Jewish Russian Telegraph

What's Too Cool for Al Gore?

Bret Stephens is a must read.

WSJ.com:

Freaked Out Over SuperFreakonomics

Global warming might be solved with a helium balloon and a few miles of garden hose.

• By BRET STEPHENS

Suppose for a minute—which is about 59 seconds too long, but that's for another column—that global warming poses an imminent threat to the survival of our species. Suppose, too, that the best solution involves a helium balloon, several miles of garden hose and a harmless stream of sulfur dioxide being pumped into the upper atmosphere, all at a cost of a single F-22 fighter jet.

Good news, right? Maybe, but not if you're Al Gore or one of his little helpers.

The hose-in-the-sky approach to global warming is the brainchild of Intellectual Ventures, a Bellevue, Wash.-based firm founded by former Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Nathan Myhrvold. The basic idea is to engineer effects similar to those of the 1991 mega-eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, which spewed so much sulfuric ash into the stratosphere that it cooled the earth by about one degree Fahrenheit for a couple of years.

Could it work? Mr. Myhrvold and his associates think it might, and they're a smart bunch. Also smart are University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and writer Stephen Dubner, whose delightful "SuperFreakonomics"—the sequel to their runaway 2005 bestseller "Freakonomics"—gives Myhrvold and Co. pride of place in their lengthy chapter on global warming. Not surprisingly, global warming fanatics are experiencing a Pinatubo-like eruption of their own.

Mr. Gore, for instance, tells Messrs. Levitt and Dubner that the stratospheric sulfur solution is "nuts." Former Clinton administration official Joe Romm, who edits the Climate Progress blog, accuses the authors of "[pushing] global cooling myths" and "sheer illogic." The Union of Concerned Scientists faults the book for its "faulty statistics." Never to be outdone, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman scores "SuperFreakonomics" for "grossly [misrepresenting] other peoples' research, in both climate science and economics."

In fact, Messrs. Levitt and Dubner show every sign of being careful researchers, going so far as to send chapter drafts to their interviewees for comment prior to publication. Nor are they global warming "deniers," insofar as they acknowledge that temperatures have risen by 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century.

But when it comes to the religion of global warming—the First Commandment of which is Thou Shalt Not Call It A Religion—Messrs. Levitt and Dubner are grievous sinners. They point out that belching, flatulent cows are adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than all SUVs combined.[Read the rest]

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France: Six Years of Jail Time for Arcadi Gaydamak

Ynet:

France: Gaydamak gets 6 years in jail

Israeli-Russian businessman and his partner, French businessman Pierre Falcone, sentenced in Paris to six years in prison for their involvement in arms sales worth $790 million to Angola in 1990s
AFP

Israeli-Russian businessman Arcadi Gaydamak and his partner, French businessman Pierre Falcone, were sentenced Tuesday in Paris to six years in prison for their role in Angolagate, a case of arms sales worth $790 million to Angola in the 1990s.

The huge arsenal - 420 tanks, 150,000 shells, 170,000 anti-personnel mines, 12 helicopters, six warships - shored up President Eduardo Dos Santos's regime during its vicious bush war against the UNITA rebels.

Angola pushed to have the trial abandoned, while President Nicolas Sarkozy flew to Luanda in May 2008 to mend ties strained by the case. Observers believe a harsh verdict could poison France's relations with Angola, where it hopes to develop massive oil contracts. The arms sales began when Socialist president Francois Mitterrand was president in 1993 but continued until 1998, three years after conservative Jacques Chirac's election. Mitterrand's son and former Africa advisor, Jean-Christophe, was sentenced to two years probation on charges of accepting millions of euros in "consultant fees" on the arms deals between 1993 and 1998. [Read more]

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The Jewish Advocate: Russian Jewish Community Foundation Honors Hero Refusniks

The Jewish Advocate:

Tribute spotlights foiled hijacking
Plotters hailed for aiding Soviet Jewry
By Elise Kigner Advocate Staff

PHOTO BY TONY YU Soviet Jewry Freedom Award honorees and members of the area Russian Jewish community at the charity ball (from left): Anna Kamenetsky, Wolf Zalmanson, Israel Zalmanson, Masha Rifkin, Eugene Wolfson, Boris Penson, Jerry Kopel, Jennie Leikin, Tilman Bishop, Ross Gorbatov, Anatoly Altman and Michael Wolfson.

