All The Best for 2012

All the Best to our Family and Friends

for a happy and healthy 2012!

Rachel and Ciara 2011

Ciara, Barb and Leann

Janet and Ciara

Ciara just left to go back to Massachusetts, staying with the wonderful Norrman family, after spending a week with us. We celebrated Hanukkah (a bit early) together which was heartwarming. Ciara's finishing up her contract with Becker College where she was the head coach for the field hockey team and assistant coach for girls basketball. She'll be coming back home in February to finish her last 6 months of grad school at CSULB in Sports Management. 

In July, she's headed back to Mass. where she will be taking on the head coach job at Becker for field hockey and hoping to secure a full time job at the school doing Sports Information Management (SIM), a career goal at this time. She experienced SIM while interning at UCI this past year and discovered a passion for that aspect of the sports industry. So, it is with mixed emotions that we will be seeing her move back to Auburn, MA in 2012, but we love her and are so very proud of her accomplishments. Best of all, she is as happy as can be! Who could ask for more?

Grandma Rosa Lee, Rachel, Ciara and Janet

Rachel is a junior at Newport Harbor. After two years at OCHSA, she decided to give Harbor a try and is enjoying it (as much as any teenager enjoys school). This year Rachel had her sweet 16 celebration and had her Confirmation and Congregation Shir Ha-Ma'alot.

Performing with NDT at South Coast Plaza

Rachel and Kenyon

Rachel continues to dance with Newport Dance Center and has a wonderful boyfriend, Kenyon. We adore him and enjoy spending time with both of them.  

Rachel and Kenyon

Kenyon and Rachel

Rachel took her PSAT and is preparing to take her SATs and other college preparatory tests. It's hard to believe that our little Rachel is preparing for college! Even more amazing is that Rachel now has her driver's permit, meaning that Greg and I are getting chauffeur driven everywhere! She's doing a very good job driving and plans to take her driver's test in March. Rachel brings us much joy and laughter, is quite bright and engaging -- she makes us so proud and we love her very much. 

Greg and Biscuit

Greg is in his fourth year working at Mission Hospital in the radiology department. In his "spare" time, he continues to do amazing graphic design. In fact, he was part of the team that earned an international award for the 2010 annual report created for United Therapeutics. It was a great honor and we are very proud of his accomplishments! Greg continues to create beautiful landscape in our back patio and side yard. Everyday I open the blinds and see the beautiful flowers and vines that he maintains. 

This year, Greg and our wonderful neighbor Marwan, planted a garden which has yielded many delicious tomatoes, bell peppers and chilies. Greg loves to spend time with our wonderful beagle Biscuit, now in his 12th year and is bringing us lots of joy and laughter.

I am in my 4th year working at Experian in Costa Mesa doing project management in the Global Project Management Office. I just became certified as an Experian Ambassador, so I can now train others in the community on understanding, building and managing credit. My desire is to help high school and college age students understand how to use and manage credit wisely. Continuing with my photography, I am now a freelance photographer with Orange County Jewish Life magazine. In addition to being on the Board of Trustees for Congregation Shir Ha-Ma'alot, focusing on Social Media (Facebook) and managing the SHM Photo Gallery, this year I represented the Irvine Jewish Community at the annual Global Village Festival.  

Pumpkin Chili with Corn Bread

Danielle, Rachel, Janet, Greg, Susan
and Grandma Rosa Lee

I've spent a lot more time creating interesting and often successful dishes in the kitchen. Something about cooking for my family helps me to express the great love that I feel for them. I love spending time with family and friends and keeping everything.

 

One of the extra benefits of living in our wonderful neighborhood, is spending time with our next door neighbors, Marwan, Rula and their beautiful daughter Chloe. She had her first birthday this year, was Baptised and was the star at the celebration!

Grandma Rosa Lee, Greg, Chloe, Marwan
and Rula at Chloe's Baptism Celebration

  Ciara's dad John, his girl friend Tina, Greg and I took a weekend trip to Paso Robles and had a fantastic time tasting wine, dining and taking in the beauty of the land. What a gorgeous town -- like being in Italy, without the expense!

