October 2008

Hey Hey to the Zionist Hip Hop heads out there. I hate jumping on other’s coat tails but these guys deserve props because props are due. I have been posting about Hip Hop Jews via the Shemspeed website and constant updates on the collective massive.

Jews in Hip Hop have been a presence in the game for quite some time begining with the breakthrough of the Beastie Boys in 1986. Being the only white (Jewish) guys on the Def Jam roster brought them to the fore as another version of Hip Hop with a white face. At first their stage shows were bloated with exploitation, but they later changed the tone and became serious musicians. The Beasties matured with every album and branched to other venues besides Hip Hop, but that is their true calling. Many Jewish MC’s were influenced both by the Beasties and later incarnations of the Judaic MC such as Third Bass’s MC Serch, The Wu Tang Clan extended family’s Remedy, the indie sensation Edan the Humble Magnificent, one of my favorites who is the founder of the formidable indie label Definitive Jux, El-P and a few more.

That’s why you can’t stop and will never stop us from branching into all mediums of pop culture in all walks of life. We’re all Zelig’s (big ups Woody Allen) living in an a strange universe. 

Check out the Shemspeed update below:

Shemspeed Fam, After a lot of research and digging, “The Beat Guide to Yiddish” is finally finished! The mix blends some of Diwon’s own music into forgotten sounds from Eastern Europe. Hear Yiddish in a way you would have never thought possible. Included on the mix are sounds from; Gershon Kingsley, Jewdyssee, Sam Medoff, Lipa, Seymour Rechtzeit and a few other gems. And you could download it for free from www.shemspeed.com/diwon. Also, It has been brought to our attention that the downloading website we used for the last free song plays host to some inappropriate advertisements. We are sorry that you were exposed to that! We have deleted the link so no one will find any of that material again and have created a new safe link, http://www.mediafire.com/?wnvgjzyjzoy. all the best,Erez p.s. Enjoy and please pass the Beat Guide to all your friends and fiends! - www.shemspeed.com/diwon p.p.s. check out an interview about “The Beat Guide” with the JTA here and write ups in Sweden and Russia * The Beat Guide To Yiddish Diwon has produced countless electro and hip hop mixes. His use of traditional Yemenite and Sephardic music, however, sets him apart from other artists in the genre. Influenced heavily by his family’s roots in Yemen, Ethiopia and Israel, the multicultural maestro is always full of suprises and his latest release, The Beat Guide to Yiddish, is no exception. Diwon’s Beat Guide mixes some of his own music into forgotten sounds from Eastern Europe. Download the mix for free and hear Yiddish in a way you would have never thought possible. Included on the mix are sounds from; Gershon Kingsley, Jewdyssee, Sam Medoff, Lipa, Seymour Rechtzeit and a few other gems. DOWNLOAD NOW FREE FROM WWW.SHEMSPEED.COM/DIWON

   Shabbt Shalom L’Kulam

Being a Jew in New York City is quite a feat, being pushed into the saturated market of Jewish social events. It is Jew-stuff galore and you realize how each is catered to that niche audience, whether environmentalists in the Golan or love for the kids of Sderot or Russian Jews for education and recognition, they all have an outlet. And then there are the “Unafiliated.” These are the apathetic types who have grown so accustomed to their world, yet they also consider themselves rebels because they aren’t conforming by joining a “group.”

These “rebel” Jews don’t like being lectured about what they should care about and why. These are mostly people who grew up in smaller towns with small to moderate sized Jewish populations. They probably revolved around their house, their school, friends’s houses, girlfriend’s house and back home - ready to do it all again the next day. They have all or mostly been Bar or Bat Mitzvah’d and went through Hebrew school in their local Shuls to get to that day at the age of 13 (or 12 for the ladies). The Hebrew school was the focus of their Jewish upbringing and from what I’ve seen it’s doing a poor job teaching appreciation for Israel as well as traditional Judaism. 

All American Hebrew schools (Conservative, Reform and Orthodox) must revamp and change their Jewish education curriculum. The present materials are strictly Liturgical with some history and Holocaust studies. One big missing componant is Israel. Israel plays an integral part in our every day lives. Not only as the reincarnation of the modern State but also as a link to our past and a reminder of the hard times of the diaspora. They should teach this connection through the Torah as well as through historical Zionist texts. This will be important because college campuses are mostly liberal and people who are seen as “Pro-Israel” are chastised by the local hardcore liberal contingency. If these Jewish students from small towns can address issues like why Israel is a beacon of democracy in the Middle East etc. They could argue with ease and be able to cite old and new texts.