They called it "Operation Wedding."

Saying they were bound for a wedding, a group of 10 Jews and two Christians chartered a small plane in Leningrad. The year was 1970, and the Soviet Union was still very much alive.

Right before takeoff, the group planned to push the two pilots out and fly the plane to Sweden.

Wolf Zalmanson joined the plot after his younger brother and sister had signed up. "I decided that it was my duty to join them," said Zalmanson, then 30. "I couldn't stand aside and watch them risk their lives."

The 12 didn't even make it out of the airport. They were rounded up by police, beaten up and packed off to prison. Tried on charges of high treason, 10 were sentenced to hard labor and two to death. The arrests and trials triggered international protests and galvanized the movement to free Soviet Jewry.

Wolf Zalmanson Born: 1939 Time served: Nine years Occupation: Mechanical engineer Home: Herzliya, Israel

Zalmanson, who now lives in Herzliya, Israel, and two others from the group, recalled the drama at a private reception in Needham. They were among the recipients of the Soviet Jewry Freedom Award from the Russian Jewish Community Foundation at its annual charity ball Sunday.

Zalmanson said the other Jews were trying to escape a country that had shuttered many of its synagogues and forbidden the teaching of Hebrew. Jews had to carry passports identifying their religion.

Obtaining permission to leave the country was nearly impossible. Those whose applications were refused wound up losing their jobs and coming under KGB scrutiny. They became known as refuseniks.

Zalmanson spent nine years in Soviet labor camps before he was set free and allowed to emigrate to Israel. The two death sentences were commuted, but some of the plotters served up to 15 years.

They reject the label attempted hijackers, calling themselves samoletchiks (Russian for people of the plane) instead.

Israel Zalmanson Born: 1949 Time served: Eight years Occupation: Industrial engineer Home: New Jersey

In explaining why he joined the plot, Anatoly Altman said, "You always had the feeling that you were a second class citizen. That Jews are traitors, Jews are parasites."

Israel's triumph in the 1967 Six Day War led to the "reawakening" of the Jews in the Soviet Union, said Altman, a 68-year-old retiree who lives in Israel.

Altman said his role in the plot was to help carry the pilots off the plane. He said the group never intended to hurt anyone.

Asked if the nine years he spent in a Soviet labor camp left him regretting his involvement in the hijack attempt, Altman just laughed.

Boris Penson said his "dream was to escape" when he was in his early 20s living in Latvia. After being denied an exit visa, he turned to more desperate measures.

"When I joined the group, I knew it was dangerous," said Penson, 63, an artist who lives with his wife and children in Netanya, Israel. "I didn't see myself living in Russia. This was my chance to be free." Instead, he spent nine years at a labor camp.

Boris Penson Born: 1946 Time served: Nine years Occupation: Artist Home: Netanya, Israel

Greg Margolin, cofounder of the Russian Jewish Community Foundation, served as translator at the Needham gathering. A refusenik himself, Margolin considers the samoletchiks to be heroes.

"People should be grateful for people who sacrificed their lives for them," said Margolin, 51, of Brighton, who came to America in 1986. At the time of the hijack attempt, when he was 13, he recalls thinking the plotters were crazy.

More than 400 people looked on at Lombardo's in Randolph as four samoletchiks were honored at the Russian foundation's fifth annual charity ball. The Brooklinebased nonprofit gives grants to local organizations like the Shaloh House Jewish Day School and Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly and runs camps for Russian children in Sderot, Israel.

Also honored at the ball were two former Colorado state lawmakers, Jerry Kopel and Tilman Bishop, who in 1979 established the Committee to Free the Leningrad Three, which pressed Soviets officials to release the last of the plotters.

Anatoly Altman Born: 1941 Time served: Nine years Occupation: Professor Home: Israel

Anna Kamenetsky, a 19-year-old student at UMass Amherst, has served as a counselor at the foundation's camps in Israel. A native of St. Petersburg who emigrated to the United States as a baby, Kamenetsky said she first learned about the attempted hijacking when she was chosen to introduce the samoletchiks at the awards ceremony.

She researched the plot by watching the 2008 documentary "Refusenik," which features the honorees, and by talking with her family. She discovered that her grandmother, Ella Reznikov of Needham, had worked at the same place as one of the people involved with planning the hijack attempt. She witnessed the KGB dragging him away from his job.

