Rocky http://www.jta.org/user/profile/67100 en-us zsilberman@washingtonjewishweek.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I'd like to think that these Jewish Republicans (or former Republicans) are backing gay marriage because they oppose discrimination. But maybe they have come to realize that a government that denies rights to gays today can take easily take them away from rich Jewish hedge fund traders tomorrow. Just in case you are not up on your Nazi history, non-aryans (Jews) were not permitted to serve in the German armed forces as of July, 1935. Marriage between aryans and Jews was forbidden under the Nuremberg Laws of September, 1935. Those laws also stripped German Jews of their citizenship. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Will you be updating the list in October, 2010? 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Adam Bronfman is married to a non-Jewish woman and they have 4 children. Mrs. Bronfman never converted. Can the holy rollers in Israel afford to alienate American Jews such as Adam Bronfman? 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 The list should have included the Jim Joseph Foundation. It is larger than most of the entries on the list and it definitely supports Jewish programs. What about the Bernard Osher Foundation and the Koret Foundation? Why were they left off? Someone is guilty of sloppy journalism. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 She might have mentioned the fact that the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year. That giant sucking sound you hear next year will be the discretionary income moving from Jewish doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants and investment bankers to Washington. The Medicare taxes scheduled to go into effect in 2013 will be another hit on Jewish income. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I hope they like the health care bill as much when the tax increases start kicking in. Add in the expected reduction or elimination of the Bush tax cuts starting in 2011 and the tax increases that are likely to be part of any resolution of the Social Security funding problem and it's enough to make a Jewish trust fund baby cry into his latte, unless his trust fund was already wiped out by Madoff. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 "Prostrate" should read "prostate". Here is some good eating advice from Jewish author Michael Pollan's book "In Defense of Food: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." From a review of his book: "By which Pollan means: Eat natural food, the kind your grandmother served (and not because she was so wise, but because the food industry had not yet learned that the big money was in processing, not harvesting). Use meat sparingly. Eat your greens, the leafier and more varied the better." Even if you have excellent health insurance, it is no fund spending time in a hospital. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Jewish deli, for the most part, is not very healthy food, even if it is certified kosher. I suspect that it contributes to obesity, heart attacks, prostrate cancer and all sorts of other undesirable outcomes. Save Jewish lives, not Jewish delis. Eat healthy! 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 During the 1930's and early 1940's, the major American film studios wouldn't touch Nazi persecution of the Jews. "Casablanca", released in 1943 by Jewish owned Warner Brothers, made no references to Jews, although undoubtedly the most desperate refugees in those days were Jewish. "Mrs. Miniver", released by Warner Brothers in 1942, had no problem including Anglican church services in the film, but none of the characters played Jewish parts. I guess Hollywood did not want to look too Jewish in those days and until the end of 1941, there was the German market for American films to think about. Germany was among the largest foreign markets for US films even before WWII. When the public stops buying tickets to see Holocaust -themed movies, the film studios will stop producing them. I recently finished reading "Four Girls from Berlin" by Marianne Meyerhoff. One of the "girls" is Meryerhoff's mother, a passenger on the ill-fated St. Louis who is sent back to Europe but is able to escape her detention in Holland. She eventually makes it to the US. If the book is turned into a movie, I will go see it, or at least rent the DVD. Then there is the story of Daniel Mendelsohn's great uncle Shmuel who was unsuccessful in leaving Poland and perished with the rest of his immediate family in the Holocaust. Maybe that story ("The Lost") has the makings of a good movie as well. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 To Will: If the beef suppliers were lying on such a massive scale, I think they would have been found out by now. In the meantime, I will continue to rely on the ingredients listed on the labels. Perhaps one day, the rabbis certifying kosher food products will exclude from certification food products which have harmful chemicals in them, such as sodium nitrate and MSG. Then the kosher designation will be more relevant to me. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 When it comes to swordfish, I have to side with the Orthodox rabbis even though I would consider myself culturally Jewish, but not religious. Swordfish has high levels of mercury, so that's a good reason to stay away from it. There are plenty of other fish to eat that healthier for you, such as cold water caught salmon (not farm raised salmon). Just because a product is marked kosher, does not mean it is good for you. Hebrew National hot dogs may answer to a higher authority, as the advertising slogan goes, but they have sodium nitrate in them, another unhealthy additive. I don't purchase pork products at the supermarket, but when I buy beef products, I look for beef that comes from cattle which have been grass fed and have not been given growth hormones or antibiotics. I don't worry about whether the beef is kosher, only that it is healthy. If you are an older person and you want to give yourself a really good case of indigestion, stuff yourself with I call Polish holiday food (kishke, creplach, blintzes etc). Kosher? Yes. Healthy? No. If you are having major indigestion problems, get tested for celiac disease. That matzah you enjoy during the passover season (made from wheat flour and water) may be slowly killing you. People with celiac disease should not be eating food products containing wheat, barley or rye. Instead of worrying about whether a food product is kosher according to a rabbi's label, worry about whether it is healthy for you to eat. May you live to 120. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Whatever happened to the commandment "Thou shalt not steal"? I can't quote Talmud or the medieval writings of the rabbis. I suppose I am just a heathen Reformed Jew whose religious education stopped at age 13. I used to contribute to Orthodox charities years ago, Maybe when the Orthodox start practicing Hillel's golden rule, I will have more respect for them. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 The Jewish population in the UK has been on the decline since the 1950's, from 450,000 in 1957 according to my Encylopedia Judaica 1959 edition to about 280,000 in 2008 ( http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00478/table_478352a.jpg ) The Muslim population in the UK has been growing rapidly in the same period and is now estimated at 2.4 million. In 2004, it was estimated at under 1.9 million ( http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5621482.ece ) The most popular baby boy's name in many European cities is now Mohamed. Draw your own conclusions. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 For those of you who don't remember the New Square, NY scandal, read here to refresh your memory: http://www.beth-elsa.org/be_s0427.htm The rabbis in that scandal had their prison sentences cut short thanks to outgoing president Bill Clinton. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Such racist, anti-German comments! Interestingly, Chabad has 14 branches in Germany but none within the City of Detroit. Germany has had one of the the fastest growing Jewish populations of any country in the world since 1989. If you visit Munich, the home of BMW, you will find a Chabad center in the city. If visit Detroit, the home of GM you will have to travel to the suburb of Southfield to find a Chabad center. Not even Chabad is brave enough to open a center in Detroit. The nearest synagogue to downtown Detroit is actually in Windsor, Canada. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I never realized there was so much hatred among Jews until I started reading this board. Many of you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Even a gay rabbi deserves a little happiness. And in case you didn't know, the actor who played Motel the tailor in "Fiddler on the Roof", Leonard Frey, was also gay. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I guess Mr. Lieberman didn't read the JTA article "U.S. urging Israel to change Gaza policy" (6/18/09) yet. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Since 9/11, the US military has dismissed some 60 gay Arabic trained linguists. For a country waging a two front war in the Middle East, it is the height of folly. One can only guess as to the number of intelligence messages that weren't translated on a timely basis or weren't translated at all because of the military's policies. The military has been chronically short of translators since the war started. Don't ask, don't tell, don't volunteer, don't contribute. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 May your daughters all marry closeted homosexual Yeshiva scholars. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Unfortunately, the web site does not cover Jewish communities that became part of the Soviet Union in 1939 and are now part of the Ukraine. If your family came from the Lemberg area ( Lwow in Polish, Lviv in Ukrainian, also known as Lvov between the wars), you can explore your roots in a museum catalog called "Treasures of Jewish Galicia", published by the Nahum Goldman Museum of the Diaspora, Tel Aviv in 1996. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Peter, read the Justice Department's recent response to a Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) lawsuit: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16355867/Obamas-Motion-to-Dismiss-Marriage-case It certainly does not inspire hope or unity to millions of Americans. America is paying a very high price for mixing religion and politics: over $100 billion a year to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but no money for national health insurance. Blessed are the children, for they shall inherit the national debt. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Three Jewish homes for the aged I have visited in recent years had no apparent security in place at the entrances. No one even asked for a picture ID. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 The growth of anti-semitism in Canada probably has more to do with the rapid growth of the Muslim population there in recent decades, particularly since 9/11. Toronto now has the highest concentration of Muslims of any major city in North America (5%, according to torontomuslims.com). Toronto has the dubious distinction of being the founding city of Israel Apartheid Week on its college campuses. Toronto also has a thriving community Jewish community, which has more than doubled in size in the past half century. Canada's move towards multi-culturalism some 40 years ago made it possible for the country to have its first Jewish Governor-General (the Queen's representative in Canada) and its first Jewish supreme court justice. Currently, three Jewish justices sit on the Supreme Court. But the move also dropped immigration barriers to newcomers from third world countries. In 1938, when Canada's Muslim population was estimated at only 700, Toronto's Jewish community was already prosperous enough to open a new synagogue in one of the city's most affluent suburban areas. Currently, Muslims outnumber Jews in the Toronto area by at least 2:1. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Canada has come a long way from those shameful days during the Nazi era. You can read more about Canada's response to the Europe Jews of Europe in "None Is Too Many" by Irving Abella (husband of Supreme Court of Canada Justice Rosalie Abella, whom I have mentioned in prior postings). 