The previous post about ritual immersion in Israel raises some interesting questions. It implies that Reform and Conservative Jews are systematically barred from using Mikvehs, or ritual baths, in Israel. This assertion is based on yet another stellar article from YNetNews. The article was vague on details and, as we have come to expect, poorly written. Neither the Jerusalem Post, nor Haaretz have seen fit to run this story.

What is clear is that the implication that Reform or Conservative Jews are barred from using Mikvehs in Israel, or anywhere else for that matter, is patently false. While admission to a mikveh is ordinarily restricted to Jews, there is no test applied – a simple assertion that one is Jewish is enough to gain entry.

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That’s right, speak to many Palestinians and they will tell you that what they really want is for there to be no borders and that a single state should exist between the river and the sea with all the area’s members as its citizens. Israel has resisted this for many years citing silly ideas like the right of self determination or the ongoing hostility of the Palestinians toward the Jews going as far back as the early part of the last century when Jews were a significant minority in the region.

Finally, having hit a wall, literally and figuratively, the Palestinians have decided to try a new approach: impress the Israelis enough to make them want a single state solution. To that end, the Palestinians, as is their wont, recruited some combatants – to make things a little simpler for our reader, we’ll call them terrorists – to show Israel what they can offer Israeli society. The terrorists, members of Fatah’s own Al Aqsa Brigades, took it upon themselves to make a favorable impression and today was the day they kicked off their public relations campaign.

How did they launch it? Did they bake cakes or distribute sweets to Israeli children? Nope. Did they send messages of good cheer accompanied by kegs of lemonade and vats of hummus? Nope. Did they blow kisses and smile fondly at Israeli passers-by while burying their weapons underground never to be seen again? Nope. Nope. Nope. They launched their campaign by killing a man in broad daylight, and then his alleged lover/mistress/girlfriend in broad daylight. I know what you’re thinking, you’re asking yourself whether this is an effective PR approach. That’s a valid question and I believe the Palestinians went out of their way to make this event truly unique and exemplary of what would happen in their ideal single state.

You see, the man who was killed, Jafal Abu Tzrur, was accused of being an informant who had told the Israelis about an Al Aqsa Brigades member who was killed by the IDF. How did they know that he was an informant? He confessed.

After two days of torture.

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That’s right, we don’t want to ruffle any feathers or cause offense to anybody, so this will be a gentle and serious post.

Ynet is reporting that Israel’s Masorti (Conservative) and Progressive Judaism (Reform) movements are petitioning Israel’s High Court of Justice against the National Authority of Religious Affairs to gain entry into tax-payer funded mikvahs into which their entry is being denied.

These non-Orthodox movements often use mikvahs for the same reasons Orthodox Jews use mikvahs: ritual purity, and conversions.

The primary uses of mikvah today are delineated in Jewish Law and date back to the dawn of Jewish history. They cover many elements of Jewish life. Mikvah is an integral part of conversion to Judaism…The mikvah concept is also the focal point of the taharah, the purification rite of a Jew before the person is laid to rest and the soul ascends on high. The manual pouring of water in a highly specific manner over the entire body of the deceased serves this purpose.

Mikvah is also used by men on various occasions; with the exception of conversion, they are all customary. The most widely practiced are immersion by a groom on his wedding day and by every man before Yom Kippur….But the most important and general usage of mikvah is for purification by the menstruant woman.

For the menstruant woman, immersion in a mikvah is part of a larger framework best known as Taharat Hamishpachah (Family Purity). As with every area of Jewish practice, Family Purity involves a set of detailed laws; namely, the “when,” “what,” and “how” of observance…Family purity is a system predicated on the woman’s monthly cycle. From the onset of menstruation and for seven days after its end, until the woman immerses in the mikvah, husband and wife may not engage in sexual relations.

Clearly, mikvahs represent an important and perhaps crucial element of Jewish life.

It seems that the Government of Israel which operates the National Authority of Religious Affairs is practicing religious discrimination against Israeli citizens who are Jewish.

I will repeat that in a kind and gentle non-ascerbic tone that doesn’t mock anybody so that this will resonate clearly. In a Jewish state called Israel created by the Jewish people in their historic homeland to be a home but also a haven from all those places in the world where Jews have experienced discrimination, a government ministry called National Authority of Religious Affairs is preventing Jews from entering tax-payer funded buildings housing a crucial element of Jewish religious practice.

Is this discrimination accidental or random? That would at least explain part of the problem. No, it appears that this discrimination is mandated at the Ministerial level of the Israeli government.

The minister in charge of the Religious Affairs, MK Yitzhak Cohen (Shas) said in response to the petition: “Conversions of reform and conservative organizations are virtual conversions, and they deserve to immerse in a virtual immersion. This is a vexing petition. The only immersion the reform are aware of is Baptism. So they can continue to walk on water and leave the people of Israel alone.”

