Jewish Russian Telegraph

Pesach Message

Dear Readers!

JRT wishes you all a very Happy, Joyous, and Kosher Passover!

SichosinEnglish.org:

Pesach Message From The Lubavitcher Rebbe

The festival of Pesach calls for early and elaborate preparations to make the Jewish home fitting for the great festival. It is not physical preparedness alone that is required of us, but also spiritual preparedness --for in the life of the Jew the physical and spiritual are closely linked together, especially in the celebration of our Sabbath and festivals.

On Pesach we celebrate the liberation of the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery and, together with it, the liberation from, and negation of the ancient Egyptian system and way of life, the "abominations of Egypt." Thus we celebrate our physical liberation together with our spiritual freedom.

Indeed, there cannot be one without the other: There can be no real freedom without accepting the precepts of our Torah guiding our daily life; pure and holy life eventually leads to real freedom.

It is said, "In every generation each Jew should see himself as though he personally had been liberated from Egypt." This is to say, that the lesson of Pesach has always a timely message for the individual Jew.

The story of Pesach is the story of the special Divine Providence which alone determines the fate of our people.

What is happening in the outside world need not affect us; we might be singled out for suffering, G-d forbid, amid general prosperity, and likewise for safety amid a general plague or catastrophe.

The story of our enslavement and liberation of which Pesach tells us gives ample illustration of this. For the fate of our people is determined by its adherence to G-d and His Prophets.

This lesson is emphasized by the three principal symbols of the Seder, concerning which our Sages said that unless the Jew explains their significance he has not observed the Seder fittingly: Pesach, Matzah and Morror.

Using these symbols in their chronological order and in accordance with their Haggadah explanation we may say: the Jew can avoid Morror (bitterness of life) only through Pesach (G-d's special care "passing over" and saving the Jewish homes even in the midst of the greatest plague), and Matzah -- then the very catastrophe and the enemies of the Jews will work for the benefit of the Jews, driving them in great haste out of "Mitzrayim," the place of perversion and darkness, and placing them under the beam of light and holiness.

One other important thing we must remember: the celebration of the festival of freedom must be connected with the commandment "You shall relate it to your son."

The formation and existence of the Jewish home, as of the Jewish people as a whole, is dependent upon the upbringing of the young generation, both boys and girls: the wise and the wicked (temporarily), the simple and the one who knows not what to ask.

Just as we cannot shirk our responsibility towards our child by the excuse that "my child is a wise one; he will find his own way in life; therefore no education is necessary for him," so we must not despair by thinking "the child is a wicked one; no education will help him."

For, all Jewish children, boys and girls, are "G-d's children," and it is our sacred duty to see to it that they all live up to their above-mentioned title; and this we can achieve only through a proper Jewish education, in full adherence to G-d's Torah. Then we all will merit the realization of our ardent hopes: "In the next year may we be free; in the next year may we be in Jerusalem!"

Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson

posted by: jrtelegraph

Yoram Ettinger: IMF Praises Israel's Economy

Yoram Ettinger:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Praising Israel’s Economy

Yoram EttingerStraight from the Jerusalem Boardroom #160, April 05, 2012

IMF Country Report on Israel, April 2012:  

“Israel's economy remains strong with GDP growing 4.7 percent in 2011, led by robust private consumption and buoyant investment. However, the global downturn is slowing Israeli growth, with 2012 GDP growth expected at 2.8 percent.

“Israel’s fundamentals are strong: inflation and inflation expectations are squarely within the 1-3 percent target range; unemployment is at historic lows; the net international investment position is a surplus; and public debt has fallen steadily to below 75 percent of GDP.

“These strengths are also underpinned by Israel's sound institutional frameworks,including fiscal rules and a new central bank law. Furthermore, following recent discoveries of natural gas fields, Israel may become a net energy exporter in coming years…

“Following a mild recession in early 2009, output started recovering in mid-2009 and continued to grow strongly through the first part of 2011. Unemployment fell to comparatively low levels [5.6%], inflationary pressures became apparent, house prices increased rapidly (more than 40% in real terms since 2008), and strong capital inflows continued even during periods of heightened regional tension….

