UNORTHODOXJEW: Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt"l - In Memoriam - His Yahrzeit - The Third Day Of Elul

Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz was born in the town of Willig in Hungary in 1886 into a family of G-d-fearing Sanzer chassidim. At a young age -- when he was already studying Shulchan Oruch Yore De'ah with Shach, Taz and the Pri Megadim -- he had acquired a name as a scholar who brimmed with deep religious passion. He studied under the Arugas Habosem, the B'eer Shmuel, and the Shevet Sofer, Rav Simcha Bunim Sofer --the three leading gedolim of Hungary at the time, and received semichah from them.

A person of deep complexity and contemplation, he pursued Jewish philosophy and mussar privately, and at a young age had completed the entire works of the Maharal, Kuzari, Mesilas Yeshorim, and works of chassidus. He avidly studied the works of Rav Samson Rafael Hirsch in the original German. He saw Rav Hirsch as his ideal because Hirsch had successfully devised a religious Jewish weltanschauung that could stand up to the challenges of modernity. (Nothing showed his diverse interests more than the fact that he spent his entire wedding dowry on buying a set of Zev Yaavetz's history books.)

Although Rav Shraga Feivel appeared an unassuming young man, he had a rare strain of boundless idealism running through his fabric. When he came across the statement in the gemora that, "Were Israel to keep two Shabbosim in a row, the Redemption would immediately come" he promised himself then and there that he would work to draw the hearts of Jews back to their Father in Heaven.

In the early years of the twentieth century, when Jews all over the world were blindly rushing to embrace enlightenment, communism, socialism and every other "ism" besides their ancestral heritage, his dream appeared as unpractical, wishful thinking.

At age 22 he married, and settled near his father's home in the town of Humina. In 1913, he decided to leave for the U.S. for reasons never clearly defined by him. Before he left, he received a brocho from Rav Yeshaya of Krestira, who foretold that he would accomplish great things in America.

The first few years in the U.S. Rav Shraga Feivel spent trying his hand at different professions. Although an expert at the laws of shechita, he saw after a day that this profession did not suit him. He taught in talmud Torahs in New York, Bridgeport and Scranton, before he returned to New York and opened an ice cream business.

Although he still dreamed of opening a yeshiva, he had discovered that in the U.S., all the power was concentrated in the hands of a talmud Torah's president and board of directors, and the principal and teachers were viewed as merely low level servants. He dreamed of succeeding in his business and with the funds, opening his own yeshiva. However, his business was not succeeding as planned, possibly because his head was more in his Torah studies than in ice cream.

Kashruth and educating the public

Rav Shraga Feivel was a lover of Jewish liturgical music; he and chazzan Yossele Rosenblatt became friends and together created The Jewish Light (Dos Yiddishe Licht) newspaper. The intent was to inform the Jewish public about the awareness of their heritage, shmiras hamitzvas, the importance of keeping the kashruth laws; and they wanted to give their secular brothers an alternative to The Forward (and The Workmen's Circle/Bund). He was way ahead of his times; the public was not interested for the most part in their message, and the paper folded leaving them deep in debt.

Rav Shraga Feivel, realizing that his business enterprises were failing, in the summer of 1921, after being pursued by various members of the board, he finally agreed to take a teaching job at Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, which at the time was a "talmud Torah" rather than a yeshiva. Many of the teachers were not shomrei Torah and mitzvos, a very sore spot in the side of Rav Shraga Feivel, and added to his hesitancy of joining the school. He was certain that the Torah could only be learned, if taught by frum teachers. A series of illnesses that struck him didn't allow him to take the job until Elul 1923, when he was appointed to teach the eighth grade class.

Rav Nesanel Quinn, a student who had arrived the year before and later became principal of Jewish studies in the yeshiva, recounts, "In the first days after he came to the yeshiva, even the worst students began to feel more positive about their Jewish studies. He tried -- and succeeded -- in making Torah study beloved to them, and in giving them the feeling of closeness to Hashem. They began to keep mitzvos not out of habit but out of deep feeling. He imbued one with pride to study Torah, and that nothing in this world could compare to Torah study."

The Yeshiva Leaps Spiritually

The board hired Reb Shraga Feivel for just six months on a trial basis instead of a year, as they had done with all the previous principals, and if they weren't satisfied, they could fire him. To their surprise, Reb Shraga Feivel told them that he wasn't even interested in a six-month contract. He offered that they could hire him on the basis that if at any point they were dissatisfied, they could fire him on the spot. All the previous principals had insisted on a detailed contract for an entire year.

Rav Shraga Feivel began the next day. He found a group of cool, impassive teachers whose resentment of him bristled under the surface. The teachers too were all of Polish or Russian extraction, and they could not respect the Hungarian man who "lacked up-to-date scholastic and educational training" and proudly sported a beard and payos.

But as the following weeks unfolded, and each teacher had the occasion to meet and discuss topics with him, they soon stood open-mouthed before Rav Shraga Feivel's vast knowledge. The teacher who was expert in Hebrew grammar soon discovered that Rav Shraga Feivel was a giant in dikduk. The teacher whose specialty was Jewish history soon discovered that Rav Shraga Feivel knew far more than he.

Within a few weeks, the entire staff was united in their reverence and respect for the new principal who each admitted towered far above him. Rav Shraga Feivel began his innovative program right away.

On his first day as principal, Rav Shraga Feivel dictated a letter to the members of the board. He wrote them that a person cannot be balabos (board member) over a yeshiva unless he appreciates Torah. He demanded that every one of them attend a Torah shiur at least twice a week. The board members were astonished -- but they complied.

Rav Shraga Feivel gave a shiur in the home of Reb Benzion Weberman where he impressed the committee members with his deep religious, educational and personal ideals. They began to understand that it wasn't sufficient for a child to have a Jewish education only until his bar mitzva years, which was the standard in America until then.

In addition to winning over the rebbes and the parents, Rav Shraga Feivel soon was idolized by the students. They had never seen a principal who taught with such heart and neshomoh. On holidays he made assemblies and parties, and would dance with the students. He would sing soulful songs "Kadsheinu" and "Vetaheir libeinu" with such ecstasy that all the students were swept up with the same emotion.

"It isn't the slightest exaggeration to say that Rav Shraga Feivel blew a new soul into us, of a natural Jewish approach to our Torah. We could clearly sense how the Shechina was present in every class. A new spirit blew in the life of the yeshiva -- and all this he did quietly, without noise, without giving orders."

Torah Vodaath's name began to spread far and wide in New York. There was no longer any need to recruit bochurim for the yeshiva and the problem now became how to find enough room for all the boys. The crowding forced the committee to open classes in rented apartments around the district. Classes were held in the Keap Street beis hamedrash, the Lincoln business school, and the Beis Aaron shtiebel on Division Avenue. At the same time, the spiritual growth fostered by Rav Shraga Feivel kept pace with the physical growth of the yeshiva.

