Rich Gulf nationals go to Hawamidiyya, especially during the summer, to contract marriages for a definite period of time in return for a meager amount of money, some of which goes to the broker. The rest goes to the family of a young woman, often a virgin under 18 years of age, so that a rich man about the same age as her father can have sex with her while on vacation in Egypt.This has been a problem for years, but there was some headway being made against the phenomenon before the Islamists took over Egypt. Now it appears to be back.
During the years before the 2011 revolution, women’s and human rights organizations in Egypt followed several courses of action in their struggle to end such practices, including awareness-raising marches in areas where ‘tourism marriage’ is popular, in order to disseminate the dangers it entails. Rights groups have also advocated the promulgation of a law that criminalizes marriages if either one of the spouses is under 18 years of age. However, these efforts regressed after the revolution and such practices came back with a vengeance, against a backdrop of economic crisis and weak local authorities. Illegal practices, like changing the young woman’s age through falsified medical evidence attesting that she is over 18 years of age has also become widespread.
The growing phenomenon of ‘tourism marriage’ in Egypt’s governorates and towns was profiled in the US Department of State report on human trafficking last year, which estimated the number of such marriages to be in the hundreds. According to the report, “minor girls are entering into temporary marriages with Arab Gulf tourists during the summer in return for money” with “underage girls being taken into sexual slavery and forced to work as servants.”
Dr. Hoda Badran, president of the Egyptian Women’s Union, told NOW that poverty is the main factor behind the spread of this phenomenon, asserting that “tourism marriage is a form of slavery or of selling women.” Badran explained that she met with several “summer wives,” some of whom gave birth to children and struggled to inform the husband of his paternity. ‘Tourism marriage’ victims may have to abandon their newborns at an orphanage or childcare center so as not to become an ‘outcast’among her family members, the same people who may have sold her in the first place.
Nohad Abu al-Qomsan, president of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, told NOW: “Slavery and servitude have acquired a legitimate cover in some countries, including that of summer marriage, which has spread in many Egyptian villages, not only in Hawamidiyya, due to poverty and other pretexts.” Qomsan noted that, in many cases, a girl is married off several times in a sort span of time without heeding the customary waiting period, which might cause confusion as to the identity of the child’s father.
Qomsan argued that some Islamists want to “turn the poor into a pool of abominations, which can be traded on the pleasure market, with clients seeking multiple wives or marriage for pleasure.” She also underscored the phenomenon of marrying displaced Syrian women in Egypt.
Monday, April 29, 2013
"Summer marriages" (Islamic prostitution) booming in Egypt under MB rule
From Now Lebanon:
Netanyahu orders Feiglin off Temple Mount after Waqf threat
For the past ten years, MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud-Beitenu) has been visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on the 19th of the Hebrew month, every month. But on Sunday, April 28, 2013, Feiglin received a phone call from Deputy Commander Moshe Barkat, Chief of the Israeli Police David Precinct, which includes the Old City of Jerusalem.
“He informed me that, on direct order from the prime minister, I would not be permitted to enter the Mount tomorrow,” MK Feiglin wrote in his Facebook page.
A source close to Feiglin told The Jewish Press that the deputy commander told the MK that the Waqf, the Jordanian charity organization which runs the Temple Mount, warned the Prime Minister’s office that should Feiglin go up on the Mount on Monday, it would “start World War Three.”
No one wants that. Except that the same Waqf has been cautioning about new world wars frequently, and is often involved in organizing, rather than trying to prevent them.
...
“The only legal way to prevent me from going up to the Temple Mount tomorrow (without changing existing law),” says MK Feiglin, “is if, in the opinion of the officer in charge of the place there exists an immediate, clear and present danger.”
But, having given him the warning a full day in advance, Feiglin argues, security forces should have ample time—had the prime minister only told them so—to organize and prevent dangerous gathering and violence.
According to MK Feiglin, the Prime Minister’s decision “confirms what I was told by the police command when I asked to tour the Dome of the Rock, that the Temple Mount is under Muslim sovereignty.”And what is Feiglin going to do?
