MSNBC: Angry Afghan Jew Wants a Scotch and Rich Jews Name Toilets for $100,000

THE LAST JEW IN AFGHANISTAN
By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Correspondent

KABUL, Afghanistan – Behind a metal door on Flower Street, past a courtyard piled with junk, up some steep concrete stairs and along a narrow corridor with ornate metal railings in the style of Stars of David, lives the last Jew in Afghanistan.

His home is a side-room off the synagogue; a thin mattress laid along one wall is his bed. In one corner, there is a small table with dusty prayer books, three folding chairs, a crumbling carpet, and a few pictures on the wall, including one of a bearded Hassidic Jew. In the corner by the door, opposite the guest’s chair, there is a small blackboard with his name spelled clearly in chalk: Zebulon Simantov. "So that journalists spell my name correctly," he said.

"Who do you work for?" Simantov asked straightaway.

"NBC News," I answered proudly.

"So can you give me lots of money," he said, his tone turning a question into a blunt demand.

"No, I’m afraid not."

"Did you bring me whiskey?
[tzvee: the interview goes downhill from here...]

---

Charities get inventive with name-dropping
Contribute: Donors pay more, recipients get inventive with named gifts
By Michael Gross

Last year, the New Museum of Contemporary Art on the Lower East Side of Manhattan may have kicked out the frame of the acceptable. We're not talking about a chocolate Jesus or a crucifix in urine, but that my not be too far off.

As part of a $50 million capital campaign, the museum sold a retired venture capitalist, Jerome L. Stern, 83, the right to see his and his wife Ellen’s names writ large — on the museum’s four restrooms. The $100,000-plus loo coup, The New York Times reported, was the first, not the last, naming opportunity the museum would sell to pay for its new home, which opened in December on the Bowery.

Toilets on the Bowery selling for six figures?..
[tzvee: the story goes uphill from here...Gross wrote the wonderful book 740 Park about NY's most exclusive co-op.]

Malkin Lead Story: Our Supreme Court is Killing Americans

Be apocalyptically afraid. People will die, a new Supreme Court ruling “will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.”

Are we still singing the same scary tune, day in day out? How droll.

To review: I thought we went to war to bring our democracy to Iraq. Now you tell me that our democracy and its laws and way of life should not apply to the people we don't like.

You say that America is perfect and we should force our way of life on the world. But now you say, not our legal guarantees of fairness. Those apply only to our friends. You know, the people on Michelle's list, those are our friends.

Make up your mind Michelle et al. Cause you are sounding more confused every day.

Supreme Court opens up Gitmo lawsuit floodgates; Scalia: “The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today. I dissent.”

By Michelle Malkin

What’s that sound? The thunder of left-wing lawyers and Gitmo detainees jumping up and down for joy at the Supreme Court’s ruling this morning. Brace yourselves. Dissenting Justice Antonin Scalia warns that the ruling “will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed” and concludes “The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today. I dissent.”

Chief Justice John Roberts says the rule of law and the American people have lost out–and with this ruling, we “lose a bit more control over the conduct of this Nation’s foreign policy to unelected, politically unaccountable judges...”

And one more thing. You are not scaring anyone anymore with your knee-jerk apocalypticism. 9/11 happened under George Bush, honey. Bush was listening to children reading about a pet goat at the time the planes hit the WTC. That's a fact and that is a scary story.

JTA: Rabbi's Really Bad Idea -- Build Homes On Palestinian Lands On Shabbat

Will any Jew want to live in a home that was built on the say so of a rabbi on Palestinian lands on Shabbat?

There are the halakhic (Jewish legal) violations and concerns, e.g., you hire someone to work on the Shabbat -- it is the same as you directly violating the Shabbat yourself.

Then there is the practical question of whether anyone will want to live in such housing (a) because it will be highly dangerous, i.e., singled out and targeted by Palestinian opponents of the settlement movement and (b) because, to borrow a concept from another religion, it is a true locus of really bad karma.

Rabbi OKs building settlements on Shabbat
A rabbi in a West Bank community has ruled that home construction there can take place on Shabbat.

Ofra Rabbi Avi Gisser's ruling will allow foreign and Palestinian laborers to work seven days a week building new homes in the community located near the Palestinian city of Ramallah in order to complete as many homes as possible before Israel's Supreme Court orders new construction halted.

