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April 23, 1999 The Dictatorship of the $ecular Dr. Bill Martin, a Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University, presented a public lecture addressing the relationship between capitalism and secularism and the possibilities for postsecular social theory. Dr. Bill Martin is the author of Matrix and Line: Derrida and the Possibilities of Postmodern Social Theory, Humanism and Its Aftermath: The Shared Fate of Deconstruction and Politics, and Politics in the Impasse: Explorations in Postsecular Social Theory. He is also a musician and the author of The Music of "Yes": Structure and Vision in Progressive Rock. The lecture was held as a "brown-bag" luncheon on Friday, April 23, from 11:30-1:00 in the Union Pacific Room. The lecture was co-sponsored by the Creighton Departments of Theology and Philosophy. April 12, 1999 Images of Female Saints in Colonial Latin America: Issues of Class and Ethnicity Kellen K. McIntyre, an Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Texas San Antonio, presented a public talk as part of the Catholic Imagination Project. Dr. McIntyre is a specialist in the artistic representation of Latin American saints. Her recent dissertation is entitled: "The Venerable Martyrs of Cajonos: An 1890 Painted History of Zapotec Rebellion in 1700." Her talk took place on Monday, April 12, from 3:00-5:00 p.m., in theTheater of the Lied Education Center for the Arts. This event was co-sponsored by the University Committee on Lectures, Films and Concerts. March 18, 1999 Reading Hopkins After Hubble: An Exploration of Ignatian Creation Spirituality Dennis Hamm, S.J., a Professor of Theology at Creighton University, presented a performance/lecture for the Catholic Imagination Project. Why does the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins make even more sense in the context of our contemporary Big-Bang, expanding universe cosmology than it did within the mechanistic worldview of his own Victorian era? Father Hamm, theologian and "fallen-away" English teacher, explored this question by way of a reading-with-commentary featuring some of the bold sound-sense constructions of the Jesuit writer who was the Michael Jordan of 19th-century British poetry (Hopkins "changed the way the game is played"). The performance/lecture was held on Thursday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m. in the Walsh Hall. March 1, 1999 Enhancing the Protection of Human Rights in Africa: The Proposed African Court of Human and People's Rights Tiyanjana Maluwa, a visiting scholar from South Africa, presented a public talk on human rights in Africa. Dr. Maluwa is a Professor in the Department of Public Law at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Presently, he is on loan to the Organization of African Unity in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The talk was held on Monday, March 1 from 3:30-5:00 p.m. in the Union Pacific Room. February 16, 1999 The Promises and Perils of Bible Translation: The New American Bible Revision Project Deirdre Dempsey, an Assistant Professor of Theology at Marquette University and member of the New American Bible editorial board, presented a public talk co-sponsored by the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilizations. The New American Bible, the Bible used by the majority of Roman Catholics in the United States, is undergoing a revision of its Old Testament. The talk focused on the history of the NAB, the reasons why the revision was undertaken, and some of the problems encountered by the revisors/editors. The talk was presented Tuesday afternoon, February 16, from 3:30-5:00 in the Skutt Student Center Ballroom (Center). February 3, 1999 Galileo and the Inquisition William E. Carroll, a professor of History at Cornell College (Iowa), presented a public lecture in the Science-Religion Lecture Series. Professor Carroll is a European intellectual historian and a historian of science who has written a lectured extensively on the reception of Aristotelian science in the Middle Ages as well as the encounter between Galileo and the Inquisition. He is the co-author of Aquinas on Creation, and the author of several articles on the relationship between science and religion. He is the director of Cornell College's Program in Science and Religion. The lecture was given Wednesday, February 3, from 7:00-8:30 in the Skutt Student Center Ballroom. January 26, 1999 Blowing the Dynamite of the Church: Catholic Radicalism from a Catholic Radicalist Perspective Fr. Michael Baxter, CSC, presented a public address in which he critiqued public theology from a Catholic Worker perspective. The address was followed by period of discussion with the audience. Fr. Baxter is an Assistant Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame and has written numerous essays critiquing the public role of the Church. He teaches a provocative course at Notre Dame entitled, "A Faith To Die For." Before going to Notre Dame, he founded and directed the Andre House of Hospitality in Phoenix. The address was given Tuesday night, January 26, from 7:30-9:00 in the Union Pacific Room. The address was co-sponsored by the Philosophy and Theology Departments of the Creighton College of Arts and Sciences, and by the Catholic Imagination Project. December 1, 1998 Is Creighton Gay/Lesbian Friendly? Should It Be? Shocked by the brutal murder of Matthew Shepherd, a gay student in Wyoming, the Critical Issues Forum raised the question of how the Creighton community treats its own gay and lesbian members. Questions and issues were presented by a panel consisting of: Trey Patterson (Nursing Student) Michael Kelley (Counseling & Psychological Services) Bette Novit Evans (Political Science) The Forum was be moderated by Roger Bergman, Chair of the Critical Issues Fora. The Forum was be held Tuesday afternoon, December 1, from 3:30-5:00 in the Skutt Student Center, Central Ballroom. November 1-2, 1998 "A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey": Visions of Israel from Bibical to Modern Times Eleventh Annual Klutznick Symsium commemorated the 50th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. The two day symposium, drawing speakers from the United States, Europe, and Israel was held at the Jewish Community Center on Sunday, November 1, and at Creighton University on Monday, November 2. The proceedings of the symposium will be published in the Studies in Jewish Civilization series. October 12, 1998 Neuroscience & the Soul Nancey Murphy, a 1973 Summa Cum Laude graduate of Creighton University, presented a public lecture in the Science-Religion Lecture Series. She is Associate Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena California. Dr. Murphy received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley, and a doctorate in theology from the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley. She is the author of Anglo-American Postmodernity, On the Moral Nature of the Universe (with George Ellis), Reconciling Theology and Science, and the forthcoming What Happened to the Soul (with Warren Brown and Newton Maloney). Her talk took place on Monday evening, October 12, 1998 at 7:30 pm. in the Union Pacific Room, Reinert Library (lower). September 21, 1998 The University as an Expression of the Catholic Imagination Monika Hellwig, formerly of Georgetown University, and now Executive Director of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, presented a public talk as part of the Catholic Imagination Project. Dr. Hellwig was joined by members of the Creighton faculty on a panel following her talk to explore the implications of the Catholic identity and mission of the University. Her talk took place on Monday afternoon, September 21, 1998 at 3:30 pm. in the Skutt Student Center Ballroom. July 23-25, 1998 Clergy in Politics: Choices and Consequences Several scholars of religion and politics visited Creighton University this summer to attend a working conference on "Clergy in Politics: Choices and Consequences." The conference brought together political scientists, sociologists, and theologians who discussed their research with each other and with other interested scholars. Sue Crawford (Creighton University) and Laura R. Olson (Clemson University) facilitated the conference and will edit a volume that will include papers from the conference. The conference began with a "meet the authors" reception on Thursday night with authors of The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy. James Guth, John Green, Corwin Smidt, and Lyman Kellstedt were all in attendance. During the sessions on Friday and Saturday, contributors to the volume presented their research and reviewers offered comments. The sessions were then open for the questions and suggestions from other conference participants. Clergy In Politics, James L. Guth, Furman University Clergy as Political Leaders: Notes for a Theory, Ted G. Jelen, University of Nevada-Las Vegas Preachers in Politics: The Political Activities of CRC and RCA Clergy, James M. Penning, Calvin College; Corwin E. Smidt, Calvin College American Church or Church in America? The Politics of Catholic Bishops in Comparative Perspective, Timothy A. Byrnes, Colgate University The Political Participation of Women Clergy, Sue E. S. Crawford, Creighton University; Laura R. Olson, Clemson University; Melissa Deckman Fallon, American University; Christi Braun, Creighton University Prophetic and Theocratic: The Politics of Black Clergy, Mary R. Sawyer, Iowa State University The Construction of Political Strategies among African American Clergy, Katie Day, Lutheran Theological Seminary Clergy as Political Actors in Urban Contexts, Sue E. S. Crawford, Creighton University; Laura R. Olson, Clemson University Micromobilization Processes in a South-Side Chicago Church: An Interactionist Approach to Participation in Collective Action, James C. Cavendish, University of South Florida Public Evaluations of Religious Leaders, Paul A. Djupe, Gustavus Adolphus College Shaping Contextual Effects on Voting Behavior: The Role of Protestant and Catholic Clergy in the United States and Great Britain, Laurence A. Kotler-Berkowitz, Brown University

Ilene S. Cooper, Around the State, Courts Tackle Issues, N.Y.L.J. (Apr. 6, 2018). Samuel J. Levine, Foreword: Benjamin N. Cardozo: Judge, Justice, Scholar, 34 TOURO L. REV. 1 (2018). Michael Lewyn, Explaining Market Urbanism, 46 REAL EST. L.J. 589 (Spring 2018) Michael Lewyn, What About Vancouver?, MARKET URBANISM (Apr. 11, 2018). Michael Lewyn, Downtown Won't Kill You, PLANETIZEN (Apr. 30, 2018). Meredith R. Miller, One Judge's Legacy and the New York Court of Appeals: Mr. Justice Cardozo and the Law of Contracts, 34 TOURO L. REV. 263 (2018). Deborah W. Post, Cardozo, the Canon and Some Critical Thoughts about Pedagogy, 34 TOURO L. REV. 321 (2018). Martin A. Schwartz, Municipal Custom and Practices, N.Y.L.J. (Apr. 30, 2018). Sol Wachtler, Keep Assault Weapons in the Military, TIMES UNION (Apr. 27, 2018). Honors & Awards: Ann L. Nowak, was awarded the 2018 Deborah Hecht Memorial Award Writing Award from the Legal Writing Institute for, Discovering a Predictor of Reading Comprehension Difficulties, 30 SECOND DRAFT 59 (Fall 2017). Samuel J. Levine, Jewish Law and the Death Penalty, Jewish University for a Day, Stony Brook University Hillel, Stony Brook, NY, Apr. 22, 2018. Sharon A. Pocock, Two-Fers: Creating Exercises to Accomplish Multiple Purposes, Southeastern Regional Legal Writing Conference, Georgia State University College of Law, Atlanta, GA, Apr. 21, 2018. Michael Lewyn, Elissa Kyle Discusses the "Missing Middle" Housing, LEWYN ON LAND USE (Apr. 17, 2018). Richard Klein, was quoted in, Ashley Cullins, Bill Cosby's Conviction May Change Defense Tactics in #MeToo Era, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER (Apr. 28, 2018). Harold I. Abramson, Problem-Solving Advocacy in Mediations, 59 DISP. RESOL. J. 56 (Aug.-Oct. 2004), was cited in, Bradley Williams, Preventing Unintended Internet Discrimination: An Analysis of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for Algorithmic Racial Steering, 2018 U. ILL. L. REV. 847 (2018). Fabio Arcila, Jr., The Death of Suspicion, 51 WM. & MARY L. REV. 1275 (2010), was cited in, Michael J. Zydney Mannheimer, The Local-Control Model of the Fourth Amendment, 108 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 253 (2018). Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus, UBE-Shopping: An Unintended Consequence of Portability?, 88 N.Y.ST. B.J., 46 (2016) was cited in, Bobbi Jo Boyd, Embracing Our Public Purpose: A Value-Based Lawyer-Licensing Model, 48 U. MEM. L. REV. 351 (2017). Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus, MASTERING THE LAW SCHOOL EXAM (2006), was mentioned in, Gerald P. López, Transform-Don't Just Tinker with-Legal Education (Part II), 24 CLINICAL L. REV. 247 (2018). Gould Law Library, Legal Education Reform Bibliography (Touro Law Center Legal Studies Research Paper Series No. 15-03, 2014), https://ssrn.com/abstract=2500987, was selected for inclusion in SSRN's new Education Research Network. Jack Graves, Court Litigation over Arbitration Agreements: Is It Time for a New Default Rule?, 23 AM. REV. INT'L ARB. 113 (2012) & Jack Graves, Arbitration as Contract: The Need for a Fully Developed and Comprehensive Set of Statutory Default Legal Rules, 2 WM. & MARY BUS. L. REV. 227 (2011), was cited in, S.I. Strong, Truth in A Post-Truth Society: How Sticky Defaults, Status Quo Bias, and the Sovereign Prerogative Influence the Perceived Legitimacy of International Arbitration, 2018 U. ILL. L. REV. 533 (2018). Deseriee A. Kennedy, “The Good Mother”: Mothering, Feminism, and Incarceration, 18 WM. & MARY J. WOMEN & L. 161 (2012), was cited in, Anne C. Dailey & Laura A. Rosenbury, The New Law of the Child, 127 YALE L.J. 1448 (2018). Samuel J. Levine, is currently in the top 10% of Authors on SSRN by all-time downloads. Michael Lewyn, How Overregulation Creates Sprawl (Even in a City Without Zoning), 50 WAYNE L. REV. 1171 (2005), Michael Lewyn, New Urbanist Zoning for Dummies, 58 ALA. L. REV. 257 (2006) & Michael Lewyn, You Can Have It All: Less Sprawl and Property Rights Too, 80 TEMP. L. REV. 1093 (2007), were cited in, Paul Boudreaux, Infill: New Housing for Twenty-First-Century America, 45 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 595 (2018). Michael Lewyn, Sprawl in Canada and the United States, 44 URB. LAW. 85 (2012), was cited in, Jonathan Rosenbloom, Fifty Shades of Gray Infrastructure: Land Use and the Failure to Create Resilient Cities, 93 WASH. L. REV. 317 (2018). Michael Lewyn, Character Counts: The "Character of the Government Action" in Regulatory Takings Actions, 40 SETON HALL L. REV. 597 (2010), was cited in, Petworth Holdings, LLC v. Bowser, No. Civ. 18-3, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66398 (D.D.C. Apr. 20, 2018). Michael Lewyn, The Middle Class, Urban Schools, and Choice, 4 BELMONT L. REV. 85 (2017), was selected for inclusion in SSRN's new Education Research Network. Michael Lewyn, is currently in the top 10% of Authors on SSRN by all-time downloads. Meredith R. Miller, Corporate Codes of Conduct and Working Conditions in the Global Supply Chain: Accountability through Transparency in Private Ordering, in THE BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS LANDSCAPE: MOVING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK (Jena Martin & Karen E. Bravo, eds., 2016), was cited in, Jena Martin, Hiding in the Light: The Misuse of Disclosure to Advance the Business and Human Rights Agenda, 56 COLUM. J. TRANSNAT'L L. 530 (2018). Meredith R. Miller, Contract Law, Party Sophistication and the New Formalism, 75 MO. L. REV. 493 (2010), was cited in, Alexander A. Boni-Saenz, Distributive Justice and Donative Intent, 65 UCLA L. REV. 324 (2018). Meredith R. Miller, Strategic Default: The Popularization of a Debate Among Contract Scholars, 9 CORNELL REAL EST. REV. 32 (2011) & Meredith R. Miller, Party Sophistication and Value Pluralism in Contract, 29 TOURO L. REV. 659 (2013), were cited in, Jeremiah A. Ho, Why Flexibility Matters: Inequality and Contract Pluralism, 18 U.C. DAVIS BUS. L.J. 35 (2017). Meredith R. Miller, Corporate Codes of Conduct and Working Conditions in the Global Supply Chain, in THE BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS LANDSCAPE 432 (Jena Martin & Karen E. Bravo eds., 2016), was cited in, Andrew G. Barna, The Early Eight and the Future of Consumer Legal Activism to Fight Modern-Day Slavery in Corporate Supply Chains, 59 WM. & MARY L. REV. 1449 (2018). Meredith R. Miller, Designing a Solo and Small Practice Curriculum, 83 UMKC L. REV. 949 (2015), was cited in, Gerald P. López, Transform-Don't Just Tinker with-Legal Education (Part II), 24 CLINICAL L. REV. 247 (2018). Ann Nowak, Tough Love: The Law School that Required Its Students to Learn Good Grammar, 28 TOURO L. REV. 1369 (2012), was selected for inclusion in SSRN's new Education Research Network. Deborah W. Post (& Phoebe Haddon), Misuse and Abuse of the LSAT: Making the Case for Alternative Evaluative Efforts and a Redefinition of Merit, 80 ST. JOHN'S L. REV. 41 (2006), was cited in, James S. McGrath & Andrew P. Morriss, Assessments All the Way Down, 21 GREEN BAG 2D 139 (2018). Laura Ross (& Dan Subotnik), Scholarly Incentives, Scholarship, Article Selection, and Investment Strategies for Today's Law Schools, 30 TOURO L. REV. 615 (2014), was cited in, Patrick H. Gaughan, Facilitating Meaningful Change Within U.S. Law Schools, 16 U.N.H.L. REV. 243 (2018). Patricia E. Salkin, From Bricks and Mortar to Mega-Bytes and Mega-Pixels: The Changing Landscape of the Impact of Technology and Innovation on Urban Development, 42 URB. LAW. 11 (2011), was cited in, Seth Katsuya Endo, Technological Opacity & Procedural Injustice, 59 B.C. L. REV. 821 (2018). Patricia E. Salkin, Regulating Controversial Land Uses, 39 REAL EST. L.J. 526 (2011), was cited in, Adrian A. Vivar, It's (Almost) My Money and I Need It Now: Facilitating Information to Encourage Competition in Tennessee's Payday Lending Markets, 48 U. MEM. L. REV. 671 (2017). Martin A. Schwartz, Fundamentals of a Section 1983 Litigation, 17 TOURO L. REV. 525 (2001), was cited in, Eleanor Lumsden, How Much Is Police Brutality Costing America?, 40 U. HAW. L. REV. 141 (2017). Martin A. Schwartz, SECTION 1983 LITIGATION: CLAIMS AND DEFENSES (4th ed. 2017), was cited in, Margaret Ryznar, A Curious Parental Right, 71 SMU L. REV. 127 (2018). Rena C. Seplowitz, Transfers Prior to Marriage and the Uniform Probate Code's Redesigned Elective Share--Why the Partnership Is Not Yet Complete, 25 IND. L. REV. 1 (1991), was cited in, Erez Aloni, The Marital Wealth Gap, 93 WASH. L. REV. 1 (2018). Marjorie A. Silver, Emotional Competence, Multicultural Lawyering and Race, 3 FLA. COASTAL L.J. 219 (2002), was cited in, Alexi Nunn Freeman & Lindsey Webb, Positive Disruption: Addressing Race in A Time of Social Change Through A Team-Taught, Reflection-Based, Outward-Looking Law School Seminar, 21 U. PA. J.L. & SOC. CHANGE 121 (2018). Dan Subotnik (& Laura Ross), Scholarly Incentives, Scholarship, Article Selection, and Investment Strategies for Today's Law Schools, 30 TOURO L. REV. 615 (2014), was cited in, Patrick H. Gaughan, Facilitating Meaningful Change Within U.S. Law Schools, 16 U.N.H.L. REV. 243 (2018). Fill out my online form.

Christmas: The Majesty Of God “That which is conceived in her was from the Holy Spirit” We are often drawn to and awed by the lowly nature of Christ as illustrated in His ignominious birth. It is striking that God the Son arrived in a stable surrounded by the smells and filth of animals and was worshipped by dirty shepherds. But there is also something of God majesty in Christ’s earthly beginnings. The conception of the Christ child was no ordinary conception. The awesome nature of the person and work of the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, is displayed in the Christmas story. Joseph was overwhelmed to find that his betrothed wife Mary was with child, since he had acted with moral integrity and not had sexual relations with her. The only thing to do was to divorce her as the Law allowed in cases of betrothal unfaithfulness. His love for her and his godly forbearance moved him to do so in private to spare her shame and the stoning which might come. But Joseph went from being disturbed by human circumstances to being overwhelmed by the nature of what God is doing; “That which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” Conception itself is an amazing thing. Sexual union and procreation are intricately designed for the natural gestation and birth of a child. But think of the majesty of almighty God put on display by the supernatural conception of Christ in the womb of a virgin. This is an “awful” thing in the oldest and best since of the word. It leaves us full of awe. That Mary, a sinful young woman in need of the Savior she carried, should carry and bring to birth the second person of the Godhead is beyond comprehension. The angel described this in even more majestic terms to Mary some time before the event with Joseph. “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall over shadow you: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God” [Luke 1:35]. The second person of the Godhead, the Creator of all things was conceived in the womb of a Jewish virgin girl. Here is the Biblical, historical narrative we see the three persons of the Godhead displayed: God the Father sending His Son; God the Spirit conceiving the Son; and God the Son conceived and growing in the womb of Mary to be born the Savior of sinners. This is the beauty of Christmas. This is the wonder of the incarnation. This is the majesty of God.

Beyond Theology of Religions: The Epistemological and Ethical Challenges of Inter-religious Engagement Sharon D. Welch For the past one hundred years, the primary form of scholarly inter-religious encounter has been inter-religious dialogue. While fruitful, such an approach is also severely limited, reflecting as it does Western assumptions about the nature of religious knowledge itself, about the bearer of religious knowledge, and about the nature of the self. The problem now being examined in the postcolonial comparative study of religion is quite straightforward: the categories for defining religion were taken from Western traditions and then applied to other traditions, a process in which the other traditions were often found wanting, or, even if seen as complex and worthy of appreciation, were still misunderstood by Western scholars. This chapter considers the following question: In a postcolonial world, how do we see and value differences, those that are forced, those that are self-generated, and those that are an ambiguous combination of both coercion and creativity? The impetus to postcolonial comparative work and postcolonial critique of religious traditions has been initiated by those who have borne the costs of colonization and domination, who criticize its legacy, and who call for new forms of critique and interaction. The impetus for new forms of interaction and fundamental critique is not primarily the West's deconstruction of its own forms of domination, but is a response to the work of those, who albeit colonized, resisted colonization from its beginning, and have continuously asserted their subjectivity and agency. This article uses the term ‘equivocation’ to describe the sense in which Christian incarnational theology appears to have provided a resource or way of thinking about the embodied human condition. For British literary works produced across a period of over a thousand years, that is not wholly negative. Christian convictions about God's investment in the materiality of human existence bear witness to the perception of infinite human longings and seemingly endless possibilities, as well as our fearful limitations. British artists and commentators during this period have not all accepted the authority of a Christian approach, and in the last two or three centuries many have aspired to challenge the more negative or limiting emphases of its teaching. Arguably, the paradigm remains significant, yet it continues to provide both impetus and challenge to ongoing reflections on the nature of unavoidable human incarnation. Rosemary Radford Ruether Christian eschatology is a complex combination of ideas and themes that synthesizes three ancient traditions of eschatological hope: Jewish futurism, Zoroastrian apocalyptic, and the Greco-Oriental soul journey. This article examines these three historical roots of eschatology and their synthesis in Judaism and Christianity. It points out the gender and class biases found in these classical patterns of eschatology, looks at the revision of Christian eschatology in nineteenth-century progressive millennialism, and shows how early feminist theology adapted both millennialist hope and belief in personal immortality. The article then examines the critique and revision of eschatological hope in several major feminist theologians of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: Marjorie Suchocki, Catherine Keller, Ivone Gebara, Delores Williams, and Rosemary Ruether. It also considers the ancient Near East roots of Christian eschatological thought, the development of Christian eschatology, crises and reinterpretation of Christian eschatology in modern Western thought, and feminist theology and eschatology in the late twentieth century. Today, 58% of women executives voluntarily choose flexible work options or a variety of other nontraditional career paths that take them far afield from the traditional, male, linear ascent to corporate power and success, and 37% of these highly qualified women voluntarily leave their careers for some period of time. They leave to have babies, to take care of aging parents, or for other such gender-based roles, and one-fourth do not return to their previous jobs. The collective impact of these individual, gender-based decisions made by women has created a near panic among US corporations. The price tag for refilling a job slot is typically 150% of the former employee's salary, and for high-level executives, is almost three times the job's annual salary. Accordingly, as women executives leave the corporate world, their individual actions create a collective, leaderless social movement that looks, statistically and financially, like a contemporary women's revolt against big-time corporate American enterprise. To stop the disruptions to business interests brought about by this leaderless women's movement, global corporations have turned for advice to Women's Studies scholars and other advocates for women's gender-based interests and rights. As a result, corporate America now hires these advocates to develop gender-based company policies and procedures to keep women executives in the corporate fold. This new effort is referred to as Feminism, Inc., which is the for-profit hiring of women's advocates to facilitate a business process designed to economically exploit the women the advocates help. This chapter is organized as follows. Part I delineates the problem and shows how Women's Studies scholarship and professional advocacy for women's rights transformed into an antifeminist, market-driven, business agenda for corporate America; Part II proffers solutions. This chapter addresses aspects of feminist Christology, including the perceived misogyny amongst the Fathers and Scholastics; the problematic ascription of maleness to God; and the ‘anti-woman use of Christology’. Some argue that the patriarchal image of Christ leads to the exclusion of women from the Incarnation and question whether sexual difference should equate to theological significance. Others say that Christological symbolism is imperialist and patriarchal and serves to disempower women. Yet others say that Christ could have been a woman: this is why the ‘Christa’ crucifixion image is important to them. Feminists also question the patriarchal ways in which Christ’s work of redemption has been interpreted. Feminist theologians rightly argue that the patristic ‘quod non est assumptum non est sanctum’ should be complemented by the Pauline metaphor of the body of Christ. The humanity of Christ, including his maleness, points to the relational and communitarian dimension of his human nature. This article explores the literary revisioning work as it is displayed in the work of two women writers whose attention has been largely focused on the Jewish and Christian traditions. Alicia Ostriker and Michèle Roberts are women whose work arises out of direct political involvement with the women's movement. Both are authors who are deeply immersed in contemporary critical debates and both acknowledge their conversational relationships with other female creative artists. As such, it is possible to view their work as representative of a revisionary movement within contemporary women's literature concerned with nothing less than the radical revisioning of religious traditions. Musa W. Dube In the globalization era, justice-seeking feminist theologies are challenged to sharpen and reposition themselves to speak to the issues of the time by adopting new methods, topics, and frameworks. Consequently, “the boundaries of theology need to be redrawn in the light of the creation of new global cultures” and “crucial to the task of rewriting the story of feminist theology in the light of globalization is reflecting on the nature of a theological perspective it makes.” This chapter explores the interrelations of globalization, a world scripture (the Bible), and the vision of feminist theologies. Cherith Fee Nordling Attempts to speak of gender in the context of evangelical theology are often fraught with misunderstanding or intransigence. As gender has become a concept used within theological anthropology (rather than emerging from it), it brings along its own set of issues that mainly derive from the sociological contexts and categories in which it developed. How do we live out a gendered reality in conformity to Jesus Christ, the eschatological New Adam of a new, restored human race? Does evangelical theology continue to marginalize women based on the order of old creation, or does it manifest a theology of mutual participation in God's new creation? Much evangelical culture and theology mirrors aspects of popular culture, as each remains influenced by and perpetuates forms of premodern gender essentialism. This article considers how the concept of gender has developed, how it plays out in evangelical theology, and how the gifting and influence of various women in Christian church history compared to some current evangelical proscriptions. It also examines eschatology, resurrection, ascension, and the Holy Spirit. Dorian Llywelyn SJ The mother of Jesus is the most important female figure of Christianity. Mary appears in a small number of biblical passages, but the vast Marian phenomenon includes Christian doctrine and a range of cultural expressions. Interest in Mary emerged early in the Eastern Mediterranean, and spread into the West. With slightly different emphases, Catholics and Orthodox Christians share a number of beliefs concerning Mary and pray to her, but most forms of Protestantism reject Marian devotion. While Catholic attention to Mary diminished in the global North following the changes wrought by the Second Vatican Council, it has remained strong in other parts of the world, especially in Latin America. Shrines such as sites where Mary is believed to have appeared draw millions of devotees annually. Contemporary Mariology, the academic study of the figure of Mary, includes considerations from almost all the liberal arts. E. P. Sanders’ reconstruction of ancient Judaism resulted in an increasing interest in Paul’s relation to Judaism. While scholars before Sanders commonly assumed that Paul converted to Christianity and thus developed a religious identity separate from Judaism, Sanders’ view of Judaism as a religion of grace forced scholars to problematize Paul’s relation to his religious identity. Three major scholarly trends can be distinguished. Some scholars maintain, in spite of Sanders, that Paul rejected Judaism and developed a ‘Christian’ identity of sorts. Others take an intermediate position, arguing that Paul only repudiated those parts of Jewish tradition that separated Jews from non-Jews while otherwise being basically faithful to his religious heritage. Finally and most recently, still other scholars argue that Paul remained fully Jewish after becoming a follower of Jesus and that, consequently, he never developed a religious identity separated from Judaism. This article traces the history of the modern concept of race and various theological responses, thus making a modest contribution to theological anthropology. It assumes that modern racial ideology and racism emerged from the contexts of European and American global dominance between the sixteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Premodern forms of ethnocentrism are qualitatively different from the modern ideology of race. This article first examines how twentieth-century trends in the study of race have shifted away from natural sciences and toward a social constructionist definition of race. Pietism, the evangelical awakenings, Enlightenment philosophy, and the Social Gospel would later be associated with the abolitionist and civil rights movements. In all these cases, theologians were challenged to incorporate human experience and ethical critique into their theological methodology. Those who did so were more responsive to modern racial ideologies and racist practices. This article also considers Catholic missionaries and the Iberian empires, along with abolitionism and humanism. Kevin J. Vanhoozer This article focuses on the nature (what it is), authority (rightful say-so), and interpretation (how to use it/make it work correctly) of the Bible. Strictly speaking, evangelicals do not believe “in” the Bible but in the God who authored and speaks authoritatively through it. The challenge for an evangelical theory (doctrine) and practice (interpretation) of Scripture is to hold fast to the gospel fixed in writing while engaging the living God who is its author and attending to the great salvation that is its subject matter. “Biblicism” is one of the most frequently cited defining marks of evangelicalism. Evangelicals take their doctrinal and ethical marching orders from the Scriptures, and the goal is to be a people whose faith, hope, and love—her doctrine, duty, and devotion—centers on the promise of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the one about whom the gospel is proclaimed. This article also discusses Protestant orthodoxy and pietist revival, hermeneutics, and the infallibility of the Bible.

It’s the Three Weeks. For those in the know, this period (from the 17 of Tammuz through the 9th of Av) are historically the three saddest, most unlucky, dreadful weeks for the Jewish people. Both Temples destroyed. Declaration of the First Crusade. The Jews expelled from England. The beginning of the Spanish Inquisition. The deportation of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka. Bad, bad stuff. My bad stuff does not compete. But of course, this had to be the week when I received a rejection letter from the first publisher I sent my novel to. In the end, it might not be bad news (maybe it’s sub-par, maybe the next publisher I send it to would be a better match…), but it feels like it right now. I’m not really down in the dumps–probably because of the 5 month delay–but it’s still a disappointment. On the other hand, it’s tempered by some great news. I IY”H expect to have a short story in Binah BeTween this week, with a few other pieces placed for publication soon. As soon as they reach newstands, I’ll let everyone know.

Matchmaking does not stop at 50, 60 or 70. Courtesy “senior” dating sites, you’ll be able to flip yourself totally in to the dating online scene — and fulfill neighborhood singles your age effortlessly. Just how will you begin matchmaking correctly, considering the online dating services field is not moderated? How do you differentiate excellent 50+ online dating sites from your fakes? Which internet sites accommodate the seniors, also? We’ve handled these, and more, queries in this specific article. But first, let’s consider the very best individual dating sites for older adults. Leading Elderly Adult Dating Sites, By Means - Better overall, premier consumer bottom – eHarmony - Finest dating site for 60+ single men and women – SilverSingles - Greatest website for Christian dating over 50 – Christian Mingle - Greatest everyday dating site for seniors – Senior Pal Finder - Finest dating site for informed professionals – Top-notch Single Men And Women - Best adult dating software for Jewish seniors – JDate - Most readily useful over 50 dating website within the uk – OurTime - Most Readily Useful senior hookup site for flings – Senior Sizzle - Most Readily Useful Roman Chatolic dating internet site for senior citizens – Catholic Match - Give chose matchmaking program – It’s Just Lunch - Most useful 100per cent free dating site – OkCupid 1. eHarmony – very best Dating Site for Seniors Overall - A large group of elder single men and women - a being completely compatible coordinating process - Meet other seniors in your area - A higher success rate - Talk to other members freely eHarmony features the biggest community of individual singles online. 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Down load it or free and get the ball coming. 4. elder Friend Finder – greatest laid-back dating website for Seniors - Customers find types connections - Easy-to-use interface - Deception discovery calculations - Complimentary pub with attributes - A variety of get in touch with ways It will don’t make a difference if you’re looking a critical romance or a short term thing, this platform might be a good fit. The two meet the needs of seniors who’re into different kinds of affairs. Along with their scam recognition algorithms make sure bots don’t pick a seat on the website. Unlike along with older matchmaking positions, you have access to much of the heart characteristics for free during that easy-to-navigate location. Whether you’ll want to speak to potential fights, view the company’s photograph, plus much more, your don’t need invest a cent.

Jewish World Review July 30, 2004 /12 Menachem-Av, 5764 important news .... John Kerry addressed the Democratic Convention last night. He was introduced with a biographical film including home movies he took of himself in Vietnam. John Kerry lived in the only Quonset hut in Southeast Asia with a star on the door. The Democratic Convention closed with balloons and pandemonium Thursday. The coverage was hilarious. At one point NBC News showed old clips of Jesse Jackson, Gary Hart, Teddy Kennedy and Bill Clinton and then cut to a commercial for Fidelity. Democrats leave the convention today after an unprecedented display of party unity. It was weird. The Democrats were almost too well-behaved considering they were in Boston, a city whose nickname in England will forever be Fallujah by the Bay. The Fleet Center in Boston was under strict security all week. The only food allowed to be sold in the convention was Dunkin Donuts and McDonald's. The Kerry plan for energy independence begins by increasing our dependence on hydrogenated oil. Democrats held a roll call vote Wednesday as delegation chairmen bragged about their states before voting. It got very ugly. The tension mounted as every other state claimed to be the home of last year's national champions in college football. Teresa Heinz Kerry wearily defended her right to be opinionated in her speech Tuesday night. The woman's had a hard life. She's been married to one Republican U.S. Senator and one Democratic U.S. Senator and neither one would take the garbage out. John Edwards warned Republicans in his speech Wednesday that Americans would reject the hateful negative politics of the past. He's absolutely right. Thanks to Michael Moore, Americans now demand their hateful negative politics with popcorn. Appreciate this writer's work? Why not sign-up for JWR's daily update. It's free. Just click here. [an error occurred while processing this directive]

GOOD MORNING! The story is told of lunch time at a construction site. A new worker opens up his lunch pail and says, "Yuck. A salami sandwich. I hate salami!" The second day at lunch time, the new worker again opens up his lunch pail and again says, "Yuck. A salami sandwich. I hate salami!" When he finds a salami sandwich the third day, one of his co-workers says, "Buddy, why don't you just tell your wife that you hate salami and ask her to make something else?" The new worker replied, "I would, but I make my own lunch." Many of us "make our own lunch" and then complain about it. "Bad" marriages are often an example of this phenomenon. There is an old adage "A happy wife is a happy life," yet how many husbands yell and scream at their wives? (Yes, their are wives who yell and scream at their husbands, but it's hard to rhyme "A happy husband is a happy ..." I guess I could have written, "A happy spouse is a happy house.") So, what do these yellers expect? That their spouses will say, "Gee. I never thought of that before. I was mistaken. Thanks for showing me my error and the correct path!" Only thing is ... it doesn't happen that way. The Torah teaches that marriages completes a person. Our spouse is our other half. Therefore, it makes sense not to "shoot yourself in the foot" -- especially since it's your own foot. Both parties in a marriage have responsibilities. When each person focuses on his responsibilities there is happiness in a marriage. When the husband or wife focuses on how the spouse isn't fulfilling his/her responsibilities there is trouble. Rabbi Noah Weinberg, the founder and head of Aish HaTorah, always teaches his students that one of the secrets to marital harmony is to give the first 15 minutes when you come home to your spouse. Ask three questions: "What did you do today?" "How are you feeling?" "What are you thinking about?" It will change your marriage! Rabbi Zelig Pliskin, my beloved friend and teacher, writes in his new book, Marriage -- A Wise and Sensitive Guide to Making Any Marriage Even Better (with hundreds of real-life stories -- available from your local Jewish bookstore or by calling toll-free 877-758-3242), writes that the 5 most important words in a marriage are: Don't Cause Pain, Give Pleasure. Keep that in mind constantly before acting or speaking! The following rules are excerpted from a contract a couple agreed upon to improve their relationship: RULES FOR AN IMPROVED RELATIONSHIP - I agree to greet you enthusiastically every time I walk into the house. - I agree to talk without raising my voice. If I ever do raise my voice, you just need to say, "Please speak in a quieter tone." I agree to accept this without arguing that I am speaking in a quiet tone. - I agree to discuss your thoughts regarding any plans I make that will affect you; and I will not make plans unilaterally. - I agree not to speak with sarcasm. Bottom line: If you want a happy marriage, then keep your eye on the goal. Ask yourself before doing something or saying something that will affect your spouse and family, "Will this make my marriage better, happier?" If not, then don't do it or don't say it. Success in life takes discipline! Portion of the Week Matot & Masay Matot includes the laws of making and annulling vows, the surprise attack on Midian (the '67 War wasn't the Jewish people's first surprise attack!) in retribution for the devastation the Midianites wreaked upon the Jewish people, the purification after the war of people and vessels, dedicating a portion of the spoils to the communal good (perhaps the first Federation campaign), the request of the tribes of Reuben and Gad for their portion of land to be east of the Jordan river (yes, Trans-Jordan/Jordan is also part of the Biblical land of Israel). Moshe objects to the request because he thinks the tribes will not take part in the conquering of the land of Israel, the tribes clarify that they will be the advance troops in the attack and therefore receive permission. Masay includes the complete list of journeys in the desert (the name of each stop hints at a deeper meaning, a lesson learned there. God commands to drive out the land's inhabitants, to destroy their idols and to divide the land by a lottery system. God establishes the borders of the land of Israel. New leadership is appointed, cities of the Levites and cities of refuge (where an accidental murderer may seek asylum) are designated. Lastly, the laws are set forth regarding accidental and willful murder as well as inheritance laws for property when there has been a marriage between individuals from different tribes. based on Growth Through Torah by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin The Torah states regarding koshering cooking implements brought back from war as booty, "And Elazar the Kohen said to the men of the army who were coming to the war, this is the statute of the Torah which the Almighty commanded Moshe: Only the gold and the silver, the copper, the iron, the tin, and the lead -- all things that (are used to cook) with fire shall be passed through fire (to kosher them)..." What lessons can we learn from koshering a pot in order to improve ourselves? It is imperative to remove any non-kosher food that was absorbed in the vessel before using it for kosher food. First, it is necessary to clean out the vessel very well and to remove any rust. Then the vessel must be kashered in the same manner that it was previously used. If it were used directly on the fire, it needs to have direct contact with fire to render it fit to be used. If non-kosher food was cooked in it with boiling water, it now needs to be immersed in boiling water to remove what was absorbed. The Chofetz Chaim, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, the leading rabbi of the Jewish people until his passing in 1933, commented that the same process applies to purifying people from their spiritual impurities and defects. First, a person must remove the "rust" of his transgressions by means of repentance; regretting what one has done wrong and accepting upon oneself not to continue doing those things in the future. Afterwards, one needs to be careful that the positive actions he does will replace the negative behavior on the same level. If one was enthusiastic and energetic in doing wrong, he should now have similar enthusiasm and energy when doing good. He should now use what he has erred with to make amends. For example, if one used his ability to speak to relate gossip, loshon hora, he should now utilize speech for fulfilling mitzvot, commandments.

John "Pay Attention To Meeeeee" Rocker is doing god knows what with his time these days. I think there was a book? And maybe a black girlfriend? Even with his busy schedule, Rocker's been able to fit in a semi-regular column for loonypants conservative website WorldNetDaily. And his latest is something special. It's about gun control, and a defense of conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones, who melted down on CNN last week. It's so freaking long and closes with a Benjamin Franklin quote that wasn't actually said by Benjamin Franklin. And also there's this: "Absolute certainties are a rare thing in this life, but one I think can be collectively agreed upon is the undeniable fact that the Holocaust would have never taken place had the Jewish citizenry of Hitler's Germany had the right to bear arms and defended themselves with those arms." Rocker's just following in the footsteps of noted athlete-orator Jason Babin, who cited a fake Hitler quote about gun control to make a similar point. But other than being hyperbolic, mildly offensive, and factually wrong, Rocker's argument is unimpeachable.

|MEXICO: Audrain County| Mexico Area Chamber of Commerce at www.mexico-chamber.org, 1-800-581-2765 [October 2002]. Documents exist in AJA . American Jewish Archives, 3101 Clifton Ave. Cincinnati, Ohio 45220-2488. 513-221-1875; 513-221-7812 (fax). E-mail: AJA contact form : newspaper article concerning the Mexico Jewish cemetery, July 13, 1982; tombstone inscriptions from the Jewish cemetery of Audrain County, MO. Miscellaneous file About 30 miles from Columbia, Mexico is county seat of Audrain County. NOTE: The only cemeteries currently listed in Mexico, Missouri are Elmwood Cemetery, East Lawn Memorial Park at 425 S Jefferson St, Mexico, MO 65265-2650 (573) 581-4368, St. Brendan, and Old (Village). [October 2002] Jewish cemetery: S.W. quarter of Lot 7, north of Catholic Cemetery in the City of Mexico. Book: Gallagher, Gene. Audrain County Missouri: Tombstone Transcriptions . Vol. II, Audrain County, Missouri: State Historical Society, 1982. |Last Updated on Saturday, 17 April 2010 18:39|

Sam Torres is a New York City/Baltimore based electroacoustic composer, saxophonist, and freelance audio engineer. He is interested in creating electroacoustic music that elegantly combines live interactive electronics with acoustic instruments, as opposed to pitting the instrument against the machine. Tilted Arc, an electroacoustic duo with pianist Sophia Vastek; Stretto, Sam’s modern jazz quartet; and Little Wing, an 11-piece indie chamber ensemble are among Sam’s ongoing ensemble projects. In addition to these, Sam has written music for live electronics and saxophone, solo piano, and has performed on saxophone and electronics with various ensembles. He has been commissioned to write works for violin and electronics; a 42-piece high-school string ensemble, choral ensembles, and various other soloists and chamber ensembles. A graduate of the Horace Mann School, Sam earned his Bachelor’s degree in jazz performance in May of 2016 from Manhattan School of Music, where he has studied composition with Reiko Fueting and Todd Reynolds, electronic sound arts with Sam Pluta and David Adamcyk, and jazz saxophone with Donny McCaslin, Rich Perry, and Steve Wilson. Sam is currently Master’s student and Graduate Assistant fellow at the Peabody Institute, John Hopkins University, where he studies computer music composition with Geoffrey Wright. Sam’s music has been performed at the Thalia Theater at Symphony Space, Spectrum, Peabody Institute, Manhattan School of Music, and the University of Cape Town in South Africa. As a saxophonist and woodwind doubler, Sam has performed at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Spectrum, the RISD Museum, SMOKE, The Shrine, and others with Stretto, ensembles from Manhattan School of Music, New York Youth Symphony, New York Jazz Academy, and others. As an audio engineer, Sam has worked with new music ensembles Talea Ensmeble, Chartruese, Columbia University Composers, composer Michael Harrison, the Uptown Phil, and sTem trio; as a technical assistant with violinist Todd Reynolds at the Jewish Museum, Talea Ensemble at the Dimenna Center, Wet Ink ensemble, and composers David Adamcyk and Zosha Di Castri at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University.

Christine Lindey reviews the current Royal Academy exhibition, and recommends the art - but not the didactic, vindictive and reactionary curation. In January 1918 the Russian Soviet Republic was the first state in the world to officially support the avant-garde. Fired by the revolution’s socialist ideology, artists rejected the tsarist regime’s fussy forms and fusty techniques, to embrace the latest technology. They incorporated industrial forms into art, design, architecture and film which epitomised and promoted modernity. The avant-garde’s dynamic axes, rapid juxtapositions, startling close-ups and pared-down geometric forms expressed revolutionary dynamism. From Lyubov Popova’s designs to Dziga Vertov’s films, the cogs and wheels of mechanisation, the magic of flying machines and electrification’s bright rays embodied and promised social progress. Liubov Popova, Space-Force Construction, 1921 It is always a joy to see these works and the Royal Academy’s exhibition Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932 is no exception. But they are familiar, due to their depoliticisation and incorporation into the Western modernist canon in the early cold war which, by the same token, denigrated socialist realism and ignored Bolshevik pluralist cultural policies. So, to this day, Soviet representational art of the 1920s and 1930s has remained little known in the West and, by displaying the multifaceted Soviet art and design of the interwar years, the exhibition redresses a serious distortion of art history. We encounter history paintings such as Alexander Deineka’s Defence of Petrograd, in which a stoic militia crunches determinedly through the snow, against a deadly, snow-laden sky. Liberated Bolshevik women soldiers take centre place, in a geometric composition formed by repeated upright bodies, diagonal rifles and the stark industrial bridge overhead. As in his other paintings and posters, Deineka modified modernist simplifications of form and space into a legible but contemporary style. Alexander Deineka, The Defence of Petrograd, 1928 Many others sought such compromises, albeit in different ways. Aristarkh Lentulov’s Tverskoy Boulevard depicts its people and buildings in kaleidoscopic shapes which marry Parisian cubism with the riotous colours of Russian folk art, conveying the speed of modern Moscow life. Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin’s measured compositions combine discrete multiple viewpoints and intense primary colour to convey immersive and layered states of mind. In contrast, the academic realism of Issak Brodsky’s Lenin at Smolny has an almost hyperrealist presence, due it’s meticulously uniform rendering of all surfaces, be it an electric socket or the folds on Lenin’s jacket. Unfortunately, instead of explaining these artists’ intentions, their works are framed as the last gasp of artistic freedom by focusing on the contents of a major 1932 exhibition. The Association of Artists for Revolutionary Russia, formed in 1922 to call for a progressive but accessible art, is not mentioned, nor is its influential manifesto. Yet its many members included Deineka, Brodsky, Lentulov, Petrov-Vodkin and Boris Grigoriev. Pedrov-Vodkin, Self-Portrait, 1918 The exhibition’s stunning array of art and design is marred by vindictive, anti-Soviet curating. Wall texts and captions constantly point to the Revolution’s cruelties, failures and hardships, with not one word of praise for its achievements. Nor do they explain its difficult conditions, exacerbated by attacks from White Russians and international armies. More worryingly, the works are manipulated to score such curatorial points. An example is the room ominously titled The Fate of the Peasants, which is a lachrymose lament for imagined, pre-revolutionary bucolic idylls. It greets us with Grigoriev’s lugubrious Land of the Peasants, which blends expressionism and cubism to convey impoverished peasants’ anger, dismay and oppression — as does his portrait of a careworn, wizened dairy maid. The wall text states that the villagers’ “ancient way of life was wiped out” by collectivisation. Yet even the Times Book of Russia in 1916 described the peasants’ lives as an “existence of privation of everything except vodka. His body was roughly clad. Bare necessities, reduced to a minimum, supported life. His soul steeped in ignorance.” And since both Grigoriev paintings are dated 1917, they indicted tsarist peasant life, not collectivisation. The wall text to the room devoted to “Eternal Russia” informs us that “many” artists “were nostalgic for the beauty and charm of old Russia, rapidly disappearing under the boots of the proletarian masses.” It mourns the influence of the Orthodox religion and displays landscapes and depictions of onion-domed churches as if socialism and the love for one’s native land are mutually exclusive. And it includes Mark Chagall’s Promenade, dated 1917-18, which surely cannot represent nostalgia for tsarist days. That period was not rosy for this Jewish artist, whose tsarist shtetl past was characterised by brutal pogroms and exclusion of Jews from the professions. Chagall’s rose-tinted idealisation expressed the euphoria of being in love and it is this which projected he and his wife to metaphorically soar above shtetl life. Marc Chagall, Promenade, 1918 In sum, this exhibition is a didactic attack on the Bolshevik revolution, permeated by the sour outlooks of descendants of dispossessed Russian emigres bemoaning their lost jewels, lands and servants. Go for the exhibition’s marvellous art and design. But arm yourself with scepticism about the curating. This review was first published in the Morning Star, on March 11th. The exhibition runs until April 17. Until she recently retired Christine Lindey was an Associate Lecturer in art history at the University of the Arts, London and at Birkbeck College, University of London. She is a visual arts critic for the Morning Star and her fifth book, Art for All: British Socially Committed Art c.1939 - c.1962, will be published in the near future.

The de Blasio Administration, in partnership with the New York City Council and the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM), announces the appointment of 18 new Age-friendly NYC Commission members, complementing 28 reseated members. The Commission is comprised of leaders from government, nonprofit, business, education, and health care. Age-friendly NYC Commission accomplishments since the last seating in 2015 include: - The release of "Age-friendly NYC: New Commitments for a City of All Ages," an updated report on the City's age-friendly initiatives; - The launch of www.imagenycmap.org, an open-source interactive map representing the current and projected aging population and corresponding resources and services, created by NYAM and the CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research/CUNY Graduate Center and supported by the Fan Fox and Leslie R Samuels Foundation; - The publication of "Aging in Place Guide for Building Owners," created by DFTA and AIA-Design for Aging Committee; - The contribution of a chapter to "Age-friendly Cities in International Comparison: Political Lessons, Scientific Avenues, and Democratic Issues;" - The launch of the Age-friendly Brooklyn initiative in collaboration with the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office; and more. New Commission members bring experiences and resources to help address the challenges older New Yorkers face. The 18 new Age-friendly NYC Commission members include: - Saima Ajmal, Bellevue Healthcare Center Section Chief of Geriatrics - Susan Beane, Healthfirst Vice President and Medical Director - Victor Calise, New York City Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities Commissioner - Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, New York City Department for the Aging (DFTA) Commissioner - Kevin F. Crain (co-chair), Bank of America Merrill Lynch Managing Director and Head of Enterprise Financial Solutions - Annamarie Gentile, Angiuli and Gentile, LLP Supervising Partner - Adele Gulfo, Roivant Sciences Chief of Commercial Development - Corey Johnson, New York City Council Speaker - Gregory Macias, SAGE Chief Operating Officer - Rebecca McGinnis, Metropolitan Museum of Art Senior Managing Educator, Accessibility - Allison Nickerson, LiveOn NY Executive Director - Laura Pugliese, Healthcare Innovation Lab Deputy Director - Jonathan F. P. Rose, Jonathan Rose Companies, LLC President and Founder - Judith A. Salerno, NYAM President - Aviva Sufian, Deloitte Consulting Specialist Leader - Julio A. Urbina, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation's Healthy Aging Program Vice President and Director - Sandi Vito, ll99 SEIU, Training and Employment Funds Executive Director - John Wallis Rowe, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Julius B. Richmond Professor "Having worked in the nonprofit, private and public sectors, I applaud the Administration’s commitment to assembling a Commission that allows us to expand the perimeter and reach of government," said DFTA Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez. "As we work together to build a more Age-friendly NYC, I look forward to leveraging innovation, research and cross-industry communication to build on the prior accomplishments of the Commission." "We are committed to addressing the needs of our aging New Yorkers and improving their quality of life. I am honored to serve as a new member of the Age-friendly NYC Commission, and I look forward to working with my partners in government to advocate for our seniors. New York City is the greatest city in the world, and we must make sure residents of all ages are thriving," said Speaker Corey Johnson. "The new members joining the Age-friendly New York City Commission includes a coalition of advocates with a wide range of experience, knowledge and backgrounds in fields as diverse as labor, non-profits and government work," said Council Member Margaret S. Chin, Chair of the New York City Council's Committee on Aging. "I look forward to working with them and the Department for the Aging Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez in building a New York City that refuses to tolerate age discrimination in any capacity and allows all New Yorkers to age with dignity." "Our older population is growing, and it's more important than ever that we make New York a truly age-friendly city—which has been a priority of mine from day one," said Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer. "Seniors deserve a welcoming and accessible city as they age, and I thank Mayor de Blasio and his Administration for continuing this initiative to support our elders as they age gracefully in their communities." "The aging population is growing rapidly across our borough and our city. A recent study found that eight out of the top fifteen most popular zip codes for baby boomers are here in Brooklyn. In order to create a New York that is amenable to people of all ages, we have to ensure we are investing in access to public transit, housing, employment opportunities, social inclusion, open space, and so much more. My administration has been proud to partner with DFTA and the New York Academy of Medicine on senior initiatives such as Age-friendly Brooklyn, and we look forward to releasing the findings and recommendations of our comprehensive borough-wide survey on advancing age-friendliness," said Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams. "Since 2007, The New York Academy of Medicine has been a proud and committed partner with the Mayor’s Office and the City Council on Age-friendly NYC, driving creative solutions to some of the most pressing concerns facing older New Yorkers," said New York Academy of Medicine President, Judith A. Salerno, MD, MS. "We look forward to collaborating with the newly appointed Age-friendly NYC Commission to ensure that New York City is equitable and inclusive, and a place where people of all ages can thrive." "We are so pleased that the Mayor has reappointed the Age-friendly NYC Commission. Successes of earlier Commissions have demonstrated that what is good for NYC’s seniors is good for the city as a whole. With impacts on planning services, to changes in traffic patterns and bus shelters, to senior friendly business practices, NYC has distinguished itself and become a model which cities around the world emulate. We look forward to future success in addressing the needs of new population groups, and financial issues of aging," said Audrey S. Weiner, Immediate Past President of The New Jewish Home and Co-chair of the Age-friendly NYC Commission. "It is an honor to be part of the Commission. Being a resident of NYC, I’m personally driven to help people in my community living longer and more productive lives. At Bank of America, we have a deep understanding of the issues associated with aging and are committed to helping our clients, colleagues and communities. I am excited by the opportunity to work together," said Kevin F. Crain, Managing Director and Head of Enterprise Financial Solutions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Co-chair of the Age-friendly NYC Commission. "As the global business voice on aging, with our headquarters in New York City, the Global Coalition on Aging commends the New York Academy of Medicine, Mayor’s Office and City Council for seating its new Age-friendly Commission and are delighted that two of our GCOA member companies, Bank of America and Roivant, will serve on the Commission and represent global and local business perspectives," said Michael W. Hodin, PhD, CEO of the Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA). "We at GCOA are proud of our longstanding partnership with Age-friendly New York, which has been instrumental in the healthy and active aging movement, serves as a model for all Age-friendly Cities, and under the new Commission’s leadership, will continue to be a beacon for age-friendly innovation everywhere." "New York City has led the age-friendly movement nationally, starting by launching Age-friendly NYC 12 years ago in partnership with the City Council and the New York Academy of Medicine. AARP applauds Mayor de Blasio for keeping the commission robust and remaining committed to its work to identify and implement improvements to the services, housing, transportation, public spaces and community and social opportunities that help make the city a great place to live for people of all ages," said Beth Finkel, AARP New York State Director. "LiveOn NY congratulates the Office of the Mayor, New York City Council and New York Academy of Medicine on their steadfast commitment to the Age-friendly NYC Initiative which is ensuring that New York is the best place to age, both now and into the future," said Allison Nickerson, Executive Director of LiveOn NY. "I look forward to serving as a member of the Age-friendly NYC Commission to build on existing strengths and develop policies to transform New York into a City that helps all people, in every neighborhood and community, regardless of income, thrive in their later years." Following the reseating, the Commission will frame an overall strategy update, reflecting on past achievements and evaluating emerging needs to renew and enhance the Commission’s objectives. The Commission will meet four times per year.

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On Tuesday the Department of Agriculture issued new preliminary dietary guidelines, including lowering the recommended maximum daily intake of salt from 2,300 mg to 1,500 mg. In 2005, the lower figure was recommended for African Americans, people with high blood pressure and middle-age and older adults. Because 70 percent of the U.S. population falls into one of those categories, the government panel of experts extended the recommendation to the general population. Henney and others, such as the Washington, D.C., consumer advocate group Center for Science in the Public Interest, say voluntary efforts by industry aren’t enough. The government should set mandatory limits on how much salt can be added to packaged and restaurant food. Others strongly disagree. “I think we’re overreacting to the dangers of salt. I don’t think we need to put all of the U.S. on a sodium-restricted diet,” says nutrition expert Judith S. Stern of the University of California, Davis, and coauthor of a study last year that questioned the scientific reasoning behind the campaign against salt. The study, published in October in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, examined sodium consumption studies from 30 countries, as well as research on humans’ innate salt appetite. The researchers found that, in general, the human body self-regulates its salt intake, keeping it within a safe range and excreting the excess. Of course, some people are salt-sensitive, Stern notes, and consuming too much salt causes their blood pressure to rise. “Those people should see a doctor,” she notes. “But if you ask me whether sodium is really an important medical issue, I’d say obesity is my top priority. If you’re overweight and your blood pressure is high, losing weight is going to have much more of an effect” than just cutting back on salt. Cardiologist Edward M. Geltman, M.D., director of the heart failure program at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, takes a middle stance. “If you have normal blood pressure, no heart disease or heart failure, you probably can be reasonably careful about your salt intake,” he says. But people with borderline high blood pressure “in the high 120s and 130s, need to be careful.” He warns those patients to avoid canned foods, fast food and Asian foods that are high in salt and MSG. Treating people with high blood pressure can become very expensive, he notes. “It makes sense as public health policy to have people take care of their sodium consumption so that we keep our health costs lower.” And while he says he’s not averse to government regulation, he thinks better food labels and more education is a more effective tactic. “To regulate how much salt can be added to a pizza is going too far.” Candy Sagon writes about health and nutrition for the Bulletin.

This past week I’ve been thinking about how very different the Old Testament account of the Tower of Babel is from that of the event we remember today, Pentecost Sunday, the fiftieth day after Easter on which Jesus Christ kept his promise to send his disciples his Holy Spirit—which promise was also in fulfillment of the prophet Joel’s prophecy. The contrasts between these two historic events brings to mind a phrase I’m going to appropriate to express this distinction. It comes from the beginning of the apostle Paul’s well-known love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” Though Paul’s point is to emphasize the importance of love being part and parcel of our every action and motive, I’m going to repurpose his eloquent phrase, “tongues of men or of angels” by applying “tongues of men” to the Tower of Babel and “tongues of angels” to Christ’s sending of his Holy Spirit on Pentecost. In other words, I’m going to use “tongues of men” to refer to humanity’s desperate, fallen plight and “tongues of angels” to refer to our gracious LORD’s solution to that plight through the sacrifice of his Son and the sending of his Holy Spirit. Beginning with Genesis 11 what we find there is a tragic yet too common example of what fallen humanity, untouched by and unconcerned with the Spirit of God, will aspire to achieve. And an important piece of background is provided in the opening verse: “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.” Difficult though it is to conceive, at this time the wide diversity of languages we see today throughout the world had not yet occurred. It’s extraordinary to think about, isn’t it? Everyone living at this time had the ability to communicate with everyone else. Just imagine if we were able to fly to countries in Asia or Africa or Europe or Australia or South America and, upon landing, discovering that we had a shared language not only with that country but with the entire world. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to communicate with people from different cultures upon first meeting them and learning about their lives and beliefs and being able to share the same with them about ours? Unfortunately, this utopian vision doesn’t factor in humanity’s fallen nature, so subject to sin and depravity. For what actually did occur when people shared a common language was quite different. Verse 2 notes the progress—or perhaps it’s more accurate to state that it notes the regress—of civilization observing, “As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.” Now another name for Shinar is Babylonia which is found in the ancient region of Mesopotamia in present-day Iraq. And once people had settled there, “They said to each other,” beginning in verse 3, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” And then again in verse 4, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” In these few verses we’re presented with a picture of what “tongues of men” or fallen humanity looks like. Whereas the LORD made humans in his own image in order that we, as his stewards, might care for each other and fill and care for the earth that God might be glorified, what we find here instead is God’s image-bearers choosing to make a name for themselves rather than for God. Instead of obeying God’s mandate to care for the whole earth, they chose to stay put and glorify themselves. Notice again the language of self that comes through in these verses: In verse 3: “Let us make bricks; And again in verse 4: “Come, let us build ourselves a city…so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the earth” (v. 4). It’s all about us. In the plans humanity was making for itself, God wasn’t even mentioned. The focus here is on self, not God. And this impulse on the part of fallen humanity to focus on self rather than God exemplifies what “tongues of men” will do when left to its own devices. Tongues of men don’t seek to know God. Tongues of men don’t care to serve him. Tongues of men have no interest in obeying him. In their total disregard for God, tongues of men place their own interests and desires and power and fame above those of the God who made them. Next we see, verse 5, “But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.” Now the language used here is for our benefit. Since God is omniscient—that is, he knows all things; and omnipresent—he is present everywhere (even as we saw last week, he “fills everything in every way,”), it isn’t as though God didn’t know what was going on. Rather to state that the LORD “came down” is a way of indicating that God had taken notice of what his disobedient image-bearers were doing. It’s also a way of indicating that no matter how high this human tower was intended to be built, it was never going to be anywhere near reaching the height of God and his heavens for he had to “come down” in order to see it. If you imagine a multitude of tiny ants seeking to build a tower to rival that of the 790-foot John Hancock Tower in Boston, you begin to get a tiny glimpse of how ridiculous humanity’s endeavor to make a tower reaching the heavens was. Now when the LORD came down to inspect the fruit of rebellious humanity’s labor, he said, verse 6, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” The LORD knew that to allow humanity to continue in its self-serving ways would only result in even more self-aggrandizement. For the lust for more power, more influence, more fame, more wealth is never satisfied. This is the insatiable nature of “tongues of men.” This is the insatiable nature of humanity’s sinful disposition, untouched by God’s grace. No matter how much it has, its appetite is never sated. When faced with the prospect of a city built by “tongues of men,” a godless city, God intervened by throwing a wrench into his disobedient humanity’s plans. That wrench was confusing their tongues. Therefore the LORD said, verse 7, “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” God’s “let us” will always be stronger than humanity’s “let us”; God’s way, the way of heaven, the tongues of angels, will always be greater than the way of fallen humanity, the tongues of men. By taking away their ability to communicate with one another, the LORD made it impossible for them to build a city for themselves. This divine intervention was necessary for rather than use their common language to fill and care for this wondrous earth God had made in order that he might be glorified and his name be made known far and wide as he intended, again, God’s people had chosen instead to build a city and make a name for themselves. It’s ironic that the LORD’s judgment came in the form of his causing to come about the very thing the people had been trying to avoid. Notice again how it states in verse 4 that the reason the people sought to build themselves a city with a tower reaching to the heavens was not only that they might make a name for themselves but also because otherwise they would be scattered over the face of the earth. Yet as stated in verse 8, in confusing humanity’s language “So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.” In its flagrant disobedience to and disregard for the LORD, humanity ended up receiving the very thing it had been dreading. The passage then ends with an explanatory note in verse 9: “That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world.” And then it repeats how “From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” Now some of your Bibles may note that the word “Babel” sounds like the Hebrew word for “confused.” This word play underscores that the confusion of tongues was God’s judgment upon humanity’s pride for, again, his image-bearers had turned their backs on their Maker and sought to glorify their name rather than that of their LORD. And Scripture picks up on this for from this point forward Babylon, from which the word “Babel” is taken, becomes a symbol, as one commentator notes, of “humanity’s ambition to dethrone God and make the earth its own.” Yet despite the LORD’s judgment, he didn’t give up on his wicked and disobedient image-bearers this time any more than he did during earlier times when humanity disobeyed. For another theme we find throughout Scripture is that though we are faithless, he remains faithful, for God cannot disown himself. As in the story of humanity’s Fall we find a promise of a future Redeemer, this promise of a better world, of a world in which tongues of angels, the Kingdom of heaven’s values, prevail continues to be affirmed throughout God’s Word. Therefore we find the prophet Isaiah pointing to a time when God would make all things new: “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.” And the means God would use of bringing about this new heavens and earth was none other than his Son, Jesus Christ. As Paul later states, “if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” This exemplifies the faithfulness of our kind LORD to us, his faithless image-bearers. In Christ, our sins aren’t counted against us but are taken away thus clearing our path back to our dear LORD. And this promise of God’s new creation in Christ is carried into the future into the book of Revelation where we see Jesus himself seated on his throne proclaiming, “I am making everything new!” Though we may turn away from God, he never turns away from us but seeks to bring the values and reality of heaven, the values and reality of the tongues of angels, to shed their light on and disburse the fallen tongues of men. Again, the beginning of God fulfilling his promise to make all things new occurred when he sent his Son, the eternal King, to die for humanity in order that humanity might have an opportunity to receive the eternal life he so freely offers. The Triune plan of God has ever been that once Christ died on the cross and conquered death by rising from death, never to die again, he would send his Holy Spirit, his very self, his very eternal life, into a world filled with darkness and death. This is what we celebrate this Pentecost Sunday. We celebrate God sending his Holy Spirit to continue his plan of redeeming this fallen world by making all things new in and through and for him. This is what Peter testifies to in the second chapter of Acts. For in fulfillment of what the prophet Joel had prophesied, Christ’s sending of his Holy Spirit was an indication that we are in now “in the last days” for God had now poured out his Spirit “on all flesh.” And so I want to shift gears from the Tower of Babel, from the “tongues of men,” from the time when as a result of their great depravity humanity’s languages were confused for having disregarded the ways of their LORD and Maker, to the time of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2; to the time of the tongues of angels when God, by his Holy Spirit, began to restore the unity and oneness he had promised in and through his Son, Jesus Christ, the King of the Kingdom of heaven he had ushered in. And so let us notice the contrasts between the tongues of men and the tongues of angels exemplified in Babel—Genesis 11; and Pentecost—Acts 2, respectively: Whereas at the Tower of Babel, godless men sought to make a godless city with a tower reaching to heaven in honor of—and in order to honor—themselves and themselves only; at Pentecost, God sent his Holy Spirit that any who repented from their godless ways and turned to God might be adopted into his Kingdom to serve Christ as their King, their Savior and LORD; Whereas at the Tower of Babel, God metaphorically came down to investigate what his evil image-bearers were plotting to do and ended up scattering them thereby foiling their plot; at Pentecost, God’s Holy Spirit came down as an expression of God reconciling humanity with himself, gathering together those who had been scattered and by his Spirit intimately uniting those who know Christ with himself and one another for all eternity; Whereas at the time of the Tower of Babel, the LORD confused the language of the whole world so that it became impossible for people to understand one another; at the time of Pentecost when God sent his Holy Spirit, Jews who had gathered from all parts—“9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs”—”each…heard their own language being spoken.” Specifically the scattered Jews who had gathered heard the 120 disciples who had gathered and been praying in the upper room, both women and men, upon whom God’s Holy Spirit had now fallen like tongues of fire, “declaring the wonders of God in [their] own tongues!” For the sake of declaring the Good News of the Gospel; for the sake of declaring the goodness and greatness of God, God by his Holy Spirit, by his “tongues of angels” made it possible for those who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish festival of Passover, to hear this Gospel in their very own language. Whereas tongues of men had led to division and judgment at Babel; tongues of angels led to unity and blessing at Pentecost; And whereas at the time of the Tower of Babel, the unity of the tongues of men led them to build a tower that they might go to where they thought God dwelt in order to make a name for themselves; at Pentecost the unity of the tongues of angels caused God to come down to humanity, to dwell on earth with those whom he had made in his image and to make them a temple for himself that he might dwell with them forever. As Peter declares in his sermon in verse 33 concerning Jesus, “Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.” At Pentecost Christ Jesus poured out himself on all who turned to him; Lastly, whereas at the time of the Tower of Babel, the tongues of men sought their own interests and power and desire in order to make a name for themselves; at Pentecost we see how the tongues of angels caused God’s image-bearers, who by their fallen nature would also have sought their own ways, to instead adopt heaven’s values. For after Peter preached to the crowd and explained how this giving of Christ’s Holy Spirit was intricately tied to God’s plan of redeeming, of restoring humanity back into his good graces, Peter basically made an altar call. As recorded in verses 38 and 39 of Acts 2, the content of that call was, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” As a result of Peter explaining to those gathered the meaning of the events they had witnessed, about three thousand of the Jews present came to a saving faith and knowledge of Christ Jesus, of Messiah Jesus. And at the end of chapter 2 in Acts, Luke records that after turning to Christ, these three-thousand devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Dear brothers and sisters, this is the outcome our gracious and loving Father, Son, and Holy Spirit desires for us. This is the outcome he has ever intended for us. This is the reason our heavenly Father made us; this is the reason our kind Savior and LORD Jesus died and rose from death for us; this is the reason the Holy Spirit, our Counselor and Comforter and Advocate now seals and indwells us. So this Pentecost Sunday and always, let us celebrate the fact that: God calls us to devote ourselves to his teaching; He calls us to devote ourselves to fellowship; He calls us to break bread together; He calls us to prayer; He calls us to hold our earthly possessions lightly and share them with one another; He calls us to give to any who has need; He calls us to continue regularly meeting together; He calls us to share meals in our homes and eat together with glad and sincere hearts; He calls us to praise God and enjoy the favor of all people. Isn’t this an awesome vision? Isn’t this an awesome end? For as Paul so beautifully states, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” So let us celebrate the tongues of angels; So let us seek to live according to the ways of our gracious LORD for he is good and kind and great and merciful and compassionate. And so let us pray that as we live according to his ways, he might by his grace add to our number daily those who are being saved. Let us pray. Genesis 1:26–27: 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27–28: God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Speaking of Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1:23: the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Reformation Study Bible note on Genesis 11:9. See references to Babylon in Revelation 17–18. 2 Timothy 2:11–13: 11 Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself. To the serpent, the LORD said in Genesis 3:15: And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Isaiah 65:17. See also Isaiah 43:18–19: 18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. 2 Corinthians 5:17–19. Revelation 21:5. Acts 2:17 quoting Joel 2:28: And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Acts 2:9–11a. Acts 2:6. After Jesus ascended to heaven, we read in Acts 1:12–15: 12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. 15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) Acts 2:3. Acts 2:11b. Acts 2:41: Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. Acts 2:42–47. 2 Corinthians 3:18.

