Michael Freund on Israel and the Blogosphere

From the Jerusalem Post:

As archeologists continue to excavate the site of the Mughrabi Gate alongside the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, it remains anybody's guess what they might just find underneath the mounds of soil, rock and debris.

But one item already unearthed by this dig should have us all deeply concerned, and that is the mainstream media's disgraceful habit of parroting Arab propaganda.

As one tool for addressing the problem:

In order to better counter the Arab propaganda machine, the Jewish state should actively reach out to its many supporters in cyberspace, and especially in the blogosphere, for help in disseminating the truth.

Freund suggests how to tap into the potential of the Blogosphere--and not just the JBlogosphere:

This can be accomplished by launching a concentrated and effective outreach effort aimed specifically at influential bloggers, who should be courted with the same resources and commitment as the mainstream press.

The government and Jewish groups should begin by organizing periodic fact-finding tours of Israel for key bloggers, giving them a chance to learn firsthand about the situation here in the region.

An annual conference of pro-Israel bloggers, attended by key Israeli statesmen and personalities, could help to galvanize what is already a burgeoning network of support for the Jewish state.

It is also crucial that Israeli spokesmen and leaders take the blogosphere into account when formulating their media strategies and messaging tactics, both by sending them relevant information and making sure to keep them in the loop.

SURE, mainstream entities such as CNN, the BBC and The New York Times will continue to dominate the news business for years to come. But the battle for public opinion is far from being a lost cause. Israel just needs to start thinking a little more creatively about how to wage the battle. By working with our allies in the blogosphere, Israel can begin to turn the tide in its favor and chip away at the falsehoods being spread by the press.

If we can't beat the media, let's circumvent it. Reaching out to bloggers seems like a good place to start.

One Jerusalem has taken steps by inviting bloggers to conference calls with Natan Sharansky, Bibi Netanyahu and others. One thing that I would like to see is resource material--especially video--made available for bloggers for reinforcing the impact of their posts.

The key is to see to what degree Israel follows up on Freund's suggestions.

Update: This is not the first time the idea has been raised about Israel looking towards blogs as a way of getting the word out and bypassing the MSM. Way back in October 2003, Israel actually held a conference about advocacy where the topic of blogs was raised and An Unsealed Room was there:

Pow-Wow at the Israeli Foreign Ministry

If blogging has been light over the past few days, it's because I've been in Jerusalem most of the time attending this:

The Foreign Minister is currently hosting a three-day seminar to coordinate public relations efforts with heads of three privately funded Israel advocacy groups.

Gideon Meir, the ministry's deputy director-general for Public Affairs, said that "taking into consideration that the public relations budget is continuously on the decline, the fact that groups have sprouted up to help Israel advocacy in the US, and provide services worth a great deal of money, is something very welcomed by the Israeli government."

Among those attending the seminar are Jennifer Laszlo-Mizrahi, head of the Israel Project, which conducts polling and focus group studies, helping the government craft its messages abroad, and Larry Weinberg from Israel 21C, a group that places stories about Israel dealing with matters other than the conflict in the media.

I am sad to report that the Israeli government officials I am meeting with have never even HEARD of a blog. Sort of kills the theories about the Israelis paying off people like Charles and Michael.

Seriously, I have been trying to make some of them understand that there are these amazing people out there called bloggers who are advocating for Israel for FREE on their own time -- and many of them aren't Jewish OR fundamentalist Christians.

Go over to An Unsealed Room's original post to read her other impressions.

Over 3 years later and Michael Freund has to reintroduce the idea.
Not a good sign.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Blogging and JBlogosphere.

Addressing Islamic Terrorism Vs. Fostering Religious Brotherhood

The New York Times on the movie Obsession:

When “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” a documentary that shows Muslims urging attacks on the United States and Europe, was screened recently at the University of California, Los Angeles, it drew an audience of more than 300 — and also dozens of protesters.

