Sumo wrestlers will be soon touring Israel, Ynet reports.

A delegation of 15 top-ranking Sumo wrestlers is scheduled to arrive in Israel in June, according to sources in the Israeli embassy in Tokyo.

The planned visit, made possible following lengthy talks with the Japanese Sumo Federation, is part of an initiative aimed at promoting Japanese tourism to Israel and strengthening ties between the countries, as Sumo wrestlers are regarded as opinion makers in the land of the rising sun.

If the plan works out, this could get interesting. With a healthy cultural exchange, we could get better sushi. Maybe a wasabi as an alternative to harif in felafel, and if we’re lucky some of that Japanese patience and meticulousness might even inspire an Israeli or two.

A Saudi media channel interviewed Mohammed Mahdi Akef, who is the head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. For those who are unaware, this is the mother group from which Hamas was born. In the interview, he attacked and condemned the bomb attacks in the Sinai where 24 were killed and dozens of others wounded. Apparently, he feels strongly that this was a terrible act.

“These are terrorist and dangerous (operations) that result from a total ignorance of the value of the human life,” he said.

Then, just as you were beginning to think that he isn’t some sort of murderous insane maggot individual (How to Avoid Lashon Ha’ra 101), he decides that he should clarify that since this attack did not involve Jewish targets in Israel, it was different in its morality.

“Israel is an occupier, and it’s the right of the people of the country to resist occupation by all means,” he said.

Uh huh.

Anybody want to discuss the morality of targeted killings?

It is not by accident that the Torah describes the creation of the world with speech. With our speech we have the power to create and destroy, to inspire and degrade, to support and to undermine, to judge and to give the benefit of the doubt. Everyone has at one time or another put their foot in their mouth, and seen the consequences.

When someone is allergic to peanuts they take amazing precaution to not be affected. They sometimes will not even go in the same room where peanuts are being eaten, lest they have a catastrophic reaction. Their precaution is warranted because of the severity of the allergy and the great sensitivity of the human body.

Imagine if we all were sensitive to gossip, slander, lashon hora, and realized the great pain that was brought into the world through our speech. Some say, “Hey, there is NO WAY I can change, or even do a good job at this stuff.” Well, if you were allergic to peanuts, could you say the same thing?

Here is a meditation that I say: Lashon Hora is bad for the Jews and anything I can do to remove myself from it will make me healthier and in turn makes the Jewish people healthier.

Shabbat Shalom

TEN RULES OF LASHON HORA
Removing Lashon Hora from our lives means removing negativity, insinuation, scorn, and gossip from our speech. Jewish tradition forbids one to denigrate the behavior or character of a person or to make a remark that might cause physical, psychological or financial harm. If you follow these ten rules you will see peace blossom in all your relationships.
(more…)

Shabbat shalom to all of you.

Especially the nudists.

(photo)

No offense to perennial favorite Sefirat Ha-Homer, but my pick for numerical Omer-counting obsession this year is the “Movie Lover’s Omer Counter” over at BangItOut. (They also have a “Sports’-Lovers Omer Counter,” but I’m more interested in and amused by the movie-based counter…)

Today is apparently Fifteen Minutes days, which is Two Towers weeks and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest days to the Omer. Be sure to scroll back to previous patchworks, including #13, which was Friday the 13th days, which is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest weeks and the Sixth Sense of the Omer. And given that I love #16, too. (”Jake Ryan? But he’s a senior…”)
Best. Omer Counter. Ever. But I still forgot. Stupid Omer math.

The scent of Jasmine, the taste of the east, the sounds of Jerusalem
By EETTA PRINCE-GIBSON

The place that symbolizes Jerusalem for me? To climb up the YMCA tower, at night, and gaze at the walls,” says Eli Amir. “Look at the walls. See how the lights and shadows mix, the interplay of happiness and sadness. The merging of longing and reaching. The trees blur our vision and everything is so mysterious.

“So close and so far. The distance of the night, yet it seems that if you reach out, you can touch those massive walls. They are yours and they are not. They are theirs, and they are not.

“And that is the whole story of Jerusalem.”

