October 31, 2013

This week in power: Iran sanctions debate and Banksy’s latest message

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized / Danny Groner

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

A big meeting
White House national security advisor Susan Rice and others met with four American Jewish organizations on Tuesday to discuss how the U.S. government can keep them “from lobbying the Senate towards passing harsh new sanctions against Iran, just as bilateral negotiations have resumed between the two nations,” ” target=”_blank”>wrote The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin. “Nothing can be done unless the U.S. settles accounts with Iran,” ” target=”_blank”>noted that many Americans “choose the easier path of believing that the grave Iran issue can be solved by diplomacy and that other issues should not be of great concern to the administration.”

Banksy's truck graffiti
One Jewish businessman in Brooklyn got lucky… when the elusive street artist Banksy ” target=”_blank”>added that since he “can't appreciate art,” he doesn't fully understand the value in the work. “Although I don’t care much about Banksy, I run into moments like this where I see the genius in his work,” This week in power: Iran sanctions debate and Banksy’s latest message Read More »

Cost-Cost

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized / Ariel Blumenthal

Look closely at this picture: The men triumphantly posing with Mahmoud Abbas are all convicted murderers. Qassem Hazem killed Holocaust survivor Isaac Rotenberg with an axe. Sharif Abu-Dahila stabbed Avi Osher, his employer for 15 years, to death. Haza’at Sa’adi and Othman Hussein shot Leah Elmakayes and Yossef Eliahu, both teachers, and threw their bodies into a water hole in the forest. And on and on – every last one of them.

The moral problematics in releasing these men are clear. Six of them, it turns out, murdered their victims after the Oslo agreement was signed, and that raises legal questions. But most of all, the reality in the background of this release is problematic: 3 Israelis were murdered in the West Bank in the last few weeks, 9-year old Noam Glick survived an attempted murder in her parents yard. Rockets were launched from Gaza the day this release was announced. You put your finger out in the air, and there are no winds of change out there. Not even a drift.

Palestinian terrorism goes systematically under-punished. Between all the instances of early releases from Israeli jails, it should be clear to the Palestinians who murder today that if they’re caught, they’re not going to really do the time. Only crime, no punishment. Some of the terrorists released today are in their early 40s, they still have sufficient number of years ahead of them, to raise a family, to pass on their legacy. The stark injustice in the opportunity given to them and the lack there of for their victims, is not something you want to correlate with a peace process.

What is the benefit to this cost? I wish there were metrics that can show the positive effect of releasing joyous killers on the level of trust between the peoples. I wish I could imagine a reality beyond the word “gestures”: a Palestinian John Doe saying “You know what? Now, that they’ve released these prisoners, I think I’m ready to believe them and to compromise”.

This seems far removed from reality, first because Palestinian public opinion sees the release as a successful blackmail, not as a gesture of kindness and good will. This is an aggressive exchange, rather than a gentle step towards understanding and reconciliation. Secondly, because attitudes, words and acts in the Palestinian territories seem to be inspired more by these men’s acts than by their supposed remorse and redemption. Inspiration that strengthens upon their release.

So what is the benefit to this cost? If trust is the goal, perhaps this is a qualifying consideration: When the current round of talks was announced, 85% of Israelis were against release of prisoners as a gesture. 70% said they didn’t believe anything will come out of these talks. How trusting are Israelis now? On the Israeli side of this coin, these releases, this masochistic ritual of anger, agony and philosophical wandering, is detrimental to the prospect of peace. Everything about it is in fact unbearably counter to peace.

To me, the Palestinians seem too proud and victorious for the moment. Where is the soul searching? The new realizations? One may imagine the amount of victimization and threats of imminent violence thrown around if the Palestinians had been required to go through soul searching. The picture of Abbas celebrating with murderers of women and children is telling. The occasion would be an embarrassment and a disaster to any leader of a civilized nation, but Abbas – he hugs them like they were heroic warriors returning with valor. Flip the coin and you find Palestinian celebrations that don’t lead to peace, but to the cement of the idea that terrorism is fine, it’s resistance, it’s legit. Celebrations that fuel the ugly Palestinian culture of glorification of terrorists and terrorism, which in turn guarantees the supply of fresh terrorists, and so on, and so on.