...The documentary’s proponents say it provides an unvarnished look at Islamic militancy. “It’s an urgent issue that is widely avoided by academia,” argued Michael Abdurakhmanov, the Hillel president at Pace.

Its critics call it incendiary. Norah Sarsour, a Palestinian-American student at U.C.L.A., said it was disheartening to see “a film like this that takes the people who have hijacked the religion and focuses on them.”

It's not clear who Sarsour thinks the focus should be on at a time when Islamist terrorist attacks are going on around the world.

Overall, the article tries to be evenhanded:

Mr. Shore describes his film as nonpartisan and balanced, and many viewers agree with him. Traci Ciepiela, who teaches criminal justice at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs and has a screening scheduled this week, says she learned from the film and did not think that it was unfair or inflammatory.

But others see it as biased. Arnold Leder, a political scientist at Texas State University, San Marcos, decided not to use it for his course “The Politics of Extremism” because of what he called “serious flaws,” including that it did not address Islam in general, the history of Islam and the schisms within the faith.

Little Green Footballs, on the other hand, thinks the article tries to smear the movie.

Myself, I think it the article is interesting if for no other reason than the reasons given by those who oppose the movie. Sarsour, above, thinks that highlighting the actions of Islamist radicals is wrong.

• Arnold Leder, a political scientist at Texas State University claims the movie has “serious flaws,”such as not addressing Islam in general (It's treatment of non-Muslims as second-class citizens?), not discussing the history of Islam (It's history of attempted global conquest?) and not dealing with the schisms within the faith (How is that relevant to Islamist terrorism?). He goes call the movie "a polemic." I assume Leder considers this a condemnation, but a polemic is nothing more than a controversial argument. Give it time...
  
  
• Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, director of U.C.L.A. Hillel, claims the movie is “a way to transfer the Middle East conflict to the campus, to promote hostility.” He must be new on campus.
  
  
• A student is quoted as saying that “the movie was so well crafted and emotion manipulating that I felt myself thinking poorly of some aspects of Islam.” Considering the topic and the fact that the movie is not a condemnation of Islam itself but of Islamists, just why is that a problem?
  

Maybe the key to the problem is the disconnect between Robert Friedman a discussion leader sent by the “Obsession” filmmakers and some of the audience at Providence College.

Mr. Friedman told the audience, “You have to understand a problem before you can solve it.”

But most of the viewers, including both a rabbi and a Muslim chaplain on a discussion panel put together by the students, said the film did not foster understanding.

Mr. Friedman is talking about dealing with the actual problem of Islamist extremists and terrorism; the rabbi and Muslim chaplain are talking about creating better relations between the two religions--a fine idea, but something which is clearly not what the movie is meant to do.

This may be a substantial difference of opinion on how to deal with and relate to the situation.

“The question about radical Islam and how do we fight it is unproductive,” said Yehuda Sarna, the New York University rabbi on the panel. “The question is how to break down the stereotypes facing the two religions.”

The problem is that saying that fighting radical Islam is unproductive may very well end up being a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Obsession and Islam and Islamists.

A Tour Of The Temple Mount

From One Jerusalem

Technorati Tag: Israel and Temple Mount and Mugrabi Gate.

Thursday, March 1: Prayer Vigil In Front Of Iranian Mission

Technorati Tag: Israel and Amcha and Iran.

Hunting Season For Christianity

I'm not sure, but I think the scorecard works this way:

• Criticizing Judaism (religion) is not cool, but criticizing Jews (ethnic group) is OK.
• Criticizing Israel is OK--in fact feel free! (Being called an Anti-Semite is a badge of honor).
• Criticizing Christianity, which is a religion but not an ethnicity, is OK.
• Criticizing Arabs is OK, at least when they are overseas--and besides, it's the West's fault.
• Criticizing Muslims is an open invitation to CAIR and calls for 'sensitivity training'
  

That would explain James Cameron's latest movie and its subject

Titanic' director James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, a filmmaker-archaeologist, are set to unveil three coffins this week that they say are those of Jesus, Mary and Mary Magdalene. In an coming documentary, Cameron and Jacobovici cite "scientific evidence" that the resurrection of Jesus never happened and that Jesus fathered a son named Judah with Mary Magdalene.

