- 2 oct 2010
CNN axes Sanchez after anti-Jew remarks
ATLANTA, (PIC)-- Anti-Arab CNN on Friday announced it fired anchor Rick Sanchez a day after he assailed The Daily Show Jewish host John Stewart as a "bigot" and suggested that CNN and the other media outlets are run by Jews.
Sanchez made his remarks Thursday on the Sirius XM radio show "Stand Up! with Pete Dominick".
CNN acted within 24 hours and declared Sanchez was no longer with the network. "We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well," according to its statement.
The Daily Show retaliated and considered Sanchez an intellectual lightweight compared to CNN stars Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blizter and made him the butt of jokes, which Sanchez resented and described as racist.
CNN has always fought perceptions that it is pro-Arab and anti-Israel. In July, CNN fired veteran Middle East correspondent Octavia Nasr after she tweeted about the passing of Hezbollah's Mohamed Fadlallah saying that she respected him a lot.
http://bit.ly/cztLWu
1 jan 2012, 11:34 , Respect -
Maria 5 oct 2010
BREAKING NEWS: Waters responds to anti-Semitism charges
Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters defended himself against accusations of anti-Semitism.
The Anti-Defamation slammed Waters last week for using what it said was anti-Semitic imagery during performances of Goodbye Blue Sky on his 2010-11 The Wall Live tour, which targets Israel's West Bank security fence.
An animated scene projects images of planes dropping bombs in the shape of Jewish Stars of David, dollar signs, a crucifix, a hammer and sickle, a crescent and star, a Mercedes sign and a Shell Oil sign.
The ADL had expressed concern that the juxtaposition of the Star of David and the dollar sign could easily be misunderstood as a comment about Jews and money.
In a letter published Monday in The Independent, Waters said that there are no hidden meanings in the order or juxtaposition of these symbols. The point I am trying to make in the song is that the bombardment we are all subject to by conflicting religious, political and economic ideologies only encourages us to turn against one another, and I mourn the concomitant loss of life.
The letter goes on to say that In so far as The Wall has a political message it is to seek to illuminate our condition, and find new ways to encourage peace and understanding, particularly in the Middle East.
Waters told Britain's The Independent that he felt compelled to respond to the ADL's charges.
If I don't respond, people will see the story and will come to believe I'm anti-Semitic, and I'm not, he said. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Waters said he had never heard of the ADL before the controversy.
http://bit.ly/coVUx3
26 mar 2012, 12:19 , Respect -
Maria 6 oct 2010
US ambassador won't discuss Bill Clinton's comments on Russian-Israelis
Embassy says former US president 'private citizen who has right to speak his mind. Yisrael Beiteinu MK: Some Russians were killed by rifles he gave to terrorists.
US Ambassador to Israel James B. Cunningham has rejected an invitation to take part in a Knesset debate on comments made by former President Bill Clinton regarding Israel's Russian immigrants, Ynet reported Wednesday.
"The former president is a private citizen," the embassy said, but the Yisrael Beiteinu party claimed he serves as a "US envoy all over the world" and receives a pension from the administration.
Clinton expressed his fear that the large numbers of Russian immigrants and settlers serving in the IDF will make it hard for the army to confront the West Bank's Jews if this should be required. An increasing number of IDF soldiers are children of Russians and settlers, who are those most strongly opposed to dividing the land, the former president said. He noted this was a serious problem, and that Israel had changed – some 16% of Israelis now speak Russian.
Ynet has learned that in discussions with Knesset members, US Embassy officials also expressed their reservations about Clinton's comments.
MK Lia Shemtov (Yisrael Beitenu), chairperson of the Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, said the Russian immigrants are "Zionists who love their country and, like all citizens, wany to live their lives in peace and security.
"Some of them were killed by rifles Clinton gave to terrorists," she said.
The US Embassy said in response: The administration is not responsible for comments made by a private citizen who has a right to speak his mind, as is customary in Israel as well.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3965082,00.html
26 mar 2012, 12:19 , Respect -
Maria 7 0ct 2010
Pink Floyd's Waters insists critics misread symbols
British rock singer Roger Waters has dismissed the claim by American Jewry's main defence organisation that parts of his current concert tour cross the line into antisemitism.
