JustASC

It’s official: Gov. Chris Christie is headed to Israel April 2 – April 5. From the press release:

Governor Chris Christie will travel to Israel as part of the Administration’s broader initiative to strengthen New Jersey’s economic and diplomatic relationships with foreign nations. The Governor will travel to several areas of the country to visit businesses, meet with diplomatic leaders and pay respect to the culture and traditions of the region and its people.

The Governor will be accompanied by members of his family and staff, as well as a delegation of representatives from New Jersey’s business and Jewish communities. A list of members of the traveling delegation will be released prior to the trip. The Governor will conclude his Middle East trip with a visit to Jordan before returning to New Jersey. A detailed public schedule of the Governor’s daily activities will be released each day along with updates and photographs distributed by the Governor’s Office.

Like everything in Judaism, our seder evolves each year and the props seem to pile up. A few years ago we added an orange to our seder plate, symbolizing that a woman, too, can lead a seder. — Joan Nathan, New York Times

A member of Rabbis for Human Rights, an interdenominational, Israeli-based organization that numbers modern-day slavery among its educational and advocacy issues, Rabbi Marcus will put the tomato in the center of her seder plate — alongside the traditional bitter herbs, charoset, parsley, shank bone and eggs, and an orange, a recent addition in many homes — as a symbol of contemporary slavery. — Steve Lipman, Jewish Week.

A few years ago, olives started showing up on the seder plate as a call for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. – Sue Fishkoff, JTA

An orange on a seder plate? Olives? How many symbols do we need during a ritual already bursting with symbols? Lots, that’s how many. I’m covering all my bases this year. Here’s a peek at my family’s seder plate:

Apple: Expresses our admiration for Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Grapes: These symbolize my love of grapes

Scallions: Kurdish Jews have  a Passover custom of striking one another with scallions to symbolize the burdens of the Israelites. I like to put scallions on the seder plate to mock the Kurdish Jews.

Strawberries: Expresses solidarity with professional athletes struggling with addiction problems.

Carrots: The color orange reminds us of an orange,  which symbolizes that a woman, too, can lead a seder.

Asparagus: A reminder to support SPUTI, the Society to Prevent Urinary Tract Infections.

Bell pepper: Reminds us that May 17 is the anniversary of the birth of James Thomas “Cool Papa” Bell, who had the best nickname in the history of baseball.

Broccoli: The surprising fact that broccoli is a member of the cabbage family helps us understand how some of our family members can actually be related to us.

Pineapple: Just as a pineapple starts out sweet and ends up causing cold sores, something something something about your brother’s new girlfriend.

Bananas: Reminds us that a man, too, can wash the damn dishes after the seder.

Gary Rosenblatt laments the demise of the once mighty Baltimore Jewish Times, which is up for auction:

Whatever the fate of the JT, and I fervently hope for its recovery, it is important that our national and local leaders and philanthropists recognize the value of the Jewish press, and not take for granted the unique role it can and should play in educating and connecting diverse segments in the community. And those leaders should consider what would happen if local Jewish media disappeared from the scene.

I’m not a pessimist, just a realist. And if the Baltimore Jewish Times is this close to being silenced, it could happen anywhere.

My colleague Lori Brauner found this item in a Monsey supermarket, the latest example of Obsessive Passover Disorder:

Wouldn’t it suffice just to wipe down your doorknobs? Must they be hermetically sealed?

I’m back after 10 days in Israel, a trip that came at a time of tension (rockets raining on the south), uncertainty (whither Iran?), and resentment (secular Jews are still seething over haredi coercion). So of course the thing that stuck with me was — wait for it — the country’s emerging bicycling culture!

When I rode a bike in Jerusalem in the late 1990s, I often got the feeling that Israelis regarded me as either an idiot or a maniac. I got this feeling because drivers would often yell “Idiot!” or “Maniac!” as they passed me on the city’s narrow streets.

This time around I saw plenty of people peddling around, many on top-of-the-line Treks and Cervelos and wearing full racings kits (skintight uniforms, to you civilians).

At right are a few riders descending into the Valley of Zin, just below Ben-Gurion’s gravesite.

Below is me on a mountain bike, which I rented from the Beresheet Hotel in Mitzpe Ramon, where I was staying.

And below that is my new friend Ehud, whose idea it was to ride the trail, which runs parallel to the lip of Machtesh Ramon, a huge crater in  the Negev.

South of Beer Sheba, I also passed a sign for “Terraces Single Track,” which I assume is a new mountain biking course, although I can’t find a reference to it on line.

A little research suggests the influence of at least two cycling fundraising events, one a benefit for Alyn Children’s hospital, the other run by Hazon. There’s also the Israel Bike Trail, a newish effort to create a trail from Mt. Hermon in the north to Eilat in the south.

