tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50676318933683863692024-03-05T11:15:28.523+02:00Chadash Asur min haTorahLampooning the haredi weeklies of ק"ק Bet ShemeshChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-47191046695938918842012-01-07T22:34:00.002+02:002012-01-07T22:36:49.656+02:00ChadashAsur - not the most offensive blogger in town<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rav Malinowitz's infamous (and quite <a href="http://www.btya.org/?p=1390">public</a>) blogpost certainly has a good point about the press taking advantage of the Orot / Bet Shemesh situation for its own evil purposes. ChadashAsur <a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2011/12/lets-get-exploited.html">ranted</a> about the same thing right before the Chanuka demonstration.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">There's a lot to be said about the rest of Rav Malinowitz's blogpost, but Rav Lipman has <a href="http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/2012/01/nerve.html">already made short work of it</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">ChadashAsur, with all his cynicism and politically-incorrectness, still expects a minimum of propriety from those purporting to lead our communities and educate our children, at least slightly more than on this blog. And when a rabbi posts this kind writing style on a shul's website, and the laypeople don't show him the door and find someone more appropriate for the job, then it is usually time to find a new shul president. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Rav Malinowitz - if you want to take over Chadash Asur instead of your shteller - it's all yours, and apparently a lot closer to your true calling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">And we haven't forgotten part-one of your two-part Chodosh piece, in which you drew some twisted moral equivalence between the thugs at Orot ('protestors' as you prefer to call them) and the school itself, promising to explan further in part two. And then begging off part two because it was too close to Rosh Hashanah. Glad to see that the situation got bad enough for you to issue a statement nonetheless.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So much for you. At least we'll always have <a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2011/02/matrimonial-economics-101.html">Steinzaltz</a>.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/77484788/Sucker-Punched" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px Helvetica, Arial, Sans-serif; margin: 12px auto 6px; text-decoration: underline;" title="View Sucker Punched on Scribd">Sucker Punched</a><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.772727272727273" data-auto-height="true" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_89839" scrolling="no" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/77484788/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list&access_key=key-1xo01yen603ed12usm2g" width="100%"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-24568837623261612502011-12-31T23:26:00.002+02:002012-01-01T19:17:41.361+02:00Yated Neeman: Lutheran Interlude<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ChadashAsur is still trying to calm down after <a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2011/12/lets-get-exploited.html">that post on the genesis of last week's mega-protest</a>...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some interesting items on the front page of Friday's Yated Neeman, that old watchdog of Litvish monolithism that still manages some international news. Have a look:</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeyCYFk5B4p2JTyxLBmI8DgLVboDR5vLEfYw9TAP5fwOPBkmDFf9B7i2PPeWt-0U-pbvPVf27zXaMszn8MzApri7znC692f8dgI6FHrS4agDmN0t_6Sle6k28fttbsRoflLBZ2wI88Jd9X/s1600/yated+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeyCYFk5B4p2JTyxLBmI8DgLVboDR5vLEfYw9TAP5fwOPBkmDFf9B7i2PPeWt-0U-pbvPVf27zXaMszn8MzApri7znC692f8dgI6FHrS4agDmN0t_6Sle6k28fttbsRoflLBZ2wI88Jd9X/s640/yated+001.jpg" width="465" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Click to enlarge</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">On top we have R' Elyashiv's condemnation of the competition - Mishpocho's new free weekly edition. Just imagine if Maariv could issue an issur against buying Yediot and Haaretz - Nimrodi wouldn't have had to go to all that trouble of getting a hit man to knock off the other editors (<a href="http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%A9%D7%AA_%D7%A0%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%93%D7%99_%D7%91%27">allegedy</a>). If you were wondering, Mishpocho wrote a whole page about how they consult with מרנן ורבנן גדולי ישראל before writing anything - but neglected to mention any of these Geonim by name, for fear of harming their kids' shidduch score.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">On the bottom we have a long kvetch about the blood libel against the Cursing Avrech of Jerusalem. Well, Yated uses the verb העיר, which is somewhere between "mentioned" and "corrected". Not worth much of ChadashAsur's time, since all the haredi papers carried that opinion piece on Friday in some form or another. Ho hum.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">What did catch my eye was the red-on-black honorable mention given to Reform Rabbi (ראביי) Uri Regev, who is quoted as saying "Our Only Hope: The New Haredim Who Will Lead into a New Era". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Now, cautioning the flock that חדש אסור מן התורה is, er, nothing new around here. But the use of Regev, that present-day reincarnation of the arch-Hellenist Zeus-worshipping High Priest Menelaus, makes ChadashAsur pause and think. And what I think is that the Gaons of Yated must be getting paranoid about forward thinking and seditious trends among the readership. Otherwise, using the Reform Rabbi nuke would be a little disproportionate. Well I hope they have good reason to be afraid but I think it will take more than Ynet's efforts to sell more newspapers to introduce any widespread social changes in RBS Bet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Oh, and Chodosh was interesting this week as well, but it was adequately covered by HGHR"N Slifkin over at <a href="http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2011/12/charedi-reaction.html">Rationalist Judaism</a>. That is, when he wasn't <a href="http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2011/12/was-eisav-vampire.html">calling Eisav a vampire</a> and wondering if <a href="http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2011/12/was-rachel-imeinu-killed-by-werewolf.html">Rochel Imenu was eaten by a werewolf</a>.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk1_5IxhBk_7pdLvwKxzvDbD8YTJABG39Uvv8SKzfbhBLtoiaYwu0ji_umwKhLMMmN5mzy-K4L34s8UB8Ykc_x4LmecziudioEWHWhjb3rasiyYIKnV_UYvs-JhQ_gCFGAWzcLM02TF_T5/s1600/photo+%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk1_5IxhBk_7pdLvwKxzvDbD8YTJABG39Uvv8SKzfbhBLtoiaYwu0ji_umwKhLMMmN5mzy-K4L34s8UB8Ykc_x4LmecziudioEWHWhjb3rasiyYIKnV_UYvs-JhQ_gCFGAWzcLM02TF_T5/s640/photo+%25281%2529.JPG" width="476" /></a></div>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-83528688570350679862011-12-27T00:39:00.001+02:002011-12-27T00:52:16.252+02:00Let's get exploited<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Lots of us have been wondering why thousands of secular Israelis will be descending upon Bet Shemesh </span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/221443644600973/">Tuesday evening</a></span><span style="font-size: small;">. After all, there were more tzadikim in Sodom than there are Ashkenazi chilonim in contemporary Bet Shemesh (not including undercover chassidish crypto-non-believers). So, 24 hours before the dubious reinforcements arrive, ChadashAsur takes you behind the scenes at the conception of the </span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/269199806471091/">Thousands of Israelis Will Protect Naama facebook group</a></span><span style="font-size: small;">.</span></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: small;">The conversation that probably <u>didn't</u> happen: </span></b></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">"Yooo, look at that adorable 7 year-old Naama trying to walk with her mommy to the neighborhood wholesome traditional school being oppressed by libidinous older men. Let's get together to show our support for such a likeable community. They are really the future of the Jewish people and this is the time to stand with them and show those charedim that their misguided form of Judaism won't stand in the way of our National Religious brethren."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Naaaa. ChadashAsur wasn't convinced either! Let's try again.</span></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: small;">Another conversation that probably <u>didn't</u> happen: </span></b></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">"Can you believe what is happening in Bet Shemesh? Separate busses, separate sidewalks, Taliban women, disregard for the rule of law, and now going after little kids? I tell you, Bet Shemesh today, Jerusalem tomorrow, and Ramat Aviv the next day. At the rate these charedim breed, I honestly fear that by the next Sylvester party my favorite night club on Even Gvirol will have an all-male bar and separate restrooms! We have to act selflessly and drive all the way past Natbag to that backwater periferiya maabara to try and save what is left of Herzl's dream. If you will it, it is no dream."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> A little more realistic, but give me a break.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: small;">Here's what probably went down last week somewhere in Tel Aviv at 3am:</span></b></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">"Sheeet, Ophir. Here we are only 13 months before the next elections, and we still don't have an idea for a party. We could carry on about how we're still stuck with the same old parties, Likud, Labor, Meretz (don't even talk to me about those ex-Likudnikim in Kadima). But look at all the dudes who have tried that and failed - the Third Way, Mifleget haMercaz, even those Pensioners יבדל"א. What can we do? I don't have a job lined up for next year and that Daphne Leaf stole my other idea. </span></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> Well, no alternative, we have to go with the usual Haredi bashing unless you can think of something better. Listen, my uncle knows Yair Lapid - they both spent their army service drinking coffee at the BaMachaneh magazine HQ in Tel Aviv. He's got this Friday night TV show. Let's get him to regurgitate <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=UUEPWpwKC-FQxK1elw4jN1WA&v=PalYKPRFZzs">that youtube video from a few months ago</a> in that hick town - forgot the name, was it Beer Sheva or BS something? - with the dosim throwing stuff at little girls. Then we organize a protest, we get to speak, and who knows where it can go from there? If there aren't any terrorist attacks that week, all the networks will jump on it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">We keep this up for a week or two, go back to Tel Aviv, and leave those right-wingers to do our dirty work battling it out over their madrassa with the charedim. Face it, aren't right wingers and charedim the two reasons why this country sucks? When the dust settles you'll see how many birds we get with this stone.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">And here's the best part - these aren't your usual datiim who know our schtik and are too smart to play along. They're a bunch of naive Americans who left Fifth Avenue to live in some development town, for some kind of ideals. I mean, these are just a bunch of Baruch Goldsteins who can't even say "Orot" without sounding like Tal Brody.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">[Jump to Monday Dec. 26:] Oops. I hope none of those Rabin-killer Mafdal settlers in Sheinfeld really listened to </span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.glz.co.il/NewsArticle.aspx?newsid=67778" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Esti Moscowitz on the radio this morning</a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">. They might see through this and stay home." </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> P.S. This is satire. But ask yourselves: </span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Why is this happening now? In September when we were really under fire, the media and facebook couldn't be bothered.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">How will Orot and Bet Shemesh be better off next month when the world has forgotten and won't care that the police stop returning calls?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">How long will it take to see a facebook group with the very same (non-local) members against segregated religious schools such as Orot?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Whose interests is this campaign meant to serve? In Israel nothing happens in a void.</span></li>
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<br /><b style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><div style="text-align: center;">
וְאִישׁ בְּרֵעֵהוּ יְהָתֵלּוּ וֶאֱמֶת לֹא יְדַבֵּרוּ <br />
לִמְּדוּ לְשׁוֹנָם דַּבֶּר שֶׁקֶר הַעֲוֵה נִלְאוּ</div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<b>ירמיהו ט ד</b></div>
