Nama Frenkel http://www.jta.org/user/profile/43429 en-us zsilberman@washingtonjewishweek.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I think Charles Jackson overreacted at best. This group wasn't elitist, they were just trying to learn about and experience first hand something that is all too distant from our grocery store shopping experience. It's a fairly common business principle that before you attempt to affect a system that you must actually look at it clearly in every single step. These people are among a small group who can actually say they know what they are eating. I think it's admirable! We all know we have to consume less, waste less and recyle more. When are we going to start doing that? After the planet is uninhabitable? How long are we going to be happy to have a "servant class" who is in touch with all the workings of our lives and just hope that someone somewhere figures it all out so we can go on in dreamland? Talmudic reality included eating meat, for most people, three times a year at holiday times when they could afford to kill a cow. Keeping Americans in red meat has huge consequences and we all know it, we just don't want to look. As a person who actually grew up in a rural setting, I can picture all those steps and I'd like to align my life with those realities. In fact, most people who have the average American yard could have chickens and learn to kill and clean them themselves. Maybe if we did that we'd satisfy ourselves with slow food and respect the food we eat more. If we persist, as Orthodox Jews in being "city people" we will get what we deserve. The problem with that is that we won't be a light to anyone, just more darkness. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 It's amazing that the JTA would report such banality about the intermarriage question just because someone wrote a novel. This issue was discussed by Meir Kahane some 30 odd years ago and by about 2 million researchers ever since. Remind him of his mother? How about the intense materialism that is constantly reported? How about ethnic self hatred? How about men who are spiritual and don't like JAPs? How about the evidence that Jewish women intermarry just as readily as Jewish men nowadays even though it was once, a long time ago, not true? She says she's not an expert and that's surely clear. but if she hasn't anything to say, why interview her? It's not her fault that you report such triviality! 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 The behavior of the Pro-Gaza demonstrators speaks volumes about why Israel must fight back. The supporters of Gaza, like the so called government of Gaza believes in violent solutions to problems. The government of Gaza does not negotiate, it throws Qassams. The Muslim community in France should hang it's head in shame that it's young people see leaders like this. There is only one course of action when a country like Israel, so small with such concentrated population centers, is faced with violent enemies. They understand violence! When they start understanding dialogue then we can do that. But until then, we have to respond in kind! 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Limmud rocks! check out www.allforthekids.com for other cool volunteer opportunities in India, now they really need our help 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 tell that little dirt bag to find a nice bed right underneath those weapons of mass destruction that they moved out of Iraq with his help, tell him to get into it with a nice young whore where he can have unclean thoughts but do nothing because he could never get it up anyway! 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 great, encouragement from the village idiot! let him release Jonathan Pollard and then we'll talk otherwise let him shut his smirking face! 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 hey what's he teaching in Yiddish? curse words or Torah? or both? 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I think it's reasonable to expect every male Jewish leader to drop his pants in the bathroom before he gets any covod. I mean, hey, they did it in Greece in the opposite direction, right? hasn't anyone seen this guy in the gym? 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Maurice, I felt the way you do when I first saw the Times coverage the story. However, the financial irregularies at the company predate the PETA arrest. As you VERY well know there ARE Orthodox Jews who are thieves and predators. If Rubashkin is one of them, I say put him away and take away his business. We don't need kosher meat produced under these conditions. The Kosher meat business has always been plagued with corruption because there is so much money involved in a captive market. I learned this from Rav Nachman Bullman, ZTZL, who was publicly threatened in front of his shul in South Fallsburgh. I know the man who owned the butcher in Far Rockaway who was selling traife meat for years. Rabbi Shlomo Twerski, ZTZL, has many colorful stories to tell about shochtim and their exploits but the best of all happend in public. A schochet had two wives, one in each city he visited. They both showed up in Denver at Zera Avraham in the two different women's sections on the two different sides of the shul. Duvie Heller tells this story well. They were yelling at each other over the heads of the men. Not a great guy. Rabbi Twerski quit his job at Zera Avraham over this. They got so disgusted with the behavior of the schochtim that they "assured" Rabbi Twerski's meat. He left the shul over that issue and founded TRI Sulom in the lower part of his split level a block away from the shul on the West Side of Denver. Arnold, you should take an English class. If they say that Rubashkin has suspended production and they MAY resume, that means something has happened and we don't know what might happen. What do you expect them to do, check out their crystal ball? You should look in yours to learn how to read and write in English! Nama 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00