Lady From the Gerer Chassidim defiant of segregated bus rules in Yerusalayim, sits in front of bus!

The Lady Yocheved Horowits after being shouted at to move to the back of the bus, replied:
"What do you mean by 'men's area'? A geographical area?" she wondered. "What is mehadrin? Are you talking about an etrog, a lulav?" she queried, referring to two of the principal symbols used during the festival of Sukkot. "Nowhere in rabbinical law does it say that it is forbidden to sit behind a woman, not in the Shulchan Arukh and not in the Yoreh De'ah [two classical compilations of Jewish law]. What is written in the Torah and in rabbinical law is that it is forbidden to humiliate sons and daughters of Israel."

Like a deflated balloon, the man became quiet, and maintained his silence for the rest of the bus ride.

Yocheved Horowitz

Now read the rest from Haaretz:

On a sunny afternoon early this week, an ultra-Orthodox woman boarded a bus in the enclave of the Gur Hasidic community in Ashdod and took a seat in the second row. The bus, Egged line 451, was headed for Jerusalem. It quickly became clear that this simple, everyday act - choosing a seat to her liking - was enough to transform her presence in the bus into a palpable challenge to the rest of the passengers. I sat down across from the woman, fearing the worst.

Not only did the woman, whose name is Yocheved Horowitz, blatantly ignore the tacit agreement among the bus' riders to adhere to the most stringent religious practices - in this case, an unwritten rule that men sit in the front and women in the back. And not only did she not conform to the seating arrangements dictated by men - that is, those in authority. This was also a woman who, judging by her appearance, seemed to come from within the community.

A young girl who boarded the bus at one of the stops in the Zayyin quarter, where the Gur compound is situated, apparently couldn't have imagined that an ultra-Orthodox woman would relate dismissively to the highest social stricture of segregation by sex. Even as she saw Horowitz heading for the second row, she whispered to her, as if trying to save her before it was too late, "Mehadrin, mehadrin" - a term usually employed in connection with food, but which in this case referred to the adherence on the bus to the strictest religious principles; the girl also gestured to her to sit in the back.

After raising her tone a bit, without succeeding in moving Horowitz from her seat, the girl finally left her alone and continued to the back of the bus, where several women were already sitting. After her, a mother and daughter who do not belong to the Hasidic public riding the bus, and who are thus not obligated to its rules, got on board. Stopping next to Horowitz, they said to her, smiling: "What, they haven't thrown you out yet?" They themselves headed toward the back.

The smiles evaporated the instant the bus began to move. "Mehadrin, mehadrin," said a bearded man sitting behind me, raising his voice. When I did not get up from my seat across from her, he continued to shout.

"Women to the back," he called out like a conductor. "To the back, to the back." He trembled with anger. A man sitting in the first row whose appearance revealed him to be a Gur Hasid, shushed him, with a finger to his lip. But the shouter paid no attention to him. "Men's area," he continued to shout. "Women to the back."

Now Horowitz turned around and said loudly and clearly: "What do you mean by 'men's area'? A geographical area?" she wondered. "What is mehadrin? Are you talking about an etrog, a lulav?" she queried, referring to two of the principal symbols used during the festival of Sukkot. "Nowhere in rabbinical law does it say that it is forbidden to sit behind a woman, not in the Shulchan Arukh and not in the Yoreh De'ah [two classical compilations of Jewish law]. What is written in the Torah and in rabbinical law is that it is forbidden to humiliate sons and daughters of Israel."

Like a deflated balloon, the man became quiet, and maintained his silence for the rest of the bus ride.

'Men's scorn for women'

"That people tell a woman to go to the back of the bus and repeat this like a mantra - 'Women to the back' - is outrageous," explained Horowitz a few hours later. "The man who shouted at me could have said gently, courteously, that this is a segregated bus. That women and men don't sit together. But he shouted again and again, 'Women to the back.' The expression 'to the back' shows that that's the main thing. The word [back] shows how much men scorn women. It's like in South Africa when the blacks were several rungs below the whites. And it's a huge blasphemy, to behave like that. The Torah strictly forbids us from behaving like that. It's called 'villainy invoking the Torah.'

