Yeshiva Study Petition

 

 

 

A petition on Change.org regarding yeshiva study:

 

(http://chng.it/7chpRk6R86)

 

 

Banning Jewish Practice

 

Some people may find this a difficult or disturbing subject matter involving animals; please be advised.

 

Banning Jewish Practice (Randyjw; April 2, 2017)

 

Kosher slaughter of animals, or “sh’chita”, has been practiced for several thousand years, based on commands and interpretations of the laws governing Jewish practice. These rulings were provided by G-d, and are part and parcel of the Jewish faith, which we are commanded to keep (although the liberal Reform denomination of Judaism does not keep the ritualistic aspects of certain of these commands — but, this is a small number of the totality of all Jews).

 

The many laws must be followed by the expert Jewish butcher, or “shochet”, to follow the exacting guidelines so that the resultant cut of meat from a “fit” species will still be “fit” for consumption (“kosher”) when slaughtered. The practices are based on the laws of the Torah, which lays out the determining factors whether the creature, whether animal, fowl, fish or creeping thing is allowed among the “clean” ones determined by G-d to be fit for consumption.

 

While some people might presume that the “cleanliness” of an animal is based on its diet or hygiene, such that the prohibition against shellfish might be presumed in place due to the predominance of a mostly bottom-feeding diet from such species, or that the pig might be banned due to the presumptive eating of slop and having a predilection to mud bathing, neither of these are the actual reasons why they are disallowed in the Kashrut Jewish diet.

 

Shellfish are not allowed because they do not contain the characteristics of having both fins and scales. Pigs are excluded from the default category because, while they do have parted hooves, they aren’t considered as one that chews the cud — and both traits must be met within this category.

 

Throughout the millenia, people who have held anti-Semitic views have often tried to prevent the Jews from practicing the rituals of our religion. It was as true during the Babylonian exile, when Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, in keeping with their Jewish traditions, convinced their captors to feed them only vegetables and water, rather than the King’s rich meats and wines. Furthermore, Daniel set a clinical research study by making comment that it should be conducted as a test by appearances at the end of ten days: Daniel and his men, versus the meat-eaters. The end result was that Daniel and his men appeared healthier in all respects (plus, they did not have to disobey their religious strictures).

 

Flash forward to the time of the First Temple destruction by the Romans (given as about 600 years later from the Babylonian exile), when they set up a pagan shrine to their idol and bade the Jews to worship it, and forbade them their own practices. The Jews would not comply, and this resulted in the eventual sacking of Jerusalem, as well as the razing of the Temple.

 

In Europe, where they experienced the Dark Ages, as if the dumbing down of society had led to a paucity of knowledge, the rise of various denominations within branches of the Christian faith, plus a belief in a wealth of superstitious rites, led to a fear and resentment of the “otherness” of the Jew, and caused many anti-Semitic edicts and actions perpetrated against the Jewish people. This included the ban of certain practices, such as Kosher slaughter and circumcision.

 

Upon occasion, these same discriminatory rulings against the Jewish people and their religious practice finds implementation amongst various of the world’s countries, in Europe, and elsewhere. These became the rule of the land in olden days — but, they have a chance of being struck down for their obvious discrimination in more modern times.

 

According to a recent article in The Jewish Press, the following countries have a ban on the practice of Kosher slaughter: Denmark, Switzerland and New Zealand. Coming up for a parliamentary vote in the Flemish province of Belgium is a law to compel only the electric stunning of animals before slaughter, which is a practice contrary to Kosher law. Further countries, including Poland, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden were also on the list banning Kashrut slaughter, back in 2011, but some have since seen that it represents Jewish discrimination and have since remanded their ruling.

 

Jewish law compels the slaughter of animals to be done with the least amount of pain inflicted upon the animal as possible. For this reason, a very sharp blade is used. Other specific practices are also completed, such as the draining of all blood from the animal, as it is forbidden by Jewish law to consume the blood, for the blood is life.

 

Throughout the Torah, there are many stipulations placed on humans to be kind in their dominion over the animals: to yoke them equally; to keep them unmuzzled while they work, in order for them to be able to eat; to feed them before your own meal is eaten, etc. These all form part of the basis for how the laws relate to each other and within the categories relating to the treatment of animals.

 

Having followed these laws for several thousand years already, and seeing the practice of pre-stunning the animals in modern times, which often is a tragic and painful failure, it has been the position from our religious standpoint that the Jewish method is the most humane way to slaughter an animal for food, if one is going to slaughter an animal, at all.

 

Animal rights activists, without fully always knowing what Kosher practice actually entails, disagree. Placing themselves in the Leftist camp, which tends to be funded by people such as George Soros or Arab-supportive groups of the like which side often with terrorist sympathies, their real agenda is anti-Semitic, couched in a veneer of pretence for the animals — even though stunning the animals has been shown to often result in horrid pain for the animals.

 

I think it’s just another way to boycott the Jews. I just thought you might like to be aware of how these countries stand, in case you’re planning to write any letters to their governments or have any travel or trade purchasing considerations in mind…

 

Israel, David. “Belgian Province to Ban Kosher Slaughter”. The Jewish Press.com; March 31, 2017:

(http://www.jewishpress.com/news/jewish-news/belgian-province-to-ban-kosher-slaughter/2017/03/31/)

 

Antebi, David. “What is the Shchita (Kosher Slaughter)?”. Israeli Students Combating Antisemitism (isca-org.com); October 4, 2015:

(http://isca-org.com/what-is-the-shchita-kosher-slaughter/)

 

Updates / Additional Reading:

Berkowitz, Adam Eliyahu. “Marine Le Pen Announces She Would Ban Kosher Slaughter in France”. Breaking Israel News.com; April 26, 2017:

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/87177/marine-le-pens-muslim-slaughter-ban-targets-kosher-meat/

 

JNS.org, via Breaking Israel News.com. “France’s Le Pen Will Force Jews to Renounce Israeli Citizenship if Elected”; February 12, 2017:

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/83475/far-right-marine-le-pen-elected-jews-must-renounce-israeli-citizenship/

 

Update (September 28, 2019):

Keidar, Nitsan. “Belgian ban on kosher slaughter goes into effect”. israelnationalnews.com; September 1, 2019:

(http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/268195)

 

 

 

Happy Chanukah!

Original Post Date: December 5, 2015

One of the highest precepts of the Jewish religion is to “teach children in the way they should go”. Education has been a guiding principle of our people for thousands of years. In that spirit, and in the spirit of spreading a little joy and light at Chanukah, I share with you some selections from YouTube about Israel — and of Chanukah around the world, in song, for you to share in the culture of the Jewish people — the ancient, the old, the new, the ones imprinted on our souls throughout our dispersion. Hope you’ll learn, share, and enjoy with us:

STYLE:

Israel: (https://youtu.be/6Q4XL4oRIRE)

Hebrew: (https://youtu.be/E9HCOX1f3H4)

Russian: (https://youtu.be/OFodbrlqbJI)

Moroccan: (https://youtu.be/rkIc1adgD_M)

Yiddish: (https://youtu.be/KxH0xF84h_0)

Children’s: (https://youtu.be/KgFyCPs2XmE)

Iraqi: (https://youtu.be/1kbxkwv0JUU)

Sephardic: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ByJHOhVUQ&list=RDM6ByJHOhVUQ)

Breslov: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcCHkSWzmS0&list=RDGcCHkSWzmS0)

(In English):

New/Original: (https://youtu.be/HQHFwgnnGBE)

Translated: (https://youtu.be/G_bAqvYedIM)

Medley/Dance: (https://youtu.be/fqEQy6l1kzc)

Tiles of the Temple Found

 

As a child and throughout the all-important developmental years of my youth, I was fortunate to be raised by hard-working parents who struggled to afford me the privileges of providing cultural opportunities to enrich my growth.

 

I attended day camp and summer camp, and had occasional treats of museum or aquarium visits, the Nutcracker suite ballet (back when it was the real, visiting Russian Moscow ballet, to whom nobody has ever held a candle to, to this day), and ice shows. There were piano-, ice-skating and tennis lessons (skiing I had to pay for myself).

 

These are important things, which I think that many of today’s families just don’t bother undertaking with their children. I spent many after-school days at my friend’s house, and she was also a fixture at ours, accompanying my mother and I to an occasional outing. My favorites usually involved trips to the museum. I particularly took a shine to the polished gemstones for purchase for between $1.00-to-$3.00 in the museum’s gift shop, as did my friend, and I had a small collection of a few good rocks: micah, pyrite, and others.

