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Jewish Journal

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July 18, 2012

Maccabiah tryouts coming to L.A.

Leave a Comment / California, Community, Is Featured?, Mobile, Mobile Sections, News /

While hundreds of American athletes are eagerly anticipating the beginning of the Olympics in London this month, another Team USA is preparing for a different international competition.

Tryouts for the 19th Maccabiah Games, which will be held in Israel in July 2013, are already beginning across the country—including several in Los Angeles.

Held every four years in Israel, the all-Jewish Maccabiah Games prides itself on being the third-largest international sports competition—behind the Olympics and the Pan American Games—with more than 50 participating countries.

The United States will send 79 teams in approximately 40 sports to the 2013 games, including seven basketball teams. Basketball teams will compete at different age levels, from 15 to 45, and up.

Basketball Chairman of Recruitment and Outreach Brian Schiff pointed out that the U.S. delegation has fared well in recent years, earning four gold and two silver medals in the 2009 games.

Splitting the masters’ team into a 35-and-up team and a 45-and-up team will give the United States another chance to go for gold, Schiff says.

“We’re not looking for the 12 best athletes on every team,” Schiff said. “We’re looking for the 12 players who will make up the best team.”

Past Team USA participants included a number of college and professional players, such as Davidson forward Jake Cohen and Big 5 Player of the Year Zack Rosen, who is currently playing summer league with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Tryouts for the Men’s Open Team (18 and up) will be held at Milken Community High School on Aug. 4 and 5. The Men’s Youth Team (15 and 16) will hold tryouts at Milken on Aug. 19.

Schiff says tryouts are open to anyone interested.

“We’re hoping to get as many people as possible to try out,” he said. “This is an unbelievable opportunity to represent the country, and you get a lot more out of the games than just athletics.”

Tryouts for Juniors Boys’ Baseball will be held Aug. 5 at Simpson-Hartunian Field in Encino. Masters Tennis (35 and up) tryouts will be held Sept. 10 at MountainGate Country Club in Los Angeles. 

To register for tryouts in basketball or in other sports, visit maccabiusa.com, click on “Sports,” and then click on “Sports Explorer.”

Maccabiah tryouts coming to L.A. Read More »

Tough slog ahead for implementing affordable care

Leave a Comment / Opinion, Raphael Sonenshein /

If Barack Obama is re-elected as president, the overriding purpose of his second term will be the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Implementation and the use of executive power have not been Obama’s strengths, but he is going to have to get better very quickly. A powerful presidency mixes the “bully pulpit” with a maximum use of the president’s authority, from conception of a policy to its implementation.

It will be a brutal slog, with inevitable battles between the White House and Republican governors, particularly in the South. There will be conflicts with Republicans in Congress over funding. The rhetoric will be heated. Republicans will say that Democrats want to impose a tyrannical socialism; Democrats will say that Republicans don’t care whether vulnerable Americans die.



But the health care battle is more than just a means to provide insurance to a large number of Americans; it is also a metaphor for the role of government in the midst of very hard times for the public sector. The private sector is slowly but steadily recovering from the recession (the root of the president’s unfortunate comment that the private sector is “doing fine”), while the public sector has been rocked by austerity and cutbacks throughout. To alter government’s role in health care would be a big change.

This high-intensity conflict is critical to both parties. To Democrats, health care is the long-missing piece of the social insurance contract that began with Social Security and Medicare. To Republicans, health care represents a historic overreach of government, and they believe its success would become a serious threat to their party’s political survival. Democrats want to add a third piece to their legacy; Republicans want to roll back parts of the first two.

If Obama can sink the roots of the health care law into American life, he will have completed a historic piece of the Democratic Party’s mission. Republicans are fearful that voters will overcome their initial distaste for the law and come to like it. Democrats wonder if the voters will learn to love it.

This health care program will lack the appealing simplicity of Medicare and Social Security, as the proportion of Americans who already have health insurance is far greater than those seniors who had retirement or medical care when those historic programs were enacted. But many Americans have family or friends who are uninsured, or have pre-existing conditions, or whose children have already benefited from the ability to stay on their parents’ policies until age 26. And, notably, the fact that hospitals will want federal aid to pay for the care of the uninsured will help the president win the battle in the states regarding the expansion of Medicaid.



There are two selling points in the president’s favor. One is that except for the mandate to buy insurance, the individual components of the law already are popular. But the other is that the overall plan is built on a moral philosophy that has yet to be stated clearly: No American should be without the umbrella of health care because he or she does not have enough money, or the right job, or live in the right place.

For too long, the president has argued for his policies on the ground that they “make sense.” The most powerful argument is a much deeper one, that the policy is right. If the president can make that case, and if the voters agree, the path to implementation and enduring change will be brightly lit.

