Ancient Afghan Manuscripts with Hebrew Letters

A trove of ancient manuscripts in Hebrew characters rescued from caves in a Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan is providing the first physical evidence of a Jewish community that thrived there a thousand years ago.

On Thursday Israel’s National Library unveiled the cache of recently purchased documents that run the gamut of life experiences, including biblical commentaries, personal letters and financial records.

Researchers say the “Afghan Genizah” marks the greatest such archive found since the “Cairo Genizah” was discovered in an Egyptian synagogue more than 100 years ago, a vast depository of medieval manuscripts considered to be among the most valuable collections of historical documents ever found.

Genizah, a Hebrew term that loosely translates as “storage,” refers to a storeroom adjacent to a synagogue or Jewish cemetery where Hebrew-language books and papers are kept. Under Jewish law, it is forbidden to throw away writings containing the formal names of God, so they are either buried or stashed away.

The Afghan collection gives an unprecedented look into the lives of Jews in ancient Persia in the 11th century. The paper manuscripts, preserved over the centuries by the dry, shady conditions of the caves, include writings in Hebrew, Aramaic, Judea-Arabic and the unique Judeo-Persian language from that era, which was written in Hebrew letters.

“It was the Yiddish of Persian Jews,” said Haggai Ben-Shammai, the library’s academic director.

Holding the documents, protected by a laminated sheath, Ben-Shammai said they included mentions of distinctly Jewish names and evidence of their commercial activities along the “Silk road” connecting Europe and the East. The obscure Judeo-Persian language, along with carbon dating technology, helped verify the authenticity of the collection, he said.

“We’ve had many historical sources on Jewish settlements in that area,” he said. “This is the first time that we have a large collection of manuscripts that represents the culture of the Jews that lived there. Until today we had nothing of this.”

The documents are believed to have come from caves in the northeast region of modern-day Afghanistan, once at the outer reaches of the Persian empire. In recent years, the same caves have served as hideouts for Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

It remains unclear how the ancient manuscripts emerged. Ben-Shammai said the library was contacted by various antiquities dealers who got their hands on them.

Last month, the library purchased 29 out of hundreds of the documents believed to be floating around the world, after long negotiations with antiquities dealers. The library refused to say how much it paid for the collection, adding that it hoped to purchase more in the future and didn’t want to drive up prices. The documents arrived in Israel last week.

Comparisons with the other find are inevitable.

The Cairo Genizah was discovered in the late 1800s in Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue, built in the ninth century. It included thousands of documents Jews stored there for more than 1,000 years.

Ben-Shammai said it was too early to compare the two, and it would take a long time to sift through the findings from Afghanistan. He said they were already significant since no other Hebrew writings had even been found so far from the Holy Land.

He said the Jewish community in the region at the time lived largely like others in the Muslim world, as a “tolerated minority” that was treated better than under Christian rule. Afghanistan’s Jewish community numbered as many as 40,000 in the late 19th century, after Persian Jews fled forced conversion.

By the mid-20th century, only about 5,000 remained, and most emigrated after Israel’s creation in 1948. A lone Jewish man remains in Afghanistan, while 25,000 Jews live in neighboring Iran - Israel’s bitter enemy.

The library promises the finds will be digitized and uploaded to its website for all to see.

Aviad Stollman, curator of the library’s Judaica collection, said much more would be gleaned after intense research on the papers, but already it tells a story of a previously little known community.

“First we can verify that they actually existed - that is the most important point,” he said. “And of course their interests. They were not interested only in commerce and liturgy; they were interested also in the Talmud and the Bible,” he said.

“They were Jews living a thousand years ago in this place. I think that is the most exciting part.”

Iranians murder a Jew in Tehran

Daniel Magrufta

A 24-year-old Iranian Jew, who was part of one of the wealthiest Jewish families in the Iranian Jewish community, was murdered last week as reported by Israeli Channel 2. The Iranian Jewish community is fuming.

His name was Daniel Magrufta, the son of a well-known businessman. He was dating the the non-Jewish daughter of a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Channel 2 reported  that Jewish community suspects that she was involved in the murder, but she was released without any charges being brought against her.

Journal News Hypocrites! Hire armed guards, but posted addresses' of citizens that have gun permits!