The source close to Feiglin says the MK will obey Netanyahu’s directive, but that as of tomorrow Feiglin would no longer be voting the Likud-Beitenu party line.Hmmm.
Amsterdam - Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, sent a letter of protest to the editor-in-chief of Dutch newspaper, De Volkskrant, for publishing a political cartoon depicting Israel as a threat to world peace, alongside North Korea.
“It seems that tried and true Nazi Jew-hatred imagery still works for at least 38% of your fellow Dutchmen,” Cooper’s letter said.
The “38%” Cooper is referring to, is the percentage of Dutch correspondents, responding to a poll taken by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in 2011, who feel that Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians.
Cooper was in Hague last week to meet with top Dutch officials over a Sharriah4Dutch posting which called for a new fatwa to attack European Churches and Synagogues, according to the letter.
“Perhaps…as editor-in-chief you might want to apologize for the timing of this particular outrage as it came 24 hours after an Iranian citizen burst into a synagogue in Pairs where he stabbed a (hooked nosed?) Rabbi and his 18-year-old son (while) screaming Allah Akhbar,” the letter continued.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s mission as stated on it’s website “is a global Jewish human rights organization that confronts anti-Semitism, hate and terrorism, promotes human rights and dignity, stands with Israel, defends the safety of Jews worldwide, and teaches the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
Nuclear Iran is Like 30 Nuclear North Koreas The world must not ignore the warnings about Iran as it did 80 years ago with the Nazis, says Minister Yuval Steinitz.
International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz warned on Sunday that Iran having a nuclear weapon would be equal to “thirty nuclear North Koreas”.
“We have the right and the ability to defend ourselves,” he said in a speech at theJerusalem Post Conference in New York. “The cooperation with the United States is very important but ultimately each country will make its own decisions on maintaining its security,” said Steinitz, stressing that “Israel can deal with any threat.”
“We shouldn’t repeat the same mistake again,” he added, referring to Iran. “The Nazis spoke about the final solution of the Jews in Europe, and the Iranians are talking about destroying the Jewish State in the Middle East. We have to learn from history, even if it doesn’t repeat itself exactly, and if there’s a lesson to learn from history, it is not to repeat the same mistake again and not to allow, come what may, the nuclearization of Iran.”
Referring to Syria, Steinitz rejected allegations that Israel asked the United States to take military action in the war torn country..
“We never asked and never encouraged the U.S. to take military action in Syria,” Steinitz told the conference, referring to reports that Israel has been pressuring the Obama administration to get involved in Syria, in the wake of the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime.
“It is up to the U.S. to decide its policy on Syria,” said Steinitz. “Of course, we exchange views with the U.S. about the situation; it’s a very complex and difficult issue."
He emphasized that Israel will “do its utmost to prevent delivery” of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles to terrorist groups such as Hizbullah.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
The House On Garibaldi Street
Otto Adolph Eichmann-was a German Nazi SS Lieutenant Colonel and one of the major
organizers of the holocaust which mass murdered six million Jews.
This movie is about Eichmann's capture by the Israeli Mossad one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community.
Eichmann was found guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
He was executed by the Israeli Government through a civilian court.
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky's analysis of Samson’s unconventional military tactics and their possible current application
The Jewish Press: In the book, you write at some length about Samson’s unconventional military tactics and their possible current application. Can you elaborate?
Rabbi Pruzansky: I think the basic idea of Shimshon’s battles was an attempt to provide the people of Israel with plausible deniability. In other words, he conducted himself as a lone wolf, distancing himself from his native population, even committing acts that would manifest a severance between him and the Jewish people (intermarriage for example) in order to inflict damage on the enemy that could not be traced back to the Jewish people. And in that he was very successful. From that I deduce a methodology for fighting an asymmetrical war between a state and, say, a terror group. Today the western world is trying to combat an enemy that basically is faceless and nameless, and does not necessarily have a political address, and yet can inflict grievous harm to civilian populations. How do you fight such an enemy? Shimshon shows one approach, and that is to basically infiltrate their society and inflict damage on them – and then to retreat and disappear. In other words, fight them on their battlefield rather than trying to engage the enemy on our battlefield, which is always a nightmare in terms of the actual combat as well as the moral and political aftermath.
