Life Advice from a Long-time Swimmer: Swim 100 laps every day

The Tosefta quotes Rabbi Meir (2nd century CE Talmudic scholar) saying that everyone should strive to recite 100 blessings each day. It then goes on to enumerate them - mostly in daily prayers.

Let's play with the word for blessings. They are berakhot ברכות in ancient Hebrew. Okay then. In modern Hebrew the laps that one swims in a pool are called berechot בריכות. A blessing is a berachah and a pool - and a lap in a pool - is a berechah.

I playfully read the ancient Talmud this way: Don't say 100 berakhot (blessings), say 100 berechot (laps).

Footnote about Meir from Wikipedia: Meir was buried in a standing position near the Kinneret. It is said that he asked to be buried this way so when the Final Redemption occurs, Rabbi Meir would be spared the trouble of arising from his grave and could just walk out to greet the Jewish Messiah. He requested that he be buried in Israel by the seashore so that the water that washes the shores should also lap his grave (Jerusalem Talmud, Kelaim 9:4).

And so I have crafted some Talmudic encouragement for myself to swim 100 laps a day. On many days each year, I do get to that goal.

Here are a few of my past reflections on swimming...

Haaretz: Why so Few Streets Named for Women In Tel Aviv?

One of my favorite books about Israel is "Street People" by Helga Dudman. "This is an informative and amusing guide-book recalling the "biographies" of many Israeli streets, the stories of the famous men and women for whom they were named. Pedestrians (and drivers) can travel along Ibn Gabirol, Nordau, Ahad Ha'Am, George Eliot, Lilienblum--and know who they were and what they did!"

Haaretz now reports that, "Of 2,439 streets in Tel Aviv, only 62 - a paltry 2.5 percent - are named for women." And we cannot blame this on Orthodox rabbis. Tel Aviv is a predominantly secular city. I was taught that Zionism was a basically egalitarian movement. It seems that is not reflected in street naming.

Can Israeli women break the glass ceiling - on street signs?
By Ilan Lior

The briefest of strolls through Tel Aviv will reveal one very long road indeed: the path to gender equality in street names.

Although women constitute half the population, their names are almost entirely absent from street signs. Of 2,439 streets in Tel Aviv, only 62 — a paltry 2.5 percent — are named for women.

The number dwindles even further when you realize that in six cases, the streets bear the names of women mentioned together with their husbands.

Haaretz: Why Women Want to Wear Tefillin

Some Orthodox women want to wear tefillin. Some nasty rabbis want to stop them from doing that.

I call this a scribal-tribal issue because Tefillin are amulets that Orthodox Jews wear to demarcate their membership in the tribes of Israel. And amulets are written by scribes, who stand the most to directly benefit from the potential 100% increase in tefillin sales if all girls and women would start wearing them.

If the "Jewish Scribes Union" was more powerful, it would be so much behind this movement by a few young Jewish Orthodox women to wear Tefillin. But of course, there is no such union :-)

Elana Sztokman has written an impeccable editorial explaining why the women who want to wear tefillin deserve our respect and admiration.

Tefillingate: Orthodoxy must not reject its most committed women: The crude, sexist responses within Orthodoxy to girls wearing tefillin reflect men’s fears and prejudices - and ignorance about the passion of religious feminism.
By Elana Sztokman

The current firestorm about girls wearing tefillin has shed light on sexism in the Orthodox world. As opposed to a viewpoint informed by sexism, which sees the women and girls donning tefillin out of choice as radical provocateurs threatening an imaginary status quo, we should see them rather as inspiring examples of Jews embracing God and Torah.

There are those who try to make their objections seem rooted in halakha. Rabbi Ethan Tucker has done an exceptional job unraveling the halakhic myths and facts about women and tefillin, so there is no reason to rehash that here. Suffice it to say that the idea that women are prohibited from wearing tefillin is more a function of perception than reality.

Was James Gandolfini Jewish?

He was such a powerful acting persona, sure we'd like to claim him as a member of the tribe. But no James Gandolfini was not a Jew. Shockingly, he passed away at age 51. He was a superlative actor who made his biggest hit in the Sopranos on HBO, considered by many critics to be the greatest series of its kind of all time.

