Yale President Richard Levin has some words to share with Mayor Bloomberg | via yaledailynews.com

“Being Muslim is apparently the new probable cause,” begins today’s editorial in the Washington Square News, NYU’s student newspaper.

Two Muslim students at Yale began a Feb. 17 op-ed in the Yale Daily News with this:

Since the end of the Jim Crow era, politicians have dressed racism in the rhetoric of food stamps and illegal aliens. But as the past 10 years have shown, it seems that politicians need no such disguise for Islamophobia.

Written by Mostafa Al-Alusi and Faisal Hamid, it was the first in a steady stream of news and opinions from YDN on the news that we’ve been reading since Saturday when the AP broke the story: The NYPD has been spying Muslim college students, for apparently no other reason than that they are young Muslims.

Not surprisingly, student press organs at the schools affected have been reporting non-stop on the fierce opposition to the spying program being expressed by both students and school officials.

In my favorite bit so far, YDN’s Crosscampus blog reported that Yale President Richard Levin had harsh words about the NYPD surveillance program. (“Disturbing,” “‘antithetical’ to the values of the University.”) Then Crosscampus wrote that Mayor Michael Bloomberg had responded with these… um… words:

“If going on websites and looking for information is not what Yale stands for, I don’t know.”

Elegant as always, Mr. Mayor. For his part, Levin was able to string these syllables together:

“The Yale Muslim Students Association has been an important source of support for Yale students during a period when Muslims and Islam itself have too often been the target of thoughtless stereotyping, misplaced fear, and bigotry.”

Columbia President Lee Bollinger and Barnard President Debora Spar both told the Columbia Spectator today they knew nothing about the NYPD’s activities:

“We want to be sure our Muslim community knows that we support everyone’s right to carry on their lives and their studies without the feeling of being watched by a government that exists to protect us all,” Bollinger said.

…

“We are deeply concerned about any government activity that would chill the freedom of thought or intrude upon student privacy, both of which are so essential to our academic community,” he said.

In an op-ed in the Spec, David Fine (a friend of New Voices and the editor of Columbia’s undergraduate Jewish journal, the Current), called Columbia’s Muslim Student Association “a dynamic group that often organizes some of the more considered and stimulating events on campus.”

Recalling an recent campus event, Fine writes that some Muslim students said things that made him uncomfortable:

I was appalled that a fellow student would hold such views, but I would have been more appalled if that student had left her ideas unexpressed for fear of being filed away as a potential threat by the NYPD. The chilling effect that the surveillance program might have on campus speech would mean that such views would go unsaid, and thus certain ideologies left unexposed for the truly deleterious modes of thinking that they pose

In other words, the NYPD is acting as a danger to academic freedom and to freedom of speech, thought and association.

The Daily Princetonian reported on an official statement by  Princeton’s MSA:

“We fear that such actions can lead to the alienation of Muslim-American youth and may cause the return of unethical practice toward minority rights in this country. … The NYPD must be held responsible for violating the trust of its American citizens.”

WSN reported this rather noncommittal response by an NYU spokesman:

“We appreciate that the NYPD has taken on the heavy responsibility of safeguarding New Yorkers from additional terrorist attacks. … We hope that the police department is employing anti-terrorism tactics other than looking at the public websites of student groups, which at a university naturally raises privacy concerns on behalf of its students.”

The Spec also reported that a Muslim Student Association leader has proposed a putting together group of students from MSA, Hillel and other groups to address the issue formally.

Can you kick the doodling habit? | Photo by Flickr user everything.in.blue (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

I have a confession to make: My name is Arielle Wasserman and I am a doodler. It’s shameful, I know. It started young; you can go and look through my grade one notebooks- all meticulously filed away by my uber-organized mother- and see the proof in the pudding. The once pristine sheets are rendered unrecognizable, hidden under a layer of hearts, stars and letters until all that remains are slivers of white that my six-year-old self missed.

I’m very boring with my sketches. Seeing as I have no artistic ability to speak of (I passed grade nine art because my teacher felt bad for me) my repertoire consists of lopsided hearts, weird geometric shapes, and my name. Over and over again. In different ‘fonts’ and styles and looks. My friend once suggested narcissism. I told her we were talking about me, not her. Gosh. People are so self-centered sometimes.

As I got older, this dirty little secret became more and more problematic. While it had once been contained to my own personal notes, it was gradually creeping onto homework, assignments and tests. If I finished early on any of the aforementioned, I would get bored. And when I was bored I would doodle. In essence, I was driving my teachers up the wall.