John and Tina

Greg and Janet

Paso Robles

The four of us, plus Ciara, Rachel and two of Ciara's friends from the East Coast are headed on a cruise to the Caribbean in February as an early gift for Ciara's upcoming July grad school graduation. We had planned it before she took the head coaching assignment at Becker College, so we decided to just keep the reservations and celebrate before the graduation - sort of like, "Life is short, eat dessert first."

 

Dessert made by Rachel and Janet
at TSpoons Cooking School

We are ever so grateful to have you in our lives and we wish you good health, peace and much happiness in 2012.

Love, Greg and Janet

snopes.com: General Electric China Move

snopes.com: General Electric China Move

Ayalon: 'End Unequal Treatment of Refugees' - Global Agenda - News - Israel National News

Ayalon: 'End Unequal Treatment of Refugees' - Global Agenda - News - Israel National News

Muslim Brotherhood Holds ‘Kill the Jews’ Rally on Election Eve

Where is the outrage? Did you hear about this in the media? This is not political -- this is not about Israel -- this is anti-Semitism! This is no different than what has happened over and over in history (even before modern day Israel existed).  Today it starts with the Jews and it will end with  non-supporters of radical Islam. This is a similar pattern that we've seen with other oppressive political movements and dictators. Choosing to do nothing may feel better and be easier, but in reality, it lends your support to this type of hatred that is taking root all over the world -- even in our own country -- even by people that you know. What will you tell your children and grandchildren that you did to prevent the spread of this type of hatred in our world? -- Janet

Muslim Brotherhood Holds ‘Kill the Jews’ Rally on Election Eve
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which expects to win at least a plurality in Monday’s legislative elections, held a “kill the Jews” rally in Cairo Friday.

Thousands of supporters attended the pre-election rally at a mosque on the Muslim Sabbath, promising to “one day kill all the Jews” and wage war against Jerusalem’s “Judaization.”

The demonstration was held on the anniversary of the United Nations’ proclamation of the 1947 partition plan that established the State of Israel and which was immediately followed by a pan-Arab war aimed at annihilating it.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which generated the Hamas terrorist organization, has drawn the anger of leaders opposing the provisional military regime, staying away from the Tahrir Square protests last week that resulted in deadly classes between soldiers and protesters.

Smelling victory, the Brotherhood is suddenly promoting itself as a party that favors non-violence rights for women, but it boasts its hatred of Jews and Israel.

Although the Muslim Brotherhood party is widely hated by liberals, its image of a defender of Egyptians is likely to catapult it into the dominant political force in Egypt this week.

"The Muslim Brothers really screwed this revolution. They've done everything possible to monopolize and hijack the revolution," said Democratic Front Party member Wael Nawara, quoted by the Pittsburgh Tribune.

"The Muslim Brotherhood (is) very opportunistic. They don't care about the Egyptian blood. ... They only care about taking power," said Azza Kamal, a political activist.

Tags: Egypt ,Jews ,Israel ,Muslim Brotherhood

Learn what is going on and how you can make a difference -- check out Act! for America -- founded and led by a Lebanese Christian women who knows first hand what this type of hatred can do to people and to a country -- Janet

PA Admits Israeli Sanctions Are Cutting Deep

 The PA attempted to use the UN to takeover land that Israel acquired in legitimate wars and is necessary as a buffer against the never-ending terrorist attacks against civilians in Israel.  As a result, Israel imposes sanctions, which we learn have had a devastating impact on the PA. Israel asks the PA to go along with a peace-making initiative to continue talks without pre-conditions, but the PA says no. I think it is reasonable that when the PA is ready to talk peace, then Israel will lift the sanctions. Additionally, the more the PA teams up with Hamas, the less motivation there is for Israel and the US to work with the PA. It seems to me like the PA is moving in the wrong direction.


1. PA Admits Israeli Sanctions Are Cutting Deep
by Gavriel Queenann

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad admitted Sunday Israel's decision to freeze tax revenue transfers to the PA were cutting deep.

Fayyad told reporters Sunday that the sanctions have a "devastating impact" on the economy in PA-run enclaves.

Israel froze the transfer of tax revenues - amounting to roughly $100 million per month - after the PA launched a series of unilateral moves at the United Nations aimed at attaining recognition of a state based on pre-1967 lines at the world body.

Officials in Jerusalem said the moves, which began with a now-moribund application for statehood at the UN Security Council and culminated in UNESCO voting to induct the PA as a 'member state,' were a direct violation of the bilateral Oslo Accords.

