12 dead in France:The Charlie Hebdo shooting

15/01/2015 – כ״ה בטבת ה׳תשע״ה – כ״ה בטבת ה׳תשע״ה – 19:44
12 dead in France:Charlie Hebdo shooting:Islamic attack on Paris offices of satirical newspaper on 7 January 2015

12 dead in France:Charlie Hebdo shooting:Islamic attack on Paris offices of satirical newspaper on 7 January 2015

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Freedom of the Press 2014 World Press Freedom Index, compiled annually by Reporters Without Borders.

Freedom of the Press 2014 World Press Freedom Index, compiled annually by Reporters Without Borders.

שיר אירופי מחתרתי לחג המולד Underground European Song for Christmas
From Caroline Glick 16 January 2015
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The answer to French anti-Semitism

16January2015 https://carolineglick.com/the-answer-to-french-anti-semitism/

January 16 is the nine-year anniversary of the beginning of the Ilan Halimi disaster.

On January 16, 2006, Sorour Arbabzadeh, the seductress from the Muslim anti-Jewish kidnapping gang led by Youssouf Fofana, entered the cellphone store where Halimi worked and set the honey trap.

Four days later, Halimi met Arbabzadeh for a drink at a working class bar and agreed to walk her home. She walked him straight into an ambush. Her comrades beat him, bound him and threw him into the trunk of their car.

They brought Halimi to a slum apartment and tortured him for 24 days and 24 nights before dumping him, handcuffed, naked, stabbed and suffering from third degree burns over two-thirds of his body, at a railway siding in Paris.

He died a few hours later in the hospital.

In an impassioned address to the French parliament on Tuesday, Prime Minister Manuel Valls gave a stirring denunciation of anti-Semitism, and demanded that his people stop treating it as someone else’s problem.

In his words, “Since Ilan Halimi in 2006… anti-Semitic acts in France have grown to an intolerable degree. The words, the insults, the gestures, the shameful attacks… did not produce the national outrage that our Jewish compatriots expected.”

Valls insisted that France needs to protect its Jewish community, lest France itself be destroyed.

“Without its Jews France would not be France, this is the message we have to communicate loud and clear. We haven’t done so. We haven’t shown enough outrage. How can we accept that in certain schools and colleges the Holocaust can’t be taught? How can we accept that when a child is asked, ‘Who is your enemy?’ the response is ‘The Jew?’ When the Jews of France are attacked France is attacked, the conscience of humanity is attacked. Let us never forget it.”

Valls words were uplifting. But it is hard to see how they change the basic reality that the Jews of France face.

When all is said and done, it is their necks on the line while humanity’s conscience is merely troubled.

Ilan Halimi’s case is more or less a textbook case of the impossible reality French Jewry faces. And, as Valls noted, the situation has only gotten worse in the intervening nine years. Much worse.

But back when things were much better, Ilan Halimi was kidnapped, tortured for 24 days and murdered. As Tablet online magazine’s Marc Weitzmann reported last September in an in-depth summary of ordeal, the gang that perpetrated the atrocity had been hunting for Jewish victims for several weeks before Arbabzadeh set her trap for Halimi. All their previous attempts had failed. Their previous marks included Jewish doctors, lawyers, television directors and human rights activists, as well as Jews of no particular distinction aside from the fact that they were Jews.

The anti-Jewish nature of the gang was clear from its chosen victims. The anti-Semitic nature of their atrocious crime against Halimi was obvious from the first time they contacted his mother, Ruth Halimi, demanding ransom for his release. They made anti-Jewish slurs in all their communications with her. And as she heard her sons tortured cries in the background, Ruth was subjected to his torturers’ recitation of Koranic verses.
And yet, throughout the period of his captivity, French authorities refused to consider the anti-Jewish nature of the crime, and as a result, refused to treat the case as life threatening or urgent.

The same attitude continued well after Halimi was found. As Weitzmann noted, the investigative magistrate insisted “There isn’t a single element to allow one to attach this murder to an anti-Semitic purpose or an anti-Semitic act.”

The denial went on through the 2009 trials of the 29 kidnappers and their accomplices. Anti-Semitism was listed as an aggravating circumstance of the crime – and as such, a cause for harsher sentencing – only for the gang leader Fofana. And in the end, even for him, the judges did not take it into account at sentencing.

As for those 29 kidnappers and accomplices, as Weitzmann notes, each one of them had a circle of friends and family. As a consequence, by a one reporters’ conservative estimate, at least 50 people were aware of the crime and where Halimi was being held, while he was being held. And not one of them called the police. Not one of them felt moved to make a call that could save the life of a Jew.

After the fact, the media in France were happy to publish articles by the torturers’ defense lawyers insisting, “Only people motivated by ‘political reasons’ would try to sell the opinion that anti-Semitism is eating away at French society.”