Vintage Footage: Excerpt from Lag B'omer Fair 5743 DVD A diary and new DVD marks 30 years since the 5743-1983 Lag BaOmer Parade with the Rebbe which was followed by a rare visit
Children gather to celebrate Lag B’Omer. Excerpts from a 1983 recording of the grand parade with the Lubavticher Rebbe at Lubavitch World Headquarters, Brooklyn, New York
Visit Jewish.TV for more Jewish videos.
MBD & FRIENDS JOIN FORCES WITH CHAI LIFELINE CANADA
he music of Mordechai Ben David inspires millions around the world. But a private performance for the children and families of Chai Lifeline brought new meaning to the word for all who heard the singer's ethereal notes and words.
The idea for the very special event came from a community leader and Chai Lifeline Canada board member who uses his musical gifts to bring joy to the bedsides of very sick children. Among them is Avi, whose illness has left him weak and bedridden.
"Avi is in a tremendous amount of pain, but every time we would sing for him, he would come alive. You'd quickly forget he was sick," he explained. Over the past few weeks, Avi's bed was moved to the living room of his house to accommodate the many visitors and well-wishers. With the help of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Gryfe, Chai Lifeline Canada decided to bring the musical master to him.
Once the concert was arranged the board member decided to expand the impact for Chai Lifeline's families. A local family generously opened their home, and more than 70 children, parents, and invited guests greeted Ben David upon his arrival.
Ben David was joined by a number of musicians whose contributions enabled the music to soar from the living room to the heavens. Sheya Mendlowitz, Abie Rotenberg, Rivie Schwebel, Baruch Chait and Shlomo Simcha harmonized for hours, accompanied by Yanky Briskman and Yochanan Chait.
The music worked its magic on Avi and the other children who attended. "When I saw Mordechai Ben David show up, I could not believe it. Then spending time with him ... That was crazy, crazy, crazy awesome," the teen exclaimed.
His mother, Bracha, said that the excitement hasn't worn off. "I have the chills. We are still talking about the evening. Avi keeps saying, 'Mommy, he was holding my hand. We were praying together.' There was such power and spirituality in the room. I literally felt the floor shake."
"It was really an inspiring and moving evening," agreed Yummy Schachter, a member of the Chai Lifeline Canada board. "You could see the tremendous power that music has. The music takes these children to a different place. They are no longer thinking about the pain and they, along with their families, escape the reality of what they are dealing with for a short while."
Schachter said that the evening will be with him for a long time. "Whenever I came to sing with Avi, I thought I was there to inspire him and his family. I have come to realize that I am the one who ends up being inspired most... inspired by the kids' strength, the families' strength, the power of music and prayer and the incredible work of Chai Lifeline."
Rabbi Rothman, Executive Director of Chai Lifeline Canada, agreed that the event was an incredible experience for all who were there. "We are grateful to the board members and donors who made the evening possible. When I looked around and saw the smiles and joy in our children's faces, I saw the difference that love and compassion can make to families in the midst of very challenging circumstances."
Although he couldn't attend, Rabbi Simcha Scholar, executive vice president of Chai Lifeline, said he wasn't surprised to learn that the evening had made such a difference to Avi and his Chai Lifeline friends. "It shows you what can be done when people come together to help our most vulnerable children and their families."
Hitler's Food Taster Tells Of Poisoning Fears
Woelk, then in her mid-twenties, spent two and a half years as one of 15 young women who sampled Hitler’s food to make sure it wasn’t poisoned before it was served to the Nazi leader in his “Wolf’s Lair,” the heavily guarded command center in what is now Poland, where he spent much of his time in the final years of World War II.
