Hi,

I am looking for Jewish rock/alternative music in the style of my chemical romance, sum 41, blur, gorillaz, AC/DC, royal republic, etc.
What I found and like very much is Ivri Anochi I'm a Jew & I'm Proud by Benny Friedman. I would like to find something like that in this style.

LG
René

13Do not withhold discipline from a child; when you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
14You shall strike him with a rod, and you will save his soul from the grave.

Does this verse mean that we should hit a child with a rod (stick) as a means of discipline?

Thanks.

This video is of my fiance, Scott Schindelar, on his second trip with Israel 2.0.

He has never been religious but a jew by birth. After visiting Israel for the second time, he has gained a new found spirituality that includes celebrating Hannukah and the weekly Shabbat. Please like, comment, and share the video :

I love him, and I am SO proud of him.


https://youtu.be/1cF0fl0VBW0

I’m trying to research some fun, unique Bar Mitzvah gifts to get in this day and age.

https://oneshotfinance.com/25-cool-and-memorable-ideas-for-bar-mitzvah-gifts/

This site has some fun ideas, I was wondering what you guys thought? And if you have any other resources/ideas on what to get? Do you think getting a gift is even worth it, or should I just stick to giving cash?

Thanks!

How does God communicate with angels?

Thanks.

So what religion do you consider to be closest to Judaism? why i ask ? according to a research i read few years ago the more religious jews say Islam,the secular nonreligious jews say christianity(because of european culture where they live in currently).This was a poll done in the USA

here is a similar question in Jerusalem streets? i would say same results

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIjTerIxLOE

so your thoughts ? :

                                           “Gib’em the Ball!”

Jewish Quarterback – it sounds like an oxymoron - but that was the topic that Shabbos morning of the rabbi’s Torah commentary.  Actually, I should qualify that.  It wasn’t so much a part of the commentary, but more a humorous, “warm-up act” (story) that served as a prelude to his actual Dvar Torah.

As I recall, the rabbi began by citing a Jewish quarterback from years past.  His name was Sid Luckman.  Luckman was a New Yorker who played for Columbia University in the mid-to-late 1930s.  He is considered, by many, to be the first of the great T-formation quarterbacks.  After a stellar career with the Columbia University Lions, he was drafted by the Chicago Bears. 

It seems that Luckman had a zayde who ran a tailor shop in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.  Luckman wanted his grandfather to come and see him play football for Columbia.  But the elder Luckman was: “Shomer Shabbos”.  He wouldn’t even think of watching his grandson play football on Saturday, let alone ride in a car or take public transportation to Baker Bowl (where Columbia played their home games) to see him play a sport he knew nothing about.

Several years go by, Sid Luckman is now playing for a professional football team called the Chicago Bears (President Coolidge, years earlier, when informed that George Halas’s Chicago Bears were coming to Washington to play the Washington Redskins, is reported to have said, “That’s great, I love ‘animal acts’.”

In any event, as it turns out, the Bears are in town to play the vaunted New York (football) Giants.  Now, as the pro football teams play on Sunday, Luckman’s Zayde can finally come to Yankee Stadium to see his grandson play.  Luckman is thrilled.  He gets his grandfather a ticket right on the 50-yard line. 

In the first half, the celebrated Giants’ defense completely throttles quarterback Luckman and his Bears offense.  Luckman is literally “running for his life” as he’s chased around the backfield by the Giants’ defenders. 

When the Second Half begins, it’s more of the same.  The elder Luckman, sitting in his seat on the 50-yard line, doesn’t understand what’s going on.  Why are the members of the opposing team chasing his grandson all over the field?  He surmises that it must have something to do with the ball (football) that his aynikl is carrying. 

There reaches a point where Sid Luckman’s grandfather can’t take it anymore.  Just as his grandson is being thrown to the Yankee Stadium turf, once again, there’s a cry from the stands; it’s Sid Luckman’s grandfather.  He yells out, “Sidney, Sidney, gib’em the ball, I’ll buy you another one!”

Respect Becomes Loathing: My First Brush With Anti-Semitism

I respected the man. I looked up to him. He was one of our coaches.  He taught us how to hit and field. But then…something happened. It changed everything. 

During the mid-1950s, I played, as a teenager, in Mattapan’s Babe Ruth League baseball program (Boston’s Dorchester-Mattapan neighborhood, although a diverse community, contained, in the middle of the 20th century, one of the largest Jewish populations of any major U.S. city).  We played our baseball games at field called Almont Park; it was not far from business district called Mattapan Square.  

