Sam Friedman Director of Hillel is Married to a Christian Pastor

 

Sam Friedman & his Shiksa Jen

By

 David Israel

Sam Friedman is the director of Hillel at Stetson University in Greater Orlando, Florida. The announcement of his selection to this role, back on April 1, 2018, went (Stetson Selects Sam Friedman as Hillel Director): 

“In this position, Friedman will help shape Hillel as the center of Jewish student life on campus and engage students in Jewish life, learning, and Israel.” 

There’s nothing wrong with this job description, and Friedman was well suited for the job, having worked before as director of community relations and then as assistant director for Central Florida Hillel; and even earlier as Israel and Global Initiatives Associate for the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County.

But then Sam Friedman decided to update his resume as a leader and shaper of young Jewish minds when he started dating an ordained Christian minister named Jen.

“Our first date was a whirlwind of excited conversation around spirituality, ethics and how funny it was that we—professionals in our different religious traditions—were on a date together,” Friedman reported in the Forward last Tuesday

 (I’m a Hillel director. My fiancé is a pastor. Here is how we are making it work.).

I don’t want to sound mean, but the depth of Friedman’s commitment to what the readers of this article and myself would define as Jewish was best illustrated by the explanation he says he gave his father about the change in his life: 

“It’s like when one person likes chocolate and one person likes vanilla, but they both hate bigotry.”

It really isn’t. First, because no one has ever been accused of bigotry for their choice of ice cream flavor; and second because the implication that whoever objects to the intermarriage of a Jew and a Christian must be a bigot is terrifyingly shallow and dishonest coming from a Jewish educator in charge of the Jewish experience of young Jewish students.

Iran’s doomsday clock for Israel’s end halts amid power cuts

 

Who says that Hashem doesn't have a sense of humour?

A clock in Iran that counts down to the destruction of Israel has reportedly ceased working as power cuts sweep through the nation.

According to former Al-Monitor journalist Asaad Hanna in a tweet on Monday, the “countdown to Israel’s annihilation clock” stopped displaying following a power outage.

The clock was unveiled in 2017, counting down to 2040, which is when Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicts there will no longer be a State of Israel.

In recent days, the regular blackouts in Iran have spread chaos and confusion on the streets of the capital, Tehran, and other cities, knocking out traffic lights, shutting factories, disrupting telecommunications and affecting metro systems.

Repeaters — devices around cities that enhance cellphone signals — have failed, along with electronic cash registers.

Some towns in Iran’s north reported limited access to water because the power cuts affected the piped supply. Traffic police in the capital have said the sudden power cuts have caught officials completely by surprise.

Iran’s outgoing president apologized Tuesday for the blackouts that have crippled businesses and darkened homes for hours a day.

In a government meeting broadcast live on state TV, President Hassan Rouhani acknowledged that chronic power outages over the past week have caused Iranians “plenty of pain” and expressed contrition in an unusually personal speech.

“My apologies to dear people who have faced these problems and pain,” he said.

Officials have blamed the outages on the country’s stifling heat, escalating electricity demand and deepening drought that has threatened to snuff out hydroelectric generation.

Power demand has peaked in recent days at 66,000 megawatts, surpassing the country’s practical generating capacity of 65,000 megawatts. Companies can actually provide people with even less electricity, closer to 55,000 megawatts — in large part because the aging, sanctions-hit electrical infrastructure leaves power plants prone to repeated technical failures.

Last month, Iran’s sole nuclear power plant underwent an unprecedented emergency shutdown. The facility in the southern port city of Bushehr returned online over the weekend after engineers said they repaired a broken generator.

Electricity facilities have not been properly maintained, and a lack of spare parts has complicated the construction of new plants to keep up with the country’s runaway growth. Over the last two decades, modest apartment blocks and local markets have become high-rises, residential complexes and colossal shopping malls all humming with air-conditioners.

