YNET reports:

"Infiltrators cause cultural, social and economic damage, and pull us towards the Third World," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a Manufacturers Association assembly.  "We suffer from a problem that actually stems from Israel’s economic success," he said, explaining the problems that arise from the breached border with Egypt.  "We have become almost the only First World country that can be reached by foot from the Third World. We are flooded with surge of refugees who threaten to wash away our achievements and damage our existence as a Jewish democratic state."

VDARE’s Patrick Cleburne is calling the Jews out on their duplicity. Cleburne appears to be implying that Israel and her prime minister have one set of standard for illegal immigrants, and that American Jewry has quite another.

Now, American Jews do appear to be more in line with Netanyahu for American immigration policy than our leadership would like. Much more in line. But regardless of that, the organizational community, which invokes a theological mandate to "welcome the stranger," needs to explain to us why there is a different immigration policy promoted for the U.S. than for Israel. Especially since so many in our community already appear to conflate American policy for Israeli policy in so many ways already. 

 If we are to be consistent, American Jewry should pressure Israel to accept "a path to citizenship" for "strangers," against her majority population’s will, just as Jewish groups are pressuring the U.S. to accept mass immigration against our majority population’s will.

By Jewish communal standards, Netanyahu should be denounced for his unfortunate xenephobic, racist, and nativist standards. He should be denounced for his (non-existent) relationship with John Tanton.

Alternatively, Jewish organizations could revisit a HIAS-determined policy that is out of synch with out countrymen, with Israel, and even with American Jewry.

The post Netanyahu Not Welcoming the Strangers (from Egypt!) Who Want to Do the Jobs No Israeli Wants to Do appeared first on Jewcy.

The problem is that the Orthodox, even the Modern Orthodox, do not see that as a problem. 

From their P.O.V., they may be correct. 

In regards to a new national survey, the OU declared,

Baalei teshuva, those who do not grow up religiously observant but become so later in life, face added challenges in their marriages; more affluent families run a greater risk of marital stress from at-risk or “off-the-derech” children than Orthodox Jews of more modest means

The Orthodox Union will not relinquish recruiting ties to haredi insitutions that preach poverty to our youth (but not to their own) precisely in part because affluence itself is rightly seen by the Orthodox Union and by Big Kiruv generally as enhancing an already "at risk" population: the newly Orthodox.

The post Orthodox Union Poll Bolsters Need to Keep Baalei Teshuvah Poor appeared first on Jewcy.

Like many of you, I suppose, I fear situations that may require emergency services. None of us want to be in that position where there is a personal emergency and we are forced to look into the abyss and face that terrible question as the rescue team approaches. The question of, “Will this emergency team be diverse enough?”

Thankfully, Leroy Comrie, the Deputy Majority Leader of the NYC Council, is doing what he can to ease fears in those situations.

From Comrie’s press release:

New York City Council Deputy Majority Leader Leroy Comrie (D-Queens) hosted a City Hall press conference yesterday to respectfully urge his colleagues to pass legislation he has introduced which would allow any candidate for the position of New York City Firefighter, who possesses a high school diploma (or its educational equivalent) from a New York City High School, to become eligible for an additional eight point credit on the open competitive firefighter exam.

He was joined by several of his Council colleagues, as well as members of the members of the FDNY’s fraternal organizations of color, the Vulcan Society and the Hispanic Society, and representatives of the Local 375/Civil Service Technical Guild and the Grand Council of Hispanic Societies in Public Service.

“Today I am urging my colleagues to pass legislation that will allow any candidate for firefighter that possesses a high school diploma (or its educational equivalent) from a New York City high school to become eligible for an additional eight point credit on the open competitive firefighter exam,” stated Council Member Comrie. “Although the population of New York City includes more than 65% minorities, the racial composition of the FDNY is made up of only 11% minorities, thus making the FDNY the least diverse fire department of any major city in the United States.

This is wonderful news. Although there are some spurious claims of a need for years and years of specific and sometimes quite difficult and complicated training to become truly superior firepersons, other more reasonable voices such as Comrie believe that any high school grad can reasonably pickup a hose and point it at the fire, and as someone not trained in these matters, I say we just go according to the latter opinion, since it promotes diversity.And nothing is more important than that.

In a city as widely diverse as ours, this trend is unacceptable and we must do all we can to ensure that our most noble institutions reflect our great city.

Damned straight! After all, if you had a fire, wouldn’t you want the most diverse team possible? And they are all high school grads, right? And once the fire department is more diverse thanks to a lowering of standards, we can then demand that the leadership of the fire department reflect that diversity, and lower standards for promotion.

