Jewish Russian Telegraph

49 Steps Up

From www.chabad.org:

"When you take this people out of Egypt," said G-d to Moses when He revealed Himself to him in a burning bush at the foot of Mount Sinai, "you shall serve G-d on this mountain."

It took seven weeks to reach the mountain. The people of Israel departed Egypt on the 15th of Nissan (the first day of Passover); on the 6th of Sivan, celebrated ever since as the festival of Shavuot, they assembled at the foot of Mount Sinai and received the Torah from G-d.

The Kabbalists explain that the 49 days that connect Passover with Shavuot correspond to the forty-nine drives and traits of the human heart. Each day saw the refinement of one of these sefirot, bringing the people of Israel one step closer to their election as G-d’s chosen people and their receiving of His communication to humanity.

Each year, we retrace this inner journey with our "Counting of the Omer." Beginning on the second night of Passover, we count the days and weeks: "Today is one day to the Omer"; "Today is two days to the Omer"; "Today is seven days, which are one week to the Omer"; and so on, till "Today is forty-nine days, which are seven weeks to the Omer." Shavuot, the "Festival of Weeks" is the product of this count, driven by the miracles and revelations of the Exodus but achieved by a methodical, 49-step process of self-refinement within the human soul.[link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Saudis, Lies, and Videotapes

MSNBC reports (Hat tip----Leonidas):
April 26: An NBC News investigation found that a powerful Saudi official has encouraged Saudis to go to Iraq to fight American troops. Correspondent Lisa Myers reports. [link]

In an audiotape secretly recorded at a government mosque last October and obtained by NBC News, Luhaidan encourages young Saudis to go to Iraq to wage war against Americans.

"If someone knows that he is capable of entering Iraq in order to join the fight, and if his intention is to raise up the word of God, then he is free to do so," says Luhaidan in Arabic on the tape.

He warns Iraq is risky because "evil satellites and drone aircraft" watch the borders. But he says going is religiously permissible.

"The lawfulness of his action is in fighting an enemy who is fighting Muslims and came for war," says Luhaidan.

The sheik also says those donating money to the fight in Iraq should be sure it actually helps the cause. [link]

A Saudi spokesman twice denied the tape was authentic, claiming Saudi intelligence analysts determined it was "a crude fake." So NBC News called Luhaidan himself, in Saudi Arabia, and played the tape.

Luhaidan confirmed those were his words, saying in Arabic, "Yes, this is my voice."

But the sheik said what he really meant was that it's not worth it for young Saudis to go to Iraq and that the Iraqis are capable of fighting on their own.

This week, Saudi Arabia's crown prince met with President Bush on economic issues, including oil prices, and a White House official says the problem of extremism was raised.

Dozens of Saudis have been tied to suicide bombings and violence in Iraq. Critics claim the Saudis are now dealing with their own problems with extremists by exporting some of them to Iraq.[link]

With friends like the Saudis, who needs enemies?

posted by: jrtelegraph

Jews Fight anti-Christian Bigotry

WorldNetDaily reports:

A longtime columnist and author has birthed a new organization made up of Jews who are committed to battling anti-Christian bias and discrimination in the culture.

Don Feder, a Boston Herald writer and syndicated columnist for 19 years, is president of Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation, or JAACD.

Members of the group's advisory board include rabbis, commentators, academics, authors, activists, Zionist leaders and an entertainer.

"Members span the spectrum from Orthodox to secular, but are united in their determination to support our beleaguered brothers and sisters in the Christian community," a statement from the organization said.

Feder said for years he has written about incidents of anti-Christian discrimination in the public square – from the prohibition of crèches on public land to the silencing prayer in the nation's schools.

Don Feder

"What I consider an epidemic of anti-Christian bigotry and persecution is something that has concerned me for a long time," Feder told WND, noting that in 1996 he wrote a book entitled "Who's Afraid of the Religious Right?" which covers what he sees as the left's attack on traditional Christians.

"Particularly pernicious is the leftist idea that it's legitimate to base your politics on anything except religion," he said. "You can say that my politics are based on the views of Karl Marx or Ayn Rand or Jane Fonda … and that's OK, but as soon as you say your worldview is based on the Bible, that's considered an illegitimate basis for embracing certain political views."

Feder says about a year ago he decided there should be a distinctly Jewish organization dealing with anti-Christian prejudice, which he considers a "political pogrom."

"If a Jewish organization complains about these things," he explained, "no one can accuse us of self-interest, because we're not Christians; we're Jews."