The former Pink Floyd bass player and vocalist was attacked by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for using a projection which shows Israel dropping bombs in the shape of stars of David, followed by the dollar symbol.
The animated scene an attack on Israel's security barrier %u2013 forms the backdrop to performances of the song Goodbye Blue Sky, from the hit 1979 album The Wall. The images also show the B52 bomber dropping symbols including the Shell logo and a crucifix.
Abraham Foxman, the ADL's national director, criticised the outrageous choice of imagery, saying it was playing into and dredging up the worst age-old antisemitic stereotype about Jews and their supposed obsession with making money.
But Mr Waters, rebutting the accusations of antisemitism, said, in a letter to the Independent: Nothing could be further from the truth.
You can attack Israeli policy without being anti-Jewish. It's like saying if you criticise the US policy, you are being anti-Christian.
He said he was critical of Israeli settlement policy which is entirely illegal under international law, and also of ghettoising the people whose land they are building on. It's that foreign policy I'm against. It's nothing to do with the religion.
The Surrey-born singer, 67, said the symbols had been chosen to represent religious, national and commercial interests which have a malign influence on our lives. He said: Contrary to Mr Foxman's assertion, there are no hidden meanings in the order or juxtaposition of these symbols.
Four years ago Mr Waters moved the location of a concert in Israel from Tel Aviv to the Jewish-Arab village of Neve Shalom in order to demonstrate solidarity with peace campaigners.
In July, he played a charity concert on behalf of Palestinian children.
http://www.leedspsc.org.uk/?p=6487
26 mar 2012, 12:19 , Respect -
Maria 8 nov 2010
Zionist pressures exerted to deprive French film director of Oscar
NEW YORK, (PIC)-- Zionist pressure groups in the USA are exerting big efforts and pressures to persuade the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences not to award French film director Jean-Luc Godard the international Oscar honorary award because of his support for the Palestine cause.
The Zionist groups charge Godard with anti-Semitism because of his works of art that strongly criticizes Israel and its army's practices against the Palestinian people.
A Jewish weekly newspaper based in New York published an article on its front page saying, "Will they grant Oscar to an anti-Semite?"
The report was followed by a defamation campaign by pro Zionist website against the French director.
Godard refused a few months ago to visit Israel to deliver lectures because of his anti Israel political position. He directed several films criticizing Israel and comparing Israeli practices against the Palestinians to the Nazi practices against the Jews.
http://bit.ly/afsXLK
26 mar 2012, 12:19 , Respect -
Maria 8 nov 2010
Gilad Atzmon: The Anti-Semitic Side of Zionism (must watch)
If you are interested in Jewish political power and Zionist morbidity you must find the time to watch the first forty minutes of this incredible Israeli documentary. The film outlines what early Zionists thought of their Diaspora Jewish brothers, Jewish wealth, Jewish war mongering and Jewish power.
I do not know much at all about the people behind this film, except that they belong to the Israeli Ultra Orthodox sector. The film is there to expose the inherent anti Jewish discrimination within the Zionist discourse.
It is there to prove that Zionism is deeply anti- Semitic. The film is well made and very well researched, and the shocking quotes it outlines are all genuine.
In case you fail to realise the role of Jewish wealth, the impact of AIPAC, Lord Cash point Levy, the Conservative Friends of Israel, and other relentless Jewish lobbies, Benjamin Ze'ev Herzl (the founder of modern political Zionism) doesn't seem to mince his words.
Just five minutes into the documentary, Herzl is quoted as saying: The wealthy Jews control the world In their hands lies the fate of government and nations (4:59)
But it isn't just money the founder of Zionism is concerned with: Herzl was also very unhappy with what he saw as the role of Jews in setting off wars and world conflicts. Needless to say of course, Herzl couldn't know about what else was to come, decades later -- He didn't know about Neo-conservatism; he didn't know about Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby setting the USA's doctrine of moral interventionism; Herzl couldn't know that it would be the Labour Friends of Israel who would contribute funds to the Labour Government in 2003; and Herzl couldn't foresee that people like Jewish Chronicle writers David Aaronivitch and Nick Cohen would rally within the British press for further aggression in the Middle East, namely, the Iraq War.
