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Oh come on, like you even had to ask. In this video (to promote Our Idiot Brother), our favorite former Bat Mitsvah DJ (tough luck, Michael Rapaport) pitches Harvey Weinstein on a few ideas he has to shake up the movie biz. (“You know how trailers are usually at the beginning of movies? What if we put ours right in the middle.”). It’s not that they’re the best jokes I’ve ever heard, but Paul Rudd, he’s so damned likable. He’s so charming that just being in the same room makes Harvey Weinstein seem downright decent, and that guy’s like the Jewish Darth Vader. Heck, I haven’t seen Harvey Weinstein this likable since he tried to whack Troy Duffy. What’s that? You don’t like Paul Rudd? Well in that case, I’ve got something for you: Why yes, I will take any excuse to post that gif, thanks for asking.

From firstname.lastname@example.org Tue Oct 24 21:04:32 2000 Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 22:59:06 -0500 (CDT) From: Michael Eisenscher <email@example.com> Subject: Saudis Blame US for Collapse of Peace Process CAIRO - Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz called Saturday for Arab leaders to set up solidarity funds for the Palestinians worth a total of one billion dollars and to cut all ties with Israel. He proposed setting aside 200 million dollars for families of Palestinians killed in clashes with Israel and the other 800 million dollars for development projects in the Palestinian territories. Saudi Arabia would contribute 250 million dollars to the two funds, said the crown prince, representing the ailing King Fahd at a Cairo summit. Also, the king would look after 1,000 families of martyrs of the intifada, he said, referring to those killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the three-week-old Palestinian uprising. The projected fund would enable the preservation of the Arab character of Jerusalem, Prince Abdullah said in a speech at the opening of the two-day summit in the Egyptian capital. Faced with Israeli intransigence and the failure of the international community to apply a break (on Israel), it is normal that we should break all relations with the Jewish state and cut any type of relation set up in favour of the peace process, the crown It is necessary to link any resumption of such relations to real progress, not only on the Palestinian track but on all the tracks of the Israel-Arab peace process. He attributed the collapse of the process to the United States, a rare criticism of Washington by one of its closest Arab allies in the region. The United States, sponsors of the peace process, assume particular responsibility in the collapse of the peace process ... The sponsor is supposed to hold to account those responsible for such a collapse, he added, referring to Israel. After the positive spirit and commitment of the Arab side to the peace process, we expected the Israeli side to be dissuaded from or at least reprimanded for its stubbornness and practices contrary to the principles laid out in the Madrid conference and in the agreements reached with the Palestinians, Prince Abdullah said. The US-brokered peace process was launched at a 1991 conference in the Spanish capital.

Culture Of The Moors The Moors In Europe By Runoko Rashidi It would not be inaccurate to say that the Moors helped reintroduce Europe to civilization. But just who were the Moors of antiquity anyway? As early as the Middle Ages, and as early as the seventeenth century, “The Moors were,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “commonly supposed to be mostly black or very swarthy, and hence the word is often used for negro.” Dr. Chancellor Williams stated that “The original Moors, like the original Egyptians, were Black Africans.” At the beginning of the eighth century Moorish soldiers crossed over from Africa into Spain, Portugal, and France, where their swift victories became the substance of legends. To the Christians of early Europe there was no question regarding the ethnicity of the Moors, and numerous sources support the view that the Moors were a black-skinned people. Morien, for example, is the adventure of a heroic Moorish knight supposed to have lived during the days of King Arthur. Morien is described as “all black: his head, his body, and his hands were all black.” In the French epic known as the Song of Roland the Moors are described as “blacker than ink.” William Shakespeare used the word Moor as a synonym for African. Christopher Marlowe used African and Moor interchangeably. Arab writers further buttress the Black identity of the Moors. The powerful Moorish emperor Yusuf ben-Tachfin is described by an Arab chronicler as “a brown man with wooly hair.” Black soldiers, specifically identified as Moors, were actively recruited by Rome, and served in Britain, France, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. St. Maurice, patron saint of medieval Europe, was only one of many Black soldiers and officers under the employ of the Roman Empire. Las Siete Partidas: Laws on Jews, & Moors In Europe In The Year [Marcus Introduction] Las siete partidas, the Seven-Part Code, is one of the most remarkable law codes of medieval times. The code, written in the Castilian vernacular, was compiled about 1265, under the supervision of Alfonso X, the Wise (1252-1284), of Castile. Its laws, however, did not go into effect until 1348, and then only with certain reservations From Castile they spread to all of Spain and thence into the Spanish possessions in the Philippines, Porto Rico, Florida, and Louisiana. The sources of this code are largely Visigothic, later Roman, and Church law, all of which were hostile to the Jew. This hostility did not, however, deter the Castilian state from protecting scrupulously the Jewish religion as well as the person and property of the Jews. The Jews and Moors, national minorities, were too numerous and too important to be mistreated as yet by the new Castilian state. LAW IX. WHAT PENALTY A JEW DESERVES WHO HAS INTERCOURSE WITH A CHRISTIAN WOMAN Jews who live with Christian women are guilty of great insolence and boldness, for which reason we decree that all Jews who, hereafter, may be convicted of having done such a thing shall be put to death. For if Christians who commit adultery with married women deserve death on that account, much more do Jews who have sexual intercourse with Christian women, who are spiritually the wives of Our Lord Jesus Christ because of the faith and the baptism which they receive in His name; nor do we consider it proper that a Christian woman who commits an offense of this kind shall escape without punishment. Wherefore we order that, whether she be a virgin, a married woman, a widow, or a common prostitute Who gives herself to all men, she shall suffer the same penalty which we mentioned in the last law in the Title concerning the Moors, to which a Christian woman is liable who has carnal intercourse with a Moor [i.e., confiscation of property, scourging, or death]. LAW X. WHAT PENALTY JEWS DESERVE WHO HOLD CHRISTIANS AS SLAVES A Jew shall not purchase, or keep as a slave, a Christian man or woman, and if anyone violates this law the Christian shall be restored to freedom and shall not pay any portion of the price given for him, although the Jew may not have been aware when he bought him, that he was a Christian; but if he knew that he was such when he purchased him, and makes use of him afterwards as a slave, he shall be put to death for doing so. Moreover, we forbid any Jew to convert a captive to his religion, even though said captive may be a Moor, or belong to some other barbarous race. If anyone violates this law we order that the said slave who has become a Jew shall be set at liberty, and removed from the control of the party to whom he or she belonged. If any Moors who are the captives of Jews become Christians, they shall at once be freed, as is explained in the Fourth Partida of this book, in the Title concerning Liberty, in the laws which treat of this subject [but Christians, including the Church, were allowed to own Christian slaves]. Moors & Arabs by Yvonne Clark When the Romans entered West Africa in 46 B.C., they saw Africans and called them Maures, from the Greek adjective Mauros, meaning dark or black. It is from Mauros and the Latin term Marues that the word Moor is derived. Since the inhabitants of North Africa were black, the Romans and later the Europeans called them Moors. It is no coincidence that the land inhabited by the Moors was called Mauritania and Morocco, meaning “Land of the Blacks.” In the beginning of the seventh century, the Arab prophet, Muhammad, began to preach the word of Islam. Consumed with religious fervor, the Arabs sought to spread Islam and conquer the world. By 708, the Arabs had overrun North Africa. Consequently, Moors in large numbers accepted Arabic as the national language and converted to their conqueror’s religion, Islam. Interestingly, hundreds of years later, Africans who had been enslaved by Europeans would again convert to their conqueror’s religion, Christianity. After the fall of the Roman Empire (fifth century), Spain was held by a barbaric white tribe, the Visigoths. Though they were Christians, their brand of Christianity was cruel and unjust. For this reason, Spain’s Jews, serfs, and slaves looked favorably upon the arrival of a new civilization in which they would be able to live free of persecution. Tarik, a great African chief, was given the rank of general in the Arab army and sent to raid Spain. On April 30, 711, Tarik landed on the Spanish Coast with 7,000 troops. His troops consisted of 300 Arabs and 6,700 native Africans (Moors). An ancient source, Ibn Husayn (ca. 950, recorded that these troops were “Sudanese”, an Arabic word for Black people. The Moors were unstoppable, and Visigothic Spain ceased to be. The few resisting Visigoths fled to the caves of the Cantabrian Mountains. Later in the century, the cave dwellers would venture out of the Cantabrian Mountains and reclaim parts of northern Spain. The Moors of Africa were the real conquerors. When the Arabs arrived, the hardest part of the job had been done. Instead of treating the Moors fairly, the Arab chiefs assigned themselves the most fertile regions. The dissatisfied Moors were not long in coming to blows with the Arabs. (The History of Spain by Louis Bertrand and Sir Charles Petrie – published by Eyre & Spottiswood, London, 1945, page 36). Ultimately, the Moors acquired two-thirds of the peninsula, which they named Al-Andulus. Al -Andulus was obliged to pay tribute to the Arab Caliph (King) of Damascus. As Al-Andulus acquired its own identity, its bond with the Caliph began to weaken. In 756, Al-Andulus proclaimed itself an independent state. Thus, its only links to the Arabs would be the Islamic faith and the Arabic language. The Moorish architectural remains in Cordoba, Seville, and Granada prove conclusively that these cities were more prosperous and artistically more brilliant than any Christian cities in Europe at the time. The Moors of Al-Andulus held the torch of leaning and civilization when the rest of Europe was plunged in barbaric ignorance. If Moorish Spain had been an accomplishment of the Arabs it would have been called Arab or Arabic Spain. Instead it bears the name of its creators, the Moors, i.e., Moorish Spain. Moorish culture was black in origin, bright in Achievement, and powerful in its influence on the rest of Europe. Yvonne Clark is a researcher and public lecturer currently residing in Los Angeles, California. She had recently returned from an educational tour of Bahia, Brazil, and has done extensive research on Moorish Spain. Ms. Clark may be contacted at email@example.com THE RACIAL MAKE-UP OF THE MOORS To the earlier Greeks, the Moors were “a black or dark people” (Mauros) and to the Romans, Maurus, a black wooly-haired people, known synonymously as Ethiops, Niger (Negro) and Afer (African). As late as the 5th Century A. D. Procopius, a Roman historian, called the people of Morocco “black.” In the ‘Chanson of Roland’ (Song of Roland) written after the Moors invaded France in 718 A.D., the invaders are described (verses 145 and 146) as “blacker than ink with large noses and ears” and with “nothing white except the teeth.” (Moriaen. Arthurian Romance No. 4, PP. 29, 39, 41, 103. 1907. Trans. by J. L. Watson). The Chanson of Roland states that the Moorish army was 50,000 strong and led by Marganice, Emperor of Ethiopia and Carthage. Their most valiant figure is Abisme (that is, Abyssinian), who (verse 126) is described as “black as melted pitch.” In this epic, the Moors are called Sarrazins, in English, Saracens. In the official coat of arms of Aragon, which has four Moorish kings killed in battle by Pedro VIII, king of Aragon, on November 18, 1096, all the Moors are shown as jet-black. (Biblioteca de escritores aragoneses. Blancas. Comentarios de las cosas de Aragon. Seccion histor. 3, p. 110. 1878.) Pietro Tacca in his monument to Ferdinand I erected at Leghorn, 1620, has four Moors in chains, which were modeled from originals, one of whom is instantly recognizable as a so Negro. (Raymond M. La Sculpture Florentine, XVIe siecle, pp. 182-3 1900). Pitch black Negro troops played an important part in the Moorish conquest of Spain especially under Abderrahman I. (757-787), who founded the independent kingdom of Cordova. (Troupes noires. Revue de Paris, p. 62. July 1909 (pp. 61-80). A rival Moorish leader “brought from Africa a great number of Negroes from which he formed a redoubtable regiment of cavalry in 1016” and took over the Caliphate. (Troupes noires. Revue de Paris, p. 62. July 1909 (pp. 61-80). In 1086, Yusuf ben Tachfln, who is described by Moorish historian Ali ibn Abd Allah as as “dark” and “wooly-haired,” (Roudh ci Kartas, p. 304.) and who was probably a Nigerian, brought in an army composed largely of “pure Negroes” (11. Ency. Brit. Vol. 21 (See SPAIN—Almoravides). Ibn El-Athair. Op. cit. pp. 525 Also pp. 457-60, 462. Scott, S. P. Hist. of the Moorish Empire, p. 622. 1904.) Another Moor, Yakub el-Mansur, recorded as “the son of a Negro woman,” (Roudh el Kartas, p. 304.) invaded Iberia in 1194 and made himself master of almost the whole of it. The guards of these Moorish kings were specially chosen for their size Negroes, “jet-black and of immense strength, recruited from the Atlas, Tumbuctoo, and Nigeria.” (Scott. S. P.History of the Moorish Empire, p. 668. 1904.) RACIAL MIXING BETWEEN MOORS AND IBERIANS There were white Moors, especially because of their part Berber ancestry and after they had lived in Europe for centuries and had been ‘whitened’ by mating with Europeans. The mixed racial make-up of the Moors is confirmed by their own writing: the Moorish historian Ali ibn Abd Allah, writing in the 1300s, (recall that the Moors were only finally expelled from Spain in 1452) said that a Moorish Sultan of the time , Mohammed ben Idriss is described as “blond” while Abou el-Hassan el Said had as mother “a Nubian slave . . . dark and of mixed blood,” (‘Aoudh ci Kartas’, by Ali ibn Abd Allah, translated by Beaumier pp. 25, 61, 190, 257, 288, 367). The favorite wife of Yusuf ibn Tachfin, was a white Christian captive, called Fadh-el-Hassen, or ‘Perfection of Beauty’. (Roudh ci Kartas, p. 224) She was the mother of his frizzy-haired son and successor, Ali. Abu Hassan Au, “The Black Sultan” whose mother was a Negro slave, had as his favorite wife, Shams-ed-Douha (The Morning Sun), a beautiful white captive. (Scott-O’Connor, V. C. Vision of Morocco, pp. 99-100. 1923). Of the three Moorish kings killed in the battle of Alcazar in 1578, two were mulattoes and one, an unmixed Negro, Mulai Mohammed “the Negro.” (Chenier L. Recherches Hist. sur les Maures, V 3, p. 328. 1787. (Muley Moharnet qui fut surnomme’ le Negre parce qu’il ‘etait fils d’une Negresse). Even more interesting is how the Moors described their European foes: Sa-id of Andalusia (1029-1071) wrote the following of his White Iberian opponents: (T)hey “are nearer animals than men . . . They are by nature unthinking and their manners crude. Their bellies protrude; their color is white and their hair is long. In sharpness and delicacy of spirit and in intellectual perspicacity, they are nil. Ignorance, lack of reasoning power and boorishness are common among them.” (Kitab Tabakat al Umaxn (Blachere K. p. 36. 1935). ILLUSTRATIONS OF MOORS There are two sources of illustrations of Moors available to scholars. The first is those pictures drawn from the European side, and then those drawn from the Moorish side. From both these sources, the mixed racial origins of the Moors are apparent. One of the most quoted European sources is the famous “Games Book” of Alfonso X, the King of Castile (Northern Spain). Although this book was made primarily to illustrate chess and other games, it contains some interesting insights into the racial make-up of both Moors and Spaniards of the time. Coat of arms of Pope Benedict XVI From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The coat of arms of Pope Benedict XVI The coat of arms of Pope Benedict XVI was designed by then Archbishop Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo (who later was created a Cardinal) soon after the papal election. The coat of arms consists of a shield and external ornaments. A red shield mantled in gold and with a gold scallop shell; the right (for the bearer of the shield, the left for the viewer) part of the mantle has a moor’s head in its natural colour (brown) wearing a red crown and red collar; the left part of the mantle has a walking bear in its natural colour (brown) carrying a red pack tied with black bandsShield The shape of the shield varies from artist to artist. In the official rendering of the coat of arms of Pope Benedict XVI the shape chosen is that of a chalice. In heraldry, the herald and the person granted arms also have considerable leeway in the contents of the shield. By long-standing tradition this was the only place within the papal coat of arms that changed from pope to pope. Moor of Freising The Moor‘s head is an heraldic charge associated with Freising, Germany. The origins of the Moor’s head or caput ethiopicum in Freising is not entirely known. Typically facing to the viewer’s left (dexter in heraldic terms), it appeared on the coat of arms of the old principality of Freising as early as 1316. While there are several variations on Moor’s heads in heraldry, the one used by Freising and adopted by Benedict XVI is always crowned and collared. Generally, in this form, the lips, crown, and collar are always red, while the face and hair are brown and the eyes, white. If an earring is shown, it is shown gold. Some theories of its original reference include: The Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship -The Longest Unbroken Treaty in U.S. History The United States of America was one of the first Western nations to have a peace and trading treaty with one of the maritime Islamic nations on the continent of Africa. What’s more is that it is and remains one of the finest examples of Americaninternational diplomacy which happened during the tenure of United States Ambassadors Thomas Jefferson and John Adams Jr. In 1786, it became known as the Moroccan – American Treaty of Friendship. It was a treaty in which Moroccan Sultan Muhammad III did not mind signing, in spite of the economic and civic troubles which were plaguing but declining in his nation. Sultan Mohammad III was looked upon as being one of the most open minded Barbary rulers of any nation of Africa. It was also under Sultan Mohammad III, that the United States of America was recognized as a separate nation in 1777. In addition to that, Sultan Mohammad III saw America (along with some European nations) as Christian powers which could be lucrative maritime trading partners and a regular source of income which would make him less – dependent on services from a standing professional army to collect tax money and enforce authority. On December 20, 1777, Sultan Muhammad III issued out a proclamation which announced that all sailing vessels under the American flag could enter freely at any port located in the nation of Morocco. The orders, however, had to be given to the corsairs to allow Americans and European states without treaties to enter its ports and receive full privileges as those who held treaties with Morocco. And it was because of this treaty that America Republic became equal with other countries that had treaties with the Sultan. Did Africans Come to Americas With Columbus? Sep 20, 2010 – 10:59 AM Time Life Pictures / Getty Images Christopher Columbus is shown being greeted by Native Americans upon his arrival in the New World. New research suggests Africans may have accompanied the explorer on his ocean voyage. (Sept. 20) — Look at any historical painting or etching of Christopher Columbus and his crew arriving in the New World, and you’ll probably see a group of mustachioed Mediterranean types standing around in baggy pants. But new research suggests those pictures, as well as numerous historical accounts, might have left out another ethnic group that accompanied the explorer on his voyage across the ocean blue: Africans. Using DNA tests, archaeologists believe they have identified at least two people of African descent buried at the site of the first European colony in the Americas, La Isabela, which was founded (and swiftly abandoned) by Columbus in the late 15th century “Many African-Americans are today taught that their story in the Americas began with slavery, which really only kicked off in the mid-16th century,” Hannes Schroeder, an expert in bioarchaeology at the University of Copenhagen’s Center for GeoGenetics, and part of an international team examining the La Isabela remains, told AOL News. “If our results can be confirmed, they would show that Africans were there with Europeans at the very beginning and, in a sense, would be put on par with Europeans in that part of history.” La Isabela — on the north coast of what is now the Dominican Republic — was established by Columbus in 1493 on his second trip to the New World. His 17-ship armada dropped off 1,500 men (including Franciscan friars, farmers and craftsman) together with the livestock and agricultural equipment that would help them tame the land. Unfortunately, while Columbus may have been a great navigator, he was a lousy urban planner. La Isabela was surrounded by infertile land and sat in the firing line of hurricanes blowing in from the north and west. Famine, tropical disease and unfriendly locals killed some 1,200 colonists in the first two years. And in 1498, the colony was permanently abandoned. While tragic, the pioneers’ high fatality rate has left rich pickings for archaeologists interested in the lives and origins of the first modern Americans. Forty-nine skeletons were excavated from La Isabela’s packed graveyard by an Italian-Dominican team working under the auspices of the Museo del Hombre Dominicano between 1983 and 1991, and now — with the help of modern technology — those bones are starting to give up their secrets. Professor T. Douglas Price from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of Schroeder’s colleagues, recently attempted to pin down the 49 settlers’ birthplaces by analyzing the carbon, oxygen and strontium isotope ratios in their tooth enamel. These elemental signatures are locked in tooth enamel during childhood and vary depending on the diet, climate, altitude and local geology of a person’s homeland. Last year, Price noted that the isotopic ratios in seven of the skeletons suggested they could have African origins. La Isabela, once thought of as a solely European colony, was suddenly looking like a more multicultural venture. To try to firm up those findings, premolar teeth were pulled from the suspected African skeletons and passed on to Schroeder. He dissected the teeth and analyzed their mitochondrial DNA (small loops of genetic material found in most cells, which are passed from mother to child) to determine the individuals’ haplotypes (clusters of genetic markers that tend to differ between human populations). Schroeder discovered that two of the seven carried haplotypes most frequently found in sub-Saharan Africans. He says it’s possible that the bodies could have belonged to Spaniards with African ancestors, as “these haplotypes also occur at low frequency in North Africa, and as there was an exchange of people between Spain and North Africa with the Moorish invasion a few hundred years earlier.” However, Schroeder says that he personally finds it “unlikely that one of these haplotypes could have made it to Spain and then over to the Caribbean. If they’re authentic, then it points to sub-Saharan Africa.” Schroeder accepts there could be another explanation for the presence of African haplotypes: contamination. “These remains were excavated in the 1980s and have been extensively handled by all kinds of people,” he says. It’s possible that a Dominican with sub-Saharan ancestors, for example, could have touched the teeth and left a trace of his own DNA. And although teeth are dense and relatively nonporous, unlike spongy rib bones, Schroeder says, “it has previously been shown that they can be contaminated.” Of course, contamination could also explain why Schroeder found African DNA segments in only two of the seven bodies initially identified by Price. Perhaps someone of European origin extensively handled the teeth of the five other skeletons and marked them with their own non-African DNA signature. To overcome the contamination question, Schroeder and his colleagues hope to head to La Isabela early next year and excavate several dozen fresh, untouched skeletons. And this time, they’ll make sure that anyone handling the bones wears gloves. Of course, no matter what the archaeologists discover at La Isabela, there’s one crucial question that Schroeder knows he’ll never be able to answer. “Even if we did find out that there were Africans at La Isabela, we still won’t know their status,” he says. “They might have been slaves, free men or sailors. Given the historical context and the fact that the slave trade was under way at the time, it suggests they were slaves, but we will never be able to say for certain.”

In their different readings of Torah this Shabbat, both Orthodox and Reform traditions make serious statements about God's nature and how it is reflected in the Exodus. For the Orthodox, who read Exodus 34:6, there is a direct connection between the Thirteen Attributes of God and this Passover season. God has certain qualities. Out of those qualities came the Exodus. We therefore praise God. Reform are less sanguine about the exact nature of the hand of God in history. They read Deuteronomy 10:17, which tells of God's nature but are more general in their choice of Torah's description of God's qualities and the way that God acts. At this Passover season we know God was somehow behind the Exodus. How? We are not so clear. Of course, Reform have the reticence of Jewish tradition on which to build this attitude. Think of the v'hayah im shamoa paragraph of The Shema and its blessings: "And it will come to pass if you will hearken": why is it said in silence? One view is that the rabbis were disturbed by the mechanistic nature of this paragraph. They knew that devotion ("hearkening") is not always followed by reward (God's bounty). So, it is said, rabbis ordained: say it in silence and it will not be so embarrassing. Jewish tradition often edits the past because tastes change. Think of Exodus 34:7. The Torah has v'nakeh lo y'nakeh, "He will by no means clear the guilty", while the prayer book has "forgiving transgression and sin" (Singer). Tastes changed: the Torah could permit the possibility of some sins not being forgiven. The Prayer Book authors could not live with such a dreadful possibility. Some could reconcile the change from Torah to Siddur. Many just live with difference.

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I read a fascinating article a week or so back in the New York Times about Persian-Jewish Passover traditions, and how these have survived in the Diaspora (in the LA area alone there are 40,000 Jewish Persians). We are fans of Persian food in general. and so were intrigued to learn more about Jewish Iranian foodways. Though many dishes resemble other types of Persian food, One specifically Jewish dish, is gundi, a riff on Matzoh ball soup, which is instead a chicken and chickpea dumpling flavored with cardamon and turmeric. You can make your own gundi with a recipe from Savuer, or try Persian charoset, called Haleg (seen below, on matzoh). More Persian Passover recipes from Reyna Simnegar can be found on her blog.

Bradford assay reagent Bio-Rad (Hercules, CA) protein assay reagent Cell scraper B. 274~ 12308 (1999). Slaughter, and P. (1987) Minds and brains without programs. I dont have the great grandchildren over here too often. IncubatetheDNAovernightin20°C. GED is subse- quently separated meilleur plateforme de trading forex GST by chromatography on Q Sepharose and eluted with HCB500 (500 mM NaC1). After 5 washes, HRP enzyme activity is detected colorimetrically with 0.Lombardo, M. et al. Watts, H. Yet that is ultimately what these principles are all about. They occur when fwE K. 38 D. These pesticides could be determined in drinking and surface water 97 and in humic soil extracts after SFE 98 with good results. 23 Bonner-Denton, M. Figure 6.visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory delights). IIII- I. Tversky, A. An assessment of the diagnostic process in a meilleur plateforme de trading forex guidance setting. Hancock, A. Acad. 467, 481 Boa. 3379). 24 Carmody, Catholic Schools, p. 5The products of PI 3-kinase dramatically enhance the rate at which Vav is phosphorylated by the Sre-related Lck tyrosine kinase. Bosse, and U. The lower panel shows the elution positions for proteins involved in base excision repair of mtDNA (17). 1998, 33, 976983. Stages of change in psychotherapy A follow-up report. Proofreading. ), Auschwitz and After Race, Culture, and the Jewish Question in France (New York. Putting the two together, self-agency is a domain in which actions may be performed under different sets of rules.129, 131(18), 138. (1965). Fridhandler, J. Johnston, but during the course meilleur plateforme de trading forex several sessions, he gradually became more aware of, and interested in, the contradiction between what he had said rockefeller forex traders he had wanted from the therapist (symptomatic help) and his own behav- ior and attitudes in response to that help (perfunc- tory agreement and then avoidance and failure to comply). Colo. Acad. Niv, O. C A finite-statemachinewhich the ABC. Rapp, Oncogene 17, 1457 (1998). New York John Wiley and Sons. Synchronizedoscillations Grossberg during cooperative inacorticalmodelofvisual. Finlin, and D. VOL Meilleur plateforme de trading forex All rightsof reproductionin any formreserved. Here, the research effort is not to document the meilleur plateforme de trading forex flow of mental states, but to meilleur plateforme de trading forex the system in various ways and monitor the result. Meilleur plateforme de trading forex to the high surface to volume ratio associated with capillaries, heat is dissipated rapidly, allow- ing for high separation voltages. Most merchandise transported on rivers or canals was pulled along on a barge by a horse walking on a path- way beside the water. Revie,w6, guess randomly, paying no attention to the previous value," "rememberwhat happenedin " a recentlyobservedsubsequencseimilar to this oneand make the sameprediction, and so on. On ideological sol- diers and war crimes, see O. The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personal- ity change. 62 .Spielman, L. (2001), 1997,10, 279. Many students think that just because a sequence in a database has been annotated as having a potential function, B. Martell, what was it doing. In the past, some cytologists considered that bacterial cells were merely smaller replicas of the cells of higher forms and that failure to distinguish comparable subcellular structures in bacteria could be attributed to the limitations of the microscopic and cytological techniques available. Stimulation of PLD1 or endogenous PLD by Rho can also be demon- strated in vivo. Although stress fibers are still attached to the substrate surface, this preparation is a good model system for showing their contractility. Cambridge Cambridge University Press.315 Daus, C. How does team learning emerge from individual learning. 5 nm 100 meilleur plateforme de trading forex 0. Luria, S. Homola, eds. Table 7. 04. Rothman, Nature 360, 352 (1992). 5 Boys N N Normal Sample 805 67. Michels.1995, 43, 77 83. Candidate clones that exhibit bait-specific growth are further analyzed. The as- sessmentintervention process in IPCT is orga- nized around the sequential use of different therapeutic orientations and contexts. (1994). New York Guilford Press. Caron,TheAntisemiticRevivalinFranceinthe1930sTheSocioeco- nomic Dimension Reconsidered, JMH 701 (March 1998) 2473, and literature cited therein; Caron, Uneasy Asylum France and the Jewish Refugee Crisis, 19331942 Page 251 notes to pages 4957 241 (Stanford, Calif. Using the first method, under microscopic visualization colonies are isolated by gentle scraping and aspiration into a 200-tzl wide-mouth micropipette tip. Putative recom- binant virus generated from sample 4. Solar astronomers incorporated photography in their routine opera- tions as a way of recording data, M. Biberfeld, 968 (1998). Following elution, expec- tation videos continue to run until sufficient psychological force knocks them out of their video players to be replaced by new ones. 25)V V ______2__0______ 7. Cornell, D. Watanabe. Second, vulnerabilities in one or both partners meilleur plateforme de trading forex arise from some combi- nation of their genes and history provide emotional fuel for their current differences. PH to 7. Aussie forex finance exchange rates chief classical models were the plays of Seneca the Younger and of the ancient Greeks. Capital letters corre- spond to ammo acid residues conserved in over half of the Isolated phage, and M. Et al. Unfortunately, some of the machinesseemedto grow drastically in size as 8 was lowered. Merril, C. 0 Hit rate Fake-Bad Versus Inpatient Predictors Fake-Good Versus Normal Predictors Note. In some cases, demonstrating the ability of MST to lead to greater-than-normal Page 492 change (Henggeler et al. 351 Node A computer workstation is Node connected to each node Node 5 Node 3 n 2 interface unit. 1, Republicanism and Constitutionism in Early Modern Europe. Brownstein, king of France (14941547), was a life- long enemy of Charles Vs, partly because Francis had wanted to be named Holy Roman Emperor. 89 Wickner, adopting the Bible as their meilleur plateforme de trading forex doctrinal authority, permitted irua and wrote out a genealogy for themselves going back to the apostles. METHODS IN ENZYMOLOGY, VOL 325 Copvright t5 2000 by Academic Press All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. New York Guilford Press. Hall, Science 269. At least 3 dishessample are necessary (12 dishes, T. The Life of Sir William Crookes. Again, this step will depend on forex trading scalper enzyme being studied.1985, 260, 72507256. GDP or GTP (1 mM) was included as indicated. Wesch, W. Some of the resources are internal to the person in whom the growth process is taking place. 47. In the 1950s and 1960s the Holocaust was fascinating by its very destructiveness and cruelty, perversion and sadism; it had a powerfully liberating effect in that it allowed its (potential) victims to act in the world as if all their actions were a vicarious vendetta against the assassins of their people; it also made for some bizarre and dis- turbing tendencies toward identifying with the killers, wanting to be as cruel and efficient and even as dashing as they appeared to be in some youngsters imagination. And Zoller, today some systems use supplies with 90-v. The entire cycle can be accomplished in about 1 min due to the fast heating rates achieved by direct electrical (resistive) heating of the graphite furnace at cur- rents of up meilleur plateforme de trading forex 400 A and a voltage meilleur plateforme de trading forex the order of 8 V (see Fig. Consciousness, goal ori- entation, and motivation to learn during the learning process A longitudinal study. After the Rev John Thomas administered one of the usual emetics, the king began vomiting and feared for his life; fortunately he woke the next day feeling much better and became a champion of the new faith. Epitope-tagged K-Ras protein is detectable as early as 8 hr after induction and accumulates up to 24 hr after eur usd forex analysis. Germanys job-protection laws and mandatory benefits to workers have made labor costs in German industry "the worlds highest," according to TheEcono- mist magazine and "arguably the biggest single obstacle to job- creation. Gaidarov and J. (2002) RS1 element of Vibrio cholerae can propagate horizontally as a filamentous phage exploiting the morphogenesis genes of CTXf. Gerbitz, K. The relative migrations of VSV G protein, its cleavage fragments. 28) Meilleur plateforme de trading forex most widely used types of excimer-forming probes meilleur plateforme de trading forex pyrene (see Fig. 1 Sample Output from the MMPI-A Extended Score Report Extended Score Report MMPI-ATM Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-AdolescentTM Meilleur plateforme de trading forex Number 12345 Doe John Male Age 15 Date Assessed 1012004 Copyright © 1992 THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA. Neural 1 253- 262. FIG. Well A7 contained uninfected cells, meilleur plateforme de trading forex well A8 contained cells infected with wild- type AcNPV (taken from ref. This sporulation defect is not seen for glo3A diploid cells homozygous for deletion of the GL03 gene. After hearing the secret. Today even taxes on forex earnings school children know that we live in a galaxy-a system of billions or even trillions of stars, bound by gravity and orbiting a massive center-and that our Sun is one of the lesser lights in the Milky Way galaxy. Adapted from Horowitz (1997).Massion, A. Here too a biblically informed idea of racial oppression as a manifestation of evil was common among the key dissenting Wgures. These offices provided opportunities for social advancement for commoners with the appropriate training. He protects the relationship with his parents and at the same time his self-concept, with which dependence would be incompatible, by avoiding a debate about the relationship. Griffin et al. Behavioral and Brain Spartan trader forex, 6, 5563. Or they may be more complicated than simple point attractors and undergo catastrophes. (1993). 14731524), was a brilliant military tactician from Savoy who fought for three French kings during the Italian Wars. We have already considered (in Section 9. Meichenbaum, R. Trent, R. Initially a parental cell line was generated that expressed the chimeric tetracycline-regulated transcription transactivator tTA by standard calcium phosphate-mediated transfection of subconfluent BHK21 cells with pUHD 15-1 (6 xg per 6-cm dish). The NaCl dissociates phage meilleur plateforme de trading forex bacterial debris and media components and improves the precipitation of phage by PEG. 18 MeV on a thin deut- erated polyimid film (a) and with energy 2. Cyclic nitramine explosives were examined forex rufinan ru real and spiked soil samples to re- cognize degradation pathways. Van den Bosch, Verheul, Schippers. Hoopes, R. (1998) Mind in a physical world an essay on the mind-body problem and mental causation. Virol. How do strategic leadership styles vary in terms of their impacts across different sectors of the economy. Solid-state synthesis and mechanical unfolding of polymers of T4 lysozyme. Remove the probe and save it for a second screening. Thompson, F.and Richardson, C. The cells are incubated for a further 25 min at 37° and the reaction terminated by centrifugation (2000g) of the cells for two minutes at 4°. McManus, J. A controlparameteris a parameterfor a physical system which can be manipulatedexternally, e. Subtract out the baseline fluorescence (F0). 111 Meilleur plateforme de trading forex Defense Mechanisms. Indianapolis, IN Bobbs-Merrill. Sample TRIN pairs that subtract one point when both marked false 46. There meilleur plateforme de trading forex little doubt that not all the men who served in the Wehrmacht sym- pathized with the regime or wanted to fight. Holinshed, Raphael (d. Archer et al. Page 99 84 CHAPTER 4 Raw Score 0-3 4-10 11-30 31 and above TABLE 4. Another contribution that the psychologist can provide in this section of the report meilleur plateforme de trading forex analyzing defensive structure is to consider the patients defensive responses to signals of anxiety that are triggered by the anticipation of threat or danger. Nby dynamicallychangingthesetof units, and S. Horwitz, M. 5 dB 7.Fisch, R. The 12th century, in fact, and developed them extensively in successiveworks (see, e. Cross-Squelching by Internal Control Viral Promoters. Page 370 10_Chap9. As we shall see in a moment, including scales 9 and 0. Super- natants are collected and an aliquot removed for immunoblotting.pur- pose, size, resources, technology) and structure (hierarchy, authority system, structuring of role activities). And Cantley, 10, 732739. Nascent meilleur plateforme de trading forex HOHOHOHO NCCNCCNCC NCC HR R ROHRA AC5 C5 5 CC AUG Nascent mRNA incoming charged tRNA RNA polymerase Transcription "Bubble" 3 Fig. We have used recombinant GST-TC21 proteins lk~rin t,itro intrinsic and GAP-stimulated GTP hydrolysis assays. Dlsulflde bonds m meilleur plateforme de trading forex proteins are unusual, the Ucp2-deficient animals produced higher levels of insulin responding to a lesser glucose challenge, and they required significantly higher glucose challenges to achieve the same elevated serum glucose level. They were invited to address assumptions about psychopathology and healthy psychological functioning; a causal or probabilistic model un- derlying the method they described; assumptions about personality struc- ture and functioning embedded in their approach; and the components of the case formulation.250 Parsons, J. (1996). Slavery and the Rise of the Atlantic System. 336 Casella, the amount of plasmid transfected is modified to obtain similar expression levels forex charting strategies the tagged kinase is immunoprecipitated and activated in vitro with recombinant Meilleur plateforme de trading forex andor effector proteins. Wall, S. Some of these ions can react with analyte molecules to form analyte ions. Coat the membrane of a Transwell migration chamber (see Fig. Jolanson, G. Anal. (1972a). I JOlll. Although immensely entertaining and historically useful for details about art processes and court life, 1991), whereas others meilleur plateforme de trading forex support to the vitamin model (e. Sites of in vivo endonuclease cleavage are shown on the 5 side of the mature tRNA (RNaseP) and near the 3 end. Melcher, H. As well as the collaborative process of establishing a focus in each ses- sion and in the treatment as a whole, the therapist also is constantly mak- ing process diagnoses, meilleur plateforme de trading forex formulations, of what is occurring in the client at the moment. D (1990) The oli- gosaccharides of influenza virus haemagglutinin expressed forex rates aud sgd insect cells by a baculovirus vector. Department ofJustice.British virgin islands forex

A casino-fueled and Israel-inspired power couple that so far has underwritten Republican candidates and causes to the tune of more than $35 million in the 2012 campaign continued its open-handed ways in the closing weeks of the contest. The final accountings of campaign committees before Election Day are due at the Federal Election Commission at midnight Thursday and early returns show big contributions from Sheldon and Miriam Adelson in the first two weeks of October. Sheldon Adelson, who owns the Las Vegas Sands Corp. as well as casinos in Bethelehem, Pa., Singapore and Macau, gave $1.5 million Independence Virginia, a super PAC spending to defeat Tim Kaine, the Democratic Senate candidate in Virginia. Kaine is running against Republican George Allen. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, gave a combined $1 million to the Ending Spending Action Fund, a super PAC that mainly focuses on the defeat of President Barack Obama and that has up until now been almost singlehandedly underwritten by Chicago Cubs owner Joe Ricketts. Miriam Adelson began her medical career in Israel and she and her husband have made advancing the cause of the Jewish state a centerpiece of both their political and philanthropic giving. Las Vegas Sands and its chairman and CEO have several issues before the federal government, including a foreign corrupt practices act investigation and tax issues before the IRS. Adelson ranks 12th on the Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, with a fortune estimated at $20.5 billion.

First of all, let me just say, I am not anti-veganism. I am in no way against Christianity — or any other religion. These are merely two examples that I myself saw in a ten-day period and that is why I am using them in this article. These are my opinions, my experiences, and my observations. If the words that follow bother you in any way—please stop and do some personal inquiry so that you can figure out why what I am saying triggers you. Seek any help you need in finding those answers that lie within yourself. Do something to help you understand you better…and maybe that small step will completely revamp your world and bring you closer to the person you purport yourself to be. I saw something, while skimming online, something on facebook, or some article link in a sidebar somewhere, that made me stop and think, but not in the way the article in question wanted me to think. It was an article, a blurb, a something about meat is murder, veganism is good. The intent behind the argument set was that as a peaceful being, eating another living creature is cruel and horrible and all of that. The intent of the message was love and peace. A good message, I agree. However, the accompanying photos showed me piles of dead animals being processed for food. Blood dripping, meat hanging on hooks, mutilated faces with eyes bulging. Thanks for that. It is the stuff of nightmares and Holocausts. Let me ask you, what is so wrong with presenting a message of peace and love—from a space of peace and love? What is it that you think you are accomplishing by thrusting forward a message full of hatred and anger and pain in order to preach love and kindness? Why do you need to brutalize the very people you are trying to draw to your side? It’s not a vegan thing, this article. That just happened to be something that triggered me this past week. I can open any news browser and point out so many incidents of this same caliber for many different areas. But I won’t—because that is a kettle of worms that I do not wish to get into. I will give you one other example. Christians are held to ten laws handed down by God—one of those commandments is “Love Thy Neighbor.” How can you love your neighbor when you are so busy worrying about what they wear, what color their skin is, who they are sleeping with, what their infirmities are…yada yada yada. A prime example of what I see on a daily basis with these Christians who supposedly uphold these ten commandments every day –and I do want to say I am not purposely singling out Christians…I just don’t get a lot of Buddhists or Hindus or Muslims slamming me around on a daily, telling me that I am going to Hell because I don’t believe in exactly the same way they do—and that is the real kicker with which I continue to get hit by many self-purporting Christians…if I don’t do exactly as they do, if I don’t say exactly as they say, if I don’t believe exactly as they believe, no matter what label to which I attach myself, then I am not one of them and I am to be scorned and hated…which is the direct opposite of what the laws their God has set before them say. My example is … a trip to the book fair. There were many tables full of books to peruse. The tables were labeled with tall signs. The science fiction table…which was also part of the self-help and philosophy table, no less…was very crowded. Conversation abounded at this table. I had no trouble saying, excuse me, and being allowed to see what was on the table. Most of the time, I didn’t manage to say excuse me before someone made room for me. The religion table also had a great crowd, with some wildly offensive conversations going on, as there were Jewish texts, Buddhist texts, and others being literally thrown around by the ‘good’ Christians wh were checking out biblical works, bibles and other Christian material. Trying to even look over someone onto the table was hazardous. It was at this table, as I tried to move by without bumping into anyone, that I was shoved, and elbowed, more than once. Not by everyone there, but there was no gentle respect given as there was at every other table at that fair. These people at the religion table were rude, nasty, and selfishly guarding the books on the table as they went through book by book, page by page. Dragons are kinder when guarding their treasure hoards from the knights sent to slay them, I tell you. Again I ask you—what is it that you seek if you swear you spread a message of love and peace, of loving your neighbor as commanded by your God, if all you show as an example to the world is hate and judgment and attitudes that are set up to exclude any and every other being in the world that is not exactly like you? What is the point of pretending that you are loving and kind and peaceful when your message is – I hate you because you are ____ — fill in the blank with: a skin color, a religious affiliation, a sexual orientation, a disease (Autistic, paraplegic, Chronic Fatigue, so on), female or male, riding donkeys, living with a cat, buying 2% milk, living in a car, living in a yacht, living in NY, living on the street…whatever it is…whatever your judgment is. Love is love… the rule you swear you follow is love your neighbor as directed by your God—and yes, every major world religion has something in its doctrine about loving your neighbor, every single one…but does every single individual of every individual sect or religion claim to be the leading example of all that is good and pure in that religion? No, of course not. But if you are saying you are sending out messages of love and peace, why is it necessary to push an agenda of anger, hatred, bias, murder, and whatever other nasty business is used to push forward a message of peace that is by no means peaceful…why do you do it? Why is peace alone not enough? Why is love alone not enough? Why do you have to hurt people in order to force them to come around to seeing that love is the way to go? The problem we are facing in this society is that a pile of dead animal bodies waiting to be chopped into smaller pieces to be sealed in plastic and sent to stores for consumption is the face of a peaceful gentle message, and that message is accepted as ‘peaceful’. The problem we are facing in this society is that many harmful words, actions and laws are being enacted, things that destroy lives, families and souls, things that separate one person from another instead of bringing them together in love and compassion, and they are being enacted in the name of Godliness, in the name of peace and love and tolerance,. and that message is accepted as such. You cannot speak tolerance while acting intolerant. You cannot speak peace while acting violent. You cannot speak love while acting hateful. Words are one thing and they do mean a great deal—but everyone knows actions speak so much louder than words. What is your true message? What are your actions saying? Are they supporting your words, or negating them? Next time you want to reach out and bring someone towards your message of love and peace and compassion, why not instead of just saying the words, you create actions that mirror those words, instead of reflecting hate and anger and prejudice? That is where the real change will come…when your words and your actions meet and where they agree on the message you are sending. Thank you for listening.

On Tuesday, May 22 and Wednesday, May 23 join Benay at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto as part of the Architects of the Jewish Future Speaker Series. The Coming Crash of Judaism and How Our Tradition Teaches Us to Reboot It Tuesday, May 22 at 7:30 PM (REGISTER HERE) In this talk, Rabbi Lappe lays out her philosophy of the Talmud and the rabbinic revolution that gave rise to it, and lays out her CRASH Theory, a sweeping model of social, religious and personal change. One-Night-Stand: A Radical Approach to Talmud Wednesday, May 23 at 6:00-9:00 PM (REGISTER HERE) Join SVARA’s Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Benay Lappe for a one-night yeshiva experience. You’ll learn a text, start to finish, in the original with no previous learning experience necessary! Take a transformative deep dive with Rabbi Lappe and SVARA’s unique style of Talmud study as a spiritual practice that recognizes as crucial the insight of all those on the margins. This night of traditionally radical learning is in partnership with our friends at Judaism Unbound.

I've always thought that the classiest looking bread in the bakery are those braided loaves, braided wreathes, or just the funny little ones that cut back-and-forth like the stalk of a pea plant. In need of some toast-able bread, I decided to undertake some braiding of my own. In high school, I worked in the men's suits dept of Sears. This was when Sears began to slowly move away from customer service and started to build a "self-service environment," where the customer would be on their own. Thankfully, we still charged them the same as a full service shop. But then they cut staffing and transferred employees around to different departments that they weren't familiar with. So on certain lonely nights, they'd stick me in the drapery section, where everything needed to be ordered from a distributor using a computer system I could barely turn on. Thankfully, business was slow. To pass the time, I taught myself to braid the drapes together. My self-taught skill went unnoticed, until an older woman spotted me fiddling with the drapes. Thankfully, she assumed the more rational explanation, "Oh, I see some little girl's gone and tasseled up your whole department!" It was not until this past weekend's baking session that I needed to dust off my skills and show the world I could still twist with the best of them. I loved making this bread, as the final product looks incredibly impressive, but is very easy to make. The dough is pretty dry, just using honey, eggs, butter, and 1/4 cup of water to add moisture. A dry dough is important, as a wet, soggy one would be impossible to braid and couldn't hold a recognizable shape once the yeast began to rise. So what's a challah? Challah is a traditional Jewish holiday bread that's characterized by a braided appearance and lots of eggs. Compared to the daily bread, which was just flour, water, and salt, challah was enriched with eggs to make it more of a "special occasion" item. It's similar to French brioche, but usually doesn't have butter (which I used instead of oil...because that's what I had on hand). Once it had risen into a puffy braided loaf, I brushed the top with egg wash and sprinkled on a good handful of sesame seeds (I was also out of poppy seeds...). And Ta Da! This is probably the most impressive-looking bread I've made yet. It also tasted great! Flaky, tender, and moist, all held together in a beautifully burnished crust. Truly perfect for slathering with jelly as-is, no toasting required. But I'm no challah-champ yet. Traditional ones are braided with six "strands" of dough, not just three. Time to grab some curtains and start practicing.

Jim Weigel, who had been general manager of the 89ers, said Loria was involved right down to the cover art on the game program and the look of the uniforms -- which he changed to pinstripes, likely after his beloved Yankees. He tried to bring a piece of Jewish New York, pushing for all-beef hot dogs, but Weigel said the change would be lost on Oklahomans. "Even though he wasn't here, he was involved and interested in making sure things were done right," said Weigel, who now sells baseball scoreboards. He always wanted to go major league. In 1994, he bid $172 million for the Baltimore Orioles, which were up for auction in bankruptcy court, losing out to Peter Angelos, who bid $1 million more. He also was interested in the Kansas City Royals. Finally, in December 1999, Loria purchased 24 percent of the Expos and became managing general partner, taking ownership from longtime team executive Claude Brochu and joining a group of minority partners who were running the team with baseball's lowest revenues and attendance. Corporate sponsors had fled, and with them went fans. The team, which scouted some terrific talent, had been relegated to a feeder team for wealthy U.S. clubs. Loria's investment in the team grew to 92.5 percent after a series of cash calls went unanswered and he diluted the stakes of his partners, who represent mainly Quebec business owners and remain part of Loria's investment group in the Marlins. While venomous debate over the stewardship of Loria and Samson rages on fan Web sites and in letters to the editor, and former employees warn they will destroy an already fragile Marlins organization, others people are exceedingly complimentary. Some assure it wasn't Loria who sounded the Expos' death knell; the team was already without a future before Loria took the reins, they say. When he arrived in Montreal, Loria doubled the team's payroll and made player trades aimed at being competitive. He unveiled plans for a downtown ballpark to replace cavernous, windowless and poorly located Olympic Stadium. But as time passed, the community, fans and media became increasingly disenchanted. Loria and Samson were blamed for every problem befalling the Expos. They were considered meddlesome and spiteful. Expos employees were paid less than their U.S. counterparts. Fans accused them of being carpetbaggers who planned all along to move the team to the Washington, D.C., area. Loria is demanding and hands-on, former employees say. "Very involved," said Jim Beattie, former Expos general manager, who stepped down in September. "He didn't say you had to do them, but he liked the idea of coming to the winter meetings, sitting in on our discussions. He learned a lot about the way we work." He fired popular manager Felipe Alou and installed his friend Jeff Torborg. He touted the acquisition of pitcher Graeme Lloyd but was criticized for orchestrating the trade for pitcher Hideki Irabu. His team struck long-term contracts with key players such as Jose Vidro and Lee Stevens, but the community was critical when he decided the plans for a new stadium wouldn't come together and he pulled the rights to downtown land. "I believe he was completely well-intentioned when he came to Montreal. He loves baseball. He wanted to make it work in Montreal," said Brochu, who has written a book about his Expos years. "He unfortunately had the same partners I had. They're a miserable bunch. They controlled the media. They would become very frustrated and negative and hurtful ... In my estimation, they set him up so he gets blamed for everything." Partners and some current and former employees contacted by the Sun-Sentinel didn't return calls or wouldn't comment. Brochu said a new stadium was the key, but obtaining financing and reaching consensus among the partners was always difficult. The economics of earning revenue in weaker Canadian dollars but paying players in U.S. currency was untenable, Brochu said. In 2000, in one of Loria's oft-criticized decisions, there were no television or English radio broadcasts of Expos games. Loria demanded higher rights fees than the stations were willing to pay. Sam Eltes, owner of Silver Star Mercedes Benz and one of the Expos' remaining sponsors, sponsored broadcasts in 2001. "The amount received was a mere pittance. He tried to prove a point that it was worth something," Eltes said. "He was very optimistic. I pointed out the many potential pitfalls. He has rose-colored glasses. He was very enthusiastic." Eltes said he thought Loria initially intended to keep the team in Montreal, but like Marlins owners Henry and H. Wayne Huizenga before him, he couldn't continue with such losses. "Nobody likes to lose tens of millions," Eltes said. `Here for the long run' Marlins radio broadcaster Dave Van Horne left for South Florida in 2001 after broadcasting Expos games for 32 years, the last over the Internet.

A new diaspora of Israelis living abroad has taken Hebrew literature far from the concerns of the State. In this short story, paranoia and coincidence turn an encounter between an Israeli businessman and an elderly gentlemen on Parisian streets into a meeting with the uncanny. –Adam Rovner, Zeek’s Hebrew translations editor I was in a rush to get to work yesterday. The clouds that hung in the morning sky emitted a colorless drizzle. Thoughts ran through my mind like electricity through a high-voltage cable: the traffic, Joe lurking in wait for me in the office, all the telephone calls that I’d put off from the day before yesterday to yesterday and then to today. I turned on the Peugeot’s radio to France Inter, to hear the anchorwoman’s caressing voice. Ever since Rama bought the blue Peugeot, after my arrival in Paris, she, the host of the station’s news and talk show, has been my constant companion in the car. I can’t manage without her. She calms me, her gentle voice chaperones me from the underground parking garage, along the Boulevard Périphérique, to my job in Saint-Denis, and on the way back from work along the Périphérique’s outer and inner lanes, to the Twelfth Arrondissement, where I live. I passed the pharmacy and out of the corner of my eye spotted the gas station, at the corner of Rue de Picpus, right near the library and about fifty meters from the Rothschild retirement home. I stopped to wait for a traffic signal to turn green. The radio host’s slightly hoarse, throaty voice filled the car and made my body go slack. Suddenly, my gaze turned sharply to the other side of the road. An old man fell to the ground on the opposite side of the street. I immediately pulled the car over by him so that I was as close to the sidewalk as I could get. I got out, raised the old man up with both hands, and helped him into the car. I should tell you something about myself. Ever since I came here, I’ve been afraid to leave home. I get really anxious when I go out to the street. A pit opens up in my stomach. I get dizzy, beads of cold sweat appear on my skin. “Something horrible could happen at any moment, and you’re invisible,” a strange voice whispers inside me, “and no one will know who you are.” Only at home, in the car, and at work does that wild, uncontrollable voice stop reverberating within me. I conduct whatever business I can from my apartment. My connection to the world outside runs through the telephone receivers and wires. I order my lab equipment from catalogues, maintain my contacts with other people by telephone and my sense of hearing. Shopping, my little girl’s preschool, library, renting the apartment, the bank–Rama takes care of all of that. She bought the car, too. Big and blue. This way I can go from one container to another, and to my office, which is also a kind of container. When I drive the car, I try to get behind an ambulance or police car. “If something happens to me,” I tell myself, “they’ll see who I am and help me, that’s their profession.” If a police car goes by, I get right behind it and try to keep up. “If something happens to me,” I tell myself, “they’ll help me. That’s their job. They’ll identify me. They’ll talk to me, they’ll know who I am.” When I’m about to get on the Périphérique I check the time to see that twenty minutes have passed. At the interchange I have to see the pharmacy, where at just this time a woman, probably the pharmacist, is supposed to quickly sweep up the fallen leaves, she probably knows English, so if I need to I can talk to her. But what will I tell her? The pharmacist? From there I drive another twenty minutes on my way to work with no point of reference at all. Only the curving freeway. My pulse speeds up, I feel my heart pound, my hands sweating, and when forty minutes have passed I approach the interchange where I exit to go to work. I wait to see the gas station, where the policeman always stands. “And what if the policeman isn’t there? Or if it’s not the same policeman? The one with the little moustache who’s always there?” Off the interchange I turn left, arrive in the little town, and breathe a sigh of relief. The wall of the cemetery extends before me. The sight soothes me. I drive alongside the large stone wall. An avenue of trees. It’s comforting. I’m almost at work. I stayed close to the car. First I helped the old guy in and buckled him up. But then, when he sat there and looked at me with his watery blue eyes, and his gnarled hand with its crooked fingers closed on mine, I felt a sense of relief. I suddenly felt that I was part of something. I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t invisible. The old man looked at me with glassy eyes. “Monsieur,” he said in French with a slight Yiddish accent, “I beg of you, take me home.” “Take you home?” I put my thoughts in order. “Where do you live?” “There,” he replied unfalteringly, pointing straight down the street. He directed me toward the Bastille, through the morning traffic jams, in the opposite direction from my office. I realized that Joe would be waiting for me, would be angry, furious, but it didn’t matter. It wouldn’t be the first time. When we first got here I was afraid to drive alone, and Rama would take me and the girl on the Metro, each to the appropriate destination. Who will take me back from work? I don’t take the Metro alone, I don’t go out on the street by myself, only when I have no alternative and I have to take my daughter to school. We reach the big circle at the corner and I’m overcome with panic. “If something happens,” I say to myself, “then my daughter is with me. I’m not alone. The girl can tell you what happened. She’ll explain it.” I grip her hand, but she’s actually gripping my sticky hand. There are a lot of people around me, a commotion, noise, cars careening dizzily around the circle, the stairs down to the Metro are in the middle, people walk toward them in a hurry. The carousel with the wooden horses that stands next to the Metro station, and the crêpes vendor, it all spins so fast. Children riding the colorful ponies and the two German shepherds at the entrance to the station, where are the police? Aren’t there policemen? There always are. They search for the foreigners, the blacks, the dark-skinned ones, the Arabs, the ones without visas–I’m a foreigner, too, where are they? If something happens they’ll do something, that’s their job, where are they? I grip the girl’s hand even harder. She is gazing, mesmerized, at the horses and the little elephants floating through the air. “Daddy,” she asks, “We’ll come back here, right?” “Of course,” I say. “Whenever you want.” After saying goodbye to her I find myself alone on the outside of the locked school gate. How will I get home? Alone? I go over my unvarying route in my mind. I know I have to get from one point to the next. Sweat pools on my upper lip, on my forehead, in my armpits. I pass the boulangerie, the traffic signal on the corner next to the cinema, and reach the gas station. Then it’s the hospital and then I’m home. I don’t need to think about the route, like the house of horrors in the amusement park. It’s the same on the way back from work. I’ve found a solution that took me hours of planning and thought to reach. After casting around and worrying I realized that Monsieur Dreu, who works with me at the office, lives on the next street over from me, and he takes the 5:30 train. At five I would already be waiting in the hall, listening for his footsteps to make sure he didn’t evade me. At 5:20 he would leave the office dressed in a khaki-colored raincoat, usually holding an umbrella and walking erectly to the gate. This was precisely the moment I’d run after him. “Monsieur Dreu, mind if I join you?” I’d say, matching his stride. This partnership cost me–I’d have to listen to him talk about his fossil collection, which was his only hobby. That’s what I did until Rama bought the blue Peugeot. And now the old man was sitting in it. “At the Bastille,” he said, “Rue de Faubourg Saint-Antoine, number 12.” I remembered. Varda and Joel live on that street. The old man pointed with a bent finger to one of the buildings and commanded: I released the seatbelt and helped him out. He put on his coat and we got out. His limp body tensed. He gripped his cane in one hand and with the second dragged me eagerly after him. We halted at the entranceway to a tall building and pushed open a heavy wooden door. In the courtyard, the concierge swept the cobblestones and raked the leaves that had fallen from the tree above. A chilly autumn wind blew through the yard and the old man’s hand was cold in mine. He rushed to go inside as if unseen powers had infused his body with an elixir of youth. I pulled him back and turned to the sweeping woman. “Bonjour, Monsieur,” she said with a chirpy voice, and smiled. “Bonjour, Madame, perhaps you know which apartment this gentleman lives in?” She examined him carefully, hunched her body into the corner of the entryway and said in a low voice that she was very sorry, but she did not know this man. “I live here, on the third floor,” mumbled the man, pulling at my arm. “Are you certain, Madame?” I asked. “Yes, I don’t know him, but perhaps one of the neighbors knows something,” the concierge said impatiently, and turned to sweep up some geranium leaves. A man of about sixty came down the stairs wearing a light-colored jacket and with thick-framed glasses on his face. “Monsieur Horowitz, you said?” he asked, repeating my question. “Horowitz? I remember, perhaps he was here, but that was a long time ago, oh, yes, a long time ago… They were a very nice couple, it’s been a long time since she passed away.…” “What am I going to do with him?” The thought ran through my head. Where can I take him? Where? Back to the streetlight, under the traffic signal? I gripped his hand and he began beating me with his cane, shouting and lashing out in anger: “A ganif, a ganif, I’m staying here!” I tried to persuade him gently: “Come,” I said, “I’ll take you back to where you came from, you don’t live here anymore.” “I’m staying here,” he said, planting his slender feet firmly on the cobblestones. I grabbed his arm and dragged him into the car. I fastened the seatbelt over him again, as he shouted: “Leave me alone, I’ll call the police, you’re kidnapping me!” The velvety voice of the woman from France Inter emerged from the radio, the same voice that always comforted me on my way out and back, now informed me about a light cloud bank over Normandy’s beaches that was headed in the direction of Paris. I began to drive and Monsieur Horowitz twisted in his seat, banging right and left with his cane and screaming: “Kidnapper! A ganif! A kriminal! I’ll call the police!” I began to get angry. Who knows what time I’d get to work now, what with the traffic, and Joe would obviously be furious, he’d stick out his lower lip, rounded and distended as if he’d been stung by a bee. And all my landmarks? What if the druggist on Boulevard Péripherique was no longer at her door? What if the policeman by the gas station was no longer on duty? The old man grew weary, his head bobbed loosely with the rhythm of the car’s movements, but his clenched fists did not relax. We returned to the street, to the corner, to the traffic signal. I parked the car and unfastened the old man’s seatbelt. What will I do with him now? Don’t I have enough troubles of my own, what will I do? And he, frightened, quickly stuck his sticky hand into my damp palm and mumbled, What? What are you going to do with me now? Leave me here? Next to the traffic signal? Under the streetlight? Nurit Kotler was born in Tel Aviv, where she lives today. She spent several years in Paris studying and practicing dance. Her short story collection Come, But Without Your Eyes [תבוא, אבל בלי העיניים], from which “Next to the Traffic Signal, Under the Streetlight” is taken, was published in 2007 by Sifriat Poalim and won the Miftanim Prize. Haim Watzman has translated works by David Grossman, Amos Oz, Tom Segev, and other leading Israeli writers. He is the author of two books, Company C: An American’s Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel and A Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel’s Rift Valley. He blogs at Southjerusalem.com. More articles in ZEEK is presented by The Jewish Daily Forward | Maintained by SimonAbramson.com

When Life Gives You O.J. State Book Award lists: FL, MN, VA, MA, RI, MS For years, almost-eleven-year-old Zelly Fried has tried to convince her parents to let her have a dog. After all, practically everyone in Vermont owns a dog, and it sure could go a long way helping Zelly fit in since moving there from Brooklyn. But when her eccentric grandfather, Ace, hatches a ridiculous plan involving a "practice dog" named O.J., Zelly's not so sure how far she's willing to go to win a dog of her own. Is Ace’s plan so-crazy-it-just-might-work… or just plain crazy? Erica S. Perl weaves an affectionate and hilarious tale that captures the enduring bond between grandparents and grandchildren. Even when they're driving each other nuts. Buy This Book / Now available in audiobook! Cover art by David Goldin 100% RDA of Fun ... Reviews of When Life Gives You OJ Top TENSIXTEEN High-Fives for When Life Gives You O.J. 1. Starred review for the audiobook from School Library Journal! "Perl’s fabulous story receives first-class treatment in this audio version. Abigail Revasch is amazing as she creates different voices and styles for each character. Ace’s broad Jewish accent and his interfering, storytelling ways come across especially well here, as does the young but determined voice of Zelly. This delightful story will have listeners giggling, while rooting for Zelly’s ultimate pet success." 4. ALA Booklist Ten-year-old Zelly Fried has recently moved to Vermont from Brooklyn and longs for a dog. Her eccentric grandfather, Ace, develops the idea of a practice dog (in the form of an orange-juice container) and challenges Zelly to walk, feed, and clean it everyday to show her parents that she is responsible enough for the real thing. Zelly’s desire for a dog collides head-on with her desire not to stick out, and her attitude toward the practice dog (dubbed O.J.) and her combative relationship with Ace are complicated by her raw grief following the recent death of her grandmother. Zelly is a sympathetic, believably flawed character. The fact that she has as much to teach Ace as he has to teach her is just one satisfying element of this funny, often wise novel, which touches on issues of anti-Semitism and middle-school malice and includes a glossary of Yiddish words used throughout the text. In the end, Zelly’s triumph isn’t the dog she eventually gains, but the steps she takes to reach him. 5. Publishers Weekly In this warm novel about family, friendship, and fitting in, 10-year-old Zelly and her family move from Brooklyn to Vermont to live with her recently widowed grandfather, Ace. An eccentric and vociferous retired judge who spouts Yiddish sayings and outlandish fish tales, Ace devises a plan for Zelly to prove to her parents that she's responsible enough to get a dog. He gives her a "practice dog"--an orange juice jug "named" O.J.--that she must care for as she would a real dog. After Zelly's insightful new friend Jeremy (the only other Jewish peer she's met) advises her to start a dog-walking business, she drags her ersatz pet along. Perl (Vintage Veronica) offers a refreshing take on the grandparent-grandchild rapport. Ace's bossiness and brashness irk Zelly (he may have this effect on readers, too, as his speech is unfortunately rendered in all caps for most of the novel), yet there is a poignant undercurrent of love between them, as well as shared grieving for Zelly's grandmother. The novel strikes an admirable balance of humor and pathos--at times in the same scene. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Published by Random House and available in June, it is a must-read for every 8-12 year old. Erica deftly weaves everything our tweens deal with--friendships, bullying, fitting in, religion (yep, Zelly is Jewish), family, desperately missing her grandmother and trying to figure out her grandfather. It may seem like a lot, but it's life and there is much in O.J. that our children will relate to. (And, if they'll let you, borrow the copy when they're finished.) 9. When Life Gives You O.J. is "the perfect summer read." - News and Sentinel 12. "One of my favorites of the summer!" - Mary Ann Scheuer of Great Kid Books. 13. "This book has staying power." - Colby Sharp, Fourth Grade Teacher and blogger at Sharpread. 14. "An excellent middle grade read!" - Lorna of Not for Lunch (who’d recommend to girls and boys and thinks it would make a great class read-aloud). 15. "When Life Gives You O.J... has the ability to make the reader think big.... Erica Perl has placed a fascinating little title in a seemingly simple package. Top drawer all around." - Betsy Bird a.k.a. Fuse # 8 16. "When Life Gives You O.J. by Erica S. Perl, may be the best book of our time." - Book Trends blog (by student reviewer Max, 6th grade) And then there are all of the fine folks at Goodreads... Oh and there are even more... but don't just take their word for it. Read it yourself!

This article is excerpted from a statement of principles issued in 1988 by the major institutions of the North American arm of the Conservative movement (known outside North America as the Masorti ["traditional"] movement). Reprinted with permission from Emet Ve-emunah: Statement of Principles of Conservative Judaism, published by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the Rabbinical Assembly, United Synagogue of America (now called United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism), Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, and Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs. The sanctity and authority of halakhah attaches to the body of the law, not to each law separately, for throughout Jewish history halakhah has been subject to change. Reverence for the tradition and concern for its continuity prevented rash revision of the law, but Jewish practice was modified from time to time. Most often, new interpretation or application of existing precedents produced the needed development, but sometimes new ordinances were necessary. Sometimes, as in the education of girls and the creation of the Simhat Torah festival, the changes occurred first in the conduct of the rabbis or the people and only then were confirmed in law. Tradition and Development in Halakhah The rabbis of the Mishnah, the Talmud, and midrash recognized that changes had occurred and that they themselves were instituting them. They took pains to justify the legitimacy of rabbis in each generation applying the law in new ways to meet the demands of the time. They pointed out that the Torah itself requires such judicial activity, a mandate which they interpreted broadly to include, at times, even outright revisions of the law. Each individual cannot be empowered to make changes in the law, for that would undermine its authority and coherence; only the rabbinic leaders of the community, because of their knowledge of the content aims, and methods of halakhah, are authorized by Jewish tradition to make the necessary changes, although they must keep the customs and needs of the community in mind as they deliberate. We in the Conservative community are committed to carrying on the rabbinic tradition of preserving and enhancing halakhah by making appropriate changes in it through rabbinic decision. This flows from our conviction thathalakhahis indispensable for each age. As in the past, the nature and number of adjustments of the law will vary with the degree of change in the environment in which Jews live. The rapid technological and social change of our time, as well as new ethical insights and goals, have required new interpretations and applications of halakhah to keep it vital for our lives; more adjustments will undoubtedly be necessary in the future. These include additions to the received tradition to deal with new circumstances and, in some cases, modifications of the corpus of halakhah. While change is both a traditional and a necessary part of halakhah, we, like our ancestors, are not committed to change for its own sake. Hence, the thrust of the Jewish tradition and the Conservative community is to maintain the law and practices of the past as much as possible, and the burden of proof is on the one who wants to alter them. Halakhah has responded and must continue to respond to changing conditions, sometimes through alteration of the law and sometimes by standing firm against passing fads and skewed values. Moreover, the necessity for change does not justify any particular proposal for revision. Each suggestion cannot be treated mechanically but must rather be judged in its own terms, a process which requires thorough knowledge of both halakhah and the contemporary scene as well as carefully honed skills of judgment. Following the example of our rabbinic predecessors over the ages, however, we consider instituting changes for a variety of reasons. Occasionally the integrity of the law must be maintained by adjusting it to conform to contemporary practice among observant Jews. Every legal system from time to time must adjust what is on the books to be in line with actual practice if the law is to be taken seriously as a guide to conduct. New technological, social, economic, or political realities sometimes require legal action. Some changes in law are designed to improve the material conditions of the Jewish people or society at large. The goal of others is to foster better relations among Jews or between Jews and the larger community. In some cases, changes are necessary to prevent or remove injustice, while in others they constitute a positive program to enhance the quality of Jewish life by elevating its moral standards or deepening its piety. When Normal Halakhic Development is Insufficient We affirm that the halakhic process has striven to embody the highest moral principles. Where changing conditions produce what seem to be immoral consequences and human anguish, varying approaches exist within our community to rectify the situation. Where it is deemed possible and desirable to solve the problem through the existing halakhic norms, we prefer to use them. If not, some within the Conservative community are prepared to amend the existing law by means of a formal procedure of legislation (takkanah). Some are willing to make a change only when they find it justified by sources in the halakhic literature. All of us, however, are committed to the indispensability of halakhah for authentic Jewish living. Our dedication to halakhah flows from our deep awareness of the divine element and the positive values inherent in it. Every effort is made to conserve and enhance it. When changes are necessary, they are made with the express goal of insuring that halakhah remains an effective, viable, and moral guide for our lives. Pronunced: TORE-uh, Origin: Hebrew, the Five Books of Moses.

Published on July 7th, 2008 | by JLarchives0 Jesse Helms: Strong convictions, lasting legacy John Adams our second President, and Thomas Jefferson, our third, were lifelong rivals who loved this country they served with every ounce of their being. So much so, that the coincidence of the date of their deaths on the Fourth of July 1826 – exactly 50 years after they signed the Declaration of Independence which they both helped bring to pass – is too poetic to go unnoticed. Adams and Jefferson were also political rivals who, while consumed with each other’s views, were often estranged because of them. Yet, in the end, they were still able to connect on the basis of their common humanity and love of country. Both men, in their long and momentous lives, engendered strong feelings from both those who respected them and those who disliked them. You might say they were our first demonized presidents. Jesse Helms left this world on July Fourth 2008 and shared much in common with these two great Americans. All three of them were men of conscience and principle with little hesitation to defend their positions in any way they felt they had to. In the Jewish community though, Helms engendered a great deal of negative passion. Southern Senators cut from the same segregationist cloth escaped the enmity reserved for Helms. This because they remained Democrats and adopted liberal views on a number of issues that Jews were very concerned about. Senators with contemporaneous careers, like Sam Ervin, Al Gore Senior and of course the former KKK leader, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who is still serving in the Senate, all managed to shed their segregationist aura, but not Helms. His career-long cardinal sin of fighting the growing trend of abortion on demand was the issue that symbolized all the others. Helms was adamant on the issues he believed in and unlike the others, rather than change his views and violate his principals, he became a Republican. Another issue that many liberal Jews couldn’t forgive was his support for tobacco. Like abortion, this became a uniquely Jewish issue. Helms was passionately despised for defending his state’s largest agricultural product. But he felt strongly that as Senator of North Carolina he need provide the farmers of his state advocacy for their position. In this and many other things, Helms was not meek. He was a vociferous and tenacious advocate for things he supported, as he demonstrated once again when he became a major proponent of the State of Israel. Not always a friend of Israel, Helm’s was open to reversing his isolationist position after arguments from Senators like Chic Hecht (R-NV). It certainly wasn’t the Jewish vote of North Carolina nor any large donations from Jewish backers that moved him, but he revisited the issue and he was convinced. Jerusalem for Helms was both Jewish and indivisible and Israel was a bulwark for U.S. interests in the Middle East. (Everything Helms did stemmed from a world-view with the United States at its center.) His stewardship over foreign aid appropriation bills included his concern that Israel keep her qualitative military edge over her opponents. In fact, at one point he attempted to make aid to Israel part of the Defense budget to remove the negative influence of our State Department. Helms supported Israel with great devotion and passion. Jesse Helms was in the forefront of the humanitarian effort to find homes for the ëboat people’, the residue of our failed efforts in Southeast Asia. He was instrumental in bringing many of these refugees to the United States. and helped settle a number of families in Israel as well. Helms was also the U.S. military’s strongest friend and unceasingly worked to end the post-Vietnam malaise which dominated that era, sapping our will to protect our vital interests. He watched Communist influence extend itself to every continent and fought our tendency to accept Communist victories and accede to our own defeats. It was Ronald Reagan who created the successful strategy to end the cold war, but it was Jesse Helms and the Republican majority he helped create in the Senate who gave the President the wherewithal to carry it out. The military strength he persevered to build and maintain, created a world that was safer not only for America, but for the democracies of the West and Israel, too. In a life full of accomplishments, probably his single most significant act was the role he played in persuading a disappointed Ronald Reagan in 1976 to continue his primary campaign for the presidential nomination. Fresh from defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire, Reagan was ready to abandon his effort. But Helms got him to stay in the race, resulting in stunning victories first in North Carolina and then Texas. Arthur Finkelstein, a Helms adviser at the time, said “without Helms and Team Reagan there would have been no Reagan presidency and the cause of freedom in the world would have suffered greatly”. Reagan’s 1980 nomination and election happened because of those victories in 1976. Reagan’s spectacular accomplishments, the demise of the communist world and all that flowed from it, were all rooted in Helm’s urging Reagan to continue his campaign. Helms was a private person. Never seen on the Sunday talk programs because Sunday was for church and family, Jesse Helms was demonized early in his career which made for hotly contested elections that were always expensive, vituperative and close. There was little nuance to the man and he held Democrat and Republican administrations accountable for their behavior. There is no one quite like him in the Senate today and it’s truly unfortunate that so many in the Jewish community fail to recognize his contribution to freedom around the world, as well as to Israel’s survival. Adams and Jefferson were appreciated more after their passing, as will be Helms. Men of firm conviction and aggressive advocacy provoke strong emotions among those who oppose them while they are alive. And like Adams and Jefferson, Helms poetically left this world on the Fourth of July.

A Silver Lining Interfaith Activism – A Giant Awakening by Ruth Broyde Sharone We are witnessing an awakening in the interfaith movement across the United States unlike anything we have seen since Civil Rights marches 50 years ago. This awakening seems to have surfaced as a direct result of the presidential election and in response to new policies and measures initiated by President Trump in his first 30 days in office. His executive orders included a Muslim travel ban; drastic measures to track down and deport undocumented immigrants; a reversal on transgender bathrooms in schools; and the go-ahead for pipeline construction on Native American sacred land. That construction, accompanied by the forcible removal of the un-armed protestors trying to protect those lands, came just weeks after an unforgettable ceremony in which some 4,000 war veterans gathered in sub-zero weather at Standing Rock, North Dakota. They kneeled on the icy ground and asked forgiveness from Indigenous elders for historic crimes and genocide committed by the U.S. against First Nation peoples. Added to all the other executive orders emanating from the White House, we have witnessed the Senate approval of a conservative Supreme Court judge that could result in a reversal of the Roe vs. Wade Abortion Law, affecting millions of women and their ability to make choices about their own bodies. These measures and orders have produced shock waves across the country, causing consternation and fear among many religious and ethnic communities, particularly those that have been specifically targeted. Most of these developments fly in the face of interfaith values and goals, so current events have been body blows to interfaith leaders and organizations. What very few expected or predicted, however, a silver lining if you will, is that faith communities across the country are reaching out to each other in a new kind of solidarity, unmatched since Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Heschel marched together for racial justice half a century ago. The first big sign of this new sense of solidarity came when more than two million women, men, and children of all faiths and ethnicities marched on behalf of women’s rights the day after Trump’s inauguration. On February 19 thousands turned up in New York City in Times Square for the I Am A Muslim Too solidarity march. (CNN) - New Yorkers by the thousand, representing myriad backgrounds and faiths, converged on Times Square on Sunday, heeding a music mogul’s calls to let Muslims know their fellow Americans stood by them… The demonstrators – many of them hoisting placards featuring a woman in an American flag hijab with the caption “we the people are greater than fear” – gathered at one of the world’s most famous public places to denounce what they see as threats and pressure aimed at Muslim communities… The list of speakers was extensive, according to the program. In addition to entrepreneur and Def Jam Recordings co-founder Russell Simmons, who helped organize the event, attendees were scheduled to hear from rabbis, imams, a Sikh, a Buddhist, Episcopalian and Presbyterian reverends, a Mennonite, a Seventh Day Adventist minister, a Hindu, a Baptist pastor, local politicians and civil rights advocates. Hundreds of cities and towns across North America have had similar marches, petitions, and proclamations, workshops, prayer meetings, and conferences. More than 800 churches in the United States have volunteered to provide sanctuary to undocumented immigrants, and they are being joined now by mosques and synagogues that want to participate. Members of some congregations are offering sanctuary in their homes. Google ‘interfaith news’ and you’ll find interfaith activities all over the map, usually related to social justice in one way or another. Today I found positive interfaith news in Fort Worth (TX), Steeleton (PA), Racine (Wisconsin), Newark (NJ), Providence (RI), Lonsdale (MN), Lincoln (NB), and several dozen more. New items show up day after day. The stories offer mounting evidence that the fruit of the past five decades of slow but steady interfaith networking, trust-building, and coalition-seeding is ripe for harvest. Individuals reaching beyond their normal boundaries, identifying with the plight of ‘the other,’ tell the story best. Tahil Sharma, a young college graduate and the interfaith liaison of Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus, shared a post on the matter on Facebook after graves were desecrated at an historic Jewish cemetery in St. Louis: “... the nation that taught me growing up that pluralism is key to the development and prosperity of all people is now being challenged by the likes of a monolithic and fervent nationalism that seeks to blame ‘the other,’ hate ‘the other,’ and hurt ‘the other.’ “The Jewish community has been one of many communities in 2017 to bear witness to such horrible treatment. Over 100 synagogues and Jewish community centers have received calls of bomb threats so far this year, threats that have led to evacuations and a sharp increase in the need for added security and intervention from federal agencies. To add to this hate-mongering towards a specific community, two Jewish cemeteries, in St. Louis and Philadelphia, had hundreds of gravesites desecrated and damaged in what could be considered a blunt message ... the level of cowardice and audacity that has emerged from the shadows has no place in a society as diverse and inclusive as the United States of America.” Multiple volunteers and donors, as reported by MSNBC, have stepped forward to repair the damaged sites, including more than $100,000 raised by a Muslim fundraising event to help repair the St. Louis cemetery. In Texas over $1 million was collected following a January arson attack on a mosque in the town of Victoria. As reported by CNN, “The congregation of the Victoria Islamic Center in Texas was devastated. Its mosque was destroyed over the weekend in a fire, the cause unknown so far. Then an act of kindness revived their spirits – the leaders of the local Jewish congregation gave them the keys to their synagogue so they could continue to worship.” The leader of the mosque said he wasn’t surprised by the gesture. “I never doubted the support that we were going to get” after the fire, Dr. Shahid Hashmi, a surgeon and president of Victoria Islamic Center, told CNN. “We’ve always had a good relationship with the community here.” Hashmi said Dr. Gary Branfman, a member of Temple B’nai Israel in Victoria, a fellow surgeon, and a friend – just came by his house and gave him the keys. Professor Tarunjit Singh Butalia, a Sikh who teaches at Ohio State University, has been a leader of American Sikhs for decades, all the while taking leadership roles in Religions for Peace International, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the North American Interfaith Network, and Ohio interfaith organizations. He offers this story exemplifying interfaith solidarity from Sikh history. The 9th Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur, came to the defense of Hindus when they were being persecuted and subjected to forcible conversions at the hands of the Muslim Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb. Guru Tegh Bahadur, known as the Sikh champion of Hindus, offered himself to the Emperor Aurangzeb as a sacrifice on their behalf. He was beheaded along with three of his devotees, after being horribly tortured. The Mughal emperor turned his fury on the Sikhs, but kept his word. Subsequently the Hindus were indeed allowed to live on in his empire. Hindus universally regard Sikh Guru Teq Bahadur’s execution as a sacrifice for their faith. To borrow a saying from another great faith, Butalia concludes, “Greater love hath no man than this ... that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

A couple weeks ago I read Outliers—The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell. Tony picked it up over the Christmas break out of curiosity. He’s had several of Gladwell’s books recommended to him, Outliers, being the most widely mentioned. Soon into the first chapter, I was receiving my own read-aloud time by my husband. “Honey, you’ve gotta read this book. It’s so true. You’d like it”. Then, dear Love, I thought; STOP READING IT TO ME! He did. Each chapter contains stories of successful people—some as famous as Bill Gates, and some not quite so well known but happily successful, none-the-less. He breaks down their lives, looking at the historical, cultural, social-economic and educational context in which these people were fortunate enough to be born. He shows that it is no accident that NFL Hockey players most overwhelmingly are born in the first three months of the year, Jewish immigrants born in the 1930’s were destined to be successful lawyers and doctors, and Southern Chinese students will always excel in math because they have been given a historical legacy of farming rice paddies. His thesis is that our way of viewing success is horribly flawed, and if only we could understand all the arbitrary decisions, lucky breaks and cultural or socio-economic advantages that outliers (those who seem to break the mold and rise above the status-quo) are given, then we could create a world full of outliers—people who recognize the gift they’ve been given and have the strength and presence of mind to seize the opportunity—rather than a world that has settled for a few “greats”, assuming they only reached the top because they are exceptionally gifted or genius. As I read Outliers for myself—NOT through my husband’s oratories—I naturally began replaying our own family’s decisions through the years. The choices we’ve made, the social, economic & historical context in which we were raised and how all those minute seemingly insignificant details are, in their own way, gifts and opportunities. Most of my thoughts traveled to that which happened within my own family; seemingly “random” acts, or single decisions made with what information we had at the time, but had they not happened there would be no Team Dragovich in all our greater glory. But, there is one larger cultural development that I recognize as having profoundly impacted our family—the tremendous rise in Korean adoption at just the right time. In the 1980’s I was happily growing in my farming community, living quite sheltered from the rest of the world. Nothing exciting or out of the ordinary happened in Mt. Olive, until the high school English teacher and his wife—who happened to be members of my family’s church—adopted a little girl from South Korea. A few years later, they brought home a son from the same country. This was both exciting and out of the ordinary. It was all I could do to keep from twisting my head from my family’s pew towards the back to their family’s pew just to gawk a little at this new and out of the ordinary occurrence—adoption from a foreign country! I pondered during the sermon; maybe I could adopt some children from a foreign country some day when I grow up… hmmm. A very quick Google search revealed the exact sort of historically significant trend to which Gladwell would have pointed in his book. After the Korean War in 1953, adoptions from South Korea rose significantly, filling orphanages with children orphaned from the war or those whose fathers were Western soldiers. This adoption trend continued to rise steadily, spiking upwards around the late 1980’s due to the legalization of abortion, increased use of contraceptives, and changes in the social welfare program combined to create a shortage of children for adoption domestically. I just happened to be an impressionable young girl in the mid-1980’s at the exact time South Korean adoptions were at their peak, reaching all the way into our little Mid-western town, exposing me to the wonder of international adoption. I wonder what I will be writing 20 and 30 years from now, when my children are all grown and living out their expressed purposes, adding to the significance of Korean adoptions. All five are future Outliers. And I suspect it is part of their purpose to create more. Grace & Peace,

Proverbs 8.1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5.1-5; John 16.12-23 Today is the beginning of what is called ‘Reconciliation Week’ here in Australia. The week is used, in various ways and by various groups, to promote reconciliation and peace between Indigenous Australians and those who came here more latterly from across the sea. This year there is a focus on the continuing scourge of racism, in the form of a call for its eradication from both every day society and from the constitution of Australia. For who can doubt that racism is still very much amongst us? The exchange between a football fan and dual Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes at the Sydney/Collingwood game on Friday night - when Mr Goodes was branded an ‘Ape’ - is a powerful reminder of that fact. It is also a fact that our national constitution still pretends that Aboriginal people do not exist. It is a thoroughly racist document in that it fails to recognise that Australia was not an ‘empty land’ when the Europeans came; that it had been inhabited and cultivated by another people for at least 60 thousands years; that it was taken from that people by force, and without lawfully recognised treaty, and that the effects of this taking are still amongst us in the form of huge levels of social, psychological and spiritual trauma amongst Indigenous people. As you know, I am an Indigenous Tasmanian, so I know about the effects of colonisation ‘up close and personal’, as they say. The way I look at everything – the landscape, society, the church, political and theological ideas – is profoundly influenced by that experience of loss and trauma. But I shall return to this later. Today is also, for the Christian community, the feast of the Holy Trinity. It is a day when we reflect explicitly on themes that are regrettably (for liberal Protestants such as ourselves) much more implicit during the rest of the year: namely the nature and mission of God as a Trinitarian communion of three persona, the ‘Father’, the ‘Son’ and the ‘Holy Spirit’. The lections for today seek to encourage such reflection. The reading from Proverbs speaks of ‘Wisdom’ as if she were a person, a person who cannot be simply separated from God as yet another of God’s myriad creations. Wisdom is here spoken of as the very ‘first’ of God’s possessions, appointed ‘from eternity’, begotten of God rather than created out of nothing. Wisdom is furthermore both a witness and co-worker with God in the act of creating the universe, a master craftswoman at Yahweh’s side. It is clear that many early Christian theologians understood this passage, and its sister passages in the apocryphal Book of Wisdom, as Jewish presentiments concerning Jesus Christ. We are all familiar with the opening poem at the beginning of John’s gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was the same as God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and that life was the light of all people . . . The true light, which enlightens everything, was coming into the world. (1.1-9).Like Wisdom, the Word exists in the beginning with God and shares in the divine action of creating. The Word, like Wisdom, may be understood as some kind of emanation from God. In other words, the Word is born of God, not made by God out of non-divine material. And finally, like Wisdom, the Word is imagined as a divine light which enlightens the world. Much recent scholarship concludes that Lady Wisdom is the model out of which John created the divine Logos which became, in short order, the second person of the Trinity, the divine Son. The Son shares in the deity of the Father, but cannot be absolutely identified with the Father, certainly not without remainder. Look at John’s careful treatment of the relationship between the Father and the Son in our gospel lection for today. ‘All that belongs to the Father is mine’, says Jesus. He also says ‘My Father will give you anything you ask for in my name.’ Names are important in New Testament imagination. Names represent a person who is not present. They are the same as the person themselves, yet they are different from that person also, because they can stand for, or represent, that person in their absence. So when Jesus says ‘The Father will give you anything you ask for in my name’, what he is really saying is this: ‘I am the exact representation and presence of my Father. If you cannot see the Father physically, yet, in looking upon me and listening to my voice you can see and hear the Father, for everything I am, I received from my Father, and everything the Father is has been given to me. So ask in my name. To do so is ask of my Father what I has already been given you in me’. According to John, then, Jesus of Nazareth is the same as the pre-existent Word of God who was begotten of God the Father before the creation of the world and shares in his Father’s deity and power; in Jesus we therefore see and hear all that we can, as human beings, see and hear of God. Jesus is the Father’s face and arms and voice for the material world of flesh and blood in which we live and move and have our human being. What of the Holy Spirit, then? Well, according to John once more, the Spirit clearly shares in the divine being of the Father and the Son. Jesus says that the Spirit will come once he, the flesh-and-blood Christ, has passed from this world. The Spirit will guide the disciples into the truth of God, a truth the Spirit will repeat and echo into our hearts exactly as it is spoken in the life of God, in the divine conversation between the Father and the Son. The Spirit possesses everything that the Father and the Son possess. The Spirit shares in the divine being of the Father and the Son, but also in the relationship of non-identity they share with each other. Some theologians have speculated that the Spirit is the relationship between the Father and the Son, the very intangibility of their love and regard for each other, the substance of their conversation and their care. That may well be true, for the Spirit is indeed less ‘solid’ than the Father and the Son in terms of character and identity. The Spirit is a tad more wild and mysterious in her workings, like a wind that comes from nowhere and goes to nowhere. And yet, what she brings us from her divine companions is something very valuable indeed: truth, hope and joy. She is the midwife of these things, John tells us, the one who assures us that they are real and that they will one day belong to us, even as we weep and grieve and labour in this valley of tears we call our world. The reading from Romans makes a similar point. It makes the claim that all who believe in Jesus Christ and have received the justification that comes from him as a free gift of grace, have also received the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is nothing other than the vessel in which the love and mercy of God arrive. This gift, says the Apostle, gives us hope when life is difficult. She helps us to rejoice when there is little to rejoice about. She helps us to persevere and to be disciplined in the face of difficult circumstances. For the promise is there for all who believe, that our pain will turn to joy and that our weeping will one day turn into laughter. Now, it is unfortunately true that around our church today there will be a great many sermons that skip over the feast of the Trinity and over trinitarian theology, because so many of our preachers simply do not have the knowledge or the will to know what to do with it. Many, unfortunately, see the doctrine of the Trinity as something of an irrelevance, an ancient curiosity that really has nothing to say to our contemporary world or faith. Nothing, of course, is further from the truth. What such preachers fail to appreciate it that the doctrine of the Trinity, like all doctrine, is a story. A story of God, and God’s dealings with the world of human beings that unleashes the power to transform our despair into joy, our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh and feeling. The doctrine of the Trinity is shorthand, in other words, for everything the Christian faith has to offer by way of truth, faith, hope and love. It is the grammar out of which we may start to comprehend our world, our society and our church as the arena of God’s action for forgiveness, justice and peace. ‘Why is racism wrong?’ for example. Have you ever asked yourself that question? What story, what grammar do we depend upon to render the denigration of another person (on the basis of nothing more than their skin-colour or ethnic origin) as fundamentally wrong, false, evil, immoral? Well. For Christians, it is the doctrine of the Trinity! The Father gives the Son into the world of flesh and blood in order to show us how to live, to reveal to us what is right and what is wrong, what makes for life and what makes for death. In the face of the Son we learn that God does this out of an infinite love for 'the world', for us all (cf. John 3.16). God longs for our life, not our death, for our flourishing, not our diminishing. In the face of Christ we learn that God is no bully, but is nevertheless prepared to come amongst us in the vulnerable form of the Son, to remonstrate and plead with us, that we might choose the way to life. God does this even to the point of being misunderstood or, conversely, understood very well, but ultimately rejected. Even to the point of death, death on a cross. Not that death can kill God’s love, for in the power of the Spirit the Son is raised to life as a sign of hope that all who follow in Christ’s way will themselves be raised, will themselves transcend death’s dominion when the racists and the death-squads come to exact their terrible revenge. So, racism is wrong because God is a communion of love since all eternity, and wants to include everyone, without remainder – whatever their skin colour or ethnic origin – at the table of mercy and hospitality shared forever by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Racism is wrong because God is willing to put everything on the line in Jesus Christ - and, through the Spirit, also within the very human and therefore fragile history of the church - in order to make that message resonate loud and clear within the arena of our inhumanity toward one another. Racism is wrong, finally, because it will not have the last word. The last word is love, the love shared between the Father and the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit, a love that is always going out of itself in creative and hospitable action. In the gift of Christ we who believe are empowered to rejoice in the final victory of that love even as the evil of racism continues to permeate our world. For the Spirit is a deposit, a guarantee of that which is to come: a sign in our midst of that final peace-making, the shalom of God, when all who are reconciled to God are also reconciled to one another. In the work of Christ and the giving of his Spirit, every sin is both forgiven and forgotten and the idea that someone might be used and abused because of their race has become absolutely laughable. Racism is wrong, in summary, because God is a trinity, a threefold relation of divine equals who go out toward one another and toward the cosmos in love and mercy. In this story and this grammar is the indispensable plumbline of care and regard and justice . . . for the church, for human society, and for the whole of creation.

