The "Roving Rabbis"... Coming to a town near you

Every summer, Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, dispatches hundreds of rabbinical students to small Jewish communities around the globe. Known affectionately as the "Roving Rabbis," these young men sport a boundless energy and share their passion for Jewish life, encouraging Jewish awareness and observance wherever they go.

Learn More and take a front-row seat as they share their experiences on their new blog.

The Zionist Freedom Alliance: Pro-Israel Revolution on Campus

Support the Zionist Freedom Alliance (http://www.zfa.org.il/). Excerpted from INN:

Over the last couple of years, the Zionist Freedom Alliance (http://www.zfa.org.il/) has been slowly taking American college campuses by storm with a message of Jewish rights not heard for many decades. Led by veteran IDF soldiers and activists in Israel, the ZFA presents Zionism to the youth as a revolutionary struggle for national liberation.

Unlike most pro-Israel advocacy organizations that present Israel as a democracy or focus on the Jewish state’s willingness to surrender territory, ZFA speaks of Israel as a Middle Eastern nation with a legitimate moral and historic right to its land.

“We tell young people about the fight for freedom from British rule,” says ZFA leader Yehuda HaKohen.

“And we explain how we are still fighting against nearly the entire world for our right to live freely in the whole of our country. Educating young people to the history of our struggle creates a paradigm shift in how they view our situation today.

If people know two basic facts – that this really is our country and that we fought the British Empire to free it – their understanding of the Middle East conflict is revolutionized. Suddenly the Jewish people are the natives in the story and international pressure to shrink our borders is an act of Western imperialism against an indigenous population.”

For more information, visit the ZFA online at http://www.zfa.org.il/

Learning in Arabic about Jews and Judaism

Via Daniel Pipes:

When I lived in Cairo in the 1970s, I conducted a little experiment: What, using only Arabic-language sources, could I learn about Jews, Judaism, Jewish history, Jewish culture, and the like? The paucity of resources stunned me; basically, the best way to learn about these subjects was to read between the lines of antisemitic tracts.

It is therefore with delight that I read today that the American Jewish Committee, under the directorship of Yehudit Barsky, has launched a new website, Asl Al-Yahud ("origins of the Jews"), that deals in Arabic with these subjects, with an emphasis on the history of Jews in Arabic-speaking lands. As a press release explains,

The website offers information about Jewish lifecycle events, holidays and religious practice. The website also contains a timeline of Jewish history, audio and graphic components, and a special section for users to submit questions. An Asl Al-Yahud staff member will answer the questions, in Arabic, allowing users to comfortably interact in their native tongue. The content was created originally in Arabic by Ephraim Gabbai, a descendent of the Iraqi Jewish community. The site is visually authentic to Middle Eastern design and highlights cultural practices shared by Muslims and Jews from Arabic-speaking nations around the globe.

Comment: (1) There is much curiosity among Muslims about Jews and I expect this website will have a sizeable readership. (2) The website needs much more content to achieve its potential; the "History" tab, for example, contains a mere three paragraphs.

SaveIsraelsChildren.com

by Daniel Pipes
Weblog
April 3, 2008
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/836

The effort is the first time since World War II – when the Germans bombed London, and London children were sent off to families in the countryside to be cared for until the German assault ended – that a "people-to-people" campaign has been organized to remove children from a war zone. Sadly, indeed embarrassingly, the children are those of S'derot, an Israeli town of 19,000 near the border with Gaza that has been under a missile barrage since the Israeli retreat from Gaza in September 2005, with thousands of missiles to date. These have been causing damage to property and injuries and death to residents.

The national government of Israel has basically averted its collective eyes from this tragedy, leaving the citizens of S'derot and potentially other towns to fend basically for themselves.

Into the breach now has come http://www.saveisraelschildren.com/, a Brooklyn-based non-profit that matchmakes between "families wanting to send their children abroad, and families who are willing to provide a temporary ‘home' for these children."

Comment: The need for such a private initiative points to the moral and operational bankruptcy of the Olmert government in Israel. (April 3, 2008)

Israel's Prizewinning Website - Amazing & Enriching

An international conference took place in Venezuela in which 169 countries competed for the best Internet Site.

38 countries, among them 10 Arab countries, reached the finals.

ISRAEL won the first prize with the following site.

http://www.cityofdavid.org.il

This is a truly amazing site. Unlimited amount of information and interactive photos, maps, history, and other treasures.

Those of you who plan a visit to Jerusalem will find the site extremely beneficial.

Click and start enjoying.

Two NGO-Monitor resource links

I've added two important links to NGO-Monitor and to NGO-Monitor Blog; both are critical resources which promote accountability in the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Please add these links to your own list of resources and research tools.

http://www.ngo-monitor.org and http://blog.ngo-monitor.org.

The Forgotten Prisoners of Zion

I'm helping to get the word out about the plight of the status of Jewish political prisoners being held by the Israeli Government, so I am asking my readers to please start frequenting The (not) Forgotten Prisoners of Zion.

City of David-Ancient Jerusalem Website Wins in International Competition

A must-visit, folks. Learn everything about Jerusalem online. From City of David-Ancient Jerusalem Website Wins in International Competition:

The website of the City of David-Ancient Jerusalem (Ir David) was named one of the best eight websites online for 2007, winning first place in the e-culture category of the World Summit Award (WSA). The win is a first by an Israeli site, following entries from Israel over the last few years.

Live Webcast: Jewish Television Network Kol Nidre Service

Join Jewish Television Network and Wilshire Boulevard Temple for a LIVE webcast of Kol Nidre service.

September 21, 2007 at 4:45 pm Pacific Time / 7:45 pm Eastern

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid533363107/bctid331187323

or

http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/?bcpid=533363107&bctid=331187323

GOP Hub

Folks, check out GOP Hub. GOP Hub is a social news and networking site for conservatives. Users can submit links to news articles and videos they like, and other users can then vote on and discuss these articles. GOP Hub is a web application that allows you to submit links to articles, video, pictures and other online content that will be reviewed by all and will be promoted, based on popularity, to the main page. When a user submits a news item it will be placed in the "unpublished" area until it gains sufficient votes to be promoted to the main page. Check out GOP Hub here.

New sites added to Smooth Stone's blogroll

Three new sites, check 'em out.

Woman, Honor Thyself

Jordan is Palestine

The Thunder Run

Websites: Two new ones for you to check out

I've added two websites to my blogroll today, Daf Notes and Simple To Remember. Check them out!

Website: The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants

From The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants:

The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants is the umbrella organization of survivor groups and landsmanshaften located in North America that was founded in 1981. The mission of the organization is remembrance, education and commemoration.

Immediately after the World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Israel in June, 1981, the organizers of that event established a non-profit corporation to prepare for the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Washington, DC in April, 1983. The officers of this “event-geared” organization were Benjamin Meed, Sam Bloch, Ernest Michel, Roman Kent, Norbert Wollheim, Hirsch Altusky, Fred Diament, James Rapp and Solomon Zynstein.

The event in the American capitol attracted 20,000 survivors and their families, where for three days, attendees commemorated the Holocaust, attended cultural events, met with politicians, including the President and Vice President of the United States, attended seminars. At the Capitol Center, they were addressed by President Ronald Reagan, and learned that an umbrella organization for American Jewish Holocaust survivors had been created in the name of the Gathering.

The announcement was made by Benjamin Meed, a Polish survivor, the driving force behind the gatherings, which started as a dream had by Ernest Michel, a German survivor, when he was in Auschwitz. The mission of the organization is remembrance, education and commemoration. The New-York City based American Gathering has a number of on-going projects tied to its mission statement.

The BENJAMIN AND VLADKA MEED REGISTRY OF JEWISH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS was established in 1981 to document the lives of survivors who came to the United States after World War II. It was originally created to help survivors search for relatives and friends, and now contains the names of survivors and their families from all over the world. In 1993, the Registry was moved to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where user-friendly computers allow visitors to access the database. There is also a page for the Registry on the Museum’s website, (http://www.ushmm.org/) and the Gathering continues to seek new registrants via its quarterly newspaper Together (circ. 180,000) and its website, http://www.americangathering.com/.

The Registry now includes over 185,000 records related to survivors and their families and seeks to include the names of all Holocaust survivors, facilitate contacts, collect and display basic information about them and assists survivors seeking lost relatives.

The effect of the American Gathering on the survivors and on America has had a lasting impact. Survivors now contribute actively to educational programs around the country by speaking in classrooms and religious institutions, writing their memoirs and pressing their case as eyewitnesses before the sands of time run out on them.

Holocaust education is now mandatory in many States of the Union because of the need to teach tolerance. Hate Crimes laws have been enacted around the country because survivors pressed for legislation to outlaw racist acts. Holocaust commemoration and remembrance is carried on in almost every State House in the Union. And because of the survivors and the American Gathering, the Holocaust has even had an influence on American domestic policy and even on foreign policy, particularly in Europe and the Middle East.