The Times tells about him:

James Joseph Gandolfini Jr. was born in Westwood, N.J., on Sept. 18, 1961. His father was an Italian immigrant who held a number of jobs, including janitor, bricklayer and mason. His mother, Santa, was a high school cafeteria chef.

He attended Park Ridge High School and Rutgers University, graduating in 1983 with a degree in communications. He drove a delivery truck, managed nightclubs and tended bar in Manhattan before becoming interested in acting at age 25, when a friend took him to an acting class.

Gandolfini's father worked as the head custodian at Paramus Catholic High School in New Jersey, and we assume the family was Catholic.

Haaretz wrote about his characters' Jewish links. Gandolfini  made a humorous Israeli ad for yes.co.il.

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Happy Mishna Day

On this day in history the first Mishna was printed. Joshua Solomon ben Israel Nathan Soncino, the first member of the distinguished family of printers, completed publication of the work in 1492.

From Ha`aretz by David B. Green:

On May 8, 1492, Joshua Solomon ben Israel Nathan Soncino completed publication of what is believed to be the first printed edition of the Mishna. The text is accompanied by Maimonides’ commentary on the Mishna, in Hebrew translation.

Joshua Solomon Soncino (died 1493) was the first member of the distinguished Soncino family of printers to publish a book, a tractate of the Talmud (Berakhot), which he created in 1484. (Johannes Gutenberg had produced his first block-printed Bible in 1455.) The family took its name from the Italian town of Soncino, in northern Italy, east of Milan, where it lived for some time, but it could trace its origins to a German Jew called Moses of Speyer, in the 14th century.

Is Yair Lapid Jewish?

Yes Israeli politician Yair Lapid is a Jew. David Remnick wrote about him in New Yorker, and evaluated his performance in the 2013 parliamentary election, "...the great surprise was the second-place finisher, a television celebrity and political novice named Yair Lapid, who leads a brand new—but impressively greased—centrist party called Yesh Atid (“There is a Future”). Lapid appealed largely to young, middle-class, secular voters, and he concentrated mainly on social issues like education and housing and on stripping the ultra-Orthodox of their state subsidies and military exemptions. Facebook, Twitter, and his square-jawed, salt-and-pepper-hair glamour were Lapid’s tools..."

Remnick shared more about Lapid in that essay:

Lapid resigned from Channel 2 only a year ago, and is one of the most famous people in Israel—a television star with a “Mr. Israel” image. He is bluff, cocky, handsome, and had no problem when it came to name recognition. When he was hosting a show named for him, he would ask his guests a signature question: “What is Israel to you?”

Haaretz: Is Rick Santorum an Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jew?

No, not yet. Rick Santorum is not an Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jew. He is not Jewish. He is an American Catholic politician. 

A political analyst for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has a biting (a bit tongue-in-cheek) take on Santorum's mix of religion and politics.

With a beard and a shtreimel, Santorum would be perfect for an Israeli ultra-Orthodox party

The battle over contraception and other 'culture wars' now raging in American presidential politics can make an Israeli feel right at home.
By Chemi Shalev

"Hadarat nashim", the exclusion of women, is the catchphrase that encompasses all of the recent manifestations in Israel of the attempts to distance females from sitting at the front of the bus, singing in military ceremonies, publicly accepting prizes, appearing on public billboards and what not. It's what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was talking about a few months ago when she reportedly told the Saban Forum in Washington that such things remind her of Iran.

Last week, in yet another sign of the close affinity of Republicans with Israel, "hadarat nashim" crossed the Atlantic and reached the U.S. Congress.

On completing the study once again of Talmud Tractate Hullin

Today marks the completion of daf yomi study of Tractate Hullin.  We are reposting our previous post of our recollections and of Rav Soloveitchik's remarks in 1974 at a siyyum for Hullin, previously published in a well-known compilation .

My translation of Talmud tractate Hullin, as described below, was re-issued recently by Hendrickson in print and on CD.

On April 1, 1973 in Rabbi Soloveitchik's Talmud shiur at Yeshiva University we completed learning the first chapter of Talmud Bavli Tractate Hullin. The Rav gave a dvar Torah at the Siyyum. He explained the meaning of the recitation of the hadran alakh, the prayer that promised upon the completion of learning a Talmud chapter or Tractate that we would return to study you - speaking to the text - again.