When the Halimi family lawyer boasted of close ties to the government and announced he would appeal the sentences of the perpetrators if he didn’t think their punishments were sufficient, the French media eagerly shifted the conversation from the torture and murder of a Parisian who just happened to be a Jew by a band of sadists who just happened to be Muslims, to the more comfortable narrative of the Jewish lobby and Jewish power.

So, too, when Halimi, and six years later when the three children and the rabbi massacred at Otzar Hatorah Jewish day school in Toulouse, were brought to Israel for burial, the media reported their families’ decision in a negative way hinting that it was evidence of the basic disloyalty, or otherness of the Jews of France.

In other words, what Halimi’s murder exposed is that anti-Semitism in France is systemic. Muslims are the main perpetrators of violence. And they operate in social environments that are at a minimum indifferent to Jewish suffering and victimization. This violence and indifference is abetted by non-Islamic elites. French authorities minimize the unique threat Jews face. And the media are happy to ignore the issue, or when given the slightest opportunity, to claim that the Jews are responsible for their own victimization.
Indeed, in live reports from the scene of the hostage taking at the kosher supermarket in Paris last week, Weitzmann noted that in the early hours of the attack, French media failed to mention that the hostages were Jews.

Under these circumstances, where the entire French system is stacked against them, what can be done for French Jewry? What can they do for themselves?

It is far from clear that France is capable of correcting its downward trajectory.

Demography is moving France in a different direction. According to Israeli political scientist Guy Bechor, Marseilles will be the first Western European city with a Muslim majority. The ruling Socialists owe their victory to the Muslim vote. It is hard to see French President François Hollande and his comrades taking actions that could anger that constituency which votes as a bloc.

Moreover, anti-Semitism in all its forms is manifested throughout French society. For instance, the prosecutor in the Halimi murder trial is the son of a French Nazi collaborator and according to Weitzmann, spent an inordinate amount of the trial trying to understand the perpetrators.

Then there is the Israel issue.

Valls has distinguished himself from his colleagues for his willingness to acknowledge that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.

But his is a voice in the wilderness. The overwhelming sentiment of the French elites is hostility toward Israel.

This sentiment was manifested in Hollande’s treatment of Israel, and through it of the French Jewish community, in the aftermath of the supermarket massacre last Friday.

Hollande told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attend the anti-terror march in Paris on Sunday, claiming that Netanyahu’s presence would detract from the message of unity against terrorism that he hoped the march would communicate.

The underlying assumption of Hollande’s message is deeply disturbing.

That assumption is that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism and is not, as a result, evil. The subtext is that the murder of Jews by Islamic terrorists who seek Israel’s destruction is similarly not a crime deserving of the same condemnation as the jihadist murder of French journalists.

Netanyahu rightly ignored Hollande’s request that he not attend. And for this move he was subjected to harsh criticism by the French media which accused him of crashing the party and pushing himself onto center stage against the wishes of his unwilling hosts.

Their criticism was then parroted by the Israeli media that studiously ignored the endemic anti-Israel hostility of the French media and the anti-Israel policies of the Hollande government. The Hebrew media, together with Hatnua leader Tzipi Livni, also ferociously attacked Netanyahu as well as Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett for upsetting French sensibilities by calling on French Jewry to make aliya.

But aliya is the key for contending with the increasing danger that the Jews of France face from the systemic nature of French anti-Semitism. This is true first of all because as France makes it clear that it is not a safe home for its Jews, Israel is a better option. Israel exists so that Jews always will have a better option than suffering at the hands of hostile non-Jews.

Speaking of aliya is also essential because so far the only thing that has caused French authorities to speak directly against anti-Semitism and take action to defend French Jewry has been the prospect of a mass exodus of their Jews.

The year 2014 saw a 50 percent increase in French aliya. And the Jewish Agency anticipates that that number will double to 15,000 in 2015, with 50,000 more not far behind.

After Ilan Halimi was murdered, out of fear of upsetting the French, no Israeli leader, including then-foreign minister Livni, uttered a word of condemnation against the atrocity. No Israeli representative attended his memorial ceremony.

No one urged French Jews to make aliya. And the number of anti-Semitic attacks increased massively each year. French governmental hostility toward Israel similarly escalated with each passing year.

There is unfortunately every reason to believe that the massacre at the kosher supermarket in Paris last Friday will not be the last one. But it is also clear that the best way to avert more suffering is to speak often and forcefully about the option of moving to Israel. Israel must also take active steps to prepare the country for the arrival of our French brothers and sisters. Hollande will certainly express his annoyance as he continues to condemn Israel at every turn for imaginary misdeeds. But the French Jews will be strengthened.

