When being anti-Israel betrays itself as antiSemitism‏

Nishma Board Member Paul Appleby wrote the following to the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) in response to their reporting on Israel. I have bolded certain lines I found of specific significance.

Rabbi Ben Hecht

* * * * *

Guest Blogger: Paul Appleby

Definition of anti-Semitism: 

1. Hostility toward or prejudice against Jews.

2. Discrimination against Jews.

3. An attitude or policy of hatred toward Jews.

Replace the word Jews with Israel and that's when criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism.

When people are quick to blame the Jews and Israel, with no need for more facts, that's anti-Semitism.

This happens mostly when people don't look at events in their full context, current and/or historical. When people don't know all the facts, but consistently and wilfully accuse one side in a dispute.

Specifically when that one side is Israel, and the dispute is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism.

And even when the truth becomes known, it is ignored in favour of the now exposed lie. Such was the case with regards to the French TV channel fabricated video of the death of a Palestinian boy; and the case of the fabricated massacre in Jenin. That's anti-Semitism.

Hatred of Israel is the modern extension of classic anti-semitism.

"It's the fault of the Jews", has become "it's the fault of Israel", the Jewish state, homeland of the Jewish people, the Jewish nation. 

Classic: Jews control the banks and the media.

Modern: The Israeli lobby controls American foreign policy.

Classic: The Jews are the cause all the problems in the world.

Modern: Israel is the cause of all the problems in the Middle East, and by extension the reason for Islamic extremism and terrorism everywhere.

Classic: The Jews killed God and should suffer.

Modern: Israel is a cancer.

Classic: Jews are evil.

Modern: Israel's response to Palestinian "militants" (read terrorists) is not at all proportional.

Classic: Jews are weak, and went to the slaughter like sheep during the Holocaust.

Modern: Israel is a militaristic, power hungry, colonialist state.

Classic: Jews used the blood of Christian children to make Passover matzah.

Modern: Israel and the settlers in the West Bank are committing genocide against the Palestinians.

Classic: Jews have no right to live in this place or that place. and it was right to expel them. "No Jews Allowed".

Modern: Jews have no right to live in the West Bank or in East Jerusalem. In fact they should return to Poland or the U.S. or where ever they came from.

Add the following falsehoods in this light:

- The Palestinians are suffering through no fault of their own, but solely because of Israel's occupation and the settlements.

- When oil prices spike, it's because of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.

There are so many more parallels.

Finally, being Jewish, or a Jewish-Israeli, or the child of Holocaust survivors, doesn't make anyone any less anti-Semitic, if their views, their words and their actions say otherwise.

After all, can't a Jew also be anti-Semitic? Why not? There are self-hating Jews. There anti-Israel Jewish-Israelis. There are anti-American Americans.

It is baseless and hypocritical for someone to say "I'm Jewish! How can I be an anti-Semite?

Criticize Israel all you like. But just be sure of your emotions, your motives, and the facts.

Ethics of the Mind

From the archives of Nishma's Online Library at http://www.nishma.org/, we have chosen an article that relates to the week's parsha, both to direct you to this dvar Torah but also for the purposes of initiating some discussion. It is also specifically applicable to the ethical challenge facing us in the world today whereby people are arriving at ethical conclusions only through their emotions and not with the thought necessary in arriving at proper ethical conclusions

This week's parsha is Vayeitzei and we invite you to look at the Insight entitled "Ethics of the Mind" at http://www.nishma.org/articles/insight/insight5761-11.htm.

Orthodox Jews Against Discrimination and Racism -- on Facebook

I recently found out about this group on Facebook and think that it is worthwhile for people to check it out. A major issue in Israel, especially these days, concerns how the nation is going to treat its Arab citizenship and this group really shows the challenge that this involves -- especially in meeting the ideals of Torah. The group also touches upon, in this regard, how we treat each other.

To find out more about the group, please go to https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3314914268727443114#editor/target=post;postID=2436747232705834417

It was on this site that I also found the following
http://www.aishdas.org/asp/ShaareiYosher.pdf
for which I wish to thank Aishdas' R. Micha Berger (a friend of Nishma as well).