The fear of an order halting construction comes after Israeli human rights organizations and residents of a Palestinian village next to Ofra brought a complaint to the High Court claiming that nine new homes are being built on privately owned Palestinian land.

According to Jewish law, Jews cannot ask non-Jews to work for them on Shabbat.

Colbert Report Video: Israel National Bird and Kosher Giraffe

"May you emulate the noble long-billed hoopoe by squirting fecal matter at intruders." A riot from America's second funniest South Carolina favorite son and goy extraordinaire.

Watch it for the "Leviticus Update" and the closing with the famous Colbert quip, upon chugging Manischewitz Concord Grape wine, "Omigod, this they are allowed to drink?"

While on the subject of Manischewitz, here is some background from WiseGeek:

Manischewitz is made from the Concord grape, a red grape native to the United States. The family of grapes the Concord hails from, that of Vitis labrusca, is considerably different from the European varieties of Vitis vinifera, and is considered by many in the wine-drinking community to be inferior for use in wine. There is some evidence that Concord grapes themselves, which were cultivated in the mid-19th century, may actually have a small amount of Vitis vinifera, because of the nature of their flowers. Concord grapes are also often used as food grapes in the United States, and are characterized by their large seeds and very poignant aroma. This aroma translates through to wines, such as Manischewitz, made from the grape.

Manischewitz, like many kosher wines, is often noted for its intense sweetness. Early kosher wine-makers such as Manischewitz were faced with a dilemma in the New World, where they did not have access to high-quality grapes and often were rushed to produce ample amounts of wine in time for holidays such as Passover. With lower-quality juice to work with and insufficient time, the wines produced tended to be far too bitter for easy consumption, so sugar was added after fermentation to help the wines become more palatable. Not all kosher wine need be this sweet, however, and Manischewitz also produces a number of more traditionally-styled wines which are still kosher. The popularity of sweet Manischewitz endures, however, likely as a result of association between faithful Jews and the taste of sweet Manischewitz for ritual use.

While there are other kosher wineries in the United States, Manischewitz is far and away the largest producer. Rarely will one find a Passover celebration in which a wine other than Manischewitz is served. The symbol of the Manischewitz company, which may be found on all its wines, is a bundle of Concord grapes over a Star of David, with the word Manischewitz emblazoned on top.

Haaretz: Orthodox Rabbis Gone Wild Spawns Conversion Crisis

Out of the blue, from nowhere, Orthodox rabbis have suddenly gone on a mad rampage, nullifying the validity of their own past conversions of people to Judaism.

Rabbis gone wild. There is no other way to describe this. A grab at extortion of money and power by a gang of misguided mullahs.

Misguided because:
A. We urgently need more Jews in the world.
B. We obviously cannot do business with people who do a deal one day and then undo it the next.

A writer in Haaretz is more kind in assessing the situation, for reasons that escape me.

An obsolete monopoly
By Alexander Yakobson

The ultra-Orthodox rabbis who currently control the Rabbinical Court of Appeals are probably not especially upset over the wave of protests aroused by their latest outrageous decision, which threatens thousands of converts to Judaism with the retroactive annulment of their conversions. Instead of preaching to these rabbinical judges in the name of humanist, social and national values that they do not accept, they should simply be told: You don't stand a chance of getting what you want.

First of all, the ruling will most likely be overturned when the issue comes before the High Court of Justice. But beyond that, the basic worldview that underlies the ruling is doomed to failure - namely, the Orthodox establishment's pretension that it holds the sole key to entry into the Jewish people. The demand that anyone who becomes Jewish must become Orthodox, rather than secular or traditional, implies that Orthodoxy is the "standard" of Jewish identity, and any other version of Jewish culture can perhaps be tolerated if absolutely necessary, but is not legitimate - and is certainly not of equal value.

This is indeed the perception of the Orthodox establishment - not only among the ultra-Orthodox, but also among religious Zionists, who want to make things easier for converts, but who nevertheless insist on the principle that joining the Jewish people means becoming a religiously observant Jew. That is why the religious parties demanded for years that the Law of Return be amended to stipulate that only conversion in accordance with halakha (rabbinic law) be recognized by the State of Israel.

This struggle failed, and efforts to amend the law have ceased. A person who underwent a Conservative or Reform conversion abroad is considered a Jew in Israel for purposes of the Law of Return. Inside Israel, the Orthodox retain their monopoly on conversion - but not a monopoly over de facto entry into the Jewish people.