After President Donald Trump signed an executive order to expand the wall on the United States’ southern border on January 25, 2017, he remarked in an interview with Fox News the next day that a stronger barrier against illegal immigration from Mexico is “good for the heart of the nation…because people want protection, and a wall protects. All you have to do is ask Israel. They were having a total disaster coming across, and they had a wall. It’s 99.9 percent stoppage.” Two days later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that “President Trump is right,” tweeting that the president’s plan was a “great idea” based on the “great success” of the wall constructed along Israel’s southern border. Although the wall referenced by Prime Minister Netanyahu is a barrier between Israel and Egypt aimed at preventing migrants from North Africa from illegally entering the country, some journalists have pointed out that it isn’t entirely clear if Trump was referring to that same wall or the barrier between Israel and the Palestinian territories. Probably due to the lack of clarity with which “a wall” was mentioned, in demonstrations across Mexico and the United States protesters shouted, “From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go.” The proposed expansion of the wall has thus become a symbol of the deteriorating relations between the United States and Mexico, which Mexico believes comes at the expense of its international image. The president’s reference to Israel in the context of an expanded wall along America’s border with Mexico was not new. Netanyahu met with then-candidate Trump in September 2016. During this meeting, Trump praised the prime minister’s 440-mile fence along its border with the Palestinian territories. Following their brief meeting, Trump campaigned for his border policy with Israel’s support, comparing his call for a strengthened border wall to Israel’s own projects. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto responded to Trump’s escalating rhetoric by canceling his meeting with the U.S. president on January 26. Following Netanyahu’s tweet two days later, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement rebuking the Israeli prime minister: “The Foreign Ministry expressed to the government of Israel, via its ambassador in Mexico, its profound astonishment, rejection and disappointment over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s message on Twitter about the construction of a border wall.” The statement went on to express the ministry’s “respect and admiration” for the Jewish people, and particularly the Mexican-Jewish community, but reiterated that “Mexico is a friend of Israel and should be treated as such by its Prime Minister.” Trump’s comparison of Mexico to Egypt, and possibly to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, adopts a securitized view of the United States’ own region—and could be perceived as framing Mexico as a hostile, uncooperative nation. Far from being opposed to mutual security agreements and the peaceful resolution of any conflicts, Mexico has shared intelligence about domestic drug-related violence, conducted military operations to eliminate cartel leaders, reformed its anti-crime and anti-corruption policies, increased security on its borders with Guatemala and Belize, and has come together with U.S. law enforcement authorities in an attempt to stop money laundering and secure border towns against violence. Portraying Mexico as a potential security and economic threat would ignore this recent history of cooperation between the two countries. Trump’s comparison between the U.S. border with Mexico and Israel’s tense relations along its own borders is provocative—hence the protests of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, pro-Israel policies that have taken place throughout the United States. Mexican citizens have also demonstrated against the president’s rhetoric and policies, with hundreds gathering in Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana to form a human wall reaching the United States on February 17. Mexican politicians, public commentators, and media reject the idea that a porous border with Mexico represents a threat to American national security and call a border wall a hostile act. If President Trump wishes to maintain constructive relations with Mexico’s government and people and the Mexican-American community, he must abandon his tendency to reference Israel’s complicated relationship with neighboring Arab states in discussing the U.S.-Mexico relationship. Although sensitivity is seemingly far from the president’s top priority, policymakers and other leaders are mindful of such matters, and a partnership with Mexico is worth fostering for the long term. Jolen Martinez (’20) is an intern at the Baker Institute Mexico Center and a sophomore at Rice University majoring in political science, anthropology and history.

So, is the Christian celebration of Easter originally derived from a pagan holiday? Just yesterday I overheard the idea that Christians are dishonoring Jesus by being involved in a celebration that involves the painting of eggs. This otherwise sincere believer understood that Easter eggs are associated with the pagan practices of child sacrifice. I just about fell out of my chair. Sadly, a lot of folks get their information these days from random Internet websites, rather than credible, researched resources. Much of the “free” content available on the Internet on these subjects today come from public domain sources where the copyright has expired, such as some scholarly works written in the 19th century. For example, a Scottish theologian, Alexander Hislop (1807–65) wrote a pamphlet in 1853, The Two Babylons, where Hislop lays out his theory of the connections between Easter, as celebrated traditionally among Roman Catholics, and Ishtar, an ancient goddess of fertility and sex. But more modern research has shown that such theories are without historical foundation. To make a long story short, Easter has its roots in the Jewish celebration of the Passover and Christ’s resurrection, not ancient fertility rites. In his day, apologists like Hislop were very interesting in writing polemic works designed to criticize Roman Catholicism in an attempt to promote a more Protestant understanding of faith. But today, these same type of arguments are used by atheists to attack Christianity in general. To complicate matters even more, as traditional religions associated with European paganism are being revived in the West, you will find various groups, such as modern day Druids and Wiccans, who use the same type of pseudo-scholarship folklore to justify their practices as a polemic against Christianity! Unfortunately, there are some evangelical Christians today, mainly associated with the Hebrew Roots movement, introduced briefly here on Veracity, that thrive on such supposedly convincing theories. It is true that many evangelical Christians are basically ignorant of the Old Testament and the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. So while the modern trend to have church-run Passover Seders in an attempt to make up for this deficiency could be a step in the right direction, mishandling of such practices might do more harm than good. In other words, if you think that a once a year church-run Seder is enough to ground the Christian believer in an understanding of authentic Jewish belief and Old Testament theology, then you are probably short changing yourself. If you really want to understand the Old Testament, there is simply no shortcut other than actually taking the time to read and study the Old Testament, or the “Hebrew Scriptures,” as many Jewish people would prefer to say. Furthermore, developing a friendship from an actively practicing Jewish person is probably the best education you can get! The problem with much that goes on with the “Hebrew Roots” movement is that in their enthusiasm to get back to the Jewish roots of our faith, they inadvertently toss “the baby out with the bathwater,” all based in ignorance as they appeal to the conspiracy theory logic of those like Alexander Hislop. Now, I am not much into painting Easter eggs, and if avoiding such practices help you to distinguish Christian faith from the revival of neopaganism, then that is perfectly understandable. But please do not take away my chocolate Easter bunny. Yum! Yum! The main point here is that we should not allow atheists and pagans to hijack Easter. Our confidence in the Gospel is not grounded in conspiracy theories. Instead, it is about the celebration of our Risen Lord from the empty tomb!! Arm yourself with a knowledge of what the Bible teaches and credible scholarly research. Here are few recommended resources online for correcting some of the misconceptions about Easter: - Anthony McRoy, a Fellow of the British Society for Middle East Studies and lecturer in Islamic studies at Wales Evangelical School of Theology, U.K., wrote this piece on whether or not Easter was borrowed from a pagan festival: found in Christian History magazine. A good introduction to the controversy and a reasonable conclusion. - Lutheran pastor Joseph Abrahamson has put together several excellent articles that debunk a number of the detailed claims made by the “anti-Easter” promoters (see #1 and #2). - If you question some of the impartiality of the scholarly research, you might want to take a look at this article from The Guardian, a secular U.K. magazine. - A look at how some neo-pagan groups use a revived notion of “Eostre” to guide their belief system. - A nicely researched blog article written by an atheist/agnostic on why the image at the top of this blog post is trying to promote some rather shaky ideas (WARNING: some of the language is off-color). - If you have no clue what I am talking about, and you would like a good summary of what the “Easter is pagan holiday” argument looks like, you can read this section of a WikiBook (note that the editorial guidelines for WikiBooks are not the same as for Wikipedia. Just read this with a really big, heaping grain of salt, will ya??

Sometimes it is not enough for a man to die. A mediocre man, even a good one, is soon forgotten. But if he was a great man and he had a profound influence for good, his enemies will use every opportunity to desecrate his grave and distort his legacy long after he is gone. Fr. Denis Fahey was such a great man. Although he died in 1954, his works have become more significant with each passing year. As the world plunges further and further into a satanic darkness, and the saving light of the infallible magisterium of the Church is obscured by the soft apostasy of so many of today’s unworthy shepherds, reasonable people are looking for answers that explain a debacle of near universal proportions. Fr. Fahey provides those answers — solid Catholic ones that faithfully echo the social teachings of the Church through the ages. Because of his faithfulness, Modernists and other heretics, as well as the doubtful and weak in faith, continue to question, discredit, and attack this holy priest. For example, a Catholic radio station recently aired an interview with author Sandra Meisel, during which she vented her spleen at Fr. Fahey, calling him an anti-Semite and denouncing him for daring to assert that the Jews and the Masons are opposed to the Catholic Church. The interviewer expressed his admiration for her opinions and his complete concurrence with what she said. Coincidentally, a friend of mine telephoned Catholic Answers’ (Karl Keating’s organization) “staff apologist’s line” with a question about Freemasonry. He had seen no mention of the Masons in the new Catholic catechism. He simply wanted to know more about the Masons and what the Catholic Church taught concerning them. The staff apologist referred him to an article by science fiction writer, Sandra Meisel, that had appeared in the December 2002 edition of Deal Hudson’s Crisis magazine, entitled “Swinging at Windmills — A Close Look at Catholic Conspiracy Theories.” The apologist told my friend that it was an excellent article and contained everything he would need to know about the topic. My friend was very disturbed by what he found therein and asked me if I would read it. I have studied the article and found that it is filled with calumnies, personal attacks, confusion, and misstatements. In short, it’s a real “hatchet job” in the same vein as the interview the author provided on the radio. With one exception that will be mentioned later, we will not dwell further on Sandra Meisel. She is cited only to demonstrate that Fr. Fahey continues to be attacked, misquoted, and discredited. Although he died fifty years ago, Fr. Fahey’s influence is, indeed, very current. The Foundation of Fr. Fahey’s Life Work Fr. Fahey was born in Ireland in 1883. At seventeen, he entered the Holy Ghost Fathers at Grignon-Orly, located near Paris in France. He made his profession in 1907. Further educated at the Gregorian University in Rome, he was ordained in 1910, taking his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas. In 1912 he received his Ph.D. in Theology from the Gregorian University. That year he returned to Ireland and was appointed Director of Scholastics and Professor of Philosophy at the Irish Province of the Holy Ghost Congregation in Dublin. He served as chaplain at an internment camp in Switzerland towards the end of World War I. Otherwise, his residence remained in Ireland until his death in 1954. He spoke German, French, and Italian. A prolific writer, he authored several books that focused extensively on the defense of and richer cultivation of the Kingship of Christ in his Catholic homeland. During his studies in Rome, Fr. Fahey learned how the Mystical Body of Christ transformed the pagan society of the Roman Empire and prepared it for the “upward movement of recognition for the programme of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Priest and King.” He also learned that the revolutions of the modern world, in the words of Pope Leo XIII, “were but one phase of the development of a pre-arranged plan, which is being carried out over an ever-widening area to multiply the ruins of which we have previously spoken.” Fr. Fahey came to understand “that all the revolutions were bringing about the elimination of the rule of Christ the King in view of ultimately eliminating the Mass and the supernatural life of Christ, the Supreme High Priest.” These two major streams of thought — the recognition of the Kingship of Christ and the unmasking of the forces opposed to His Kingdom — furnished the “two guiding lights of theological and historical studies which I have pursued ever since.” He spent the rest of his writing and teaching career working out the theoretical and practical implications of these two great notions. In particular, he attempted to expound and build upon the social teachings of the modern popes — Bl. Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X and Pius XI. These “two guiding lights” may be restated as follows: First, recognizing and promoting the Kingship of Christ is absolutely necessary for earthly happiness as well as the salvation of every human being. The Reign of Christ the King is the only source of hope for the world, both materially and spiritually. It is the only means for building and preserving civilization. Second, any person, group, organization, or social movement that opposes Christ’s Reign is a witting or unwitting tool of demonic powers. Needless to say, in a world that is swimming in heresy, Naturalism, Modernism, Marxism, Socialism, and every other imaginable error, such a teaching causes a great deal of discomfort. Fr. Fahey had an excellent education, a powerful intellect, and remained faithful to the Magisterium of the Church. Because he was also a clear, powerful teacher and writer, he was the enemy of the Modernists and revolutionaries of his day and is hated by those who have come along ever since. The Seven Principles of Fr. Fahey’s Teachings Illuminated by these two great beacons, Fr. Fahey’s teaching consists of seven basic principles. Because they represent the true Catholic teaching on these matters, they can be somewhat jarring to us, who live in a country that is steeped in subjectivism, 1 liberalism, 2 and indifferentism. 3 Drawing mainly on the writings of modern popes (his works are filled with countless quotes and citations), he lays out Christ the King’s program of order for the world. He contrasts this with Satan’s program for disorder. What follows is a very condensed description of the seven basic principles given by Fr. Fahey. First, “Our Lord’s Mystical Body, the Catholic Church, Supernatural and Supranational, which all states and nations are called upon to acknowledge, has been established by God as the One Way for the ordered return of human beings to Him. Into it all men of all nations are called to enter as His members.” In contrast, the devil wants the state to put all religions on the same level. This is the first step toward inducing the secular government to persecute the Catholic Church, which, by divine ordinance, can never compromise her singular authority. Providing equal rights to truth and error spreads disorder. As a result, truth becomes confused with error. Satan uses every means and whatever vehicle he can to promote the principles of the French Revolution — “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” Second, Our Lord’s plan calls for states and nations to acknowledge the “Indirect Power” of the Catholic Church in civil affairs — the right of the pope and bishops to decide what helps or hinders our life as members of Christ. The Church is the sole divinely appointed guardian of the whole moral order — natural and revealed. Whereas, “Satan aims at getting States and Nations to treat with contempt the Indirect Power of the Catholic Church and at setting up the State or the Race as the authority to decide all moral questions.” Satan’s plan calls for the State to legislate for the Church in every way, including all jurisprudence. With this in mind, it should be quite evident how the current American clergy scandal fits into Satan’s plan. Because the American bishops have been unwilling to control the priests and “protect innocent children,” the State has been “forced” to take over the role of overseeing the morals of the Catholic clergy in this country. Many good but misguided people have supported the current attempt of the State to take control of the bishops in America in the mistaken belief that this will protect innocent children from further harm by wayward members of the clergy. Satan also lures men into talk of restoring order in the world without the help of Christ and His Church. In the popular press, this grievous error is referred to as the “separation of Church and State.” Mainly through the efforts of the secret societies and their agents in the press, the electronic media and the cinema, Satan promotes the lie that the Church opposes political independence and self-government. A naturalistic, supranational organization, such as the United Nations, is promoted as a substitute for unification under the Kingship of Christ. Third, “the Unity and Indissolubility of Christian marriage symbolize the union of Christ and His Mystical Body. This is the foundation of the Christian Family. Our Lord wants members to cultivate purity and honor virginity under the guidance of His Immaculate Mother.” He wants men to know, love, and serve Him in this world, so that they may be happy with Him in the next. Parents are obliged by God to propagate and fill the earth with Catholic saints. “Satan aims at undermining Christian family life, directly by the introduction of divorce and indirectly by the propagation of immorality… Satan hates the pure, especially the Immaculate Queen of Heaven.” Conjugal infidelity, birth prevention, and all base vices are promoted. Immodest fashions are introduced and encouraged. (Fr. Fahey did not mention sodomy and abortion by name because Western Civilization had not yet fallen as low as it now has. During his lifetime, these were crimes that were considered too vile even to mention in public.) Movies, plays, and all forms of entertainment are used for this diabolical and disordered purpose. Fourth, “Our Lord wants children educated as Members of His Mystical Body, so that they may be able to look at everything, nationality included, from that standpoint, and observe the order following therefrom in relation to God, themselves and others. Thus is true personality developed.” All education, in every branch, must be regulated in the Christian spirit, under the direction of the Church. Whereas, writes Fr. Fahey, “Satan aims at impeding or, if possible, preventing altogether the education of young people of both sexes as Members of Christ,” not only schools, but cinema, television, and all possible news sources are used to subvert the morals of the youth. Women are especially targeted for corruption. Fifth, “the Divine Plan for order calls for wide diffusion of ownership of property, in order to facilitate families in procuring the sufficiency of material goods required for the virtuous life of their members as human persons, and for Unions of owners and workers in Guilds or Corporations, reflecting the solidarity of the Mystical Body in economic organization.” As many people as possible should be induced to become land owners. “Satan aims at the concentration of property in the hands of a few, either nominally in those of the State, or in those of the money manipulators. He knows that, given fallen human nature, this will lead to the subordination of men to production of material goods and to the treatment of all those not in power as mere individuals , not as persons . For this, he favored Liberalism or Individualism and now favors the reaction against Individualism — Collectivism and Communism.” Several generations ago, unbridled Capitalism served to concentrate wealth into the hands of fewer people. Now, zealous promoters of Collectivism, Socialism and Communism insinuate themselves into all organizations, including the Church and its religious orders and other institutions. The purpose of it all is to destroy religious sentiment in everyone, particularly the youth. Sixth, “the Divine Plan for order calls for a monetary system so arranged as to facilitate the production and exchange of material goods in view of the virtuous life of Members of Christ in happy families.” Strong, holy families are to be supported and promoted. Laws and social conditions should favor the family unit. “. . . The art of money manipulation in the hierarchy of the arts is inferior to the industrial arts which cater for [sic] man’s secondary needs and to agriculture which produces man’s primary needs, all those arts are meant to be at the service of Members of Christ in happy families.” The art of agriculture is to be considered as the ideal labor for supporting family life. On the contrary: “Satan aims at a monetary system, by which human persons will be subordinated to the production of material goods, and the production, distribution and exchange of material goods will be subordinated to the making of money and the growth of power in the hands of the financiers. He is pleased that money is employed as an instrument for the elimination of the Divine Plan and for the installation of Naturalism.” Money and real wealth are separated. The desire for money, which is merely a medium of exchange, is unlimited, whereas the desire for property, and material goods needed to foster strong family life, is limited by nature. The money manipulators want money to change hands at an ever-greater frequency, in order to increase their amount of it. As a result, a culture of “consumerism” is fostered and the pace of society constantly intensifies to satisfy this purpose. Usury 5 is encouraged and debt is promoted as a means of accumulating consumer goods. The moral order is weakened in order to undermine prosperity and temporal happiness. Satan hates the human race and, therefore, he widens the road that aids the advance of the culture of death. Through readily available contraceptives he encourages fornication and, having enthroned health and luxury as the most desirable good, he cushions the illusionary deception among married couples that having fewer children brings more material prosperity, and consequently, peace and happiness. “A murderer from the beginning,” Satan delights in the current culture of abortion and euthanasia. (Fr. Fahey would not even have entertained a notion as perverse as sodomite “marriages”.) Seventh, “Our Lord Jesus Christ wants all His Members to grasp the Programme for Order laid down by His Father and unite with Himself in the central act of submission to the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Mass. In this sacrifice, the re-presentation of Calvary, all Catholics profess their willingness to respect God’s Rights and their readiness to strive, as a united body, to mould society in accordance with Our Lord’s Programme for Order.” The Catholic Order “cannot penetrate into a soul without making it better, so it cannot enter into the public life of a people without establishing order….” “Satan wants to confuse and bewilder human beings, so that they may give up the idea that there is an order laid down by God, which they are bound to find out, if they do not know it already, and to observe. On account of his relentless hatred of the Supernatural Life, he detests above all the central act of submission to the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He strives to eliminate it wherever he can, and, where he cannot do so, he endeavors to have it treated as a mere formality not intended to influence life. He tries to get the young and inexperienced to accept that they are on the road to happiness, when they neglect the Mass and its significance for life, cast off moral restraint and reject the claims of duty.” Fr. Fahey quotes the great Cardinal Pie of Poitiers, “He [Satan] considers that he has made a notable advance towards his goal when he has succeeded in having other religions placed on the same level as the True Church of Christ. He is well aware of the anti-supernatural influence of that official attitude on the average members of society . He knows well that, when error has become incarnate in legal formulae and in administrative practice, it penetrates so deeply into people’s minds that it is impossible to eradicate it.” Upon these seven basic principles of a properly ordered Catholic culture are based all of the social teachings of Fr. Fahey. His development of them gives us one of the most comprehensive and accurate expositions of solid Catholic social teaching. Even with such a brief listing, our observation of the events of recent history confirms the truth of his teachings and the accuracy of his predictions. When reflecting on his own work, Fr. Fahey said, “Whatever is in harmony with the Divine Programme for Order will make for real progress; whatever is opposed to it spells decay and death. Thus I try to train them [his students] to make Our Lord the center of their lives in every department.” Fr. Fahey and Organized Naturalism Fr. Fahey defines “Naturalism” as follows: “Naturalism consists in the negation of the possibility of the elevation of our nature to the Supernatural Life and order, or more radically still, in the negation of the very existence of that Life and order. In our day, owing to the progress of the anti-Christian revolt, the more radical meaning has become common. Naturalism may be defined, therefore, as the attitude of mind which denies the reality of the Divine Life of Grace and of our Fall therefrom by Original Sin. It rejects our consequent liability to revolt against the order of the Divine Life, when this Life has been restored to us by our Membership of [in] Christ, and maintains that all social life should be organized on the basis of that denial.” Any system of thought or organization that rejects the divine plan and tries to substitute anything other than His plan would be called naturalistic. It is based on the denial of divine revelation. Groups that hold this view are “Organized Naturalists.” Simply, they are groups of men who work to establish an order that leaves out the essential element — God and His divine Order — the Kingship of Christ. “Naturalism means complete sterility in regard to salvation and eternal life.” The devil is considered the first naturalist. He rejected the divine plan for salvation and substituted his own with his defiant cry, “I will not serve!” Satan’s aim has never changed. He wants to subvert the divine plan and recruit as many men as possible into his disordered cadre — for his malicious delight and their eternal damnation. Fr. Fahey goes through great pains to expose the various systems that espouse Naturalism. While in Rome, he learned that an individual’s errors do not have as much of an impact on the Kingship of Christ as the various systems of organized Naturalism. But organizations involve groups of men who can work together — and often consciously and maliciously do — to undermine quietly or revolt openly against Christ’s Kingdom. Individuals come and go but organizations last for generations. “There is unorganized opposition to the Supernatural Life in each one of us, owing to the Fall. This unorganized opposition of individuals inevitably leads to the formation of little anti-supernatural groups here and there, even without the concerted action of vast organized forces. But the fact that there exists concerted anti-supernatural action on the part of organized bodies is so far removed from the preoccupations of the average Catholic that it needs to be specially stressed and its aims made clear.” As he explains elsewhere, “Though the knowledge of the aims and methods of those organized forces, on which the popes so strongly insist, does not suffice to explain everything in contemporary history; yet without that knowledge contemporary history is a puzzle, and the fathers will not be able to battle for the rights of Christ the King as they should.” Fr. Fahey singles out the three main forces of organized Naturalism in today’s world. One is invisible; the other two are visible. “The invisible host is that of Satan and the other fallen angels, while the visible forces are those of the Jewish Nation and Freemasonry. The Jewish Nation is not only a visible organization, but its naturalistic or anti-supernatural character is openly proclaimed, by its refusal to accept the Supernatural Messias and by its looking forward to a naturalistic messianic era.” It does not take too much effort to uncover the obvious flaw of Freemasonry — the reason it merits special attention by Fr. Fahey. By Masonry’s open refusal to recognize the primacy of the Catholic Faith and by its secret rituals in which initiates take formal vows to oppose the papacy, Masonry declares itself the organized enemy of the Kingship of Christ. Leaving aside the secret anti-Catholic oaths and the satanism involved in the highest levels of Masonry, “indifferentism” is the official creed of the Freemasons — one religion is as good as another — a man may believe whatever he wants as long as he is a “good” man. Ultimately, Masonry replaces God with the pantheistic deification of man. Once a conspiratorial organization indulges its members in this kind of Luciferian sin, an infinite variety of errors, perversions, and revolutions have the potential to germinate. As history demonstrates, these evil fruits have been propagated by Masonic societies ever since their formal organization in 1717. Fr. Fahey’s description of the beliefs and activities of the Jews and Freemasons are particularly troublesome for modern Americans. Most of us have been trained to accept the following notions as self-evidently true and/or worthy goods: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” “Freedom of Religion,” the “Separation of Church and State,” that all political power comes from the people, that usury is a perfectly legitimate means of getting rich, and that the Jews are the most persecuted people in history, always the victim in any conflict, while organized Jewry never works to undermine the gospel of Jesus Christ. The vast majority of Catholic Americans has no idea that these notions are evil, fallacious and, therefore, anti-Catholic. Nor are they remotely aware that these subversive errors have been calculatedly foisted on them by those two above-mentioned groups of organized naturalists and their willing agents and sympathizers. The first time they encounter Fr. Fahey’s challenge of these closely held misconceptions, many people dismiss him as rabidly radical or, at best, seriously misguided. Those who are willing to take the time and make the effort to research carefully the Church’s traditional teachings on these matters eventually come to accept the veracity of Fr. Fahey’s exposition. “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” was the cry of the Freemasons who were responsible for the French Revolution and the subsequent bloodbath called “The Terror.” Liberty is defined as license. True equality as children of God was deformed and became egalitarianism (the erasing of all distinctions between individuals). Fraternity was substituted for the virtue of charity in members of the Mystical Body of Christ. As we have already noted, “Freedom of Religion,” (also known as “indifferentism”) is a main tenet of the Masons — one of the errors they promote openly. “Separation of Church and State” is one of the most diabolic of the maxims of Freemasonry, one that is continually conjured forth by the secularists in their effort to eliminate the Church’s God-given influence over the laws and actions of civil government. The belief, promulgated by the revolutionary protagonist Jean Jacques Rousseau, that political power arises from the people, rather than descending to human authority from God, was the inversion of true order. This French Freemason, and the cynic Voltaire, were two of “power to the people’s” most famous propagandists. Usury, defined previously as the charging of excessive interest on loans, particularly loans to individuals and families for purchasing the necessities of life, forms the basis of modern America’s national economy. Money is sought for money’s sake. Real ownership of property is nearly impossible. (As economist Douglas Casey recently stated, “If you think you own your home, try not paying the taxes on it.”) Families have been lured by promises of prosperity to abandon the agricultural life, or even the dream thereof. None of this happened by accident. The Church, in its wisdom, warned us of these dangers for many generations. We are now witnessing the diabolical fruits of these errors. National and personal debt now exceed anything in recorded history. Fr. Fahey takes a great deal of care to describe accurately the perennial efforts of the Jews to undermine Christian society and substitute the Zionist Messianic State in the place of the Kingship of Christ. Using the writings of the popes and councils of the Church, he carefully and clearly lays out the teachings of the Church in regard to the treatment of the Jews and their conversion to the Faith. “On the one hand, the Sovereign Pontiffs strive to protect the Jews from physical violence and to secure respect for their family life and their worship, as the life and worship of human persons. On the other hand, they aim unceasingly at protecting Christians from the contamination of Jewish Naturalism and try to prevent Jews from obtaining control over Christians.” The chief duty of the Church towards the Jews is to work for their conversion to the Catholic Church and their acceptance of Christ’s Kingship on earth. “We must never forget that [Jesus and the Virgin Mary were Jews and that Jesus’ Individuality came from the Jews] or allow ourselves to fall victims to an attitude of hatred for Jews as a nation. We must always bear in mind that He is seeking to draw them on to that supernatural union with Himself which they reject.” In one rather ironic twist, Sandra Meisel, in the previously mentioned article in Crisis magazine, accuses Fr. Fahey of being an anti-Semite. She quotes the definition of “anti-Semitism” as given by the Jewish historian Leonard Dinnerstein: “hostile expressions toward or negative behavior against individuals or groups because of their Jewish faith or heritage.” After Fr. Fahey correctly defines anti-Semitism as a hatred of or unjust treatment of the Jews because of their race or religion, he goes on to explain what the Jews mean by the term. “Anti-Semitism is the word used by the Jews to designate any form of opposition to themselves, and they strive persistently to associate irrationality and want of balance with the term. They evidently want the world to believe that anyone who opposes Jewish pretensions is more or less mentally deranged.” It is strikingly similar to the definition given by Leonard Dinnerstein. In fact, Dinnerstein’s definition and Meisel’s diatribe easily prove Fr. Fahey’s point — the Jews use the word “anti-Semitism” as a derogatory term against anyone who opposes them and their designs for the Christian world in any way whatsoever. Repeatedly, Fr. Fahey asks members of the Mystical Body to pray and work for the conversion of the Jews. Pointedly, he asks, “If a great number of Jews sincerely accepted the True Messias and put all the restless energy and unshakable tenacity into the furtherance of the Kingship of Christ, which they now display against His rule, would not the conversion of the world be more rapidly achieved?” What is a Modern Catholic to do? Reading Fr. Fahey forces a modern Catholic to pause and reflect — to consider 1) the roles of the Church and the State, 2) the Church’s social teachings, 3) the Kingship of Christ, and 4) the organized naturalists, including the Jews, Freemasons, and their agents of influence in the press, international finance, and the government. If he is a serious, thoughtful Catholic, the reader is prompted to study further, especially the writings of the popes (prior to Vatican II). As he understands more about true Catholic social principles, so, too, will he realize the awful magnitude of the gulf that has grown between the Church and modern society, particularly for Americans living in the twenty-first century. When one reflects on the devastation in the Mystical Body itself that has been caused by the forces of Organized Naturalism, he can become quite overwhelmed. In our day, we are witnessing the fulfillment of Fr. Fahey’s observation, “It is the good men, good once, we must hope, good still, who are to do the work of anti-Christ and so sadly to crucify the Lord afresh…. Bear in mind this feature of the last days, that this deceitfulness arises from good men being on the wrong side.” As Fr. Fahey states emphatically, it “…is a challenge to the Catholic Church of a duel to the death.” Fr. Fahey clearly described the traditional teaching of the relationship between Christ’s Mystical Body and the rest of society. “The two Societies [Church and State] are independent and self-sufficient, each in its own sphere, so that no direct subordination exists between them. There is, however, indirect subordination. Since both societies exercise jurisdiction over the same subject, man, it sometimes happens that spiritual and temporal interests conflict; and when this happens, spiritual interests and the society which governs them, being the higher, the nobler, and the more important, must prevail.” With these considerations in mind, what is a modern, American Catholic to do? “Our main duty as Catholics in the face of this Naturalism is, as always, the strengthening of our supernatural life by a formation in which our membership of [in]Our Lord’s Mystical Body will become the leit-motiv [overriding consideration] of everything.” Fr. Fahey gives us the approach to follow if we are to achieve any measure of success in the struggle to re-establish the Kingship of Christ on earth. We must enter the arena and fight the enemy face-to-face. Catholics must win non-Catholics to the Faith by the “probity of their morals and the integrity of their lives.” We must have a unity of aim and similarity in all plans of action. Catholics, therefore, must be united whenever the interests of the Church are at stake, even though they may differ on matters of secondary importance. We must avoid the two “criminal excesses of weak Catholics” — i.e., worldly prudence (often a soft apostasy) and, at the other extreme, false courage. In his essay entitled A Brief Sketch of My Life Work , Fr. Fahey gives us the essence of our struggle to re-establish Christ’s Kingdom in these latter days. He refers the reader to True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis Marie de Montfort. In it, St. Louis “stresses the two functions of our Blessed Mother, the positive one of making our Lord known, and the negative one of making war upon His enemies.” Fr. Fahey recommends that we meditate on the following passage from True Devotion: “Mary must be manifested more than ever by her mercy, her power, and her grace in these latter times; by her mercy, bringing back and lovingly welcoming the poor strayed sinners who will be converted and will return to the Catholic Church; by her power, against the enemies of God, idolaters, schismatics, Mohammedans, Jews, and men hardened in impiety, who will rise in terrible revolt to seduce all those who oppose them and to make them fall by promises and threats; she must also be made manifest by her grace animating and sustaining the valiant soldiers and faithful servants of Jesus Christ, who shall battle for His interests. “And lastly, Mary must be terrible to the devil and his ministers, as an army in battle array, principally in these latter times, because the devil, knowing that he has but little time, and now less than ever, to damn souls, will every day redouble his efforts and his combats. He will before long raise up cruel persecutions and will lay terrible snares for the faithful servants and true children of Mary whom he finds more difficult to conquer than the others.” That is our charge: To devote ourselves to defending the rights of Christ the King and fighting to establish His Kingdom, by submitting ourselves in holy slavery to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It begins with our personal sanctification. If we are not in the state of sanctifying grace, we need to get there by making a good confession. Our main weapons are prayer and penance. Daily, we must offer everything — our prayers, works, joys, thoughts, and sufferings — to our Lady to do with as she pleases. We need to beg her to intercede for the conversion of America and the restoration of Christ’s Kingdom on earth — the Catholic Church. Let us make a strong effort to attend and to pray the Holy Mass as frequently as we can; and let us not fail to pray the Rosary well, as our Lady has requested us to do. Indeed, if we are to be effective in our efforts to restore the Kingship of Christ, we must pray the Holy Rosary every day, socially, if possible — as a family — for the triumph of her Immaculate Heart. Finally, let us give of ourselves, not only of our prayers. Let us become active, devout, faithful, practicing Catholics. The apostles of the modern age should include “the workmen, merchants, and employers.” This refers to us, the laity. Let us lead by our example and our charity towards our Catholic brothers and sisters, as well as towards everyone else we encounter throughout the day. Fr. Fahey argued that Catholics need to become active, both politically and socially. “…Unless the precepts, doctrines, and example of Christ are faithfully followed by all in public and private life, no peace worthy of the name can be attained, and certainly not the peace of Christ, which is pre-eminently to be desired.” If we are able, let us work to influence the legislators to pass laws that are just. Let us lobby politicians and people in the media to operate for good rather than evil. Let us contribute our time and our money towards this most holy endeavor — the crusade to restore the Kingship of Christ. “It is infinitely better to go down struggling for the integral truth than to win a seeming victory by whittling it down.” May our Blessed Mother, terrible as an army in battle array, intercede for us, guide us and protect us in our fight to re-establish the rightful order established by her divine Son on earth, in His Mystical Body, the Church. 1 Subjectivism holds that all reality and truth are “subjective” — in the person himself (as the subject). 2 Liberalism means “erecting some particular section or aspect of human activity, economic or political, into a separate domain with its own autonomous end, completely independent of the final end of man as a member of Christ.” 3 Indifferentism means one religion is as good as another and it does not matter what a person believes so long as he acts honorably. 4 Usury is defined as charging interest on an unproductive loan. This is distinguished from interest charged on a loan for which a profit may be expected, such as a business venture. Usury is considered unjust because it charges simply for money—a thing that does not have an existence outside of being a means for something else. An easy way to understand the concept is by an example. If a person borrows a consumable, such as a gallon of milk, he repays the debt by returning a gallon of milk. Usury is charging a man interest on a loan to buy the milk. If he pays interest on the loan, he is, in effect, charged twice for the milk—once for the milk itself and an additional amount (the interest) for drinking it. Nowadays, the term most often refers to excessive interest charged on any loan; and this is always immoral.

IS THAT YOU? Is the story of RONNIE, 60 year old Israeli film projectionist, who has been fired from his job and is going now to the U.S. in a search for RACHEL, the love of his youth. IS THAT YOU? Is a romantic, road trip journey to ‘The Road Not Taken’ in life created by Award Winning filmmaker Dani Menkin (HBO Cinemax-39 Pounds of Love, Je Taime, I Love You Terminal, Dolphin Boy) Jewish Film Festival You see, Ronnie and Rachel though separated for 30 years, once made a vow that whatever might come between them they would meet up for Rachel’s 60th birthday. After being fired and realizing her day was near, the laid back Ronnie decided to take up the pursuit at the urging of his more demonstrative brother. When Ronnie’s borrowed car breaks down en route to searching out Rachel, a young film student happens upon him offering to fix, yes, fix his car while asking him to be interviewed for her film project. Ronnie thinks she’s nuts but goes along with it . Both being of film backgrounds, she offers to drive Ronnie in her own borrowed car (van) to help him find Rachel while the two make some very entertaining stops for filming during a long, circuitous route to Rachels. Does Ronnie ever find Rachel? We highly recommend you find out. The movie is an adventure, a philosophical tale, and a double love story (‘Is That You?’ has already played at the Jewish Film Festival but it will surely be available in theaters and/or video.) Meanwhile the film festival runs through Sunday and most movies appear to be winners, certainly the three we saw, Is That You, Marvin Hamlish and Run Boy Run (reviewed in next blogpost). The movie is excellent on several different levels, offering the audience take with them some potential life changes. The movie provides an hour and a half of pure escape but also offers philosophical questions we might ask ourselves about real would-be, could-be life-changes. 1) It asks the question ‘ Do you have any life regrets’ to those interviewed in the film, while serving as a catharsis for them while providing a good philosophical question for the film audience to ponder, one that they might work on as a possible life-changer 2) Not to spoil the movie, we are reminded in a stark way that ‘life is short’ and we should, perhaps, act and take chances NOW before it is too late, as Ronnie did. We won’t say more other than Ronnie made this decision and, no doubt, it was a good decision for him , despite a later life event. 3) We see an interesting interaction between a man and a woman of two different generations, one not based solely on sex and attraction. In fact, that is almost left out of the equation until the end. It’s about two people going about their own paths, less travelled, who just happen to meet up each not expecting anything to come of it. Something does come of it , but that thing is not shoved in our face, as in so many movies, and we never really learn what eventually happens to the two. Again, that is left to the imagination. A freshingly fitting ending we think. MARVIN HAMLISCH: WHAT HE DID FOR LOVE The movie included the soundtrack of Hamlisch’s life, going from his early successes with movie scores for people like Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford to harder times, but during it all, Hamlisch was still beloved by his many friends and fellow musicians, who paid him great tribute. Three things particularly come to mind after watching a beautiful movie/tribute about the life of Marvin Hamlisch During the Contra Costa Jewish film Festival March 8 Sunday 2015 (Century 16, Pleasant Hill) (2013, no doubt available now elsewhere) 1) While being one of the premier songwriters and arrangers of our time, Marvin Hamlisch had a real zest for life and wanted to experience ‘ it all.’ Whether it was especially food or music, Hamlish loved all kinds and styles. ‘There was no Bad music, only good music’ he said. He wasn’t a snob about classical being better than popular. It appeared he lived his life that way with people, too. ‘Give everyone a chance.’ He was a positive person and always had good things to say. He was kind and generous, all his friends and fellow musicians repeated in the movie. 2) His song from one of his film scores was something about ‘while we still have the time’… And that was about doing things NOW , to experience life while you can. Hamlisch certainly packed in a lot during a premature 68 year life. He said one of his songs best summed up his life, the conflicting ‘The music is me or I am the music’ was his inner conflict much of his life …. 3)Relationships were perhaps the bain of Hamlisch’s existance. As much as he sought out true love amidst all the love songs he wrote about, Hamlisch could never find it, despite dating some of the most beautiful, talented women. Finally, when his career was waning in the 1980s , as was his love life, he finally met the woman of his dreams, Terry, on a chance blind date. Though, the funny thing is that they never actually met until months after talking for hours on the phone. But, by the time they met , he Hamlisch felt like he KNEW her enough he proposed just before she opened her front door of their first meeting. She said yes. Terry said what attracted her to hamlish was his kindness and unassuming nature . She recalled when they were first supposed to meet he told her he had to pick up some cleaning when it fact he was going to accept a big award. After writing iconic love songs like ‘Memories’ and soundtracks for movies like ‘The Way We Were’ and ‘The Sting’, Hamlisch finally was able to live out his last years with the love that had escaped him for so many . Perhaps Hamlisch was one of those rare people, both genius and humanitarian, who seem to often leave us too soon. Robin Williams is another who comes to mind. Perhaps they’re just TOO GOOD, TOO KIND if there can be such a thing, and while their flames burn brightly they don’t last long.

by Rabbi Yaakov Menken "How goodly are your tents, Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel." [24:5] As we know, Bilaam wanted to curse Israel, but G-d prevented him from doing so - by putting blessings into his mouth instead. In the Talmud [Sanhedrin 105b], Rebbe Yochanon tells us that by carefully reading the blessings, we can learn the curses which Bilaam wanted to deliver. Bilaam wanted to curse Israel to deny them houses of prayer and study, but HaShem forced him to say "how goodly are your tents" (as we learn in Genesis where Yaakov is referred to as a "dweller in tents," this means he sat constantly in the House of Study). Bilaam wanted to say that the Divine Presence should not rest upon Israel, but he was forced to say "your dwelling places, O Israel" (the word for "dwelling places" is Mishkanos, from the root Mishkan, the Tabernacle - the place where the Divine Presence rested). And in this vein Rebbe Yochanon analyzes the verses which follow Rebbe Aba bar Kahana says in conclusion: "all of these reverted to curses, with the exception of the blessing for Houses of Prayer and Study, as it says [in Deuteronomy 23:6, that although Bilaam was hired to to curse] '...and G-d reversed the curse to a blessing, for HaShem your L-rd loved you' - curse, and not curses." All the other curses eventually came to pass, as the Temple was destroyed and Israel was left without kings or kingdom, but Houses of Prayer and Study are with us always. Why is this true? Why was it that G-d preserved this blessing above all the R. Shabsay Ben Meir HaKohen, author of the Sifsei Kohen commentary on the Code of Jewish Law, says that as long as Israel has Houses of Prayer and Study, makes requests and trusts HaShem to hear their prayers, and remains devoted to Torah study, then the other curses are so limited as to be "nothing." By reversing this one curse, HaShem prevents the others from having terminal impact (Heaven forbid!). Torah study and prayer keep us alive as a people. What happens to peoples exiled from their lands, whose kings are dethroned? They assimilate and disappear. Yet Israel is the exception. For Israel, Torah study and prayer keep us alive, far more so than land or rulership. (As we see so sadly in our own era, when we have our land but not study of Torah, nothing prevents young Jews from moving to other countries and disappearing from the Jewish community. Even in the Land of Israel, we need the Torah of Israel.) As we say in our prayers, "we will rejoice in the words of Your Torah and your Mitzvos for all eternity, for they are our lives and the length of our Rabbi Yaakov Menken Dedicated in loving memory of Chaya Freidel bas Shimon Pinchas, a"h.

The thesis of Walter Benn Michaels's Our America could hardly be clearer or more forcefully argued. It goes like this. Whereas "the major writers of the Progressive period--London, Dreiser, Wharton--were comparatively indifferent to questions of both racial and national identity," (8) the literature of the post-war, of the 1920s, is characterized by its particular brand of nativism, that is, its commitment to the notion that one's identity is defined by racial difference. Whereas the Progressivists believed in the fabled melting pot, in the possibility of wholesale assimilation into U. S. citizenry, the pluralist 1920s. substituting a faith in difference for one in the superiority of any one group, wanted to preserve racial purity at all costs. Accordingly, identity comes to be defined by one's difference from "them"--from those whose blood might contaminate one's own. The fear of miscegenation and of the reproductive family now become powerful; "the homosexual family and the incestuous family thus emerge as parallel technologies in the effort to prevent half-breeds" (49). Michaels exemplifies this thesis with literally dozens of examples, primarily from the fiction of the period. In William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, Quentin Compson's desire to convince others that he has committed incest with his sister Caddy is an "attempt through language to substitute the blood ties of family for the affective and/or legal ties of love and marriage" (5). In this respect, Quentin and Jason are really not all that different; both believe, in their own way, that "blood is blood" (3). Or again, in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan's aversion to Gatsby has less to do with class than with race. For who is Gatsby? Is he perhaps a Jew, hanging out as he does with the likes of Meyer Wolfsheim? In any case, he is not "one of us," any more than is Robert Cohn in The Sun Also Rises. But then that novel's hero, Jake Barnes, functions as Cohn's alter ego: Jake's war wound, which has left him impotent, Michaels argues, is again an emblem of the nativist fear of the reproductive family. In staying single, Jake preserves his racial identity. And so on. From Willa Cather's The Professor's House to Nella Larsen's Passing and Quicksand, from Jean Toomer's Cane to Carl Van Vechten's Nigger Heaven, nativism is the engine that drives human behavior, and in the1920, nativism depends first and last on understanding one's Americanness as racial difference. In Oliver La Farge's Laughing Boy, for example, Slim Girl's "genealogical ambition is to have children who are 'all Navajo'" (71), even as Nella Larsen's Clare learns that "passing" destroys the purity of her own identity. One must be true to one's racial self. Pluralism thus turns out to be the bogey. Whereas Progressivist "claims to racial superiority inevitably involved the appeal to standards that were understood as common to all races . . . . the pluralist can prefer his own race only on the grounds that it is his" (137). The commitment to pluralism is the commitment to the "primacy of identity" (140), and thus to what Michaels calls "identity essentialism" (140). Indeed, "there can be no coherent anti-essentialist account of race" (134). For "the particular contribution of pluralism to racism is to make racial identity into its own justification." (137). And when that happens--as is, according to Michaels, the cultural condition today--racism prevails. But why did this form of nativism occur in the 1920s and recur in the1990s? What about the six decades inbetween? And why should miscegenation be such a taboo if the racial Other is considered not inferior but merely different, as Michaels claims? These issues are avoided by a curious sleight-of-hand. The inevitable reductionism of Michaels's project (the discussion of Gatsby, for example, must play down the role of Nick Carraway so as to foreground Tom Buchanan's fears) is acknowledged and declared necessary, given the revisionist aim of Our America, which is to provide, not close readings of specific texts, but a large-scale reinterpretation of modernism. For American nativism is evidently synonymous with American modernism, which is, in its turn, synonymous with the American fiction (few works of other genres are included) of the1920s. For most literary historians, as for theorists of modernism, the great modernist innovations were in place well before World War I. In his recent Modernisms, for example, Peter Nicholls characteristically begins with Charles Baudelaire even as T. J. Clark's earlier The Painting of Modern Life began with Manet. But then Michaels's "modernism" is best described as a modernism without the modernists, for the most canonical American modernist writers-- Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, H.D. Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes -- are eliminated from Michaels' American modernist canon, presumably because they lived abroad and took an interest in non-American persons and places. For example: the endpoint of the "heritage" whose origin Pound locates in Jefferson is . . . Benito Mussolini: "The heritage of Jefferson . . . is HERE, NOWin the Italian peninsula at the beginning of the fascist second decennio, not in Massachusetts or Delaware." This "heritage" is thus in no way distinctively American, any more than it is distinctly Italian. Rather, it is disassociated from any particular nationality and, indeed, from nationality as such, a concept which Pound tended to link disparagingly with "provincialism." And, by the same token, the "ancestors" to whom Eliot appeals in "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (1919) not only extend beyond. . . his American predecessors to "the whole of the literature of Europe" but beyond Europe as well to "all the poetry that has ever been written." Neither Eliot's "tradition" nor Pound's "heritage" is in any sense national. . . . (102) What this line of reasoning ignores is that the very idea of linking Jefferson to Mussolini is itself a profoundly nativist theme. It assumes that the desire to transcend one's native grounds, to assert one's difference from "ordinary Americans," again, by the way, on the grounds of racial purity of some sort (e.g., true Americans know that their heritage can never just be American!), is a desire that can somehow be satisfied, even as Quentin thinks that saying he has had incest with Caddy means that it really happened. Similarly, Eliot's desire in "Tradition and the Individual Talent" to place his own poetry in relation to "all the poetry that has ever been written" (102), could only have been made by a poet self-consciously American, and hence self-consciously inserting himself into the European arena where poetry does flourish. Just try to imagine Marcel Proust or Stéphane Mallarmé or Paul Valéry claiming that theirs was a heritage that transcended their national identity! Ironically, a consideration of Pound's or Eliot's nativism would have "thickened the plot" of Michaels's narrative. Think of Eliot's "East Coker," with its claim for a racial identity (pure English stock) that distinguishes the poet from those others who have names like Sweeney or Bleistein. But even if we grant Michaels his donnée, even if we assume that such internationalists as Eliot and Pound, Stein and Barnes are outside the "nativist" orbit, how, can we equate nativism with modernism, when Michaels also eliminates such notable stay-at-homes as Wallace Stevens, whose name does not so much as appear in Michaels's index, even though Stevens's first great book, Harmonium, appeared in 1923? The answer is not hard to find. Clearly, if one substitutes for Eliot and Stevens, such texts as Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers or La Farge's Laughing Boy, novels currently being read precisely on account of their multicultural rather than their literary interest, then of course one can come up with a reinterpretation of "modernism" as racially motivated. The reasoning is patently circular: (1) Modernism has traditionally been defined as X. (2) Minority studies of the modernist period have unearthed a number of novels that are more properly characterized as Y. Therefore (3) Modernism should be redefined as Y. Thus nativism = modernism: such equations occur in Our America because its analytic mode is structuralist rather than in any sense historical. The identitarian paradigm once introduced recurs with minor variations in novel after novel: Michaels's synopses and exegeses become as repetitive and interchangeable as do the characters in The Professor's House and The Sun Also Rises. There is a "Gotcha!" quality to all this, as if to say, "Oh, so you thought Gatsby dealt with the power of human illusion or with the failure of the American dream and so on, but what the novel is really about is race." The static nature of the analyses is insured by the curious absence of history. Why was the post-war so different from the Progressivist era? What is it that happened that made pluralism and its attendant racism so prominent? To explore the changing demographics or immigration patterns of the1920s, to understand the effect of a world war on the modernist ethos, would have gone a long way in explaining why Robert Cohn figures so prominently in The Sun Also Rises or why Tom Buchanan is reading a book called The Rise of the Colored Empires. An historical study, especially of the war period, would also demonstrate in what ways "identity essentialism" became important in nations other than the U. S. In Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks (1903), for example, national identity is still an attribute one has as a German citizen plain and simple, and the emphasis is on social and economic class. But for the Mann of The Magic Mountain (1927), racialized identity has become a central concern. The shifting of national boundaries after the war, the influx of Eastern European Jews into Germany and the West, the questions of the Sudetenland and Alsace-Lorraine: all these produced a strong emphasis on the need for racial purity. Just as literary texts seem to have no historical determinants, so they have, in Michaels's spatialized, structuralist paradigm, no authors. He makes, for example, no distinction between Ernest Hemingway, an author who never offers the slightest critique of the anti-Semitism of his central characters--an anti-Semitism that he obviously shares-- and Faulkner, whose understanding of the complexities of black as of white people is of a very different order. Or again, Hart Crane's touching explanation, made in a letter to his patron Otto Kahn, that he is having difficulties completing his long poem The Bridge, whose aim, so the poet claims, is nothing short of writing "the myth of America," is simply taken at face value: Crane's "efforts to capture" the myth, we read, "revolve around the figure of "Pocahontas" (48). But this is to underplay the intense lyric charge of The Bridge, its inability to produce "the myth of America," even as the poet himself is cruelly anatomized. History doesn't count, authors don't count, and, perhaps most problematically, the reader doesn't count. No matter that 99% of Faulkner's readers are entranced precisely by the differences between Jason and Quentin (and Quentin and , and Quentin and Caddy) rather than the obvious similarities of the Compson siblings. No matter that no one outside the American Studies classroom would so much as read the many minor ethnic novels that provide Michaels with his exempla. In fact, the weight of evidence, the endless plot summarizing and teasing out of nativist themes becomes quite tedious, even in this short book. Tedious, that is, until the last ten or so pages, when the book's polemic thrust is spelled out, when Michaels unleashes his critique of our own identitarian moment, a moment in which, all too often, the "American" past is understood as "the Native American past, the African American past, the Jewish American past, and so on." (p. 128) "Why," asks Michaels plaintively, "does it matter who we are?" For "the real question . . . is not which past should count as ours but why any past should count as ours. . . . the history we study is never our own; it is always the history of people who were in some respects like us and in other respects different. When, however, we claim it as ours, we commit ourselves to the ontology of 'the Negro,' to the identity of 'we' and 'they' and the primacy of race" (128). Thus, "instead of who we are being constituted by what we do, what we do is justified by who we are" (140; my emphasis). Such pluralism or identity-essentialism, Michaels believes, is itself the thinly veiled racism we now practice. But to what extent is "who we are" determined by "what we do"? As the Austrian and German Jews found out by 1932 or '33, what they "did"--which was pretty much what all other Germans did--cut no ice with the Nazis, no matter how well-educated, assimilated, baptized, church-going, or blond and blue-eyed they might have been. And what about Bosnia, where the Serbs have brutally murdered and raped women identified simply by the signifier of gender as women, never mind what these women had said or done? In an imperfect world, as the history of our brutal century has taught us, identity is largely a question of how others perceive us. And that perception depends, in turn, on a host of psychological, political, and cultural factors, with each case being slightly different. It is this sense of difference that brings us back--or it should bring us back--to the question of the literary. What is literature anyway and why should we study it? On the last page of Our America, we read: . . . nativist modernism invented a new form of racism and produced a new model not only of American identity but of the other identitities that would now be available in America. . . . Because that conception of culture found its fullest expression as a literary phenomenon and (not, in my view, coincidentally) because the decade of the '20s produced a great number of exceptionally interesting literary works, I have focused most of my attention on American literary modernism. Whether or not the privileged position of literature as the carrier of cultural heritage is enviable, it is real and, even though it would certainly be useful to deal with a range of phenomena wider than I have attempted, I believe that any account of nativist modernism would end up making American literary history central (141-42). The assumptions behind this eloquent conclusion deserve to be unpacked. Why, to begin with, should "literature" be the "privileged" "carrier of cultural heritage"? Why not music or the visual arts or historiography? More important: the notion of "literature" as a "carrier" (it sounds like a vaccine!) implies that it dispenses something outside and above literature that is "real" and can be accessed by means of a verbal conduit. But what and where is this really real that the literary vaccine injects? "The decade of the '20s," Michaels insists, "produced a great number of exceptionally interesting literary works." A strange statement, this, coming from an anti-aestheticist like Michaels. For what is it that makes "literary works" "interesting"? And what is it that makes interesting works "literary"? Since Michaels refuses all qualitative criteria, confuting, as the dust jacket of Our America puts it, "the canonical, the popular, and the less familiar," we can only conclude that what makes certain literary works of the 1920s "exceptionally interesting" is that they exemplify the nativism that is Michaels's subject. Those works of the 1920s that don't so exemplify--say Stevens's "The Snow Man" or Crane's "Voyages," or Stein's portrait of Cézanne -- are evidently not "exceptionally interesting." And evidently they are not "literary" either since they are not privileged "carriers" of the nativist message. "I believe," writes Michaels, "that any account of nativist modernism would end up making American literary history central." Here is the salvage operation by which Michaels's brand of cultural studies would like to save literature, to preserve it as a field of study. But it will not do. For why do we need to study literature in order to learn about the identity politics of the1920s? Surely there are more informative and efficient ways than to read dozens of what are largely undistinguished novels. What, in other words, can "literature" teach us that the study of American history, culture, and politics can't? Indeed, I would posit that if literature has no other function than to be the privileged "carrier of cultural heritage," its study will soon be an anachronism. If we can offer our students nothing better than the moral imperative to read the novels of Nella Larsen and Jean Toomer and Willa Cather because they will teach us about the "cultural heritage" that they "carry," the response is likely to be a collective and extended yawn. What nineteen-year old will be impelled to read lesser novels written seventy years ago on that argument? The study of literature, modernist or otherwise, needs better justification than Michaels gives it. The fascination exerted by, say, The Sound and the Fury is that it is at once utterly specific and documentary (one can go to Oxford, Mississipi and photograph the buildings that people Faulkner's universe) and yet entirely imaginary, mythological, and fantastic. Insofar as the novel embodies nativist notions of miscegenation and reproductive marriage, it resembles the work of any number of lesser novelists, as Michaels points out. But if we regard the glass as half full rather than half empty, we would have to go further and say, yes but look at the astonishing subtlety of Faulkner's treatment of the nativist theme. Again, if the nativist project were all, why the astonishing linguistic invention that characterizes The Sound and the Fury? Why not just substitute a Cliff-Notes précis for the novel? Surely the "ideas" remain intact. And at the ideological level, it may well be the case that Faulkner's novel is no more "interesting" than La Farge's Laughing Boy, which dates from the same year (1929). Ironically, then, Michaels' contention that the notion of a racialized identity will emerge as "the crucial feature of modernism" (p. 141), is itself nothing if not an essentialist, indeed an inadvertently racist, claim. For modernism does not, cannot belong to the United States alone, much less to any segment of U. S. culture or decade of U. S. writing. Modernism, as I noted above, goes back at least as far as Baudelaire and Manet in France and includes the poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky and fiction of Andrey Bely at least as much as it includes the fiction of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. To cordon off American modernism, not to mention the fiction of the American1920s, from the larger world in which it functioned is to assume the existence of a national (and hence also racial) purity, an ethos that separates "us" from "them." But even if we could define American modernism according to its time frame, nationality, and set of family resemblances, it is impossible to assert that it has one "crucial feature." Michaels knows this well enough, knows that his discussion of nativist modernism has less to do with the 1920s than with what he perceives to be the regressive identity politics of our own day. But in insisting that nativism, with its attendant racism is "the crucial feature" of American modernism, Michaels is doing no more than perpetuating a narrow stereotype of Americanness. Broaden the base, substitute Gertrude Stein's Geography and Plays (1922) for Carl Van Vechten's Nigger Heaven, or Djuna Barnes's Greenwich Village sketches and short stories for Sherwood Anderson's Dark Laughter (1925) and watch the map of American modernism change its shape. Paradoxically, Our America will thus be of interest chiefly to those already committed to the racialized identity politics Michaels claims to be critiquing. Its prerequisite is a familiarity with the ethnic literature of the 1920s --a literature that stakes its claim precisely on racial and cultural grounds. But for those of us who are not racial purists and who do not subscribe to the "cultural heritage" theory of literary texts, Our America is not so much wrong-headed as it is tautological. Race is always and only race. But then what? "The difference," as Gertrude Stein (and, by the way, just what was her racial identity?) put it in Tender Buttons, "is spreading." (1) 1. Gertrude Stein, Tender Buttons, in Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein, ed. Carl Van Vechten (New York: Vintage, 1990), p. 461.

“Founders of Big Uncle, Sabino Lebba and Riccardo Moroni both have failed to understand how important the concept of identity is, judging by their latest collection, which depicts male models wearing items of clothing emblazoned with ‘colonialism’, amongst other items in the ‘Colonial Deal’ collection. Both fashion designers seem blatantly unaware of the continuing legacy of racism, oppression and poverty which ‘colonialism’ has created.” The fashion and beauty industry have taken a beating over the past few months. From Dove’s 2017 faux pas, to H&M’s most latest controversy, brands repeatedly seem to have ‘missed the mark’ when it comes to representing people of colour in a racially sensitive manner. However, despite the countless ‘We deeply regret the offense it caused’ half-hearted apologies, there appears to be no accountability, nor any penalties to companies who have made such gross errors and in doing so, have forced communities to relive painful traumas, such as Zara who designed a striped ‘sheriff’ t-shirt, mimicking the style of the yellow star-adorned, striped uniform that Jewish prisoners were forced to wear in the Holocaust. Most recently, I was alerted to Big Uncle, an Italian luxury clothing brand on The Fashion & Beauty Network – For Women of Colour who launched their SS18 collection under the title, Colonial Deal. Big Uncle have described the collection as: ‘A short and an intense journey in the West former colonies in order to understand the Colonialism style. The Big Uncle man of SS18 proposes the COLONIAL DEAL, what the eyes, the sense of touch and mind recall of those places. Forms and volumes intertwine like the East’s and the West cultures; the colors are warm like the cities, soft like the sunsets, dusty like the dirt roads. As persuasive are those places the linen is rough like the faces consumed by the sun, the military colors and the leather are a soft suede. The garments, whether they have different weights and consistencies, whether they are rough or delicate, remind us of our emotion, of our COLONIAL DEAL.’ Unsurprisingly, when the brand revealed the collection on Instagram, they were met with both contempt and disgust from shoppers, who quite rightly called them out about their insensitive collection. In response to criticism, Big Uncle responded with: ‘BU perfectly knows the difference between what is colonial and what is colonialism, what is a source of inspiration and which is a horrible political misdoing. If we have decided to write on our sweatshirt “Colonialism” it is not singing hymns to a political horror, but to think about it. Today we live in an age of uncertainty and reversed paradigma, where the words have a signified and a signifier, so if you want people talk about the ugliness of the war, you have to write WAR, no more “PEACE and LOVE”….this is not modern, it is postmodern. We share the opinion of Gillo Dorfles and Zygmunt Bauman, do you know them?.’ To use Saussure’s notion of signifier and signified quite simply shows they have little to no understanding of racial politics. Rather than offering any apology, Big Uncle appear to have shown nothing but derision and arrogance, particularly the accusation to critics, ‘We share the opinion of Gillo Dorfles and Zygmunt Bauman’, both post-modernist thinkers of sociology. Let us not forget that both these thinkers have Italian origins, and have not lived the first-hand, nor the intergenerational trauma of those affected by colonialism. In Bauman’s own words: ‘The Holocaust was born and executed in our modern society, at the high stage of our civilisation and at the peak of human cultural achievement, and for this reason it is a problem of that society, civilisation and culture’. A sociological thinker who thought of the Holocaust as ‘an integral feature of modernity, rather than an aberration’ (Back and Solomos, 2000) quite frankly shows how separated from the trauma of colonialism and its lasting effects on members of society and culture. Perhaps these designers would benefit from learning more about the Italian colonialism of Abyssinia (the former name for Ethiopia). Fortunately, this campaign has had support and names such as Tia Taylor, Yomi Adegoke, Nikesh Shukla, and publishers Knights Of have backed this campaign. However, it leads me to question, what is this doing for the reputation of the brand? Although this may bring some negative press, the result is undoubtedly that these companies will continue to thrive. Although brands like H&M may have lost campaign collaborators such as The Weeknd and G-Eazy, it’s important to note that despite the bad press, brand attention and social media trending increases both traffic and visibility. As a result, some companies can profit from this negative press. While companies continue to play around with their customers, minority communities are forced to take the brunt – not only having to justify what and why something is offensive, but also having to revisit stark issues which continue to affect their community daily. As much as campaigning and boycotting is relevant and provokes change, there now needs to be legislative changes to ensure that companies are no longer allowed to get away scot-free with these blunders – no matter whether they’re misguided and misjudged, or maliciously concocted by PR firms. These are the words of Mireille Harper.

For a simple example of Eretz Zionism here it is. Note that other racist rabbi's in Israel have supported this example of race hate by an Eretz Zionist thug. Note though that other decent Jewish people have condemned the vile racism espoused by this Eretz Zionist criminal and racist idiot ; By Ilia Yefimovich | AFP – Mon, Jun 27, 2011 Israeli police briefly detained a leading settler rabbi on Monday in connection with an investigation into a book justifying the killing of non-Jews in some cases, police said. Several months ago, police issued an arrest warrant for Rabbi Dov Lior, the chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and the settlements in Hebron on the West Bank, after he failed to present himself for questioning in an incitement probe. "Rabbi Lior was detained and questioned for about one hour before being released," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP, saying he had been quizzed over his endorsement of a book called "The King's Torah" which said it was permissible to kill non-Jews. In a rare demarche sparked by the arrest, Israel's two grand rabbis issued a joint statement denouncing it. "We deplore this grave offence against the honour of one of the most important rabbis and leaders of religious opinion," Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger and Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar said. Lior, who also heads the Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria, Israel's term for the West Bank, is one of the main spiritual ideologists of the settlement movement. Right-wing activists immediately called on supporters to gather outside various police headquarters to protest, and Rosenfeld said several youths briefly blocked the main highway leading into Jerusalem from the west. An AFP correspondent also saw more than 100 protesters blocking another major road nearby. Last August, Yosef Elitzur, a settler rabbi who co-authored the book, was arrested on suspicion of incitement to violence but freed without charge days later after a court found police had not followed proper procedure. Written by Elitzur and another rabbi, the book reportedly says babies and children of Israel's enemies may be killed in certain circumstances since "it is clear that they will grow to harm us." It also said non-Jews were "uncompassionate by nature" and that attacks on them "curb their evil inclination." "Anywhere where the influence of gentiles constitutes a threat to the life of Israel, it is permissible to kill them," the rabbis wrote. The book, published earlier this year, has drawn sharp criticism from numerous rabbis who say it contradicts the teachings of Judaism.

“Germany wants no war!” “German newspapers print the truth and all the truth!” “There is no discrimination whatsoever against Jewish pupils in German schools!” These were some of the statements made to a Jewish Daily Bulletin reporter by sixty Nazified school teachers aboard the Hamburg-American liner Albert Ballin as it steamed up the North River to its Forty-sixth street berth Friday. The teachers were mostly women. All traveled third class. Laden with cameras, binoculars, handbags and sundry miscellany, they divided their time between scampering across the deck to gape at the Empire State Building —it was the first time across for most of them—and returning to give the reporter the lowdown on the Germany of today. “Every Jewish pupil in Germany is satisfied,” declared one in answer to a question. The rest nodded vigorous assent. “There is no discrimination against Jews in German schools,” volunteered another. All spoke in German. The reporter asked about newspaper reports to the effect that Jews are mistreated in German schools. “The foreign press lies! All the foreign newspapers lie about Germany!” a buxom fraulein declared vehemently. “Jewish children are not obliged to give the Heil Hitler salute if they do not want to,” said one of the male pedants. “German children treat them with perfect impartiality.” HITLER AND THE TRUTH “Does the German press print all the truth?” asked the reporter. “Certainly.” The answer was snapped back with conviction. “But I thought that Propaganda Minister Goebbels dictates what the press should print,” the reporter said. “Of course he does,” the teachers answered, “but a German does not lie!” Convinced to his satisfaction of the honesty of the German press and the impartiality in German schools, the reporter turned to more general topics. “What do you think of Germany’s war preparations?” “War preparations?” They laughed. “Germany is not preparing for war. We do not want war. Germany is the most peaceful country in the world.” One of the quieter teachers had been pondering. Suddenly she broached the question of the school system again. “Of course you must understand that there are not many Jewish teachers,” she said. “Only war veterans may serve in the government. But that is because the Jews controlled all the professions before Hitler came into power.” Not reluctant to discuss the question of the Jews in Germany for “die Judenpresse,” the teachers volunteered statements to the effect that Jews conduct business as usual and that they are still numerous in the professions. By this time they were eager to devote their full attention to the Manhattan skyline. Hastily informing the reporter that their purpose in coming to New York was to study the school system and that they will sail for home aboard the Albert Ballin on August 2, they bade a hurried farewell. THE OTHER SIDE A number of Jews were found aboard the ship. One, Ernst Meyer, was coming to the United States because his Jewishness made it impossible for him to find a job. He had lost his position with the biggest department store in Bremen with the accession of Hitler. He laughed sardonically when informed of the teachers’ statement that Jews are in business as usual. Three New York Jewish students were also aboard, one of them studying medicine in Germany. He asked that he remain anonymous, fearing reprisal for what he was about to tell. “Nominally, one and a half per cent of a university’s registration may be Jewish,” he said. “Actually, practically no Jews may enter. Those already in universities when Hitler came into power are allowed to finish their courses. NO FUTURE FOR THEM “Even these are looking forward to the future hopelessly, for they cannot get jobs. Jewish medical students in my university say they may as well commit suicide when they get their degrees, for there is absolutely nothing to look forward to on graduation. They regard their intensive medical training as a joke. “Foreign students are very well treated, for Germany is trying to attract anybody into the country who will bring money. “There is absolutely nothing to read in the German papers. All they print is what the Propaganda Ministry send them. A Jewish student committed suicide in the town where I am studying. The London Times printed it. The German press denied it. Finally, the German papers announced that twenty storm troopers had been arrested for causing the suicide which they previously denied. FOREIGN PAPERS SNATCHED UP “The truth comes out only when the papers are forced to print it in defense against statements of foreign papers. Swiss and Austrian papers are not permitted in Germany. English papers are allowed because practically nobody can read them. Yet the London and New York papers are snatched up by the inhabitants of the town as soon as they arrive. Later the people bring the papers around to the university for the students to translate for them.” While the reporter was speaking to the student, a steward rushed up to him and asked if he had seen a large picture of Hitler which had been hanging in the dining room. It seems that somebody purloined it and threw it overboard.

“The Sound Of Silence”….. Both popular and unpopular musical styles comprise the ‘hymns’ of our secular culture. Sometimes the musicians, skilled or unskilled, are reflective of what has happened, or what they believe is happening politically, socially and spiritually important. And every so often God ‘tweaks the conscience of man’ through secular music ‘sound bites’ to stir the mix and get a spiritual being activated a little so he will speak out about the problems of his time. “The ´Sound of Silence´ uses imagery of light and darkness to show how ignorance and apathy destroy people´s ability to communicate on even a simple level. The light symbolizes truth and enlightenment. Both music and lyrics are perfectly fitting.” It was written and performed by Paul Simon, a man that once said “he thanked God for the gifts that he was given and for letting him live the dream that he dreamed when he was 12 years old.” So, to all the 60’s crew of kafir turkeys still above ground: has the drug induced, dope smoke fungus grown larger and lodged harder in that area between your ears since the 1960’s? It was then Paul Simon had “a vision softly creeping” that “left its seeds” while he was sleeping and the vision was planted in his brain, and still remains “within the sound of silence.” You did not hear the silence message given in the early sixties recording and it was brought back to a very widespread awareness in the Simon & Garfunkel – The Sound of Silence – Madison Square Garden, NYC – 2009/10/29&30 concert in 2009. It was once again returned to a “people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening, and no one dared disturb the sound of silence.” At the time there should have been a screaming public outcry against Islam in New York City, and no one again dared disturb the sound of silence. And like the song stated I state to you “fools, you do not know silence like a cancer grows”. And grow it did until the cancerous evil of Islam exploded in the 9/11 twin towers Muslim attack on America in 2001. Following it the silence of political correctness was broken to some degree, but unless the reality of Islam is now shouted from every free rooftop the jihadi conquest shall carry forward until all free speech is silenced. The last time I know that Paul Simon was used live to call you fools to know you truly remain silent fools if you do not speak out against Islam was at the 9/11Ten Year Memorial in New York City in 2011. Paul Simon’s Touching ‘Sound of Silence’ 9/11 Tribute: Watch Here we are five year later and it seems you need another musical format to speak to the cause of the deception you remain under. Whether you value the musical style or not this truly is a crash course on our deception underway….. K Rino Grand Deception Don’t end up another decapitated kafir turkey. Recognize the Islamic deception for all it is and break the silence about the curse of Islam perpetuated and spread through the children that it spawns. BRAND 13 KIDS Brand 13 is symbolic of the evil imprint of Satan upon what you say, do and think. Ranging from superstition, through obsession to absolute possession it is not a label you want to stitch into the garments of your life. Islam stamps you with this Brand 13 so parents tell your offspring to take a good look at the Muslim person they have moved over for to take a seat in their classroom, bus or at the medical center. Tell them to observe them carefully for many among them are Brand 13 Kids raised by a system that breeds natural born killers. In spite of their difference in dress they may perhaps look normal to you, or even attractive, but that is the deception. These are creatures who come forth from the womb stamped with Brand 13 for evil is the essence of their spirituality, being wicked children of the Devil. Satan is their father and like him they have no inherent ability to speak the fullness of Truth. So know that “the wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.” (Psalms 58:3) They are a species you must come to recognize and know how to deal with. As you look about you will see others that look very similar. These critters are from amid the sons and daughters of men that descend through steps of satanic deception until they totally succumb and remain under its blackened label. They are only born into the Islamic system and culture of death; they could escape from this except for their personal weakness based on fear. They moan and groan, but in their hearts they have been raised Muslim and so they remain Muslim. It is easy to recognize the supposed ‘radical fighters’ on the Middle Eastern battlefields. And because Muslim people are fleeing from the midst of the Islamic scrappers many assume they are not radical in their beliefs. Further, people that have been emotionally media duped by scenes of women and children in dire circumstance thus rush to their aide. The fact is that both the fighters and the refugee runners are all adherents of the same Qur’an and Islamic faith. To simply be a Muslim one must desire to see the ascendency of sharia globally and the methods employed are ultimately destructive to Western society in every case. You should not hurry to help these people for you only rush to destroy yourself. The recent swamp load of snakes drained from Syria into Canada by our ‘fool on Capitol Hill’ are Muslim and born into radical belief that shall mature here to your destruction. But among them are also fully developed vipers that have used the Canadian Syrian refugee plan to find their way here. You need to face up to such facts and you can thank the Trudeau ship of fools for escalating the headaches of our nation. We read in the Bible that the apostle Paul received a God-given dream known as the Macedonian Call. In his vision the Macedonians needed spiritual help and by answering the call “the history of the church—and of the world—forever changed”. What is the Macedonian Call? – GotQuestions.org Home The Macedonia of Paul’s day entailed the northern and central parts of modern-day Greece. Greece is in a social-economic mess, growing greater by the day. They do not even know how to deal properly with their border defence of Macedonia. And Canada needs to give a “Canadian Call to Macedonia” for they seem the ones best suited to deal with the Syrian Refugee crisis. Make the call Canada, perhaps President Gjorge Ivanov will tell you how to start undoing the damage we have just done to ourselves rushing the Syrians in. After all Canada: “Look at these passports and papers. They are all forged or stolen. We have already seized 9,000 of them. Some so-called refugees are travelling through the whole of Europe with false identities, and Greece is simply stamping their papers so that they continue on their journey. We have to assume that many of these people who were travelling with forged papers want to enter the EU via the refugee route as radical fighters.” Gjorge Ivanov, President, Macedonian They have also entered Canada in such manner, so if one of the ‘ethnic profile observable types’ leaves a package or pack behind: immediately vacate the bus. Avoiding the potential boom will be much harder for you daycare bleeding hearts though. The devout Muslim has no problem dropping there kid off to stay with an exploding Atomic Teddy Bear or Burka Barbie Bombshell in tow. Both they and the kid will be rewarded by Allah for ‘fighting the good fight’. IS plants ‘baby doll bombs’ on road to Karbala The next ‘Syrian child-care issue’ you fools may face has potential of being your last. Ultimately the only answer with respect to the ever sickening Syrian situation is not to embrace them, but to totally isolate them and house them in North American comfort for the shortest period of time it takes to “return them to sender”. As an escort out let they be accompanied by those who rushed them in and make certain the door closes tightly upon the entire asinine compliment. Sound a bit harsh do I? Well, let me give you a view of the version of the child that the Qur’an, hadith and examples of Muhammad show the child a Muslim is required to raise. The upbringing is done publically in countries under their dominion and in private in the nations where they are waiting to fully institute sharia. Brainwashing Kids for Jihad This brief Clarion video report starts with an Australian wake-up mate about how Muslims teach their children to hate instead of love. Watch And to see the reality of the international connections and youth range of our terrorists is in a bedtime story for you: English Teenage Girl Pleads Guilty in Australian Bomb-Plot November 9, 2015 Five Child-Incitement Hot Spots Islamists employ a strategy of utilizing children to carry forward their jihadi warfare. Children as young as five are being brainwashed and becoming trained killers, learning how to shoot and slaughter through such methods as lynching, beheading and suicide bombings. Read about how it’s done. More November 10, 2015 Winning the Hearts and Minds of Children “The Islamic State now controls at least seven provinces in Afghanistan, where members inculcate children with their poisonous ideology. The Taliban has long-employed children to carry out their murderous deeds, from blowing up IED’s to suicide bombings. Children make great spies for the Taliban, gleaning information about the location of Afghan and foreign troops without arousing suspicion. Afghan children are cynically recruited from poor parents with promises of free food, lodging and education at the Taliban’s madrasas (religious schools). There, they are brainwashed to give their lives fighting against the “infidel,” the “invading foreign forces” that they are told are raping their mothers and sisters. They are brainwashed to believe even their fellow Afghans that the children will take down with them in suicide operations “deserve to die,” since they are “American collaborators.” Promises of a better “tomorrow” are made to the children. “They offer them visions of paradise, where rivers of milk and honey flowed, in exchange for giving up his life by becoming a suicide bomber” said an official in an interview with the BBC. More For certain watch this Frontline video… Children Of ISIS (Full Film) | Frontline Among the Syrian refugee children are such as the filmed who state…“I am listening, I am obeying.” If not trained in camps, they have been trained in their homes. We have already allowed entry of persons fully lodged in this mental condition. We see through Islam a state of the world spoken to in Matthew 10:21 where “brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.” It is further described in Luke 21:16 as a time “you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death.” We are in such chaotic times. And now let’s jump over to good old Palestine child rearing, eh? A lot of you knuckleheads are a way too quick to support this bunch in stances against Israel. There is no difference to how they raise their kids than any other Muslim, and you kafirs better soon wake up to this fact of life! November 8, 2015 Palestinian TV Show for Kids Glorifies ‘Hero’ Stabbers A children’s show on Palestinian TV featuring two young girls as the show’s hosts praises the Palestinian murderers of Jews as our “young heroes who carried out all those great heroic acts.” Many of the recent acts of terror – including stabbing attacks, car ramming’s and shootings – against Israelis have been committed by teenage perpetrators. Recently a 16-year old shot two teenagers Friday night at one of the holiest Jewish sites – the Cave of the Patriarchs – in Hebron. Despite video footage to the contrary, the show’s hosts also make the false claim that, “When the settlers see a Palestinian walking down the street, they throw a knife next to him and claim that he was trying to carry out a stabbing operation.” The television show– ironically called Grownup Kids – is one of the many examples of the incitement of Palestinian media targeted at children, a media that glorifies and condones brutal acts of violence and cultivates a cult of death that has become the signature component of Palestinian terrorism.” November 11, 2015 When Media Is Used To Poison An Entire Generation The current wave of terror attacks by Palestinians against Israelis has seen younger and younger terrorists perpetrating horrific stabbing attacks. Muslims are proudly posting photos of their toddlers wielding murderous weapons. More Palestinian Authority TV Teaches Children The Joys Of Martyrdom This Palestinian TV music video, shown hundreds of times, features Muhammad Al-Dura, the boy who was killed in a televised crossfire (apparently by Palestinians). Al-Dura calls other children to follow him to paradise. Al-Dura is shown frolicking joyously on the beach, with his kite, and even going to an amusement park. It opens with Al-Dura calling to children: “I am waving to you, not in parting, but to say follow me to paradise.” Watch Satan has gotten nearly all religions to bed down together in some areas through poisoned multi-cultural interfaith doctrines and programs. And the Islamic kids for certain are crawling in through your ‘bedroom window with Trudeau’ in one form or another. Here is some more of what has been raised to take your bench in the park. We will start out with Justin Trudeau’s good old embraceable Iran. Iranians Burn Girls’ Dolls without Hijab Young girls take part in the burning of dolls without the hijab head covering. Young Iranian girls and women must wear full head covering when in public in Iran. A very short video…. Watch July 9, 2015 Iranian City Offers Combat Training Program for Kids The purpose of the program is ‘to introduce children to the concepts of holy defense, knowledge of the enemy and fighting the Saudis and America.’ Read this short but highly informative article. Then in Iraq we read July 13, 2015 ‘ISIS Blows Up Baby In Training Class Demo’ “Dozens of Islamic State recruits watched as the baby was blown up by remote control. The organization booby trapped the baby in front of dozens of armed ISIS men and then detonated it from afar. The rigging of the baby and its detonation was a training exercise of ISIS to teach its people booby-trapping techniques.” And you can watch August 25, 2015 as a Muslim Tot is Taught to Practice Killing by Beheading a Teddy Bear He carries out the decapitation alone with only a background voice encouraging him at times. And from MEMRI TV you can watch December 3, 2015 as the best of the Islamic State’s “Caliphate Cubs” are rewarded with getting to execute prisoners. Isis Children Rewarded With Execution Sent to a madrassa for training, take note of the areas the four winners of the prize of execution come from. On January 4, 2016 you can watch Five ‘Spies’ Killed In Chilling Isis Video Aimed At UK As an Islamic State video surfaced purporting to show the execution of five British spies. This 10-minute video features a masked man with a British accent who calls the video a message to David Cameron. The video concludes with this young boy saying “we are going to kill the kuffar over there.” Then from February 11, 2016 you can watch another 8 minute video directed toward the UK featuring the same Muslim child of killer intent: Small Child Executes ‘UK Spies’ In Latest Islamic State Clip And this time the small child executes three alleged spies using a remote control to detonate explosives. This child was brought back from the UK by his mother to be used in such a manner. What did your mother have you doing at such an age kaffir? Wake up, for this is the core value of Islam. And onward we go to January 13, 2016 and ‘ISIS Training Yazidi Children As Suicide Bombers’ An Iraqi source told Egyptian news outlet Al-Ahram that Yazidi children are being trained in special camps to be suicide bombers for ISI. The article also contains a video surrounding the sex slavery of the Yazidi. On February 11, 2016 we were given opportunity to peruse gender equality Islamic style when Girls Carry Out Suicide Bombing; Kill At Least 58 In Nigeria We know from subsequent reports the attack was carried out by Boko Haram and hit a refugee camp for people fleeing the violence in the region. Three girls were dispatched to do the work of glorifying Allah, but only two pulled the pin. I assume Muhammad is humming the tune ‘two out of three ain’t bad’. With his moronic understanding and embracing of Islam I guess this is what Trudeau is going to tout about human rights to ‘gender equality’ until you shrug off all concerns about Muslims, eh? As to gender equality on March 16th 2016 “Trudeau tells a N.Y. crowd to ‘ask any woman they know’ about what work remains on gender equality. I’m going to keep saying loud and clearly that I am a feminist until it is met with a shrug, he said Wednesday. It’s just really, really obvious that we should be standing up for women’s rights and trying to create more equal societies. Like, duh.” Trudeau tells N.Y. crowd to ‘ask any woman they know Ask any woman? Like, duh? Ask the Muslim girls in Nigeria they know the work that needs to be done to get you to their Islamic view. Ask the suicide sisters in France they know as well? Ask the devout Muslim Syrian girls that just slipped into Canada next door to you. Like duh Justin? They all know that the work that needs to get done is the institution of sharia in the manner that Islam has them enact. Ask any Muslim woman true to the Prophet and Qur’an how she knows she must raise her child. It is exactly as the child rearing practices have been shown you in this writing! Trudeau, ‘like duh’ clearly designates yourself and you certainly need a swift kick in your progressive Mullah loving scrotum for the damage you are doing to this nation. Perhaps you would like to bring your ‘progressive boxing skills’ into the ‘cage’ with a 73 year old man that would be ecstatic at giving you one. On February 28, 2016 a comprehensive study was published by the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Islamic State Mobilizing Children at Unprecedented Rate “Striking is the fact children and youth in the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) are fighting alongside, rather than in lieu of, adults. Whereas, in other conflicts, children are normally used to replace adult fighters as a last resort, as a way to “rapidly replace battlefield losses,” or in a special operation where the child maybe more effective, ISIS is now using children in much the same ways as adults. Of the 89 cases studies of children dying while fighting for the Islamic State it was found. 33 % were killed on the battlefield as foot soldiers. 6 % died while working as propagandists embedded within units or brigades. 18 % died during marauding operations in which a group of mostly adult fighters infiltrates and attacks an enemy position using light automatic weapons before killing themselves by detonating suicide belts. 39 % died upon detonating a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) against their target. 4 % committed suicide in mass casualty attacks against civilians.” In essence 61% of the Brand 13 Kids were prepared to blow your like duh Liberal kafir asses to smithereens in the cause of Allah. Conclusions? Like, duh! This has been a small sampling of what has been taking place and shown through the media displaying Islamic affairs and the nature bred into such a people from the womb to the grave. It was not some gun toting in the field, special camp trained kid talked about on January 18, 2016 when Pakistan Arrests Imam After Boy Cuts Off Own ‘Blaspheming’ Hand The reports say that he was later released after pressure from other clerics. Play close attention here. “Imam Shabbir Ahmed told his congregation at his mosque five days ago “those who love the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him) always say their prayers,” according to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn. Ahmed then asked, “Who does not love the Prophet?” adding the words, “raise your hand.” The boy, Anwar Ali, raised his hand after misunderstanding the question. The Iman then roared from the pulpit that the boy was a “blasphemer who was liable to be killed.” Ali ran straight home, cut off his hand, then returned and presented the severed hand to Imam Ahmed on a plate, police officer Nausher Ahmed said. His parents and neighbors are reported to have celebrated the boy’s piety and his father said he was proud. “What I did was in love for Prophet Muhammad” the boy told the press.” This is just a normal Muslim family, not what you pray may be some freak deviant from Islam that you fear and believe ISIS to be. You hear a lot of government crap about deradicalization programs. Forget them as the country with the worst record for people going to Syria to fight is Tajikistan and What We in the West Can Learn from Tajik Classrooms is stated March 14, 2016. “A school in Dushanbe, Tajikistan is hoping to stop the next generation of young people from becoming radicalized by introducing counter-radicalization classes in religious education. In a country where, according to official figures, more than a thousand citizens have traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State, the problem is acute.” and “although experts say the program will have no impact on those currently joining extremist groups, Tajik authorities hope the education will impact the next generation and keep them off the battlefield.” The next generation, duh echoes the sounds of Trudeau rethinking the universe again. The current generation in Canada and worldwide will be the last generation before sharia is instituted worldwide if it is not halted in Canada now! The Syrian Refugee Program is perhaps the last mistake allowable that can be rectified. Take another look at the group of Conclusion Boys above. Now look at this group of Conclusion Boys and then you make a Conclusion as to who needs deradicalization the most. Is it the Tajikistan troop above or these Syrian refugees gleefully living off the fat of our land? How many of you out of work and single parent families are able to dress your children in such a manner for another free ‘recreation day’ in Canada? For certain 1 out of the 5 seated ‘new Canadians’ is the “I listen and I obey” type and all five for certain are Muslim and ultimately will ‘cut off their own blaspheming hand”. There is no Islam or Muslim that can be deradicalized from it, for the beliefs that define true Islam are all radical. Brand 13 Kids are a reality and there still remain ‘lots of kafir to kill over here’. We might start to rectify the problem by making use of the refurbished military bases that were not suitable accommodation for our incoming rush of refugees. The DND spent $6.4M renovating buildings for refugee housing that went unused. And Defence Minister Old Bad Ass Harjit Sajjan said ‘duh! no problem’ . His written response to questioning was “Renovations would be absorbed by the Defence Department’s existing budget and that the spending would not affect “current operations or current capabilities.” And Immigration Minister Jack Ass John McCallum said ‘duh! No problem’. Do you feel like I have been beating on you pretty hard in these matters? Well, you can rest assured that the beating you are going to take shall be far worse if you do not start making some hard but necessary decisions. Liberal political fools and stooge appointees are a problem to one and all. So let us start by making use of the money already spent and commence making Canada a Muslim Free Zone. Gather the Syrians back into the military bases, isolate them and escort them all back out to their points of boarding planes when coming here. Whether you like it or not Canada you are involved in a spiritual battle with everything Muslim as birthed from the Qur’an. So read these words carefully: “Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.” (Acts 13:40-41) The work I have been declaring to you is true and you reading are now being given a final choice as to where you are going to align yourself in the spiritual battle underway. You cannot ‘lie la lie’ to yourself about the Truth I’ve presented and emerge unscathed from this time forward. You are being given 5 minutes and 8 seconds to come to your conclusion. It is the length of time it takes listening to Simon & Garfunkel – The Boxer (with lyrics) Wrong conclusions now and you simply are ‘dead meat’. Only if you remain a dhimmi or a Muslim, for I am a fighter by my trade!

