Yehuda Lave, Spiritual Advisor and Counselor | | | | Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement If all goes according to plan, I am enjoying this Shabbat in Prague, Czech. Pictures on my return (of course not from Shabbat) | | | From my face book friend Susan Shapiro In 2018 I was a loser!!! I lost my foot pain
I lost the ability to shop in Plus Size Stores only
I lost overflowing bathtubs
I lost slow walking
I lost loneliness from being left out
I lost two wardrobes of clothing
I lost a medical diagnosis of pre-diabetes
I lost high "bad" cholesterol
I lost tight seat belts in the airplane
I lost sugar cravings
I lost feelings of hopelessness
I lost sitting on the sidelines while everyone else is having fun
I lost the need for the closest parking spot
I lost my identity as I'd known it for so many years
I lost my baggy "style"
I lost the need to sit on the couch when the kids were on the floor
I lost overflow in airline seats
I lost the need to always find a vacant chair to rest in
I lost the need to always sabotage compliments
I lost the belief that I can't do it.
I lost despair SO FAR I lost 85 lbs In 2018 I gained I gained the freedom of movement without pain
I gained new clothing
I gained speed while walking
I gained my family and being part of activities
I gained not being afraid to sit in the middle seat in the plane
I gained hope
I gained confidence
I climbed mountains
I gained steps as I parked wherever I found a spot
I gained style in clothing
I gained extra excess inches in airline seatbelts
I gained joy in being an involved grandparent
I gained posture as I stood instead of needing to sit all the time
I gained grace in saying "thank you" when receiving a compliment
I gained belief in myself and my abilities
I gained joy in realizing things I could now do that I couldn't before
I gained health
I gained the ability to make good food choices
I gained support from my family
I gained encouragement from my husband Love Yehuda Lave | | WHY MOST RECENT IMMIGRANTS TO ISRAEL AREN'T CONSIDERED JEWISH How can people chose to build their lives in the Holy Land and have "no religion"? BY SAM SOKOL For the first time, Israel announced that Jewish immigrants to Israel were outnumbered by non-Jewish immigrants.
The headlines might suggest that Christians and perhaps Muslims have been moving to the Jewish state in significant numbers, but the truth is more complicated: According to numbers released Monday by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, 17,700 of the 32,600 migrants who moved to Israel in 2018 came under the Law of Return but were listed as "having no religion." Such immigrants, hailing largely from the former Soviet Union and Baltic states, count Jewish ancestry but are ineligible to marry as Jews, for example, under the state-controlled rabbinic court system. In 2017, there were 11,400 such immigrants out of a migratory population of 29,100.
The result is a heated debate over Jewish identity, the country's strict Orthodox standards for converting to Judaism and how to best integrate new immigrants into the life of a Jewish state.
All told, there are already some 400,000 people, mostly from the former Soviet Union, living in Israel who are not considered Jewish by the Chief Rabbinate. Such immigrants and their children are "caught in a bureaucratic void, unable to marry in State-sanctioned weddings, and to partake in other basic rights of Jewish citizenry," according to Itim, an advocacy group that works to help Israelis navigate the country's religious bureaucracy.
Itim calls the situation "unacceptable, particularly given the dysfunctional and inadequate State conversion system, which converts a mere 2,000 Israeli citizens to Judaism each year."
The Law of Return grants near-automatic citizenship to those with at least one Jewish grandparent. The Chief Rabbinate only recognizes them as Jews under the standards of halacha, or Jewish law: They must have a Jewish mother or have been converted to Judaism under Orthodox authorities approved by the Chief Rabbinate.
For the past several years, immigration from the former Soviet Union has again been on the rise, edging France and other Western European nations as the source for the largest number of new immigrants. Russians, many with Jewish roots, are fleeing their country's economic stagnation. Many Ukrainians have fled from the Russia-backed military conflict convulsing the east of their country. According to Israel's Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, more than 30,000 people emigrated from Ukraine between 2014 and October 2018.
According to a 2014 report by Vladimir Khanin, the chief scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, the proportion of non-Jews among those arriving from the former Soviet and present-day Baltic states has been increasing for decades. While only between 12 and 20 percent of immigrants were considered non-Jews when immigration started in earnest following the Cold War, their numbers rose to between 40 percent and half in the late 1990s. By the first decade of the 2000s, the share of those designated as non-Jewish was between 56 and 60 percent.
In a country where demographic arguments carry political weight from everything to issues of religion and state to the peace process, accurate numbers are critical, said Israeli demographer Sergio DellaPergolla. He said the new figures stand at odds with some of the rhetoric being employed in Israel's public policy debates.