Hebrew is also an important element of Judaism that American Jews should learn and understand. They only learn the liturgical language and at an introductory level. They pound these words that the kids regurgitate during services in their Hebrew schools, but they never teach them the true essence of each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is said that G-d created the world and the universe with a single letter. If one letter has that power than think of the posibility of being proficient in the entire language. All American Hebrew day schools should teach Hebrew as a second language and as young an age as possible, because the younger the age the more the child will retain after maturing to adulthood.

You all know the old saying that if it isn’t broke, don’t try to fix it. Well this system is broken and instead of the usual band-aid approach or even ignoring the facts we must fix this mess. If we initiate a fix then the usual Birthright alumni would have been more in tune with his/her religion, history and culture.    

Hello V’Shabbat Shalom to all of our faithful readers.

Jews through out the centuries have traveled to Eretz Yisrael for many reasons and with some sort of financial assistance. In the last two decades Birthright has managed to bring Jews from all across the world, mostly Americans, to visit Israel and soak in the true experiences beyond the lens of the media. Most of the participants who go on these trips have never been to Israel as well as their parents, and if they have it was for a time specific family vacation. There is a population of people taking advantage of the free trip who is both interesting and worth engaging. They are the expatriates or the sons and daughters of expatriates, and of course I should know because I’m one of them.

Many of these ex-pats are reconnecting with Israel because they’re Israeli or their parents are Israeli by birth or Aliyah. They are not only reconnecting but rather making their own rules when it comes to identity of being an American and an Israeli. A few months ago I overheard a kid, from a Birthright program, in Ben-Gurion Airport claiming that he’s been to Israel over 20 times since he was a baby. This population of kids isn’t as big as the Americans Jews who never went, but it’s large and growing. The numbers project that there are about one million Israelis living in the U.S. with half living in New York City. We need to nourish this population because they are key in projecting a new relationship between Israelis and Jews in the diaspora, especially American Jews.

These ex-pats have many advantages when they went on the trip and I’ll give some persoanl first hand accounts. It’s easier to create a rapport if you can speak the language and the more fluent, and Sephardi, you sound the more Israeli you seem. There are also cultural norms and slang words that could effuse the warmth between the Israelis and the ex-pats. There are plenty more qualities that combine, but the bigger issue is that they are key to our future. Israeli-Americans/American-Israelis have the advantage of having one foot in each culture and also able to sway from side to side without slipping. Now the question is where would they be most helpful?

There are many sectors where Israelis who lived in the US for most of their lives, and the opposite, can share each other’s resources. The brain power of Jews across the planet is astounding so we need to spread and share the wealth. We need to have these American-Israelis who lived in Israel most of their lives come back and teach American Jews about Israeli popular culture and visa versa. The same could be said about any other realm whether it be economic, medical, political, hysterical, etc. I think this cross divide cooperation is key because this population will only grow with the rising numbers of American Jews making Aliyah and marrying into Israeli families. Before we know it almost all of the Israeli population will have duo-citizenship. Sounds a bit schizoid, but what did you expect from a nomadic clan who have been around for a few centuries? 

Shabbat Shalom  

I hope we are all well rested after the month of Chagim. We rejoiced, were judged, atoned for our sins, sealed our fate in the book on high, commemorated our forefathers by living in “booths” or Sukkot and we both finished and began the Torah, reviewing the death of Moshe and the birth of the Universe.

This might sound like a lot going on in the spiritual realm but we managed to handle it, now for the hard part; Politics. Both the elections in the United States and the impending formation of an Israeli government are looming close. In the US the next fourteen days will be full of talking heads on news shows calling in all their armies of so-called “experts.” There will be so much spin and chatter that November 4th seems like a century away. So the closer we get to election day the uglier the attacks will get from both sides (Although mostly from the right). Also, there was a lot said this past week from both sides and commentators on the wayside. Being a Zionist blog I want to cover the words of one my favorite psycho babblers, Jesse Jackson.

You all might know this but last week the New York Post reported that Jesse Jackson predicted a dramatic break from US Middle Eastern policy if Barak Obama became the next US President. A recent article in the Post by Amir Taheri claims that Jesse Jackson said that the next American Administration, under Obama, will break the Zionist hold on American foreign policy. He predicted that the next administration will change the course of American history and reverse a deep seeded agreement. A week later the truth has come out that the author of the article was not present when Jesse Jackson allegedly said those statements. It’s yellow journalism at its worst and it also has another underlying problem, Republicans are using his alleged words to attack Barak Obama.

First and foremost US policy is not Zionist influenced, logically there are just more pro-Israel Americans then pro-Palestinian Americans. Americans will, and always have, been exposed to Jews through out the history of the United States of America. Muslims always considered us the “others” so that population hadn’t immigrated in large numbers until the last three decades or so. Jews have been the fabric of American society since the founding of the Jamestown colony. There are also other trends to explain this bond, which has always pitted ideology, religion and culture as prime factors.

Jackson’s alleged assertion may seem preposterous yet anything is possible, but I doubt that an American President can afford to kill the status quo. Neither candidate is anti-Israel or preaches this type of rhetoric, with both stressing the issue of security and peace for Israel as the imperative. Neither will want to sever these strategic ties with our only real allies in the Middle East. Neither candidate will do what Jackson claims and some naysayers on the right are also dead wrong about Obama’s languid support of Israel. 

Jesse Jackson has been off his rocker for some time and I don’t believe that he said what was written in the Post, but anything is possible nowadays. If Colin Powel and William Buckley’s son support Obama including other prominant conservatives who are predicting an Obama win, then my friends anything is possible. I think we should all cut the bull and shed the rhetoric, and if your not sure then fact check. The big problem is not that these words can be uttered in public, but that there is an audience waiting to bite. An audience that not only believes but is also prescribed to those ignorant and arrogant claims.  

It’s all over the news and has been spread throughout the world like a big red rash. The American presidential race has been in front of us for the past several months. To say that there is some political fatigue might become the overstatement of the year. As we get closer to the day of reckoning I wish we could just muffle the talking heads and kill the incessent banter coming out of their so called “expert” mouths. The media has done of throwing all the latest news in our face so we can’t feign ignorance. So, let’s put this aside for another day and another entry. I am focusing on another important election being held soon after the circus of the American election, the race for mayor of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem the city of gold has had quite a cast of characters claim the mayoral role of the city, begining with Palestinian clerics, English vice-roys, a municipal committee and military government spanning from 1860-1949 (There were many mayors of the city, but I’m focusing on the post 1948 era). From 1949 we had a few mediocre mayors keeping the divided city stable and safe from Jordanian and Palestinian attacks. These leaders are not remembered but that all changed with the coming of Teddy Kollek, who was mayor of Jerusalem from 1965-1993. He had an immense influence on the city and he managed to work with all Jews from the ultra-Orthodox to the secular, Sephardi to Ashkenazi, etc. During his tenure as Mayor Jerusalem developed into a modern city, especially after its reunification in 1967. Teddy was such a mainstay that my father told me that once he lost his last run shortly before his death Jerusalem went on the decline. He ran his last bid in 1993 where he lost to the Likud representative and current disgraced Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. Unfortunately, under Olmert’s tenure the wheels revolved backwards due to his cronyism and later acquiescing to the ultra-Orthodox minority. In 2003 Olmert left the post and the people of Jerusalem voted in their first Ultra-Orthodox mayor, Uri Lupolianski. Lupolianski has managed to work all sides and has been the peacemaker, largely due to his steller PR team who cozied up to the secular population of Jerusalem.

This year Lupolianski will not run again and another will take the reigns as the leader of the most spiritual city in the world, or as Aryeh Kaplan poignantly wrote “the Eye of the Universe.” Like an endless shopping list the number of prospective candidates who have announced, or expressed interest in running, is large. You have Meir Porush, the Ultra-Orthodox candidate, who is trying to immitate the success of the current Mayor, Nir Barkat, who is a secular millionaire entrepreneur, is leading in the polls, and of course everyone’s favorite Russian oligarch, Arkady Gaydamak.

Also, to make things more interesting with an Israeli slant, Aryeh Deri the former Knesset member, former minister of the interior, former leader of the Shas Party—and a convicted felon— is awaiting a court ruling on whether he will be able to throw his hat into the race. Deri, a Sephardic Haredi, was investigated and convicted for bribery and made a point during the trial to make a fool out of himself in front of the entire coutry. Deri will be able to run only if the court decides that he is eligible.

These four men all want to save Jerusalem, but from different threats. Mr. Barkat wants to save the city from the Haredi influence, in the opposite end you have Porush claiming to save the city from the secular squeeze. Deri claims to be saving the Haredis from Porush who is seen as Ultra-Ultra-Orthodox. Gaydamak, who might withdraw his name from the race is ambiguous, but seems mostly preoccupied with Jerusalem’s sport’s teams.