I kept the promise. Between 1992 and 1994 as a professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Minnesota I directed my research to the study of this chapter and the remaining eleven chapters of the tractate.

Haaretz: Yaakov Choueka Leads the Geniza Project

We met Yaakov Choueka some thirty years ago at Bar Ilan when he was leading the Responsa digitization project there. Haaretz reports that he is now directing the efforts to digitize the Geniza.

...Choueka already has participated in several projects of this type. One of them, the Responsa Project - the largest electronic collection of Torah literature - was the first in Israel and one of the first in the world to combine computerization and the humanities. Yet Choueka feared that digitizing the Geniza would be almost impossible, and hesitated for a long time before committing to it.

Haaretz: Eilat Mazar calls the City of David a 'tourist gimmick'

Haaretz reported that archeologist Eilat Mazar has called the lavish City of David archaeological expeditions and park an unscientific "tourist gimmick". 

We visited the sites last spring and can testify that indeed it is a dig that is set up for public consumption and that it tends to present a heavy handed nationalist interpretation of the site. But it is way more than a "gimmick" and it is somewhat scientific, although largely undramatic.

For a really good account of how archaeology and nationalism intertwine in Israel, buy my son's book, Archaeology, Stamps and Coins of the State of Israel By Yitzhak Zahavy.

Here is the Haaretz story:

Top archaeologist decries Jerusalem dig as unscientific 'tourist gimmick'
Dr. Eilat Mazar, who worked in close cooperation with the group - which promotes the 'Judaization' of East Jerusalem - says excavations carried out in violation of accepted procedures.
By Nir Hasson

An archaeologist who worked with the Elad association in Jerusalem's City of David claims that the association and the Antiquities Authority are carrying out excavations "without any commitment to scientific archaeological work."

Dr. Eilat Mazar - a Hebrew University archaeologist who worked in close cooperation with Elad over past years, and who is considered one of the most productive researchers in Jerusalem and in the City of David area in particular - has castigated Elad for the excavation of a large subterranean pit, called "Jeremiah's Pit," at the entrance to the City of David visitors' center complex.

Haaretz: Jerusalem Light Rail Running, Finally

We saw the light rail running without passengers in May of this year. Finally, yesterday it opened for passengers.

Jerusalem's little train that almost could
After 11 years of delays, Jerusalemites finally got their long-awaited light railway on Friday, but security concerns cast a pall on launch day.
By Ilan Lior

On Friday, the first day that the Jerusalem light rail ran, everyone wanted to ride it - Orthodox and secular, Arabs and Jews, tourists and locals. The fact that it was free was also quite an incentive. "This is historic," some passengers said, smiling and snapping photos to preserve the memory. Others were less excited, only welcoming the fact that after years of infrastructure work, the train was finally serving the city's residents and not only making their lives miserable...more...

Should Jews Stop Reciting the Messianic Alenu Prayer?

Haaretz columnist Carlo Strenger recently wrote a strong op-ed reeling against religious messianism in Israel. He called it the, "Decline and fall of Israel’s Messianic politics" which he sums up thus, "Ultimately, Israel’s sane majority that wants peace and democracy rather than war and theocracy will wake up and break the destructive stranglehold of those who wish to make the country a theocracy."

In the heat of his argument Strenger, more freely than he ought, interchanges millenial, messianic and apocalyptic religious activism. Yet he does make his point clear. He prefers less messianism and more realism for Israel. Hence his wishful title.

Bibi Loves Pollard, Who by the way is no Dreyfus

Isn't love grand?

Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu loves Jonathan Pollard and has written a letter asking for his release from federal prison in the United States.

This just made us want to compare the historic Dreyfus Affair with its contrasting opposite, the modern Pollard Affair.

Let's see. The two start out similar. Both men were Jews who were accused of spying against their own countries.

Dreyfus was sentenced in 1894 to life imprisonment for allegedly having communicated French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris, and was sent to the penal colony at Devil's Island and placed in solitary confinement.

Pollard was sentenced in 1987 to life imprisonment for allegedly having communicated American military secrets to the Israelis, and was sent to the federal prison and placed in solitary confinement.