All contacts and cooperation with the PA - including the transfer of tax revenues - occur under the auspices of bilateral agreements that proscribe unilateral moves like those the PA is pursuing, Israeli officials note.

PA officials were forced to suspend their unilateral track after UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon withdrew his support for their statehood bid at the world body in the face of promised funding cuts to UN agencies by the United States. The United States underwrites 22 percent of the UN operating budget and 27 percent of its peace keeping operations

Senior economic officials in Ramallah have long said Israel's transfers of tax revenues along with foreign aid are crucial to keeping Fayyad's the cash-strapped administration afloat. Israel's funds freeze to Ramallah coincides with a downturn in foreign donations to the PA – especially from Arab countries coping with the Arab spring.

Last week Fayyad told reporters if Israel did not resume the transfer of tax funds the PA would have to close its doors.

Israeli officials, however, say they are unmoved and that funds will not begin flowing to Ramallah again until PA officials accept a proposal by the Quartet for Middle East Peace for resumed talks without preconditions.

Israeli officials have accepted the Quartet proposal, which calls for a final status agreement by the end of 2012.

Previously, officials in the office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, while the PA shutting down would be "unfortunate" it "would not be the end of the world."

Tags: Salam Fayyad ,PA ,Israel ,Tax Revenues

1. Israel Slams UN Security Council on PA Rocket Attacks
by Chana Ya'ar

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations is asking that body's Security Council why it's not “shocked” by the constant barrage of rockets and mortars fired by Gaza terrorists at southern Israel.

Ambassador Ron Prosor declared Wednesday during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the unstable security situation in southern Israel should shock that body's members – which have often expressed deep dismay at similar situations elsewhere in the world.

Prosor criticized the Council at its session on Wednesday for not condemning the attacks by Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists, who earlier this month killed a 56-year-old Ashkelon man and physically wounded 16 other people in a barrage aimed at the southern region.

Another 14 people were also sent to the hospital with trauma reactions and severe anxiety attacks during the five-day period in which rockets and mortars were fired at Israeli civilian communities.

“The pain caused by these attacks is permanent,” Prosor pointed out. “The scars are both physical and psychological... One million Israelis were compelled to stay home from work last week to ensure their safety... 200,000 children were kept home from school.

“These stories should shock and appall the Security Council and all decent people. Yet, not a single world of condemnation has been uttered by this Council. Not one word.

“The silence speaks volumes,” he said.

Holiday Season 2011 - Birth of a New Tradition

This was sent to me from a friend...I like it!

As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods -- merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor. This year will be different. This year Americans will give the gift of genuine concern for other Americans. There is no longer an excuse that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands. Yes there is!

It's time to think outside the box, people. Who says a gift needs to fit in a shirt box, wrapped in Chinese produced wrapping paper?

Here are some alternatives to buying goods "Made in China" --

1. Everyone -- yes EVERYONE gets their hair cut. How about gift certificates from your local American hair salon or barber?
2. Gym membership? It's appropriate for all ages who are thinking about some health improvement.
3. Who wouldn't appreciate getting their car detailed? Small, American owned detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a book of gift certificates.
4. Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plunking down the Benjamines on a Chinese made flat-screen? Perhaps that grateful gift receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or driveway plowed all winter, or games at the local golf course.
5. There are a bazillion owner-run restaurants -- all offering gift certificates. And, if your intended isn't the fancy eatery sort, what about a half dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint. Remember, folks this isn't about big National chains -- this is about supporting your home town Americans with their financial lives on the line to keep their doors open.
6. How many people couldn't use an oil change for their car, truck or motorcycle, done at a shop run by the American working guy?
7. Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would LOVE the services of a local cleaning lady for a day.
8. My computer could use a tune-up, and I KNOW I can find some young guy who is struggling to get his repair business up and running.
9. OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin their own wool and knit them into scarves. They make jewelry, and pottery and beautiful wooden boxes.
10. Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave your server a nice tip.
11. And, how about going out to see a play or ballet at your hometown theatre.
12. Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.
13. Honestly, people, do you REALLY need to buy another ten thousand Chinese lights for the house? 
14. When you buy a five dollar string of light, about fifty cents stays in the community. If you have those kinds of bucks to burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice BIG tip.

