Adar 9, 5769, 3/5/2009
Blog Report for March 5
Here are a few stories I found of late and haven't had time to put them up for you. So here is my 'blog report', a nice long list of interesting, unusual, and informative stuff - enjoy:

Only in Israel... an Acquittal [via the Life in Israel blog by Rafi G.]
Here is a great story:
A guy was stopped by the police while driving for a random check (they do that a lot here in Israel). The law is that until age 21, you can only drive a maximum of 2 other people in the car. This guy had four passengers in the car, and it was two days he would turn 21.
The driver, Frankel, claimed that his Hebrew birthday had already passed two weeks earlier, hence he was allowed to drive with four passengers as he is already 21. The police did not accept the argument and gave him a ticket to come to court, where they request his license be suspended.
In court, Frankel's lawyer explained that in the haredi community they only use Hebrew dates, so Frankel really considered himself 21, and being that Israel is a Jewish country, "it is impossible to argue with the fact that he was already 21 at the time of the incident".
The judge accepted the argument, and let him off, saying Frankel clearly acted in good faith and considered himself 21 because of the Hebrew calendar.
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An email that is going around: Bad news from France ...REAL BAD! for French Jews...
Once again, the real news in France is conveniently not being reported as it should. To give you an idea of what's going on in that country where there are now between 5 and 6 million Muslims and about 600,000 Jews, here is an E-mail that came from a Jew living in France.
Please read! "Will the world say nothing - again - as it did in Hitler's time?" He writes: "I AM A JEW -- therefore I am forwarding this to everyone on all my e-mail lists. I will not sit back and do nothing. Nowhere have the flames of anti-Semitism burned more furiously than in France . In Lyon , a car was rammed into a synagogue and set on fire. In Montpellier , the Jewish religious center was firebombed; so were synagogues in Strasbourgand Marseilles ; so was a Jewish school in Creteil - all recently. A Jewish sports club in Toulouse was attacked with Molotov cocktails and on the statue of Alfred Dreyfus, in Paris , the words 'Dirty Jew' were painted. In Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish football team with sticks and metal bars. The bus that takes Jewish children to school in Aubervilliers has been attacked three times in the last 14 months. According to the Police, metropolitan Paris has seen 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents PER DAY in the past 30 days. Walls in Jewish neighborhoods have been defaced with slogans proclaiming 'Jews to the gas chambers' and 'Death to the Jews.' A gunman opened fire on a kosher butcher's shop (and, of course, the butcher) inToulouse, France. A Jewish couple in their 20's were beaten up by five men in Villeurbanne , France (the woman was pregnant). A Jewish school was broken into and vandalized in Sarcelles, France. This was just in the past week."
"So I ca ll on you, whether you are a fellow Jew, a friend, or merely a person with the capacity and desire to distinguish decency from depravity, to do - at least - these three simple things:
First, care enough to stay informed. Don't ever let yourself become deluded into thinking that this is not your fight. I remind you of what Pastor Neimoller said in World War II: 'First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.'
Second, boycott France and French products. Only the Arab countries are more toxically anti-Semitic and, unlike them, France exports more than just oil and hatred. So boycott their wines and their perfumes. Boycott their clothes and their foodstuffs. Boycott their movies. Definitely boycott their shores. If we are resolved we can exert amazing pressure and, whatever else we may know about the French, we most certainly know that they are like a cobweb in a hurricane in the face of well-directed pressure.
Third, send this along to your family, your friends, and your co-workers. Think of all of the people of good conscience that you know and let them know that you - and the people that you care - about need their help.
The number one bestselling book in France is....'September 11: The Frightening Fraud' which argues that no plane ever hit the Pentagon!
Please Pass This On, Let's not let history repeat itself, thank-you for your time and consideration."
Yishai's comment: umm... maybe you should consider ALIYAH? Maybe instead of us boycotting France, French Jews should boycott it instead...
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Arab men seek Israeli brides by Itamar Eichner [from YNET]
Dozens of residents of Arab countries appeal to Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem in search of 'smart and beautiful' women
"I'm asking for your help. I would like to meet an Israeli woman for marriage purposes," Abdullah, a resident of Saudi Arabia, said in a recent letter to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.
"I have heard that the Israeli women are very smart and beautiful," he added. "I'm ready to pay a dowry of camels, herds or even money. Please help me."
Dozens of such appeals are received every year by the Foreign Ministry's department for Arab media. Emails have been arriving from people in Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
According to Foreign Ministry official Adel Hino, almost all men identify themselves by their full name and are not afraid to leave their telephone number and address as contact details.
The Foreign Ministry recently received a letter from a resident of the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf, who introduced himself as a wealthy man with a fleet of automobiles, looking for a Jewish bride from Israel.
Many appeals have also been received from Iraqi men, who say their dream is to marry an Israeli woman. One of them, a Baghdad resident, even said he is married to four women and would like the Israeli Foreign Ministry to introduce him to another woman, this time an Israeli one.
"I promise you that she will fit in well with the rest of my wives," he wrote.
"The Israeli woman must have a remarkable image in the Arab world," says Hino. "The Arab men reiterate in their letters that the Israeli women are beautiful and smart, but we politely answer all of them that with all due respect, the Foreign Ministry is not a matchmaking agency."
Yishai's comment: Get a life.
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'Jewish Mark Twain' Shines In 'Wandering Stars' by Robert Siegel
Born to a poor Jewish family in imperial Russia, Sholem Rabinovich — also known as Sholem Aleichem — was a champion of the Yiddish language. His stories were adapted into the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof.
All Things Considered, March 2, 2009 · When Ukrainian-born writer Sholem Rabinovich died in New York City in 1916, throngs gathered in three boroughs to greet his funeral cortege. Rabinovich, who went by the pen name Sholem Aleichem ("peace be with you"), was a humorist and a champion of the Yiddish language — in the words of his New York Times obituary, a "Jewish Mark Twain."
Most people today are familiar with Aleichem's stories about Tevye the Dairyman, which were adapted into the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. But while the musical tends to sentimentalize Aleichem's version of life in the shtetls of Eastern Europe, the author's original work is often more complex.
In honor of the 150th anniversary of the author's birth, translator Aliza Shevrin has published Wandering Stars, a new translation of Blundzhende Shtern, Aleichem's story of two lovers in the Yiddish theater as they wander around Eastern Europe, London's East End and Manhattan. Playwright Tony Kushner, who writes an introduction to the translation, says that readers may be surprised by the novel's edginess... Read more on NPR
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Dear Yishai,
I have been listening to your shows for more than two years. I really appreciate your work. Plus, you seem to be a very nice person. Thank you.
Some days ago you and your wife talked about a Portuguese cheese, Serra da Estrela (which, by the way, means "Mountain of the Star"). You referred to a nearby town, Belmonte, where a small community of Jews kept their faith in secret for centuries. They only came to daylight in the years following the Portuguese revolution of 1974. They were almost the only ones surviving the centuries-long persecution with the memory of who they were, as a community.
Remembering that I had been in Belmonte some days ago, I thought of sending you a photo of the inside of its Synagogue. The photo is not very good. I wasn't there as a tourist and taking photos was the least of my concerns. I only took 2 photos, which I am sending you now.
The synagogue is called "Beth Eliahu". I also enclose two photos of its exterior, taken in 2003. The street is very narrow and I didn't have a wide field lens; that's why they look so "constrained".
Can you show these photos to Tamar Yonah, Tovia Singer, Eve Harlow and any other member of the INR team that may have interest in these things?
Did you know that a recent genetics study showed that the Portuguese population keeps the highest rate of Sephardic genes in the whole Iberian Peninsula, particularly in the South of Portugal? The name Iberia comes from Ivria, meaning "land of Hebrews". An American investigator once said that by his estimations about 75% of the Portuguese population carry Hebrew blood.
You referred to the use of the word "marranos" (which in Castillian -- the language commonly known as "Spanish" -- means ping). The use of that term was never common in Portugal. Someone once said that it is a corrupted form of the Hebrew "mara anuss", meaning bitter and forced, "bitterly forced". Can you confirm this meaning (bitter) for a Hebrew word sounding like "mara"? As you surelly know, the lost Israelites here are known as Anussim. Tamar Yonah once made a show about them. (In fact, maybe I should say "about us".)Well, I would have too much to talk with you... Israel is in the hearts of many here and around the planet. Please be strong in the difficult times to come. This world may be against you but you will have many, many, to come to your support if necessary.
Shalom, my friend (let me call you this way, please)
From Portugal
Miguel
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Also, check out my audio hour with Caroline Glick and Moshe Feiglin:
Caroline Glick, noted columnist, warns world Jewry about the very real dangers of Jew-hatred and the seismic shift of US policy to a pro-Iran, pro-Hamas, pro-Hizbullah, anti-Israel position. Moshe Feiglin of Manhigut Yehudit predicts new elections in a year and sees Leiberman as pulling the plug on this round of coalition making.
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SHABBAT SHALOM!