Toward a better future through tolerance and mutualism
By Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Blumenfeld, Yeshiva Neveh Zion, Israel
December 31, 2006
Dear Alumni and Friends,
Today is Asara B’Teves. We are fasting not only to commemorate the day when the walls of Yerushalayim were breached by the invading Babylonians. We are fasting also that our prayers and discomfort should affect the present and the future. Let me explain.
Last night with a few Neveh fellows, I attended a large overflowing assembly of Bnei Torah who gathered to hear Gedolei Yisrael speaking about the need for strengthening tznius in Eretz Yisrael. Rav Ahron Leib Steinman, shlita, Reb Nosson Tzvi Finkel, shlita, the Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir, Rav Mattisyahu Solomon, shlita, Mashgiach of Lakewood Yeshiva and other Gedolim addressed the audience in English and Yiddish. There wasn’t a speaker that didn’t mention the Es Tzora, the time of travail that our people are living through now. “We are in danger and our enemies are not few.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Judaism, Monotheistic Religions, Recent Posts on December 31, 2006 - י' טבת תשס"ז at 9:10 am
People’s Daily Online, December 29, 2006
http://english.people.com.cn/200612/29/eng20061229…
On the eve of Muslims feast of Greater Bairam (Eid al-Adha) which falls on Saturday (Dec. 30), a Palestinian woman in her 50s in front of a cloth store in Gaza city, shouted that “Be merciful to us! Is there still such high prices?”
The woman, who only identified herself as Um Muhammad, stood next to her three children in al-Shiekh Radwan local market, arguing with the salesman who asked 10 Israeli Shekels for a piece of cloth.
“We pass through hard state of insolvency,” said the woman with obvious regret.
In the Palestinian territories, about 165,000 public servants haven’t been paid their overdue salaries since the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), who sworn to destroy Israel, took office in March. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East Report, Monotheistic Religions, Recent Posts on December 29, 2006 - ח' טבת תשס"ז at 9:47 am
by Noam Bedein, Israel National News, December 28, 2006
The Tseva Adom (”Color Red”) siren went off at approximately 9:15 pm.
I took out a video camera, donned press credentials and ran outside. Three seconds later, there was an enormous explosion nearby. Running towards to sound of the explosion on a wet road, I arrived as an ambulance evacuated two ninth-grade boys - 13 and 14 years old - to the Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.
There was a pool of blood and a shoe right near the sidewalk. Four parked cars had their windshields completely shattered. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on December 29, 2006 - ח' טבת תשס"ז at 8:21 am
By Stephanie Freid, Israel 21C, December 25, 2006
Jean-Pierre Nkuranga was twenty in 1994 when he hid in the bushes outside his home in Rwanda and watched helplessly as Hutu militiamen ruthlessly attacked his family members. He lost four siblings and both parents in the carnage that was later known as Rwanda’s genocide.
“Children heads of household were common - some as young as ten. The kids would put together households of other kids and live in the streets or build tent camps with leaves and mud.” Nkuranga said.
The 1994 Rwandan genocide left over 800,000 Tutsis dead. One of the most devastating aftermaths of the tragedy was the approximately 1,200,000 children - almost 15% of the Rwandan population - who became instant orphans and lost their homes forever. Nkuranga became the parent to his four remaining siblings in the aftermath of the violence and he eventually took in six additional neighboring children. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Mental Health, Middle East Report, News Articles on December 28, 2006 - ז' טבת תשס"ז at 9:37 am
Thanks to Fred Reifenberg for submitting these Jewish sayings that are so full of insight and wisdom
Subject: Yiddishe Proverbs
If the rich could hire other people to die for them, the poor could make a wonderful living. Yiddish Proverb
The wise man, even when he holds his tongue, says more than the fool when he speaks. Yiddish Proverb
Ask about your neighbors, then buy the house.
Yiddish proverb
What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t invent with your mouth.
