Anti-Semitism in Tel-Aviv too!

From Arutz7 - IsraelNN.com Tel Aviv Synagogue Targeted by Vandals 10:33 Oct 28, '05 / 25 Tishrei 5766

(IsraelNN.com) The Geulat Yisrael Synagogue near Tel Aviv’s Shenkin Street was vandalized on Tuesday night. When worshippers arrived on Wednesday morning, they were horrified to see the damage, tefillin (phylacteries) strewn on the ground aside holy books, furniture damaged and destroyed and the sanctuary covered in dust and ashes. Menashe, a Holocaust survivor broke out in tears when realizing the tefillin that accompanied him through the war years were now gone, the daily Hamodia reports. Synagogue sexton Eldad Sagi commented that if such an attack took place in the Diaspora, the world would be up in arms over the blatant anti-Semitism, but since it took place in Israel, no one seems to care.

More horrific signs that Anti-Semitism is now politically correct

This from Ynetnews.com

Anti-Semitic poem in U.K. schoolbook

The poem states 'I am Adolf Hitler' and it recounts a historical fact, something Young Writers and Forward Press say they will not censor. Jewish leaders are protesting poem’s inclusion in book they said could be influential on youngsters' views of Jewish people
Jeremy Last, EJPress

A poem that praises the murder of Jews by the Nazis has been included in a book of children’s poetry to be distributed to schools in the U.K.

The publication, entitled "Great Minds," features the work of schoolchildren aged 11-18 who won a nationwide literary competition.

But one poem has generated outrage amongst Jewish groups, politicians and Holocaust charities for its anti-Semitic content.

The entry by the 14-year-old Gideon Taylor is apparently written from the viewpoint of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

It includes the lines "Jews are here, Jews are there, Jews are almost everywhere, filling up the darkest places, evil looks upon their faces."

Another part reads: "Make them take many paces for being one of the worst races, on their way to a gas chamber, where they will sleep in their manger I'll be happy Jews have died."

Publisher defends poem

The book was produced by Forward Press, which ran the Great Minds competition through its youngwriters.co.uk website.

Wining entries were rewarded with cash prizes of up to GBP 20 for pupils and GBP 1,000 for schools.

According to the Jewish Telegraph newspaper, the poem was the only entry in the entire book not to include the writer’s school or location.

Young Writers editor Steve Twelvetree, who also edited the book, said the poem was included as it illustrated how the writer was able to empathize with the infamous Nazi Fuehrer.

Twelvetree told the Telegraph: "From Gideon's poem and my knowledge of the National Curriculum Key Stage 3 his poem shows a good use of technical writing and he has written his poem from the perspective of Adolf Hitler.”

The editor continued: "Key Stage 3 history requires pupils to show knowledge and understanding of events and places - to show historical interpretation and to explain significance of events, people and places, all of which World War II and the Holocaust is part of.

"The poem clearly states 'I am Adolf Hitler' and it recounts a historical fact, something Young Writers and Forward Press are not willing to censor."

Widespread outrage

However, communal leaders were less than impressed with the poem’s inclusion in a book they said could be influential on youngsters' views of Jewish people.

Chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews Jon Benjamin said: "It is the duty of the publisher to consider the consequences of the poem."

Jewish Labor MP Louise Ellman, who represents the constituency of Liverpool Riverside, spoke of her concern.

She said: "It's an incitement to racial hatred. The words are absolutely outrageous and appalling."

And a spokesman for the Holocaust Educational Trust echoed Ellman’s views. The charity is now urging the publishers to issue a formal apology for the book and remove the offending poem.

A spokesman said: "It is totally insensitive and inappropriate for this kind of hatred to appear. It is also immensely insulting to those who lost their lives in the Holocaust and to those who survived."

Reprinted by permission of European Jewish Press

(10.27.05, 12:00)

Talkbacks for this article.

1. hypocrites
Michael , Austin, TX USA (10.27.05)

and I just read today that some british banks will stop using "piggy" banks for fear of "offending" moslems.

It seems that they're very selective about what is offensive.

More indicators of a good economic year ahead!

More evidence to support the interpretation of 5766 from the passuk below:

From Ledavid.com

The Mekubal who predicted the tsunami said that 5766 will be a good year to Israel economically speaking, and a new economical source will open for Israel, and the source won't be from the US.

Rav Batsri has also said that this year will be a good one economicaly:

In his class that the Rav gave for his students, the Mekubal stated that "The earthquake on Erev Rosh Hashanah is a sign that the coming year, 5766, will be a rainy year, snowy and blessed. A year where the economic situation will improve."

Rav Batsri, who is defined today as one of the biggest Mekubalim quoted Kabbalah books, according to which when there is an earth quake Erev Rosh Hashanah, the result is a rainy blessed year. "According to the writings of the Ariza"l, that lived 400 years ago, we're talking about a clear sign", said the Mekubal Rav.


Secular economists are predicting a bad econimic year for America, and they say this will effect Israel. I guess that they don't listen to our true leaders who say that a new economic source will open up.