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</div>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-50340484958083372222011-10-29T23:52:00.003+02:002011-10-30T08:29:45.321+02:00From Pyongyang to Bet Shemesh<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He is truly our Dear Leader. He selflessly supports the masses from upon high. His knowledge of science, engineering, management and the medical arts astound even the most prominent experts. Without skipping a beat, he provides “on the spot field guidance” to craftsmen and engineers alike, and radically improves industrial efficiency. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirluzylPyw9xnCX8_OtLAlDWM9vTmb-IXkNVO-vVnoaXP6URNabnolx-tR45OeuH_WySnvYHM5l7GKgy5Gtykmrba-Tc98nfXgliO6QBszOIuHIVmNegifiOLiYuzTqtidXx3ZCxlUcebb/s1600/1647.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirluzylPyw9xnCX8_OtLAlDWM9vTmb-IXkNVO-vVnoaXP6URNabnolx-tR45OeuH_WySnvYHM5l7GKgy5Gtykmrba-Tc98nfXgliO6QBszOIuHIVmNegifiOLiYuzTqtidXx3ZCxlUcebb/s320/1647.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers′ Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, provided field guidance to the construction site of the Wonsan Army-People Power Station.</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVYCIdg7lMEnkwOaBnZsBHXvqziNJ50XZKbUTXm9_YvqWXxrvOKM77-h9i1JaaHbOZKSvOXMgCFvvg-Tav2oOK6Ko4X388WMwdDRiVGoqU94x22_ArbImsqZCctGKDSe4Wi2WbjOYWSq8C/s1600/kimjongil501.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVYCIdg7lMEnkwOaBnZsBHXvqziNJ50XZKbUTXm9_YvqWXxrvOKM77-h9i1JaaHbOZKSvOXMgCFvvg-Tav2oOK6Ko4X388WMwdDRiVGoqU94x22_ArbImsqZCctGKDSe4Wi2WbjOYWSq8C/s320/kimjongil501.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Kim Jong Il provides field guidance to Migok Cooperative Farm in Sariwon</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcQvd8mvBvPXzJ2hYjSZbnbXDxRGjiuA1HJeBc3bD1IXslnCG9tFLh8HU2xpSQUIzMnVuZ9_S9WD2hS5XpwFPy4CNxnLX9VKzOPKNiL7pand8IuBHYCnMhDxMmy0XzsIa1DVigTtwXwtag/s1600/Kim_Jong_Il_at_Anju_Chicken_Farm-400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcQvd8mvBvPXzJ2hYjSZbnbXDxRGjiuA1HJeBc3bD1IXslnCG9tFLh8HU2xpSQUIzMnVuZ9_S9WD2hS5XpwFPy4CNxnLX9VKzOPKNiL7pand8IuBHYCnMhDxMmy0XzsIa1DVigTtwXwtag/s320/Kim_Jong_Il_at_Anju_Chicken_Farm-400.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Kim Jong Il gives on-the-spot guidance at the Anju Chicken Farm.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Kim Jong Il Provides Field Guidance to Rakwon Machine Complex and Soap Shop of Sinuiju Cosmetics Factory</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Has Chadash Asur really transferred his dubious affections to the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea? Has Bet Shemesh nothing more to offer a poor blogger looking for egregious examples of a would-be personality cult gone bad? Will CA start snacking on kimchi and change the name of this blog to <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="hps">울트라</span> <span class="hps">정통</span> <span class="hps">단지 사랑 받기 원함 <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">??? </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fear not, for our local water corporation has ensured that I hardly need to go so far afield.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">There is a whole legal and governmental history behind these new municipal water corporations. But all CA knows is that some time last year, 16% VAT was suddenly added to his bill and several <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">members of his nuclear (no pun intended) family were deleted from the allocation on his monthly bill.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Indeed, the establishment of Mei Shemesh (Sun Water in English - sounds like something the Lubavitchers drink on Simchas Torah) also had some financial impact on the life of one Reb Yeshayahu Ehrenreich. Readers of Chadash Asur will recall that Yeshayahu, a chain-smoking one-time tactical mayoral hopeful, <a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2010/12/ha-tov-she-ba-rofim-part-iii.html">already runs Meuchedet's system of medical clinics in BS</a>. He also finds the time to run a restaurant in Ramat Gan, and is now riding the wave of Mei Shemesh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Municipal elections are still 2 years away, but Yeshayahu already feels the need to show us just how far he has gotten in his quest to lead. During the recent holiday season, residents of our shtetl all received a glossy all-male 32-page magazine with a useful fridge magnet in a colorful bag (perfect for any yungerman to carry his belongings around in). Let's check it out.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiamrKR2KnipDkevT7Qr4SlFKOCmrYpCDsq2yhU78bcGAtWXnP1rLpci3n8SAZHqVA6E_pArVtYr2Ctt0q4Y94QFVKQhVxVu5KfOn5hwF45J7WFZbzUnr_TGysZNz7COakgDg6EqbMv3M9I/s1600/1+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="577" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiamrKR2KnipDkevT7Qr4SlFKOCmrYpCDsq2yhU78bcGAtWXnP1rLpci3n8SAZHqVA6E_pArVtYr2Ctt0q4Y94QFVKQhVxVu5KfOn5hwF45J7WFZbzUnr_TGysZNz7COakgDg6EqbMv3M9I/s640/1+001.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">On the right we see Yeshayahu riding the local waterworks in his Sunday best. Harmless. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdhxnOnxh-ZS-ef4NhQXcX7SEv2thVSC-coYoo9JiaP6M6P9-jhTb-vgEFoXgJviNr3JbIjFVsBiYL-VSWfxPEe590UVtbwEQbwtGsRpPuFipOd1oXxXJpF0k3euH_KlXZRFw66hgYzmuR/s1600/ceo+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdhxnOnxh-ZS-ef4NhQXcX7SEv2thVSC-coYoo9JiaP6M6P9-jhTb-vgEFoXgJviNr3JbIjFVsBiYL-VSWfxPEe590UVtbwEQbwtGsRpPuFipOd1oXxXJpF0k3euH_KlXZRFw66hgYzmuR/s320/ceo+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">But here we get an inkling that if Mei Shemesh got a nuke, it would be on the State Department's travel advisory board. Peled Dichter, CEO of the corporation and a regime loyalist, tells us that none of these hydro-wonders would have been possible without "<em>the involvement of our leader, Yeshayahu Ehrenreich, who guides the corporation's activities, gets down to the smallest details, and knows how to make the right decisions using sound and professional judgment.</em>" That's it, I'm buying a 50-gallon drum to store water in my yard.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSvBeG63Vl9H6WYF_D0mWaNuEMeEhbMXRcEdYPdq7Wj6ExmQMdflCcUOyP0fJJxVsWguodPyqI-PW0zmEVkbss7SXBDCf50GdtTiP740JCJsB2F2aQxND1YLRJ0uv_RbEvlB3UzBPp_uBh/s1600/10+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSvBeG63Vl9H6WYF_D0mWaNuEMeEhbMXRcEdYPdq7Wj6ExmQMdflCcUOyP0fJJxVsWguodPyqI-PW0zmEVkbss7SXBDCf50GdtTiP740JCJsB2F2aQxND1YLRJ0uv_RbEvlB3UzBPp_uBh/s400/10+001.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Our leader gives on-the-spot guidance to the Mei Shemesh computer technicians.</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJKl4P1oe4J79VFSFRucpZ-V9Zr1mvNPCVhqZLlOGb_h9m8vJm055T0RCl63J316XyLOyHV6ANnUYAGiD5UflTlSQkVosFXyj2rsE5jHcea8uI3znqsHW_4vgGHCxZ87ZiHYT-2ezLgoYg/s1600/16+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJKl4P1oe4J79VFSFRucpZ-V9Zr1mvNPCVhqZLlOGb_h9m8vJm055T0RCl63J316XyLOyHV6ANnUYAGiD5UflTlSQkVosFXyj2rsE5jHcea8uI3znqsHW_4vgGHCxZ87ZiHYT-2ezLgoYg/s400/16+001.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Our leader gives on-the-spot field guidance after a pipe blew and half the city had no water.</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCz6Yp4bjmWkHAB89taODAVNhE2mpQbE8xvsu4wkIOz1_2mZzLCiwXpjStX5jNkIuZaeSBAaaRpHnDz0Tzv5zsUsRV9vp5Vgxn-NcDy23Jo94HsYxy3QnwOc0VbBCFmVe6P33_XlXANFfc/s1600/18-19+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCz6Yp4bjmWkHAB89taODAVNhE2mpQbE8xvsu4wkIOz1_2mZzLCiwXpjStX5jNkIuZaeSBAaaRpHnDz0Tzv5zsUsRV9vp5Vgxn-NcDy23Jo94HsYxy3QnwOc0VbBCFmVe6P33_XlXANFfc/s400/18-19+001.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Guess which of these guys actually know what they are doing with that valve, and which one is giving them on-the-spot field guidance.</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8pHKXPejA-GPu69vg1LLHoV0ibVTvNkttYJmwuuk8KkoPhJQ1Zltaxl6wQ7ZWaiix7iEhIbiK_dChqL4iANv7WTxztz4lLfAz7m49F5IK115qEKfSIBleVDSu0Z_RCQWS-MBYnifZOVpz/s1600/miz1+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8pHKXPejA-GPu69vg1LLHoV0ibVTvNkttYJmwuuk8KkoPhJQ1Zltaxl6wQ7ZWaiix7iEhIbiK_dChqL4iANv7WTxztz4lLfAz7m49F5IK115qEKfSIBleVDSu0Z_RCQWS-MBYnifZOVpz/s320/miz1+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Hey, which way is mizroch from here?</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8yTU6iFWx0Yit5zawBrM8se2_cUY5b2YapgnQd2fXulUp2pNIaLn8QZxHon0aljJyy9YSGsg3DjJ1XP42GAMrTRj8bNdUjNAujJv6HBteB90N-0WUM84rQdgLa9o6PX7g-le4G5KIoSyW/s1600/tashlich+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8yTU6iFWx0Yit5zawBrM8se2_cUY5b2YapgnQd2fXulUp2pNIaLn8QZxHon0aljJyy9YSGsg3DjJ1XP42GAMrTRj8bNdUjNAujJv6HBteB90N-0WUM84rQdgLa9o6PX7g-le4G5KIoSyW/s400/tashlich+001.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Our leader giving on-the-spot field guidance while scoping out a potential tashlich site.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXb7qaJGN5xGONH5ikyQyFF1EdcyLR6US7dCby9rQgBIjZh5WUEl_3RzjzodluG31JhuYoJ_ndoCmRMJG5t4eW3CSL08nH0R5NrxpBELYk1zX948-GEELkUfnlooiDbBzEmuZJAHxaZOOH/s1600/miz2+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXb7qaJGN5xGONH5ikyQyFF1EdcyLR6US7dCby9rQgBIjZh5WUEl_3RzjzodluG31JhuYoJ_ndoCmRMJG5t4eW3CSL08nH0R5NrxpBELYk1zX948-GEELkUfnlooiDbBzEmuZJAHxaZOOH/s640/miz2+001.jpg" width="440" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Mizroch.</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyjFPc7otNLlsDHrCyDGLVAXKGpyvprBzCKSgVW5LDHCwVUF4LFIwYo4mqEQVjnHrRmNYF6Ht9Nea0ZThWYS2e2UbaZAmO4Mg54txB7a0TAhgGMDjR-0HcMF7nAd1QjqrH52tnv2txexUU/s1600/allmine+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="369" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyjFPc7otNLlsDHrCyDGLVAXKGpyvprBzCKSgVW5LDHCwVUF4LFIwYo4mqEQVjnHrRmNYF6Ht9Nea0ZThWYS2e2UbaZAmO4Mg54txB7a0TAhgGMDjR-0HcMF7nAd1QjqrH52tnv2txexUU/s640/allmine+001.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">One day, this will all be mine.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For dessert, our leader either wants us to know just how many millions of shekels pass through his hands, or that he wants extra funding for a Mei Shemesh magazine editor. You tell me why we are being berated, like a bochur caught cutting seder, for not recognizing just how great our Great Leader really is.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Y_5efxoFnxBlo5CqSSIBUwGn_iOP2fXXbmF1HigdxHZMQFIwQj_gw_fvgum9RODYXzVtVimRNsy-yCsJRmbrtYPxSLT9_jVDjzKBOtyvxiFpNGpchCC_YNDGiGei4qDAcr3EFf1JSufz/s1600/back+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="576" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Y_5efxoFnxBlo5CqSSIBUwGn_iOP2fXXbmF1HigdxHZMQFIwQj_gw_fvgum9RODYXzVtVimRNsy-yCsJRmbrtYPxSLT9_jVDjzKBOtyvxiFpNGpchCC_YNDGiGei4qDAcr3EFf1JSufz/s640/back+001.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
</div>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-16179801827720128682011-10-06T09:50:00.001+02:002011-10-06T09:50:35.506+02:00The Da"Lim's Last Stand<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spotted in RBS-A:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">(courtesy of R.S.E shlit"a's iPhone4)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGSX3RPdpvFvs-Jcs5Y6Su7bBYh8tHXa5NrkimbNhkbN4yD_lOYrC6CctobN8q7sybvQXrAeDnxHqUmcw0iLLVQaiPXQQ2BAR3MrRc-kUby7sK0qI2UvZjNohCorf7dUV-AdBiFbFGN0EV/s1600/SpottedInRBSA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGSX3RPdpvFvs-Jcs5Y6Su7bBYh8tHXa5NrkimbNhkbN4yD_lOYrC6CctobN8q7sybvQXrAeDnxHqUmcw0iLLVQaiPXQQ2BAR3MrRc-kUby7sK0qI2UvZjNohCorf7dUV-AdBiFbFGN0EV/s640/SpottedInRBSA.jpg" width="478" /></a></div>
<br />ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-38853815790003621852011-10-03T23:44:00.001+02:002011-10-03T23:45:46.206+02:00In a Pig's Eye<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mrs. ChadashAsur pointed out this gem from Mishpocho's holiday consumer magazine, "Fix" (פיקס). The loanword "פיקס" in colloquial Hebrew doesn't exactly mean "fix". And apparently Mishpocho's staff doesn't think that "ham" actually means a succulent morsel from the hind leg of that split-hoofed animal commonly known as a chazer.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2011/09/george-elliot-redux.html">No women's images</a> grace this edition, but apparently swine are on a rather higher madreiguh:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjn8hh6tAdg3YfbXTqV3_Omgn-9Gli2hyphenhyphenlEhK6F91DJ9gGC2SJRytB60YHQkdnU6C_zOo05l6cwXI9gtYaTB_xim1SVZXWVAffJN1n0uPKLEjuMBtKHNmX52BnG78x__aFABkg7Hc2kID7/s1600/Mishpocho.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjn8hh6tAdg3YfbXTqV3_Omgn-9Gli2hyphenhyphenlEhK6F91DJ9gGC2SJRytB60YHQkdnU6C_zOo05l6cwXI9gtYaTB_xim1SVZXWVAffJN1n0uPKLEjuMBtKHNmX52BnG78x__aFABkg7Hc2kID7/s640/Mishpocho.jpg" width="508" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now here's another reason to include English in the charedi educational system.</span>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-23968672325558245132011-09-18T00:27:00.000+03:002011-09-18T09:06:44.412+03:00Abutbul wags the dog<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ChadashAsur has often opined that<b> changing the subject</b> is the key to managing a toddler. Just keep the kid focusing on what you want him/her to think about, and s/he doesn't destroy your stuff.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mayor Abutbul's mouthpiece, Chodosh, seems to share my conventional wisdom. The previous two weeks' editions have been chock-full of accounts of the inhumane, anti-charedi sedition of the 6 year-old courtesans daring to learn Torah within shouting distance of the newspaper's would-be readership. This week's edition, however, ominously started with this:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Iq57IjylfjWuYSHNlF3S-yuVF9NF0pTg4jJlpWPmq_gD2A-Y1U0EMa9fmRZOAI6sVSnT837fXMRretIt_KPSajINOOeNxM7oom9xYTvcz4uCDoZ_gDoiofn2EPMk2bjyi0xnNIMS9PPG/s1600/%25D7%25A2%25D7%259C%25D7%2599%25D7%2594%25D7%2595%25D7%259D+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Iq57IjylfjWuYSHNlF3S-yuVF9NF0pTg4jJlpWPmq_gD2A-Y1U0EMa9fmRZOAI6sVSnT837fXMRretIt_KPSajINOOeNxM7oom9xYTvcz4uCDoZ_gDoiofn2EPMk2bjyi0xnNIMS9PPG/s640/%25D7%25A2%25D7%259C%25D7%2599%25D7%2594%25D7%2595%25D7%259D+001.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As ChadashAsur <a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2010/11/ha-tov-she-ba-rofim.html">has previously observed</a>, the Haredi dissociation from modern Hebrew, while hesitantly speaking it all the time (except for some Yiddish diehards), leads to some pretty pathetic grammar. In this case, only a really desperate situation could lead Chodosh to splash an Arabic word across the cover (BTW - aleyhom is Arabic for עליהם, used to rally attacking infantry, and has entered colloquial Hebrew meaning something like "dog pile" or "lynch"). For those of you who actually read the kvetchy housekeeping columns in the English portion of Chodosh, you might remember one Imma complaining that her kids are using Hebrew slang, and that she "draws the line at Arabic". Well, no longer.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The article takes umbrage at Abutbul's treatment at a meeting of the Knesset Immigration Absorption Committee that met in his office this week. Apparently the guests weren't too happy that BS only builds for people who will obey divine orders to vote for Abutbul, and told him so. But politicians have pretty thick skin, especially in this part of the Middle East, and I can't imagine that a few insults bother Abutbul much. (Oh, and no mention at all in the English section, but that's already flogging a dead horse.)