This is not a cost-benefit formula, it’s cost-cost. These releases are the fossil fuel to Palestinian violent nationalism’s CO2. I simply cannot imagine a vantage point from which an observing peace-lover may smile in satisfaction and note to himself: “Today was a good day for peace and good intentions.”

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Follow me on Twitter: @lostroadtopeace

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Be strong and of good courage, chevra

Leave a Comment / Books, Culture / Rav Yosef Kanefsky

To my dear friends and fellow-travelers:

Whenever the waters get a little choppy, as they have this week, we need to remember only one thing. And that is, that we are serving God, and God alone. We are accountable only to God, and to our own souls and consciences. We believe – down deep in our spiritual core – in a vision of Orthodoxy that never throws up its hands in the face of human suffering, one whose eyes and heart are open to the friendship and thoughts and struggles of all Jews. A vision of Orthodoxy in which success is defined by the promise that “through you all the families of the world will be blessed”, and one in which Torah and Mitzvot are opportunities to be shared, not privileges to be protected. We believe – genuinely and unalterably – that this is what God has told us is good, and that it is this which He requires of us. We are accountable only to God. To God, to the people that we serve, and to ourselves.

Pursuing the path of God involves being open to advice and to constructive criticism. How else could we engage in the critical processes of introspection and self-improvement? But no less important than listening to friends who advise and criticize, is refusing to be distracted by the static of public attack. The public attackers are also sincere, and genuine in their words. But what they are asking is that we forsake God, and instead serve them.

In the end, we will succeed because we will create communities for whom Torah is the Tree of Life, the Mitzvot are sweeter than honey, and Halacha is the tradition with which we engage the human condition and dignify all those created in the Image. We have no energy to spare, or time to waste. The day is short, the work is great, and the Master expects much of us.

Be strong and of good courage, chevra Read More »

Leave a Comment / Israel, Must Reads / Shmuel Rosner

The US

Headline: U.S. spying scandal straining ties with Europe

To Read: According to Max Fisher, there might be a lesson to learn from AIPAC's recent failure and from (the much less influential) Invisible Children's success-

And that's exactly the point: in the common telling about how lobbying shapes U.S. foreign policy, a handful of well-connected interest groups are often said to secretly pull the strings in Washington, with AIPAC typically portrayed as the most shadowy and powerful of them all. Typically, though, AIPAC has public opinion on its side; in this case, it very much did not. The group's failure on Syria, and Invisible Children's unlikely but staggering successes on the Lord's Resistance Army, should help to dispel that version of how Washington works.

Quote: “It's incumbent upon them over the next 24 to 48 hours to persuade folks like me and others that the course of action they want to follow is a sound one. I think … because Congress had to push the administration into the sanctions regime in the first place, there is a degree of skepticism. But from my standpoint I'm certainly open to listening”, Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate's, Foreign Relations Committee, on the White House's campaign against new Iran sanctions

Number: 51, the record-high percentage of Americans who disapprove of President Obama's performance.

Israel

Headline: US knew of settlement construction plan

To Read: According to Haviv Rettig Gur, the Knesset might quietly be on the verge of doing some revolutionary stuff-

But there is also a clear consciousness of a mainstream liberal consensus, for the first time unencumbered by the political obstacles raised in the past by haredi parties. This consensus has shown it can deliver unprecedented funds for Arab socioeconomic development, strengthen the status of women, expand access to marriage and break monopolies in state religious services. With surprisingly little fanfare or even much protest, the Knesset may, at long last, be entering a transformative moment of political reform.

Quote: “I will not be seen to be badmouthing the IDF. Anyone who's done reserve duty in the past 20 years knows there are places from which to cut. Any brigadier-general makes more money than me as well as the prime minister”, Finance Minister Yair Lapid commenting on the proposed IDF budget cuts.

Number: 26, Netanyahu is the 26^th most powerful person in the world (at least according to Forbes).

The Middle East

Headline: Watchdog: all of Syria’s chemical production facilities destroyed

To Read: According to some former US officers whom Eli Lake talked to, Iran is getting better at hiding their nuclear activities-

Western intelligence agencies have had great success in the past sleuthing out Iran’s undeclared nuclear facilities. But the Iranians have gotten better at hiding their tracks, according to some current and retired United States intelligence officers who say it could prove very difficult for the world to catch Iran again if it tries to build a nuclear weapon in secret.

