Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on March 8, 2015

Yitzak Yosef Says Won't OK Municipal Rabbi Moves By JTA

Published February 20, 2015.

One of Israels two chief rabbis said he would not recognize conversions performed by municipal rabbis despite a government directive validating them.

A recording of Yitzhak Yosef vowing to block the conversions was published Wednesday on the website kikar.co.il. The Sephardic chief rabbi said he would withhold his signature, which is still required to complete the process.

They went ahead and made a law that municipal rabbis can perform conversions and then went over my head, Yosef said.

The chief rabbi of Jerusalem can perform conversions, the chief rabbi of Shoham can perform conversions they already converted a few people in Arad, he said. The chief rabbi has the authority to stop this. I gave an order to the head of the [chief rabbinates] conversions department that all the conversions they are now performing, I wont sign them, I wont approve, I wont sign something that is contrary to Halacha. Halacha is religious law.

In November, the government adopted legislation that ended the monopoly on conversions held by the chief rabbinates conversions department.

The chief rabbinate and its chief rabbis, as well as municipal rabbis, are public servants in Israel.

Following the recordings release, Elazar Stern, an Orthodox member of the Israeli Knesset who has led attempts at reforming the conversions establishment, called on Yosef to resign .

The chief rabbi is forgetting that decisions made by the Israeli Knesset are his sole source of authority, Stern, a lawmaker for the Yesh Atid party, was quoted as saying on the news site Srugim.co.il. If he is unwilling or unable for some reason to follow the states laws and the resolutions of its government, than he has only one choice: Resign.

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Israel Chief Rabbi Vows To Defy Conversion Law

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Posted By richards on March 8, 2015

Unknown Men Took Videos at Borough Park Congregations By JTA

Published March 08, 2015.

The New York Police Department is investigating suspicious activity outside of two Brooklyn synagogues.

Unknown men took videos in front of two synagogues on Ocean Parkway, in the Borough Park neighborhood, on Saturday afternoon.

At the Safra Synagogue, they were driven off by a security guard, according to the New York Daily News. But the men later turned up at Beth Torah, a large Sephardic synagogue on the same block. One man attempted to enter either one or both synagogues, according to media reports, but was turned away.

The men drove away in a car with an expired Delaware license plate, the New York Daily News reported.

The NYPD has stepped up patrols at synagogues and Jewish institutions, according to the newspaper.

I urge everyone to stay calm but remain cautious, state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Borough Park Democrat, said at Beth Torah on Saturday night. The NYPDs anti-terrorism unit is taking this matter very seriously and doing everything that they should in light of a potential threat.

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NYPD Investigating Suspicious Activity Outside 2 Brooklyn Synagogues

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Posted By richards on March 8, 2015

Eliezer Berland May Be Sent for Trial in Israel By JTA

Published February 12, 2015.

An Israeli rabbi who fought his extradition from the Netherlands for alleged sex crimes may be turned over to Israeli authorities, a Dutch court ruled.

The ruling on Eliezer Berland, the founder of the Shuvu Bonim seminary, was made by a Haarlem tribunal on Thursday at the request of Dutch justice officials who support extraditing Berland as per the request of Israeli prosecutors, the NRC Handelsblad reported in its online edition. The final decision on whether to send him to Israel will be made by the justice minister of the Netherlands, Ivo Opstelten, in the coming weeks.

Berland, a Braslav rabbi who is suspected of sexually assaulting several of his female followers, including one minor, denies the allegations. He was apprehended in Amsterdam in September during a layover at Schiphol Airport on his way from South Africa to Ukraine. Since fleeing Israel in 2012, he has lived in Morocco, Zimbabwe and Switzerland.

The court dismissed all of the objections raised by Berlands attorney, who cited the rabbis poor health and that Israel does not have jurisdiction to prosecute his actions.

In an interview last month for a Dutch daily, Berland, who was born in prestate Israel in 1937, claimed he was persecuted in Israel for what he defined as his love of Palestinians and that he survived the Holocaust in the Buchenwald death camp, though no such record exists.

Several dozen devout followers from Israel followed Berland and settled in the Netherlands to be near their spiritual leader.

