Monday, October 06, 2014

Rabbis and Spiritual Leaders, Knesset Members, Community Leaders. Please Sign. Everyone fwd!!!!. From: Citizens Opposed to Propaganda Masquerading as Art

bs"d

Rabbi's and Spiritual Leaders, if you don't know whether or not to sign before getting a consensus please consider seriously the words of the Lubavitcher Rebbe OB"M

 These are points of the Lubavitch Rebbe, zt"l Thank you Izzy Kaplan zt"l for forwarding the material of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 2007.  

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  1. The current situation in Israel is such that the duty to protest falls squarely on the shoulders of the Rabbis. This obligation falls upon all Rabbis who arbitrate practical matters of Jewish law, and especially those Rabbis who have at one time expressed an opinion on this issue, no matter where they are — whether in Israel or in the Diaspora.
  2. The ruling must be explicit and definitive, being the result of exhaustive consultation withpresent military authorities who have actual firsthand knowledge about these issues, and who express their opinions through purely security-oriented considerations, and not political ones.
    In order to save the Rabbis the trouble of researching the issues which are required for a ruling, the Rebbe informs us that he has already investigated the matter, and the conclusions are:
    1. Those involved in military affairs say that surrendering any portion of the West Bank and Gaza, places untold numbers of Jews in danger, G-d forbid.
    2. The past is well known (e.g., Golda Meir not listening to the Israeli Military Intelligence prior to Yom Kippur War).
  3. A ruling must be issued quickly, and a Rabbi must not wait until he is asked about the matter. Rather, he must see to it that the law is publicized everywhere — to the extent that "there will not be a single individual who has not heard of this ruling." This is because regarding these matters, "he who asks (rather than acts) is a spiller of blood, and the one who waits to be asked is contemptible" for not having publicized his opinion.[35]
  4. Similarly, one should publicize the decision of the "Great Assembly" of 1937 [36] which states that "it is forbidden to cede to a non-Jew, even a tiny strip of the Land of Israel." This should be publicised until the entire Jewish people are aware of this ruling.
  5. Every Jew, regardless of where he lives, is connected with every other Jews in the rest of the world. Therefore, according to Jewish law, he must protest any action taken by another Jew which is not in accordance with Jewish Law. Protest is required even if the forbidden action took place a great distance from him — because he is still obligated by the command, "Thou shalt not stand idly by thy brother's blood."
  6. At times the situation is such that there is nothing left to do but to protest. This is a precise indication that our task in this situation is to protest.
  7. The claim that protest will not affect the situation does not absolve any of the Rabbis, no matter where they are, from their obligation to publicize a clear ruling because:
    1. Who knows where we would be if no one were to speak up.
    2. Regarding the mitzvah to admonish one's fellow man, the Talmud says, "even one hundred times," meaning, if one unsuccessfully gave rebuke ninety-nine times, one is bound by Jewish law to engage in rebuke a hundredth time, for it could well be that the hundredth time will be decisive.
    3. The Rabbi must do his job and protest without fear, and without considering the reaction which may follow his ruling (such as being ignored); especially because this is an ongoing matter, which concerns saving Jewish lives.
    4. The obligation not to stand idly by while your brother's blood is being spilled, applies in every situation, even when one is uncertain that his protest will have any effect. Even if the chance that protest will assist is only one thousandth of a chance, or a fraction of that, one is obligated to protest, because this is the law in the Code of Jewish Law.
  8. Even if the majority remain silent, and those protesting are in the minority, nevertheless, the minority is taken into consideration.
  9. The Rabbis who remain silent cause the greatest damage. This is analagous to the Talmudic law concerning seventy Rabbinic judges who rule for or against a certain side, with one judge "abstaining." In such a case, Jewish Law requires the entire trial to be rendered null and void.
  10. The Rebbe's opinion is that were there to be a sustained protest, carried out with the greatest intensity — as the present situation clearly demands — it would eventually succeed, in the near future.

Dear Fellow Activists: Please forward this email to the community leaders with whom you are most familiar and urge them to go to http://tinyurl.com/mtna3zh to sign the form adding their name to the list.

Publicize these words of the Rebbe and the letter!  Media People (Papers, radio etc.) have an additional obligations since we are fighting a media war.  Any community leader or Spiritual leader as well has an extra obligation!

