Jun 22, 2011

Montreal synagogue battle turns bitter

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/06/22/graeme-hamilton-montreal-synagogue-battle-turns-bitter/

Graeme Hamilton: Montreal synagogue battle turns bitter

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Scott Maniquet Jun 22, 2011 – 6:30 AM ET | Last Updated: Jun 21, 2011 8:38 PM ET

Graham Hughes for National Post
Mayer Feig in the Gate David Synagogue in Montreal.
MONTREAL – The young Hasidic mother sat on her porch Tuesday afternoon waiting for the school bus to drop off her son. Her smiling three-year-old daughter sucked on a purple freezie. "When I walk in the street," the woman said, "I feel a hatred in the air."
Next door, her elderly neighbour sat wearing an identical pink hair covering. "We feel very bad," she said in accented English. "Like 60 years ago." Asked to elaborate, she said she was born in Germany and rolled up her sleeve to reveal a number tattooed into her left forearm. She is a survivor of Auschwitz.
It is unfathomable that such sentiments could be felt in Montreal in 2011, but even harder to believe is the source of the women's disquiet: a proposed zoning change to allow a minor expansion of their 60-year-old synagogue, located just down the street.
What should have been a routine building improvement has degenerated into a divisive battle between the Hasidim and some non-Jewish residents who believe the ultra-orthodox Jews bend the rules and disturb the peace. On Sunday, a referendum to determine whether the proposed expansion – adding about 400 square feet to the back of the dilapidated Gate David synagogue – could go ahead was defeated by a vote of 243 to 212. For the roughly 200 congregants who all live within walking distance, the result was a cruel slap.
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Pierre Lacerte, the blogger who spearheaded the campaign against the expansion, couldn't be happier. Mr. Lacerte lives on the same block as the synagogue and for the past six years he has devoted much of his time to documenting what he considers the excesses of the Hasidim in the neighbourhoods of Outremont and Mile End.

Graham Hughes for National Post
Pierre Lacerte
His blog is filled with sarcastic comments about Hasidic leaders and any non-Jews whom he deems too cozy with the Hasidim. After borough officials approved the synagogue's renovation plans, he was instrumental in gathering the signatures required to put the matter to a vote. On Sunday, he spent 12 hours encouraging people to vote against the project.
He does not dispute that Gate David needs renovations. "It's a slum," he said. But he says under no circumstances should the synagogue be allowed to expand into its back yard. The plan was to extend the building 10 feet back so a ground floor washroom and a cloakroom could be added. Currently elderly congregants have to go to the basement to use the toilet, and in the winter, every time the front door opens freezing air blows into the main prayer room. The synagogue's immediate neighbours had no objections.

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Fun stuff to read, tell and watch:

Now FREE to watch all 91 minutes: "Defamation," from Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir. LINK: http://tinyurl.com/3rvhdvc

Some of His Best Friends Are Jewish: The Saga of a Holocaust Revisionist By Nathaniel Popper. Link: http://tinyurl.com/3v6m88c

...an Israeli lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against former President Jimmy Carter, seeking $5 million in damages because his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" allegedly defamed Israel. Link: http://tinyurl.com/3pltqg2

"...when you have laws against questioning the Holocaust narrative, you are screaming at the other person to stop thinking!!!" ---Mike Santomauro. *Anthony Lawson's Holocaust Video "were the Germans so stupid"... Link: http://tinyurl.com/44nsrco

An anti-Semite condemns people for being Jews, I am not an anti-Semite.--Mike Santomauro. Link: http://tinyurl.com/42z9p8o

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Jun 21, 2011

3549 Mgr Williamson change à nouveau d'avocat

From: Butz Arthur R.
Date: 2011/6/21

Subject: Fwd: 3549 Mgr Williamson change à nouveau d'avocat

Summary. The appeal hearing of Bishop Richard Williamson is still scheduled for July 4. Last November RW lost his first lawyer because he wanted to add lawyer Wolfram Nahrath, who had defended Horst Mahler and Kevin Käther, to his defense team. The SSPX (RW's order) objected to Nahrath because of his politics, so RW hired Norbert Wingerter instead.