Added Feder: "The fate of America hinges on whether or not Christians – I mean authentic Christians – succeed in the political arena."

Feder credits Ted Baehr, founder of MovieGuide, with helping to get the organization off the ground.

Speaking at a press conference announcing the new group were syndicated columnist Mona Charen, Barry Farber, longtime New York City talk-show host, and two rabbis – Joshua Haberman and Rabbi Yehuda Levin.

Others involved with the group include: David Horowitz (Center for the Study of Popular Culture), Morton Klein (Zionist Organization of America), Herb London (Hudson Institute), Bruce Herschensohn (professor, Pepperdine University), Rabbi Daniel Lapin (Toward Tradition), syndicated talk-show host Michael Medved, Rabbi Jacob Neusner (professor, Bard College) and comedian Jackie Mason.

Drawing a connection between his faith and Christianity, Feder said, "Christian morality comes from the Jewish Bible, hence the expression 'Judeo-Christian ethic.'"

The group, therefore, "is also standing up for the morality of the Torah."

Said Feder: "By maintaining their loyalty to the eternal values revealed at Sinai, Christians have become pariahs in the eyes of the establishment, but heroes in our eyes."

"Jews and Christians serve God differently. But our morality is the same," states promotional material for the group.

Feder says his group is in the process of setting up a website and will work to educate Americans "on the toxic nature of what has been called the last acceptable form or prejudice."

The organization's founder ridiculed the notion that religious Americans want the nation ruled by a theocracy.

"It's just absurd," Feder said. "If what the left is talking about constitutes a theocracy, then America was a theocracy in 1961.

"American had school prayer, in many states there was Bible reading in the schools, public display of religious symbols, abortion was outlawed except in rare instances, if anyone talked about same-sex marriage they would have been met with derisive laughter," he noted. "I was alive in 1961; if we were a theocracy then, somehow I missed it."

Feder's latest book, "The Tattered Flag: The Fight for America in the 21st Century," will be released this year. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Today, Somerville, Tomorrow, Massachusetts, Day after Tomorrow, the Whole US

This letter came from a reader of the Jewish Russian Telegraph in Sommerville:

The Boston Metropolitan area is under attack from a scourge that many are underestimating.  In the trendy but blue collar corner of greater Boston lays Somerville, MA.  less than a year ago many people and organizations from outside of Massachusetts mounted an effort to convince the Aldermen of Somerville to divest from Israeli bonds and companies that do business with Israel. After a lot of work by many people and organizations, the majority of the Aldermen were persuaded not to vote for this biased proposal.

This spring the same proposal has returned with a new twist. The Somerville Divestment Project wants to place this question on the ballot. In order to place the proposal before the electorate, the Divestiture camp will need to file a petition with at least 4,200 valid signatures. To comprehend the magnitude of the effort to file the petition or to oppose the petition requires understanding that this number of registered voters signing the petition is almost equal to the number that can elect a Mayor or an Alderman.  A number of that immensity requires a political campaign. A political campaign of this size, in turn, requires money.

JCRC in it’s action alert states that: “We are actively seeking residents of Somerville to help us in mobilizing our “Support Peace, Reject Divestment” campaign.  We need people to help distribute our literature in Somerville during rush hour and the weekends.”

To counter this effort, JCRC needs to do a whole lot more than distribute literature during rush hour and on weekends. A major effort is required to reach all Somerville voters by contacting politicians, synagogues, churches, households, civic leaders and all elements of the community

Please call or write to Alan Ronkin:  617-457-8662, 617-988-6255 (F) at JCRC and share your concerns with him and ask him to use some of the resources at JCRC’s disposal to mount this important campaign.

Reading material distributed by the divestiture folks and their backers, it becomes apparent that this is ultimately about the existence of Israel, the United States’ support for Israel, and anti-Semitism. I dare say that a slogan that states “Support Peace” is far from the mark.

Why is it that what happens to the Divestiture Campaign in Somerville should be important to everybody? Because, if I can paraphrase a Nazi slogan from the 1930s - “Today, Somerville, tomorrow, Massachusetts, day after tomorrow, the whole US”.

posted by: jrtelegraph

 

Chag Sameach!

Chag Kosher ve Sameach from the Jewish Russian Telegraph! Happy Passover!

May this Holiday of freedom bring speedy redemption for the Jewish people and the whole world!