As I recall, when I played in the Babe Ruth League baseball program, you were judged more on how well you could hit, field, and throw than on your ethnicity or religion. Our coach that year was a senior at nearby Hyde Park High School.  But he had help. He was assisted by two of the fathers whose sons played on our team. One of the assistant coaches was a man we simply called, “Coach Ed.”  His son was one of our pitchers.
 
Toward the end of the season, our team, the Pirates, was playing a game against the Cardinals.  We needed a win that evening to stay in contention for the league title.  I remember that the game was going into the late innings. The lead had seesawed back and forth. Our opponents, the Cardinals, were now ahead. They were looking to add to their one-run lead. I remember their lead-off batter had started the inning off with a single. He would subsequently steal second base.
 
The next batter hit a sharp grounder to me at shortstop.  I proceeded to scoop up the ball.  I was just about to throw the ball across the diamond for the putout at first base. Yet, I remember that just before I was about to throw the baseball, I took a quick peek at the Cardinals’ runner on 2nd base.  I wanted to be sure he wasn’t taking off for 3rd base.
 
To my surprise, as I turned to look the runner back to 2nd, he took off for 3rd. Instantaneously, I moved forward a few steps to apply the tag. I remember the runner trying to squirm out of the way to avoid my tag (he might have gone out of the base line).  I managed to graze him on his uniform as he was ducking away.  I knew for certain (the runner also knew -- he affirmed the fact after the inning was over) that he had been tagged out.  Yet, the runner continued on to third as if he hadn’t been tagged. He was called “safe” by the adult umpire, “Coach Ed.”
 
For a few seconds, I just stood there at my position. I couldn’t believe the runner had been called “safe”.  Moments later, I calmly walked over to where “Coach Ed” was umpiring from behind the pitcher’s mound.  When I spoke with him, I was neither loud nor boisterous (I spoke in a calm, measured tone of voice).  I was not trying to show up “Coach Ed”.  I was just attempting to plead my case.  In fact, as I began to speak with Ed, I fully realized that an umpire, working the game alone, might have been “screened” by the runner and that he could have missed the fact that I had tagged the runner out.
 
In speaking with Ed, I just wanted to tell him that I had, indeed, tagged the runner. At that moment, I would have settled for any plausible explanation he might have given me.  But, what I got next, was totally unexpected and brutally shocking. The next words out of “Coach Ed’s” mouth were: “Get away from me you little kike!”  I was stunned. Taken aback.  His comment hit me like a “ton o’ bricks”.  It was if, at that moment, I had been verbally slapped across the face.  For a moment I looked at him, and then I turned and walked away.  I felt both hurt and sad.  Here was an adult whom I had respected.  But now…
 
Oh, I would see “Coach Ed” during our two remaining games in the season.  But I would not talk with him, nor would I accept his coaching.  I had thought of reporting the incident to the League president, but I decided against it (I’m not even sure if I ever told my parents). Frankly, I was concerned that if I made an issue of it, I’d be labeled as “a troublemaker.”  Tangentially, I have, over the years, changed my approach on that matter.
 
In the end, I had hoped that before the season ended “Coach Ed” would come over to me and apologize. I would have respected him for having admitted that he was wrong, and that he had made a mistake in speaking to me in that crude and demeaning manner, but he never did.


In hindsight, “Coach Ed” had most definitely “crossed the line”.  His comment made me feel "religiously singled out.”  Stereotyped.  In his moment of anger “the hidden” had come to the surface.  His latent feelings had now become “visible.”  I didn’t like what I saw.  My previous feeling of respect had, indeed, turned to loathing. 

Gold, purple, pink, and white wildflowers.  Every so often -- sometimes decades apart -- places like Death Valley, CA and other desert locations will be awash with an eye-catching array of beautiful flowers.  The atmospheric conditions that allow for these floral displays to occur have to be just right.  Perfect.  Desert flower-watchers – floraphiles – have documented that the early-to-mid 1930’s and early-50’s were among the peak years for these displays. 

Now, the conditions appear ripe, once again, as we approach the second decade of the 21st century, i.e, early heavy rains in the Desert-Southwest.  It’s a phenomenon waiting to happen. The signs are already evident.
 