The Mesivta is Founded

The idea of a Jewish high school was still far-fetched. When the end of the year drew near, Rav Shraga Feivel persuaded the parents of the eighth-grade boys to keep their sons in the yeshiva for "just one more year." Rav Shraga Feivel arranged for the youths to study in a local high school at night where courses were offered for adults who had not completed their high school diploma. He knew such a school would have less of an influence on his students than learning in a public school with youth their age. Besides the hours at night devoted to secular studies, the boys studied Jewish studies from early in the morning and even late at night after they finished their secular studies.

When the end of the year came around again, Rav Shraga Feivel convinced the parents to agree to just one more year. And when that year finished, the parents were willing to agree to another year. At that point, he found himself with a group of high school youths whose dedication to Torah study remained strong and unswerving.

Says Rav Nesanel Quinn, one of the students of this group, "Our study day was long and exhausting, but Rav Shraga Feivel pushed us to study Torah additional hours, on our own initiative, as it were, until late at night. I remember that he sat and studied Torah with us every Thursday night until almost midnight, and we felt that Torah study was so sweet that we almost didn't feel tired. Our load of studies was not easy, particularly if you compared it to the study program in a public school. But none of us ever complained. The frequent recesses of course helped to release the tension, but mainly what helped was that in our society, everyone was working hard and no one had it easy. So the heavy load on us wasn't viewed as anything extraordinary. We were so busy with our studies that we virtually had no time to spend on small talk."

When Rav Shraga Feivel was ready to implement his next educational endeavor -- the Mesivta -- he already had a group of older boys who had spent 12 years in intense Jewish education and the idea of continuing Jewish studies after elementary school was becoming more palatable.

When Rav Shraga Feivel asked to open a full high school division, with structured Jewish and secular studies offered within the format of the school in 1927, his request met with resistance from the board. The board, truth to tell, had nobly maintained the elementary school through unflagging and exhaustive efforts, but to undertake the support of a high school on top of that was a burden that the members saw as overwhelmingly difficult and perhaps unjustified.

Mr. Avrohom Lewin, a board member backed Rav Shraga Feivel. Despite the failure of Mr. Lewin's business during the growing Depression that hit America in those years, he staunchly agreed to buy a building at 505 Bedford Avenue for the Mesivta (as Rav Shraga Feivel called the high school to differentiate it from the elementary school, which was called "the yeshiva").

Shortly after Mr. Lewin purchased it, taking out large loans in his name, a real estate agent offered to buy it back from him at a much higher price -- that would have landed him a profit equal to three years of livelihood. But Mr. Lewin passed the difficult trial, and made the building available to the yeshiva. Eventually, the committee board agreed to take the Mesivta under its wing and pay for its cost. However, the burden of running and maintaining it fell upon Rav Shraga Feivel.

It must be emphasized what an immense achievement this was. Not only had Yeshiva Torah Vodaath acquired a sterling name as a yeshiva with undiluted Torah values, but it was the only yeshiva at the time with an excellent high school program. The other yeshiva schools, such as Rabbeinu Yaakov Yosef, Rav Shlomo Kluger and Tiferes Yerushalayim, were only elementary schools with at best afternoon programs for public high school students.

Rav Shraga Feivel's concept of the Mesivta program had no parallel in any yeshiva in the world -- and not just because he incorporated secular studies and a high school degree into the yeshiva. This in itself was an act of genius. He understood that for American Jewry to flourish, yeshiva boys must have a secular education. He insisted that his talmidim excel in the secular program as well. When he asked the European gedolim about the issue of secular studies in the yeshiva, the only shaila was could it be housed in the same building as used for limudei kodesh.(There were fanatics on the board, that insisted the yeshiva change its name from Torah Vodaath to a name that did not imply that there was daas outside of Torah. He strongly disagreed with that premise, as did Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch)

Besides gemora being taught on a high level, he insisted that the curriculum include Chumash and Novi with their commentaries, the meanings of the prayers, knowledge of the 613 mitzvos, Jewish law, and sifrei yirah and mussar such as Sha'arei Teshuvah, Mesilas Yeshorim, and for select students, even Doros Harishonim, the detailed Jewish history book written by Rav Y. Halevi. Many of the latter courses he personally taught. He saw the utter importance of giving his students a solid foundation in Jewish faith and hashkofo that was taken for granted in the European yeshivos.

The atmosphere of the yeshiva was an unusual mix of Litvish learning taught by great Litvish scholars some of whom he brought over from Europe, with chassidic enthusiasm and soul which he himself injected. He integrated different approaches from various groups in Klal Yisroel and knew how to create a harmonious synthesis that appealed to his American students.

Although his influence permeated the yeshiva and every student in it, he humbly kept himself to the sidelines and refused to accept the title of "Rosh Mesivta" or even the more routine title of "Rabbi." He could not be found at the Mizrach of the beis hamedrash during prayers. He was the hinge on which the entire yeshiva turned, but to the unknowing eye, he seemed just an unassuming person filling a nondescript role. Who had ever heard of a man who built an entire yeshiva with mesiras nefesh -- only to refuse to take the mantle of honor it would bequeath to him?

In the shiurim Rav Shraga Feivel gave to the classes of the Mesivta he spoke constantly of Eretz Yisroel and the negative effect of college (he later altered his opinion, and asked Rabbi Hutner to apply for a college charter from New York State, under changing circumstances and an evolving necessity for many talmidim). Had he lived,  a college would have been built under the auspices of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath. 

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE:

Courtesy of the Mendlowitz Family Archives and Philip Fishman

In one shiur, to the astonished eyes of his students who didn't know if he was hallucinating or really meant it, he said that the day would come when he would found a kollel avreichim for them to continue their studies in Eretz Yisroel after their weddings. No one in their wildest dreams at the time even considered continuing their Torah studies after their weddings. Each student felt that his hands were full with just remaining in yeshiva for high school despite the disapproval of his parents, the mockery of his neighbors, the haughty looks of his more Americanized friends, and the spirit of materialism and heresy that blew in powerful gusts all around him. 

The Mesivta grew, and Rav Shraga Feivel realized his dream of creating knowledgeable, deeply religious and committed Jews. Years later, he created Beis Midrash Elyon in an "unknown" town called Monsey near Spring Valley, where hand-picked married students engaged in high-level Jewish studies and where Torah students went in the summer for a combined program of summer relaxation and Torah study. This was the first kollel of its kind in the United States.

Wellsprings of the Mesivta

Rav Shraga Feivel created soldiers who went forth to Jewish communities outside of New York and founded yeshivas and saved the remnant of religious Jews from going lost. He sent students to found new yeshivos: Lakewood, Telz, and the Nitra Yeshiva, and he gave up his own sorely-needed supporters instructing them to help support new yeshivos that were opening up elsewhere. He founded Beis Midrash Elyon, for advanced Torah study at a kollel level. One of his greatest dreams came to fruition when Torah Umesorah, whose goal was to create day schools and yeshivos all over the world, was founded.