Kamenetsky said she was surprised her grandmother never told her about the samoletchiks.

"If it weren't for them," she said, "I wouldn't be here today, and I wouldn't know what it means to be Jewish and free." 

This article published by permission of the Jewish Advocate.
We strongly encourage you to subscribe and support The Jewish Advocate, our local Jewish community newspaper. which provides broad coverage of the community in general and of  Jews from Russia in particular. If you sign up online by the end of October (www.TheJewishAdvocate.com), you will receive a 10% discount off a 2-year or 3-year print subscription - just mention the discount in the comments section.

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RJCF Charity Ball Report

JRT Public Service reporting:

(picture by Tony Yu, click to enlarge)

It is not every day, that one is in the presence of heroes. Ball attendees of the RJCF 5th Annual Charity Ball had the opportunity that some people never have; being in the presence of true heroes. The event, which took place Sunday, October 18 in Lombardos in Randolph had over 400 attendees. The Russian Jewish community of Massachusetts and beyond gathered to thank a number of individuals who risked their lives towards the cause of freedom. The recipients of this year's Soviet Jewry Freedom Award were five of the Samoletchiki ,who in June of 1970 attempted hijack a plan in order to escape the Soviet Union and flee to their homeland, Israel. Anna Kaminetsky, a young woman who was a counselor in both the Children of Sderot Summer and Winter camps delivered a heartfelt speech introducing the samoletchiki who were present, Anatoli Altman, Israel Zalmanson, Wolf Zalmanson, Boris Penson. The men also accepted the award on behalf of samoletchik, Yuri Fedorov, who due to illness, was not present. The Soviet Jewry Freedom Award was also presented to two retired Colorado legislators, Representative Jerry Kopel and Senator Tillie Bishop who formed the "Committee to Free the Leningrad Three" and led a campaign in the Colorado legislature to write letters on behalf of the men to the Soviet authorities. Representative Kopel and Senator Bishop accepted their awards together with their wives, and expressed thanks to the legislature who had supported them and gotten involved with their mission. The atmosphere of the ball was one of overflowing gratitude to the heroes, who with their actions were able to begin the movement of freeing Soviet Jewry. Additionally, President of the Boston City Council, Michael Ross, then presented the Community Leadership Award to Dr. Naakh Vysoky for his commitment to political activism and involvement. A number of city councilors and politicians were there to support their respected friend. Soviet Jews resettlement volunteers Marilyn Goldberg, Sandie Bernstein, Tammy Goldman received  Community Appreciation Certificate. Ball attendees watched a video report updating them on the past years accomplishments, the goals and tasks that to come, as well as highlighting the inherent tie between the children of Sderot and immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The Ball was a successful celebration of the gratitude and appreciation felt for those who fought on behalf of Soviet Jewry, as well as the understanding and knowledge that because we were fought for, we must fight and continue to help the Children of Sderot. All in all, a job well done.

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Dovid Margolin: Waters of Flood and Financial Crisis

Dovid Margolin:

In this weeks Torah portion, Parshas Noach, we read about the flood that G-d made to destroy the world in response to the evil that its inhabitants had perpetrated. Before the flood started, Noach was commanded to build an ark, and to fill it with animals and with his family. When the flood was over, Noach was told to leave the ark, and then start the process of rebuilding the world.

It is explained that the flood was not only a punishment, but also a purification. The flood lasted for forty days which corresponds to the forty Seah (142 gallons) of a purifying Mikvah. Through the flood, the world was able to be absolved of its previous sins, and start a new.

Chassidic philosophy explains that the same idea applies to ones hardships with regards to making a living. A persons financial hardships rinse away his unwanted traits, and he comes out cleaner and purer because of them.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains the connection between the flood and Mikvah, and ones financial hardships. A Mikvah is a body of water that represents the idea of nullification, and it must be at least forty Seah because that is the amount of water that a person needs to be fully submerged. Through submerging his own self, his “Me”, he comes out on a higher level and can then become an appropriate vessel for holiness.

The same is true when it comes to financial hardships. Even though it temporarily bothers him and disrupts him and breaks him, he is then able to burst out of his own self, his own personal “Me”, and become a proper vessel for holiness.

And since the real reason for his hardships is not to punish him, G-d forbid, but to cleanse him and purify him, it is therefore understood that all of this can be accomplished in one minute. In one moment he can fulfill the inner reason for his hardships, and accomplish that which he must accomplish.

