Jewish Russian Telegraph

It Is Not Just Pot In Massachusetts

So, libs are banning smoking, legalizing drugs. Are we the only ones to sense some class approach to addictive substances here? Limiting and taxing blue color people's habits, indulging those of liberal intelligenzia. We can bet that among pro-Hamas supporters at Boston demo there were no smokers, but there were quite a few potheads. Welcome to Massachusetts, perverts' paradise. Will the rest of the country follow? We hope not.

CNSNews.com:

Mass. Pot Law May Decriminalize Other Drugs
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
By Glen Johnson, Associated Press

Boston (AP) - Guidelines for a new Massachusetts law that ends minor marijuana arrests say the law may also apply to other drugs with the same psychoactive ingredient, such as hashish.
 
The guidelines obtained Monday by The Associated Press say the law that takes effect Friday ends criminal penalties for possession of an ounce or less of THC -- the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, hashish or hash oil.
 
Voters passed a referendum in November that instead imposes a civil penalty of a $100 fine and forfeiture of the drug.
 
The guidelines from the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security advise law enforcement agencies on the law's practical enforcement, but courts eventually are expected to have to settle questions on its scope.
 
The guidelines make clear that the law doesn't change existing regulations against drug distribution or driving under the influence, for example. In addition, all law enforcement officers with civil powers -- including campus officers -- have the authority to issue tickets.
 
The guidelines also recommend that cities and towns pass ordinances banning public use of such drugs. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Madoff Fiasco: Body Blow To Jewish Organizations in FSU

JTA:

Madoff scheme deals new hit to FSU Jews
By · December 23, 2008

MOSCOW (JTA) -- The Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard Madoff is the latest in a string of financial blows to Jewish aid programs in the former Soviet Union, wiping out a major foundation that was the primary funder of Jewish higher education in Russia.

The Chais Family Foundation, a $178 million philanthropy forced to close after investing all its money in Madoff’s fraudulent fund, gave away more than $12 million per year to Jewish causes. About $2.5 million of that focused on the former Soviet Union, where the foundation funded at least 12 cultural and educational programs.

Even before the foundation's collapse, several organizations -- including the Jewish Agency for Israel, Chabad-Lubavitch and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee -- had announced in recent months that they would be reducing support programming in the region, fueling doubt and fear among Russian Jewish communal leaders.

"Many of my colleagues and others think that 2009 could be the hardest year for the Jewish community of the former Soviet Union," Mikhail Chlenov, the general secretary of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, who also sits on the board of a program that was funded by Chais, told JTA. "Education is the first sphere of work that is already suffering, but social welfare programs could be next."

Re-creating a Jewish community in the former Soviet Union following the collapse of communism has been an intense project undertaken by the broader Jewish community, drawing hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years from the Jewish Agency, Chabad and the JDC. The Chais Foundation's annual $2.5 million contribution was the driving force behind creating a sustainable and self-sufficient piece of infrastructure in the region -- a higher education system equipped to train Jewish professionals and teachers.

Chais funded the Center for Biblical and Jewish Studies in St. Petersburg, the Jewish studies department at Moscow State University and the Chais Center for Jewish Studies in Russia, which it founded. The Chais Center brings professors from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to the region to create accredited programs. Hundreds of Jewish professionals have been trained through the center.

In addition, the foundation was a major funder of the Open University of Israel, which transmits online curricula to the former Soviet Union.

Those programs are now in danger.

Arkady Kovelman, the head of the Jewish studies program at Moscow State, said his program could definitely expect to lose some opportunities for grant money.

The Moscow program relies on academics from the Chais Center at Hebrew University who conduct courses in Hebrew and Russian. Kovelman says it is too early to tell if the program will continue or what the loss of Chais money will do to his program.

"I am hoping that it will not have an immediate impact," Kovelman said. "They are telling us that everything is more or less OK."

Even if programs in Russia weather the loss of Chais, the foundation's closing is only the latest in a half-year of calamity for programs in the region pinched by the downturn in the global economy.