"People cite all kinds of statements from the sages, and in that way cover their wickedness and hatred for women. And that is the worst of all, because women have not studied those things. And they don't know what is correct and what isn't."

The ride we had taken earlier from Jerusalem to Ashdod, on a bus on the same line, was quieter, but it was a tense quiet. A grim-faced Belz Hasid who sat in the front row fidgeted in discomfort for a long stretch of the way. With all his might he tried to attract the attention of the other Hasidic men on the bus to the phenomenon of Horowitz sitting immediately behind him, but the men sat down several seats away from him, apparently to create a space between Horowitz and themselves, and paid him no mind.

Finally the Hasid phoned someone whom he told loudly, in Yiddish, that "women of the maskil" ["enlightened"] sort are on this bus, and there is no telling them anything." He used a disparaging epithet that is more than 100 years-old, which echoes the hatred between Hasidim and young people who left religion in the context of the Enlightenment movement in Judaism. "Meshigga tzum toit," he complained in summation - "crazy as a loon."

When Horowitz later spoke on her phone in Yiddish, he learned to his apparent surprise that this woman was not in fact one of the "enlightened."

A week and a half ago, when a student named Tanya Rosenblit sat down in the front of a bus on that same line and male passengers called her a shiksa - an insulting term for a gentile woman - the country was in a tizzy.

When the passengers refused to continue to ride, as Rosenblit reported later on her Facebook page, the driver stopped the bus and called the police. But Rosenblit did not acquiesce to the policeman's pleas to move to the back, either.

After the incident, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the treatment of Rosenblit in a cabinet meeting, and she was even invited to meet with Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, who expressed shock, although he knows this is not a new situation. Rosenblit also received praise from at least two prominent female politicians, Culture and Sports Miniser Limor Livnat and opposition leader Kadima MK Tzipi Livni, and was anointed the standard-bearer of the struggle against ultra-Orthodox extremism.

With all due respect to Rosenblit, her move in no way compares to the stand taken by the ultra-Orthodox Horowitz. For the latter, a public protest with her name and picture appearing in the newspaper is something of a suicidal act, in which she risks being shunned and boycotted by her own community. It is she who is our real Rosa Parks, the black, American civil rights activist who in 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, risked her life by refusing to obey a bus driver's order to give up her seat to a white person and move to the back of the bus.

This is not the first time Horowitz has been shouted at and cursed at on the gender-segregated bus. Once she was even threatened with a beating. "I have something to lose but I am not afraid," she says, "because I tell the truth. And if anyone accuses me of blasphemy, I say to him: On the contrary, I am 'sanctifying the Holy Name' [an expression that in Hebrew can be a synonym for martyrdom]. I've done this so people won't say the Torah commands the scorning and humiliation of women."

The idea of the segregated bus lines originated in the Hasidic community - specifically, in the ultra-Orthodox compound in Ashdod. About 20 years ago a shared-taxi service operated between Jerusalem and Ashdod, whose main customers were large numbers of Gur Hasidim. When the men among them refused to sit next to women, the company began operating taxis for men only and for women only. Later private bus lines began offering similar services in ultra-Orthodox areas and when the public Egged bus company feared the trend would spread, it too began to offer segregated lines for the ultra-Orthodox.

This past January, the High Court of Justice, in a ruling written by Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, ruled that compulsory segregation is illegal, but left an opening for a bus' passengers to choose segregation if they so desire. Currently there are about 40 segregated Egged bus lines, both local and intercity, on which gender separation is enforced. To date, however, no one from within the ultra-Orthodox community has dared to say openly that the separation is a symptom of increasing extremism and that sending women to the back is discriminatory and humiliating. Mehadrin buses do not operate in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods where the majority is non-Hasidic or "Lithuanian" - places like Bayit Vegan and Har Nof in Jerusalem or the ultra-Orthodox town of Modi'in Ilit.

'What's so awful?'

Although there are elements in the ultra-Orthodox community who do not take a positive view of the segregation, the segregated lines have won the tacit agreement of the ultra-Orthodox community in general and its leaders; this includes leaders of the Lithuanian community although it doesn't implement the segregation policy.