The American Gathering held its inaugural “organization” meeting in Philadelphia, PA in 1985, where its theme was to speak truth to power and to request that the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, not place a wreath at the Bitburg Cemetery in Germany, where the Waffen SS were buried. Since that time, there have been gatherings in Florida, New York, Los Angeles and other major cities around the nation.

In February 2005 the officers of the organization were Benjamin Meed, Roman Kent, Sam Bloch, Max Liebmann and Leon Stabinski.

by Jeanette Friedman

Sources: Interviews with Sam Bloch and Roman Kent in Feb. 2005

From Holocaust to New Life: A Documentary Volume Depicting the proceedings and events of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, Washington DC, April 1983-Nissan 5743; The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, NY, 1985.

Haveil Havalim #115 is up

Folks, Barbara's Tchatzkahs is hosting Haveil Havalim this week and it's a great round-up of posts from all over the JBlogosphere. I discovered some more blogs I hadn't heard of before and even added the following to my blogroll cuz they were good enough for return visits: Barbara's Tchatzkahs, Everyone Needs Therapy, Nuch Epes Ah Chosid, and The Shalvster.

Responding to the Winograd commission

Folks, Soccer Dad has written an excellent rebuttal to the New York Times editorial on the Winograd commission. Read it here.

Moshe & Meir - 60 Years Later

A Simple Jew has posted a wrenching article he received via e-mail from the Temple Institute about Moshe Barazani HY"D and Meir Feinstein HY"D.

Who were they?

They were two great Jewish martyrs who fell for the right of every Jew to live his life in freedom and dignity and in accordance to the will of the G-d of Israel.

Read their story here, on A Simple Jew.

Rare recording of Al Jolson singing Hatikva

Click here to hear Al Jolson sing Hatikvah, found on Mt. Zion Congregation website.

The following link goes to a recording introduced by NPR's Scott Simon from 61 years ago. It features a reporter who was with the British army when they liberated Bergen Belsen in May 1945. In the midst of chaos, with dead bodies lying around them, the surviving Jews, some barely able to stand, joined voices to sing Hatikva, "The Hope," which would become the Israeli National Anthem. It will bring tears to your eyes.

http://genealogy.org.il/BergenBelsenHatikva.mp3

And if you'd like to follow along with the lyrics, you can find them in both Hebrew, a transliteration of the Hebrew and English at this Israeli site. You'll also find a number of other versions including a performance by Barbra Streisand:

http://www.science.co.il/Israel-Anthem.asp

Daled Amos has another excellent post on Al Jolson as well as the original words to Hatikva, here.

Sweeping Anti-Semitism in South Africa Under the Carpet

From the author of It's Almost Supernatural:

I have been waiting for weeks for the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and the South African Jewish report to publicize the findings of the South Africa Anti-Semitism report,06 by the Institute of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University. And I will most likely continue waiting until the Messiah comes so I have decided to take the liberty of publishing its disturbing findings myself.

Disturbing is not descriptive enough. Read the complete post here.

New site: Judeophobe Watch

Folks, there's a new site, Judeophobe Watch, which has an angle I can really appreciate. Judeophobe Watch allows for people of good conscience to debunk, refute, chastise, and debate anti-semitic postings from various Judeophobic web sites. Give it a looksee and add Judeophobe Watch to your blogroll.

New website: sixdaywar.co.uk

2007 marks the fortieth anniversary of the war the West terms "The Six Day War". The Arabs call it the "1967 War" or an-Naksah (The Setback). It has been said that for Israel this war was a question of sheer survival; for the Arabs it was one of credibility.

Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing, offering immense clarity over what could or should have been done. It is too easy to be judgmental in retrospect. So sixdaywar.co.uk has tried to turn back the clock to give you a flavour of what it was like to be in Israel at the time, living with the tensions involved with a countdown to what Israel's opponents suggested would be anihhilation.

sixdaywar.co.uk has gathered background information from a wide variety of sources to give a deeper understanding of how circumstances developed over the weeks and months leading up to the war. The war itself has been comprehensively documented, both in books and on the internet, so this site will concentrate more on the build-up and the aftermath.

sixdaywar.co.uk is a new site explaining how, in 1967 Israel did not wake up one morning and decide to go to war - she woke up one morning and found she had to defend herself.

Please add sixdaywar.co.uk to your resources.