"Considering that Jews compose 75 percent of the total Israeli population, the growth of the non-Jewish components was faster and therefore the Jewishness of Israel diminished — in spite of the triumphalist declarations by certain political circles that the Arab fertility rate has diminished," he said.
Itim's founder, Rabbi Seth Farber, said the numbers suggest the need to loosen Israel's cumbersome process for converting to Judaism. | | | The lovers continue their trip to Ben Gurion's house by walking to Dizengoff Center and then walking 30 minutes back to the HaShalom train station for a free ride back to Jerusalem | | Following outcry, Hebrew University issues pro-IDF ad Five days following the incident in which a Hebrew University professor Dr. Carola Hilfrich scolded a student for wearing her Israel Defense Forces' uniform to class, the university published an advertisement calling on students in uniform to come study at the university. January 7, 2019 / JNS) Five days following the incident in which a Hebrew University professor, Dr. Carola Hilfrich, scolded a student for wearing her Israel Defense Forces' uniform to class, the university published a rare ad calling on students in uniform to come study at the university. Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories "Students in Uniform? Welcome!" read the ad signed by the university's president, Professor Asher Cohen. "We wanted to clarify that we respect soldiers in uniform. That is the truth," said Cohen this morning on Army Radio. Cohen also apologized for the incident. "I personally have not talked with Dr. Hilfrich yet, but her behavior was behavior that should have not occurred," he said. When asked if the university has any intention on dismissing the professor, he replied that "this subject is not even on the table." The university has faced sharp blowback over the incident, with many calling on the university to dismiss Hilfrich. In the days following the incident, more than 45,000 emails were sent at the initiative the Zionist organization Im Tirtzu to the university administration, calling on them to formally apologize and dismiss the professor. Tomorrow, a "uniform protest" is planned at the university in which students will be attending the university wearing IDF uniforms. "We are pleased to see that after the university nixed the playing of 'Hatikvah' at its graduation ceremony, approved inciting protests against IDF soldiers and petitioned the state on behalf of a BDS activist, they remembered the importance of IDF soldiers," said Im Tirtzu CEO Matan Peleg. "This is a step in the right direction," continued Peleg, "and perhaps there is still hope that the university will change its ways and begin combating the widespread anti-Israel activity on its campus." | | Trophy hunter who kills endangered elephants and lions 'eaten by crocodiles' Crocodiles are thought to have eaten a South African hunter after human remains were found inside two animals.
Scott van Zyl disappeared last week after he went on a hunting safari in Zimbabwe. Accompanied by a pack of dogs and a Zimbabwean tracker, the professional hunter who organises trips for foreign clients is thought to have been eaten by crocodiles on the bank of the Limpopo River.
It is believed Mr van Zyl and his tracker left their truck and walked in different directions into the bush. The dogs later returned to the camp without Mr van Zyl, whose belongings were found inside the vehicle. Rescue teams were sent to search for the hunter and helicopters, trackers and divers all scoured the region.
His tracks were later spotted leading to the banks of the river and his backpack was located nearby. Sakkie Louwrens, a member of one of the search teams, said police suspected two Nile crocodiles may have eaten Mr Van Zyl.
"We found what could possibly be human remains in them," he told The Telegraph. Forensic experts are currently testing whether the remains belong to Mr van Zyl.
The SS Pro Safaris website, owned by Mr van Zyl, states the company "has conducted numerous safaris" throughout Southern Africa. These include "elephants in Botswana to the smallest blue duiker in KwaZulu Natal".
It goes on to list buffalo, rhino, lions, leopards and antelopes as targets for hunts. There have been previous incidents in southern Zimbabwe of people being killed by crocodiles.
| | Facebook Twitter Flipboard Email Copy METRO Hasidic Jewish community creates NY's first new town in decades An insular Hasidic Jewish community in upstate New York officially formed their own town when the calendar rolled over to 2019, becoming the state's first new town in nearly 40 years, reports said. The former Village of Kiryas Joel in Orange County officially split from Monroe, NY on New Year's Day, becoming the Town of Palm Tree, according to The Times Herald-Record. Palm Tree — named for the English translation of Kiryas Joel founder Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum's last name — springs forth from a 2017 referendum in which more than 80 percent of Monroe voters opted to branch off into their own town, the paper reported. Palm Tree — all 220 acres and roughly 20,000 residents of it — becomes New York's first new town since East Rochester was formed in 1981. But life in the new town is already off to a rocky start: The town has no elected justices to hear municipal court cases, including traffic tickets, because no one bothered to run for the position, The Times Herald-Record reported. Several people received write-in votes, but the Orange County Board of Elections refused to certify the top two as winners because multiple people in the new town shared those names, the report said. | | See you Sunday, Shabbat Shalom Love Yehuda Lave | | | |