Raphael J. Sonenshein is executive director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles.

Tough slog ahead for implementing affordable care Read More »

WITNESS ACCOUNT: ‘We think that (it was a suicide bomber)’

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A suicide bomber probably caused an explosion on a bus at Bulgaria’s Burgas airport which killed three people, an Israeli woman who was on the bus said.

“We think that (it was a suicide bomber),” witness Aviva Malka told Israeli Army Radio in answer to a question in a telephone interview from the scene.

“We sat down and within a few seconds we heard a huge boom and we ran away. We managed to escape through a hole on the bus. We saw bodies and many people injured,” she said.

Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Louise Ireland

WITNESS ACCOUNT: ‘We think that (it was a suicide bomber)’ Read More »

Diving Deeper: Language of the Birds

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Is Featured?, Mobile, News, Worldwide /

I have recently been reflecting upon the importance of knowing ones roots and carrying on traditions, and had reached out to my friend ” title=”ROI community” target=”_blank”>ROI community, which is a global network of Jewish innovators.  Since their annual ” title=”"Bird Watchers Find Heaven in ‘Superhighway’ Israel."” target=”_blank”>“Bird Watchers Find Heaven in ‘Superhighway’ Israel.”  In the article, Dr. Yossi Leshem, director of Israel’s International Centre for the Study of Bird Migration, relayed how above Israel and Palestinian territories, is the second busiest bird migration route in the world, trailing behind Panama in Central America.  Every autumn, over 500 million birds cross Israel’s airspace, heading south to warmer weather in Africa. “Politically, it’s a disaster, but for bird migration, it’s heaven.”  Due to the warm thermal air rising off the land below, the birds do not even have to flap their wings.  The author of the article mentioned observing hundreds of pelicans soaring effortlessly, and I began to think again about the pelicans I had observed in Tampa, that were struggling to fly until they threw themselves towards the depths of the ocean and soared.  The extraordinary bird migration in the area could have a significant amount of metaphors constructed regarding Muslim and Jewish relations.  Birds have substantial meaning within both Judaism and Islam.  The Talmud names about one hundred classes and varieties of birds, and I imagine all of them fly over Israel and Palestinian territories. 

Upon Reflection

Since my question to Esther, I have come to understand that I am much more connected to my Jewish roots then I had believed, and that my own narrative already has many Jewish themes interwoven throughout it.  I believe that as we are on our journey through life, it is truly important to be rooted in the authenticity and integrity of our own unique essence, allowing us to be more present with the divine.  Each and every day, with open eyes, we can observe how similar to the Torah, our lives are full of symbolism and wonder, such as through the divine language of the birds.

 

Diving Deeper: Language of the Birds Read More »

Camp Newman Generates Jewish Joy

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Is Featured?, Judaism, Mobile, News /

I attended a secular summer camp as a child, and never expected to set foot in a Jewish summer camp. However, my rabbi invited me to ” title=”The Jewish Sectors Workforce: Report of a Six-Community Study” target=”_blank”>The Jewish Sector’s Workforce: Report of a Six-Community Study as reporting that “7 out of 10 young Jewish leaders in their 20s and 30s attended Jewish summer camp.” Watching the teens singing, dancing, and throwing their arms around each other’s shoulders at the dance party at the end of the evening, I couldn’t help but think, if I had gone to a camp like this when I was a kid, I’d likely be a rabbi now. Whether that would have been good or bad for the Jews, there is no way to know.

“Like” the ” title=”@SusanBarnesRnR” target=”_blank”>@SusanBarnesRnR

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The Western Wall at an anti-abortion monument? Good intentions, bad visual

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In a case of using questionable means to achieve a noble end, pro-life pastors and activists in Kansas are planning to incorporate a full-size replica of the Western Wall in their proposed ” title=”I went to Auschwitz ” target=”_blank”>I went to Auschwitz a few years ago. I can’t explain why exactly, but for me there is a difference between the herding of living, breathing human beings into gas chambers and the killing of babies in utero. There certainly are parallels – for example, in both cases some people decide that others’ lives are expendable. This is especially true of viable, third-trimester babies. I get the pastors’ Holocaust argument, and admire their desire to promote the sanctity of all innocent life. That said, when you’re standing in a gas chamber at Auschwitz, something about their reasoning falls flat.
   
Of course, many Jews have also objected to the inclusion of the Wailing Wall, which The Western Wall at an anti-abortion monument? Good intentions, bad visual Read More »

July 18, 2012

Leave a Comment / Israel, Must Reads /

In-depth

A Nuclear-Armed Iran Would Have No Hotline to Avert Catastrophe

Unlike the US and the Soviet Union or India and Pakistan, there is no direct line of communication between Israel and Iran, which, warns Alan Elsner in Algemeiner, could be disastrous if Iran gains nuclear capabilities.

