JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Is Agri’s PR firm impersonating Morris Allen?

By Ben Harris · July 9, 2008

FailedMessiah reports today that two comments attributed to Rabbi Morris Allen, the Minnesota rabbi behind the Conservative movement's Hekhsher Tzedek project, originated in the office of 5WPR, the public relations firm hired to help kosher meat producer Agriprocessors cope with the fallout from the May 12 raid. We're still seeking comment from 5W.

Shira Dicker, a publicist working with Allen, sends us this email:

Dear Reporters,

In a bizarre effort to discredit the efforts of Rabbi Morris Allen, the founder and spiritual force behind Hekhsher Tzedek – the new ethical certification of the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism – staffers from 5W Public Relations wrote phony comments in his name on the website www.failedmessiah.com.

Hekhsher Tzedek is pursuing legal action in this matter.

3 Comments | Share This | Agriprocessors, Kashrut |

No one said being an Orthodox woman cop would be easy

By Ami Eden · July 9, 2008

The Lower Hudson Journal News published a story on Baile Glauber, an Orthodox woman who recently graduated from the Rockland Police Academy.

A newly hired town police officer has been given Friday nights to Saturday evenings off to accommodate her religious beliefs.

The special work schedule afforded Officer Baile J. Glauber has raised concerns among other officers, said Officer Dennis Procter, the department's Police Benevolent Association president.

"I hope the town is not going to give special treatment to one individual for religious observances and not give other officers the same opportunities," Procter said. "We all can't always make temple or church or spend weekends with our families."

It's tough to be an Orthodox woman cop. First the fellow officers don't want you getting special religious treatment. Then the peanut gallery at a popular Orthodox Web site don't think you're one of them.

Here are a few of the comments at The Yeshiva World site:

• How can an orthodox let alone an ultra-orthodox woman carry a gun? which I assume a police officer must do? Isn't it an issur d'oraysa? (the poskim have given only very specfic heterim).
• I would think there were tznius issues here as well. A police person sometimes has to get physical. This doesn't sound like something a really frum woman should be doing.
• How will she arrest a man? ask her husband to hold him? or she'll only arrst females?
• A female police officer, by definition, cannot be Orthodox Jewish. She may claim to be Orthodox, like I can claim to be the Pope, but Orthodox it doesn't make her.
• Did she get an exemption from wearing pants too? Or does tzinius (and other halachas) not apply when inconvenient?

The blogger DovBear offered this response to Glauber's Orthodox critics:

Everyone following the thread here? If you wish to be absent from work on shabbos, for the sake of keeping the seventh day holy, you still might not be frum enough to win any respect from this crowd.

5 Comments | Share This | Orthodox |

Exploring Jewish roots in Central Florida

By Ami Eden · July 9, 2008

The Orlando Sentinel takes a look at Aliyah Sepharad International, a "group for Hispanics of Jewish ancestry who wish to get back to their religious roots." According to the newspaper, the ultimate goal of the group is to help these people immigrate to Israel.

Because they were forced to suppress their beliefs, many Hispanic descendants of Sephardic Jews grew up not knowing about their heritage.

This is rapidly changing.

"There is a phenomenon going on in the world right now with what we call 'returning Jews,' " said Nathan Katz, professor of religious studies with Florida International University in Miami. "They make up a significant percentage of synagogues [in South Florida]. It is not just in Central Florida."

6 Comments | Share This | Conversos |

Laments for Israel

By Uriel Heilman · July 9, 2008

The IDF must find a way to inspire fear in Israel's enemies, as in days past, laments Dov Weisglass, a former aide to Ariel Sharon, in Ynet:

Once upon a time, when our founding fathers were in power, that same Mossad which [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah now disparages would have eliminated him a long time ago. However, Israel today is not the Israel it used to be.

Hamas too realizes that it is dealing with current-day Israel. It fires rockets and mortar shells with no fear; it forced Israel to lift the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip; it holds on to abducted soldier Gilad Shalit and keeps fooling those negotiating on his release.

Despite its misery and inferiority, Hamas is talking to Israel as an equal. Its leaders threaten us, make demands, and present conditions. They conduct themselves as though they know Israel has no other choice except for negotiating in line with their rules. And they're right.

Also in Ynet, former Yitzhak Rabin aide Eitan Haber offers a lament of his own about next week's second anniversary of the start of the Second Lebanon War. There will be no festivals to mark the occasion, only memorial prayers, Haber writes:

Indeed, in almost every possible way, the decision to embark on the Second Lebanon War was a case of completely flawed judgment.

In any case, the damages caused to the State of Israel and to the Israel Defense Force in this war are immense; most certainly, the 158 bereaved families who lost their loved ones paid a terrible price. And what for? And why?

0 Comments | Share This | Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israel |

Why Kabbalah?

By Ami Eden · July 9, 2008

Writing in the New York Sun, Lenore Skenazy uses the A-Rod-Madonna story to tackle the question of why celebrities are attracted to Jewish mysticism:

It happened to Madonna, it's happening to A-Rod, and for a while it even happened to Britney. One reaches the pinnacle of fame, fortune, and truly fabulous muscle tone, and what's left?

Judaism.

Okay, so it happens to be the most esoteric expression of Judaism since the goose-shaped chopped liver: Kabbalah, a practice many American Jews will never even encounter.

What does Kabbalah have to offer our superstars, and why should we care? What do those superstars have to offer each other, and why do we care? And why did Guy Ritchie, aka Mr. Madonna, dress his kids in Yankee gear over the weekend?

2 Comments | Share This | Pop Culture |