Two years later evidence implicated someone else as the culprit in the French affair. But Dreyfus was further accused by the French Army with fabricated evidence.

Pollard admitted his crimes. Nobody ever claims that he was framed.

In his famed J'accuse letter, the writer Emile Zola exposed the framing of Dreyfus and the cover up of exculpatory evidence . The fallout from this affair divided French society.

The confessed spy Pollard tried to get Wolf Blitzer to interview him in prison. This infuriated the US authorities.

Dreyfus was fully exonerated and reinstated in the Army where he served with honor.

Pollard wants to be freed because he says he is really sorry and he has been in a nasty jail a really long time.

In the end the Dreyfus affair exposed the antiSemitism of European society and stimulated the Zionism of Theodor Herzl, which in turn led to the ultimate founding of the State of Israel.

In the end the Pollard affair is eroding the political credibility of all those Zionists who express support for him, in particular Bibi Netanyahu. We think it is seriously damaging the Zionist cause.

Just what motivates this present self-defeating behavior? We simply have no clue.

Haaretz: Israeli Customs confiscating iPads

Beware at Customs: Gov't has banned iPad imports - Haaretz - Israel News

We guess this is based on the biblical policy banning new tablets... Ten commandments and no more.

[hat tip to barak]

Haaretz: Jordan asks Canada to Seize the Dead Sea Scrolls

Yes, there is something strange about those Dead Sea Scrolls.

Now they are part of a weird diplomatic move by the Jordanians, who want them back.

It is true that Israel obtained most of them as part of the East Jerusalem booty of the Six Day War. And as such, there is a good case to be made that they ought to return them to Jordan.

But then we wonder, why in the world would Jordan want them?

Jordan demands return of Dead Sea Scrolls 'seized' by Israel
By Haaretz Service

Jordan has asked the UN to force Israel to hand over Dead Sea Scrolls, which it says Israel stole.

Jordan has asked the United Nations to force Israel to hand over a significant portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of some 900 ancient religious texts unearthed in the 1940s and 1950s, Army Radio reported on Wednesday.

The Jordanian government has also asked the Canadian government to impound the 2,000-year-old documents, currently on display at a museum in Toronto, according to reports in the Canadian press.

Jordan cited international law to request that Canada take possession of the documents until the dispute is resolved.

Jordan has accused Israel of seizing the scrolls from a museum in east Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War.

Jordan's claim to the scrolls, which academics believe were compiled about 2,000 years ago by the Essenes, an obscure Jewish sect, may discourage other countries from hosting the exhibit.

National Union MK Aryeh Eldad on Wednesday said that Jordan has no right to demand the return of the scrolls, Army Radio reported.

An Ironic Ninth of Av Editorial by Israeli Editor Aluf "Kamtza" Benn in the New York Times

The rabbis of the Talmud mocked the self-destructive lack of diplomacy of the Jews of antiquity in the symbolic story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza.

We are so far removed from the cultural context of their Babylonian academies that we cannot fully decode the Talmud's meaning in this narrative.

What is certain is that the Talmud provides us with a ridiculous story in which inviting the wrong guest to a meeting and saying the wrong things in an assembly led to cosmic consequences, namely the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the end of Jewish sovereignty.

Here is a part of the ancient tale.

It was because of 'Kamtza and Bar-Kamtza' that Yerushalayim was destroyed …"
"For there was a certain individual who was friendly with Kamtza, but who was an enemy of Bar-Kamtza. He made a feast and said to his servant, 'Go and bring Kamtza to my feast,' but the servant brought Bar-Kamtza instead."
"The one who made the feast found Bar-Kamtza seated there. He said to him, 'Since you are my enemy, what are you doing here? Get up and get out!' Bar-Kamtza said, 'Since I'm here already, let me stay, and I will pay you for what I eat and drink.' "
"The host responded, 'No!' "
" 'I will pay for half the cost of the feast.' "
" 'No!' "
" 'I will pay the entire cost of the feast!' "
" 'No!' And he seized Bar-Kamtza, stood him up, and threw him out!"
"Bar-Kamtza thought, 'Since the Rabbis were there, saw the whole thing, and did not protest, obviously they had no objection to my embarrassment! I'll go now, and have a little feast-of-slander with the king."

