Polls Who was asked? No one asked me

 

A GALLOP POLL APPARENTLY proves that "Jewish voters keen on Clinton, Sanders, widely dislike Trump, Cruz"

According to the pollsters, Gallup said in a March 24 article that an aggregation of Jewish respondents to its daily polling showed Jewish voters favor Sanders, an Independent Vermont senator, at 61 percent favorable, and Clinton, a former secretary of state, at 60 percent.

ALL VERY INTERESTING, but I failed to read

1.   How many people were polled
2.   Where the people who were (allegedly polled resided
3.   The age of the people pulled

And since the poll is about how Jews (allegedly) think, what is the level of religious observance of those polled?

Lunch at a Chinese restaurant on Yom Kippur?
An hour or two in synagogue on Yom Kippur?
At shul on holidays
Trick or Treat on Oct. 31 and a "Chanukah bush" for Dec. 25?
Kosher for Passover but not other times?
Shomer Shabat
Kashrut inside the home and outside, too?
Aware of the difference between "glat" and "Bet Yosef"? (Know that "glat" applies only to meat; not fish and dairy products.)

I live in South Florida and I consider myself an "observant" Jew.

The people I know are "pro-Trump" and have no use for Mrs. Clinton or Sen. Sanders.

I'm sure there ARE Jews in South Florida who will support ANY Democratic candidate against a Republican candidate - mostly these folks are expats from the Democratic strongholds of colder climes. I know of at least one Jew in Washington State who surprised me by his exceedingly liberal position, but maybe Seattle is "outside the boundaries" of the mostly conservative Intermountain West. (I lived in Nevada and Wyoming so I have some first hand experience in that part of the country; I also lived in northern - north of Sacramento - California, and area that also is mostly conservative.)

Besides knowing the demographics of the Jews who Gallop claims were polled, I'd also like to know exactly how the questions were presented: how were the phrased and how were they put before those polled?

When I was a reporter for the Harrisburg Patriot-News in the early 1970s, I had an interesting job - once a week I went into downtown Harrisburg to buttonhole passersby and ask them a question deemed relevant by my boss.

Rain or shine, hot or cold, a photographer and I suffered the elements to get answers from six people who would agree to be named and have their photo taken. Never did we get to call it a day after the first six people were stopped.

MY POINT in all the above is that, based on personal experience, I know a question can be phrased to elicit the answer the pollster desires. I also know it's not necessarily WHAT the pollster says, but HOW it is said.

When I see ANY poll that claims anything, even if I agree with the poll's results, I am suspicious.

When I see poll results that fly in the face of my experience, e.g., 90% of the observant Jews I know in South Florida are NOT for Mrs. Clinton or Sen. Sanders, then red flags are raised, bells go off, and any other cliché that comes to mind makes an appearance.

If you ask non-observant Jews in New York - where Mrs. Clinton bought her senate seat - if they support Mrs. Clinton, I'm confident there would be overwhelming numbers in her favor.

But come south and ask about Mrs. Clinton and the answers tend to be questions:

What about the emails?
What about Benghazi?

The question for Sen. Sanders is "How are you going to pay for all the socialist ideas such as free college for all?" (Georgia's lottery pays college tuition for top students, but a high school drop out with a single digit IQ won't make the cut.)

THE NEXT TIME you hear or read that "a recent poll proves that …" ask yourself the critical questions:

Who was polled?
When was the poll taken (what happened just before the pollsters hit the street or phones)
Where did those polled live?
How old were those polled - how much life experience did they have?
How were the questions phrased?
How were the polls taken - in person, on the phone, via mail or email?
Who paid for the polls - they are expensive to create and implement?
Would anyone in your circle respond the way the pollsters claim their responders answered?

Tell me the results you want and I can design a questionnaire that will give you those results. Guaranteed. Every time.

Two of a kind Netanyahu, UN Condemn soldier Without evidence

 

ISRAEL'S PRIME MINISTER and the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process both condemned an Israeli soldier for killing a "Subdued" terrorist" who was wearing that the soldier and several bystanders suspected was a bomb vest.

TO BE FAIR, this scrivener is NOT a fan of Netanyahu and has no respect for the man who I believe is as two-faced as Janus.

The NGO, B'Tselem, is notoriously pro-Palestine and anti-Israel. (See end of blog on B'Tselem background.)

The NGO acquired, and quickly posted on the Web a video - sans sound - of the two Palestinians wounded by soldiers. The video can be found in multiple places on the WWW, mostly - albeit not exclusively - on Muslim web sites.

Based on that video, Netanyahu and Nickolay Mladenov, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process immediately condemned the soldier.

Shortly after, a second video appeared, with sound, that paints an entirely different picture of the events.

B'Tselem claims that medics failed to attend to the terrorists and that a soldier used his boot to turn over one of the terrorists.

On the second video we hear the medics being told to "stay back" until sappers (bomb defusers) can determine if the terrorists have bombs or other weapons that could be used against the medics.

The terrorist the soldier shot in the head was wearing a heavy, bulky sweater during a warm day; a costume terrorists often use to hide explosive vests and belts. The soldier - and those standing nearby - apparently thought the wounded terrorist was about to explode a bomb.

As far as a solder using his boot to turn over an enemy, anyone who was in Vietnam knows that bodies often are bobby trapped to explode when moved.

NOW

       The soldier MAY be guilty of a crime; it could be he was following a higher up's orders to kill a terrorist before the courts release the terrorist to try kill again after a short time in an Israeli prison - where he gets a stipend from the PA and where, in additi9on to food, clothing, and health care, he can get a college degree, all the the Israeli taxpayers' expense.

       But, if it turns out the terrorist had a bomb underneath his bulky sweater, then the soldier will b e a "hero" for preventing deaths and injury. If that's the case, will the UN's "coordinator for the Middle East peace process" and Netanyahu publically apologize for so quickly condemning the soldier? (Anyone holding their breath?) What about the media that almost without exception jumped on the "the soldier is a murderer" bandwagon.

Israeli jurisprudence is based on English law and an Israeli Jew can spend a very long time in jail before charges are made.

This is NO My Lai and the soldier is no Lt. Wm Calley. This soldier killed an enemy who tried to kill Israelis. Since the terrorist wore no nation's uniform, he didn't deserve to be treated as an enemy combatant with all that entails. He was neither "civilian" nor "uniformed military"; he was a terrorist and a coward.

Those who wear raincoats and winter coats in warm weather usually are not "flashers," exhibitionists; they are terrorists armed with bombs, guns, and knives, all hidden under bulky clothing.

Based on past experience in Israel, the soldier had every right to suspect the terrorist that was "subdued" was wearing a bomb and, since he apparently was moving his head, able to detonate the explosive..

The medics who failed to rush to his aid were told to stay back until the bomb squad arrived; it is NOT a medic's job to treat a wounded enemy until the enemy is proven to no longer be a threat. (Ex-USAF medic writing this.)

B'Tselem is a far left NGO and can be expected to condemn the soldier.

The UN is so blatantly anti-Israel that nothing but condemnation could be expected.

But immediate, no evidence needed, condemnation by Netanyahu and the IDF brass is inexcusable and makes the Prime Minister's Office and the military brass look worse than fools.

ALSO SEE

NGO Monitor
B'Tselem
Founded in1989 by “a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists, and Knesset members,” largely from the Meretz and Labor Parties.
In their own words, B'Tselem “acts primarily to change Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories and ensure that its government, which rules the Occupied Territories, protects the human rights of residents there and complies with its obligations under international law.”

Netanyahu, IDF, MKs Condemn Shooting of Subdued Palestinian Terrorist

Video backs claims by soldier who killed terrorist

Opuscula פורים עצובSad Purim

 

I JUST WATCHED a Jewish Humor Central video titled What Tel Aviv University Students (Don't) Know About Purim .

It seemed as if most of the students interviewed were at least Jewish by birth.

TAU - where I briefly worked - is not a place where Judaism is part of the curriculum for all students - unlike Bar Ilan in nearby Rehovot where my daughter studied - but the students' ignorance was both saddening and astonishing.

ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS, - and I very briefly taught at one - teach, or perhaps taught, the students about the holidays both major (Rosh HaShana, Yom Kippur, and the three "pilgrimage" holidays of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukot) and minor (Purim, Hanukah).

Either the people interviewed at TAU were raised in an home that was rabidly anti-Jewish or they slept their way through school. Their ignorance is appalling.

I know many Jews in the U.S. and Israel who are less than observant, but THEY KNOW THE PURIM STORY. They may not bother to hear Megelat Esther twice - or even once - but if you ask them who were the lead characters in the Purim spiel they would tell you Esther and Haman, maybe even Mordechai and Ahasuerus. They MIGHT even know that HaShem's name is not mentioned even once in the whole "megelah."

I would not push my luck asking a Jew in Tel Aviv "How many megillot are there?" (I know you know there are five: Esther, Ruth, Song of Songs, Job, Lamentations.)

Most small kids know about dressing up in costumes. No more Esther, Mordechai, and Ahasuerus; now, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, kung fu fighters, an occasional soldier (usually in IDF uniform). For one TAU student, her costume was a bunny, and I don't think she was thinking in terms of a Playboy bunny. (Maybe she planned to lay Easter eggs a la the Cadbury bunny.)

The interviewer on TAU's campus wisely did not ask what Jews DO on Purim, in addition to hearing the megillah. I guess no one sends gifts to their neighbors anymore; no one gives a donation for the needy (a local food bank gets our donation).

One student volunteered that it is a custom to get drunk on Purim; funny how THAT tradition lingers on even when most religious authorities discourage it.

It's not just Israelis-at-TAU who are Purim ignorant. The interviewer asked several people who sounded like Americans (Canadians are Americans, too) about the minor holiday and their answers were no better (or worse) than the Israelis.

The PROBLEM with Purim is that what happened "back then" - 519–465 BCE when Ahasuerus, a/k/a Xerxes I of Persia lived - and today is that Jews still are threatened, albeit now not by Persia (Iran) alone but by Muslim extremists and anti-Semites around the globe.

Then, as now, Jews must be prepared to defend themselves; the European ostrich mentality of "don't make waves" didn't work in Europe and it won't work anywhere today.

Purim is more than just a day to hear the story of Esther; it is more than a day to send food packages to friends and give donations to the needy. Purim is a day when Jews should remember when, across Ahasuerus' 127 provinces, Jews took up arms to defeat the anti-Semites encouraged by Haman

We - Jews - need to defend ourselves from the Hamans of today.

Meanwhile, חג פורים שמח

Opuscula Purim with Yeshiva "boys"

 

A RUSSIAN MEMBER OF KNESSET, Ksenia Svetlova (Zionist Union) is outranged to the point of ranting on Facebook about a suggestion that females stay off the streets of Bnei Brak during Purim celebrations.

Why, the MK asks, should she be forced to stay inside while the men celebrate?

SILLY WOMAN. Doesn't she know that the yeshiva "boys" will take the admonition to get so drunk they can't tell the difference between "Mordechai and Haman"?

MOST rabbis, regardless of sect, discourage such behavior ^{Note 1} and incidents occurring due to drunkenness are punishable ^{Note 2}.

Saving a woman from males' immodest behavior is the basis for many rabbinical rules. The "women's' section" at the Temple was to protect both women AND less-able men (the old and infirm) from the boisterousness of the Water Festival during Sukot. ^{Note 3}

While the MK has a point - why should women be forced to celebrate Purim inside their or their neighbors' homes while drunks are allowed to roam the streets, and while she has a point that the (Ashkenazi) Chief Rabbi of Bnei Brak, Moshe Yehuda Leib Landau, opts to deny females their freedom so his yeshiva "boys" can behave like the bulls of Pamplona , she needs to understand that in the rabbi's culture, the action is for the females' safety.

Expecting haredim to behave in a civilized manner on Purim obviously is expecting too much, and R. Moshe Yehuda Leib Landau fully understands his people.

Bnei Brak is the community that in 1977 placed a chain across a major street to prevent Shabat violations; a young man was killed and a friend injured when they ailed to see the chain. The the mayor and municipal council members of Bnei Brak were indicted on grounds of non-criminal negligence that resulted in a traffic fatality there. ^{Notes 4 & 5}

Sadly enough, U.S. law - and it varies by state - may not find a drunk guilty of a crime committed while under the influence. ^{Note 6}

The bottom line for MOST Jews is to pass on the "falling down drunk" עד לא יודע tradition and follow one of the options of later rabbis. ^{Note 7}

---

1. Beis Hora’ah

2. Mi Yodea (מי יודע)

3. Chabad

4. JTA

5. JTA

6. Criminal Defense Lawyer

7. Jewish Boston

Opuscula What do they Want of Trump?

 

AN ARTICLE TITLED Where Donald Trump stands on Israel and the Jews must have been written by an American Jew in Mrs. Clinton's camp.

Everything Trump says is a slam against Israel and Jews. I know some American Jews like that, ones that firmly believe if a Republican and a jackass were running for office, vote for the jackass.

ONE OF THE COMMENTS with which author Ben Harris claims is that "Trump would not commit to recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital."

Never mind that the Washington Times ran an article on January 19th headed Donald Trump: I support moving U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

The same statement was reported in the Jerusalem Post under the heading Trump pledges to move US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (on a page that had a teaser to articles titled "US court: No ‘Israel’ on passports of American citizens born in Jerusalem" and "Congressmen call on Obama to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital after court ruling")

The Algemeiner reported the same thing on January 20 with the headline Trump: ‘I Am 100% in Favor of Moving US Embassy From Tel Aviv to Jerusalem’

Breitbart, seemingly embarrassed to admit it, has a headline reading Trump: On Second Thought, Move U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem

Harris also claims "Trump doesn’t want money from Republican Jewish bigwigs." With that remark, according to Harris, Trump seemed "to traffic in anti-Semitic stereotypes about shadowy Jewish control of political leaders." He quotes Trump stating: “You’re not gon'na support me because I don’t want your money,” Trump said. “You want to control your politicians, that’s fine.”

Was that a lie? Don't people, including the RJC, try to "buy" politicians. Trump can't be bought - not by members of the RJC, the knights of this or that, the Baptist (Southern or otherwise) and Lutherans of any synod. That doesn't mean he's "anti" anything other than being a "bought" politician. It's no secret that he's the only candidate - Democratic or Republican - who is self-funded and not "beholden" to any big bucks backers. The only "sin" Trump committed was failing to be politically correct.

Trump made two other remarks that got Harris' attention and comments.

One: Trump would stay ‘neutral’ on Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Two: "Do they both want to make peace?"

It is blatantly obvious that if a president says he's pro-Israel rather than pro-PA, the PA leadership will become more obstinate than normal. Conversely, if the president is patently pro-PA at Israel's expense, Israelis will ignore any approach from the U.S.

Both Israel and the PA leadership should be looking for an honest broker , a person who at least seems to be pro-peace rather than pro-conflict.

There are Israelis - Jews, Muslims, Christians, and "other" - and PA Muslims who WANT a peace deal even if it's tenuous as are the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan. There also are Israelis - Jews, Muslims, Christians, and "other" - and PA Muslims who want to continue the status quo.

Today, neither Israelis not PA Muslims trust the U.S. as its political pendulum swings from side to side depending on who is speaking. Trump's proposal to be a "neutral" might - just might - be an opening for peace or at least a civilized cooperation between Israel and the PA. The EU and UN have proven untrustworthy to both sides.

As to who WANTS peace - most people on both sides want peace, but many people on both sides prefer to denigrate, injure, or kill people from "the other" side." Those from the PA seem to be doing a better job of injuring and killing those from the Israeli side.

As far as Harris goes, I'm left wondering where his allegiances lie, whose ax he intends to grind. It's obvious that for him, Trump would be a disaster for Israel and "the Jews." American Jews? Israeli Jews? European Jews? Those few Jews of Muslim countries? Jews in Africa and Asia? Maybe Jews "down under."

Apparently all Jews who take issue with his opinions, at least his opinion of Trump.

By the way, just who is Ben Harris? The Times of Israel conveniently fails to include any information about Harris.

Opuscula Talking through Their black hats

 

THE BLACK HAT POLITICIANS, both Ashkenazi and Sefardi, are up in arms because

    The Israeli government is making noises to recognize that some Jews are neither haredi or heloni but, oy the world is ending, Conservative or Reform

   Women and the LGBT community are about to have a government-sanctioned place at "The Wall"

   Government mikvehs are to be opened to ALL Jews, even Conservative and Reform Jews (can you see the water roiling?)

   There is a non-extremist movement that would perform halakic (according to Jewish law) conversions.

IT'S OK FOR A HELONI WHO barely knows there are three pilgrimage holidays and thinks there is only one new year - January 1, and it's OK for an atheistic Jewish male to visit the wall in the haredi section for men or an agnostic Jew to visit a mikveh - although why an either would do so is beyond my ken.

An ignorant Jew never has his or her Jewishness challenged by the black hats as long as the Jew is NOT affiliated with either Conservative or Reform movements.. A knowledgeable Conservative or Reform - or, one guesses, a Humanistic or any other non-Orthodox sect - Jew is not a Jew, at least according to the black hats.

Sadly, one of the most outspoken Sefardi Jews is the son of the late Hakham Ovadia Yosef - R. David Yosef.

According to R. David, "Reform Jews are 'idolaters' while Conservative Jews don't practice real Judaism

I wonder how many Conservative and Reform people he knows - and would he even SPEAK to a Reform or Conservative Jew?

R. David is, unfortunately, not alone.

When a politician, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, visited a school that was aligned with the Conservative movement, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau criticized the Education Minister's visit. Unfortunately for Jews of all varieties who respected R. Lau's father, the son is closer to to Sefardi counterpart, R. David Yosef in his bigotry than to his father, R. Israel Meir Lau, in his father's effort to bring Jews closer together.

R. Samuel Eliyahu, one of the most prominent leaders of the hard-right wing of the national religious community said the non-Orthodox movements were bringing about a “spiritual holocaust.”

“The Reform and Conservatives are our brothers, but their path is a disaster, there’s no delicate way to put it, and it is forbidden to to give them encouragement, as a path by, drawing them close,” said Eliyahu.

But if they are our brothers and if the haredi think they have "gone astray," wouldn't it be logical to meet with them to show them "the correct path?"

R. Yaakov Ariel, one of the most respected national religious rabbis in the country, said that “Reform [Judaism] isn’t Judaism… it is forbidden for a man who observes the Torah and commandments to recognize the Reform.”

Even other black hats are victims of R. David's foul tongue.

R. David Says Rabbi David Stav is a ‘Reformed Jew With A Kippa’

For more on R. Stav, see http://www.jewishpress.com/tag/rabbi-david-stav/ and the institute he heads http://www.tzohar.org.il/English/founders-and-leadership/.

FORTUNATELY, not all "Orthodox" rabbis are are bigoted as Hakham David.

The Chief Rabbi of Efrat, R. Shlomo Riskin, contends that Reform or Orthodox, we must embrace every Jew.

If we cannot interact with them, how can they be embraced?

Even RASHBI realized that not everyone needed to be as observant as he and his son - even if HaShem had to make that point clear to him.

Is a Conservative or Reform Jew worse than HaAher?

Truth in blogging: I am neither Conservative or Reform, but I have friends who are one or the other. I am not comfortable in their services, but many have a wealth of Jewish knowledge and a love of Judaism that must be acknowledged and appreciated.