Although in the wake of the Rosenblit incident, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger issued a condemnation of the practice, the ultra-Orthodox do not consider him a spiritual authority. In general, ultra-Orthodox women have never protested against the necessity of sitting at the back of the bus. When they are asked, many of them even declare their unreserved support for the separation.

Leah Shilitz, who until not long ago lived in the Ashdod Hasidic neighborhood, says she favors segregation, although she considers herself an "open ultra-Orthodox woman."

"When I was in my teens I rode the bus to the seminary every day and had very unpleasant experiences. As a mother, I am less worried when there is separation." Shilitz believes that anyone who chooses to board these buses has to respect the rules there, "because there is an alternative: regular bus lines. And you're already boarding the bus, what's so awful about taking a few steps to the back?"

"We aren't talking about walking distance," scoffs Horowitz in response, later on.

As we alighted from the bus in Kiryat Gur, in Ashdod, around us swarmed teenage girls who had just emerged from their single-sex school. "We're talking about an idea, a concept. About the fact that women are not marionettes. They have a body, a soul, a spirit. They have feelings. And a man is supposed to respect a woman more than his own body. The Rambam says something that is the basis of all peace in the home: 'He should honor her more than his own body, and love her like his own body,'" says Horowitz.

She says she is especially concerned about the influence of gender segregation on young boys. "They are taught that they are lords who sit in the front. And they learn from this that it is possible to relate to women as though they are garbage. But where have they themselves come from? Didn't women give birth to them? I come from a Beit Yaakov [ultra-Orthodox girls schooling network] education. But I have other insights, and in particular I can't stand injustice."

And she adds: "I became a feminist when I witnessed the oppression of women."

Horowitz is a tall woman of 51 with comely features. Her personality combines a rare openness with stricter observance of rabbinical law than many "regular" ultra-Orthodox people. In ultra-Orthodox society, which is accustomed to labeling and cataloging people according to their social and religious affiliation and pedigree, most probably they would attribute her difference to the fact that she is European-born.

Horowitz was born in France, the daughter of a devout ultra-Orthodox family. Her father was a French-born rabbi; her mother was a teacher at an ultra-Orthodox seminary for girls in England. She grew up in a small ultra-Orthodox bubble of a few families that gathered around the yeshiva which her father headed in a small town some 60 kilometers from Paris. It was a Lithuanian yeshiva established in the Novardok tradition, known for its strictness. But the community's girls studied in a relatively lenient atmosphere.

"We studied everything. Alongside sacred studies and lessons about modesty we studied French and mathematics. History. All around was open nature and forest. It was a wonderful childhood and my girlfriends and I were like sisters," she reminisces.

When she was 13 her beloved father died, and her family immigrated to Israel. She was sent to the Rabbi Wolf seminary in Bnei Brak, but did not acclimate to the society of the Israeli girls there. After a year, she transferred to the Beit Yaakov seminary in Manchester.

Horowitz: "We mainly had Jewish studies: Torah, Prophets, morality, worldview and prayer. We loved it, because we had wonderful teachers. There were girls from Denmark, Russia, Belgium, France and of course England, and I tutored some of them because they had come from homes where they hadn't done Jewish studies.

"We were taught mostly by rabbis, and the director was a Gur Hasid. They instilled in us the idea that a woman has to be subordinate to a man and be a good wife. This was strong brainwashing, and it had an influence on me."

Horowitz married at the age of 17, in an arranged match with a boy from the extreme wing of Neturei Karta - an extreme Hasidic sect known for its opposition to Zionism. She has four children, all of whom were educated at Yiddish-speaking institutions. About a decade ago, she and her husband divorced, and she subsequently remarried.

Over the years Horowitz has worked as a lactation counselor for the women of Mea She'arim. She dismisses those who say that seating women in the rear of bus is designed to make it easier for them to nurse modestly: "Anyone who is nursing [already] knows to go to the back. She does this quietly. But I don't think that women tend to nurse on the bus. Usually there are screaming babies on a bus. In any case, that isn't a reason to put the women in the back like sheep and cattle. You have to rely on women's intelligence and their common sense."