“He was a vegetarian. He never ate any meat during the entire time I was there,” Woelk said of the Nazi leader. “And Hitler was so paranoid that the British would poison him — that’s why he had 15 girls taste the food before he ate it himself.”
With many Germans contending with food shortages and a bland diet as the war dragged on, sampling Hitler’s food had its advantages.
“The food was delicious, only the best vegetables, asparagus, bell peppers, everything you can imagine. And always with a side of rice or pasta,” she recalled. “But this constant fear — we knew of all those poisoning rumors and could never enjoy the food. Every day we feared it was going to be our last meal.”
The petite widow’s story is a tale of the horror, pain and dislocation endured by people of all sides who survived World War II.
Only now in the sunset of her life has she been willing to relate her experiences, which she had buried because of shame and the fear of prosecution for having worked with the Nazis, although she insists she was never a party member. She told her story to The Associated Press as she flipped through a photo album with pictures of her as a young woman, in the same Berlin apartment where she was born in 1917.
Woelk says her association with Hitler began after she fled Berlin to escape Allied air attacks. With her husband gone and serving in the German army, she moved in with relatives about 435 miles (700 kilometers) to the east in Rastenburg, then part of Germany; now it is Ketrzyn, in what became Poland after the war.
FILE - This undated file picture shows the German Fuehrer Adolf Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun while dining. A German woman named Margot Woelk was one of 15 young women who sampled Hitler's food to make sure it wasn’t poisoned before it was served to the Nazi leader in his "Wolf's Lair," the heavily guarded command center in what is now Poland, where he spent much of his time in the final years of World War II. Margot Woelk kept her secret hidden from the world, even from her husband then, a few months after her 95th birthday, she revealed the truth about her wartime role. (AP Photo/US Army Signal Corps from Eva Braun's album, File)
There she was drafted into civilian service and assigned for the next two and a half years as a food taster and kitchen bookkeeper at the Wolf’s Lair complex, located a few miles (kilometers) outside the town. Hitler was secretive, even in the relative safety of his headquarters, that she never saw him in person — only his German shepherd Blondie and his SS guards, who chatted with the women.
Hitler’s security fears were not unfounded. On July 20, 1944, a trusted colonel detonated a bomb in the Wolf’s Lair in an attempt to kill Hitler. He survived, but nearly 5,000 people were executed following the assassination attempt, including the bomber.
“We were sitting on wooden benches when we heard and felt an incredible big bang,” she said of the 1944 bombing. “We fell off the benches, and I heard someone shouting ‘Hitler is dead!’ But he wasn’t. “
Following the blast, tension rose around the headquarters. Woelk said the Nazis ordered her to leave her relatives’ home and move into an abandoned school closer to the compound.
Margot Woelk, one of the food testers of Adolf Hitler, shows an old photo album and points to a picture taken prior to the WWII and showing the way to the later built Fuehrer Headquarters "Wolf's Lair", during an interview with The Associated Press in Berlin, Thursday, April 25, 2013. Margot Woelk was one of 15 young women who sampled Hitler's food to make sure it wasn’t poisoned before it was served to the Nazi leader in his "Wolf's Lair," the heavily guarded command center in what is now Poland, where he spent much of his time in the final years of World War II. Margot Woelk kept her secret hidden from the world, even from her husband then, a few months after her 95th birthday, she revealed the truth about her wartime role. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
With the Soviet army on the offensive and the war going badly for Germany, one of her SS friends advised her to leave the Wolf’s Lair.
She said she returned by train to Berlin and went into hiding.
Woelk said the other women on the food tasting team decided to remain in Rastenburg since their families were all there and it was their home.
“Later, I found out that the Russians shot all of the 14 other girls,” she said. It was after Soviet troops overran the headquarters in January 1945.
When she returned to Berlin, she found a city facing complete destruction. Round-the-clock bombing by U.S. and British planes was grinding the city center to rubble.
On April 20, 1945, Soviet artillery began shelling the outskirts of Berlin and ground forces pushed through toward the heart of the capital against strong resistance by die-hard SS and Hitler Youth fighters.