About Passover from Sichos in English (talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe):

The ultimate goal of the exodus from Egypt, when Jews became a nation, was the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. The three names given to the festival which celebrates the exodus - Chag HaMatzos, Z'man Cheiruseinu and Chag HaPesach -

correspond to the three stages necessary to achieve the birth of a Torah nation.

Pesach celebrates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt after many years of enslavement. Its importance has earned it the title "head of festivals."[1] Three names are given to this festival:

 

1. In the Torah[2] it is called Chag HaMatzos, the Festival of Matzos.

    

2. In the festival liturgy it is also called Z'man Cheiruseinu, the Season of our Freedom.

    

3. Our Sages termed it Chag HaPesach, the Festival of Pesach. 

[link]

Central Theme Of Pesach

These three names are interrelated, for this festival has a central theme, comprised of three concepts expressed in its three names. Because Torah is precise,[6] these three names and their associated concepts follow their order of importance: First, Chag HaMatzos, which is the festival's Torah name; then Z'man Cheiruseinu, which is the name given by the Men of the Great Assembly[7] to be recited in prayer; last is Chag HaPesach, the name used by our Sages.

The central theme of this festival is that the exodus from Egypt marks the birth[8] of the Jewish nation. But it was not simply the emergence of the Jews as a nation; other peoples also become nations at one point or another. The singular distinction of the Jewish birth was that then Jewry assumed a new identity.[9] They became a Torah nation.

The Jews were not taken out of Egypt simply to free them from slavery, but primarily to receive the Torah, thereby enabling them to fulfill their raison d'?tre of introducing G-dliness into a spiritually barren world. Thus an integral part of the exodus, indeed, its ultimate goal, was the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai, as stated:[10] "When you have brought out the people from Egypt, you shall serve G-d on this mountain."

A Torah nation means that the very fibre and being of Jews - as individuals[11] and as a nation - is Torah;[12] everything else is peripheral. Torah and Jew are indivisible and one without the other is unthinkable.[link]

Torah Nation

These three stages are represented by the three names of this festival: Chag HaMatzos, Z'man Cheiruseinu, and Chag HaPesach.

Matzah is "bread of poverty,"[28] and poor people are humble and free of arrogance. In contrast to chometz (leaven) which makes the dough rise, matzah is flat, symbolizing selflessness and humility.[29] Chag HaMatzos therefore corresponds to the first stage in the birth of the Torah-nation, the acceptance of Torah with total submission.

Z'man Cheiruseinu, the Season of our Freedom, represents the way this submission and service to G-d is assimilated into the very fibre of a Jew - that a Jew is truly free only when occupied in Torah.

Pesach means "leaping over".[30] The slavery of Jews in Egypt should have really extended for a longer period of time, both because their exile had a definite time span which had not yet elapsed, and because the Jews did not merit to be redeemed then.[31] Yet G-d "leaped over" these considerations and took them out earlier.[32] The Jews, in turn, celebrated the first Pesach also by "leaping over"[33] - they transcended their innate limitations and reached levels previously inaccessible. Thus the name Chag HaPesach corresponds to the third stage of the "birth": service in Torah and mitzvos transcending the temporal-spatial limits of the world.

[link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Mohammed Atta Could Have Sued the US Government

Mohammed Atta could have sued the United States for racial profiling and violation of his civil rights.  Please take a look at two stories:

Reuters, Muslim-Americans Sue Govt for Racial Profiling
Wed Apr 20, 2005 04:51 PM ET 

By Larry Fine

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Five Muslim-Americans sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday alleging racial profiling when they were detained and fingerprinted by border agents after returning from a religious conference.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, named Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff among four defendants in what the New York Civil Liberties Union called a case of profiling.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman declined comment since the case -- involving the reentry of the five U.S. citizens by car from Canada -- is in litigation.

Court papers said that on their way back from the Reviving the Islamic Spirit (RIS) conference in Toronto in December 2004, the plaintiffs were detained for up to six hours with other Muslim-Americans and searched, photographed and fingerprinted, the lawsuit said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Kristi Clemens defended the government's actions and said, "Our priority mission is to prevent terrorists and their weapons from entering this country."

In the past the agency has denied the use of profiling on the borders but said intelligence has shown that conferences similar to the one in Toronto have been used by terrorist organizations.

RELIGIOUS CONFERENCE

The suit charged the Muslim-Americans were taken aside after being asked if they attended the religious conference and were then subjected to unlawful treatment at a border crossing near Buffalo, New York, under a new Homeland Security policy.