 

I was also really enraptured of the Egyptian artifact collections, as well as the heiroglyphic and ancient writing systems of the ancient Middle Eastern cultures, spending some time in youthful pursuit, which is to say, not so seriously, unfortunately, in trying to learn some of these systems. Odd how it was that when my friend and I concocted our own secret alphabet code, we happened to have used some of the same symbols formulated by the ancients of old. I believe there must be some type of universal symbol usage, or perhaps more narrowly Middle Eastern, that perpetuates in ancient memories of the mind. I bet that if today’s coded kids’ alphabets were studied, they’d find the same symbols still in effect (add this to my Crazy Theory subset: #2, if I remember to do so).

 

I never extrapolated my love in my youth for the Egyptian archaeological finds early enough to realize that it could be a field of study for me, applied to Israeli/Jewish culture. Most study of archaeology in its beginnings were conducted mostly under the auspices of societies/Foundations/schools studying Egyptian, Assyrian and Hittite culture. Jews were excluded from among such groups due to anti-Semitism, and via the fact that they weren’t allowed entrance in such a capacity to those other Middle Eastern countries, anyways. Israel was still being referred to by the old designation of “Palestine”, in any case, as well.

 

In really recent times, though, I was briefly able to realize this great honor in studying Israeli archaeology via the Israeli Ministry of Tourism acceptance of me into its program of licensure to be a tour guide. In a participating academic program I enrolled in (I was unable to complete the full course of certification, due to personal circumstances I let get in the way), my course studies took me on field trips accessible only to archaeologists behind locked gates and other areas way beyond that which even the scope of a tourist trip could reveal. It was incredible.

 

One day I was watching t.v. with my mother about Israel and its sites, and there was one of my classmates, described as an expert, leading a televised tour of a particular ancient site, and I excitedly pointed him out to my mother.

 

Israel’s top archaeologists were my classroom and field guide teachers. One spoke of his Yemeni wife and related tales of his visit with the Princess of Bhutan, as he led us up mountains and past old water drainage systems cut into the hillsides. Another, whom I really related to and admired immensely, is one of Israel’s leading archaeologists. Dr. Gabriel Barkay is the archaeologist whose excavations uncovered the oldest found Biblical text, incised in proto-Hebraic script onto two silver scrolls: that of the Aharonic Blessing (one of my favorites) of Numbers 6:24-26 and the other of Deuteronomy 7:9, dating to approximately the 7th Century BCE, according to information I found at the Israel Tour Guide / Israel Tours blogsite of Shmuel Browns (read his article, below).

 

Prior to the beginning of my educational training, I participated briefly in a project known as the Temple Mount Sifting Project, where dirt which had been removed during illegal Arab construction and excavation on the Temple Mount was being sifted and combed through for any archaeological artifacts it might yield. While I did not find anything….

 

Stone tiles matching the new Roman foot measurement of 29.6 cm used by Herod such as at his other palaces, like Masada, Jericho, and Herodion, of flooring installed in the inlaid opus sectile, or “cut work” style, unknown in Israel prior to Herod’s time, have since been found of imported marble and stone from Rome, Asia Minor, Tunisia and Egypt.

 

King Herod was responsible for many great building projects throughout Israel under vasselage of the Roman Empire. The tiles dating to this time confirm the Jewish Temple having been built then (37-4 BCE, according to the information found at Breaking Israel News), and there. Other contemporaneous sources during Temple period times comes from the historian Flavius Josephus, in his First Century book, “The Jewish Wars”, who writes of the courtyard of the Jewish Temple being paved with multicolored stone, as well as Talmudic literature speaking of colors of green, blue and white. More than 100 of the 600 tiles found date to this period.

 

The timing couldn’t have been a better counterpoint to 9-11 this year (as well as BDS, EU labeling, UNESCO declaration of the Temple Mount being solely holy to our sworn enemies, etc…).

 

G-d sure does have a great sense of humor, doesn’t He?

 

See the archaeological evidence at Breaking Israel News (scroll through entire article to see the different geometrical patterns posited in reconstruction and refurbishment, about halfway down the page) at: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/75233/first-time-ever-undeniable-evidence-jewish-temple-discovered-photos/

 

Berkowitz, Adam Eliyahu. “For First Time Ever, Archaeological Evidence Proves Jewish Temple Stood On Temple Mount [PHOTOS]”. Breaking Israel News.com; September 6, 2016: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/75233/first-time-ever-undeniable-evidence-jewish-temple-discovered-photos/

 

Browns, Shmuel. “Ketef Hinnom Silver Amulets”. Israel Tour Guide / Israel Tours; March 16, 2011: https://israel-tourguide.info/2011/0316/ketef-hinnom-silver-amulet/

 

Shalom Aleichem: Peace Be Unto You

Shalom Aleichem:

Peace Be Unto You

 

 

Responsibility In Religion

Jewish religion takes ownership of our congregation in acknowledging both the good with the bad. We strive to improve ourselves through education, good deeds, and hope to abide by a code of good conduct relative to our understanding of the paths set before us by G-d and the ways by it that we are supposed to relate to the world. We may not always meet each and every goal along this path. It may, indeed, be hypocritical to hold someone to task who has failed in that task, but we accept them as ours, and accept that they have failed. They will fail at some tasks set before them. This is life, and realistic expectations maintain that such will happen.

 

However, it is good to have a sense of the ideal to reach for, even when we can’t reach everything that we would hope to. Holding out high hopes gives someone a goal to strive for. We don’t like bad behavior, either. But, alas — Jewish people also commit bad deeds. And yes, it’s sad, but we have to acknowledge that one of ours did that particular thing of which he stands accused. It doesn’t mean we like it, or condone it, but we don’t pretend it was done by the “man on the moon”, or the “boogeyman”, or any number of irrelevant others toward which blame could be transferred. Only in the most blatant acts of physically trying to separate oneself from Judaism itself would a decree of ex-communication be issued, where we would then “disown” the person from the religious community. It is very rare for this to happen, as it is always held out for the Jew to return to the religion. Once issued, it is as if the person is dead to the community, and does not exist.

 

We are to abide by 613 mitzvot, both positive and negative — the “Do’s” and the “Don’ts” — in Jewish law. If you think that’s alot, one need only look at the laws inherent in a Democratic society, such as exist in the United States, to find that the Jewish laws are quantifiably a cakewalk, in comparison! How many laws actually exist in the U.S.? And how many more so might there be in a much older Western society, such as that of Great Britain, say? Do we really follow each and every law on the books, like a perfect citizen, each and every one of us?

 

Well, not to be pessimistic, but the answer, as borne out by the over-crowded prison system, is resoundedly negative, in that regard. Our jail cells are top-full with people who have been placed there with a verdict of guilt for various infractions, ranging from slight to great. A recent article (unread) even mentions a man serving a life sentence for the non-return of a library item!

 

Old laws still on the books are routinely contravened in today’s society, and would be seen as discriminatory through the progressive, prismatic lenses by which we view issues, especially social ones, today.

 

I could never concile, at least in the younger formulation of my self, the viewpoint of a religious perspective which could disavow the behaviors associated with an individual as separate from the religion to which they identify. The behaviors belong to the individual, and the individual belongs to a religion. The tendency for certain religions to disavow the individual, on and off like a spigot, when they commit bad acts, and only confirm “membership” to one in good standing, is absolutely disingenuous.

 

I hope that those of the Christian faith won’t be too upset with my feelings about a few aspects of their religion that I feel needs closer consideration, if one wants to be honest about the whole thing. I can understand the adage to “Love the sinner, but not the sin”. But it seems that every time a self-professed Christian commits a heinous act, it is suddenly said of them that they are not a “true Christian”, and that a “true Christian” would never do such things.

 

The hypocrisy I find in this statement is that the Christian dogma believes that mankind is imperfect and imbued with Original Sin. They believe that only one way exists to G-d via the corporeal intermediary, or triumvirate conception of the embodiment of this ideal.

 

If the person accepts Christianity, but falls prey to the temptations of the world, as is his wont, due to Original Sin (according to Christianity), then how can he suddenly be said to be not a “true Christian”? Isn’t that just what Christianity reports itself to be? Don’t they claim ALL people to be sinners? To use a concept from the religion, the sinner comes to the congregation and suddenly it’s as if they were never known to them?

 

I’m sorry, but if you think about it really hard, the hypocrisy in the statement is there. They HAVE sin. They are imperfect beings. That is the major tenet of the religion. They can’t suddenly be cast-off when they did something wrong, so as not to cast aspersion on the religion, itself.

 

You need to own up to it. There are people in your religion that do bad things. They do it as a member of the religion, and they do it sometimes in the name of the religion (by following edicts found in that particular religion). I find it annoying to this day that people of Christian faith always resort to this disownership each and every time somebody sins (usually rather badly).