Reformed & Other Theological Works on Google Books Note: Most of these works are from the continent, with a few exceptions. I have focused on these works because others have done a good job cataloguing and making available Puritan literature on the web. All works are in English unless otherwise noted. Some of the works are on Gallica, the online library of the French national library. For the Gallica documents, select “télécharger,” then press “OK” on the next page, and then right click on “en cliquant ici.” Save the document. An “*” indicates that it is new on this bibliography. Abbadie, Jacques. L’Art de se Connoître Soi-mesme. French. This is a book on morals written by one of the Huguenot pastors in exile. ________. The Deity of Jesus Christ Essential to the Christian Religion. This was written as a continuation of the book below. ________. A Vindication of the Truth of the Christian Religion Against All Modern Opposers. Written in 1694, a well-respected defense of the Christian faith by a Huguenot pastor. See also the original French, second part only. Adams, Thomas. An Exposition on the Second General Epistle of Peter. Alexander, Joseph Addison. The Acts of the Apostles Explained. ________. Commentary on the Gospel of Mark. ________. The Gospel According to Matthew. ________. A Treatise on Justification by Faith. Allinga, Petrus. Fax Dissidii Extincta. Latin. Veritati Illata Repulsa seu Excertationes Pacificae. Allinga was an ardent proponent of Cartesianism and Cocceian theology. This is his discussion of the controversies on the covenant that raged in the Allix, Peter. Diatribe de anno & mense natali Jesu Christi. ________. Douze Sermons sur Divers Textes. ________. The Judgment of the Ancient Jewish Church against the Unitarians. Allix was Pastor at Charenton until the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and a highly respected scholar. Alsted, Johann Heinrich. Consiliarus Academicus. Latin. Alsted was a theologian who succeeded Piscator. Alsted wrote on almost every academic subject. This book gives us some idea of how he did it. ________. Diatribe de Mille Annos. Latin. This is Alsted’s book defending a postmillennial position. Henry. Methodus Theologiae Didacticae. Latin. A short summary of theology by the German-born, ________. Exegesis Logica et Theologica Augustanae Confessionis. This book is about the controversies between the Lutheran and Reformed Church. ________. Scriptorum Theologicorum Heidelbergensium, Tomus Primus. It has a subtitle of Locos Communes. ________. Theologia Elenctica Nova. Latin. I almost bought this for $200! I’m glad I didn’t. Alting, Jacob. Hebraeorum Republica Scholastica. seu Vaticinio Patriarchiae Jacobi in Gen. 49:10. Latin. A lengthy discussion of the prophecy of Jacob in 49:10 concerning ________. Roessingh, Petrus Hendirk. Jacobus Alting: een Bijbelsche Godgeleerde uit het Midden der 17de Eeuw. Amama, Sixtinus. Anti-Barbarus Biblicus. A Reformed, 17th century professor of Hebrew on common errors made in the interpretation of Scripture. ________. Lectiones in CL Psalmos Davidis. Medulla. Latin. This is only the first part of ________. Visscher, Hugo. Guilielmus Amesius: Zijn Leven en Werken. Amyraut, Moïse. Brief Traitté de la Predestination. French. His controversial work on the subject. ________. De Jure Naturae Quod Connubia Dirigit. ________. Paraphrase sur l’Épistre de S. Paul aux Corinthiens. French. Amyraut or Amyraldus (from whence Amyraldianism is derived) was the controversial Reformed teacher at Saumur in ________. Paraphrase sur l’Épistre de S. Paul aux Romains. French. ________. Paraphrase sur l’Évangile de Nostre Seigneur Jésus Christ Sélon Saint Jean. French. ________. Quatres Sermons sur Heb. 6:4-6. ________. Traitté des Religions. French. This is written against those who think religion doesn’t matter. Anthologie Protestante Français. A collection of writings from the first couple centuries of French Proestantism. Aretius, Benedict. Commentarii in Epistolas Canonicas. Latin. Commentary on the “Catholilc” Epistles. ________. Commentarii in Evangelium secundum Johannem. Latin. A 16th century Reformed theologian’s commentary on the Gospel according to John. Ashe, Simeon. Primitive Divinity; a Treatise on Contentment. Aymon, Jean. Tous les Synodes Nationaux des Églises Reformeés de France. Vol. 2. Baily, Louis. The Practice of Piety. Ball, John. A Treatise of the Covenant of Grace. This was published around the time of the Westminster Assembly in Basnage, Jacques. Histoire de la religion des églises reformées ...: pour servir de réponse à l'Histoire des variations des eglises protestantes par M. Bossuet, évêque de Meaux. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. ________. L’unité, la visibilité, et l’autorité de l’église. French. Basnage was a famous Huguenot pastor in exile. op den Catechisme der Christlicker Religie. Dutch. This was the first major work on the Heidelberg Catechism in Bates, William. The Whole Works. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 1 contains apologetic writings. Vol. 2 contains works on the Christian life. Vol. 3 contains works on divine judgment and the fear of God. Vol. 4 contains sermons. Bavinck, Herman. De Algemeene Genade. Dutch. Bavinck’s book on common grace. ________. Blijven of Heengaan? Dutch. ________. De Ethiek Van Ulrich Zwingli. Dutch. ________. Godsdienst en Godgeleerdheid. Dutch. ________. Hedendaagsche Moraal. Dutch. ________. Pedagogische Beginselen. Dutch. ________. The Philosophy of Revelation. ________. Roeping en Wedergeboorte. Dutch. ________. De Welsprekenheid. Dutch. ________. De Zekerheid des Geloofs. Dutch. Baxter, Richard. Aphorismes of Justification. ________. The Practical Works. ________. The Reasons of the Christian Religion. Bèze, Théodore. Sermons sur l’histoire de la resurrection de Notre-Seigneur Jesus-Christ. French. ________. De Praedestinationis Doctrina et Vero Usu Tractatio Absolutissima. Latin. Edited by Raphael Eglinus. This is taken from Beza’s discussion of Romans 9. He also has added excerpts from Luther’s Bondage of the Will. ________. Heppe, Heinrich. Theodor Beza. German. Biography. Binning, Hugh. Works. Contains sermons on the catechism, Romans 8, 1 John, and several other texts. Bochart, Samuel. Trois sermons préliminaries. French. Bochart was a famous French Reformed theologian in the 1st half of the 17th century. He is probably most famous for his work on the animals of the Bible. This is a book of three sermons that he preached preliminary to a sermon series on Genesis. ________. Hierozoicon. Latin. His famous book on the animals of Scripture. ________. Smith, Edward Herbert. Samuel Bochart: Recherches sur sa Vie et ses Ouvrages. ________. Whittingham, William. “Essay on the Life and Writings of Samuel Bochart” in Essays and Dissertations in Biblical Literature. Bolton, Robert. On the Employment of Time. Boston, Thomas. Human Nature in Its Fourfold State. The classic summary of theology from the great Scottish preacher. ________. The Whole Works. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. Vol. 7. Vol. 8. Vol. 9. Vol. 10. Vol. 11. Vol. 1 contains various sermons and “Crook in the Boyd, James R. The Westminster Shorter Catechism. This is basically a catechetical commentary on the subject. Bradstreet, Anne. The Works. à Brakel, Wilhelmus. Redelijke Godsdienst. Dutch. This is Brakel’s famous practical system written primarily laymen. It includes his commentary on Revelation. This has been recently translated into English by Reformation Heritage Books. ________. Los, Franz Johannes. Wilhelmus à Brakel. _______. Selecta Sacra: Libri V. Buchanan, James. The Doctrine of Justification. Bullinger, Heinrich. Confessio et Expositio Simplex Orthodoxae Fidei. ________. The Decades. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. The sermons of the great ________. Deux Sermons de la Fin du Siecle. French. Bunyan, John. Bunyan’s Devotional Works. Burgess, Anthony. The True Doctrine of Justification. Burman, Franz. Synopsis Theologiae. Vol. 2. Latin. Burman was the greatest student of Johannes Coccejus and a firm supporter of his system. He also appreciated and interacted with the philosophy of Descartes. He wrote this work organized around the doctrine of the covenant. Vol. 1 is now available on Google Books. Burroughs, Jeremiah. An Exposition of the Prophesie of Hosea. ________. The Saints’ Happiness. Lectures on the Beatitudes. Buxtorf, Johannes. Buxtorf-Falkeisen, Karl. Johannes Buxtorf, Vater. Cameron, John. Pralectionum in Selectiora Quaedam Novi Testamanti Loca. This work includes a discussion of Mt. 18:15-18 and a discussion of the doctrine of the Church. Caryl, Joseph. A Directory for the Afflicted. This work contains abstracts from his famous work on Job. Cartwright, Thomas. Metaphrasis et Homiliae in Librum Salomoni qui inscribitur Ecclesiastes. Case, Thomas. A Treatise on Afflictions. Cassaubon, Isaac. De Rebus Sacris & Ecclesiasticis. Chalmers, Thomas. On Natural Theology. ________. Posthumous Works. ________. Select Works. This is a link to the Internet Archive search page. ________. Works. A one volume edition. ________. Works. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. Vol. 7. Vol. 5 is on philosophy and its relation to Christianity. Vol. 6 is a discussion of the application of Christianity to the ordinary affairs of life. Vol. 7 discusses the relation of Christianity to astronomy and other sciences. The 1st volume is available in several editions with different works in each. Chamier, Daniel. Memoir of Daniel Chamier, Minister of the Reformed Church of France. A short English biography of this leader of the French Reformed Churches in the first part of the 16th century. ________. Read, Charles. Daniel Chamier (1564-1621): Journal de Son Voyage a la Cour de Henri IV et sa Biographie. Charnock, Stephen. The Complete Works. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 1 has his work on the existence and attributes of God as well as a work on divine providence. Vol. 2 continues the work on the attributes of God. Vol. 3 has a treatise on regeneration and Christ’s blood. Vol. 4 has a discourse on the knowledge of God, unbelief, and the Lord’s Supper. Vol. 5 contains various discourses. Chouet, Jean-Robert. Budé, Eugène. Vie de Jean Robert Chouet. Clarkson, David. The Works. ________. An Essay on the Composition of the Sermon. This is basically Vol. 1 of his works (see next). He discusses in great detail all the matters involved in composing a sermon. Several editions of this work are available on Google books. ________. Explication de la Section XIII du Catéchisme. On the Lord’s Supper. ________. La Parabole Des Noces. ________. L’examen de Soi-Même. A book on how to examine one’s self in preparation to take the Lord’s Supper. ________. Les Fruits de la Repentance. ________. Les Oeuvres Posthumes. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Mostly French, some Latin. Jean Claude was one of the most famous French Reformed theologians of the latter half of the 17th century. Vol. 1 is a book on preaching. Vol. 2-3 are a lengthy book on all aspects of the doctrine of Christ. Vol. 4 contains treatises on various subjections including justification, the fall of Adam, and others. Vol. 5 contains a collection of his correspondence. ________. Réponse au Livre de Mr. Arnauld Entitulé la Perpétuité de l’Église Catholique Touchant l’Eucharistie. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. French. This is Claude’s powerful refutation of the Roman Catholic view of the Eucharist. It met with great success, convincing many of the Reformed position and helping confirm the faith of the Reformed Church. ________. Sermon sur Eph. 4:30. Cloppenburg, Johannes. J. Cloppenburg exercitationes super locos communes theologicos. ________. A Practical Discourse of God’s Sovereignty. Comrie, Alexander. Brief over die regtvaardigmakinge des zondaars. Dutch. On justification. Coquerel, Athanase. L’Oraison Dominicale. Eight sermons in French. ________. The Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven. Cunningham, William. Discussions on Church Principles: Popish, Erastian, and Presbyterian. Philologico-Theologica de Melchizedeco. D’Outrein was one of the many theologians in the ________. Korte Schets der Godlyke Waarheden. Dabney, R.L. and Sampson, F.S. A Critical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. Dabney, R.L. The Christian Sabbath. ________. Sacred Rhetoric. Daillé, Jean. Adversus Latinorum de Cultus Religiosi Objecto Traditionem. Latin. Here he shows the worship of religious objects was unknown in the early Church. This includes other essays as well. ________. De Imaginibus Libri Quatuor. ________. Sermon sur 1 Cor. 12:13. French. ________. A Treatise Concerning the Right Use of the Church Fathers. See also the original French. ________. Vingt Sermons. Daneau, Lambert. Antiosiander. ________. Aphorismi Politici et Militares. Daneau was a lawyer turned pastor and theologian. He studied under Calvin. He wrote books on subjects ranging from warfare to witchcraft to theology to friendship. This is his book on politics. ________. Commentary on Augustine’s Enchiridion. Latin. ________. Deux Traités. French. The first is on witchcraft. The second is on playing cards. They were both translated into English and are available, along with quite a few other of Daneau’s works, on EEBO. The Latin edition of the book on witchcraft is also available. ________. Ethices Christianae, Libri Tres. ________. In Petri Lombardi Episcopi Parisiensis (qui Magister Sententiarum appellatur) librum primum Sententiarum, qui est de vero Deo, essentia quidem uno: personis autem trino: Lamberti Danaei Commentarius triplex. ________. Liber de Haeresibus. ________. Orationis Dominicae Explicatio. ________. The Wonderful Workmanship of God. ________. De Félice, Paul. Lambert Daneau. French. Davenant, John. “A Dissertation on the Death of Christ” in his commentary on Colossians. This essay is appended to his commentary on Colossians but is not included in the Banner of Truth edition. It defends an Amyraldian view of the extent of the atonement. De Dieu, Louis. Animadversiones in Acta Apostalorum. Latin. De la Place, Josué. De Imputatione Primi Peccati Adami. Latin. ________. Traité de l’Aumône. ________. Traité de Bonnes Oeuvres en Général. De Moor, Bernhardinus. Commentarius Perpetuus in Johannis Marckii Compendium. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. Vol. 7. Vol. 4 covers from the states of Christ to sanctification. Vol. 5 covers the Christian life and the sacraments. Vol. 6 covers the doctrine of the Church and glorification. Vol. 7 contains indexes. De Superville, Daniel. Nouveaux Sermons sur Diverse Textes de l’Écriture Sainte. ________. Sermons. English. De Superville was a French Reformed preacher in the latter half of the 17th century. ________. Sermons sur Diverse Textes de l’Écriture Sainte. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. David. Dispute de l’Eucharistie. Derodon was a Reformed philosophy professor D’Huisseau. The Reunion of all Christians. Dickinson, Jonathon. The True Scripture Doctrine Concerning Some Important Points of the Christian Faith. Diodati, John. Budé, Eugène. Vie de Jean Diodati. Drelincourt, Charles. The Christian’s Defence against the Fears of Death. Drelincourt was a French Reformed pastor and wrote mostly on practical theology. ________. Compendio di Controversie. Italian. Drelincourt wrote a popular compendium of controversies in order to help the French Reformed people to deal with their Roman Catholic adversaries. This is a translation of at least a part of it. ________. La Défense de Calvin. French. This is a historical work defending Calvin against a book by Cardinal Richelieu. ________. Des Sacrifices de l’Ancienne et de la Nouvelle Alliance. French. ________. Du Faux Visage de l’Antiquité. ________. Le Pasteur Fidèle, ou Sermon sur Acts 20:28. ________. Sermon sur Rom. 10:15. French. ________. Tu es Pierre ou Sermon sur Mt. 16:18-19. French. ________. Les Visites Charitables ou Les Consolations Chretiènnes. French. Drusius, Johannes. Animadversionum Libri Duo. Interpretations of various passages of Scripture. ________. Observationum Sacrarum Libri XVI. ________. La Vie de Pierre Du Bosc. de la Foi. French. This is Pierre Du Moulin’s famous defense of the French Reformed Confession. It was translated into English, and that translation is available on EEBO. Though written in the 17th century, it was republished in the 19th century in ________. Le Capucin. ________. Du Juge des Controverses. French. A treatise in which Du Moulin defends the authority and perfection of Scripture. ________. Nouveauté du Papisme. French. ________. Traité de la paix de l’âme et du contentement de l’esprit. French. This includes prayers and a meditation on preparing for the Lord’s Supper. ________. De La Vocation Des Pasteurs. ________. Armand, Émile. Essai sur la vie de Du Moulin. A short biography of Pierre Du Moulin in French. Du Plessis Mornay, Philippe. Avertissement aux Juifs sur la Venue du Messie. French. A book by the famous Huguenot on coming of the Messiah addressed to the Jews. ________. De Sacra Eucharistia. ________. Mysterium Iniquitatis, seu Historia Papatus. Latin. ________. Daillé, Jean, ed. Memoires de Phillippe Du Plessis Mornay. Mornay was one of the political leaders of the Huguenots. He also founded the Du Plessis Mornay, Philippe, and others. Recueil des Derinières Heures. French. Duffield, John, ed. The Princeton Pulpit (1852). Miller, Hodge, Alexander, etc. Edwards, John. A Preservative Against Socinianism. This is not Jonathan Edwards but John Edwards, an English Calvinist in the 17th century. Jonathan. The Works of President Edwards. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 1 contains his memoirs, History of the Work of Redemption, Qualifications for Communion, and others. Vol. 2 contains treatises on free will, original sin, and the purpose of the world. Vol. 3 contains the treatise on religious affections and accounts of the revivals in Endemann, Samuel. Compendium Theologiae Moralis. Erskine, Ebenezer. The Whole Works. Erskine, Ralph. The Sermons and Other Practical Works, 10 vols. Fairbairn, Patrick. Ezekiel and the Book of His Prophecies. ________. Jonah: His Life, Character, and Mission. ________. Hermeneutical Manual. ________. The Pastoral Epistles. ________. Pastoral Theology. ________. The Revelation of Law in Scripture. ________. The Typology of Scripture. Fairbairn, Patrick, et al. Divine Revelation Explained and Vindicated. Vrai Usage de le Croix de Jesus-Christ. Calvin’s associate set out the true use of the cross over against the Flavel, John. An Exposition of the Assembly’s Catechism. ________. The Whole Works. Gaches, Raymond. Various Sermons. French. A French Reformed preacher. There are eight sermons available. Or, The Plenary Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. Gaussen was a Reformed minister in Gaussen, Stephen. Disserationes Theologicae. Latin. Gaussen was a professor at Saumur. He wrote these dissertations on the study of theology in the 17th century, and this work is a reprint from the 18th century with a preface by J.J. Rambach. Gib, Adam. Sacred Contemplations. Gill, John. The Cause of God and Truth. ________. A Complete Body of Practical and Doctrinal Divinity. Abridged. Gillespie, George. A Treatise of Miscellany Questions. Gilpin, Richard. Daemonologia Sacra, or a Treatise of Satan’s Temptations. Girardeau, John. Calvinism and Evangelical Arminianism. ________. Blackburn, George. The Life Work of John Girardeau. Gomarus, Franciscus. Anticosterus, sue Enchiridion Controversarium. Goode, William. The Divine Rule of Faith. Goodwin, Thomas. Moses and Aaron: Civil and Ecclesiastical Rites. An overview of the civil and ecclesiastical laws of the Old Testament. ________. Works. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. Vol. 7. Vol. 8. Vol. 9. Vol. 10. Vol. 11. Vol. 12. Vol. 2 contains an exposition of various passages of Ephesians and the first few passages of James. Vol. 3 has an exposition of Revelation and discussions and a couple other works. Vol. 4 has various works on receiving Christ and the Gospel. Vol. 5 contains several works on the glory of Christ and His sacrifice. Vol. 6 is on the work of the Holy Spirit in our salvation. Vol. 7 contains various smaller works. Vol. 8 is on the object and acts of justifying faith. Vol. 9 has one discourse on election and one on thankfulness. Vol. 10 contains a work on the guilt of unregenerate man in sin and punishment. Vol. 11 is a work on the government and constitution of the Church from a Congregationalist perspective. Vol. 12 contains sermons and notes of sermons. Gouge, Thomas. Riches Increased by Giving to the Poor. ________. Oxford Tractarianism. ________. The Works of the Reverend and Pious Andrew Gray. Primarily sermons. Gurnall, William. The Christian in Complete Armour. Nicolas. Synopsis Theologiae Reformatae. Latin. A brief system in the Cocceian mold by a professor from the Guthrie, William. The Christian’s Great Interest. Hale, Matthew. Serious Reflections on Time and Eternity. Halyburton, Thomas. An Essay on the Ground or Formal Reason of Saving Faith. ________. The Great Concern of Salvation. Harris, Robert. A Sermon Preached before the House of Commons. Ps. 10:14-15. Heidanus, Abraham. De Origine Erroris Libri Octo. Latin. ________. Cramer, Jan Anthony. Abraham Heidanus en Zijn Cartesianisme. Heidanus was a leading Cocceian theologian at Heidegger, Johannes Heinrich. Corpus Theologiae Christianae. Vol. 2. ________. De Historia Sacra Patriarchum Selectae Exercitationes. Vol. 2. ________. Dissertationum Selectarum. Latin. Heidegger was one of the most prominent Reformed theologians of the second half of the 17th century. He taught in ________. Enchiridion Biblicum. Latin. An introduction to the Bible & Apocrypha. ________. Exercitationum Biblicarum. Latin. Heidegger was also a scholar in Biblical studies and authored a prolegomena to the whole Bible. This works contains several Biblical dissertations. The first is a commentary on the book of Joshua. The second section is a commentary on St. Matthew up to chapter 22. The third section is an exegetical commentary on Romans. The fourth is a commentary on 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians up to chapter 11. Finally, there is a brief commentary on Hebrews. ________. Historia Papatus. Hellenbroek, Abraham. Korte en Eenvoudige Catechesatie. Part 2. A short summary of the Reformed doctrine in the form of a catechism. It is available in English through Reformation Heritage Books and here. Heppe, Heinrich. Reformed Dogmatics. German and Latin. Henry, Matthew. Daily Communion with God. Heywood, Oliver. The Whole Works. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 1 is a treatment of his life. Hodge, A. Alexander. Outlines of Theology. ________. Popular Lectures on Theology. Hodge, Charles. A Commentary on the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians. ________. Essays and Reviews. ________. Princeton Sermons. ________. The Way of Life. Hodge, John Aspinwall. What is Presbyterian Law as Defined by the Church Courts? This is a great book that all Presbyterian pastors and all those who want to understand Presbyterianism should read. Hommius, Festus. Ordeel des Synodi Nationalis der Gereformeerde Kercken. ________. Wijminga, Pieter Jan. Festus Hommius. A biography of the early 17th century theologian. Hoornbeek, Johannes. Disputationum theologicorum Anti-socinianorum compendium. ________. Orationes. Latin. ________. Pro Convinciendos et Convertendis Judaeis. ________. Summa Controversarium. Latin. Hoornbeek was a close associate of Voetius. This book contains a discussion of the history of the controversies of the Reformed Church with various groups in the 17th century. It concludes each section with a list of the controversies with each individual group. ________. Theologiae Practicae Pars Prior [Tomus Alter]. Latin. Hopkins, Ezekiel. The Doctrine of the Two Covenants. ________. Works. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 3 contains various works on practical theology. Hottinger, Johannes Heinrich. Compendium Theologiae Judaicae Methodo Scholastica. Latin. Hottinger was a 17th century Zürich theologian. This a summary of the theology, rules, and liturgy of the Jews by this famous Reformed theologian. ________. Cursus Theologicus, methodo Altingiana. ________. Duae Questionum Theologico-Philogicarum. ________. Enneas Dissertationum Philologico-Theologicarum. Latin. This work has several articles on the sacraments and some other Biblical topics. ________. Steiner, Heinrich. Der Zürcher Professor Johannes Heinrich Hottinger in Heidelberg 1655-1661. Howe, John. The Redeemer’s Tears Wept over Lost Souls. Hyperius, Andreas. De Dialecta, Liber Unus. _______. De Formanids Concionibus Sacris. _______. Elementa Christianae religionis. Jay, William. Thoughts on Marriage. Junius, Franciscus. Biblia Sacra. A translation of the Old Testament into Latin with Beza’s translation of the New Testament. ________. Opuscula Selecta. Latin. Junius was one of the great early Dutch Reformed theologians. This collection of his works was edited by Abraham Kuyper. It includes two sets of his theological theses, a discussion of theological method, and a few other items. ________. Reitsma, J. Franciscus Junius: Een Levensbeld uit den Eerste Eeuw der Kerkhervorming. Jurieu, Pierre. Abrégé de l’Histoire du Concile de Trente. ________. The Accomplishment of Scripture Prophecies. Jurieu was a French Reformed theologian at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. This book discusses prophecy in relation to the Papacy and other events. See the original French here. ________. Examen de l’Eucharistie. French. Jurieu examines the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist. ________. Éxamen du Livre da la Reünion du Christianisme. French. This is a book on the subject of tolerance. ________. La Politique du Clergé de France. ________. Le Vray Système de l’Église. French. This is a refutation of the Roman Catholic view of the visibility of the Church, its infallibility, and the judge of controversies. ________. Pensées Divers sur la Mort. French. ________. Préjugez Legitimes Contre le Papisme. A response to Pierre Nicole’s famous book against the Calvinists. contre le Changement de Religion. In this book, he seeks to explain the importance of the difference ________. Traité de la Devotion. ________. Van Oordt, C. Pierre Jurieu, Historien Apologiste de la Réformation. French. Keach, Benjamin. The Travels of True Godliness. Keckermann, Bartholomew. Gymnasium Logicum. ________. Praecognitorum Logicorum Tractatus. ________. Praecognitorum Philosophicorum Libri Duo. ________. Systema Compendiusum Totius Mathematices. ________. Systema Rhetorica. ________. Systema Physicum. ________. Freedman, Joseph. “The Career and Writings of Bartholmew Keckermann” in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (Vol. 141, no. 3, 1997). Read only. King, David. An Exposition & Defense of Presbyterian Government. Koelman, Jacobus. Krull, A.F. Jacobus Koelman: Eene Kerkhistorische Studie. Kramer, Geerhard. Het Verband van Doop en Wedergeboorte. Dutch. An introduction by Abraham Kuyper is included. Kuyper, Abraham. Encyclopedia of Sacred Theology: Its Principles. ________. Onze Eeredienst. ________. The Work of the Holy Spirit. Lampe, Friedrich Adolphe. Commentarius Analytico-Exegeticus Evangelii Secundum Joannem. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. ________. Compendium Theologiae Naturalis. Latin. ________. Delineatio Theologiae Activae. Latin. This is a discussion of practical theology by one of the great promoters of piety in the Reformed Church in the 18th century. ________. Exercitationum Sacrarum Dodekas. Latin. A massive discussion (over 500 pages!) of the Psalm 45. ________. Inleyding tot de Verborgentheid van het Genade-Verbondt. Dutch. A brief introduction to Christian doctrine. ________. Meditationum Exegeticarum. Latin. This contains various discussions by Lampe including some comments on Revelation and Ecclesiastes. ________. Synopsis Historiae Sacrae et Ecclesiasticae. Le Faucheur, Michel. Sermons sur divers texts de l’Écriture Sainte. Vol. 2. Lenfant, Jacques. Préservatif contre la Réunion avec le Siège de Rome. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Leydekker, Melchior. De Historia Jansenismi. ________. De Vario Reipublicae Hebraeorum Statu. ________. Historia Ecclesiastica Illustrata. Lightfoot, John. The Christian Sabbath. ________. The Whole Works. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. Vol. 7. Vol. 8. Vol. 9. Vol. 10. Vol. 11. Vol. 12. Vol. 13. Vol. 13 contains a journal of the Westminster Assembly from 1643-1644. Lubbertus, Sibrandus. De Jesu Christo Servatore contra Faustum Socinum. Lusk, William. Discourses on the Covenant of Works, the Fall of Man, and Original Sin. Lusk was a 19th century Presbyterian minister. He claims that his views are in line with Marckius, De Moor, and Witsius. Maccovius, Joannis. Distinctiones et regulae theologicae ac philosophicae. ________. Joannes Maccovius Redivivus. Latin. Maccovius was a Polish theologian who taught ________. Opuscula Philosophica Omnia. Latin. This work covers the whole field of philosophical topics. ________. Kuyper, Abraham, Jr. Johannes Maccovius. A biography. Manton, Thomas. The Complete Works. à Marck, Johannes. Christianae Theologiae Medulla. Latin. This is a wonderful system of theology, based on Marck’s larger system. It was used all throughout into the 18th century in Novissima pro S. Augustino, Jansenio, et Jansenitis contra Pontificem et Jesuitas. Latin. Maresius defended ________. Collegium Theologicum, seu Systema Breve. ________. Hydra Socinianismi Expugnata. Latin. ________. Refutatio Fabulae Prae-Adamiticae. The Marrow of Modern Divinity. One edition of this famous work. Mather, Cotton. Essays to do Good. Mather, Incrase. A Disquisition Concerning Church Courts. Mead, Matthew. The Almost Christian Discovered. Mesnard, Philippe. Essai sur le Socinianisme. French. This is a reply by a Huguenot minister in exile after the Revocation to Le Clerc. Mestrezat, Jean. De La Communion à Jesus-Christ au Sacrement de l’Eucharistie. _________. Éxposition du Huitième Chapitre de l’Épitre de S. Paul aux Romains. Vol. 2. French. Mestrezat was a minister at Charenton in the first half of the 17th century. ________. Traitté de l’Église. French. Miller, Samuel. An Essay on the Warrant, Duties, and Office of the Ruling Elder. ________. Manual of Presbytery. Alexander. Catechisms of the Second Reformation. This includes the Dei, seu De Scriptura Sacra. Latin. Morus was a somewhat controversial professor in Müller, E.F. Karl. Die Bekenntnisschriften der reformierten Kirche. Various languages. This is a collection of various Reformed creeds and catechisms. It includes a Latin edition of the Westminster Standards. Musculus, Wolfgang. In Decalogum praeceptorum Dei explanatio. ________. Loci Communes Sacrae Theologiae. Mussard, Pierre. Sermons sur divers textes de l’Écriture Sainte. Ness, Christopher. An Antidote Against Arminianism. Oeclampadius, Johannes. Hagenbach, K.R. Johann Oekolampad und Oswald Myconius: Leben und ausgewählte Schriften. Olevianus, Caspar. Verklaring der Apostolische Geloofsbelijdenis. Ostervald, Jean-Frédéric. Compendium Ethicae Christianae. Latin. Ostervald was one of the Swiss theologians who sought along with Jean-Alphonse Turretin a “broader” Christianity in the early part of the 18th century in order to better combat Deism and the Enlightenment. ________. The Works. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. Vol. 7. Vol. 8. Vol. 9. Vol. 10. Vol. 11. Vol. 12. Vol. 13. Vol. 14. Vol. 15. Vol. 16. Vol. 17. Vol. 18. Vol. 19. Vol. 20. Vol. 21. Vol. 4 has works on the Holy Spirit and Holy Scripture. Vol. 5 has Display of Arminianism and Death of Death in the Death of Christ. Vol. 6 has a work defending the perseverance of the saints. Vol. 7 has treatises on perseverance, mortification, and temptation. Vol. 8 contains Vindiciae Evangeliae, a defense of the priestly work of Christ. Vol. 9 continues Vindiciae Evangeliae and also has treatise on divine justice. Vol. 10 has two works on the Trinity and one on the person and satisfaction of Christ. Vol. 11 has a work on justification and one on faith. Vol. 12 contains works on the glory of Christ’s work and person. Vol. 13 has works on indwelling sin and spiritual-mindedness. Vol. 14 has an exposition of the 130th Psalm and a couple other treatises. Vol. 16 contains sermons. Vol. 17 has various sermons and discourses on the unity of the Protestants and their future. Vol. 18 contains a response to a book in defense of Romanism. Vol. 19 has various works on the Church. Vol. 20 has works on Church government. Vol. 21 has works on love, the peace of the Church, and Church government. ________. Thomson, Andrew. The Life of John Owen. ________. Remarques sur l’Avertissement Pastorale. French. Pareus, David. Chronologia Sacra. Latin. Pareus was a German Reformed theologian and student of Ursinus. ________. In Divinam Epistolam Ad Romanos Sancti Pauli. Pemble, William. Vindiciae, or A Treatise of Justification by Faith. Pemble was an early 17th century, English Puritan. Pictet, Benedict. Brevis Syllabus Controversarium. Latin. A very helpful summary of controversies in the late 17th and the beginning of the 18th century that the Reformed Church faced, written by Turretin’s cousin and successor in Geneva. ________. Graecorum Recentiorum Sententiae. An overview of the differences between the Reformed Churches and the Greek Orthodox at the time of Pictet. ________. La Morale Chrétienne. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. Vol. 7. Vol. 8. French. This is a discussion of the whole of Christian ethics. Vol. 5 is a discussion primarily of the second table of law and matters relating to justice between man and man. ________. Medulla Ethicae Christianae. æ ________. Prières pour Tous les Jours de la Semaine. French. ________. Traité Contre L’indifference des Religions. French. He opposed the indifference that began to be common in the beginning of the Enlightenment era. ________. Budé, Eugène. Vie de Bénédict Pictet. Piscator, Johannes. Analysis Logica Epistolae Pauli ad Romanos. Latin. Piscator was a famous exegete and a successor of sorts to Olevianus at the German Reformed school at Herborn. He is perhaps most well-known now for his denial of the imputation of the active obedience of Christ, though in his lifetime, he was appreciated mostly for his exegetical and translation work. This is his commentary on Romans. He commented on the entire Bible. ________. Analysis Logica Evangelii Secundum Johannem. Latin. ________. Analysis Logica Libri S. Lucae. ________. In Librum Psalmorum Commentarius. Polanus, Amandus. Analysis Libri Hoseae. Polanus was one of the leading theologians of the early orthodox period. He is well-known for his systematic work, but he was more famous in his own day for his work as an Old Testament professor. This is his commentary on Hosea, and it includes several essays on theological topics. ________. De Aeterna Dei Praedestinatione Didascalia. ________. Logicae Libri Duo. ________. Sylloge Thesium Theologicorum. ________. Theses theologicae de Unico S. S. Theologiae principio, Canone Scripturarum divinarum & iudice veri sensus Scripturarum divinarum & iudice veri sensus Scripturae & controversiarum Ecclesiasticarum. Polhill, Edward. Armatura Dei, Or, A Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day. ________. A View of Some Divine Truths. A Puritan theologian. He gives an overview of the major doctrines of Protestantism. Polyander, Johannes, et al. Synopsis Purioris Theologiae. ________. Censura in Confessionem. Latin. A response to the Remonstrants’ confession. Matthew. The Nullity of the Romish Faith. The great commentator refutes the faith of Prideaux, John. Opera Theologica Omnia. Reynolds, Edward. The Whole Works. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. Vol. 1 contains a discussion of his life and treatises on the vanity of the creature, the sinfulness of sin, and the life of Christ. Vol. 4 contains various sermons. Ridgley, Thomas. A Body of Divinity. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. A complete systematic theology set forth as a commentary on the Westminster Larger Catechism. While it provides a complete and helpful systematic theology, it does not always provide information on the meaning of the words of the Catechism. Rijssen, Leonard. Summa Theologiae Elencticae. Rivet, André. Catholicus Orthodoxus. Latin. ________. Commentarii in Librum Exodum. Latin. Sacri Libri IV. Rivet was a French theologian who taught at ________. Jesuita Vapulans. This is a refutation of a response to Pierre Du Moulin by a Jesuit. ________. Praelectiones in Cap. XX Exodi. ________. Remarques et Considerations. French. A response to a response to Du Plessis Mornay’s books on the papacy. Robinson, Stuart. The Church of God as an Essential Element of the Gospel. Rollock, Robert. Select Works. Vol. 2. Rollock was a 16th century Scottish theologian who was one of the first to use the terminology of the covenant of works. Rutherford, Samuel. Thomson, Andrew. Samuel Rutherford. Saurin, James. Sermons. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. This edition of sermons was published in 1800. Vol. 1 is on the attributes of God. Vol. 2 is on the truth of revelation. Vol. 3 is on the principal doctrines of Christianity. Vol. 4 is on Christian moralilty. Vol. 5 is on various subjects. Vol. 6 contains sermons on occasions of the sacrament. ________. Berthault, E.A. J. Saurin et La Prédication Protestante. Schneck, Benjamin Schroeder. Mercersburg Theology Inconsistent with Protestant and Reformed Doctrine. Scott, Thomas. The Articles of the Synod of Dort. Scudder, Henry. The Christian’s Daily Walk. Sedgwick, Obadiah. The Humble Sinner Resolved to do what he should to be Saved. Shepard, Thomas. The Works. Google has Volume 1 only. It includes an essay on his life and two works on conversion. Sibbes, Richard. The Complete Works. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. Vol. 7. Vol. 2 contains various practical works. Vol. 3 contains a commentary on the 1st chapter of 2 Corinthians. Vol. 4 contains treatises and sermons from 1 Corinthians. Vol. 5 contains expositions and treatises from several epistles of Paul. Vol. 6 contains various treatises. Vol. 7 contains miscellaneous sermons. Sibersma, Hero. Een Lamp en Ligt for d’Oude en Nieuwe Israel. ________. De Paradysse God-Geleerdheid. A discussion of Genesis 3. Smyth, Thomas. Complete Works of Rev. Thomas Smyth. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. Vol. 7. Vol. 8. Vol. 9. Vol. 10. Vol. 1 is a refutation of the idea of the apostolic succession of diocesan bishops. Vol. 2 contains a defense of the apostolicity of Presbyterian government. Vol. 4 is a discussion of the offices of the Church. Vol. 5 contains a manual for members of his church and a large variety of other articles and addresses. Vol. 6 contains articles on a wide variety of topics. Vol. 7 contains articles on missions and other miscellaneous articles. Vol. 8 contains a large book on the unity of the human race and two other books entitled “The Well in the Valley” and “Why Do I Live?” Vol. 9 treats the subject of the use of reason in Christian theology. Vol. 10 contains articles on various subjects including quite a few on baptism. Spanheim, Friedrich. Brevis Introductio ad Historiam Sacram. ________. Controversarium de Religione cum Dissentibus Hodie Christianis. Latin. This is a summary of all the major controversies with the various Christian groups from the Anabaptists to the Greeks to the Rationatlists. Theologicarum Miscellenearum. Latin. Spanheim was one of the great theologians of the17th century. He taught in ________. Geneva Restituta. ________. Historia Imaginum Restituta. ________. Historia Jobi. Latin. A History of Job. ________. Recueil de Sermons pour la Consolation de l’Église. French. ________. Vindiciarum Biblicarum. Spring, Gardiner. The Mercy Seat. ________. The Power of the Pulpit. Theologiae Polemicae. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Latin. Stapfer was a conservative Reformed theologian in the 18th century who not only battled against Stoddard, Solomon. The Doctrine of Instituted Churches Stated and Proved from the Word of God. Taylor, Jeremy. The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying. Teelinck, Willem. Philopatris. ________. The Rights and Duties of Masters. ________. Palmer, Benjamin. The Life and Letters of James Henry Thornwell. Tossanus, Daniel. Cuno, F.W. Daniel Tossanus der Ältere. German. Trigland, Jacobus. Dissertationum Theologicarum et Philologicarum. ________. Trina Dei Gratia. Latin. Tuckney, Anthony. The Grave Disarmed and Death Swallowed Up in Victory. Turretin, Francis. Disputationum Miscellenearum Decas. Latin. This is the 4th volume that was printed along with Turretin’s Institutio. It contains disputations on the secession from the Roman Church, James 2, the atonement, and others. Some of these have been translated into English and printed in other formats. ________. On the Atonement of Christ. This is a translation of one of his disputations in the 4th volume of his works. ________. Summa Theologiae Didactico-Elencticae. Latin. This is a one volume abridgement of Turretin’s Institutes by Leonard Ryssen. ________. Budé, Eugène. Vie de François Turrettini. ________. Dilucidationes Philosophico-Theologico-Dogmatico-Morales. Latin. ________. Sermon sur le Jubilé de la Réformation de Zürich. French. The son of Turretin’s sermon on the day of the celebration of ________. Budé, Eugène. Vie de Jean-Alphonse Turrettini. Ursinus, Zacharias. Sudhoff, Karl. C. Olevianus und Z. Ursinus: Leben und ausgewählte Schriften. ________. De Libro Concordiae. Ursinus’ response to the Formula of Concord. Body of Divinity: The Sum and Substance of the Christian Religion. The systematic theology of James Ussher, the famous archbishop of ________. Eighteen Sermons Preached at Oxford. Whole Works. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Latin. Vol. 6. Vol. 7. Vol. 8. Latin. Vol. 9. Latin. Vol. 10. Latin. Vol. 11. Vol. 12. Vol. 13. Vol. 14. Vol. 15. Vol. 16. Latin & English. Vol. 1 contains on account of the life and works of Bishop Ussher. Vol. 2 is a response to a Jesuit attack on the Protestant faith. Vol. 5 is a history of Van der Groe, Theodorus. Predakatien over het Lijden van Onzen Heere Jezus Christus. Vanderkemp, Johannes. Sermons on the Heidelberg Catechism. Vol. 2. These sermons have been printed more often than any other individual work on the Heidelberg Catechism. Vanderkemp is a good representative of the 17th century Dutch Reformed theology. He also provides lengthy sections of application, which are very helpful in knowing how to apply the Heidelberg Catechism in particular and Reformed theology in general. Van der Waeijen, Johannes. De Betooverede Wereld van Balthasar Bekker. ________. Summa Theologiae Christianae. Latin. Waeijen was a Voetian who later became an adamant Cartesian and Cocceian. This work contains only the first part of the systematic loci. Van Til, Salomon. Malachias Illustrata. ________. Mosis, Habakuki, et Malachiae vaticinia. Vermigli, Peter Martyr. In selectissimam Sancti Pauli priorem ad Corinth ... epistolam ... commentarii doctissimi. _______. In Epistolam S.P. ad Romanos Commentarii. _______. Traité du Sacrament de l’Eucharistie. Vincent, Thomas. An Explanation of the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism. ________. God’s Terrible Voice in the City. Viret, Pierre. Traittez divers pour l’instruction des fidèles. French. A contemporary of Calvin on the doctrines of the faith. ________. Cart, J. Pierre Viret, le Réformateur Vaudois: Biographie Populaire. Vitringa, Campegius. Animadversiones ad Methodum Homiliarum. ________. Commentarius ad Canticum Mosis. Latin. The following works are listed as belonging to Campegius Vitringa. I am not sure whether they belong to the father or the son by that name. The second part of this book is a commentary on the 1st four chapters of Zechariah by Herman Venema. ________. Hypotyposis Historiae et Chronologicae Sacrae accedit Typus Doctrinae Propheticae. Latin. This is an overview of the history of the Bible and a discussion of the teaching of the prophets as a whole. ________. Observationum sacrarum libri sex. Another volume. Latin. Discussions on various Biblical topics. I believe that there are four volumes in this work and that at least the 1st and 4th volumes are available. ________. The Synagogue and the Church. Condensed from the original Latin. ________. Verklaring van Evangelische Parabolen. Vitringa, Campegius, the Son. Opuscula. Voetius, Gisbertus. Catechesatie over den Heidelbergschen Catechismus. Dutch. Voetius is perhaps the greatest of the 17th century scholastic Reformed theologians. He was also deeply concerned about piety and regularly preached in the Church and taught the orphans. This work is an instruction on the Heidelberg Catechism in question and answer format. I believe there is some dispute over whether Voetius is actually the author, but I haven’t examined this question. ________. Disceptatio de Lusu Aleae. Latin. ________. Selectarum Disputationum Fasiculus. Latin. Abraham Kuyper took this selection of Voetius’ disputations out of Voetius’ 5 volumes of disputations. This is an excellent selection that puts together some of the most important of Voetius’ disputations in a modern font that is much more readable than the copies available at Gallica. ________. Tractatus Selecti de Politica Ecclesiastica. Vol. 2. Latin. These are selections from Voetius’ discussions/disputations over Church polity. Volume 1 deals with the nature and authority of the Church and the sacraments. Volume 2 deals with the acts of worship and the ministry. At this time, only Volume 1 is available, as far as I can tell. ________. Duker, A.C. Gisbertus Voetius. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Dutch biography. Vos, Geerhardus. Inauguration. Vossius, Gerard Joannes. De Theologia Gentili et Physiologia Christiana sive de Origine ac Progressu Idolotriae. Latin. Walaeus, Antonius. Compendium Ethicae Aristotelicae. Latin. _________. Wijngaarden, Jan Daniel de Lind van. Atonius Walaeus. Wardlaw, Ralph. Christian Ethics. ________. Discourses on the Sabbath. ________. Lectures on the Book of Proverbs. ________. Posthumous Works. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. Vol. 2 contains various lectures on the Proverbs. Vol. 6 contains the third part of his lectures on Romans, beginning with Romans 11. ________. Unitarianism Incapable of Vindication. Warfield, Benjamin. The Plan of Salvation. Warfield’s classic work comparing the various views of soteriology within Christianity (in a broard sense). ________. The Power of God unto Salvation. Sermons Preached at ________. The Right of Systematic Theology. Watson, Thomas. A Body of Practical Divinity. The complete version of Watson’s famous sermons on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Werenfels, Samuel. Opuscula Theologica et Philologica. Vol. 2. _______. Tractatus de Peccato Originali. Willson, James. A Historical Sketch of the Opinions on the Atonement. This includes a translation of Turretin’s disputation on the atonement. Wilson, Robert Dick. Is the Higher Criticism Scholarly? ________. Studies in the Book of Daniel. Witherspoon, John. Letters on the Education of Children and on Marriage. ________. Treatises on Justification and Regeneration. ________. Meletemata Leidensia. This is his similar to the Miscelleneorum. Here he gives an account of the events of the life of Paul, various exegetical dissertations, and a commentary on Jude. ________. Miscelleneorum Sacrorum. Part 2. Latin. Both volumes contain various exercises on various aspects of Biblical studies such as the life of John the Baptist, the Rechabites, and the life of Timothy as well as his book on the justification controversy in Britain, which is found in Part 2. ________. Le Pratique Du Christianisme. French. An excellent catechism on the Christian life. ________. Sacred Dissertations on the Lord’s Prayer. Latin edition. Wittich, Christopher. Anti-Spinoza sive Examen Ethices Bendicti de Spinoza. Dutch version. ________. Causa Spiritus Sancti. A defense of the divinity of the Holy Spirit and His common essence with the Father and the Son. ________. Theologia Pacifica. Latin. Wittich attempted to bring together various factions in the 2nd half of the 17th century in the Wollebius, Johannes. Christianae Theologiae Compendium. Wood, James. Old and New Theology. A comparison of the Presbyterian Old School and Wyttenbach, Daniel. Tentamen theologiae dogmaticae. Volume 1 only. _______. Theological Theses. This is his defense of some of the basic points of the faith. I cannot tell whether this is the theologian or his son, Daniel Albert Wyttenbach, who was a famous for his work in the humanities. Zanchi, Jerome. Absolute Predestination. Zanchi was one of the most respected Reformed theologians of the 17th century. This book has been reprinted many times. ________. Commentaar op Paulus’ Zendbrief aan de Philippensen. Dutch. ________. Commentarius in Epistolam Sancti Pauli ad Ephesios. Latin. His commentary on Ephesians, reprinted in the 19th century. ________. De Incarnatione Filii Dei. Baier, Johann Wilhelm. Collatio Doctrinae Quakerorum et Protestantium. Latin. ________. Compendium Theologiae Positivae. Latin. A comprehensive discussion of Lutheran doctrine. Gerhard, Johann. Loci Theologici. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. Vol. 7. Vol. 8. Vol. 9. Latin. This is the height of Lutheran dogmatics. Gerhard was a somewhat moderate Lutheran theologian, and he was also very interested in promoting piety. ________. Sacred Meditations. These are very helpful mediations. I would highly recommend them, even though some of the errors of Lutheran theology do appear from time to time. Hunnius Aegidius. Articulus de Providentiae et Praedestinatione Aeterna. Hutter, Leonard. Compendium Locorum Theologorum. Latin. A short compendium of Lutheran theology. Pieper, Franz. Christliche Dogmatiek. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. German. A commonly used textbook of Lutheran dogmatics. It has been translated and is available for purchase in English. He wrote this in large part because too many Lutherans were using Charles Hodge as their basic textbook of theology. Schmid, Heinrich. Die Dogmatik der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kerk. German. This is a work similar to Heppe’s Reformed Dogmatics, except that it collates the doctrine of the Lutheran scholastics. You can read it in English here. Schmid, Johannes Andreas. De Catechesi Racoviensi. Latin. A refutation of the Socinian catechism in 15 disputations. Other Relevant Theological Material Lyman. Views in Theology. Bellarmino, Robert. De Controversiis Christianae Fidei. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Latin. This is the massive attack on Protestant theology by the Jesuit theologian. This worked called forth responses from almost every major Protestant theologian of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The first volume treats Scripture, Christ, and the Papacy. The second volume treats the Church, the clergy, purgatory, and images. Volume 4 treats the doctrine of salvation, free will, and justification. Volume 3 is not yet available. de la Doctrine de l’Église Catholique sur Les Matières de Controverse. French. Bossuet was a leading opponent of the French Reformed Church in the second half of the 17th century in ________. The History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches. Vol. 2. Bossuet wrote this against the Calvinists. Canisius, Peter. Summa Doctrinae Christianae. Latin. This is a classic summary of the Romanist faith. Catechism of the Catholic Church. The modern catechism. Cattenburgh, Adrian. Bibliotecha Scriptorum Remonstantium. Latin. A catalogue of the disputes between the Remonstrants and Socinians. Crell, Johann. Scriptura s. Trinitatis Revelatrix. This was a work written under a pseudonym. Crell was a Socinian. Delitzsch, Franz. A System of Biblical Psychology. Dorner, Isaak. A System of Christian Doctrine. ________. A System of Christian Ethics. I have found parts of this book to be very helpful and insightful in the consideration of moral questions. Molina, Luis de. Concordia Liberi Arbitrii cum Gratiae Donis. Molina defended synergism and middle knowledge against the views of the Dominicans in the Papist communion. Limborch, Philippus van. Compleat System or Body of Divinity. This is a systematic theology by the leading Remonstrant of the second half of the 17th century. Orr, James. The Ritschlian Theology and the Evangelical Faith. The Racovian Catechism. The catechism of the Socinian church. It also contains a history of the Unitarian movement. Socinus, Faustus. Assertiones Theologicae de Triuno et Uno Deo. Latin. ________. Praelectiones theologiae. Latin. Suarez, Fancisco. Opera Omnia. Vol. 2. Vol. 3. Vol. 4. Vol. 5. Vol. 6. Vol. 7. Vol. 8. Vol. 9. Vol. 10. Vol. 11. Vol. 12. Vol. 13. Vol. 14. Vol. 15. Vol. 16. Vol. 17. Vol. 18. Vol. 19. Vol. 20. Vol. 21. Vol. 22. Vol. 23. Vol. 24. Vol. 25. Vol. 26. Latin. Vol. 1 is on the doctrine of God. Vol. 2 is on the angels. Vol. 4 is on man. Vols. 5-6 are on the law of God. Vols. 7-8 are on grace. Vol. 11 is on grace and the foreknowledge of God. Vol. 12 is on faith, hope, and love. Vols. 15-16 are on religion. Vols. 17-18 are on the incarnation. Vol. 21 is on the Eucharist. Vol. 23 is on Church censures. Vol. 24 contains writings against Anglicanism and the King of England. Vol. 25 is on metaphysics. Westcott, Frederick Brooke. St. Paul and Justification.

I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world – and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible. Personal condition does not prohibit you from coming to Christ. The sad condition of those who, in Luke 14, became guests did not disqualify them from the supper. Some were poor and doubtless miserable and shabby. They did not have a penny to their names. Charles H. Spurgeon writes: “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ (Luke 14:16-21 ESV) Where the Lord has been pleased to touch the will so that man has a desire towards Christ, where the heart really hungers and thirsts after righteousness, that is all the readiness which is wanted. All the fitness he requires is that first you feel your need of him (and that he gives you), and that secondly, in feeling your need of him you are willing to come to him. Willingness to come is everything. A readiness to believe in Jesus, a willingness to cast the soul on him, a preparedness to accept him just as he is, because you feel that he is just the Savior that you need – that is all: there was no other readiness, there could have been none, in the case of those who were poor and blind, and lame and maimed, yet came to the feast. The text does not say, “You are ready, therefore come”; that is a legal way of putting the gospel; but it says, “All things are ready, the gospel is ready, therefore you are to come.” As for your readiness, all the readiness that is possibly wanted is a readiness which the Spirit gives us – namely, willingness to come to Jesus. Now notice that the unreadiness of those who were asked arose out of their possessions and out of their abilities. One would not come because he had bought a piece of land. What a great heap Satan casts up between the soul and the Savior! With worldly possessions and good deeds he builds an earthwork of huge dimensions between the sinner and his Lord. Some gentlemen have too many acres ever to come to Christ: they think too much of the world to think much of him. Many have too many fields of good works in which they are growing crops on which they pride themselves, and these cause them to feel that they are persons of great importance. Many a man cannot come to Christ for all things because he has so much already. Others could not come because they had so much to do, and could do it well-one had bought five yoke of oxen and he was going to prove them. He was a strong man well able to plow; the reason why he did not come was because he had so much ability. Thousands are kept away from grace by what they have and by what they can do. Emptiness is more preparatory to a feast than fullness. How often does it happen that poverty and inability help to lead the soul to Christ? When a man thinks he is rich he will not come to the Savior. When a man dreams that he is able at any time to repent and believe, and to do everything for himself that is wanted, he is not likely to come and by simple faith repose in Christ. It is not what you have not, but what you have that keeps many of you from Christ. Sinful Self is a devil, but Righteous Self is seven devils. The man who feels himself guilty may for a while be kept away by his guilt, but the man who is self-righteous will never come; until the Lord has taken his pride away from him he will still refuse the feast of free grace. The possession of abilities and honors and riches keeps men from coming to the Redeemer. (Advice for Seekers) For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, (1 Peter 3:18 ESV) Why is the cross so important? Today is Good Friday and a good day to reflect on Jesus’ death. The cross shows us the depth of the problem we humans have with sin. It shows us God’s forgiveness of sin. The cross also leads us to the resurrection, which demonstrates that sin may be overcome. The way of the cross teaches us that it was necessary for God to save us from sin by allowing Jesus to die on the cross for our sin. The resurrection of Jesus reveals His victory over sin and death on our behalf. The cross says something important to us about us. God desires us to see our sins for what they are – rebellion against Him. We, of course, wish to stay blind to our sins. In the cross of Jesus Christ, God is trying to show us the consequences of our sin and the only way to peace with God. Therefore, in the cross, God shows us righteousness. It is a righteousness that comes through the faith of Jesus when He went to the cross trusting in God who would raise Him on the third day in order that we might begin to live with that same faith in a God. The cross is our sin meeting God’s unconditional love, and forgiveness. The violence of the cross teaches us about sin and its cost. At the same time, the cross demonstrates God’s justice, love and forgiveness. The cross is God’s answer to sin. It is the result of the work of Jesus Christ to earn our salvation. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople: Let no one grieve at his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free. He has destroyed it by enduring it. The evidence for our Lord’s life and death and resurrection … has been shown to be satisfactory; it is good according to the common rules for distinguishing good evidence from bad. Thousands and tens of thousands of persons have gone through it piece by piece as carefully as every judge summing upon a most important case. I have myself done it many times over, not to persuade others but to satisfy myself. I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead. Sinclair B. Ferguson: We must never forget – if we are to grow in grace, and therefore grow like Christ – that the One we trust, love, and serve is a crucified Savior. To follow Him means taking up the cross, as well as denying ourselves. It means a crucified life. (Grow in Grace) Grace is not a ‘thing’. It is not a substance that can be measured or a commodity to be distributed. It is the ‘grace of the Lord Jesus Christ’. In essence, it is Jesus Himself. The truth of the resurrection gives life to every other area of gospel truth. The resurrection is the pivot on which all of Christianity turns and without which none of the other truths would much matter. Without the resurrection, Christianity would be so much wishful thinking, taking its place alongside all other human philosophy and religious speculation. It was this same Jesus, the Christ who, among many other remarkable things, who said and repeated something which, proceeding from any other being would have condemned him at once as either a bloated egotist or a dangerously unbalanced person. When He said He himself would rise again from the dead, the third day after He was crucified, He said something that only a fool would dare say, if he expected longer the devotion of any disciples—unless He was sure He was going to rise. No founder of any world religion known to men ever dared say a thing like that! How you view God determines the quality and style of your Christian experience. Many Christians spend much of their lives paralyzed because, although they have trusted Christ as Savior, they have never really seen what His sacrifice teaches us about the character of God. He gave His Son; He sent His Son; He “handed over” His Son because He loves us. (A Heart for God) It is useless to say you trust in Jesus Christ without believing His message. Trust in Christ is personal and can only be entered into by way of the theology of the Cross. J. Gresham Machen writes: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23 ESV) Even the disciples, to whom the teaching of Jesus was first addressed, knew well that they needed more than guidance in the way that they should go. … They did not yet know fully how Jesus could make them children of God; but they did know that He could do it and He alone. And in that trust all the theology of the great Christian creeds was in expectation contained. At this point, an objection may arise. May we not—the modern liberal will say— may we not now return to that simple trust of the disciples? May we not cease to ask how Jesus saves; may we not simply leave the way to Him? … Should not our trust be in a Person rather than in a message; in Jesus, rather than in what Jesus did; in Jesus’ character rather than in Jesus’ death? Plausible words these are—plausible, and pitifully vain. Can we really return to Galilee; are we really in the same situation as those who came to Jesus when He was on earth? Can we hear Him say to us, ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee’? These are serious questions, and they cannot possibly be ignored. … But we are separated by nineteen centuries from the One who alone could give us aid. How can we bridge the gulf of time that separates us from Jesus? Some persons would bridge the gulf by the mere use of the historical imagination. ‘Jesus is not dead,’ we are told, ‘but lives on through His recorded words and deeds; we do not need even to believe it all; even a part is sufficient; the wonderful personality of Jesus shines out clear from the Gospel story. Jesus, in other words, may still be known; let us simply—without theology, without controversy, without inquiry about miracles—abandon ourselves to His spell, and He will heal us.’ … Certainly the Jesus of the Gospels is a real, a living Person. But that is not the only question. We are going forward far too fast. Jesus lives in the Gospels—so much may freely be admitted—but we of the twentieth century, how may we come into vital relation to Him? He died nineteen hundred years ago. . . . Let us not deceive ourselves. A Jewish teacher of the first century can never satisfy the longing of our souls. Clothe Him with all the art of modern research, throw upon Him the warm, deceptive calcium-light of modern sentimentality; and despite it all common sense will come to its rights again, and for our brief hour of self-deception— as though we had been with Jesus—will wreak upon us the revenge of hopeless disillusionment. But, says the modern preacher, are we not, in being satisfied with the ‘historical’ Jesus, the great teacher who proclaimed the Kingdom of God, merely restoring the simplicity of the primitive gospel? No, we answer, you are not, but, temporally at least, you are not so very far wrong. You are really returning to a very primitive stage in the life of the Church. Only, that stage is not the Galilean springtime. For in Galilee men had a living Savior. There was one time and one time only when the disciples lived, like you, merely on the memory of Jesus. When was it? It was a gloomy, desperate time. It was the three sad days after the crucifixion. Then and then only did Jesus’ disciples regard Him merely as a blessed memory. ‘We trusted,’ they said, ‘that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. . . .’ What was it that within a few days transformed a band of mourners into the spiritual conquerors of the world? It was not the memory of Jesus’ life; it was not the inspiration which came from past contact with Him. But it was the message, ‘He is risen.’ That message alone gave to the disciples a living Savior. It and it alone can give to us a living Savior today. We shall never have vital contact with Jesus if we attend to His person and neglect the message; for it is the message which makes Him ours. (Christianity and Liberalism) What reason have you that you would think that you can suddenly change the inclination of your heart and actions, and become a new man? The odds are surely a million to one and greater that as you sinned before you will sin again. Charles H. Spurgeon writes: If you think about it, God’s value of heaven and yours are very different things. His salvation, when he set a price upon it, was to be brought to men only through the death of his Son. But you think that your good works can win the heaven which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, procured at the cost of his own blood! Do you dare to put your miserable life in comparison with the life of God’s obedient Son, who gave himself even to death? Does it not strike you that you are insulting God? If there is a way to heaven by works, why did he put his dear Son to all that pain and grief? Why the scenes of Gethsemane? Why the tragedy on Golgotha, when the thing could be done so easily another way? You insult the wisdom of God and the love of God. There is no attribute of God which self-righteousness does not impugn. It debases the eternal perfections which the blessed Savior magnified, in order to exalt the pretensions of the creature which the Almighty spurns as vain and worthless. The trader may barter his gold for your trinkets and glass beads, but if you give all that you have to God it would be utterly rejected. He will bestow the milk and the honey of his mercy without money and without price, but if you come to him trying to bargain for it, it is all over for you; God will not give you choice provisions of his love that you do not know how to appreciate. The great things you propose to do, these works of yours, what comparison do they bear to the blessing which you hope to obtain? I suppose by these works you hope to obtain the favor of God and procure a place in heaven. What is it, then you propose to offer? What could you bring to God? Would you bring him rivers of oil, or the fat of ten thousand animals? Count up all the treasures that lie beneath the surface of the earth; if you brought them all, what would they be to God? If you could pile up all the gold reaching from the depths of the earth to the highest heavens, what would it be to him? How could all this enrich his coffers or buy your salvation? Can he be affected by anything you do to augment the sum of his happiness, or to increase the glory of his kingdom? If he were hungry he would not tell you. “The cattle upon ten thousand hills are mine,” he says (Psa 50:10). Your goodness may please your fellow-creatures, and your charity may make them grateful, but will God owe anything to you for your gifts, or be in debt to you for your influence? Absurd questions! When you have done everything, what will you be but a poor, unworthy, unprofitable servant? You will not have done what you ought; much less will there be any balance in your favor to make atonement for sin, or to purchase for you an inheritance in the realms of light. (Advice for Seekers) Sinclair B. Ferguson: Yes, apostasy happens. Sometimes the catalyst is flagrant sin. The pain of conviction and repentance is refused, and the only alternative to it is wholesale rejection of Christ. But sometimes the catalyst is a thorn growing quietly in the heart, an indifference to the way of the Cross, a drifting that is not reversed by the knowledge of biblical warnings. (Apostasy: The abandonment or renunciation of a religious belief.) Docetism and Christianity: Docetism was a heresy that attracted interest in the third century. Docetists believed that there was one eternal father who was eternally transcendent and unable to experience any sort of human emotion of suffering. The belief that Jesus became human flesh and experienced life as a human was unthinkable. The early orthodox church opposed Docetism. Irenaeus wrote a five-volume work against Valentinus (136 A.D. – 165 A.D.) who one of Docetism’s prominent teachers. Polycarp condemns the Docetists by saying that “everyone who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is an anti-Christ,” echoing 1 John 4:2-3. The Bible teaches us that Jesus experienced hunger (Matt. 4:2) and thirst (John 19:28), was sympathetic (Matt. 9:36), became weary (John 4:6), felt sorrow to the point of weeping (John 11:35), and grew in wisdom (Luke 2:52). Yet, His humanness never caused Him to sin (Heb. 4:15). Docetism strikes at the heart of Christianity; as the author of Hebrews plainly teaches, Jesus “had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2:17 ESV) The Bible teaches: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:51 ESV) “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.” (2 John 1:7 ESV) If I had the power to do it, how would I seek to refresh in your souls a sense of the fact that you are “bought with a price.” There in the midnight hour, amidst the olives of Gethsemane, kneels Immanuel the Son of God; he groans, he pleads in prayer, he wrestles; see the beady drops stand on his brow, drops of sweat, but not of such sweat as pours from men when they earn the bread of life, but the sweat of him who is procuring life itself for us. It is blood, it is crimson blood; great gouts of it are falling to the ground. O soul, your Savior speaks to you from out Gethsemane at this hour, and he says: “Here and thus I bought you with a price.” Come, stand and view him in the agony of the olive garden, and understand at what a cost he procured your deliverance. Track him in all his path of shame and sorrow until you see him on the Pavement; mark how they bind his hands and fasten him to the whipping-post; see, they bring the scourges and the cruel Roman whips; they tear his flesh; the ploughers make deep furrows on his blessed body, and the blood gushes forth in streams, while rivulets from his temples, where the crown of thorns has pierced them, join to swell the purple stream. From beneath the scourges he speaks to you with accents soft and low, and he says, “My child, it is here and thus I bought you with a price.” But see him on the cross itself when the consummation of all has come; his hands and feet are fountains of blood, his soul is full of anguish even to heartbreak; and there, before the soldier pierces his side with a spear, bowing down he whispers to you and to me, “It was here and thus, I bought you with a price.” O by Gethsemane, by Gabbatha, by Golgotha, by every sacred name collected with the passion of our Lord, by sponge and vinegar, and nail and spear, and everything that helped the pang and increased the anguish of his death, I conjure you, my beloved brethren, to remember that you were “bought with a price,” and “are not your own.” I push you to this; you either were or were not so bought; if you were, it is the grand fact of your life; if you were, it is the greatest fact that ever will occur to you: let it operate upon you, let it dominate your entire nature, let it govern your body, your soul, your spirit, and from this day let it be said of you not only that you are a man, a man of good morals and respectable conduct, but this, above all things, that you are a man filled with love to him who bought you, a man who lives for Christ, and knows no other passion. O! that redemption would become the paramount influence, the lord of our soul, and dictator of our being; then were we indeed true to our obligations: short of this we are not what love and justice both demand. “The suffering of the Christian or anyone else in this world is never ultimately an accident. All suffering is within the pale of divine sovereignty. All suffering comes within the broader context of the sovereignty of God.” (Reason to Believe: A Response to Common Objections to Christianity)

The title "Anti-Semitism in the United Nations" was carefully chosen. It does not charge the UN, an indispensable world organization, with anti-Semitism. Rather, it suggests that there is a considerable anti-Semitic component behind the policies pursued there and expressed without challenge (except by the United States) in its fora. Emergency Special Sessions of the United Nations General Assembly are rare. No such session has ever been convened with respect to the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, the slaughters in Rwanda, the disappearances in Zaire or the horrors of Bosnia. In fact, during the last 15 years they have been called only to condemn Israel. Whereas Arab states have traditionally used UN fora to demonize and isolate Israel (for example, they routinely attempt to deny Israel its credentials), they now believe they enjoy "Western" support which emboldens them. The latest Emergency Special Session, called to address Israeli construction at the Har Homa site, set in motion steps to de-legitimize Israel and to bring it to its knees. During its July meeting, the Session considered a resolution that requested member states "not to allow any import of goods produced and manufactured in occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem" -- a virtual boycott and collective sanctions against the state. During its November meeting, it took a further step towards making Israel an outlaw state. In a vote of 139 to 3 with 13 abstentions, it set in motion the eventual convening of states parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, which grew out of the Nazi occupation of Europe. Thus, that Convention will now be employed against the people who were Hitler's victims. The resolutions of the November meeting requested that the Swiss government, as the depository of this Geneva Convention, convene by February 1998 a meeting of experts to initiate the process of condemning Israel for violating the Convention. This was done despite the admonition of Switzerland's UN Observer that such action could damage the peace process and politicize international humanitarian law. As a result of such bias, the UN has lost credibility. It is no surprise that the Oslo agreements were negotiated outside of, and contained no role for, the UN. Though Israel has been the subject of aggressive wars in 1948, 1967 and 1973 and the victim of countless terrorist attacks, the Security Council and the General Assembly have never once censured its assailants. As Thomas M. Franck, Professor of International Law at New York University, has written, "...the UN is a place of convoluted realities. The Assembly's majority has also done its best to achieve an anti-Israeli politicization of the Secretariat." It is not just an issue of anti-Israel bias; it is difficult to ignore an anti-Jewish bent in many instances. For 50 years the UN has condemned virtually every conceivable form of racism. It has established programs to combat racism and its multiple facets -- including xenophobia -- but had consistently refused to do the same against anti-Semitism until 1993, and then, only under intense US pressure. Instead, the General Assembly established two Special Committees and two "special units" in the Secretariat devoted exclusively to Israeli practices, costing millions of dollars yearly. These produce anti-Israeli and Anti-Zionist pamphlets, booklets, papers and films, which are even distributed in the UN's six official languages to school children around the world. The intense hostility that Israel faces in the UN and the anti-Semitic reverberations are illustrated by two events that occurred at the Commission on Human Rights in 1991 and 1997. During the 1991 session, the Syrian Ambassador repeated the Damascus Blood Libel that Jews killed Christian children to use their blood to make Matzoth. The Western democracies could not be stirred to challenge this age-old anti-Semitic libel (which the Ottoman Sultan as the ruler of Syria, denounced when it surfaced in the 1840s). It took intense US pressure to procure a challenge to this libel in the record, and then only months after the Syrian representative emphasized to the Commission, "it's true, it's true, it's true." On 11 March 1997, the Palestinian representative charged, in a chamber packed with 500 people including the representatives of 53 states and hundreds of non-governmental organizations, that the Israeli Government had injected 300 Palestinian children with the HIV virus. Despite the repeated interventions of the Governments of Israel and the US, and UN Watch, this modern Blood Libel stands unchallenged and unrefuted on the UN record. No appropriate action by any UN body or official has been taken to date. The Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, a Czech, agreed to place on the record his letter to the Ambassador of Israel, sharing his "concern as to the charge made" against Israel -- "an allegation made without evidence, on the basis of a newspaper article ... proved completely false." The Chairman reneged on his agreement after he was called to task by a delegation of Arab Ambassadors and received no support from other regional groups -- including Western Europe. Blood Libels are vicious and persistent carriers of anti-Semitism. The "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" were but a fiction of the Czarist police in the 1890s. Yet they are a well of anti-Semitic pollution -- published today in thousands of copies world-wide. The Damascus Blood Libel was raised 150 years later in the Commission on Human Rights. The latest PLO Blood Libel bears the imprimatur of the UN record and has yet to be removed by consolidated action of the Commission or by any UN agency or official on the public record. (Nor was there any rebuke in 1992 to a UN document circulated in the Commission by the PLO observer, which stated that Israelis "celebrating ...Yom Kippur, are never fully happy even on religious occasions unless their celebrations, as usual, are marked by Palestinian blood.") The treatment of Israel in the UN is often dismissed as realpolitik -- the power of Arab numbers -- and recently, as a reaction to Israel's Likud government and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Yet even during the hopeful days of the Rabin/Peres peace negotiations there were the usual anti-Israel resolutions passed each year in the UN General Assembly and 5 in the Commission on Human Rights. Since the Oslo accords, 259 Israelis have been killed and 5000 injured by Palestinian terror attacks. During the same period, 34 resolutions deploring Israel were passed at the UN, but not one against the terror attacks. The unique treatment of Israel cannot be explained on purely political grounds. Though anti-Semitic canards can go unchallenged in the UN, the mere reference in the 1997 Commission on Human Rights to an allegedly blasphemous reference to Islam, by a UN expert and from an academic source, brought a rebuff by consensus by the Chair, and the deletion of the offending sentence. The viciousness with which Israel is attacked, and the reluctance of even democratic states to defend Israel or to accord it the same latitude for mistakes and wrongs that it freely and reciprocally accords other states, has a special quality and origin. There is ample justification for the conclusion of Professor Anne Bayefsky of York University, Canada, writing of the UN Human Rights system: "It is the tool of those who would make Israel the archetypal human rights violator in the world today. It is a breeding ground for anti-Semitism. It is a sanctuary for moral relativists. In short, it is a scandal." The infamous "Zionism is Racism" resolution was passed in 1975 when Yitzhak Rabin was Prime Minister. Describing the circumstances of the passage of the resolution, a representative in the chamber stated that "hatred was crawling on the floor." Although the resolution was rescinded in 1991, anti-Semitism in UN fora is still a force to be reckoned with, bearing in mind that 25 Member States voted against repealing the resolution and 13 abstained. Anti-Semitism is not dead. Although anti-Semitic incidents have declined and a multi-cultural acceptance has produced wider tolerance in many states including the US, a 2000-year-old virus has mutated, and lives on, often in a disguised form. And the existence and achievements of the Jewish state in an area of relative backwardness stimulate anti-Semitism and furnish a respectable cover. Once anti-Semitism had a religious basis but, with the declining significance of religion in the West, anti-Semitism in church circles has relatively little standing as such. Hitler exploited anti-Semitism with deadly consequences for Jews and the world. But racial anti-Semitism has been tabooed after the Holocaust and the Nuremberg trials. Now the existence of the state of Israel permits anti-Semitism to assume a political form, safe from challenge as intolerance or racism. How many times one hears: "I like Jews but I can't stand Zionism," or "I have nothing against Jews, but I don't like Israel." The existence and achievements of Israel offer a visible and irresistible target for dormant anti-Semitic feelings aroused by a focus on Israel's mistakes and misdeeds, which are characteristic of every state including the US. Some Arab states appear to have now found a way to accomplish a purpose that the unrepealed PLO Charter, pledging the destruction of Israel has not achieved. Wars with Israel have been disasters and are much too problematic to repeat. The attempt to bring Israel to its knees through sanctions and boycotts at the Security Council faces a US veto. However, these Emergency Special Sessions of the UN General Assembly, in which all but 3 states have joined in a collective denunciation, show the possibility of a slow but sure de-legitimization of Israel and the hope of some for its eventual strangulation. Israel stands at the precipice of being treated at the UN as South Africa during apartheid. It is certainly not comparable, considering that Israeli Arabs are citizens, vote and sit in the Knesset. The challenge to Israel's right to exist as an equal state may soon move from the PLO Charter to the UN. The adjourned Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly is a harbinger of worse to be attempted. The world faces a dilemma. The UN exists, and there is no present alternative. As Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, former US Ambassador to the UN warned long ago, "the UN is a dangerous place." The United Nations held their first ever conference on combatting anti-semitism on Thursday January 22, 2015. Barely half of the UN's 193 member states attended the informal meeting, which was planned four months ahead of time in hopes that many members would be able to attend. All 57 Islamic nations represented at the UN unanimously condemned "hatred, anti-semitism, and Islamophobia," in a move that US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power called "extremely significant." Speakers including French philosopher Bernard Henri Levy delved into historical anti-semitism and made the case that European anti-semitism today is as dangerous as ever. Levy stated "In Paris, just a few days ago, we heard once again the infamous cry 'Death to the Jews' and cartoonists were killed because of cartooning, police for policing and Jews just for shopping and being Jews. In other capitals in Europe and elsewhere, faulting the Jews is once again becoming the rallying cry of a new order of assassins, unless it is the same but cloaked in new habits. This assembly was given the sacred task of preventing those terrible spirits from re-awakening, but they have returned and that is why we are here." The most common theme of the day was that anti-semitism is the first step down a long road of racism, bigotry, and discrimination. At the meeting, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said that "Grievances about Israeli actions must never be used as an excuse to attack Jews." The meeting concluded with a panel discussion featuring a group of CEO's of human rights NGO's.

Solzhenitsyn Breaks Last Taboo of The Revolution Solzhenitsyn Breaks Last Taboo of the Revolution Report; Posted on: 2005-11-14 Nobel laureate under fire for new book on the role of Jews in Soviet era repression. From the Guardian (UK) by Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow Commentary by Dr. David Duke on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Here are some excerpts from an article in the Guardian (UK), January 25, 2003. Since the last few articles I have posted have dealt with the Jewish role in the Bolshevik revolution and the accompanying terror and genocide in the Soviet Union, I wanted to share with you some of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s comments. Few men have the high moral standing of this world-wide admired Nobel Prize winner. He wrote the most famous and authoritative books on the Soviet Gulag System, Gulag Archipelago I, II, & III. A couple of years ago he wrote a book called Together for Two Hundred Years about the Jewish experience in Russia. It included mention of the Jewish role in the Bolshevik terror. Although he was quite soft-spoken in his book, in many ways he does lay wide-open the still suppressed story of the prominent Jewish role in the Bolshevik revolution and especially the Jewish role in the genocide of Christians, intelligentsia, and other potential enemies of the Soviet. Solzhenitsyn says very emphatically that even with all their complaints of social suppression by the Soviet apparatus in the 50s and 60s, they hide their prominent role in the horrors and genocides of the earlier decades. The Guardian article reports: ….he said that Russia must come to terms with the Stalinist and revolutionary genocides - and that its Jewish population should be as offended at their own role in the purges as they are at the [later] Soviet power that also persecuted them." The Guardian continues: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who first exposed the horrors of the Stalinist gulag, is now attempting to tackle one of the most sensitive topics of his writing career - the role of the Jews in the Bolshevik revolution and Soviet purges. In his latest book Solzhenitsyn, 84, deals with one of the last taboos of the communist revolution: that Jews were as much perpetrators of the repression as its victims… Two Hundred Years Together - a reference to the 1772 partial annexation of Poland and Russia which greatly increased the Russian Jewish population - contains three chapters discussing the Jewish role in the revolutionary genocide and secret police purges of Soviet Russia. He also correctly states that the murderous actions of the Kiev Cheka [secret police] cannot be explained only by the fact that two thirds of them were Jews: Yet he added: “But it is impossible to find the answer to the eternal question: who is to be blamed, who led us to our death? To explain the actions of the Kiev Cheka only by the fact that two thirds were Jews, is certainly incorrect.” But, of course, there is only so much that one man, even a man of his stature, can say and still get published, and Solzhenitsyn has to be aware of that. But in fact, if you are being even somewhat critical you cannot say that two thirds of the Cheka murderers were Jews. In fact, even with his mitigating statements, his book cannot be found in English! A quick check of Amazon Books will show that Two Hundred Years, the latest book by a world-renowned Nobel Prize winner of impeccable reputation, is unavailable. Could it be this book simply says what we are forbidden to know? One only has to ask, “What if the Germans had moved into Russian and dominated the ‘Russian Revolution’ and comprised two-thirds of the Soviet genocidists in a Russian country?” I have no doubt where blame would go. There are thousands of books that blame all Germans for the crimes of the Nazis. One of the biggest sellers all over the world, called Hitler’s Willing Executioners, claims that something in the German essence is evil and genocidal. Many other books go even further. They blame the Pope and, ultimately, all Gentiles for the Holocaust because they did not initiate the carnage of the Second World War sooner. There seems to be no blame however placed on the Jewish communities in Russia and all over the world for their support of Bolshevism in Russia and for the preeminent Jewish role in the Bolshevik movement. Why is there no criticism for their domination of a genocidal apparatus which by all accounts killed more human beings than those alleged to have been killed by the Nazis? There are no world-wide manhunts for the perpetrators of the Russian genocide, no trials for them, no memorial museums on the Washington Mall, hardly a mention in the press. In fact there isn’t even a name for the largest genocide in human history, a genocide far larger than the trade-marked, capital “H” Holocaust — the word used to sum up Jewish suffering. And yet Christian suffering at the hands of Jewish antagonists apparently deserves no special designation. The Guardian article describes the reaction of Jewish leaders such as the head of the Russian Jewish Congress: But Jewish leaders and some historians have reacted furiously to the book, and questioned Solzhenitsyn’s motives in writing it, accusing him of factual inaccuracies and of fanning the flames of anti-Semitism in Russia. Ironically, Solzenitsyn is accused of being factually inaccurate. Yet there was no such criticism of Jewish scholar Yuri Slezkine who writes a paean to Jewish power in the Jewish Century and boasts of their predominant role in the Bolshevik Revolution and even admits to their role in the genocidal secret police. He even calls them “Stalin’s willing executioners.” Imagine for a moment if a book about the Jews in Bolshevism was published with that title saying that from the genocidal days of the Torah and Talmud, Jews have been genocidal by nature. I don’t think such a book would be promoted by the media and be on the best seller list in America or Europe like Hitler’s Willing Executioners. Solzhenitzyn, who spent many terrible years in the Gulag, also reveals the tribal loyalties that existed among the Jews in the Soviet, for undeniably some Jews went into the gulag system. The Guardian mentions how the Jews in Russia were furious at Solzhenitsyn for even mentioning it in passing. In one remark which infuriated Russian Jews, he wrote: “If I would care to generalise, and to say that the life of the Jews in the camps was especially hard, I could, and would not face reproach for an unjust national generalisation. But in the camps where I was kept, it was different. The Jews whose experience I saw - their life was softer than that of others.” The tribal imperative. It operated in Bolshevik Russia and it still operates among the Neocons who orchestrate the Iraq War for Israel. It is the same tribal loyalty that brings together CIA intelligence, presidential speech writers and advisors, media and government officials, lobbying and fundraising groups, and political candidates who will insure the Jewish supremacist imperative. It makes sure that the heads of the Federal Reserve and the World Bank will be run by brethren sure to put the interest of the tribe first and foremost. It even worked in the gulag where Solzhenitsyn says the Jewish monsters made sure that their few imprisoned brethren received the best of a bad situation. As Pete Findley said, “There is a gorilla in the room but no one can mention him.” Perhaps a few can allude to a hairy hand on the coffee table or, sometimes, even the smell of this hairy corrupt beast can be mentioned among us, but they dare not confront the gorilla directly. Even the small mentions such as Solzhenitsyn made keeps his book out of the lucrative and important English-speaking market. I hate it when they say, "He gave his life for his country." Nobody gives their life for anything. We steal the lives of these kids. We take it away from them. They don't die for the honor and glory of their country. We kill them."-- Admiral Gene LaRocque

My transplanted yank is just crazy ’bout haricots verts – he mastered lingusitic transition from string bean with ease [as soon as he’d swallowed the Franch names for luscious blue cheese] but green beans require a labour I’m not keen to bear; such work is as deadening to wits as is washing the dishes I’m spoiled – I admit it – although I am nothing near wealthy I haven’t a car; my apartment is small – but I’m healthy so, when they’re sold ready to steam, I give in to his wishes… * * * In point of fact I couldn’t resist, expensive as they were perfectly lined up pencil thin leaves of grass swathed in cellophane – I felt rich just buying them ! But then, removing the wrapping I began to think of where they’d come from – somewhere in South America… How exquisitely they were packaged – how regal they looked in their shallow black styrofoam tub – made me want to take special care how I laid them in the steamer … and then, as I was gently tossing them, still warm, in their vinaigrette I had a vision of some starvling across the ocean earning three cents a day – the planters, the pickers, the packers ? Poor devils! * * * I know that one shouldn’t buy produce that’s shipped on a plane and I know that the reasons for that have to do with pollution [so eating stuff locally grown is the simple sollution] when it comes to ethics, however, grave questions remain – If the person who streamlined my beans had received fair return then the price they’d command would be plainly beyond my small means which is true for tomatoes and salads and much more than beans – which are sold where the overstuffed priviledged have money to burn. Is this divine order ? Please tell me what bastard arranged it? I just can’t help thinking since lunch that fair’s fair and right’s right Should the world be my oyster – my green bean – because I’m born white? Whatever – whoever – it’s incumbent upon us to change it. when the lioness appeared the monkey shinnied up a trunk held on for dear life and lived to tell the tale. when the tidal wave appeared he did the same thing… Whenever we’re alone he asks me questions, says the nicest things – like that I really listen – and I swell with pride at the idea that I’ve inspired him to do the same But the questions get tougher and I am not his mother, not even blood kin, and when he looks up, and I see he’s shed the grin, and he almost laments but that doesn’t make sense, I dig my nails in. Not yet into his teens and almost lost to genuine analysis – numbed by the usual means by counterfeit, by anthropocentric blindspot, and I sigh at the idea that the all-engulfing they will likely have its way. He believes there is a logic to everything, cannot imagine things that don’t have reasons. Most likely he’ll never see that logic and language are more than related – in fact the same word in the culture that shaped us; on closest inspection there is no rational inflection, no premise for the premise that the universe is rational. I want so to hug him and explain this – that we think the way we think because, but I settle for a pause, not ready to bite the bullet even for his sake and I lie to myself. Maybe next year. . . if he’s still awake Left for dead in a garbage can bottles and boxes – junk mail on her head but she didn’t [die] she became a tycoon instead Weep, Cayuga brother alone on a roof in Jersey – pigeons shot by assholes tar now stained with blood – Stupid fuckin’ white man Luke says Heli was Joseph’s father Jacob’s the one that Matthew names – beats me still why either’d bother with any paternal geneological games unless they were trying to make the case for an earthly king – a political race – that’s what messiah means in Hebrew shorthand a Jewish king… for a tormented occupied land… and that is probably what the first century bible authors were after. Matthew can count back to David in 26 go-rounds – It takes Luke 41 begats to cover the exact same ground. One gospel takes him back to Nathan the other via Solomon’s son but nowhere even a minor ovation for the Jewish Miriam’s annointed son. That a man is a Jew by his mother doesn’t seem to have occurred to either. Any who could find such gospels infallible are, by my lights, more than just gullible. Who sings me songs of candied afterlives demands I now lie low in expectation – bow down, await rewards, endure the gyves shut up, mark time, be meek for the duration – feel sin and guilt, fear God And All His Might – some super spook who no one’s seen at all unless quite daft or higher than a kite or steeped in myths of Eve and Adam’s Fall. A Book that offers just itself for proof is like a dog that chases his own tail. Religion from religion stands aloof, leaves little room for justice to prevail. Those Fathers Up Above are worse than crooks No Source of All is bound in any books in dreams alone I might traverse some perfect potlatch universe where none would give their heart in vain and all that’s parched be gorged with rain – love enabling – exchanged in turn – beneath a sun to warm, not burn. are easily bent while the wise of songless birds grip bare branches in a breathless sky – wind or rain would only confirm the sentence the only things flying are the unmarked planes that play pale hopscotch and piss unnamed disease in the clouds would there were to waste on burial – if these idiots allowed I would erupt in scarlet for a few young sharks

Ice cream sandwiches are traditional summer treats, but it's time to take the sweet 'wich into the autumn months. Because...babka ice cream sandwiches. Babka ice cream sandwich, I finally found you! pic.twitter.com/R0muVynCqt — Devon M (@DAMitsDevon) August 20, 2016 Babka is a traditional Eastern European Jewish treat. It is made with sweet, yeasted dough twisted with chocolate or cinnamon fillings. It's enough to see it on your bubbe's Sunday morning breakfast buffet... But now that it's getting ice cream sandwiched, babka is positively droolworthy. I just heard about the babka ice cream sandwich and now I need to make that a thing in my life: https://t.co/o0Sws46PmA — annie cardi (@anniecardi) August 29, 2016 On the east coast, Russ and Daughters Café serves homemade babka ice cream between slices of homemade babka. The eatery has been serving them since December 2015, but now the confection is really catching on. In Washington, D.C., the vanilla/chocolate babka ice cream sandwich (babka sourced from Brooklyn) served by stall On Rye (a restaurant slated to open late 2016) is available to lucky National Parks Stadium suite ticket holders. Even home chefs are taking their skills to the babka ice cream world. The internet is wild for this delicacy and it's easy to see why. Babka ice cream sandwich at @Nationals park = worth the hype. 😋😋😋 — Lexi Neaman (@lexineaman) September 5, 2016 I need that babka ice cream sandwich in me now yes I know it's 12:30am I said NOW https://t.co/avONtdl7vK — Kris Naudus (@lampbane) August 23, 2016 The end of summer never seemed so sweet. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

10 Palestinians shot, wounded in protest near West Bank RAMALLAH - Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 10 Palestinians near the West Bank town of Ramallah Friday during a protest over the killing of a teenager, Palestinian medics and security sources said. They said the Palestinians were hit by live rounds on the outskirts of Jalazun refugee camp and hospitalised in Ramallah, including one with serious injuries. Hundreds of Palestinians took part in the protest, many of them hurling rocks at the soldiers. The demonstration was called to protest at the Israeli army's killing on Wednesday of Mohammed Mubarak, a 19-year-old from Jalazun working on a project funded by USAID and son of the camp's locally elected leader. The army said he was shot dead near a Jewish settlement outside Ramallah after having opened fire at them, but witnesses insisted he was unarmed. Palestinian housing and public works minister Maher Ghneim condemned what he branded the "cold-blooded killing" of a labourer who was working on a project run by the ministry in coordination with USAID. Ghneim said the youth had been "carrying a sign to direct the traffic" when he was shot. A total of 27 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank in 2013, three times more than the previous year, figures from Israeli rights watchdog B'Tselem showed.

Do we indeed leave Egypt this year or we just adorn our personal Mitzraim with a pretty Pesach theme? The picture here is the unfortunate symbol of many Seders that might be conducted this year… Kosher-style, mehadrim min mehadrim, comfortably staying in personal bondage… Untouched pyramids of slavery coated with matza… or we can really make a difference in our lives…… Frequently we are starting an endeavor and from the start we encounter an obstacle, a strong resistance to our efforts, not even from people but from circumstances around us. Where do Obstacles come from? Are those Obstacles the Sign from Above that we are on a wrong path and should use our resources differently? Or, may be otherwise, those obstacles… Tisha B’Av is the lowest day in the Jewish calendar, however precisely because of its gloomy nature it is the most suitable day to rectify all the falls that happened on that day, in this time of the year. Tefillah is extremely potent spiritual tool, however like every tool it needs proper tuning and usage skills – that’s what we’ll try to cover in this posting. There is a tremendous amount of literature dealing with the topics of prayer and meditation, however there is a lot of ambiguity in the meaning people give to those terms. Here is… The three-week period between Shiva Asar Be’Tamuz and Tisha B’Ab is known as “Ben Ha’mesarim,” during which we observe certain practices to mourn the destruction of the Bet Ha’mikdash. The Arizal (Rabbi Yishak Luria, 1534-1572) wrote that it is proper during this period for “Hasidim Ve’anshe Ma’ase” (particularly pious and devoted people) to recite each day the “Tikun Rahel” section of the “Tikun Hasot” prayer Rosh Hodesh, the New Moon of the New Jewish Month, is a time of renewal, both of body and spirit. The day before is practiced as an ancient tradition as a Yom Kippur Katan –a mini Day of Atonement–where many fast and say prayers of penitence. It is a tremendous opportunity to review the past month’s activities, admit one’s miss-takes, regret doing them, and pledge to try to not repeat them in the upcoming month. We should not require any kind of a “push” to propel us up – the springboard return motion will do it for us. Rosh Hodesh is an active opportunity to use the flow of energy that is descending at that time into the physical world. On Rosh Chodesh the surge of energy that is creating the reality of the upcoming month is available to us – and the way to receive it is to be joyous!

(For those more interested in Portuguese food perhaps skim to the end:) We were only in Portugal (mainly Lisbon) for a few days but we hope to return next year. Our feature photo was taken from the most westerly point of Europe – where many brave Portuguese explorers set out on their explorations of the “new world”. We stayed at the Marriott (I think it was about an hour out of Lisbon) – from the photo it looks like a luxury resort (which it was) but we were disappointed with that stay for a number of reasons: It was one of the last stays on a 9 day Insight Tour around Spain and Portugal – we liked the tour guide and the bus driver but we were very disappointed with the tour (fast pace and in this case an out of the way location) and we haven’t done another one since. We prefer to organise our own independent travel, and in out of the way locations not accessible by train, we either hire a car (often in UK) or do day trips with various small group tour companies (often in Europe). This was a 6 star Marriott and some might be thinking, “why would you not like that?”; trouble was that it was so far away from the cultural attractions as well as the interesting cafes and restaurants in/near Lisbon. We needed to eat at the hotel (you could have been anywhere in the world) except when Insight bused everyone into Lisbon the first night (after a very long day on the road) to make up for the fact that Insight had allowed us to be bumped out of the Marriott Hotel in Lisbon – apparently due to a medical conference…Drs may have been paying more?! The meal that night and in fact most nights with Insight, were often ordinary (lots of buffets) even when we were told that it would be “the best of local food” it was more like conference style food prepared for very large groups. It wasn’t good business practice by either Marriott or Insight so we’ve avoided both ever since. Most of the time we also avoid resorts like this unless they’re located in a great central location (some in Asia are like that – close to a living culture and/or an interesting village or town) plus some offer v good value for money, beautiful pool/s like the one in this photo etc. (I’ll do another post with info on some we’ve enjoyed). Back to Lisbon… Consequently, we really only had time for a 1 day tour around the city of Lisbon, lunch at a small, family run restaurant (we enjoyed that) plus another 1/2 day tour along the coastline (see feature photo). So our plans for next year will be very different and I’ll write about that when we revisit. We cooked a Portuguese recipe tonight so that inspired this post. It was Piri Piri Chicken from our cookbook – Portugal Found…Piri Piri*Star Fish by Tessa Kiros. Here it is: Grilled Piri Piri Chicken 2 x 800 g chicken (we used thighs); 1 lemon; 3-4 garlic cloves (finely chopped); 1 tsp dried oregano; 1 tsp paprika; coarse salt to taste. Basting sauce: 6-8 small dried chillies or 3-4 fresh (the longer ones are milder); 3 garlic cloves (roughly chopped); 70 g butter; 2 tbsp olive oil; 1 tsp fine salt; juice 1 lemon; 1 bay leaf; 2 tbsp ruby port. Optional – 2 tbsp whisky; extra ground Piri Piri. I’ll type up the method tomorrow as it’s late here now…oops tomorrow is here and just realised that I’ve left this cookbook at our holiday house at the coast so I’ll type it up on our return there in a couple of weeks. In the meantime… We do have a simplied version of chicken (from an Australian Women’s Weekly) that we sometimes made on busy working evenings and the occasional hectic day now retired. Here’s the ingredients for that: Portuguese style barbecued chicken Ingredients: 2 tsp sweet paprika; 2 tsp chilli powder; 2 tsp ground cinnamon; 2 tsp garlic powder; 2 tsp onion powder; 2 tsp salt; 8 (1.6 kg chicken thigh cutlets; 1/4 cup olive oil. - Heat the frill of a covered barbecue over a high heat. - Combine spices, powders and salt – coat chicken with this mixture - Drizzle chicken with oil; cook on barbecue grill for about 6 min, turning until all sides have char marks and starting to crisp - Place. All the chicken on one half of the barbecue and turn off the burners underneath the chicken. Leave the burners on the other half at med-high heat ie. no direct heat under the chicken. Lower hood on the barbecue and cook for approx 25 min. Check the chicken is cooked through. If you need to return for more cooking, do so in 5 min intervals. The traditional way to serve this chicken (and the more authentic recipe above) is with green salad, steamed rice and Piri Piri (red chilli) sauce if desired. Another recipe from the same book (P8) by Tessa Kiros we enjoyed: Acorda of Prawns…very flavoursome! An Acorda is a casserole thickened with mashed bread. It is often made with seafood. You can whisk an egg yolk into it at the very last moment, which is how we ate it in Lisbon but when cooked at home we decided to leave the egg out as it was already quite thick. Use white country style bread, such as Portuguese rolls or ciabatta – yesterday’s loaf so that it’s just on the edge of staleness. You can change the flavours by adding other herbs eg. Thyme (easy to grow) or chopped coriander (harder to grow). Ingredients in our recipe (small serve for 4…depending on size of prawns of course) 16 raw prawns; 6 tablespoons olive oil; 2 shallots peeled & halved; 4 cloves of garlic (2 chopped, the others peeled but left whole); 2 bay leaves; handful of parsley stems & leaves; 2 small carrots peeled/halved; 2 small celery stalk; coarse salt; a few+ peppercorns; pinch of ground sweet paprika; 4 tablespoons chopped parsley; 6 tablespoons white wine; 240 g yesterday’s white country bread (crusts removed broken into small pieces); 1 egg yolk (optional). Method: What you find on Net gives a similar method…quite a few steps eg. Firstly making a broth with prawn heads/shells & veg but worth the effort! I topped my dish with extra chopped continental parsley – straight from our garden! Origins of recipe (from… all-about-portugal.com) “The origins of the açorda go back to the times of the Moorish occupation of the Portuguese territory, being an evolution of the Moorish bread soups. There are several types of açorda and I am fan of them all.” Portuguese tarts – image from Kidspot on Net…a simple recipe there using store bought puff pastry. The authentic ones are even more delicious but the traditional recipe is a lot more complicated than this simplified version of course. However, this recipe for kids (older children or younger ones with a lot of guidance) has eggs and milk so it’s a real custard not one of those watery supermarket/factory varieties. Grilled Sardines Portuguese Style is another recipe we regularly do…lots of good oils in sardines and we can get them very fresh at our local market on a Thursday and Friday (more often at the coast of course). Recipe will be typed up another day. I always love to hear about food with a very interesting history. I read about this on Culture Trip App (which I might install) – there’s a list of other foods at that site. This was one food that grabbed my interest, not so much for the recipe (think we’ll just buy our sausages if we want them) but the history behind the food: Alheira de Mirandela – a traditional sausage “The alheira, a type of fowl sausage, is one of the cheapest and most common Portuguese dishes with a fascinating history. When the Jewish population was expelled from Portugal in 1498, many hid in the mountainous region of Trás-os-Montes in the northeast of Portugal, practicing their religion in secret while pretending they had converted to Catholicism. One way to do this was to ostensibly make, display and eat sausages so that everyone would think they were no longer keeping kosher. Nowadays, the dish is available in any corner eatery, but a special venue is Cervejaria Bota Velha, a small restaurant that offers the best petiscos (tapas) in Lisbon. Cervejaria Bota Velha, Rua Domingos Sequeira 34, Lisboa, Portugal, +351 21 390 4447”. “Polvo à Lagareiro” “Portuguese cuisine is renowned for its seafood, often prepared in the simplest of manners; ask for fresh fish directly grilled over a slow fire before being seasoned with lemon and rosemary and you’ll enjoy one of the best meals in the country. Sometimes, however, a little technique is needed. Such is the case with polvo à lagareiro: a whole octopus is first boiled and then roasted in the oven with plenty of garlic and olive oil. Any city in the country will have a restaurant serving this popular dish, but a great choice is A Tasquinha in Nazaré, a beautiful seaside village 75 miles north of Lisbon.” From Culture Trip App

By Daniel Schwammenthal The war between Hamas and Israel has barely ended but the Palestinians are already off to their next battle – this time on the diplomatic front. Having been marginalized by the Gaza conflict, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas remains determined to ask the United Nations General Assembly for non-member observer state status on Thursday. He apparently hopes that this move will make him and the PA “relevant,” as the Jerusalem Post put it Friday, citing diplomatic sources. Now here is a crazy thought: If Mr. Abbas wants to become more relevant again, how about focusing his energy on state-building, fighting corruption at home, and getting back to the negotiating table? Having failed to embrace the offer by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for a comprehensive peace in 2008, he has largely refused to even speak to Mr. Olmert's successor, Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Abbas then has the chutzpah to cite the absence of peace talks, which he is himself boycotting, as justification for going to the UN. Given the traditional voting patterns in the general assembly, the resolution is sure to pass. With the 120-strong non-aligned movement, of which 56 are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Palestinians could easily win a resolution saying black is white. But the real fight is for Western legitimacy. Unfortunately, a number of European Union member states are likely to back the UN move. This would be a mistake. If the long-standing Arab-Israeli conflict should have taught us one thing, it is that the Palestinian interests are not necessarily identical with their leadership’s policies. The UN vote may give the PA a state on paper but it will not change the reality on the ground. The creation of a state can only come through direct negotiations and any UN endorsement based on Palestinian terms will only make it harder to find a mutually acceptable compromise in the future. The UN bid thus threatens to divorce the creation of a Palestinian state from the ultimate goal of achieving peace. The only valid legal framework between Israel and the Palestinians – the 1995 “Oslo Accords” – specifically forbids the sort of unilateral maneuver Mr. Abbas plans. “Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the Permanent Status negotiations,” it reads. By supporting the unilateral UN bid, EU member states would not only assist the Palestinians in violating their contractual obligations, they would also undermine the EU’s own standing, which after all signed the Oslo Accords as a witness. And how will violating past agreements encourage Israelis to trust Palestinians to abide by future agreements? The just-ended Hamas conflict underlined Israel’s dilemma, which in any future peace deal will have to give up territory and thus security. But building trust is not on Mr. Abbas’s agenda. In a New York Times op-ed last year, the PA President outlined his UN move as part of a plan to intensify the conflict, for instance by bringing charges at the International Criminal Court. Such a step and the inevitable Israeli countercharges would make reconciliation so much harder. Speaking of countercharges: Does his UN gambit mean that Mr. Abbas is now taking responsibility for the war crimes and terrorism committed by Hamas? If not, how does he reconcile his statehood bid with the stubborn fact that he lacks control over Gaza, a significant part of that new “observer state.” Control over defined territory remains one of the basic legal criteria for statehood. So why is Mr. Abbas going to New York instead of Jerusalem to negotiate peace? Word here in Brussels is that he doesn’t trust Mr. Netanyahu. But what does the head of a state that does not yet exist have to lose from talking to the only man who can bring it about? Mr. Netanyahu has accepted the two-state solution, said he’s ready for the necessary “painful compromises,” and repeatedly invited Mr. Abbas for direct talks. So why not take him by his word and either negotiate an end to the conflict or, if Mr. Netanyahu is really only bluffing, “expose” him? To add an air of substance for his refusal to negotiate, President Abbas blamed the settlements, demanding a construction halt as a precondition to talks. But when Mr. Netanyahu agreed in 2009 to a 10-months building moratorium, Mr. Abbas still stayed away for nine out of these 10 months, showing up only when no more time was left for meaningful talks. So who’s bluffing? The UN vote is set for November 29th, the day of the 1947 UN Resolution that called for the creation of a Palestinian and a Jewish state. Mr. Abbas probably thinks the date’s symbolism will help his cause. It shouldn’t. The reason Palestine doesn’t exist yet is that unlike the Jewish leadership at the time, the Palestinians and their Arab brethren rejected the partition plan before attacking the newly born Israel. The Palestinians are about to compound their 1947 UN blunder with yet another misstep at the world body. No EU country should be complicit in this mistake. Daniel Schwammenthal is Director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute in Brussels

