Yael Trump

This video is amazng! Ivanka Trump is now an Orthodox Jew... Who'd a thunk it? Note the invitation in this video. It looks like a typical Frum invitation. And she changed her name to Yael. Doesn't Donald Trump care that his daughter converted to Judiasm? I guess not. He seems to be OK with it.

5770 - Does anyone really know what time it is?

As I was walking down the street one day
A man came up to me and asked me what the time was that was on my watch, yeah
And I said

Does anybody really know what time it is
Does anybody really care
If so I cant imagine why
Weve all got time enough to cry

And I was walking down the street one day
A pretty lady looked at me and said her diamond watch had stopped cold dead
And I said

Does anybody really know what time it is
Does anybody really care
If so I cant imagine why
Weve all got time enough to cry

And I was walking down the street one day
Being pushed and shoved by people trying to beat the clock, oh, no I just dont know
I dont know
And I said, yes I said

Background:
People runnin everywhere
Dont know where to go
Dont know where I am
Cant see past the next step
Dont have time to think past the last mile
Have no time to look around
Just run around, run around and think why

Does anybody really know what time it is
Does anybody really care
If so I cant imagine why
Weve all got time enough to die

In Tribute to a Local Hero

The following was posted in a comment on UOJ.

I am not in the habit of quoting from his blog. Not because I don't I approve of his goals. I do. But because I do not approve of his methods.

This comment deserves to be singled out. It is a tribute to someone I know who quietly and without pay does the work that few people are willing to do even for pay. I salute him!

"Until someone swims against the tide of denial, stops the flow, builds a dam, and changes the minhag child sexual abuse doesn't go away on its own."

Our Rabbi in Chicago, Rabbi Finkel told us the same thing. IT'S UP TO EACH OF US to stop the cycle of abuse. It's either your FOR it or AGAINST it. Once a victim acts on the sickness, he is NO LONGER A VICTIM, HE's A PERPETRATOR.

We took Rabbi Finkel up on his challenge to find meaning in our life. Many of us are on our way back or have already arrived. We were treated like GARBAGE by the community and the so called "Rabbis" because we were challenging the way things were done in Chicago for ages. We have our own Rabbi who went through the same treatment for turning the tide.

We are so proud to have stood up, and still stand up against all garbage thrown at us. The MORE DIRT THE RABBIS AND COMMUNITY THROW AT US, THE CLEANER WE FEEL. We won't continue the chain of abuse. Thank God he came into our lives when we finally hit bottom and strengthened us and challenged us to make a life for ourself.

IF WE CAN DO IT, SO CAN YOU!! We know how bad off we were yet OVERCAME, YOU CAN ALSO!! Don't give up, you can do it. It might take a REAL RABBI to help you along, we found ours, we hope you find yours. They exist in every city, please find that man and give it a try.

STOP THE CYCLE! TAKE THE KNOCKS PEOPLE WILL GIVE YOU! IT MAY BE HARD! IT MAY HURT! BUT, WHEN YOU DO IT, THERE'S NO FEELING LIKE IT!

Rabbi Finkel thank you for throwing us a lifeline when we were about to drown. You should reap the benfits of your work and have Nachas from your kids and future generations. Working for no money shows the dedication and care you have for suffering souls. By us spreading your teachings, you have no idea how many people's lives you have touched.

SHANA TOVAH!

Putting our Best Foot Forward

Well our people have once again made the New York Times. Doesn't this make Judaism appealing? Read it and weep!

Religious-Secular Divide, Tugging at Israel’s Heart

By ISABEL KERSHNER

JERUSALEM — On Saturday, as on every Saturday in recent weeks, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered before dusk on the terraces above the Carta parking lot just outside the Old City walls. In black silk Sabbath robes and fur hats, they lined up in rows, perched and waiting.

Suddenly their foot soldiers arrived on the street below, protesters who surged past the newly opened luxury Mamilla Hotel. Police officers mounted on horses rushed to meet them as hotel guests looked on, bewildered, from windows on the upper floors.

This summer, radical elements of the ultra-Orthodox community have been demonstrating and rioting against city authorities, welfare officials and the police. For Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, a secular high-tech millionaire trying to attract more business, tourism and professional types to the city, the timing has been inopportune, to say the least.

The tensions in this contested city usually run along an east-west, Jewish-Palestinian divide. But within the western, predominantly Jewish, section of the city, the cultural fault lines between religious and secular Jews run deep. Any change in the delicate status quo seems capable of setting off a riot, as Jerusalem’s most zealous Jews and liberals vie for the city’s character and soul.

“It is all part of the special human mosaic that makes up Jerusalem,” said Israel Kimhi, a director of the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, an independent research organization here. But the recent turmoil “does not do much for the image of the city,” he added, arguing that a small but strident section of the ultra-Orthodox population has grown increasingly extreme.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as haredim, or those who fear God, went to battle in years past to ensure observation of the Jewish Sabbath, and tried to force the closing of movie theaters and roads. From sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, strictly observant Jews do not work, use electric devices, spend money or drive. There are no municipal services during the Sabbath in Jerusalem, and on the Jewish side most businesses are closed.

But after a 13-year lull in what local residents call the “Sabbath wars,” another round started one Saturday in June, when City Hall decided to open a parking lot. With the security situation in Jerusalem relatively calm, tourists and day trippers have been flocking back to the Old City on weekends, prompting a need for somewhere to park their cars.

At first, the mayor opened a municipal parking lot under City Hall. When that led to protests, he opened the private Carta lot under Arab management, and made it free of charge. The protests only intensified.

Yoelish Kraus, the operations chief for the Eda Haredit, the militantly Orthodox organization behind the protests, said the mayor’s mistake was announcing the opening of the parking lot at a news conference. As soon as there is a public sanction for violating the Sabbath, he said, “we
have to fight.”

The ultra-Orthodox make up about a third of Jerusalem’s Jewish population, and the adherents of the Eda Haredit are only a fraction of that. But with an average of 10 children per family, Mr. Kraus said, the community is growing fast.

The rabbinic sects of the Eda Haredit are the scions of Orthodox Jews who were in Palestine before the foundation of Israel in 1948. In the absence of the Messiah, they fervently reject Zionism and the legitimacy of the Jewish state.

The protesters called the police “Nazis” and spat at them. Special Force police officers dumped troublemakers into the fragrant rosemary and lavender bushes along the sidewalk. Protesters who tried to block the road were sprayed with pepper gas and carried off in a prison service van.
A small knot of secular counterprotesters sang songs at a bus stop while ultra-Orthodox demonstrators threw plastic bottles of water and pebbles at them. “The parking lot will stay open because we will not let it close,” said Nir Pereg, 29, a secular resident of the city, as his companions belted out a round of “Jerusalem will not fall.”

The Eda Haredit has also rallied around one of its members this summer, a mother who was arrested on suspicion of starving her 3-year-old son. Her supporters rioted in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and set fire to a local welfare office where she had met with social workers before being detained.

Fierce riots broke out on Sunday night after the police entered a central ultra-Orthodox neighborhood to remove the body of a murder victim from a hostel. The riot seemed to have more to do with a general hatred of the police than the killing itself, which did not even involve a member of the ultra-Orthodox community. For the first time, the police used tear gas and stun grenades and fired in the air to disperse the crowds.

The Eda Haredit called the police “murderers,” saying later in a poster that a young yeshiva student had been run over and badly wounded by a vehicle of the “Zionist Gestapo” force.

Violence then broke out again on Tuesday night, when a mob attacked a taxi driven by an Arab driver in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood. The driver escaped, though the car was battered.

In a modest counterstrike on a recent weekday morning, eight non-Orthodox Jewish activists — six women and two men — got on a No. 40 bus heading from the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot D into town. The women sat down in the front rows. The men went to the back.