I suppose there is something to be said here about disposable income, leisure time , environmental awareness, and Americanization. But who has the energy? My point is this: Lots of bikes in Israel.

I’m back home after a 10 days in Israel.

Tonight I’ll be speaking after a screening of the Israeli documentary “Blood Relation” at the New Jersey Jewish Film Festival at the JCC in West Orange.  

A synopsis of the film:

When her grandmother dies, Jewish filmmaker Noa Ben Hagai discovers a packet of letters from her grandmother’s sister, Pnina, who left her kibbutz mysteriously at age 14 and never returned. She reemerged 27 years later, a mother of eight, living as a Muslim in a refugee camp in the West Bank. Baffled by the silence shrouding her great-aunt’s life and curious to learn about her, Ben Hagai interviews family and neighbors. As this powerful story unfolds, Noa’s quest stirs up painful, unsettling memories and emotions and shines a harsh light on seven decades of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Go here for time and ticket info.

This is not surprising, but sad nonetheless:

In multicultural South Florida, where the number of foreign language speakers is rising, those speaking Yiddish is down dramatically in the last decade, according to the most recent census surveys.

Also spoken less often at home is Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Thai and Greek. But their losses are dwarfed by Yiddish, which went from about 16,390 speakers in South Florida in 2000 to about 5,880 in 2010.

A former classmate of Aakash Dalal, the 19-year-old charged in the attacks on four synagogues in Northern New Jersey, writes of being taken in by his friend:

The Aakash I knew was intelligent, interesting to talk to and fiercely passionate about his beliefs. I never heard him utter an anti-Semitic remark, although I heard him make disparaging remarks about Muslims. He was a loyal follower of Ron Paul, having volunteered for his campaign throughout the early primary states. His views were noxious, as he was an anarcho-capitalist who argued that President Obama, President Bush–and probably every other American President since 1898–were mass murderers. Certainly, I thought this political beliefs were a little out there, but I also always found his radical idealism (that’s what it seemed like at the time) to be refreshing. Kind of. The Aakash in the mugshot is completely different.  The photo doesn’t show that Dalal is just a small and scrawny kid. If you met him on the street, you would be surprised to learn that such a tiny person could be capable of so much destruction.

Boing Boing offers “10 DIY tips to save money while eating better and healthier,” including:

1) Drink water instead of soda. And drink tap water, not bottled water.

3) Prepare food at home and bring it to work instead of eating lunch out.

6) If you eat meat, consider reducing your intake of meat.

7) If you drink coffee, brew it yourself.

I think I do nine things on the list (we don’t have a vegetable garden, although we grow our own basil). I’m not bragging.

Yes. I am bragging.

Republican candidates and commentators on the right are insisting Obama is too “weak” or feckless to do what has to be done on Iran. Here’s Jonathan Tobin of Commentary:

Obama is at pains to try to assert he doesn’t “bluff” when it comes to threatening the use of force, but after three years of a feckless engagement policy followed by a largely ineffective effort to impose sanctions on Iran, it’s hard to find anyone who really believes he would actually launch a strike to prevent the ayatollahs from getting their hands on a nuclear weapon.

But maybe harping on the president’s “weakness” is sending exactly the wrong message to the ayatollahs, who must figure they have nothing to worry about with the Cowardly Lion in the Oval Office.

Imagine instead were we to paint Obama as another General Jack D. Ripper, his trigger finger itching like mad. Imagine if Netanyahu’s people emerged from their meeting, and, instead of talking about the gaps between the president and the p.m., they said something like this:

How was it? Frightening, if you want to know the truth. Obama kept reaching for the red phone, saying “Just say the word! Just say the word! I will do this thing, so help me!” And Bibi spent most of the time trying to calm Obama down. “No, Mr. President. We can’t bomb Iran right this moment. We have to allow time for sanctions and diplomacy to work. That’s the Jewish way.”

See? Bibi comes out as the voice of reason, America emerges as a crazy state, and Achmadinejad begins packing his bags for a long vacation in an undisclosed location. It’s win, win, lose!

Of course, I’m kidding (I think). But David Horowitz of the Freedom Center doesn’t put that kind of Jiu-Jitsu past the president:

With the Republican nominees for president harping on Obama’s weakness with Iran for several months now, an American strike on Iran may be politically advantageous. Mitt Romney, who recently declared that “if we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will get nuclear weapons” but “if you elect me as president, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” would have a major talking point taken away from him. Likewise for Newt Gingrich, who has said that “Obama is the most dangerous President in modern American history” with regard to foreign policy, and that “he is incapable of defending the United States.”

If Obama were to strike Iran, any debate about him being a weak foreign policy president would immediately be quieted. He would enter the presidential debates with a firm foreign policy record and as a defender of America, with the Republican nominee looking sheepish and out-of-touch in his criticism.