So there are many interests and we must also keep in mind that parts of Jerusalem are in shambles due to the disastor of the light rail, Jerusalem is stressed because of the constant bickering and fighting between the various movements (who are all Jews to me), and it needs a good deal of revitalization. I think that in comparison with the US election, Israelis should vote for a change in direction that appeases the majority of the city, the country and the globe. Instead of keeping failing policies and the status quo we must be iconoclasts with direction. We must wet the eye because without moisture we’ll be sucked dry.

Shabbat Shalom   

Written by Barry Leff, originally posted on http://www.israelatsixty.org.il 

Sukkot is a wonderful holiday to experience in Israel.

Note the title of this post: “The Etrog Shuk.” If you don’t know what an etrog is, click here for a tutorial. We have an etrog shuk here. In most places in the US, if you want to have the “four species” to wave during Sukkot, you need to order them in advance from your synagogue (or from Chabad, or by mail order). Here in Israel you can wait until the day of Erev Sukkot, go to one of the “etrog shuks” (markets) and still have a wide choice of quality and prices. From the low end with a missing pitam (which the vendor tried assuring me were kosher; maybe they grew without one which theoretically is OK) to the “medium-grade” to the beautiful and expensive.

Another way we could tell we are not in Toledo any more is that on the way home from school my 7-year-old daughter counted 27 sukkot. And she could tell which ones were kosher and which ones were not — she learned all about how many walls a sukkah has to have, how tall they have to be, details about the scach, etc. When I came home with my etrog, she examined it to make sure it was kosher.

All of which also tells an interesting tale about our adaptation to life in Israel — not only is she getting an excellent religious education, she is really becoming bilingual. I had a lengthy conversation with her in Hebrew last week, and she told me how at the start of last year it was hard for her, but by the end of last year she could understand everything in class, and then at the start of this year it was like a “switch flipped” and she could easily speak Hebrew as well.  My wife and I were at first surprised when she reported to us that while it is still easier for her to speak English than Hebrew, she finds it easier to read Hebrew. Of course, thinking about for ten seconds it’s obvious why — even though we read with her in English at home, she’s absorbed in it all day at school.

If you are stressed out by the gyrations in the stock market over the last few weeks, take comfort in the message of Sukkot: we go out and dwell in booths for seven days as a reminder that the physical world is all temporary, and the things that are important are not fancy houses and other material things.

Which comes as a very timely reminder for me as well — on Yom Kippur I was leading High Holiday services as a volunteer on a kibbutz in the Galillee, and mamash on Yom Kippur our car was stolen. And we imported the car from the US and didn’t have it insured against theft. I find I’m not quite on the spiritual level of Rabbi Akiva, who was able to say “gam zu l’tovah,” this too is for the best, when he lost his material possessions one night. But I’m glad I have my kids around to remind me it’s a commandment to be happy this time of year, and I do take to heart the message of Sukkot about not being obsessed with the material. If I’m not yet able to say “gam zu l’tovah” with a whole heart, at least I’m still always able to say “it could have been worse!”

It is taught that “the day of judgement” for rain (and by extension therefore, our communal material prosperity) falls during Sukkot. May God bless the coming year with health, prosperity, and spiritual growth for all!

So we have been judged and then atoned for our sins in this marathon session of prayers and reflection. Next up is the harvest Holy Day of Sukkot. When I lived in Israel this Holy Day always confused me because I wasn’t sure what it was all about.

Sukkot, which means booths, were the makeshift shelters that the Hebrews used when wondering through the desert. It is a day of commemoration but also a way of shedding your wordly possessions and living as our forefathers had. The instability and shoddiness of the Sukka will make us understand how things in life don’t always have such steady foundations.

Sukkot is also one of the Shalosh Regalim (three pilgrimage Holy Days), which warranted a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple) was still there the pilgrims would set up their tents all around the Temple grounds. Imagine seeing a sea of tents, people cavorting around, emotionally debating Halacha on the holiest sight and feeling a sense of community and would celebrate the Holy Day and all its rituals as a collective body.