Quote: “The situation is somewhat more complicated because there have already been open objections to that conference initiated by Russia and the United States, objections not only from various Syrian factions but also from the capitals of some neighboring and not only neighboring states”, Russian FM Sergei Lavrov complaining about the difficulty of organizing the Syria conference in Geneva.

Number: 50, the UN's $4.4b appeal for Syrian refugees is only 50% funded.

The Jewish World

Headline: Study: Adult children of intermarriage less engaged, seek acceptance

To Read: Gatestone's Guy Milliere claims that anti-Semitism is becoming mainstream in France-

To say that the majority of the French population is anti-Semitic would be going too far. Polls show that a favorite public figure this year is popular Jewish singer Jean-Jacques Goldman. But it is clear that anti-Semitism is rapidly gaining ground in France. It is clear there is a real trivialization of anti-Semitism that goes way beyond some ugly sentences uttered by a standup comedian during a prime time TV talk show.

A few years ago, anti-Semitism in France was still hiding behind the mask of “anti-Zionism” and hostility to Israel. It is still true, but more often now, the targets are the Jews themselves, and the mask of “anti-Zionism” has fallen away.

Quote: “The days of waiting around to firefight individual attacks on brit milah are over”, Philip Carmel, European policy adviser for the European Jewish Congress, commenting on the formation of a new pro-circumcision task force.

Number: 32, the number of Jewish graves which were desecrated in South Africa.

October 31, 2013 Read More »

Rawabi’s Success will Signal the Success of a Two-State Solution – Israel Journal Part VII

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Judaism, Mobile Sections, News / Rabbi John Rosove

A highlight of my synagogue's mission to Israel and the west bank earlier this month was our visit to Rawabi, a model Palestinian city emerging out of the “hills” (Rawabi means “hills” in Arabic) between Ramallah, Nablus and Tel Aviv.

This city will eventually house 40,000 middle class young Palestinians and families in 6000 condominiums on 1560 acres. There will be banks, shops, offices, eight public and private schools, playgrounds, parks, hiking trails, an arts center, two mosques, a Greek Orthodox Church, a hospital, movie theaters, and a 20,000 seat amphitheater for sporting events and concerts.

The construction is using 10,000 workers, and the builders hope that eventually 3000 to 5000 new jobs will be created in the city.

The man behind this project is Bashir al-Masri, a 52 year old charismatic Nablus born and American educated businessman who raised more than $500 million from the oil-rich nation of Qatar and contributed $300 million from his private conglomerate, Massar International.

Each unit will cost between $60,000 and $200,000. Mr. al-Masri is promoting what he calls “Islamic financing” in which “service charges” will replace interest payments, forbidden by Islamic law.

We met for more than an hour with Bashir thanks to Felice Friedson, co-founder and Executive Producer for “The Media Line “ (TML) and her husband, Michael Friedson, co-founder and Executive Editor and Director of Media Services for TML. TML is a well-respected non-profit news organization in the Middle East that feeds stories daily to Al Jazeera, CNN, the BBC, Israeli, and American news services.

To a person, our group was impressed not just by the scope of this project (a modern “wonder of the world!?”), but by Bashir’s staff, organization, expertise, intelligence, optimism, and drive.

Though Mr. al-Masri has met many hurdles along the way since first conceiving this project in 2007 (construction began in 2011), nothing seems to diminish his vision and optimism. Obstacles include a promised $150 million contribution by the Palestinian Authority to build schools and a police station that never materialized, allegedly because the government is broke despite the nearly $4 billion the PA receives from foreign governments and international NGOs each year, and two significant political obstacles presented by the state of Israel.

Though Rawabi is in Area A, controlled by the PA per the Oslo Accords, the west bank is under Israeli military authority. Bashir has had co-operation from Israeli authorities, but Israel approves construction of roads that pass through Area C, which is Israeli controlled. There is an access road for construction equipment, however a road wide enough to accommodate the 40,000 future Rawabi residents has not as yet been approved.

The second obstacle is water. Trucks are bringing water in for construction purposes, but there are no arrangements with Israel as yet to provide water to the city.