Such claims should, and surely will, be met with overwhelming skepticism. For example, the filmmakers use DNA tests to build their case - but whose DNA is being compared with whose? Did they swab the Holy Ghost?

If, as seems likely, the conclusions prove somewhat less than airtight, the most instructive aspect of the film will be the public's reaction to it.

Cameron and Jacobovici will mortally offend many Christians. Some critics will personally vilify them, while others question their motives and integrity.

But prominent Christian clergymen won't issue any death warrants, and the Vatican won't call upon "all believing Christians" to avenge the insult. Neither Cameron nor Jacobovici will have to spend the next decade or so in hiding.

Now imagine if they'd gone after Mohammad instead of Jesus . . .

I wrote a post last year about an article by David Klinghoffer that suggested Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code would legitimize, if not encourage, the idea of secret cabals and conspiracy theories in a way that could ultimately render The Protocols less objectionable.

Put aside any animus towards religion in general or Christianity in particular. The media--including Hollywood--knows that Christianity is a safe target and Islam is not. Cameron's movie rides on the coattails of Dan Brown's success and knows whose religion is fair game and whose is not. Still, having such blatant attacks on religion under the guise of 'entertainment' may eventually render Islam a bit less untouchable--and if that is true in terms of criticizing aspects of text and theology (72 virgins vs. 72 raisins), maybe it will become more acceptable to talk openly about--and discuss--what jihadism is really all about and Islam's history of conquering other countries.

Technorati Tag: Christianity and James Cameron.

Rosenblum: Israelis Look Around and Within, and Don't Like What They See

Israelis Look Around and Within, and Don't Like What They See

by Jonathan Rosenblum
Jewish Observer
February 1, 2007


I. Losing Hope for the Future

Ever since last summer's war in Lebanon, Israeli society has been engaged in a process of soul-searching unlike anything seen since the Yom Kippur War. That process was triggered by the inability of the vaunted IDF to provide security for Israeli civilians during the second Lebanese War, and has been exacerbated by a continual string of revelations about the various failures of the military and political echelons by various investigatory bodies in the months since the end of the war.

Those months have also witnessed an unprecedented string of corruption scandals. One former Justice Minister has already been convicted of indecent acts, another is under indictment, the president has been forced to suspend himself pending a criminal indictment, the heads of the Income Tax Authority, the Finance Minister, and the prime minister's closest confidante and director of his bureau are all under investigation for fraud; and the prime minister himself faces a half dozen various police investigations, any one of which may be enough to force his resignation.

Meanwhile Israelis fret that they may soon find themselves in the cross-hairs of a nuclear Iran, run by religious fanatics who appear convinced that even the incineration of millions of their own citizens would be a double blessing, both assuring a speedy entry to paradise for those killed and hastening the advent of the missing iman. For the first time in more than two decades the Holocaust is being invoked in Israel's security and political debates. "The Iranian threat has returned the Final Solution to the heart of Israeli discourse," write Michael Oren and Yossi Klein-Halevi in the New Republic.

And finally, there is a near universal recognition that peace with the Palestinians will not be achieved in this generation, and likely not the next one either. A generation of Palestinian children has been raised since Oslo to believe that the greatest goal for which one can hope is to kill as many Jews as possible. Hamas' control over the Palestinian educational system adds to the brew of Palestinian the even more volatile element of religion – the belief that, as a matter of religious duty, every inch of present day Israel must be returned to Muslim sovereignty.

Zionism promised that a Jewish homeland would provide a safe haven for Jews all around the world. But, admits Daniel Gordis, who writes from the traditional Zionist point of view, it is today often "more dangerous to be a Jew in Israel than any other place in the world."

