Chaos theory

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images


The theory explained.

Solvay conference

The fifth conference on physics that took place in October of 1927, attended by the parents of the quantum physics. Geniuses reunited around thematic "Electrons and Photons".

Video:

Reb Schneur Zalman Moshe HaYitzchoki

Photo by Adam Pretty - Getty Images.

MIB commenting to Geza people were setup: Schneur, you wrote: "The stress was on Hanasi hu hakol (and later) Messianic aspirations and kiruv."

This really began in earnest when Reb Mendel Futerfas took over the reigns in Kfar Chabad. (In the days of Reb Shloime Chaim things were otherwise.) Reb Mendel in turn was taught this Derech by his teacher and mentor Reb Zalman Moshe of Nevel who revolutionized the concept of "REBBE" "NASI" in Chabad.

berl, crown heights: seriously though - the change in Kfar Habad after Reb Shliemo Chaim is well known and was discussed here before. But do you really believe Reb Mendel had such a profound ideological influence on Lubavitch bechlal? I do not think so. As to Reb Zalman Meishe HoYitzhoki, what do you mean by "revolutionized the concept of "REBBE" "NASI" in Chabad"? Please clarify.

MIB: Reb Zalman Moshe came from a Kopuster family. He was born in 1872 in Nevel to his father Reb Dovber ("Berel Der Shoichet") who was the Chabad shoichet in Nevel, his mother was a Ziselson, daughter of a prominent Lubavitch family in Nevel. Reb Zalman Moshe studied in the Kopuster cheder in Nevel. He married Neshe Reines of Zhembin, first cousin of the famed Reb Isaac Jacob Reines of the Mizrachi movement.

He was married for quite a few years when Tomchei Temimim was founded and never officially studied there though he did join shiurim given by Reb Shmuel Groinem Esterman. He subsequently became the Ruach Chaim of Chassidic life in Nevel and the surrounding area. As the Rebbe Rashab would refer to him as "Mein Zalman Moshe"...

Interestingly, Berel Der Shoichet's father was known in Nevel as Dovid "HaTzarfosi" as he had come from France as a young man, he had a ksav yuchsin tracing him back (ben achar ben!) to Rabbeinu Yaakov Ha Yitzchoki aka Rabbeinu Tam. As mentioned once before, the HaYitchoki's and R. Aharon Kotler were Mechutanim, as the mother of R. Dov Shvartzman (son in law of R. Aharon) was a Nevel born HaYitzchoki as well.

WJC files $6 million libel suit against Isi Leibler

An open letter by Isi Leibler, Former Chairman: World Jewish Congress Governing Board (via email).

I would have expected that the damning report of the New York Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, would be the end of the story and lead to closure on the painfully distressing WJC imbroglio. But rather than moving forward, the embittered WJC leaders are demonstrating that old habits die hard.

The bizarre $6 million libel suit served against me � one of the highest libel suits ever filed in Israel - is not merely vindictive but is also a crude effort to intensify the long standing efforts by the WJC to intimidate journalists and others who were critical of the WJC.

Stephen Herbits was particularly vicious against Jewish activists and organizations who crossed the WJC path. You may recollect that after an interview last year with New York Magazine, he was forced to apologize after he had warned that if other Jewish organizations caused problems for the WJC in the media "this organization [the WJC] ain't going down by itself". He then accused other unnamed Jewish organizations of filing false IRS returns, misuse of funds, providing "outlandish" benefit packages, and lying to the government.

Just last week, in an interview with the London Jewish Chronicle, Herbits was quoted saying that "He [Leibler] can say he's vindicated until he's blue in the face or six feet under. It doesn't bother me. I have no interest in settling."

It is also clear that despite their bitter recent experience, the WJC has yet to appreciate the sanctity of public funds. The mere filing of such a flamboyant law suit incurs court costs of $150,000, excluding legal fees and other associated expenses. I trust that in the spirit of a new regime of financial transparency, the WJC will disclose such expenses to future potential donors who mistakenly believe that their contributions are being used to combat anti-Semitism.

This libel suit is especially grotesque having regard to the fact that the Attorney General's report went far beyond the concerns relating to governance and financial transparency which I and other critics had raised when we called for an independent audit.

Amongst the findings in the report were assessments that Israel Singer had received various forms of compensation and benefits not authorized or approved by any organ of the WJC. And to this day, due to information being withheld from the Attorney General, unresolved questions remain relating to the $1.2 million transferred to Singer's "pension" accounts. The purpose of the transfer of this money was described in the report as being unauthorized and not documented with "no records that would have reflected the creation or maintenance of a pension fund in the Geneva office".

In fact the Attorney General condemned Singer for having "violated the obligation to properly administer charitable assets". He directed him to personally repay over $300,000 in respect of "inappropriate disbursements". He also took the unprecedented step of explicitly prohibiting Singer from retaining any financial management or oversight role in the WJC or its affiliated entities, forcing him to step down as chairman of the Governing Board. It is noteworthy that despite these dramatic findings, the principal publication catering to American charity and philanthropic organizations questioned if the penalties imposed were overly lenient due to political and other considerations.

It is of course now painfully obvious that had the WJC acceded to our call for an independent audit, all these issues could have been resolved internally without the devastating public exposure and expenditure of millions of dollars of public funds incurred by the massive legal fees and futile cover-up efforts.

Yet despite this adverse report, the publicly funded WJC controlled by Messrs Bronfman, Herbits and their acolytes, are still determined to maintain a high profile for Singer in the organization. In fact, immediately following the release of the report by the Attorney General, in an interview with Herbits in the Jewish Chronicle, Singer was described as being "wholly in charge of the organization's policy". If that is correct, it would seem that they have actually endorsed lower standards of fiduciary responsibilities from their senior public figures than those commonly regarded as mandatory for officers of a public corporation. This is a matter of credibility of the WJC.

But the real question facing the Jewish organizational world is whether such standards should also apply to the Claims Conference, the largest repository of funds for the Jewish people? Can a body controlling billions of dollars of Holocaust restitution funds morally continue to retain as its President, a man found by the Attorney General of the State of New York to have "violated his fiduciary duties as a trustee of charitable assets"?

It is of course self-evident that most Jews are unhappy with this ongoing public ventilation of scandals. However the vindictive publicly funded libel suit pursued against me by the Bronfman-Singer-Herbits troika in the name of the WJC, obliges me to respond and will impel me to disclose additional information relating to the financial irregularities and improprieties which occurred before Singer was removed from his post. This will of course reinvigorate the media fest which for over two years has been centered on this once venerable international Jewish organization.

A recent example is an article by Daniel Ganzfried and Sebastian Heft which was featured on the cover of the February 9 issue of the reputable Swiss journal "Weltwoche". A translation of the article can be found at the author's web site: English - Hebrew. The original article in German. This article is said to be a "literary" forerunner to a major investigative book Ganzfried is allegedly researching relating to the WJC and Restitution.

Ganzfried is a highly regarded Swiss Jewish writer whose novels and essays have earned him the respect of the literary world. He became an international literary celebrity when he exposed as a fraud, the best selling purported Holocaust memoir by Wilkominski. He had also written critical pieces earlier about the WJC in another Swiss periodical, FACTS.

Regrettably, the article goes beyond the WJC imbroglio and raises questions with respect to the entire restitution process. I emphasize that I do not share Ganzfried's broader views relating to the Swiss banks and restitution. By and large, despite errors, the restitution process was an historical imperative. If indeed the Swiss paid more than they were obliged, this was largely a consequence of their initially evasive and arrogant approach to the entire issue. If any criticism is to be leveled, it is that many aging Holocaust survivors have not received their entitlement to restitution funds whilst lawyers and bureaucrats have profited from these proceeds in an unseemly, even obscene, manner.

However, Ganzfried's critical article is likely to be followed by many more. It is inevitable that journalists will question the propriety of a person whom an Attorney General has described as having "violated his fiduciary duties as a trustee of charitable assets" continuing to hold the office of President of a public fund controlling billions of dollars of restitution funds. If Singer himself does not retire graciously, ultimately the Board of the Claims Conference may be obliged to bite the bullet and request his resignation.

I conclude by reiterating my belief that after the report of the AG, the matter should have been laid to rest and the WJC should have moved forward. Nevertheless I trust it is clearly understood that being at the brunt of a vicious $ 6 million libel suit, I am not being vindictive when I am obliged to expose the behavior and motivations of those initiating this unseemly libel suit, even if it provides additional grist for the media mills. Needless to say, it will be the Attorney General's report which will provide the core of my response to the WJC's flamboyant and vindictive effort, utilizing public funds, to extract retribution for the outcome of the disastrous external governmental intervention which they inflicted upon themselves.

Filed under WJC.
UPDATED: 4/25/06

mentalblog.com googeling

Top 20 search key phrases in February todate:
1. matisyahu
2. matisyahu video
3. lipa shmeltzer
4. 12th imam
5. mental blog
6. mentalblog
7. amona video
8. abi meleibt
9. http //www.mentalblog.com
10. malkie Schwartz
11. the 12th imam
12. amona
13. lipa Schmeltzer
14. lipa Margulies
15. levi okunov
16. leonard cohen
17. cochineal beetles
18. sebastian vilar rodrigez
19. matisyahu kimmel
20. tzemach atlas

Geza people were setup

Schneur Zalman of NY commenting to Lubavitch Russian dropouts?

Even in the times of "shanim ketikunom", the geza Lubavitcher rarely got any real kiruv from the Rebbe. Compare lets say the kiruv Prof Branover got to the kiruv "Chazak" got when he came from the USSR, or compare the kiruv Jim Brawer got from the Rebbe to the kiruv the Drizin family got.

In my opinion the geza people were setup to have a major yerida after the petirah of the Rebbe as for them the game is over, the culture, values, language, family relationships going back generations are all meaningless in the New Lubavitch. Learning was never stressed, Yiras Shomayim was always on the back burner, Chabad culture was rarely talked about unlike in other Chasidic groups. The stress was on Hanasi hu hakol, Messianic aspirations, and kiruv. These 3 things do have a hamshocha except for the first and that�s where the problem is the tohu!

Schneur, add to this list J.J. Hect elevated and lavished with attention, the confidant Yudel K., etc. But we will not shed a tear about Geza on this blog. Let them all frie out, as punishment for the discrimination, midah keneged midah.

The other golden dome�

Yesterday. AP - Khalid Mohammed


Today. Blast shatters Shi'ite shrine in Iraq's Samarra. AP - Hameed Rasheed.

White Plains boy who found both G-d and reggae

Nextbook: Melody Maker:

Though Matisyahu's talents are evident in concert, his albums leave me wanting. He's not without real skill, but on record his backing band is dull; the grooves are too tame and overly polite, and the basslines�perhaps reggae's most crucial sonic component�are positively timid. Matisyahu is devout not only in his love of God and Torah but in his fealty to the reggae genre, and his albums are reverent to the point of blandness. While songs like "Warrior" and "King Without a Crown" have memorable melodies, elsewhere he falls prey to the same affliction that plagues much underground "backpack" hip-hop, especially by white rappers: overcompensating on their props-paying to the point of tedium. His records suffer not from a lack of talent but from a lack of excitement.

(via Bloggerai)

Abraham Lopes Cardozo at 91

Haaretz: "Abraham Lopes Cardozo, a synagogue cantor recognized for his efforts to preserve the music of Spanish and Portuguese Jews, has died at age 91 in Manhattan."
See also mentalblog.com: From Spanish Court to Italian Ghetto.

Meetings Manual

blackrimglasses.com Avoiding Vampire Meetings.
43 Folders: 9 tips for running more productive meetings.
scottberkun.com: How to run a brainstorming meeting.

Ashreinuniks

AP - Mary Altaffer

Rashi Script

Menachem Mendel: Over Shabbat lunch a guest of our's and I discussed the origins of "Rashi Script."

Satmar fight continues

Times Herald-Record: Judge not, lest ye be judged. Did the reporter actually write "well-wired Satmar world"?

Dance wunderkind David Lavon

mentalblog.com readers insulted

The proprietor of WE WANNA GO BACK TO HONG KONG!!! asked to remove the link to her site from my blog.

Rudderless

Esnaged commenting to Likkutei Maysim:

The Lubavitch world has fragmented since 1994 into an almost uncountable number of sub sects. The lunatic fringe has apparently developed an 'apotheosis theology' far in excess of any previously known since the days of osoh hoish. But even among 'mainstream' Chabad, there is such a bewildering array of beliefs about the late Rebbe that it is scarcely possible for an insider to ascertain what beliefs an individual owns, let alone someone from the non Chabad world.

This is obviously is a failure of leadership on a massive scale. An organization that always functioned totally at the behest of its leader is completely rudderless in its absence, and this splintering is the unfortunate result. It is hard to see how the disparate groupings could ever again combine, even in the unlikely event that a new leader was to emerge in the near future.

A shrine of intolerance in Boston

A Shliach brings to his job his unique temperament and talents. Some are better with people that others. Some are surprisingly harsh. They talk to people in a tone that the Rebbe would never allow towards a Jew. Some managed to hurt many people in this community. Penetrating, dismissive, intolerant rants are raining down like manna. But that is only part of the problem.

One would think that a Shliach is in business of making BTs. So when a prominent member of our community turns his life around a Shliach is genuinely happy. But no, the approvals are reserved for people who passed a party test. But if BT is say returned to his Chagas roots he certainly deserves bitter snickering, ridicule and disdain uniquely assigned to the ideological independence.

Is Chabad outreach hollow at the core?

We have a Shliach in town from the famous OT drop out class. In addition to the two names mentioned in the previous post there were Piekarsky, and other prominent families. The said Shliach from the class with the 50% drop out rate needs a serious divine intervention to produce a single baal tshuvah. Is there anything wrong with this picture?

Lubavitch Russian dropouts?

Estulin, Mishulovin, Okunov, etc. Are Russian Lubavitcher families more prone to attrition? From physiological prospective this would be logical as the gap between parents and children who were born here must be above the average. Is there a pattern? Also as this seems to be a wide spread phenomena affecting many families, is there an attempt at community response? Or perhaps the only response is to tell a curious bocher to see a shrink and then to expel him/her from a Yeshiva?


REMBRANDT, The Return of the Prodigal Son, The Hermitage, Leningrad.

Likkutei Maysim

A new blog by Giraffe Steak: T"U Shvat:

The rosh yeshiva today told me that one of two things is going to happen:
1) I leave the yeshiva;
2) I enter into counseling with a Lubavitch psychotherapist who will have r'shus to report anything that I say to the anhala. He explained that a certain rabbi expressed fears about me. He said this rabbi's fears might be true or might not be true, but the yeshiva doesn't want to take any chances

We argued some more. If I remember, the last straw was the whole shpiel about dor shvi'i, seventh generation since the Alter Rebbe, namely that we are still the generation of the Rebbe, even though he is dead, ztzokllh"h nbg"m zy"a.
I looked at him in the eye, and said, "My problem is you. You guys. Who believe this stuff which is crap."

Undercurrents of personal resentment

A NEW YORK STATE OF MIND: DOGMATIZING OUR PROVINCIALITY, II:

For the average person, however, the Chabad system is stifling. It crushes any sense of independence and motivation. Inspiration evokes raised eyebrows; innovation evokes scorn, if not contempt, and personality is bound to make you the butt of every joke at almost every shabbos table in Lubavitch.

Heavy "Black" Metal band "Schneersohn"

"The band "Schneersohn" was founded by four yeshiva students in Crown Heights, NY. Taking their name from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (ZT"L), the band is bringing the message of the Rebbe to the world through the most powerful form of music in existence -- Black Metal.

The members of Schneersohn are yeshiva students in Crown Heights, NY. We are reluctant to release our real names, as our Rabbis might mistake our music for a mockery of the Rebbe and would certainly expel us from school."

Check out the track: The Rebbe's Grave. Delicate Meshichisten lyrics. (via xlubi)

They write: "Influences: Darkthrone, early Satyricon, Nile, Ulver, The Lubavitcher Rebbe (ZT"L)." Nice order, no?

Meanwhile in Russia, FJC: Seminar Unites Jewish Youth from 11 Cities in Southern Russia:

The makeover of Lubavitch into Lubavitch, Inc, is complete

Bloggerai: Late Post: Yud Shvat.

Sholom and Hella

Haley's comet people

Tzudik D. commenting to Mashiach at a store near you:

This is absurd, Israelis have a knack for turning chassidus's into weird cults, a-la scientology or the Haley's comet people - remember na-na-nachman? These guys were a regular chassidus once upon a time, no? Soon it'll be Yechi spray painted on the side of abandoned buildings in Israel, this has all the makings of the next Breslov! So exciting: maybe they'll change it to: y-ye-yech-yechi adonainu. Soon they'll be dancing in a circle by Reb Shimon's kever smoking blunts. It's only a matter of time!

Jamie says

"Your desire to "float your boat" is counterproductive." Nu, nu�


Photo taken here: Matisyahu, 3rd candle in Boston.

Netherlands debuts Lenticular stamps

It has unique moving images of Dutch skating legends Ard Schenk and Yvonne van Gennip.

I am not sure I understand how this works but there is the description on the web site: Lenticular is a specialised printing process that can show depth, motion, HD video, film or combinations of these.

Matisyahu at Avalon take two

There was this negative review in the Boston Globe: He's a hot ticket, but not the most exciting one:

The show's incongruous highlight was a segment of beatboxing, the hip-hop technique of making music with one's mouth, at which Matisyahu excels. His singing voice, however, seemed fragile and thin. The band's rhythms, although perfectly competent, lacked imagination, and eventually a certain dullness set in.

My thoughts before I read the article: I find myself unmoved by the music. Disconnected from the agitation below the stage, uninspired. The routine with several concerts a week and the travels is taking it�s toll on Matis. The show was low energy despite the best drum set I ever heard from Jonah and despite Aaron�s inspirational guitar jams. There is something prepubescent about Matisyahu�s voice. Reggae is about aggressive masculine hoarseness it is not about high notes of repentance. Reggae is about going down not up. The contradiction is presumed, built-in and commercialized but it is dangerously on the abyss of authenticity. Bewildered authenticity is felt equally in the realm of sacred and profane, it leaves me cold.

New Video, Youth:

30 Hz kick drum and the occasional crisp snare

Tzudik D. commenting to the Matisyahu at Avalon in Boston:

He's competing in mainstream because he's standing on the backs of everything Lubavitch did in the past 40 years. People aren't into him, they're into the mystique that he purports to represent.

As with most types of music, your fists are raised to the 30 Hz kick drum, and the occasional crisp snare that are beating in your ear canal. The lyrics are simply an easy way to make you, the listener feel like your relating on a deeper level. Much like a rock group will shout out the name of the city they're playing in, it's reactionary on the crowd's part.

There's also a big part of the person, in this case Matisyahu: you've bought into his persona on some level, and you�re raising your fists to what he represents to you.

I'm sorry to have to break this to you on a blog, I was in a very fragile stage after I found out that pop music (him included) is all an elaborate formula to sell records.

Terrafugia: The Vehicle

Roadable aircraft is coooked up by an MIT team in Cambridge.

Is Meir Rhodes a Meshichist?

I got an nasty email from him yesterday from Bat Ayin, I think it is from him, and I would like to know if he is a Meshichist?

18 families control 50% of Israeli Business

Hiney ma tov u ma noim shevet achim gam yachad� Globes: Richest families extend grip on Israeli economy.

Lawsuit exposes Chabad power struggle in Israel

Globes: Chabad institutions have petitioned the courts to prevent a takeover by Tzeirei Chabad�s chairman.
Could someone please explain this fight?

Levi Okunov the fashion designer

Forward: Onetime Lubavitcher Creates New Life Out of Whole Cloth.

Schoenfeld explained that most of those attendees were part of the so-called "alternative community" � a loosely knit group made up mostly of men between 20 and 45 years old who were raised in ultra-Orthodox communities but now find themselves on the periphery of the ultra-Orthodox society. Some are still observant; others have lapsed. "We're not talking about Hasidic kids at risk, like the ones doing drugs," Schoenfeld explained. "These men are older. They may be divorced or going through a divorce, or never married, or are having problems buying into the belief system."

Hey Berl, is he Meir's son, I don't think Mendel has a son that old? Is he gay?


UPDATE #1: ModaFoto where Art Fashion & Entertainment happen :: Levi Okunov :: Fall 2006 Outerwear.

UPDATE #2: Levi Okunov Fashion House. The coats are amazing!

Rembrandt, Jewish fiancee

Rembrandt van Rijn's 'Jewish fiancee' from Warsaw's museum of Royal Castle. A Dutch expert has confirmed that two paintings, part of Warsaw's royal palace collection, are authentic works by the famous 17th-century artist Rembrandt (AFP).

Mashiach at a store near you

The commercial Moshichistim purchased on several Israeli Radio stations on Yud Shvat. Have to be listened to be believed! (click on the radio)

Half-Billion For Jewish Education

The Jewish Week: Jim Joseph Trust.

Messiah van-dalized

Check out the crowns on top of the vans, pretty funny.

Also in the news To Serve and To Lead � The Campaign for Student Enrichment at Messiah College: "Messiah College successfully completes the largest campaign in its history, raising $50.5 million for student aid, new facilities and educational programs"

All European life died in Auschwitz

Vodkapundit: Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez.

Is Tu-beshevat a Sabbatian Holiday?

Seforim: There are those who claim the custom to celebrate Tu-beshevat as a holiday is based upon the book Hemdat Yamim.

Blogs to Riches

New York Magazine: The Haves and Have-Nots of the Blogging Boom. That Shirky is a genius!

mentalblog.com retraction

We hereby suspend the candidacy of "Rebbe Girsh" to the title of The Next Lubavitcher Rebbe on the grounds of possible Moshichism.

Aliyah Report

Ynetnews: Living the American dream: "New report by Israeli consulate in New York reveals up to 400,000 Israelis live in Metropolitan area, only 365 returned to Israel in 2005. Number of Israelis in U.S. estimated at 800,000."

Forget Dershowitz, here comes Ilia II

Schneur Zalman of NY commenting to The Debate Within Chabad:

If the patriarch story is true, then Chabad in Russia has a "hipshe "cheshbon hanefesh to do! The Rayatz fought not only for Judaism, but for purity of Judaism in post Czarist Russia. He fought against the attempts of some Modern orthodox lay men in S. Petersburg to organize a Modern Judaism. He opposed a rabbinical seminary there. He fought against similar efforts to organize a Living Synagogue against attempts by Reb Shmuel Aleksandrov of Bobruisk to modernize Orthodoxy. So now his son in-laws disciples are watering it all down. And for what purpose?

Joe Schick sends this link:

TBILISI, Georgia - The Head of the Georgian Orthodox Church Ilia II and Rabbi Abraham Mikhaelashvili, the Chief Rabbi of Georgia and Chabad Lubavitch representative.

A memo to Joe and Schneur: An average Lubavitcher today is more authentically "Christian" than any Ilya the II or the III.

Matisyahu at Avalon in Boston

Matisyahu said happy Tu B'Shvat from Boston tonight. He said the trees with deep roots don't mind snow�

The club was packed despite the storm and I hear the kids were really into it. Akiva his tour manager said: "So you didn�t like the new album?" I responded that that was not me but one of the readers (Kara). But I can say this now. Matisyahu played two songs from his new album, Youth and an acoustic song. I am willing to wait for the songs to grown on me by these were the two worst songs of the concert set.

A cyclist makes his way over the Williamsburg bridge in the heavy snowstorm on Sunday. AP - Mary Altaffer

mental block at mentalblog.com

Blogging is an art. It is also a way to talk and learn from others. At this point the online and offline disconnect sets it. I also wish the Lubavitch (not all) part of my audience will go away (please). I have nothing further to learn from you. I will retreat to think and breathe as a Bly moment sets in.

Zalmen Zarchi travels

Monday in Lodz (pronounced Wodz).
Yahrtzeit of Sfas Emes, Gerer Rebbe.
Shabbos in Wroclaw (pronounced Vrotz-warv).

Victor Dovbenko

Nothing warms the heart as much as the empty and superb Socialist Realism art. Victor Dovbenko - Art of Russia.

Mayer Schiller interview

Joe Schick: Rabbi Mayer Schiller on Neturei Karta and Zionism.

The Debate Within Chabad

Marvin Schick: Chabad's Chief Rabbi and the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church performed the ceremony.

500 souls?

Schneur Zalman of NY commenting to Yud Shvat:

Actually Classical Lubavitch ended in 1920 with the death of the Rebbe R. Sholom Ber and the Soviet Revolution. While some Lubavitchers maintained their Chassidic identity, for most it was just a struggle to remain frum. But the Rayaatz preserved the forms, vocabulary and even persona (he was the son of the Rebbe) of Classical Chabad. The Rayaatz was as confused by events after 1927 as others were. His Chassidim remained in Russia. He did not know where to go to Latvia, Poland, maybe the US or maybe even Palestine. His attitude towards Israel changed after the Holocaust. The Holocaust caught him off-guard and again he chose to flee, but I would not call that abandoning ship as he had very few followers in Poland. How many Chabad people lived in Warsaw, Lodz, Lublin, Bendin, Radom, Cracow, etc probably not more than 500 souls? Only in the Vilna area were there large numbers of Chaside Chabad and Nusach Ari Jews.

Shlomo Menachem 13

Mazaltov!

slurred gibberish

I have genuinely tried to reapproach Lubavitch. My yesterday�s interaction with four Shluchim (Rosha, Tam, etc) and my trip to Crown Heights two weeks ago has ended this quest. I am disgusted for trying this. Lubavitcher Chasidism are unconditionally mean the second they feel someone sings to his own tune. The amount of nastiness even took me by surprise and I have seen it before. I do not want any part of it. Most members of the movement already lost their humanity. I was planning another trip this weekend to attend my friend�s son bar mitzvah. I am not going. I don�t want to face the empty mean stares and vodka induced slurred gibberish.

Yud Shvat

With RaYatZ death the traditional Lubavitch collapsed and perished along with thousands of Hasidim left in Holocaust after RaYaTZes freedom was bought off and the captain abandoned the sinking ship. The new Rebbe has failed to stem assimilation or to change the world of Israel. His epochal struggle left in it's path mortal collateral destruction of human souls and exhaustion of the sacred.

Handover

Photos via Kumah - Home of the Aliyah Revolution.

The Shidduch Crisis Revisited at the JCC

Events: "Is there a distinctive Modern Orthodox approach to dating/shidduchim? When is it ethical to date more than one person at a time? How do we decide what criteria are really important to us in a partner? What can be done in the Modern Orthodox community, within a halachic framework, to effectively address the singles issue?"

Blog philosophy

At the heart of the Internet revolution are centrifugal forces lighting up the peripheral matrix of ideas. MSM is fueled by the established corporations, it is permeated with underling currents of status quo and hinged on conventional ideas. When I say corporations I mean business as well as imperial and religious entities.

Creativity is a solitary effort, a task of a single man. MSM is uncomfortable with ideological experimentations. The Jewish Media has been the refuge of mediocrity failing to provide basis democratic prerequisite in holding the communal Jewish corporate and religious groups accountable. With the collapse of the oral culture and carpet bombing by the MSM, blogs are the remaining alternative voice.

Therefore I proclaim the following null and void:
1. Blogs that reprint MSM stories (note that linking like Drudge and Instapundit are acceptable as they are really directories, not pure blogs).
2. Blogs that are mainly commenting on MSM stories.(Bloghead)
3. Bloggers who straddle MSM, they live and dream to be mentioned in or to write for the MSM. (Canonist)
4. Blogs that are parrots of the MSM. For example the obediently follow MSM lead stories and have to write about some silly carton controversy as if by a magic order. (Israellycool )
5. Blogs written by one dimensional fascist of left and right AKA morons and idiots.
6. Group blogs, as impersonal and predictable as Sunday�s New York Times. (Jewschool)
7. Graphically unbalanced blogs that refuse to bow to the mighty pixel. (FailedMessiah.com)

mentalblog.com links

Seforim: Manasseh of Ilya and Y. Barzilay.
Seforim: Censored Texts.
Menachem Mendel: Origins of Parve/Pareve.
Hirhurim: Did Rashi's daughter wear tefillin?

Girls sexually assaulted in Amona

Ynetnews: The rabbi says another girl told him police officers touched female bodies "not in order to arrest or move them, but to really grope intimate body parts."

A Jew leaps to death from Empire State Bldg.

David Abramowitz, 21 allegedly from Lower East Side and a student at Toras Moshe in Jerusalem. New York Daily News: - City News - Death leap at Empire State Bldg.

Aharon Tebger, 23, Givat Ze'ev, a student at Bar Ilan University

"I was in the salon of house #8, together with some expellees from Shirat HaYam [in Gush Katif] and others. The other two rooms were full, and the police first broke into those room. We heard screaming, and we saw a lot of boys running away from those rooms towards the kitchen; they were very scared and some were already bleeding. But everything was happening at once, so we still didn�t realize exactly what was going on. �At the same time, the police were trying to break into our room, and soon they came upon us from both sides. We screamed that they should put away their clubs, that we were not fighting with them, but they said that rocks were thrown at them� Then one said, �you have until a count of three to leave through the window,� and then he counted quickly 1,2,3 and then they started beating and pushing, while the other police came from the other direction. First they started hitting us on the legs, and then on our heads. �I was one of the last ones in the room, and one policeman told me to go one way, but then two others hit me hard in my head. I fell down, and then - five of them were on top of me, hitting me in head and kicking me all over my body. Five on one, and I was on the floor! �Then they brought me to another room, where I got out through the window; I had no choice, because if I stayed there, they would smash me again. Someone helped me get to the road, and only then did I realize that I was full of blood. They took me on a stretcher to the clinic, and from there by ambulance to Ein Karem Hospital, where I received stitches in three places: near my eye and on my head. I also was hit on my limbs, and I still have trouble walking."

More testimonies here.
Guysen.com: EVACUATION D'AMONA (diaporama).

mentalblog.com links

Marvin Schick kills comments.
Rebeljew: Yud Shvat Kiruv.
treppenwitz: Falling from the sky and Ani Mishtatephet b�Tzarecha (I join in your sorrows).
My Obiter Dicta: Yehoram Gaon on Amona.
Valleywag: Google snack room photo.

Amona pogrom narrowcasting at Bloghead

AP - Oded Balilty

Bloghead: A systematic strategy, please: "Mentalblog is calling the events in Amona a 'pogrom' -- completely devaluing, of-course, the experiences, suffering and deaths of the Jews over the centuries who went through real pogroms. Disgusting."

I already previously noted what I think about Miriam�s blog. I will only add that I have chosen "pogrom" deliberately and it strikes me as disgusting dishonesty to call it anything else in light of what we witnessed here and here. Indeed the left prefers to wear the proverbial horse blinders and can�t fathom that what happened in Amona was Rodney King times 500!

Reuters - Damir Sagol

Fresca, Farbrengen, Fondue in Brookline

Boruch Kaplan of Jerusalem. His eyes lit up when he saw Fresca: "I have not seen it for 30 years and I loved it when I was a child in Canada!" He said the Rebbe holds the last piece of the puzzle�


Reb Shayka. As I walked through the door he told me: "U nas net seledki". We have no herring�

The wicked son of Amona

Reuters - Ronen Zvulun.

treppenwitz: The Wicked Son: "Shockingly, the very core of mainstream Jewish theology - the patient anticipation of the arrival of the Messianic era - suddenly became analogous of the most worrisome aspects of fundamentalist Islam."

Uncool Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards

In it�s second year the idea of israellycool.com have been picked up by the Jerusalem Post eager like any other MSM outlet today to redirect the blogging energy.

One look at the israellycool.com and you can see how uncool is the site, lacking in elementary design sense. The site will easily score lowest on usability, no wonder the awards logo now splattered across multiple blogs is a graphic eyesore. There are blogs in the running that are only a month old like the "beyond boring and tedious" Beyond BT!

But let's look at one blog, Jewish Russian Telegraph nominated for the "Best Politics and Current Afairs" and "Best Overall Blog".

Name: Telegraph was cool when adopted by several newspapers hundred years ago, the name telegraph was synonymous with speed, it was email of the time. It takes a particularly heavy dose of backward thinking to call a blog a "telegraph".

Design: Kitschy colors combined with print like narrow columns make this blog an internet usability disaster nominee.

Content: JRT has exhibited a mastery of cut and paste. You can go from top to bottom and it is all reprints. I mean holy crap, the entire articles� Not an ordinal though, all cut and paste.

Active readership: There is one comment!

Traffic: As in real life the purveyor is convinced that the lack of imagination and creativity AKA "content" could be overcome by aggressive bulldozer like self promotion. Witness the Jewish Advocate article (PDF linked by Solomonia). The JRT editor claims that "the site averages 10,000 hits a week". The Advocate continues: "The site urges viewers to vote for itself, and that it sent an e-mail to subscribers urging them to "vote early" and "vote often." Contest rules permit people to vote once every three days; however, "suspicious" multiple votes, the rules state, will be disqualified".

A question to israellycool.com: Will you really disqualify votes by people who never even read the blog? Shouldn�t honest stats accounting be part of the contest? Does a site need readers to be in the �Best Overall Blog" category?

Ampulex stinging

Based on the study of Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel. The Loom: A blog about life, past and future: The Wisdom of Parasites.

Holocausting, etc.

berl, crown heights commenting to 2,000 Jews of the Lubavitch ghetto:

As to the charedi seeming disinterest in holocausting, IMHO, it is a reaction to the "Religion of Holocaust Remembrance" that has all but replaced Judaism for the Jewish-establishment-types. The said truth is that the Reform and Haskoloh movements had a very destructive impact on Judaism. It morphed into Orthodox Judaism and has not recovered from the defensive posture it took in the 19th century. Much of what we do is determined not simply by what is right, but by what is "not like the freier do."

770 bochur: unfortunately this theory does not seem to hold, in light of the fact these same bochrim exhibit no less interest in how the Knicks are doing, in the name of not being like the freie. It seems to be pure lack of sensitivity to things Jewish, certainly things with no Lubavitch connection.

It is not an isolated phenomenon. There is almost a pride in ignorance of things that are just standard Jewish, be it hashkofo, history or whatever else. This is the root of the "no other authority" problems that Dispel wrote about a long while ago.

Back in my days in Israel, there would be bochrim that would pride themselves on not going to the Kosel. This is absurd; whatever pity we had as Chassidim towards the Yerushalmim that whose Judaism consisted of Kosel worship had nothing to do with this. As I remember someone saying at the time, one whose "hiskashrus" is threatened by going to the Kosel has a major problem with his hiskashrus (as well as a few other things)...

Postov

email dated 12/29/2005:
I stumbled across a quote from you at mentalblog.com about the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe: Trach nit tzu fil. That was always your biggest problem. You quote "Schneur". Could you please forward this to him? I understood from his quote that his father had been in Postov. I am looking for information about Postov and would appreciate hearing from him. -Yerachmiel Seplowitz
Seplowitz.net: If your name is Seplowitz, Cheplowitz, Zeplowitz, Seplo, Seplow, Cheplo, etc., you may find some very interesting information about your family background here.

Video, Israeli police beating kids in Amona

AP - Oded Balilty

THE VIDEO (streaming).
THE VIDEO (download).

My Obiter Dicta: I am Ashamed:

That is why I am ashamed. The videos of the vicious beatings meted out by the Yasam to passive protesters in Amona are sickening. Is this what we've come to? Grayshirted, helmeted goons beating the daylight out of kids, with truncheons- while the Press and the Cafe types cheer? Who the hell does Ehud Olmert think he is? He tells the cops to keep their hands in their pockets when Arabs riot, but he sends in the horses to attack Jews.

The batons of Amona

Jake, Senior Correspondent of mentalblog.com Jerusalem Bureau reports:
I distinctly recall that when the British were training the newly-formed Palestinian Authority police a decade ago in the use of batons, they were taught: "Do not strike the head. You may not strike the head. Do not ever strike the head." It was emphasized very strongly. The pictures from Amona show most very clearly that the Israeli police deliberately aimed for and struck heads. The obvious intention was neither crowd control nor self defense but rather intentional injury. Check out baton usage instructions:

If the situation warrants, striking an offender with your baton will always be with the intention of temporarily disabling the offender and never with the intention of permanently injuring or harming the offender. Use only enough force to create pain and momentarily disable the offender in order to apply handcuffs or overcome resistance.

Note also the section labeled: "Striking Areas".