A nuclear-armed Iran would be a deadly risk to the world. Unlike during the era of containment and even the situation between India and Pakistan today, there would be no fail safe mechanisms, no fallbacks, no circuit breakers, no safety nets.

This German circumcision ban is an affront to Jewish and Muslim identity

Writing in the Guardian, Giles Fraser argues that the religious identity provided by circumcision overrides the modern day liberal attitudes on choice.

Faith is about being a part of something wider than oneself. We are not born as mini rational agents in waiting, not fully formed as moral beings until we have the ability to think and choose for ourselves. We are born into a network of relationships that provide us with a cultural background against which things come to make sense. “We” comes before “I”. We constitutes our horizon of significance. Which is why many Jews who consider themselves to be atheists would still consider themselves to be Jewish. And circumcision is the way Jewish and Muslim men are marked out as being involved in a reality greater than themselves.

Daily Digest

  • Times of Israel: Liberman: ‘We won’t leave the coalition under any circumstances’

  • Jerusalem Post: Yechimovich to PM: End the political circus, call elections

  • Haaretz: Israeli jurist to serve as chief legal adviser to UN Security Council counter terrorism group

  • Ynet: Report: Arms from Eritrea smuggled into Sinai, Gaza

  • New York Times: Syria Hardens Its Response to Rebels in Damascus Clashes

  • Washington Post: In the new Egypt, beards appear where they were once banned

  • Wall Street Journal: Secular Alliance Wins Libya Vote

    • July 18, 2012 Read More »

    House hopeful Sinema responds to criticism: I will be a strong voice for Israel in ‎Congress

    Leave a Comment / Israel, Israel, United States /

    A couple of days ago I wrote about the Israel-related record of AZ-09 House ‎candidate Kyrsten Sinema (What Congress candidate Sinema’s emails reveal about ‎her Israel position). It painted candidate Sinema as one who doesn’t have a “gut ‎feeling” support for Israel: “She doesn’t have it. If one wants a candidate that is ‎instinctively pro-Israel, Sinema is probably not the one – at least not in the sense most ‎people understand what ‘pro-Israel’ means”. Sinema, understandably, thought this ‎assessment of her views didn’t stand up to scrutiny – and sent us a detailed response. ‎

    In her response, she deals with claims made by her opponent, fellow Democratic ‎hopeful Andrei Cherny, and those of the story I posted on Sunday. ‎

    We are happy to publish this response in full. Here’s Sinema: ‎

    Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your story.  I appreciate the ‎opportunity to set the record straight.‎

    When my opponent ran for office in California, he claimed that his entirely pro-‎choice opponent was actually anti-choice.  The attack was clearly false and called ‎‎“really dirty politics” by the local chapter of the National Association of Women, ‎yet Mr. Cherny continues to defend the ugly tactics he used then.  Unfortunately, ‎he is attempting the exact same type of smears here in Arizona by falsely accusing ‎me of failing to support Israel.‎

    The truth is that I have a proven record of support for Israel and will be a strong ‎voice for Israel in Congress. ‎

    For example, in 2008, I worked with George Weisz of Arizona’s AIPAC to craft a ‎bill in the Arizona legislature that requires our state’s retirement systems to divest ‎from companies that do business with Iran’s oil sector.  The bill passed ‎unanimously and was signed by Governor Napolitano. ‎

    I have donated money to AIPAC.  I have attended AIPAC events in Arizona as ‎far back as 2004.  I have traveled to Israel, which was one of the most positive ‎and educational experiences of my life. ‎

    When Mr. Cherny alleges that I have a ten year track record of taking positions ‎at odds with American policy, what he means is that I was a principled opponent ‎of George W. Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I stand by my positions that ‎invading Iraq and Afghanistan were mistakes because there were far more ‎prudent options available.  I believe history has proven that I was correct. Yet, as ‎a result of his attacks on me, it is reasonable to conclude that Mr. Cherny agrees ‎with how the Bush administration conducted itself in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I ‎didn’t agree with President Bush ten years ago, and I certainly don’t now. ‎

    It is an unfortunate fact that some of the people who also opposed the wars made ‎remarks that were critical of Israel.  However, I did not make those remarks. In ‎fact, I disagreed with them then, I continue to disagree with them. Yet, Mr. ‎Cherny has chosen to put their words in my mouth, which is both inaccurate and ‎dishonest. I have given hundreds and hundreds of interviews and speeches. None ‎of them were critical of Israel. That’s why my opponent keeps pointing to ‎remarks made by other people and pretending that they were speaking for me. ‎