 

In the Jewish religion, we teach that man is supposed to act responsibly. There may be 613 mitzvot, and that must seem like a lot of rules to follow. We are not supposed to consider them a burden. They are to be a joy to us, a source of guidance, for ways to enhance our lives and bring us into conformance to a better way of living. It is said that there are two types of sin: that against man,  and that against G-d. The worse one is that against man. We are to seek forgiveness from those we have wronged, to repent for our actions, and to try to make amends.

 

In Judaism, we are to teach children in the way that they should go, so that they will not depart from it. In later classes as we mature, we have hopefully, by then, received ethics and morality classes to help us think through further issues. Pirkei Avot, The Ethics of Our Fathers, is a book of Jewish consideration of the subject.

 

In Judaism, we have debated the question posed by Cain to G-d, when he replied in response to G-d’s query concerning Cain’s knowledge regarding where his brother, Abel, was (who he had just killed): “Am I my brother’s keeper?” And the answer to that, is “Yes; I am my brother’s keeper” (I have failed you, my brother, Stephen). We have a responsibility to look after the welfare and actions of our brothers. This means guiding them, correcting them, caring for them, and more. It is our failure if we fail them.

 

We have standards to follow, and many times we fail to meet them. Christianity likes to make a main point out of this. They really like to ridicule the rules which we feel G-d set out before us to follow. We don’t presume to be superior because of this, and in fact it is noted in the Bible that we were considered “stiff-necked” people; but it is our religion and we believe the rules were never remanded.

 

Popular Christianity has changed through the Centuries on this matter: first teaching that only some of the rules applied; later teaching that the rules were replaced with the coming of J.C. Actually, even within the Christian Bible, it is stated by the man, J.C., himself, that he did not come to replace/do away with the (Jewish) Laws (of G-d). Yet, Christianity has done so, itself. As errors in Christian teaching become apparent throughout the Centuries, new dogma then begins to replace the old, changing in conformance to then-accepted precepts (until new errors are uncovered).

 

The religion of Islam is now taking a page from Christian teaching, using the same methodology which has worked so successfully, for so long, for the Christians. They now state that the people who are following the injunctions found in the teachings of their religion — whether by Imams, or by previous rulings of Hadith, or via new fatwas issued by religious councils — and who commit atrocities condoned in action just as verily by such, have actually “hijacked” their alleged-to-be “peaceful” religion.

 

The Hudabiyya agreement was a long-ago arrangement agreed to by the Muslims which allowed them time to build-up their resources to defeat at a later date those who had held the position of strength over them, at the time when the agreement had gone into effect. In today’s modern terms, we would call these “peace treaties” or “truces”, or the always-ongoing “peace process”. It has been determined that this sets the precedent whereby it is okay to lie to the enemy and make an agreement to any terms of peace, which can, later, conveniently be broken once they have gained sufficient strength. (Spoiler alert — too late!)

 

After writing yesterday that more Muslims need to stand against the violent acts perpetrated by those who come from their midst, I am happy to read a compilation of two instances translated by MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) from Arabic into English today whereby Arabs of stature in certain communities have condemned these atrocities committed by Muslims, and fault their own culture and religion for producing such individuals. They give great credibility and consideration for their Muslim indoctrination into putting blame where it belongs: quite squarely on themselves.

 

Kudos for speaking up and out on behalf of truth. Now, however, you are two small voices in the wilderness, and the billion-plus others still beat to a different drummer. Have we the time to wait for their moderation conversion?

 

It’s been a very easy riposte to disqualify the sinner from the religion, then. As noted, though… It just so happens that it ISN’T “truly Christian” to do so.

———————————————————————–

Related: The article above deals with the collective responsibility, as I see it, of religion, as a whole. A recent article posted at the United with Israel website shares a thought about our responsibilities as individuals, told through the interpretation of religious teachings gleaned through a story in the Bible. If you would like to read this, I’ve connected the link to the site, here:

http://www.unitedwithisrael.org/living-torah-take-responsibility-and-dont-shift-the-blame/

 

 

Randy’s Recipes: LENT-IL Soup

Randy’s Recipes: LENT-IL Soup

 

Giving up meat for Lent? Try this light, yet hearty soup. Even the word root is interesting: “Lent”, and the abbreviation for Israel, “IL”. We lend something with the premise of it being given back. Hopefully, Love will not be like that — it’s not generally supposed to be (but this soup is comforting in that event, as well).

 

It would be a misnomer to classify this recipe as my own. It’s not. But, “Randy’s Recipes” has a certain alliteration about it that I’ve decided to keep and employ as a general category. The previous recipes have been mine (the pita one belonged to my Mother), although, like I said, the bottle of Zahatar seasoning from Pereg brand does list cream cheese, as well as pita, in its Chef’s Recommendations on where to utilize its product.

 

The red pottage which became a symbolic token of the birthright exchange from Esau to Jacob in no way implies that the reverse occurred in the provision of this soup and the knowledge of its preparation from my Palestinian ex-husband to myself. While the recipe might very well have remained the same all these years, there are a couple of ways to achieve it. The recipe here uses whole ingredients. I have also cooked it with spectacular results using various seasonings/spices, when I didn’t have an onion to use, and it was just as good. I forget how I did it though, so I’ll just give you the basic recipe. I hope I never vowed not to divulge this, because I would feel badly were that the case. But the marriage, I believe, was perhaps a sham, and so many of the vows which should have been an inherent part of it were discovered to be missing — you drove me from my land with your threats of bodily harm and imprisonment — slavery, even, to masters other than even yourself. I left immediately, without my things. Never mind.

 

Enjoy this, “on the House”.

 

---

 

Randy’s Recipes: LENT-IL Soup (Randyjw; February 18, 2016)

 

2 bags red lentils (Goya, or other brand)

1 large white, Vidalia, or yellow onion: (quartered to-eighthed or whole, at your preference)

About 8 cloves peeled garlic

Lemon, fresh

Optional: Lime Syrup Slurry

———————————————————————-

Remove blemished, discolored lentils and any foreign matter from amongst the lentils, and rinse several times to remove the foamy residue accumulating at the start.

 

Cover the lentils several inches above their top level with water in a pot on the stove top. Turn the heat to a medium-high level to drive out the rest of the foamy matter and begin cooking the lentils. You want to leave it at a low enough  temperature in order not to quick-cook the lentil, but enough to skim the foam. Skim off this foam continually, at the first — if you don’t, it will taste dirty. When the lentils seem to have given up most of its foam, add the onion to the pot, and continue cooking. Use care to check that the onion and/or lentils do not stick to the bottom of the pot and burn; for this purpose, it may be best to leave the onion whole, and slice it, if need be, at the end. Turn down the heat to a soft simmer and continue cooking. Towards the last twenty minutes or so, add the garlic to the pot (enough time to cook it until soft, but not throughout the whole cook time).

 

Ladle the soup into its serving bowl. Cut a lemon and squeeze some of its juice onto the soup.

 

For optional lime syrup slurry, prepare 1/2- to 1- day in advance. Wash 4 ripe, sweet limes very well. Zest (if inedible) or cut rind (if edible) into small bits. Place into bowl or container. Sprinkle copiously with sugar and stir. Repeat several times until a thick slurry paste is developed. Cover and place into refrigerator and let infuse overnight. Dip spoon into bowl for slurry to seep onto it. Add a tablespoon of slurry or so per serving, mixed in at time of presentation, for a slightly different, uplifting version. Enjoy immensely!

 

This variation, below, adds israeli couscous, spices, and mushrooms to the soup, for a heartier version:

6.9 Yums Up

BBC-mitism

It’s not my imagination — it’s official. What I’ve been trying to tell people for years is confirmed by others who have independently reached the same conclusion as I.

The matter to which I refer involves long-held viewpoints from pagan and Christian dogma metamorphosing and metastasizing to conform to ever present realities in which it finds itself. One factor has remained constant throughout the continent, and it has been the institutionalized, top-down aspect of anti-Semitism as disseminated by its governmental and religious leaders meeting to meld with a bottom-up approach to vigilante action by the local population to eliminate and neutralize the Jews within their midst. Various countries have developed their own preferred methodologies to attack what they see as this “problem” of there being Jewish people living amongst them, whether by killing them, banishing them from certain industry, or expelling them altogether. Yes, it has even developed a “flavour-du-jour” as to the lasting, permanent stench clinging to each countries’ historical reputation.

