Grounding for Ebola?

Remember back in July, when the FAA issued a Notice to prohibit US airlines from flying to Israel on account of a few disturbances close but not at the airport in Tel Aviv?

[My wife and I were in Israel about a week after the FAA backed down and rescinded the ban.].

Now that there is an Ebola virus outbreak, which poses far, far more of a danger than the speculative fears about Israel, where is the FAA's notice to prohibit U.S. carriers from flying to Liberia and Sierra Leone and Nigeria and other places in West Africa?

 

Tisha B'Av 5774: Very sad, but more hopeful than ever

Tonight begins the fast of Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the month of Av.  In addition to the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem, many other catastrophes to the Jewish people occurred on Tisha B'Av; they are detailed elsewhere, and, quite frankly, too many in number to be pure coincidence.  Tisha B'Av is a very sad and mournful day.

Make no mistake about it:  We Jewish people now live in very dangerous times.  Our active and blatant enemies now attack us, in the face of condonation and cheering by our passive enemies.

Yet, I somehow sense a reason for hope.  Many factions of our people, factions traditionally antagonistic towards one another, have cooled down the hostilities of late.  This is not to say that there has been perfect unity, not by any means.  But still, there has been a palpable cessation in hostilities in certain quarters; in order to not pour gasoline on the embers I shall not now name particulars.  And if we come together, then nobody can destroy us.

Yes, there is increased hazard from our enemies.  And, given some activities in which I am now involved, in which I contemplate involvement in the near future, and given some travel plans for the foreseeable future, I may well take some personal hits from the violence against Jews.  But even if I personally am a victim, I just am more optimistic than ever before that the Jewish people will not only survive, but succeed and flourish

Despite the efforts of so many out there, we are not going to go away.

Am Israel Chai!

 

The Legend on the Gate

As someone who has been lecturing in front of classes on college campuses for nearly two decades, I strongly support academic freedom and free speech on our college campuses.  This, of course, means that there will be ideas expressed which I will find quite repulsive.  But students of mine have received A's for term papers espousing viewpoints totally opposite my own when they write the papers logically and document their research well.

As recently mentioned in the posting of 1 February 2013, some anti-Israel students and faculty at Brooklyn College had planned a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions event.  Karen Gould, President of Brooklyn College, defended the scheduling of the event, insisting that academic freedom was paramount, and that the hosting of the event by Brooklyn College did not necessarily imply agreement with it.

So far, I must grudgingly back Karen on this one.

And, quite frankly, the protesters, with their retinue of elected officials in agreement (read pandering for votes), did play their hand a bit strongly, thus casting the BDS people into an underdog position to elicit public sympathy

Except, when the event did occur, some people were reportedly ejected from the event because they were Jewish.  This is NOT academic freedom.  And Brooklyn College's VP for Student Affairs, Milga Morales, stood by and declined to intervene to put a stop to it.

Brooklyn College's official mouthpiece claimed that the ejectees had misbehaved and were unruly, but an audio recording strongly suggests that Brooklyn College's official version of the events was an out and out lie.

This is likely a game changer.  Now, Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor of the City University of New York, of which Brooklyn College is a part, has ordered an investigation of the event.

I will note that according to CUNY's Manual on General Policy, not only is such discrimination prohibited, but the Presidents of the individual colleges (that's you, Ms. Gould!) are responsible for ensuring that such a policy is carried out.

The politics of CUNY in particular, and New York in general, are too complex for me to predict with certainty the repercussions from this event, other than that there will be some sort of repercussions.  But Chancellor Goldstein, Chief Counsel Schaffer (who is the point man for the investigation), President Gould and VP Morales cannot all emerge unscathed from the event.  I would not be surprised in the least to see some personnel changes in the coming months.  And I do not expect Goldstein or Schaffer to throw their capes over the mud so that Gould or Morales can keep their slippers clean when they walk.

The main entrance to the Brooklyn College campus has a wrought iron gate with the words "Brooklyn College" wrought into the lintel.  What Goldstein and Schaffer do or do not do will determine whether at two-word legend above the gate should be updated to read "Arbeit Macht Frei."

What Would Rabbi Kahane Do?

 

I have long been very chary regarding the Jewish Defense League.  Having attended a junior high school where the Jewish kids were countable on the fingers of both hands even after my sister and I transferred in, I do understand firsthand the need for an able-bodied Jewish kid to resort to physical measures in dealing with bullies.  Done correctly, certain countermeasures can put a stop to the bullying, as indeed, they did for me.  The prospect of supportive confraternity ostensibly offered by the JDL can be very enticing indeed, especially to the Jewish youth who has experienced anti-semitic verbal taunts and worse.

But I saw early on that what the JDL stands for on paper is not what the JDL always brings into actualization, and so declined over the years a number of invitations to join.  Specifically, the JDL has a special draw for misfits in Jewish society who, for all of their pride and concern for their fellow Jews, fail to properly discern the time and place to employ -- and not to employ -- physical violence.  Too many times, overzealousness has been very misdirected, to the discredit of the JDL and the Jewish community at large.

And unfortunately, Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the JDL, condoned such intemperance overly much.  Accordingly, while I have had occasion to cooperate with some of the more rational and reflective members of the JDL in matters of valid concern (e.g., providing a physical presence on "Mischief Night" at the home, located in an overwhelmingly anti-semitic neighborhood, of a widow whose adolescent daughter had already been attacked, and whose windows had already been broken), I have never cast my lot with joining the JDL as a member.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, I do, from time to time, consider a situation and wonder "What would Rabbi Kahane do?"

One such situation is in the process of occurring at Brooklyn College.  A group of pro-Arab and anti-Israel activists are now slated to present a one-sided program for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel on the Brooklyn.  The Department of Political Science is a sponsor of the event.  Karen Gould, the President of Brooklyn College, insists that "academic freedom" requires that the program go forward (though she has yet to explain how the boycott, ostracism and exclusion of academics from Israel because they are Israeli constitutes academic freedom).

The protests against the upcoming program (it is unlikely to be scrubbed) are growing increasingly intense by the hour, and New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind has called for Gould's resignation.

What would Rabbi Kahane do?

It is a known fact that much of the research and development of Intel's computer technology has taken place and continues to take place in Israel.

If the Political Science Department insists on supporting a boycott of Israeli products, then maybe computers with Intel chips do not belong in the Department's offices.  How about a mass incursion of able-bodied Jewish (or, for that matter, gentile) men and women into the Brooklyn College Political Science Department to confiscate the computers and walk out with them?

Perhaps that is what Rabbi Kahane would do.