fbpx

GET HOME DELIVERY! CLICK HERE »

ADVERTISE
pick up locations
HOME DELIVERY
donate

Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

December 11, 2013

A Theft May Be Larger Than It Appears

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Entertainment, Film, Hollywood, Is Featured?, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

In the Jewish Ethics class I’m taking, this week we discussed theft. In particular, we discussed Talmudic thought on, for example, inviting someone to dinner when you know they won’t accept. This was presented as a theft of the mind, since the offer wasn’t sincere.

The class got me thinking about a recent incident in the small, locally-owned grocery store where I frequently shop. I asked the man at the deli counter for a half a pound of the beef salami.

I don’t usually pay close attention to these things, but the man seemed to be having some difficulty entering the correct code into the scale, so I noticed the price per pound he entered. I glanced from the scale down to the sign on the salami, and it appeared he had charged me about $2 less per pound than the price on the sign.

As he wrapped the salami, I pondered whether or not I should say something. If I said nothing, I could claim I wasn’t being dishonest, because it’s not my fault he charged me the wrong price. Plus, half a pound at a price $2 per pound too low is only about a dollar. However, I knew that if I didn’t say something, I’d feel guilty, and I would feel bad every time I contemplated eating any of the salami.

So when he handed me the package, I checked the price per pound on the label and said, “Excuse me, but I think you charged me less than the marked price.” He took a look at the label, peered at the sign, and started to take the package back. Then he hesitated, and said, “You buy this all the time. I think you deserve a discount.”

Now, if he were the owner of the store, it would certainly be within his perogative to give me a discount. However, as an employee, did he have this right? If not, taking the salami at the lower price might still be considered to be stealing. On the other hand, his decision might be considered good customer service. He made a mistake, it was a small one, so in the pursuit of good customer relations, he let the mistake stand.

I could easily picture the store manager and/or owner standing behind such a decision, so I went ahead and took the salami, still marked at the lower price. But I still wonder whether I should have insisted that he charge me the correct price.

This story led me to recall an incident that happened in my college days. I frequently used to stop by a donut shop to purchase a glazed confection to eat on my way to class in the morning. The fellow behind the counter used to flirt with me a little, which was kind of fun.

That is, it was fun until one day when he gave me a significant look as he handed me my change and the donut bag. As I strolled down the street, I opened the bag to discover it contained not one, but two donuts. The fellow had stolen a donut and given it to me.

The theft made me feel very uncomfortable. I didn’t want the guy stealing donuts – or anything else – to give me. I didn’t want to get him in trouble by going back and returning it. If, the next time I went in, I told him I didn’t want him to give me any more free stuff, he might get in trouble, or even if nobody else overheard, he might get mad at me.

What I did instead is I never set foot in that donut shop again. Ultimately, that guy behind the counter stole more than one donut from the store owners. In addition, he stole from them all of my future business, as well.

—————-
“Like” the “>follow me on Twitter.

A Theft May Be Larger Than It Appears Read More »

December 11, 2013

Leave a Comment / Israel, Must Reads /

The US

Headline: Congress assails Iran nuclear deal, but new sanctions appear unlikely

To Read: John Allen Gay thinks that Obama's handshake with Castro was no big deal and that Americans should generally not put their leaders on such a high pedestal-

Peres’ approach is the correct one: while there are ethical and tactical elements to be navigated in meeting and addressing foreign leaders, these elements must always be grounded in the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. Our own democratic system and our own freedoms are not endangered by a meeting between our president and a dictator. But they are if we start to think of our president as a god, and our diplomacy as his gift.

Quote: “As a result of this situation, the United States has suspended all further deliveries of non-lethal assistance into northern Syria”, US Spokesman in Ankara announcing the suspension of non-lethal aid to Northern Syria.

Number: 42%, the Democratic Party's favorability rate (the GOP is at 32%)

 

Israel

Headline: Knesset gives initial approval to more aid for needy Holocaust survivors

To Read: According to veteran journalist Nachum Barnea, John Kerry's security plan has taken away Netanyahu's excuses-

 Kerry, in his hectic efforts to advance the negotiations, is imposing quite a difficult problem on Netanyahu. The military plan devised by a huge team of experts, led by General Allen, robs Netanyahu of the immediate argument he has raised every time he was required to discuss the outline of the future border between Israel and Palestine: Security arrangements. Now there are security arrangements, and they include a long transition period before we leave the Jordan Valley, international supervision over border crossings, and more.

Quote: “At the moment it looks like even in the rest of the world, they understand that they cannot replace the Assad regime as long as they don’t know who will take its place.  Right now it looks like the alternative is forces that will endanger the stability of the region”, former IDF Chief Dan Halutz implying that Israel might prefer for Assad to stay in power.

Number: 30-40, the Galilee and Sharon region received 30-40 millimeters of precipitation last night.