We should all use out our own personal situations for the better and understand that we are put in them because we have the ability to overcome our specific hardships. Through changing our surroundings, we all do our part in making this world into more of a G-dly place, and hasten the coming of Moshiach, may it be now.

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Jihad Out Of Sudbury, MA

CNN.com:

(CNN) -- A Massachusetts man charged Wednesday with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists abroad distributed a video that he said showed the "mutilation and abuse" of the bodies of U.S. personnel in Iraq, an FBI agent says.

Tarek Mehanna, 27, of Sudbury, Massachusetts, could face 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The video file was stored on a computer authorities took from the bedroom of Tarek Mehanna, 27, of Sudbury, Massachusetts, said Heidi Williams, an FBI special agent in Boston.

Mehanna sent the video to associates, explaining that it showed the aftermath of retaliation against U.S. personnel after a report of a rape committed by a serviceman, Williams said in an affidavit supporting three search warrants.

"The computer revealed that Mehanna and others reveled in the death of United States servicemen overseas," she said.

Mehanna faces one count of conspiracy, the acting U.S. attorney for Massachusetts said Wednesday at a news conference. Watch a CNN report about Mehanna »

Michael K. Loucks said Mehanna, of Sudbury, Massachusetts, traveled overseas, sought training from the Taliban, wanted to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq and hoped to kill one or two members of the executive branch of the U.S. government.

He did not name those potentially threatened, but said they never were in danger.

Mehanna appeared in court Wednesday to hear the charge against him. CNN was unable to reach his attorney, J.W. Carney Jr. [Read more]

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Senator Judd Gregg: U.S. On the Way To Become Banana Republic

CNNPOLITICS.COM:

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A leading fiscal mind on Capitol Hill and a one-time Obama Cabinet pick sounded the alarm Sunday over the projected long-term financial challenges the country faces.

“This deficit is driven by us,” New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg candidly said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union when asked about the federal government’s projected $1.42 trillion operating deficit for the 2009 fiscal year.

“You talk about systemic risk. The systemic risk today is the Congress of the United States,“ the Ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King, “that we’re creating these massive debts which we’re passing on to our children. We’re going to undermine fundamentally the quality of life for our children by doing this.”

“Now you can’t blame that on [former President] George [W.] Bush,” Greg said, noting that using the Obama administration’s projections the budget deficit for the next ten years is $1 trillion per year. And Gregg said that during the same ten-year period, public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product would increase from 40 percent - which Gregg called “tolerable but still too high” - up to 80 percent.

The figures, Gregg told King, “mean we’re basically on the path to a banana-republic-type of financial situation in this country. And you just can’t do that. You can’t keep running these [federal] programs out [into the future] and not paying for them. And you can’t keep throwing debt on top of debt.” [link]

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John Bolton: Israel, the U.S. and the Goldstone Report

WSJ:

Joining the U.N. Human Rights Council was a mistake Obama should correct.

By JOHN BOLTON

The U.N.'s Human Rights Council (HRC) voted overwhelmingly on Friday to endorse the recommendations of the lopsidedly anti-Israel Goldstone Report. The report, named for former South African judge Richard Goldstone, who chaired the underlying investigation, concluded that Israel's 2008-2009 military campaign against the terrorist group Hamas was actually aimed against Gaza's residents as a whole. Thus it was an illegitimate exercise of "collective punishment," an extraordinarily amorphous legal concept.

The report alleges numerous specific human rights violations by both Israel and Hamas. But by attempting to criminalize Israel's strategy of crippling Hamas, the report in effect declared the entire antiterrorism campaign to be a war crime. Mr. Goldstone recommended that Israel and the Palestinians should each conduct their own investigations, failing which the Security Council should refer the entire matter to the International Criminal Court for possible prosecution.

In the month since the report's release, it has roiled the Middle East peace process. An Israeli spokesman said "it will make it impossible for us to take any risks for the sake of peace," perhaps foreshadowing Israeli withdrawal from negotiations while the report remains under active U.N. consideration.

The HRC resolution endorsing the report's recommendations repeatedly lacerated Israel, leading Mr. Goldstone himself to cringe, saying he was "saddened" the resolution contained "not a single phrase condemning Hamas as we have done in the report." A U.S. State Department spokesman conceded that the adopted text "went beyond even the scope of the Goldstone Report itself."

