Recommended: Z Word Zine and Z word Blog

I came to Z Word because I needed to know who was using my initial in vain. It turns out of course that its a zine about Zionism and a blog to accompany it.

The authors have been at it for over two months - evidence that this may last - and they appear to be sane (i.e., liberal and stable) in their writings.

So we recommend the sites - especially since we do not go out of our way here to cover Zionism - except where it pertains to the distorted views of Israeli rabbis - which I am hard pressed to call Zionist in any way, shape or form.

And I like the colors and the design - in the same family design-wise as the Forward.

So - recommended!

TNR: Marting Peretz on Obama and His Minister

Martin Peretz in The New Republic (Standing By His Man by Martin Peretz, Why Barack Obama was right not to repudiate his pastor. Dated April 23) ruminates on the implications of Obama's issues. Peretz says some illuminating things about his relationship with his own rabbi that do make any guilt by clergy association attack less credible:

We are all linked to the places from which we came, though some of us have moved very far from them. My relationship to the different rabbis whose sermons I have not just heard, but heard intently over more than 50 years, would make a very difficult narrative--not quite as difficult as a narrative about my father and me, but up there. I now attend a synagogue in New York with my children and my grandson. I love the synagogue; I do not love the rabbis, for I do not really know them personally. More to the point, I do not love their sermons. Two years ago, Yom Kippur, the rabbi parsed a banal speech by Bella Abzug, the old and (if truth be told) faithful red mama, as if it were a sacred text. Feh. One of this congregation's ingenuous innovations to the routine confessional of sins ("We lie. We cheat ...") in the prayer book is the following: "We rush towards war and crawl to peace." This is a lie! Why do I still pray with this assembly? Because, aside from the offending "hip" politics of the rabbis, there is an all-embracing warmth that suffuses the fold. There is beautiful music. The service is almost all in Hebrew. Still, my then-not-quite-four-year-old grandson said to me on the way out, "I have never felt closer to God." Dayenu, as we say on Passover: "It is sufficient." Or, as one of the songs of the tradition known to almost every Jew puts it, Hinay ma tov: "How good it is for brothers to sit together."

Peretz also makes clear later in the essay his negative views of the Clinton campaign, well-expressed impressions that we agree with:

But there is a new game in town, and it is finding men and women for Obama to repudiate. I know about political campaigns and how they attract both fossils and novices. A new candidate lures more of both than a veteran. Indeed, if you look at Clinton's campaign, you'll find that there are almost no fresh faces--and, thus, no fresh minds--in the coterie; and it is a coterie. It is a closed and nasty circle which learned its bad habits from Bill. That's why it is making one mistake after another. The rule is: Never be gracious if you have the chance to be vicious. The non plus ultra of this style was the still greedy ex-president suggesting that, while his wife loved her country, Obama didn't love his.

Here is the link.

Video: Cigarette Murderers Pay to Humiliate the FDA

Thanks to Roastfrog.net for the mention and the link to this video. Paid for by the cigarette murders who must have had such a good time making this ad to humiliate the FDA.

And here is the web site of the actor Andy Martello who was somehow roped into the awfulness of this gig.

Teaneck Councilman Rudolph Offers Un-Orthodox Excuse for Violating Voting Rule

"I didn't think it was wrong," to vote in Brooklyn after he moved to Teaneck, the councilman says.

What? If you are acting like a politician at least pretend to take the political voting rules seriously.

Teaneck councilman assailed for voting in N.Y.C.
BY JOSEPH AX

TEANECK — Critics have attacked Councilman Elnatan Rudolph for voting in New York City in September 2005, six months after he moved to Teaneck.

Barbara Toffler, a candidate in the May non-partisan election, accused Rudolph, who is seeking reelection this spring, of having "low character" for what she called a violation of the law.

Rudolph said the controversy is a "non-issue" and accused Toffler of engaging in "gutter politics."

"When I ran in 2006, I had no thought of where I voted in 2005," he said. "I was a resident of Teaneck for more than a year. They brought this up now to try to make hay of it. It honestly makes no difference."