Read the rest of the lovely and interesting essay about Eli Amir, an Iraqi-born Israeli Jew who tells us how he straddles both his Arab and Eastern roots alongside his Judaism and presence in Israel.

I’m afraid, dear readers, that I have come into possession of some rather alarming information. I know that, what with all the bullying from Iran and the suicide bombings and the Hamas government and Avigdor Lieberman, some of you may not have the stomach for more wrenching news from our land. But my job, which I take very seriously, is to serve as a conduit, receiving the news of the world and conveying to you the most noteworthy of it, only in a more profane and misanthropic manner. So it is with a heavy heart and an unflagging sense of duty that I inform you of the latest crisis to befall the Jewish people.

We’re running out of tef.

Spice stores that cater to the Ethiopian community in Israel have felt the recent shortage of tef (Eragrostis tef) grain, the staple of the Ethiopian diet.

The shortage is a result of a recent decision by Ethiopian authorities to cease exporting the grain. Members of the local Ethiopian community believe that the decision came after the Ethiopian government was told Israeli importers are selling tef to Eritrea, Ethiopia’s northern enemy.

The grain come from a native Ethiopian annual grass and are ground into flour to make injera, a sourdough flatbread.

Injera lovers report that the shortage has, at best, raised tef prices in shops and, at worst, made it the grain impossible to obtain.

Naftali Abera, an Ethiopian who sells the grain in his spice shop in Nes Tziona, feels lucky: “In December, I received a big shipment and, at the end of January, I found out that Ethiopia had decided without prior notice to stop exporting tef. I heard this from people who called and asked me why I was still selling tef at the regular price, despite the shortage.”

In response, Abera says, he decided to raise his prices: A 50-kilogram sack of tef, which he formerly sold for NIS 260, now costs NIS 350. Abera has a few dozen remaining sacks in his storehouse.

“I am saving these sacks for regular customers. If I had chosen to sell them, I could have moved the entire supply within a week,” Abera says.

The Ethiopian Embassy in Israel denies claims that its government decided to halt tef exports because Israeli importers were supplying to Eritrea, and instead blames the rising price of tef in Ethiopia. Officials say the Ethiopian government is considering requiring a license to export the unusual grain.

I really like injera, acquired taste though it may be, and I find the news of our nation’s rapidly depleting tef supply most alarming. I live upstairs from an Ethiopian dry goods store (called, inconsistently, something I can’t read in Amharic, “Addis Traditional Center” in English and “Addis Center for Spices” in Hebrew) and around the corner from a couple more, so I fully expect to see within the next week crowds of tiny old women with facial tattoos and flowing headscarves battling each other tooth and nail for precious, precious sacks of tef, all from the safe vantage point of my balcony. And as if that wasn’t reason enough to live above an Ethiopian store, they often play Amharic pop loudly enough to filter through the walls of my bathroom, and Amharic pop is basically like Um Kulthum meeting Donna Summer in a club owned by Fela Kuti at 78 RPM, which is even greater than it sounds.

But back to our disappearing injera. Since in a matter of weeks, if the situation holds, tef will be as rare in Israel as decent french fries, I recommend you go out and get some before it’s gone. In particular, I recommend the Jerusalem restaurant Shegar, which is hidden away in a narrow alley that threads between Yafo and Agrippas, presumably to keep away the bane of downtown Jerusalem restaurants, American tourist families (”EXCUSE ME, DO – YOU – TAKE – AMERICAN – DOLLARS?!”). It’s a real Israeli restaurant – unpretentious, cozy, small tables, somewhat random decor, tiny kitchen, and, in the most encouraging sign for an ethnic restaurant, full of real Ethiopians, huddled around bottles of Goldstar intently watching Ethiopian music videos. It’s kosher according to Ethiopian minhag (one dish mixes chicken and butter) and lacks a teudah from the rabbanut, which makes the restaurant at all times blissfully free from Anglo yeshiva students and Charedim. Go up the small staircase to the second level and get a table under the mural of the Ethiopian countryside and paintings of plumed Ethiopian warriors and order a Meta or a Kedus Giorgis, because of course you can’t appreciate a country’s cuisine unless you’ve tried its beer (it’s not bad, a little sweeter than most beers). As far as food goes, well, I’m vegetarian so I’ve never tried the meat dishes, but most of my meateater friends have grudgingly admitted that the vegetarian options are yummier. Basically, on the veggie side, you have your choice between two kinds of wat (stew), shiro (lentil) and misr (chickpeas), and alicha, which is potatoes and other goodies spiced a bright yellow – all the dishes are flavorful, mildly spicy and, best of all, really cheap (20 shekels). The meat dishes tend to be a mixture of beef and oil and spices, which doesn’t always go over well. They come with a platter of injera, and the idea is to tear off chunks of injera and dip them into the wat with one hand and sort of roll it into a tube and stuff it into your mouth. No, you priss, they don’t have silverware. It’s not much different from the Israeli hummusiya experience, except you run a higher risk of dropping wat in your lap if you’re not deft. The service is generally pretty prompt, and even though you are most decidedly on Ethiopian turf, they’re all nice as hell. And sometimes they have a hot waitress. So seriously, go, before there’s no more injera to be had in all of Israel.

Oh, and a note to you people who have Bob Marley’s “Legend” and think you’re terribly clever – if you walk in and feel inspired by the red, gold and green color scheme and paintings that say “Ethiopia” to say anything along the lines of “Rastafari!” or, even worse, “Selassie!”, you will get punched, and you will deserve it. Listen to the Amharic pop, eat your injera and shut up.

Newspaper 1:

Israel summons Swedish envoy over NATO drill, visas for Hamas

Foreign Ministry Director-General Ron Prosor on Thursday summoned Swedish Ambassador to Israel Robert Rydberg to clarify Stockholm’s decision to withdraw from a NATO international air force exercise because of Israel’s participation, as well as reports that the Scandinavian country was planning to grant visas to two Hamas representatives.

Sweden called off its participation in the air force exercises to take place in Italy next month because of the involvement of the Israel Air Force in the drills.

Prosor told Rydberg that those who do not see Israel as a legitimate peacekeeping force could not be surprised that Israel does not view them as having legitimate involvement in the Middle East peace process.

He told the ambassador that Israel had received reports that Sweden intended to be the first European state to grant visas to Hamas officials, which would be seen as bestowing legitimacy on a terrorist organization.

“We do make a connection between these two events and are concerned with Sweden’s positions on them,” the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm said in a statement.

Rydberg said in response that the Hamas officials had requested visas, but that they had not been granted in any event. He said that even if the visas were issued, the Hamas representatives would not meet with Swedish dignitaries in an official capacity.

Regarding the NATO drill, Rydberg said that Sweden had “technical and financial” reasons for dropping out of the exercise, and pointed out that Israel and Sweden had never participated in the same peacekeeping exercise.

Prosor replied that the envoy’s remarks were “insulting and unacceptable.”

Sweden was supposed to send nine aircraft to Italy for Volcanex 2006. According to a Swedish military source, the decision was made in response to Israel’s lack of participation in peacekeeping missions, a prerequisite for this particular drill.

While not mentioning Israel by name, Swedish Defense Minister Leni Bjorklund said that her country was withdrawing because “the Swedish Armed Forces were notified at a late stage that a state not belonging to the Partnership for Peace, and with which Sweden did not previously have bilateral military cooperation and which does not take part in international peacekeeping missions, was to take part in the air exercise.”

“The Government has given and gives the Swedish Armed Forces permission to carry out a number of different military exercises. This permission is applicable as long as there is no significant change in the conditions for the exercise. In the cases of the Volcanex and Spring Flag air exercises in Italy, international peacekeeping missions were the exercise scenario,” added Bjorklund.

A Swedish Foreign Ministry official said, “The point of the operation is to prepare for international cooperation in preserving world peace. The participation of the Israeli air force changes the prerequisites of the drill.”

Israeli officials have responded harshly to the decision.

One government source said, “The lack of sympathy for Israel in Sweden is out of proportion. Some government ministers spearhead the most anti-Israel approach in all of Europe, and particularly in Scandinavia. In meetings between senior Israelis and Swedish ministers, the Swedes refuse to listen to Israel’s positions.”

