The Vicious Babushka

NY Times Fascinated by Hasidic Dress Code in 90-Degree Weather

Who's cooler? Who's hotter?

By Joseph Berger

When the mercury passes 90, most New Yorkers start to wilt. Many resort to shorts and tank tops, even in the office. More than a few bankers and lawyers reach for their seersuckers.

Yet amid all the casual summer wear, in some neighborhoods more than others, Hasidic men wear dark three-piece suits crowned by black hats made of rabbit fur, and Hasidic women outfit themselves in long-sleeved blouses and nearly ankle-length skirts. To visibly cooler New Yorkers, they can look painfully overdressed.

Some New Yorkers who are not Hasidic surely ask themselves: How on earth do they stay cool?

The answer is a mix of the spiritual and, yes, the creatively physical. The Hasidim will tell you they have learned to live comfortably in all seasons with their daily attire.

“I think I’m not as hot as other people because the sun is not on me,” said Chany Friedman, who was shopping recently in Borough Park, Brooklyn, with two of her five children in tow, wearing a sweater and dense stockings in addition to other concealing clothing. “If I’m covered, the sun is not on me. I’m happy that I’m not exposed to the world.”

Using a Hebrew name for God, she added, “That’s what Ha-Shem wants from us.”

In the Hasidic world, the traditional fashion code and interpretations of ancient Jewish law dictate modesty for a woman — a concept known as tzniut — so even on sizzling days women conceal their necks, arms and legs, and married women don wigs, head scarves or turbans to hide their real hair. While Hasidic men do not feel the modesty obligation to the same degree, they believe that it is a mark of humility and respect for others to dress formally when encountering the world.

Read more at NY Times.

The dress code at work was suspended today so that they can turn up the thermostat on the air conditioning. But they can't turn it up too high or it will damage all the electronics in the building.

Babushka would be happy to wear a babushka in this weather instead of a sheitel (wig).

In Bnai Brak, where the weather gets very hot in the summer, they wear bekishe made from loose-weave cotton fabric, I am sure that these are sold in NY as well.

Doofus of the Day: Jew-Hating Elmo Freaks Out in Central Park

 

According to Gawker, this Elmo is not just some harmless ranting nutjob, but has a sordid history.

EPIC FAIL: GOP Candidate Makes Excuses For Nazi Pendant: "I Was Wearing Vampire Costume"

And what's that on the wall behind him?

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A Republican Oklahoma state House candidate on Friday sought to downplay a photo on his Facebook page of him wearing a swastika-adorned Iron Cross medallion around his neck, saying it was part of a Halloween costume a few years ago.

Rodney Hiebert, who is running against incumbent state Rep. Mike Sanders in Tuesday's GOP primary, told The Associated Press that he realizes some people find the swastika offensive, but he offered no apology. He noted the symbol was used as the emblem for the Oklahoma National Guard's 45th Infantry Division in the 1920s and 1930s, and by some Native American tribes.

Hiebert, of Taloga, said the photo was taken at a friend's Halloween party about four years ago and that the pendant belonged to his friend.

"I was just going to be a vampire. I had just got off work, and my friend said, 'Here, put this on and we'll just pass you off as a vampire and go.' I didn't really give no thought about it. I still don't really," the 42-year-old Hiebert said.

Hiebert, who says he would serve only one term if elected, said he is not a racist and that he has friends from various ethnicities and countries. He said he doesn't think public schools should be allowed to teach Spanish as a foreign language, and that they should place greater emphasis on teaching about Native American culture.

"Their heritage and traditions are going the way of the Dodo, while we're teaching our kids a foreign language to accept or be conditioned for when the United States is not primarily an English speaking nation anymore," Hiebert said.

He said he also would like to require businesses to post signage in English.

Read more at Syracuse.com.

Turkish PM Assures Babushka's Sons that Jews are Well Protected in Turkey

Babushka's two sons (R. and 2nd R.) with Turkey PM Erdogan (L.)

Turkey's prime minister assured on Thursday Jewish community about their safety in Turkey.

Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Jewish community in Turkey was under his protection and were under security.

"We see them (Jewish people) as our brothers and sisters," Erdogan said as he chatted with two American citizens of Jewish origin [2 sons of Vicious Babushka] on the sidelines of Rio+20 summit.

Erdogan said Israel should behave well to Palestinians, and the world should find a way to solve problems in Middle East.

"We do not have any problems with Israeli people, our problem is with the aggressive and irresponsible policies of the Israeli government," Erdogan also said.

Read more at Anadolu Agency (Turkish news)

'The Undeserving Poor' Jewish Liberals Ponder Withholding Assistance to Needy Whose Lifestyles They Disapprove

"Undeserving Poor"

From "The Jewish Daily Forward":

Americans have long debated whether the poor are worthy of our help. Most people don’t put it that way, of course, because it seems cruel or, at very the least, inappropriate. But the question flows through the public discourse whenever proposals for reforming public welfare come before Congress, or an extension of housing benefits is on the legislative agenda. Do the recipients of such aid deserve it? Is it worth the cost to taxpayers? Does the safety net help those who truly are in need, or does it shackle them to the kind of government assistance that stifles motivation and derails self-sufficiency?

We’re used to hearing that argument play out with regard to racial and ethnic minorities — the so-called Welfare Queens, the undeserving poor. Now it’s time for the Jewish community to engage in this delicate, complicated debate.

The survey just released by UJA-Federation of New York made headlines for what it found: New York’s Jews are more numerous, less educated, more religious and poorer than they were a decade ago. The findings confirm what many suspected and, in some cases, feared: that the middle is shrinking. The religious middle — that is, Jews who identify as Reform or Conservative — is losing shares to the Orthodox and the unaffiliated, and that poses a direct challenge to the open, egalitarian, inclusive Judaism that has been ascendant in this country for the past half-century.

There will be plenty to say about that in the coming days and months. But it is the growth in poverty that draws our attention now.

The survey included the eight counties served by the New York Federation — the city’s five boroughs, plus those of Westchester and Long Island — and found that one-fifth of Jews live in poor households. The proportion increases when the suburban counties are omitted: 27% of Jews in New York City live in poor households, only slightly less than the 30% of poor people of any religion.

Read more at the Forward, and don't forget the comments.

Liberal Judaism as represented by “The Forward” is all about “Tikkun Olam” — fixing the world. Helping the needy has always been a cornerstone of Judaism whether you call it “Tikkun Olam” or just plain Biblical commandment.

Now we are hearing the same kind of seething and shrieking from liberals that we are accustomed to hearing from right-wing nutjobs when it comes to helping the needy. It’s suddenly all about forcing the “other” to change their alternative lifestyles in order to qualify for assistance.

Trust me, nobody deliberately chooses to live in poverty. I have been unemployed and it sucks. Nobody would prefer to give up a $60,000/year job in order to qualify for $6,000 in food stamps. It appears the myth of “young bucks buying T-bone steaks with food stamps” is alive and well, it has just morphed into “large Hasidic families buying expensive kosher food with food stamps” but that doesn’t make it any less bigoted.

Refusing assistance to needy Hasidic families is every bit as repugnant as refusing assistance to young single mothers or refusing health care to gays.

 

"Benny" Green Mascot to Teach Haredi Kids About the Environment

"Benny"--the Green Mascot of Bnai Brak

Crowding, lots of trash and notices slapped on every pole and tree are only a few of the environmental problems facing the Ultra-Orthodox community. Bnei Brak hopes that 'Benny' will convince the next generation to embrace a green approach

In 2011, the city of Bnei Brak saved some NIS 800,000 in dumping fees through a project urging residents to separate small waste and drink containers, figures presented Tuesday at a conference devoted to examining environmental issues in the haredi sector show.

The Bnei Brak Municipality took advantage of the conference to present its environmental activity and PR campaign, which is designed around the character of "Benny" – a haredi amalgam who takes care of the environment.

Benny – created by the Agas ad agency - wears green clothes and is designed to influence the younger generation toward a greener lifestyle.