While the conscience of humanity may be uselessly miffed by the victimization of Jews, the Jews of France will know that there is one place on earth that exists to prevent that victimization, and that they are welcome here whenever they choose to come.

French Exodus: ‘When Jews Flee, a Nation is Sick’

The real news on the ground in France via Email

Once again, the real news in France is conveniently not being reported as it should.
Please read! “Will the world say nothing – again – as it did in Hitler’s time?” He writes: “I AM A JEW — therefore I am forwarding this to everyone on all my e-mail lists. I will not sit back and do nothing.Nowhere have the flames of Anti-Semitism burned more furiously than in France……………………..

  • 1. In Lyon , a car was rammed into a synagogue and set on fire.
  • 2. In Montpellier , the Jewish religious center was firebombed;
  • 3. So were synagogues in Strasbourg and Marseilles ;
  • 4. So was a Jewish school in Creteil – all recently.
  • 5. A Jewish sports club in Toulouse was attacked with Molotov cocktails
  • 6. and on the statue of Alfred Dreyfus, in Paris , the words ‘Dirty Jew’ were painted.
  • 7. In Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish football team with sticks and metal bars.8. The bus that takes Jewish children to school in Aubervilliers has been attacked three times in the last 14 months.
  • 9. According to the Police, metropolitan Paris has seen 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents PER DAY in the past 30 days.
  • 10. Walls in Jewish neighborhoods have been defaced with slogans proclaiming ‘Jews to the gas chambers’ and ‘Death to the Jews.’
  • 11. A gunman opened fire on a kosher butcher’s shop (and, of course, the butcher) in Toulouse, France
  • 12. A Jewish couple in their 20’s were beaten up by five men in Villeurbanne  -France (the woman was pregnant).
  • 13. A Jewish school was broken into and vandalized in Sarcelles , France .. This was just in the past week

So I call on you, whether you are a fellow Jew, a friend, or merely a person with the capacity and desire to distinguish decency from depravity, to do –

at least – these three simple things:

First, care enough to stay informed. Don’t ever let yourself become deluded into thinking that this is not your fight.

I remind you of what Pastor Neimoller said in World War II:

‘First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.’

Second, boycott France and French products.  Only the Arab countries are more toxically anti-Semitic and, unlike them, France exports more than just oil and hatred.

So boycott their wines and their perfumes

Boycott their clothes and their foodstuffs.

Boycott their movies.

Definitely boycott their shores.

If we are resolved we can exert amazing pressure and, whatever else we may know about the French, we most certainly know that they are like a cobweb in a hurricane in the face of well-directed pressure.

Third, send this along to your family, your friends, and your co-workers. Think of all of the people of good conscience that you know and let them know that you – and the people that you care – about need their help.

The number one bestselling book in France is…. ‘September 11: The Frightening Fraud’ which argues that no plane ever hit the Pentagon!

PLEASE PASS THIS ON. LET’S NOT LET HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF! THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!

IMAGINE – The Israeli version

Why Do People Become Islamic Extremists?
By Staff | Posted in Positive Thinking | Tagged , | Comments Off on 12 dead in France:The Charlie Hebdo shooting

The Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris

08/01/2015 – י״ז בטבת ה׳תשע״ה – י״ז בטבת ה׳תשע״ה – 07:19

Charlie Hebdo shooting: Islamic attack on Paris offices of satirical newspaper on 7 January 2015

Charlie Hedbo satirical magazine cartoon:Salafist stupidity - Any pretext is good!<br />"Another insulting representation of our prophet!"

Charlie Hedbo satirical magazine cartoon:Salafist stupidity – Any pretext is good!
“Another insulting representation of our prophet!”

 Here is a cartoon of Charlie Hedbo Mohammed  in solidarity with Charlie Hedbo (whose editor in chief and several cartoonists were among the dead,). Also (on the right side) cartoons from  Ann Telneas & Tom Toles from The Washington Post and Rob Tornoe from The Philadelphia Inquirer

Ann Telneas, The Washington Post:#JeSuisCharlie: Cartoonists react to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris http://wapo.st/1Km0SpS (@anntelnaes)

Ann Telneas, The Washington Post:#JeSuisCharlie: Cartoonists react to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris http://wapo.st/1Km0SpS (@anntelnaes)

Charlie Hebdo shooting-Rob Tornoe cartoon-Still mortified about our fallen cartoonist colleagues, but free speech will always win.

Charlie Hebdo shooting-Rob Tornoe cartoon-Still mortified about our fallen cartoonist colleagues, but free speech will always win.