Last summer's war forced Israelis to acknowledge that the IDF cannot protect them from every danger. "For thirty-four long days," writes Gordis, "the IDF unleashed enormous portions of its . . . firepower, but couldn't stop the firing of Hezbollah's Katyusha rockets on the North. . . . . In the end, the only thing that stopped the shelling of Israel's cities was the United Nations."

Reflecting on the concatenation of recent events, Israelis are beginning to lose hope for the future. "Israelis, for the first time in their history, see no conceivable light, not even an imaginary will-o'-wisp, at the end of the tunnel," writes Hillel Halkin in a New York Sun piece appropriately entitled "An Israel without Hope."

Gordis writes nostalgically of the days when Jews, full of hope for the future, danced upon completion of the national water carrier. But he finds precious little of that hope today. He recounts his first meeting with a new doctor. The doctor asks him what he does, and he replies, that he writes.

"What do you write about?" the doctor asks. "About the future of Israel," Gordis replies. "Oh, you write short stories," is the doctor's response. Both laugh, but as Gordis notes, "neither of us thought that it was particularly funny."

Opinion polls show Prime Minister Olmert's approval ratings in the single digits. Yet, after a brief protest campaign by army reservists, the Israeli public has grown quiescent. Perhaps Israelis feel that the challenges currently confronting Israel are beyond the capacity of any political leaders to solve. And certainly they have concluded that the problems go far deeper than a few incompetent political leaders and clueless generals. Our politicians are merely a reflection of a deeper rot that has overtaken Israeli society.


II. The Search for National Will

As they survey the threats arrayed all around, Israelis are beginning to ask whether they possess sufficient resources of will power to carry on the fight and to prevail. The name of the game, declared Ha'aretz's Ari Shavit, at the end of the war in Lebanon, is rebuilding national will, and all our resources must be directed in that direction.

No one, however, believes that the task of reconstituting national resolve will be an easy one. In a speech at the recent Herzilya Conference, Nobel Laureate in Economics Robert Aumann described Israelis today "like a mountain-climber caught in a snowstorm. The night falls, he is cold and tired, and he wants to sleep. If he falls asleep, he will freeze to death. We are in terminal danger because we are tired." Prime Minister Ehud Olmert exemplified that weariness when he told a group of American Jewish businessman that Israelis are "tired" – tired of war, tired of winning, tired of being brave.

The result of that weariness, argued Aumann, has been to convince our Arab neighbors that "we no longer have spiritual strength, that we have no time, that we are calling for a time-out." And therefore the only recipe for survival is to convince the Arabs, "We have time; we have patience; we have stamina." Doing so, Aumann added, is not a matter of repeating mantras, but of the Jews of Israel truly understanding and internalizing the message. About how that might be done, however, he has little to say.

At the height of the Lebanon War, Shavit accused Israeli elites, in Ha'aretz, the paper of the elites, of having undermined every element of national strength by making mincemeat of the old Zionist historical narrative, while failing to substitute anything else in its place; criticizing Israel's militarism and denigrating military service; and making mockery of the old communitarian values. The result, he charged, has been to drain the nation of all its vitality.

Post-Zionism has infected the elites, particularly in academia. The leaders of the worldwide movement to boycott Israeli academic institutions and academics are tenured professors in Israeli universities. As Ben-Dror Yemini noted in Ma'ariv, "Hosting those that deny the Zionist enterprise's right to exist at Tel Aviv University is not very different from hosting Holocaust deniers in Teheran."

In their search for new sources of national will, Israelis have turned a lacerating eye on themselves and found much wanting. Yair Sheleg, again writing in Ha'aretz, wondered whether a decadent society is capable of confronting the various threats to its existence. . Signs of that decadence are everywhere to be found. Hedonism and the pursuit of material goods occupy the adults. Being a celebrity -- regardless of achievements -- is the primary goal of Israeli youth.