"They are engaging in profiling," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU said. "The government detained people because they attended a conference that was perfectly legal, exercising their basic rights."

"We were told that we were being pulled aside because of a random selection," said plaintiff Sawsaan Tabbaa, an orthodontist from Amherst, New York, who was traveling with her four children. "Then we saw the whole Muslim community there that had attended the Islamic conference.

"It was unbelievable. I am proud of being American but I  couldn't believe my eyes something like this could happen."

Tabbaa said she refused to be fingerprinted, but finally relented after breaking down in tears after more than four hours of detention.

The suit does not seek monetary damages, but asks for a declaration that the government action was unlawful, an injunction against further enforcement of such policies and practices and erasing from all federal databases of information obtained from the plaintiffs.

Lieberman, whose organization filed the suit along with the American Civil Liberties Union and Council on American-Islamic Relations, said there was nothing about the RIS conference to raise suspicions.

"If the government has suspicions about criminal activities they have every right and indeed the obligation to go after those suspicions," Lieberman said. "This is a case of rounding up the usual suspects in derogation of their rights and in derogation of all of our liberties." [link]

Now another story coming via  Little Green Footballs:

On the morning of September 11, 2001, knee-jerk political correctness had lethal consequences.

MICHAEL Tuohey “stared the devil in the eyes and didn’t recognize him.”

Now he kicks himself for not having acted, although if he had, our government probably would’ve punished him for trying to take the devil down.

Until recently, Tuohey worked the ticket counter at the airport in Portland, Maine, first for Allegheny Airlines, and then its successor, US Airways. He’ll never forget one particular day of his 34 years of employment.

It began like any other. This married Army vet had a routine. He’d wake up at 3:30 a.m. and walk to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee from the machine he’d pre-set the night before. Then he’d flicked on the TV, watch some CNN and check the weather forecast. After feeding his cat, he’d jump in his car for the 15-minute drive to work.

On most days, the big rush would come 6-7:30 a.m. That’s when the tiny Maine airport would be abuzz with travelers heading for connecting flights in Philadelphia, Boston and Pittsburgh. But it’s what happened at 5:43 a.m. on a particular day that he replays in his mind over and over.

At that time on a Tuesday, two men wearing sport coats and ties approached his counter with just 17 minutes to spare before their flight to Boston. (Tuohey now knows they’d stayed the night before at the Comfort Inn down the road.) And he suspects they arrived late to take advantage of an airline system that was then “more concerned about on-time departure than effective screening.”

He thought the pair were unusual. First, they each held a $2,500 first-class, one-way ticket to Los Angeles (via Boston). “You don’t see many of those.”

The second reason is not so easy to explain.

“It was just the look on the one man’s face, his eyes,” Tuohey recently told me.

“By now, everyone in America has seen a picture of this man, but there is more life in that photograph we’ve all seen than he had in the flesh and blood. He looked like a walking corpse. He looked so angry. And he wouldn’t look directly at me.”

The man was Mohamed Atta. The other fellow (“he was young and had a goofy smile, I can’t believe he knew he was going to die that day”) was Abdul Aziz al Omari. Michael Tuohey is the individual who checked them in at the Portland airport as they began their murderous journey.

“I looked up, and asked them the standard questions. The one guy was looking at me. It sent a chill through me. Something in my stomach churned. And subconsciously, I said to myself, ‘If they don’t look like Arab terrorists, nothing does.’ ”

“Then I gave myself a mental slap. In over 34 years, I had checked in thousands of Arab travelers, and I never thought this before. I said to myself, ‘That’s not nice to think. They are just two Arab businessmen.’ ” And with that, Tuohey handed them their boarding passes.

As they walked through the metal detectors, out of his sight, the jackets and ties were gone. Now the two were wearing open-neck dress shirts when they went through security.

Atta and Omari arrived in Boston at 6:45 a.m., where they were joined by Satam al Suqami, Wail al Shehri and Waleed al Shehri. The five then checked in, and boarded American Airlines Flight 11 for L.A. The flight was scheduled to depart at 7:45 a.m. It actually left at 7:59. At 8:46, it hit the North Tower. [link]

Mohammed Atta could have sued the United States for racial profiling and violation of his civil rights. Still, we would have been better off.

posted by: jrtelegraph

Don't Cry for Her Palestina: $7Mil for Suha Arafat

Keeping it all in the family. Our first question is: What Mahmood Abbas knew and when he knew it?