But somehow Herzl was observant enough to suggest that . They (the Jews) set governments one against the other and by their decree governments make peace (5:07)
Herzl indeed, appeared to despise Jewish Power. When the wealthy Jews play, the nations and the rulers dance, he wrote with contempt.
Pre Zionist writings by Herzl suggest that the promising Viennese Journalist was convinced that Anti-Semitism was actually good for the Jews : He thought that it would mount pressure that would lead Jews eventually to adapt and transform into Goyim by means of conversion (5:49).
Later, when Herzl, changed his mind, and decided that Zionism was the way forward, he still thought that anti Semitism was a good thing, since it could only push Jews more urgently towards establishing the future Jewish State.
And it seems that Zionism still benefits from anti Semitism. Apparently, Herzl's paradigm is still in place.
Bravely, the film elaborates on the similarities between Herzl and Hitler. It is rather clear that -- at least ideologically -- the two political thinkers shared a deep aversion towards Jews.
Zionism was there to erect a new Jew: It promised to transform the Jews into civilized people. The documentary exposes the level of loathing early Zionists felt towards their Diaspora brothers.
In 1919, the Zionist socialist, Josef Haim Brenner, insisted that Jewish national character has been at fault since time immemorial. We (Jews) have never been a creative people. We've always lived lives of gypsies and dogs. Brenner continues, what do you expect from the anti Semites? (25:10). To a certain extent they were right to hate us all. The Jews, says Zionist Brenner, are Gypsies, contagion, slop and decay, a rotten egg.. We are remotely humane scum of mankind.
David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister, and probably the ultimate Zionist pragmatist, agreed that transforming humanoid raw material (the Diaspora Jews) into a cultural nation is not an easy task.
The Israeli documentary discloses the Zionists conscious dismissal of European Jews tragedy during The Second World War --In 1943, as European Jews suffered the ultimate form of oppression, Itzhak Greenbaum (the Zionist leader in charge of the rescue efforts) wrote, when they ask me, can you not use funds to rescue Jews in the Diaspora? I said No and I repeat No!
Greenbaum then insists that the struggle for Zionist redemption is more important than any efforts to save Diaspora Jews. (31:00)
In 1937 Chaim Weizmann, the leader of the Zionist Organisation and later the first Israeli President, declared The hope of six million[1] Jews is focused on rising up from the depth of tragedy. I wish to save two million youth. The elderly will perish and await their final destiny. They are, economically and ethically sub human-in cruel world. (32:18)
David ben Gurion repeated more or less the same line of thought: If I should be able to save all the children of Germany via transport to England, and merely half of them via transport to Israel, I will choose the latter.
The film goes on to review the Zionists total betrayal of, and failure to assist European Jews at the time of World War Two.
It also exposes the total political and legal abuse of Yemenite, Arab Jews and the Orthodox community in Israel.
It is important also to note that -- as much as this film protests against anti Jewish discrimination in Israel -- it hardly mentions the Palestinians or their plight. It totally neglects the crimes committed day by day against the Palestinian people.
As one expects -- universal ethics hardly comes into play in Hebrew; not even in a film about Zionist discrimination and human rights abuse.
[1] Note the number (6.000.000) and the year (1937)
http://bit.ly/97AWGO
26 mar 2012, 12:19 , Respect -
Maria 8 nov 2010
Norman Finkelstein in Berlin
(15:00) Norman Finkelstein in Berlin 1/8
(15:00) Norman Finkelstein in Berlin 2/8
(14:59) Norman Finkelstein in Berlin 3/8
(14:59) Norman Finkelstein in Berlin 4/8
(15:00) Norman Finkelstein in Berlin 5/8
(15:00) Norman Finkelstein in Berlin 6/8
(14:58) Norman Finkelstein in Berlin 7/8
(2:54) Norman Finkelstein in Berlin 8/8 26 mar 2012, 12:19 , Respect -
Maria 12 nov 2010
America's giant Holocaust claims fraud - more than just a blip?
