April 30, 2009 | 4:23 pm

Making swine flu kosher:A sympton of the disease of Israeli politics

Posted by Jay Firestone

From Haaretz.com:

:On what must have been a slow day at the Knesset, the de facto head of the Health Ministry, MK Yakov Litzman, stated Monday that swine flu would be from here on in referred to as “Mexico Flu,” as pork is non-kosher and considered unclean under Jewish law.

While “Mexico Flu” sounds like something you’d contract during a long weekend in Nuevo Laredo, and which could be treated through a quick visit to a local free clinic, swine flu can kill, and if the early reports end up to be correct, it may have already made its way to Israel. Read the full story at Haatez.com.

April 30, 2009 | 12:52 pm

Restaurant Grades: E for Effort

Posted by Joel Chasnoff

I see these signs in the window of every L.A. eatery, and I have to ask: are these straight grades, or do they grade on the curve? For example, if Mike’s Pizza Shack has an “A” in the window, can I be certain they passed at least 90% of the cleanliness tests, or is it possible they passed only 70% of the tests but that since none of the other restaurants surveyed that day scored more than 60%, Mike’s Pizza Shack still gets an “A”? (It makes a difference.)

And the whole letter-grade system—how long will it last? Progressive education is all the rage. So I suspect it won’t be long before a new, progressive grading system emerges. Maybe something Montessori-style, where instead of letter grades in the window, you’ll see long, contemplative Health Inspector evaluations that focus not on the level of hygiene, but the restaurant’s attitude toward it: “Mike’s Pizza Shack plays well with other restaurants. The staff, already bilingual, enjoys kneading dough. On occasion, employees forget to wash hands after using restrooms—but never on purpose. Like all problems, this can be solved not with punishment, but love.”

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April 28, 2009 | 12:14 pm

Swine Flu in Israel

Posted by Jay Firestone

www.boston.com

From Haaretz.com:

“Israel confirmed its first case of swine flu on Tuesday, Israel Radio reported, as the Health Ministry raised its level of alert to 4 out of 6.

A 26-year-old man who recently returned from Mexico was diagnosed with the virus, after two days of quarantine at the Laniado Hospital in Netanya while he waited for the results of his tests.”  Read the full story at Haaretz.com.

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April 27, 2009 | 1:16 pm

FREE MUSIC DOWNLOAD: Hip Hop Hoodios

Posted by Dikla Kadosh

Hip Hop Hoodios' new album 'Carne Masada'

Listen to “Que Pasa in Israel” here.

To download this track, right click on this link and select, “save link as.”

The Hip Hop Hoodios, an urban crew that jams together Jewish and Latino cultures in what it calls “post-ethnic punk hop,” will release a new collection of songs—some old, some new—this week. “Carne Masada: Quite Possibly the Very Best of Hip Hop Hoodios,” available this week on iTunes, Amazon and other music download sites, includes classic Hoodios tracks such as “Havana Nagila” and “K#k* on the Mic,” and features provocative new ones that have you wondering whether you should be listening intently to the lyrics or tearing up the dance floor like a tequila-laden Heeb.

“Hoodia Para Mi” parodies the Latin hip-hop songs that describe the sex appeal of Latina women and pays tribute to the beauty and brains of Jewish women; “Asi Loncheamos (Two Matzoh Balls)” is a bilingual rap about the joys of eating – something both the Latino and Jewish cultures know a little about.

“Que Pasa in Israel (Checkpoint C#ler*),” an exclusive free download on jewishjournal.com, is the crew’s first foray into the mine field that is Middle Eastern politics. Josh Norek, one-half of the Hoodios duo, wrote this about the politically-sensitive song: “It’s one of our more political tunes and the first one dealing with Israel/Palestine – albeit in our usual semi-surreal and offbeat manner. The song opens up with dialogue that is obviously set at an Israeli border checkpoint. But rather than a Palestinian asking for permission to come in, it’s a Mexican named Rodrigo who is seeking entry to Jerusalem. He’s being interrogated by the Israeli border guard and being bluntly asked ‘you make a taco?’  I guess subconsciously we also wanted to work in U.S. immigration issues ... after all, we ARE a Latino-Jewish rap group!”

To read a full article on the Hoodios, click here.
Check out more Hoodios songs and videos on www.myspace.com/hiphophoodios.

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April 25, 2009 | 9:50 pm

Dr.Joel Geiderman Confronts Iran…and Obama?

Posted by Rob Eshman

Last Thursday, President Barack Obama attended the Holocaust Day of Remembrance ceremony on Capital Hill and was met with some pretty strong words of warning and admonishment.  To read the account politico.com, the people on the dais with the President stopped just short of chastising him.  But at least one of the speakers has a very different take.

Politico.com implies that the speakers acted as school marms to a President who may have been surprised his presence there elicited a lecture. As politico.com reports:

As the president sat waiting for his turn at the podium, a series of speakers admonished him, in terms both veiled and direct, to confront Iran’s government as a threat to Jews and to Israel.

“Honoring the dead must not be the sole purpose of remembrance. It must help us shape a better future,” said Israeli Ambassador Sallai Meridor. “When a regime is again ... terrorizing its neighbors, threatening to destroy the Jewish people, how will we meet this challenge before it’s too late?”

Meridor kept his message implicit, but the subtext was clear: The world must stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Joel Geiderman, the vice chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, was more blunt, drawing a comparison between the Nazis in Germany and the present-day government in Tehran.

“At least one whole nation has been targeted for destruction with the threat to wipe it off the map,” Geiderman said, alluding to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s belligerent remarks toward Israel. “History should have taught us that democracies that let such pledges stand do so at their own peril.”

“In the names of the victims, I call on the assembled leaders and the rest of the world to ensure that no country that threatens such destruction will ever obtain the means to achieve it,” he continued. “Nuclear weapons in the hands of aggressor fanatics can’t be allowed.”

“One thing that bothered me about the way Politico.com reported it is that they said “Obama Warned” which made it sound adversarial,” Geiderman wrote me in an email. ” I didn’t feel as much like I was ‘warning’ him as I was stating plain fact. I like the President and really appreciated him being there (as did the Museum) and I hope you are willing to state that. Personally, I thought his presence there said a lot.”

Geiderman is an eminent emergency room physician, the head of ER at Cedars Sinai, a child of Holocaust survivors.  Honored two years ago by the American Committee for Shaare Tsdek Medical Center at a banquet in Beverly Hills, he grew emotional during his awards acceptance speech as he urged audience members not to forget the lessons of the Holocaust.  No doubt some of that passion was on display Thursday as the President listened. 

Geiderman is also active in the Republican Jewish Coalition and was appointed to his position on the Holocaust Memorial board by President George W. Bush.  But Geiderman reminded the assembly that he was saying nothing now he hadn’t said a year ago at the same event.

“So, as I did last year, in the name of the victims, I call on the assembled leaders and the rest of the world to assure that no country that threatens such destruction will ever obtain the means to achieve it.  Nuclear weapons in the hands of aggressor fanatics cannot be allowed.  By my articulating these words to you in this building, in this great hall of freedom, I am reminding all of you that what we do and don’t do matters and will be remembered.  It would be far too easy to light twelve candles for twelve million murdered rather than six candles for six million. The harder work is to make sure that that does not happen.  No more candles.  Not anywhere.  Never again.”

Was that as terribly a faux pas as politico.com implies.  Read the entire text of the speech below and see for yourself. 

Obama also received not just prodding, but also some praise, as Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel lauded his decision to withdraw from the United Nations Durban II conference, where the Iranian president launched a bitter rhetorical assault on Israel.

“Thank you, Mr. President, for deciding that America should boycott that gathering,” said Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, prompting applause from the crowd.

But Wiesel, too, described the Holocaust as a cautionary tale for the world’s leaders, declaring the world could have done more to stop atrocities late in the war, well after they became public knowledge.

“Washington knew. London knew. Switzerland knew. Stockholm knew. The Washington Post and The New York Times knew,” said Wiesel.

The moment recalled a more piercing exchange 16 years earlier, when Wiesel, at a ceremony for the opening of the Holocaust Museum, turned to the seated President Bill Clinton with a message on Bosnia: “As a Jew, I am saying we must do something to stop the bloodshed in that country. ... Something, anything must be done.”

Wiesel’s words Thursday were softer, but still offered in the spirit of counsel as well as remembrance.

Finally, when Obama got his turn, if he was a bit iffed at the lecture in geopolitics he just received he didn’t show it:

In his own remarks, Obama did not directly refer to the Iranian regime, but he mentioned the existence of “those who insist the Holocaust did not happen.”

“Today and every day we have an opportunity, as well as an obligation” to fight those assertions, Obama said, including “doing anything we can to prevent and end atrocities like those that took place in Rwanda” and Darfur.

For the moment, the 44th president was focused on the memorial event at hand.

“How do we assure that ‘Never again’ isn’t an empty slogan?” Obama asked. “I believe we start by doing what we’re doing today: by bearing witness.”

But in closing, he also issued a slightly firmer-sounding message: “May each of us renew our resolve to do what must be done.”

To link to the Politico story click here.

To link to Joel Geiderman’s personal story, click here.

To link to an op-ed piece by Dr. Geiderman on the PETA campaign, click here.

Finally, read on for Dr. Geiderman’s full speech:

Yom HaShoah—April 23, 2009

The Rotunda

President Obama, Madame Speaker, Senators, Congressmen, members of the Diplomatic Corps, and fellow citizens.  I stand before you this morning and humbly thank you on behalf of my family who perished in the Holocaust for attending this Days of Remembrance ceremony in our nation’s capitol. There are no words to express my gratitude to you for being here.  President Obama, I want to especially thank you for honoring us with your presence during these first hundred busy days of your historic Presidency. It is a special moment for all of us.

The theme of DOR this year is “What we do matters.”  Who would know that more than me, or the survivors or their families that are here today? Sixty five years ago, Americans sacrificed as they always do for the principle that every human life matters; that oppression is evil; that freedom is a universal right accorded to all by our maker.  Americans of all religions, colors, and stripes gave their blood on the beaches of Normandy and elsewhere; they sacrificed at home, they left their families widowed and orphaned, or came home with shattered bodies in order to end the tyranny brought about in Europe by Nazism.

It is impossible to calculate or comprehend the impact of these sacrifices. But consider that in my case alone, 18 people, including my 13 year old son, encompassing 3 generations from across America are here with us today as a result of what America did then.  Indeed, what we do matters.

We also have with us today five rescuers from Poland, not Jewish, who risked their own lives in order to do the right thing—to do what matters-to save their neighbors and preserve human lives.  More about that in a moment

I would be remiss if I didn’t also point out that what we don’t do matters as well. There are sins of omission just as there are sins of commission. There was the Evian conference where 32 countries turned their back on the suffering of European Jews and denied refuge; there was St. Louis which was turned back to Nazi Europe because no port would accommodate her; there was the general failure to confront Hitler despite his threats against Jews and others, whose intentions and goals were publicly stated and in plain view.

Today, another enemy of democracy has made well known its intentions to kill millions of people.  Whether it be six million in Israel, or millions in London, Germany, Spain, the Persian Gulf, New York, or elsewhere; the declared intentions are unambiguous.  At least one whole nation has been targeted for destruction with the threat to “wipe it off the map.” History should have taught us that democracies that let such pledges stand do so at their own peril.

So, as I did last year, in the name of the victims, I call on the assembled leaders and the rest of the world to assure that no country that threatens such destruction will ever obtain the means to achieve it.  Nuclear weapons in the hands of aggressor fanatics cannot be allowed.  By my articulating these words to you in this building, in this great hall of freedom, I am reminding all of you that what we do and don’t do matters and will be remembered.  It would be far too easy to light twelve candles for twelve million murdered rather than six candles for six million. The harder work is to make sure that that does not happen.  No more candles.  Not anywhere.  Never again.

*******

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April 23, 2009 | 3:17 pm

Exclusive Durban II Blog -  Day 4: Twisted Tongues

Posted by David Weiner

David Weiner is a guest blogger for JewishJournal.com.  He is currently in Geneva attending the Durban Review Conference (also referred to as Durban 2) as part of a delegation representing the American Jewish Committee, composed of roughly 15 young professionals.

Armed with his laptop, still camera, and flip video camera, David will be providing continuous updates and sharing his own thoughts and experiences from Durban 2.

Click Here to Read Day 1
Click Here to Read Day 2
Click Here to Read Day 3

I learned today that there are tongue twisters, twisted tongues, and then sounds that the tongue simply can’t make.  For example, it’s not easy for the American (or Jewish) tongue to pronounce “Ahmadinejed.”  And that’s probably for the better.  Then there are the tongue twisters, like “She sells seashells by the sea shore.”

And then there are the twisted tongues. I was speaking with Biro Diawara, Representative of Interfaith International, who facilitated a panel dealing with intolerance and Islamophobia.  He told me that the tongue can be used to incite hatred, but that the tongue can also be used to work together.  I have found too many tongues at this conference that are being used to promote division rather than cooperation: the twisted tongue.

Language is very important at this conference – especially considering a key objective is to produce an outcome document.  This document, which was already passed on Tuesday, forbids “language that incites hatred” - which is the outcome document’s compromise position on limiting one’s freedom of expression.  The negotiators excluded the controversial draft language forbidding “defamation of religion.”

There is a healthy debate here about the limits of free speech, but it doesn’t directly address the problem of the twisted tongue – when people attending a conference to help eradicate racism come armed with only racist language.  Instead of using this forum to talk about working together, this conference – as seen in the General Assembly as well as the NGO meetings - has been a forum for language that incites further polarization. 

And it’s against this backdrop that I set up a meeting with Palestinian NGOs working on human rights issues in Israel.  Five representatives from my delegation were supposed to meet with two different Palestinian activists – one who runs an NGO in Nazareth, and the other is a lawyer working on land issues in Jerusalem. 

When I called to confirm the meeting, the Palestinian lawyer refused to come - claiming that he was too upset to meet.  Earlier in the day, he attended a panel discussion on the Holocaust where a prominent Jewish voice allegedly accused him of being sympathetic to the Nazis – even going so far to call him Ahmedinjad.  However, the head of the human rights organization agreed to keep the meeting, even though his colleagues and other organizations advised against it.

The meeting could have been contentious.  We could have focused on our areas of disagreement.  We could have brought our own “red lines” to the table and walked out of the room when those lines were crossed.  We could have used our tongues to do battle.

But if we had, then we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to discuss the issues that we have in common – like making Israel a stronger democracy and a more secure state through promoting the equal treatment of Israel’s minorities.  If we had yielded to the incendiary voices at the conference, then we wouldn’t have had an opportunity to talk directly to each other about issues that we care about – and perhaps more important, we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to hear from the other.

At this conference, with people speaking so many different languages, I wish that I would have encountered more tongue twisters than twisted tongues.

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April 22, 2009 | 2:05 pm

Exclusive Coverage from DURBAN 2 - DAY 3: Bring Popcorn and a Tissue

Posted by David Weiner

David Weiner is a guest blogger for JewishJournal.com.  He is currently in Geneva attending the Durban Review Conference (also referred to as Durban 2) as part of a delegation representing the American Jewish Committee, composed of roughly 15 young professionals.

Armed with his laptop, still camera, and flip video camera, David will be providing continuous updates and sharing his own thoughts and experiences from Durban 2.

Click Here to Read Day 1
Click Here to Read Day 2

If you like good theater, then you would like the Durban Review Conference.  But you should be prepared for a tragedy.

It’s a tragedy that this conference, convened to address all forms of racism and intolerance around the world, has become a grandstand for Ahmadinejad.  With so many people and groups affected by discrimination and intolerance, it’s too bad that this conference has become focused on Israel.  It’s not that Israel is free of human rights problems and should be removed from the human rights agenda, but does it really deserve to be the entire agenda?

This conference, at least for the first couple days, has been more about style than substance.  I was in several important meetings today, “Racism: The Road to Genocide,” and “Human Rights, Discrimination and Islamophobia” – however, both of these meetings featured delegates from Iran and Neturei Karta making disruptive comments, walking out, and repeatedly attempting to equate Zionism with racism.  Where was the conversation about genocide happening in Africa?  Where was the conversation about how Jews and Muslims could actually work together on issues like Islamophobia? 

And then came the clowns.  The French Student Union, breaking in strategy from the European Jewish Student Union, formed a disruptive protest in the UN building.  Outside the meeting rooms featuring panels on “Discrimination and Poverty” and “Double Odds: Women overcoming discrimination,” the French students donned wigs and started shouting “Masquerade, Masquerade.”  Security had a difficult time rounding up the protestors, so the show continued for around 20 minutes.  Television reporters interviewed the students who avoided security, and the focus shifted once more to Ahmadinejad.

It’s a tragedy that this conference has become so heavy on theatrics rather than the core issues of racism that require attention.  I felt uncomfortable watching the latest protest.  Are these tactics very different from the Iranian delegates hijacking the meetings I attended? 

Anyone can go to the store and buy a wig.  Anyone can shout in the meetings.  But the real challenge is to find areas where we can engage.  For Wednesday, I have set up a meeting with two Palestinian NGOs working on Palestinian human rights.  I think we are all hungry to actually talk with each other.  Who knows….?  We might even find some common ground.

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April 22, 2009 | 2:05 pm

Exclusive Coverage from DURBAN 2 - DAY 3: Bring Popcorn and a Tissue

Posted by David Weiner

David Weiner is a guest blogger for JewishJournal.com.  He is currently in Geneva attending the Durban Review Conference (also referred to as Durban 2) as part of a delegation representing the American Jewish Committee, composed of roughly 15 young professionals.

Armed with his laptop, still camera, and flip video camera, David will be providing continuous updates and sharing his own thoughts and experiences from Durban 2.

If you like good theater, then you would like the Durban Review Conference.  But you should be prepared for a tragedy.

It’s a tragedy that this conference, convened to address all forms of racism and intolerance around the world, has become a grandstand for Ahmadinejad.  With so many people and groups affected by discrimination and intolerance, it’s too bad that this conference has become focused on Israel.  It’s not that Israel is free of human rights problems and should be removed from the human rights agenda, but does it really deserve to be the entire agenda?

This conference, at least for the first couple days, has been more about style than substance.  I was in several important meetings today, “Racism: The Road to Genocide,” and “Human Rights, Discrimination and Islamophobia” – however, both of these meetings featured delegates from Iran and Neturei Karta making disruptive comments, walking out, and repeatedly attempting to equate Zionism with racism.  Where was the conversation about genocide happening in Africa?  Where was the conversation about how Jews and Muslims could actually work together on issues like Islamophobia? 

And then came the clowns.  The French Student Union, breaking in strategy from the European Jewish Student Union, formed a disruptive protest in the UN building.  Outside the meeting rooms featuring panels on “Discrimination and Poverty” and “Double Odds: Women overcoming discrimination,” the French students donned wigs and started shouting “Masquerade, Masquerade.”  Security had a difficult time rounding up the protestors, so the show continued for around 20 minutes.  Television reporters interviewed the students who avoided security, and the focus shifted once more to Ahmadinejad.

It’s a tragedy that this conference has become so heavy on theatrics rather than the core issues of racism that require attention.  I felt uncomfortable watching the latest protest.  Are these tactics very different from the Iranian delegates hijacking the meetings I attended? 

Anyone can go to the store and buy a wig.  Anyone can shout in the meetings.  But the real challenge is to find areas where we can engage.  For Wednesday, I have set up a meeting with two Palestinian NGOs working on Palestinian human rights.  I think we are all hungry to actually talk with each other.  Who knows….?  We might even find some common ground.

0 Comments — Leave your comment