England has been no exception and has even led the pack, developing and instigating libelous accusations blaming the disappearance of Christian children upon Jews, who were preposterously charged with the murder of these children in order to use their blood in baked matzah. First, Jewish law forbids the consumption of blood. Second, matzah is just flour and water, with maybe a flavorant (onion, salt, etc.) minimally added. It represents the day we departed Egypt out of bondage, in a big hurry to get out of there as per G-d’s orders to us before he would harden Pharaoh’s heart once again against us. There was no time to let the bread rise, and as we are commanded by G-d to celebrate and recount this festival since that time, thousands of years ago, every year — we do so.

The accusers mix in another aspect of this story, when G-d commanded us to anoint our doorposts/entrances with blood from a lamb which each family was to eat, as a sign of obedience for hearing and following Him, and sparing us the deaths of our firstborns when our houses were passed-over, as bestruck the Egyptians. So the story of the Bible became a weapon which others would malign to fit their narrative to act maliciously towards the Jews.

Such stories were often traced back to the Archbishop of Canterbury in England, whose position is still in existence these continuous centuries later since the stories’ perpetration. In 1290 of the Common Era, England expelled all her Jews, which began another exodus out of foreign lands, leading to our continued spread throughout Europe, with additional expulsions and Jew-hatred programs, such as the Spanish Inquisition, Russian and French pogroms, confinement to the Pale of Settlement, ghettoization, Nazi German extermination of Jews in death camps or in the backs of vans, etc. An illustrious past befitting the continent today reaping the beginning of its consequences for policies concurrent with its alliance to destructive nations advocating Israel’s/the Jewish people’s demise.

Today, the so-called “Arab Spring” has become a nightmare for the Middle Eastern Arab countries, each one experiencing internecine life-or-death warfare between neighbors. These civil wars among their own people spurred masses and migrations of people creating chaos — some fleeing for safety, others using the situation to their advantage to search for better economic opportunity elsewhere. The designation of Syrian refugees admitted as political-asylum seekers due to the civil war there creates a current black market of opportunists trafficking forged Syrian documentation. As a matter of fact, I just read somewhere that the passport office in Syria had been overrun by a bunch of brigands who are generating false documents with all the supplies that were still sitting there at their disposal (see September 17, 2015 article by Nick Fagge: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3235320/PASSPORT-TO-TERROR:MailOnline-reporter-buys-syrian-papers-being-sold-to-ISIS-fighters-sneaking-into-europe-hidden-among-refugees). So there really is no way to vet these people into any country.

For a regular background check, you might use a person’s name, date-of-birth, or Social Security number (here in the U.S.). You could also search Worker’s Compensation records. You could conduct reference checks with neighbors or perhaps even previous employers. You could check police records to see if there are any criminal charges. Basically, you’ll wind up with a list of previous addresses of the individual, perhaps their previous employment, the impressions of others about this individual, and whether they’ve been injured or have any crimes on file. This doesn’t presage what an individual is capable of in the future, nor is it an accurate depiction of their lives. We always hear the disbelief when neighbors state their shock over some scandal or another.

With much of Syria in rubble and waging war right now, do you think we can just pick up the phone and request school records from Syria of refugee “x”? Do we fly over to knock on the neighbor’s door for a reference check, when they’ve all fled the country?

Our government probably is able only to get that information on a U.S. individual in recent times in a centralized format; how much less so for a smaller country in raging chaos? There is just not going to be any realistic way to do so, that I can foresee. Unless someone is previously known to the government, it would be euphemistic, at best, to expect otherwise.

We do have the option of coordinating intelligence with other countries to see what they can come up with, as well, and this is what any (and possibly all) good spy agencies would do. So, let’s just say that they’ve all been doing that and not beat around the bush. (Remember the feigned surprise and indignation about German chancellor, Angela Merkel’s, phone being tapped?) It’s also, I think, what got Jonathan Pollard in trouble (For more background information about his case, please see: http://www.jonathanpollard.org/facts.htm).

A loophole allows foreign intelligence to go where no domestic agency was allowed to tread, at least until the expansion of local access in the proviso of the Patriot Act laws. Search and seizure parameters were broadened to allow police at the local level easier access to citizen property. Surveillance on citizens connecting with people abroad was allowed to be conducted through bulk collection of data — no matter how many degrees of separation existed, you could be targeted for knowing someone, who knows someone, who knows someone else, whose son had a bar-mitzvah in Israel, even though you knew only the first individual in this tangled, non-connected web. Now the NSA is supposedly abandoning the idea after being challenged, without admittance to “above-and-beyond” reasonable search – only that it doesn’t work to stop terrorism. Perhaps it would, if they weren’t so focused on Shmuel’s bar-mitzvah gathering.

In my always ubiquitous job search, I ran across a job position which I thought sounded perfect for me. It was called a ‘monitoring journalist’ and it was offered by the BBC. Apparently, the BBC uses content provided by other sources in their news-gathering departments, for this is what the job entailed.

As I basically love to read the news, I thought it would be great to have a job I love to do, so I looked into it. A requisite part of the job requires conformance to six values (careershub.bbc.co.uk: BBC Values Guide.pdf; accessed 12/02/2015), the first being trust — they claim to be impartial and honest.  They say the second is the audience, and they put them first, stating that their audience “is not all like us and our friends…” and that they “adapt” (to the audiences’ changing needs). Creativity: “We seek out different perspectives, others’ ideas and opinions.” Then why never the Israeli perspective? “We respect each other and celebrate our diversity.” Hah! (Managers): “… They help people move around the BBC.”

I cannot apply for this position; I do not meet their pre-established standards, and do not speak the “voice” of their presentation. They present biased reports against Israel, and I’m Jewish and pro-Israel. Never this twain shall meet.

Anyways, I decided to look for other companies that offer these opportunities to monitor “open source” media, and while doing so, I came across a LinkedIn web post (https://www.linkedin.com/title/monitoring-journalist) with a list of twenty-three monitoring journalists who perform this job (some with similar variances in title or areas) for the BBC in Caversham, Reading, England:

Lamia Estatie (Arabic Team); Sara Fayyad; Lina Shaikhouni; Nesrine Kamal (Media); Juliet Njeri (Senior); Adam Robinson (Media Production); Zainul Abid (Journalist); Tulika Bhatnagar (BBC World); Diana Barseghyan (Translator); Tim Bard-Jones (Senior); Molly Corso (Senior); James Vick; Dina Aboughazala; Evan Ostryzniuk; Mohamed Gade (Journalist); Amira Mohsen Galal (Arabic Media Analyst); Mariam Rizk; Olena Rudenko; Farhad Daneshvar; Nada Hussein Rashwan (Journalist); Oleg Yefimov; Mohamed El Assar; Marina Fokina (Business Management position).

The list is made up of about fifteen Arabic-sounding names, comprising the majority role in the composition of this listing. To be fair, there is another list which has less Arabic-sounding names and comprises the top twenty-four “Senior” monitoring journalists (https://www.linkedin.com/title/senior-monitoring-journalist-at-bbc-monitoring).

Some of the descriptions for the monitoring journalist job (especially the one for Iran: http://careerssearch.bbc.co.uk/jobs/job/Monitoring-Journalist-Iran-Team/14111) describe: “… As a monitoring journalist, you will help us show not only what the media are reporting, but also how they are telling the story… Conforms to our editorial standards… You’ll understand and embrace BBC monitoring’s purpose and vision with the ability to implement this into everyday editorial tasks.”

Perhaps these factors might help to explain why the BBC so often portrays Israel in a negative light? Now, one might be inclined to think that people are entitled to their viewpoints, as we are accustomed to, and even insist, upon doing here in the U.S.

But the BBC is the British Broadcasting Corporation, and it is operated as a state-run entity, and so is an institution of the British government run for public consumption, in effect. So, it is, in its way, representing official dogma of the British government in its operation. And so, when it presents biased reportage favorable to the Palestinians and accusatory to Israel (and by extension, to the Jews), then it is presenting what would be deemed to be British policy, per se, on-air.

By not showing the story of the Jews’ thousands-upon-thousands of years of life being lived in the Jewish homeland of Israel, it presents a contrarian point that shows the BBC as a biased operator, favoring the side of the Arab enemies who attack the Jews. Their broad-based spectrum as a world service with portions of their operations (full support was cut from other streams of revenue a few years ago) funded through the government give it an unprecedented platform from which to trumpet their message. Such a responsibility should be shouldered with dignity and forthrightness — all found lacking in this single-minded endeavor.

Arab and/or Islamic terrorism has (once again) reached Europe, and England is experiencing some of its after-effects. As in so many other issues, we are still at a point where we can reverse course while we are able to, rather than charge straight into the lion’s den. The mouths of these lions will not be shut up and will devour, roar and rage against all in its path. I would hope that the leaders of those respective countries would fight against and tame that wild beast. Stay tuned for full coverage and news at 5:00 p.m.