Goody-good doesn’t even begin to describe me. I never break curfew. I don’t jaywalk. I will never go 43 in a 40 zone. So you can imagine my confusion and panic when my teachers reprimanded me. It had never happened before! That was what happened to the ‘cool’ kids, who passed notes and chewed gum during class. (In case you haven’t picked up on this yet, I was a bit of a nerd. I am deeply proud of this. Probably because I still am.) When my Gemara teacher looked at me over his glasses and sternly asked if I thought it was appropriate for my ‘worthless drawings’ to share the page with the Tosafot, I panicked- and promptly burst into tears.

There is something about crying females that turn males into silly putty. And while I have since used this fact to my advantage, at the time I had no clue why my teacher suddenly started apologizing and backtracking and telling me I could draw wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted as long as I just stopped crying. I know an opportunity when I see one: I stopped crying.

I’ve smartened up since then. The typing revolution also helped. Can’t really doodle on Microsoft Word. Trust me. I’ve found myself absently drawing patterns with the mouse more times than I care to remember. And I do my utmost best to keep it to a bare minimum. I often fail. But hey, “A” for effort, right?

A couple years ago, I finally figured out the root of my addiction. As my mother was on the phone sitting at the kitchen table, I watched as she casually picked up a pen, furtively checked to see that no one was watching, and started tracing the flower pattern on our napkins.

Mystery solved.

Courtesy. Professionalism. Respect. | Photo by Flickr user Giacomo Barbaro (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

NYPD tracked Muslim students, organizations [Columbia]

Recent news that the New York Police Department willfully performed surveillance on Muslim student organizations in the name of anti-terrorism measures has been met with harsh criticism by many. In light of the fears this news may provoke, the Spectator, newspaper for Columbia College, unpacks the threat to free speech that these “investigations” may have instigated, and their implications for the future.

“There, in Low Library, one of the students representing the ISO heralded terrorist actions like targeting civilians with missiles or suicide bombs as a legitimate form of resistance to the Israeli government. I was appalled that a fellow student would hold such views, but I would have been more appalled if that student had left her ideas unexpressed for fear of being filed away as a potential threat by the NYPD. The chilling effect that the surveillance program might have on campus speech would mean that such views would go unsaid, and thus certain ideologies left unexposed for the truly deleterious modes of thinking that they pose—something more harmful in the long run than a few dilettantes sitting around and speaking reverently of Sayyid Qutb.”

Anne Frank baptized… again? [Huffington Post]

Here at New Voices, we recently shared a story about the controversy surrounding the recent posthumous baptism of the parents of Simon Weisenthal. The Mormon Church had issued an apology for its actions, there was an understandable amount of criticism (an agreement between the Church and the Jewish world a couple years ago was to put a stop to this sort of thing). Apparently, not everyone got the memo, as the Huffington Post reports Anne Frank has been baptized again– her ninth baptism at the hands of the Mormon Church, if anyone’s counting. A church whistleblower provided Huffington Post with all the allegations.

“Radkey said she discovered that Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank, who died at Bergen Belsen death camp in 1945 at age 15, was baptized by proxy on Saturday. Mormons have submitted versions of her name at least a dozen times for proxy rites and carried out the ritual at least nine times from 1989 to 1999, according to Radkey. But Radkey says this is the first time in more than a decade that Frank’s name has been discovered in a database that can be used both for genealogy and also to submit a deceased person’s name to be considered for proxy baptism — a separate process, according to a spokesman for the church. The database is only open to Mormons.

A screen shot of the database sent by Radkey shows a page for Frank stating “completed” next to categories labeled ‘Baptism” and “Confirmation,’ with the date Feb. 18, 2012, and the name of the Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple.”

Tel Aviv makes move toward public transportation on Shabbat [Jerusalem Post]

While tension between traditionally observant Jews and modern communities doesn’t look to be resolved anytime soon, the city of Tel Aviv has ruled that it will offer public buses at various points around the city on the Sabbath. But the battle is far from over. The Jerusalem Post reports:

“A Transportation Ministry spokesman indicated Tuesday that the ministry would not approve Tel Aviv’s request. The Transportation Ministry will ‘not infringe [upon] the status quo which has been in place for decades regarding all aspects of public transport on Shabbat,’ the spokesman said.

