March 2009 Archives

A Palestinian youth orchestra from Jenin was disbanded after it played for Holocaust survivors in Israel. Palestinian authorities also banned Strings of Freedom orchestra conductor Wafa Younis from the northern West Bank refugee camp and her apartment, where she taught the 13 music students, was sealed off.

The orchestra played for the elderly Israelis in Holon March 25 as part of a Good Deeds Day sponsored by the Good Spirit charity, which is connected to billionaire Shari Arison, Israel's richest woman. This is beyond tragic; this is the kind of stuff that makes even the most hopeful among us, despair about the future.

The irony here for me personally, is that when I first read about this performance last week, I was actually disturbed by how little the kids new about the Holocaust and about what their audience had lived through. But I reasoned, how much would a similar group of Israeli kids know about the traumas faced by many Palestinians in the same age cohort as those in the Holon audience?

No, the Holocaust and what Palestinians describe as al Nakba, and the rest of the world knows as the founding of the State of Israel, are not equivalent.

Not only is Shaindy.com a site for Jewish adulterers, but it caters specifically to those who are Orthodox. 350 people have already signed up to make matches with like-minded Jews looking to hook up, according to the site's founder. And even if this is a carefully crafted early April Fools prank, it merits attention for three reasons.

First, as Shmuley Boteach is quoted in the New York Post article about this story, "Adultery is going to do nothing to your marriage except destroy it." Is he wrong? However much a marriage may need some new excitement, does anyone really think that skulking around on the internet is likely to rekindle the romance that is often lost over the years?

Second, despite those who can not believe that this is real because, as they protest, "would religious people, even if they were going to cheat, want to cheat with other religious people?" Every study about cheating suggests that they would.

Satan exists, of that I am certain. But that is because for me, and according to most strands of the Jewish tradition, Satan is not some little guy with a pointy tail and a pitch fork. Though versions of that devil can be found, especially in the mystical tradition, it's not the norm. And even if it were, I would still have no fear of a Devil who leads the forces of evil in an ongoing battle against God and the angels.

Actually, that kind of dualism should be hard for any monotheist to maintain. But the need to personalize the evil we do face in the world is apparently so powerful, that lots of folks give in to that temptation -- double entendre intended. It's either that, or they simply cannot stomach a god who would "allow" so many awful things to go on in "His" world. They prefer a smaller god locked in battle with the red guy and his minions.

But evil is real....

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made it pretty clear today that Israeli aircraft did, in fact, bomb a convoy of trucks bearing Iranian harms, traveling through Sudan on their way to supply Hamas in Gaza. A report on SudanTribune.com called the attack an "embarrassment" to Sudan.

Of course, the only part of the story which should embarrass the Sudanese is the ease with which arms flow through their nation, killing both their own people and the citizens of other nations as well.

From the New York Times, datelined April 8th, 1897. That's right, rabbis getting arrested is nothing new, though it's interesting to note for what kinds of violations. And obscure Jewish ritual practice was in the news, even 111 years ago.    

To read the article, click here.