I don’t want to be contentious and have others accuse me of bias against Orthodox Jews so I’ll have Mr. Cohen of Shas, a Minister in the Government, tell us again what he thinks of Jews who are not Orthodox:

The only immersion the reform are aware of is Baptism.

So they can continue to walk on water and leave the people of Israel alone.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I suggested that it was discriminatory to make non-Orthodox Jews who wanted communal prayer at the Kotel – the Western Wall – pay for the opportunity and relegate them to a distant corner of the wall? I suspect I miss that day now because that form of discrimination seemed enlightened compared to this story.

(Photo source is The Mikvah Project)

As we await the news with bated breath…
This Wednesday, 10:30 am at the Israeli Consulate in New York, Taglit-birthright israel will reveal to the world who the 100,000th participant on their free 10-day trips to Israel will be. All they are saying is that she is 26 and works for the communications department at NASDAQ. There to introduce Erika Farber, oops, I mean the mystery woman, will be Michael “PD” Steinhardt, one of the main driving forces behind Taglit-birthright israel. Having no previous affiliation to any Jewish organization, Erika, I mean the mystery woman, seems to be the ideal birthright candidate. She will undoubtedly benefit greatly from her 10-day trip and return home with a newfound love for the Jewish people and the State of Israel. As a PR professional, she will also undoubtedly be possessed of a not insignificant measure of media savvy.

I can’t help but think that our mystery 100,000th participant was specifically chosen because of her professional credentials. I think it would have been way cooler to simply lie in wait at Ben Gurion Airport, and as soon as the 100,000th actual participant cleared customs, whamo! You let loose with a torrent of banners and confetti! That would have been so neat – and the actual 100,000th participant could have been anyone, from anywhere. They would have been clueless and wide eyed as they enjoyed their trip followed by a gaggle of reporters and birthright staff people.

But I understand. This is a great PR opportunity for a fantastic program and it’s best not to leave anything to chance. Erika, I mean the participant, will surely do a great job representing birthright, and I for one look forward to hearing all about her trip. This milestone is truly remarkable and underscores the unprecedented nature of birthright israel. Later in the summer we will experience the impact birthright israel has had on an entire generation of Jews from around the world at the ROI120 conference. But till then, let’s try and good naturedly enjoy the shenanigans cooked up by birthright israel’s PR department. So… welcome to Israel Miss whoever you are! Enjoy your trip!

In other birthright news, the participants of the last Taglit-birthright israel/Oranim/Jewlicious Israel trip have completed their travels. They all had a great time and I learnt a few things myself. Photos and a wrap up post coming soon. Also, the birthright israel Web site has reproduced one of our posts. Oh and I am only guessing at the name of the 100,000th participant. She simply had the most Jewish sounding name at NASDAQ’s communications office. I got the name after a 3-minute Google search. I could be totally wrong.

Hat tip to… you know who

Muffti is having a field day trying to figure out just what the academic boycott amounts to. Here’s a summary of what happened.

First, there are 2 organizations involved. One is the Association of University Teachers (AUT), the other the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE). The former has 48,000 members, the latter 69,000 members. The confusing thing is that on June 1st, they shall merge into the new University and College Union (UCU), which Muffti guessses (since the positive support for the merger was high) will have some 130,000 members.

Now, the AUT last year proposed and passed a ban on 2 Israeli universities, which it rejected soon afterwards, adopting a resolution that made it clear that such bans would not happen again unless very special circumstances called for it. As the AUT general secretary, Sally Hunt, put it:

It is now time to build bridges between those with opposing views here in the UK and to commit to supporting trade unionists in Israel and Palestine working for peace.

Muffti can forgive a month long mistake that was rectified. In any case, the NATFHE was responsible for the latest academic ban. Well, sort of. It’s awfully difficult to find the ban – Muffti had to troll around the NATFHE’s website for a while before finding the following paragraphs in the minutes of the annual NATFHE’s conference:

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The British are not happy. This is admittedly a standard state of affairs for that island in the fog, but I find the reason rather amusing. Irish director Ken Loach, whose film The Wind That Shakes the Barley won the Palme D’Or at Cannes, has just become the British media’s newest target. Why? Ahh, you see, The Wind That Shakes the Barley tells the story of the 1920s Irish independence uprising from an Irish perspective and apparently makes the British occupiers look…not so good.

In Tuesday’s edition of the Sun, columnist Harry MacAdam calls The Wind That Shakes The Barley the “most pro-IRA film ever”.

Its plot, he continues, is “designed to drag the reputation of our nation through the mud”.