Toffler broached the subject at a council meeting 10 days ago, igniting angry words on both sides. The criticisms persisted, prompting Rudolph to read a prepared statement at Tuesday's council meeting blasting his accusers for ignoring more important issues.

But Toffler on Wednesday said that the vote was an obvious violation of election law.

"He's being very casual about breaking the law," she said. "If that is what this town wants in its leadership, then this town is doomed to disaster."

Rudolph said he was in Brooklyn, where he used to live with his parents, on primary day in September 2005 and drove his mother to the polls. When he realized he was still registered, he said, he also cast a vote.

"I thought it was no different than voting absentee," he said. "Never did it cross my mind that there was anything wrong with that." He compared it to residents who move to Florida for several months each year but continue to vote in New York, though he acknowledged that he had moved to Teaneck permanently by that time.

In general, election laws require voters to cast ballots based on the location of their primary residence, which can be determined by a number of factors, including property ownership and tax filings.

Residents who criticized Rudolph have asked whether the vote indicated that Rudolph had not lived in Teaneck for the required 12 months before running for office in spring 2006. Rudolph said he moved into his house on March 20, 2005 — his wedding day.

"This whole issue is a non-issue," he said. If [Toffler] had anything legitimate to attack me on, like my performance over the last two years, she wouldn't have to go and make things up."

Rabbis Argue Over Which Episode Caused Seinfeld Auto Accident

Leading rabbis are arguing over which of the episodes of the Seinfeld TV series was the cause of yesterday's automobile accident in which the star was (thank G-d) unharmed.

Some say because it is so close to Passover that it must be the episode where they condemn "double dipping." According to Jewish tradition we must dip twice at the seder.

Jerry Seinfeld unharmed after rolling car
Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jerry Seinfeld narrowly avoided crashing into busy intersection when the brakes of his vintage Fiat failed, leading him to grasp for his emergency brake and sending the car into a roll.

Bergenfield Tax Do-Over

We knew there was something wrong with the tax gouging in our neighboring Bergenfield NJ!

Revaluation to spell relief for taxpayers
Thursday, April 3, 2008
BY SERDAR TUMGOREN STAFF WRITER

BERGENFIELD — Homeowners whose property taxes skyrocketed two years ago may soon get relief with the aid of a revaluation.

The Borough Council on Tuesday approved the revaluation at the urging of new Tax Assessor George Reggo, who said commercial properties are undervalued and many identical homes pay wildly different taxes.

Property inspections could begin as early as May, with the new assessments affecting 2009 tax bills.

"There's no rhyme or reason that I can figure out how the last revaluation was done," Reggo said Wednesday, referring to the revaluation conducted in 2003-05.

"There are houses right next to each other – built the same year, same square footage, same type house, everything's identical," Reggo said. "But one is assessed at $350,000 and the other at $430,000."

State figures on home sales show that Bergenfield properties are taxed at 73 percent of their true value, said Reggo, who attributed most of the inequity to under-valued commercial properties. The lack of any tax appeals from commercial property owners — compared with scores of homeowner appeals — is an indicator of the problem, he said.

The 2005 revaluation caused a revolt by homeowners, many of whom saw their taxes increase 100 percent or more. An analysis The Record conducted in 2006 found that some property assessments were off by nearly $100,000 — either too high or too low.

"It comes two years too late, but it's the right thing to do right now," said Eugene Korn, who became a leader of the Bergenfield Property Owners' Association after his yearly taxes jumped from $8,000 to $14,500.

"The data is very clear," he said, "that commercial properties were under-assessed and there were gross inequities in residential properties based upon which neighborhood they were lying in."

Homeowners demanding a revaluation contributed to a landslide victory in the fall election by Mayor Timothy Driscoll and his council running mates, Bruce Carlson and Barry Doll.

Driscoll said Wednesday that he doubts the revaluation will mean big tax breaks for most homeowners, but he said a correction is needed for the "start-and-stop" revaluation conducted several years ago.

E-mail: tumgoren@northjersey.com
BERGENFIELD — Homeowners whose property taxes skyrocketed two years ago may soon get relief with the aid of a revaluation.