The scam that defrauded the conference of $43 million earmarked for Holocaust survivors was not just a matter of a few bad apples.
You could almost say it was a crime without victims. Sure, $43 million were stolen over the last 16 years through false claims submitted to two funds run by the Claims Conference, the main organization that administers reparations to Jewish Holocaust survivors. And granted, six present and former employees of the organization were at the center of the scam, including the man in charge of overseeing both funds.
But hey, according to Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference, "it's less than one percent of funds distributed under those programs" and no authentic Holocaust survivor received less because of the scam. Well, that's okay then.
And of course, no one is saying this on the record, but most of the money came from the German taxpayer. So don't expect any official recriminations from that quarter.
The Manhattan district attorney was full of praise for the Claims Conference's cooperation in the investigation, saying without its help "in ferreting out this alleged scheme to defraud them, it never would have been exposed." So now the conference will hire an international consulting firm to help it strengthen its anti-fraud measures and everything will be fine. We should have no worries about allowing the conference to remain the Jewish people's sole custodian not only of official reparations from the German government, but also of property confiscated from Jews by the Nazis in former East Germany and other countries, and recently for stolen art treasures as well.
But just a moment. Six employees may seem a small number in a large multinational company or a government agency, but less than 100 people work at the Claims Conference's headquarters in New York, where all the suspects were employed. So even assuming that no other employee was tainted by the corruption, this was not just a matter of a couple of rotten apples; it was a sizable group operating within the organization for 16 years. Sixteen years!
And it doesn't even seem like the fraud was that elaborate. Indeed, it was almost wholesale - 4,957 false one-time payments and 658 fake pension claims.
The conference claims in its defense that this is but a drop in the ocean when compared to the number of recipients to whom it has made payments over the years, over 600,000. But if 5,615 claims were so easily fabricated, who knows how many other thousands of fake Holocaust survivors have been collecting payments over the years? I can't even bear to check the Holocaust denial websites to see how they must be crowing right now.
It would be easy to simply blame the conference for incompetence. But that is only a small part of the problem. The organization has no lack of impressive professionals. For example, Reuven Merhav, the chairman of its executive committee, is a former senior Mossad official, ambassador and director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, whose investigative skills were at least sufficient to make him a member of the Turkel Committee that is now investigating May's botched raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. (Justice Jacob Turkel, the eponymous committee's head, is another Claims Conference director. )
No, the real problem at the Claims Conference seems to have been complacency. From various hints and off-the-record remarks to the press, you get the impression that conference leaders are trying to blame Russian organized crime. Apparently all those indicted had links to the group in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach that ran the operation.
That may well be true. But how does that exonerate the senior executives who allowed members of this gang to serve in positions where they authorized hundreds of millions of dollars a year in payments? Were there no serious background checks?
The conference is nominally accountable to a board of directors representing 25 Jewish organizations from around the world, some of them large and influential, others archaic and unrepresentative of any real Jewish constituency. But what interest do any of these directors have in demanding a comprehensive overhaul of how the conference does business or appointing an external committee to review this latest scandal?
In addition to the money going to survivors, the conference distributes tens of millions of dollars annually to a long list of organizations loosely involved in Holocaust commemoration and education. Many of these institutions are subsidiaries of the organizations represented on Claims Conference board of directors. They are not interested in altering this cozy arrangement, despite claims by survivors' groups that in the final years of survivors' lives, every spare cent should be going to their welfare.
One former director did dare to break ranks: Zeev Bielski, the previous Jewish Agency chairman, demanded answers to some uncomfortable questions. When he did not receive them, he launched an independent audit of his own, revealing to the press that the conference had over $1 billion of liquid assets in reserve.
He also argued that Israel, as home to the majority of living survivors, should have more of a say in how the New York-based organization allocates funds. This, of course, was a grave breach of protocol, and the cash-strapped agency was punished: Funds for its projects were withheld. Bielski was forced to back down with a groveling apology. Others learned the lesson.
