Obama administration objects to U.S. Jewish group's bid to have fines levied against Russia for refusing to return historic documents

Another backlog item, as reported by Associated Press, October 16, 2012:

The Obama administration is opposing a Jewish group's bid to have civil fines levied against Russia for failing to obey a court order to return its historic books and documents – a dispute that has halted the loan of Russian art works for exhibit in the United States.

In a recent court filing, the Justice Department argued that judicial sanctions against Russia in this case would be contrary to US foreign policy interests and inconsistent with US law.

The Jewish group, Chabad-Lubavitch, based in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, has already convinced Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court here that it has a valid claim to the tens of thousands of religious books and manuscripts, some up to 500 years old, which record the group's core teachings and traditions.

Lamberth ruled the records are unlawfully possessed by the Russian State Library and the Russian military archive. And in 2010, he ordered the Russian government to turn them over to the US embassy in Moscow or to the group's representative.

Russia, which doesn't recognize the authority of the US court, has refused. It says the collection is part of Russia's national heritage.

Chabad's lawsuit and earlier rulings in the case by Lamberth have already had unintended consequences: Russia has completely halted the loan of its art treasures for exhibit in the United States, for fear that they will be seized and held hostage in the court battle.

Lamberth is known for issuing largely unenforceable multimillion-dollar judgments against foreign governments he believes are hostile to this country and have harmed US citizens, but last year he granted Chabad permission to seek attachment of Russian property in the US So far, the group has not done so.

Lamberth also is currently weighing Chabad's motion to hold Russia in civil contempt of court and impose fines of at least $25,000 a day.

Alarmed at the prospect of having its property seized, Russia has refused to loan any art to this country for exhibitions, even though Chabad has said in court filings that it will not go after any art deemed culturally significant by the State Department – which is the case for major exhibitions. Such art is already protected from legal claims under the Immunity from Seizure Act.

But Yevgeniy Khorishko, a Russian embassy spokesman in Washington, said that law is limited in scope.

"Moreover, it is US national law, while we would like to have some kind of international obligations to ensure the return of our cultural objects on the part of the US," he said in an email. "As for the Chabad's statement, we don't regard it as a sufficient guarantee. Taking into account the 2010 court judgment, we cannot exclude other unpredictable decisions by US courts or administrative bodies."

At issue are two collections: 12,000 religious books and manuscripts seized during the Bolshevik revolution and the Russian Civil War nearly a century ago; and 25,000 pages of handwritten teachings and other writings of religious leaders stolen by Nazi Germany during World War II, then transferred by the Soviet Red Army as war booty to the Russian State Military Archive.

It's doubtful Russia will pay
Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic movement within orthodox Judaism, is estimated to have more than 200,000 adherents and to draw perhaps a million to some of its services in about 70 countries It was founded in the late 1700s in Eastern Europe, and has been led through its history by seven "Rebbes," who amassed the books and writings. The group was incorporated in New York City in 1940.

In its filing, the Justice Department said that Chabad's bid for sanctions is precluded by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The department argues that this law doesn't allow a court to compel compliance with an order for property held by a foreign state within the state's own territory.

The department added that even if sanctions were allowed, the judge should not issue them "in order to avoid damage to foreign policy interests of the United States."

Court-ordered sanctions in this case would be so far removed from international norms, the department said, "that any foreign government would oppose it. Such an order would risk significant criticism from the international community, and would likely be resisted in this or other cases involving foreign sovereigns."

And the department said that civil sanctions would undermine diplomatic and other efforts, dating as far back as 1933, by administrations and members of Congress of both parties, to get the collections returned.

In a statement, Chabad said that the DOJ filing "unjustifiably seeks to obstruct Chabad's legal effort to retrieve sacred Jewish documents held by Russia in violation of international law." Chabad said Justice misconstrues precedents under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Chabad will file its formal response later this month.

If sanctions were assessed, it's doubtful Russia would pay them.

Asked how his country would respond to sanctions, Khorishko, the Russian embassy spokesman, said, "Let us first wait for the judge's decision. We hope that the US court will not take a decision, which would so blatantly violate international law of sovereign immunity."

In 1992 and 2005, all 100 US senators wrote the Russian government requesting the materials be returned, but to no avail. According to court papers, Russian President Boris Yeltsin once gave an explicit assurance to President George H.W. Bush's Secretary of State James Baker that the Russian government would return the materials to Chabad.

In an email, Baker's office said that the former secretary of state recalls bringing up the matter with either Soviet or Russian leadership – or possibly both.

"He seems to recall that he was told that the documents would be returned," the office said.

Khorishko said he doesn't have confirmation of that promise.

"Anyway, like in the United States, promises, even if they were made by presidents, cannot replace or change laws," he said.

Hebrew University study finds that Jews are less than 0.2% of world population

Another backlog item, as reported by Anav Silverman of Tazpit, October 15, 2012:

The global Jewish population reached 13.75 million in the past year, with an increase of 88,000 people, a study by Hebrew University Professor Sergio DellaPergola reveals.

According to the study, one out of every 514 people in the world is Jewish, less than 0.2% of mankind.

About 43% of the world’s Jewish community lives in Israel, making Israel the country with the largest Jewish population.

The Central Bureau of Statistics reported on the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year 5773, that the total population of Israel in 2012 grew to nearly 8 million. About 73% of the population is native born.

The Israeli Jewish population stands at 5,978,600, up 1.8%; the Arab population numbers at 1,636,600, up 2.4%; and the rest of the population including Christians and non-Jews reached 318,000 people, up 1.3%. Israel’s Jewish population makes up 75% of the state’s total people.

In all, the Jewish state’s population increased by 96,300 people in 2012, a growth rate that did not diverge from the average rate in the past eight years.

Part of Israel’s population increase comes in part of the new immigrants that have arrived to the country. In 2011, Israel welcomed 16,892 new immigrants as citizens, with the largest populations coming from Russia (3,678), followed by Ethiopia (2,666), United States (2,363), Ukraine (2,051) and France (1,775).

Israel’s population is relatively young compared to populations in other western countries, with 28% of the population aged 0-14. Israel’s life expectancy is one of the highest of the international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) 34 member states, with Jewish males’ life expectancy 4.2 years higher than their Arab counterparts.

The Central Bureau of Statistics also found that 40% of Israel’s population lives in the center of the country, with Tel Aviv as Israel’s densest region, while 17 % lives in the north, 14% in the south, 12% in Jerusalem and Haifa, and 4% in Judea and Samaria.

Over 47,885 couples married in Israel in the past year, of which 75% were Jewish and 21% Muslim. In 2011, there were 166, 296 babies born in Israel.

The world’s principal religious populations divide as follows according to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2012: Christians at 33% or 2.1 billion, Muslims at 24% or 1.65 billion, Hindus at 14% or 900 million, and Buddhists at 6% or 350 million. At least one billion people in the world do not ascribe to any religion at all.

For more detailed information, go here and scroll down for links to research projects and selected publications.

Emory University apologizes for years of anti-Semitism in dental school

Another backlog item, as reported by Associated Press, October 12, 2012:

Emory University in Atlanta is apologizing for years of anti-Semitism at its dental school, when dozens of Jewish students were flunked out or forced to repeat courses, leaving many feeling inadequate and ashamed for decades despite successful careers.

The school invited many of those former students to meet with president James Wagner on Wednesday and then attend a screening of a documentary about the discrimination, which heavily relies on video interviews collected by one of those students, Dr. Perry Brickman.

"We knew individually and collectively what the truth was," Brickman said. "But the truth in a situation like this is never really validated until the perpetrator says sorry."

In one interview, former student Ronald Goldstein recalls the dean asking him, "Why do you Jews want to go into dentistry? You don't have it in the hands." Another, George Marholin, recalls a professor coming into a room cursing at him and calling him a "damn Jew."

"I'm sorry. We are sorry," Wagner said before a ballroom packed with several hundred people.

Under dental school dean John Buhler from 1948 to 1961, about 65% of Jewish students were flunked out or forced to repeat courses, while the rate of failure or repeats was dramatically lower before that period, according to statistics compiled by then-director of the Anti-Defamation League, Art Levin. Anti-Semitism at the dental school spread beyond Buhler to other members of the faculty as well, said university vice president Gary Hauk.

An admissions quota at the time allowed about four Jewish students a year, so there were likely about 50 Jewish students admitted during Buhler's tenure, Hauk said. At a private meeting with Wagner on Wednesday 31 former students or their families were present.

Talk of discrimination in the South in the mid-20th century often focuses on blacks. In the 1950s, while Jews were being discriminated against at the dental school, there was a push at Emory to integrate black students, and the school in 1962 successfully sued the state of Georgia to overturn a state statute that would strip the tax-exempt status of any private college or university that admitted black students.

Some students didn't realize the extent of the anti-Semitism until they got letters alleging poor academic performance.