French probe links PLO treasurer to payments to Arafat's wife    : 

[World News] Washington, Apr 20 : French investigators probing embezzlement of Palestinian Liberation Organization's funds have said its Treasurer was the pointman for $7 million paid to Yasser Arafat's wife Suha Arafat through a Paris bank account, a report said today.

Nizar Abu Ghazaleh, head of PLO finances, played a key role in the transfers to Suha, according to Palestinian officials and Paris judicial officials probing PLO funds, The Wall Street Journal reported from Ramallah, West Bank.

Palestinian officials familiar with the transactions said the PLO controlled a bank account in Tunisia that was the source of millions of dollars of unexplained payments to Mrs Arafat, it said.

Officials in the new Palestinian government suspect that millions of dollars transferred to her are connected to contracts issued by the Palestinian Authority under Arafat prior to his death last year.

They believe these contracts had the effect of moving its funds to the PLO at a time when the governing authority was strapped for cash.

The Palestinian Authority and PLO, both Arafat had headed, are legally two distinct organizations. Ghazaleh also was chairman of Al Bahr, a business carrying out purchases for the Palestinian Authority, and Suha played a major unofficial role at the company by helping to broker purchases, the Palestinian officials said.

Ghazaleh, who died last week, was signatory to the account controlled by the PLO's Palestinian National Fund and ordered millions of dollars transferred to Suha Arafat's personal account in Paris from 2002 to 2003, said Palestinian officials familiar with the transactions. PTI [link]

Our second question is: can Suha Arafat pitch? 

posted by: jrtelegraph
       

Enjoying the Food, the Mood, Hamas and Hezbollah

Lunches with terrorists are in. After all, we have to understand each other.
Daniel Pipes writes about terrorist apologists and helpers mixing fun with profit:

[Jerusalem Post title: "Please Don't Call It Terrorism"]

Shortly after Yusra Azzami, 20, strolled with her fiancé and her sister on the beach in Gaza last week, the vigilantes from Hamas formed suspicions that she was engaged in "immoral behavior." They followed her, shot her dead as she sat in her fiancé's car, dragged her corpse out and mutilated it savagely with clubs and iron bars.

This atrocity follows on Hamas having murdered over four hundred Israelis going about their daily business since 2000. Unsurprisingly, the American and other governments consider Hamas as a terrorist organization.

But how do they deal with such an organization? Two very different approaches exist, and President George W. Bush has articulated them both. In June 2003, he stated that "the free world, those who love freedom and peace, must deal harshly with Hamas" and specified that "Hamas must be dismantled." Last month, however, he offered Hezbollah a chance to prove it's not a terrorist organization and redeem itself "by laying down arms and not threatening peace."

This alarming second view builds on an outlook with growing support within the U.S. government. Many diplomats and intelligence officials believe, for example, that engaging the Muslim Brethren in Egypt (in the Washington Post's description) "offers an opportunity for political engagement that could help isolate violent jihadists." And Arabic-language news sources report that American officials in Egypt recently met with Muslim Brethren leaders.

To forward this wrong-headed idea, an organization called the Conflicts Forum was founded in December 2004. It has the immodest goal of not just changing policy toward radical Islamic terrorist groups, but changing how Westerners see radical Islam itself. Conflicts Forum wants to challenge "the prevailing western orthodoxy that perceives Islamism as an ideology that is hostile to the agenda for global democracy and good governance."

Conflicts Forum has several advantages, starting with the fact that what it terms the "prevailing Western orthodoxy" is – as noted above – quite soft. The group's founder and leader, Alastair Crooke, 55, was a ranking figure in both British intelligence and European Union diplomacy, someone who hobnobs with insiders, gives upbeat speeches at premier venues ("It is Essential to Negotiate with Terrorists" at the London School of Economics," "Can Hamas Be A Political Partner?" at the Council on Foreign Relations), and enjoys a fawning press.

But Crooke's true identity came out in a clandestine meeting he held with the Hamas leadership in June 2002, at a time when he still represented the European Union. We have an account of the meeting prepared by Hamas (which Crooke claims is inaccurate). It deserves reading in full for an insight into Crooke's amoral, craven, appeasing, and dhimmi-like, mentality.