Rabbi Ben Hecht

Are we Headed for a Post Ideological World?

«Francis said that ideologies are "rigid." "When a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought," Francis said, according to Radio Vatican.

Francis added: "The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new."

Francis' comments on "ideological Christians" come a month after he criticized the Catholic Church's obsession with gays, abortion and birth control.»

Pope Francis: 'Ideological Christians' Are a 'Serious Illness' | Alternet
http://www.alternet.org/pope-francis-ideological-christians-are-serious-illness


Kol Tuv,
RRW

Jewish Tribune: On knowing your audience

In the halachic debate over Jewish access to the Temple Mount, the language of debate is often inappropriate -- especially as the world listens. The fact is that it is often more than just inappropriate.

Further on this, please go to http://www.jewishtribune.ca/religion/2014/11/25/on-knowing-your-audience.

Rabbi Ben Hecht

Christians United for Israel Takes on Presbyterian Church USA's Divestment Vote

Christians United for Israel Takes on Presbyterian Church USA's Divestment Vote; Elicits 26,000 Responses in Support of Israel in 1 Day | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/06/24/christians-united-for-israel-takes-on-presbyterian-church-usas-divestment-vote-elicits-26000-responses-in-support-of-israel-in-1-day/

«The [Presbyterian] vote was publicly supported by David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard and frequently unsuccessful U.S. political candidate, drawing ridicule of the organization which said the vote was not based on anti-Semitism. On his website, Duke said: "Bravo to the Presbyterian Church for standing up to Jewish racism and supremacism!"»

Kol Tuv,
RRW

Outreach Books - Torah Musings

«I recently made a list of good outreach books for a friend. Let me present it here with a little elaboration:

Books that try to convince and respond to challenges»:

http://www.torahmusings.com/2013/05/outreach-books-2/


Kol Tuv,
RRW

New Scandal Envelops UNRWA as Employees Praise Jerusalem Synagogue Atrocity

New Scandal Envelops UNRWA as Employees Praise Jerusalem Synagogue Atrocity | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/11/20/new-scandal-envelops-unrwa-as-employees-praise-jerusalem-synagogue-atrocity/

Kol Tuv,
RRW

Huffington Post: Why We Shouldn't Call ISIS "Pure Evil"

We must be careful in the language we use in battling groups like ISIS. It is important that we make a point, not simply express our emotions and, even, disgust. I expressed my thoughts further on this in my latest Huffington Post blog: Why We Shouldn't Call ISIS "Pure Evil"

My original title for the post, btw, was 'Words' but it was changed by the editors. (I leave it to you to decide which title is better. I actually commented on the Huffington site because I had a problem with their title)

Please feel free to comment here or there.

Rabbi Ben Hecht

Israel Antiquities Authority App

The Jewish Standard:

The Israel Antiquities Authority has released an app to help children learn about archaeology.

"Become an archeologist!" the app's description reads. "Use your iPhone or iPad as a tool to tap, dig, and explore Israel's past. Discover the Dead Sea Scrolls in an ancient cave, and piece them together to reveal their meaning! Dig up the 2,000 year old Lod Mosaic, then uncover its story in a fast-paced quiz game! You'll need skills, creativity, and smarts to become a great archaeologist and unlock all the rewards."

The games in the App are designed around real discoveries and archaeological artifacts and were developed in collaboration with the IAA's team of pre-eminent archaeologists, scholars and researchers. As they play, kids get a feel for what archaeologists do as they experience the excitement of discovery and the creativity and skills involved in solving mysteries from the distant past.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are among the oldest biblical manuscripts and are considered the greatest manuscript discovery of the 20th century.

The Lod Mosaic is one of the largest, best preserved Roman mosaics ever found and is currently touring the world with stops at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre, Waddeson Manor and the Hermitage.

The free app is available right now in iOS (for iPhones, iPods and iPads) and an Android version is next.

Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dig-quest-israel/id913694523
via JTA News


Kol Tuv,
RRW

Elijah Moments

Rabbi Dani Cohen:
http://youtu.be/CQZyP1S3sd4


Kol Tuv,
RRW

The Senseless Killing of Innocent Jews in Israel

Guest Blogger
R Pini Dunner:

Dear Members and Friends
Once again, and with a heavy heart, I find myself writing an email about the senseless killing of innocent Jews in Israel. This time the brutality and barbarity of the act, and its place of perpetration, defy our ability to absorb it, never mind react to it. Four Jews davening in shul, hacked, stabbed and shot to death by ruthless murderers, whose hatred enabled them to enter a sacred place and kill, kill, kill. Puddles of blood in a shul, with the dead and injured lying on the ground still in their tallit and tefillin, is a scene that we associate with the darkest periods of Jewish history, not with an era of Jewish prosperity and freedom in our own country.
The fact that Jews can be attacked by terrorists while praying in a synagogue, in an act planned by a terrorist group, and then widely celebrated by Palestinians across Israel, must force us to question whether it will ever be possible to find common ground with these people in any kind of 'peace' agreement. And for the news media to declare that Arabs are being provoked by 'settlement building' and Jews demanding the right to pray on Temple Mount, is beyond sickening. It is like saying that because someone built a non-permitted building near one's house it is then legitimate to go on a killing rampage in a church because one has been 'provoked'. If you don't like settlements, use peaceful methods of protest. If you feel that Jews ought not to have the right to pray on Temple Mount, use peaceful methods of protest. Killing is murder. Killing people with knives and meat cleavers and axes makes you a savage. It seems that 'savages' is becoming the most apt definition of the Palestinians. And by the way, I am not suggesting that praying on Temple Mount is the right thing to do - there is no doubt that it is halachically problematic. But to deny Jews the right to go there and pray, and to declare that the holiest site of Judaism must remain Judenrein, is simply unacceptable. It should be our choice, not the choice of Muslim bigotry.
But that is a discussion for another day. Today we must simply mourn and grieve the 4 wonderful men who lost their lives this morning, while praying in shul. Rabbi Moshe Twersky, formerly of Boston; Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky and Rabbi Kalman Zev Levine, both originally from the US; and Rabbi Avraham Goldberg, originally from Liverpool, and later London. All of them had emigrated to Israel. Their deaths leave 26 orphans.
There were also a number of men who were very seriously injured in this morning's attack. Here are their Hebrew names - please pray for them:

Shmuel Yerucham ben Baila

Chaim Yechiel Ben Malka

Avraham Shmuel Ben Shaina

Eitan ben Sarah

Aryeh ben Bracha

Finally, one of the rabbis killed this morning was Rabbi Moshe Twersky, son of the late Rabbi Isadore Twersky, who was the son-in-law of Rabbi J.B. Soloveichik, Rosh Yeshiva of RIETS at Yeshiva University, and the leading light of Modern Orthodoxy in the twentieth century. I feel, therefore, that it is apt to reproduce the following quote from Rabbi Soloveichik, written in the 1960s. It is particularly pertinent because the Rav was not a man who was considered extreme or reactionary:
"The fifth knock of the Beloved is perhaps the most important. For the first time in the annals of exile, Divine Providence has amazed our enemies with the astounding discovery that Jewish blood is not cheap! God did not seek honor and recognition. He wanted Pharoah, Moses' contemporary, to know that he must pay a high price for his edict that "Every male child born shall be cast into the river" (Exodus 1:22), His present desire is that the blood of Jewish children who were slain as they recited the eighteen benedictions of the daily [Amidah] prayer shall also be avenged. When God smote the Egyptians, He sought to demonstrate that there will always be accountability for the spilling of Jewish blood. At present, it is necessary not only to convince the dictator of Egypt [Nasser], but the self-righteous Nehru, the Foreign Office in London, and the sanctimonious members of the United Nations that Jewish blood is not cheap... A people that cannot defend its freedom and tranquility is neither free nor independent."
My friends – this morning our brothers, including Rabbi Soloveichik's grandson, were slain while reciting the eighteen benedictions of the daily Amidah prayer. Jewish blood is not cheap. In the same way that Israel exchanges 1000's of prisoners for one captured soldier, so too Israel must let the world know that when innocents are slaughtered it will make no compromises in ensuring the safety and security of its civilians, and of every Jew. We expect no less. God expects no less.
May the injured be healed, may the dead be avenged, and may we soon see the ultimate redemption of Moshiach, and the rebuilding of the Third Temple. Amen.
Rabbi Pini Dunner