'Nobody believed us'
Brickman, who's now 79, entered Emory in 1951. All four Jewish students in his dental school class were gone within two years. He did well his first year and was never summoned to speak about his academic performance, so he was shocked to receive a letter from Buhler in the summer of 1952 saying he'd flunked out.

"Nobody believed us," Brickman said. "Even our parents said, 'Oh, you must not have studied enough. Emory's a good school. They wouldn't do anything like that.'"

Buhler resigned in 1961, but Emory denied at the time that his leaving had anything to do with allegations of anti-Semitism. He went on to become dean of the dental school at the University of South Carolina and died in 1976.

Ashamed and confused, Brickman and his fellow students clammed up. Brickman went on to graduate with honors from the University of Tennessee's dental school and enjoyed a successful career in Atlanta.

Despite the lingering sting of discrimination, Brickman retained close ties to Emory, where he'd had a positive undergraduate experience. In 2006, he went to an exhibition at Emory celebrating the 30th anniversary of the school's Jewish studies department. He was surprised to see panels about the discrimination at the dental school. The exhibition's curator, Professor Eric Goldstein, told Brickman he thought the school was ready to face the issue.

Still, Brickman wasn't sure he wanted to reopen that wound. But two years later, when an old friend and former classmate he hadn't spoken to in more than 55 years called him and said he still struggled every day with that pain, Brickman decided to do something.

He contacted dozens of former students for interviews and showed them to Hauk, the university vice president. Hauk helped commission father-son documentary filmmakers John and David Hughes Duke to interview Emory administrators and turn them into a film along with Brickman's interviews.

After Wagner's apology and a screening of the film Wednesday night, some of the men and their families had tears in their eyes and expressed a feeling of relief and vindication, grateful the apology came while they're still alive.

Israeli rabbi arrested on suspicion of stealing Torah scrolls from synagogue

Another backlog item, as reported by Ilana Curiel of Ynet News, October 11, 2012:

Police on Tuesday arrested a rabbi on suspicion of being involved in stealing Torah scrolls from a synagogue in a southern Israeli community.

Residents of Moshav Brosh in the Negev were surprised to discover during the holiday of Simchat Torah that parchments of seven Torah scrolls had been stolen from the local synagogue and replaced with paperboard.

The rabbi faced a court on Wednesday. In the meantime, police are trying to find out what happened to the parchments and where they disappeared to.

Local resident Mordechai Vaknin, who discovered the theft, told Ynet: "On the eve of the holiday we take out the Torah scrolls for the traditional encircling of the synagogue. One of the scrolls, which belongs to my family, was bought four months ago.

"My eldest son asked to see the scroll for the first time. When he opened it he said, 'Dad, this isn't a Torah scroll. There's no parchment, it's fake.' We took a look and realized that it was filled with paperboard, most probably so that we wouldn't feel a difference when carrying it."

Each Torah scroll is valued at NIS 50,000-120,000 (about $12,900-31,000).

The suspect said after being arrested, "I'm a bit confused. I intend to return the stuff. I would like to apologize to anyone who might have been hurt by this."

Statue of 9th Century B.C. Assyrian king discovered in Turkey

Another backlog item, as reported by Richard Cuthbertson in the Calgary Herald, August 10, 2012:

When it comes to uncovering invaluable monuments buried for millenniums halfway around the world, Darren Joblonkay has the golden touch.

The 23-year-old former Lethbridge man, now a PhD student at the University of Toronto, recently notched up his latest find in southeastern Turkey, a 3,000-year-old giant statue of a Patinean king.

Couple that with two major discoveries last year at the same Tayinat Archaeological Project excavation site, and what you have is a budding archeologist with the luck of Indiana Jones.

"It's unheard of, to be honest," Jablonkay said of his good fortune. "These finds that we've found in my square (are) very rare. You don't come across them very often."

The statue is very significant for two major reasons. It shows a high level of creativity not often seen in that part of the world during that period, and the inscription on the back helps with the historical narrative of the time...

...Working under the tutelage of his supervisor, University of Toronto archeologist Tim Harrison, Joblonkay travelled to Turkey in June, his second time at the project site.

He was put in charge of four workers, directed to dig out a 10-by-10-metre plot in the eastern side of an ancient square.

It was the "ting" of a shovel levelled by one of the crew against something hard that first alerted the group.

As Joblonkay scraped away the dirt with a trowel and brush, he found a small lion head.

It proved to be the bracelet attached to the arm of a 1.5-metre-tall basalt stone sculpture, lying face down, of King Suppiluliuma, who ruled around 858 B.C.

Only the head and torso has survived. The sculpture was likely once 3.5 metres tall. The head is covered with curly hair, and the eyes are open wide.

It once stood at a gate complex for the upper citadel of a royal city called Kunulua, the capital of Patina, a neo-Hittite kingdom that existed between 1000 and 738 B.C.

The director of the whole project, Harrison, recently said the find shows the "innovative character and sophistication" of eastern Mediterranean Iron Age cultures. It appears the Assyrian conquest of 738 B.C. destroyed the complex...

...All told, it took a week and a half to fully dig out the statue, which is now housed at a museum in Antalya, a Turkish city near the Mediterranean and the Syrian border.

The chief interest is the inscription on the back, written in an ancient language called Luwian. An expert i the language is now combing over the inscription to decipher what it says.

Lasy year, Joblonkay had been tasked with excavating the western side of the same square.

It's there he found a lion sculpture and a statue of a man, both important pieces.

Emptying wallets while emptying minds: Edmonton's Urban Sanctuary continues to fleece the flock in 2013

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. II Peter 1:3 (NIV)

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. II Peter 2:1-3

For background information on Urban Sanctuary, please see this post from August 4, 2012.

After charging $325 for a four-days of instruction in spiritual formation in 2012, Urban Sanctuary has a number of ripoffs events scheduled for 2013--all at considerable prices (bold added by blogger):

Our Stories: Telling and Listening

Friday, February 1 through Saturday, February, 2, 2013.

Our Stories: Telling and Listening will be a time of learning how to listen and respond deeply, reflectively, and from the heart; a time of discovering new ways to attend to each other's soul.

This retreat runs from 6:30 to 9:30 PM on Friday and runs from 9 AM to 8 PM on Saturday.

When February 1st, 2013 6:00 PM through February 2nd, 2013 8:00 PM

Location Urban Sanctuary 11525 - 23 Ave Edmonton, T6J 4T3 Canada

Event Fee(s) Event Fee $ 125.00

Healthy Soul 2013 - Encountering God in the Ordinary

God has spoken to the people of God throughout the centuries, primarily through the every day events of their lives. The challenge has been to discern the voice of God and to decipher the message which God was conveying. God continues to make known his desires for us; both through the Word of God and in the everyday events of our lives. The challenge and invitation remains: to listen.

At "Encountering God in the Ordinary" Healthy Soul 2013, Dr. Joyce Peasegood will be encouraging us to develop an awareness of God's fingerprint in everyday life, and to mature in our ability to discern the voice of God within our daily experiences.

Healthy Soul 2013 is being held this coming March 8-9 at River West Christian Church (see below for map).

Dr. Joyce Peasgood is a spiritual director, lecturer, retreat director, and the founding director of Anam Chara Centre for Christian Formation located in Calgary. She has completed a Masters at Regent College, majoring in spiritual theology, and a DTh in Christian Spirituality from UNISA. Joyce is ordained with the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada. Currently, she directs and teaches the Soul Care spiritual direction program under the ministry of the Anam Chara Centre. The Anam Chara Centre was formed in the beginning of 2012, as a ministry of spiritual formation and transformation.

Joyce, and her husband, Ed, have 3 grown children and enjoy being grandparents to four grandkids.

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Healthy Soul 2013 - Details

Conference Fees (Register by February 15, 2013 and save $10 on the Regular Registration)
• Regular Registration $75 ($65 before Feb 15, 2013)
• Student Registration $50
• Groups of 7+ $60 per person Call (780) 477-5731 to register a group

Healthy Soul 2013 - Schedule
• Friday ◦ 6:30 pm - Registration Opens
◦ 7:30 - 9 pm - "Ordinary Moments in Scripture" with Dr. Joyce Peasgood

• Saturday ◦ 9 am - "Encountering God in the Everyday" with Dr. Joyce Peasgood
◦ 10:30 am - Breakout session #1 (options: 1.Getting ready for Missionary Service, 2. If Only I Could, or 3. Spirituality on the Run)
◦ 11:30 am - Lunch (Included in Registration)
◦ 1 pm - Breakout session #2 (options: 1.Getting ready for Missionary Service, 2. If Only I Could, or 3. Spirituality on the Run)
◦ 2:15 pm - "Transformational Moments" With Dr. Joyce Peasgood
◦ 3:30 pm - Conference ends

When March 8th, 2013 7:00 PM through March 9th, 2013 3:30 PM

Location River West Christian Church 19815 - 45 Avenue Edmonton, AB T6M 2N4 Canada

Conference Fee(s) Regular Admission $ 65.00
Student Admission $ 50.00

Creating a Prayer Retreat

There is a growing awareness among Christians that in our fast-paced and competitive society, people have an increased need for rejuvenation, rest, and attention to the inner person

Urban Sanctuary offers a place of retreat and refreshment in the midst of the duties of life. Come and be refreshed through prayer, attentiveness to God, and the Word, and be equipped with spiritual practices to sustain you in your everyday life.