 

Additional (November 25, 2019):

 

I turned off commentary to my site, and, so, had to delete individual comments, too. The respondent, one of those listed on the Linked-In site attributed to BBC, had written of his objection to his name appearing in my posting. My response to him, way back then, and which I’m adding to the original post now, was the following:

 

Dear Mohamed,

That my little, tiny blog post reached your attention surely means that the reach and scope of BBC’s ‘monitoring journalists’ is vast (or possibly that you have an alert tied to your name).

I had no way to know that you would object to being associated with the listing of BBC Monitoring Journalists appearing on the LinkedIn posting (to which I linked in my own post). I would have been remiss to have left your name off after having transcribed all the other ones so diligently. Surely, I couldn’t do that, and you would have to agree that leaving you off would have been slovenly.

The LinkedIn listing is apparently fluid, as new names appear not previously noted. If the LinkedIn post was inaccurate and I was wrong and you don’t work for the BBC, then I apologize. You shouldn’t be associated with the BBC (or anti-Semitism for that matter, as referenced in your statement) if it’s not true.

You have contacted the wrong person regarding this matter as I do not work for the BBC, nor do I control the LinkedIn account to which someone posts the (alleged) BBC’s rostrum of staff. Your confusion can be addressed by immediately contacting LinkedIn and the BBC to inform them of their mistake in listing you amongst their staff, as I see that you are still listed in the LinkedIn posting. Perhaps that would solve the conundrum of your objections to appearing in a post of “BBC Monitoring Journalists” were you to be removed from such listings.

Would you believe I almost didn’t list you in my own post? I did notice that of all the other journalists, yours did not have a title. Rechecking it again, I see that you have listed “Writing and Editing,” although those descriptions would more aptly apply to the departments to which they correlate, rather than titles such as Writer/Editor might imply.

Your reply includes a “bbc.co.uk” designation, which I will not list here. If you are with the Legal department and speak for the BBC, your right to do so would be called to question, as this is not, you will note, an article about Mohamed El Assar. The scope of my article is varied and wide, and touches on: Judaism; “blood” libels against Jews; the Biblical story behind the Jewish celebration of Passover; Jewish Law; the expulsion of the Jews from many lands (including England); various Jew-hatred efforts, such as the Inquisition, pogroms, the Final Solution, ghettoization, etc.

The edicts against the Jews have been top-down and bottom-up. I touch on the “Arab Spring” and the civil warfare ongoing in the encompassing region, and of refugees and vetting of such. I write of intelligence gathering and sharing. I also write of a job search conducted for myself, leading to the BBC advertisement for the monitoring journalist position and my further discovery to the BBC Values Guide, as well as the LinkedIn post (only after that).

I almost did, ironically, leave your name off the post — the omission of your title amongst all others made it seem unimportant — but my aforementioned argument that you were included in the LinkedIn “BBC Monitoring Journalists” list won out — before even your reply!

I see that you are also being vague in not succinctly stating your argument. You state that you “do not cover that area at all,” which implies that you do cover something. What, specifically, are you referring to as the “area” in my post which you do not cover?

As mentioned, they are many — mainly dealing with this Jewish girl’s writing on Jewish things and my job search. I would certainly hope that you would not “cover that at all!”

But you have chosen to make it your business, I see. 38KB of data you took in that simple response to pursue an illogical action unwarranted on your part. If you indeed do not work for the BBC and wish your name removed from the LinkedIn post, you must contact those agencies directly. If you address these matters satisfactorily and prove that you have done so to me, then I may consider removing your name after the appropriate agencies have removed it first. Thank you for drawing attention to yourself in this way, so that I can correct the spelling of your name: Mohamed El Aassar.

 

 

For a sampling of sites and incidents on the issue of BBC anti-Semitism, see:

Soffer, Ari. “BBC Anchor Apologizes for Anti-Semitic Comment at Paris Rally,” January 12, 2015; Arutz Sheva: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/189837

Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA)’s subcategory, BBC Watch: http://bbcwatch.org/

Korol, Tabitha. “Bias at the BBC,” January 19, 2015; Opinion Piece; The Jewish Press: http://www.JewishPress.com/in-depth/opinions/bias-at-the-bbc/2015/01/19/

Further Information/Updates:

Sela, Hadar. “New Report Again Highlights BBC’s Gaza Conflict Reporting Failures,” December 12, 2015; Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA): http://bbcwatch.org/2015/12/12/new-report-again-highlights-bbcs-gaza-conflict-reporting-failures/

Yahoo news re-post of December 20, 2015 Agence France-Presse article, “Jihadists Stole ‘Tens of Thousands’ of Blank Passports: Report,” citing German newspaper Welt am Sonntag report citing Western intelligence sources: http://news.yahoo.com/jihadists-stole-tens-thousands-blank-passports-report-154955786.html

Additional Information (January 14, 2016):

Kent, Simon. “BBC Admits ‘Jews’ Anti-Semitism in Israel Coverage,” July 9, 2015; breitbart.com.: http://punditfromanotherplanet.com/2015/07/12/simon-kent-bbc-admits-jews-anti-semitism-in-israel-coverage/; (breitbart: 2015/07/09).

Crossley, Lucy. “BBC Reporter Faces Calls to Resign After He Tells Daughter of Holocaust Survivors After Paris Attacks: ‘Palestinians Suffer Hugely At Jewish Hands As Well,'” January 12, 2015 (Updated: January 17, 2015); MailOnline, DailyMail.com.: http://www.dailymail.co.UK/news/article-2906539/Calls-BBC-reporter-resign-told-daughter-Holocaust-survivors-Paris-Palestinians-suffer-hugely-Jewish-hands-well.html

Asserson, Trevor. “What Went Wrong at the BBC: A Public Monopoly Abusing Its Charter Through Bias Against Israel,” January 15, 2004; Jerusalem Viewpoints, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.: http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp511.htm

Proclaiming Justice to the Nations. “BBC Admits ‘Gaza Under Attack’ Images Fabricated” (reprinted from an original article by Nick Hallett on July 8, 2014, entitled “Watch: BBC Admits ‘Gaza Under Attack’ Images Fabricated” at breitbart.com.: http://www.pjtn.org/bbc-admits-images-fabricated

Sela, Hadar. “The BBC Says Only Jews Can Be Terrorists, Not Palestinians,” January 7, 2016, Algemeiner.com.: http://www.algemeiner.com/2016/01/07/the-bbc-says-only-Jews-can-be-terrorists-not-palestinians

Harris, David. “Why Won’t the BBC Call Charlie Hebdo Attackers Terrorists?'”. clarionproject.org; January 27, 2015:

(https://clarionproject.org/why-wont-bbc-arabic-call-charlie-hebdo-attackers-terrorists/)

 

Update (November 25, 2019):

 

An article by JNS published in World Israel News yesterday (November 24, 2019), summarizes a report by the Church of England which acknowledges the role that Christian beliefs have perpetuated in leading up to the Holocaust, during the genocide of six million Jews. The article states that the Church of England issued a large report (I’ll see if I can track it down) admitting that such attitudes did, indeed, play a role in leading to Jewish deaths. The fact that this is a hard matter to publicly admit means that, in light of new anti-Semitism rearing its ugly head, this country realizes its ashamed behaviors, and, perhaps now, is really on a path to begin the process of healing (themselves, and the Jewish people). I’m heartened by this. I hope it is for real, and not just propaganda for a good PR image. I believe in Britain, and I believe they will, at last, hopefully do right by the Jewish people. Good luck, England, and I hope you can exit the accursed, anti-Semitic European Union. Go, England! With love, your little children.

 

JNS via World Israel News. “Church of England: Centuries of Christian anti-Semitism led to Holocaust”. worldisraelnews.com; November 24, 2019:

(https://worldisraelnews.com/church-of-england-centuries-of-christian-anti-semitism-led-to-holocaust/)

 

 

Here is a link to the non-commercial pdf file of the report:

 

(https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2019-11/godsunfailingwordweb.pdf)

 

 

 

 

Abayudaya: Music from the Jewish People of Uganda

Address updated from the liner notes to correspond with website information (please verify this information before use):

Smithsonian Folkways Mail Order, PO Box 37012, MRC 520, CG 2001, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012; Phone/U.S.: (800) 410-9815, or (888) FOLKWAYS; Phone/International: (202) 633-6450; Fax/U.S.: (800) 853-9511, or (202) 633-6477; Website/(http://www.folkways.si.edu); Informational Requests (not secure for orders!): (smithsonianfolkways@si.edu). (p) and © 2003 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Compiled and annotated by Jeffrey A. Summit, co-author with Richard Sobol, of Abayudaya: The Jews of Uganda (New York: Abbeville Press, 2002). He is a Research Professor at Tufts University, where he also serves as Rabbi and executive director of Hillel.

Folkway Records was founded in 1948 by Moses Asch. The Smithsonian Institute acquired the collection in 1987 from the Asch estate. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is a non-profit label “expressing a commitment to cultural diversity, education and increased understanding.”

I’m glad I wrote my comments prior to reading the CD’s liner notes and revealed my own impressions without being influenced by someone else’s thoughts. In the end, though, after hearing the entire CD and then reading the story, I must say that the story did influence my thoughts.

Nowadays in this crazy world, everybody criticizes and hates the Jews and tells them what awful people they are — so much so that the United Nations disproportionately issues resolutions against them; the Christians and others start a boycott and divestment campaign to stop others from doing business with us (the Jews), which, with the exception of oil, is the original way that the Arabs got others to boycott us and use them instead. If a business “did business” with the Jews, then the Arabs would not give that company its business; and if the Arabs were courted by foreign businessmen, then the foreign businessmen had to cease all dealings with the Jews before acquiring any Arab business! Given the Inquisition, the Crusades, the pogroms and The Final Solution against us, why on earth would anybody desire to be a part of the Jewish people?

The answer is — for the same reason that they hate us. For because G-d said that we would be His people and He would be our G-d, we are envied and despised and need to be made to look unworthy of the honor (already bestowed). That is the reason for “replacement theology,” whereby another group claims conferred status for themselves and tries to make it appear that our position (in G-d’s eyes) has been replaced.

That is why I am very wary of all those who have gone before and all those who will come since who wish to ally themselves to Judaism in claims of being Jewish. Some claim to be lost tribes, and if we get it wrong by forsaking them, we will be in sore trouble with the L-rd for doing so.

This group of people from Uganda, calling themselves ‘The Abayudaya’, does not claim Jewish lineage, but claims to be Jewish through the practice of faith. The CD notes say that, of the approximately 600 people which comprise this community, there span five Bantu ethnic and language groups: Baganda, Basoga, Bagisu, Bagwere, and Banyole. It has been long known that Christian missionaries have, for hundreds of years, been actively engaged in the proselytization of the African continent to make Christian converts of the African people. They have succeeded tremendously. Many of the Abayudaya converted to Christianity under the regime of Idi Amin. The Anglican Church Missionary Society even evangelized the Abayudaya’s founder, Semei Kakungulu, for the Anglican Church.

Kakungulu had hoped to be recognized by Britain as a king in the eastern region of Uganda, but when he was not, he joined the Malakite Protestants instead. By 1919, he is said to have embraced the concept of male circumcision on the eighth day of life, which the Malakite’s founder, Malakai, told him only Jewish people practice. He, his sons, and male followers were circumcised, and they practiced a mixed style of Biblical observance and Protestantism.

Kakungulu adapted Malakite worship music and developed the Sabbath liturgy for the Abayudaya. Their first contact with Judaism occurred when Kakungulu met a Jew named Yusuf, a trader who taught them certain prayers and blessings, elementary Hebrew, and the basics of Kosher slaughtering.

At this point, they dropped references to Jesus and the practice of baptism. Another Jewish man from Yemen, David Solomon, provided them basic Hebrew books and Jewish calendars. It is noted that they had had little contact with Jews up until the mid-1960’s.

The Abayudaya still celebrate the local traditions of their language and ethnic groups and don’t find this to be in conflict with the Jewish identity they have chosen for themselves.

In 1962, Mr. Solomon asked Arye Oded, secretary at the Israeli Embassy in Kampala, to visit them. Mr. Oded did so and arranged for prayerbooks to be sent to them. They began to restructure their worship to more closely resemble Judaic practice, but Idi Amin (1971-1979) put an end to all that.

I guessed that “Yudaya” meant having to do with the Jews; I was right — it means “Jew” in the Luganda language. The plural, “Jews,” is “Bayudaya.” “Abayudaya” means “The Jews,” repeating the definite article when referring to themselves as “The Abayudaya.”

They continue to use their African dialect languages; Hebrew is not used as a communicational language, and is not indigenous to their culture. Hebrew mistakes I noted in several places where it is used in song are referenced in the liner notes, explained as the Luganda influence adding vowels to the Hebrew pronunciation. For instance, I thought I heard an “i” sound at the end of “likrat,” which should not be there. In Hebrew, adding an “i” would mean “to me”, where it is not warranted; I also thought I heard a “u” sound added (some Hebrew dialects do seem to have this, though).

During Idi Amin’s eight- to nine-year reign of Uganda, many Abayudaya converted to Christianity, leaving only about three-hundred of the community remaining with what faith they had acquired to-date. Much of it was forgotten during this time, and they allege to have worshipped in secret, attempting to make its revival beginning in the early 1980’s with the “Young Jewish Club.”

In 1988, the Anglican School claimed Nabugoye Hill where the original Moses Synagogue was. Joab (J.J.) Keki, his brothers, and some youth formed a new group they named “The Kibbutz,” and squatted in one of the buildings on the hill. Kakungulu’s son, though, had converted to Christianity.

As representative of the Abayudaya, Keki first visited the Nairobi Jewish community in the late 1980’s, but was disbelieved. His brother, Gershom Sizomu, however, began to study with one of their members in the early 1990’s.

Many of the Abayudaya now wish to move to Israel. To be recognized formally for one who was not born into the Jewish faith, a halachic conversion must take place and would generally need to be performed by an Orthodox Rabbi. Three Conservative and one Reform Rabbi went in 2002 there to perform conversion for more than 350 members of the community.

Kakungulu divided the Song of Moses into eight songs, which was the basis for Abayudaya worship in the early 1980’s; new compositions were created later on by the Young Jewish Club and were based on various sources and influences: Zulu music, music of the Independent Churches in Kenya, The Salvation Army, Israel Church, and Bantu folk music. Most are sung in the Luganda language with an occasional Hebrew word added. In one of the songs on their CD, they sing of “Musa,” which is the Arabic word for the Jewish Moses, whom the Muslims consider a prophet. The Psalms were all originally sung in Luganda, but they are now starting to be increasingly sung in Hebrew.

Popular African music also plays a role in shaping the composition of Abayudayan music. They seem to prefer their own compositions and liturgy over incorporating traditional Jewish music and prayer services into their own. It does not seem to me to be part of the Jewish community when tradition is held in such disregard, in deference to secular, non-religious factors. What has held all Jews together, despite differences in worship style, are certain prayers and traditions which cannot just be jettisoned and its results considered Jewish at the same time. While Reform and Orthodox practice, on outward appearance, seem to be unrelated at-best, the premise of Judaism remains essentially, at its core, the same.

In a dustjacket photo, the menorah crafted by one of their people is a symbolic rendition only — a metal sculpture without a place for candles or oil. We use a chanukkiyah to commemorate the Hasmonean Jewish victory more than 2000 years ago over the occupying Roman pagan forces, when we recouped our Temple and resanctified it with the cruze of Holy oil found there, which burned eight days, ensuring enough time for additional oil to be produced. The chanukkiyah, used only for this festival commemoration, has eight place-arms to represent each day for which the light was kindled, plus one holder more for the lead candle. There is to always burn an eternal flame kept lit in the Temple.

I don’t know whether the Abayudaya have been formally recognized, but without going through an Orthodox conversion, it seems unlikely to be a possibility, despite everyone’s best wishes. They insist on maintaining their own traditions and not adopting the other Jewish ones. They are adamant about that. So, what makes that Jewish? To me, that pretty much makes it… Bantu.

1) Psalm 136 (3:24) – Beautiful in phases I and II (upbeat mode). Swahili Mapambio style used in evangelical Churches throughout East Africa. Composed by J.J. Keki.

2) Katonda Oyo Nalimana (G-d is All-Knowing) (4:09) – Crazy drums, crazy chanting, frantic clapping and crazy yips (as in, “whoo-whoo” crazy). So crazy, singers even do the “whoo-whoo” screaming where you pat your lips with your flat hand. Undignified. A traditional song of the Basoga people with improvised words in Luganda (as they traditionally are in this style and context).

3) Hiwumbe Awumba (G-d Creates and then Destroys) (2:31) – Crazy music-box ukelele-sounding song with bird-twittering in the background. Mentions airplanes, bicycles, cars and death. By Michael Mausoni, whose own family are Christian converts. Similar to 1990’s-style sounds. Umm……………….

