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I was privileged this week to preview, before its release to the public, what may well prove to be a masterpiece of the documentary film-making art—a new look at the Biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt in the light of contemporary archeology and politics in the Middle East. Filmmaker Tim Mahoney´s "The Exodus Conspiracy",[1] due to be released within a few months, seeks to demonstrate the historical accuracy of the Biblical narrative of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt on the basis of recent archaeological discoveries and geographic explorations. A secondary thesis of the film is...

Conversions to Judaism among African-Americans are growing in a way that could affect the presidential election. Atlanta - Like many of the growing numbers of Protestant blacks in America and Africa converting to Judaism, Elisheva Chaim grew up believing she had a "Jewish soul." As a black woman and a Baptist in the South, that was a peculiar, somewhat troubling realization. But when she turned her doubts about Christianity into a search for answers, the truth became evident: She had to go deeper than the Old Testament. She had to convert. "It's odd to see black people convert to Judaism,...

Religion – including Christianity and Judaism – is "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children." At least that's according to the No. 1 New York Times bestseller "God is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything" by journalist Christopher Hitchens. In the news business, we often cite a nation's current top-selling books – for example, the popularity of anti-Semitic titles in Arab countries – as evidence of the mindset of the people. Well, in the United States of America right now, some of the...

The grave implications of how Islam and Christianity have dealt differently with their Jewish roots. "Abrahamic religions" has become a widely used term, particularly among interfaith groups, to designate the three major monotheistic religions. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has called for an interfaith meeting to be attended by representatives of the "Abrahamic religions," beginning with a Saudi-sponsored conference in Madrid next week. This phrase, focusing on the character of Abraham, seeks to emphasize the shared characteristics of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. As the first person to establish a covenantal relationship with God based on His role as the sole...

JTA - Religious Jews support U.S. Sen. John McCain for president in much higher numbers than non-religious Jews, a poll found. The 39 percent of U.S. Jews who said religion is important in their daily lives evenly split their support for the presumptive candidates in November -- Arizona's McCain for the Republicans and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the Democrats -- at 45 percent, according to a Gallup Poll released Tuesday. more

Ba'alei Teshuva --- sometimes translated to mean "penitents," but, more commonly used to refer to Jews from secular backgrounds who have become religiously observant, often hareidi or ultra-Orthodox --- have been held in high regard by Jewish tradition. [Snip] Try telling that to Avigal Meizlik who recently wrote a controversial article in Mishpascha, a highly regarded English haredi magazine about "issues" BTs face when they try to affilliate with various hareidi communities in Israel. According to Ms. Meizlik, when it comes to register their children in mainstream hareidi schools, BT's are rejected, finding, to their dismay, that they were never...

sioned humanity. His message became a mantra: give charity, pray daily, offer hospitality, and love every stranger as oneself. He practiced what he preached. A Catholic gay man I know wrote the Rebbe a letter disagreeing with the Bible's views on homosexuality. Never expecting his letter to even reach the Rebbe, he was blown away when he received a five-page response in which he was treated as being infinitely beloved of God. Where some religions condemn abortions, the Rebbe sought to cultivate a love of children. THOSE OF us who can still close our eyes and remember the enormous public...

JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

Walter Russell Mead is one of the most revered American foreign policy scholars in the U.S. He has authored some great books (chief among them, Special Providence), as well as many great articles. Last year he wrote the most powerful argument against Walt and Mearsheimer's The Israel Lobby. Now Mead has a new article in Foreign Affairs, entitled "Why Gentile Americans Back the Jewish State". Although I usually refrain from just quoting articles without adding my own take, I think this time I'll do just that. Most people do not read such long articles, and are not Foreign Affairs subscribers,...

In recent years, anti-Semites around the world stepped up their attempts at banning Jewish religious books. A number of criminal complaints has been filed alleging racist incitement, notably in Russia. Rabbis seem to recognize that side of our books, as during the Knesset debate on anti-racism law designed to ban the Kach Party, religious parties insisted that theological writings be excluded from the definition of racism. That, by the way, didn’t help Kahane who presented Israeli Supreme Court with abundant evidence that all his sayings are within the halacha; the court banned his party no matter what. No doubt, Jewish...

American Judaism has a boy problem. After several thousand years in which women were relegated to the sidelines of worship and community leadership, scholars and denominational leaders now say that women are significantly outnumbering men in numerous key segments of non-Orthodox Jewish community life. At the Reform movement's seminary, 60 percent of the rabbinical students and 84 percent of those studying to become cantors are female. Girls are outnumbering boys by as much as 2 to 1 among adolescents in youth group programs and summer camps, while women outnumber men at worship and in a variety of congregational leadership roles......