Making do with little

We are at the gate of the Gur seminary in Ashdod, in the heart of the Hasidic compound, on the heels of the girls. From inside the building come the sounds of a well-known march and drumming. The neighborhood was founded in 1978 by the Rabbi Simcha Bunim, the father of the current rebbe of Gur. Bunim wanted to send the young married yeshiva students outside of Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, where the apartments are cheaper, out of an ideology of learning to make do with little. Some people say he also wanted his disciples to live in mixed cities.

"He wasn't afraid of outside influences," says a Gur Hasid who prefers to remain anonymous.

During the years that followed, however, all of ultra-Orthodox society went through a process of barricading itself into sectors and of separation. Today the complex in Ashdod is the largest concentration of Gur Hasidim in the country, numbering thousands of families. It looks like a small city and is totally cut off Ashdod.

"The man is the spiritual 'boss' in the home," says Horowitz, in reply to my question about why women accept segregation as something taken for granted. "Men who don't respect women - [which is] not all of them, of course - tend to use all kinds of sayings from the sages to shut their mouths. In general, women have become accustomed to seeing themselves as creatures without an opinion, because the man knows everything. They don't believe in themselves. And apart from that, it's against the rules of modesty [for women] to 'unite' against rules made by the men. If they do, they will be called derogatory names: spoiled, impertinent, rebellious.

"In ultra-Orthodox society, it's customary to think that woman are not worthy of being leaders," explains Horowitz, raising her voice as we peek in through the door to the seminary, where we hear the march playing. A wedding march, apparently.

"But it's a fact," she goes on, referring to the Bible, "that Judith did a brave deed when she went out on Hanukkah to the military camp to kill the Syrian general Holofernes and saved the Jewish people. And Deborah was a judge. It wasn't customary for women to hold public positions then. So why did these women become leaders? Because there wasn't anyone else of stature. In Deborah's case, it never occurred to the wise men to choose a man as a judge in her place simply because he was a man. Also on the issue of separation, it can be said that if there isn't anyone else who will protest, then I am protesting."

Inside the school the girls are rehearsing for the Hanukkah party. They march in lines, in their school uniforms, waving British flags to the music. A woman graciously invites us to the party, the following day.

There is something pleasant in the atmosphere at the seminary. Many years ago

I studied at a Gur seminary. The director would stand at the gate every morning. Anyone who was dressed in accordance with the rules of modesty was let in and anyone who was dressed in a way he didn't like was sent home.

I wonder aloud what price ultra-Orthodox girls pay for the constant discussion of their clothing and their adherence to strict dress codes. Horowitz, who is dressed like they are, doesn't see modesty as being restrictive. But, she adds, the ideas that attribute spiritual authority to men and belittle women are a product of the education of girls in the ultra-Orthodox sector.

"I am acting because I can't stand to see other women humiliated," she says before we part. "They have been educated to exist with their eyes closed and I say that where there isn't a man, try to be a woman," smiling, as she paraphrases Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers ). "I don't, heaven forbid, have any interest in provocation. But I hope that what happened today will happen every day. At first, one woman will sit in the front of the bus and then a second one will join her and then a third will come. That gradually everything will return to normal, and that people will learn to relate to women."

As she alights from the bus in Jerusalem, a tall and noble figure, it is already getting dark

Chabad Pray to an Empty Chair, and North Koreans Weep and Pray at escalator used by Kim Jing il, so what's the difference?

Now watch Chabadnikers praying to an empty chair

Here is a video secretly taped of Chabad Lubavitch frum Jews worshiping the now long dead Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. HERE THEY MEN AND BOYS ARE HOLDING A CUP, WALKING WHERE THE REBBE ONCE SAT, BOWING TO HIS EMPTY CHAIR, AND SINGING SONGS OF THE MESSIAH. WATCH AS THEY BOW TO THE EMPTY CHAIR !!!! THEN THEY MAKE A BLESSING ON THE WINE AS IF THE REBBE POURED IT FOR THEM.