4) Mwana Talitambula (The Child Will Never Walk) (1:18) – A child singing about a child who will never walk. I like this. The child uses vocalizations as if it were an instrument. Lusoga text based on local traditions.

5) Mwana, Ngolera (Baby, Keep Quiet) (0:49) – An older child in a deeper tone singing rhythmically, as if an instrument. Lunyole text based on local traditions.

6) Tulo, Tulo (Sleep, Sleep) (0:52) – One singer, singing softly, “Sleep, sleep.” Very nice. Popular Baganda lullabye, Luganda text. “Sleep, sleep, take the child. If you don’t, then you are a witch! I want to go dancing, change my life. You only live once.” Sounds like typical American crap from too-young parents with children, who still want to party and foist their children on others. Not Jewish values at all.

7) I am a Soldier (0:46) – Lots of children singing that they’re a soldier in the Army of the L-rd. (In English). This song made me angry. I feel they are mocking Israel and Jews with their English, saying they are a soldier in the L-rd’s Army. It comes across very poorly, as if it was meant to. Indeed, it was a Pentecostal Church song to which they added the final verse, “in the Army of the L-rd” to supposedly make it “Jewish”.

8) Mi Khamokha (Who is Like You, O, G-d?) (0:18) – Parts of a Hebrew prayer. Different than I’m used to. Different melody, as theirs is composed by Aaron Kintu Moses. (One verse, in Hebrew).

9) Kabbila (The Patch of Forest) (3:49) – Repetitive. Woman’s voice too shrill for my ears. Traditional Baganda folk song, text in Luganda.

10) Twagala Torah (We Love the Torah) (1:33) – Text in Luganda, English and Hebrew. Melody and Luganda text by Moses Sebagabo.

11) We are Happy (3:25) – An actual song with accompaniment, singing ‘they’re happy’. Village guitar music, keyboards, occasional drums and adungu (harp) about Purim, with improvised lyrics to mark occasion of the festivity. Composed by Gershom Sizomu. (In English).

12) Adon Olam (Master of the World) (1:53) – I nod in praise. Hebrew text. Melody by Gershom Sizomu.

13) Lekhah, Dodi (Come, My Beloved) (5:21) – I think I hear some Hebrew mistakes. Hebrew text, sung in Hebrew. Melody by J.J. Keki.

14) Psalm 92 (4:59) – Sounds like they’ve received some coaching from Missionary Christians teaching hymns. Composed by Jonadav Keki (J.J. Keki and Gershom Sizoku’s father). Influenced by Protestant worship. Text in Luganda.

15) Psalm 93 (2:44) – Another Christian hymn-sounding song. (“Musa?”). Text in Luganda. Melody by Jacob Mwosuko.

16) Kiddush and Motzi (Sabbath Blessing over Wine and Bread) (1:11) – The blessings over bread and wine (different tunes than I’m used to). (In Hebrew). Melody by Gershom Sizomu.

17) Psalm 121 (1:31) – With jingle bells! Text in Luganda. Melody by Miriam Keki (1980’s).

18) Maimuna (2:13) – Crazy yips, ululations, whistles — too much! J.J.Keki’s campaign song for chairman of Namonyonyi subcounty. He first ran unsuccessfully in 2000, and then again at a later date, after 9/11/2001, which was successful (Keki was walking up to the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, when the first plane hit the tower). Based on a modified version of a Bagisu circumcision song, although Abayudaya do not participate in Bagisu circumcision rituals, but have close contact with them. Maimuna is a woman’s name. “Maimuna, the animal is in the trap. Maimuna, ‘Where are we going?’ You are required to go to school before you obtain leadership positions.” The final line is sung with an alternated response: “J.J.”, “Keki”. This sounds like the situation they were in under British Colonial rule, not Judaism.

19) Hinei Ma Tov (Behold How Good it is for Brothers to Dwell Together) (1:23) – Hebrew mistakes again (adding an “i” after a word where it doesn’t really belong, and a “u”). Different tune, also. Text in Luganda and Hebrew. Group composition of the Young Jewish Club in the 1980’s.

20) Ali Omu Yekka (My Only One) (4:45) – A song with musical accompaniment. It’s very nice. Some words include: “My Beloved”, ” My Doctor”, “My Wealth… the only one I choose”. Sounds rather like stereotyping of the Jews, no? Sounds like a choice based on acquiring traits by association, as if talismanic, no? Text in Luganda by J.J. Keki. Melody by J.J. Keki.

21) Psalm 150 (3:33) – I started singing along; I must know some of the tune. Text in Luganda, with last verse in Hebrew. Melody by J.J. Keki.

22) Deuteronomy 32:8 / Song Two (Selection) (0:35) – A chant. Text in Luganda. Adapted by Kakungulu, founder of the Abayudaya, from Malakite melodies. This song is no longer used, except at sad occasions.

23) Deuteronomy 32:39 / Song Eight (3:35) – Slow singing by men. Text in Luganda (some seemed to sound like Arabic: I thought I heard the word, “Sura,” meaning, ‘Chapter.’). Adapted by Kakungulu, founder of the Abayudaya, from a Malakite melody. Sung by J.J. Keki, Gershom Sizomu, Aaron Kintu Moses, and their mother, Devorah (they are one family). This song is no longer used, except at sad occasions.

24) Psalm 130 (1:52) – A little ditty. Text in Luganda. Melody by Yael Keki. This song is only used for sad occasions.

Stealing Our Heritage

Stealing Our Heritage

Proverbs 3:18 in the Tanach (the Bible of the Jewish People) equivocates this statement to the Torah: She is a tree of life to them that hold fast to her. This is a very important precept to the Jewish people and they have idealized this statement with works of art (known as Judaica) to commemorate it.

Now the Palestinians are committing yet another outrage in the usurpation of our heritage by claiming the Tree of Life imagery as their own. In an August 10, 2012 story on the Global Heritage Fund webpage, the excavation site in Jericho reveals a large compound with a complete mosaic Tree of Life featured in the bath area.

Several people in antiquity, many of them Jewish Kings and dynastic rulers, have built palaces in Jericho as factual realities. Yet, the Israeli government of modern times has set the region of Jericho apart as an autonomous region for the Palestinians to live in, so the political maneuvering of history may be put forth oppositionally. One such palace in Jericho is being touted by the Global Heritage Fund as an early Islamic palace of Hisham. To me, it looks way older than when the Islamic period began (supposedly said to be in the seventh century — i.e., in the mid 600’s of the Common Era — but has anyone validated the claims of Islam to be from that era?).

Here is a website in which to view the mosaic and read the article: http://globalheritagefund.org/onthewire/blog/preserving_hishams_palace

(Update: April 3, 2019: this article no longer appears on the global heritage fund’s website; it is an upload of an archived article from oriental institute dating from 2011; the Tree of Life mosaic, with its symbolic imagery well-known in Jewish tradition, such as the gazelle [reference Psalms of Solomon, etc.], and lions [for instance, Lion of Judah, etc.], appear beneath the Tree. The photograph, noted as Image 7, is found, not within the body of the document, but located beyond document’s end, below it; which see, new link):

Click to access document_2088.pdf

Here is an interesting site with information about Jewish mosaics and some pictures to look at, which you might enjoy:
http://www.neveshalom.org/html/mosaic.html

This is a Jewish mosaic panel to look at from Jordan: http://cja.huji.ac.il/Ancient/Gerasa/Gerasa-object.html

 

Update: April 3, 2019:

See this article regarding Hasmonean Dynasty era archaeology and artefacts:

World Israel News Staff. “Jericho Arabs loot Second Temple burial grounds”. worldisraelnews.com; April 3, 2019:

https://worldisraelnews.com/jericho-arabs-loot-second-temple-burial-grounds/

 

So Sick of Red Cross Anti-Semitism

For more than 60 years, the Red Cross has been a savior in a sea of hurt. However, for 60 years, this has excluded Jewish inclusiveness into its organization. Why, might you ask, would the Red Cross allow its ambulances to carry terrorist bombers in its International Red Crescent trucks? And why, might you ask, would the Red Cross allow the symbolism associated with Islamic nations to be plastered on its ambulance trucks, but not the “Jewish Star?”

That is a good question, and one that has still gone unanswered after more than 60 years of its operation. For most of its years, the Red Cross would not even admit the Jewish Red Magen David Adom (Israel’s “Red Shield of David”) agency into its operations. Even with its reputation among the top in the world for its medical care, Israel has not been allowed to be part of this organization which has allowed the Muslim crescent-and-star symbol to operate.