Nevertheless, Huldai on Wednesday vowed to continue the mission to bring buses to Tel Aviv on Shabbat. ‘We must determine if we want to live in a democratic, Jewish state or a solely Jewish state – which will be similar to Iran,’ Huldai told Army Radio. ‘The citizens have the right to visit their relatives on Shabbat or go out for a trip,’ he added.”

Russia warns of the fallout of Israel – Iran conflict [Haaretz]

It looks like the string of international leaders urging Israel to avoid an all-out attack on Israel can add yet another name to its list: the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, who urged Israel to consider the nuclear fallout, and impact on international peace-keeping efforts, such a strike would have. Haaretz is there:

“‘Therefore I hope Israel understands all these consequences … and they should also consider the consequences of such action for themselves,’ Gatilov said at a news conference..

A top UN nuclear official said on Wednesday his team could ‘could not find a way forward’ in attempts to persuade Iran to talk about suspected secret work on atomic arms.”

I take issue with the allegation that millions of Palestinians live under occupation. From my understanding, Jaeger’s allegations dealing with the Israeli “occupation” of Palestine – a country that, by the way, has never actually officially existed – are rooted in an interpretation of UN Security Council Resolution 242 and Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Resolution 242 mandates “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.” Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states “the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” The term ‘occupation’ is defined as “the control of a country by military forces of a foreign power.”

Israel’s sovereignty in the West Bank does not constitute occupation. We, the Jewish people, are not “foreign” to the land of Judea and Samaria and are therefore not “occupying” any land that does not belong to us. We have legal claim, in addition to historical claim, to the entire country of Israel – Judea and Samaria included – as per the original League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (a document that was adopted by the UN and is still legally binding today) and Article 80 of the UN Charter.

In addition to the legal documents, the Jewish people have been present in the land of Israel for thousands of years. If Israel’s presence in the disputed territories does not constitute occupation, then Resolution 242 is not applicable in this instance.

Regarding the Geneva Convention: the  occupation exists when one sovereign state (referred to, in the document, as a “high contracting power”) takes over land belonging to another sovereign state.

This is not the case when it comes to Israel. “Palestine” never existed and Jordan only controlled Judea and Samaria between 1948 and 1967. The territories of Judea and Samaria were never officially a part of sovereign Jordan. If the Geneva Convention is also not applicable in this instance, then I fail to see which international laws Israel has violated through its continued presence in the West Bank.

Israel’s retaining control over the disputed territories is in its citizens’ best interests. Yes, there have been isolated incidents. Israel has in no way condoned these incidents and has expressed dismay at every loss of innocent life. At the same time, Israel needs to have control over the high ground in Judea and Samaria in order to preserve its tactical advantage over countries that seek to destroy it.

As for the security fence, there is documented proof that the fence and security checkpoints have helped prevent many terrorist attacks – suicide bombings and the like – that would have had a severe impact on innocent Israeli civilians.

The situation is hardly ideal. But that does not negate the fact that Israel is responsible for its citizens’ safety and must consider that point above the comfort level of civilians whose safety does not fall under its mandate. It is unfortunate that circumstances require such measures, but the Israeli government is tasked with protecting its innocent civilians. When those civilians are put at risk, Israel must react in whatever way it deems fit. Israel is still determined to bring peace, but will not do so at the expense of the safety of its civilians and its borders and, at this point in time, the real barrier preventing peace is the Arab States’ intransigence and blanket rejection of a Jewish State on any borders.

Giving up land will not get us any closer to a peaceful Middle East. One of the beliefs of the Islamic religion involves the creation of a Dar-al-Islam, a solely Arab world, in which the values of Shariah law are kept to the highest degree. At this point, the Arab states have made it very clear that they see Israel as a threat to, what they feel should be, a purely Islamic Middle East. In their founding charters, many of the terrorist organizations that are run as proxies of various Arab states, declare their goal to “liberate Palestine [through armed struggle],” presumably in order to realize their ultimate goal of creating a Dar-al-Islam within the Middle East (this specific quotation was taken from the Palestinian Liberation Organization Charter). Are we really supposed to believe that giving them a small portion of land will appease them, if they advocate for our total destruction?

We are fighting a war with very different rules from anything that we have come across before, and many of these “rules” defy our Western logic.

Let’s relate this understanding of the Middle East to the current issue of the Iranian nuclear program. The international community is currently trying to reason with the Iranian dictatorship by imposing sanctions as a deterrent to further development of the nuclear weapons program. The world is treating this situation similarly to its treatment of the situation in the 1980s, during the Cold War. The reason that, ultimately, no nuclear weapons were detonated, during the Cold War, is that the United States and Russia, both countries in possession of nuclear power, did not want the world to meet with certain destruction.