It’s just life and death, people. And diversity must come first.

The post NY City Councilman to Solve Greatest Concern When House on Fire: Lack of Diversity appeared first on Jewcy.

Where is the communal Jewish outrage?

The JTA reports that Elie Wiesel spoke last week,

 … at a "Jewish Hungarian Solidarity Symposium" of Hungarian political and Jewish leaders held at Parliament. […] He added, "I ask you, why don’t you follow the example of France and Germany and declare Holocaust denial not only indecent but illegal? In those countries, Holocaust deniers go to jail.

While I do not seek to jail Wiesel for what he said, I would note that this policy is (or at least, should be considered) contrary to the American Jewish community’s position. There are many reasons why jailing Holocaust deniers is a very bad idea. For instance, it breeds conspiracy theory, inviting less unreasonable people to question why there is such a peculiar and specific law.

But it is also morally wrong to do so, if you happen to believe in free speech.

Novelists should anyway not be elevated to the status of political leaders. They usually are not. This was a form of affirmative action. Wiesel is not a political leader because of what he did, but rather, because of his flair for detailing what was done to him.

But his ways are not our ways. And still he is allowed to speak for us.

The post Holocaustian Leader Seeks Jail for Holocaust Deniers appeared first on Jewcy.

As many of you probably know, the Jewish community has mostly come out against the minaret ban in Switzerland. And as someone who isn’t a descendant of Holocaust survivors, I feel obligated to also speak out against what is happening to Islamicist religious freedoms.

Banning minarets today is a slippery slope to banning other expressions of religious fundamentalism tomorrow, and part of a wider, disturbing pattern of oppression of Jihadists. For instance, France’s ban on burkas was an infringement on the very personal choice of women, their spiritual guides, and the watchful militants patrolling neighborhood streets.

Regardless if the efforts of Switzerland and France are efficacious or not, the most important thing about challenging Islamicist aims is not to generalize, and to accuse everyone who attempts to change the trajectory the West is currently on as doing just that.

As David Harris of the AJC noted,

"While there are certainly understandable concerns in Europe over Islamist extremism, these cannot be legitimately addressed through a blanket assault on Muslim communities and their religious symbols," he added.

Indeed not, and we should remember that Islamicism is an important, fast growing segment of the West’s Muslim population. You say “appeasement,” I say, “It’s not everyone.”

And who is better to dictate the direction Islam will take than the Christians, or even better, the Jews? No one likes taking spiritual directives from the Christians and especially the Jews more than the Muslims do.

As French Ambassador Christophe Bigot noted,

"What is important in Europe is to work for moderate Islam, for an Islam that is based on education, openness and freedom.”

Exactly! Finally, a sure-fire, tactical, detailed plan, instead of all that "ban this, ban that, let’s stop importing people who don’t want our way of life" stuff. And if we haven’t yet achieved it by repeatedly trying the same failed approach as we have incessantly babbled about for years already, we can at least insist on trying the same failed approach in the future. After all, it delays indefinitely having to make some tough policy decisions.

As for the “will of the people,” thing, well…fuck them. We disagree. Let the courts clean up the mess of that riffraff.

“U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) and his co-chairman, Rep. Alcee Hastings, expressed concern over the minaret ban.

"The Swiss vote to ban minarets is worrying for a number of reasons, including the fact the Swiss people have seen fit to limit the religious practice of one particular group," Cardin said. "I trust the Swiss government will work swiftly to be sure the Swiss are not viewed as an intolerant people.”

And don’t forget the dialogue. It’s all about the dialogue.

“I hope the Swiss courts will overturn this referendum, andthat the Swiss government will double its efforts to implementanti-discrimination laws and have an open and honest dialogue about religious and ethnic tolerance," Hastings said.

And even (some) of the Orthodox agree.

Rabbi Pinchas Dunner, executive director of the Conference of European Rabbis, an Orthodox organization, said "a war on religious freedom cannot defeat Islamic extremists. The best weapon against radical Islam is support for moderate elements in the Muslim community and promoting interfaith dialogue."

Those Islamic radicals were probably shitting themselves when they read that. I would hate to be in their shoes…with Rabbi Dunner pointing his big-ass dialogue weapon at them. I know his dialogue detonator would definitely make me think twice.

Another important aspect of legitimate protest against Islamicist aims and especially violence and terrorism is the devastating press release. This sort of thing also really hits the radicals where it hurts.

As CST (a British version of the ADL/Wise Men of Chelm), noted in their histrionic denunciation of a Danish organization that presumptively invited the Jews to join them on the streets for an actual protest without first obtaining CST permission to do so,

“This has nothing to do with the necessary and legitimate work to counter extremism and antisemitism wherever and whenever it genuinely occurs. CST has raised awareness of the activities of extreme Islamist groups in the UK for many years.”

You guys rock. Keep raising that awareness, mates.

And we should keep raising awareness as well. And we will. We will raise awareness. We will change Islam’s direction. Through dialogue, sensitivity, and of course, press releases denouncing those who generalize.

The post How You and I Will Build a More Moderate Islam in Switzerland appeared first on Jewcy.

But there is often good reason to be angry. And the fact is, not every former baal teshuvah looks fondly in retrospect at the mind games, the lies, the hagiography, and the general bullshit employed without restraint by the Kiruvniks in order to "make them frum."

As Elana Sztokman writes on the Sisterhood blog in, "Between Baalat Teshuva and Britney Spears,"

Although the journey is enlightening, I wonder how much of the pain is necessary. Put differently, some days I’m angry at my teachers.[…]

In fact, the polarized juxtaposition of Western culture versus ultra-Orthodoxy is at the root of women’s entrapment. As if it’s either one or the other: If you don’t want to be a superficial, mindless, materialistic sex-object, cover up and come to us. The returnee movement feeds on people’s dissatisfaction with what Beverly Gribetz calls "great, big, shopping-mall America," with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears as models of femininity. But of course, there are worlds in between. It’s just not so easy for an impressionable 18-25 year-old sincere spiritual seeker to unravel the subtleties and summon courage to say, "None of the above."

I have noted this exact issue of selective retrieval before myself, and would only caution Dr. Sztokman to remember that the blackhatter baal teshuvah experience is just as bogus and debilitating for men. The men may not be refashioned into "helpers," as the wives for the husbands are, but they are refashioned into Hebrew slaves for the Gedoylim.

You say you have anger towards the BT movement, Dr. Sztokman. Well, you are in good company. And as a fellow Kiruv survivor well aware of how nasty the Orthodox get when one criticizes their "outreach" efforts to make other Jews like them (but as second class members), I thank you for coming forward.

Unfortunately, there will be more and more angry former baalei teshuvah in the coming years.

Just this month, the Hertz Family Foundation announced a $1.5 million dollar grant to the Dark Light.

The post A Former Baal Teshuva’s Anger at Teachers appeared first on Jewcy.

While the Jewish Right draws outrage for U.S. foreign policy, it is the Jewish Left that pre-empts protecting our nation domestically. Obsessing against “xenophobia” and even the most nominal and reasonable profiling measures, the Jewish Left is in denial that we are, in fact, at war with a portion of Muslim adherents.

For the Left, since it is “not every Muslim,” there is no war.

Not every Muslim would agree with that assessment. For a significant segment of the Muslim population, there is definitely a war against Islam being waged. And for the radical Muslim, the U.S. offers greater opportunities for expressions of protest than their homeland (or their parents’ homeland) do.

Even a small fraction of highly motivated Jihadists is a grave domestic (and communal) threat, and the larger our population of devout Muslims, the larger the pool of radicals, and the harder it is to keep track of them.

This has not dampened the Left’s demand for ever-greater mass immigration, including from hostile Muslim countries. HIAS, the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society, boasts of resettling refugees from Somalia–despite clear warning that elements from that community harbor radical leanings. The unwillingness to profile has also led to tragic consequences. There is a national and communal risk to expanding our Muslim population, and it is a risk that the Jewish Left assiduously denies and enables.

The Jewish communal infrastructure has sought to seek a balance between the larger Jewish Left and the more active Jewish Right. That balance has traditionally been to adopt and promote the foreign policies of the Jewish Right, and the domestic policies of the Jewish Left.

Both the Jewish Left and the Jewish Right think they are fighting the good fight. But together, they are fighting American interests.

The post The Two-Front War appeared first on Jewcy.

In an Orthodox newspaper, NCSY dropped pretense of ecumenical goals of “cultural” clubs, and detailed their “kiruv” (Orthodox recruitment of non-Orthodox Jews) efforts in our public school system.

Let’s compare NCSY’s public message and agenda (or lack there of) with that detailed in The Jewish Star.

In the “about” section, the NCSY-controlled Jewish Student Union (JSU) declares,

The mission of Jewish Student Union is to get more Jewish teens attending public high schools to do something Jewish! That’s it! It’s that simple!!!

But it isn’t that simple at all.

And that is certainly not what most JSU chapters run by the same NCSY regional directors say to their own.