Now the rabbis of the Talmud knew well and good that it was not a mixed up invitation that had the ultimate impact on Jewish destiny. It was the will of God to punish his people for failing to observe his commandments that led to the exile. The book of Lamentations and so many other sources made all of this theologically clear.

We are sure that the Talmud taught this tale for another reason and that is to remind us then and now to beware of the moronic antics and lack of diplomacy of some of our own Jewish spokesmen.

In short the story is there in the Talmud to inform us that while God controls our destiny, the stupid acts of some Jews can and do damage our interests.

It's an unbelievable coincidence that just days before this fast day, which we commemorate tonight and tomorrow, just yesterday, a Jewish writer exhibited in an op-ed essay a pristine example of just that antic idiotic behavior.

And as a Talmudic rabbi of today we need to emulate our predecessors of yore and rise to mock that utterly pointless exercise of self-destructiveness.

Aluf Benn, the editor at large of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, said in the Times,

In his global tours and TV appearances, President Obama has spoken to Arabs, Muslims, Iranians, Western Europeans, Eastern Europeans, Russians and Africans. His words have stirred emotions and been well received everywhere.

But he hasn’t bothered to speak directly to Israelis.

Now this arrogant insult is so beyond dumb, ordinarily we wouldn't have even commented on it.

But as we said, it's a rabbinic obligation to remember on the Ninth of Av to mock such nonsense.

There is more for us to denounce. The writer says further on in his abomination of desolate opinionating,

In Mr. Netanyahu’s narrative, the president has fallen under the influence of top aides — in this case Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod — whom the prime minister has called “self-hating Jews.”

It's not enough to berate the president for alleged slights that simply make no sense. Obama more than any other US president has spoken clearly and unequivocally of his support of Israel -- even in his address to the Arab World from Cairo!

Yet the Israeli, Aluf "Kamtza" Benn, without any care for its ramifications, went on to disrespect the top Jewish advisors of Barack Obama in public in the Times and to do so in the name of the Prime Minister of the State of Israel!

Mr. Benn, we say to you in the spirit of the Talmud, please take your complaints about who attends or does not attend your party, your accusations about who is a good Jew and who is not, and shove all of them up your self-destructive nose.

As we said and firmly believe, fortunately it is God who decides the fate of our people.

But all of us need to remember on this occasion of the fast of the Ninth of Av, and every day, that bad diplomacy has hurt us in the past, and it does harm our interests in the present.

JTA: All Schnorring, All the Time - You give us your email, we bombard you with donation requests

We're being bombarded with donation requests from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. We did not even know that the JTA was a charity.

We just went to the JTA site to read an article titled, "Six percent of Israelis say Obama is ‘pro-Israel’" and found at the end of the post this urgent notice: "This article was made possible by the support of readers like you. Donate to JTA now."

Now we are critical of JTA here on several grounds. First off there is no value add to picking up an already published report from the Jerusalem Post and repeating it. Why would we donate for that? Every blogger on earth can do that for free with no schnorring. Google, Yahoo and every other aggregating service can pick the news up from other papers without begging for donations.

We are critical of JTA for this particular type of posting also because they regurgitate it with no links to the original source of the poll - which BTW you can find here.

And yes, we do want to know why there are no JTA polls? More to the point, we want to know why JTA just recycles the JPost poll without adding a single critical look at it by any known authority.

Back in April there was a dust up on account of a perceived slight to bloggers in a JTA fund raising newsletter.

Seems to us like the balabatim (owners) over there at JTA did not get the message. Instead they have intensified their electronic panhandling to the point that it seems to us to be truly tasteless.

We are sorry if the financial crisis has hit JTA hard, We will be sad to see it go away if that is the result. Reading the intensity and desperation of the current begging that JTA is engaged in, we think that will be the outcome.

Times change. The vacuum JTA leaves when it does go away will quickly be filled by other perhaps more tasteful and more value-laden Jewish news efforts.