National Religious Party Chairman MK Zevulun Orlev, called Sweden’s decision anti-Semitic, saying, “Just a day after the commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, an enlightened nation has risen and surrendered to the Islamic axis of evil.”

=========================================

Newspaper 2:

Sweden called to explain Hamas visas

Sweden’s Ambassador to Israel Robert Rydberg was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Thursday to explain his government’s decision to grant visas allowing Hamas leaders to enter Sweden.

Rydberg said that the visas had not yet been issued, but did not exclude that event from happening. He said that there would be no meetings between the Hamas members and Swedish officials.

The two officials also discussed Sweden’s decision, announced on Wednesday, to withdraw from an international air force exercise upon learning that Israel was also due to participate. He provided mostly technical and financial explanations for Sweden’s withdrawal from the military exercise.

Foreign Ministry Dir.-Gen. Ron Prossor reportedly rejected Rydberg’s explanations, saying that Stockholm’s decision effectively legitimizes terrorism, and that one cannot make a distinction between a terrorist organization and its members.

In explaining Stockholm’s stance, the spokesman of the Swedish Foreign Ministry said that the aim of the drill was to prepare for future cooperation in international peacekeeping operations, but added that “the participation of the Israeli Air Force has changed the prerequisites of the exercise.”

Sweden’s Defense Minister Leni Bjorklund explained that Sweden pulled out because a state “that does not participate in international peacekeeping missions” would be part of the exercise, but did not mention Israel by name

The Foreign Ministry director-general told Rydberg that Sweden’s rejection of Israel contributed to a general anti-Israel attitude worldwide.

Prossor asserted that whoever disqualifies Israel disqualifies himself from any role in the Middle Eastern peace process.

A senior Israeli official claimed that Sweden was the country that is most hostile towards Israel. As such, he suggested that Israel should stop purchasing Swedish-made Volvos for its ministers.

In an interview to Israel Radio, former foreign minister Silvan Shalom mentioned that all the Scandinavian countries have had a problematic attitude towards Israel for some time. He noted that the Left in Sweden was more radical than in other countries, causing it to adopt a more pro-Palestinian attitude.

Shalom recalled that Sweden was one of the last Western nations to label Hamas a terrorist organization.

I may not have agreed with his politics, but there is no question that this man contributed a great deal over the course of his life to Israel and to science in general.

JERUSALEM — Yuval Neeman, founder of Israel’s space program and a key figure in the nation’s nuclear efforts, died Wednesday, his daughter said. He was 80.

Neeman suffered a stroke earlier this week and was taken to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital, where he died, the hospital said.

Neeman, a world-renowned nuclear physicist, also played a role in Israeli politics. In 1979, he was one of the founders of the hawkish Tehiya Party, which broke away from the ruling Likud in opposition to Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt. He served as science minister from 1990-92.

Born in 1925 in Tel Aviv, he studied at Israel’s Technion University, Imperial College in London, Advanced School for War Studies in Paris and received a Ph.D. from the University of London. He received Israel’s highest civilian honor, the Israel Prize, in 1969, for his work in the exact sciences.

Read the rest of the article about this man’s incredible life at the Washington Post.

First, they blast Italian marchers who stomp on the Israeli flag.

In a news article about the march, the L’Osservatore Romano newspaper called the anti-Israel protests a “serious and disgusting offense.”

“To offend a flag means to offend the people for whom it is a symbol, and therefore in this case it was an offense to the entire Jewish people, precisely on the day in which we celebrate liberation from their infamous oppressors,” L’Osservatore wrote.

and the irony here?

The protesters reportedly were angered by the presence in the march of Israeli flags in honor of members of the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, which helped liberate Italy.

Then, yesterday, an important representative of the Vatican in Israel – the custodian of all their property in Israel – spoke publicly about the unfortunate actions of a Pope during the Holocaust.

Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custos of the Holy Land…Speaking in Hebrew at a conference at Tel Aviv University on the actions of the Church during the Holocaust…criticized “church leaders, including those of the highest level, who did not adopt a courageous stand in the evangelical spirit in the face of the Nazi regime.”

From an article in Ha’aretz:

Religious courts are refusing to approve the conversions of young Ethiopians who want to enroll in secular education facilities. Last week a group of some 40 students who were registered for Jezreel Valley College were told they would not be converted because Shabbat is not observed at the dorms they would be living in.

Absorption officials say the courts’ policy is extremely offensive to these immigrants, who cannot obtain Israeli citizenship until they have conversion certificates. Haaretz has data showing that out of 181 young Ethiopians who have completed preparatory conversion courses since 2005, only one has received a conversion certificate.

Yeshuas Alam, 24, immigrated to Israel in 2003. Along with 11 of his peers Alam studied Judaism, underwent a ceremonial brit, a ritual mikveh immersion and an exam at the special conversion court. Yet two years later, only three have received conversion certificates.

“I applied to the rabbinic courts and the authorities dealing with this matter and received no reply,” Alam says. “I am here out of choice and want to be a loyal citizen, but I have no citizenship.”

Of course, the rabbi quoted in the article sees no problem here and places partial blame on the Ethiopians. Apparently, getting a ceremonial brit, going to lessons, going to a mikveh and spending years pursuing this objective don’t count as good faith efforts to convert.

What can I say? I am a bit of a child molester, only in that I swoon a little for the deliciously handsome young soldiers who sit next to me at some point every day on the bus while I go to and fro. On Yom Ha Shoah, like any other day, across from me was a particularly scrumptious specimen, but what caught my eye most was the sweatshirt he was wearing. A white hoodie and on the right part of the breast, a navy blue logo; a thin lined Magen david, the word ‘Jude’ inside in that font that is all too familiar, and what appeared to be either flames or a wreath surrounding the star.

It reminded me how a few years back when CK and I were concepting our short-lived T-Shirt line, that I had suggested something similar. You know, that tongue-in-cheek Jewish hipster ironic quality we get accused of from time to time…I said, “Let’s model a shirt after the NYPD shirts that were so popular post-9-11 with the yellow shield on the right breast area, but instead a Jude star – let’s turn it from a badge of oppression into a badge of honor.” Flatfootedly something like gays ‘taking back’ the word ‘queer.’ Sure, the idea had its problematics, but to me it was food for thought, and like any good provocateurs, I though we should roll with it.

No less than CK himself vetoed the idea. Something to the nature of, “C’mon, Alli, you know me, but that’s taking it a little too far.” I remember being at a dinner party and mentioning the idea and noticing how words can create silence. No one found it funny, cute, interesting, subversive, or clever – in fact, it pissed them off. Truth be told, I’m not so controversial by nature, so I took a hint, accepted CK’s dictatorial veto, and filed it into the file in my brain of ‘what if’s.

But seeing the handsome Israeli youth on the bus with this similar idea on his shirt – it opened my eyes a bit. Forget the clever Jewish shmatafest for a moment. This was a young guy, probably just about to go into the army, wearing a shirt that looked like it was produced by a youth group, or what-not, and I was watching him converse with his friends sitting opposite him, so lively and alive. And I thought, how amazing it was for some reason, and how sad it was, to see this on that particular day, Yom Hashoah. It also made me proud.

I recently asked my boyfriend, who is Israeli, if he felt connected to his Jewish identity and he said yes but more connected to his Israeli identity as something distinctly different. He said something to the tune of, “For 5,000 years of Jewish history, what do we have to show for it? Mere survival. But look what we’ve built here in just over 50 years,” – and granted, this can be fiercely argued, but the bottom line is that Yom Ha Shoah is one time a year where religious or secular, this that or the other, we are Israelis here and we are Jews, and both are undeniable and it is something very beautiful.

So if you’re going to be in LA on Thursday, April 27th and you’re wondering “What to do, what to do…” well, turns out Three of Clubs on Hollywood and Vine is gonna have a kick-ass death metal night, or should I say Deth Metal Nite! Featured acts include Wires On Fire, Modwheelmood (led by Alessandro Cortini, currently a member of Nine Inch Nails!) and BlackBlack – also featured DJs include Jesse the Devil Hughes and The Like. Dude, it’s totally gonna rawk!

Sorry, what? Not everyone likes “Deth Metal?” And isn’t this Jewlicious? Shouldn’t you be promoting, like you know, Jewish stuff? Especially in California with its 70% intermarriage rate?

OK fine. Let’s see… oh yeah, looks like there is something else going on. Turns out Thursday night is not just Deth Metal nite at the Three of Clubs, but it’s also Jewish College Night! From the Web site:

After its first success in spring of 2005, Jewish College Night is back to rock the Avalon in Hollywood on Thursday, April 27, 2006. With double the venue capacity of last year’s event, which was held at Hollywood’s Club Element, over 1000 Jewish college-aged partiers can take advantage of this year’s bash.

There’s going to be bus transportation from UCLA and USC and it only costs $10 at the door! So don’t worry. There’ll be other Deth Metal Nites – but Jewish College Student Night is only on Thursday, April 27th! Jewish College Night is sponsored by the Forest Foundation, Santa Barbara Hillel, The Los Angeles Hillel Council, the Los Angeles Jewish Federation, Jewstar.com, and the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles.

Deth Metal Nite on the other hand, is sponsored by Satan.

The Court granted bail to Valis, alleged baby killer. He is to be supervised by his parents while he lives in his Grandparent’s house and is not allowed to attend services. No one took Muffti’s advice to release him to the care of Rabbis in position of babysitter.

The release by Hareidi Rabbis is printed below, taken from beautifully designedCross-Currents.

“Holy Call” from our masters and teachers, great scholars of Israel, may they have long lives.
Since several of the dearest of our city (Jerusalem), among them the Rabbis of the student Israel Asher Valis, are working with all their strength to bring out the right and the truth to light, and to prove that he is clean of transgression, and to remove him from prison. Therefore we call upon our brethren the Children of Israel in every place to help them, and every person should do what he can to work with them, and to also help the family because the expenses are great and the family doesn’t have in their hands enough to withstand the expenses. And all who help and assist shall be blessed from the Source of Blessings.

Signed by Rav Elyashiv, Rav Steinman, Rav MY Lefkowitz, Rav Karelitz, Rav Kanievsky, Rav Shmuel Auerbach, Rav G Edelstein, and Rav Meir Tzvi Bergman. [emphasis Muffti's]

Anyhow, Muffti appologizes for passing on misleading information. He finds the letter reprehensible since it presupposes Valis’ innocence (or a complete lack of sensitivity on behalf of the community to justice!) – why else would they call for a search for exonerating evidence rather than just evidence? Muffti is not against treating people as innocent until proven guilty: but he is against the insensitivity to evidence. Let us remember that ‘innocent until proven’ guilty is a legal maxim – no one may be penalized without being found guilty. It doesn’t follow that people should treat any and all evidence against his innocence as misleading. The whole point of doing an investigation is no to prove innocence but to establish whether or not the person is guilty. Why are the Rabbi’s treating his innocence as a given?

Consider the opposite proposal that Muffti makes in parody:

“General Call” from the Muffti’s secular heroes, great atheist thinkers, may they have long lives.
Since several of the dearest of our city (Jerusalem), among them the Police and investigators, are working with all their strength to bring out the right and the truth to light, and to prove that he guilty of being a baby abuser and killer, and to send him straight back to prison. Therefore we call upon our brethren the Children of Israel in every place to help them, and every person should do what he can to work with them.

Pretty silly, no?

Valis, for his part, retracted his confession as soon as he could.

They [the police] are total criminals; you cannot imagine which despicable methods they used against me to fabricate a ‘confession.’ Even if they wanted to prove that I made an atomic bomb they would have succeeded,”

Let Muffti guess: they bit you, beat you, kicked you and smashed you against the wall? According to Mrs. Valis, a shady investigator disguised as a lawyer convinced Valis that pleading guilty would lead to immeadiate release. Here’s the account as told by Ynet:

Valas’ wife told confidents that when her husband was arrested, an investigator disguised as a lawyer sent by the family spoke to her husband in Yiddish and succeeded in convincing him that if he pleads guilty he will be released immediately.

She said her husband told the investigator he is not willing to lie but he offered to put this in writing so no lies are said on his behalf.

That’s why the police possess a confession to the murder written by her husband, something which is not acceptable in general. She said her husband suffered a series of “menacing and terrible” abuses.

Huh? Can anyone explain what this means to the Muffti? Valis didn’t want to lie but offered to put ‘this’ in writing so no lies are said? What is ‘this’? And how did the poor child, get the bite marks? This case is as perplexing as it is heartbreaking.

In any case, so the Muffti isn’t thought to be heartless, he would like to express just how awful this whole incident is, and how at the centre of the story is not Valis, the police or the Hareidim but the poor child (whose name Muffti can scarcely track down). Not only has he suffered the most, he’s the only person involved in the case who is clearly blameless.

The State Attorney’s office on Sunday reported that there have been 82 suicide bombers stopped while trying to pass through unfinished gaps the the Jerusalem section of the security wall this year.

Given that there were only 113 days from the start of the year until that report, that works out to be one would-be suicide bomber stopped every 33 hours.

Say what you will about the security wall, but as a Jerusalem resident, I’ll just say Thank You.

I would just like to thank our readers and guests. On Google, we have just broken into the first page results for “wart on the nose.”

Again, our deepest gratitude for making Jewlicious such a popular destination for serious discussion and insights into current affairs and, uh, other things.

How best to celebrate both Israel Independence Day and the arrival of the 100,000th participant of Taglit-birthright israel? Well if you’re thinking a funny cartoon featuring Elijah Wood, Toby McGuire and a clever little ditty sung to the tune of Fatboy Slim’s Praise You, then you have already anticipated this flash animation. Yes. Yet another cartooon by Ben Baruch of Shabot 6000 – does the Jewish community have a cartoonist-laureate position? Just wondering …

The slogan has been worn on pins at hundreds of Holocaust memorial day observances. It is a rallying cry in the Jewish community to never allow the Holocaust to happen again, never allow the destruction of Israel, never allow genocide to be perpetrated against any other people.

Yesterday I saw the slogan Never-Again™ printed on a poster about the Armenian Genocide committed by the Turks. (Now we’re in trouble with Turkey)
The website, never-again.com is dedicated to telling the story of the genocide, and the organization behind the educational campaign is based here in Southern California.

My initial reaction to seeing the words Never-Again™ was “did they get a trademark for real?”

According to Milton Himmelfarb, writing in Commentary Magazine in 1971, “Among Jews the currency of the slogan seems to date from the anxious weeks before the 1967 war, when Israel was threatened with destruction.”

Never Again was the title of a book published in New York in 1971/2 by Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the JDL and Kach. The JDL used to chant this slogan in rallies.

A letter to the editor of the NY Times in 1990 claims that Kahane did not author the phrase, but popularized it. It was “first used in a Swedish documentary, Mein Kampf, directed by Erwin Leiser and produced in 1961,” wrote JOHN F. DAVENPORT to the NY Times, Nov. 8, 1990.

Over a general shot of Auschwitz, he says simply, “It must never happen again — never again.” Meir Kahane popularized a phrase whose original, universal meaning he transformed.

According to the US Patent and Tradmark Office, the phrase was once trademarked by the Seaburg Company of Oregon for “ BANDAGES FOR RELIEVING SKIN FRICTION IN THE NATURE OF A THIN FILM OF ADHESIVE BACKED POLETHYLENE OR POLYURETHANE.” It was first used by the company in September 2004, and is no longer active.

The film Never Again by USA Films Starring Jeffrey Tambor, Jill Clayburgh, and Sandy Duncan is “a romantic comedy [that] takes a ribald yet compassionate look at two lovelorn fifty-something New Yorkers.”

Never Again is the title of an song and album by Nickelback. The song is about a women being beaten by her lover, “I’m terrified, She’ll wind up Dead/In his hands, She’s just a woman/Never Again.”