Frum Jews Burn pottery 2,500 - 3,000 years old at archeological site!

Antiquities Authority estimates that irreversible damage to artifacts was caused by ultra-Orthodox vandals!

Unidentified vandals have severely damaged an archeological site near the northern town of Afula on Thursday.

A receptacle containing equipment and antique artifacts was torched in the incident.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) estimated that ultra-Orthodox individuals are behind the hostile act.The IAA said that there have been several confrontations recently over the site, which was damaged in the construction of a nearby bypass.

The police said they have launched a joint investigation with the fire department, but have yet to apprehend any suspects.

                                                Torched container (Photo courtesy of the IAA)

On Wednesday, a riot took place in another northern dig, which is being conducted prior to the expansion of Highway 65 in the area; members of the haredi group Atra Kadisha disrupted the archeologists' work after they were informed they cannot loiter there.

Barshad said that the incident was indicative of a wider trend.

"Every time that we confront the haredim in one site, they go damage another site," he said. "(…) If we don't do exactly as they please, they harm archeological digs."

Among the artifacts that were burnt was pottery that was used between the Israelite and Persian periods (1,000-500 BC).

"The damage erased several lines from our history books," Dror Barshad, an IAA archeologist, said.

"Beyond the financial damage, which is estimated at tens of thousands of shekels, the incident has caused irreversible damage… that will prevent us from completing the puzzle of the settlement sequence in the region."

from Ynetnews

Jewish Brooklyn Cafe Owner Joshua Rubin Murdered!

A 30-year-old Brooklyn cafe owner who mysteriously vanished on Halloween was identified by authorities yesterday as the man found shot to death and burned in the woods of eastern Pennsylvania on Nov. 1, the following morning.

 Joshua Rubin — whose body was only recently identified through DNA and dental tests — opened the Whisk Bakery Cafe on Newkirk Avenue a month before disappearing.

A day or two after his body was found near Allentown, his credit card was used at the Woodbury Commons retail outlets in Orange County, NY, sources told The Post.

“I’m devastated. He was a wonderful guy,” said Jan Rosenberg, the real-estate broker who handled the cafe lease for Rubin. “He just seemed like an open, sweet, loving guy with a lot of energy to do this project.”

But a month before opening the cafe, “actually running it began to seem overwhelming” to Rubin, said Rosenberg.

Rubin, who was diabetic, also recently was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she said.

New York law-enforcement sources said they believe Rubin was shot near the location where his body was set afire.

There are no suspects in the murder of Rubin, who lived in Kensington.

A man at the home of Rubin’s mother in Rhode Island declined comment.

New York Post

Chanukah Miracle! Lauren Weinberg, Jewish Missing Arizona State Student Survived On Melted Snow, Candy Bars, After Being Stranded In Her Car For 10 Days

PHOENIX -- An Arizona State University student packed a water bottle with snow and let it melt under the sun for drinking water while she was stranded for more than a week, authorities said Wednesday after the 23-year-old was discovered in a remote area of east-central Arizona.


Lauren Weinberg was last seen leaving her mother's home in south Phoenix on Dec. 11 and told authorities she became stuck in the snow a day later, Coconino County sheriff's spokesman Gerry Blair. Two U.S. Forest Service employees on snowmobiles found her Wednesday about 45 miles southeast of Winslow while they were checking if gates on forest roads were closed.


"I am so thankful to be alive and warm," Weinberg said through a spokeswoman at the Flagstaff Medical Center, where she was taken. "Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers, because they worked. There were times I was afraid but mostly I had faith I would be found."


Other than being cold, hungry and thirsty, Weinberg was in good condition, lucid and speaking coherently, Blair said.


The undergraduate student was driving around with no specific destination, Blair said, when she drove south from Winslow toward the Mogollon Rim – a prominent line of cliffs that divides the state's high country from the desert.


The paved road turned into a dirt road. Weinberg stopped her vehicle at a fence line and when she attempted to move a gate she found that it was stuck in the snow, according to Blair. Soon, her car was stuck as well.