Bashir believes that PM Netanyahu is using access roads and water as negotiating chips with the Palestinian Authority in the peace negotiations, thus the delay of arrangements, he told us with bitterness and frustration.

Criticism of the project has come from two quarters. West bank Jewish settlers complain that Palestinians are building new homes by the thousands while the expansion of their settlements (nay – illegal “outposts”) is constrained. Orint Flint, a settler of Ateret (an illegal “outpost” built in defiance of Israeli government policy but with Israeli compliance) said “It feels like unfair treatment of Jewish residents.” (The Guardian, August 8, 2013)

There are also Palestinian critics who are part of the BDS campaign (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel) who charge that Bashir al-Masri and other Palestinian business people are helping to “whitewash [Israel’s] ongoing occupation, colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people” by cooperating with Israeli industry and consulting with Israeli architects and engineers. (The Guardian, ibid)

Al-Masri told us that support is coming to him from every quarter, including internationally famous Israeli architect Moshe Safdie who volunteered to help in any way he could because he was moved and impressed by the scope and vision of the project and its importance to the future state of Palestine.

I see no down side for the Palestinians and Israel in this project because Rawabi will be a stabilizing element for a state of Palestine. Bashir said that though he is happy to contribute to Palestinian nation-building, he is not motivated here by altruism. He is a businessman and out to make a profit.

With so much capital pouring into the west bank from Qatar and elsewhere, the Palestinians will have too much to lose to break cavalierly an agreement with Israel. The PA has shown, in this regard, its ability to coordinate security with Israel, and this is what Bashir is counting on in a two-state agreement.

I pray Rawabi succeeds as its success will be not only a success for Palestine, but for Israel as well!

Rawabi’s Success will Signal the Success of a Two-State Solution – Israel Journal Part VII Read More »

So What is Pew’s Verdict: Are Young American Jews Attached to Israel?

Leave a Comment / Israel, Israel, Worldwide / Shmuel Rosner

At some point my line of questioning seemed to get on Prof. Steven Cohen’s nerves – and it was my fault, I guess. We will get to that later. But first of all- Cohen’s numbers, the reason for this post. I received these numbers from the Israel Policy Forum, a Jewish American left-of-center organization. They were first presented by Cohen at an IPF conference call a couple of days ago (the IPF “advocates for a strong, Jewish and democratic Israel at peace with its neighbors, and promotes pragmatic strategies for achieving regional peace and security”). But here you will get all of them, properly presented. You will also get some snippets from Cohen’s analysis of the numbers, and you will get to understand why I got on his nerves.

In the conference call, Prof. Steven Spiegel was asking the questions – Cohen was giving the answers. The topic was “the recent Pew research poll on American Jewish trends as well as a recent study that he produced in conjunction with the Jewish Council on Public Affairs on rabbinic attitudes towards Israel”.

We will focus on Pew. Cohen presented numbers that can’t be found in the original Pew report. These are numbers that were run for Prof. Cohen by the Pew Research Center, at his request. And it was really a simple request: “running all the Israel numbers by age without the orthodox”. Since we know that the Orthodox are highly attached to Israel, and that the whole discussion surrounding attachment to (and “distance” from) Israel is about young non-Orthodox Jews, Cohen wanted to see how the numbers break down for that particuarly nteresting group.

So what did Cohen discover? For example, that when asked about emotional attachment to Israel, 35% of the older Jews (65 plus) are very attached, while among the youngest (18-29) only 21% are “very attached”. As you’d expect, similar gaps can be found in the other questions as well. Example: “how much is caring about Israel essential to your emotion of being Jewish – your part of being Jewish?” Cohen pointed out that “this was the largest change we saw in all the different items presented”. Among older people, 52% say it's essential, among the younger adults just 32%. Younger people travel to Israel more than their elders, and that’s “one reason the younger people may be more in touch than they would be otherwise”. The so-called “Birthright bump” was identified by Cohen in a previous study that we discussed here. Still, “they're going to Israel more and yet their attachment levels are equal to or lower than those who have been there less and who are a little older, and certainly a lot less than those who are oldest”.

Younger Jews are also more dovish in the views they express regarding the Middle East peace process and are more critical of Israel and suspicious of its policies. Cohen spoke about the higher percentage of young Jews who believe in the chances for peace. You can see it in this table (and let me remind you: these are the Pew numbers without the Orthodox).