    I speak for myself. I support Israel.  I support a two-state solution.‎

    In response to two specific items in your piece, in 2006, I placed an ad in the local ‎‎“Muslim yellow pages” put together by Marwan Ahmad. When I learned that ‎Mr. Ahmad had omitted information about Israel and questioned Israel’s right to ‎exist, I rescinded my support. Governor Napolitano, who had also placed an ad in ‎the directory, did the exact same thing. Yet, I highly doubt that Mr. Cherny will ‎accuse the Secretary of Homeland Security of being “dangerous” to Israel.  ‎

    Regarding my position paper on Israel, it is available on my website. When a ‎gentleman emailed me to ask me about whether I support a “demilitarized ‎Palestine,” I took the time to look into his concern and let him know that I stand ‎by my position paper.‎

    I have learned that if democracy is going to function, it is important for leaders to ‎work with people who are different from themselves, or with whom they may ‎disagree on some issues. I worked in a very conservative legislature in Arizona, ‎and was able to pass legislation because I was willing to work with conservatives, ‎even when our ideological viewpoints were very, very different.  I sought common ‎ground and worked to deliver results in the areas where we could agree, ‎something that doesn’t happen very much in Washington these days.‎

    In this campaign for Congress, there will be differences of opinion on how to ‎address the many issues that our nation faces in the years to come, and it’s true ‎that Mr. Cherny and I disagree on some of those issues.  However, Israel isn’t one ‎of them.  It’s unfortunate that he has decided to create differences where none ‎exist, because the United States’ relationship with Israel should be more than a ‎political punch line used to score cheap political points. ‎

    Sincerely, ‎

    Kyrsten Sinema

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    The Disaster that is the Levi Committee’s Recommendations

    Leave a Comment / Blogs, Is Featured?, Israel, News /

    If a peaceful two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the goal of Israel’s leaders, as Prime Minister Netanyahu has stated, then the Levi Committee’s recommendations are anathema to that goal. Indeed, if the Israeli government were to adopt the recommendations that call for the legalization of Israeli settlement everywhere in the West Bank, a two-state solution to this conflict would become impossible.

    The Committee’s recommendations would all but assure a “one-state” nightmare scenario, signal the end of Israel’s Jewish majority democracy by forcing Israel either to cede its Jewish character to the new Arab majority and remain democratic, or retain its Jewish majority and deny equal rights to Arab residents of Israel and lose its democracy.  If Israel became the former, I fear she would lose much of Diaspora Jewry’s support, and if she became the latter she would invite unprecedented international pressure against her as a profoundly undemocratic state.

    Further, the Levi Committee’s assertion that there is no Israeli occupation in the West Bank because, among other reasons, “it is impossible to foresee a time when Israel will relinquish these territories, if ever,” sends a dangerous signal to Palestinian leaders about the prospects for peaceably achieving a state for their people, and will give fodder to Palestinian extremists by unifying the Palestinian community as it prepares for the next war.

    Truth to tell, there is nothing good or positive about the Levi Committee’s recommendations if Israel’s goal is a two-state solution to this conflict. It is irrelevant whether there is a legitimate argument about the “legality” of the settlements. It is irrelevant that Jews should have a right to live anywhere in the land including the West Bank just as Arabs live inside Israel. It is irrelevant that Israel occupies the West Bank because she won the war imposed upon her 45 years ago. 

    What is relevant is how the Jewish people will live in security and peace alongside a Palestinian state. What is relevant is how a partition of the land can be achieved. What is relevant is how the United States and the Quartet can assist these two peoples in making peace.

    If Israel is more concerned about pursuing Truth (i.e. that it is justified historically, legally, and morally to hold onto the West Bank indefinitely) instead of pursuing peace as called upon by Jewish tradition, then it will adopt the Levi Committee’s recommendations. However, that would be a tragedy of historic proportions.

    Those who love Israel should hope that her leaders stop its drift towards and acquiescence to the incessant demands of the settler community thereby destroying Israel’s future as a Jewish majority democracy.

    Yes, Israel is justified in being suspect of Palestinian intentions and rightly concerned about threats from her enemies. However, for the sake of Israel’s democracy and Jewish character, the Israeli government should reject the committee’s recommendations and redouble efforts toward finding a two-state resolution to this conflict.

    The Disaster that is the Levi Committee’s Recommendations Read More »

    Mofaz is back (and forth)!

    Leave a Comment / Blogs /

    I am not a political analyst. I can’t foresee political scandals and can’t predict politicians’ next moves. I am nothing but a common Israeli citizen who reads the paper. My modest point of view is of a head of a party, the biggest we’ve got, who instead of thinking first and then doing, does first and only then thinks. It seems like Shaul Mofaz, the chairman of Kadima party, hasn’t decided yet who he wishes to impress more: the Prime Minister, or the voters.

    It was only two months ago when Mofaz is back (and forth)! Read More »