Be’chol Lashon is the Hebrew for “In Every Tongue” and it advocates for the Growth & Diversity of the Jewish People. Today Jews come indeed in every color and every stripes and some leaders do the outreach to embrace them all. Just look at Dr. Lewis Gordon of the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, Mr. Romiel Daniel of Queens, New York, The head of Jews of India in our region, Dr. Ephraim Isaac, of the institute for Semitic Studies. They do not look like your stereotype Jew. I met them and was impressed – the latter actually for the first time as we both visited Addis Ababa at the time of the delayed Ethiopian Millennium. Then Rabbi Hailu Paris with his communities in Brooklyn and the Bronx, Ethiopian born and graduae of Yeshiva University, and his Assistant Monica Wiggan (http://www.blackjews.org/Essays/RabbiParisEthiopianTrip.html), and Rabbi Gershom Sizomu of the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda from whom I got a very distinctive kippah with the menorah – of the old temple worked in. Then Dr. Rabson Wuriga of the Hamisi Lemba clan in South Africa and Zimbabwe and so on – in Nigeria, in Peru, in India, in China.

And who has not heard by now of the present White House Rabbi – Cappers Funnye – the cousin of Michelle Obama – and associate director of Bechol Lashon and spiritual leader of Beth Shalom B’nei Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation of Chicago?

The New York regional director of DiverseJews.org is Lacey Schwartz who is also National Outreach Director of BecholLashon.org, assisted by Collier Meyerson and to top it all Davi Cheng, Director of the Los Angeles region is Jewish, Chinese, and Lesbian. As I said it is all a new image of the Jew.

Last night, at the Gallery Bar, 120 Orchard St., NYC there was a Shemspeed Summer Music Festival event.

The two further upcoming events in New York will be on:

Monday, August 2nd – the Shemspeed Hip Hop Fest at Le Poisson Rouge – 158 Bleeker Street NYC Featuring Tes Uno, Ted King & guest Geng Grizlee and others with CD Release parties for “A Tribe Called Tes” and “Move On.”

Thursday, August 5th – Shemspeed Jewish Punk Fest at Pianos, 158 Ludlow Street, NYC Featuring Moshiach Oil & The Groggers.

info on each event above and at http://shemspeed.com/fest

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A Jewish Woman Living in Ethiopia

Rethinking How U.S. Jews Fund Communities Around the World.

The Forward
Published: May 27, 2010

For more than half a century, North America’s Jewish federation system has divided its overseas allocations between the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Joint Distribution Committee. The Jewish Agency has been dedicated to building up Israel and encouraging aliyah, while the Joint has focused on aiding Jewish communities in need around the globe.

Today, both agencies are working to assert their continued relevance in a changing Jewish world. With aliyah slowing, the Jewish Agency is moving toward embracing a new agenda: promoting the concept of Jewish peoplehood. The JDC, meanwhile, has sought to claim a larger share of the communal pie, which had long been split 75%-25% in the Jewish Agency’s favor.

After a recent round of sniping over the funding issue, the two sides are now stepping back from their public confrontation and recommitting to negotiations over the future of the collective funding arrangement. Underlying this fight, however, is a more fundamental tension over communal funding priorities: Should overseas aid be focused on helping needy Jews and assisting communities that have few resources of their own, or should it be used to bolster Jewish identity?

With this debate raging, the Forward asked a diverse group of Jewish thinkers and communal activists from around the world to weigh in and address the following question: How should North America’s Jewish community be thinking about its priorities and purposes in funding Jewish needs abroad?

New Century, New Priorities

By Yossi Beilin

During the 20th century, the challenges facing world Jewry were the following: rescue of Jews who encountered existential danger, assistance to Israel, helping with the absorption of those who immigrated to new countries and opening the gates for those who were denied the right to emigrate. In the 21st century, ensuring Jewish continuity is the greatest challenge facing the Jewish people.

Yet too often Jewish organizations in the United States and elsewhere remain focused on the challenges of the previous century. (Indeed, Jewish groups were not very receptive when I first proposed the idea for Birthright Israel 17 years ago.)

Ensuring the existence of Jewish life (religious and secular) throughout the world via Jewish education, encounters between young Israeli and Diaspora Jews, creating a virtual Jewish community using new technologies — these must be at the top of the global Jewish agenda. This requires American Jewish philanthropy and leadership, which in turn requires discerning between past and present priorities.

Yossi Beilin, a former justice minister of Israel, is president of the international consulting firm Beilink.

Reviving Polish Jewry

By Konstanty Gebert

The rebirth of Central European Jewish communities after 1989, though numerically not very impressive, remains significant for moral and historical reasons. It is also crucial for Jewish self-understanding. An enormous proportion of American Jews can trace their origins to what used to be Poland alone. This is where much of Diaspora history happened.

Alongside the courage and determination of local Jews, the far-sighted support of several American Jewish organizations and philanthropies made this rebirth possible. In Poland the Joint Distribution Committee, the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation and the Taube Foundation played key roles. Their support has translated not only into Jewish schools and festivals in places once believed to be Jewish-ly dead, but also in most cases into changed relations between local Jewish communities and their fellow citizens as well as clear support for Israel on the part of these countries’ governments.

Yet for all this progress, Central European Jewish communities might never become self-financing. The support given them by American Jewry remains a vital Jewish interest. It must be strengthened.

Konstanty Gebert, a former underground journalist, is a columnist at the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza and founder of the Polish-language Jewish monthly Midrasz.

What We Give Ourselves

By Lisa Leff

More than any Jewish community in history, postwar American Jews have used our prosperity to help Jewish communities around the world. On one level, the greatest beneficiaries of this support have been Jews abroad. But we should also recognize that these philanthropic efforts have shaped our communal values and identity.

Through our international aid, we have dedicated ourselves to universalist and cosmopolitan ideas like tikkun olam and solidarity across borders. In helping disadvantaged and oppressed Jews abroad, we have also deepened our community’s commitments to democracy, human rights and economic justice for all. It’s only natural that Jewish groups pitch in on Haitian earthquake relief and advocate on behalf of oppressed people of all backgrounds.

Whatever the outcome of the federations’ deliberations over how to divide allocations between the Jewish Agency and the Joint Distribution Committee, it is imperative that American Jewry maintain its commitment to our values through supporting international philanthropy.

Lisa Leff is an associate professor of history at American University and the author of “Sacred Bonds of Solidarity: The Rise of Jewish Internationalism in Nineteenth-Century France” (Stanford University Press, 2006).

Putting Identity First

By Jonathan S. Tobin

The choices we face are not between good causes and bad or even indifferent ones but between vital Jewish obligations. But since the decline in giving to Jewish causes means that we must make tough decisions, programs that reinforce Jewish identity and support Zionism both in the Diaspora and in Israel must be accorded a higher priority.

At this point in our history, with assimilation thinning the ranks of Diaspora Jewry and with continuity problems arising even in Israel, the need to instill a sense of membership in the Jewish people is an imperative that cannot be pushed aside. Under the current circumstances, absent an effort that will make Jewish and Zionist education the keynote of our communal life, the notion that Jewish philanthropies or support for Israel can be adequately sustained in the future is simply a fantasy.

Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of Commentary magazine.

Collective Responsibility

By Richard Wexler

One cannot have a meaningful discussion about framing the national Jewish community’s priorities and purposes in funding Jewish needs abroad without first asking the question: Is there actually a collective “North American Jewish community” today?

Collective responsibility has been and remains the foundation upon which the federation system and, therefore, the national Jewish community are built. It is what distinguishes the federations from all other charities. It is embodied in our participation in the adventure of building Israel and in meeting overseas needs through the Jewish Agency and the Joint Distribution Committee, in the dues that federations pay to the Jewish Federations of North America and so much more. But today, federations “bowl alone.”

Collective responsibility gives meaning to kol Yisrael arevim zeh l’zeh — all Jews are responsible for one another. Until federations understand once again that Jewish needs extend beyond the borders of any one community, we cannot have a meaningful priority-setting process for funding Jewish needs abroad.

Richard Wexler is a former chairman of the United Israel Appeal.

Originally published here: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/rethinking-how-u-s-jews-fund-communities-around-the-world-1.292527

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Rabbi Gershom Sizomu and Be’chol Lashon director Diane Tobin at the opening of the Health Center.

Gary Tobin’s Legacy Lives on in New Ugandan Health Center

By Amanda Pazornik

The J Weekly
Published: July 22, 2010

On the day of the grand opening of the Tobin Health Center in Mbale, Uganda, health professionals were already hard at work treating patients inside.

The center was open for business, but that didn’t slow down the lively June 18 celebration, which featured song and dance performances and speakers. About 3,000 people gathered at the center’s grounds to mark the occasion.

Seated under colorful tents was Diane Tobin, director of S.F.-based Be’chol Lashon and wife of the late Gary Tobin, for whom the center is named, along with three of their children, Aryeh, Mia and Jonah.

“Everyone was amazing, friendly and so generous of spirit,” said Tobin, who was visiting Uganda and its Abayudaya Jewish community for the first time. “They were so appreciative of having the center and demonstrated a tremendous willingness to work together. It’s a great model for the rest of the world.”

Andrew Esensten, Be’chol Lashon program coordinator, and Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, spiritual leader of the Abayudaya Jews and the first chief rabbi of Uganda, joined them, in addition to government and medical officials, and representatives from Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities.

The Tobin Health Center is named for Gary Tobin, the founder of the S.F.-based Institute for Jewish and Community Research, of which Be’chol Lashon (“In Every Tongue”) is an initiative. Tobin died one year ago after a long battle with cancer. He was 59.

“He really has left a legacy,” said Debra Weinberg of Baltimore, who attended the opening with her husband, Joe, and their 14-year-old son, Ben. The couple also helped fund the project. “I think he would feel deeply comforted to know it’s improving the lives of people.”

The 4,000-square-foot facility is a major component of the ongoing Abayudaya Community Health and Development Project undertaken by the Abayudaya Executive Council and Be’chol Lashon, a nonprofit that reaches out to Jews of color and helps educate the mainstream community about Jewish diversity.

It cost approximately $250,000 to erect the two-story center, using donations collected over five years. While patients pay for their services, continuous fundraising is a necessity, Tobin said.

Construction began in July 2009, enabling more than 50 Africans from diverse ethnic backgrounds to earn a living.

Stars of David are featured in the window grids, ceilings and floors of the health center, a “lovely expression of their Judaism,” Tobin said. Private rooms make up most of the top floor, with patient wards on the ground floor. A mezuzah is affixed to every door.

A large portrait of Gary Tobin hangs in the lobby.

“It’s so heartwarming,” Diane Tobin said of the visual tribute. “Gary would be so honored to have this health center in the middle of Africa named after him.”

Prior to the opening of the Tobin Health Center, the nearest medical facility to the Abayudaya Jews was Mbale Hospital, an overcrowded and understaffed institution not accessible to all the residents of the region. Tobin said there are other clinics in the area, but they lack the preventive health care measures necessary to respond to the community’s needs.

The Tobin Health Center is licensed by the Ministry of Health and is certified to operate a pharmacy and laboratory. It serves all who seek basic medical care in the region, providing life-saving health services and simultaneously creating jobs.

“The goal is to raise the standard of medical care,” Tobin said.

In addition, rental units on the bottom and top floors of the center will provide more job opportunities for locals. The first business recently opened — a hardware store that sells bags of cement, plumbing equipment and sheet metal — with a beauty salon and video rental outlet in the works.

The center “is rewarding on a number of levels,” said Steven Edwards of Laguna Beach, who, along with his wife, Jill, has been involved with the Abayudaya for six years. “The most obvious is to see this beautiful, clean building. On top of that, local dignitaries noted how lucky Mbale is to have the Jewish community and how much they contribute to the larger community by bringing jobs.”

The Abayudaya Jews comprise a growing, 100-year-old community of more than 1,000 Jews living among 10,000 Christians and Muslims. They live in scattered villages in the rolling, green hills of eastern Uganda. The largest Abayudaya village, Nabagoye, is near Mbale, the seventh-largest city in Uganda and the location of the center.

Research conducted by Be’chol Lashon in 2006 showed that contaminated water and malaria-carrying mosquitoes pose the biggest health risks to the community. A year later, the organization launched the Abayudaya Community Health and Development Project with the drilling of the first well in Nabagoye.

Since then, nearly 1,000 mosquito nets have been purchased and distributed throughout the community.

“Our goal is to respond to the needs of communities,” Tobin said. “If there are other communities that need health centers, we will be there.”

Originally published here: http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/58727/s.f.-researchers-legacy-lives-on-in-new-ugandan-health-center/

UN TO SPOTLIGHT MEDIA’S ROLE IN PROMOTING MIDDLE EAST PEACE

The role of the media in fostering dialogue and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians will be the focus of a two-day United Nations meeting to be held later this week in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon.

The upcoming media seminar, which starts on Thursday, will be the 17th such gathering organized by the UN Department of Public Information (DPI), and aims to sensitize public opinion on the issue of Palestine and the peace process.

With this year marking the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the landmark resolution 1325, which stresses the importance of giving women equal participation and full involvement in peace and security matters, their role in achieving peace will also be discussed.

Some 120 people from the Middle East, including both Israelis and Palestinians, and from around the world are set to attend, including Government officials, representatives of civil society organizations, academics, journalists and others.

Five panel sessions will be held during the seminar on topics such as the role of the Israeli and Palestinian media in reducing tensions, the use of new media to bring about positive change, and the part that mayors from both sides can play in advancing peace.

The participants will include Jorge Sampaio, the former Portuguese president and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, set up under UN auspices to promote better cross-cultural relations worldwide.

Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, and Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, will also address the event.

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UN POLITICAL CHIEF UNDERSCORES NEED FOR DIRECT ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN TALKS

With efforts to move to serious negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians on achieving a two-State solution having reached a “critical juncture,” the top United Nations political official today underlined the need for direct negotiations between the two sides to begin as soon as possible.

“These talks are essential for ending the 1967 occupation, ending the conflict and resolving all core issues between the parties, including Jerusalem, borders, refugees, security settlements and water,” Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe told the Security Council today.

Six rounds of proximity talks facilitated by United States Special Envoy George Mitchell have been held since they began in May.

The goal of the diplomatic Quartet – comprising the United Nations, the US, Russia and the European Union – continues to be US-facilitated direct negotiations as soon as possible, Mr. Pascoe said, urging Israel and Palestinians to take advantage of the current opportunity to make progress.

Direct talks, he noted, could boost “confidence in the possibility of genuine progress on the core issues and on the ground, including restraint in Jerusalem, implementation of Roadmap obligations on settlements and further measures to empower the Palestinian Authority.”

Earlier this month, in a move welcomed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other officials, the Israeli Government announced it was increase the scope and quantity of materials allowed into Gaza.

Since then, new food and productive items have entered the Strip and the volume of imports into the area has risen steadily, with a 40 per cent increasing in the number of truckloads entering Gaza every week.

“While these are positive steps forward, we hope they can be enhanced to address the deplorable conditions in the Strip,” Mr. Pascoe said, calling for additional steps to be taken to allow exports and movement of people, as well as to streamline procedures for approval for projects.

He also announced at today’s meeting that agreements agreed by the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) on ensuring the cargo onboard Turkish ships have been implemented.

Those ships were part of an aid flotilla intercepted by the Israeli military on 31 May, resulting in the deaths of nine civilians and the wounding of at least 30 others.

Mr. Pascoe said that arrangements are also being made to transfer material carried by a Libyan-sponsored vessel, which arrived in Egypt last week, to Gaza.

“Such convoys are not helpful to resolving the basic economic problems in Gaza and needlessly carry the potential for escalation,” he told the meeting, which heard from dozens of speakers.

During the reporting period, Palestinian militant groups fired 41 rockets and mortars into southern Israel, causing no injuries, while the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) carried out six air strikes and 21 incursions, killing four Gazans, including one alleged militant, and injuring 23 others, the Under-Secretary-General said.

Turning to Lebanon, he said that the situation in that country remains stable. The Lebanese Parliament has continued talks on draft legislation on the civil rights of Palestinian refugees.

“Consensus appears to be within reach and the United Nations would welcome this as a first step,” Mr. Pascoe said.

Paul Badji, Chairman of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, said at the meeting that serious direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians “can only be successful in an atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence in a comprehensive, just and lasting outcome.”

This, he said, requires both sides to implement their obligations under the Roadmap.

The Committee remains “alarmed” by Israel’s refusal to heed international calls to halt settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in East Jerusalem.

Also addressing the Council today was Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev, who said her country called for direct negotiations with Palestinians with “no preconditions, no delays.

“With Jerusalem and Ramallah only 10 minutes apart, direct negotiations are the only path to bridge the existing gaps,” she stressed.

Ms. Shalev emphasized the need for mutual recognition, noting that Israel’s recognition of “a Palestinian State as the nation-State of the Palestinian people must be met with an acknowledgment that Israel is the nation-State of the Jewish people.”

For his part, the Palestinian representative, Riyad Mansour, told the Council that “it seems strange that such a volatile situation persists in light of the international and regional efforts being exerted for revival of the peace process.”

Although his side has taken part in the proximity talks in good faith, “the same cannot be said for Israel,” which he said has “repeatedly challenged those talks with illegal, reckless actions.”

The following comes from

http://iranliberty.com/nukes/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=11690

and it is very disturbing to us. We received the link in an e-mail and it shows clearly that the Rutgers University Center for Middle Eastern Studies has on its faculty a clear bigot originating from Iran, Dr. Afshin Razani, who should not hold the position he was entrusted with – the shaping of the mind of a new generation of Americans whom he feeds plain hate-mongering rubbish.