For the past decade and a half, my family has reacted to every terrorist attack with a special kind of anxiety. Setting aside any concern about falling victim to an explosion, we cross our fingers and speculate creatively on the identity of the perpetrator. Perhaps, this time, it was simply a white paranoid schizophrenic. Or maybe a laid-off gun nut with no release valve for his rage. Or, better yet, a run-of-the-mill neo-Nazi who would direct public indignation in an appropriate direction. Regrettably, the perpetrators of these attacks often turn out to be Muslims. The ensuing phone conversations with my parents — secular Pakistani immigrants whose piety does not extend beyond a distaste for pork — revolve around admonitions to be careful what streets I walk on and to avoid arguments with white people. They’re not just being overprotective. Since the San Bernardino shooting in 2015, hate crimes against Muslims, or those perceived as Muslims, rose 78 percent. After the shooting in Florida, Aziz Ansari described in the New York Times how such anxieties were amplified by the hate speech of now president-elect Donald Trump. “It makes me afraid for my family,” Ansari wrote, and remembered the months after September 11 when it had become routine to walk down the street and be called a terrorist by a stranger. Already the 2000 election of George W. Bush — one that liberals today, gnashing their teeth over the Electoral College and the white voter, are fond of recalling — had put us on alert. But the collapse of the Twin Towers, which we watched over and over again that day in school with disbelief, seemed to reverberate in the everyday experience of immigrants who had, until then, learned to live with a culture of condescending and occasionally exclusionary toleration. Now, for some of those tolerant individuals, the mere presence of my family became an issue of homeland security. I found myself being called “Osama” by my classmates while the teacher watched with either apathy or agreement. I was seized with unexpected fear at the ice cream shop when an avuncular old white man suddenly scowled at the sight of my family and began ranting in our direction about “terrorists from Iraq” as we made our way to a table, threateningly wielding cones of cookies and cream. I do not often recall these experiences. Although racial identity, for a time, framed most of my social interactions, white people grew more civilized in the years that followed, going as far as to elect a black man named “Hussein” as their president. Recounting my experiences of discrimination seemed to draw reactions of pity — the pity of the condescending white liberal who is now called an “ally.” In the post-9/11 political reality I was coming to understand, this was clearly not a salutary reaction. Just after the attacks, white Americans acted as though 9/11 represented a historically unprecedented scale of suffering. But I had spent my childhood summers in Pakistan, where I saw the streets filled with children like me — homeless, starving, too weak to bat the flies off of their bodies. Something in the political geometry was out of alignment. I proceeded to arm myself with an obsessive reading of Noam Chomsky. I dove headfirst into the movement against the Iraq War which mushroomed at the nearby Penn State campus, and I became convinced that the only solution to the violence and suffering that assaulted us in our daily news was an end to American imperialism and therefore global capitalism. I remain convinced. And I hope that after the experiences of Bush and Obama, the movement against Donald Trump will not be satisfied with partial solutions. But I worry that in the name of Muslim-Americans like me, white liberals will lose sight of the fundamental political responsibility they have today. An Old Paradox To be sure, the hatred of Muslim immigrants is a deeply political problem, but it is not a new phenomenon engineered by Trump and his associates. We are dealing with a problem as old the nation-state itself — the fundamental contradiction of the nation state, which, as Étienne Balibar has pointed out, implies the confrontation and reciprocal interaction “between the two notions of the people”: First, “ethnos, the ‘people’ as an imagined community of membership and filiation.” And second, “demos, the ‘people’ as the collective subject of representation, decision making, and rights.” The first sense of the “people” internalizes the national border — it is the wall Trump hopes to build inside the American’s head. It is a feeling of belonging to a “fictive ethnicity,” an imaginary community that is constituted by national borders, but in reality consists of heterogeneous populations brought together by migration and movement — a plurality that is suppressed by the fantasy of a unitary racial and spiritual essence. The second sense of the “people” is the political one, the one which appears to be manifested in our Bill of Rights. It is meant to apply regardless of identity; it is the song of the Statue of Liberty, which offers its freedoms to all the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, indifferent to their particularities. The contradiction between these two notions is the original sin of the American nation. It is stated in the first sentence of its first official document: “We, the People,” says the preamble of the Constitution, written by slaveowners. As Balibar puts it: this construction also closely associates the democratic universality of human rights … with particular national belonging. This is why the democratic composition of people in the form of the nation led inevitably to systems of exclusion: the divide between “majorities” and “minorities” and, more profoundly still, between populations considered native and those considered foreign, heterogeneous, who are racially or culturally stigmatized. This democratic contradiction came clearly to the surface in the French Revolution, with its Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. In 1843 a young Karl Marx subjected this declaration to critical scrutiny. In “On the Jewish Question,” Marx was responding first and foremost to Bruno Bauer’s rejection of the demand for Jewish emancipation. According to Bauer, since this demand was based on the particular identity of the Jew, it was necessarily exclusionary. Political emancipation requires the universality of rights, and is thus incompatible with a particularistic identity. Like Richard Dawkins, Bauer believed that it was only by casting off every religious superstition that oppression could be overcome. And also like Dawkins, whose fanatical hatred of Islam blinds him to any understanding of social and political inequalities, Bauer thought that the particularism of the Jewish minority was even worse than the more “evolved” religious consciousness of Christianity. But Marx pointed out that secular political emancipation, the separation of church and state in the name of universal rights, had not actually overcome religious superstition in practice. Famously and prophetically, he cited the United States as an example. This was because rights were granted to individuals, Marx argued, and were therefore “the rights of egoistic man, of man separated from other men and from the community.” Protecting the individual’s rights in the political sphere did not mean the end of oppression by religious authorities and the owners of property. Therefore neither Bauer’s supersessionist universalism, nor the particularism of a minority, could lead to real, human emancipation. This would involve going beyond political emancipation and overcoming the exploitation of the market. In States of Injury, Wendy Brown summarized Marx’s argument: Historically, rights emerged in modernity both as a vehicle of emancipation from political disenfranchisement or institutionalized servitude and as a means of privileging an emerging bourgeois class within a discourse of formal egalitarianism and universal citizenship. Thus, they emerged both as a means of protection against arbitrary use and abuse by sovereign and social power and as a mode of securing and naturalizing dominant social powers. This implies a “paradox” for liberalism that persists to this day. When rights are granted to “empty,” abstract individuals, they ignore the real, social forms of inequality and oppression that appear to be outside the political sphere. Yet when the particularities of injured identities are brought into the content of rights, they are “more likely to become sites of the production and regulation of identity as injury than vehicles of emancipation.” In other words, when the liberal language of rights is used to defend a concrete identity group from injury, physical or verbal, that group ends up defined by its victimhood, and individuals end up reduced to their victimized belonging. Brown shows how this logic undermines the logic behind an influential (albeit controversial) strand of feminism: Catherine MacKinnon’s attempt to redress the masculine bias of the law. MacKinnon’s anti-pornography feminism was based on the premise that the right to free speech conflicted with the right of women to be free from sexual subordination. But as Brown asks, “does a definition of women as sexual subordination, and the encoding of this definition in law, work to liberate women from sexual subordination, or does it, paradoxically, reinscribe femaleness as sexual violability?” Brown’s critique suggests that when rights are demanded by a particular identity, and the whole horizon of politics is the defense of this category, its members end up fixed as victims. Rights themselves end up reduced to a reaction to an injury inflicted on this victim. Their emancipatory content disappears. So by presenting a legal argument which tries to give rights a substantial content, the content of particular identities, MacKinnon ends up producing a fixed category of “woman” — as helpless victims. This is precisely the problem which comes to the forefront in the contemporary “Muslim question.” Beyond the Liberty of Circumstance In France, this question was debated in 2004 when the hijab was outlawed in public schools. The question then became: should the hijab be defended because Muslims are defined by the fact of wearing it? Does the freedom of the French migrant population consist in a defensive response to the injury inflicted by the banning of the headscarf? Surely, the racism implied by the banning of a Muslim accessory should be condemned and attacked. But to the extent that this is framed as a defense of the rights of Muslims, the perspective of liberal tolerance traps the Muslims it claims to defend within a victimized identity rather than joining them in a project of collective emancipation. We can take this discussion further by understanding the “paradox” of rights as a concrete political antagonism, as Massimiliano Tomba does in his comparison of the two versions of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. The first, 1789 Declaration, Tomba argues, grounds rights in a juridical universalism: “the universalism that comes from above and that implies a subject of right who is either passive or a victim who requires protection.” Whether it is a woman to be protected from pornographic speech or a Muslim to be protected from religious prejudice, juridical universalism grants no agency to these subjects — their only political existence is mediated by their protection by the state. The 1793 Declaration, in contrast, manifests an insurgent universality, one which is brought onto the historical stage by the slave uprisings of the Haitian Revolution, the intervention of women into the political process which had excluded them, and the demands of the sans-culottes for a right to food and life. It “does not presuppose any abstract bearer of rights,” but instead “refers to particular and concrete individuals — women, the poor, and slaves — and their political and social agency.” Here we encounter a new paradox: “the universality of these particular and concrete individuals acting in their specific situation is more universal than the juridical universalism of the abstract bearers of rights.” In 1799 Toussaint Louverture was asked by France to write on the banners of his army, “Brave blacks, remember that the French people alone recognize your liberty and the equality of your rights.” He refused, pointing to the slavery which persisted in France’s other colonies, and replied in a letter to Bonaparte: “It is not a liberty of circumstance, conceded to us alone, that we wish; it is the adoption absolute of the principle that no man, born red, black or white, can be the property of his fellow man.” To fight the xenophobia rising with Trump’s election, we must still claim the legacy of this insurgent universality, which says that we are not passive victims but active agents of a politics that demands freedom for everyone. The view of a Muslim as the passive victim of an injury, who must be protected by the benevolence of a white liberal, is to be rejected as ruthlessly as the hate speech of Trump. In Trump’s America, I am afraid. Because of my name, because of my skin color, I am in danger. But more profound than my fear is my anger. I am outraged not at the risk I experience as an individual, but at the sharpening and deepening of the obscene inequality of the capitalist system, at the daily violence of deprivation that will be visited most harshly on the poor of this country — including the white poor — and at the divisions cultivated among us by fear, anger, and manipulation, that prevent us from forming the collective power that can overcome our subordination. I am not interested in allies, in sympathy or protection. I am interested in comrades, of every complexion, who will fight alongside me for a better world.

August 28, 2007 CNN's Scheduling Bias In CNN's 3-part series, "God's Warriors," Christiane Amanpour repeated the phrase "God's Jewish warriors" 20 times, but said "Muslim warriors" only four times. Was CNN trying to place extra emphasis on the Jewish warriors and less on the Muslim warriors? When it comes to CNN's programming schedule, though, there is no doubt that the network was emphasizing the sins of the Jews. As of this week, CNN has broadcast its "Jewish Warriors" program a total of five times. The segment on the other two religions, on the other hand, have been aired only three times. Last Saturday night, CNN rebroadcast the segment about Jews twice, while rebroadcasting the other two segments only once. And again on Sunday night, the Jewish Warriors program got double duty. On top of this, though CNN felt it was worthwhile to change the order of the Christian and Muslim segment from Saturday to Sunday — presumably so that the segment that played late-night on Saturday would run a bit earlier the following evening — the Jewish segment remained in the prime, earlier spot. Here is the CNN schedule for the past weekend: |Eastern Time||Pacific Time| |9pm||6pm||God's Warriors - Jewish| |11pm||8pm||God's Warriors - Muslim| |1am||10pm||God's Warriors - Christian| |3am||12am||God's Warriors - Jewish| |Eastern Time||Pacific Time| |9pm||6pm||God's Warriors - Jewish| |11pm||8pm||God's Warriors - Christian| |1am||10pm||God's Warriors - Muslim| |3am||12am||God's Warriors - Jewish| Why did CNN run the Jewish segment twice? Why did it leave that segment in a prime time slot despite switching the order of the other two segments? Ask CNN. August 24, 2007 New Confirmation of the Soviet Role in theSix-Day War A piece in the Jerusalem Post today reports on the confirmation by a Soviet airforce colonel that the Soviets did fly reconnaissance missions over Israel just prior to the Six-Day War. This admission bolsters the claim by Gideon Remez and Isabella Ginor in their controversial book, "Foxbats over Dimona: The Soviets' Nuclear Gamble in the Six-Day War" that the Soviet Union instigated the Six-Day War in order to destroy Israel's nuclear capacity. The authors also claim that Soviet forces were in place to launch a seaborne landing on Israeli beaches and submarines were positioned off the Israeli coast to launch missile strikes if Israel attempted to defend itself with nuclear weapons. The Post quotes a translation of an announcement appearing on the web site of the Russian Defense Ministry stating: In 1967, the military valor and high combat training of Col. Bezhevets, A.S. (now a Hero of the Soviet Union, an honorary test pilot of the USSR, [and] retired Air Force major-general), were demonstrated while carrying out combat operation in Egypt, [and] enabled [him] to perform unique reconnaissance flights over the territory of Israel in a MiG-25RB aircraft Traditional histories of the Six-Day War describe the Soviet Union's troublesome meddling, but emphasize its desire to avoid an all-out war between its Arab client regimes and Israel. Remez and Ginor's book indicate that the Soviet intent to start a war in the Middle East was underestimated and should give pause to those who today downplay the bellicose intentions of Iran, which has replaced the Soviet Union as the main backer and armorer of forces dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Dignified Treatment, Hamas-Style The Associated Press reports Hamas harassed and detained local and foreign journalists today at a protest by Fatah supporters: When several Hamas security men roughed up a Reuters TV cameraman filming the protest and tried to confiscate his camera, protesters surrounded the Hamas men, beat them to the ground and prevented the cameraman's arrest . . . The Hamas men also detained a photographer working for Agence France Press and a cameraman for the Russian TV channel Russia Today, along with the two other reporters working for local news outlets. They also broke a TV camera belonging to the Arabic-language TV network al-Arabiya. And that, my friends, is Hamas' own unique style of treating journalists "with dignity," as promised by Hamas spokesman Mousa Abu Marzook in the Los Angeles Times July 25, 2007. UPDATE; Ynetnews.com has more details about today's abuse of journalists. August 23, 2007 British Educators Oppose UCU Boycott Move The Jerusalem Post reports the educators at Imperial College — a prestigious institution that ranked higher than Princeton and Columbia in one list — have loudly weighed in against an academic boycott of Israel: Educators at London's prestigious Imperial College, questioned in a new poll, have overwhelmingly rejected their union's motion to consider a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. In a survey commissioned by its University and College Union branch, 82 percent of the union's members at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, said they did not support Motion 30, approved at the UCU conference in May, which calls for the boycott of Israeli academic institutions. Sixteen percent of those surveyed favored the motion and 2% did not respond. This comes after about 95 percent of UCU members at the world renowned Oxford University "supported the view that Oxford is opposed to academic boycotts per se." August 22, 2007 Fuel for Conflict Khaled Abu Toameh reports in Commentary: Hamas and Fatah recently accused Israel of preventing fuel supplies from reaching the Gaza Strip—a move that has deprived nearly 600,000 Palestinians of electricity for the past five days. Israel, the two parties claimed, is responsible for the power stoppage because of its “ongoing siege” of the Gaza Strip. Sadly, many in the international media were quick to endorse the Hamas-Fatah version. Headlines in major newspapers and reports on television networks quoted Hamas and Fatah spokesmen as saying that the IDF had banned fuel supplies to the power plant in the Gaza Strip as part of its policy to “punish” the innocent Palestinian population. But now the real story behind the electricity fiasco has surfaced. The same Hamas and Fatah spokesmen who had blamed Israel now were accusing each other. The EU, it emerged, had stopped funding the fuel supplies, after being told by Fatah leaders in Ramallah that Hamas had taken control of the electricity company in the Gaza Strip, and was planning to extort money from customers through electricity bills. . . . The majority of the Palestinians have already paid a heavy price for the continued power struggle between Hamas and Fatah. That’s why the Palestinians react to statements made by the two sides’ leaders with skepticism and extreme caution. Perhaps it’s time that foreign journalists sitting in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, who these days rarely visit the West Bank and Gaza Strip, follow suit, and display a degree of caution when it comes to reporting on the Hamas-Fatah fight. August 21, 2007 Return of the Palestinian Aid "Shell Game" The WAFA news agency web site quotes Palestinian Information Minister Riyad Al-Maliki as saying that the Palestinian government "approved the draft budget for 2007 that amounts to $2,668 million, which comes from foreign aid." The LA Times's Ken Ellingwood also reports on August 20 that the EU has "funnelled nearly $2.5 billion in assistance this year." This figure, if accurate, is staggering, but has received little attention in the media. During all of 2006, the Palestinians received $868 million from the EU and the Palestinian Authority received $750 million from all official foreign sources. These new figures suggest aid has increased by multiples. And with the increased flow of money, it is not surprising to read reports of money finding its way to terrorists again. The Associated Press ("EU Cuts Electricity Funding to Gaza, Says Hamas Diverting Revenues" August 20) reports on how Hamas is siphoning off funds by taking advantage of EU largesse towards the Palestinians. Ibrahim Barzak quotes deputy minister of economy Jawwad Hirzallah, "Hamas is collecting all the electricity fees and never pays the costs of the electricity...The Europeans were paying $10 million that Hamas collects from the people and doesn't pay the costs. So the European Union found itself paying the electricity company, while Hamas was pocketing the revenues." Telegraph Criticizes BBC's Mideast Coverage An editorial in yesterday's Telegraph discussing the latest controversy at the BBC notes that the Beeb is far from objective in its reporting of the Middle East conflict: Its reporting of Israel and Palestine, in particular, tends to underplay the hate-filled Islamist ideology that inspires Hamas and other factions, while never giving Israel the benefit of the doubt. (Disgracefully, the BBC is still refusing to publish the Balen Report, which it commissioned to investigate allegations of anti-Israel bias.) For a discussion of BBC's double standard regarding Jewish and Palestinian refugees (and a step taken by the broadcaster to rectify that bias), see here. August 17, 2007 Methodists Nix Staff-Written Divestment Resolution -- For Now A few weeks after the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church issues an ill-timed blacklist of companies that do business with Israel's defense establishment, The UMC's General Board of Global Ministries issues a curious public statement that it has taken "no position on financial divestment in Israel. The international mission agency is not submitting a resolution to The United Methodist Church's highest legislative body supporting divestment in companies doing business in Israel as a protest to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories." The document continues: A draft document positing such action in some circumstances was drafted by staff and inadvertently include (sic) in a packet of other draft resolutions distributed to Board directors; however, the staff-written, so-called "divestment resolution," had not been reviewed or cleared, as protocol requires, by several other United Methodist agencies that deal with Middle East issues. Directors have taken no action and the draft resolution has been dropped from consideration. The General Board of Global Ministries is strongly committed to peace and justice in the Middle East. It will proceed on all policy matters related to Israel/Palestine in a collaborative relationship with its partner United Methodist agencies. So the GBGM's staff wrote a divestment resolution? Who told them to do that? David Wildman? He will be speaking at a Sabeel conference in Boston in October. The event will be at Old South Church, no less. Sabeel has been a proponent of divestment in several mainline churches, as has David Wildman. August 16, 2007 Bisharat Bashes Israel Again The San Francisco Chronicle has sunk to new depths with its August 15 Op-Ed by George Bisharat, "Boycott movement targets Israel." Factual problems with the Op-Ed include the following: * The boycott is not "a citizen-led boycott" -- it is being led by groups known for their longstanding opposition to Israel's existence. * The comparison with South Africa has no basis in fact whatsoever. South Africa systematically discriminated against its own citizens based on race. By contrast, one-fifth of Israel's citizens are Arabs, and they enjoy full and equal rights. Indeed, Israeli Arabs enjoy more civil rights than the citizens of any majority-Arab country. * Israel has taken security measures against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, who are not Israeli citizens -- in response to a violent campaign of terrorism in which Palestinians have specifically targeted and massacred Israeli civilians -- including children -- in homes, schools, buses, discos, malls, ice cream parlors, and pizzerias. This is in no way comparable with South Africa's policies, which were motivated by racism, not security concerns, and discriminated among South Africa's own citizens. * It is the Arab world which is guilty of ethnic cleansing. Beginning in 1948, Arab governments from Morocco to Iraq drove 900,000 Jews from their homes in the Middle East and North Africa, seizing from them everything but the clothes on their backs. Jordan was particularly brutal in ethnically cleansing the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem of all of its Jews -- systematically destroying virtually all of the ancient quarter's synagogues, using ancient Jewish grave markers for roads and latrines, and thereafter barring all Jews from entering the Old City, let alone praying at the Western Wall, until Israel recaptured the quarter in 1967. * To this day, the Jewish victims of this massive ethnic cleansing have never been compensated. * Israel does not practice torture. In fact, Israel's Supreme Court has banned the use of torture. By contrast, torture is systematically used by most of Israel's Arab neighbors, including the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations that are currently holding three Israeli soldiers hostage in violation of international law. * The "occupation" is a consequence of Arab intransigence, not lack of Israeli interest in peace. In 1948, the Arab world attempted to strangulate Israel at birth, but lost. In 1967, the Arab world united once again in what Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser publicly boasted was an attempt to destroy Israel, but once again, Israel prevailed. Yet on June 19, 1967 -- just 9 days after the completion of its stunning victory in the Six-Day War -- Israel offered to return virtually all of the territories it had captured in return for peace. The Arab states rejected the offer. In later decades, when Arab leaders Anwar Sadat and King Hussein made it clear they were seriously interested in stopping the violence, Israel traded captured land more than three times its own area in exchange for peace with Egypt and Jordan. Israel made painful concession to the Palestinians under the Oslo Accords, and unilaterally, in an attempt to reach a lasting peace agreement. Unfortunately, the Palestinians have been unwilling to make serious efforts toward that goal, refusing to put an end to terrorist attacks and incitement against Israel. * The territories referred to are disputed, not occupied. United Nations Resolution 242, the basis for Arab-Israeli negotiations including all of the accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, recognizes this fact in calling on the parties to negotiate the final status of the West Bank. * In 2000, Israel offered the Palestinians a state born in peace on virtually all of the land in dispute, with a capital in part of Jerusalem. The Palestinians rejected the offer and responded with a war of terror. * The Islamic Republic of Iran has indeed attacked people through its Hezbollah proxy and alliance with Hamas. Iran has been responsible for numerous deadly terrorist attacks on Israelis and Jews across the world. Iran's president has publicly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." * The author denies that his focus on encouraging a boycott against Israel is hypocritical or motivated by anti-Semitism. But his desire to punish Israel, one of the most free and democratic countries in the world, and his conspicuous lack of interest in such human rights atrocities as Palestinian terror against Israelis, Iran's threat to annihilate Israel, or the Sudanese government's ongoing genocide campaign against black Africans in Darfur, suggest otherwise. PETA Condemns Hamas' Animal Cruelty Hamas tries to teach children to be kind to animals? No surprise that this terror organization that prides itself on blowing up children hasn't got a clue about how to teach kindness and decent behavior. Palestinian Media Watch reports that on a recent episode of "Tomorrow's Pioneers," a costumed adult playing Nahool the Bee swings a cat by its tail and torments a caged lion by throwing stones at it. Martin Mersereau of PETA has commendably weighed in on Hamas' barbaric behavior with an eloquent letter that implicitly addressed Hamas' cruelty toward humans as well. It concluded with: We hope, for the sake of humans and animals alike, that future episodes of Tomorrow's Pioneers will work to teach children to respect individuals of any species, no matter how "different" they may be, without demonstrating for them cruel behavior in the process. To read the entire PETA letter and to post a comment about it, click here. To see the video, go to PMW's bulletin. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is the world’s largest animal rights organization with 1.6 million members worldwide. We have been made aware of an episode of Tomorrow’s Pioneers featuring a costumed character on the Hamas TV children’s show tormenting animals as part of a segment that is apparently meant to teach children to treat animals humanely. Unfortunately, while the intention of these segments may be good, the lesson is almost certainly lost on most children, who are more likely to imitate people they see treating animals cruelly rather than understand that this behavior is wrong. We are asking you to please refrain from harming animals in future episodes of Tomorrow’s Pioneers, even if the intention is to teach children a valuable lesson. Instilling in children empathy for animals is indeed vital to helping them become compassionate, responsible citizens. Since young people are more receptive to new ideas, and since children have a natural empathy for animals, it is important that we teach them to make responsible choices that will affect how they live the rest of their lives. Studies around the world have found that a history of cruelty to animals is one of the traits that regularly appear in the records of serial rapists, murderers, and child abusers (because domestic abuse is directed toward the powerless, animal abuse and child abuse go hand in hand). If unchecked, this abuse can later escalate to abuse of their fellow human beings, completing the cycle of violence. Demonstrating for children a respect for even the smallest and most defenseless among us can help them to value and respect and protect one another. We hope, for the sake of humans and animals alike, that future episodes of Tomorrow’s Pioneers will work to teach children to respect individuals of any species, no matter how “different” they may be, without demonstrating for them cruel behavior in the process. For more information about teaching children about empathy and compassion, please visit: http://www.islamicconcerns.com/kids.asp. Martin Mersereau, Manager Cruelty Casework Division, PETA (www.peta.org) August 13, 2007 Jeff Halper Distorts International Law The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), a virulently anti-Israel activist organization headed by Jeff Halper, is lying about the Fourth Geneva Convention. Read how here. August 10, 2007 Hamas Stamps Out Smuggling -- Washington Post “Egypt Finding Fewer Gaza Smuggling Tunnels; Hamas Steps Up Border Patrols, Seeking to Assert Order in Palestinian Territory” (July 30, 2007), by Washington Post foreign correspondent Ellen Knickmeyer, makes superficial seem profound. Knickmeyer writes, without journalistic skepticism, that the Hamas terrorists who purged their Fatah rivals from the Gaza Strip in a murderous five-day campaign in June have turned into conscientious border guards. She paraphrases an Egyptian official as saying that Egypt’s finding fewer tunnels is “an indication of the radical Islamic group’s broad success in reducing the smuggling of weapons and other contraband.” Barry Rubin, professor at the Interdisciplinary University in Herzliya and director of the Global Research for International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, supplies the missing logic: “There was an arms race between Fatah and Hamas, leading to large-scale smuggling” before the purge. Now, “Hamas has all the arms it smuggled plus all of Fatah's [captured] armaments, including materiel supplied by the United States. At this moment” — having beaten Fatah and not yet provoked large-scale fighting with Israel — it is “not expending much ammunition or losing any equipment. So Hamas doesn't need to smuggle arms for a long time, or at least needs to bring in far less.” Knickmeyer and The Post mistake these circumstances as meaning, Rubin adds, that “since they aren't smuggling arms this proves that they are moderate, or at least trying to show they are acting responsibly.” “Egypt Finding Fewer Gaza Smuggling Tunnels” does not meet minimum standards of professional inquiry, let alone The Washington Post’s professed investigative standards. Knickmeyer observes that “Palestinian border guards, identified by Egyptian and U.S. officials as Hamas fighters, have shed the ski masks that Hamas fighters usually wear. They have adopted military-style short haircuts and wear dark T-shirts.” So readers are to believe that a change in fashion signals a change in the organizations’ murderous methods, used against Fatah and still aimed at Israel? One wonders where the editors were, and where the articles on Hamas’ armed build-up in the Strip and creeping imposition of Islamic fundamentalism on Gazans are. -- M.B. and E.R. Ha'aretz Keeps a Secret News organizations across the world — with a glaring exception — are reporting a key detail about today's shooting in Jerusalem: "A Palestinian man grabbed a pistol from an Israeli security guard in Jerusalem's Old City and shot him on Friday, but was shot dead by another guard as he tried to flee, Israeli police said." – Associated Press "Jerusalem police chief Aaron Franco said the Palestinian seized a pistol of one of the men not far from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the walled Old City..." – Agence France Press "An Israeli guard shot dead Friday a Palestinian man who had taken a gun from another guard in a shootout in a rare incident of violence in Jerusalem's old city quarter." – Deutsche Presse-Agentur "A security guard shot and killed an Arab attacker in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday after the man shot and moderately wounded another security guard, police said." – Jerusalem Post "A security guard at the Ateret Kohanim yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem shot and killed a Palestinian man who snatched the weapon of another guard and used it to wound him." – YNETnews.com Even hours after the attack, however, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz still apparently hasn't figured out the nationality of the assailant — obviously a relevant fact in the context of the region's ethnic and nationalistic fighting. The Ha'aretz report (as of noon eastern time) mentions discusses "the assailant," "the attacker," and "the man," but seems to have missed a fact the rest of the media noted: This was an incident of anti-Jewish violence by Palestinian Arabs. August 09, 2007 Media "Failed in Fairly Distributing Relevant Information" A Brazilian native writing in the Jerusalem Post criticizes the discrepancy between media coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict and coverage of the situation in his home town of Rio de Janeiro: [W]hile poverty, violence, disease and death are turning my city into a shambles, the tragedy of the hillside slums in Rio are largely accepted as the status quo by the media ...." He notes that in the beginning of a documentary about the slums of Rio, a screen shot in bold white letters printed over a black background offers perturbing statistics: While 467 minors were killed in Israel and the Palestinian Authority between 1987 to 2001 (a date which includes the first intifada), 3,937 minors were killed as a result of gang warfare in Rio de Janeiro alone - an 8 to 1 ratio. NONE OF the reviews have focused on this alarming fact and the message that the Brazilian directors intended to convey by this statistic. Why does a documentary that stresses the suffering and longing of the youth in the favelas of Rio care about the deaths of minors in Israel and the Palestinian territories? Because disproportionate media attention has been given to hyped conflicts such as Israel-Palestine and Kosovo, framing the public perception to believe that those conflicts are in fact the ones in most dire need of international aid. A questionnaire given at a "War and Peace" course at an Australian university asked 37 students to list what they thought were the three deadliest conflicts in the world as well as the conflict they thought, in terms of humanitarian conditions, was in most need of a solution. The most prevalent answer to the first question was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with nine students saying it was the deadliest conflict. To the second question, 21 students responded that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was most urgently in need of a solution. In both cases, the students, who presumably study topics in international relations, seem to have a misperception that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the most ghastly of all. The students are wrong. His conclusion: "I blame it on the media. The media is critical in setting the political agenda, and it has failed in fairly distributing relevant information." Read the piece here. August 08, 2007 Palestinian Journalists Pressured to Lie About Deaths In the print edition of Ha'aretz today, Avi Issacharoff reports on the death of two Arab children in Beit Lahiya, ages 8 and 6, hit by a Palestinian rocket that fell short. He wrote: No group claimed responsibility. Palestinian journalists, however, were pressured to report that the children were killed by an Israeli bombardment. August 07, 2007 Fayyad Said, Or Didn't He? The Associated Press and Ha'aretz were at odds yesterday on whether or not the Palestinian Authority wants full control over the West Bank and whether it believes it has the capability to provide security there. AP's Mohammed Daraghmeh had this to say: The Palestinians are eager to restore the situation quickly to what it was before the outbreak of the uprising in September 2000, including assuming full control over West Bank cities again. Israel has agreed in principle, but the military has been slow to remove its West Bank checkpoints and reserves the right to chase Palestinian militants anywhere. "So far, we are not satisfied with the progress," said Palestinian Information Minister Riad Malki, adding that the West Bank government hopes to "take full security control of the territories." In contrast, the leading story in Ha'aretz yesterday, entitled "Palestinians: We can't take responsiblity for security in West Bank" reported: The Palestinian Authority's security organizations are unable to assume security control of cities in the West Bank, Prime Minister Salam Fayad told senior Israeli officials during recent meetings. Fayad told Israeli officials that the PA's security forces are unable "to impose law and order in the West Bank at this time." . . . . During meetings with senior Israeli officials, the interim Palestinian prime minister and his interior minister, Abd al-Razek al-Yihiya, made it clear that the PA's security cannot at this time assume control of West Bank cities. Among those to whom this message was conveyed recently was Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin. CAMERA pointed out the contradiction to the AP, and subsequent AP stories by Karin Laub reported the discrepancy: The Israeli daily Haaretz on Monday cited Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as telling Israeli officials the Palestinian security forces aren't ready yet to assume control. The report contradicted the official Palestinian position that the West Bank towns should be handed over quickly. Palestinian Information Minister Riad Malki insisted Monday that Fayyad, in recent meetings with Israeli officials, "affirmed that the Palestinian governemtn is ready to take control of all cities in the West Bank." However, a senior Palestinian security official in the West Bank town of Bethlehem said his forces need more time and training. "Hot House": Cinematic Soapbox for Murderers In an Op-Ed in Ha'aretz today, Frimet Roth, the mother of 15-year-old Malki who was murdered in the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria bombing, recounts the trauma she suffers due to the documentary "Hot House," which has garnered glamorous photographs of Malki's killer in places like the New York Times. Roth warns viewers: [Y]ou may emerge convinced that this film conveys a balanced picture of the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A film without a single appearance by a victim of the terrorists. Not one photograph. Not even one name. Instead, the film's goal, in the words of producer Shimon Dotan, is to "make Israelis understand the issue of Palestinian prisoners [and] think we are doing exactly the same thing [to the Palestinians] in their civilian life. We owe them empathy." Empathy for people like Ahlam Tamimi, the young woman who helped plan the murder of Malki Roth. Tamimi sat two hours with Dotan for a "gripping" conversation. Roth reports: He asked whether she knew how many children had perished in the bombing of Sbarro. Smiling, as she generally does, she guessed "three." "It was eight," Dotan corrected her. She seemed delighted and smiled again, asking, "really?" Roth is outraged that "Hot House": was primarily underwitten by Israeli government sources -- not Dotan's funds. . . The New Foundation for Film and Television was established in 1993 to essentially support the production of documentary films. With 60 percent of its budget, millions of shekels annually, coming from the Education, Culture and Sports Ministry, this foundation was a primary source of the film's budget. Olmert's Office Denies Ha'aretz Story Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office has issued a highly unusualy press release through the Government Press Office this morning, stating: In response to the main headline in this morning's Ha'aretz, we do not know of any plan as described in the article. We would like to clarify that such a plan has not been considered, nor is it being raised for discussion in any forum. We express our amazement at this erroneous article, which was published without any attempt being made to ascertain from us its accuracy. The Ha'aretz story, headlined "Olmert and Peres: Palestinian state on 100% of West Bank area, with swaps," begins: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is examing a new framework for peace in which Israel will propose transferring to the Palestinian state area equivalent to 100 percent of the territories conquered in 1967. Israel will suggest to the Palestinians to conduct negotiations for adequate territorial compensation from Israel's sovereign territory, in exchange for settlement blocs amounting to about 5 percent of the West Bank's area. Israel is also examining various options of exchanging settlement blocs with Arab community blocs within Israel, in agreement with the residents. . . August 06, 2007 Hier/Cooper Op-Ed No Longer on LA Times Site The July 10, 2007 Op-Ed by Mousa Abu Marzook, a spokesman for the genocidal terrorist group Hamas who has been indicted in the United States, is still available at the Los Angeles Times Web site with its gross falsehoods completely intact. In contrast, the July 22, 2007 Op-Ed by Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which excoriates the Times for giving space to a terrorist, is no longer available. (You can read it instead at Yid with Lid.) Searches on "Abu Marzook," "Hier," or "Abraham Cooper" no longer come up with the July 22 Op-Ed, and old links to the page are no longer working. Feedback can be sent to the LA Times site here. August 03, 2007 More Crimes from the Century James M. Wall’s antipathy toward Israel is a lodestar in the intellectual universe of mainline Protestantism. Hardly a month goes by when the Christian Century's resident expert on the Middle East doesn’t lambaste Israel for its efforts to protect its citizens and give some sort of boost to its adversaries. This month is no different. In his most recent piece, Rev. Wall asserts that Israel's security barrier (which he calls a wall) "does not block a pathway a suicide bomber might take into Israel; it is a barrier that divides families and communities.” Wall's reasoning? Because according to an Israeli newspaper, it's not finished and won't be until 2010. Rev. Wall, who writes that the barrier is "hardly a guarantee of protection" continues: In other words, Israel's security wall is being constructed under false pretenses: it has little to do with security and everything to do with the expropriation of large tracts of land for Israel. The Israelis are not looking for guarantees. They are looking for solutions. The question is not if the unfinished security barrier stops pathways suicide bombers might take to kill Israeli civilians, but whether the barrier as it currently exists, blocks pathways that suicide bombers have or will take to into Israel. And on this score, we have testimony from Palestinian terrorists. Their assessment? Yes, it works. In November 2006, Ramadan Shalah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader stated that while his group had every intention of launching suicide attacks against Israel, actually carrying them out was difficult, because of a number of factors including … you guessed it ... the security barrier. “For example,” he said, “there is the separation fence, which is an obstacle to the resistance, and if it were not there the situation would be entirely different.” More recently, in June 2006, Moussa Abu Marzouq, Deputy Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau stated that carrying out suicide attacks is "made difficult by the security fence and the gates surrounding West Bank residents”. Note that the The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reports that in the Arabic original Marzouq calls the barrier “the isolating fence” demonstrating that even Marzouq knows that for most of its length, the barrier is a fence and not a wall, as Rev. Wall writes. To be sure, the barrier does have tragic impacts on Palestinian families, but then again, suicide bombers have tragic impacts on Israeli families. Readers will have to decide for themselves who has a better idea about the effectiveness and nature of Israel’s security barrier – James M. Wall, a man whose contempt for Israel grows with each passing issue of Christian Century, or the terrorists who contend with the security barrier. Now, if Rev. Wall wants to contradict Marzouq’s assessment of the security barrier effectiveness, then he’ll have a a tough time explaining his praise for the Palestinian leader’s guest column in the July 10, 2007 issue of the Los Angeles Times. In the same piece in which he asserts the barrier is "no guarantee of protection," Wall lauds Marzouq’s “sound logic and erudition” as he refutes the mainstream media's explanation of how and why Hamas rescued British BBC journalist Alan Johnston from a militant Gaza family. Marzook explains that Hamas did not rescue Johnston "as some obsequious boon to Western powers" (the conventional wisdom in the West), but took the action to rescue Johnston "as part of our effort to secure Gaza from the lawlessness of militias and violence, no matter what the source." If Rev. Wall trusts Marzouq’s testimony about Johnston’s release, then how does he square that with Marzouq’s testimony about the security barrier, which contradicts Wall’s assertion that it has “little do with security?” August 02, 2007 Hamas Silences More Media In line with Hamas' perverse method of treating journalists "with dignity," the ruling party in the Gaza Strip is shutting down a popular tv program which recently was critical of the legal aspects of the Hamas takeover. The Jerusalem Post reports: The Hamas Ministry of Information on Wednesday ordered the Ramattan News Agency and Media Services to stop broadcasting a popular TV show that dealt with the current situation in the Gaza Strip. . . . On Wednesday morning, the Ramattan staff received a letter from the Hamas Ministry of Information instructing the agency to stop broadcasting the talk show, which is called Red Line. The program is presented by Palestinian author and journalist Hassan al-Kashef, a former director-general of the PA Ministry of Information. . . . The last show, which was aired last Wednesday, dealt with the legal issues pertaining to Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip and the role of the Palestinian security forces in imposing law and order. Three Palestinian lawyers working for different human rights groups who appeared on the show were critical of Hamas's performance in the Gaza Strip. August 01, 2007 Journalist: The French 'Understood Nothing' Ha'aretz has a fascinating feature today about Annette Levy-Willard, a journalist with the Frency daily Liberation and author of a book about the second Lebanon war, Trente-trois Jour en Ete: Chroniques d'une Guerre Surprise (Summer Rain: A Reporter's Diary of the 2006 War Between Israel and Hezbollah). Levy-Willard recounts: "It was important for me to narrate this in an eye-witness style," she says. "I understood that the French, who had been fascinated by the war in Lebanon, understood nothing about it. "On the one hand, they saw the strong Israeli army and on the other, the poor Lebanese victims. But what was in between, what came between the two sides - Hezbollah - they did not see." Levy-Willard, who to a large extent balances this picture in her book, stresses that French radio and TV, not press, tilted the balance in favor of the Lebanese and against Israel. "There is some logic to this," she says. "The footage from Lebanon looked better than that of an empty Haifa. Especially since there were numerous pictures of bodies in Lebanon - something Israelis do not permit. And a body will always be more photogenic than a pool of blood on the ground." Levy-Willard says the State of Israel will always lose in the French media, and not merely because of the refusal to photograph bodies. She recalls an interview with a soldier who had just left the battle in Bint Jbail and was shaking all over, clearly in a state of trauma. Next to her stood a reporter for French radio, who completely ignored the soldier's plight and asked him: "Don't you feel arrogant?" "He in no way wanted to hear what the soldier had to say," Levy-Willard says. "To a large extent, to this day, De Gaulle's well-known saying about the Israelis, that they are 'a domineering nation that is full of itself,' is still emblazoned on the minds of Frenchmen." Some members of the French press are also aware of this: A critique of her book in Le Monde stated that "Levy-Willard portrays what has never been seen in the European press - the mood of the Israelis. She allows them to speak. More than that, she listens to them."

- a male given name. Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018 Examples from the Web for mandel Freundel had created the practice dunks because of an experience with a prior convert, according to Mandel.Women Describe How Top D.C. Rabbi Allegedly Spied on Them in the Nude Steven I. Weiss October 22, 2014 Mandel told The Daily Beast that the timing of the conference was very “frustrating.”Klutzy Conservative Jewish Outreach at the Values Voter Summit September 24, 2014 Mandel has said he was renting the vehicle for official purposes related to his state office, which is legal.Losing a Senate Race Was Just the Start of Josh Mandel’s Bad News June 10, 2014 As one of his first questions, Fallon asked Mandel in all earnestness if Mandel had any talent. Mandel looked flustered; he obviously considers himself a talented comic. Mrs. Mandel bent forward with an aspect of ladylike interest and smiled. Mrs. Mandel added to March, "It's very sharp out, isn't it?" He brought Mrs. Mandel, and he brought that Beaton, and he brought that Boston fellow! But if she did not know about Mrs. Mandel, Mrs. Mandel seemed to know about her. "I suppose she thought you could come with your mother," Mrs. Mandel suggested.

Op-ed published originally in JTA. WYNNEWOOD, Pa. (JTA) – After being privileged last year to go on a Taglit-Birthright trip with 40 students from Johns Hopkins University, last month I traveled with 12 other student leaders to Israel and the West Bank with J Street U. Since then I’ve been reflecting a great deal on these two very different experiences. Birthright helped to provide a stronger connection to my Jewish identity. After the trip, I began to take more Jewish studies courses and engage more with the campus Hillel. I took an internship with Hillel’s Peer Network Engagement Internship program and started organizing my own events. I realize, though, that the Birthright model is not designed to instill a strong sense of responsibility in Diaspora Jews toward Israel. After all, it is rather easy not to feel responsible for issues that no one asks you to think about. Rather, the program focuses more upon fostering a general sense of connection. This dynamic often leaves students unable or uninterested in being the “ambassadors” that Birthright so often asks us to be back home. Birthright prides itself on being apolitical, and indeed on the trip I learned little of substance about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I have heard arguments for why Birthright does not venture into exploring the conflict, and to an extent I understand why. The trip is targeting a broad-based group of Jewish people and there’s only so much that can be accomplished in 10 days. But reflecting further, I can’t help but find it unsettling that Birthright takes tens of thousands of young, uninformed Jews to Israel without providing any real briefing or debriefing on pressing Israeli societal issues while all the while telling us to go home and “tell the truth about Israel” and “love Israel and be a proud Jew.” We do fall in love with the land, with the Mediterranean Sea, with the food and with the Israelis we meet. We have energizing hikes and a lot of fun. Yet Birthright does not prepare us to engage with legitimate and difficult questions back at our college campuses and in our communities. A few weeks after returning home from Birthright, I was telling some people about my exciting trip. A peer asked my opinion on the fact that any Jewish person like myself from anywhere in the world can travel throughout Israel with ease, but there are Palestinians who have been living on the land for generations that face burdensome restrictions of movement. I had no idea what to say. I didn’t even know what checkpoints were. “It’s the Jewish homeland?” I replied meekly, frustrated with my own ignorance. Not only wasn’t I able to defend Israel to people who challenged it, but I felt embarrassed and confused. Several weeks later I was asked how I could defend a state that expanded settlements in the occupied West Bank. I had no idea what people were talking about with regards to “international law” and “illegal outposts.” Again I scratched my head and realized I knew so little of “the truth” that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked me and thousands of other participants at Birthright’s Mega Event to relay back on campus. In contrast, while at times on the J Street U trip I felt uncomfortable by the Israel I saw, I left feeling deeply committed to its future. I saw Israel not simply as a place to which I wanted to return but as a story of which I wanted to be a part. On the J Street U trip we met with Israelis from Sderot and Netiv HaAsara who regularly face the threat of rockets from Gaza, Holocaust historians from Yad Vashem, an Israeli scholar specializing in deligitimization, leaders of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, Israeli university students, Jewish settlers in Gush Etzion, human rights activists and Palestinian citizens of Israel. We met with two-staters, one-staters and those who advocate a constitutionally enforced binational state. We met with Palestinians and Jews living in the segregated city of Hebron. We wrestled with the role of Jews of the Diaspora. At the end of it all, we emerged exhausted, intellectually humbled and more motivated to work to help Israel. J Street U refused to present Israel as what Ir-Amim founder Danny Seidemann called a “Jewish Disneyland.” And I’m grateful for that. I still love Israel, but confronting the challenging parts of the country compelled me to have a much deeper sense of responsibility. If those same students from last year ask me questions now about Palestinian freedom of movement or settlement expansion, I’m not sure I would necessarily have all the answers. But I am positioned in a place where I am ready to seriously engage and grapple with the ideas, concerns, questions and consequences of the conflict. I am working to create a situation in which Palestinians, Israelis and I can all move more freely in peace and security, with self-determination for both peoples. I am not suggesting that Birthright start distributing talking points on the conflict during their trips. But I am recommending that Birthright provide far greater opportunities for participants to struggle and engage with Israel’s real issues. Do not underestimate us. Then maybe we all can come home better equipped to be responsible ambassadors.

I’ve been writing extensively this season about the virgin conception of Jesus. Why does it matter in the first place? Is it reasonable? Was it borrowed from pagan mythologies? Was it a late addition to the “mythology” of Jesus? Many have noted that only Luke and Matthew recorded the “virgin conception” of Jesus. Wouldn’t such an important and supernatural event have been recorded by all the eyewitness Gospels? Not necessarily: The Accounts Reflect “Perspective” and “Purpose” There are many important events, sermons, conversations, parables and characters that are unique to one particular Gospel or another. This is not uncommon when examining concurrent eyewitness accounts. Each eyewitness brings his or her own perspective and purpose to the account; eyewitness testimonies are as unique and divergent as the eyewitnesses themselves. If we were to discard every account in scripture unless it was repeated in all four Gospels, there wouldn’t be much left to talk about, and if all four Gospels contained an identical account, there wouldn’t be any need for more than one of them! This is why we have four separate Gospels to begin with; the breadth and depth of knowledge related to Jesus can only be found in the cumulative eyewitness accounts of these testimonies. The Most Detailed Gospels Include the Account As it turns out, two of the four Gospel writers did choose to include the account of the virgin conception in their narrative. Not surprisingly, these two Gospel writers (Luke and Matthew) have also provided us with the most detailed and comprehensive Gospels. The Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew are the most voluminous of the four Gospels and they include many details that are omitted by Mark and John. It shouldn’t, therefore, surprise us that Luke and Matthew would also choose to include the details of the “virgin conception”. Luke even tells us in advance that he purposed to give us as complete an account as possible: Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught. The Account is “Double Attested” The “virgin conception” is well supported by the New Testament even though it is not fully described in every Gospel account. From a Jewish and early Christian perspective, the “virgin conception” is a claim substantiated by a Biblical and cultural criteria known as “double attestation”; it is supported by the testimony of two separate witnesses. Matthew’s account relies upon the testimony of Joseph as he described his visit with the angel. Luke’s account relies upon the testimony of Mary as she described her visit with Gabriel and her own person experience as a virgin. As a result, the two Gospels, coming from two different sources, demonstrate the expected variation that comes from independent testimony and is affirmed by two independent sources. The virgin conception of Jesus was described early in Christian history by two sources. It wasn’t added late or borrowed from pagan mythologies. It is a reliable piece of information about Jesus, even though it doesn’t appear in every Gospel.

3 To Do: Car show, 'Love Letters,' more 1. Sunday: Kiwanis Car Show The annual Kiwanis Car Show, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 17, is moving to a new home after 14 years at the NCH site on Heathwood Drive. The new location for the show is Veterans Park located at Park Ave, Marco Island. Steve Reynolds is returning as the guest MC. Also returning will be the Celtic Spirit Irish dancers, this will be there 14th year at the show. The” Kiwanis Chefs” will prepare hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage and peppers and chili. The Italian American Society of Marco Island will be selling homemade cakes and pastries. Come out and taste the Ice Cream Floats prepared by the Marco Island Academy Key Club. The cost for a show car entry is $20 which includes lunch, the spectator fee is a donation of $5 or greater if you wish. All monies collected at the show go towards the many children’s programs supported by Kiwanis. Car owners come on out and support the biggest and best car show on Marco Island and the surrounding area. Contact John DeRosa at 239-272-0816. 2. Register now: Renaissance Academy Marco Island Center for the Arts announces that Florida Gulf Coast University’s The Renaissance Academy will be presenting art history classes in January, February and March 2019 at the Art Center. Tickets are $20 for The Renaissance Academy and Art Center members and $25 for non-members. To register for classes call 239-434-4737 or go to RegisterRA.asapconnected.com. The following are the classes being offered from 1:30 until 3 p.m., Feb. 20, “Jacques Louis David, Revolutionary Painter;” March 14, “Music & Art Expressionism – Vincent Van Gogh and Arnold Schoenberg. 3. Saturday: JCMI presents ‘Love Letters’ Just in time for Valentine’s Day weekend, the Jewish Congregation of Marco Island presents a production of J. R. Gurney’s Pulitzer Prize nominated play “Love Letters.” This one night only production is presented to capture the relationship between two people who have known each other from their early childhood and for 50 years thereafter. The performance is scheduled for 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 16 at the temple located on Winterberry Drive and stars two members of the community, Elaine Hankin and Steve Goldenberg. Tickets are available at the temple office at 991 Winterberry Drive or by calling the office at 642-0800.