High traffic may take this site down on occasion. Bookmark http://goodnewsprophecy.org for alternate access January 24, 2012 According to Pew poll figures, 87% of all Americans are Christian. Despite this overwhelming majority, Americans have watched the celebration of Easter virtually disappear from the prominence it enjoyed in our culture only 40 years ago; we have stood by and allowed the celebration of Christmas be re-labeled "holiday", and quietly tolerated the spreading of the Good News of Christ to be quelled to a whisper, now barely audible in the cacophany of secularism as it has been driven inexorably out of the public commons. Instead of the the awe and respect the words "Jesus" "Christ" and "God" had in our society so recently, we have watched them labeled with false charges of bigotry, wrongness and ignorance and removed physically and spiritually from our public schools and lands. What we have watched, instead of the spread of God's word, is the mantra of "separation of state from Jesus Christ" become the rallying call of secular America. What happened to Pew's 87% during all this expulsion of the Christian message from America's heartland and shores? Where has courage fled to? The simple fact is, the term "secular Christian" is a civil war. It is the lukewarm point where hot and cold meet, i.e., it is Laodicea (Rv. 3:15-16). The two terms are so contrary to one another that their union is an impossibility.. While paying lip-service to the worship of Christ, it is not the figure in the scriptures they follow. Instead of the Bible, they wave the constitution around and bow to the god of finance. It is not Peter and Paul they study, but Thomas Jefferson and Warren Buffett. The lamps on the lampstand, one by one, are being snuffed out. "If you want to worship Jesus", they say, "go bury yourself in your church and do it there where you won't be out bothering anyone". Contrast that with Jesus' orders to all of His disciples: "Your duty is to go out and spread the Good News of the kingdom of God" 'Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned." (Luke.9:60; Mark 16:15-16) That is a call to public proclamation, something Billy Graham understood. Secular Christians not only violate this precept, they firmly dictate against it. Jesus said, "He who does not gather with me, scatters." (Mat.12:30) What does Jesus say about those who command the direct violation of God's orders? Who tell them, "Don't do what God ordered you to do, do the opposite instead." That, according to Jesus, is spiritual suicide. "Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin: and no town or no household divided against itself can stand." (Mat.12:25) And it isn't just the preaching of the word that is being quieted, it is the living of it as well. Secular Christian America has broken with righteousness. The highest figures in our political process are out taking bows for their addiction to greed and sin. They revel in it openly and with great pride. "Yes, in wickedness they go to any lengths. They have no respect...for orphans' rights, to support them; they do not uphold the cause of the poor. And must I not punish them for such things - it is God who speaks - or from such a nation exact my vengeance?" (Jer.5:26-31) It is against the backdrop of this immoral gloom that Christian America is watching its Son set. Christmas and Parousia The early Christians had one prophetic word relating to the end of the world. It stood for both the appearance of the Rebel and for 'the Second Coming' of Christ. That word was 'Parousia'. The bi-polar circumstances inherent in this single definition points to the close relationship between these two appearances the satanic "Daystar" figure who claims to be god, but brings the Tribulation. Following close behind him will be the Return of Jesus Christ. There is a cosmic representation of these two figures. Venus in the winter sky rises in the east just before the dawn at the darkest point of the night. Bright and spectacular, he looks like the light, but is not. Close behind is the rising of the sun. There is a certain day set aside in the Christian calendar for the appearance in the world of a divine Being. That day is January 6th, Epiphany-the word itself meaning 'appearance' or 'manifestation'. In the western church epiphany represents the day Jesus Christ was made manifest to the people of the world, i.e., the day the 3 Wise Men visited Him as He lay in the manger at Bethlehem. In the Eastern Orthodox church Epiphany represents the day of Christ's birth (the eastern church does not recognize the western Christmas). Ths same date also represents to them the date of Jesus' baptism by John at the river Jordan (thought by eastern Christians to have occured 30 years to the day after His birth). In its ultimate fulfillment, however, the word and the date point to the Parousia the word with the double meaning. Whether the Rebel, as the impersonation of divinity, or Jesus, returning as the true Son of God will make their appearance in the view of the world on this specific date (Epiphany) cannot be said for certain, but scripture is clear that the whole Christmas season has deep symbolic ties to the pivotal events of the last days. Because the calendar governing Christ's return has been divinely altered, it is not possible to link His Second Coming with this date (or any other date, for that matter), but the Rebel's appearance seems to be another matter. Since Epiphany follows by only 12-22 days the event of the abomination of the sacrifice (see below), the 'son of perdition' will likely make himself manifest to the world very near to this date (January 6), if not coincident with it. Following the bishop's murder the identity of the beast will be clear to everyone who understands the prophecy. The assassination itself will permit the Rebel to openly manifest himself before the world, and his coronation will confirm it in terms which are absolute. For this reason, in the aftermath of this devastating martyrdom, the final events of the End will cascade upon each other, one after another, each precipitated by the other in rapid succession. The persecution of the Jews by Antiochus lasted a little over 3 years-in fact, the Jewish sanctuary itself lay desolate almost 3 years to the day. The prophecies of Daniel indicate that the persecutions of the Rebel will follow a similar pattern. (Dn. 12:11). The "Desolating sacrifice" was instituted on the 15th day of Chislev (1 Macc.1:54). Thus the Jewish altar was desecrated and the Temple profaned. Chislev is Hebrew month on the lunar calendar which correlates with the Christian month of December on the solar calendar.. Three years later, on the 25th of Chislev, the Temple was purified again by Judas Maccabees who removed the desolating object that had profaned it (1 Macc.4:52), an event commemorated ever after by the Jewish people in the celebration known as Hannukah. Ten days in December separate these two events, the Temple profaned and the Temple purified. This is the same number of days that often separate Hannukah from Christmas. The coincidence in these two dates may be portents of the future. The Rebel's assassination of the Prince of the Covenant (Christianity's holy Bishop) will be quickly followed by the rout of the sanctuary and the abolition of the Perpetual Sacrifice (the Eucharist). That is the moment when Jesus said that everyone in Judea should run for their lives by escaping to the mountains. (Mat. 24:15-16). The assassination of the Christian bishop will launch the harshest events of the Tribulation. According to the Apostle Paul (2 Thess 2:7), God has decreed that for as long as that Bishop (the one who will later be assassinated) remains in place overseeing the perpetuation of the Last Supper, the rebellion will be kept at bay. But when he is removed, the whole Church will collapse Catholic, Protestant, Greek-all of it. "That day-it is the Lord God who speaks-the peg driven into a firm place will give way. It will be torn out and will fall. And the whole load hanging on it will be shattered, for God has spoken." (Is. 22:25). With the Bishop's death the signal will be clear the 'Abomination of Desolation' is at hand the Rebel is on his way to the sanctuary. Tearing down the communion sacrifice and erecting iniquity in its place, the beast "will enthrone himself in God's sanctuary and claim that he is god" (2 Thess 2:4), thus making inevitable the world's end. (Is.24:5-6). Daniel used the disastrous abomination in the sanctuary as the measuring point for his 1290 days of Christian persecution, and the 1335 days. The latter illustrating a 45-day period of world darkness and disaster beginning with the Rebel's death, his army's annihilation by God, and Michael's journey to Jerusalem. (Dn.12:11-12). For this reason, we must see the assassination of the 'anointed one' (Dn 9:26) and the desecration of the sacrifice he ruled, as the 'Pearl Harbor' of the second war of the Apocalypse-the definitive signal that the final war against Christ (Rv. 20:7-9) has been officially launched by the people of the world. (Dn. 12:11). Christmaas, Hannukah and the Solar Calendar In the Old Testament, the Mosaic calendar measures the flow of time by the cycles of the moon. The holy days and festivals in the OT are all based on a 28-day lunar cycle. The Christian calendar, on the other hand, is based on the cycles of the sun. Consequently, the Hebrew holy days fall near the solar days they portend, but usually not on them, instead, scattered closely around in a non-uniform manner. Christianity has structured itself on the solar calendar not simply because we are held captive in Babylon (a land that measures time by the cycles of the sun), but because Jesus stands for many cosmic things the sun represents as far as biological life on our planet is concerned. The sun gives off all the energy that powers natural life here. The moon does not. That is because its light is not its own, but only a reflection of the sun. Moses, who gave a reflection of the Law, is like the moon in that respect. What he saw on Mount Sinai was a reflection of God's Law, and the life-giving processes which that Law forcast, but could not provide. Jesus, on the other hand, who actually came down from heaven and brought with Him the words that impart the energy of eternal life, functions like the sun. The Light of Jesus powers life itself. But in His case, true life. Eternal life. This is one of the primary symbolisms in scripture. We see it repeated, not just in the two books of the Bible, but in the immediate structure of the cosmos itself. It is a fundamental truth. The lunar and solar days correspond to one another, but not exactly. The moon dates swing around the solar dates like a floppy appendage. While they remain close, the two dates unite only infrequently. A good example of this is Christmas. The Hebrew holy day that defines and predicts Christmas day falls in winter on the Jewish calendar date, Kislev 25. The Christian fulfillment of this Hebrew holy day is December 25. Both dates are deep in winter, close in time, and every once in awhile the two fall on the very same day. The same is true of the orbit of the Hebrew Passover around Easter, the orbit of the Hebrew Feast of Weeks around Pentecost, and so on. The Jewish holy day that corresponds to Christmas is Hannukah which is the Jewish Festival of Lights which celebrates the purification of the holy altar in the Temple in Jerusalem by Judas Maccabees on the 25th day of Chislev (Kislev) in the Hebrew calendar. The altar needed to be purified because it had been desecrated. While this sacrilige corresponds to a specific prophecy by Daniel concerning a time very close to the end of the world, the dimensions of the stain and cleansing it embodies are far broader. Whereas Judas Maccabees purified a building and its altar, Jesus stands for the purification of people themselves. Christ's purifcation cleansed us of the desecration of our souls by Satan erasing from us the stain of "original sin". Jesus' birth on earth signals the moment in time for this "cleansing" process to begin. Since it is Christ's sacrifice that enables this divine cleansing to occur, everything centers on Jesus. Hannukah relates to Christ. His sacrifice relates to the Temple Peter said that we (those who take refuge in Christ) are the living stones that make up God's true Temple. Moreover, the Holy of Holies (the inner sanctuary of God's Temple) lies inside each one of us in our souls. And it is this altar within us that Jesus purified. He did not purify the earth or any buildings, just the souls of those who choose to follow Him to eternal life. It is a purifcation that comes with baptism and it is eternal if we do not abandon Christ. The Holy Spirit's intent in special days and their cosmic relationships is to inform. To give answers to the mysteries that surround God and His relationship with His people. The calendar and its days bring us back, sequentially, to these mysteries to remind us of important meanings lest they be forgotten with age. For the first 15 centuries of church history there were no printing presses and few books. Anything written had to be done by hand. Consequently, the common people were mostly unlearned they could not read or write. Symbols, paintings, icons, statues and the like were used as reminders of the most meaningful parts of the Bible's stories and content. Remember, the scripture tells us that the common people were the ones Jesus had particular concern for. His words had to reach them, the common folk, foremost and above all. the Church recognized early on that in Jesus Christ there was a birthday of uncommon significance. God had become man for the sake of our salvation from death. The desire to celebrate this date helped power the day chosen as the date of His birth. But above that, the alignment of the proper Hebrew festival that foreshadowed it was essential to this choice as well. In Christian writings Christmas services were being celebrated on December 25th in the Church by the early 300's, just as the people of God were coming out of the catacombs at the dawn of the Christian Era. Since Jesus told His Apostles that what they bind on earth will be bound in heaven, our date for Christmas and its correlation to the birth of Jesus will never change. It has been bound. But the elements surrounding it are interesting and worth exploring. "Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared, and began to write on the plaster of the palace wall...Mene, Mene, Tekel and Parsin" (Daniel 5:5; 25) This is the famous "handwriting on the wall" of Babylon written by the fingers of God that predicted the collapse of Babylon. It begins with the sudden death of its ruler followed by the empire itself as it is handed over for destruction to the Persians. All this by divine intent. It signals the West collapsing internally due to the wickedness of its people and then being conquered by a powerful eastern force as God begins His final Judgment on earth. This prophecy leads the Book of Daniel into a detailed analysis of that cataclysmic circumstance. The devastation starts with two Gulf wars pitting the East against the West (Dn.8::5+). Although the West is successful in both, winning apparent victories each time, the turbulent aftermath leads to a disintegration of the unity and economies of Babylon's far-flung kingdoms coupled with Isaiah's prophecy of a civil war that tears the empire apart and leaves it impotent in the face of eastern aggression. The western empire ends up broken into four parts (Dn.8:8). From that point, Daniel continues with a detailed blow by blow description of western world decimation at the hands of the eastern forces in a warfare that comes in two parts, the second featuring the Bible's "Beast". This, then is the classic example of all the "east wind" prophecies that fill the pages of Old Testament scripture. In Daniel's case, the prophetic metaphore signals the final battles and circumstances of the end times. It is specific to the last days when the world rejects Jesus and turns its back on its Christian heritage, embracing instead, secular paganism and malignantly deviant behaviors in a headlong rush to hedonism as the populations of the earth stampede into Satan's temple of riches. Here, love in most people grows cold. Compassion for others disappears as the quest for money becomes rapacious and obsessive blinding everyone it touches to reality or logic, and especially, to God and His Son Jesus. The words of God's handwriting to Babylon tell the story: "The meaning of the words is this: Mene: God has measured your sovereignty and put an end to it; Tekel: you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; Parsin: your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians" (Dan.5:26-28). In other words, God has pulled the plug. He has given us to the Persians actually ordained the hand over; According to Daniel, it is God's will. Human lawlessness and hatred has brought the end of the world very close at hand. There is still time to repent, but no time left to recover. God's 'tractor beam' has been activated. The world is being ratcheted toward an inexorable conclusion. Daniel's word "Parsin" in the handwriting points to a house divided. Daniel's prophecy shows that the unity of the western world community will suddenly break apart and separate, and that fractured alienation will allow it's kingdoms to fall into the hands of the East (the Medes and the Persians). A house divided cannot stand. This has certainly happened with respect to Christ. The nations of the Eastern Hemisphere have almost all adopted secular governments while discarding previous regimes structured in God. The entire religious character of the world has been thrown upside down over the last 100 years. The government of United States was the last of the major world nations to officially abandon Christ. This happened in a series of Supreme Court decisions from 1963 onward, and continuring to the present day. It could be argued that the United States was founded a secular nation outside of Christ in the first place. But an immediate compromise to that isolationist position allowed the country to procede as if it were guided by God in every way. That compromise position was found to be unconstitutional by the American Supreme Court and, in 1963, effectively denounced and abandoned. God was thrown out of government once and for all. Every state was forced to comply. As a result, every cross, every creche, every religious display and garland, every Christmas pageant and carol, every religious text and every mention of God or Christ in the public arena has been yanked from its place and destroyed. The order has been uncompromising. This has certainly been one of the major steps in the world's abandonment of God, but Daniel's prophecy of division seems based more on political grounds than on religious differences or persecutions. In that respect it is easy to see hatreds building everywhere these days. A political polarity of militant proportions has already gripped America, and the hostilities have put us at odds with some of our closest allies across the world. We are currently fighting 3 wars at the same time against various terrorist forces across the Middle East. These are forces that all claim to be Muslim in nature. Their rhetoric and the structure itself seem to be defining the architecture of the age in terms that are in agreement with Daniel's prophecies. The civil wars breaking out across the Middle East are quickly changing that political landscape and redefining the boundaries of past political affiliations. It is too soon to see if these will follow along Daniel's lines as well, but the possibility remains very strong that they will. When the dust clears we should be able to more clearly see the lines that distinguish the king of the north from the king of the south, the last two political alliances this earth will ever know. Meanwhile, the United States is in economic free-fall, a situation made all the worse by fierce internal wrangling over budgetary measures that could halt its plunge into financial catastrophe. The intractable nature of the disagreement seems to bode terribly for an adequate solution. And so the civil war grows deeper and wider, and the American government more feeble in its extended relationships. The Unitied States as the wall of Babylon (the defender of all western nations and territories) has been greatly impaired by current circumstances and the question grows, where do we go from here? Does the wall simply collapse under Persian assault as Daniel has predicted, or is that message for another time? It is not up to us to supply an answer. The answer has to come from God. Has He really pulled the plug, or is this all just an unbelievable coincidence of prophecy meeting current events in a scenario positioned to suddenly arc away and stand only as a warning for some future time when it will all be repeated again? That sounds less likely every day, but it may still be possible. Remember, the pivotal prophecy remains unfufilled. Scripture tells us that the proof of all the prophecies is Jeremiah 44:29-30. As long as that prophecy continues in its current uncompleted state, the severest elements of the end described by scripture will remain held back and the world will be spared the far greater suffering which that deeper wrath portends. The point is to repent now and follow Jesus. Go to church today, and there offer your life to God in Christ. Nothing the future has to offer can touch a person who has complied with that action. "...As we see it, a man is justified by faith, and not by doing something the Law tells him to do." (Romans 3:28) This prophecy applies only to those who have taken refuge in Christ. Jesus died on the cross to give us this amazing gift eternal life According to Zechariah, one-third of the population will seek baptism in His name (Zech.13:7-9). The other 2/3rds (of the people) will remain outside this offer because they decline for one reason or another to take advantage of His sacrifice. These remain separated from reconciliation through faith. Christ's offer must be accepted to be valid. God allowed Moses to state the Law. Moses then aimed it specifically to the 12 tribes of Israel and its converts. All other people were left out (those they specified as pagans and Gentiles for instance). And not only left out, but excluded from God's realm. This changed when Jesus brought the Father's true Law down from heaven. He ordered it given to the entire population of the earth. Jesus said God had no favorites and that anyone who does His will shall be open to the entire mercies and rewards of heaven. Yet He warned that not everyone who tries to enter His kingdom will be saved: "It is not those who say 'Lord, Lord' who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven." (Mat. 7:21). This is not a contradiction of faith but a definition of it. Jesus' Gospel and faith are one and the same. Our trial by fire is our struggle to live by its principles during our sojurn on earth. Jesus did not leave us alone. During this time of trial we have access to God's fountain of forgiveness perpetually flowing from the cross cleansing us in divine mercy and compassion, the extent of which He said, is dependent on the forgiveness we offer to others. (Mat.7:1-5): "Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap; because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back." (Luke 6:35-38) "You are from below; I am from above. you are of this world; I am not of this world. I have told you already: You will die in your sins. Yes, if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." (John 8:23-24) The word of God has only one source on earth: Jesus Christ. No other person, alive or dead, has ever gone up to heaven to hear it and no one has ever come down from heaven with it, except Jesus. "No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven..." (John 3:13). "My teaching is not from myself: it comes from the one who sent me..." (John 7:16) God authorized Moses to state the Law in His name, and the prophets to speak in His name. Yet neither spoke the actual word of God. None of them had ever been in heaven to hear it. In all cases, their words were reflections of God man-made impressions of God. There was no power in them to give eternal life. In Jesus' case, it was much different. "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you know me, you know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him." (John 14:6-7). "I tell you solemnly, whoever listens to my words, and believes in the one who sent me, has eternal life; without being brought to judgement he has passed from death to life." (John 5:24) "For the Father, who is the source of life, has made the Son the source of life; and because he is the son of Man, has appointed him supreme judge." (John 5:26-27) An impression is like a painting. In the Louvre one might see a painting by Monet of a lily pond. Yet, for all its beauty it is only canvas and paint, not the real lily pond. This is like Moses and the prophets, we see their reflections on God man-made impressions. Jesus, on the other hand, is like the real lily pond itself. Vastly different, because in the case of Christ, His words are eternal. They will never pass away. While God authorized Moses and the prophets to speak in His name, He did so with so with specific reservations. God put His seal on their words but only for a time. This seal was why Jesus had to fulfill their writings. He purposely made their words come true. This happened because of the theophany at Sinai, the frightening event that occurred at the time of Moses when God was coming down to give the Israelites His Law in person. As He descended the mountain, violent earthquakes began shaking the ground, the mountain caught fire and was engulfed in great dark clouds out of which lightning flashed and booming thunder cascaded. (Ex.19:1-19; 20:18-19). Terrified by the sight and fearing many of them would die, the Isrealites begged Moses to have God stop His approach and, instead, to send an intermediary in His place. Moses went up the mountain toward God and voiced the people's concern. God agreed to the request and it is this agreement that structured the Messiah into the Hebrew religion.(Dt.18:15-19). From that moment on, the Hebrew religion revolved soley around the coming Messiah who would bring God's true Law. In the meantime, God authorized Moses to bind on the people of Israel a temporary Law (a Guardian Covenant) to keep them righteous until the Messiah appeared with the words of the True Father. The entire Hebrew religion is built on this expectation. (Is.9:5-7; Micah 5:2-3). In keeping the Law that Moses decreed, Jesus fulfilled it and took control of it. In that position of control, He went to the cross with all the sins of mankind on his shouilders, paying in full every iota of the Law's demands for sins restitution. As master of the Law, He paid its penalty in our names. (Is.53:4-6). All who accept God's sacrifice are instantly freed from the Law's sentence of death. This new mark of innocence (baptism in His name) frees us to follow Him out of the prison, to walk in His footsteps to eternal life. Staying put is not an option. Leaving is an emperative because this world, this prison, this entire universe, is passing away violently and eternally. Much faster than most of us think. And anyone left behind in it will suffer it's annhilation, baptised or not (Is.52:11-12; Jer.51:50) To leave, we must walk in Christ's footsteps of righteousness. Only in that way can we escape the danger. Not only can we see the relationship between Moses and Jesus in the paintings in a museum, we can see the same kind of relationship in the celestial metaphore of sun and moon in the sky above our heads. In the moon, we see reflected light. there is no life in the moon's reflected light. Nothing grows by the energy it emits. It's only light is a reflection of the sun. The sun is the moon's polar opposite. The sun is the source of all life on earth. It's energy to give life is enormous. Nothing on earth has living existance except by the energy given off by the sun. Yet for all its power to give life and sustain it on earth, the sun cannot impart ETERNAL life. The life it inspires lives only for a short time, then dies. It is not the same with the Son of God. The life of the spirit is in Him. He alone can give eternal life to mankind. The life He gives never dies. It is raised up in His kingdom in a body that is everlasting. This He has promised, in a promise He will keep in the same way He kept the Law He authorized in Moses. In this, God showed He keeps scripture. That is how we know He will keep the words He Himself spoke even more than He did those of Moses and the prophets. If He went to all this trouble to keep the laws that are passing away, how much more effort will He put into keeping the words He spoke, and those bound by the Apostles in His name by the power of the Holy Spirit? "I tell you most solemnly, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread; for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that a man may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever." (John 6:32-51). "He who is born of the earth is earthly himself and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven bears witness to the things he has seen and heard, even if his testimony is not accepted...he whom God has sent speaks God's own words: God gives him the Spirit without reserve. The Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything to him." (John 3:29-35). Jesus told His Apostles: "what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven". (Mat 18:18). (John 20:23) In Acts 15, the Apostles met in the First Jerusalem Council and put those words into action. They separated Christianity from virtually all of the guardian laws, from almost all of the Laws of the Torah. This proved the True Father was at hand. The judge of the world had taken His seat. "Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits. Can people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, a sound tree produces good fruit but a rotten tree bad fruit. A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruits. (Mat.7:15-20). Glenn Beck, a soothsayer on Fox News uses graphs and prophetic quotations from scripture to give the air of credibility to the things he warns about. He retails visions of his own, not what comes from the mouth of the Lord. Yet he advertises himself as a spokesman for Christ. The fruits he offers are calls to hatred. Using fear, he promotes the hording of gold and food. His speech contains no calls to feed and clothe the poor or to show love and compassion for neighbor or enemy. Just the opposite. He sees half the population of the United States as dangerous strangers, dupes of foreign consipiracies. People to be feared and hated. The humanity of the other nations he sees as even more venal. It is not peace that he preaches. His is a call to arms. "Take care not to be deceived,' Jesus said 'because many will come using my name and saying "I am he" and, "the time is near at hand". Refuse to join them. And when you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened for this is something that must happen but the end is not so soon.' (Lk 21:8-11) "Even from your own ranks there will be men coming forward with a travesty of the truth on their lips to induce the disciples to follow them...so be on your guard..." (Acts.20:30). "Yes, there are wicked men among my people who spread their nets; like fowlers they set snares, but it is men they catch. Like a cage full of birds so are their houses full of loot; they have grown rich and powerful because of it, fat and sleek. (Jer.5:26) Yes, in wickedness they go to any lengths, they have no respect for rights, for orphans' rights, to support them; they do not uphold the cause of the poor. Must I not punish them for such things - it is God who speaks - or from such a nation exact my vengeance? (Jer.5:28) Monstrous, horrible things are happening in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, the priests teach whatever they please. And my people love it! But when the end comes, what will you do?" (Jer.5:26-31). "I have not sent those prophets, yet they are running; I have not spoken to them, yet they are prophesying. Have they been present at my council? If so, let them proclaim my words to my people and turn them from their evil way and from the wickedness of their deeds." (Jer. 23:21-22). The fruits of those who promote God are filled with kindness, compassion, love and peace. "Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me it is the Lord God who speaks to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and break every shackle, to share your bread with the hungry, and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe the man you see to be naked and not turn from your own kin? then will your light shine like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over. (Is.58:6-8) Your integrity will go before you and the glory of the Lord behind you. Cry, and the Lord will answer; call and he will say, 'I am here', If you do away with the stranglehold, the clenched fist, the wicked word, if you give your bread to the hungry, and relief to the oppressed, your light will rise in the darkness, and your shadows become like noon. The Lord will always guide you, giving you relief in desert places. (Is.58:8-11). Beck's message is for this world, it is not from God, and it is not about God. It does not lead to God. Those who wish to escape what is coming by aligning themselves with Jesus Christ must take a different path entirely. The prophecies of scripture lead not to fear and hate, but to love, compassion for one another, integrity and humility. And through those, into eternal life. Jesus Christ, the light of the nations, has made it so. "I will stir up the Egyptians against each other and they shall fight every man against his brother, friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom." (Is.19:2). The significance of Egypt in end-time prophecy is enormous! As we watch the riots rage in Egypt this week, Isaiah's forecast above seems to have leaped across 2700 years into our own time as if it were meant for this very occasion. Perhaps it was. But there are elements to this prophecy that are too broad in their scope to lay at the feet of a unitary nation. "Kingdom against kingdom" for instance, implies an empire of many nations, all of them equally inflammable, and all standing at the precipice of this rage. With political riots erupting not only in Egypt, but across Tunisia, Yeman, and still simmering just below the surface in Iran, it is worth considering whether Isaiah's words foreshadow a Muslim uprising sweeping across the entire Middle East, and raising up to power throughout this region militant fundamentalist factions bent on Jihad, not peace. Riots rarely bring order. Usually they are de stabilizing. We already know from scripture that such warmongering powers are coming. We know also that when they do, they will be ushered in with a loud roaring across the nations, people driven to a frenzy to throw off their nation's ties to western civilization and the previous civic order. In other words, populist riots and pillaging burning cars and buildings and screams demanding their governments and others around them be toppled and replaced. The stability of nations is the underpinning of the stability of civiliztion itself. The Bible tells us that it is the fracturing of this stability that will usher in the Madman and the time of tribulation. Are today's riots a key part of that strategic rage of the nations so widely predicted in the pages of scripture? What we are seeing in Egypt may stretch beyond even the boundaries of the Muslim world. It may be the start of a global rampage across the entire world populace, inflaming the whole earth with the very rage that scripture predicts will be a crucial symptom of the last days. A rage to which the United States is not immune. And that may be why the Spirit of God prompted Isaiah to write the verse as he did. "I will stir up the Egyptians against each other and they shall fight every man against his brother, friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom." (Is.19:2). "Why this uproar among the nations? Why this impotent muttering of pagans kings on earth rising in revolt, princes plotting against the Lord and his anointnd, 'Now let us break their feters! Now let us throw off their yoke!" (Ps. 2:1-3) "I mean to cause many nations to surge against you like the sea and its waves." (Ez.26:3). "Vast hordes thundering, with thunder like thundering seas, the roaring of nations roaring like the roar of mighty waters. He rebukes them and far away they flee, driven off like chaff on the mountains before the wind, like an eddy of dust before the storm. At evening all was terror; before morning comes they are no more." (Is.17:12-14). The raging seas are the people rioting: That is what almost all Bible scholars say. "The angel continued, 'The waters you saw, beside which the prostitute was sitting, are all the peoples, the populations, the nations and the languages." (Rev.17:15). "Listen. An uproar from the city! A voice from the Temple! The voice of God bringing retribution on his enemies." (Is.66:6). "The nations have sunk into a pit of their own making. They are caught by the feet in the snare they themselves set. God has given judgment, He has trapped the wicked in the work of their own hands." (Ps. 9:15). "The sea will rise over Babylon, she will sink under its roaring waves." (Jer.51:42). Can the riots of Egypt by a portent of what is about to happen here and to western civilization? There is growing reason to accept the western world, especially the United States, metaphorically as the "Egypt" of end-time prophecy. I have documented this many times on these web pages. Three of the clearest examples come from the book of Jeremiah, and involve the relationship between the new state of Israel and our own nation. I will go into this again more fully below. But first, as the United States continues to descend into a deepening political and social hatred that has lately divided the country into polar opposites, Isaiah's prophecy above seems also to link our nation with the Egypt metaphore in terms of populist upheaval. We have experienced one such war already, arguably the bloodiest conflict of its nature ever fought. Another civil war seems unthinkable, but the current tone of the country implies violent conflict. We find ourselves today embroiled in a second round of interneccine strife with sufficient imbedded vitriole that it may be speeding that prophecy toward an even greater relevance. The hot-tempered display of guns and fanatical speech underscore an antipathy and bigotry in America not seen since the 1860's. The malevolence surrounding us today highlights a pervasive political loathing that not only blankets the American landscape, but which has filtered itself into the marbled halls of our federal , state and local governments. Today almost a third of the nation's people are at war with the United States government. They say they are arming themselves for the day of battle (against it). They want our country torn down to the roots and demolished. And from the ruins, their own monetary utopia contructed. Engineered by fear and the love of money, a politics of oligarchy has absorbed those who govern the land. In its wake, the seats of congress are falling like dominoes to those who pander to the bullies of finance and industry and to their demands that the welfare of the populace and the good of the country be thrown under the bus of greed. As the calls to incitement grow more shrill and the swagger of militia and display of weapons and ammunition grow more bold, a terrified media ponders where it will all lead . They are watchdogs silenced by fear. Instead of barking a loud alert as they should, many quietly lead the robbers to the silver. In 1865 a similar polarity ended at Appomatox. This fact shows that the prophecy of Isaiah has possible credence either way. It may already have come true. Or it may be heading for a climactic reprise. The current fracture lines are little different from the original. End-time prophecies linking the Unted States of the last two centuries to the "Egypt" metaphore are much too strong to be ignored or simply waved away. Today's Israeli state was born in 1948, when it was allowed to come into existance by a United Nations in shock over the atrocities of Hitler's holocaust a genocide aimed at the global extermination of the Jewish people. This U.N. edict seemed to many to finally bring to conclusion the 2000-year Diaspora that had kept the Jews from the lands of their forefathers since losing them to the Roman Empire in the first century A.D. A closer inspection of prophecy, however, contradicts that interpretation. The Book of Chronicles, as well as the books of Daniel, Isaiah, Revelation, and others indicate clearly that the Diaspora cannot end until a Prince of Persia appears and issues a decree to that end. This has not yet happened. Modern Persia, in fact, voted against the formation of the recent Jewish state. Instead, we must look to another prophecy one specific to the return, yet involving Babylon, not Persia (because the U.N. is a product of Babylon). There is only one, and it is dynamically cataloged in the Book of Jeremiah. It is specific to the king of Babylon, and it is enormous in size, not simply mentioned in passing. It is several pages of scripture long from Jeremiah chapter 42 through chapter 46. Jeremiah shows an amendment to the exile brokered by himself not only with God's approval, but with His active involvement, between the king of Babylon and a group of Jewish army leaders. This produced a returned Jewish nation far in advance of the official return, born on "Babylonian" terms, not "Persian" terms. Not only that, it mimics the 1948 return in a number of very specific and astonishing ways. Scripture clearly shows Rome to be the successor to the myriad prophecies of Babylon scattered throughout its pages. The Diaspora was an exile to Rometo the western world. Thus Rome's prophetic name, "Babylon". Hence, the prophecy of Micah: "Writhe, cry out daughter of Zion, for now you have to leave the city and live in the open country. To Babylon you must go and there you will be rescued; There God will ransom you out of the power of your enemies." (Micah 4:10). The Diaspora is a captivity of the two Houses of Israel, not just the Jews. It is a captivity that stretches across the entire world (Babylon), and it prevents both Houses of Israel from nationalizing the lands of Palestine in their own names. As long as the leading Church in Christendom, the Vatican, continues held in Rome (the city of its captivity) that city and all of its tributaries and offsprng (out of which has been created all of western civilization, all of its societies and culture) will remain the figurehead of the Babylonian metaphore. Any action instituted outside of Persia (metaphore for the East) has to be seen as Babylonian in origin. Micah's prophecy shows that the Diaspora was an act of God to this end. Jeremiah and God were closely involved in the negotiatiions of that early return. So was the King of Babylon (or in the modern case, a round table of kings called the United Nations). Persia disagreed with the 1948 decision, but a large majority of the kings of the nations of Babylon agreed to allow it to go forward and so the motion passed. A limited group of Jews were authorized to return to the land of Palestine and re-format there a Jewish state. The circumstance and prophecy surrounding this early return stand in scripture as a testament for the future. That return and the 1948 return are two parts of the same formula. Jeremiah's words and restrictions apply to both equally one was made to warn the other. God does nothing without such warning (Amos 3:6-7). Very specific rules (legally structured in scripture by Jeremiah through God's direction) were issued that governed the success or failure of this early return. In Jeremiah's words, those allowed to return were forbidden to make a military pact with "Egypt" and they were forbidden from forming settlements outside the strict boundaries of the lands assigned to them by the King of Babylon. The new state of Israel quickly allied itself to the military power of the United States, violating the first tenenant almost immediately. In its violation of the second edict, not the Egypt of prophecy, but the actual state of Egypt was involved. This made the prophecy true not just in metaphore, but in real name as well. (Just as the riots today seem to have done with respect to a global populist violence that scripture says will usher in the retribution) The first Jewish settlements outside the UN limits (their construction overseen by Ariel Sharon) were in Egypt's Sinai peninsula. Similar settlements were constructed all through the Arab lands conquered by the Israeli army, all of them lands outside the boundaries of the United Nation edict. Prophecy tells us that the modern return was for Israel's return to God to attempt to address the reasons for the Diaspora itself not to build a typical world state with armies and worldly goals. Instead, for the most part, God has been left out of the equation of this return. So have Jeremiah's prophecies. In Jeremiah's day, this apostasy was met by catastrophe. The entire return was violently cancelled. In that former case, the refusal by the army leaders of his time to meet God's terms ended in disaster. The whole effort collapsed. All that was left of that Jewish state were a few refugees. The exiles still held captive in Babylon lost their opportunity of return and were forced to wait for the Prince of Persia to arrive and issue his own decree of return. His name was Cyrus. Jeremiah's prophecy argues that a similar fate lies ahead. The Egypt Israel depends on for military support will be drawn, according to Jeremiah, in full battle gear to the Euphrates river where it will establish outposts to block the armies of the East an attempt to protect Israel and the western world from attack. This will be in vain. "Yes, the Lord God has a sacrifice to make in the north country, by the river Euphrates. Go up to Gilead in search of balm, virgin daughter of Egypt! You multiply remedies in vain, nothing can cure you. The nations have heard of your shame, the dirge raised for you fills the earth; for warrior has stumbled against warrior, and both have fallen." (Jer. 46:10-12). Since it is American troops that now stand guard at the Euphrates, this deployment must be seen as the third clearest sign of the United States as the metaphoric "Egypt" of these apocalyptic prophecies. If the United States succumbs to its own internal rancor or descends into outright civil war, it will be a fourth sign that we are mimicking Egypt in metaphore. The internal strife will so weaken our ability to oversee world affairs that it will insure the impotence that prophecy suggests is necessary to remove our nation from its current world role as policeman and guardian of global peace. The wall of Babylon is destined to fall, and when it does, nothing will be left to stand in the way of a massive gathering of eastern warmongers determined to destroy Israel once and for all. This is not a guess. This is the stumble predicted in scripture that allows the East to overwhelm the nations, so that by the time our nation recovers, the die will have been cast. Then all that will stand in the way of the final battle will be the ships of Kittim and it's threat of hydrogen bombs. And on the other side, a Madman . The Euphrates will be crossed. Jerusalem will be occupied by the eastern forces. The settlements and their owners will come to the fate Jeremiah predicts for them. And then, smothered in warfare and violence, as East battles West and good is assaulted by evil, the world will await the appearance of the Prince of Persia. It will be the world that will await this time, because there are two Houses of Isreal, not just one. The end of the Diaspora will involve them both as the House of David in exile returns, threading its way through the havoc to Jerusalem where the two will combine at that location into one. At that instant, Jesus Christ will return in glory with all the angels of heaven in his train.(Dan.7:13-14). Everythinig promised in scripture will come true. The "David" of the Bible will take His throne. Evil will perish forever, as the righteous are raised to eternal life. "I mean to sweep away everything off the face of the earth it is the Lord who speaks. I mean to sweep away men and beasts, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, I mean to send the wicked staggering, and wipe man off the face of the earth it is the Lord who speaks." (Zeph. 1:2-3) On January 1st, thousands of birds in Arkansas were swept out of the sky and fell dead to the earth. Speculations abound, but their demise remains a mystery. Over the next two days, hundreds more across the south were found littering the ground. Their sudden deaths also mysterious. At the same time thousands of fish corpses were found floating on a lake in Arkansas. Within a week, with reports coming in from as far away as Sweden and Italy, hundreds more birds had crashed to the earth, dead. Mystery is not the point here. In Bible prophecy, it is the signs that matter, not the reasons why. Thousands of prophecies fill the pages of scripture, but the total drops significantly when it comes to the theophany itself the dramatic events on earth (and in the skies above) directly surroundng the moment of the End when Jesus returns in the glory of God with all the holy angels. Huge numbers of birds swept suddenly out of the skies, and the demise of the fish of the sea are two of those uniquely theophanic signs. Strange and rare, these current happenings come at a time when wickedness has risen to such levels across the earth that Christian values have been utterly decimated by its mass and force, leaving scripture broadly abandoned and reduced to mythological characterization by the learned. God and church have been replaced by the temples of money and a flight to decadence. Anger and hatred have utterly smothered compassion. The very air is charged for violence. The chaos reaches throughout society, from top to bottom, from the ruling centers down through the populace. All have been tainted by this satanic leap toward perdition. After carefully noting the alternative offered by God, the world has rejected Jesus and chosen for themselves the path toward Sodom and Gomorrah, a destiny of fiery end. Even the ministry has been tainted: "Dumb watchdogs all, unable to bark, they dream, lie down, and love to sleep. Greedy dogs that are never satisfied. Shepherds who know nothing. They all go their own way, each after his own interest...the upright perish and no one cares." (Is.56:10-12; 57:1). Zephaniah, the prophet who wrote about 'the day birds would suddenly be swept out of the sky', did so in a book that proclaims a "Day of God", and equates this sign with the divine rage of the end of the world, a day that shows the Lord rising up to bring the entire civilization crashing down on itself. He calls it a "day of gloom and darkness". A "day of distress and agony". A "day of ruin and devastation, a day of cloud and blackness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry." (Zeph 1:15-17). This was not the type of news that was expected by revelers to be the first greeting of the incoming new year. "On the day of the anger of God,, in the fire of his jealousy, all the earth will be consumed. for he means to destroy, yes, to make an end of all the inhabitants of the earth." (Zeph.1:18) "I am going to bring such distress on men that they will grope like the blind (because they have sinned against God); their blood will be scattered like dust, their corpses like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold will have any power to save them." (Zeph.1:17) The end, he states, will come violently, ushered in by armies and warfare: "The great day of the Lord is near, near, and coming with all speed. How bitter the sound of the day of the Lord, the day when the soldier shouts his cry of war." (Zeph.1:14). But then, at the darkest point of his vision, when all seems lost, Zephaniah offers a ray of hope. Before that terrible catatrophe happens, his visions describe the safety of the Christ. Zephaniah's prophecies segue between "that" day (God's Day of Judgment) and a single alternative, an intermediary offered by God in the form of a coming Messiah; an alternative that brings the only opportunity anyone on earth will ever have to escape the cataclysm bearing down on the planet from Zephaniah's future. Though they represent two completely dissimilar forces, both of Zephaniah's visions are characterized in military terms, both come upon the earth wielding a sword of battle. They bring on to the planet two wars. One spiritkual, the other physical. These two wars, the Bible shows, are to unfold in sequence. The first, a war of spiritual righteousness starting, according to Jeremiah, in Jerusalem and spreading out from there, striking down across the world the souls of those whose hearts are evil, a conflict that pushes relentlessly westward from Jerusalem to finally culminate a full world away at the Euphrates River where the kings of the East await. (Rev.16:12). At that location, as the first war winds down, the second will grow to full power the war of tribulation a physical conflict which crosses the Euphrates River and ends only with the Return of Jesus Christ to a cindered earth where few people are left alive (Is. 24:6; Rev.17:15-16). In the wake of His Return, the dead will be raised, some to life and others to trial. Finally, the entire scene will be transformed into the new Zion of scripture's promise. Satan was locked in devine chains for a thousand years to facilitate the success of the spiritual sword of God in its march across the earth. Michael imprisoned him in the Abyss until the harvest of righteous souls had reached its intended limits as determined by God (Rev.20:1-3). The incarceration of Satan made the Day of Atonement possible. Once that "Day" (a day extended by prophecy -Josh.10:13) had accomplished its purpose, Satan's chains were loosed and he was released back into the world to mobilize the nations into the final combat his nature insured (Rev.20:7-9). Events of the last 100 years argue strongly that his release has already occurred, and everywhere we look, the signs of his mobilization of the nations for war show a conflict well underway. The battle line at the Euphrates has been drawn. The troops are there, stationed. The unfolding signs tell us that the time for repentance has grown exceedingly short. It is truly now or never for all who remain uncommitted, for the gods of gold and silver have taken back the rule of the earth. They have contaminated all mankind and even swayed many who think to pray at the altars of Christ. With it's term less than 2000 years long, the short era of Christianity (the millenium of God on earth) has come to an end. . No longer does Jesus stand at the helm of the nations, a witness to the peoples, a leader and master of their destiny. The people who once walked in His light are abandoning Him and going away; choosing for themselves a different king. They have returned to the darkness. "When you cry, let your hateful idols save you! The wind will carry them all away, a breath will take them off. But whoever trusts in me shall inherit the land and own my holy mountain." (Is.57:13) Escape this rush to Judgment while you still can. Heed the signs! Bind yourselves to Jesus Christ today while He is still to be found. Shortly now the door will close and you may find yourself knocking in vain. For Additional Questions and Answers, see: 2007July - December 2007January - June 2006June - December 2006January - May 2005July - December 2005January - June 2003-July - December 2003-January - June Download Free Books, Maps and Documents Here All books, contents & materials copyright © 1991 to 2009 Goodnews Christian Ministry. To find out more about Goodnews Christian Ministry, World Wide Web Home Page:

Martin Heidegger didn’t accomodate the Nazis; he embraced them. Feb 8, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 20 • By MARK BLITZ The Introduction of Nazism into Philosophy in Light of the Unpublished Seminars This book, which appeared in 2005 in France and is newly translated into English, has caused a stir, and rightly so. Emmanuel Faye argues that Martin Heidegger’s work is so closely connected to the Nazis that it should be shelved with books from the Third Reich and not permitted to share space with Aristotle, Descartes, Faye’s study differs in several respects from others that show the connection between Heidegger and the Nazis. He claims that Heidegger’s writing and teaching was (and is) primarily a defense of Nazism and Hitlerism, not something independent of them that discovered an ugly affinity and use. He uses notes and summaries from unpublished courses from 1933-35 that demonstrate Heidegger’s racial teaching. And he compares Heidegger at length to contemporaries and followers who worked with the Nazis, such as Carl Schmitt and Erik Wolf, to show the deep similarities among their arguments. Only the willfully ignorant could deny the connections Faye draws between Heidegger and Hitler. Much of what Faye argues is based on what is already well known. In 1933 the Nazis made Heidegger rector of the university in Freiburg. During his rectorate he attempted to set scholarship and administration on the Nazi path, appointing sympathetic deans, and leading or organizing reeducation retreats. He enthusiastically worked for the Nazification, the “coordination,” of academic institutions. He made speeches and wrote messages that urged support for Hitler and his policies. “To the man of this unprecedented will, to our Führer Adolf Hitler,” he concluded one Freiburg address, “a threefold ‘Sieg Heil.’ ” Who, upon hearing such a statement, would not know where things stood? After the war, authorities banned him from the classroom for several years; figures such as Heidegger’s erstwhile friend Karl Jaspers were among those who urged the prohibition. The attention that scholars paid to these facts varied with the ebb and flow of Heidegger’s influence. Heidegger resigned the rectorate after a year in office. This made it easier for the credulous to believe the excuses and explanations that he and his supporters offered for his outrageous behavior. Others correctly saw his explanations primarily as lies and half-truths. For the past 15 or 20 years, however, largely because of the publication of a biography by Heinrich Ott filled with damning facts about Heidegger, no fair-minded person has been able to deny the seriousness of Heidegger’s collaboration. Although the peak of Heidegger’s active political support for the Nazis may have been the Freiburg rectorate, denunciations of Jewish colleagues, encouragement of teachers who supported the Nazis, and involvement in Nazi efforts such as the Academy for German Law preceded the rectorate and continued after it. There is no evidence at any point of active political opposition. The issue of Heidegger’s association with the Nazis has, for scholars, as much to do with the link between his thought and actions as it does with his actions themselves. Here, too, awareness of the link ebbs and flows. Because the tie is less obvious, or easier to deny, than the political facts of the rectorate, and because it more clearly impugns his followers’ judgment, many academics have tried to ignore or obfuscate it. Nonetheless, several among Heidegger’s first group of students, such as Karl Lowith, recognized it quickly, and wrote about it during and just after World War II. There have been other works available for decades that also make the link visible. Not until the fascist connections of the leading literary deconstructionist, Paul de Man, became obvious 20 years ago, however, did it become impossible for Heidegger scholars to ignore the subject. The attempts to explain away any link between Heidegger’s thought and action took on new levels of sophistication, but the effort to explain the link honestly proceeded nonetheless. Recent Blog Posts

Louisa May Alcott was often told as a child that her dark hair and dark eyes came from her Sephardic Jewish ancestry. Her mother, Abigail May Alcott, who had similar coloring, had learned this from her father, Joseph May, a late 18th-century Boston businessman whose Portuguese Jewish ancestors immigrated to Sussex, England, just before 1500. The Mays spent more than a century in England, becoming prosperous enough to cross the Atlantic during the Great Migration. Around 1640, the Mays — also spelled Mayes, Maies and Maize — settled in Massachusetts, where one of their descendants was the quintessentially Yankee author of “Little Women.” Alcott never wrote about her Jewish heritage, nor did she visit her ancestral homeland of Portugal, as I discovered while researching “Marmee & Louisa,” a dual biography of the author and her mother. As her first cousin and a great-niece of her mother, I was eager to learn more about the family’s past, so in October 2012 my family traveled to Portugal. My late aunt, Charlotte May Wilson, whose grandmother was Louisa’s closest first cousin, told me that the Jewish ancestry was a topic of pride in the family. The first person we encountered in Lisbon, the cabdriver who picked us up at the airport and took us to our hotel, offered us an impromptu history lesson on Portugal’s Jews. “King Manuel I expelled the Jews because his second wife,” Princess Isabella of Spain, “demanded it.” The king found the Jews useful because they helped finance his government. But in 1496, under pressure from his anti-Semitic in-laws, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, Manuel issued a decree expelling all Jews who did not convert to Christianity. Jews who could not leave immediately were forced to convert and to assume new names, often taken from nature, such as “pear tree” (Pereira), “olive tree” (Oliveira) or a month of the year (Maio, for May). My family was eager to see the city’s ancient Jewish quarter, so we rode the Metro downtown to the Baixa-Chiado stop. Public transportation in Lisbon by bus, subway or tram is excellent, and taxicabs are ubiquitous and inexpensive. We emerged in the oldest part of Lisbon, the Alfama, atop which Saint George’s Castle, a medieval fortification that once housed Portugal’s monarchs, affords magnificent views. The Alfama’s winding, medieval streets are filled with cafes and shops, many decorated with flowerpots and colorful ceramic tiles. At the foot of the Alfama, near Portugal’s oldest cathedral (Sé de Lisboa, which is mostly 13th-century) and between Rua dos Cais de Santarém and Rua de São Pedro, we found the narrow, cobbled street we were looking for, Rua da Judiaria. Until about 1500, this Street of the Jews was the center of Portugal’s Jewish community, just below and outside the wall surrounding Saint George’s Castle. As we rounded the corner and studied the street sign, an old woman behind a barred window peered down at us, expressionless. We were not the first visitors here. We meandered through the tangle of buildings that was once home to Lisbon’s Jews, passing a beautiful fountain and part of the wall of a synagogue. Here, on the site of a 15th-century synagogue, King Manuel I had built in the early 16th century what is now one of Portugal’s oldest places of worship, Igreja da Conceicao Velha — the Old Church of the Immaculate Conception. The church was a gift for his sister, Leonor of Viseu, founder of the Order of Mercy. The great earthquake of 1755 destroyed most of the building, except the facade. One of the carved figures on the ornate front door is King Manuel I himself. Jewish history in Portugal goes back to the Roman Empire. From the eighth to the 12th century, as Christians and Muslims battled for regional control, Jews — many of whom knew Arabic — served Christians as diplomats and intermediaries. After the Christian “reconquest” of Portugal, around 1150, Jews enjoyed prominent positions as merchants, scientists, artists and financiers, often protected by the king, who called them “Judei mei,” “my” Jews. By the 15th century, the kingdom had more than 100 judiarias, or Jewish quarters, each with its own synagogue. Portugal’s Jewish community thrived, relatively free of persecution. Tensions grew in the 15th century. Jews were forced to wear an identifying emblem and to obey a curfew, and they could no longer employ Christians. By 1500, under Manuel I and his Spanish wife, many thousands of Jews, including some of Alcott’s ancestors, had left or had been expelled. The converted Jews who remained in Portugal — known as New Christians or by such derogatory terms as Crypto-Jews, marranos and conversos — suffered persecution. In April 1506, in Lisbon, a mob rounded up hundreds of New Christians and some Old Christians suspected of helping them secretly practice Judaism. The mob burned down dwellings in the Judiaria and massacred more than 2,000 Jews in a public square. King Manuel I executed the leaders of the mob and, in an effort at compensation, granted New Christians religious freedom for 20 years. Rossio Square, the site of the massacre, just west of the Alfama in central Lisbon, is a huge, handsome open space paved with Portuguese mosaic, dotted with fountains and surrounded by shops and cafes. The inscription on a memorial stone placed here on the 500th anniversary of the massacre, in 2006, reads, in translation, “In memory of the thousands of Jews who were the victims of intolerance and religious fanaticism and murdered in the massacre initiated on April 19, 1506, in this square.” The Baroque Church of Sao Domingos, at the northeast corner of Rossio Square, was built on the site of the Tribunal of the Inquisition. The tribunal met in Lisbon from the 1540s until the 18th century. Its actions led to public burnings — autos da fé — of heretical Christians and more than 1,000 New Christians suspected of heresy or of secretly maintaining their Jewish faith. Inquisitorial tribunals exist- ed in Lisbon, Coimbra, Porto and Évora. We took a fast train to Coimbra, a hill town on the Mondego River in central Portugal, to see another region of importance. Coimbra — the name comes from a Celtic word for “high, rocky place” — was the capital of Portugal until the 14th century. Before 1500 it was a major center of Jewish population. A bus delivered us from the train depot to the town’s central square — actually a triangle surrounding a statue — where our tour began. Our first stop was the 16th-century church of the Monastery of Santa Cruz, a fine example of the Manueline style of architecture, a combination of Gothic and Renaissance features named for the king. Santa Cruz is decorated with carved symbols of Portugal’s powerful empire during Manuel’s reign. Ropes signify Portuguese ships, which sailed to the ends of the world, while pomegranates, peppers and spices signify the fruits of those explorations. In the 16th century, during the Inquisition, autos da fé took place in the square in front of this church. A nearby alley called Rua Corpo de Deus (Corpus Christi St.) marks the entrance to the historic Jewish quarter. We climbed through the Judiaria Velha, Coimbra’s first and oldest Jewish quarter, established in the 12th century, and the newer, 14th-century Jewish quarter. A 1725 fountain on Rua Olímpio Nicolau Fernandes is called the Fonte Nova, also known as the Jewish Fountain. At the top of the hill, past the city’s magnificent Romanesque Old Cathedral, is the University of Coimbra, one of Europe’s oldest universities, founded in 1290. This is a university town: One in five residents of Coimbra is a student. Created out of a palace occupied by the early kings of Portugal, the university boasts the second-largest library in Portugal. Its gorgeous Biblioteca Joanina, erected in the early 18th century, contains important papers of local Jewish scholars, many of whom were students or professors here. The ramparts afford views of Coimbra’s city’s red-tile roofs, the river below and the surrounding countryside. Our final destination, a short walk northwest of the university, was the Pátio da Inquisição — Courtyard of the Inquisition — where Coimbra’s inquisitorial trials were held. Coimbra’s tribunal disposed of more than 11,000 individual cases between the 16th and 18th centuries. Some of the trials lasted for years, while the accused waited in prison. Records indicate that more women than men were tried, convicted and executed, probably because mothers and grandmothers were held responsible for maintaining Jewish beliefs and practices among New Christians. As recently as 1718, in this courtyard, the tribunal tried more than 60 suspected Jews and then burned two people at the stake. On this spot, students and tourists now gather at the Restaurante O Pátio cafe. By prior arrangement of our local guide, the informative Tiago Boavida, we were able to view torture chambers where the accused were held as they awaited trial. The chambers are in the basement of a 16th-century building that is now part of the university’s art school, the Centro de Artes Visuais. A student unlocked the door, welcomed us inside the cavernous space now used as an art gallery and removed a panel of floorboard. Metal stairs led down into the empty, whitewashed cells. Afterward, as I stood outside in the school’s peaceful courtyard, surrounded by flowering plants and 16th-century capitals, it occurred to me that these cells are where Alcott’s ancestors might have been held if they had stayed in Portugal. In that case, their American descendants — and the writings of Alcott — would not exist. In a strange twist, “Little Women” has served some Jewish immigrants to America as a tool of assimilation. “No book I have opened has meant as much to me,” a Russian Jewish immigrant, Elizabeth G. Stern, observed in 1917. “That small volume [told], in simple words such as I myself spoke, the story of an American childhood in New England.” Portugal has attempted in recent years to redress some wrongs done to Jews. During World War II, Portugal’s consul general in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, created an escape route through Lisbon that allowed an estimated 1 million refugees to escape the Nazis — many more than the renowned Oskar Schindler saved. Sousa Mendes accomplished “the greatest single act of rescue by an individual during the war,” according to Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer. In 1966, Israel honored Sousa Mendes, who had died more than a decade before, as Righteous Among the Nations. He posthumously received Portugal’s Order of Liberty medal, and the Sousa Mendes Foundation is dedicated to his memory. His ancestral mansion, Caso do Passal, in Portugal’s northern town of Cabanas de Viriato, is being renovated as a memorial museum. In 1987, President Mário Soares apologized to the Jewish community for Portugal’s Inquisition and other persecutions. Today, only a few thousand Jews live in Portugal. But Jewish ancestry is not as uncommon as it might seem. Nearly one in five Portuguese citizens, according to a recent study in The American Journal of Human Genetics, has Jewish ancestry. Apparently, the number of Portuguese Jews forced to convert to Christianity half a millennium ago was far larger than historians previously believed. As for the countless Jews who fled Portugal, their descendants include the economist David Ricardo and the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, as well as Louisa May Alcott. Eve LaPlante is the author, most recently, of “Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother,” and the editor of “My Heart Is Boundless: Writings of Abigail May Alcott, Louisa’s Mother” both published by Free Press in 2012.

By Elizabeth Marie Himchak Three authors — Powegian Susan Meissner, Patti Hawn and Rabbi Zoë Klein — will participate in an annual fundraiser luncheon held in Rancho Bernardo. The 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 8 event at Bernardo Heights Country Club is organized by the Rancho Bernardo chapter of Brandeis National Committee. Luncheon Chairwoman Joan van Dam said the luncheon is the organization’s largest fundraiser of the year, typically attracting more than 100 attendees. “It is very popular every year because of the wonderful authors and a terrific lunch,” van Dam said, calling this year’s featured authors “a very outstanding group.” Meissner has published 12 books, most recently “Lady in Waiting,” which came out last year. The fictional book intertwines a present-day storyline with a 16th century plot line surrounding Lady Jane Grey, who briefly reigned as the queen of England. Hawn, sister of actress Goldie Hawn, has written her first book, “Good Girls Don’t” — a first-hand account of dealing with an unplanned pregnancy several decades ago. Klein, the spiritual leader of Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles, is also a first-time author. Her book, “Drawing in the Dust” is about an American archaeologist who risks her professional reputation by excavating beneath an Arab couple’s home in Israel. Her discovery there challenges centuries-old interpretations of the prophet Jeremiah’s story. “All three women authors have written very good books,” van Dam said. One author will speak about her book and answer audience questions before the luncheon, with the other two speaking in the afternoon, she said. All three will be available to sign books purchased at the event that will be moderated by Marianne Kushi, a news anchor at NBC 7/39. Due to its popularity last year, van Dam said a purse sale will once again be held as attendees arrive. There will also be door prizes. Tickets are $45 and should be purchased in advance as space is limited, van Dam said. Call Leslie Goldstein at 760-317-1819. Money raised will go to Brandeis University, a private research university in Massachusetts and founded by the American Jewish community. Van Dam said the money will go toward the university’s library and scholarship fund, which helps the 51 percent of students there who receive financial assistance.

I do not know the answer to this question, but non orthodox feminists may be upset to find out that males do not pass on the irrevocable portion of membership of the Jewish religion. The press tells us there are 5 Jewish members. Of course, there may be some who have legitimately converted in orthodox tradition. Others and/or their mothers may not have. As I recall this was a Machlokes Tanoim?, and tradition/Mesora has unquestionably gone via the mother. I guess the egalitarians should be up in arms and demand equality: viz both parents should be jewish. Of course those who follow the modern egalitarian/equality religion with sprinklings of traditional Judaic practice, you know, the one Moses didn’t bring down from Sinai, ought to really be arguing that being a Cohen or Levi should be a matter of choice for the child, just like male circumcision. Where the mother is the daughter of Cohen and the father is a Levi, say, you’d leave it to the child to decide, and I guess they could also change their mind depending on their spiritual development at a given point in time? Come to think of it they should call up their women as cohenet or levitate, or … I’m of course tongue in cheek, but it follows for those for whom equality is their religion and Judaism is their cultural affiliation. I haven’t got the foggiest idea what their pronouncements are in such matters with respect to Trans or fluid genders. There are some in the USA who are intellectually honest enough to do away with Cohen, Levi and Yisrael and make them all equal. Then again, these are also the same Bernie Sanders types, who had every mention of Zion removed from prayer books (Reform Judaism). I know Michael Danby gets Aliyos at Elwood where the Head of the Beth Din of Melbourne is the religious authority, and is Jewish, and that Josh Frydenberg is also halachically one of the tribe, but I don’t know enough about the other three to make claims either way with the same confidence that the ‘Beth Din’ of the Jewish News does. Does the Jewish News use the Nazi definition or the ‘I fought in the IDF definition’ or I have ‘latkes and dreidels with Father Xmas rule’? I’m not sure they have ever defined Jew. I do know that Lee Rhiannon of the anti Zionist Greens is Halachically Jewish and her surname is/was Brown. Perhaps she should have called herself Lee Green. The worst political types are often fully Jews. Jon Faine the left wing national radio personality, of course is Jewish, but unlike his mate Waleed makes every effort to distance himself from the tradition of his parents ostensibly in the name of leftist equality. We Jews are very good at apologising for our identity by running away from it. In the Victorian State parliament there maybe one person? I guess the Australian Jewish News is the arbiter on such matters and promulgates its pronouncements to be gobbled up by the non Jewish Press as gospel. They may in fact be gospel! I heard or read that Malcolm Turnbull may actually be Jewish? Is that true? I don’t know what the Beth Din of the Australian Jewish News has determined, as they don’t seem to have a formal responsa on the matter. As a side note the great modern sages: Rabbi Yosef Dov HaLevi Soleveitchik and the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn both foresaw the issue of Yichus as critical in a nation prone to assimilation and encouraged men to always note in their names that they were a Cohen or Levi. Rabbi Stav of Tzohar is visiting Melbourne this week. Perhaps someone can inform him and ask him for an authentic halachic ruling as opposed to the ‘feel good’ or ‘kosher style’ approach of the Australian Jewish News where almost anything flies.

SEVEN women and two men sat on chairs scattered about in a room, reading silently. Apart from the whir of a fan overhead, the only noise was the sound of pages turning. It was, in other words, a perfectly ordinary scene in a small-town library — except that everyone was holding the same slim volume, “The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick. The library, in Caldwell, N.J., was kicking off its version of the Big Read, a program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts to promote literature in American culture. After the reading session, on March 1, came an audio presentation and a potluck supper. Between now and May, many more such events and discussions will follow. More than 200 communities participate in the Big Read or similar programs, modeled after “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book,” a project launched in Washington in 1998. They function like book clubs on steroids, making mass purchases of a book and developing programs on related themes. But unlike book clubs, they look far and wide to draw in readers, especially among young people. New York City’s suburbs have been well represented in the Big Read, now in its third year. Interested communities select a book from among 27 titles, and apply for N.E.A. grants ranging from $2,500 to $20,000. Some towns, however, prefer to do their own thing, like Fairfield, Conn., and Princeton, N.J. And Long Island runs an Island-wide initiative. Choosing a book is the hardest part, said Marta Campbell, head of collection management for the Westport Public Library in Connecticut. It has staged six Westport Reads events, underwritten by two library patrons. The featured work must be fiction, under 300 pages, available in paperback, appropriate for middle school-aged children and adaptable to programming, Ms. Campbell said.Continue reading the main story Westport’s last read was “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. To date there is no word on this year’s selection. “People are very anxious to find out and keep asking what is going on,” Ms. Campbell said. “The pressure is on.” Long Island’s program, One Island, One Book, sticks to books with a connection to the island, said Diane Eidelman, administrator for member services at the Suffolk Cooperative Library System. “Some people do feel that’s too limiting. But when you think about it, there’s so much connected to Long Island. We haven’t had a problem, so far, and we have many in the pipeline,” she said. This year’s book is “Wait Till Next Year,” by Doris Kearns Goodwin, who grew up in Rockville Centre in Nassau County. Big Read titles range from classics like “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck and “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee to lesser-known works like Ms. Ozick’s “The Shawl” or “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. “One of the joys of this project has been exploding the idea of some great canon of American literature,” said David Kipen, a former newspaper book critic and essayist who manages the N.E.A. program. While the goal is to get reluctant or lapsed readers to pick up a literary book, community-building is nearly as important, Mr. Kipen said. Applicants must join with other organizations in their communities and tap local sources for matching grants. “Reading the same book can give neighbors something more interesting than the weather to talk about,” he said. The Big Read has more applicants than it can pay for, Mr. Kipen said, and the organization tries to measure the success of each program. “We’re not just talking about head counts,” he said. “Formal outcome-based evaluations have shown heightened library use that persists, and higher figures for taking out new library cards.” In Westchester County, ArtsWestchester, the county arts agency, is leading the current Big Read, featuring “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines. Last month the agency arranged a conversation for readers with the author, 76, who lives in Louisiana. Organizers spent four months during the summer and fall talking the book up, said Joanne Mongelli, deputy director of ArtsWestchester. “We talked to people and agencies and teachers and every civic group we could find, about why it’s a beautiful and powerful book,” she said. “We worked very hard to engage not just arts people, or people with an affinity for literature, but high school kids and busy professionals.” GETTING teenagers off their computers and iPods is a “real problem,” said Ruth Stevens, who directs the Westchester program. She said her group depends on school-based or other community groups that work with children to try to engage more young participants. Some Big Read communities find activities are the key to luring readers. Last year the public library in Parsippany, N.J., augmented discussions of Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club” by sponsoring a table tennis tournament, a Chinese cooking class and a bus trip to Chinatown in Manhattan, said Korin Rosenkrans, head of customer and information services. Thus lured, many of those who took part in the other activities also opened the book. Some people who may not have expected to enjoy the book were hooked. “A lot of people commented that the book had overall themes that touched everybody, no matter their culture,” she said. “The Shawl,” the work being read in Caldwell, is about the Holocaust. The author has said it was inspired by the real-life murder of a Jewish baby in a Nazi concentration camp. She will speak in Caldwell on March 22. Karen Kleppe Lembo, the Caldwell librarian, teamed up with West Caldwell Township and Congregation Agudeth Israel, a local synagogue, to develop events linked to “The Shawl.” Ms. Kleppe Lembo also drew in educators at Mount Saint Dominic Academy, a private girls’ school, where the book became required reading; a Boy Scout troop; and the leaders of a dozen faith communities, among others. “We’re a tiny community, by and large Christian,” Ms. Kleppe Lembo said. “This was a chance for all of us to learn so much.” At the kickoff she had 50 free copies of “The Shawl” on hand for readers. Not that many people showed up, but those who did were enthusiastic. Hank Khost, 67, of Caldwell, a consumer research pollster, read the book along with his wife, Deborah. “I’m astounded by it, bothered by it,” he said. Lauren Szmak of West Caldwell, 16, a junior at James Caldwell High School, said the book had provoked a lot of discussion in a literature class. “It made me think a lot deeper,” she said.Continue reading the main story

John Bolton has proved to be the right man for the job. As UN ambassador, Bolton has clearly and consistently projected the White House’s Middle East policies, especially the administration’s unwavering support for Israel. As international criticism of Israel mounts, President Bush has asked Congress to approve his renomination of Bolton-a longtime State Department diplomat who has over three decades sought to debilitate the United Nations and who has earned a reputation as a defender of an aggressive Israel. The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) calls Bolton “one of Israel’s truest friends in the world.” Last summer the Senate rejected the nomination of Bolton, a right-wing ideologue fiercely opposed to all international laws and institutions that constrain U.S. power. Overriding congressional concerns that Bolton would be an ineffective UN ambassador because of his long history of criticizing the United Nations, Bush appointed Bolton to the post during the August 2005 congressional recess. A year into his term, which expires in January 2007, Bolton has energized his supporters, won over some critics, and pleased the president with his own brand of cowboy diplomacy. With congressional support running high for Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, the White House has resubmitted Bolton’s nomination. Bolton received strong support from major Jewish organizations during last year’s confirmation hearings, and these same organizations are gearing up to mount a strong pro-Bolton lobbying campaign this time around. Among the Jewish groups that supported Bolton during the first hearings were the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), B’nai B’rith International, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). In midst of the confirmation fight, Tom Casey, director of the State Department’s press office, said: “I don’t think you’ll find anyone in this administration who is a stronger friend of Israel.” Weighing in on the Bolton nomination, an AIPAC spokesperson noted that “John Bolton has stood for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.” Since he began his government career as a Reagan administration official in the early 1980s, Bolton has been an outspoken, dedicated proponent of close U.S.-Israel ties. During the George H.W. Bush administration (1989-93), Bolton earned hero status among pro-Israel groups and the Jewish community in general for masterminding the State Department’s successful effort to repeal UN resolution 3379 (passed in 1975), which stated that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” Bolton himself does not publicly define himself as a Zionist. However, he has closely associated himself with both Christian and Jewish Zionists. Bolton worked closely with Senator Jesse Helms, a fundamentalist with Christian Zionist convictions. In early 2001 Helms told a gathering at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI): “John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon, if it should be my lot to be on hand for what is forecast to be the final battle between good and evil in the world.” Bolton is a longtime member of the advisory board of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, which has offices in Washington and Jerusalem. JINSA describes itself as “the most influential group on the issue of U.S.-Israel military relations.” With an overarching focus on “U.S.-Israeli strategic cooperation,” JINSA says it “communicates with the Jewish Community and the national security establishment on behalf of the role Israel can and does play in bolstering American interests, as well as the link between American defense policy and the security of Israel.” 1 JINSA called President Bush a “courageous leader” for having appointed “a courageous man” to represent the United States at the United Nations. Congratulating the president for his bold move in sending Bolton to the UN despite congressional opposition, JINSA executive director Tom Neumann said: “John Bolton is a strong advocate of America and a strong supporter of Israel. With the consistent effort to undermine American and Israeli security in the UN, I feel confident that a proven diplomat like John Bolton will be representing our interests in the UN.” 2 Bolton’s institutional affiliations extend to an array of right-wing and pro-Israel policy institutes and think tanks, including the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), American Enterprise Institute, Manhattan Institute, National Policy Forum, and Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf. Bolton served on PNAC’s board of directors in the late 1990s, and signed numerous of its public statements and letters, including its 1997 founding statement of principles. Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Bolton was senior vice president for policy at AEI, a neoconservative think tank that has since the 1970s been a leading proponent in Washington of right-wing Zionist positions. 3 Bolton has also been a longtime activist with the right-wing Federalist Society. Defender of Israel Award During his first confirmation hearings, Bolton’s record as undersecretary of state for arms control came under fire. According to news reports, including the highly respected Jewish magazine Forward, Bolton took part in unauthorized meetings with Israeli officials, including Israeli intelligence agents. He met with officials of the Mossad intelligence agency without first seeking “country clearance” from the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. In its May 6, 2005 article on Bolton’s practice of manipulating intelligence and violating government protocol, Forward also noted that Bolton is “known as a strong supporter of Israel’s position that Tehran is coming alarmingly close to being able to weaponize its nuclear material.” 4 U.S. News reported that in his position as the government’s top arms control official Bolton shelved a memo suggesting that Israel had violated U.S. laws against using U.S. arms for “nondefensive” purposes when it used U.S.-supplied weapons to assassinate Salah Shehada, a top Hamas activist in Gaza City, on July 23, 2000. Israel’s air force used a U.S.-made F-16 bomber to drop a one-ton bomb on a house in the densely populated part of Gaza where the Hamas leader was staying. Fourteen civilians died along with Shehada, and more than 100 Palestinians were injured. Senate staffers investigating Bolton found that Bolton prevented a State Department memo accusing Israel of violating U.S. arms-export laws from reaching the desk of then-Secretary of State Colin Powell. 5 In December 2005 the Zionist Organization of America honored Bolton with its annual Defender of Israel Award. Presenting the award, ZOA president Morton Klein said: “The ZOA praises and strongly supports the heroic efforts of Ambassador Bolton to bring about fair treatment of Israel and decent conduct within the United Nations.” Referring to his recent work as UN ambassador on behalf of Israel, Klein noted that Bolton’s “efforts to have Hezbollah condemned at last for its vicious terrorist assaults on Israel, without the usual ‘balancing’ criticism of Israel for legitimately striking back at Hezbollah, is a major achievement and speaks volumes for his commitment to justice, the war on Islamic terrorism, and fair dealing for Israel and the world.” 6 Speaking at the ZOA annual banquet, Bolton said a “deep-seated anti-Israel feeling” pervades the United Nations. Greeted with wild applause, Bolton reminded the audience that despite the repeal of the Zionism is racism resolution, “Anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic feelings still persist at the United Nations.” Over the past year Bolton has led the administration’s rhetorical attack on Iran. In a March 8, 2006 speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Bolton threatened Iran with “painful consequences” if it didn’t accede to Washington’s demands that it shut down all its nuclear programs. In early July Bolton spearheaded opposition to the proposed Security Council resolution that would have called for Israel to end its attacks and its “disproportionate use of force” in the Gaza Strip. The blocked resolution would have also called for the release of a kidnapped Israeli soldier. The resolution received ten votes, with four abstentions and with Bolton casting the lone opposition vote. In October 2004, Bolton also wielded the U.S. veto to block a similar draft calling for Israel to end all military operations in northern Gaza. On July 15 Bolton also blocked Security Council consideration of a ceasefire resolution in the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict. In an interview with Fox News, Bolton commented on the U.S. position backing Israel in the expanding war. “What our job is in New York is to make sure that that right of self-defense is not abridged arbitrarily,” said Bolton. “But also, to try and do what we can to help the Lebanese government, which was elected democratically, and to see if we can help remove the cancer [referring to the Hezbollah guerrillas].” 7 Like the White House, Bolton characterizes Israel’s campaigns in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon as part of the global war on terrorism. Rejecting the rising calls for a ceasefire and rejecting criticism of Israel’s bombing of Lebanon, Bolton said that there is “no moral equivalence” between Lebanese civilian casualties of Israeli bombing and Israelis killed by “malicious terrorist acts.” Republicans Will Stand Behind Bolton, Using War as a Cover The White House announced this week that it would seek an early confirmation of Bolton. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said there was a desire to move to a Senate vote because “people have seen the fruits of John Bolton’s labor at the United Nations,” and said he was “doing a tremendous job.” Citizens for Global Solutions, a group that mounted a national campaign to derail the Bolton nomination in 2005, strongly opposes Bolton’s renomination, stating that Bolton “will not only fail to restore the legacy of our nation’s 60-year relationship with the UN but will undermine it further.” The nongovernmental organization points to a recent Washington Post op-ed by Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) as a clear sign that the administration is preparing a partisan drive to confirm Bolton. “Partisanship will trump the need for a substantive policy discussion,” the group predicted. Senator Voinovich proved a key figure in turning back the nomination the first time around. But in his Washington Post op-ed, Voinovich wrote that he was impressed by how Bolton, whom he had previously accused of “go it alone” tendencies, has frequently invoked “my instructions” from Washington in his role as the country’s representative to the UN. Preparing the ground for what the administration hopes will be a quick confirmation hearing, Senator Voinovich said, “I cannot imagine a worse message to send to the terrorists-and to other nations deciding whether to engage in this effort-than to drag out a possible renomination process or even replace the person our president has entrusted to lead our nation at the United Nations at a time when we are working on these historic objectives.” “I do not believe the United States, at this dangerous time, can afford to have a UN ambassador who does not have Congress’s full support,” concluded Voinovich. 8 Bolton certainly can count on deep support from the pro-Israel Jewish organizations. Jay Zeidman, the White House liaison to the Jewish community, is mobilizing Jewish support in the upcoming drive to push Bolton’s confirmation through the Senate. Working out of the White House’s Office of Public Liaison, Zeidman has put out a call for Jewish support for the Bolton renomination. The 24-year old Zeidman is the son of Fred Zeidman, who serves on JINSA’s board of directors and is vice-chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition. 9 Echoing the arguments of the White House and Senator Voinovich, Jewish leaders are quickly lining up behind Bolton. “Given the fact that we face a world today where every decision every day seems to count, we cannot allow any disruption in who plays the lead role in representing the United States,” the chairman of the American Jewish Congress, Jack Rosen, said. “This is not a time for a void. It is not a time to take away someone who’s represented us well at the United Nations, putting aside for the moment any squabbles or disagreements with the administration.” 10 Citizens for Global Solutions and other opponents of the Bolton renomination, including Democratic members of the Foreign Relations Committee, are turning the pro-Bolton arguments on their head. They warn, as Voinovich did in his Washington Post op-ed, that in these dangerous times the United States cannot afford to have a UN ambassador that does not have full congressional support-which Bolton certainly doesn’t have. TOM BARRY is policy director of the International Relations Center. 1. “Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs,” Right Web Profile, International Relations Center. 2. “JINSA Congratulates the President,” JINSA, July 31, 2005, 3. “John Bolton,” Right Web Profile, International Relations Center. 4. “Senate Probes Bolton’s Pro-Israel Efforts,” Forward, May 6, 2005. 5. “Foggy Bottom’s Case of the Missing Memo,” U.S. News & World Report, May 9, 2005 8. Sen. George Voinovich, “Why I’ll Vote for Bolton,” Washington Post, July 20, 2006, 9. Steve Clemmons, “White House Calls for Jewish Groups to Line Up Behind John Bolton,” The Washington Note, July 21, 2006. 10. Russell Berman, “Schumer and Clinton Pressed to Reappoint Bolton,” New York Sun, July 26, 2006.

Location: Ukraine, 49° 16' N 29° 32' E Nearest City : Starokonstantinovi Dedicated to the study of Jewish family history in the town of Ostropol, Ukraine. THIS WEBSITE DEVELOPED AND MAINTAINED BY DEAN ECHENBERG, EMAIL: OSTROPOL@ECHENBERG.ORG Ostropol is a beautiful town on the Sluch River located in the Khmelnitsky Oblast, Starokonstantinov Raion, about 133 miles WSW of Kiev. The history of the Jewish community Ostropol is similar to that of all the other shtetls in what is now Ukraine. In fact it probably was used as the model shtetl in S. Ansky's famous play 'The Dybbuk.' Ostropol is believed to have been founded in 1576, but archaeological digs routinely find traces of much earlier habitation, as far back as the pre-Christian era (fourth to eighth centuries CE). The Jewish community of Ostropol had it's hazy origins under the Lithuanian and Polish Empires in 16th century, and then became part of the Russian Empire in 1790 under Catherine the Great. During these years it was the home of a thriving Jewish community and well known in much of Eastern Europe as a center of trade and learning. After the Russian Revolution, and after suffering horribly during the later part of WW1 it became a part of the Soviet Union. The community continued to struggle through the early part of the 20th century until it was totally destroyed during by the Nazi's the early 1940's. The Jewish population of Ostropol at the beginning of the 20th century was about 3000. Then in 1937, according to the Soviet census of 1937-39 it was down to less than 1500. Migration out of Ostropol to had begun in the mid 1800's. . Hundreds of Jewish Ostropol families came to Canada and the United States. Many of these established new Ostropol communities either formally or informally in the new world. Today the descendants of these Jewish Ostopolyers number in the thousands. This is their community site.

During the last election, Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith faced a choice regarding LGBTQ rights in our province, which proved to be a defining moment in how she and her party were seen by Albertans on issues of human rights. In the past few days, our new premier, Jim Prentice, has had a similar choice to make about Bill 10, which has replaced the more progressive and inclusive Bill 202, as proposed by the Alberta Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman. Here are 10 things the premier and every MLA should know about the realities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning/queer youth in our schools. 1. In Canada, the three most targeted groups for hate crimes are the black, Jewish and LGBTQ communities. Of all the hate crimes committed, the most violent attacks are directed against LGBTQ persons. 2. The No. 1 perpetrators of hate crimes in Canada are youth. The No. 1 victims of hate crimes in Canada are also youth. What are we teaching our students in schools? Hate crimes are the product of dehumanization that happens in the space of silence and indifference to diversity and inclusion. 3. The Lancet, the world’s leading medical journal, identifies an urgent mental health crisis among LGBTQ youth and states “schools should be places where young people can find support, but they are not for LGBTQ youth.” The editors call for school-based interventions to address fearful and hostile school environments, which place many LGBTQ youth at increased risk for a host of mental health problems including depression, self-harm, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide. 4. Gay-straight alliances (GSAs) are student-led and teacher-supported initiatives designed to provide a respectful, welcoming and safe learning environment for all youth in our schools. 5. Research clearly demonstrates how GSAs serve as a critical protective factor for many LGBTQ and heterosexual youth by increasing a sense of connectedness and belonging to school, and helping to reduce drug and alcohol abuse, smoking rates and suicide ideation. It is not an understatement to suggest that GSAs can and do save lives. 6. Supporting LGBTQ students is not about balancing or protecting religious rights. Providing a safe space in schools for vulnerable youth does not conflict with religious values. As Pope Francis has said, “Who am I to judge?” It’s time our politicians and school boards stop judging and provide support equally to all students, without qualification or restriction. 7. Similarly, gay-straight alliances are not about promoting a so-called “gay lifestyle,” as the more Putin-esque critics might claim. These alliances are about the rights of young LGBTQ persons to exist — and to have the security of knowing that others in their midst support them. 8. Today, there are more than 90 GSAs in our public schools. There are no GSAs in any Catholic school in Alberta. 9. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms mandates that every person is entitled to equal protection and benefit of the law without discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. This means that students in all publicly funded institutions, which includes virtually all private, public, Catholic and francophone schools in Alberta, have the right to a school environment free from sexual discrimination. 10. The refusal by schools in Alberta to sanction GSAs is a denial of this fundamental right. That is why clear policy and legislation are needed to ensure students receive the support they need in their school to create a GSA, and name it as such. Mr. Premier, and all MLAs, there was a day in the not-too-distant past when ignorance of LGBTQ concerns was pervasive. But that day has passed for large numbers of Albertans. If we fail to embrace and continue to fear the diversity that surrounds us, we do so at our own peril. Bill 10 and its amendments attempt to move some issues forward, while leaving the most important issue behind: direct and unequivocal support for our students in each and every school in Alberta. I urge you and your colleagues in the legislature to move our province into the 21st century where every LGBTQ student will find support rather than banishment like the lepers of old; can have an identity rather the denial of existence; can have the freedom of association, rather than exclusion; and can have security and protection, rather than the fearful environments so many kids still face in their schools. This is not about a balancing of rights and interests. The only rights that should come first are from students in need of our support and protection. I truly hope that Alberta will put students first. Kristopher Wells is an assistant professor and director of programs and services at the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services, University of Alberta. tap here to see other videos from our team.

Robert Price is an American theologian and writer. He has taught philosophy and religion at the collegiate level and is a professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, and is the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus. MC: How you doing today, Bob? RP: Terrific! As well as can be expected under the oppression of the Archons. MC: We’ll try to break through this veil of illusion. Many assume that the Archons were drawn out from Paul’s writings. These sort of mysterious rulers and princes that he talks about were then developed by the Gnostics. Is that basically it? RP: That’s an oversimplification. It’s like connecting the dots and leaving out a few dots. Who knows, right? But it occurs to me that the stuff you find in the Nag Hammadi texts — a committee of cosmic creators, the different versions of the Eden story, the Testimony of Truth, On the Origin of the World, the Hypothesis of the Archons, and so on — are at least picking up on the polytheism clearly implied in Genesis. “Let us make man and behold a man has become like one of us,” and so forth. There must have been more than one divine entity involved in the whole Garden of Eden scenario. Now, it could be that the Gnostics are speculating on who could that have been. The fact remains that this does underlie the text of Genesis: there were several entities. And so does the notion that God or a lot of gods are lying to Adam and Eve about the fruit being a deadly poison. It’s because he doesn’t want the humans to get his or their prerogatives. If you don’t like that narrative in Genesis, you have to do quite a bit of footwork to get out of that. And none of it’s convincing. I think the Gnostics are seeing what is there. They may be giving their own names to it, but even there I wouldn’t think so because, of course, Archon is a generic term for “prince” or “ruler.” Who else would they be? This whole thing is like their spin on it. But it’s also part of this remote Old Testament idea that there are many gods who ruled the various nations of the world. In fact, the nations were numbered — so that each one of these gods or sons of Elohim would have a nation to rule. I mean, it’s just not angels in the Old Testament but rulers of nations. Daniel mentions this kind of thing. Gabriel appears late to Daniel saying something like, “I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner, but I had to battle the Prince of Persia.” Well, that’s the Archon of Persia, the ruling spirit. So, it seems to me they are part of the fall of the sons of God, whoever they were. They had to be these lesser gods and they mated with mortal women. You see this stuff elaborated in Jewish apocryphal pseudepigraphical works. It was a common belief, and that was easy to harmonize with Hellenistic ideas of intermediate elemental spirits the Stoics believed in. There isn’t all that much in the fundamental conception of the Archons, their rule and all that. It was common property in the ancient world. The Pauline language seems to reflect this reality. You could say, “Ah, these Gnostics just got it from the Ephesians” or something like that, which they do quote. But if that’s where they got it from, you have to ask: what did Ephesians get it and mean by it? Clearly, even if you’ve never even heard of any Gnostic texts, it’s very clear you’re talking about principalities and powers, rulers of this age or this world who dominated the sons of wrath. Mostly, it’s spelled out there anyway. You’ve got the Gnostic Pleroma in Colossians. You’ve got the three categories of human beings in 1st Corinthians. And it seems to me the Pauline material is just commenting on a pre-existing tradition which the Gnostics inherited, whether before or after the Pauline epistles. MC: Is there a name for this type of literature you find in On the Origins of the World and the Hypostasis of the Archons where they just re-interpret Genesis? RP: Well, some of it is found in Jewish and somewhat Christianized Jewish pseudepigrapha books of Enoch, Jubilees, and so forth. They often do not have the notion of a spiritual illumination that you find in the Gnostic texts, but in a sense, it’s all apocalyptic in that it’s revelation literature. Some of the Nag Hammadi texts just take that for granted. Well, where could they have gotten it? Probably from sort of revelation also. You’ve already got the fundamentals in the Garden of Eden story, so as for the knowledge, you even have that too because the Jewish pseudepigraphical stories have the sons of God giving knowledge to the fledgling humans. They kind of spin the thing in a negative way so that they give knowledge of death-dealing weapons for men and the arts of cosmetic and seduction to women. But as Margaret Barker argues, this narrative was probably a bigger deal in ancient Israel than we would guess from something like The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, which are more likely preserving a more unedited form that is taken for granted by the Canonical writers. This genre is really part of a warp and woof of Jewish literature and comes from the same source, I think. It isn’t really a separate special bunch of books that somehow leaked into the tradition. MC: I’ve heard fundamentalists say, “Well the Gnostic texts were anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic.” What is your answer to that? RP: It is possible to read it that way, but I think that it’s more of a Jewish reaction to what some mystical Jews began to consider oversimplification, as well as a kind of dumbed-down editing and domestication of the stuff. It’s those who are rejecting and reviling the Archons who lied about Adam and Eve. Again, they’re getting it from the Bible in the first instance; and it seems to me that you’d have to ask who were they portraying with the image of gods who want to stymie human knowledge and progress. That’s what the old rationalist used to call priestcraft. It’s like traditional Catholics despising Vatican II or Louis Farrakhan despising the reforms made by Warith Deen Muhammad after the death of Elijah Muhammad. It’s a partisanship for a repressed and condemned belief that was once very common — and these people are not giving up on it. So, it isn’t anti-Jewish so much as it’s against people who have emasculated what the writers consider the true Biblical religion. These guys aren’t Marcionites. In On the Origin of the World, it says that the writings of the prophets — and it seems to be the Jewish prophets — are key to the coming apocalypse. Why would you reinterpret all these Jewish sources if you were simply a Marcionite? And if you were anti-Jewish, why would you be accepting the Old Testament? It seems to me that’s just a convenient oversimplification. MC: Going back to the nature of the Archons, basically depicted as these godly beings, cosmic bureaucrats, and bullying rapists. What is their template? Do you think the Gnostic writers saw what the Romans were doing to other cultures and just made them into celestial beings? RP: I don’t know about that. Look at texts where the Archons lust after the spiritual Eve and she gets away by turning into a tree (apparently the Tree of Knowledge); then the Archons rape a cloudy mirage Eve. It more clearly parallels elements of Greek myth where Hera was rescued but got assaulted in her cloudy form. A simulacrum was molested by whoever it was. It also seems directly reflected with Daphne, who has to run from the lustful urges of Apollo and out-wits him by somehow becoming a tree. It may be just shared myththemes. Genesis abounds in stories parallel to ancient Greek myths. I have a hunch that the ultimate template of the Archons as rapists is just a slight variant of an old Jewish idea that Orthodox rabbis propounded of where Cain got his evil nature. Why was he a murderer when he must be so close to the creation of God? Where did this bad element come from? As the Church Lady on SNL would say, “Could it be Satan?” He must have had satanic DNA. First John comes pretty darn close to saying that. I think that it’s again an inherited notion; and it’s trying to explain the origin of evil in humanity. Especially since later on in On the Origin of the World, they talk about how humanity is divided into these different groups, these different strata. What makes the difference between them? Well, they all have these souls that have been projected into them by the good guys, Pistis Sophia and so on. But these people, these early humans, were molested by the Archons too, though with varying degrees of success. Therefore, the real slobs, the immoral, the evil — they are predominated by the sperm seed, the DNA of the Archons. But many of the others were immune to their influence and that explains the mix in the early church — though I think they mean the whole human race. And they’re trying to explain why in the early church congregation you have people like them, the Sethian Gnostics who know what the deal is. And other people that don’t know and would persecute them if they knew who they were. But it’s theodicy. How did we get to this intermixing of evil in a world that among souls who were planted by Pistis Sophia and so on? It’s not completely consistent or at least I can’t follow it consistently in every place, but I suspect it’s just what the whole Gnostic thing is ultimately a theodicy. If there’s a good God way up there, how did the world get as it is? How did people get as they are? Must be the DNA from the Archons or Satan or whoever else. Looking for politics under every bush is a kind of a theological McCarthyism. It’s really a big fad today to say that Paul had prophetic knowledge of post-colonial leftism. So, when he’s talking about Rome he really means the United States. I think that’s just typical liberal manipulation of texts to make them a ventriloquist dummy. MC: Both On the Origin of the World and The Hypostasis of the Archons have the story of the enthronement of Sabaoth, the redeemed Archon who gets put into heaven. Is this a story that was going around or what do you know of Sabaoth? RP: This is really one of the most striking things. Why would they redeem this one son of Yaldabaoth, the Demiurge? And they kind of split him into two characters, it seems to me. In fact, they used to say Yaldabaoth is a slight garbling of Yahweh-Sabaoth – Lord of Hosts. They even bring up that derivation only with Sabaoth — that he is known as the Lord of Powers or Lord of Hosts. It’s interesting to me because they’re trying to say, “You know the creation isn’t all that bad.” They talk about Yaldabaoth as the ultimate creator, but the world we know and the heavens and all that stuff were made by Sabaoth after he was reformed. Are they kind of mitigating the pessimism of the original idea? It seems like it is since all this happened according to the will of Pistis Sophia and the ultimate Father. This all looks like this typical re-assimilation degree by degree to the social order against which the radical movement first repudiated and differentiated themselves. Like Marcionism, it seems to be a kind of going back some steps toward the world that Gnosticism simply rejected. I wonder if that’s what’s happening here, but there are probably better interpretations out there. MC: What’s also striking in The Hypostasis of the Archons is you don’t have a Jesus figure. In fact, you don’t even have a Seth figure. Somehow the Gnostic revealers is Eleleth and Norea. Why do you think this is? RP: My guess has to do with where they got the idea of Norea incinerating the ark. That’s got to mean something. And apparently there were loads of Norea texts that we don’t even have that are mentioned in these texts. That always sets off my suspicions that we have a kind of compilation and harmonization of very different original versions of Gnosticism — like why are there different Sophia analogs as well? Some of them in the same texts. Why did they bother differentiating Zoe from Sophia and all that? What’s the difference between her and the spiritual Eve? I sort of suspect maybe each of these was the analogous figure in a different form of the religion — just like all the goddesses and the Olympian Pantheon are really pretty much versions of each other. There’s not that much difference in Islam as well. Are there really three goddesses of Mecca? They’re all pretty much the same character and do the same thing; and so you wonder if groups, clans, or sects met one another as their membership perhaps was shrinking like modern congregations and said, “You know these people believe pretty much what we do though even if they use different names. What the heck, let’s put them all together!” That was Albrecht Alt’s view of where you got the gods of the fathers in Genesis. They started as gods or totems for different groups that joined together and established a hierarchy. The Abraham people, the biggest group and moon worshippers, ended on top with the sun god Issac and other moon gods coming later in the genealogy. Then they said, “Oh, what the heck, they’re all the same, forget the sun/moon thing”. I suspect you can see that sort of evolution-buy in in the Nag Hammadi texts which otherwise seems needlessly redundant and pointless (like listening to me). You don’t need this much of it. So why did they stuff it with all these equivalent Demiurges and so forth? I don’t know but I’m guessing that they’re just trying to get everybody’s favorite in. MC: What about this idea of Jesus being sort of absent or as you once told me, he is just sort of tacked in the Apocryphon of John. Why was this done if these groups thought of themselves as Christian? RP: It’s possible they felt they had to take refuge in that group, that they had to go underground. I mean, we know that in some types of Islam in times of persecution you had feigned conversion. You had Muslims and Jews feigning conversion to Catholicism to avoid persecution. It’s possible that’s what they did. They figured the stuff that we really believed as Sethians could get into the wrong hands here, so let’s make sure we have a vestigial reference to Jesus, saying, “Well we’re kinda weird but that’s alright, it’s Christian.” I don’t know because, as you say, you do have to explain why it is tacked on. The Apocalypse of Adam seems to be an obvious Zoroastrian text. It describes the Illuminator and how it’s really Zoroaster coming in different versions of it. Different iterations over the ages as different Persian heroes and prophets and all that. Suddenly, at the end of it, Jesus is one of them. I’m obviously subjective, but that to me reads like somebody that converted — really converted to Christianity — but figured the whole Zoroastrian thing was like another Old Testament leading up to it, so Jesus really has a place in this. Or even in Melchizedek in the Nag Hammadi texts, that kind of looks like these are Sethians who just found they could graft their faith on to Christianity and really did believe that Jesus is a second coming of Melchizedek. It’s just another layer added to the faith represented there; but in some of them Jesus seems just tacked on, but you could say the same thing about the Epistle of James in the Canon. Jesus is hardly there either. So who knows? My favorite weird non-Jesus thing in the Nag Hammadi texts is the Apocalypse of Paul where there is no mention at all of Jesus — and Paul is the Gnostic Redeemer. Holy Mackerel! What is going on? I think the Nag Hammadi texts are like a fossil record of an incredibly diverse early Christianity. That is underestimated in some of the discussions of these texts. They’re even not taken seriously by those who are sympathetically interested in them; and seem to regard them as some sort of ancient science fiction novel. Maybe it’s like Dr. Doom or something. I think Elaine Pagels is right. These were the scriptures of living religions. People believed and studied this and had a spirituality based on it. There had to have been living religions or living real Christianity, as Bart Ehrman says in Lost Christianities. Whole species of early Christianities died out or got stamped out. MC: This is the same reason that you have such different interpretations of the serpent it seems. In the Apocryphon of John, the serpent is Yaldabaoth but in The Hypostases of the Archons and On the Origin of the World the serpent is Sophia. Didn’t Manicheans believe the serpent was actually Jesus? RP: I think so. I do remember that Philo of Alexandria said that the name of the serpent was Eve. What? And there’s no possibility of Christian Gnostic influence. Philo was a Hellenistic philosophically oriented Jew. He wasn’t a Christian, but his claims fortify my thinking on this that Gnosticism wasn’t just some wacky brand X version of Christianity somebody cooked up in their basement. These are much more widely known important beliefs and whole families of beliefs. MC: Doesn’t this have to do with the name in Hebrew and Aramaic of Eve and the serpent? That’s where this confusion or these interpretations came about? RP: I’m more used to thinking of Eve as the same as the goddess Hebe from the Greeks and also Aruru, from way back in the Gilgamesh epic who was the mother of all living. But I’m not versed enough in the linguistics to know if the link between Eve and the serpent is like an opportunistic pun like most of the etymological notes in the Old Testament; or if they actually do derive from the same thing. I don’t know those languages, so it’s tough to say. MC: Don’t some rabbis interpret it as Eve actually having sex with the serpent? RP: That’s where we got Cain. It explicitly says this, chalks up all of the children of Adam and Eve to this in On the Origin of the World. That’s not a new notion because rabbis already said that about Cain and the sons of God, the Nephilim. It’s a very old idea. MC: Yes, so the Gnostics were basically just rebooting old texts like everyone else. RP: They might have had their own spin on it. They might have like all of these weird names in the Nag Hammadi text and the fact that they call them the “incorruptibility” and things like that. It’s possible that this implies they’re allegorizing somewhat. They don’t go on to explain why in any great depth. On the other hand, the whole thing is kind of like a huge puzzle — like apocalypses which ultimately come from the same source. We’re not making this easy because we’re not aiming at idiots. In fact, if you’re an idiot, good luck understanding this, just like the Book of Revelation says. MC: I think it was Elaine Pagels that said Orthodoxy is grade school, the Gnostic texts would be grad school. This is for learned people who had a background and who were the initiated, right? RP: That is certainly what they thought. You’ve got the kid version of it and I think there’s something to that historically. I mean, that’s why the Valentinians were members of Catholic congregations. Why would they even bother staying there if they didn’t view themselves as part of the same faith? They just wanted to keep an eye out for people that were ready to graduate too. Then they say to you that there is more to this just like Jesus with a rich young ruler when he said, “Well, you know, stage one right, the Commandments?” “Oh yeah, yeah, I’ve kept those all my life.” And he says, “Well, ok, if you would be perfect or mature.” I think that’s the Gnostic stance. There really is something to it because like Adolf von Harnack said: the lasting legacy of Gnosticism, which otherwise died out, is the pre-existent Christology that the Jesus who appeared on Earth was a manifestation of a pre-existing heavenly being. He says that must come from Gnosticism. I think that Harnack is correct. Not only that but once you start looking through those lenses you can see that whole soteriology thing is Plan B for the psykikoi or pew potatoes, as I like to call them, that comes from the mystery religions. This is the idea of joining the Savior in his saving deed by initiation rites. This all has to be part and parcel of the mystery religions. The Gospels, with all the miracles and all that, are typical hagiographies, similar to hero tales of the gods and demigods and so on. And so Christianity, as we know it, is a secondary or tertiary fusion of these items; and that their very existence implies there were older more sophisticated levels, especially with a Gnostic thing that we do have dumbed-down in the New Testament. The Gnostic thing was probably the earlier, and what we have is Sunday school version, which I don’t mean to disparage because the classic Western Christian story is a great epic and much is to be learned from it. I have to admit that reading some of these Gnostics texts is almost like reading an auto repair manual. MC: It seems The Hypostasis of the Archons is an earlier text than On the Origin of the World. The latter is a big soup. They’re throwing in heroes from different religions and so forth. And at the end of On the Origin of the World, there seems to be a universalist message, while The Hypostasis of the Archons only the root of Norea gets saved. Do you think later on they wanted to make sure everybody got saved in Alexandria? RP: Could be because you have the same sort of thing in other apocryphal apocalypses of the apostle. Everybody is going to heaven finally. I like what Dominique Crossan says in an interview about that: “Don’t tell everybody they’re getting saved or they’ll start taking liberties.” Or like in Mahāyāna Buddhism where nobody’s getting saved till everybody’s getting saved. It seems more like the evangelistic mandate – “Gee, I sure wish everybody would be saved, let’s try to save ’em all” and merges into the idea of universal salvation whether you reach them or not. I wouldn’t be surprised, though you do see the opposite in things like the Book of Thomas the Contender or Q. Both seem to have discernable, detachable, later strata where there is this bitter, resentful cursing of those who have not listened to the message. And so, it can go both ways: “You bastards, you didn’t accept what we said, well you asked for it, the hell with ya!” But different people have different religious sympathies, and it can go either way. Other articles on the Archons: Please help keep this Red Pill Cafeteria open. We are 100% audience supported (and check out Bob’s transcript on the Gnostic Paul in Other Voices of Gnosticism):

To help navigate Budapest’s vibrant mix of art spaces, T asked Barnabas Bencsik, the head of Hungary’s leading contemporary showcase, the Ludwig Museum (Komor Marcell utca 1; lumu.hu), for his top picks. 1. Vintage Gallery (Magyar utca 26; vintage.hu) promotes Hungarian photography by both early-20th-century artists like André Kertesz and Martin Munkacsi and contemporary shooters like Dezso Szabo and Gabor Osz (whose work is pictured above). 2. Kisterem (Kepiro utca 5; kisterem.hu) Margit Valko’s downtown gallery champions both established artists and young talent on the verge of global recognition. Recent shows have included the childlike drawings of Julia Vecsei and graphic paintings by Imre Bak. 3. Trafó (Liliom utca 41; trafo.hu) is a well-established arts space that puts on performances and exhibitions by some of Europe and Hungary’s leading musicians, dancers and artists. 4. Studio Gallery (Rottenbiller utca 35;studio.c3.hu) shows work produced by the Studio of Young Artists Association, a residency and support program dating back to the days of socialism. 5. Demo (Akacfa utca 51), an initiative by students from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, is an incubator for new ideas in art and design. Traditionally the heartland of Jewish life in Budapest, the Seventh District in recent decades has fallen into decay and neglect. But designers and club owners have begun moving into its empty buildings and courtyards, giving the neighborhood a newfound vitality. The photographer Claudia Martins and the graphic artist Zita Majoros opened Printa (Rumbach Sebestyen utca 10; printa.hu), which houses an art gallery , a showroom for young designers and a cafe serving direct-trade espresso. The owners also run courses in silk-screen printing. At night the district really comes to life, with partygoers funneling through narrow streets to an ever-growing roster of “ruin pubs” like Szimplakert (Kazinczky utca 14; szimpla.hu) — which is decorated with heaps of trashy furniture, moody lighting and Trabant body parts — and the courtyard bar Fogashaz (Akacfa utca 51; fogashaz.hu), where a sign reading “False Teeth” gives away its previous life as a dental clinic. On Sunday mornings, the party continues at the restored fin de siècle Gozsdu Udvar (between Kiraly utca 13 and Dob utca 16), six interlinked courtyards of restaurants and bars that transform into an outdoor market. Once the hub of an effervescent literary scene, the cafes of Budapest share a Central European heritage of coffee, cake and culture. Glimpse the past at grand dames like Gerbeaud Café and Confectionery (Vorosmarty ter 7-8) and New York Café (Erzsebet korut 9-11), both fine places to savor Hapsburg-era confections such as the Eszterhazy cake, with sponge cake layers, chopped nuts and striped icing, and the caramel-topped Dobos cake (above), first sampled by Emperor Franz Joseph I in the 1880s.

December 4, 2003 Group Releases E.U. Anti-Semitism Study In an act of defiance against the European Union, the main Jewish body in Europe has released an unpublished report that found rising anti-Semitism among Muslims in Europe. Critics who want the study made public said the Vienna-based E.U. Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia was not prepared to deal with the sensitive subject of anti-Semitism among Muslims, who constitute Europe's largest minority. The E.U. department that commissioned the report said the data was too flawed to publish. "We cannot accept that a study be confiscated on the grounds that it could create tensions," Serge Cwajgenbaum, secretary general of the European Jewish Congress (EJC), said in explaining the decision by EJC President Coby Benatoff to release the report without E.U. permission. The furor that emerged last week around the E.U. decision to withhold the report reflects increasing concern among European Jewish groups for their safety. It also raises questions about the transparency of an organization that is meant to fight discrimination against all minorities in Europe. The report was prepared last year for the Monitoring Center, but it was not released after its completion in February. The Monitoring Center disclosed recently that it was preparing a new report to replace the first one. Those who released the report publicly insisted that they are not trying to spread fear. "Most of the Muslims in Europe, and particularly in France, are not anti-Semitic," said Francois Zimeray, a French member of the E.U. Parliament. "They are looking for integration for themselves, and they are looking for peace in the Middle East." However, he said, "this study shows how deep the link is in Europe between criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. It also shows how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fuels anti-Semitism and how this conflict is used by some to organize the revival of old European Christian anti-Semitic myths." Cwajgenbaum said other attempts to address the problem of growing anti-Semitism had failed. "We have approached governments on a national level and on a European level," he said. "And in spite of good will and good intentions, the result is that Jews are still being threatened, which means that more has to be done. And this is one of the reasons why," he said, the EJC "decided to circulate this document." The report, "Manifestations of Anti-Semitism in the European Union," prepared by Berlin's Center for Research on Anti-Semitism for the Monitoring Center, has been withheld for the past 10 months. The Monitoring Center insisted it withheld the report on the basis of quality. It is preparing a fuller report to be released in early 2004. Critics suspect, though, that the real reason for withholding the report is political. The research team that prepared the report, Juliane Wetzel and Werner Bergmann, have said as much. Finished just before the Iraq War began last spring, the report found an increase in anti-Semitic crimes committed by Europeans of Arab or Muslim background, as well as by some left-wing extremists and anti-globalization activists. The EJC would not say how it obtained a copy of the report, which it released Monday in English on the official Web site of the French Jewish community, www.crif.org. It was expected to be available on the Web sites of Jewish organizations in all 15 E.U. member countries. The World Jewish Congress (WJC) joined in the effort almost immediately. "We are e-mailing it to virtually anyone we know," said Elan Steinberg, WJC executive vice president. "We think the suppression of this study was an act of intellectual dishonesty and moral treachery, and if the E.U. won't release its own poll, we will do it for them." The report not only focuses on sources of anti-Semitism but "also urges the governments of Europe to act," Zimeray said. "This is why it is not acceptable to know that this report has been kept secret for so long." The release of the report came two days after Zimeray, who is Jewish, disseminated excerpts via e-mail. Zimeray would not go into detail about how he got the report but said it did not come from the Berlin institute that prepared it. He said that he had urged the Monitoring Center to release the study before taking measures into his own hands. Zimeray said he intends to follow up with the Monitoring Center. "I want to know why this report was sleeping in their offices since February 2003," he said. "I want to know why transparency hasn't been the policy of this institute. And I want written answers to these questions." Neither the institute nor the Monitoring Center could be reached for comment Monday. The 105-page report found an "increasing number of anti-Semitic attacks, committed frequently by young Arabs/Muslims and by far-right extremists" in most E.U. member countries. The rise in attacks "was accompanied by a sharp criticism of Israeli politics across the entire political spectrum, a criticism that in some cases employed anti-Semitic stereotypes," the report states. In another section, the report says that "observers point to an 'increasingly blatantly anti-Semitic Arab and Muslim media,' including audiotapes and sermons, in which the call is not only made to join the struggle against Israel but also against Jews across the world. Although leading Muslim organizations express their opposition to this propaganda, observers assume that its calling for the use of violence may exert a certain influence on readers and listeners." Bergmann and Wetzel were warned that their report might be seen as making negative generalizations about Muslims in Europe. However, the report cites several examples of Muslim-Jewish cooperation and Muslim condemnation of anti-Semitic acts, and also notes that Muslims often are victims of prejudice themselves. "Of course we have some Muslim activists who are very anti-Semitic," Zimeray said, "but the majority are looking for peace, and that is a good reason to have hope." Cwajgenbaum said the EJC is planning to organize discussions among Jews, Christians and Muslims in early 2004, preferably in Turkey.

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Version 1 is here. Why build it in such a provocative place? Well, duh, because it is such a provocative place. See also Michael Ramirez’s take on it. - NYC Community Board Oks Ground Zero Mosque Plans – Lines from here quoted in last panel of comic. - Ground Zero Mosque Imam Tied to “Freedom Flotilla” – Dr. Mahathir’s Perdana is involved. The real story behind the Gaza Flotilla here. - “Cordoba House” Suggests Muslim Triumphalism in Construction of Mosque At Ground Zero – Cordoba was, of course, the seat of the caliphate established in what is now modern Spain after the Islamic invasion from North Africa in the 8th century A.D. - Why There Should Be No Mosques at Ground Zero – The placement of mosques throughout Islamic history has been an expression of conquest and superiority over non-Muslims. Muslims built the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in order to proclaim Islam’s superiority to Judaism. The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus was built over the Church of St. John the Baptist, and the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople was converted into a mosque, to express the superiority of Islam over Christianity. Historian Sita Ram Goel has estimated that over 2,000 mosques in India were built on the sites of Hindu temples for the same reason. - Sarah Palin Bashes Plans For Ground Zero Mosque – Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing. So yes, nothing is ‘proven’ about the true motives behind the building of this complex. And thus, any protests out of anger and perceived insult are probably irrational and – perhaps even – intolerant. As AoSHQ puts it in reaction to the centre being finally cleared to go: If you really want to reach out to others, one of the first rules is you don’t do it in a way that is provocative and insulting to the people you allegedly are trying to come together with. Very often activists hide their activism in the gauzy, politically correct language of ‘out reach’ and ‘tolerance’ but their actions are anything but. I’m not advocating that we sink to the level of these backward nations. No one is denying the organizers of the Ground Zero mosque project have a legal right to do what they are doing. I’m simply saying, if you’re goal is to really enhance understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims, there are a lot better ways to do it and places more in need of it than the area around the World Trade Center. But when the shoes was on the other foot, the authorities did not hesitate to play it safe when it came to ‘perceived insult’ – valid or not: St George’s cross, St George himself, England’s flag, the Holocaust, drawings, and everything in between. Double standards from liberal dhimmis, once again. Compare and contrast an earlier Roman Catholic reaction: The building of a Carmelite convent at Auschwitz in the 1980s so wounded Jewish sensibilities that Pope John Paul II ordered it removed in 1993, even though the Holocaust was not carried out in the name of any faith. A Muslim speaks out that the mosque is an act of fitna. Kudos to Moonbattery for featurage of this statement in comic form.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Saturday, August 09, 2008 Wednesday, August 06, 2008 a moment....a breath...for Hasan This post is for my friend Hasan who left us 5 years ago today.... I wrote this in August of 2003: I see Hasan everywhere..in the streets of Ramallah and New York, on the subway, in Ziryab and in Union Square, in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. Whenever I think of Hasan I see him laughing and happy. I was overjoyed when Hasan told me he was coming to New York. I couldn't wait. Hasan arrived in New York in the spring of 2001 full of energy, big ideas and big plans. He charmed and amazed everyone around him with his joy of life, his free spirit and his dreams. I loved being by his side. Hasan loved people and made many friends from every walk of life and background. There are so many stories to tell about his life in New York. There were the days in Union Square, his dancing, his art projects, his solo exhibition, the demonstrations, the eggs he cooked, September 11th, and much, much more. Before I left New York last May, he told me he was going to South Africa to live on a beach and work on his book. Months later, I was happily surprised to see him in his beloved Ramallah. The last time I saw Hasan was the night before his death. He came to my house bursting with joy from being back in Palestine. He had just found a house in Jifna in which he was going to settle in to finish his book. I left the day after Hasan's funeral. As the plane flew over Jaffa, I looked down at the sea and remembered the necklace Hasan loved to wear. A white spoon with a scoop of blue glass, like a spoonful of sea, hung from his neck. He used to laugh and say he wore it so that he could take the sea with him wherever he went. I know Hasan will be with many of us wherever we go. Thursday, July 24, 2008 Don't Play Israel Don't Play Israel joins other groups in celebrating the list of artists to recently cancel appearances/engagements in Israel. We believe the cultural boycott is gaining in effect. Recent cancellations include: We believe that the hard work of activists and calls issued by organizations such as PACBI have been effective in increasing consciousness of the boycott -- many other artists are refusing to play Israel, but are doing so quietly. The next challenge is to encourage these artists to publicly engage with the boycott. And much remains to be done. Artists to have recently announced upcoming concerts include: Details on how to contact these artists appear on the Don't Play Israel blog: Pass on the word... the cultural boycott is spreading. Monday, July 21, 2008 Slingshot Hip Hop comes to Ramallah finally!!!!!!!!!!! My friend Jackie Salloum came to Ramallah to show her film last Thursday and we were so lucky to have a live concert after the film. I love DAM! Thank you! Here is the trailer of the film: Thursday, July 03, 2008 Untitled (servees) (بلا عنوان(سرفيس I am exhibiting a new work in this years Jerusalem Show. It opens next Wednesday night so if you are in Palestine please come to the opening and party! There are a lot of great artists taking part in the show. I can not post this without noting the fact that most of my friends and my family will not be able to come because they are West Bank I.D holders living in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus etc and the Israeli state forbids them from entering Jerusalem. Untitled (servees) (بلا عنوان(سرفيس "Untitled (servees)" is an audio work located at Damascus Gate (Bab il Amoud) which stands at the start of the road leading to Nablus and onward to Damascus. Once a massive hub of the main regional transport network of serveeses (communal taxis), it had direct links to Beirut, Amman, Baghdad, Kuwait as well as every urban Palestinian center such as Lyd, Jaffa, Ramallah, Nablus, Gaza, Ramle. Damascus Gate was the point where servees drivers used to pick up customers by calling out the names of their various destinations. "Untitled (servees)" recalls that purpose and the once fluid space of movement, connection and exchange and attempts to make visible the fractures and interactions of everyday life within the disintegrating urban landscape. Calling out cities servees drivers recall their destinations. This audio work is a part of ongoing long-term research, which explores and investigates the disappearing transportation network in Palestine and its implications on the physical and social experience of space. This is a result of the ongoing fragmentation and continued destruction of the urban landscape by the Israeli Occupation. "بلا عنوان (سرفيس)" هو عمل فنيّ سماعيّ مسجل في "باب العامود" والذي يقع على بداية الطريق المؤدية إلى مدينة نابلس، ومنها تستمر إلى دمشق. كان "باب العامود" في فترة ما المركز الرئيسي لشبكة مواصلات المركبات العمومية، وكان نقطة الوصل المباشرة لبيروت، عمّان بغداد،والكويت، بالإضافة إلى مراكز مدنية رئيسية في فلسطين، مثل اللدّ و الرملة، يافا، رام الله، نابلس،وغزّة. في ذلك الزمن،كان سائقو هذه المركبات العمومية يتجمعون في ساحة باب العامود ليقلّواُ الركاب عن طريق نداء - بأصوات مرتفعة - أسماء المدن المختلفة التي يقصدونها. وبناءً على هذا التاريخ، يقوم عمل "بلا عنوان (سرفيس)" بإعادة ذكرى ذلك الزمن الذي كانت فيه الحركة حرّة تتدفق بلا عقبات، حيث كان هناك تواصل وتبادل بين الناس. ويحاول أن يظهر التشقق و طبيعة التفاعل في الحياة اليومية ما بين المناطق الجغرافية المدنية والتي في حالة تفسّخ مستمر. وبمناداة أسماء المدن، يتذكر سائقو السرفيسات تلك الأماكن التي كانوا يقصدونها. هذا العمل السماعي هو جز من مشروع بحث طويل الأمد الذي يتحرّى ويحقق في واقع تلاشي شبكة المواصلات في فلسطين وتداعيات هذا التلاشي وتأثيره على مفهوم الحيّز من النواحِ المادية والاجتماعية؛ وما هذا إلاّ نتيجة استمرار أعمال تشقيق وتدمير الأراضي المتعمدة من قبل الاحتلال الإسرائيلي MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE JERUSALEM SHOW The Jerusalem Show, edition 0.1, July 9-19, 2008 A Contemporary Art Show in the Old City of Jerusalem Wednesday, 9 July 19:00 Opening Exhibition Tour with curator Jack Persekian starting from Al-Ma'mal Foundation, New Gate 21:00 Opening Reception , Padico Services, Haret Al-Sa'idiyeh Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Mohammad Al-Hawajri, Jawad Al-Malhi, Basma Al-Sharif, Berndt Anwander, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Phil Collins, Aissa Deebi, Sophie Elbaz, Roza El-Hassan, Hana Farah, Akram Halabi, Emily Jacir, Leopold Kessler, Jumana Manna, Sliman Mansour, Henrik Placht, Judy Price, Nathalie Retivoff, Peter Riedlinger, Nida Sinnokrot, Samir Srouji, Oraib Toukan, Elisabeth Von-Samsonow, Wafaa Yasin, Inass Yassin, Manar Zuaibi Thursday, June 26, 2008 Although I am in Ramallah I wanted to post this Toronto exhibition for anyone who may be in that area. This show is very dear to me because it brings together the indigenous peoples of Palestine and North America. The opening is June 28th so please drop by if you live there. We will be doing a panel - I am going to be speaking live from Ramallah on that same day. When engaging with the similarity of colonial oppression between the Indigenous peoples of North America and Palestine, the late Edward Said stated that the task at hand was 'to universalize the crisis, to give greater human scope to what a particular race or nation suffered, to associate that experience with the suffering of others.' Enacting Emancipation was born from this intention. This study of the interconnectedness of the First Nations and Palestinian experience was inspired by the sixtieth-year memorial of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe of 1948). The exhibition unravels a universal and international system of colonial technique and strategy, while remaining fully cognizant of the dangers in homogenizing resistant cultures. The curators sought contrast in defining strategies of resistance, which elucidated the fact that the differences of defense were culturally based and inheritably Indigenous. Together the artists in this exhibition - James Luna, Emily Jacir, Erica Lord, and John Halaka - signify the individualized experiences of Fourth World peoples who have been stripped of context, denied distinction, and disenfranchised from traditional territories. Together they present an immediacy of need in defending land and citizenry, the recognition of sovereignty, and their personal engagements in the quest for freedom. Monday, June 23, 2008 Denied the Right to go Home I am Palestinian – born and raised – and my Palestinian roots go back centuries. No one can change that even if they tell me that Jerusalem, my birth place, is not Palestine, even if they tell me that Palestine doesn’t exist, even if they take away all my papers and deny me entry to my own home, even if they humiliate me and take away my rights. I AM PALESTINIAN. Name: Zeina Emile Sam’an Ashrawi; Date of Birth: July 30, 1981; Ethnicity: Arab. This is what was written on my Jerusalem ID card. An ID card to a Palestinian is much more than just a piece of paper; it is my only legal documented relationship to Palestine. Born in Jerusalem, I was given a Jerusalem ID card (the blue ID), an Israeli Travel Document and a Jordanian Passport stamped Palestinian (I have no legal rights in Jordan). I do not have an Israeli Passport, a Palestinian Passport or an American Passport. Here is my story: I came to the United States as a 17 year old to finish high school in Pennsylvania and went on to college and graduate school and subsequently got married and we are currently living in Northern Virginia. I have gone home every year at least once to see my parents, my family and my friends and to renew my Travel Document as I was only able to extend its validity once a year from Washington DC. My father and I would stand in line at the Israeli Ministry of Interior in Jerusalem, along with many other Palestinians, from 4:30 in the morning to try our luck at making it through the revolving metal doors of the Ministry before noon – when the Ministry closed its doors - to try and renew the Travel Document. We did that year after year. As a people living under an occupation, being faced with constant humiliation by an occupier was the norm but we did what we had to do to insure our identity was not stolen from us. In August of 2007 I went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC to try and extend my travel document and get the usual “Returning Resident” VISA that the Israelis issue to Palestinians holding an Israeli Travel Document. After watching a few Americans and others being told that their visas would be ready in a couple of weeks my turn came. I walked up to the bulletproof glass window shielding the lady working behind it and under a massive picture of the Dome of the Rock and the Walls of Jerusalem that hangs on the wall in the Israeli consulate, I handed her my papers through a little slot at the bottom of the window. “Shalom” she said with a smile. “Hi” I responded, apprehensive and scared. As soon as she saw my Travel Document her demeanor immediately changed. The smile was no longer there and there was very little small talk between us, as usual. After sifting through the paperwork I gave her she said: “where is your American Passport?” I explained to her that I did not have one and that my only Travel Document is the one she has in her hands. She was quiet for a few seconds and then said: “you don’t have an American Passport?” suspicious that I was hiding information from her. “No!” I said. She was quiet for a little longer and then said: “Well, I am not sure we’ll be able to extend your Travel Document.” I felt the blood rushing to my head as this is my only means to get home! I asked her what she meant by that and she went on to tell me that since I had been living in the US and because I had a Green Card they would not extend my Travel Document. After taking a deep breath to try and control my temper I explained to her that a Green Card is not a Passport and I cannot use it to travel outside the US. My voice was shaky and I was getting more and more upset (and a mini shouting match ensued) so I asked her to explain to me what I needed to do. She told me to leave my paperwork and we would see what happens. A couple of weeks later I received a phone call from the lady telling me that she was able to extended my Travel Document but I would no longer be getting the “Returning Resident” VISA. Instead, I was given a 3 month tourist VISA. Initially I was happy to hear that the Travel Document was extended but then I realized that she said “tourist VISA”. Why am I getting a tourist VISA to go home? Not wanting to argue with her about the 3 month VISA at the time so as not to jeopardize the extension of my Travel Document, I simply put that bit of information on the back burner and went on to explain to her that I wasn’t going home in the next 3 months. She instructed me to come back and apply for another VISA when I did intend on going. She didn’t add much and just told me that it was ready for pick-up. So I went to the Embassy and got my Travel Document and the tourist VISA that was stamped in it. My husband, my son and I were planning on going home to Palestine this summer. So a month before we were set to leave (July 8, 2008) I went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC, papers in hand, to ask for a VISA to go home. I, again, stood in line and watched others get VISAs to go to my home. When my turn came I walked up to the window; “Shalom” she said with a smile on her face, “Hi” I replied. I slipped the paperwork in the little slot under the bulletproof glass and waited for the usual reaction. I told her that I needed a returning resident VISA to go home. She took the paperwork and I gave her a check for the amount she requested and left the Embassy without A few days ago I got a phone call from Dina at the Israeli Embassy telling me that she needed the expiration date of my Jordanian Passport and my Green Card. I had given them all the paperwork they needed time and time again and I thought it was a good way on their part to waste time so that I didn’t get my VISA in time. Regardless, I called over and over again only to get their voice mail. I left a message with the information they needed but kept called every 10 minutes hoping to speak to someone to make sure that they received the information in an effort to expedite the tedious process. I finally got a hold of someone. I told her that I wanted to make sure they received the information I left on their voice mail and that I wanted to make sure that my paperwork was in order. She said, after consulting with someone in the background (I assume it was Dina), that I needed to fax copies of both my Jordanian Passport and my Green Card and that giving them the information over the phone wasn’t acceptable. So I immediately made copies and faxed them to Dina. A few hours later my cell phone rang. “Zeina?” she said. “Yes” I replied, knowing exactly who it was and immediately asked her if she received the fax I sent. She said: “ehhh, I was not looking at your file when you called earlier but your Visa was denied and your ID and Travel Document are no longer valid.” “Excuse me?” I said in disbelief. “Sorry, I cannot give you a visa and your ID and Travel Document are no longer valid. This decision came from Israel not from I cannot describe the feeling I got in the pit of my stomach. “Why?” I asked and Dina went on to tell me that it was because I had a Green Card. I tried to reason with Dina and to explain to her that they could not do that as this is my only means of travel home and that I wanted to see my parents, but to no avail. Dina held her ground and told me that I wouldn’t be given the VISA and then said: “Let the Americans give you a Travel Document”. I have always been a strong person and not one to show weakness but at that moment I lost all control and started crying while Dina was on the other end of the line holding my only legal documents linking me to my home. I began to plead with her to try and get the VISA and not revoke my documents; “put yourself in my shoes, what would you do? You want to go see your family and someone is telling you that you can’t! What would you do? Forget that you’re Israeli and that I’m Palestinian and think about this for a minute!” “Sorry” she said,”I know but I can’t do anything, the decision came from Israel”. I tried to explain to her over and over again that I could not travel without my Travel Document and that they could not do that – knowing that they could, and they had! This has been happening to many Palestinians who have a Jerusalem ID card. The Israeli government has been practicing and perfecting the art of ethnic cleansing since 1948 right under the nose of the world and no one has the power or the guts to do anything about it. Where else in the world does one have to beg to go to one’s own home? Where else in the world does one have to give up their identity for the sole reason of living somewhere else for a period of time? Imagine if an American living in Spain for a few years wanted to go home only to be told by the American government that their American Passport was revoked and that they wouldn’t be able to come back! If I were a Jew living anywhere around the world and had no ties to the area and had never set foot there, I would have the right to go any time I wanted and get an Israeli Passport. In fact, the Israelis encourage that. I however, am not Jewish but I was born and raised there, my parents, family and friends still live there and I cannot go back! I am neither a criminal nor a threat to one of the most power countries in the world, yet I am alienated and expelled from my As it stands right now, I will be unable to go home – I am one of many. Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Waltz with Bashir - Trailer I really want to see this. Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Saturday, May 17, 2008 "Salt of this Sea" Premiere at Cannes and Trailer !!!!!!!!!مبروك يا اختي I am so happy and proud of my sister Annemarie! Yesterday her film "Milh Hadha al-Bahr" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival!!!!! Here is a link to the festival page about her film: And here is a beautiful photo from the site (Photo:Julia Brechler) of them on the stage right before the screening: The film was supposed to premiere here last week but the Israelis denied my sister entry (see earlier post). That did not stop us from celebrating this momentous occasion with her! We all gathered together here in Ramallah and threw the "RAMALLAH CANNES PARTY (umbilical cord from Ramallah to Cannes)" We all raised our glasses high and got to do a video conference with the Annemarie and some of the cast and crew before they headed off to the red carpet and we spoke to them by phone. We were all together every step of the way. As soon as the film is scheduled to show here I will post it. In the meantime here is the trailer! Thursday, May 15, 2008 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 ENTRY DENIED: Annemarie Jacir Here is the letter Annemarie wrote after being brutally denied entry into Palestine yesterday at the Allenby Bridge. She was coming to attend the world premiere of her film and we were all going to celebrate her film and her success with her. For more information on this unofficial Israeli policy of denying entry: Here is a letter she wrote when she was sent back yesterday: I have been looking forward to this week for months now – it was to be one of the most important moments for me - the world premiere of our feature film "milh hadha al- bahr" (Salt of this Sea) in Palestine. The premiere was to take place in Amari Refugee camp in Ramallah, with the cast and crew, the people who helped make this film happen, who believe in it, to be in attendance. An outdoor screening and an occasion to share the completion of a project which has been the result of a five-year struggle. What made this event so special was that it is also a big celebration for us – that we received the incredible news that the film was selected for the Cannes Film Festival as an Official Selection (May 14th – 25th, 2008). As you may know, the Israeli Authorities have not allowed me to return to Palestine for 9 months now. Because of this we were not able to film a main scene of the film and in the end, the scene had to be shot in Marseille, France. My lawyer has been working now for eight months on the issue of my return home. So for the premiere of the film, I also had an invitation from the French Consulate in Jerusalem, who have been supporters of the film, and the International Art Academy of Ramallah were co-sponsoring the screening. There was nothing I was looking forward to more than fianlly being back in Palestine and sharing the film. From Amman, Jordan, I took the bus to the Allenby bridge (Sheikh Hussein) in order to cross the Jordanian border and enter the West Bank. I arrived at the bridge at 10 in the morning. The Israelis held me there for six hours, during which time I was interrogated approximately five times. In the beginning I was made to wait in the main room with all the other people crossing. After some time, I was taken to another section in the back, separated from the others, and spent the remaining period of my time waiting there alone. Every now and then people would come in and out of a door, sometimes to ask me questions, sometimes just on their way somewhere else. My telephone was taken from me. At the end, I was then taken to the general room once more and asked to sit and wait. After about 20 minutes, a woman in a blue uniform (the others wore a different uniform), came towards me with my passport in her hand and four security agents behind her. She handed me my passport and said, "The Israeli Ministry of Interior has denied you entry." I asked if a reason was given. She said, "You spend too much time here." I was then deported - escorted by two of the agents out of the terminal and onto a bus back to Jordan. I got on the bus. I felt like my legs weren't strong enough to carry me. Thursday, April 24, 2008 Milh Hadha al-Bahr (Salt of this Sea) GOING TO CANNES! The Palestinian film, Salt of this Sea ("milh hadha al bahr"), directed by Annemarie Jacir and starring Suheir Hammad and Saleh Bakri, has been accepted as an "Official Selection" of the Cannes Film Festival 2008. The takes place in May 2008, which is also the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Salt of this Sea, the first feature film by a Palestinian female director to be accepted to the , follows the story of third generation refugees in search of freedom and is a commemoration of the ongoing Nakba. In May 1948, was declared a "Jewish state" despite the fact that the majority of the indigenous population consisted of Palestinian Arabs, Christian and Muslim. Zionist leader David Ben Gurion instituted "Plan Dalet" in order to change the demographic make-up of historic Palestine and secure physical control over the territory. What followed is the expulsion and dispossession of 780,000 Palestinians from their homes and land (75% of the population). More than 530 Palestinian villages were depopulated and/or completely destroyed. And the world's largest and longest-standing refugee population was created. Before , the film will have its world premiere in Amari Refugee camp in with the presence of the film director Annemarie Jacir and main cast. Milh Hadha al-Bahr (Salt of this Sea) Directed by Annemarie Jacir Produced by JBA Production Soraya, born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian refugees, discovers that her grandfather's savings were frozen in a bank account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948. Determined to reclaim what is hers, she fulfills her life-long dream of "returning" to Palestine. She meets a young man whose ambition, contrary to her, is to leave forever and find a life far away. Tired of the constraints that dictate their lives, they know that in order to be free, they must take things into their own hands, even if it's against the law. Monday, March 24, 2008 Thursday, January 10, 2008 Bush's "vision" is Palestine's nightmare The illustration commissioned by the Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory that Al-Quds newspaper refused to publish. From ELECTRONIC INTIFADA Bush's "vision" is Palestine's nightmare Sam Bahour writing from al-Bireh/Ramallah, occupied West Bank, Live from Palestine, 10 January 2008 US President George W. Bush landed in Israel yesterday on his first presidential trip to the country. He participated in a press conference in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, what both men termed a "historic" and "monumental" occasion. After listening to both so-called leaders make their opening comments and fielding questions from journalists, the only groundbreaking revelation I could register was that Bush's naivete, either real or feigned, only served the agenda of one party in the region -- Hamas. The radical Islamists at Hamas could not find a better recruiter for their movement if they tried. My opinion may be extreme, but then again, I live in extreme limbo under Israeli military occupation, shaped by a policy both men continuously refuse to call by its true name -- state terror. My opinion is certainly subjective but I started my day by reading a communique from the real world: a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that the background of the issue: on 28 June 2006 the Israeli Air Force bombed the power plant in the Gaza Strip, destroying all six transformers and cutting 43 percent of Gaza's total power capacity. The report states, "households in the Gaza Strip are now experiencing regular power cuts" and notes that "the irregular [electricity] supply causes additional problems. Running water in Gaza is only available in most households for around eight hours per day. If there is no power when water is available, it cannot be pumped above ground level, reducing the availability of running water to between four and six hours per day." The result of this single punitive measure, as stated in this report, is that if Gaza's Coastal Municipalities Water Utility "cannot provide its own emergency power supply because of its own fuel shortages, it has to pump raw sewage into the sea which damages the coastline in Gaza, southern Israel and Egypt." In another report, released the same day, the World Food Programme spokesperson Kirstie Campbell finds that 70 percent of the population of Gaza has to choose between putting food on the table or a roof over their heads. Bush and Olmert do not seem to worry there will be any fallout from the disturbing information in these reports, released one day before Bush's arrival. As a matter of fact, the reality that Israel has successfully placed 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, over 50 percent of them children, in the dark and under the most draconian siege in recent history did not even make it to the margins of either leader's speeches. Much more important issues were on Bush's agenda. The need to realize and work on a "vision" for the future was in the forefront of Bush's mind. "The parties" should now sit down and "negotiate a vision" -- the parties being Israel, the fourth strongest military might in the world and a forty-year-long occupier, and the Palestinians, a stateless people who have been dispossessed by Israel for sixty years and under brutal military occupation by their colonizers for over four decades. Both Bush and Olmert did send one united message to the world: the two-state solution was still the aim of the negotiations. Reading between the lines, we can infer that to them, the specter of a single democratic state, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, is the most frightening vision of all. To ensure that a one-state solution of Palestinians (Muslims and Christians) and Israelis (Jews, Muslims, and Christians) living side by side with equal national and civil rights in historic Palestine does not materialize, the US and Israel talk about a two-state solution, but in the meantime, the US bankrolls Israel as it continues to create facts on the ground that make any viable Palestinian state impossible. Olmert was clear beyond a doubt: President Bush has been very, very good for Israel. Olmert was nearly jumping for joy as he praised Bush for increasing the comprehensive US aid package to Israel to a whopping $30 billion. Journalists constantly raised the issue of Israeli settlement-building in the occupied territory. Again, Olmert said Jerusalem is different, and no one should expect settlements to stop there. As for the other settlements, he said it was complicated and began elucidating the lexicon of "outposts," "population centers," etc. Bush, for his part, was only able to remind us all that Israel has been promising for over four years to stop settlements but has yet to do so. Even that came with a chuckle amongst journalists, as if the human tragedy these settlements are causing was a side show. Rarely has Bush given so persuasive an impression of being detached not just from the facts but from any sort of empathy for the victims of this appalling situation. But mainly, it looks like Bush came to Israel to speak about Iran. Bush seemed very enthused about threatening Iran from Israel. His glaring inability to articulate a basic understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli issue left seasoned Israeli journalists chuckling in disbelief at the president's replies. The local press corps noted every opportunity seized by Olmert to hitch a ride on each one of Bush's superficial comments, lauding the importance of the Bush visit, the Bush commitment to peace, and Bush's courage in confronting the region's difficulties. Today Bush arrives in my Israeli-occupied city of al-Bireh/Ramallah. He plans to land two blocks away from my home, in a sports field that I happen to be developing as a commercial project for the nearby Friends (Quaker) School. We were notified today that our street will be one of the many that will be under 100 percent lockdown. We were advised we would be risking our lives if we went to our rooftop to watch the charade unfold. Public notices from the Palestinian police chief warned that absolutely no protests would be tolerated. In short, we were told to stay indoors. Even our local newspaper, Al-Quds, refused to publish as an advertisement a cartoon satirizing Bush's visit submitted by a civil society campaign I work with. So much for running a business, economic development, and freedom of the press. So much for Palestinian democracy too. As an American and a Palestinian, if I could advise Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on how to greet his American peer today, I would ask him to declare the end of the Palestinian Authority, which Israel has purposefully and systematically destroyed. I would ask him to announce that the Palestinians will not accept Rambo-style diplomacy and will revert to international law as the only reference point for resolving the conflict. I would ask Abbas to request America's support for nonviolent resistance against sixty years of dispossession and forty years of military occupation by calling for a strategy of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it joins the community of law-abiding nations. But that's not all. If I were Abbas I would tell the world that the Palestinian people will remain committed to the two-state solution until the end of 2008, and after that, if the international community fails yet again to end this nightmare of occupation, the Palestinian people will return to their original strategy of calling for one democratic secular state, where Palestinians and Israelis of all religions can live in dignity and mutual respect as equals -- one person, one vote, with appropriate arrangements for cultural autonomy for all. Sam Bahour is a business consultant and may be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org. Thursday, December 27, 2007 Israel steals Christmas: clergy denied entry to occupied territories Bethlehem – Ma'an – Israeli travel prohibitions put a damper on this year's Christmas celebrations as Christian clergy were unable to reach their congregations in the occupied Palestinian territories. In late October the Israeli interior ministry cancelled the multiple-entry visas that many foreign clergy possess, issuing instead single-entry visas, and sometimes completely denying access to the very birthplace of Christianity. The Our Lady of Annunciation Catholic church in the West Bank city of Ramallah cancelled its Christmas celebrations completely, because the priest, Jordanian national Seres Lalkhlisat, could not return to the West Bank from Jordan, where he went to visit his family. "A church without a priest; it's very hard. People call saying 'we want to hold a funeral, but there is no priest to conduct the funeral," said Anan Abu Saadeh, a teacher at the school affiliated with Our Lady of Annunciation. Saadeh said Lalkhlisat has worked at two West Bank congregations since 2004, and used to travel back and forth from Jordan freely on his multiple-entry visa, which now has an 'X' drawn through it. "We are waiting," said Saadeh, "they are always saying 'you have to wait' …they have still not given us a real reason." Israeli Interior Ministry spokesperson Sabine Haddad told the Associated Press, "According to a request by security officials, we restricted the visas of the clergy." Yet this reasoning leaves Palestinian parishioners like Saadeh puzzled. "He is not a political man; he is not doing something bad," he said of the Priest. The grassroots Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory says that clergy are only a few of the "tens of thousands of ordinary foreign passport holders of Palestinian and non-Palestinian origin who wish to be with their families, work or study, as well as tourists and pilgrims." Palestine's small Christian population is shrinking, and Saadeh attributed some the much-discussed 'Christian flight' to Israeli restrictions that limit freedom of worship. "For Christian Palestinians, it's hard to see churches closing, so people are leaving," he said. Israel controls all but one of the entry points in to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The one Palestinian-controlled crossing, at Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, has been closed since the June due to an Israeli-led international blockade. Amnesty International estimates that by 2006, at least 120,000 families of various religious affiliations have been denied the right to be together by Israeli travel restrictions. Tuesday, December 18, 2007 Saturday, December 15, 2007 'Palestinian Women Artists' book launch We had a very successful event at the Academy the other night which was the launch of the book: "Palestinian Women Artists: the Land = the Body = the Narrative" The Palestinian Art Court - Al Hoash published the book with the support of the Spanish General Consulate, the Spanish Cooperation Office, and the Three Cultures Foundation. During the event, Al Hoash also launched the new calender for 2008 featuring artists from the book. The calender is great and makes a perfect gift for the upcoming Eids! Curator Reem Fadda, academic director of the International Academy of Art-Palestine, was commissioned to be the editor and curator of the book and she has wrote an extensive essay for it. The book features 41 Palestinian artists and is in 3 languages: Arabic, English and Spanish. Copies of the book and the calender may be obtained through the Palestinian Art Court - Al Hoash, in Jerusalem, or the International Academy of Art-Palestine, in Ramallah (well actually in Bireh...heehee) Thu Dec 13, 2007 3:10 PM GMT رام الله (الضفة الغربية) (رويترز) - يلقي الكتاب الجديد (فنانات فلسطينيات..الارض..الجسد..الرواية) الصادر بثلاث لغات الضوء على مساهمة الفنانات الفلسطينيات في الفن البصري منذ ثلاثينات القرن الماضي الى اليوم. ويقدم الكتاب الصادر عن مؤسسة حوش الفن الفلسطيني والذي يقع في 400 صفحة من القطع المتوسط باللغات العربية والانجليزية والاسبانية سردا لاسماء 150 فنانة وصورا ملونة لاعمال متميزة ومتعددة لاحدى واربعين منهن اضافة الى تحليل لهذه الاعمال. ويستعرض الكتاب بالتحليل ثلاثة ابعاد في اعمال الفنانات الفلسطينيات في الاراضي الفلسطينية المحتلة وداخل اسرائيل وحتى أولئك اللواتي يعشن في المهجر في مجال الارض والجسد والرواية وعلاقة كل من هذه الابعاد بالحياة السياسية التي شهدتها الاراضي الفلسطينية منذ القرن الماضي. ويشير الكتاب الى ارتباط الفنانة الفلسطينية بالارض "الارض مصدر الهام للعديد من الفنانات الفلسطينيات منذ اكثر من مئة عام وقد خلدت المشاهد الطبيعية الفلسطينية الغنية في لوحات زيتية لعدد من الفنانات مثل نهيل بشارة وصوفي حلبي وفاتن طوباسي وعفاف عرفات." ويرى الكتاب "تغيرا صامتا ان لم يكن بشكل واع ومستفز من عدد من المؤثرات باتجاه العمل الفني الذي يظهر الجسد وخاصة جسد الفنانة نفسها في عدد من الاعمال." ويوضح الكتاب ان معظم الفنانات الفلسطينيات اللواتي اتبعن هذا الاسلوب كن يعشن في اوروبا وامريكا "حيث وجدن المجتمع الذي يتقبل اظهار جسد المرأة من خلال الفن." ويقدم الكتاب استعراضا كاملا لهذه المرحلة التي شهدت استخدام الجسد في الفن. وتروي الفنانات الفلسطينيات من خلال اعمالهن الفنية حكاية المكان والاوضاع السياسية والاجتماعية والاقتصادية. ويقول الكتاب "قام عدد من الفنانات بانتاج مشاريع مرئية واضحة في محاولة لاعطاء وجهة نظر شخصية للمكان بكافة تعقيداته فسرد القصة بنبرة غير مجسدة اصبح عاملا يكشف وقائع اجتماعية وسياسية وصور لداخل البيت وصور شخصية وتفاصيل المكان تخلق شبكة معلومات متكاملة." وقالت روان شرف مديرة مركز حوش الفن الفلسطيني في حفل اقيم مساء الاربعاء في الاكاديمية الفلسطينية للفن المعاصر للاعلان عن اطلاق الكتاب "اصدار الكتاب الاول في سلسلة الفن في فلسطين مشروع بدأ بحلم في مثل هذا الوقت من العام الماضي وها نحن نقدم هذا الانتاج لثقافتنا وهويتنا وحضارتنا ومستقبلنا." وقالت ريم فضة محررة الكتاب لرويترز خلال الحفل "يقدم هذا الكتاب الذي يتناول بالتحليل فن النساء الفلسطينيات من منظور الافكار الارض والجسد والرواية ضمن ترابط." وأضافت "نحاول من خلال هذا الكتاب عمل اضافة جدية الى المكتبة العربية بلغة فلسطينية اصلية تعبر عن الثقافة الفلسطينية تعمل على التحليل والنقد البناء وتبرز اعمال العديد من الفنانات الفلسطينيات." ويكشف الكتاب النقاب عن حركة فنية نشطة في الاراضي الفلسطينية تعود الى فترة الثلاثينات كان للمرأة الفلسطينية دور بارز فيها. وجاء في الكتاب "لقد مثلت الفنانة زلفى السعدي فلسطين في المعرض العربي الاول في العام 1933 في القدس ومعنى ذلك ان شكلا من البينالي او المهرجان الفني كان موجودا في فلسطين التي لم تكن مجرد دولة مشاركة بل كانت البلد المضيف لهذا الحدث. "والذي يدل على ان فلسطين كانت منتجة للفن لدرجة تتويج ذلك بعقد مهرجان عربي...وفوق ذلك فان فنانة فلسطينية هي من مثلت فلسطين ملقية بذلك الضوء على دور المرأة (الفلسطينية) وموقعها المتقدم في المجتمع." ويستعرض الكتاب نماذج لفنانات فلسطينيات حظين بمكانة عالمية ومنهن منى حاطوم واملي جاسر وروزليندا نشاشيبي وليلى شوا وجوليان سيرافيم "على سبيل المثال لا للحصر". وقالت فضة "لقد حرصنا في هذا الكتاب ان يضم اجيالا مختلفة من الفنانات وان لا يقتصر على الفنانات المشهورات في وقت لا نستطيع فيه ذكر جميع الفنانات." وقالت الفنانة التشكيلية الشابة ايناس ياسين لرويترز خلال مشاركتها في الحفل "هذا الكتاب مرجع مهم باللغة العربية وخصوصية هذا الكتاب انه يتحدث عن النساء الفلسطينيات في الداخل والخارج والشتات اللواتي تتنوع اعمالهن ويمثل ارشفة لهذه الاعمال." فيما قالت الفنانة التشكيلية فيرا تماري المحاضرة في جامعة بيرزيت وهي في العقد السادس من العمر خلال كلمة لها في حفل الافتتاح "هذا الكتاب مرجع للفن الفلسطيني وهو شامل من انتاج فلسطيني وخبرات فلسطينية شابة ويضم عددا كبيرا من الفنانات." وقال الفنان التشكيلي خالد الحواراني المحاضر في الاكاديمية الفلسطينية للفن المعاصر لرويترز "هذا الكتاب يقدم اطلاله بالصور على فن المرأة الفلسطينية التي تعيش بظروف خاصة بسبب الاحتلال وكنت اتمنى ان يكون الكتاب بشكل عام عن الفن ولكنه خطوة جيدة." وأضاف "كون الكتاب بأكثر من لغة فانه يقدم رسالة للعالم ان الفن موجود في فلسطين منذ زمن." وجاء في مقدمة الكتاب الذي صدر بدعم من القنصلية الاسبانية في القدس ومؤسسة الثقافات الثلاث في حوض المتوسط الاسبانية "يأمل حوش الفن الفلسطيني ان يشكل اصدار هذا الكتاب نقطة مضيئة في عالم الفن والفنانات الفلسطينيات وان يصبح مرجعا هاما وقيما لمحبي الفن...والمهتمين في الاستكشاف ومعرفة الفنانات الفلسطينيات وانتاجهن الفني." من علي صوافطة Wednesday, December 12, 2007 Coptic Church. Why? Sunday, December 09, 2007 ramallah is cold, cold, cold... so staying warm and reading is what i am up to had to post this. its hilarious and so true! this is just brilliant! thanks apsara. for full article go to: "One now recalls those early days of sparse email traffic much as the cokehead recollects the first bumps of powder snorted sweetly up his nose. How quickly pleasure turned to compulsion and unhappiness! Nothing was left, in the end, but anxiety (who am I forgetting to reply to?) and guilt (I know who). And yet the compulsive emailer, addict of the insubstantial, is ultimately even worse off than the substance abuser: no clinic for him to check into. Western civilization has become a giant inbox; it will swell and groan but never be empty till it crashes." Wednesday, December 05, 2007 Thursday, November 29, 2007 the last day of Al Bardaouni's Sadly the oldest restaurant in Ramallah - Al Bardauni - served its last customers today. This restaurant has been open since before the Israeli occupation. Ibrahim Boulous opened it in 1962. It is very famous and people from all over the Arab world that used to come to Ramallah pre-Israeli Occupation know of this restaurant. Two famous guests include Jane Fonda and Robert DiNiro. Its so depressing to lose this historic and important place...they are planning on building a big huge ugly building full of offices in its place.... i took one of their sugar packets and a coaster....reem brought one of the plants from their garden to our garden at the Academy. if you want to see some old photos of the place please go to: There are some really cool photos which I was going to post here but there were copyrights all over everything so I figured I am not allowed to Monday, November 26, 2007 the charade that is Annapolis Frankly it is just to distant and irrelevant and removed from reality for me to take seriously. For those of you who are naive enough to eat up the hype here are some excerpts and links: from Karma Nabulsi's article in the Guardian: We have not given up The Palestinian people will not yield to the west's cynical pressure on them to surrender If you want bad symbolism, you need look no further than the venue. The US naval academy of Annapolis is the current representation of unrestrained global supremacy, from where young cadets are being sent forth to occupy Arab land by force of arms. Appropriate place, then, for the US to host the meeting between Palestinian officials and the Israeli state, with every important government and international institution in obedient attendance. No one has misunderstood the nature of this meeting or is vaguely fooled by what is taking place. What we have at Annapolis is yet another ultimatum to the Palestinian people to surrender their sovereign rights. The language of the Middle East peace process has become utterly weary, intellectually bankrupted; embarrassing. The tarnished trickery of those tired catchphrases - "last chance for peace", "painful compromises", "moderates against extremists" - is now worn so thin a child would not be taken in. There is no peace process, and hasn't been one for a very long time. It is no secret this conference won't bring an improvement in the intolerable status quo. It is a meeting to legitimise that status quo. from Laila El-Haddad's article in The Electronic Intifada, 23 November 2007 Annapolis, as seen from Gaza The conference simply generates new and ever-more superfluous and intricate promises which Israeli leaders can commit to and yet somehow evade. An exercise in legal obfuscation at its best: we won't build new settlements, we'll just expropriate more land and expand to account for their "natural growth," until they resemble towns, not colonies, and have them legitimized by a US administration looking for some way to save face. And then we'll promise to raze outposts. Each step in the evolution of Israel's occupation -- together with the efforts to sustain it and the language to describe it -- has become ever more sophisticated, strategic and euphemistic. from Mazin Qumsiyeh What happens at and after AnnapolisWe expect accolades for Olmert merely saying Israel will freeze settlement expansions except in East Jerusalem and the large settlement blocks (the Road map demands a freeze in all Settlement growth including for "natural growth"). The Israeli paper Haaretz actually summed up well "According to the Israeli government sources, the Americans asked Israel whether it preferred to announce a settlement freeze or outpost evacuations. 'Of the two, a settlement freeze is easier than evacuating the outposts, because this only involves a declaration, not a confrontation with settlers in the field,' explained one [government official]." Olmert, like Sharon, will be labeled by the pandering US politicians "a man of peace". The apartheid (hafrada in Hebrew) state will be showered with more US aid (stolen from US citizens to satisfy the Israel lobby). Mahmoud Abbas will be covered in the media only when he talks about how bad is Hamas and thus will be labeled "moderate". Everyone will be expected to attack Iran verbally and soon in other ways and Israel and the US still hope to build a block of "moderates" against Iran by giving the illusions of progress on the issue of Palestine. The daughter of the terrorist who oversaw the bombing of the King David hotel will be praised for speaking eloquently about combating "Arab" and "Muslim" terrorism and thus advance her ambition to move from Israeli foreign minister to a future Prime Minister. It will be a great photo opportunity for all attending. Meanwhile, Gaza will continue to be starved (a creeping genocide) and four million Iraqis and seven million Palestinians refugees and displaced people will get angrier. Tuesday, November 20, 2007 Earthquake hits Palestine at 11:15 Tuesday Thursday, November 15, 2007 I woke up in a bad mood today and tried to ignore the fact that today is our so-called "Independence" Day. I don't think it is necessary for me to expound on the magnitude of the irony of that. I headed out to the center of town and tried not to remember what happened to me and my sister last year on this day. I saw Raed, my favorite policeman directing traffic and I decided to stop and just enjoy. No matter what is going on, seeing him in the manara just makes me happy and changes my mood. Always. I leave you with this short video clip of him directing traffic (filmed on my crappy little digital camera bess malash) (By the way on November 4th he was awarded one of the Palestine Prize for Excellence and Creativity by the PA) Monday, November 12, 2007 3rd Anniversary of the Passing of Yasser Arafat Just came back from the commemorative ceremony for Arafat. My friend Ahmed Habash performed a live sand animation entitled "From the Memory of the Sand" with live music on oud by Jamil Sayeh to a packed house. Then Rashid Masharawi screened his film "From the Diaries of the Siege" which is an intimate portrait of Arafat shot during the seige of 2002. It was really emotional to watch scenes of the invasion now 5 years after living it... in a theater full of all of us who lived it...all together. I can't believe that was 5 years ago... The night ended with the announcement of the winners of the "Yasser Arafat Achievement Award". 30 people representing the residents of Bilin received the award on stage for their weekly protests and peaceful resistance against Israel's apartheid wall. Saturday, November 10, 2007 Carreta Nagua, Siglo 21 Check out my good friend Ricardo's animation! He just presented this TRANSITIO_MX02 the Festival of Video and Electronic Arts in Mexico City. He presented this piece in a rickshaw, offering free rides to everyone in the colonial park-Alameda Central and only asked in return that passengers watched the animation. For more information on his piece please go to: Friday, November 09, 2007 Yazeed, me, and the Qalqilya Zoo Yazeed and I decided to head out to the Qalqilya Zoo today. Today was the first time Yazeed has been able to drive his car out of Ramallah and over to Qalqilya in 7 years. (Obviously he hasn't been able to due to the Israeli closures and restrictions on freedom of movement) I think the last time I was in Qalqilya was in 2004 to document the wall which has completely encircled the town and totally cut it off from its agricultural lands, has separated families and crushed vital trade links. The zoo is actually really interesting in terms of public space. There is a playground for the kids, a swimming pool, families and friends gathered in large circles sitting in the gardens socializing and eating together. Its incredibly relaxing and a very calm and peaceful atmosphere. Its also amazingly kitsch, my favorite thing being the wall made out of animal bones inside the museum, sort of reminded me of the Capuchin Bone Church in Rome (its made out of the bones of 4000 monks). I have been obsessed with the Zoo for some time now for several reasons. When the Israelis entered Qalqilya during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, the male giraffe was killed. Gunfire, tear-gas and explosions were all around the zoo and he panicked and ran frenziedly in circles around his cage ending up slamming his head into a metal bar and he fell to the ground and died. His mate was pregnant and ended up miscarrying from depression. The zoo's doctor decided to stuff both Brownie (the male giraffe) and the child. Three zebras died from inhaling Israeli forces' tear gas during an invasion. He stuffed them too. Slowly this living zoo is turning into a collection of mummified animals frozen in time. The section of the zoo that hosts these dead animals has become a major attraction. (By the way they built the structure to host the giraffe around him after he was stuffed). The symbolism of this and how it reflects our own situation....our towns being slowly choked to death... is too much. Brownie is actually on exhibit in Germany at this years Documenta. German artist Peter Friedl visited the zoo and asked to borrow the giraffe for the exhibition. Personally I was really disapointed when I saw Brownie in Germany. He is just standing there in the middle of the exhibition hall, you have no idea who he is, where he came from, what the story behind him is...nothing. The most depressing part of the day was witnessing the Syrian bear desperately trying to bang his way out of his cage. Wednesday, November 07, 2007 Looks like we are finally getting some much needed rain. Nothing much to report. The political situation is so depressing and I don't even want to talk about it. I would just be repeating myself anyways. In short, I have been mainly consumed with teaching my video class. Some good news is the "Three Jubran" Majaz concert which took place at the Ramallah Cultural Palace last Thursday. They were amazing and it was broadcast live on al-Jazeera. Best of all was that Jawwal fully funded the whole concert! It was the first time that the Jubran brothers play here with everything supported financially by Palestinian money. (Usually cultural events here have European or American funding but this one didn't!). Some very sad news is that al-Bardauni's is going to close at the end of the month! (this is the oldest restaurant in Ramallah). It has been open since the 50's. In its place they say they are going to build a huge building full of offices. There are already initiatives to try to stop this tragic loss. More on those later. Lastly, something has got to be done about the toxic fumes from the bloody garbage dump. It is under the responsibility of the Ramallah Municipality. It is horrible. Last night I couldn't even work in my house because my eyes were burning so badly from the smoke. It seems like half the people in my hara have headaches. We need to do something about this. This tradition of burning garbage needs to be stopped. Its dangerous and toxic. Saturday, October 27, 2007 the Jerusalem show This exhibition is taking place in various locations all over Jerusalem. The last tour is Tuesday October 30th at 5 PM so if you are joining meet at Al-Ma'mal Foundation, New Gate. From 6:30 - 8:30 I will be screening my film ENTRY DENIED (a concert in Jerusalem) at the Tile Factory. Here is a description of my piece: On July 20th, 2003 Marwan Abado arrived at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport and was immediately detained by the Israeli authorities. After being held for 24 hours in the airport prison, Israeli Security cancelled his visa and he was put on the next plane back to Vienna. He was denied entry into Israel for "security reasons". No further explanation was given. ENTRY DENIED (a concert in Jerusalem), 2003, was filmed in an empty theater in Vienna, where I asked Marwan and his band to perform the concert exactly as it was to have taken place in Jerusalem, as if they were in Jerusalem. Saturday, October 20, 2007 Leone d’oro ~ Golden Lion Biennale Art 52nd International Art Exhibition Awards of the 52nd International Art Exhibition The awarding ceremony of the 52nd International Art Exhibition of While the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement has been assigned by the Board of Directors of the Biennale di Venezia to the artist Malick Sidibé (Soloba, Mali, 1936) at the Giardini della Biennale on June 10th, on the occasion of the official opening to the public, the International Jury, proposed by the 52nd International Art Exhibition Robert Storr and formed by Manuel J. Borja-Villel (president), Iwona Blazwick, Ilaria Bonacossa, Abdellah Karroum, and José Roca has today assigned four Golden Lions and two Honourable Mentions: Golden Lion to an art critic or an art historian for his or her contribution to contemporary art: “The award for Art Criticism is given for a body of writing characterised by an uncompromising and scholarly attitude towards Contemporary Art practice and to the history of art. The Jury also recognizes in this work a profound knowledge of art from the ‘60 and ’70, and the articulation of the historical avant-gardes in the context of art today. The Golden Lion to an art critic or art historian for his or her contribution to Contemporary Art is awarded to Benjamin Buchloh.” Honourable Mention to a national pavilion: “The Jury has cited for Honourable Mention a Pavilion that offers an insightful and subtly humorous investigation into the notion of the pavilion and the meaning of national identity, engaging the spectator within a compelling narrative. This special citation is given to the Lithuanian Pavilion featuring the artists Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas.” Golden Lion for the best national participation: “The Golden Lion for an outstanding national participation is being given to a Pavilion where architecture and cultural history are deployed to generate intelligent and poetic relations between content, visual language and strucural display. The Jury also considers important the artist’s approach to modernity, its utopias and failures in the context of a shared history. The Golden Lion for the best national participation is awarded to the Hungarian Pavilion featuring the artist Andreas Fogarasi.” Golden Lion to an artist under 40 exhibited in the central international exhibition or in the national participations: “The award for an artist under 40 is given for a practice that takes as its subject exile in general and the Palestinian issue in particular. Without recourse to exoticism, the work on display in the central Pavilion at the Giardini establishes and expands a crossover between cinema, archival documentation, narrative and sound. The Golden Lion to an Honourable Mention to an artist exhibited in the central international exhibition: “There is an installation in the Arsenale that impressed the Jury with its content, presentation and particular relevance to its location. The Jury wishes to give an honourable mention to an artist whose aesthetic projects span a diverse range of strategies, and in recognition of the provocative links he suggests between culture, politics and symbolic representation. The artist given an Honourable Mention for his participation in the central International Exhibition is Nedko Solakov.” Golden Lion to an artist exhibited in the central international exhibition: “There is a body of work in the Arsenale that presents just some examples of a long and substantial career. The artist in question has continued a critical practice in the context of an often antagonistic political and social situation. He is given this award not only for his ethical attitude and political commitment, but also for a contemporary aesthetic relevance that is unexpected for a practice that spans six decades. The Golden Lion to an artist exhibited in the central International Exhibition is given to León Ferrari.” Saturday, October 13, 2007 new york city i am in nyc after 2 weeks out in wyoming writing. it was incredible out there - i will keep that for me. flying over nyc...brooklyn...queens.. and staring out the window of the plane down at the city was amazing - it looked denser then i have ever seen it. so so dense compared to where i been. thousands of twinkling lights like stars below me. i love new york. crazy fucking new york city. it just doesn't give a shit when you leave or when you come back. and you never come back in the way you left. you come in one door and you leave through another. will be back in palestine in a few days. if any of you are in jerusalem on the 24th please come out to my film screening Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Ballad of the Whiskey Robber i am out west writing. one of the other writers out here with us is Julian Rubinstein who wrote: Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts it is the story of Attila Ambrus which is so damn incredible (its my new favorite bank robber story). This guy used to be seen drinking a whiskey at a bar prior to his robberies, he never ever hurt anyone in his robberies and apparently he had some pretty amazing disguises, he used to give female tellers flowers right before robbing them, and also send the police wine bottles. Ambrus is currently serving a 17 year sentence in a maximum security prison. Earlier this year Julian went back to the prison to see him... Wednesday, September 26, 2007 Sunday, September 23, 2007 Palestine Revolution Cinema 1968-1982 I curated a selection of shorts - the Palestine Revolution Cinema (1968 - 1982) last February and it has been on tour in the US since. The next venue is in Boston on October 7th. Here is what I wrote on the selection: Film still from Mustafa Abu Ali's They Don' t Exist (1974) Notes on Palestinian Revolution Cinema The New York Arab and South Asian Film Festival will pay tribute to a group of filmmakers who have made significant contributions to various categories of Palestinian Revolution Cinema between the years of 1968 and 1982. Given the current political environment in Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon in 2007, it is especially important to screen these films which have slipped through the cracks of history. They are a visual testament to past events and offer us a glimpse of history from the perspective of the people who actually lived it, a perspective not sanctioned by the official US/European meta-narrative of the region. In the context of last summer's Israeli invasion of Lebanon, screening Monica Maurer's film Born Out of Death of the aftermath of the Israeli bombardment of Beirut in 1981 has an ever more present urgency. How does our frame of reference of the current dire and desperate situation for Palestinians shift when we see the 1974 Israeli destruction of the Palestinian refugee camp Nabatiya in Mustafa Abu Ali's film They Do Not Exist? Film stills from Khadijeh Abu Ali's Children Nonetheless (1980) A brief history In 1968 in Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organization founded Aflam Filasteen (Palestine Films). In the beginning, they focused on documenting the struggle through photography. Mustafa Abu Ali, a director with the Jordanian film department, along with photographer Hani Jawharia and cinematographer Sulafa Jadallah (incidentally the first camerawoman in the Arab world), were the force behind it. In 1969, they produced their first film, No to the Option of Surrender which was filmed by Mustafa Abu Ali and edited by Salah Abu Hannood. The film recorded the demonstrations taking place in Amman against the Rogers Plan. Also in 1969, at the invitation of al-Fateh, Jean Luc-Godard traveled to the refugee camps in Jordan and spent time with the film unit. Upon his departure from Amman he donated his video camera, (with a recorder/player vtr -- one of the first models of video) to the group. [*] The first cine camera, an Ariflex BL 16, was provided to the group by Abu Jihad, Khalil Al Wazeer, a Fateh Central Committee member. [**] Previous to this they had been borrowing cameras to do their work. Another key film and the last film from the period in Jordan was With Soul and Blood(1971), filmed and directed by Jawharia and Abu Ali. It was shot during the events of Black September in 1970 when the Jordanian Army massacred Palestinians. After the horrific events of Black September, Mustafa Abu Ali, along with the rest of the PLO left Jordan and went to Beirut. Hani Jawharia and Sulafa Jadallah were unable to get out of Jordan. Once in Lebanon, cinema activity intensified as other Palestinian factions like the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine started using film as a tool for liberation. At one point in 1973, there was an attempt to form a "Palestinian Cinema Group" which had no allegiance to any faction, but it was only able to produce one film: Scenes of Occupation in Gaza, directed by Mustafa Abu Ali. It was not until 1973 that they actually began to put their names on the films, because their intent was not to be "filmmakers" but to make films for the "revolution". [*] It was in Beirut in 1974 that Mustafa Abu Ali made the film we are screening in this festival: They Do not Exist. Others who joined after the move to Beirut to produce films documenting resistance include Palestinian painter Ismail Shamout, and Iraqi filmmaker Kassem Hawal whose fiction film Return to Haifa (1981) we are screening. Two films that documented the resistance fighting Israel in Lebanon include Kafr Shoba (1975) directed by Iraqi Samir Nimr, and Guns are United, (1973) directed by Lebanese Rafiq Hajjar. |Film still from Kais al-Zubaidi's The Visit (1970)| |Film still from Kais al-Zubaidi's The Visit (1970)| Meanwhile in the 1960s Syria had become a center for exiled Palestinians as well as pan-Arabists and it was there that the Iraqi filmmaker Kais al-Zubaidi focused his lens on the socio-political situation of the Palestinians. We will screen two films he made during this period and which are both Syrian productions: Away from Home (1969) and The Visit (1970). Kais al-Zubaidi also worked with the PLO film unit in Beirut intermittently. Most recently, Kais has published an excellent anthology called Palestine in the Cinema (2006). It is an archive of the history of Palestinian cinema and lists over 800 films produced by Palestinian, Arab and non-Arab artists about Palestine and the Palestinian people. Over a period of fourteen years the PLO Film Unit recorded Palestinian history and created films. They documented military actions, revolutionary events, the Palestinian resistance, everyday life in the refugee camps and they promoted the Palestinian national cause. The film unit received filmmakers and writers from all over the world including Argentina, France, Chile, Cuba, and Italy. Some like Monica Maurer, featured in our festival, came to document life and make films in solidarity with the Palestinians. "They used to be amazed that we Palestinians were in the middle of a revolution, of a struggle and we had cinema." [*] Unlike the national cinema that emerged out of Cuba after the Cuban Revolution, and out of Iran after the Islamic Revolution, the Palestinian national Cinema was created and documented life during the revolution. Khadija Abu Ali told me that Cuba's Santiago Alvarez met Mustafa Abu Ali at a film festival in Algeria and exclaimed, "You are the first among all revolutions who had cinema during the struggle". [*] Mustafa Abu Ali recounted: I remember Alvarez expressing his extreme admiration of my film "Zionist Aggression," saying: "It has achieved the maximum expression with the least means". He was so kind and he insisted on giving me a present of 22 bottles of fine Cuban Rum, which was all he had with him. After a long argument in which he tried to convince me to take them all and if not all, at least half, I accepted two bottles. I never met anybody with such genuinely warm feelings like Santiago Alvarez. [**]Many of these films were screened and won awards at international festivals between 1969 and 1976 like the Leipzig International Festival for documentaries and short movies, the Palestine Film Festival in Baghdad, the Festival of Young Arab Cinema in Damascus and the Carthage Film Festival. In Lebanon as elsewhere, they had film screenings, they donated footage to whoever wanted to use it, and they also sent out newsreel footage for film festivals to screen prior to films in the same vein as the "War Diaries" presentation in this festival. Film stills from Monica Maurer's Born Out of Death (1981) The lost Palestinian Film Archive After the first Israeli aerial bombardment of Beirut in 1981, filmmaker Khadija Abu Ali began to worry about the security of the archives, so they rented a safer place in Hamra in a basement with air conditioning. [*] It contained thousands of films stored in cans that filled three rooms of floor to ceiling shelves. [*] It was a record of Palestinian history full of political cinema, documentation of the struggle, the resistance movements, daily life and precious historical footage. In between bombing raids during the Israeli siege on Beirut, some of the film unit risked their lives to preserve some of the footage by making their way to the archive and relocating some of the footage. [*] Then there was the 1982 Israeli bombardment on Beirut, the PLO was expelled and the film unit dispersed as they had to relocate. Two years later the Palestinian cinema archive disappeared. For 25 years the archives have been missing and no one knows what has happened to them and whether they were stolen, buried, burned or lost. There have been several individual initiatives over the years to find and uncover the archive, but the effort has been too dispersed. The individuals who have sought out these films in isolation reflect the deep state of fragmentation and the very complicated condition of Palestinians today. In an effort to resist the erasure of cinematic history and Palestinian memory from the region, we present you with this small selection of films. They preserve a history, they document an era and events, and they show us fragments of both Palestinian narratives as well as the larger Arab narrative. I want to thank Khadija Abu Ali for all the help she gave me as well as for her endless generosity in sharing her life as well as the lives and histories of these films with me. I also want to thank Kais al-Zubaidi and Mustafa Abu Ali for sharing their insights and anecdotes about these films and their stories with me. Lastly, thanks to all three for reviewing my text and correcting my errors.

President Shimon Peres has given Netanyahu 28 days to form the new government, but if necessary, the prime minister will be granted a 14-day extension. "We have to put aside what divides us so that we can have peace among ourselves and with our neighbors," Netanyahu said in a Saturday night speech broadcast on Israel radio and television. "The broadest, most stable government possible is what is necessary at this time. In our reality, we cannot have boycotts." The first mission of the next government will be to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear capability he said, as well as other areas in the region that are accumulating deadly weapons and threatening Israel. The new government will also work toward achieving peace with the Palestinians, Netanyahu said. Peres expressed hope the new government will be formed as soon as possible to give Israel economic and political stability. Netanyahu and former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's joint negotiating Israel-Beitenu team will meet with party representatives from Yesh Atid (There is a Future) , Bayit Hayehudi (the Jewish Home), and Shas Sunday, The Jerusalem Post said. Talks will continue Monday with the United Torah Judaism party, Tzipi Livni's Hatnua and Kadima, The Post said.

We live in a hyperconnected world. I used to think my Mac was an appendage. Then I got an iPhone and learned what it is really like to be incessantly online. It’s a common problem, and this Yom Kippur, Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo, founders of Offlining Inc., asked fellow Jews to atone for their sins by unplugging from the digital world. This seems like a Jewish spin on Lent. Side note: I noticed a lot of Jewish friends on Facebook on Saturday. Here is the Offlining story from the New York Observer: It’s hard to tell how seriously Yaverbaum and DiMassimo are taking all this. “Eric and I have spent most of the past two decades convincing people to click, log on, trade stocks in their underwear, go shopping online, and spend more time with their digital friends,” says DiMassimo. “We’re still doing that. But now we’re also going to be selling the off button!” Got to love that Offlining ad feature Mel Gibson. Just the guys Jews want to think of on the holiest day of the year. Unfortunately this story is a bit too tongue in cheek to get any real discussion of religious observance in a world filled with digital noise. We welcome your feedback. Your information will not be shared or sold without your consent. Get all the details. Terms of Service JewishJournal.com has rules for its commenting community.Get all the details. JewishJournal.com reserves the right to use your comment in our weekly print publication.

Israel in the final stages of an attack plan? Wednesday’s suicide bombing of an Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian tour guide, as well as the bomber himself. Over thirty Israelis were also injured, three of them seriously. The bomber had a fake driver’s license of the state of Michigan. On Thursday evening Bulgarian media named him as Mehdi Ghezali, a Swedish citizen who was in the Guantanamo detainment camp from 2002 to 2004 and whose freedom was basically secured by the Swedish authorities. Sweden, however, denied the report’s accuracy. Video footage from the day of the bombing shows that the perpetrator, with long hair, shorts, sneakers, a baseball cap, and a backpack, clearly intended to look like something other than a suicide bomber. On the other hand, the Israeli daily Haaretz reports that “airport security cameras captured the suspect roaming the airport for at least one hour.” If so, it’s hardly to airport security’s credit that their suspicions weren’t even aroused enough to question him—if they were watching at all. But Iran—to which Israel’s prime minister, defense minister, and foreign minister publicly assigned ultimate responsibility for the attack—has been trying for months to mass-murder Israelis in less-efficient countries like Thailand, India, Georgia, Kenya, and others. This time the attempt “succeeded”: “Body parts were strewn across the ground, mangled metal hung from the bus’s ripped roof and black smoke billowed over the airport.” Israel prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said: “All signs point to Iran…. This is [part of] a global Iranian terror onslaught and Israel will react firmly to it.” In a press conference Thursday evening he added “that Israel and world security agencies have caught Hizbullah and Iranian operatives in [numerous] countries, after attacks, planning terror attacks and laying the infrastructure to wage their war of terror.” Defense Minister Ehud Barak stated: “The immediate executors [of Wednesday’s attack] are Hizbullah operatives, who of course have constant Iranian sponsorship.” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman also said he had conclusive information implicating Hizbullah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. Speculations have attributed the attack to Hizbullah’s desire to avenge the 2008 assassination in Damascus of its terror mastermind Imad Mughniyeh, for which it blames Israel, and Iran’s desire to avenge the recent assassinations of nuclear scientists, for which it blames Israel as well. But these are, at most, proximate causes; for both these bodies the destruction of Israel is a central goal, and the murder of its citizens has consistently been a means toward it. Iran, for its part, denied involvement in the Burgas attack—which is meaningless, since it also, for instance, denies involvement in the 1994 bombing attack on a Jewish community building in Buenos Aires. Not only does Argentina openly charge Iran with that atrocity, which occurred exactly 18 years before Wednesday’s bombing and killed 85, but Iran’s current defense minister, Ahmed Vahidi, is wanted by Interpol for his role in it. The Burgas bombing comes at a time when the defense analyst for Haaretz, Amos Harel, reports that Israel and the United States are not really “on the same page” regarding Iran despite U.S. claims to the contrary. Harel says the Obama administration is worried about Defense Minister Barak’s “uncharacteristic silence” lately. Israel, for its part, doesn’t share Washington’s optimism about the sanctions on Iran and believes Iran can last them out for another year. Which, from Jerusalem’s standpoint, is too long, since it would enable Iran to “pass the ‘threshold’—the point at which they could produce nuclear weapons without Israel being able to stop them militarily.” Meanwhile Con Coughlin, defense editor of Britain’s Telegraph, reports that a specialist team of 60 [Iranian] nuclear scientists has been seconded to a specially-designated unit…which answers directly to the Revolutionary Guards, the elite force under the control of Iran’s supreme leader…. The new unit, which [was] set up last year, has been established to work on the key areas of the weapons programme that still need to be completed before Iran can start work on assembling a nuclear weapon…. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s spiritual leader who has overall responsibility for Iran’s nuclear programme, is keen for Iran’s nuclear scientists to intensify their efforts to achieve the technological expertise required for making an atom bomb…. Many of the scientists working for the new unit are in direct contact with the newly-constructed underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordow, another top-secret complex whose existence was only revealed three years ago by Barack Obama. Coughlin attributes the current flurry of top-level U.S. visits to Israel—recently by National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta due later this month—to “mounting concern in Washington that the Israelis are in the final stages of preparing an attack.” Whether or not that’s the case, the reasons that Israel has a shorter timeline on Iranian nukes than the U.S. are clear, and the Burgas slaughter should make them even clearer: that Iran’s rhetoric constantly singles out Israel for genocide; that Iran and its proxies already pursue Israeli diplomats and civilians all over the globe in hopes of mounting murderous attacks on them; that possession of nukes would vastly multiply Iran’s murderous capacity; and that Israel is small and quite close to the Islamic Republic. Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here.

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Download the list to find it fast at your local bookstore or library. Editor-In-Chief Caroline M. Grant writes, "I am halfway through Turkish Nobel Laureate Orham Pamuk's 500-page novel of obsessive love, The Museum of Innocence . The book, which opens in 1975, is the strange but utterly compelling story of Kemal, an Istanbul businessman, and how his passion for a much-younger woman of a different social class destroys his engagement to a more appropriate woman. As Kemal narrates his story, he also makes reference to objects he collects, souvenirs of both his torturous affair and broken engagement; he is a tour guide of his own personal 'Museum of Innocence.' Earlier this year, Pamuk opened a real-life Museum of Innocence in Istanbul, bringing the self-absorbed story full circle. The novel is a fascinating look at Turkish culture, and also, somewhat like Madame Bovary or Tess of the D'Ubervilles, an exploration of how women become objects in love stories." Birthing the Mother Writer Columnist Cassie Premo Steele shares, "I am riveted and fascinated by J. Courtney Sullivan's new novel, Maine. I enjoyed Commencement, but this is really leagues better. Switching points of view between very different women in an Irish Catholic family, Sullivan manages to give us intimate insights into each character while also showing how members of the same family can see each other-- and fail to see each other-- in heartbreaking ways." Blog Editor Karna Converse just finished People of the Book: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks, which she describes as "intriguing fiction based on the true story of a Hebrew codex that's become known as the Sarajevo Haggadah. (A haggadah is a book of readings for the Jewish seder. The Sarajevo Haggadah is of particular note because of its artwork, which is highly unusual for the time periodin which it is believed to have been created.) "The Sarajevo Haggadah, a prized possession of the National Museum of Bosnia, went missing during the 1990s Bosnian war. Intrigued by the fact that the haggadah was saved from destruction by a Muslim librarian, Brooks, a former journalist for the Wall Street Journal, learned that this was not the first time a Muslim had saved the Jewish text. An Islamic scholar saved it from Nazi soldiers during World War II. "Brooks' fascination with the book's history creates a vivid picture for the reader. Not only do we learn that the book survived possible destruction twice during the 20th century, but we learn that its existence may have also been threatened in Venice, by the pope's Inquisition of the early 1600s, and in Spain, during the 1492 Spanish Inquisition. "As fiction, Brooks has created a world for each time period and immerses readers in its culture and people and characters and plots: 'Hanna Heath, an expert in rare books preservation, is asked to analyze the Sarajevo Haggadah. She discovers four artifacts in its pages which send her searching to trace the steps of the manuscript's past - from 1940 to 1894, to 1609, and to 1492 and 1480. Her findings fuel her passion and she becomes one of the "people of the book" who fights for, and contributes to, the haggadah's continuing history and survival.'"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE On October 10, the American Conference on Diversity in collaboration with the tri-state area South Asian Business Alliance Network (SABAN) hosted the spiritually uplifting “Faith in Diversity” initiative. More than a dozen primarily women leaders representing eight different religions inspired the audience at Royal Albert’s Palace in Edison, NJ, with their personal defining moments of faith. “These are stories of the past and present showing up in our future. These trailblazing women are sharing their defining moments of faith and paving the way for others,” said American Conference on Diversity President & CEO Elizabeth Williams-Riley during the welcoming remarks. Part of the American Conference on Diversity yearlong 65th anniversary celebration, the event helped promote respect and build bridges of interfaith commonality. “Faith in Diversity” also included a special guest appearance from Assemblyman Upendra J. Chivukula (the first Indian American elected to the New Jersey General Assembly), a Langston Hughes poetry performance by Ms. Williams-Riley, Indian dancers, a Punjabi selection, and ethnic foods that filled attendees with the power to create lasting change. Pam Kwatra (shown center right), co-founder and national director of SABAN and a member of the American Conference on Diversity board of directors, kicked off the evening of fellowship with a collaborative and traditional Loving Light candle lighting ceremony. “For past five years, this partnership had a special meaning. Faith in diversity is nothing more than different roads leading you to the same God or higher being,” said Ms. Kwatra. “Let us light candles of hope and freedom, praying that all beings feel the ripple effect of peace, love, and harmony.” ►Dr. Khyati Joshi (shown), one of our 2012 Greater Bergen Chapter Humanitarian Award honorees, a published author, and Fairleigh Dickinson University Associate Professor of Education whose work intersects racial, religious, and all other dimensions of diversity and inclusion, encouraged attendees to understand the process of “lived religion.” ►Atiya Aftab, Esq., the first woman chair of the board of the Islamic Society of Central Jersey, told about her multicultural/interfaith background and shared several defining moments that taught her to “never be ashamed of who you are.” ►Rabbi Stephanie Dickstein, LMSW, spiritual care coordinator at the Shira Ruskay Center of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services who was part of the second class at the Jewish Theological Seminary to include women, explained how she helped write Jewish neonatal death law. ►Camelia Valdes, Esq., a Christian who is the first Latina County Prosecutor in New Jersey, the first woman prosecutor in Passaic County, and the first lead prosecutor of Dominican ancestry in the United States, said: “Issues that affect Muslim women, affect Latina women, and affect all women. Whoever your higher being is, please stay connected.” ►Cassandra Martin MHS (shown), training and organizational development specialist at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and a Priestess of the Lucumi (or Santeria) faith, revealed how her religion commemorates all the forces of nature and said, “Tonight is my defining moment.” ►Dr. Yesim Acikel, a representative of Peace Islands Institute, a Newark-based human equality organization that promotes mutual respect and acceptance among all people and religions, prompted the audience to “get out of your comfort zones and get to know people with different preferences, cultures, and religions.” ►Sheryl Olitzky (shown right with Atiya Aftab, Esq.), a woman of Jewish faith, shared how she began to study the often-misunderstood Islamic faith and co-found the national organization Sisterhood of Salaam/Shalom for Jewish/Muslim interfaith relations after visiting Auschwitz concentration camp. ►Dr. Indira Taneja, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School, who represented the Science of Spirituality, illustrated how meditation is the process of the mind that has incredible powers to “heal the body, mind, and soul.” ►Renee Lobo, a Hindu woman, acclaimed broadcast journalist, and president of Reenbow Media, spoke of women and empowerment through faith. “Hinduism taught me about gratitude and service and inner strength,” she said. ►Surya Makar (shown) and Taran Kaur, both representing Sikhism, imparted their faith’s virtues (charity, patience, humility, for instance) and vices (anger, violence, hatred). “Serving humanity—that’s what it’s all about,” said Assemblyman Chivukula (shown), during his presentation. “It’s easy to talk about spirituality but difficult to practice it. Let us use [faith] to build bridges, not walls, to make this world a better place.” Special thanks to the following planning committee members, sponsors, and attendees: ADP, American Factoring Group, Angela Guy, Bank of Baroda, Holy Name Medical Center, Indian Visa Center, Islamic Society of Central Jersey, Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ, Kripari Marketing, L’Oreal USA, Mount Calvary Baptist Church, Patel Brothers, Peace Island Institute, Prudential Financial, SABAN, Science of Spirituality. “Faith in Diversity” was the first of five informative diversity events the American Conference on Diversity will be hosting this fall. For more information about our next initiative, the Greater Bergen Chapter Diversity Legacy Breakfast and Defining Moment in Diversity Community Conversation on October 24, please visit http://americanconferenceondiversity.org/th_event/greater-bergen-area-diversity-legacy-breakfast. About the American Conference on Diversity The programs, services, and initiatives of the American Conference on Diversity are among the most important work focused on creating a more inclusive society. It is the unfinished business of living in a highly diverse nation: educating and empowering our next generation of leaders; enhancing our workplaces; and helping to create inclusive communities. The American Conference on Diversity, which has been serving schools, organizations, workplaces, and communities in New Jersey since 1948, builds on a historic mission and creates programs and activities relevant and vital to 21st Century life. It is a journey we can all take together. The American Conference on Diversity operates Regional Community Networks covering all of New Jersey. Visit www.AmericanConferenceonDiversity.org to learn more. Media Relations Consultant 109 Church Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Join us for our free Sunday morning adult education program. The program meets on Sundays when religious school is in session. Each semester we offer a different set of topics. The program format is a fun, lively discussion of key Jewish topics ranging from holidays to customs to Jewish laws. Check out our newsletter for information on the current topic. There is no formal commitment required for this course. You can come every week or just drop in occasionally.

The Thrill of the Chaste Interview with author Dawn Eden on her book which offers spiritual and practical advice for both men and women seeking to live chastely. The Thrill of the Chaste (Catholic Edition): Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On When Dawn Eden first wrote The Thrill of the Chaste in late 2005, she was a Jewish convert to Protestant Christianity, preparing to make the final leap into Catholicism. Now, Eden has extensively updated The Thrill of the Chaste, sharing how her Catholic faith, the lives and intercession of the saints, and the healing power of the sacraments have led her to find her true identity in Christ. This revised, Catholic version offers spiritual and practical advice for both men and women seeking to live chastely in a world that glorifies sex. While first exploring how childhood wounds influenced her understanding of sexuality, Eden offers readers inspiration by drawing upon the spirituality of healing she expands upon in her other book, My Peace I Give You. Dawn Eden, Author Dawn Eden is a blogger and author of The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On (originally published in 2006 and now available in a new, revised Catholic edition) and My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints. She speaks throughout North America and abroad and has been featured in the New York Times and on EWTN.

- The World Jewish Congress during the Holocaust: Between Activism and Restraint by Zohar Segev Zohar Segev’s new work attempts to demonstrate that the World Jewish Congress does not receive the credit it deserves for its actions on behalf of European Jewry during the Holocaust. While it is true that many of the accomplishments of the WJC [End Page 148] have been ignored in the literature, however, Segev’s passion does not translate into a sound scholarly case, and he often goes off topic attempting to prove his assertions. One of Segev’s main arguments, and perhaps one of his more controversial, is that the WJC functioned more as an American than an international Jewish organization. He suggests this largely because the WJC was headquartered in the U.S. Though many decisions originated in New York, however, especially after the outbreak of World War II, Segev does not prove that the WJC was an “American” institution. While Stephen S. Wise and Nahum Goldmann were important figures in the Congress, they were not the only key players; yet Segev devotes disproportionate efforts tracing the actions of these two men rather than examining the organization as a whole, apparently reflecting his conviction that “American Jewish leaders were imbued with a deep sense of mission and responsibility for the fate of world Jewry … while striving to mold the Jewish world according to their view as American Jews.” Though he insists that the WJC “was virtually identical to the American Jewish Congress,” and emphasizes that Stephen Wise was president of the American Jewish Congress (AJC) and an executive of the WJC, research into the activities of both agencies before, during, and after the Holocaust does not always show complementary programs. While both worked to secure the rescue and relief of European Jews during the 1930s and 1940s, the AJC had to function within an American context that included widespread antisemitism; a U.S. president initially more concerned with domestic rather than international issues, and subsequently more focused on an Allied victory rather than action on behalf of Europe’s Jews; and the need to promote its agenda with other American Jewish organizations such as the American Jewish Committee. Even though the headquarters of the WJC was in the United States, it had functioning branches in many European countries throughout the war. Hardly subservient to the New York office, these divisions provided the information that helped dictate plans of rescue and relief. Perhaps the best example is the Riegner Telegram, which provided sound information about the mass murder of European Jews and came to Wise’s attention via the Geneva WJC office. Though the AJC was working to help refugees, without the information it received from the European branches of the WJC, it would not have had the kind of documentation of Germany’s “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” that it needed to fight for support by the American people and government. The WJC had needs and programs different from those of American Jewish organizations, and Segev is unable convincingly to support his argument that the WJC functioned as an American Jewish relief organization. The strongest contribution of the book is Segev’s discussion of 1940s rescue activities that the WJC coordinated, including a number of case studies not commonly known. Noting that prior to the Second World War the WJC had sought to gain public support by publicizing its activities, Segev correctly observes that “this approach was clearly inappropriate for clandestine activity in Europe” and led to the problem that “the Congress had no prior organizational infrastructure of an underground nature, [End Page 149] compounding the challenge that faced its leaders.” While Segev admits that this problem restricted WJC successes to “only” a few thousand children saved, he sheds light on the variety of rescue methods employed in Portugal, Denmark, and Bulgaria. In particular, he documents the many initiatives by which rank-and-file members saved thousands more lives. As Segev observes, “secrecy created the impression that the WJC had done nothing...