The Borough Council on Tuesday approved the revaluation at the urging of new Tax Assessor George Reggo, who said commercial properties are undervalued and many identical homes pay wildly different taxes.

Property inspections could begin as early as May, with the new assessments affecting 2009 tax bills.

"There's no rhyme or reason that I can figure out how the last revaluation was done," Reggo said Wednesday, referring to the revaluation conducted in 2003-05.

"There are houses right next to each other – built the same year, same square footage, same type house, everything's identical," Reggo said. "But one is assessed at $350,000 and the other at $430,000."

State figures on home sales show that Bergenfield properties are taxed at 73 percent of their true value, said Reggo, who attributed most of the inequity to under-valued commercial properties. The lack of any tax appeals from commercial property owners — compared with scores of homeowner appeals — is an indicator of the problem, he said.

The 2005 revaluation caused a revolt by homeowners, many of whom saw their taxes increase 100 percent or more. An analysis The Record conducted in 2006 found that some property assessments were off by nearly $100,000 — either too high or too low.

"It comes two years too late, but it's the right thing to do right now," said Eugene Korn, who became a leader of the Bergenfield Property Owners' Association after his yearly taxes jumped from $8,000 to $14,500.

"The data is very clear," he said, "that commercial properties were under-assessed and there were gross inequities in residential properties based upon which neighborhood they were lying in."

Homeowners demanding a revaluation contributed to a landslide victory in the fall election by Mayor Timothy Driscoll and his council running mates, Bruce Carlson and Barry Doll.

Driscoll said Wednesday that he doubts the revaluation will mean big tax breaks for most homeowners, but he said a correction is needed for the "start-and-stop" revaluation conducted several years ago.

Times: Orthodox Boxer Yuri Foreman

Orthodox boxer! It's about time!

The Tale of the Tape and the Talmud
By ZACHARY BRAZILLER

Four days before his first North American Boxing Federation title defense, Yuri Foreman sat in the basement of a Brooklyn brownstone studying Shulchan Aruch, the code of Jewish law. By early afternoon, he would be at Gleason’s Gym to train for his approaching bout with Saul Román, a power puncher from Mexico with 24 knockouts in 28 fights.

This hectic schedule is familiar to Foreman, a 27-year-old rabbinical student and an undefeated professional light middleweight boxer who wears the Star of David on his boxing trunks and a black skullcap when he is studying or praying.

He answered rapid-fire questions from his teacher, Rabbi DovBer Pinson, an author and lecturer. The mental exercise, Foreman said, was tougher than any boxing routine.

“It’s a sharpen-your-mind workout,” he said. “When I go to the gym, I’m training my physical self. With the rabbi, I’m training my spiritual muscles.”

His manager, Murray Wilson, said a victory against Román on Thursday night in Brooklyn could earn Foreman (24-0) a shot at Joachim Alcine, a Canadian who holds the World Boxing Association title.

Foreman said his studies to become an Orthodox rabbi eased the physical stress of his boxing training. But he said he set the sport aside while reading the Talmud or attending classes twice a week at IYYUN, a Jewish institute in Brooklyn.

“Boxing and Judaism go side by side, because it’s a lot of challenges,” he said. “I would love to be a world champion and a rabbi.”

A three-time Israeli amateur national champion, Foreman came to the United States eight years ago to become a professional fighter. In 2000, he hoped to win the New York Golden Gloves and parlay it into a successful career. Instead, he lost a close decision in the final.

“I was very disappointed, but looking back, it was good I stayed another year in amateurs,” he said. “I won the next Golden Gloves, and then I was really ready.”

At first, Foreman had trouble getting fights while members of his first management team clashed. He was financially strapped.

About four years ago, Wilson, a New York City restaurant owner, stepped in as his manager and guided him to Bob Arum’s Top Rank organization. As Foreman’s career prospects improved, so did his personal life.

At Gleason’s, he met Leyla Leidecker, the Hungarian woman he would eventually marry and who would help set him on his religious quest. Leidecker, an amateur fighter and former fashion model, did not consider herself religious while growing up. She converted to Judaism in 2006.

Growing up in Belarus and later Israel, Foreman was not religious. As a Russian Jew, he said he was considered an outcast in Israel.

About five years ago, Leidecker suggested they study kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism. In an Internet search, she stumbled upon Rabbi Pinson’s classes at IYYUN.

Foreman said the first class went over his head. But he stuck with it, attending dinners with the rabbi and beginning to observe the Sabbath and other Jewish laws. He now wears tefillin — scrolls of Scripture attached to his arms and head during prayer — and tassels under his clothes.

“God gave me opportunities,” Foreman said. “I feel like I have to do something in return.”

Eighteen months ago, Rabbi Pinson sent an e-mail message to his students about the prospect of rabbinical studies. Foreman said he seized the opportunity out of a thirst for knowledge and a desire to help others. He said he hoped to one day return to Israel to share what he learned, although he is at least three years from being ordained as a rabbi.

“I can have my own community to help Russian kids,” he said.

His wife said she was not surprised by his commitment to studying his faith. “He was without his family, trying to get back to his roots, trying to belong somewhere,” Leidecker said.

Foreman’s endeavor has led to debate among some Jewish leaders.

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, said Jewish principles would seem to put Foreman’s professional career at odds with his religious education. It is forbidden, the rabbi said, to injure yourself or another person. Rabbinic law also asks individuals to avoid situations of potential danger.

“He has to recognize there are certain issues he has to confront,” Potasnik said. “Doing what he’s doing is problematic, but all of life is problematic. That’s something he has to resolve, and I respect him for his commitment.”

But Rabbi Benjamin Blech, an assistant professor of the Talmud at Yeshiva University, said Foreman could help fight the belief that Jews were weak or could be bullied. When asked how he would react to the notion of a world champion boxing rabbi, Blech said, “I would be proud.”

He added: “Everything has a risk-and-reward factor. Does that mean he can’t go bungee jumping, get in a car or a plane?”

Foreman said his goal was not to injure himself or his opponent, but to win by outscoring competitors. And Arum, who described himself as an observant Jew, said rabbis have told him that Foreman’s studies and boxing were not in conflict.

Rabbi Pinson said that if Foreman had approached him as a young man, he would not have suggested a boxing career. Because Foreman was already accomplished in the sport, however, he said he would not dissuade him.

Foreman attempts to restrict his fights to weekdays.

If a bout lands on a Saturday, as was the case in June, he observes the Sabbath by remaining within walking distance of the arena. Wilson, his manager, said the sun had yet to set when HBO officials called for Foreman to make his way to the ring. He refused to do so.

“He pulled me into the corner,” Wilson recalled, “and said, ‘Please, let’s pray for five minutes.’ ”

Times: Cigarette Pushers Mock the FDA

It's not just that the killers who push cigarettes on kids and adults want to prevent the FDA from regulating them.

It's that to do this, they mock the FDA in "comical" ads.

Remember these Cigarette pushers are the fellas who kill 400,000 Americans each year. Kill and Mock. Kill and Mock.

Despicable.

Reynolds Ads Say Tobacco Oversight Is Burden F.D.A. Doesn’t Need
By STEPHANIE SAUL

What do a vaudeville-style plate spinner and the Food and Drug Administration have in common?

Both are trying to keep too many plates in the air, according to a new advertising campaign by the tobacco giant Reynolds American.

As legislation moves through Congress that would give the F.D.A. power to regulate the tobacco industry, Reynolds — with brands that include Camel cigarettes — is attacking what it views as the bill’s vulnerability: a weak, overextended F.D.A.

The company has begun an advertising campaign that includes a television commercial using a comic plate-spinning routine to illustrate its point — that the F.D.A. is overwhelmed and already unable properly to oversee its core mission of ensuring food and drug safety. So why, the ads ask, should Congress add more to its plate?

“Their own scientific experts warn that the F.D.A. can’t do their job properly and warn that lives could be at risk,” the ads say.