Yes we know the Middle East is very complex as he says, but he is not the man to unravel it – this because he speaks untruth and half-truths and smears past Administrations because he just wants to wish Israel away from its home in the Middle East.

We know the Director of the Center at Rutgers, Dr. Hooshang Amirahmadi, an Iranian-American scholar, and we are surprised that he keeps this sort of staff in his court – Dr. Razani is not the man that will help you understand neither Iran nor Palestine.

Furthermore, when you read the rubbish we posted here and which comes all of it from above link, you will also see that as Rutgers University is a State University – a New Jersey Public University – the implication that what is taught at the center is Islamic Religion, may in effect undermine the  legal status that covers the establishment of the Center.

We follow up here with what appears in the English part of above link

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Profile

Dr. Razani received his BS in economics and public administration from Pahlavi University, Shiraz, Iran. After completing military service, he traveled to the United States and received his master’s degree in economics and his PhD in sociology from Southern Illinois University. Dr. Razani has taught economic and sociology courses including Introductory Economics, Introductory Sociology, Social Stratification, Social Change, Contemporary Social Problems, and Sociological Theory, at both undergraduate and graduate levels at Southern Illinois University, Ramapo College (Mahwah, NJ), and Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ). He has done extensive research on subjects related to the politics of Iran and the Middle East, focusing upon issues of democracy, social justice, and social movements, and has delivered public lectures and speeches on these topics throughout the United States and Canada. He has authored and translated numerous analytical articles on Iran and the Middle East for such publications as Iran Today, and Akhgar in the United States, and Tchissta, a monthly journal in Tehran

Afshin Razani, Ph.D.
Instructor in Middle Eastern Studies
Assistant Director, Public & Executive Affairs
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Lucy Stone Hall, B-327
54 Joyce Kilmer Avenue
Piscataway, NJ 08854
Tel: 732-445-8444, ext. 18
Fax: 732-445-8446
Email:  arazani at rci.rutgers.edu

The People Perceived As A Threat To Security

An Article by Randa A. Kayyali

Emergency Relief and Reconstruction Funds for Lebanon

How can you help – we took this out because we do not believe we want to help Dr. Razani

……………….

Pols undermine U.S. by pandering to Israel  – Home News Tribune Online 06/5/07 – BY HASSAN MAHMOUD

According to a recently published book, “Presidential Courage” by presidential historian Michael Beschloss, Harry Truman was an anti-Semitic bigot who called New York City a “Kike town” and said, “Those goddamned Jews are never satisfied. Jesus Christ couldn’t please them when he was here on earth, so how could anyone expect that I would have any luck?” While staying in Independence to interview Truman in 1961, the talk-show host David Susskind asked him why he never invited him into his home. Truman replied, “You are a Jew, David, and no Jew has ever been in the house.”

By the approach of the presidential election of 1948, Truman’s approval rating was very low. At that time, the United Nations was debating the partition of Palestine between the indigenous Palestinians and the immigrant Jews from Europe. The White House counsel, Clark Clifford, strongly suggested that Truman recognize a Jewish State for which the Jewish donors would support his campaign. As per the book, John Kennedy, allegedly, later insisted that recognition of Israel was rushed through so fast because a Zionist bagman handed the president $2 million in cash in a suitcase. On the other side, Secretary of State George Marshall, whom Truman described as the “great one of the age” and the “architect of victory who won the war,” told the president that if he followed Clifford’s advice and if he were to vote in the election he would vote against him. He and Assistant Secretary of State Loy Henderson and Under Secretary Robert Lovett warned that the founding of a Jewish State in Palestine would be a strategic mistake as it would throw away many years of hard work with the Arabs, would jeopardize oil supplies, turn the whole Arab world into our enemy and make Israel a burden on the United States.

With the hypocritical personality of a U.S. president as such, one wonders how national vital decisions were made.

Since 1948, many upheavals occurred in the Middle East resulting in many wars and destruction and loss of hundreds of thousands of lives — including thousands of Americans — and periodic economic turmoil due to disruption of oil supply, plus the birth of international terrorism. All of these catastrophes could have been alleviated or minimized if we could have wisely managed the aftermath of the creation of Israel in the midst of a sea of Arab and Muslim nations by evenhandedly forcing the adherence of the antagonists to the United Nations resolutions of 1947, which demarcated the boundaries of two states — Palestine and Israel.

Unfortunately, our politicians never learned from the past. When President Bush is asked about the fallacy of the allegations upon which the ruinous Iraq war was waged, his recent answer during his news conference of May 24 was that a main reason for the war was Saddam’s payment to the families of the killed Palestinians who attacked Israel. When he speaks of the dispute with Iran, he always invokes the danger of Iran to Israel. Can’t our politicians stop holding our security and economic interest hostages to the whims of the extremist Israelis who are pursuing colonialist policies in the Middle East and always demand from us to back their follies even by scarifying the lives of our soldiers and our economic welfare?

Amazingly, at the time when a number of our soldiers are kidnapped in Iraq, some New Jersey politicians thought that the fate of our kidnapped soldiers is not worth as much as the fate of three Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah and Hamas. Assemblyman Eric Monoz and state Sen. Thomas H. Kean Jr., both R-Union, Somerset, Essex, Morris, sponsored resolutions that call on the United Nations to take action to help free the three Israeli soldiers. Munoz stated: “I want Israeli citizens here and abroad and the government of Israel to know that the United States — and in particular the State of New Jersey — stands united with them in their efforts to bring these young men home safely.” One wishes that these comforting words and strong resolutions are spoken and made on behalf of the missing Americans and their families. Shame on those politicians. Their pandering to foreign interests blinded them to the interests of America.

“Be Counted” columnist Hassan Mahmoud is a resident of Westfield. “Be Counted” columnists are members of the public. Their opinions do not represent those of the Home News Tribune.
A New Jersey few know: Paterson’s thriving Arab community
The Star-Ledger, Sunday, April 08, 2007

BY MILTON VIORST

I enter Paterson over the Broadway hill past Eastside Park, where as a kid I biked on clear days, turning to gaze at the Manhattan skyline a dozen miles away. The park is where I caught fireflies in a jar on hot summer nights and belly-flopped on a sled on cold winter afternoons, where I sold sodas to picnickers on Sundays and once tried out, unsuccessfully, for the high school baseball team. Just below the park, in the direction of downtown, is Derrom Avenue, whose elegant mansions long advertised the wealth of Paterson’s commercial aristocracy. Incongruously, amidst these mansions now stands the Islamic Center, Paterson’s principal mosque, symbol of the city’s latest transformation.

Paterson, it is widely said, is home to America’s second-largest Arab community. Dearborn, Mich., is first. Paterson is also the hub of several hundred thousand Arabs living in northern New Jersey. Yet, growing up, how come I knew no Arabs? The city, rather handsome and well-kept in those days, was shaped by solidly middle-class Irish, Italian and Jewish communities. Since Alexander Hamilton persuaded George Washington to harness the power of the roaring falls of the Passaic River, its wealth derived from industry, but in the 20th century it also served as a commercial hub for several hundred thousand residents of the North Jersey region. My grandfather came from Poland in 1900 to work in Paterson’s silk mills, the industrial core; my father, after a turn in the mills, found retailing more compatible. The earliest Arab immigrants were Christian Syrians drawn from the textile workshops of Aleppo; Muslims, a second wave that began in the 1920s, preferred to set up small shops. By the 1940s, Arabs were an identifiable community, but I never saw them. Paterson’s ethnic groups were largely strangers to one another, gathered on their own turf around their churches, later their synagogues, then their mosques. Though we lived in neighborhoods that were tightly juxtaposed, only rarely did we cross the lines…

More

ADC-NJ wishes to thank all of our supporters for making our 9th Annual Banquet a great success. The event, which took place at the Grand Ballroom of the Hasbrouck Heights Hilton, was attended by approximately 300 supporters and members.

This year’s Achievement Award was presented to Ms. Sarah El-Shazly, of the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General and the Recognition Award was presented to The Mental Health Association in Passaic County.

Among the many dignitaries present were: Ambassador Shereef EL-Kholy, Consul General of Egypt in New York; Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein; representatives from the offices of Congressman Scott Garrett and Congressman Bill Pascrell; Joe Orlando, CEO of Barnert Hospital; Andre Sayegh, Member, Paterson Board of Education and Chief of Staff for State Sen. Girgenti; from the New Jersey Commission on Civil Rights: Chairman, Hon. John Campbell and Commissioner, Hon. Dr. Joan Rivitz; and from the Rutgers University Center for Middle Eastern Studies were: Director Dr. Hooshang Amirahmadi, Dr. Afshin Razani, Dr. Charles Haberl and staff member Paola Rizzuto.

Also present were representatives from the following organizations: The Arab American Family Support Center of NJ (Tanweer), ADC-NY, ADC-Greater Philadelphia Area, American Muslim Union (AMU), Egyptian American Professional Society (EAPS), Egyptian American Group, Islamic Center of Passaic County (ICPC), Islamic Center of Jersey City, NAAP, New Jersey Muslim Lawyer’s Association, Palestinian Heritage Foundation (PHF), and Wafa House.