“The general robustness of the system was demonstrated in the 2002 and 2009 recessions. Risk factors relating to high public debt and continent pension liabilities have diminished in relative importance…

“The Israeli financial system currently appears to be generally robust, but faces an unusually uncertain and dangerous global economic environment. While Israel’s direct exposure to the most vulnerable countries is minor, there is a clear risk of a recession in Israel’s main trading partners in Europe and the United States, heightened risk aversion in financial markets, and difficult funding conditions. Moreover, Israel lives with persistent regional geopolitical risks, which would have economic repercussions if realized. Stability analysis suggests that systemic financial vulnerabilities to severe shocks in line with historical experience are manageable; in aggregate, buffers (including those in the household sector) are at comparatively comfortable levels…

“A variety of stress tests for banks, insurance companies, and long-term savings funds were undertaken. The calibration of these tests was demanding, but only a few individual institutions were projected to suffer major losses or to become relatively short of liquidity. The authorities already operate an effective, pro-active, and sophisticated system of financial sector oversight, which, however, needs to be developed further in some areas. The level of observance of the main international financial supervisory standards was assessed to be high…

“The current combination of external threats and the relative stability of the domestic system are propitious for strengthening the crisis management framework…. The global crisis affected Israel’s economy, but no domestic financial institution got into serious difficulties during the crisis. Banks weathered the storm of the global crisis, although profitability suffered. In part, the relatively robust performance was due to the short-lived recession and the characteristics of Israel’s banking system, namely, banks’ conservative management; reliance on deposit funding and the small interbank and wholesale funding markets; lack of complex asset and securitized markets; and strong and intrusive bank supervision… [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Gary Shteyngart Goes To Beijing

FP:

Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Trip to China

Posted By Isaac Stone Fish  Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - 6:58 PM 

Gary Shteyngart, the Russian-American novelist whose books Absurdistan and The Russian Debutante's Handbook enliven the farcical edges of living in a totalitarian society, returned recently from a two week reporting trip to China, the cruel and prosperous land of the future. "We suck," Shteyngart said over the phone. "The saddest flight in the world is Beijing Capital to Newark." FP interviewed Shteyngart about Jews in China, how to build a successful business, and the world outside Brooklyn, edited and condensed for clarity.  

Foreign Policy: Did you tell people you were Jewish in China?

Gary Shteyngart: I did. They said ‘why are Jews so sad and anxious? Why can't you cheer up?' What I said to that, was, you know, the Holocaust. They said we were kind of similar that way. I don't know what happened [to the Chinese] exactly, I read about it on Wikipedia.

FP: You mentioned in a tweet that you started your own boutique investment firm in Shanghai but it failed after five hours. What did you get from it?

GS: A lot of dignity. You can't really monetize dignity. [Read the rest]

posted by: jrtelegraph

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS ABUSE HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE

Americans for Peace and Tolerance/ On Campus:

 

VIDEO: NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS ABUSING HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT: Americans for Peace and Tolerance/ On Campus

Contact Person: Dr. Charles Jacobs
Voice Phone Number:  617 202 3004     
Email Address:  cj@peaceandtolerance.org
Website URL www.hijackingholocaust.org

VIDEO: NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS ABUSING HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE

April 2, 2012

BOSTON – Americans for Peace and Tolerance/On Campus today released a video documenting Northeastern University faculty members abusing Holocaust Remembrance events for political purposes. Northeastern professors and their invited guest lecturers are seen comparing Israelis to Nazis and denying Jewish peoplehood – on tape recordings and in internal emails. Some making these claims were invited by professors holding the Stotsky Professorship in Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies, established specifically to study the genocide of European Jewry.

The video was posted at: www.hijackingholocaust.com

“Northeastern is a popular and respected school,” said APT President, Charles Jacobs, “but there does exist a problem - mostly confined to a few anti-Israel radicals among the professoriate and the administration. These individuals have used a chair donated for the purpose of teaching students about the genocide of European Jews to demonize and delegitimize the state of Israel and its supporters.”

Jacobs said, “It is extraordinarily unscholarly, insensitive and hurtful for university professors to invite speakers who tell Jewish students in front of their classmates that Jews today act like Nazis. It is outrageous that somebody who denies Jews the right to self-determination and compares the Jewish state to Nazis is responsible for commemorating the Jewish genocide.”  

“It is also very troubling,” he said, “that some Jewish faculty members are too intimidated to speak publicly about these issues, and that some Universities use   ‘academic freedom’ to shield bigoted professors who defame the Jewish community.”

