As Anti-Semitism Burns...

Jewish students 'held hostage' in Toronto Hillel
The students in the Hillel office were evacuated soon after by police escort, amid cries of "Get off our campus" and "Shame on Hillel." "I have never in my life felt threatened and hated like I did that night," Tepper said. Ferman, the Hillel president, who was called a "f*****g Jew" and a "dirty Jew" by the protesters, said, "We were basically being held hostage in our own space." The incident was somewhat "ironic," Ferman said, because 45 minutes before the press conference, members of Hillel and the Hasbara student organization had met with members of Students Against Israeli Apartheid, in an attempt to "decrease tensions" between the groups.

Surge of anti-Semitic attacks in UK
The London-based Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitism and works to safeguard the Jewish community in Britain, said 250 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in the four weeks after Dec. 27. That compares to 40 incidents from the same period the year before. Dave Rich, a spokesman for the trust, said Jews in Britain are unfairly seen as local representatives of Israel – a view that fuels some of the anti-Semitic attacks.

Parisian Jews: Anti-Semitism on the rise
The attack on Benhamou occurred in the Parisian metro while he was on his way home. "Three Arab-looking men jumped on me, called me a 'fucking Jew' and said they would kill me," he recounted. "Before I even got the chance to respond, they attacked me, broke my nose and beat me all over," he added. Benhamou consequently spent four days in hospital with fractures in his face. The assailants fled the scene and police found no trace of them. Benhamou said he has not been the same since the incident. "It's a lifetime trauma. I haven't been back to work since then because it's hard for me to breath. I'm still afraid to walk around alone, and I do not plan on taking the metro anymore. "There is no place for Jews in France; we can't keep living here with these acts of barbarism. I already told my girlfriend that we are going to make aliyah. There's nothing left for us here, I want my child to be a sabra."

Running Away to Home - Let the Jews of Venezuela Open Their Eyes.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center reports about an invasion of a Caracas, Venezuela, synagogue by 15 armed thugs one recent Saturday, during which the synagogue's computers - with private information about members of the Jewish community - were stolen. The Confederation of Latin American Macabi (CLAM) asked Jewish communities worldwide to condemn the Venezuelan government's well-orchestrated campaign against the Jews in Venezuela. CLAM reports: Using an aggressive and dangerous tone never previously heard, clear incitement and anti-Semitic expressions, the Government lead is followed nationwide, with a group of pro-government journalists urging the population to boycott businesses owned by Jews in Venezuela. For what are we waiting? For the armed men and an excited mob to torch stores and businesses owned by Jews?

Bar Refaeli - The Shabbat Queen

Reuters writes about Bar Refaeli:

"She is the first Israeli model to dress down for the cover of the swimsuit issue, which hit newsstands Tuesday and will reach a global audience of some 66 million readers. Web page views could hit 350 million, according to Sports Illustrated. Now, that's exposure."

The Boston Globe writes:

"Southwest just unveiled ''S.I. One," a plane graced with the image of Bar Refaeli, cover girl for this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. The Southwest Boeing 737 will ferry the model on a cross-country promotional trip leaving from New York City."

Oh, Bar Refaeli, I pray for you. You think you are a big success because your body is now splayed on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and on the side of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737?

No. You are a Jewish girl who got mixed up in the culture of the heathen-Greco-Roman-America of today. Look what they use you for: To sell their soft-porn smut through reaching out to the lowest aspect of humanity and to make airports a place where mothers have to cover children's eyes. How many lascivious thoughts has your image evoked? How many jealous thoughts? How much wasting of time? How much degradation of values?

Oh, Bar Refaeli, I pray for you. I pray that one day you will have a nice Jewish home, and that your husband will look at you with love because of the great children you raise. I pray that you will reject this path of body-worship and that one day you will lecture to Israeli girls about family purity, and about the power of modesty to bring about true and meaningful attraction. I hope that from the depths that you have sunken, you will awaken to help stem the tide of moral erosion that Israel and the world suffers from. Indeed, I hope that one day you will merit to be someones Shabbat Queen and not the empty shell that you are now.

But you are not the only one to blame for this ignominious degradation. All those Orthodox Jews who take pride in having Kosher hotdogs and a Maariv Minyan in Madison Square Garden - they too are to blame. Oh, they would claim that their worship of pro-sports has nothing to do with your public exhibitionism. But it does - because both come from the same root, that is, the Greek and Roman fascination with the body. Is it a coincidence that Sports Illustrated caters to both the pro-sports and the soft-porn crowd? Of course not, because both pro-sports and soft-porn are flip-sides of the same coin. What can one expect from the secular Jews when Orthos act like Hellenists?

Naked bodies of Jewish women on the sides of airplanes?? Orthodox Jews sitting in a stadium munching on Kosher dogs while watching today's gladiators compete?? This is not the stuff of a better world, nor the actions of a G-dly people. These are the ideas of Greeks and Romans who reverse the Biblical idea and worship the gods that they have created in the image of man. In other words, they serve themselves, they serve their own base desires which they justify through an idolotrous religion. No wonder the world is in such a sorry state when these ideas are leading it.

It is time for the Jewish people to end our addiction with animalism. It is time that we stop being the heads of foxes by helping the world plummet in its moral decline. Instead, it is time for us Jews to be the tails of lions, that is, to fulfill our role by being a "Light Unto The Nations" nation!  The time has come to get up, shake off the dross of 2000 years, and get to some real work. We have better images to put on the sides of airplanes and on magazine covers. We have a chance to make great things happen in this generation: to help breath the breath of life back into a world that has chosen physicality over spirituality and to remind mankind that we are all created in the image of G-d.

Yishai

Cat Stevens' Transition to Yusuf Islam