Rabbi Jason Miller

Friday, January 09, 2004

Loudoun Jewish Congregation - New Synagogue

Much progress has been made to the new synagogue being built in Leesburg, Virginia. Dan Tully, our congregant and skilled architect/builder took this photo while flying overhead in his plane. Check back to see more recent photos soon. The house at the top of the photo (in which I attended a Building Committee meeting last Sunday) will be demolished in the coming weeks to make room for the parking lot.

Kudos to Dan, his construction team, and the entire Building Committee for their stellar work thus far!

Thursday, January 08, 2004

Takes a Lickin', Keeps on Tickin'

I came across this ad today on the web at Adaholic. It's for the Panasonic bookshelf stereo I bought after my Bar Mitzvah in 1989.

The stereo still works and I use it in the basement. It's survived several moves and still sounds great.

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Mazel Tov: Danny Weiss (a fellow CRUSYite) and his wife Jessica have a new son -- Nadav Oren.

Not-So-Hidden Hate

Kol Hakavod to Forward columnist Marjorie Ingall (my teacher Carol's daughter) for taking on this antisemite. You can read more about Marc Moran here.

THE EAST VILLAGE MAMELE
By Marjorie Ingall

I always wanted an e-mail address to run with this column. I enjoy the immediacy of hearing from readers, without any filter. And I want to make contacting me as easy as possible — no need to find a stamp or bug those busy fellas at the "letters" page. I like knowing which topics strike a nerve, hearing other people's stories about their kids and grandkids, sharing book and music recommendations, even getting snarled at by people who don't agree with me. (Oy, when I said that most children's books are vomitous, you should have heard the furious screams of the librarians.)

But occasionally I get an e-mail that brings me up short. Like this one, about my recent "Josie Bit Me" column:

Date: December 11, 2003 3:45:45 PM EST
To: mamele@forward.com
Subject: gnashing of teeth

Marjorie,

I read your piece about the child biting problem. At first I was thinking, as any normal parent would, that anyone who would try to rationalize with a two year old deserves to be bitten when I noticed who you were writing for.... As a Jew it is perfectly natural for your child to exhibit the behaviors of a parasite, i.e. lamprey, leech, tick. Itz her nature, after all.

To like, whatz not?

— A Gentile

Give it a B minus. Nice faux Borscht Belt rhythms, but negative marks for poor command of the English language. (Our semiliterate correspondent needs to look up "rationalize." Though I fear he doesn't have a dictionary — no room on the TV shelf next to "Mein Kampf" and "Hooked on Phonics.") To get feedback, I posted the e-mail to a professional writers' forum online.

Very quickly, Wired magazine contributing editor Patrick Di Justo (his last name means "of justice" — nice touch!) posted a response. Conveniently for me, Patrick had just finished an article on identity theft for Wired. He'd researched how easy it is to find personal information online. And indeed, within half an hour, Patrick had found the guy's real name, address, phone number and voter-registration number. He'd found the geographic coordinates of his house, as well as an aerial photograph of said house. He found the names and ages of his wife and child. And he found the fascinating fact that for nine days this summer, my correspondent was actually a local town councilman in New Jersey. He stepped down after the public found out that he was a member of the National Alliance — an organization that advocates "a thorough rooting out of Semitic and other non-Aryan values and customs everywhere." (Tragically, it also advocates a boycott of Barry Manilow.) When the news of my correspondent's affiliation broke, the gentleman first claimed he was no longer involved in Aryan organizations and insisted he wouldn't resign, but after New Jersey Republicans and Democrats alike called for his ouster, he did.

According to PoliticsNJ.com, a respected political news site, my pen pal appeared on a local radio show during his brief tenure in office, denying being a bigot. He also denied authorship of articles bearing his byline on the Vanguard News Network, which has the charming slogan "No Jews. Just Right." The articles are still online (gosh, you'd think that if they'd mistakenly used his byline, he'd have demanded that VNN delete them). In one, he says nobly: "I am not ashamed to put my name on what I write. I am not afraid of what others think of me or my opinions." Then sign your e-mail, pumpkin. Unless you're going to claim you didn't write that, either?

I believe in freedom of speech (though I also believe people shouldn't cower behind anonymous Hotmail accounts when sending hate speech). And this little adventure has been instructive. I've known for a long time that we have less anonymity than we think. But now I wonder whether this lack of online opacity isn't a double-edged sword. Should I stop publishing my e-mail address, sacrificing the contact from readers that makes me a better columnist? On the other hand, if librarians can reach me directly, so can scum. And scum don't play fair. When there was a petition calling for my buddy's ouster from office, one of his white-supremacist friends stole a copy of the petition, posted the home addresses of its signers on another hate site and encouraged readers to put "political pressure" on them. Now, that's where it gets scary. I'm a mother; I don't want Josie to suffer for my principles. (My pen pal has a small kid too. I wonder if he feels the same way?) Haters have published online "wanted posters" with addresses of abortion providers. A federal appeals court ruled that this was not protected speech, but that's scant consolation to the families of the murdered doctors. I hope Patrick's forthcoming article tells us how to find a middle ground between freedom of information and freedom for potential criminals.

It all begs the question: At what point do we enforce limits on online freedom? A few weeks ago, Congress passed an anti-spam bill, establishing that many kinds of unsolicited mail violate people's rights to privacy and protection. Basically, the new law, which took effect January 1, says commercial communication needs to be two-way; using fake e-mail addresses, as well as forging or hacking real e-mail addresses to send spam, is now illegal. But should hate speech be held to similar standards? My correspondent didn't actually hide behind anonymity; he left an online trail, intentionally or not. (You could say he hides behind pseudonymity.) It's nasty — but should it be illegal?