Weinberg had two candy bars with her and told a sheriff's deputy that she put snow in a water bottle and placed it atop the sedan she was driving so it would melt, Blair said. She wasn't prepared for the winter conditions and did not have a heavy coat or blankets, Blair said.


Weather forecasters and authorities said her survival was remarkable, given the more than 2 feet of snow in the area and temperatures that dipped to near zero some of the nights. Blair said Weinberg had a cellphone but the battery was dead.


"It's pretty harrowing that she'd been there since the 12th in an area that's totally foreign to her," he said. "We're certainly very happy that we found her, and we found her alive."


A strong winter storm hit the area the day Weinberg became stranded and hung around for two more days, followed by even colder temperatures, said Chris Outler of the National Weather Service in Flagstaff. Daytime temperatures in the town of Heber, about 20 miles to the northeast, were in the mid- to low-30s over the past 10 days.


Phoenix police told local TV station KTVK that Weinberg had purchased items at convenience stores in Chandler, Superior and Show Low on Dec. 11 and in Holbrook the following day, but there was no other sign of her since then.


Weinberg, who is studying supply chain management, missed her final examinations at school, and her family was concerned because her behavior was out of the ordinary, police told the station.


Weinberg disappeared less than a week after an elderly New Mexico couple took a wrong turn and got stranded on a remote forest road in eastern Arizona. They survived two winter storms over five days before the woman collapsed and died as they tried to hike to safety.


"She's very lucky," Outler said of Weinberg.

Hip Hop Chanukah song composed by Senator Orrin Hatch

Eight Days of Hanukkah from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

Satmar and Reform Jews both support Obama's anti-Israel policy!

In my last post I clearly demonstrated Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum's, Satmar Rebbi, outrage at Republicans and Orthodox Jews that are pro Israel and upset at Obama's anti-Israel stance toward Israel....
Now read a report that clearly demonstrates that Reform Jews have the same Satmar opinion of Obama and his anti Israel stance.

This week President Obama took his “Hey I really don’t hate Israel” tour to the 71st General Assembly of the Union for Reform Judaism. The Reform movement’s attachment to Israel (cultural rather than theological) and itsprogressive bent made this an ideal location for Obama’s attempts to make Jewish Americans to forget his anti-Israel policies of the past three years.

The first part of Obama’s speech was an outline of the progressive policies he enacted. And each one was greeted with applause.

As in introduction to his talk he put the Torah on the same level as a Broadway Play:

And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from [my daughter, who has begun attending Bar/Bat Mitzvahs], it’s that it never hurts to begin a speech by discussing the Torah portion. It doesn’t hurt.

So this week congregations around the world will retell the story of Joseph.  As any fan of Broadway musicals will tell you — there is a lot going on in this reading.

Nice–instead of talking about the Torah as sacred text, he relates it to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Obama then went into a list of his progressive accomplishments–each greeted with applause from the progressively-inclined audience. Finally, he got to Israel:

I have never wavered in pursuit of a just and lasting peace — two states for two peoples; an independent Palestine alongside a secure Jewish State of Israel. (Applause.) I have not wavered and will not waver. That is our shared vision. (Applause.)

Secure, Jewish State of Israel? Obama’s mismanagement of the “Arab Spring” has damaged the security of Israel. He helped push out Mubarak and turned Egypt over to the radical Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. He has supported Lebanon’s Hizballah-dominated regime and has remained silent about Lebanon’s breaking of the treaty which ended its most recent war with Israel.

Obama has supported the radical Islamists who took over Libya,  and listens to the advice of Islamist-governed Turkey, while accepting their anti-Israel stance. Is that what he means by “secure Jewish state of Israel?”

How can one have unshakable support for Israel’s security when one is helping to destroy its security environment?

This is the President who has placed one-sided demands on Israel regarding the Palestinians. Not once has he demanded that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish State. Not once.

Now, I know that many of you share my frustration sometimes, in terms of the state of the peace process. There’s so much work to do. But here’s what I know –- there’s no question about how lasting peace will be achieved. Peace can’t be imposed from the outside. Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them. (Applause.)