The Claims Conference is the richest, most powerful and least answerable old-boys network in the Jewish world. Yet it is entrusted not only with billions of dollars, but with a duty to the welfare of Holocaust survivors worldwide until the end of their days. And no amount of scandal, media exposes and political pressure is about to change that.
http://bit.ly/9vmeDw
26 mar 2012, 12:19 , Respect -
Maria 15 nov 2010
Helen Thomas on Her Resignation and Middle East
(13:48) Helen Thomas on Her Resignation and Middle East
26 mar 2012, 12:19 , Respect -
Maria 15 nov 2010
Israel: Norway inciting against us
Foreign Ministry says Norwegian authorities funding anti-Israel film, exhibition, and play. Norway: We support freedom of expression.
Serious diplomatic conflict: Israel is accusing the Norwegian government of funding and encouraging blatant anti-Israel incitement.
According to reports received by the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, the Trondheim Municipality is funding a trip to New York for students taking part in the "Gaza Monologues" play, which "deals with the suffering of children in Gaza as a result of the Israeli occupation."
The play, written by a Palestinian from Gaza, will be presented at the United Nations headquarters. It joins an exhibition by a Norwegian artists displayed in Damascus, Beirut, and Amman, with the help of Norway's embassies in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.
The exhibition shows killed Palestinian babies next to Israel Defense Forces helmets, which are reminiscent of Nazi soldiers' helmets, and an Israeli flag drenched in blood.
The Norwegians are also helping the distribution of a documentary film called "Tears of Gaza" to festivals across the world. According to the Foreign Ministry, the film deals with the suffering of Gaza's children as well, without mentioning Hamas, the rockets fired at Israel, and Israel's right to defend itself.
The film shows Gazans chanting, "Itbah al-Yahud," but the Norwegian translation says "slaughter the Israelis" instead of "slaughter the Jews".
In addition, a book written by two Norwegian doctors who were the only foreigners in Gaza to give interviews during Operation Cast Lead was published recently. The book, which accuses IDF soldiers of deliberately killing women and children, is a bestseller in Norway and has been warmly recommended by none other than Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
The Israeli Embassy in Norway strongly protested the authorities' involvement in Israel's demonization. "The open and official Norwegian policy talks about understanding and reconciliation," a senior Israeli official said Sunday evening, "but ever since the war in Gaza, Norway has become a superpower in terms of exporting multimedia aimed at de-legitimizing Israel, while using the Norwegian taxpayer funds for creating and transporting this multimedia."
Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said in a meeting with Norwegian parliament members that "such activity pushes away the chance for reconciliation and encourages a radicalization in the Palestinian stand which prevents them from compromising."
The Norwegians responded to the Israeli criticism by saying that the government supports the freedom of expressions and will not intervene in artistic content.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3984621,00.html
26 mar 2012, 12:19 , Respect -
Maria 17 nov 2010
Israeli fights Spanish site's Israel boycott
Bertha Linker gets Spanish learning website to accept her, remove anti-Israel material.
Bertha Linker, 32, recently decided to register with the escritores.org website in order to improve her level of writing in Spanish through online studies.
But she was soon surprised to learn that her request had been rejected as the website is boycotting Israel over its policy in the Palestinian territories.
Linker reported the response to the Israeli Embassy in Spain, which discovered that the website also features anti-Israel materials. The embassy then approached lawyers to examine the matter's legal aspect.
This led to various solicitations via social networks and threats to sue the website. Escritores.org eventually succumbed to the pressure and decided to accept Linker as a member and to remove the anti-Israel material.
"I fought it and I'm glad they finally gave in," Linker said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985818,00.html
26 mar 2012, 12:20 , Respect -
Maria 22 nov 2010
U.K. to probe Islamic schools for alleged anti-Semitism
Britain's education department to look into textbooks which teach children of Zionist plans for world domination, as well as condone extreme punishment for homosexuality.
Britain's education department is to look at how it can check Islamic weekend schools after the BBC reported it had uncovered more than 40 of them teaching anti-Semitic views and extreme punishment for sodomy and theft.
The BBC said its "Panorama" program, which will air on Monday evening, had found a network of weekend Islamic schools in Britain were teaching children that Zionists are trying to take over the world, how to chop off the hands of thieves, and that sodomy is punishable by death.
Currently the government does not regulate weekend, part-time teaching centers.