There have been ongoing responses from the Red Cross, stating that the symbol of the cross is really not associated with Christianity, and is a medical symbol. A similar argument has been used by countries which use a depiction of the cross upon their national flags — stating that the Cross had nothing to do with Christianity (although we all know that this is a farce, and that, indeed, it does — the argument is used just so that they can portray the symbol without penalty).

Finally, in recent years, Israel would be allowed to be a member of the organization if it would abide by new regulations stating that it should change its symbol to a red “crystal,” a red rectangular object of no particular significance, so that it would not offend anyone. And pray tell, why should the Jewish star be offensive to some, whereas the cross and crescent would not? Under these symbols, the Jewish people have been persecuted and killed for millenia! Yes, read that right — millenia! And it still goes on to this day. And this is not supposed to be offensive?

So, I do not understand why there was supposedly a recent full-page ad taken out in newspapers to boycott support for Magen David Adom. I disagree wholeheartedly with this effort! Magen David Adom must be supported! It is the only non-partisan medical staff of the three which will accord human rights to ALL, regardless of religion, race, or creed.

Please support Magen David Adom, so that the victims of Kassem and Katyusha rockets in Israel can be transported to facilities where they will be cared for by medical staff of all religious and national backgrounds, and so that the victims, who may be comprised of all nations (Israel has amongst the most diverse backgrounds of people in the world) may be treated indiscriminately.

 

Related:

Staff: Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). “Red Cross: Palestine Red Crescent Society Acted Impartially in Attack on Jewish Family”. November 18, 2015; Jta.org: http://www.jta.org/2015/11/18/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/red-cross-palestine-red-crescent-society-acted-impartially-in-attack-on-jewish-family/

 

Added Information:

Marcus, Itamar and Maurice Hirsch, Adv. “Special Report: PA abuses goodwill of International Red Cross (ICRC) to pay salaries to Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons”. June 22, 2017; Palestinian Media Watch:

https://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=21365

JNS.org. “Red Cross head says Israel not an ‘apartheid state’”; April 26, 2017:

http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2017/4/26/red-cross-head-says-israel-not-an-apartheid-state#.WQMTTHMpDqA=

 

Jewish Press News Briefs. “Hamas Caught Using Cancer Patient to Smuggle Explosives into Israel”. Jewish Press.com; April 19, 2017:

Hamas Caught Using Cancer Patient to Smuggle Explosives into Israel

 

Pileggi, Tamar. “Red Cross Asked to Expel MDA Over Emblem Violation,” September 20, 2015; The Times of Israel: http://www.timesofisraelcom./red-cross-to-weigh-expelling-mda-over-emblem-violation/

 

Volli, Ugo. “Sparare Sulla Croce Rossa”, May 13, 2013; Rassegna Stampa/Rubriche/Cartoline, Informazione Corretta: http://www.informazionecorretta.com/main.php?mediaId=&sez=280&id=49159

 

Kurtzman, Daniel. ” Red Cross Knew of Nazi Death Camps, Records Show”, January 3, 1997; jweekly.com: http://www.jweekly.com/4807/full/4807/red-cross-knew-of-nazi-death-camps-records-show/

 

Mayer, Jane. “Fallout at the Red Cross”, December 24, 2001; The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/12/24/fallout-at-the-red-cross/

 

More on Arab Use of Medical Facilities/Transport toward Terrorist Purposes:

EMET News Service. emetnews.org: https://emetnews.org/analysis/hamas-uses-medical-facilities-and-ambulances-for-terrorist-purposes.php

 

 

Al-Durra-ble

Heal your heart

the hatred has consumed it

Break your heart

into pieces of stone

Reveal your face

the cover of cowardice

inkiness of night

all alone

Fight like men

the power of the sermon

wall of shame

only ten years old

Died like dog

hanging on your legs

reprisal cold

no, attacked by your own

Forgotten View

Where are you?

But I feel your touch

I know that you know

again; this is the

second time I’ve written

this,

having forgotten it,

again; the first time

when you kissed me

and it was again;

again I know

and though you have

forgotten; it is I

who remember

How can you forget?

How do you know?

Are you the L-rd?

Muhammad the Prophet?

How can I feel you

and this you feel, too,

because you tell me

first, so that I know

it is really real

and no illusion

but this is what you felt

or said you did, but didn’t

and so did I, but we

really didn’t feel that

And what was real and true

became a parody that we

didn’t know how to grasp

without letting go

My soul had died when my

first marriage died; I

don’t know when it will

return; but my incarnate

lives have known you all

along and returned to you;

but this time it was

worse; it did not work;

We did not learn when

we asked for and received

that second chance to

live our lives again better

the second time – we both

forgot this promise

Still, you know

You are still there as I

cry and feel your spirit

and your face

and you are not there

But the reality and that

which is true

is that you know me

and move heaven and

earth for me, so that

I feel you

completely

and know that I did

not find Khalil Gibran’s

books, as well as the others,

by chance

and that I did not find

the hurricane lamp;

some force of reason

causing me to think of

replacing Sami’s genie

lamp with one of another kind; and not

until this moment, when

the oil lamp was found and

brought home and the

Khalil Gibran books were

found and brought home

and the moment was exactly

right when I lit the lamp,

moved it about the table

until I got it right and

had it near me, then opened

the book and came

almost immediately to a

poem he wrote about his

love, asking her to place

the oil lamp near her face

so that he can read

with tears what his life

has etched on her face

and to fill the lamp and

not let it dim —

How could you know?

How could this be?

Touching me through other pages

other Arabs

one I think, although

I wouldn’t look, sitting

next to me on the bus,

for my own protection,

unable to look

shy

crying at the end for

believing this as a symbol

sent by you

thanking him in silent

gratitude for not moving

and remaining by me

for you

and thinking of you

5,000 Years Hence

G-d came to me in the form of an Arab

and I, as the Jewess, the temptress, the seductress,

knew this not

Humanity came to me in the form of an Arab

and it touched me,

but I ran,

hoping to hide myself away from it’s reach

Conscience beckoned to me

in the form of an Arab

and I shook my head

and denied it

Truth came to me

in the forms of many Arabs

calling from my past

All the souls from the days since our beginnings

are tied up in this land;

All contribute to the feeling one gets of the

connection to this land

We hold hands, this Arab and I,

in a meadow of long-grass

We are happily at one

these more than 5,000-year-old people,

this Arab and I,

for we know completely,

the souls of each other and

completely are we so in love

5,000 years later,

upon seeing one another again,

We have not forgotten –

No, our souls have not forgotten

the joy of one another,

but our lives have changed

and the times have altered our landscape

We have allowed the dust of the dry bones

to settle among us and to grow stale

our knowledge of one another.

We have now become unrecognizable to one another

as we accuse each other

of falsehoods that belong to other people

until it drives us apart

But our souls ache for the spirit that we know

that still resides

that will have to wait

for eternal time

some time

maybe 5,000 years from now

Somewhere near Ashkelon

We are not our souls

We live not as we were intended to be

Instead of being for each other

We each lived according to “me”

You kept on interrupting

the plans I had made in my life

the commitment to school

the language and rules

all changed when you made me your wife

You said I was done

when we became one

and we now would go on with your scheme

The vision you planned

of the house on the sand

and a restaurant, along with this dream

But the house on the sand

made of dreams did not stand

and it crumbled away with the sea

For had I been for you

and had you been for me

than together we would have been “we.”

V’Atah/After All

Brilliant mind,

two souls intertwined

I thought you would leave

your past actions behind

But thousands of years

through grief and through tears

shows that Judaism and love

are most certainly blind

Blind to the cruelty of hatred’s intentions

Blind to the scheming of man’s machinations

Awaiting the day

when the world will say

We acknowledge your people,

your history, your nation

Alone we now stand

Exiled from our land

Our people have borne each concession

Alone we will stand

With our L-rd’s guiding hand

As we wait for the final redemption.

The Arabs in History – by Bernard Lewis

From 1947 through 2002, this book has remained in circulation, updated and revised as the author has felt necessary. Great works will stand the test of time, and Mr. Lewis’s works are the tomes toward which many a serious scholar of Middle Eastern studies turns.

The writing is exceptional, the tone always appropriate, with much information reduced to a freshly readable economy of scale and pertinence. A most dedicated and worthy author of the subject matter.

The Arab World: An Illustrated History – by Kirk H. Sowell

A book chock-full of the chronological and who’s-who type of information necessary in order to lay down a historical narrative for the arab people, complete with a glossary of terms used in the arabic language helpful to the lay person toward an understanding of the cultural underpinnings of its society.

Although the mass of information is such that I would personally acquire such a book for a personal collection, the book does maintain a negative stance on Israel, which passes for “even-handedness” in today’s biased viewpoints against the Jewish national home.