• He recounts to Hamas having insisted to two high-ranking European politicians that "the status of Europe in the eyes of the Palestinians has started to deteriorate" because Europe did not adequately support the Palestinians.
• "The main problem [in the Middle East] is the Israeli occupation," which is music to Hamas ears.
• "As for terrorism, I hate that word," he tells leaders of a leading terrorist organization, going on to imply that he instead sees Hamas operatives as "freedom fighters."

This last fits Crooke's routine public dismissal of terrorism as a threat. The West, he says, faces not "terrorism" (his quote marks) but a distinctly less nasty "sophisticated, asymmetrical, broad-based and irregular insurgency." And his Conflicts Forum, dubbed by journalist Patrick Seale "a club of disaffected diplomats and intelligence officers," engages in a pleasant form of personal diplomacy that diminishes the horror of Islamist terrorism.

Thus, at a Conflicts Forum meeting last month in Beirut with the leadership of four Islamist terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hizbullah, the mood and the food were too good to allow this inconvenient subject to intrude. Stephen Grey, a journalist covering the event, later reflected on it: "Invited to dinner with the participants in the Beirut talks, and sharing jokes with the Hamas men over tiger prawns, avocado, pasta and cherry tomatoes, I wondered privately how one would explain all this intimacy to the mother of a child killed by a suicide bomber."

Conflicts Forum offers a seductive alternative to the hard business of waging and winning a war. Unfortunately, its wrong-headed, defeatist, and doomed approach amounts to preemptively losing the war. Its counsel deserves a round rejection.[link]

Speaking about lunches with terrorists -- we should never forget the Boston Jewish establishment's foolish venturing into the area of private diplomacy, while hosting PLO propagandist Sari Nusseibeh. See related post on this site -- Lunch with Nusseibeh; Lunch without Honor

About the future of Gaza under the Hamas/Taliban regime, see Bringing Taliban back to Gaza

posted by: jrtelegraph

Columbia Celebrates Poet Anti-Semite

Anti-Semite Amiri Baraka -- toast of Columbia.

Did you notice that we are not surprised or shocked anymore? While good American citizens have been busy  working and producing, parasite left-wing scum took over this once great American University.

Little Green Footballs reports:

Columbia Mideast Institute Honors Antisemitic Poet

Columbia University’s Middle East Institute, fresh from being exonerated of antisemitism by a shamefully whitewashed investigation, recently held a special event—to honor antisemitic poet Amiri Baraka: Columbia University’s Middle East Institute Sends Invitations for Event Honoring Notorious Anti-Semite Amiri Baraka.

Sponsored by several groups (the Radius of Arab American Writers, the National Union of Writers, NY, and Alwan for the Arts), the April 14, 2005 event featured tributes to Baraka. Its proceeds will go to support a conference of Arab American writers at Hunter College.

Baraka, born LeRoi Jones, is known for his writings on jazz, but more for his Marxism and anti-Semitism. As the poet laureate of New Jersey Baraka created a firestorm with his poem “Somebody Blew Up America,” a diatribe accusing Israelis of having been warned of the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. When Baraka rebuffed calls for his resignation, New Jersey lawmakers responded by abolishing the position of poet laureate.

Baraka’s anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism reach far back into the 1960s, as does his violent animosity to whites, American society, and the West as a whole.

Why did the Columbia Middle East Institute lend its support to such an individual? And why did it send out the invitation (via e-mail) on the very day of the event? Coming hard on the heels of the recent controversy over harassment and intimidation of Jewish students, the Middle East Institute might have seen fit to consider more closely who it was promoting. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

President Bush: Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., 2005

President Bush proclaims April 19th, the day of Lubavitcher Rebbe's birthday to be Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., 2005:

Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., 2005
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of AmericaAs we enjoy the great freedoms of our country, we are mindful of our obligation to pass on to our children the values that sustain our liberty and our democracy.  On Education and Sharing Day, we reaffirm our commitment to teach young people the lessons they need to preserve and strengthen our Nation, and to reach as far as their vision and character can take them.

Education and Sharing Day honors the memory of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who established education and outreach centers that offer social services and humanitarian aid around the world.  Commemorating his life and legacy teaches the next generation that a single life of conscience and purpose can touch and lift up many lives. By helping to heal a broken heart, surrounding a friend with love, feeding the hungry, or providing shelter for the homeless, we can change America for the better, one heart, one soul, and one conscience at a time. 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 20, 2005, as Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A.  I call upon all our citizens to dedicate their time and talents to help our rising generation grow into caring and responsible adults.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty ninth.

GEORGE W. BUSH
[link]

posted by: jrtelegraph