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Hasidic Rabbi Facing Sex Abuse Charge To Be Extradited by Dutch

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Posted By richards on March 8, 2015

So, clothes dont make the man, you say?

Well, that adage rings especially true for James Harden. The Rockets star and MVP candidate showed up at Toyota Canter for Sundays nationally televised showdown with LeBron James and the Cavs sporting a hat more likely to be found in a re-enactment of the original Thanksgiving, the Hasidic enclaves of New York City or Amish country in rural Pennsylvania. Just for good measure, he wore the headgear again during an interview session with the media following the Rockets 105-103 overtime win.

Now, mind you, Harden is no stranger to unique fashion. Just last month he was runner-up to former Rockets teammate Chandler Parsons in the NBAs inaugural All-Star fashion show. And hes played alongside fellow NBA fashionistas Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and now Dwight Howard, so perhaps hes picked up a tip or two along the way.

Or maybe Harden was just channeling his inner Pharrell Williams and was feeling particularly Happy with his headwear on Sunday afternoon.

No matter the reason, Hardens unique lid had the social media world abuzz.

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Internet reacts to James Hardens interesting headgear

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Posted By richards on March 8, 2015

Rebbe's Son Weds in Upstate New Square

getty images

Published February 24, 2015.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio appeared to literally kiss the hand of a controversial Hasidic leader last night at the rabbis sons wedding in upstate New York, the Jewish blog JPUpdates reported.

In videos and photos posted on the blog, de Blasio can be seen shaking the hand of Rabbi David Twersky, the rebbe of the Skver Hasidic sect. In a one-second video, the mayor can be glimpsed bending to kiss the rebbes hand.

The mayors press office did not respond to a question about the visit. The mayors trip to New Square was not mentioned on his public schedule, which is circulated to the press daily.

Twersky rules the Rockland County village of New Square with an iron hand. A Forward expose by Frimet Goldberger published in December found that Twersky, who is seen as nearly godlike by his followers, failed to act on allegations of sexual abuse in his community. A New Square resident who bucked an edict to pray only in Twerskys synagogue was the victim of an arson attack perpetrated by a young man who lived in Twerskys house.

Its unclear why de Blasio would have attended the wedding. The Skver sect is a powerful voting bloc in state and national politics, but it has relatively few followers in New York City. Still, Twersky has drawn a steady stream of high-profile politicians to his enclave.

De Blasio himself has a long history in New Square. In 2000, when the mayor was working as Hillary Clintons campaign manager in her race for U.S. Senate, Clinton visited New Square on a campaign stop. When she received nearly all of the villages 1,400 votes in the Senate election, questions were raised about whether Bill Clintons 11th-hour grant of clemency to four Skver members had been part of a quid pro quo deal.

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New York Mayor Bill de Blasio Kisses Ring of Skver Rebbe David Twersky

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Posted By richards on March 8, 2015

Backward

Montage: Kurt Hoffman

In a Pickle: Made to Aris Romanian grandfathers recipe. The cucumbers are grown in the same manure heap (imported from a village thats now an exurb of Bucharest), but instead of salt water, Ari uses tears from babies being circumcised.

As you enter the narrow doorway of Brooklyns Pearlstein + Dung, the first thing that greets you is the sparse shtetl dcor and the pungent odor of artisanal cuisine.

With furnishings based on drawings from a crumbling book in Slovakian synagogue basement, the shop is the brainchild of Ari and Zounette Pearlstein. Ari strokes his beard as he shows me around.

Sweet and savory aromas come from a spicy borscht made from heirloom beets deliberately malnourished to produce a concentrated flavor. The dish comes from Aris Ashkenazi heritage, but its unique and piquant Moroccan spicing draws from Zounettes culinary context.

The beets have been lovingly bred, and preserved at the very edge of death, from cuttings taken from a plant rescued from the pit in which Ari Pearlsteins grandparents hid from the Nazis. The cumin seeds are hydroponically grown by autistic Korean Canadians in a Montreal warehouse just around the corner from Zounette Pearlsteins childhood home. The chicken stock uses only descendants of fowl who were brought through Ellis Island.