The Journal News of West Nyack, N.Y., has hired armed security guards to defend its offices after receiving a torrent of phone calls and emails responding to the paper's publication of the names and addresses of area residents with pistol permits.

RGA Investigations, a private security company, "is doing private security at on location at the Journal News as a result of the negative response to the article," according to a police reportfirst obtained by the Rockland County Times (Nanuet, N.Y.) and shared with POLITICO. The guards "are armed and will be on site during business hours through at least January 2, 2013."

Last month, in the wake of last month's elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the Gannett-owned Journal News published interactive maps showing the names and addresses of pistol permit holders in New York's Westchester and Rockland counties. Conservatives and gun rights advocates publicly protested the paper's move; on Monday, the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association called for a nationwide boycott of the paper's advertisers, calling it a “wanton act” that “has put in harm's way tens of thousands of lawful license holders."

The Journal News continues to host the map on its website and has said that it will soon add a map listing all pistol permit holders in Putnam County.

According to the Clarkstown Police report, filed today, Journal News editor Caryn McBride had "previously reported a large amount of negative correspondence in response to the media outlet's publication of local gun permit holders." McBride shared one email with the police officer from "an unknown subject who wondered what McBride would get in her email now." The officer told McBride the email did not constitute an offense.

The Rockland County Times, a Journal News competitor, led its exclusive report citing the juxtaposition of targeting gun ownership while hiring armed guards.

"Guns are good for the goose but NOT for the gander," Dylan Skriloff, the Rockland County Times' associate publisher & editor-in-chief wrote.

Lebanon calls in military to investigate Israeli peppers?

Unsuspecting customer picks up a pack of peppers with word Israel printed on the sales tag, calls police • Police refer the matter to the military, who launched an investigation into the forbidden fruit and its path from Israel to Lebanon.

Israel Hayom Staff

Clear and present pepper!  |  Photo credit: Yossi Zeliger

A supermarket in the Lebanese city of Sidon had a hot potato on its hands Tuesday when a shopper discovered Israeli bell peppers in the produce aisle, Lebanese media reported.

The shopper called the police, who immediately contacted the army. When members of Lebanese military intelligence arrived at the Spinney's supermarket, one of Lebanon's largest chains, their search bore fruit. There were no fewer than "13 similar bags that have the word Israel printed on the sales tag," according to Lebanon's Daily Star.

Lebanese law bans its citizens from having any business contacts, whether direct or indirect, with Israeli firms. The Lebanese military is currently investigating how the peppers passed through Lebanese customs patrol.

In July 2012, the mainstream Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported that Lebanon is in fact flooded with Israeli products that make their way into the country disguised as imports from the U.S., Europe and Dubai.

About 10 years ago Spinney's endured another tempest when shoppers found tea mugs made in Israel inside the store.

Israeli Doctors treat Obama's Grandmother, but No "Hakoras Hatoiv"

U.S. President Barack Obama's step-grandmother, Sarah Onyango Obama, received emergency eye surgery from Israeli doctors in an Israeli-run hospital in Equatorial Guinea last week, the Times of Israel reports.

Sarah Onyango Obama is the third wife of Hussein Onyango Obama, President Obama's grandfather. She is apparently the source for much of what President Obama knows about his family in Kenya, and is one of the most important sources of family lore cited by Obama in his first memoir, Dreams from my Father.

Mrs. Obama was transported from her rural village of Nyang’oma Kogelo in western Kenya to the hospital in Equatorial Guinea, which features over one hundred Israeli personnel. The hospital facility was not founded by the Israeli government but by Israeli entrepreneurs Yardena Ovadya and Ariyeh Horesh.

It is not uncommon for Israeli entrepreneurs to create social services--such as hospitals and agricultural training programs--in African countries, often in return for access to mineral resources and investment opportunities.

Though the treatment was performed by Israeli doctors, Sarah Obama describes her medical visit to Equatorial Guinea as proof "of the fact that you don’t need to fly to Europe to get medical treatment," the Times reports.
Nu?