|American Renaissance magazine| |Vol 11, No. 5||May 2000| Record Turnout for 2000 AR Conference Speakers ponder the future of whites. More than 200 people from all around the country gathered in northern Virginia over the weekend of March 31-April 2nd for the fourth American Renaissance conference. The mostly-American audience was joined by participants from Canada, England and France. A small protest by a far-left student group provided added entertainment to what all participants agreed was an entirely successful conference. The meeting was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Reston, Virginia, and began with a Friday evening cocktail reception. The general session on Saturday opened with Richard Lynn of the Ulster Institute for Social Research, who discussed the history and impact of Third-World immigration on Britain. He noted that despite Enoch Powell’s famous warning that “we are building our own funeral pyre,” non-white immigration continues in the face of popular opposition. Arranged marriages, false documents, chain migration, and haphazard enforcement of immigration laws have resulted in an increase of non-whites from 300,000 to three million from 1961 to 1991 — a ten-fold increase. Prof. Lynn says there is so much black-on-white violence and anti-police rioting in Britain that it can be likened to a low-level civil war. Blacks in England — particularly Caribbean blacks — resemble American blacks, with problems of unemployment, crime, illegitimacy, and low IQ, while Indians and Chinese are generally better adapted. He warned that unless current trends were reversed whites could become a minority in Europe by 2100. Syndicated columnist Samuel Francis followed with a lecture on “Race and the American Right.” He agreed with a recent assertion by Weekly Standard editor William Kristol that “the conservative movement is finished.” In fact, said Dr. Francis, it has been finished ever since Republicans and conservatives refused “to stress issues such as immigration, affirmative action, multiculturalism and anti-white attacks.” While National Review was never centered around race, in the 1950s and 1960s it took positions similar to those of AR. Republican politicians right up to George Bush won elections by appealing, at least subliminally, to white interests. Conservatives no longer do this, said Dr. Francis, and are even on the wrong side of some issues like immigration. He predicted that George W. Bush will not mention race at all in the 2000 campaign because the GOP has already ceded moral legitimacy and cultural domination to the left in the hope of gaining respectability. He said its hopes could be paraphrased as, “Maybe if we don’t talk about race, immigration or IQ, they will think we are O.K,” and urged the right to reclaim the moral authority to talk about race in realistic terms. In a discussion of his latest research on race, Philippe Rushton spoke of a recent trip to South Africa. He tested the IQs of university blacks in the expectation that they would be approximately one standard deviation above the general population, as is the case with European students. The average score he found of 84 for African university students suggests a devastatingly low average of 70 for the population as a whole. If this figure is accurate, it would mean half the African population is retarded by European standards. Perhaps it is more fruitful to think of African IQs at this level as indicators of mental age rather than evidence of retardation. In support of the view that racial differences in IQ have genetic origins, Prof. Rushton showed slides demonstrating that whites have brains six percent larger, and Asians eight percent larger than those of blacks. He also explained that brain size has a cascading effect on the body, influencing everything from the width of the birth canal to jaw structure and pelvis size. Biological differences affect many kinds of behavior, and world AIDS rates show a clear racial pattern. Over eight percent of black African adults have HIV compared to 0.2 percent of Europeans and 0.05 percent of Asians. In the question-and-answer period Prof. Rushton discussed reasons why Asians appear to be less dynamic and creative than whites despite higher IQs. He mentioned several theories, including differences in temperament, a larger standard deviation in the distribution of white IQs, and the possibility that higher achievement by Westerners over Asians “may be only a temporary blip in history.” After lunch, Jared Taylor discussed the prospects for whites in the coming century. Noting that “the twentieth century has been a disaster,” he pointed out that only 100 years ago whites had unchallenged global influence. Since then, two world wars, non-white immigration, and a dramatic loss of confidence have made whites unable to defend their own interests. Whites are now, he said, almost at the point of “reconciling themselves to oblivion.” Mr. Taylor noted we have essentially made a “state religion” out of diversity and egalitarianism, and that no white can rise in the media, academia or politics without professing allegiance to this cult. Like communism, few people really believe the cult’s absurd dogmas, but most are afraid to speak out. Still, he saw evidence that more and more people are challenging orthodoxy and are starting to say publicly what most believe privately. He concluded that history, science, and ordinary Americans all give reason to expect a regeneration of white racial consciousness. Bruno Gollnisch, a member of the European Parliament and the second-ranking officer in the French Front National, explained the nature and objectives of his political movement. He defined its members as patriots who are trying to preserve “Western civilization and French civilization.” The FN values historical tradition and is composed of “peaceful, civilized French people who do not want to be foreigners in their own land.” Nevertheless, front officials are routinely slandered by the media, and public debates about the FN are generally held without representatives from the party. As the left-wing press explains, there is “no freedom for the enemies of freedom.” Dr. Gollnisch argued that the idea of nation, far from going out of fashion or losing its strength, is as vigorous as ever. Pointing out that the Soviet Union split into 15 different nations, he asked: “If so many people have dreamed to become nations, there must be something in human nature that makes it natural.” Even so, the West faces a grave challenge. “Civilizations are mortal,” said Dr. Gollnisch, noting the possibility that ours may be beyond salvation. He urged the audience to consider it its duty either to keep it alive or to at least save as much of it as possible. Even if Western ideals are eventually replaced by something else, they might still offer an indispensable basis on which to build. In brief remarks, Gordon Baum of the Council of Conservative Citizens described the successful activist work of his group and how it has attracted new members by standing up for European-Americans. With his usual good humor, Frank Borzellieri discussed his fight against the diversity cult as member of a New York City school board, columnist for a Queens newspaper chain, and host of a cable television program. The after-dinner speaker was Frank Ellis who defied warnings from his university not to attend the conference. Prof. Ellis caused a controversy in England when the Guardian and other newspapers reported he was to speak to the AR conference on race relations in Britain. His employer Leeds University ordered Prof. Ellis to change his plans and travel only on Saturday and Sunday, thinking this would stop him from coming. They misread their man. He flew in on Saturday afternoon, delivered his speech that evening and flew back again early Sunday morning to be back in time for his Monday-morning classes — after a stay in the United States of a little over 12 hours. Prof. Ellis, an expert on the Soviet Union, noted how today’s political correctness shows signs of the same intellectual tyranny that characterized Communism. He cited as an excellent example of this the recent “MacPherson Report” on alleged police mishandling of the 1993 murder of a black teenager in Britain. The report savaged the police as “institutionally racist” and insisted that the case was bungled because of “bigotry.” The report also took it for granted that whites killed the young man out of pure racial hatred. Prof. Ellis pointed out that this was by no means established, yet the government and media never wavered in their certainty. He argued that the media rarely show an interest in possible racial motivation when blacks kill whites — something considerably more common than the reverse. Prof. Ellis argued that hysteria of the kind displayed by the MacPherson Report and the fantastic invasions of privacy it advocates in the name of anti-racism are natural outgrowths of multiculturalism. “The record of multicultural societies,” he said, “is not a good one but if you point this out you are a racist.” He sees signs that the British are fed up with racial orthodoxy and says the practice of multiculturalism in Britain is “shamelessly hypocritical.” The conference resumed on Sunday with a speech by Robert Weissberg on the relationship between blacks and Jews. He said that despite their private fear and dislike of blacks, Jews have loyally supported black causes. He noted that Jews created the NAACP, provided lawyers to fight civil rights cases, and supplied more than half of the “Freedom Riders.” “Perhaps only Israel has drawn more fervent support in the pantheon of Jewish causes,” he remarked. The unsettling result has been an increase in sometimes violent black anti-Semitism, and unceasing attacks on Jews by black leaders. Prof. Weissberg argued that despite public professions of solidarity, Jews fear black crime and violence, and loathe black ineptitude and sloth. Jewish academics resent the price they pay for affirmative action and are repelled by the Afrocentric “scholars” who are now their colleagues. Jews are the first to move away when a neighborhood changes, and do not socialize or intermarry with blacks. Prof. Weissberg said this apparent schizophrenia is explained by the Jewish desire to use blacks as a potential ally against white gentile anti-Semitism. He said Jews fear the potential anti-Semitism of white gentiles far more than the day-to-day criminality of blacks, and that this fear is deeply ingrained. At the same time, he predicted a growing number of Jews will adopt a white nationalist view. Jews under the age of 40 remember the 1991 Crown Heights riots, not the 1960s “Freedom Marches.” Today’s “politically homeless” Jews are increasingly disenchanted with both liberalism and neutered conservatism, and are increasingly open to racial appeals so long as they are free of anti-Semitism. Roger McGrath spoke about the reconquista or “reconquering” of California by Mexicans, a goal openly endorsed by Mexican and Mexican-American officials. He noted that 70 percent of the students in Los Angeles County public schools are Hispanic, and half of them are illegal. The county spends $10,500 per student — well above the national average of $6,000 — with most of the difference due to the expense of teaching children who cannot speak English. Even so more than half of the students cannot meet the requirements to proceed to the next grade, though any attempt to maintain standards is met with shouts of “racism.” The reconquista is claiming northern California as well. In 1965, 95 percent of the students in San Francisco were white. Now, only 12 percent are white. California’s generous welfare attracts immigrants. Over 60 percent of births in Los Angeles County are to illegal aliens, because they can get free, First-World medical care and U.S. citizenship for their babies. Immigration also brings crime, with Mexican gangs now committing more murders in California than black gangs. Illegal gang members are rarely deported; instead they spend years in jail at public expense. Between the costs of crime, education, and social services, illegal immigrants cost the average California family about $1,200 a year. It is not only whites who are bitter. Blacks in South-Central Los Angeles complain about ethnic cleansing and the loss to illegals of entry-level jobs. The reconquista is also responsible for overpopulation and the ensuing environmental degradation. Prof. McGrath noted that during his lifetime the population of California has gone from 7 million to 33 million. Addressing his fourth AR conference, Sam Dickson discussed the demonization of whites who want to preserve their race and civilization. Because we do not have a voice in the media we are easily labeled as “racist,” and blamed for violence committed by whites in the past. Mr. Dickson noted that “lefties and anti-racists are never found ‘guilty-by-association’ the way we are.” He proposed that we call egalitarians “levelers” and tie them to the violence done by all levelers from the French Revolution to Stalin and Mao. Mr. Dickson also decried the “tolerance” double standard, pointing out that it is contemptibly hypocritical of those who would banish any dissent from their program of egalitarianism and “diversity” to call us “intolerant.” Jared Taylor closed the conference with the wish that “the spirit of the West” might go with the conferees as they returned to their homes. There was reasonably good media attendance, with reporters from the Washington Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Newhouse News Service, and Gannett News Service. Several lengthy articles have already appeared. A New Jersey cable station taped parts of the conference, but C-Span, which has covered AR conferences in the past, did not appear. As it has done before, a group calling itself “Anti-Racist Action,” demonstrated against “Nazism” outside the hotel on Friday evening. The nearly 20 scruffy youngsters — all white — were invisible and inaudible from the hotel, and had no effect on the conference, as they shouted and waved signs at passing cars. Several had hair dyed in neon colors and others wore safety pins in their earlobes. Passers-by were sure to conclude that anything this lot were protesting had to be very worthy indeed. With yet another very successful conference behind it, the American Renaissance staff is already looking ahead to the next one, likely to be held in the spring of 2002. An incoherent argument for “reparations.” The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks, Randall Robinson, Dutton 2000, 262 pp., $23.95 The great virtue of a book like The Debt, by black “activist” Randall Robinson, is that you don’t have to read it to know what it says. You can be sure it will blame all black problems on whites, living or long dead, and demand unlimited reparations. In addition — despite Ivy League credentials the author brags of — the writing will be wretched: disorganized, prolix, shot through with garbled metaphors and big words wrongly used. Indeed, The Debt is a sadly representative sample of the thought processes of the black intellectual elite. Robinson starts with the obvious: “African Americans lag the American mainstream in virtually every area of statistical measure.” The reason for this, of course, is “American slavery and the vicious climate that followed it.” And because of “the staggering breadth of America’s crime against us . . . a fortune is owed.” Robinson particularly emphasizes “the cost of [an] obstructed view of ourselves.” “We hate ourselves. [W]e don’t know what has happened to us and no one will tell us. Thus we have concluded that the fault must be ours.” Ignorance of their glorious African ancestors holds back black children: “[A]chievement gaps cannot be fully closed until Americans — all Americans — are repaired in their views of Africa’s role in history . . . blacks need to know the land of their forebears when its civilizations were verifiably equal to any in the world” — as if American children were not already overburdened with exaggerations and lies about black achievement. Mr. Robinson’s main argument for reparations is therefore psychological. As he explains, reparations would tell blacks: “You are owed. You were caused to endure terrible things. The fault is not yours. There is nothing wrong with you.” Reparations will “heal our psyches.” Not that Mr. Robinson would turn his back on tangible compensation. He admits, as if conceding nothing: “Oh, we often like its [America’s] wealth, its abundance of commodities, its markets of endless stuff,” and insists that blacks be made whole economically. Although he coyly declines to name a sum, he asks whites to fork over the riches unjustly extracted from black labor, not only from slavery but sharecropping and capitalism itself, which “starts each child where its parents left off.” He claims that the mean net worth of college-educated whites exceeds that of college-educated blacks by $50,000, and puts the difference for blue-collar blacks and whites at $12,000. He also claims discrimination in mortgage lending costs each generation of blacks $93 billion in lost equity (The Debt has a few pages of “sources” but no footnotes, so there is no telling where these figures come from). Because he insists that “achievement differences that correlate with race must never be tolerated,” it would cost trillions of dollars to close the gaps he complains about. On top of that, Robinson wants special (white) taxpayer-funded schools for black children and free college tuition for all poor blacks “for at least two generations.” Finally, America “must dramatically reconfigure its symbolized picture of itself, to itself. Its national parks, museums, monuments, statues, artworks must be recast in a way to include . . . African Americans.” The US must also cancel all debts to African countries and offer “significant monetary compensation” for having stolen “tens of millions” of their young men. When will white liability end? Never. “Social rights, wrongs, obligations, and responsibilities flow eternal.” And what will happen if whites don’t come across? “Those others, who fifty years from now will form the majority of America’s citizens, will be inspired to punish them for it.” As in many similar tirades, a striking feature of The Debt is Holocaust envy. Robinson is bursting with resentment that Germany compensated Jews for a mere twelve years of suffering, while blacks endured 246 years (sometimes he says 234 years) of slavery without a penny to show for it. And Jews got to keep their culture, while blacks “had never been allowed to glimpse the complex whole of the ancient self.” Lucky, lucky Jews. He apes Jewish grievances so far as to demand the return of “Africa’s looted art treasures” — an irony, given the huge but so far unsuccessful effort by American cultural institutions to interest whites in African art. The weaknesses of Mr. Robinson’s case are obvious. Even if whites had caused black failure, they are already paying restitution in the form of racial preferences. For 35 years blacks have gotten jobs, scholarships and college admissions they did not deserve, but Mr. Robinson hurries past affirmative action in a few sentences and then pretends it does not exist. Nor does he acknowledge the enormous transfer of resources from whites to blacks through welfare and public education — nor the white wealth destroyed by black crime. A proper balancing of the books would have blacks owing whites. In any case, blacks do poorly economically and academically because of their impulsiveness, low IQ and high illegitimacy rates, traits almost certainly due to genetic factors, not white misdeeds. At one point Mr. Robinson himself has a glimpse of this hard truth. Recounting a trip to Cuba — he greatly admires Fidel Castro — he notes: “White Cubans still appear very much to have the better of things. They dominate political power. They are generally better off economically.” Robinson explains the persistence of inequality despite 40 years of totalitarian efforts to end it as “a bequest of the Moors,” whatever that may mean. A simpler answer is that not even dictators can suppress nature. Mr. Robinson’s nervy demands should not goad us to the other extreme of absolving whites completely. Slavery was wrong, and while blacks may have fared better as slaves in America than as slaves in Africa, a wrong that accidentally helps its victim is still a wrong. Slave owners did owe something. Still, slavery was legal in its day, and compensation could only have been extracted by unjust, ex post facto laws. Moreover, there was slavery in Africa long before it came to America, and virtually every black who crossed the Atlantic was captured and sold to whites by fellow blacks. Why not send their descendants a bill, too? However unjust slavery may have been, it ended a century and a half ago and has no current significance. It is time to bury the past. It is worth emphasizing the full awfulness of Mr. Robinson’s writing. On poverty: “We are virtually numb now to our global position of economic bottomness. In the refuge of our subculture, we have disguised enfeebled self-images in the escapist behaviors of people who would angrily deny the massive loss of self-confidence.” On politics: “The intramural tango of bitsy Democratic palliatives and itsy-bitsy Republican palliatives does little more than divert attention and siphon energy as a recondite rot steals up inexorably from the underside, narrowing our practical freedoms and troubling our tenuous contentment. A tangle of nameless, nebulous thoughts clamor for description, while I struggle even to hear myself think in the face of the public career types with their heads vised in a thoroughly disproved orthodoxy, their voices claiming variety but in fact chiming in a tedium of pointless concern, their eyes all blinkered, and their feet long set upon the easy path.” There are a few excellent black writers, but jumbles like this are all too typical of black intellectuals. What sort of disordered mind produces them? More urgently, how can whites — accustomed to language that communicates rather than wears down — deal with such minds? At the very least, whites must recognize that they face something fundamentally alien. Michael Levin is Professor of Philosophy at City College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. What Makes a Nazi? An American racialist meets the Nazis. Into the Darkness, Lothrop Stoddard, Noontide Press, 2000, 311 pp., $13.95 Today it is impossible to dissent openly from racial orthodoxy without sooner or later being called a “Nazi.” Despite (or perhaps because of) the stupidity of doing so, egalitarians are quick to equate with Hitler anyone who endorses American racial views that antedate Hitler by centuries. Most liberals are not so silly as to call Lincoln a Nazi, but if he were to rise from the grave and restate his views from the debates with Douglas that is just one of many things they would call him. The idea of a racial nation was National Socialism’s point of departure, but from the outset it was a comprehensive theory of applied government designed to funnel the energies of every German into collective goals. It was similar to Communism in this respect, and similar also in the sweeping institutional changes it imposed. In its historical period, however, racial policy was not the most striking aspect of Nazism. In the 1930s, the view that race was an essential element of the nation was no more foreign to Americans than to Germans — indeed, no more foreign than it is to virtually every non-white living today. It was hardly the distinctive characteristic of the regime. What was distinctive? What, in fact, did racially aware Americans of the period — people whose ideas would, today, be called “Nazi” — think of the Third Reich? We have a fascinating answer in Into the Darkness, the last book by one of the most influential American champions of racial consciousness, Lothrop Stoddard. Stoddard wrote this book — recently reissued as a trade paperback — after spending four months in Germany as a reporter during the “phony war” of 1939-40. A Harvard Ph.D. and foreign affairs specialist, Stoddard was particularly keen on understanding how war and Nazism had changed everyday life in Germany, and his account has a frank, contemporaneous quality untouched by the acrimony that became common after the United States went to war. Many of Stoddard’s strongest impressions were colored as much by war as by the politics of the new regime. The title, for example, does not refer to a nation plunging into barbarism but to the rigorous blackout all Germans maintained against the possibility of night bombardment by the British. Darkness was, in fact, Stoddard’s first experience of Germany. Even the train by which he entered from Italy had to douse its lights at the border, and passengers crept about by the light of tiny blue bulbs. Stoddard couldn’t see the slightest glimmer from his train window, not even as he glided through Munich: “Passing through this great darkened city, the sense of unnatural silence and emptiness became positively oppressive.” In Berlin, where he spent most of his four months, headlights of cars were heavily hooded, making it impossible to drive at night at speeds greater than a crawl. Pedestrians carried pocket flashlights to see where they were going, but were forbidden to shine them upwards to read street signs, since even a flashlight might catch the eye of a British bombardier. Stoddard hated the blackout, complaining that it had a “depressing, almost paralyzing effect. It must be lived to be understood.” Another war-time measure Stoddard described in detail was the rationing regimen according to which everything including food and clothing was doled out with typically German efficiency. The government issued everyone — including travelers — monthly food coupons that had to be exchanged even for a restaurant meal. Coupons restricted quantity, not quality, so the rich ate better than the poor but not more. Stoddard found that when wealthy friends invited him to restaurants and paid for his meals, he still had to turn over coupons to the waiters because not even the rich had coupons to spare. Clothing and other goods were rationed the same way, in a system designed to “assure to the poorest German the basic necessities of life, while the richest cannot get much more than his share.” Stoddard complained bitterly about the poor quality and limited variety of the food — Germans drank roasted barley rather than coffee because of the British naval blockade — but confessed there was enough starch in a German ration for him to put on 12 pounds in four months. If even the privileged position of a foreign correspondent seemed grim to Stoddard, it is not surprising that he found no enthusiasm for the war: “The Germans detest this war . . . This attitude is shared by Nazis and non-Nazis. On this point there is no difference between them.” He wrote that most Germans never believed France and England would declare war over Poland but that even ardent Nazis were willing to criticize Hitler for taking the risk. Stoddard noted that memories of “the Great War” were still fresh enough to keep any hint of romance or overconfidence out of this one. But Stoddard found as much resolution as privation: No intelligent foreigner can be in Germany a week without asking himself: ‘How do these people stand it?’ When he has been there a month, he says: ‘How long can they stand it?’ After three months, his verdict will probably be: ‘I guess they’ll stand it a long time.’ The reason, concluded Stoddard, was that Germans were convinced defeat would mean extinction for Germany, and that even if the war had been a great blunder, it was a crisis of titanic proportions that called for heroism. ‘An absolute dictatorship’ And what of Nazism itself? What most struck Stoddard was its revolutionary, authoritarian nature. “The National Socialist upheaval that has created the Third Reich,” he wrote “goes far deeper than the Fascist regime in Italy, and is perhaps a more defiant breach with the historic past than even the Communism of Soviet Russia.” “[I]ts leaders,” he added, “are revolutionists from the ground up.” Many of the Nazi policies seemed similar to Communism: “Agriculture has basically been socialized,” he wrote, adding that the Nazis “co-ordinated everybody connected with industry into a huge vertical trust.” He wondered whether Hitler Youth programs and National Labor Service did not turn the lives of young people into one long Nazi summer camp. He complained about “the liquidation not only of the Catholic youth organizations but of most of the parochial schools as well.” He shuddered at the words of Bernhard Rust, Reich Minister of Education: “All forms of instruction have oneaim — the shaping of the National Socialist human.” (emphasis in the original) Stoddard was bemused by Strength Through Joy, or workplace-based leisure: “This is the most gigantic scheme of organized, state-directed entertainment that the world has ever seen. It includes a wide variety of activities, from ‘highbrow’ art and music to popular amusement, travel, and sport.” Germans seemed to enjoy it, but he added that “to the individualist Anglo-Saxon, all this regimented ‘leisure to order’ may not sound particularly attractive.” By the end of his stay, Stoddard believed he had found the answer to riddles that baffled experts: “Nazi achievements in finance and industry are generally regarded as deep, dark mysteries abroad. To me, the answer is very simple: An absolute dictatorship over an industrious, resourceful people.” (emphasis in the original) What about racial policies? As Rachel Dixon points out in a useful new introduction to this edition, Stoddard had been cool towards the Nazis from the beginning. In 1935 he wrote: These [racial] ideas, however, are so mixed up with an ulcerated nationalism and are so surcharged with mere emotion that the resulting compound is hard to evaluate. Ever since the [First World] war, Germay has been highly abnormal in almost every respect. One of the final passages of Into the Darkness suggests that four months of direct observation did not greatly change his views. When he finally found himself back among Americans on a steamship bound for home, he was delighted by creature comforts but by something else, too: “Even more deeply satisfying is the sense that you are among your own kind who are not worried and harassed and ulcerated by nationalistic hatreds.” Stoddard writes surprisingly little about Jews, perhaps because he had little material: The average German seems disinclined to talk much to the foreign visitor about this oppressed minority. However, I gathered that the general public does not approve of the violence and cruelty which Jews have suffered. But I also got the impression that, while the average German condemned such methods, he was not unwilling to see the Jews go and would not wish them back again. Stoddard spoke good German, had lived in Austria, and generally liked Germans, but was not often impressed by Nazis. He concluded that polished and capable party members gravitated to Berlin but the provincial leavings were a sorry lot. He described officials he met in Weimar: Few of them could have amounted to much before they landed a Party job. Even more revealing were their womenfolk . . . Most of them were pretentiously dowdy. They exemplified better than anything I had yet seen the fact that National Socialism is not merely a political and economic upheaval but a social revolution as well. To a very large extent it has brought the lower middle class to power. Stoddard took an immediate dislike to a Gauleiter he met in Deusseldorf: “He was a distinctly sinister-looking type; hard-faced, with a cruel eye and a still crueler mouth. A sadist, if I ever saw one. I imagine how unpopular he must be among the good-natured, kindly Duesseldorfers.” Stoddard managed to interview several top Nazis, including Hitler — who seems to have disappointed him by being insufficiently mesmerizing. He contrasted the Führer to Mussolini: [Mussolini] uses his big, compelling eyes; thrusts out his chin; aims to semi-hypnotize you. It’s all very intriguing. Perhaps, to an Anglo-Saxon, it’s a bit too obvious. But it flatters your ego, just the same. Nothing like that with Hitler. Though always pleasant and courteous, he makes no obvious attempt to impress or win you. Of the top Nazis, Goebbels seems to cut the most distinctive figure: “This lithe, brunet Rhinelander, with his agile mind, cynical humor, and telling gestures, is an excellent person to interview. He is mentally on his toes every instant, and he is full of what the journalist calls ‘good lines.’” Stoddard notes the Nazi’s accomplishments — resurrection of an inert economy, a clampdown on crime, full employment — but bestows little unqualified praise. The closest he comes to enthusiasm is his report on the proceedings of a eugenics court. The law provided for mandatory sterilization of people with certain hereditary disabilities, but sterilization decisions could be appealed. Stoddard spent a day at the appeals court and was impressed: The thing that struck me most was the meticulous care with which these cases had already been considered by the lower tribunals. The dossier of each case was voluminous, containing a complete life-history of the subject, reports of specialists and clinics, and also exhaustive researches into the subject’s family history. The “subject,” of course, was the candidate for sterilization who was, in every case, present at the appeal and questioned once more by officials. Stoddard thought that, if anything, the courts were overly hesitant to order sterilization for “subjects” who appeared to him obviously defective, but he gave the process high marks: “On the evidence of that one visit, at least, the Sterilization Law is weeding out the worst strains in the German stock in a scientific and truly humanitarian way.” Although the United States was not at war with Germany and Stoddard did not hope for war, he was continually sizing up Germany as a potential opponent. He speculated on how long its food-stocks would last, whether Buna would work as a rubber substitute, and tried to keep his fingers on the pulse of civilian morale. At the end of the book he wrote: Most Germans are unwilling to admit even the possibility of defeat. Those who do, couple it with remarks which amount to some such phrase as: ‘If we don’t win, there will be no victor.’ What that means is about as follows: ‘If this war is fought to the bitter end, all Europe will be plunged into chaotic ruin. Then, with everybody down in the ditch together, we Germans, with our innate sense of organization and discipline, willingness to work hard, and knack of pulling together, can lift ourselves out of the ditch quicker than anyone else. The poignant accuracy of this passage is not surprising, coming from a man who so clearly foretold the consequences of policy choices in the United States. Stoddard was a keen observer whether at home or abroad. The Galton Report A sampling of recent scientific literature. Charles Davenport (1866-1944), an early American geneticist and founder in 1910 of the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor, NY, has often been ridiculed by the politically correct for suggesting that a wide variety of human traits — degeneracy, feeblemindedness, criminality, and “wanderlust” — have genetic origins. In fact, wanderlust genes have recently been reported. The gene in question, called DRD4, encodes one type of receptor for dopamine, an important neurotransmitter in the brain. The long form of the DRD4 gene has previously been linked to personality traits such as novelty-seeking, risk-taking, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Now a new study suggests that long versions of DRD4 are more common among populations that have engaged in long distance migrations. Novelty-seeking, risk-taking, hyperactivity, and quick boredom with sedentary activities may all contribute to a tendency to travel and explore — or what commonly used to be called “wanderlust.” East Asians are historically famous for not being exploratory: China quit exploring the world in the 15th century, and in the 19th century Commodore Matthew Perry had to sail a fleet into Tokyo Bay to break the isolation of Japan. A long form of DRD4 has a frequency of one percent or less among East Asians. Interestingly, American Indians are thought to be descended from East Asians who crossed into the Americas. Among those who traveled farthest — South American Indians — the frequency of a long DRD4 reaches 78 percent. (Perhaps this explains some of the high incidence of ADHD and educational difficulties among Central American and South American Indian and Mestizo immigrants to the U.S.) In a comparison of six different prehistoric and historic migration routes, the study found that in each case, “the populations that remained near their origins showed a lower proportion of long al-leles of DRD4 than those that migrated farther away. This finding was consistent across all six migration routes.” Besides the Asian/American Indian contrast, there is a similar contrast between Asians and Pacific Islanders, with Pacific Islanders more likely to have the “wanderlust” gene. Also, Jews who migrated as far as Rome and Germany have a higher proportion of long DRD4 than do Jews who stayed in Yemen, closer to their origin. Bantus who migrated all the way to South Africa have a higher proportion of long DRD4 than those who stayed in Came-roon. Among Indo-Europeans the study finds that “the Sardinians, who live geographically closer to the origin of their language family, had 0% long alleles . . . whereas the average for other European groups was 20%.” Although the difference is not statistically significant, there was even a difference between Europeans in Europe and Europeans in the U.S. for the long forms (15.75 percent vs. 22 percent). When the data were analyzed across 39 different groups, the correlation between long-range migration and long DRD4s was a remarkable r = .85! The authors estimated that every 4.3 percent increase in long DRD4 represents an additional 1,000 miles of migration. The authors speculate that among migratory groups the “exploratory aspect of human nature” (novelty seeking personality, risk taking behavior, hyperactivity) would be favored by natural selection, while these same behavioral tendencies would be maladaptive, and hence selected against, in more sedentary groups. [Chuansheng Chen & 3 co-authors, “Population migration and the variation of dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) allele frequencies around the globe.” Evolution and Human Behavior, Vol. 20, #5, 1999, pp. 309-324.] No African Eve? “Out of Africa,” the theory that modern humans evolved relatively recently in Africa and then spread to the rest of the world, has been popular in many quarters. Anti-racists like the theory because they claim it suggests there has not been enough time for the evolution of racial differences. The Out-of-Africa scenario led to the theory of an “African Eve,” a woman in Africa who was mother to us all. This theory is based on analysis of mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA. The mitochondria are small inclusions in the cells that provide power for cell functions, and they have their own DNA that is separate from the chromosomal DNA in the cell nucleus. The theory has been that mtDNA is transmitted only from mother-to-offspring via the cytoplasm of the egg. As it happens, sperm also have mitochondria; they power the flailing tail that drives a sperm to its target. But the theory has been that only the chromosomal DNA from the sperm nucleus is incorporated into the fertilized egg, which rejects the male mtDNA. Recent research casts doubt on this theory. mtDNA from the sperm may sometimes recombine with that from the mother. If so, the whole edifice of mtDNA-based theory, the African Eve, and also much Out-of-Africa speculation collapses. [B. Fowler, “A genetic tool to track evolution. Or is it?” New York Times, 25 Jan. 2000] New findings are highlighting the biological bases of criminality. Low psychological arousal, poor conditioning against fear, lack of a conscience, lack of foresight, and poor decision-making characterize the antisocial, psychopathic traits that define Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). Intelligent, so-called “well compensated” psychopaths with APD can be very successful. Probable examples include Winston Churchill, Lyndon Johnson, and of course the classic, who also displays Narcissistic Personality Disorder traits: William Clinton. Recent research has examined the brain by means of structural magnetic resonance imaging to search for characteristics of APD. The prefrontal area of the brain is known to be involved in social sensitivity, rule following and foresight, and people with antisocial personality disorder have 11 percent less prefrontal gray matter (nerve cells) than normal people. This brain deficit predicts psychopathy independently of psychosocial risk factors such as income, education, marital status of parents, etc. The authors conclude: “To our knowledge, these findings provide the first evidence for a structural brain deficit in APD. This prefrontal structural deficit may underlie [the symptoms of psychopathy].” Another approach has been to study children with severe conduct disorder, defined by such things as stealing, fighting, and sexual aggressiveness. Boys who are diagnosed as having this disorder at ages seven to 12 are at greatly increased risk for becoming aggressive felons when they grow up. Low levels of the stress hormone cortisol have been found in some persistently aggressive boys with conduct disorder. Scientists say low stress hormone levels mean the boys need to go to extremes to achieve stimulation, and that they don’t experience normal feelings of inhibition about giving in to destructive impulses. The author concludes: “The really bad actors and those who started misbehaving earliest, it turned out, also had the lowest cortisol levels.” No one is yet talking about racial differences in pre-frontal brain matter or cortisol levels, but such research is sure to follow. [Adrian Raine, and four co-authors, “Reduced Prefrontal Gray Matter Volume and Reduced Autonomic Activity in Antisocial Personality Disorder,” Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. Vol. 57, pp. 119-127. Also, Constance Holden, “Spotting Bad Seeds.” Science, Vol. 287 (21 Jan. 2000), p. 423.] Contributing editor Glayde Whitney is professor of psychology, psychobiology and neuroscience at Florida State University. |IN THE NEWS| O Tempora, O Mores! Europe is still in a funk over the participation of Jörg Haider’s Freedom Party in Austria’s coalition government. Most of the European Union is still hostile to the new government, but there are a few signs of good sense. The Belgians have kept up their nasty sniping. They boycotted the world military skiing championships in March because they were held in Austria. They also said that unless the Freedom Party leaves the government Austria’s military orienteering team will not be allowed to compete in the European military championships to be held in Belgium in July. At a March 17 concert in Paris, the Vienna Philharmonic distributed leaflets distancing itself from “racism.” That didn’t stop someone from calling in a bomb threat, which caused a 30-minute interruption in the program, while police searched the theater. Later that month, European “conservative” parties could not agree on whether to invite Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Scheussel (leader of the Freedom Party’s coalition partner, the People’s Party) to a meeting of party leaders. They finally called off the meeting. Amnesty International has suddenly decided Austria has a serious police brutality problem, largely driven by “racism.” “People with black or yellow skin are quite definitely seen as second-class citizens,” explained Heinz Patzelt, head of the Austrian arm of Amnesty International. The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) — recently set up by the European Union in Vienna — is also very worried. “Europe is going through a dangerous phase,” explained director Beate Winkler. “There is an increasing move away from centrist positions, and right-wing — even far-right positions — are losing their taboos.” Miss Winkler fears the worst: “It starts with discrimination, then comes exclusion and it can go as far as the Holocaust.” The EUMC had planned to invite European heads of government to its official opening on April 7 but changed its plans so as not to have to rub shoulders with Mr. Scheussel. On April 8, Austrian Finance Minister and Freedom Party member Karl-Heinz Grasser participated for the first time in a meeting of EU finance ministers. Observers thought for a moment that hostility was cooling when the French minister Laurent Fabius was seen shaking his hand. He later told reporters he had not recognized Mr. Grasser and would snub him in the future. The traditional group photograph was canceled because the French and Belgian ministers refused to take part — although the official reason was that the ministers did not have time. Mr. Grasser noted continuing insults of this kind were making ordinary Austrians begin to rethink EU membership. Ever quick off the mark, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution condemning the Austrian government two months after it was sworn in. The voice vote denounced former Freedom Party leader Jörg Haider’s “anti-democratic, racist and xenophobic views,” and expressed “profound regret and dismay” that his party was let into government. There were cracks in the wall of hostility. Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja is tired of French and Belgian self-righteousness and says it is time to cool down: “The [Austrian] government [was] formed entirely democratically, and if it is not possible to show it has committed any wrongdoings then after a sufficient observation period the actions [of the EU against Austria] will have to be reconsidered.” At the end of March the Swiss continued their tradition as the first nation to receive a new Austrian head of government. “Anti-fascists” had promised thousands of demonstrators in Berne but only a few hundred showed up, as Mr. Scheussel got the full red-carpet treatment. The Neue Zuercher Zeitung refused to accept an ad from the European Jewish Congress criticizing the Swiss for letting Mr. Scheussel visit. Headlined “Danger of Contamination,” the ad warned Switzerland not to “become an accomplice . . . when questions of racism, anti-Semitism and extremism are concerned.” The paper said the ad was “too aggressive.” Many Swiss think the EU’s treatment of Austria is an outrageous attempt to influence internal policy, and this incident has strengthened opposition to EU membership. Sounds Like BS to Us Cows and cow dung are important business in the African country of Swaziland. The dung produced by the king’s cows, at any rate, has special powers and is not to be meddled with. Thus it is that the country has been thrown into a political crisis after Mgabhi Dlamini, the speaker of parliament, stole a piece of royal cow dung right out of the royal cattle enclosure. Mr. Dlamini’s opponents in parliament say he wanted to use the stuff in a ritual that would improve his standing with the king, one of the few remaining absolute monarchs in the world and therefore worth cultivating. They say the theft was detected by witch doctors, who had foreseen it in a vision. Mr. Dlamini says he had his own vision in which God told him to take the manure and use it in a ritual that would prevent catastrophe befalling the king. He admits to having taken a handful of dung but insists he did not intend to use it for personal profit or advancement. Opposition members tried to expel the speaker from parliament but just failed to muster the necessary two-thirds majority. Mr. Dlamini says things have gotten so hot for him since the theft that he is considering leaving the country and seeking asylum. (Anton La Guardia, The King’s Missing Cow Dung Sparks Crisis in Swaziland, Telegraph (London), March 15, 2000.) No Racism Here Twelve million of Turkey’s 65 million people are Kurds. It is against the law to teach or broadcast in Kurdish, and until 1991 it was against the law even to speak Kurdish. For 15 years Kurdish guerrillas have fought for independence from what they see as a repressive regime, and the death toll is over 30,000. Now that Turkey is a candidate for membership in the European Union, liberals are tut-tutting about government repression. Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit thinks they should shut up. When asked on state television if Europeans misunderstand Turkey’s relationship with the Kurds, Mr. Ecevit said: “Yes, they do have difficulty. In Western Europe and partly in Eastern Europe, there is a serious tradition of racism.” “There has never been any racism in Turkish society,” he added. “There is no racial discrimination, it is not possible.” He went on to say that European critics were “racist” to suggest ethnic rivalry had anything to do with the guerrilla war. He explained that the shooting was about “the structure of society” in the Southwest of Turkey and that outsiders, including Europeans, were meddling in Turkish affairs. Europeans, he said, were wrong even to talk about “the Kurdish problem.” (Turk PM Ecevit Says Europe “Racist” on Kurd Issue, Reuters, March 12, 2000) Law of the Jungle Moropia Silkapi and Yakamup Mak-atu, both villagers in Papua New Guinea, got into an argument one day, with the result that Mr. Silkapi burned Mr. Makatu’s house to the ground. They then got into a fight in which Mr. Silkapi smashed Mr. Makatu in the head with a rock, killing him. He then proceeded to gouge out the dead man’s eyes and heart, tear off his testicles, and eat the lot. Villagers then chased Mr. Silkapi into the jungle and tied him to a tree so police could come arrest him. The dead man’s relatives found him first and dispatched him. Cannibalism was widespread in New Guinea until it was suppressed by European colonists. (Papua Village Dispute Ends in Murder, Cannibalism, Reuters, Feb. 8, 2000.) Uncle Sugar Can’t Say No Every year, the U.S. government loses millions of dollars because deadbeats default on student loans. In 1992, Congress passed a law that would end federal student aid to any college with a default rate higher than 25 percent — but it exempted the 105 “historically black” colleges and universities, where default rates were often even higher. In 1998, Congress lifted the exemption, and even after considerable wheedling and fudging 13 of the colleges were still delinquent. The feds, who cannot bring themselves to cut off the miscreants, have worked out a plan to justify continued lending. Greg Woods of the Education Department, apparently with no sense of irony, says the plan will involve trying to make it clear to students they have a duty to repay their loans. About one quarter of all black students attend black colleges. These colleges have an average default rate of 21 percent, as opposed to an average rate of seven percent at majority-white institutions. It was not reported how much of that seven percent is accounted for by black students. (Arlene Levinson, Black Schools Kept in Loan Program, AP, March 15, 2000.) In Jeffersonville, Indiana, black teenager Shawn Bald got into a racially charged argument with a white couple in his neighborhood, James and Karen Moore. The exchange escalated into a fight involving a baseball bat and a metal chair. Both men were injured, and Mr. Bald told Mr. Moore, “You have to go to sleep sometime, and you all will burn.” Two weeks later the Moore’s apartment building caught fire. A marshal determined that someone had poured a fire accelerant on the stairway. The Moores escaped but three people did not: A man, his girlfriend, and their four-month-old baby died in the fire. Mr. Bald, who called the fire a “marshmallow roast” because only white people lived in the building, is being tried for murder. (Eric Weslander, Police Say Racial Fight Led to Indiana Fire, Louisville Courier-Journal, January 27, 2000.) Emilia Raras, 63, was born in the Philippines and now lives in Howard County, Maryland. In 1994, her son Lorenzo married a white woman named Sara and they had a son. When the two later divorced, Mrs. Raras thought that her white daughter-in-law was not showing her a proper Filipino level of respect, and was not letting her see her grandson often enough. She is now on trial for paying a 20-year-old black man, Ardale Tickles, $3,000 to kill Sara Raras. In a taped prison conversation, Mr. Tickles told another inmate about the murder. He didn’t remember her name, (“it was a white girl’s name”), and he called her a “devil” as he slit her throat, wrists and neck with an army knife. Then he stomped on her in his Timberland boots and considered raping her while he watched her beg to be put out of her misery. “Blood was everywhere. [She] was just chopped up . . . I ain’t have no mercy,” he explained, saying that an “Asiatic black sister,” had paid him to do the killing. Detectives say Mr. Tickles “holds hostile views of white society,” but the murder is not being treated as a hate crime. (Raja Mishra, On Trial, a Matter of Respect, Washington Post, January 24, 2000, p. B1.) Somewhat less seriously, in San Francisco, a 16-year-old black on a city bus decided a 47-year-old white man was having too friendly a conversation with a black female passenger. He pulled out a gun and said, “You can’t be with a black woman because you enslaved my people. You have to die.” The bus driver flagged down a policeman who arrested the attacker as he tried to crawl out a bus window. Police found the gun unloaded. (Youth in Custody for Alleged Hate Crime, San Francisco Examiner, February 7, 2000.) Boston public housing has been plagued with racial strife ever since the housing authority began integrating formerly all-black and all-white buildings ten years ago. Recently a “large group” of black teenagers attacked a white woman and her two children, aged eight and nine, hitting the mother in the head as they “made racial remarks.” The woman escaped with her children to her apartment. Police would not release her name for fear of retaliation by other housing-project blacks, and report she has put in an urgent request for a transfer to another building. (Karen Eschbacher, Race is Weighed in Tenant Beating, Boston Globe, March 30, 2000.) People with lactose intolerance have a hard time digesting milk, which can give them gas, diarrhea, and cramps. Researchers estimate that some degree of lactose intolerance affects 90 percent of Asian-Americans, 70 percent of blacks and American Indians, 50 percent of Hispanics, but only 15 percent of whites. Something called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has filed a suit against the federal government’s school lunch and breakfast program because under its guidelines all students who do not have a doctor’s note are to get milk. The suit says the guidelines are racially biased and that milk should be optional. The Congressional Black Caucus and the League of United Latin American Citizens are among dozens of minority organizations that support the suit. Milk’s defenders say it is an excellent source of calcium and protein and that even most lactose-intolerant people can digest a glass of milk with a meal. (Adrienne Coles, Milk Lawsuit Leaving Some With Bad Taste, Education Week, February 9, 2000, p.1.) Sandra Seegars is a black woman who serves on the Washington, DC, Taxicab Commission. Noting that three drivers have been killed in the last three months, she says that if cabbies fear violence they should avoid picking up suspicious-looking black men. Despite the outcry she is not backing down. “If you don’t talk about it how can you get anything done?” she asks. “Until the crime really goes down East of the river, our cabdrivers aren’t going to come over here too much.” (Clarence Williams, Race Issue Splits Panel Over Cabdrivers’ Safety, Washington Times, February 2, 2000, p. C1.) On the other side of the world, the governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara told Japanese soldiers in a recent address that if there is ever a serious earthquake in Japan they should keep an eye on resident Third-Worlders. “We can expect them to riot in the event of a disastrous earthquake,” he explained. (Troops Told ‘Foreigners’ Likely to Loot, Riot, Reuters, April 10, 2000.) White Farmers Under Attack Although whites are only two percent of the population of Zimbabwe, they own about one-third of the farm land. They grow most of the food and supply virtually all the exports, but president Robert Mugabe has called for confiscation of white farms. In February the government lost a referendum that would have revised the nation’s constitution to extend Mr. Mugabe’s powers and legalize expropriations. Mr. Mugabe encouraged blacks to take the land anyway. Former black terrorists and rural blacks promptly occupied more than 500 white-owned farms. Squatters armed with clubs, spears, axes and a few guns broke down fences and gates and occupied homesteads. The Zimbabwe supreme court has ruled the occupations illegal but police commissioner Augustine Chihuri says they are “a political issue” and therefore “above the police.” He says he does not have the resources to expel squatters. White farmers say there have been no killings so far, but one elderly couple was assaulted and held prisoner in their home for five hours. Many Zimbabweans, both black and white, think Mr. Mugabe is encouraging the takeovers as a distraction from the terrible mess he has made of the country since he took office 20 years ago. The economy is in a shambles, one quarter of the population has AIDS, and corruption is rampant. The country can barely pay for the 11,000 soldiers it has sent to help prop up the Congo government against insurgents in a war that is deeply unpopular with Zimbabweans. Earlier in the Mugabe administration the government paid for 2,000 farms but the redistribution program has been mired in mismanagement and corruption, with most of the land going to Mugabe cronies. The president now says white owners must simply walk away from their land since it was originally stolen from Africans by British colonists. (White Farms in Zimbabwe Attacked, Las Vegas Sun, February 29, 2000. Zimbabwe Veterans Seize White Farms, Las Vegas Sun, March 6, 2000. Chris Chinaka, Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Risks Squandering Goodwill, Reuters, April 9, 2000.) Diversity in the Golden State Black/Hispanic riots are becoming more frequent and more violent in California prisons. On February 23, 200 inmates of Pelican Bay State Prison attacked each other with home-made weapons. The fighting was so fierce guards could not stop it with tear gas or pepper spray and had to open fire. They shot 16 inmates before the riot was over, killing one and critically wounding another. At least 32 other prisoners were stabbed or slashed by fellow inmates. About a week later, 10 to 15 blacks and Hispanics started fighting at the Victor Valley Community Correctional Facility outside Los Angeles. One inmate was in critical condition after being hit repeatedly in the head with a lock stuffed into a sock and five others were hospitalized. (Inmate Killed in California Prison Riot, AP, February 23, 2000. 6 Inmates Hospitalized After Fight, Washington Post, March 2, 2000.) Breeding Better Africans A Ugandan writer thinks genetic engineering may end poverty, corruption and misery in Africa. Since it has done wonders for crops and farm animals, it should do the same for people, too. He has an idea who needs it most: [T]here is no doubt that Europeans have been the best breed of human species, followed by Asians. At the bottom of the list are black Africans. The African morphology, dark colouration, greed, lack of intellect, failure to internalize theories and lack of interest in preserving the best things clearly show that we are an inferior people. It is universally accepted that any specie [sic] that practices cannibalism against members of its own kind is primitive. Look at African politicians, butchering whole ethnic groups, starving whole populations. Since it is beyond doubt that almost all Africans in positions of power tend to misuse it, it is logical to conclude that there is a problem with the stock from which our leaders come. Even our intellectuals, public servants and business people are of poor stock. (Ssekitooleko Deo, Africa Has to Get A New Breed of Humans, The Monitor (Kampala), January 4, 2000.) Groveling Fails Again In 1994 the Denny’s restaurant chain paid more than $54 million in damages and legal fees to 4,300 blacks who said they got bad service. The chain also promised the NAACP it would spend $1 billion on non-white contractors and would award more franchises to minorities. In 1995 it hired a new CEO, James Adamson, to help the company turn over a new leaf. Mr. Adamson, who is white, promised to make the company minority-friendly top to bottom. In 1998-99 he even commissioned a series of feel-good television commercials about diversity that did not even advertise the restaurants. Results have not been good. Advan-tica Restaurant Group, which owns Denny’s, lost $388.8 million in 1999. It is deep in debt and is selling other restaurants to try to revitalize Denny’s. Groveling has not paid off either. The word has gotten out that the company is an easy target for discrimination claims, and hardly a month goes by without another “racism” suit. Mr. Adamson says he is giving up. “It has been exhausting . . . [Y]ou start doing the right things. You know they’re the right things and you still get punched in the face.” He says he would like to teach business ethics at a university after he steps down. (CEO of Denny’s Owner Says He Will Step Down Within Two Years, AP, Feb. 25, 2000. Issues & Views, Is Denny’s an Eternal Milk Cow?, Summer/Fall 1999, p. 17.) Coca-Cola does not seem to have been paying attention. Its chief executive Doug Daft has just announced that “diversity” is going to become one of the company’s top priorities and that top managers’ pay — including his own — will be tied to how few white men they can manage to hire or promote. “What gets measured gets done,” says Mr. Daft. He also announced he will establish a new office of diversity, to be run by a vice president who will report directly to him. Mr. Daft insists that these moves reflect only his “firm and sincere” commitment to “diversity” and have nothing to do with a high-profile law suit recently brought by black employees who claim they were insufficiently appreciated by the company. (Coke to Link Exec Pay to Diversity, AP, March 10, 2000.) More Mush From the Wimp For the third time, William Clinton has met at the White House with representatives of a sector of society in order to promote “diversity.” Last July, he got lawyers to promise more pro bono work in the name of “racial justice,” and in March he persuaded religious leaders to teach that “racism” is a sin. This time, it was businessmen who got a “diversity” pep talk, as part of the president’s One America initiative. The gathering of dozens of chief executives produced a commitment by 25 companies to spend $1 million every year over the next ten years to help women and non-whites into high-tech jobs. Mr. Clinton was in typical form: “In my lifetime, I think we’ll have a woman president and certainly an African-American or Hispanic or an Asian-American president, maybe all three.” He went to explain that “the point is, it won’t diminish white guys. It’ll make life more interesting.” He also looked around at the two whites and one black with whom he shared the stage and said that in a decade it would be unusual to host a presidential event where all four speakers were “middle-aged, gray-haired guys,” three of them white. He did concede that some white men might be suspicious of all this emphasis on people unlike themselves, but urged them to see things the right way. “It’s a matter of celebrating, relishing our differences,” he explained. The companies that agreed systematically to favor women and non-whites were Adobe Systems, America Online, American Express, Anderson Consulting, AT&T, BP Amoco, BellSouth, Boeing, Chevron, Consolidated Edison, DuPont, Eastman Kodak, Exxon, Ford Motor Co., General Electric, GTE, IBM, Intel, Lucent Technologies, MCI Worldcom, Siemens Corporation, Sun Micros-ystems, TRW, United Technologies Corporation, and Xerox. (Sonya Ross, Clinton Preaches Diversity, Bergen Record (New Jersey), April 7, 2000.) St. Louis Blues East St. Louis, Illinois, is one of the most notorious all-black failures in America. Its school district is now so pitiful the state has begun the process of taking it over from local blacks. In addition to the usual ghetto woes — cockroaches in the lunch room, roofs that leak, toilets that overflow, millions of dollars that go missing — the district seems to suffer from a near-total lack of any desire to educate. One mother who frequently visited her daughter’s sixth-grade class room often found the teacher polishing her nails, eating, and completely ignoring her students. When the mother went to the black board and took over the class, the teacher hardly noticed. Another mother found the teacher asleep at his desk when she visited her son’s class. One student says her junior high teacher never asked students to do anything; they played cards and did crossword puzzles. At one school, textbooks for the “contemporary American problems class” are 20 years old. The school board is locally elected, and ever since the 1970s when all but one member went to jail for corruption, candidates have claimed to be running on a platform of “reform.” “Reform” has not come easy. The school district spends $5,921 a year on each student (average for Illinois), and 90 percent of the money comes from outside the district. Schools are some of the biggest employers in this clapped out town, and jobs invariably go to well-connected incompetents. No one holds anyone accountable, and the schools are invariably among the worst in the state. Many in the city have swallowed their pride and decided the district cannot be saved. “There is no alternative but to have the state take over our education here,” says Johnny Scott, head of the city’s NAACP branch. Even the ACLU has decided the district is violating the state’s constitutional promise to provide an education to all children, and has urged that the district be merged with its neighbors. (Michael Sorkin and Bill Smith, Report From Class: Sleeping Teachers, Card-Playing Students, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 25, 2000.) Teaching the Teachers Since 1983, California teachers must pass the California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST) in order to teach or work as counselors. Needless to say, there is a racial gap in pass rates for first-time test-takers: 80 percent for whites, 60 percent for Asians, 47 percent for Hispanics, and 37 percent for blacks. Non-whites have been screaming “racism” for years. In 1996, U.S. District Judge William Orrick of San Francisco declared CBEST legal. He said it had an adverse impact on minorities but measured essential job skills better than other alternatives. Now a federal appeals court has decided to take up the question again in a new hearing to be held before an 11-judge panel. CBEST consists of multiple-choice questions in reading comprehension and mathematics, and two essays that test writing skills. Teachers who flunk can take it over and over again until they pass. The state says the test is set at an eighth- to tenth-grade level and screens out only the unqualified. (Court to Reconsider Claim That Teacher Skills Test is Biased, Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2000.) ‘Kill d’White People’ The web page “Intro to the Grammys” contains a remarkable collection of violent, anti-white rap “lyrics.” As the compiler S. Smith notes, rap is big business, and people who urge the extermination of whites are honored members of the industry. Here is just a sample of some of the charming sentiments now throbbing through the black community. The Nation of Islam term “devil,” is understood by all blacks to mean white people. These devils make me sick; I love to fill them full of holes; kill them all in the daytime, broad motherf***ing daylight; 12 o’clock, grab the Glock; why wait for night? — ‘Sweatin Bullets,’ Brand Nubian, Everything Is Everything, 1994. Kill the white people; we gonna make them hurt; kill the white people; but buy my record first; ha, ha, ha. — ‘Kill d’White People,’ Apache, Apache Ain’t S**t, 1993. Who you gonna run to when we get to mobbing . . . filling his body up with lead, yah; cracker in my way; slitting, slit his throat; watch his body shake; watch his body shake; that’s how we do it in the motherf***ing [San Francisco] Bay . . . — ‘Heat — Featuring Jet and Spice 1,’ Paris, Unleashed, 1998. A fight, a fight, a nigger and a white, if the nigger don’t win then we all jump in . . . smoking all [of] America’s white boys. — ‘A Fight,’ Apache, Apache Ain’t S**t, 1993. I kill a devil right now . . . I say kill whitey all nightey long . . . I stabbed a f***ing Jew with a steeple . . . I would kill a cracker for nothing, just for the f*** of it . . . Menace Clan kill a cracker; jack ‘em even quicker . . . catch that devil slipping; blow his f***ing brains out. — ‘F*** a Record Deal,’ Menace Clan, Da Hood, 1995. .44 ways to get paid . . . I’m through with talking to these devils; now I’m ready to blast. — ’44 Way — featuring Mystic,’ Paris, Unleashed, 1998. He prays on old white ladies [who] drive the Mercedes with the windows cracked . . . you should’ve heard the bitch screaming . . . sticking guns in crackers’ mouths . . . the cops can’t stop it . . . remember 4-29-92, come on; Florence and Normandy coming to a corner near you, cracker; we’ve been through your area, mass hysteria; led by your motherf***ing Menace Clan. [April 29, 1992 was the outbreak of the Los Angeles riots, which erupted at the corner of Florence and Normandy Streets.] — ‘Mad Nigga,’ Menace Clan, Da Hood, 1995. Listen to this black visionary, bringing war like a revolutionary . . . go on a killing spree, putting devils out their misery; hearing screams, sounds of agony; my hostility takes over me . . . — ‘Under Siege,’ Killarmy, Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars, 1997. [W]hat do blacks do; they just keep on blowing devils away . . . evil f***ing cracker . . . I’m tightening up the laces to my steel-toed boots, so I can walk, stomp; we stomp this devil down in the park. — ‘Planet of da Apes,’ Da Lench Mob, Planet of da Apes, 1994. We’re having thoughts of overthrowing the government . . . the brothers and sisters threw their fists in the air . . . it’s open season on crackers, you know; the morgue will be full of Caucasian John Doe’s . . . I make the Riot s**t look like a fairy tale . . . I’m killing them devils because they’re not worthy to walk the earth with the original black man; they must be forgetting; it’s time for Armageddon, and I won’t rest until they’re all dead . . . — ‘Goin Bananas,’ Da Lench Mob, Planet of da Apes, 1994. Actual fact you need to be black . . . everyday I fight a devil . . . I grab a shovel to bury a devil . . . the battle with the beast, Mr. 666 . . . my mind rolled to a 7th level; grab my bazooka and nuke a devil . . . with black I build; for black, I kill. — ‘Fightin the Devil,’ RBX, The RBX Files, 1995. I pledge allegiance to only the black . . . black, you had best prepare for the coming of war . . . look at you devil; now you’re sweating; I’m telling you: you can’t run from the hand of Armageddon. — ‘No Time,’ RBX, The RBX Files, 1995. [A]n original black man with a plan to run these devils off our motherf***ing land . . . the Sunz of Man war track . . . kept gun in hand, stalking the land. — ‘Can I See You,’ Sunz of Man, Sunz of Man: The Last Shall Be First, 1998. I love black women and I hate f***ing crackers . . . devils choke from the gunsmoke . . . — ‘Graveyard Chamber,’ Gravediggaz, 6 Feet Deep, 1997. I’m black with a bat, swinging at the head of a honky . . . The Terrorists about to murder your ass, — ‘Blow Dem Hoes Up,’ The Terrorists, Terror Strikes: Always Bizness Never Personal, 1991. [T]hey got us brainwashed to be the minority, but when we kill them off we gonna be the majority . . . if the whites speak up, then I’ll lead my people, because two wrongs don’t make it right but it damn sure make us equal; I’m inciting riots, so let’s start the looting . . . in this revolution I loathe my enemy . . . — ‘2 Wrongs,’ Onyx, All We Got Iz Us, 1995. The web page notes that one of the best-known and fawned upon rap “artists” is Ice Cube. His sentiments are typical of the genre. The title track from his 1992 The Predator album contains the following “lyrics:” Riots ain’t nothing but diets for the system. Fighting with the Beast, ‘no justice, no peace’ . . . Niggas are sick of your white man tricks, with no treating us right. Now it’s on, on sight . . . Farrakhan for president of white America . . . Put my chrome [pistol] to your dome [head], watch it bust like a cantaloupe . . . So who’s Ice Cube? I’m a rapper, actor, macker. Got a little problem with the redneck cracker. The CD contains a friendly little pamphlet that says, in part, “Ice Cube wishes to acknowledge white America’s continued commitment to the silence and oppression of black men . . . White America needs to thank black people for still talkin’ to them ‘cause you know what happens when we stop.” In a 1993 recording Mr. Cube advises his black friends to get up close to whites before they “bust,” or open fire: “don’t bust ‘till you see the whites of his eyes, the whites of his skin, the whites of his lies.” In a 1991 recording called “The Wrong Nigga To F*** Wit,” he says he will shoot off the head of former Los Angeles police chief Darryl Gates if he gets the chance. In “Cave Bitch” Mr. Cube heaps scorn on white women and suggests that blacks should kidnap them and hold them for ransom. In the early 1980s a serial killing spree terrorized the city of Toledo, Ohio. Someone killed nine people in a series of attacks that targeted young couples in parked cars. The attackers would kill the men, rape the women, and then kill them too. Now, nearly twenty years later, the killers have finally been caught. Anthony Cook, 51, and his brother Nathaniel Cook, 42, have admitted to the murders after DNA evidence linked them to at least one of the crimes. The elder brother is already serving a life term for another murder. Retired police detective Tom Ross says the murders were racially motivated, noting that the Cook brothers are black and all nine victims were white. (John Seewer, 2 Admit 9 Toledo Slayings in ’80s, Cincinnati Enquirer, April 7, 2000.) Race and Sport South Africa is unable to balance race and ability in deciding whom to send to the Sydney Olympics. Although the men’s field hockey team has won repeated African championships, it is too white and may not compete. The equestrian team has not even asked to represent the country, because it knows government officials will turn it down. Curiously, an all-white swimming team has gotten the nod, as has the women’s hockey team, even though it has fewer “previously disadvantaged” players than the men’s team. A spokesman for the white-led opposition Democratic Party says these capricious decisions are “nothing short of racism.” (Anton La Guardia, Telegraph (London), March 18, 2000.) The police of Gloucester, England, have started an undercover operation to make sure people don’t make “racist” comments in ethnic restaurants. Plain clothes officers conduct “Operation Napkin” by eating in pairs in Indian and Chinese restaurants, carefully listening to whether people say anything “insensitive.” Chief Inspector Dean Walker says, “Our aim is to act in the interests of the restaurants and of other diners who are offended by racist behaviour but feel reluctant to intervene.” “We want to encourage the reporting of racial crimes,” he explains. One man was caught mimicking an Indian accent but police decided this did not warrant arrest. (Simon de Bruxelles, Distasteful Views Policed, Times (London), March 15, 2000.) One Nation, Indivisible Some New Jersey state senators have proposed a law requiring school children to recite two sentences from the Declaration of Independence, including the statement, “all men are created equal.” All four black senators say the proposal is an insult because blacks were slaves in 1776 and the phrase did not include them. “It’s another way of being exclusionary and insensitive,” says Senator Wayne Bryant. “You have nerve to ask my grand children to recite [the Declaration]. How dare you. You are now on notice that this is offensive to my community.” White politicians almost always run for cover at the sound of this sort of talk. The bill lost some of its support and was tabled. (Nancy Parello, Racial Issues Heat Up Debate Over Reciting Declaration of Independence, AP, Jan. 31, 2000.) Bibles of Color “Specialty Bibles,” are a hot seller in the publishing industry. Aimed at people who feel “excluded” from the traditional bible, the newest entry is called the “Women of Color Study Bible.” It is being touted as the first Bible created by and for black women. Among other things, readers learn that Esther, Ruth and Martha were probably dark-skinned women of African descent. The book also includes essays from 200 female pastors who use Scripture to throw light on domestic abuse, single motherhood and sexism. “It’s a knockout,” said Phyllis Tickle, religion editor of Publishers Weekly.“The female market in religion is huge right now. And the African-American market in religion is growing.” (New Bible For Black Wo-men Thrives in 2 Major Markets, Washington Times, April 3, 2000, p. A2.) South Africa has one of the world’s highest AIDS rates, with ten percent of the population — around 4 million people — thought to have the disease, but attempts to fight AIDS are frustrated by the country’s president, Thabo Mbeki. He oppposes giving anti-AIDS drugs to pregnant women, which could save thousands of lives, and he recently baffled AIDS experts by declaring that the anti-AIDS drug AZT is dangerous. Mr. Mbeki isn’t even sure the HIV virus causes AIDS, and has convened a panel to find out. Mr. Mbeki’s spokesman, Parks Mankahlana, wrote that the panel would, “attempt to unravel the ‘mysteries’ of the HIV/AIDS virus, including, and more especially, what the profit-takers cannot tell us.” He accuses Western drug companies of profiting from an African AIDS epidemic that may be exaggerated. (S. African Leader’s Words, Deeds on AIDS Alarm Experts, Washington Times, March 21, 2000, p. A15.) Come and be Healed The following announcement, which we reproduce in its entirety, appeared in the Lowell (Massachusetts) Sun on March 23, 2000: An anti-racism discussion group is scheduled to meet on March 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the First Parish Unitarian Church. ‘Our objective at this meeting is to have white people talk about racism with white people,’ said Anne Donahue, who founded the group with Colleen Sullivan. ‘What we really need is to get in touch with our own issues of racism.’ The group is working under the premise that racism is perpetuated by white people not blacks or other minorities, Donahue said. It’s an organization that believes racism is a white problem not a black problem. The meeting is open to the public, and is not intended to exclude anybody. The group is not affiliated with the church, according to Donahue. The first meeting was held March 15 at All Saints Episcopal Church. For more information call 256-5558. (Anti-Racism Group Meets March 29, Lowell Sun (Mass.), March 23, 2000.) Black homosexuals are notoriously resistant to warnings about AIDS, and Alameda County, California, is trying to get through to them with shock ads. One shows a naked black man lying on top of another naked black man, with an unused condom next to them. It reads: “Been there. Done that. Get HIV tested. It could save your life.” The ads are posted on billboards in areas known to be frequented by black homosexuals and are also on postcards, condom packages, plastic cards, and matchbooks. Some Californians worry about being asked by their children about the ads, which are funded by a $300,000 grant from the state Department of Health. In Alameda County, blacks are five times more likely to get the disease than whites, and AIDS is now the number one killer of black men between the ages of 25 and 44. (Thomas Elias, California County Tries Shock Ads, Washington Times, April 3, 2000, p. A5.) Slanting the Deck An anonymous source at the U.S. Naval Academy has spilled the beans on a new “diversity” policy that appears likely to replace merit with sex- and race-quotas. Senior-level leaders among the midshipmen — called “stripers” because of the increased numbers of stripes on their uniforms — have always been selected on the basis of grades and a series of tests. The source says Academy brass “felt that the midshipmen who wanted the jobs did not adequately represent the Academy in terms of race and gender.” The source says the new policy means “many [midshipmen] who applied for the leadership striper positions will not be considered while many who did not want to be high-level stripers will be forced into those positions.” The academy denies everything, but a directive from the deputy commandant has surfaced in which he says he wants stripers who are “representative of the entire Brigade,” and wants “a broader spectrum of candidates.” The anonymous source, which contacted WorldNetDaily.com, said he didn’t want to hurt the 155-year-old academy: “[I]t is just that I think the public that pays for our education has a right to know what is happening here.” (Jon E. Dougherty, Diversity Bug Bites Naval Academy? WorldNetDaily.com, April 10, 2000.) AR is Hiring! We are looking for an assistant editor to work in our Virginia office. The ideal candidate writes well, has a strong commitment to what we stand for, understands computers, and knows something about running an office. Please send your resume to: PO Box 527 |LETTERS FROM READERS| Sir — I have just received the April issue of American Renaissance. Your lead article, “Don’t Write Off the Liberals,” was so stunning I assumed it must be an April Fools’ Day joke. The double talk presented by the supposed author Melinda Jelliby can only remind one of Orwell’s 1984. If this was a joke, ha ha funny, let’s not do it again. If it was for real and you are going to allow this type of silliness to appear in your publication, then I am canceling my subscription. Please tell me this was supposed to be a joke. Name Withheld, Richmond, Va. Sir — In her note on homosexuals Melinda Jelliby says she is “opposed to glorification of homosexuals and special laws to protect them.” She also says “they are potential allies” because of their fondness for “trim houses, well-kept lawns and social climbing tastes.” If this highly selective characterization were true, Miss Jelliby would have a point. But it is not the occasional pair of dignified, middle-aged men quietly running a floral or antique shop that troubles “straight” conservatives. The problem is the majority of homosexuals with political power and visibility who demand precisely the “glorification and special laws” Miss Jelliby opposes. As for the author’s assertion that homosexuality is innate rather than acquired, it is just that, an assertion. It is not a fact, as shown by the vast number of homosexuals who have left “the life” and remain straight. O.M. Ostlund, State College, Pa. Sir — I have been subscribing to AR for several years, but Melinda Jelliby’s article is the worst thing that has yet to appear. While a few points may be mildly interesting the gist of it is insane. Anyone who thinks there is hope for liberals needs to be educated out of his naiveté. One example of the mis- and dis-information is the sidebar on homosexuals. The statement that “the best current evidence suggests that homosexuals cannot help the desires they feel,” is wrong. A group called P-FLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), in a booklet entitled Why Ask Why . . . reports: “To date, no researcher has claimed that genes can determine sexual orientation. At best, researchers believe that there may be a genetic component. No human behavior, let alone sexual behavior, has been connected to genetic markers to date.” If this article starts a trend it looks like AR has begun (either wittingly or unwittingly) to be co-opted into the fringes of the liberal mainstream. Sir — Thanks for publishing Melinda Jelliby’s insightful cover article which is an excellent corrective to Shawn Mercer’s pro-George W. Bush piece. I’ve always tried to explain to people that I’m against the present liberal agenda, not all liberal thinking per se. I am also in favor of conservative principles such as preservation of tradition, culture and nature. These conservative principles are not those of the Republican party and its pro-big business allies. I do not have any liking for men like Ronald Reagan whom Republicans list among their heroes. Among the reasons we would not want to live in any non-white country are repugnant illiberal practices such as barbaric punishments, virtual slavery for women, indifference to vast poverty, and free use of the outdoors as a waste site. We should cultivate the best in our own tradition, from liberal compassion to conservative respect for limits Paul Neff, Cambridge, Mass. Sir — Let’s have more of “Melinda Jelliby”. I think she/he is on to something. Now if only more liberals can be got out of the closet. R. Travis Osborne, Athens, Ga. Sir — Your cover story was one of the most thought-provoking pieces I have read in a long time. It awoke the suspicion in my mind that I may not be a “conservative” in the current sense of the term. The “political” question about which I care most is the preservation of our European people and heritage in the broadest sense. I do not profess fidelity to a particular ideological corner of that heritage. In fact, I am essentially uninterested in what passes for politics — social security reform, NATO expansion, campaign finance, raising the minimum wage, term limits, etc. I am astonished at people who can actually work up a passion for such things (or are they just pretending?) I agree with Miss Jelliby: At this point, the only thing that separates friend from foe is whether someone is with us on the race question. Any other differences (or similarities, for that matter) do not matter. I have far too many genuinely rewarding interests to want to spend time on the dull-as-dust business of politics. I suspect I would ignore politics entirely if I were confident that the people who govern us were committed to our race and culture. I find myself drawn into politics only to the extent that government helps or harms our people. I doubt I am unusual in this — only more honest than most — when I confess to being profoundly bored by virtually every debate that takes place in Congress. So long as European people put their interests first, they will muddle through just fine no matter what their politics. Fred Hooper, Mussel Shoals, Ala.

Kevin is a connector, city-builder, and military officer working to build a stronger, more resilient and prosperous Canada through social innovation and cross-sectoral collaboration. As Partnerships Lead at Ryerson University’s Magnet Project, Kevin is building cross-sectoral partnerships across Canada to combat unemployment and underemployment among individuals facing barriers connecting to jobs. He is also a CivicAction DiverseCity Fellow, former banker, and a naval intelligence officer at Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship YORK active in city-building. In Toronto, Kevin serves as Co-Chair of the Toronto Youth Equity Strategy, Board Director for the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, and Chair of the Southcore Community Association as well as other city committees and community boards. He also sits on the University of Western Ontario, his alma mater, Council of Presidents as Chairman of the Dan Management Advisory Council. Named Canada’s Top Under 30 Pan-Asian leader in 2014, Kevin has represented Canada at multiple international forums including the 2010 G8 and G20 Summits, the 2013 G20 Summit and an economic and development trade mission to the Asian Pacific. He was a Geneva Challenge global finalist, 2016 Next Gen Leader with Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and was awarded in 2016 a Harvard Kennedy School of Government Executive Education Fellowship to take part in their Emerging Leaders program. Most recently, Kevin was appointed a Public Fellow as a leading Canadian thinker under 35 for the 2016 Spur Festival and a Junior Fellow at the Canadian Centre for Responsibility to Protect at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.

It will come as no surprise that Glenn Beck’s broadcast biography of George Soros last week has triggered a vast brawl concerning his interpretation and treatment of the topic. The uproar revolves around Beck’s portrayal of Soros’ role in the Holocaust. Beck repeats the widely known story concerning Soros’ involvement in handing deportation orders to Jewish families on behalf of the Nazis. He emphasizes that Soros was only fourteen at the time and does not condemn the activity, asserting that the matter remains “between Soros and God.” […] there’s no question that the incident occurred. In fact, there’s considerably more to it. Soros also assisted in the collection of Jewish chattels — clothing, furniture, and the like — for shipment to Germany. We have this on the highest authority, from an eyewitness of unimpeachable status: Soros himself. During a 1998 “60 Minutes” interview, Soros admitted to the entire story without hesitation. He also stated that he felt no guilt, adding that the situation cannot be understood be anyone who was not there. […] Only Jews are be let off the hook for complicity in the Holocaust.

And How You Use It In recent days there’s been quite a lot of buzz in the media and social media surrounding the President and his coronavirus briefing. There’s been those coming to the defense of the President, saying he never specifically said “inject” and then the President, himself walking back his comments implying that it was sarcasm, meant to infuriate the media and so he could observe what they would do. Before I continue, here’s a portion of what was said. “Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light,” Mr. Trump said. “And I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but we’re going to test it?” he added, turning to Mr. Bryan, who had returned to his seat. “And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, either through the skin or some other way.” “And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute — one minute — and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning?” he asked. “Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.” Trump Muses About Light As Remedy I’ve read opinions in posts circulating social media, suggesting that they are in health care and that what the President misspoke as “disinfectant” (he never said Lysol specifically…) could have meant a procedure known as lung lavage, where antibiotics and other medications can be injected into the lungs so they can be “washed,” giving the patient the ability to breathe better. It’s commonly called lung washing; “this procedure treats the rare lung disease pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP).” How Lung Washing Helps Patients Breathe Again The article does say, which you can read for yourself by clicking the link, that it doesn’t work on any other lung conditions (diseases). However, they do use this technique for Pneumonia and they also use something called Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) (also known as bronchoalveolar washing) for Interstitial Lung Disease and COVID-19, as a diagnostic tool and therapeutically to remove mucus, improve airway ventilation, and reduce airway inflammation in conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Bronchoalveolar Lavage I’m not a pulmonary therapist; I researched this information to make sense out of what I had been hearing. - The first thing I learned, about the importance of your platform and how to use it, is this That the President clearly doesn’t understand the magnitude his words have on his platform and that the extent of those words goes way beyond the obvious political, “I’m King of the World,” mentality. It’s interesting to me the debates people are having across social media and how some revolve around the semantics of how the President used the word “injection.” Some argue that he did not mean to inject something into the lungs, with, what I am presuming is a large needle. Others have zeroed in on the use of the word disinfectant, and how the President seems to conclude a relationship between the disinfectant used in a lung lavage and Lysol or Clorox (bleach) that you would disinfect your countertops with. Disinfectant Makers Steer Consumers Away from Trump’s Coronavirus Comments Still others, use a red marker to indicate that the President never used specific product names, like Lysol or Clorox and it was narcissistic on the part of these manufacturers to think the President was referring to them. But then you have the President himself, who attempts clarification of his remarks by saying, “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” he told journalists at an event in the Oval Office. Trump Says Remarks Using Disinfectant There were very few people arguing about the 1.) The intent of his words, 2.) The impact of his words on his, 3.) or the consequences of his words on his listeners. Every person who has a social media account and accrues followers, who have some kind of purpose for being there, be it a cause they are passionate about, a message they want to send, or maybe they’re an entertainer, model or visual artist (the list is infinite); those people have now acquired a power- an audience. We take that power for granted. It’s just social media, but it’s much more than most care to admit. - The second thing I learned, about the importance of your platform and how to use it, is Intent, Impact & Consequence. As a writer, it’s important to step into your words with Intent. It’s not as esoteric as it sounds. There’s no chanting involved or mystical music. The only purpose; setting intent. If you practice yoga or mindfulness, you know a little about intent. An intention is not a goal. It’s something you want to align with your life; it’s an expectation or attitude you’d be proud to commit to. It has to come from your heart and soul. Setting intent in your writing is not much different. It’s a commitment to setting a purpose in regards to your words. Understanding that when you send your writing out into that perceived void, that it’s not that at all. It’s a space filled with living, breathing, humans who have hearts and souls like the rest of us. Intention Setting Social media has changed our relationship with words. It’s changed how we communicate with people and how people hear our voice. In some, this change has been empowering. They have been able, through the use of their platform, bring awareness to those causes that are meaningful to them. Whether it’s money through fundraising or raising awareness of a rare disease, these voices use their platform and their voice (words) for the positive. Conversely, some people use their platform and their voice in a way that is negative. I believe, as a writer, that my words are powerful. My words, like an artist, paints broad and delicate strokes across the canvas bringing to life a picture for my readers to see. Sometimes, this is a very literal picture. Other times, it isn’t so much a picture but emotion, that I am drenching the reader in. Sadness, loneliness, anger, happiness, anticipation, joy; all of these feelings could wash over a person in one blog post. Each word was carefully chosen to convey a feeling or meaning in my heart. Not everyone is as thoughtful and social media has become a grey space where people do not honor the living, breathing, the human being behind the screen. As we are thrust into Twitter or FaceBook (only to name a few), people feel it’s perfectly okay to express their opinion or thoughts, without any “thought” as to how it may impact anyone beyond the initial self-gratitude of getting that idea out, or those little likes people click, which can become addictive. They deny any responsibility for how their words may impact another person reading them when the first and cardinal rule of any writer (someone who writes any words to be seen by another) should be ownership of your words. If you don’t own your words then they aren’t yours to begin. You have to be prepared to go down with the sinking ship, which is why a writer should take care with words. They should be thoughtful as to the intent of their words and how it will be interpreted. A meme I’ve seen reading something like: It’s not my problem how you interpreted my words. It doesn’t work with a writer; everything you want to be heard- your only tools are your words. There’s no tone of voice, no inflexion, no facial features or hand gestures. However, it types out is how someone out there will read it and it will have an impact on that person. End of story. - The third thing I learned, about the importance of your platform and how to use it is how your words can Impact people you don’t know. Everything we type can have a major impact on another living, breathing human. The problem is most of the time we can’t see how our words impact people. They are sent into the ether of the internet, sometimes lost in the shuffle of all the other posts, but somewhere out there, someone is reading it and you don’t know the situation of that person. - The fourth thing I learned, about the importance of your platform and how to use it, is, how your words have Consequences that you must own. Most people think of consequences as negative. But everything we do, every action, has a consequence. It’s not necessarily bad, but we have to be willing to embrace the negative as much the positive. “Sir Isaac Newton taught us that for every action in the physical world, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This principle not only applies to the physical world but in other areas of life as well.” Actions Have Consequences Every action we take produces a reaction and consequence. You yell at your friend and they start to cry. Their crying is a consequence of your yelling. You’re angry that your boyfriend cheated on you and you take to social media, not only attacking your ex’s actions but him personally and the girl he cheated on you with. What you don’t know is that the girl battles depression and that he never told her had a girlfriend. Your words have an impact on her. She plummets into depression and attempts suicide, for reasons you may not understand. It’s easy not to bear a responsibility such as this. The responsibility that your actions may have driven another person to an action that could have cost them their life, but it is your responsibility to bear. Life brings both good and bad consequences depending on our choices and it doesn’t matter if we say it on a platform and the person that is affected is 3,000 miles away and we didn’t know them. It is my opinion, my belief, that this inherent lack of understanding within humanity, is at the core of many of our problems. We have stopped viewing one another as humans who directly affect one another because of the great chasm of space the internet has created between us. Once we can take responsibility for the impact of our words, and the consequences our actions may have on other people, we may become better as a human race. We can begin this, in part, by committing to operate using these platforms with an intent that is aimed toward positivity and goodwill. Broad, W. and Levin, D., 2020. Trump Muses About Light As Remedy, But Also Disinfectant, Which Is Dangerous. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/health/sunlight-coronavirus-trump.html> [Accessed 27 April 2020]. Mahajan, D., 2020. Bronchoalveolar Lavage (BAL)- Procedure, Indications And Diagnostic Tests | Medcaretips.Com. [online] medcaretips.com. Available at: <https://medcaretips.com/bronchoalveolar-lavage-bal/> [Accessed 27 April 2020]. Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic. 2020. How ‘Lung Washing’ Helps You Breathe Again. [online] Available at: <https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-lung-washing-helps-patients-breathe-again-video/> [Accessed 27 April 2020]. En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Bronchoalveolar Lavage. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronchoalveolar_lavage> [Accessed 27 April 2020]. Geller, M. and Stempel, J., 2020. Disinfectant Makers Steer Consumers Away From Trump’s Coronavirus Comments. [online] U.S. News. Available at: <https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2020-04-24/lysol-maker-urges-people-not-to-inject-disinfectants-after-trump-remarks> [Accessed 27 April 2020]. Mason, J., 2020. Yahoo Is Now A Part Of Verizon Media. [online] News.yahoo.com. Available at: <https://news.yahoo.com/trump-says-remarks-using-disinfectant-170528091.html> [Accessed 27 April 2020]. Eisler, M., 2020. Intention Setting 101 – Mindful Minutes. [online] Mindful Minutes. Available at: <https://mindfulminutes.com/intention-setting-101/> [Accessed 27 April 2020]. Hammerman, Y., 2020. Actions Have Consequences | My Jewish Learning. [online] My Jewish Learning. Available at: <https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/actions-have-consequences/> [Accessed 27 April 2020].

Doctor Marina has been in the food hygiene business for the last thirty years. She prides herself in working with all types of businesses in the food industry – and helping them create safer, more hygienic work environments. We were lucky enough to get an interview with this remarkable woman. When did you start working in the field? This is a great story. Officially, I started working as a food regulation consultant in 1996. I originally studied Medicine and became a doctor in the USSR. In 1991, when I came to Israel, it was difficult to receive a license and find work as a doctor. Thankfully, I saw an ad in the newspaper. Can you believe it? This was, of course, before the internet. That little ad changed my life. It said that a new company based in Jerusalem was bringing this innovative idea of food hygiene and food safety consultants to Israel, and that they were looking for doctors! I scheduled a meeting with them, and it really did change my destiny. Dr. R. Katain, may he rest in peace, conducted the interview, he was the founder of the company, and he really was the first to introduce the idea of private food safety consultants here. He wanted doctors specifically, not only thanks to our expertise and understanding of how germs and transmittable diseases work, but also because there were a lot of us coming to Israel at that time without being able to find work here. He really was godsent. At first, they wanted me to start working in Eilat, which is really far away in southern Israel. I was a single mother of two young girls – I explained how I couldn’t possibly uproot them so far, and regretfully turned the job down. They told me, if I waited, maybe they could find work for me. It took a few months, I called every single week to check if maybe they had work for me now. One time, one of their regular employees had taken a month off to have surgery done – and that was my chance. That was the start of my career. After substituting for a month, Dr. Katain said he liked my work and wanted me to stay for good. The initial pay was horrible, I was getting paid in peanuts! But I could see how important this field was, how it would grow in the upcoming years, and how much I could learn from working in it. It really felt like I could see the future in that sense. I worked with Dr. Katain for a few years, and thanks to my basic knowledge and work experience as a doctor combined with his teachings and true professional communication I was able to learn and develop rapidly in my field. It’s really thanks to this that I was able to open my own consulting business. It was just an incredible learning experience. I’m a perfectionist, I had to know that things were perfect before really starting my own business. On top of this, there was the fact that I grew up Jewish in a foreign country. There was always a lot of discrimination against Jews in the USSR. I always felt like I had to have more academic achievements just to be considered equal, that I had to make up for being Jewish somehow. That’s probably why I doubted myself so much at first, and struggled with deciding to work in my own business full-time. I knew I was ready to do it on my own when one of the chefs I’d previously worked with called me up, saying he wanted my guidance when he opened his new restaurant. He called me, not my company. That’s when I knew I was ready to open my own company full time. That’s an incredible story. It really is. Within a month the phone calls started coming in, and the business started blooming. What kind of businesses do you work with? Anywhere that prepares and serves food. Restaurants – big or small, coffee houses, hotels, food factories – really all types of businesses in the food industry. As well as providing inspections and microbial tests, I also have lectures that teach employees about food hygiene, I guide businesses through the process of getting their food safety certification, and have recently opened a class teaching how to become a sanitation trustee – a job which every food business needs. My course is approved by the Israeli health ministry, and I am just about to open my fourth cycle. What is the biggest problem you see when helping businesses out there? I think it all comes down to a lack of knowledge. A lot of the time, the business owners themselves don’t follow the required hygienic standard. Often business owners in the food industry lack the professional tools needed to create a hygienic work environment – so of course their employees won’t be hygienic either. I think that the certifications needed don’t encompass enough information right from the get-go. I think every starting business needs a sanitation trustee. The class is 25 hours and it’s just the basics of food sanitation, and it is so vital for businesses, especially when starting out. When you start out you have no professional knowledge, but you still create habits that you follow throughout your entire career. More can be done to ensure that good habits are instilled earlier on. Sadly, the norm that is created in many businesses is very lax around hygiene. Saying, “should be fine…” without really looking into it, or “let’s just make it look hygienic so that we pass the exam…” are both sad truths I’ve heard. That’s not how to go about things, certainly not when the wellness of your staff and customers are on the line. Why does one person get sick from food while another one doesn’t? This is a vast subject. First of all, you have a microbe, a fungus, or a toxin. Fungi, like some microbes, can actually release toxins into the food. These are the leading causes for illnesses from food. These germs can come from humans or from animals, which is why we have to be so careful when handling food. People have different bodies and react differently to things. For example, someone who has a weaker immune system is more likely to develop an illness after eating something that contains germs. A person with chronic illnesses has a higher chance of having a weaker immune system, and so they would also have stronger reactions when it came to food-borne illnesses. Age plays a massive role here as well, as elderly folks usually have their fair share of chronic illnesses, and day-old babies haven’t had the time to develop their immune systems yet. Babies are also quite prone to illnesses, as the only immune response they have is what they got from the mother during pregnancy. Pregnant women are also immune-compromised because their immune system reacts differently during the pregnancy. Tourists that have yet grown used to our food or the local germs can also react very swiftly to food-borne pathogens. You’ve heard of Salmonella, right? A person with a strong immune system, for example, a sturdy 20-year-old soldier, will likely not react to salmonella. An elderly person would, however, likely develop an illness. Two people can go to the very same restaurant, have the same food, and one of them would end up ill and the other won’t. How do food-borne illnesses get in our food to begin with? There are several ways. First of all, the produce itself could be contaminated before it even set foot inside your restaurant or factory. The work surfaces could also be unclean – there is a very specific technique to clean them, so some shops may be exerting a lot of effort to keep them clean, but they would still be unhygienic. The food could become infected from the surfaces or the tools used to make it like the bowls and silverware etc. Hands are probably the most important thing. Unclean hands pass illnesses to both the food, the surfaces, and the tools, that’s a fact. It’s a chain of infection inside the kitchen. Have you heard of the phrase “cross-contamination” when it comes to preparing food? Something came in infected, and that infects other clean things. That’s why you need complete separation between surfaces, tools, sections and departments. Why do people not wash their hands right? It all really comes down to habits. People aren’t used to washing hands correctly in their everyday life. It’s just not part of the culture, or norm, if you will. You know, I give lectures about food sanitation at a famous culinary college. I explained about personal hygiene and hand hygiene. Almost everyone in my class didn’t know how to wash their hands properly – and worse, how to dry them! For example, it’s customary to have one towel for drying hands for the entire family. Workplaces don’t make sure their employees know how to wash their hands. They don’t teach them. You’d think, okay, they didn’t learn how to do it so far, but coming into this line of work someone will teach them. Wrong! Hardly anyone takes the time to teach new employees about the how’s and the why’s of hand hygiene. You have to constantly teach, your employees are constantly growing and learning. Give them that opportunity. Guidance is the best way to go about this. What do business owners fear when it comes to hand hygiene? What’s the worst-case scenario? If someone went to the bathroom and didn’t wash their hands, and then touched raw food materials – that’s trouble right there. Especially if we’re talking salads, veggies, fruit, things that don’t end up being boiled to a temperature that kills a lot of the average germs. Some germs need a higher temperature than usual for them to die off, and cooking doesn’t always do that too. That is the worst-case scenario. We understand very well that we need to wash our hands after going to the bathroom because it feels very visible and yucky, but people don’t understand we have to wash our hands after smoking a cigarette for example! You touch your mouth, you touch the germs on your face and from the saliva, of course you would have to wash your hands before preparing food again. But most often, people don’t wash their hands after smoke breaks. I asked the cooks at the college I work at why they think they should wash their hands, and they hypothesized that it’s because of the smell of the cigarettes! They didn’t realize how germs could pass to their hands so easily – all just because of a smoke break. Business owners in the food industry need to understand themselves first of all. If they think it’s fine – that’s half the problem. When you accept a new employee, you need to go through the required hygiene procedures with them, and not just assume that they know things. Do we hear about the cases where things go wrong? Or does it get silenced? Well, you know, it depends. Today, with the internet and social media, I can let half the world know anything I want by pressing a button. Someone who suffered from food poisoning after eating out will, more often than not, write a scathing review online. That is every owner’s worst nightmare. It’s hard to regain a good reputation once it’s lost. What happens when somebody falls ill from eating out? Someone who feels bad after eating out will most likely call to complain. They will be answered by whoever operates the phone in the business, whether we’re talking about a hostess, a secretary, the shift manager, etc. In these instances, there is a series of questions that you must ask the customer. Telling someone, “I’m a burger joint and I’ve sold burgers all day and everyone else is fine, you’re the only one complaining,” is a very bad answer. It doesn’t mean that your burgers are germ-free! It just means that the produce you had that day wasn’t spoiled, at the very least. If somebody with a weaker immune system got sick from your food, it means that the germs were there to begin with. You need to start an investigation. It starts with the questions you ask the complaining customers. Some of these questions have to do with the time the illness started, because different germs have different incubation periods. Some toxins can affect you as soon as half an hour from eating! Others take much, much longer. The person answering the phone needs to be aware of the different possibilities and slowly rule them out. I teach exactly what questions to ask on my course. If somebody was sent to the hospital, that’s a different matter, but this is how it usually goes with the lighter questions. So tell me a little bit about a place you worked with that managed to turn things around. I think sometimes, especially in the food industry, people tend to focus on all the bad things that could happen. But that’s not true – people can succeed in creating hygienic work environments too! Ok, I’ve got one. There’s a germ called Staph. Aureus and it lives in the throat, nasal cavaties and on the hands of up to 50% of the population. Under the right conditions, it emits a very dangerous toxin. This germ isn’t automatically considered a pathogen, it really does need the right conditions to become dangerous. In the story I’m about to tell you, it got very, very dangerous. This company made food for children’s daycares – cooked food and salads. In the salads, Staph. Aureus was found in large quantities – and inside foods it creates the dangerous toxin we mentioned. Children and adults can react to it from half an hour to 2 hours from eating the food – it has an incredibly short incubation period. You know, oftentimes, business owners hear that the customer felt ill just 2 hours from eating the food and they say, “well, that’s impossible, you must be feeling ill from something else! How can my food affect you so quickly?” On the other hand, when somebody calls after a day and says they are ill, those same business owners say, “oh, too much time has passed so it must not be from our food!” As if they are never at fault. So the catering company got a lot of complaints and it was very urgent. An investigation commenced, and finally, we caught it – one of the cooks that prepared the salads had a pimple hidden in his neckbeard. It had puss and everything, but his beard was long so no one – including him – didn’t know it was there. It itched during work, so he scratched it a few times, in which case it doesn’t matter even if he had gloves! He passed on the germ with the puss inside the salads. That’s just one of the cases. Investigations have to be extremely thorough. You check every little thing in the work process. That’s my job. I check everything, from the moment the produce made it in and to the time the dish left the kitchen. I examine hands, tools, surfaces, refrigerators, hygiene habits, how the dish was served, there are just so many factors. Hand hygiene and hand washing are the basics of the basics. With all the surfaces and expensive tools in use in businesses – our hands touch all of them. If our hands are dirty – they will likely be dirty too. What tips would you give a business owner that wants to turn things around? I think the minimum amount of effort is to have a sanitation trustee in the business. Have someone that knows he is in charge of these processes, that knows what to do, how to train the new employees on hand hygiene and professional kitchen etiquette and so on. I honestly believe businesses should not be allowed to open without it. Also, teach your staff! Create learning opportunities for them! How many times do you think people talk to baristas about hand hygiene? None! What about servers? The chefs and cooks are not the only ones with a massive effect on the food! Bring in lectures, teach your staff, prevent infections through knowledge before they happen. Businesses can also take hand swabs from employees and test their foods if they want. This is also part of the services I provide. Once the results are in, we analyze them together and I explain what could go wrong in light of these results, and how to prevent that from happening in the future. New workers in food environments don’t always come with a formal culinary education. Business owners can’t take standard hygiene practices as a given, but must make sure to teach every employee no matter how basic it seems. I think Soapy’s solution is great. If people understand how much soap and water needlessly go down the drain every year, then they need Soapy. The money you could save from resource conservation alone is terrific. Especially for businesses that need to wash hands, and ensure handwashing is thorough – the CleanMachine is a great solution. I know restaurant kitchens are often too busy to wash hands well enough, which is why customizing the wash cycle is vital. They also almost never have warm water for the cooks and servers to wash hands with, and warm water is critical to help the soap froth and decrease germs on hands. The CleanMachine really answers all of that. Food production factories could really utilize the CleanMachine to their advantage, making sure hands are clean whenever approaching the food. They have a lot of staff and a need to wash hands quickly and carefully – especially on the production floor. What would you tell business owners in the food industry who are reading this article? I’d tell them that personal hygiene is a must when it comes to making food. It’s basic sanitation. Anyone coming to you to eat food needs to leave happy and healthy. If he came to enjoy your food and he left in an ambulance because somebody didn’t wash their hands – the fault lies with you. Never mind Covid, people have been swarming the restaurants and pubs because they missed it so much during the pandemic. Business owners need to understand that if somebody felt ill after eating your food, they will never come back. They will go to a competitor. Worse, they will write a bad review online. Teach your staff. Don’t assume they know things. Arm them with knowledge! If they understand why they are doing things, they are more likely to follow them. Doctor Marina with Chef Danon, Founder of Danon Culinary College

Archival Collections Finding Aids The Finding Aids on the Cape Ann Museum's website represent only a minute fraction of what is available in the Museum's Library & Archives; for further assistance with items in the collection or for inquiries regarding material not listed here, please contact the Library & Archives at (978) 283-0455, x19 or email firstname.lastname@example.org. → More about finding aids - A00 - Virginia Lee Burton Collection The Virginia Lee Burton Collection contains sketchbooks, design course lessons, proofs for publications, photographs, along with the bulk of the collection: pages and sketches of her unfinished manuscript, Design and How! - A01 - Valentine Cards Collection The Valentine Cards Collection consists of cards dating from 1849-1910 from a number of sources. While the collection is primarily composed of Valentine Cards, there are also Christmas, Birthday, and other holiday cards within. - A02 - Robin Hood, Letter of Marque Ship Collection The Robin Hood, Letter of Marque Ship Collection contains shipping papers, receipts, correspondences, accounts and invoices, and memorandum pertaining to the Letter of Marque vessel in 1781. - A03 - First Church of Gloucester Collection The First Church of Gloucester Collection consists of numerous records of the Church from 1703-1950, including vital records, Church meetings, documents of the Ministers of the First Church, financial records, as well as Reverend Eli Forbes' personal bible. - A04 - John J. Babson Papers The John J. Babson Papers contain material generated by Babson during the course of his continued research into topics pertaining to his publications. The material within consists of unpublished manuscripts, notes on genealogy, land grants research, and correspondences with subjects of his research. - A05 - Cape Ann Deeds Collection The Cape Ann Deeds Collection consists of material documenting the transfer of land and buildings. These documents from various sources and were arranged into two series with dates of 1663-1898 and 1668-1971 respectively. Most deeds show the date, book, and page of their registration at the Registry of Deeds in Salem, MA. - A06 - James G. Tarr & Bro. Wholesale Fish Dealers Collection The James G. Tarr & Bro. Wholesale Fish Dealers Collection provides a vignette on the everyday operation of the Gloucester wholesale fish dear from 1894-1901. The collection contains correspondences, records, reports, and a fish price list. - A07 - Paper Doll Collection The Paper Doll Collections is made up of paper dolls from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Raphael Tuck & Sons were the publishers of many of the dolls in the collection. - A08 - Captain Ben Pine Papers The Captain Ben Pine Papers consists of material pertaining to the business world of the renowned Gloucester fisherman and internationally known racing skipper. The collection includes correspondences, race programs, photographs, scrapbooks, crew lists, and other related ephemera. - A09 - Independent Christian Society of Gloucester (Universalist) Collection The Independent Christian Society of Gloucester (Universalist) Collection contains early records pertaining to the history of the church, covering the years of 1779-1943. Material includes: vital records, church property and business records, services and sermons of past Ministers, finance documents, and scrapbooks. - A10 - David W. Low Papers and Land Surveys Collection The David W. Low Papers and Land Surveys Collection contains documents pertaining to the varied activities of the life-long Gloucester resident. Materials consist of documents pertaining to his military service, life as a land surveyor, an inventor, as well as personal correspondences and photographs. - A11 - Gloucester's 350th Anniversary, Papers of Mayor Robert L. French Collection The Gloucester's 350th Anniversary, Papers of Mayor Robert L. French Collection is comprised of the Mayor's files relating to the anniversary celebration held in 1973. The collection includes correspondences, organizational and financial documents, handwritten notes, as well as programs and catalogs for event occurring that year. - A13 - Joseph Moore Collection - A15 - Schooner Three Brothers & Schooner Good Success Collection The Schooner Three Brothers & Schooner Good Success Collections consists primarily of correspondences between the Three Brothers' owners and master. Also included in this collection are bills of sale and receipts for the Schooner Good Success transactions. - A16 - Vincent Ferrini Papers The Vincent Ferrini Papers consists of material pertaining to the author's personal and business life. Documents include project notes, manuscripts, poems, correspondence, video, and his personal library of publications. - A17 - Alfred M. Duca Papers The Alfred M. Duca Papers contains correspondences, slides, and other miscellaneous papers pertaining to Duca's life as both artist and community activist, documenting his work on behalf of disadvantaged children. - A18 - Ships Log Book Collection - A19 - Sylvester Ahola Papers The Sylvester Ahola Papers consists of personal correspondences, a diary, publications, photographs, oral histories, and a substantial collection of recordings containing Ahola's performances. - A20 - Irving L. Morris Papers The Irving L. Morris Papers contains the personal diary, letters, commendations, and other papers of Morris' time as a soldier in World War I. The majority of letters were sent from Morris to his family during his time in service. - A21 - Samuel E. Chamberlain Collection - A22 - Joseph E. Garland Collection The Joseph E. Garland Collection documents Garland's extensive publishing career and contains material relating to twenty-seven of his works. Material consists of correspondence, research documents, manuscripts, photographs, newspaper clippings and reviews, audio recordings, and scrapbooks. - A23 - Paul B. Kenyon Papers The Paul B. Kenyon Papers contains material focused primarily on his time at the Gloucester Daily Times as reporter, columnist, and editor. Documents include notes, correspondences, and photographs on a wide variety of subject, as well as a small section relating to both an article in Ladies' Home Journal and his novel, Driftwood Captain. - A24 - Barbara Erkkila Papers The Barbara Erkkila Papers primarily consists of material accumulated during her research of topics of the Quarry Industry, Finns, Lanesville, and Cemeteries. Documents include some correspondences, records, diaries, receipts, and photographs. The Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives also holds an unprocessed portion of this collection. - A25 - Richard Souza Collection - A27 - Alfred Mansfield Brooks Papers and Photographs Collection The Alfred Mansfield Brooks Papers include journals, scrapbooks, correspondences, manuscripts, and other material from his career as a professor of fine arts and his involvement with the City of Gloucester and the Cape Ann Historical Association. Also included in the collection are Ruth S. Brooks' sketchbook and correspondences. - A28 - Gloucester Fishermen's Institution Collection The Gloucester Fishermen's Institution Collection contains extensive record books of the institution, correspondences, photographs, and a draft of the history of the institution's early years. - A30 - William J. MacInnis Collection The William J. MacInnis Collection consists primarily of documents relating to MacInnis' time as Mayor of Gloucester (1922-1923), the city's 300th Anniversary Celebration, and schooners and racing. - A31 - Second Parish Records Collection The Second Parish Records Collection contains original record books dating to 1716, lists of pastors, baptisms, members, and manuscripts pertaining to the Parish's hundreds year history. - A32 - Records of the Cape Ann Camera Club Collection The Records of the Cape Ann Camera Club Collection includes notices of meetings, membership listings, their 1903 constitution, minutes of meetings, and other miscellaneous documents pertaining to the group's existence from 1902-1947. - A33 - Parsons/Morse Papers The Parsons/Morse Papers primarily document the description and sale of parcels of land owned by the Parsons family, and after 1842, the Morse family. Also included are documents pertaining to Isaac Morse and his ownership of the Schooner W.B. Ferguson. - A34 - Dolliver/Moore Papers The Dolliver/Moore Papers contains documents and letters concerning real estate transactions and lease agreements from 1652-1891. The collection is divided between the Dolliver Family and the Moore Family. - A35 - Mabel Spofford Collection The Mabel Spofford Collection consists of sketchbooks, lecture notes, correspondences, teaching material, papers, and photographs pertaining to Spofford's personal life as well as her 44-year career as a teacher and artist. - A38 - Presson Family Papers - A40 - Gloucester Female Charitable Association Collection - A41 - Cape Ann National Organization for Women (NOW) Collection - A49 - Alice Cox Collection - A50 - Jewish Community of Cape Ann: An Oral History Collection [Restricted until 2057] - A52 - Harold Bell Collection - A55 - Andrea Jacobs Collection - A57 - Mighty Mac Collection - A63 - Samuel Sawyer Collection The Samuel Sawyer Collection consists of personal diaries, correspondences, business documents, and expense accounts of Sawyer's personal life and as a businessman and philanthropist in relation to Ravenswood Park, ship ownership, as well as the Sawyer Free Library. - A64 - St. Peter's Fiesta Photographic Collection - A70 - Carlton W. Wonson Papers - A71 - Frances Wosmek Papers - A77 - Peter Anastas Papers The Peter Anastas Papers contains personal and professional correspondence, published and unpublished manuscripts of numerous forms of Anastas' work, photographs, audio tapes, and journals. While focused primarily on Anastas' writing career, the collection also consists of material relating to his teaching career and personal life. - A84 - Jeff Thomas Papers - A89 - Carrie Benham Collection - A92 - James Poole Collection

City stars find home in north South Manchester Jewish football teams could rub shoulders with Manchester City stars of the future in a £1.5 million sports venue which opened in Cheadle this week. The Henry Guterman Community Sports Centre provides a first central location for sports training and events for Jews in the area. It features five all-weather floodlit football pitches, two grass pitches and a netball and tennis court. A pavilion incorporates four changing rooms, a lounge area and a physiotherapy room. Manchester City and League Two outfit Macclesfield Town have both approached the centre about using its facilities for academy coaching. South Manchester Sports Club's 11 Jewish football teams moved to the venue on Wednesday. Cricket and table tennis teams will also use the newly developed three-and-a-quarter acre site. It is adjacent to North Cheshire Jewish Primary, whose pupils will have daytime use of the facilities.The centre will also be used by sportswear company Umbro, which donated £50,000 towards construction, and is also available to local sports teams. It is named in memory of the communal and interfaith leader who died in 2007 and whose family made a significant financial contribution towards the project. Grants totalling £770,000 were received from the Football Foundation and Sport England.

One day, somehow or other, I dropped a lucrative but ultimately unappealing career in computer science for English Writing. This led, more or less, to my deciding to come to Japan and live what's turned out so far to be the very rest of my life. Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers is nifty because it goes ahead and explains "somehow or other" and "more or less" in detail bordering on surefire social physics. Did you know that if you're an aspiring Canadian hockey player born in January you're in a world of luck, but if you're born one month before, you're shit of of the same? Or that East Asians really are better at math than Westerners? True stories, statistically and causally speaking. The reasons why are meticulously set out like a dinner banquet at the Kremlin, so I don't wanna vulgarly ruin the endings for you, but hot damn are they nifty. The book's profound for the same reasons. It turns out back in the 1970s and 80s, all the way up through the mid-90s, Korea crashed more planes than most any other place in the world because they were letting Koreans fly their planes. You're more likely to piss off a Southerner by calling him an asshole than you are a Northerner. Jewish immigrants of the early 20th century really were better prepared to be businesspeople than Irish or Italian peasants, and their sons were better prepared to be doctors and lawyers as a result. And a good majority of the folks at the top of Silicon Valley right now were born in 1954 and 1955, including Bill Gates, Bill Joy, Steve Jobs, and Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Google. Like. This should sound at least mildly offensive. But Outliers is wonderful like a crystal fucking waterfall because it explains the whys of all these generalizations and success stories in a beautifully succinct way, with the ultimate conclusion that it's neither genius nor genetics that seperate any of us. It's only culture and good luck and that the realization of that, properly applied, will lead to a more opportunity-filled world for our kids. It could stop there, having made an interesting cross-discipline case for causality, and left me in the bottom of the Well of Misery, but it didn't. And in not doing so, it became an apocalyptic book in the Greek sense of the word. It suggests and downright proves via multitudinous examples--and I'm gonna go ahead and ruin this--that since the success stories and tragedies of the past fall into patterns, even though they're often the result of innumerable chance occurences, we can better organize our society to promote successful citizens and diffuse culture-based tragedies long before they pick up momentum. A lot of it has to do with proper education. Time to nix summer vacations in their current form: it seems that the smarts gap that typically forms between rich kids and poor kids happens primarily because over the long summers, rich kids have resources to enrich their minds (books, summercamps, educational encouragement) while lower-class kids don't, or don't to the same degree. Lower-class kids are less likely to be comfortable asserting or even expressing themselves to people in positions of power than upper-class kids. This isn't something the schools teach, but the parents. And in the case of lower-class kids, the parents apparently tend not to explicitly teach those lessons, while upper-class parents do. The idea is that it's all momentum. If you take a human of average intelligence and put them in an environment to succeed, most of them will. Not all of them will become legends in their own time like Bill Gates or JP Morgan, but certainly the quality of their life will improve greatly over what it would've been. But they need a lot to go their way that's especially at an early age outside their control: proper schooling, proper parenting, proper opportunity. Anyways I recommend this book.

A gift from God, faith requires conversion throughout our lives By Father R. Michael Schaab Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time/Oct. 13 2 Kings 5:14-17; Psalm 98:1,2-3,3-4; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19 Both in the Old Testament, as in today’s first reading from the Second Book of Kings, and in the New Testament, as in today’s Gospel reading, those who are healed and respond in faith are quite often not part of the Chosen Race, the Israelites. Naaman was an Aramean, an enemy of Israel, while the one leper who returned to praise God after being cured by Jesus was a Samaritan, one who was from a group despised by the Israelites. What can we learn from this? First, faith is a gift from God and how, when and by whom it is experienced is unique to each individual. It is not something that automatically occurred simply because one’s parents and grandparents were believers. On the other hand, nobody is automatically denied faith because he or she is a sinner. To be sure, some of the saints have been great sinners. In order to have faith one must have a change of heart, a conversion. Naaman and the Samaritan leper each had a faith experience that opened their eyes to how God had touched their lives. Their hearts were changed by encountering God. Second, in these readings there is a big difference between experiencing faith and merely knowing about faith. Naaman and the leper knew little about the God of Israel or the teachings of Jesus Christ. Yet, both of them had a faith experience. That experience most likely led both men then to grow in the knowledge of their newfound faith. Time and time again, Jesus touches the lives of people who simply place their trust in him even though they don’t completely understand what he is all about. But the other nine lepers represent the opposite situation. They had enough knowledge of the faith of Israel to know that their cures needed to be authenticated by the Jewish priests, but they seem to be unable to connect their healings with the working of God in their lives. And even if they had been able to make that connection, they definitely didn’t connect their healings with the power of Jesus. Of course, the greatest New Testament example of those who only knew about faith but did not practice it is the hypocritical Pharisees. They demonstrate the great difference between knowledge of faith and faith in action. A third lesson to be learned, especially from the Gospel story, is that God is active in our lives whether or not faith leads us to recognize that power and presence. In today’s second reading, Paul writes to Timothy to tell him that even if we are unfaithful, God remains faithful to us because God cannot deny himself. In other words, God is always active in our lives, even when we aren’t able, or simply refuse, to recognize that divine activity in our normal everyday experience. The nine lepers may well have not connected their cure with God’s involvement in their lives, yet God remained faithful to them. God doesn’t take back the cure or punish them for their lack of faith. What might be applications of these three lessons from the Scriptures? Taking the third lesson first, we are all challenged to have a discerning faith and to be more aware of God working in our lives and relationships. This means we have to be convinced that God is alive and that we are always in the palm of God’s hand. The second point requires us to put our faith into action while at the same time deepening our knowledge of that faith. Understanding faith and practicing faith have to go hand in hand. And finally, faith is God’s gift and it requires conversion, not once but throughout our lives. We can support and encourage one another in this ongoing change of heart through prayer, example, fellowship and invitation. That task is as old as the Church itself. It’s called evangelization. Father R. Michael Schaab is a senior priest of the Diocese of Peoria who gives retreats and days of recollection, and who fills in as presider at parish Masses on weekends. He resides on a hobby farm in Putnam County.

Surprising Beginnings (March 1940-September 1941) "Surprising Beginnings" sets the stage for the series and examines the radical increase in violence against all opponents of the Nazi state during this 18-month period. In particular, the program explores the importance of the German Army's invasion of the Soviet Union during the summer of 1941 and connects this campaign to the first gassing experiments in Auschwitz, which were aimed at Russian prisoners of war, not Jews. In the final segment, Linda Ellerbee talks with Michael Berenbaum, professor of theology at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and author of Anatomy of the Auschwitz Nazi Death Camp (published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Indiana University Press, 1994); and Melvin Jules Bukiet, professor of creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and author of Nothing Makes You Free: Writings by Descendants of Jewish Holocaust Survivors (W.W. Norton, 2002). Orders and Initiatives (September 1941-March 1942) "Orders and Initiatives" highlights the crucial decision-making period of the Holocaust, encompassing the secret plans of Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Reinhard Heydrich. At a conference at Wannsee in January 1942, the participants work toward finalizing their goal-the systematic genocide of an entire people. The first gas chambers are built at Auschwitz and the use of Zyklon B is developed. German doctors arrive to oversee each transport, deciding who should live and who should die. In the final segment, Linda Ellerbee talks with Claudia Koonz, professor of history at Duke University and author of The Nazi Conscience (Belknap, 2003) and Mothers in the Fatherland, Women, the Family, and Nazi Politics (St. Martin's Press, 1987); and Edward Kissi, professor of Africana studies, University of South Florida, an expert on international relations and human rights, and author of the forthcoming Revolution and Genocide in the Third World: A Comparative Study of Ethiopia and Cambodia (Lexington Books). Factories of Death (March 1942-March 1943) "Factories of Death" examines the complex annihilation system that the Nazis spread throughout Europe, with Auschwitz as the hub. We learn why the first transport of Jewish men, women, and children interred at Drancy, outside Paris, were transported to Auschwitz in March 1942 and what happened to the children who were rounded up without their parents. Genocide is being perpetrated not only at Auschwitz, but at other camps, such as Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor. Astonishingly, rival Nazi camp commanders participate with enthusiasm and share ideas for the best method of mass murder. In the final segment, Linda Ellerbee talks with Debórah Dwork, Rose Professor of Holocaust History at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, and the author of Children with a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe (Yale University Press, 1991) and with Robert Jan van Pelt, Holocaust: A History (Norton, 2002); and John K. Roth, Edward J. Sexton professor of philosophy at Claremont McKenna College in California (a visiting scholar at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004-2005), author of After-words: Post-Holocaust Struggles with Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Justice (University of Washington Press, 2004), and editor of Genocide in Rwanda: Complicity of the Churches? (Paragon House, 2004). Corruption (April 1943-March 1944) "Corruption" reveals why Auschwitz was unique in the Nazi state as the only site that was both a concentration and an extermination camp. The reason was simple-money. At Auschwitz, the Nazis wanted to kill "useless mouths" instantly and work stronger prisoners to death as slave laborers in places like the nearby IG Farben factory. Meanwhile, the SS profited from the belongings of those they killed-so much so, that in the summer of 1943, an investigation was launched into corruption in the camp and the commandant was removed. Elsewhere, individuals and nations are finding ways to resist the spread of deportations. Denmark, for example, is able to protect its Jewish population from Auschwitz. In the final segment, Linda Ellerbee talks with David Marwell, a historian and director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City; Doris Bergen, associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and author of War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003); and Deborah Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies and director of The Rabbi Donald A. Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University and author of Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust (1933-1945) (Free Press, 1986), Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory (Plume, 1994), and History on Trial: My Day in Court with Holocaust Denier David Irving (Ecco, 2005). Murder and Intrigue (March 1944-December 1944) "Murder and Intrigue" explores the complex web of international politics spun during the last nine months of 1944. By that spring, the Allies knew about Auschwitz and had the military capability to bomb it. Yet despite the pleas of Jewish leaders, the British and Americans decided not to bomb the railways or gas chambers. During the spring and summer, hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz at a time when the killing machinery had been honed to perfection. That autumn saw a significant act of resistance in Auschwitz, when a group of Jewish prisoners revolted. Amazingly, before their deaths, some secretly wrote about their experiences. In the final segment, Linda Ellerbee talks with Gail Smith, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former special assistant to the president and senior director of African affairs at the National Security Council during the Clinton Administration; and Jerry Fowler, who has taught human rights law and policy at George Mason University Law School and directs the Committee on Conscience at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Liberation and Revenge (January 1945 and beyond) "Liberation and Revenge" completes the history of Auschwitz. As the end of the war approached, Auschwitz camp officers tried to hide the evidence of their crimes but were not completely successful. After liberation, survivors searched for their family and tried to return to their prewar homes, but former communities and neighbors did not always welcome them back. As evidence of war crimes emerged, some senior SS officers were tried and convicted; others were allowed to resume their lives. Over four years, 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz and 1.1 million people died there. Of the 7,000 members of the SS who worked at Auschwitz and survived the war, fewer than 800 were ever put on trial. In the final segment, Linda Ellerbee talks with eight students: Humera Ahmed, a sophomore at Boston College (school identifications are as of spring 2004); Henry Connelly, a senior at The Crossroads School, Santa Monica; Carmen Farias, a sophomore at Wellesley College; Adam Finelli, a junior at New York University; Lewis Frank, a senior at Boston Latin School; Meredith (Molly) Higgins, a senior at Boston Latin School; Janelle Jackson, a freshman at Clark Atlanta University; and Lydia Ross, a freshman at Columbia College. Humera, Carmen, Adam, Lewis, Molly, and Janelle had previously taken a course on the Holocaust with Judi Freeman, Seevak Chair in History at Boston Latin School, and several participated on a class trip to Poland.