Is there a way for Israel and an independent Palestinian state to coexist peacefully?

Yes

Jews who are not Orthodox

18-29

30-49

50-64

65+

The dovish approach of younger (non-Orthodox) Jews was even more visible when the question about government efforts for peace was presented. “The support for the notion that Israel's making a sincere effort for peace declines as you go from old to young – from 44% to 23%. The Palestinians- you know, the belief in Palestinians- rises from 8% to 19% so that among 65 and over if you look at the Israeli position versus the Palestinian, you know, the Israeli one wins 44% to 8%. Among those who are 18 to 29 they are almost tied, 23% to 19%. So in a sense the balance shifts from overwhelmingly 'pro-Israel' so to speak, or Israel-side, to neutrality”. See it in the table:

Efforts to Bring About a Peace Settlement

Israeli government making a sincere effort

Palestinian leadership making a sincere effort

Jews who are not Orthodox

18-29

30-49

50-64

65+

The dovish approach becomes somewhat worrisome as younger Jews are asked about America’s support for Israel. “We see a shift from the older to younger in the percentage who think that America has been too supportive of Israel from a mere 6% among those 65 and over to 27% among those 18 to 29”, Cohen said. He also said that further inquiry is needed, and that there are signs that connect such views to the rate of interfaith marriages. Cohen has emphasized many times in the past “the ongoing corrosive effect of intermarriage” on attachment to Israel.

The impression we initially got from Pew was one of surprisingly strong support for Israel among American Jews. Ted Sasson, writing in Tablet, was naïve enough to hope that the Pew survey will “settle” the debate concerning American Jews’ connection to Israel. Yet Cohen, in his presentation, seemed to believe that the initial relief was based on false premises. Rabbi Eric Yoffie even asked Cohen about this during the phone briefing. “My overall take on these numbers was that this is an extraordinary degree of support, policy differences not”, Yoffie said. Yet Cohen doesn’t see such a rosy picture. So I asked him – by email – if he believes the differences between the young and the older are a generational shift, or possibly the result of a life cycle phenomenon. I also asked if this means going back to the good-old “distancing” debate – a debate on which I have written thousands of words. And I guess the second part of my question – bluntly put, tongue in cheek – was the part Cohen found annoying: Do young Jews, I asked, “say they believe in peace because they are young and dumb, or do you think they'll still believe in it when they are 64?” This question was merely my attempt to find out if “distancing” is truly back.

This debate, put simply, is about whether younger Jews today – non-Orthodox Jews – are becoming less attached to Israel than their elders. Some say they are, some say they aren’t, some say that what we see in polls such as Pew's is the usual differences between younger and more liberal Jews to older and more conservative ones, a gap that will close with the aging of the younger Jews.

Cohen believes the gap is here to stay. His response to my first question was: “Higher levels of skepticism regarding whether the Israeli government is making a sincere effort to bring about a peace settlement are probably more a matter of generation than of maturation. As a general rule, communal identities (like belonging to synagogues) change with family life cycle changes. Political identities are formed in adolescence and young adulthood and remain fairly stable throughout the life course. My sense is that views about Israel's sincerity in pursuing peace, settlement construction, and related matters is closely tied to political identities which are more stable and enduring”. He says that “the greater readiness of younger adults to believe that there's a way for Israel and a Palestinian state to coexist peacefully may be due in part to their youthfulness, in part to their socially progressive worldview, and in part because they are ethnically de-tribalized”. I get the sense that he doesn’t see this as equivalent to being “young and dumb”- and rightly so.

* * *

Here are all the numbers I have from the Cohen presentation:

Very attached to Israel

Jews who are not Orthodox

18-29

30-49

50-64

65+

Caring About Israel is an essential part of being Jewish

Jews who are not Orthodox

18-29

30-49

50-64

65+

Have been to Israel

Jews who are not Orthodox

18-29

30-49

50-64

65+

So What is Pew’s Verdict: Are Young American Jews Attached to Israel? Read More »

Israel to announce 5,000 new settler homes

Leave a Comment / Is Featured?, Israel, Lead Story, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News / Jewish Journal

Israel will announce construction plans for about 5,000 new housing units in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The plans include the 1,500 housing units announced Tuesday night to be constructed in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, Haaretz reported Thursday, as well as 2,500 new units throughout the West Bank in major settlement blocs and isolated settlements.