To quell any qualms of consciences about their naked pursuit of the good life, charges Shavit, the Israeli elites have convinced themselves that Israel is so powerful, so insanely strong, that nothing can threaten it. That strength justifies their failure to show up for reserve duty or to send their children to combat units (a trend recently confirmed by the Chief of IDF Manpower Gen. Elazar Stern.) Prime Minister Olmert's campaign pledge to turn Israel into a "fun" place to live pretty much sums up the view that life is primarily about the pursuit of pleasure.

According to Yossi Klein-Halevi, the internal threat to Israel society is no less great than the external. The internal challenge, he writes, is nothing less than to recreate the sense that Israeli society is worth fighting for – a sense that has been undermined by the profusion of corruption scandals. Once Israelis knew that their leaders, whatever their personal foibles and weaknesses, at least had the interests of the nation at heart.

The same cannot be said about today's politicians, says Klein-Halevi, "who absorbed the wiles of the founders but not their self-sacrifice." Prime Minister Olmert – a real-estate speculator cum prime minister -- epitomizes for Shavit a widespread "cultural affliction: the relinquishing of ideas, principles, basic beliefs, worldviews, and an overall grasp of reality -- . . . sophistication without a [moral] compass."

Zionism promised to normalize the condition of the Jew in the world. Having failed to assimilate on an individual basis into European society, Herzl and others believed that Jews would be able to assimilate at the level of nation states. That has not happened. Left-wing novelist Amos Oz notes with bitter irony that as his child his father's gentile neighbors assaulted him with taunts of "Jews go to Palestine." The bottom line message: "Don't be here. Don't be there. In short, don't be."

Nearly sixty years after its creation, the "Jewish state" finds itself anathematized like no other state in the world and held to a set of standards by which no nation is judged, and certainly no nation forced to defend itself from constant attack from the day of its birth. Far from having normalized the condition of the Jew, Israel has provided excuses for Jew-haters around the world to once again vent their spleens at Jews.

Iran speeds ahead with the development of nuclear weapons and boasts of its intent to wipe Israel off the map; North Korea seeks to export nuclear weapons technology, even as millions of its own people starve; the Sudanese government works hand-in-hand with Arab militias that have killed approximately 300,000 black Muslim farmers – and all this evokes fewer outcries and less international concern than one International Solidarity Movement volunteer being rolled over by an Israeli earthmover that could not see here as she sought to protect tunnels through which weapons were being smuggled into Gaza. The degree of attention paid by the world to Israel is certainly not "normal."

III. The Consequences of Despair

Israeli society is not just having a bad hair day. The dark national mood threatens Israel far more than it would a more normal nation. For nearly two decades Israeli leaders have been obsessed by the fear that at some point those with the skills and money to move elsewhere will do so. Yitzchak Rabin came reluctantly came to support the Oslo process, in part because he feared that if he did not hold out the hope of peace to a tired public they would jump ship. Prior to going to Camp David in 1999, at which he made an offer to Yasir Arafat far beyond the Israeli consensus of the time, Prime Minister Ehud Barak spoke of the loss of national resolve from that of the generation of the Yom Kippur War. And before embarking on the Gaza withdrawal, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke to an American Jewish audience of the necessity of holding out hope to the population.

To some extent the fears of Israeli leaders from Rabin to Olmert have already been fulfilled. A recent study by the Shalem Institute showed that the rate of emigrations of researchers and professors almost doubled between 2002 and 2004 – from .9% to 1.7%. Of those educated Israelis who have left the country from an extended period of time from 1996 on, 96% did not return.

A nuclear Iran would exacerbate the threat of large-scale flight ten-fold. A nuclear Iran, warns Deputy Minister of Defense Ephraim Sneh, would lead to mass threat and perhaps destroy Zionism even without resort to arms: "The danger is not so much Ahmadinejad's deciding to launch an attack, but Israel's living under a dark cloud of fear from a leader committed to its destruction. I'm afraid that under such a threat, most Israelis would prefer not to live her; most Jews would prefer not to come here with their families; and Israelis who can live abroad will. . . . I'm afraid Ahmadinejad will be able to kill the Zionist dream and without pushing a button."