Ramot D is an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood where rigid religious rules are applied. The No. 40 is one of several public bus lines designated as “mehadrin,” or strictly kosher, where the men sit in the front and the women behind. The activists view this draconian interpretation of the modesty code practiced by Orthodox Jews as discriminatory, and the policy is being appealed in Israel’s Supreme Court.

Stern black-coated male passengers muttered their disapproval, but the Rosa Parks-inspired act of civil disobedience took place peacefully, largely because the bus driver, an Arab, decided not to try to enforce the rules.

Some ultra-Orthodox women said they liked the separate seating arrangement. Others took advantage of the activists’ presence and moved to the front.

Tonight You Belong to Me

I love this song

This is an excellent version of it.

Some Ideas for Funding Jewish Education

Original Draft of Emes Ve-Emunah Post

There is a lot of wisdom out there.

In a recent post I wrote about the overwhelming expense of Jewish education and the underwhelming resources available to pay for it. That post drew a lot of responses. 89 comments have passed moderation thus far. Many of them contained various suggestions - both good and bad - on how to improve things.

I thought it might be useful to review some of them and to include of my own ideas.

First I should define the type of school that I think is indispensible for a successful Jewish education. I am not necessarily suggesting an ideal school. Nor am I promoting a specific Hashkafa. I am only suggesting that it is at a minimum - what is needed.

First I am limiting this to elementary and high schools. Post high school is a stand-alone subject that deserves its own treatment.

Here is the model. A school should have both a good religious and secular studies program. It should have the religious studies in the morning and secular studies in the afternoon. Both religious and secular studies faculty should be well trained and paid in accordance with their talents, skills, and level of education. There ought to be one principal and two vice principals –one for religious studies and one for secular studies. The Religious curriculum should be geared toward advanced Yeshiva learning and the secular studies should be an academic one. In high school there should be a college preparatory type curriculum. The building facilities need not be lavish but do need to be in good repair, clean, and user friendly.

That is the basic outline that in my view would produce a well rounded, educated, and productive Jew.

Obviously a good faculty and administration will necessitate teachers being well paid. You will not get good people to work in a school for peanuts no matter how dedicated they are. Nobody wants to struggle just to pay for their food bills. Nor should they have to. Good teachers deserve to be paid well so they can live like the rest of us. There is also a competitive market out there requiring every school to compete for its teaching talent. Housing for the school is not free either.

How to pay for it.

A huge portion of course comes from tuition paying parents. But as I said - that can only pay for a part of it. Almost all parents are on at least a partial scholarship. And the current economy has caused increased scholarships.

Then there are the general Jewish community dollars that religious schools receive via Jewish federations. Some cities do better than others. But none get full funding for the budget gap. It has been suggested that federations should be scrutinized to explore ways to better prioritize their financial allocations.

I suppose from an Orthodox perspective - that’s right. But it is not a realistic option. Most federation members are not orthodox and do not have that perspective. Trying to convince them otherwise would be an exercise in futility and would be counterproductive. Factoring in the fact that federations are not orthodox - they are very generous to religious education. At least here in Chicago. I would not want to jeopardize that.

That leaves fundraising events to fill the gap. But that too is not enough as the increasing budget deficits of day schools and Yeshivos show. Due to the state of the economy philanthropy dollars are decreasing too. In that regard it is usually worthwhile hiring a good executive director who can raise more than his salary. He would also add tremendously to all fundraising events by organizing them to run smoothly.

There is one idea that is being tried here in Chicago that adds annual revenue to al the religious schools. It’s called The Chicago Kahilla Jewish Education Fund. Jews are asked to pledge a monthly amount that is distributed annually to all the schools. Donations can vary anywhere from 10 dollars per month - and up. All donor amounts are automatically deducted from checking accounts. Most people will not feel a ten dollar monthly deduction. Those who are more affluent they will not feel their higher monthly deductions. There are currently over a thousand members distributing about $600,000 per year to the schools here. And the list keeps growing.