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ChadashAsur then combed through the fifty-nine pages of the Hebrew section looking for news of that major civil disturbance taking place down the block - the one that daily draws up to 25 policemen in riot gear, Border Police jeeps blocking intersections, projectiles flung at young children cowering on their way home from school, and press coverage around the country. Not to mention requiring Abutbul to send a squirmingly-written letter to his philanthropic friends <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2422888374284&set=o.106160479490761&type=1&theater">sort of promising to take care of the problem</a> (great signature!). But to no avail - I couldn't find even a veiled mention of that blight on our pious landscape named the Orot Girls School.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ChadashAsur went to bed Thursday night wondering what was going on beneath the surface, why Chodosh newspaper was trying so badly to turn Abutbul into the victim. This kind of defensive tactic usually means that the subject is diverting attention from something worse. But what? Not Orot School, not packing the place with constituents - he's certainly not ashamed of any of that.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I needn't have waited long. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bright and early Friday morning, Haaretz provided us with this <a href="http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/law/1.1475285">interesting example of investigative journalism</a> (so far in Hebrew only):</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDEMauXk80fT5OVN32FZbMoWadrzDOVxW_LkdA5b-2eUDtj6j1mn24mR-0vWefXQkpan3JBit1FBVe17QHbM_KBR3h4Q99vtrGpqRdtA8_zUzMxQDmj5LARdvvrNxG_k80Me6M5C3EbH-h/s1600/Haaretz.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDEMauXk80fT5OVN32FZbMoWadrzDOVxW_LkdA5b-2eUDtj6j1mn24mR-0vWefXQkpan3JBit1FBVe17QHbM_KBR3h4Q99vtrGpqRdtA8_zUzMxQDmj5LARdvvrNxG_k80Me6M5C3EbH-h/s640/Haaretz.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The article traces the evolution of a grandiose project in old Bet Shemesh - demolishing a few blocks of decrepit Stalinist-era apartment buildings ("שיכונים") in favor of modern buildings. In return for their acquiescence, the existing tenants are given a share of the apartments in the new project. The problems start when many tenants aren't keen on the idea of moving out for a couple years without any certainty that the project will be completed. The developer then has his hands full trying to convince the holdouts to sign the paperwork.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Haaretz tells of a young entrepreneurial developer running around and getting signatures from the residents of these squalid hovels, and coming up short over half of the required signatures. So he goes to one Michael Chazan, a.k.a the "Teeth Puller", an overachieving product of Bet Shemesh's pedagogical system with five convictions for battery, extortion, etc. - and currently behind bars. As a member of Israeli's leading underworld group (led by Amir Mulner), Michael was recently indicted in this summer's biggest celebrity expose - Yemenite singer Margalit Tzanani enlisting Michael's services to persuade a business associate to pay up, and on the side throwing Kochav Nolad (the Israeli "American Idol") and signing up talent with his own agency. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But hey, why doesn't Michael Hazan's agency consider signing our mayor on to a prime-time slot - his acting abilities are aptly demonstrated in this excerpt below, at least when he is banishing some undesirables from his neighborhood. What a shame that he had to take his less favored career option and enter municipal politics. (HT: <a href="http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/">RafiG</a>)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back to our story. Harmless young entrepreneur partners with the Teeth Puller with the apparent objective of persuading the holdout tenants to sign whatever papers shoved at them. Abutbul and his city council convene in May 2011 to approve the huge deal, and even try to obtain preferential financial terms from the national government. Didn't hurt that our dental surgeon was a childhood friend of Meir Balaish, Mr Abutbul's unlikely coalition partner. Then, in August, just when Abutbol is turning his attention to the overriding problem of the sock-less 6 year-olds of Orot, the Margalit Tzanani story breaks and Michael Hazan is arrested. The real estate project stops in its tracks. Abutbul sudden orders Orot closed, then hesitantly opens it, and then .... flies off to Budapest, Hungary for a week to meet with Palestinians under the tutelage of the extreme left-wing Geneva Proposal while keeping a low profile. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, the extent of the municipality's knowledge of the mafia's involvement in the project remains to be seen, and according to the Haaretz timeline, Hazan <i>officially</i> joined after the official approval for the project. ChadashAsur, far from being a conspiracy theorist, is patiently waiting to see how this plays out. Was Orot a diversion for the underworld deal? Is this week's kvetch a diversion for Orot? We'll see. But the question begs - if Abutbul is used to the likes of the Amir Mulner gang, he can't possibly be afraid of the skinny little sikrikim. One phone call and they'll all be swimming with the fishes.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho5uhcagOP6hgcPL0yEcBM7peQ-__DJ6s0mqyf5f3uXkighAr9oI3iVD9RXczXvT86Gii_L0Ej_wCOfvFarhCtSVkcg_csj9OlxKSX-ofHcLksll9STlP6qMO7vwF76vC7DiYIkysYYxq8/s1600/Wag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho5uhcagOP6hgcPL0yEcBM7peQ-__DJ6s0mqyf5f3uXkighAr9oI3iVD9RXczXvT86Gii_L0Ej_wCOfvFarhCtSVkcg_csj9OlxKSX-ofHcLksll9STlP6qMO7vwF76vC7DiYIkysYYxq8/s320/Wag.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-54849759801471141022011-09-13T21:39:00.000+03:002011-09-13T21:39:21.534+03:00George Elliot Redux<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
ChadashAsur doesn't know much about the latest glossy advertising vehicle to hit our <strike>trashbins</strike> mailboxes en masse, named "BIZנס". CA also doesn't know much about the "editor", Ariel Topf, except that he educates his kids "<b>to do what's right and not what's convenient and easy</b>" (see "Letter from the Editor" in the Sept. 2011 issue).</div>
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Enter the Sept 2011 issue, which advertises "<b>10 experts you can call for FREE NOW</b>". On page 44 we get this list of local consultants in a variety of fields: </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnIRwSXn-seVVrk17uFrpIXGllqZu2tPjEHh3V0JIEfy92ydaUWtB2M0e2GspsX3gV3QohdUYxD1FutgXPTQg5xqcdNQEU2BuR3JRc5pkgN1z3lZmfacyHGUH0I4MeWWXC_BGvu7CtCvgk/s1600/Biznes+1+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnIRwSXn-seVVrk17uFrpIXGllqZu2tPjEHh3V0JIEfy92ydaUWtB2M0e2GspsX3gV3QohdUYxD1FutgXPTQg5xqcdNQEU2BuR3JRc5pkgN1z3lZmfacyHGUH0I4MeWWXC_BGvu7CtCvgk/s640/Biznes+1+001.jpg" width="437" /></a></div>
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Go ahead and have a good look at these 10 reputable names -- and the 8 male faces that go along with them! (If you live around
here you will know most of these people, but since this isn't about
them, ChadashAsur took the precaution of redacting the most obvious
identifying details.)<br />
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Yup, as befits <a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2011/06/as-if-we-wouldnt-notice.html">any print matter distributed in Bet Shemesh</a>, we are treated to a graphically <i>female-rein</i> publication. In BIZנס of 2011 CE, women can be heard (for 15 whole minutes during which you can "ask any questions" as the ad tells us), but chas v'sholom not seen.</div>
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Ariel Topf - you want me call up a female lawyer or financial consultant, and possibly even meet with her in a professional setting (R"L!!), but you won't show her visage in your mag along with everyone else? Either you've had the pleasure of a visit by the local tznius squad kano'im taking a break from throwing eggs and water balloons at the 6 year-old harlots of Orot, or you've taken the <b>convenient and easy </b>way out, just like you teach your kinderlach not to do.</div>
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I'll take the <a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2011/09/orot-banot-jungle-book.html">English-language section of Chodosh</a> (if its editor hasn't been fired yet) over BIZנס any day. </div>
ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-15109394154624996172011-09-02T01:25:00.001+03:002011-09-02T12:29:51.049+03:00OROT Banot & the Jungle Book<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img height="71" src="http://evyatar.net/shaalei/images/stories/logo_orotbanot.jpg" width="200" /></span></div>
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<a href="http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/2011/08/update-about-orot-girls-school-building.html">The Orot girls school saga</a> is rather too serious a matter to be addressed in ChadashAssur, but even my satirical self can't keep quiet when seeing it splashed bilingually across the pages of that favorite watchdog of democracy, Chodosh newspaper of Bet Shemesh.<br />
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Let’s start with the English coverage, at the back of today's edition.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh93lo4p0yDY-qLuHdU03i4vsVEbX4m-lWqkEzaUHcAy3nlhvpImpbUZ3xsXHI0P-hWlkoedcp5xxbwSFHcpAPCe78Kn8bXGTB038CeiAbNJSzkSgVfZ7wEfyQTPMg6kf8AlivZwn_YOeR3/s1600/ca1+001.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh93lo4p0yDY-qLuHdU03i4vsVEbX4m-lWqkEzaUHcAy3nlhvpImpbUZ3xsXHI0P-hWlkoedcp5xxbwSFHcpAPCe78Kn8bXGTB038CeiAbNJSzkSgVfZ7wEfyQTPMg6kf8AlivZwn_YOeR3/s400/ca1+001.jpg" /></a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7MlhTCqMUskuCrleveZhtit_Gvbtkc0dYfrTWl89p30wDTpDKB7JAwiVPnnZLiAamP8kGPVlp9Hr9agrXXUGxWaxAqYNC83cYwQMpA64zfN9V6b165VYDDwp535BeYk8bkeIfVQza_wm8/s1600/ca2.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7MlhTCqMUskuCrleveZhtit_Gvbtkc0dYfrTWl89p30wDTpDKB7JAwiVPnnZLiAamP8kGPVlp9Hr9agrXXUGxWaxAqYNC83cYwQMpA64zfN9V6b165VYDDwp535BeYk8bkeIfVQza_wm8/s1600/ca2.jpg" /></a></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7MlhTCqMUskuCrleveZhtit_Gvbtkc0dYfrTWl89p30wDTpDKB7JAwiVPnnZLiAamP8kGPVlp9Hr9agrXXUGxWaxAqYNC83cYwQMpA64zfN9V6b165VYDDwp535BeYk8bkeIfVQza_wm8/s1600/ca2.jpg"></a>I liked these passages:<br />
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<i>"…surrounded by National Religious neighborhoods… yet close to several charedi buildings"<br />
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"the school was originally designated for Orot Banot but extremist charedi elements … began demonstrating two years ago"<br />
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"this week the extremists threatened to vandalize the building…" </i><br /><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nothing about the National Religious camp (now known, of course, by the moniker ד"לים וריקים) engaging in senseless violence, trespassing on municipal property, nothing about poor charedim paying municipal development costs in "their" area for institutions suitable for their fastidious morals and tastes, and not a word about National Religious insensitivity to the legitimate needs of a community unwilling to see scandalous 11 year-olds in long denim skirts walking down R' Herzog St.<br />
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With observations like these, the article could almost have been written for the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/106160479490761/">"We Are All Orot Banot" facebook group</a>.<br />
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Far be it from ChadashAsur to draw <a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2011/03/from-cairo-to-bet-shemesh.html">parallels between Bet Shemesh politics and the Arab world</a>, but followers of al-Jazeera may be familiar with the <a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=3355">discrepancies between their main Arabic coverage and the westward looking English news channel</a>. Such shameless tactics surely could not be used effectively here in BS, where almost every Anglo can read Hebrew fairly well...<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now to the considerable Hebrew coverage:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJfE_A08bLUd-nKWDfhKyIguBS4uLbY8HmHfX1-oo4SqFF_z_d_88U5YpQuNS9zZUKVvm-LRSVvWHHCGme8EvFMkmKcpQyKIL9iW_J3nwsEHnHE3_wxugubcWoroutRLiOXeChsE4BZFpJ/s1600/ca3.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJfE_A08bLUd-nKWDfhKyIguBS4uLbY8HmHfX1-oo4SqFF_z_d_88U5YpQuNS9zZUKVvm-LRSVvWHHCGme8EvFMkmKcpQyKIL9iW_J3nwsEHnHE3_wxugubcWoroutRLiOXeChsE4BZFpJ/s400/ca3.jpg" /></a></div>
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The cover has a montage of photos from the week's events, and two editorial blurbs pop up among them, entitled "Such Violence" and "The Primordial Sin".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgve78F2Ul471kYlAThyphenhyphenkqnnT9BaG7AM5NSValEOYtKekRCKFM5f77sOszocq3BntO6upoBEflPgtXDEk20GQ4G66TCOC4zslJNN9X9ujaj1EUQZGooyRA3Fn6H2RXgroB_ECRMZDUszE5q/s1600/ca4b+001.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgve78F2Ul471kYlAThyphenhyphenkqnnT9BaG7AM5NSValEOYtKekRCKFM5f77sOszocq3BntO6upoBEflPgtXDEk20GQ4G66TCOC4zslJNN9X9ujaj1EUQZGooyRA3Fn6H2RXgroB_ECRMZDUszE5q/s320/ca4b+001.jpg" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhXICUaFYCKuUeJW5eIxhAmyGNBuRsMf9g5BGKuh82WoEv8LMg0uEeFl7FC6FMT5fMRQKdW9429VLi9cBF9RFfLghAVfIcQzeZqp1D-8x1voMgy4yhF31ym6tA4jnU8QLMP3wc6cPE4p8/s1600/ca4a+001.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhXICUaFYCKuUeJW5eIxhAmyGNBuRsMf9g5BGKuh82WoEv8LMg0uEeFl7FC6FMT5fMRQKdW9429VLi9cBF9RFfLghAVfIcQzeZqp1D-8x1voMgy4yhF31ym6tA4jnU8QLMP3wc6cPE4p8/s320/ca4a+001.jpg" /></a></div>
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Yisroel Schreiber tells us that <i>"the struggle must be a fundamental one, against the very embezzlement (עושק) of the building from the residents of the neighborhood, and against the 'primordial sin' of robbing the building from the residents of the neighborhood</i> [@Yisroel, you should get a thesaurus and avoid repeating sentence fragments] <i>who paid for the public areas and the public resources with their hard-earned money, as embodied in the taxes they paid when purchasing their apartments</i> [yeah, @Yisroel, but with the ptor they get from the city, since moving in they haven't paid more than 10% of what I pay the city in taxes every two months].<br />