 

The Middle East

Headline: Iran nuclear freeze start date elusive

To Read: The Washington Institute's David Schencker makes some grim predictions regarding the future of the Iran-Saudi relationship-

The real question is what comes now – and I expect a surge in regional violence. Paradoxically, the international “first step” nuclear agreement with Iran increases rather than diminishes the chances that the Shiite theocracy in Tehran will take steps that exacerbate the regional sectarian conflict.

Quote: “The GCC [The Gulf Cooperation Council] states have expressed their comfort towards the preliminary Geneva agreement pertaining to the Iranian nuclear programme, and we look forward to its success to lead to a permanent pact, that drives away the specter of tension from our region”, Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, welcoming the deal with Iran.

Number: 27, the number of women who have died in 'honor killings' this year in the Palestinian Authority.

 

The Jewish World

Headline: Measles vaccine developer warns Jewish anti-vaxxers

To Read: Aaron Gilbreath describes his failed pilgrimage to his grandmother's Lower East Side-

 The Lower East Side was ground zero of the Jewish Diaspora, a homeland before Israel, for it was here that many of the Jews who fled Europe’s anti-Semitism in the late 19th century and early 20th century started their new lives. Like most new immigrants, Jews associated largely with fellow Jews, acclimating to their new home by seeking the old country’s food, language, and customs. The Lower East Side became a neighborhood where, in the words of historian Hasia R. Diner, “Jews lived in a universe of almost total Jewishness.” Yiddish was primarily spoken; the hybrid language helped bridge communication gaps between Russians, Germans, and Poles. It also helped create “a foreign land right in the midst of America.” In 1900, these Jewish tenements contained 640,000 people in one square mile, the densest population at that point in history.

Quote: “Today our country took a major step forward toward addressing the needs of many Holocaust survivors”, Michael Siegal, Head of the Jewish Federation of North America Board of Trustees, commenting on Vice President Biden's announcement on the appointment of a government Holocaust survivor liaison.

Number: 120,000, the estimated number of Holocaust survivors in the US.

December 11, 2013 Read More »

The Cold War Exchange, Part 1: Israel and Iran, Then and Now

Leave a Comment / Domain's Guest, Israel, Israel, Middle East /

Dr. Howard Patten is a teaching fellow in Middle East & Mediterranean Studies at King's College in London. Howard is a graduate of UCL, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he was awarded the Golda Meir Fellowship, Cambridge University and King's College London. His fields of interest are Israeli history, politics and society and US and British Policy in the Middle East. His PhD examined Israel's peripheral policy at the UN.

 The following exchange will focus on his book Israel and the Cold War: Diplomacy, Strategy and the Policy of the Periphery at the United Nations (Tauris, 2013).

 

Dear Dr. Patten,

Starting with a specific question about a book like yours – that deals with so many topics – can be tricky. And I want to leave the larger questions for the last round. So I will begin with what seems to be the most topical discussion in your book: the relations between Israel and Iran.

Two chapters are dedicated to these relations, one looks at the years 56-72 and the other covers the years 73-82, beginning with the Yom Kippur War and ending shortly after the Iranian revolution. “On 18 February 1979”, you write, “the new regime severed ties with Israel. The only other country to receive such treatment was Egypt, whose ties with Iran were broken as punishment for its peace treaty with Israel. Indeed, the Iranian revolutionary leaders concluded that Israel could never be compromised with, and neither could any third party doing so with the Jewish State”.

Your chapter chronicles an Iran that is ideologically persistent in its non-acceptance of Israel as a legitimate state, but also ready to temporarily suspend ideology for pragmatic reasons – as it did when it needed Israel during the Iran-Iraq war. As we consider these past realities today, can we conclude that this is the best Israel can hope for from the Iranian Islamic regime – to be tolerated only because it is still tactically unwise for the regime to try more actively to annihilate Israel?

Thank you,

Shmuel.

***

Dear Shmuel

Your final paragraph neatly encapsulates one of the main reasons I wrote Israel and the Cold War: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the Policy of the Periphery at the United Nations. Over the years, it has become a mantra of sorts that Israel has no foreign policy, but rather reacts to world and regional affairs as they happen. In my book, one of the things I set out to achieve was that the Policy of the Periphery was a defined, specific strategy and that for the countries involved, (Israel, Iran, Turkey, and Ethiopia) Realpolitik, pragmatism, regional concerns, and national interests frequently served to overcome ideology. In particular, I wanted to focus on the often glaring disparity between the multi and bi-lateral relations between the countries and the disconnection between harsh statements and voting patterns at the UN, for example, whilst implicit deals and alliances were forming behind the scenes.

Your question as to what Israel can best hope for regarding Iran, I suppose, depends on two factors:

1.      That Iran seeks a direct and overt military confrontation with Israel and believes that it is in its interest to do so

2.      Somewhat topically, whether the West ought to believe that Iran will honor its side of the Geneva Nuclear Deal

You highlight the fact that Iran sought out Israel during the Iran-Iraq war and are right to do so. Given that, in the immediate aftermath of the 1979 Iranian revolution one would have been forgiven for thinking that the Iran/Israel pillar of the Policy of the Periphery would cease to exist, it is worth noting that it did not, even with Israel’s incursion into Lebanon in 1982. In fact, because of the Lebanon war, Iran had the opportunity to both confront the IDF and export the tenets of the Islamic Republic. Prior to that, in 1981, Israel and Iran signed a significant arms deal, and Ariel Sharon discussed a further deal of even greater scope the following year. 