You see, Christmas and the Holidays are no longer about draining American pockets so that China can build another glittering city. The holidays are now about caring about US, encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams. And, when we care about other Americans, we care about our communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we couldn't imagine. THIS is the new American Holiday tradition.

Forward this to everyone on your mailing list -- post it to discussion groups -- throw up a post on Craigslist in the Rants and Raves section in your city -- send it to the editor of your local paper and radio stations, and TV news departments. This is a revolution of caring about each other, and isn't that what Christmas is about?


BUY AMERICAN - BE AMERICAN   The job you save might be your own!

Abbas: Shalit Kidnapping 'A Good Thing'
by Gavriel Queenann 

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas went on record in Arabic saying he will never recognize a “Jewish state.” He also said the kidnapping and five year ordeal of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was "a good thing."

The report came from Middle East Media Research Institute, who translated and posted an interview Abbas gave on Egyptian state TV last month.

“First of all, let me make something clear about the story of the Jewish state,” Abbas told Dream2TV on Oct. 23. “They started talking to me about the Jewish state only two years ago.”

“I’ve said it before and I will say it again: I will never recognize the Jewishness of the state or a Jewish state.”

In the same interview Abbas said the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held captive for five years by Hamas militants, was a "good thing."

“They were able to keep him and hide him,” he said admiringly.

Shalit was ultimately freed in exchange for 1,027 security prisoners, including some 450 terrorists, last month.

Abbas, packaged as a moderate by media handlers and pro-Arab politicians in the West, has long said one thing in English and another in Arabic. Despite this, he signed a unity agreement with the Hamas terror organization – which maintains a genocidal posture towards Israel – earlier this year.

He has also repeatedly accused Israel of being responsible for stalled peace-talks while openly putting maximalist preconditions on his participation in negotiations that he knows will be wholly unacceptable to officials in Jerusalem.

In September Abbas violated the bilateral framework of the Olso Accords when he sought unilateral recognition of a PA state based on pre-1967 lines without consulting Israel or the US, both of whom are Oslo signatories.

Israel has called for negotiations to resume without preconditions from either side.

MEMRI is a Washington-based research group that monitors and translates Middle Eastern media.

Is Israel an Apartheid State?

3. Egyptian Muslims Burn Coptic Church in Aswan Province
by Chana Ya'ar 

Egypt is back to “business as usual” with the Islamic majority harassing and attacking its Christian minority.

A group of Muslims burnt down part of a church Friday – the Islamic Sabbath – in the village of Marinab, according to a report published in the daily Al Masry Al Youm. The village, situated close to the town of Edfu in the Aswan Governorate, is located some 800 kilometers south of Cairo.

Security sources said Muslims rampaged through the village in what appeared to be a pogrom, clashing with the Christian residents and destroying their shops. Central Security Forces cordoned off the village “to control the clashes,” according to the newspaper report.

Christian websites reported in September that a group of Salafi Islamists had threatened the Christians, warning them not to leave their homes in the village unless they first removed the church dome. Saint George's Church had been restored earlier in the month, according to the report.

A gang of Salafi Muslims boasted to a victim they were torturing in March, “We won't leave any Christians in this country,” according to a report published several months ago in the Wall Street Journal. The attackers were never arrested.

The phenomenon of Muslims attacking Coptic Christians in Egypt is not new.  But during the Tahrir Square Revolution that unseated former President Hosni Mubarak in February, protesters claimed the “new order” would bring peace and equality between the country's majority and minority populations.

But although intentions may have been positive among the organizers, the rank and file have since returned to their roots.

Since the revolution, there have been numerous murders by Muslims visited upon the Coptic Christian community, which comprises about 10 percent of the 83 million-strong Egyptian population.
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Columbia Students vs. Ahmadinejad

Columbia Students vs. Ahmadinejad

Agreeing with the Message -- Not the Man

This week Glenn Beck gave a very direct and profound message in Israel about courage and about his perception of the way our world is headed. I have presented part of this message below. As I think about the contrast between the man and this message, I couldn't help but think about the people who will cast this message aside because of the religious views of  Glenn Beck. And yet, I wonder how many of these very same people support President Obama's friendship with, let's say, Reverend Wright, for example. Now here's a man that spews hate and who has done so for many years, yet many people have put that message aside in favor of his other messages that somehow resonate with them. I wonder to what degree Holocaust survivors questioned the religious beliefs and practices of the Righteous Gentiles before accepting their help?