We would like to thank our keynote speaker, Senator Lincoln Chafee, for offering the ADC-NJ audience an honest, sensible and realistic approach to the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process. We offer our sincerest thanks to all who attended and helped to make this years Banquet a success.

Please let us know if you have any suggestions as to how we can make next year’s Banquet even more successful. Please email your comments and suggestions to adc@adcnj.us

Photos, media coverage of the event and the keynote speaker’s ( Sen. Lincoln Chafee) speech among other speeches will be posted shortly

Middle East studies in the News

Mideast Program Growing in Diversity [on Middle East studies at Rutgers, Peter Chelkowski of NYU]

by Katie O’Connell
The Daily Targum [Rutgers student newspaper]
December 11, 2006
http://www.dailytargum.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=77fc6395-f79a-4648-9f75-c9fd081f9468

The world’s fastest growing religion has a growing department at the University studying it.

The Rutgers University Center for Middle Eastern Studies is a program through which students can explore the diverse canvas of cultures, societies, religions, languages, histories and politics of the countries that comprise the region of the Middle East.

“The Middle East is much more complex than it appears on the surface,” said Afshin Razani, an instructor in the Middle Eastern Studies Department.

“Islam is the fastest growing religion, with nearly 1.3 billion followers who come from many different parts of the world,” said Paola Rizzuto, staff member at the center.

“Despite this fact, Islam is still one of the least understood faiths.”

The region of the Middle East cannot be defined or generalized in any one specific manner, and one must be able to understand the complexity and diversity of the Middle East, as to avoid any one-sided interpretations, Razani said.

Razani said some of the most popular courses of the department are Introduction to the Modern Middle East, a required course for a major and minor in the program, and courses that focus on contemporary Middle Eastern issues and politics.

The department’s language courses are also very popular, Razani said. Students can take courses in Persian, Arabic, Hebrew and, as of this semester, Turkish.

Currently, the center is expanding and will be introducing a contemporary Arab studies program and a class called Islam and Democracy in the near future, Razani said.

The center’s Web site is also undergoing a major overhaul to make it more interactive and informative, said Razani.

The expansion of the program is due in part to the help of community leaders. The center strives to be involved both with the Rutgers community and surrounding communities, said Razani.

A part of this community involvement is achieved through programs the center hosts throughout the semester.

This semester, the center hosted the speaker Azar Nafisi, author of “Reading Lolita in Tehran”; a unity iftaar, breaking of the fast during Ramadan; a fundraising dinner that focused on Islam in the Contemporary world and Gaza: Pictorial of a Humanitarian Crisis with AP photographer and Washington reporter on Middle East Affairs correspondent Mohammed Omer, according to an e-mail from Rizzuto.

The center is planning to host several more events next semester, Rizzuto said.

The center’s fundraiser event last Thursday, entitled “Rituals in Islam,” was meant to increase awareness about the Islamic faith and was attended by 60 to 70 people, Rizzuto said.

The event hosted Emmy award-winning journalist Anisa Mehdi and Peter Chelkowski, New York University professor of Middle Eastern Studies.

In addition to hosting events that educate the community on Middle Eastern cultures, the center also works with outside groups such as Global Citizen 2000, a program that will enable high school teachers to increase the quantity and quality of teaching about the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and globalization, according to the Global Citizen 2000 Web site.

“As members of the Rutgers University community, we are in a unique position to foster unity and to raise cultural awareness,” Rizzuto said. “New Jersey is the most diverse state in America, and this is reflected in the demographics of our community of scholars.”

Note: Articles listed under “Middle East studies in the News” provide information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus Watch’s critique

Maradona out as coach as Argentina’s soccer coach.

AP – Argentina’s national soccer team coach Diego Armando Maradona listens to a question from the press prior … Also Brazil’s soccer team gets new coach Reuters.
By DEBORA REY, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jul 27, 2010.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Diego Maradona was given the boot as Argentina’s soccer coach before he could resign. His stint as coach of the Albiceleste ended far less successfully than his time as a player with the national team. The Argentine Football Association, which hired the former star in November 2008, said Tuesday that his contract will not be renewed. The decision came 3 1/2 weeks after his team, led by star Lionel Messi, was eliminated from the World Cup with a humiliating 4-0 loss to Germany in the quarterfinals.

“Diego shut himself off to any change,” executive committee member Luis Segura said on Argentine television. “Diego has all the right to do what he wants. But so does AFA.”

The federation had offered Maradona a four-year contract through the 2014 World Cup, but Maradona said he would do so only if his entire staff remained. That was unacceptable to AFA president Julio Grondona. He had asked for several assistants to be replaced, including Maradona’s close friend Alejandro Mancuso. The federation said its executive committee unanimously decided to not keep Mardona.

AFA spokesman Ernesto Cherquis Bialo called the decision “very painful” but said there was no way to solve the impasse.
“The president said that there was a significant difference between what AFA wanted to achieve and Maradona’s aspirations for the future,” Cherquis Bialo said. “There was a wide gap, and it was impossible to narrow it.” The spokesman hinted, however, there might be a role in the future for a man with an unpredictable history.

“This marks the end of a first chapter with Mr. Maradona,” Cherquis Bialo said. “The doors to this house, as always, will be open to him.”

Youth team manager Sergio Batista was appointed interim coach for the Aug. 11 exhibition at Ireland, which will be followed by a Sept. 7 home exhibition against world champion Spain. Possible permanent successors include two club coaches in Argentina: Alejandro Sabella of Estudiantes and Miguel Russo of Racing.

Asked about the full-time coach, Cherquis Bialo said: “The people who were in the meeting have no name in their imaginations. It has just been announced that the contract with the coach will not be renewed. And so, a new stage begins.”

The 49-year-old Maradona became Argentina’s coach in November 2008, replacing Alfio Basile and taking over a team he led to the 1986 World Cup title and the 1990 final.

He had little coaching experience, and his team absorbed two of the worst losses in the country’s history: a 6-1 rout at Bolivia in World Cup qualifying and the World Cup defeat to Germany.

Argentina attacked with flair in South Africa, with Messi setting up scoring strikes by Gonzalo Higuain and Carlos Tevez.

Maradona, dressed on the sideline in a gray suit, was an enthusiastic cheerleader, but that could not compensate for his team’s tactical deficiencies. The loss to Germany exposed frailties on defense and lack of midfield speed.

Messi, widely regarded as the game’s best player, left with World Cup without scoring a goal. Maradona never explained why Messi — he was left to roam the field on his own — wasn’t scoring. “Nobody ever told me where to play. So I shouldn’t have to tell Messi where to play, either,” Maradona said.

Maradona, who has fought cocaine and alcohol addiction, grew up in a Buenos Aires slum, and his escape from poverty has endeared him to many. But he has worn out his welcome in other quarters.

Maradona ruffled the government of President Cristina Fernandez, who twice invited the coach to meet with her. But cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez said Maradona failed to respond or answer the phone, forcing the president’s secretaries to leave messages.

Fernandez had been openly supportive of keeping Maradona as coach, and one legislator has proposed building a monument to honor him. Two weeks ago, the federation offered Maradona the chance to extend his contract. But Maradona put off meeting with Grondona to travel to Venezuela at the invitation of a friend — President Hugo Chavez.

Maradona’s relationship with key individuals in Argentine soccer also was tense. He barred federation leaders and businessmen with commercial ties to the organization from practices in South Africa while allowing reporters to enter.

Still, Maradona had many supporters. “I want Maradona to stay,” Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said Tuesday in an interview on radio La Red. “We will support his decision. If he leaves we will miss him.”

Added team trainer Fernando Signorini: “I have no doubt they didn’t want him. Maradona is like a stone in the shoe of power.”

Paul the Psychic Octopus Attacked by Ahmadinejad? {Oi Wey!}

David Knowles
Writer, AOL News Surge Desk
 http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/articl…

(July 27, 2001) — Perhaps the Iranian president picked Germany to win the World Cup?

Last week, at a national youth conference held in Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took aim at Paul the “Psychic” Octopus, the seemingly clairvoyant, German-based cephalopod who accurately predicted the outcome of eight matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, including Spain as the overall winner.

In the midst of a fiery speech denouncing Israel, the U.S. and Iran’s other “enemies,” Ahmadinejad suddenly and surprisingly turned his vitriol on Paul, declaring the creature a symbol of “Western propaganda and superstition.”

“Those who believe in such things cannot be the leaders of the world nations towards human perfection, while the Iranian nation, with its love for the entire blessed values, is after establishing a humane world that would move towards absolute perfection,” Ahmadinejad said, according to a translation provided by the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Over the past two weeks, both Europe and the U.S. have introduced tough new sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program. The country’s national soccer team also failed to qualify for the World Cup this year.

Paul, who recently retired following his pitch-perfect prediction record, has not yet issued a response.