The situation today is totally different: Iran is a Muslim country with a Shiite majority. Radicalized Shi’a Islam believes in an “End of Days” type scenario. Shiites believe that provoking an event akin to an apocalypse will bring about the coming of the twelfth Imam: the ultimate messianic goal of Shiite Islam.

Iran wants to wreak devastation on the world. Bargaining and sanctions will not do anything to stop them. Is it any wonder that current United States policy, vis à vis Iran, has been ineffective? I disagree with Jaeger’s opinion on this matter: The only chance that the world has to prevent certain disaster is to take invasive action that will put a halt to the Iranian nuclear program.

I fail to see how encouraging Israel to give up its territory, to appease one of the powers that admits its goal is to destroy the entire country, is “acting in Israel’s best interests.” By definition, acting as a friend involves caring about that “friend’s” well-being. Giving up the land of Judea and Samaria is tantamount to Israel announcing its annexation to the Dar-al-Islam that the Muslim states are so eager to create within the Middle East. So yes, I completely agree with Jaeger: should Israel decide to realize its suicidal aspirations, it will have an amazingly helpful friend in the form of U.S President Barack Obama.

AUTHOR’S CORRECTION: In the original op-ed, it said the IAEA report stated Iran has enough nuclear fuel to build four nuclear bombs; this is an error. In reality, this fact was found in a different article, which has since been taken offline by the website that published it. This recent article from the Jerusalem Post cites similar information.

Protestors railing against California's Prop 8, which was recently deemed unconstitutional | photo by flickr user martineno (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Amidst recent controversy in the Orthodox community over the question of homosexuality, as reflected upon by New Voices’ Simi Lampert, and huge gains made by the passage of bills legalizing same sex marriage in the New Jersey legislature, Washington State, and Maryland, not to mention the repeal of Proposition 8 in California, our society is being polarized over this issue, each side being drawn further and further down its own line of reasoning. Upon reading of the attack at Bridgewater State I was deeply saddened, most because the past few weeks have instilled in me a sense that our society is progressing on this issue. Setting aside whether or not you believe in homosexual marriage, it saddens me to know that we live in a society that controversy over whether or not these individuals can wed can inspire such rage and division.

Destinie Mogg-Barkalow is a junior. She is a journalist. She is a thousand other adjectives other than the one her alleged attackers chose to define her as, yet that facet of her personality caused them to assault her in a parking lot, for the crime of being openly gay and speaking her mind. She published an editorial in her school newspaper proclaiming her stance against Proposition 8, just as she was entitled to under her rights to freedom of speech and the press. In return, she was assaulted. Regardless of your positon on the issue, there are certain human rights at play here. She has every right to publish her ideas just as anyone else has every right to disagree with them. And disagreement is fine. However, when hate crimes are inspired by mere editorials, it becomes clear that the picture we are looking at is that of a polar society, with one side moving towards acceptance of homosexual culture, and one side moving away from it. It is up to the Jewish community, as well as the American people at large, to decide which perspective they’d like to embody.

The new OU Kosher App provides handy on the go and up to date information about kosher certifications | photo by flickr user patrick-allen (CC BY-SA 2.0)

No Jews in the Ivy League [Caroline Glick]

Caroline Glick, deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post, rails against an upcoming conference at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government which begins with disputing Israel’s right to exist.

“The embrace of the cause of Israel’s destruction by so many celebrity professors today is part and parcel of the destruction of the US higher education system. At the Harvard conference, not a drop of truth will be spoken by any of the eminent Jew hating participants. Students who attend will be presented with lies dripping with moralistic gobbledygook and be told that they are enlightened for embracing this sewage. “

Kosher? There’s an App for that [Reuters]

The OU recently released an updated version of their OU Passover App for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Called OU Kosher, it provides up to date information on a product’s kosher certification, as well as whether or not it is kosher for Passover. The application also updates when a product is no longer OU certified, or when new products gain certification.

NYPD invades privacy [Huffington Post]

New documents obtained by the Associated Press reveal that the NYPD spied on hundreds of Muslim college students throughout the northeast. The operation, the documents reveal, was designed to target Muslim Student Associations as possible stepping stones for some to pursue a career in terrorism. NYPD spokesmen provided a list of 12 people arrested domestically and abroad for terrorism with former ties to MSAs.