The Heftziba system -- a network of 41 state-sponsored schools that offer Jewish curricula, which is is administered by the Jewish Agency -- is in peril. The system, which was set up by Russian municipalities in conjunction with the Israeli Ministry of Education immediately after the fall of communism, has seen its finances gutted by $40.5 million in cuts to the Jewish Agency’s overall budget.

The agency, which pays to have some 11,000 students bused to the schools, is reducing its funding for the system from $12.7 million in 2008 to just over $5 million for 2009, with the hope that local philanthropists will help pick up the slack.

Alan Hoffmann, the director of the Jewish Agency's education department, estimates that the Heftziba budget now has a $5 million hole.

“It could really be a mortal blow" to the school system, he told JTA Sunday.

The Jewish Agency already had been forced to adjust after Russian-Israeli philanthropist Arcadi Gaydamak pledged $50 million in 2006 to help establish programming in the former Soviet Union, but then froze the gift after giving only $10 million.

The two other Jewish-run school networks in the region -- the secular ORT system and the Orthodox Shma Yisrael -- have suffered from cutbacks undertaken by the Jewish Agency. Shma Yisrael has lost $200,000 in funding and the ORT schools are struggling through a budget cut of $1.2 million in recent months, according to ORT officials, JTA reported in November.

In the past three months, the largest Jewish educational network in the region, Chabad’s Or Avner system, has been forced to make significant cutbacks as its main benefactor, Lev Leviev, withdrew a substantial portion of his funding in the face of the financial crisis.

On top of these cuts, the Joint Distribution Committee, which provides social services to the frail and elderly in the region, is cutting its $100 million-plus 2009 budget in the region by about $5 million.

“You put those factors together in one six-month period from June 2008 until January of 2009 and you have some serious dynamite there for some institutions,” Hoffmann said.  “I think it is a serious body blow to Jewish life in the FSU." [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Rabbis Rule: OK to Bomb

Arutz Sheva:

(IsraelNN.com) Four leading rabbis issued a ruling Tuesday that when lethal rockets emanate from a civilian population bordering on a Jewish town, Jewish Law permits the firing of shells at the site – after giving sufficient warning. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef (eldest son of former Chief Sephardic Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef), Rabbi Dov Lior, Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe and Rabbi Meir Mazuz are signed upon the ruling.

The ruling states as follows: “When a population living near a Jewish town sends bombs at the Jewish town with the purpose of killing and destroying Jewish existence there, it is permitted, according to Jewish Law, to fire shells and bombs at the firing sites, even if they are populated by civilians.” [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Pro-Israel And Pro-Hamas In Boston

Solomonia does a good job of covering demonstrations in support of Hamas and in support of Israel:

Photos and Video from Yesterday's Support Israel Rally: Pro-Israel, Pro-Hamas, Face-to-Face

posted by: jrtelegraph

Sderot Today Eyewitness Account: Russian Immigrants In Unprotected Building

Pajamamedia (hat tip to Avi):

In the Line of Fire in Sderot

Posted By Karen Zivan On December 31, 2008

Moved by the plight of residents of southern Israel as missile attacks escalated following the Gaza operation, I decided to take action. With the day off from work, I called two organizations in Sderot to offer my assistance.

I teach yoga in my community, and volunteered my services to shaken residents in hope that they could learn some relaxation techniques.

Both organizations quickly agreed that it would be helpful, but as I drove south, accompanied by my son and his two friends, both teenagers, they called to cancel.

The morale of Sderot residents was too low for new experiences, they feared. They hesitated to offer any new programs, and many people felt more comfortable in their own homes with the ongoing missile threat. However, “One Heart,” a community aid organization in Sderot told us there was plenty of cleaning and windows to board up if we wanted to volunteer.

So, together with my 16-year-old son Etan and the two 17-year-old girls, Sarena and Reut, I continued on the hour and fifteen minute drive from the center of the country to Sderot.

Lev Echad’s main office is in Jerusalem, and once every several days it sends a bus of volunteers from Jerusalem to Sderot. Today they were expecting fifty volunteers on the bus, and we planned to join them.