All it took was 18 days and just under 30 attacks. In that brief time period, with under 30 casualties (victims and perpetrators included), we Israelis have lost our minds and seriously eroded our moral fiber. We have lost our minds because we have allowed a handful of stupid, psycho punks to keep us at home and in fear despite the statistically insignificant harm they have caused. Just as an example, so far in October, 121 Chicagoans have been shot – 103 have been wounded and 18 have died. Chicago’s population is just under three-million, Israel’s is just over 8 million – and yet, offer just about any cowering Israeli a free ticket to Chicago and they would jump at the opportunity to see the Cubs play the Mets in the National League Baseball finals at Wrigley Field, eat some famous Chicago deep dish pizza, listen to some Jazz at the Green Mill, shop at Target, hang out with Tanya, Sasha, Leah and Jenna etc. etc. This despite the fact that you are much more likely to get murdered in Chicago than in Israel. We have lost our minds because some of us, consumed with bloodlust, are attacking innocent people. Last Thursday, Israeli citizen Abdel al-Kader Jamal, was beaten an chased by an angry mob of 30 men in Nahariyah, who were angry because he was an Arab. Luckily, a clear headed Jew, Mimon Himy, threw himself on Jamal to protect him from the mob – otherwise he would probably have been killed. Last Friday, a 17-year-old from Dimona stabbed four random Palestinians. His lawyer claims that his client has psychological problems and is not fit to stand trial. And then there’s Uri Rezken. He was stacking shelves in a Haifa suburb when he was stabbed 4 times by a Jew who thought he was an Arab. The attacker’s lawyer asked for his client to undergo a psychological assessment due to the suspicion that he was unfit to stand trial. Maybe we’re all a little unfit these days? Said Rezken from his hosp[ital bed where he was recovering from the results of all this insanity: “We are all human beings, we are all equal,” the supermarket worker told Israeli TV. “It does not matter if an Arab stabbed me or a Jew stabbed me, a religious, orthodox or secular person. I have no words to describe this hate crime.” And what of our religious leaders? Rabbi David Stav, prominent national-religious chairman of the Tzohar rabbinical association, stated that “In these days in which the blood is boiling… it is important to preserve our moral superiority; [we must] not harm those involved in murderous acts who have already been neutralized and do not represent a threat.” Sounds pretty reasonable, right? Well, not so much according to Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who in reacting to Stav’s comments, claimed that Jewish law demands that a terrorist who had committed murder should be killed. “It is forbidden to leave a murderer alive… [Tzohar rabbis] forget Jewish law – they are only interested in looking good to non-Jews… Jewish law is clear… there are courts that can avenge blood and there are individuals who can avenge blood. This is Jewish law: If the court does not avenge the blood, then an individual can avenge the blood… We can’t be consumed all day with what others are thinking about us.” Echoing these sentiments was Rabbi Ben-Tzion Mutzafi, a prominent haredi arbiter of Jewish law. “According to the Srugim news website, Mutzafi was asked by his students whether, if a terrorist has been injured and incapacitated, it is permitted according to Jewish law to kill him… “It is commanded to take hold of his head and hit it against the ground until there is no longer any life in it,” Mutzafi responded… “Do not listen to Stav, for the one who is merciful to the cruel will end up being cruel to the merciful,” he added. Chiming in with a note of sanity was prominent national-religious leader and Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi Yaakov Ariel who supported Stav’s position, declaring that only when the terrorist still presents a danger is it permitted to kill him: “If the danger has passed and the terrorist is restrained or injured, [people] must act wisely, judiciously and not through spontaneous emotion.” But why? Eliyahu seems to think that Stav’s position is based on looking good for the goyim. Mutzafi feels that it has something to do with misplaced sympathy. But maybe Stav and Ariel’s position is based on… not being idiots. Letting unqualified and emotionally distressed people take the law into their own hands leads to mistakes where innocent people get seriously hurt or killed. Never mind that it makes us look like savage brutes. It’s just plain stupid and appeals to those base instincts that the Torah tries so hard to help us suppress. Why suppress them in the face of a seemingly implacable foe? Weren’t you paying attention? Innocent people get hurt, stupid, and we end up doing the terrorists work. The latest example happened last night in Be’er Sheva’s Central bus station. There, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed a soldier and stole his firearm, then opened fire on the crowded bus terminal. The unidentified assailant was then shot and killed by security forces after ducking into a bathroom. During the attack, two officers — one from an anti-terrorism unit and another from the Border Police — mistook an Eritrean asylum seeker for a second gunman and shot him in the head. A Soldier, 19 year old Omri Levi and the Terrorist died. The Eritrean refugee also died after being beaten by locals – including an employee of Ezra’s Shwarma. Ezra’s for there part let their facebook friends and fans know that they remain unbowed and will be back at work at 7 am as usual (who eats shwarma at 7 am?). They did not however let us know how their brave employee – who smashed the already down and injured Eritrean refugee’s head with a metal bench – how he’s doing. You can see him and others attacking the wrong guy here in this amateur video while people yell “Break his head!” and only a few others intervening to protect him. What a horrible way to die, for no good reason at all. That’s why we don’t kick somebody when they are already down. Only bullies and sadists do that and that’s why Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu and Rabbi Ben-Tzion Mutzafi and anyone else that agrees with them are stupid, wrong and dangerous. Of course, ultimately the terrorist was responsible for the death of the Eritrean. But we were his accomplices. That’s why they have already won. We’re doing all their work for them. Every time you stay at home and don’t go out, the terrorists have won. Every can of mace purchased by frightened Israeli civilians is a victory for the terrorists. Every trip to Israel or visit to the Kotel cancelled is a victory for the terrorists. Every homicidal thought aimed at assailants who have already been subdued is a victory for the terrorists. Clearly the terrorists have scored a lot of victories and the Terrorists have found a great new weapon that costs them relatively few lives while causing the most turmoil. And we’re letting them win.

That, for his friends and family, encapsulates the life of Fred Kemp, Anniston businessman and a leader in the life of the city’s Temple Beth El. Kemp died Friday at his home in the presence of his beloved family. He was 73. Services are scheduled for 2 p.m. today at the Temple Beth El portion of Hillside Cemetery in Anniston. Longtime friend Sherry Blanton explained her declaration above in terms of how Kemp received visitors at Kemp’s Officenter, the business he and his brother, Don, owned on Noble Street from late 1980 until early 2002. He was always glad to see you, Blanton said, remembering her friend’s big, broad smile and, if something particularly pleased him, his hearty laugh. “It was not too much trouble for him to get up” and help someone find whatever product was needed. “Every customer was important to him,” she said. Indeed, said Tim Barton, who worked for the Kemps for 15 years, the hospitality at the store attracted a lunch-hour crowd to its address, 1201 Noble. Business people would “gather and talk about what was going on downtown,” for example, Barton said. Barton, service manager for the Apple computers sold at the office supply store, recalled the low-key but supportive way Fred ran the business. “It was like working for your father,” Barton said. Kemp’s Officenter sold and serviced Apples in schools and universities all over northeast and east-central Alabama. In 1987, after the business had already been selling the brand for six years, Kemp’s won two contracts to furnish Apples to schools for military families at Fort McClellan and Fort Rucker. “He loved the technology and he used the technology,” Barton said. Fred Kemp’s specialty was sales and marketing, a skill he had honed working in the 1960s and ’70s at his father’s Anniston industry, Tape-Craft. But given his kind nature and personal integrity, it was a natural fit. “Fred did have the personality that made him good in sales. He liked talking to people and was a good conversationalist,” Don Kemp said Saturday. “He had a wide knowledge of the world, art and music — somewhat of an intellectual. But he was also a people person.” Apple Computer Inc. recognized Kemp’s efforts when the store was selected in 1999 as the best Apple dealership in the Southeast; a trip to the company’s headquarters in early January 2000 was part of the reward. “He was excited to go and it was just a fun trip,” Barton said. Of course, Kemp’s life was about much more than how he greeted the public at his business. More fundamentally, Blanton said, we should all “be a Fred” and aspire to his degree of humanity. The Yiddish word is mensch: it’s a noun referring to someone who exemplifies all the best qualities that a person can possibly have. “When you call someone a mensch that is the highest compliment you can pay someone … they’re a joy to the world — that is Fred Kemp in a nutshell.” Honor, decency and respect all apply to Kemp, Blanton said. “Fred set the bar high on how you’re supposed to act toward people.” Temple Beth El Rabbi Irving Bloom, a Kemp family friend for some six decades, said, “Fred set an example of what a human being should be. It was a privilege to have known him.” Faith and family were integral to Kemp’s character. For 53 years the high honor of blowing the shofar at the temple was his. The ancient instrument is sounded in particular patterns and notes during Jewish religious ceremonies, most notably during High Holy Days. Kemp started blowing the shofar when he was just 13 years old. “It is something that came to him naturally because he played the trombone,” his oldest daughter, Michelle Kemp-Nordell, said in an interview last September. Later in life, Kemp was the temple’s president and vice president at different times. “He loved participating in the temple,” Don Kemp said, recalling that his brother was an integral part of its existence. Around the house, he was the cool dad, the Earthshoe-wearing dad — “not strict at all,” Kemp-Nordell said Saturday. “He was really gentle and kind and he didn’t have much of a temper. It would take a lot for him to get angry.” She ventured that her father’s knowledge and practice of transcendental meditation helped keep him tranquil, even through life’s challenges and tragedies. “It was a way of calming himself and de-stressing. It relaxed him,” Kemp-Nordell said. He was always welcome in the family kitchen, where he loved to test his gourmet-quality abilities not just on good meals but with actual challenges — “the harder the better” — and how to present it all with flair. In keeping with his character, Kemp bestowed warmth and wisdom not just on family but friends as well. Steve Whitton of Jacksonville recalled the welcome the Kemps gave him when he moved to Calhoun County as a young adult in 1973. “There was an absolute warmth about that family,” Whitton said. “You know how you can sense a genuine kindness in people?” Instantly, he added, is how fast he sensed that in Fred Kemp. He was, said Whitton, “an amazingly kind man, a forgiving man and an understanding man.”

When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Washington in early June, one might have expected him to be heralded as the poster boy for “freedom's march” in the Middle East -- democratically elected, a reformer, and a recognized man of peace. Yet after the meeting, Palestinian delegation members spoke to me in terms of only a “small success.” For Abbas, or Abu Mazen, as he is also known, the Washington trip did represent a milestone of sorts in his efforts to resurrect the notion of there being a Palestinian partner for peace. While the Abbas program of reforms still has some way to go, the record of achievements so far has attracted praise. Abbas was elected on a platform of achieving Palestinian political aspirations through negotiations and peaceful means, while simultaneously pushing ahead with far-reaching democratic reforms. The domestic agenda includes entrenching the rule of law, security restructuring, political pluralism, and financial transparency. In a break with the past, Abbas declared in his inaugural address, “I can find no justification for ignoring the rest of our national issues under the pretext that we are an occupied people.” Most significantly, he has reached an effective, if fragile, cease-fire with the armed factions, which has led to a dramatic reduction in violence. Palestinian Authority officials recognize that their next task is to produce a credible, long-term plan to deal with unauthorized weapons. The Abbas visit, coming close on the heels of President Bush's meeting in Crawford, Texas, with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and followed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's tour of the region, may signify some kind of serious, if belated, American engagement with the Middle East's most defining conflict. But three options lay before the Bush administration. Only one of those options will lead to peace, and, naturally, it's the one that requires the most courage. Listening to Israeli and Palestinian officials, it's clear that their positions continue to diverge greatly. Acknowledgement of Abbas' platform in Washington has thus far not been matched by a real change in approach from the Israeli leadership. American heavy lifting of a kind not previously witnessed under this White House seems increasingly needed. Sharon sees unilateral and limited settlement withdrawal in Gaza and four northern West Bank settlements as allowing Israel to retain more prized assets in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Sharon's advisers explain that Israel should then enjoy a lengthy time-out from the peace process. In the Israeli media, Sharon has outlined the list of Palestinian deliverables that are his precondition for further progress, and the bar has been placed teasingly out of reach. Sharon describes it as a “pre–road-map phase.” While many in Israel, perhaps the majority (and, it seems, the Labor Party), disagree with this approach, the priority is getting the Gaza withdrawal done. This tends to mute the debate on “what next.” From the Palestinian side, 15 months of Israeli talk of Gaza withdrawals almost becomes a sideshow next to the continued construction of the separation barrier inside the West Bank, settlement expansion there, and the ongoing network of checkpoints and closures. Abbas used his Washington visit to repeat his call for an early resumption of permanent-status negotiations as the best way to maximize the prospects of peace and minimize violence. And where does President Bush stand on all this? Depends who you ask. Palestinian officials feel that Washington is beginning to understand the need for a political horizon. Israeli officials are confident that a post-Gaza time-out from political initiatives will prevail. Officially, the administration is committed to the “quartet road map” plan -- the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia. But Israeli dove and center-left Yahad-Meretz Party Chair Yossi Beilin told me how the road map was in danger of becoming a refuge for those “who want to do nothing,” as it contains “no implementation mechanism.” America's reluctance to show its hand now may be understandable, and even smart politics, given the sense of a fragile and traumatized Israel confronting its settler nemesis for the first time. Once Gaza is out of the way, the “what next” questions are less easily shrugged off. Speaking to Israeli, Palestinian, and U.S. policy-makers and experts, one can broadly sketch three options for U.S. policy post-Gaza. One is to fudge, muddle through, and avoid strategic decisions. This approach was popular in the Iraq War planning for the “day after,” and it is always tempting. The second option would be to shrink from big-picture politics, give Sharon his time-out, and focus on economic-rehabilitation issues and tiny steps for tiny feet on the ground. Salam Fayyad, the respected Palestinian finance minister, shared with me his concern that attributes of the Gaza withdrawal itself, such as border crossing or export arrangements, may intentionally be dragged out well into next year. This -- together with ongoing Israeli intransigence on settlements, closures, and prisoners, as well as Fatah incompetence -- risks giving Abbas so little by way of public political credibility that control is almost handed on a silver plate to Hamas. The third option would be to seize the strategic opportunity that developments in Israel and Palestine present and make good on the president's commitment to see through a viable two-state solution. It demands political engagement, re-energizing the road map, detailing the political endgame, and showing how to get there. Such a policy would ignite the kind of debate that many Israelis, of all persuasions, are crying out for. It is also the only meaningful option to strengthen Abbas and his reformist, nonviolent line. Fayyad again: “Economic assistance to the Palestinians is important and appreciated, but this is a political problem, and it requires political solutions. This is about freedom, which is nonnegotiable.” According to recent polling, the endgame approach would likely find favor with a majority of both peoples, with 54 percent of Palestinians and 64 percent of Israelis expressing support for the content of the detailed Geneva Initiative model agreement released last year (which I helped draft). Many former U.S. officials have made a compelling case for why such an approach would serve American national interests. The success of Abbas, an anti-terrorism reformist, would send a strong signal to the rest of the region that moderates can deliver real achievements, and undermine the rallying cry of occupied Palestine as a mobilizing vehicle for extremists. Less obviously, it also serves the Israeli interest. According to former Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna, the big change in Israel is that today, most of the public understands that only a viable two-state solution can guarantee Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic state. So what is holding the White House back from pursuing this line? Conventional wisdom points to the influence of the unholy alliance of neoconservatives, evangelical Christian fundamentalists, and what is misleadingly known as the “pro-Israel” lobby (misleading because often, most Israelis see their own interests as being very different from how the American Israel Public Affairs Committee tends to portrays things). Is the combined power of those factions enough to derail the prospects of an American push for peace? The last four years are not a good omen, but casting back slightly further into history might suggest otherwise. The last two U.S. presidents, when they judged American interests to be at stake, both mustered the necessary political courage and pushed for greater engagement. George Bush Senior took the plunge when he judged there to be Israeli foot-dragging following the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference and linked U.S. loan guarantees to settlement policy. The comparative moment for Bill Clinton came in pushing through the Wye River Memorandum in 1998, when he felt the Oslo process collapsing under then–Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On both occasions the Israeli public sat up and listened. After Gaza, President Bush has a real opportunity to show some spine when it comes to peacemaking, not war making, in the Middle East. Democrats should be there to challenge any slippage, encourage any push for peace, and steadfastly resist the temptation to outflank the administration from the right. Daniel Levy was an adviser in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office and Justice Ministry, was a member of the official Israeli negotiating team on the Oslo Accords in 1995 and at Taba in 2001, and was the lead Israeli drafter of the informal Geneva Initiative. You need to be logged in to comment. (If there's one thing we know about comment trolls, it's that they're lazy)

The uniform General George Meade wore while commanding the Union army at the battle of Gettysburg is displayed at the Civil ... More Civil War & Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia The uniform General George Meade wore while commanding the Union army at the battle of Gettysburg is displayed at the Civil War & Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia. Other artifacts on display cover the issues of the black soldier, military tactics and the role of women during the War Between the States. Educational programs involving discussion and lecture are open to the public. The gift shop offers a wide array of merchandise for both the casual visitor and the history buff. This place is difficult to get to; however, it is worth the drive and the walking. The museum is displayed very well with a great deal of memoriobilia. There are many artifacts as well as escutchins which adorn the walls of the entry way. The personnel are knowledgeable and helpful. The only problem I can forsee is that for handicapped people there aren't any elevators. for the civil war buff though, it is a must visit. Initially chartered in 1791 to combat the debt the United States had incurred from the war with Great Britain, the First Bank of the United States created uniform currency for the 13 original states. This brainchild of then Treasury ... Located in front of Independence Hall, this chiseled visage pays tribute to the military contributions of Commodore John Barry during the American Revolutionary War. He is portrayed wearing his uniform and pointing onward into battle. Few Americans are well ... Temple Beth Zion Beth Israel is the only conservative synagogue in Center City. Founded in 1946, this beautiful old stone building reflects its unique role in an urban neighborhood with a dynamic Jewish heritage. Beth Zion Beth Israel holds ... *Terms & Conditions: Savings calculation is based on Flight + Hotel vacation package bookings for a 3 month period for 2 adults with a 2+ night length of stay compared to price of the same components if booked separately during same period. Savings will vary based on origin/destination, length of trip, travel dates and selected travel supplier(s). Savings not available on all packages.

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston |The Right Honourable The Viscount Palmerston KG GCB PC Lord Palmerston ca. 1857 |Prime Minister of the United Kingdom| 12 June 1859 – 18 October 1865 |Preceded by||The Earl of Derby| |Succeeded by||The Earl Russell| 6 February 1855 – 19 February 1858 |Preceded by||The Earl of Aberdeen| |Succeeded by||The Earl of Derby| |Leader of the Opposition| 19 February 1858 – 11 June 1859 |Prime Minister||The Earl of Derby| |Preceded by||The Earl of Derby| |Succeeded by||The Earl of Derby| 28 December 1852 – 6 February 1855 |Prime Minister||The Earl of Aberdeen| |Preceded by||Spencer Horatio Walpole| |Succeeded by||Sir George Grey, Bt| |Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs| 6 July 1846 – 26 December 1851 |Prime Minister||Lord John Russell| |Preceded by||The Earl of Aberdeen| |Succeeded by||The Earl Granville| 18 April 1835 – 2 September 1841 |Prime Minister||The Viscount Melbourne Sir Robert Peel, Bt |Preceded by||The Duke of Wellington| |Succeeded by||The Earl of Aberdeen| 22 November 1830 – 15 November 1834 |Prime Minister||The Earl Grey The Viscount Melbourne |Preceded by||The Earl of Aberdeen| |Succeeded by||The Earl Granville| 20 October 1784| Westminster, Middlesex, England |Died||18 October 1865 Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, England |Political party||Tory (1806–1822) |Alma mater||University of Edinburgh, University of Cambridge| |Religion||Church of England| Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, KG, GCB, PC (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister in the mid-19th century. Popularly nicknamed "Pam" and "The Mongoose", he was in government office almost continuously from 1807 until his death in 1865, beginning his parliamentary career as a Tory, switching to the Whigs in 1830, and concluding it as the first Prime Minister of the newly-formed Liberal Party from 1859. For most of his career he dominated the shaping of British foreign policy in a period when Britain was at the height of its power, serving terms as both Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister, as well as a brief period as Home Secretary. Some of his aggressive actions, now sometimes termed liberal interventionist, were highly controversial at the time, and remain so today. He held these great offices, when his party was in power, over a period of 35 years. He succeeded to his father's Irish peerage in 1802. After two false starts in the elections of 1806, he became a Tory MP in 1807, and was made Secretary at War in 1809, responsible only for the finances of the war, and initially outside the cabinet. He held the job until 1828, only entering the cabinet in 1827 when George Canning became Prime Minister. Less than a year later he resigned when a growing rift split the Tories. In opposition he switched his focus to foreign policy, and when he returned to office in 1830 it was as Foreign Secretary in a Whig administration; until 1851 he held the position when the Whigs were in power, dealing with a succession of crises in Europe and beyond. In 1852 he was made Home Secretary in the coalition government of Aberdeen, the Tories having insisted on Russell getting the Foreign Office. He was active in the role, passing various reforms but opposing electoral ones. When public discontent over the Crimean War brought the government down in 1855, Palmerston was found to be, despite the Queen's distrust of him, the only Prime Minister who could sustain a majority in Parliament. He had two terms, 1855–1858 and 1859–1865, before dying in office at almost 81, a few months after winning a general election with an increased majority. - 1 Early life: 1784–1806 - 2 Early political career: 1806–1809 - 3 Secretary at War: 1809–1828 - 4 Opposition: 1828–1830 - 5 Foreign Secretary: 1830–1841 - 6 Marriage - 7 Opposition: 1841–46 - 8 Foreign Secretary: 1846–1851 - 9 Home Secretary: 1852–1855 - 10 Prime Minister: 1855–1858 - 11 Opposition: 1858–1859 - 12 Prime Minister: 1859–1865 - 13 Death - 14 Legacy - 15 Cultural references - 16 Lord Palmerston's First Cabinet, February 1855 – February 1858 - 17 Lord Palmerston's Second Cabinet, June 1859 – October 1865 - 18 Ancestry - 19 Notes - 20 Bibliography - 21 External links Early life: 1784–1806 Henry John Temple was born in his family's Westminster house to the Irish branch of the Temple family on 20 October 1784. Henry was to become the 3rd Viscount Palmerston. His family derived their title from the Peerage of Ireland. His father was Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston (1739–1802), and his mother Mary (1752–1805), daughter of Benjamin Mee, a London merchant. From 1792 to 1794, the young future Lord Palmerston accompanied his family on a Continental tour of France, Switzerland, Italy, Hanover and the Netherlands. Whilst in Italy Palmerston acquired an Italian tutor, Signor Gaetano, who taught him to speak and write fluent Italian. He was educated at Harrow School (1795–1800). Admiral Sir Augustus Clifford, 1st Bt., was a fag to Palmerston, Viscount Althorp and Viscount Duncannon and later remembered Palmerston as by far the most merciful of the three. Palmerston was often engaged in school fights and fellow Old Harrovians remembered Palmerston as someone who stood up to bullies twice his size. Palmerston's father took him to the House of Commons in 1799, where young Palmerston shook hands with the Prime Minister, William Pitt. Palmerston was then at the University of Edinburgh (1800–1803), where he learnt political economy from Dugald Stewart, a friend of the Scottish philosophers Adam Ferguson and Adam Smith. Palmerston later described his time at Edinburgh as producing "whatever useful knowledge and habits of mind I possess". Lord Minto wrote to Palmerston's parents that young Palmerston was well-mannered and charming. Stewart wrote to a friend, saying of Palmerston: "In point of temper and conduct he is everything his friends could wish. Indeed, I cannot say that I have ever seen a more faultless character at this time of life, or one possessed of more amiable dispositions". Palmerston succeeded his father to the title of Viscount Palmerston on 17 April 1802, before he had turned 18. The young 3rd Lord Palmerston also inherited a vast country estate in the north of County Sligo in the west of Ireland. He later built Classiebawn Castle on this estate. Palmerston went to St John's College, Cambridge (1803–1806). As a nobleman, he was entitled to take his MA without examinations, but Palmerston wished to obtain his degree through examinations. This was declined, although he was allowed to take the separate College examinations, where he obtained first-class honours. After war was declared on France in 1803, Palmerston joined the Volunteers mustered to oppose a French invasion, being one of the three officers in the unit for St John's College. He was also appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Commander of the Romsey Volunteers. Early political career: 1806–1809 In February 1806 Palmerston was defeated in the election for the University of Cambridge constituency. In November he was elected for Horsham but was unseated in January 1807, when the Whig majority in the Commons voted for a petition to unseat him. Due to the patronage of Lord Chichester and Lord Malmesbury, he was given the post of Junior Lord of the Admiralty in the ministry of the Duke of Portland. Palmerston stood again for the Cambridge seat in May but he lost by three votes after he advised his supporters to vote for the other Tory candidate in the two-member constituency so as to ensure a Tory was elected. On 3 February 1808 Palmerston spoke in support of confidentiality in the working of diplomacy and the bombardment of Copenhagen and the capture and destruction of the Danish navy by the Royal Navy in the Battle of Copenhagen. At the time of the attack on Copenhagen, Denmark was neutral but Napoleon had recently agreed with the Russians in the Treaty of Tilsit to build a naval alliance against Britain, including using the Danish navy for invading Britain. Pre-empting this, the British offered Denmark the choice of temporarily handing over her navy until the war's end or the destruction of their navy. The Danes refused to comply and so Copenhagen was bombarded. Palmerston justified the attack by peroration with reference to the ambitions of Napoleon to take control of the Danish fleet: ...it is defensible on the ground that the enormous power of France enables her to coerce the weaker state to become an enemy of England...It is the law of self-preservation that England appeals for the justification of her proceedings. It is admitted by the honourable gentleman and his supporters, that if Denmark had evidenced any hostility towards this country, then we should have been justified in measures of retaliation...Denmark coerced into hostility stands in the same position as Denmark voluntarily hostile, when the law of self-preservation comes into play...Does anyone believe that Buonaparte will be restrained by any considerations of justice from acting towards Denmark as he has done towards other countries?...England, according to that law of self-preservation which is a fundamental principle of the law of nations, is justified in securing, and therefore enforcing, from Denmark a neutrality which France would by compulsion have converted into an active hostility. In a letter to a friend on 24 December 1807, Palmerston described the late Whig MP Edmund Burke as possessing "the palm of political prophecy". This would become a metaphor for his own career in divining the course of imperial foreign policy. Secretary at War: 1809–1828 Palmerston's speech was so successful that Perceval, who formed his government in 1809, asked him to become Chancellor of the Exchequer, then a less important office than it was to become from the mid nineteenth century. Palmerston preferred the office of Secretary at War, charged exclusively with the financial business of the army. Without a seat in the cabinet until 1827, he remained in the latter post for 20 years. After the suicide of Castlereagh in 1822, the Cabinet of Lord Liverpool's Tory administration began to split along political lines. The more liberal wing of the Tory government made some ground, with George Canning becoming Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons, William Huskisson advocating and applying the doctrines of free trade, and Catholic emancipation emerging as an open question. Although Palmerston was not in the Cabinet, he cordially supported the measures of Canning and his friends. On 26 February 1828 Palmerston delivered a speech in favour of Catholic Emancipation. He felt that it was unseemly to relieve the "imaginary grievances" of the Dissenters from the established church while at the same time "real afflictions pressed upon the Catholics" of Great Britain. Palmerston also supported the campaign to pass the Reform Bill to extend the voting franchise to more men in Britain. One of his biographers has stated that: "Like many Pittites, now labelled tories, he was a good whig at heart". Catholic Emancipation finally passed Parliament in 1829 when Palmerston was in the opposition. The Great Reform Act passed Parliament in 1832. On 1 April 1818 a retired officer on half-pay, Lieutenant Davies, who had a grievance about his application from the War Office for a pension and was also mad, shot Palmerston as he walked up the stairs of the War Office. However the bullet only grazed his back and the wound was slight. After Palmerston learned that Davies was mad, he paid for his legal defence at the trial (Davies was sent to Bedlam). Upon the retirement of Lord Liverpool in April 1827, Canning was called to be Prime Minister. The more conservative Tories, including Sir Robert Peel, withdrew their support, and an alliance was formed between the liberal members of the late ministry and the Whigs. The post of Chancellor of the Exchequer was offered to Palmerston, who accepted it, but this appointment was frustrated by some intrigue between the King and John Charles Herries. Palmerston remained Secretary at War, though he gained a seat in the cabinet for the first time. The Canning administration ended after only four months on the death of the Prime Minister, and was followed by the ministry of Lord Goderich, which barely survived the year. The Canningites remained influential, and the Duke of Wellington hastened to include Palmerston, Huskisson, Charles Grant, William Lamb, and The Earl of Dudley in the government he subsequently formed. However, a dispute between Wellington and Huskisson over the issue of parliamentary representation for Manchester and Birmingham led to the resignation of Huskisson and his allies, including Palmerston. In the spring of 1828, after more than twenty years continuously in office, Palmerston found himself in opposition. Following his move to opposition, Palmerston appears to have focused closely on foreign policy. He had already urged Wellington into active interference in the Greek War of Independence, and he had made several visits to Paris, where he foresaw with great accuracy the impending overthrow of the Bourbons. On 1 June 1829 he made his first great speech on foreign affairs. Palmerston was a great orator. His language was relatively unstudied and his delivery somewhat embarrassed, but he generally found words to say the right thing at the right time and to address the House of Commons in the language best adapted to the capacity and the temper of his audience. An attempt was made by the Duke of Wellington in September 1830 to induce Palmerston to re-enter the cabinet, but he refused to do so without Lord Lansdowne and Lord Grey, two notable Whigs. This can be said to be the point in 1830, when his party allegiance changed. Foreign Secretary: 1830–1841 Palmerston entered the office with great energy and continued to exert his influence there for twenty years; he held it from 1830 to 1834, 1835 to 1841, and 1846 to 1851. Basically, Palmerston was responsible for the whole of British foreign policy from the time of the French and Belgian Revolutions of 1830 until December 1851. His abrasive style earned him the nickname "Lord Pumice Stone", and his manner of dealing with foreign governments who crossed him was the original "gunboat diplomacy". Crises of 1830 The revolutions of 1830 gave a jolt to the settled European system that had been created in 1814–15. The United Kingdom of the Netherlands was rent in half by the Belgian Revolution, the Kingdom of Portugal was the scene of civil war, and the Spanish were about to place an infant princess on the throne. Poland was in arms against the Russian Empire, while the northern powers (Russia, Prussia, and Austria) formed a closer alliance that seemed to threaten the peace and liberties of Europe. Polish exiles called on Britain to intervene against Russia during the November Uprising of 1830. Palmerston's overall policy was to safeguard British interests, maintain peace, keep the balance of power, and retain the status quo in Europe. He had no grievance against Russia and while he privately sympathized with the Polish cause, in his role as foreign minister he rejected Polish demands. With serious trouble simultaneously taking place in Belgium and Italy, and lesser issues in Greece and Portugal, he sought to de-escalate European tensions rather than aggravate them. He therefore focused chiefly on achieving a peaceful settlement of the crisis in Belgium. William I of the Netherlands appealed to the great powers that had placed him on the throne after the Napoleonic Wars to maintain his rights; a conference assembled accordingly in London. The British solution involved the independence of Belgium, which Palmerston believed would greatly contribute to the security of Britain, but any solution was not straightforward. On the one hand, the northern powers were anxious to defend William I; on the other, many Belgian revolutionaries, like Charles de Brouckère and Charles Rogier, supported the reunion of the Belgian provinces to France. The British policy was a close alliance with France, but one subject to the balance of power on the Continent, and in particular the preservation of Belgium. If the northern powers supported William I by force, they would encounter the resistance of France and Britain united in arms. If France sought to annex Belgium, it would forfeit the British alliance and find herself opposed by the whole of Europe. In the end the British policy prevailed. Although the continent had been close to war, peace was maintained on London's terms and Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, the widower of a British princess, was placed upon the throne of Belgium. France, Spain and Portugal 1830s In 1833 and 1834 the youthful Queens Maria II of Portugal and Isabella II of Spain were the representatives and the hope of the constitutional parties of their countries. Their positions were under some pressure from their absolutist kinsmen, Dom Miguel of Portugal and Don Carlos of Spain, who were the closest males in the lines of succession. Palmerston conceived and executed the plan of a quadruple alliance of the constitutional states of the West to serve as a counterpoise to the northern alliance. A treaty for the pacification of the Peninsula was signed in London on 22 April 1834 and, although the struggle was somewhat prolonged in Spain, it accomplished its objective. France had been a reluctant party to the treaty, and never executed her role in it with much zeal. Louis Philippe was accused of secretly favouring the Carlists – the supporters of Don Carlos – and he rejected direct interference in Spain. It is probable that the hesitation of the French court on this question was one of the causes of the enduring personal hostility Palmerston showed towards the French King thereafter, though that sentiment may well have arisen earlier. Although Palmerston wrote in June 1834 that Paris was "the pivot of my foreign policy", the differences between the two countries grew into a constant but sterile rivalry that brought benefit to neither. Balkans and Near East: defending Turkey, 1830s Palmerston was greatly interested by the diplomatic questions of Eastern Europe. During the Greek War of Independence he had energetically supported the Greek cause and backed the Treaty of Constantinople that gave Greece its independence. However, from 1830 the defence of the Ottoman Empire became one of the cardinal objects of his policy. He believed in the regeneration of Turkey. "All that we hear", he wrote to Bulwer (Lord Dalling), "about the decay of the Turkish Empire, and its being a dead body or a sapless trunk, and so forth, is pure unadulterated nonsense." His two great aims were to prevent Russia establishing itself on the Bosporus and to prevent France doing likewise on the Nile. He regarded the maintenance of the authority of the Sublime Porte as the chief barrier against both these developments. Palmerston had long maintained a suspicious and hostile attitude towards Russia, whose autocratic government offended his liberal principles and whose ever-growing size challenged the strength of the British Empire. He was angered by the 1833 Treaty of Hünkâr Iskelesi, a mutual assistance pact between Russia and the Ottomans, but was annoyed and hostile towards David Urquhart, the creator of the Vixen affair, running the Russian blockade of Circassia in the mid-1830s. Despite his popular reputation he was hesitant in 1831 about aiding the Sultan of Turkey, who was under threat from Muhammad Ali, the pasha of Egypt. Later, after Russian successes, in 1833 and 1835 he made proposals to afford material aid, which were overruled by the cabinet. Palmerston held that "if we can procure for it ten years of peace under the joint protection of the five Powers, and if those years are profitably employed in reorganizing the internal system of the empire, there is no reason whatever why it should not become again a respectable Power" and challenged the [metaphor] that an old country, such as Turkey should be in such disrepair as would be warranted by the comparison: "Half the wrong conclusions at which mankind arrive are reached by the abuse of metaphors, and by mistaking general resemblance or imaginary similarity for real identity." However, when the power of Ali appeared to threaten the existence of the Ottoman dynasty, particularly given the death of the Sultan on 1 July 1839, he succeeded in bringing the great powers together to sign a collective note on 27 July pledging them to maintain the independence and integrity of the Turkish Empire in order to preserve the security and peace of Europe. However, by 1840 Ali had occupied Syria and won the Battle of Nezib against the Turkish forces. Lord Ponsonby, the British ambassador at Constantinople, vehemently urged the British government to intervene. Having closer ties to the pasha than most, France refused to be a party to coercive measures against Ali despite having signed the note in the previous year. Palmerston, irritated at France's Egyptian policy, signed the London Convention of 15 July 1840 in London with Austria, Russia and Prussia – without the knowledge of the French government. This measure was taken with great hesitation, and strong opposition on the part of several members of the cabinet. Palmerston forced the measure through in part by declaring in a letter to the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, that he would resign from the ministry if his policy were not adopted. The London Convention granted Muhammad Ali hereditary rule in Egypt in return for withdrawal from Syria and Lebanon, but was rejected by the pasha. The European powers intervened with force, and the bombardment of Beirut, the fall of Acre, and the total collapse of Ali's power followed in rapid succession. Palmerston's policy was triumphant, and the author of it had won a reputation as one of the most powerful statesmen of the age. In September 1838, Palmerston appointed a British Consul in Jerusalem, without the conventional consultation of the Board of Trade, and gave instruction to assist with the construction of an Anglican church in the city, under the prompting influences of Lord Shaftesbury, a prominent Christian Zionist. China: Forcing free trade China had sealed itself off from the world, permitting only limited trade under the Canton System and allowing no diplomatic contact. Palmerston saw this as an affront to his free trade principles, and demanded reform, sending Lord Napier to negotiate in 1834. China refused, and harassed the British traders bringing in opium from India. The upshot was the First Opium War, 1839–42, which ended in the conquest of Chusan by Henry Pottinger. It was later exchanged for the island of Hong Kong. Under the Treaty of Nanjing, China paid an indemnity and opened five treaty ports to world trade. Palmerston thus achieved his main goal of opening China to trade, although his critics focused on the immorality of the opium trade. In all these actions Palmerston brought to bear a great deal of patriotic vigour and energy. This made him very popular among the ordinary people of Britain, but his passion, propensity to act through personal animosity, and imperious language made him seem dangerous and destabilising in the eyes of the Queen and his more conservative colleagues in government. In 1839, Palmerston married his mistress of many years, Emily Lamb, Countess Cowper, following the death of her husband. She was a noted Whig hostess and sister of Lord Melbourne. They had no legitimate children, although at least one of Lord Cowper's putative children, Lady Emily Cowper, later Countess of Shaftesbury, was widely believed to have been Palmerston's. Within a few months Melbourne's administration came to an end (1841) and Palmerston remained for five years out of office. The crisis was past, but the change which took place by the substitution of François Guizot for Adolphe Thiers in France, and of Lord Aberdeen for Palmerston in Britain was a fortunate event for the peace of the world. Palmerston had adopted the opinion that peace with France was not to be relied on, and indeed that war between the two countries was sooner or later inevitable. Aberdeen and Guizot inaugurated a different policy: by mutual confidence and friendly offices, they entirely succeeded in restoring the most cordial understanding between the two governments, and the irritation which Palmerston had inflamed gradually subsided. During the administration of Sir Robert Peel, Palmerston led a retired life, but he attacked with characteristic bitterness the Webster-Ashburton Treaty with the United States. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 resolved several Canadian boundary disputes with the United States, particularly the border between New Brunswick and the State of Maine and between Canada and the State of Minnesota from Lake Superior and the Lake of the Woods. Much as he criticised it, the treaty successfully closed the border questions with which Palmerston had long been concerned. Palmerston's reputation as an interventionist and his unpopularity with the Queen and other grandees was such that Lord John Russell's attempt in December 1845 to form a ministry failed because Lord Grey refused to join a government in which Palmerston would direct foreign affairs. A few months later, however, the Whigs returned to power and Palmerston to the Foreign Office (July 1846). Russell replied to critics that Palmerston's policies had "a tendency to produce war" but that he had advanced British interests without a major conflict, if not entirely peaceably. Foreign Secretary: 1846–1851 France and Spain, 1845 The French government regarded the appointment of Palmerston as a certain sign of renewed hostilities. They availed themselves of a dispatch in which he had put forward the name of a Coburg prince as a candidate for the hand of the young queen of Spain as a justification for a departure from the engagements entered into between Guizot and Lord Aberdeen. However little the conduct of the French government in this transaction of the Spanish marriages can be vindicated, it is certain that it originated in the belief that in Palmerston France had a restless and subtle enemy. The efforts of the British minister to defeat the French marriages of the Spanish princesses, by an appeal to the Treaty of Utrecht and the other powers of Europe, were wholly unsuccessful; France won the game, though with no small loss of honourable reputation. Brown[who?] rejects the traditional interpretation to the effect that Aberdeen had forged an entente cordiale with France in the early 1840s whereupon the belligerent Palmerston after 1846 destroyed that friendly relationship. Brown argues that as foreign secretary from 1846 to 1851 and subsequently as prime minister, Palmerston sought to maintain the balance of power in Europe, sometimes even aligning with France to do so. Support for revolutions abroad The revolutions of 1848 spread like a conflagration through Europe, and shook every throne on the Continent except those of Russia, Spain, and Belgium. Palmerston sympathised openly with the revolutionary party abroad. In particular, he was a strong advocate of national self-determination, and stood firmly on the side of constitutional liberties on the Continent. Despite this, he was bitterly opposed to Irish independence, being very opposed to the Young Ireland movement. No state was regarded by him with more aversion than Austria. Yet, his opposition to Austria was chiefly based upon her occupation of northeastern Italy and her Italian policy. Palmerston maintained that the existence of Austria as a great power north of the Alps was an essential element in the system of Europe. Antipathies and sympathies had a large share in the political views of Palmerston, and his sympathies had ever been passionately awakened by the cause of Italian independence. He supported the Sicilians against the King of Naples, and even allowed arms to be sent them from the arsenal at Woolwich. Although he had endeavoured to restrain the King of Sardinia from his rash attack on the superior forces of Austria, he obtained for him a reduction of the penalty of defeat. Austria, weakened by the revolution, sent an envoy to London to request the mediation of Britain, based on a large cession of Italian territory. Palmerston rejected the terms he might have obtained for Piedmont. After a couple of years this wave of revolution was replaced by a wave of reaction. In Hungary the civil war, which had thundered at the gates of Vienna, was brought to a close by Russian intervention. Prince Schwarzenberg assumed the government of the empire with dictatorial power. In spite of what Palmerston termed his judicious bottle-holding, the movement he had encouraged and applauded, but to which he could give no material aid, was everywhere subdued. The British government, or at least Palmerston as its representative, was regarded with suspicion and resentment by every power in Europe, except the French republic. Even that was shortly afterwards to be alienated by Palmerston's attack on Greece. When Lajos Kossuth, the Hungarian democrat and leader of its constitutionalists, landed in England, Palmerston proposed to receive him at Broadlands, a design which was only prevented by a peremptory vote of the cabinet. Royal and parliamentary reaction to 1848 This state of things was regarded with the utmost annoyance by the British court and by most of the British ministers. On many occasions, Palmerston had taken important steps without their knowledge, which they disapproved. Over the Foreign Office he asserted and exercised an arbitrary dominion, which the feeble efforts of the premier could not control. The Queen and the Prince Consort did not conceal their indignation at the fact that they were held responsible for Palmerston's actions by the other Courts of Europe. When Benjamin Disraeli and others took several nights in the House of Commons to impeach Palmerston's foreign policy, the foreign minister responded to a five-hour speech by Anstey with a five-hour speech of his own, the first of two great speeches in which he laid out a comprehensive defence of his foreign policy and of liberal interventionism more generally. Reviewing his whole parliamentary career — reminding him, he joked, of a drowning man's visions of his past life — he said: I hold that the real policy of England... is to be the champion of justice and right, pursuing that course with moderation and prudence, not becoming the Quixote of the world, but giving the weight of her moral sanction and support wherever she thinks that justice is, and whenever she thinks that wrong has been done. It is generally supposed that Russell and the Queen both hoped that the other would take the initiative and dismiss Palmerston; the Queen was dissuaded by Prince Albert, who took the limits of constitutional power very seriously, and Russell by Palmerston's prestige with the people and his competence in an otherwise remarkably inept Cabinet. Don Pacifico Affair: Parliament and the Queen, 1850 In 1847 the home of Don Pacifico, a Gibraltaran merchant living in Athens, Greece, was attacked by an anti-Semitic mob. The mob included the sons of a Greek government minister and, during the attack, Greek police did not intervene and stood by and watched the attack. Because Don Pacifico was a British subject, the British government expressed concern. In January 1850 Palmerston took advantage of Don Pacifico's claims on the Greek government and blockaded the port of Piraeus in the kingdom of Greece. As Greece was under the joint protection of three powers, Russia and France protested against its coercion by the British fleet. After a memorable debate (17 June), Palmerston's policy was condemned by a vote of the House of Lords. The House of Commons was moved by Roebuck to reverse the sentence, which it did 29 June by a majority of 46, after having heard from Palmerston on 25 June. This was the most eloquent and powerful speech he ever delivered, wherein he sought to vindicate not only his claims on the Greek government for Don Pacifico, but his entire administration of foreign affairs. |Wikisource has original text related to this article:| It was in this speech, which lasted five hours, Palmerston made the well known declaration that a British subject ought everywhere to be protected by the strong arm of the British government against injustice and wrong; comparing the reach of the British Empire to that of the Roman Empire, in which a Roman citizen could walk the earth unmolested by any foreign power. This was the famous Civis Romanus sum ("I am a citizen of Rome") speech. After this speech Palmerston's popularity had never been greater. Yet, notwithstanding this parliamentary triumph, there were not a few of his own colleagues and supporters who condemned the spirit in which the foreign relations of the Crown were carried on. In that same year, the Queen addressed a minute to the Prime Minister in which she recorded her dissatisfaction at the manner in which Palmerston evaded the obligation to submit his measures for the royal sanction as failing in sincerity to the Crown. This minute was communicated to Palmerston, who accepted its criticisms. On 2 December 1851 Louis Napoleon—who had been elected President of France in 1848—carried out a coup d'état by dissolving the National Assembly and arresting the leading Republicans. Palmerston privately congratulated Napoleon on his triumph, noting that Britain's constitution was rooted in history but that France had had five revolutions since 1789, with the French Constitution of 1848 being a "day-before-yesterday tomfoolery which the scatterbrain heads of Marrast and Tocqueville invented for the torment and perplexity of the French nation". However the Cabinet decided that Britain must be neutral and so Palmerston requested his officials be diplomatic. Prince Albert came to learn of Palmerston's favourable opinion towards the change in government, had sent a dispatch without showing the Sovereign. Protesting innocence, he duly resigned. Home Secretary: 1852–1855 After a brief period of Conservative minority government, the Earl of Aberdeen became Prime Minister in a coalition government of Whigs and Peelites (with Russell taking the role of Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons). It was regarded as impossible for them to form a government without Palmerston, so he was made Home Secretary in December 1852. Many people considered this a curious appointment because Palmerston's expertise was so obviously in foreign affairs. There was a story that after a great wave of strikes swept Northern England, the Queen summoned Palmerston to discuss the situation. When she enquired after the latest news, Palmerston is said to have replied: "There is no definite news, Madam, but it seems certain that the Turks have crossed the Danube". Palmerston passed the Factory Act 1853 which removed loopholes in previous Factory Acts and outlawed all labour by young persons between 6pm and 6am. He attempted to pass a Bill that confirmed the rights of workers to combine but this was thrown out by the House of Lords. He introduced the Truck Act which stopped the practice of employers paying workmen in goods instead of money, or forcing them to purchase goods from shops owned by the employers. In August 1853 Palmerston introduced the Smoke Abatement Act in order to combat the increasing smoke from coal fires, a problem greatly aggravated by the Industrial Revolution. He also oversaw the passage of the Vaccination Act 1853 into law, which was introduced as a private member's bill, and which Palmerston persuaded the government to support. The Act made vaccination of children compulsory for the first time. Palmerston outlawed the burying of the dead in churches. The right to bury the dead in churches was held by wealthy families whose ancestors had purchased the right in the past. Palmerston opposed this practice on public health grounds and ensured that all bodies were buried in a churchyard or public cemetery. Palmerston reduced the period in which prisoners could be held in solitary confinement from eighteen months to nine months. He also ended transportation to Van Diemen's Land for prisoners by passing the Penal Servitude Act 1853, which also reduced the maximum sentences for most offences. Palmerston passed the Reformatory Schools Act 1854 which gave the Home Secretary powers to send juvenile prisoners to a reformatory school instead of prison. He was forced to accept an amendment which ensured that the prisoner had to have spent at least three months in jail first. When in October 1854 Palmerston visited Parkhurst jail and conversed with three boy inmates, he was impressed by their behaviour and ordered that they be sent to a reformatory school. He found the ventilation in the cells unsatisfactory and ordered that they be improved. Palmerston strongly opposed Lord John Russell's plans for giving the vote to sections of the urban working-classes. When the Cabinet agreed in December 1853 to introduce a bill during the next session of Parliament in the form which Russell wanted, Palmerston resigned. However, Aberdeen told him that no definite decision on reform had been taken and persuaded Palmerston to return to the Cabinet. The electoral Reform Bill did not pass Parliament that year. Palmerston's exile from his traditional realm of the Foreign Office meant he did not have full control over British policy during the events precipitating the Crimean War. One of his biographers, Jasper Ridley, argues that had he been in control of foreign policy at this time, war in the Crimea would have been avoided. Palmerston argued in Cabinet, after Russian troops concentrated on the Ottoman border in February 1853, that the Royal Navy should join the French fleet in the Dardanelles as a warning to Russia. He was overruled, however. In May 1853 the Russians threatened to invade the principalities Wallachia and Moldavia unless the Ottoman Sultan surrendered to their demands. Palmerston argued for immediate decisive action; the Royal Navy should be sent to the Dardanelles to assist the Turkish navy and that Britain should inform Russia of the intention to go to war with her if it invaded the principalities. However, Aberdeen objected to all of Palmerston's proposals. After prolonged arguments, a reluctant Aberdeen agreed to send a fleet to the Dardanelles but objected to his other proposals. The Russian Tsar was annoyed by Britain's actions but it was not enough to deter him. When the British fleet arrived at the Dardanelles the weather was rough so the fleet took refuge in the outer waters of the straits. The Russians argued that this was a violation of the Straits Convention of 1841 and therefore invaded the two principalities. Palmerston thought that this was the result of British weakness and thought that if the Russians had been told that if they invaded the principalities the British and French fleets would enter the Bosphorus or the Black Sea, they would have been deterred. In Cabinet, Palmerston argued for a vigorous prosecution of the war against Russia by Britain but Aberdeen objected, as he wanted peace. Public opinion was on the side of the Turks and with Aberdeen becoming steadily unpopular, Lord Dudley Stuart in February 1854 noted, "Wherever I go, I have heard but one opinion on the subject, and that one opinion has been pronounced in a single word, or in a single name – Palmerston." On 28 March 1854 Britain and France declared war on Russia for refusing to withdraw from the principalities. The war progressed slowly, with no gains in the Baltic and slow gains in Crimea at the long Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855). Dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war was growing with the public in Britain and in other countries, aggravated by reports of fiascoes and failures, especially the mismanagement of the heroic Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava. The health and living conditions of the British soldiers was notorious and the press, with correspondents in the field, made the most of it. Tories demanded an accounting of all soldiers, cavalry and sailors sent to the Crimea and accurate figures as to the number of casualties. When Parliament passed a bill to investigate by the vote of 305 to 148, Aberdeen said he had lost a vote of no confidence and resigned as prime minister on 30 January 1855. Queen Victoria deeply distrusted Palmerston and first asked Lord Derby to accept the premiership. Derby offered Palmerston the office of Secretary of State for War which he accepted under the condition that Clarendon remained as Foreign Secretary. Clarendon refused and so Palmerston refused Derby's offer and Derby subsequently gave up trying to form a government. The Queen sent for Lansdowne but he was too old to accept: so she asked Russell; but none of his former colleagues except Palmerston wanted to serve under him. Having exhausted the possible alternatives, the Queen invited Palmerston to Buckingham Palace on 4 February 1855 to form a government. Prime Minister: 1855–1858 Ending the Crimean War Palmerston took a hard line on the war; he wanted to expand the fighting, especially in the Baltic where St. Petersburg could be threatened by superior British naval power. His goal was to permanently reduce the Russian threat to Europe. Sweden and Prussia were willing to join, and Russia stood alone. However, France, which had sent far more soldiers to the war than Britain, and had suffered far more casualties, wanted the war to end, as did Austria. In March 1855 the old Tsar died and was succeeded by his son, Alexander II, who wished to make peace. However, Palmerston found the peace terms too soft on Russia and so persuaded Napoleon III of France to break off the peace negotiations until Sevastopol could be captured, putting the allies in a stronger negotiating position. In September Sevastopol finally surrendered and the allies had full control of the Black Sea theatre. Russia came to terms. On 27 February 1856 an armistice was signed and after a month's negotiations an agreement was signed at the Congress of Paris. Palmerston's demand for a demilitarised Black Sea was secured, although his wish for the Crimea to be returned to the Ottomans was not. The peace treaty was signed on 30 March 1856. In April 1856 Palmerston was awarded the Order of the Garter by Victoria. Arrow controversy and the Second Opium War In October 1856 the Chinese seized the pirate ship Arrow and in the process, according to the local British official Harry Parkes, insulted the British flag. When the Chinese Commissioner Ye Mingchen refused to apologize, the British shelled his compound. The commissioner retaliated with a proclamation that called on the people of Canton to "unite in exterminating these troublesome English villains" and offered a $100 bounty for the head of any Englishman. The British factories outside the city were also burned to the ground by incensed locals. Palmerston supported Parkes while in Parliament the British policy was strongly attacked on moral grounds by Richard Cobden and Gladstone. Playing the patriotism card, Palmerston said that Cobden demonstrated "an anti-English feeling, an abnegation of all those ties which bind men to their country and to their fellow-countrymen, which I should hardly have expected from the lips of any member of this House. Everything that was English was wrong, and everything that was hostile to England was right." He went on to say that if a motion of censure was carried it would signal that the House had voted to "abandon a large community of British subjects at the extreme end of the globe to a set of barbarians – a set of kidnapping, murdering, poisoning barbarians." The censure motion was carried by a majority of sixteen and the election of 1857 followed. Palmerston's stance proved popular among a large section of the workers, the growing middle classes and the country's commercial and financial interests. With the expanded franchise, his party swept on a wave of popular feeling to a majority of 83, the largest since 1835. Cobden and John Bright lost their seats. After the election, Palmerston passed the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 which for the first time made it possible for courts to grant a divorce and removed divorce from the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts. The opponents in Parliament, which included Gladstone, were the first in British history to try to kill a bill by talking it out. Nonetheless, Palmerston was determined to get the bill through, which he did. In June news came to Britain of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Palmerston sent Sir Colin Campbell and reinforcements to India. Palmerston also agreed to transfer the authority of the British East India Company to the Crown. This was enacted in the Government of India Act 1858. After the Italian republican Felice Orsini tried to assassinate the French emperor with a bomb made in Britain, the French were outraged (see Orsini affair). Palmerston introduced a Conspiracy to Murder Bill which made it a felony to plot in Britain to murder someone abroad. At first reading, the Conservatives voted for it but at second reading they voted against it. Palmerston lost by nineteen votes. Therefore, in February 1858 he was forced to resign. However, the Conservatives lacked a majority and Russell introduced a resolution in March 1859 arguing for widening the franchise, which the Conservatives opposed but which was carried. Parliament was dissolved and a general election ensued, which the Whigs won. Palmerston rejected an offer from Disraeli to become Conservative leader, but he attended the meeting of 6 June 1859 in Willis's Rooms at St James Street where the Liberal Party was formed. The Queen asked Lord Granville to form a government but although Palmerston agreed to serve under him, Russell did not. Therefore, on 12 June the Queen asked Palmerston to become Prime Minister. Russell and Gladstone agreed to serve under him. Prime Minister: 1859–1865 In his last premiership Palmerston oversaw the passage of important legislation. The Offences against the Person Act 1861 codified and reformed the law, and was part of a wider process of consolidating criminal law. The Companies Act 1862 was the basis of modern company law. Foreign policy continued to be his main strength; he thought that he could Shape if not control all of European diplomacy, especially by using France is a vital ally and trade partner. However historians often characterize his method as bluffing more than than decisive action. Some people called Palmerston a womaniser; The Times named him Lord Cupid (on account of his youthful looks), and he was cited, at the age of 79, as co-respondent in an 1863 divorce case, although it emerged that the case was nothing more than an attempted blackmail. Relationship with Gladstone Although Palmerston and William Gladstone treated each other as gentlemen, they disagreed fundamentally over Church appointments, foreign affairs, defence and reform; Palmerston's greatest problem during his last premiership was how to handle his Chancellor of the Exchequer. The MP Sir William Gregory was told by a member of the Cabinet that "at the beginning of each session and after each holiday, Mr Gladstone used to come in charged to the muzzle with all sorts of schemes of all sorts of reforms which were absolutely necessary in his opinion to be immediately undertaken. Palmerston used to look fixedly at the paper before him, saying nothing until there was a lull in Gladstone's outpouring. He then rapped the table and said cheerfully: 'Now, my Lords and gentlemen, let us go to business'." Palmerston told Lord Shaftesbury: "Gladstone will soon have it all his own way and whenever he gets my place we shall have strange doings". He told another friend that he thought Gladstone would wreck the Liberal Party and end up in a madhouse. When in May 1864 the MP Edward Baines introduced a Reform Bill in the Commons, Palmerston ordered Gladstone to not commit himself and the government to any particular scheme. Instead Gladstone said in his speech in the Commons that he did not see why any man should not have the vote unless he was mentally incapacitated, but added that this would not come about unless the working class showed an interest in reform. Palmerston believed that this was incitement to the working class to begin agitating for reform and told Gladstone: "What every Man and Woman too have a Right to, is to be well governed and under just Laws, and they who propose a change ought to shew that the present organization does not accomplish those objects". French intervention in Italy had created an invasion scare and Palmerston established a Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom which reported in 1860. It recommended a huge programme of fortifications to protect the Royal Navy Dockyards and ports, which Palmerston vigorously supported. Objecting to the enormous expense, Gladstone repeatedly threatened to resign as Chancellor when the proposals were accepted. Palmerston said that he had received so many resignation letters from Gladstone that he feared that they would set fire to the chimney. American Civil War Palmerston's sympathies in the American Civil War (1861–5) were with the secessionist Southern Confederacy. Although a professed opponent of the slave trade and slavery, he held a lifelong hostility towards the United States and believed a dissolution of the Union would weaken the United States – and therefore enhance British power – and that the Southern Confederacy "would afford a valuable and extensive market for British manufactures". Britain issued a proclamation of neutrality at the beginning of the Civil War on 13 May 1861. The Confederacy was recognised as a belligerent but it was too premature to recognise the South as a sovereign state. The United States Secretary of State, William Seward, threatened to treat Britain's as a hostile action. Britain depended more on American corn than Confederate cotton, and a war with the U.S. would not be in Britain's economic interest. Palmerston ordered reinforcements sent to the Province of Canada because he was convinced the North would make peace with the South and then invade Canada. He was very pleased with the Confederate victory at Bull Run in July 1861, but 15 months later he wrote that "the American [Civil] War... has manifestly ceased to have any attainable object as far as the Northerns are concerned, except to get rid of some more thousand troublesome Irish and Germans. It must be owned, however, that the Anglo-Saxon race on both sides have shown courage and endurance highly honourable to their stock". The Trent Affair in November 1861 produced public outrage in Britain and a diplomatic crisis. A U.S. Navy warship stopped the British steamer Trent and seized two Confederate envoys en route to Europe. Palmerston called the action "a declared and gross insult", demanded the release of the two diplomats and ordered 3,000 troops to Canada. In a letter to Queen Victoria on 5 December 1861 he said that if his demands were not met, "Great Britain is in a better state than at any former time to inflict a severe blow upon and to read a lesson to the United States which will not soon be forgotten." In another letter to his Foreign Secretary, he predicted war between Britain and the Union: It is difficult not to come to the conclusion that the rabid hatred of England which animates the exiled Irishmen who direct almost all the Northern newspapers, will so excite the masses as to make it impossible for Lincoln and Seward to grant our demands; and we must therefore look forward to war as the probable result. In fact Irishmen did not control any major newspapers in the North, and the U.S. decided to release the prisoners rather than risk war. Palmerston was convinced the presence of troops in Canada persuaded the U.S. to acquiesce. After the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Antietam in September 1862 and the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, Palmerston declined Napoleon III of France's proposal for the two powers to arbitrate the war. Palmerston rejected all further efforts of the Confederacy to gain British recognition. The raiding ship CSS Alabama, built in the British port of Birkenhead, was another difficulty for Palmerston. On 29 July 1862, a law officer's report he had commissioned advised him to detain Alabama, as its construction was a breach of Britain's neutrality. Palmerston ordered Alabama detained on 31 July, but it had already put to sea before the order reached Birkenhead. In her subsequent cruise, Alabama captured or destroyed many Union merchant ships, as did other raiders fitted out in Britain. The U.S. accused Britain of complicity in the construction of the raiders. This was the basis of the postwar Alabama claims for damages against Britain, which Palmerston refused to pay. After his death, Gladstone acknowledged the U.S. claim and agreed to arbitration, paying out $15,500,000 in damages. In the fall of 1862, Chancellor of the Exchequer William E. Gladstone opened a cabinet debate whether Britain should intervene. Gladstone had a favorable image of the Confederacy, and indeed of slavery (his family wealth depended on slavery in the West Indies). He emphasized the humanitarian intervention to stop the staggering death toll, risk of a race war, and failure of the Union to achieve decisive military results. But Prime minister Palmerston had other concerns at the same time, including a crisis regarding the overthrow of the Greek king, which put the Eastern Question in play. The Cabinet decided that the American situation was less urgent than me need to contain Russian expansion, so it rejected Gladstone's suggestions. The Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck wanted to annex the Danish territory of Schleswig and the German territory of Holstein, whose Duke was the King of Denmark, chiefly for its port of Kiel, and had an alliance with Austria for this purpose. In a speech to the Commons on 23 July 1863, Palmerston said the British government, like those of France and Russia, wished that "the independence, the integrity, and the rights of Denmark may be maintained. We are convinced—I am convinced at least—that if any violent attempt were made to overthrow those rights and interfere with that independence, those who made the attempt would find in the result that it would not be Denmark alone with which they would have to contend". Palmerston's stance derived from the traditional belief that France was the greater threat to Britain and was much stronger than Austria and Prussia. For five months Bismarck did nothing. However in November the Danish government instituted a new constitution whereby Holstein was bound closer to Denmark. Schleswig had already been a part of Denmark for centuries. By the year's end, the Prussian and Austrian armies were massing on the River Eider. On 1 February 1864 the Prussian-Austrian armies invaded Schleswig-Holstein and ten days afterwards the Danish government requested British help to resist this. Russell urged Palmerston to send a fleet to Copenhagen and persuade Napoleon III that he should mobilise his soldiers that were placed on the borders of Prussia's Rhineland provinces. Palmerston replied that the fleet could not do much to assist the Danes in Copenhagen and that nothing should be done to persuade Napoleon to cross the Rhine. In April Austria's navy was on its way to attack Copenhagen and Palmerston saw the Austrian ambassador and informed him that Britain could not allow their navy to sail through the English Channel if their intent was to attack Denmark, and if it entered the Baltic the result would be war with Britain. The ambassador replied that the Austrian navy would not enter the Baltic and it did not do so. Palmerston accepted Russell's suggestion that the war should be settled at a conference in London but at the conference in May and June the Danes refused to accept their loss of Schleswig-Holstein. The armistice ended on 26 June and Prussian-Austrian troops quickly invaded more of Denmark. On 25 June the Cabinet was against going to war to save Denmark but Russell's suggestion to send the Royal Navy to defend Copenhagen was only carried by Palmerston's vote. Palmerston however said the fleet could not be sent in view of the deep division in the Cabinet. On 27 June Palmerston gave his statement to the Commons and said Britain would not go to war with the German powers unless the existence of Denmark as an independent power was at stake or that her capital was threatened. The Conservatives replied that Palmerston had betrayed the Danes and a vote of censure in the House of Lords was carried by nine votes. In the debate in the Commons the Conservative MP General Peel said: "It is come to this, that the words of the Prime Minister of England [sic], uttered in the Parliament of England, are to be regarded as mere idle menaces to be laughed at and despised by foreign powers?" Palmerston replied in the last night of the debate: "I say that England stands as high as she ever did and those who say she had fallen in the estimation of the world are not the men to whom the honour and dignity of England should be confided". The vote of censure was defeated by 313 votes to 295, with Palmerston's old enemies in the pacifist camp, Cobden and Bright, voting for him. The result of the vote was announced at 2.30 in the morning and when Palmerston heard the news he ran up the stairs to the Ladies' Gallery and embraced his wife. Disraeli wrote: "What pluck to mount those dreadful stairs at three o'clock in the morning, and eighty years of age!" In a speech at his constituency at Tiverton in August, Palmerston told his constituents: I am sure every Englishman who has a heart in his breast and a feeling of justice in his mind, sympathizes with those unfortunate Danes (cheers), and wishes that this country could have been able to draw the sword successfully in their defence (continued cheers); but I am satisfied that those who reflect on the season of the year when that war broke out, on the means which this country could have applied for deciding in one sense that issue, I am satisfied that those who make these reflections will think that we acted wisely in not embarking in that dispute. (Cheers.) To have sent a fleet in midwinter to the Baltic every sailor would tell you was an impossibility, but if it could have gone it would have been attended by no effectual result. Ships sailing on the sea cannot stop armies on land, and to have attempted to stop the progress of an army by sending a fleet to the Baltic would have been attempting to do that which it was not possible to accomplish. (Hear, hear.) If England could have sent an army, and although we all know how admirable that army is on the peace establishment, we must acknowledge that we have no means of sending out a force at all equal to cope with the 300,000 or 400,000 men whom the 30,000,000 or 40,000,000 of Germany could have pitted against us, and that such an attempt would only have insured a disgraceful discomfiture—not to the army, indeed, but to the Government which sent out an inferior force and expected it to cope successfully with a force so vastly superior. (Cheers.) ... we did not think that the Danish cause would be considered as sufficiently British, and as sufficiently bearing on the interests and the security and the honour of England, as to make it justifiable to ask the country to make those exertions which such a war would render necessary. Palmerston won another general election in July 1865, increasing his majority. The leadership of Palmerston was a great electoral asset to the Liberal Party. He then had to deal with the outbreak of Fenian violence in Ireland. Palmerston ordered the Viceroy of Ireland, Lord Wodehouse, to take measures against this, including a possible suspension of trial-by-jury and a monitoring of Americans travelling to Ireland. He believed that the Fenian agitation was caused by America. On 27 September 1865 he wrote to the Secretary for War: The American assault on Ireland under the name of Fenianism may be now held to have failed, but the snake is only scotched and not killed. It is far from impossible that the American conspirators may try and obtain in our North American provinces compensation for their defeat in Ireland. He advised that more armaments be sent to Canada and more troops sent to Ireland. During these last few weeks of his life, Palmerston pondered on developments in foreign affairs. He began thinking of a new friendship with France as "a sort of preliminary defensive alliance" against America and looked forward to Prussia becoming more powerful as this would balance against the growing threat from Russia. In a letter to Russell he warned that Russia "will in due time become a power almost as great as the old Roman Empire...Germany ought to be strong in order to resist Russian aggression." Palmerston enjoyed robust health in old age, living at Romsey in his home Foxhills, built in about 1840. On 12 October 1865 he caught a chill and instead of retiring immediately to bed he spent an hour-and-a-half dawdling. He then had a violent fever but his condition stabilised for the next few days. However on the night of 17 October his health worsened, and when his doctor asked him if he believed in regeneration of the world through Jesus Christ, Palmerston replied: "Oh, surely." His last words were, "That's Article 98; now go on to the next." (He was thinking about diplomatic treaties.) An apocryphal version of his last words is: "Die, my dear doctor? That is the last thing I shall do." He died at 10:45 am on Wednesday, 18 October 1865 two days before his eighty-first birthday. Although Palmerston wanted to be buried at Romsey Abbey, the Cabinet insisted that he should have a state funeral and be buried at Westminster Abbey, which he was, on 27 October 1865. He was the fourth person not of royalty to be granted a state funeral (after Sir Isaac Newton, Lord Nelson, and the Duke of Wellington). Queen Victoria wrote after his death that though she regretted his passing, she had never liked or respected him: "Strange, and solemn to think of that strong, determined man, with so much worldly ambition – gone! He had often worried and distressed us, though as Pr. Minister he had behaved very well." Florence Nightingale reacted differently upon hearing of his death: "He will be a great loss to us. Tho' he made a joke when asked to do the right thing, he always did it. No one else will be able to carry things thro' the Cabinet as he did. I shall lose a powerful protector...He was so much more in earnest than he appeared. He did not do himself justice." He was succeeded by his stepson William Cowper-Temple (later created The 1st Baron Mount Temple), whose inheritance included a 10,000 acre estate in the north of County Sligo in the west of Ireland, on which his stepfather had commissioned the building of the incomplete Classiebawn Castle. Palmerston has traditionally been viewed as "a Conservative at home and a Liberal abroad". He believed that the British constitution as secured by the Glorious Revolution of 1688 was the best which human hands had made, with a constitutional monarchy subject to the laws of the land but retaining some political power. He supported the rule of law and opposed further democratisation after the Reform Act 1832. He wished to see this liberal system of a mixed constitution in-between the two extremes of absolute monarchy and republican democracy replace the absolute monarchies on the Continent. More recently some historians have seen his domestic policies as Prime Minister as not merely liberal but genuinely progressive by the standards of his era. However it is in foreign affairs that Palmerston is chiefly remembered. Palmerston's principal aim in foreign policy was to advance the national interests of England. Palmerston is famous for his patriotism. Lord John Russell said that "his heart always beat for the honour of England". Palmerston believed it was in Britain's interests that liberal governments be established on the Continent. He also practised brinkmanship and bluff in that he was prepared to threaten war to achieve Britain's interests. When in 1886 Lord Rosebery became Foreign Secretary in Gladstone's government, John Bright asked him if he had read about Palmerston's policies as Foreign Secretary. Rosebery replied that he had. "Then", said Bright, "you know what to avoid. Do the exact opposite of what he did. His administration at the Foreign Office was one long crime." The Marquis of Lorne said of Palmerston in 1866: "He loved his country and his country loved him. He lived for her honour, and she will cherish his memory." In 1889 Gladstone recounted a story of when "a Frenchman, thinking to be highly complimentary, said to Palmerston: 'If I were not a Frenchman, I should wish to be an Englishman'; to which Pam coolly replied: 'If I were not an Englishman, I should wish to be an Englishman.'" When Winston Churchill campaigned for rearmament in the 1930s, he was compared to Palmerston in warning the nation to look to its defences. The policy of appeasement led General Jan Smuts to write in 1936 that "we are afraid of our shadows. I sometimes long for a ruffian like Palmerston or any man who would be more than a string of platitudes and apologies." He was also an avowed abolitionist whose attempts to abolish the slave trade was one of the most consistent elements of his foreign policy. His opposition to the slave trade created tensions with Southern American countries and the United States over his insistence that the British navy had the right to search the vessels of any country if they suspected the vessels were being used in the slave trade. Historian A.J.P. Taylor has summarised his career by emphasising the paradoxes: - For twenty years junior minister in a Tory government, he became the most successful of Whig Foreign Secretaries; though always a Conservative, he ended his life by presiding over the transition from Whiggism to Liberalism. He was the exponent of British strength, yet was driven from office for truckling to a foreign despot; he preached the Balance of Power, yet helped to inaugurate the policy of isolation and of British withdrawal from Europe. Irresponsible and flippant, he became the first hero of the serious middle-class electorate. He reached high office solely through an irregular family connection; he retained it through skilful use of the press—the only Prime Minister to become an accomplished leader-writer. Palmerston is also remembered for his light-hearted approach to government. He is once said to have claimed of a particularly intractable problem relating to Schleswig-Holstein, that only three people had ever understood the problem: one was Prince Albert, who was dead; the second was a German professor, who had gone insane; and the third was himself, who had forgotten it. The Life of Lord Palmerston up to 1847 was written by Lord Dalling (Sir H. Lytton Bulwer), volumes I and II (1870), volume III edited and partly written by Evelyn Ashley (1874), after the author's death. Ashley completed the biography in two more volumes (1876). The whole work was reissued in a revised and slightly abridged form by Ashley in 2 volumes in 1879, with the title The Life and Correspondence of Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston; the letters are judiciously curtailed, but unfortunately without indicating where the excisions occur; the appendices of the original work are omitted, but much fresh matter is added, and this edition is undoubtedly the standard biography. An early "biographer" of Palmerston was Karl Marx in 1853. - The Town of Palmerston located in Southwestern Ontario, Canada was founded and named after Lord Palmerston in 1875. Palmerston is now part of the amalgamated town of Minto. - Two distant places in New Zealand are named after him: the town of Palmerston, in the South Island, and the city of Palmerston North, in the North. - The Australian city of Darwin was previously named Palmerston in honour of the Viscount. However a satellite city called Palmerston was established adjacent to Darwin in 1971. - Palmerston Atoll is the most northerly of the Southern Group of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. Amongst the 15 or so islands of the atoll, Palmerston Island is the only one which is inhabited. - In the Rathmines area of Dublin 6 in the southern suburbs, villas are named after Lord Palmerston, as well as Temple Road and Palmerston Road. Both are quasi-translated variously as Bóthar an Stiguaire, Bóthar P(h)almerston, Bóthar Baile an Phámar and Bóthar an Teampaill. - Several places in Portsmouth are named after Palmerston – notably Southsea's main shopping precinct, Palmerston Road. - Palmerston Road in East Sheen, London, SW14. - Palmerston Place in the West End, Edinburgh, EH12. - Palmerston Road in Walthamstow, London & The Lord Palmerston Pub at the junction of Palmerston Road and Forest Road. - The Lord Palmerston public house in Dartmouth Park, London, NW5 is named after Palmerston. - Palmerston Park, Southampton was named after him, as was nearby Palmerston Road. A seven-foot high marble statue of Palmerston was erected in the park and unveiled on 2 June 1869. - Palmerston Street in Derby. - Palmerston Road and Palmerston Park in east Belfast. - Palmerston Boulevard and Palmerston Avenue in Toronto are named for him. - Palmerston Street in Romsey, Hampshire; there is also a statue of him in the market place. - Flying Colours - Towards the close of this novel by CS Forester, Horatio Hornblower meets a young Lord Palmerston on returning to England after escaping from captivity in France. - Flashman in the Great Game – Early in this historical novel, Lord Palmerston sends Flashman on a mission to India. It happens that the Indian rebellion of 1857 is about to break out. - The Simpsons – In the episode "Homer at the Bat", Barney Gumble and Wade Boggs come to blows over who the UK's greatest Prime Minister was (Barney supported Lord Palmerston, while Boggs favoured Pitt the Elder). Barney ended the argument by knocking Boggs out cold. - 1862 – Palmerston is featured in the alternate history novel by Robert Conroy, depicting an American Civil War in which United Kingdom allies itself with the Confederacy after the Trent Affair at the direction of Palmerston. - Skyfall – A close-up shot of a statue of Lord Palmerston features in an early scene from the 23rd James Bond film. The scene is one of many in which imperial imagery features prominently. - Harry Potter – On Pottermore, J. K. Rowling wrote that Lord Palmerston was the subject of an irrational loathing by Priscilla Dupont (Minister for Magic in office 1855–1858). Dupont was forced to step down from her office after causing all sorts of trouble for Lord Palmerston, including coins in his coat pockets turning to frogspawn. Ironically, Palmerston was forced to resign two days after Dupont was. Lord Palmerston's First Cabinet, February 1855 – February 1858 - Lord Palmerston – First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons - Lord Cranworth – Lord Chancellor - Lord Granville – Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords - The Duke of Argyll – Lord Privy Seal - Sir George Grey – Secretary of State for the Home Department - Lord Clarendon – Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs - Sidney Herbert – Secretary of State for the Colonies - Lord Panmure – Secretary of State for War - Sir James Graham – First Lord of the Admiralty - William Ewart Gladstone – Chancellor of the Exchequer - Sir Charles Wood – President of the Board of Control - Lord Stanley of Alderley – President of the Board of Trade - Lord Harrowby – Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster - Sir William Molesworth, 8th Baronet – First Commissioner of Works - Lord Canning – Postmaster-General - Lord Lansdowne – Minister without Portfolio - Later in February 1855 – Sir George Cornewall Lewis succeeds Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord John Russell succeeds Herbert as Colonial Secretary. Sir Charles Wood succeeds Sir James Graham as First Lord of the Admiralty. R.V. Smith succeeds Wood as President of the Board of Control - July 1855 – Sir William Molesworth succeeds Russell as Colonial Secretary. Molesworth's successor as First Commissioner of Public Works is not in the Cabinet. - November 1855 – Henry Labouchere succeeds Molesworth as Colonial Secretary - December 1855 – The Duke of Argyll succeeds Lord Canning as Postmaster-General. Lord Harrowby succeeds Argyll as Lord Privy Seal. Harrowby's successor as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is not in the Cabinet - 1857 – M.T. Baines, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, enters the Cabinet. - February 1858 – Lord Clanricarde succeeds Harrowby as Lord Privy Seal. Lord Palmerston's Second Cabinet, June 1859 – October 1865 - Lord Palmerston – First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons - Lord Campbell – Lord Chancellor - Lord Granville – Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords - The Duke of Argyll – Lord Privy Seal - Sir George Cornewall Lewis – Secretary of State for the Home Department - Lord John Russell – Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs - The Duke of Newcastle – Secretary of State for the Colonies - Sidney Herbert – Secretary of State for War - Sir Charles Wood – Secretary of State for India - The Duke of Somerset – First Lord of the Admiralty - William Ewart Gladstone – Chancellor of the Exchequer - Edward Cardwell – Chief Secretary for Ireland - Thomas Milner Gibson – President of the Board of Trade and of the Poor Law Board - Sir George Grey – Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster - Lord Elgin – Postmaster-General - July 1859 – Charles Pelham Villiers succeeds Milner-Gibson as President of the Poor Law Board (Milner-Gibson remains at the Board of Trade) - May 1860 – Lord Stanley of Alderley succeeds Lord Elgin as Postmaster-General - June 1861 – Lord Westbury succeeds Lord Campbell as Lord Chancellor - July 1861 – Sir George Cornewall Lewis succeeds Herbert as Secretary for War. Sir George Grey succeeds Lewis as Home Secretary. Edward Cardwell succeeds Grey as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Cardwell's successor as Chief Secretary for Ireland is not in the Cabinet. - April 1863 – Lord de Grey becomes Secretary for War following Sir George Lewis's death. - April 1864 – Edward Cardwell succeeds the Duke of Newcastle as Colonial Secretary. Lord Clarendon succeeds Cardwell as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. - July 1865 – Lord Cranworth succeeds Lord Westbury as Lord Chancellor |Ancestors of Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston| - Illustration, "One Head Better than Two", from Punch, November 1862, reproduced in Amanda Foreman (2010), A World on Fire, New York: Random House, Part I, "Cotton Is King", Chapter 14, "A Fateful Decision", p. 327. - Karl Marx, "Palmerston: First Article" contained in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 12 (International Publishers: New York, 1979) p. 348. - Edward J. Davies, "The Ancestry of Lord Palmerston", The Genealogist, 22(2008):62–77. - Jasper Ridley, Lord Palmerston (London: Constable, 1970), pp. 7–9. - Ridley, p. 9. - Ridley, p. 10. - Ridley, p. 12. - Ridley, p. 14. - David Steele, ‘Temple, Henry John, third Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2009, accessed 11 December 2010. - Ridley, p. 15. - "Palmerston, Henry John (Temple), Viscount (PLMN803HJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge. - Ridley, p. 18. - Ridley, pp. 18–19. - Ridley, pp. 19–22. - Ridley, pp. 24–26. - Ridley, p. 27. - Ridley, pp. 27–28. - Although peers of England, Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom sat in the House of Lords and were not able to sit as Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, the Viscountcy of Palmerston was in the Peerage of Ireland which did not automatically grant the right to sit in the Lords. Palmerston was thus able to serve as an MP. - Karl Marx, "Palmerston: First Article" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 12, p. 348 - Ridley, pp. 29–30. - George Henry Francis, Opinions and Policy of the Right Honourable Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B., M.P., &c. as Minister, Diplomatist, and Statesman, During More Than Forty Years of Public Life (London: Colburn and Co., 1852), pp. 1–3. - Kenneth Bourne (ed.), The Letters of the Third Viscount Palmerston to Laurence and Elizabeth Sulivan. 1804–1863 (London: The Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 97. - Karl Marx, "Palmerston: First Article" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 12, p. 348. - REPEAL OF THE TEST AND CORPORATION ACTS. HC Deb 26 February 1828 vol 18 cc676-781 - Ridley, pp. 147–153. - Ridley, p. 98. - Ridley, pp. 64–65. - Ridley, pp. 105–106. - David Brown, Palmerston: A Biography (2010) pp. 148–54. - abuse of metaphors - Ridley, pp. 208–209. - Metaphor, reported by Trollope - Ridley, Lord Palmerston, pp. 248–60 - Lewis, Donald (2 January 2014). The Origins of Christian Zionism: Lord Shaftesbury And Evangelical Support For A Jewish Homeland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 380. ISBN 9781107631960. - Sokolow, Nahum (2015-09-27). History of Zionism, 1600–1918 1. Charleston SC USA: Forgotten Books. p. 418. ISBN 9781330331842. - Glenn Melancon (2003). Britain's China Policy and the Opium Crisis: Balancing Drugs, Violence and National Honour, 1833–1840. Ashgate. - K D Reynolds, Oxford DNB, 'Temple, Emily'. Palmerston left his family seat Broadlands to her fourth, but 2nd surviving son Rt. Hon. Evelyn Melbourne Ashley (24 July 1836 – 15 November 1907) - Robert Remini, Daniel Webster (W. W. Norton and Co.: New York, 1997) pp. 538–565. - David Brown, "Palmerston and Anglo–French Relations, 1846–1865," Diplomacy & Statecraft, (Dec 2006) 17#4 pp 675–692 - Brown, Palmerston ch 9 - Ridley, pp. 374–375. - Ridley, p. 379. - Ridley, p. 381. - Ridley, p. 387. - Ridley, p. 394. - Ridley, pp. 394–395. - Ridley, p. 398. - Ridley, pp. 398–399. - Ridley, pp. 413–414. - Ridley, p. 414. - Ridley, p. 407. - Ridley, p. 408. - Ridley, pp. 408–409. - Ridley, pp. 409–410. - Ridley, p. 410. - Ridley, pp. 415–416. - Ridley, p. 419. - Leonard, Dick (2013). The Great Rivalry: Gladstone and Disraeli. London: I.B. Tauris. p. 98. - Orlando Figes, The Crimean War: A History (2010) pp 402–408 - Ridley, p. 467. - J. Y. Wong, Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism, and the Arrow War (1856–1860) in China (1998) - Ridley, p. 506. - Chris Williams, ed., A Companion to 19th-Century Britain (2006). p 42 - Ridley, p. 565. - Ridley, p. 563. - Ridley, p. 566. - Philip Guedalla (ed.), Gladstone and Palmerston, being the Correspondence of Lord Palmerston with Mr. Gladstone 1851–1865 (London: Victor Gollancz, 1928), p. 279. - Guedalla, p. 282. - Ridley, p. 564. - Ridley, p. 552. - Kevin Peraino, "Lincoln vs. Palmerston" in Peraino, Lincoln in the World: The Making of a Statesman and the Dawn of American Power (2013) pp 120-69. - Thomas Paterson; J. Garry Clifford; Shane J. Maddock (2009). American Foreign Relations: A History to 1920. Cengage Learning. p. 149. - Ridley, p. 559. - Ridley, p. 554. - Kenneth Bourne, "British Preparations for War with the North, 1861–1862," The English Historical Review Vol 76 No 301 (Oct 1961) pp 600–632 in JSTOR - Niels Eichhorn, "The Intervention Crisis of 1862: A British Diplomatic Dilemma?" American Nineteenth Century History 15#3 (2014) pp 287-310. - Ridley, pp. 570–571. - Ridley, p. 571. - Ridley, p. 572. - Ridley, pp. 573–574. - Ridley, p. 574. - ‘Lord Palmerston At Tiverton’, The Times (24 August 1864), p. 9. - Ridley, p. 579. - Ridley, p. 581. - Ridley, p. 582. - Hibbert, Christopher Disraeli: A Personal History (2004) p. 256 - Ridley, p. 583. - Ridley, p. 584. - "Profile of an Irish Village-Palmerston and the Conquest, Colonisation and Evolution of Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo". Retrieved 26 September 2013. - Ridley, p. 587. - Ridley, p. 588. - David Steele, Palmerston and Liberalism, 1855–1865 (Cambridge University Press, 1991). - Ridley, p. 589. - The Times (10 November 1865), p. 7. - Ridely, p. 589. - Ridley, p. 591. - Edinburgh Review. 1866. p. 275. - Martin Gilbert, Winston Churchill. The Wilderness Years (London: Book Club Associates, 1981), pp. 106–107. - W. K. Hancock, Smuts. Volume II: The Fields of Force. 1919–1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), p. 281. - A. J. P. Taylor, "Lord Palmerston," History Today Jan 1991, Vol. 41#1 p 1 - Hurd, Douglas (2013). Choose Your Weapons: The British Foreign Secretary. Orion. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-297-85851-5. - Stanley Lane-Poole, 'Temple, Henry John', Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 56. - The Story of the Life of Lord Palmerston - "Palmerston Park". City Centre Parks. Southampton City Council. Retrieved 22 June 2012. - Cokayne, Complete Peerage, 1st ed., vol. 6, 1895, pp. 187–8. - Cokayne, Complete Peerage, 1st ed., vol. 6, 1895, p. 187. - Cokayne, Complete Peerage, 1st ed., vol. 6, 1895, p. 187 ; Solicitor General, Attorney General and Speaker of the House of Commons ; son of the Rt. Hon. Sir John Temple, sometime Master of the Rolls. - Cokayne, Complete Peerage, 1st ed., vol. 6, 1895, p. 187 ; daughter of Sir Abraham Yarner, Muster-Master-General of Ireland. - Cokayne, Complete Peerage, 1st ed., vol. 6, 1895, p. 187 ; she was heir to her brother, Sir Richard Houblon. - Cokayne, Complete Peerage, 1st ed., vol. 6, 1895, p. 187 ; a Governor of the Bank of England. - E.J. Davies, "The Ancestry of Lord Palmerston", The Genealogist, 22, 2008, pp. 62–77. - Cokayne, Complete Peerage, 1st ed., vol. 6, 1895, p. 187 ; Lord Mayor of London. - E. Cruickshanks, "Barnard, John (c.1685–1764), of Mincing Lane, London, and Clapham, Surr.", The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715–1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970 ; a London merchant, of George Lane, St. Botolph's. - E. Cruickshanks, "Barnard, John (c.1685–1764), of Mincing Lane, London, and Clapham, Surr.", The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715–1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970 ; daughter of Robert Payne, of Play Hatch, Sonning, Berkshire. - E. Cruickshanks, "Barnard, John (c.1685–1764), of Mincing Lane, London, and Clapham, Surr.", The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715–1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970. - E. Cruickshanks, "Barnard, John (c.1685–1764), of Mincing Lane, London, and Clapham, Surr.", The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715–1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970 ; a Turkey merchant. - Notes and Queries: a Medium of Interchange for Literary Men, General Readers, Etc., 10th series, vol. vii, 1907, pp. 132–3 ; daughter and coheir of Nicholas Charleton of St. Bennet's Paul's Wharf, and sister of Sir Robert Godschall, Lord Mayor of London. - Cokayne, Complete Peerage, 1st ed., vol. 6, 1895, p. 188. - Bell, H.C.F. (1966). Lord Palmerston. Archon Books. - Bourne, Kenneth (1970). The foreign policy of Victorian England, 1830–1902. Clarendon Press. - Bourne, Kenneth (1961). "The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty and the Decline of British Opposition to the Territorial Expansion of the United States, 1857–60". Journal of Modern History: 287–291. - Brown, David (2010). Palmerston. Yale. ISBN 978-0-300-11898-8. - Brown, David (2002). Palmerston and the politics of foreign policy, 1846–55 (PDF). 1998 PhD dissertation version (Manchester University Press). - Brown, David (2001). "Compelling but not Controlling?: Palmerston and the Press, 1846–1855". History. 86#201: 41–61. - Brown, David (2001). "The Power of Public Opinion: Palmerston and the Crisis of December 1851". Parliamentary History (Published Online 2003): 333–358. doi:10.1111/j.1750-0206.2001.tb00381.x. - Fenton, Laurence (2010). "Origins of Animosity: Lord Palmerston and The Times, 1830–41". Media History 16#4: 365–378. - Fenton, Laurence (2013). Palmerston and The Times: Foreign Policy, the Press and Public Opinion in Mid-Victorian Britain. IB Tauris. - Fuller, Howard J. (2014). Technology and the Mid-Victorian Royal Navy Ironclad: Royal Navy Crisis in the Age of Palmerston. Routledge. - Guedalla, Philip (1926). Palmerston. London: Ernest Benn. - Hicks, Geoffrey (2007). Peace, War and party politics: the Conservatives and Europe, 1846–59. Manchester University Press. - Hoppen, K. Theodore (1998). The Mid-Victorian Generation, 1846–1886. - Martin, Kingsley (1963). The Triumph of Lord Palmerston: a study of public opinion in England before the Crimean War. - Ridley, Jasper (1970). Lord Palmerston. London: Constable. full-scale biography. - Steele, David (May 2009) . "Temple, Henry John, third Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online edn. ed.) (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Retrieved 11 December 2010.; short scholarly biography - Webster, Charles. The Foreign Policy of Palmerston (2v. 1951) online vol 1; online v 2 - Weigall, David. Britain and the World, 1815–1986: A Dictionary of International relations (1989) - Ward, A.W. and G.P. Gooch, eds. The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy, 1783–1919 (3 vol, 1921–23), Volume II: 1815-66 online old highly detailed classic - Williams, Chris, ed. A Companion to 19th-Century Britain (2006). Chapters 1 to 4, pp 15-92; historiographical essays. - Bourne, Kenneth (1979). The Letters of the Third Viscount Palmerston to Laurence and Elizabeth Sulivan. 1804–1863. London: The Royal Historical Society. - Bourne, Kenneth (1970). The foreign policy of Victorian England, 1830–1902. London: Clarendon Press. pages=195–504 are "selected documents," many of them by Palmerston - Francis, George Henry (1852). Opinions and Policy of The Right Honourable Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B., M.P., &c. as Minister, Diplomatist, and Statesman, During More Than Forty Years of Public Life. London: Colburn and Co. - Guedalla, Philip (1928). Philip Guedalla, ed. Gladstone and Palmerston, being the Correspondence of Lord Palmerston with Mr. Gladstone 1851–1865. London: Victor Gollancz. - Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Viscount Palmerston Find more about Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston at Wikipedia's sister projects |Definitions from Wiktionary| |Media from Commons| |News from Wikinews| |Quotations from Wikiquote| |Texts from Wikisource| |Textbooks from Wikibooks| |Learning resources from Wikiversity| - Viscount Palmerston 1784–1865 biography from the Liberal Democrat History Group - More about Viscount Palmerston on the Downing Street website. - Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Palmerston, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. - Archival material relating to Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston listed at the UK National Archives - Portraits of Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston at the National Portrait Gallery, London - Ancestors of Lord Palmerston

