Yehuda Lave, Spiritual Advisor and Counselor

Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money,  and spiritual engagement. Now also a Blogger on the Times of Israel. Look for my column

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Rabbi Yehuda Lave: How Rabbis and Halacha have been affected by the Corona Epidemic

Jews support BLM as they did Communism 100 years ago

 Jews support BLM as they did Communism 100 years ago

 

Many Jews, particularly in Israel, are brown or black-skinned. Whiteness, though, is deemed to be less about pigment than power. Op-ed.

By Melanie Phillips

Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history, it is said, are doomed to repeat them.

In the 20th century, thousands of progressively minded people supported Soviet communism. Believing this ideology was the key to a better world, they refused to acknowledge the horrific abuses under Stalin when millions were brainwashed, murdered or starved to death.

Today’s progressives are behaving in similar fashion in response to another onslaught on civilized values, perpetrated in the name of an ideology with the same roots as Soviet communism. And just as in the last century, a dismaying number of its cheerleaders are Jews.

 

In both America and Britain, Jewish leaders and community groups overwhelmingly back Black Lives Matter. Since Jews have suffered from bigotry, discrimination and social alienation, they feel a duty to express solidarity with black people who they believe are experiencing similar difficulties.

But BLM, which took off after last May’s death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer, is not about promoting fairness and tolerance.

It is instead a nihilistic, violent, revolutionary movement committed to defunding the police as an incorrigibly racist institution, closing the prisons, destroying the family and overthrowing white capitalist society. What’s more, many of its leaders are white.

There’s no doubt that black people experience bigotry, and that there are racist police officers.

But a significant number of police officers are themselves black; most people who are killed in police custody are white; and most black people who are murdered are killed by other black people.

Moreover, BLM’s denunciation of white society as racist is itself a racist act since it categorizes an entire ethnic group as bad. Yet progressive people have bought into this malign agenda.

In the name of the BLM movement thuggish mobs, including supporters of the “anti-fascist” Antifa, have been subjecting the public to shocking levels of violence over the past three months in a number of cities. Democrat administrations in such places have let this happen with no pushback against the rioters, sometimes even stripping the embattled police of funds.

In Seattle, marchers demanded that white residents give up their homes and abused them as racists when they protested. In Minnesota, demonstrators shrieking obscenities assembled outside the home of the president of the Minneapolis police department union and vilified his neighbors.

The worst and most sustained violence has taken place in Portland, Ore. This week, one such mob there beat up a homeless, white, transgender person. A man who tried to help the victim was attacked in turn by the rioters, who dragged him out of his truck and beat him almost to death.

Yet this sustained thuggery has been all but totally ignored by the media. There’s been not one word of criticism from the Democratic Party. Instead, it wove support for BLM into its convention this week, with Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez declaring: “We will not miss this moment to ensure those values are reflected in everything we do.”

Worse still is the reaction of the broader intellectual establishment. In both America and Britain, universities, corporations, voluntary organizations, cultural bodies and other institutions have adopted the BLM agenda of bullying white people to “check their privilege.”

In Britain, supposedly impartial civil servants have openly endorsed BLM activism and have declared their intention to “tackle the whiteness” of senior officials. One of these used her department’s intranet to advise her colleagues: “Recognize your white privilege … call out racism in your family, friends and colleagues … (unintended or not).”

This sinister attempt to force people to denounce themselves and their loved ones is straight out of the Soviet communist playbook.

As Yoram Hazony writes in Quillette, anti-racism and other “woke” ideologies are all rooted in Marxism. They have adopted some of its key precepts: that all relationships are defined by power, that people are either oppressors or oppressed, and that through “false consciousness” oppressors may not even realize they are indeed oppressive. Hence the demand for white people to acknowledge their guilt.

(JNS) What makes Jewish support for BLM even more grotesque is its profound antisemitism, identifying “Jewish privilege” as the worst manifestation of “white privilege.”

Many Jews, particularly in Israel, are in fact brown or black-skinned. Whiteness, though, is deemed to be less about pigment than power. BLM ideology portrays Jews as all-powerful because they are seen to run the world that “oppresses” black people.

This poisonous prejudice against the Jews, which has achieved such traction that “#JewishPrivilege” briefly became a trending Twitter hashtag until one feisty Israeli led a fightback, emanates in particular from two highly influential groups in the black community.

The first is the Nation of Islam, the black power movement led by Louis Farrakhan who calls Jews “Satanic” and says: “When you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door.”

The second is the Black Hebrew Israelites, two of whose members attacked a kosher grocery store in New Jersey last December after murdering a police officer. This group spreads the preposterous canard that black people are the descendants of Moses and real children of Israel, while the Jews themselves are imposters who stole Judaism from them.

All this has been ignored by progressive Jews, who instead are eagerly volunteering their community for mass self-denunciation by blaming “white Jewish privilege”.

In Forward, for example, Julia Appel defines this by “the way we’re visually categorized in a split second by the power structures of our society.”

And so: “You can be Jewish and the child of Holocaust survivors and still benefit from white privilege—a privilege that accrues to you whether you’ve chosen it or not.”

To people like her, only white people can guilty of bad things. “Black and Jew are uttered in one breath by white supremacists,” she writes. True; but it doesn’t occur to her that “white and Jew” are uttered in the same breath by black power ideologues. Nor do people like Appel square their “white privilege” with the fact that the Jews are racially attacked more frequently than any other group.

Over the years, Jews have been prominent in helping tackle prejudice and discrimination against black people, so many of whom are decent, moderate and patriotic and whose view of the Jews is benign. Yet here are Jews eagerly offering up the community’s collective throat to the metaphorical knife of defamation, vilification and the potentially murderous lie that their very identity makes them oppressive, exploitative and altogether bad.

So deeply are they gripped by this mind-twisting dogma, they simply cannot grasp that what they tell themselves is a Jewish moral imperative is in fact the antithesis of Jewish ethics—and one, furthermore, which has the Jews themselves in its sights.

In 1942, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was set up by Stalin to raise funds for the war effort against Nazi Germany. Led by prominent Jewish writers, it raised millions of dollars in the United States and elsewhere. The Jews on that committee believed they were on the same side as Stalin against evil.

Accordingly, they assured their Western audiences that there was no antisemitism in the Soviet Union. But when they started to praise Jews who had stood up against Hitler, Stalin’s antisemitism was unleashed; and so his loyal apologists on the committee were rounded up, tortured, subjected to secret trials and executed.

Today’s Jews who have signed up to the BLM agenda are their ideological heirs. Whether they are truly in the grip of this latest Marxist-based delusion or are simply trying to protect themselves by going along with it, they are helping promote anti-white racism, anti-Jewish hatred and anti-West insurrection.

And tragically, they fail to see that this monster they are helping create is coming for them, too.

Melanie Phillips, a British journalist, broadcaster and author, writes a weekly column for JNS. Currently a columnist for “The Times of London,” her personal and political memoir, “Guardian Angel,” has been published by Bombardier, which also published her first novel, “The Legacy,” in 2018. Her work can be found at: www.melaniephillips.com.

      

Homage to Jerusalem Alexander Calder

Our third stop on our stay vacation
Homage to Jerusalem is a 1977 sculpture by Alexander Calder in Holland Square, near Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. It is at the corner of Kiryat Yovel Street and Ein Karem at a viewpoint overlooking the Jerusalem Forest.

When Alexander Calder visited Israel in 1975 with his wife, the Mayor of Jerusalem Teddy Kollek asked him to create a sculpture for Jerusalem. The chosen site for the sculpture was the northeastern slope of Mount Herzl.[1]It was made of bolted sheet metal and painted bright red.[2]

The stabile's components were crated and sent to Israel by boat for on‐the-spot reassembly.

When construction began on the Jerusalem light railway, the sculpture was relocated to a site opposite Shaare Zedek Medical Center.


Calder Stabile Takes Shape As His Monument for Jerusalem

By Andreas Freund Special to The New York Times

Dec. 18, 1976


TOURS, France—The creative genius of Alexander Calder, who died last Nov. 11 in New York, still inspires work here on what could become his most monumental achievement, a sculpture for Jerusalem.

Following instructions left by the artist, workmen in light blue overalls were busy today hammering and welding together elements for Calder's ultimate creation at a steel‐plate manufacturing plant on the outskirts of this industrial center on the River Loire. It is the same plant the sculptor used to have his models executed to size in the last 15 years.

Visit to Israel in 1975

The Jerusalem project, a stabile, has as yet no name. At the plant, it is being referred to as “Le Jerusalem,” “L'Israel” or “Number 131,” because it is the 131st Calder produced here.
The sculptor's less‐than‐man‐sized model for the stabile stood in a corner of the plant, a gray metal structure delineating what, looked like the interlocking portals of a grand imaginary place of worship.
The Jerusalem project dates to a visit by Calder to Israel in 1975. It was not long after an Arab‐sponsored resolution at the United Nations had again condemned the Jewish state, provoking demonstrations of support for Israel from many intellectuals and artists.

Traveling with his wife, Louisa, the then 77‐year‐old Calder was shown around by Teddy Kollek Mayor of Jerusalem, who one day asked him if he would give a sculpture to the holy city. The answer was yes, and while Calder went to work at his Loire Valley Home, Jerusalem began making ready a site on the northeastern slope of Mount Herzl. It is there that the monument, in honor of peace, is to be dedicated next May.
At the plant here owned by the Biémont Company, Jacques Bazillon, the general manager, said there was no problem and that everything would be ready late next month, when the stabile's components would be crated and sent to Israel by boat for easy on‐thespot reassembly.

Accidental Association

The plant's association with Calder, Mr. Bazillon recalled, was quite accidental. One day, he said, Calder decided he needed a steel plate company in the area to do his structures, picked a name in the telephone directory and called. The man on the other end said, “Sorry, we aren't equipped for that sort of work, but—.” He then called Mr. Bazillon, a friend, and said, “I have a funny American here, perhaps you want to see him.”

From that day, Biémont, which is mainly a supplier for nuclear power stations, added the production of Calder sculpture to its activities. The plant, which employs 160 people, executed major Calder stabiles for New York, Philadelphia, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Dallas Airport and the 1967 Montrealexhibition. “The Calder line was only a small part of our business,” Mr. Bazillon stated, “1 or 2 percent of our revenue.”

Calder insisted that no industrial methods be employed in the execution of his structures, lest they bear “the scars of workmanship,” and the plant respected his wishes. The workers loved Calder, who would come in at least twice a week when work was in progress on his creations. He would never ask technical questions, but wished to know whether they liked the sculpture or not.

Jean Berruet, a foreman who traveled with Calder to Montreal, New York, and wherever his sculpture was being reassembled, called him “a kind man.” Once, he recalled, when he broke a leg, Calder drove him all the way to a hospital in Paris, 180 miles away, and on Sunday mornings they used to play billiards at the Calder home.

CDC: “only 6% of all the 153,504 deaths recorded actually died from Covid”

“This week the CDC quietly updated the Covid numbers to admit that only 6% of all the 153,504 deaths recorded actually died from Covid.“

That’s 9,210 deaths

The other 94% had 2-3 other serious illnesses & the overwhelming majority were of very advanced age.” 

Some of these people would probably be Covid case deaths, but 94%?  I don’t think so.

here’s the link!

These words made me laugh

So we're into our 5th month of fighting COVID-19. These words made me laugh 🤣 But there's a lot of truth mixed in to consider. . .