 If we don't act and do our part, how will we defend ourselves in the Heavenly Court? Had those who saw the harbinger of evil in the 1930's acted, perhaps they could have prevented a Holocaust!!!! It is not for us to speculate except to do what we can this time around.  May G-d Protect us......
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lynne Bursky Tammam <hashoah@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 9:05 AM
Subject: Citizens Opposed to Propaganda Masquerading as Art
To: "hashoah@hotmail.com" <hashoah@hotmail.com>


Dear Friends of Israel and the Jewish People,
 
This was just received from Citizens Opposed to Propanda Masquerading as Art which is based in Washington.    There is a request at the end of this letter that each of us contact every community leader we know and ask them to sign on to this letter.   The link is at the end of the letter. 
 
Hoping to see you on the 20th and wishing you a Chag Sukkot Sameach,
Lynne and Nessim
Yom Hashoah Mobilization Committee

 

Subject: Wheelchair Convoy At The Metropolitan Opera - Another Rally Oct. 20 - We Are All Klinghoffer!
From: info@COPMA.net
To: hashoah@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2014 05:07:02 +0000

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Wheelchair Convoy At The Metropolitan Opera - Another Rally on October 20 - We Are All Klinghoffer!!

Friends,

We are writing to inform you about an ongoing issue of concern with which we need your help.

As you are aware, this summer Jews around the world have experienced an upsurge in anti-Semitic rhetoric and action that has left many of us reeling and questioning how such events could be happening in 2014. As American Jews, many of us have come to think of anti-Semitism largely as an issue of another time or place.

However, our complacency has been shattered, not only by events abroad, but by a particularly heinous example of anti-Semitic rhetoric and the blurring of moral lines in one of America's most prestigious bastions of high culture -- the New York Metropolitan Opera. Many in our community have not heard about this issue, and have asked "Why weren't we told?" We feel it is our responsibility to let you know what is happening and the steps the community has taken to counter it.

The Metropolitan Opera has chosen to mount a production of "The Death of Klinghoffer," an opera that seeks to validate and excuse the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, and to humanize his murderers. As you may recall, in 1985 the Palestine Liberation Front, under the direction of Yasser Arafat, hijacked the cruise ship, Achille Lauro. Leon Klinghoffer, 69 years old and wheelchair-bound, was shot in the forehead and chest and thrown overboard in his wheelchair, simply because he was a Jew.

This month, the Metropolitan Opera is airing a production of an operatic account of the murder that paints the terrorists as freedom fighters and as "men of ideals." 

In the libretto (text of an opera) one of the terrorists sings: 

 

"Wherever poor men are gathered they can find Jews getting fat--You know how to cheat the simple, exploit the virgin, pollute where you have exploited--Defame those you cheated--And break your own law with idolatry."


He tells Klinghoffer: "America is one big Jew."

This is not portrayed as the ranting of someone who is evil. If that were the context of this hate speech, it would be justified. Rather, this is the language of someone depicted as an idealistic victim of Jews, justified in fighting back against his Jewish oppressors. He is a terrorist, yet the terrorists in the opera are portrayed as freedom fighters. In the language of the Palestinian terrorists: 

 

"We are soldiers fighting a war. We are not criminals and we are not vandals but men of ideals."


Despite many months of campaigning by Jewish and non-Jewish organizations alike, the Met has refused to cancel the Opera at Lincoln Center, agreeing only to cancel HD simulcasts. They are backed in their production of propaganda masquerading as art by the New York Times and the New Yorker magazine. Under the pretense of defending artistic freedom, these institutions have blurred the line between good and evil, reducing a horrendous terrorist atrocity to what they have labeled a mere "tragedy" and equalizing the moral claims of perpetrator and victim.

A series of letter writing efforts and phone calls to the Met Board and important donors was launched along with a campaign of emails and phone calls to Met director Peter Gelb. These efforts culminated in a mass demonstration on September 22, 2014 at Lincoln Center. Despite the presence of important Jewish and non-Jewish leaders, local politicians and what many of the news accounts have estimated at between 1,000 - 2,000 demonstrators, the Met has not backed down. They insist on presenting an opera that the New York Times has called "moving and nuanced in imagining a tragedy that gives voice to all sides," despite its offensive, distorted and inflammatory content.


Friends, this is the same distorted moral prism that gives rise to attacks like 9/11, the blatant use of human shields, and the beheading of innocent journalists. We cannot let this distortion go unchallenged.

We will rally again, in force, on October 20, 2014 at 6:00 PM with a "100 Wheelchair Caravan" in front of the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, Broadway & West 65th Street, New York, New York, with wheelchair riders bearing signs proclaiming "We are all Klinghoffer!" This is the opening night of the Klinghoffer opera. We'll take care of the 100. If more than 100 wheelchair participants show up, all the better. We need your participation to either ride in a wheelchair or accompany the wheelchair riders. Let our numbers speak. Please consider attending the rally. Please forward this alert to your friends, neighbors and political representatives so they will know what is happening. Please urge your Rabbis and organizational leaders to support the rally vigorously. 