It is by now a well-documented fact that liberal Protestant denominations in the United States have fallen on hard times. In the mainline churches that once dominated American religious life—and from which emerged the country’s political and cultural elites—the pews have been emptying since as long ago as the 1960’s.1 As the average age of churchgoers edges ever upward, the challenge of recruiting both members and qualified clergy looms larger still, adding to the general sense of demoralization and desuetude. In the meantime, membership in conservative Christian denominations, particularly the evangelical churches, has been swelling. Against this backdrop, the seeming...

Has NBC White House Correspondent David Gregory turned over a new leaf? Gregory, who has earned a lot of critics for having an anti-Bush/liberal bias, made it seem that way during a discussion about ethics in politics and journalism Thursday. He claimed to struggle with Jewish teachings about saying bad things about others - at least when it comes to Democrats. Gregory, who is Jewish, said he relies on the Jewish law on speech to make editorial decisions for his MSNBC daily afternoon show "Race for the White House."

Israeli on Arab TV: J'lem Was Ours When Moslems Worshipped Idols ...Israeli on Arab TV: J'lem Was Ours When Moslems Worshipped Idols ... Jerusalem is our city forever and is not an issue for you, for Al Jazeera or for anyone ...Dr. Kedar: "Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran even once. You can't rewrite the Koran on air on Al Jazeera."... http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126403

The media fell all over themselves when Obama spoke in front of AIPAC as he did his best to cozy up to the Jewish community. But the media fails to mention that the liberal wing of the Democrat party is dangerously close to outright anti-Semitism (if not there already). Charles Johnson has detailed this extensively every time someone at Obama-backing Daily Kos (including old "screw them" Kos himself) lets down their guard and lets their true anti-Semitism be seen. Still the Jewish vote goes for whatever Democrat happens to be running. I'm guessing that they feel that a Jewish president...

The Glaring Differences Between Two Cultures The global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000 - - thatʼs ONE BILLION TWO HUNDRED MILLION - - or 20% of the world's population! Now consider this statistic! Individuals that claim to be Muslim have received the following Nobel Prizes: Literature: 1988 - Najib Mahfooz Peace: 1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat 1994 - Yaser Arafat 1990 - Elias James Corey 1999 - Ahmed Zewai Economics: (zero) Physics : (zero) Medicine: 1960 - Peter Brian Medawar 1998 - Ferid Mourad TOTAL: 7 Now let’s consider the global Jewish population. The number of Jews in the world...

"Good morning. I'm Senator Barbara Boxer from California and Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Next week, the Senate will begin debate on one of the most important issues of our time -- global warming. "Senators have come together across party lines to write a law that will not only enable us to avoid the ravages of unchecked global warming, but will create millions of new jobs and put us on the path to energy independence. Other benefits of our legislation will be cleaner air, energy efficiency, relief for consumers and the alternative energy choices that American families...

JERUSALEM: Shakespeare was actually a Jewish woman who had disguised to get her work published in Elizabethan London where original literature from women was not acceptable, an expert has contended. The woman, Amelia Bassano Lanier Bassano, was of Italian descent and lived in England as a Marrano. She has been known only as the first woman to publish a book of poetry ( Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum in 1611) and as a candidate for "the dark lady" referred to in the sonnets, daily Ha'aretz reported. The theory rests largely on the circumstances of Bassano's life, which John Hudson, an expert...

Thirty-three days following the first day of Passover, Jews celebrate a "minor" holiday called Lag B'Omer, the thirty-third day of the Omer. It is an oasis of joy in the midst of the sad Sefirah period that passes almost unnoticed by most contemporary Jews. Yet it contains historic lessons of such gravity that our generation must attempt to unravel its mystery. We may well discover that our own fate is wrapped in the crevices of its secrets. The seven weeks between Passover and Shavuos are the days of the "Counting of the Omer," the harvest festivities which were observed in...

When he first heard about Serbia from his study partner, Rabbi Yehoshua Kaminetzky conjured up images of the war-torn Balkan republic most people remember from news reports: bombed-out buildings and economic stagnation. But Kaminetzky, 24, is the first to admit that the Serbia of the past is not the Serbia of the present, let alone the future. What he and his wife Miri, 23, see is a country full of potential, and a Jewish community on the brink of rapid expansion. The Kaminetzkys, the new directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Serbia, are the country’s first full-time emissaries. After arriving last week,...