Patriotism and national will are more important to Israel than in other, more normal countries. Other countries may have more corrupt public figures, and other Western nations may have academic elites who identify with the country's enemies without the country's existence being threatened, at least in the short-run.

In Israel, however, a lack of national resolve poses a much more immediate threat because, as Yossi Klein-Halevi notes, in no other Western nation is so much demanded of the population in terms of military service, high taxes, and constant threats to physical security. And therefore in no other country, do citizens require such a strong sense of national purpose to prevent them from pulling up stakes and leaving.

IV. In Search of the Silver Lining

The foregoing picture, while not a happy one, does contain a number of reasons for qualified optimism about Israel's future as a Jewish society. The very fact that the Israeli society is undergoing self-examination, and has concluded that something has gone dramatically awry is itself positive. "Where did we lose the way?" is a question that inevitably directs the questioner back in time towards his or her historical roots.

Similarly, the emphasis on discovering new sources of national unity and strength can only reinforce interest in Judaism. National will is not something that can be picked off of a pharmacist's shelf. Nor can it be just another line in the national budget. It must have its source in something and grow organically from within the nation.

Ultimately what binds the Jews of Israel to one another is that they are all descendants of those who received the Torah at Sinai and of generations of ancestors who maintained a vital, living relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, even on pain of death. Jews of Israel are asking themselves -- Why is it important that I live in this place? What about living among other Jews or in this Land makes worth the dangers and sacrifices involved? Only an understanding of the unique mission given us at Sinai can provide the answer to those questions.

Zionism promised Jews a normal existence, an escape from their fate as Jews. That promise has now been exposed as a fraud. We can never be like all the other nations because we were singled out by Hashem for the unique mission of bringing knowledge of Him to the world. In his various jeremiads this summer, Ari Shavit berated those who dreamed that the Jewish people could somehow live a normal existence amidst a sea of Arabs, and who imagined that Tel Aviv to be another Manhattan in the Middle East. At times, he sounded not unlike Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk in his famous warning to the Jews of Berlin that if they continued to view Berlin as a new Jerusalem a great fire would go forth from their and consume the Jewish world.

Even the clear-sighted recognition that there will be no peace with the Palestinians in the foreseeable future has much to recommend it. We have paid a heavy price over the last fifteen years for chasing various illusions of peace, all of which ignored one central point: There is not yet a Palestinian people that has reconciled itself in peace with Israel, and that prefers building up its own society and state to destroying the one living adjacent to it.

Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky in Emes LeYaakov (Devarim 32:36) explains a difficult Gemara in Sanhedrin (97a). The Gemara there states that Mashiach will not come until the Jewish people have despaired of the redemption. How, all the commentators ask, can loss of belief in the Redemption, one of the cardinal principles of faith, bring about the Redemption? Reb Yaakov answers that Redemption only comes when the Jewish people have lost any hope of redemption through the natural historical processes; when they have ceased to hope, for instance, that the nations of the world will suddenly take mercy upon us, and grant us our own land to live in peace and security. That time is drawing ever closer with every illusory bubble popped.

There are signs all around of a renewed interest in Torah, and of recognition of the need to reconnect to our historical roots as a people. Education Minister Yuli Tamir, formerly a member of the far-Left Meretz party, has decreed that the Israeli school day should open with the reading of a chapter of TaNaCh. At a recent speech to a large group of university students in Israel on a Birthright program, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert focused his remarks almost entirely on Eretz Yisrael as the birthplace of the people and their ancestral homeland. It was that awareness he urged the students to take with them from the trip. There was no hint of the thinking that resulted in a recent Tourism Ministry campaign promoting tourism to Israel in terms of the pleasures of Eilat.