Being the harvest Holy Day we should understand the nature of harvesting and celebrating the fruits of our labors. However, in the modern age most people in the U.S. and Israel are not farmers. But Jews across the globe and their Israeli kin are innovators who plant the seeds for the benefit of the world. If you read most newspapers, trade journals, medical journals, historical periodicals, etc. you will find an innovative Jews behind it. I was recently reading how Israeli hospitals are rapidly rising in the world of medical tourism. Special surgeries can cost much less and recovery is more serene in places like Haifa and Jerusalem. There are many more instances spanning innovation from Kibbutzim helping develop ideas for promoting solar power to reinvigorating Rock & Roll to children with a video game franchise known as Guitar Hero (one of the creators is Israeli). You don’t have to be a farmer to plant a seed and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to make a difference, we all have the potential and the man upstairs wants us to use it.

We should never forget the constant movement our history represents through the prolific diaspora. We are all potential seedlings who can sprout our best prospective through our talents. More than one hundred years ago small groups of Eastern European Jews left their homes and settled as farmers in Palestine. The people making up the first Aliyah hired out the local Arabs, but the second Aliyah emphasized toiling the fields on their own. The early Zionist Chalutzim (Pioneers) worked the land and established places that keep developing every few years.

It is because of their seeds that we have both the population and innovation to be a driving force in the MIddle East and the world. I find it humorous when people comment or inquire about the existance of the state of Israel. Why? Because the nation of Israel will always be there no matter the rhetoric from an irate dictator from a flimsy banana republic claims. We have so many more seeds to sow all across the world so we can be the light upon the nations. Spread on Brothers and Sisters, spread on….

Chag Sameach V’Shabbat Shalom    

Tonight is the begining of the fast of Yom Kippur, ushered in by the moving Kol Nidrei introduction to the Erev Yom Kippur service. It’s funny that this day of fasting, repentance and forgiveness falls a day after the second American presidential debates. Personally I think all politicians should be asking us for forgiveness because both sides, the Republicans and Democrats, are just as much at fault for the dire starits we’re in. The current lame duck Congress should also apologize to us because in the last two years things haven’t only been stagnant and vile, worse it seems that we are in a perpetual state of regression. They irony is that the Democrats shout collaboration but then decide to keep with the partisan rhetoric. However, the Republicans are no angels, running things down hill as well since 2000.

I think President Bush should apologize for boring us in the last few months of his presidency. What happened to the grandstanding, Us vs. Them, neo-con loving cowboy who will start wars, but not have the power nor will to end them. What about our shadowy Vice-President who has forever altered the Constitution by giving himself broad powers beyond the executive sphere. He should be the true grit, buckshot shooter and F- word using spouter, but he’s also in a state of limbo. I miss their posses as well. Rove is gone and accepted his throne on Fox News, Scooter is waiting for his Thanksgiving pardon, Andrew Card is probably working for a hedge fund, and I don’t care what Snow and O’neill are doing because it wasn’t that interesting when they were on the job as Treasurers.

We should also get an apology from the disgraced Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, for stringing us along and still keep us on our toes about what will be lost for the sake of his glory. You can never negotiate the division of Jerusalem or the return of the Golan Heights for sheer opportunism. We should get apologies from everyone in the Knesset who has done little to nothing for the people and pocketed a lot of cash the cash.

That is my opinion, but I am not one to judge because there is only One who can do that. In this year of atonement we should forgive every little sin or transgression we committed. We all know what we did wrong but we also have a knack to have the voice in our heads lead us to the moral path. I don’t know if that’s intuition or our Judaic heritage streaming in our DNA, but it is an undeniable fact. One thing is for sure, I forgive you all and I hope you can all find it in your hearts to do the same.

Have an easy fast and I hope the yoke will be lifted for a fruitful and meaningful Shana tova!

 G’mar Chatima Tova

The 46th New York Film Festival has recently kick started last week with quite an array of interesting movies. The share of films included the eccentric Brooklyn bred director Daran Arnofsky’s gritty tale of the mat titled “The Wrestler,” Clint Eastwood’s 28th film “Changling” and Steven Soderbergh’s epic bio-pic about Che Guevara titled “Che.” These are the usual suspects of films that will be screened to larger audiences in a broader theater release after the film fest ends. Not surprisingly the Israeli entry, riding the magnificent wave of creative movies coming from the country, will inevitably be distributed to major cities as well. It is a wonderful film, with some flaws, which brings the magnanimous spirit of Israeli films released in the past decade.