In the Daily Mail, Ruth Dudley Edwards writes that Loach’s purpose is to “encourage direct comparisons between the Ireland of 1920-22 and present-day Iraq”.

“This, of course, requires the portrayal of the British as sadists and the Irish as romantic, idealistic resistance fighters.”

The film, told entirely from the perspective of its Irish characters, shows British soldiers to be indiscriminately violent.

Excuse me a minute while I put on my very best Bob Dylan sneer:

How does it feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel?

Gosh, imagine that! Historically questionable depictions of a nation as an undifferentiated mass of bloody, brutal occupiers told entirely from the perspective of the poor suffering oppressed underdog who would of course never resort to violent tactics of their own kinda…well…they kinda burn you up, don’t they, you fucking wankers?

Is there a lesson in this? Could we possibly take something away from this and apply it to our international relations?

Of course we can. We should boycott Ireland’s universities!

Drool, Britannia.

A member of Islamic Jihad was assassinated in Lebanon a couple of days ago. Israel was blamed (how unusual) but denied any involvement. Hizbullah fired rockets at Northern Israel and used the assassination as a pretext. The IDF hit back. Hizbullah launched some more rockets and this time the IDF hit back very hard. Hizbullah actually sent a request through the Lebanese Government requesting a cease-fire and Israel agreed.

However, in the NY Times story, the Headline read “Israel and Militants Trade Fire Across Lebanese Border.” The article, much like the implication in the title suggesting that both sides went at it and that’s how things evolved, fails to mention the instigators until halfway through the article and then, to add insult to injury, gives credence to the accusation that this was justified defensive action on behalf of Lebanon by Hezbullah with an interview of a Lebanese professor who proclaims, as if it is fact, that Israel shouldn’t have killed the Islamic Jihad leader if it wanted to avoid attacks.

The online article doesn’t show the two photos that accompanied this article, one being of Israeli soldiers and the other of an injured 14 year old Lebanese girl who was hit by some glass during an IAF aerial bombardment of Hizbullah positions.

Today was Memorial Day. Many people in the US had the day off and while there was shopping, many stores and businesses did remain closed to participate in the commemorations for those American soldiers who have been killed in the line of duty.

Many homes with flags outside had their flags at half mast. It was a chilling reminder not only of all those thousands upon thousands of soldiers who have given up their lives fighting wars such as World Wars I & II, Korea, Vietnam and others, but also that we are currently fighting very costly wars where over 2000 American soldiers have lost their lives already and the end is not in sight.

People may criticize Administrations and their policies, or perhaps criticize mistakes made or poor choices made by security organizations or the military. However, that has little to do with the sacrifice of those many brave American soldiers who go off to fight wars as part of their duty to the United States, its people and government.

I grieve the loss of these many courageous soldiers and hope that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will end with as few future casualties as possible. I hope they will end soon. To the soldiers who are gone in these wars and others, to those who have been hurt in wars, and to their families who must contend with life after their loved ones are killed, I’d like to express my gratitude.

A letter from an Australian backpacker to the average Israeli backpacker contains some painful truths. It’s called, A Letter to My Ugly Brother.

Yossi, Yonni, Yael … I’m not sure of your name, but I think you know who you are. You have a pair of Shoresh sandals on your feet, a big black backpack cover on your pack, and you like to check out Lametayel’s website for travel tips. Maybe you have just finished the army and are feeling tough enough to take on the world. At least, I hope you are, because you might not like some of the things I have to say. But what I am going to tell you, I assure you, is out of love.

…

Then, as my journey wore on, I recognized that there were in fact two types of Israelis: the good kind, and the bad. The “good” kind were incredibly friendly, funny and interesting. They also liked to go undercover – wear brands of sandals other than Shoresh and mix with the general backpacker community; whereas the “bad” kind were the ones yelling across hotels and making jokes at others’ expense.

Problem was, I realized, it was the loud, obnoxious type who were immediately identifiable as Israeli and giving the whole country a bad name.

Yup.

Here’s a little travelogue about Israelis in Latin America to buttress the author’s point.

( I am reposting this letter from Ms. Taylor which she submitted as a comment)

May 23, 2006
A Report on “Holocaust in the Holyland” at UC Irvine
Filed under: Front Page, Opinion, USA, Hamas, Islam, Palestinians
by Allyson Rowen Taylor

I am the Associate Director of the American Jewish Congress in Los Angeles. I spent three days at UC Irvine to witness the hate speech and gross misrepresentations of Jews, Israeli’s Americans and Zionists at the “Holocaust in the Holyland week. I listened to the horrific lies of Norman Finkelstein under the guise of him being historian. I heard Malik Ali talk about extermination of Jews in Israel, short of saying kill, he used terms like “eliminate” when discussing Israel. I was followed by the campus police, and watched by the administration, so that I could not openly talk out, or disagee with a blatant lies made about history, or Jews. At the end of Malik Ali’s hate speech, I finally had enough, and trying to get him to publically say it was about “the Jews” and not “those people” I was shouted down by repeated “Allah Akbars” and laughter.