On the way down to Sderot we passed through several checkpoints and saw groups of Israeli soldiers with duffels boarding buses. The mood was somber — this was war. We noticed how quiet the roads were. Vehicles were coming up from the south, but few were going in our direction.

The two girls, Sarena and Reut, had been to Sderot before. As we entered the city they pointed out the bomb shelters that line the main road. I’m glad they did, because it reminded me that there was a new level of alertness I needed to have.

It was far from a ghost town — people were out walking, cars were driving — but as we drove into the center of town, we noticed that stores were closed. We were told to find the police station and to wait there for instructions. After several minutes of waiting, I decided to park the car so we could walk where we needed to go.

Within split seconds of parking outside the police station, the alarm went off warning of incoming missiles. I only knew it was an alarm because Sarena and Reut had heard it before. I knew we had 15 seconds to find a bomb shelter. Luckily, we found one, and within less than five seconds I heard the loudest explosion I have ever heard go off. The bomb shelter, no bigger than some people’s bathtub, shook and it took several long seconds before anyone was interested in checking outside. Quickly it was obvious, due to smoke, yelling, sirens, and hundreds of people appearing on the scene that the Kassam rocket fired from Gaza had hit less than 50 meters away from us.

We stood and watched everyone around us get busy doing their jobs — police, army, ambulances, neighbors, journalists, photographers. It was like watching a beehive, with everyone having a specific task. We quickly reviewed how fortunate we were not to be in the car, and doubted whether we would have even heard the siren in the car. Being the sole adult in our group I had to put up a brave front, but inside I was trembling.

The representatives of Lev Echad, in the end, could not meet us due to the road blocks following the explosion, so we walked and found our way by ourselves. Slowly, more people came outside. As we walked, only several blocks, we kept our eyes on bomb shelters or staircases we could enter in case another alarm was to go off. Never before had I experienced the panic and vulnerability that I felt during that walk.

Lev Echad’ “headquarters” is a bomb shelter, converted into an afternoon day care center for children and a place for volunteers to sleep. Here the operation is run by several hip-looking 20-somethings.

We were briefed by them regarding our responsibilities as volunteers and their responsibility to keep us safe. Communication is key, texting by cell phone is essential. The organization wanted to know where we were, and that we were OK all the time. They gave us white shirts with a red heart logo, requested a small donation in exchange for them, and sent us with two other volunteers back to the police station area to help clean the apartments of shattered glass, comfort trauma victims, and seal windows with masking tape.

There was still activity around the apartment area where the Kassam fell so close to us. Gas was leaking from a tank and that was being fixed. Journalists and photographers, police, soldiers, social workers, and other volunteers were everywhere. Every apartment was covered in layers of shattered glass and rubble and dust. Most of the occupants were Russian immigrants who did not speak English or Hebrew. Hugs and smiles were the universal language. Every apartment had a broom, a dust bin, and a mop.

We had no gloves, no other equipment — just adrenaline and a will to help. This was the first time a Kassam had fallen so close to this complex. The reaction from the people we met was panic and faith in God: many thanked God for remaining alive.

Unfortunately, none of the apartments in this complex had bomb shelters. When they hear the siren — and there isn’t always a siren — they run into their very small bathroom. I shudder imagining what it is like to be in there longer than a couple of minutes. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Rabbi Pizem Lights Chanukah Menora in Sderot

Sderot Media Center:

Russian Jewish community of Boston found in Rabbi Pizem, Director of Sderot Beit Chabad a good friend and partner.
Here he lights Chanukah Menorah

posted by: jrtelegraph

Dovid Margolin: Chanukah Gelt

Dovid Margolin:

The word Chanukah literally means to "dedicate." When the Jewish people entered the Temple, they rededicated the Holy Temple after it had been ransacked by the Greeks. We remember this in Al Hanisim, a special prayer we add to our daily prayers commemorating our victory and the miracle of Chanukah.