In the wake of the mass immigration from the former Soviet Union, something that was already true has become even more obvious: There is no need for any religious rite, Orthodox or non-Orthodox, or for any rabbinical kashrut certificate in order to join the Jewish people. A large number of people who are non-Jewish according to halakha, but have Jewish relatives, have come to Israel and received citizenship under the Law of Return. A minority are children of a Jewish father, and many of these already had a well-formed Jewish consciousness. But many others are the spouses of Jews, or people who have only a distant family connection to Jews, and were devoid of Jewish consciousness when they came here.

The integration of this large population into Israeli society is no simple challenge. However, despite a few exceptions, some of them grave, the overall picture is positive. The vast majority of this public aspires to integrate, and over time, it is indeed integrating successfully into Hebrew-speaking Israeli Jewish society, in a process that has come to be termed "sociological conversion." This is exactly how joining a sovereign nation is supposed to be accomplished: immigration and the acquisition of citizenship, adoption of the nation's language and culture, integration into the country and identification with it.

The religious establishment is able to harass these people, especially because of its monopoly over personal status issues, which people must go all the way to Cyprus to bypass. However, it does not have the power to make them into a Russian national minority. Such a minority will not be created in Israel. These people belong, and their children belong even more clearly, to the same nation to which the Israeli Jewish majority belongs.

Halakhic Judaism - the traditional Jewish culture - is today only one variant of Israeli Jewish culture. It is an important, influential variant that is dear to the hearts of many people, and one can only regret what some of its spokesman and representatives are doing to it. Anyone who adopts Jewish culture in its religious variant is rightly considered, even by most secular people, to have joined the Jewish nation. However, this is not the only way to join. In the current situation, there is not a complete separation between the Jewish religion and Jewish national identity, but neither is there a complete overlap, and there is no chance that anyone will succeed in forcing such an overlap.

Israeli society is influenced by Jewish tradition, but it is a free society to the very marrow of its bones. Contrary to the fashionable cliche that describes Israel as a local version of the ayatollahs' regime, in most areas, the religious establishment's ability to impose its will has decreased rather than increased over the past few decades.

Ynet: Top Berlin Jew OK With New Edition of Mein Kampf

This is surprising to read since Jewish leaders generally oppose any dissemination of Nazi literature.

Prominent Berlin Jew calls for republication of Mein Kampf

'Text opens the eyes of many people to Hitler's intentions,' head of German capital's Jewish community tells DPA, adding she doesn't object to Hitler wax model in new Madame Tussaud's museum - Ynet

The head of Berlin's Jewish community said Sunday that she was in favor of publishing an annotated version of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

"The text opens the eyes of many people to Hitler's intentions and provides evidence for what should have been known at the time," Lala Suesskind told DPA news agency.

Suesskind said during the interview that while most people can understand the text of Hitler's book, some would benefit from a commentary.

Mein Kampf, or My Struggle, was written by Hitler while he was in prison in the early 1920s and was first published in 1925. In the 782-page book Hitler used the main thesis of "The Jewish peril", which speaks of an alleged Jewish conspiracy to gain world leadership, and also predicted the stages of Germany's political emergence on the world scene.

Suesskind also told DPA she was not against including Hitler among the wax models of the new Madame Tussaud's wax museum in central Berlin, which is due to open next month.

"Better to have him in the wax cabinet and out of the minds of many people," she was quoted by DPA as saying.

A bit more detail from Haaretz to justify support for this venture:

יו"ר הקהילה היהודית בברלין תומכת בפרסום "מיין קמפף"
יו"ר הקהילה היהודית בברלין אומרת כי פרסום ספרו של אדולף היטלר שתוספת ביקורת וביאור, תהווה "הוכחה למה שצריך היה לדעת אז"
מאת סוכנויות הידיעות ועופר אדרת

יו"ר הקהילה היהודית בברלין, ללה זוסקינד, הביעה שלשום (ראשון) תמיכה בפרסום ספרו של אדולף היטלר "מיין קמפף", שתכלול ביקורת וביאור. לדבריה, "פרסום הטקסט ייאפשר לאנשים רבים להיחשף לכוונותיו של היטלר ויספק הוכחה למה שצריך היה לדעת כבר אז". זוסקינד התייחסה גם לנושא הצבת פסלו של הצורר הנאצי במוזיאון השעווה החדש שייפתח במרכז ברלין בחודש הבא. לדבריה, "עדיף שהוא יהיה משעווה בתוך ארון ולא בתוך הראשים של האנשים".