I understood that day,standing alone what it felt like to be a Jew in pre-war Germany. I understood how fearful the hostages in Iran must have felt when the US Embassy was taken over. I felt the pain of the Jews, who were expelled from their homes in the Middle East, and the suffering they must have felt under Sharia laws which eventually drove them from their lives and their history. And I understand the double standards that occur when it comes to the UCI administration in taking a postion to facilitate peaceful diaglogue. I witnessed the supression of my freedom of speech for three days, until the very end when I could no longer stay silent. I listened to three long tedious hours of Norman Finkelstein, who mocks the Holocaust Business, however has made a living on …guess what, The Holocaust business! His denial of the true implications of mass murder committed by the Nazi’s is overshadowed by his hatred of being a Jew himself.

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Remember Dickie Thijssen? He’s the dutch fellow who created ‘Housewitz’*. The latter is an advertisement for a fake rave that used images of the holocaust juxtaposed with such clever witicisms as “Seven million party people – set their bodies on fire – literally speaking – HA HA.” and “Hot showers (free)”. Muffti doesn’t think he’s a bad guy per se, but he does have a rather rotten sense of humour. Thijssesn himself characterized the video as “very, very, very black humour”. Shimon Samuels of the Simon Wiesenthal Center thought otherwise:

has gone beyond the bounds of freedom of expression to an unprecedented level of obscenity.

Muffti loves it when people speak with gross certainty about the bounds of freedom of expression.

Anyhow, Thijssen appologized and pulled the video from his site when he became aware of the attention it was getting. Nonetheless, charges of discrimination were levelled by the Dutch internet watchdog group MDI on ground of ‘discrimination’. Dickie faced the possibility of a year in jail and a 4500 euro fine. In the end he was sentenced to the far less severe sentence of 40 hours of community service.

Muffti is not impressed, even with the light sentence. Europe, bastion of freedom of speech, publishers of the mohammed cartoons takes a guy who makes a video (Muffti knows; they are different countries, but…) no matter how tasteless and arrests him for it?

Not cool.

*clicking on link will take you to the video, which is extremely tasteless. Consider yourself warned.

Day 6 of the trip started off at 3 am when we left the Bedouin camp in order to climb Massada. With daytime temperatures in the high 90’s, it’s usually best to make the climb (and very difficult descent) early in the morning. Thankfully, everyone made it in one piece and we were treated to a spectacular sunrise and detailed history of the fortress from our guide Offer. Afterwards we headed for a nice float in the Dead Sea and a therapeutic Mud Bath.

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UPDATE: Jewlicious commentor Jessi has recorded the song “Mashiach Ha-Zaken” that Sallah sings in the ma’abarah’s bar in the movie! You can listen to it here. Lyrics and translation here. Thanks Jessi!

Ephraim Kishon is a man after my own heart – a bit of a misfit who immigrated to Israel as a young man, discovered that he didn’t entirely fit in there either, and thus made a career out of gleefully toppling every single sacred cow he could find. Of course, beyond that the similarities are limited. I’m a cranky little bastard who writes for a blog, whereas Kishon survived a number of concentration camps and managed to flee while being transported to Sobibor, then disguised himself as a Slovakian to weather out the war, and made aliyah as Communism took over his native Hungary – and after all that, learned Hebrew and became one of Israel’s most beloved writers, playwrights and directors. I have a ways to go.

As a director, it’s something of a toss-up which of Kishon’s films is his most beloved in Israel. Is it Sallah Shabati or Ha-Shoter Azoulai (which I’m sure I’ll get to)? Both are excellent movies, but given my love for a ripping good satire, I’m going to have to side with Sallah, seeing as Azoulai is less satire and more character study.

Sallah Shabati is a landmark in Israeli film history because, coming out in 1964, it is perhaps the first major skewering of the ideology of Labor Zionism and the kibbutz movement (although unlike skewerings to come, it wasn’t at all mean-spirited). And Kishon doesn’t stop himself at the kibbutzim; essentially everything in Israeli society in the mid-1950s, when the movie takes place, is a target: petty bureaucracy, Israeli democracy, the ma’abarot, the Jewish National Fund, American Jewish donors and tourists, Yekkes, sabras, Ashkenazim and, in what would later become politically incorrect, the Mizrachi immigrants the story is built around.