Now a German newspaper reports RW has lost Wingerter over a dispute on strategy. Wingerter wants to plead that the allegedly offending interview was conducted in private before a Swedish camera and was not destined for transmission in Germany. Wingerter, in resigning, said RW insists one should have the right to put the Holocaust in doubt. Wingerter says such a strategy makes no sense in Germany, while distancing himself from the opinions of RW.

Fun stuff to read, tell and watch:

Now FREE to watch all 91 minutes: "Defamation," from Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir. LINK: http://tinyurl.com/3rvhdvc

Some of His Best Friends Are Jewish: The Saga of a Holocaust Revisionist By Nathaniel Popper. Link: http://tinyurl.com/3v6m88c

...an Israeli lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against former President Jimmy Carter, seeking $5 million in damages because his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" allegedly defamed Israel. Link: http://tinyurl.com/3pltqg2

"...when you have laws against questioning the Holocaust narrative, you are screaming at the other person to stop thinking!!!" ---Mike Santomauro. *Anthony Lawson's Holocaust Video "were the Germans so stupid"... Link: http://tinyurl.com/44nsrco

An anti-Semite condemns people for being Jews, I am not an anti-Semite.--Mike Santomauro. Link: http://tinyurl.com/42z9p8o

Peace.
Mike Santomauro

Editorial Director
Call anytime: 917-974-6367

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new blood libel

http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/50487/no-dog-stoned-death-jerusalem-court

'No dog stoned to death in Jerusalem court'

By Jessica Elgot

Created 20 Jun 2011 - 9:54am

Israel news Strange but true Beth Din Jerusalem

No stray dog was condemned to death, or stoned by a rabbinical court in Jerusalem, the Beth Din have insisted.

Israeli's newspaper Maariv reported that a stray dog has wandered into a Beth Din financial court in the strictly Orthodox area of Mea Shearim and refused to be moved, which a judge decreed was a reincarnation of a secular lawyer who died 20 years ago.

Reports said the judges then "decreed" that local children stone the dog to death. But the secretariat of the court released a statement calling the reports "bitter humour" and said all that had happened was that the city dog catcher had been called to remove the stray.

The story made headlines around the world, and was the "Most Read" story on the BBC – despite a correction and apology being printed in Maariv.

A statement from the court said: "There is no basis for stoning dogs or any other animal in the Jewish religion, not since the days of the Temple or Abraham.

"The female dog found a seat in the corner of the court. And the children were delighted by it; there were hundreds outside the court. They are used to seeing stray cats but most have never seen a dog before. The only action we took was to dial the number of the Jerusalem Municipality to get the people in charge to take it away.

"There was no talk of reincarnation, a lawyer has never been mentioned, either now or 20 years ago, and there was no stoning. Such inventions are a kind of blood libel, and we wonder why the inventor of the story did not continue to describe how we collected the blood of the dog to make our matzah."

The story, when circulated on Yahoo, attracted more than 1,800 comments, most expressing violent anger. One wrote "the more I see of Israelis, the more I like my dog."

Source URL: http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/50487/no-dog-stoned-death-jerusalem-court

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Amazon.com: Genocide Denials and the Law (9780199738922): Ludovic Hennebel, Thomas Hochmann: Books

http://www.amazon.com/Genocide-Denials-Law-Ludovic-Hennebel/dp/0199738920/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1308678671&sr=8-1

+++

Fun stuff to read, tell and watch:

Now FREE to watch all 91 minutes: "Defamation," from Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir. LINK: http://tinyurl.com/3rvhdvc

Some of His Best Friends Are Jewish: The Saga of a Holocaust Revisionist By Nathaniel Popper. Link: http://tinyurl.com/3v6m88c

...an Israeli lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against former President Jimmy Carter, seeking $5 million in damages because his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" allegedly defamed Israel. Link: http://tinyurl.com/3pltqg2

"...when you have laws against questioning the Holocaust narrative, you are screaming at the other person to stop thinking!!!" ---Mike Santomauro. *Anthony Lawson's Holocaust Video "were the Germans so stupid"... Link: http://tinyurl.com/44nsrco

An anti-Semite condemns people for being Jews, I am not an anti-Semite.--Mike Santomauro. Link: http://tinyurl.com/42z9p8o

Start reading DEBATING THE HOLOCAUST in under a minute: http://tinyurl.com/3f8h874

Peace.