Jacobs said he is encouraged by recent efforts by the administration and he hopes that bringing public attention to this problem will lead the administration at Northeastern to comply with its own policies in its treatment of all minorities on campus.

APT/OC is calling for three specific actions:

1. The University should apologize and launch an independent investigation into how such demonization of Israel and the Jewish community could have occurred on campus.
2. The University should form a new Holocaust Awareness Committee composed of faculty sympathetic to Jewish peoplehood.
3. Professors who claim that Jews act like Nazis are engaging in hateful bigotry. To prevent such bigotry in the future, the University should extend its existing minority sensitivity training programs to include the Jewish people.

APT/On Campus is an interfaith group educating the public about the radical threats  to academic integrity  at America’s Universities . In particular, APT on Campus works to increase public awareness of the growing hostile campus environment currently confronting Jewish students (and others) who support Israel.

posted by: jrtelegraph

Daniel Pipes: Road Rage, Denial, and Islamist Terrorism

Daniel Pipes:

It's Not Road Rage, It's Terrorism

by Daniel Pipes
National Review Online
April 3, 2012

On February 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli doctor of American origins, went to the mosque at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and murdered 29 Muslims with an automatic weapon before being overwhelmed and himself killed. This massacre prompted conspiracy theories and riots in Muslim circles, including accusations that the government of Israel stood behind Goldstein, an allegation that strenuous denunciations of his attack by the Israeli government did not fully deflect.

Rashid Baz, who attacked a Jewish target in New York City in 1994.

On March 1, four days later, Rashid Baz, a New York livery driver of Lebanese origins, fired two guns at a van carrying Hasidic Jewish boys on a ramp leading to the Brooklyn Bridge, killing Ari Halberstam, 16, a yeshiva student. Baz was quickly apprehended, convicted, and sentenced to 141 years in prison. Circumstantial evidence pointed to a link between the two events, for Baz was immersed in the Arabic-language media coverage of Goldstein's attack, he attended the incendiary Islamic Center of Bay Ridge, and he was surrounded by Muslims who condoned terrorism against Jews. More than that, friends indicated that Baz was obsessively angered by the attack in Hebron and the psychiatrist for his legal defense, Douglas Anderson, testified that Baz "was enraged" by it. "He was absolutely furious. . . . Were it not for Hebron this whole tragedy [in New York] wouldn't have occurred."

Yet the seemingly obvious connection between Goldstein and Baz could not be established because Baz accounted for his violence by referring to post-traumatic stresses from his experiences in Lebanon. And so, despite the preponderance of evidence, the Federal Bureau of Investigation adopted Baz's own dissemblance and called the murder on the Brooklyn Bridge an act of "road rage." Only after Halberstam's mother devoted years of effort did the FBI in 2000 reclassify the Baz attack as terrorism.

Mohammed Merah, who attacked a Jewish target in Toulouse in 2012.

And thus matters rested until a few days ago, when Baz's confession in 2007 finally became public via a New York Post article. In it, Baz acknowledged the impact of the Goldstein atrocity on him, admitted having specifically targeted Jews, and confessed to following a van of Hasidic boys for two miles from the Manhattan Eye and Ear Infirmary to the bridge. Asked if he would have shot at a van full of black or Latino people, he replied, "No, I only shot them because they were Jewish."

This belated confession points to a recurring problem of politicians, law enforcement, and the press with Islamist terrorism: their unwillingness to stare it in the face and ascribe murder to it.

Most recently, this avoidance reared its ugly head in the case of Mohammed Merah in Toulouse, France, where the establishment's immediate impulse was to assume the murderer of three soldiers and four Jews was a non-Muslim. As my colleague Adam Turner notes in the Daily Caller, "the elite Western public officials' and media's speculation about the true killer, prior to the discovery of his identity, heavily focused (also here and here and here) on the belief that he was a white European neo-Nazi." Only when Merah himself boasted of his crime to the police and even sent videos of his actions to Al Jazeera did the other theories finally vaporize.

 

El Sayyid Nosair, who attacked a Jewish target in New York City in 1990.

The Baz and Merah examples fit a much larger pattern of denying Islamist terrorism that I trace as far back as the 1990 assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City by El Sayyid Nosair, an attack initially ascribed by the police department's chief of detectives to "a prescription drug for or consistent with depression." Since then, time and again, the establishment has conjured up similarly lame excuses for Islamist terrorism, including "a work dispute," a "stormy [family] relationship," the acne drug Accutane, an "attitude problem," and "loneliness and depression."