Lots for some 860 housing units will be sold to contractors for immediate construction in Ariel, Maaleh Adumim, Givat Zeev, Betar Ilit, Karnei Shomron and Elkana, which are part of the major settlement blocs.

Plans for the construction of 1,400 new units throughout the West Bank will be submitted to the Civil Administration’s planning committee. Construction would take several years.

Another 1,100 units, which had already been submitted to the Civil Administration’s planning committee, will be advanced, though it will take at least a year before construction begins, according to Haaretz.

Plans also were announced Tuesday to build a national park in areas east of the Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus between the Palestinian neighborhoods of Isawiyah and A-Tur; and the Kedem Center, a tourism and archaeological center in the Palestinian village of Silwan opposite the entrance to the City of David.

Ophir Akunis, the Likud deputy minister for liaison with the Knesset, provided details of the settlement plans in a government meeting Wednesday that was picked up by the Israeli media.

The construction projects are meant to appease those who were against the release of 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The freed prisoners had participated in terror attacks that killed Jews.

The plans were condemned by the Palestinian Authority and the U.S. State Department, as well as by United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon and the European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton.

Israel to announce 5,000 new settler homes Read More »

Syria destroys chemical weapons facilities, watchdog group confirms

Leave a Comment / Is Featured?, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News, Worldwide / Jewish Journal

Syria reportedly has completed destroying or permanently disabling all of its chemical weapons production and mixing facilities.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which won the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month for its involvement in the Syrian chemical weapons crisis, reported that Syria had met its first deadline for divesting itself of chemical weapons.

The group has inspected all but two of the chemical weapons sites throughout Syria, Reuters reported. The remaining two sites are too dangerous to access, but the chemical equipment was moved to other sites and destroyed, the watchdog group said.

By Nov. 15, Syria must agree to a plan for destroying its massive stock of toxic agents and munitions.

The destruction of its chemical weapons comes amid Syria’s nearly three-year-long civil war; Syria was accused of turning its chemical weapons on its own citizens.

Syria destroys chemical weapons facilities, watchdog group confirms Read More »

Jewish Folklore: Helping you keep your demons, ghosts and monsters straight

Leave a Comment / California, Is Featured?, Lead Story, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News / Julie Bien

In the spirit of the season, I've compiled a glossary of the most well-known ghosts, demons and monsters in Jewish mythology. So next time you catch yourself wondering whether you're possessed by a Dybbuk or an Ibbur, or you find yourself wanting to create a Golem to watch your house while you're out of town, you can refer to this handy-dandy manual.

Dybbuk: The malicious ghost of a deceased person that possesses a host body in order to do harm, both to the host, and in general. It only leaves the host once it's accomplished its goal. Although this isn't a demon, per se, it acts in a similar manner–think along the lines of the possesion in “The Exorcist.”

Example of a Dybbuk being carried by an unfortunate host

Ibbur: A benevolent spirit that incubates inside a host in an attempt to help the host body along. It's usually the ghost of someone who was very righteous or holy during their lifetime. These spirits choose people they deem worthy of their help, and 'possess' (in the positive, not demonic way) the host person and help them achieve their goals. They act more as a 'spirit guide,' albeit one that the host isn't aware of, more than anything else. The Ibbur just helps the person make the best choices to achieve their goals.

Just a little gentle Ibbur-guiding

Lilith: A demon queen whose descendants, Lillin, are serpant-like/humanoid demons (with wings) who kill children in their cribs or steal them from their families. The name “lil” is Sumerian in origin and means 'screech-owl'–reflecting the ancient association bewteen owls and the demonic world.

Lilith, hanging out in the Garden of Eden between Adam and Eve, wrapped around that evil tree-o-knowledge

Mazzikim/Shedim: These are your run of the mill demons (rather than ghosts). They are often associated with spoiling things (especially food) at inconvenient times. The word 'shedim' means 'foreign gods' and comes from the Akkadian word for demon. They tend to live in deserts, dirty places and ruins or dilapidated/abandoned buildings. Because they also enjoy hanging out in bathrooms, they pose a special danger to uncovered food and water. I bet you never knew that Saran Wrap was protecting you from airborne bacteria AND demons.