Glenn Beck’s Message to a State in Peril

Posted By P. David Hornik On August 26, 2011 @ 12:32 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 23 Comments

On Wednesday night about 20 rockets were fired at southern Israel from Gaza, wounding a nine-month-old girl and damaging property. The barrage continued on Thursday night with another 15 rockets or so.

On the whole it was a rough week for Israel. On Monday, after four days of fighting with Gaza-based terror organizations sparked by last Thursday’s multipronged terror attack on southern Israel, Hamas—which is in charge of Gaza—claimed it was agreeing to a ceasefire. It proved shaky at best, with sporadic rocket fire continuing, and collapsed completely on Wednesday evening.
But that wasn’t all. On Sunday a young Egyptian carpenter named Ahmed al-Shahat became a national hero when, as Israel Hayom recounts, he

scaled 15 stories to the roof of the Israeli Embassy [in Cairo] in full view of dozens of police and soldiers, and replaced the Israeli flag flying there with an Egyptian one. Shahat threw the Israeli standard down at the crowd, which tore it up and set it on fire.

Inspired, on Tuesday another crowd of Egyptians removed the Israeli flag from the home of the Israeli ambassador to Egypt and demanded that Egypt scrap its peace treaty with Israel—signed in 1979 with great, almost chiliastic fanfare. Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman conveyed a demand that Egyptian officials reinstate the flags; Cairo replied that “the masses won’t allow it.” For Friday there were plans for a “million-man march” against the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty in legendary Tahrir Square.

Those masses have been particularly enraged since three (or five, depending on reports) Egyptian soldiers died, apparently accidentally, in a firefight last Thursday after Israeli forces chased jihadist terrorists back into Egyptian Sinai. The terrorists had come from Sinai and killed eight Israelis in the multipronged attack.

Amid this onslaught of violence and hate, also on Wednesday Glenn Beck, a non-Jewish media personality, gave a speech beside the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Anticipated to be a huge event, in the end it drew only about a thousand people, mostly American Evangelical Christians; though it was also watched in Jerusalem’s Safra Square and by over 1400 viewing parties in 60 countries all over the world.

Beck’s message, in any case, was very different from those Israel has been receiving from its neighbors. He said:

In Israel, there is more courage in one square mile than in all of Europe. In Israel, there is more courage in one soldier than in the combined and cold hearts of every bureaucrat at the United Nations.

And:

“Human rights,” they say. But who will they focus on? Libya? Syria? North Korea? No. They will condemn Israel. Tiny Israel. Democratic Israel. Free Israel. Israel, which values life above all other things.

And:

The diplomats are afraid, and so they submit. They surrender to falsehood. The truth matters not. To the keepers of conventional wisdom, a sacrifice of the truth is a small price to pay. What difference does it make if we beat up on little Israel? These are the actions of the fearful and cowards.

And:

And so I say that if the world decides it must know who will stand with Israel, who will stand with the Jewish people, so they know exactly who to condemn, who to target, let them know this. Condemn me. Target me. I will stand with Israel. I will stand with the Jewish people. And if they want to round us up again, I will proudly raise my hand and say “Take me first.”

Beck also outlined his plan to start a worldwide grassroots movement to defend Israel against the UN and the “human rights” organizations. He said that in South America on Friday he would meet with “a group of nearly 5,000 local leaders from all over the continent and ask them to join me in standing in defense of Israel, the Jewish people and responsibility.”

Are Beck’s unique message and activities making an impression on Israel itself? Only to a limited extent. Some of the reasons have to do with Beck. His Protestant-revivalist style of oratory is quaint and foreign to most Israelis. Some Jewish Israeli religious leaders fear that his message is actually Christian.

More significant, though, is Israel’s left-dominated media’s hostility to Beck. In a discussion of the problem, Yisrael Medad and Eli Pollak quote, for instance, Tal Schneider of Israel’s Globes business daily: “It could be that he repels the Israeli public since he does not speak Hebrew, or because the Israelis and even the right-wingers among them are repelled by the extremist views of a foreigner and Christian who preaches hate and extreme racism.”