Every week, over 2,000 chareidi women learn over the phone with secular women who have expressed an interest in Torah study. And Mrs. Tzili Schneider, who runs the program under the auspices of Ayelet HaShachar, has a list of another 15,000 secular women who have been recommended as potential candidates for such learning. Arachim runs dozens of seminars of varying lengths each year for Israeli Jews from every possible kind of background. Lev L'Achim registers thousands of children from secular families for religious schools. And the network of over sixty SHUVU schools, originally founded to provide an enriched Jewish studies program to children of immigrants from the FSU, has been forced by popular demand to open its schools to children of veteran secular families, and to even open entire new schools for such children.

Ayelet HaShachar placed one religious family in Kfar Tabor, a secular yishuv on the outskirts of Afula. Initially they were ignored by their neighbors, in the best cases, and vociferously urged to move elsewhere in the worse. But two years later, sixty women are using the mikveh on that yishuv. Even veteran Shomer HaTzair kibbutzim have sought permits to build mikvaot.

The thirst for an authentic connection to their Judaism among Israeli Jews, including some of the most thoughtful among them, imposes obligations upon us. It is crucial that they see the chareidi community as a vibrant, thriving, and viable community.

We must prevent the communal agenda from being seized by those who do not care how ugly they might make Judaism appear in the eyes of our secular brothers because they feel no connection to them or sense of responsibility for the broader Jewish community.

Our course as a community must be guided by those who have taken seriously Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv's statement that the focus of our chinuch should be on the principle she'yehei Shem Shomayim misaheiv al yadecha. That is not just a lesson to teach our children, but one that we all must absorb and manifest in everything we do. Only then can we hope to be models and guides for all those Jews so desperately in need of what the Torah has to offer.

Read more articles by Jonathan Rosenblum at Jewish Media Resources

Technorati Tag: Israel and Jonathan Rosenblum.

How Do They Teach American History To Second Graders?

On Friday I was going through my daughters knapsack and came across an assignment she had in class for President's Day. Here is the top of the sheet. Can you tell what is missing?

I realize that my daughter is only 7 years old, but I don't see why there is no mention of just what kind of war George Washington was fighting (besides, since this was before independence, Washington was not leading the U.S. army). Does anyone believe that second graders do not understand the concept of independence? What kid doesn't fight for the right to go to sleep later than their parent's tell them or to not eat green beans?

Without teaching the children about the Revolutionary War and the part George Washington played in it, what is the point of the following:

I was curious--if children are not given any background about the war and what it was about, just what should they think is the reason that Washington is called the Father of Our Country?. So I asked my daughter this evening:

Me: Who is the "Father of Our Country"?
Daughter: You...?
Me: Who is the "Father of Our Country"?
Daughter: [Blank stare]
Me: George.....
Daughter: Washington!
Me: And why is he called the "Father of Our Country"?
Daughter: Because he was the first president.

If you do a search on Google [Washington "father of our country because"] the consensus seems to be that the reason is that Washington led the army to victory, without which the colonies would not have gained independence. A page for kids, though, did say that the reason is because he was the first president.

It bothers me that at a time that terrorists are called freedom fighters and the West is rolling over for Islamists, my daughter's class assignment takes such a lackadaisical approach to teaching about a central historical event. When it comes to math, the school curriculum makes a point of teaching advanced mathematical concepts early with an eye towards preparing students for the more developed ideas in the coming years. So why not give our children a fuller understanding of American history? At least teach the reason for the war.

Just what is it about this part of American history that they think our children won't understand?

Technorati Tag: George Washington and American History.

Jewish Blogmeister And The Best In Baby Products

In addition to his "best of kosher food" series Jewish Blogmeister has now started a new series: The Best in Baby Products.

The first post is about Mobiles.

Go check out The Best in Baby Products.