By the time Rav Shraga Feivel passed away in 1948, American religious Jewry was still small and tender, but had deep and strong roots. Yeshivas Torah Vodaath had sprouted numerous rabbis and activists that helped create the prominent religious Jewish communities that we see today spread out throughout the U.S. and Canada.

With the mighty personality of Rav Shlomo Heiman, the rosh yeshiva who taught the older bochurim of the Mesivta from the years 1933-1943, Rav Shraga Feivel produced the first team of Torah scholars of stature on American soil, all of whom had incubated in the classrooms of Torah Vodaath. They continued to reinvigorate Jewish religious life around the globe throughout the twentieth century.

The fabric of the American Jewish community began to change in the 1950s. The flood of survivors and the local religious community opened new yeshivos, the religious community burgeoned, a new religious-American weltanschauung developed which enabled a religious Jew to face American society with confidence and independence.

His love for his fellow Jew was expressed best by Rabbi Weissmandel in his book "The Unheeded Cry." "(Paraphrased) There was no rabbi in the U.S.A. that cared for the plight of European Jewry more than the saintly Rav Shraga Feivel, and helped greatly in the fundraising and hatzoloh efforts to save every Jew possible."

Rav Shraga Feivel took seriously ill in 1948. He was an ardent zionist; he urged his son in-law, Rabbi Alexander Linchner, to go to Israel and save the Sephardi children from secularism. Boys Town Jerusalem was established in 1949, the largest yeshiva/trade school of its kind anywhere in the world.

He asked that he be buried in a non-monumented grave in the Arugas Habosem cemetery on Long Island until the situation in Israel would enable his burial there. He was laid to rest in his final resting place in Bnei Brak. Rav Eliyahu Dessler zt"l, in his will, requested that he be buried next to Rav Shraga Feivel. Until this day, the Kehillas Arugas Habosem has left his original grave empty.

It is not an exaggeration to say that there was no man that impacted the American Jewish landscape with such purpose, clarity of thought, and vision, as the saintly Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, zecher tzaddik v'kadosh levracha.

(Much of the material was taken from Shlucha DeRachmana (written in Hebrew) by R' Aaron Suraski who interviewed many family members. Mr. M. Samsonowitz gathered and had written much of the material. Although this piece had other important figures mentioned in the establishment of the American yeshiva movement, upon extensive research, I had discovered that they were greatly exaggerated to the point of being fabricated, and could not at all discern the true from the false, so I eliminated that material entirely. The above edited piece, is accurate, although not the entire story.)

CROSS-CURRENTS: They’re Not Us By Avi Shafran

The teaser e-mail alert from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency read: “Hasidim for Iran”; and the headline of the linked article, about a Neturei Karta member arrested for allegedly spying for Iran, was: “Haredi Israeli charged with spying for Iran.”

Well, yes. But one has to wonder if, say, a “progressive” anti-Zionist Reform Jew had allegedly offered his services to an enemy of Israel he would be similarly described by his religious affiliation. And we certainly (and thankfully) didn’t see headlines back in 2008 about Bernie Madoff reading: “Jew Accused of Bilking Thousands of their Savings.”

The accused spy, who reportedly visited the Iranian Embassy in Berlin in 2011 expressing his wish to replace the Israeli government with one controlled by gentiles and saying he was willing to murder a Zionist, did indeed wear the sort of clothing associated with charedim. And he’d probably call himself one. But just like a psychopath who happens to be a doctor is hardly a representative example of his profession, neither is a charedi who aids a murderous regime (assuming the fellow is guilty as charged) anything more than an outlying grotesquerie.

That seems to fly over some heads, like that of the commentator who posted his thoughts to one of the news stories about the accused spy. “EYES WIDE OPEN” (and, apparently, CAPS LOCK ON) wrote: “Haredi=anti-Zionist=anti-Israel! Haredi are a parasitic drain on the State!”

THANK YOU, EWO!

Let’s be clear. Neturei Karta is a fringe sect, with perhaps several hundred adherents around the world. Offensive actions of its members have been denounced by all other charedi Jews, even the much larger part of the charedi world, the Satmar chassidim. No Satmar chassid, no matter how strong his principled opposition to the establishment of a Jewish state before the Messiah’s arrival, would ever do anything to harm another Jew, much less a country (theologically legitimate or not) filled with them. And the vast majority of the rest of the charedi universe – chassidim of varied stripes and the entire non-chassidic “yeshiva world” – can most accurately be described as aZionistic, not anti-Zionist. Charedim may not regard Israel as the flourishing of the Davidic kingdom or even as a potentially holy entity. But their commitment to Israel’s security and wellbeing is beyond all question.

No less mainstream a charedi organization than Agudath Israel of America (full disclosure: I work there, although I write independently) publicly stated several years ago, when members of Neturei Karta were hobnobbing with Iranian Holocaust deniers at a “conference” in Teheran, that “visibly Jewish men who regularly appear publicly with virulent anti-Semites and claim to represent Jewish Orthodoxy not only do not represent anyone but themselves but are a disgrace to the Jewish people.”

The Agudath Israel statement continued with a reference to the “pitiful spectacle” of the self-representatives’ “greeting and shaking hands with Iran’s demonic president” and to the fact that their garb obscures “the fact that all they accomplish is to offer succor and support to people who eagerly wish to do grave harm to Jews.”

The charedi mainstream bristles at the actions of Neturei Karta members, as it does at the actions of other self-proclaimed guardians of the faith who do ugly things like shout at observant soldiers for choosing army service, or who fall prey to the provocations of Women of the Wall and righteously (in their minds, at least; sinfully, in the judgment of every charedi rabbinic leader) hurl insults and more at the in-your-face feminists.

It’s unfortunate that the charedi world includes men with a surfeit of testosterone and a deficit of intelligence, but that messy combination is the unhappy reality in many a group, religious or otherwise.

It might be too much to hope that the media will take pains to convey the sharp disconnect between the handful of charedi louts and the hundreds of thousands-strong mainstream charedi world. Too much to hope that purveyors of information perceive the fact that characterizing criminals as “charedi” in headlines is as wrong as would be the characterization of a less observant Jewish criminal as a “Jew.”

But it sure would be nice.

Read more: http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2013/08/06/theyre-not-us/#ixzz2bfgBVdwF
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

ISRAPUNDIT: Menachem Begin: the formative years

Menachem Begin (1913-1992) is perhaps the most revered of all Israel’s leaders. Although David Ben-Gurion may be more renowned, Begin is the one politician who was the most loved, the most modest, the most principled, and the most unwilling to allow Jews to fight each other over ideals. He twice averted what could have become civil wars under Ben-Gurion’s leadership: the sinking of the Altalena weapons delivery ship and the acceptance of German reparations. Begin’s premiership (1977-1983) marked the first Israeli government not part of Ben-Gurion’s socialist labor movement. It was also the first government with whom Israel’s Mizrahi population (Jews from Arab/Muslim countries) identified.