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Dovid Rubin opines that the "<i>media have reported 'charedi violence' in the struggle for control of the school' and concealed two facts. One, there is no struggle for ownership of the building, but a request to fulfill a promise not to house girls in the building. Second, there was violence, but not charedi violence, rather from the other side. How do I know? Because I was there. I was in the building and the courtyard for six hours, and none of the charedim raised a hand</i>." Dovid goes on to write (in the full editorial on p.33) that "<i>not one window was smashed, not one chair was damaged…</i>". Well, @Dovid, yesterday I took this picture of two broken windows, and I guess you would say that the da"lim vereikim are vandalizing their own school just to spite you:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDSkdxDpxrRndbIboXSJsX7wtHmgO5Gek3wvOz0NokFLlPC1cHj9WOQg1sTrTj87B6m4x8LfdOmhqOQMWk27Q5AoomK4KV3cX4U1qYfNSRtARyvKD-bxwiW557-fQB5_ekANBtuoOl-7r7/s1600/ca5.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDSkdxDpxrRndbIboXSJsX7wtHmgO5Gek3wvOz0NokFLlPC1cHj9WOQg1sTrTj87B6m4x8LfdOmhqOQMWk27Q5AoomK4KV3cX4U1qYfNSRtARyvKD-bxwiW557-fQB5_ekANBtuoOl-7r7/s640/ca5.jpg" /></a><br />
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But the first paragraph in Dovid's article takes all – let's call it the Jungle Book version of the events. I'm not making this up:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg995gOnmJomXV78lwd1DWYjlXWgUVsP38LDfI-9vrCY4BM2Bm8CdWSfKi1nuPmSzKlblLcY43Ssl3VxjFhjlzIfEhr8uu34pWWSOeJOOIva9Cw5Mt7fiNx97XSp8WRz0Lyk1VUuc2MEEVP/s1600/ca6+001.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg995gOnmJomXV78lwd1DWYjlXWgUVsP38LDfI-9vrCY4BM2Bm8CdWSfKi1nuPmSzKlblLcY43Ssl3VxjFhjlzIfEhr8uu34pWWSOeJOOIva9Cw5Mt7fiNx97XSp8WRz0Lyk1VUuc2MEEVP/s640/ca6+001.jpg" /></a><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Once a lamb was trapped in the jungle. It lost its way, wandered anxiously among the grand trees, watched ravenous predators from afar, and sought refuge. Ultimately it found a large clearing, clear of bushes and rocks, and devoid of predators </i>[@Dovid, synonyms please]<i>, and there it decided to make its home. Over time, it even developed neighborly relations with the jungle denizens, who learned not to approach [the lamb's] territory and to let it lead its life serenely, and it learned to respect their habits. One day, a goat entered the clearing. The lamb was familiar with the goat, which wandered among the jungle dwellers for many years, and became one of the gang. What do you want, asked the lamb. To live here, said the goat, there is no room left over there, in the thick of the forest. The lamb understood that the goat was sent to further diminish the forest clearing, which was small to begin with, but decided not to confront the strong jungle dwellers. It vacated some room, where the goat and its kids would be able to live." </i>The article continues to describe how the lamb objects to the smell of the goat's cabbage, because cabbage makes lambs' breathing burdensome, and asks the goat to eat its cabbage outside the clearing. The goat agrees and they coexist happily for years. Then, one day the lamb awakens amid a huge cabbage feast in the clearing, with the goat calling all the jungle animals to partake who arrive and cast threatening glances at the lamb. Predictably, the large land animals start roaring at the little lamb to shut up and let the goat do as it pleases. <a href="http://musicalatinaymas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/welcome-to-the-jungle.jpg">Welcome to the Jungle....</a><br />
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The parable is explained about as predictably as you would expect. No need to restate the charedi version of the events - too familiar and tiresome to be worth any more typing tonight. <br />
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But most importantly, and rather frightening, is the short shrift Chodosh gives the threats by the "extremists". This clearly unimportant facet of the story merits but a few short lines quoted from the municipality's statement and from other "media" (p.34). The Hebrew article says <b>not a word</b> about the mayor's initial communication to the Orot parents committee, in which he based his order to close the school (less than a week before the beginning of the school year) on the threats. This reasoning is even mentioned in the English-language section of Chodosh!<br />
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In the same article that condemns the da"lim vereikim for purportedly engaging in violence, the mention of the extremist threats is taken as a fait accompli, without any critical or other comment by the reporter. ChadashAsur has long mocked the charedi establishment's routine renunciation of extremist violence, usually claiming that they are the real victims, while lobbying to prevent the arrest of even the most rabid rabble-rousers that happen to have a black felt kippa and some shiny shoes. Even when they have been ditching kollel so long that they can't name more than two sedarim of mishna.<br />
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Chas veshalom that one should draw parallels between the charedi "extremists" dynamic on one hand, and the comfortable yet vehemently denied relationships of Sinn Fein with IRA, and of the political Muslim Brotherhood with the Izz-a-din al-Qassam Brigades…..but sentiments aside, you get the point. Let’s face it – the kanoim, sikrikim, or what have you, are proxy warriors doing someone's dirty work. My charedi brethren, don't forget what happened to the USA after financing the Taliban to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan in the eighties.<br />
מהרסייך ומחריבייך ממך ייצאו.<br />
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To close on a positive note, I was rather surprised to see a response by R' Nechemia Margalit, a prominent member of the neighborhood and the Ohel Yona synagogue, at the end of the article. Nechemia presents a fine position and ably takes issue with our new title, ד"לים. Don't miss it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu5h9y3qPfhf8HiAAuUSYlZHxv3zBqb9PQx7NPCf9serqcjgGkqYA4VneN5zdU4qs4kn0ijbztzI7PS6WsCRw8P7Vx2MNt_UJQi6BnlCsjFdZyfaHtdnLkYsEH3ScQPu98pK_lo7WG390q/s1600/ca7.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu5h9y3qPfhf8HiAAuUSYlZHxv3zBqb9PQx7NPCf9serqcjgGkqYA4VneN5zdU4qs4kn0ijbztzI7PS6WsCRw8P7Vx2MNt_UJQi6BnlCsjFdZyfaHtdnLkYsEH3ScQPu98pK_lo7WG390q/s640/ca7.jpg" /></a><br />
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See kinda hi-res images of the entire Hebrew editorials and article below (click to enlarge):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRyHn_bEDosj3uhlJmsLKu2fm2FYlg6Z0AVyaacn867kBja1hfKQ2xsZWpHvxnrGYNlm-YOjV9wZg9F8WYL_I8kKxU20JkthUXC_T9wjE3tLkmJ6taqKRXUi0-pceWOYRlAsvVwvIHrxjW/s1600/paper2.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRyHn_bEDosj3uhlJmsLKu2fm2FYlg6Z0AVyaacn867kBja1hfKQ2xsZWpHvxnrGYNlm-YOjV9wZg9F8WYL_I8kKxU20JkthUXC_T9wjE3tLkmJ6taqKRXUi0-pceWOYRlAsvVwvIHrxjW/s200/paper2.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRyHn_bEDosj3uhlJmsLKu2fm2FYlg6Z0AVyaacn867kBja1hfKQ2xsZWpHvxnrGYNlm-YOjV9wZg9F8WYL_I8kKxU20JkthUXC_T9wjE3tLkmJ6taqKRXUi0-pceWOYRlAsvVwvIHrxjW/s1600/paper2.jpg"><br />
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</a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4bq-Xkl7-7m7i0wOBVNGuulQqKE7ULYSRuq1DxqFlt5mFDrXRgQeIaoSvvOxf7LA5PMF33C2nJNGGn-86OTBmFLCzWNFkrK7bdmutVIuixbGmPUBOvKt9mUQes1momdMs1AYgx-DAjq66/s1600/paper3.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4bq-Xkl7-7m7i0wOBVNGuulQqKE7ULYSRuq1DxqFlt5mFDrXRgQeIaoSvvOxf7LA5PMF33C2nJNGGn-86OTBmFLCzWNFkrK7bdmutVIuixbGmPUBOvKt9mUQes1momdMs1AYgx-DAjq66/s200/paper3.jpg" /></a> </span><br />
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Thanks to R.S.E. shlit"a for generously (if reluctantly) giving me his copy of Chodosh tonight. At some point during the life of this blog, delivery to my Sheinfeld street was suspiciously halted…</span><br />
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ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-86595179189983957642011-06-26T15:29:00.002+03:002011-06-26T19:19:30.054+03:00The Blame GamePlenty of people have commented on the telling contrast between the Egyptian facebook revolution against a despotic ruler and the Israeli facebook revolution about an extra 25 cents on cottage cheese.<br />
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In both cases, however, it is still the Jews who get blamed. On the left, Al-Ahram newspaper (still smarting from <a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2011/03/from-cairo-to-bet-shemesh.html">ChadashAssur's account of its editorial desk's morality during the Arab Spring</a>) quotes some politician blaming the upcoming Egyptian Civil War on the Israelis (yaani, standing in for the Jews). On the right, Haaretz newspaper creates some strange linkage between the cottage cheese price frenzy and the Ponevezh yeshiva (vadok, the haredim standing in for the Jews).<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">אין </span><b><u><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">חדש</span></i></u></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> תחת השמש</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWscQI-0NNJ3_ajgXMV-rqlPhvnA8nMMBb2CAdvd9CClrLKr361cvwYCu-_rjjwUyytO_UKC0ONkTIbxc-yNb2GYl58J9PTu7eLjg6k3IOPmQV0X97jZSbervFC53CVszdTTpT8d99BuBd/s1600/ArticlesResized.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWscQI-0NNJ3_ajgXMV-rqlPhvnA8nMMBb2CAdvd9CClrLKr361cvwYCu-_rjjwUyytO_UKC0ONkTIbxc-yNb2GYl58J9PTu7eLjg6k3IOPmQV0X97jZSbervFC53CVszdTTpT8d99BuBd/s1600/ArticlesResized.JPG" /></a></div>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-76085416361025102792011-06-21T00:36:00.002+03:002011-06-21T00:42:35.925+03:00As if we wouldn't notice<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinnkFUOHhozZQeOAYQKb-WssCkF4ARkPjeTTHNuE40cY_ZvRAmQbWJ4dvujdXbtaX7qZWOc2l4npo8BHxF3ZFH2HN7geF_8VpKgsGT-iZD9qhI6vJaZrVzMKcvnc5q-9VzxmdrpfcBalOg/s1600/iriya1+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinnkFUOHhozZQeOAYQKb-WssCkF4ARkPjeTTHNuE40cY_ZvRAmQbWJ4dvujdXbtaX7qZWOc2l4npo8BHxF3ZFH2HN7geF_8VpKgsGT-iZD9qhI6vJaZrVzMKcvnc5q-9VzxmdrpfcBalOg/s320/iriya1+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I didn't notice at first.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Bet Shemesh municipality outdid itself this year with the annual booklet showing how it would have us think it is spending "my" arnona contributions</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(This is where I should say that no one in this town save ChadashAsur and a few friends actually pay arnona, but you could shake any building in Sheinfeld and get 20 Bet Shemesh List posts saying the same thing.)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Page after page of new parks, politicians with real smiles, kids with fake smiles, construction cranes, the mayor glad-handing government ministers, serious-looking guys with black hats sitting incongruously behind power desks, the usual BS fare.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A lot of this:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6eKSAuwvEMyj7qmL2SGQJNOxK_dv_t-JQOFGdJz14qtcwlnCB1TSu8H08So5J6VIBSiyTnawWC07iTsPP6dEEpv7sr1Qx4LYCdPMpnZrI_jNZ1Cas32_RdDrG4SmoptH1UpWLDOZRO32J/s1600/iriya3+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6eKSAuwvEMyj7qmL2SGQJNOxK_dv_t-JQOFGdJz14qtcwlnCB1TSu8H08So5J6VIBSiyTnawWC07iTsPP6dEEpv7sr1Qx4LYCdPMpnZrI_jNZ1Cas32_RdDrG4SmoptH1UpWLDOZRO32J/s640/iriya3+001.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And this:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY_WmximkrrfeMrHIqqhXFTWBG6wrMfdlUraTH_x1Bvl8FY9we9_NrAnS963oGno7rPxTHhnwKOeGlJ1vG6KN4R8-QpTrQmg5rtzuQFcN53sTwpk1HmOU1YA0RL055eou9FkKpNuX8ouoS/s1600/iriya2+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY_WmximkrrfeMrHIqqhXFTWBG6wrMfdlUraTH_x1Bvl8FY9we9_NrAnS963oGno7rPxTHhnwKOeGlJ1vG6KN4R8-QpTrQmg5rtzuQFcN53sTwpk1HmOU1YA0RL055eou9FkKpNuX8ouoS/s640/iriya2+001.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a few pages, I started getting a déjà vu from the first day of 5th grade at the Hebrew Academy in my Californian hometown. That was the year that the classes were segregated, and I found myself in an exclusively male environment. No big deal when you are 10 years old, to be honest.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so it was that I discovered that females of all ages were excluded, cropped, deleted, banished and expelled from the Bet Shemesh pictured in Mayor Abutbul's PR booklet. To sadly quote Ecclesiastes/Koheleth 7:28 - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: David; font-size: 19px; line-height: 19px;">וְאִשָּׁה בְכָל אֵלֶּה לֹא מָצָאתִי".</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Furiously ChadashAsur flipped back and forth through the glossy pictures, hoping that a hint of double-X genetic material had survived the purge, and perhaps not unsuccessfully. You can decide whether a member of the unseen gender is hiding here (apologies to the person with the sunglasses if he's a guy!):</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And maybe a Jewess is riding this bus whilst demurely concealed by the strategically placed flags (the ones with the city's sun-god namesake):</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcAOOAh8urpKGg9wNmAsGiEk31GXy0wNh5jWyw9_MVppmCThXeFm6x_wdRR4wiOIrM_1nAMmhQVgNIcj7CZloyZaAhSnZZFokj7gLOF12zgh_HUTHd5vgZQdbDF5TxLzqcajlItPVS6uwp/s1600/iriya2+cropped2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcAOOAh8urpKGg9wNmAsGiEk31GXy0wNh5jWyw9_MVppmCThXeFm6x_wdRR4wiOIrM_1nAMmhQVgNIcj7CZloyZaAhSnZZFokj7gLOF12zgh_HUTHd5vgZQdbDF5TxLzqcajlItPVS6uwp/s640/iriya2+cropped2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, while the Saudi meidelach fret and sign facebook petitions about not being allowed to drive around their Kingdom, their sisters in RBS will need to wait patiently, in their wifi-less homes and pashkevil-plastered streets, for recognition by a more liberal coalition in City Hall.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It'll get worse before it gets better.</span></div>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-28536399241297906002011-03-08T06:58:00.004+02:002011-03-08T09:14:50.338+02:00From Cairo to Bet Shemesh<div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chadash Asur has been getting a number of hits from readers in </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lebanon</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Egypt</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. I welcome attention from the dubious and nascent democracies to our north and west (respectively). This post is dedicated to you, whomever you may be and whichever shady Muchabarat organization you may be working for. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A recurring Chadash Asur theme has been the dichotomy between a purportedly objective media and an unwavering monolithic social environment. This problem is usually solved by reporting only what fits the dictated world view, as ridiculous as it might seem at the time. But imagine the predicament of an aspiring haredi politician-slash-editor, or </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">lehavdil</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, an aspriring Egyptian politician-slash-editor, when cracks appear in the monolith and conflicting interests compete for the stage.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Time now for the first ever comparative review of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chadash</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> of Bet Shemesh and </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Al-Ahram</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> newspaper of </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cairo</span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, featuring the rise of an Israeli police academy and the demise of the Egyptian National Democratic Party's secret police. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>I. </u></b></span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Cairo</u></b></span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u> </u></b></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>ק"ק</u></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">AlAhram </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(literally "The Pyramids") is </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Egypt</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'s largest newspaper, and (according to Wikipedia) is majority-owned by the Egyptian government. As one would imagine, the newspaper was, until recently, rather uncritical of President Mubarak and his regime. In fact, last October the newspaper famously photoshopped a picture of President Obama and a group of Middle East statesmen, so that Mubarak would be seen leading the group rather than trailing after it (like what little Joey said to Kareem in Airplane – "you don't even run down the court, and you don't really try... except during the playoffs"). Have a look at the before and after shots:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obama leads, Mubarak trails:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwkTtF2eBFhKmXYUtJkDNaDcd0r1ArBR3tuMjVTgZHRwzG4_6ilFPYhGFv9Y_T6Gto0tsIZYmAcB5vci27JbXGaMnSk2u_zpQQ2cXzd2lDgmJO5Lum2IZQnOwEgQNG5AS1gZ3kll8lZuaY/s1600/Original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwkTtF2eBFhKmXYUtJkDNaDcd0r1ArBR3tuMjVTgZHRwzG4_6ilFPYhGFv9Y_T6Gto0tsIZYmAcB5vci27JbXGaMnSk2u_zpQQ2cXzd2lDgmJO5Lum2IZQnOwEgQNG5AS1gZ3kll8lZuaY/s320/Original.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And...Hosny leads (the headline reads "the Road to Sharm e-Shaikh", but Mubarak had no idea at the time that he would be hiding out there a few weeks later after being deposed):</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguKVmJxhueuXNFD2XOlA4KnTRY9eXwnaoRD_Z8jXSd8NBU0QNuEWS-JBe8Za1Ks-lUZAn6cFPYjc-IgRe25SAA6YC7wWeJGVztcTTNT5lkv-kOqc-x1jm_g-SFSycxI7FTKzqVDtCrFOTO/s1600/Hosny+before.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguKVmJxhueuXNFD2XOlA4KnTRY9eXwnaoRD_Z8jXSd8NBU0QNuEWS-JBe8Za1Ks-lUZAn6cFPYjc-IgRe25SAA6YC7wWeJGVztcTTNT5lkv-kOqc-x1jm_g-SFSycxI7FTKzqVDtCrFOTO/s400/Hosny+before.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hard to imagine a parallel in the Israeli press, apart from the occasional inking out of a female likeness (saw this once in an illustrated shtetl chasuna scene in Yated).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Suddenly, surprising politicians, demonstrators and the Mossad alike, the January 25 protest movement exploded in </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Egypt</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. You can imagine the dialogue at </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Al-Ahram</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Osama (actually the editor's name, not that other guy)</b>: Look Abdul, I don't care what our orders are, we can't ignore this, everyone in Mitzroyim can see the mobs burning stuff in the street and getting shot by the police.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Abdul Muneim</b>: Yeah, but who gives when it's your head and mine when this all quiets down and Gamal [Mubarak] comes by wanting to know what in gahanam we were doing inciting the peasants against his dad. Remember what happened when that idiotic magnoon from the photography dept forgot to erase the zit from Gamal's wife's forehead in the Mubarak family portrait we put on the first page on Republic day? When the security services were finished with his own face, even Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended couldn't help. Masha'allah we were able to place all the blame on his poor soul...</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Osama</b>: Fine, I see your point. Uh, what else is happening in the world that we can feature on the front page……Here! </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lebanon</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">! Never a dull moment. Looks like Hezbollah forgot to take their medication again and sent the government packing, all because of some assassination, not that anyone expects a Lebanese government to stick around for more than a few years. Anyway, let's get a nice violent picture from </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beirut</span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> with some eye-catching flames to cover most of the page. Then, under the item about free trade agreement with the US and the piece about the interview with the interior minister, just visible above the crease, we can put something tame about what is happening around here, without mentioning the armored personnel carriers… hey, do you smell that smoke? OK, let's go with this language, Gamal shouldn't mind and inshaallah we won’t look like total jackasses to everyone else:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Abdul Muneim</b>: Alhamdulillah, I have taught you well.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQzZroSv0WsKYyPcobzAmeq_4wMLnME5gosrbeSK9c2FR2ynjhrbjmWI7Ld9aUxImU1RBigsRN4cbOrjK2viRA6_r2vxEFq9NGhDpsnD027ddYdfy6mgu2-EU4zPH1jYsVEmmwt5-soLIj/s1600/AlAhram+Jan+26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQzZroSv0WsKYyPcobzAmeq_4wMLnME5gosrbeSK9c2FR2ynjhrbjmWI7Ld9aUxImU1RBigsRN4cbOrjK2viRA6_r2vxEFq9NGhDpsnD027ddYdfy6mgu2-EU4zPH1jYsVEmmwt5-soLIj/s400/AlAhram+Jan+26.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AlAhram January 26, 2011</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Main headline: </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Widespread Unrest and Rioting in </span></b></span></span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Lebanon</b></span></st1:country-region></st1:place></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Far lower left: <b>Mass Protests in </b></span><st1:city w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cairo</b></span></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> and the Districts; Martyring of a Security Forces Conscript in </b></span><st1:city w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cairo</b></span></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> and Two Youths in </b></span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Suez</b></span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>; </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>[Ministry of the] Interior Calls for a Cessation of Gatherings</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Skip two weeks later, and Mubarak is on a helicopter on the way to his Sinai retreat, Egyptians are tearing though government ministries, and it is clear to even the most loyal cog in the Egyptian bureaucracy that a new dawn has risen over Goshen, even if the army was behind the revolution from the beginning.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Abdul Muneim</b>: Ya Osama, chabib 'albi! It is our dream come true! The people have finally demanded their rights! Pharaoh is gone! We are free!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Osama</b>: What have you been putting in your narghila? Aren't you the one who taught me that the Ra'is is always right, and it is our job to bring his message to the ignorant masses?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Abdul Muneim</b>: Wallahi, you need to learn to adapt to the times. You know that before I took up Nasr's cause I was employed by King Farouk, even though I don't like to talk about it.... Keep this up and you will be standing on the Corniche skipping stones into the </span><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nile</span></st1:place><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> instead of running a newspaper. Listen to Uncle Abdul and you will be fine. Today's edition of AlAhram is something the glorious freedom movement will never forget. Look at this! </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Osama</b>: (speechless)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Abdul Muneim</b>: Don't just stand there, get to work on blaming all of Mubarak's crimes on the Israelis!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibECEvO34HOmE2K0rjZ09leKnepwMt3MlSmiC9XxS95-D9PhlYnfOCV_pXM91BR2BbEr9Cn7sykSNUazFIUpelcfGgchHkrkh9p1EVf188DPrfiJBavq8MDuxMo-tNxgPKMHkqONCpQRJR/s1600/AlAhram+120211_Page_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibECEvO34HOmE2K0rjZ09leKnepwMt3MlSmiC9XxS95-D9PhlYnfOCV_pXM91BR2BbEr9Cn7sykSNUazFIUpelcfGgchHkrkh9p1EVf188DPrfiJBavq8MDuxMo-tNxgPKMHkqONCpQRJR/s640/AlAhram+120211_Page_01.jpg" width="451" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AlAhram February 12, 2011</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Big red headline: <b>The Nation has Brought Down the Regime</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Second red headline: <b>The Youth Revolution Prevailed on Mubarak to Leave</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even more: <b>Egyptians celebrate until morning, joyous at the victory in the first popular revolution in their modern history</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>II. Bet Shemesh </u></b></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>ק"ק</u></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A similar dialogue took place last week at Chadash headquarters in Ramat Bet Shemesh, when an order came in from the municipality for another mayoral love-fest article. This time, Mayor Moshe Abutbul was to be praised to shomayim for bringing a new sprawling police academy to the outskirts of Bet Shemesh. CAMH's sources report that the mayor's PR guy threw together 500 words about how great this would be for Bet Shemesh, and emailed it to Chadash minutes before the edition went to press.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Yisroel</b>: Oh, CRAP, look at this time bomb we just got from Abutbul. Doesn't he understand that he can speak all he wants with the Tzioynishe politicians, but he shouldn't ask for a photospread? And now he's bringing 20,000 Cossack <a href="http://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1000557642&fid=829">kalgasim</a> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and, R"L, kalgasiot right into Bet Shemesh, and he's proud of it! Of what? Our readership doesn't need the thousands of new jobs. Our readership won't vote for him next time unless he spends all his time making sure they won't have to see any more Medinoh uniforms than they already do. I tell you, if he keeps this up, Chadash will go the same way as <a href="http://torahmusings.com/2010/12/vosizneias-com-banned/">Vois Iz Neias</a> and we will all have to go back to, uh, learning full time. My shver will NOT be happy. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Dovid</b>: Oy, Yisroel, don't run around like a headless chicken erev yom kippur. Think damage control. First, we give the byline to Chaim Lazerson whose children's shidduchim chances are shot anyway because they have a distant relative who is not only Lubavitch but also taught public school in </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Buffalo</span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and had the bad sense to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Skullcaps-Switchblades-Survival-Orthodox-Inner-City/dp/0936063300">write a book about it</a>.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Second, just put a few paragraphs in the article about some geonim being concerned about the alien influences that the police school will bring to our pure shtetl. You know, before I became baal teshuva I saw, er, a series of documentaries about the police training process and I can tell exactly how bad it can be for pure Heimish souls.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Yisroel</b>: But how? We go to press in 4 minutes, and you know as well as I that we can't change even one word of the text they sent us. Not to mention that there is no time to call the askanim to procure a gaonic comment.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Dovid</b>: You are nothing but a naïve FFB, my friend. You need to learn the old Yiddish art of keeping everyone happy all the time. Don't change the text, and don't get an actual quote from the gaon. Put a little blurb on the side, and just type some vague words about people being concerned and stuff. Don't actually quote anyone by name because after all it's just you and me covering our tukheses. But find some way not to blame Abutbul, or the permit for expanding my kids' school building might be held up again.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Yisroel</b>: Like this?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh2dQ4MNrepwgSrbIumUZ6DDU3MHR5lcMVDAVmsYlwAswUucJIbsedIz4h_IwIlBQhUccReLvD38QXazpHK3aqzc5LBkPtHD4hOXI796Ffn-sYJHZikX5BNxJ2obB1_h24m_xKgCFor4S0/s1600/Police+blurb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh2dQ4MNrepwgSrbIumUZ6DDU3MHR5lcMVDAVmsYlwAswUucJIbsedIz4h_IwIlBQhUccReLvD38QXazpHK3aqzc5LBkPtHD4hOXI796Ffn-sYJHZikX5BNxJ2obB1_h24m_xKgCFor4S0/s400/Police+blurb.