Another staple of the house is their Bespoke Latke, made from heritage potatoes grown by an Idaho farmer whose ancestors served potatoes to Clark and Lewis on their journey West. With eggs from free-range hens living on local co-op roofs, flour from wind-powered mills on Staten Island, and onion grated on the original Russian instrument of torture that inspired Kafkas In the Penal Colony, the crispy potato dish has a winsome strength that is deliciously offset by the dairy-soy-and-gluten-free sour cream.

When served on a sustainably farmed wooden platter next to their smoked meat, its the ideal meal for an early spring lunchtime. Though, at a hefty $53.99, its a setback to your pocketbook.

Ari Pearlstein explains that they only use meat from a small farm in Virginia where theyre pasturing the grass-fed cows on fields of imported fresh Kentucky blue grass sprinkled with celery and dill seed to imbue the resulting corned beef and pastrami with the complex flavors of the terroir. And then we smoke it over the glowing embers of Victorian hickory newsstands. That sort of quality doesnt come cheap.

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Pain and Ponce Are Deli's Main Ingredients

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Posted By richards on March 8, 2015

In 24 hours, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will step before a joint session of Congress to have his say about Israel, its security and its place on the planet. But wait. Of political note: Hillary Rodham Clinton will also be in town on Tuesday for the 30th anniversary of Emilys List, the pro-choice group which has thus far raised $400 million for Democratic women candidates. Mrs. Clinton will receive the We Are Emily award at a major hotel. The pair, essentially, will be about 20 blocks apart; the press will have much to speculate upon.

Meanwhile, Mr. Netanyahu has set a somber but dramatic tone to his visit, advising in a tweet, Im going to Washington on a fateful, even historic, mission. I feel that I am an emissary of all Israels citizens, even those who do not agree with me, and of the entire Jewish people. He followed it with this: I will do my utmost to ensure our future.

Americans appear peeved at Republicans for their independent invitation to Mr. Netanyahu to address lawmakers; 48 percent say GOP leaders should not have extended the offer without consulting the White House, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday. Agreeing are 66 percent of Democratic and 28 percent of Republican respondents. Another 30 percent said the invitation was fine, while 22 percent didnt know enough to say either way.

SEE ALSO: House GOP unites against amnesty as Homeland Security showdown intensifies

Press coverage is all over the place. A few headlines reveal all: Will Netanyahus speech to Congress backfire? (CNN); Obama, Netanyahu on collision course in the making for six years (Huffington Post); Congress should hear out Netanyahu (Los Angeles Times); and Politicking in America nothing new to Netanyahu (Politico).

Meanwhile, The American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) conference got underway in the nations capital Sunday; the bipartisan, pro-Israel event has drawn over 14,000 participants from 50 states, and yes, Mr. Netanyahu will address the vast audience Monday. So will a diverse group of 96 luminaries from both sides of the aisle that include Sens. Joe Manchin,Lindsey Graham, Ben Cardin and Ben Sasse; Reps. Ted Deutch, Mario Diaz-Balart and Kay Granger; Ralph Reed, Bill Kristol, Democratic National Committee chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Americans Crossroad CEO Steven Law.

Thank goodness for Congress, Howard Kohr, CEO of AIPAC, told the audience on opening day.

SEE ALSO: Republicans seek coveted Benjamin Netanyahu speech tickets from boycotting Democrats

FRIEND OF BIBI

A nuclear-armed Iran is one of the gravest security threats facing both the United States and our ally Israel, says Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

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Inside the Beltway: Benjamin Netanyahu, Hillary Clinton in Washington at same time

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Posted By simmons on March 8, 2015

The Diary of Anne frank: A Fake movie Trailer An 8th Grade Language Arts project ---------------------------------------------------- This is a presentation by CodePy Studios tinyurl.com/get-codepy ***No Copyright infringement intended***... By: Ben Flippy

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The Diary of Anne frank: A Fake movie Trailer - Video

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Posted By simmons on March 8, 2015

Mahmoud Abbas Holocaust denial. From #39;Stand With Us #39;.

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Mahmoud Abbas & Holocaust denial. - Video

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Posted By admin on March 8, 2015

Gaza News Network: Government Meeting 3/7/15 By: Gaza News Network

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Gaza News Network: Government Meeting 3/7/15 - Video

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