שנים לאחר שהודפס לראשונה, בגרמניה יש מי שמבקש להוציא לאור מחדש את ספרו של היטלר, "מיין קמפף" (מאבקי). הפעם לא מדובר בניאו-נאצים או באנטישמים, אלא בהיסטוריונים ובאנשי אקדמיה, שמדגישים את הצורך במהדורה מבוארת ומפורשת של הספר הידוע לשמצה, שהדפסתו אסורה בגרמניה ובישראל.

את חלקו הראשון של הספר כתב היטלר ב-1923 בכלא, בעת שריצה מאסר על חלקו בניסיון ההפיכה נגד משטר ויימאר, שכונה "הפוטש במרתף הבירה". חלקו השני נכתב לאחר שחרורו. ב-720 עמודיו פרש הפיהרר את משנתו הפוליטית, החברתית והגזענית. מעלייתו לשלטון ועד סוף המלחמה נמכר הספר בעשרה מיליון עותקים בגרמניה, ותורגם לשפות רבות. עם זאת, מקובל להניח שרוב מי שרכש את הספר כלל לא קרא אותו - בשל אורכו והעובדה שהוא נחשב לטרחני ולמשעמם ברובו.

ב-2015, במלאת 70 שנה למותו של המחבר, יפוגו זכויות היוצרים של הספר. כך, בעוד פחות מעשור יוכל כל אדם להדפיס ולהפיץ את התנ"ך של הנאצים ברבים. "צריך להיערך לכך שניאו-נאצים ידפיסו את הספר בעותקים רבים, וישתמשו בו לצורכי תעמולה", צוטט בתקשורת הגרמנית אוסקר שניידר, מנהל מרכז התיעוד בנירנברג. "המחוקקים היו צריכים לתת על זה את הדעת", אומר ההיסטוריון נורברט פריי מאוניברסיטת יינה לעיתון הנפוץ "זידדויטשה צייטונג". השניים קוראים לממשלת בוואריה, שמחזיקה בזכויות על הפצתו של הספר, לאפשר את הוצאתה של מהדורה ביקורתית ומפורשת של הספר עוד בטרם יפקעו הזכויות על הפצתו. עד כה מנעה בוואריה את הדפסתו או הפצתו בגרמניה. עם זאת, עותקים מהספר ניתן להשיג כמעט בכל מקום בעולם כמו גם באינטרנט.

גורם נוסף שמבקש להוציא מהדורה "מתוקנת" לספר הוא המכון להיסטוריה בת זמננו במינכן, שכבר שנים מנסה לקבל אישור להוצאתה לאור של גרסה "היסטורית ביקורתית" של הטקסט.

"גרסה ביקורתית של הספר תאפשר לכל אדם להצטייד בטיעונים הדרושים כדי לנצח בוויכוח עם תומכיו", מסביר יו"ר המכון, אודו ונגסט. להערכתו, דרושות שלוש שנות מחקר כדי להוציא לאור ספר מסוג זה. דיטר פוהל, היסטוריון במכון, אמר לתקשורת הגרמנית כי הספר נחוץ משום שהיטלר לא הקפיד על בדיקת עובדות ולא היה עקבי בעמדותיו - דבר שמשתקף בטקסט וראוי להסבר. לפיכך, הוא מסביר, "חייבים לבאר כל שורה ושורה" בטקסט. מולר מוסיף כי הספר ינסה להתחקות אחר המקורות מהם שאב היטלר את הגותו.

Haaretz: Dead Sea is Evaporating Faster

Global warming comes to Israel.

I'd keep a close eye on this alarming story.

Dead Sea is alarmingly drying up, dropped 10 centimeters in May
By Zafrir Rinat

The Dead Sea is drying up at an increasingly rapid pace, with the water level dropping by 10 centimeters last month and eight the month before, according to Mishmar Hamiflas, a group of area residents fighting for the Dead Sea's right to life.

The lowest place on earth is now 421.21 meters below sea level.