Most disturbing, however, is the tendency to ascribe Islamist terror to diminished mental capacity. As Teri Blumenfeld notes in the current issue of the Middle East Quarterly, "Muslims who kill in the name of their religion frequently evade punishment in Western courts by pleading insanity or mental incompetence." In Western courts, indeed, defense lawyers routinely attribute acts of jihadi murder to insanity.

Ignoring the religious and ideological roots of Islamist terrorism carries a heavy price; not thoroughly investigating the Kahane assassination meant overlooking materials that could have prevented the World Trade Center bombing in 1993; and Merah's apprehension sooner would have saved lives. Islamism must be squarely faced to protect ourselves from future violence. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Meet Mitt Romney, Moscow's Enemy #1

How bad this could be?

cnsnews.com:

Romney Blasted in Moscow for Calling Russia ‘Our No. 1 Geopolitical Foe’

By Patrick Goodenough

March 28, 2012

    

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during a visit to a medical device company in San Diego, Calif. on Monday, March 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

(CNSNews.com) – Mitt Romney’s criticism of Russia following President Obama’s “open mike” moment with his Russian counterpart has drawn a harsh response in Moscow.

The Republican presidential hopeful is being labeled a neo-conservative stooge, an out-of-touch politician stuck in a Cold War mindset – even a manifestation of the “Marlboro Man.”

In a CNN interview Monday, Romney called Russia “our number one geopolitical foe,” citing its support for “the world’s worst actors,” such as Syria and Iran.

The former Massachusetts governor was reacting to Obama’s unintentionally public assurance to President Dmitry Medvedev during a meeting in South Korea that he would have “more flexibility” after his presumed November re-election to deal with a long running dispute with the Russians over missile defense plans in Europe.

“The idea that our president is planning on doing something with them that he’s not willing to tell the American people before the election is something I find very, very alarming,” Romney said.

Medvedev told reporters in Seoul that Romney was invoking “Hollywood” stereotypes. Anyone running for the presidency should “use their heads and consult their reason,” Russia’s state-owned RIA Novosti news agency quoted him as saying.

The outgoing Russian leader, who will be succeeded by Vladimir Putin in early May, also advised Romney to “check his watch – it’s 2012, not the middle of the 1970s.”

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev chat during a bilateral meeting at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March, 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Back in Moscow, Romney’s reported comments made headlines and prompted strong reactions, with a report in the Moscow Times musing that the words constituted “perhaps the most hostile remark by a major U.S. politician since President Ronald Reagan’s ‘evil empire’ speech.” [more]

Moscow is taking neo-cons very seriously now. Here is a KGB propaganda movie in the best traditions of a Communist and Nazi propaganda (in Russian):

 

posted by: jrtelegraph

Azerbaijan, Israel's New and Unexpected Friend

AP:

Unlikely alliance between Israel and Azerbaijan raises heat over Iran

31 Mar, 2012 02:00 AM

ISRAEL has secured access to airbases on Iran's northern border through its defence alliance with Azerbaijan, US officials say, adding to a series of explosive reports of Israel's covert hostilities against Iran.

 A report in Foreign Policy magazine quoted a senior US administration official as saying: ''The Israelis have bought an airfield … and the airfield is called Azerbaijan.''

 Sources in the Israeli government insist they know nothing of the alleged strategic acquisition and question the veracity of the report, saying it is based exclusively on unnamed US officials and two independent think tank reports unaffiliated with any notable institutions.

 However, one senior Israeli official suggested that Iran's outrage at its neighbour's burgeoning relationship with the Jewish state may actually be pushing the unlikely allies closer together.

 'The more pressure applied by Iran, the more they unveil plots to carry out terror attacks on Azerbaijani embassies, the more they [Azeris] are co-operating with us,'' the official said.

"Iran's fear that its considerable Azeri minority may have aspirations for independence is the current bed of its relations with Azerbaijan. As a result, Azerbaijan is very interested in firming up its relationship with Israel.'' 

Last month, Israel confirmed the sale of drones and anti-aircraft missile defence systems to the former Soviet state in a $US1.6 billion ($1.54 billion) arms deal. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Russian Jewish David Storobin Counting Votes in a New York State Senate Race

The Jewish Week:

Russians Riled Up Over State Senate Race

Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny .

Turnout high in Senate election with Belarus-born candidate, but some cry foul over ballot challenges, district lines and stereotyping.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Adam Dickter 

Assistant Managing Editor

Russian-speaking immigrants turned out in high numbers to cast their votes in a special election for state Senate last month, but evidently did not overwhelmingly support the man who would be the second member of their community to serve the state legislature.

Republican David Storobin and Democrat Lew Fidler are locked in one of the tightest vote-count battles in recent memory, with the margin estimated to be as low as one or two votes as absentee ballots are counted — and challenged.

Things got testy, with some claiming that Fidler’s campaign was deliberately challenging paper ballots from the district’s Russian-speaking population.

“Unfortunately, my opponent’s campaign has unfairly blocked well more than 100 Russian absentee votes from being counted, for no reason other than the fact that they are Russian,” Storobin said in a statement on March 29. “This blatant disenfranchisement cannot and will not stand.”

Some even showed up at Fidler’s City Council district office to protest.

Fidler’s campaign insists it challenged only those ballots, about 120 in all, collected by an individual, Alla Pometko, identified in campaign disclosures as a paid consultant to Storobin. According to Fidler’s court papers challenging the ballots, 16 of those whose ballot was collected by Pometko also voted in person. The court petition suggests those who filled out the ballots were unaware that doing so constituted a vote.

Absentee ballots are largely used by those who can’t vote in person because of disability.

“The Fidler campaign has challenged the fraudulent votes from people either not entitled to vote by absentee ballot or who had voted but showed up at the polling place after having made a miraculous recovery,” said Kalman Yeger, Fidler’s campaign manager.

Pometko could not be located for comment. Storobin’s campaign spokesman, David Simpson, did not return calls for comment in time for publication.

Russian community leaders were further riled up by an unrelated incident, holding a press conference this weekend to condemn the New York Times for its coverage of a massive medical insurance fraud scheme. The Times’ William K. Rashbaum quoted an anonymous “law enforcement official who has investigated organized crime groups from the former Soviet Union” saying “This is the Russian mind-set, and this is why it’s endemic in the system … If you’re not scamming the system, if you’re not scamming the government, you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing — you’re looked upon as a patsy.”

Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny, a Democrat who is the first and currently only Russian-born legislator in New York state, believes that the vote among Russian-speaking citizens was about evenly split between the parties.

A Fidler supporter, Brook-Krasny said he had no indication that the campaign was challenging voters based on their background.

“If something was done wrong it’s up to the court to find out, but I wouldn’t be blaming the Fidler campaign for challenging Russian names,” he said. “I hope the process will reveal the truth. It could be a case where people didn’t know how to vote properly and broke the law not knowing how to do it. They may be elderly and may not remember signing the absentee ballot.”

Brook-Krasny said turnout in the apartment complexes of Warbasse and Trump, which have high concentrations of Russian-speaking immigrants, numbered about 3,800 — not bad for a special election.

“I’m proud to say the community is voting in big numbers now,” he said. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Moses from Newton, MA Helps To Free South Sudanese Slaves

Jointmedia News Service:

SOUTH SUDAN’S JEWISH ABOLITIONIST

MASHA RIFKIN, JOINTMEDIA NEWS SERVICE



 Charles Jacobs surrounded by those he helped to free from slavery. Credit: Courtesy Charles JacobsWithin Sudan’s well-documented history of intertribal warfare, turbulence, and slavery, there is the lesser-known tale of a Jewish abolitionist.

In 1994, Charles Jacobs quit his job and began his fight against one of the last remnants of slavery. Jacobs had read about the unrest and slave trafficking in Sudan, and founded the American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) with Mohamed Athie of Mauritania and David Chand of Sudan in order to take a stand against it.

“One day this black Muslim, black Christian, and white Jew decided to form the anti-slavery movement,” Jacobs says of his decision. “It was very emotional for us. We said, ‘we’re not going rest until the world knows this is happening.’”

These days, South Sudan is Israel’s newest ally on the African continent. However, the country’s newfound independence presents a stark contrast to its protracted history of slavery. The Dinkas—South Sudan’s ethnic majority—were for years enslaved by Arab traders to the north, a practice that was outlawed by the British during their occupation. Yet in the early 1980s, Sudan as a whole was thrust back into the clutches of civil war, many think due to a rise in Islamism. The central Sudanese government declared all Sudan an Islamic state in 1983, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which represented the southern, mostly non-Muslim Sudan, was formed in response.