And rabbinical school is on hold. The day that Ryan lost his job in early October, on my way home from school I made a conscious decision to finally let my guard down and be joyful about having begun my rabbinic studies. I mused about how exactly in the moment of my life I felt. And that evening, hours after learning his news, I remember telling Ryan that I still had the feeling that my life was going in the exact direction in which the Universe intended it to go–even though it was clear that my studies might end up being financially unsupportable. At the time, the thought of quitting school so soon after beginning filled me with dread. Then earlier this month, I stopped taking things so personally and pivoted. I withdrew from school completely to focus with Ryan on our mutual re-employment. I decided that a more secure financial footing on both of our parts was the best way to move forward–with rabbinical school or anything else. While I was working up to the decision, I expected a real sense of loss and sadness upon finally going through with it, even though leaving school might only be a temporary separation. What I did not expect was the feeling of my entire life suddenly opening up, in a surprisingly refreshing way. I’ve thought a lot about that feeling this month, and about its implications, which are unexpected and significant. I’ve realized this month that for the past three years, I’ve been missing big parts of myself that I used to value and that used to bring me joy. Not because I decided to let those parts go, but simply because my focus was naturally–and needed to be–elsewhere. During the past three years of my Jewish journey–discovering Judaism, studying for conversion, and achieving cruising altitude as a rank-and-file Member of the Tribe–forging a self-confident and informed Jewish man’s identity pushed a lot of other interests and concerns to the back burner. The sudden shock of leaving rabbinical school opened up a lot of space and clarity for me to understand that. The upshot is that, surprisingly, I feel far more that my life is going in the direction that the Universe expects it to go in this post-pivot moment than I did on that day in early October. I’m not going to say learning this was the point of beginning school in the first place, or that I don’t intend to return to school. I still think I’d make a hell of a rabbi. But before I get there, I want to make sure I move forward with all of me, not just my Super-Jew-by-Choice identity. That’s an identity that has unclenched, for want of a better word, in the past few weeks so much that Ryan has happily remarked upon it. I still swim in the deeper end of the mitzvot pool. But I find myself being a lot more fearlessly playful and experimental with my ritual and davenning–not to mention much more joyful. Other realizations have been more pointed. I no longer feel a pressing need to be at synagogue every Friday night. I find myself questioning the intrinsic worth of studying Talmud traditionally and of deferring my own God-given wisdom to the wisdom of sages from another millennium. And I have little patience left with the uneven experience of worshipping at my home synagogue–especially due to an often derogatory rabbinic attitude given voice on Shabbat and directed at God language and elements of the liturgy that suppose a relational Deity. I wonder whether this is normal for Year Four of a newish Jewish journey, or whether perhaps I’m realizing that I’m far more a post-denominational Jew than I ever realized. Either way, what it does make me, finally, is Jew who feels secure about his own Jewish legitimacy. It’s a topic addressed recently and well in blog posts from Punk Torah and the Coffee Shop Rabbi (here and here.) Here’s my take on the matter: I’ll choose how I roll Jewishly because as a Jew that’s my right. And if it means I attend or don’t attend a worship service or a rabbinical school, have faith in my rabbi’s ability to be an open-minded spiritual guide or not, roast a maple-bacon turkey this week (seriously, it’s awesome), or even whether I sidestep the alleged December Dilemma and put up a Jewish tree, that’s my business. I don’t need to be quiet about any of it, and I don’t need to lose sleep over any of it, either. And far from any of it making me somehow more or less a Jew, actually all of it mirrors the fact that I am absolutely legitimately Jewish. Being in total agreement with a single rabbi, shul, community, or denomination is not what makes you a legitimate Jew. Being Jewish is what makes you a legitimate Jew. Nothing more and nothing less. And any Jew who claims otherwise is engaging in perhaps the one truly Jewishly illegitimate act. I’m also happily rejoicing in the beyond-the-shtetl parts of me that I haven’t explored for a while. As you may have noticed, my blog has a new tag line, “Jewish by Choice, Journeying by Transit”. My exclusively Jewish blog focus is widening back out to include the urbanism and public transit topics I used to write about in its earlier days. I can’t tell you how many non-Jewish topics I’ve sat on in the past three years. I’m fiercely Jewish, yet I’m more than just Jewish. And I think my blog should reflect all of that, because it all brings me joy and has meaning. And then there’s the rest of my life, or at least the next of my life. Ryan as usual has unexpected and wonderful irons in the fire in terms of potential next career moves. I’m not so sure what’s next, or what that suggests about when or whether rabbinical school comes back. As Dallas said to Ripley, I’m still collating. But I’m doing so from a much more liberated position than before, and with a great sense of God and guidance. My sense is that it will involve writing, and outreach, and potentially remote work for social-justice based causes not necessarily based in Chicago. Or maybe that’s just my dream. Finally, the buried lede is the most surprising unless you were a reader back in 2007, which was the last time I said something of this nature. For various reasons having due to with our individual personal experiences and aspirations, Ryan and I are considering leaving Chicago. And by considering it, I mean we’ve talked about it at length for weeks and I’ve thought about it for several months. And by leaving Chicago, I mean moving to Los Angeles. And by moving to Los Angeles, I mean I would still get around on transit. But I would finally learn how to drive. Sha na na na na na na na na, sha na na na na. (Can’t see this video in your news feed? Watch it here.)

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Hundreds gather at London vigil for murdered teenagers (Photo: Daniel Easterman) Hundreds of people gathered for a candlelit vigil outside the Israeli embassy on Wednesday night to express their solidarity with the bereaved families of the three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped and killed in the West Bank. Representatives of major communal organisations were present, including the Jewish Leadership Council, the Board of Deputies, UJIA and the Zionist Federation. Addressing the crowd of more than 600 people, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Taub said: “Even in a region where violence is so prevalent, even in a country where our history is filled with so many tragedies, we are shocked. “But even as we are shocked, we are proud. Proud of the dignity and nobility of these three families, selected by terrorists because they were ordinary Israelis, but who have shown through their courage and sensitivity how extraordinary they are.” Israeli ambassador Daniel Taub addresses the crowd (Photo: Daniel Easterman) Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis told the gathering that he hoped Israel’s leaders would look up to the heavens towards God for guidance and wisdom in the days and weeks ahead. He said: “Our challenge is to transform hatred into love and to show that only unity and harmony among different peoples can take us forward in a meaningful and constructive way. “In the midst of deep grief, may God guide us along the route of hope, to the stability and security which will underpin the right of innocent men, women and children, to live their lives in peace.” The Chief Rabbi will lead a community learning session tomorrow evening in memory of the murdered teenagers. Rabbi for the Reform Movement, Laura Janner-Klausner said: “Exactly a week ago, I met Eyal Yifrach’s brother Asaf in London – I said – we’re with you. We are – whether in London, in Britain or throughout the world. We’re with you and we always will be.” Naomi Daniel, 20 from Netanya in Northern Israel, who is doing her year’s national service volunteering in the UK told the JC afterwards that she felt real emotion during the vigil. “There is a strong connection between Jews here in England and Israel,” she said. "The Jewish people are very unique in this way.”

Seth Connell is a graduate from Regent University with a B.A. in Government and a minor in History. Among his philosophical influences are Aristotle, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Freidrich von Hayek. He lives in southeastern Virginia. I'm sure many of you can empathize! Psychology professor Jordan Peterson reads a chapter of his book '12 Rules for Life.' Personal habits vs policy preferences: which is better for Earth? This hilarious illustration shows just how messed up the tax system can be! Maybe an alternative approach is what's needed to combat the crisis. What are people in rural areas doing right? I was waiting for sticker shock, but my bill was not outrageous. Quite the contrary. Writing is more than just producing words and sentences. There seems to be a strong relationship here. SHAME: Pope Francis Endorses Economic System of Slower Growth and More Poverty Zero-Emissions Vehicles Are Actually Not So Great For The Environment After All... Are There Too Many Options At Food Joints? Too Many Choices Can Give Us "Option Paralysis" America's Economy Is Growing, But What About Our Nation's Social Capital? Jewish Dream Becomes Reality: Jerusalem Recognized as Israel's Capital With Embassy Move Digital Diet: A Recipe to Control our Addiction to Phones, Computers, Social Media, Etc. On Average, Americans Spend $450 a Month Impulsively; Here's 10 Ways to Minimize That Proposal: For the Sake of the Poor, Abolish the World Health Organization Having a Bad Day? Marcus Aurelius Has Some Advice For How to Turn Things Around

Gold was born on May 22, 1920 in Vienna, Austria to Max Gold, a wealthy Jewish industrialist (pre-war) who ran one of Austria's largest mining and metal fabrication companies, and German former actress Josefine Martin. Following the economic downfall of the European mining industry in the late 1920s, Max Gold moved his family to Berlin, where he had taken a job as director of a metal trading company. Following the start of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's anti-Jewish campaigns in 1933, Gold and his family left Germany because of his father's heritage. The family traveled through Europe for the next few years. Gold attended boarding school at the Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz in Zuoz, Switzerland, where he quickly proved to be a clever, competitive and physically and mentally aggressive individual. Gold finished his schooling at Zuoz in 1938, and fled with his family to England after the German invasion of Austria in early 1938. Gold entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1939 and began studying mechanical sciences. In May 1940, just as Hitler was commencing his advance in Belgium and France, Gold was sent into internment as an enemy alien by the British government. It was on the first night of internment, at an army barracks in Bury St Edmunds, that he met his future collaborator and close friend, Hermann Bondi. "We Are the People" was the first and only top 40 single from Feeder's sixth studio album, Silent Cry. The single was released on 9 June 2008, receiving its first radio play on Kerrang! Radio, two months before on 14 April. It charted at #25 in the UK becoming Feeder's landmark 20th top 40 single, but also their last to date after follow-up "Tracing Lines / Silent Cry" missed the top 200 alongside being their least successful lead single from any of their albums since 1999. "We Are the People" is also the first Feeder single since 1997's "Crash", to miss the BBC Radio 1 playlist and also the first of their singles since that one to only spend one week on the UK top 75. It was included on XFM's top 100 tracks of 2008 list. London-based radio station XFM, ran a competition for an extra to appear in the video. The winner had to be available at a London West End address, with the details disclosed to them. In a blog posted by the bands then drummer Mark Richardson on their official website, it was revealed the director used the traditional blue screenchroma key technique (also used for the "Feeling a Moment" video).

World Bulletin / News Desk ANKARA - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to address Justice and Development (AK) Party lawmakers. ANKARA - Erdogan to address district, village heads. ANKARA - Erdogan to meet intelligence chief Hakan Fidan. ANKARA - Erdogan to meet Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar. ANKARA - Environment Minister Mehmet Ozhaseki to attend Anadolu Agency’s Editors’ Desk. WASHINGTON - Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim to meet U.S. Vice President Mike Pence; recent difficulties between NATO allies expected to lead discussions. NEW YORK - Yildirim to meet UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. NEW YORK - Yildirim to meet representatives of Jewish community before addressing investors. BERLIN - European Parliament President Antonio Tajani to deliver State of Europe speech at event organized by Konrad Adenauer Foundation. MADRID - Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag to attend World Health Organization conference on non-communicable diseases. MADRID - Six Catalan lawmakers under investigation for rebellion following independence declaration to appear at Supreme Court. BRUSSELS - NATO defense ministers to discuss current threat posed by Daesh, Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli to attend. GENEVA - Meeting of International Syria Support Group to discuss work of humanitarian access task force.Last Mod: 09 Kasım 2017, 09:51

Durrell supported his writing by working for many years in the Foreign Service of the British government. His sojourns in various places during and after World War II (such as his time in Alexandria, Egypt) inspired much of his work. He married four times, and had a daughter with each of his first two wives. Durrell was born in Jalandhar, British India, the eldest son of Indian-born British colonials Louisa (who was Anglo-Irish) and Lawrence Samuel Durrell, an engineer of English ancestry. His first school was St. Joseph's College, North Point, Darjeeling. He had three younger siblings— two brothers and a sister. Like many other children of the British Raj, at the age of eleven, Durrell was sent to England for schooling, where he briefly attended St. Olave's Grammar School before being sent to St. Edmund's School, Canterbury. His formal education was unsuccessful, and he failed his university entrance examinations. He began to write poetry seriously at the age of fifteen. His first collection, Quaint Fragments, was published in 1931, when he was 19. Durrell's father died of a brain hemorrhage in 1928, at the age of 43. His mother decided to bring the family to England, and in 1932, she, Durrell, and his younger siblings settled in Bournemouth. There, he and his younger brother Gerald became friends with Alan G. Thomas, who had a bookstore and would become an antiquarian. On 22 January 1935, Durrell married Nancy Isobel Myers (1912–1983). It was the first of his four marriages. Durrell was always unhappy in England, and in March of that year he persuaded his new wife, and his mother and younger siblings, to move to the Greek island of Corfu. There they could live more economically and escape both the English weather, and what Durrell considered the stultifying English culture, which he described as "the English death". That same year Durrell's first novel, Pied Piper of Lovers, was published by Cassell. Around this time he chanced upon a copy of Henry Miller's 1934 novel Tropic of Cancer. After reading it, he wrote to Miller, expressing intense admiration for his novel. Durrell's letter sparked an enduring friendship and mutually critical relationship that spanned 45 years. Durrell's next novel, Panic Spring, was strongly influenced by Miller's work, while his 1938 novel The Black Book abounded with "four-letter words... grotesques,... [and] its mood equally as apocalyptic" as Tropic. In Corfu, Lawrence and Nancy lived together in bohemian style. For the first few months, the couple lived with the rest of the Durrell family in the Villa Anemoyanni at Kontokali. In early 1936, Durrell and Nancy moved to the White House, a fisherman's cottage on the shore of Corfu's northeastern coast at Kalami, then a tiny fishing village. Durrell's friend Theodore Stephanides, a Greek doctor, scientist, and poet, was a frequent guest, and Miller stayed at the "White House" in 1939. Durrell fictionalised this period of his sojourn on Corfu in the lyrical novel Prospero's Cell. His younger brother Gerald Durrell, who became a naturalist, published his own version in his memoir My Family and Other Animals (1954) and in the following two books of Gerald's so-called Corfu Trilogy, published in 1969 and 1978 respectively. Gerald describes Lawrence as living permanently with his mother and siblings—his wife Nancy is not mentioned at all. Lawrence, in his turn, refers only briefly to his brother Leslie, and he does not mention that his mother and two other siblings were also living on Corfu in those years. The accounts cover a few of the same topics; for example, both Gerald and Lawrence describe the roles played in their lives by the Corfiot taxi driver Spiro Amerikanos and the Greek doctor and poet Theodore Stephanides. In Corfu, Lawrence became friends with Marie Aspioti, with whom he cooperated in the publication of Lear's Corfu. In August 1937, Lawrence and Nancy travelled to the Villa Seurat in Paris to meet Henry Miller and French writer Anaïs Nin. Together with Alfred Perles, Nin, Miller, and Durrell "began a collaboration aimed at founding their own literary movement. Their projects included The Shame of the Morning and the Booster, a country club house organ that the Villa Seurat group appropriated for their own artistic . . . ends." They also started the Villa Seurat Series in order to publish Durrell's Black Book, Miller's Max and the White Phagocytes, and Nin's Winter of Artifice. Jack Kahane of the Obelisk Press served as publisher. Durrell's first novel of note, The Black Book: An Agon, was strongly influenced by Miller; it was published in Paris in 1938. The mildly pornographic work was not published in Great Britain until 1973. In the story, the main character Lawrence Lucifer struggles to escape the spiritual sterility of dying England and finds Greece to be a warm and fertile environment. At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Durrell's mother and siblings returned to England, while he and Nancy remained on Corfu. In 1940, he and Nancy had a daughter, Penelope Berengaria. After the fall of Greece, Lawrence and Nancy escaped via Crete to Alexandria, Egypt. The marriage was already under strain, and they separated in 1942. Nancy took the baby Penelope with her to Jerusalem. During his years on Corfu, Durrell had made notes for a book about the island. He did not write it fully until he was in Egypt towards the end of the war. In the book Prospero's Cell, Durrell described Corfu as "this brilliant little speck of an island in the Ionian," with waters "like the heartbeat of the world itself". During World War Two, Durrell served as a press attaché to the British embassies, first in Cairo and then Alexandria. While in Alexandria he met Eve (Yvette) Cohen, a Jewish Alexandrian. She inspired his character Justine in The Alexandria Quartet. In 1947, after his divorce from Nancy was completed, Durrell married Eve Cohen. In 1951 they had a daughter whom they named Sappho Jane, after the legendary ancient Greek poet Sappho. (After many years of struggling with mental health problems, Sappho Durrell committed suicide by hanging in 1985.) In May 1945, Durrell obtained a posting to Rhodes, the largest of the Dodecanese islands which Italy had taken over from the disintegrating Ottoman Empire in 1912 during the Balkan Wars. With the Italian surrender to the Allies in 1943, German forces took over most of the islands and held onto them as besieged fortresses until the war's end. Mainland Greece was at that time locked in civil war. A temporary British military government was established in the Dodecanese at war's end, pending sovereignty being transferred to Greece in 1947, as part of war reparations from Italy. Durrell set up house with Eve in the little gatekeeper's lodge of an old Turkish cemetery, just across the road from the building used by the British Administration. (Today this is the Casino in Rhodes' new town.) His co-habitation with Eve Cohen could be discreetly ignored by his employer, while the couple gained from staying within the perimeter security zone of the main building. His book Reflections on a Marine Venus was inspired by this period and was a lyrical celebration of the island. It avoids more than a passing mention of the troubled war times. In 1947, Durrell was appointed director of the British Council Institute in Córdoba, Argentina. He served there for eighteen months, giving lectures on cultural topics. He returned to London with Eve in the summer of 1948, around the time that Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia broke ties with Stalin's Cominform. Durrell was posted by the British Council to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and served there until 1952. This sojourn gave him material for his novel White Eagles over Serbia (1957). In 1952, Eve had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised in England. Durrell moved to Cyprus with their daughter Sappho Jane, buying a house and taking a position teaching English literature at the Pancyprian Gymnasium to support his writing. He next worked in public relations for the British government during the local agitation for union with Greece. He wrote about his time in Cyprus in Bitter Lemons, which won the Duff Cooper Prize in 1957. In 1954, he was selected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Durrell left Cyprus in August 1956. Political agitation on the island and his British government position resulted in his becoming a target for assassination attempts. In 1957, he published Justine, the first novel of what was to become his most famous work, The Alexandria Quartet. Justine, Balthazar (1958), Mountolive (1958), and Clea (1960), deal with events before and during the Second World War in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. The first three books tell essentially the same story and series of events, but from the varying perspectives of different characters. Durrell described this technique in his introductory note in Balthazar as "relativistic." Only in the final novel, Clea, does the story advance in time and reach a conclusion. Critics praised the 'Quartet' for its richness of style, the variety and vividness of its characters, its movement between the personal and the political, and its locations in and around the ancient Egyptian city which Durrell portrays as the chief protagonist: "The city which used us as its flora—precipitated in us conflicts which were hers and which we mistook for our own: beloved Alexandria!" The Times Literary Supplement review of the Quartet stated: "If ever a work bore an instantly recognizable signature on every sentence, this is it." In 2012, when the Nobel Records were opened after 50 years, it was revealed that Durrell had been on a shortlist of authors considered for the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, along with American John Steinbeck (winner), British poet Robert Graves, French writer Jean Anouilh, and the Danish Karen Blixen. The Academy decided that "Durrell was not to be given preference this year"—probably because "they did not think that The Alexandria Quartet was enough, so they decided to keep him under observation for the future." They also noted that he "gives a dubious aftertaste … because of [his] monomaniacal preoccupation with erotic complications." He had been considered in 1961 but did not make the shortlist. In 1955 Durrell separated from Eve Cohen. He married again in 1961, to Claude-Marie Vincendon, whom he met on Cyprus. She was a Jewish woman born in Alexandria. Durrell was devastated when Claude-Marie died of cancer in 1967. He married for the fourth and last time in 1973, to Ghislaine de Boysson, a French woman. They divorced in 1979. Durrell settled in Sommières, a small village in Languedoc, France, where he purchased a large house on the edge of the village. The house was situated in extensive grounds surrounded by a wall. Here he wrote The Revolt of Aphrodite, comprising Tunc (1968) and Nunquam (1970). He also completed The Avignon Quintet, published from 1974 to 1985, which used many of the same motifs and styles found in his metafictional Alexandria Quartet. Although the related works are frequently described as a quintet, Durrell referred to it as a "quincunx." The opening novel, Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness, received the 1974 James Tait Black Memorial Prize. That year, Durrell was living in the United States and serving as the Andrew Mellon Visiting Professor of Humanities at the California Institute of Technology. The middle novel of the quincunx, Constance, or Solitary Practices (1981), which portrays France in the 1940s under the German occupation, was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1982. In 1982 Durrell wrote "About Eduardo Sanguinetti," the preface to Sanguinetti's philosophical essay Alter Ego (1986). He wrote: "This is what the work of Sanguinetti shows us, in the form of a mirror image. Or, to put it in less philosophical terms, Eduardo Sanguinetti, like almost any other creator, has little understanding of what he is going to do and only partially understands what he has done. Sanguinetti, in a way of contemplating the world and all his work, whatever the medium, reveals this particular way. Sanguinetti is a style. He is an extraordinarily coherent statement of a way of being in the world." Other works from this period are Sicilian Carousel, a non-fiction celebration of that island, The Greek Islands, and Caesar's Vast Ghost, which is set in and chiefly about the region of Provence, France. A longtime smoker, Durrell suffered from emphysema for many years. He died of a stroke at his house in Sommières in November 1990. One year after his death, in 1991 the British literary magazine Granta published excerpts from the journals of his late daughter Sappho. She had committed suicide in 1985 at the age of 33 after many years of psychiatric problems. In the journals, she intimated that she had an incestuous relationship with her father. Reviewer Roger Cohen said that the nature of her "largely incoherent" writing made it impossible to determine whether the events she describes were real or imagined. Durrell said that he had three literary uncles: his publisher T. S. Eliot, the Greek poet George Seferis, and the American Henry Miller. He had first read Miller after finding a copy of Tropic of Cancer that had been left behind in a public lavatory. He said the book shook him "from stem to stern". Durrell worked for several years in the service of the Foreign Office. He was senior press officer to the British embassies in Athens and Cairo, press attaché in Alexandria and Belgrade, and director of the British Institutes in Kalamata, Greece, and Córdoba, Argentina. He was also director of Public Relations in the Dodecanese Islands and on Cyprus. He later refused a Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, because he felt his "conservative, reactionary and right-wing" political views might be a cause for embarrassment. Durrell's works of humour, Esprit de Corps and Stiff Upper Lip, are about life in the diplomatic corps, particularly Serbia. He claimed to have disliked both Egypt and Argentina, although not nearly so much as he disliked Yugoslavia. Durrell's poetry has been overshadowed by his novels, but Peter Porter, in his introduction to a Selected Poems, calls Durrell "One of the best [poets] of the past hundred years. And one of the most enjoyable." Porter describes Durrell's poetry: "Always beautiful as sound and syntax. Its innovation lies in its refusal to be more high-minded than the things it records, together with its handling of the whole lexicon of language." For much of his life, Durrell resisted being identified solely as British, or as only affiliated with Britain. He preferred to be considered as cosmopolitan. Since his death, there have been rumours that Durrell never had British citizenship, but he was originally classified as a British citizen as he was born to British colonial parents living in India under the British Raj. In 1966 Durrell and many other former and present British residents became classified as non-patrial, as a result of an amendment to the Commonwealth Immigrants Act. The law was covertly intended to reduce migration from India, Pakistan, and the West Indies, but Durrell was also penalized by it and refused citizenship. He had not been told that he needed to "register as a British citizen in 1962 under the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962." As The Guardian reported in 2002, Durrell in 1966 was "one of the best selling, most celebrated English novelists of the late 20th century" and "at the height of his fame." Denied the normal citizenship right to enter or settle in Britain, Durrell had to apply for a visa for each entry. Diplomats were outraged and embarrassed at these events. "Sir Patrick Reilly, the ambassador in Paris, was so incensed that he wrote to his Foreign Office superiors: 'I venture to suggest it might be wise to ensure that ministers, both in the Foreign Office and the Home Office, are aware that one of our greatest living writers in the English language is being debarred from the citizenship of the United Kingdom to which he is entitled.'" After Durrell's death, his lifelong friend Alan G. Thomas donated a collection of books and periodicals associated with Durrell to the British Library. This is maintained as the distinct Lawrence Durrell Collection. Thomas had earlier edited an anthology of writings, letters and poetry by Durrell, published as Spirit Of Place (1969). It contained material related to Durrell's own published works. Important documentary resource is kept by the Bibliothèque Lawrence Durrell at the Université Paris Ouest in Nanterre.

Please note that this edition of Around the Block was originally published on Friday, 10/25/19. Our open houses have passed as have the events listed under Philly Stuff. If you see an open house below that you really wanted to see, please let us know by emailing [email protected]. We would be happy to accommodate your busy schedule by arranging a time that’s convenient for you. That goes for open house listings and any of the featured properties below as well. Fall is the perfect time of year to explore your options here in Philadelphia. Fall Market is in full swing and there are many options! Take a look at homes that meet your criteria here. With so many varying property characteristics and price points, there’s something for everyone. Volume 18: Issue 45 10/25/19 Your Weekly Dose of Real Estate News, Open Houses, Listings and More — by Jeff “City” Block Did you know that you can submit a repair request online and even attach a photo of the problematic area? Some potholes are addressed by PA Dept. of Transportation or other utilities, while some may be forwarded to organizations such as PennDOT or SEPTA. Click here to request a repair. Learn more about Philly’s “Pothole Killer” machine here. You can also download the Philly 311 app from the App Store or via Google Play and submit requests that way. I submitted a request on my block and the pothole was actually repaired within a few weeks. I must say I was pleasantly shocked. They sent me real-time updates through the app too. Pretty cool. OPEN HOUSE: SATURDAY, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. 4 Bed | 2.5 Bath | Family Room Exquisite, Renovated historic home with spectacular character and parking adjacent to the home. Large brick patio. This c. 1816 home has the best of all worlds, a pristine high-end renovation, and a most-convenient location. It also has wonderful light and significant original characters from the early 19th century. The custom renovation was completed by esteemed Philadelphia architects Voith and MacTavish.With 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and a family room, this home offers high ceilings, original random-width pine floors throughout, huge windows, moldings, Pennsylvania Blue Marble (exterior front steps, mantles), original doors and wood trim. Amazing space and layout. The ground level is actually an “English” Lower Level space (i.e., only a few feet below grade so nice windows and light). It offers an ideal open main living area–high-end chef’s kitchen, open dining area, and comfortable family room. Walkout to patio. The kitchen offers custom Leicht Cabinetry, Miele and Sub-Zero appliances, quartz tops, and wonderful storage. Amazing location with a 98 WalkScore. Close to tons of restaurants, cafes, Whole Foods, dog park, parks, and everything Wash West and Center City have to offer. McCall School Catchment. NOTE ON PARKING: Seller paid assigned parking space through 12/31/2020 in lot directly adjacent to the home. Also, a 2nd space available for purchase in the French Village Parking Garage at 254 S 9th for $60,000. Click here to see all of the Compass Coming Soons listed in the Philadelphia area this weekend. These listings are not listed on any other public site, so you can only see then on Compass.com. If you have any interest or questions, please contact me to discuss. Below is a Coming Soon listing from the City Block Team. 4248 Regent Square University City (Spruce Hill) 5 Bed | 2 Bath | Large Patio $525,000 Enjoy a Spooktacular Saturday on the Square From 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on 10/26. bring the little ones to Rittenhouse Square in costume. Enjoy a Little Friends Costume Parade at 11:00 a.m. (complete with candy and refreshments – face painting too!) followed by a Furry Friends Costume Parade. A lot of local shops also welcome kids with candy on this day as well. Rain date: Sunday, 10/27. More info here. AJC’s #ShowUpForShabbat Event – This Weekend: 10/26 & 10/27 On the 1-year anniversary of the Pittsburgh Synagogue attacks, join thousands of Jews and friends and #ShowUpForShabbat this weekend to honor the eleven victims of the Pittsburgh attack. Let’s stand with Pittsburgh’s Jewish community, and raise our voices for a world without antisemitism, hate, and ignorance. You can find a participating local Synagogue here. Help define the future for generations to come. Additional info here. Follow #ShowUpforShabbat on Twitter and Facebook. HOSR: A Regatta for Everyone in Fairmount Park: 10/26 & 10/27 It’s one of the largest rowing competitions in the world— pairing more than 9,000 athletes and upwards of 30,000-40,000 spectators. The fall racing event, which began four decades ago, is a festive two-day experience that includes college crews, high school crews, rowing rookies, and world champions. An up-to-date schedule of events can be found here. Note: Kelly Drive will be closed to traffic beginning at 6:00 a.m. – 5:45 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. This Week’s Featured Listings 2004 Delancey Street 6 Bed | 5 Bath | 2 Half-Bath 109-11 Pine Street OPEN HOUSE: 11:30 – 1:00 p.m. 4 Bed | 3.5 Bath Finished Lower Level 264 S 9th Street OPEN HOUSE: SAT 11:30 – 12:30 p.m. Just a quick reminder that I’m always humbled by and appreciative of your introductions and referrals. If you have a friend or family member that is in need of expert real estate representation, please send them my way. Be assured, I will do my best to exceed their expectations! Thanks for taking the time to read this issue of Around the Block. Connect with us on Social. Social Links are not complete Some imagery in this e-newsletter was sourced via Visit Philadelphia®. Pixabay, Canva.com, and pexels.com Compass RE is a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. No statement is made as to the accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate. This is not intended to solicit property already listed. Nothing herein shall be construed as legal, accounting or other professional advice outside the realm of real estate brokerage.

Every year, in February and March, activists and ethically-minded organizations all over the planet will be talking about boycotting Israel, kicking off proceedings with the tenth annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). This comes at a time when the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement has seen unprecedented growth and attention from world media as well as from within Israel and the governments and institutions complicit with its ongoing crimes against Palestinians. IAW, an international series of peaceful protests, has become a major catalyst for rallying support and encouraging action for BDS on Israel. BDS is an emphatically anti-racist movement that targets structures of systematic injustice and exploitation. Israel is losing the BDS battle, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu taking to the Twittersphere to attack activists and accuse BDS of targeting Jews rather than Israel’s “alleged” abuses against Palestinians. But BDS does not discriminate against individuals because of religion or national identity. Speaking to leaders of American Jewish pro-Israel organizations this week, Netanyahu declared BDS supporters to be “classical anti-Semites in modern garb” and called for the Israeli state to fight back and “delegitimize the delegitimizers.” Hardly news. He’s parroting the Reut Institute’s 2010 strategy – launched four years ago this week – to fight back against so-called “delegitimizers” –Palestinian rights supporters – with a strategy of “sabotage and attack.” In recent months, top ministers in Netanyahu’s government have repeatedly declared that BDS is the “greatest threat” Israel faces. Indeed, last summer, Netanyahu put responsibility for fighting against the movement for Palestinian rights into the hands of the “Ministry of Strategic Affairs.” The state is also placing dedicated anti-BDS operatives in its foreign embassies. Yet four years and millions of dollars later, the Reut Institute strategy hasn’t stemmed growth of Palestinian support. If anything, Israel’s vilification of nonviolent BDS is expanding global awareness of the movement’s efforts to implement positive change. Israel has a problem; its reaction to this growing movement is myopic. Denigrating BDS as an anti-semitic pressure group hellbent on the destruction of the Israeli state creates a Molotov cocktail of public emotion, pitting pro-Palestinians against supporters of a dedicated Jewish state. Human rights is not a zero-sum game, ideals can co-exist within a framework of basic universal principles. BDS is not anti-semitic. It is anti-occupation, anti-apartheid, anti-colonization, anti-racist and fully committed to halt the systematic denial of the rights of indigenous Palestinians solely on the grounds that they are not Jewish. Substitute “Jews” for “Palestinians” in that sentence and “Christian” for “Jewish”, to see the common core in both sides of this heated equation. Even if you're no activist, you may be secretly aiding and abetting the Israeli occupation without realizing it - many household items and products have ties to the Israeli government. The recent Scarlett Johansson SodaStream scandal proved that you can barely get a fizzy drink these days without there being politicial ramifications. So that you don't do a "Scarlett", here's Al Bawaba's low down on all the brands that helped build the Israeli occupation. The easiest way to join the BDS movement? Stop buying these products. Here’s our cheat sheet of 11 ways you can become an agent for positive change!

View large image | More photos |The notion that Prague was once considered an "Eastern European" capital is getting harder to fathom each year. (Courtesy photo)| PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- The gaggle of British reporters traveling through Prague in the mid-'90s on their way to cover the inaugural Czech Open found this country so exotic and rustic, they all but donned Indiana Jones fedoras and bullwhips. The well fed, crimson-nosed golf writers covering that first ever PGA Tour foray behind the Iron Curtain kept saying "Czech-o-slo-vakia," though it had been nearly two years since the Czechs and Slovaks divvied up into two countries. And a few of them suspiciously sniffed their food before eating it. The country was a bit rough-hewn back then; especially by the standards of golf flacks used to a posh life following the tour from St. Andrews to Valderrama and back. Czech soldiers were pressed into service helping the grounds crew during the 1994 Czech Open and, coming to and from the course, you'd still see old Czechoslovak Skodas and East German Trabants puttering down the road. The thick smoke those cars belched out was only slightly different in color from the brown coal still heating many buildings. Many restaurants and hotels, meanwhile, offered a standard of "service" you'd expect to find in Cuba, Moscow of Beijing. In the subsequent years since that tournament, the Czech Republic and Prague in particular have enjoyed a renaissance fueled by a market-driven economy and a fortuitous location in the heart of Europe. The Velvet Revolution of 1989 is a distant memory and the years of freedom and capitalism have helped restore the luster. The notion that Prague was once considered an "Eastern European" capital is getting harder to fathom each year, and it has become less surprising for visitors to look at a map and realize that Prague is actually west of Vienna. What's more, even as Prague continues to polish itself, with new hotels and restaurants sprouting up and ancient buildings being renovated all the time, it has remained significantly more affordable to visit than other European capitals. One of the worst-kept secrets among savvy travelers is that, even with admission to the European Union, the Czech Republic remains a splendid place to enjoy a European vacation and do minimal damage to your bank account. Another poorly kept secret is the quality of the local brews -- Czech beer is among the best in the world! By early in the 10th century, Prague had become a thriving center of commerce and, during the Middle Ages, it enjoyed a golden age. The city later served as the seat of the Hapsburg dynasty. The 18th century saw the building of many Baroque palaces and cathedrals and the 19th century was a period of intense national pride. The National Museum at the top of Wenceslas Square, and the National Theater and Rudolfinum concert hall on the banks of the Vltava River all date back to this period. While Prague's charms are no secret, few foreign tourists know that, less than an hour away by rental car, lie a number of fine golf courses. Some might be surprised to read golf and Czech in the same sentence, but they shouldn't be. The Czechoslovak Golf Association was founded in 1931 and the country now boasts 90-plus golf facilities. More than 15,000 Czechs have taken to the game in a serious way -- an increase of about 13,000 since the time of the 1994 Czech Open. Visitors to Prague should save a little time on their itineraries in order to hit a quality golf course or two nearby. Golf Resort Konopiste and Golf Club Podebrady may be markedly different from each other, but these tracks offer a solid, affordable golf experience in a uniquely Central European setting. Golf Resort Konopiste lies just beyond the charming town of Benesov, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Prague. The club's moniker is a tip of the cap to nearby Konopiste Castle, once home to Archduke Franz Ferdinand d'Este, who headed the Austro-Hungarian empire until 1914 when he was assassinated in Sarajevo, touching off World War I. Golf Resort Konopiste is among the newer courses in the region, having opened in summer of 2002. The resort boasts two 18-hole courses -- the Radecky and the D'Este -- and a public nine-hole course. The courses surround a renovated country manor that houses the golf shop, restaurant, hotel rooms and conference facilities. The 18-hole courses offer a fun -- and fair -- test of your game, not to mention an opportunity to burn off all the Czech beer you've been drinking, as everyone walks. There are a mix of long, open par 4 and 5 holes, and just for fun, a number of dandy tests such as the par-5 fourth hole on the Radecky Course, which is like driving down a tunnel, with tall trees lining both sides and a creek on the left. Fairways are hilly and rolling and some areas are bordered by thick, lush forest. Thirty miles (50 kilometers) east of Prague lies the picturesque spa town of Podebrady. The course there, Golf Club Podebrady, was established in 1961, making it among the oldest facilities in the country. Today's par-72, 18-hole layout was completed in 2000. The cavernous main clubhouse dates back to 1922 when it served as a radio communications center. Ironically, after the communist takeover in 1948, they used the equipment here to jam broadcasts from the West. All radio gear is long gone and now the clubhouse houses a golf shop and eight-tee indoor driving range, in addition to a restaurant, bar and hotel rooms. The entire facility covers some 247 acres and you'll not pass one residence during your round. The 6,566-yard course is quite flat, making is an easier walk than Golf Resort Konopiste. It's important, though, to bring more golf balls. The Labe river runs nearby and streams and ponds come into play on 11 different holes. The front nine is a pleasant mix of challenges and rewards. Rounding the turn, you might think you're in for more of the same. But once you reach no. 12, hold onto your spikes and hope for the best. There's a challenging barrage of doglegs and water carries. Coming up the wide-open approach to the 18th green, however, you have an unobstructed view of the clubhouse and can take comfort knowing that a cold draft beer awaits. Heading back to Prague, you'll have plenty of time for a great dinner, a stroll across the Charles Bridge, a symphony performance, or maybe all three. Prague Castle: You may want to spend an entire day taking in St. Vitus' Cathedral and the various basilicas, galleries and palaces that make up the castle complex. The Jewish Quarter: Josefov, or the Jewish Quarter, features a number of synagogues dating back to the 1200s, and a cemetery that, for more than three centuries, was the only burial ground available to Prague's Jews. There are more than 12,000 gravestones crammed into a tiny yard and some 100,000 are thought to have been laid to rest here, the most recent in 1787. Old Town Square: The square, actually more of a circle, featuring Gothic and Romanesque architecture, has been host to many important Prague events, such as the execution of 27 Protestant leaders in 1621 and Klement Gottwald's proclamation of the communist state in 1948. Charles Bridge: Prague's most famous landmark was constructed in 1357 and connects the quaint Mala Strana neighborhood near Prague Castle with New Town. November 17, 2004 Since March of 2005, Mark Nessmith has directed the TravelGolf Network's team from the company's European office in the Czech capital of Prague. Prior to taking the reins as editor, he was a communications program manager with The PGA of America in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He also has served as managing editor for The Prague Post, the leading English-language newspaper of the Czech Republic. Follow Mark on Twitter at @marknessmith. The Olde English District -- which runs 20 minutes south of Charlotte down toward Columbia, S.C. -- has a whole lot going for it when it comes to golf and history. But today's battles can be played out on an array of more than 20 golf courses. Here are some top picks. ... full article »

Boulder Weekly writer Michael Casey called me with an interesting question. He wanted to talk about the Boulder Jewish Film Festival in relationship to the rash of anti-Semitic acts currently taking place. In particular, he wondered about the rash of bomb threats that have disrupted JCCs across the country, including our own JCC. In fact, this was a topic I have been thinking about a lot and was therefore pleased to be answering the question. I started with an anecdote. The day of our first bomb threat, in which we smoothly evacuated the building including the entire preschool, was a upsetting and disruptive. In the evening we had already scheduled a concert in Levin Hall, a tribute to the late Leonard Cohen performed by numerous members of the community. The concert was moving and profound, and all the performances were terrific. The audience loved it and told me so. I could not have programmed a more perfect evening in response to the dramatic reminder of hate. The answer to hate, of course, is always love and understanding, and our focus on the wisdom and words of Leonard Cohen put events in perspective, gave solace, and allowed us to come together as a community. Our ability to experience pleasure and to advance our understanding and appreciation of the world is not deterred by anti-Semitic threats. Quite the contrary. So the very next morning at our JCC early breakfast meeting to discuss our bomb threat, I shared with my colleagues that I came away at the end of the concert with a very strong feeling that our programs have great value in the community. They are healing, therapeutic, defiant; they strengthen us in our convictions and underscore our values. I am so pleased that ACE can be part of the positive response to hate. I shared this with the Weekly reporter, and went on to talk about the film festival specifically – how I select the films, discuss them, and how they also underscore Jewish values. Many films present us with situations either historic or fictionalized that allow us to contemplate our own lives, society and relationships. They might be personally empowering, they may elicit empathy, they may offer a glimmer of hope or an insight that keeps us thinking for days. I look forward to coming together over the next 11 days as we view and discuss films from around the world, and create a collective response to the threats we face as a community. The power of cinema is not be underestimated. The outpouring of support from the Boulder community has been amazing. We are all deeply gratified to have friends standing with us. I hope to make more friends at the Boulder Jewish Film Festival, a place for open conversation and open hearts.

The Trail of Werner Herzog: An Interview Herzog in Montreal Meeting Werner Herzog was for us not only an occasion to learn more about one of the greatest artists in cinema, but the chance to revisit, with him, images that have remained vividly imprinted in our minds. Herzog is the director of such notable feature films as Aguirre—The Wrath of God, Stroszek, Woyzek, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Fitzcarraldo, etc. But the remarkable unity of his work is further confirmed in his numerous documentaries filmed in the Sahara or on the summit of a volcano, in the United States or in Kuwait. Moreover, one can only truly experience his films when gingerly crossing the thin line between reality and imagination. Herzog is known for his aversion to both academic discourse and conventional interview questions. But when things turn to the concrete matters of creation and the mysterious power of images, he readily engages in discussion, and with striking lucidity. Werner Herzog was in Montréal last fall, for the presentation of his latest film Wheel of Time, at the Festival International du Nouveau Cinéma, and for a retrospective of his work at the Cinémathèque québécoise and the Goethe Institute. Offscreen: We will begin with a wonderful small book that you wrote in 1974, Of Walking on Ice, the story of your walk from Munich to Paris, which will quickly bring us to your films. The reading of the book is in continuity with the experience of watching your films; it’s as if, through this walk, we witness the process in which images are born. Would it be right to think that in your films, strong images often arise, impose themselves before any specific idea or meaning they should carry? Werner Herzog: Very often I travel on foot. Of course under these conditions I sometimes have a complete novel or a football (soccer) game unfolding in my head. And I see a lot of things surface. Offscreen: What makes you so interested in walking? Is it to reach another physical state or mental state? WH: It is not necessary for me to travel on foot to start out any project. I should explain a bit more precisely. I mean I’m not a backpacker. I’m not someone who jogs or hikes, nor someone who travels on foot all the time, like a time before we had automobiles. I am lazy like everyone else. I walk only for very specific reasons. If there’s something important, yes, I would walk. I walked from Munich to Paris because Doctor Lotte Eisner (historian and critic of German cinema) was dying in Paris. Offscreen: Coming back to images. In your films there are many images or moments, although sometimes very simple, that stay with us afterwards. We wanted to mention a few. At the end of the documentary Land of Silence and Darkness, the blind, deaf and mute man is walking away and his mother says: “One day I remember he put his hand in the snow and said the word ‘snow’”. WH: And that was the last word he ever said! Offscreen: And that still resonates. It seems to say a lot about your work in general and a certain relationship to the world through our senses… WH: Yes and what follows in particular, when he breaks away from the group he runs into a tree, starts to touch the tree and attempts to figure out it’s branches. That’s the end of the film. When you narrate it like this, it’s a man who is deaf and blind and touching a tree, it is of no consequence, it has no power. But, in a film that works almost one and half-hours towards that image, sensualizes it, all of a sudden it becomes something very very big. And it is mysterious how cinema works in that respect. It is the placement of a shot that makes it so important, and makes it highly significant. It’s like the end of “Stroszek”, for example, with the dancing chicken. But then, the technical crew or almost everyone on location hated the film so much that ultimately the cinematographer refused to shoot it (the shot) and said: “We are going for lunch now if you want to film that shit. “ And I said: “I’m gonna film that shit, sure.” And I tried to tell them. “Don’t you see there’s something very very big here?” And nobody saw it. It was really big. And it’s still one of the best things I ever filmed in my life. Offscreen: That’s one of the most beautiful endings of a film… WH: Even the crew that I paid and who were loyal to me went on strike. Offscreen: Was that scene scripted initially? WH: I do not remember. I believe it was scripted. Yes! I do believe it was scripted. But I’m not absolutely sure, I should have a look at the screenplay. Offscreen: And one thing about that scene, it is a rare occurrence of inter-cutting different things happening simultaneously, from Bruno on the mountain to the animals (chickens, ducks, rabbits) dancing and playing music and to the truck on fire making circles outside. Usually your scenes are rather large segments, set in one space, one situation, often shot in long takes…. WH: Yes but the animals dance for quite a while so you hang on to that. The problem was that the chickens wouldn’t dance for more than 15 seconds and then they would retreat. We had them in special training for dancing as long as they could. When you fed a quarter into the machine, the music would play and the chicken would dance. And as a reward it would get some corn. They were accustomed to dancing for 3 to 5 seconds. Now I held them in training for a couple of months to dance as long as they could. But they would only dance for 15 seconds. The problem is, I couldn’t get away with an ending that was a 15 second shot. I had quite a few of those shots and I had to add them together. There was always a jump cut. So there were technical reasons behind it as well. Very often it’s not an ideology or so that’s behind something. Offscreen: Another image, although very short, that has the power to be imprinted in the viewer’s minds, is the sailboat in the tree at the end of Aguirre, the Wrath of God. When he says that he sees the boat, meaning that the sea would be nearby, we assume that Kinski’s character is hallucinating, along with the others on the raft, due to fever. But in the next shot, you show us the sailboat up in the tree, in the middle of the jungle… WH: You have doubts whether it is true or not. What is your belief? Let’s say also that digital effects did not exist at that time. Nor was there any money for doing much tricks. What is your belief? Offscreen: My belief was that it wasn’t true, I mean that in reality, inside the film, there is no boat. But you made us share his illusion, his hallucination, while in the rest of the film, we see from ‘outside’ the journey and the madness, it is never a question of getting into a character’s mind. WH: Yes, that’s good to say. What is your opinion? Offscreen: I think what is interesting is in the probability, whether it’s true or not, that there is a boat in that tree. You filmed it. The sheer presence of it makes it very powerful. The fact of it being in the story is enough for me. WH: All right. Well, all I can say is that we did build it. We had something like 15 to 18 people working on it. They built a scaffold around a huge tree and bit by bit they put a boat together. But of course it would not be able to float because it had no real bottom. And it had no real other side. But it had a mast, it had a canoe dangling from it’s stern. And it had sails and quite everything massively built, because out there in the jungle you can’t get hold of, let’s say, papier mache or plastic. You just hire a few local people and they start to build it. Offscreen: Did that idea come along while shooting? WH: I only remember that the end of the film was totally different. The end was actually the raft going out into the open ocean and being swept back inland, because for many miles you have a counter-current, the Amazon actually goes backwards. And it was tossed to and fro. And a parrot would scream: “El Dorado, El Dorado”, as far as I can remember. Offscreen: Talking about things you can bring to a script, did you suggest certain things to Harmony Korine when you played the father in Julian Donkey Boy? Like the parrot story, when you are getting your hair cut… WH: I always had to invent it. I don’t remember what was said because there was never any dialogue. That story… Oh yeah! Now I remember. It’s a parakeet, the World Champion Talking Bird who said very clearly: “Birds are very smart, but they can’t speak!” There was never any dialogue. He sat me at a table with my family, I mean, “family.” And I knew I had to be dysfunctional and wild and primal and terrifying with them. And I turn around and I see that the cameras are rolling and I say: “Are we rolling?” and he nods to me and I say: “What’s the scene all about?” and he just shrugs. And I say: “What’s the dialogue?” and he just said to me: “Speak”. So what can you do? I just had to do some dialogue. Offscreen: And there it was the Clint Eastwood story… WH: Yes. All of that was just born out of the pressure of having to speak and having to say something. Offscreen: Another image, one of the most powerful in your work, one that left a lasting impression is in Stroszek. Bruno, beaten, depressed, goes to see a doctor who brings him to the nursery. The doctor lifts up a newborn baby and allows it to hang from his fingers. He shows Bruno the strength of the baby who can already hold on with all its weight. It is very important in regards to Bruno’s character (and himself), but I think it also relates to other figures in your films, like Fini Straubinger, Fitzcarraldo, Steiner… WH: A prematurely born baby! And the strength… Offscreen: Yes the strength. This seems to be very important for many of your characters, they hang on, and they keep going… WH: Yes, that image is very beautiful, I know. But I can’t really explain it because it doesn’t have much to do with the story. It wouldn’t change the story at all if you took it out. Sometimes, it’s blind motives that captivate us more than anything else. I don’t know how they come to me, but I know it’s big. I know it’s something very big…. Offscreen: When you look back on your work, do you think it functions more as a series of strong illuminating moments than as an ongoing exploration of themes, narratives…? WH: No, I am a storyteller. These moments would not exist without everything that leads to it. If you show the last sequence of Land of Silence and Darkness to anyone, it does not make any impact at all. It’s a very average image. A man stands up from a bench and walks towards a tree. You notice that he must be blind because he bumps into some branches and starts to touch the stem, the trunk… That’s all there is, nothing more. Only in context, after spending nearly 90 minutes in the world of blind and deaf people, with the knowledge preparing your heart, your mind and your spirituality for something extraordinary, which is in the image, only then will you be able to see it. Offscreen: So would the image of the baby in Stroszek be an exception in that matter? Something that really stands on it’s own, that is self-sufficient in its power and beauty regardless of the story? WH: No it is not. It is also only because of the tremendous suffering of Stroszek, the torment of his soul…Only having seen that and following that, only then and in context, does the shot become extraordinary. These moments do not exist per se. Offscreen: What are you searching for when you shoot a documentary like The Land of Silence and Darkness? WH: ‘Land of…’ without ‘The’, but here the French they do it wrong, they say, “Le pays…” it’s wrong it should be “Pays…”, Land of Silence and Darkness without the article. The article takes the beauty away from the title. Offscreen: Yes, indeed. So in such a film, which culminates in a way with the last scene, where the film finds its full meaning, do you look for that? Do you find it and know that you have something while you’re shooting it? Or is it for instance while editing that you see the structure take shape? WH: Yes it culminates with that man, whom we talked about, who lived in the stable with the cattle, to find some sort of warmth. When you make films, you sense it very quickly in which order you have to narrate a story like that. And there was not very much footage. Much of it was shot 1 to 1. And the whole film is made with about half of the footage that was shot. Offscreen: We often return to the documentary film Land of Silence and Darkness because it seems, whether you were aware of it or not, that in making it, you found many things that would later occupy your work. WH: Yes. It’s one of the essential things I’ve done. I know that. Offscreen: You have often been associated with New German Cinema… WH: Which is a fiction anyway. Please continue. Offscreen: Let’s say all the filmmakers of your generation, whether you feel affiliated with them or not, all dealt in some way or another with Germany, with the present or the past. Did you feel very early that you needed to go away in terms of the subject, locations and context? ‘Germany’s past’ as a subject hasn’t really interested you until Invincible? Offscreen: Is there a reason for that? WH: I don’t know. Sure, when you look at the others they did different subjects. But when we look at my films, I think it is obvious that I never left my culture. And I think that’s more decisive. Offscreen: What about your look at the present world, given the fact that in many of your feature films, the story is set in the past? WH: A few films are in the past, like Kasper Hauser, Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo…. But it doesn’t mean to leave the present either. When you look at Shakespeare, I really do not want to compare myself, but when Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, which was a story about a Danish prince, hundreds of years before his time, he didn’t leave his time anyway. Or in writing Richard the III, he didn’t leave his time, even though this story is dating back hundred’s of years. Offscreen: So are the films set in the past allegorical in their relation to the present? WH: No. Allegorical? No I don’t understand that. I don’t have any sensory organs for that. I can only point to Shakespeare; do you think that he somehow was rooted in the past? And could only look backwards because he wrote Hamlet? Offscreen: Concerning walking again, you often talk about the virtue of walking. Yesterday at the press conference, you said that walking is the best way to discover a landscape. But you also said that when you shoot a film you don’t have time to walk, being too caught up in the production. Still, one could say that when we watch your films, we have the sensation of being taken for a walk, it’s in the films’ pace and feeling… WH: Sure, but it’s not necessarily tied to what happens in the production. It’s always something different when you just watch a film on the screen. Concerning the process behind the making, it doesn’t help to know anything about it. The making of the film requires a lot of discipline and a lot of performance ad hoc, where you have to deliver no matter what. The procedure is sometimes very banal, very stupid, very technical and is filled with discipline. It’s a struggle with banalities in order to save something that stays in your heart and in your soul for a long time. It helps not to know the process. But since you know about filmmaking and since you are asking these questions, you must know that cinema works that way, the making of cinema works that way. Offscreen: You have to fight against banalities? WH: You cannot avoid them because they are persuasive. And bureaucracy is one of the all-persuasive enemies. You have to be endowed with enough perseverance and enough philosophy and enough street smartness to handle it anyway. Offscreen: There is something about temporality in your films, at times scenes are repetitive, like the plane landing over and over again in Fata Morgana. And sometimes there is also a kind of dilated time, perhaps again something akin to the state of perception we can reach when walking for a long time? WH: Let’s stick to filmmaking even though the background of your question is interesting. Yes, sure there is a certain rhythm that comes, through one’s existence and by travelling on foot once and a while. It’s a question of rhythm and that is not established during editing. We establish rhythm while we are shooting. It’s a myth when filmmakers tell you: “I put the rhythm in the editing”. It doesn’t work like that. It is about some sense of timing and musicality. As an example, in terms of musicality, sometimes a shot has to be very long, out of proportion. Very early in the beginning of Aguirre there is a shot of the ferocious river, boiling. You see it for a long time. Seeing it for three seconds would be enough to know it is an angry boiling river. But I believe you see it for thirty seconds or so. It is completely out of proportion. But having seen that so early in the film, you accept more easily as an audience all of the disproportion to come, the disproportion of a character, the disproportionate fever, the disproportion of losing orientation, the disproportion of grandiose designs of conquering the continent with 30 starving men. It prepares the field. You plough the fields very carefully to sow and then you harvest. Offscreen: At the press conference you said that you wanted the viewers “to be able to trust their eyes again”. In the film Invincible, for the actress to be credible when she wakes up from hypnosis, you said that you actually taught Tim Roth how to hypnotize. In another instance, Jouko Ahola who plays the Jewish strong man, was truly lifting 800 pounds, which he could only perform once. We could also think of Fitzcarraldo, where you did in reality, take the boat up the mountain and later threw it down into the rapids. Are there other moments when that wish of yours for the viewers “to trust their eyes” defined how you were going to do something with no tricks? WH: Sure, in many of my films. But we can extend the meaning of that. In The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, a man is flying, let’s face it. And there is no one who defies gravity like him with maybe the exception of Fitzcarraldo! Offscreen: The Great Ecstasy… is your documentary about a ski-jumping champion. On that subject, I find very intriguing the other image of a ski-jumper, that one being in Land of Silence and Darkness. Fini Straubinger, now blind and deaf, says that something that she remembers from her childhood was watching men fly in the air at a ski-jumping competition. You inserted an image of a man flying with his skis against the sky. But that was two years before you made The Great Ecstasy…? WH: That was made up. It was all made up. I gave her that sentence to speak for me. And she understood. Offscreen: So it was actually you being inhabited by that image? WH: It is how I would somehow reach a very very deep truth about her. That is exactly what I call “ecstatic truth”, which is at the centre of my work. Very early on, I had the feeling that only through invention and stylization would I reach a very deep truth about a character, even in a documentary. So in this case it is made up. But as much as it is made up, it also points to her deepest truth Transcribed and edited by Nancy Barić. Published in a French translation on Hors Champ, and translated from French by Nicolas Renaud. * Photos of Werner Herzog by Hors Champ, Montréal, 2003. For more information on Werner Herzog and his films, visit his web site: www.wernerherzog.com Within the special film programmes organised by Hors Champ at the Cinémathèque québécoise since 2001, we have presented the Herzog documentaires Woodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun and Land of Silence and Darkness. * Hors Champ would like to thank Adrien Gonzalez of the FCMM for helping to make this interview possible.

TMAC: Hello I'm Terrance McKnight, and today, as we approach the centennial of his birth, we're talking about Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein was a great conductor, educator, he was a great composer and pianist. But he was also a lifelong activist of civil rights and social justice… He worked tirelessly to incorporate that universality directly into his music—including, the sound of Black America. CHARLES IVES - THE UNANSWERED QUESTION Charles Ives - The Unanswered Question TMAC: So in the '70s Leonard Bernstein gave a series of lectures at Harvard called "The Unanswered Question." It was really based on a composition by Charles Ives. TMAC: And, the most fascinating thing to come out of these lectures, for me ... I think the thing that really caught my ear, was just his tenacity, his determination to find a way to get us all on the same page, us as human beings, regardless of our walk of life. You got the sense that he was trying to get us all on the same page. TMAC: He’s building a case, in this lecture, to show that we’re more alike than different. If there’s a universal speech, then perhaps there’s a universal sound that we all respond to. Because you have to keep in mind, man, that when Bernstein was born there was scientific research trying to state that some people were inferior to others. And I think he wanted his music to just do a little something to change that, to fix that, to make that right. That's what I took away from those lectures. The Berlin Celebration Concert: Beethoven Symphony No 9 - Bernstein 1989 TMAC: So I was listening today, to one of the Harvard lectures, and he was talking about the universality of music, he was like, we always hear that music is universal, but let’s like, really dig into it. LB: Music is supposed to be a metaphorical phenomenon, some kind of mysterious symbolization of our innermost affective existence. Even so great a scientist as Einstein said that the most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. TMAC: And so he's started talking about how sounds were universal, like ... LB: I tried to imagine myself a hominid, and tried to feel what a very, very ancient ancestor of mine might have felt and might have been impelled to express verbally. TMAC: That like, you know, if you're a baby, you may make the sound— LB: And then I got hungry. Mmm. Mmm! Calling my mother's attention to my hunger. And as I opened my mouth to receive the nipple—"Mmah!"—lo' I had invented a primal word: "Mah," "mother." LB: Now this has got to be one of the first proto-words ever uttered by man. Still to do this day most languages have a word for mother that employs that root, "mah," or some phonetic variant of it: [foreign language], the Germanic "mutter," "[foreign language]," the Slavic "[foreign language]," and the Hebrew "[Hebrew]"—even Navajo: "[Navajo]." So, the reason I took this on was because, for me personally ... I grew up taking trumpet lessons in fourth or fifth grade. My siblings were taking clarinet, guitar. And so I probably showed some talent when I was about 9 years old. Bernstein was doing these pieces on Young People's Concerts that would come on television. From Philharmonic Hall in Lincoln Center, home of the world's greatest musical events, the Shell Oil Company brings you the New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts under the musical direction of Leonard Bernstein. TMAC: And I just remember my mother would always call me to the television: "Come watch this man talking about music." And I would watch this guy talking about whatever he was talking about on television. And, "Look at these instruments." She would ask me to identify the instruments and stuff like that. TMAC: Bernstein had this interesting kind of way about him. He had an interesting accent. LB: My dear young friends, as you may know, we devote one Young People's program every year to presenting young performers to you, young people who are so gifted and so well-developed [crosstalk] real artist- TMAC: But I do remember feeling a little ostracized from that program, and I felt ostracized because I didn't see a bunch of brown people in the audience, so it seemed like it was something that may not be for me. And it terrified me a little bit because I thought if I become good at this trumpet thing then that becomes my world—and I don't really know people in this world, I don't know that world is like. It's a little bit different. So as I grew up and learned more about him by staying in music I wanted to see what made him tick. LB: And now we come to a young man who is so remarkable that I am tempted to give him a tremendous buildup, but I'd almost rather not so that you may have the same unexpected shock of pleasure and wonderment that I had when I first heard him play. He was just another in a long procession of pianists who were auditioning for us one afternoon, and out he came, a sensitive-faced 16-year old boy from Philadelphia, looking rather like a young Persian prince, who sat down at the piano and tore into the opening bars of a Liszt concerto in such a way that we simply flipped. LB: He is named Andre Watts. TMAC: When I really got serious about music in college I identified with this guy, a pianist named Andre Watts. He's the one pianist of African descent that you see out there concertizing, and he's been doing it since the year I was born. TMAC: He got an opportunity to play on the Young People's Concert. Bernstein brought him in to play. He was 16 years old. TMAC: So that catapulted him into a career that I was able to follow as a young pianist, looking at Andre Watts as sort of a model, as sort of a mentor for me as a young pianist, and thanks to Leonard Bernstein, who gave him that opportunity back in 1963. LB: I love that kind of story. Because I admire his playing so much I am going to be selfish and take the pleasure of conducting for him myself. LB: Let us welcome with warmth and pride Andre Watts. TMAC: Here's a taste of Andre Watts playing the first piano concerto by Franz Liszt, and this is Bernstein conducting. [Leonard Bernstein Conducting Andre Watts live on TV - Young People’s Concerts Vol 2. Young Performers No. 4] [in clear 2:00] TMAC: So, Bernstein was born in '18, man, so this was like ... first jazz records, first blues records were made around this period, around 1918, 1920. TV: Let's go, Duke! TMAC: When he's 10 years old, Duke Ellington is on the radio on CBS being heard every Friday night or Saturday night. There are these big bands. He was very influenced by that music. TMAC: And he really talked about jazz being authentically American, and the goal of the composer was to absorb that authentic American sound. REPORTER: Mr. Ellington, how do you feel on the same point? TMAC: Here’s Duke Ellington and Bernstein meeting together in Wisconsin, in 1966. Duke: It's American music, I would say—the stuff that we're in, anyway. And it's getting to the point now where the modern contemporary composer and the guy who's supposedly a modern jazz composer, they all come out of the same conservatories. Duke: And it's very difficult to find a place to draw the line. LB: Well, you are certainly one of the pioneers in that. Duke: Oh, yeah, but I didn't come out of the conservatory. LB: No, but you were one of the first people who wrote so-called "symphonic jazz." Duke: I had a conservatory in the Capitol Theater. LB: That's right. Exactly. Duke: Sit there and listen to the symphony before the picture. LB: Well maybe that's really the difference between us, that you wrote symphonic jazz and I wrote jazz symphonies. LB: Something like that. TMAC: Listening to those guys man, two strong personalities, who now we see as two of the most influential American composers of the 20th century, standing side by side, drinking coffee, at a time when interracial marriage was still illegal in this country—powerful. Duke Ellington - Symphony in Black continues [in clear 0:15] Aaron Copland - Copland playing Piano Concerto [0:10] TMAC: Bernstein had a sister who was very musical—she was into theater—and so they would just make up music and improvise on what they heard on the radio. And he would play parties, and by the time he got to Harvard that music was still a part of his consciousness. TMAC: He was going to concerts. His father was taking him to concerts as a young man. TMAC: But when he got to college and became aware of Aaron Copland, STUDS: Aaron Copland, so many facets to your musical life. In the early days were you interested in jazz elements going way back? Aaron Copland: I was very interested in jazz in the '20s, mostly as an easy way, you might say, or an obvious way, of using materials which everybody would recognize as being American in origin. TMAC: Bernstein wrote a paper in 1939, his senior thesis, called "The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music.” And so I think what turned him on about Copland was that Copland was doing that. When I listen to his Piano Concerto, there are sections where I think, "Oh, if my grandfather walked in the concert hall he would feel like, 'Oh, they're talking about me.'" TMAC: Here’s Aaron Copland again. Aaron Copland: In the '20s, several composers—not only myself—had a very strong preoccupation about the writing of a music that everybody could identify with our country. I, after all, was studying in Paris and I realized that Debussy and Ravel were very typically French, and so one wondered, "Couldn't we do that same thing in America? Why couldn't we write a serious music that perhaps related to jazz which everyone would immediately recognize as American?" And I think we did. TMAC: You hear the absorption of those race elements in music. TMAC: For example, he sets it up with these two big chords. TMAC: Interesting harmony. TMAC: Then he goes into this little stride kind of feel. TMAC: It almost sounds very Gershwin-esque. [Piano segues into orchestral recording] TMAC: —So there, when you hear it in context, you really feel like you're right in the center of American culture, New York City, New Orleans, wherever, Chicago. You just sense it. It couldn't be anywhere else. It's not Vienna. You know, it's not Prague. It's not, you know, Palestine. It is the heart of American culture. TMAC: Copland put it into this music and I think ... and I know that's what attracted Bernstein to him. They were up to the same thing, bringing all the people, all the sounds of the people, into the concert hall. LB: A man called Aaron Copland was experimenting with jazz in the concert hall and churning out some pretty marvelous pieces. LB: At the time he wrote this jazzy piano concerto in 1926, he was only 26 years old. He was a young pioneer of American music, and when that piano concerto was first heard a year later in 1927, there was a good deal of shock in the air. The Bostonians just couldn't accept the idea of a Third Stream way back then, and I want you to realize that the kind of jazz you'll be hearing is from another time. It's jazz of the '20s. It's full of Charleston rhythms and boop-boop-ba-doops, and a certain Gershwin-like sentimentality. LB: And the wonderful thing is that, old as it is, it still sounds as fresh and charming and full of zip as it did in 1927. LB: And our piano soloist, I am proud and happy to say, is none other than the original soloist from 1927, the one and only Aaron Copland. Aaron Copland - Copland playing Piano Concerto [0:15] TMAC: This is the second movement of Aaron Copland's Piano Concerto. TMAC: Typically a second movement is slow and lyrical, but he does something interesting. It's almost like a drunk stumbling down the street. TMAC: I mean, he asks for a moderate tempo, but very rubato. So if I play it straight ... In straight time it's in three. TMAC: Right? But that's not what he asked for. He wants something just a little more belligerent, and to me it's like somebody had a little too much to drink last night. TMAC: Whatever these notes are, but the feeling is ... TMAC: And that's very Prokofiev, or is very New York City, Saturday night, you know. Copland Piano Variations LB: Every bar I ever wrote I would bring to Aaron Copland. He would say, well, that’s sort of warmed over Scriabin or that’s second hand something, throw it away. These two bars are fresh, they’re you. Work on those, develop those. That sort of criticism. I revere and worship Aaron Copland for what he taught me. TMAC: And then ... when he was in school—he was at Harvard—he wrote Aaron Copland a letter- LB: I had just turned 19. I was a junior at Harvard. TMAC: ... saying, "Why are we playing Chopin? Why are we even playing your music? Why are we playing your Variations when this music doesn't seem to be moving the hearts of the people?" LB: [crosstalk] and, "Wait till you hear this." TMAC: Like, "We're playing all this elevated music and people are acting like animals." CBS: The applause reached the Fuhrer, who had just arrived in the Court Opera House to address the Reichstag, which has been called an extraordinary session. They are expecting [crosstalk]- TMAC: They're letting this moron march across borders. This is when Hitler invaded Austria. Adolf Hitler: [German] Translator: "From now on, bomb will be met by bomb." TMAC: And Bernstein was just like ... He starts the letter like, "God damn it, Aaron! Why are we playing Chopin? Why are we even playing your Variations? Because the music apparently isn't making people more humane." TMAC: So then he started questioning ... like, what kind of music ... what is the purpose of art if it's not changing the hearts of people? TMAC: So as fascism is on the march across Europe, at the same time here in New York’s Greenwich Village this new club opens at the end of 1938. Cafe Society was America's’ first integrated night club. And it was known as the wrong place for the right people, and all the right people showed up there. Including Bernstein. You know, the black intellectuals, the white progressives, and these people were commingling. White folks didn’t get first billing at tables, and that was radical. So Bernstein is going here, he’s a young man, and Hazel Scott is playing there. She used to call him Skinny Lenny. Man: Just a minute, who do you wanna see? Hazel: I’m Hazel Scott. Man: Oh Miss Scott! Yes, they’re waiting for you, go right in… TMAC: He would hang out with Hazel, and Adam Clayton Powell, Adam Clayton Powell: After all I’m a negro baptist preacher, you know? [Laughter] Nobody can control a negro baptist preacher, even God sometimes can’t! TMAC: Langston Hughes was there, all of these black intellectuals—so a lot of the black thought that became prevalent in the 20th century came out of cafe society and the folks who were coming there. And so this is what influenced Bernstein. Some nights you might see Art Tatum playing Dvorak. And Bernstein would go there late at night, 4am. And what made it special, was the talent, and the fact that it was integrated, a unique experience. It didn't matter who you were, you just came, got a table and enjoyed the show. Art Tatum plays Dvorak [in clear 0:24] ON THE TOWN TMAC: And so if we fast forward a little bit, in On the Town, that Broadway musical, Bernstein and Jerome Robbins. I think they were really trying to paint a picture of what America could be, certainly what our armed forces could be, because at the time, it was segregated. So, In On the Town, the cast was integrated. So you’ve got black men dancing with white women on stage, holding hands, dude that was scandalous! Bernstein conducts Bernstein - On the Town (Ballet Music) [in clear 1:00] TMAC: Another thing in On the Town was the hiring of Everett Lee. Everett Lee was a black conductor who was from Cleveland, and he was a violinist as well, so he was playing in the string section for On the Town. And during the production Bernstein brought him up to conduct. So he became the first black man to conduct an integrated orchestra on Broadway. But that was something, that was a big deal to have a black man leading an integrated orchestra on Broadway in 1944. It was a huge deal for Everett Lee and for our country. TMAC: And then I think in ... He wrote Billie Holiday into something. I think it was Fancy Free. He wrote a song for her. It's a song called Big Stuff. Big Stuff [in clear 2:30] Paul Robeson: Now I was born on the edge of Robeson County. TMAC: Okay. Paul Robeson was- Paul Robeson: ... a negro boy born in Princeton, New Jersey, in a college town where the students mainly came from the Deep South, you know, Princeton - TMAC: Now here's a man whose father, similar to Bernstein- Paul Robeson: ... so, and my father was a minister - TMAC: ... and was very religious. Paul Robeson: I was shaped against that background. TMAC: But he had a great voice. Music: “Purest kind of a guy” TMAC: His connection to Bernstein was—he was all about trying to uplift the working class around the world. And, like Bernstein, he encountered resistance to his political beliefs. CBS: Paul Robeson, the Negro baritone, was scheduled to give a concert near Peekskill, New York. That concert was canceled. Canceled by fists, by a passion, by the conflict between those who thought Paul Robeson ought not to be heard because of his outspoken Communist sympathies, and those who insisted on hearing him regardless or because of his political leanings. TMAC: Robeson became controversial because of his connection to Communism, because of his connections outside of the state, because of his travel to Russia. People were rioting, people were actually cheering him on, because they knew that he couldn't travel because of his passport issue. Reporter: Here's a group of young boys here, yelling at the people, stopping their cars. Crowd: [crosstalk] Go back to Russia! [crosstalk]! TMAC: The whole McCarthy era put a lot of pressure on those guys in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee. HUAC: Are you a member of the Communist Party or have you ever been a member of the Communist party? HUAC: It's unfortunate and tragic that I have to teach this committee the basic principles of Americanism. HAUC: That's not the question. That's not the question. TMAC: Bernstein never actually testified. HUAC : The question is: have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? TMAC: But his close friends like Aaron Copland and Paul Robeson did... Paul Robeson: And the Negro people, in slavery in one kind or another, feudal or industrial, for the 300-odd years of our lives on this continent, forgetting their Civil War struggle, forgetting the lessons of Reconstruction, again betrayed by a coalition of industrial-finance Republican barons and Southern moribund plantation owners. And their reward? Lynching, the Trenton Six, to Peoria, to Virginia, to Georgia, to Alabama, to anywhere where a black face dares to answer back, anywhere where a brown body dares to walk in dignity. TMAC: Robeson was very vocal about the ills of America. I mean, at this time, during his lifetime, blacks were fighting in a war that was segregated, or they were fighting in armed forces that were segregated. You would have black soldiers who would board trains with prisoners of war, and if these prisoners of war were white, these black soldiers had to relinquish their seats and give their seats to prisoners of war. TMAC: We’ve been listening to some of Bernstein’s first symphony written in 1942. It’s titled “Jeremiah” after the Hebrew prophet who warned that the people’s sins would lead to disaster. Bernstein - Jeremiah Symphony #1, Prophecy [in clear 2:25] PRELUDE FUGUE & RIFFS TMAC: Okay, so I’ve been looking at this Bernstein composition, Prelude Fugue & Riffs. He wrote this for Woody Herman back in the 40’s, in 1949 and he played it and talked about on this program Omnibus. LB: In one way or another, it uses all the elements we’ve been discussing during this time. TMAC: Right? On this program called What is Jazz. LB: I hope you will feel in it the special beauty of jazz that I felt when i was writing the piece. We’re going to play it for you now. SO I’m looking at this piece and I’m listening to it, and I’m hearing all these things that sound like blues and that sounds like jazz and these harmonies. And then, I’m looking the middle of the score and I see something that looks a little bit familiar. There’s a old Hymn, O come O come Emmanuel… [Music: O come, O come Emmanuel] Right? The words are, o come o come emmanuel and, ransom captive israel. Right? So it’s about some sort of salvation. Listen to what Bernstein sticks in here. He sticks this little motive... [TMAC Music demo] And I think he’s saying, [singing] Emmanuel… and then he changes it, changes the note. [TMAC Music demo] And this is the theme of his fugue, so listen to the full theme of his fugue: Prelude, Fugue and Riffs [in clear 1:10] TMAC: It’s a great early example of how Bernstein blended the sacred and the secular. And he’d continue to search for that universal sound the rest of his life. WEST SIDE STORY TMAC: You can hear some of those same characteristics from Prelude Fugue & Riffs, in Bernstein’s original Broadway score for West Side Story in 1957. West Side Story: Prologue [in clear 0:42] TMAC: Leonard Bernstein said, "I guess the best known musical that I have done, West Side Story, is one long protest against racial discrimination. West Side Story: America [in clear 0:25] TMAC: And by the time we get to west side story, he’s really deal with our own prejudices, deal with our own blind spots, you know, the folks we don’t see, the folks who we think do not matter, and he puts them on stage, he puts the spanish language on stage and it may not seem like a huge deal now, but if you think about it 60, 70 years ago, it was a huge deal. TMAC: I mean, just saying that name, perhaps makes you think about someone who doesn’t look like you. He could have called her Mary but he didn’t. West Side Story: Maria [in clear 1:10] TMAC: So Bernstein here in the late 50s, early 60s is on a musical high. And his ideas about racial equality and social justice seem to be gaining traction as part of the Civil Rights movement. But there are also dark days ahead. That’s in a minute when we continue Leonard Bernstein’s Black America. TMAC: Hi I’m Terrance McKnight and this is Leonard Bernstein’s Black America. News: From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: President Kennedy died at 1 PM Central Standard Time, two o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago. Jamie LB: It was the day the shadow came down- TMAC: This is Jamie, Leonard Bernstein's daughter. Jamie B: President Kennedy was assassinated, and I watched my parents and all their friends crying. Jamie B: And then all of a sudden Martin Luther King was assassinated, and then Bobby Kennedy—another Kennedy—was assassinated. And then this war. So there was this sense of non-stop travail, and I really do think that my father spent the rest of my life processing this grief, and through his own works. TMAC: So Bernstein was very close to JFK. Just a few weeks after he was killed, Bernstein dedicated his new symphony to the fallen president at the world premiere. It’s based on a Jewish prayer of mourning. It’s called Kaddish. Kaddish [in clear 1:25] TMAC: Bernstein was a member of The Council of African Affairs and The National Negro Congress, he was on The National Council of American-Soviet Friendship. Bernstein Symphony No. 1 - Jeremiah, Israel Philharmonic Bobby Kennedy: Some very sad news for all of you, and I think some very sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace from all over the world. And that is, that Martin Luther King was shot, and killed tonight. TMAC: So Leonard Bernstein, Here’s someone who had marched in Selma with Harry Belafonte. And then Dr. King died in ‘68. And so the very next year, Bernstein is hosting a party, to raise money for the Black Panthers. Black Panther: The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense calls upon the American people in general... TMAC: So Bernstein and his wife had invited members of the Black Panthers to their apartment. It was a fundraiser. The Black Panthers were about protecting the neighborhood, fighting against police violence, police brutality. Black Panther: Racist police agencies throughout the country are intensifying the terror, brutality, murder and repression of Black people. TMAC: They were armed. They were particularly armed after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. TMAC: Bernstein went to his next concert and folks were picketing. He was booed. One of the musicians said ... He remembers it distinctly, the surprise and shock that Bernstein faced, and he said he huddled the band up, huddled the orchestra up before the show to talk about what was happening out in the hall. Black Panther: ...Everyone who went in to exercise a constitutional right to bear arms in a public place. TMAC: Remember the 70s Harvard lecture series we heard at the beginning? At the very first lecture, somebody called in a bomb threat. LB: This performance of the Mozart symphony was interrupted in the middle of the first movement by a bomb scare. And we all had to go out into the street, nobody knowing whether we were going to come back and resume or not, and wait for almost an hour until we had word that the police had cleared the whole theater. LB: And during that wait I must say that I was sick at heart and overcome by despair, because why had I been talking my guts out for an hour and a half on human brotherhood and universality only to have this kind of despicable disproof of human brotherhood thrown in our faces? TMAC: So, he was trying to make music that responded to that. And that's why said himself, "You know what? I'm going to take some time off from conducting because I have to write music." He felt that he needed to write. Bernstein - Mass - Simple Song [in clear 3:48] This is Simple Song from Bernstein’s Mass. Beethoven 6th Symphony - Pastoral TMAC: It seems like Lenny liked getting his way, and he liked being the center of attention, he liked being a leader. He liked being a loudmouth. He felt like he had something to say. He could be very controversial and very contentious. I think he liked debate. He liked argument, he liked resolution. And so he had this thing where he had to be seen and had to be heard... I think that's why he was so fond of Beethoven. LB: It's the form. No composer ever had that—even Mozart—to that degree, where everything is so unpredictable and yet so right. It all checks. It all works out. You can rely on it. You know the next note has to be the next note and the only next note that could come, and that makes him form perfect. TMAC: Beethoven was an outsider. You know, he got to Vienna which was the capital city from a small town, Bahn. LB: He never left his rooms, he went crazy… TMAC: He had brown skin, very short and um, maybe had some acne issues, hair was all over the place, and so Beethoven had a terrible outsider complex, coming into a fancy city. He was a little bit rough, you know, LB: He moved all the time, he couldn’t find a place that was right. TMAC: Oh, and early in his career he started to lose his hearing, and so that made him even more of an outsider. LB: That's what's so incredible. But he wrecked himself and his whole life trying to do this, trying to achieve this very inevitability. Every note that comes is inevitable. TMAC: Bernstein’s talking about Beethoven but it sounds like he’s talking about himself. I mean, here are two guys, who had this deep spirituality, this deep faith. Staying up late, taking interest in social causes? That was Beethoven, but it’s also Bernstein. Bernstein Mass - XIII - Lord’s Prayer [in clear 0:48] MUSIC: Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespases, as we…. TMAC: Bernstein ... So much of his life he dealt with or wrestled with this idea of faith, and he felt like we as a country and as humanity wrestle with an idea of faith. So when he composed Mass he wanted to wrestle with that question. He wanted us to think about our faith and how we actualize that. MUSIC: ...From Evil… TMAC: So Jacqueline Kennedy asked Bernstein to write a piece for the opening of the Kennedy Center. Now this request was made right after Robert Kennedy was killed. Jim Vance: The Kennedy Center is an imposing structure on the banks of the Potomac River. Jim Vance: Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was not among the invited guests tonight but other members of the Kennedy family were. TMAC: And so when he composed MASS, he wanted to wrestle with that question. He wanted us to think about our faith and how we actualize that. Jim Vance: Tonight's formal opening was highlighted by Leonard Bernstein's Mass, which he composed especially for it tonight at the request of Mrs. Kennedy Onassis. Jim Vance: Tomorrow night President Nixon will be the honored guest. He gave up his presidential box at tonight's formal opening, saying the Kennedys should not have to share the spotlight. TMAC: And I think ... was so significant about that is this, is that he took to Washington, DC. This was like a statement to our nation. Of course Nixon ends up boycotting the thing. He wasn’t a fan of Bernstein’s politics, and you can hear him on one of the infamous White House tapes trying to come up with a cover story for why he didn’t go. NIXON: Why don’t we get Buchannon to get on the mic saying that the President didn’t go because he thought it was a sacrilegious kind of a thing? TMAC: Nixon was coloring it as a sacrilegious thing, a disgrace, to deter people from going to it. His aide wanted the headlines to read like “Mass seen as abuse of spirit.” Aide: Here’s the headline: “Mass seen as abuse of spirit”, and they’re beginning that every week, warning catholics not to go to it. TMAC: So in this composition, he requires so much of what is American culture to make this thing happen. And he says that it doesn’t have to happen in a concert hall, this piece could be played in a barn, that’s what Bernstein’s says. And he goes on to say, that this is really his first composition. TMAC: And I saw it, man. When I first came here they did it up in the Bronx. Marin Alsop conducted. Marin Alsop: It was a—revelation, on every level, and I become a complete convert so to speak. TMAC And I walked in and I was like, "Damn," I was like, "All these kids, all these different peoples, you know, different-looking people." I'm like, "Where all these people come from? These brown people in the concert hall." And that was an important slice of America that he wanted to see represented. TMAC: And I walked into that hall in the Bronx, and saw all those kids and all those young mothers with babies! Here he is educating the nation, about our music, about our culture. He wrote them into the music—so if you write the kids into the music, their parents are going to show up, the grandparents are going to show up, their little brothers and sisters even if those parent’s can’t get a babysitter that day, they brought them into that hall to see Bernstein’s music. Every slice of America, was in the Bronx that day. Felt like a huge party. I was blown away. In that moment I understood, that Bernstein has etched us into history Through his music. Leonard Bernstein’s Black America was produced by Terrance McKnight and Curtis Macdonald, who also did the sound design. Our editor was Derek John and our Executive Producer is Alex Ambrose. Special thanks to Mike Shobe at WQXR and WNYC’s Program Director Jacquelin Cincotta. Thank you for listening to Leonard Bernstein’s Black America.