Similar calumnies—reliably blind to their own bigotry—have appeared on Israel’s Haaretz, NRG, and Ynet websites, though, as Medad and Pollak also note, the new, popular, right-leaning Israel Hayom daily gives Beck a fair shake (see a short, highly appreciative piece here).

But however much the people he is helping will know how much he is helping them, Beck, because of the profundity of his commitment, is certain to keep to his path. Informed Israelis will be aware of what a great—and greatly needed—friend they have.

Rachel carries on the memories of the Holocaust Survivors

LAST EYEWITNESS PROJECT: 70 Holocaust Survivors w/ one message @ Congregation Shir Ha-Ma 'alot

Amazing what people can create!

World's Largest Miniature Airport

Martine "Did it My Way" Speech

http://vimeo.com/24537415

Israel is a Strategic Partner of the US

Israel is a Strategic Partner of the US

Good Reading About Unilateral Palestinian State and South Korean's fascination with the Talmud

 SPECIAL REPORT: Jerusalem Arabs withhold support over unilateral Palestinian state, new survey finds

09 May 2011
Less than a third of the Arab population of east Jerusalem (31 percent) prefers to cast its lot with any future Palestinian state, according to David Pollock, the author of the first comprehensive and authoritative survey of Palestinian public opinion in the city, conducted by Pechter Middle East Polls. The former senior adviser on the Middle East at the US State Department presented his findings at a roundtable discussion at the Jerusalem-based Institute of the World Jewish Congress.  Some 40 percent of those surveyed had made clear that if their neighborhoods were incorporated into a Palestinian state they would attempt to move to Israel, Pollock noted. Some 23 percent of respondents were uncertain what they would do. Among the reasons given for their preference for Israeli citizenship were the freedom of movement of which Israeli citizens benefits, higher income, job opportunities, and the availability of health insurance.

A majority of respondents claimed that a unilateral Palestinian declaration of independence would either be injurious to their status or irrelevant, and many expressed concern about whether they would enjoy the right to free speech and freedom of expression under Palestinian rule. Pollock said that according to his survey “any attempt to transfer control over Palestinian neighborhoods would be contrary to the wishes of the majority of Jerusalem's Palestinian population. Many Jerusalem Arabs believe that Israel has 'won the war of attitudes' and prefer the status quo.” The research indicated that currently, Arab Christians constitute only 7 percent of the population of Jerusalem and that they are especially apprehensive about their future prospects.

“Dr. Pollock’s groundbreaking research highlights the complexity of the situation in Jerusalem, which is not always understood, and makes clear that any division of the city is impossible,” said WJC Institute Chairman Mordechai Palzur, a former Israeli ambassador, in his closing remarks.

Berlusconi rules out recognition of unilateral statehood declaration by Palestinians

12 May 2011
Italy will not recognize a unilateral declaration of statehood by the Palestinians, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said. At a celebration of Yom Ha'atzmaut in Rome he praised the Jewish state as the only democracy in the Middle East. He was the guest of honor at an Israeli reception hosted by Ambassador Gideon Meir. "No, absolutely not," he was quoted as telling reporters when asked whether Italy would recognize a unilaterally declared Palestinian state.

"I think that there is no other course other than an agreement between the two states," Berlusconi added. "Our policy has always gone in this direction, and it is also the policy of the European Union," he pointed out. During a speech, the Italian leader said Israel was "the only real democracy in the Middle East and Italy is concerned there are difficult situations for Jews. There can be no solution for your people and your state but peace with your neighbor Palestine." Berlusconi also reiterated Italy's support for Israel.