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Dovid</b>: Yup, no time to fix your usual 2nd grade grammar, let's stick it on the page and go to press: You will thank me next time Ehrenreich gets his people to accuse us and the mayor of not being frum enough. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvITGWCLQSH4HLJQx4htqXcBuCAq4k5ai8JFQwMmXFtug8raO3f8Rg3e3QRphbRJJMrR5p2IbhMZjhvYiD9g8F7WURbSudI6xaO3O9l3umW_yfNdNq0lcXpyg7sJsVNTSKLJn21TYg97uY/s1600/Police_-_large_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvITGWCLQSH4HLJQx4htqXcBuCAq4k5ai8JFQwMmXFtug8raO3f8Rg3e3QRphbRJJMrR5p2IbhMZjhvYiD9g8F7WURbSudI6xaO3O9l3umW_yfNdNq0lcXpyg7sJsVNTSKLJn21TYg97uY/s640/Police_-_large_001.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">HT: </span><a href="http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">RafiG</span></a></span></div>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-17816636877823502502011-02-21T23:35:00.000+02:002011-02-21T23:35:15.016+02:00Matrimonial Economics 101<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The economics of matrimony can tell you a lot about a society. </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For example, the long-standing Indian custom of shaking down the bride's parents to the tune of several years' salary may be seeing its final days. The imminent shortage of brides, caused by widespread ultrasound exams and the subsequent abortion of female fetuses, will have to tilt the demand in the girls' favor, and the grooms' parents might actually have to shell out. Or, they could just continue the innovative practice of "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watta_satta">exchange marriages</a>", which is a kind of cashless cross-shidduch in which a brother and sister in one family marry a sister and brother in another family. In the words of Lonestar - "so what does that make us?"....</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back to E. Israel, where the town fathers can only look with envy at the Indian children's servile acceptance of arranged marriages. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the great mysteries surrounding the haredi community is how they manage to raise a family on very little income, and then support their newlywed children with sums of cash that most srugie couples can only dream about. The reward of <i>illuyim</i> with a <i>sidur maleh</i> has certainly done more to encourage serious torah study than any Artscroll <i>mussar </i>volume. Unfortunately, the desperate need for cash has also spawned <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/thousands-of-yeshiva-students-lose-their-shirts-in-lifewave-s-crash-1.218971">get-rich-quick schemes</a> preying on poor people without much financial savvy.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Enter the following ad spotted by Chadash Asur last week, in "Connections" magazine. Connections, incidentally, tries to keep so many people happy that it has to offend everyone all the time. Such as a recent issue giving advice to 12th graders across the full spectrum, from going straight to the army (R"L) to hiding out in the Mir until age 30. Not bad practice for drafting a new Egyptian constitution with less than 10,000 casualties in an ensuing sectarian war.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8TOUlp4FD5VeAtHfrouifmBzR5vqjOeWXq6hIQGkA5XYs-xs_WZFQhbBEMuqFgqun52h9OQB05DFkj0sPDJuGXpPbtmO5DEsLFIKo-pOF7Ed_F4yu3XURvPpEZNHbR716_G9EHYsNUTMW/s1600/pagi+full1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8TOUlp4FD5VeAtHfrouifmBzR5vqjOeWXq6hIQGkA5XYs-xs_WZFQhbBEMuqFgqun52h9OQB05DFkj0sPDJuGXpPbtmO5DEsLFIKo-pOF7Ed_F4yu3XURvPpEZNHbR716_G9EHYsNUTMW/s640/pagi+full1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Witness Bank Poalei Agudat Yisrael (which is really the First International Bank using a heimish-sounding nickname in its branches located in Haredi areas) making a play on parents worried about the next negotiation with the prospective in-laws. Note the wise middle-aged father with the dopey looking son - presumably this is meant to appeal to some parents' protectionary instincts, and the feeling that their kids will forever be 3 years old and require ' sagacious parental guidance.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">But let's look a little closer, specifically at the volume that the pair is studiously posing with:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQpEo04UvSg7mFqTVCDHy84sJ7ehbip-anP8vG_uePhyCQsxEuG83y-_wYawUTNCyI-ufISsQwCwvAJqBpRbgsYGGc3G57wHdIuTxQNQC3C2hFl3OTwCRuHzDZ8wyn6TSYQ6Oou24YeC_-/s1600/gmara+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQpEo04UvSg7mFqTVCDHy84sJ7ehbip-anP8vG_uePhyCQsxEuG83y-_wYawUTNCyI-ufISsQwCwvAJqBpRbgsYGGc3G57wHdIuTxQNQC3C2hFl3OTwCRuHzDZ8wyn6TSYQ6Oou24YeC_-/s640/gmara+001.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Let's ignore the copywriter's negligence in showing a mirror image of text. Can you identify the edition of the Babylonian Talmud by the cover font? No? Then you must be a true tzaddik who doesn't read anything put in cherem by Rav Shach, such as the Steinzaltz edition of the Talmud.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">That's right, the choson-in-waiting is learning from a Steinzaltz! (Note for the uninitiated - this is an edition of the Talmud with Hebrew translation and vowels, and is denigrated by even the lowliest Hesdernik spending his 5th year studying for the psychometric exam...). No Haredi young man would be caught dead holding one, and a picture like this would doubtlessly destroy his family's shidduch chances for at least ten generations.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Yet maybe Chadash Asur is too quick to criticize. Families of <i>illuyim</i> don't need the bank, or the stock market, or anything. Their son's mind and reputation are like an ATM machine under his shtender. Rather, it's the parents of the other 98% who need the loans and the pyramid schemes - like the dude in this picture who is obviously not going to get even a kiddush cup from his mechutanim by virtue of his talmud torah. His parents will have to come up with the dough if he is to merit a remotely reasonable meidel.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Targeted advertising indeed.</span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-22839366212408883612011-01-15T22:09:00.012+02:002011-01-15T22:26:12.577+02:00Rebbetzin Rosa Parks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkJMgvCM_d43FF8BxUH4kkSqRz5YkhtKWP7d947WzTZ415AaOaZWOKFInhQMWR06ajk45Jicx-59EVMUiZNzeirqifYhU3wmuVDHbtqiabJZ3WWahGskxCxdiBa_J5gdih6SFZd85gojtM/s1600/150111buses+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj-T3bnaQcnhpaz9Cssqs3v1DZYjp6UqkW7yoJkpI-tIlFlTYw13XxjGOiKEkM67zFDNLJ7RdwvIes_fApZ8ZAqu_lVcLdzWO3xk208IhWmaWRnydNiVyuZ4k0pppDJeuhliKQllmOwTvm/s1600/150111cover2+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj-T3bnaQcnhpaz9Cssqs3v1DZYjp6UqkW7yoJkpI-tIlFlTYw13XxjGOiKEkM67zFDNLJ7RdwvIes_fApZ8ZAqu_lVcLdzWO3xk208IhWmaWRnydNiVyuZ4k0pppDJeuhliKQllmOwTvm/s640/150111cover2+001.jpg" width="640" /></a></span> </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">(click to enlarge)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj-T3bnaQcnhpaz9Cssqs3v1DZYjp6UqkW7yoJkpI-tIlFlTYw13XxjGOiKEkM67zFDNLJ7RdwvIes_fApZ8ZAqu_lVcLdzWO3xk208IhWmaWRnydNiVyuZ4k0pppDJeuhliKQllmOwTvm/s1600/150111cover2+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
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</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span id="goog_1953531616"></span><span id="goog_1953531617"></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hot on the heels of the <a href="http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/2010/12/payment-problems-on-mehadrin-bus-lines.html">pashkevilim admonishing mehadrin travelers</a> not to use the back exit as a way of avoiding the fare, comes this adrenaline shot to the country's latest segregation effort.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And a segregation effort it is, but not to segregate haredi men from haredi women. Instead, by restricting their mostly unvehicled flock to mandated bus lines only, the geonim have finally succeeded in ensuring that these men and women never ever leave the Jerusalem - Kiryat Sefer - Betar Illit - Bet Shemesh - Bnei Brak pentagon, except on foot. I may have missed a few locales, but you get the idea. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When the Gaon Kupshitz qualifies travel on non-mehadrin buses as being "פורש מן הציבור" - you know which tzibur he isn't talking about. If you are reading this online, Internet Rimmon or not, here's looking at you.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also enjoyed the reference to "mizrachi" schools, as an analogy to the backsliding practice of taking mixed transportation. (For the uninitiated, "mizrachi" does not mean eastern or Sha"s, but is rather a jab at the Mafdal school system, an etymological artifact of the 19th century Chibat Zion's מרכז רוחני - מזר"ח that only haredim seem to use, and never as flattery). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This poor blogger attended a "mizrachi" junior high in Jerusalem, and used non-segregated public transportation to get there. Since the school in question was located in Gival Shaul, I had a daily choice between the #11 and #15 buses. The former drove straight down Jaffa Rd, but at the time (mid-80s) still used one of those WWII-vintage cigar-shaped claustrophobia-inducing buses, and was populated exclusively by East Jerusalem laborers heading for construction sites. Not fun for a thin-wristed 12 year-old. That left the #15, which drove down Strauss and Malchei Yisrael St. (otherwise known as Geula). I spent many a ride reading the pashkevilim pasted along the route, and wondering at the tefillin-clad yeshiva students perched on the steps of yeshivos, presumably during the slower parts of davening.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I never saw during these countless rides (and believe me, I was watching) was any interaction between the haredi and hiloni passengers that could in any way lead to Rachmana litzlan mixed dancing. Actually, there was no interaction at all. Either I was naive or things have really changed in the last 20 years.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My school, incidentally, was segregated from 1st grade.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's a melaveh malka treat:</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; direction: rtl; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr5Sqx4L6Ou-cBQ9OAd0zAoJMVYT3ooZ7IHuELDy-EOwgDd9RpTUuKXSAdF9AJhSuhncj3S5J48WaKqVYhcNekI1NNrga-vpxDkWNPXtj2e11BWsZ7TN-HAFwnTP-BGS-jBfAhyphenhyphenn0JVoCf/s1600/150111pi+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="62" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr5Sqx4L6Ou-cBQ9OAd0zAoJMVYT3ooZ7IHuELDy-EOwgDd9RpTUuKXSAdF9AJhSuhncj3S5J48WaKqVYhcNekI1NNrga-vpxDkWNPXtj2e11BWsZ7TN-HAFwnTP-BGS-jBfAhyphenhyphenn0JVoCf/s320/150111pi+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; direction: rtl; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; direction: ltr; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Compare with Deuteronomy 21:17 -</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; direction: ltr; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; direction: rtl; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: David; font-size: 20px; line-height: 22px;">כִּי אֶת-הַבְּכֹר בֶּן-הַשְּׂנוּאָה יַכִּיר, לָתֶת לוֹ</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: David; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">פִּי שְׁנַיִם</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">, בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר-יִמָּצֵא, לוֹ: כִּי-הוּא רֵאשִׁית אֹנוֹ, לוֹ מִשְׁפַּט הַבְּכֹרָה</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;">.</span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; direction: ltr; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; direction: ltr; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">That's right, numbers after פי always need to be in the masculine form. Simple grammatical ignorance? I think not. The daas torah underlying every page of Chodosh seems to have dictated that the word at the end of the title - like the passengers at the back of the bus - must belong to the fairer gender. </span></span></div>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-371623968781506402010-12-26T21:51:00.002+02:002010-12-27T22:21:05.553+02:00ha-Tov she-ba-Rof'im - Part III<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyCd0e60h5R8DmIx2HhnfxmxUKmDzrzUL2imzYAnLy9RAW0DRUTNQxDK62QZpoB183svhdPxsOH82qBW4zC0XhphD50fdcvQ0vGCA14lefWnlXT6EATtW8COMz4UmYNaJ54kLPhwfxRsm/s1600/P1070215.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyCd0e60h5R8DmIx2HhnfxmxUKmDzrzUL2imzYAnLy9RAW0DRUTNQxDK62QZpoB183svhdPxsOH82qBW4zC0XhphD50fdcvQ0vGCA14lefWnlXT6EATtW8COMz4UmYNaJ54kLPhwfxRsm/s640/P1070215.JPG" width="426" /></a></div><br />
Had to read this one twice.<br />
<br />
When Meuhedet wanted more haredi patients they paid some former Shas MK a couple million shekels quietly, appointed him de jure manager of a clinic, and let nature take its course. <a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2010/11/ha-tov-she-ba-rofim.html">As Chadash Asur reported</a>, this story came up when Meuhedet got busted for general corruption.<br />
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Meuhedet's competitor Clalit has drawn the appropriate conclusion, and decided not to sneak around with their own haredi "askan". So, pictured above on a full page ad in last Shaboss' Chadash is Mr. Yeshayahu Erenreich, former mayor of Immanuel, a noted restaurateur in Ramat Gan and current Bet Shemesh city councilman and chairman of the local waterworks. Now tack on another title - "Clalit customer service rep for the haredi community"!<br />
<br />
Just imagine the contribution Yeshayahu might offer Clalit's patients, being apparently bereft of an MD, any experience in health management, not to mention being strapped for time shuttling between the Ramat Gan restaurant and his new Bet Shemesh digs. Now imagine what he might be getting from Clalit's annual budget - a budget which is funded by innocent hard-working bloggers.<br />
<br />
One marketing tactic did occur to me - until about 2 years ago, Clalit still had not computerized its files, and when the doc saw you, an actual paper file circa 1990 was pulled out. Yeshayahu might capitalize on the haredi fear of all telecommunications, and particularly computers, when making his pitch.<br />