In preparation for a tour in Tel Aviv telling the story of Begin, I’ve been asked to sketch his life before he arrived in Palestine during World War II.

Early Life
Menachem Begin was born in Brest-Litsvok in Russia on August 16, 1913, where he attended heder (Hebrew school) and a religious Zionist middle school, eventually graduating from a government Gymnasium, a secondary school with an academic orientation.

While a student, Begin joined Hashomer Hatzair, the first Zionist youth movement. But after hearing a speech of the charismatic Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Begin switched to Jabotinsky’s Betar organization, a militant anti-communist movement.
http://jerusalem.wikispaces.com/Menachem+Begin

The Significance of Ancient Betar in Jewish History
“The Jewish challenge to Rome that had begun in 66 CE was eventually led by the messianic general, Bar Kochba. The revolt, which was largely successful and constituted a severe and unprecedented challenge to Rome, lasted almost 70 years. It was not so much a fight over territory or property, as it was a fight over the very way of life. Monotheism and the laws of the Torah were so deeply ingrained in the Jews that any attempt to separate the people from the essence of Judaism was seen as the death of the very soul of the nation.

“Bar Kochba made his final stand in the city of Betar, which is to the southwest of Jerusalem. The city fell on the saddest day in the Jewish calendar—the 9th of Av (135 CE), the same day as the destruction of the First and the Second Temple and other calamities. The Romans sought to extinguish Jewish presence in Jerusalem by renaming it Aelia Capitolina, and by changing [its name] Israel to Palestine.

“Ultimately, the Romans failed. Perhaps that is why Jabotinsky chose the name Betar: the Jewish nation cannot be defeated, even by the mightiest secular forces.”
http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/the_bar_kochba_revolt/

The Birth of the Betar Movement
Ze’ev Jabotinsky was the founder of the Jewish Self Defense Corps in Czarist Russia, the organizer of the Jewish Legion in World War I, and the first Jew to be imprisoned by the British in Akko Prison. He had been arrested and severely punished for leading Jewish defenses against the Arab Pogrom of 1921. He was released suddenly, after a groundswell of support by prominent British Christian-Zionists, including Lord Balfour. Jabotinsky urged the establishment European Zionist leadership to adopt an activist program and not to depend on the British to allow a Jewish national home in Palestine. (Although there was much sympathy for Zionism in Britain, the Palestine Mandate government was staunchly anti-Zionist.) Jabotinsky called for mass immigration to Eretz Israel [including the east bank of the Jordan River at that time] and for Jewish youth to “learn to shoot.”

After Jabotinsky left Europe to agitate for a proactive Zionist strategy, Latvian Jewish students who were inspired by his speeches organized themselves into the “Association of Jewish Youth Brit Trumpeldor,” (acronym: BETAR) memorializing the Russian Jewish hero who fell defending the settlement of Tel Hai. (Trumpeldor had distinguished himself in the Russo-Japanese War and had co-founded the Jewish Legion with Jabotinsky.) The students decided to found a new Jewish Legion which would conquer all of Eretz Israel. “The principal was very simple, yet revolutionary: The subordination of everything to the realization of the Zionist ideal – a Jewish State within its historical boundaries.”

In 1924, while Betar was attracting young activists, Jabotinsky established in Paris the World Union of Zionist Revisionists as an opposition party to the more conservative World Zionist movement. Betar proposed that Brith Trumpeldor become the official Revisionist youth organization. The following year the Revisionist world conference in Paris enthusiastically accepted the Betar resolution. Over the next several years, Betar grew dramatically in Austria, Poland, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Germany, France, and Eretz Israel. Betar emphasized military drilling, helping “illegal immigrants” to reach Palestine, instruction in Hebrew, and encouragement to learn English among its youthful membership.
http://betar.org.il/en/content/view/15/4/

Begin’s Years of Betar Activity
At the age of twenty-two, Begin received his diploma from the Jurisprudence Faculty of Warsaw University. Upon graduation Begin achieved his childhood dream of becoming a lawyer and helping the unfortunate. However, he never practiced as a lawyer. Inspired by Jabotinsky’s efforts, Begin rose to a top position in the Betar movement, where he was extremely active giving speeches at different conferences in front of Jewish Zionists. At the second World Betar Conference, Begin proposed that the movement progress from political activities to military actions.

During the short time remaining before the start of World War II in 1939, Begin planned Aliyah (immigration) for some members of the Betar group, himself and his wife. But in Vilna, en route to Palestine, Begin was arrested by the invading Soviets, who convicted him for being an “agent of British imperialism.” Although Begin was sentenced to eight years in a gulag, he was given amnesty from a labor camp after serving approximately three years. He became an officer cadet in the Polish army, in accordance with a treaty between Poland and Russia. Ironically, Begin’s aliyah in 1942 to Eretz Israel was as a Polish soldier, after having fought the Nazis in a variety of places.
http://jerusalem.wikispaces.com/Menachem+Begin

In Israel, Begin became the head of the Israeli Betar, which he balanced alongside of his relationship with the fighting force Etzel, also known as the Irgun. But that’s a subject for another article…

Yo, your honor; Rappers’ mad love for Jewish lawyers; Historical partnership between attorneys and the Hip Hop artists who love them spawns YouTube tribute

Traditionally, many Jewish mothers have hoped for their baby boys to someday grow up to be doctors or lawyers. Being momma’s boys, many a young Jew did indeed end up as a legal adviser or defender, protecting the rights of those forced to stand trial… and making a buck on the side, as well.

Historically, Hip Hop artists have faced their fair share of legal issues, sparking a demand among these artists for fair and just representation while standing before a court of law.

So, naturally, an epic partnership was formed between rappers and their Jewish lawyers. And that partnership, in turn, sparked the YouTube clip below, created by Jason Newman, which features several rappers shouting out to their Jewish lawyers.

ISRAEL MATZAV: Forced underage marriage continues in Hamastan

Hamas in Gaza is allowing the practice of marrying off children to older men. 

In 2012, of about 17,000 marriages were registered in the courts of the Gaza Strip, 35% were cases in which the brides were under 17 years old. These marriages are concluded without the courts knowing the girls’ real ages. Meanwhile, about 2,700 divorce cases were registered in the same year, and in 25% of these the wives were underage, Bakr Azzam, a lawyer specializing in Sharia issues, told Al-Monitor. 

Mariam explained that due to her young age she wasn’t capable of meeting the demands of married life.

“I was taken away from my small toys, taken out of my school forcibly and delivered to my husband whom I had only seen once, in front of the judge who officiated my marriage contract,” she added.

Mariam recently ran away from her husband’s house and returned to her father's, after concluding that she could not bear to stay with her husband. He dates other women under the excuse that his wife is young and thinks like a child, not living up to the intellect of a man of his age. Mariam’s husband also beats her whenever they have an argument.