Editorial cartoonist Tom Toles on the Charlie Hebdo massacre http://wapo.st/142n4E6

Editorial cartoonist Tom Toles on the Charlie Hebdo massacre http://wapo.st/142n4E6

Alyah : mode d’emploi

Alyah : mode d'emploi http://www.jewishagency.org/fr/aliyah/program/7618 Choisissez celle qui vous correspond et inscrivez-vous sur notre site Internet en cliquant ICI ou par téléphone, en appelant le Global Center au 0800 916 647 (si vous entendez un message vocal d'accueil, vous devez patienter jusqu'à ce que quelqu'un vous réponde). Le Global Center est joignable 6 jours par semaine, de 7h00 à 19h00 (du dimanche au jeudi) et de 8h00 à 12h00 le vendredi.

Alyah : mode d’emploi http://www.jewishagency.org/fr/aliyah/program/7618 Choisissez celle qui vous correspond et inscrivez-vous sur notre site Internet en cliquant ICI ou par téléphone, en appelant le Global Center au 0800 916 647 (si vous entendez un message vocal d’accueil, vous devez patienter jusqu’à ce que quelqu’un vous réponde). Le Global Center est joignable 6 jours par semaine, de 7h00 à 19h00 (du dimanche au jeudi) et de 8h00 à 12h00 le vendredi.

Alyah : mode d’emploi http://www.jewishagency.org/fr/aliyah/program/7618 Choisissez celle qui vous correspond et inscrivez-vous sur notre site Internet en cliquant ICI ou par téléphone, en appelant le Global Center au 0800 916 647 (si vous entendez un message vocal d’accueil, vous devez patienter jusqu’à ce que quelqu’un vous réponde). Le Global Center est joignable 6 jours par semaine, de 7h00 à 19h00 (du dimanche au jeudi) et de 8h00 à 12h00 le vendredi.

Reports in Israel on Friday indicated that the Jewish Agency received hundreds of calls from French Jews seeking to make aliya (immigrate) to Israel.

L’arrivée de Hollande et Netanyahu à la grande synagogue

Netanyahu is met with almost frenzied shouts of “Bibi! Bibi!” at the Grande Synagogue – as well as shouts of “help us!” in Hebrew. His arrival obviously greatly heartens the Jews, who are feeling increasingly defenseless in the face of Islamist terrorism.

Our future IT Staff

Our future IT Staff

 This is a nice cat friendly website that promotes Aliyah to Israel and will not get in to any controversy (at lest on the front page).

All Israeli Cats are required to take IDF Officers Military Training

All Israeli Cats are required to take IDF Officers Military Training
By Staff | Posted in Aliyah: Jewish immigration to Israel | Tagged , | Comments Off on The Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris

1 January is Sylvester Day יום סילבסטר

31/12/2014 – י׳ בטבת ה׳תשע״ה – י׳ בטבת ה׳תשע״ה – 20:13

Once you know the history of Sylvester Day, you will just consider 1 January just a regular day and not a day to party.

 

Israeli calendar

Israeli calendar

Israeli society flows according to the Jewish calendar. Schools and businesses are closed on Shabbat, and the whole country shuts down on Jewish holidays like Yom Kippur. For that reason the secular/Christian new year has little significance. Yet when some ultra-secularists discovered that most of the world holds a “New Years party,” they didn’t want to feel left out.Yet they couldn’t call it “New Years” because that title was already taken by Rosh Hashana. So the name Sylvester was adopted in its stead. Celebrate Falafel Day 18 January and really have a Party!!

 

From Kitzur Shulchan Aruch Chapter 3 Law 2:

One should not follow the customs of the idolaters or be like them neither in (their) clothes, and not in (their) hair (styles), or the like; as it is said: 1 And ye shall not walk in the customs of the idolaters; and it is (again) said: 2 Neither shall ye walk in their statutes; and it is (again) said: 3 Take heed to thyself that thou be not ensnared to follow them…. Also everything that they do, of their customs or laws, even if one suspects that there is even the slightest idolatrous intent, a Jew should not imitate them. And so one should not cut his hair nor let the hair on his head grow as they do, but he should differ from them in his dress, his manner of speech, and the rest of his actions, just as he differs from them in his knowledge and his opinions. And so it is said: 7 I have set you apart from the peoples.

1) Leviticus 20:23 2) Leviticus 18:3 3) Deuteronomy 12.30 7) Leviticus 20:26

 

But why is 1 January named Sylvester Day?
Siege of Jerusalem - Year 1187

Siege of Jerusalem – Year 1187

Sylvester the Cat

Sylvester the Cat

In many European countries this day was named after Saint Sylvester. There have been three popes named Sylvester (who later became Saints), but the one after whom the day is named is Sylvester I (314-335). Christianity grew under his rule and it is believed that he died on December 31. In addition, during his rule it was believed that he had been swallowed by the Leviathan sea monster and that the monster would return in the year 1000 to destroy and kill. When it did not, people were relieved and they celebrated. The year before the Council of Nicaea convened, Sylvester convinced Constantine to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem. At the Council of Nicaea, Sylvester arranged for the passage of a host of viciously anti-Semitic legislation. All Catholic “Saints” are awarded a day on which Christians celebrate and pay tribute to that Saint’s memory. December 31 is Saint Sylvester Day – hence celebrations on the night of December 31 are dedicated to Sylvester’s memory.