As Israel enters its 61st year, Israelis may look back with pride. Yet, the realists among them must also look forward with foreboding. Israel is a modern democracy with the highest standard of living in the Middle East. In the high-tech industries of the future, she is in the first rank. From a nation of fewer than a million in 1948, Israel's population has grown to 7 million. In seven wars -- the 1948 War of Independence, the Sinai invasion of 1956, the Six-Day War of 1967, the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and the Lebanon wars of 1982 and...

(IsraelNN.com) A new study carried out at Brandeis University finds that as the liberal Jewish community empowers its women, its men appear to be losing interest in their Jewishness. According to a report in JTA, which publishes parts of the study, "outside the Orthodox world, men are becoming less and less engaged in every aspect of Jewish life, from the home to the synagogue to communal organizations. Numerous studies show that fewer boys than girls go to non-Orthodox youth groups, religious schools or summer camps, fewer go into the rabbinate and cantorate, and fewer serve on synagogue or federation committees....

As I traveled the country for my brother John Kerry, speaking with Jewish groups and other communities in 2004, I learned that the most powerful way to show you have listened and understood is to bring the stories you have heard to wider audiences. As one African-American woman in Seattle put it, “I want to hear you call my name.” When Barack Obama delivered his remarkable speech on race in Philadelphia, I felt as a member of the Jewish community that he was calling my name. Speaking with moral clarity about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, he said a view “that...

Perhaps you've already seen this column in The Washington Times, written by John Hagee, pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio and author of several "end times" books based in premillennial dispensationalism. Hagee has been accused of being anti-Catholic, but he takes pains to counter those accusations: During his recent visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI not only conducted mass and met with the Catholic faithful, but he made a series of public statements about the role that our Judeo-Christian faith can play during these challenging times. As an evangelical Protestant I happen to disagree with Pope Benedict...

So what is the best way to wake up the dhimmis or, if they refuse to wake up, to defeat them? Tell us a bit about possible grand strategies. Warner: The key to waking up the dhimmis is with two kinds of knowledge--history and doctrine. Our dhimmis suffer from wanting to do the right thing and they think that the right thing is to help the victim. And Islam always claims to be the victim. Dhimmis love a good victim story. We need to tell the history of the real victims--subjugated dhimmis, the Christian Arabs, Egyptian Copts, the Armenians, the...

The ancient question "Why is this night different" may have a different and somewhat unexpected connotation this year. A ruling on April 3 by Local Affairs Court Judge Tamar Bar-Asher-Tsaban limiting the extent of the 1986 Prohibition on the Display of Hametz Law has infuriated religious leaders and lawmakers and threatens to upset the delicate balance between secular and Orthodox in the capital. Last year the municipality filed lawsuits against four non-kosher eateries and a mini-market for failing to pay fines issued for selling hametz (leavened products). Bar-Asher-Tsaban's ruling, however, determined that the allegations in the charge were incorrect and...

About two months ago, my wife and I visited the Fundamentalist Mormon community of Colorado City, Arizona, the base of imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs. I had always wanted to see for myself how this community lives. Arriving late in the afternoon, we went to the main supermarket, where tens of fundamentalist Mormons were out buying food with their families. They were understandably suspicious of these intruders and reluctant to engage us in conversation. After a while, the manager of the store came over to us and asked, with considerable warmth, if we had found what we were looking for. He...

As the Edah Haredit gears up for a major protest against the sale of hametz in the streets of Jerusalem, secular Jews are asking themselves why their haredi brothers cannot just live and let live. After all, why should a haredi Jew from Mea She'arim possibly care if a Jewish Israeli with no religious ties whatsoever enjoys a slice of thoroughly leavened pizza? The haredi and the secular Israeli drew their lines of demarcation long ago. The haredi barely acknowledges the legitimacy of the State of Israel and might go through his entire life without ever having a significant social...

According to the sages of the Talmud, there are 70 families with 70 paths within the great Family of Man. And each individual has his or her path within a path. Yet, there is one universal basis for us all. At the dawn of human history, G-d gave man seven rules to follow in order that His world be sustained. So it is recounted in the Book of Genesis as interpreted by our tradition in the Talmud. There will come a time, our sages told us, that the children of Noah will be prepared to return to this path. That...

Original Free Republic LinkFree Republic:Pope Benedict XVI Pays Historical Visit To The Park Street Synagogue

Address to New York Jewish Community, Park East Synagogue   On 18 April 2008 the Holy Father gave the following address to representatives of the Jewish Community in New York gathered at Park East Synagogue in Manhattan. Dear Friends, Shalom! It is with joy that I come here, just a few hours before the celebration of your Pesah, to express my respect and esteem for the Jewish community in New York City. The proximity of this place of worship to my residence gives me the opportunity to greet some of you today. I find it moving to recall that...