Abner of Burgos Abner of Burgos (Alfonso de Valladolid; c. 1260–1347) was perhaps the most important philosopher in the stream of Jewish Spanish rabbi-apostates in the 14th and 15th centuries. In the first part of his life, Abner was an Aristotelian Jewish philosopher. However, at the age of 60 (if Pablo de Santa Maria is a reliable source) after years of hesitation, he became a Neo-Platonic Christian, making him one of the very few philosophers (much less philosopher-rabbis) to change his philosophical opinion (and religion) during the Middle Ages. The majorities of his works are primarily polemical, and try to convince his former fellow Jews to become Christian, as he did. However, in his polemical writings, Abner built an original philosophical critique of both traditional Judaism and the Aristotelian (and Maimonidean) philosophical interpretation of Judaism. Another part of his philosophical aim was a very radical interpretation of Christianity aimed at convincing his Jewish audience that his Christianity was superior to traditional and philosophical Judaism. Abner was one of the first philosophical and scientific critics of Aristotle, as well as one of the more radical Neo-Platonic thinkers of Christianity during the Middle Ages. His works had a very important impact on Jewish philosophy at the latter end of the Middle Ages, and some of his opinions influenced, through Rabbi Hasdai Crescas, general Western philosophy. - 1. Life - 2. Works - 3. The Trinity and Incarnation - 4. Determinism - 5. Critics of the Aristotelian science - 6. The influence of Abner - Academic Tools - Other Internet Resources - Related Entries There are not many sources on the life of Abner. The majority of the sources are autobiographical passages in his works (especially Mostrador de Justicia). Abner was born around 1260, probably in the Jewish community of Burgos, one of the major communities in Castile. While still Jewish, Abner worked as a book trader, a rabbi, and he may have been a physician as well. During this time he was the head of a yeshiva (Jewish academy) in Burgos, but we do not know if this yeshiva was a public institution or just a private group of students that met in his home. We know from a former pupil, Rabbi Isaac Pulgar, and from the sources that he utilizes in his works, that during the Jewish period of his life, Abner was a philosopher, being a part of the Maimonidean-Averroist trend of Jewish philosophy at the time. In spite of the majority opinion of modern scholars, Abner probably was not a Kabbalist before his conversion to Christianity. This mistake is based essentially on two sources: the fact that some of Abner’s arguments for the Trinity and Incarnation can be interpreted as deriving from Kabbalistic sources, and the existence of another Rabbi Abner (not a common name for Jews of his time), a Kabbalist whom Rabbi Isaac of Acre cited many times. In my opinion, Abner’s argument for the Trinity and Incarnation is not based on Kabbalistic sources, but stems from his Neo-Platonic and standard Christian scriptural background. Additionally, Abner (the apostate) did not use many important Kabbalistic sources. His opinions are not the same as the other Rabbi Abner’s (the one that Rabbi Isaac of Acre quotes), and we can see that the two authors do not share the same background, nor do they use the same sources, with Abner utilizing almost entirely sources taken from the Jewish philosophical and traditional rabbinic corpuses. almost all of Rabbi Abner’s sources are taken from the commentary of Nahmanides to the Torah, a book that Abner the apostate almost never quoted. The beginning of Abner’s doubts about Judaism began with the incident of a false messiah in Avila in 1295. According to Abner, the Jews of the community, which is in North Castile, went outside the city to welcome the messiah, but instead of the messiah they received a rainfall of crosses that stuck to their clothes. Some of the Jews who witnessed the miracle went to Abner for advice. This event instilled in Abner some doubts about the question of the reason for the ongoing exile of Israel and the truth of Judaism. After twenty-two years of feeling ambivalent (i.e., around 1317) Abner wrote about his first revelation in a dream. In his dream he saw a man that told him to be “a teacher of righteousness” (mostrador de justicia, not coincidentally the name of Abner’s main book) and to bring his people to freedom from exile. This dream just accents the uncertainty of the Jewish Rabbi. After three more years of studies he had a second dream wherein he had the same revelation, this time noticing that on the clothes the man wore were crosses like the cross of Jesus the Christian. This dream prompted him toward his final conversion around 1320/1321. After his conversion, Abner became the sacristan of the collegiate church of Valladolid and devoted himself to the propagation of Christianity amongst his former fellows Jews (he had come to the conclusion that conversion to Christianity was the only way to be saved from the Exile). We know he wrote an extended polemicist oeuvre and that he took part in the anti-Jewish polemic effort in North Castile around 1336–1339. There was a public disputation between Abner and a rabbi that occurred probably around 1335–1336 on the subject of the prayer of the Jews against the apostates. This dispute was the main reason for the decree against this part of the Jewish prayer (birkatha-minim) by Alfonso XI in 1336. Abner probably died in 1347 or later. Abner’s works may be divided into three different categories: polemic, scientific and philosophic. Polemic works: Mostradorde Justicia is the earliest and most important work of those writings of Abner that have survived. Only a translation (probably by Abner himself) in Castilian exists today, whereas the original Hebrew was lost. The book starts with a brief introduction wherein Abner writes about the reasons for his conversion (the incident in Avila and his two dreams). The main part of the book is a debate between a Christian (the master) and a Jew (the rebel). In contrast to other works similar to this type of polemic debate, in the Mostrador, the rebel does not become a Christian, and despite his losing the debate, the Jew continues to believe in his ostensibly false religion. The book is divided into ten chapters, with each chapter being subdivided into a number of paragraphs. Each paragraph is a speech by one of the protagonists of the debate. Summary of the chapters: - Abner indicated which books could be used as a basis for proof during polemic debates. In this chapter the master and the rebel agree that both sides may bring in proofs from philosophical arguments. - Abner’s proof of the giving of a new law upon the coming of the Messiah. - An explanation and justification for the revelation of a new law. - The arguments of those who deny that the messiah was to come and die and bring atonement for the sin of Adam; and what refutes those arguments. - The arguments of the rebel which contradict the master’s position on the Trinity and the Incarnation of the person of the Son in the human form of the Christ, and the masters answer to those arguments. - The rebel’s arguments against incarnation of the divinity in the human form of the Christ and how the master tries to refute those arguments. - An attempt to prove that the hope that the Jews have in the coming of the prophesied Christ is a false hope, and that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ who came according to the time that was indicated for the coming of the Christ in the books of the prophets and the sages. - Arguments of the Jews that the Christ has not yet come, which is the basis for their claim that the Christians are the people of Edom or Esau, which was to be destroyed and to fall before the coming of the Christ; and an attempt to refute those arguments. - An attempt to prove that the hope that the Jews have for the coming of the Christ at any time is a false hope, and for this reason the Jews are still in exile from the Land of Israel. - Abner’s attempt to prove that the Christians, according to the customs and commandments which they have in their laws, should be called the Holy Nation of Israel, and that the Jews, according to the customs and commandments which they have in the laws of the Talmud are not fit to return to the Land of Israel; and the rebel’s attempt to refute those arguments. Responses to the Blasphemer (Teshuvot la-Meharef): this book survived both in the original Hebrew and in a Castilian translation. This book is a response to the different letters that Abner’s only known student, Rabbi Isaac Pulgar, wrote against his determinist and Christian writings. Abner did not divide this book into formal sections, though the book contains four main subjects presented in a contiguous fashion: (1) an introduction wherein Abner attacks his former pupil on his philosophical position and other personal matters between the two; (2) the Trinity and how it can be based on philosophy, scripture and quotes from the Jewish rabbinic literature; (3) the necessary existence of the incarnation of divinity in the world; and (4) a proof of the aforementioned Christian beliefs derived from scripture and other Jewish sources (Talmud and Midrashim). In this last part, which takes up almost half the book, Abner argues that the messiah had already come and that Christianity is true. While Abner’s arguments regarding the Trinity and Incarnation are generally more developed in Mostradorde Justicia, the philosophical importance of this work resides with his critique of the Jewish philosopher. Here Abner distinguishes between the regular Jewish people (that have some hope to become Christian and to be saved) and Jewish philosophers (like Pulgar). The latter are hopeless and are left with no religion, mostly due to their opinions that only the people who attain scientific knowledge have some kind of existence after death. Due to their feeling elevated over others, these philosophers have no hope of improving and accepting the truth of Christianity. Parts of Abner’s critique of Jewish philosophers in this book most probably influenced Crescas. Libro de la Ley (Book of the Law). This work survived only fragmentally in Castilian. The major argument of Abner in this book is that the Jewish people forgot the secrets of the Torah, which are manifested by the Christian doctrines, especially the Trinity. Sefer Teshuvot ha-Meshubot (The Book of Responses to the Apostasies) exists only in Hebrew. There are three polemic letters that deal especially with scriptural arguments on the subject of the coming of the messiah. 3. The Trinity and Incarnation The two major subjects of the philosophical polemical works of Abner are the Trinity and Incarnation. Abner had an original view on the Trinity. In his opinion, one can prove philosophically the reality of the Trinity. He claimed that only the division of the divine source of the world can explain the diversity of the world. The infinite force of God (the father) would burn the finite matter of the world if it were not for some “transformer” that adapted the divine force to the finitude of matter (the son). Abner distinguished between two parts of the son. The superior son is part of the transcendent divinity. The inferior son is the divine essence in all the different parts of the world. The transformer of the divine force and essence is the superior son. Regarding the theory of the divine attributes, Abner also had an original opinion. He distinguished between the attributes that are the essence of God and the attributes that are essential to God. The attributes of the essence of God divide themselves only within the personas of the Trinity. The rest of the attributes are only essential to God (and could be attributed to any one of the personas). This division of the divine attributes influenced Rabbi Hasdai Crescas,who later influenced Spinoza. Abner’s opinion on Incarnation was also very original. According to Abner, the essence of God is in the entire world. The world is composed only of corrupted matter and of divine essence in different degrees of purity. Even the most corrupted matter has inside itself some divine essence. The divine essence gives the corporeal form to matter and produces in it its dimensions. The uniqueness of a human being is the capacity to purify one’s matter, thereby reaching a higher degree of divine essence. According to Abner, what made Jesus unique was that he was born of the highest matter, enabling him to unite with the highest degree of divine essence that a human can attain. Abner thought that the superior son does not incarnate in this world. Jesus was only the highest degree of the inferior son that is present in the essences of the entire world. The opinion of Abner on Incarnation is closely related to his view of the doctrine of Original Sin. In Abner’s opinion, the reason for the original sin was Adam’s lack of comprehension. Adam thought that his intellect, which is an incarnation of divinity in people, was God, and he therefore wrongly concluded that he was God. In order to fix Adam’s error, humanity needed the Torah of Moses, which emphasized the unity of God in an exaggerated form and therefore explained (somewhat inaccurately) that God does not incarnate in the World at all. Only after this critical step, humanity was able to understand that, though there is divinity in humans, this divinity is not an independent God, but rather a part of the divine essence in the whole world. The Law of Moses that came to purify the world from idolatry has some problems. It does not enable the full emancipation of humanity from sin and error. Abner claimed that the negation of the incarnation of God in the world leads to negating the possibility of life after death. The possibility of life after death comes from understanding the incarnation of divinity in all humans. Negating life after death causes immorality. The Torah has to put up with all these inaccuracies in order to achieve its main goal, which is taking humanity out of the sin of idolatry (by believing that God is one). The outcome, though better than its predecessor, is ultimately a lost situation which humanity cannot overcome on its own. For that reason, God sent Jesus (who was born with a higher degree of matter and divine essence). Due to the divinity within Jesus, his miracles and his resurrection, people are able to understand that within everything in the world there is some divine essence that is part of the inferior son, and that the origin of all the divinity in the world is the superior son. This understanding enables salvation from the original sin and represents a true understanding of the relation between God and the world. The role of the sacramentental Mass is to remind us of the divine aspect of Jesus’ essence, as well as of all the miracles that Jesus performed and to continue their influence in our present time. We see that this opinion regarding the Trinity and Incarnation contradict the official dogma of the Catholic Church at the time of Abner. In his opinion, the incarnation of divinity in Jesus did not bypass the regular process of the emanation of the divine essence in the world. Rather, the manifestation of Jesus represented the pinnacle of incarnation of divinity, which, though indeed present in the entire world, yet in Jesus occurred in the purest form possible. This opinion of Abner, similar to his other philosophical views, was a part of the radical Neo-Platonic interpretation of Christianity. The difference between him and the other Neo-Platonic Christian philosophers, like Master Eckard, is the different sources from which they were influenced. Abner did not utilize the traditional Neo-Platonic Christian sources, like Dionysius the Areopagite. We do not see in any part of his work that he was aware of the existence of these sources. On the other hand, Abner did utilize some Arabic and Jewish sources. The origin of his uncommon position on Christianity is found in his opposition to the common Aristotelian-Maimonidean-Averroist trend of Jewish philosophy. Abner, similar to Spinoza after him, thought that the explanations of these thinkers on the question of the creation of the world by a perfect God were not sufficient and ultimately inaccurate. In place of these responses, Abner proposed his radical interpretation of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, an interpretation that was uninfluenced by the theological Christian tradition. One of the more important philosophical opinions of Abner was his deterministic view. Abner devoted his book Ofrenda de Zelos (Minhat Kena’ot in the original lost Hebrew text), along with other works that have since been lost, to the question of determinism and free will. In the beginning of this book, Abner describes the opinion of his former pupil Rabbi Isaac Pulgar, who denies God’s foreknowledge of human decisions. After the explication of this opinion and its negation, Abner explains his deterministic opinion. Abner believed that people have free will in a limited sense, but act in a determined way in the broader sense. People are free in their relation to themselves, meaning that if a person is separated from the causes that influence him or her (e.g., education, society’s influences) while debating between two options, one is then really free to choose either of the two options. In this specific case a person can then utilize his or her will and choose freely between the two options. However, if one takes into account all the causes that influence his or her will, we may conclude that these causes limits that person’s will to only one of the two options. In the opinion of Abner, people are like wax, as follows: Wax may be melted and sculpted into many different shapes. However, the person who sculpts the wax determines its present form as only one of those options. The same is true about people: In themselves, they have the ability to choose between different possibilities, but their relation to the outside world determines their choices. We can see from this example how strong the determinist view of Abner was. It is important to note that Abner defines the will of people as an accord between the attractive force and the imagination, two forces common to humans and animals. Abner explains in the same way the meaning of possibility and accident. Things are only possible in their relation to themselves. In relation to the entire world and its causality, everything is truly determined. Accidents are only accidents relative to the seeming unlikelihood of their occurrence. However, relative to all the causal processes of the world, we see that even in the most unusual of circumstances the occurrence of what appears to be an accident in fact had to happen. In short, there are no accidents (according to the popular meaning of accident) for Abner. This deterministic description of the world (based on rational arguments) resolves the theological problem of the contradiction between the free will of people and the foreknowledge of God. In the opinion of Abner free will does not really exist. For him, God is the first cause; He knows all the laws of the world and therefore knows everything that He has determined. This deterministic description leads to two theological problems. The first is why God sent commandments to people who cannot truly decide whether to obey them or disobey them. The second question that arises is how people can receive reward or punishment for actions and decisions that they do not really have any control over? Abner answers the second question by explaining that forbidden things are naturally bad. The punishment of the sinner is not a special act of divine providence; rather it is the natural consequence of his bad action. This leads us to the answer to the first question. According to Abner, the goal of the Torah is to influence people to do what is right. The Torah and prophets (and God who sent them) act in the world in conformity to His nature. The only way to influence someone to do something is to give him enough causes to do it. The Torah is only another cause that influences people to do what is good. Abner compares reward and punishment to a father that obligates his son to take medication. The medicine will always work even if the son takes it unhappily. The same is true with regard to all actions of people. When people do what is right, they believe they will receive a reward, while if they do what is wrong, they believe they will receive a punishment—even if they do not essentially have the choice to do anything else. It is interesting to note that this philosophical book that Abner wrote at the end of his life, more than twenty years after his conversion, is almost without Christian references. In spite of this, the book is full of references to Jewish sources, including the Talmud and quotations of Jewish authorities like Maimonides. We see that Abner, even many years after his conversion, wrote to the Jewish community and was part of the internal Jewish debate about the question of determinism. In fact, Abner is the first medieval Jewish philosopher to argue for a deterministic explanation of the world. His opinion influenced Rabbi Hasdai Crescas (who paraphrased an important part of Ofrenda de Zelos in his major philosophical work The Light of the Lord), and through him, Spinoza. Some Jewish philosophers, like Rabbi Isaac Pulgar, Rabbi Mosses from Narbonne, and Rabbi Josef Ben Shem Tov respond explicitly to the determinist opinion of Abner, such that there is no doubt that his opinion had a major influence on the internal Jewish debate on the question of free will throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. 5. Critics of the Aristotelian science As we stated before, the major work of science of Abner (the New Philosophy) is lost. We can still try to reconstruct some of his scientific opinions through some parts of his other works, specifically the existing work Meyasher Aqob, Rabbi Isaac Pulgar’s brief summary of the lost work, and some scientific passages in Mostrador de Justicia. The first interesting opinion of Abner is his view on prime matter. Abner denied a necessary link, which the Aristotelians affirmed, between bodies and accidents (magnitude, weight, quantity, etc.), maintaining that a body untainted by all these accidents can nonetheless have actual existence. He explicated his view in the dogmatic context of the question of the rite of Mass. The rebel’s main philosophical arguments against the Mass are as follows: (1) How can several bodies occupy the same place? (2) How can Jesus’ body be in the bread and wine without changing them? (3) How can the same body be two different materials at the same time? (4) How can one debase Jesus by eating and digesting him? At the start of his answer Abner emphasizes that the Mass is miraculous. Nevertheless, he does go on to offer a scientific explanation of transubstantiation. For Abner, everybody has a layer of pure divine existence, to which are superadded other forms and accidents; but if the body is stripped of all of these accretions it will be reduced to the original divine substance only. In this state the body will have no boundary, quantity, or weight to occupy the universe, and consequently is infinite. This body is the foundation of the entire material world, and normally—with the exception of the sacrament of the Mass and Incarnation—it does not exist without accidents (at least not in the sublunary world). This matter is identified with the flesh of Jesus, which has divine existence only, which means that Jesus’ body is identified with prime matter. The above description eliminates for Abner all of the difficulties posed by the rebel. The problem of the co-presence of two bodies in one place is eliminated, because all bodies, once they have been stripped of their form and accidents, incorporate the infinite body of Jesus, which fills the entire universe. After these forms have been removed, the bread and wine are identified with Jesus’ body. The very same principle eliminates the problem of the simultaneous existence of Jesus’ body in several places, since his body fills the entire universe and transcends all definitions of place. Because his body also transcends the definition of quantity, the problem of limited quantity is removed as well. Another subject about which Abner critiques Aristotelian science is the definition of place and the relation between place and body. In the thought of Aristotle, the definition of place is ‘the limit of the encompassing body’. In his opinion, place has an important role in movement. The definition of a natural movement is the movement of a body to its natural place in the world. Aristotle explains that both the natural place attracts the body and that the body moves on his own to its natural place. Abner distinguishes between the physical object and extension or dimension. According to Abner, dimension is “a simple and subtle quantity detached from all movable bodies”; in other words, it is space, independent of any physical body. Dimension is measurable per se, and is not linked to what occupies it. Nevertheless, Abner’s definition of place is still associated with body: “place” is the dimension occupied by a body, and it is the body that turns it into “place.” According to Abner, the movement of bodies is not due to their being attracted to some place where they must rest before resuming their movement; rather, they move because of the interaction of several forces, quite independent of any particular place. A body that is thrown upward rises, but if it suddenly begins to fall because of an opposing force, there would not be a moment of rest between the two opposing motions. Thus Abner dismisses Aristotle’s concept that a body is attracted to its natural place. Different places are not characterized by different qualities (inasmuch as all places are equal and are merely points in space). Hence a body has no cause to move to a particular place and no place is a final cause of its motion. We know from Rabbi Isaac Pulgar that Abner also criticized the opinions of Aristotle on the possibility of a void and argues for the existence of voids in his lost scientific book The New Philosophy. Because of the influence of Abner on Rabbi Hasdai Crescas, we can assume that his criticism is closely related to the criticism of Crescas in the beginning of the first speech of Or Hashem Abner wrote his criticism of Artistotelian science at the beginning of the 14th century, approximately the same time that Ockham wrote his criticism of this science. In the writing and the thought of Abner we do not see any kind of influence of Ockham or of other late scholastics (the only scholastic philosopher that he cites is Thomas Aquinas and there are no quotations from Christian sources on a scientific subject). It is interesting to note that the systematic criticism of Aristotelian science started approximately at the same time in the Jewish milieu (with the writings of Abner) and in the Christian milieu, with probably no relation one to the other. Abner’s criticism of Aristotelian science had an important influence on Crescas’s thought, and through him to Pico Della Mirandola and general Western philosophy. 6. The influence of Abner One must distinguish between two kinds of influence Abner had. Abner influenced with his polemical works the Jewish-Christian debate until the end of the Middle Ages. Some born-Christians, like Alfonso de Espina, and especially Jewish apostates, like Pablo de Santa Maria, utilized his polemical works. Against this trend, there are more than five Jewish polemicist works that explicitly answer the polemical arguments of Abner. Despite the utilization of Abner in debates, his works had almost no philosophical influence on Christian theology because the Christian participants in the debates utilized the quotations of the Jewish sources by Abner and not his theological arguments as such, which in their content were very different from the official Catholic dogma. The second way in which Abner had lasting influence was on the purely philosophical plane. It should be noted that the direct philosophical influence of Abner was only on the Jewish community. In fact we do not see that any Christian philosophers read the works of Jewish apostates in any other forum apart from the purely polemical one. By contrast, in the Jewish community the works of Abner had an important impact until the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. The deterministic opinion of Abner is with no doubt one of the major causes to the extensive number of works written on this subject in the 14th and 15th centuries by Jewish philosophers. For the most part, these works were against the opinion of Abner. The most impressive philosophical influence of Abner was on Rabbi Hasdai Crescas (died in 1410/1411). Crescas was the main Jewish philosopher during the end of the Middle Ages. Despite their opposite positions in the Jewish-Christian debate (Crescas wrote one of the more philosophical anti-Christian works), Crescas borrowed some of the major original philosophical opinions of Abner, including determinism, the difference between the attributes of the essence and the attributes that are essential, and the criticism of Aristotelian science. With regard to this entire subject, Crescas molded his opinion using Abner combined with other sources. In spite of this important change, we can clearly see signs of the philosophy of Abner in the writing of Crescas, and these signs constitute nearly all the post medieval influence of Abner on Jewish and general Western philosophy. Works by Abner - Meyasher aqob, G. Gluskina (ed. and trans.), Moscow: Nauka, 1983. - Ofrenda de zelos y Libro de la ley, W. Mettmann (ed.), Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1990. [Available online]. - Mostrador de justicia, W. Mettmann (ed.), Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1996–1997. - Responses to the Blasphemer (Teshuvot la-Meharef), edited and translated in J.L. Hecht, The Polemical Exchange between Isaac Pollegar and Abner of Burgos/Alfonso of Valladolid according to Parma MS 2440, Ph.D. Thesis, Skirbal Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University, 1993. - Abner Epistles: Rosenthal, J., 1961, “The Third Letter of Abner of Burgos”, Studies in Bibliography and Booklore V, (Hebrew), pp. 42–51. - –––, 1964, “From Sefer Alfonso”, Abraham Neuman Jubilee Volume, in Hebrew, M. Ben-Horim editor, Leiden: Brill, pp. 588–621. - –––, 1964, “The second Epistle of Abner of Burgos”, Abraham Weiss Jubilee Volume, S. Balkin (ed.), New York: Abraham Weiss Jubilee Committee, pp. 483–510. - –––, 1967, “Excerpts from the Hebrew Writing of the Apostate Abner of Burgos”, Mehqarim u-Meqorot, in Hebrew, 2 volumes, Jerusalem: Ben Zvi, pp. 324–367. - Baer, Y., 1929, “Abner aus Burgos,” Korrespondenzblatt des Vereins zur Gründung und Erhaltung einer Akademie für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, 9: 20–37. - –––, 1961–1966, A History of Jews in Christian Spain, Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society. - Chazan, R., 1984, “Maestre Alfonso of Valladolid and the New Missionizing,” Revue des études juives, 143: 83–94. - –––, 2000, “Undermining the Jewish Sense of Future: Alfonso of Valladolid and the New Christian Missionizing,” in Christian, Muslims and Jews in Medieval and Early Modern Spain, M. D. Meyerson and D. Edward (eds.), Indiana: Indiana University Press, pp. 179–194. - Gershenzon, S., 1974, “Midrash and Exegesis in the Christological Argument of Abner of Burgos,” Hebrew Abstracts, 15: 96–100. - –––, 1984, “A Study of Teshuvot La-Meharef by Abner of Burgos,” Ph.D. Thesis, Hebrew Literature in Jewish History, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. - –––, 1984, “A Tale of Two Midrashim: The Legacy of Abner of Burgos,” in Approaches to Judaism in Medieval Times, D. Blumenthal (ed.), Atlanta: Scholars Press, pp. 133–145. - –––, 1986, “The View of Maimonides as a Determinist in ‘Sefer Minhat Qenaot’ by Abner of Burgos,” Proceedings of the Ninth World Congress of Jewish Studies (Division C: Jewish Thought and Literature), Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, pp. 93–100. - Hames, H. J., 2009, “It Takes Three to Tango: Ramon Llull, Solomon ibn Adret and Alfonso of Valladolid Debate the Trinity”, Medieval Encounters, 15: 199–224. - Hecht, J. L., 1993, “The Polemical Exchange between Isaac Pollegar and Abner of Burgos/Alfonso of Valladolid according to Parma MS 2440”, Ph.D. Thesis, Skirbal Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University. - Lazar, M., 2003, “Alfonso de valladolid’s Mostrador de Justicia: A Polemic Debate Between Abner’s Old and New Self”, Edad Media: revista de historia 6, 121–127. - Ravitzky, A., 1982, “Crescas’ Theory of Human Will: Development and Sources,” Tarbiz, 51: 445–470 (Heb.). - Rosenthal, J., 1961, “The Third Letter of Abner of Burgos”, Studies in Bibliography and Booklore V, (Hebrew), pp. 42–51. - –––, 1964, “From Sefer Alfonso”, Abraham Neuman Jubilee Volume, in Hebrew, M. Ben-Horim (ed.), Leiden: Brill, pp. 588–621. - –––, 1964, “The second Epistle of Abner of Burgos”, Abraham Weiss Jubilee Volume, S. Balkin (ed.), New York: Abraham Weiss Jubilee Committee, pp. 483–510. - –––, 1967, “Excerpts from the Hebrew Writing of the Apostate Abner of Burgos”, Mehqarim u-Meqorot, in Hebrew, 2 volumes, Jerusalem: Ben Zvi, pp. 324–367. - Sadik, S., 2008, “Crescas’ critique of Aristotle and the lost book by Abner of Burgos”, Tarbiz, 77: 133–155 (Heb.). - –––, 2011, “The definition of Place in the Thought of Abner of Burgos and Rabbi Hasdai,” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Tough, 22: 233–246. - –––, 2016, “Abner of Burgos and Philosophical Knowledge Transfer: a Summary of his Transfer of Philosophical Knowledge from Judaism to Christianity and from Christianity to Judaism”, Medieval Encounters, 22: 95–112. - Sainz de la Maza Vicioso, C. N., 1989, Alphonso de Valladolid: Edicion y estudio del manuscrito LAT 6423 de la biblioteca apostolica vaticana, Madrid: Madrid Univesity Press. - –––, 1992, “El converso y judio: Alfonso de Valladolid y su libro del zelo de dio,” in Las tres culturas en la corrona de Castilla y los sefardies: Junto cultura de Castilla y Leon, Salamanca: Junta de Castilla y León, pp. 75–81. - –––, 1992, “El toldot Yeshu Castellano en el Maestre Alfonso de Valladolid,” Actas II congreso internacional de la asociacion hispanica de literature medieval (Volume 2), Alcala: Ministério de Educação Nacional, pp. 797–814. - –––, 1992, “Vi en vision de sueno: Conversion religiosa y autobiografia onirica en Abner de Burgos, alias Alfonso de Valladolid,” Compas de letras: monografias de literaturas espanola, 1: 186–208. - Schwartz, Y., 2011, “Images of Revelation and Spaces of Knowledge, The Jew, the Christian and the Christian-Jew: Jewish Apostates as Cultural Mediators in Medieval Spain”, in A. Fidora and M. Tischler (eds.), Christian North – Moslem South, Münster: Aschendorff Verlag, pp. 267–287. - Sirat. C., 1975, “Deux philosophes juifs répondent à Abner de Burgos à propos du libre-arbitre humain et de l’omniscience divine”, in Mélanges André Neher, E. Amado Lévy-Valensi (ed.), Paris. 87–94. - Szpiech, R. W., 2006, “From Testimonia to Testimony: Thirteenth-Century Anti-Jewish Polemic and the Mostrador de Justicia of Abner of Burgos/Alfonso de Valladolid,” Ph.D. Thesis, Judaic Studies, Yale University. - –––, 2010, “In Search of Ibn Sīnā’s ‘Oriental Philosophy’ in Medieval Castile,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 20: 185–206. - –––, 2010, “The Original is Unfaithful to the Translation: Conversion and Authenticity in Abner of Burgos and Anselm Turmeda,” eHumanista, 14: 146–177. - –––, 2010, “Polemical Strategy and the Rhetoric of Authority in Abner of Burgos / Alfonso of Valladolid,” in Late Medieval Jewish Identities, María Esperanza Alfonso and Carmen Caballero-Navas (eds). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 55–76. - –––, 2013, Conversion and Narrative – Reading and Religious Authority in Medieval Polemic, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 143-173. - –––, 2014, “Petrus Alfonsi…Erred Greatly: Alfonso of Valladolid’s Imitation and Critique of Petrus Alfonsi’s Dialogus”, in Petrus Alfonsi and his Dialogus: Background, Context, Reception, Carmen Cardelle de Hartmann and Philipp Roelli (eds.), Florence: Sismel Edizioni del Galluzzo, 321–348. How to cite this entry. Preview the PDF version of this entry at the Friends of the SEP Society. Look up this entry topic at the Indiana Philosophy Ontology Project (InPhO). Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers, with links to its database. Other Internet Resources [Please contact the author with suggestions.]

You've heard of actors getting typecast. But there is no group more slighted, more narrowly cast, than the Muslim-American actors who earn virtually their entire livings pretending to hijack planes and slaughter infidels. Jon Ronson embarks on a soul-searching odyssey with the bad guys of Homeland, American Sniper, 24, and every other TV show and movie in which the holy warriors get mowed down before they even get to finish one good “Allahu Akbar!” The right-wing action hero gave Maz Jobrani hope. This was 2001. Maz had been trying to make it as an actor in Hollywood for three years, but things were going badly for him. He was earning peanuts as an assistant at an advertising agency. But then his agent telephoned: Did Maz want to play a terrorist in a Chuck Norris movie? So Maz read the screenplay for The President's Man: A Line in the Sand, and he found within it a moment of promising subtlety. "Chuck Norris plays a professor of Middle Eastern studies," Maz tells me. We're sitting in a coffee shop in Westwood, Los Angeles. Maz is a goateed man in his early forties who was born in Tehran but moved with his family to the San Francisco Bay Area when he was 6. "There's a scene where he's talking to his students about Afghanistan. One of the students raises his hand and says something like, ‘Uh, professor, they're all fanatics, so why don't we just kill them all?' And the Chuck Norris character goes, ‘Now, now. They're not all bad.' And I thought, ‘Wow! A nuance!' " The nuance gave Maz hope. Did this mean they'd allow him to make his character nuanced? Maz was aware that fixating on this one line might have been self-deluding, like a drowning man clutching driftwood in a hurricane. But he agreed to take the part. Then, at the wardrobe fitting, they handed him his turban. "I said, ‘Whoa, whoa! No! Afghans in America don't wear turbans. Plus, this guy's a terrorist. He's not going to draw attention to himself. You tell the producers I want to bring authenticity to this character.' The wardrobe supervisor replied, ‘All right, all right, I'll talk to them.' " The message came back from Chuck Norris's people that the turban was mandatory. And then came Maz's death. It was the one thing he'd been excited about, because the script alluded to a short fight immediately preceding it. Hand-to-hand combat with Chuck Norris! "But on the day of the scene," Maz says, "Chuck Norris told his son, who was the director, ‘Oh, I'll just take a gun and I'll shoot him.' Oh, great! I don't even get a fight!" "So how exactly did you get shot?" I ask Maz. "Okay, so I'm about to set off a bomb at a refinery," he replies. "Chuck Norris runs in. I run away, because I'm scared. He gets behind the computer and starts dismantling the bomb, because he's a genius. I come running back in carrying an Uzi. And I try to shoot him. But he takes out his gun and shoots me." Maz shrugs. "I start to yell, ‘Allah—' Bang! I'm down. I don't even get ‘Allahu Akbar!' out. It was horrible, man." Maz shakes his head at the memory. It was humiliating. Actually, it was worse than humiliating—it was a harbinger. Maz understood, as he lay dead in that refinery, that Hollywood didn't want him to be an actor. Hollywood wanted him to be a caricature. "I started acting in junior high," he says. "I was in Guys and Dolls. I was Stanley Kowalski. In my head, before coming to Hollywood, I thought, ‘I can play anything.' " But instead he'd become the latest iteration in Hollywood's long history of racist casting, reducing his religion and culture to a bunch of villainous, cartoonish psychopaths. He knew he had to get out. I glance at my phone. It's 1 P.M. We're running late to meet three of Maz's friends at a nearby Lebanese restaurant. We jump into Maz's car. Maz refuses to take terrorist parts nowadays. He's primarily a stand-up comedian instead, a very funny and successful one. In fact, he's just published a memoir, I'm Not a Terrorist, But I've Played One on TV. But Maz's friends at the restaurant haven't been so lucky. They still make their livings as actors, which means they still play terrorists all the time. Maz and I hurry into the restaurant, apologizing for being late. We order a mezze plate for five. These men have been killed while committing acts of terrorism on Homeland and 24, in The Kingdom and Three Kings and True Lies, and in too many other films and shows to list. We've barely sat down when Waleed Zuaiter, a Palestinian-American actor in his early forties, recounts for me his death scene on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. This was about a year after September 11. "I play a guy from a sleeper cell," Waleed says. "I'm checking my e-mails. I hear the cops come in, and the first thing I go for is my box cutter. There's literally a box cutter in the scene." "Was this in an office?" I ask Waleed. "It was in my home!" he replies. "I just happened to have a box cutter lying around." Waleed shakes his head, bemused. "The cops burst in, and next thing you know I've got the box cutter to some guy's neck. And then one of the cops shoots me." "I die in Iron Man," says Sayed Badreya, an Egyptian man with a salt-and-pepper beard. "I die in Executive Decision. I get shot at by—what's his name?—Kurt Russell. I get shot by everyone. George Clooney kills me in Three Kings. Arnold blows me up in True Lies…" As Sayed and Waleed and the others describe their various demises, it strikes me that the key to making a living in Hollywood if you're Muslim is to be good at dying. If you're a Middle Eastern actor and you can die with charisma, there is no shortage of work for you. Here's another irony in the lives of these men: While they profoundly wish they didn't have to play terrorists, much of our lunch is taken up with them swapping tips on clever ways to stand out at terrorist auditions. "If I'm going in for the role of a nice father, I'll talk to everybody," Sayed tells the table. "But if you're going for a terrorist role, don't fucking smile at all those white people sitting there. Treat them like shit. The minute you say hello, you break character." "But it's smart at the end of the audition to break it," adds Hrach Titizian, who at 36 is the youngest actor here. " ‘Oh, thanks, guys.' So they know it's okay to have you on set for a couple of weeks." Then Waleed says something you don't often hear actors say, because most actors regard their competition with dread:**** "Whenever it's that kind of role and we see each other at the auditions, it's so comforting. We're not in this alone. We're in this together." We're in this together. By this Waleed is referring to a uniquely demeaning set of circumstances. I'm sure practically all actors, Muslim or otherwise, feel degraded. Most have no power over their careers—what roles they can play, how their performances are edited. But Muslim actors are powerless in unusually hideous ways. The last time one became a big star in America was back in 1962—Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia. These days they get offered terrorist roles and little else. And we—the paying public—barely even notice, much less worry about it. Where's the outrage? There is none, except from the actors themselves. These roles are ethically nightmarish for them, and the stress can wreak havoc on their lives. Waleed's father, for instance, threatened never to talk to him again if he ever played a terrorist. I thought that was bad enough. But then I meet another actor who had it much worse. Ahmed Ahmed was raised a strict Muslim in Riverside, California, by his Egyptian-immigrant parents—a mother who learned English from watching soap operas, and a gas-station-attendant father who ended up buying an automotive shop. The day Ahmed told them he was quitting college to try his luck in Hollywood, his father asked if he was gay and didn't speak to him for seven years. When I meet Ahmed at the French Roast Café in downtown New York City, he echoes Waleed's thoughts about the camaraderie among these actors. "It's always the same guys at every audition. Waleed, Sayed Badreya… You're all sitting in a row in the waiting room. Oftentimes the casting offce is right next to you. The door's shut, but you can hear what's going on." "What do you hear?" I ask him. "Oh, you know," he says. "‘ALLAHU AKBAR!' And then…" Ahmed switches to the voice of a bubbly casting director. " ‘Thank you! That was great!' And the guy walks out, sweating. And you walk in and they're, ‘Hey! Thanks for coming in! Whenever you're ready!' And you're thinking, ‘How do I do it differently from the guy before me? Do I go louder?' " When he auditioned for Executive Decision, he went louder. Executive Decision is, I realize as I talk to people from this world, considered the ground zero (as it were) of ludicrous portrayals of Islamic terrorists. This was 1996, and Ahmed was in his mid-twenties. "My agent had called me. ‘There's this film. It's a $55 million action suspense thriller starring Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, and Steven Seagal. They want to bring you in to read for one of the parts.' I said, ‘What's the part?' She said, ‘Terrorist Number Four.' I said, ‘I don't want to do it.' She said, ‘It's three weeks of work. It pays $30,000.' " And so Ahmed read for the part. "My lines were ‘Sit down and obey or I will kill you in the name of Allah.' And the director goes, ‘Brilliant! Do it again. But this time, can you give me more of that Middle Eastern, you know…' I go, ‘Anger?' He goes, ‘Yes! Yes! Angry!' " Feeling a flash of actual anger, Ahmed decided to ridicule the process by going stupidly over-the-top. "And the next day," he says, "my agent calls me up: ‘You booked it.' " By the time Executive Decision came out later that year, Ahmed says, his life had "become dark. Boozing on the Sunset Strip. After-hours parties. I'd wake up at 2 P.M. and do it all over again. It's the same people in the clubs every night. Everyone's trying to fill a void." "Were you doing all that boozing because you felt guilty for playing terrorists?" I ask him. "There was an element of that," he replies. "There was an element of not working between those parts. And then I had an epiphany. I called my agent: ‘Hey! Don't send me out on these terrorist parts anymore. I'll be open for anything else, but not the terrorist stuff.' " Ahmed pauses. "After that, she never called." "How often did she call before then?" I ask him. "Oh, three or four times a week." And so Ahmed made a decision: "Get the fuck out of Hollywood." He went to Mecca. And what he saw there were "four and a half million people dressed in white—rich, poor, walking side by side, asking for blessings from God." For ten solid years after his trip to Mecca, Ahmed quit acting and became a stand-up comedian. He still performs regularly, but he says he'll take a terrorist role from time to time if a good one comes along. After all, he notes, nobody accuses Robert De Niro of betraying other Italian-Americans when he plays a mobster. The evening after our lunch in Westwood, I visit Sayed Badreya, the older Egyptian actor, at his Santa Monica apartment. When I arrive, he's online, looking at photographs of Arabian horses. "I'm involved in breeding them," he says, "because I don't know if I can keep playing these same parts." He says his daughter was once asked at school what her father did for a living and she replied, "He hijacks airplanes." Sayed takes his work seriously and has always gone to great lengths to research his roles. In 1991, he started attending a mosque in Culver City, one that was known to attract some militant worshippers, so he could study Islamic radicalism up close. A few years later, some of the mosque's worshippers went to a movie and recognized Sayed. Back at the mosque after Friday prayers, they surrounded him. "They were yelling, right in my face: ‘You're helping the Zionist Jews of Hollywood in their agenda to make Islam look bad. For money, you're giving up your heritage.' " "How were you responding?" I ask. "I felt guilty," he says. "I knew they were sort of right. But I yelled back at them, ‘We have to take their money to make our own movie and tell our own story!' We were yelling so hard we were showering each other with spit." "What was the movie of yours they saw?" I ask him. "Executive fucking Decision," he says. Sayed says he does all he can to intersperse his terrorist roles with more helpful portrayals of Muslims. He wrote and starred in a well-regarded film, AmericanEast, charting the struggles of Muslims in America post-9/11. But he has to play terrorists to pay the bills, so he at least tries to be a realistic one. He does side work as a technical consultant, advising directors on the accuracy of their films. He worked in this capacity on Executive Decision. "We had a really beautiful moment in an Arabic wedding scene," Sayed says. "And the producer, Joel Silver, saw it and said, ‘No, no. This is nice. I want a fucking bad Arab. We don't want a good Arab.' " Almost all of the wedding scene was cut from the film, Sayed says. But here's a scene that wasn't cut: One of the terrorists takes a quick break from killing people to read the Koran. "If I'm playing a guy chosen to hijack a plane, that means I'm one of the top soldiers. I'm going on a mission. I'm not going to Mecca. He might recite something in his head if he's religious, but he's not going to open the Bible. But producers get really sensitive if you say, ‘No, that's not accurate.' " In an e-mailed statement, Joel Silver denied the "bad Arab" incident, adding, "Any editorial decisions, made twenty years ago, were strictly creative, and not to perpetuate any stereotypes." I didn't hear back from any of the other producers or directors I approached. Not Peter Berg (The Kingdom, another film that has a bad reputation with Muslim actors for its portrayal of the Islamic world), nor Stephen McEveety (Mel Gibson's collaborator on The Passion of the Christ and the producer of the The Stoning of Soraya M., in which an Iranian husband has his wife stoned to death), nor Joel Surnow, the co-creator of 24. Maz told me that his most offensive acting offer ever was for a Joel Surnow production—Fox's short-lived comedy The 1/2 Hour News Hour. Maz says he was asked to audition for a sketch about a Middle Eastern architect pitching to rebuild the twin towers. The joke was that his design included a bull's-eye right on the building. Howard Gordon, the man behind Homeland and 24, is the only producer I persuade to talk to me. He calls me from his car. "I came to this issue when I was accused of having Islamophobia in 24," he says. "We had a family, essentially, of terrorists on the show. The Muslim Public Affairs Council provided an education for me on the power of images." "What did they say?" "They asked me to imagine what it might be like to be a Muslim, to have people fear my faith," he replies. "I felt very sympathetic. I didn't want to be a midwife to xenophobia." Since then, he says, he has done his best. And people have noticed. When I was having lunch with Maz and the other actors at the Lebanese restaurant in Westwood, Howard was one of the only mainstream producers they praised. (Three Kings' David O. Russell was another.) "Anyone with a conscience has to take this seriously," Howard tells me. "I'd often hidden behind the defense that 24 was a counterterrorism show. We rationalized to ourselves that our primary task was to tell a compelling story." But the truth, he knew, was darker than that: "We all have our personal biases and fears—I suspect we're wired to feel threatened by the ‘other.' And I include myself in that category." In the lobby of a chichi old hotel in Midtown Manhattan, Anthony Azizi warns me that this interview might get heated. And indeed it does. If you want to know the impact that a lifetime of doing these movies can have on a man, spend some time with Anthony Azizi. Anthony is a veteran of various CSIs and NCISs and 24. His death scene in 24, he says, made it onto a Yahoo list of best deaths ever. (His throat gets slit with a credit card.) He's a big, handsome, intense man who is not, by the way, a Muslim. He's a member of the Iranian spiritualist faith the Bahá'í. "Hollywood has the power to snap its fingers and make whoever it wants a star," he begins. "It specifically and purposefully doesn't want to see an Arab or a Middle Eastern star. There's too much prejudice and racism—and the people running it, I don't need to go into the specifics of their backgrounds.…" I think I know what he's getting at. But all sorts of producers—not just Jews—are behind insensitive movie portrayals of Muslims. There's Chuck Norris. There's John Musker, director of 1992's Aladdin, in which all the "good Arabs" have American accents and all the "bad Arabs" have pseudo-Middle Eastern accents. Stephen McEveety (The Stoning of Soraya M.) is Catholic. Anthony carries on, turning his anger toward Jon Stewart's Rosewater, in which the Mexican actor Gael García Bernal plays the Iranian-Canadian reporter Maziar Bahari. "Man, if I saw Jon Stewart, you'd have to hold me back. How dare you hire a Mexican-American to play an Iranian-American, with all these amazing Iranian-American artists. I can't stand it. I'm sick of it. I speak Spanish fluently.…" He effortlessly slides into perfect Spanish for a few seconds, then returns to being Anthony. "Why am I not being hired for Mexican or Latino roles?" he says. "You play my roles, but I can't play yours, and I speak Spanish just as well? Go fuck yourself." Anthony picks up my recorder. "Go fuck yourself, Jon Stewart!" he yells. "Have me on your show if you have the balls! You don't have the balls!" He's really shouting now. The hotel receptionists keep glancing nervously over at us, wondering whether to intervene. "Hollywood people are pussies!" he rants. "They're racist! They don't want to say, ‘I just built a Middle Eastern star!' Here's how I see it—and this is probably the most controversial thing I'll ever say: The only Middle Eastern star was Omar Sharif. The minute he had a relationship with a Jewish-American woman named Barbra Streisand was the death knell for any other Arab-American actor's career. Hear it again! The minute he had a sexual relationship with a Jewish…" "I don't underst—" I start to say. "How dare you make that an incident where no Arab-American actor can ever get a career again!" Finally I get my question out, or at least some of it: "But what's the connection between Omar Sharif purportedly having an affair with Barbra Streisand and—" "I think there's a certain type of producer that doesn't want to see that happen," he says. "They don't want their gem—Barbra Streisand was the gem of the Jewish community—sleeping with the Arab heathen! It caused huge riots in Egypt, too. I'd say the same thing to the Egyptian community.…" Sure, Anthony's Barbra Streisand outburst is crazy. If there is a racist conspiracy in Hollywood to rob Middle Eastern actors of roles, it's not a great idea to rail against it with a racist-conspiracy theory of one's own. But think about what Anthony has been subjected to in his career. He and the other men in this story are going through something that future generations will regard as outrageous. They're the bloodthirsty Red Indians surrounding the settlers' wagons in Stagecoach. They're the black savages in The Birth of a Nation (who were played by white actors in blackface). They are the people Hollywood will be apologizing to tomorrow. "Don't question my talent," Anthony says. "I should be a star by now. But I'm not. So you explain why." Perhaps the closest this community has to a star is Navid Negahban. He played, most famously, Abu Nazir in Homeland and also the Iraqi in American Sniper who helps the U.S. military locate "the butcher." He was Ali, the stoner in The Stoning of Soraya M. "Everyone I've met seems really talented," I tell Anthony. "So why do you think Navid, of all of you…?" "He's hot right now, playing bad guys," Anthony replies. "He loves to play those roles. I love Navid. He's my brother. But there's no longevity in those roles. You always get whacked. Everybody who's still alive in Homeland is white! Where is Abu Nazir? He got whacked, 'cause he's brown." Getting to meet Navid isn't easy. One minute he's filming in upstate New York, the next he's doing motion capture as a video-game character in Los Angeles before flying off to shoot a movie in Morocco. But I manage to catch him for an hour at a coffee shop near Columbus Circle in New York City. He's already there, chatting with another on-screen terrorist, Herzl Tobey (The Shield, 24, Homeland). They've been working on a movie together upstate, so Navid has brought him along to meet me. Navid is very dashing, with an old-fashioned matinee-idol air to him. "I'm sure you've had a few of the others say, ‘I won't do terrorists anymore,' " he says as I sit down. "Yes," I say. "I've told them that's the biggest mistake," says Navid. "If we don't play those roles, the character becomes a caricature. [The producers] might get some actor from a different background who looks Middle Eastern." Herzl nods, adding, "The writer is sitting here in America, writing about a world he's completely unfamiliar with. So of course he won't be able to write it with the full depth and sensuality that comes with that world. It's up to us to bring that depth." I tell Navid that I've noticed that the more prominent the Middle Eastern actor, the more awesome the death. Back when Maz was just starting out, he barely got ‘Allah' out before Chuck Norris shot him. But Navid is at the top of the pecking order, the closest thing we have to the late Omar Sharif. I ask him to remind me how Abu Nazir died on Homeland. "Oh, he was graceful," Navid replies. "It was so…" He smacks his lips. "He's sitting very gracefully on the floor. On his knees. He's ready. The soldiers run in. Everybody's yelling. But he's calm. He's just looking at all of them very, very calmly. And then he reaches into his pocket and they shoot him. And there's a Koran in his pocket." Navid smiles wistfully. "That was beautiful," he says. "I die well." Jon Ronson’s most recent book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, is about social-media witch hunts.

Dr. Ruth Panofsky is Professor of English and also teaches in the Joint Graduate Program in Communication and Culture. She is affiliated with Ryerson University’s Modern Literature and Culture Centre (as a Research Associate) and Centre for Digital Humanities (as a member). Dr. Panofsky is also a member of Editing Modernism in Canada, an international collaborative project housed in Dalhousie University’s Department of English, and editor of Parchment: Contemporary Canadian Jewish Writing. Ruth Panofsky is a Fellow of Massey College, University of Toronto and has served as visiting professor of creative writing at Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany. She has received fellowships and grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Bibliographical Society of America, and the Bibliographical Society of Canada. In 2008, she received the Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award for Poetry. Ruth Panofsky's critical edition of the collected poetry of Mariam Waddington was published in 2014 by University of Ottawa Press and won a 2015 Canadian Jewish Literary Award. Her current SSHRC-funded project is a study of women in English-language book publishing in Canada, 1900-2000. Dr. Panofsky has published widely in the field of book history and print culture in Canada. In addition to scholarly works, she has published two books of poetry; her articles, book reviews, and poems have appeared in scholarly periodicals, literary journals, and major Canadian newspapers. Canadian Jewish Literature; Holocaust Literature; Canadian Publishing History; Authorship Studies, Textual Scholarship

Reveling in Richmond Virginia By Henry Levy When one thinks of Thomas Jefferson perhaps Mount Vernon or Mount Rushmore may come to mind. However in 1895, Major Lewis Ginter felt his hero deserved more recognition so he built the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Virginia. His goal was to make this the finest hotel in America. Now, nearly 115 years later it is hard to argue with his vision. If you have the good fortune to spend some time in Richmond, Virginia, there is no finer place to stay than the Jefferson Hotel. It has received a well deserved Mobil Five Star and AAA Five Diamond rating. The luxurious Palm Court lobby leads to a breathtaking rotunda with a 70 foot ceiling, massive faux marble columns and a grand staircase. Even if you do not stay at the Jefferson it should be visited. Partaking of high tea or its award winning Sunday Brunch would be a memorable experience. The Jefferson has two town cars and a fifteen passenger van which provide complimentary transportation for guests to museums, and shopping destinations within a three mile radius of the hotel. There are 262 luxurious guest rooms and suites with flat screen TV, marble bathroom, work desk, high speed internet access plus a fitness center and indoor pool. The Jefferson Hotel is currently offering a “Shoestring Package” available from June 3rd until September 7th 2009. The rate for a superior room is only $205 [reg. $365] and $225 [reg. $395] for a deluxe room. A Southern breakfast for two, $25.00 gift card and valet parking are all included. For more details and other packages go to www.jeffersonhotel.com or call 1-800-424-8014. Famous guests who have stayed at this magnificent hotel include Presidents Taft, Roosevelt [both], Wilson, the Bushes plus F. Scott Fitzgerald, Bernard Shaw, Sinatra, Rolling Stones, Seinfeld, Gorbachev, General Schwartzkopf and so many more. Why not join this illustrious list … the prices have never been better! Major Ginter has several other claims to fame. He made a fortune in tobacco and was responsible for producing the earliest baseball cards [distributed in cigarette packs] as well as non sports cards in the 1880’s. He also gave Richmond the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, a must see for all visitors. When we visited the gardens there was an antique car show in the parking area which was an unexpected bonus. Featured was over 1800 roses in the Rose Garden, a Healing Garden where medicinal properties of plants are studied, the Asian Valley, Palm House Conservatory, Interactive Children’s Garden, Perennial Garden, Wetlands, Victorian restorations, gazebos, lakeside flowers and a wonderful Tea House and Garden Caf?. For a schedule of events go to LewisGinter.org. Maymont Park is another excellent place to spend a few relaxing hours. This 100 acre park has Japanese and Italian gardens, nature center and children’s farm. [Maymont.org.] There are many museums and historic homes including the Edgar Allen Poe Museum, the Virginia Holocaust Museum [Va-Holocaust.com], several plantations, art galleries and even Richmond’s Hebrew Cemetery for Jewish Confederates who fought and died in Virginia. Shopping in Carytown, a huge pedestrian only area that has fashionable boutiques, and an array of interesting stores and restaurants is recommended. Can-Can Brasserie is a good choice for lunch or dinner. Other favorites of ours include Ipanema Caf? featuring mostly vegetarian entrees with nightly fish specials [917 W Grace Street 213-0190]. There is also Kuba Kuba which is a good value for Cuban cuisine [1611 Park Avenue 355-8817]. Of special interest is the Byrd Theatre, an old fashioned movie theater which shows recent films for only $2.00 per person which can be logged in at www.byrdthertre.com. Grant might have once taken Richmond but one should never take Richmond for granted.

Last Thursday my toe and fingernails were in dire need of some sprucing up so I headed to my favorite salon to get some TLC. It’s my favorite not because I love the technicians or because it’s a lovely place or even because they serve wine (they don’t). It’s my favorite because they rub your legs and feet for what seems like FOR-EVER. Like seriously; 10-15 minutes on each side. It’s pure heaven. What is it about getting our feet rubbed that is so fabulous? Think about it, the rubbing of hands and arms doesn’t feel half as great as the rubbing of feet during a mani-pedi appointment. And massages? Yes, the back and shoulders being rubbed down is such a treat, but when the masseuse gets to your feet it’s pure luxury. Rub my feet I ask; just rub my feet. Maybe I’m a bit more sensitive to my feet right now because I actually hurt my left foot last week. I have no idea what I did to it, but the top felt bruised and I had to ice it and oil it up for two days. It’s all better now but it made me think about my feet. Our feet are not only essential in many ways, but influential too. Did you know each of your feet has more than 7,000 nerve endings? SEVEN THOUSAND! Also called reflexes, they correspond to every organ system in your body. EVERY ORGAN. If you’ve ever had reflexology, you know this as pressing on them can stimulate the nervous system and open energy pathways that may be blocked, congested, or injured. Everything from digestion to headaches to PMS can be affected by pushing on the right areas of your feet. It’s also interesting how putting specific essential oils on certain areas of your feet can prevent illness, alleviate altitude sickness and allergies, ease aching muscles and joints, and a whole lot more. When travelling recently, during the current flu season, and before heading into my class of three-year-olds, I put two Young Living oils on the bottoms of my feet to prevent catching anything and I’ve yet to get sick this year. Knock on wood. As powerful as they are, feet aren’t very popular. Very few people like touching them and in all honesty, they aren’t the most attractive areas of our bodies. Thinking about this makes me respect pedicurists even more. Day in and day out they clip, scrape, and rub client’s feet. As I contemplated all of this during my pedicure last Thursday, it dawned on me that I have never seen the owner/manager of the salon give a pedicure. She sits at the first manicurist table, answers the phone, and is forever working on someone’s fingernails but never does she give pedicures. Why is this? Is it below her to do so? Does not doing them make her feel superior to her staff? In all honesty it kinda bothered me. What about humility? Lending a hand in a pinch? I returned home still analyzing this (and over analyzing it cuz that’s what I do) and remembered I hadn’t read my Lenten daily reading and “Our Daily Bread” blog that morning. I sat down to read them and of course it was all about Jesus’ “basin of love.” Chills. On Holy Thursday, we read about how Jesus washed the feet of His disciples right before The Last Supper. Back in His day, even Jewish servants were spared this task because it was seen as beneath even them. Jesus being Jesus though, washed the feet of all of them including Judas, knowing full well he was going to later betray Him. Ironically, right before Jesus washed their feet, the disciples had been arguing about which one of them was the greatest. It was customary to wash feet often back then but since there was no servant present, the 12 didn’t know what to do and never considered washing each other’s feet. Then, Jesus stepped in and stepped up. He showed love, he showed respect, and he showed humility. I’ll think of this the next time I get a pedicure and the next time a masseuse rubs my feet. They truly have basins and hands of love. And humility. I’m humbled by them all.

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June 19, 2013 June 12, 2013 Stephanie Hanes: Little girls or little women? The Disney princess effect Fred Weir: In tweak to US, Russia would 'consider' asylum for Snowden June 10, 2013 The Kosher Gourmet by Anjali Prasertong: A tart filling so good it might not make it to the crust June 5, 2013 John Rosemond: Mom, Dad: Talk More and listen less Egypt court sentences 43 pro-democracy workers to prison June 3, 2013 Molly Hennessy-Fiske: Military judge to consider letting Fort Hood shooting defendant represent himself May 29, 2013 Andrew Connelly and Helene Bienvenu: The Little Synagogue that Refused to Die May 24, 2013 Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: When I didn't so 'humbly disagree' May 22, 2013 They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman May 20, 2013 Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man? Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting Jewish World Review Sept. 15, 2008 / 15 Elul 5768 The Lipstick Wars Democrat activists have let Sarah Palin get under their skin and if they don't get a grip, their visceral loathing of the Republican vice presidential candidate could cost them the election. First there was the "lipstick on a pig" flap a comment the Obama campaign insists was not directed at Gov. Palin, but which dominated political coverage this week. And there was the inexplicable claim by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden that electing Palin as the first female vice president in our nation's history would be a "backward step for women." Then there was the vicious statement by the chairwoman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, Carol Fowler, who claimed that Gov. Palin's "primary qualification seems to be that she hasn't had an abortion." Does it get any uglier than this? In fairness, I'm not certain Sen. Obama intended to call Gov. Palin a pig. His explicit target was John McCain, especially the claim that McCain/Palin is the real "change" ticket in this election. But the audience of Democratic faithful assembled in Lebanon, Va., clearly reacted to Obama's unfortunate metaphor as if he'd just made a clever reference to Palin. They howled, roaring their approval at the remark, which clearly recalled Palin's famous statement about lipstick in her acceptance speech. Whatever Sen. Obama's intention, the crowd drew the inference that "lipstick on a pig" meant Palin. But Obama's remark wasn't the only lipstick reference of the day. In his introduction of Biden at another campaign event, Democratic Congressman Russ Carnahan said of Palin, "There's no way you can dress up that record, even with a lot of lipstick." So what is it that lipstick has come to represent to these partisan zealots? It is as if lipstick has become the new symbol of the culture wars that have dominated American politics since 1972. Jonathan Last, writing online at First Things magazine, suggests that Gov. Palin's decision not to abort her son Trig when she learned he had Down syndrome was a challenge to liberals' idea of what constitutes worthwhile life. He notes, "the left sees Baby Trig as a provocation … as a little Terri Schiavo an assertion of the value of all life and an affront to their belief that there are differences in what constitutes meaningful life." Carol Fowler's remarks certainly suggest she disapproved of Palin's decision. Fowler later issued a clarification of her remarks, which fell short of a retraction: "I personally admire and respect the difficult choices that women make everyday, and I apologize to anyone who finds my comment offensive. I clumsily was making a point about people in South Carolina who may vote based on a single issue. Whether it's the environment, the economy, the war or a woman's right to choose, there are people who will cast their vote based on a single issue. That was the only point I was attempting to make." But do Fowler and others on the left really favor a woman's right to choose or do they only support women who make the same choices they would in the same circumstances? Washington Post editorial writer Ruth Marcus admitted that had her own amniocentesis "results indicated any abnormality, I have little doubt that I would have made a different decision than did Palin." Indeed, Palin's decision to have five children, in and of itself, seems to irritate many on the left, for whom population control is a major liberal tenet. As Last correctly points out, "The Palin family's five children would have been unexceptional forty years ago, but today constitute something of a fertility freak show. … According to the most recent census data, only 1.1 percent of non-Hispanic white women bear five or six children over the course of their lifetime. By contrast, 22.5 percent of these women never reproduce. The percentage of childlessness among women rises in a straight line with educational attainment." Sarah Palin smart, accomplished, pretty, maternal, and conservative threatens the notion that there is only one way to be a modern woman. Her political journey started in the PTA, not at Harvard or Yale Law School. She shops at Wal-Mart, not Barneys. And the more the Democrats caricature and underestimate her, the likelier it is they will alienate those Middle American voters who will determine the outcome of this election. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. JWR contributor Linda Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity. Her latest book is "Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) Linda Chavez Archives © 2006, Creators Syndicate Richard Z. Chesnoff Frank J. Gaffney Victor Davis Hanson A. Barton Hinkle Judge A. Napolitano Cokie & Steve Roberts Debra J. Saunders J. D. Crowe David Ray Skinner Ask Doctor K

Francis Salvador of South Carolina (1747-1776), became the first Jew to die for the cause of American liberty. Salvador was born in London and as young man settled on a plot of family land in South Carolina. Within a year, he was elected to South Carolina's General Assembly, the first Jew to hold legislative office in any of the English colonies. At this time, the British were encouraging Cherokee Indian tribes to attack colonial settlements along the frontier. During one such attack, Salvador mounted his horse and rode to sound the alarm, earning him the title of "Paul Revere of the South." On a subsequent attack, Salvador led a small army of 330 men; he was shot by a Cherokee, fell into some bushes, and was promptly scalped. He was only 29 years old, but he is remembered as a Jewish-American soldier and statesman. Give Tzedakah! Help Aish.com create inspiring articles, videos and blogs featuring timeless Jewish wisdom.

'Jewish settler attack' on film By Tim Franks BBC News, Jerusalem Footage of West Bank attack Footage from a video camera handed out by an Israeli human rights group appears to show Jewish settlers beating up Palestinians in the West Bank. An elderly shepherd, his wife and a nephew said they were attacked by four masked men for allowing their animals to graze near the settlement of Susia. The rights group, B'Tselem, said the cameras were provided to enable Palestinians to get proof of attacks. A spokesman for the Israeli police said that an investigation was under way. So far, no-one has been arrested. For the past year, B'Tselem has handed out video cameras to Palestinians as part of its "Shooting Back" project. The BBC has been given exclusive access to the footage of this particular attack, which happened earlier this week. The date and time on the camera footage shows that it is Sunday afternoon. Over the brow of the hill walk four masked men holding baseball bats. To the right of the screen, in the foreground, stands a 58-year-old Palestinian woman. Thamam al-Nawaja has been herding her goats close to the Jewish settlement of Susia, near Hebron in the southern West Bank. Within a few seconds, she, along with her 70-year-old husband and one of her nephews, will be beaten up. As the first blows land, the woman filming - the daughter-in-law of the elderly couple - drops the camera and runs for help. Mrs Nawaja spent three days in hospital after the attack. Returning to the small Palestinian encampment close to the red-roofed houses of Susia, she stepped slowly and unsteadily out of the minibus. They don't want us to stay on our land, but we won't leave - we'll die here A dark stain showed through the white gauze covering her broken right arm. Her veil was lifted gingerly away from her lined face. A bloodshot eye and intersection of scars revealed a fractured left cheek. "The settlers gave us a 10-minute warning to clear off from the land," she told me, her voice a tired, cracked whisper. She and her husband had stood their ground. It is at this point that her voice grows louder. "They don't want us to stay on our land. But we won't leave. We'll die here. It's ours," she added. Indeed, the rest of the world regards Jewish settlements in the West Bank such as Susia, as illegal, built on occupied territory. Those settlements have been a large part of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis for the last 41 years. The daily confrontation is not often caught on camera. That, now, is beginning to change. The attack near Susia was filmed with one of 100 video cameras that B'Tselem has handed out to Palestinians in the region. When they have the camera, they have proof that something happened - they now have something they can work with, to use as a weapon The thinking behind the project is that when trouble flares, rather than just giving a statement to the Israeli police or army, video carries much more weight. "The difference is amazing," says Oren Yakobovich, who leads the Shooting Back project. "When they have the camera, they have proof that something happened. They now have something they can work with, to use as a weapon." We asked a spokesman from the Susia settlement for a comment on Sunday's incident. He declined. Inside one of the tents belonging to the Palestinians living near Susia, we watched the footage of the aftermath of the attack - the victims slumped by the roadside, bloodied, waiting for an ambulance. The bright, wide eyes of the children shone with the light of the small television screen. Violence against Jews as well as Palestinians has long scarred this place. Video may now may be giving us a new and raw view. But for most people here, the only answer - a political deal - remains out of sight. Story from BBC NEWS: See the video at

Biography of Alice Walker Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia, the youngest of eight children, to Willie Lee Walker and Minnie Lou Tallulah Grant. Her father, who was, in her words, "wonderful at math but a terrible farmer," earned only $300 a year from sharecropping and dairy farming. Her mother supplemented the family income by working as a maid.She worked 11 hours a day for USD $17 per week to help pay for Alice to attend college. Living under Jim Crow Laws, Walker's parents resisted landlords who expected the children of black sharecroppers to work the fields at a young age. A white plantation owner said to her that black people had “no need for education.” Minnie Lou Walker said, "You might have some black children somewhere, but they don’t live in this house. Don’t you ever come around here again talking about how my children don’t need to learn how to read and write.” Her mother enrolled Alice in first grade at the age of four. Growing up with an oral tradition, listening to stories from her grandfather (the model for the character of Mr. in The Color Purple), Walker began writing, very privately, when she was eight years old. "With my family, I had to hide things," she said. "And I had to keep a lot in my mind." In 1952, Walker was accidentally wounded in the right eye by a shot from a BB gun fired by one of her brothers. Because the family had no car, the Walkers could not take their daughter to a hospital for immediate treatment. By the time they reached a doctor a week later, she had become permanently blind in that eye. When a layer of scar tissue formed over her wounded eye, Alice became self-conscious and painfully shy. Stared at and sometimes taunted, she felt like an outcast and turned for solace to reading and to writing poetry. When she was 14, the scar tissue was removed. She later became valedictorian and was voted most-popular girl, as well as queen of her senior class, but she realized that her traumatic injury had some value: it allowed her to begin "really to see people and things, really to notice relationships and to learn to be patient enough to care about how they turned out". After high school, Walker went to Spelman College in Atlanta on a full scholarship in 1961 and later transferred to Sarah Lawrence College near New York City, graduating in 1965. Walker became interested in the U.S. civil rights movement in part due to the influence of activist Howard Zinn, who was one of her professors at Spelman College. Continuing the activism that she participated in during her college years, Walker returned to the South where she became involved with voter registration drives, campaigns for welfare rights, and children's programs in Mississippi. Alice Walker met Martin Luther King Jr. when she was a student at Spelman College in Atlanta in the early 1960s. Walker credits King for her decision to return to the American South as an activist for the Civil Rights Movement. She marched with hundreds of thousands in August in the 1963 March on Washington. As a young adult, she volunteered to register black voters in Georgia and Mississippi. On March 8, 2003, International Women's Day, on the eve of the Iraq War, Alice Walker, Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Woman Warrior; and Terry Tempest Williams, author of An Unspoken Hunger; were arrested along with 24 others for crossing a police line during an anti-war protest rally outside the White House with her dogs. Walker and 5,000 activists associated with the organizations Code Pink and Women for Peace, marched from Malcolm X Park in Washington D.C. to the White House. The activists encircled the White House. In an interview with Democracy Now, Walker said, "I was with other women who believe that the women and children of Iraq are just as dear as the women and children in our families, and that, in fact, we are one family. And so it would have felt to me that we were going over to actually bomb ourselves." Walker wrote about the experience in her essay, "We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For." In November 2008, Alice Walker wrote "An Open Letter to Barack Obama" that was published on Theroot.com. Walker addresses the newly elected President as "Brother Obama" and writes "Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina, and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about." In January 2009, she was one of over 50 signers of a letter protesting the Toronto Film Festival's "City to City" spotlight on Israeli filmmakers, condemning Israel as an "apartheid regime." In March 2009, Alice Walker traveled to Gaza along with a group of 60 other female activists from the anti-war group Code Pink, in response to the Gaza War. Their purpose was to deliver aid, to meet with NGOs and residents, and to persuade Israel and Egypt to open their borders into Gaza. She planned to visit Gaza again in December 2009 to participate in the Gaza Freedom March. On Jun 23, 2011, she announced plans to participate in an upcoming aid flotilla to Gaza which is attempting to break Israel's naval blockade. Explaining her reasons she cited concern for the children and that she felt that "elders" should bring "whatever understanding and wisdom we might have gained in our fairly long lifetimes, witnessing and being a part of struggles against oppression". Fellow author Howard Jacobson took Walker to task saying that her concern for the children does not justify the flotilla. In a June 2011 interview, Walker described the United States and Israel as "terrorist organizations" stating "When you terrorize people, when you make them so afraid of you that they are just mentally and psychologically wounded for life -- that's terrorism." In 1965, Walker met Melvyn Roseman Leventhal, a Jewish civil rights lawyer. They were married on March 17, 1967 in New York City. Later that year the couple relocated to Jackson, Mississippi, becoming "the first legally married inter-racial couple in Mississippi". They were harassed and threatened by whites, including the Ku Klux Klan. The couple had a daughter Rebecca in 1969. Walker described her in 2008 as "a living, breathing, mixed-race embodiment of the new America that they were trying to forge." Walker and her husband divorced amicably in 1976. Walker and her daughter became estranged. Rebecca felt herself to be more of "a political symbol... than a cherished daughter". She published a memoir entitled Black White and Jewish, expressing the complexities of her parents' relationship and her childhood. Rebecca recalls her teenage years when her mother would retreat to her far-off writing studio while “I was left with money to buy my own meals and lived on a diet of fast food.” Since the birth of Rebecca’s son Tenzin, her mother has not spoken to her because she dared to “question her ideology.” Rebecca has learned that she was cut out of her mother’s will in favor of a distant cousin. In the mid-1990s, Walker was involved in a romance with singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman. In 2011 shooting began on Beauty in Truth, a documentary film about Walker's life directed by Pratibha Parmar. Walker's first book of poetry was written while she was a senior at Sarah Lawrence. She took a brief sabbatical from writing while working in Mississippi in the civil rights movement. Walker resumed her writing career when she joined Ms. magazine as an editor before moving to northern California in the late 1970s. Her 1975 article, In Search of Zora Neale Hurston, published on Ms Magazine, helped revive interest in the work of Zora Neale Hurston, who inspired Walker's writing and subject matter. In 1973, Walker and fellow Hurston scholar Charlotte D. Hunt discovered Hurston's unmarked grave in Ft. Pierce, Florida. The women collaborated to buy a modest headstone for the gravesite. In addition to her collected short stories and poetry, Walker's first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, was published in 1970. In 1976, Walker's second novel, Meridian, was published. The novel dealt with activist workers in the South during the civil rights movement, and closely paralleled some of Walker's own experiences. In 1982, Walker published what has become her best-known work, the novel The Color Purple. About a young troubled black woman fighting her way through not only racist white culture but also patriarchal black culture, it was a resounding commercial success. The book became a bestseller and was subsequently adapted into a critically acclaimed 1985 movie as well as a 2005 Broadway musical. Walker has written several other novels, including The Temple of My Familiar and Possessing the Secret of Joy (which featured several characters and descendants of characters from The Color Purple). She has published a number of collections of short stories, poetry, and other published work. She expresses the struggles of black people, particularly women, and their lives in a racist, sexist, and violent society. Her writings also focus on the role of women of color in culture and history. Walker is a respected figure in the liberal political community for her support of unconventional and unpopular views as a matter of principle. Her short stories include the 1973 Everyday Use, in which she discusses feminism, racism and the issues raised by young black people who leave home and lose respect for their parents' culture. In 2007, Walker gave her papers, 122 boxes of manuscripts and archive material, to Emory University's Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library. In addition to drafts of novels such as The Color Purple, unpublished poems and manuscripts, and correspondence with editors, the collection includes extensive correspondence with family members, friends and colleagues, an early treatment of the film script for The Color Purple, syllabi from courses she taught, and fan mail. The collection also contains a scrapbook of poetry compiled when Walker was 15, entitled "Poems of a Childhood Poetess". Selected awards and honors Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1983) for The Color Purple National Book Award for Fiction (1983) for The Color Purple O. Henry Award for "Kindred Spirits" 1985. Honorary Degree from the California Institute of the Arts (1995) American Humanist Association named her as "Humanist of the Year" (1997) The Lillian Smith Award from the National Endowment for the Arts The Rosenthal Award from the National Institute of Arts & Letters The Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, the Merrill Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship The Front Page Award for Best Magazine Criticism from the Newswoman's Club of New York Induction to the California Hall of Fame in The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts (2006) Domestic Human Rights Award from Global Exchange (2007) Alice Walker's Works: Novels and short story collections The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970) In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women (1973) The Color Purple (1982) You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories (1982) To Hell With Dying (1988) The Temple of My Familiar (1989) Finding the Green Stone (1991) Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992) The Complete Stories (1994) By The Light of My Father's Smile (1998) The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart (2000) Now Is The Time to Open Your Heart (2005) Everyday Use (1973) Short stories, essays, interviews Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems (1973) Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning (1979) Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful (1985) Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems (1991) Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth (2003) A Poem Traveled Down My Arm: Poems And Drawings (2003) Collected Poems (2005) Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: New Poems In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983) Living by the Word (1988) Warrior Marks (1993) The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult (1996) Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism (1997) Go Girl!: The Black Woman's Book of Travel and Adventure (1997) Pema Chodron and Alice Walker in Conversation (1999) Sent By Earth: A Message from the Grandmother Spirit After the Bombing of the World Trade Center and Pentagon (2001) We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For (2006) Overcoming Speechlessness (2010) This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia Alice Walker; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA. Alice Walker Poems Expect nothing. Live frugally On surprise. become a stranger To need of pity My desire is always the same; wherever Life deposits me: I want to stick my toe Be Nobody's Darling Be nobody's darling; Be an outcast. Take the contradictions Of your life I Will Keep Broken Things I will keep Broken Things: The big clay When they torture your mother plant a tree When they torture your father plant a tree Remember When we ended It all -for a weekend- She is the one who will notice that the first snapdragon of Spring A Picture Story For The Curious (You supply the pictures!) I get to meditate in a chair! Or against the wall with my legs Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit Did you ever understand this? If my spirit was poor, how could I enter heaven? Was I depressed? Understanding editing, When You See Water When you see water in a stream you say: oh, this is stream water; When you see water in the river Going Out To The Garden Going out to the garden this morning to plant seeds for my winter greens The Ways Of Water With your unknown to me Odd magic You came When the people have won a victory whether small or large If I Was President If I was President The first thing I would do is call Mumia Abu-Jamal. No, is always the same; wherever Life I want to stick my toe & soon my whole body into the water. I want to shake out a fat broom & sweep dried leaves

Sleepless in New Jersey. What if living out the dreams of your ancestors keeps you up at night? Growing up, I remember hearing stories about two of my great-grandfathers, both of whom left behind tradition in pursuit of the American dream. Grandpop Sam, my father's grandfather, was an avowed Capitalist, even as a child. So at the ripe old age of twelve, when Communism began to sweep through Eastern Europe, he left his entire family behind in Russia – along with his religious lifestyle – never to see either again. He arrived penniless and parentless, hardly knowing a word of English, and not a decade later graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. After graduation, he got married, opened a cigar factory, and was soon buying a new Cadillac for himself every two years. My mother's grandfather, Abraham, did not fare as well in America. Although he did everything in his power to provide for his family (including keeping his haberdashery open on the Sabbath), Grandpa Abraham died at 36 from leukemia, leaving behind his young wife and three children to struggle through unyielding financial hardship at the start of the Great Depression. Along the way, both of these great-grandfathers shed their Jewish observance in order to make a better life here in America. Three generations later, I was quite representative: upper middle class, assimilated, and living in Northern New Jersey. Our comfortable lifestyle was founded on our great-grandfathers' sacrifices. My father was a doctor. We had a pool in our backyard, a vacation house in the mountains, and we attended private school. My mom had us in more after-school activities than I can remember: dance, gymnastics, ice skating, tennis, baton twirling, piano lessons and Hebrew school, to name a few. On Saturday mornings we'd climb into bed with my parents for tickle-wars with my father, followed by a waffles-and-bacon breakfast prepared by mom. And we rarely missed our Thursday family night out for Chinese food. Despite all the wonderful things I had in my life, it occurred to me one day, at around the age of eight when I was well into collecting Garbage Pail Kid cards, though still regularly conducting Barbie weddings, that there was something enormous missing from my life. No, not a sense of fashion; everyone in the late 80's was wearing their hair big and tall, with rhinestone-studded baggy shirts, tight pants, and slouch socks. What I was missing, rather, was something profound and yet so basic:I didn't know why I was alive. This notion of infinity started messing with my little eight year old brain. This realization was brought on by a discussion my father and I were having about infinity. He was trying to explain that not only do numbers go on forever, but that there's also an infinite amount of space between every integer. We then started talking about how the universe has no end either. (One might wonder why a father would burden his young child with such knotty concepts, but my dad is a natural born numbers guy who hadn't a clue at the time how his seemingly harmless banter would come to wreak havoc on my psyche.) This notion of infinity started messing with my little eight year old brain, and I began staying up at night, trying to wrap my head around these concepts. Then a tragic event exacerbated my worries about infinity and launched me into years of insomnia, panic attacks, and existential angst. As the story was retold in whispers by my classmates on a cold December morning of my 4th grade year, my schoolmate Angela's father had gone crazy the night before. Thinking he was going to die, he decided to take his kids along with him. Angela's mother came home later that evening to find her whole family dead at her husband's hand. Now, I grew up in a sleepy suburban town where things like this just didn't happen. So when something like this did happen, I was forced to confront the fact that I too could die at any moment, and that life was not nearly as stable and predictable as I had always assumed. This got me thinking about the eternity of death -- how I'd be either somewhere or nowhere forever. Then I realized something even more disturbing: I had no idea what I was supposed to do with the time I'd been given before I had to confront that unknown eternity. I approached my parents one day -- I was almost nine -- and casually asked, "Why are we here?" "Where?" they responded, sharing quizzical looks. "You know," I persisted, "living. What are we here for?" While most parents probably dread the day their kid asks them "where did I come from," my parents would have gladly discussed some birds and bees with me at that moment to avoid the philosophical Pandora's Box I had just opened. "Um," is about all they could muster in response My parents were the ones who brought me into this world. How could they not know what they were doing in it? Their inability to answer my question upset and surprised me. They were the ones who brought me into this world. How could they not know what they were doing in it? It seemed irresponsible of them to have gotten me tangled up in this mess of existence when they hadn't bothered to figure it out for themselves yet. Desperately, I began asking other people this question -- friends, family, teachers, anyone who might have a clue. But no one seemed able to answer what I had assumed to be a very basic question. Eventually I came to think that life was not much more than people staying so busy that they never had time to consider what they were staying so busy for in the first place. But I was never able to keep myself distracted for very long. During the day, when I was tied up with school or other activities, I could push away the big questions that haunted me. But late at night, when all the noise was gone and I was left alone with my thoughts, I was tortured. Why did the day I just lived even matter? Why should I bother waking up tomorrow to do it all over again? I never once considered the possibility that there simply was no purpose. The world seemed too detailed and complex, human beings too full of talent and abilities, to have it all be used for nothing. But each day that passed without finding an answer brought me one day closer to the end, and I was painfully aware that once my time ran out, I would get no more. Over the next eight years, I would suffer from off-and-on insomnia and panic attacks. I would get a nauseous, empty feeling in the pit of my stomach as my mind would fixate on the fact that there was no way of escaping the eternity that awaited me. I would repeat over and over again to myself, "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God" until someone (usually my older sister) would pull me out of my state. It was around junior year of high school that I took a class called "Taoism and Pirkei Avot" at the local twice-a-week Hebrew high school. Pirkei Avot ("Ethics of the Fathers") didn't promise to be too interesting, but getting to study Taosim seemed exotic and exciting. My teacher, tall and lanky, wore a ying-yang ring and a yarmulke. A young, approachable observant Jew, he showed us that Pirkei Avot was similar to the Tao Te Ching, and at the same time distinctly profound and relevant. We were a motley crew of teenagers searching for something deeper, studying and discussing some of Judaism's thoughtful wisdom. For the first time I understood that my heritage had more to offer than good food, humor, and guilt. Soon after the semester wrapped up, my family took a winter break trip to Hawaii. We stayed right by the shore in Maui for a week, and my father -- good old numbers guy -- told me to listen to the waves. So I did. I listened in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening. I listened to them when I went to sleep, and when I woke up the next day I heard them again. It occurred to me that waves had never stopped crashing. I ran to my father to announce my discovery. He looked at me as if I had gone mad. "Waves don't stop. So what?" But I challenged him to do the math, and we figured out that if the world was a million years old, the waves on that shore would have crashed 10 to 12 trillion times, without once ever stopping. And not just on that one shore – but on countless shores across the planet. And then it hit me: If I had spent 16 years taking something so profound for granted, I must be missing so much more. I spent the rest of my vacation trying to appreciate the natural world like I never had before. But it wasn't until the last day of the trip that my life would change forever. My family and I were hiking through a breathtaking tropical rainforest called the Road to Hanna (where Jurassic Park was filmed). In the middle of the hike, we came upon some bamboo shoots whose bark was covered in green and gold vertical stripes "Did someone paint these on here?" I wondered aloud. Everyone in my family had an opinion on the matter. Some said painted, some said natural, but my father came over to settle the confusion. "These lines are too straight and flawless to be natural," he assured us. But when I looked up, I saw that the shoots towered over us 50 feet in the sky, with stripes all the way to the top. "Wow," I muttered to myself, "God has quite a paintbrush." I took a few more steps and shook off the wonder of the moment, only to stop in front of the most incredible tree I've ever seen. It had a smooth bark, lavender background, and was covered in pink, blue, and green swirls. There was no doubt in my mind: Some nutty artist was painting the trees in this forest. It was the only thing that made sense. But when my mother told me to look up, I saw that the color continued to the top of the trunk. And for a brief moment, it was as though I understood the entire universe. The best way I've been able to describe my experience is that I had a moment of clarity during which I tapped into a greater sense of harmony in existence. And in an instant I went from intense doubting to intense belief in God. I doubted -- in all of New Jersey's ugliness -- if I'd ever experience such transcendence again. The nauseous, empty feeling that used to occur in the pit of my stomach as I'd contemplate my own demise was suddenly filled with warmth and light. What I realized in that moment was that from every comet to every caterpillar, every thing in the universe was in its exact right place and time, including me and my life. Of course, I was petrified to leave Hawaii. I doubted -- in all of New Jersey's ugliness -- if I'd ever experience such transcendence again. But when I got back home and continued on with my Jewish studies, I began to understand that it is not occasional moments of spirituality that provide a sense of meaning and purpose. Yes, those moments give us inspiration and often point us in the right direction. But it is through day-to-day study and observance that a person builds a lasting connection with that awesome force that I tapped into in the forest in Hawaii. My great-grandfathers sacrificed everything to pursue the American Dream. Three generations later, I retraced a path back to their Jewish roots and returned to a place of tradition and observance that had been all but forgotten within my family. I learned that everyday actions can transcend our transient lives, and connect us to something greater and more permanent. Now I live my life with that knowledge, which has finally -- and thankfully -- put my mind at rest.