The eponymous main character comes in the long-established tradition of main characters in satires – the wise idiot who, through either his wisdom or his idiocy (it’s never entirely clear) turns the established system onto its head in order to get what he wants. Sallah, played by Chaim Topol, who would later rocket to fame as Tevye in the film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof, comes to Israel from an unnamed Arab country with the family in tow – in a series of jokes that would most likely (and wrongly) in today’s political climate be branded as racist and offensive, he’s unsure exactly how many children he has (”How many children do you have?” asks an official. “Six.” “It says here seven.” “Alright, seven.”) and he’s not entirely sure as to the identity of the little old woman who has come with the family (”Is she a relative of yours?” “Don’t know. Maybe she’s our relative. Otherwise why would she have come with us all the way from outside Israel to here? A relative.” “Who understands you people?”).

Considered for himself, Sallah is perhaps not an admirable character – he’s lazy, he’s a drunk, he’s a gambler who brings his sheshbesh board to the synagogue, his parenting style could charitably be described as “hands-off,” his attitude towards his wife ranges from “dismissive” to “insulting,” he generally ignores his female children, he on principle refuses to talk to women, and he’s perfectly willing to sell off his eldest daughter to the highest bidder. And yet, he may be the most lovable character in Israeli cinematic history.

The plot concerns itself with Sallah trying to find work (he’s a cobbler who has never made a shoe in his life) and trying to get his family out of their leaky shack in the ma’abarah (immigrant transit camp) into a new housing project the government has built within sight of the ma’abarah and keeps empty with a system of bureaucratic entrapments. Meanwhile, the neighboring kibbutzniks decide to “adopt” the ma’abarah in order to civilize its “primitive” residents, sending the easily flustered Batsheva as a social worker and psychoanalyst (who winds up getting in turn psychoanalyzed by Sallah) and having the dashing Ziggy (played by a very young Arik Einstein) teach the immigrants how to plant trees for the JNF’s forests, which have a constantly rotating array of signs declaring in which rich American donor’s name the forest is planted (they switch out the signs as each donor visits).

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A German born Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, walked through the gates at Auschwitz followed by a retinue of VIPs and important leaders of the Catholic Church.

I know it was moving for everybody who was watching and for the participants and for the numerous media outlets around the world covering the story. I found it less moving and perhaps a cause for some anger at how vile people were and could be again. Still, I respect the positive meaning and message of the event, one that I believe contains the genuine pain this (Zionist?) Pope feels about that sordid piece of German and European history that began in the early 1930s and ended in the mid-1940s after so many millions were murdered including 500,000 Gypsies and six million Jews.

Pope Benedict XVI prayed on Sunday at the cells and crematories of the concentration camp complex here, on a visit he called “particularly difficult and troubling for a Christian, for a pope from Germany.”

“Words fail,” said Benedict, born Joseph Ratzinger in Bavaria in 1927. The son of a policeman, he was inducted unwillingly into the Hitler Youth and the German Army. “In the end, there can only be a dread silence, a silence that itself is a heartfelt cry to God.

“Why, Lord, did you remain silent?” he said, his voice wobbling. “How could you tolerate this?”

Indeed, how could God tolerate this?

The Pope, formerly Cardinal Ratzinger, had a ready answer:

“We cannot peer into God’s mysterious plan, ” he said. “We see it only piecemeal, and we would be wrong to set ourselves up as judges of God and history. When all is said and done, we must continue to cry out humbly yet insistently to God: Rouse yourself! Do not forget mankind, your creature!”

I would think there are plenty of believing Jews who would agree with Benedict’s reasoning. It’s the old fly-on-the-wall-can’t-see-what-it’s-all-about, but-the-person-who-can-see-the-entire-wall-can-understand why-that-fly-is-about-to-be-thwacked-to-death theory of how good people get killed and evildoers prosper.

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What can I say, living so far away from Israel, it takes a while before I become exposed to newer music over there. So, I have just received a belated introduction to this new band, Beit Habubot, that came out with its first album in 2005. They are proud that it has gone “gold” in Israel recently despite first being ignored by radio stations over there. After many live performances, word started getting out. I do just want to say that they are very fine and their music can be addicting.

You can hear some of their music.

It’s high time Jewlicious had another weekly feature, preferably one that isn’t chiefly concerned with the enlightened sociological musings the Grandmuffti consistently manages to scrape up from the bottom of the slop jar that is the Internet. So I’ve decided to do my part for the enrichment of the online Jewish community with a weekly slice of Israeli culture – a retrospective of Israeli screen gems from bygone days, as seen through the eyes of an immigrant who was a good long time away from being born when said screen gems debuted. I can hardly contain my excitement either. This will be a weekly feature until I run out of movies or get bored – place your bets on what will happen first.