<br />
Or, he could just tell roshei yeshiva that if at least 50% of their balebatim don't switch over to Clalit this year, they can expect some municipal inspectors to come knocking.ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-76519846286380591702010-12-12T22:27:00.000+02:002010-12-12T22:27:23.683+02:00The Pharaonic Welfare State<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have a vague recollection of the 2003 political storm that brewed when Bibi Netanyahu (as finance minister) did away with a good part of the government child support payments to larger families. For a few years until that time, child allowances paid by Bitauch Leumi (the National Insurance Institute) geometrically increased from the fifth child onward, awarding large families considerable income for letting nature take its course. When the government had enough of that, there were cries of "population control" etc. But let's face it - reducing child allowances to $60 per month isn't exactly China's one-child policy or Sanjay Gandhi's <a href="http://www.jstor.org/pss/1964756">forced vasectomy campaign</a> (at least the guys got transistor radios for their trouble).</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last Pesach my kids received an illustrated hagadah, which, shall we say, started off with a haskomo from someone in Bnei Brak. After ascertaining that it didn't show little Jewish slaves wearing shtetl-caps and streimels I gave it my blessing. Until one day I came across this illustration:</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghruRgGKxouNwEdhWk8SNM5kfRLw1kTCK8PAk1iB_Z6VqdhHFvjL2bqzA91A_0nPsTDT058n06m9dTy6in8ftCoXDSNxLY0kG8hbCsYBP2U0q8RbkfxQJufBJtVkTxZ5Uu2hFcjS0_tWeC/s1600/MLL_001%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghruRgGKxouNwEdhWk8SNM5kfRLw1kTCK8PAk1iB_Z6VqdhHFvjL2bqzA91A_0nPsTDT058n06m9dTy6in8ftCoXDSNxLY0kG8hbCsYBP2U0q8RbkfxQJufBJtVkTxZ5Uu2hFcjS0_tWeC/s640/MLL_001%255B1%255D.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The preceding frames show a Jewish mother hiding her newborn all-male sextuplets from Pharaoh's decree. The following frames show the soldiers throwing the kids to the Nile crocodiles (SPOILER: some miracle happens and they are saved).</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Consider all of the contemporary elements in this cartoon: Six babies in a haimishe family (there were a few other siblings on the scene as well); a soldier from an "elite unit" which in Hebrew evokes Bnei Akiva kids dreaming of Sayeret Matkal instead of the Mir; a "law" - being a reference to laws passed by parliament rather than being sourced from the Shulchan Aruch; the soldier's paranoia that the innocent family is trying to deceive the state; and lastly, the "difficult financial situation" which seems to set the victims aside from the rest of society and serves as the basis for their persecution.</span><br />
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<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aha - the copyright date on the hagadah is התשס"ד, or right after Bibi shut the shekel spigot in 2003. </span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sigh. I might be angry when the company car benefit is taxed at higher rates. And maybe I will call the finance minister some bad names. But changing the plot of the Exodus story just to make a political point is going a little too far. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I shouldn't be so surprised to see those "Zionists Out" signs along the road in RBS Bais.</span></div>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-64853480222804865842010-11-25T10:54:00.002+02:002010-11-25T11:01:15.274+02:00Too big to report II<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The history of journalism is rife with examples of concurrent events which result in one of the events, often the more significant one, being eclipsed by the other and thus ignored by the public.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take, for example, the almost simultaneous deaths of Mother Theresa and Princess Diana in 1997. This blogger happened to be in Delhi at the time, in Mother Theresa's adopted country. Hard to say anyone noticed her during the media assault about Diana and Dodi Fayed. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 1991 everyone watched the Gulf War I and pretty much ignored the collapse of the Soviet Union (yawn).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2003 everyone watched Gulf War II and pretty much ignored the SARS virus (too depressing, no footage).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And in November 2010, as SWAT teams raided kollels in Jerusalem, Bet Shemesh and Bnei Brak, seizing forged ID cards and arresting rabbonim, the haredi community of Bet Shemeh was preoccupied with far more important matters, namely, the construction of a staircase between Maapilei Egoz St. and the Kirya Haredit (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2010/10/ramat-beit-shemesh-bais.html">or Haredis or whatever</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">). Truly profound. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh1T9xz2FnEeddUh38X2CF10sqiZpkyK1d3lAwllHEURy2O7HSSVRs78bV_wRFroWerODh7o2a2og1QNEeyDem4u-oWM9Jzpi_FU8Bife6k3YbsFunPes7_wQv67laDs2HNfZJgiLpvq-W/s1600/p.1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh1T9xz2FnEeddUh38X2CF10sqiZpkyK1d3lAwllHEURy2O7HSSVRs78bV_wRFroWerODh7o2a2og1QNEeyDem4u-oWM9Jzpi_FU8Bife6k3YbsFunPes7_wQv67laDs2HNfZJgiLpvq-W/s400/p.1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chadash Asur eagerly perused the remaining 72-odd pages of Chadash (<a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2010/10/ramat-beit-shemesh-bais.html?showComment=1287312642724#c7819225354878754101">or Chodosh or whatever</a>) in search of some buried reference to the events of the week. Apart from an editorial about farm animals that could have been a reference to anything, C.A came up with a small item on page 47 about some unexplained police raids during the week, but mostly about a slapstick police raid on the wrong kollel. The NKVD can't tell Belz from Telz, apparently. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here, then, is the extent of Chadash's reporting of the events which rocked the haredi world this week:</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEo-A5Gk3E0tmmEOn_vZ1_JG057144aUhX_uvhMljYErBfhqs6wPacza-XeSE9qhveY6Do8O-8JqMuW6J7YHSczWVqPf1mRZK9bWgRpE8J68PpWGsuzkSP_dZ1Pizh6AymkLwyj19lhfR0/s1600/p46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEo-A5Gk3E0tmmEOn_vZ1_JG057144aUhX_uvhMljYErBfhqs6wPacza-XeSE9qhveY6Do8O-8JqMuW6J7YHSczWVqPf1mRZK9bWgRpE8J68PpWGsuzkSP_dZ1Pizh6AymkLwyj19lhfR0/s640/p46.jpg" width="332" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Chadash Asur's rather twisted mind, this self-censorship evokes the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's description of the only way to escape the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal:</span><br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>A rather large creature that likes to eat things. </i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast is so mind-bogglingly stupid that it thinks that if you can't see it, it can't see you. Therefore, the best defense against a Bugblatter Beast is to wrap a towel around your head.</i></span> </blockquote>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-45112382899635912902010-11-21T21:46:00.005+02:002010-11-22T00:15:26.220+02:00Too big to report<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we speak, the <a href="http://www.bhol.co.il/Article.aspx?id=21723">she'erit hapleita of the haredi blogosphere</a> is engaged primarily with the question of who ratted on the alleged <a href="http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3987816,00.html">kollelim-turned-forgery-mills</a>, and the field day that the secular press is about to have. </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Call me improper, but the depiction in bhol.co.il (linked above) evokes the Warsaw Ghetto tragedies of the Nazis finding the local </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em style="font-style: normal;">Laissez</em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em style="font-style: normal;">passer</em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> fabricator, and the resulting search for the informant... </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ChadashAsur is the first to agree that no one save perhaps </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1131383.html">Marwan Barghuti</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> gets a fair rap in the Israeli secular press. As a knitted-kipa-wearing alumnus of the Yigal Amir disaster I also don't expect the charedim to start tearing kria in the streets and assuming collective guilt.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, come Friday's editions of Chadash and haShavua, we should expect either:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Complete silence about the allegations, and continued focus on which gaon's great-grandson had a bar-mitzva and what Shalom Lerner has done lately to stall the Bet Shemesh land grab;</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">or</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Ferocious counter-attack alleging police brutality, fabricated evidence, persecution of innocent, simple Jews, and veiled legitimization of anything that could be cast as furthering talmud torah.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can't wait.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><u>Post-script</u></i>: Someone will have to explain to me how a teudat zehut containing personal information about a non-existent person can be used to obtain funding from the Education Ministry. If they aren't cross-checking data to verify that these are real people, then they can't quite complain, and should refer to Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span></span><br />
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<dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gunnery Sergeant Hartman</b>: Private Pyle, why is your footlocker unlocked?</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Private Gomer Pyle</b>: Sir, I don't know, sir!</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gunnery Sergeant Hartman</b>: Private Pyle, if there is one thing in this world that I hate, it is an unlocked footlocker! You know that, don't you?</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Private Gomer Pyle</b>: Sir, yes, sir!</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gunnery Sergeant Hartman</b>: If it wasn't for ***heads like you, there wouldn't be any thievery in this world, would there?</span></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 2em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Private Gomer Pyle</b>: Sir, no, sir!</span></dd>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-14420307769371606232010-11-19T11:00:00.002+02:002010-12-30T14:19:15.536+02:00ha-Tov she-ba-Rof'im - Part II<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This week, haShavua's "Kav l'Mishpacha" page adds its two kopeks to the haredi view of the public health system.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At first glance, this is but a rather poorly rendered satire about a family being swept into a physician's office and being summarily diagnosed with a petri dish of diseases, when all they wanted was some water from the clinic's drinking fountain. Have a read (click for larger image):</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So much about the "Dr. Stella" depicted in this column symbolizes haredi prejudice against the Other, mainstream Israeli world. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take her name, a reference to the Slavic aliya which produced so many GP's but is seen by some haredim as something worse than the "airev rav" in Sinai. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dr. Stella, who has a distinctly non-haredi "diploma", not only misunderstands the circumstances of the family's presence in the clinic, but serially misdiagnoses each of the children with diseases such as dysentery, pneumonia, spinal malformation, and flat feet. Even worse, she accuses the mother of neglecting her children by not engaging in constant OCD-type bathing. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The reader is shown that this physician is incompetent in the secular scientific profession she purports to practice. She probably has no children or perhaps one child, facilitating her fantasies about perfect pediatric hygiene in a family setting.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Frankly, the scene in which she bolts the exit and traps the family in the examination room is evocative of an NKVD interrogation, or worse.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dr. Stella represents the alien, other, incompetent, uncomprehending, emotionally unstable and oppressive entity that is the public health system. <u>Conclusion</u>: "They are incapable of understanding us, and should not tell us what to do or how to live our lives. We will tolerate them as a necessary evil only to the extent that they obey the Geonic orders quietly."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Time for a little cheshbon nefesh, haShavua. The family doctors who selflessly put up with everything the public throws at them day after day deserve so much more.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2010/12/ha-tov-she-ba-rofim-part-iii.html">See part III</a></span></div>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-81397329220887647442010-11-16T23:58:00.003+02:002010-11-19T11:19:07.058+02:00ha-Tov she-ba-Rof'im ...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLwezj5QWWbJkWWay5OVIR6ebPegD1B97K9SlatlRNyPE6c9rvRPWdEsJjhcfiIlnbYx-lbj6Z1sf4aAFcq0iwU8rNvqvPMpIxr1PY-kOxPR759Wwfyd5lqpmBo8op-Hj6rYDmcIMMJY23/s1600/vaccine+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLwezj5QWWbJkWWay5OVIR6ebPegD1B97K9SlatlRNyPE6c9rvRPWdEsJjhcfiIlnbYx-lbj6Z1sf4aAFcq0iwU8rNvqvPMpIxr1PY-kOxPR759Wwfyd5lqpmBo8op-Hj6rYDmcIMMJY23/s640/vaccine+001.jpg" width="456" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Skeptical haredi attitudes to vaccinations are nothing new. Earlier this year <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/current-measles-outbreak-hit-ultra-orthodox-the-hardest-1.232778">Haaretz</a> and the rest of the secular press had a field day reporting outbreaks of measles and mumps infections in Rockland County, Bet Shemesh and Jerusalem due to parents’ unwillingness to vaccinate their children.