Kol Tuv,
RRW

Five dead in Jerusalem synagogue attack

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/18/world/meast/jerusalem-violence/

-----------------------------------------
Kol Tuv - Best Regards
RRW

Jewish Tribune: On Being Radicalized

There is a need to respond to this radicalization of individuals in the cause of Moslem fanaticism.

Further on this, please go to http://www.jewishtribune.ca/commentary/2014/11/18/on-being-radicalized.

Rabbi Ben Hecht

From Cong. Beth Aaron in Teaneck

Following this morning's murder of four men as they davened at their synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem, Congregation Beth Aaron is joining with other synagogues nationwide to recite Tehillim. 
 
The Orthodox Union and the RCA have requested that all shuls across North America gather simultaneously to recite Tehillim tonight in spiritual solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Israel.
 
We will participate following the 9:30 p.m. Maariv tonight, November 18, in the Main Shul. 
 
If you cannot join us this evening to recite Tehillim, please join the Jewish people spiritually by reciting in private the following chapters of Tehillim at 9:45 p.m.: 20, 44, 83, 88, 121, 125 and 142. 
 
 
To read the OU/RCA statement, please go to http://bit.ly/1yjYRTE.

Kol Tuv,
RRW

The Double Standard of Freedom of Religion

In the wake of the tragic events of today in Israel, I feel that it is again most necessary for us to articulate the hypocrisy and double standard of many of the critics of Israel. Why is it that we are always being called upon to respect the religious sites of others -- even though Israel has a sparkling record in its preservation of religious freedom -- yet an attack in a shul will still be met with expressions of sympathy for the terrorists in that they have to go so far? Can someone not see that if a person is willing to kill people who are simply praying, there is a further statement about the person's very psychology?

Rabbi Ben Hecht

Hits on Hatikva

My wife's Aunt just emailed this. I cannot verify its accuracy...

For some of us, this might be the first time we have seen the translation of Hatikva.  

The Israeli ambassador and the Minister of the Diaspora would like our National Hymn, Hatikva to become the most popular video on You Tube by April 16, 2015, the 68th anniversary of Israel 's Independence Day.

  Please view the Video clip, at the website listed below, and then forward it to all your contacts.

The object is to place this video among the top five clips.
Some Arabs are trying to have this video removed from You Tube.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q4XL4oRIRE

Kol Tuv,
RRW

Nishma's Jewish Ethics Study -- on Koshertube

As presented in the most recent Nishma Update, Nishma will be focusing this year on what we might term Jewish Ethics. Much of our presentations in this regard will be through video shiurim on Koshertube.

To see the most recent presentation, Revelational Ethics and Natural Ethics,

please go to http://koshertube.com/videos/index.php?option=com_seyret&Itemid=4&task=videodirectlink&id=19259

RBH

A photo is sometimes worth a thousand words.

Please see
http://www.bhol.co.il/upload0708/E5AE8E9EA5C442DCA76C8FE8E322BC50.jpg

This picture was sent to me with the following caption:

This is Rav Tzvi Weber with other mashgichim entering Jordan to take a look (i.e. supervision) at the enterprise established growing produce in Jordan for import to Israel to avoid shmitta issues.

It would seem to me that there is much to discuss.

Take care
RBH  

Intended Audiences and Unintended Audiences

I found this article, entitled ‘War of the rabbis’ over Temple Mount strife goes from Halacha to politics", on The Journal of Turkish Weekly and found it somewhat disconcerting that this issue was presented on this site. The actual article itself was not the issue for me and in discovering that it was originally from The Jerusalem Post, I was not surprised. The question for me, though, was how this article would be perceived, read and understood by the readers of this Turkish site. How much, when we write, do we have to be concerned by where it will eventually be read? This is really an example of the 'power' of the Internet.

Rabbi Ben Hecht