After about two weeks of heavy fighting, the city surrendered on May 2 — after Hitler, who had abandoned the Wolf’s Lair about five months before, had committed suicide. His successor surrendered a week later, ending the war in Europe.
For many Berlin civilians — their homes destroyed, family members missing or dead and food almost gone — the horror did not end with capitulation.
“The Russians then came to Berlin and got me, too,” Woelk said. “They took me to a doctor’s apartment and raped me for 14 consecutive days. That’s why I could never have children. They destroyed everything.”
Like millions of Germans and other Europeans, Woelk began rebuilding her life and trying to forget as best she could her bitter memories and the shame of her association with a criminal regime that had destroyed much of Europe.
She worked in a variety of jobs, mostly as a secretary or administrative assistant. Her husband returned from the war but died 23 years ago, she said.
With the frailty of advanced age and the lack of an elevator in her building, she has not left her apartment for the past eight years. Nurses visit several times a day, and a niece stops by frequently, she said.
Now at the end of her life, she feels the need to purge the memories by talking about her story.
“For decades, I tried to shake off those memories,” she said. “But they always came back to haunt me at night.”
Dustin Hoffman Slammed for Agreeing to Present Award for Anti-Israel Film
Dustin Hoffman is taking heat from the Jewish community, and for good reason. The actor has agreed to present a media award for an anti-Israel film at the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s 22nd Annual Media Awards on April 27 in Los Angeles.
MPAC has a history of making anti-Israel statements and is headed by Salam al-Marayati, who has called for Israel’s destruction, and has said that Israel may be responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
The Zionist Organization of America criticized Hoffman for his double standard, noting that in July 2010 he backed out of attending the annual Jerusalem Film Festival. ZOA National President Morton A. Klein released a statement that criticized Hoffman for his decision: “Muslim extremist organizations that endanger America become much harder to combat if celebrities legitimize them. Dustin Hoffman should admit he has made a mistake and withdraw from this event.
MPAC is headed by Salam al-Marayati, who has called for Israel’s destruction, and has said that Israel may be responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Even left-wing Los Angeles rabbis have ceased to speak to him. The following is a small sampling of his record of Islamist extremism:
- Calls for Israel’s destruction: “the establishment by force, violence and terrorism of a Jewish state in Palestine in 1948” was “unjust” and “a crime” and vowed to “work to overturn the injustice” (MPAC co-signed public statement, September 17, 1993).
- Condemns pre-9/11 American military strikes upon Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Sudan: Said these strikes, following the al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were “illegal, immoral and illogical” (MPAC press release, August 24, 1998).
- Asserts Israel might be perpetrator of 9/11: “If we’re going to look at suspects, we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kind of incidents, and I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list, because I think this [the 9/11 attacks] diverts attention from what’s happening in the Palestinian territories so that they can go on with their aggression and occupation and apartheid policies” (David Firestone, ‘A NATION CHALLENGED: RELIGION; For Some Jewish Leaders, Partnership With Muslims Is a Casualty of Sept. 11 Attacks,’ New York Times, October 22, 2001).
- Defends French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy: Described France’s fining of Garaudy for Holocaust denial as “persecution of his right to express an opinion” (The Minaret, Vol. 20, No.3, 1998).
- Gives anticipatory justification of Islamist terrorist assaults on America: “Where Israel goes, our government follows … What is important is whether the American people are aware of and ready for the consequences” (MPAC article, ‘What Do We Expect?,’ April 5, 1997).
- Blames Palestinian terrorism on Israel: Jews murdered by Palestinians are “the expected bitter result of [Israel’s] reckless policy” (Jewish Exponent [Philadelphia], October 18, 2001).
- Calls for extradition of Israelis who killed a rampaging Muslim terrorist in Jerusalem: When in February 1996 a Palestinian, Muhammad Hamida shouted the war cry, ‘Allahu Akbar’ (Allah is Great), drove his car intentionally into a crowded bus stop in Jerusalem, killing one Israeli and injuring 23 others and was shot dead, Marayati said not a word about Hamida’s murderous attack while calling his killing “a provocative act,” and demanded the extradition of his executors to America “to be tried in a U.S. court on terrorism charges.”