Creating a Prayer Retreat includes:
• Teaching on types of prayer
• Learning to recognize ways of encountering God
• Identifying key elements of a prayer retreat
• Developing themes and flow in a prayer retreat

This course is designed to teach you to develop your own personal prayer retreats or lead groups in weekend prayer retreats.

The retreat will be on Wednesday and Thursday evening from 6 - 10 pm.
• $80/person

Go to Event Information and registration

When April 10th, 2013 6:00 PM through April 11th, 2013 10:00 PM

Location Urban Sanctuary 11523 - 23 Ave 6724 - 86 Street Edmonton, AB T6J 4T3 Canada

Residential Prayer Retreat

There is a growing awareness among Christians that in our fast-paced and competitive society people have an increased need for rejuvenation, rest, and attention to the inner person

Urban Sanctuary offers a place of retreat and refreshment in the midst of the duties of life. Come and be refreshed through prayer, attentiveness to God and the Word, and be equipped with spiritual practices to sustain you in your everyday life

Prayer retreat includes::
• Practice & experience various kinds of prayer
• Enjoy communal worship and solitude time

This retreat will be a residential retreat from Friday 7 pm January 4 - Sunday, 5 pm, January 6.

$200 for a single accommodation
$300 for a double accommodation

When April 12th, 2013 7:00 PM through April 14th, 2013 5:00 PM

Location Providence Renewal Centre 3005 - 119th ST NW Edmonton, AB T6J 5R5 Canada

Art, Vocabulary of the Soul 2013

Throughout Christian history the arts have been central to Christian worship. They are an avenue in which many find a close connection to God. In this Friday and Saturday workshop we will explore the connection between art and faith. This is a hands on workshop that will include both teaching and our own creating, and in our creations we will have the opportunity to both give and receive. This workshop is for artists, would be artists, and for those who are curious about art and faith. Students will be encouraged to create in the art of their choice -- painting, writing, sculpture, etc., and instruction and supplies for water color and drawing will be provided for those who desire it.

Workshop Presenter: Artist Julie Drew. Cost $125 per person, Bring a lunch for Saturday.

Date : April 19 & 20, 2013

Schedule : Friday 7 - 9:30 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

When April 19th, 2013 7:00 PM through April 20th, 2013 4:00 PM

Location Urban Sanctuary 11523 - 23 Ave Edmonton, AB T6J 4T3 Canada

As with the spiritual formation workshop in 2012, not only does Urban Sanctuary charge $125 for the art workshop, but they don't even provide lunch.

Egypt's leader likely victim of assassination

According to a study by Zawi Hawass et al published in the British Medical Journal on December 17, 2012, Pharaoh Ramesses III, who reigned from 1186-1155 B.C., appears to have had his throat slit. According to a press release issued by BMJ, December 17, 2012 (click on earlier link above to see the full article, including photos):

Conspirators murdered Egyptian king Ramesses III by cutting his throat, concludes a study in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com today.

Ramesses III - the second Pharaoh of the 20th dynasty - is believed to have reigned from 1186 to 1155 BC. The discovery of papyrus trial documents show that in 1155 BC members of his harem made an attempt on his life as part of a palace coup.

The conspiracy was led by Tiye, one of his two known wives, and her son Prince Pentawere, over who would inherit the throne, but it is not clear whether the plot was successful or not.

The fate of Ramesses III has therefore long been the subject of debate among Egyptologists.

So a team of researchers, led by Dr Albert Zink from the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman of the European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen in Italy, undertook detailed anthropological and forensic analyses on the mummies of Ramesses III and unknown man E, the suspected son of the king.

CT scans of Ramesses III revealed a wide and deep wound in the throat of the mummy, probably caused by a sharp blade – and which could have caused immediate death, say the authors.

A Horus eye amulet was also found inside the wound, most probably inserted by the ancient Egyptian embalmers during the mummification process to promote healing, add the authors. The neck was covered by a collar of thick linen layers.

Analysis of unknown man E revealed an age of 18-20 years, while an inflated thorax and compressed skinfolds around the neck of the mummy suggests violent actions that led to death, such as strangulation, write the authors.

Furthermore, the body was not mummified in the usual way – and was covered with a “ritually impure” goatskin - which the authors say could be interpreted as evidence for a punishment in the form of a non-royal burial procedure.

The authors believe that unknown man E “is a good candidate for Pentawere.” However, they stress that the cause of death “has to remain a matter of speculation.”

Finally, DNA analysis revealed that the mummies share the same parental lineage, “strongly suggesting that they were father and son,” they say.

The authors conclude that Ramesses III “was murdered during the harem conspiracy by cutting his throat.” They add that the genetic relationship of unknown man E to Ramesses III, and his unusual mummification process, including the ritually impure use of a goat skin to cover the body, makes him a good candidate for Pentaware. Thereby, shedding new light on the harem conspiracy.

100 years ago: The birth of Richard Nixon

On January 9, 1913, Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th President of the United States of America (1969-1974), was born in Yorba Linda, California. Those who are interested may want to visit the sites of the Richard Nixon Foundation or the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum, which includes a Watergate Gallery as a permanent exhibit. As for me, I always commemorate the anniversary of Mr. Nixon's birth and death by observing 18 1/2 minutes of silence.

January 5 marked the 80 anniversary of the death of Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States of America (1923-1929). The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum is in Northampton, Massachusetts. Mister, we could use a man like Calvin Coolidge again.

Israeli Military Rabbinate officer caught surfing porn sites

Another backlog item, as reported by Yoav Zitun of Ynet News, October 9, 2012:

The IDF's Military Advocate General Corps is deliberating which measures to take against an officer from the Military Rabbinate, who was caught visiting porn websites several times recently.

Ynet has learned that the officer is suspected of surfing the sites at his base from the personal computer of one of his subordinates, without that junior officer's permission or knowledge.

The incident was revealed following a complaint filed about two weeks ago by the junior officer, Lieutenant N., against his commander who serves in a more senior role in the Military Rabbinate. The complaint was submitted to IDF Ombudsman Brigadier-General (Res.) Yitzhak Brik.

The complaint is also directed at Military Rabbinate officials, including Chief Military Rabbi Brigadier-General Rafi Peretz and head of the Military Rabbinate Corps Colonel Uri Horowitz, as the junior officer claimed that Military Rabbinate officials demanded that he leave the corps following the embarrassing incident.

According to the complaint, the senior officer, who holds the rank of major, violated IDF orders which ban soldiers from visiting porn sites or watching pornographic movies.

The Military Advocate General Corps must now decide whether to handle the case on the criminal, disciplinary or command level.

The junior officer says he has unequivocal proof that his commander watched the films at their office in the base.

The IDF Ombudsman's Office said in response, "A complaint on the matter has been submitted to IDF Ombudsman Brigadier-General (Res.) Yitzhak Brik. The suspected offense mentioned in the complaint is not within the ombudsman's authority and it will therefore be passed on to the Military Advocate General Corps."

Genetic map of Jewish diasporas supports record of ancient settlement in North Africa

Another backlog item, as reported by Ynet News, October 8, 2012 (link inserted by blogger):

A new genetic analysis focusing on Jews from North Africa has provided an overall genetic map of the Jewish Diasporas. The findings support the historical record of Middle Eastern Jews settling in North Africa during Classical Antiquity, proselytizing and marrying local populations, and, in the process, forming distinct populations that stayed largely intact for more than 2,000 years.

The study, led by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, was published online recently in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

“Our new findings define North African Jews, complete the overall population structure for the various groups of the Jewish Diaspora, and enhance the case for a biological basis for Jewishness,” said study leader Harry Ostrer, M.D., professor of pathology, of genetics and of pediatrics at Einstein and director of genetic and genomic testing for the division of clinical pathology at Montefiore Medical Center.

Dr. Ostrer noted that obtaining a comprehensive genetic fingerprint of various Jewish subpopulations can help reveal genetic links to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other common diseases.

In a previous genetic analysis, the researchers showed that modern-day Sephardic (Greek and Turkish), Ashkenazi (Eastern European) and Mizrahi (Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian) Jews that originated in Europe and the Middle East are more related to each other than to their contemporary non-Jewish neighbors, with each group forming its own cluster within the larger Jewish population.

Further, each group demonstrated Middle-Eastern ancestry and varying degrees of mixing with surrounding populations. Two of the major Jewish populations - Middle Eastern and European Jews - were found to have diverged from each other approximately 2,500 years ago.