Mike Santomauro
Editorial Director
ReporterNotebook@gmail.com
Call anytime: 917-974-6367

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NYT: Mysteries of a Nazi Photo Album

June 21, 2011, 5:00 AM

Mysteries of a Nazi Photo Album

By DAVID W. DUNLAP

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/mysteries-of-a-nazi-photo-album/

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Buchanan: The Dumbing Down of America

The Dumbing-Down of America

By Patrick J. Buchanan

Tuesday - June 21, 2011

"Is our children learning?" as George W. Bush so famously asked.

Well, no, they is not learning, especially the history of their country, the school subject at which America's young perform at their worst.

On history tests given to 31,000 pupils by the National Assessment of Education Progress, the "Nation's Report Card," most fourth-graders could not identify a picture of Abraham Lincoln or a reason why he was important.

Most eighth-graders could not identify an advantage American forces had in the Revolutionary War. Twelfth-graders did not know why America entered World War II or that China was North Korea's ally in the Korean War.

Only 20 percent of fourth-graders attained even a "proficient" score in the test. By eighth grade, only 17 percent were judged proficient. By 12th grade, 12 percent. Only a tiny fraction was graded "advanced," indicating a superior knowledge of American history.

Given an excerpt from the Supreme Court's 1954 decision Brown v. Board of Education -- "We conclude that in the field of pubic education, separate but equal has no place, separate education facilities are inherently unequal" -- and asked what social problem the court was seeking to correct, 2 percent of high school seniors answered "segregation."

As these were multiple-choice questions, notes Diane Ravitch, the education historian, the answer "was right in front of them."

A poster put out by the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, circa 1940, was shown and the question asked, "The poster above seeks to protect America and aid Britain in the struggle against ..." Four countries were listed as possible answers.

A majority did not identify Germany, though the poster contained a clue. The boot about to trample the Statue of Liberty had a huge swastika on the sole.

"We're raising young people who are, by and large, historically illiterate," historian David McCullough told The Wall Street Journal.

"History textbooks," added McCullough, "are "badly written." Many texts have been made "so politically correct as to be comic. Very minor characters that are currently fashionable are given considerable space, whereas people of major consequence" -- such as inventor Thomas Edison -- "are given very little space or none at all."

Trendies and minorities have their sensibilities massaged in the new history, which is, says McCullough, "often taught in categories -- women's history, African American history, environmental history -- so that many students have no sense of chronology ... no idea of what followed what."

But if the generations coming out of our schools do not know our past, do not who we are or what we have done as a people, how will they come to love America, refute her enemies or lead her confidently?

This appalling ignorance among American young must be laid at the feet of an education industry that has consumed trillions of tax dollars in recent decades.

Comes the retort: History was neglected because Bush, with No Child Left Behind, overemphasized reading and math.

Yet the same day the NAEP history scores were reported, The New York Times reported on the academic performance of New York state high school students in math and English. The results were stunning.

Of state students who entered ninth grade in 2006, only 37 percent were ready for college by June 2010. In New York City, the figure was 21 percent, one in five, ready for college.

In Yonkers, 14.5 percent of the students who entered high school in 2006 were ready for college in June 2010. In Rochester County, the figure was 6 percent.

And the racial gap, 45 years after the federal and state governments undertook heroic exertions to close it, is wide open across the Empire State.

While 51 percent of white freshman in 2006 and 56 percent of Asian students were ready for college in June 2010, only 13 percent of New York state's black students and 15 percent of Hispanics were deemed ready.

The implications of these tests are alarming, not only for New York but for the country we shall become in this century.

In 1960, there were 18 million black Americans and few Hispanics in a total population of 160 million. By 2050, African Americans and Hispanics combined will, at 200 million, roughly equal white Americans in number.

If the racial gap in academic achievement persists for the next 40 years, as it has for the last 40, virtually all of the superior positions in the New Economy and knowledge-based professions will be held by Asians and whites, with blacks and Hispanics largely relegated to the service sector.

America will then face both a racial and class crisis.

The only way to achieve equality of rewards and results then will be via relentless use of the redistributive power of government -- steep tax rates on the successful, and annual wealth transfers to the less successful. It will be affirmative action, race preferences, ethnic quotas and contract set-asides, ad infinitum -- not a prescription for racial peace or social tranquility.