“When I told my father about this, he told me, ‘This is normal and most young people are facing such a situation these days,’ but I did not accept it,” she said.

Mariam, who now wants a divorce, is not the only underage girl who was forced to marry despite her physical and mental unreadiness for marital life.

Sarah had a similar experience, but for different reasons.

As she spoke to Al-Monitor, Sarah looked at a photo of herself when she was still single. She had a bright face and childlike features. Today, however, she has become a girl with a scrawny body, a slim face and caved-in eyes that look very tired.

“I got married when I was 16 years old. My father and my brothers forced me to marry a 17-year-old boy so that they would not have to pay my living expenses and could get rid of my father’s accumulated debt,” she said, her face somber.

She pointed out that marital problems began only one week into the marriage due to the demands, made by both her husband and his family, that a girl of her age could not meet. “My family did not take into account the fact that I was still a child,” she said.

But I'm sure that if we give them a 'state' they will stop treating their daughters as property to be bought and sold. 

ELDER OF ZION: Pallywood training in Egypt as "protesters" pose for the cameras

This video is amazing. It shows a Muslim Brotherhood "demonstration" in Egypt that was specifically staged to get the most dramatic poses, as the actors freeze their poses for the photographers. Injuries and even bloodstains are faked. The actors and media are all complicit in the scam.

Kumzing 2 | Chaim Israel: Chomot Shel Tikvah

ISRAEL MATZAV: Video: Pallywood training in Egypt as Muslim Brotherhood "protesters" pose for the cameras

This video shows a Muslim Brotherhood "demonstration" in Egypt that was specifically staged to get the most dramatic poses, as the actors freeze their poses for the photographers. Injuries and even bloodstains are faked. Let's go to the videotape.

Netanyahu: No Judea and Samaria? No Contracts with Europe Netanyahu clarifies that Israel will not sign contracts with Europe so long as it continues to boycott areas beyond the 1949 Armistice Line.

In response to the European Union’s guidelines which forbid any contact with Israeli companies operating beyond the 1949 Armistice Line, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has clarified that Israel will not sign any contracts with Europe so long asthe boycott of these regions continues.

Netanyahu met on Thursday to discuss the issue with Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, Finance Minister Yair Lapid, Agriculture Minister Yair Shamir and Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Perry. Following the meeting, Netanyahu said, "Israel will not sign agreements with the EU, so long as the directive on the [pre-]1967 borders remains in effect."

During the discussion it was agreed that Israel will turn to the EU and seek to better understand the implications of the boycott. Jerusalem hopes the Europeans will become a bit more flexible on the wording of the statement that it plans to force Israeli companies to sign as part of future agreements with Europe.

Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin (Likud) explained to Army Radio the reasoning behind the government’s decision, saying, "We are very much interested in continuing this cooperation with Europe, but we cannot sign some of the new things that theEuropeans are trying to add these agreements."

"Once they insist on the pre-1967 borders, we’re talking about very large part of Jerusalem, including Jerusalem-based high-tech enterprises, including very large companies. Under Europe’s proposed new operating method, many Israeli bodies that were not rejected before - will be disqualified."

Hundreds of legal experts from Israel and around the world have appealed to European Union Foreign Affairs Commissioner Catherine Ashton to annul the EU's plan.

The experts are noting that the decision does not have a legal basis, because, they argue, Judea and Samaria is not occupied territory in the legal sense of the term.

Israel has already taken some action in response to the boycott. Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon ordered the Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza to turn down any request by the European Union which relates to these regions.

More on the ‘Religion of Permanent Offense’

Par Condell Transcript: 



A word to rioting Muslims Well, once again we see multiple violent tantrums from the religion of permanent offence. Some things never change, do they? Once again we see Islam self-detonate (if you’ll pardon the expression) and show once again why it’s about as welcome on this planet as an asteroid. Once again we see thousands of Islamic nutcases take time out from beating up their wives to show their sensitive side. How? By smashing up the towns they live in, egged on by clerical ignoramuses whose motives are even lower than the literacy level of their followers. And once again we in the civilized world are being urged to censor ourselves out of respect for a religion that violates the human rights of half the people on the planet and that doubles as a political ideology indistinguishable from Nazism. It would be funny if it wasn’t so obscene. Or should that be the other way round? To call these riots infantile and imbecilic is to give them a dignity they don’t deserve. They can only be described as Islamic. Let me get this straight. We’re supposed to show tolerance and respect for a religion that doesn’t know the meaning of either word and goes out of its way to prove it every day? We’re supposed to amend our values to accommodate a religion that accommodates nothing and nobody? Dream on, people. It’s not going to happen, because with Islam it’s always a one way street. We’ve learned that lesson the hard way. We can’t afford any more tolerance and respect. We’ve been sucked dry. And we’ve become weary of manufactured Islamic grievance. It’s such a bore that now when we hear some bearded buffoon or some bag-headed bimbo telling us how offended they are we can’t even be bothered to laugh any more. Not even when the Turkish prime minister hilariously demands that “Islamophobia” now be made a crime against humanity, when, given the evidence, there’s a much stronger case for making Islam a crime against humanity. Besides, Turkey is already hypocritically guilty of one of the worst crimes against humanity in history, the Armenian genocide, a crime it doesn’t even have the balls to admit to. When Muslims start showing the same level of outrage about things that are genuinely offensive, like the thousands of women and girls who are murdered, mutilated and raped every year in their countries then we might take them a bit more seriously. As it is, there is nothing on this planet less deserving of sympathy or respect than Muslim outrage. Indeed, there’s something deeply comical about it. It’s so contrived and so cringingly un-self aware it’s impossible to take seriously, even if we wanted to, and nobody in their right mind wants to any more. There was a time when Islam was given the benefit of the doubt by many people in the West. Now we think it’s poison and we wish we had never heard of it, because 20 years of baseless grievance mongering and knee-jerk offence have shown us this religion for what it really is, and now we don’t like it, we don’t trust it, and we are never going to respect it. And we don’t care how Muslims feel about that. Everything is an insult to this religion. Everything causes offence. Well, nobody gives a damn any more, people. You’ve done it to death. You’ve killed the goose that laid the golden egg. So now, if you’re an offended Muslim, go stick your head in the oven for all we care. And if you think that if you keep up the violence the West will eventually cave in, it’s not going to happen. Even if the politicians want it to, the people won’t allow it. We’ll carry on speaking our minds openly and freely because it’s our birthright, and it can’t be taken away from us. It can only be given away. And we are giving Islam nothing, because Islam gives us nothing. It’s a religion permanently on the take. Gimme gimme gimme is all we ever hear. Give me respect, even though I haven’t earned it. Give me special treatment or I’ll be offended and you’ll be a racist. Well, we’re sick and tired of hearing it, we’re sick and tired of Islam, and we’re sick and tired of the needless conflict and intimidation that comes from this religion at every turn. All week we’ve heard Muslims telling us that we in the West need to understand how important the prophet is to them. We do understand, and we don’t care. That’s the point. We don’t care now, and we are never going to care. Get used to it. We don’t give a damn about your feelings. Our feelings are more important, and our feelings tell us that we’re sick to the back teeth of hearing about your religion, so stick a sock in it. And no amount of violence is going to change a thing. The more you riot and scream and shout, the less we’re going to listen. It will simply stiffen our resolve not to be bullied and pushed around by people whose values we don’t respect because you’ve given us no reason to respect them, and, more to the point, because you are incapable of giving us such a reason. In short, we will not be told what we can and cannot say, not by you, not by anybody, not now, not ever. No matter how many flags you burn, no matter how many embassies you attack, free speech will prevail, and you’ll suck it up and like it.