The current study extends that analysis to North African Jews – the second largest Jewish Diaspora group. Their relatedness to each other, to other Jewish Diaspora groups, and to their non-Jewish North African neighbors had not been well defined.

The study also included members of Jewish communities in Ethiopia, Yemen and Georgia. In all, the researchers analyzed the genetic make-up of 509 Jews from 15 populations along with genetic data on 114 individuals from seven North African non-Jewish populations.

North African Jews exhibited a high degree of endogamy, or marriage within their own religious and cultural group in accordance with custom. Two major subgroups within this overall population were identified: Moroccan/Algerian Jews and Djerban (Tunisian)/Libyan Jews.

The two subgroups varied in their degree of European mixture, with Moroccan/Algerian Jews tending to be more related to Europeans - most likely stemming from the expulsion of Sephardic Jews from Spain during the Inquisition, starting in 1492. Ethiopian and Yemenite Jewish populations also formed distinctive genetically linked clusters, as did Georgian Jews.

Dr. Ostrer’s paper is titled, “North African Jewish and non-Jewish populations form distinctive, orthogonal clusters.”

Jerusalem police accused of harassing Jews who visited Temple Mount during Sukkot

Another backlog item, as reported by Kobi Nahshoni of Ynet News, October 7, 2012:

Jewish organizations focusing on the Temple Mount are accusing the Jerusalem Police of harassing Jews who visited the religious site during the holiday of Sukkot.

According to the organizations' activists, their visiting hours to the Mount were restricted and the police threatened them with false arrests and administrative restraining orders in numbers which had yet to be seen.

Jews are legally allowed to visit the Temple Mount and pray at the site, but the police have determined that visitors must avoid praying for fear of sparking riots, which could endanger the public.

The organizations encouraging Jews to visit the Mount claimed that more than 10 Jews had been arrested during the three intermediate days of Sukkot, compared to a monthly average of several detainees on regular days.

In addition, three activists were arrested Thursday morning while trying to enter the Temple Mount compound after it was closed.

According to the Temple activists, in the past the police only arrested worshippers arriving in groups, but that now that policy has changed and the treatment of all Jewish visitors to the site has been toughened.

The organizations stressed that contrary to the police's stand, the court had released all detainees – proving that the procedure was unnecessary and justified.

Jerusalem Magistrate's Court Judge Malka Aviv even commented that "the argument that the Muslims do not look favorably upon Jews praying on the Temple Mount cannot in itself prevent a Jew from implementing the religious command and praying on the Temple Mount."

The activists also complained that the police shut the Temple Mount gates to Jewish visitors earlier than usual, allowing each person to visit the place for just a few minutes – and in small groups.

"This is a shame and disgrace. We have never seen such a thing," said Yehuda Glick, chairman of the Foundation for the Heritage of the Temple Mount.

"The police simply wet their pants every time they fear friction, and the Jews are the ones who suffer. The Arabs have already learned the method and are threatening to riot, because they know that will stop us from going up to the Mount. They understood that recently on Tisha B'Av, when Jewish visitors were completely banned."

Moshe Fischer, a Jerusalem resident who tried to visit the Temple Mount one afternoon during the hours Jews are permitted to enter, claimed he was blocked and that the police used violent measures against the Jewish visitors – including children – in order to keep them away from the entrance gate.

As a person who visits the site from time to time, he said, he had not encountered such conduct in the past. "It's very unusual," he noted.

Following the high tensions, the joint staff of the Temple movements demanded that Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin convene an urgent recess session in light of what they referred to as "the Israel Police's outrageous collaboration with the Muslim Waqf against Jews at the Temple Mount throughout the holiday of Sukkot."

The Jerusalem Police rejected the claim and offered the following in response: "The Temple Mount was open to visitors at regular hours, despite the provocations on both sides.

"The police will take a firm hand against any provocation from any source, and will continue carrying out arrests and keeping suspects away in order to maintain order and security on the Temple Mount."

University of California officials investigate allegations of anit-Semitism at Berkeley

An item from the backlog, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2012 (updated October 11, 2012):

The federal government is investigating charges that UC Berkeley officials fomented a hostile campus climate for Jewish students by failing to sufficiently tamp down anti-Israel protests.

The U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights office confirmed this week that it has launched an investigation into the charges, first filed in July by two recent Berkeley graduates. They complained that an annual “Apartheid Week” in February featuring protests against Israel's treatment of Palestinians was one of several campus events that have stoked anti-Semitic hate speech.

By failing to curb such activities, the university is presenting “a disturbing echo of incitement, intimidation, harassment and violence carried out under the Nazi regime and those of its allies in Europe against Jewish students and scholars ... during the turbulent years leading up to and including the Holocaust,” the complaint alleges.

University spokesman Dan Mogulof rejected the allegations Wednesday, saying the campus protests were constitutionally protected speech and that officials had made extensive efforts to maintain a safe and inclusive climate. Among other things, he said, the university has set up a website for anonymous complaints, dispatched teams of students and administrators to monitor the campus climate and provided funding for Jewish and Muslim students to promote dialogue and coexistance.

He said U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg recognized the university’s actions last year in dismissing a complaint with similar allegations filed by the same students. A campus poll showed that 80% of Jewish students said they felt respected on campus, about the same proportion as Muslims, Mogulof said.

“We completely reject any allegations that this university has failed to respond promptly and in an effective fashion any time the line that divides constitutionally protected speech from illegal activities gets crossed,” said Mogulof, who described himself as a dual American-Israeli citizen.

Joel H. Siegal, one of two attorneys who filed the complaint, said the actions by activists with the Muslim Student Assn. and Students for Justice in Palestine went beyond protected political protest. During “Apartheid Week,” the San Francisco attorney said, student activists posing as Israeli guards forcing people through mock checkpoints wore Stars of David and skullcaps to attack Judaism and portray all Jews as “bloodthirsty barbarians.”

[Updated, 11:30 a.m. Oct. 11: This post reported allegations that pro-Palestinian students forced classmates through a mock checkpoint to attack Judaism and portray all Jews as “bloodthirsty barbarians.” American Muslims for Palestine, however, said only pro-Palestinian students involved in the annual “Apartheid Week” campus protest went through the checkpoint and that the intent was to show support for Palestinians against Israeli government policies. San Francisco attorney Joel H. Siegal, who filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights office, said students in past years had reported they were funneled through mock checkpoints and asked about their religion but that no such complaints were reported this year.]

Daren Briscoe of the federal civil rights office said that opening an investigation “in no way implies that [the office] has made a determination with regard to its merits.” Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, recipients of federal funds are barred from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin.

Last year, a Hebrew language lecturer filed a similar allegation that the UC Santa Cruz campus was a hostile environment for Jewish students because of anti-Israel protests and attitudes. That campus also denied the allegation and predicted the probe would find the claim unmerited.

Unfortunately, Israeli Apartheid Week is becoming a tradition on many campuses, including the University of Alberta. All in the name of "tolerance" and "diversity," of course.

25 years ago: The death of Pete Maravich

On January 5, 1988, Pete Maravich went to be with the Lord Jesus Christ at the age of 40. Pistol Pete's 44.2 average points per game at Louisiana State University (1967-70) is an NCAA record that still stands. Mr. Maravich played in the National Basketball Association with the Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Jazz, and Boston Celtics from 1970-1980, retiring because of a leg injury. He was a five-time NBA all-star in his 10-year career.

Mr. Maravich came to know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour at the age of 35, and died in the arms of Dr. James Dobson while on a visit to the headquarters of Focus on the Family. His death was caused by a heart defect so rare (a missing left coronary artery) that it was said that only 2 of every 500 doctors would ever see it during the course of their careers. At the age of 25 Pistol Pete made the eerily prophetic comment that he didn't want to play 10 years in the NBA and die of a heart attack at the age of 40. Fortunately, when that event did happen, he entered into the presence of the Lord. Pistol Pete is still able to witness for his Lord after his death: a recording of his testimony helped lead Mickey Mantle to saving faith in Jesus Christ just days before the baseball legend's death in 1995.

Scholars in Mali are trying to save valuable archival documents from destruction by Islamists

Another episode in the wonderful word of Islamism, as reported by Geoffrey York of the Toronto newspaper The Globe and Mail, December 27, 2012:

As rebels searched the bags of the truck passengers at a checkpoint near Timbuktu, one man was trying to hide his nervousness.

Mohamed Diagayete, an owlish scholar with an eager smile, was silently praying that the rebels would not discover his laptop computer. Buried in his laptop bag was an external hard drive with a cache of thousands of valuable images and documents from Timbuktu’s greatest cultural treasure: its ancient scholarly manuscripts.