 Why South Koreans are in love with Judaism

Sales of the Talmud are soaring in Seoul, and it's not to do with religion


By Tim Alper, May 12, 2011

The South Korean ambassador to Israel, Ma Young-sam, raised eyebrows recently when he told reporters the Talmud was mandatory reading for Korean schoolchildren.
South Korea is a country with a deep Buddhist history, but one which has embraced with vigour the Christianity brought to its shores by missionaries in the late 1800s. Official statistics say some 30 per cent of South Koreans are church-going. In such a country, Jews are few and far between.
Yet, pop down to the local corner shop and along with a pot of instant rice or dried noodles, you can buy a copy of Stories from the Talmud. It is not rare, either, to come across book-vending machines stocked with classic works of Babylonian Judaism.
The Talmud is a bestseller in South Korea - even the government insists it is good for you, and has included it on the curriculum for primary school children.
Lee Chang-ro heads a literature research team at the Ministry for Education. He says: "The reasons why Korean children are taught Talmud are pretty obvious. Koreans and Jews both have a long history of oppression and surviving adversity with nothing but their own ingenuity to thank. There are no natural resources to speak of in Korea, so, like the Jews, all we can develop is our minds."
The fascination with Judaism does not end there. Media outlets regularly run newspapers columns on "Jewish education", weekly radio features, and television documentaries, all of them showing Jews in a glowing light.
 The Talmud on display in a Korean bookshop
But although average Koreans can boast that their bookshelves hold at least one or two copies of the Talmud, to think of Korea as a hotbed of latent Judaism would be wrong. The motivation is less to do with religion and more to do with aspiration. Korean parents value schooling above all else. Parents send their children to after-school crammers until midnight and will spend their last penny on tutors and extra lessons. And, shy of good role models on the quest to securing academic success for their offspring, mothers almost unerringly turn to the Jews for inspiration.
Mother-of-two Lee San-sook explains that the way that Jewish children are brought up is universally viewed as positive in Korea.
"The stereotype of Jews here is that they are ultra-intelligent people. Jews have come out of nowhere to become business chiefs, media bosses, Nobel Prize winners - we want our children to do the same. If that means studying Talmud, Torah, whatever, so be it," she says.
Nonetheless, for a small number of Koreans, this love of Jewishness does translate into religious observance, even though, with no synagogues and no access to kosher food, they encounter almost insurmountable problems in leading a Jewish life.
One wannabe Jew, 38-year-old Park Yo-han, has handed in his notice at an investment bank to take the plunge into Judaism. He says he will go to New York, where he knows nobody, has no job prospects, just to follow his dream of Orthodox conversion.
"I've tried just about everything. Converting in Korea isn't difficult - it's impossible," he says.
Jewish observance in Seoul is almost entirely centred on Friday night services in the back of a Christian chapel on a US Army base. Every week, the tiny congregation of ex-pats and locals flip pews containing hymns books and New Testaments to face a pokey little ark for prayers. At the end of the night, everything gets put back in place for Friday night Mass. If there was not a small Ner Tamid hanging above the ark, you really would mistake it for a cupboard.
Most of the regular and long-serving members of the congregation are non-Jewish Koreans - civil servants, doctors and a politician from the ruling party, who is currently squeezing in his attendance between bouts of campaigning for local elections. They have no wish to convert but they take their interest in Judaism seriously. Most boast impressive collections of Judaica and read Hebrew fluently.
Among their number is a living legend of Korean Jewry, Abraham Cha. One of the few Koreans who have actually converted, he is a regular fixture at the US Army base services.
An old man now, he still cuts a memorable figure. He has a wild beard, payot, tzitzit protruding proudly, and maintains an unrivalled personal library of Jewish books from around the world, which he has painstakingly collected.
Cha says he had to give up everything to become an observant Jew in Korea.
"My family don't speak to me any more, I had to divorce my wife. I even had to stop working because they wouldn't give me the day off on Shabbat or on Jewish holidays. My bosses couldn't conceive what it meant to be Jewish."
Although precisely what it involves to be a Jew eludes most Koreans, anti-Jewish feeling is almost unthinkable in this part of the world.
Says Seoul resident Naomi Zaslow, "If you refuse a plate of pork ribs here, people will be dumbfounded. If you tell them it's because you're Jewish, they'll unfailingly look impressed and say: 'Oh, you must be very clever'."

The Middle East Conflict Explained

The Middle East Conflict

Where ARE the Palestinian Concessions?

Where ARE the Palestinian Concessions?

Travelers' Choice Hotel Awards - TripAdvisor - StumbleUpon

Travelers' Choice Hotel Awards - TripAdvisor - StumbleUpon

New York Egg Cream -- Delicious! But do you know the history?

New York Egg Cream

Black student leaders slam 'apartheid' characterization

By JORDANA HORN,  JPOST CORRESPONDENT 
04/09/2011 10:09

Letter says "decency, justice and hope compel us to demand immediate cessation to deliberate misappropriation of words."