LAZERBEAMS: Ballad of the Medic

Here is a song by Yoram Gaon, an Israeli classic from my regular army days back in the early 1970's. It's entitled Baladat Hachovesh, "The Ballad of the Medic". It's about a medic who saves his buddy's life, but gets mortally wounded as he carries him to safety. I can't keep a dry eye whenever I hear this. It's the type of nostalgia that penetrates really deep, bringing back memories that can never be erased.

Bike4chai 2013 entering camp simcha

Toronto - Neturei Karta Attends Shabos Event Where Leaders Call On Palestinians To Shoot Israelis

Toronto - Neturei Karta activists attended the annual Al Quds Day rally on Shabos over the weekend, during which the former president of Canadian NGO “Palestine House” openly called for Palestinians to embark on an ethnic-cleansing of all Israelis.

Speaking before a assembled group of about 300 in Toronto on Saturday, Elias Hazineh said of Israelis, “We have to give them an ultimatum…you have to leave Jerusalem; you have to leave Palestine. We say get out or you’re dead. We give them two minutes and then we start shooting. And that’s the only way they’ll understand.”

In calling for a war against the Jewish State, Hazineh concluded his speech by saying, “I am reminded of this verse from the Quran: ‘And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and steeds of war’—-that’s the only thing they’ll understand!”

Ushi Blumenberg: Sheyiboneh Beis Hamikdash

The Maccabeats - Brave

Moslem Hatred on the Temple Mount

This footage of Moslem hatred and incitement was proudly taken by a Moslem on the Temple Mount and originally uploaded by the Arab website hon.ps. The original title in Arabic, "تصدي المرابطين في المسجد الاقصى لاستفزاز احد المتدينين اليهود بعد محاولته الوصول للساحات الداخلية " translates roughly as "A response to a single Jew who attempted to enter the Temple Mount."



The welcome committee of hate is organized and sponsored by Raed Salah abu shakra antisemitic hate-monger and head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.

While it can be acknowledged that the police presence most definitely prevented a lynching, their utter passivity is shameful. This is not an isolated incident. It has become the standard reception every Jew receives upon entering the Temple Mount in recent months. The presence of large numbers of Moslems on the Temple Mount due to Ramadan has escalated the violence and incitement against Jews. In the face of this abuse and even occasional physical violence against the Jewish visitors, the police do nothing. The perpetrators are protected instead of prosecuted, and the Jews are removed or even arrested, and the Mount is closed to Jewish visitors. 

It is the most basic and profound right of Jews to enter and to pray upon the Temple Mount - the site of the Holy Temple - the holiest place on earth according to Torah truth. Israel's failure to guarantee this right is reprehensible.

HONEST REPORTING: Note to New York Slimes: Throwing Stones is an Act of Violence

Last week’s return of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians has had little impact on the simmering Palestinian violence in the West Bank – or the efforts of some in the media to glorify the violence.

New York Times reporter Jodi Rudoren is thelatest apologist to present Palestinian stone throwers as noble defenders of their land and victims of Israeli oppression rather than as violent criminals:

Here in Beit Ommar, a village of 17,000 between Bethlehem and Hebron that is surrounded by Jewish settlements, rock throwing is a rite of passage and an honored act of defiance.The futility of stones bouncing off armored vehicles matters little: confrontation is what counts.

Rudoren focuses much of the story on a 17-year old Palestinian youth who has been arrested four times “for throwing stones at Israeli soldiers and settlers” – not civilians but settlers. Apparently do not merit the standard rights of civilians in Rudoren’s worldview simply because of where they choose to live. At the same time, Rudoren goes to great lengths to build sympathy for the Palestinian youth and his family, noting how his mother made sure to give him a long sleeve shirt for his stay in prison because “they both knew it would be cold in the interrogation room.”

The “settlers” don’t receive nearly the same level of empathy, even when they are the victims of the rocks being thrown. Menuha Shvat, the only Gush Etzion resident quoted in the story, is also the only one who discusses how dangerous rock throwing can be.

“It’s crazy: I’m going to get pizza, and I’m driving through a war zone,” said Ms. Shvat, who knew a man and his 1-year-old son who died when their car flipped in 2011 after being pelted with stones on Road 60. “It’s a game that can kill.”

Although we learn about the cold of the interrogation room and other details of the lives of the Palestinians in the story, Rudoren does not even bother to name the Israeli victims she mentions. In fact, the man’s name is Asher Palmer, and his one-year old son is Yonatan. And they didn’t simply die. They were killed, and the Palestinians who threw the rocks were convicted of murder.

The Palestinians Rudoren interviews never question the moral aspect of throwing stones, and neither does Rudoren. She has a matter-of-fact explanation for why they do it:

They throw because there is little else to do in Beit Ommar — no pool or cinema, no music lessons after school, no part-time jobs other than peddling produce along the road. They do it because their brothers and fathers did.

So long as the victims continue to be “soldiers and settlers,” it might not make much difference to Rudoren.

Rudoren’s piece follows on the heels of an article by Amira Hass in Haaretz in April that defended Palestinian stone throwing. That piece generated heated controversy when it came out. It remains to be seen if Rudoren’s piece gets the same reaction.

To get a sense of what Palestinian stone throwing in Beit Ommar looks like, watch the video below. It was originally posted to YouTube in February, 2012. 

To her credit, Rudoren attempts to present the values of the local Palestinians in their own terms. But the moral ambiguity that comes across in the article carries a price. By allowing the glorification of violence to go unchallenged, the article becomes yet another piece that fails to hold the Palestinians to any form of accountability.

Send your considered comments to the New York Times – letters@nytimes.com – Remember that letters for publication should be no longer than 150 words and must include the writer’s address and phone numbers.

Palestinian Authority TV Game Show Features Denial of Israel’s Existence for $100 Prize

Denying Israel’s existence is now a lucrative proposition for Palestinian Arabs. Palestinian Media Watch reports that during the month of Ramadan, official Palestinian Authority TV has been entertaining its viewers with quiz questions. PA TV reporters have taken to the the street to query Palestinians, rewarding a correct answer with a $100 prize sponsored by the Bank of Palestine, and two mobile phone companies, Jawwal and Wataniya.