The ads, in print as well as on television, are running in Washington as well as in selected regional markets in the districts of crucial members of Congress. The campaign is a response to the momentum of the legislation, whose proponents have been pushing for regulation for more than a decade. Backers say that adoption is a real possibility, even during a presidential election year.

The bill, with bipartisan support, has more than 50 Senate sponsors and 215 sponsors in the House. A Senate committee has already approved the bill, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to take it up on Wednesday.

“This is the most significant progress we have made in a decade toward enacting this bill and we are confident it will pass this year,” said William V. Corr, the executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

In a statement, Mr. Corr said it was no surprise that Reynolds was behind the ads because the company had been “the worst offender when it comes to marketing tobacco products to children.”

Last year, six states sued the company’s R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company subsidiary, contending that a promotion in Rolling Stone magazine violated a 1998 agreement not to use cartoons in advertising.

The suit focused on ads for Camel on the cover of a special fold-out section. The section, called Indie Rock Universe, contained graphics intended to look like doodling in a student notebook. Reynolds said the section was produced by Rolling Stone and the ads should not have been placed near the drawings.

In its new campaign, Reynolds introduced a Web site, fdaconcerns.org, and began the television ads last week in nearly a dozen regional media markets.

A spokesman for Reynolds, Tommy Payne, said the company hoped that members of Congress would see the ads and ask, “Is this the best time to pass this legislation, given the problems we have with the core mission of the F.D.A.?” Mr. Payne would not say how much the company was spending. “It’s enough to convey the message,” he said.

One target of the TV campaign is Representative G. K. Butterfield, a Democrat from the home state of Reynolds, North Carolina, who says he supports tobacco regulation. Mr. Butterfield is also a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

A spokesman for Mr. Butterfield, Ken Willis, said the ads began running last week in the congressman’s district, a heavy tobacco-growing region of northeastern North Carolina, where the spots have been featured during televised N.C.A.A. basketball tournament games.

The commercials ask that viewers notify their representatives about concerns over the proposed regulation. Mr. Willis said Mr. Butterfield’s office had received only two calls.

“It obviously doesn’t scare the farmers in the way it might have in years past,” Mr. Willis said, adding that farmers still have markets for their tobacco, in some cases abroad.

While the nation’s biggest tobacco company, Philip Morris, supports the legislation, Reynolds is opposed. A spokesman for Lorillard Tobacco said the company had not yet taken a position.

Analysts contend that the bill could benefit Philip Morris over its smaller competitors. By imposing tighter restrictions on advertising, the new regulations could make it harder for Reynolds to market Camel — No. 3 in the United States market — against the industry’s top seller, Marlboro, which is made by Philip Morris. The No. 2 cigarette brand is Newport, marketed by Lorillard.

Some members of Congress have expressed concerns similar to those raised by Reynolds, saying that the F.D.A. is already overwhelmed. But the bill tries to address that concern by establishing a new center for tobacco regulation within the F.D.A. It would be financed by tobacco industry fees projected at more than $5 billion over the next 10 years.

The bill would also ban candy-flavored cigarettes and give the F.D.A. authority to regulate the content of tobacco products.

Red Sox Get Glatt Kosher Franks

The oy’s of summer. Kosher dog vending machine debuts at Fenway
By Donna Goodison

Fenway Park’s top dog will have some new competition this season.

The home of the Fenway Frank, which claims to sell more hot dogs than any other ballpark in the country, is adding a new option for Jewish fans who adhere to strict kosher dietary laws. A new automated “Hot Nosh” vending machine, to be located in the big concourse under the bleachers, will cook and dispense all-beef, glatt kosher hot dogs in under a minute.

Fenway is the first customer of Wayne Feder’s Hot Nosh Boston LLC. The Brookline company is the New England franchisee of Kosher Vending Industries, a New York supplier of glatt kosher, hot food vending machines....

Gmail Introduces Custom Time Email

How do I use it?

Just click "Set custom time" from the Compose view. Any email you send to the past appears in the proper chronological order in your recipient's inbox. You can opt for it to show up read or unread by selecting the appropriate option. More.