Speakers, Panelists, and Moderators Lisa Anderson was appointed president of the American University in Cairo in January 2011. A specialist on politics in the Middle East and North Africa, Anderson served as the university’s provost from 2008 to 2010. As the chief academic officer, she was responsible for shaping and implementing AUC’s academic vision and building the size and quality of the faculty. Prior to joining AUC in 2008, Anderson was James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations at Columbia University and is the former dean of the School of International and Public Affairs. She also served as the chair of the political science department at Columbia and as director of Columbia’s Middle East Institute. Before joining the Columbia faculty, she was assistant professor of government and social studies at Harvard University. Anderson is the author of Pursuing Truth, Exercising Power: Social Science and Public Policy in the Twenty-first Century (Columbia University Press, 2003), The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1830-1980 (Princeton University Press, 1986), editor of Transitions to Democracy (Columbia University Press, 1999) and coeditor of The Origins of Arab Nationalism (Columbia 1991). Arjun Appadurai is Goddard Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Public Knowledge. Professor Appadurai formerly served as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at The New School. He has held professorial chairs at Yale University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania, and has held visiting appointments at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), the University of Michigan, the University of Iowa, Columbia University, and New York University. Professor Appadurai is the founder and now the President of PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research), a non-profit organization based in and oriented to the city of Mumbai (India). He is the author of many books and articles. His most recent book is Fear of Small Numbers: An Essay on the Geography of Anger (2006). Jorge Balán was recently appointed a Senior Research Scholar within the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University, working with Columbia’s Global Centers and the Institute for Latin American Studies. Previously he was an Adjunct Professor with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto and a Senior Researcher with CEDES, in Buenos Aires. A sociologist and international education expert trained in Argentina and the United States, Dr. Balán served as a Senior Program Officer with The Ford Foundation between 1998 and 2006, developing a higher education research and public policy initiative in the U.S. and internationally. Before joining Ford, Dr. Balán was a full professor at the University of Buenos Aires, held visiting professorships at many Latin American and U.S. universities, and was awarded postdoctoral fellowships with the Social Science Research Council and the John S. Guggenheim Foundation. He has published extensively on issues of urbanization, rural-to-urban migration, and the sociology of professions, higher education, and philanthropy. His most recent book is World Class Worldwide: Transforming Research Universities in Asia and Latin America (with Phillip G. Altbach). Ahmed Bawa is vice-chancellor and principal of the Durban University of Technology in South Africa. Dr. Bawa is a theoretical physicist who, until August 2010, was a faculty member of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Hunter College and a member of the doctoral faculty at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Previously, he held the position of deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Natal and then of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He has served as the program officer for higher education at the Ford Foundation, where he led and coordinated the foundation’s African Higher Education Initiative. He served on a number of policy development teams in the post-1994 period in the areas of Science and Technology and Higher Education. He served as a researcher for the National Commission on Higher Education and was an inaugural member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation till 2002—a body that was established to advise the South African cabinet on science and technology matters. Jamshed Bharucha is the 12th president of the Cooper Union, as of July 1, 2011. He was previously provost and senior vice president of Tufts University since August 2002. Dr. Bharucha is a pioneer in studying how the brain responds to music. At Tufts, he created the University Seminar, a course that brings together faculty, undergraduates, and graduate students from multiple schools to focus on an issue of societal importance. Working with the International Board of Overseers, he launched a strategy of engagement with Mexico, India and China, establishing partnerships that serve students and faculty, connecting with international alumni, and promoting Tufts overseas. Before joining Tufts, Dr. Bharucha spent his academic career at Dartmouth College, where he was the John Wentworth Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and dean of faculty among other leadership positions. At Dartmouth, Dr. Bharucha was instrumental in launching the first MRI-based program in cognitive neuroscience. As an outstanding teacher he received the Huntington Teaching Award in 1989 and the Undergraduate Teaching Initiative Special Award in 1992. He served as editor of the interdisciplinary journal, Music Perception, was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in 1993-94, and from 1991 to 1999 Dr. Bharucha served as a trustee of Vassar College. As a psychologist who studies cognitive neuroscience and music perception, Dr. Bharucha's research has focused on the cognitive and neural basis of the perception of music, using perceptual experiments, neural net modeling, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Henry S. Bienen is president emeritus of Northwestern University. He was elected the 15th president of Northwestern University on June 13, 1994, took office on January 1, 1995 and retired as president on August 31, 2009. A nationally recognized leader in higher education, President Bienen, led Northwestern to increased academic prominence, financial strength and athletic success. During his tenure, Northwestern faculty and students received numerous academic awards, the endowment quintupled, applications for admission skyrocketed and the University's reputation grew both nationally and internationally. He was one of the first three university presidents awarded the Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Award for innovative leadership in higher education. President Bienen is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, serving on the executive committee and chairing the nominating and governance committee. Previously, Dr. Bienen was the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Peter Brooks is Sterling Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus at Yale University and currently Andrew W. Mellon Visiting Foundation Scholar in the department of Comparative Literature and the Center for Human Values at Princeton University. He previously taught in the department of English and the School of Law at the University of Virginia, and has been a visiting professor at Harvard University, the University of Texas, Austin, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Bologna, and the Georgetown University Law Center, and a visiting scholar at Stanford Law School. In 2001-2002, he was Eastman Professor at Oxford University and a Fellow of Balliol College. Among his many accomplishments is the establishment of the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University. Brooks is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work cuts across French and English literature, law, and psychoanalysis. He has published books on narrative and narrative theory, on the 19th- and 20th-century novel (mainly French and English), and, more recently, on the interrelations of law and literature. His books include Enigmas of Identity (2011), Henry James Goes to Paris (2007), Realist Vision (2005), Troubling Confessions: Speaking Guilt in Law and Literature (2000). He co-edited, with Paul Gewirtz, Law’s Stories (1996) and, with Alex Woloch, Whose Freud? (2000). He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Comparative Literature and Yale Journal of Law & Humanities. His essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, New Republic, Times Literary Supplement, The Nation, London Review of Books, Critical Inquiry, New Literary History, and Yale Law Journal. Jonathan Cole is the John Mitchell Mason Professor of the University and provost and dean of faculties emeritus at Columbia University. For 14 years, from 1989 to 2003, he served as provost and dean of faculties at Columbia, the second longest tenure of a provost in the university's 250-year history. Before becoming provost at Columbia, he was the director of the Center for the Social Sciences from 1979 to 1987, when he became vice president for arts and sciences. In recent years, his scholarly attention has turned to issues in higher education, particularly the problems facing the great American research universities. In 2010, his book The Great American University: Its Rise To Preeminence, Its Indispensable National Role, Why It Must Be Protected examines U.S. universities in the current economic crisis as a national resource and a model of innovation that ought to be used to help solve complex economic, social, scientific, technological, security, and medical problems throughout the world. He also edited (with Elinor Barber and Stephen R. Graubard) The Research University in a Time of Discontent (1994, Johns Hopkins University Press), a collection of essays by prominent educators, including his own opening chapter, "Balancing Acts: Dilemmas of Choice Facing Research Universities." Andrew Delbanco is Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities and Director of American Studies at Columbia University. He is winner of the 2006 Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates, is the author of Melville: His World and Work (Knopf, 2005), which won the Lionel Trilling Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award in biography. The Death of Satan (1995), Required Reading: Why Our American Classics Matter Now (1997), and The Real American Dream (1999) were named notable books by the editors of The New York Times Book Review. The Puritan Ordeal (1989) won the Lionel Trilling Award. Among his edited books are Writing New England (2001), The Portable Abraham Lincoln (1992), volume two of The Sermons of Ralph Waldo Emerson (with Teresa Toulouse), and, with Alan Heimert, The Puritans in America (1985). Andrew Delbanco's essays appear regularly in The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, Raritan, and other journals, on topics ranging from American literary and religious history to contemporary issues in higher education. In 2001, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and named by Time Magazine as "America's Best Social Critic." In 2003, he was named New York State Scholar of the Year by the New York Council for the Humanities. Professor Delbanco has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and was a member of the inaugural class of fellows at the New York Public Library Center for Scholars and Writers. He is a trustee of the National Humanities Center and the Library of America, and has served as Vice President of PEN American Center. Since 1995 he has held the Julian Clarence Levi Professor Chair in the Humanities at Columbia University. John A. Douglass is a senior research fellow for public policy and higher education at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) of the University of California at Berkeley. He is the co-editor of Globalization’s Muse: Universities and Higher Education Systems in a Changing World (Public Policy Press, 2009), and the author of The Conditions for Admissions (Stanford Press 2007) and The California Idea and American Higher Education (Stanford University Press, 2000; published in Chinese in 2008 and will be available in Japanese in 2012). Current research interests are focused on comparative international higher education, including the influence of globalization, the role of universities in economic development, science policy as a component of national and multinational economic policy, strategic issues related to developing mass higher education, and he leads and international project assessing the student experience in major research universities. He founded and leads the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium, a group of major research universities in the USA, China, Brazil, and Europe that are developing new data sources and analysis for improving student academic and civic engagement. He is also the editor of the CSHE Research and Occasional Paper Series (ROPS), sits on the editorial board of a number of international higher education journals in Europe, China, and Russia, and is on the international advisory board of a several higher education institutes. He has been a visiting professor at Amsterdam University College (a unit of the University of Amsterdam and Vrije University of Amsterdam), at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil), at Sciences Po (Paris) and a visiting research fellow at the Oxford Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (OxCHEPS). Recent scholarly publications include articles in BOOM: California Policy and Politics, Higher Education Policy and Management (OECD), Higher Education Policy, Inside Higher Education, Perspectives (UK), Change Magazine, California Monthly, Minerva, The Journal of Policy History, California Politics and Policy, History of Education Quarterly, The American Behavioral Scientists, and the European Journal of Education. Visit the CSHE website for more information. James J. Duderstadt was elected president of the University of Michigan in 1988 and served in this role until July 1996. He currently holds a university-wide faculty appointment as University Professor of Science and Engineering, co-chairing the Michigan’s program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy and directing the Millennium Project, a research center exploring the impact of over-the-horizon technologies on society. Before his appointment as president, Dr. Duderstadt was professor (dean in 1981) of the College of Engineering and, in 1986 provost and vice president for academic affairs. Professor Duderstadt currently serves on several major national boards and study commissions in areas such as federal science policy, higher education, information technology, energy sciences, and national security including the NSF’s Advisory Committee on Cyberinfrastructure, the Glion Colloquium (Switzerland), and the Intelligence Science Board. Daniel Fallon is professor emeritus of psychology and professor emeritus of public policy at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he had served as vice president for academic affairs and provost. Previously, Professor Fallon supervised grant making at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, where he was chair of the Education Division. He has also held appointments as dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado at Denver, and associate dean of the Harpur College of Arts and Sciences at Binghamton University. Dr. Fallon has published widely on learning and motivation, academic public policy, and comparative higher education. He is the author of a prize-winning book, The German University: A Heroic Ideal in Conflict with the Modern World (1980). Matthew Goldstein has served as chancellor of The City University of New York (CUNY) since September 1999. He is the first CUNY graduate (City College, Class of 1963) to lead the nation’s most prominent urban public university, which comprises 24 colleges and professional schools throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Dr. Goldstein has served in senior academic and administrative positions for more than 30 years, including president of Baruch College, president of the Research Foundation, and acting vice chancellor for academic affairs of CUNY. Prior to being named chancellor, he was president of Adelphi University. He has held faculty positions in mathematics and statistics at Baruch College, the CUNY Graduate School and University Center, Polytechnic University of New York, Cooper Union, Eastern Connecticut State University, and the University of Connecticut. He is the co-author of three books: Discrete Discriminant Analysis, published by John Wiley & Sons in 1978; Intermediate Statistical Methods and Applications, published by Prentice Hall in 1983; and Multivariate Analysis, published by John Wiley & Sons in 1984. In addition, he has written many articles for leading scholarly publications in mathematics and statistics. Currently, Dr. Goldstein is a member of the Board of Trustees of the JP Morgan Funds and the Museum of Jewish Heritage. He is also a member of the Business-Higher Education Forum, as well as a director of the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education, ex officio. By appointment of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, he is co-chair of the New York City Regional Economic Development Council. He previously served as chair of the 2010 New York City Charter Revision Commission at the appointment of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Dr. Goldstein is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. Among his honors are the 2011 Association for a Better New York "Spirit of ABNY" Award, the 2010 New York Building Congress Leadership Award, the 2009 Manhattan Chamber of Commerce New Yorker of the Year Award, the 2009 YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2007 Carnegie Corporation of New York's Academic Leadership Award, the 2005 John H. Finley Award, the 2005 Medal of Honor "Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class," the 2002 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and the 2000 Townsend Harris Medal. Neil Grabois is former President of Colgate University and former dean, provost, and chair of the department of mathematical sciences of Williams College. He was the 13th president of Colgate and served in that position for 11 years. Today, he is the dean of the Milano School for International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School for Public Engagement in New York City. After leaving Colgate, he served as vice chair of the Carnegie Corporation in New York, and he currently sits on the boards of Swarthmore College, the Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women, and the Michael Wolk Heart Foundation. Vijay Kumar is Assistant Provost and Director of Academic Computing at MIT. Through these roles he influences the Institute's strategic focus on educational technology and promotes the effective integration of information technology in MIT education. Vijay provides strategic leadership for units engaged in delivering infrastructure and services to support educational technology activities at MIT: Academic Computing in Information Systems and Technology as well as the Academic Media Production Services (AMPS). S. Parasuraman is an anthropologist by training and received his professional education from International Institute for Population Sciences, Bombay, India Institute of Technology, and Institute of Social Studies. He is currently a professor of social sciences at the Tata Institute of Social Science. Dr. Parasuraman was deputy national director of Oxfam in India from 1995 to 1997. He has written extensively on the subjects of development, displacement, resettlement, and rehabilitation, and has been associated with the Namada Movement since 1987. He was recenlty a member of the Prime Minister's Committee to review the Tehri Hydroelectric project in India. Alan Ryan is author of biographies of John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell, and John Dewey. He teaches at Princeton University. He was previously warden of New College and a professor of politics at the University of Oxford. Ryan is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, and the Times Literary Supplement. David Scobey, executive dean of The New School for Public Engagement, is a national leader in developing innovative methods to engage higher education institutions with communities outside the academy. He was director of Bates College's Harward Center, an academic center that brought together community-based learning and research, co-curricular work, and environmental stewardship. He was founding director of the University of Michigan's Arts of Citizenship program, an initiative to integrate civic engagement with the liberal arts. He serves on the boards of Project Pericles and Bringing Theory to Practice, a project linking learning, civic engagement, and student wellbeing. David's scholarship explores politics, culture, and space in 19th-century America, particularly New York City. He taught for 16 years at the University of Michigan, where he earned tenure. He holds a PhD in American studies as well as an MA and BA from Yale. David E. Van Zandt is the eighth President of The New School. He is a sociologist, attorney, and visionary in higher education with a record of distinguished academic leadership spanning three decades. President Van Zandt came to The New School from Northwestern University School of Law, one of the top-rated law schools in the nation, where he was dean from 1995 until 2010. Under his leadership, Northwestern Law transformed its approaches to admissions, education, and social engagement. President Van Zandt, who holds a PhD in sociology from the London School of Economics, continues to lecture and contribute to professional and scholarly journals. He is a past president of the American Law Deans Association and has published articles and written and presented papers on the regulation of international financial markets, the sociology of religion and deviance, social theory (in particular the microsociological aspects of law), the economics of common sense, and more recently legal education. An expert in corporate law, international finance, and legal education, President Van Zandt has taught courses in International Financial Markets, Business Associations, Property, Practical Issues in Business Law, and Legal Realism. Robert J. Zimmer became the 13th President of the University of Chicago in 2006. Prior to his appointment as President, Zimmer was a University of Chicago faculty member and administrator for more than two decades specializing in the mathematical fields of geometry, particularly ergodic theory, Lie groups, and differential geometry. As a University of Chicago administrator, Zimmer served as Chairman of the Mathematics Department, Deputy Provost, and Vice President for Research and for Argonne National Laboratory. He also served as Provost at Brown University from 2002-2006, returning to Chicago in 2006 to become President of the University. As President of the University, he serves as Chair of the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory and Chair of the Board of Directors of Fermi Research Alliance LLC, the operator of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He also served on the President's Committee on the National Medal of Science from 2008 to 2010, and is on the executive committee of the Council on Competitiveness. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. President Zimmer is the author of two books, Ergodic Theory and Semisimple Groups (1984) and Essential Results of Functional Analysis (1990), and more than 80 mathematical research articles. He served on the Board of Mathematical Sciences of the National Research Council from 1992 to 1995, and was on the executive committee from 1993 to 1995. Zimmer held the title of Max Mason Distinguished Service Professor of Mathematics at Chicago before leaving for Brown, where he was the Ford Foundation Professor of Mathematics in addition to being Provost. President Zimmer earned his A.B., summa cum laude, from Brandeis University in 1968 and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard University in 1975. He joined the Chicago faculty as an L.E. Dickson Instructor of Mathematics in 1977. He was also on the faculty of the U.S. Naval Academy from 1975 to 1977 and has held visiting positions at Harvard University and at institutions in Israel, France, Australia, Switzerland, and Italy. About the Director Arien Mack, the Alfred and Monette Marrow Professor of Psychology at The New School for Social Research, has been the editor of Social Research since 1970 and is the founder and director of the Social Research conference series and all other Social Research projects. She teaches and manages a research laboratory investigating visual perception. Her publications include more than 60 articles, a book, Inattentional Blindness (1998), and three edited volumes (issues of Social Research republished as books by university presses): Death and the American Experience (1973), Technology and the Rest of Culture (1997), and Humans and Other Animals (1995). For information about how you can support the Center for Public Scholarship, contact Dr. Mack at email@example.com.

Israel at 64 As Israel celebrates her 64th Independence Day, those who care about Israel are confronted by some very troubling statistics just released about anti-Semitism in Europe. A recent study undertaken by the German-based Friedrich Ebert Foundation found that anti-Semitic criticism of Israel comes close to majority support in most European countries. I fear that these concerns could ultimately hold true in America as well. What counts as anti-Semitic criticism of Israel? According to Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet political prisoner who knows a thing or two about persecution: when Israel is demonized, when Israel is delegitimized, and when a double-standard is used to assess Israeli behavior. We hear these attacks on Israel more and more, from protesters on college campuses to flotillas and flytillas. Somehow, labeling something as critical of Israel often whitewashes what is really anti-Semitic, and legitimizes views that would otherwise be unacceptable. While such protests are couched in terms of justice and universal rights, this is often just a bait and switch. Many of these “peace” activists are not advocating for social change in Israel or a peaceful solution where Israel and her neighbors can coexist together; they want to see the end of Israel as we know it, regardless of the consequences. Those who truly do care about justice and rights need to make clear that calling for the end of Israel is anti-Semitism plain and simple, and should not be tolerated by the civilized world in any guise. After 64 years, while grappling with significant challenges, Israel is a remarkable country with a vibrant high tech economy, world-class universities and medical centers, and full individual freedoms for all her citizens – all on a parcel of land about the size of New Jersey in a not-so-friendly neighborhood. She has provided a home for Jews after the Holocaust and a haven for Jewish refugees from around the world ever since. Israel is also a true friend of the United States, a partner in the war on terrorism, and a beacon for our country’s ideals because we share the same core values. At a time when we hear calls for Israel’s destruction, from terrorist groups and from an Iran on the verge of obtaining nuclear capability, it is important to remember that anti-Semitism is still alive today – and the next target after Israel is “The Great Satan”, the United States. We must remain vigilant against those who call for Israel’s destruction, for a strong Israel is in the interest of America and Americans. At this time, we all should celebrate Israel’s independence and achievements, and look forward to more success and an even brighter future. Israel Independence Day is celebrated this year on Wednesday evening, April 25 and Thursday, April 26. Israel Remembrance Day is commemorated the day before. Joe Hollander is the President of the Jewish Federation of Monmouth County. The Jewish Federation is the Jewish community’s central address for addressing critical needs, advocacy, and philanthropy. For more information visit www.JewishMonmouth.org.

James Carroll has won admiration and gratitude from many for Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews, his landmark work examining the historic role of the Catholic church in fostering anti-Semitism. In it, he argues unsparingly that the ground for the Holocaust was richly seeded by centuries of church indoctrination that demonized Jews as being collectively guilty for killing Christ. Carroll has also written sympathetically of the importance of Israel as a Jewish homeland and refuge. All the more perplexing, then, that in numerous opinion pieces in the Boston Globe, this thoughtful writer has missed or distorted vital information about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Perhaps most inexplicable, given the writer's awareness of the lethal impact of the inculcation of hatred against Jews in Europe, is his apparent refusal to credit Palestinian hate-indoctrination as the underlying cause of the savage attacks against Jews in Israel. Instead, readers are offered platitudes such as his claim that "Palestinian terrorism is rooted, above all, in the economic hopelessness of millions of impoverished and dispossessed Palestinians..." (September 2001) Carroll is evidently unwilling to hold accountable the Palestinian Authority, which from its inception has stoked anti-Jewish hatred through schools, media, mosques, summer camps and political rallies that have painted Jews as alien, thieving conquerors, to be driven out or destroyed. The calamitous outcome is a population energized to kill a dehumanized foe. Carroll minimizes Palestinian enthusiasm for terrorism. In the same vein, Carroll minimizes Palestinian enthusiasm for terrorism. In a June 2003 column devoted almost entirely to Palestinian grievances -- including his observation that "destruction of trees can be almost as shocking as assaults on human life" -- he asserted that "a mere fraction of the Palestinian population" supports terrorism. Yet a respected Palestinian polling agency, the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, just weeks earlier had found a substantial majority of 59.9% of Palestinians supported suicide bombings "against Israeli civilians." How, one wonders, is it possible for Mr. Carroll to confront the Catholic church for its action but to deny virulent hate-mongering by the PA? In other instances, Carroll's opinion pieces are marred by surprising misinformation that tilts against Israel. For instance, on February 17, 2004 in a column datelined "Jerusalem," he described Israel's security fence as "a high cement barrier that will run hundreds of miles..." and that "veers far from the original 1967 border in numerous places... a repudiation of the hope for a negotiated resolution to the conflict over territory." Wrong on multiple counts, he included a correction of the first statement in his next column. It read: "In my column on Feb. 17, I referred to the barrier between Israel and the West Bank as a 'high cement barrier that will run hundreds of miles...' As readers pointed out to me, the cement portion of the wall/fence will not run the whole distance. Barbed wire will also be used." This unworthy "correction" does not, of course, make clear that Israel's barrier includes only a few miles of concrete wall -- less than 3% of the total when completed -- and that concrete is being used only at those points close to Palestinian towns where gunmen have shot at civilians driving in Israel on Israeli roads. Mr. Carroll did not correct the other error at all -- a serious one he has made repeatedly, regarding what he terms the "original 1967 border." (A May 2002 column devoted to assailing Israel for allegedly "dissolving" its eastern "border" also referred to the "vestigial 'green line,' the borders of 1967.") But the 1967 lines are not a border. After the 1947-48 war, the Arabs refused to recognize Israel, and insisted the boundaries were only ceasefire lines, and this remained their legal status. The eastern borders of Israel are yet to be decided. Moreover, UN Resolution 242, the foundation stone of Arab-Israeli negotiations, explicitly avoided requiring an Israeli retreat to the 1967 lines, its drafters believing those were indefensible. In addition, Israel's fence can, of course, be moved, and its construction hardly constitutes a repudiation of a negotiated settlement, as Carroll claims. In numerous other assertions about Israel, the writer falls prey to rote accusation -- that Ariel Sharon and settlements are the problem, and that Israel has used "overwhelming force," "collective punishment" and "extrajudicial assassination." In a characteristic statement just weeks after the 2002 massacre of innocents on Pesach and the launch of Operation Defensive Shield, Carroll declared that "Israeli incursions into the West Bank have been irrational and counterproductive..." Undoubtedly, James Carroll favors the defense of Jewish life by the sovereign state of Israel just as he eloquently lamented its vast loss during the millennia of Jewish statelessness. At the same time, however, he attacks Israel for whatever means it uses to defend its people in the current terror war. Carroll would prefer, no doubt, that a solution come about by Israel again offering Camp David-style concessions and the Palestinians this time reciprocating with genuine peace. But the Palestinians, under the Palestinian Authority, have overwhelmingly and brutally rejected that course. In placing the onus on Israel for the ongoing violence and characterizing as illegitimate its efforts at defense, the writer does a disservice to Israel no less unfair than the anti-Jewish campaigns of the past he commendably criticizes. Courtesy of www.camera.org

by Angana Chatterji Not in our name. The cry reverberates across the United States, as thousands demonstrate their dissent against a US war with Iraq. Republicans, Democrats, Greens, trade unionists, left, right, centre, students, Muslims, Native Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, Jews, African Americans, Buddhists, Jains, European Americans, gay, lesbian, transgender people, Christians, refugees, artists, white and blue collar workers, the homeless and the working poor, atheists, Hindus, Sikhs, Bahais, government workers, small business owners, musicians, writers, goddess worshippers, dock workers, teachers, reporters say "not in our name." Is the US government’s impending war with Iraq connected to weapons inspections? Not long ago, this war was marketed as a response to Iraq’s assistance to Al Qaeda. The impulse for war shifted as the US government insisted that Iraq be attacked for amassing weapons of mass destruction while refusing to allow weapons inspection. Following Iraq’s agreement to unconditional inspection, the latest reason for war is simply Saddam Hussein. The decision to attack Iraq remains steadfast, the justification is refabricated. While critical issues of oil supply from an increasingly distressed Saudi Arabia and deflated Iraq remain, perhaps more important domestic reasons power the US government’s decision for this war. The nation’s gigantic military industrial complex requires continual conflict to legitimate its immense costs and flex its power. It corrupts decency, condones the death of innocent children, women and men. US sanctions have already killed close to 500,000 children in Iraq, a reasonable price to pay for protecting the free world, we are told. Inhumanity must not become a nation’s legacy. Americans, the people of the US, are being asked to name their enemies, but not what prompts such hostility. The people of the US are being asked to overlook the legacies of colonisation, irresponsible globalisation and militarisation that have brutalised people the world over. They are asked to support the sanctity of oil in determining policies connected to West Asia, but not question why relations with Saudi Arabia remain "normal" while the US prepares to attack Iraq again. Americans are told that to oppose the Israeli government’s oppression of Palestinian peoples is anti-Semitic. They are asked to not make distinctions between the Jewish people and the Israeli state, just as they are asked to not make distinctions between the US government and its people. Since when have "the people" become their state? The corporate media and an arrogant government ask Americans to overlook the history of US support of dictatorships that have fomented violent regimes in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Disturbingly too, the war against terrorism is increasingly confused with a prevailing worldwide contempt for Islam, enabling the bigoted misinterpretation of Muslims as monolithic and violent across differences of nation, class, politics, gender, race and culture. Afghanistan, post-Taliban, is in ruins as the US and the international community fail to provide adequate security and resources for her reconstruction, strengthening regional warlords and disabling Afghanistan’s new government. The failure of human rights, the violation of women, the disenfranchisement of returning refugees continue. Such practice dishonours the commitment to fight terrorism. Peace remains elusive because of a paucity of commitment to justice. Within the framework of the campaign against terrorism, the executive arm of the US has increased its powers of surveillance and interrogation, and expanded provisions of detention. This erodes the scope of public scrutiny and the process of law, while narrowing civil liberties. Extending similar jurisdiction to allied states, the US and the European Union have remained silent on Russian mistreatment in Chechnya. Egypt, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Malaysia have systematically stilled their commitments to democracy and secularism. China has attempted to use the campaign against terror to justify its repression of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang, including Muslim minorities and peace advocates. The Government of India introduced the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance, a modified security law that empowers the government to torture and detain minority groups and political opponents alleged to engage in terrorism. Governments worldwide, post-9/11, have utilised law and order to subjugate opposition in the guise of fighting terrorism. The question what produces and defines terror is not asked, it is consecrated to the custody of the state. It is of grave concern that democratic dissent and free speech are increasingly languaged as anti-national where "traitors" must be disciplined. The US citizenry is asked for an abiding loyalty to a government that has shown no accountability. The attempt is to infantalise Americans into silence. They are either for the ruler or against him. Democratic processes are dispensed with while asserting a unilateral right to invade other nations, to make regime changes, to violate international law. Such hubris, as history reveals, accompanies imperial power. Meanwhile, the other war of impoverishment and disenfranchisement continues in the US. The shrinking wages of the American working class, the increasing disrepair of rural life, escalating costs of living in urban areas, single mothers without jobs that pay, children without health care, schools without textbooks, women and men that cannot afford a college education. Young African American men fill the prisons — casualties of institutionalised racism. Countless Vietnam veterans, hated by the right for losing and the left for fighting, are homeless. Native Americans, on whose genocide this nation was built, are forced into brutal dispossession as the state systematically dishonours treaties made with native nations. In a country of 288 million people, 35.6 million people live below the poverty level. Environmental pollution, endangered wildlife, nuclear tests, sweatshops, toxic spills, gang wars, hunger, rising diseases. Well kept secrets? The national economy is failing, foreign debt is about $2.5 trillion, workers are being indiscriminately discharged under circumstances that underscore corporate irresponsibility. This too is life at the centre of the empire. There are no plans for atonement. Ever vigorous trade and war with an expanding number of peoples and countries will not resolve internal crises. It is a tired strategy that only compounds the disarray. The horrors of September 11 have jolted the national fabric. Hopefully, its legacy is the awakening of new forms of American citizenship — pro-active, pro-conscience, and affirmative of a global commitment to human rights predicated on social justice. In the centre of the empire named the United States of America, the people are taking it to the streets. Angana Chatterji is a professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. http://www.ciis.edu/faculty/chatterji.htm

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Piling On: The New York Times and Israel In last week's run-up to the U.N. General Assembly theatre of the absurd, The New York Times could hardly restrain itself. Fulminating about what was best for Israel, it repeatedly berated the Jewish state and Prime Minister Netanyahu for not acceding to its editor's wishes. The fusillade began on September 11. The Times graciously conceded that Israel and the Palestinian Authority shared blame for the breakdown in peace talks. But "we put the greater onus" on Prime Minister Netanyahu, "who has used any excuse to thwart peace efforts." Netanyahu's acceptance last year of the Palestinian demand for a ten-month settlement freeze was ignored. The Palestinian Authority responded by refusing to negotiate. With time expiring, it demanded a three-month extension -- which Netanyahu, once burned, wisely refused. Nonetheless, the Times editorial praised the "moderate" Palestinian leadership and called upon Congress to "lean on" Netanyahu. Another critical editorial followed three days later. Referring to the special election in a heavily Jewish New York district in which a congressional seat held by Democrats for nearly a century went Republican, the Times rejected any notion that the stunning result marked a repudiation of President Obama's strong-arming of Israel. The president's support for the Jewish state, the editorial blithely asserted, "has never wavered." Yet Netanyahu, the Times's favorite piñata, was likely to read the election as support for his own intransigent refusal to compromise with the Palestinians, thereby disregarding "Israel's own security." The "intractable" prime minister, after all, had been busy "building settlements." If only. Such temerity: Jews living in their ancient homeland! Four days later, in the Sunday Review section, the Times reprinted a September 13 letter from Seymour D. Reich blaming Netanyahu for rebuffing President Obama's "peace" proposal that Israel negotiate based on its 1967 borders. To be sure, those "Auschwitz" borders, as Abba Eban memorably labeled them, had left Israel vulnerable to Arab attacks ever since Israel declared independence in 1948. Mr. Reich had all the answers that were fit to print. Netanyahu "must step back from the brink." He must stop "placating" his right-wing government and, instead, dissolve it. He must freeze settlement construction. Mr. Reich's favorite reader's response, understandably, praised the "uncomfortable truths" critical of Israel that Reich had presented. It came (all too predictably) from an Ivy League professor of the history of Judaism. The Times loves nothing more than Jewish critics of Israel. It was left to Thomas Friedman, several pages along, to share his great concern for "Israel's future." Anyone familiar with his Middle East reporting since the Times sent him to Beirut in 1982 knew what that meant: a rant against "the most diplomatically inept and strategically incompetent government in Israel's history," led by a prime minister who gives Israel's friends -- namely President Obama -- "nothing to defend it with." Several days later, the Times provided former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with a forum to lend Israeli credibility to the Times critique. Back in 2008, Olmert had embraced Palestinian demands, only to have his capitulation ignored by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. The morning before Netanyahu and Abbas would address the General Assembly, Times editors weighed in yet again. Conceding that "there is plenty of blame to go around" for the current stalemate, "the main responsibility" -- no surprise -- belonged to Netanyahu. He "refuses to make any serious compromises for peace" -- the peace, of course, that Palestinians have steadfastly rejected ever since 1947. Veteran Times watchers had every reason to expect this onslaught. It is the current manifestation of the Times's abiding Jewish problem. It has been evident ever since founding publisher Adolph Ochs and his Sulzberger successors trembled with apprehension lest their newspaper be branded as the "Jew York Times." Bending over backward to avoid any Jewish identification, the Times found itself on the wrong side of every major Jewish issue. During the vicious Arab riots in Palestine in 1929, the slaughter of Jews provoked Times articles as hostile to Zionists as they were indifferent to Jewish victims. Joseph Levy, its correspondent on the scene, was an American Jew who had spent years in Beirut before coming to Jerusalem. He conceded that if his efforts toppled the Zionist administration, so much the better. Sound familiar? The Nazi slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust was consigned to the inner pages, competing for space with stories of hijacked truckloads of coffee in New Jersey. Verified descriptions of Auschwitz did not make the front page. The very idea of a Jewish state, to say nothing of its reality, left Times editors acutely uncomfortable in 1948 and thereafter. Ever since the Six-Day War, the Times has been unrelenting in its criticism of Jewish settlements. It enthusiastically endorsed President Obama's assertion that truncated Israeli borders are "vital to defusing Muslim anger at the West" -- a dubious claim with dire consequences for Israel. The familiar Times motto -- "All the News That's Fit to Print" -- requires an update to "All the Criticism of Israel That Fits We Print." Jerold S. Auerbach is professor emeritus of History at Wellesley College. His blog is www.jacobsvoice.tumblr.com.

Oh where to even start talking about what happened yesterday. Got lost on the way to my parents house, as I think this may be the first time I have ever driven there. So in the end it took about 2 and a half hours to drive there. I was the first 'guest' to arrive, as my family has a perpetual lateness problem. I got there just in time to see my brother (the non-religious one, the other one is in Israel for the year) leave for work about 5 minutes after I got there. So for a while it was just me and my parents. My mom put me to work carrying things around and making sauces for the chicken legs. I brought her some books for a book donation thing she is doing, and she gave me a bunch of books that she was going to donate, but that I asked her to save for me (including a heck of a lot Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and Ursela Leguin books that I grew up reading). She only made one comment about B. I brought a cooler with me so that I can bring leftovers home (my mom always gives a ton of leftovers to people after these family gatherings, as she cooks enough for 4 bbqs), and she made a snarky comment about how I should only take enough leftovers for myself, because she doesn't want to be feeding people I live with. Spent most of the day hanging out with my cousins on my dad's side of the family, and their 3 kids, 2 of whom were infants the last time I saw them, and one of whom wasn't even born yet. They were cute, and I taught the 3 year old how to play catch. Didn't mention anything about B to most of the extended family (although one of my cousin's knows I've been dating someone for a long time, but doesn't know he's not jewish). When asked how I got up there, and who's car it was I was driving, I said 'A friend's.' Had an interesting discussion with my Aunt about Barack Obama- interesting to me, because her reason that she would never vote for him is because he "Is Black and Muslim". And also his wife is a jew hater apparently? We got into a whole argument about how he isn't Muslim, with my Aunt insisting that he is because his father was (and me insisting that his father was an Atheist, and that he wasn't raised by his father, and that he is clearly a Christian. She was having none of it). I countered with an argument about how the next president is going to be appointing a lot of supreme court nominees, and she kept saying that I was right, but I still don't think she is going to vote for Obama. But I think this muslim argument is interesting..I was reading some article somewhere (don't remember where) about how Jewish people are convinced that Obama is Muslim, because they are very tied to the idea that religion is intergenerational, and that you are automatically the religion of your parents, while most other religions don't necessarily believe that. And B confirmed for me when I got home that most christians don't believe that, and pointed out the Bush family, where Bush sr. is Episcopalian, Bush Jr. is an evangelical born again United Methodist, and Jeb Bush is Catholic. Now I have no idea what the difference between those first two are, but I know catholics and protestants are definitely different religions (even if many put them all under "christian"). I also was regaled with a lovely story about how when my cousin's wife first visited Brooklyn (from Monsey where she grew up) she was confused about the Eruv, and was going to take things outside on shabbas!! Because apparently there IS an eruv is Brooklyn, which is good enough for the chassidim (and my other cousin's husband also follows it), but it's not good for my cousin's family's rav. And then my cousin's wife told me all about how she is trapped inside the house on Saturdays, because she now lives in Brooklyn, and can't carry the baby outside because there is no Eruv. Fascinating stuff! Hmm, other highlights- *Realizing that I was the only woman at the table over the age of 20 who is not a. married b. a mother AND c. a stay at home mother. And there were at least 7 other women there who were all of those things. *When my Aunt started talking about how she has to marry off my other cousin soon, because she is 19 and ALMOST 20!! And her sister was already married by 20!! Oh Noes!! I pointed out that I'm turning 26 next week, and I'm not married yet (the implication there being...um..why are you saying these things to me, as I clearly don't agree with those values? Or even if I do that implies that I can't find a husband, so would probably be insulting?) But she pointed out that my cousin isn't getting a phd like I am, so if you get a PhD apparently it's ok to not be married by age 20. *My grandfather telling me how he hopes I meet a nice jewish boy soon (he doesn't know about B, and every time we meet up he tells me I should get married to a nice jewish boy soon) My grandfather is cool though. At least, unlike most people in my family, he has a big appreciation for education, and was very impressed when I told him I have a publication coming out in August, and when I gave him a copy of my business card (which says "doctoral candidate" under my name, which he pointed out with pride). In fact, he spent like 10 minutes reading my business card and looking impressed, which was cool. *My Aunt and Grandfather asked for a copy of my newest article, but I'm not sure if I want to send it to them, as it's about stay at home moms, and they might be a bit insulted by it (my mother took it as a personal insult when I started working on the project this article is based on, because she is a stay at home mom, and if I was not planning on being one, and writing an article about them, it must be because i don't approve of them. Or so she thinks. Also I point out structural constraints that lead to more women leaving the workforce, and apparently my mom is insulted by the insinuation that her behavior might not 100% be based on free will, and that structural constraints may exist in society. sigh.) I ended up giving my dad a ride to the airport, after discussing it with B that morning (when my mom heard I was driving up there, she was like "Oh you can give your dad a ride to the airport on your way home!"). I made a point of noting that B knew I was giving them a ride in his car, that he was ok with it, and that this was all despite them refusing to meet him. My dad then spent the half hour car ride asking about what 'rules' we have for stuff like housework and money and me using his car, and talked about how that's similar or different to marriage. He was surprised that B does most of the housework around here, that B isn't resentful of that, and that whenever I try to do more of the housework, B insists that it's him who should do it. (all true, and partially due to me working 70 hour weeks and B insisting that since he works less hours he should do more than his fair share of the housework. Not that I don't do anything, but he definitely does more). I brought up the idea of my dad meeting B again (I don't think my mom is at that stage at all), and he said he doesn't want to condone our relationship, so I was all "it's clear to everyone involved that you don't approve. We get it. It's gotten. We all get it. You don't approve." In the end my mom gave me some leftovers despite her earlier snark, and me and B had some lovely chicken legs, corn and watermelon when I got home later last night.

This claim assumes that the faith of the ancient Israelites was Islam; but as explained in the last section, the religion of the ancient Israelites can be described in such a way only according to the literal meaning of the word islam – surrender or submission. It is a stretch, however, to claim that the religious practices of ancient Israel were entirely the same as the modern religion of Islam, the details of which are largely based on the practices of Muhammad. Such a claim is unsubstantiable. It is true that Muslims generally emphasize a few of the more noticable practices of ancient Israel that are not as emphasized among most Jews in the present era, such as prostration and modesty, but this is not proof that the modern religion of Islam is identical to the religious observance of the ancient Israelite prophets. There are numerous laws contained in the Torah and known to have been kept by the ancient Israelites that are not mentioned in the Qur’an and not practiced by Muslims. There are also ancient practices of the historical faith of Israel that the Qur’an testifies to and yet the Islam of today does not observe, ie: the Sabbath, forbidden fats, and certain relationship restrictions during a woman’s monthly cycle. Despite the decline of prostration in prayer and modesty among most Jews, something largely attributable to the influence of European culture which we now see happening among Muslims in the realm of modesty, Jews still maintain many religious observances that were kept by the ancient Israelite prophets that the average Muslim is entirely unaware of. Despite the decline of prostration as a regular part of daily Jewish prayer, the Jewish parallel to Shari’a law known as halakha, still maintains that Jews are to prostrate as a part of regular prayer and that Jews are to dress modestly. Though the level of religious observance among Jews may have changed, the Torah’s instruction is just as it was thousands of years ago. Consequently, it is not accurate to equate the ignorance of Jews as to the teachings of the faith they claim to follow with corruption of that same faith, any more than we should equate ignorance of Islamic teaching among Muslims, something many Muslims will admit to, with the corruption of Islam as taught by Muhammad. In fact, Sunni Muslims consider Shia Islam corrupt, and Shias consider Sunni Islam corrupt; both consider the other even smaller sects of Islam corruptions of Islam. Consequently, any honest Muslim must admit that Islam is certainly corrupted to some extent – but the corruption of a religion’s teachings does not necessarily mean that the religion’s scripture is itself corrupt or unreliable. The truth is that it is common among all religions that most of a religion’s supposed adherents severely lack substantial knowledge of their religion’s teachings. This can be used to prove that a religion’s supposed adherents may be unreliable representatives of their religion’s teachings or that the people’s observance of that religion is corrupt, but this is not a logical basis to prove that any religion or philosophy is in and of itself corrupt or unreliable. If this were a logical conclusion, then no religion or philosophy could be true, whether it be Torah-Judaism, Islam, or even secular-humanism, agnosticism, or atheism. Corruption and inconsistency are commonplace among the followers of all ideologies. If this is not the case presently, it has been the case in the past. R' Yosef Eliyah * DorDeah.com is an independent organization. DorDeah.com is not affiliated with www.mechon-mamre.org, the "Torath Moshe Society," nor Chabad-Lubavitch. Though we are grateful for the contributions of these organizations in providing Mishne Torah resources, we do not endorse all the views espoused by these organizations.

THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE – June 20, 2002 (VOB) 3,06Gb. Valerie Harper, Tony Roberts, Michelle Lee, Shirl Bernheim, Anil Kumar. Written by Charles Busch. Filmed from the balcony. Mostly a full stage shot. Occasional head in the shot. B+ THE THREEPENNY OPERA - March 29, 2006 (VOB) 2,78Gb. Alan Cumming (Macheath), Cyndi Lauper (Jenny), Ana Gasteyer (Mrs. Peachum), Jim Dale (Mr. Peachum), Nellie McKay (Polly Peachum) 2nd Gen, Great video, Nice Close-ups, A little wash out A THE UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SAMANTHA BROWN – May 3, 2009 Orange County Performing Arts Center (VOB) Patti Murin (Sam), Jenni Barber (Kelly), Lisa Brescia (Mom) (played Elphaba in Chicago), Nick Blaemire (Adam), Stephen Bogardus (Dad) The show was magnificent! Minor shaking and heads in the way but very good overall. The story is one of the most heartfelt one's I've seen in a long time. I hope this show grows and becomes a predominate show on Broadway or other permanent venue. Highly recommended for musical and drama lovers alike. A Quality THE UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SAMANTHA BROWN – April 28, 2009 Costa Mesa, CA. (VOB) 3,41Gb. Patti Murin (Sam), Jenni Barber (Kelly), Nick Blaemire (Adam), Lisa Brescia (Mom), Stephen Bogardus (Dad), good mix of wides, mediums and close-ups, very little obstruction, some heads at the bottom of the wide shots, some washout in the wides, dialogues is pretty quiet a times but still understandable, no intermission, A THE UNDERSTUDY – January 17, 2010 (final performance) Broadway Justin Kirk, Mark Paul Gosselaar, Julie White, shot in orchestra around heads, A- THE VERTICAL HOUR – November 17, 2006 Broadway Julianne Moore, Bill Nighy, Dan Bittner, Andrew Scott, Rutina Wesley. Nicely filmed, but the first minute is in blackout, before improving. Disc also includes scanned Playbill information, as well as a NY1 Review and an interview with Bill Nighy, as well as the full episode of Theatre Talk devoted to the show, with Bill Nighy. A- THE WOMAN IN WHITE - February 25, 2005 – London (VOB) 3.48Gb Cast: Maria Friedman, Michael Ball, Adrian der Gregorian (u/s), Oliver Darley Audience capture of this wonderful and sadly short lived show. Great story. A sharp capture with great audio. THE WOMEN - June 18, 2002 (VOB) 3,28Gb. PBS Stage on Screen Broadcast PRO-SHOT Cynthia Nixon (Mary), Lynn Collins (Miriam), Jennifer Coolidge (Edith), Hallie Kate Eisenberg (Little Mary), Lisa Emery (Nancy), Kristen Johnson (Sylvia), Rue McClanahan (Countess de Lage), Amy Ryan (Peggy), Jennifer Tilly (Crystal Allen), Mary Louise Wilson (Mrs. Morehead) THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE - 2006 Gateway Playhouse (VOB) 4,27Gb. Starring: Kristin Maloney, Gary Lindemann, Cristin Mortenson, Nick Spagler, Susan J. Jacks, Tina Hohnson, Kelvin Moon Loh, Charlie Parker, Adrian Pena A wonderful production that was filmed on a tripod for the theatre's archives. A+ THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE - June 12, 2004 VOBs starring Susan Egan and Christian Borle THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE – April 13, 2002 Broadway (VOB) 3,67Gb. Sutton Foster, Gavin Creel, Marc Kudisch, Sheryl Lee Ralph Nice picture and sound with good zooms and stage shots; includes Whoopi Goldberg preview show A TIME STANDS STILL – January 22, 2011 Cort Theatre (VOB) 8,12Gb. Laura Linney, Christina Ricci, Brian d arcy James, Eric Bogossian Well filmed from the balcony. First minute or two of the second act are in blackout. Disc also includes about 50 minutes of extras including Press Reel footage, opening night coverage, various interviews, and an appearance by Christina Ricci on The View. A TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' – November 14, 2006 Broadway (VOB) 2,75Gb Michael Arden, Thom Sesma, Caren Lyn Manuel, Lisa Gajda, Neil Haskell, Jason McDole. Directed and choreographed by Twyla Tharp. Another amazing video, this time filmed from far stage right balcony. TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' - September 25, 2006 Broadway, (VOB) 2,70Gb. Michael Arden, Thom Sesma, Caren Lyn Manuel, Lisa Gajda, Neil Haskell, Jason McDole. Directed and choreographed by Twyla Tharp. Filmed on opening night. "." First few minutes are in blackness and then improves once the filmer gets settled. A- [TITLE OF SHOW] (2008) Broadway July 5, 2008 - Original Broadway Cast 4.01Gb First Preview Night - Master By Russell's There are three masters circulating (this seems to be the best quality) and no this is not the one where someone faints and there is no video for 12 minutes. It is the one that cuts off a part of Christine Ebersole's answering machine message. [TITLE OF SHOW] - July 6, 2008 – Broadway (VOB) 3.36Gb Cast: Jeff Bowen, Hunter Bell, Susan Blackwell, Heidi Blickenstaff, Larry Pressgrove The first 13 minutes are pretty much blackout TITANIC - 2006 Sydney, Australia PROSHOT (VOB) 4,11Gb. Cast: Hayden Tee, Brendan Higgins, Nick Tate, Tony Farrell, Todd Goddard, Tony Cogin, David Pearson, Matthew Willis, Alexander Lewis, James Shaw, Cameron Mannix TITANIC - 04.10.2003 Hamburg – (VOB) 3,95Gb. Cast: Patrik Stanke, Jens Janke, Heiko Stang, Katrin Löbbert (matinee and last show) Quality: A (1 DVD) TITANIC - March 2001 Redondo Beach - Cast: Richard Kline, Danny Michaels, Tracy Perry, Jamie Snyder, Frederick Snyder, Dynel Leigh. Grade: A- TITANIC ON BROADWAY [UPN 'Making-Of' Special] 1997 (VOB) 3,07Gb. Performers: Brian d'Arcy James, Michael Cerveris, Victoria Clark, Jennifer Piech, Larry Keith, David Garrison, Alma Cuervo, John Cunningham, Clarke Thorell, Allan Corduner, Maury Yeston Quality: Very good, recorded from TV onto VHS, later transferred to DVD. Notes: This is a making-of special that looks at the creation of the original production as well as some of the history of the Titanic. Main features include pro-shot performance footage, rehearsals, and short interviews with cast/creatives. TOMMY – July 1, 2010 - Regional (Hilton Head, SC)* (VOB) 2 DVD 2,80Gb. Y 2,51Gb. Lucas Wells (Tommy), Laura Hodos (Mrs. Walker), Patrick Oliver Jones (Captain Walker), Ethan Paulini (Cousin Kevin), Merrill Peiffer (The Gypsy), James Zannelli (Uncle Ernie), Alexandra Fassler (Sally Simpson). Filmed in all wide shots because zooms were impossible from the angle. Bits of washout here and there, but nothing distracting. No obstructions or blackouts. Camera wanders twice during Act I but doesn't last any longer than two minutes. The sound is excellent as it was synched with an audio recorder. TOMMY - Amstetten 2002 ProShot (VOB) 3,90Gb. Steven Seale, Sabine Mayer, Brian Carmack, Drew Sarich, James Sbano, Sigalt Feig, Cedric Bradley, Dave Moskin, Jacqueline Braun, Caroline Frank, Julia Lawrence, Vicky van Zijl, Rob Fowler Qualität: B TONY AWARDS 2009 VOBs TONY AWARDS 2009 Preview Concert Special Harry Smith — of CBS' "The Early Show" — hosts the Visa Signature Tony Awards Preview Concert, which airs throughout the pre-Tony week. The concert, which features performances by a host of Broadway actors, was filmed May 18 at The Hudson Theatre in Manhattan. TONY AWARDS 2007 Vobs TONY AWARDS 2005 VOBS TONY AWARDS (1988) VOBs TONY AWARDS, THE BEST OF 2002 – 2005 (VOB) 3,69Gb. Fanmade tony awards dvd...contains all musical numbers performed on the 2002-2005 shows incluide Into the Woods, Mamma Mia, Urinetown, Movin Out, Hairspray, Wicked, Boy from Oz, Avenue Q, La Cage Aux Folles, Sweet Charity...has chapters and song selection. TONY AWARDS, THE BEST OF 1994 - 1997 (VOB) 2,94Gb. Another fanmade collection.....contains all songs performed on the 1994-97 shows...shows include, She Loves Me, Beauty and the Beast, Showboat, Rent, Big, Chicago, Annie, Titanic… TONY AWARDS, THE BEST OF 1990 - 1993 (VOB) 2,99Gb. Another Fan made dvd, all the musical numbers staged on the tonys from 1990-93, song selection etc TONY AWARDS, THE BEST OF 1986 - 1989 (VOB) 3,39Gb. another classic fanmade dvd...this is my fave due to content....broadway over this time had so many wonderful musicals....some years hardly any....but the arrival of les mis, phantom took over the american broadway stage....inc in this selection include....edwin drood, song and dance, me and my gal, starlight express, mame, les mis, into the woods, phantom TORCH SONG TRILOGY - 1982 Broadway (VOB) 3,05Gb. Harvey Fierstein, Grant Shaud (from Murphy Brown), Court Miller, Susan Edwards, Paul Joint, Diane Tarleton. RARE! Recorded from the balcony. Some generational loss-but amazing clarity for being almost 25 years old! B+ TWELFTH NIGHT – 1998 Live from Lincoln Center (VOB) 2,71Gb. Helen Hunt, Kyra Sedgwick, Philip Bosco, David Patrick Kelly, Julio Monge, Rick Stear Pro-shot stage production. A TWO BY TWO, IN CONCERT – November 1, 2009 Los Angeles, CA (VOB) 2DVD 3,09Gb. Y 2,49Gb. Jason Alexander (Noah), Faith Prince (Esther), Steven Weber (Shem), Justin Robertson (Ham), David Burnham (Japheth), Shannon Warne (Rachel), Vicki Lewis (Leah), Megan Hilty (Goldie). Two night only concert presentation of the rarely seen 1970 Richard Rogers/Martin Charnin musical. Presented by the Reprise! Theatre Company at the Gindi Auditorium at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. Lots of heads in the frame, and some obstruction, but filmer does their best to capture the action on stage. B- URINETOWN – (Pinkelstadt) April 30, 2005 Berlín PRO-SHOT (VOB) 2 DVD 2,54Gb. Y 2,67Gb. Cast: Ilja Richter (Werdmehr von Mehrwert), Thorsten Tinney (WachtmeisterKloppstock), Katharine Mehrling (Klein-Erna), Bettina Meske (Suppen-Suse), EricMinsk (Hans-Heiner Heinz / Der alte Stark), Tilmann von Blomberg (Herr Kaiser), Gabriele Ramm (Elfriede Fennichfux), Aris Sas (Jonny Stark). Filmed with multicameras, with sound directly from the soundboard. Super quality URINETOWN – August 29, 2001 Broadway Preview John Cullum, Jeff McCarthy, Spencer Kayden, Hunter Foster, Jennifer Laura Thompson. [Shot from fourth row center mezz. Lots of closeups as filmer was familiar with show. Beautiful video, even has the conductor being led onstage at the beginning. Excellent capture, from the digital master. A] UWE KRÖGER - Absolut Uwe Concert Commercial DVD UNTOUCHED (7,5 GB DL) VAMPIRE LESBIANS OF SODOM – March 28, 2005 PRO-SHOT (VOB) 4,05Gb. BC/ EFA 20th Anniversary Benefit Production Starring: Charles Busch, Julie Halston, Sutton Foster, Brent Barrett, Phyllis Newman, Mario Cantone, Rebecca Luker, Bruce Vilanch A tiripod shot of this riot of a show! A VICTOR / VICTORIA (1995) Commercial DVD (VOB) 8,27Gb. Julie Andrews - Victoria Grant, Michael Nouri - King Marchand, Tony Roberts - Carole "Toddy" Todd, Rachel York - Norma Cassady, Gregory Jbara - "Squash" Bernstein Audio: inglés Subtítulos: español, francés, alemán, italiano, portugués, danés, holandés, finlandés, noruego, sueco. Duración: 146 minutos DVD-9 VIOLET Concert – January 18, 2003 (VOB) 2 DVD 3,20Gb. Y 2,16Gb. Stephen Lee Anderson, Michael McElroy, Cass Morgan, Roz Ryan, Michael Parks and Lauren Ward (reprising her performance in the title role), as well as special guests Bill Buell, Norbert Leo Butz, Tracy Nicole Chapman, Luther Creek and Allison Fischer. Beautiful picture and sound quality. Steady camerawork that follows all the action. [A] WAITING FOR GODOT – 1961(?) PBS TV PRO-SHOT (VOB) 3,37Gb. Burgess Meredith, Zero Mostel, Kurt Kasznar, Alvin Epstein. Directed by Alan Schneider. In black and white. A- WE WILL ROCK YOU - February 11, 2003 (London) Pro-Shot (VOB) 4.23Gb WE WILL ROCK YOU – October 13, 2005 Bandnight – Köln (VOB) 3,26Gb. Cast: Alex Melcher, Kevin Perry, Martin Berger, Sandy Moffat, Willemijn Verkaik, Serkan Kaya, Michaela Kovarikova 1 DVD Quality A WE WILL ROCK YOU - 2005 koln Pro-shot 2.89Gb WE WILL ROCK YOU - 2006 koln Pro-shot 4.00Gb. Alex Melcher, VeraBolten, James Sabano, Martin Berger, Brigitte Oelke, MichaelaKovarikova, David-Michael Johnson, Harald Tauber, Nicole Rößler. WE WILL ROCK YOU – April 22/June 9, 2007 Highlights. Zürich - (VOB) 3,40Gb. Cast: Serkan Kaya (Galileo Figaro), Jessica Kessler (Scaramouche), Briggite Oelke (Killer Queen) Quality: A- (1 DVD) WE WILL ROCK YOU – July 7, 2008 Bandnight - Wien Qualität: A- (VOB) 2,47Gb. Susan Rigvava-Dumas, Carl van Wegberg, Darryl Smith, Rahel A-J. Fischer, Martin Berger, Julia Berger WE WILL ROCK YOU – April 25 and June 3, 2009 UK tour Jonathan Wilkes, Alex Gaumond, Sarah French-Ellis, Brenda Edwards, Ashley Russell (u/s for Brenda 6/3), Georgina Hagen, Kevin Kenned *Highlights of the two dates running about two hours WEST SIDE STORY - May 16, 2009 Broadway (VOB) 3,12Gb. Matthew Hydzik (u/s Tony), Josefina Scaglione, Curtis Holbrook (Action), Karen Olivo, Kyle Brenn (alt. Kiddo), Christian Elan Ortiz (u/s Indio), Angelina Mullins (u/s Velma), Shayna Harris (u/s Zaza), Michaeljon Slinger (u/s Sharkboy) WEST SIDE STORY – February 23, 09 Broadway Matt Cavanaugh, Josefina Scaglione, Karen Olivo, Cody Green, George Akram, Curtis Holbrook, Joey Haro. Filmed on the first night of previews, with some subtle changes made since the Washington D.C. tryout. Well filmed and crystal clear with a nice mix of close-ups and full stage shots. Disc also includes scanned Playbill information. A WEST SIDE STORY – December 19, 2008 Washington DC - (Pre-Broadway) (VOB) 8,33 Gb. Cast: Matt Cavenaugh, Josefina Scaglione, Karen Olivo, Cody Green, George Akram, Curtis Holbrook, Joey Haro. A+ | Stunning production and sensational cast. Josefina as Maria was precious and an amazing voice. Karen was full of sass and perfection in dance and voice. Features elements of bilingual songs and script which add so much to the story. Beautiful production from top to bottom! Also includes 13 minutes (opening) from the 12/20/08 performance. WEST SIDE STORY - May 12, 2006 Southport | PRO-SHOT | (VOB) 2 DVD 4,51Gb. Liz Clarke (Maria), Matt Casson (Tony), Rebbecca Cassey (Anita), Dave Cox (Bernardo), David Gary (Riff), Ian Ashcroft (Chino), Tim Brittain (Diesal), Alan Morris (Pepe), Paul Edge (Action), David Sidey (Indio), Michael McWillian (Baby-John), Paul Green (Concelious), Stephanie Formby (Consuelo), Rachel Clippatrick (Graziella), Lisa Proctor (Rosalia), June Beswick (Velma), Lauren Brown (Terrisita), Heather Furnival (Clarris), Heather Lewis (Anybodies) WEST SIDE STORY - 1994 Amstetten, Austria – DVDR (VOB) 2,43Gb Cast: Pia Douwes Audience cam. WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND – December 1996 Washington, D.C. (VOB) 3,57Gb. Rapidshare Links. Davis Gaines (The Man), Irene Molloy (Swallow), Timothy Nolen (Boone), Steve Scott Springer (Amos), Lacey Hornkohl (Candy), Chuck Cooper (Edward), Mike Hartman (Sheriff Cookridge), Abbi Hutcherson (Brat), Cameron Bowen (Poor Baby), Candy Buckley (Aunt Dot), Allen Fitzpatrick (Minister), David Lloyd Watson (Earl), Timothy Shew (Rod), Ray Walker (Preacher) A true rarity. One camera, professionally recorded video of the first version of the musical. Filmed during a rehearsal with no audience. Directed by Harold Prince. A WHITE CHRISTMAS - July 15, 2007 Wichita, KA (VOB) 7,92Gb Charles Parker, John Bisom, John MacInnis, Lisa Rohinsky, Tiffany Ocvirk, Annie Funke, Anne Horak, Kim Huber. Filmed using one camera on a tripod with sound patched directly in from the soundboard the quality of this recording (and the performances) is really great. This set also includes TV commercials for the production and disc 1 has a menu with a feature selection option. WHITE CHRISTMAS - December 2006 UK Tour - PROSHOT (VOB) 2.26Gb. Tim Flavin (Phil), Ken Kercheval (General), Lorna Luft (Martha), Craig McLachlan (Bob), Emma Kate Nelson (Judy), Rachel Stanley (Betty). Some spotlight washout but perfect audio. WHITE CHRISTMAS – December 3, 2005 Boston Stephen Bogardus, Michael Gruber, Kerry OMalley, Nadine Isenegger, Terry Beaver, Karen Morrow, Katherine Doherty, Richard Pruitt, Michael Thomas Holmes WHITE NOISE – September 23, 2006 New York Musical Festival NYMTF (TBG Theatres) (VOB) 2,89Gb. Danny Calvert (Kurt), Rick Crom (Rick), Molly Laurel (Blanche), Micah Shepard (Duke), Phillip Taratula (Benny/Pa/Pete), Libby Winters (Eva) Nice video with good sound and excellent closeups; includes the GMA and PrimeTime Live stories B+ WICKED – July 12/16, 2006 Universal Studios Japan PROSHOT VOB 4,05Gb. VOB Universal Studios Japan Jemma Rix A+ WICKED "DREAM CAST" - October 18, 2007 London. (VOB) 3,34Gb. CUDELIN PROSSER'S EDIT of the already-circulating vid of 10-18-07, with Kerry Ellis as Elphaba, Dianne Pilkington as Glinda, Nigel Planer as The Wizard, Susie Blake as Madame Morrible and Oliver Tompsett as Fiyero -- IMO, the best cast of any Wicked capture. Custom DVD menus and lots of work done on the source. Cudelin's additions/modifications: the opening credits over a video montage of the theatre and of the principals backstage before curtain; sound adjusted for greater clarity, with audio replacement (from audio captures of the same cast) for the lost lines in the original capture's "What is this Feeling" and almost all of the "rustling"; the color has been re-greenifed on "DG"; cast credits are superimposed during curtain calls. If that's not enough, the entire production has been subtitled (so us Yanks have no difficulty with the very Brit accents)! Best DVD I own. A+ WICKED Second National Tour April 3, 2011 Costa Mesa CA. Evening (VOB) 2 DVD 3,81Gb. Y 3,73Gb. Christine Dwyer (s/b Elphaba), Natalie Daradich (Glinda), Daniel Torres (u/s Fiyero), Don Amendolia (Wizard), Jody Gelb (Mme Morrible), Michelle London (Nessarose), Zach Hanna (Boq), Martin Moran (Dr Dillamond). Another nice capture; interesting blooper where Glinda walks on stage at the end of Dear Old Shiz instead of riding on top of her suitcases; couple of quick drop-outs between scenes, but no major blackouts and no obstruction. and filmed with a mix of wides, mediums, and close-ups, with some washout in the wides. great clear excellent; Includes curtain call. 2 DVDs A WICKED Second National Tour – March 13, 2011 Evening (VOB) 2 DVD 3,67Gb. Y 3,75Gb. Christine Dweyer (Elphaba s/b), Lesley McKinnell (Glinda u/s), David Nathan Perlow (Fiyero), Tom McGowan (The Wizard), Merilyn Caskey (Morrible), Michelle London (Nessarose), Zach Hanna (Boq), Martin Moran (Dr. Dillamond). Another great capture with solid performances from the understudies; one blackout that lasts for about 2 minutes at the beginning of Room Assignments, but the rest of the show is intact; one head that can be seen occasionally in the lower left corner, but it's rarely noticeable; filmed with a mix of wides, mediums, and close-ups, with some washout in the wides; excellent sound Includes curtain call and Merilyn's BCEFA speech. Nice video 2 DVDs A WICKED – December 18, 2010 1NT Chicago Evening Mariand Torres as (s/b) Elphaba, Chandra Lee Schwartz, Richard H. Blake, Barbara Robertson, Gene Weygandt, Stefanie Brown, Justin Brill, Paul Slade Smith. Great capture of the first national tour cast. Mariand is one of the best Elphaba's have I saw in a very long time! Her acting and voice are impeccable. Great to see a solid tour cast again! A WICKED – December 18, 2010 1NT Chicago Matinee Carla Stickler as (u/s) Elphaba, Chandra Lee Schwartz, Richard H. Blake, Barbara Robertson, Gene Weygandt, Stefanie Brown, Justin Brill, Paul Slade Smith. Captured from the first row makes for some great shots, on full stage shots the bottom of the stage can be seen. Carla makes for a fresh Elphaba and has lots of energy. Great to see a solid tour cast again! A WICKED – November 23, 2010 London Rachel Tucker (Elphaba), Sarah Earnshaw* (s/b Glinda), Lee Mead (Fiyero), Julie Legrand (Mme. Morrible), Julian Forsyth (The Wizard), Cassandra Compton (Nessarose), Danny Mac* (u/s Boq), Gareth Chart* (u/s Dr. Dillamond). WICKED – September 5, 2010 FINAL SHOW IN SAN FRANCISCO Marcie Dodd (Elphaba), Alli Mauzey (Glinda), Clifton C. Hall (Fiyero), Jody Gelb (Madame Morrible), Tom McGowan (The Wizard),DeeDee Magno Hall (Nessarose), Etai Benshlomo (Boq) Truly a magical performance! Audience gives entrance applauses for EVERYONE! The filming is great, there is just a minor blackout at the end of No one mourns the Wicked. Includes somewhat obstructed curtain call, and David Stones farewell speech! A WICKED – August 25, 2010 London Matinee Rachel Tucker, Louise Dearman, Lee Mead, Cassandra Compton, *Danny Mac, Julie, Legrand, Clive Carter. Includes 'Defying Gravity', 'Catfight Scene' through to the beginning of the Curtain Call. WICKED – August 8, 2010 Matineé Oberhausen A++ (VOB) 2 DVD 3,67Gb. Y 2,51Gb. Willemijn Verkaik, Joana Fee Würz, Anton Zetterholm, Carlo Lauber, Barbara Raunegger, Ben Darmanin, Janine Tippl, Thomas Wißmann; This capture is stunning. The acting is superb as well! WICKED – June 26, 2010 San Francisco Evening 2DVDs 2,50Gb. Y 3.64GB. Elphaba: Eden Espinosa, Glinda: Kendra Kassebaum, Fiyero: Nicolas Dromard, Wizard: Tom McGowan, Morrible: Jody Gelb WICKED - May 23, 2010 Oberhausen Multi-Cam Shot l Bero’s Last 4,40Gb. Willemijn Verkaik (Elphaba), Joana Fee Würz (Glinda), Bero Antunovic (u/s Fiyero), Barbara Raunegger (Madame Akaber), Carlo Lauber (Der Zauberer), Janine Tippl (Nessarose), Ben Darmanin (Moq), Thomas Wißmann (Dr. Dillamonth). A+ WICKED – May 22, 2010 Wicked 2NT (VOB) 2 DVD 3,75Gb. Y 3,56Gb. No small files Vicki Noon (Elphaba) Michelle London (u/s Glinda), Chris Peluso (Fiyero), Don Amendolia (The Wizard), Merilyn Caskey (Morrible), Laura Pugliese (u/s Nessarose), Zach Hanna (Boq), David DeVries (Dr. Dillamond). Vicki is a excellent Elphaba! And Michelle is hilarious and has a wonderful voice! Slight washout.Laura's first as Nessarose: A WICKED - April 28, 2010 West End, London (VOB) Rachel Tucker, Louise Dearman, Lewis Bradley, Stevie Tate-Bauer as (u/s) Nessa, Julie Legrand, Clive Carter, George Ure, Julian Forsyth. Rachel did a fantastic job as Elphaba. She has a big, brassy, powerful voice that fills the theater. Great to see a new London cast after all these years and they did not disappoint! A-

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Sheltered by a pleasant family environment, surrounded by friends and his two daughters, Dessy and Lucy, singer Descemer Bueno delights in being Cuban, having studied music on the island, and having a faithful public, colleagues that appreciate him, and many followers. He has recently written a song for the Mexican singer Marco Antonio Solís and another for Romeo Santos— former member of the Dominican bachata duo Aventura. However, in the world of show business, he tries to go by unnoticed, and takes his distance from the glamour and lavish praise. At his home in the Havana neighbourhood of Vedado, he chatted with Cubaplus about his roots, with a glance at the past and a view to future projects. How and when did you enter to the world of music? It all started when I was five years old, when I wanted to learn the piano. My mom took me to the Manuel Samuel, a music school. At that time I was unable to enrol, and I returned three years later to study the guitar. I spent four years there, and then continued my studies at the Amadeo Roldán (music academy), graduating as a concert guitarist. Professionally, my first work was with singersongwriter Santiago Feliú’s group, Estado de Ánimo. It was a really wonderful experience. Playing so many different genres was very interesting for us, and also for our public. A lot of people remember that period, and in fact, an album is going to be released by the Colibrí label with recordings from a long time ago. Rui López Nussa, our drummer, has taken it upon himself to recover all of that music. Afterwards you were in New York for a time. What did that mean for you? I arrived in New York in 1998 together with the members of Columna B, another group I had been involved in, to teach a workshop on Afro-Cuban music at Stanford University, a very prestigious school. I appreciated the very rich program that they had for jazz, with some of its original musicians. There aren’t many left; they are like a species of dinosaurs, although I think that jazz will never disappear, despite the new tendencies. Many Cuban musicians who work abroad feel the need to return for nourishment, for finding new sources of inspiration. Was that your case? I never would have wanted to remain outside of Cuba for two years; first, I wasn’t prepared for that. My case was the opposite of many people that have demonstrated that they wanted to remain outside of Cuba. Now there is a more generalized idea of returning to your place of origin, based on a whole number of absences that we begin to encounter in those places. What kinds of absences? One of them is our music, although being there [outside the country] I was able to nourish myself and to know what was happening with African and Latino music, with Jewish people. That’s New York, a city where spending time should have a meaning, an objective. However it is the city where I saw how the [Twin] Towers fell; there was a really big change, and money became very important, or you couldn’t survive. It’s a place that forces you to sleep in parks, to establish who are your friends and who are your enemies; everything is extreme. What’s pretty can turn ugly at a given moment, but it was a great experience, unique. In the end we realized that we could be closer in a spiritual sense, and in our country they accepted us. That is when the attacks by the incisive media began, especially the Miami Herald. Nowadays, I don’t allow any journalist from there to interview me. They have a very erroneous concept of Cubanness, a lack of knowledge about culture as it is, its homogeneity. For these reasons, many Afro-Cubans like me have had to leave Miami, because they don’t accept us. They discriminate against that emerging postrevolutionary Cuban culture, which is extremely rich. They underestimate you just because you are formally schooled and because you defend the idea that we are a single culture, and we are ready to defend it ourselves. Latino music greats such as Juan Luis Guerra of the Dominican Republic and Enrique Iglesias of Spain perform your songs, but you always try to go unnoticed in terms of publicity. Why is that? I admire both of them very much. I think that I am one of the few composers whose songs Juan Luis has sung, because he performs his own songs. With Enrique, I have had a really nice friendship. A lot of people ask me why people don’t know that [the hit song] “Cuando me enamoro” is by me, but he has said so in different interviews, and other people have found out who I am because of that. A lot of musicians, such as Paulina Rubio, Ana Bárbara and the band Camila of Mexico, have called me since then, artists who have absolutely no need of me, but nevertheless have become interested. I have other friends, like Julieta Venegas (of Mexico), who have opened many doors for me, doors that nobody can imagine. She is a very sensitive person, incredibly sweet. You tell me that I try to go by unnoticed, and I will tell you that I am very distracted. Let me tell you, Enrique has called me and said to me, “Call me in half an hour, when you have such-and-such a paragraph of suchand- such a song,” and I’ve forgotten. A few days later he calls back and says, “Descemer, your half hours are long...” and I think that this is what has protected me in working with such prestigious artists. What are you composing now? I’ve just had an experience similar to the one I had with Juan Luis Guerra. Recently I sent a song to Marco Antonio Solis (of Mexico), who has a solid, sizzling career. He performs his own songs and his public is all of Latin America, Latinos in the United States, Spain. Once again I’m going through the experience that an artist who sings his own songs is performing one of mine. I also composed a song for Romeo Santos, a former member of the Dominican bachata band Aventura. Your recent Cubadisco award for the CD Bueno, what does it mean for your career? It has opened many doors. All of a sudden, life blesses you. It is a way of being consistent with all of my efforts. I’ve worked hard, gone through a lot of difficult times; I have been in the jungle, with the impoverished people of Africa, and in other places where children beg. I am a defender of Cuban culture and of we Cubans who live in Cuba, and who have many reasons to do so.

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No impact locally from Northrop deal The recent merger between Northrop Grumman Corp. and Litton Industries Inc. will not impact St. Augustine's Northrop production plant, according to company officials. Bridge spring series continues Twelve teams of four participated in last Thursday's Grand National Teams local qualifying game, w Out and About Jazz and Blues at Stogie's: Seratonin, a four-piece jazz ensemble, plays every Monday. Tuesdays, Dave Dowling and Friends entertain on guitar and vocals. Father and son duo, A Good Brother Band, plays on Wednesdays. Thursdays, the club swings with jazz group, The House Cats. Anastasia sings on Fridays and Sundays get mello with flamenco guitar. 826-4006. Movies: What's playing Movies: 'Blow' neither criticizes nor praises drug trade Ray Liotta. Deadpan voiceovers. Enough cocaine to slay a brontosaurus. At times, ''Blow'' is enough to elicit a full-on ''GoodFellas'' flashback and make you wonder if a remake is upon us. Books: Award-winning author visits libraries Chaos is underway in the produce department of a Naomi, Florida grocery, when young India Opal Buloni arrives to pick up some items for her father, a preacher. A stray dog that looks like "a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain" is racing around the store sending vegetables flying and causing great consternation to the manager. From newsprint to frame Although his work as twice won second place from the Association of Alternative Newspapers ('96 and '99, in newspapers with circulation under 55,000), Walter Coker has never displayed his work in a gallery until now. Life in a Nutshell: A royal day to be in the wily press corps How exciting to have had the king of Spain in our city. I'll assume everyone realizes he was here. King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia. They were here. They're from Spain. 'Chef Guy' bids farewell and prepares to write a cookbook It's always something........ Around Town: Colonial village and more seafood come to Seafood Festival Its name is no longer quite sufficient to describe the myriad of activities the St. Augustine Lions Club's "Annual Seafood Festival" has come to include. Movies: Rollercoaster ending compensates for Freeman's lack of emotion Someone somewhere believes that Dr. Alex Cross' name belongs on the same list as other great cinematic crime-busters. Around Town: WJCT sponsors wine experience The WJCT Jacksonville Wine Experience, North Florida's oldest and largest wine-tasting event will be held April 6 to 8 at the World Golf Village. The 19th annual event features a Winemaker's Dinner, Wine Lovers' seminars and a Grand Tasting. Books: Novel shares the voices of Donner party survivors The tale of the Donner Party still grabs us. It forces us to do some thinking about the usually unthinkable: What would you eat to survive? It's also a fable about the convergence of human ambition and human folly -- a bit like another famous disaster, the sinking of the Titanic. Books: 'Taps' captures '50s South When Willie Morris died in 1999 at age 64, Southern (and American) literature lost a remarkably eloquent voice. Morris left behind a novel set in his native Mississippi Delta, however -- a book into which, he told his editor, he'd put everything he knew. Music: Michael Burks debuts album at Springing the Blues Festival Powerhouse guitarist/vocalist Michael Burks will celebrate the release of "Make It Rain," his Alligator Records debut, with a li The Arts: Art lovers can choose from three events this weekend Those in search of original artwork will not have to look far this weekend. Three art shows are planned on the First Coast: the Spring Arts and Crafts Festival, the Ponte Vedra Arts Festival and Art After Dark. Music: Youth ministry central to Mark Schultz's musical mission Mark Schultz knew he was meant to have music in his life. He just had to get his priorities straight before he would find success in the music business. The Arts: First Friday Art Walk Galleries will be open tonight from 5 to 9 p.m. for a self-guided tour. Wildlife Discoveries: Childhood trips prevented fear of being alone in the woods I'm a placid soul by birth -- I love quiet, serene times alone. It's not something I had to consciously develop; I need solitude on a regular basis or my creativity dries up. As a child I loved times alone reading, listening to music, and exploring in the outdoors, and I was blessed with parents who recognized and encouraged the individual ''bents'' in each of their children. Books: Top Sellers What Kids Think: pt. 3 I am respectful to my friends and we are respectful for ourselves. Me and Ashley are respectful for ourselves, and I help Ashley clean Ashley's room. --Rebecca Kathleen Crowe What Kids Think: What it means to be a Good Friend What it means for me to be a good friend is to share, ride bikes, climb trees, share birthdays, build forts, have stayovers and the best thing is to be honest. --Wesley Edenfield What Kids Think: pt. 2 I help my friend Ashley. I like my friend Ashley. She is fun. --Alexis Marie Gregory What Kids Think: pt. 5 A good friend is Robert, he gave me a pencil. A good friend is Micah, he shares his snack with me. A good friend is Altamese, she let me borrow her sweater. A good friend is Tonya, she is n In-service day set for Friday A districtwide in-service day is being sponsored by the St. Johns County School District on Friday. Employees are being encouraged to attend workshops and seminars on topics of interest. What Kids Think: pt. 4 To be a good friend, you must not be mean. You've got to be friendly. --Donte What Kids Think: pt. 6 I'm nice to my friend because I help her get up and I play with her. I love her. She's nice to me, and I'm nice to her. The End. --Marrisa Ann Campbell Hanks helps restore auditorium OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Tom Hanks has donated $125,000 to help restore the high school auditorium where he performed in the 1970s. Today in History Today is Friday, April 6, the 96th day of 2001. There are 269 days left in the year. Nimoys aid observatory refurbishing LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Leonard Nimoy is doing his part to ensure that Griffith Observatory lives long and prospers. ARIES (March 21 to April 19) Be patient, or you will only generate more hysteria in the middle of a complex situation. If you feel unable to move forward, why not try backing up a few steps? 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Jesse Ventura said Wednesday he supports legalizing marijuana for medical use. Part of Linda Tripp lawsuit is dismissed WASHINGTON -- A federal judge ruled Thursday that Linda Tripp, the former Pentagon employee whose secretly taped phone calls triggered the impeachment crisis of the Clinton presidency, cannot sue the White House. Bush backs off plan to ease salmonella testing WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration backed away from a proposal to ease salmonella testing requirements on meat for school lunches, saying it was overruling lower level Agriculture Department officials. White House, GOP struggle to reverse setback to tax cut WASHINGTON (AP) -- Still struggling for votes, Republicans conceded Thursday that the budget they plan to push through the Senate may fall short of President Bush's full $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut proposal. Boy saves himself ABBEVILLE, S.C. -- A boy whose leg was severed by a train used his belt as a tourniquet to save himself from bleeding to death. President expresses personal regret WASHINGTON -- The United States and China intensified negotiations Thursday for the release of an American spy plane's crew, and U.S. officials said they were encouraged by the talks. President Bush, in a conciliatory gesture, expressed regret over the in-flight collision that triggered the tense standoff. Milk doing well in school vending tests WASHINGTON -- The dairy industry's ''Got Milk?'' campaign may have found a way to get more into teen-agers -- through school vending machines that dispense colorful $1 bottles of chocolate, strawberry and coffee-flavored milk. Mad cow seen little risk to U.S. travelers WASHINGTON -- Travelers worried about eating beef in Europe can relax, health experts say. There is little chance of getting mad cow disease in Europe, given the precautions now in place and the relatively few illnesses reported, a Senate commi Vote review of Florida ballots shows subjectivity of recount WASHINGTON -- A statewide review of the Florida presidential ballots by two media organizations demonstrated just how subjective a hand recount can be, with the outcome hinging on which standards are applied and which ballots are reviewed. Possible end to Saturday mail delivery draws fire WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers came down hard on the U.S. Postal Service's plan to explore eliminating Saturday mail delivery, with one House member calling it a ''fatal mistake'' that could destroy the agency. USDA would allow irradiation of school meat WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is proposing to allow irradiation of ground meat that the government buys for schools and would no longer require the meat to be sampled for salmonella bacteria. Setback for Bush tax cut WASHINGTON -- President Bush's proposed 10-year, $1.6 trillion tax cut suffered a double body blow Wednesday as the Senate tentatively sliced it by $450 billion and a crucial Republican senator threatened to oppose it as too costly. Stocks surge after good news from Dell, Alcoa NEW YORK -- Stock prices shot higher Thursday, propelling the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 400 points, after Dell Computer and Alcoa gave Wall Street its first really good earnings news in months. Great things to do in St. Augustine this weekend SANDS OF TIME Mr. and Mrs. John J. Chandler, Flagler Beach, announce the birth of a son today at St. Augustine General Hospital. Motel robbery target A County Road 208 motel was robbed Thursday night after a man went to the front desk and asked for change for a dollar bill, according to the Sheriff's Office. Mediation fails in street performer lawsuit An attempt to settle a federal lawsuit between a St. Augustine street performer and the city of St. Augustine failed Wednesday. Child neglect arrest A 50-year-old man was arrested on child neglect and other charges Monday night after a 5-year-old girl was left alone at a home, according to St. Augustine police. Nominee for principal to be presented Cathy Hutchins, assistant principal of Cunningham Creek Elementary School, is Superintendent Hugh Balboni's choice to succeed Martha Mickler as the school's next principal. Her nomination will be presented to the School Board at its April 17 meeting. Auto theft arrests Two North Florida men were arrested on grand theft auto charges Wednesday night after two vehicles were stolen out of St. Augustine and Jacksonville, according to the Sheriff's Office. Everything from the Blessing of the Boats to a Ribs and Rhythm Festival is going on this weekend, as the Palm Sunday/Easter Week celebration gets into full gear in the oldest city. A 23-year-old Hollister man was arrested on a drug charge Wednesday afternoon after authorities followed a vehicle they thought contained a murder suspect caught later that day. Students learning 'Net skills Two St. Johns County schools were among 30 across the state that will get money to train students in an Internet software application, enabling students to become highly employable upon graduation. Girl arrested after knife found at school A 14-year-old student at Pedro Menendez High School has been arrested on charges of possessing a knife, sheriff's deputies said. Suspect in murder case arrested A man who authorities said killed his neighbor in Fort Lauderdale nearly a week ago was caught in St. Johns County after he crawled out of a mobile home window off Cypress Road Wednesday afternoon. Military secrets revealed A closely guarded secret. A carefully constructed plan of action. Wednesday's article on the front page of the Business section was incorrectly titled. It should have read, ''At 22, St. Augustine native ahead of the web,'' not ''At 25 . . .'' Audit shows city in good shape When King Juan Carlos I looked at the Spanish Quarter during his visit Sunday, he saw a historic attraction that has pulled itself out of a financial hole over the past five years. Armed robbery trial opens Jurors heard opening arguments Wednesday at a trial in which two Jacksonville men are charged with the armed robbery of a Winn-Dixie store in November 1999. Catherine Jennison, Melinda Sarnowski and Lois Fowler say volunteering in St. Johns County schools has rewards that they cannot measure. Keeping you in stitches I have written this column for 30 years, but I have never received so many comments as I did from my thimble series. Curtis Jacob ''Jay'' Hartley, 81, St. Augustine, died April 4, 2001, at Flagler Hospital. Memorial services for Henry J. Gilbert, 76, who died April 1, 2001, will be held at 6 p.m. Friday at the Family Worship Center, Kings Estate Road. Jane Frances Karrer, 54, Ponte Vedra Beach, died April 3, 2001, following a lengthy illness. Funeral services for Marjorie Leona Robinson, 65, Elkton, who died April 3, 2001, at St. Vincent's Hospital, Jacksonville, will be held at 2 p.m., today, at Craig Funeral Home chapel, with Pastor Lois Turner, of Pentecostal Revival Center, officiating. Burial will be in St. Augustine Memorial Park. Edward Lawrence Carriere, 81, St. Augustine, died April 2, 2001, at his home. Georgia Simmons, 72, St. Augustine, died April 5, 2001, in Flagler Hospital. Funeral services for Ann Hopkins, 81, St. Augustine, who died April 4, 2001, at her home, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Ancient City Baptist Church. Marjorie Leona Robinson, 65, Elkton, died April 3, 2001, at St. Vincent's Hospital, Jacksonville. Funeral services for Anthony Joseph Smith Sr.will be held at 11 a.m. today at the chapel of the Craig Funeral Home. Ann Hopkins, 81, St. Augustine, died April 4, 2001, at her home. Memorial services for Henry J. Gilbert, 76, who died April 1, 2001, will be held at 6 p.m. today at the Family Worship Center, Kings Estate Road. Lawrence P. English, 86, St. Augustine Shores, died April 2, 2001, at his home. Funeral services for Patricia Canfield Reich, 68, St. Augustine, who died April 4, 2001, in St. Augustine, will be held at 2 p.m. today at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine, with the Rev. Father Dan Shashy as celebrant. Burial will be in Evergreen Cemetery. Mildred Elizabeth Alexander, 79, St. Augustine, died April 4, 2001, at the St. Johns Health Care Center. James Ferrell Sr. James E. Ferrell Sr., 62, St. Augustine, died March 27, 2001, at Flagler Hospital. Anthony Joseph Smith Sr., born in Cocoa, Florida, March 19, 1935. Memorial services for Edward Lawrence Carriere, 81, St. Augustine, who died April 2, 2001, at his home, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Trinity Episcopal Church, with the Rev. Deena Galantowicz, associate pastor, officiating. Patricia Canfield Reich, 68, St. Augustine, died April 4, 2001, in St. Augustine. Funeral services for Mildred Elizabeth Alexander, 79, St. Augustine, who died April 4, 2001, at the St. Johns Health Care Center, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Craig Funeral Home chapel. Curtis Jacob ''Jay'' Hartley, 81, St. Augustine, died April 4, 2001, at Flagler Hospital. Mary Hilma Munkdale, 63, St. Augustine, died March 30, 2001, in San Francisco, Calif. Daniel Tate II Daniel Lisle Tate II, 78, Pembroke Pines, a former resident of St. Augustine, died April 3, 2001, at Pembroke Memorial Hospital. Editorial: Keep Saturday mail delivery The Postal Service has proposed that it stop Saturday delivery in order to save money. The arrest in France of James C. Kopp on charges of the 1998 murder of Buffalo, N.Y., abortionist Dr. Barnett Slepian has given media champions of the procedure an opportunity to again slander pro-lifers. Letter: Lawmakers should fight for benefits My husband and I own Flow-Technology, an industrial distributor of fittings and valves in the Jacksonville area. We are a small business of 10 employees, and this has allowed us to be very family-oriented. I strongly believe in providing good health care, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida has been part of our ''family'' for seven years. Opinion: Leave no heir behind President Bush didn't rejoice this boldly when the House passed his estate tax repeal this week, but the tacit battle cry of his tax plan is ''leave no heir behind!'' Paying for RX drugs is not a problem, experts say ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A funny thing happened recently at a Washington conference investigating pharmaceutical prices: Key experts concluded that prescription drug prices are not the problem politicians make them to be. Opinion: Saving children's lives -- building futures The debate over how to improve education in the United States reflects a global reality: that the future of every country is directly linked to the well-being of its children and that a cornerstone of that well-being is education. Letter: Moved by king's comments on preservation I had the pleasure to be in your wonderful city this past weekend and be part of the excitement surrounding the visit of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. I was moved by the king's remarks about the preservationist efforts taking place in the city and the city's unique, historical significance to the rest of the country. Letter: Higher standards for raising livestock Just recently I have learned that New Jersey has enacted legislation requiring that standards be developed for the ''humane raising, keeping, care, treatment, marketing, and sale of domestic livestock.'' Letter: Support Teach Florida scholarships Recently I was honored to join Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan and senior members of the Legislature to announce our new initiative to recruit the best and the brightest to the teaching profession. "One cannot be too scrupulous, too sincere, too submissive before nature ... but one ought to be more less master of one's model." Special church services in observance of Palm Sunday and Easter Special services and programs will be presented at area churches the next two weeks as the holy days of Palm Sunday and Easter are observed. Sermon: The joy of harmony I saw this list in a book recently. It was entitled, ''Prescription for Unhappiness.'' The instructions said to take two or three of these and the guaranteed result would be a high level of misery. Sunrise services around area In addition to the St. Augustine Ministerial Association-sponsored sunrise service April 15, there will be other dawn services around the community. Palms for the faithful When members of St. Elizabeth's Guild of Trinity Episcopal Parish get together to make palm crosses, the quips fly as fast as the fingers. Memorial Presbyterian to present "Requiem" MEMORIAL PRESBYTERIAN chancel choir will present the cantata "Requiem," by Gabriel Faure during the 11 a.m. service Sunday at t Baseball: Orioles 2, Red Sox 1 BALTIMORE -- Derek Lowe (0-2) walked Melvin Mora with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, forcing in the winning run. Kolzig gets shutout in Caps' victory WASHINGTON -- Olaf Kolzig made 28 saves for his fifth shutout of the season as the Washington Capitals beat the Florida Panthers 3-0 Thursday night, snapping a three-game losing streak. Baseball: Reds 4, Pirates 1 CINCINNATI -- Dmitri Young doubled with the bases loaded in the third off Jimmy Anderson (0-1). NHL Roundup: Canadiens 3, Flyers 2, OT MONTREAL -- Saku Koivu scored his 17th goal with 7:59 left in the third period and Brian Savage scored in overtime as the Montreal Canadiens beat Philadelphia, denying the Flyers a crucial point in their bid for home-ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs. Two Florida players have surgery GAINESVILLE (AP) -- Florida fullback Rob Roberts and tailback Ran Carthon underwent surgeries Thursday. NHL Roundup: Rangers 4, Lightning 3, OT TAMPA -- Manny Malhotra scored with 1:37 left in overtime as the New York Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. Baseball: Blue Jays 11, Devil Rays 0 ST. PETERSBURG -- Chris Carpenter (1-0) allowed four hits and struck out a career-high 11 in eight innings, improving to 5-1 against Tampa Bay. FSU kicker still not cleared to practice TALLAHASSEE -- Florida State place-kicker Matt Munyon will not be allowed to practice until he's cleared physically after a seizure landed the athlete in the hospital amid police speculation it was drug related. Baseball: Cubs 2, Expos 1 CHICAGO -- Kevin Tapani gave up two hits in seven shutout innings and struck out nine, and Rondell White drove in another run against his old team as the Cubs got their first win this season. Nomo tosses another no-hitter BALTIMORE -- Chalk up another no-no for Hideo Nomo. Kings hang on to top Jazz, 92-86 SALT LAKE CITY -- Chris Webber scored 26 points and Peja Stojakovic added 25 as the Sacramento Kings beat the Utah Jazz 92-86 on Thursday night, adding to Utah's woes against the top Western Conference teams. Ferrell shows how to talk turkey Sweet-talking a gobbler was the hot topic March 26 at a turkey calling demonstration hosted by the First Coast Technical Institute. St. Joe softball team gets win The St. Joseph Academy softball team defeated Crescent City 11-1 Thursday. Baseball Roundup: Phillies start season with a sweep of Marlins MIAMI -- Bobby Abreu had two hits, including a home run, and Philadelphia scored four runs in the eighth inning to beat the Florida Marlins 7-3 on Wednesday night and complete the Phillies' first season-opening three-game sweep since 1994. Baseball: Twins 9, Tigers 5, 10 innings DETROIT -- Todd Jones (0-1) wasted a ninth-inning lead, then allowed three more runs in the 10th. NBA Roundup: McGrady leads Magic past Celtics ORLANDO -- Tracy McGrady had 34 points and a career-high 11 assists as Orlando clinched a playoff berth with a 108-101 victory over the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night. NHL Roundup: Red Wings 4, Thrashers 0 DETROIT -- Martin Lapointe scored two goals and Nicklas Lidstrom had three assists as the Detroit Red Wings beat the Atlanta Thrashers. NHL Roundup: Allison gets winner as Bruins top Sabres BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Jason Allison scored the eventual game-winner as the Boston Bruins survived a late scare against the Buffalo Sabres to remain tied for the Eastern Conference's eighth and final playoff spot. Saint tennis teams set for regional tournament Although the trip to the NAIA tennis championships is probably locked up, the Flagler College tennis teams still have a lot to play for this weekend. Nease sweeps county track meet Nease's Golden Creavy had a lot to say following her performance in the County Track and Field Championships on Thursday night. Just not about herself. Baseball: Astros 8, Brewers 2 HOUSTON -- So much for the Olympic hero stuff. In his major league debut, Ben Sheets was just another losing pitcher. Nease hands Bartram 1-0 loss Holland drives in only run, closes door on Bartram Rockies finish sweep of Cards DENVER -- Pedro Astacio gave Colorado its third straight solid outing, and the Rockies routed the St. Louis Cardinals 11-2 Thursday to sweep a season-opening three-game series. The Pedro Menendez softball team was a 14-3 winner against Jackson on Thursday. Good horse is good medicine for a jockey's aching knees ARCADIA, Calif. -- A colt like Point Given makes Gary Stevens' aching knees feel better. YMCA golf tourney scheduled The St. Augustine Family YMCA Golf Tournament is scheduled for April 23 at Ponce de Leon Golf Course. For more information, call the YMCA at 471-9622. One day after knocking Bartram Trail from the ranks of the unbeaten, there was no letdown in sight for the Nease softball team. NBA Roundup: Knicks 93, Wizards 80 NEW YORK -- Marcus Camby converted an alley-oop dunk with 3:07 left to complete a late 9-0 run that led the New York Knicks to a tougher-than-expected victory over the Washington Wizards. Baseball: Yankees 1, Royals 0 NEW YORK -- Mike Mussina made a sparkling debut for the New York Yankees, allowing five hits in 7 2-3 innings in a win over Kansas City. Mega Money payouts TALLAHASSEE (AP) -- No tickets matched the four winning numbers plus the Mega Ball number and the ''Mega Money'' jackpot rolled over to $325,154, the Florida Lottery Department said Wednes-day. Family offers reward for missing man BOCA RATON (AP) -- A $10,000 reward is being offered for help in finding an executive last heard from when called a co-worker to say his car had broken down on Interstate 95, but two strangers were coming to his aid. PSC acts against two telephone companies TALLAHASSEE -- The Public Service Commission took action Thursday against two telephone companies accused of switching customers to their service without permission from the consumers. One death row inmate wins appeal, one loses TALLAHASSEE -- A death row inmate condemned for the 1996 murders of an Air Force technician and her baby must be tried again, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Debate on execution bans stopped TALLAHASSEE (AP) -- Florida law should ban the execution of killers younger than 18, the House agreed Wednesday. House commiteee gives OK to school prayer bill TALLAHASSEE (AP) -- Over the objections of Jewish lawmakers, a House committee approved a bill Thursday allowing non-sectarian prayer at public high school graduations and other non-athletic events. Fantasy 5 payouts TALLAHASSEE (AP) -- Five first-prize winners of the ''Fantasy 5'' game will collect $32,674.74 each, the Florida Lottery said Wednesday. Judge allows challenge to autopsy photos law DAYTONA BEACH (AP) -- A judge on Thursday allowed a student newspaper and a Web site to challenge the sealing of the Dale Earnhardt autopsy photos and test the constitutionality of a new law that restricts access to such images. Jury: Tobacco industry is not liable in flight attendant's trial MIAMI (AP) -- A disabled flight attendant waiting for a lung transplant is not entitled to any money from the tobacco industry for illnesses she blames on cigarette smoke in jetliner cabins, a jury decided Thursday. NASA sets April 19 for launch of Endeavour CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA has set April 19 as the launch date for its next shuttle flight, a space station construction mission by Endeavour. Jax trees will help restore Old Ironsides JACKSONVILLE -- Trees from north Florida will be providing the wood for the restoration of the USS Constitution in Boston. EU accepts trial at home for Milosevic BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- The U.N. war crimes tribunal hardened its position Wednesday on Slobodan Milosevic, demanding the former Yugoslav president be immediately surrendered for trial -- even as the European Union signaled he can first be prosecuted at home as long as he ultimately answers to the U.N. court. Israel rockets Palestinian police installations in Gaza Strip BET LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli helicopter gunships blasted two Palestinian police buildings and a power station with rockets early today, retaliating for a Palestinian mortar barrage against Jewish settlements in Gaza and a farm in Israel. Israelis, Palestinians hold talks in bid to reduce violence ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- In their first high-level talks since Ariel Sharon took office as Israel's prime minister, Palestinians and Israelis searched Wednesday for a way to halt the latest surge in Mideast violence. But back home, the two sides traded mortar fire in the Gaza Strip. Americans to get free medicine study in Cuba HAVANA -- A U.S. flag was flown and the American anthem was played Wednesday as Cuba welcomed eight young Americans arriving here to study medicine courtesy of the communist government. TV journalists cheered by Turner's investment MOSCOW -- Journalists desperate to keep Russia's only independent nationwide television network out of government hands cheered U.S. media mogul Ted Turner's announcement Wednesday that he would buy into debt-laden NTV. China demands apology, hints at desire to end crisis BEIJING -- As China pressed its demand that the United States apologize for a collision between a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet, China's foreign minister said Wednesday that Beijing wants a dignified resolution ''as soon as possible.''