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and we read and posted earlier that both – Spain and Russia are ready to pay good money to have the honor to host Paul the Octopus in their aquariums. Is Ahmedi-nejad envious of the offers to Paul?

As we are in the habit of reading everything that was put in print or posted on the web, we are hit from time to time also with delicious stories of real lives – not just your pedestrian oil blowouts.

This Saturday I saw first the story of the Chinese woman that became Jewish to find out that whatever she does – she will always be Chinese – viewed as such and honestly proud of it just as well.

Then, fell in my hands the July 22-29, 2010, City Week of OUR TOWN of Manhattan that included a note about a Saturday afternoon “Identity Crisis” at The Midtown International Theatre Festival that seemed to me to be in the same genre of a real life story that involves Asians living in the United States and ending up, in spite of their efforts to fit in, being recognized rather for what they really are and getting to the heights of their achievements only after having made peace with themselves. www.mdtownfestival.org

Dear reader, I hope you will not be surprised to find out that the propulsion that sent me off that afternoon to the Strelsin Theater was a thought to see if I can throw some light on the best potential for achieving an energy & climate bill for President Obama – if he were only to stand up and represent his real inner self. Will he decide to do this after November 2010, when it will become clear that there is no way for a future that mimics the present of the majority that surrounds him?

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Asian Belle

This show is part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival. Here’s the official blurb: The daughter of a Vietnamese war bride spends her youth aspiring to be a Southern Belle….a funny, touching and true solo show.

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Before the show started I happened to chat with another delightful lady, Annie Guetti – a mother to a daughter about 10 years old. Annie has a  show in the Short Subjects Series of this festival – this one about motherhood – “ONCE UPON A MAMA” – at the nearby Jewel Box Theater – that same evening at 8:30 pm – and was carrying with her a suitcase – I guess with the wardrobe.  About her – www.facebook.com/pages/MAMA-Productions/160612856005

From Annie Guetti I learned that she and Michelle Glick participated in the same class that Matt Hoverman is giving for Playwriting and acting – he is a prominent coach for New York City Theatre in that he develops solo programs that encourage actor/playwrights in bringing out what is best in themselves and eventually birthing good theater.

Annie thought very highly of Michelle and said while Michelle came to the class thinking about writing on all sort of issues, it was this wonderful coach that led her in bringing out what is really part of herself – because that is her truth. Now, if dear reader, you are still with me – right there I got convinced that Matt Hoverman should get an invitation – in public or in secret – to the White House private quarters!

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Michelle Glick is  a Vietnam war product – American serviceman and Vietnamese mother. She grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and was friendly there with the local belles and black guys – she thought of herself as part of the environment until she was offered in a school play the role of an Oriental Chauffeur. But she did not want to wear yellow clothes she wanted the white clothes like the other girls. She was lucky to have a feisty mother who trooped to school to tell that much to the astonished teacher – she also wanted to make it clear that her younger son’s name was Kal – a honored name for five generations in her family, and not Carl as the school was calling him. Michelle got the role of a maid.

The mother was fully adjusted to America – eventually, years later she became independent after her children grew up and she moved to California.

Michelle Glick is a terrific actress capable to switch around three or four accents. She is tall gaunt like a model and from her Vietnamese genes she got terific Cheek bones – moving around her long hands, standing on her long legs, she at times invoked the impression of a praying mantid completely adjusted to get what she wants – even when the issue is just to get her belongings monogramed – because this is the way Southern Bells have to have it. At this stage she was the perfect Asian Belle in her own image.

When she eventually moves to New York at 25, and got her first roommate right there at the baggage claim at Greyhounds, she liked to hang around Chinatown – because there she saw people with black hair like hers. There one Chinese old store owner told her that instead of copying Chinese she should go and visit Vietnam and get in contact with her own roots.

Michelle convinced her Vietnamese uncle Harry, who after release from Communist jail came to live with them in Alabama, to go back and show her around.  She saw how people can be happy with simple things in life – like holding a cup of tea with both their hands and smile to her – even there was no good verbal communication.

She sat orientally with both her legs crossed on top of the chair and said she felt her Asian background and pronounced Aloha – Hawaii – here I come. She seemed to get her way in any environment she chose to do so!

To Backstage.com, Michelle Glick said that she wants an international career spending part of the year in Asia, working “I am thinking about paving the way doing that.” In the meantime she intends to explore producing and writing.
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Now, did I make myself clear about Obama?

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NO LONGER INTERMARRIED BUT STILL CHINESE.

February 22, 2010
 http://www.interfaithfamily.com/news_and…

Because it is clear from my appearance that I am ethnically Chinese, total strangers will tell me all about their various Asian acquaintances. I think these people are trying to prove that they do not harbor racial prejudices. Frankly, I consider these experiences to be mildly annoying. But I can’t change my face, so I’ve accepted that this kind of experience is just something I will always have to deal with.

Debbie Burton is wearing her late maternal grandmother’s Chinese jacket on a visit to her cousins for Chinese New Year, January 2009. She is looking at a book of photos of the school in rural China her family established in her grandmother’s memory. She sent the photo with the note: “I feel that my Chinese family’s values of social justice and education mean that those same Jewish values particularly resonate for me.”

I also stand out in a synagogue because I do not “look Jewish”. My husband however is half Ashkenazi and thus does look more typically Jewish. So people have often taken one look at the two of us and assumed that we were intermarried. For the first 22 years of our marriage, they were right. But since I finally converted to Judaism, it is no longer the case, and I even have a real Jewish ketubah to prove that we now have a legitimate “Jewish marriage.”

But I’m still Chinese, so I still don’t look Jewish even though I am now. And people still sometimes react strangely because of my appearance, although I should point out that the strange or rude reactions are not typical, just memorable. In fact, if many Jews think it is surprising to see someone Chinese at synagogue, they are too polite to mention it. A few people have even assumed that I am a Jew by birth.

A student at a university Hillel Kabbalat Shabbat service told me very earnestly that he had read about and was excited to meet a Kaifeng Jew–meaning me. (A small Jewish community has existed in Kaifeng, China for hundreds of years.) I was sorry to disappoint him and explained that most Chinese Jews that he would meet in this country would be converts. These days I would add that they might also be adoptees, such as the two Chinese girls from the Orthodox congregation that meets in the same building as my congregation.

Before I converted, when people treated me differently because I was Chinese, I didn’t like it, but felt like maybe I “deserved” it because by marrying me my husband had violated the strong Jewish prohibition on intermarriage. I felt guilty that for some people, meeting me would only reinforce the idea that an Asian person in a synagogue was likely to be a non-Jewish spouse. I felt that it would make it that much harder for Jews who were Asian, but were born or raised their whole lives as Jews, like the adopted girls mentioned above, the three Korean adoptees in my congregation, or even my own children who were converted when they were young and are half-Chinese.

But just as my formal conversion signified my own acceptance of who I am religiously and spiritually, I’m coming to see that maybe it is not such a bad thing that my Chinese appearance means that I can’t so easily leave behind the fact that I was previously intermarried. A recent interaction that stemmed from my being Chinese even ended up being a positive experience.

My minyan meets in a Reform synagogue that is the simultaneous home for congregations from each of the three major movements (which are unaffiliated with each other, unlike minyanim at a university Hillel). I am a member of the lay-led egalitarian Conservative congregation that meets there, but one Shabbat a man from the Orthodox minyan started to talk to me as we left the building at the same time. He asked me about my ethnic background. When I replied “Chinese,” he went on to ask “And you’re Jewish?” Although I told him no, which was the technically correct answer, I added, “But I’ve been going to shul for 24 years.” I didn’t tell him that I was also studying with a rabbi for the purpose of conversion.

Some weeks later, this same man accosted me in the coat room after services and asked me why I had not converted if I had been attending synagogue for so long. I was embarrassed to be asked such a personal question with other people from both congregations around. I told him simply that the main reason was that I was afraid that my parents would take my conversion as a rejection of them. I assumed his questions stemmed from mere curiosity.

Then many months later, I saw him again and told him that I had formally converted to Judaism since we had last spoken. He seemed genuinely delighted by my news, but showed real sensitivity in telling me carefully that he was happy for me because it was something that I had clearly chosen for myself and that I was happy about it. Then he mentioned that his wife is Japanese. I thought to myself that of course she probably converted before they got married. But I had scarcely formulated the above thought when he totally surprised me by adding that his wife is not Jewish.

This news gave me a very different perspective on his questions. It sounded like his own wife was not interested in Judaism, at least for herself, and I think he wanted to understand what it was that caused me, another Asian non-Jew, to feel so drawn to Judaism. We didn’t talk for very long, but I think that he felt better to learn about another intermarriage in which the Jewish spouse was active in and committed to Judaism. And I was glad to learn about someone who self-identifies as Orthodox who is intermarried. I know from my own experience that intermarriage does not have to reflect a failure in a person’s Jewish identity, but it is such a prevalent assumption and it causes many Jews to automatically react negatively to intermarried couples.

So my looking Chinese had enabled that connection to be made because that man would never have approached me if I looked European. The experience also reminded me I don’t have to be ashamed of having been intermarried. Being Chinese makes my ethnicity more visible while obscuring my religious identity, which oddly enough pushes me to accept myself for both who I am now and who I was.

 http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/eo20…

Black Sea challenge by U.S. set to keep Russia on edge.

BARGEMUSIC REVISITED.

We posted the following two weeks ago, and said at the time that we will return to the Barge that is moored at Fulton Ferry Landing under the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn, NY.

Our target was going to be “The HERE AND NOW Series in Celebration of Terry Riley’s 75th Birthday.

See also www.bargemusic.org

Our previous posting was:

UPDATED – With Climate Change and a local government that does not care, a decreasing quality of public transportation, scorched at 103 F (39.4 C), New York City has nevertheless BARGEMUSIC. The Innovative spirit of its people does not give up. Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 13th, 2010
by Pincas Jawetz ( PJ at SustainabiliTank.com)
Posted in Art Performance reviews, Eco Friendly Tourism, Future Events, New York, Reporting From the UN Headquarters in New York ?
 Meher Baba.

The performers where THE VOXARE QUARTET that included: Emily Ondracek-Peterson and Galina Zhdanova – violins,
Erik Peterson – viola, and Adrian Daurov – cello. The spirited young performers seemed to enjoy thoroughly the event and took turns in explaining the music’s background – something that in itself enhanced the audience’s understanding and enjoyment.

Legendary American composer, Terry Riley – DigiDan, 18 Mar 2010

Terrence Mitchell Riley, born June 24, 1935, in California, is an American composer associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music. He is usually mentioned together with Steve Reich and Philip Glass. However – His most influential teacher, however, was Pandit Pran Nath (1918–1996), a master of Indian classical voice, who also taught La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. Riley made numerous trips to India over the course of their association to study and to accompany him on tabla, tambura, and voice. Throughout the 1960s he traveled frequently around Europe as well, taking in musical influences and supporting himself by playing in piano bars, until he joined the Mills College faculty in 1971 to teach Indian classical music.
Riley was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Music at Chapman University in 2007.

The Voxare presenters took the stand that it is incorrect to call Terry Riley a minimalist and at times it seemed indeed that he simply expanded classic music by introducing new elements and being ready to experiments that when picked up later by other composers led to the revolutionary 1960s in American music.

The first piece on Friday -  “Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector,” was composed in 1980 for the Kronos Quartet, a result of a longtime collaboration of Mr. Riley’s and included improvisations based on North Indian raga instead of formal composition, but then we were told that at Kronos’s insistence he notated the score for “Sunrise.” Still, as Ms. Ondracek explained gaily, he wrote sections of the score on different sheets of paper so the performers could decide the order of performance. The Voxare Quartet offered a high-energy performance, vividly conveying the work’s beautiful angles. It started with something that sounded like American folklore fiddles and felt like a wakening up. The two Russian-background violinist ladies really tore into the music with gusto, followed by the cello and then the viola. I got the impression that the music was debating with itself and had a lot of internal life. Eventually we had a return to the opening notes. Was this the improvisation of Voxare?

The second piece on Friday was the 1960 String Quartet. That was pure minimalism – or I do not understand the term. It was about the San Francisco Harbor foghorns. The sound came mainly from the cello, and the whole piece, considering the Barge-location was the most appropriate thing you could imagine The barge was swaying as there was a bit of rain outside – and it was a foghorn – pure and simple.

The third piece on Friday was “The Wheel / Mythic Birds Waltz.” This piece is post-Indian period of Mr. Riley and it was a result of improvisation on a piano with Indian and Jazz references and I felt that at times moved over to sound like bells and a Bela Bartok  gypsy ending.

After Intermission, on Friday, the fourth piece was G-song that  in effect was the result of a commission he got for music for a French movie. It had sort of a melancholic feeling to it and I wonder what was that movie about.

The fifth Terry Riley piece we heard on Sunday – it was “Cortejo Funebre en el Monte Diablo” from his 1998 “Requiem for Adam” the son of David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet. Young Adam died of a heart ailment.

The music starts with bell sounds and a tape of trumpets moves in. It turns out that what we hear are electronically generated sounds – this is music of a different kind. The violins move in – then the quartet stops and the funeral proceeds. It was an all around fascinating piece.

David Harrington formed Kronos after hearing George Crumb’s Black Angels, a powerful piece about the Vietnam war; ever since he has sought to give voice to twentieth century composers all over the world. At this moment there are hundreds of pieces being commissioned by them.

The Kronos have performed pieces by Thelonious Monk, John Zorn, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, Dmitri Yanovsky, Scott Johnson, Terry Riley, and a slew of European and African composers. With a balance of fervid dedication, spirituality, and a liberal sense of humor, the Kronos Quartet have taken on the awesome responsibility of saving an entire musical universe.

They have released Howl U.S.A, a grim portrait of the dark side of America, in which the The Kronos passionately accompany the voices of J. Edgar Hoover, Harry Partch, I.F. Stone, and Allen Ginsberg.

For the past twenty years the Kronos Quartet have performed music that expresses the anxiety, tension, ferocious energy and mystic yearnings in the twentieth century.

Single-handed they have saved a genre (the string quartet) that was well on its path to extinction.

With a cover Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze, spiffy outfits, and hip hairdos they have widened the audience of quartet music from those who were well schooled in public classrooms about classical music, to those who barely get the Bugs Bunny “Kill the Wabbit” reference to Wagner. Baby boomers and hip college students flock to the Kronos, craving music that is truly contemporary — a bracing change from dinosaur genres like classic rock. Terry Riley loved what they were doing.

The sixth Riley piece, or the second on Sunday, was “Cadenza on a Night Plain.” This is a masterpiece of early 1994 with Upper Mid-West and Native America influences. Each section is different – a different Cadenza. Mr. Peterson, the viola player, likened his section as “March of the Old-Timers.” He said that the directions say “Stoned Enthusiasm” then “Marching to more serious matters” – “which might mean smoking reef.”

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The add-ons were:

The Lou Harrison’s – 1917-2003 – striking “String Quartet Set” (1979), “Variations on Walter von der Vogelweide” revealed, we were told, Mr. Harrison’s joint interest with Terry Riley in nature and old music. The score had  five-movement piece ranges from the melancholy “Plaint” to the exuberant “Estampie,” which uses the cello as a percussive instrument. The performance was excellent, with distinctive contributions from each player. It ended with Usul – or a Turkish coda.

–

Steve Reich, the opening piece on Sunday, “Different Trains” of 1988 – for String Quartet and Tape – the Tape at times being just talk and at other times further sound.

Steve Reich, born in 1936, was recently called  “our greatest living composer” (The New York Times), “America’s greatest living composer.” (The Village VOICE), “…the most original musical thinker of our time” (The New
Yorker) and “…among the great composers of the century” (The New York Times)…  http://www.stevereich.com/

The particular piece we hear on Sunday has to do with his upbringing that involved commuting by train between New York and Los Angeles as his divorced parents, both of them, shared in custody over him – so – he was having this privilege of traveling often – coast to coast by train. That was until 1942 – eventually he learned about refugees from Europe arriving to New York and going also by train to the West Coast or wherever.

The piece has three parts – America before the war – Europe during the war – America after the war.

This is not just about a Jewish boy shuttling between his two parents – but about Holocaust and its effects – the fortunate ones traveling on the same train with him – here in the US.

It is a clearly difficult concept but he came up with some appropriate music. At times it sounded to me like Robert Wilson’s shows – whoever the composer – perhaps Philip Glass? There is a repetitiveness in the background that does not allow us to forget!

The second part – in what I heard – ended in Smoke. The instrumentation called for violins being stroked by the bows backwards – the resultant sounds quite unusual.

The third part – after the war – had happier sounds.

–

THE WHO -

The piece is based  on Graceland and Pete Townshend with a concept of a commune Rock farm in Ireland had it at 90 minutes length but Maher Baba reworked it and we had delightful 7 minutes. It was a real winner.

It started with Mr. and Mrs. Peterson fiddling with gusto the viola and violin and no joke – it seemed that as they went on with more force, the barge reacted and started to sway stronger – then a huge barge showed up and we realized that this was not from heaven. The piece was a clear winner and the applause laud.
 http://www.google.com/search?client=gmai…

“Baba O’Riley” is a song by the English rock band The Who, written by Pete Townshend. – Roger Daltrey sings most of the song, with Pete Townshend singing the middle eight: “Don’t cry/don’t raise your eye/it’s only teenage wasteland”. The title of the song is derived from this combination of the song’s philosophical and musical influences: Meher Baba and Terry Riley. –

Townshend originally wrote “Baba O’Riley” for his Lifehouse project, a rock opera that was to be the follow-up to The Who’s 1969 opera, Tommy. The song was derived from a nine minute demo, which the band reconstructed. “Baba O’Riley” was going to be used in the Lifehouse project as a song sung by Ray, the Scottish farmer at the beginning of the album as he gathers his wife Sally and his two children to begin their exodus to London. When Lifehouse was scrapped, many of the songs were released on The Who’s 1971 album Who’s Next. “Baba O’Riley” became the first track on Who’s Next. The song was released as a single in several European countries, but in the United States and the United Kingdom was only released as part of the album.

Baba O’Riley Lyrics
Artist(Band):The Who

Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living.

I don’t need to fight
To prove I’m right
I don’t need to be forgiven.
yeah,yeah,yeah,yeah,yeah

Don’t cry
Don’t raise your eye
It’s only teenage wasteland

Sally, take my hand
We’ll travel south cross land
Put out the fire
And don’t look past my shoulder.

The exodus is here
The happy ones are near
Let’s get together
Before we get much older.

Teenage wasteland
It’s only teenage wasteland.
Teenage wasteland
Oh, yeah
Its only teenage wasteland
They’re all wasted!

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A trip to the lower levels of Brooklyn Heights is always a joy not to be missed. Slowly, the area is being reclaimed from the old port slips. Next to the barge there is the Ice Cream Factory, and on the other side the Bridge Cafe. You can get a bite and sip wine in the open – be it 98 degrees Fahrenheit. Further there is the Bridge Restaurant.

If you love Pizza – the best this side of the ocean is to be had at GRIMALDI’S – old country – real Coal-Brick Oven Pizzeria “Under the Brooklyn Bridge.” But know ye all – the lines to this pizzeria are a block long and you can rent a chair for two dollars if you prefer to sit rather then stand in line. But, trust me – it is worth the effort – once in your life-time. For me it was a Pizza pie with extra cheese and fresh garlic cloves and a Peroni beer for a total of $28.

If you really do not want to undergo the above – let me suggest the Tutt Cafe – as in King Tutt - www.tuttcafe.com, at 47 Hicks St. where I got an excellent Merguez Pitza (that must be the old Egyptian spelling of the pie, and the Merguez is Moroccan lamb sausage), and my wife got a spicy Falafel Wrap (not a pocket) – all of it for $16 total.

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Richard Termine for The New York Times

Voxare Quartet: From left, Emily Ondracek, Galina Zhdanova, Adrian Daurov and Erik Peterson playing a Bargemusic concert in Brooklyn. The East River in the background. The picture was taken at the Friday night concert. During the Saturday afternoon concert – there was some rain and the visual effect grey.

Das Celebrate Life Festival wird  von der Sharing the Presence UG und vielen freiwilligen Helfern organisiert.

Sharing the Presence UG
Wardenburgerstrasse 24
26203 Wardenburg

Kontakt fürs Celebrate Life Festival:  welcome at celebrate-life.info
 http://www.celebrate-life.info/2010/engl…

 http://celebrate-life.info/2010/das-fest…

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NEW: August 3, 2010: Speech and Workshop with Shlomo Shoham

Future Oriented Leadership – From Survival Mode to Future Creation Mode.

A Holistic Approach to Leadership Training

Talk & Workshop with Shlomo Shoham
Tue, August 3th, 10:30am – 1:30pm

Practicing Future Imagery – Workshop

Workshop with Shlomo Shoham
Tue, August 3th, 3:30pm – 5:30pm

Shlomo Shoham, ret. judge, lecturer, author, visionary… As first Commissioner for Future Generations (Israeli Parliament) he was tasked with the difficult work of representing the needs, interests and rights of those not yet born. He understood, that a global transformation with “new” leaders is needed. He founded the “Sustainable Global Leadership Academy”, which will train young leaders with the according potential. At the core of the holistic curriculum is “future intelligence”, which comprises sustainability, visionary thinking and creative foresight. He will present a taste of it at the festival.

His new book “future intelligence” is printed at BertelsmannStiftung.

www.sustainabilitank.info
www.emporiumbooks.com.au

Our own effort on explaining Judge Shlomo Shoham approach to our own responsibility towards FUTURE GENERATIONS – OUR YET UNBORN DESCENDANTS.

This retired Israeli Judge is the essence of Sustainability and his idea of having within each administration a desk for securing the interests of future generations is the essence of true humanity.

we posted it as 

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Terry Patten	Byron Katie (per Skype)	Tom Steininger	Scilla Elworthy	Thomas Hübl	Ken Wilber (per Skype)	Günter Faltin	Eckhart Tolle (Meditation exclusiv-DVD)	Christina Kessler

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 http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/eo20…

India ignoring Washington as it woos Iran.

Looking at Europe’s ENERGY PORTAL - http://www.energy.eu/ – we found the recent posting:

German power plant testing CO2-scrubbing algae .

Swedish energy group Vattenfall launched a major pilot project on July 22nd using algae to absorb greenhouse gas emissions from a coal-fired power plant in eastern Germany.

The two-million-euro trial run, which will continue until October 2011, in the Lausitz mining region is one of several experimental attempts in the sector using algae to slash carbon dioxide output.

“The microalgae use climate-killing CO2 to create valuable biomass,” the chairman of Vattenfall Europe Mining and Generation, Hartmuth Zeiss, said in a statement. “Moreover the new technology will bring useful know-how to the Lausitz and increase its importance as a region for energy production.”

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The above does not surprise us as we wrote about it after the Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil, presentation by Professor Ben Amotz of Israel, who did this kind of work, successfully, at the Reading Power plant outside Tel Aviv.

Using the search button at www.SustainabiliTank.info for Ben Amotz see the following of our postings:

under - http://www.sustainabilitank.info/?s=Ben+…

Dow Chemical and Algenol Biofuels, a start-up company, are set to announce today that they will build a demonstration plant that, if successful, would use algae to turn carbon dioxide into ethanol as a vehicle fuel or an ingredient in plastics. We wish to remind of “The Alga Dunaliella” that we wrote about in the past – as per Professor Ami Ben-Amotz of Israel.
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Posted in Brazil, California, Florida, Global Warming issues, Green is Possible, Israel, Reporting from Washington DC, The US States |

Israel has some of the most advanced algae research in the world. Now the Fletcher-Lauder Fellowship at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya is offering a Post-doc on bio-sequestration of carbon dioxide from carbon-rich sources, e.g., power plants, through algae production. We described the work that was done by Prof. Amos Ben-Amotz as he presented it to the Green Chemistry meeting in Fortaleza, Brazil, and we announced also his new book release.
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Posted in Futurism, Global Warming issues, Green is Possible, Israel, Job Offers, Massachusetts, New York, Reporting from Washington DC |

GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY REQUIRES DECREASED DEPENDENCE ON FOSSIL CARBON.
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
Posted in Africa, Brazil, European Union, Futurism, Global Warming issues, Green is Possible, Islands & SIDS, Latin America, Real World’s News, Reporting From the UN Headquarters in New York, Reporting from UNFCCC Meetings, Reporting from Washington DC, UN Commission on Sustainable Development, Uncategorized |

Two Conferences in Brazil that The UN Secretary-General Has Missed. We submit that the Meeting on “Green Chemistry” in Fortaleza, Ceara, and the Meeting on “Fair Trade and Responsible Tourism in context of Solidarity and Sustainability For The Amazonas” in Belem, Para, Would Have Taught Him More Then Visits With The Korean Scientists and the Chilean Military in Antarctica, and With The Brazilians At The Central Political Capital.
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
Posted in Argentina, Brazil, Futurism, Germany, Global Warming issues, Green is Possible, IBSA, Israel, Italy, Reporting From the UN Headquarters in New York, Reporting from UNFCCC Meetings, Reporting from Washington DC, UN Commission on Sustainable Development |

1st Brazilian Workshop on Green Chemistry, Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil, November 18-21, 2007.
Sunday, November 11th, 2007
Posted in Argentina, Brazil, Future Events, Futurism, Germany, Global Warming issues, Green is Possible, Italy, Latin America, Reporting from Washington DC

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www.energy.eu

Dexia Tower in Brussels. 150,000 LEDs displaying the EU symbol. ————————————————————-

Europe’s Energy Portal: Shedding a light on European Energy Developments Europe’s Energy Portal is a commercial organization, strongly rooted within the EU, but run independently from the European Union. The portal is ran by the undersigned, together with a small team of professionals from the energy and environmental sector. The portal was founded in 2006 and has grown into a real online beacon, a trusted environment where professionals go for their energy-related news, key statistics and energy prices. Europe’s Energy Portal business model is to provide customized energy data, statistics and surveys related to the European Union. The portal is operated from two locations, one office location in the Netherlands and one in Brussels. The Brussels office serves as a meeting point, the Dutch one as a data center. Yours truly, Michael Zwanenburg Editor-in-Chief

We ate in Ramallah restaurants, walked around freely in town – people want to live free normal lives there like everywhere else, so who does not let them achieve this? Good there are some that call out for RETHINK on how to achieve these goals by selling Tabouleh Salad and Musakahn rather then playing the “he hit me” game in order to disturb the peace of the whole world. Just think of the upcoming new Hezbolah flotilla leaving Lebanon these days in order to provoke an Israeli reaction that will send roses to Gaza and the fallen false martyrs of that new provocation.