I had been hoping to deliver the next chapter in The Mystery of the Undetected Radios this month, but I have been thwarted by circumstances. Towards the end of March, I suffered a recurrence of tendinitis caused by whiplash to my neck in a traffic accident thirty-five years ago, and started undergoing a three-month treatment of spinal decompression. This process fixed the problem last time I had it seven years ago, but I must have been negligent on maintenance, and the complaint suddenly returned with a vengeance, with acute stabbing pain in my neck and shoulder. Yet, when my doctor gave me cortisone and lidocaine injections, they did not seem to be having an effect. Moreover, he also prescribed painkillers and a muscle relaxant, which likewise did not ease my condition. After a very painful and sleep-deprived weekend at the beginning of April, I saw the doctor again, and he very quickly identified the culprit as shingles. This was puzzling, as only last summer I had undertaken the course of anti-shingles vaccine. My doctor had not encountered a case of a vaccinated person catching the disease. Could the GRU or MI5 have been involved? No explanation has been excluded. What it means is that for several weeks I could not work at my desktop for more than 5-10 minutes at a time, which made the task of researching files, checking my notes, and compiling fresh text impossible. I also realized that there were at least three more books I needed to read to cover the 1941-1942 period adequately: M. R. D. Foot’s SOE in the Low Countries, Hermann Giskes’s London Calling North Pole, and a volume that came out only a few weeks ago, Lynne Olson’s Madame Fourcade’s Secret Army. I have also read from cover to cover David Stafford’s Britain and European Resistance 1940-1945, a work that I have owned for a long time, but only dipped into beforehand. I have acquired the other three, and read all four now, but have only recently been able to transcribe my notes, and enter items in my chronology. For the issue dated April 18, the London Review of Books commissioned from a ‘writer’ with the improbable name of Colm Tóibín – an Hibernian, I would wager – an article of some 9,000 words that described his experiences with testicular cancer. I am deeply sorry about the gentleman’s condition, but this self-indulgent piece was of such relentless tediousness that I can only conclude that the editrix of the LRB, Mary-Kay Wilmers (she with the Eitingon connections), presented it as an effort to win some obscure journalistic contest. While judging myself capable of similar medical discourse, I can assure coldspur readers that I shall not burden them with comparable distressing details of my complaints. During my disability (which has now mercifully abated), I was able, however, to create instead fresh text in relative comfort on my iPad, and hence present a report for April on an important intelligence-related subject that did not require close, integrative research. Restored almost to tip-top form, I was able to resume work on my PC towards the end of the month, and thus I also present some updates to the Liddell affair, which, I hope, will fascinate my readers as much as they fascinated me. This bulletin, which started out as a reasonably modest report, took on a vigorous new life in the last week of the month. It could probably merit a post on its own, but, having invested some thought in putting this methodological introduction together, I decided to remain with it as the lead. Moreover, the analysis of Liddell and Philby represents an outstanding example of why attention to chronology is important. The Importance of Chronology For me, one of the most annoying aspects of any historical book, or volume of biography, is inattention to chronology. I read a few pages, unanchored precisely by date, and then suddenly come across a phrase like ‘the following spring’. What year are we talking about? I suspect that the author him- or her-self has only a hazy idea of what is happening when he or she [I refuse to use the fashionable ‘they’ in this situation] carelessly lays out events out of sequence, and thereby does not provide solid references in the calendar for many critical happenings. I am under no delusions about causes and seriality. The proximity of an event to another does not necessarily indicate that the earlier one influenced the second, but it is very important to place events in their proper sequence, and tether them precisely. (What is undeniable, pace J. B. Priestley, is that events with a verifiable date cannot have exerted any influence on events proven to have occurred earlier.) Very rarely do original sources lack a date attached to them, and they should be echoed in any text that exploits them. Moreover, for the historian, organization of dates coming from disparate sources can show new patterns of discovery that might not otherwise have been apparent. I think, for example, of my locating the row over authority between Jane Archer and Guy Liddell that was not covered properly in the latter’s Diaries when he described the circumstances of her sacking. Accordingly, the creation and maintenance of a detailed chronology have been integral to my research methodology ever since I set out on what evolved to become my doctoral thesis. I maintain a Word document of over three hundred pages, covering military and political, but chiefly intelligence and counter-intelligence, events for four decades in the twentieth century. There are almost 300 pages of pure timeline, with 13 pages of references, constituting about 500 different sources, including 30 from the National Archives. I try to maintain every entry to a single line. The years 1936 to 1950 are particularly densely covered: for example, the year 1940 has over 2400 entries. Each entry has at least one source appended to it. (See sample page) The Preamble to the document reads as follows: Chronology: WWII – Prelude & Aftermath This chronology is constructed to provide a guide to the history of intelligence and counter-intelligence in Britain and the US between 1917 and 1956, and focuses on key dates relating to: a) the recruitment and establishment of Soviet agents in British intelligence, and their subsequent deeds and movements; b) the actions by Soviet intelligence agencies to subvert British institutions: c) the plot by Guy Burgess and Isaiah Berlin to go to Moscow in the summer of 1940; d) attempts by MI5 (and its predecessor, the Metropolitan Police’s Special Branch) to counter subversion and Fifth Columns; e) the various reorganisations of British Intelligence; f) the WWII rivalry between the Ministry of Information and the Foreign Office for controlling propaganda, especially in the USA; g) the purging of OGPU/NKVD agents by Stalin, with special reference to the revelations, and death, of Walter Krivitsky; h) activities involving Eduard Beneš of Czechoslovakia, and his contacts in the UK and the Soviet Union; i) the stealing of US/GB atomic power secrets by the Soviet Union, with special reference to Stalin’s manipulation of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, and the espionage activities of Klaus Fuchs; j) revelations about the massacre of Jews by the Nazis; k) pre-war negotiations between Zionists and the UK government, and subsequent actions to further or delay the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948; l) the evolution (and decline) of communistic/anti-fascist thought among British intellectuals; m) attitudes of British politicians towards the Soviet Union between the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and Barbarossa; n) Walter Krivitsky’s revelations about Stalin’s negotiations with Germany and his supply of arms to the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War; o) the growing awareness by the US and GB of the coming postwar threat posed by the Soviet Union as WWII proceeded, and its effect on intelligence sharing; p) activities associated with the detection and decryption of illicit radio transmissions in WWII, and decryption of enemy (including Soviet) communications, especially involving disagreements between SIS and MI5; q) the Nazis’ successes in unmasking members of the Soviet spy network, the ‘Red Orchestra’, especially as it relates to Alexander Foote and the ‘Rote Drei’ in Switzerland; r) the activities of British communists in the International Brigades in Spain; s) the effect of the failure to follow up Krivitsky’s warnings on Allied negotiations for postwar security, and the onset of the Cold War; t) the activities of US-based, and Canada-based, Soviet spies with British links; u) the management of the Double-Cross operation, and its effect on other disinformation campaigns; v) the Abwehr’s management of spies sent to Britain for intelligence or sabotage purposes, and Britain’s responses. (The somewhat erratic structure of this list, which I have not re-ordered through time, shows the evolution of my research focus.) Readers can probably now understand how critical a part of my methodology the chronology is. It gives me the following benefits: a) On looking up an event, I can quickly identify its source, and go back to my notes on each book listed (taking notes after the conclusion of reading a book is an equally important part of the methodology). Dates are a vital part of the notes: page numbers are listed, and I can go back to the original text, if necessary. (I own an overwhelming majority of the books.) b) I can immediately spot anomalies in dates, such as occasions where different authors represent the same event differently. This allows me to verify sources, and give some indication of reliability. Dubious unconfirmed events are marked with a ‘?’. c) I can examine the authority of references. Authenticity is not automatically guaranteed simply because multiple historians or journalists quote an identical date. They may all be using the same defective source, such as Professor Hinsley’s dubious claim about Churchill’s ordering interception of Soviet messages to cease. Weight does not necessarily indicate quality. d) Insights can be gained by the adjacency of apparently unrelated themes, and common names appearing in discrete threads. They allow new hypotheses to be explored, and fresh analysis of subject-matter to take place (such as the progress in Radio direction-finding across different countries and zones). e) Word’s Search capability allows me to highlight the occurrence of any name within the whole Chronology, thus simplifying the tracking of the career or activities of any prominent figure. It all leads me to a vital principle of my methodology: A chronology will never be able to write the story by itself, but the creation of a proper narrative will be impossible without a rigorous chronology. The maintenance and exploitation of this document are thus my ‘Crown Jewels’, my ‘secret sauce’. One day I may make it universally acceptable (or even have it published as a book?). I have shared extracts of it with other historians, but no one else has seen the complete artefact. Another aspect of chronology that intrigues me is the relationship of publications to the dates of release of official material, or the issuance of authorised histories. As far as British counterintelligence is concerned, one can identify seminal events that changed the historiography of espionage (e.g. Gouzenko’s defection in 1945, Fuchs’s confession in 1950, the escape of Burgess and Maclean in 1951) and can map also critical government-sponsored or -approved publications, such as the admission of the Double-cross system (in 1972), the disclosures about the Ultra Secret (in 1974), or the Official Histories of British Intelligence in WWII (starting in 1979), which freed many others to talk. Yet in the background one can detect a vast amount of noise – memoirs and off-the-record briefings from intelligence officers who felt that the real story was not being told, or wanting to influence the history to show themselves in better light. When reading any book that claims insights into these events, one has therefore to ask: ‘Where did the author derive his/her information?’; ‘Why was the Official Secrets Act not applied?’; ‘Should some of these exercises be treated as government-controlled disinformation’? One thinks of the slew of romanticized and frequently erroneous accounts of espionage and counter-espionage that came out in the decade following WWII, often brazenly declaring the help the authors gained from government departments such as the War Office. Of course, the perpetrators never imagined that official archive material would be released at some time to contradict the errors of their analyses. But that did not matter, as all the authors would be dead by then. Yet books still come out that cite some of these flights of fancy as if they contained relevant facts. To complete the story, one would also have to list all the critical archival material that has been made available in the past twenty years. I have not done that here, as my Chronology focuses on the first 60 years after the outbreak of WWII. Here follows a personal, and highly selective, account of dates (in years, only), which the general reader may find useful in tracking the history of intelligence matters affecting the UK since WWII, and putting accounts of it into proper perspective. I encourage readers to send me additions to the list that would help clarify the dynamics. Key events in Espionage History (MI5, and to lesser extent SIS) 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact 1940 Krivitsky’s revelations to MI5 & SIS 1940 Blunt & Rothschild recruited by MI5 1940 Double-Cross System set up 1941 Krivitsky murdered 1941 Germany invades the Soviet Union 1941 USA enters the war 1942-43 German Englandspiel turns Dutch SOE network 1943 Comintern ‘dismantled’ 1943 VENONA project of decryption of Soviet cables starts 1944 Leo Long detected spying in MI14 1945 Gouzenko defects in Canada 1945 Volkov (would-be defector from Ankara) betrayed by Philby 1947 Cookridge publishes ‘Secrets of the British Secret Services’ 1949 Foote’s ‘Handbook for Spies’ published (ghost-written by MI5) 1950 Fuchs convicted 1951 Burgess & Maclean abscond 1952 Cairncross’s first ‘confession’ 1953 Giskes reveals Englandspiel (control of Dutch SOE) 1954 Petrov defects in Australia: confirms careers of Burgess and Maclean 1956 Gaitskell dies, with suspicions of Soviet poisoning 1956 Goronwy Rees’s disclosures about Burgess in ‘People’ 1962 Golitsyn’s defection confirms treachery of Philby: ‘the five’ 1963 Philby defects 1963 Straight betrays Blunt 1964 Cairncross confesses to MI5 1966 Publication of ‘SOE in France’ & AJP Taylor’s ‘History 1914-1945’ 1967 Philby’s ‘My Silent War’ published 1967 Phillip Knightley’s exposé of Philby in the ‘Sunday Times’ 1968 Trevor-Roper reveals decryption of Abwehr messages in Canaris essay 1972 ‘The XX System’ by John Masterman appears 1972 Ritter publishes ‘Deckname Dr. Rantzau’ 1973 Malcolm Muggeridge publishes ‘Chronicles of Wasted Time’ 1973 Seale and McConville hint at VENONA programme in book on Philby 1974 Winterbotham reveals ULTRA secret 1978 David Kahn publishes ‘Hitler’s Spies’ 1979 Andrew Boyle’s ‘Climate of Treason’ published: Blunt outed 1979 Thatcher announces Blunt’s pardon 1979 Penrose outs Cairncross 1979 Rees’s deathbed revelations 1979 Volume 1 of Hinsley’s History appears 1980 David Martin’s ‘Wilderness of Mirrors’ identifies VENONA 1981 Nigel West publishes ‘MI5’ (with information from disenchanted White) 1981 Volume 2 of Hinsley’s History appears 1981 Harold Macmillan publicly denounces Michael Howard for irresponsibility 1982 Existence of VENONA starts to leak out 1983 Nigel West publishes ‘MI6’ 1984 Pincher’s ‘Too Secret Too Long’ accuses Hollis 1984 Volume 3 of Hinsley’s History appears 1985 Gordievsky escapes to UK 1986 Nigel West publishes ‘GCHQ’ 1986 Joan Miller publishes ‘One Girl’s War’ 1986 Lamphere publishes ‘FBI-KGB War’ 1987 Peter Wright publishes ‘Spycatcher’ 1989 Government recognizes MI5 1990 Volume 4 of Hinsley’s History appears 1990 Volume 5 of History (Howard) appears 1991 Nigel West writes about VENONA in ‘7 Spies . . .’ 1991 End of Communist regime in Russia 1992 Mitrokhin brings his Archive to the UK 1992 Queen recognizes SIS in speech to parliament 1993 Primakov identifies threat from NATO 1994 Intelligence Services Act: Existence of SIS & GCHQ acknowledged 1994 Weinstein given access to KGB files 1994 Aldrich Ames convicted 1996 USA declassifies VENONA materials 1999 Nigel West publishes book on VENONA 1999 Haynes & Klehr publish book on VENONA 2000 Weinstein’s ‘Haunted Wood’ published 2009 History of MI5 appears 2010 History of SIS appears 2014 First volume of History of JIC appears 2017 History of GCHQ commissioned This litany of publication shows a number of developing themes and tensions, namely: i) the overall desire of government organizations to maintain a veil of secrecy over intelligence operations; ii) the eagerness of journalists and (some) agents and officers involved in intelligence to reveal clandestine operations to the public; iii) the expressed need by the security services to assist public relations efforts by selective breach of the Official Secrets Act, and granting controlled access to certified materials, or leaking certain information; iv) simultaneous prosecution of authors trying to breach the OSA when the authorities believe such disclosures might harm the reputation of the intelligence services, on the pretext that national security is at risk; v) unofficial leaking of information to journalists and historians by insiders frustrated by prolonged secrecy, and perhaps anxious to establish their own legacy; vi) a recognition by the authorities that information may be revealed from other countries (e.g. the USA, Germany and Russia), a process they cannot control, while that information may or may not be any more reliable than domestic archives; vii) with the fading-away of uncontrollable ‘amateurs’ successfully telling their stories of war-time exploits, the new professional heads of intelligence agencies attempt to re-tighten the screws of security (this is a point made by Hugh Trevor-Roper in a 1981 letter to Lord Annan); viii) an eventual, though sometimes reluctant, admission by the authorities that it is now acceptable for an ‘authorised’ or ‘official’ history to be told, and the commissioning of respectable and reliable scholars to perform exclusive research on security organizations; ix) the appearance of authoritative-sounding such histories, which are incomplete, unverifiable, and frequently cite questionable facts or conclusions from works published in the controversial period; x) the fostering of the belief that, now such an official history has been written, it can be viewed as reliable, and need not be examined or contested; xi) the incorporation of such lore, both from official histories and semi-historical accounts, into such presumed reliable references as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; xii) the declassification of archival material which, if inspected closely and properly synthesized, sheds doubts on some of the main assertions of the histories; xiii) the tendency for new history-writing to drill down into horizontal cases of personal appeal rather than attempt to integrate more complex cross-disciplinary topics; xiv) a mutually reinforcing admiration process between the experts and the authorised historians, who are reluctant to have their reputations spoiled by any admission of errors; xv) a state of confusion, where the reading public is faced with a mixture of fact and fiction, finding it difficult to find bearings in a world of circular regurgitation of dubious reportage, conspiracy theories, fake news, and the chaotic aggregation of information on the Web. xvi) the gradual disappearance of capable and affordable professionals chartered with acting as gatekeepers to maintain integrity in the historiography of Intelligence matters. And I suppose that’s a good way of reminding myself why Coldspur exists. Finally, I want to expand on this matter of ‘gatekeepers’. Shortly before I left Gartner Group in 1999, a case was made for opening up all of the company’s research on the Web, as ‘everybody was doing it’. I strongly resisted this, saying that anything given away for free would essentially be seen as valueless, and no better than anything else published there. It would have reduced Gartner’s business to a conference and consulting affair, rather than a leveraged product. To this day, I support strongly those on-line publishers who are subscription-based, and who presumably believe they can command decent fees through a commitment to excellence. On the other hand, I never make a charitable donation to any free site (such as the undisciplined and unreliable Wikipedia), since the outfit does not have a business model that drives quality, and I have no wish to encourage such unscholarliness. Yet there are challenges in trying to compete with an advertising model. For example, in the Intelligence world, Taylor and Francis has acquired prominent publishers, and offers access to their on-line journals through subscriptions. These publications are in many ways essential reading for the serious analyst, but the fees are penal for the individual researcher not affiliated with an academic institution. (It was a long struggle to get hold of critical articles even when I was affiliated with the University of Buckingham.) I have suggested alternative plans to T & F (who also offer enhanced packages of National Archives material): the company has acknowledged the problem, but is inflexible. I have an especial interest in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which also offers a subscription service. Several years ago, I was commissioned to create an entry for the architect Gordon Kaufmann. (see http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-98440) This exercise involved much self-education, the acquisition of a few books on architecture, some fee-based exploration of genealogy sites, visits to libraries in Palo Alto and London, and to a house in Sussex, email exchanges with historians of California, and some patient detective work. I was proud of the final result, which was well annotated, and closely inspected by the ODNB editor. The entry was used as a showcase sample to promote the new on-line version of the ODNB. I was paid a modest amount for my work, and offered a 50% reduction in fees for a year’s access to the electronic version of the Dictionary. I had no complaints about this. I was very happy to perform the work, believing that it is becoming for those who have benefitted from the education system at Oxford (for example) to contribute to scholarship in what ways they can, even if the beneficiary is a commercial enterprise. That is one of the many ways the public (‘the little platoons’) assists in the continuity of Britain’s cultural heritage. I did not become a regular subscriber, however: I can drive thirty-five miles to the University of North Carolina library in Wilmington to inspect the on-line edition. This, when I went, a few weeks ago, to look up the entry for Guy Liddell (see last month’s post), I was shocked and disgusted. The piece was riddled with errors, and looked as if had been composed in a couple of hours, without any editorial supervision. It debases the whole value principle of the ODNB. It would have been better not to have published any entry at all instead of this shoddy compilation. I have brought my dismay to the attention of my contact there, and received, a couple of weeks ago, an acknowledgment of my message. Since then – nothing. I await the next step with interest, and shall report what happens on coldspur. * * * * * * * * * * * Guy Liddell, Eric Roberts and Kim Philby The Cookridge Archive Perspicacious readers will recall that in February of this year, I made the following observation concerning the irritatingly vague references given by the author of The Climate of Treason, Andrew Boyle: “While I have not performed a cross-reference, I would hazard that most of the correspondence with these persons is to be found in the Boyle Archive, where individual letter-writers are clearly identified. Of this period, Boyle writes, for example (p 455, Note 15): “Confidential information to the author as attested in E. H. Cookridge’s notes from Guy Liddell of MI5.” One might react: What on earth was Liddell doing speaking to Cookridge? Did Cookridge (who died on January 1, 1979) ever publish an account of these confidences? Did Boyle consider, now that Liddell and Cookridge were both dead, that he could safely write about these secrets, or did he still fear the Wrath of White? I hope that a study of the correspondence with Cookridge will clear some of this up.” I inquired of the Cambridge University Library about the availability of selections from the Boyle archive, and, at considerable expense, ordered a sample of photographs of items of Boyle’s correspondence, namely his exchanges with Isaiah Berlin, Malcolm Muggeridge and E. H. Cookridge. These arrived at the beginning of April, but were largely disappointing. I was, however, able to determine in what circumstances Cookridge had consulted Guy Liddell, and to establish what Liddell said to him (or, at least, what Cookridge claimed he said). Unfortunately, Boyle and Cookridge converse somewhat at cross-purposes, and the loose ends from their correspondence are never neatly tied up. Two questions that Boyle posed to Cookridge, on August 30, 1977, run as follows: “3) Was the substance, or even outline, of the Krivitsky testimony ever made known? If not, why do people refer to it as though they were familiar with it? 4) In stating ‘I believe that originally Philby was introduced by Springall to Leonid Tolokovisky [sic]’, what is your evidence – or is this merely a hunch?” Cookridge’s answers, given on September 5, were: “3) Krivitsky referred to it in his book ‘I Was Stalin’s Agent’ (Hamish Hamilton, 1939) and I believe Elsa Poretsky mentions something about it when dealing with some detail with Krivitsky’s activities. I recall to have seen something of interest in Krivitsky’s testimony published in the House Reports of the Un-American Activities Committee. That was many years after his death. 4) No, it’s not just a hunch. But unfortunately the people who had good evidence are dead. One was Guy Maynard Liddell. He was Deputy Director of M.I.5 to Sir David Petrie, later head of B-division under Sir Percy Sillitoe from 1945 to about 1952. He later became Director of Security for the Atomic Energy Authority. In 1955 when the ‘Third Man’ business bust, he was asked to go to Washington and investigate Philby’s activities. He also knew – from the secret investigations conducted about Philby’s past – all about Philby. About a year or two before Liddell’s death (in 1960) I had a talk with him on a quite different subject. I intended to write about the suspected betrayal of the Arnhem operation. Liddell (with a captain of Mil. Intell. named Wall) interrogated the suspected Dutch traitor Christiaan Lindemans in November 1944 in Holland and then at a London ‘cage’ (020). I wanted to learn from what he got out of Lindemans and he did tell me a lot. In the course of our conversation we got to Philby (who had by then, of course, gone to Beirut). I told him that I knew Philby in Vienna and he told me that he knew Philby was recruited in London or Cambridge by a Russian agent of the Cagan [Cahan? : coldspur] team. I can’t remember whether he mentioned Tolokonsky (NOT Tolokovisky) and Aslakov. I was then not yet concerned with the Philby story. Much later I learned from Derek Mark, editor of the Daily Express (who had initiated the big hunt after Philby) that several of his reporters, particularly John Mather, found out that the controller of Philby was Tolokonsky. I believe the Daily Express did publish it there.” The answer to ‘3’ famously misses the point. Boyle was assuredly referring to Krivitsky’s testimony given to his MI5 & SIS interrogators in January 1940, not what he declared to US Senate inquiries before he made his visit to the United Kingdom. This is remarkably obtuse of Cookridge, unless he seriously did not know about Krivitsky’s exploits with Jane Archer and company. As for Douglas ‘Dave’ Springhall, the communist spy jailed in 1943, I have no idea why Philby would ever have dealt with him, although some books do still claim, as did Cookridge, that it was Springhall who recruited Philby in 1933, acting as an intermediary for Tolokonsky and Cahan. Yet it is Cookridge’s reference to Liddell’s visit to Washington that primarily intrigued me. Allowing for Cookridge’s mistakes over Liddell’s roles under Petrie and Liddell before he left MI5, as well as the date of Liddell’s death (1958), it is unlikely that he would have confused Liddell’s visit to Washington on March 14, 1946 (which is confirmed by USA archives) with a post-retirement voyage in 1955. It would have been unusual for Liddell to have been brought out of his retirement from MI5 to consult with Washington, unless Dick White (who was Director-General until 1956) believed that under cover, and because of previous relationships, it would be preferable to send out on a special assignment Guy Liddell than, say – ahem – White’s deputy and successor, Roger Hollis. The Philby Inquiry This was a difficult year for the Philby inquiry. By then, MI5 leaders were convinced that he was the ‘Third Man’, but SIS was defending him. In August 1954, Vladimir Petrov had defected in Australia, and brought confirmation that Burgess and Maclean had been tipped off. Yet defining what action to take was a hazardous project. Moreover, the new head of SIS, John ‘Sinbad’ Sinclair, who had replaced Stewart Menzies in 1953, came to Philby’s defence, writing to Dick White on July 20, 1955 that the interrogation of Philby by Helenus Milmo had been biased, and that Philby was being unfairly treated. The story of Petrov’s defection broke on September 18, 1955, when the Royal Commission in Australia published its report, but Philby was given a soft interrogation by SIS on October 7, which infuriated Dick White. Meanwhile, J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, who was convinced of Philby’s guilt, expressed similar frustration at Philby’s continuing to live scot-free and unchallenged. As Ben Macintyre reports in A Spy Among Friends, on Sunday, October 23, the New York Sunday News ran a story naming Philby as the Third Man. This publication led to the famous questions by Marcus Lipton in the House of Commons, Harold Macmillan’s feeble denial, and Philby’s eventual manipulation of the Press to convince them of his innocence. In his 1968 book The Third Man, Cookridge states that a journalist showed Lipton the story from the Sunday News, but says that the story was written by the paper’s London correspondent, ‘an American, known for his associations with the C.I.A.’ That could have been a blind, although the FBI agent Robert Lamphere, in his book The FBI-KGB War, tells us that the informant was his friend, the CIA’s Bill Harvey. Perhaps Liddell had been sent out as an emissary to Hoover to help stoke the fires, and fight the battle on White’s behalf without drawing SIS’s attention? Given the timing and the circumstances, it is difficult to project any other rationale, and this would follow a pattern (as I explain later). Liddell must have been very flattered. The next question that must be posed is: was Liddell indeed the major source for Cookridge’s assertions in The Third Man? Describing Lipton’s question in the House of Commons, Cookridge informs us that Lipton remarked that he had further information but could not disclose it because it concerned ‘secret agents’, and that this observation was understood as meaning that it came from somebody in M.I.5. Cookridge then laconically adds: “It is not for me to interpret Colonel Lipton’s remark, but we know now that he had good reason to believe his information was correct, thought whether it emanated from Dick White or the New York Sunday News must remain a matter of speculation.” In other words, in the vernacular of House of Cards: “You might say that, but I couldn’t possibly comment”. Cookridge’s comments to Andrew Boyle suggest very strongly that Liddell was his source. In his Preface to The Third Man, Cookridge rather disingenuously attributes his ability to get a scoop to his work as a political journalist. Intriguingly, he says he started the book that very same year, 1955. “At that time (and for eleven years) I was the political correspondent of a British newspaper. Through my work in the Lobby of the House of Commons I had access to sources of information not available to the public. But because of the confidential nature of much of this information . . . I was compelled to put away the Philby manuscript.” Yet his confidence to Andrew Boyle twenty-two years later, when he probably suspected all had blown over, reveals an apparently critical role that Liddell played in disclosing MI5’s substantial evidence against Philby. Who Recruited Philby? This leads directly into another aspect that intrigued me, namely the reference to Cahan, and possibly Tolokonsky. A search of books that cite the fact that Philby was originally recruited by Cahan and Tolokonsky leads normally to Andrew Boyle as the source, and we can now see that Boyle relied on Cookridge, and Cookridge apparently on Liddell. In The Third Man Cookridge reported that Springhall, early in 1933 at a house in Rosary Gardens in London, introduced Kim Philby ‘to his new masters, Leonid Tolokonski [sic] and George Aslakoff, and there he received his initial briefing.’ The Soviet officers then (according to Cookridge) directed Philby to go to Vienna, to work as a courier ‘maintaining communications between the outlawed leaders of the Austrian Communists and GB agents in Vienna and the ‘foreign bureaus’ of the Comintern which functioned without interference in Prague’. So why, the incident recollected in tranquillity, did Cookridge misrepresent what happened? When he wrote to Boyle that he could not recall whether Liddell mentioned Tolokonsky or Aslakoff, did he not have a copy of his book at hand? Perhaps when he wrote his book he was relying on the supposed publication of the ‘facts’ by the Daily Express rather than his briefing by Liddell. (I cannot find any Daily Express reference to Cahan on www.newspapers.com, but, of course, that does not mean that one did not exist.) It is thus impossible to ascertain whether the Daily Express received its information likewise from Liddell, who may have been on a mission to enlighten Fleet Street in MI5’s campaign against SIS. Yet how did Liddell, if he was indeed aware of Philby’s recruitment, learn about it? There are no files for ‘Samuel Cahan’, ‘Tolokonsky’ or ‘Aslakoff’ at the National Archives. Christopher Andrew’s authorized history contains no reference to any of them. Nor do their names appear in the PEACH materials, as recently displayed in Cold War Spymaster (see last month’s blog). Anthony Cave-Brown does not refer to them in Treason in the Blood. Even that exhaustive and prodigious chronicler of Stalin’s espionage, Boris Volodarsky, in Stalin’s Agent, has only a fleeting sentence on Tolokonsky, recording his murder in Siberia in 1936. All of these phenomena are very puzzling, even disturbing. Is it possible that Liddell alone knew about the recruitment? After all, Cookridge told Boyle that ‘he’ (Liddell) knew about it, not that MI5 knew about it. Was that not an odd way for Liddell, and then Cookridge, to represent the lesson? It would appear that, if MI5’s senior officers were aware of the story, they managed to throw a wrap over it, and suppress any information that they held on the KGB or GRU officers in London. But why would they do that? (The only other reference to Tolokonsky that I have found is in a novel based around Kim Philby and his Russian handler, given the name Orloff, titled A Spy In Winter, by one Michael Hastings, published in 1984. ‘Michael Hastings’ is a pseudonym of Michael Ben-Zohar, an Israeli historian born in Bulgaria, and the author has Orloff declare: “Until I came into the open, the British secret services believed that Maly and Tolokonsky had recruited and run Philby.” Whatever his sources were, Ben-Zohar’s text suggests that there was some substance behind the Tolokonsky claim. Of course, he may simply have used what he read in The Climate of Treason or The Third Man as a useful aid to authenticity. I have attempted to contact Ben-Zohar via his publisher, but, as so often happens in such cases, I have not even received an acknowledgment of my inquiry.) If Liddell had exclusive knowledge, therefore, it could not have come from shared sources, such as Gouzenko or Petrov, unless he had private conversations with them. And there is no evidence of that. Candidates, therefore would have to include Krivitsky (with whom Liddell did have one-on-one discussions, the details of which were reacted from his Diaries) or maybe Douglas Springhall. Another candidate might be Fred Copeman, who was a close comrade of Springhall’s in 1933, but later turned respectable, and may have been an informer for MI5. Krivitsky seems highly unlikely. I believe no mention of the triad of Cahan, Tolokovsky or Aslakoff appears in the transcripts of his interrogations. And 1940 would be very early for Liddell to receive a tip on Philby and do nothing about it. Moreover, Krivitsky had shown himself unwilling to reveal Philby’s identity as the journalist sent to Franco’s Spain under cover. Springhall is problematical. On my desktop computer, I have twenty-seven bulky PDFs from his files at the National Archives, which I have not yet inspected properly. They provide a fairly exhaustive account of his movements, but Special Branch did not appear to track him having a meeting with members of the Soviet Embassy in 1933. (Springhall did make a request to visit Cambridge in March of that year, however.) I suppose it is possible that Liddell had an interview with the communist activist at the time of his conviction in 1943, but it is improbable that a record of such a conversation has lain undiscovered. Somewhere in that archive (according to Springhall’s Wikipedia entry) is a suggestion that Springhall was working for the GRU from 1932 onwards, but locating that record is a task that will have to wait – unless any alert reader is already familiar with the whole of KV 2/2063-2065 & KV 2/1594-1598 . . . Liddell and Eric Roberts All this links to the third leg of this particular inquiry, which casts dramatic new light on the compelling question of whether British intelligence nourished stronger suspicions about the activities of the Cambridge Five well before they admitted so to the public. “It has been brought to my attention” (as Sir Edward Heath was accustomed to start his letters of complaint to the Spectator, presumably being too busy or too important to read the magazine himself), that, in other records recently declassified and released to the National Archives, Guy Liddell pointed out as early as 1947 that a spy existed in SIS. This astonishing story concerns the MI5 officer, Eric Roberts, and the germ of it can be found on the MI5 website at https://www.mi5.gov.uk/eric-roberts-undercover-work-in-world-war-ii. A more detailed explanation can be seen in a BBC article posted back in 2015, where Christopher Andrew is quoted commenting on an extraordinary testimony that Eric Roberts left behind. The story can be inspected at https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33414358, and contains the dramatic statement: “In 1947 Roberts was seconded to Vienna to work with MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service. Before Roberts went, he spoke to Liddell. According to Roberts, Liddell warned him ‘there was a traitor operating at the highest level’ of the SIS.” Before I analyse this vital claim, I need to step back and critique the way this story has been presented, as I think the whole issue of the ‘Fifth Column’ has been distorted., and that the MI5 bulletin contributes to the muddle. As you will see, the piece starts: “In the early part of WWII . . .”, and goes on: “It was hoped by this means to ‘surface’ others of a similar pro-Nazi persuasion who might be capable of forming a fascist 5th Column – still a major source of anxiety for MI5 so long as invasion remained a threat.” Yet the narrative suddenly jumps to ‘early 1942’, when Eric Roberts’s role was decided, namely almost halfway through the war. Hitler had in fact called off the invasion by September 1940, and, though Britain had to prepare for it still throughout much of 1941, by the end of that year, the conditions of engagement had changed considerably. Both the Soviet Union and the United States had joined the Allies, and the focus was then on the question of when a so-called ‘Second Front’ (a misleading Soviet-inspired term, as Britain was already fighting the Germans on several fronts) would be opened, and a European invasion begun. Thus, with the Abwehr’s network of agents already controlled by the Double-Cross system, the manipulation of a rather tawdry set of Nazi sympathisers, in the belief that MI5 was warding off a dangerous threat, seems a somewhat quixotic and perhaps a merely futile exercise. This was no ‘Fifth Column’, since the Wehrmacht surely was unaware that any of these persons were active on its behalf, and the MI5 piece rightly suggests that they could probably not have been prosecuted because of the ‘spectre of provocation’. The records of Eric Roberts and this adventure can be inspected at KV 2/3783 & 2/3784 in the National Archives. The latter is downloadable at no charge, and contains the myriad conversations between Roberts and his Nazi sympathisers that were recorded. Unfortunately, the former, which must contain the more interesting articles described in the BBC story, has not been digitized, and I have thus not yet been able to inspect it. (As I was completing this story for my press deadline, I heard from my researcher in London that the 14-page testimonial is not in the archive, but presumably owned by the Roberts family. Given the publicity on the MI5 and BBC sites, including Christopher Andrew’s provocative comments that appear below, it would seem that the family is seeking greater attention to Eric Roberts’s claims, so I am hopeful of gaining access via the BBC.) It also occurs to me that Kate Atkinson, whose novel Transcription I reviewed on this site a few months ago, exploits these recordings, and Henry Hemming, whose biography of Maxwell Knight, MI5’s Greatest Spymaster, I read when it came out in 2017, also describes the activities of Roberts. I should probably annotate my review of Atkinson’s work, although I think her timetable becomes even messier, given the period at which the events occurred. Hemming, whose approach to chronology is also a little wayward, in his concentration on Maxwell Knight, appears not to have exploited this mine of information. Additionally, it was with some amusement that I read the MI5 comment: “For a variety of reasons, until very recently the story of her [Marita Perigoe’s] group and Eric Roberts’ achievements had gone largely unseen by MI5 historians and accordingly the significance of these events was unnoticed.” MI5 ‘historians’? Who might they be, I wonder? Since Andrew’s authorised history came out some six years before these files were released, did MI5 for some reason forget to draw the historian’s attention to their existence when our intrepid researcher was being walked round the archives? Would the MI5 spokesperson be prepared to explain what the ‘variety of reasons’ was? Was MI5 perhaps embarrassed at some of the revelations that came forth from the 14-page document that Andrew is quoted as describing in the following terms: “It’s the most extraordinary intelligence document I’ve ever seen. It’s 14 pages long – it will keep conspiracy theorists going for another 14 years”? Well, here is one professional conspiracy theorist who can’t wait to get his hands on it. If it is going to keep us busy, we have to see the document. Yet it is Roberts’s friendship with Guy Liddell that is for me the most compelling aspect of the story. In 1947, before his secondment to Vienna, we learn that Eric Roberts was warned by his friend that ‘there was a traitor operating at the highest level of the SIS’. Roberts thus credited Liddell with helping him in an awkward situation, but, when he returned to London in 1949, and asked his friend whether the traitor had been identified, Liddell ‘evaded the question’. That is surely evidence that he was not alone in his suspicions, but had been told to clam up. If we inspect my Chronology above, it is clear that the predecessor event that might have convinced Liddell of the guilt of a senior officer in SIS would clearly have been the hapless attempt to defect from Istanbul, Turkey by Konstantin Volkov, on August 16, 1945. We now know of Philby’s manoeuvres to have the informant captured, with the result that Volkov was drugged and executed by Moscow before London could work out what was going on. (This was before the notorious episode of Teddy Kollek, who had witnessed what Philby was up to in Vienna in 1934, being shocked by spotting Philby in a diplomatic role in Washington in 1949.) Did Liddell rumble Philby then? The reason that this question is so important is that conventional accounts of the ‘Third Man’ scandal have focused on the identification of Philby as a possible traitor only after the abscondment of Burgess and Maclean in 1951. I present Liddell’s relevant Diary entry for October 5, 1945 in its entirety: “The case of the renegade WOLKOFF in the Soviet Embassy in Istanbul has broken down. In accordance with instructions he was telephoned to at the Soviet consulate. The telephone was answered by the Russian Consul-General on the first occasion and on the second by a man speaking English claiming to be WOLKOFF but clearly was not. Finally, contact was made with the Russian telephone operator who said that WOLKOFF had left for Moscow. Subsequent enquiries showed that he and his wife left by plane for Russia on Sept.26. Wolkoff had ovvered [sic: ‘offered’] to give a very considerable amount of information but much of it appeared to be in Moscow. WOLKOFF estimated that there were 9 agents in London of one of whom was said to be the ‘head of a section of the British counter-espionage service’. WOLKOFF said he could also produce a list of the known regular NKGB agents of the military and civil intelligence and of the sub-agents they employed. In the list are noted about 250 known or less well known agents of the above-mentioned services with details. Also available were copies of correspondence between London and General Hill of SOE in Moscow. WOLKOFF maintained that the Soviet authorities had been able to read all cypher messages between our F.O. and Embassy in Moscow and in addition to Hill’s messages [line redacted] the Russians had according to WOLKOFF two agents inside the F.O. and 7 inside the British Intelligence Service.” Does this indicate that he believed that Philby was the guilty party? Maybe he was already starting to question why such a valuable potential operation had suddenly turned so sour. We should also recall that Jane Archer, the author of the Krivitsky report, had returned to MI5, probably at the beginning of 1946, from working for Philby in Section V of SIS. It seems inconceivable that she and Liddell would not have discussed her previous boss, the Volkov incident, and maybe started to look more closely at Philby’s career. Archer would have been fascinated by the information revealed in Liddell’s diary entry, and Philby, who wrote of her knowledge of the ‘journalist in Spain’ in My Silent War, might have been alarmed by her return to MI5. Did Liddell also discuss the affair with Dick White? Not so certainly, but White (who was by now taking charge of MI5, as I explained in last month’s report, and moving to squeeze out his mentor at the top) may have cautioned him to silence, unaware that Liddell had shared his suspicions with Roberts. With Blunt (as I confidently assert) recently unmasked in MI5, and Philby a strong suspect in SIS, White may have felt that they could control the poison – and preserve the reputation of the service. As we see, Liddell was going to have to suppress his suspicions when his friend Roberts returned from Vienna, suggesting that he was not alone in harbouring serious doubts about Philby’s loyalties, but that pressure was being applied not to rock the boat. That was not the behavior of a Soviet mole, but of a weak and frightened man. Confusion in Washington Moreover, my overseas informant (who wishes to remain anonymous) has pointed out to me a dramatic new twist to the story. In the 1967 Sunday Times article that broke the Philby story, there appears a provocative statement concerning Philby after the disappearance of Burgess and Maclean in May 1951. It runs as follows: “The weekend after the defection, a four-man team, led by G. A. Carey-Foster, the head of Q-Branch in the Foreign Office, flew to Washington and questioned Philby. Almost immediately afterwards Philby was withdrawn from his post as CIA/SIS liaison officer: apart from any suspicions the British had, the Americans were no longer prepared to deal with him.” If this were true, the team presumably flew out to forestall any attempt by Philby to defect, which must have meant that MI5 and the Foreign Office harboured deep suspicions about Philby’s loyalties, and were very quick to adopt a ‘Third Man’ theory. So what happened to this story? The cavalcade of events constitutes an excellent example of the importance of Chronology. Surprisingly, the claim does not appear in the 1968 book that followed the Sunday Times article – The Philby Conspiracy, by the Sunday Times journalists Bruce Page, David Leitch and Phillip Knightley. In fact, the only publication where I have been able to find the story duplicated is in that now familiar compendium, E. H. Cookridge’s The Third Man, where he wrote (p 208): “What followed was a world sensation. Sir Percy Sillitoe flew to Washington six days after the disappearance of Burgess and Maclean; he was preceded by a team, led by Mr. Carey-Foster, sent to interrogate Philby.” This account, if only partially true (Sillitoe did not fly out until two weeks after the spies’ absence was noticed), would tend to confirm the preparedness of British security organs to spring into action. But where did Cookridge get his information from? The Sunday Times? Or the same source who provided it to the newspaper? It is not clear, and, unless the Cookridge archive can shed light on the matter, we shall probably never know. The circumstances of Philby’s departure from the USA at that time are represented inconsistently in the literature. Perhaps the most detailed account of the goings-on is S. J. Hamrick’s 2004 opus Deceiving the Deceivers. Hamrick was a former US intelligence officer who believed that MI5 and the Foreign Office had deceived the British public – and the CIA – about their investigation into Maclean and Philby. Unfortunately, Hamrick, who compiled a detailed chronicle of the events leading up to Burgess and Maclean’s disappearance, spun a yarn that had Dick White and the RAF trying to use Philby in an extravagant operation to feed false information on atomic weapons to the Soviets. This fantasy was deftly dissected and trashed by Nigel West himself, in a review titled ‘Who’s Fooling Who?’, which appeared in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence in 2006. (Yet West lists the work as a source in Cold War Spymaster, without any explanation why a work that he has panned elsewhere has suddenly become worthy of being recommended to his readership. A very bizarre practice, which must be condemned.) The account of Philby’s departure is quite clear, however: he received a telegram recalling him to London before Sillitoe and Martin flew out, and arrived the day they left London. As I delved more deeply into the various accounts of Philby’s recall in early June 1951 (I have made notes from about twenty), I realized that the whole saga is more complicated, more puzzling, and more disturbing than I ever imagined. I cannot possibly do justice do it in this report, and shall have to dedicate a whole future instalment of coldspur to the full exploration of the inconsistencies. It may not surprise readers to learn that one of the latest renderings, Christopher Andrew’s authorised history of MI5, Defend the Realm (2009), despite having all the records at the author’s disposal, seems to me to have got the timetable dramatically wrong. (Chronology again!) On the other hand, the supposed visit to Washington by Carey Foster and his team may be purely mythical – and may not matter much. So I shall here simply outline my main findings and conclusions. First, let us step back a bit. Just before Kim Philby was posted to Washington in September 1949, as the liaison for British intelligence with the US government, he was briefed by Maurice Oldfield, deputy head of counter-intelligence in SIS, about the VENONA project. This programme, by which certain wartime cables between Moscow and outlying embassies had been (partially) decrypted by US and GB teams, had by then thrown up the cryptonym HOMER as an important source of highly sensitive information passed on to the Soviets. It was Philby’s job to assist the FBI in identifying possible suspects. Given that the ‘Foreign Office’ spy (namely Maclean) had been identified, but not named, by Krivitsky, it took an unconscionably long time for British intelligence to whittle down the candidates for this breach to Maclean himself. MI5 would later claim that only in April 1951 could HOMER’s identity be firmly nailed on to Maclean, after which the bumbling investigation (hindered by the Foreign Office) sputtered along so ineptly that it allowed Burgess and Maclean to escape on May 25. The whole point of the investigation was to delay and prevaricate. Yet, when the story broke to the astounded FBI and CIA, MI5 had to act fast to try to restore confidence. The records point dominantly to the fact that Percy Sillitoe, the Director-General of MI5, accompanied by one of his junior officers, Arthur Martin, flew out to Washington the same day that Philby, who had been recalled, flew into Heathrow (June 12). (Philby had given the impression to his friends, such as James Angleton, that he would be returning.) Yet the files at the National Archives in Kew show that this goodwill trip had been planned before Burgess and Maclean escaped, as part of the charm offensive that MI5 knew it would have to undertake when Maclean was brought in for questioning. The days June 12/13 had already been chosen, at the planning meeting for the interrogation of Maclean, on May 23, as the dates to speak to Hoover. The records show that Sillitoe intended to inform Hoover of the name of the ‘principle suspect’. In the changed circumstances, however, with the renegades escaping under MI5’s noses, a different strategy was required. Arthur Martin brought a sharp seven-point memorandum with him, which he apologetically shared with his FBI contact Robert Lamphere, while his chief had a meeting with his counterpart, Edgar Hoover. This report listed some major damning reasons why Philby was seen as a security risk, and clearly would be interpreted as putting an end to his career with SIS. Lamphere documented them (in The FBI-KGB War) as follows: - Maclean, Burgess and Philby had all been communists at Cambridge - Philby had become pro-German to build his cover story - Philby had married the communist Litzi Friedman - Krivitsky had pointed to a journalist in Spain (who was in fact Philby) - Philby was involved in the Volkov affair - Philby was involved in infiltrating Georgian agents into Armenia - Philby was suspected in assisting in the disappearance of Burgess and Maclean. It had presumably not been the plan to open up so blatantly when preparations for the visit were originally made. Yet Sillitoe did not take this memorandum to Hoover. The CIA Takes Charge? When Bedell Smith, the head of the CIA, heard of the Burgess-Maclean fiasco, he apparently asked his lieutenants to write up reports on what they knew about Philby. Even though there had been no deep briefing of the CIA by Sillitoe and Martin, one of Smith’s officers, Bill Harvey, responsible for countering Soviet espionage, used information which was uncannily similar to that supplied by Martin to give meat to his account. James Angleton, the other prominent agent, wrote more about the rude behavior of Burgess in Washington, but was overall more forgiving of Philby. Bedell Smith then wrote to Stewart Menzies, the head of SIS, insisting that Philby never represent the British government again – as if he had been unaware of the Martin submission. What is most critical for this story, however, is the fact that Harvey’s report was dated June 18, the day Sillitoe and Martin returned to London after their conversations with their counterparts in the FBI. Philby was already out of the country. It is important to note a few important aspects of Philby’s recall. The first concerns the fact that Stewart Menzies, the head of SIS, very quickly sent a recall message to Philby after his friends had fled. That would suggest that Menzies, who was later to become a stout defender of this high-flying officer, at the time had doubts about him – perhaps because some analysts were suggesting that Philby was ‘STANLEY’ in the VENONA decrypts – and recognized that Philby was a security risk. Yet a disturbing part of the recall was the unusual behavior of Menzies, in that he first sent a letter to Philby, in which he warned him that an official telegram would soon be arriving. Some interpreters of this (e.g. Hamrick) have suggested that this was an alert for Philby to indicate that he should fly the coop if he wanted to. It is difficult to imagine Menzies taking advice on this matter from anyone else. As Genrikh Borovik recorded in The Philby Files (1994) (and confirmable in KV 6/143 at Kew) Philby was also asked by MI5, by telegram, to contribute an opinion on the Burgess and Maclean affair before the letter from Menzies came through. He sent two messages back, of which the second, dated June 6,is on file, and danced a cautiously informative line, dropping hints about the pair’s possible association and friendship, and identifying possibly incriminating property (a sun-lamp, a camera, books by Stalin) in Burgess’s possession. It was crafted to provide just enough awareness to show a degree of observation, but not enough to have implicated himself. Hamrick reports that the letter-carrier was one John Drew, who ‘happened to be leaving for Washington on official business’, and that the letter had been written at Menzies’ request. “The purpose was to warn Philby of the coming cable recalling him to London so he could quickly pack up and hustle out of town before Percy Sillitoe arrived for his talks with J. Edgar Hoover. MI6 wanted to make sure Philby was beyond Hoover’s grasp and unavailable for FBI interrogation.” That sounds fraudulent and unlikely to me: why on earth would Philby, as an SIS employee, have to submit to interrogation by the FBI? If accurate, however, it also shows that Menzies was aware of the planned Sillitoe visit: Patrick Reilly, identified as ‘SIS Foreign Office Adviser’, attended the vital planning meeting on May 24 at which the timetable was laid out. Reilly had also been Menzies’s private secretary during the war, so Menzies would quickly have learned all that was going on. Reilly (who was the gentleman selected to prepare, a few years later, the lie to the House of Commons about Burgess’s career with the Foreign Office) could have also been called ‘Foreign Office SIS Adviser’. Another significant fact is that Philby maintained cordial relations with his contacts in the CIA (for example, James Angleton) right up to his departure. That would indicate that the CIA did not connect any dots until after he had left, for whatever reason, and that Bill Harvey’s work on building a case against Philby did not occur until Sillitoe and Martin had arrived in Washington. No record of Harvey’s report to Bedell Smith, which has received so much attention in the various accounts of this period, exists. Gordon Corera, in The Art of Betrayal (2012) informs us that he made repeated requests through the Freedom of Information Act, but came up with nothing. (Corera, by the way, is another historian who ignores the chronology: he has ‘Washington’ insisting that Philby leave.) Moreover, Corera also has Harvey sending his memorandum not to Smith, but to Allen Dulles, who was Deputy-Director of Plans at that time. Yet this was assuredly a different memorandum. The Cleveland Cram Archive at George Washington University reveals that Harvey and Angleton probably submitted two separate memoranda: when Jack Easton of SIS returned to Washington in July, he pointed out that Sillitoe had been given these memoranda by the CIA, and that the one written by Harvey claimed that Philby was ‘ELLI’. That assertion was not part of the Martin-Lamphere-Harvey communication, and it would appear clear that Harvey had been instructed not to let the Director-General of MI5 see the infamous memorandum with the seven points. In addition, the missive to Dulles was dated June 15, while that to Smith was written two days earlier, immediately after Lamphere’s meeting with Martin. Christopher Andrew is another of those observers who assert that Philby was recalled because of Bedell Smith’s ‘prompt’ action in demanding Philby’s recall, and that such a demand then required Sillitoe to travel to Washington to mollify Bedell Smith! Moreover, Andrew makes no reference to the seven-point memorandum which Lamphere clearly described in his book, published as early as 1986. Even Anthony Cave Brown, not regarded as the most reliable of historians, reflected the Martin disclosures, in his 1994 epic Treason in the Blood, although he suggested that the dossier on Philby was created by Martin in a rush, when he inspected the records on Philby only after Burgess and Maclean were shown to have flown (May 28) – a highly improbable scenario. While a fresh decision was no doubt made to communicate its contents to Lamphere, the dossier had surely been compiled beforehand. Nigel West, in his recent Coldwar Spymaster (see last month’s report) quotes Liddell’s diary entry of June 18, when he shares Sillitoe’s statement of regret that the FBI had not been shown the shortlist, but otherwise does not explain the circumstances by which this memorandum was created and passed on. The comments in Liddell’s diary indicate a highly significant and devious plot, however. On June 14, he reports that Sillitoe has sent in a telegram, ‘saying that the CIA are already conducting enquiries about Philby, whom they regard as persona non grata, and that the FBI may take up the running before long. He [Sillitoe] thinks, however, that we should disclose to the FBI now that Kim’s first wife was a Communist’. Liddell was doubtful about providing this information, and recorded that the decision should be left to Sillitoe: “. . . he should make it clear that no proper assessment of Philby’s position has so far been possible.” Apart from the absurdity of the Director-General of MI5 having to telegram home for instructions (I cannot see J. Edgar Hoover calling back from Topeka, Kansas to ask his subordinates ‘What should I do?’), Liddell’s state of ignorance would seem to be confirmed. Given that Martin had just informed Lamphere of the fact of Philby’s first marriage, as one of the seven points, it would appear to prove that (unless Liddell had been creating fake entries for posterity) i) Liddell himself knew nothing of Martin and his seven points; ii) Sillitoe knew nothing of the seven points, and iii) Lamphere could be trusted not to have shared what he was told with his colleagues at the FBI. The only person who could have managed this whole exercise was Dick White. As it turned out, Sillitoe went on to have a meeting with Bedell Smith, but since he had been deliberately kept in the dark about the mission of his sidekick Martin, it is safe to assume that he could have told Bedell Smith nothing about MI5’s dossier on Philby. Ironically, as late as June 27, Liddell records in his diary that White ‘has agreed a memorandum with SIS on the subject of Kim Philby, which is to go to the FBI’. Dick White must have struggled to keep a straight face. The American side of the story is equally bizarre, with the CIA’s Bill Harvey clearly trying to steal the thunder, claiming he had come to his conclusions about Philby while stuck in traffic on the way to work. (In his 2001 Secret History of the CIA Joseph J. Trento relates an alternative version which Harvey used to tell his team in Berlin, where he was posted in 1953 – that the breakthrough occurred while he was sitting in the barber’s chair: maybe he had trouble remembering his legend.) Harvey was an unusual character, in that he had been recruited from the FBI in 1950 after he had effectively been fired from Hoover’s organisation, probably because a hangover caused him to miss an appointment. Trento, citing William R. Corson, offers a more dramatic explanation – that Hoover set up the incident, so that he could infiltrate Harvey into the CIA as a mole. Whether that is true or not, Harvey had also been enraged when Guy Burgess drew an unflattering caricature of his wife at a party hosted by the Philbys. The story of his epiphany comes from the very influential, but woolly and unreliable 1980 book, Wilderness of Mirrors, by the journalist David Martin, who echoed the claim that Bedell Smith gathered Angleton’s and Harvey’s reports, and let Menzies know that Philby was no longer welcome in Washington. Martin went on to write, in blissful ignorance of what his namesake Arthur had provided, that MI5, ‘working from Harvey’s premise’ then compiled a dossier against Philby that included the seven points of light. “I have toted [sic] up the ledger and the debits outnumber the assets’, he had the head of MI5 (i.e. not Menzies, but Sillitoe) then informing the CIA in response. Wilderness of Mirrors builds up a paean to Harvey as ‘the man who unmasked Philby’ and upstaged his rival James Angleton, the start of a lifelong reputation that was then reinforced by everyone who read Martin’s book: it was all a sham. In his profile of Philby, The Master Spy (1982), Phillip Knightley (who interviewed his subject in Moscow) manages to record both anecdotes in the space of two pages – Harvey’s extraordinary insight, and the fact that Lamphere was informed by Arthur Martin of the seven points – without recognizing the paradox. Moreover, he also echoes David Martin’s absurd claim that White then endorsed the Bedell Smith report by compiling its own dossier on Philby. As a weird adjunct to his written testimony, Lamphere then informed Knightley that Martin was accompanied by White himself in a visit to Washington after the Bedell submission, and thereby convinced him of Philby’s guilt! Knightley’s account is typical of this genre in showing an utterly undisciplined approach to chronology, an impressionability to unreliable sources, and a lack of rigorous methodology to sort out conflicts. Lamphere thus seemed to contradict himself, sealing the fact of his complicity in the plot. As further evidence, Lamphere, who documented the Arthur Martin revelations in 1986, appeared not to object to this flagrant distortion of the truth when Burton Hersh, in The Old Boys (1992) regurgitated this story that appeared in the more definitive history of the CIA, John Ranelagh’s The Agency (1986). The CIA and the FBI were fierce rivals, and culturally very different. Why would he not call out his vainglorious counterpart, and correct the record? (Questioning the possible motives of participants is another aspect of my methodology.) Probably because Harvey was his friend and ally, and they agreed that it was the best way of getting rid of the odious Philby. Dick White’s Plot My theory about this is, therefore, that Lamphere knew that a wily plot was under way, and went along with it to enhance the CIA’s reputation. I suspect that Dick White, alerted by Liddell (and maybe by the very astute Maurice Oldfield, an SIS officer who had come to similar conclusions about Philby, but was not yet influential enough to challenge Menzies) crafted the policy of leaking a dossier on Philby to the CIA via Lamphere, so that the CIA could challenge SIS on it, thus deflecting the source of the attack away from MI5. Since Harvey was an ex-FBI man, he had a special relationship with his former colleague: he and Lamphere were old friends. The CIA had been depressed by its recent failed exploits in Albania, with which Philby had been involved, and MI5 was in no shape to make any open criticisms of SIS, what with the Fuchs fiasco fresh in its collective minds. What better way for MI5 of raising its esteem in the opinion of the CIA, and diverting attention to the misfortunes of SIS, than enabling the passing on to the CIA secret information with which it could assail SIS, and secure Philby’s demise? Thus Lamphere became a willing participant in the scheme, and remained silent. In his book, he very smoothly elides over Harvey’s ‘breakthrough’: “In the summer of 1951, in my in-service lectures to FBI field agents, I was discussing Philby as a major spy; simultaneously, over at the CIA, Bill Harvey and Jim Angleton had no doubts about Philby’s perfidy.” He says nothing about Harvey’s ‘Aha!’ moment when stuck in traffic. He subdued his ego for the greater cause. By 1986, however, he no doubt felt that it was safe to explain what really happened. Yet no one picked him up: instead we read all these stories, no doubt encouraged by the CIA, of MI5 responding to the shrewd insights of its operatives by compiling its dossier on Philby in response to the CIA’s breakthroughs. MI5 was thus clearly trying to play a very cagey game, no doubt inspired by Dick White rather than the bemused Sillitoe or the cautious Liddell, playing off the Foreign Office and SIS, and attempting to curry favour with the CIA, minimizing MI5’s culpability in the sluggish investigation into HOMER. The service surely had compiled a dossier on Philby much earlier (as the Roberts-Liddell exchanges will probably confirm), and many commentators, such as Hamrick, imply that the study of the VENONA texts had led White and co. to Maclean much earlier than MI5 later claimed. SIS’s passivity in the whole affair is a bit surprising, unless Menzies and White (acting on behalf of the confused Sillitoe) had done a deal whereby they would quietly ‘bury’ Philby in the same way that White and Liddell had smothered any disclosures about Anthony Blunt and Leo Long. Yet the fact that Menzies sent his emissary Jack Easton out to Washington in July to explain to Bedell Smith that Philby’s only identified transgression so far had been to board Guy Burgess in his Washington home indicated that SIS was probably not aware of the beans that had been spilled by Arthur Martin earlier. As for Liddell, it was surprising that he was not sent on the mission with Sillitoe – after all, he was Sillitoe’s deputy, was nominally in charge of the investigation, and knew as much as anybody about Soviet espionage – but maybe he was considered not devious enough, and might have betrayed the fact that he had harboured suspicions about Philby for some years already. White may have therefore manoeuvered Martin into the assignment, as a less imaginative spokesperson. Yet Tom Bower’s biography of White, The Perfect English Spy, offers a different explanation. The account of these weeks is a chronological disaster, as White clearly wanted to deceive his interlocutor. The future head of MI5 and SIS gave his biographer a complete tissue of lies, not only massively confusing the timetable of events, but omitting some vital aspects of the story. Again, this episode merits a report of its own, and I need to interweave the claimed chronology with my previous account of Liddell’s meetings with Rees and Blunt (see http://www.coldspur.com/donald-macleans-handiwork ), so I shall just highlight the main travesties here. Among the distortions, Bower has White approaching John Sinclair, the deputy-director of SIS, after Sillitoe’s return from the USA, requesting that Philby be brought back to England for questioning, while indicating that Philby was not under suspicion at that time. He makes no mention of the detailed plans for visiting Washington that Kew has now disclosed, most significantly overlooking the dossier that Arthur Martin shared with Lamphere, instead saying that Martin’s conversations with Lamphere ‘were focused on Burgess’. Instead, White has himself and Martin compiling the dossier after the request to Philby went out. Moreover, he repeats the story of the letter of warning to Philby before the telegram, but again, being sent after Sillitoe and Martin had returned. It is apparent, also, that White told Bower that he wanted Liddell out of the investigation because of Liddell’s associations with Burgess and his injudicious meeting with Blunt, and Liddell’s foolish request to Blunt to open Burgess’s flat to look for clues and correspondence. White hints broadly to his biographer that Liddell came under suspicion as a Soviet spy, yet on January 2, 1980, he would declare (as reported by the Canberra Times) that “Any suggestion that Liddell was a Russian agent is the most awful, rotten nonsense. I knew him well and never had the slightest doubt about his good faith.” What is also remarkable is the evidence, in the Cleveland Cram files, that, when White came over to Washington in January 1952, he admitted to Scott, Dulles and Wisner in the CIA that Philby had been spying for the Soviets up until 1945, but had then ‘probably stopped’ his activities. That was an extraordinarily reckless statement to make, especially in view of the fact that MI5 had not elicited a confession from Philby, and that Harold Macmillan would go on to clear him, to the House of Commons, in 1955. It was overall a very slippery, mendacious performance by White in trying to put a positive seal on his legacy, concealing the bulk of the facts, and shifting the blame to Liddell when he, White, was just as responsible as his mentor. After all, if, as I claim is true, Blunt and Leo Long were discovered spying in 1944, White and Liddell should both have steered very clear of Blunt in 1951. ‘Dick White – A Re-assessment’ is urgently required. But why MI5 thought that it had to bow to Foreign Office pressure, and could get away honourably, and without detection, with showing Lamphere the seven-point memorandum while concealing it from Hoover remains a puzzlement. It is all very amateurish, suggesting perhaps that the Foreign Office, which in May had been insistent that Martin not tell the FBI that Maclean was a suspect, was in on the ruse, perhaps believing that it would move attention away from Maclean to Philby. The whole saga demands further analysis. Conclusion (for now) In conclusion, therefore, it would appear that the judgments made against Philby by Liddell in 1947 were indeed shared, but suppressed. If there is one continuous theme to my research, it is the fact that awareness of the Cambridge Five’s treachery existed well before the authorities admitted it: Burgess with the Comintern in 1940, Blunt in 1944, Philby by 1947, Cairncross in 1952, and Maclean in 1949 – or even earlier. We also have new dimensions to Liddell’s career – an insider who guessed too much too soon in 1947, a senior officer, during the vital Philby inquiry in 1951, being pushed aside and outwitted by someone who would vanquish him in the competition for Director-General a year later, and then a possible secret assignment for the same erstwhile colleague in 1955, after his retirement from MI5. And was he perhaps an articulate and expert source to favoured journalists, trying to get the hidden facts revealed in some way without his fingerprints detectable on the medium? The irony is that E. H. Cookridge, of all observers, because of his first-hand knowledge of Philby’s activities in Vienna, should be the one to learn from Liddell of Philby’s recruitment before he set out for Austria. The conversation must have been two-way: no doubt Cookridge helped fill in the background to Philby’s communist agitation for Liddell. In 1968, however, with Liddell dead, Cookridge still felt he could not identify his source when he wrote The Third Man, but no doubt sensed the sands of time were running out when he communicated with Andrew Boyle in 1977. There is work to do: trying to inspect travel records for 1955, having a look at the photographs of KV 2/3783, applying to the BBC for access to Roberts’s testimonial, wading through the voluminous Springhall files myself, tracking down those CIA memoranda, reading Bayard Stockton’s biography of Bill Harvey, Flawed Patriot, applying some more rigorous structure to the events of May and June 1951 (including re-inspecting KV 6/143, and attempting to integrate Dick White’s erroneous chronology), and, maybe most significant of all, gaining access to the Cookridge archive at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Is there anyone out there who can help with that last task? Oh, and by the way, is there anyone in MI5 or SIS keeping tabs on coldspur? If such a person has any questions – or any tips – you know how to get hold of me. This month’s Commonplace entries can be found here.

Events are shaping up to make 2017 a prophetical year to remember! From the standpoint of Bible Prophecy the centre of everything is Israel and its capital Jerusalem and certainly today that locality is the eye of the storm as far as world events are concerned. The Restoration and Controversy of Judah and JerusalemThe Regulation Law, Amona and the West BankDecember 11, 2016 – Audio, 8.13 MIN (Links at bottom of page to download free viewers.)Events are shaping up to make 2017 a prophetical year to remember! From the standpoint of Bible Prophecy the centre of everything is Israel and its capital Jerusalem and certainly today that locality is the eye of the storm as far as world events are concerned. In the area known today as the West Bank, or more correctly Judea and Samaria, there is a small peaceful Jewish village of caravan homes on a hilltop called Amona. Amona was established in the mid-1990’s with Israeli government built infrastructure. However, during 2006 when 9 new homes were almost completed and ready to move into by Jewish families, a radical left wing pro-Palestinian Arab organization called Yesh Din, petitioned the courts that the homes were built on private Palestinian Arab land. The courts ruled in their favour and this led to then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s request for them to be demolished. The demolitions took place in the face of large protests and many Jewish youths were wounded by police brutality. This event remains highly controversial in Israel to this day. Just over a year and a half ago, I was able to visit Amona and see the foundations of the razed homes. Nothing has been done with the land where they stood. The remains of the homes are a desolate waste on the edge of the community – a monument to human stupidity. Nevertheless, visiting the site brought home the enormous controversy that surrounds Jews being able to live in their Biblical heartland – Judea and Samaria. In the last couple of years another radical left wing organization called “Peace Now” has petitioned the courts for the complete removal of Amona. Peace Now itself is controversial as it is largely funded by foreign governments in the European Union. Again the court has ruled in favour of the left wing organization. (Israel’s supreme court itself is also controversial, as many see it as having a very strong left wing bias.) According to the law, the Netanyahu, Likud government, must carry out the demolition; but the government has been eager to avoid a confrontation. The 2006 demolition at Amona, confrontation and violence, could be seen as leading to the demise of the then Olmert led government. Today, it is reported that the government will ask the Supreme Court for a one month delay in the demolition order, as there is no where to move the evacuated families. A one month delay would move the demolition into the time when Donald Trump would be in the Whitehouse instead of Obama, which may give the Israeli government a diplomatic reprieve of some international pressure in regards to the settlements. The difficulty of dealing with Palestinian Arab claims to land that has been built upon by Jews, has led the government to put forward a new law called the “Regulation Law”. The law would provide a way out for those Jewish communities that have been built on land decades ago, which then are subjected to Palestinian Arab claims that many feel are completely fraudulent. The proposed Regulation law would not help communities where there is already an ongoing court case, such as Amona, but it would settle many others. The Regulation Law is garnering significant international attention, with condemnations from the EU, the US State Department and others, claiming that the law is contrary to international law. By some it is seen as a step towards Israeli annexation of the portion of the West Bank which is fully under their control. If these court cases continue and if Israel faces a problem with international law, it could force Israel to annex some of the territory in the area known as the West Bank. This once again demonstrates the absurdity of 40 caravan homes garnering the attention of the EU, the UN, the US State Department and many others. Judea and Samaria certainly are the eye of the storm! This is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel chapter 3, verse 1 and 2. “For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.” Joel prophesied that in the days when God would restore Judah and Jerusalem to his people, there would be a great controversy among the nations which would bring them down into that land where God would judge them in regards to his people and heritage of Israel whom they had previously dispersed among the nations and partitioned the land of Israel. Today we certainly live in a time of great controversy concerning Judah and Jerusalem! Other events in the world also seem to be building up to a major change in Israel, one that could very well have to do with the West Bank area and Jerusalem. First, the new American Administration seems set to have a much more “pro-Israel” outlook compared to the outgoing Obama administration. If these words translate into actions when the new administration comes to power, it will open the door to the possibility of great changes taking place in Israel and the Middle East. Secondly, the war in Syria has moved in favour of the Assad regime and its backers, including Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. Russia is now firmly implanted in Syria, which is changing the dynamic of the whole region. This is a rapidly developing situation, which will also be affected by the new American administration. Thirdly, Turkey continues to be under threat from terrorism, political instability and waves of refugees. At any point Russia could exploit the situation in a move to regain control of the Bosphorus and Constantinople. Fourthly, the most anti-Israel block, especially towards the West Bank Jewish settlements is the European Union. The EU is in state of crisis which could get worse at any minute, with threats of terrorism, monetary collapse and the UK in the process of working towards leaving due to the Brexit decision. If the EU is too busy with internal crises, it could create a moment where Israel could annex some of the West Bank areas with a more manageable amount of international fallout. As has been mentioned on Bible in the News 2017 marks 50 years of the reunification of Jerusalem and 100 years since the liberation of Jerusalem from the Turks and the issuing of the Balfour Declaration, viewing with favour the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people. It is very exciting as we see events leading towards a prophetically momentous 2017! Thanks for taking the time to listen or read Bible in the News, this has been David Billington with you. Come back next week God willing to www.bibleinthenews.com If you wish to make a comment a about anything you have seen or read on this page – Good or Bad, Please use the form below [contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form] We are always keen to receive your feedback, you may leave comments in the comments area below or alternatively email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you with a reply as soon as we can. Follow us on our dedicated Facebook pages Or our website The USA (Subscribe for updates) If you would like to subscribe to our YouTube channel, once you have clicked ‘Subscribe’ make sure you click the cog next to the subscribe button and select ‘Send me all notifications for this channel’ Note: Bad language and comments with links to other videos or websites will be removed. Download our ‘Free’ Bible APP – ‘KeyToThe Bible’ for i-phone or Android Bible Truth and Prophecy, – Welcome to our site run by the Christadelphians Worldwide to help promote the understanding of God’s Word to those who are seeking the Truth about the Human condition and Gods plan and Purpose with the Earth and Mankind upon it. Read a variety of booklets on-line concerning various key Bible subjects. Free Bible Booklets End Time Prophecies are interpreted using the Bible, not man made ideas or notions. Key Biblical subjects such as the Trinity, Devil/Satan worship, Holy Spirit Gifts & much more are all dealt with extensively from the Bible’s viewpoint and not man’s.We will demonstrate how Christian beliefs have become corrupted, and reveal the ‘Truth’ as taught by the 1st Century Apostles.

June 20 is World Refugee Day. Let’s use the opportunity of this annual commemoration by the United Nations to put the “refugee crises” facing the U.S. and Israel in perspective with the true crisis exploding in Syria. The United States and Israel are countries built by refugees. A refugee is someone who flees persecution in search of safe haven. In both countries, refugees have proven to be national assets, new citizens highly motivated to contribute to the society that took them in. Moreover, the history and teachings of the Jewish people repeatedly speak to being, and welcoming, refugees. Yet, as the recent HIAS Report “Resettlement at Risk” discloses, some mayors, governors and state legislatures in the U.S. are saying that refugees pose too big a burden on them. In 2012, the United States brought in 58,179 refugees, and granted political asylum to 29,484 people already here. In Israel, more than 55,000 non-Jewish asylum seekers from Africa have entered the country across the Sinai border over the last six years. While some Israeli citizens have stepped forward to help them, the Israeli government has declared them to be a threat, and branded them “infiltrators” (mishtanenim). An on-line petition sympathetic to the plight of these asylum seekers calls “on the nations of the world to accept their responsibility of resolving the African refugee crisis” in Israel. These statistics pale in comparison to those of the Syrian refugee crisis that has the potential for de-stabilizing the entire Middle East. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has documented 92,901 people killed in Syria since the conflict began last year. The true number, she admits, is probably much higher. Of the dead, at least 6,561 were minors, and 1,729 were under 10 years old. While the brutality of the Assad regime is well documented, atrocities are being committed by opposition forces as well. As Pillay said last week, there are “well documented cases of children being tortured and executed,”…. with “civilians bearing the brunt of widespread, violent and often indiscriminate attacks.” According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), refugees who just fled the city of Qusayr described a “city reduced to rubble…There was no food left in the town and no water…people were resorting to squeezing water from the leaves of trees for nourishment.” The consequence of the Syrian conflict is an overwhelming number of refugees: as of last week, there were 1,643,701 Syrian refugees and 4,250,000 internally displaced persons. Turkey, with a population of 73.6 million, is hosting 380,650 refugees. Proportionally that would be like the U.S. having an influx of 1.7 million refugees over the course of 18 months. The situation in Jordan and Lebanon is even more unimaginable. Jordan, a country of 6.2 million, is hosting 479,429 refugees. Lebanon, a country of 4.3 million, is already hosting 530,410 Syrian refugees. (As a UNHCR spokesperson said last week, “there is probably not a town in Lebanon that does not have Syrian refugees.”) Proportionally, that would amount to 38 million refugees pouring into the U.S. over the course of 18 months. And by the time you read this, those numbers will be thousands higher. (For the most up to date statistics, click here To put this massive humanitarian crisis in further perspective, after the State of Israel was established, there were 726,000 Arab refugees, and 856,000 Jews who were forcibly displaced from Arab lands. Combined, the number of Arabs and Jews displaced during the War of Independence and its aftermath was 1,582,000, a number we in the Jewish community have always found troubling. The number of Syrian refugees is already nearly 100,000 higher than that. Today in Israel, one out of every 140 people is an African asylum seeker, though this number is no longer growing due to the fence built along the Sinai. And, in the United States, for every 3,000 Americans, just one refugee and asylum seeker came here in the past year. As overwhelming as the Syrian crisis seems, there is much we, as individuals, can do. First of all, starting on Word Refugee Day, let’s not tolerate intolerance toward refugees and the refugee “burden” being placed on the United States and Israel. We should welcome the refugees among us, not complain about them. Let’s remember that the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community came here, or are descended from people who came here, as refugees. HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees, is launching a twelve-month campaign starting on World Refugee Day 2013. The campaign urges Jews to show their support for refugees by pledging to implement the principles in the recently developed international inter-faith “Affirmation of Welcome,” a concept that was originally proposed by Rabbi Nava Hefetz of Rabbis for Human Rights in Jerusalem and Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, and was embraced by the UNHCR and a multitude of faith groups. Sign onto the affirmation at hias.org/welcome. Second, notwithstanding political differences with Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, the American Jewish community should observe World Refugee Day by recognizing every day that the Syrian refugee crisis is one that these countries did not create, and that they cannot address alone. Massive humanitarian assistance is needed from the United States and the international community. For 2013, the UNHCR has appealed for $2.9 billion for assistance to refugees, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has appealed for $1.4 billion for assistance within Syria, $449 million for the government of Lebanon and $380 million for the government of Jordan. So far, Turkey has not asked for aid, though that may soon change with thousands more Syrian refugees arriving each day. Please urge your lawmaker, the President, and Secretary of State to ensure that the United States shows leadership in providing humanitarian assistance to address the crisis. This $5 billion appeal for aid, of course, treats only the symptom and not the cause – to ensure the survival of Syrians displaced by the conflict. A diplomatic solution is immediately needed to stop the slaughter. The political posturing between Russia, Iran, the United States, needs to be replaced by a genuine effort to create peace. American Jews and the American Jewish community should show our government that we care deeply about solving what the UN High Commissioner Antonio Guterres has called “the worst humanitarian disaster since the end of the Cold War.” Urge Congress, the President and the Secretary of State to make an end to the bloodshed in Syria a top diplomatic priority. Hopefully, one day World Refugee Day will be about the past. Sadly, however, in 2013 World Refugee Day is more relevant than ever. Sign onto, and help implement, the Affirmation of Welcome. And until there are no more refugees, make every day World Refugee Day. Mark Hetfield is President & CEO of HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees.

Tis the season for puffing up children's accomplishments, concealing dysfunction and despair, and generally broadcasting to an expectant world all your family's exciting news and activities from the year just past. It's time for the smudged, photocopied, mass-mailed holiday letter, and here are some rules and suggestions to ensure your greeting this year is as insufferable and misleading as those you annually receive. 1.When in doubt, include pet photos. 2.Mention everyone's birthday. 3.Does it really feel like an entire year has passed already? Address this issue. 4.What music are you listening to as you write this? And what kind of tea are you drinking? What's happening outside the window? 5.All surgical procedures should be minutely detailed. 6.If your son is gay, say he's "pursuing a career in the arts." 7.No one dies. They only pass away. 8.When it comes to your family vacation, the more details the better. What happened after the third time you missed the exit for the Kelso Red Lion? 9.Yes, tell us more about your ugly custody battle. 10.Items to withhold: total hours spent watching digital cable, total dollars blown on lottery tickets, total packages of Hydrox stacked in basement. 11.Items to include: pottery class schedules, bridge rating, bingo results, diet plans, new scriptural theories about the Book of Revelation. 12.Remember: You're not hoarding pennies under the mattress. You're weighting your portfolio toward precious metals. 13.It's not an unplanned pregnancy. It's "the miracle of life." 14.Personalize with children's hand prints—and Sparky's paw print, too! 15.If possible, use a tired old dot- matrix printer. 16.There's no such thing as rehab. You're simply having some "me time" at the spa. 17.Enclosing Amway order forms helps make your letter more interactive. 18.Describe costumes worn by each member of the family at Halloween, St. Patrick's Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, Veteran's Day, etc. 19.Remember: You're not having your car repossessed. You're embracing voluntary simplicity. 20.Your therapist says you need to open up. Why not include some transcripts? 21.For emphasis, NOTHING works better than capitalization. 22.Read anything interesting in the paper recently? Enclose clippings. 23.Kids do say the darndest things. Share some examples. Or some poetry! 24.It never hurts to remind people that bad things happen to those who break the holiday letter chain. 25.Show sensitivity to your Jewish friends by noting that without them, there wouldn't be any Christmas! 26.Enclose petitions and urge recipients to contact their congressional representatives regarding: NPR funding, spay-and-neuter-your-cat funding, beachfront erosion, rain forest preservation, canned fruit labeling, denturist licensing, public com- posting, plankton-safe tuna, etc. 27.Remodeling? Enclose paint chips and color swatches. Solicit opinions. 28.Recipes are always appreciated. 30.Your son is not in federal prison. He's "spending some time away" in New Mexico. 31.It's always fun to personalize the envelope with Easter seals, family coat of arms seals, UNICEF seals, and little smiley face stickers. 32.Give a project update on your "inner work." 33.Remember: It's not a restraining order. You're just taking time to re-evaluate the relationship. 34.Share your holiday missive with as broad an audience as possible: grade-school playmates, high-school sweethearts, prison inmates, bereaved organ- transplant-donor families, people you meet on the bus, etc. 35.Two words: scented stationery.

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A Jewish candidate for the U.S. Congress filed an objection against the candidacy in the same district of an alleged white supremacist. Illinois state Rep. Julie Hamos, a Democratic candidate in the 10th Congressional District in the 2010 race, filed objections Monday with the state Board of Elections to the petition for candidacy of Richard Mayers. Mayers was charged in 2005 with destroying three public library VHS tapes about the Holocaust and with contempt of court for allegedly making a Nazi salute in an Illinois courtroom. He filed earlier this month to run for Congress in the heavily Jewish 10th District under the Green Party. Mayers has been linked to the white supremacist group The Creativity Movement, which terms Jews and all non-white groups "mud races." "Richard Mayers has no interest in bringing thoughtful or useful discussion to this race for Congress," Hamos told JTA. "He is merely using this opportunity to spread a vile message of hatred and intolerance." Hamos’ claim is that Mayers’ nomination papers lacks the requisite 31 valid signatures because eight are invalid. Mayers is not a Green Party member, according to state party chairman Phil Huckelberry. He was removed from the party’s ballot in 2007 after objections were filed to his run for a seat in the 3rd Congressional District. The district’s incumbent, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a moderate Republican, is running for the U.S. Senate next year. Kirk, a leading pro-Israel voice in Congress, has scored victories in a district that otherwise leans Democratic. The party sees the seat as an easy 2010 pickup. Hamos, a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant who fled to the United States as a child during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, has represented the area since 1999. Her district in the Illinois General Assembly overlaps the 10th Congressional District. Also running in the Democratic primary is Dan Seals, a businessman who lost to Kirk in 2006 and 2008.