The Jewish rap artist, Remedy, recorded a song called Never Again as well, about the Holocaust.

To all those races, colors, and creeds, every man bleeds
for the countless victims and all their families
of the murdered, tortured and slaved, raped,
robbed and persecuted – Never Again!
To the men, women, and children
Who died in their struggle to live, never to be forgotten

This weekend there will be rallies across the country to protest the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Perhaps as a way to observe this Yom Hashoa, we can take a moment a fill out this email-postcard to Mr. President Bush , to help stop the bloodshed in Darfur.

Never Again.

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. This morning at 10 am, sirens sounded across Israel – everything stopped and everyone stood still for two minutes of silence. People on highways got out of their cars and stood quietly. The only sound that could be heard in downtown Jerusalem’s Zion square was the blaring siren. Even the loud and manic vendors at Machaneh Yehuda, Jerusalem’s central market, remained quiet for two minutes. Rechaviah, where I was running errands, was also extremely quiet – but Rechaviah is always quiet.

What can I say – we’re pretty much all on record as having stated that we need less Holocaust Museums, that Jewish identity ought to revolve less around death and Genocide trips to Poland and more around, you know, Judaism. Last year, I was a bit of a dick even with respect to the March of the Living. But when you’re standing there, and no one’s moving, and you think of the shattered lives, the millions killed, the survivors who still live in poverty, well – it was all I could do not to shed a tear.

You can read about this year’s March of the Living at Auschwitz here, and you can read about today’s Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony at Yad Vashem here. Hey – what would you do if you found out that your brother bought his bar mitzvah suit from Eichman’s mom? And that your families were close? Produce a documentary of course! Read about controversial Israeli film maker Micha Shagrir and his startling discovery.

Oh my – one last thing. You know, last but not least… Today’s ceremonial laying of wreaths at Yad Vashem experienced a first – the participation of the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance who laid a wreath for the first time at Yad Vashem, in the name of the GLBT community. I don’t have to tell you all about the pink triangles, right? Right then – thanks again John!

Montage of pictures from Death Camps. Middle picture, top row: Gypsies await murder at Belzec

Worth 30 minutes of your time this Yom Hashoah: The ARC website documenting the Aktion Reinhard Camps. DeathCamps.org

According to the Collegian, the administration at Penn State have cancelled an art exhibit on the Israel-Palestinian conflict from a Jewish perspective.
It had to do with a policy that from my superficial understanding of the First Amendment, seems totally unconstitutional.

Three days before his 10-piece exhibit — Portraits of Terror — was scheduled to open at the Patterson Building, Stulman (senior-painting and anthropology) received an e-mail message from the School of Visual Arts that said his exhibit on images of terrorism “did not promote cultural diversity” or “opportunities for democratic dialogue” and the display would be cancelled.

Stulman’s art, according the fine reporting of the Collegian, “raises questions concerning the destruction of Jewish religious shrines, anti-Semitic propaganda and cartoons in Palestinian newspapers, the disregard for rules of engagement and treatment of prisoners, and the indoctrination of youth into terrorist acts.” Sounds like interesting art work to this Rabbi son of a Painter.

Penn State’s Hillel was helping Stulman to exhibit the artwork, and are quoted as trying to find another venue to show the art to support Jewish students. Yashar Koach to PSU Hillel and Tuvia Abramson, director of Penn State Hillel.

Tip of the Yarmulke to Israpundit

Well, not really. I mean let’s face it, Jon Stewart is a great fake news show host, but he would make a really bad Mossad agent, what with all the tie straightening and weird impressions of GW Bush.

So, odds are that tonight’s Daily Show guest, director of the Center for Strategic and Policy Studies at The Hebrew University’s School for Public Policy and former director of the Mossad Efraim Halevy, has not been sent to recruit Stewart to work on behalf of the Jewish State.

But just in case, we’d better watch anyway. Tonight, April 24th on Comedy Central. Check your local listings. (And if you miss him on the Daily Show, check out Halevy on his media blitz in promotion of his new book…details are here.)

UPDATE: Missed the interview? See it online here. (Hat tip to AKS)