But according to this president, Israel must concede returning to the 1949 armistice lines before negotiations. And Israel (alone) must get to the “damn” negotiating table already. And the leadership of Reform Judaism applauds anyway.

And the fact that peace is hard can’t deter us from trying. Because now more than ever, it’s clear that a just and lasting peace is in the long-term interests of Israel. It is in the long-term interests of the Palestinian people. It is in the interest of the region. It is the interest of the United States, and it is in the interest of the world. And I am not going to stop in pursuit of that vision. It is the right thing to do. (Applause.)

Now, that vision begins with a strong and secure State of Israel. (Applause.) And the special bonds between our nations are ones that all Americans hold dear because they’re bonds forged by common interests and shared values. They’re bonds that transcend partisan politics — or at least they should. (Applause.)

This is President Obama echoing the appeal of the ADL and the AJCongress that Jews don’t complain about Obama’s anti-Israel policy, and that Republicans should not be allowed to bring it up. And the leaders of the Reform movement and the Satmar Rebbi apparently agree with President Obama that Jews should put their heads in the sand and shut up. (Or applaud.)

We stand with Israel as a Jewish democratic state because we know that Israel is born of firmly held values that we, as Americans, share: a culture committed to justice, a land that welcomes the weary, a people devoted to tikkun olam. (Applause.)

So America’s commitment — America’s commitment and my commitment to Israel and Israel’s security is unshakeable. It is unshakeable. (Applause.)

I said it in September at the United Nations. I said it when I stood amid the homes in Sderot that had been struck by missiles: No nation can tolerate terror. And no nation can accept rockets targeting innocent men, women and children. No nation can yield to suicide bombers. (Applause.)

Does he mean not yield–like he did by leaving Iraq against the wishes of his most senior generals? Or does he mean not yielding to terrorists–like his administration encourages Israel to do when it criticizes the Jewish state’s blockade of Gaza?

And as Ehud has said, it is hard to remember a time when the United States has given stronger support to Israel on its security. In fact, I am proud to say that no U.S. administration has done more in support of Israel’s security than ours. None. Don’t let anybody else tell you otherwise. It is a fact. (Applause.)

Stronger support? And the leaders of the Reform movement are eating it up!

Do they forget the recent indecent when President Nicolas Sarkozy ripped into Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and Obama replied, “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you”?

Perhaps they don’t remember that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently compared the Jewish State to Islamic Republic of Iran–or that US Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman blamed the Jewish state for the outbreak of Muslim-animated anti-Semitism in Europe.

That doesn’t sound like support to me.

I’m proud that even in these difficult times we’ve fought for and secured the most funding for Israel in history. I’m proud that we helped Israel develop a missile defense system that’s already protecting civilians from rocket attacks. (Applause.)

And how about the part where he broke an agreement between the United States and Israel about the construction of new housing units in existing communities is Judea and Samaria? Shhh–don’t share truth with the leaders of the Reform movement; it seems they are not interested.

Another grave concern -– and a threat to the security of Israel, the United States and the world -– is Iran’s nuclear program. And that’s why our policy has been absolutely clear: We are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. (Applause.) And that’s why we’ve worked painstakingly from the moment I took office with allies and partners, and we have imposed the most comprehensive, the hardest-hitting sanctions that the Iranian regime has ever faced. We haven’t just talked about it, we have done it. And we’re going to keep up the pressure. (Applause.)

Here’s the other thing President Obama hasn’t just talked about: when the Senate passed a measure imposing harsher sanctions against Iran, Obama threatened veto.  Even Democratic Party senators expressed frustration that the administration had not moved fast enough to curtail financing of Iran’s nuclear activities:“Given what appears to be a shortening timeline until Iran has a potential nuclear weapon, it would seem that we are not doing enough fast enough,” said coauthor Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

The Reform movement’s belief in Obama’s anti-Israel policy is based on two things.

First–its strong affiliation with domestic progressive politics.  Earlier in the convention, the movement passed aneconomic platform that would make the most hardcore progressive proud.

Second–theologically, Reform Judaism does not proclaim the same connection with Israel as Conservative and Orthodox Jews. Its association is mainly cultural (and the Reform movement even once opposed Zionism.)