The current Democrat administration in the White House will want to avoid replaying the conclusion of the Agreed Framework with North Korea under the Clinton administration, but will also be aware that, should the Geneva Deal succeed, an already toxic issue would be defused, with significant regional and global benefits. In Jerusalem, there is concern that Tehran is duping the West and anguish at the possible consequences. Moreover, for Israel there is also fear that Iran will continue to confront Israel through its regional proxies and promote regional instability, whilst, concomitantly, and at least ostensibly, adhering to the requirements of the Geneva Deal, thus reaping the rewards from a West eager for a breakthrough on the Iranian nuclear question

In short, with the current political orientation of the West and its approach to Middle Eastern matters in particular, and given the pressure on Israel to work with the Geneva Deal and not to carry out unilateral military action, it appears that that the Geneva Deal is the only game in town. We must also bear in mind that the previously formidable alliance between Israel and Turkey is now tenuous, to say the least, with Turkey reportedly looking to revive trade with Iran. Certainly, the hope in the West is that Iran will see the inherent value of sanctions relief and the transfer of billions of dollars and act accordingly. However, as my book shows, pragmatic alliances, and the desire for regional stability can transcend the temporal nature of political regimes. Moreover, given the reported fledgling changes in the dynamics of long-established relations in the Middle East in the aftermath of the Geneva Deal, we may see impromptu regional alliances with Jerusalem formed, expected or otherwise.

Thank you, 

Howard

The Cold War Exchange, Part 1: Israel and Iran, Then and Now Read More »

Opposition mounts to Israel’s Arab Bedouin transfer plan

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

Israel is promoting a plan to transfer some 40,000 Arab Bedouin citizens from traditional villages into towns despite opposition by activists and senior government officials that threatens to derail it.

Government supporters say the resettlement would encourage development, but that was repeatedly challenged by residents of the villages in Israel's southern Negev desert.

“It's a bad plan, nobody here was asked. It's racist, and means to evict people from their homes with no alternative,” said Huda Abu Ubayd, a local university student who startled government organizers of a tour for journalists by chanting slogans and passing out leaflets.

“We see the conditions of the towns. They're weak and poor,” she told reporters visiting the landscape of breeze block homes surrounded by heaps of trash and animal pens patched together with corrugated metal sheeting.

A bill which has passed a first reading in parliament would mandate that around 40,000 Bedouins from dozens of villages that are “unrecognized” by the Israeli state be forced to move into seven townships.

But criticism on the street and in parts of government may coalesce to scupper the proposed law, called the “Prawer Plan” after top Israeli planning official, Ehud Prawer.

Lawmaker Yariv Levin, the chairman of Israel's governing coalition said this week that there was “no chance of approving the second and third reading of the Prawer bill in its present form”, noting that its authors “did not receive (Bedouin) support”, the Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper quoted him as saying.

STREET PROTESTS

Israel's far right also objects to the plan, saying its vision of compensating many of the Bedouin with a combination of land and cash justifies what they see as squatting.

“The Bedouin are interested in receiving not only the 'carrot' – compensation and other lands, but are … against the 'stick' – their duty to evacuate all the lands they have populated illegally,” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman wrote on his Facebook page.

“Therefore, one should re-examine the plan and consider a far-reaching plan that would annul the benefits the Bedouin were to receive.”

However, Doron Almog, an official heading the Negev Bedouin file for the prime minister's office, denied the plan would be reworked, saying, “the plan is controversial, this is true”.

“You can still see why there's so much need for a compromise. There are people here living in the south of Israel, see the suffering, see the poverty. It's for the people, with the people here, the Bedouin,” he told Reuters.

Rare street protests spanning Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories over the issue last month deteriorated into clashes between Israeli forces and youths, including many young Arab citizens of Israel who increasingly identify with the Palestinian cause.

Activists say the plan is meant to change the demographic character of Israel's south and give Jews priority in planning and building homes – policies they link to housing and movement restrictions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Facing a housing crunch elsewhere in Israel, the government plans new Jewish communities in the Negev area and is in the process of moving several military bases there from the densely packed center where land prices are much higher.

The Negev Desert is already dotted with many military bases and some of it is used as military training areas and live firing zones. Hulking aircraft and helicopters frequently fly over the Bedouin areas.

In the “unrecognized” village of Bir Mshash, a gaggle of sheds and concrete hovels amid muddy gullies, Bedouin mother of seven Um Mohammed tended to a delicate garden of cactus, aloe and purple flowers by her home.

She too was unconvinced by the plan.

“They won't evict us. This our land and the land of our ancestors. There's no way we're leaving, that's that.”

