This is unbelievable . . .
Arab guilty of rape after consensual sex with Jew | World news | The Guardian.
The story of passover, Pesach, will be told at Jewish homes around the world tomorrow evening and the evening afterwards. As a young child, I was likely more excited to see my cousins. I don’t know that I grasped or truly considered the story of Passover and what it meant. I have children. In spite of rules to the contrary, I bear there names on my body . . . their names are in a circle — they are my circle of life. They are my family — my “mishpacha”:
משפחה
I bear that word beneath their names . . .
The story of Passover is a story of our fight, the fight of my people, my ancestors and forefathers, from Abraham and Isaac to Rachel and Sarah and for centuries beyond to fight and overcome those who are out to hurt us. I have fought many battles . . . I will continue.
On Passover, I hope that my children remember that through history we have overcome adversity. As it is written in Deuteronomy 20:
When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. Whenyou are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. He shall say: “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not beterrified or give way to panic before them. For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.
Amen.
This ought to be a great event –
Please mark your calendar for the event with Frankie Meeink at the Holocaust Memorial Center at 7:30 P.M. on Thursday, April 22nd. There is no charge for this event. Mr. Meeink will discuss his book “Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead” which is a raw telling of his descent intoAmerica’s Nazi underground and ultimate triumph over hatred and addiction. It starts with his violent childhood in South Philadelphia where is primed to hate and by 18 he is doing hard time in an Illinois prison. Behind bars he questions his hatred when his African American football teammates become his friends. The story of Frank Meeink’s downfall and redemption and has the power to open hearts and change lives. – (Betsy Kellman, ADL-Michigan Chapter)
Put this in the better late than never category… I just wish that it hadn’t taken so many bombs from Gaza and so many innocent lives to be lost for someone to sit up and take notice …
After I moved from Detroit to West Bloomfield, the landmarks of my youth changed. Exit Dexter and Davison, the old grocery store haunt of my youth. Enter Maple and Orchard Lake Road. That corner of West Bloomfield was one of the landmarks of my youth . . . in many ways, similar to Tally Hall and Maple and Telegraph, to name a few. I could describe every nook, store, sign . . . it was at this shopping center corner that I purchased my Bar Mitzvah suit although (shame on me) I cannot remember the name of the store. When I returned from my family vacation on Saturday, January 3, 2009, I was confronted with a difficult reality — that landmark of my youth had been used by people who were protesting against Jews and Israel. I was stunned, offended and angered.
I remembered something else from my youth and studies as a youngster, the KKK march on Skokie, Illinois. A predominantly Jewish suburb, the KKK deliberately eschewed marching in some backwater town in its comfort zone to instead “spit in the face of the Jewish community” by marching and bringing their hatred and vitriol to a Jewish neighborhood. As I watched a video of the demonstrators chanting “Kill the Jews” less than 100 yards from a kosher bakery and the storefront where I bought the suit in which I’d become a Jewish “adult man”, I was stunned. I thought of Skokie. How I longed for my radio show to try and express my outrage . . . to take the corner back, so to speak.
On Sunday, January 4, 2009, the next day, I was given that chance by some dear friends who organized a Pro-Israel rally for that very corner. Despite an overwhelming amount of work, I attended . . . in the rain, sleet and cold. The cold and wet weather did nothing to extinguish the fire in our bellies as made signs, waived flags, donned hats and shirts in support of Israel. Soon the rally grew. We were joined by others. Jews. Chaldeans. Christians. Soon professional signs showed up. Bagels. Coffee. Cookies. A television camera showed and interviewed me . . . even though I was not the event organizer, I was proud to speak and represent the bunch. I hoped that my words would match our spirit and the passion of those who started the rally. To represent them and Israel was an honor.
I thought of my people, not just the Jews who were there but the Chaldeans too. I spoke for them as well hoping that I wouldn’t let their commitment to this cause down.
I thought of my youth, about that corner and what it meant that of all the places the pro Hamas organizers could have selected to chant they selected this area.
And I thought of Skokie. I thought of those Jews then forced to surrender their corner to those who were chanting for their death. I looked out over the corner that Sunday and I felt the pride that someone somewhere must feel in a turf war. This was our corner. This is our neighborhood. We are taking it back! And guess what . . . we did!
Posted in Israel, jewish history, Metro Detroit Law Issues
Tagged Israel, Jewish History, Judaism, Personal, Politics, Rockind, rockweiler
During the holiday of Passover, my family recites a passage during the service which includes the phrase, “Israel, my people, G-d’s greatest riddle, will your secret ever be told?” The passage is beautiful and challenging questioning how it is that we Jews have been able to withstand centuries and millenia of brutality, anti-semitism, torture, murder and terror and yet here we still are in both the disapora and, to the chagrin of our enemies, the proud residents of the state of Israel. Today, again, we are under attack from forces discussed and talked about and some overlooked.