"The goal was to make Benny 'all-haredi,' someone everyone will love – hassidim, Lithuanians, young Shasnikim… the entire religious community," the Bnei Brak Municipality explains.

The conference was also introduced to new environmental ideas and technologies in use in Bnei Brak, such as "buried bins" – trash cans whose tops are slightly higher than the ground but are mostly underground. According to the city, this approach takes up considerably less space – one buried bin can hold as much as 7 to 8 1,100-liter trash receptacles.

Another green tactic unveiled at the conference, and one that suits a uniquely haredi demand, is the "recycling bulletin board." Since notices were being flung up on every electric police and tree anyway, the city hopes that by making the sides of recycling bins kosher for notices, fewer pirate placards will be put up on other surfaces.

General issues regarding the Ultra-Orthodox population and environmental sensitivity were also discussed at the conference: a higher number of residents per household, which creates more waste; as well as lower environmental awareness and less green activism than in other sectors.

Read more at YNet.

However--ugh--the first comment at the YNet article, calls for ethnic cleansing. 

UK Schools Ban Pork from Lunchrooms; Jews & Muslims Never Requested This

London, june 18 (ANI): Schools in UK have banned pork from school lunches for religious reasons.

Haringey Council, North London, recently adviced all schools to ban pork, which is not eaten by Jews or Muslims, across the country, and to meet the needs of staff and pupils who are not allowed to have contact with it.

The decision has been criticised by lawmakers who said that the ban would cause unnecessary resentment among pupils and religious leaders who have never asked for a ban.

John Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said it was simply not an issue, adding that Jews of a certain level would choose not to eat in non-kosher environments.

"Children who are comfortable with using the same cutlery and crockery as everyone else would choose their dishes from the options available. It is live and let live, we are certainly not calling for this," the Daily Mail quoted Benjamin as saying.

Muslim leaders have only asked that halal and non-halal meat be handled separately in an effort to avoid any cross contamination and for clear labelling when serving school dinners.

Read more at Yahoo News.

Creeping Sharia Freakout Alert!

The Haredi Spring

Serves in the IDF, works, pays taxes and has Internet!

By Yehuda Schlezinger

They work in high-tech and advertising, serve in the Israel Defense Forces and still wear black skullcaps • They demand recognition and legitimacy, threaten to split off from the United Torah Judaism party and become angry when others describe them as foes • Although the leaders of the haredi street make it difficult for them to find spouses and call them “haredi-lite,” they also realize that these "new haredim" are not going away • The "new haredi" movement may lead the haredi sector either to an explosion or to a split

You will be seeing them near you. You will not find them in movie theaters or nightclubs, but you will see them driving the Mazda on your right at the traffic light. They will be standing on line in front of you and behind you at the duty-free shops in Ben-Gurion Airport and will be sitting at the next table in restaurants all over the country. They work for a living just like you do, and in complete opposition to the description of haredim as parasites, they earn salaries similar to those of the Israeli middle class.

This description comes from a haredi man wearing a black suit and a black skullcap on his head. He represents the "new haredi" movement that has had Israel’s religious world in an uproar in the recent past. If this phenomenon had been hidden away like skeletons in the closets of haredi society until fairly recently, now no one dares to ignore it.

This topic — one of the most sensitive and urgent in the haredi sector — threatens to change the face of haredi society. Some people claim that this new movement is going to cause a revolution.

The number of the "new haredim" is estimated in the tens of thousands.

They are scattered throughout the haredi population centers in Israel, from Jerusalem to Bnei Brak, from Beitar Illit to Elad, from Beit Shemesh to Upper Modi’in. Most of them come from the major Lithuanian segment identified with the United Torah Judaism party. Their parents no longer shun them as was done in the past, even if they do not necessarily condone their children’s choices. “The parents are in no hurry to let people know that they have "new haredim" at home, but they are not ashamed of it either,” one of them says. “Ostracism by the family has become something that is done only by the more extreme types, if at all.”

Read more at Israel Hayom.