The Department for Education said it could not allow anti-Semitic material in English schools and that the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills [Ofsted], which inspects schools, was looking into how to monitor the part-time centers.
"Ofsted are doing some work in this area. They'll be reporting to us shortly about how we can ensure that part-time provision is better registered and better inspected in the future," the department said in a statement.
Panorama said the centers fell under the umbrella of the Saudi Students' Schools and Clubs in the UK and Ireland and have been teaching the Saudi national curriculum to about 5,000 children.
It said the schools, which teach children between the ages of 6 and 18, have been using textbooks that contain diagrams showing the Sharia way to cut off the hands and feet of people convicted of theft and that Zionists are plotting to take over the world for Jews.
It said it had obtained a textbook that asked children to list the "reprehensible" qualities of Jews. It also said they were told the punishment for sodomy was death and that there is a difference of opinion on whether this should be by stoning, burning or throwing off a cliff.
The Saudi Students' Schools and Clubs group could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Saudi Embassy said it would not comment on the Panorama program until it had seen it, but the BBC said it had received a letter from the Saudi ambassador saying the network of weekend schools had nothing to do with the embassy.
Quilliam, a think-tank that studies radical Islamism, said Saudi Arabia had stopped using the textbooks that Panorama referred to as it took steps to modernize its religious education and that the Saudi government should try to persuade Islamic schools in Britain to stop "hate preaching."
"It is unfortunate that these so-called Saudi schools in Britain do not seem to have similarly moved with the times. The Saudi authorities need to use their influence to ensure that hate-preaching is fully tackled both at home and abroad," Quilliam spokesman Talal Rajab said.
http://bit.ly/g3ViF5
26 mar 2012, 12:20 , Respect -
Maria 26 mar 2012, 12:20 , Respect -
Maria 23 nov 2010
Israeli scholar takes ancient Talmud to the masses
Talmud is central text of mainstream Judaism, detailing rabbinical discussions over the centuries pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history.
The perpetually sleep-deprived scholar sits slouched in a large chair, a pipe to his lips, his long white beard curled into knots, strands of hair poking out from beneath his black skullcap. Lacking a rabbi's traditional booming voice, he speaks so softly one often has to lean in closer to hear his insights.
But Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's message resonates clearly to the far corners of the Jewish world. The 73-year-old rabbinical scholar has just completed a monumental 45-year project hailed in Jewish scholarly circles as a breakthrough of biblical proportions - the most comprehensive translation and commentary of the Talmud, with its 63 basic sections and nearly 6,000 pages.
The Talmud is the central text of mainstream Judaism, detailing rabbinical discussions over the centuries pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history. But because of its complexity, obscurity and the fact that much of it is written in the ancient Aramaic language, the rarified text has for centuries remained beyond the scope of comprehension of all but a select group of scholarly Jews.
Steinsaltz coins his quest to educate Jews Let my people know, a play on Moses' passage from Genesis: Let my people go. Now, thanks to his 45-volume series, anyone with a command of Hebrew can study the sacred text.
I do believe that this knowledge, it is not just knowledge of history, it is knowledge of ourselves, it is our own picture, Steinsaltz told The Associated Press at his modest Jerusalem office. Talmud is a book that has no real parallel ... it is a constant search for truth, for absolute truth.
Steinsaltz has spent the majority of his life doing just that. For four and a half decades, for as long as 16 hours a day, he labored over the ancient texts, translating them from the Aramaic into modern Hebrew - and parts into English, Spanish, French, and Russian as well.
More importantly, he added his own explanations of phrases, terms and concepts, as well as listing the rulings of Jewish law derived from the text.
There have been other, partial translations into English and other languages, but none are as comprehensive or have as extensive a commentary.
I have opened the gate - you please enter. I cannot do it for you, and I am not trying to do it for you, he explained.
Shalom Rosenberg, a professor emeritus of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Steinsaltz was upholding the legacy of Shlomo Yitzhaki, the famed medieval French rabbi known by his acronym Rashi, who authored the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud more than 900 years ago.
Rashi did the first revolution, turning it into a book you could read. Now Steinsaltz has opened it up even to people who didn't go to Yeshiva (religious seminaries), he said.