Editing by Ori Lewis and Alison Williams

Opposition mounts to Israel’s Arab Bedouin transfer plan Read More »

‘Framework’ bid roils Palestinians

Leave a Comment / Israel, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

Amid simmering tensions over Iran policy, the Obama and Netanyahu governments appear to have quietly forged common ground in recent weeks on Israeli-Palestinian talks, with the United States accepting that a possible “framework” agreement might not address every outstanding issue in the negotiations.

Such an agreement, the United States and Israel seem to agree, would maintain a role for Israel in providing for its security, presumably by maintaining some form of military presence in the West Bank.

What’s not clear is if the Palestinians will go along.

As recently as October, Martin Indyk, the lead American peace negotiator, told J Street that an interim agreement was not in the cards. The objective, he told the liberal Israel policy group, was a final-status agreement.

Yet, over the weekend, addressing the annual Saban Forum in Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry each suggested there would be a middle phase aimed at addressing Israel’s lingering security concerns.

“I think it is possible over the next several months to arrive at a framework that does not address every single detail but gets us to a point where everybody recognizes better to move forward than move backward,” Obama told the annual forum on Dec. 7.

“We have spent a lot of time working with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his entire team to understand from an Israeli perspective what is required for the security of Israel in such a scenario,” he said.

Netanyahu’s comments to the forum, delivered the next day via satellite, reiterated Israel’s longstanding position that under any agreement, it must retain the ability to provide for its own security.

“I think that any kind of peace we’ll have is likely, initially at least, to be a cold peace,” Netanyahu said. “So there must be ironclad security arrangements to protect the peace, arrangements that allow Israel to defend itself by itself against any possible threat. And those arrangements must be based on Israel’s own forces.”

For years, the question of Israel’s long-term security presence in the West Bank has dogged attempts by Israel and the Palestinians to return to peace talks. Israel has long maintained that it must retain a security corridor in the Jordan Valley. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that keeping Israeli forces in place would fatally undermine a deal.

The Obama administration appears to have sided with Israel on this point by accepting that, at least initially, Israel will have a role in securing borders and fighting terrorism in Palestinian areas, among other security responsibilities.

“Needless to say, for a period of time, this will obviously involve Israeli participation,” Kerry told the Saban Forum. “It has to.”

On Dec. 9, Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, denied that references to a “framework” agreement implied the administration is backing away from its pursuit of a final-status agreement, though she declined to elaborate on what “framework” means.

“The secretary — and this may have caused some of the confusion — and the president both used the term ‘framework’ this weekend,” Psaki said at her daily media briefing. “I think some thought — took that to mean — ‘interim.’ It does not mean interim. We still remain focused on a final-status agreement.”

Nevertheless, the administration’s language was perceived as marking a dramatic departure from previous understandings.

“This contradicts completely what we were promised by the American secretary of state at the beginning of this peace process — to avoid any partial or interim agreements,” Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top Abbas aide, told the Voice of Palestine radio on Monday, according to a report in the Associated Press.

The shift follows a comprehensive review of Israeli security needs led by Gen. John Allen, a former commander of allied forces in Afghanistan. Allen was present at the Saban Forum but did not speak publicly.

Both Obama and Kerry suggested that they understood the shift would not be welcomed by the Palestinians.

“We’re going to have to see whether the Israelis agree and whether President Abbas, then, is willing to understand that this transition period requires some restraint on the part of the Palestinians as well,” Obama said. “They don’t get everything that they want on day one. And that creates some political problems for President Abbas, as well.”

Kerry said those who believe “there might be an unfairness” by making Israeli security a pre-eminent factor in advancing toward a peace deal should “look at the history and understand why that’s a fundamental reality.”

Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Israel might have demanded the shift in part because it needs strong security assurances in the wake of upheaval in neighboring Egypt and Syria. Israel also is concerned that the recent deal between world powers and Iran could spur rather than prevent the Islamic Republic’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

Schanzer, who just published “State of Failure,” a critique of Abbas’ governance, said Kerry deserved credit for keeping the parties at the table after differences over preconditions kept them apart for almost three years.

“The administration has exceeded all our expectations,” he said. “We’re halfway through a process that is still going.”

‘Framework’ bid roils Palestinians Read More »

Letters to the editor: Judaism in Germany, cultural synergy, women in universities and puzzles

Leave a Comment / Letters to the Editor /

Judaism in Germany

I am a committed supporter of Conservative Judaism and have been a member of Conservative Temple Beth Am for more than 20 years (“Conservative Judaism Reborn — In Germany,” Nov. 29). I agree with Rabbi Brad Artson that the movement is not dying. Unfortunately, however, in his zeal to support Conservative/Masorti Judaism, he presented the facts about the German program unfairly. My wife, Rabbi Ruth Sohn, and I just spent a year in Berlin teaching for the seminary he raved about. It is not about to begin. It has been in existence for over a decade and ordained its first progressive rabbis in 2006 and its first progressive cantor in 2009. But those rabbis and cantors are all Reform. The Potsdam University professor Walter Homolka is also a Reform rabbi, and the Reform movement in the United States and its international arm, the World Movement for Progressive Judaism, have been instrumental in supporting Rabbi Homolka in his brilliant work to revive Progressive Judaism in Germany — of all stripes, Conservative as well as Reform. 