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, within reasonable limits I respect a parent’s choice to make educated decisions about his or her child, even when this goes against convention or even what I would call common sense. Conventions undergo revision and improvement, and what is acceptable today may seem ridiculous tomorrow. We fondly remember the formula-industry-fueled attitude against breastfeeding in the 60’s and 70’s in the US, which in more recent times has been <a href="http://www.blogger.com/[http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/policy/policies/b/breastfeedingpositionpaper.html">all but disregarded</a>. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So much for educated decisions in RBS Bais. From my own experience I perceive a rebellious attitude among many haredim towards all scientific and, in fact, all non-haredi knowledge, as part of their crusade to dissociate themselves from the larger society in which they find themselves trapped. This leads to <a href="http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=168140">grasping at any and all flimsy rumors</a> purporting to undermine extra-haredi norms and credibility, paradoxically leading from the rejection of prevalent science to quacks and con-artists (not unlike how the disregard of academic or literary modern Hebrew makes many a Litvish yeshiva student sound like a fish merchant hawking his wares in Machane Yehuda).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Medicine, in which humanity has invested so much of its scientific research efforts, really is the perfect target for this type of adolescent-style rebelliousness. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>First</i>, doctors are the first to admit that medicine cannot explain everything, and positions are constantly evolving due to statistical studies and new discoveries. People can fall ill and die without modern medicine having a clue as to the cause, and other people will recover without the aid of any treatment. This allows a layman to wonder whether the field is morally sound or perhaps linked to commercial or more sinister motives. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Second</i>, it is one of the few places in which closed communities intimately meet state-run institutions (another telling point of convergence is the justice system – more about that some other time). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And <i>third</i>, this meeting between individual and institution takes place in a relatively public forum – everyone will see you walking into tipat chalav with your infant. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Laying no claims to being a torah scholar, I have grave misgivings about the authenticity of rabanim taking a stand on general health matters. Let’s face it, most haredi poskim don’t have a clue about modern medical research, statistical studies – and how many of them can even read English? Instead, this is part of the general effort to control every last facet of the community’s life, to embellish their distance from the rest of us, and to play power politics when convenient - whether or not the rulings make much sense halachically - or in this case medically. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This evokes the <a href="http://www.bhol-forums.co.il/topic.asp?topic_id=627423&forum_id=771">2003 riots</a> against(!) separate Egged buses in RBS, and the protests about damage to questionably Jewish gravesites despite rabbinic sources permitting this for the public good (well, <a href="http://www.kikarhashabat.co.il/19761.html">except when the graves are in a new haredi neighborhood</a>, when the matter is taken care of in one afternoon).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Politics is politics and I am certainly not saying that haredi askanim are – or even should be - any more moral and altruistic than their Zionist and secular counterparts. If your business interests compel you to get 400 bachurim out on the street to block Egged buses, such behavior isn’t really unprecedented or extraordinary in the national scene. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What gets to me is when this maneuvering plays with the minds of unwitting and often naïve young parents. When in doubt, I feel that one should follow the advice of a career professional, particularly in decisions relating to the medical care of young children. Haredi families are getting the opposite message: “Don’t believe anything doctors tell you. Don’t ever take vaccinations, and don’t believe any of their advice unless Chadash can round up enough rabanim to publicly support it. And if you see your neighbor walking into kupat cholim on Nahar Hayarden St., report it to the Shidduch Status Police immediately for further investigation.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And let’s face the facts. Unlike <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah's_Witnesses_and_blood_transfusions">some other extreme religious groups</a> who go all the way to martyrdom, Hatzoloh marches the kid straight into the ER in Ein Karem or Shaarei Zedek when something goes very wrong, where the physicians - until then outside the Pale - deal with whatever is left. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back to this article. After all that kvetching you would think I would be pleased to see so many members of the Gaonic class coming out in support of the flu vaccination, but alas I am not. The subtext of the article clearly reads “OK – but only this time! Don’t do anything unless all of the Geonim get together and decide it is kosher. We decide when you can listen to kupat cholim, in fact, we control them, and as soon as we are unhappy, we’ll just push the button and send 100,000 people to the post office to switch to Meuchedet”.*</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">* This may already have happened – in today’s exposé on <a href="http://www.themarker.com/tmc/article.jhtml?ElementId=skira20101116_1198705">corruption among the higher echelons</a> of the Meuchedet HMO we are told of a former haredi MK getting a <a href="http://www.bhol.co.il/Article.aspx?id=21509">nice consulting fee for illegally soliciting HMO memberships</a>. Hard to believe he went around the streets of Bnei Brak convincing people to switch over. If he used the more effective method of paying or otherwise incentivizing rabanim to order their flock to do so, well, you can’t help asking how this will influence the next negotiation about whether to allow kids to be vaccinated against fatal diseases.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">[See <a href="http://chadash-asur.blogspot.com/2010/11/ha-tov-she-ba-rofim-part-ii.html">Part II</a>]</span></span></div>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-82487737162089413802010-10-14T22:59:00.002+02:002010-10-19T16:04:38.486+02:00Ramat Beit Shemesh BaisSelf-determination and animosity along linguistic lines are nothing new - see last week's sedra about the Tower of Babel, the tribe of Ephraim tragically failing to pronounce Shibboleth, and more recently the secession of Bengali-speaking East Pakistan (Bangladesh) from Urdu-speaking West Pakistan (let's face it - another crummy British colonial legacy). See also Spain, Belgium, Wales, etc. <br />
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Until the events of the last century, we Yidden had as many different pronunciation traditions as there were communities, and only in the last few decades have we begun to coalesce around three basic liturgical pronunciation groupings - generic Ashkenazic, generic North African/Levant, and the modern Hebrew amalgamation. "Modern" Hebrew takes the easy way out and incorporates the more user-friendly features of the two. No more distinction between the "hard" and "soft" letter tav (תּ/ת), no more gutturals (ע), no distinctive pronunciation of tet (ט) or tzaddi (צ), no accentuating the dagesh chazak (Avshalom Kor excluded). Sigh. Go back 100 years and if our ancestors could hear the way we speak, they would tear kriya and say we are all meshumadim.<br />
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Now, I am as reluctant as the next amateur linguist to condone Modern Hebrew's disposal of the distinction between different consonants and vowels, but at least it is consistent.<br />
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Not so our local charedi press. <br />
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We are fortunate that the weekly Chadash has made an overture to the vernacular of most of its target audience (i.e. charedim willing to read a newspaper, being somech on the Netziv's nephew as brought to everyone's attention by ק"ק Lakewood), by including a few pages of English. Fortunate for ChadashAsur because the use of the Latin alphabet for transliteration of Hebrew words shows the writers' preferred pronounciation - or the pronunciation they feel they need to be seen as using.<br />
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Problem is, the policy seems to vary from line to line, or even within the same line. A few weeks back, the English section featured the unforgettable "<b>Ramat Beit Shemesh Bais</b>" in font size 20. I neglected to clip that linguistic oxymoron, but have a look at a few similar transliterations from today's Chadash:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheFJBAq47nO-QLLu83-Cw4ItyJku7V6gpxjvUWbkn0SpD7Xb_oS1EKyRBFcZC2tXyAGZLwzEaS_3P1UnB-SD45dNtl7bUlrF6C_Rd7RHlhg_UY5b67Bf1-3B71mV19nChuCVVZTXBUmTjY/s1600/banner+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="87" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheFJBAq47nO-QLLu83-Cw4ItyJku7V6gpxjvUWbkn0SpD7Xb_oS1EKyRBFcZC2tXyAGZLwzEaS_3P1UnB-SD45dNtl7bUlrF6C_Rd7RHlhg_UY5b67Bf1-3B71mV19nChuCVVZTXBUmTjY/s400/banner+001.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Compare and contrast "Beit Shemesh" with "parshas".<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg40o3VA5LTzXUcapkxO4r7yiNW0hjtWA5xSBANR1z3XGXRokGEOZCfhzCveH9V-_2dWDyuK6668zfyGUQPacBr7_z0GVFSu8iCNnYDDEDBy_usbAA-yI1ZBPBoCSuvFvjGp2m7bWhBaVy6/s1600/sfas+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg40o3VA5LTzXUcapkxO4r7yiNW0hjtWA5xSBANR1z3XGXRokGEOZCfhzCveH9V-_2dWDyuK6668zfyGUQPacBr7_z0GVFSu8iCNnYDDEDBy_usbAA-yI1ZBPBoCSuvFvjGp2m7bWhBaVy6/s320/sfas+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>OK, I can't see how the term Sfas Emes would roll off a gerrer tongue in any other way (or, for that matter, a litvish tongue together with a healthy dose of Yiddish curses about someone's kup in dreird).<br />
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[Tangent: One can only imagine what the Sfas Emes ztz"l would think about lending his name to a street in the State of Israel, parallel to Levi Eshkol St., and perpendicular to that Litvisher, Hazon Ish St. Hashem Yerachem...]<br />
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The dichotomy, however, evokes the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder">daily inner struggle</a> inherent in a reclusive society reluctantly relating to the wider world. But that might be too profound for this blog.<br />
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Shabbas Shalom.ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-39630030785061172362010-10-11T23:27:00.005+02:002010-10-13T10:03:40.834+02:00Cram 'em in<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdOYXRHOq9__QiVnE4Q4DInSOV2gftxaPVvlpg3i9-OJZuDB7vGCAK5BWqNa4jjUCb304xKWNec24T6BvgE9nW4A1PKX7IjqvHKf9ccjoXrERgRwhSpZa0rLVCIhjQQUF8A26MCzJ7TKUz/s1600/chadash_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdOYXRHOq9__QiVnE4Q4DInSOV2gftxaPVvlpg3i9-OJZuDB7vGCAK5BWqNa4jjUCb304xKWNec24T6BvgE9nW4A1PKX7IjqvHKf9ccjoXrERgRwhSpZa0rLVCIhjQQUF8A26MCzJ7TKUz/s640/chadash_001.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chadash, Oct 8 2010</td></tr>
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<i>Warning: The charedi attitude to traffic safety might be a recurring rant on this blog. Hey, if you ever drive through Bet you will understand. Ever play Frogger?</i><br />
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Have a look at the picture on the upper left of the article. Looks like a Mitsubishi(?) five-seater sedan with the front bashed in. Now look at the caption: "six family members". Huh?<br />
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The article is rather clear that the six family members were all in this single vehicle, two parents and their four kids. Ever strap four kids into three seats? Maybe one or two are wearing proper seat belts. The rest aren't restrained or maybe sharing a seat belt. A fine opportunity to stress seat belts and maximum vehicle capacity.<br />
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Alas, no mention of such trifling matters. Instead, we are assured that after treating the passengers, the hatzolo volunteers "returned to Bet Shemesh upon the sounding of the siren heralding the beginning of Shabbat, and quickly attended to completing their preparations for Shabbat". True hashgacha pratis that the negligent parents didn't let any pikuach nefesh get in the way of licht bentching.ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5067631893368386369.post-3077596078729614732010-10-11T23:06:00.001+02:002010-10-14T13:11:30.355+02:00Leading offWe mild-mannered denizens of <s>a distinctly non-charedi neighborhood</s> the Givat Sharet neighborhood of Bet Shemesh have been treated of late to a stream of charedi weekly newspapers, giving us a taste of the sheltered life and times of the non-alphabetically ordered ramohs of this town.<br />
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Admittedly, no newspaper is a mirror image of its intended audience. Newspapers have been called "draft histories" and as such seek to highlight the new, noteworthy and exceptional, not the rule. But the charedi press, in tiring Artscroll fashion, seeks not to identify new trends but to impose its sanctioned view of what society should be, often by highlighting the mundane and ignoring what mainstream reporters would see as the main gist of a news item.<br />
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We Anglos are so accustomed to a free press (even with a <a href="http://www.haaretz.co.il/">thinly-veiled agenda</a>) that the Ancien-Régime of a mass media controlled and censored by the top of a monolithic power structure is a sad novelty.<br />
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</div><div>Happy reading.</div>ChadashAsurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16683988672464137594noreply@blogger.com2