Babushka takes issue with this description as a "new species" of Haredi since Babushka's family has been like this for 20 years!

This article primarily focuses on the Misnagdim (Lithuanian) community in Israel, not on Hasidic Jews or "ultra-Orthodox" outside Israel, but definitely worth a read.

EPIC FAIL: NBC Editor Asks "Is Burger King Bacon Sundae 'Anti-Semitic'?"

First of all, BurgerKing, except for specially designated franchise operations in Israel, is not under kosher supervision and does not follow kosher rules. So they can serve any food they want to.

Secondly, adding bacon to any food product does not make that food "Anti-Semitic" any more than it can be "Anti-Muslim" or "Anti-Vegetarian." It's not kosher, but then nobody ever said that it was.

Finally, Jews who eat at non-kosher restaurants and think it's OK as long as they avoid pork products, are only fooling themselves. If only now they are all offended by a "bacon sundae" they are free to stop eating at Burger King.

NY Jewish Population Increasing, Thanks Mainly to Orthodox

 

After decades of decline, the Jewish population of New York City is growing again, increasing to nearly 1.1 million, fueled by the “explosive” growth of the Hasidic and other Orthodox communities, a new study has found. It is a trend that is challenging long-held notions about the group’s cultural identity and revealing widening gaps on politics, education, wealth and religious observance.

Those findings, contained in the first authoritative study of the city’s Jewish population in nearly a decade, challenges the entrenched image of Jews as liberal, affluent and well educated. Over the last decade wealthy, Ivy League graduates like those on the Upper West Side have increasingly lost population share relative to Orthodox groups, like the Hasidic population in Brooklyn, where college degrees are rare and poverty rates have reached 43 percent.

Members of these Orthodox groups also have been known to be far more likely to adopt more conservative positions on matters like abortion, same-sex marriage and the Israeli approach to the Palestinians.

At the same time, among non-Orthodox Jews, there has been a weakening in observance of quintessential Jewish practices. Participation in Passover Seders has declined: 14 percent of households never attend one, almost twice as many as a decade ago. Reform and Conservative movements each lost about 40,000 members between 2002 and 2011; nearly a third of the respondents who identified themselves as Jews said they did not ally themselves with a denomination or claimed no religion.

Read more at NY Times.

Well, this totally blows away the predictions of the 1990 and 2000 National Jewish Population Surveys, which claimed that Orthodox Judaism was shrinking. These surveys relied on telemarketing techniques to obtain their data samples, which limited their sample to people who agreed to chat with a random telemarketer for 45 minutes which it took to complete the survey.

 

Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum Vandalized, Where Are the Security Cams?

Entrance to Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, defaced by vandals.

The entrance to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem was vandalized overnight.

Museum workers discovered the damage upon arriving on the premises Monday morning.

According to available details, unknown vandals sprayed graffiti reading "Hitler, thanks for the Holocaust" and "If Hitler didn’t exist the Zionists would have had to invent him" on one of the walls.

Some 10 other slogans of the same nature were daubed in several other areas as well, including "Israel is the secular Auschwitz of the Sephardic Jewry," and "Jews wake up – the Zionist regime is dangerous."

One of the slogans was reportedly signed "The global Zionist mafia" and another was signed "the global haredi Jewry."

Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vshem, said: "I'm appalled by this blatant act of hatred towards the state and towards Zionism. This has crossed a red line. I've informed the education minister of this incident and he too was outraged."

'Neturei Karta not involved'

Despite the supposed radical-haredi indicators to the incident, it was denounced by the extremist Neturei Karta sect.

Mordechai Hirsch, one of the sect's leaders, told Ynet that Monday's vandalism was not the work of any of the group's activists and pointed the finger at the radical Right, suggesting the incident was in fact a "price tag" act.

"None of our people were involved in this," he stressed. "But I can't comment on something I haven’t seen for myself."

Another source, affiliated with the extremist Eda Haredit sect, said that while some may identify with the similar acts, none in the sect would endorse vandalizing a place like Yad Vashem.

"These kind of slogans are beneath even the biggest anti-Semites in the world, he added. "This was probably done by the lunatic fringe – and they don’t represent anyone. These people are truly sick."

Read more at YNet.

Obama Meets Orthodox Jews at the White House; MJ Rosenberg Has A Heart Attack

President Obama and members of the OU Advocacy Group.

By Ron Kampeas · June 6, 2012

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- President Obama is spreading the word, one Jewish constituency at a time: He has Israel's back.

Obama defended his record on Israel and on religious freedoms on Tuesday during a White House meeting with Orthodox leaders. Challenged by one of those leaders on the efficacy of his perceived even-handedness in dealing with Israel and the Palestinians, Obama countered that he has not been even-handed; he has favored Israel.

Obama's meeting was the second such encounter in a week; six days earlier he met with leaders of the Conservative movement.

The meetings come in an election year in which the Obama administration has intensified its Jewish outreach. Obama spoke to the Union for Reform Judaism's biennial in December, and then to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in March. Vice President Joe Biden addressed the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly in May, and later the same month hosted a briefing day for about 70 leaders convened by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

The last two meetings have come in the form of informal "drop-bys" on meetings that various Jewish umbrella groups routinely convene with Jack Lew, his Jewish chief of staff. White House meetings have been commonplace for decades, and generally take place once or twice a year with the presidential adviser designated as the senior outreach official for Jewish groups.

Although Obama's "drop-by" at the last two meetings was described as informal by Jewish and White House officials, it seemed to be carefully planned. The Orthodox Union leaders arrived prepared with a gift for the president.

Obama's outreach, particularly on Tuesday to the Orthodox leaders -- whose constituency increasingly tends to favor Republicans -- fits in with a strategy that senior Democratic officials have in the past described as tamping down pockets of hostility as much as it is about cultivating the party's natural base in the Jewish community.

The meeting Tuesday, convened by the OU, was friendly, in depth and constructive, participants on all sides said.

Read more at JTA.org.

Whiny little dweeb MJ Rosenberg complained about the President not excluding this group of Jews from all White House affairs. He Tweeted: Why does Obama pursue the 10-20% of Jews who will NEVER vote 4 him (echoing GOP dumbass James Baker's famous remark "F*** the Jews, they didn't vote for us anyway")

 

Mazal Tov Your Royal Majesty!

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Wagner's Music Still Forbidden in Israel

 

Tel Aviv University announced Monday that it would not permit a scheduled Wagner concert to take place on its campus, after it had evoked angry protests.

In a letter to Attorney Yonathan Livni, who had submitted the request to hire the campus' Smolarz Auditorium for the event on June 18, the university denied the request, accusing him of deliberately concealing the intention to perform Richard Wagner's works. The university also claimed that Livni did not mention the name of the organization he represented.

Livni, the founder of the Israel Wagner Society, asked the university last week to hold a concert, conducted by Asher Fisch, in the auditorium, making no mention of planning to perform Richard Wagner's works, the university spokesman said.

"You deliberately concealed this basic fact from us...We received angry protests calling to call off the controversial event...[which] would deeply offend the Israeli public in general and Holocaust survivors in particular," he said.

Wagner, who espoused anti-Semitic views during his lifetime, was also Adolf Hitler's favorite composer. Attempts to perform Wagner in Israel over the past 30 years have always generated heated controversy.

Read more at Haaretz.

Babushka loves Wagner's music and will continue to listen!

How many Jews did Wagner kill?

Which of Wagner's musical works explicitly portray Jews as bad people, or at all?

"Wagner, who espoused anti-Semitic views during his lifetime" this is not expressed in his music so who cares? Was Wagner significantly more anti-Semitic than other prominent composers of that period? OK maybe he was more anti-Semitic than Mendelssohn, but what about Brahms? Franz Liszt? Johann Sebastian Bach? Georg Frederich Handel? You can probably find more anti-Semitic stuff in the scores of Bach and Handel (they composed predominantly church music) but their music isn't banned in Israel.

Wagner was not a Nazi. Wagner did not kill any Jews. So please stop this silliness.