This first installment will be a very brief history of Israeli cinema. In the beginning, there were patriotic paeans to the land, to the New Jew, to the Palmach and to Israeliness in general – and it was good. Then a new generation of filmmakers, influenced by cinematic developments abroad, began to experiment with more personal stories and heavy doses of homegrown Israeli sarcasm – and it was good. Then a couple of smart Ashkenazim realized that they could make a killing by teaming up with Mizrachi comedians and creating movies that balanced goofy slapstick and sweet love stories with nods toward simmering Mizrachi discontent – and it was awesome. And then, because no good thing lasts forever, Israeli film (and society in general) was overtaken by crushing self-consciousness, and suddenly Israeli movies had to have meaning, and they had to question the founding myths of the state, and they had to deal with the issue of how the conflict had caused Israel to lose its soul – so essentially, Israeli film turned into Israeli literature.

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The ongoing dispute between Mormons and Jews took another turn when Jews were informed that their agreement with the Mormons was again not being respected.

The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints (try saying that quickly four times) has a strange practice of posthumous baptisms. What is a posthumous baptism, a.k.a. ordinance? Do they dig you up and dip you in water? Muffti isn’t quite certain how the ceremony goes: apparently it involves a dipping in water by proxy. Its intent is to retroactively baptise people who are real believers in Jesus. The practice was first started for ancestors of Mormons but has extended its reach to nearly everyone deceased that they can attach a name to. After all, you wouldn’t want people who believe in Christ not facing an insurmountable aquatic based objection to their entrance to heaven and languishing in either hell or limbo. Even Dante, who relegated such noble types as Socrates to hell carved out an torture-free ante chamber for them to lounge in.

The Mormons agreed in 1995 to stop baptising Holocaust victims and dead Jews because The Lobby found it offensive (hopefully you paused for a second there). Of particular offense is that the Mormons keep a registry of latter day saints and since they assume that no dead person would turn down the chance to go to heaven, they include them in the registry. So the Mormons agreed to stop the offending practice and to purge the appropriate names.

So far so good; except that geneologist watch dogs keep turning up names of victims in the list, including some holocaust victims (Anne Frank has apparently been baptised several times), dead Israeli Prime Ministers, and other Jewish luminaries such as Marc Chagal and others.

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As Hannah Arendt points out in her book Eichman in Jerusalem, the Dutch loved the SS. As a matter of fact, 20,000 Dutch joined the SS to help the Germans in their racist genocide.

Ali was involved in making the film Submission with Theo Van Gough, who was assassinated by a Muslim in Holland.

But her Dutch hosts have soured of being home to the most outspoken critic of Islam in Europe.

As written in Slate : Dutch courts have already required her to vacate her home as a result of her neighbors’ petition to have her evicted, and she was on the verge of resigning her seat in the Dutch parliament and of requesting the right of residence in the United States.

Meanwhile, there are some strong Jews speaking out…

Ruben Vis, a member of the Netherlands’ Jewish umbrella body, CJO, said the affair was an example of “Holland at its smallest.”

He told The Associated Press:” “Here is a woman, who fought for the emancipation of Muslims in Western societies. Is that not Dutch enough? She has all the Dutch identity you can think of. I don´t think she deserves this.

This is the view from the 8th floor of the Novotel Hotel which straddles Meah Shearim and East Jerusalem. It shows the Hebrew University of Jerusalem out in the distance atop Mt. Scopus. We will be spending Shabbat here. Tonight we will usher in the sabbath at the Kotel (Western Wall) – we’ll light candles on Rabbi Ezra’s roof top in the old city and then make our way to the Kotel. Afterwards, we’ll have dinner at the hotel. Tomorrrow we will have lunch with different local families who have invited us over. Obviously, in keeping with the sabbath spirit there will be no photos. When I have a chance I’lll upload photos of today’s activities which included a climb up Massada and a mud covered dip in the dead sea. Shabbat Shalom everybody!

Some of our trip participants wanted me to take this opportunity to thank Taglit birthright-israel and Oranim for this opportunity – it’s been far more than a free trip to Israel so far!

I am not going to post an image. Try to visualize a an impoverished worker from a Latin American country, perhaps with an amputated finger or hand – that’s what I visualized reading the article I’m about which I’m writing.

The Forward is reporting that the AgriProcessors meatpacking plant which is the largest in the country, is treating its workers quite shabbily, with poor pay, poor working conditions and lack of safety training. The Forward reporter seems to have done his research and we have the PETA video about the slaughter there as well as a USDA slap on the wrist as other sources of evidence that suggest the Forward’s story can be trusted. While I cannot be certain the reports are completely accurate because they are second hand, I have to admit that I believe them because of the PETA video. If any person connected with AgriProcessors feels this story is illegitimate, you are welcome to contact us with the relevant information. God, I hope you have something to disprove this story because I am utterly disgusted.