Slave trafficking began in earnest at the onset of the civil war, with women and children as the targets. Hundreds of thousands of Dinkas would eventually be captured, the women used primarily as sex slaves, and the children as labor (according to Jacobs, boys would frequently be killed upon reaching puberty, for fear of revolt).

“Arab slaving has less to do with men, and more to do with women and children,” Jacobs says, “because unlike in the west where you needed musculature, in the Arab world slavery is all about concubines, and creating Muslims.”

By the time Jacobs got involved, the slave trade had been thriving for nearly ten years. AASG quickly jumped into action, raising awareness, and then learning to assist efforts to buy freedom for captured slaves—an action which would quickly become controversial. John Eibner, the CEO of Christian Solidarity International-USA (whom Jacobs refers to as the “real hero, a sort of Indiana Jones”), created an “underground railroad” leveraging an existing indigenous peace treaty between friendly Arabs and their African Dinka neignbors: the Dinka would let Arab herdsmen water their cattle on Dinka wetlands in exchange for retrieving their women and children, enslaved in the north. Eibner and Jacobs collected cash to amplify this arrangement. The price for redeeming a slave, he said, ranged from $50 - $80 a person.

Initially, Jacobs and the AASG faced some opposition from various communities and human rights groups. He believes this was due to the politically incorrect nature of this particular slave trade. It was not Western whites oppressing blacks, but rather—Arab Muslims oppressing blacks. For his tactic of bringing former Sudanese slaves into American black churches in order to raise awareness, Jacobs received death threats. “The Muslim Brotherhood targets the black community, and the only time I ever got death threats was when we were bringing [former slaves] into black churches. [The threats] would say, ‘I don’t care what else you do, stay away from the black churches.’”

Jacobs and the AASG were even attacked by Louis Farrakhan, who openly denied the slavery in Sudan, later to his own embarrassment. After Eibner brought Reverend Al Sharpton to Sudan to witness the events for himself, Farrakhan was quieted.

Soon, word began to spread. Major newspapers ran columns, news networks ran the story, and an unlikely left-right coalition was formed; it included Pat Robertson, and Barney Frank. “We didn’t put them in the same room,” Jacobs smiled. “But that’s the way it should be,” Jacobs said. “Slavery’s not about right or left, it’s about right or wrong.”

Then, news of the conflict reached President George W. Bush. That, Jacobs says, was a game changer. Bush marshaled a peace agreement between the two sides, which they signed in 2005. Last June, more than 98% of the population in South Sudan voted to secede and form their own country. Israel became one of the first countries in the world to recognize South Sudan’s independence, announcing its recognition within 24 hours. Israeli officials later hinted that the Jewish state had helped the Southern African resistance—with arms.

 Charles Jacobs with South Sudanese president Salva Kiir. Credit: Courtesy Charles Jacobs

Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, reportedly told a senior member of the Likud party that South Sudan would establish an embassy in Jerusalem (a controversial act, given it’s disputed claim as the capital of Israel). Then, during Kiir’s first official visit to Israel in December, he acknowledged Israel’s role in the creation of his country. “Israel has always supported the South Sudanese people. Without you, we would not have arisen. You struggled alongside us in order to allow the establishment of South Sudan,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kiir have formed a close relationship. This alliance could be vital to both countries, Jacobs says. Israel can offer South Sudan assistance in health, education, agricultural development, and defense. South Sudan can prove to be a valuable ally in the region when Israel has few; it also has access to natural resources, including oil, and represents an obstacle to the spread of Islamism.

Still, even though the people of South Sudan now have a state, Jacobs’s work, and that of the AASG, is not yet complete. Thirty thousand slaves still remain in the north, and according to Jacobs, the Christian solidarity movement has pledged to redeem them. He is currently seeking one or two donors, who, for the price of $80 a person, might be able to emancipate the remaining slaves.

“Can you imagine,” Jacobs muses, “someone could have on their tomb stone, ‘I freed thirty thousand slaves, what did you do, my friend?’”

Once all the slaves return home, Jacobs plans to continue his work. He is currently forming an Israel-South Sudan friendship society, to assist in the relationship between the two countries, and is continuing to work with the recently emancipated slaves.

According to their custom, they burn all of the clothes they wore as slaves in order to forget their experience. Yet Jacobs feels that as a Jewish man, he is in a unique position to help them embrace, and move passed their tragedy.