 

Over the following centuries, the New Year reportedly brought much anti-Semitic activity:

On New Year’s Day 1577 Pope Gregory XIII decreed that all Roman Jews, under pain of death, must listen attentively to the compulsory Catholic conversion sermon given in Roman synagogues after Friday night services. On New Year’s Day 1578

 

Gregory signed into law a tax forcing Jews to pay for the support of a “House of Conversion” to convert Jews to Christianity. On New Year’s 1581 Gregory ordered his troops to confiscate all sacred literature from the Roman Jewish community. Thousands of Jews were murdered in the campaign. Throughout the medieval and post-medieval periods, January 1 – supposedly the day on which Jesus’ circumcision initiated the reign of Christianity and the death of Judaism – was reserved for anti-Jewish activities: synagogue and book burnings, public tortures, and simple murder.

 

example of anti-Semitic art work

The 1899 poster called “The Rat Catcher,” which depicts Jews as vermin and an economic threat to the German people.

Last week we celebrated Chanukah – the restoration of Jewish sovereignty, the restoration of once again living our national life according to our own calendar.

And this brings us back to the 10th of Tevet, which this year coincides with the Gregorian new year. It is distressing indeed to see Jews celebrating this day – as if it has any significance for us whatsoever! It is bad enough when Jews in the USA and Europe and other countries of exile hold new year’s parties on the 1st of January. But mired in exile, forced by circumstances to live their lives according to the Gregorian calendar – what else can we expect?

 

It is infinitely worse that Jews here in Israel have brought this paganism (yes, overt paganism) into our own country.

 

We often hear the casual excuses: It’s not a religious celebration; it’s simply an excuse for a party; it has no Christian or pagan significance. It is usually possible to conveniently ignore the contradiction.

10 Tevet - Jerusalem Under Siege

10 Tevet – Jerusalem Under Siege

But this year (2014), the decision is starker. This year, for the first time since 5699 (1939), the 1st of January, Sylvester, coincides with the fast of the 10th of Tevet.

 

The choice is far more blatant. Fast or feast? Mourn over the destruction of Jerusalem? Or celebrate this highly unsavoury pope and “saint”, who was instrumental in convincing the Roman Emperor Constantine I, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem.

 

Live and celebrate according to a foreign calendar, instituted by Pope Gregory XIII – as vicious a Jew-hater as any pope? Or live and mourn and celebrate according to our calendar, for which the Macabbees fought?

 

Or think about the morning after drinking:

Fiddler On The Roof quote: Golde (the wife) to her Husband: “Well, what happened last night, besides you drinking like a peasant?”
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini and Adolf Hitler December 1941

Hitler Greets a Catholic Cardinal

Hitler Greets a Catholic Cardinal
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini and Adolf Hitler December 1941
Haj Amin al-Husseini who was, in many ways, as big a Nazi villain as Hitler himself. To understand his influence on the Middle East is to understand the ongoing genocidal program against the Jews of Israel. Al-Husseini was a bridge figure in terms of transporting the Nazi genocide in Europe into the post-war Middle East. As the leader of Arab Palestine during the British Mandate period, al-Husseini introduced violence against moderate Arabs as well as against Jews. Al-Husseini met with Adolf Eichmann in Palestine in 1937 and subsequently went on the Nazi payroll as a Nazi agent. Al-Husseini played a pivotal behind-the-scenes role in instigating a pro-Nazi coup in Iraq in 1941 as he urged Nazis and pro-Nazi governments in Europe to transport Jews to death camps, trained pro-Nazi Bosnian brigades, and funneled Nazi loot into pro-war Arab countries.
On 20 November1941, al-Husseini met the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and was officially received by Adolf Hitler on 28 November.
Al-Husseini’s own account, as recorded in his diary, states that Hitler expounded his view that the Jews were responsible for World War I, Marxism and its revolutions, and this was why the task of Germans was to persevere in a battle without mercy against the Jews,
According to the official report of the meeting, on November 28, 1941, Adolf Hitler told Husseini that the Afrika Korps would “liberate” Arabs in the Middle East and that “Germany’s only objective there would be the destruction of the Jews.”
“SS leaders and Husseini both claimed that Nazism and Islam had common values as well as common enemies – above all, the Jews,” the report states.
In fall 1943, it says, Husseini went to the Croatia, a German ally, to recruit Muslims for the Waffen-SS.
Der Grossmufti von Palästina vom Führer empfangen.
Der Führer empfing in Gegenwart des Reichsministers des Auswärtigen von Ribbentrop den Grossmufti von Palästina, Sayid Amin al Husseini, zu einer herzlichen und für die Zukunft der arabischen Länder bedeutungsvollen Unterredung.
9.12.41 Presse Hoffmann

10 Tevet was chosen to also serve as a “general kaddish day” for the victims of the Holocaust, many of whose day of martyrdom is unknown.