Moreover, the seedlings on the desert floor don’t go away. They don’t disappear.  They remain there, unspoiled, until everything, i.e., moisture-laden winds, etc. come together, perfectly.  In a manner of speaking, those “seedlings” have been waiting patiently to “come out of the woodwork.”  This analogy is true, be they the aforementioned desert seedlings, or be they domestic and international incidents.
 
In the late-1930’s, conditions were ripe for the outbreak of World War II.  The beginning of World War II occurred when Germany invaded Poland.  But there had to be a pretense, a “sell” to the rest of the word.  That “sell” was known as the “Gleiwitz (Gliwice, Poland) Incident.”  
 
In his Nuremberg testimony, Alfred Naujocks stated that he organized the incident under orders from Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Müller, chief of the Gestapo.  On the night of August 31, 1939, a small group of German operatives dressed in Polish uniforms and led by Naujocks seized the Gleiwitz radio station and broadcast a short anti-German message in Polish. The operation was named "Grossmutter Gestorben" (Grandmother Died). The operation was to make both the attack and the broadcast look like the work of Polish anti-German saboteurs.
 
Furthermore, the “Gleiwitz Incident” was, as it what is labeled, a “false flag” operation, a covert operation that disguises that actual source of responsibility, i.e, the Nazis. The attackers posed as Polish nationals.   The next morning, Adolf Hitler's armed forces invaded Poland.  During his declaration of war, Hitler did not mention the “Gleiwitz Incident” but grouped all provocations, actually staged by the SS, as an alleged Polish assault on Germany. The “Gleiwitz Incident” is the best-known action of Operation Himmler, a series of special operations undertaken by the Schutzstaffel (SS) to serve Nazi German propaganda at the outbreak of war. The operation was intended to create the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany to justify the invasion of Poland.
 
Currently, I’m very concerned.  There have been a rash of anti-Semitic incidents, i.e., Eitz Chayim synagogue, Pittsburgh; Jersey City, New Jersey, etc.   Just this morning, I woke up to the news that five Jewish people  - they were celebrating the holiday of Chanukah -- were stabbed by an intruder in the house of a rabbi in Monsey (Rockland County) New York (Two of those five victims are in critical condition).  There is, according to police reports, a suspect who is now in custody.  The suspect, who was picked up in Harlem, is described as a tall African-American man.  
 
Furthermore, I would be interested in learning the motivation for these stabbings.  How did the alleged perpetrator decide upon a Chassidic (ultra-Orthodox) rabbi’s home? (There were said to also be an attempt to enter a nearby synagogue).  There are a lot of unanswered questions.  I ask: “Is this a ‘false flag’?”  Is there more to this abhorrent incident than meets the eye?  Again, I hark back to the word “motivation.”
 
Finally, ever since this “Current Administration” has taken power, there has been this subtle attempt to “divide and conquer,” both as a country as a whole and with like-groups who are opposed to “the powers that be”.  In other words, since taking over, the current leadership is seeking “to drive wedges.”  Their aim: “polarization.”
 
At cited, at first these divisive signs appeared subtle, but now they are fully on display. I fear that what had started as a trickle will, if not checked, become a cascade.  I’m concerned, if matters are allowed to develop as they appear to be, that we might not recognize our wonderful country as we once knew it. I’m fearful that the latent energy of hate will become full-blown.  
 
Oh, I hope that I’m wrong, but the signs are there. They have become more blatant.  We now have evidence.  The “Fire-stoker” has opened the bellows.  He has, in my opinion, fomented rebellion to suit his own narcissistic purposes.  I believe he doesn’t really care about this country, and even his supporters; they’re just “props”.  It’s all about power, power, and more power.
 
Finally, there’s antidote for all this.  A solution.  That is: Vote on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.   Vote to stop the chaos.  Vote to stop violence.  I say: “Please get to the polls.  Please be energized.  Please do not be complacent.  Be resolute.”
 
In conclusion, I fear further “occurrences” (incidents).  But, in those cases, it won’t be the beautiful desert flowers.  In fact, quite the opposite! 

This is an old article, but it brought about the question of are converts to Karaite Judaism accepted by Reform and Conservative Judaism?  And, are Karaite Jews accepted as Jews, given that (if my memory serves me correctly) they follow patrilineal  descent?

https://www.jweekly.com/2007/08/02/a-con...-the-ages/