“What we do as Jews, and it makes us a strong nation, is remember our time in slavery,” he says. “We actually try to get [the former South Sudanese slaves] to do a seder every year, so that they would review what happened to them, because that makes us strong.” 

The Jewish people and the black people of Sudan have a strong cultural relationship, Jacobs says. Both were slaves, both were redeemed, and both came out of slavery to form a new nation. It’s a relationship, valuable to both, which he intends on fostering.

posted by: jrtelegraph

General Ion Pacepa On Putin's Russia: First Intelligence Dictatorship in History

Ion Pacepa very aptly calls Putin's Russia "

FrontPageMag:

The official Soviet version is that the KGB coup collapsed. The main loser, however, was the Communist Party, not the KGB. The Party was disbanded, and nobody within the country missed it. Until Lenin came along, Russia had never had a significant political party anyway.

The KGB survived with new nameplates on its door, and it became the only disciplined, well financed, and heavily armed force in post-Soviet Russia.

On December 31, 1999, the KGB organized a new coup. Speaking in front of a gaily-decorated New Year’s tree, Russia’s first freely elected president, Boris Yeltsin, stunned the world by resigning. “I understand that I must do it, and that Russia must enter the new millennium with new politicians.”[ii] Yeltsin then signed a decree transferring his power to former KGB officer Vladimir Putin.[iii] For his part, the just appointed president pardoned Yeltsin—who was allegedly connected to massive bribery scandals—“for any possible misdeeds” and granted him “total immunity” from being prosecuted (or even searched and questioned) for “any and all” actions committed while in office. Putin also gave Yeltsin a lifetime pension and a state dacha.[iv]

I have here recalled those old specifics of the past, because I want to set the record straight about what Russia really is. In spite of what we read in newspapers and hear on TV, Russia is not yet a democracy. It is rather the first intelligence dictatorship in history.

Two years after the December 1999 KGB palace coup that deposed Yeltsin, over 6,000 former KGB officers were in the driver’s seat, running Russia’s federal and local governments, and nearly half of all top bureaucratic positions in Russia’s governmental institutions were held by former officers of the KGB.[v]

Behind a façade of democracy, these former KGB officers restored the legal right of the KGB to electronically monitor the population without judicial approval, to control political groups, search homes and businesses, infiltrate the federal government, create its own front enterprises, investigate cases, and run its own prison system.

Now Putin and his ex-KGB cronies seem to own Russia not only politically, but financially as well. According to the respected British Guardian, Putin has secretly accumulated over $40 billion, becoming Europe’s richest man. He is said to own at least: 37% of the stocks (worth $18 billion) of Surgutneftegs, Russia’s third largest oil producer; 4.5 % of the stocks (worth $13 billion) of Gazprom, the largest extractor of natural gas in the world; and 75% (worth $10 billion) of Gunvor, a mysterious oil trader based in Geneva.[vi] Vadim Medvedev—who will be the Russian president until 2012, when Putin will return to the Kremlin’s throne—was chairman of Gazprom, which accounts for 93% of Russian natural gas production and controls 16% of the world’s reserves. Putin’s first deputy prime-minister, Igor Sechin, is chairman of Rosneft, the biggest oil company in the world.[vii] [Read the rest]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Dmitry Nabokov Dead at 77

LA Times:

Dmitri Nabokov, the only child of acclaimed novelist Vladimir Nabokov who helped protect and translate his father's work while pursuing careers as an opera singer and race car driver, has died. He was 77.

The younger Nabokov died Wednesday at a hospital in Vevey,Switzerland, after a long illness, said literary agent Andrew Wylie.

Dmitri spent much of his life trying to carve a life away from the shadow of his father, considered one of the premier writers of the 20th century for such books as "Lolita" and "Pale Fire." [Read more]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Doubling The Number of Moscow Synagogues

Interfax:

Jewish community wants to double number of synagogues in Moscow

Moscow, February 13, Interfax - The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia would like built no less than five synagogues in Moscow, Federation President Alexander Boroda told a Monday press conference, during a break of the Federation congress.

"The question will be asked at today's meeting of Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin," he said.

There are five synagogues in Moscow - in Maryina Roshcha, Spasoglenishchevsky Pereulok, Bolshaya Bronnaya Street, Otradnoye and Poklonnaya Hill. Boroda said that was not enough.

"According to our estimates, up to 500,000 Jews live in Moscow and many of these people may join our flock," he said.

The Federation also plans to open several Jewish schools in the upcoming years. The Jewish Museum of Tolerance is due to open in Moscow on November 4. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Are Egyptian Muslim Brothers Too Clever For Their Own Good?

Daniel Pipes:

Terrified of the secular/modern/liberal demonstrators who made their presence known in Tahrir Square, as well as of the soccer hooligans, Mohamed Tantawi and Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces have forged a mutually beneficial relationship with the country's Islamists, thereby blocking their joint opponents from power. Very clever – but maybe too clever by half. Here's why:

 

Over half of Egypt's caloric consumption comes from abroad, leaving the country vulnerable to international staple prices.

In Egypt, which imports more than half its caloric intake, wages must keep up with the price of food or people begin to starve. Yet the country appears to be heading for a monumental financial collapse in 2012, and perhaps by the summer. If Islamists strut about as though they rule Egypt, the population will blame them and their SCAF allies – not the Tahriris – for its hunger. The anger could quickly turn ferocious. After waiting 84 years to attain legitimacy and power, the Muslim Brotherhood may find it got suckered into taking over the ship's helm just as it heads into an iceberg. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

1970- Boston reserves 10 Tevet for Soviet Jewry

JTA Archive (hat tip Adam Soclof):

RALLIES IN BOSTON, MORE IN N.Y.; COMMUNISTS, TROTSKYISTS DISAVOW LENINGRAD SENTENCES

Meanwhile appeals for clemency and demonstrations against the harsh sentences imposed on Jews in Leningrad continued today throughout the country. The latest representation was contained in a cable sent to the chief prosecutor of the Soviet Union, Roman Andreevich Rudenko, formerly chief Russian prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials. It was signed by Dr. Robert M.W. Kempner, of Landsdowne, Pa., who was the U.S. Deputy Chief Counsel at Nuremberg. The message said, "Recalling our efforts in Nuremberg for Justice and humanity, I appeal to you for mercy for the Jews sentenced to death." In Boston, the Rabbinical Court of Justice of the Associated Synagogues of Massachusetts, comprised of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform temples, declared yesterday that Jan. 7 should be considered a day of dedication to Soviet Jewry. Jan. 7 (the 10th of Teves) is an official fast day In memory of the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. Yesterday afternoon, 200 persons heard speeches of solidarity with the Leningrad prisoners by Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders who asked the Nixon administration to act to save the condemned. Messages of support came from Gov. Francis W. Sargent and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. The rally was called by the Jewish Community Council, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry and other groups.

The Daily World, the organ of the Communist Party U.S.A., said in an editorial yesterday that while it believed the Leningrad defendants were guilty, "Nonetheless...we come to the conclusion that the interests of mankind will best be served if...the Soviet authorities commute the two death sentences." In an editorial scheduled for publication in the next issue of the Militant, the Socialist Workers Party (Trotskyist) organ, declares that the death penalty for an "alleged" hijacking is "one more example of the barbaric extremes to which the Kremlin bureaucrats will go in attempting to maintain their dictatorial rule." The editorial adds that "the principles of socialist Justice are totally alien" to the Kremlin. The SWP, which advocates the "dismantling of the State of Israel," contends in the editorial that "anti-Soviet" propagandists, especially in the United States and Israel, will use the Leningrad sentences for "their own reactionary purposes." In a radio interview last night, Rabbi Klaperman and Stanley Lowell of the New York Conference on Soviet Jewry asked listeners to bombard the Soviet ambassador in Washington, Anatoly F. Dobrynin, with appeals for clemency. [Read more]

posted by: jrtelegraph

About 60 Minutes, Eric Cantor,Torah and Liberalism

IsraelMazav:

Video: 60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl pounds Eric Cantor for being Jewish and not Liberal

In case any of you missed it, the Torah does not command that you be politically liberal. It does not favor abortion on demand, it does not favor Communism or Socialism. The Torah commands that you give charity, but to whom you give it is your prerogative, and in many instances how much you give is voluntary.

But Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes has no clue what the Torah says. And Eric Cantor, who does have a clue, let her off the hook.

Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Sunlight via Atlas Shrugs). I actually added a fuller interview to the excerpt that Pamela posted.

[Read the rest]

posted by: jrtelegraph