Rabbi Reuven Firestone, professor of medieval Judaism and Islam, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson responds:

Thanks to my friend, Rabbi Reuven Firestone, for praising our sister rabbinical program, the Abraham Geiger College, which does indeed train Reform rabbis for the European Union and has been in healthy existence for several years. But in his legitimate zeal to praise Reform Judaism, he missed that my article was announcing the establishment of the University of Potsdam’s School of Jewish Theology and the brand new Zacharias Frankel College, which will train Conservative/Masorti Rabbis and is now open for admissions.

Arguments Fail to Make the Grade

Colossal irony. Colossal narcissism. This from the guy who decries the “low moral state of our universities,” because women who go to them have fewer children than those who don’t (“Educated Women and Children,” Dec. 6). There are so many holes in this argument it’s well nigh irredeemable. And if he thinks this passes for good argument, he perhaps needs a refresher education at a premier university. In this piece, his position sounds an awful lot like, “Keep women barefoot and pregnant.” Leaving aside his polemics and easy equations about feminism and secularism, there are good moral rationales for encouraging women’s higher education today even if it means that they may have fewer children. These include feeding, housing and clothing those children in an uncertain world as well as fulfilling, perhaps, their intellectual potential.

The world always looks so flat, binary and simple to Dennis Prager. It seems to me that the world and its people are far more complex and interesting than writing like this suggests. Isn’t it time the Jewish Journal gave more voice and column inches to writers who think more unpredictably, more subtly and ultimately beyond the easy either-or facile formulas that regularly spangle these columns?

Doreen Seidler-Feller, associate clinical professor, The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Dennis Prager responds:

Given that there are “so many holes” in my arguments, Doreen Seidler-Feller should have devoted at least some of her 200 words to pointing out what those holes are. Instead, she just attacks me — which, ironically, only serves to reinforce my warnings about the moral and intellectual caliber of much of contemporary university life. So, too, typical of the many professors who think only left-wing views should be expressed, she objects to the Jewish Journal publishing me.

It is beyond sad that after the Holocaust, the more years a Jewish woman (or a Jewish man, but men don’t give birth) spends at a university, the less value she places on having children. This, too, reconfirms what the university has done to the minds and values of many of its students.

Creating Cultural Synergy

It’s great that Israeli Consul General David Siegel is supporting collaboration between Jews and Latinos (“Israeli-Latino Renaissance,” Nov. 22). A perfect example of how these two communities can create cultural synergies took place this last September when the Boyle Heights garden, Proyecto Jardin, and our congregation, IKAR, co-organized a combined Aztec Harvest Festival/Sukkot ceremony. In celebrating together, we found we had much in common, including honoring geographic directions, using conch shells and shofarim to announce ritual events and calling for a sustainable lifestyle. As Siegel points out, we are all in the same boat, and our similarities augur well for more mutual ceremonies and collective action on issues such as the environment, immigration and addressing social inequities.

Alisa Schulweis Reich & Peter Reich, Los Angeles

Puzzle Praise

I started doing your crosswords, and though I have been doing crossword puzzles since I was about 11 — including The New York Times and The Washington Post — I have to tell you that the Jerusalem Post puzzle has become one of my favorites. It is a challenging and clever puzzle. I learn something every time.

Chloe Ross, West Hollywood

correction

 

In “Moving and Shaking” (Dec. 6), it should have stated that Michelle Hirschhorn is currently a sophomore at Shalhevet.

Letters to the editor: Judaism in Germany, cultural synergy, women in universities and puzzles Read More »

Obituaries

Leave a Comment / California, Obituaries /

Robin Allen died Nov. 21 at 59. Survived by sister Bonnie Simon; brothers David (Eliane), Mitchell (Ariadne); 1 niece. Mount Sinai

Helen Arak died Nov. 21 at 67. Survived by husband Ron; daughter Sarah (fiance Mark Turner); sister Dorothy Kamer. Mount Sinai

Robert Bandler died Nov. 17 at 75. Survived by brother James (Diane). Hillside

Dorothy Bernstein died Nov. 10 at 93. Survived by sons David, Stephen; 2 grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Sulana Chait died Nov. 5 at 92. Survived by daughter Deborah (Ivan) Kallick; son Robert (Arta) Berns; 4 grandchildren; 2 great-grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Mack Coldburn died Nov. 17 at 105. Survived by son Solomon Rosenberg; 2 grandchildren; niece Ann; nephew Phil. Hillside

Sherlyn Doshay died Nov. 19 at 65. Survived by brother Gary (Mona). Hillside

Michael Fleischer died Nov. 17 at 82. Survived by wife Veronika; sons Benjamin (Syeira), Howard; sister Mollie Winkler. Hillside

Judith Giss died Nov. 3 at 66. Survived by husband Rabbi Kenneth; sisters Debra Davalos, Diane Denny. Malinow and Silverman