“Student groups were of particular interest to the NYPD because they attract young Muslim men, a demographic that terrorist groups frequently draw from. Police worried about which Muslim scholars were influencing these students and feared that extracurricular activities such as paintball outings could be used as terrorist training.”

Attacked for an Editorial [Huffington Post]

A student who published an editorial in her school’s newspaper attacking supporters of California’s recently repealed Proposition 8 was attacked last week. Bridgewater State University officials have condemned the incident, and are holding a rally in her support.

“As the Patriot Ledger is reporting, Destinie Mogg-Barkalow was allegedly approached by a man and a woman who appeared to be fellow students in a parking lot at Bridgewater State University last week. After the pair asked Mogg-Barkalow, who is openly gay, if she wrote the pro-marriage equality article which appeared in The Comment, the university’s student newspaper, the woman punched her in the face, leaving a bruise.”

If you’ll be in NYC on Thursday night and you have a hankering for free vodka, free knishes or the general debauchery both of those delightful things imply the world over, join me at Heeb Magazine‘s 10th anniversary party.

And if you’re still not convinced — or you wanna know what the actual details are — enjoy the bizarre ad copy contained in the press release they emailed me about it:

MEDIA ALERT: HEEB AIN’T DEAD. IT’S ABOUT TO THROW A PARTY TO PROVE IT!

COME JOIN US AS HEEB MAGAZINE CELEBRATES ITS TENTH ANNIVERSARY

(New York, N.Y., February 13, 2012) – Gawker started the Heeb Magazine deathwatch more
than two years ago. But screw Gawker; we’d rather celebrate a birthday than a yahrtzeit.
Heeb – the magazine that brought you the Jewfro, Jonah Hill with a lubed-up bagel, and Sarah
Silverman posing nude behind a sheet with a hole in it – will celebrate the tenth anniversary of
its birth with a party that will look more like its own Jewish wake than it will a bris.

That’s right, it’s been a decade this month since Heeb forced itself on America’s mainstream
with as a publisher of irreverent Jewish humor and lifestyles features.

So come celebrate with us on Thursday, February 23 at Fontana’s on Manhattan’s Lower East
Side.

Flatrate Moving, the Forward newspaper, and J-Space are sponsoring the shindig. Wodka
Vodka is going to make sure that we get nice and liquored up by sponsoring an hour of free
vodka drinks from 8:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. We’ll even throw in some free knishes.

Sarah Kate Silverman was born December 1, 1970 in Bedford, NH. Silverman is a comedian, writer, actress, singer and musician. Though she does not come from a religious background, the comedian is ethnically Jewish. “I have no religion. But culturally I can’t escape it; I’m very Jewish,” she said. Her comedy focuses on social taboos and controversial topics like racism, sexism, and religion. And while she’s open about her bed-wetting problems and bouts with depression, her relationships are off limits.

At just 17 years old, Silverman was performing in nightclubs in New Hampshire. After graduating from New York University, Silverman stayed in the area doing stand-up in Greenwich Village. She first got national attention during the 1993-1994 season of Saturday Night Live, though only one of her sketches made it to dress rehearsal, and none of them aired. Silverman was fired after one year. She got the news via fax message.

In 2005, she released the film Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, which documents her stand-up routine of the same name. The film grossed more than $1.3 million dollars in 57 theaters. The Sarah Silverman Program, a television sitcom based on Sarah and her friends, debuted on Comedy Central in 2007. Her acting got her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Silverman wrote a book in 2010. The comic memoir The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee was a New York Time’s bestseller.

Her latest work has her back on screen, playing a dramatic role alongside Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen in the film Take This Waltz. The film, which was well received at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, has been picked up by Magnolia for a Summer 2012 distribution. The movie features a full-frontal nude scene from Silverman. In interviews she warned fans not to expect too much.

Sarah says…

“I don’t set out to offend or shock, but I also don’t do anything to avoid it.”

“I graduated from High School and they got the big drug slogan, ‘Just say no’, Nancy Reagan wrote it, a brilliant mind of our time. It doesn’t work, I think it’s really lame. If we’re going to have a big anti-drug slogan I think it should be some thing much cooler. Like uh, ‘Just say… I’m good for now’. That would work. ‘I’m all set, thank you’. That’s another good one. Much cooler.”