1. So let me get this straight, there’s no cure for a virus that can be killed by sanitizer and hand soap?
2. Is it too early to put up the Christmas tree yet? I have run out of things to do.
3. When this virus thing is over, I still want some of you to stay away from me.
4. If these last months have taught us anything, it’s that stupidity travels faster than any virus on the planet.
5. Just wait a second – so what you're telling me is that my chance of surviving all this is directly linked to the common sense of others? You’re kidding, right?
6. If you believe all this will end and we will get back to normal just because we reopen everything, raise your hand. Now slap yourself with it.
7. Another Saturday night in the house and I just realized the trash goes out more than me.
8. Whoever decided a liquor store is more essential than a hair salon is obviously a bald-headed alcoholic.
9. Remember when you were little and all your underwear had the days of the week on them. Those would be helpful right now.
10. The spread of Covid-19 is based on two factors: 1. How dense the population is and 2. How dense the population is.
11. Remember all those times when you wished the weekend would last forever? Well, wish granted. Happy now?
12. It may take a village to raise a child, but I swear it’s going to take a whole vineyard to home school one.
13. Did a big load of pajamas so I would have enough clean work clothes for this week!

Hot Dogs Are The Greatest American Jewish Food - Here's Why

What’s that you say? You didn’t know that hot dogs were a Jewish food? Well, that’s part of the story, too. By JOEL HABER/JTA 

 American Jewish food is most typically defined as pastrami sandwiches, chocolate babka or bagels and lox.

But I am here to argue that the greatest American Jewish food may actually be the humble hot dog. No dish better embodies the totality of the American Jewish experience.

What’s that you say? You didn’t know that hot dogs were a Jewish food? Well, that’s part of the story, too. Sausages of many varieties have existed since antiquity. The closest relatives of the hot dog are the frankfurter and the wiener, both American terms based on their cities of origin (Frankfurt and Vienna, respectively). So what differentiates a hot dog from other sausages?

The story begins in 19th century New York with two German-Jewish immigrants. In 1870, Charles Feltman sold Frankfurt-style pork-and-beef sausages out of a pushcart on Coney Island, Brooklyn. Sausages not being the neatest street food, Feltman inserted them into soft buns. This innovative sausage-bun combo grew to be known as a hot dog (though Feltman called them Coney Island Red Hots)

Two years later, Isaac Gellis opened a kosher butcher shop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He soon began selling all-beef versions of German-style sausages. Beef hot dogs grew into an all-purpose replacement for pork products in kosher homes, leading to such classic dishes as franks and beans or split pea soup with hot dogs. Though unknown whether Gellis was the originator of this important shift, he certainly became one of the most successful purveyors.

As American Jews, the hot dog was an immigrant itself that quickly changed and adapted to life in the United States. As American Jewry further integrated into society, the hot dog followed. In 1916, Polish-Jewish immigrant Nathan Handwerker opened a hot dog stand to compete with Feltman, his former employer. Feltman’s had grown into a large sit-down restaurant, and Handwerker charged half the price by making his eatery a “grab joint.” (The term fast food had yet to be invented, but it was arguably Handwerker who created that ultra-American culinary institution.

Nathan’s Famous conquered the hot dog world. Like so many of his American Jewish contemporaries, Handwerker succeeded via entrepreneurship and hard work. His innovative marketing stunts included hiring people to eat his hot dogs while dressed as doctors, overcoming public fears about low-quality ingredients. While his all-beef dogs were not made with kosher meat, he called them “kosher-style,” thus underscoring that they contained no horse meat. Gross.

The kosher-style moniker was another American invention. American Jewish history, in part, is the story of a secular populace that embraced Jewish culture while rejecting traditional religious practices. All-beef hot dogs with Ashkenazi-style spicing, yet made from meat that was not traditionally slaughtered or “kosher,” sum up the new Judaism of Handwerker and his contemporaries. Furthermore, American Jewry came of age alongside the industrial food industry.

The hot dog also highlights the explosive growth of the kosher supervision industry (“industrial kashrut”). Hebrew National began producing hot dogs in 1905. Its production methods met higher standards than were required by law, leading to their famous advertising slogan, “We Answer to a Higher Authority.”https://www.instagram.com/p/BZesONJDdbP/

While the majority of Americans may be surprised to hear this, Hebrew National’s self-supervised kosherness actually was not accepted by more stringent Orthodox and even Conservative Jews at the time. But non-Jews, believing kosher dogs were inherently better, became the company’s primary market. Hebrew National eventually received the more established Triangle-K kashrut supervision, convincing the Conservative movement to accept its products.

Most Orthodox Jews, however, still don’t accept these hot dogs as kosher.But over the last quarter of the 20th century in America, the Orthodox community has gained prominence and its opinions, and food preferences, hold more weight in the food industry.The community’s stricter kashrut demands and sizable purchasing power created a viable market, and glatt kosher hot dogs hit the scene. Abeles & Heymann, in business since 1954, was purchased in 1997 by current owner Seth Leavitt. Meeting the demands of the Orthodox community’s increasingly sophisticated palate, A&H hot dogs are gluten-free with no filler. The company has begun producing a line of uncured sausages and the first glatt hot dogs using collagen casing.Glatt kosher dogs are now available in nearly 30 sports arenas and stadiums. American Jews have successfully integrated into their society more than any other in history. So, too, the hot dog has transcended its humble New York Jewish immigrant roots to enter the pantheon of true American icons. So when you bite into your hot dog this summer, you are really getting a bite of American Jewish history and the great American Jewish food.

Report: Remington Preparing To File for Bankruptcy, Could End Up in Hands of New Group

In what could be a major change of direction for America’s oldest maker of firearms, Remington Arms Co. is planning to file for bankruptcy and is in what are described as “advanced talks” to sell the company to Navajo Nation, according to a new report.

Remington filed bankruptcy in 2018, the same year that the Navajo Nation made its previous attempt to buy the company. At the time, the deal was controversial because the Navajo would have dropped Remington’s AR-15 line of semi-automatic rifles, according to The New York Times.

This time around, Remington is making plans for the Navajo Nation “to serve as the lead bidder to purchase Remington’s assets out of chapter 11,” according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal based its report on individuals it did not name.

The Journal noted that the deal is not cast in stone. It said the Navajo Nation could make its bid as soon as Friday, but also said there is no guarantee the offer will surface at all.

Any bid for the company could be subject to any competing offers that arise as well as approval from bankruptcy court.

Remington was founded in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington. The company currently makes guns in Ilion, New York, and Hunstville, Alabama.

Remington has not only battled the headwinds that have stalked the firearms sector, it has faced a major lawsuit in connection with the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Despite spending millions to ward off the suit, Remington suffered a setback when the Connecticut Supreme Court last year said families can sue Remington for the way in which it marketed the Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle used in the shooting.

According to The Times, the Navajo Nation had been ready two years ago to spend between $475 million and $525 million to acquire Remington.

Should the government have prevented this bankruptcy?Yes No Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

At that time, The Times reported that the Navajo planned to drop the AR-15 line and focus on law enforcement and defense sales.

“Navajo is a community of veterans and people of the land,” the tribe’s lawyer, Drew Ryce, said in an email. “We are indifferent to the AR-15 and happy to leave that business behind.”

Talk of the sale created quite a buzz on Twitter.

The 2018 vision of the purchase would have moved Remington’s facilities to the sprawling Navajo Nation’s lands that occupy parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

 

“Navajo has over 70 percent unemployment,” Ryce wrote in 2018. “Over the next few years we would shift the assembly (i.e. lesser trained) parts of the business onto the reservation.”

The next step would be to launch small businesses to make gun parts.

We would establish this specific machining of specific parts on-reservation and assemble and ship the products on-reservation,” Ryce said.

At the time, the Navajo Nation also expressed an interest in buying Remington to research and develop “smart guns,” which are equipped with technology that prevents anyone but a gun’s owner from using it.

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