Another thing would be to reduce costs. But how does one do that without reducing the quality of education?

I have long proposed that religious studies teachers be trained to teach secular studies. That would not only reduce costs but it would increase the quality of the education. Doing this one thing would have multiple benefits not the least of which is financial.

Schools could reduce the overall expense of teachers’ salary packages. Instead of having two teachers with two expensive benefits/health care packages we would have one teacher with one health care package. Addionally it is always cheaper to have one salary than two.

What I am saying is that a religious teacher who teaches secular subjects in the afternoon would not necessarily need to be paid the additional full salary of an afternoon secular teacher. He or she would get a sizable increase but less than a separate teacher would.

This is fair because it does not involve a separate commitment from someone outside the school, nor is transportation an issue. They are already there. Religious school teachers are already making relatively decent salaries and health packages. And if they have children in the schools that usually includes hefty tuition discounts for their children.

In my view afternoon secular teaching duties should not require the salary demands a teacher from the outside would make. That’s where dedication to the ideal comes in. The resulting salary increases and tuition reductions would provide a very decent middle class lifestyle and it would significantly lower costs for the school.

Not only would you decrease the size of the budget – but you would have religious teachers there for the entire school day. They would not only be role models in the mornings, they would be role models in the afternoon. What better role model could there be than a Rebbe or Morah who teaches Gemarah or Navi in the morning and math, science, or English in the afternoon.

Another good idea in my view is increasing the class sizes. I’m not sure what they typically are now but I’m sure they can be increased slightly without sacrificing the quality of the education. If even one teacher’s salary package can be eliminated that would help.

What would not work in my view is using the public school system. The idea would be to have an afternoon school system for religious studies. While saving money it is a very risky move. I realize it’s possible but it has not worked well in the past. Even if we were to try eliminating the deficiencies of the past or improving the quality of education in religious afternoon schools, I don’t think the odds are very good for a successful Jewish education. No child is happy to see their public school classmates go home and have fun while they are forced to go to another school in the afternoon. I think most kids will end up building resentment toward religion.

Nor is home schooling such a hot idea in my view. True that it has been successful in a few cases but it requires a lot of time and dedication on the part of parents who are generally ill-equipped to do it. And the very important –in my view – social component is missing. Interacting with peers during a school day is an important part of a child’s education in my view.

Going back to the era of the 1950s is not a good idea either. The idea that teachers do not go into education for the money but for the ideal sound goods, but starvation wages will chase even the most dedicated teachers away.

These are but a few ideas that I have either thought about or have gleaned for the collective wisdom of the readership here. There is more but I do not want to make this post too long and cumbersome to read. I do however want to thank all of those who made positive contributions to this very difficult issue.

Exemplars of the Jewish Faith

Post from Emes Ve-Emunah

It’s nice to know that the Edah HaCharedis has an e-mail address. One can send them comments about their activities. Of course that doesn’t mean they will pay any attention to them or even read them. But at least they give you the address.

Here it is: edaharedit@gmail.com

How do I know this? It was sent to me by several people - accompanied by some photos presumably published and distributed by the Edah.

The most fascinating photo is the one where you see a caricature of the section process at Auschwitz. Hitler is standing at the gate while he selects who goes right meaning death by gassing. There are signs posted that obviate the selection process though. Once points to the right and says Charedim. The other points left and says Chilonim.

Chilonim get to live. Charedim get to die.

Aiding Hitler is a hospital worker - presumably from Hadassah Hospital. Next in line standing before them is a Yiddshe mama with her two children clinging to her shivering and sweating in fear. Hitler seems to be listening to his ‘advisor’ as he points his long finger to the right.

This - my friends - is what your Edah is doing for you. I strongly urge that you show your support for this lovely organization and send them your dollars right away.

Hat tip: Marty Bluke