While the other Jewish “flavors” believe that the eventual return to Israel by all Jews (in a messianic age) is an essential part of their faith, the leadership of the Reform movement believes in the vital importance of Israel as a Jewish homeland–a refuge for a persecuted people, but not a theological necessity.

Reform theology does not believe there will be a Third Temple in Jerusalem. That’s why Reform synagogues are called temples. The vast majority of Conservative synagogues, and all Orthodox ones, believe that the only place that can be called a Temple will be on top of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.

Many Reform congregations do not face Jerusalem when they pray; all Conservative and Orthodox Shuls do. Reform Judaism has removed direct references to the Temple in its prayer books (although some indirect or ambiguous references remain such as “Happy are those who dwell in your House”, Psalm 84:5).

Between its progressive bent and its very lose affiliation with Israel, President Obama was preaching to the choir as he defended his anti-Israel policies to the the to the 71st General Assembly of the Union for Reform Judaism.

The bottom line: if Obama supplied Hamas with rockets, the leadership of the Reform movement would still vote for him.

Satmar Rebbi, condemns GOP and Orthodox Jews who are Pro-Israel and who "insult" Obama

"When GOP presidential candidates make increasingly strong pro-Israel statements, and some Orthodox Jewish activists applaud them, saying this is the only way they can win Orthodox votes, it gives the world the wrong impression of Orthodox Jews.” Aaron Teitelbaum, Satmar Rebbi

Can you imagine? Satmar Rebbe criticising Frum Jews who want the President to be Pro-Israel?

Read politickerny.com for more of his distorted way of thinking!politickerny.com


Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, the Satmar Grand Rabbi in Brooklyn, told a gathering of 30,000 of his followers on Saturday night that religious Jews should condemn those who “insult” President Barack Obama.

“Recently, certain self-appointed Jewish leaders have gotten up and insulted the President in the worst way, their words have been broadcast on the radio and television and all the media, why should Jews come out in public with statements like these?” the Rabbi said in remarks at the New York State Armory in Crown Heights, according to a release from the Central Rabbinical Organization. “It’s forbidden by the Torah to do so, it provokes the nations to hate us, and it brings danger upon Jews not only here but all over the globe, who knows what the effects of this irresponsible behavior could be? Therefore it is our obligation to make known that religious Jewry is completely opposed to these self-appointed leaders, we pray every day for our country and we bless its leaders with success in all their efforts to bring peace to the world.”

The gathering is held annually to celebrate the founding of the Satmar Grand Rabbi.

In the release, Rabbi Shmiel Weider, a Satmar activist who attended the gathering, explained that part of the context of the rabbi’s remarks was due to the victory of Bob Turner over David Weprin in a heavily Jewish area of Brooklyn and Queens, a victory that was spurred on by Jewish leaders like Ed Koch.

“The rabbi was reacting to recent events such as the special election in New York’s 9th district – a heavily Orthodox Jewish and Democratic-voting area – in which Republican Bob Turner won, Pro-Israel politicians wish to claim that the vote showed Jewish displeasure with President Obama’s Mideast policies,” he said. “And when GOP presidential candidates make increasingly strong pro-Israel statements, and some Orthodox Jewish activists applaud them, saying this is the only way they can win Orthodox votes, it gives the world the wrong impression of Orthodox Jews.”

The remarks come as the battle over the Jewish vote has heated up in anticipation of 2012.

Time Magazines "Person of the Year" has a history of giving that honor to Anti-semites & Murderers!

In 1938: Adolf Hitler

In 1939 and then again in 1942: Joseph Stalin

In 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini

And now in 2011 they put the face of an Arab Lady to represent
THE PROTESTER

Time lauded the generic "protester" as its fabulous person, presumably including the misogynistic Jew-haters who sexually attacked Lara Logan in Cairo's Tahrir Square. And the Occupy Wall Street miscreants who cost taxpayers millions of dollars, as some engaged in alleged rape, robbery and drug use. Way to go, Time!

North Koreans weeping hysterically over the death of the murderer Kim Jong il! Video!