Still, he said, Steinsaltz's Talmud is like giving someone a map to the jungle - but there is still a way to go before understanding the jungle, he said.
The project has not been without its detractors. Over the years, some ultra-Orthodox scholars criticized Steinsaltz - even boycotted him - saying Talmud study should be reserved for rabbinical experts.
Jewish historian Menachem Friedman said Steinsaltz's work takes away the rabbis' monopoly over knowledge of the Talmud.
They perceive the popularization of the Talmud as too bold a move, with too much chutzpah, he said.
Steinsaltz, whose three children have adopted the Hebraized surname Even-Israel, was born in Israel to secular parents but became observant in his teens, when he entered seminary schools and learned Aramaic.
After studying physics and chemistry at Hebrew University, he became a math teacher and at the age of 24, according to his website, the youngest school principal in Israel's history. Three years later, in 1965, he began working on what he called his hobby - the translation of the Talmud. The effort earned him the 1988 Israel Prize - the nations' highest civilian honor.
Over the years, he has established a network of schools in Israel and the former Soviet Union, and he has written more than 60 books on subjects ranging from zoology to theology.
But the Talmud has remained his greatest passion.
He explained that he took to it like a musician takes to an instrument and he compared comprehension of it to that of math and music.
It is a different language and you have to think in that language. It is a language of thought and not a language of words, he said.
Studying the Talmud, with its paradoxes and oxymorons, is itself a form of worship, he says. The Lord is talking to us and He just waits for someone on the other end of the universe to say 'hello,' he said. That is the essence of prayer, to say 'hello.'
Earlier this month, his achievements were celebrated with the Global Day of Jewish Learning - described as the first worldwide, trans-denominational and non-denominational event devoted to Jewish study. Since last week, he has been on a U.S. tour marking the publication of the final chapter of his 45-volume Talmud series.
The Talmud is made up of two main parts: the Mishna, oral law written down in the third century A.D.; and the Gemara, a much lengthier work amplifying the Mishna and compiled in the centuries that followed.
The debates in the Gemara over the Mishna's rulings range from whimsical to angry to humorous. Often a conclusion is reached about what the Mishna means, resulting in a declaration of Jewish law, but sometimes a tie is declared.
In every field of knowledge there are some questions that cannot be answered, said Steinsalz. They can be answered when you go to a higher level, and at that higher level you also find questions that can't be answered.
So the main thing is what they used to say in the Middle Ages: The end of knowledge is that we do not know, he said. The more you climb the more you know that you don't know.
After writing millions of words, he said his drive to learn more has not diminished. He described an oceanic feeling, a blissful sense of seeing a touch of infinity in his quest for illumination.
I am preparing for the next 170 years because I have a lot of work to do. Now if the boss decides that he wants me elsewhere so I will have to move, but as long as I am here I have lots of things to do, he said.
http://bit.ly/hlGbwB
26 mar 2012, 12:20 , Respect -
Maria 28 nov 2010
AJC Deplores Anti-Israel Event at Berlin Maritim Hotel
Berlin AJC is deeply disappointed with the decision of the Berlin Maritim Hotel to allow Norman Finkelstein, a virulent critic of Israel, to speak on its premises.
Providing a platform for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic invective surely cannot be in the interest of a major German hotel, said Deidre Berger, Director of AJC Berlin. Maritim Hotel executives should put their civic obligations before their business interests.
AJC had informed the hotel weeks ago in a letter that previous attempts this year to feature Norman Finkelstein in Berlin were called off after widespread protest. Finkelstein's theories on Israel and the Holocaust are popular fodder for right-wing extremists and their publications.
Norman Finkelstein's hateful theories incite anti-Semitism, said Berger. We are deeply disappointed with the hotel's decision to provide space for this deplorable event.
Finkelstein, an American academic, will address an event at the Maritim Hotel tonight sponsored by Palestinian Doctors and Pharmacists in Germany.
Due to his support for Hamas and Hezbollah, radical Islamist terror organizations seeking Israel's destruction, Finkelstein recently was denied entry to Israel.
http://bit.ly/gi6uRO