Getting back to the issues of identity and invisibility: I've just learned how to find people's Social Security numbers online. Again, a double-edged sword. How scary — but in some sad way, how reassuring. If anyone tried to put "political pressure" on me and my 2-year-old, I'd definitely have some leverage. Okay, pen pal? To quote the Hebrew Hammer (as much as he can be quoted in a family newspaper): "Shabbat Shalom...."

E-mail Marjorie at mamele@forward.com.

Iran clarifies the Middle East

By Dennis Prager

If you want to understand the Middle East conflict, Iran has just provided all you need to know.

A massive earthquake kills between 20,000 and 40,000 Iranians, and the government of
Iran announces that help is welcome from every country in the world . . . except Israel.
This little-reported news item is of great significance. It begs commentary.

Israel not only has the world's most experienced crews in quickly finding survivors in bombed
out buildings, it is also a mere two-hour flight from Iran. In other words, no country
in the world would come close to Israel in its ability to save Iranian lives quickly.

But none of this means anything to the rulers of Iran. The Islamic government of Iran has
announced to the world that it is better for fellow countrymen and fellow Muslims -- men,
women and children -- to die buried under rubble than to be saved by a Jew from Israel.

That is how deep the hatred of Israel and Jews is in much of the Muslim world.

Hundreds of millions of Muslims -- Arab and non-Arab, Sunni and Shi'a -- hate Israel more
than they love life. Leaders of the Palestinian terror organization Hamas repeatedly state,
"We love death more than the Jews love life." And now, Iran announces that it is better for
a Muslim to asphyxiate under the earth than be rescued by a Jew from Israel.

Naive Westerners -- which includes most academics, intellectuals, members of the
international news media, and nearly all others on the Left -- refuse to acknowledge
the uniqueness of the Arab/Muslim hatred of Israel and Jews. Yet, there is no hatred in
the world analogous to it. Not since the Nazi hatred of Jews has humanity witnessed
such hate.

That is why finding survivors from earthquakes, creating a Palestinian state and life itself are
all far less important in much of the Islamic and Arab worlds than killing Jews and
destroying the little Jewish state.

That is why Arab newspapers run articles by Arab professors describing how Jews
butcher non-Jewish children to use their blood for holiday meals.

That is why Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad could get a standing
ovation from the heads of every Muslim country when he told them "the Jews rule
the world by proxy."

That is why Palestinian parents celebrate the suicide terror of their sons -- the joy of
killing Israeli families far outweighs the pain of the death of their child.

Western naifs like to believe platitudes such as "Deep down, all people are really the same,"
"All people want peace," and the great untruth of multiculturalism that no culture is morally
superior to another. That is why they choose not to face the truth about the Nazi-like hatred
that permeates the Arab/Muslim world and the consequent moral gulf that exists between it
and Israel. It shatters too many of their illusions.

Surely the Iranian refusal of rescuers from the Jewish state ought to help all these people
acknowledge the unique hatred that is at the root of the Arab-Israeli dispute and recognize
that it is therefore a conflict unlike any other on earth.

So, too, the immediate and sincere Israeli offer of rescuers to Iran should make the moral gulf
between Israel and its enemies as clear as day. Despite the fact that Iran is the greatest
backer of anti-Israel (and anti-American) terror and despite the fact that Iran repeatedly
declares that Israel must be annihilated (in other words, seeks a second Jewish
Holocaust), Israel offered to send its people to save Iranian lives.

The two reactions -- Iran's preference for Iranian deaths to Israeli help and the Jewish
state's instinctive offer to help save Iranian lives ought to be enough anyone needs to
understand the source of the Middle East conflict. But they won't. Because those who
are anti-Israel or "evenhanded" are not so because of the facts, but despite them.

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

Kucinich Shows Pie Chart on Radio Debate

By Associated Press
January 6, 2004, 8:44 PM EST

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Federal spending was the topic and Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich came prepared with a pie chart to argue his point about a bloated Pentagon budget.

But although many listened to Tuesday's presidential debate, few could see the Ohio congressman's prop.

The debate was broadcast only on National Public Radio.

As Kucinich challenged Democratic front-runner Howard Dean for refusing to acknowledge that the Pentagon budget needs to be cut, debate moderator Neal Conan of NPR interrupted.

"Congressman Kucinich is holding up a pie chart, which is not truly effective on radio," Conan told his listeners.

Kucinich was not deterred.

"Well, it's effective if Howard can see it," he replied.

Mazel Tov: My JTS Rabbinical School classmate Dara Zabb got engaged last week to Simon Klarfeld while they were in Israel. Simon is the director of birthright israel in North America. Best wishes for a happy life together.

Monday, January 05, 2004

"You Gotta Believe"

Tug McGraw succumbed to brain cancer today. He pitched for the Miracle Mets' team that won the 1969 World Series. In 1973, McGraw helped the Mets climb from last place to first in the National League's Eastern Division, then reach the World Series and come within one game of winning the championship. It was in that season that McGraw coined the Mets' war cry: "You Gotta Believe."

He was a great player and a great role model. Ironic that the same day he dies, Pete Rose finally admits that he bet on baseball (and on his own team). In my opinion, Rose should be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but only as one of the best players to ever play the game -- certainly not as a mensch!