Augusta Good died Nov. 21 at 101. Survived by daughters Marsha (Joe) Farro, Sandra (Barry) Last; 2 grandchildren; sister Frieda Conron. Hillside

Jay Gordon died Nov. 18 at 77. Survived by wife Nancy; daughter Jayne (Tom Szabadi); son Ricky; 1 grandchild; sister Fayann (Fred) Muchowicz. Mount Sinai

Eve Grover died Nov. 21 at 84. Survived by sons Jeffrey, Ronald (Valerie); 3 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Vivian Gyulai died Nov. 18 at 91. Survived by daughter Susan Schein; son Jay; 3 grandchildren. Hillside

Beatrice Horwitz died Nov. 17 at 97. Survived by son Gene (Bonnie); 5 grandchildren; 5 great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Lillian Iden died Nov. 20 at 96. Survived by son Christopher; 1 grandchild; sister Faye Sherman. Hillside

Beverly Kaufman died Oct. 17 at 88. Survived by son James (Kim); friends Rhoda Glenn, Paul Wurtzel. Mount Sinai

Kenneth Kleinman died Nov. 11 at 70. Survived by wife Julie; daughter Jill; son David; 1 grandchild. Malinow and Silverman

Joan Kravetz died Nov. 16 at 83. Survived by husband Sol; daughters Harriet (David Bouzaglou) Diament, Lauren (Henry) Dehlinger; sisters Frances Lampert, Sylvia Tapper. Hillside

Stella Krieger died Nov. 21 at 75. Survived by husband Fred; daughter Alissa (David) Krieger-DeWitt; sons Lauren (Jennifer), Terence (Linda), Spencer (Monica); 9 grandchildren; brother Seymour Nadelman. Mount Sinai

Mark Lacter died Nov. 14 at 59. Survived by wife Laura Levine. Malinow and Silverman

Jeanette Lee died Nov. 18 at 91. Survived by sons Daniel, Larry (Marla); 2 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Lee Levinthal died Nov. 16 at 103. Survived by daughter Myra (Alan) Turek; 3 grandchildren; 3 great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Lynne Malenbaum died Nov. 19 at 58. Survived by husband Mark; sons Michael, Samuel; brothers Henry Harris, Mark (Jackie) Harris; niece Janine (Louis) Molnar. Chevra Kadisha

Rose Meisner died Nov. 21 at 96. Survived by daughter-in-law Eileen; 2 grandchildren; 4 great-grandchildren; sister Lilly Goldsmith. Mount Sinai

Stanley Mills died Nov. 18 at 97. Survived by wife Lee; daughters Sheri Safan, Nancy; 2 grandchildren; brother Howard. Hillside

Alice Munk died Nov. 19 at 93. Survived by daughter Judith; son Michael (Shelley Gardner). Mount Sinai

Theodore Porush died Nov. 16 at 83. Survived by daughters Andrea (Sam) Maatallah, Janet (Marcus); sons Kenneth, Laurence; 9 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Joel Pressman died Nov. 18 at 63. Survived by daughter Aviva; son Elijah; mother Marjorie; father Rabbi Jacob; sister Judith. Malinow and Silverman

Behzad Refah died Nov. 8 at 50. Survived by mother Ehteram; father Eshagh; sisters Mahri (Kamran) Firooz, Vida (Kourosh) Kohanteb, Roohi (Mansoor) Radparvar; brothers Behnam, Ghodrat (Lida), Iraj. Malinow and Silverman

Martin Reinis died Nov. 15 at 90. Survived by wife Audrey; daughter Merry; son James; 2 grandchildren. Hillside

Robert Richman died Nov. 19 at 46. Survived by brothers Brian, William. Mount Sinai

Evelyn Roth died Nov. 20 at 92. Survived by daughter Geri Jacobson; son Marc; 2 grandchildren. Hillside

Art Schimmel died Nov. 15 at 82. Survived by wife Gloria; daughter Barbara (Jeff) Scapa; sons Irwin (Josie), Jay (Stephanie), Neil (Cristy); 9 grandchildren; 6 great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Pearl Schneider died Nov. 18 at 93. Survived by son Merrick (Jody); 2 grandchildren; sister Roz Saron. Pacific View

Arnold Schulman died Nov. 2 at 87. Survived by sons Rabbi Avi (Eve Ben-Ora), David (Ava Thomas), Jay (Lisa Pavlevsky), Martin (Tara); 8 grandchildren; sister Dorothy (Charles) Samuel; brother Sidney. Malinow and Silverman

Sara Shye died Nov. 20 at 84. Survived by daughters Lihi Gershater, Daphne (Calman Prussin); 3 grandchildren; brothers Joseph Nir, Ron Nir. Hillside

Orell Silberman died Nov. 20 at 92. Survived by daughter Jeanne (Allen) Rothman; sons Joey (Cindy), Steven (Mindy); 4 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Marilyn Skoller died Nov. 15 at 90. Survived by son Ronald; nephew Steve Sokol. Mount Sinai