Treating workers poorly is a standard feature of the meatpacking industry. However, according to the Forward article, the Iowa based AgriProcessors owned by Aaron Rubashkin (and I presume his family), a Lubavitcher, fares poorly in comparison to other plants. One person is quoted as saying it is the worst plant she has seen in terms of its treatment of workers. The article tells a shameful story and is especially disheartening because this is the largest kosher meatpacking plant in the US. Essentially, if you buy kosher chicken or beef with the Aaron’s Best label on it, one of their private label brands, or simply from a butcher who gets his product from them, not only are you participating in the cruel slaughter of animals as shown in that infamous PETA video, but you are also participating in the shabby and irresponsible treatment of many workers who cannot fend for themselves.

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On our trip we have a couple of people from the University of Wisconsin. They have taken it upon themselves to respond to a certain poster for Jewlicious who left comments they didn’t like. Here’s to you Michael! We hope you keep your surliness in check when you and Esther staff the next Taglit-birthright israel, Oranim, Jewlicious trip in late June. Now I know Michael was just flexing his enfant terrible muscles and truth be told, when I first met my group, my initial reaction to them was not dissimilar to what Michael expressed. However, I’ve had the benefit of getting to know them and they never cease to surprise me with their insights and observations, but more on that later. Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ve done.

The 4th day began when we picked up our 8 Israeli soldiers and then headed off to an archaeological dig at Beit Guvrin. This was the site of an ancient Edomite settlement where we managed to unearth 2000 year old pottery shards. Afterwards we went to the Airforce museum where we got a rundown of Israeli history through its planes. Next we went to a Bedouin encampment and rode on Camels. After that exhilerating experience we drove further south to Eilat where we had dinner and then took a boat cruise around the Gulf of Aquaba.

On the 5th day we all took a gruelling hike along the Red Canyon and then rewarded ourselves by spending the afternoon recovering on the beach in Eilat. Afterwards we visited the grave of David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, at Sde Boker – check out the gorgeous view! Finally our day ended at the Bedouin encampment where we slept in tents and were entertained by an interesting band that combined obscure instruments, Capoeira dancing and pyrotechnics.

Enjoy the fab pics after the bump …

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Hat tip to EV of the Jewschool. Daryl Bradford Smith runs a radio show called The French Connection. We’ll give the site a HSOW award soon enough. For now, here’s a snippet from his show, as reported by Mathaba news.

[Jews should] step back from the 9-11 investigation until we can figure out which Jews participated in 9-11 and which are innocent.

…until we determine who to trust, we should not allow the criminal Jews to interfere with the investigation.

The evidence is overwhelming that Jews were the primary group in 9-11 and other horrendous scams! It is time to stop letting them ruin our investigations and deflect attention away from themselves with accusations of ‘anti-Semitism.

…only 2% of our [United States] population is Jewish, but at least 70% of the 9-11 investigators are Jewish. Do you think this is a coincidence? Do you think only Jews are interested in the truth?

If you want a good laugh, take a look at the ‘reasons’ that Smith is so certain that Jews perpertrated 9/11 here.

Sorry for the hiatus; Muffti has been busy. However, he has a real treat for you guys this time around. Blood and Honour Combat 18 are, without a doubt, a bunch of assholes. They like Hitler. They like Ian Stuart (singer of the band Skrewdriver). They like being topless and saluting (go here and scroll down). They certainly don’t like communists and they are pretty anti-everything not white.

They also style themselves as a thinking-nazi’s site. While there is the characterisitic red on black design and pics of headbanging drunk white people, they also have a fair bit of self reflection. For example, they have a handbook that opens as follows:

The simple truth is, that despite all the goings-on in and around our so-called Movement, there are, basically, only two real reasons for the existence of that movement:
1. Bringing down the ruling old order of our enemies;
2. Building a new order based on our own principles and ideas.
And the sad truth is, that so far we have failed miserably on both accounts.

The handbook is supposed to provide a way of overcoming this lac of progress. However, most of it is just rambling without any clear direction. For example, in the section of violence, you get the following (albeit take out of context) set of conundrums:

Pacifism is for foolish dreamers and genetic wimps. Violence as self-defence is natural and unquestionable. But then again, attack is said to be the best form of defence. So where does that lead us? Nobody would deny that for all those years since Adolf Hitler gave his life for our race in a Berlin bunker, the nationalists and race-conscious Whites (as well as the entire Aryan race for that matter) have been on the defensive. Is it not high time to fight back?