Why do they not rather make good Musakahn in Gaza and make a life for themselves also there – then eventually they could trade with Israel and the de-facto Palestine in the West Bank. Yes, when I was in Ramallah I ate Palestinian Hummus – not occupied Palestinian Hummus. It was really good, and could have tasted even better without any Israeli troops assumed present. I say assumed because I did not see them in the street – the place was kept secure by the Palestinians themselves and by their shopkeepers doing business even with people that perhaps they had reasons to dislike.

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I.H.T. Op-Ed Contributors

Free the Tabouleh.

By JERROLD KESSEL and PIERRE KLOCHENDLER
Published by The International Herald Tribune online, July 23, 2010.
 RAMALLAH, WEST BANK — “Money, money, money,” hums Nasser Abdulhadi behind the counter of his fast-food joint. He’s selling tickets for this evening’s Boney M concert. Business is brisk. Life isn’t all sordid in this centerpiece of the future Palestinian state.

EXHIBITION: LARRY RIVERS: POP ICONS.

Dates: Saturday July 31 – August 24, 2010

VERED ART DEALERS AND ADVISORS – EAST HAMPTON NY

* * * * * * *

BENEFITS:

Saturday July 31  Artists4Israel

Opening: Reception Saturday July 31. 2010, 9-11 pm -

Interactive-multi-media installation Sderot Bomb Shelter 2010”

A FIVE Year Anniversary of the DISENGAGEMENT from GAZA-installations to enable Vered Gallery East Hampton NY visitors to experience a present day rocket attack in a bomb shelter like those in Sderot on the border of Gaza.

Contact:  JanetLehr at VeredArt.com<... style=”font-size: x-small;”>

631 324-3303- 10-Noon

Place: Vered Gallery East Hampton Starbucks Passage.

Vered’s opening Saturday July 31^st from 9-11pm is accompanied by ‘fireworks’ Larry would have loved, supplied by Artists4Israel.

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Sunday August 1, 2010 Museum of Jewish Heritage:

Living Memorial to the Holocaust

Brunch

A Contact:  VeredArt.com – 631 324-3303

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Sunday, August 15, 2010

Israeli Aid Around The World-IDF aid in Earthquake Stricken Haiti.

Brunch, 10 – noon

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“One of the best artists in the history of American art”- Barbara Rose, Art Historian

Larry Rivers: POP Icons, spans the breadth of one of America’s most fertile artistic careers. Post Abstract Expressionism, Larry Rivers lead a new generation to whom figurative art was in a sense, more revolutionary than abstraction.

Noted art historian Barbara Rose, wrote that Rivers was; “Heralded as the progenitor of Pop art, which he certainly was, in my view he was also the last great history painter.”  Rose continued, “The only subject Larry could not bring himself to satirize was the Holocaust, which inspired some of his most moving later works.”  Larry Rivers: POP Icons, is as offbeat and funky as Rivers himself.  “For Larry the tension was between the highbrow, European, literary, and Marxist past of Eastern European Jewish intellectuals and American popular culture, which focused on fame, fashion, entertainment, and money, all of which became major themes of his energetic art.”

Larry would have embraced the three benefits which accompany the exhibition.  Each celebrates Israel during the month of August when Israel commemorates the fifth anniversary of the Disengagement, a period when Israel uprooted 8500 of its citizens in a fruitless attempt to advance the cause of peace with its neighbors.

For information and reproductions please contact janetlehr@veredart.com, 631 324 3303
or view the entire exhibition at www.veredart.com

JANET LEHR                janetlehr@veredart.com

Vered Fine Art www.veredart.com
68 Park Place 631 324 3303 / c.516 353 6450 / 212 288 6234
East Hampton NY 11937

NY Office:891 Park Avenue
New York NY 10075

87 states join forces to fight antisemitism and Holocaust denial.

21 July 2010
The cooperation agreement between the ITF and the ODIHR gives an enormous boost to Holocaust remembrance and the fight against antisemitism.

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/MFA+Spokesman/2010/Cooperation_agreement_signed_Holocaust_remembrancae_fight_against_antisemitism_21-Jul-2010.htm

This morning (21 July 2010), a cooperation agreement between the ITF (Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research) and the ODIHR (Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) was signed at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, in the presence of Deputy FM Daniel Ayalon.

The ODIHR – Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights - is an operative branch of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe).

This year, Israel was chosen for the first time to head the ITF. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an agreement was signed today that boosts the strength of the forces in the global arena fighting against antisemitism and Holocaust denial.

The agreement will bring about cooperation among 87 countries.

ITF Chairman Dan Tichon – an Israeli – and ODIHR Director Janez Lenarcic – a Slovenian – signed the memorandum of understanding. DFM Ayalon welcomed the signing of the agreement and said that it gives an enormous boost to the fight against the delegitimization of Israel and antisemitism in the world, bringing 87 states for the first time into cooperation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has acted, and will continue to act, against these manifestations of hate and will promote any initiative whose purpose is to eliminate them. Ayalon added that there are elements that deny the Holocaust and are preparing the next one. We must preserve the memory of the Holocaust so that similar horrors and hatred will never be repeated and the world will become a safer place.

The ITF was founded about ten years ago at the initiative of the Swedish government. Israel is heading the task force this year, with Mr. Dan Tichon, past Speaker of the Knesset, serving as the chairman and Ambassador Yakov Rozen as the political coordinator. The ITF, which has as its purpose the preservation of Holocaust remembrance through education, research and memorial sites, currently has 27 members, mostly European, and sees the cooperation agreement as very important.

The ODIHR, which has 57 members, deals with educational programs and follows up on instances of xenophobic, primarily antisemitic, hatred. For this reason, the cooperation agreement is likely to help promote Holocaust remembrance, including the uniqueness of the Holocaust, and the fight against antisemitism.

Ambassador Janez Lenarcic is a senior diplomat who in the past was advisor to the prime minister of Slovenia.

The ODIHR joins six other organizations belonging to the Task Force whose representatives serve as observers: the UN, DPI, UNESCO, the EU, FRA, and the European Council.

 http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20…

Judo gold medalists break down barriers by teaching Israeli, Palestinian kids

JERUSALEM (Kyodo) Japanese men’s judo Olympic gold medalists Yasuhiro Yamashita and Kosei Inoue taught the martial art to some 50 Israeli and Palestinian children at a dojo in Jerusalem.

Crossing borders: Olympic gold medalist Yasuhiro Yamashita gives Israeli and Palestinian children a judo lesson at a dojo in Jerusalem on Wednesday. KYODO PHOTO

Speaking in front of about 30 Israeli and 20 Palestinian children, Yamashita, a gold medalist at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, said, “I think it is meaningful that Israeli and Palestinian children are grappling together to do judo.”

The event was held as part of activities by the Solidarity of International Judo Education. Yamashita heads the Japan-based nonprofit organization aimed at spreading judo internationally.

Yamashita told the children about the time that Egyptian judoka Mohamed Ali Rashwan did not target Yamashita’s injured right leg in the final of the men’s judo open weight class at the Los Angeles Olympics.

“Judo is a sport that develops an attitude of respect for other people,” Yamashita said. “I’d like you to make a point of respecting those around you even after returning home from the dojo.”

Inoue, the gold medalist in the under-100 kg class at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and who is now studying in Britain, taught his classes in English.

A 13-year old Palestinian boy, who took part in the practice wearing a borrowed judo jacket and a pair of shorts, said: “(Mr. Inoue) was very strong. I want to participate in the Olympics as a Palestine representative in the future.”

THE CARNEGIE COUNCIL INSIDER.

that brings you information from www.Carnegie Council.org

Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future

Stephen Kinzer, Joanne J. Myers

Stephen Kinzer argues that the United States needs to rethink its alliances in the Middle East and focus on strategic relationships with Iran and Turkey rather than Israel and Saudi Arabia.

PLEASE NOTE – THE AUTHOR’S NAME WAS ALSO REPORTED AS STEVE KINZER – THAT IS THE WAY WE USED IT EARLIER.
THE ISSUES HE RAISES ARE WELL COVERED BY US ON OUR FRONT PAGE TURKEY BUTTON.

We reported on his book earlier at:

“We live now at a time of RESET in the Positioning of Turkey in the Middle East with a potential Reset also in American policy towards the Middle East. The latest debacle that involved Turkey, planned or not, has the potential that a new leader in the region has come on board. The new energy has to be encouraged to do good in the future.”

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 11th, 2010
by Pincas Jawetz ( PJ at SustainabiliTank.com)

Present Dangers: Saudi Arabia’s House Of Cards.

Ilan Berman, 07.13.10, Forbes
 http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/12/saudi-a…

Riyadh, on the road to ruin.