We know that every part of the miracle and the occurrences of Chanukah have a connection to our lives today. When we speak of the Temple, it does not only mean the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. There is also the small sanctuary, referring to a synagogue, a person's home, and the sanctuary that is within each person's soul. The Torah says "Build for me a Temple, and I shall dwell within you". It does not say within it but within you, within each and every Jewish person. Every person's soul should be made into a dwelling place for G-d, and from there the light will spread throughout the world.

The great Jewish sages Hillel and Shammai had an argument about how we should light the menorah. Shammai said that we should start with eight lights and take one away each night. Hillel countered that and said, we start with one light and add one each night. He explained, that in matters of holiness, we always add and never decrease. This is what Chanukah is all about. It is about adding in light, in deeds.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that on Chanukah each of us has additional strength gained from Chanukah to be utilized in order to add in deeds. There is also a special connection to education as seen by the root connection between the word Chanukah and Chinuch, Hebrew for education. At this time we must take our additional strength and use it to build more institutions of Judaism, and strengthen those that we already have.

The Rebbe additionally explains that there is a custom on Chanukah to give Chanukah "Gelt”, money. The inner part of Chanukah "Gelt" is not money, but education. When a child cries out for his "Gelt" the parent must respect his child's wishes, and provide for the child a more Jewish household. Similarly, a husband may ask of his wife, and a wife may ask of her husband. The Chanukah "Gelt" that they ask of each other should be of real substance, the solidifying of their Jewish home.

We should take the message of Chanukah with us beyond Chanukah, and may the light of Chanukah continue to grow until the ultimate light of Moshiach will fill this world.

posted by: jrtelegraph

Santa Claus is Jewish, And His Real Name Is...

His name is Alan Solomont.

Boston Herald:

Local Democrats drooling over sugarplum federal posts around New England already have begun whispering their Christmas wishes to a quiet group of local kingmakers who have President-elect Barack Obama’s ear.
“I have a list that’s bigger than Santa Claus, and I know exactly who’s been naughty and nice,”  joked Alan Solomont, a political power broker who was a big Bay State fund-raiser for Obama.
Solomont, who’s worked for Democrats on six presidential campaigns, confirmed he’s chatted with Obama staffers about the highly sought-after positions, which begin at a generous $115,000 a year.
Only two of the local posts, U.S. attorney for Massachusetts and U.S. marshal for Massachusetts, must go to someone from the Bay State. Regional directors for the Environmental Protection Agency, Health and Human Services, Educational Quality Assistance, Housing and Urban Development and Small Business Administration could come from anywhere in New England.
“I’m trying to help people from Massachusetts who have talent and are strong Obama supporters,” Solomont said.
Jockeying across New England is intense because local Democrats haven’t been up for the well-paid federal posts since 1992. Early Obama support from the state’s top politicians - Gov. Deval Patrick and Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry - means Massachusetts will have more clout than usual, Solomont said. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

New York Times Russian Language Blog: Phenomenal Success

The Lede:

December 24, 2008, 1:18 pm

On the Web, a Year of Dialogue With Russian Readers

By Clifford J. Levy

The New York Times on LiveJournal.ru.

MOSCOW – A year ago, around the time of parliamentary elections here, I took part in a question-and-answer session with readers of our Web site. I was heartened by the response – wow, people are really interested in Russia! – but also struck by something else: the few English-speaking Russians who contributed to the on-line discussion offered compelling first-hand insights into events in their own country.

That realization led me to set up a Russian-language blog in late February to try to venture far deeper into Russian public opinion. I was hoping that comments from Russians about events and articles in The New York Times could be translated into English to give our readers a little flavor of how Russians felt.

The results far exceeded my expectations. The blog has received more than 26,000 comments, and has become an important tool for the newspaper to better understand and explain Russia. The title of the blog is, “Tell Americans and the World about Russia,” and Russians have done just that.