Talkbacks (40)

  NEW YORK – African-American student leaders from a variety of historically black colleges and universities took out full page ads in numerous American college newspapers Thursday, displaying an “Open Letter to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP),” to convey that they were offended by SJP’s use of the term “apartheid” at recent Israel Apartheid Week events at campuses across the country.

The 16 signatories to the letter are students and alumni from historically black colleges and universities who are members of the Vanguard Leadership Group, a leadership development academy and honor society for top students. The letter ran or is slated to run in student newspapers at Brown University, University of California- Los Angeles, University of Maryland and Columbia University over the next few days.

“The Students for Justice in Palestine’s labeling of Israel, an extremely diverse and vibrant country, as an apartheid state is not only false, but offensive,” Vanguard President Michael Hayes told The Jerusalem Post. “Additionally, this rhetoric does absolutely nothing to help Israel-Palestine negotiations or relations. We feel this type of action serves to hinder the peace process domestically and abroad, and have made it our priority to take a stand to shift the tide of understanding.”

In a statement released by the Vanguard Leadership Group as to why they authored the open letter to SJP, Vanguard described itself as “proudly involved in the pro-Israel movement in America.

“The use of the word ‘apartheid’ by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in its characterization of Israel is patently false and deeply offensive to all who feel a connection to the state of Israel,” the letter reads. “Your organization’s campaign against Israel is spreading misinformation about its policies, fostering bias in the media and jeopardizing prospects for a timely resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Such irresponsibility is a blemish on your efforts.”

The letter continues to state that “[p]laying the ‘apartheid card’ is a calculated attempt to conjure up images associated with the racist South African regimes of the 20th century,” and calls the strategy “as transparent as it is base.”

“Beyond that, it is highly objectionable to those who know the truth about the Israelis’ record on human rights and how it so clearly contrasts with South Africa’s,” the letter reads, noting that under apartheid, black South Africans had no rights in a country in which they were the majority of the population.

Saying that the analogy manipulates rather than informs, the letter requests SJP to “immediately stop referring to Israel as an apartheid society and to acknowledge that the Arab minority in Israel enjoys full citizenship with voting rights and representation in the government.”

“Decency, justice, and the hope of peace and reconciliation in the Middle East compel us to demand an immediate cessation to the deliberate misappropriation of words and of the flagrant mischaracterizations of Israel,” the letter concludes. “Your compliance with this request will be viewed as a responsible and appropriate first step toward raising the level of discourse.”

Is "Israel Occupation" a Myth or Fact?

In regard to Israel's rights to the land that is considered by some to be "occupied."

Stunning Photos

These are really worth viewing....

Thanks Mom for sharing!Stunning Photos

Our Finest Moments

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."
~ M. Scott Peck

The Rain

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb.

He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.

I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone
would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound.

On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound. While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.

The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.

As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew
who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, 'And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?'

He smiled as he patted my hand and said, 'She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is.'

I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought, 'That is
the kind of love I want in my life.'

True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.

Clueless in Washington

Clueless in Washington

Aunt Sally's Famous Apple Cake

Name: Janet Lawrence

Recipe Title: Aunt Sally’s Famous Apple Cake
Category: Holiday Treats and Dessert
Ingredients:

Apple Mixture
5 apples peeled & sliced
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs cinnamon
Mix above together and let stand

Egg Mixture
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
¼ cup orange juice
2 tsp vanilla
Beat above together

Flour Mixture
2 ½ cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
Mix together

Directions:

Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture. Pour half of this mixture to cover the bottom of a 10x12 pan (throw away type is good).
Spread the apple mixture over the mixture in the pan. Then cover the apples with the balance of the combined Egg/Four mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour or until it gets brown.

What makes the recipe special:

My Aunt Sally was a famous caterer in Long Beach for many years. When I asked her if she would give me the recipe for her delicious apple cake, she said, “Janet dear, a caterer never gives away her secrets.” About a week later, I received a letter in the mail from Aunt Sally with the recipe. She asked me not to give away her secret. My dear Aunt Sally has passed away, but her delicious Apple Cake lives on and I feel it an honor to her to share the secret recipe!