While power cuts during the sweltering summer heat happen sporadically in Iran, the lack of recent rainfall has compounded the country’s electrical problems. Rouhani said precipitation had decreased by almost 50% in the last year, leaving dams with dwindling water supplies to fuel the country. Hydroelectric power generation has plummeted to 7,000 megawatts, Rouhani said, down from an estimated average of 12,000 megawatts in recent years.

Mazal Tov ... Israeli Snakes Born in Beit Shemesh ... Big Kiddush Planned

 

Shayna and Cuddles are unlike many new parents in Israel, in that they are pythons. But that doesn’t mean their offspring won’t be feted in a traditional way.

Israel’s Biblical Museum of Natural History is holding a public kiddush on Friday to celebrate the first baby snakes that have emerged from a crop of 38 eggs that Shayna, a 12-foot albino Burmese python, laid several months ago.

“Waiting and watching has been an incredible experience and opportunity to share more about these amazing creatures, and there is no more fitting way to celebrate their entrance to the Biblical Museum of Natural History, than with a traditional, haimish [“cozy”] Kiddush!” said Rabbi Natan Slifkin, the museum’s director and founder, in a press release announcing the event.

It’s the first time that the museum, which Slifkin opened in 2014, has held a kiddush, the celebratory Jewish ceremony associated with Shabbat services and festive occasions.

The event will include refreshments; an opportunity for visitors to meet Shayna, Cuddles and their babies; and a lesson about Jewish perspectives on snakes.

Slifkin is an Orthodox rabbi who has published multiple books on the intersection between animals, zoology and Torah, such as “Sacred Monsters: Mysterious and Mythical Creatures of Scripture, Talmud and Midrash” and “In Noah’s Footsteps: Biblical Perspectives on the Zoo.” His works have been banned in some Haredi Orthodox communities over his views on evolution.

Pervert Who Exposed Himself In Front Of 9-Year-Old Girl In Borough Park Roaming the Streets

 

Police are on the hunt for a pervert who exposed himself in front of a 9-year-old girl in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

The man committed the lewd act near 55th Street and 12th Avenue in Borough Park at about 8:15 p.m., according to police.

Satmar Rebbe permitted building a Mikvah for a Reform Congregation

Handwritten & Autographed Halachic Responsum Regarding Building a Mikvah for a Reform Congregation by the Admor Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar. Brooklyn, 1960

Harav Chanina Yom Tov Lipa Deutsch wrote in his work Taharas Yom Tov, "Behold I have merited to inspire many communities to build mikvaos, and I endeavored to build a mikvah in a synagogue… where there is no mechitza between men and women. Some have become angered with me saying that by building a mikvah in such a synagogue, I am endorsing such a synagogue. Therefore I asked the… Admor of Satmar shlita, and this is his answer…"

Harav Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar rules that by endorsing the kashrus of a mikvah, one does not endorse the community itself. On the contrary, he writes, there is a duty to construct a mikvah for them in order to spare them from serious transgressions.

He supports his ruling by recounting that when the communities in Hungary split, a decree was passed that one may not enter their synagogues, or rely on their ritual slaughter, yet “I remember that they would still circumcise their sons and no one objected…

“And to those that claim that he should not construct a mikvah in order to distance himself from a community that does not conduct itself according to the law, here the son must ask, 'What has changed? Does not everyone attend a synagogue or beis midrash that doesn't act in accordance with halachah for a few coins…' It is a distorted generation…"

A long and fundamental halachic response detailing when to embrace estranged Jews versus when to distance them, as well as discussions in the laws of Rebuke. Handwritten and autographed by the Admor Harav Yoel Teitelbaum, author of Divrei Yoel.

Brooklyn, 1960. 13 leaves. Handwritten and autographed. Published in Divrei Yoel, Yoreh Deah, Ch. 59. Good condition. 

How much longer? This was Biden’s press conference today.

 

This was Biden’s press conference today. Is he okay? pic.twitter.com/w58YW9nBtZ

— Ian Miles Cheong @ stillgray.substack.com (@stillgray) July 8, 2021

Chaim Rosenberg Of Flatbush Found In Rubble; Daughter & Son-In-Law Remain Missing

 After a grueling two weeks, the body of R’ Chaim (Harry) Rosenberg Z”L of Flatbush was found and identified in the rubble of the Surfside condo collapse. He was 52.