The JCRC of NY has already sent an Open Letter to the Met which has to date been signed by the following leaders, with the list growing every day:

 
  • Ronald G. Weiner, President, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York
  • Michael S. Miller, Executive Vice President and CEO, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York
  • Alisa R. Doctoroff, President, UJA-Federation of New York
  • Linda Mirels, Chair of the Board, UJA-Federation of New York
  • Eric S. Goldstein, CEO, UJA-Federation of New York
  • Rabbi Steve Gutow, President and CEO, Jewish Council for Public Affairs
  • Ethan Felson, Vice President and General Counsel, Jewish Council for Public Affairs
  • Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner, President, New York Board of Rabbis
  • Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Executive Vice President, New York Board of Rabbis
  • Marcie Natan, President, Hadassah
  • Ellen Hershkin, Coordinator of the PRAZE Division,
  • Hadassah Gail Perl, President, WIZO USA
  • Martin Nachimson, President, Orthodox Union
  • Allen Fagin, Executive Vice President, Orthodox Union
  • Richard Skolnik, President, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
  • Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
  • Farley Weiss, President, National Council of Young Israel
  • Robert Levi, Chairman, National Council of Young Israel
  • Rabbi Yosef Blau, President, Religious Zionists of America
  • Martin Oliner, Chairman, Religious Zionists of America
  • Feliks Frenkel, Chairman of the Board, Council of Jewish Emigre Community Organizations
  • Roman Shmulenson, Executive Director, Council of Jewish Emigre Community Organizations
  • Jack Grunspan, Executive Vice President, Bnai Zion Foundation
  • Alicia Post, Director, Northeast Region, Bnai Zion Foundation
  • Michael Feinman, Greater New York Executive Director, Jewish National Fund
  • David Newman, Executive Director, JCRC-LI
  • Paul B. Warhit, President, Westchester Jewish Council
  • William H. Schrag, Executive Committee Member, Westchester Jewish Council
  • Gale S. Bindelglass, Chair, JCRC of the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ
  • Joy Kurland, Director, JCRC of the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ
  • Rabbi Steven Moss, President, Suffolk County Board of Rabbis
  • Rabbi Michael Stanger, President, Long Island Board of Rabbis
  • Cynthia Zalisky, Executive Director, Queens Jewish Community Council
  • Warren Hecht, President, Queens Jewish Community Council
  • Stephen Reiner, President, Kings Bay YM-YWHA
  • Leonard Petlakh, Executive Director, Kings Bay YM-YWHA
  • Maya Gurevich, President, New York Association of Jews from the Former Soviet Union
  • Inna Arolovich, Vice President, New York Association of Jews from the Former Soviet Union
  • Zaki Tamir, Chairman, Crown Heights Jewish Community Council
  • Rabbi Eli Cohen, Executive Director, Crown Heights Jewish Community Council
  • Avrohom Hecht, Executive Director, JCC of Canarsie
  • Michael Rosenbaum, President, Board of Directors, Sid Jacobson JCC
  • David Black, Executive Director, Sid Jacobson JCC
  • Steven Markowitz, Chairman, Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County
  • Fred Teng, President, America China Public Affairs Institute
  • Avi Posnick, New York Regional Coordinator, StandWithUs
  • Sarri Singer, Founder and Director, Strength to Strength
  • Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, Senior Rabbi, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun
  • Rabbi Elie Abadie, Senior Rabbi, Edmond J. Safra Synagogue
  • Rabbi Howard Stecker, Senior Rabbi,Temple Israel of Great Neck
  • Alan M. Klinger, President Temple Israel of Great Neck
  • Jonathan Jaffe, Senior Rabbi, Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester
  • Rabbi Rafi Rank, Rabbi, Midway Jewish Center
  • Rabbi Marci Bellows, Rabbi, Temple B'nai Torah
  • Rabbi Claudio J. Kupchik, Rabbi, Temple Beth El of Manhattan Beach
  • Lester Bleich, President, Young Israel of West Hempstead
  • Rabbi Dr. Alan F. Lavin, Senior Rabbi, Congregation Beth Tikvah
  • Rabbi Ari Jacobson, Rabbi, Young Israel of Monsey and Wesley Hills
  • Rabbi Yisroel Gottlieb, Rabbi, Congregation Bais Torah
  • Rabbi Jacob Herber, Rabbi, Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid
  • Ben Davis, Executive Director, Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley, Indiana
  • Cheri DeKofsky, Executive Director, Jewish Federation of Ventura County-California
  • Rabbi David Lerner, Rabbi, Temple Emunah
  • Nancy Fisher, Interim Co-Executive Director, Jewish Vocational Service of MetroWest NJ
  • Laura Zimmerman, Executive Director, Jewish Community Relations Council of Hartford
 