Hamas, the terrorist group who desire to push all of us Jews into the sea and return the Western Wall and Kotel, the holiest site in Judaism that the Israeli’s have kept open, sacred and safe (just as they have the Christian, Armenian, Greek Orthodox and Moslem holy sites), to the alley way and garbage dump that it was pre-1968.
To this day, Hamas maintains, not just in its charter, but as a key component of its policies, the destruction of the state of Israel. A key tool of its trade was the suicide bomber . . . that is until they discovered that smuggling Qassam rockets that can be shot from afar, terrorize the Israeli’s all the while saving a Hamas fighter from certain suicide death is better. The Israeli people, whose will has never been broken, again found themselves under attack . . . an attack from the air. For months, the Israeli’s tolerate these acts of terror — not knowing when you leave your home whether you’re going to have to find a nearby bomb shelter because of a recently fired Qassam. As a young parent, I used to feel terrorized by the unpredictability of my infants’ nighttime crying . . . I’d settle in and hear a cry . . . she’d get quiet and then I’d wait for another cry and then settle in thinking that she was asleep only to be startled by an untimely, unpredictable outburst. Awake I’d lay . . . nerves on edge . . . wondering when the next cry would come. Of course, it was just crying and only my nerves and a nights sleep were at risk. The thought of the terror of not knowing when and where a Qassam rocket will fall is to me nervewracking alone . . . let alone having to experience the actual random rocket attacks themselves. The terrorists know this and realize that by firing Qassam they either kill innocent Israeli’s/Jews or, worst case scenario, at least cause them terror. They are raining down Qassam terror rockets on Israel as I am writing and you are reading this blog. Thre is an insightful website and Facebook tool, (www.qassamcount.com/fb), that highlights how many Qassam were fired today, etc. I won’t relive the stastitics here for there are far better websites to gain that sort of data but suffice it to say that Israel is attempting to put an end to the rocket terror now. It is this fact, the reason that Israel is again forced to sacrifice its youth in a fight with Hamas terrorists that once again is obliterated by the mainstream media. While I have no doubt that Israel will survive the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah and Co., I fear the mainstream media’s poisonous pen and vitriol more.
MSNBC, CNN, ad infinitum, ad nauseam and their talking heads, Christian Amanpour and Rachel Maddow, for example, treat the Qasam rocket fire as an afterthought. In many ways, after displaying horrific images of injured Arab children and bloody hospital floors and repeating with spittal afiring that “to date the Israeli incursion has seen 600 Palestinian civilian casualties”, the stations mention almost like a fast rolling credit to “the 2nd camerman” after an episode of your favorite TV show that Hamas fired rockets into Israel today. The fact that the rocket fire is mentioned as though it were an afterthought or an annoying fact that they just have to conclude is what I fear most. Again, the media acts as though the rocket fire means nothing. You get the sense that they’d rather not to have mention it at all for mentioning the rocket fire just takes up time from other stories.?? It is this form of revisionism and ignorance, the kind that cause the world’s leaders to condemn Israel, that frustrates me the most. Why? Because I expect little to nothing from Hamas and the Palestinians. I expect unfairness, brutaliy, unreasonability and insensitivity. I never allow myself even for a second to be disillusioned about their intentions or loyalties. While the foreign powers, those who condemn Israel but who cough when mentioning the Qassam rocket terror as if to drown it out (like we used to do when we were children and we were coughing over a word), continue to drink the proverbial koolaid served up by Hamas, etc., I expect Hamas will do anything to harm Israel and the Jewish people. Since they believe that those who die fighting the Jews and Israel are martyred and secured a place in heaven, I know that they will sacrifice and martyr civilians, mosques, children, women and the elderly by using them as human shields. By doing so, Hamas can create more images for the media, more reasons for the UN to condemn Israel, more foreign leaders to chastise Israel and more media to portray Israel as brutal monsters. I can only imagine the conversations with the “shields”:
Sir, stand here . . . you will become a symbol of the cause and go to heaven and help us drive the infidel Jews into the sea. Of course, you will be dead and your children will be crippled but you’ll be a martyr. Please sir, move closer to this spot. . . thank you.
I fear the media more because they have the capacity with every carefully chosen phrase and intonation to shape how the story is understood and heard by millions of people. How can so few people know about the Qassam? Israel’s courage and retraint for years as the Qassam were fired into Israel? The pain of the parents of Gilad Shalit, a soldier captured and held in captivity in Gaza by Hamas extremists? Ask around . . . most people, due to media coverage of the conflict today just “know” that “Israel’s boming is killing civilians”, “there is a humanitarian crisis because of Israel”, etc. They are being taught that Israel is “disproportionately responding” (whatever that means). It is this type of propoganda that scares me the most. When locally, here in Michigan, a pro Hamas demonstration is organized to take place in a deeply Jewish area and not one member of the media mentions or challenges the action as deliberately inciteful or insulting to the Jewish community, something is amiss.
Rockets are a form of sword but remember . . . the pen is mightier than the sword.