Do not strike the head, spine, tailbone, or upper solar plexus (area just above pit of stomach). Blows to these areas could cause death or great bodily harm.

AFP - Gali Tibbon


AP - Emilio Morenatti


Reuters - Goran Tomasevic


Reuters - Oleg Popov


Reuters - Goran Tomasevic


Reuters - Oleg Popov

Ben Chorin: Here is what really happened in Amona today: "And blood there was. It happens that I was well represented at the event. One recipient of my DNA (ROMD1) was camped out at one of the approach points at 2:30 AM. He heard the police commander instructing his troops: 'club them on the head, go straight for the head'."


AP - OdedBalilty


Pray for Yechi'am ben Rachel (via Mystical Paths).

My Obiter Dicta: Other People's Words...

Amona video

YNET VIDEO

Jake, Senior Correspondent of mentalblog.com Jerusalem Bureau reports: The handful of houses in Amona were illegal in precisely the same way that hundreds of Bedouin homes in the Negev are illegal.

If the government would mass thousands of police, armed soldiers and bulldozers against the Bedouin the way they did against Jews today in Amona, the entire Middle East together with the UN would be up in arms. But Jews are always an easier target - even for Jewish thugs like Olmert's goons today. I fear that Jews have gotten tired of being victimized, even in their own homes. It may get much uglier - and soon.

2,000 Jews of the Lubavitch ghetto

Lipovitzer commenting to the Grave difference:

I had the pleasure of visiting the kevorim of the Magid, Besht and Alter Rebbe before the new round of shiputzim. With only a candle for lighting, it really made the experience very real. One felt a connection not only to the Tzadik but also to the history of the place and the millennia of Jewish life in the shtetlach. It's all gone, trampled over by people with cookie cutter senses of self and history, be they Lubavitch, Satmar or Litvish. I'm still amazed (though not sure why) that with all the grave stomping tours organized every year to the Ukraine, Lubavitch and beyond, nary a picture of a Jew saying a kapitel tehillim, perke mishnayos or kaddish at the kivrei achim found in each place. Do people know, or care, that a stones throw from the Besht, the Magid and others are THOUSANDS of Jewish men, women and children lying in a barely marked and poorly maintained ravine mass graves? In the case of Lubavitch there has not even been an attempt to locate the mass grave of the 2,000 Jews of the Lubavitch ghetto and mark it accordingly. Do the Chassidim that visit these places and others in the Ukraine not have someone from their family lying face down with a bullet through the head, somewhere in the Ukraine or Russia? Go back; you missed the graves of the Kedoshim for whom we mourn.

This is a picture of the large elm standing of the a mass grave of the jews of Lipovetz. The outline of the grave is marked by an elevation. The nazis bashed the heads of jewish children agains this tree before throwing them in. May hashem avanege their blood.

The horses of Amona

MK Effie Eitam, Reuters - Goran Tomasevic


Reuters - Gil Cohen Magen


Reuters - Ronen Zvulun


Reuters - Oleg Popov




Reuters - Goran Tomasevic


Reuters - Ronen Zvulun


Reuters - Ronen Zvulun


Reuters - Ronen Zvulun


Reuters - Oleg Popov


Reuters - Gil Cohen Magen

Amona pogrom

Photos of Amona pogrom.

Jake, Senior Correspondent of mentalblog.com Jerusalem Bureau reports: The Pogrom today was very clearly an attack by the Israeli government on Jewish villagers who are politically inconvenient. (I avoid the term "settlers" - how are they different from Arab villagers???) The police were carefully chosen by their willingness and desire to beat up frummies. The TV pictures clearly show almost ALL of the violence was committed by the riot police force and not by the unarmed teenage protesters.

One 15 year old, still unconscious in hospital, was being visited tonight by his anxious parents when a policeman at the hospital told the father that he wished his son would have been killed today. The father angrily demanded that the policeman identify himself. Several other policemen then attacked the father, dragging him away from the offending officer who walked away, unidentified.

This was all recorded and shown on the TV news tonight.

The HATE that PERES and SHARON have developed against Jewish villagers, especially DATI JEWS - and all only for personal political gain - is now drawing blood. With Olmert's interim government facing criticism from all the other parties and becoming increasingly desperate, expect more of this for-political-profit violence.

If the pictures we saw on TV in Israel would have been shot in the USA, there would be riots in major cities across the USA, lots of cops would be up on attempted murder charges and top brass would be out of office by the end of the week. When the government here feels threatened, it attacks the citizenry. This is "Democracy", Middle Eastern style. Israel is now much more like Syria and Egypt than Britain and the USA.

Amona

AP - Oded Balilty


MK Eitam bleeding, Photo - Gil Yohanan

The petitioners' representative, attorney David Rotem, asked the court to allow the settlers to saw through the structures above their foundations and move the buildings, intact, to the nearby settlement of Ofra.

Rotem said that in a meeting held the previous day between Attorney-General Manahem Mazuz and former MK Hanan Porat, Mazuz had told Porat that the offer was "reasonable." However, the state's representative, attorney Osnat Mandel, denied that Mazuz had expressed support for the proposal. Mazuz contacted Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who told him that the army was against the plan.

AP - Oded Balilty


AP - Oded Balilty


Reuters - Goran Tomasevic


Photo - Amir Cohen

And on the same day:
High Court drops terror support charges against MK Bishara.
Court indicts Safed chief rabbi on charges of racial incitement.