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Ron said: "Such comparisons are, of course, facile: the Bush and Obama campaigns were bereft both of the racism and violence that fueled the Nazi rise; hatred was the killer, and propaganda was its abettor." Your gaydar is not very good, or perhaps you forgot that President Bush called for the passage of a Federal Marriage Amendment in his 2004 State of the Union Address, a few months before the election. Fortunately, the FMA, America's answer to the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, did not pass. But over two dozen such initiatives HAVE passed at the state level. After that 2004 speech, I dreamt that I had been sent to a detention camp on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. Five years later, General Motors is bankrupt, the State of California is almost insolvent and the US Treasury Secretary is practically begging the Chinese to keep buying our bonds so that the US$ does not collapse. We might be further along the road to fascism than most of us care to admit. Even the word "homeland", as in Homeland Security, has a Gestapo ring to it. The German for homeland is "heimatland". 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 After WWII, Julius Streicher, the publisher of the anti-semitic newspaper "Der Sturmer". was hung as a war criminal. The judgment against him in the Nuremberg War Crime Trials read in part: "Julius Streicher was not a member of the military and did not take part in planning the Holocaust, or the invasion of other nations. Yet his pivotal role in inciting the extermination of Jews was significant enough, in the prosecutors' judgment, to include him in the indictment of Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal – which sat, ironically, in Nuremberg, where Streicher had once been an unchallenged authority." (from Wikipedia). It is bad enough to read the many inflammatory anti-gay comments on the Internet posted on mainstream web sites. It is much worse to read them on a Jewish Internet site. With only a few changes, the anti-gay comments would be quite at home in the most vicious Nazi propaganda. The Federal Marriage Amendment reminded me of the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which the Nazis put into effect for the protection of German blood and German honor. It banned Jewish-Aryan mixed marriages. 67 years after the Wannsee Conference, gay Jewish couples and individuals actually have more civil rights in the land of the Third Reich than in the Arsenal of Democracy. For those of you who are afraid that gay couples could demand their right to be married by an Orthodox rabbi, don't flatter yourselves. Why would anyone be want to be married by someone who does not share their aspirations in life? 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 The US has a long way to go before it can get past its focus on gender and ethnicity. Prior to 1965, every US Supreme Court justice had been a white male. Equal protection under the law remains an illusive goal in this country, judging by the recent Aguda article on same sex marriage and the comments that followed. Even in California, the State Supreme Court yesterday affirmed the right of the people to write discrimination into the California constitution (Proposition 8). It is doubtful that the current US Supreme Court will overturn Proposition 8, but I hope I am wrong. I don't know whether Judge Sotomayor will do as much for equal protection under the law in the US, as Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella has done in Canada, but right now I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Both started from rather humble beginnings. One grew up in a Bronx public housing project, the other was born in a displaced persons camp in post war Germany. Her brother was murdered in Treblinka at age 2-1/2. I think both know a thing or two about discrimination. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 "The Jewish population of South Africa has dropped to an estimated 75,000 today from about 120,000 in 1970. Jews left early on because of apartheid, but now they are leaving largely because of crime." From the Jewish Daily Forward of 2/6/08 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I wonder who writes the textbooks used in Israeli-Arab schools. If they come from Saudi Arabia, it is not a surprise. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 J Street seems pretty reasonable to me. I actually checked their web site and read their positions. Quite frankly, I think AIPAC did the Jewish community a great disservice by strongly encouraging the war in Iraq. It has turned out to be very expensive for taxpayers, hurt thousands of American families, has lasted far longer than originally advertised and has hurt the US's standing in the world. I recently read that AIPAC contributed about $20 million dollars to various US election campaigns from 1990-2004. I guess they got their money's worth. Quite frankly, I did not think that Congress could be bought so cheaply. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 During WWII, the New York Times relegated stories about the Holocaust to its back pages because it did not want to look "too Jewish". Perhaps Facebook is following the same type of business model. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 The Southern California Board of Rabbis recently elected its first female president and she happens to be a lesbian. The days of "sacred texts for men, picture books for women" are mercifully coming to a close. I hope that one day Michael Tilson Thomas' biography on the Internet makes mention of his partner of three decades, Joshua Robison. Anyone who has Googled him knows that he is the grandson of Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, stars of the Yiddish Theater in the early part of the 20th century. You can read about the concert to honour his grandparents here: http://www.mttmusic.net/thomashefsky/media.pdf 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Will says "In Truth homosexual behavior destroys society." And I always thought that it was the Nazis that killed my distant relatives in Galicia. I guess I am fortunate that some of my older family members decided to come to the New World to make a better life for their families almost a hundred years ago. If they had listened to the Rabbis and stayed in the Old Country, both of my parents' families would have perished in the death camps of Eastern Europe along with 6 million other Jews. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Will, there are over 1,000 laws and regulations in which gay individuals and gay couples do not enjoy equality under Federal law vs. straight individuals and married couples from filing joint tax returns to qualifying for benefits based on a deceased partner's Social Security earnings. What the Rabbis choose to believe from a religious standpoint is their business, but we don't live in a theocratic state. Maybe the ultra religious Rabbis of New York should clean up their own house first before trying to limit the civil rights of other Jews. Here is a good place for them to start: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99913807 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 It is amazing that just about the only thing religious Jews, Muslims and Christians can agree on in Israel is their hatred of gay people. All you holy rollers that would deny equal protection under the law to gay citizens should watch the documentary "Trembling Before God". It is hard for me to believe that very religious Jews would disown their own gay children and treat them as if they were dead, but there you have it. Did you know that the Canadian judge most responsible for pushing Canada along the road to full equality for its gay citizens (including marriage) was the daughter of Holocaust survivors? Rosalie Abella has since been elevated to Canada's Supreme Court, the first time a Jewish woman has held such a position in Canada. Born in a displaced persons' camp in Stuttgart, Germany, she undoubtedly learned more about hate and discrimination than most people. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Eric Cantor, the only Jewish Republican member of the House, votes like an Evangelical Christian. Maybe that accounts for his rising star status in the party. Arlen Specter's voting record has been much more moderate on social issues in recent years (in line with Jewish Democrats in the Senate) and he would likely have lost out to a more extremist challenger in the 2010 Republican primary. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 During the Nazi era, the Chinese city of Shanghai (under Japanese occupation) took in 25,000 Jewish refugees, about the same as Canada, Australia and New Zealand combined. The Evian Conference held in July 1938 at the initiative of FDR was a failure at helping Jewish refugees from Germany. Kristallnacht followed a few months later. For an interesting account of one Jewish family's unsuccessful attempt to leave Poland for the US in the late 1930's (where they had close relatives), read Daniel Mendelsohn's "The Lost". The US State Department was scrupulous in enforcing the immigration quotas of the day. The quota for Germany was about 52,000 per year, including Austria, but only 6,000 for Poland. During the Nazi era, a violation of the anti-sodomy statute, Paragraph 175 of the German penal code, which predated the Nazi era, typically resulted in a German aryan being sent to a nearby concentration camp rather than to an extermination camp in occupied Poland. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Gay Americans remain the last major block of citizens such to unequal treatment under the law. It wasn't so long ago that Jews were treated as less than equal citizens and subject to restricted housing covenants, restricted hotels, restricted clubs, quotas at many universities, discrimination in employment etc. Every American citizen deserves equal protection under the law. It's not all that complicated. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Don't be so hard on the UK. During the Nazi era, it took in more Jewish refugees relative to its population than did the US. The decision not to bomb the railway tracks to Auschwitz was probably made by FDR, or perhaps by Dwight Eisenhower and not by the UK. During the Nazi era, the New York Times, which was Jewish owned, relegated Nazi atrocities against the Jews to its back pages. I guess it did not want to look "too Jewish". In 1928, it was probably easier for a rich Jew to buy a mansion in Berlin Grunewald or Wanssee than in Bronxville, NY, which was noted for its restricted covenants. The growth of anti-Jewish activities in western Europe in recent years probably reflects the rapid growth of the Muslim population. There are more Muslims living in these countries today than there were Jews living there in the 1930's. Throughout the world, Jews face a demographic time bomb owing to high mixed marriages, low reproductive rates etc. But many straight Jews continue to discriminate against gay Jews. As Churchill might have put it: We can either hang together or we can hang separately. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Bill Davidson, best known as an owner of the Detroit pistons basketball team, died this week at the age of 86. He was a major contributor to Jewish charities including the Jewish Theological Seminary and Hadassah Hospital. Source of wealth: built up the family's glass business now known as Guardian Industries. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I suspect that Jews have been much harder hit by the sharp decline in the stock market than by Madoff, in the past year and a half, especially in the financial services sector. Bear Stearns had a reputation for strongly supporting Jewish charities and now it is gone. Madoff merely added insult to injury. The Obama tax increases expected to go into effect in 2011 will take a lot of money out of Jewish households in Blue States and transfer purchasing power to non-Jewish households in Red States. If US government deficits spiral out of control, that certainly won't be good for the Jews. Think Germany 1923 and the aftermath of the collapse of the mark. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 So much rage and hate. Poor Tamar. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00