The answer turns out to be something like ‘no, but maybe’. The handbook ends with standard ‘things look bad but not for long if we struggle’ ism:

Aryan man will rise again and take back his rightful position on earth. Or he will die fighting for it. There is no middle ground. There is only the solemn call of our forefathers and the glorious vision of the future. Together, as comrades-in-arms, we – the last of the traditional Aryan gladiators and berserkers, the latter-day White knights and crusaders, the inheritors of the armed legions of European National Socialist volunteers – throw ourselves into the final battle for our race.

*sigh* oh well.

The ‘we’re not dumb white power types’ theme continues a bit in the articles section. The articles are a little all over the place, but what Muffti finds amusing is that a little digging and you can find even more of the ‘love the movement, hate the movers’ theme. The article They ain’t alright just because they’re White, for example, opens with the following odd comment:

I’ve been involved in the so-called “right-wing” for a number of years now, but when I step back and look at our so-called movement, especially more recently, I can’t help saying to myself, “Why am I surrounded by so many ‘misfits’?”

If you have to ask…The diagnosis, however, is suprising. You’d think it’s because only warped people believe in racial superiority and purity. Our author, however, comes to an interesting conclusion:

Why is there such a difference I hear you ask? The problem now is that since the war, pro-White groups have been desperate for the numbers and will accept absolutely anyone just because they’re White and call themselves racists. It doesn’t matter what sort of lowlife they are as long as they are “our way”. Quite simply, the Nationalist organisations that exist at the moment will accept anyone. The only condition of membership they seem to have is the ability to pay an annual subscription.

What is the composure of these misfits? Well there are “cowards, inadequates and losers, Faggots, Passing-trade, sickos and wierdos and drunks.” This, of course, puts white powerism in an odd position: they need numbers. But if they purge their ranks of the types just mentioned there will be about 2 people left in the party.

One article Muffti did find interesting was still shots and captions from a propganda film shown in Hitler’s pre-holocaust Germany. It’s hard not to be amazed that this sort of thing was shown as fact back in the day. It’s even harder to believe that the fellow running Blood and Honour still thinks it’s true!

There are other gems, and Muffti recommends taking a perusal. Once again we see the real subtle shame of the white power types. The writers at B & H aren’t stupid; they are fairly articulate. They are passionate. They have a great deal of will power. It’s just sad to see talent and energy go to waste on shit like this.

This amazing recording was made as the Israeli army took back Jerusalem from the Jordanian and other Arab Armies. Jews had not been allowed to their most sacred Holy Sites by the Jordanians from 1948 until this day in 1968. Listen to the fighting and play-by=lay of the liberation, read the entire transcript, and pray for the souls of the brave soldiers that sacrificed their lives for Yerushalayim.

What you are now about to hear is perhaps one of the most riveting recordings in the modern-day history of Israel. I refer to the dramatic sounds of Israeli Defense Forces entering and liberating Jerusalem’s Old City and the Western Wall on June 7th, 1967. You hear the sounds of gunfire. You hear the footsteps of Israeli soldiers, as they draw closer and closer and as General Uzi Narkiss instructs them and asks to be shown where the Western Wall stands. We hear a triumphant Brigadier General Shlomo Goren, later to become the Chief Rabbi of Israel, as he recites the memorial prayer and sound the shofar, as Israeli soldiers weep with sorrow over their comrades killed in combat.

Moshe Amirav, a paratrooper, describes his first minutes at the Wall:

The LiberationWe ran there, a group of panting soldiers, lost on the plaza of the Temple Mount, searching for a giant stone wall. We did not stop to look at the Mosque of Omar even though this was the first time we had seen it close up. Forward! Forward! Hurriedly, we pushed our way through the Magreb Gate and suddenly we stopped, thunderstruck. There it was before our eyes! Gray and massive, silent and restrained. The Western Wall!

Slowly, slowly I began to approach the Wall in fear and trembling like a pious cantor going to the lectern to lead the prayers. I approached it as the messenger of my father and my grandfather, of my great-grandfather and of all the generations in all the exiles who had never merited seeing it – and so they had sent me to represent them. Somebody recited the festive blessing: “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the Universe who has kept us alive, and maintained us and brought us to this time.” But I could not answer “Amen.” I put my hand on the stones and the tears that started to flow were not my tears. They were the tears of all Israel, tears of hope and prayer, tears of Chasidic tunes, tears of Jewish dances, tears which scorched and burned the heavy gray stone.

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I’ve just scrolled down the Jewlicious home page from top to bottom, giving quick overviews to topics and subjects discussed. Then I went to the next page of posts as well.

Good stuff.

I know we’ve agreed with Michael that we’re little pishers. But it’s still gratifying to see all of this content out on the pages.