Just a pesky demon hanging out

Golem: The Golem is a creature created by a rabbi to serve the Jewish community when the community needed to be protected. The creature is made of soil or clay and brought to life by the use of alchemical-like formulas described in holy texts. The creature is not possessed by a spirit or ghost, but driven by the ritual to follow the rabbi’s commands and serve the community until he is not needed. The Golem is then called-off and put away. The stories of 'Golems-run-amok' are tales of Golems that did not stop once they were told to, but rather continued on wreaking havoc wherever they went. The most famous story about a Golem is that of Doesn't he look friendly?

Instructions for making a Golem courtesy of the 'Book of Formation' as described by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan:

An initiate should not do it alone, but should always be accompanied by one or two colleagues. The Golem must be made of virgin soil, taken from a place where no man has ever dug. The soil must be kneaded with pure spring water, taken directly from the ground. If this water is placed in any kind of vessel, it can no longer be used. The people making the Golem must purify themselves totally before engaging in this activity, both physically and spiritually. While making the Golem, they must wear clean white vestments… One must not make any mistake or error in the pronunciation… no interruption whatsoever may occur.

So by chanting the appropriate letter arrangements together with the letters of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH or JHVH–Yaweh or Jehovah), the 'creator' could form a very accurate mental picture of a human being. Once the conceptual Golem was completed, the spiritual potential would be transferred to the clay form and animate it.

Jewish Folklore: Helping you keep your demons, ghosts and monsters straight Read More »

Elderly Holocaust survivor couple die in suicide pact

Leave a Comment / Worldwide / Jewish Journal

An octogenarian couple — both Jewish Holocaust survivors — killed themselves in Toronto in an apparent suicide pact.

Police are treating the deaths of Vladimir Fiser, 89, and Marika Ferber, 84, as a double suicide. Their bodies were found Tuesday at the base of their apartment building. They are believed to have jumped to their deaths from the balcony of their 18th-floor apartment.

“At this point, investigators do not believe the deaths are suspicious,” Toronto Police Constable Sarah Diamond said. “It’s being treated as a double suicide.”

Friends and neighbors have said the couple were ill and in chronic pain. Police reportedly found two notes in their apartment saying goodbye.

Both Fiser and Ferber were born in the small Croatian city of Osijek on the eve of World War II, reported the Toronto Star, quoting a longtime friend and neighbor. They befriended each other as children in the small Jewish community, which was torn apart when the Nazis defeated Yugoslavia in 1941.

That year, Fiser’s father, a lawyer, was executed along with many family members. Fiser fled to the Italy-occupied part of Croatia and became a war refugee until the Germans invaded Italy in 1943. He was hidden by a sympathetic policeman and smuggled to Switzerland, where he spent the remainder of the war. Fiser returned to Yugoslavia after the war and graduated from the University of Zagreb with a degree in economics.

Less is known about Ferber, who reportedly had been a ballerina and teacher.

Both Ferber and Fiser went on to live in Israel. When their spouses died of cancer a day apart, they turned their lifelong friendship into a second marriage, their neighbor related.

In Toronto, Fiser earned a master’s degree in social work and worked at a psychiatric hospital. He suffered from heart problems.

In recent years, Ferber suffered from chronic back and leg pain and needed a walker or a wheelchair. Her husband took her to a clinic daily to get injections for pain relief, the Toronto Sun reported.

“They were truly in love,” another neighbor told the Sun. “But they were tired of all the pain.”

Elderly Holocaust survivor couple die in suicide pact Read More »

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October 31, 2013

This week in power: Iran sanctions debate and Banksy’s latest message

Cost-Cost

Be strong and of good courage, chevra

October 31, 2013

Rawabi’s Success will Signal the Success of a Two-State Solution – Israel Journal Part VII

So What is Pew’s Verdict: Are Young American Jews Attached to Israel?

Israel to announce 5,000 new settler homes

Syria destroys chemical weapons facilities, watchdog group confirms

Jewish Folklore: Helping you keep your demons, ghosts and monsters straight

Elderly Holocaust survivor couple die in suicide pact

Jewish Journal