The entries so far have focused on the background issues surrounding the royal commission, including terms of reference, commissioners, and ancillary players – counsel assisting, Attorneys-General, and the Catholic PR unit. The royal commission has yet to appoint all staff or complete the process of receiving victims’ statements. The bill enabling the commissioners to hold separate hearings has yet to be presented to the parliament. Finally, there has not been an announcement concerning when hearings will commence. These milestones will be covered as they are resolved. In the interim, the postings will cover background issues of what is likely to arise at hearings. This will include previous convictions sorted on the basis of which particular institution was involved and previous response strategies by those institutions. Some attention will also be given to some things that have been learned about the psychology of the abuse, such as victims’ self-images and the power relationship between abusers and victims. TOMORROW: The Jewish response in Australia That’s all I can say Lewis Blayse (né Lewin Blazevich)

His horn ripped through my shorts and slammed into my hip. That is when I came back to reality. The bullfight had started out bad and now gotten to the point where it was both embarrassing and painful. He scooted me through the dirt with his forehead firmly planted into my waist. The only thing I knew to do was yell. Just prior to this my head had met the base of his horn and the blow had dazed me, but wasn’t enough to knock me out. I was just delusional enough to try one more pass at him. He didn’t bite on the fake, and his head hit my hip and pinned me to the ground. I didn’t have all my faculties, but was able to yell the words: “Get me out, Get me out!” I wasn’t but 20 yards from the fence and I knew help was there. It wasn’t my proudest moment, but as my drawers filled with dirt from being pushed by his head, I thought it might be my only chance for salvation. My call didn’t fall on deaf ears, as a couple of the guys jumped in and pulled the bull off of me. In the same way that my buddies were waiting with attentive ears for my (inevitable) call of trouble, the Lord’s ears are attentive to those in distress. The ears [hb. ‘ozen] of the Lord have heard from people in the darkest of places and in the worst of times. Israel during their wandering in the desert wailed [hb. baka] to Yahweh because the wanted bread to eat. They even wondered why they had left Egypt (Num. 11.18). The Lord heard with his ears all of this wailing. As Sennacharib, King of Assyria, surrounded Jerusalem, “caging” the people in their city like birds (Sennacherib’s Prism) and threatening them with his words and armies, Hezekiah begins a simple, desperate, and powerful prayer like this: “O Lord…give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God…” (2 Kings 19.15-19; Isa. 37.17) The most powerful army in the world has camped probably about 200,000 strong, just outside the walls of the city with conquest and capture on their mind, a despairing situation to say the least, for Hezekiah and his people. Israel’s struggles, as told and personified by Jeremiah in an acrostic poem, depict a nation at the end of its rope. Hunted like birds (Lam 3.52), weighed down with chains (3.7), and mangled by beasts (3.10-11), Israel is having a rough go of it and soon their land will be destroyed by the Babylonians, and their people deported and conquered. Jeremiah writes of their struggles: “I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea: ‘Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.” In the deepest pits, the most dire straits, the darkest hours, Yahweh’s ears are listening for the cries of his people. David was one who truly understood what it meant to be heard by the ears of the Lord. When he called out, he was heard. Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel 22, is David’s praise song about the goodness and faithfulness of God. It starts out “I love you O Lord…” (Ps. 18.1) With the entangling cords of death (4) and confrontations of death (5), David was under duress many times in his life. From his state of distress, he calls out to the Lord. The word for distress, sar, is the same word used in Numbers 22.26, where the Angel of the Lord stood in the narrow path, blocking the way of Balaam and his donkey. It brings up the image of having nowhere to turn, of being squeezed and constricted. Have you ever been squeezed, crushed, or confined? Bills stack up on your table that financially you can’t swing? Ever been hurt or betrayed by family members or friends? Fired from a job? Failed a test? Lost someone close? Ever worry about your kid? Cancer found in someone close? Ever been in a place where it felt like life was dealing a crushing blow or you were being squeezed like a toothpaste tube? David knew this feeling all too well. Whether on the run from King Saul, his son Absalom, hiding in caves, living amongst his sworn enemies, on the run, in battle, or leading a people, David knew distress (both from his own doing and from others). This is a song about the deliverance of the Lord. David writes: “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into his ears.” Psalm 18.6 David cried out for help [hb. sawa] during this distress and His cry fell upon the listening ears of the Lord. It wasn’t a foreign thought for David to be heard by the Lord. Psalm 5, 17, 28, 34, 71, and 116 reference the Lord hearing David. Every time the Lord’s ears hear words of desperation from David in the midst of a struggle. With words of rescue, mercy, and deliver, David implores the ears of Yahweh for intervention. The ears of the Lord are listening for the cries of His people. When have you cried out to Him? Maybe it has been recently. Cancer, bankruptcy, death, foreclosure, job loss, betrayal, abandonment, divorce….in the midst of our distress we have a God who hears us and our cries. When times of struggle arise, there is one who hears our calls. The one who saved David from attacks, Hezekiah from Sennacherib, and the Israelites from starvation, is the same Lord who listens to our calls of distress. Let us call out to His ever-listening ears. At Kemper arena in Kansas City, Terry Holland had his first real shot at the big time. He had drawn the bull Y-93, a great big red bull with large upturned horns. His usual trip was a few jumps out and around the right. The bull had a tendency to pull riders down into the well, inside the spin, which would usually bring the rider into contact with the horns of the bull. This was Terry’s first real big PRCA rodeo and he was looking to win it, but doing so would require him to master Y-93. A few jumps into the ride, Terry found himself down in the well. His temple made contact with one of the bulls massive horns and he was knocked unconscious. He remembered someone telling him that bulls wont hit a stationary target, that like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park, they wont see something that is stationary. To this advice, Holland says: It’s amazing how perfectly still you can lie when you’re knocked unconscious. I wasn’t twitching a muscle, yet Y-93 spun around, spotted me, and gathered me up with those big horns of his before the bullfighters could get there. He threw me across Kemper arena. (Terry Holland, What a Ride, 47) His first big rodeo and this is the experience he had. Later on in his career he would compound fracture his leg, begin the year 2nd and finish just outside of the top 15 (those who would make the finals), break his collar bone, fracture ribs, and be let down many times in the sport of rodeo. But in all these things he said this: I came to realize there’s a Y-93 in everybody’s life. Sometimes a person draws that bull again and again. He dislocates a collarbone, hits you smack-dab in the middle of the nose, breaks your leg, or takes the little bit of money you have and leaves you empty, devastated, and alone in a San Francisco hotel room. After frustration knocked me to my knees, reality seeped in. Yes, it is happening. And through the muddiness of loss, truth pierced my heart. I love my work and it doesn’t love me back. I need something that loves me whether I’m winning or losing. It dawned on me. I’ve got it. And I’ve had it all along…Starting that day, I took him with me for the rest of y bull riding career and I continue to take him with me each day. Things became different from then on. More importantly, I was different. Even when I failed. (74) I can’t help but wonder how many men in scripture viewed themselves as failures. Certainly Jeremiah, Elijah, David, Moses, and Peter come to mind. There are probably many more. Failure seemed to be a big part of these men’s lives. Failure not necessarily in their walk with God, although sometimes (think Bathsheba with David, and the campfire with Peter), but failure in the tasks given them on this earth. Jeremiah wasn’t that great of a preacher by worldly standards, no one listened. Elijah spent a lot of time hiding in a cave because people were chasing him. Moses, as far as leading a people, wasn’t very good a keeping them happy. But then again, none of these were the things that these men we asked to do, they were asked to be faithful to God in all that they did. I can relate to these guys. I have failed at many things. Failure is a common part of life. Many (and i) would point to the last couple years of my life as one repeated failure after another. A meeting with Y-93 that was constant in my life. The sad thing is that I will fail many times more in this life that God has given me. But I know that each of these men grew closer to God after their failure. The refused to let their failure define them. The Bible says: “You see, at just the right time, when were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5.6-8) While we were failures (failing to live up to God’s standard, called sin), He sent His son to die for us. Our failures are erased, scrubbed out, removed. Failure is not final in God’s eyes. Terry Holland is thankful for that. I am thankful for second, third, and fourth chances. Opportunities to give God the glory, chances to live for Him, and the gift of salvation. Failure is just part of the Journey. “Wisdom comes from good judgment, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.” The cowboy proverb is never truer than when you get a bunch of college guys together. One night during spring semester boredom had set in. We headed out to Lucas’ house, built a bon fire, and ideas for entertainment began to swirl. Lucas had come to posses a bullfighting clown barrel. As with most things that come into his possession, zebu’s, musket’s, miniature horses, vehicles, it was known only to him how it became his. The rest of us just knew it was cool. Late one night around the campfire, the clown barrel was brought up as a form of entertainment. We weren’t really sure what we were going to do with it, but it was steel, round and in close proximity to a hill. I can’t remember who it was that climbed in first, and I can’t really remember who suggested we roll down the hill, but it was probably Lucas on both accounts. As we hauled the barrel up the hill, there wasn’t a single ounce of pause in our brains that we were about to embark on one great night. Matt jumped in the barrel atop the hill. With a short countdown, the rest of us gave him a shove. As the moonlight reflected off the barrel careening down the hill, we were mesmerized at the pace in which it rolled. Then we noticed the moonlight reflecting off the creek at the bottom of the hill. The barrel was not a flotation device and as it splashed into the cool waters of the creek, we who were on top of the hill sprinted down to the bottom attempting to free Matt from the clown barrel as it came to rest on the bottom of the creek. He got out, no one died, it was a good night. Needless to say our judgment may have been poor that night. Dorm life is just as detrimental to good judgment. Taking a shot to the back with a water-ballon launcher form 15ft away, chair-jousts at 2 in the morning, office chair racing on asphalt, in a place of higher learning, wisdom can be scarce as jackalopes. Judgment is the ability to make a decision about something, good or bad, the capacity to take information and make a decision. Often times we think of God’s judgment as a negative thing, which it very well can be. But God’s judgment can be a favorable one as well. Scripture speaks of the eyes [‘ayin] of the Lord [Yahweh]. The eyes of the Lord is His judgment of man’s actions. The Lord looks at what we do, what we offer, what we live, and makes His judgement. The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth (2 Chron. 16.9; Zech 4.10) searching, watching, and observing the attitudes and actions of humanity. They act on behalf of those committed [salem] to Him. This Hebrew word for committed, salem, is the word for completeness, wholeness, and lavish. A heart that is lacking nothing undevoted to God. Think about Noah, in Genesis 6, he found favor [chen…grace] in the eyes of the Lord because of his righteousness, blameless actions and his relationship with God (Gen. 6.8-9). It was King David (1 Kings 15.5) and great Kings of Judah, like Asa, Jehosophat, Joash, Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah and Josiah. Kings that led their people in truth and commitment to the Lord. They did good in the eyes of the Lord. The stood for truth, acted on their faith, and walked with the Lord. The were judged as having done good in His eyes. His eyes not only judges things as good, but see the wicked as well (Prov 15.3). Seven times in Judges the people of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals, forsook God, and sinned against the Lord. The Kings of the Northern Kingdom did nothing but evil in the Lord’s eyes. They served other gods, prostituted themselves in idol worship, trusted in other nations, and refused to listen to the prophets. They did so much evil in the eyes of the Lord, Amos would prophesy about them: “Surely the eyes of the Sovereign Lord are on the sinful kingdom. I will destroy it from the face of the earth—yet I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob.” (Amos 9.8) The Southern Kingdom of Judah managed to do right in God’s eyes for many years, but their ultimate down fall was disobedience as Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord (Jer. 7.30-8.3) When God looks upon this earth, when His eyes wander over this planet, what does he see and what will his judgment be? When His sight falls upon us, will He see truth (Jer. 5.3), those who fear Him, hope in Him (Psalm 33.18), and those who are righteous (Ps. 34.15)? Men like David and Noah. Or does his eyes fall upon the wicked? Those that bow down to other gods, that place created things above the Creator, that take advantage of and exploit their neighbors? When it comes to us, are we serving the Lord faithfully? Are we honoring the Lord with our service, our work, our family, our worship, our life? When God looks upon our actions will he judge that it is good, or does He watch in horror as we are careening down the hill of sin with nothing to stop us? The men in stripped shirts in the arena, are some of the most important people at a rodeo. They are part rule enforcers, scoreboard, recorders, critics, and manual labor. They are the guys busting their backs setting up the arena, marking the patterns, assembling the barrier, and every other odd job that needs to be done for the perf to go on. They know the rule book forward and backward in order to make sure that a breakaway rope is attached to the horn right, a goat was tied correctly, a bull riders rope was complete with knuckle-pad, a pole pattern went unbroken, or a mark-out completed. They keep the official score on their note pads that dangle over the fence. They award points on what they see on the rough stock end and stop the timer on the timed event end. When it comes down to it, they are the final say for everything that happens in the arena…and I couldn’t do their job. Cowboy race judges have the same problems. Line up 40 horses in a row, and I couldn’t find one conformation problem with any of them. Have them lope off, spin, lead change or side pass, and I couldn’t pick out a single reason one is better than another. I am a sucker for color, so the first grey horse I saw would be the winner. This is the problem with judging, you have to know your stuff. I clearly don’t. But there is one area of life that I could compete with their job on every level and its described in 1 Corinthians 13. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Loves does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” When it comes to love, I often choose the judge route. The judge’s job is to enforce rules, keep a tab of the inadequacies, and do everything in order to accomplish the task of running a rodeo or competition. When it comes down to it, my wife would probably say I do the same thing with my marriage. In a fight or argument, the first thing that comes to my mind often is a list of her transgressions…because I’m like a judge. Exemplified in keeping a record of wrongs. When we are getting ready to go somewhere or traveling, often times the time matters more to me than her well being….because I’m like a judge. Resulting in impatience, unkind words, and anger. In my quiet thoughts our relationship is often compared to others (financially, romantically, familiarly, etc.) and when this happens I often want what others have…because I’m like a judge. Exemplified in envy (I want what you have), boasting (I have what you want), and pride (You need what I have). If a choice is going to benefit one of us, my first inclination is to make it me…because I’m like a judge. The rodeo judge serves his purpose so well, but when it comes down too it that is not the role God wants us to play in marriage. Jesus love for us was explained in his life, exemplified on the cross, and entrusted to his followers. Ephesians 5 says: “Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife, loves himself.” When comparisons and lists creep into marriages, we begin playing the role of judge. When our tasks cover up love, we play the role of judge. When our marriages struggle most is when we put the stripped shirt on and start calling the shots. I want to be the protector, the one who leads in trust, the hopeful one, and the one who stands with perseverance for our relationship…this cant happen when I assume the role of the judge. When I was first training Penny, I couldn’t find a leash to use, so I used a 30’ lasso. She mastered the simple commands real quick. Sit, stay, down, roll, were all things that she could do. I had just bought a book about training stock dogs, so I set out to work on some stock training with her. Penny and I set out to work with a few sheep just to see how she would do. When I let her go the first time she freaked. Instead of herding the sheep she took off straight towards the herd and lept over the back of one of them. I began yelling at her from across the pen. She did a great job of pretending to not hear me. Three laps around the pen later she came to a sliding stop at my feet. I attached my lasso to her collar and let her take off again. I commanded “down” and she felt a quick jerk as she neared the herd. I didn’t have too many problems with her during this phase of her training because I was in position to enforce my commands. She had the freedom to act, a 30’ check cord, but accountability in her actions. This is the same relationship we have with our big-nosed God. The Hebrew word for “nose” is an ambiguous word. In the same way that “hand” and “power” of the Lord are inter-changeable, the “face” and “presence” of the Lord can be substituted for one another, the “nose” and “anger” of the Lord are semantically connected. It makes sense really. Have you ever seen someone’s nose and face turn red when they get angry. If not, just come visit me when I’m working on my truck or playing golf and in thirty seconds, you will have a clear picture. The authors of Scripture, when talking about anger, knew this human phenomenon of blood rushing to peoples faces at times of rage so the Hebrew writers used the same word and nuance for nose and anger. The Lord is described multiple times as having a long-nose. In the NIV this expression is translated as “slow to anger”. The first time the phrase appears in scripture, it comes in the Lord’s description of himself. God had just passed by Moses on Mt. Sinai, showing off his glory. (Ex. 33.14-23) Moses next experience is to chisel another 2 stone tablets (Ex. 34.1) on account his breaking the last two. (Ex 32.19) The next morning, Moses carried the new tablets up on the mountain and the Lord descended in a cloud. There on Mt. Sinai, Moses and the Lord stood and had yet another conversation. This one would begin with God, as he passed by Moses, describing himself: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger [lit. long of nose], abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…” The Lord, in his own words, is ‘long of nose”. Presumably, and I’m only speculating here, it seems to be a reference to the time it take’s God’s long nose to turn red. Regardless of the explanation of the origin of the idiom, the meaning is clear: long of nose is equated to slow to anger. This is a central aspect of the Lord’s character. It surfaces at key times in His relationship with his people. After the people rebel, grumbling against Moses and God about bringing them out of Egypt, it was Moses who reminded God of His strength in being “long of nose”. (Num. 14.17-18) As most can attest, there is considerable strength in not blowing your top! When the people had returned from exile, to resettle Jerusalem, they spend ¼ of the day confessing their sins, and another ¼ of the day worshipping and reading from the Book of the Law. At this time, the Levites preached to them a message of their history, quoting God’s self-description (Neh. 9.17) to remind the people of God’s worthiness of praise. David, leading the way for the Levites, used it as a declaration of praise (Psalm 103.8;145.8). When we see God for who he really is, worship is our natural response. David affirms God, in the same way, amidst his prayer times (Psalm 86.15). Joel and Jonah both latch on to the “long nose of the Lord” during their own messages and trials (Jonah 4.2; Joel 2.13). All of these references were rooted in the Lord’s revelation of His character in Exodus 34…but why would the size of the Lord’s nose really matter? Moving from semantics to theology… The context of this phrase, “long of nose”, provides some coloring to its significance. Yahweh also “maintains love to thousands and forgives wickedness.” Just because God gets angry, sometimes its even with his people, it doesn’t change the fact that he loves us and forgives us. The next phrase, “et he does not leave the guilty unpunished” shows his justice and his hatred of sin. Our love of something is only proportionate to our hatred of that which opposes that love. A dad’s love for his daughter, is shown in the lengths he will go to defend her. As a buddy of mine says, “he’s got a gun, a shovel, and land….I doubt anyone would find you!”, when a young man arrives to take his daughter out. Yahweh’s slowness to anger is the balancing act between showing love and dishing out wrath. Where as I can let others get away with too much at the expense of those I love, I sometimes am too quick to anger in dealing with others. My “nose” is often too short. The size of God’s nose shows us his passion, his desire, for us. He loves us so much that he doesn’t wipe of off the face of the earth at every mis-step, but he hates sin so much that he acts upon it with vengence for what it has done to us. Sin doesn’t define us nor does it become our identity…sin is something we as those that were created in the image of God, struggle with, get bound too, and enslave ourselves too. God is slow to anger, meaning he does act, but the leash is long. If you were listing God’s attributes, where would you put ‘slow to anger’ on the list? What is one specific example of a lesson that it took you a while to learn from God? My saddle bronc career was short-lived and plagued by lack of talent. Others were made for it. This month’s Western Horseman Magazine contained a picture of a young man being lifted into the blue sky by a powerful and picturesque paint horse. His spurs were up in the neck of the horse and his hand held the split reins out in front of his tucked chin and eyes fixed on the neck of the horse. He was in the middle of the corral so I assumed this was an unplanned bronc ride, which is partially what amazed me at the pose which he such on such a quick notice. This picture will forever go down as one of my favorites and also the exact opposite of what my bronc ride looked like. I will spare you the complete story (partially for fear that I may someday need a story to tell here) but it was my first time on a saddle bronc horse. After a few hours of training (it seemed shorter than that as I was lowering myself into the saddle), my horse was in the chute and a friends Association Saddle rested on its withers. I measured out the correct amount of rein and fished it through my quivering hand and fingers. When I lowered myself into the saddle, I couldn’t get my feet into the stirrups on account of two reasons: 1) I was holding my hack rein with my right hand, my left hand is virtually worthless in all endavors and 2) my legs were shaking so bad it was like trying to get a drink of soda through a straw while jumping terraces in a Ford Fairmont…too much movement and to small a target. I finally got situated and nodded my head. Even at half speed on the video the ride only lasted a second. We barely made the end of the chute gate as partners, when the horse and I made for our separate ways. I came off to the right, landed on all fours, and crawled around the edge of the chute gate. My first words were, “Did I make the whistle?” What can I say, I was ambitious. After talking with the instructor, he wasn’t surprised I hit the ground so quickly. He said, “You landed where you were looking!” I get the opportunity to fight bulls at a lot of camps and schools and one thing I have seen for certain…”You always land where you look!” In Matthew 14, without tying himself ot a large herbivore, Peter gets this same lesson. Jesus sends the disciples ahead of him on the sea while he dismisses the crowd (Matt 14.22). The disciples hop in the boat and head across the sea while Jesus goes away by himself to pray (14.23). When he finishes his devotional time, he catches a glimpse of the boat, out a ways from the shore, struggling against the wind (14.24). Jesus wraps up his prayer time and heads out at 3 a.m. to catch them on the lake (14.25). His disciples freak (as anyone would probably do), but Jesus gives them a pep-talk to calm them down (14.26-27) and here’s where the story gets really good. Peter, doing the thing that Peter always does, speaks up and says to Jesus: “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” (14.28) The disciples in the boat have to be getting their phones out to put this on vine or the cultural equivalent. You can almost imagine them elbowing one another: “Would you get a load of Peter?”“; This guy…smh!”; “He’s joking, right?” They have seen him speak up at the wrong times before but this is all kinds of stupid. Then Jesus tells him “Come!” and Peter’s world suddenly gets a lot bigger because his trust got a lot bigger. How often is it that the box we live in is that size because our faith has never been challenged enough to move them. So Peter toes the water, then steps, then walks (14.29). Things are going well UNTIL… “Peter saw the wind, and he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out “Lord, save me!” He looked where he landed. His eyes moved from the task at hand, to a place to land. I don’t really know what Peter was looking at, the insurmountable waves and wind, back to the boat, down at his feet. Some have said it was the sheer fact that he took his eyes of Jesus that caused him to sink. I can’t really say that from the text, but I do know from personal experience that when your eyes come off of the task at hand, things start to go wrong. Jesus catches his hand as he is pulling a “Jack Dawson” and sinking in the lake, and says “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” The greek word that Jesus uses for doubt, distazo, is only used on other time in scripture. Matthew uses it at the very end of his book, when he tells of the resurrected Jesus visiting the disciples on the mountain. Standing there before them was Jesus, still some doubted. Both times, people are standing in front of the Son of God who is actively proving who he is and that he can be trusted, yet doubt comes into the picture. How has Jesus shown you that he can be trusted? What words or experiences has he given to show you that he is capable? When is the last time you stood before him, saw what he was capable of, and trusted him? I learned my lesson the hard way of looking off a bronc, but have been more hard headed when it comes to Jesus. It took Peter a couple review lessons to get it as well. Make today the day when you tuck your chin, set your spurs, and keep your eyes focused on him and him alone. Getting the attention of middle school students is a common fight, but I didn’t think I would have trouble getting the attention of a horse. A few years back, I was starting a colt for an older gentlemen. He told me that this horse was hard headed, but most of my interactions with it had gone real well. I stepped into the round pen one day expecting to continue with the training as planned. I began by running him around the round pen, first to the right and then the left. After 15 minutes of keeping the horse moving, I stepped back, taking the pressure off the horse. I caught his eye as he turned and faced me. He stood, 20 feet from me, collected, attentive, and ready. The second his gaze broke from me, I sent him to the right again. After repeating this story for another 40 minutes, my patience had been tested to its end. I stepped back in exhaustion, and sent the horse around the pen one last time. This time the second I took the pressure off, he turned and faced. And for the first time, for just a couple seconds, he waited for my command. I took a step towards him and he lowered his head, but kept his eye on me. What I was looking for out of that horse was a connection. I wanted him to be ready for whatever I asked him to do. When his face turned toward me, his eyes connected with mine, I knew that he was present and ready to work. Last post was about the hand of the Lord. The hand was the power of God in action. When the OT writers conveyed God’s power, they could say “power” or “his hand” and it would mean the same thing. The face of Yaweh then is about His presence with His people. After the “hand of Yahweh” had delivered Israel from Egypt (Ex. 13), the face of the Lord was Presence with his people. The “Face of the Lord” [hb. paneh] is a picture of his intimacy, relationship, and presence with his people. Moses spoke to Yahweh, the Lord, “face to face” [paneh] at the Tent of meeting, as the Israelites were camped after leaving Egypt (Ex. 33.11). It was in the same way that you or I would talk to a friend, just two buddies hanging out. God’s Presence was there. Then 3 verses later, after Moses had asked the Lord who would go with him, Yahweh replied, “My Presence [paneh] will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33.14) The same word translated “face” in verse 11 was translated “presence” in verse 14. The face of the Lord was the presence of God with His people. Nearly a year later, his presence would need to be remembered and celebrated. The book of Numbers isn’t a really exciting or positive book. The book starts at Sinai and ends on the plains of Moab, just across the river from their final destination. The problem lies in how they arrived there. It has been a struggle for Israel as they traveled, a struggle documented in the book of Numbers. The journey from Egypt to Canaan, was plagued with complaints, 9 times the nation of Israel Complained to God on the trip. “We’re hungry? We’re thirsty? Someone’s touching me?” you remember car trips with your kids…This was their journey. On top of complaints, people were killed on the journey. The ground split open under Korah and his sons for their sins (Num. 16.31) and fire consumed the 250 who were offering incense (Num 16.34). Their punishment also came in response to a negative report on the land of Canaan. When the spies returned they scared the people with a report of impenetrable walls and giants. When God heard his people grumbling about the land, He answered by declaring that this generation would fall in the desert in a 40-year wandering (Num. 14.26-35). Just before these events would happen, God wanted his people to know something very important. Camped in the desert of Sinai, the Lord said to Moses: “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face [paneh] shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turned his face [paneh] toward you and give you peace.” This is actually, the oldest piece of Biblical text that archaeology has uncovered (The Silver Scrolls and Numbers 6). Dating to the seventh century B.C.E. and written on a silver amulet in paleo-hebrew script, is the text of Numbers 6.24-25. This shows that these verses were at the forefront of the Jewish mindset. The Hebrews, based on this verse understood that life is to be lived gazing upon and acting before the face of the Lord and living in his presence. God is telling his people that during this journey to Canaan, that a blessed life is one that God face is before. The blessing, to be given to all the Israelites, is to remind them of God’s presence with them. The presence that was shown in the quail and manna (Num 11); the shoes and clothes on their journey (Deut 8.4-5); the pillar of fire and cloud above the tabernacle (Ex. 40.36-38); a simple reminder that the Face of the Lord shone upon the nation of people. When the face of the Lord was there, communication was possible, action was possible, and comfort was given. In the book of Matthew, Jesus arrives on the scene as Immanuel, “God is with us” (Matthew 1.23); a gift to Earth of the Lord’s presence. When Peter and the disciples see Jesus walking on the water and call out to him, Jesus responds, “Take courage! I am. Don’t be afraid.” (Matthew 14.27); a reminder of His presence in the midst of the storm. The book ends with Jesus’ Great commission, “and surly I am with you always to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28.20); a reminder of his presence forever. In each case, the face of the Lord turned to His people. In a tangible picture of God’s words in Numbers, the “face of the Lord” shinned upon us! The blessing of Numbers 6, was central to Israelites throughout their history. A reminder that God’s presence was vital to their survival. How vital is the “face of the Lord” to us today? How often do we go one with life, without a second thought to His presence? In what ways does he communicate with us that he is present? Where will you see his “face” today?

It’s been a a week since you declared Hunter Wallace the desired “leader” of some sort of movement. Surrounding this event you and Hunter have been attempting to propagate a fictional narrative that I am collecting user data from all the sites I manage and giving it over to Jewry. There’s just one problem with this narrative. There is a single figure on record who has abused administrative access to forums populated by racists and given over its user data to such ilk: your wondrous leader, Hunter Wallace. Many years ago, Hunter Wallace was given administrative access to The Phora, a bulletin board where racial issues were discussed. Under the pretext that people had insulted his Jewish friend, he gave his access to the administrative functions of the forum software to a third party. That third party used Hunter’s access credentials to backdoor the forum software long enough to collect the passwords of everyone saying naughty things about race. Then they broke into the email accounts and other associated services and hijacked them if they had reused the passwords. They also reported people to their employers and got them fired. Now, you and Hunter are going to claim that I’m a Jew and that I’m making this up, and even if I post the screenshots that people have saved in regards to this event you’ll just claim they are forged. Which is why it is far more useful to reference a VNN thread where Alex Linder and other people with strong community history chronicled these events years ago– including Hunter’s involvement with the family of Morris Dees, and his criminal actions against members of The Phora. Now, Hunter Wallace has never written an exploit and has no idea how to do so. Software exploits don’t grow on trees, generally cost as much as a car, and The Phora was patched to latest. He collaborated with other people, and somebody with extremely deep pockets or a relatively large supply of software exploits provided the bits of software that let the forum be taken over via his administrative access. The largest supplies of software exploits are held by the United States government and Israel, by the way. Later this situation was glossed over and forgotten, because Hunter Wallace made a big show about being committed to a mental institution and being medicated, as well as a number of other dramatic displays that made people forget about this particular chapter. Most people don’t pay a lot of attention to what happens on this corner of the Internet, but I do. I never forget, Chris. That’s what has had me laughing so hard this past couple weeks: you are accusing me of performing in secret the very behavior that dear leader Hunter Wallace has publicly engaged in. In contrast, for the past fourteen years of my life, I have been providing systems services to thought criminals. Right now, thirty-six sites in 10 languages are dependent on my solutions. Not one of these sites have ever suffered a compromise of user data, all while serving billions of page renders. That’s a pretty solid and consistent reputation. I’ve given faithful service to every single person that has ever had technical issues in this space, no matter how small. Up to and including you. Might want to explain situations like these to the people you’ve told I give away dox for the Jews, Chris! Of course, you don’t need to dox community members through spy-like infiltration like Hunter did if you can only convince them that marching in the streets with neo-Nazi gangs is a good idea. You’ve been attempting to discredit me continually since it was revealed that you are a federal informant. You claimed you were only working against antifa. If that’s true, you could easily send the evidence you’ve collected against them by a concise written notice. We all have seen how you act under pressure, Chris. We’ve all seen you break down and cry. Now you’ve publicly declared the single most subversive SPLC agent in the room as your leader. Everybody that’s even remotely notable remembers everything Hunter Wallace has ever done. We know the whole litany of his sins. We’re supposed to believe that it is just a coincidence that you’ve elected the guy engaged in his behavior as your representative? I’m not buying it, and nobody with their head on their shoulders is either. Today you sent me an email, begging for private correspondence and unity. If I were a Jew whose only purpose here is to dox people, why would you possibly want to cooperate personally with me? This email reveals your psychology– your and Hunter’s campaign against me was a cynical, coordinated operation dictated to you. Now that it has failed (your metrics are now garbage and you have no way to change that) you want to frantically abort this and try to come back to the table so you can try to grow an audience significant enough to be effectively subversive with. Sucks to be you. You can join the massive group of other FBI informants that want to speak to me. Why would I possibly be in any private contact with an FBI informant? I forgave a lot of things from you, Chris. Your “experiments” with homosexuality, your disgraceful public masturbation, your generally objectionable personal demeanor. Seeing you break down and cry made us feel sorry for you, but pity will only excuse so much. Your behavior has dried up that well forever. You’re never coming back to the table. You don’t belong in the halls of people who accomplish useful things. The candidacy of Donald Trump proved that our ideas were popular and electorally viable as long as they were packaged with a veneer of success and innovation. Instead of capitalizing on that, you people quadrupled down on goon marches and Hal Turnerism and burned the house down. Given your and Hunter’s past and present behavior, there’s little chance that was not intentional. Nobody will ever forget how you’ve acted, Chris. There’s only one thing that can redeem you after your disgraceful conduct: a glorious death. I plan on retiring to Fólkvangr one day. If you beat me to such hallowed halls all will be forgiven, but I have a strong feeling that when I’m staring at Freyja’s ass you’re going to be rotting in Hel alongside all those afflicted with cowardice. Goodbye, Chris. You and your new leader do whatever you want, but federal informants will never have anything to do with anything I’m doing. You, Hunter, and Hovater should go suck off the cops together. Featured image shamelessly stolen from the chans.

New Member Interest Meeting! Thu Oct 03 2019 @ 4:0 Thinking about getting involved in anti-zionist activism and education at Barnard/Columbia but don't know where to start? Come to the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) new member interest meeting! JVP's mission statement: Jewish Voice for Peace opposes anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab bigotry and oppression. JVP seeks an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem; security and self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians; a just solution for Palestinian refugees based on principles established in international law; an end to violence against civilians; and peace and justice for all peoples of the Middle East. No prior knowledge about the occupation necessary - in addition to being an activist space, JVP is also a space of continuous learning :)

LAURIE TAKES PJTN'S CAMPAIGN TO REMOVE ILHAN OMAR TO HER NEIGHBORHOOD! I had the wonderful privilege this past weekend at the invitation of nationally known radio host, Jan Markell, to speak to a crowd of more than 4,500 concerned Americans attending the “Understanding The Times” conference in Minnesota. It was a high water moment for the messaging of PJTN for me to find a very like-minded audience who are already actively mobilized in knowing that we must be pro-active to defend our values as Christians and Americans. To say PJTN’s message was embraced would be a tremendous understatement. My very mention of Ilhan Omar in the introductory video that brought me onstage, caused the crowd to erupt in a full audience reaction of vocal disapproval—and this in Eden Prairie—within the shadow of Omar’s home base in the 5th district of Minneapolis. This is only the opening volley of PJTN’s ongoing mission of influence and education in Minnesota as we look ahead to the 2020 election—and I continue to encourage those who haven’t already to sign our petition online demanding Omar’s removal from Congress. My message focused on the rising threat of antisemitic and pro-Islamist indoctrination in America’s public schools—with a specific emphasis on the looming influence Pearson Publishing plays in using American’s educational system to promote their curriculum of anti-American, anti-Judeo-Christian, pro Islamist agenda to our children. It’s the information PJTN has already educated our support base on, but came as a shocking revelation to most of the conference attendees—people who, like the majority of American parents and grandparents—have no idea of what happens once their children are loading daily onto the familiar happy yellow buses. Eyes were opened to the fact that thanks to Pearson, classrooms across the nation now teach that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the same God as Allah. Holocaust revisionism, revisions of American history, removal of Judaism as a world religion, children encouraged to pray the Muslim prayer of conversion—all are part of daily life in the K-12 classroom’s of America. All while we have been asleep to the reality that we are one generation from losing America as we know it. View video link and feature article here: https://tennesseestar.com/2019/09/22/cardoza-moore-exposes-monopoly-of-pearson-publishing-and-its-pro-islamist-indoctrination-in-minnesota-speech/ As I noted to the crowd in Minnesota: “This country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. There was a man named Haym Salomon who bankrolled the American Revolution for George Washington. In fact, in their final battle, Washington went to Mr. Salomon and told him that if they didn’t receive the funding to provide the boots and the food—the resources his soldiers needed—they were going to lose the war. Haym Salomon stepped up to the plate. He, a wealthy Jewish banker, ultimately died without a dime to his name, but he paid to make America the great nation that it is.” Today, as I told my audience in Minnesota, we face a battle of a very different kind—a cultural, social and moral battle for the heart, mind and soul of America. The enemy’s strategy is to take our children captive and with their departure from long treasured values, rob us of a next generation of leadership. Virtually, America will collapse from within. Like Haym Salomon, we must step up to the plate. It was the challenge I made in Minnesota—and the challenge I will make this week in Washington, DC as I embark on a series of meetings with political representatives who will hear my message and hopefully repeat it through the corridors of Congress, the Senate, and into the very rarified atmosphere of the Trump Oval Office. I will speak truth to power this week. My voice will be heard. Your voice will be heard. Thank you for your prayers. And thank you too for your ongoing support of PJTN. We rely on the support of our donors to allow us to do all we do. PJTN can only be on the frontlines because you are prayerfully and financially equipping us to remain in this battle for the next generation. Onward to Washington!

Around the same time as the American Civil War a civil war that became known as the Taiping Rebellion was raging in China. The American Civil War was a brutal conflict that left 625,000 Americans dead. The Taiping Rebellion resulted in the deaths of somewhere between 20-30 million people, making it one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history. The origins of the Taiping Rebellion lay some years prior in the First Opium Wars fought between the British and the Qing Empire of China from 1839-1842. In the Opium Wars the grand old British Empire played the role of the modern day Columbian drug cartel, or Mexican drug lords, with the major difference being that the British, being militarily superior to the Chinese, were able to force China to accept the British importation of an addictive poison rather than just sneak it across the border. As a consequence of the devastating impact of the opium trade on the people of China, the Chinese Emperor sent the Confucian scholar Lin Zexu to the port of Canton in order to put a stop to the importation of the drug by British merchants. Lin wrote an impassioned letter to Queen Victoria appealing to her sense of humanity with the hope of stopping the trade. We find that your country is distant from us about sixty or seventy thousand miles, that your foreign ships come hither striving the one with the other for our trade, and for the simple reason of their strong desire to reap a profit. Now, out of the wealth of our Inner Land, if we take a part to bestow upon foreigners from afar, it follows, that the immense wealth which the said foreigners amass, ought properly speaking to be portion of our own native Chinese people. By what principle of reason then, should these foreigners send in return a poisonous drug, which involves in destruction those very natives of China? Without meaning to say that the foreigners harbor such destructive intentions in their hearts, we yet positively assert that from their inordinate thirst after gain, they are perfectly careless about the injuries they inflict upon us! And such being the case, we should like to ask what has become of that conscience which heaven has implanted in the breasts of all men? The result of Lin’s efforts was a war by the British against the Chinese Empire, that the Chinese were destined to lose. The fact that tiny Great Britain, with a little over 27 million people in 1850, could so easily have brought a continental empire of 450 million to heel would have been considered ludicrous only 50 years before. It was certainly the case that European powers had had an easy time knocking off the great empires of the Americas- the Aztec and the Inca- two centuries earlier, but these were civilizations lacking steel, wheels, horses, or gunpowder weapons, technologies the Europeans had largely imported from fellow Old World civilizations- especially the Chinese. As Jared Diamond has pointed out, the Europeans were also in possession of devastating weapons of mass destruction in the form of diseases to which Native Americans had no immunity, and which killed more than any of the cruelties of conquest. China, though, should have been different. China was the oldest living civilization, the great technological, political and cultural innovator. It was, after all, the more advanced society Europeans were trying to get to in search of trade, technology, and a hoped for ally against the Muslims when Columbus “goofed up” and ran into the New World. The reason China wasn’t different is that the world had begun one of those great periods of tectonic shift in nature and history. This time, the shift was the development of a whole new type of civilization, an industrial civilization which, for a time, turned the Western civilization in which it first took root into the ruler of the world. For the mechanized British army and navy the “white man’s burden” that came with technological advantage meant cornering the Chinese drug market, and crippling the world’s most revered civilization. The response of some of the Chinese to all this was the establishment of a pseudo-Christian utopia called the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The war between the Qing Chinese and this strange utopian-cult would constitute the bloodiest conflict of the 19th century rivaling the wars unleashed by the ravenous Napoleon… In the year 1521 the armies of Hernando Cortez captured the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan near where Mexico City now stands. In conquering the city Cortez had brought to the Spanish empire one of the great cities in the world. The population of Tenochtitlan numbered somewhere between 200,000- 250,000. To modern ears, accustomed to cities of enormous scale, these numbers appear tiny. And yet, it should be remembered that the world population in 1500 was only 500 million compared to the 7 billion alive today. The largest city in the world in 1500 was Beijing, China with 625,000 people. At the time, Tenochtitlan was in the middle range of the world’s ten largest urban centers tied with cities both still existent, and whose fame has been long forgotten, cities such as Hangzhou in China, Tabriz in Iran, and glorious Istanbul. Only one Western city could be numbered among the largest cities in the world in 1500, Paris with a population of 185,000. The great artist from Nuremberg, Albrecht Dürer, who lived during this time of Western discovery and initial conquest of the New World, had the opportunity to set his eyes on some of the stolen treasures of Aztec civilization. Certainly, they must have come as a shock. The genius Dürer found something both familiar and utterly alien. The universal character of art he could comprehend, while at the same time the mythological language and culture that gave context to the art was incomprehensible within the not only the Christian world-view, but from the view point of any of the cultures, ancient or modern, he might have known. Only the works of Ancient Egypt might have appeared so wondrously baffling. In 1520 Dürer wrote of seeing the Aztec treasures: All the days of my life, I have seen nothing that rejoiced my heart so much as these treasures, for I saw among them wondrous works of art, and I marveled at the subtle Ingenia of men in foreign lands. Indeed I cannot express all that I thought there. It is not definitively known whether the account of Cortez’s conquest of the Aztecs, especially its beautiful illustrations of Tenochtitlan, such as the one above, influenced Dürer’s short work on fortified cities published in 1527, (illustration below) but the more than superficial similarities, timing, and his interest in the Aztec’s all suggest this may be the case. If Tenochtitlan did indeed influence Dürer’s idea of fortified cities it would be somewhat ironic, for he was expressing not just his own utopian ideal, but offering what he thought was a practical remedy for Turks on the march against Hungary. In basing his fortifications on Tenochtitlan, Dürer was using a city that had fallen to a handful of Spaniards and their allies almost overnight. Dürer’s fortress cities remained a mere flight of imagination for all but one instance: the Black Forest town of Freudenstadt designed by the architect Heinrich Schickhardt, which was explicitly based on the designs of Dürer. Freudenstadt folds us firmly back into the utopian tradition, for the town was an immediate influence on J.V. Andreae’s Christianopolis , another idealized city and utopia (pictured below) that remained a mere thing of the mind. All of this brings us back to Tenochtitlan. For the Spanish conquest of the city signaled the beginning of the rise of the West. The momentum of urbanization shifted there, especially with the beginning of industrialization around 1800. All of the world’s largest cities, save one, were located in the West by 1900: London, New York, Paris, Berlin, Chicago, St. Petersburg, and Philadelphia. The one exception was Tokyo, a consequence of the fact that Japan alone among non-Western societies had fully embraced industrialization. As has always been the case, with cities came all the momentum in art, architecture, literature, science, technology. This was the Venetian sunset of our civilization. In the 21st century the momentum of civilization has again shifted back to the non-Western world. Like Paris at the beginning of the modern era, New York stands alone as a representative of the West among the world’s ten most populous cities. Mexico City, the heir of Tenochtitlan, is back where it once was among the world’s largest cities. With this shift, the creative energies of humanity are likely to move away from the West and towards the great cities of the wider world. A person in Europe or America can only patiently wait for the art of “foreign lands” to blow their mind like the Aztec’s blew the mind of Dürer, or for the ideal city to be re-imagined somewhere outside of our civilization, and perhaps, this time, even formed. No one has perhaps had such a large impact on the utopian imagination as the mystical philosopher, Pythagoras. This obscure figure, who, lived in the early 6th century, and the brotherhood he founded, were a major source of inspiration for Plato and the utopian visions he crafted. The Pythagorean idea of basing society on the principle of friendship was the basis of Thomas Moore’s modern re-creation of imagined ideal societies, an idea which Moore picked up through a work – The Adages- by his great friend, the satirist, and humanist Erasmus. The figure of Pythagoras was a source of the early modern revival of mysticism such as that of the Kabala, and influential secret societies such as the Freemasons, and Rosicrucians. Likewise, the name of Pythagoras was called upon like a lost god by the revolutionaries in France and beyond during the early stages of the democratic movement that rippled out from America starting in the late 1700s. Above all, Pythagoras was the lode star for a revolution in human existence that would supersede in its impact all of the thoughts of philosophy and the entirety of the political revolutions that have marked the modern age. Pythagoras was a major figure in the scientific utopias, notably Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis that helped spark a revolution in knowledge. Pythagoras was a kind of background figure for many of the giants of that revolution. We live in a technological society based on the idea of progress. It is a self-evident truth for us that we known more than our ancestors. This, however, is a novel idea. Many of the initiators of the scientific revolution of the 17th century did not believe they were discovering anything new. Rather, they thought their project was to discover ancient wisdom- sapientia antique. The men who made the scientific revolution could not sever their connection from ancient knowledge having only recently emerged out of a dark age in which the few works of the past that had survived seemed a like a thin tether to precarious civilization. Of those works that did survive none were as comprehensive as those of the encyclopedic Aristotle. This philosopher ruled over the late Medieval and early Modern Western mind. This became problematic as the empiricism of the early moderns started to poke holes in the Aristotelian edifice. Aristotle said there was nothing special about mathematics and that it offered no true window into nature, he said the sun, planets, and stars revolved around the earth, that the heavens were pure and unchanging, that objects fell or rose according to their nature. The early moderns thought the new math borrowed from the Arabs might be an effective tool of explanation, they discovered that the heavens were not as Aristotle described, that objects in motion did not act as he predicted. What gave them confidence and drove their anti-Aristotelian crusade was their belief that another ancient philosopher had contradicted the great Aristotle. Pythagoras, and his largely lost philosophy, became the wedge between the ancient and the new by which the modern world was born. What the early moderns found in the fragments of the Pythagoreans that survived the end of antiquity were like clues to a wholly different view of the world. In the works of the followers of Pythagoras could be found the incredible idea that numbers represent the fundamental order of the world, that the solar system was not centered around the earth, but a “central fire”- a half-way house to a heliocentric view of the solar system. In the works of the Pythagoreans could be found the idea of the continuity of animal and even plant life with humanity. The society founded by Pythagoras was fond of secrecy, and it was this occult idea of knowledge that drove early moderns such as Kepler and Newton to try to rediscover the hidden key to the universe which they sincerely believed Pythagoras and his followers had known. Nature for Pythagoras was a type of cryptogram which could be decoded once the proper corresponding numerical relationship was found. For science, even up until our own day, nature retains this cryptographic quality. Think of the search for DNA, the Human Genome, and the quest for a unified theory of physics that is the purpose of massive experimental apparatus such as CERN. Pythagoras’ seemingly inconsequential epiphany that the world is number, arrived at when he noticed that the by the plucking of strings varied proportionally with the length of the string, has ultimately proven more revolutionary than the most profound utopian or religious texts. The models by which we now understand the world are built out of numbers. Our world is run and managed by machines whose thinking is composed of advanced forms of calculation. Indeed even the self seems to be merging, perhaps disappearing, into mathematics with movements such as The Quantified Self. We are all, for better, and for worse, Pythagoreans now. The City of the Sun is a utopia written by the Dominican Friar Tommaso Campanella. Perhaps the most interesting feature of Campanella’s imaginary city is what might be called its architecture of knowledge. The city is made up of a number of walls upon each of which are inscribed all the knowledge of a particular set of sciences. On the outer wall are inscribed all the truths of mathematics, on the second metallurgy, geography, meteorology, the third botany, the next biology of fish, insects, reptiles, the one that follows the biology of large animals, then the mechanical arts, and finally history, war, philosophy, religion and law. That Campanella’s divisions of knowledge are a little confusing makes perfect sense given that our current fields of inquiry had yet to really crystallize. Yet, what should be clear is that he has imagined what is in effect an archive of all human knowledge from the least to the most complex. The architecture of his city itself is a storehouse of human knowledge and physically embeds all that we know. This is a little like the current Rosetta Disk project of the Long Now Foundation which attempts to create a store house of knowledge about human languages on a micro-disc. Contrast Campanella’s City of the Sun with IBM’s current Smarter Cities project and one gets a feel for the revolution in our understanding of knowledge from Campanella’s time to our own. For him the new science, just being born when he imagined his ideal city, would soon discover all that was knowable. All of human knowledge could be inscribed on the walls of a small city. For us, knowledge is dynamic, expansive. The space granted by Campanella would unlikely be enough for even the most obscure specialty. IBM’s Smarter Cities imagines the knowledge center of a city not as a sort of library or museum, but as akin to the body’s central nervous or immune systems, capable of getting feedback from itself and responding to real time information regarding things like traffic, crime, social services, fire/disaster response, medical care, and education. The mounting tensions with Iran over its nuclear program are already bad enough if one had only real-world security issues and the eternal competitions between nations in mind. The Iranians have very real reasons for wanting the bomb, top among them the fact that it seems to offer the only effective protection against America’s otherwise unstoppable power. This is the lesson they no doubt have learned from the contrasting cases of North Korea and Iraq/Libya where a lesser power has been able to deter American arms through the possession of nuclear weapons, whereas, the regimes of Iraq and Libya, having abandoned their nuclear programs were overthrown by the US and its allies. The strategic reasons for the Israelis not wanting Iran to have the bomb are equally obvious. A nuclear armed Iran would indeed be the biggest strategic threat Israel has faced, and therefore, they reasonably will do everything possible to prevent Iran from developing atomic weapons. The Arab regimes similarly fear a nuclear armed Iran, and the US which ostensibly is committed to the defense of these regimes and Israel, fears the instability a nuclear Iran would bring to an already unstable region. All sides in this dispute are therefore acting within the reasoned limits of national interest, though deeply conflicted interest they are, and it is already difficult to imagine the situation not being “resolved” by war, which, sadly, is far too often the final form of “negotiations” between states. But to all this is also added a religious element, on both sides, that feeds belligerence and a distortion in the ability of states to make rational decisions as to the question of whether or not to go to war. An influential minority in the Iranian government, appear to be applying an apocalyptic logic to current events, and see in the threat of war which would devastate the country, instead the promise of the return of the promised 12th Imam, the Mahdi, of the Shia branch of Islam, who will return after a period of tribulation to rule- alongside Jesus- and fill the world with justice. Although Judaism , too, has a version of the end times, it is probably not the main root of the apocalyptic logic also driving Israeli policy. For what lies behind Jewish end of the world anxieties is the very real historical experience of near extinction in the Holocaust. This fear of being totally destroyed as a people, this idea that any threat faced with courage and unyielding strength, is akin to a victory against evil itself, makes the Jewish polity find the normal condition of strategic competition between states unacceptable, and blinds it to the possibility of finding a permanent modus vivendi with countries in the region that are destined to not merely to be the equals of Israel, but the true, natural great powers of the Middle East. On the American side, although only really so far as the Republicans are concerned, the influence of Christian fundamentalist, has turned Israel into a kind of sainted kingdom whose interests are of equal weight, indeed over-ride, the national interest of the United States. For Christian fundamentalist, the existence of Israel is the key component in their own ideas regarding the end of days. Israel will be the scene of world war and the emergence of world government under the Anti-Christ until the triumphant return of Christ. Judaism itself will, thereafter, be no more, with all of the “good” Jews converted to Christianity. Some Christian fundamentalist (even a guy who has worked for the CIA) see the Shia Madhi as a “mini” Anti-Christ who will bring the conditions for his more powerful successor to come. The countdown has begun. All of this is, of course, crazy. And that’s the point. The strategic questions facing Iran, Israel and the United States are almost too complex and difficult to begin with, and added to all of it is the crazed logic of apocalypse. The US government launched a major crackdown on the group Anonymous today, arresting five of the group’s leaders. The charges could result in some of the leaders of the group serving up to 105 years in prison. This is how the Washington Post characterized the arrests: “This is the most important roll-up of hackers ever,” said Richard Stiennon, a cybersecurity analyst who has closely followed Anonymous. Stiennon said that the arrests had instilled “distrust into Anonymous” and, as a consequence, the FBI may have “broken the back of the collective.” Members of the group, and its sympathizers, were quick to point out that Anonymous was as much an idea as an organization, and that you can not destroy an idea, and well it may be. And yet, the successful prosecution of the men arrested today would certainly be a huge deterrent to the kind hackivism practiced by Anonymous and similar groups, which got me wondering if there would be any truly effective means of political protest left should the back of the group really be broken as Stiennon seems to hope. For me, the question is whether or not the kinds of things credited to Anonymous count as political protest or something else? Back in the late 1990’s I was doing research for a book that came to naught (though I did end up turning it into a short piece of historical fiction that I will post with this should I ever find it). I was researching a labor strike on the Pennsylvania canal in the early 1800s and reading a lot of newspaper articles about the event from the time period. Thing is, they always referred to what we would call a strike as a “conspiracy”. Why was that? It seems there had been an infamous legal case in Pennsylvania back in 1806 called Commonwealth vs Pullis that had ruled that a strike by a group of Philadelphia journeymen cordwainers amounted to a conspiracy against the owners of the factories in which they worked, and that society would collapse should the principle the strikers used to justify their actions ever be taken as universal. The ruling effectively made both unions and strikes illegal throughout the early years of the 19th century. The prosecution’s case was that: We charge a combination, by means of rewards and punishments, threats, insults, starvings and beatings, to compel the employers to accede to terms, they the journeymen present and dictate. If the journeymen cordwainers may do this, so may the employers; the journeymen carpenters, the brick-layers, butchers, farmers, and the whole community will be formed into hostile confederacies, the prelude and certain forerunner of bloodshed and civil war. It now rests with the jury, under the direction of the court to say, whether we shall in future be governed by secret clubs, instead of the constitution and laws of the state; a verdict of not guilty, will sanction combinations of the most dangerous kind; a contrary verdict will give the victory to the known and established laws of the commonwealth. No doubt, the US government’s case against Anonymous will argue similarly: that the actions of the group in no way represent legitimate political protests, and to argue otherwise would amount to inviting “cyber-chaos”. Surely, if one looks over many of the actions credited to Anonymous many of them are juvenile, and perhaps even criminal. Yet, in an age in which elites hide behind security fortresses to shield themselves from public protests, and an amazing protest movement such as OWS can emerge overnight, only to disappear just as quickly, hacktivism, of the sort practiced by Anonymous is one of the few means of democratic protest that actually bite, which is the reason why the reactions by authorities has been so strong against groups like Wikileaks and Anonymous. One wonders what leverage citizens will have should governments be able to treat all such actions, regardless of their political aspect, as conspiracies and sentence hacktivist to a century in prison. Utopia scholars such as Ronald Schaer have argued that the concept of utopia, properly understood, is a secular one that originated in the early sixteenth century with Thomas Moore. Yet, as Schaer himself points out, the most powerful of 20th century utopian movements can not really be understood with out reference to the eschatological visions of the Judeo-Christian, and one should add Islamic, traditions Indeed the worldly paradise predicted at the end of days ,and hoped for by elements these religions to a greater or lesser extent, is, even if we proceed with intellectual caution, more intimately connected with the political consequences of the idea of utopia than Schaer would have us believe. In many ways the most powerful of the secular utopian movements have borrowed so much from their religiously conceived predecessors as to be almost indistinguishable. One might wonder where human agency has gone in religious utopianism, for underneath the secular version of utopia lies the humanist assumption that we can build the future. Yet, the most powerful secular utopian movements also seem to lack this quality of human agency, with some other entity serving the role once ascribed to God. For communists, utopia was to emerge through the deterministic forces of history, for Nazis through the war of nature, for the current Transhumanist/Sigularian movement the promises of religion- immortality, collective consciousness, omniscience are to emerge through the deterministic evolution of technology. The difference between utopianism which wears the guise of religion in comparison to plain vanilla religion is that religious-utopianism promises the eminent arrival of a new and perfect world within the life-time of believers. Religious utopianism points to a future state not a lost paradise at the beginning of human history. Lastly, whereas religion guides individual moral behavior, often for the purpose of obtaining happiness after death, the goals of religious utopianism are collective in character and serve as a guide to political action now. The reason we should be paying close attention to utopia as religiously conceived is that, today, secular utopias are far less potent than religious ones, and failing to take heed of religious utopias blinds us to their very real capacity to effect the world in the here-and-now, rather than merely affect the state of human spiritually, or subsist as some ethereal hope for some promised land, far-off, at the “end of history”. Utopian thinking continues to have a great hold on the human psyche, and utopian movements are one of the major forces guiding political action today. We should, therefore, try our best to understand them. In the immediate future, such an understanding would provide some insight when comes to the looming showdown with Iran- the subject of my next post.

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As in all Jewish communities, the strict internal organisation of the Romaniote Community of Ioannina guaranteed its smooth running, especially when under the Ottoman Empire. The rabbi, who bore the title Marbitz Torah from the 16th century, was both religious and administrative leader. He was chosen for his wisdom and sound judgement and there was no specific duration to his term of office. He was assisted in his administrative tasks by the Maamad, a seven-member strong legislative and executive body with authority, a president called the gabbai and a treasurer called the guizbar. He represented the community to the Sublime Porte and other national bodies. There was also a religious court, the Bet Din, which was officially recognised by the Ottoman authorities. It was presided over by the rabbi and dealt with intra-community issues in accordance with Talmudic scripture and common law. The ordinary everyday life of those in the community was regulated by certain people fulfilling a vocation; among them were the shohet, who slaughtered animals the kosher way; the melamed, or teacher of religion; the shamas, or synagogue caretaker and community land keeper. When the new Greek State came into being and its national institutions gained power, this community organisation still retained some of the important role it had held in the past. Charity and solidarity, the cornerstones of Judaism, are far removed from any form of self-gain or self-promotion in the community. They are fundamental values, vital to the survival of the community and through its charitable societies they have led to people getting the help they need ever since the middle ages. Thus it is that in the community of Ioannina there are many records of charities. Hevra Kedoshah, an honorary brotherhood of volunteers who oversaw the burial of the dead, was one of the first, as was Bikur Holim, a charity that arranged visits and care for the sick and needy. Community bodies and wealthy individuals saw that religious schools were protected and able to provide canteen meals for needy pupils. There was also Aruhat Aniyim, which distributed school books, stationery and clothing, and Matanot Levionim, which sometimes exempted pupils from school fees. Hevra Talmud Torah, the Jewish Society for Education, was very active in this respect. Then there were charities that supported young mothers and provided dowries for young women of little or no means (Hevra Nose Yetumot). During the Turkish occupation, Pidyon Shevuyim, a charity that collected for the liberation or purchase and release of Jewish slaves, proved absolutely necessary and was active over a wide area. There were also community institutions such as Beth Yeshua ve Rachel care home for the elderly. Organisations of a community, cultural, political or Zionist nature began to make their appearance in the latter 19th century. The Zionist society Hevra Amele Zion was founded in Ioannina in 1918 for the purpose of spreading propaganda about the need to establish an independent Jewish state in Palestine. It collected money in aid of this mission and helped those who wanted to immigrate to Palestine. The Jewish Youth Society, which brought the young people of the community together, was founded at the same time. Click here to see the Digital Presentation

Mehta opened the Monday evening concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with stirring... Harrison Ford hospitalized after Santa Monica plane crash Iran hints might not reject 10-year partial freeze of nuclear work Jewish Women’s Conference allows women to let down their hair Nisman’s ex-wife: Late AMIA prosecutor was murdered PLO votes to cut security cooperation with Israel Zhenya Gershman, ‘Larger Than Life’ Where is Obama’s grand vision? What billionaires owe the Jewish community ADVERTISEMENTPUT YOUR AD HERE Tag: Disney Concert Hall February 8, 2007 | 7:00 pm February 1, 2007 | 7:00 pmWomen in Black will demonstrate against the appearance of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Los Angeles Feb. 5 and 6, after the group's demand that the performances be cancelled was rejected. According to its web site -- www.wib-la.org -- the small organization plans to hold a... November 27, 2003 | 7:00 pm

The home of Szymon Kluger, who died in 2000, is "falling down" and the centre wants to "turn it into Cafe Oshpitzin - taken from the Yiddish name for Oswiecim - a vegetarian cafe that will celebrate local food and dialogue while maintaining the house's important historical presence." Prior to the Nazi occupation of Poland, Oswiecim was nicknamed "the Jewish town" because more than half of its 15,000 residents were Jews. That changed in 1940-1945, when 1.1 million people, including one million Polish Jews, died at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest death camp built by Nazi Germany. Of nine siblings, only Kluger and two others survived the mass extermination and he went on to live in Sweden, before returning to Oswiecim in the 1960s, according to the Polish news agency PAP. The centre plans to highlight local products and art at the cafe because today's entrepreneurs are "creating a new positive identity for the town", director Tomasz Kuncewicz told PAP. It is seeking donations through the "crowdfunding" website Kickstarter.com for the building in the southern town. The centre is based in a building that housed a synagogue before the war. It was the town's only synagogue not destroyed by the Nazis, who kept the building intact so that they could stock ammunition in it. Edited by Bonnie Malkin

Rabbi Elias Margolis of Mt. Vernon was elected president of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary at Wednesday afternoon’s session of the thirty-third annual convention of the organization which ended yesterday. He succeeds Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan, who declined to run for a second term, stating that he planned to take a Sabbatical year from the Seminary where he is a professor of Homiletics. Other officers chosen to head the Assembly for the ensuing year were Rabbi Eugene Kohn of Bayonne, N. J., vice-president; Rabbi Joel Geffen of Troy, recording secretary; Rabbi Nachman S. Arnoff of Camden, N. J., corresponding secretary, and Herman N. Cohen of St. Paul, treasurer. Elected to the executive committee for a three-year term were Rabbis Louis Finkelstein of New York, Solomon Goldman of Chicago, Mordecai M. Kaplan and Samuel Rosenblatt of Baltimore, Robert Gordis of Rockaway Park, L. I., and Israel Goldstein of New York. SEEK ECONOMIC FACTS Wednesday night’s session was featured by a symposium on "What are the facts of the present economic situation and what are the logical conclusions to be drawn from those facts?" Participants in the symposium were George Soule, editor of the New Republic, Dr. Rufus S. Tucker, noted economist and Rabbi Goldstein, chairman of the Assembly’s committee on social justice. Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of the Seminary and honorary member of the Assembly, addressed Friday morning’s executive session. A paper which aroused considerable lively discussion was read by Rabbi Jacob Freedman of Chelsea, Mass., on "Bootlegging the American Rabbinate." Declaring that the invasion of "free lances" or unordained men in the rabbinate constituted a "disgraceful and pernicious bootlegging of the American Rabbinate," Dr. Freedman called upon the Assembly to formulate plans to deal with this condition. He recommended an amalgamated board consisting of representatives of the various seminaries, rabbinical and synagogue associations to purge "the dross from the religious life of American Israel." ORDAIN WORTHY PRACTITIONERS "Such a broadly representative organization," he said, "aided by the press and by other national organizations, such as the American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Welfare Board, the Associated Y.M.H.A.’s, the Zionist Organization, the B’nai B’rith and other fraternal groups, has it within its power to bring order out of chaos in our religious life. Let the worthy unordained men of long standing be recognized and welcomed into the rabbinical associations. Let the younger ones prove their sincerity and real devotion to their calling by entering the seminaries as candidates for ordination. Let the others be publicly read out of the ranks of the rabbinate." A special committee of the Assembly will be appointed to look into the question of "free lance" rabbis and to take steps, in conjunction with other Jewish seminaries, to rid the rabbinate of these unqualified, unordained men. SOCIAL, POLITICAL RESOLUTIONS A feature of the conference has been the decided stand taken by the members, headed by Rabbi Israel Goldstein of the Temple B’nai Jeshuron, on the question of rabbinical comment on political and economic affairs. Vigorously contending that the synagogue should concern itself with the full life of its members, and take part in all questions of vital public interest, Rabbi Goldstein, as head of the committee on social justice, made a number of recommendations to the resolutions committee. These dealt with world peace, disarmament, Christian celebrations in public schools, elimination of "The Merchant of Venice" from public school reading, acknowledgment of American Christendom’s protest against Nazi anti-Semitism, protests in the Scottsboro case, the Mooney case, utterances on the 30-hour week, federal relief and public works, minimum wages and unemployment insurance. The relation of the synagogue to social justice was discussed by Rabbi Goldstein, who recommended a course in social justice problems in the Seminary curriculum.

Ultrasonic smart sensors in our ears allowed us to listen to bats on their terms. They asked for more funding for the national parks. The Internet of Wild Things has been set up in London. Smart bat sensors have been installed at 15 sites across Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, allowing researchers to study the life of bats in unprecedented detail. Jaz Twersky wonders if one day, we’ll be able to wear this technology and communicate with bats directly. Recent developments in sensor technology suggest that while we may not be able to understand them, we could one day feel ultrasonic vibrations through spray-on sensors. //Alex Massey //@WordNerdKnitter is a student, journalist, Editor-in-Chief @Triton_News, & knitter. She loves seeing Jewish & queer people in fiction.//

The Great Sayings in the Gospels “Such Great Faith…” 5 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, 6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. 8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. 9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. KJV If you are familiar with the gospels you know that Luke is the only other of the four gospel writers that included this account. You also know that Luke told the story a little differently. In Luke’s version, the centurion himself does not come to Christ but sends emissaries, first a group of the Jewish leaders and then some of his friends. Let us read that account. 1 Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. 2 And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. 3 And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: 5 For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. 6 Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: 7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. 8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 9 When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. KJV This reveals to us what seems like a peculiarity of that day. There was almost no difference in the minds of these writers whether a person does something in person or does it through messengers. It is all considered as if he had personally done the thing. Introducing the Centurion: – He was obviously a Roman soldier, though that does not necessarily mean that he was a Roman himself. He may have been from any of the nations that Rome had conquered. – He was obviously a wealthy man for he had made some sizable charitable contributions at Capernaum which we will see in a minute. – There was a relationship of affection between the centurion and his servant. This means at last two things: (1) the servant was a faithful man who served his master well, and (2) the centurion himself was a man who appreciated and had affection for people who were of a lower station in life than himself. This tells us that he was a very different sort of man than we would expect to find in his position in life. – He was a religious man who had a great interest in the Jewish religion. Luke 7:5 For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. KJV Matthew Henry – …”he was well‑affected to the people of the Jews: He loveth our nation (which few of the Gentile did). Probably he had read the Old Testament, whence it was easy to advance to a very high esteem of the Jewish nation, as favoured by Heaven above all people.” AND – “…he was well‑affected to their worship: He built them a new synagogue at Capernaum, finding that what they had was either gone to decay or not large enough to contain the people, and that the inhabitants were not of ability to build one for themselves. Hereby he testified his veneration for the God of Israel, his belief of his being the one only living and true God, and his desire, like that of Darius, to have an interest in the prayers of God’s Israel, Ezra 6:10. This centurion built a synagogue at his own proper costs and charges, and probably employed his soldiers that were in garrison there in the building, to keep them from idleness.” – Still, we do not expect to necessarily find him having Jesus sought out to make a personal appeal for Him to heal the servant. One would almost have expected him to send a garrison of soldiers to firmly request that He come to the place where the servant was to heal him. But this man is very polite and very attentive to proper decorum and does not at all behave as the resident authority of the conquering power, nor as a law enforcement office for the Caesar. – He was a man of considerable humility for any person of any time, much less a soldier of rank. Luke’s account that he approached Christ through emissaries seems the most reasonable to me. I have a question that a man who thought himself unworthy for Jesus to come into his house would approach Jesus in person on the street. I do not know if we encounter a single other individual in the gospels who was so humble that he would decline for Jesus to enter his house. Matthew Henry suggested that his knowledge of the Jewish people and their aversion to associating with uncircumcised people may have added to his hesitance. – We know that he had heard of Jesus and His power to heal. We also know, as we will see later, that he considered Jesus to be a person of great authority over spiritual matters. He believed in Him with confidence even though he had never met Him in person. We also know that we are yet in the very early ministry of Jesus and there is not as much evidence of His healing power as there will ultimately be. This man has believed with considerable less evidence before him than the Jews ultimately had at the end of Jesus’ ministry. – We know that he was well-respected by the Jewish leaders of Capernaum and we know that the Jews as a group tended to greatly resent the authority of Rome over their people. This means that the centurion had gone to great lengths to show himself fair, honorable, and respectful to the Jewish people of that city. – We suspect that he was a wealthy man, given the fact that he had impressed the Jews with his gifts of charity and his work on their synagogue. This would not have been unusual for soldiers, on occasion, would capture great wealth in war and were sometimes free to keep most of it for themselves as an offset to their small wages. A centurion would have used part of the captured booty to generously reward his men and kept a sizable portion for himself. Lessons learned from the Centurion: Christ is everything. I am nothing. All that I truly need is to be found in Him. Therefore, I must humbly seek Him. This is the essence of Great Faith. Christ is Everything The confidence that the centurion had in Christ, he had from before he sent messengers to him. He believed that Jesus, with a word and from a distance, could heal his servant with a word, without ever having seen him or touched him. This means that he believed that Jesus knew who the centurion was, who his servant was, where the house was located, what was truly wrong with the servant, and what it would take to heal him. He further believed that Jesus had the authority and power to order such a healing to this specific man at this specific location. I noticed as I thought on this text that the centurion did not request of Jesus that He pray to God for healing for the servant but that He would heal him, Himself. What the centurion believed, if one develops it out, was that Jesus was Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Omnipotent, that He knew all things, was present everywhere, and had all power. The only logical conclusion to such a belief is that Jesus was Himself Deity. No man, no prophet, no priest, had ever held Divine power in such a way that a person could be completely confident that with a word he could heal a man he did not know in a location he did not know of a disease that he had not observed, and do so with merely a word of command. The centurion expressed his confidence, his faith, in Jesus Christ with terms that he fully understood as a military man. Luke 7:8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. KJV His express belief was that Jesus had the same authority over the elements of the universe that this centurion did over those under his command. “Whatever I tell them, they do,” he said, obviously meaning that he also thought that the forces of nature would obey whatever Jesus commanded them to do. I am nothing. Question: have you ever met another human being whom you assumed to be of such honor that you would feel unworthy for them to come into your house? (I am not talking about feeling nervous that your house was not clean!). No one that I know of in scripture ever felt such a compulsion toward Jesus. Pharisees and even some of the publicans often invited Him to eat with them. While they, no doubt, felt honored that He would accept their invitations, none of them seemed hesitant to have Him into their house. The kind of response that the centurion showed could only come from one place, the Word of God, and through only one means, conviction from the Spirit of God. This man had, undoubtedly, come to see himself as the kind of sinner that scripture says that he and all the rest of us are. Paul described the sinner, if you remember, in Rom. 3:10-19: unrighteous, ignorant of God and refusing to seek Him, completely outside of the way of righteousness, unprofitable and without any good in him. The centurion was not only theologically convinced of this truth, he was practically convinced, which means that his behavior matched was he believed. Since he truly believed himself a sinner, his was firmly of the opinion that he could not, with integrity, host the Lord of Glory in his home. This man was not only ‘humbled’ by what he had discovered of himself as a sinner, he was shattered, broken, and completely undone. Think of it, he disinvited Jesus to his house because he considered himself ‘unworthy’ that the Lord should come under his roof. Surely most people in our day would think that he had gone “all to serious on this religion thing.” There are many people in our day who would lecture him on his “position in Christ” and his “spiritual authority.” But, alas, this man was not nearly so smart as many of our preachers. All he was, all he had, all he could lay claim to was…….in the words of Jesus Himself…..GREAT FAITH. Great Faith does not make one arrogant and self assured. It does not give a person the arrogance to seek to tell God, the Devil, or even angels what to do. In fact, it makes no demands on God at all. Requests? Certainly! Orders? Absolutely not! The kind of faith recognized by God is the kind of faith that fully and completely acknowledges the complete sinfulness of the creature apart from God and operates from the perspective that the creature is owed nothing. Appeals made to God are made on the basis of His grace and not the worth of the creature. What I need is to be found in Him. Given what the centurion obviously believed: himself a sinner, the God of the Jews is God, Jesus is the Messiah prophesied, the problem he was facing was beyond the power of man to solve, his only obvious course of action was to seek help from Jesus Christ. What he needed was to be found in Christ alone Who, Alone, had the power to meet his need. The reality is that this is true for every living soul. All he/she needs is to be found in Jesus Christ. Now, obviously, we are speaking of real, spiritual, and eternal needs. What are those? Forgiveness of sins Spiritual life and growth in grace here and now. Preservation from sin and communion with God in this life. And, eternal life with God in eternity. There are no other ‘needs’ that a human has. This is it. Everything else is only a ‘want’ or a ‘desire.’ Surely we have daily necessities that we must have if we are going to live, but we are going to come to a day when we do not live here any more. That is not a real and eternal need. But to be able to die in peace and move securely into eternal fellowship with God? Now there is a real need. Every real need of every soul is to be found in Christ and in Him Alone. He is the Bread of Life and He gives the Living Water. Spiritual life and the power to sustain it comes from Him and from no other. 12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. KJV (Peter before the Sanhedrin) I can say to you with all confidence, right here and right now, that all you truly need can be found in Jesus Christ. I can also say with all confidence that what you need cannot be found anywhere else or in any other person or religion. Therefore, I must earnestly and humbly seek Him. One cannot come in pride and arrogance to the Lord of the Universe and have any hope of being heard by Him. One must come just as the centurion did, “I am unworthy of even the least of your blessings. I am a sinner, as was my father and all of my grandfathers back to Adam. I have done nothing to deserve your mercy and everything to deserve and merit your wrath. I come petitioning your Mercy because I have a need that I cannot meet. I am crippled and diseased with sin. I cannot help myself. I need to be forgiven of my sins and to be given a new life so that I can live for You. Would you help me, Lord? I cast all of my hope upon you. Please saved me for Jesus’ sake.” But this also is true of those who are already believers. You and I have merited nothing. Every good thing we have ever done has been by the Grace of God and Him alone. We have done nothing perfectly and have never done all that we should have done. Any hope we have of help from Him must be sought from His Mercy and Grace just as our salvation was sought. He has already given us far more than we could ever have deserved. It is true that Jesus has opened the throne room of God to us through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension, but all of our dealings with God must still be in complete humility, seeking His Grace. Those who truly had this Great Faith like the centurion trusted Christ so much that they committed themselves completely and totally to Him. The work of the gospel is never finished in a soul. Once we have been brought to Christ in Christian Conversion, the Holy Spirit continues to unveil the truths that He first revealed to us before. Christ is Everything. I am nothing. Everything I truly need is to be found in Him. Therefore, I must earnestly and humbly seek after Him. The Holy Spirit would have every believer to be as completely surrendered and committed to Christ as Paul was and He will never be satisfied with anything less than that from us. 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. KJV 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. KJV This is the place that Great Faith will always bring us. Do you have Great Faith? Are You Seeking It?Share on Facebook

Sometimes in the Bible, to show that nothing is impossible with God, some amazing things happen. One of them is when a very old couple has a child. This happened for Zechariah and Elizabeth when John the Baptist was born. In today’s episode from Genesis, we read the beautiful story of the conception of Isaac, the child of the aged Abraham and Sarah. Then there’s a rather delightful story of a conversation between God and Abraham about what God intends to do to the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Notice the power of prayer of just a few people. There’s power in your prayer. Pray for those close to you who need more joy and peace in their lives. Imagine gently holding our dear planet earth and all its people in your hands as you lift it to God in prayer. The Saturday passages follow the reading list that Jewish people use in their synagogue worship throughout the world. They are taken from “The Torah,” the first five books of the Bible from Genesis to Deuteronomy that are read each year beginning with autumn. These Firestarters are from a new edition of The Bible Through the Seasons being developed for families with children. For the Firestarters in the original edition, I recommend the ebook. You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or table! Check the menu options at the site for more information.

Baltimore Jewish Hall of Fame The Jewish Hall of Fame celebrates Jewish Baltimoreans who have a made a difference in the field of medicine, science, law, education, business, community service, and the arts. Save the date for the 2015 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Wednesday, May 20, 2015 • 7:00pm Gordon Center for Performing Arts What is the mission of the Baltimore Jewish Hall of Fame? Established in 2008, the mission of the Baltimore Jewish Hall of Fame at the JCC is to keep alive the memory of these remarkable individuals for the benefit of all future generations. The Jewish Hall of Fame event also serves as an opportunity to raise funds for needs- based scholarships which enable hundreds of children and teens to participate in JCC programs such as Early Childhood, Camp Milldale, Special Needs, and the JCC Maccabi Experience. All proceeds from the sale of ads in the Hall of Fame program book will provide financial assistance for children and teens at the JCC. How can you participate in the 2015 Baltimore Jewish Hall of Fame? Your support is welcome. Here's how you can help: • Advertise your business or place a tribute ad in the Hall of Fame program book. All proceeds will support much-needed scholarships and financial assistance for children and teen programs at the JCC. • Attend the Hall of Fame event on Wednesday, May 20 at the Gordon Center For Performing Arts.

We like to think that we live in the light, or as the current phrase goes — “it’s all good ” — when in reality everything really seems to happen in the dark where angels are wrestled with. This came forcibly to mind when I caught the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra’s Restless Dreams concert on the June 13th at San Francisco’s Old First Church. The program — 8 pieces by 8 composers–also bore out music director Mark Alburger’s from the stage quip that it was Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony in reverse — instruments were added instead of subtracted as it progressed. Restless Dreams also appeared to go from meditation to conflict, or light to dark. Philip Freihofner’s Obelisk, which the composer wrote over a long period and “finalized” for this concert, could be described as meditative and/or minimalist in gesture. We tend to think that only loud pieces are powerful , but Freihofner’s soft one, which Rova Saxophone Quartet’s Steve Adams played, backed by a repeating figure on synth with passion and point, hit home. Lisa Scola Prosek’s Voodoo Storm, performed clarinettist Rachel Condry, trumpeter Eduard Prosek, cellist Juan Mejia, and pianist Scola Prosek was delicate and expressive, with subtle yet highly individualized part writing — Condry giving way to Eduard Prosek and vice versa — and it ended, in mid phrase, as so much in life does. Read the rest of this entry » 4 Comments » It’s sometimes said that composers are either German or French, and American vanguard one Frederic Rzewski, with his much vaunted admiration for Beethoven, is clearly on the German side. But how could he not be when some of his composition teachers like Dallapiccola and Babbitt forsook a flowing lyric line for a jagged dramatic one, whose aim is not to seduce the ear, but to wow with intellectual rigor? But that doesn’t mean that Rzewski’s work is insincere, or lacks power — it has that in spades — but that it tends to be aimed at the mind and not the heart. It’s often confrontational, too. But that’s a good thing because any real musical interaction, like any real human one, has a built in confrontational element, and confrontations help us grow. Rzewski’s 1976 solo piano piece The People United Will Never Be Defeated (El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido) is certainly a work in which he confronted the musical possibilities of all kinds of things that had been appearing in his output until then. He was 38 at the time he wrote it and his discoveries here power lots of his subsequent work. I t’s as much as a watershed piece for him as Glass’ massive ensemble work Music In 12 Parts (1971-74) was for him. It’s also a kind of compendium of rhythmic, harmonic and coloristic approaches to Chilean composer Sergio Ortega’s song for Salvador Allende on which it’s based. There are 6 variation sets of 6 each plus a coda, and Rzewski seems to use every possible pianistic device in it. Read the rest of this entry » Comments Off on Force of Nature – Frederic Rzewski Solo Piano UC Davis Some people like to think that music is always somehow about something… usually them. My bad love affair, the world will never understand me, much less remember me. And lots of music — from the troubadours with their songs of courtly love to the meditations and dramas of the romantics to the skitterings and upheavals of the New Vienna School — have been a kind of narrative of this beleaguered self, or if you will, the audience’s identification with the composer’s ups and downs. But the New York School of Earle Brown (1926-2002), Christian Wolff (1936- ), John Cage (1912 -1992), and Morton Feldman (1926-1987) threw this book out the window. Like the abstract expressionist painters with whom they were friendly, they believed in the concept of art as abstraction, not a representation of something external. They wanted their listeners to experience music as sound unmoored from any story frame, an event in and of itself. Morton Feldman made a career out this approach and his focus on the specifics of sound was his calling card. FOR JOHN CAGE (1982), which violinist Graeme Jennings, late of the Arditti Quartet, and and Christopher Jones performed here in mid-September as part of the sfSound Series, has all the stylistic hallmarks of his late work. It’s ultra soft – down to ppp – has an evenness of color, and its duration –78 miniutes– is roughly the same as a Bruckner or Mahler symphony, or the Beethoven 9th. But what happens in that time frame is an entirely different story. Feldman isn’t after a logical dialectical continuity but an ahistorical present, and this can make his music, with its fragmentary gestures, seem odd, or even empty. But Jennings and Jones made that lack of “content “ convincing, and urgent. A slow steady sequence of quietly inflected piano chords sounded as if they were going somewhere, and Jenning’s playing of Feldman’s circumscribed violin gestures — cells, simple, spaced chords, harmonics -– was equally acute. And I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the composer achieved a kind of Brechtian alienation effect/affect by having the violinist use a leather mute, and the pianist play with the damper pedal half depressed so that the music appeared to disappear as it was being heard. Classic masters like Brahms meditated on the past in the solo movements of his violin sonatas, but that past existed within a kind of narrative frame, whereas here only a present past survived. Feldman’s music is both annoying –- when will it change, and where will it end ? –- and transcendent, and Jennings and Jones came down squarely on the side of the latter. And the music seemed to gain much of its poetry from the place where it was played. A big mirrored dance rehearsal studio, with a spic and span Steinway grand where each sound had its tenuous, and all too fleeting life. 6 Comments » We take so much for granted – the sun will go down , the sun will come up – that we never seem to realize that some day it won’t be there or we won’t be here to see it. Same thing is true of friends you could always count on. So when I got an e-mail from my composer-conductor friend Gerhard Samuel’s companion, Achim Nicklis, that Gerhard had passed away a few weeks ago, I was shocked. Sure, I sensed he wasn’t well – repeated e-mails saying he’d changed his address indicated as much. – but the sad fact remains. He’s not here anymore. One comes to know a person through what they say, or don’t say, do, or don’t do, and if that person’s an artist one gets to know them through their work. I first encountered Gary’s music when I was driving my sister Kathi’s car in Belmont Shore, Long Beach, and was so moved when I heard the La Salle Quartet perform his String Quartet # 1 (1978) on the radio, that I stopped the car until it was over. But isn’t that what art’s supposed to do, and isn’t its awareness meant to make us more aware? Other pieces had just as much impact. There was his original and very touching “gloss ” on Mondeverdi, Looking at Orpheus Looking (1971), which he wrote for the Oakland Symphony when he was its extra innovative music director, Requiem for Survivors and suddenly it’s evening (1974), which he composed as a memorial piece for his Oakland successor, Calvin Simmons, when he was Mehta’s assistant conductor at the LA Philharmonic; the chamber piece, Nocturne on an Impossible Dream (1980), which he wrote with his mother in mind; the 1998 chamber work with tenor and saxophone solo, Hyacinth From Apollo, to a poem by his frequent collaborator, Jack Larson, who was the original TV Jimmy Olsen; and the 1994 Transformations for chamber string orchestra and solo violin. And though these were all completely different in style and expressive intent, they couldn’t have been more of a piece with who Gerhard was – passionate, charming as all get out, refined, yet always full of surprises. Like that September evening in 1998 – the 19th, to be precise – when Tony Gualtieri and I presented him on KUSF-FM’s 3-hour Classical Salon, and he, during the time his music was playing, seemed completely at sea, and I said “ Don’t worry, “ as Tony looked across the room at us from “ Studio A”, to our perch at the little table which was “Studio B”, and then when our mikes went on rose to the occasion like the pro he always was. Which reminds me of a story he told me of what happened when he was conducting one of the Stravinsky ballets. The composer was backstage, hand cupped to his ear, listening intently as his wife, Vera, said “Why’s he doing that? He’s heard it a million times!” And Gerhard said “ Because he wants to hear it again!” which was a lot like him too– completely in the present, where everything is. 4 Comments » My dear late best friend Danny Cariaga, classical music critic extraordinaire of the Los Angeles Times, once observed that people went to Wagner’s operas when they were new because they had more time. But now, with the onslaught of e-mails, IMs, cells with text messaging, to say nothing of headsets, call waiting, call forwarding, numeric pagers and the like, time seems fractured beyond repair. Are we really that far gone? And if so how can we get back to the unalterable truths of life, like love and death? These questions came to mind when I caught The Met’s penultimate performance of Philip Glass’ 1979 opera Satyagraha on Monday 28th April. One of its subjects is time itself, and Glass’ mature music has always played with our perceptions of it. How long is short, and how short is long? Glass’ exquisite and utterly involving 3-act meditation on Gandhi – its subtitle is “M.K. Gandhi in South Africa (1893 – 1914)” – shows how he transformed himself from an ordinary barrister thrown off a train into one of the most seminal spiritual and political figures of the last century whose ideas continue to reverberate. A tall order, for sure, but one that co-director designers Phelim McDermott and Juilan Crouch’s Improbable Theatre made incredibly vivid and tremendously moving. Glass and his scenarist Constance De Jong, assembled their libretto from the Hindu holy book The Bhagavad-Gita (“Song of the Lord“), and the verses they culled from it pinpoint what Satyagraha is really about — self-mastery in the service of spiritual growth. Gandhi developed his non-violent passive resistance movement, satyagraha — it roughly translates as “truth force”, or even “the force of love” –during his work in South Africa, which Glass’ opera dramatizes in seven highly allusive and mysterious scenes. The composer cites his absorption in the Khatikali theatre of Kerala , South India, and the extended and abruptly short mosaic-like approaches in Brecht plays like Galileo, and ,of course, his with Robert Wilson, Einstein on the Beach (1975), as inspirations for Satyagraha though a “Western“ source, or point of reference, is Stravinsky’s from Sophocles via Danielou and Cocteau’s opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex (1926-27) though their aim, like the ancients, was to provoke pity through terror. Glass’ aim is entirely different. His music and its staging strive to educate the audience in the most non-didactic way to what Gandhi and his followers were all about. And he and his collaborators here do this through slowly evolving sonic and visual images which provoke, distance – the Brecht, Lehrstuck and Stravinsky neo-classic tactic – and enthrall. Much has been made of Glass’ supposedly “simple “ music, as if his “poverty of means” translated into poverty of effect, and affect, but nothing could be further from the truth. Of course he fashions each scene as a series of ground basses or chaconnes, but his imagination is in full flower here, even through this is his first orchestral piece since his Juilliard days (1958-1962). And it really does show how he’s bent his pit band of 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, strings 1 and 2, violas, cellos, and double basses, and a Kurzweil synthesizer, to his own deeply expressive ends.. Act 1’s opening scene, The Kuru Field of Justice, unfolded from its 2+3, 2+3, 2+3, 2+2… rhythmic structure, like a steadily opening flower, with Gandhi (tenor Richard Croft), in barrister suit and briefcase at the lip of center stage, being set upon – his valise rifled by the supers – as his solo’s joined by that of mythological figures Prince Arjuna, in blue face ( tenor Bradley Garvin ), and in Indian cap and white tunic pants Lord Krishna (bass Richard Bernstein), while warring parties, representing the internecine conflict of the Kuru clan, in Victorian and Indian dress, face off, and larger than life papier mache puppets, do battle. (Paragraph revised per Walter’s comment) The succeeding scene – Tolstoy Farm (1910) was just as imaginatively realized, as Gandhi, his wife Kasturbai (mezzo Maria Zicak), Gandhi’s German secretary Miss Schlesen (soprano Rachelle Durkin) , Mrs Naidoo (soprano Ellie Dehn); and Improbable’s co-workers built Gandhi’s ashram in miniature.A nd nowhere could Gandhi’s and Glass’simplicity of means be shown to more effect than in the long – 60 plus minutes, though 31 minutes in Christopher Keene’s CBS LP set – stretch of Act 3’s single scene, Newcastle March (1913) where the composer’s “limited means “ – roughly three themes / harmonies — seemed to burrow into the listeners’ psyches/hearts, until all was “released” at the final but not so final cadence/chord. Glass’ music has always trafficked in the down to earth and the mystical, and Satyagraha provides both as 2sides of the same coin. And it’s not for nothing that the third, and concluding scene of Act ii, Protesttextural, harmonic, and yes, melodic variety than all of Satyagraha combined The Met’s forces rose to its challenges as true “athletes of the spirit”, proving that it shares deep yet deeply contrasting familial resemblances to its other siblings in Glass’ portrait trilgy – Einstein, and Akhnaten (1983). And that his spectacularly moving 2005 opera of John Coetzee’s 1980 Waiting for the Barbarians – which Orange Mountain Music will release this June – continues even more difficult explorations of the human condition. ‘ A man lost in a cruel and stupid dream / But still I keep walking / Walking. “ Improbable’s production differed in many respects from the Bruce Ferden led – he’s sadly dead from AIDS in 1993 – version of the David Poutney/Robert Israel 1980 Netherlands Opera production which I caught twice – and once with Danny Cariaga – at the SF Opera in 1989. And its immersion in themes of social injustice – will they ever solved – continued in Glass’ SF Opera commission, Appomattox, which bowed here last November. What happened – and this went on in the mind, body, and dare we forget it – heart? – can only be sketched here. 2 Comments » The world has always been violent, hence the classical desire to restrain the beast within. But is this kind of art enough when the world seems to spin out of control more and more each day, with headlines soaked in blood, and anger and distrust every way you turn? Should art address disjunction/disconnection, or should it act like Bocaccio, who entertained his guests with stories while the plague raged outside his door? These are essential questions, and The San Francisco Ballet’s four- work Program 5, which I caught Saturday evening 15 March at the Opera House, seemed whether consciously or not, to be asking them. And all the music here was either modern or contemporary. Brit choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s Pas de Deux from After the Rain (2005), uses Arvo Part’s 1978 violin/ piano duo “Spiegel im Spiegel “, as its score, which was played here live by Roy Malan, and Bruce McGraw. Composed just after Part parted company with serialism, it’s not as interesting or as fresh as some of his 80’s and 90’s work which can be quite striking, and sometimes very affecting too. Sure, you can read it as meditative, or “spiritual”, but music that’s performed in the theatre had better have some dramatic juice, and Part’s piece didn’t. And Wheeldon’s dance for the alienated/struggling couple – Sarah Van Patten and Pierre-Francois Villanoba – made it sound like a kind of decorous décor. But the dancers brought lots of nuance to their parts which often depended on very slow lifts. Wheeldon’s Carousel (A Dance), which was first performed in Richard Rodgers’ centennial year–2002–at Lincoln Center, was an hommage to this wonderful composer. And while the choreographer studiously avoided using anything that smacked of Broadway, what he came up with was obvious – having the dancers move in a circle like a slowly gyrating carousel, or letting them become carousel horses with poles attached to an non-existent top – and trite. Recent revivals of Rodgers’ 1945 musical have apparently stayed closer to the dark tone of Ferenc Molnar’s play Lilom, which Hammerstein based his book on. But Wheeldon’s dance wasn’t the least bit dark, though Mark Stanley’s expert lighting was. The choreographer’s use of vernacular movement made it look contemporary, but in his heart of hearts he seems to be a let’s be a polite at all times classicist. Still, the 24 strong corps, who’d performed it six hours before, and soloists Dores Andre and Joan Boada, made it look almost effortless. A similar lack of connection to the musical material at hand undermined Helgi Tomasson’s 2008 dance – this was its premiere – to Rachmaninov’s 1934 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Why any choreographer would deliberately ignore this score’s variation structure is anybody’s guess, but this one defiantly did. Either the music inspires, or it doesn’t, and if it doesn’t what’s the point? Tomasson’s setting was so blandly unimaginative – ditto Martin Pakledinaz’s scenic and costume design – that I kept wishing I could see the orchestra, but my friend and I were parked on the ground floor. Music director Martin West and his band gave a serviceable and streamlined modern take on the score, with no string portamenti to give it extra expressivity. But piano soloist Roy Bogas, whose teacher Rosina Lhevinne exemplified the Russian romantic style, used rubato at several points to give it rhythmic variety, just as Rachmaninov did when he played this piece. Neither rhythmic variety nor textural subtlety figured in either music or dance in Wayne McGregor’s Eden/Eden, which the Stuttgart Ballet premiered in that city last year, and I think its point of origin says a lot about the final product. The Germans. after all, have never been big on giving their audiences unalloyed pleasure, but beating them up with “important “ messages, and this piece certainly tried to be important. Charles Balfour’s lighting made everything look deadly earnest, and McGregor’s choreography for nine, emphasized angularity, and a kind of physical dysfunction which had to be meaningful. Steve Reich’s aggressively monochromatic score sounded like the snare drum tattoos in Bolero on auto pilot. But what does one expect from a composer – what’s happened to this once vital artist? — who sits down with his wife and collaborator on this piece, vid artist Beryl Korot, to choose the most significant technological events of the 20th century, form THREE TALES (2002), of which this, Dolly, is the last? Dolly is of course the sheep cloned in 1997, and Reich and Korot’s talking heads, from MIT and Oxford – mercifully absent here – go on and on about this issue. The composer even dragged out a quote from Genesis – “ And G-d placed him in the garden of Eden, to keep it and to serve it, “ to give it mythical stature, and McGregor seemed to buy it. A white tree of the knowledge of good and evil descended from the flies, and some of the dancers came and went via a lift in the stage. McGregor and his game dancers produced some striking and even nightmarish images. But a piece that starts in the head, and stays there, can’t be anything but dead on arrival. Guest conductor Gary Sheldon and his musicians produced harsh, overly amplified, and badly mixed sounds, which assaulted the ear. Eden/Eden failed to say anything fresh, and will, I think, date quickly “like yesterday’s mashed potaotoes” in Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern’s song “ A Fine Romance.“ When you’re on you’re on, and when you’re not, you’re not. Comments Off on Where We Live Things happen when you pay attention. Resemblances line up, and disjunctions jar. These things certainly happened when I caught Word for Word’s theatricalization of James Baldwin’s Harlem-set story Sonny’s Blues, and Spain’s flamenco group Son De La Frontera on successive nights in San Francisco last weekend. Word for Word used every possible dramatic device, including fine actors, to make each syllable of the story come alive while the Spanish musicians produced a thoroughly non-verbal experience though there was lots of singing. The paradox was that both performances — even the wall to wall words of Sonny’s Blues — delivered language-free meanings, and that, whether we’re aware of it or not, art is always a fundamental emotional experience, even with words. And — it should get us where we live. Flamenco provides one of the rawest, purest, and most sophisticated musico-dramatic experiences on the planet. And the 6-member Son De La Frontera, presented by The Bay Area Flamenco Partnership at The Yerba Buena Center for The Arts Theater Saturday 1 March, are masters of this ancient form, which began in India with the gypsies who crossed North Africa, and settled in Spain’s Andalucia, where flamenco flourished in the intermingled soil of its Islamic, Jewish (Sephardic), and Christian cultures. Son De La Frontera delivered it clearly, honestly,and without regret. Virgil Thomson once declared that composers did everything but speak the language of the heart. But these Spaniards, who paid tribute to composer-guitarist Diego Del Gastor (1908-1973) here, certainly did. And their music, which comes from Del Gastor’s, made the divided chambers of the heart visceral, and incredibly real. The two-hour, no break concert began with a guitar solo, a martinete, by Gastor’s nephew, Juan Del Gastor. The martinete is a kind of not-in-any-set meter improv, and Del Gastor’s was ripe with subtle yet powerful touches and myriad colors, like a dream of Spain’s fairest flower. Things got obviously more intense when guitarists Raul Rodriguez and Paco De Amparo took the stage with singer Moi De Moron, and the compas, or rhythm section provided by him — handclapping on the palmas, or the sordas — and Manuel Flores, and Pepe Torres, who also danced. Rodriquez and De Amparo’s unisons and solos were a harmonic and coloristic anchor to the intricate polyrhythms of the other three musicians, especially the phenomenally fancy footwork, or taconero, by Torres, who had tons of that essential flamenco ingredient, duende, and whose turning, lurching, and jumping was powerfully controlled, the scarlet back of his black vest the only note of color in the show. Flamenco has a rich vocabulary of differently accented 12 count (beat) rhythms which form the basis of the buleria, the solea, which were stunningly played, sung and danced here. The group also gave knockout performances of the fiesta, cantina, sevillana, as well as the 4 count (beat) tanguillo, and tango. Flamenco is about all the basic passions of love, hate, abandonment, fear, despair, and revenge. It gets them down as no other art form can, and doesn’t make them pretty. But this brutal, in the best sense of the word, form lets them sing. And I was reminded of the late great Spanish mezzo Rocio Jurado, who sang on the soundtrack of Carlos Saura’s 1985 film of De Falla’s El Amor Brujo, when listening to Moi de Moron. You don’t have to know or even “hear” the words to feel whats he’s saying. It doesn’t get any better, or more real than this. Comments Off on I Left My (Spanish) Heart in San Francisco Dance is always about music, and music is, more often than not, about dance. But how does dance animate music, and music animate dance? This seemed to be the central question when I caught Program 1 of the San Francisco Ballet’s 75th anniversary season at the War Memorial Opera House February 9th. Classical ballet and modern dance sometimes plays against and even ignores the music’s rhythmic structure which would never happen in the deservedly popular Dancing With The Stars. But we rightly or wrongly cut the highbrow forms a bit more slack. Virgil Thomson’s music for SF Ballet’s founding choreographer Lew Christensen’s Filling Station (1938) brought these thoughts center stage. And though the composer has defined his score as a collection of waltzes, tangos, a fugue, a Big Apple, a hold up, a chase, and a funeral, one was barely aware of these disparate forms. Instead, what caught the ear and eye was the happy disjunction between these elements, not their literalness. But that’s odd when you consider how this ballet, to a story by Lincoln Kirstein, is routinely described as a pop piece. Well, maybe, but one which uses vernacular movement — way before the Judson Church crowd did it — in still fresh, even startling ways. The moves for James Sofranko’s filling station attendant Mac were exaggerated but somewhat naturalistic too. But the gestures Christensen devised for the other dancers, like the hilariously bombed Rich Girl Erin McNulty, tended to be more stylized, as Thomson’s music shifted gears — jubilant one moment, deadly serious the next — as in his viola-dominated tango for her, which didn’t make rational, but emotional sense. Thomson was always a subtle and sly composer, and his clever but utterly sincere moves were on full display here, and. Martin West’s orchestra made the music go on many levels. Thomson once told me that everybody’s after freshness and this score couldn’t have been more fresh, and perfectly modern because of that. Modernist choreographers have tried their hand at setting dances on Bach’s music, with Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco being one of the most famous. SF Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson, who’s sometimes been too much of a Balanchine acolyte, seemed to break free of the master in his 7 For Eight (200 ), to music from Bach keyboard concertos composed between 1729 and 1741, and the music’s mathematical lucidity and calmly ordered sequences seemed to make him go further and deeper than he usually does. Bach is regularly advertised as peerless and one certainly felt that here in Tomasson’s 7 sequences for 8 dancers which were as contained and deeply expressive as the music, with 3 duos alternating with 1 trio, 1 quartets, and 1 solo. Company star Joan Boada shone, but so did all the other dancers here who negotiated Tomasson’s from a classical vocabulary moves with both elegance and gravity. David Finn’s subtly modulated lighting scheme of mostly bluish greys and off blacks made the stage pictures both beautiful and highly suggestive ,which the costumes by Sandra Woodall — who dressed Kronos years ago — unobtrusively complemented The expert piano soloist here was Michael McGraw. Would that Balanchine’s 1967 mostly general dance, Diamonds, from Jewels, were as successful or interesting as the two dances which preceded it. Instead it came off as a kind of white on white version of Balanchine’s hommage to Sousa; The Stars and Stripes, with the stage almost always full of the 32 member corps executing endless formations and deformations with lots of chandelier-like port-a-bras, which though meant to look elegant ended up being cloying, with 4 of the 5 movements of Tchaikovksy’s 3rd Symphony serving as the score. Balanchine was as much as an entertainer as a high art guy–his long association with Stravinsky– but this just seemed like admirably danced fluff. Martin West’s pit band accompanied with effortless grace,well-judged tempos, and transparent ensemble throughout. And in none of the 3 pieces did he ever encourage his orchestra to push. This is a deservedly acclaimed company with a very fine orchestra. 5 Comments » Human behavior’s funny. The more we try to change the more we don’t seem able to. Are we cursed to repeat the same mistakes in our private lives — with lovers, friends — as well as in our public ones? Are we genetically condemned to disjunction, discord, and war, like Sisyphus trying to keep that enormous rock from crushing him each day? Philip Glass’ SF Opera commission, APPOMATTOX, which world premiered 5 October, and which I caught 16 October, seems to accept these things as givens. Its ostensible subject is Robert E. Lee’s surrender to U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on 9 April 1865, and its subsequent impact. But its central question seems to be how can we change history if we can’t even change ourselves? These are weighty questions, and Glass’ music addresses them with seriousness and point. The opening figure for double basses and wind mixtures is immediately affecting. Then Julia Dent Grant (soprano Rhoslyn Jones) emerges from a backlit alcove in Riccardo Hernandez’s umbrous metal set, her posture contained, “The spring campaign ___ In four short years I have grown to dread those words … ” She joins four other women — Mary Custis Lee (soprano Elza van den Heever), her daughter Julia Agnes (soprano Ji Young Yang), Mary Todd Lincoln (soprano Heidi Melton), and her black seamstress Elizabeth Keckley (mezzo Kendall Gladen) — in an almost Baroque lament on the sorrows of war — ” never before has so much blood been drained … Let this be the last time.. ” The women who stand behind their men and keep it all together are, of course, the unsung heroines of any war, and Glass’ immediate focus on them, signals this piece’s unwavering depth. Read the rest of this entry » 2 Comments » Americans like to sit on their hands. Even when they’re telling the truth you have to worry. Are you trying to take something from me, steal my identity, assault my assiduously guarded self-image? I may be feeling something, but you’ll have to read between the lines. God forbid I should tell you what and why, and if I do it will likely be too late. These curious thoughts came to mind when I caught Lebanese oud master-composer-singer Marcel Khalife and his ensemble for the second time — the first was at New York’s Town Hall in 2004 — at San Francisco’s Herbst Theater. Why? Because Khalife’s music goes straight to the heart, and never holds back, much less apologize for what it feels. Which isn’t to downplay its appeal to the mind. But its principal goal is to connect with the heart, and hearts and minds and bodies were certainly reached in this concert. Artists are people, after all, and wouldn’t you rather spend time with someone who can express than with someone who can’t? The American media likes to portray Arabs as unlettered savages, but that’s hardly the truth. Arabic music, after all, is one of the oldest, richest traditions on the planet, and Khalife has devoted his life to expanding and deepening these traditions. With about 80 maqamat, or scale /modes, this music is complex, sophisticated, and highly expressive. Khalife drew on these riches in his latest nearly hour long ensemble piece, Taqasim, where he was joined by his son, Bachar, on Arabic percussion, and guest bassist Mark Helias. Taqasim means improvisation, and this three-part piece is an instrumental evocation of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s work, which Khalife has set many times. It centers on the mid-lower range of the oud, and bass, with discreet, but colorful contributions from Arabic percussion like riqq ( tambourine ), and assorted drums. Lines coalesce and vanish, drones give way to unisons, the bass is sometimes played like a drum. The dream of Al-Andalus comes and goes. Another, perhaps pan-Arabic, dream also seemed to be conjured, in further largely Darwish settings, which Khalife sang on the second half of the program — the primeval My Mother, with its wonderfully built contributions from Khalife’s other son, Rami, on piano, and the very famous Passport, which had an even more brilliantly structured and stylistically varied solo from him. The nearly packed house was also big on audience participation — a Khalife concert specialty — and yet another indication that Arabs aren’t wont to sit on their hands. I Walk (lyric, Samih el-Qassim ), which is a kind of hymn of defiance and solidarity, got a call and response treatment from the balcony and main floor, while the closing O Fisherman, Haila, Haila ( lyrics by Khalife’s Al-Mayadine ensemble ), had a thick driving intensity from piano — hammered chords — Khalife pere, Helias, and Bachar Khalife’s Arabic bass drum. We in the West like to think that music is principally melody and harmony, though its wellspring has always been rhythm, which is something that Arabic music has never forgotten. Western musicians — and especially American ones — can learn lots from this music. And it isn’t afraid to communicate, and touch the heart, on the deepest possible level. Khalife is the first Arab to ever win the UNESCO Artist For Peace Award, and it’s easy to see why.His San Francisco stop is but one of many on his Taqasim Tour. Michael McDonagh is a San Francisco-based poet and writer on the arts, whose poems have appeared in several places, including Stanford’s Mantis 3: Poetry and Performance, which ran 3 of the 6 poems Lisa Scola Prosek set as the song cycle, Miniature Portraits. He has done two poem-picture books with SF-based painter Gary Bukovnik, and has wriitten 2 pieces for the theatre — Touch and Go,and Sight Unseen. McDonagh is a staff writer on the arts for the SF-based BAY AREA REPORTER. He is the sole writer for www.alexnorthmusic.com; and contributes to www.classical-music-review.org, www.21st-centurymusic.com; New Music Connoisseur; and www.sfcv.org. 4 Comments »