Mishmar Hamiflas officials, who say their data come from the Hydrological Service of Israel, argue that the dipping water level shows that water consumption in the Dead Sea basin is increasing.

The water level began going down  causing the sea to recede  in the wake of increased use of other water sources, including the Jordan River and its tributaries, along with desert-area streams and groundwater flowing toward the Dead Sea. Other factors contributing to the decline include the Dead Sea factories on the Israeli and Jordanian sides, which dried up some of the water for industrial purposes.

The receding sea level has damaged hotels built when the water level was higher, caused the development of underground swallow holes, and led sweetwater to enter the sea, melting underground salt blocks and ultimately causing collapse. Scientists say a continued drop in the water level will significantly shrink the Dead Sea but will not cause it to dry up altogether, because the proportion of salt will rise when the water is particularly low, decreasing the amount of water that evaporates.

Dead Sea-area communities and environmental organizations oppose a plan being advanced by the Israeli and Jordanian governments to build a canal that would bring water from the Gulf of Eilat to the Dead Sea, fearing that there would be negative ramifications to changing the composition of the Dead Sea water. They say the water economy must be changed in Israel and Jordan by making agriculture more efficient and increasing desalination, in a bid to revive the Jordan River and resurrect the Dead Sea.

Bob Dylan Endorses Barack Obama's "Redefining...Politics"

It reads like just like an endorsement, it sounds just like an endorsement - from the Star Tribune...

An endorsement? Bob Dylan sizes up Obama in rare interview
Bob Dylan is offering his take on the 2008 presidential elections.

The 67-year-old Minnesota native whose songs of the '60s gave inspiration to a generation amid social tumult, said in an interview with the Times of London published this week that presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama "is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up."

Dylan said Obama's place on the national stage comes as "America is in a state of upheaval. Poverty is demoralizing. You can't expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor."

Dylan said he's "hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to."

PAUL WALSH

State of Minnesota Forces Al Franken to Apologize for His Sense of Humor

Wow. Things are pretty weird out there in the DFL in Minnesota. Ya gotta apologize for your sense of humor if ya wantta run for office ...

I guess it is an apology because he used the word "sorry". (Document: Al Franken's acceptance speech).

...It kills me that things I said and wrote sent a message to some of my friends in this room and people in this state that they can’t count on me to be a champion for women, a champion for ALL Minnesotans, in this campaign and in the Senate.

I’m sorry for that....

[He's smiling and thinking, "I just apologized for my sense of humor. What a joke!"]

Barack Orates Like a Pastor of America's Civil Religion

Religion Writer blogger Andrea Useem wonders aloud -Is Obama’s Real “Faith Asset” His Ability to Speak the Language of American Civil Religion?

We will have eight years (G-d Willing) to discuss and debate this as we track his presidential speeches and compare them with our Founding Fathers, with Lincoln, with Roosevelt and others.

The case still needs to be made in greater detail that Barack's speeches work because they draw on the imagery and rhetoric of America's (often nebulous) civil religion.

Nevertheless, it surely is the right question.

It was clear from her speeches that Hillary did not have sensitivity to religious language and concepts, a weakness that may have cost her dearly.

Religion Writer says:

Obama’s speech last night in St. Paul certainly had elements of this “general” faith. He said (according to the text of his prepared remarks):

And because of what you said - because you decided that change must come to Washington; because you believed that this year must be different than all the rest; because you chose to listen not to your doubts or your fears but to your greatest hopes and highest aspirations, tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another - a journey that will bring a new and better day to America.

And then later:

In our country, I have found that this cooperation happens not because we agree on everything, but because behind all the labels and false divisions and categories that define us; beyond all the petty bickering and point-scoring in Washington, Americans are a decent, generous, compassionate people, united by common challenges and common hopes. And every so often, there are moments which call on that fundamental goodness to make this country great again.

True, these words do not contain direct references to God, but in speaking about hopes and aspirations as a defining political force, he somehow tapped that vein of civil religion, implying that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and that the greatest campaigns are those based on the inner human spirit.

Sen. Clinton at times disparaged Obama’s rhetoric as empty, saying in February:

We need to make a choice between speeches and solutions, because, while words matter greatly, the best words in the world aren’t enough unless you match them with action.

But it seems like she bet wrong — speeches do matter, especially when you’re a candidate and speeches are pretty much all you have to offer.