Technorati Tag: baby, baby mobile, baby produts, Symphony In Motion Musical Mobile

JPix 2 the Jewish Photo Carnival

If you are interested in posting one of your photos to Jpix 2, Bagel Blogger is preparing the second Jewish photo carnival. The last day you can submit a photo is in 2 days: Midnight Saturday night, February 24th.

The Carnival itself will be posted on February 26th.

You can post your submission at http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_987.html or check for more details at http://bagelblogger.blogspot.com/2007/02/last-2-day-s-for-submissions-to-jpix.html

You can also contact or submit via: jpixcarnivalATgmailDOTcom

The first edition was a great success and depends on you to continue.

You can check out the first edition here

Technorati Tag: Jpix 1 and Jpix and Jewish Photography and Jewish Photography Carnival and JPix CarnivalJ Pix Carnival and Jewish Art and Jewish Photos and Blogs and Jewish Photo Blogs and Jewish Photo Essays and Israel and Photos and Jewish Creativity and Jewish and Israel and JewishBagelBlogger and Bagel Blogger

There's Something Special About Israeli Cabdrivers

Hat Tip: Instapundit

As anyone who had the good fortune to learn Tanakh with Nechama Leibowitz knows, there is something special about the cabdrivers and bus drivers in Israel. Contrast a Nechama story about an Israeli cabdriver with some others.

First, here is a story about an Israeli cabdriver...

about the cabbie who, upon noticing his passenger was grading papers, and discovering that she was a professor of Tanach, took advantage of the Tel AvivJerusalem ride to unburden himself of a question that had bothered him for some time: "What does Jeremiah (9:22) mean when he says: 'Let not a wise man glory in his wisdom; and let not the strong man glory in his strength; let not a rich man glory in his wealth. But let him that glory, glory in this: that he understands and knows Me?"'

"Well," explained Nechama to her driver, "that means that human wisdom and human strength and riches are not really important values; the prophet is telling us that what really counts is knowing Hashem."

"Yes, yes, I know," said the cabbie, with a trace of irritation, "but what does he mean when he says 'Let not a wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, let not a rich man glory in his wealth ..."

Nechama tried again, in her patient pedagogical manner. "The prophet is teaching us a very important lesson in life. Those things that most men strive for riches, wealth and strength are...

"Of course, of course. Understood!" interrupted the cabbie with undisguised impatience. "But what does Jeremiah mean when he says "A rich man, a wise man; but when he speaks of strength, he says the strong man?"

At this point in her story, Nechama looks up with wide-eyed wonderment and a smile of admiration. "You know," she confides, I never noticed that! That's a very interesting point!"

Her message: When it comes to learning Torah, all Jews are equal, professor and baal agalah.

Here is one of two stories that Ann Althouse writes about in her encounters with cabdrivers here in the US:

New York City. Sunday, noon. The ride starts at 55 Church Street. The cabdriver asked me where I was from, so I asked him where he was from. He said Pakistan, then rushed to say that he's all American now, here for 20 years. Where in Pakistan? Lahore. I ask what I always ask about cities I don't know: Is the architecture beautiful? He talks about how the city has changed so much in the last ten years, something about all the new and not very good buildings that have detracted from the beauty of the old. It used to be so clean. He used to know every tree, which ones were good for climbing, and where the bird's nests were.

I'm sure there was something special about that conversation, something that does not translate well when converted into a short written description. My point, and the point that Nechama made in the stories about her encounters with "the man in the street" is that you can find a simplicity and depth in the relationship of a Jew with the Torah.

But be careful if you try to find something similar here on the streets of America: apparently not every cabdriver you come across in the US is capable of intelligent conversation about matters of religion.

For example in Ohio

Two students visiting from Ohio were coming from a bar downtown when they got into an argument with their driver over religion, said police. After they paid the driver he allegedly ran them down in a parking lot.

Somehow, I don't think you can blame this one on the Abarbanel.

Technorati Tag: Nechama Leibowitz and Jews and Israel.