NYC's Senior Seltzer Man: As Old as the Bottles
Dave Sanders for The New York Times
“I just can’t stay home,” said Eli Miller, 79, who has been delivering seltzer for more than 50 years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/
Eli Miller, 79, New York City’s senior seltzer man, hoisted crate after crate of seltzer — weighing 70 pounds apiece — into his van and then draped himself over them.
“I’m running on fumes — the reason I work is, I just can’t stay home,” said Mr. Miller, who has been delivering seltzer in Brooklyn for more than a half-century.
He can afford to retire, but that would mean his customers, many of whom have been with him for decades, might have to resort to store-bought seltzer.
“I don’t want them to have to drink that dreck you buy in the supermarket,” he said, using the Yiddish term for dirt. “So I guess I’ll retire when Gabriel blows his horn.”
Mr. Miller said that when he began delivering, on March 10, 1960, there were perhaps 500 seltzer men in the city, and a half-dozen seltzer bottlers. Now he can count his delivery competition on one hand, and they all fill up at the last seltzer factory in the city: Gomberg Seltzer Works in Canarsie.
A gritty old machine there pumps its effervescent, bubbly elixir into Mr. Miller’s thick glass bottles, made in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s, hand-blown and hand-etched, with pewter siphon tops.
“You drop one of these, it will explode,” he said, holding one up. “Inside here is triple-filtered New York City water with 80 pounds of carbonic pressure.”
Mr. Miller jams wooden shims between the 10 rattling bottles in the beat-up wooden cases, which he delivers for $31 each.
On a recent weekday morning, he pulled his van up to the seltzer works and exchanged his empty bottles for full ones. He said hello to the owner, Kenny Gomberg, and his son, Alex, 25, who last year started his own seltzer route.
“I’m the oldest seltzer man in New York and he’s the youngest,” Mr. Miller said as Alex Gomberg loaded his van next to Mr. Miller’s. “I’m passing the baton to him.”
In quieter moments, Mr. Miller allows that he might consider retiring in a year, and that there is no one to pass the route to. He has about 150 customers, many of them sporadic, which is about half what he once had. He works two or three days a week, delivering to brownstones in Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill, and to restaurants in Williamsburg.
His seltzer always sold itself — he includes the sound of a spritzing bottle on his answering machine — but these days, new customers seem as enthralled by the deliveryman, as much a throwback as his product.
“I rely on mouth-to-mouth recommendations, but I’ll only take new customers if they’re near my other ones,” said Mr. Miller, who will turn 80 in June.
He used to be able to carry two full cases of seltzer up four flights. Now he asks his customers to bring them up themselves from the lobby.
His lanky frame is still strong, and he can still hoist a crate to his shoulder, but usually he lugs them at waist level. Some days, back pain prevents him from working.
But he declared, “Old seltzer men never die — they just lose their shpritzer.”
Mr. Miller, a lifelong bachelor, has lived in the same apartment in Bensonhurst since 1977.
“My customers are my family,” he said. “They feed me dinner, and I’ve watched their children grow up.”
During a recent delivery to a brownstone in Park Slope, a housekeeper let him in and then left Mr. Miller alone in the place.
“You see?” he said, picking up the empty bottles. “They give me the keys to the kingdom.”
Mr. Miller grew up in Coney Island. His three siblings became professionals. He worked as a dividend clerk on Wall Street but wanted to make more money. He began a beer delivery route in Bedford-Stuyvesant, which turned into a seltzer route in other neighborhoods.
His father, Meyer Miller, began helping Eli after retiring from his house-painting job. In 1976, his father, then 72, died of a heart attack while carrying a case up to a customer.
“This customer, she used to give him a glass of schnapps, so he liked to deliver to her,” recalled Mr. Miller, who had run up from the truck but was unable to resuscitate his father.
To this day, he keeps copies of his father’s yellowing stationery in the front seat of his van as a keepsake.