The plight of the people of the "border towns"

Talmud - Sanhedrin: "In the generation in which Ben David comes . . . people from the border towns will go from place to place and no-one will listen to them. . ." The plight of the evictees continues! This from Arutz7 www.israelnn.com Landau: Likud to Debate Plight of Gush Katif Evictees 10:13 Oct 20, '05 / 17 Tishrei 5766 By Naomi Grossman

Landau has called for the Likud Party to debate the issue in two weeks’ time at the opening of the Knesset’s winter session. Two months after the expulsion, the former residents of Elei Sinai still have not found a communal housing solution for their community. At the moment, they are currently living in a tent camp at the Yad Mordechai junction, and Wednesday’s heavy rain caught them totally unprepared. The spokesperson for the evictees, Sarita Maoz, told Kol Yisrael that they wrote to the prime minister eight days previously, asking for an urgent meeting. While the situation is being handled by what Mrs. Maoz referred to as “clerks,” no progress is being made, necessitating the prime minister’s involvement. “Until now, we have not received any reply,” stated Mrs. Maoz. Meanwhile, expellees from the communities of Bedollach, Morag and Kfar Yam, who had been living at the Shirat Hayam Hotel in Ashkelon, were evicted from the hotel the day before the festival of Sukkos. Since then, they have been living in “makeshift” accommodation and are receiving meals from the soup kitchens in Sderot. For its part, the disengagement authority has asserted that the evictees have refused all suggested solutions, making negotiations impossible. MK Landau stated that it is important to note that the evictees who were thrown out of the hotel in Ashkelon are from Morag and Bedollach, communities whose residents had in fact signed agreements with the authority to move to caravillas and had even been prepared to leave their homes before the disengagement. The disengagement authority therefore should have prepared the caravillas for them even before August 19th, when the expulsion took place. Instead, “they sent them to a hotel in the Dead Sea area and the Shirat Hayam Hotel in Ashkelon, which didn’t solve any of their problems,” noted Mr. Landau. “They even threw some of them into a hotel in Tiberias for a few days.” Landau added that he personally visited the Shirat Hayam Hotel two weeks ago. “There was a social welfare officer there, working for the disengagement authority, who couldn’t supply any answers. You could see that if she had wanted to reply, she would have given a searing condemnation of the authority. But she obviously couldn’t do that, being a member of the authority herself.” Apart from the camp at Yad Mordechai, Landau, who is running for the leadership of the Likud Party, toured Nitzan and the “city of faith” adjacent to Netivot. During the tour, Landau called for an appropriate solution for the housing plight of the evictees from Gush Katif and northern Samaria, as well as an urgent party debate on the issue in time for the opening of the Knesset winter session. Landau stated that he believes that this is not a political problem but rather a social one. “There was a disengagement, and there are now ten thousand people here who need to be taken care of,” he said. He added that it was time to demand a more humane response from the Prime Minister’s Office, and that he hoped that the issue would also stir the members of the Knesset and the general public. “Let’s put the politics to one side and just help the evictees,” stated Landau

See also this report.

The Passuk for 5766

Our Sages teach us that the Pesukim (verses) in the Torah teach us about the
corresponding year in Jewish history.

For example the Passuk for the year 5698 (1938 C.E.) - תרצ"ח is the 5698th
Passuk in the Torah. (29,26 דברים - Deut 29,26) "Hashem was angered and
brought upon you all the curses that are written here"

The Passuk for 5766 comes from Haazinu דברים פרק לב,יד Deut 32,14
חֶמְאַת בָּקָר וַחֲלֵב צֹאן, עִם-חֵלֶב כָּרִים וְאֵילִים
בְּנֵי-בָשָׁן וְעַתּוּדִים, עִם-חֵלֶב, כִּלְיוֹת חִטָּה;
וְדַם-עֵנָב, תִּשְׁתֶּה-חָמֶר.

Chazal teach us that this refers to times when making parnasah will be much
easier to enable us to devote more time to Torah and Mitzvot

Rav Simcha Wasserman on The Power of Torah

In Bereishit (1,6) it says "Yehi rakiah betoch hamayim" - "Let there be a firmament in the waters".  Rashi says that the rakiah is exactly in the center between the lower waters and the upper waters.  Ramban says that what Rashi is saying here is one of the most hidden statements of the Torah, and even those who know should not explain it.

 

Why did Rashi write this if it is so deep it could not be understood?

 

Hashem is Tov UMeitiv, He is good and He gives goodness:  'He is good' refers to the fact that He gives us food.  'He gives goodness' refers to the fact that the food tastes good and we enjoy it.  Enjoyment is not the function of the food, nourishment is.

 

It is the same with Torah.  When we learn Torah it is nourishing, much more powerfully and deeply that we know.  Just like food nourishes the body even though we are unaware of it.  When we learn Torah, that which we understand is like the taste which brings us a feeling of enjoyment.

 

There are times when certain foods are too hard to chew, so it is put in a pill like vitamins.  So one swallows it without chewing it or tasting it. so one gets the nutritional benefits without 'enjoying' it.

 

When Rashi put together all the elements we need in learning Torah, there are parts which he knew we could not understand.  When the Ramban talks about that part in Bereishit which we cannot understand, he is saying "It is a vitamin pill.  take it, you need it, you will get what you need, but don't try understand it"

 

Based on "Reb Simcha Speaks" by Yaakov Branfman and Akiva Tatz