Pope Benedict XVI paid a 22-minute visit to the Park East Synagogue — the first papal trip to a United States synagogue — on Friday afternoon. He presented the synagogue with a medieval Jewish manuscript from the Vatican library and received three gifts: a seder plate, a Passover haggadah and a box of matzoh. The pope offered warm remarks and was showered with praise and music, but in a brief, three-minute address, he did not address the Holocaust, anti-Semitism or historic tensions between Jews and the Catholic Church. The pope entered the temple As the choir sang “Sh’ma Yisrael,” a...

For a long time I did not hear the beauty of church bells; or more accurately, I did not wish to hear it. They sounded only like Christianity, which in my early years was a vexing triumphalist sound--the pealing of history, from which my honor as a Jew required me to recoil. When the tintinnabulations of the Church of St. Francis Xavier on Avenue O reached my ears, they brought the message that I was a member of a minority. I was not acquainted with the liturgical schedule of the church, with the practical reason for the ringings--though I might...

Greeting of the Jewish Community in Washington, D.C. and Message for Pesah     My dear friends, I extend special greetings of peace to the Jewish community in the United States and throughout the world as you prepare to celebrate the annual feast of Pesah. My visit to this country has coincided with this feast, allowing me to meet with you personally and to assure you of my prayers as you recall the signs and wonders God performed in liberating his chosen people. Motivated by our common spiritual heritage, I am pleased to entrust to you this message as a testimony...

In the days when Moses dictated the law of the land, the five daughters of Zelophephad took issue with the rules of inheritance. The Book of Numbers xxvii recounts how the sisters sought counsel with Moses in front of the congregation of travelling Israelites to demand that the laws be altered to accommodate female succession. This bit of biblical history is often brushed over, as are other feminist aspects of the Old Testament, because for thousands of years men alone have interpreted the Hebrew Scriptures, according to a feminist revision of the text. The Torah: A Women's Commentary re-evaluates the...

Moshe Feiglin was in New York on 9/11. Two weeks later he wrote this profound article Why America Has Already Lost the War.For him it was a cultural/religious war. The same war that Israel had been fighting for a century and losing. They destroyed the greatest symbol of the West namely the Twin Towers and nothing less would do but to destroy Mecca, Medina and al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Instead America organized a coalition to go after cave dwellers in Afghanistan, hornets if you will, while ignoring the nest. It even called the religion, that has been at war...

The authors of the books discussed in this year’s survey are senior scholars who have distinguished themselves through many years of teaching and lecturing, original contributions to biblical research and proven ability to communicate their learning to the general public. Their recent publications offer reliable and accessible points of entry to important areas within the biblical field. What do today’s biblical scholars do? What should they do? In The Nature of Biblical Criticism (Westminster John Knox), John Barton, professor of the interpretation of holy Scripture at Oxford University, contends that the main task of biblical criticism is to read texts...

A fringe sect of Jewish women with a Taliban-like dress code will be overcome by a major spiritual crisis after the arrest of the group's leader on charges of child abuse, haredi sources in Beit Shemesh predicted Wednesday. According to haredi media and a well-informed source in Beit Shemesh, the 54-year-old mother of 12 who is suspected of serious child abuse and failing to report multiple cases of incest among her children, is none other than the head of a sect of women who adhere to a dress code more stringent than that of the most extreme Muslim sects and...

In an incident that underlines the tension between the US and Israeli branches of the Conservative Movement over ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis, the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem clashed this week with a group of visiting American rabbinic students. Schechter's administration refused to allow a group of about 35 students to mark on Wednesday the one-year anniversary of the groundbreaking decision by the Jewish Theological Seminary, the movement's flagship rabbinic school in New York, to accept gay and lesbian rabbinical and cantorial students. According to a press release put out by Schechter, Rabbi Dr. Einat Ramon, dean of...

Recent incidents point to heightened tensions inside Israel between the ultra-Orthodox community and messianic Jews, who believe in Jesus but consider themselves Jewish. In the desert town of Arad, a religious argument recently ended in an attempt by a messianic Jewish man to run over a member of Yad L'Achim, a Haredi anti-missionary organization.