Radical Islamist rebels in northern Mali have repeatedly attacked the fabled city’s heritage, taking pickaxes to the tombs of local saints and smashing down a door in a 15th century mosque. They demolished several more mausoleums this week and vowed to destroy the rest, despite strong protests from UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency.

With the tombs demolished, Timbuktu’s most priceless remaining legacy is its vast libraries of crumbling Arabic and African manuscripts, written in ornate calligraphy over the past eight centuries, proof of a historic African intellectual tradition. Some experts consider them as significant as the Dead Sea Scrolls – and an implicit rebuke to the harsh narrow views of the Islamist radicals.

But now the manuscripts, too, could be under threat. And so a covert operation is under way to save them.

That’s why Mr. Diagayete was so anxious to smuggle his hard drive out of Timbuktu. For years, he’s been helping preserve the manuscripts by digitizing them. But the project was halted when the Islamists seized Timbuktu in April. A few months later, Mr. Diagayete made an undercover visit to Timbuktu and brought back as many of the digital images as he could.

The quest to save the documents rarely leaves his thoughts. “What will happen to the manuscripts?” he asks from the safety of Mali’s capital, Bamako, where he fled after the fall of Timbuktu.

“I’m always asking myself thousands of questions about the manuscripts,” he says. “When we lose them, we have no other copy. It’s forever.”

Mr. Diagayete is a researcher at the Ahmed Baba Institute, which has been digitizing the manuscripts for nearly a decade with support from foreign governments. But because of technical delays, and the huge number of manuscripts in the city (up to 700,000 by some estimates), only a tiny fraction has been copied so far.

The manuscripts, dating back to the 13th century, are evidence of ancient African and Islamist written scholarship, contradicting the myth of a purely oral tradition on the continent.

Many of the manuscripts are religious documents, but others are intellectual treatises on medicine, astronomy, literature, mathematics, chemistry, judicial law and philosophy. Many were brought to Timbuktu in camel caravans by scholars from Cairo, Baghdad and Persia who trekked to the city when it was one of the world’s greatest centres of Islamic learning. In the Middle Ages, when Europe was stagnating, the African city had 180 religious schools and a university with 20,000 students.

Timbuktu fell into decline after Moroccan invasions and French colonization, but its ancient gold-lettered manuscripts were preserved by dozens of owners, mostly private citizens, who kept them in wooden trunks or in their own libraries.

Today, under the occupation of the radical jihadists, the manuscripts face a range of threats. Conservation experts have fled the city, so the documents could be damaged by insects, mice, sand, dust or extreme temperatures. Or the Islamist militants could decide to raise money by looting and selling the documents.

There’s also a risk that the militants could simply destroy the manuscripts, since some are written by African mystics or moderate Sufis, regarded by the Islamist rebels as ideological enemies. Another threat is the planned Western-backed military campaign against the rebels, which could lead to house-to-house fighting in Timbuktu, further endangering the manuscripts.

The government-run Ahmed Baba Institute holds nearly 40,000 manuscripts in two main buildings, including a headquarters built with South African assistance in 2009. But the Islamist rebels have seized the institute, looting its computers and using its new building as a sleeping quarters.

“It’s a big setback for the institute,” said Susana Molins Lliteras, a researcher at a South African-based project to protect the Timbuktu manuscripts.

“It’s very possible that things have been lost,” she said. “We haven’t even had a chance to research the manuscripts – we haven’t scratched the surface. So if they are lost, we won’t even know what is lost.”

Since the rebel takeover, the private owners have scrambled to protect the manuscripts. Nobody knows exactly what they have done, but it is believed that some owners have hidden the manuscripts, buried them in the sand, or smuggled them to villages.

This, too, is dangerous, since the ancient texts can easily be damaged when they are moved. “They are very fragile,” Mr. Diagayete said. “The choice is difficult: Either we lose them all or we lose part of them. Everyone is trying to find a way to protect their manuscripts.”

Adama Diarra, a Malian journalist, saw three owners piling their manuscripts into 50-kilogram rice bags in April, shortly after the Islamists seized Timbuktu, apparently in an effort to move them to safer places. “The pages were falling out,” he said.

Mohamed Galla Dicko, director of the Ahmed Baba Institute for 17 years before leaving the institute this year, says the threat to the manuscripts is serious. “The old pages can be damaged just by touching them,” he said. “And the people who are moving them are not specialists in handling them.”

While the Timbuktu manuscripts are in trouble, there is better news from another ancient Malian town, Djenne, south of the rebel-controlled territory. With help from the British Library, researchers are digitizing thousands of Djenne’s historic manuscripts – some nearly 500 years old.

Even when fuel and electricity were rationed after the rebel advances, dedicated workers kept toiling on the project at Djenne’s manuscript library. “We’ve saved a large number of the manuscripts,” said Sophie Sarin, a Swedish hotel owner in Djenne.

The project aims to collect 200,000 images by next July. After the rebels captured northern Mali this year, Ms. Sarin travelled to London with a hard drive containing 80,000 digital images of the Djenne manuscripts. She brought them to specialists at the British Library, who were very relieved to see them, she said.

2,750-year-old pagan cult temple found in Israel

As reported by the Israel Antiquities Authority, December 26, 2012:

Figurines of a person (Photo: Clara Amit, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority)

Rare evidence of the religious practices and rituals in the early days of the Kingdom of Judah has recently been discovered at Tel Motza, to the west of Jerusalem. In excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is currently conducting at the Tel Motza archaeological site, prior to work being carried out on the new Highway 1 from Sha'ar HaGai to Jerusalem by the National Roads Company (previously the Public Works Department), a ritual building (a temple) and a cache of sacred vessels some 2,750 years old have been uncovered.

According to Anna Eirikh, Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily and Shua Kisilevitz, directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, "The ritual building at Tel Motza is an unusual and striking find, in light of the fact that there are hardly any remains of ritual buildings of the period in Judaea at the time of the First Temple. The uniqueness of the structure is even more remarkable because of the vicinity of the site's proximity to the capital city of Jerusalem, which acted as the Kingdom's main sacred center at the time." According to the archaeologists, "Among other finds, the site has yielded pottery figurines of men, one of them bearded, whose significance is still unknown."

Tel Motza and the surrounding region are renowned for their prime archaeological importance. Many finds have previously been uncovered at the site, from a variety of different periods. From the 1990's to the beginning of the present millennium, the site was excavated in preparation for the new route taken by Highway 1. At the time, the site's archaeologists proposed once more identifying the site with the Biblical settlement "Mozah" mentioned in the Book of Joshua - a town in the tribal lands of Benjamin bordering on Judaea (Joshua 18: 26). The proposal was based, among other things, on the discovery at the site of a public building, a large structure with storehouses, and a considerable number of silos. At the time, archaeologists identified the site as a storehouse, run by high-ranking officials, for Jerusalem's grain supplies.

The current excavations have revealed evidence that provides another aspect to our understanding of the site. According to archaeologists Eirikh, Dr. Khalaily and, Kisilevitz, the current excavation has revealed part of a large structure, from the early days of the monarchic period (Iron Age IIA). The walls of the structure are massive, and it includes a wide, east-facing entrance, conforming to the tradition of temple construction in the ancient Near East: the rays of the sun rising in the east would have illuminated the object placed inside the temple first, symbolizing the divine presence within. A square structure which was probably an altar was exposed in the temple courtyard, and the cache of sacred vessels was found near the structure.

The assemblage includes ritual pottery vessels, with fragments of chalices (bowls on a high base which were used in sacred rituals), decorated ritual pedestals, and a number of pottery figurines of two kinds: the first, small heads in human form (anthropomorphic) with a flat headdress and curling hair; the second, figurines of animals (zoomorphic) - mainly of harnessed animals. The archeologists stress that "the find of the sacred structure together with the accompanying cache of sacred vessels, and especially the significant coastal influence evident in the anthropomorphic figurines, still require extensive research."

Ritual elements in the Kingdom of Judah are recorded in archaeological research, especially from the numerous finds of pottery figurines and other sacred objects found at many sites in Israel, and these are usually attributed to domestic rituals. However, the remains of ritual platforms and temples used for ritual ceremonies have only been found at a few sites of this period.

According to the site's directors, "The finds recently discovered at Tel Motza provide rare archaeological evidence for the existence of temples and ritual enclosures in the Kingdom of Judah in general, and in the Jerusalem region in particular, prior to the religious reforms throughout the kingdom at the end of the monarchic period (at the time of Hezekiah and Isaiah), which abolished all ritual sites, concentrating ritual practices solely at the Temple in Jerusalem."

Ancient Hebrew manuscripts from Afghanistan provide evidence that Jewish communities were there 1,000 years ago

(Photograph: Associated Press)

(Photograph: Associated Press)

(Photograph: Associated Press)

(Photograph: Associated Press)

As reported by Mario Ledwith of the London Daily Mail, January 3, 2013:

A collection of manuscripts from caves in Afghanistan has provided the first evidence of Jewish communities living in the devoutly Muslim country 1,000 years ago.

