Anti-semitism on the streets of Paris

I spent a couple of hours today reading some "old same news" about anti-semitism in Central and Eastern Europe, but the "old same news" is that the trolls from this part of the world are not alone. Here is the newest proof.

29 November - The partition of Palestine

Hush!

I discovered Hush while e-reading Tablet. In the next ten minutes I ordered the book on Amazon and one week ago this time I was about to finish it. It took me another week for finding the time and the wording to write about it and almost one day for writing these paragraphs.

The issue of sexuality and abuse in the orthodox communities was rarely - if ever - approached in the English speaking literature. The author, assumed to be a woman using the pen name Eishes Chayil (Woman of Valor, the song that every Shabbat is honoring the woman as a mother, sister and holding a big responsibility in the perpetuation of Yiddishkeit), is belonging to this community and writes with a sensibility that I found surprising. Is educated, but know and respect in a very delicate way the traditional tabus and sensibilities. You will not have direct references to sex, even the book is talking about the victim of a sexual abuse. Or other explicit physical descriptions. The author is using the words in a very delicate way to describe terrible and controversial feelings and the influences of the creative writing classes are producing a very pleasant lecture. You don't even realize that something was missing and the words are powerful enough for suggesting explicit situations. And although the subject is very sad, there are enough episodes making you laugh.

And you need a lot of suggestions and paraphrases for the subject of this book: the education of the refuse to speak about the sexual abuses in the orthodox community. The knowledge is sealed beyond the closed doors but not for condemning the perpetrators, but to cover their facts. And this don't have nothing to do with Judaism or religion or "the tradition". It is the direct consequence of misunderstanding the role of the justice - equal for all commiting crimes. If nobody is taking measures and exposing the abuses, the potential perpetrators will be encouraged to do so. From my point of view, the attitude of the parents were relevant for this pattern: the mothers - Eishes Chayil - refused to acknowledge that the abuse were true and when they had all the evidences, they continued to recommend the hush-wise attitude for reasons of preservation of the community. But such an attitude is against the role that an Eishes Chayil should play in the community, as avertisor and guardian of the tradition. Such abuses don't have nothing to do with it and revealing the truth it is not even an act of justice, but the wake-up call for the return to the real values and tradition. You cannot build a community based on people with rotten behaviors, praying during the day and abusing their sisters during the night.

Another interesting aspect revealed in the book is the relation with the outside community. The perception based on an eternal conflict between "we" and "them" is creating the idea of a certain conflictual difference. Hence, the conception that making public all these scandalous situation the world will be turned around us. If so, create the proper mechanisms for preventing and punishing. And let the victims speak out - their suffering might be offering enough incentives for putting and end to this culture tolerating the evil.

And if it any question about the need to open a discussion on these issues, here it is the newest example pledging for the end of the "hush" way of thinking.

Related articles

• Review: Hush (bookingmama.blogspot.com)

Elie Wiesel's Thanksgiving Talk

An intervention from 1968 about what we have to be thanksful or not.

First of all, we have to be thankfull for our chances to change something around us. And we do this by small facts or big acts. This is the spirit of תיקון עולם.

Anti-semitism as a mental disease

A couple of month ago, a obviously mentally disturbed woman, in a park almost empty, is approaching me and secretly is whispering that the Jews are everywhere and are destroying the world. Yesterday evening, an old man, dirty and carrying away a plastic bag full of empty plastic bottles was wandering at the metro station yelling a discourse about dangerous Mossad agents travelling across the world. Some of the people standing-by were laughing or looked amused.

In any serious sickness, the preventive treatment might stop the widespread of the malady.

It Gets Better?

PS: There is no other MidEastern country in which an Arab Muslim would be allowed to march in a gay pride but in Israel.

Let's punk

Israeli's punk stage is a reflection of the daily confrontations and differences of the society itself. Religious or secular, keen to enter the Army or oposing it, worring about the future or unsatisfied with the mentalities of their societies. The movie it is well documented and interesting, but I would regret the lack of connection between the current musical punk stage and the Israeli musical trends from the 60s-70s.

Jews and Baseball

A movie freshly released in America, but not yet available on the other side of the pond. I deeply hate this restrictive policies!

The fight for symbols

Image via Wikipedia

A couple of personal observations regarding this controversy:Whose keffiyeh is this? This is another example of extreme ignorance, manipulation and despise for finding a common understanding and tolerance. Big words, isn't it?

- Even after the state of Israel was created, people who made Aliyah or Jewish people who didn't make aliyah were referring to the territory of the current state of Israel as: Palestine. And nobody ever was doubting that this is the state were Jews are living. This is an anecdotal aspect but good to have it in mind, mostly for those who didn't have the occasion to meet people from the generation surviving the war.

- Is Keffiyeh a national "Arab/Palestinian" symbol? Before being waved to various street meetings, when the flags of countries hosting those people are burned, this clothing element was having a strict practical use: covering the head - of human beings - against the hot sun. It was used by people living in this areas and nobody was disputing if it is Arab, Jewish or Korean or Laurence of Arabia. Abu Amar aka. Yassir Arafat relaunched this scarf as a national symbol. Nowadays, one of the main producer of this national symbols is China.

I deeply hope that the people from the Middle East can find real intellectual references for building their national and cultural identity than an outfit.

- I cannot but smile reading this idea of Pan-Arabic unity. I suppose nobody really takes it seriously, isn't it?.

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WWII mass grave of Jews found in Romania

The mass graves are probably from 1941. Reading the article and other media reports from the last two days I saw many "witnesses" quoted, giving abundant details about what happened then. Now, we are in 2010 and Romania recognized officially its share in the Shoah only in 2003. Where were all these people during this period? Where?

Elie Wiesel: "Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies".

Related articles

• Holocaust-Era Mass Grave Found in Romania (foxnews.com)
• 16 skeletons found in Romanian mass grave (cnn.com)

Alice Dancing under the Gallows

A wonderful inspiring movie about the oldest Holocaust survivor in the world, Alice Herz-Somm, 106 year old pianist originary from Prague. Theresienstadt survivor, she is offering a wonderful lesson of hope and love for life. A wonderfully inspiring testimony.

Open way for civil marriages in Israel

Image via Wikipedia

An interesting news via Ynet:

"The Knesset's Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee has approved the fee for civil marriages in Israel, effectively paving the way for the instatement of these marriages within the coming days. Once official guidelines are published, non-Jewish Israelis, or citizens defined by the State as lacking religious denomination, will be able to marry without the Chief Rabbinate".