The Web site, which was established with the assistance of Live Journal, the most popular blogging platform in Russia, was often one of the most heavily trafficked on the Russian Internet, which has more than 30 million users. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Phyllis Schlafly: Trouble Ahead With Obama's Global Agenda

Phyllis Schlafly:

Obama's Plan to Rejoin the World Community
Phyllis Schlafly
Tuesday, December 23, 2008

When Candidate Barack Obama declared himself a "citizen of the world" before thousands of cheering German socialists, and later pledged to "rejoin the World Community," those weren't just his usual platitudes about "change." Those words sounded the trumpet for his specific and far-reaching globalist agenda.
Obama plans to use his presidential power to get the Democratic-majority Senate to ratify a series of treaties that would take us a long way toward global rule over our money, our laws, our military, our courts, our customs, our trade and even our use of energy. Here are the treaties he says he wants.
The U.N. Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), which Ronald Reagan rejected in 1982, is high on Obama's list. LOST has already created the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Jamaica and given it total regulatory jurisdiction over all the world's oceans and all the riches on the ocean floor.
Corrupt foreign dictators dominate LOST's global bureaucracy, and the United States would have the same vote as Cuba. Likewise for LOST's International Tribunal in Hamburg, Germany, which has the power to decide all disputes.
Even worse, LOST gives the ISA the power to levy international taxes. The real purpose of the taxing power is to compel the United States to spend billions of private-enterprise dollars to mine the ocean floor and then let ISA bureaucrats transfer our wealth to socialist, anti-American nations.
Next on Obama's list is the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which was signed by Bill Clinton but rejected by the Senate in 1999. It would prohibit all nuclear explosive testing and thereby allow our nuclear arsenal to deteriorate until the American people are defenseless against rogue regimes such as Iran and North Korea.
A new Global Warming Treaty is starting to be written at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Poland in order to replace the Kyoto Agreement, which George W. Bush and our Senate refused to ratify. The new treaty would force dramatic reductions in our use of energy -- i.e., our standard of living -- and impose the "strong international norms" that Obama seeks.
Obama is toadying to his feminist friends by pushing ratification of the U.N. Treaty on Women, known as CEDAW. It was signed by Jimmy Carter in 1980 and persistently promoted by Hillary Clinton, but the Senate has so far had the good judgment to refuse to ratify it.
This treaty would require us "to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women," to follow U.N. dictates about "family education," to revise our textbooks to conform to feminist ideology in order to ensure "the elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles of men and women" and to set up a federal "network of child-care facilities."
Article 16 would require us to allow women "to decide number and spacing of their children." Everyone recognizes this as feminist jargon for a U.N. obligation to allow abortion on demand.
Like all U.N. treaties, the U.N. Treaty on Women creates a monitoring commission of so-called "experts" to ensure compliance. The monitors of the Treaty on Women have already singled out Mother's Day as a stereotype that must be eliminated.
Another U.N. Treaty on the list is the U.N. Treaty on the Rights of the Child, which was signed in 1995 by Bill Clinton but wisely never ratified by our Senate. This is a pet project of the people who believe that the "village" (i.e., the government or U.N. "experts") should raise children rather than their parents.
This treaty would give children rights against their parents and society to express their own views "freely in all matters," to receive information of all kinds through "media of the child's choice," to use their "own language," and to have the right to "rest and leisure." This treaty even orders our schools to teach respect for "the Charter of the United Nations."
These Obama-endorsed treaties, every one of which would be a dramatic encroachment on U.S. sovereignty, would be supplemented by trade agreements negotiated by Obama's trade representative, Ron Kirk. He is an enthusiastic supporter of the "global economic community" (which means open borders for "free" trade), of NAFTA and even of the NAFTA Super Highway, which he calls the "true river of trade between our communities."
Kirk's work to lock us into the global economy will be bolstered by Obama's secretary of commerce, Bill Richardson, another aggressive promoter of "free" trade.
Every U.N. treaty would interfere with self-government over some aspect of our lives and would transfer significant power to foreign bureaucrats, many of whom hate and envy America. Obama's U.N. treaties are the enemy of U.S. political and social independence, and Kirk's global economic community is the enemy of good middle-class American jobs.
Copyright © 2008 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph