Are Today’s Rabbinical Leaders… June 7, 2007

…the erev rav, the “mixed multitude” who left Egypt and were responsible for the Golden Calf — the worst national show of idolatry in the history of the nation of Israel?

Is this a true statement?

“Before the coming of the Mashiach most of the Rabbanim will be from the Erev Rav etc. Because Israel in themselves are holy, but the Erev Rav work only for their own benefit as we can clearly see that the Rabbanim and the Chassidim and many regular Jews of the generation are, due to our many sins, mostly from the Erev Rav and want to rule over the public, and all their actions are only for their own sake, to acquire honor and money, and one should therefore only join with those who truly serve, who sacrifice themselves to Hashem not in order to receive any benefit”.

The organization Mishpat Tzedek seems to think so.And their site, while not wholly on the same page with me (for instance, his views on family court and feminism are drastically different than mine), definitely has a revolutionary spirit worth checking into. The site contains stingingly critical PDFs which decry much of the goings-on today’s generation of Orthodox Jews.

At a minimum, Mishpat Tzedek and I have three things in common.

We’re both fed up. We both love Hashem and His Torah (as codified through halacha/Jewish Law, the practical manifestation of His Will), and we both know that, if the long-awaited Redemption is to come now, we’re going to need to get it together.

Clashing Values in the Holy City June 5, 2007

Today The Los Angeles Times ran another perspective on Jerusalem’s demographic shift, that of Richard Boudreaux, an LATimes columnist. He writes, looking back on Jerusalem’s recent history:

Forty years ago, when Israel captured East Jerusalem and absorbed the Arab neighborhoods, it set out to maintain a large and sustainable Jewish majority in the city it was declaring its eternal and undivided capital. Instead, Jerusalem is gradually becoming more Palestinian and less Jewish.Thousands of Jews leave the city each year, many of them alienated by an ascendant ultra-Orthodox minority that is asserting its socially conservative values and political power. Even as Jerusalem attracts a growing number of Palestinians, polls show that many less devout Jews are becoming estranged from it and are more willing to consider dividing it again.

This article, as opposed to many of its type, gives more of an insight into the mentality of those leaving the Holy City:

Israeli analysts say one reason many Israelis would accept dividing Jerusalem is their estrangement from the city. The Jerusalem Institute poll showed that nearly two-thirds of Israelis thought of their capital as “a city of the ultra-Orthodox,” nearly half said it was poor, and one-third considered it “scary to live in.”"Jerusalem is dismal, depressing. People there are nervous, agitated and cross,” said Sharon Daya, 38, a swimming instructor who lived in the city all her life until she moved five years ago to a western suburb with her husband and three children. “I miss nothing about it. I go to great pains to avoid going there.”…

They tend to be repelled by the city’s poverty, threats of Palestinian violence and tensions with haredim, who have thrown rocks to stop Jerusalem traffic on the Sabbath and burned clothing stores for selling “immodest” attire. These less devout Jews often look to Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities as more attractive alternatives.

The article continues:

“More secular Israelis are beginning to relate to Jerusalem as culturally alien,” said Yossi Klein-Halevy, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem research institute.”That is potentially devastating for Jerusalem’s centrality in Israel and within world Jewry,” he said.

“The more Jerusalem turns haredi, the more secular Israelis will turn away, and that will have political consequences as future Israeli leaders decide whether to keep the city intact.”

I applaud the religiosity in Jerusalem ascending upwards. May it skyrocket. Heavenward. But this commentary on the haredization of Jerusalem belies a bigger point.Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox community is like no other in the world. And while it is only fitting for the Holy City to have a different air than, say, Arkansas, the haredi world itself is fragmented, and is radicalizing out even many of its own members.
I have lamented, numerous times, the fact that my conversion may or may not be recognized in the state of Israel. I always joke: in America I’m ultra-Orthodox, in Jerusalem I’m barely frum. My a cappella album, kosher for sefirah in America, was rejected by Israeli distributors, who told me that the use of beat box disqualifies it for sale in Jerusalem.

The LA times article states:

The city is relatively staid, but on weekends, secular residents visit bars, cafes, restaurants and discos — places shunned by haredim. More such establishments are open in secular neighborhoods today than a generation ago.

Yet this quote does nothing to tell of a Club 613 (religious singles’ club in Manhattan), Makor Cafe, or a Jewish Music Cafe — things which are staple options on any New York area charedi social calendar. There is a fledgling Orthodox party circuit beginning to form in Israel and in New York. Glatt kosher 4- and 5-star dining is beginning to flourish in major Jewish areas worldwide.American olim are flocking to neighborhoods like Nachlaot, which is becoming a bohemian melange of culture where acoustic guitars and jam bands are much more likely to herald the coming of Shabbos than a Chassidic boys’ choir.

In America, only in the most heimish of neighborhoods — a Williamsburg, Brooklyn or a Lakewood, New jersey — would one find this blanket eschewing of kosher dining and kosher entertainment. Even the Chassidic neighborhood of Boro Park has its own version of “chulent night” — the Midtown Manhattan Thursday night gathering already being made famous by New York Times articles. The Orthodox Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush has had numerous — kosher l’mehadrin — bars grace its streets.

The haredi world is deprived of its diversity and its vibrance when entire 2007 municipalities are turned into 1857 Poland. It is not to be expected — nor should it be advocated — that every person, upon putting on a black hat, would become prone to joining “tznius patrols” or beating female bus passengers. The anti-parade demonstrations which rocked Jerusalem last year went on against the wishes of rabbinical court leaders: the “haredim” which are making “Jerusalem a scary place” are doing so as a frenzied, radicalized public, not out of any “shift in Orthodoxy”.

For us, the charedi Jews who see halacha as a beautiful way to serve G-d, as opposed to an ever-growing list of forbidden conveniences and “alien influences” to be eschewed, these things can be disheartening.

But we stay in Jerusalem because we know of the city’s immense holiness and connection to the Creator. And we slink out to internet cafes — where we are far more likely to see forbidden materials than in our religious homes — to check our email, because Heaven forbid, someone should be utilizing the most significant media invention of our generation. And we maintain incognito cellphones in case we have relatives who want to send us a text message (and hope no one sees that the phone has SMS).

We fight to keep the “4 cubits of halacha” an actual 4 cubit by 4 cubit area, instead of a rapidly shrinking pigeonhole. We fight to keep at least our 4 cubits a place where we enjoy living, rather than eke existence out in. And we create a culture of hypocrisy and lies — because if you’re hiding A, you might as well hide B and C while you’re at it (even if you would have otherwise never dreamed of doing B and C).

The modern haredi Jew does exist and to give modern haredim a legitimate voice could mean the continued viability of a united Jerusalem. Perhaps then the word haredi itself could become destigmatized.

But as long as the word “haredi” is attached to “the people who beat that poor woman”, the divisions aren’t going anywhere for a while.

For These Things, I Cry… May 30, 2007

“For these things I cry; my eye, my eye runs down with water; because the Comforter is far from me…my children are desolate, because the enemy hath prevailed.” — Lamentations 1:16

Has the enemy prevailed?

Has the f-your-neighbor-f-the-poor attitude of secular right-wing culture done so much damage?

TwinCities.com reported today about one Minnesota (Conservative) Rabbi who has “stirred up controversy” by backing the tzedek hechsher, the Conservative Jewish movement’s justice certification:

A dozen years ago, Rabbi Morris Allen stood before his congregation in this Twin Cities suburb to announce a program called Chew by Choice.In the past year, however, Allen has extended his concern with kosher standards from adherence to religious ritual to commitment to social justice.

His drive to create a “hechsher tzedek,” a justice certification, on the basis of how kosher food companies treat their workers, has brought him into intense conflict with the Orthodox authorities who traditionally have dominated the certification process.

Last month, the hechsher tzedek received formal endorsement from the Rabbinical Assembly, the national association of Conservative rabbis. In voting to support Allen’s initiative with an unspecified amount of “volunteer and financial support,” the assembly invoked a verse from Deuteronomy declaring, “You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger.”

While the catalyst for Allen’s action was a series of articles in the Forward weekly newspaper about accusations that workers at a large kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa are exploited, the resulting conflict has far wider import…By religious tradition and in some cases state law as well, kosher certification generally rests with Orthodox boards. The Orthodox Union, the largest force in certification, oversees more than half the kosher items in circulation. So the entrance of the Conservative movement into the field represents a challenge to the Orthodox authorities not only on ethical grounds but also on market share.

Ignoring the blatant spin, and granted I’m speaking as an “infant/automaton”, — something is lamentably wrong here.From R’ Chaim Ozer Grodzienski to the Chofetz Chaim to today’s Orthodox leaders, the idea of “interdenominational cooperation” within the various Jewish “denominations” is largely eschewed at worst, and severely curtailed at best. With the possible exception of anti-missionary campaigns, there is virtually no issue regarding Jewish observance that will get the “denominations” — which range in belief from “personal autonomy” and “decide your own laws” to “do not depart from your ancestors’ ways in the slightest” — to “agree upon.” And indeed, this was a primary if not the main issue when when the Jewish Press ran the article in January:

In December 2006, a call came from outside the sphere of Orthodox kosher certifiers for a tsedek heckscher or justice certification that would ensure that kosher food producers “have met a set of standards that determine the social responsibility of kosher food producers, particularly in the area of worker rights.”The [Orthodox Rabbinical Organization] views the suggestion as an attempt by those outside the observant community to infiltrate and dilute the existing framework of kashrus certifications.

I am right there with my esteemed rabbis on this point.These things need to be addressed by the haredi communities themselves.

Prefacing everything with the caveat from Rav Weiner:

Addressing the issue at a meeting of rabbis in Flatbush was Rabbi Moshe Y. Weiner, rabbinic administrator of the Kosher Information and Service of Boro Park and Flatbush. Rabbi Weiner stressed that a kashrus certification could not (and must not) be awarded to a food-producing establishment that does not meet all of its required civic and legal obligations.Without the necessary municipal and other mandatory permits on full display as mandated, no kashrus certification could be valid, stressed Rabbi Weiner.

Are we really unable to enforce — either practically or economically — the Shulchan Aruch’s definition of “legal obligation”? There is no concept of “you shall not assist a EEOC law violator” in Jewish Law, but there IS a recurring theme of ein mesaye’in l’ovrei aveirah - you are not supposed to assist a sinner in the commission of his sin.Would we buy free porn for masturbatory teenagers? Would we offer “free fill-up on premium for all getaway cars”? Obviously not. We do not give people additional sins or “beef up” people’s already-being-committed sins.

While external, nebulous “standards” derived from “verses in Deuteronomy” do originate from “alien impositions” as the Jewish Press Op-Ed piece stated (apparently), my fear is that we could create an environment where, for the food service industry, the entire Choshen Mishpat, the entire body of Jewish civil and labor laws, is effectively relegated to irrelevance and impertinence.

And here’s why the “velt” or “the system” is not at fault:

The universally highly-regarded HaEdah HaCharedis Kashrus Beis Din in Jerusalem as well as Rabbi Shmuel Wosner, author of Shevet Levi and leading posek, have been alerted to the suspicious machinations of those attempting to impose the so-called hekhsher tzedek.

What did they get told? What was the information presented to them? Was it debated? “The judge only has what his eyes see” to go on (or in this case, what his ears hear). We have all changed tone of voice or left out a preposition in asking a rabbi a question once or twice — and it is the rabbis’ job to ask the right questions and it is through this exchange that G-d’s practical Truth reveals itself.It is my opinion that the Orthodox community should be the most vocal in trying to rid all theft and oppression from its communities, to shake off the dust of theft which covers so many of us, like the Talmud says. Every crumb of chometz/leaven must be removed from our homes before Passover, and this leaven, we are taught represents our own Evil Inclinations which try to tempt us to sin. Will we allow this huge breadbasket of materialism-driven pooh-poohing of gezeilah and oshek while punctiliously checking freezers?

Where are we?

I pray that only the truth of halacha comes out of this interplay, and more importantly, I hope that G-d’s Will — for all people, and all paychecks, involved — gets done.

If we can get food lelo chashash tevel orlah u’shvi’is, we should be able to get food lelo chashash gezel, oshek v’ribbis. Ha’meivinim yavinu v’yaskilu.

China’s Ex-Food and Drug Czar On Death Row May 29, 2007

I can’t be more happy about this story. I feel like on some level, souls of all the departed Panamanians whose lives were taken as a result of this man’s department’s oversight pleaded for this on high.

From USA Today:

China’s former food and drug safety chief was given a death sentence Tuesday for taking bribes from drug companies and approving unsafe medicines.The sentence, announced by state media, comes as China is under growing domestic and international pressure to clean up its food and drug sectors after a series of scandals, including the poisoning of hundreds of American pets.

Zheng Xiaoyu, director of China’s State Food and Drug Administration from 1998 to 2005, was convicted of dereliction of duty and taking more than $832,000 in cash and gifts, according to state news agency Xinhua.

An antibiotic OK’d under Zheng was withdrawn from the market last year after 10 patients died, state media reported. Six types of fake drugs were approved while he led the agency, according to state-run media…

Scores of deaths in recent years — from fake drugs and food products tainted by industrial chemicals — have enraged Chinese. Bloggers and other writers in Chinese Internet chat rooms demanded a stiff sentence for Zheng…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has linked poisoned ingredients from China to a massive recall of pet food and animal feed in the past two months. The pet food has been blamed for the deaths of thousands of pets, according to unconfirmed reports that pet owners have made to the FDA.

An industrial chemical found in medicines that contained ingredients from China has been blamed for dozens of deaths — 51 in Panama alone — in Central America and the Caribbean. The chemical was also found in Chinese-made toothpaste.

Zheng’s former agency announced plans this week to blacklist food producers who violate rules and to keep their products off the market.

While he awaits the executioner, I sincerely hope that Mr. Zheng reflects on his former whatever-he-did-with-$832,000. I wonder if it is worth what happened. All the lies, all the deceit, all the death.And now one sentence.

Hasta la vista, Zheng Xiaoyu. And let this be the last time that such a loss of life — poison hidden in toothpaste and cough syrup — ever has to happen in China.

Israeli Rabbinical Conversion Court Slammed May 27, 2007

As YNet reports today:

Head of the rabbinical conversion courts in Israel, Rabbi Haim Druckman, slammed on Sunday a rabbinical judge from Ashdod for his decision to annul the conversion of a woman who converted 15 years ago.Druckman criticized the judge, Rabbi Avraham Atiya, for his harsh statements regarding the conversion courts in Israel, and spoke against “the closed haredi clique.”

The Ashdod rabbinical court recently announced that the convert and her children were no longer Jewish, after the woman admitted to Rabbi Atiya that she never observed the mitzvot. After declaring the woman’s conversion invalid, Atiya also stated that the conversion courts were run by “heretics and criminals who annihilate the Jewish people and push it toward assimilation.”

Rabbi Druckman did correctly claim that there is no law which requires one to check up on a convert afterwards (and indeed, many converts find this sort of surveillance to be offensive).My personal instinct is to side with Rabbi Atiya. And not just because I’m charedi.

Jewish Law contains a principle called giluy da’at — by someone’s actions afterwards, you can judge retroactively what their mindset “must have been” at a point in time. Conversion requires that the convert “accept upon themselves the yoke of the commandments”. If a person were to say, go directly from immersion (the culmination of the conversion process) and order a BLT, we would say that “this eating a BLT shows that this person never intended to keep kosher”.

If this woman for any amount of time would have been observant, this would not be an issue, she would be no more than any other Jew who goes through a rough time with observance. Even 15 years of laxity doesn’t render someone a non-Jew.

But her “never” having kept mitzvot — this shows something. She either must not have accepted them on herself as binding, or she just wanted to get G-d angry (ch”v).

Either way, while her heart-wrenching story may incense some, Rabbi Atiya’s ruling remains — as far as the halacha is concerned, she never performed an integral part of the conversion process: accepting G-d’s rule, through His Law, over her life.

And it’s kind of hard to have a legitimate conversion without that.

Joint KOSHER and HALAL Products Update: Crest Toothpaste and Pork Fat May 25, 2007

One of my friends from MySpace.com told his father about my previous article, where I detailed an email I received, signed by two prominent rabbis, about how Crest toothpaste may be made with ingredients derived from pork fat.

His father went — not to his phone, but directly to a Crest employee at a recent “Hygiene Extravaganza”. Well that Crest employee went apparently to Bill Landrigan, of Procter & Gamble’s Professional & Scientific Relations department. Here is P&G/Crest’s newest official response:

I met you at the Hygiene Extravaganza at the Art Center last month. You had some concerns about animal by products in Crest Toothpaste. Here is information from our corporate office that will address your concerns.Crest Toothpaste Ingredients and Potential for Animal By-products

This is to provide you background on the ingredients in Crest toothpastes. Recently several dental professionals have inquired about the use of animal by-products in Crest Pro-Health toothpaste.

Bill Landrigan and our Regulatory group explain why there may be some confusion.

All Crest toothpastes being produced today are completely free of any materials derived from animals. In particular, you can be assured that this is not a concern for Crest Pro-Health Clean Mint or Crest Pro-Health Clean Cinnamon.

A number of years ago, the glycerin used in our Crest products came from either an animal or vegetable source. However, we have since changed our sourcing strategy so that all the glycerin is vegetable derived. All Crest Pro-Health has been produced since its launch in April 2006 uses this vegetable-based glycerin.

There is one other ingredient that is in a few Crest variants that had the potential for being animal derived. The ingredient is Polysorbate 80 (commonly known as Tween) which is an emulsifier. Polysorbate 80 is used in Scope Mouthwash. There are some Crest toothpaste variants that use a small amount of Scope in them; therefore, these Crest products have an even smaller amount of Polysorbate 80 in them. Like with glycerin, we have now switched to a source of Polysorbate 80 that is 100% vegetable derived.However, this switch has occurred more recently than the switch with glycerin. As a result, there may be some Crest products on the retail shelves that have small amounts of Polysorbate 80 in them which might have been animal derived.

Again, everything that is being produced today is free of any animal by-products. We cannot guarantee that if someone purchases an older tube of one of these Crest variants that they are 100% free of an! imal by-products.

The particular Crest variants that contain Polysorbate 80 are:

Crest Sensitivity Whitening Plus Scope
Crest Sensitivity Extra Whitening
Crest Plus Scope Liquid Gel
Crest Whitening Plus Scope Extreme Cinnamon Ice
Crest Whitening Plus Scope Extreme Mint Explosion
Crest Rejuvenating Effects Paste & Liquid Gel
Crest Tartar Control Whitening Plus Scope Cool Peppermint and Minty Fresh Liquid Gels
Crest Whitening Plus Scope pastes: Cool Peppermint, Minty Fresh Striped, Citrus Splash

These are the only Crest variants that may be in question (depending on the age of the product) with respect to guaranteeing no animal derived ingredients.

If a dental professional wants to be 100% certain when advising patients that there is no chance of getting any ingredients derived from animals in their Crest toothpaste, you should advise them to refrain from purchasing the above variants from a retail outlet for at least another year.

There are many other Crest variants that Professionals can confidently recommend, for example, Crest Pro-Health Clean Mint and Clean Cinnamon.

So there you have it. Wait until 2009 for purchasing the above brands/flavors. If you have any further questions, or require further verification, Bill Landrigan’s contact information is available on the last page of this 34-page PDF.

The Saga of David Miller and The VA: Religious Coercion In Military Hospital? May 16, 2007

The Saga of David Miller and The VA: Religious Coercion In Military Hospital?

No commentary really necessary on this one — this has been all over the wires this entire past week.

See the Navy Times. See the slightly sensationalistic KCRG who reported Navy vet David Miller as saying:

Miller also claims a chaplain repeatedly pushed Christianity on him. He says he had to yell for nurses to remove the chaplain.Miller called VA staff, “Fundamentalist Christian predators who spread their cancerous tentacles through the American military and Veterans Administration.”

Ohh-kayyy…moving on to Illinois and WHBF where we find this nice little understatement:

Hospital spokesman Kirt Sickels says they’re taking Miller’s complaints seriously. He says it’s standard practice to conduct a spiritual assessment of each patient.

Uh-huh. The Des Moines Register goes in depth. The Iowa City Press Citizen tells us:

After speaking with hospital administration and writing a letter to Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Miller said he will sue. “I think this is pretty offensive,” he said. “This is the only access to health care that I have as a disabled veteran. They tried to convert me when I was hooked up to a heart monitor, twice….”

A visible repetition of “no” means no. Evangelism stops where religious coercion begins.

Chabakuk Elisha: End “Heimishe Racism” In The Orthodox Community

Sometimes I feel like a lone voice denouncing racism in the charedi world. Many of the same households in which people are ejected from Shabbos tables or have their conversations quickly cut short at even the mention of a non-Jewish song lyric or mythological deity will pooh-pooh some of the most virulent racist language.

And, when derogatory terms for non-Jews like “shaiggitz” and “shiksa” began to fall out of vogue, “shvartzer” remained and still is acceptable language in some circles.

Indeed, I even have myself witness words like “shvartzer” (or “spic”) nonchalantly “just slip out” of the mouths of even people close to me derogatorily — something which would never happen with, say, the F word.

So a post as brilliant as Chabakuk Elisha’s on A Simple Jew stands out among its peers in the JBlogosphere. In a place where there are no leaders, Mr. Elisha is trying to lead.

His six paragraphs give us an insight into his feelings about this overlooked problem:

Disdain for people and belief systems that oppose Yiddishkeit (Judaism) I can understand, but the old-fashioned, peasant-like, uncivilized and coarse commonly accepted hatred and speech regarding other races can be more than just disgusting.Obviously, not everyone is this way, but it is prevalent enough that it is tolerated by even those that do not share the view. I’ve heard the ugliest terms and opinions about other races in all kinds of places, and 99% of the time nobody objects…

I have had the sit-down meeting with each of my older children when they have uttered a disgustingly racist word or idea – heard in school from classmates or even teachers or faculty members; they didn’t even realize there was anything wrong with it. I sit down with them and we discuss it…

Not only is he disgusted by the racist conduct he sees, he is making sure that such vile traits don’t show up in his own family. Now that’s proactive. Charity — and anti-racist thinking — begins at home.Mr. Elisha’s post concludes with his hopeful attitude and realism:

I must clarify that “heimishe” racism isn’t about violence; I’ve never heard someone express a desire to take up any action, even if they themselves were materially damaged in some way. And other than the occasional individual caught in the commission a crime (in which case, Hashem yerachem), it’s not common to hear anyone express a desire that any violent action be taken up – nevertheless, the hatred is there.So, while I know I can’t change the guy that told me he wouldn’t call them “nig..rs” if they didn’t act like it,” and I can’t change the guy that told me he wishes, “they were wiped of the face of the Earth” – I have wasted enough time debating these morons – and I realize that the 20 year old Klausenberger camp counselor that teaches the bunk a song with the line about slapping the goy in the face…isn’t going to change into a better person, I can continue to speak with my children and complain to administrators, and maybe sometimes it’ll make a difference.

I can’t change the overall attitudes; I know, but in my area of influence, I can still try.

Like I said, his post is here. We need more people like Mr. Elisha and less like Mr. “I-wouldn’t-call-them-that-if-they-didn’t-act-like-it.” The former is building bridges.The latter is building our exile.

Brandeis Jewish Day School Study: Yet Another Case For Jewish Education May 15, 2007

The Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) released findings today on Jewish day school alumni. “This survey validates what we have long seen anecdotally across the country, which is that Jewish day schools are effectively preparing students for college, while ensuring they will carry a solid grounding in Judaism,” said Rabbi Joshua Elkin, executive director of PEJE.

Some of the topline findings of the study:

JUST SAYING NO: Former Jewish day school students are more resistant to social pressures that lead to binge drinking and other risky behaviors than their public and private school peers.– BURSTING THE SOCIAL BUBBLE: Jewish high school alumni develop diverse social networks that extend well beyond their day school connections. Only a small minority (11%) indicated that most of their friends continue to be those they met in high school.

– SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE: Students who attended Jewish day school for at least six years are more likely to become involved in socially responsible activities, such as community volunteerism and advocacy, than their public and private school peers.

The release notes that one ten-year span has seen Jewish day schools grow by “21,000 students (11 percent), with nearly 100 more schools open in 2003 - 2004 than in 1993 - 1994.”Ho-hum. Another day, another case for religious education.

Terror Suspect SNAFU in NY Court May 14, 2007

From Newsday:

When he began testifying at his own trial this week, a Florida doctor accused of pledging to support al-Qaida hoped to convince a jury that the FBI had it all wrong: He was a man of peace. If that was the plan, then Rafiq Abdus Sabir had a disastrous day on the witness stand Friday.Under cross-examination, the Columbia University-trained physician was forced to acknowledge a history of family violence, a fascination with weapons and a belief that good Muslims should engage in armed jihad, or holy war.

In just a few hours, Sabir gave jurors a number of reasons not to like him …

they discussed passages from several religious books. One said Jews should be expelled from the Arabian peninsula. Another said Muslims are obligated to obey an imam who declares war against nonbelievers.

Hou asked Sabir whether he agreed with both passages.

Sabir said yes, but added that Muslims are required to follow such instructions only if they come from a legitimate religious authority. Orders from false leaders, he said, should be ignored. And he said he had nothing against Jews or Christians and counted people of both religions among his friends.

Hou persisted. “You believe that you must participate in armed jihad, if you get a chance to?” he asked.

“Yes,” Sabir answered, adding again that he would only do so in a legitimate conflict.

Now, the sad over-spun part is that Mr. Sabir was given quotes with Qur’anic basis (most likely, otherwise, did they just play a random excerpt of an Arabic speech for him?), something your average observant Muslim would be loath to say, “no I don’t believe this.”But taking that with a huge grain of salt, still, this article leaves much unsaid. Does Dr. Sabir realize that jihad an-nafs, the “greater jihad”, must be fought first — thereby vanquishing all evil from one’s mind, action and speech — before a gun can be picked up? Was this only a list of things Mr. Sbair was asked during Mr. Hou’s “persistence” in cross-examination?

We will never know. One thing, however, is for sure, Dr. Sabir may have sealed his fate on that witness stand.

Qatar: Interfaith Dialogue Conference Brings Unexpected Outburst May 10, 2007

Iranian delegate Mohamed Sadiq Husseini and American Jewish delegate Joseph Ehrenkrenz got into a shouting match at the 5th Doha Conference on Inter-Faith Dialogue this past Wednesday following Ehrenkrenz’s making what Husseini took as inaccurate accusations against Iran. Husseini, an advisor at the General Secretariat for the Centre for Iran-Arab Cooperation in Tehran, angrily interrupted when Ehrenkrenz who said Tehran wanted to eliminate all the Jews in Israel.

Speakers included Dr Souad Al Hakim, from Lebanon; Joseph Ehrenkrenz, from the US; David Lazar, from Israel; John Taylor, from the US; and Jerald Whitehouse from Venezuela. Professor Saad Harib, from the UAE; and Dr Mohamed Ben Breika, from Algeria, were the moderators.

Qatar’s Peninsula Daily reports:

An Iranian delegate stunned the audience at an international inter-faith dialogue here yesterday when he angrily interrupted an American panelist who said Tehran wanted to eliminate all the Jews in Israel.Joseph Ehrenkrenz was in the middle of his speech when Mohamed Sadiq Husseini shouted back at him.

“Ya, Yahud!,” (Oh, Jews!), he said loudly, putting his microphone on, “Iran does not have any such agenda. What you are saying is a lie. Contrarily, your designs are suspect…Look, what you are doing at ‘Guatenamobay’.”

Ehrenkrenz said that in the 1930s, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem congratulated Hitler for his anti-Jewish stance and “sought his help”…

The biggest challenge before the rabbis (Jewish spiritual leaders) today is to protect the community. Palestinians have influenced Muslims around the world. “We are getting threats from Tehran. Their decision is to eliminate all the Jews in Israel. The UN is not taking any action,” said Ehrenkrenz.

No sooner than he finished his sentence, Husseini, who is advisor at the General Secretariat for the Centre for Iran-Arab Cooperation in Tehran, interrupted him with an angry protest, speaking in Arabic.

Look at what who is doing at Gitmo? It is unfortunate when one hears “the Jews”, “the media”, “the US government” and “the Israeli government” all being interchangeable and balled up into one general “you are ruining the world.” Mr. Husseini’s statement was disappointing in that respect.However, this, in the big picture, may prove irrelevant if everyone takes the same plan of action as the Israeli delegate David Lazar:

One-to-one meetings between delegates representing the three different faiths have been taking place on the sidelines of the convention on sensitive community and religious issues and on how to further dialogue, especially between Muslim and Jewish leaders.”We will keep in touch with one another through e-mail and personal visits. This is important,” said Lazar.

I pray that everything gets worked out over the Gmail. But, in the grand scheme of things, today’s outburst may be tomorrow’s talking point.

New Census Projections: Jerusalem 50% Israeli, 50% Arab By 2035 May 8, 2007

Jerusalem’s demographers have released their census projections for the near future for Jerusalem. The Holy City has seen a Jewish population increase of 140% since it was reunified in the Six Day War.

On the “Arab” side, however, the population has increased 257% over the same period, outpacing their Jewish counterparts by 83%. If current trends continue, Jerusalem is in for a huge demographic shift.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

The capital’s Arab population has increased at more than twice the rate of its Jewish inhabitants over the last decade, according to a survey released by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies on Monday. By 2020, if current trends continue, 60 percent of Jerusalem residents will be Jews, while the remaining 40% will be Arabs.The city’s population is currently 720,000, 66% Jews and 34% Arabs.

Its population has increased by 170% from 300,000 since it was reunified in the Six Day War. In the last four decades, the Arab population of Jerusalem has grown by 257% (from 68,000 residents to 245,000) while the number of Jewish inhabitants has increased by 140% (from 200,000 to 475,000), the survey shows.

The Arab growth rate over the last decade was 3-4%, the survey found, more than double that for Jews.

“If these trends continue, we could reach the 60/40 rate by 2020, and by 2035 we could see the same number of Jews and Arabs in the city,” senior institute researcher Dr. Miya Hoshen said.

Is there a huge Palestinian influx into Al-Quds driving this population change?

Tens of thousands of Israelis continue to migrate from the city to the suburbs, a trend that began in the 1980s….Among the main reasons cited by those who have left the city are better job opportunities and more affordable housing.

Apartments in Jerusalem are going for Manhattan prices. Every time I see a listing in Rehavia going for $1000, $1500, or as much as $4000 per month — and these are dollars, not shekels — I think to myself, “how can Israelis afford this?” The average monthly salary of even Israeli “electronic communications” technicians as late as September 2006 was only 18, 468 shekels per month. Even at the Israeli rule-of-thumb rate of four shekels to the dollar, we’re talking gross $4,617 per month, and these are the highest paid workers!And let’s remember, Jerusalem is not Tel Aviv. The average salary in Jerusalem is actually 18% less than in Tel Aviv with the average salary in Jerusalem (of all workers) being about (again using the same rule-of-thumb rate) $1800 per month gross.

And let’s not forget about employment status: perhaps another reason that the Jerusalem demographic is changing could be the fact that the Arab employment rate is higher than its Jewish counterpart with 76% of Arab households containing employed persons, as opposed to 66% on the Israeli side.

We need to see economic development initiatives increasing exponentially in the Jerusalem area. The residents of Jerusalem need economic empowerment. We need to see a proliferation of things like Startup Jerusalem to draw entrepreneurs and small business. The Jerusalem Development Authority should continue to draw investment and business development to the region.

The poverty rate in Jerusalem has increased 40% since 2000 to the point that 1 in 3 Jerusalem families were living in poverty in 2005. And this is not explained by a simple, curt “oh, they’re haredim learning in kollel somewhere.”

These ultra-luxury complexes going up in the Holy City are beautiful, and are bringing, baruch Hashem, many American and European Jews who may not have otherwise come. But they’re driving out Israeli Jews and no one is replacing them. Moshe Q. Tzibbur simply can’t afford to pay 50% or more of his Israeli salary in housing expenses. The Jews leaving are primarily young adults aged 20-34, perhaps newly married religious couples going off to start a new life in affordable Beit Shemesh, or secular people going off to make more money in Tel Aviv. Regardless of their psychographic, the 20-34 age group is always a key group to innovation, driving a city’s economy and a city’s general vibrance.

I’m sure Jerusalem will miss them.

We see, now, perhaps, some of the preliminary effects of the gentrification of Jerusalem. And it is most ironic that in Jerusalem, the Holy City of all places, there seems to be a dearth of affordable housing.

May G-d save us from a world in which corporate greed and real estate luxe takes over His Holy City as we see in many metropolises around the world. May the Holy City never become an exclusive playground for billionaires. I believe with all my heart that the same Holy City which three times a year made space for all of the Nation of Israel to enter its gates surely can hold under a million Jews in adequate affordable living situations. Should the privilege of living in the Holy City come with a Lower Manhattan pricetag?

Jerusalem can’t let this gentrification continue. Economic development and affordable (rent-stabilized perhaps?) housing of some type must be a priority in Jerusalem, and the rest of the world.