The U.N. General Assembly created the HRC on March 15, 2006, to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission, which had spent much of its final years concentrating on Israel and the U.S. rather than the world's real human rights violators. The Bush administration voted against establishing this body and declined to join it, believing, correctly, that it would not be an improvement over its predecessor. President Barack Obama changed course, and the U.S. won election to the HRC in May. Mr. Obama argued that engagement would be more effective than shunning the HRC and attempting to delegitimize it.

The Goldstone Report thus provides a stark test of Mr. Obama's analysis. Predictably, the administration blamed the report's underlying mandate and its stridently anti-Israel tilt on America's earlier absence from the HRC when the investigation was authorized and launched. Yet the new administration's diplomacy had no discernible impact on the HRC's disgraceful resolution.

Twenty-five of the HRC's 47 members voted for the resolution (including Russia and China), six voted against (Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia, Ukraine and the U.S.), and 11 abstained (Japan, South Korea and several European governments among them).[Read more]

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Israel's Ambassador to the US Michael Oren Won't Attend the J Street Conference

Jerusalem Post:

Israel's Ambassador to the US Michael Oren has decided not to attend the J Street conference being held next week, the Israeli embassy said Tuesday.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski

Instead a lower-level member of the embassy staff will be sent to watch and report on the event.

"In response to the question about J Street's invitation to participate in its conference, the Embassy of Israel has been privately communicating its concerns over certain policies of the organization that may impair the interests of Israel," the embassy said in a statement. "Accordingly, the embassy will send an observer to the conference and will follow its proceedings with interest." [Read more]

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Israel Gelfand Dies at 96

LA Times:

Israel Gelfand dies at 96; Russian mathematician

His research laid the mathematical foundation for the imaging abilities of MRI and CT scanners.

By Thomas H. Maugh II

Israel Gelfand, the Russian mathematician whose research laid the mathematical framework for the imaging abilities of MRI and CT scanners and who did crucial work in a host of more esoteric fields, died Monday at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J. He was 96.

During a century when mathematicians were becoming ever more specialized, focusing on narrow and often exotic areas of research, Gelfand became a legend as a generalist who made contributions in more than a dozen areas. His work in the field known as representation theory was an underpinning of quantum physics.

He also was an inspiring teacher, creating math seminars in Moscow and at Rutgers University that provided encouragement and education for aspiring math students and establishing correspondence courses that allowed young students access to the best mathematical ideas of their times.

Gelfand said mathematicians were like music composers and that he was probably most like Mozart, said Edward Frenkel of UC Berkeley, who worked with him in Moscow. " 'We like Mozart not because of a particular piece that he created,' he said. 'It's the totality of his work and its profound beauty that make him a great composer.' Gelfand thought the same applied to his work," Frenkel said.

"He was considered the greatest mathematician of the last half of the 20th century," added Vladimir Retakh, his colleague at Rutgers, where Gelfand spent the last part of his career.

"He probably was the last one who worked in almost every area of mathematics, trying to combine things" rather than attempting to solve well-known puzzles.

Retakh noted that Russian mathematician Vladimir Arnold had contrasted the approaches of Gelfand and Gelfand's mentor, Andrei Kolmogorov, who were probably the two most famous Russian mathematicians of their era. "Imagine they both arrived in a country with a lot of mountains," he paraphrased Arnold. "Kolmogorov would immediately try to climb the highest mountain. Gelfand would immediately start to build roads."

His road-building won him many accolades: the prestigious Wolf Prize, mathematics' equivalent of the Nobel; a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; the Steele Prize; and the Order of Lenin -- three times.

Israel Moiseevich Gelfand was born Sept. 2, 1913, in the tiny town now known as Krasnye Okny in Ukraine. In the ninth grade, he was expelled from technical school because his father operated a mill and had an assistant, and was thus considered a capitalist. At 15, he contracted appendicitis, which then required a 12-day stay in the hospital. On the way there he asked his parents to buy him a calculus text, and he mastered it in his bed.

He did not complete high school or earn an undergraduate degree, but when he went to Moscow in 1930 seeking work, he began attending mathematics seminars at Moscow State University. Two years later, he was admitted directly into graduate school, receiving his doctorate in 1940.

In 1943 he established his legendary mathematics seminar, held every Monday night for nearly 50 years on the 14th floor of the Moscow university building. [Read more]

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