The Weberman Trial, or: The Wolf Who Cried Bias

By David Lerner
The Satmar community sees itself as the victim in the Weberman case. Which brings to mind the saying in the Talmud: “They commit the act of Zimri and demand the reward of Pinchas.”
“The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than anyone else.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

King Alexander Jannaeus once warned his wife that the only people one needs to fear are pseudo-pious hypocrites. “They commit the act of Zimri and demand the reward of Pinchas,” he said, and this is exactly what came to mind in the aftermath of Nechemya Weberman’s trial and the surreal attempts by the Satmar Hasidic community to paint itself as the victim.
Nechemya Weberman has by now been found guilty on 59 charges, including sexual abuse of children, and the following is now abundantly clear: The Satmar Hasidic community, on our watch, protects and shelters abusers of children. This is no longer a matter for debate, but an irrefutable fact.
The community’s reaction to recent events has been truly bizarre. Community members argue that they have been unfairly depicted in the media; journalists and columnists, they claim, are biased and use anti-Semitic imagery. But the most widespread gripe is that the entire community was put on trial, and that’s unfair! Weberman’s own defense attorney, George Farkas, employed this canard in his opening statement at trial, alleging that the victim had “great vengeance and furious anger … against Nechemya Weberman, and [sought] through this to bring down the entire community that either supported him, or of which he was a part.”
In a recent interview with the squalid Ami magazine, Farkas reiterated much of this, arguing essentially: The jury didn’t get the whole truth, but I can’t tell you what that is. One can perhaps forgive George Farkas; he’s an attorney defending his client. What I do take issue with is his assertion that: “I think they [Satmar] have the right to distrust her.”
With those words, Farkas is going beyond defending Weberman. He is essentially excusing all the intimidation that led up to the trial, and restating the fatuous “the entire community was on trial.”
If there is any merit to this rather grandiose claim, it is only because the community inserted itself into the proceedings with their own actions; it is they alone who put themselves on trial. Let us review how this very community has reacted in response to the allegations against Weberman.
On May 16th of this year, the Satmar community threw an extremely well-publicized and well-attended fundraiser for Weberman, a man then accused of truly heinous acts. It is reported that they sought to raise $500,000 at this event for Weberman’s defense. Some of the publicity might be credited to victim advocates protesting at the event, but Satmar made no pretense of discretion; the event was widely announced via Yiddish posters all over Williamsburg. That their support for Weberman was meant for public consumption is further evidenced by the hiring of an unlettered PR hack; a man whose Twitter bio contains the laughable falsehood: “My Opinions are Based on Facts; Not Ideology [sic].” Employing his unique brand of casuistry, he assured the media that this was all about ensuring justice, a fair trial, and the American Way. (Justice for the victim? They overlooked that American tradition, it seems.)
A mere few weeks later it became clear that some people were willing to invest substantial capital in making this case disappear. Four Hasidic men were arrested on charges of bribery: they tried to buy the victim’s silence and/or departure with $500,000. Some will argue that these men were acting on their own, that there is no connection between the two events, but I trust intelligent and literate people to review the sequence of events and draw their own conclusion.
Let us also review what happened to the victim and her family for pursuing justice:
They have been subject to numerous threats of bodily harm.
They have been expelled from schools and synagogues.
They have had their businesses defaced and boycotted.
They have become the objects of widespread slander, dismissed as the dregs of their own society.
Satmar men photographed the accuser in court, necessitating precautions usually reserved for gang trials. (One of the men claimed to be a supporter of the victim; if that is the case he is only guilty of ignorance.)
Near the end of the trial came the most damning news of all: Schoolchildren were being recruited to prayfor Weberman’s acquittal. Teachers received instructions to employ their students in beseeching God on behalf of “the important activist” falsely accused by “debased and lowly people.” For extra weight, the instructions quoted the Shemone Esreh prayer–“May there be no hope for informants”–implying that Weberman’s accuser was deserving, as the prayer hopes, “instant annihilation.”
There is so much more: the Anthony Comstock-esque Vaad Hatznius, the perjury of the school principal denying its existence, the intimidation of Weberman’s other victims who have not yet come forward, the cowardice of Weberman’s anonymous defenders on Twitter and other social media, and much more. All these point to the same inevitable conclusion: Weberman, a man accused of monstrous offenses against children, received widespread support from the community.
And still they cry: “The community was put on trial!”
It wasn’t. It was never about the community–until they themselves made it so.
We often compare people who shout inflammatory lies to The Boy who Cried Wolf. The more conventional moral to that fable is that if one wishes to deceive, do not employ the same falsehood over and over. This eludes Satmar, one of whose leaders referred to the young girl as a “whore”–a classic tactic among those who blame victims for their abuse. But in this case, there is a unique twist to it: In Aaesop’s classic fable, the boy who cried wolf does not directly lead the wolf to his flock; the same cannot be said of Satmar. The Satmar community led the victim directly to her predator, then rejoiced in protecting, defending, and sheltering him.
Satmar had a real wolf but ignored it, and then cried about an imaginary wolf: the outside world and the media. That is disgraceful.
After all is said and done, each of us can only be responsible for our own actions and inactions. I do not believe in collective guilt, but ultra-Orthodox Jews as a group must do some serious soul-searching over how they handle criminals within their community: Child sexual abuse exists and is a serious problem; Mesirah, as Rabbi Eli Fink argued in a recent blog post, is an outdated concept that needs to be discarded; rabbinical courts do not have the power to deal with sexual predators save for the same power we all have: involving the police. The sooner all this is realized the better it will be for children. Change can happen only when more Chasidim defy societal taboos against talking about abuse and reporting abusers; maintaining the status quo will only bring about more victims.
Finally, it is no secret that many (although certainly not all) of the victim’s advocates are “OTD,” or “Off the Derech,” the people who have left the path of Orthodox and Hasidic Judaism. These men and women, including myself, are repeatedly asked: “Why do you care?” In other words: you guys left the community, so why don’t you just mind your own business?! This echoes the “outside agitators” claim used by every tyrant in dismissing calls for change, and deflects the issue entirely. But still, as a former Hasid and an “OTD” myself, I will offer this in response:
We grew up in these communities. The victims are our sisters, our brothers, our friends. We personally know many victims of abuse who have not come forward for fear of retaliation. Yes, it is true we no longer share your religious views, but we are still your brothers and sisters. We see protecting children as the most universal human value. We intimately know this community and its attitudes; we don’t want to destroy them, we want them to protect their most vulnerable members.
That is why we care, and that is why we will not remain silent.

Agudath Israel now tells people who know of anyone getting sexually abused to report it immediately to authorites

Palestinian arrested for having sex with yeshiva students

A Palestinian man doing favors for the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community particularly on shabbat, serving as a shabbat goy, meaning doing items Jews are prohibited of doing on Shabbat, was arrested today for having sex with yeshiva students in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak, according to press reports.

Police arrested a Palestinian man living in Bnei Brak on suspicion of paying religious school students to have sex with him. The suspect has been residing in the city for 20 years and serves as a Shabbat goy.

Police estimate that over the years the suspect was able to gain the trust of several students from

the yeshiva. At one point he began to offer money in exchange for sex.

Investigators have traced so far two children who had been exploited by the suspect for an extended period of time. They estimate that there are other victims over the age of 14.

It was suspected that the Palestinian invited the yeshiva students to his house, where he had sex with them.
Police are trying to locate other victims, but are having trouble trying to get Bnei Brak residents to cooperate.

Rabbi Chaim Halpern dancing his last dance? Video

Meilech Schnitzler indicted for assaulting Nuchem Rosenberg

Brooklyn, NY - Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes today announced the indictment of Meilech Schnitzler for Attempted Assault in the First Degree, for throwing a cup of bleach in the face and eye of Rabbi Nathan Rosenberg on December 11, 2012.

Schnitzler, 37, is charged with two counts of Attempted Assault in the First Degree; Assault in the Second Degree; Assault in the Third Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree.  He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the top count.

“This indictment alleges an act of thuggery in broad daylight that cannot be tolerated,” said District Attorney Hynes.  “The indictment sends a clear message that anyone who would seek to intimidate someone opposed to the uncovering of sexual abuse in the Orthodox community will face serious criminal charges and if convicted, I will ask for the maximum jail time.”

According to the indictment, the defendant and the victim both lived in Williamsburg and knew each other.  The victim was walking past 311 Roebling Street when Schnitzler allegedly tapped Rosenberg on the shoulder, threw a cup of bleach in his face and eye and ran away.

An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.