In this week’s Jewish Star, an Orthodox newspaper based on Long Island, Michelle Bortnik interviews Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, the regional director of New York NCSY, and NCSY international director (and JSU’s "dean") Rabbi Stephen Burg, and it reveals what we all know, and what NCSY continues to deny. Deny to us, that is, not to their own community.

 Amid college fairs, SATs, football games and parties, high school presents kiruv (Jewish outreach) professionals what is perhaps their best opportunity to reach unaffiliated Jewish students, who otherwise might never be exposed to Torah Judaism.

What is “Torah Judaism” for these “outreach professionals”? ORTHODOX Judaism.

How do they measure success? Two ways…the first normal, the second more troubling.

 Rabbi Lightstone became the regional director for Long Island NCSY in 2006. On his watch, three public school clubs grew to 18, and the organization went from having 100 kids at events to between 400 and 500; from sending two or three kids to Israel each year to sending close to 25 […] The decision to merge both regions, whose offices were twenty minutes apart, made both financial and practical sense to NCSY and to the Orthodox Union, the parent organization that provides most of the funding.

This is troubling not because they send kids to Israel, but that NCSY is unwilling to set guidelines about which institutions are acceptable to partner with in a recruiting fashion, and which ones are not. 

For NCSY, which ones are acceptable? Those institutions that are Orthodox. Which ones are not? Secular institutions.

This is a much bigger problem than Orthodox or secular because for decades, NCSY has prided itself on predominantly sending those young people from the public schools interested in a more traditional lifestyle to predominantly haredi institutions, the only institutions that were available to public school graduates for a year (or several) in Israel. NCSY has also demonstrated particular nachas when public school graduates gave up their opportunity to the best schools in the nation.

And at the core, not much has changed. Though the Orthodox Union does offer services on some secular college campuses now, the right-wing Modern Orthodox (RWMO) preference was always and remains that the young person not attend a liberal arts college, but should instead attend only Orthodox colleges, such as the dismal Touro College.

NCSY has a long history of deception and concealment, and outright dishonesty about its agenda. The Jewish community needs to demand not only that NCSY be forthright about all of its various goals for our youth, but NCSY needs to be transparent about the details. Especially because NCSY quietly continues to send public school students to not only ultra-Orthodox institutions, but hardline haredi ones, we have a right to know how this happens, and how NCSY assesses whether or not an institution is acceptable for recommendation to a student. The usual blather of "it depends on a person’s specific needs and his/her advisor" is insufficient, and in light of NCSY’s past, we should be suspicious that it actually sometimes means, "as Orthodox an institution as the young person will agree to."   

I would note that Jewish Star’s Orthodox readership will not have a problem with NCSY’s dishonesty and lack of boundaries. Read the story in light of the JSU’s actual claim. Lightstone is nevertheless presented as heroic. They don’t care about the lies or the deception. They are Orthodox, and this is Kiruv.

If the traditional secular and Liberal Jewish community raised its voice loudly and coherently, NCSY would change. But for now, NCSY clearly assesses that there is no reason to do so beyond a couple of Modern Orthodox institutional additions. For their public school graduates, that is.

NCSY’s pipeline from the public school to frumville continues to expand at a rapid clip. The few voices shouting for oversight, monitoring,and negotiations, are a whisper among the storm of mainstream Jewish organizations obsessed with “engagement.”

There are over 250 JSU programs in the country. Most of them are overseen and operated by the local NCSY regional director. These programs are servicing our communities, in our public schools.

Update: As Mike Winddale noted, the major problem is that the JSU does not reveal its ties to NCSY or to the Orthodox Union. Rather, the JSU feigns non-denominational goals and ties, most strikingly, to Liberal Jewish organizations.

In addition to the problems of Kiruv, we have a problem where Jewish-identified students of patrilineal descent appear to be refused entry to off-campus programs which are pitched on the public school premises to club members.

As The Jewish Star noted,

When she inquired about becoming Jewish, Rabbi Lightstone told her that while she was welcome in the club, he couldn’t teach her more about Judaism unless her parents gave explicit permission, something they expressly refused to do.

The girl was dejected and spent the following Christmas break with her maternal grandparents. Seeing she was unhappy, the girl’s grandmother asked why. She wanted to learn more about Judaism, the girl said, but couldn’t since she wasn’t Jewish.

“You don’t have to convert,” her grandmother explained, “I’m Jewish and so are you.”

There problems with misrepresentation of self are manifold. The problems with misrepresentation of self when dealing with an underage population are particularly egregious. 