Video of Rabbi Moshe Tendler on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem Creates a Controversy

Curious that the rabbi has been visiting the holy site for years and nobody raised a ruckus but when a video of Rabbi Moshe Tendler on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem appeared on YouTube, that created a controversy. What do we learn from that? A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a video can earn you a thousand stones. Rabbi Tendler who is both a Talmud teacher and a biology professor at Yeshiva University, does make a few political remarks during his visit, making this more than an innocent spiritual pilgrimage. From Haaretz,

Clip of U.S. rabbi on Temple Mount reignites debate
By Raphael Ahren

A YouTube video released one week ago depicting a prominent American rabbi visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has sparked a new round of controversy about whether it is permitted for Jews to enter Judaism's holiest site, which is believed to have been the location of the Holy Temple.

The film shows Rabbi Moshe Dovid Tendler, a senior figure at New York's Yeshiva University, leading a group of English speakers to the Temple Mount, explaining the religious and political context of his custom to visit the site every time he comes to Israel. Within a week of the video's appearance it has been watched more than 7,000 times, prompting both approving comments and harsh criticism.

The Temple Institute, which produced the 17-minute film, earlier this week disabled YouTube's comments section temporarily, deleting all previous comments, some of which sharply condemned Tendler. At the American-Haredi news Web site Voz Iz Neias, which reported the posting of the clip, more than 110 readers commented on the film - some calling Tendler a "complete heretic" who is liable, according to Halacha, to karet, or premature death.

Tendler, who is the son-in-law of the late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein - one of the most respected halachic authorities of the last century - has ascended the Temple Mount for years, in order to perform the commandment of "Mora Mikdash," showing reverence to God at the place of the Temple. ...more...

Haaretz: Obama is Our First Jewish President

We obviously need to go to an overseas Israeli publication to get some perspective on Barack and the Jews...

Some Chicago Jews say Obama is actually the 'first Jewish president'
By Natasha Mozgovaya

Quite a few of Barack Obama's "friends from the past" have popped up recently. It's doubtful whether he even knows their names, but in the Chicago Jewish community many people really are long-time friends of the president-elect. Some of the older people in the community say that they "raised him," while others half-jokingly call Obama "the first Jewish president."
They raised contributions for him, provided him with contacts, and also enjoyed hosting him and believed in his glorious future in politics. During most of the campaign, when rumors were spreading among American Jews that Obama was a closet Muslim who was more supportive of the Palestinians and was interested in granting the president of Iran legitimacy, his support among American Jews did not even come close to that enjoyed by Bill Clinton. But at the moment of truth, according to the exit polls, it turns out that 78 percent of Jews voted for Obama.
Members of the Chicago Jewish community are not surprised. They claim that the Jews simply discovered what they have known for years. Obama lives near the synagogue in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, an area with quite a large Jewish population. Some of area visitors may even mistake the heavy security presence on the street for the synagogue's location - that is, until they hear about Obama.
Alan Solow, an attorney from Chicago, a leader of the Jewish community and a veteran Obama supporter, was one of the few who gained access to the president-elect after his speech in Chicago's Grant Park last week. "After his speech on Tuesday night [election day] in front of hundreds of thousands people, he was the same Barack Obama I know. I think his life is going to change, but it won't change the type of person he is. Presidents tend to become isolated, but I'm confident he'll fight hard against it," he says.
Solow used to live in Obama's neighborhood, and says that Obama has always had "excellent relations with the Jewish community."
"As a local senator, he was very effective and helpful in what we call 'the Jewish agenda,' the community issues, values. He has always had a deep understanding of Israel's need for security. I went with him to Israel for a week in January 2006, and when he started the race for the presidency I had no doubt I'd support him. The first thing that impressed me about him was his intellect - he's one of the smartest people I've met - but he's also a warm and caring person who has a keen interest in issues that people of this country are worried about," continues Solow.
"I said with a smile that he will be the first Jewish president. He also has a deep understanding of issues that confront Israel and the Jewish community. And I think his personal story reflects the story of Jewish immigration to the United States.
"He was raised in a family without any built-in advantages: His father was a stranger, but with the help of a close family and an emphasis on education and hard work, he succeeded. It's the Jewish story in America. He understands it, and that's why he's so close to the Jewish community. His first autobiography is about seeking his roots and he understands Jewish people's yearning for this - it fits into his world view and it's one of the reasons for his support of Israel. When he says that Israel's security is sacrosanct, I believe him. As I know him, he won't say things he doesn't really mean. And he has a lot of close Jewish friends who can confirm this."
Solow is also very familiar with Obama's first appointment - his designated White House chief of staff. "Rahm is an active member of Jewish community, his children go to the day schools and he was always recognized as Jewish when he was Clinton's advisor. But I don't believe that the fact that he's a devoted Jew and supports Israel has anything to do with his appointment. He's simply the best person for this job, because of his experience in Congress and in Clinton's administration, and because of his intellect. But his support of Israel fits with the president-elect's thinking."
Michael Bauer, a political activist from the community who has known Obama for over a decade and supported his presidential campaign, says his first reaction to Obama's victory was disbelief. "It seemed like a dream. After the election, I had a brief opportunity to congratulate him, to exchange a hug with Barack, a kiss with Michelle. We're very proud of him and we're sure he'll successfully handle the big challenges facing the country and the new president," he says.
"If we go back to his work as a State senator, his Senate district had a relatively high percentage of Jews, and more importantly, it was a Jewish population involved both politically and with charity organizations. When he was in the State Senate, the Democrats were a minority. When you're a minority you don't get too much accomplished. Neither Barack as a State Senator nor any of his colleagues were able to accomplish a great deal, because of Republican control of the State Senate. However, because of his district, it was always clear to me that many people supporting Barack are active in the Jewish community both locally and nationally. And they agreed about his sensitivity to a number of issues - the issue of the U.S-Israel relationship and domestically, issues that many of us are concerned about, be it the separation of Church and State, women's right to choose, etc. It was always a natural fit between the Jewish community and Barack Obama. He understands those issues. Frankly, he's so smart he understands them better than most of us," says Bauer.