“My father died on the route and I’m going to die on the route,” he said, and resumed stacking the old, clattering cases of seltzer into his van.
Happy Lag B'Omer!
Lag B'omer dancing with the 3 year-olds, who've just received their first haircuts, the traditional "Chalakeh", now proudly (and maybe a little overwhelmed about being the center of attention of several hundred thousand people) sporting their new "payis" and "tztitzis"
Warmest regards from Miron and from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. On the day of his departure from the material world, Rabbi Shimon called his disciples to his deathbed and commanded them to commemorate the anniversary of his death with joy and laughter. Mark it as "the day of my joy," he ordered. And so, ever since then, Lag B'omer has been a day ofsimcha, of happiness. To this day, we honor the directives of the tzaddik and come to Meron to sing, dance, and pray our hearts out. Rebbe Shimon helps our prayers reach the proper address.
Friday, April 26, 2013
How Muslims persecuted the Jews of Shiraz (Persia), 1893
You know how Iranians like to pretend that they have always treated their Jewish subjects with respect?
Well, not so much.
From "Jewish Missionary Intelligence," July, 1893:
Well, not so much.
From "Jewish Missionary Intelligence," July, 1893:
Shiraz has the largest Jewish population in the south. Their number is 5,000, and they occupy 430 houses in their own quarter, called Mahale Yahoodian i.e., "the quarter of the Jews." They have ten large synagogues, two chief Rabbis, and five schools, where the children study Hebrew. No one knows the Talmud except the Rabbis. They read Hebrew in order to be able to say their prayers in the synagogue. Not one Jew in Shiraz can read the Persian language, or speak it properly. They speak a jargon Persian, quite different from the Jews of other parts of Persia.
All the Jews are very anxious to have a proper school in which to learn the Persian and European languages. By occupation they are goldsmiths and silversmiths, and have their shops on the back streets of the Mohammedan quarter. There are a good many petty merchants, who go to Fessa and Jahroom to buy opium, and return to Shiraz where they sell it to the Mohammedans on credit.
...Nowhere in Persia are the Jews so badly persecuted as in Shiraz. The chief Mollah has promulgated the following laws with regards to them:
1st. "They must not wear ordinary clothes like the Mohammedans." This law is carried to such an extent that no Jew dare put on a black hat like the Moslems.
2nd. "The Jews must not ride on horse, mule, or donkey to the towns." (I did not see one Jew acting contrary to this law.)
3rd. "A pervert to the Mohammedan religion has a right to claim the whole property of his deceased relative." At the present time the perverts have not so much power as before, and dare not claim the whole of the property, but they trouble their relatives, and get about 500 kerans from them, and then leave them in peace.
4th. "If a Mohammedan is in debt to a Jew, the Jew must not force him to pay, but the Moslem may pay his debt at his own pleasure; but if a Jew owes to a Mohammedan he must pay him on the first notice."
5th "If a Mollah or priest beats a Jew in the street or abuses him, that Jew must not return the abuse, but must pass on quietly."
These laws are in some respects similar to those enacted by the Mollahs of Ispahan for the Jews of that town. (See Jewish Intelligence, November, 1889, page 116.) About six years ago, when Prince Zel-El Sultan was the Chief Governor of the whole of the South of Persia, he ordered the Chief Mollah of Shiraz to be brought to Ispahan, because he used to trouble the Jews. He obeyed the order, and come to Ispahan, where he was kept until June, 1888, when the Prince was deposed. He then returned to Shiraz^ and commenced his enmity against the Jews.
1944 Jewish Agency letter to Britain describing death camps in detail
The Guardian has an article about newly released archives describing how the British predicted in 1948 the Jews would win any war, and many other details.
Being the Guardian, it is spinning things to make the Jews look as evil as possible, and I cannot compare the Guardian's reporting with the actual documents yet because they do not seem to be available on the British National Archives website.
But while I was looking, I came across this:
As we all know, the British did nothing with this information to save the remainder of Europe's Jews.
That antipathy seems to have spilled over into the more recently released archives, based on the new report.
Hopefully we will be able to check it out soon rather than trust a newspaper that can be relied upon toalways put on an anti-Zionist spin on history.
Being the Guardian, it is spinning things to make the Jews look as evil as possible, and I cannot compare the Guardian's reporting with the actual documents yet because they do not seem to be available on the British National Archives website.
But while I was looking, I came across this:
That antipathy seems to have spilled over into the more recently released archives, based on the new report.
Hopefully we will be able to check it out soon rather than trust a newspaper that can be relied upon toalways put on an anti-Zionist spin on history.
Judaism in a Teapot - Spanish Inquisition Teapot
Closed.
Take off the top piece...
It's a dreidle!
Next piece...
A spice holder
Open
Closed.
The word on the bottom is 'spices' in Hebrew.
Next layer down.
The eternal flame.
Front View.
The inscription reads, "The light of god is man's soul."
But turn it to the side, and there's another secret!
A Megilla!
It's actually a complete, tiny, useable megilla that rolls out several feet.
Contributor didn't roll it out because it's a pain to get back in.
Etrog holder.
The body of the teapot is designed to hold an etrog.
inscription.
The words say "pri etz hadar" a biblical reference to the etrog.
Inside!
Shabbat candlesticks
closeup
Under the candlesticks...
A seder plate!
The individual plates latch into notches on the side of the teapot.
Everything open.
But wait!
There's one more secret hidden on the bottom!
A Menorah!
With the shammas.
And all closed up again.
YNET: 1948 British report: Arabs will lose war; The Guardian publishes declassified documents shedding light on struggle for State of Israel. 'The Jewish public in Israel supports terrorism,' 1946 document says
Even prior to withdrawing its troops from Israel in 1948, the British government realized the partition of the country and the establishment of the State of Israel would result in a war - that the Arabs would lose, according to declassified UK government documents published Friday by The Guardian.
According to the British newspaper, various Colonial Office reports paint a picture of increasing "terrorist acts" by the Jews, and the external pressure from the US, the UN and the Zionistmovement to divide the country. In addition, the documents criticize British Mandate officials who were concerned with "how to allocate between them two Rolls-Royces and a Daimler" during the tense times.
Colonial Secretary George Hall was told "The Jewish public … endorsed the attitude of its leaders that terrorism is a natural consequence of the general policy of His Majesty's Government." This included the illegal infiltration of Jews into Palestine.
Another document from 1946 states that "the Jewish public in Israel supports terrorism, in light of British policy."
Another document quoted a British official who, in a report to London in October 1946, more than a year before the UN vote over the partition plan, said that "Arab leaders appear to be still disposed to defer active opposition so long as a chance of a political decision acceptable to Arab interests exists."
Jewish victories. Operation Hiram in War of Independence (Photo: GPO)
"There is a real danger lest any further Jewish provocation may result in isolated acts of retaliation spreading inevitably to wider Arab-Jewish clashes," the report read.
Papers also reveal that moderate Jewish leaders were afraid to be seen as "Quislings," after the Norwegian Nazi-collaborating leader whose name became synonymous with treason. Pressure by the Zionist lobby in America is cited as another instigating factor for the Jews.
Arab Legion soldier. 'Arabs fleeing by the dozens' (Photo: AFP)
A report written in early 1948, as the war for Israel broke out, read "Jewish victories … have reduced Arab morale to zero and, following the cowardly example of their inept leaders, they are fleeing from the mixed areas in their thousands. It is now obvious that the only hope of regaining their position lies in the regular armies of the Arab states."
The Guardian described the papers a having "a remarkable contemporary resonance." Thus, according to the British newspaper, a wartime report intended for British intelligence officials said Arabnationalism had a "double nature … a rational constructive movement receptive of western influence and help and an emotional movement of revolt against the west."
The report concluded by saying "The conflict between these two tendencies will be decided in the present generation. The first aim of the policy of the western powers must be to prevent the triumph of the second tendency."
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