Last week, New Voices pointed out a report by +972 Magazine on Norman Finkelstein, Palestinian rights activist and controversial thinker. In a move that has surprised many, Finkelstein came out in opposition to the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions), which seeks to protest the conflict between Israel and Palestine through a variety of boycotts of Israel. Because of Finkelstein’s frequent criticism of Israeli policy, many were shocked to see him liken the movement to “Maoists.”

Political voice Noam Chomsky has had similar criticisms of the BDS movement, citing the “hypocrisy [that] rises to heaven,” and questioning why similar boycotts haven’t been leveled at the United States or parts of Europe due to human rights concerns. Chomsky went so far as to suggest the movement was calling for the “destruction of Israel.” Is Chomsky, or Finkelstein for that matter, right?

While no one can gauge individual motivations for persons in the BDS movement, the movement as a whole is going about its activism all wrong. Urging the self-determination of Palestine isn’t innately anti-Semitic. But cutting off, and in essence damning, the whole of the Israeli people because of the policies of the current (or past) administration(s), ignores and inflames an issue of great complexity. A crisis of this magnitude will never find itself bettered without an approach that is sensitive, subtle, and mindful.

Lumping the entire Israeli people together through calls for a wide-sweeping boycott is not the answer anymore than assuming every Palestinian is a terrorist who calls for the disbanding of the Israeli government; such categories are feeble in their ignorance.

We’re big people. We have to put on our big people pants and get our hands dirty, stop thinking in black and white and prepare to have our assumptions challenged. Punishing all for a situation many have been born into (whether Palestinian or Israeli) won’t solve anything. It will only compound social tensions a hundredfold.

Ultra-Orthodox men in Jerusalem. | Photo by Flickr username asafantman (CC BY 2.0)

The responsibility of Jewish federations [Forward]

With the economic recession hitting many organizations, religious or otherwise, with hard times, leaders must make choices to ensure survival. But are some federations unfairly compromising the well-being of their employees in the process? The Jewish Daily Forward takes a look:

“In this flip exchange lies a serious issue. As our Nathan Guttman has reported, Jewish social service groups, along with other nonprofits seeking to cut pension costs, are using a controversial tax loophole to skirt federal rules that protect workers from being left with little or nothing if their retirement plans collapse. Among the Jewish non-profits availing themselves of what is known as the “church plan” are federations in Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Detroit, along with nursing homes and health care facilities.”

Occupy the Exodus 2012 [The Shalom Center]

Jewish groups around the country have responded to the Occupy movement with a certain degree of enthusiasm, incorporating religious projects within the framework of these social protests. Rabbi Arthur Waskow of Jewish Renewal now suggests that there’s no better time to explore the pressing social, economic, environmental, and spiritual crises of our age than at Passover. He’s putting out a call to religious leaders and active laypersons to participate in an Occupy Passover event:

“We hope that the immediate impact of this specific action will be to empower and strengthen the disempowered 99% of our society, and to help dissolve the overweening power of the 1% and their giant corporations — the Pharaohs and Caesars of our day. We hope to do this by evoking the soul-force (satyagraha, often mislabeled “nonviolence”) that is implicit in our religious traditions, and bringing them into active public reality again.”

Praise the Lord, pass the ammunition [Haaretz]

Since the Israeli Defense Forces have suffered a decline in numbers in recent years, new measures are being taken to concentrate draft efforts on members of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, many of whom have not served in the IDF before. But is the decrease a combination of ultra-Orthodox Jews avoiding the draft and the lack of new aliyah (immigration) candidates willing to serve? Haaretz reports:

“Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, ‘we enjoyed huge waves of aliyah that increased the number of new recruits,’ a personnel directorate official said. ‘This year saw a decline in the number of new immigrants, and that is the one factor that immediately influences the number of conscripts. Today’s situation − no aliyah and many ultra-Orthodox youths − can be directly felt.’”

Another voice calls for Israel to refrain from attacking Iran [Jerusalem Post]

With tensions between Israel and Iran the highest in years, governmental officials from the world over are asking Israel to avoid military conflict for the time being, until other efforts to quell the violence are attempted and seen through. The Jerusalem Post shares:

“British Foreign Secretary William Hague advised Israel on Sunday not to attack Iran, saying that the international sanctions against Iran should be given a chance to work.

His comments in a BBC interview came as US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem for talks focused on Iran.

Neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the US put out a statement after that two-hour meeting, and Netanyahu said nothing about it – or the Iranian nuclear program – at a speech immediately after the meeting at the opening of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem.”