And the current history in Israel.
Jan 1, 1952 – Jerusalem 7 armed terrorists attacked and killed a 19 year-old girl in her home, in the neighborhood of Beit Yisrael.
Jan 1, 1965 – Palestinian terrorists attempted to bomb the National Water Carrier – the first attack carried out by the PLO’s Fatah faction.
Jan 1, 2001 – A car bomb exploded near a bus stop in the shopping district in the center of Netanya. About 60 people were injured, most lightly. One unidentified person, apparently one of the terrorists involved in the bombing, died of severe burns. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

TOP

Arutz Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/

Non-Jewish holidays and Gregorian Calendar dates

It is forbidden for a Jew to celebrate the holidays of another religion and it is not appropriate to celebrate civil holidays that were originally religious holidays.

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed

24December2024  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/401225

Q: Is it permissible for Jews to celebrate the holidays of other religions and nations, such as Christmas, January 1st, or Chag Hakorban (Eid al-Adha)?

A: There are three types of non-Jewish holidays:

 

-Religious holidays, which Jews are forbidden to celebrate, such as Christmas and Easter for Christians, and Eid al-Adha for Muslims and Druze.

 

-Civil holidays that were originally religious holidays, which it is not appropriate to celebrate, but there is no prohibition against doing so. An example of this is January 1st.

 

-Clearly civil holidays that it is permissible to celebrate, including Thanksgiving in North America, Novy God for immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and the Independence Days of various countries.

 

It is forbidden to celebrate other religions’ holidays

A Jew is forbidden to celebrate the holidays of another religion, even when all those celebrating are Jews, and are doing so without any religious symbols. This is prohibited due to the Torah’s prohibition, “You shall not follow their laws.” It is written: “Like the practices of the land of Egypt, where you lived, you shall not do; and like the practices of the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you, you shall not do; and you shall not walk in their statutes” (Leviticus 18:3).

 

One interpretation of this prohibition is that Jews should not imitate the customs of non-Jews that are rooted in their religion, as imitating them may lead to adopting their culture and beliefs, and abandoning the commandments of the Torah.

 

Celebrating the beginning of the Gregorian Year

It is not appropriate to celebrate civil holidays that were originally religious holidays, such as January 1st, marking the start of the new Gregorian year. However, in practice, as long as the celebration is held without religious reference, there is no prohibition.

 

Therefore, it is permissible for educators abroad to organize a celebration for Jewish youths on January 1st, so that they can celebrate the beginning of the Gregorian year with Jewish friends, and not be tempted to celebrate with non-Jews in a forbidden manner (as also ruled by Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz ztz”l, in M’arei HaBazak 5:46).

 

Additionally, when necessary, such as in the context of a business event, it is permissible to celebrate, since this date marks the end of the business year and taxes. However, when the participants are non-Jews, there are two limitations:

 

-It is forbidden to drink alcohol, and only kosher foods may be sampled.

 

-If it is a meal, it is even forbidden to eat kosher foods there (Peninei Halakha: Kashrut 29:12).

 

Celebrating Sylvester Is Forbidden

When the celebration of the beginning of the Gregorian year is called “Sylvester,” as is common in some Christian countries, the celebration becomes forbidden, as it changes from a civil holiday into a religious one. Sylvester was a pope who died on December 31st, so the celebration ties his memory with the beginning of the year. It should be noted that Sylvester worked to Christianize the Roman Empire, a process that caused much suffering for the Jewish people.

 

There were kosher businesses in Israel that wanted to hold a Sylvester party, but the kosher supervisors notified them that they would not be able to supervise the kashrut, and would therefore have to remove the kashrut certification from the business. The simple solution for them was to call the party “A Celebration for the Beginning of the Gregorian Year,” which would remove the prohibition from the celebration.

 

Christmas Tree

Q: Is it permissible for Jews to put up a Christmas tree for the beginning of the Gregorian year, as many do in the United States and Europe? Is it permissible for a maintenance worker to place a Christmas tree in a building he is responsible for? And is it permissible for a store owner to sell a Christmas tree to non-Jewish customers?

A: The Christmas tree, which Christians are accustomed to placing at the beginning of the Gregorian year, is a practice of a Christian holiday. Therefore, Jews are forbidden to place a Christmas tree in their homes, offices, or stores, due to the prohibition “You shall not follow their laws.” The same applies to other distinctive holiday symbols used by various religions, such as a Santa Claus figurine.