Yiddish proverb Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Fun Stuff, Humor on December 26, 2006 - ה' טבת תשס"ז at 8:10 am
By Israel Zwick
Frustrated with the ongoing impasse in the Arab-Israeli conflict and the internal turmoil facing the people of Israel, my wife, Devorah, confronted me, “All of you writers spit out dozens of articles every day about the conflicts in Israel but nobody comes up with a solution. All you do is kvetch. You kvetch about the Arabs. You kvetch about the UN. You kvetch about media bias. You kvetch about Carter and Baker. Why can’t you come up with a solution?”
“What would you like me to do,” I countered defensively, “search for the nekhtiker teg?”
“What does that mean?” she retorted, “You know that I’m not as enamored with Yiddish as you are.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts, Zwick's Picks on December 25, 2006 - ד' טבת תשס"ז at 1:10 pm
Rat study also suggests new treatments for Alzheimer’s, experts say
FRIDAY, Dec. 22 (HealthDay News) — Having trouble remembering things with age? A new study in rats finds that stem cells in aging brains divide less frequently, leading to a dramatic drop in the number of new nerve cells being born in the hippocampus, the brain’s learning and memory center.
The finding, published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, also suggests that it may be possible to stimulate the brain’s ability to produce new brain nerve cells in order to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, depression and dementia, said senior study investigator Ashok K. Shetty, professor of neurosurgery at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., and a medical research scientist at Durham VA Medical Center. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Health Sciences, Mental Health, Recent Posts on December 25, 2006 - ד' טבת תשס"ז at 8:36 am
By Stephanie L. Freid, San Francisco Chronicle, December 24, 2006
Thousands of students in Southern Israel have missed school this year because of the barrage of rockets near their homes. Half a million students in Northern Israel were affected by the war with Hezbollah last summer.
“Only now — two months into the school year — are we beginning to see the (deeper) effects of the war,” said Bilha Noy, head of the Psychological and Counseling Department for Israel’s Ministry of Education. “Children are having trouble concentrating, and for roughly 5 percent, return to so-called normal life has not happened.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Education Report, Mental Health, Middle East Report, Recent Posts on December 25, 2006 - ד' טבת תשס"ז at 8:33 am
http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/region/10091932.html
12/24/2006 11:22 PM | Dr. Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, Special to Gulf News
The sectarian conflagration witnessed in the Islamic world today confirms the fact that there is nothing worse than the clash of civilisations, save for the clash between Islamic sects.
The clash of civilisations which was elaborated upon by Samuel Huntington, a political science professor at Harvard University, took over a large portion of international political thought during the past 15 years.
But these clashes receded partially, and wise people from both the Islamic and Christian Western civilisations were successful in containing it, especially after the successful visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey recently, where he offered prayers while facing towards the Ka’aba in Makkah, side by side with Muslim worshipers. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on December 24, 2006 - ג' טבת תשס"ז at 7:53 pm
The Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development
Worldwide, December 20, 2006
Paths to Development: the Israeli Experience – a Program for South African Leaders in the Public and Private sector
This fall, 21 South African leaders from political, economic, administrative agencies and elsewhere participated in an intensive 10-day workshop-seminar organized by NISPED in cooperation with He’atid, South Africa.
The seminar had two components–an introduction to Israel as a country and as a people, and Israel’s development process. The first section examined the history and geography of Israel, its structure and economy, its most important achievements and its most difficult problems. This section served as background for the second part of the seminar, which, after examining different strategies of development, discussed the special approaches and methods that have enabled Israel to develop rapidly and successfully, despite the myriad challenges which it has faced.
The Israeli experience provides an interesting example of different possible paths to development that may be of interest and of value for South Africa. We hope that this workshop-seminar strengthened the ties of friendship and pointed to areas where mutual exchange and joint endeavor may be important for both nations.
(Source: NISPED)
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, News Articles, Recent Posts on December 22, 2006 - א' טבת תשס"ז at 10:23 am