Waltz With Bashir is an engaging movie that dissects the notion of Shell Shock on the Israeli soldiers, brought about by the First Lebanon War in 1982. The post modern technique and style used by the fimmaker, Ari Folman, is traumatic and quite invigorating to the mind’s eye. The film is animated using a cell spacing technique reminiscent of Richard Linklater’s films A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life. The plot unfolds through scenes using events in both the past and present, it was complicated because through out the film the Hebrew was spoken in the present tense form. The director also conducts interviews with Israeli soldiers (some close friends and all real people), psychologists, a professor and a reporter. The director’s approach bombards the viewer with a barrage of images, music and noise while splicing scenes with the interviews and segments showing lush Lebanese backgrounds, soldiers shooting at anything, Ariel Sharon and Menachem Begin.

Besides the trauma of war, the director also touches on the politics of memory and what we chose to remember, to embellish and to forget. The film was animated because the director wanted to show the viewers the sensational stories some of the characters recounted in their older ages. It is easier to exaggerate and depict scenes of immense phantasmagoria. Dreams and illusions are easier to portray through this medium. The trauma of shell shock or post traumatic stress, being in the army fresh out of high school and in active combat are internalized my each character differently. The questions of the politics of trauma resonate in the viewer’s mind through out the film until the cathartic ending, where we realize the source of the main character’s trauma.

Since the end of the 1960’s, war movies have become more introspective and focus on the reality as oppossed to the preconceived myths of the glories of war. Many films have shown us that no matter where you are in the world, from Israel to Indonesia to Africa to South America, war is hell. Waltz With Bashir shows how war follows the soldiers, lying dormant in the subconcious, until its mysteriously conjured back to the fore of the mind. There is some sense of politics, but the film mostly focuses on the experiences of the Israeli soldiers. Some may see it as Left Wing or Liberal so be aware that it’s the director’s autobiography. Be it as it may, the film is well made and every viewer will make up his/her mind on its penetration of the psyche and resonance on the mind.           

If you want to see more you can visit the film’s site or see the official trailer: http://waltzwithbashir.com/wwbtrailer.html

Hey Hey the gang’s all here, the diplomats have hovered over us literally pushing New Yorkers to the sides as their motorcades come thundering down 42nd Street. During the last week of September the people of New York were visited by many guests from many foreign lands descending on the United Nations for the General Assembly. With the large mix we tended to see many allies and enemies making fiery speeches usually pro or anti American. The most recent man who chides the west is the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - or as I like to call him “the Mullah’s trained monkey.”

When he spoke the previous year there were protests set up around the UN and around Columbia University (where he made his speaking debut on an American campus). This year the protsets were planned and executed like the previous ones, but with a political twist. Because we are in the midst of a political season with the presidential elections close at hand tensions flew when certain speakers were invited to attend. Who better to ask than two women from each side, maybe say the senator of New York? Or maybe the Governor of Alaska?

However, these two women were visibly absent. Their absence made the headlines, overshadowing the reason for the protest itself. This year’s protest was organized by certain Jewish organizations like the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Donors. They invited many notable speakers, who to someone like myself who has been to a few of their protests (Free Gilad Shalit protests and the Goldwasser - Regev protest) noticed it was the usual players. The are all stellar individuals yet again it was the absence of these two women which caused the uproar and political upheaval. 

I think that we have to wait for a moment and reflect on what’s at stake here. Protests were rallying cries to change things and shake the foundations of the status quo. In the United States in the 1960’s Studants got together and protested for certain causes like ending the war in Vietnam. They didn’t enlist politicians, it was actually the other way around where the politicians joined their ranks. Nowadays the spirit of true protest has been sapped and the events are planned and structured. Remember that Protest is for the Protestors. Why do we need a Clinton to address us with the same old song? Why do we care what the governor of Alaska would have said? They can say all they want but we know it’s all lip service. The purpose of the protest was to rally against a hate mongering president who’s delusional rhetoric is dangerous to both Israel and the entire world. We know that he isn’t the final word, but we know that his breed in the hierarchy of Iran is not rare. That was the purpose, which thankfully to the media got buried in the back pages of the newspapers and you’d have to scroll down far to find on news websites.  

The age of apathy has stunted us to the point where we are afraid to protest unless they tell us in specifics the who, what, where, when and Why. These things are so planned I feel that I might miss something from the set schedule. Why do we need to be graced with politicians and their “wise” words when our parents never felt that need for such support. Being the Holy Days I’ve repeatedly heard the Hillel quote from the Mishna so I will use another, “Talk little, do a lot.” It’s time we get up, get out and do something.

SHABBAT SHALOM V’SHANA TOVA L’KULAM