to them in their careers and personal lives, from balancing professional and family responsibilities to delivering more effective sermons.

“Our goals are not political,” Rabbi Schacter said. “We want to deal with [rabbis’] challenges and frustrations, to make them feel appreciated and inspired. We give them, in effect, a group hug.”...

Undoubtedly motivated by good intentions, these programs have such soft missions that they hardly surpass summer camps - not that there is anything wrong with that!

Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah

Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah

Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah

Oh Lord, kum ba yah

Hear me crying, Lord, kum ba yah

Hear me crying, Lord, kum ba yah

Hear me crying, Lord, kum ba yah

Oh Lord, kum ba yah

Hear me singing, Lord, kum ba yah

Hear me singing, Lord, kum ba yah

Hear me singing, Lord, kum ba yah

Oh Lord, kum ba yah

Hear me praying, Lord, kum ba yah

Hear me praying, Lord, kum ba yah

Hear me praying, Lord, kum ba yah

Oh Lord, kum ba yah

Oh I need you, Lord, kum ba yah

Oh I need you, Lord, kum ba yah

Oh I need you, Lord, kum ba yah

Oh Lord, kum ba yah

WSJ: 4700 Mazdas Go Zoom Zoom Boom

What a waste! WSJ reported...

...It all started about two years ago, when a ship carrying 4703 shiny new Mazdas nearly sank in the Pacific. The freighter, the Cougar Ace, spent weeks bobbing on the high seas, listing at a severe 60-degree angle, before finally being righted.

The mishap created a dilemma: What to do with the cars? They had remained safely strapped down throughout the ordeal--but no one knew for sure what damage, if any, might be caused by dangling cars at such a steep angle for so long. Might corrosive fluids seep into chambers where they don't belong? Was the Cougar Ace now full of lemons?

The Japanese carmaker, controlled by Ford Motor Corp., easily could have found takers for the vehicles. Hundreds of people called about buying cheap Mazdas. Schools wanted them for auto-shop courses. Hollywood asked about using them for stunts.

Mazda turned everyone away. It worried about getting sued someday if, say, an air-bag failed to fire properly due to overexposure to salty sea air...

And they decide to destroy them all and the scrap metal goes to Schnitzer Steel:

Next stop: Schnitzer Steel, a salvage yard down on the waterfront that's home to an immense metal grinder. "You turn 7,000-horsepower hammers loose on them, and they're eaten in 10 seconds," says Jamie Wilson, Schnitzer's manager. A bemused smile spreads across his face as another load of Mazdas disappears into its maw.

Moments later, metal shards--most no bigger than an ashtray--sprinkle onto a mountain of scrap near Schnitzer's dock. There, a freighter prepares to take the scrap back to Asia where it will get recycled.

Wilson looks on and concludes: "It'll all probably end up coming back as cars."