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger welcomed on Tuesday an initiative from Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah for dialogue among monotheistic religions, including Judaism. "I give my blessing to every initiative that can prevent bloodshed and terror, especially in our area of the world," Metzger said, in a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post. He added that militarism and terror in the 21st century were primarily religiously motivated. Therefore, interfaith dialogue was the best antidote, he said. "When Osama bin Laden talks of punishing Europe or Israel, he speaks in the name of religion. That's why it is so important to hear...

Also compares Muslim terrorists to religious 'radicals' in Oregon JERUSALEM – Sen. Barack Obama's military adviser and national campaign co-chairman has implied U.S. politicians are afraid of Jewish voters in Miami and New York City and that American Jews are the "problem" impeding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Merrill A. McPeak, a former Air Force chief of staff, also compared the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations to what he described as religious radicals in Oregon and claimed "born-again [Christians]" supported the war in Iraq to help Israel. Discussing Middle East politics during a 2003 interview with the Oregonian newspaper...

ewish groups around the world have condemned Pope Benedict XVI's new version of a Catholic Good Friday prayer. SPIEGEL ONLINE talks to prominent German rabbi Walter Homolka about why the prayer is insulting to Jews and discusses alleged anti-Semitic tendencies within the Catholic Church. Rabbi Walter Homolka: "The Catholic Church does not have its anti-Semitic tendencies under control." Around the world, millions of Catholics are celebrating Good Friday, when they commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. But for many Jews, this year's ceremonies leave a bitter aftertaste, due to a controversial new version of a prayer that many claim is...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney, starting a visit on Saturday to try to push forward Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said Washington would never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security. Palestinians accuse Israel of undermining the U.S.-sponsored peace talks by expanding Jewish settlements, refusing to remove West Bank roadblocks and mounting offensives against militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip who fire cross-border rockets into the Jewish state. "America's commitment to Israel's security is enduring and unshakable, as is Israel's right to protect itself always against terrorism, rocket attacks and other attacks from forces dedicated to Israel's destruction,"...

In a solution to a decidedly postmodern Jewish dilemma, a group of pluralistic, secular rabbis ruled this week that when standing under the huppa in a same-sex marriage ceremony, both partners can be given the honor of "breaking the glass." "The breaking of the glass, a staple of every Jewish wedding, is used to remember the egregious hatred that led to the destruction of the Second Temple," said Ofer Korenfeld, chairman of Havayah, an organization that arranges "Jewish-inspired" lifecycle events. "This message is particularly pertinent to the homo-lesbian community, which is the target of so much hatred," added Kornfeld. Havayah's...

More than once during these talks I referred to Luther and what always occurred to me as his destructive influence. I pointed out that even in such an admirable book as Rohan Butler's “The Roots of National Socialism” the spiritual origins of Nazism and Luther's influence had not been given the necessary importance. Then I was asked if I would be prepared to elaborate to them—about a dozen of the very senior boys, that is—my own views on Luther and Lutheranism. I agreed—with the proviso that they would be my own views and nothing else. Admittedly, I had read more...

CHICAGO — Having grown up in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Capers C. Funnye Jr. was encouraged by his pastor to follow in his footsteps. Instead, he became a rabbi. His congregation on the Far Southwest Side of Chicago is predominantly black, and while services include prayers and biblical passages in Hebrew, the worshipers sometimes break into song, swaying back and forth like a gospel choir. As the first African-American member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis and of numerous mainstream Jewish organizations, Rabbi Funnye (pronounced fun-AY) is on a mission to bridge racial and religious divisions by encouraging Chicago’s...

In the thriving Jewish community of Odessa, Ukraine, ritual circumcisions happen about one a week; weddings occur one a month. But the bris of young Alexander Gorvitz two weeks ago nevertheless made history for being the first time that more than 80 years that a Ukraine mayor hosted a public celebration on occasion of his son’s circumcision. Edward Gorvitz, the father, is currently in his second term as mayor of the Black Sea port. He and his wife, Olga, have one other son, 21-year-old Shmuel. According to Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Avraham Wolff, who organized the ceremony with the Brit Yosef Yitzchak...

High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week. Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy. "As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an...

In fiery newsletter, rabbi encourages women to resist any form of sexual harassment Kobi Nahshoni Published: 03.02.08, 23:18 / Israel Jewish Scene Fight off your attacker: Women attacked by rapists are permitted to kill them to ward off the attack, Beit El Chief Rabbi Shlomo Aviner ruled in a newsletter published Saturday. “In either word or deed, fight him off. Yell out loud so that everyone can hear you. If he touches you, slap him. If he attempts to do worse, and there is no other choice, you can kill him…yes, kill him,” Rabbi Aviner wrote. The rabbi also noted...