Some of the questions, which PA TV chose to ask and later broadcast, present a world without Israel by defining the Israeli cities of Jaffa, Safed, and Ashdod, as well as Mount Meron as “Palestinian.”

Here are some of the reporter’s questions as translated by PMW.

PA TV reporter: “On the beach of which Palestinian village did the whale spew out the prophet Jonah? Naturally, it’s a coastal city.”

Man: “Ashdod.” (Israeli city on the Mediterranean coast)

PA TV reporter: “Ashdod is the correct answer… You win $100 from [the sponsor] Jawwal.”

PA TV reporter: “Which city did [Palestinian writer] Mustafa Dabbagh call ‘The city that fell from Heaven?’”

Man: “In Palestine or outside of Palestine?”

PA TV reporter: “In Palestine.”

Man: “Maybe Jaffa?” (Israeli city, part of Tel Aviv)

PA TV reporter: “Correct answer. Jaffa. You win $100 from [the sponsor] Wataniya Mobile.”

PA TV reporter: “A lake in Northern Palestine drained by the Israeli occupation. What is the name of the lake?”

Man: “The Sea of Galilee?” (In north east Israel)

PA TV reporter: “Think.”

Man: “The Hula [Lake].” (The Hula Lake is in Northern Israel)

PA TV reporter: “You’ve earned $100 from the [sponsor] Bank of Palestine.”

PA TV reporter: “Name the Palestinian village in Northern Safed whose name means ‘beetle’ in the Syriac language, and whose residents are mostly Druze .”

PA TV reporter: “The correct answer is Hurfeish, the Palestinian village in Northern Safed whose name means ‘beetle’. Congratulations. You win $100 from [the sponsor] Jawwal.” (Hurfeish is a Druze village in Northern Israel.)

PA TV reporter: “What is the highest mountain in Palestine?”

Man: “Mt. Meron.” (Mt. Meron is in Northern Israel.)

Another question presented Israel’s eastern border from Eilat in the south to the Golan Heights in the north as “Palestine’s” border with Jordan, likewise ignoring the existence of Israel:

PA TV reporter: “[Which] country has the longest border with Palestine and what is [the border's] length?”

Man: “The country is Jordan and [the border is] 586 [km.]”

PA TV reporter: “Congratulations. You win $100 from [the sponsor] Jawwal.” (”Palestine” in this measurement includes all of Israel from Eilat until the Golan Heights.)

King David's Tomb Restored

Renovations of the structure housing the Tomb of KingDavid, just outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, were completed. IsraelNationalNews.com A ceremony was held, Thursday, to mark the completion of renovations at structure housing the Tomb of King David on Mount Zion, just outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City. An elegant new Torah scroll was brought into the newly-installed ark. The renovation consisted of new flooring, restoration of the arches and ancient walls, replacement of furniture and lighting to give it a new appearance. It's beauty and glory was restored, at the center of which is the feeling of a synagogue and holy place. The Israel Police put up a post there to protect the site against vandalism and desecration. VIDEO: A tour through the tomb			Most Read Most Comments A Bochur's Test in Emunah Jul 29, 2013 Dovid Carroll, 52, OBM Aug 2, 2013 He Who Feeds the Hungry Jul 30, 2013 Glimpse Into the Rebbe's House Jul 30, 2013 A Night for the Palate, Kidney Aug 1, 2013

Amazing New Talent Shea Berko Sings At Wedding

ELDER OF ZION: New photos of pre-Islamic columns, wall on Temple Mount

From Qanta Ahmed in Times of Israel, about her recent trip to the Dome of the Rock and the Temple Mount:

Leaving the Dome, we walked South, on to Al Aqsa....Low domed roofs arched overhead, each rendered in the same limestone. Pleasing corridors stretched in longitudinal halls. Here and there, a lone woman studied her Quran. Other than that, Ibrahim and I were alone. We walked around the corner and, approaching a smaller vestibule, we confronted enormous columns. Their diameter deeper than the height of a tall man, they were disproportionate to the low roof. Each of the massive pillars were carefully supported by modern concrete abutments and steel girdles. These pillars looked much older. They didn’t belong to Al Aqsa. Nearby, Ibrahim pointed out the roof overhead. A distinct break in the brickwork was evident.

“This was the entrance to the Second Jewish Temple that was here before Al Aqsa. You can see it is absolutely distinct.” And without doubt, it was easy to see, this had been a place of worship for Jews centuries before. Perhaps we were standing at the gate. Somehow, these hardy arches, these massive pillars had escaped even the Romans’ determined destruction of the Second Temple. Before this place was made ours, it had clearly been theirs. We were on borrowed ground. Incredible at something so ancient, confronted with the profound reality preceding Islam, we fell into the shared silence of young believers.

(h/t Josh K)

Shurat HaDin Files Historic Class Action Suit Against BDS Movement In Australia

Professor faces legal action on BDS stand

By Christian Kerr, August 2, 2013


Associate Professor Jake Lynch, above, last year refused to assist Dan Avnon, the author of the only joint civics curriculum for Jewish and Arab school students, to undertake work at the university as a representative of an Israeli institution. Picture: Jane Dempster Source: The Australian

AN Israeli civil rights group has launched legal action against Jake Lynch, the head of the University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, in the Human Rights Commission, alleging his support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement contravenes the racial discrimination act.Associate Professor Lynch last year refused to assist Dan Avnon, the author of the only joint civics curriculum for Jewish and Arab school students, to undertake work at the university as a representative of an Israeli institution.
Shurat HaDin, which models itself on the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Centre that has successfully used US courts to target the Ku Klux Klan, alleges the BDS movement is racially discriminatory and undermines human rights.
Shurat HaDin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said: "Lynch and his ilk seek to boycott Israeli and Jewish national products, whether it's goods, services, performers or professors. By singling out Israel and no other country, the BDS ... exposes the anti-Semitism that motivates them.
"We are hopeful that this historic proceeding against the BDS movement will serve as a model for battling it in other jurisdictions worldwide."
The Shurat HaDin lawyer who has lodged the claim, Sydney-born Andrew Hamilton, said the BDS campaign sought to "discriminate and impose adverse preference based on Israeli national origin and Jewish racial and ethnic origin of people and organisations".
"It does nothing to help Palestinians and indeed harms them," Mr Hamilton said.
He said similar legal actions had succeeded in silencing European BDS proponents.
"It's about time someone exposed the racist false narrative that is at the heart of the BDS movement in a legal forum," Mr Hamilton said. "Boycotting businesses and people just because they have a particular national, racial or ethnic origin is racism ... It is no more legitimate political protest than boycotting the local corner store to protest against Kevin Rudd's policies."
The Sydney University student union has backed BDS, despite fierce opposition from some quarters. The BDS movement compares Israel with apartheid-era South Africa, causing it to be condemned by bodies such as the Simon Wiesenthal Centre as anti-Semitic.
The Shurat HaDin complaint is based on Section 9 of the 1975 Race Discrimination Act. It reads: "It is unlawful for a person to do any act involving a distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of any human right or fundamental freedom in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life."
The complaint also cites alleged violations of sections 16 and 17 and parts A and B of Section 18 of the act.
Mr Hamilton described the BDS movement as "anti-Semitic at its core". "When BDS protests feature both Islamist terrorist groups like Hezbollah and neo-Nazi groups, it is clear something is wrong," he said.
Associate Professor Lynch is on study leave and could not be contacted yesterday. Sydney University vice-chancellor Michael Spence previously has condemned academic boycotts of Israel, but said the centre and its staff were free to set their own policies.
A university spokesman said: "The university has not received a complaint from the Human Rights Commission. It would be inappropriate to speculate about hypothetical actions which might be taken in response to such a hypothetical investigation."