Bernice Slepak died Nov. 20 at 92. Survived by daughter Hope; son Dennis. Mount Sinai

Frieda Star died Nov. 20 at 89. Survived by cousins Betty Fraser, Irene (Conrad) Furlong, Marla Kantor, Michael. Hillside

Everett Weinstein died Nov. 16 at 79. Survived by wife Anita; daughters Lisa (Mark) Richardson, Debbie, Linda; son Daniel (Junko); 3 grandchildren; brother Herb (Joy); caregiver Natasha Thomas. Mount Sinai

Jacob Weiss died Nov. 20 at 91. Survived by wife Malvina. Hillside

Obituaries Read More »

Calendar Dec 14-20

Leave a Comment / California, Picks and Clicks, Scene and Heard, What's Happening /

SAT | DEC 14

“RE-EMERGING: THE JEWS OF NIGERIA”

Shmuel Tikvah, a young Nigerian, heard time and time again about the Igbo people, who claim descent from ancient Israelites. Research at an Internet cafe leads him on a quest to find this Nigerian Jewish community, which keeps kosher, lights Shabbat candles and prays in Hebrew. Director Jeff L. Lieberman documents the journey of ancestry, identity and the reshaping of life with a new kind of faith. Sat. Various times. Through Dec. 19. $11 (general), $8 (seniors, ages 11 and under, bargain matinee). Laemmle Playhouse 7, 673 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. (310) 478-3836. ” target=”_blank”>km-synagogue.org.

SUN | DEC 15

COMMUNITY SERVICE DAY

Embrace the spirit of giving with the The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. Join Food Forward to pick fresh oranges off of trees to donate to Jewish Family Service, assemble care packages with Project M.O.T. for Jewish servicewomen and servicemen in the U.S. Armed Forces, throw an awesome “Senior Prom” for some of the older citizens in our community or prepare dinner for the homeless with Union Rescue Mission. Sun. Free. Times, locations vary. (323) 761-8000. ” target=”_blank”>theautry.org.

“BROADWAY SING-ALONG: A SPARKLING REFLECTION OF OUR AMERICAN LIFE”

This one’s for all you secret shower singers. American Jewish University invites you to belt your biggest notes during a celebration of Broadway’s best. Producer Ellie Mednick explores facets of American life while Karen Thomson Hall leads us in some of our favorites from Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Kander and Ebb, and the Gershwins. It’s a curtain-call opportunity for the whole family. Sun. 4 p.m. $25. American Jewish University, 15600 Mulholland Drive, Bel Air. (310) 476-9777. ” target=”_blank”>acsz.org/comedy.

TUE | DEC 17

LAEMMLE’S 75th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Your favorite theater chain is having a birthday! Laemmle Theatre’s Charitable Foundation hosts a special evening to commemorate its role in both civic and cultural life as well as the nonprofit work it supports. There will be drinks, hors d’oeuvres, a community presentation and a screening of a Laemmle classic. Your ticket also gets you a copy of the book “Not Afraid … 75 years of Film Exhibition in Los Angeles.” Tue. 6 p.m. $100. Laemmle’s Royal Theatre, 11523 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 478-0401. ” target=”_blank”>vbs.org.

THUR | DEC 19

SHELLEY BERMAN

The comedian, actor and writer has a new book of poetry out! “To Laughter With Questions” is a collection of serious and not-so-serious verse, limericks, rhymes and an attempt at iambic pentameter. While you might know him best from his many film and TV appearances, here is an opportunity to get to know the man more intimately. His collection is full of personal experiences, and because he has taught in USC’s Master of Professional Writing program, you know it’s well written. Thu. 7 p.m. Free. Book Soup, 8818 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. (310) 659-3110. Calendar Dec 14-20 Read More »

Jeffrey Goldberg Twerks John Kerry’s Butt [VIDEO]

Leave a Comment / Blogs, California, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage /

It all started when Left-wing columnist Jeffrey Goldberg used Miley Cyrus to sound smart and wise. He bemoaned how Miley actually needed to heed advice from old Jewish men after she controversially proclaimed that she doesn't want a 70-year-old-Jew sitting behind a desk all day telling her what her generation wants to hear. He shows off his “erudition” by “>”John Kerry Is Israel's Best Friend,” he is so obviously twerking John Kerry's behind that he has proven just how unwise, unsavory, and politically slutty he is. In the piece, he strains to build up Secretary of State John Kerry as “an exemplar of a slowly vanishing type of Democratic Party leader, someone with great, and uncomplicated, affection for the promise of Zionism.”

But if you read carefully as he elaborates on the important people in the room where he heard Kerry's words, he comes off as a name-dropping prestige seeker, which he often hides with a healthy dose of self-deprecation. (I served on a panel at the Saban Forum…I casually chat with best-selling Israeli authors…I was invited to off-the-record meetings….) He uses the popular canard that the two-state “solution” is the pro-Israel, Zionist stance, ignoring the practical, humanitarian ramifications of such policy on the ground for Jews and Arabs alike. He mentions the appointment of a prestigious American general to chart security arrangements in the West Bank, but that's just dropping another name….

