Shana Tovah!

Sorry, blogging has been very light of late due to a heavy workload and the approaching Jewish High Holidays (which are now here!). I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of my Jewish readers the healthiest of New Years, one which I hope will be filled with health, peace, happiness and prosperity (no more 779 point drops for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, please!) for all!

It's an issue for me

There is an excellent piece in the Jerusalem Post on why SOME Jewish voters who support Israel here in the U.S. will not vote for Barack Obama in November. Unfortunately, it's all too few, but there are at least some who recognize that when it comes to the subject of Israel, Obama can not be trusted.........nor should he be: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1214726181011&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.

Regrettably, I don't think that Obama's considerable weakness on Israel will cost him much in the way of Jewish votes in November. Most of those voters are like my parents, and would vote for whoever they considered to be the most liberal candidate no matter what that person said or believed regarding Israel.

The Rabbi has arrived!

The San Francisco Giants have brought up a Jewish player, Brian Horwitz, who his teammates have naturally nicknamed "The Rabbi": http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/20/SP8U11C30G.DTL.

After all those years of cheering against the Giants because of the presence of the odious Barry Bonds, I now have a reason to cheer for the team!

Are they that clueless?

Apparently, my fellow Jews are either blinded by ideology, trapped by years of brainwashing that told them that they HAD to vote Democratic, or maybe these numbers are just a reflection of the liberal bias of a well-known polling outfit: http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2008/05/obama_winning_over_jewish_vote.html. Either way, I'm not particularly happy to read this. Hopefully, Jews will eventually see that today's Democratic Party is not the party of their parents, or even the party of 10 years ago.

Martin Luther King and the Jews

What a contrast between this great man and today's "civil rights leader", such as Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan. Martin Luther King was a committed friend of the Jewish people, informing anyone who would listen to him about how invaluable Jewish support for the civil rights movement was: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120951797764154811.html?mod=djemEditorialPage.

Today, many Jews are still supporters of the self-proclaimed civil rights leaders I listed above, and I suspect that this support is more a matter of habit than anything else. I question why this is the case, given that today's Black civil rights leaders, to be blunt, are no friends of the Jews. This friendship has become very much a one-way street...................

Passover and making sure we don't forget

Tomorrow night marks the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover. To all of my Jewish readers I wish you a healthy and happy Passover. Celebrate your Seders and enjoy the company of good friends and/or family, because that truly is "what it's all about".

As well, please give a thought and say a prayer for the missing Israeli soldiers, all of whom have been in captivity or whose fate has been unknown for far too long:

Gilad Shalit
Ehud Goldwasser
Eldad Regev
Zecharia Baumel
Tzvi Feldman
Yekutiel Katz
Ron Arad
Guy Hever

http://www.freethesoldiers.org/local_includes/downloads/18388.pdf.

The JTA shills for Barack Obama

This puff piece is just the latest in a series of Obamamania articles by a Jewish establishment organization which doesn't get that Mr. Obama has unapologetically surrounded himself with people who don't like Jews or Israel: http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/2008041020080410obamainterview.html. No criticism of him on his association with Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, etc. Just an almost gleeful reporting on how he is picking up support with Jewish Democrats (are there that many stupid people out there?).

Appalling. That's the only worse I can use to describe this..............

Hava Nagilah

Hava Nagilah may be my favourite Jewish song of all time--it reminds me of joyous, happy times in general, and weddings in particular, either those of of family members or of good friends. British teeny bopper singer Lauren Rose has released a version which is climbing the charts in the U.K., and amazingly enough, it has a chance to be the #1 song in Great Britain by Christmas Day: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/935420.html.

I just love stories like this...............

Why I have a soft spot for Albanian Muslims

This is one of the truly underreported stories from World War II. Albania did not have a large Jewish population before the War, but after it began, the Jewish population of the state increased greatly as refugees from other, Nazi-occuppied countries flooded in. Then, the Nazis invaded and took over Albania too, and one of the first things they did was demand that the Albanian authorities turn over a list of Jewish people living in the country. The Albanian officials refused, and consequently, at the end of the War, there were actually MORE Jews in Albania than when the Germans invaded: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1192380676042&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.

Maybe today's Albanian Muslims aren't the same people as the ones who saved many Jews 60+ years ago, but I still feel a debt of gratitude towards them..........

Non-existent blogging

My apologies to all. This was a crazy weekend, as we had a baby naming (the Cantor who did the service did a marvelous job) for the newest Little BHG today. Family was in from out of town (one of the BHG nieces and both sisters) and it was absolute chaos from the moment they flew in Friday night until they left just a short while ago. I will try to get some posts up at some point tomorrow. I hope that everyone had a great weekend!

Yom Kippur

No blogging on Yom Kippur (even I have my limits and lines which will not be crossed). I have made a promise that the computer will not be touched from the minute I leave for Kol Nidre services tonight until at some point after I break the fast tomorrow night. So, for those of you who also interact with me on this blog or on Facebook, you will somehow have to make do without me for 25 hours or so. It will be difficult, I know, but I am confident that you will all survive, difficult though it may be. ;-)

To all of my Jewish readers, I wish you an easy and contemplative fast!

BHG

A tough decision

An Orthodox Jewish hockey player from Quebec has "reached a compromise" with the junior hockey team for which he played, and this will see him play on Saturdays from now on: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2007/09/12/ot-rubin-070912.html.

I'm of mixed feelings on this. On one hand, if he wants to be a professional hockey player, compromises are going to be necessary. On the other, to threaten to cut him, as the team apparently did, seems more than a little extreme, especially given that he would have only missed eight games out of the 70-game season.

Shana Tovah to all!

No blogging today or tomorrow. Shana Tovah to one and all! Here's hoping for a safe, peaceful, healthy and prosperous year for all!

UPDATE (2:33 p.m.): Turns out that I am going to post a little bit after all. Sigh. I really AM addicted to blogging.............

Can't get a Get

No, it's not a misprint. Under Jewish law, if an orthodox woman wants a divorce, her husband must grant her that right, also known as a "Get" (unfortunately, my religion obviously has a neanderthal streak, too): http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110010514.

It's not something of which I often think. Mrs. BHG and I are what is commonly known as Conservative Jews. If she ever tires of me (I sure hope not!), or I of her (which I can't ever see happening), we could just get divorced and move on with our lives. Orthodox women, unfortunately, can't do that unless their estranged husband permits it. That, in my mind, is an incredibly backward way of thinking..............

Passover Memories

Last night, we went through the first Passover Seder. For me, this always brings back memories of my youth. When I grew up, my parents were very good friends with another couple who had kids who were literally the same age as my two sisters and I. We didn't have anyone else in Montreal with whom we could spend the Seders, and neither did they. So, it was only natural that we would spend them together, the first one traditionally at their house and the second at ours. Those Seders were inevitably long, loud and a lot of fun. There was laughter and enough food to feed a small army. Given that we were in Montreal, and that the Canadiens were (back in those days) a lock for the playoffs, there would also be inevitable "bathroom trips" which involved a stop by the television so that we could check the scores of the playoff games. There would be the order for me and my equal to sing "Mah Nishtanah", which boh of us always unsuccessfully resisted. The search for the Afikoman would conclude the night, an invetibly chaotic and fun-filled search (except for one year where my father hid it so successfully that we couldn't find it. He couldn't remember where he put it, so it remained hidden for 2 1/2 years, when we found it while moving some boxes).

Of course, time passed, and a year or two occurred where these Seder get-togethers did not happen. The kids all got older and life sometimes became too hectic. The oldest kids got married, others went away to college, and eventually, even the youngest "flew the coop". As well, the kids starting having kids of their own, so the Seders evolved into family only events due to the size of the groups. As well, my mother passed away in early 1994, cutting one of the main links between the two families.

Still, as I sat at the Seder table last night, I couldn't help but think back to those Seders of my youth, and smile as I did so..............

Passover

This was forwarded to me in an e-mail, and I thought that it was worth posting:


If the Passover Story Were Reported by CNN or The New York Times

The cycle of violence between the Jews and the Egyptians continues with no end in sight in Egypt. After eight previous plagues have destroyed the Egyptian infrastructure and disrupted the lives of ordinary Egyptian citizens, the Jews launched a new offensive this week in the form of the plague of darkness.
Western journalists were particularly enraged by this plague. "It is simply impossible to report when you can't see an inch in front of you," complained a frustrated Andrea Koppel of CNN. "I have heard from my reliable Egyptian contacts that in the midst of the blanket of blackness, the Jews were annihilating thousands of Egyptians. Their word is solid enough evidence for me." While the Jews contend that the plagues are justified given the harsh slavery imposed upon them by the Egyptians, Pharaoh, the Egyptian leader, rebuts this claim. "If only the plagues would let up, there would be no slavery. We just want to live plague-free. It is the right of every society."
Saeb Erekat, an Egyptian spokesperson, complains that slavery is justifiable given the Jews' superior weaponry supplied to them by the superpower G-d. The Europeans are particularly enraged by the latest Jewish offensive. "The Jewish aggression must cease if there is to be peace in the region. The Jews should go back to slavery for the good of the rest of the world," stated an angry French President JacquesChirac.
Even several Jews agree. Adam Shapiro, a Jew, has barricaded himself within Pharaoh's chambers to protect Pharaoh from what is feared will be the next plague, the death of the firstborn. Mr. Shapiro claims that while slavery is not necessarily a good thing, it is the product of the plagues and when the plagues end, so will the slavery. "The Jews have gone too far with plagues such as locusts and epidemic which have virtually destroyed the Egyptian economy," Mr. Shapiro laments. "The Egyptians are really a very nice people and Pharaoh is kind of huggable once you get to know him," gushes Shapiro.
The United States is demanding that Moses and Aaron, the Jewish leaders, continue to negotiate with Pharaoh. While Moses points out that Pharaoh had made promise after promise to free the Jewish people only to immediately break them and thereafter impose harsher and harsher slavery, Richard Boucher of the State Department assails the latest offensive. "Pharaoh is not in complete control of the taskmasters," Mr. Boucher states. "The Jews must return to the negotiating table and will accomplish nothing through these plagues." The latest round of violence comes in the face of a bold new Saudi peace overture. "If only the Jews will give up their language, change their names to Egyptian names and cease having male children, the Arab nations will incline toward peace with them," Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah declared.