Identifying with Sderot
"As a U.S. senator he visited Israel twice, and especially the second time I think was highly significant," Bauer continues. "I think it was important to him personally to go to Sderot and see the proximity involved when Israel is attacked on a daily basis from Gaza. I think it was also symbolic for the people of Israel and the worldwide community, as well as the Jewish community, to see Barack Obama going to Sderot and speaking about it, that as president it will be unacceptable to him and he recognizes Israel's right to defend itself. This symbolism was important on so many different levels. I've known the president-elect for over 10 years, and his values and principles never change. If you ask me whether I have confidence that he'll continue to be committed to Israel's existence as a Jewish state within secure borders - I have absolutely no doubt."
"President Bush supported Israel as well, but after eight years of his support Israel faces a stronger Iran, Hezbollah at the northern border, Hamas at the southern border - and Hamas gained a sort of political legitimacy. I think George Bush was a disaster for the State of Israel. And I think Obama's administration understands Israel's needs for safety and security, the importance of Israel remaining a Jewish state, and will try to help to mediate a peace in the Middle East that accomplishes those goals. There are still people who don't believe it, but the great thing in democracy is that everyone has an opinion and you don't need 100 percent consensus. I think peace in the Middle East is one of his highest priorities - he's not going to wait for seven years as a president to start working on it."
Bauer was also heavily involved in Rahm Emanuel's campaign for Congress. "Let me say something about Rahm. One of the things people don't like about him is the fact he's short with people, but it's only because he's such a smart person. He doesn't need a 15-minute phone conversation, he gets to the issues in three minutes. And Israel - it's in his blood. The fact that Joe Biden, with a long record of supporting Israel, is Obama's vice president-elect and Rahm Emanuel is his chief of staff - I'm not sure what reassurance anyone needs that the president-elect when he is president will remain a close ally of the State of Israel and the people of Israel."

Signs of the Messianic Age: Bank of Israel Props Up the Falling Dollar

Yes, the Messiah must be on his (or her) way. The Bank of Israel is buying dollars to prop up that weak currency! And next be on the lookout for lions and lambs cavorting and get ready to buy some Colt 45 hedge trimmers...

Haaretz: Dollar jumps 4% as Israel Bank announces plan to buy $100M a day
By Yuval Maoz and Nathan Sheva, TheMarker Correspondents

The Bank of Israel is once again intervening in an effort to slow down the steep decline in value of the American dollar against the shekel which has hit Israeli exporters hard.

The central bank announced Thursday it will begin buying on average $100 million per day effective immediately, up from the $25 million sum which it announced it would purchase in March. The move comes as part of the bank's efforts to raise its foreign currency surplus to the $35-40 billion range. more