He makes Miley's famous tongue look really short from the way he wields his own up the behind of Obama and his officials. Miley might take some pointers from him. Of course, his most vulgar statement is suggesting that engaging in ethnic cleansing of Jews from Judea and Samaria to create a Palestinian state will lead to peace and prestige for Israel, not to mention peace-on-earth for the Palestinians, who'd be left to kill and oppress each other, if we can judge from what happened after the Gaza pull-out. He's more concerned with Israel's prestige–and his own.

It's self-interested, prestige-obsessed Jewish men like Jeffrey Goldberg that make this Jewish girl sympathize with Miley Cyrus. He's just a middle-aged Jewish man sitting behind a desk trying to run Israel and the lives of the people who live here. He won't have to send his kids to the IDF. He won't have to face the onslaught of rocket attacks that will hit Israel once more pullouts are forced upon the people. He won't have to lose his home. He won't have to lose his job when Israeli businesses that employ Palestinians are closed down in the name of fostering prosperity. He won't have to live under terrorist gangs. He'll live his cozy life in America, a BFF to the White House, a celebrated journalist.

We in Israel, and especially in the West Bank, have gotten beaten around long enough by decrepit politicians, Jewish and not-Jewish, especially those living in America, who want to dictate to us where we should live, how we should act, how we should behave, what we should want, what people should want of us.

Channeling Miley’s defiant spirit in her song “>WE, JEWS, CAN’T STOP. We can’t stop building, loving, praying, doing what we want in our land. Too quote Miley, “Only God can Judge ya. Forget the haters, cuz Somebody loves ya.”

Perhaps Goldberg is so concerned about God not loving him that he has to worship men.

Check out the videos:

 
Please note: At the editor's request, this blog was modified from the original.
 

Jeffrey Goldberg Twerks John Kerry’s Butt [VIDEO] Read More »

Why casting Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman really matters

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

When 28-year-old model/actress Gal Gadot was cast as Wonder Woman in Warner Bros.'s upcoming “Batman vs. Superman,” she took to Twitter (where else?) to express her elation:

“Wonder Wom[a]n! So exciting!!! Can’t express how happy I am :)))),” she tweeted to her 212,000 followers. A similar posting on Facebook earned nearly 74,000 “likes” — which isn’t hard when you have 1.8 million Facebook fans.

Surely, this was good news for the Jews. The editorial board of the Jerusalem Post even saw fit to pen a column on why this casting choice was so momentous: “Israel — and the Jewish people — need heroines such as Gal Gadot,” the editorial gushed. “They present a picture to the world of the beautiful, sexy Israeli, countering the all-too pervasive negative and ugly imagery of Israel and Israelis in the international media.”

In the social media age, superheroes don’t just save the world; they can apparently save Israel’s image. Or so goes the JPost’s slightly delusional logic.

The real power in casting Gadot as Wonder Woman is that it offers the moviegoing public both a real and fictive revenge fantasy.

“Wonder Woman was created in and for World War II,”  Glen Weldon, author of The Unauthorized Biography of Superman” said recently during an interview on National Public Radio. “That was her whole shtick, fighting the Nazis.”

In his original conception, psychologist and comic book writer William Moulton Marston created Wonder Woman as a redemptive figure for the World War II era. Male superheroes, he reasoned, suffered from “blood-curdling masculinity,” as he described it in a 1944 article for The American Scholar and that may have seemed too simpatico with real war villains like Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini. According to Marston’s rubric, male superheroes, like their evil counterparts, lacked warmth, tenderness and love. The world needed someone totally new.

With Europe in shambles and scores of Jews and other minorities getting tossed into the gas chambers, Superman and Batman fell short; as popular projections of divine, supernal power, their super-ness had obviously failed the populace of Europe. So along came Wonder Woman, “with all the strength of a Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman,” Marston wrote. She would be the new, epicene ideal of heroism.

How appropriate then for director Zack Snyder (“300” “Man of Steel”) to cast the Jewish, former IDF soldier Gal Gadot as the Nazi-crushing super-heroine. Wonder Woman may not be the only superhero to take on the Nazis (see Michael Chabon’s “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay”) but it’s the first time that the actor playing her can arm her character with real-world cultural vengeance. In “The Fast and the Furious” movies, Gadot’s fighting spirit was so obvious, the director added to her character’s backstory by making her a Mossad agent. “He really liked that I was in the Israeli military and he wanted to use my knowledge of weapons,” she told the Forward in 2011.

Tender, smart and strong, Wonder Woman was designed as a feminist archetype. She would be a “warrior for peace” — neither provocateur, nor pacifist — but one who would only use her strength against an unambiguous enemy.  She was conceived specifically to combat the world’s most unassailable evil: Nazism.

In casting Gadot, Hollywood is answering historical tragedy with a touch of irony: Wonder Woman is an Israeli-Jew.

Why casting Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman really matters Read More »