 

However, since the Christmas tree and other holiday symbols are not used for worship, they are not considered idolatry. Therefore, it is permissible for a Jew to provide them to non-Jews when necessary. For example, a Jew who owns a store that is asked to sell Christmas trees for the beginning of the Gregorian year may bring them to his store and sell them to non-Jews. Similarly, a Jew responsible for the maintenance of a building owned by non-Jews, and asked to place a Christmas tree there, may do so (see Shevet Halevi 10:141; M’arei HaBazak 3:111). A Jew who owns a printing press may fulfill an order to print greeting cards for the non-Jewish holidays, as there is no element of worship in the card (Masoret Moshe 4:52).

 

Permissible Civil Holiday – Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a civil holiday that the first European settlers in North America celebrated as an expression of joy for successfully settling in the new continent. The holiday meal typically includes turkey, which was discovered by Europeans in the new world. The settlers set it around the same time as Sukkot, when they express joy and thanksgiving for the year’s harvest.

 

Since it is a civil holiday, there is no prohibition in celebrating it. However, Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner wrote that since it is celebrated according to the Christian calendar, it is forbidden to celebrate it due to ‘avizrayhu’ (lit., ‘its accessories’, – prohibitions associated indirectly with idolatry). However, most rabbis wrote that there is no prohibition, including Rabbi Soloveitchik (Nefesh HaRav, p. 204), and Rabbi Feinstein (Igrot Moshe, Yoreh Deah 4:12). (Also in Mishneh Halachot 10:116; B’nei Banim 3:37; see also Torat Menachem, Sichot 1987, vol. 2, p. 54).

 

Novy God

Novy God is a civil holiday that was instituted during the communist rule in the Soviet Union as a substitute for the Christian holidays marking the beginning of the Gregorian year. Therefore, its status is similar to Thanksgiving, a holiday that does not have roots in a foreign religion. The translation of “Novy God” is “New Year.”

 

Indeed, it is forbidden to engage in practices that remind one of the laws of non-Jews, such as setting up a Christmas tree. However, if a different potted plant is placed instead of a Christmas tree, there is no prohibition.

 

It is appropriate for immigrants from the former Soviet Union who celebrate Novy God to assign it meaningful value, marking it as a day of thanksgiving for having had the privilege of immigrating to the Land of Israel, and contributing to the building of the nation.

 

Gregorian Calendar

Q: Is it permissible to use the Gregorian calendar date?
A: The Jewish custom is to use the Hebrew calendar, which expresses faith in God, the Creator of the world, and its months are those by which the holidays are determined. In modern times, as trade and scientific connections between cities and countries became numerous and complicated, there was an increasing need to use an agreed-upon date in letters, bills, and newspapers. Since Christian countries were the leaders, the date they used became the global standard. As a result, Jews who came into contact with non-Jews began using it as their main date, and most rabbis in Western Europe and the United States agreed that there was no prohibition.

 

Opponents of the Gregorian Calendar Date

On the other hand, some of the Gedolei Yisrael (imminent rabbis) strongly opposed using the Gregorian date, claiming that those who used it were being dragged after foreign culture and using an idolatrous date, since its origin is tied to the birth of oto ha’ish (Jesus) whom Christians made an idol. As the Chatam Sofer wrote: “Not like those who recently began counting… the birth of the Christian messiah, writing and signing that they have no part in the God of Israel, woe to them for they have repaid their souls with evil” (Drashot Chatam Sofer, vol. 2, p. 221).

 

His student, Rabbi Maharam Shik (Yoreh Deah 141), even wrote that this is a Torah prohibition, as it is written: “And you shall not mention the names of other gods” (Exodus 23:13), and our Sages learned from this (Sanhedrin 63b) that a person should not say to his friend “wait for me next to such and such an object of idol worship,” and similarly, according to him, it is forbidden to mention the date marking the birth of the man whom Christians made an idol.

 

However, even the Chatam Sofer himself used the Gregorian date “November 8, 1821” in a letter to the government (cited in Sefer Igrot Sofrim, p. 105). Therefore, he did not think there was an absolute prohibition, and he used it out of necessity. It seems his argument was that those using the Gregorian date do so unnecessarily, with the intent to resemble the non-Jews.

 

Other rabbis who prohibited its use also did not consider it a strict prohibition, but rather, that one should make every effort to avoid using it (Responsa Hillel Posek, Yoreh Deah 65; Yafeh LeLev Vol.5, Yoreh Deah 178:3). Similarly, this was the view of the Chief Rabbi of Israel, the Rishon L’Tzion, Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim (Responsa Yayin HaTov, Orach Chaim 8), and our teacher and mentor, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook (L’Netivot Yisrael, vol. 2, p. 99).