This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Benny Bell (born Benjamin Samberg or Benjamin Zamberg, March 21, 1906 – July 6, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter who reached popularity in the 1940s, with a comeback in the 1970s. He is particularly remembered for his risqué but cheerfully optimistic songs. Benny Bell was born to an immigrant Jewish family in New York City. His father wanted him to be a rabbi, but after trying various odd jobs including self-employed street peddler, he decided to pursue a career in vaudeville and music, sometimes under the names Benny Bimbo and Paul Wynn. His first record, "The Alimony Blues" (backed with "Fast Asleep on a Mountain"), for Plaza Records on December 16, 1929 was a comical song about preferring to spend time in jail rather than pay alimony. He went on to write approximately 600 songs, most of which are documented in his many notebooks, ledgers and copyright papers. In addition to songs with English lyrics, he also wrote and recorded in Yiddish and Hebrew, sometimes mixing two or even three languages in one song (e.g. "Bar Mitzvah Boy" which uses all three). According to liner notes on his albums, these multiple-language songs are intended to be understood by listeners who speak any one of the languages used. Bell founded his own record company under a variety of names: Bell Enterprises, Madison Records, Zion Records, and Kosher Comedy Records, to release his own material. He also wrote and recorded commercial jingles for radio. His jingle for Lemke's cockroach powder, sung in a mixture of Yiddish and English, has been released on record. Bell enjoyed writing risqué lyrics, and in 1939 he was advised that he could make so-called party records with "blue" lyrics, primarily for use in juke boxes in cocktail bars. He entered into this endeavour using his self-established record company, while continuing to make ethnic and mainstream comedy records. In an interview on the Dr. Demento radio program, Bell stated that he kept his straight and blue careers separate for many years, the latter being a secret to most of his fans and associates. His eventual fame would come mostly from his risqué material. His first juke box release was a hot jazz arrangement of a traditional risqué drinking song, "Sweet Violets", but his first big success in this field was an original song, "Take a Ship for Yourself". In 1946, he released his three highest-selling songs: "Take a Ship for Yourself," "Pincus the Peddler" which drew from his personal experience in the trade, and the notorious "Shaving Cream". "Pincus the Peddler" became Bell's signature tune, despite the title character's disreputable violent tendencies, and it concludes with his deportation to Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg, Russia). Each verse in "Shaving Cream" ends with a mind rhyme of shit, the initial sh- segueing into the refrain, "Shaving Cream, be nice and clean..." The same technique was used in "Sweet Violets" and many other songs that he recorded—the category is known among folklorists as "teasing songs". Other songs written by Bell include "Without Pants", "My Grandfather Had a Long One", "The Girl From Chicago", "The Ballad of Ikey and Mikey", "My Condominium", "I'm Gonna Give My Girl a Goose for Thanksgiving", "There Ain't No Santa Claus", and "Everybody Wants My Fanny". He continued recording and releasing records into the 1980s, but he remained little-known beyond New York City until the 1970s when "Shaving Cream" was played regularly on the Dr. Demento radio program, leading to its re-issue as a single in 1975 on the Vanguard Records label, along with a similarly titled album. The single reached #30 in the US and #57 in Australia. Around this time, Bell was still writing new songs about current topics such as disco music and the Watergate scandal. Bell continued self-releasing vinyl albums into the 1980s, and they often resemble 1950s releases, featuring somewhat plain covers with the same graphics (an array of laughing heads) re-used for decades, or with no art except a plain cover with hole to view the label. He continued to issue 10-inch albums long after that format was considered obsolete. Some albums have new spoken jokes edited into breaks in older songs as "asides", a technique Bell had been using since the 1950s, and some songs contain comic interruptions made over several decades. In the early 1990s Bell appeared at the Bottom Line with Doctor Demento and Weird Al Yankovic. He also appeared on MTV A book called "Grandpa Had a Long One: Personal Notes on the Life, Career and Legacy of Benny Bell," which is a combination biography and memoir written by his grandson, Joel Samberg, was published by BearManor Media and released in 2009. It is available from the publisher and from Amazon.com. Joel Samberg, who collaborated with his grandfather on a few recordings and videos in the 1970s and 1980s, also recorded several new versions of "Shaving Cream" after Benny Bell's death, using his grandfather's music with updated lyrics. These include "Presidential Shaving Cream," which skewered the presidential and vice presidential candidates in 2008, and "Holiday Shaving Cream," which paints potent pictures of Christmas and Chanukkah traditions. Both can be found on YouTube. In 1995 Bell suffered a fall and was admitted to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, New York. While recuperating Bell met Fred Schuepfer, his roommate, who with his friends 20 years previously had listened to and enjoyed many of Bell's songs on the Dr. Demento Show. Bell entertained Schuepfer by singing several of the songs and he recounted many anecdotes about the New York music scene of the 1940s, including meetings with Irving Berlin. Bell died in New York in July 1999, at the age of 93. His son Charles Samberg donated the vast majority of Bell's works to Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL. - Kosher Comedy (Kosher Comedy Records, 1956) - Kosher Comedy (Zion Records 126, 1956, not the same album as above) - Kosher Comedy (Madison Records 120, 1960, not the same album as either of the above) - Jewish Comedy (1st Issue) (Bell Enterprises, 10-inch album) - Jewish Comedy (2nd Issue) (Bell Enterprises, 10-inch album, essentially a "volume 2") - Jewish American Novelty Tunes (Bell Enterprises, 1958) - Pincus the Peddler (Zion Records 234, 1959, re-issue of above, as Benny Bell and the Agony Trio) - To the Bride: "G'zint mit Parnussa" (Zion Records 252, as Benny Bell and the Brownsville Klezmers) - Laugh Along With Pincus (Madison Records 523, re-issued with different cover in 1972) - The Opera Star (Comic Opera) (Bell Enterprises 900, 10-inch album) - Be a Comedian (1958, re-issued as Bell Enterprises BB-801, 1961, 10-inch instructional album) - Shaving Cream (Vanguard Records VSD-79357, 1975) - Showtime (Bell Enterprises 303, 1977, jokes by Slim Jim and songs by Benny Bell) - The Hilarious Musical Comedy of Benny Bell (volumes 1 to 8, Benny Bell Records, on CD) - Benny Bell: Another Close Shave (Benny Bell, 2005) - Joel Samberg, "Grandpa Had a Long One: Personal Notes on the Life, Career and Legacy of Benny Bell," BearManor Media, 2009 - Roland L. Smith, Goldmine Comedy Record Price Guide. Krause Publications, 1996. - Ronald L. Smith, Comedy Stars at 78 RPM: Biographies and discographies of 89 American and British recording artists, 1896-1946. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1998. - The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Third edition. Edited by Colin Larkin. London: MUZE, 1998. Grove's Dictionaries, New York, 1998. - Biography at Florida Atlantic University Archived 2007-07-10 at the Wayback Machine. - Thedeadrockstarsclub.com - accessed July 2010 - Spoken introduction by Benny Bell on The Hilarious Musical Comedy of Benny Bell - Traditional Ballad Index - Hospital records, Good Samaritan Hospital and Fred Schuepfer - "Allmusic ((( Benny Bell: Another Close Shave > Overview )))". - Benny Bell at Allmusic website - Judaica Sound Archives at Florida Atlantic University, with online recordings courtesy of Bell's estate

READ THIS FIRST PART IF NOTHING ELSE; How to expose a crypto jew; Often the easiest and best way to spot a “crypto” jew in your midst is simply by talking about jews! Use a couple of light jabs while surrounded by people and see if anyone swings back in “defense”, say something like “did you know that jews have cheated, lied and thieved their ways into owning all the news media.”? Or; “Hollywood is owned by jews, so how does that fit in with all the satanism in Hollywood films and music”? Or; “I just heard that jews did 9/11, not muslims!” or as in the case described below, simply calling them a satanic jew! This was an email originally intended for private distribution among family only. However, it is far too important of a subject to be limited as such. So, For the Record . . . . On 7/5/14 while disgracefully drunk, John Rambadt finally freely admitted to being a satan worshiping loser. This occurred during a very heated “discussion” on his part which I had on speaker phone where both Peggy and Kelsey were witnesses to the entire conversation. The call began with my attempting to reach Amy who, like both Julie and Vicki has been mysteriously and callously avoiding speaking to Peggy. They won’t admit it, but I know it’s out of fear over our corrupt, satanic jew ran government. There’s no other sound reason but a commonly used excuse is that they’re mad at her for not going on a sister weekend 3 years ago. Never mind the fact that Amy has missed no less than 5 of such get togethers without persecution nor that Peggy had nearly broken her neck working in the garage and was in severe pain. Also, it was at a time when I was writing my first book regarding the jewish problem and we were under heavy surveillance by the CIA. We gave up flying nearly 20 years ago and with her neck being sore, she decided driving 14 hours didn’t sound like a good idea and it was best that Peggy stay home. Anyway, the point of the call to Amy was I sought to arrange a meeting/visit by Peggy which Peggy and I were then discussing with Amy when a belligerent John came roaring into the background screaming at Amy, asking “who the hell” she was talking to. When she told him it was us, he demanded that she hang up on her sister. Amy was screaming back at him saying no but after several minutes of this John forcibly took the phone from Amy’s hands and began a fanatical tirade of insults and death threats to me for doing absolutely nothing. Well, other than writing my books and outing his worthless ilk that is. This is nothing new though, all I can do is laugh at the 100s of death threats I’ve received over the last several years since I began exposing these worthless satanic turds online. It’s funny how certain people haven’t been in contact with me from that point forward. Coincidentally, they’re mostly just all the assholes I’ve ever known! John boys’ pugnacious diatribe got even more heated when I asked him if he worshipped satan and he said “ya, so what”! I then told him I’d always suspected so and that he was an evil, lying, satanic piece of shite which of course hurt his little feelers because it’s the absolute truth. All satan worshiping jews are professional liars and sideshow cheats, most are masons which I’m sure Johnny is as well. So, it turns out that this filthy satanic jew has been lying to the entire Dyk family since day one when he crept into the mix under the guise of being a Christian! But he’s not, he’s of the synogogue of satan. (Sound familiar? Read Rev 2:9 & 3:9 for the original version of the satanists lie!) Unfortunately assuming the roles of others such as Christians, Muslims, Mormons, Atheists and etc. is a very common and well rehearsed ploy used by all jews, not just satanic ones, going back at least to the 1300s when they were vanquished from Europe. It’s how they avoided being hung and burnt at the stake for being satanic losers while they were banned for around 400 years. Hence, John is what’s known as a “crypto jew”. Thankfully his children aren’t jews (no, not even half, a jew by blood is only a jew if the mother is jewish). So, all of Amys’ children are gentiles, Goyim to John. Peggy was so shaken up by the event and Johns hysterical death threats that she was extremely concerned for Amys’ safety. (We know they can’t hurt us) So, we called the cops to do a welfare check and let them know John was Ram-badtshit crazy. He was so irate and belligerent that he couldn’t finish a sentence! I’m talking totally, totally out of control. Peggy said she’s never witnessed anyone acting as evil as this nutjob was. I’d have to agree but wasn’t surprised. It seems little johnny has always had it out for me going back 15 years ago when he threatened to kill me while we were all out for dinner. This was after a day of kayaking and general horseplay when he was trying his darnedest to eek out some sort of a dominant role over me, which he repeatedly failed at, hence his desperate threat which only grew into more hatred for me when I laughed at him. You see, all jews think they’re better than gentiles who they refer to as “Goyim” which means nation, cattle and/or locusts. Female Goys are dirty, filthy “Shiksas” and male Goys are rotten “Shkotzim”. That’s what jews like Johnny truly think of gentiles and why he/they can’t stand the fact that gentiles are often smarter than he/they are and better at most anything, especially works requiring creativity. In Johnny’s case, we add to the mix the fact that I’ve been successful as a lifelong, self starting, self learned, entrepreneur which “Silver Spooner” jewboys like Johnny can’t stand. All Goyim are supposed to be slaves to the jew, and in fact most are. As many of you are aware, his business was created and left to him by his Dad. And while he wasn’t smart or resourceful enough to start the business himself, he does somehow manage to get plenty of major, multi-million dollar contracts from all the big jew owned companies like Walmart and Disney. He’s admitted his jealousy to me in the past but I never thought anything of it until now when we’re finally putting all of the pieces together. So, now we know why Johnny has always been the black sheep of the Dyk sisterhood and family. Peggy and I are still very concerned for Amy’s safety which I hope this email will go some distance in assuring while the 100 or so relatives are awakening to this parasitic infection. I can only hope there aren’t more cases but hold no surety. Whom that hath ears, hear. All the Best, –End of original – Begin blog bonuses; Feel free to share this with everyone you know. Unfortunately, if you’re like most, you’re going to be finding out that some of your “friends” and even family members by marriage are crypto jews just like little johnny. My estimates are in the 20 to 30 million range in the US alone, but that’s just a fairly educated guess. It could be more but it’s highly doubtful to be less and certainly nowhere near the 6 million figure reported by the jews themselves. And while not all jews are satanic degenerates like Johnny, we don’t know the number who are so this is an obvious problem in terms of where we’re to “house them” during investigation, deportation and/or prosecution of every last one of satans’ lil helpers. Real Jews prepare to help us help you! I keep thinking those 900 FEMA camps around North America might be just the ticket! In fact, I keep thinking that might be the entire angle behind the satanic jew agenda that’s been used time and time again across history to safely move satanic jews to different countries just as in the case of moving them from Europe to America during the German pre-war era. About 1.5 million Real Jews and 50 to 70 million Christians were killed but very few satanic jews were. The records show that an estimated 4.5 to 6 million of them came to America! Here’s a pic of some terribly abused satanic jews being shipped to Palestine from Buchenwald Concentration Camp near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937; By the way, most don’t know it but the concentration camps were actually “work camps” fully furnished with hospitals, schools and gyms for the jews. They were exactly what our government is calling “Internment and Resettlement” camps or FEMA camps! Back then, the jews filled the boats, trains and plains bound for the US, their new homeland and now it would seem they’re readying to “move along” once again. Maybe to Israel, China, India, the Moon??? I don’t know but I say we nip their attempt to flee without justice in the bud this time. The days of the stinking satanic jews are numbered on earth. These are “End Times” and the world is about to get a whole lot better in every manner you can imagine!!! Here’s an old pic of the family, Peggy and I are on the left, Amy and the thudpucker john himself are on the right; Kelsey noticed a super creepy thing about that pic, did you? . . . . . Why is Johns’ hand on his brother in laws’ knee??? Masons, satanists and jews are all into homosexuality!!! As far as I know, Gordy didn’t even care for John much back then and he certainly looks uncomfortable with it. He’s the only one in the pic who’s not smiling. WTF is going on here? I need answers on this one. But since I probably won’t get any, I’ll postulate it is part of a mental control method using the “imposition” portion of Materialism, Imposition and Destruction which satanic jews utilize to oppress the masses. My guess is that Johnny has something on Gordy and this is being done to re-enforce control/dominance. And while that sounds crazy even to me, I cannot discount it. When it comes to satanists, anything goes. When they say “Do What Thou Will”, they mean it, at any costs. Here’s a more recent pic of what this smug, POS looks like after licking satans ass for 15 more years; Johnny and his satanic pals better enjoy their ill gotten gains because their house of cards is about to fall. God is real, this loser’s going to jail, then hell. How to expose a satanic jew . . . . . (Illustration by Kelsey Scott) Note the facts that John has been lying to the family for 25 years and that he’s not just claiming to be a jew, he’s claiming to be a SATANIC jew. That means he’s not deceived by our satanic government, media or financial system, he’s part of it. These evil, murderous degenerates are knowingly and willingly acting together in doing unthinkable evils everyday while laughing at everyone around them for being so stupid. And while that “everyone” includes Real Jews and Gentiles alike, it is the Real Jews who should be the most upset, embarrassed and disgusted for being taken on such a ride. Now, I must say there is some theorizing going on in this post but the guts of it are 100% factual. We’ve got a serious parasitic infection going on in America and you’re going to find that every community around, including yours is ground zero. Exposing these evil, satanic liars and bringing them to justice is all that matters now. Pass it on . . . please send this article to someone you know

Tuesday, April 30, 2013 How come כל צרוע וכל זב (excuse the expression) gets his or her shiurim on קול הלשון but Chabad is TOTALLY blacklisted? All I see in Hebrew is some Shiurim in תניא from Reb Itche Mayer Morgenshterin, and in Yiddish we have some shiurim from one Reb Menachem Erlanger. B'kitzer, if there is Chabad it's from non-Chabad sources. Monday, April 29, 2013 Sunday, April 28, 2013 A letter from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, זצוקללה"ה נבג"מ זי"ע to Reb Yitzchok Dubov of Manchester, England, where among other things he speaks about the יום סגולה ל"ג בעומר, where to some people it's just another day.... See 'אות ה - but the Rebbe is מלמד זכות on them too, I guess. Saturday, April 27, 2013 Yes, you אויפגעקלערטע חברה, it is! But the truth is, it's not about Lag BaOmer, now is it? You just found a topic you think you can be right about. But you have general issues with the veracity of Jewish customs and laws. Thursday, April 25, 2013 Read the left sidebar, please. Needless to say he wasn't a big fan of it, even if his zeide, the Baal HaLeshem, was a big mekubal. But then again, he wasn't a big fan of much anything, other than the גמרא. Wednesday, April 24, 2013 Watch it here, (for non-Youtube users) The first depressing thing is that N Gottlieb is still on the warpath, not with blogs and such, but with clips and leitzim. It depresses you because who knows what he'll force these poor Rabbonim to do. Nobody wants to be left of this "historic" asifa; they think this is Mihalovic, 1866. Then there are the "brilliant" solutions that some of them offer ------ מה נאמר ומה נדבר, it's poshut embarrassing. But Gottlieb is persistent, he's terribly embarrassed that he even, nebach, has to speak about such lowly things at these meetings, but he's doing it for all of us, he's saving our generations. הצלת הדורות. Don't get me wrong, there's a problem and we need to deal with it, but it's not very reassuring to see what is being done. Maybe the Litvishe Rabbonim asifa will have better solutions. Let's hold our breath and see. Tuesday, April 23, 2013 Monday, April 22, 2013 Sunday, April 21, 2013 Saturday, April 20, 2013 Friday, April 19, 2013 Thursday, April 18, 2013 FYI, "אדמו"ר אור ישראל מסטאלין זיע"א" was born in תרכ"ט, which made him all of 5 (!) years old at the time of the story. By the way, Reb Hirsh Margolis was the elter zeide of Dov Eliach, mechaber of ",הגאון" and no fan of Chassidim. Funny how these things work. Source: HebrewBooks, קובץ ביאו"י That's just too bad, Eytan. I realize that to get in with the Mishpacha crowd you need to get on the Lubavitch-bashing bandwagon, but you should've sat this one out, Eytan'le. Some things are best left untouched. DATA and the wonderful kiruv work they do, not withstanding. Wednesday, April 17, 2013 Tuesday, April 16, 2013 It's a shtikkel problem with Heimishe businesses. They cry about people going to the big department stores or buying online, but they do nothing to change their policies. Look at that big ugly sign right behind the cashier. yuk. At least make it less conspicuous, so that I don't think twice or three times about buying in your store. My G-d! It looks like a disclaimer before a risky operation or a non-FDA approved drug. I realize that it's a small out-of-town community, but still. Isn't it supposed to be a "shlichus" venture? Try and be a little nicer and you'll see how business will improve. Wednesday, April 10, 2013 Tuesday, April 9, 2013 Known in his St. Paul Lowertown community as "Der Roiter Rov" (the Red Rabbi), Rabbi Hurvitz lead the Sons of Jacob and Adath Yeshurun congregations from the 1910s through the 1950s. Though he was a traditionalist, he consciously used both English and Yiddish in worship and congregational gatherings to help validate his immigrant congregants sense that both languages and the cultures they represented were of equal importance in their new home. Sunday, April 7, 2013 Thursday, April 4, 2013 I have read your blog since day 1 and comment on almost every post that I have something to add. I have to confess I recently attended a mitzva tantz, and a saw the real dilution of a concept that once was holy and pure, and how it's become a show, no better than bringing in the kallah to the men and all the bochurim singing eishes chayil to her... Yet the people who practice these tentzlech would never, ever, ever bring the kallah in to the men during dancing... so I thought: where better than this choshu've blog to write about it? The father of the bride, a pseudo talented shnook, decided that it is his night, and he will suck up all the oxygen of the night, plus he has a young father that is nebech stricken with a terrible disease R"L, and a shver that nebech suffers from another debilitating disease R"L - the shver too is very young. The people are anoshim p'shutim with lots of Emunas Tzadikim and Emunos T'feilos... strange combination of Shtreimlech, thick Gartlech, but super baalbatish at the same time. For obvious reasons I cannot be more graphic than that. Now to the point; the father called up his daughter the bride to his mitzva tantz with a prepared booklet of grammen that he prepared on his own, and begins his performance. He spoke of many things, from the crying for his father's refua, which these fools believe that Mitzva Tantz is the holiest time of the year and can "po'el alles gits" at that time... Forget about all the days of Tishrei or Seder nacht.... and then he went on and on how much he loves his daughter and how much he loves his wife and how great she is, on and on... I haven't the pen nor the vocabulary to describe the deep romanticism that was displayed there - and besides, this is a frum, family blog.... - all in front of a big family from both sides.... Then the dancing started with the daughter in a nice beat, with crying and hugging, then danced around her and hugging again .... the crowd was mesmerized by this spectacle...obviously the cheap jokes started flowing and still are till today.... The women almost ran out of tissues and the badchen had a nice, long cigarette break... so Reb Hirshel, this is the future of these events for the upcoming shnooks of the baalbatish new generation? not by New Square or Vizhnitz-Monsey families... but It will be the norm in a certain segment, which is already not small and gets bigger daily, לדאבונינו. So does the Rav of Shopron the Baal "Toras Alef" guarantee that no Hirhur happened that night? Wednesday, April 3, 2013 ליפא שמלצר from bhol on Vimeo. No, not because he gets to be himself all the time. Not because he gets to wear a rainbow tallis, I have no such תאוה, believe me. For me a snow-white Chabad tallis with wide black stripes is much more of a תאוה, and I can wear it without looking like a fool too! But because he gets to hop a plane, literally, and go back to the alter heim to see where his ancestors lived and breathed. Maybe one day...

Rabbijn Maarsenplein is a neighborhood in The Hague’s city centre which used to be well-known for its Jewish population before World War II. Most Jews did not survive. A few years back the Jewish Monument Foundation moved the 1967 memorial to this location, giving it a more prominent space. It depicts a family seeking protection, with a Holocaust victim at their feet. I have posted about this memorial a few times. The name “Amalek” comes from the biblical verse from the book of Deuteronomy: Remember what Amalek did to you… don’t forget, with Amalek representing the enemy of the Jews. There are usually flowers at the base of this memorial, but this time the careful placement of a single white rose caught my eye: And a photo from the front:

Join Prestige Private Air and its elite members in an extravagant Airport Hanger Gala. The most reputable designers and talent will be part of the event, there will be everything from an opera performance to fashion by Sue Wong and numerous exotic performers. Enjoy a 5 course gourmet meal with mutiple menu options. Dj, appetizers, drinks, cocktails, and amazing wines from around the world will be provided. Be a part of the Red Carpet press event where the new flight routes will be announced along with the ribbon cutting for Prestige Private Air’s new international flight clubs. A large veriaty of media representatives will be covering the event, a few include; JLTV, Fox News, Variety, Getty, Jewish Journal, Samiras Network, Fox News, Destination Luxury and many more. Portion of proceeds will be donated to the Jewish National Fund. Over the past 113 years, JNF has evolved into a global environmental leader by planting more than 250 million trees, building over 240 reservoirs and dams, developing over 250,000 acres of land, creating more than 2,000 parks, providing the infrastructure for over 1,000 communities, and connecting thousands of children and young adults to Israel and their heritage

If you like it, save it! Save and organize all of the stuff you love in one place.Got it! If you like something… Click the heart, it's called favoriting. Favorite the stuff you like.Got it! In Food History 101, we're hitting the books -- to explore the who, what, when, where, and why of what we eat today. Today: Jealousy, revenge, betrayal, intrigue: the history of the pickle wars of New York City. When I hear the phrase “Pickle Wars,” I instantly think food fight with giant jars of Bubbies Pure Kosher Dills as ammo. The Lower East Side’s pickle wars are a lot less giggle-inducing, and a lot more covered in legal red tape. Or, as the New York Post put it, ever-so-lightly, “This tale of betrayal, madness, jealousy and rage makes ‘King Lear’ sound like a child’s bedtime story.” It all started back in the 1930s, when Essex Street in Lower Manhattan was a prime place for peddle-cart pushers hawking Jewish and Italian street foods to hungry shoppers. Isidor “Izzy” Guss, a turn-of-the-century émigré from Russia, sold pickles from one such pushcart, and in 1920 opened a brick-and-mortar shop on Hester Street. His store was hardly one-of-a-kind: at the height of Essex Street’s pickle phase (which earned it the unofficial moniker “Pickle Alley”) there were at least 80 other pickle vendors in business, according to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. But Guss’ pickles were the finest, or at least, Izzy was the most tenacious: his shop went on to outlive all the others as the last pickle supplier standing. Guss’ pickles have come to be known as an essential part of the neighborhood’s culinary past: “You can’t come to the Lower East Side without having a Guss pickle,” Dara Lehon, then-deputy executive director of the Lower East Side Business Improvement District, told the New York Times. So there you go: a man turned into a food legend. A real American Dream story of immigration and success. Everyone’s happy, right? Izzy died in 1975, and the business was sold to Harold Baker, who passed it on to his son Tim. However, though the Baker family assumed ownership, another pickle family -- the Leibowitzes, co-owners of United Pickle in the Bronx -- also had a close relationship with Guss’ Pickles, as the main supplier of their cucumbers. In 2001, Andrew Leibowitz (who calls himself “Chief Pickle Maven” on his business cards and website) and Tim Baker went into business together to open another branch of Guss’ in Cedarhurst, N.Y. But when Baker wanted to get out of the pickle business in 2004, to care for his ailing mother, he put the Lower East Side Guss’ Pickles up for sale. Leibowitz didn't buy it, so the pickle institution was bought by Patricia Fairhurst, a relative “newcomer” to the pickle scene, as the New York Times called her. Leibowitz claimed he had bought the rights to Guss’ name and recipes back when he and Baker went into business together; Baker denies it. This left Fairhurst stuck in the middle: when she decided to stop buying her cucumbers from his family’s suppliers, Leibowitz told her she was no longer allowed to use the Guss name. She retaliated with a lawsuit arguing that she was not infringing on any trademark, and all of the sudden, the defining pickle of New York City was a fragmented brand, and fast destroying friendships. In 2009, the lawsuit was finally settled: Fairhurst was forced to relinquish the Guss name, and made moves to open a new shop in Brooklyn’s Borough Park under the name “Ess-a-pickle.” She moved again in 2010, to Clinton Hill, and is now reportedly pickling on Dekalb Street under the moniker “Clinton Hill Pickles.” Leibowitz, meanwhile, continues to pickle under the Guss’ name, and boasts that his pickles are “Imitated But Never Duplicated.” So who’s right, and who’s wrong? That depends on whose pickles you like better.

Physics is a field dominated by some of the most famous names in history. One man that had a lot to contribute to the field of physics is one Peter Debye. He is a Dutch-American physical chemist and physicist who was also a Nobel Laureate for Chemistry. He was a brilliant man with lots of interesting projects and theories to share with the world. His Early Life Peter Debye was born on 24 March 1884 in Maastricht, Netherlands. His name was originally Petrus Josephus Wilhelmus Debije but records show that he eventually changed the name. Peter Debye went to school at Aachen University of Technology that was located in Rhenish, Prussia. It was just 30km away from his hometown. In school, he focused on studying mathematics and classical physics. He got an electrical engineering degree in 1905 and just 2 years later, in 1907, he published his very first paper that featured a most elegant solution to be used for solving problems that concerned eddy currents. While he was studying at Aachen, he was taught theoretical physics by Arnold Sommerfeld. Arnold Sommerfeld – who was a theoretical physicist – has stated that it was actually Peter Debye that he considered as one of his most important discoveries. In 1906, Sommerfeld took Debye with him to Munich, Bavaria where he was given a job. Debye was to be his assistant. It was in 1908 when Debye obtained his doctorate degree and submitted his dissertation paper on the subject of radiation pressure. In the year 1910, he used a method to derive the Planck radiation formula. Mac Planck, who already had a formula for the same problem agreed that Debye’s formula was a lot simpler. The year 1911 saw Debye moving to Switzerland where he would teach at the University of Zurich. The position opened when Albert Einstein agreed to take on a job as a professor in Prague. After his stint at the University of Zurich, he moved to Utrecht in 1912, and then to Gottingen a year after in 1913. He stayed a bit longer in Gottingen but in 1920 he moved to ETH Zurich. It took another 7 years for him to make the move to Leipzig in 1927 and then to Berlin in 1934. Again, he succeeded Einstein and became the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics director. It was during the era of Debye as director that most of the facilities of the Institute were built. In 1936, Debye was granted the Lorentz Medal and he became the Deutsche Physikalische Gesselschaft president from 1937 to 1939. Contributions to Science Indeed, he was a man of many talents and visions and this could be seen in his scientific works. The very first of his many major scientific contributions was in 1912 when he found a way to use the dipole moment to the movement of charges in asymmetric molecules. This was what led him to begin developing equations that related dipole moments to dielectric and temperature constants. It was because of this work that the units for molecular dipole moments are called debyes. In the same year, he went to work to expand on the theory of specific heat to lower temperatures simply by using low-frequency phonons. The theory of specific heat was first put forth by Albert Einstein. A year after he went to work to extend the specific heat theory put forth by Einstein, he again went to work on the theory of Neils Bohr on atomic structure. It was this time that he introduced elliptical orbits. The concept was not something new, though, since his teacher Arnold Sommerfeld already introduced it before Debye did. From 1914-15, Peter Debye worked with Paul Scherrer on calculating the effect of varying temperatures on crystalline solids and the X-ray diffraction patterns they generated. In 1923, Debye worked with Erich Huckel, his assistant, to develop and improve the theory of electrical conductivity in electrolyte solutions that were put forth by Svante Arrhenius. They did manage to make some improvements by way of the Debye-Huckel equation and while it is true that Lars Onsager made further improvements to their equation, the original equation is still looked upon as a major step towards gaining a better understanding of solutions that involved electrolytes. That same year, in 1923, Peter Debye went to work on developing a theory to help understand the Compton Effect. His Later Work Debye worked as a director of physics from 1934 to 39 at the Kiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin as the director of physics. From 1936 onwards, he also held a job at the Frederick William Institute of Berlin as a Theoretical Physics professor. It is important to note that in the years he held these positions, Hitler was already the ruler of Nazi Germany and also in Austria. Debye went to the US and went to Cornell University where he delivered the Baker Lectures. He left Germany a year later and became a professor at the same university where he also served as chairman of the Chemistry department. He held the position for a decade and even became a member of the Alpha Chi Sigma fraternity. He was granted US citizenship in 1940 and unlike the Debye of earlier years where he moved around from position to position, he actually stayed at Cornell for the rest of his career. In 1952, he retired from the University but that did not stop him from conducting research until he died. In some biographies, it was stated that Debye moved to the US because he refused to accept the citizenship that was foisted on him by the Nazis. Although some records state that Debye was actively participating in cleansing the Wilhelm Kaiser Institute of Jewish people and other non-Aryan people, this truth is still being debated. Peter Debye got married to Mathilde Alberer in 1913 and they had a son named Peter P. Debye. They also had a daughter which they named Mathilde Maria. Peter, their son, became a physicist and worked with his father on some researches. The younger Peter Debye also had a son who became a chemist.

Opera got a lot more interesting when Jake Heggie ‘s “Dead Man Walking” came along in 2000. Suddenly, a 400-year-old genre, best known for silly love affairs and sweeping comedic coincidences, put itself at the center of a serious dialogue on topical issues. Last year’s biggest premieres — “Oscar,” with its themes of gender discrimination; “Champion,” with its hard look at racism — trace their lineage to “Dead Man Walking,” which turned opera houses into forums for a debate over the death penalty. Central City Opera has the title on its summer season but the company is already pushing the conversation into the community, with its “Prisons, Compassion and Redemption Project,” a series of talks, readings and films kicking off this week. On March 12, Sister Helen Prejean, who wrote the original “Dead Man Walking” book about her counseling of a death row inmate, hosts a screening of the 1995 movie made of her story, at the Jewish Community Center in Denver. The next night, she joins composer Heggie, Arapahoe County District Attorney George H. Brauchler, defense mitigation specialist Greta Lindecrantz and victim advocate Dana Sampson for a symposium on crime and punishment at the Greek Orthodox Metropolis Cathedral in Glendale. A decade ago, opera companies rarely stepped into the political fray so directly. “What is great about the piece is that it has been able to open up a dialogue on issues of forgiveness, vengeance, law, life and death, and people are eager to engage in those topics,” said Heggie last week. “Dead Man Walking,” first produced by the San Francisco Opera, is one of the few recent works to have a vibrant life after its premiere. The title has been presented across North America and in such countries as Australia, Sweden and Germany. Heggie attributes the success to the work’s sound and simple construction and its libretto, by Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally, who wrote “Master Class” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” The piece is an opera, but it spans musical forms, crossing over to popular idioms like jazz, and that makes it accessible to broad audiences. “The musical world of the opera welcomes them in, it doesn’t keep them at arms length,” he said. Still, he is surprised at the way the opera plays out in communities where it is performed. “The opera itself is not about the death penalty,” he said. There’s no moment when the audience has to decide whether the convicted murderer should be executed or not. “We know the guy is going to die at the start, then we have to figure out the human part of the issue,” Heggie said. Central City will give its audience plenty of time to figure out such things, including an Interfaith Religious Round Table on the death penalty April 10 at Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver. Reading clubs at the Tattered Cover bookstore and the Denver Public Library will also take on the work. The discussion will be varied and inclusive, and leads up to the actual production of the work. That’s set for July 5-25 at the Central City Opera House. For info on the public forums or the production itself, visit centralcityopera.org/project online or call 303-292-6700. Ray Mark Rinaldi: 303-954-1540, firstname.lastname@example.org or twitter.com/rayrinaldi

|Year : 2011 | Volume | Issue : 1 | Page : 92-94 Classic Kaposi's sarcoma in Arabs - Widening ethnic involvement Department of Dermatology, Saham Hospital, Sultanate of Oman |Date of Web Publication||5-May-2011| Head of Department, Department of Dermatology, Saham Hospital, PO Box 582, Saham 319 Sultanate of Oman Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None Kaposi's sarcoma is a tumor caused by human herpes virus 8 also known as Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpes virus. Originally described by Kaposi in 1872, this tumor is recognized as an AIDS-defining illness. Classic Kaposi's sarcoma (CKS) is a relatively indolent disease affecting elderly men from the Mediterranean region or of eastern European descent, besides Jews in whom it is the most common. It has been also reported in the Arab population living in Israel. Kaposi's sarcoma has been reported in Arabs after kidney transplantation; however, there are no reports of CKS occurring in non-Israeli Arabs. This is first such article reporting two Arab patients who presented with CKS thus widening the ethnic and geographic area of involvement with this condition. Keywords: Arabs, classic Kaposi′s sarcoma |How to cite this article:| Kumar P. Classic Kaposi's sarcoma in Arabs - Widening ethnic involvement. J Can Res Ther 2011;7:92-4 | > Introduction|| | Kaposi's sarcoma is a spindle-cell tumor thought to be derived from the endothelial cell lineage. Classic Kaposi's sarcoma (CKS) occurs primarily in elderly men of Mediterranean and eastern European background with a male preponderance. It has been frequently reported in Jews and once in an Israeli Arab but has never been reported in non-Israeli and non-Jews. Though CKS after an organ transplant has been reported in the Arab population, ,,, this is the first report presenting the occurrence of CKS in two Arabs, residents of Oman. | > Case Reports|| | A 55-year-old male presented with nodules on the left leg, left buttock, and right hand for a duration of 1 month. He was a known case of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, ischemic heart disease and bronchial asthma. The nodules were 5-6 mm in size, pink in color, and turned violaceous later [Figure 1] and [Figure 2]. They were painful and tender, and firm in consistency. The lesions blanched on diascopy. Mucous membranes were not involved. Systemic examination, lymph nodes, and routine blood investigations were normal. HIV, VDRL, and stool for occult blood were negative. Chest X-ray did not reveal any abnormality. Excision biopsy from the hand showed spindle cells arranged in fascicles with interspersed vascular channels filled with red blood cells [Figure 3] and [Figure 4]. Pleomorphism was minimal but occasional mitosis was observed. Occasional PAS-positive diastase-resistant hyaline globules were seen. Hyaline globules and spindle cells were positive for CD34. Biopsy from other lesions was suggested in view of the ominous diagnosis, which reconfirmed the diagnosis. Patient's history was reviewed and no history of blood transfusion or organ transplantation or any immunosuppressive therapy was evident. The lesions were treated with liquid nitrogen cryotherapy. In the absence of any clinical reduction in the lesion size after several weeks, he was put on doxorubicin pulse therapy sessions under the care of the oncology unit. The lesions started regressing but 2 months later he died while still on therapy. |Figure 3: Histopathology shows ill-defined vascular proliferation in the dermis, (H&E, ×10)| Click here to view |Figure 4: Hyaline globules and spindle cells with interspersed vascular channels filled with red blood cells, (H&E, ×40)| Click here to view A 78-year-old male presented with pink nodules on his left leg for a few months. He was a known case of hypertension. The lesions were 3-4 mm in size and tender on touch. Systemic examination did not reveal any hepato- or splenomegaly, and lymph nodes too were not enlarged. All routine investigations including that for HIV were negative. There was no history of transfusion or organ transplantation. Histopathology from a nodule showed features similar to those in case 1. The case history review revealed that he was diagnosed as a case of KS and was treated with chemotherapy 5 years ago; hence this episode was clearly a recurrence. He received doxorubicin therapy again and showed regression of lesions. At the time of writing this manuscript, the patient had developed pain in the lesions and swelling on legs. He has undergone a third cycle of chemotherapy with paclitaxil. | > Discussion|| | CKS is a multifocal, malignant vascular tumor. Human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) also known as Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpes virus (KSHV) is believed to be a major causative factor for all clinical variants of KS. , KSHV was not done for both of our patients because of the nonavailability of this facility. The incidence of CKS has been reported to be high in Jewish populations living in Israel in a population-based incidence study, observed over a period of 20 years. The incidence of CKS is also high in populations of Mediterranean countries. , A report of KS from Turkey described 37 cases but did not elaborate on the ethnicity of their cases. CKS is common in people of Jewish origin. Cases of KS have been reported from Arab countries but all of them have been either associated with organ transplants or immunosuppression. ,,, There is only one report so far documenting CKS in an Arab population living in Israel; however, there is no report of CKS in anyone of Arab ethnic background living outside Israel. Although CKS is said to be common in the Middle East, various studies do make a mention of this in their introduction texts without substantiating it with any reference. We searched Pubmed, Google, Bing, and Google scholar with the search terms "CKS," "Arabs," "Middle East," and "non-Jewish population." This search did not give us any significant result. Hence we presume that the incidence of CKS in the Arab population is underreported. A lone study has reported CKS in Arabs living in Israel, where Arabs are a minority. Whereas the incidence of CKS in non-Israeli countries would give a more appropriate incidence and prevalence and whether CKS has racial or geographic influence. The documentation of CKS in Arabs is at the best minimal. This lack of documentation of cases in the Arab ethnic population in the world literature prompted us to publish this report and to contribute to the data on ethnic and geographic areas reporting CKS. | > References|| | |1.||Iscovich J, Boffetta P, Brennan P. Classic Kaposi's sarcoma in Arabs living in Israel, 1970-1993: A population-based incidence study. Int J Cancer 1998;77:319-21. | |2.||Rezeig MA, Fashir BM, Hainau B, Al Ashgar HI. Kaposi's sarcoma in liver transplant recipients on FK506: Two case reports. Transplantation 1997;63:1520-1. | |3.||Jabur WL, Mohammed Saaed HM, Abdulla K. Early non-immunological post transplant complications: A single center experience. Saudi J Kidney Dis Transpl 2008;19:651-7. | |4.||El-Agroudy AE, El-Baz MA, Ismail AM, Ali-El-Dein B, El-Dein AB, Ghoneim MA. Clinical features and course of Kaposi's sarcoma in Egyptian kidney transplant recipients. Am J Transplant 2003;3:1595-9. | |5.||Meng YX, Sata T, Stamey FR, Voevodin A, Katano H, Koizumi H, et al. Molecular characterization of strains of Human herpesvirus 8 from Japan, Argentina and Kuwait. J Gen Virol 2001;82:499-506. | |6.||Chang Y, Cesarman E, Pessin MS, Lee F, Culpepper J, Knowles DM, et al. Identification of herpesvirus-like DNA sequences in AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma. Science 1994;266:1865-9. | |7.||Ablashi DV, Chatlynne LG, Whitman JE Jr, Cesarman E. Spectrum of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, or human herpesvirus 8, diseases. Clin Microbiol Rev 2002;15:439-64. | |8.||Cottoni F, De Marco R, Montesu MA. Classical Kaposi's sarcoma in north-east Sardinia: An overview from 1977 to 1991. Br J Cancer 1996;73:1132-3. | |9.||Geddes M, Franceschi S, Barchielli A, Falcini F, Carli S, Cocconi G, et al. Kaposi's sarcoma in Italy before and after the AIDS epidemic. Br J Cancer 1994;69:333-6. | |10.||Gul U, Soylu S. Demographic and clinical features of Kaposi's Sarcoma in thirty seven cases: A single center report from Turkey. Eur J Dermatol 2008;18:80-2. | [Figure 1], [Figure 2], [Figure 3], [Figure 4]

Magazines & WebZines An Israeli-based monthly transgender magazine and website of transgender resources. Hebrew. An Israeli-based online magazine for gay men. Lots of erotic graphics and male nudes, personal ads, news and information. Mostly in Hebrew. Published by Yoav Kory. A magazine and website about Jewish women. English. Transgender Forum [Hebrew edition] The Hebrew edition and website of Transgender Forum magazine.

I’m so excited that a friend’s novel is releasing! Alison McMahan’s young adult novel The Saffron Crocus officially launches Dec. 13, but I’m giving you the jump on it—it would make a great holiday present for the young reader in your life. To pique your interest, Alison's doing a cover reveal. Isn't it a compelling cover? I met Alison a few years ago at the Historical Novels Society conference through the Blue Pencil Café. We got to be friendly and enjoyed hanging out during the costume pageant. Afterwards, we stayed in touch and she has twice taken my mediabistro.com online novel writing class although she does not need my guidance and in fact has given me some on occasion! I think she takes it just to have a deadline to be held accountable for. Alison’s a fantastic writer, and I’ve been privileged to be able to see her work in its beta stages. I know you will love The Saffron Crocus, and the other books she has in the works which will be finding publishers soon. I have a very special love of her Alice Guy Blache novel, for instance, still underway! Without further ado, here’s more about the book itself. Venice, 1643. Isabella, fifteen, longs to sing in Monteverdi’s Choir, but only boys (and castrati) can do that. Her singing teacher, Margherita, introduces her to a new wonder: opera! Then Isabella finds Margherita murdered. Now people keep trying to kill Margherita’s handsome rogue of a son, Rafaele.Was Margherita killed so someone could steal her saffron business? Or was it a disgruntled lover, as Margherita—unbeknownst to Isabella—was one of Venice’s wealthiest courtesans?Or will Isabella and Rafaele find the answer deep in Margherita's past, buried in the Jewish Ghetto?Isabella has to solve the mystery of the Saffron Crocus before Rafaele hangs for a murder he didn’t commit, though she fears the truth will drive her and the man she loves irrevocably apart. KUDOS for The Saffron Crocus I adored this beautifully written, passionate book. The Saffron Crocus is a glittering, thrilling opera of a novel that plucked my heartstrings and kept me reading at fever pitch. Brava, Alison McMahan! Encore! ~ Nancy Holder, New York Times Bestselling Author of the Wicked Saga WINNER: 2014 Rosemary Award for Best Historical for Young Adults |Author Alison McMahan| I know Alison was really excited about the cover for the novel, and rightly so. It was created by Mishi Bellamy. Mishi lives in both India and France, where she has her own art gallery, the Atelier des Colombes. Alison herself has a pretty interesting background: she has “chased footage for her documentaries through jungles in Honduras and Cambodia, favelas in Brazil and racetracks in the U.S.”And she's a fantastic plotter, thinker, critiquer and writer. I heartily recommend this book! Surely there's a teen on your holiday gift list who could benefit--or perhaps you yourself. Links to learn more: Webpage for Saffron Crocus:

Masada / NBC Universal ; produced in association with Arnon Milchan Film Productions, Ltd. ; produced by George Eckstein ; written for television by Joel Oliansky ; directed by Boris Sagal. - 0 of 1 copy available at Evergreen Indiana. 0 current holds with 1 total copy. |Location||Call Number / Copy Notes||Barcode||Shelving Location||Status||Due Date| |Peabody PL - Columbia City||DVD DRAMA (Text)||30403002112688||DVD - Drama||In transit||-| - Physical Description: 2 videodiscs (383 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in. - Edition: Full screen version. - Publisher: Port Washington, NY : Koch Entertainment, 2015. Originally broadcast as a mini-series on NBC television in 1981. Based on the novel "The antagonists" by Ernest K. Gann. |Creation/Production Credits Note:|| Music, Jerry Goldsmith. |Participant or Performer Note:|| Peter O'Toole, Peter Strauss, Barbara Carrera, Nigel Davenport, Alan Feinstein, Giulia Pagano, Anthony Quayle, Denis Quilley, Paul L. Smith, Anthony Valentine, Timothy West, David Warner, George Peter Innes, David Opatoshu, Richard Pierson, Joseph Wiseman. In the first century A.D., Flavius Silva, commander of the Roman Tenth Legion in Palestine, leads his forces in combat against the remaining Jewish Zealots who have taken refuge in the seemingly impregnable fortress of Masada. There, the engineering and military might of Rome faces the passion and ingenuity of Eleazer ben Yair and his people. |Target Audience Note:|| |System Details Note:|| DVD, Dolby digital. Emmy Awards, 1981: Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special, David Warner ; Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Limited Series or a Special, Jerry Goldsmith. Search for related items by subject |Subject:||Flavius Silva, active 1st century > Drama. Masada Site (Israel) > Siege, 72-73 > Drama. Rome > History > Flavians, 69-96 > Drama. Rome > History, Military > 30 B.C.-476 A.D. > Drama. Jews > History > Rebellion, 66-73 > Drama. Siege warfare > Israel > Masada Site > Drama. Palestine > History > To 70 A.D. > Drama. Masada Site (Israel) > Drama.

In "The Last Taboo: Why America Needs Atheism," published in the New Republic in 1996, Wendy Kaminer wrote, "Atheists generate about as much sympathy as pedophiles. But, while pedophilia may at least be characterized as a disease, atheism is a choice, a willful rejection of beliefs to which vast majorities of people cling." I have one small quibble: Atheism is not a "choice." For me, the only choice is whether to be open about my atheism or pretend to believe in a deity for which there is not a scintilla of evidence. The situation has improved significantly since Kaminer's piece twenty years ago. Much has been written about atheism, including best-selling books by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and others. A number of popular blogs now promote atheism and secularism. In the Internet age, people hear about many worldviews, not just the one in which they were raised. Every new national survey shows a rapid increase of atheists, agnostics, and those who claim no religious affiliation. However, atheists continue to be the group people are least likely to vote for. In 1990, I ran an unsuccessful, successful political campaign for governor of South Carolina as the Candidate Without a Prayer. I was unsuccessful in winning the election, of course, but successful in a state Supreme Court victory that overturned the provision in the state Constitution that prohibited atheists from holding public office. A similar provision is in the North Carolina Constitution, and some folks in Asheville tried unsuccessfully in 2009 to remove open atheist Cecil Bothwell from its City Council. In 2010, Wynne LeGrow was the Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives, running as an open atheist in southern Virginia against Randy Forbes, founder of the Congressional Prayer Caucus. LeGrow received 37.5 percent of the vote, the highest percentage for a Democrat running that year against an incumbent Virginia Republican. He details his experience in his book, Last Leper in the Colony. The complete history of open atheists in Congress is very short: former Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.). He acknowledged being an atheist after the Secular Coalition for America, of which I'm president, sponsored a contest to find the highest-ranking politician who so identified. Stark left Congress in 2012, reducing the number of open atheists in Congress from one to zero. This brings me to three politicians I assume are atheists, though it must be noted that they don't so identify. Barney Frank, an openly gay member of Congress for many years, came out as an atheist on the TV show Real Time with Bill Maher, but not until he had left office. Unfortunately, he later had a do-over saying his theological views are complicated by his Jewishness and he doesn't know enough to have a firm view on the subject of atheism. Frank also advised politicians not to be frank about their atheism. Bernie Sanders is an open socialist in the Senate and a presidential candidate. He identifies as a secular Jew. When asked on Jimmy Kimmel Live whether he believes in God, Sanders replied, "What my spirituality is about is that we're all in this together and it's not a good thing to believe that as human beings we can turn our backs on the suffering of other people." I have to wonder what God has to do with that. When I asked Sanders at a South Carolina town hall meeting if he is an atheist, he didn't answer the question but said he was a Jew. Jamie Raskin recently won the Democratic Party primary in the Eighth Congressional District of Maryland, virtually assuring him of victory in November. He is best known in the secular community for his response to a Bible-quoting state senator: Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible. Raskin received an endorsement and contribution from the Freethought Equality Fund PAC, a political action group founded by the American Humanist Association (AHA). After being described as an atheist, Raskin said he is 100 percent Jewish and doesn't use the "atheist" label. Raskin, a member of the AHA, said his views are consistent with the AHA definition: "Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity." If you are "without theism and other supernatural beliefs," it seems clear to me that you are an atheist, whatever your preferred label. Barney, Bernie, and Jamie have lots in common. They are secular Jews who don't like to talk about religion or call themselves atheists, and they act as if you need to choose between being a Jew and being an atheist. On the contrary, a recent Harris survey shows that the majority (52 percent) of American Jews do not believe in God. I admire all three politicians for how they have championed minority rights and separation of religion and government. People are free to use their preferred label or labels, but I'm disappointed when otherwise courageous politicians (and there seem to be precious few) do not have the courage to embrace the A-word, which is perhaps the last political taboo. How to vote Vote-by-mail ballot request deadline: Varies by state For the Nov 3 election: States are making it easier for citizens to vote absentee by mail this year due to the coronavirus. Each state has its own rules for mail-in absentee voting. Visit your state election office website to find out if you can vote by mail.Get more information In-person early voting dates: Varies by state Sometimes circumstances make it hard or impossible for you to vote on Election Day. But your state may let you vote during a designated early voting period. You don't need an excuse to vote early. Visit your state election office website to find out whether they offer early voting.My Election Office General Election: Nov 3, 2020 Polling hours on Election Day: Varies by state/localityMy Polling Place

Lillian Hellman: A 'Difficult,' Vilified Woman "Difficult" is probably the most tactful word one could use in characterizing Lillian Hellman. If ever there were an author safer to meet through her art rather than in real life, she was the one. Born in New Orleans into a Jewish family, Hellman came of age in the Roaring '20s, liberated by flappers and Freud. Hellman drank like a fish, swore like a sailor and slept around like, well, like most of the men in her literary circle, chief among them Dashiell Hammett, with whom she had an open relationship spanning three decades. She was, recalled one observer, a "tough broad ... the kind of girl who can take the tops off bottles with her teeth." Hellman acted like one of the boys in other ways, too. She was self-supporting and unapologetic about being paid what she thought she was worth. She even haggled over the use of her plays by high schools and charitable organizations. Hellman threw herself into the tough political battles of her time, actively supporting the Spanish Loyalists, joining the Communist Party (although she was evasive about her membership) and standing up to McCarthyism. Hellman was the most famous American female playwright of the 20th century, a celebrity that was vastly extended when she began publishing her memoirs. She was an icon for women of my generation, coming to feminist consciousness in the 1970s. These days, though, when I teach Scoundrel Time, Hellman's memoir about her appearance before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, I have to tell my students who Lillian Hellman was. Usually, none of them have ever heard of her. The eminent historian Alice Kessler-Harris has had that same disconcerting experience; so, she decided to write a biography of Hellman, in part to figure out why the playwright has been so deeply obscured. If Hellman is remembered at all, Kessler-Harris says, she's remembered negatively. Fellow writer Mary McCarthy prematurely and effectively closed the coffin lid on Hellman's legacy when she appeared on the Dick Cavett show in 1979 and famously pronounced about Hellman that: "Every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.' " Kessler-Harris emphasizes to her readers that this biography of Hellman — called A Difficult Woman — is a historical, rather than a literary or psychological excursion. Although she concedes that "Lillian Hellman is a juicy character [whose] life is filled with sex and scandal," Kessler-Harris mostly trains her gaze on the larger arguments over Stalinism and Hellman's art and her truth-telling or lack thereof. Kessler-Harris wants to delve into how Hellman was formed by her time and, perhaps, misremembered by our own. The result is a biography that's substantive, measured and a tad flat. Had Hellman the playwright gotten a preview of this biography, she might have advised Kessler-Harris to punch it up a bit, to not shy away so much from the melodramatic nitty-gritty details of her subject's messy life. Regardless of whatever audience Kessler-Harris hoped to reach, this is a biography for those who already are caught up in the contradictions of Lillian Hellman; it's unlikely to jump-start interest in the uninitiated, but here's one good reason why young women especially should care about the lessons offered by Hellman's life: Hellman, Kessler-Harris emphasizes, continued to be a bold creature of the 1920s long after Betty Boop became domesticated into June Cleaver. She paid dearly for that "disorderly conduct." Kessler-Harris does a superb job of showing how gendered — even misogynist — the criticisms of Hellman's art and politics were. William F. Buckley mocked the notion that Hellman was the "greatest woman playwright" saying that that was "the same as talking about 'the downhill champion on the one-legged ski team.' " Other critics derided her gutsiness as "butch" and made fun of her big nose and raddled skin. All her money and all her celebrity couldn't protect Hellman from being damned for the original sin of being a homely woman who was nonetheless sexual. My students, despite being so obsessed themselves with the concept of "hotness," would probably say things have changed. Hellman, wherever she is, is having a good snort over that one. Copyright 2021 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.

The Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion held its Ordination and Academic Convocation on Friday, October 29, 2010 at 13 King David Street, Jerusalem, Israel. Please click here to view the 2010 program. Rabbi David Ellenson, President of HUC-JIR, presented Honorary Degrees to Nurit Eldar; Javier Simonovich, Ph.D.; Cantor Professor Eliyahu Schleifer; and Tsvia Walden, Ph.D. Nurit Eldar, leader of the Tali (Enhanced Jewish Studies) educational systems, leader of Tali Bayit Vegan, principal of the junior high school division, and later principal, at Tali Beit Hinuch School, was awarded the President's Medallion. Distinguished Educator, Outstanding leader. Nurit Eldar was born and educated in Jerusalem, and has devoted many years to educational work in the city and to shaping its teaching institutions. She gained her pedagogic training at the finest seminaries, and later at the Hebrew University (MA in educational administration). As a pedagogic figure, her principal tools are the Bible, Jewish history, and the culture this history has created. She gained her BA at the Hebrew University, and later studied at the Schechter Institute. During many years’ work as a leading figure in the Tali (Enhanced Jewish Studies) educational systems, Nurit developed a profound bond between the Reform spirit and pluralistic schools, while coping with the challenges of Jewish education in the modern era. Nurit served as a school principal for sixteen years, mainly in institutions affiliated with the Tali system in Jerusalem. She began her career in this framework by taking on the difficult task of leading Tali Bayit Vegan school and shaping its educational course. Together with the teachers, she inculcated a broad cultural approach in the school, engaged in profound educational activity, and encouraged the productive involvement of parents and of the IMPJ and Tali institutions. By so doing, Nurit placed Tali Bayit Vegan in the first rank of elementary schools in Jerusalem. In 2002, Nurit assumed the position of principal of the junior-high section at Tali Beit Hinuch school, and in 2004 she became principal of the school. She coped with the challenge of steering the course of this school as it underwent a process of renewal, drawing both on the Reform Tali tradition and on the tradition of Beit Hinuch itself, in a process that responded to the approaches of the secular and traditional populations that attended the school. Throughout her time as principal of the school, she gave it the best of her spirit, wisdom, and infinite devotion. Her personality and approach influenced the cultural atmosphere and worldview of students and teachers at the school. Together with the staff, she developed a unique six-year curriculum in Jewish studies and thought – without neglecting fields such as physical education, the arts, cinema, and the sciences. Under Nurit’s leadership, Tali Beit Hinuch has made a crucial contribution to developing high-school education in Jerusalem. The school combines academic excellence with a strong special education component, a clear emphasis on Jewish studies and on the Jewish cultural experience, and the development of study tracks in technology and science. Beit Hinuch is a community school in which parents, teachers, and students are all involved in diverse levels of action, leadership, and creativity. Here, too, the school has become among the leading high schools in the city. Nurit has been awarded the Genger Prize for the academic year 2010/11. This prize recognizes personal excellence in the management of Tali schools and the enrichment of Jewish education. The prize will be awarded to Nurit in April 2011. After many years of admirable and pioneering work, Nurit has decided to close this intensive and demanding chapter in her professional life. On her retirement from the post of school principal, HUC grants Nurit the President’s Award as a token of love, admiration, and thanks for all her work. Javier Simonovich, Ph.D., urban community consultant and lecturer emeritus at Haifa University, lecturer at Jezreel Valley Academic College, and former director of the Leo Baeck Community Center, Haifa, received the Doctor of Jewish Communal Service, honoris causa. Consecrated Jewish Communal Service Professional Javier is a social and community worker, urban planner, and psychotherapist. He immigrated to Israel from Argentina in 1978 as an expression of his commitment to the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Javier holds a BA in social work from Haifa University, an MSW from Washington University in St. Louis, and an MA in Jewish Communal Service from HUC Los Angeles. In 2002, he received a PhD in socioeconomic planning from the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion in Haifa. Javier worked as a lecturer in social work in Haifa University for some twenty years, raising generations of community workers. Since 2003, he has worked as a lecturer in the Department of Human Services at Jezreel Valley Academic College, specializing in the fields of socioeconomic planning, organizational management, entrepreneurship, and organizational resilience. As an urban community consultant, he provides services for organizations in the public, private, and third sectors. In his work as a psychotherapist he assists individuals, couples, and soldiers who have experienced crisis or loss. He served in managerial functions and developed programs for children, new immigrants, Arab-Jewish coexistence, and numerous community projects in the spirit of liberal Judaism at Leo Baeck Community Center, which he directed during the 1990s. Javier is also active in a voluntary capacity in various associations committed to advancing social issues. For several years, he has continued to make a contribution to Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa as a member of the board. His multifaceted involvement in the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism and in various voluntary organizations in Israel has contributed to the growth and wellbeing of the State of Israel. Accordingly, he is awarded an honorary doctorate in Jewish community work. Cantor Prof. Eliyahu Schleifer, Director of Cantorial Studies and Associate Professor of Sacred Music at HUC-JIR/Jerusalem (1987-2010), received the Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa. Distinguished scholar and Professor of Sacred Music Eliyahu Schleifer was born in Jerusalem in 1939. As child he studied in "Cheder" and at the Yeshivah "Etz Chaim" in Machaneh Yehuda.. Then he went to "Tachkemony" school and the Hebrew University High School. He began his musical career as a Meshorer (Choirboy) and Junior Cantor at the "Shirat Yisrael" Institute, where he studied Hazzanut with the master of cantorial art, Cantor Zalman Rivlin. Concurrently he studied violin and French horn at the Jerusalem New Conservatory of Music. He then served as a musician in the Israeli Army Band and Symphony Orchestra. After his discharge from the army he continued his musical studies at the Rubin Academy of Music, Jerusalem and studied Jewish philosophy and Kabbalah at the Hebrew University. During the years 1964-67 he served as assistant to the ethnomusicologist, Dr. Edith Gerson-Kiwi, researching the music of the Jewish communities of Israel. He then studied at the University of Chicago where he received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in musicology. During his studies, he served as Cantor at the Conservative synagogue South Side Hebrew Congregation in Chicago. In 1976 he returned to Israel and served as lecturer at the Rubin Academy of Music, Jerusalem and senior lecturer in the Department of Musicology at Tel Aviv University. In his public capacity as musicologist he served a number of times as judge in the Israel Prime Minister's Prize for Composition and was Chairman of the Israeli Musicological Society. In 1981 he began his service as Cantor at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, Jerusalem sharing the pulpit with Rabbi Shaul Feinberg. From 1985 he served as teacher at HUC and two years later he was appointed Associate Professor of Sacred Music and Director of Cantorial Studies there. During his service as cantor and teacher, he wrote various liturgical compositions. In 2010 he retired and he now continues his research projects on Ashkenazi synagogue-music. Prof. Eliyahu Schleifer is married to the pianist Aya Schleifer and they have two sons, Doron and Uri, who are also musicians. Tsvia Walden, Ph.D., head of the Institute for Initiatives, Language and Computers and Senior Lecturer at Beit Berl College and Ben Gurion University, received the Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa. Innovative thinker, cultural activist and creative author Tsvia was born in Israel, where she lives and raises her children and grandchildren. She is a linguist specializing in linguistic development in children, literacy, and the use of computers. Tsvia serves as head of the Institute for Initiatives, Language and Computers and as a senior lecturer at Beit Berl College and Ben Gurion University. Tsvia devotes much of her time and energy to research and teaching, as well as to writing and editing materials for television that draw on the Jewish sources. She is a central figure in the field of Jewish cultural renewal in Israel; was among the first members of Beit Daniel, the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism synagogue in Tel Aviv; and among the founders of Kolot Beit Midrash for Jewish studies, where she served for many years as a board member and lecturer in Jewish subjects. Tsvia is also active on social issues and is a committed peace campaigner. Tsvia was among the initiators of the series Corner of London and Ben Yehuda, and is currently investing considerable efforts in the establishment of the Hebrew Space in Rishon LeZion, which will include a museum, school, and theme park. Tsvia's endeavors have won widespread admiration thanks to her dynamic character, her belief in her chosen path, and her constant effort to meet the objectives she sets herself. Her pleasant manner is a hallmark of her personality and her decisions, even in difficult times.

I’ve just got back from a fascinating and at times harrowing week in Rwanda and Burundi where I took part in a gathering of ‘emerging’ African leaders, organized by Amahoro Africa. The theme of the conference was ‘The Gospel of Reconciliation’, the 1994 genocide and its aftermath being the inevitable focus for a conversation that broadly addressed the inadequate response of the post-colonial church to the humanitarian, social and political crises that currently afflict East and Southern Africa. We listened to the barely believable stories of genocide survivors and visited a number of sites - churches in particular - where defenceless Tutsis had been slaughtered in their thousands. Even fourteen years after the event it is clear that beneath a veneer of micro-managed social stability anger, grief and fear are still intensely felt. The church has powerful stories of forgiveness and reconciliation to tell, but in the eyes of many Rwandans the church was largely ineffectual when it really mattered, when the frenzied mobs came wielding their machetes to exterminate the cockroaches. For background reading I looked at the troublesome Old Testament accounts of the divinely mandated Canaanite ‘genocide’. To be reminded that horrors of this nature are part of our sacred tradition certainly keeps us from moral complacency; and I rather imagine that there are some complex lessons to be learnt from the conquest narratives with respect to the witness of the church in situations of war and conflict today, if we can just get beyond our understandable moral revulsion. But I want to make a less controversial suggestion here, which is that we may perhaps make some sense of the destruction of the peoples of the Land within the frame of a ‘new creation’ theology. I have argued (for example, in Re: Mission) that the family of Abraham is conceived from the start as a ‘new creation’, a microcosm, a world-within-a-world, an alternative to the corrupted macrocosm. In marked parallel to the original creation of humankind, Abraham is blessed and told to be fruitful and multiply so that his descendants will take possession not of the whole earth but of the land that YHWH will give them. Whatever we make of the conquest as a matter of history, theologically the possession and filling of the land constitutes the completion of the new creation paradigm. So here’s the thought. In light of the analogy between creation and new creation the destruction of the inhabitants of Canaan prior to the final establishment of Israel as a land-based microcosm appears to correspond to the destruction of the inhabitants of the macrocosm on account of their wickedness and violence by means of a flood that, according to the story, covered the whole earth. The Canaanites are destroyed because of their idolatry and because their continued presence in the land would jeopardize the purity of Jewish religion (ef. Deut. 6:14; 7:4; 12:29-31; 20:18). The invasion is also a judgment on the Canaanites on account of their wickedness (Deut. 9:4-5). So just as the macrocosm is cleared of corrupted life before the ‘new creation’ of Genesis 9:1-7, so the land of Canaan is cleared of corrupted life before the consummation of the ‘new creation’ promise to Abraham. This is a large-scale correspondence. It seems to me to have an obvious coherence, but it would take more work to determine whether it has adequate textual support. I would cite one piece of exegetical evidence, however, at this point. The word nišmaṯ or ‘breath’ occurs in Genesis 2:7 with reference to the ‘breath of life’ in the nostrils of the man created from the dust; and in Genesis 7:22 all creatures in whose nostrils is the ‘breath of spirit’ die in the flood. The word occurs next in Moses’ instruction to Israel to destroy everything that breathes in the cities which YHWH will give to them for an inheritance (Deut. 20:16), and then in the accounts of Joshua’s subjugation of Canaan: ‘He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel commanded’ (Josh. 10:40; cf. 11:11, 14). So we have in the ‘genocide’ narrative a rather distinct echo both of the flood narrative and of the original creation of humankind.

I first read Anne of Green Gables in grade six. Growing up in a north Toronto suburb, I never quite felt like I belonged. I constantly questioned the rules my traditional Jewish upbringing demanded of me, which didn’t put me in good books with my most of my teachers. It also didn’t help that I developed faster than any of the girls in my class, being the first in my class to wear a bra. (I still remember the sting of some boy snapping the strap against my back. Strangely have forgotten the boy’s last name, but not the sting.) I wandered into a vortex of vicious girls, whose cruelty tested my resolve to ever trust that I would find (as Anne did) a bosom friend. Montgomery became a constant companion. Her books entered my life when I needed them most. Because Anne Shirley survived the injustices of adolescence: being wrongly accused of stealing Marilla’s broach, getting her BFF drunk, even being called “Carrots” by the cutest boy in school, Gilbert Blythe. (Sigh.) She showed Avonlea that she was, as Gilbert calls her, “a pioneer.” This was also around the time that Kevin Sullivan’s 1985 miniseries aired for the first time, and I fell in love (as many 12-year-olds did) with Jonathan Crombie. In later years my favorite novels became the Emily series, The Blue Castle and Rilla of Ingleside, but during my teens it was the first three Anne books that held my heart because she was where I was, discovering what she wanted from life and from love. During my teens it was the first three Anne books that held my heart because she was where I was, discovering what she wanted from life and from love. I became very interested in the connection between an author and her work, looking for any opportunity to bring Montgomery into my academic research. I used the first two Anne books (Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea) to inform my studies, and also 'The Alpine Path', Montgomery’s autobiographical essay for Everywoman’s World, in which she made a point of showing a direct connection between her fiction and her life. I somehow had acquired a copy of the first volume of Montgomery’s journals, and I lost myself in the research and never really stopped. When the opportunity came to write a novel based on Maud’s teen years, it was the perfect convergence of all the things I loved. I had written my first M.A. dissertation on the construction of Joan of Arc in contemporary children’s literature exploring how writers craft stories about real people. I had also started lecturing on Gilbert Blythe and the Perfect Man Archetype in YA literature, and was finishing up an MFA on Writing for Children and Young Adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. As Montgomery and Anne had always been part of my life, this novel was a gift to a loyal literary friend for inspiring me to write and pursue an education, and to be passionate about women’s history and writing. In a period where women were not encouraged to write or pursue and education, Montgomery didn’t allow her gender to stop her In a period where women were not encouraged to write or pursue and education, Montgomery didn’t allow her gender to stop her. Having to prove to her family she was worthy, she fought for financial independence and an education. The complex and contradictory creator of Anne Shirley was a pioneer, a bestselling author who used her fiction to highlight the strong connections between women, while simultaneously satirizing the strict Victorian and Edwardian conventions. With all of the new interest in Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, my hope is that my new YA novel, Maud, will give a new generation of readers an opportunity to get to know the writer behind the fiction. Because that is where the story truly begins. I’m thrilled that Bustle is participating in the exclusive cover reveal of Maud, a novel inspired by the teen life of L.M. Montgomery. Take a look: Images: CBC; Courtesy of Penguin Random House Canada

Forty years ago, “The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob” had French audiences doubled over in laughter. Gerard Oury’s frantic comedy of an anti-Semitic businessman who finds himself mistaken for a famous rabbi — don’t ask — smashed box office records. The timing was important: Oury’s anarchic comedy reflected the end of a 30-year run of dramatic economic growth, the end of Charles de Gaulle’s authoritarian rule and the end of the republican belief that in order to be French, one must not publicize one’s religion. A remake has just been made — with the difference that it is not a film, but real life. In early April, “The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Gilles” came to a close when officials from the French Jewish community forced the nation’s chief rabbi, Gilles Bernheim, to resign from his position. Bernheim, it turned out, was not the rabbi everyone thought he was. Moreover, the context of his fall resembles the events of 1973. Once again, most people are doubled over — not in laughter, but instead in disbelief. In 2008, when Bernheim became France’s “grand rabbin,” liberal French Jews sighed with relief. Bernheim is Ashkenazi, a significant detail for a community that has grown increasingly Sephardic. Moreover, though Orthodox, Bernheim presented himself as an advocate of a more “open” Judaism. He pushed for greater involvement by women in religious matters, spoke forcefully on behalf of the laique or secular values of the Republic, and dialogued with Muslim and especially Catholic religious leaders — so much so that some conservative Jews dismissed him as “the chief rabbi of the goys.” Bernheim thus surprised many observers when he veered sharply to the right on the question of the government’s controversial law that would allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt. Throwing himself in front of the media’s klieg lights, Bernheim published a 40-page pamphlet titled What Is Often Left Unsaid” in which the rabbi, who also claimed to possess a doctorate in philosophy, offered a secular critique of the proposed law. The thrust of Bernheim’s argument was that marriage and child rearing were structured by nature and that the effort to change this through laws based on abstract reasoning would have unpredictable consequences. While Bernheim’s unexpected stance thrilled conservative and largely Sephardic Jews, the rabbi alienated his liberal constituency. Many found his argument less philosophical than religious: One critic, Yeshaya D’alsace, found the pamphlet fueled by “the fear of an ancient and deeply anchored taboo concerning homosexuality.” Liberal French Jews were equally uneasy with the way Bernheim’s essay aligned their community with reactionary forces protesting the law, as well as with Pope Benedict XVI’s glowing citation of the pamphlet in one of his own texts — the sort of blurb few rabbis ever dream of, much less receive. Remarkably, citations — or the lack thereof — proved to be Bernheim’s undoing. A French academic noticed that long passages in Bernheim’s critically acclaimed 2011 book “Forty Jewish Meditations repeated word for word an earlier book by the eminent philosopher Jean-François Lyotard. At first, Bernheim suggested that Lyotard, who had died in 1998, had in fact plagiarized one of Bernheim’s earlier works. When this claim quickly collapsed, Bernheim instead fobbed off responsibility on a research assistant who had helped him with the manuscript. The Tribune Juive hailed the rabbi’s “courage” and dedication to the truth in acknowledging this mistake. But the worm was already deep in the apple. The scholar Jean-Noel Danarde who specializes in literary plagiarism, flagged other passages in Bernheim’s book taken from thinkers as diverse as Elie Wiesel, Jean-Marie Domenach (who, ironically, had been accused of anti-Semitism toward the end of his career) and Vladimir Jankelevitch. Moreover, [Danarde ??] revealed that one thing left unsaid in “What Is Often Left Unsaid” was that Bernheim hijacked entire passages from the writings of the reactionary Catholic priest Joseph-Marie Verlinde and Beatrice Bourges, the Pasionaria of the anti-gay movement. Just as intellectuals began to debate whether the act of plagiarism was, in this case, worse than the sources that were plagiarized, they learned that Bernheim was not what he pretended to be. His credentials as an intellectual were based on the belief, never repudiated by Bernheim, that he was an agrégé, or doctorate, in philosophy. Yet, after reporters began to inquire, the authorities at the Sorbonne declared that Bernheim never finished his degree. From “our son, the doctor,” the French Jewish community now wondered if they should refer to Bernheim as “our son, the charlatan.” In an interview in early April on Radio Shalom, Bernheim confessed to his misrepresentations, but he also insisted that he would not resign. To do so would be “an act of desertion,” a vow that, eventually, collapsed under the pressure of the Jewish authorities. As for what is more startling in Bernheim’s claim — its sheer chutzpah or his inability to understand that his “desertion” began with his lies — we will leave that to French Jewry to debate. What isn’t debatable, though, is the awful timing of Bernheim’s fall. There is no good time to steal other people’s words and thoughts, of course, but now is an especially bad time to do so. The political scene in France has grown toxic, thanks in part to a series of corruption scandals on both the right, involving former president Nicolas Sarkozy and the illicit funding of his party, and the left, with the former budget minister Jerome Cahuzac trapped in a series of lies about Swiss bank accounts. President Francois Hollande’s floundering government, contested in the streets by conservative and reactionary movements, has been unable to reverse either the withering of the economy or the burgeoning of unemployment, much less halt the European Union’s politics of austerity. In a word, rarely has the gulf between a government’s glowing promises and bitter reality been so great; rarely has the public thought so poorly of its governing class. Such a moment calls for moral leaders who stand above politics but also stand for enduring principles. That leader will not be Bernheim. Not long ago, in the Catholic newspaper La Croix, Bernheim lamented how “we no longer understand the notion of moral sense.” Robert Zaretsky is a professor of history at The Honors College at the University of Houston and is the author of the forthcoming “A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Pursuit of Meaning” (Harvard University Press).

We realy enjoy our saty in amarilis hotel. The is very clean and the size of the room is suitable.Breakfast Is very good .the location isperfect ,just 400 meters from main squar of the city.stafs are nice as well.the only problem for me is the Wifi that didn't work in the room,it just works in the lobby. - Official Description (provided by the hotel): - The Hotel houses 67 spacious guest rooms individually designed in Feng Shui Style, painted with fresh bright colors and all of them equipped with modern amenities that provide comfort and convenience. Accommodation in the Amarilis Jerome Hotel is provided in rooms of different categories such as Standard, Superior and Suite with Jacuzzi and smoking in the hotel is non allowed. The hotel's restaurant Amaryla located on the groundfloor is an important part of the hotel's Feng Shui concept and serves contemporary International cuisine. The food, being always fresh and delicious, is specially prepared with respect to healthy life style as well as gluten free and diary free food. Wellness Energia, located in the basement, features steam and infra sauna, heated benches, massage shower and jazzuci, is ideal spot for relaxation and regeneration. The restaurant and wellness center make hotel's Feng Shui concept complete.Flexible conference rooms can host up to 150 people and feature technical equipment, sound equipment, over-head projectors and wifi access. Of course, catering is available as well.The Amarilis Jerome Hotel is located in the very center of Prague within a walking distance from Wenceslas Square, Old Town Square, National Museum, National Theater, Jewish Quater, Ungelt, Municiapal House, Old Town Hall, New Town Hall, Astronomical clock (Orloj) and many others. ... more less - Reservation Options: - TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Booking.com, Odigeo, Agoda, Evoline ltd, HotelQuickly and Cancelon so you can book your Amarilis reservations with confidence. We help millions of travellers each month to find the perfect hotel for both holiday and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers. - Also Known As: - Amarilis Hotel Prague

Islam’s Answers To… Who Is God? Islam is a monotheistic religion, meaning that Muslims believe in one God, who is totally and completely unlimited and self-sufficient. In fact, belief in God as the only deity worthy of human worship is the central teaching of Islam. God provides guidance, and shows humankind the way it should go to fulfill its role in God’s perfectly ordered creation. God is the creator, and all creation relies on God for its existence. God is the source of order in the universe, and will bring those who follow God’s will to heaven. God is a God of justice, and will punish those who do not choose to comply with God’s will. Where Did We Come From? Muslims believe that God created the universe with a single command: Be. It was God’s will for the universe to be created, God said Be, and the universe came into existence. The universe was created in perfect order, and everything has its own purpose, pattern, and place, given to it by God, who is ruler of all. Only God is unlimited and self-sufficient, so creation, even with its God-created order, is limited, and, therefore, relies on God for its existence. Thus, the created world reflects the unity and perfection of God, but does not fully represent that unity and perfection. Humankind is the noblest piece of creation, and the rest of creation is in the service of humankind. Adam is considered the first man. Why Are We Here? Everything which God created has a purpose, pattern, and place in the universe: to proclaim God’s will-that is, all things should show that there is only one, all-powerful God who created all things. Humankind’s purpose in creation is to be obedient to God’s Will, showing that Will to be perfect and worthy of obedience. Unlike the rest of creation, humankind has the choice of whether or not to obey God’s Will. Therefore, although humans are the noblest of all creation, they often obey their own will and desires rather than submitting to God’s. Throughout history, God has sent many prophets to call humankind back to its proper place and role in creation. Muslims recognize the Jewish and Christian figures of Noah, Moses, and Jesus as some of these prophets. The Prophet Muhammad is the final prophet who calls humankind to submission to God’s Will. If anyone turns away from his or her pride, asks forgiveness for disobeying God, and accepts the truth of God’s Will, he or she is immediately pardoned, and returns to the pure and perfect (sinless) state in which all people are born. How Do We Know? The Qur’an (also spelled Koran) is the name of Islam’s sacred text and source of all religious authority. Muslims believe that the Qur’an (which means “recitation” in Arabic) was revealed orally to the Prophet Muhammad by God, through the angel Gabriel, over a period of twenty-three years. Muhammad memorized what he heard, and publicly transmitted the Qur’an in Arabic. Muhammad was illiterate his whole life and could neither read nor write. His companions, who knew how to read and write, transcribed the Qur’an onto parchment and stone tablets to preserve it in writing as well as by memory. In addition, many of the companions of Muhammad memorized the entirety of the Qur’an during the lifetime of the Prophet. For Muslims, the Qur’an is the ultimate source for truth and inspiration. The Qur’an explains God’s creation of the world, and is the source of Islamic law. It also contains vivid descriptions of heaven and hell to encourage Muslims to obey God’s Will so that they can be taken by God into heaven and not to hell. There are 114 surahs (chapters), each with the designation of Makkan or Madinan, depending on where Muhammad received the revelation (Mecca or Medina). The Qur’an was written in Arabic, and Muslims believe that Arabic is the only language in which its perfection can be fully understood, although several modern Muslim leaders have authorized English translations. The translation of the text verbatim is not possible because there is not a one to one correspondence of Arabic words with English words or words in any other language. Therefore translations of the Qur’an are only translations of the meanings contained in it. Such translations exist for many languages, including English, French, German, and Spanish and many more. In most cases the Arabic text is included because Muslims, no matter what they live, aspire to learn Arabic and read the Qur’an as it was revealed to Muhammad. What Do We Have to Do? For Muslims, the most essential part of their faith is turning to God and submitting to God’s Will. Islam teaches people to be faithful to God through prayer, through concern and charity for others, and by living a moral life based on the teachings of the Qur’an. A Muslim must perform five sacred duties to show his or her devotion to God. These are known as the five pillars of Islam. The pillars are: - The shahadah ( profession of faith). At least once in life, and by default many times a day, a Muslim must say “There is no deity but God, and Muhammad is His prophet.” - Prayer. A Muslim must pray five times a day. Prayers are said with other believers in a mosque-the name for a house of worship in Islam, or alone wherever they may be when prayer time arrives. Once a week, on Fridays at just past noon, the prayer must be performed in congregation in the mosque. Prayers are always said facing Mecca, which is the city where the Muslims believe the first house of worship to God was built. It is in the center of this city that the building known as the Ka’ba still stands, and the focal point that all Muslims face during prayer. Muslims face that same point from all locations in the world to show unity amongst the Muslims in worshipping God alone. - The zakat. Meaning “purification” in Arabic, the zakat is money that a Muslim must give to the poor. It consists of 2.5% of a Muslim’s excess wealth given out once a year to the poor of one’s local community. - Fasting. To fast, a Muslim must go without food, drink and marital relations intentionally from dawn to sunset in order to remember that God gives life, and that one must rely on God for all things. Muslims fast during the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. This month is called Ramadan, and during this month, Muslims do not eat, drink or have marital relations while the sun is up: they may return to these normal activities only after sundown and before sunrise during the night. - Hajj. The Hajj, meaning “pilgrimage” in Arabic, is an annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Once in his or her lifetime, “provided he or she can afford it,” every Muslim is to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. It was in that city that Abraham left his wife Hagar and his son Ismael. It was also the city in which they built the Ka’ba. The pilgrimage is to that city and to the surrounding areas where Abraham and his son Ismael were tested by God in the sacrifice of Ismael and tempted by Satan to disobey God’s Will. The pilgrimage signifies this sacrifice and Muslims make the pilgrimage following the footsteps of Abraham and his son Ismael performing the rites symbolizing that intended sacrifice and shunning of Satan from tempting them into disobeying God’s Will. Everything reflects the unity and power of God-the individual, and communities. Therefore, submitting to the Will of God means a Muslim must work for the good of the community. Serving the poor and disadvantaged is central to Islamic faith, because it allows a Muslim to grow in generosity of heart, so that self-concern and vanity will not get in the way of his or her submission to God. What’s Going On Today? There are an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims in the world today (Source: The 2011 World Almanac). It is one of the fastest growing religions, in terms of its increasing percentage of the world’s population. Just in this century, Islam has gone from having about 12 percent of the world’s population as adherents, to having almost 23 percent of the world’s population as adherents. Although Islam was founded in Arabia, and is still practiced primarily in the region now known as the Middle East, its presence extends all over the world. In general, Islam has not changed in over 1400 years. However, during its history, political differences have split the Muslims into two distinct groups, the Sunnis and the Shi’a. Sunnis are the followers of the Way (the way of the Prophet) and Shi’as are supporters of ‘Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law. Initially, the split was political in nature, having to do with the succession of leadership after the death of Prophet Muhammad. The group that came to be known as the Sunnis argued that the best and most qualified man amongst the Muslims should be chosen through a majority vote. The group who later became known as the Shi’a argued that succession should go to ‘Ali the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, who they believe was given that right by the Prophet. They also believe that leadership of Islam should stay within the family of the Prophet. Several ideological differences have further divided the Sunni and Shi’a, but most are still centered around the issue of leadership. Today, about 90% of all Muslims are Sunni, with the remaining 10% being Shi’a. How Do We Recognize It? Although Islam has no symbol doctrinally associated with it, such as the cross in Christianity and the star of David in Judaism, the symbol of the crescent moon (hilal in Arabic) and star is now widely used to symbolize Islam. This symbol has no religious significance in Islam and Muslims do not hold the crescent and star to be in any way holy or sacred. What If I Want To Know More? Check out these great links: What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims, by Suzanne Haneef. Teach Yourself World Faiths: Islam, by Ruqaiyyah Maqsood. A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, by I.A. Ibrahim. Britannica Online. Islam. Dr. Timothy Tennent, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary