A 'Fringe' Response to Anonymous

Anonymous comments on this post:

"The Kumah mascots and the Kumatrix disagree. "What Kumah won't do to make their brand of fringe politics hip."..."Got home?"

It's just that some of you guys spew so much vitriol. And at the same time you do the things you criticize. I think it's important for someone to show you your hypocrisy. And I don't even get into the depths of it- the superficial is revealing enough.

There is good in these pages- the shmittah discussion, for example. And the basic aliyah message. But that's gotten lost in your larger fringe ideology. To really get into this website you have to believe that Jews and only Jews belong in Israel and the territories. You demonize the "enemy"- be it Palestinians, Olmert, Livni, the US, conservative Judaism.... This polarization is isolating- you can't have a real dialogue with anyone because we are all the enemy. So what do you accomplish? You become more and more convinced of your own agenda and more removed from the mainstream. And I don't care what you do in a vacuum, but your words and work have impact. I think it's important that someone point out your hypocrisies and let visitors to this site know that your views are far from universal.

My response after the jump


Dear Anon,

While I don't really understand the repeated allegation of hypocrisy, the decision to widen the scope of Kumah's Neo-Zionist message beyond promoting mass Aliyah was not taken lightly. I certainly understand the danger of all the strongly-held positions and sniping providing ear-plug fodder for anyone who is looking for it. But the point of the blog is to provide an honest, authentic voice of a real movement that can't be made to disappear by repeating "fringe" as a mantra.

In this day of media saturation, the only blogs I find worth reading are those with passionate arguments based on strongly held values. There is a huge swamp of timid journalism and self-congratulatory moderate extremists (extreme in their belief in the merit of an idea purely based on its being devoid of ideological bone structure).

I truly believe that there a Neo-Zionists on the left and would be completely open to having them join the blog as readers, commenters and bloggers - but I do not regret widening the scope of the blog's message to include politics though I myself am also sometimes annoyed by individual bloggers' posts picking fights with entire denominations over little things dug up by the amateurs at Ynet (i.e. The Great Mezuza Controversy). Not because these aren't discussions that should be had, but because the Ynet-based route to dialog is paved with ill intentions.

Lastly, your point about the lack of real dialog when opponents are considered the enemy is a blogosphere-wide issue. When someone who is but a bunch of pixels to you attacks your entire worldview, it takes a very secure an confident individual to respond in a loving, yet honest way. Sometimes a good thrashing is truly in order. Often it is not and reflects poorly on a blogger or the blog he/she writes for.

Post-lastly; you wrote: "I think it's important that someone point out your hypocrisies and let visitors to this site know that your views are far from universal."

I do not state or believe that our views are universal. I believe it rubs you the wrong way to see Jews, with and without kippot, unapologetically saying the things we say. That alone threatens your thought-stopping mechanism of being able to label something "fringe" and dismiss it without letting it roam free in your consciousness alongside other ideas, allowing for the survival of the fittest.

Thank you for reading. Please keep it up. You are welcome to choose a moniker that gives you just as much anonymity as "anonymous" but allows us to know it is you when you comment and respond. The Kumah community is universal in its openness to dialog - and I bless our bloggers on this eve of Rosh HaShanah to always type with love and think twice before ripping entire communities of Jews or gerei toshav.

Shana Tova,
Ezra HaLevi
Neo-Zionist Blogmaster

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The Heroes Among Us!

Check out Part 11 of The Jewish Press' "MODERN ROLE MODELS" series, featuring our very "own" Ari Abramowitz shlit"a- featured by Nefesh B'Nefesh!

Also cited HERE , by another great Southern Jew.

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1967: A Year of Jewish Military Campaigns

The friendly folks over at Chabad are happy to point out that more than one important military campaign was launched in 1967.

According to Lubavitch, 2007 marks the 40 year anniversary of the great Rabbi General Menachem Mendel's Tefillin campaign, which also has helped the nation and people of Israel expand their spiritual borders.

Check out this 1 minute video in honor of the anniversary, entitled "The Tefillin Booth"

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Kosher-Style Continued...

Pursuant to my original post called Kosher-Style, and then Pinchas' open letter to me, and the huge discussion that this generated on the Life In Israel blog, I have a few comments:

The notion that Israelis make Yerida to the whole world is simply incorrect. They make Yerida PRIMARILY to the US. One quarter of Yordim, 250,000, live between San Deigo and San Fransisco. Why do they go to America? America is a great country to live in for many reasons, but a major factor is that the US is a philo-Semetic country - and the Jews live very well, and very Jewishly. American Jewry has created an alternative to Israel. Brooklyn's Avenue J, Teaneck's Cedar Lane, Cederhurst's Central Ave, Crown Heights, Lakewood, and many others as well. Shuls are made from imported Jerusalem stone.

Simple psychology - why should any Jew choose Israel if you can be just as Jewish in the US? American Jews are comfortable in every way: economically, politically and religiously, while Israeli Jews face war, terror, and economic hardship. The simple answer for the hard luck Israeli is a Green Card. But, the potential Yored may ask himself, what about Zionism, Eretz Yisrael and all those values? A convenient answer awaits him: If the Frum Jew of Brooklyn can live in America, feel himself totally religious, and EVEN feel that he is actually supporting Israel - then why not join him? You see, the Orthodox are SEEN as the leaders of Jewry, the most connected to G-d. So if one is so connected to G-d, but chooses to live in the Exile, it must be OK after all, this very pious-looking Orthodox American knows much more about his Jewish obligations than I do, a poorly-versed secular Israeli.

Read through the Torah. Read through your Orthodox siddur. If you still believe that the Torah does not mandate a homeland for the Jewish people... then you need to either re-read, or start editing. To be an Orthodox Jew and to reject the centrality of Israel is to stare these holy words in the face and say "no".

The time has come for American Orthodoxy to feel uncomfortable about choosing the Galut. This is NOT about making myself feel higher than others. This is about what Hashem wants - which, by the way, is a discussion that is sorely lacking in this discourse.

Here is how Yehuda Halevi saw it. In his seminal work, the Kuzari, Halevi created a fictional discussion between a Jewish sage and the king of the Khazars. During their discussion, the king asked the sage about the Jewish connection to the land of Israel: "[Since the Jewish religion is so invested in the land and all of the religions based on Judaism have inherited this attachment], don't you [Jews] fall short of your religious duty, by not endeavoring to going up the land and making it your home both in life and death? Since you say [in the blessing after reading the haftarah]: 'Have mercy on Zion for it is the house of our life' and you believe that God's indwelling presence, the Shechina, will return there... it only makes sense that your souls should yearn to go up there in order to purify themselves..." (Kuzari 2:23)

The sage replied: "Your reproach is justified, King of the Khazars. This is the reason that the Divine promise in the time of the Second Temple was left unfulfilled: 'Shout for joy, Fair Zion! For lo, I come, and I will dwell in your midst.' For the Divine power was ready to prevail in Zion as it had in the first place, if the people had willingly returned. But only a small part of the people was willing to return, and the majority and the people of rank remained in Babylon, preferring dependence and slavery, because they were unwilling to leave their homes and easy circumstances…" (Ibid. 2:24)

Halevi views the fact that the redemption has not occurred as a result of the human failure to respond to the values that they purportedly believe in. Redemption will occur, according to Halevi, only when human beings live up to their obligations to God. The US is today's Bavel and American Jewry is choosing to stay put. Non-Aliyah is bad enough, but creating an alternative Israel and attracting Yerida?

By the way, it won't last. Assimilation will do its work. My cousin has married a goy. His kid is a goy. This is happening. My intention in writing all this is to send out a hand to all Jews and to welcome them in to Hashem's greatest gift to this generation -Eretz Yisrael. If you guys want to get hung up on the idea that I am being rude or arrogant - chaval! In your comments you say that I am not aware of the hardships of Israel or in some way don't understand American Jewry. Nothing could be farther from the truth - I am just like you - I am former American Jew with an American Law degree, I know the attraction of America. I have chosen to live my life as a full Jew and now as an Oleh, I deal with economic hardships, I serve in the army and have lost people. BUT, I thank Hashem every day for giving this generation, and me within it, the opportunity to do this Mitzva of Eretz Yisrael, to live this Jewish life, and move the redemption along.

BTW - do you know how living in Israel is like Tzitit??? They are both among the handful of Mitzvot which our Rabbis say are akin to keeping the whole Torah.

Also with regard to Rafi's comment: "Yishai's post, at least as I understood it, was not just critical of the side-stepping of people who do not consider aliya seriously. It was extremely critical and harsh even against those who do consider it but for whatever reason right now cannot."

Nothing could be farther from the truth. I am not critical of those who cannot make Aliyah now at all. I am only trying to disabuse the notion of those who think that America is the final stop on the train. Aliyah is a process - we at Kumah know this very well!

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An Open Letter To Yishai

Dear Yishai,

I love you but this latest post of your's doesn't sit well with me. I don't feel it has a place on the Kumah website. Just as a picture of Neturei Karta burning an Israeli flag, which I posted, has no place here. Do people really need to see these pictures of pigs? You may be the co-founder of Kumah but the Kumah message has taken on a life of it's own. And that post is not Kumah. Perhaps it's Kumah-style but it's not Kumah!

Let's go straight to the point? Jews living in Chuz L'Aretz are responsible for Yerida? That's like saying the Israeli aggression is responsible for Arab attacks on Jews.

Who is responsible then? There are only two correct answers.

A. Hashem.

OR

B. The Yared.

As I wrote in my comment, if Hashem decrees you can not enter the Land you could be Moshe Rabbanu himself and you are not going to enter the land. By your logic you could be Moshe Rabbanu - and even want very much to live in Eretz Yisrael - but nevertheless your presence in Chutz L'aretz makes it easier for Yardim. So are you saying Moshe C"V is a Chazer? Are you saying our own beloved Shulamis, by residing in Chu"L is responsible for Yardim?

Another point. Do you think most Yardim are Dati? And actually think they say about American Jews, "I could be just as frum as these American Jews?"

Reality check: Most Yardim are not Dati and never even heard Lecha Dodi sung on Shabbat. They grow up in places like Haifa and Ramat Gan raised to be like the other nations especially America. And so where better to live the American dream but America. That's why they choose America! Not because there are Jews there but because there are cars and big houses and because money grows on trees in America.

And do you know what happens to these Yardim? Some Yardim who are after the American dream end up in places relatively void of Jews. But others - since they have the option - choose to live in Jewish areas because they might as well be near Jews. And do you know what happens? They start going to shul on Friday night because it's right next door. The shul in Haifa was a mile away. And they start getting closer to Hashem. Closer then they ever could have gotten in their setting in Eretz Yisrael. I have seen this happen with my own eyes countless times!

And then you know what happens next? They return. They come home. And then they get even closer to Hashem here than is possible anywhere else in the world. I see this happening too!

Ultimately every Jew has Eretz Yisrael inside of them. Every Jew has the yearning for her. That yearning is awakened best by positive thoughts. (It's easier for the Yared to come Home since they have the language and the culture.) A Jew native to America will need an even more positive message as they will face more challenges to make Aliyah successfully.

Yishai, it bothers me too that it doesn't seem enough American Orthodox Jews seriously consider Aliyah or even give a single thought to it. But the way to get them focused on it is by promoting the positive aspects of Aliyah and the beauty of life in Eretz Yisrael. This is a message Kumah has been building up for years since it's inception and it is the proper authentic Kumah message.

Everybody out there - click on this link !!!

This is link if FULL of Klassic Kumah posts. Scroll through the whole thing! Authentic Kumah. Go on click it! Look at those post. Each and every one of them. Then tell me what we should be posting on Kumah.

B'Ahavat Yisrael,
Pinchas

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My Prediction Fulfilled: Peres Says to Prepare Our Move into the Sea

Peres calls to start planning for the "day after" we are thrown into the sea

I SO called this less than a month ago in this post:

We really may see a day when "pragmatic" voices will suggest that we use modern technology to really allow the Arabs to drive us into the sea, where we can live comfortably on man-made landmasses and cruise-ships. ("It is the only way to allow the Muslim world to save face," they will explain. "They were promised by their leaders that they would drive us into the sea and once we are all there, their hatred will subside and we can totally visit mainland, including Hevron and Jerusalem, until nightfall, when we must return to our dingies.")

[Disclosure: Though I work at A7, I had no contact with the author about the story prior to its publication and I don't believe he saw my original blog post either]

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The Last Boy Scout

Leading up to the Purim Holiday, there was much to be done at the last moment. Two days before the holiday, there was work to be done, a lecture to give, an important dinner take-out order to fill, and costumes to get for the little ones.

As I got to Jerusalem to lecture a bunch of (what's a nice word for spoiled?) Yeshiva kids on the ins and outs of Israel advocacy, from the neo-Zionist perspective, I passed by a bunch of hooligan-looking Israelis dressed in what looked to me like boy scout uniforms.



In Israel, you'll see these types of uniforms on teenagers of the various youth movements--each movement occupying their own special niche within the vast religious-political culture which of course must also include innocent and non-innocent young children.

Let's just say these boy scouts didn't look like the helpful kind. Want a smoke?

Following the lecture which I thought was inspirational, and I am sure that some of the yawns were also out of appreciation for my time and energy, I went to go take care of some of those other last minute errands.

(By the way, I know that I give a great lecture).

I got to Pisgat Ze'ev, the largest community in what is now Jerusalem, although used to be the """"West Bank"""". It is a lovely part of the city built by the Prime Minister who could both build and take away, Ariel Sharon. It is really a beautiful large neighborhood.

We like it, because it is on the way home to Bet El from Jerusalem, and has some of the infrastructure missing from a smaller yishuv, like a shopping mall, and of course Burger's Bar.



The Burger's Bar is located at this intersection at the end of Rechov Moshe Dayan. I'm not sure what that tall red thing is supposed to be.



This is a good opportunity to talk about traffic safety in Israel.

When you are coming from Jerusalem, the best thing to do is park across the intersection in one of 8 or so parking spots facing in the direction you need to drive later. Now the road you need to cross on foot has 2 lanes in each direction--a 4 lane road in total. Not so big. But here in Israel, that means that the road takes about 5 minutes to cross, stopping on 2 seperate half-meter-wide islands in between green lights.

Now I was born in NY, so I am no fool. I look both ways and cross against the light if the coast is clear. For some reason, Israelis who will break just about every rule on the road, don't really jaywalk.

I got across the road pretty fast, when all of a sudden, I hear a 35-40 year-old blind lady holding a cane and 3 young kids in Purim costumes shouting, "Selicha, Selicha."

Now she didn't know it, but she was apparently talking to me.

She told me that it was unsafe to cross such a difficult intersection, and needed some help. She was right. Whichever engineer designed the traffic pattern here, they did not have this type of scenario in mind.

Of course, I helped her and her cute, decked-out kids back across the street.

After finishing my good deed for the day, I went back across that street, to get my take-out. The owner of the Burger's Bar, who knows me quite well from my wife's 9 months of pregnancy cravings that made me a regular at this establishment, invited our family to his child's upcoming birthday party at the restaurant. What a real, yet surreal night.

And how good it all made me feel. It was at that moment that I realized, it is simple good deeds like these that make this country what it is, and what it is supposed to be.

You don't have to be dressed like a boy scout to behave like one. But if you are dressed like a boy scout in Israel, it certainly wouldn't hurt to try.

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Only Jews...

Breaking News:
Fatah and Hamas unite to form new group: "Fat-ass"!

We make humor out of EVERYTHING... kinda like a defence mechanism...


Woo hoo~~~ Shulamit

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Even Though We Ain't Got Money, I'm so in Love With Milk and Honey

I was looking through the search terms that bring people to Kumah.org or NeoZionist.com and saw one continuously appearing, month after month.

It was "Even though we ain't got money, I'm so in love with you honey."

So I plugged that into Google. Lo and behold, we were number (drumroll...) 81.

81? Why would people searching for that song lyric click on the 81st link that came up? I still don't have the answer to that (maybe it was number 3 until recently) but I can tell you what post came up that used the lyrics. It was not even a Kumah blogger, but Laya, a member of the Jewlicious blog, whose post was reprinted here by Yishai.


Now Jewlicious has traditionally gotten a bit hysterical when it comes to Kumah, though Michael actually composed a Weird-Al style song for us at one point. Laya's post, however, is a Neo-Zionist ode to Aliyah that is one of the most sincere I have ever seen. It made my Shabbat to read it:

Some of the reasons I love living in Israel

Why did I come to Israel? I get asked this a lot. By Israelis who live here with me, and Americans who don't. Both, I suspect hoping for a glimmer of inspiration in my answer. Why would I leave everything I had going for me in The Land of Plenty and move to a perceived war zone?

Initially I came at the height of the intifada, with a newfound Zionism, grand ideas and dreamer's visions. I came to be with my people in their time of sorrow, with lofty ambitions of heroism. Since that time, all I can say is I've been humbled and I've grown-up.

But why do I stay?

It's as simple as this - because Love makes you do crazy things.

Sometimes I walk down the streets of Jerusalem singing love songs to it (even though we aint got money, I'm so in love with you honey?). Being in Love with Israel is like being in Love with a person; it defies all reason and logic. At some point the initial Zionistic honeymoon ends, times get tough and you go broke. Sometimes you might turn cynical and forget what you came here for. In terrifying, fleeting moments I have even considered going back to the land of hard wood floors, bank statements in English, and drip coffee.

Click here for the rest

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Unity is a Warm Gun. The First Shot Has Been Fired.

Neo-Zionism.

Ever heard of it?

It's like this: You see something that needs fixing. You have some choices:

1. Complain about it and walk away
2. Claim the entire endeavor was either a mistake or the work of the devil from the very start (post-Zionism, Neturei Karta)
3. Realize that you, as one who sees the problem, are now charged with doing something to fix it. If you believe we humans were given the power to destroy, believe that we have the power to rectify.

We Jews are a people of extremes. Our 'moderates' are the most extreme of all - so fervently clinging to their moderation that they don't dare analyze new facts as they come to light, for fear of becoming part of 'the problem' (which, of course, is extremists on all sides. Duh.).

But back to Neo-Zionism. The new, reloaded Kumah mega-blog is a place where complaints and critiques of every aspect of the Jewish State and the Jewish Project will be heard (alongside all the good stuff that the Kumah blog has always provided), but with the starting assumption is that these things can and will be fixed.

Those who have converged upon Zion - particularly from the comfortable North American corner - are an opinionated and passionate bunch. Things will get heated. There are no allies in this corner of the Blogosphere. We are looking to stir things up and shake everyone out of the boxes that exist even in the roomy expanse of the Internet.

If a think-tank like the Shalem Center (parent of Blogs of Zion) touts itself as a new voice for the Land of Israel-loyal Jewish Nation and then shut its eyes during the Disengagement, making no mention of it on their web sites or journals, we will point such a thing out and ask whether it had anything to do with its cosmetics magnate-sponsor's politics.

If a certain super-lefty mega-blog is the only other voice clearly opposing the Partition Wall - we will join forces with them, even as they happily cheer the death of Zionism - because the passion of the leftist Jewish radical is so much closer to the Biblical revolutionary than the comfortable moderate who supported Oslo, Wye, Oslo II, the Disengagement (or maybe he opposed, but felt that 'a government decision simply must be respected') and is filled with hope by Bibi's second coming.

If a delicious Jewblog embraces the sheer delight of being in 'the middle' on every issue, we will be there alongside them providing them the opportunity to take a stand ,in their snarkiest finery.

Most of all, we will remind Jews that talking about unity is useless. Our unity is in our realization that we as a people have always been tribalized. There were always tribes with different super-powers from one another. One tribe may be better at noticing the injustice while a little weak in sticking up for our peoples’ rights, another may excel at reaching out to the eternal Jewish party animal and turning him or her on, while yet another may fulfill the Jewish addiction to rationalizing inaction in the name of some lofty intellectual concept - but the unity everyone talks of only happens when those tribes duke it out with words, while managing not to hate each other and get nasty.

It isn't easy, but it is going to happen. Here, and in a blog near you thanks to our long Elders of Zion tentacles.

Speaking of which - here is a music video from Reb Shmuel Skaist, who attended and performed at the Canaan Conference, back in the day.



Enjoy.

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Yeah, I'll Move to Israel - When Moshiach Comes!!

As an Aliyah activist, I have been frustrated to the point of lava-hot rage by those who promise to make aliyah when the Messiah, the redeemer of Israel, comes and brings every single last Jew home to the Land of Israel.

If I were the Messiah, I'd be mighty insulted by the idea that my non-presence is used as an excuse to continue life-as-usual in the Exile.

I think I've had some success in talking to Jews about this issue. But I've NEVER heard a better remonstration than that of Aaron Fox on today's Yishai and Malkah Show at Israel National Radio.

Press "Play" below to listen to IsraelNationalRadio's "A View From Haifa"

Send it to all those "Zionists" back in the States.

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