Chaim purchased the second-floor condo only last month, hoping that its views of the Atlantic Ocean would help him find solace after a turbulent year that saw the loss of his wife, Anna Rosenberg A”H, to cancer, and both of his parents to COVID-19.

Chaim was a longtime Mispallel at Rabbi Weinfeld’s Shul in Flatbush.

In recent months Chaim had dedicated himself towards launching Mercaz Shalom, a young adult center for mental healing, located on the campus of Mayanei Hayeshua Hospital in Bnei Brak, Israel, in memory of his late wife.

His daughter, Malki Weisz, and her husband, Benny, of Lakewood, N.J., were staying with him at the time of the collapse. The Weiszes remain missing as at this time.

Arrangements are being made with Hatzolah Air and family friends to have the Niftar flown back to NY tonight for a tentative Levaya on Friday.

An in depth article of the Niftar is being worked on.

Leiberman on a Roll as his War Continues: Cuts Funds For Bein Hazemanin Trips For Yeshiva Bochurim

 

Another budget cut aimed at the Chareidi population was announced on Thursday, only a day after Finance Minister Avigdor Leiberman announced the elimination of daycare subsidies for avreichim.

MK Oded Forer, a member of Lieberman’s party Yisrael Beiteinu and Minister for the Development of the Negev and the Galil, announced that the ministry’s funds for Bein HaZemanim trips for tens of thousands of Bnei Yeshivos will be eliminated.

The Israeli business daily Calcalist published a report on Thursday on the trip program, an initiative of Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, with the false claim that 86% of the funded trips were for yeshivah students. However, the report also clearly stated that the cost of the trips for yeshivah bochurim is only a fourth of the cost of the trips for the other students since the bochurim only went on day trips. Therefore the total cost for all students was equal. Furthermore, the funds went directly to the tourist attractions and other sites in the Galil and no funds were transferred to schools or yeshivos.

Despite this, Forer responded to the report by stating: “The project will not continue in its current format and will be altered in a way that meets the ministry’s vision and goals.”

The Yisrael Beiteinu party gleefully announced the revocation of the trips on social media, repeating the erroneous statement that: “86% of the trips funded by the Ministry of Development of the Negev and Galilee periphery during Aryeh Deri’s time were for yeshivah students. Minister Oded Forer decided to put an end to this discrimination.”

Liberman: "Charedi parties should read the Rambam"

 

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman responded Thursday to criticism of his decision to change the eligibility criteria for daycare subsidies.

Liberman said that the new criteria, according to which government funding will only be available to families in which the mother's partner works at least 24 hours (half time) each week, is necessary for yeshiva students who learn full-time and do not work, and called on his haredi critics to read the halakhic sources.

"Children should be given 'what they need' - education and the ability to integrate into the employment market, earn a decent living and not be based on allowances and alms," Liberman said.

He added: "And to my friends from the ultra-Orthodox sector, I call on you to return to the sources and the words of Maimonides (who worked full time), who said: "Anyone who comes to the conclusion that he should involve himself in Torah study without doing work and derive his livelihood from charity, desecrates [God's] name, dishonors the Torah, extinguishes the light of faith, brings evil upon himself, and forfeits the life of the world to come, for it is forbidden to derive benefit from the words of Torah in this world."

Earlier, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz of the Meretz party criticized the cuts in benefits, saying: "I am in favor of giving children what they need - irrespective from what their parents do."

"A child is an entity in itself, and if it is in his best interest to be in a daycare center - I am not in favor of depriving him of that," he added in an interview with Galai Tzahal (IDF Radio).

The Shas party has announced that it will petition the Supreme Court against Liberman's decision, arguing that it discriminates against haredim.

Watch the "Crazed" Heshy Tischler Take Out His Frustrations on a Cop

This guy who could only muster 200 votes when he recently ran for City Council in his district has a habit of harassing people, watch how he makes a fool of himself while yelling at a cop