My Week in Israel with Dr. Oz By: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu shows Dr. Oz and Rabbi Shmuley the challenges Israel faces from its neighbors in the Middle East. Everything over the past week was memorable and magical as Dr. Mehmet Oz, America’s foremost daytime TV host and the world’s most famous doctor, toured Israel. From dancing the horah outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, to dancing Friday night at the Western Wall with Israeli soldiers and thousands of worshippers, to meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu for ninety minutes of substantive conversation about Israel, Turkey, and the United States, Dr. Oz and his family showed the Jewish state extravagant love and admiration. Mehmet is a remarkable man and seeing him up close reinforced the high regard in which I have always held him, ever since we started working together for Oprah at her radio network. First there was his attention to his children, all four of whom accompanied him, along with his son-in-law. Mehmet would go nowhere without them and pulled them in to hear every last explanation about Israel’s ancient and modern history. Then there is his dedication to his wife Lisa, a remarkable and brilliant woman in her own right, and vastly knowledgeable of the Bible. Lisa was correcting me constantly on Biblical quotations (I purposely got them wrong so she could feel superior). Mehmet is a man who honors his wife at every opportunity. Of course, there were the legions of fans – Jews and Arabs in every part of Israel – that pleaded for a picture and he turned noone down. But more than anything else there was his attachment to the Jewish people on display at every moment. Mehmet is a Muslim, perhaps the world’s most famous Muslim who is not a head of state. He is a righteous and proud Ambassador of his faith and feels an innate kinship and brotherhood with the Jewish people. He praised Israel constantly, from lauding its treatment of its minority citizens at our joint lecture at Rambam hospital in Haifa, to noting Israel’s phenomenal medical breakthroughs at several news conferences, to highlighting his amazement at Israel’s capacity to turn deserts into thriving cities. In Hebron, at the tomb of the patriarchs, we prayed together publicly for peace and understanding between the children of Abraham. At the tomb of Maimonides we noted the role reversal. Maimonides, a Jew, was the world’s most famous physician, and he served the Muslim ruler Saladin. Now, a Muslim doctor – the world’s most famous – was visiting his Jewish brothers in the Holy land 900 years later. Joined with Natan Sharasnky at the Jerusalem Press Club for a public discussion, the three of us debated whether there was an obligation to hate evil. Mehmet maintained that hatred harmed he who harbored it, even for the best of reasons. On this Sharasnky and I disagreed. Natan spoke of the evil he encountered in the KGB. I spoke of Hamas’ genocidal covenant and Hezbollah’s commitment to annihilating Israel. Terrorists deserved our contempt. Only by truly hating evil are we prepared to fight it. In the end we compromised in agreeing that hating evil should not be obsessive and internal but rather externally directed at neutralizing those who slaughter God’s innocent children, whoever they may be. As I walked Dr. Oz and his family through the old city of Jerusalem on Friday night, we passed through Zion gate, still riddled with bullet holes from the heavy fighting of 1967 that liberated the city. At Shabbat dinner at the home of Simon and Chana Falic, my friend Ron Dermer, Israel’s newly appointed Ambassador to the United States, explained to Mehmet that even after Israel conquered the Temple Mount in the Six Day War it left control of Judaism’s holiest site to the Muslim waqf and that such an action had no precedent in all human history. Ron said that there could no greater illustration of Israel’s desire to respect its Muslim citizens and seek peace. At the Christian holy sites, like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, and Muslim Holy Sites like the Dome of the Rock and the vast Muslim crowds that filled mosques for Ramadan, Dr. Oz saw first hand how Israel is a country of thriving religious liberty. But the highlight of the visit was the conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu where Ambassador Dermer joined Mehmet and me as we heard the Israeli leader deeply engage Mehmet about Israel’s search for peace and the challenges it faces with the destabilization of Syria and Egypt on the one hand, and the changes in its relationship with Turkey, on the other. The Jewish state needs more visitors like Dr. Oz, with vast global followings, to highlight the justice of Israel’s cause. These trips should never be about propaganda but rather presenting the facts as they are. Israel’s best case is made by Israel itself. I told Mehmet and Lisa, with whom I deepened an already special friendship, that I had no interest in presenting Israel as a perfect country that never made mistakes. Rather, Israel is a just country, committed to righteous action, that struggles to do the right thing amid existential threats from every side. It is a small nation that is home to a people who have vastly contributed to the positive development of human civilization yet have been victimized throughout history and now simply wish a secure place among the nations. One need not agree with Israel on every detail on policy but is self-evident when visiting that its large heart is in the right place. It was providential that our visit to the Holy Land ended on Sunday, August 4th, mega-philanthropist Sheldon Adelsons eightieth birthday. We flew to Turkey where Dr. Oz, the country’s biggest celebrity, was to hold a press conference. As we left we called Sheldon and his wife Dr. Miriam Adelson, whose addiction clinic we visited in Tel Aviv, to thank them for making the trip possible. Because that’s how it works. People who love Israel are infectious and produce other people who love Israel.

Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/america-rabbi-shmuley-boteach/my-week-in-israel-with-dr-oz/2013/08/05/0/ | The Jewish Press

Menachem Herman, live: Sweet Home, Jerusalem

Is Jerusalem on the Government's list of surrenders to the PA in the upcoming renewed peace talks? Menachem Herman and I have a message for all the politicians; this clip speaks for itself:

Enough of the Hooliganism!

Translation:
enough of the hooliganism!

they took control over us in the public sphere - And we were quyiet
they shamed and degraded people on bus lines - and we were quiet
they smashed windshields and endangered lives - and we were quiet
they used violence and criminal methods - and we were quiet
they gave a bad name to our city and desecrated God's name - and we were quiet
they aroused hatred and endangered the flourishing of haredim in the city - and we were quiet

It is time to say Enough!
it is time to stop the hooliganism
it is time to show responsibility to our city
it is time to show responsibility to our community
it is time to show responsibility to the public

TOV - showing public responsibility

It is a great pashkevil. However, I would like to know why they were silent for the 5+ years they have been around, and in and out of the local coalition. And, being that they have finally decided enough is enough and it is time to show responsibility and leadership, in what way do they plan to do so?