 

The Opinion of the Majority of Authorities to Permit

However, even two generations ago, when the use of the Gregorian date was not as widespread as it is today, the majority of poskim (halakha authorities) ruled that lechatchila (optimally), it is preferable to use the Hebrew date rather than the Gregorian date, but in necessary situations, it is permitted to use the Gregorian date, as it is used in a secular context, just like the use of the names of the months and days of the week, most of which are named after idols. Some poskim added that, according to historians, this date is not the date of the birth of oto ha’ish, as he was actually born four to seven years earlier than the beginning of their counting of years (As’eh Lecha Rav 5:55; Yabia Omer, vol. 3, Yoreh Deah 9).

 

Practical Halakha

As a result of the development of transportation and communication, all countries became interconnected in countless ways, and the need for a universally agreed-upon international date for trade, contracts, email, communication, news, and history increased. The use of the Gregorian date thus became constant, and its religious context faded. Therefore, it is permissible to use it without restriction, though it is important to also write the Hebrew date.

 

We have also found that in recent generations, rabbis who interacted with the general public have regularly included both the Hebrew and Gregorian dates in their letters, as did Rabbi Goren ztz”l. Similarly, Rabbi Shalom Meshash wrote: “There is absolutely no prohibition to use the Gregorian date, and there is no concern about it” (Responsa Shemesh U’Magen, vol. 3, Orach Chaim 60:3). Likewise, the Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote: “In all our countries, it is simple practice to use it when there is some need or reason” (Shulchan Menachem, vol. 4, §16).

 

This article appears in the ‘Besheva’ newspaper and was translated from Hebrew.

 

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Celebrate Falafel Day 18 January and really have a Party!!

How Falafel Saved this Holocaust Survivor’s Life

Revenge of the falafel, of the Holocaust survivor

19January2016 http://isrnosto.blogspot.com/2016/01/revenge-of-falafel-of-holocaust-survivor.html

71 years after the death march continues Dogo Leitner eat a double portion of the falafel in memory of that day • the private revenge, has become the operation of the hundreds of people.

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On 18 January 1945, at noon, in the freezing cold of the 18 degrees below zero, the Germans took about 60 thousand people to a death march from Auschwitz-Birkenau, I among them,” said Holocaust survivor David (Dogo) Leitner from Ashdod. “A boy of 14 and a half. Without food, no strength. This date is impossible to forget,” recalls David.

 

"Falafel

“Falafel

Today, the unwritten testament that he felt obliged to uphold is every January 18th is coming to falafel in Ashdod and indulging himself in two large doses, Until to abdominal pain. ‘This is the revenge of the Auschwitz-Birkenau My private. “Every year join the Dogo more and more people that own story reached them. And yesterday, January 18, arrived with Dogo, to falafel, hundreds of people.

 

Today, his daughter and members of the “House of Testimony”, Nir Galim open in “Operation – Dogo” and call on everyone: “Go near falafel, ate and be documented with a sign” Am Israel Chai! ‘”. Dogo documented the “lamp January 18” as part of his exhibition “Taking at the age” that is placed in Home testimony to the heritage of religious Zionism and Holocaust education in Moshav Nir Galim near Ashdod. Since that exhibition, the legacy of Dogo ceased to be private, and many, as noted, are asking to join him.

 

Leitner was born in 1930 in Hungary. During the war, his family was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The mother and two sisters had disappeared immediately, while Dogo and his father went to work. Dogo intended to be destroyed with another 4,000 children and even “won” two numbers stamped on his hands.On January 18, Dogo was to death march with the other prisoners in Auschwitz. He woke up in the hospital in Austria, saw the numbers on his hands and remembered who he is. Since 1990, follows Dogo groups to Poland. He tells to students: “From here, not leave sad. Am Israel Chai! Am Israel Chai and exists! Am Israel Chai and happy!”

 

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Caroline Glick tells off Danish ambassador

JerPost Conf. 2: Caroline Glick

Jack Benny

  • Thug: This is a stickup! Now come on. Your money or your life.

[long pause]

  • Thug: [repeating] Look, bud, I said ‘Your money or your life.’
  • Jack Benny: I’m thinking I’m thinking!
Nefesh B'Nefesh: Live the Dream US & CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH | UK 020-8150-6690 or 0800-085-2105 | Israel 02-659-5800 https://www.nbn.org.il/ info@nbn.org.il

Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream US & CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH | UK 020-8150-6690 or 0800-085-2105 | Israel 02-659-5800 https://www.nbn.org.il/ info@nbn.org.il

It is time to stop thinking and come to Israel

Hope kindergarten

 

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By Staff | Posted in Life in Jerusalem | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on 1 January is Sylvester Day יום סילבסטר