Searching this page will only find what you can see on the page. To search inside all obituaries, first they must all be visiable. This can be easily done by clicking on the small gray square just below the ABC in the upper right corner of the page. NEKG of Vermont does not own copyright to the information on this page. Each obituary on this page belongs to the originator. Obituaries are created by the deceased or relatives of the deceased with the help of funeral homes and are published with the intent of informing the public of its content. NEKG (NorthEast Kingdom Genealogy) of Vermont does own this particular collection, transcription and the presentation of these materials. You will need to log in as either Member or as Guest in order to view obituaries. Go back to the Obituaries Index page to get the guest login information. , 70, formerly of Montpelier, and more recently of Fla., died Nov. 30. Born in 1929 in Montpelier, he was the son of Henri and Irma LaBonte Garand. He served in the Army. He worked at Union Carbide/Eveready Battery. Survivors include his wife, Ruth Ann (Streeter) Garand; five sons, David, Richard, Steven, Peter an Thomas; one daughter, Linda Garand; three stepchildren; a brother; several grandchildren and step-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his first wife, Patricia Cook Garand, in 1983. , 71, formerly of Randolph and more recently of Weare, N.H., died Nov. 27. Born in 1928 in Randolph, he was the son of John and Regina (Poirer) Anderson. He graduated from Randolph High School. In 1956, he married Sonja Kraus, who died in 1975. In 1977, he married Marion Gross, who died in 1987. In 1992, he married Phyllis Menard. He had served in the Army during WWII and was a car salesman for John Alexander in So. Royalton and later a real estate salesman and operated Anderson's Mobile Home Park in Braintree. Survivors include his wife; five stepdaughters, Donna Goodrich, Terry Menard, Sandra Hillman, Marie Menard and Peggy Preve; three stepsons, Michael Menard, Gene Menard and Jack Menard; 15 step-grandchildren; three step-great-grandchildren. , 72, formerly of Montpelier, died Dec. 4. He was born in 1927 in Portland, Maine. He had lived in Montpelier and he retired as Administrator of Human Resources for Rock of Ages. He served in the Navy from 1045-46 and the Air Force from 1955-1963. Survivors include his wife, Mary A. Marsh; two daughters, Mary A. Arruda and Marcia L. Dunn; one step-daughter, Caradawn Mitulski; one son, Michael G. Marsh; three sisters; seven grandchildren; one great-grandchild. , 74, formerly of Barre, died Dec. 6. Born in 1923 in Barre, she was the daughter of John and Flora (Murphy) Averill. She grew up in Montpelier and graduated from Montpelier High School. Survivors include her husband, Charles Parker; three sons, James, Charles II and Martin; nine grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; three nephews. , 71, of Waterbury, died Dec. 9. Born in 1928 in Burlington, she was the daughter of Thomas and Blanche (Morse) McDevitt. She graduated from the former Waterbury High School and in 1968, married Merton Rathburn. She was employed as a teller at the former Bank of Waterbury and the Chittenden Bank in Montpelier. She later worked for the National Life Company, retiring in 1989. Survivors include her husband; two daughters, Tammy McGinn and Sandy Kallstrom; two sons, Marc Metayer and Barry Metayer; 13 grandchildren. , 91, of Northfield, died Dec. 12. Born in 1908 in West Rutland, she was the daughter of John and Josephine (Carlson) Gustafson, originally of Sweden. She graduated from the Jewish Maternity Hospital Training Program in New York City, specializing in obstetrics and pediatrics. In 1932, she married Eric Stromgren, who died in 1968. She was active in the Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Montpelier. Survivors include one son, Carl Eric Stromgren; a daughter, Martha Morris; three grandsons; many nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews. , 70, of Montpelier, died Dec. 11. Born in 1929 in Springfield, Mass., he was the son of Russell and Anna (Jones) Farnsworth. He graduated from Burlington High School and received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from the University of Vermont. In 1952, he married Doris Brown, who died in 1974. In 1975, he married Ester Havens Cook. He taught mathematics at Montpelier High School and served in the Army. He was a member of Christ Church (Episcopal). Survivors include his wife; a son, David; a daughter, Norma Farnsworth; two step-daughters, Sally Cook and Anne Adams; two step-sons, William Cook; one sister; nine grandchildren. , 69, of Randolph Center, died Dec. 11. Born in 1930 in Long Island, N.Y., she was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Mackovich. She was educated in New York schools. In 1950, she married William F. Dimmick, who died in 1986. She worked for many years at Eastern Airlines in Miami, Fla. She was a member of the Baptist Fellowship in Randolph. Survivors include her brother-in-law, Russell Dimmick and his family. , 70, of Berlin, died Dec. 9. Born in 1929 in Essex Fells, N.J., to Harold and Gladys Reindel. He graduated from Union College with a BA. In 1952, he married Helen Jean Miller. He was a software developer for Univac/Unisys, retiring in 1984. After retirement he started his second career, a ceramics studio/kiln. He was a member of St. Luke's Presbyterian Church in Minn., Paoli Presbyterian Church in PA and Bethany United Church of Christ in Montpelier. Survivors include his wife, Helen Jean; five sons, Bill, Tom, Karl, Harold and Andrew; 12 grandchildren; one great-grandchild. , 84, of Northfield, died Dec. 10. Born in 1915 in Roxbury, he was the son of Carlos and Grace (Henderson) Shaw. He was a handyman and mason in the Waitsfield area, provided elder care services and operated a chicken farm. Survivors include several nieces and nephews. , 85, of Northfield, died Dec. 7. He was born to Italian immigrants, Teresa and Gerardo in 1914 in East Providence, R.I. He moved to Northfield in 1996. He had operated Cute's Shoe Repair in East Providence, retiring in 1979. In 1935, he married Margaret Hutchinson, who died in 1988. He was a member of Haven Methodist Church in East. Providence. Survivors include two children, Nancy Grasso and Christina Riley; two sons, Gerry and Peter; four brothers. , 69, of So. Barre, died Dec. 4. Born in 1930 in Jackson Heights, N.Y., he was the son of Peter and Celia Pasotti. He graduated from Adelphi University and also the Masters and Ph.D programs at Columbia University in New York City with a doctorate in philosophy. In 1994, he married Susan Gillhouse McKnight. He was a statistician for the former Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, a professor of philosophy at Adelphi University and the New York University of New York City. He served in the Army Signal Corps and was affiliated with Barre Congregational Church. Survivors include his wife; a daughter, Daphne Bishop; two stepsons, Garrison Smith, Blake McKnight. , 98, of Barre, died Dec. 7. Born in 1901 in So. Paris, Maine, she was the son of Katherine Ellis and Rev. Thomas Jefferson Ramsdell. She spent her childhood in Maine and graduated from Northfield School for Girls. She also attended Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing in NYC. In 1930, she married Benjamin Naylor, who died in 1974. She was a member of Trinity United Methodist Church. Survivors include a sister, Ruth Elfstom; five children, Miriam Wilska, Robert Naylor, Ralph Naylor, Benjamin Naylor and Paula Naylor; 11 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren; many nieces and nephews. , 85, formerly of Hardwick, died Dec. 8. Born in 1914 in Hardwick, he was the son of John Mitchell and Florence Corolett. In 1950, he married Norma McCuin. He was employed by Eastern Magnesia Talc Mine and served in the Army Air Corps. Survivors include his wife; a son, John Jr.; two daughters, Kathy Smith and Margo Griggs; four grandchildren. , 88, of Barre, died Dec. 7. Born in 1911 in Montpelier, she was the daughter of Julian and Maria Luisa (Gomez) Cobo. She attended both Montpelier and Barre schools. In 1939, she married Neale MacKenzie, who died in 1981. She had worked in the medical office of Dr. Cornelius Granai and later at Central Vermont Hospital. She was a member of the Barre Congregational Church. Survivors include a daughter, Marcia Pauly; two sons, Allan and Steven; eight grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; one sister; cousins. , 79, of Randolph, died Dec. 4. Born in 1920 in Papa, Hungary, he was the son of Janos and Zofia (Nemet) Kardos. He was educated in Calvinist Gymnasium Piarista in Hungary and the Hungarian Military Academy in Budapest. He married Berta Frater. He served in the Hungarian Air Force during WWII. In 1956, he came to N.J. and in 1981, moved to Randolph and purchased the George Billingham's laundromat. Survivors include his wife; a son, Janos; a brother; three grandchildren; six great-grandchildren. , 72, of Berlin, died Dec. 4. Born in 1927 in Calais, he was the son of John Sr. and Gladys LaPan. He attended Calais schools. He married Margaret Demers, who died in 1991. He was a maintenance foreman at National Life Insurance Company in Montpelier and served in the Navy. Survivors include two sons, Gary and Timothy; three daughters, Donna Chapin, Darlene Chapin Badger and Ann Marie Chapin Preman; his mother; two brothers; 11 grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren. , 33, of Montpelier, died Dec. 2. Born in 1966 in Washington, D.C., he moved to Montpelier in 1976. He graduated from Lyndon Institute, earned his associates degree in Civil Engineering from Northeastern University and his licensure as a Professional Engineer. He was a structural engineer. In 1988, he married Laurie Mollitor. Survivors include his wife and son; two sisters; his mother Jean and his father, Ramon; aunts, uncles, cousins and extended family. , 73, formerly of Barre, died Nov. 22. Born in 1926 in Barre, he was the son of Morton and Alice Martin. He graduated from Spaulding High School. He served with the Army Air Corps, retiring after 25 years. Survivors include his wife, Willie Martin; two sons, David and Robert; one daughter, Cindy Wiggins; three sisters; several grandchildren; nieces and nephews. 71, formerly of Montpelier, died Dec. 14. Born in 1928 in Montpelier, he was the son of Edith Peck Stafford and Roland I. Stafford. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. He served with the Army with the 11th Airborne Division in Japan. IN 1948, he married Arlene Lewis. He graduated from Johnson State College with a bachelor's degree in education and began his teaching career at Colchester Junior High School and moved on to St. Albans Bellows Free Academy, retiring in 1993. He received numerous academic degrees including a Masters in Education from the University of Vermont, a Masters in Geology from the University of Oklahoma and extended course work at Columbia University in New York City. Survivors include his wife; three children, Joan Nye, Karla Kane and Scott Stafford; two granddaughters.

Native seed bomb (wrapped in wax paper and twine for delivery) Seed Bombs can be a lovely native-habitat activity for class parties. Or just class. I told the kids: “Regular bombs destroy the Earth, but native seed bombs can help save it.” At the very least, they can help save a child from coming home with yet more never-to-biodegrade Craft Foam party creations. Continue reading Do not try this at home. Or anywhere. We burned a bush in Third Grade today. As in, the Burning Bush. My goal was to make the Torah story more personal, memorable. Goal met. My goal was not to make the entire school wonder if the building was on fire, or to make our police office hunt me down, but that happened, too. I wrote about repurposing discarded Christmas trees as backyard wildlife cover—and with a Tu B’Shevat connection—at my nature site: Look Around. Should you care to read about the time I snuck a Christmas tree into Hebrew School, or about an easy way to dispose of stolen Christmas trees once spring springs, or my fantasy Burning Bush lesson plan, do take a look. Etrog half, peel and seed We are lucky if we have an etrog. We are obscenely lucky if we have 15 of them. After Sukkot my 2nd and 3rd graders got to explore leftover congregational etrogim in class: boxes and boxes of glorious, weird, bumpy, fragrant, delicious and gorgeous etrogim. Look at some of the neat things we are doing: Continue reading bee models for art, for honey, for disscussion My dream is to bring a hive of bees to school for a pre-Rosh Hashanah exploration. Or even better, to bring the kids to a hive, especially to a hive nestled near an organic garden. Until then, I have to make do with dead bees, honeycomb and honey in the art room. Continue reading Marker Mitzvah display at school program Here’s an easy mitzvah project I started with our 3rd graders, and it benefits the entire school. The mitzvah is B’al Tashcheet—”do not destroy”—and what we are trying to “not destroy” is the Earth: we’re saving oodles of markers from the landfill. Continue reading black oil sunflower seed, bamboo perch Upcycled water bottles as birdfeeders are not new, so why am I sharing this? Because this morning I sort of perfected them. My class of 2nd graders made a bunch and we had to be quick. So shall I: Continue reading arranging our pressed, fall leaves A giant, collaborative leaf-rubbing print for Tu B’Shevat. We tried this in Kindergarten last Sunday and it worked. Gorgeous. And, we still had time to make individual leaf-rubbing prints to take home. The 9-foot banner will hang at the school entrance to welcome students and visitors at Tu B’Shevat. Continue reading Lulav Chain garland Here’s a nifty way to re-purpose your now superfluous lulav after Sukkot: a Lulav Chain for next year’s sukkah. All-natural, thematic, respectful (to a ritual object) and genuinely pretty. No staples, no glue. I find it strangely soothing to assemble the links as fast as possible, but taken at a leisurely pace, even older kids can join in and help “re-cycle.” Continue reading shofar, so not In my shofar classes (Kindergarten—3rd) I mentioned why shofars are made from horns, not antlers. My K-3 explanation is that horns are hollow and antlers are solid. Horns Continue reading a blue Bluegill Fish is a symbol of the Jewish month of Adar, the month in which we 1) celebrate Purim and 2) freak out that Passover is so close. Why fish? From the astrological sign, Pisces. I’ve always thought it seemed a bit fishy that astrology gives us a kosher Jewish symbol, but Pisces is right there on the calendar. It’s legit. Continue reading “every almond used to be a pink blossom” I wouldn’t ordinarily write about a holiday project that’s been done (and done, and done), but I’m posting this to prove a point: that with just a smidge of “extra”—just a few props to provide context—even a quick, conventional activity can be more meaningful and memorable. Continue reading A Tree Products Display for Tu B’Shevat can be an easy, effective way to show All The Things That Trees Give Us.* The display in our school lobby is a magnet: grownups and kids can’t help but fiddle with the hanukkah gelt, glue sticks and pinecones and such. Creating a display can be as quick or as protracted an activity as you wish. You learn, the kid working with you learns, and whomever sees your collection learns. Continue reading fresh, Fall planting Havdalah is a lovely, quick, slightly spooky service that marks the distinction between the end of Shabbat and the beginning of the work week. Each Saturday night morphs from Sacred Time to Ordinary Time whether we mark it or not. But to mark it with Havdalah can be fun, memorable and oh-so-kid-friendly (especially in the winter when sundown happens earlier in relation to bedtimes). The traditional ceremony requires just a few Continue reading 10 year-old etrog pomander and a fresh one, awaiting puncture Sukkot’s over. Did you buy an etrog? Or did your school or synagogue buy one? If so, don’t pitch it on the compost pile. You and your kid can repurpose it into a nifty spice pomander for Havdalah. It’s a nice way to extend Sukkot (and the harvest’s bounty) to a Jewish service/ceremony that happens every single week. The spices of Havdalah—called besamim—are supposed to be natural materials that smell lovely enough to console us for the loss of Shabbat and to kickstart a good week ahead. A clove-studded etrog can Continue reading Mitzvah Project—The Tza’ar ba’aley Chayim Birdbath—a quick or slow nature project for home or school. So subtle, I had to add an arrow Until yesterday, my synagogue didn’t have a bird bath or any other water source for animals. I haven’t seen one in the 20 years I’ve been a member. Our courtyard is a perfect place for informal birdwatching: surrounded by classroom windows on two sides, and the Internet Cafe and school entrance on the third. I’m a Volunteer Tennessee Naturalist. I think about this sort of thing alot. It would have been so easy to buy and install a birdbath by myself in less than an hour, and bingo: water for wildlife. Or, I could make it a Mitzvah Project in a slow way, a participatory way, a way that makes for several active lesson plans, and that can foster a student’s sense of investment, stewardship, community and empowerment. Continue reading faith in a seed For Tu B’Shevat with my First Grade class, I wanted something hands-on, but not paper-based. Something thematic that links the Land of Israel with our own community, something the kids could make or do to gain a concrete reference point to a Jewish Spring holiday in the midst of a Nashville Winter. We’d already done nearly instant-gratification Tu B’Shevat gardening (eggshell garden), and I didn’t think they’d mind a project that required patience and uncertainty. Continue reading quick, easy and visible plant life-cycle activity Here’s a supplementary indoor gardening project for Tu B’Shevat. I swear by the Eat a Fruit, Plant the Seed project, and my version of the traditional Plant Tu B’Shevat Parsley for Passover project, of course. Both are hands-on and at the heart of the holiday. But, if you can program additional growy activities with your favorite kids, try this one, too. The nearly instant gratification is a contrast to the slow and iffy germination rates of parsley and fruit seeds. What: Kids grow a nearly-instant, indoor, mini “garden” in an eggshell. Why: to connect with Tu B’Shevat; to demonstrate the everyday miracle of seed germination; to grow food for us, for wildlife and for the earth. Continue reading Here’s a quick list of links to my earlier posts for Tu B’Shevat. New ones coming soon… pear seedlings from our snack Eat a Fruit, Plant the Seeds: So easy. Cut open a fruit with your kid. Eat it, plant the seed. Of course, I mention a few Jewish-y choices of trees, but the important take-away is that THIS is where trees come from. Can’t get more thematic. How (and Why) to Let Kids Plant Tu B’Shevat Parsley. Detailed how-tos here. I’ve a method that works without compromising hands-on learning or enthusiasm. Find out why the go-to Tu B’Shevat planting activity is not about planting trees. Continue reading through a Jewish lens InterFaithFamily.com published my article about converting your own backyard (or school or synagogue) into a certified wildlife habitat via a Jewish lens. My other kid-nature posts thus far haven’t been “Jewish” specifically, although we all know that everything is Jewish if you look through a Jewy “lens.” I put “lens” in quotes because I hear it ad nauseum. A useful term, although overused. I’m pasting the article below, but do go over to the link at InterfaithFamily.com so they know someone is reading it. My point is to show that the project is easy, fun, good for the earth, good for your family, and of course, gut fir di yidn:* Continue reading

Deuteronomy 34Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) 34 (vii) Moshe ascended from the plains of Mo’av to Mount N’vo, to the summit of Pisgah, across from Yericho. There Adonai showed him all the land — Gil‘ad as far as Dan, 2 all Naftali, the land of Efrayim and M’nasheh, the land of Y’hudah all the way to the sea beyond, 3 the Negev, and the ‘Aravah, including the valley where Yericho, the City of Date-Palms, as far away as Tzo‘ar. 4 Adonai said to him, “This is the land concerning which I swore to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over there.” 5 So Moshe, the servant of Adonai, died there in the land of Mo’av, as Adonai had said. 6 He was buried in the valley across from Beit-P‘or in the land of Mo’av, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. 7 Moshe was 120 years old when he died, with eyes undimmed and vigor undiminished. 8 The people of Isra’el mourned Moshe on the plains of Mo’av for thirty days; after this, the days of crying and mourning for Moshe ended. 9 Y’hoshua the son of Nun was full of the Spirit of wisdom, for Moshe had laid his hands on him, and the people of Isra’el heeded him and did what Adonai had ordered Moshe. 10 Since that time there has not arisen in Isra’el a prophet like Moshe, whom Adonai knew face to face. 11 What signs and wonders Adonai sent him to perform in the land of Egypt upon Pharaoh, all his servants and all his land! 12 What might was in his hand! What great terror he evoked before the eyes of all Isra’el! Haftarah V’zot HaBrachah: Y’hoshua (Joshua) 1:1–18 (A); 1:1–9 (S) B’rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah V’zot HaBrachah: Mattityahu (Matthew) 17:1–9; Mark 9:2–10; Luke 9:28–36; Y’hudah (Jude) 3–4, 8–10 Hazak, hazak, v’nit’chazek! Be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened!

Orthodox Rabbis Advocate Christian-Jewish Partnership JNS.org – A group of Orthodox Jewish rabbis is advocating for increased partnership between Christians and Jews. More than 25 Orthodox rabbis from Israel, the US and Europe released the statement titled “To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven: Toward a Partnership between Jews and Christians” on the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC) website. “The real importance of this Orthodox statement is that it calls for fraternal partnership between Jewish and Christian religious leaders, while also acknowledging the positive theological status of the Christian faith. Jews and Christians must be in the forefront of teaching basic moral values to the world,” said Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, CJCUC’s founder. The statement addresses the positive shift in Christian attitudes toward Jews, particularly after seeing a new Christian affirmation of the Jewish covenant following the Second Vatican Council and the Catholic Church’s publication of the Nostra Aetate declaration in 1965. “Both Jews and Christians have a common covenantal mission to perfect the world under the sovereignty of the Almighty, so that all humanity will call on His name and abominations will be removed from the earth. We understand the hesitation of both sides to affirm this truth and we call on our communities to overcome these fears in order to establish a relationship of trust and respect,” the new statement read.

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It has been reported that The Nanny is being adapted into a Broadway musical. The production is based on the 1990s American sitcom of the same name, which followed a fashionable Jewish wom... Kelli O'Hara, Alex Timbers & Taylor Mac to receive Special Honors at 2019 Drama League Awards The 2019 Drama League Awards ceremony will be held on Friday, May 17, 2019 at the Marriott Marquis Times Sqaure. The three recipients of the 2019 "Special Recognition" Awards to be honored at The 85th Annual Drama League Awards have now been announced. Tony Award winner Kelli O'Hara will be honored with the "Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater Award". Ms. O'Hara can currently be seen on the Broadway stage starring in the Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Kiss Me, Kate! at Studio 54. Ms. O'Hara is one of Broadway's most celebrated performers and won a Tony Award in 2015 for her performance as Anna Leonowens in the acclaimed Lincoln Center Theater revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic The King and I. She received her first Olivier Award nomination yesterday for reprising the role at the London Palladium last year. She has also received a further five Tony Award nominations - for The Bridges of Madison County (in 2014), Nice Work If You Can Get It (in 2012), South Pacific (in 2008), The Pajama Game (in 2006), and for The Light in the Piazza (in 2005). Her eariler Broadway credits include Dracula the Musical, Sweet Smell of Success, Follies, and Jekyll & Hyde. Kiss Me, Kate! Tickets are available now for performances through to June 2, 2019. Two-time Tony Award nominee Alex Timbers will be honored with the "Founders Award for Excellence in Directing". Mr. Timbers will soon be represented on the New York stage by the upcoming Broadway premieres of Beetlejuice and Moulin Rouge! The Musical. He earned a Tony Award nomination in the category of "Best Direction of a Play" in 2012 for Peter and the Starcatcher and earned a Tony nomination in 2011 in the category of "Best Book of a Musical" for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (which he also directed). His other Broadway directorial credits include Oh, Hello on Broadway, Rocky, and The Pee-wee Herman Show. Beetlejuice Tickets are available now for performances from March 28, 2019. Moulin Rouge! Tickets are available now for performances from June 28, 2019. Finally, receiving the "Unique Contribution to the Theater Award" is MacArthur Genius Grant-winning playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director and producer Taylor Mac, who is currently making his Broadway playwriting debut with Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus (starring three-time Tony Award winner Nathan Lane). Mac previously made his off-Broadway debut with Hir at Playwrights Horizons in 2015. He also conceived, wrote and starred in A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (a 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist), and has previously appeared on stage for the Public Theater in Good Person of Szechwan in 2013 and for Classic Stage Company in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2012. Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus Tickets are available now for performances through to August 4, 2019. The 2019 Drama League Awards ceremony will be held on Friday, May 17, 2019 at the Marriott Marquis Times Sqaure, with the nominees for the five competitive Drama League Awards (Outstanding Play, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and the coveted Distinguished Performance Award) to be announced on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at Sardi's. (Kelli O'Hara photo by Laura Marie Duncan / Alex Timbers and Taylor Mac photos courtesy of Richard Hillman Public Relations)

Five Jewish teens arrested over attack of Palestinian in Jerusalem Three of those arrested admitted taking part in the attack, in which 28-year-old Ibrahim Abu Ta'a's leg was broken with a steel rod, say they thought 'the Arab was exploiting a Jewish girl.' Jerusalem Police arrested on Saturday five Jewish teenagers suspected of attacking Ibrahim Abu-Ta'a, a young Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem on Thursday morning, in the city's Katamon neighborhood. Three of the suspects who were arrested earlier on Saturday admitted taking part in the attack, saying they did because they thought "the Arab was exploiting a Jewish girl." Currently, one of the two suspects is being taken to a remand hearing. The other two will be brought before a judge later on Saturday night or on Sunday. According to Jerusalem Police, more arrests are expected. Abu-Ta'a, a 28-year-old resident of Wadi Joz, who has been working in Jerusalem's Mamilla Hotel for some years, was wounded in the attack, and his leg was broken. On Wednesday he went out with some colleagues to a club in Talpiot. At the end of the evening he accompanied one of the workers to her home along with another colleague, as, according to him, she was inebriated. "She asked me for help, so we said we would help her," he said. Abu-Ta'a said that when they arrived at her home the woman was unable to stand, and they got out of the car to help her. On the other side of the road he said that there would three or four youths who looked between the ages of 18 and 22. Abu-Ta'a said that after the girl stumbled, the alleged attackers approached them and asked, "What is going on here?" "We told them everything was ok, and then she said 'Ibrahim leave them.' That's it. As soon as they heard my name they started to hit. The dirver tried to separate (us), but he did not manage to," he added. According to him, he fell to the ground, and at this point one of the attackers hit him in the leg with a steel rod. Abu Ta'a was later taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Jerusalem Police say that after that the attackers fled. Three weeks ago dozens of youths attacked three Arab youths in Zion Square in Jerusalem, as they shouted racist slogans. One of the three was seriously injured. Indictments were served against 9 of those involved in the incident. Like us on Facebook and get articles directly in your news feed

TALION, a concept of punishment whereby the prescribed penalty is identical with, or equivalent to, the offense. Identical (or "true") talions are death for homicide ("Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed": Gen. 9:6), wounding for wounding ("an eye for an eye": Ex. 21:23–25; Lev. 24:19–20), and doing to the false witness "as he had purposed to do unto his fellow" (Deut. 19:19). Equivalent talions conform to some feature characteristic of the offense, but not to its essence or degree: the hand that sinned shall be cut off (Deut. 25:12) – not a hand for a hand, but the hand for what it had done. In the case of the adulteress, it is that part of her body with which she is suspected of having sinned that will be visited with divine punishment if she is guilty (Num. 5:21 as interpreted in Sot. 8b–9a, and see *Adultery). (For further biblical equivalent punishments see Ex. 32:20; Judg. 1:7; II Sam. 4:12; II Kings 9:26; Dan. 6:25.) While most identical talions were abolished by talmudic law (see below), equivalent talions survived through talmudic times (cf. Sanh. 58b; Nid. 13b) into the Middle Ages (cf. Rosh, Resp. 17:8 and 18:17; Zikhron Yehudah no. 58; et al.), and traces can even be found in modern law (e.g., the confiscation, mostly as an additional punishment, of firearms, vehicles, or other objects by means of which an offense was committed, or of smuggled goods; or the suspension of trading or driving licenses for trading or driving offenses). True talionic punishments were undoubtedly practiced in biblical and post-biblical times. To retaliate measure for measure is God's own way of meting out justice (cf. Isa. 3:11; Jer. 17:10; 50:15; Ezek. 7:8; Obad. 15; et al.), and is defended by Philo as the only just method of punishment (Spec. 3:181–2). The account of the talion in Josephus (Ant. 4:280) supports the theory that, as in ancient Rome (Tabula 8:2), the victim had the choice of either accepting monetary compensation or insisting on talion (cf. Ex. 21:30 for an analogous case). Even in the talmudic discussion on the talion, one prominent dissenter consistently maintained that "an eye for an eye" meant the actual physical extraction of the offender's eye for that of the victim (BK 83b–84a). The majority, however, settled the law to the effect that talion for wounding was virtually abolished and replaced by the payment of damages (BK 8:1), primarily because the justice of the talion is more apparent than real: after all, one man's eye may be larger, smaller, sharper, or weaker than another's, and by taking one for the other, you take something equal in name only, but not in substance. Not only is the ratio of talion thus frustrated, but the biblical injunction that there should be one standard of law for all, would also be violated (Lev. 24:22). Also if a blind man takes another's eye, what kind of eye could be taken from him? or a cripple without legs who did injury to another's leg, what injury can be done to his? Nor can an eye or any other organ be extracted from a living man's body without causing further incidental injury, such as making him lose vast amounts of blood or even endangering his life; "and the Torah said, an eye for an eye, and not an eye and a soul for an eye" (BK 83b–84a). The very risk, unavoidable as it is, of exceeding the prescribed measure, is enough to render talion indefensible and impracticable (Saadiah Gaon, quoted by Ibn Ezra in his commentary on Ex. 21:24). The monetary compensation replacing talion was not wholly in the nature of civil damages, however, but had a distinctly punitive element. This is clear from the rule that the penalty for inflicting injuries not resulting in pecuniary damage was *flogging (Ket. 32b; Sanh. 85a; Mak. 9a). The only reason why flogging could not be administered where any damages were payable was that two sanctions could never be imposed for any one offense (Ket. 37a; Mak. 13b; et al.). While talionic practice was effectively outlawed, the talionic principle, as one of natural justice, was reaffirmed in the Talmud: the measure by which a man measures is the measure by which he will be measured (Sot. 1:7; Tosef. Sot. 3:1 as to punishments and 4:1 as to rewards). The famous precept of Hillel's, said to embody the whole of the Torah, that you should not do to another what you would not like to have done to you (Shab. 31a) is derived from the same principle. E. Goitein, Das Vergeltungsprincip im biblischen und talmudischen Strafrecht (1893); D.W. Amram, in: JQR, 2 (1911/12), 191–211; J. Horovitz, in: Festschrift…Hermann Cohen (1912), 609–58; J. Weismann, in: Festschrift…Adolf Wach (1913), 100–99; E. Merz, Die Blutrache bei den Israeliten (1916); S. Kaatz, in: Jeschurun, 13 (1926), 43–50 (Germ.); J. Norden, Auge um Auge, Zahn um Zahn (1916); J.K. Miklisanski, in: JBL, 66 (1947), 295–303; ET, 12 (1967), 693–5. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Elon, Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri (1988), 1:185, 331ff.; ibid, Jewish Law (1994), 1:207, 397ff.; M. Elon and B. Lifshitz, Mafte'aḥ ha-She'elot ve-ha-Teshuvot shel Ḥakhmei Sefarad u-Ẓefon Afrikah (legal digest) (1986), 2:322; B. Lifshitz and E. Shochetman, Mafte'aḥ ha-She'elot ve-ha-Teshuvot shel Ḥakhmei Ashkenaz, Ẓarefat ve-Italyah (legal digest) (1997), 223. [Haim Hermann Cohn] Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.

3. My hot new boyfriend Bobby went from chess dud to vamp stud. 4. No reflection! First order of business: turn my own stylist to stop the downward spiral from chic to eek. 5. Vampire vixen Mellisande has taken an interest in my boyfriend, and is now transforming the entire high school into her own personal vampire army. If anyone's going to start their own undead entourage it should be me. I guess I'll just have to save everyone from fashion disasters and other fates worse than death." Found this at the used bookstore. Sounds like it could be funny. Dead Is So Last Year by Marlene Perez Pub. date: May 09 "Something very strange starts happening in Nightshade the summer that the eldest Giordano sister, Rose, gets a job working at Dr. Franken's research laboratory. People are starting to see double. Doppelgängers of Nightshade residents are popping up all over town. Daisy, Rose and Poppy think it's a coincidence, until the rumors start that their father, who disappeared several years ago, has been spotted in town. Meanwhile, Daisy's beau, Ryan is spending all of his time training for football, and like the other guys on the team, he's grown enormous almost overnight. Samantha Devereux's boyfriend's neck has doubled in size since school ended. Could the football players be resorting to extreme measures to win? Between summer jobs, sugar rushes, and beach parties, the Giordano girls get to the bottom of these mysteries and more." Confessions of a Closet Catholic by Sarah Darer Littman Pub. date: February 05 "Justine Silver's best friend, Mary Catherine McAllister, has given up chocolate for Lent, but Justine doesn't think God wants her to make that kind of sacrifice. So she's decided to give up being Jewish instead. Eleven-year-old Justine pours her heart out to her teddy bear, "Father Ted," in a homemade closet confessional. But when Justine's beloved Bubbe suffers a stroke, Justine worries that her religious exploration is responsible. Worse, she must suddenly contemplate life without Bubbe. Ultimately, it's Bubbe's quiet understanding of Justine's search for identity that helps Justine to find faith in the most important place of all-within herself." Spent an hour and half in the car, then another hour in a Catholic bookstore, and this was all I found. Sounds like it might be good. I like the cover. :) Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan Pub date: September 04 "When Henry Atherton helps Mr. Fogarty clean up around his house, he expects to find a mess and a cranky old man; what he doesn't expect to find is Pyrgus Malvae, crown prince of the Faerie realm, who has escaped the treacherous Faeries of the Night by traveling to the human world through a portal powered by trapped lightning. An egomaniacal demon prince, greedy glue factory owners Brimstone and Chalkhill, and the nefarious Lord Hairstreak, leader of the Faeries of the Night, all dream of ruling the Faerie realm and are out to kill Pyrgus. Enlisting the help of his sister, Holly Blue, and his new friend, Henry, Pyrgus must get back to the Faerie world alive before one of his many enemies gets to him instead. But how many portals are open, and can Pyrgus find the right one before it falls into the wrong hands? Conjuring scenes filled with vivid color, unforgettable detail, and fearless characters, author Herbie Brennan brings readers to the Faerie world, where nothing is ever what it seems and no one can be trusted." I've been craving faerie books lately. I don't know why, I've never been particularly interested in them before, but recently I found myself needing a faerie book. So, I went online and searched my library system for faerie books (after searching them and asking about them on Shelfari), and this is one of the ones I found. Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith Pub. date: February 07 "CLASSIFIED ADS: RESTAURANTS SANGUINI'S: A VERY RARE RESTAURANT IS HIRING A CHEF DE CUISINE. DINNERS ONLY. APPLY IN PERSON BETWEEN 2:00 AND 4:00 PM. Quincie Morris has never felt more alone. Her parents are dead, and her hybrid-werewolf first love is threatening to embark on a rite of passage that will separate them forever. Then, as she and her uncle are about to unveil their hot vampire-themed restaurant, a brutal murder leaves them scrambling for a chef. Can Quincie transform their new hire into a culinary Dark Lord before opening night? Can he wow the crowd in his fake fangs, cheap cape, and red contact lenses — or is there more to this earnest face than meets the eye? As human and preternatural forces clash, a deadly love triangle forms, and the line between predator and prey begins to blur. Who’s playing whom? And how long can Quincie play along before she loses everything? TANTALIZE marks Cynthia Leitich Smith’s delicious debut as a preeminent author of dark fantasy." Saw this at the library and read the first few pages. Wasn't bad, so I decided to get it. That's all I got this week. Not a bad week, I'm gonna be busy for while. ^_^ SS is hosted by Rating Reads. To participate simply... Take your current read or recently finished book. Find at least one song that fits the story, characters, whatever. Post the book title and song(s) on your blog with a brief explanation of your picks. Don't forget to mention who started it. Songs:Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran and We've Got a Big Mess on Our Hands by The Academy Is... Why Hungry Like the Wolf? The werewolves of Nightshade played a bigger role in this one, and with werewolves comes an appetite for raw meat, hence the song. Why We've Got a Big Mess on Our Hands? The video for this actually fits the book pretty well. The citizens of Nightshade have a little problem with sugar crazed doppelgangers popping up, ruining the lives of the originals. Since the doppelgangers are evil, and one in particular causes the Giordano sisters some trouble, the lyrics fit too.

TEL AVIV (Jul. 24) There is a reasonable possibility that the tens of thousands of immigrants presently in transient camps in Israel may receive permanent housing by the end of this year, Berl Locker, chairman of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem, today told a Mapai meeting here. He disclosed that the Agency’s expenditures this year would total 52 million pounds ($156,000,000) and that a large deficit was expected. He added that 40 percent of the Jews now arriving come from the Middle East and North Africa.

More than 60 runners and walkers participated in the 2018 Hunger Hike 5K Run this past Saturday. The Hunger Hike 5K Run is open to runners of all ages and abilities who share a goal: Fighting Hunger with their Hearts & Soles! It was sunny and cool — a picture perfect day for a race. The Hunger Hike 5K Run 2018 followed the beautiful, paved Cattail Trail Loop through West Lafayette and the scenic Celery Bog Nature Area — giving runners and walkers an opportunity to support three local organizations while enjoying a professionally timed 5K event. Pictured above L to R: Joe Micon, LUM executive director; Sheila Klinker, Indiana State Representative; Assemgul Bissenbina, #1 Female; Kyle Morales, #3 Female; Colin Frier, #1 Youth; Phoebe (Colin’s dog); Aauba Aditye, #1 Male; Sarah Sellers, #2 Female; Lucy Edmundson, #3 Youth; and Kenny McCleary, #2 Male. Thanks to our donors – Awards Unlimited, Panera Bread – West Lafayette, and Pay Less Super Market – West Lafayette. Hunger Hike QUICK LINKS: Photos – Hunger Hike 5K Run; Photos – HH5K Run – Just the Runners On Saturday, September 17, local runners took part in the HH5K Run—the Race to Feed the Hungry—at Celery Bog Nature Area with start/finish on the Cattail Trail through the Celery Bog Nature Area. The rain cleared up just in time for the run, and it was a cool but cloudy morning — not a bad day for a race. The HH5K Run winners are as follows: 1st: Rob Burton 2nd: Courtney Seger 1st: Katie Micon 2nd: Lauren Harer 3rd: Sarah Carignan 1st: Nick Burton 2nd: Colin Williams 3rd: Robby Stewart These runners supported these outstanding local organizations while enjoying a 5K event on a scenic trail. Hunger is not an issue of charity. It is an issue of justice. ~ Jacques Diouf A hungry man can’t see right or wrong. He just sees food. ~ Pearl S. Buck 35 million people in the U.S. are hungry or don’t know where their next meal is coming from, and 13 million of them are children. If another country were doing this to our children, we’d be at war. ~ Jeff Bridges Food is our common ground. ~ James Beard A hundred years from now it will not matter what your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of clothes you wore, but the world may be much different because you were important in the life of a child. ~ Author Unknown A hungry man is not a free man. ~ Adlai E. Stevenson This is the first generation in all of recorded history that can do something about the scourge of poverty. We have the means to do it. We can banish hunger from the face of the earth. ~ Hubert Humphrey Food is national security. Food is economy. It is employment, energy, history. Food is everything. ~ José Andrés America is the richest country in the world. And yet tonight, thousands of your neighbors will go to bed hungry. It may be your child’s schoolmate who is undernourished and has difficulty learning on an empty stomach. Or it could be a co-worker, a working mother whose low-wage job doesn’t make ends meet. Perhaps it’s an elderly neighbor who has to make a decision whether to delay filling a prescription or buying groceries. The faces of hunger are as broad as the faces of America. ~ David Nasby, General Mills As we talk about those who are starving in countries abroad, we have indeed all of the elements of a third world nation within our own borders. ~ Rep. Floyd Flake Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. ~ Mother Teresa Close to a billion people – one-eighth of the world’s population – still live in hunger. Each year 2 million children die through malnutrition. This is happening at a time when doctors in Britain are warning of the spread of obesity. We are eating too much while others starve. ~ Jonathan Sacks, Jewish scholar Eating alone is a disappointment. But not eating matter more, is hollow and green, has thorns like a chain of fish hooks, trailing from the heart, clawing at your insides. Hunger feels like pincers, like the bite of crabs; it burns, burns, and has no fur. Let us sit down soon to eat with all those who haven’t eaten; let us spread great tablecloths, put salt in lakes of the world, set up planetary bakeries, tables with strawberries in snow, and a plate like the moon itself from which we can all eat. For now I ask no more than the justice of eating. ~ Pablo Neruda, Chilean Poet Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others. ~ Saint Augustine For now I ask no more than the justice of eating. ~ Pablo Neruda, Chilean Poet, Nobel Prize Winner God, to those who have hunger, give bread, and to us who have bread, give the hunger for justice. ~ Prayer from Latin America Growing numbers of corporate executives are aware of the inextricable link between the well being of our families and the well-being of our nation. Nowhere is this link manifest so strongly as with the problem of hunger. ~ Arnold Hiatt, Chair of the Stride Rite Foundation Hunger is actually the worst weapon of mass destruction. It claims millions of victims each year. ~ Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil Hunger is not a problem. It is an obscenity. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. ~ Anne Frank Hunger makes a thief of any man. ~ Pearl S. Buck I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for the minds and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. I hope someday we will be able to proclaim that we have banished hunger in the United States, and that we’ve been able to bring nutrition and health to the whole world. George McGovern I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look at the individual. I can love only one person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time. Just one, one, one. ~ Mother Teresa I went to bed hungry many nights as a child. It was a Dream that dressed me up when I was ragged, and it was a Dream that filled me up when I was hungry. Now it’s my Dream to see that no child in this world ever goes hungry, certainly not here in America, the most bountiful country in the world. We can do better…we must! ~ Dolly Parton If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. ~ John F. Kennedy If we can conquer space, we can conquer childhood hunger. ~ Buzz Aldrin If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. ~ Mother Teresa If you want to eliminate hunger, everybody has to be involved. ~ Bono In this country that grows more food than any other nation on this earth, it is unthinkable that any child should go hungry. ~ Sela Ward Investment in the eradication of hunger today is a good business decision. If we fail to make this investment, it is doubtful that we can sustain healthy economic growth. Without this investment, our nation may disintegrate into a country sharply divided between those who have enough to eat and those who do not. ~ Alan G. Hassenfeld, Chair & CEO of Hasbro, Inc. It is important for people to realize that we can make progress against world hunger, that world hunger is not hopeless. The worst enemy is apathy. ~ Reverend David Beckmann, president of Alliance to End Hunger It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them. ~ George Eliot Make us worthy, Lord, to serve those throughout the world who live and die in poverty or hunger. Give them, through our hands, this day their daily bread; and by our understanding love, give peace and joy. Amen. ~ Mother Teresa of Calcutta Most of our citizenry believes that hunger only affects people who are lazy or people who are just looking for a handout, people who don’t want to work, but, sadly, that is not true. Over one-third of our hungry people are innocent children who are members of households that simply cannot provide enough food or proper nutrition. And to think of the elderly suffering from malnutrition is just too hard for most of us. Unlike Third World nations, in our country the problem is not having too little – it is about not caring enough! Write your elected representatives and promote support for the hungry. ~ Erin Brokovich My motto in life is ‘If you think it, you can do it’ and if we all apply that thought we can end hunger the world over. ~ Dionne Warwick Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception. ~ George Orwell One in four kids in the U.S. faces hunger. ~ Jeff Bridges One of the greatest feelings in the world is knowing that we as individuals can make a difference. Ending hunger in America is a goal that is literally within our grasp. ~ Jeff Bridges Others have questioned if hunger exists in our country; I can tell you that hunger does exist in this country. For many adults and children, going to sleep hungry is not a threat; it’s a regular occurrence. And it must end. ~ Former USDA Secretary Mike Espy Pay attention to the hungry, both in this country and around the world. Pay attention to the poor. Pay attention to our responsibilities for world peace. We are our brother’s keeper… ~ George McGovern Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. ~ Jonathan Kozol Recent research shows that many children who do not have enough to eat wind up with diminished capacity to understand and learn. Children don’t have to be starving for this to happen. Even mild undernutrition – the kind most common among poor people in America – can do it. ~ Carl Sagan, Cornell University Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth. ~ Muhammad Ali Some people are born with very little; some are fortunate enough to have it all. When I grew up, we didn’t have much. I had to hustle to get what I wanted… but I had that hunger for more. I didn’t always make the right choices, but I learned from my mistakes. ~ Curtis Jackson The big majority of Americans, who are comparatively well-off, have developed an ability to have enclaves of people living in the greatest misery almost without noticing them. ~ Gunnar Myrdal The day that hunger is eradicated from the earth, there will be the greatest spiritual explosion the world has ever known. Humanity cannot imagine the joy that will burst into the world on the day of that great revolution. ~ Federico Garcia Lorca, Spanish poet and dramatist The fact is that there is enough food in the world for everyone. But tragically, much of the world’s food and land resources are tied up in producing beef and other livestock–food for the well off–while millions of children and adults suffer from malnutrition and starvation. ~ Dr.Walden Bello, 2003 Right Livelihood Award winner The first essential component of social justice is adequate food for all mankind. Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world. ~ Norman Borlaug, biologist and humanitarian The god of love lives in a state of need. It is a need. It is an urge. It is a homeostatic imbalance. Like hunger and thirst, it’s almost impossible to stamp out. ~ Plato The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread. ~ Mother Teresa The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer The victims of social injustice, since time eternal, have always been without the resources and the ability to fight back. They are defenseless and voiceless. Thee sad aspect of social injustice is that the defenseless and voiceless are the ones who most need a defense and a strong, vibrant voice. ~ Tommy Makem, Irish folk musician The war against hunger is truly mankind’s war of liberation. ~ John F. Kennedy There are genuinely sufficient resources in the world to ensure that no one, nowhere, at no time, should go hungry. ~ Ed Asner There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies. ~ Sir Winston Churchill There’s enough on this planet for everyone’s needs but not for everyone’s greed. ~ Mohandas Gandhi To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one’s responsibility as a free man. ~ Alan Paton Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity. ~ Albert Camus True evangelical faith, cannot lie dormant, it clothes the naked, it feeds the hungry, it comforts the sorrowful, it shelters the destitute, it serves those that harm it, it binds up that which is wounded, it has become all things to all creatures. ~ Menno Simons, Founder of the Mennonites Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way. ~ Les Brown We are a country that prides itself on power and wealth, yet there are millions of children who go hungry every day. It is our responsibility, not only as a nation, but also as individuals, to get involved. So, next time you pass someone on the street who is in need, remember how lucky you are, and don’t turn away. ~ Lesley Boone, actress and social activist We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist, one-third rich and two-thirds hungry. ~ Jimmy Carter We must act together, as a united people… For the birth of a new world. Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. ~ Patricia Young, World Food Day Coordinator When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, “Now is that political, or social?” He said, “I feed you.” Because the good news to a hungry person is bread. ~ Desmond Tutu When you are hungry, you can’t think about anything else. ~ Juana Janie Mendez, 17 When you sit in council, think not of yourselves not even of your generation. Think of those yet unborn, even unto the seventh generation, making all decisions with those generations in mind. ~ The Iroquois Confederacy cir. 1000 c.e. Working at the Food Bank with my kids is an eye-opener. The face of hunger isn’t the bum on the street drinking Sterno; it’s the working poor. They don’t look any different, they don’t behave any differently, they’re not really any less educated. They are incredibly less privileged, and that’s it. ~ Mario Batali Hunger Hike T-shirts have been designed and they are being manufactured this week. The Hunger Hike shirt is pictured above to the left; and the HH5K Run T-shirt, to the right. Hunger Hike participants who raise more than $50 will get a commemorative T-Shirt.* For 2015, the Hunger Hike team has gone with a bright color and a bold design. Hunger Hike Participants will get their shirts at check-in on Sunday, September 20th starting at noon. Runners registered in the HH5K Run will get their shirts at check-in on Saturday, September 19th starting at 8 a.m. Register today for both Hunger Hike and the HH5K Run to get both of the 2015 Hunger Hike T-shirts. Participate in Hunger Hike — work hard raising funds to Fight Hunger — run fast in the Race to Fight Hunger — and wear your shirts with pride! *T-shirts are available only while supplies and sizes last. Hunger Hike team does it’s best to have enough T-shirts on hand in a variety of sizes for all of our participants — but we may run out of certain sizes if you check-in late.

Dr. Feist is Board Certified by the American Board of Podiatric medicine. He is a native of Cincinnati's Westside, a 1983 graduate of LaSalle High School, a 1986 graduate of Miami University and a 1990 graduate of the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. He completed his surgical residency at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis, MN. Dr. Feist has been practicing in Bridgetown for over 20 years. "I grew up on Cincinnati's Westside and I enjoy living and working among friends, family, and neighbors." Dr. Feist finds it very satisfying to diagnose and treat a patient, returning them to pain-free activities. "Your foot health is always a a good indicator of your overall general health". Patients are often surprised to learn that foot pain is not normal and it can be treated and cured. Dr. Feist is on staff at the following hospitals: Jewish, Christ, Bethesda, Mercy Fairfield, and Mercy West. He is an attending teacher in the Jewish Hospital Surgical Residency program. "I enjoy teaching and learning with the residents. The interaction keeps me up to date on the latest procedures and techniques". Dr. Feist is married with four children, three boys and one girl. He is an active member of St. Ignatius Parish where he has coached basketball and baseball for several years and stays active playing basketball and softball. Dr. Feist's love of sports and activities has influenced his practice with special interest in sports medicine, surgery, exercise, and diabetes. "I like my office to have a warm, family and friendly feel where patients are comfortable to receive the best medical care". Dr. Feist's office is located in Bridgetown.

Myrrh essential oil benefits are well-studied, and are incredible examples of how a historical plant based medicine is relevant today. So, forget about the Christmas story for a minute, myrrh should be on everyone’s radar throughout the entire year! History of Myrrh Gifted to the baby Jesus and remembered each year at Christmas, many of us may not realize that myrrh is actually used every day around the world. While most of our essential oils and herbal remedies come from leaves and flowers, myrrh is much more exotic. It is the resin, similar to a sap, of an African and Middle Eastern tree, the Commiphora myrrha, that is used to distill the essential oil. We know that myrrh is of old thanks to the gifts of the Magi, but that’s not the only documentation. Ancient Egyptians, as part of their intricate mummification process, utilized myrrh in their rituals. We have record from Herodotus that describes myrrh’s use in approximately 450 B.C., though mummification was in practice for centuries prior. Myrrh has been historically used as medicine in China and as part of Jewish anointing oils, and is still used to this day. Myrrh essential oil is an incredible example of the way plant based medicines connect us with history. This tree has stood where ancient Egyptians and Hebrews walked, and still stands today, sharing its healing resin with yet another era. Not all healing is sweet and pleasant, though. Myrrh is named for the Arabic word for “bitter”: murr. Myrrh’s Therapeutic Properties Chemically, myrrh oil is comprised of terpenoids. Terpenoids have a reputation as potent healers, potentially because of their role in protecting the plant from oxidative stress. As we know, this kind of stress causes cell death, and it’s not exclusive to humans. After centuries of use in aromatic and medicinal forms, science is uncovering more and more of the healing properties of myrrh oil by the day. Some of the scientifically acknowledged properties include: - Wound healing These actions have been traditionally applied to skin infections, oral health, inflammation, intestinal health, and pain relief, all confirmed in some way by modern science. (1) The more research uncovers, the more we see stress in its various states as an underlying cause of so many illnesses and discomforts. It’s no wonder that a powerful antioxidant would carry such varied benefits. And powerful it is! Myrrh extract exhibited an antioxidant effect strong enough that it can protect the liver – the “detox” organ that is bombarded with toxins every day – from oxidative damage. Not only does myrrh utilize antioxidant properties to seek out free radicals and reverse oxidative damage, but it may be able to eliminate cancer cells, as well. Researchers in China recently published their findings on myrrh’s cancer fighting abilities, after in vitro lab tests demonstrated the inhibition of cancer cell growth. (2) As with most cancer research, the steps forward toward proven treatments are detailed and difficult, but the foundation is clearly there, and the potential is absolutely intriguing! 5 Benefits of Myrrh Essential Oil So how exactly does one utilize such a powerful, ancient, even holy substance? Honestly, however you’d like! The healing properties of myrrh oil have an increasingly well-studied background, and has been demonstrated as an effective remedy in more than one category. The myriad of myrrh essential oils benefits makes it one of my favorites. Microbes are all around us, in many shapes and forms both beneficial and deleterious. When we’re thinking in terms of pharmaceuticals and traditional medicines, there are treatments for bacterial infections, another treatment for fungal infections, and still others for viruses. Instead of treating individual problems, myrrh essential oil is beneficial against a variety of microbes. Natural antivirals, antifungals, and antibacterials exist, of course, with each substance carrying its own strengths and weaknesses. A strong antimicrobial, though, may have the ability to affect more than one category of microbes. Myrrh essential oil is one such antimicrobial substance and was even successfully tested against eleven strains of bacteria. (3) 2. Wound Healing With these antimicrobial effects in combination with pain and inflammation relief, myrrh is an excellent wound healer. In an interesting study evaluating postpartum women who delivered vaginally with an episiotomy, myrrh oil in a sitz bath or soap application was actually shown to help the perineum heal by warding off the identified bacteria Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis. The researchers concluded, “These findings indicate that postpartum aromatherapy for perineal care could be effective in healing the perineum.” If you plan to breastfeed, however, some indications are that myrrh may impact milk supply. (4) 3. Oral Health The mouth is a dirty place. We’re exposed to so much through our mouths, making it a hotbed of microbes and potential illness. When we do get sick, our mouths often notice first – sore throats, phlegm, and other discomforts settle in as one of the first signs of many illnesses. What’s more, diseases of the mouth and gums are all too common. According to a review conducted by Egyptian researchers, myrrh oil “is one of the most effective herbal medicines in the world for sore throats, canker sores and gingivitis.” (5) And when it is combined with frankincense essential oil, a special synergy occurs. According to a recent South African study, “Frankincense and myrrh have been used in combination since 1500 BC…When assayed in various combinations, the frankincense and myrrh oils displayed synergistic, additive and noninteractive properties, with no antagonism noted. When investigating different ratio combinations against Bacillus cereus, the most favourable combination was between B. papyrifera and C. myrrha.” (6) Utilize its antiseptic, antimicrobial, and wound healing effects by mixing a drop into your toothpaste when you brush your teeth each night. MORE ESSENTIAL OIL USES & RECIPES! For 150+ effective recipes & natural remedies, get a copy of my national bestselling book, The Healing Power of Essential Oils. Buy today to get instant access to $300 in digital bonuses (videos, guides & more) to help you learn how to use essential oils safely & effectively!HealingPowerOfEssentialOils.com 4. Antiparasitic Actions No one wants to think about parasite infestations, but what we really don’t want is to be caught with a parasite and unable to treat it. Egyptian scientists tackled this issue, as well, working with patience who had signs of parasites in their stool. Antiparasitic treatments are often harsh and come with intestinal discomfort. After testing a treatment utilizing myrrh essential oil, “no signs of toxicity or adverse reactions” were a problem and the treatment was successful. (7) This was against a specific parasite, of course, but the potential for improved treatment and even protection against infection exists! 5. Cancer Fighting Last, but certainly not least, the ability myrrh essential oil has in fighting cancer is becoming a popular topic in the industry. One of the most thorough studies on the topic was published in the journal Oncology Letters in 2013, and this is what they discovered about frankincense and myrrh oil: “The effects of the two essential oils, independently and as a mixture, on five tumor cell lines, MCF-7, HS-1, HepG2, HeLa and A549, were investigated using the MTT assay. The results indicated that the MCF-7 and HS-1 cell lines showed increased sensitivity to the myrrh and frankincense essential oils compared with the remaining cell lines. In addition, the anticancer effects of myrrh were markedly increased compared with those of frankincense, however, no significant synergistic effects were identified.” (8) Of course, no one is claiming that myrrh will cure cancer here, but as more research is conducted in this area, I hope to see more definitive recommendations on how to use it! Recommendation: For a truly Biblical combination, use frankincense and myrrh essential oils together for a synergistic blend of antimicrobial benefits!’ Notably, these two resins are generally prescribed simultaneously in traditional Chinese medicine. They are used primarily to treat blood stagnation and inflammatory diseases, as well as for the relief of swelling and pain, (8) Even though there were no synergism noted regarding cancer, “A previous study identified that the combination of frankincense and myrrh oils exhibited synergistic effects on harmful bacterial infections Cryptococcus neoformans and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.” (8)

We begin a new Sermon Series today entitled “Encounters.” It speaks of some of the major players in the Easter story, their face-to-face encounters with Jesus, and the implications of their experience for our lives today. This series is not being offered because the subject should be interesting for you. Rather, it is shared to give you the opportunity to experience for yourself a personal encounter with Jesus. It is hoped that in the context of their stories, in the margins and shadows of their lives, you’ll recognize glimpses and echoes of your life. We start with Mary. You remember her; she had a sister named Martha and a brother named Lazarus. I’m confident you’ve heard of them and remember their stories at least in part. Jesus, in a way, foretold the significance of Mary in the context of His life and His story in this way: “I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed” (Mark 14:9, NLT). Those words remind me of the title of Bonnie Raitt’s 1991 hit single, “Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About.” Mary gave those gathered that evening something to talk about, something that is still being talked about even today, almost 2,000 years later. We remember Mary not because of the extravagance of her gift, but because of her sacrifice. It reflected the purity and devotion of her character, even in the midst of the challenges she faced. Such is the reason her gift was so honored by Jesus’ words and remains endearing to those who hear it even now. Let’s take a look at her sacrifice, those challenges and their implications for us today. 1. Mary’s gift was offered at a risky time. “Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead” (John 12:1, NLT) The Passover at that time was a major festival, akin to the American observance of the 4th of July, in its marking of an event in their history when they realized an identity as a nation. During that celebration, within the city walls of Jerusalem, a resident population of 50, 000 grew to a throng of more than 250,000, all celebrating with the fervor of Jewish patriots. “When all the people heard of Jesus’ arrival, they flocked to see Him and also to see Lazarus, the man Jesus had raised from the dead. Then the leading priests decided to kill Lazarus, too, for it was because of him that many of the people had deserted them and believed in Jesus” (John 12:9-11, NLT). Let’s indulge ourselves in a flashback to Chapter 11 of John’s Gospel. Jesus heard of Lazarus’ illness through messengers, went to see him after a delay of several days, and was met by Martha and Mary. They both lashed out that if he had come sooner, their brother would not have died four days before. Jesus goes the tomb where they had laid Lazarus, instructed the men to roll away the stone, and called Lazarus to come out, resurrecting Lazarus from the dead with those word. Caiaphas, the High Priest, was the most powerful political figure within the city of Jerusalem. When he heard of what Jesus had done, he considered how Jesus’ actions were responsible for people abandoning the Jewish faith and following Him. Because of the religious and political ramifications, Caiaphas literally puts “a hit” out on Jesus, a price on his head. You can imagine something akin to “Wanted Posters” for Jesus on every corner, street sign, light pole, and Post Office in Jerusalem. It was three months later when Jesus arrives in Bethany, a virtual suburb of Jerusalem, for a meal at which He is the guest of honor. To put it mildly, it was a tense, risky time to be there! So, of what relevance is this dynamic of Mary’s story to us today? If we choose to do something for Jesus that people will talk about, there’s not a convenient time. We can’t wait until a convenient time to offer to teach a Sunday School class or to sing a solo in worship or serve the church in an official capacity. There absolutely is not a convenient time to step out for Jesus!! All of us takes risks – physically, emotionally, and spiritually – when we step out for Jesus and do, like Mary, what we feel God is leading us to do. For us, any time we choose to respond to such a calling upon our lives, we do so, in what it means to us, as nothing less than a risky time! 2. Mary’s gift was offered in a difficult place. “A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with him” (John 12:2, NLT). Imagine a low u-shaped table, a table low enough to the ground that the men, on the outside of the tables, lay on pillows on the floor. They would recline on their left elbow, grabbing their food with their right hand. In that position, their feet would be extended away from the table and they would be facing the person to their right. At the top of U would be the host and to his right, the honored guest. In the case of the meal Jesus attended, it was He sitting to the host’s right as the honored guest. Inside the U was the women’s space, not a place for reclining and enjoying the meal, but a place in which they were serving the men. Martha was busy serving on that side of the tables when, out of the corner of her eye, she catches a glimpse of Mary. There she was, in the “man zone,” stepping over the feet of men, approaching Jesus with a pint jar. Not only was she intruding in an area that was unacceptable for a woman to be, she was seen by Martha and all the invited guests pouring ointment on the feet of Jesus as she was poised in-between the feet of Jesus and the host. Who was the host? John’s Gospel gives us no indication, but Mark made his identity known in his telling of Mary’s story: “While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head” (Mark 14:3). While what she did with the oil (very expensive perfume) differs in the two accounts, tradition and commentators understand it to be the same incident related in today’s Gospel lesson. The relevance of this detail of Mary’s story to our lives today is that if we are to do something for Jesus, something that is extraordinary and worth others talking and gossiping about, it will take place not only at a risky time but also in a difficult place! I don’t know about you, but I would definitely consider kneeling between the feet of two men – between two pairs of feet that had never been covered or protected as they walked the dirt pathways of the day – to be unsavory at least. Considering that the feet of the host had once borne the open sores of leprosy would make it even less pleasant and more difficult! When do we ever find ourselves in a comfortable situation when we feel led to witness of our faith or confront others with the truth of Christ? It will always be at a risky time and in a difficult place. Tanner was an average High School Junior Varsity football player in Amarillo Texas. He had the simple personal goal of seeing every team member in his church on Sunday morning. He was never reluctant to invite his teammates on a regular basis to come to church with him, but his efforts never yielded the results he envisioned. An unfortunate season-ending back injury didn’t stop Tanner from being at every team practice and every game. Whether at practice or a game, he was seen on the sidelines, serving the team and cheering them on. The fact that he was always there never went unnoticed by his teammates. He was there and it gained a newfound respect of him from those teammates. Throughout the remainder of the season, his injuries never diminished his desire and tenacity in inviting his teammates to church. They began to respond. First there five who were there one Sunday morning. In the following weeks, their number grew to 10, then 15, 20, 30. The number of his teammates in church on any given Sunday grew to where half the team was present. This prompted his coach to ask if he could borrow the church van to pick them up and take them home. One day after practice, the coach pulled Tanner aside and congratulated him on getting half of the team in church. Tanner’s humble response was simply, “Coach, half was never my goal, I want the whole team to come to Christ!” In the months that followed, a new chapter was added to Tanner’s story. He and his parents began taking endless flights from their home in Amarillo to Houston. It was there that extensive treatments for cancer were a regular part of their lives – not for his dad or his mom, but for Tanner. On those countless flights, Tanner would always insist that his parents never sit beside him. Without them at his side, it gave him the opportunity to sit beside one, sometimes several, strangers. He insisted that those flights gave him the greatest joy because they gave him the opportunity to tell strangers about Jesus! His story and his example begs the question for us – what are you doing to tell others about Jesus? Likewise, Mary’s story and her example challenges us to ask of ourselves what we are doing at a risky time and in the difficult place in which we find ourselves in today’s world to tell others about Jesus? 3. Mary’s gift was a costly gift. “Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance” (John 12:3, NLT). Ladies, right now you are probably thinking to yourself, “Okay, at some level I can understand her use of an expensive perfume, but then to wipe it from His feet with her hair!!” What we know of that which she poured on the feet of Jesus was that it was made of pure nard. It was either in the form of an oil or ointment imported from the Himalayas in India. It was super expensive as described by Judas as “. . . worth a year’s wages” (John 12:5, NLT). Think about it – Mary was in the same room as her brother who, just a few months before, was dead and now he’s alive – what’s that worth? Others, including some of the disciples said of her gift, “that’s too much!” Can’t you imagine Mary thinking to herself, “that’s not enough!” What it is worth to you to be able to bring your kids and your grandkids to church where they can learn about Jesus in a friendly environment? What is it worth to sit in a variety of settings in the church on any given day of the week to fellowship with others as you talk freely about the blessings and challenges of life and the goodness of God? What is it worth to recognize that your church is making intentional efforts to reach the hurting and the lost with God’s love and envisioning new ways to do more in the future? Can you put a price tag on any of that? When you start counting your blessings, you should stop counting the cost! Think about that last sentence for a moment – when you start counting your blessings, you should stop counting the cost! Write that down! I’m of the opinion that that’s at least Twitter and Facebook worthy! Did you realize that her action that evening was not the only time Mary was at His feet? Several mentions of her sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to His teachings, are found in Scripture: “As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me” (Luke 10:38-40). Jesus answered Martha’s question with a firm but compassionate no: “There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42, NLT). Mary had a habit of sitting at the feet of Jesus and truly listening to His every word. Out of those experiences, she came to know and understand the reality of His impending death like no one else! She saw that meal as her last chance to properly honor Him and prepare Him for His funeral. If you are wanting to do something to honor Him, something that will advance the work of the Church, the work of His Kingdom, something worthy of others talking about, it will require a sacrifice, a giving of yourself that is nothing less than a costly gift! Becky and Kevin were High School Seniors. Gunner and Tammy were also, but with special needs. Out of their love of God, Becky and Kevin chose to befriend them and act as their hall buddies. As such, they would ensure that their disabled friends always made it to their classes on time, always had someone to eat lunch with, always had someone who cared about them. As the date for the Senior Prom approached, Becky and Kevin made a decision that would forever alter their memories of that special evening. Becky took the money that she had been saving for her Prom dress and purchased one for Tammy instead. In so doing, she knew that Gunner and Tammy would enjoy the experience of Senior Prom while she and Kevin would not. The conscious decision was theirs for their special needs friends to attend the Prom at their expense. On the night of the Prom, Gunner and Tammy joined Kevin and Becky for dinner at Becky’s house. Unlike so many others, Gunner and Tammy had no interest in going to the Prom in a limousine. Both loved the big green trolley used for public transportation. Kevin rented one for the evening and it appeared at Becky’s house at the appointed time. As they arrived at the school, Gunner and Tammy could be seen leaning out of the windows of that green trolley, grinning from ear to ear, waving frantically to the crowd. The trolley stopped at the red carpet where others had disembarked their limousines and walked the length of it to the cheers and applauds of parents and classmates gathered. As Gunner and Tammy walked the red carpet, everyone offered their loudest cheers and their greatest applauds of the evening for them. What does Becky and Kevin’s story say about sharing Jesus? Every kid in their High School, every parent there that evening knew Becky and Kevin. They knew that the young couple had literally sacrificed their own Senior Prom. They knew they did it out of their love for Gunner and Tammy and their love of Jesus who sacrificed His life for them! When you start counting your blessings, stop calculating the cost! 4. Mary’s gift was offered before a critical audience. “But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said, ‘That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.” (John 12:4-5, NLT). In Mark’s Gospel, the other disciples chimed in, putting Mary down. Martha didn’t defend her for Mary was on the wrong side of the table. Simon the Leper was likely miffed because she was now the center of attention at the head table, not him! Nobody appreciated or liked what she was doing except Jesus and that was enough for her! In doing something worthy of others talking about us at the mention of His name, we should be doing it because we are focused on His approval and no one else’s! One of the reasons Mary bestowed her lavish gift upon Jesus was because He had given her brother back. Isn’t the reality that He offers us the assurance of eternal life through his death and resurrection sufficient reason for us to offer lavish gifts and the sacrifice of ourselves to Him, to His church, and to His kingdom? Let’s take a step back and look at that conversation between Jesus and Martha at the occasion of the resurrection of Lazarus: “Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” (John 11:25-26, NLT). If you believe this, are willing to make a lavish sacrifice, a sacrifice of yourself, whatever that might looks like for you? If you do, are you willing to face the same four challenges that Mary did – a risky time, a difficult place, a costly gift, and a critical audience? If you feel in your heart the urge to do something for God that is worth others talking about at the mention of His name, it is likely an urge that is prompted by the Holy Spirit. Understand clearly that, regardless of how strong the urge, it will never be realized or fulfilled unless you are willing to take the risks! Our Take Away from Mary’s story and its implications for our lives today comes in the form of a question: What is the one thing you are willing to do so that when others are bragging about Jesus and what He’s done in their lives, they’ll also speak of you and what you’ve done?

The Jewish Museum seeks an extraordinary leader to oversee its Development division and diverse philanthropic initiatives. Reporting to the Museum’s Director, the successful candidate will play an integral role on the Museum’s senior leadership team and will bring a unique blend of energy, creativity and strategy to the task of expanding the Museum’s support base through fundraising. An enthusiastic collaborator and thought partner, the Chief Development Officer will lead a team of nineteen development professionals with expertise in major gifts, institutional giving, membership, special events, and development operations. The successful candidate will thrive in dynamic settings with dedicated stakeholders and Trustees and serve as an impassioned ambassador for the Museum and its growth. A desire to sustain and enhance the Museum’s active donors while cultivating new relationships will be critical. The Chief Development Officer will embrace the creative culture of the institution and enjoy collaborating with curators and programmers to advance support for the exhibitions and educational programs that are at its core. They will have a proven track record of closing significant gifts of six figures, working in close coordination with the Director and senior team. Professionalism, trustworthiness, honesty, and belief in the institution’s mission will be hallmarks of the Chief Development Officer’s success as an essential member of the Museum’s staff and key contributor to its financial future. The Museum’s artistic and educational programs have generated critical acclaim and excitement from the communities it serves. With its notable collection, acclaimed exhibitions, meaningful public programs, and talented staff, the Jewish Museum is poised to embark on a new chapter in its history. At a time when its mission as an identity-based organization is more important than ever, this is an exciting opportunity to help strengthen the institution and its impact. |Reports to:||Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director| - Develop and execute a strategic, comprehensive fundraising plan that ensures effective results and meets both annual and long-term financial goals - Successfully lead the development team in securing $13+ million in annual support, in addition to endowed and capital gifts - Take a central role in cultivating, soliciting and closing gifts, including identifying and stewarding prospective donors and new Trustees - Oversee efforts in securing financial resources which will support the Museums Strategic Plan and ambitious Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion Plan goals - Serve as the staff liaison to the Board Development Committee and Committee on Trustees - Represent the Museum at key donor and foundation meetings and events - Establish revenue plans and implement performance goals, objectives, and action plans; generate buy-in around a data-driven approach to goal-setting and benchmarking - Produce detailed reports on the Museum’s fundraising for the Director, executive team and Board - Supervise and mentor a department of nineteen full-time staff with five direct reports - Serve as part of the Director’s senior leadership team - A minimum of 10 years of proven fundraising experience, preferably in the non-profit, Museum or cultural sectors, with five or more years demonstrated success at the director level of a similarly-sized organization - Experience in the planning, implementing and managing comprehensive fundraising campaigns, including experience with capital campaigns - Demonstrated experience with multiple categories of giving such as major gifts, foundation and corporate support, planned giving, and special events - A demonstrated capacity to lead, manage and motivate a large team - Superior written and oral communication skills - Ability to attend evening and weekend events and to travel as needed - Proficiency in CRM systems, Salesforce preferred - A passion for and commitment to the Jewish Museum’s mission - Bachelor’s degree required. Advanced degree desirable - Fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) or World Health Organization (WHO) authorized vaccine (or approved for an exemption as a reasonable accommodation due to a qualified disability or sincerely held religious belief or other legal basis) Send Resume with Cover Letter To: Director, Human Resources The Jewish Museum 1109 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10128 The Jewish Museum is committed to diversifying its staff and encourages individuals of all ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds to apply for this position. The Museum is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic prohibited by applicable law. The Jewish Museum is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Brainteaser challenges puzzlers to find the beer glass hidden among the hops - but can YOU beat the 15 second record? - Alcohol-themed graphic challenges the internet to spot the hidden beer glass - Green graphic features hundreds of different hops to try and throw you off scent - Current record stands at an impressive 15 seconds - but can you do any better? A new alcohol-themed brainteaser has left even the most eagle-eyed of puzzlers stumped - so you better not have your beer goggles on! The tricky graphic, created by Simply Hops and the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), challenges the nation to spot the beer glass hidden among the hops. But with a black background featuring hundreds of intricately detailed green hops, it may be more difficult to solve than you think, so try not to get too distracted! The designers have revealed the current record stands at an impressive 15 seconds - but have you got what it takes to do any better? A tricky graphic, created by Simply Hops and the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), challenges the nation to spot the beer glass hidden among the hops (pictured) Following the closure of all pubs, bars and restaurants, the brainteaser has been created to celebrate the launch of new website BeerisHere - which aims to help save thousands of small independent breweries, taprooms, bottle shops and retailers across the UK and Europe affected by the pandemic. It comes after the Prime Minister announced on Friday all cafes, pubs, bars and restaurants must close as part of measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. Meanwhile, with more people now working from home and social distancing, SimplyHops is also encouraging people to join a virtual social hangout organised by their local breweries at 5pm every Friday. So, have you managed to find the sought-after object in the graphic? If you're struggling, you can find the answer below, circled in red. For those who give up, the answer can be found towards the left-hand side of the image, circled in red Another baffling new brainteaser, created by illustrator Gergely Dudás from Hungary, challenges the public to spot a hidden bumblebee among a field of flowers and cartoon animals. Since being shared on Facebook, the viral puzzle has seen many claim they've spent more than 30 seconds trying to find the well-hidden insect. But while hundreds struggle to solve the brainteaser, could you be the one to set a new record? Another brainteaser, created by illustrator Gergely Dudás from Hungary, is challenging the nation to spot a bee hiding among a field of flowers and animals (pictured) While some of us are wary of getting too close to bees in fear of being stung, trying to find the insect in this busy puzzle requires you to look very closely. If you're still struggling to spot the bumblebee, try looking at the flowers closest to the raccoon eating an apple. Gergely, who is perhaps best known as Dudolf, boasts over 152,000 likes on Facebook for his illustrations and quirky brainteasers. His latest hiding bee puzzle has already been shared almost 1,000 times on the social media platform. The insect can be spotted lurking on a flower towards the top left of the busy graphic (pictured) Another puzzle is challenging beady-eyed users to find the only holidaymaker reading a book in this vibrant beach scene. Bikini-clad women and men sporting swimming shorts are shown relaxing on their beach towels as they catch some rays. But in the puzzle, created by a US-based travel company Official-esta.com, just one figure is enjoying a holiday read. You have just 30 seconds to try and beat the puzzle so scroll down to give it a try before checking your answers at the bottom - but don't cheat! Scroll down for solution A tricky new puzzle by international firm Official-esta.com has challenged beady-eyed users to find the only holiday maker reading a book - but can you find it in thirty seconds? If you're still struggling to spot the person, we can give you a clue - it is a woman and she is sitting near and umbrella. Still can't find her? Look towards the bottom centre of the image and you'll find the person you're looking for. The puzzle follows the style of quiz made popular by Hungarian cartoonist Gergely Dudas, better known as Dudolf. Among the puzzle, created by an online visa assistance processing firm Official-esta.com, is a figure enjoying a holiday read - seen circled He recently shared a side-by-side pictures show animals enjoying ice cream in a park, but with seven subtle differences between the drawings. The original picture seen on the left shows two bears giving out ice cream from a stand, as a deer plays football with a bunny and a hedgehog enjoys a snack. Meanwhile two baby penguins play on a mat while a turtle sports sunglasses on his shell as the animals enjoy a sunny day out. Hungarian cartoonist Gergely Dudas previously shared a riddle to mark the end of the summer - but can you spot the seven differences between the right and left hand picture? The hand-drawn image even shows a few of the animals teasing the followers, holding up a sign which reads: 'Can you find seven differences?'. However in the right-hand picture seven subtle adjustments have been made, visible only to the eagle-eyed and revealed in the picture below. Dudas first became an online sensation after his deceptively difficult seek-and-find puzzle featuring a panda hidden among a group of snowmen swept the internet in December 2015. He now produces puzzles for most major holidays - and delights followers by posting random editions throughout the year. ANSWER: Seven subtle adjustments have been made, visible only to the eagle-eyed and revealed in the picture above Most watched News videos - Watch the moment David Maggs is arrested after killing wife - Undercover police pull man from car and arrest him after chase - Barry Cryer's son: 'Dad would rehearse material at the kitchen table' - Moment Jewish shop owners suffer 'anti-Semitic attack' - Police arrest soldier after missile factory Kalashnikov rampage - Chilling moment Artem Ryabchuk surrenders to armed police in Dnipro - 'I just killed the wife': Listen to David Maggs' haunting 999 call - Russian vehicles thought to be missile launchers on Crimea road - Rees-Mogg to Labour: 'All they care about is cake and animals' - Boris Johnson to Keir Starmer: You're a lawyer, not a leader - Veteran performer and comedy writer Barry Cryer dies aged 86 - CCTV shows Ukrainian soldier kill five in rampage at missile factory

- FinAid.org’s list of LGBTQ Scholarhips - Financial Aid for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students - HRC’s LGBTQ Student Scholarship Database - Database of LGBT scholarships. - Point Foundation: The National LGBTQ Scholarship Fund - Includes and provides scholarship and leadership opportunities for undergraduate/graduate students. - Pride Foundation - Offers over 50 different types of scholarships, but students only need to complete one application. Most scholarships are available for ally or questioning students as well. All funds promote leadership and diversity in the LGBT community. Career Development Resources The Center for Career Development Career Resources pages lists a wide range of scholarship and career resources for students of all backgrounds! Clubs & Organizations at Manhattanville Manhattanville College students celebrate diversity with their peers through their involvement inside and outside of the classroom. Below are a few of our current clubs/organizations and campus committees that provide cultural connections, personal support, and opportunities to expand on leadership skills. Curious to learn more about our offerings and connect with someone? Visit The ‘Ville using this link to get connected today. A few of our campus club & committee offerings: - Asian American Student Association (AASA) - Black Student Union (BSU) - Capoeira Sagrado Caração - Caribbean and African Student Association (CSA) - Cross Roads - Daughters for Life - Hillel International — The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life to Manhattanville Hillel - Latin American Student Organization (LASO) - Latin Fusion — Dance Team - Manhattanville Valiants Access Club (MVAC) - Muslim Student Association (MSA) - Royalty Steppers StepTeam - Council for Diversity & Equity (CODE) - International Bazaar Planning Committee - Manhattanville Interfaith Student Council - TintaExtinta Spanish Literary Magazine - + more! Interested in starting a new club or want more information on how to join? Email the Center for Student Involvement & Leadership (CSIL) at email@example.com, Connect with CSIL on The ‘Ville!

You are here The Urban Outfitters Holocaust Shirt Either Urban Outfitters doesn’t have an adequate PR budget or their attempt at “edginess” needs some retooling, because they are in the news again for putting out yet another ethnically offensive t-shirt. This newest affront is a yellow t-shirt with what looks like a six-pointed Jewish star sewn on the chest pocket. As one report puts it, it has “unfortunate overtones of the yellow badge Jewish people were forced to wear under the Nazi regime.” Consequently, Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League have voiced their outrage. Urban clearly hasn’t learned from the recent St. Patrick’s Day debacle when it sold t-shirts with the slogans like “Irish I Was Drunk” and “Kiss Me, I’m Drunk, or Irish, or Whatever.” Nor has the lawsuit filed earlier this year by the Navajo Nation tribe alleging trademark infringement over, among other things, underwear and flasks with the word “Navajo” on it resulted in more cautious behavior. The shirt’s designer has put out a statement saying that they were, in fact, aware of what the final “patchwork” resembled on a prototype and therefore removed it completely from the shirts that actually shipped. But at least they're spreading the offence around - perhaps come the fall collections, they'll find the time to upset Mexicans, Asians and African-Americans.

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