Please forward this email to the community leaders with whom you are most familiar and urge them to go to http://tinyurl.com/mtna3zh to sign the form adding their name to the list.

Citizens Opposed to Propaganda
Masquerading as Art (COPMA)

Robert G. Samet, Chairman
Mark H. Lazerson, Vice-Chairman
Carol Greenwald, PhD, Treasurer
Barbara Leber, PhD, Secretary
Jeffrey Ward, General Counsel
Ellen Heyman, PhD, Programming Director

http://www.COPMA.net
info@copma.net





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Sincerely,

Robin Ticker
Activist emails sent to my list  are L'Ilui Nishmat Yisrael ben David Aryeh ob"m (Izzy - Kaplan) and Howard Chaim Grief great activists and lovers of Eretz Yisroel, Am Yisroel and the Torah. Yehi Zichronum Baruch.  May their memories serve as a blessing.

Most of these emails are posted on Shemittahrediscovered.blogspot.com 

Personal emails to individuals will not be posted to my blog. 

Friday, October 03, 2014

Fwd: Yom Kippur


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shalom Pollack <shalompollack613@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 9:45 AM
Subject: Yom Kippur
To:


ts  just a few  hours before Yom Kippur, the  one  day in the  year when Jewish  Israel  shuts  down.

There  is something very special about  being  greeted  with the traditional wishes for a good and blessed year, from just about  all stripes of Jews. This is the largest extended family on earth and today it is felt.

 This  family has  had  a rough summer and  aftermath..The  Gaza "war" with its sacrifices and a continued  feeling of continued  dangerous exposure to an enemy  not  convincingly defeated, has resuscitated  the old hopefull  term, "it will be  ok" 

Of course Yom Kippur is the anniversary of the Yom Kippur war of 1973 which .Israel did not preempt as  it did in the  1967 Six Day War. This was  to please a world that can not seem cure itself of its  problem with Jews  defending themselves.
Because of our desire  to please, we almost  lost it all in 1973. Israel has  never  been the same after that trauma and Yom Kippur has never been the same here  since then.

Clearly, Israel is a miracle and God's  chosen  stage for a  world in need of a light  to follow. Sometimes, I wish our  current leaders better  understood this and the  responsibilities that accompany the  status.

Lately, there  have  been increasing Arab  assaults upon Jews especially in Jerusalem.
Just yesterday In Jerusalem ,  three women in their  car were  surrounded by an Arab mob and stoned at very close range. They were lucky to escape with only light  injuries. No  police  to protect them.
Jerusalem!  Its  OUR police! Jewish police.

In the  last few  months a number of Jews  have  been  murdered by Arabs; murders that the police  have immediately  announced were not "nationalist" crimes but normal criminal acts.They were proven wrong in each case.
 They want  to keep things  quiet and not expose the real threat  to Jews by our Arab  neighbors. They kick it under the  carpet.This make  believe  policy comes from very  high up in government. 

 I have  personally been told more than once by police that "it is dangerous for them  to go to those (Arab areas) places"
Please! I had that in Brooklyn. This is home, my  home. My last stop.

Just imagine what would happen  if Jewish  "youth"would  riot and  stone  and  injure Arabs .The  Minister of police would   probably announce a national day of mourning

It used to be safer. What has  happened?
I think most of us know .

Let us pray that this  year, God in His mercy, gives us the  leadership who will retire the  phrase, "It will be OK" and  replace it with the  faith and strength  to be  what we  are meant to be in our beloved Land..

May we all be inscribed in the Book of Life




--
Sincerely,

Robin Ticker
Activist emails sent to my list  are L'Ilui Nishmat Yisrael ben David Aryeh ob"m (Izzy - Kaplan) and Howard Chaim Grief great activists and lovers of Eretz Yisroel, Am Yisroel and the Torah. Yehi Zichronum Baruch.  May their memories serve as a blessing.

Most of these emails are posted on Shemittahrediscovered.blogspot.com 

Personal emails to individuals will not be posted to my blog.