The post NCSY Expounds On Using Their “Cultural” Groups to Recruit Public School Students to Orthodoxy appeared first on Jewcy.

Why would an American Jew emigrate anywhere? Why is the draw to live in Israel so powerful for these olim [immigrants]?

I was one of a few embedded bloggers on the 40^th flight of immigrants to Israel from North America sponsored by Nefesh B’Nefesh (NBN), an NGO that has streamlined the immigration process as the State ofIsrael has renewed its push for North American Jewish immigrants, an immigration group that has been increasing during the recent economic downturn.  Over twenty-three thousand immigrants have moved to Israel in the past eight years through NBN, which, according to Renana Levine, seeks specifically to alleviate four major categories of entry problems for olim: funding, employment, social problems, and navigating Israel’s infamous bureaucracy. Even name changing—from say, Koenigsberg or Kaplinksy to a more appropriate Israeli last name, perhaps one that means lightning or steel–is facilitated batch file along with other olim needs, such as the application for national health insurance.

The flight itself offers a group experience and support for the final flight to Israel. My flight was the “singles flight,” and there was plenty of Israeli excitement over this flight in part because of this, making the front page of Yedioth Ahranoth. Tzipi Livni, leader of the opposition party, Kadima, explained at the welcoming ceremony at the old terminal at Ben Gurion Airport for the olim that, “Matchmaking is the national sport.”

But again…why do they come? Why would anyone leave the U.S.?

According to Levine, two inspirations consistently surface with olim: Birthright Israel, and a family legacy of the Holocaust.

Galit Heller comes from a Modern Orthodox background, a religious paradigm most typical of an American Aliyah candidate. Heller and attended the illustrious Yeshivah Flatbush in Brooklyn, and then went to U.Penn.  For Heller, Zionism is a family tradition. Her ancestor was on the last legal boat from Hungary to Palestine in 1939. Heller notes that in Israel, “everyone is family.”

Not everyone is Orthodox, of course, and NBN seeks Jews from varied backgrounds.

Lauren Shumaker, an English teacher, comes from a Liberal Jewish background, her mother the sole child of Holocaust survivors.  Shumaker is from Detroit, but “re-found” her Jewish identity in Prague, after visiting the Jewish Quarter. “There’s no Jews. It’s creepy. “ Shumaker tattooed the Hebrew word "tikvah," or “hope,”on her wrist, in the same spot that concentration camp victims had their numbers tattooed.

Shumaker credits Israelis for “taking the best part of being Jewish: surviving. They’re not victims.”

For Shumaker, the ten-day Birthright Israel experience was critical. “[Detroit] never felt like home to me.  The ten days in Israel felt like home more than my entire life in Michigan.”  Shumaker is moving first to Zichron Yakov, and eventually to Haifa.

For Rabbi Charlie Buckholtz, Aliyah was prompted by professional opportunity.

“I love Israel, but I wasn’t looking to make Aliyah at this moment. I was open to it in a general way,” Buckholtz was looking for a new challenge after three years of revitalizing the Sixth Street Community Synagogue in New York. He is becoming the senior editor of the Hartman Institute’s publications.

I asked Buckholtz if he grew up Modern Orthodox, had an Israeli parent, was inspired by Birthright, or was the descendant of Holocaust survivors.

None of the above.

“I have no claim. I’m just here,” he said.

The post Making Aliyah, American Style appeared first on Jewcy.

I am pleased (if a little surprised) to announce that I will be representing Jewcy at the Nefesh B’Nefesh sponsored Second International Jewish Bloggers Convention as a panelist.

It’s been many years since I left Israel in a huff, and began a long and painful ascent out of the Dark Light and an eventual return to secularism.  Finally revisiting Israel from a different perspective after all these years will be wonderful.Though I am not making Aliyah (surprise!), I will be covering someone who is. I asked to cover a secular person, as I find a non-Orthodox person’s decision to move to Israel much more interesting than that of an Orthodox person. 

I want to thank Steve of WebAds, who helped facilitate this trip for me with NBN, and for putting me on a panel at the Convention. Thanks as well to Lilit and all of Jewcy for this privilege as well. 

I am going to have fun there, and hope you will join me. Jonathan Rosenblum of the ultra-Orthodox apologetic site Cross Currents will be there with me as well, and hopefully, despite our generally similar P.O.V.’s,we will be able to find one or two points of subtle difference on, “Social Media and the Future of the Jewish Community.”

So if you want to see me speak, then register now for the convention at: www.JBloggers.org

The post Off to the Second International Jewish Bloggers Convention appeared first on Jewcy.