The cache of Hebrew documents are thought to have originated from the country's northeast region, a Taliban stronghold.

The documents, which include biblical commentaries, personal letters and financial records, were unveiled by Israel's National Library after being purchased from private dealers.

Researchers have described the collection as one of the greatest Jewish archives ever found.

The stash has been dubbed the 'Afghan Genizah'. Genizah is a Hebrew term that loosely translates as 'storage' and refers to a storeroom adjacent to a synagogue or Jewish cemetery where Hebrew-language books and papers are kept.

Jewish law forbids any writings containing the formal names of God to be thrown away, so the documents are either buried or stashed away.

The collection of documents has provided scholars with fascinating details into the lives of early Jewish communities in ancient Persia.

Conditions in the dry, shady caves have helped to preserve the documents, which were identified using carbon-dating technology and by the use of the unique unique Judeo-Persian language.

The documents include writings in Hebrew, Aramaic, Judea-Arabic and the unique Judeo-Persian language from that era.

Haggai Ben-Shammai, the National Library's academic director, said the documents related to the 'Yiddish of Persian Jews'.

He said the manuscripts included mentions of distinctly Jewish names and evidence of their commercial activities along the 'Silk road' connecting Europe and the East.

It remains unclear how the ancient manuscripts emerged. Ben-Shammai said the library was contacted by various antiquities dealers who got their hands on them.

The library purchased 29 out of hundreds of the documents believed to be located around the world last month, after long negotiations with antiquities dealers, and they arrived in Israel last week...

...Mr Ben-Shammai said it was too early to compare the cache to the Cairo Genizah - a storage of documents found in a synagogue in the late 1800s including thousands of historically important documents.

He said it would take a long time to sift through the findings from Afghanistan and that the documents were already significant since no other Hebrew writings had even been found so far from the Holy Land.

The Jewish community in the region at the time lived largely like others in the Muslim world, as a 'tolerated minority' that was treated better than under Christian rule, according to the academic.

Afghanistan's Jewish community numbered as many as 40,000 in the late 19th century, after Persian Jews fled forced conversion.

By the mid-20th century, only about 5,000 remained, and most emigrated after Israel's creation in 1948.

Aviad Stollman, curator of the library's Judaica collection, said: 'They were Jews living a thousand years ago in this place. I think that is the most exciting part.'

Dead Sea Scrolls are now online

As reported in the London Daily Telegraph, December 18, 2012 (link in original):

One of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century is now available for all to see online after the Israel Antiquities Authority and Google digitised the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Anyone with an internet connection will now be able to take a new look into the Biblical past through an online archive of high-resolution images of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls completed by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and Google.

The scrolls, most of them on parchment, are the oldest copies of the Hebrew Bible and include secular text dating from the third century BC to the first century AD.

IAA, the custodian of the scrolls that shed light on the life of Jews and early Christians at the time of Jesus, said it has collaborated with Google's research and development centre in Israel for the past two and a half years to upload digitised images of thousands of fragments from the collection.

Yossi Matias, the head of Google-Israel R&D centre, described the project launch as "exciting".

"What's exciting about this launch is that users from all over the world can access these ancient scrolls, through wherever they are, and they can experience them through any device, anywhere in the world. This project brings to life the ten commandments, Genesis book, known verses from the Psalms and some 5,000 images of fragments from the scrolls," Matias said.

Since its discovery, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been extensively researched by scholars across the world. Vast amounts of information are now available on each scroll and many of the fragments.

Approximately 4,000 fragments have been already uploaded to the website, with the aim to eventually upload all tens of thousands of them, the IAA said.

"It's a project that I believe that every human being around the globe is very excited (about). Again, because it's not only for the Jews, it's not only the story of the Jews. it is the story of Christianity, and Islam and all the others. This is the old Testament," said Shuka Dorfman, the IAA director.

For many years after Bedouin shepherds first came upon the scrolls in caves near the Dead Sea in 1947, only a small number of scholars were allowed to view the fragments.

But access has since been widened and they were published in their entirety nine years ago.

A few large pieces of scroll are on permanent display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

View the Dead Sea Scrolls at http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/

Jews from "lost tribe" move from India to Israel

That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.
If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:
And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. Deuteronomy 30:3-5

As reported by Associated Press, December 23, 2012:

A group of 50 Jews said to descend from one of the 10 Lost Tribes immigrated to Israel Thursday from their village in northeastern India.

The members of the Bnei Menashe community prayed in their local synagogue and then hugged their crying relatives before heading off to the airport in the Manipur state capital of Imphal, 34 miles away.

The Bnei Menashe say they are descended from Jews banished from ancient Israel to India in the eighth century BC.

An Israeli chief rabbi recognized members of the Bnei Menashe community as a lost tribe in 2005 and about 1,700 moved to Israel before the Israeli government stopped giving them visas.

The government recently reversed that policy. About 7,200 of them remain in India.

April 27, 2026 update: As reported by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz of Israel365 News, April 24, 2026 (links in original):

More than 250 members of the Bnei Menashe community landed at Ben Gurion Airport Thursday night, marking the first wave of a government-funded operation to bring thousands of their community members from northeast India to Israel. The arrivals, bleary-eyed from their long flight, walked under an arch of blue-and-white balloons and down a red carpet at Terminal 1 while well-wishers waved Israeli flags and a recording of “Oseh Shalom” filled the hall. Men wore knitted kippahs or hats; married women wore head coverings, in keeping with Orthodox Jewish practice.

The flight is the first of three scheduled over the coming weeks, with approximately 600 immigrants expected to arrive in total. The broader operation — dubbed Miftza Kanfei Shachar, “Operation Wings of Dawn” — aims to relocate the remaining 6,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community to Israel by 2030, with 1,200 arriving in 2026 alone.

The operation follows a government decision approved in November, spearheaded by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The new olim — immigrants to Israel — will initially be settled in absorption centers in Nof HaGalil, a northern city overlooking Nazareth, and in Kiryat Yam, where existing Bnei Menashe communities are already established.

Manipur has seen periodic clashes for nearly three years between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community, which have killed more than 250 people, endangering the Bnei Menashe community, which has been caught in the middle of the fighting.

Sofer, who welcomed the newcomers at the airport, called their arrival a “historic moment.” Addressing the new olim directly, he said: “We are making history as we bring the entire Bnei Menashe community to Israel. There is no more fitting and moving time to welcome a plane full of olim than right after the State’s 78th Independence Day. Welcome home.”

Jewish Agency chair Maj.-Gen. (res.) Doron Almog framed the moment in broader terms. “Aliyah is the State of Israel’s growth engine, and every new oleh is a lighthouse of hope,” he said, adding that responsibility extends beyond arrival to ensuring successful absorption and opportunity for each immigrant.

The Shavei Israel organization, which traces the descendants of the Lost Tribes and has facilitated the community’s immigration to Israel, estimates that some 4,000 Bnei Menashe have immigrated to Israel since the 1990s, with roughly 7,000 still living in India. The new arrivals will undergo formal conversion before receiving Israeli citizenship.

The Bnei Menashe — literally “sons of Manasseh” — claim descent from the tribe of Menashe, one of the Ten Lost Tribes exiled by the Assyrian Empire more than 27 centuries ago, roughly 140 years before the Babylonian exile sent the tribe of Judah into its own dispersal. Their ancestors wandered for centuries through Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet, and China before settling in what is today the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, along the borders of Burma and Bangladesh.

While it is extraordinary that they survived, their continued connection with the nation of Israel is even more remarkable. Through every century of wandering, the Bnei Menashe maintained Shabbat observance, kept kashrut, celebrated the Jewish festivals, and upheld the laws of family purity. They practiced circumcision. They held onto the dream of returning to the Land of Israel. In the 19th century, Christian missionaries converted many of them, yet even that rupture could not extinguish the ancestral memory passed from generation to generation.

The Prophet Ezekiel described this very moment. God commanded him:

“Take one stick and write on it, ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel his companions’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions.'” (Ezekiel 37:16)

Michael Freund, founder of Shavei Israel, who has dedicated his life to finding and returning the scattered remnants of Israel, sees in the Bnei Menashe’s arrival a direct fulfillment of that prophecy. “The return of the Bnei Menashe is a clear and explicit indication that we have entered a new stage of the Redemption,” Freund said. “The prophets talked about the return of Judah and the return of Israel. It seems repetitive unless it was intended to tell us that the tribes of Israel were meant to return separately from the tribe of Judah. The prophecy clearly states that the tribes of Israel and Judah will return separately, and that is what is happening right now with the Bnei Menashe.”

The Sages understood geulah — redemption — not as a single thunderclap but as a gathering process, incremental and purposeful. The ingathering of the exiles spoken of throughout the prophets was never meant to be only the return of one tribe. It was always meant to be the reconstitution of an entire nation. Most Jews today descend from the tribe of Judah, exiled to Babylon. The Bnei Menashe are something different — a living remnant of the Northern Kingdom, the other half of a people split apart by Assyrian conquest and now, piece by piece, being made whole again.

Thursday night at Ben Gurion Airport, as families who had spent years apart finally embraced and wept, that ancient process moved forward. Twenty-seven centuries of exile, wandering through the heart of Asia, ended not with fanfare from world powers but with blue-and-white balloons, a red carpet, and the words “Oseh Shalom” — He who makes peace — echoing through Terminal 1. The lost were found. The exiles came home.

30 years ago: The world premiere of The God Makers

On December 31, 1982, The God Makers, produced by Jeremiah Films, received its premiere screening at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. The film is a hard-hitting expose of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, better known as the Mormons.

Ed Decker and Dick Baer, former members of the Mormon Melchizededk priesthood, attempted to persuade a Los Angeles law firm to launch a class-action suit against the LDS on behalf of people like themselves who had seen their marriages and families destroyed. The film is centred around a reenactment of Mr. Decker and Mr. Baer's presentation to the law firm, which paints a very different picture of the Mormon Church from that which the church presents to the public. Despite overwhelming evidence to support the complaints against the church, the law firm decided against pursuing the matter because they didn't believe that the complainants had enough money to offset the deep pockets of the Mormon Church.

According to Grace Community Church pastor John MacArthur, "This film is dynamite, the most powerful thing I've seen! Get your Mormon friends to view it!"

The film was followed in 1984 by a book of the same title authored by Ed Decker and Dave Hunt, and by a subsequent documentary and book (written by Ed Decker and Caryl Matrisciana) titled The God Makers II in 1988. Both dcoumentaries and both books are recommended by this blogger.

University of Windsor caves in to whiny atheists and removes prayer from convocation ceremony

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. Psalms 14:1 (see also Psalms 53:1)

Just the thought of one public mention of God in four or more years of university is enough to prompt atheists to require smelling salts and grief counselling. The cowardice of university administrators in caving in to loud, politically-correct minorities is typical. As reported by Dalson Chen of the Windsor Star, October 5, 2012:

There’s going to be a conspicuous absence at the University of Windsor‘s fall convocation ceremony next week. Namely, a prayer.

For the first time in the university’s history, the graduation event won’t include an entreaty to God — nor any other religious reference.

In place of a prayer, the ceremony will have a non-religious request for a moment of reflection.

“I ask that you take a moment to reflect on those who guided you along your path of learning,” the chancellor will read.

“To appreciate our families, our teachers, our peers, the world we live in, and all that inspires us.”

According to the university’s Office of Human Rights, Equity and Accessibility, the permanent change is meant to reflect a “more inclusive atmosphere” at the learning institution.

Kaye Johnson, the university’s director of human rights, described the new secular format as “widening the circle.”

“A moment of silent reflection will allow people to use this time as they need to, not as someone else decides,” Johnson said in a press release.

Johnson noted that many other universities have already adopted non-religious approaches to their ceremonies.

“In fact, many people are surprised to find that the convocation ceremony included a prayer,” she said in the press release.

On Friday, Johnson said she considers the change “timely.”

“If we only maintained tradition, we wouldn’t have a lot of the advances that our society has made,” she noted.

The decision pleases the Windsor-Essex County Atheist Society, a student-run club.

Shawna Scott, the atheist society’s president and founder, said she “feels reassured that the university actually does take student concerns seriously, and that they strive to respect diversity.”

A PhD student in the university’s clinical psychology program, Scott wrote letters to the human rights office about feeling “extremely excluded and uncomfortable” when she was asked to stand in prayer for her undergraduate convocation in 2010.

Scott wrote that she believes it is “totally unfair and disrespectful” to push prayer at a public university.

Asked on Friday how she feels about tradition and the University of Windsor’s roots as a Roman Catholic institution, Scott said: “You know what? Sometimes re-evaluating tradition is a thing to be done.”

Scott pointed out that the new convocation text still allows attendees to pray, if they count religion as something that inspires them. The major difference is that prayer “is no longer dictated to us.”

Asked how she feels about prayer in other facets of public life — such as city council meetings, remembrance ceremonies and community events — Scott said she disagrees with that as well.

“Religion should not be mixed into that,” Scott said.

Past University of Windsor convocation ceremonies have made direct references to “Eternal God.”

In the fall convocation of 2011, Rev. Mary Templer of the University Community Church led the audience in a prayer that described God as “the source of all goodness, discipline and knowledge.”

“We pray you to bless this assembly, gather to recognize achievement, and celebrate life. Bless this and all universities in their quest for excellence. Be with teachers and students everywhere,” Templer recited, finishing with the traditional “Amen.”

The Catholic Campus Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment on Friday before press time.

Johnson said she didn’t personally consult with the campus ministry about the change, but there were discussions about the issue at other levels in the university administration.

When "widening the circle" places atheism on the same level as the Roman Catholicism of the University of Windsor's founders, the "circle" no longer has any shape. Typically, it never occurs to the atheists that they're being "unfair and disrespectful" in demanding that prayer be removed from the convocation ceremony. As for "re-evaluating tradition," how come it's never the atheists who feel any need to re-evaluate their traditions?

As reported by Darryl Gallinger of the University of Windsor newspaper The Lance, October 9, 2012:

The prayers of atheists have been answered by the University of Windsor with the removal of Christian prayer from convocation ceremonies in favour of a personal moment of reflection.

Holly Ward, chief communications officer for the university, confirmed the change. “It’s definitely a tradition of the University of Windsor to use a prayer, as it has been a tradition to use prayers at most universities nationwide,” she said. “Having a moment of reflection is not unusual. It’s changed because we have a changing campus. We have a lot of diversity on our campus … we want to make sure you feel included.”

“The decision was made at the president [Alan Wildeman’s] level because concerns had come to his office,” Ward added.

Shawna Scott, student and president of the Windsor-Essex County Atheist Society, was in favour of removing the prayer and feels validated by recent decision. “I’m really proud of the university for making this change,” she said.

Scott challenged the line of the convocation prayer, which refers to an “eternal God” as “the source of all goodness, discipline and knowledge,” explaining that, “The end result of us graduating is a product of our hard work, support from our family and friends and everyone working really hard to build our own success. To us, it doesn’t come from a deity … it makes it really awkward to be there and feel excluded like that.”

Scott founded the atheist group in 2010. Its 170 members fundraise for charities and provide a network of non-believers with resources and support.

“The sentiment of a prayer is a beautiful one,” said Paul Anderson, a member of the atheist society. “However, it’s impossible to write it in such a way that can accommodate all faiths, including those who don’t believe in god.”

“Or even those who believe in more than one god,” Scott added.

Scott first expressed concerns about the prayer following her undergraduate graduation in 2010 and again in 2011 in formal letters to university. She never received a reply from administration. In preparation for the fall 2012 convocation ceremony, where Scott would be recognized for obtaining her master’s degree, she wrote the university once more, suggesting a moment of personal reflection as an alternative to the traditional prayer.

A month after the letter was sent, Ward confirmed the change to The Lance.

According to the new script, Reverend Mary Templer of the University Community Church will ask the graduates to, “Take a moment to reflect on those who guided you along your path of learning, to appreciate our families, our teachers, our peers, the world in which we live and all that inspires us.”

“There’s another piece that people miss,” pointed out Kaye Johnson, director of the university’s human rights office. “There is a lot of diversity within Christianity and the type of prayer is not reflective of all of Christianity. There was discomfort that’s not only within people who have a different faith, but also of Christian faith.”

“The thing with public prayer in a context like that, it also imposes words onto people,” Johnson said, explaining that even those who wish to pray at convocation cannot choose what is being prayed to and why.

Jordan Legg of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship is not troubled by the change. “I’m more concerned about people actually engaging with who Jesus is and loving him completely with their words and actions rather than giving him lip service at a convocation ceremony,” he said.

Legg explained that his group talks about Christianity with students on campus, and for him “teaching others to love Jesus” is more important than maintaining a campus tradition.

Please note the wimpy reaction of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship spokesman, speaking with all the courage and conviction of a typical evangelical pastor. The excerpts from the prayer by "Rev." Mary Templer, quoted above, are as bland and inoffensive as you could get and still legitimately call it a prayer. If their website (in addition to the presence of a female "pastor") is any indication, University Community Church, with its roots in a liberal Presbyterian congregation, isn't likely to be full of the fire-breathing fundamentalism that atheists so love to caricature.

Edmonton public schools will offer Yoga for credit

You tell me just how I can take this Yoga serious
When all it ever gives to me is a pain in my posterious.

Yoga is as Yoga Does, as performed by Elvis Presley (with Elsa Lanchester) in the movie Easy Come, Easy Go (1967).

The definition of yoga from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1965):

1 cap: a Hindu theistic philosophy teaching the suppression of all activity of body, mind, and will in order that the self may realize its distinction from them and attain liberation 2: a system of exercises for attaining bodily or mental control and well-being

Of course, the exercises are based on the philosophy. Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word yunakti, meaning “he yokes.” The yoking is with Brahma, the ground of all being in Hinduism. Until it became “westernized,” Yoga was mainly about teaching old Hindus how to die. It’s no more about relaxation and relieving stress than Transcendental Meditation, which is also Hinduism. Neither one caught on in the west until they decided to change the marketing approach to appeal to westerners’ priorities, such as financial prosperity, physical health and emotional well-being. I'm waiting for the day when public schools will offer credits for courses in practicing Christianity.

As reported by Andrea Sands in the Edmonton Journal, December 11, 2012:

EDMONTON - Students enrolled in Kim Hertlein’s holistic health class at Ross Sheppard High School sample yoga in a wide-ranging course that focuses on healthy living and alternative healing.

As early as next semester, however, high school students in Edmonton could earn credit for taking a Yoga 15 or Yoga 25 course, after public school trustees voted last week to import a yoga curriculum developed in Calgary.

“I’m very excited. I would be thrilled to teach a yoga class,” said Hertlein, a certified hatha yoga instructor who teaches social studies at Ross Sheppard, as well as the holistic health option, nicknamed “H2O.”

“If this is made available to Edmonton Public, I know it will be wildly popular. A lot of my friends are phys-ed teachers and they all do yoga, so they’d be willing to offer it. It’s not just a physical exercise. It’s a balance of body, mind and spirit.”

Students are constantly stimulated by a barrage of information, so a yoga course is a valuable tool to promote healthy and balanced living, Hertlein said. It also appeals to students, particularly women, who don’t like competitive team sports, she said.
“I can honestly tell you, my holistic health class is the only class they don’t bring their cellphones to,” Hertlein said.

Students taking Hertlein’s holistic health class try out a variety of physical activities including yoga, kick boxing, spin class, circuit training, Pilates, Zumba and belly dancing. They also discuss alternative approaches to health, eating, sleep and exercise and explore meditation and relaxation techniques to reduce stress.

“I’ve had a lot of students come to me and say, ‘I don’t like the belly dancing. I just want to do yoga every day,’” Hertlein said.

They could have that option as early as next semester, which begins in February, said Stephen Wright, supervisor in projects and research with Edmonton Public Schools.

Wright looked into whether any Alberta schools had introduced yoga as an option after Ross Sheppard and Victoria School expressed interest in running the course.

With the public school trustee’s approval last week, the school district will take the yoga curriculum developed in Calgary and make it available to schools here. Alberta Education still has to approve the plan, which shouldn’t take long, Wright said.

Then schools can start offering the three-credit, halftime block as an option. It does not replace regular physical education, or any core courses that are part of the provincial curriculum.

“It is an option course,” Wright said. “So students could take French, art, woodworking, foods, anything like that — and students have to take some option courses to complete their diploma — but it doesn’t have to be yoga.”

The yoga courses, along with a Reading 25 class, are the first new “locally developed courses” Edmonton Public Schools has approved since a provincial moratorium on such courses ended in September.

Locally developed courses are developed by various school districts to teach subjects outside the provincial curriculum, which allows school districts to respond to local needs. Edmonton Public Schools runs dozens of locally developed courses such as American Sign Language and deaf culture, theatre performance, sports performance, marine biology, pre-engineering, painting and various language programs including Arabic, German and Mandarin...

...The Calgary Board of Education introduced Yoga 15 and Yoga 25 in 2009 for Grades 10 and 11 students, said CBE spokeswoman Karen Drummond.

“Last year, we had four high schools that offered it, with right around 200 students who were enrolled,” Drummond said.

Schools need to find a teacher who is trained in yoga instruction before introducing the course as an option, which has possibly limited student enrolment numbers, Drummond added.

Calgary’s Yoga 15 course introduces students to basic yoga postures, breathing techniques and relaxation methods, and teaches them about yoga’s historical roots, basic anatomy and physiology, and body acceptance, according to information posted on the Ernest Manning High School website.

“The program is designed to allow students to experience the benefits of increased flexibility, strength, focus and concentration,” the course description says. “Students will learn to be non-judgmental about their own and others’ yoga practice. Through continued practice, students will relieve stress, learn to relax and experience the health benefits of yoga practice.”

I can't leave without including the comments of Elvis, as quoted at the top of this post:

75 years ago: Before the "holy laughter" of the "Toronto Blessing" there was the "holy howling" of the "Woodstock Revival"

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints...Let all things be done decently and in order. I Corinthians 14: 33, 40

From The Toronto Daily Star, November 22, 1937 (pp. 1-2):

JUDGE ASKS IF "HOWLING" IS A "RELIGIOUS SERVICE"
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Rev. Eno Kulbeck Appeals Against Conviction by Woodstock Magistrate
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APPEAL IS DISMISSED
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Rev. Eno Kulbeck appealed to the appellate court at Osgoode Hall today against his conviction at Woodstock.

The appeal was dismissed.

He was charged of having committed a common nuisance on Aug. 28 and numerous other occasions at Grace Tabernacle, Woodstock, "by conducting gatherings of persons in the said tabernacle in such a manner that the continued and repeated loud shouting and screaming and other noise, created until nearly midnight endangered and disturbed the peace and comfort of the public."

On the conviction Magistrate McCrimmon placed Mr. Kulbeck on suspended sentence and ordered him to pay the court costs or in the alternative to serve 30 days in jail.

W.R. Marshall, Ingersoll, and John A. Reid, Toronto, appeared for the appellant, and A.O. Klein for the crown.

"He was put on a bond to terminate his meeting, not later than 9:30 at night," said Mr. Marshall.

He contended that Kulbeck was convicted under Sections 222 and 223.

"He disturbed the whole neighborhood," said Mr. Justice Middleton. "I don't think that is correct," replied Mr. Marshall.

"Here was a minister of the Gospel who was conducting a religious service," said Mr. Marshall.

"Do you call that a religious service, howling and shouting?" asked Chief Justice Latchford.

Counsel, replying to the chief justice as to the evidence of shouting before the magistrate, said there was some.

"I have obtained four photographs of that section," continued counsel.

"Of the noise?" asked the chief justice.

"Why can't he conduct the services with decorum?" asked Mr. Justice Middleton.

The regular service was over at 9:30. After that persons had the privilege of approaching the altar and thank their Maker, explained counsel.

Revival Services

During the whole week they had revival and Sunday night was the final meeting, and having a special minister there it was a larger service.

Some of the residents heard the noise of a gang of boys outside the tabernacle, declared counsel.

"The charge against you," said the chief justice, "is what was going on inside, not what was going on outside the building."

"I would like to describe the type of religious service going on there," continued counsel.

"The type of service, according to the evidence, was a nuisance to people in the community," said Chief Justice Latchford.

"In the first instance, I contend that the holding of a religious service is not an unlawful act," said Mr. Marshall.

"No, it is the irreligious service, shouting, howling and screaming," returned the chief justice.

"We are faced with the fact that there was noise from boys outside," said counsel.

"I would not judge what was a religious service," said counsel, who added that the religion followed that of old time when people came close to their Maker. "They hear the old hymns and sing them," he said.

"Paul was force to preach in the open," counsel reminded the court.

Mr. Marshall contended that Kulbrick was illegally convicted under the sections referring to endangering the health and safety of the public.

"One woman says she could not get to sleep," remarked Mr. Justice Middleton.

110 years ago: Lecturer denounces churches and the "1%"

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9

From the The Toronto Daily Star, November 17, 1902, page 7:

RICH RULE THE CHURCHES
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AND THEY PREACH ALMS-GIVING INSTEAD OF JUSTICE.
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Hon. E.H. Crosby Explains the Attitude of the Laboring Man to Religious Bodies.
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"The Church and the Labor Problem" was the subject of the address yesterday afternoon at the Toronto Opera House by Hon. Ernest Howard Crosby, given under the auspices of the Single Tax Association. Speaking of the unequal distribution of wealth, the lecturer declared that while one laborer produced to-day as much as thirteen did 150 years ago, the results of the wonderful discoveries of the past century have gone into few hands, and have widened the chasm between the rich and the poor. In the United States one per cent. of the population owes more property than the other 99 per cent. The inventions of new machinery led to overproduction, and men in consequence were thrown out of employment and made incapable of buying. As production increased, the number of buyers decreased. This forced us to seek foreign markets, and when these are exhausted a crisis comes upon us. The speaker condemned the Socialistic remedy as impracticable and Utopian. The monopolies should be dealt with and rooted out before trying a complicated system of organized industries. The Church to-day too much represents the rich and their class interests. Instead of justice, it preaches an ineffectual kind of charity. It must take the side of labor.