JFNA: Pres. Budget Embraces Many Jewish Federation Priorities

 

For Immediate Release:                   

February 2, 2010

 

Contact:        

Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications

(202) 265-3000; (202) 641-6216 (c)

 

Presidential Budget Embraces Many Jewish Federation Priorities, but Undermines Critical Charitable Deductions

 

WASHINGTON – The FY 2011 budget recommendations issued by the President this week embraces many Jewish Federation priorities, but could reduce charitable contributions vital to Federation support, said a leading Jewish advocacy organization.

 

The Jewish Federations of North America is currently reviewing the nearly 2500 pages of the FY 2011 budget and finds numerous provisions that support the work of The Jewish Federations as well as some provisions The Jewish Federations hope Congress will reconsider prior to  passage of the final budget resolution.

 

The FY 2011 budget provides essential funding for programs managed by the Jewish Federation movement to support the older adults, disabled, unemployed, sick and homeless.  Included in this year’s recommendations, among others, are extended funding for the enhanced Federal Medicare Assistance Percentage (FMAP) rate that was set to expire at the end of this year and funding for the Administration on Aging’s Caregivers Initiative.  FMAP is the funding formula used to determine the amount of federal aid states will receive to support their Medicaid program.   The Caregiver Initiative, which recognizes the essential role of family members as caregivers, is among the Jewish Federations’ major priorities. The FY 2011 Budget proposal also enables charities, regardless of size, to qualify for a $5,000 tax credit for every net new employee hired in 2010.

 

“Jewish Federations and our affiliated social service agencies are continuing to respond to the devastation of the current economic crisis, and look to Congress and the Obama Administration for a fiscal lifeline to counter the enormous demand for our social programs,” said William C. Daroff, vice president for public policy and director of The Jewish Federations of North America’s Washington office.  “We look forward to working with Congress as it reviews the President’s budget recommendations and tackle these challenges to ensure our nation’s charities have the resources and tools needed to help the most vulnerable.”

 

The Jewish Federations was disappointed that the Budget includes a proposal limiting the value of itemized deductions, including charitable deductions.  Led by The Jewish Federations, charities across the country actively encouraged Congress to reject a similar proposal last year, because of the disincentive it will have on charitable giving at a time when charities are serving as a vital component of the nation's social safety net. The Jewish Federations of North America remains committed to ensuring that the nation’s network of charities and social services has access to the funding and resources it needs to continue to help those most affected by the economic downturn.

 

“More Americans today are facing unprecedented financial pressures at a time when many of them are unable to find work, and for many, the initiatives and programs managed by our nation’s charitable network are life-saving,” said Daroff.  “Anything that undercuts these vital programs is simply unacceptable.   The Jewish Federations of North America remains committed to working with Congress and the Administration to ensure that charities have the resources to help our society's most vulnerable.”

 

The Jewish Federations of North America represents 157 Jewish Federations and 400 Network communities, which raise and distribute more than $3 billion annually for social welfare, social services and educational needs. The Federation movement, collectively among the top 10 charities on the continent, protects and enhances the well-being of Jews worldwide through the values of tikkun olam (repairing the world), tzedakah (charity and social justice) and Torah (Jewish learning).

 

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Theologian's "Jihad and Genocide" previewed by Christian media analyst

CAMERA.com's Christian Media Analyst, Dexter Van Zile, sat down to record some informal video notes for an upcoming review of noted Holocaust theologian Richard L. Rubenstein's book, "Jihad and Genocide".

 
 
Source:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP38bHFQiJ0


Informal comment by Dexter Van Zile:

I think the issue of the dhimma is of central importance to the current conflict. The dhimma is the treaty of protection offered to non-Muslims in Muslim ruled countries. In return for accepting their subject status, non-Muslims are allowed to maintain their religious identity. The underlying assumption is that Islam is supposed to be the dominant force in any society where it exists.

The notion of Jewish sovereignty, especially on land previously governed by Muslim rulers, is anathema to this understanding. It is an inversion of the way things are supposed to be.

The forces that contribute to the terrible treatment of religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East are the same forces that contribute to violence against non-Muslims outside the region by Islamists. 

Note:  We are referring here only to Radical or Revolutionary Islamism.  The average Muslim, even those who practice conservative traditional Islam, is not a Radical Islamist. As Prof. Barry Rubin puts it: "We should understand  [that]  Islamism is not [ and hasn't been] the only possible interpretation of Islam."   http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2010/01/radical-islamism-introductory-primer.html

Agriprocessors debacle yields new Orthodox ethical guidelines via RCA

Obey Civil Law, Say New Orthodox Kosher Rules

By Gal Beckerman    Published January 27, 2010, issue of February 05, 2010 of the Forward

The crimes that brought down the Agriprocessors kosher meat company and could put its owner, Sholom Rubashkin, in jail for life, still reverberate. An echo was heard in the Rabbinical Council of America’s January 21 announcement establishing a set of ethical guidelines for how agencies supervising kosher food production should behave beyond ensuring that the laws of kashrut are observed.

The RCA, representing more than 1,000 Orthodox rabbis and closely affiliated with the Orthodox Union, by far the largest certifier of kosher food, is the latest Jewish organization to respond to the Agriprocessors scandal, which exposed widespread violation of immigration laws, child labor laws and financial fraud.
In a three-page memo, the RCA recommended that agencies involved in supervising kosher slaughter now needed to show “fidelity to both ritual practice and the rule of civil law.”

The new guidelines boil down to one added responsibility to the job of the mashgiach, or kosher supervisor: If federal or state law is being broken, the company’s products will be denied certification. As obvious as this rule might seem, observers say it is a departure for the kosher agencies, which previously saw themselves as concerned exclusively with the halachic intricacies of ritual slaughter and food preparation.

“In the wake of the Agriprocessors debacle, it was clear that everyone’s expectations were all out of alignment,” said Rabbi Asher Meir, chairman of the task force charged with drawing up the guidelines. “What the producers felt was expected of them was in one place. What the agencies felt they were expecting of the producers was in another place. And what the consumers were expecting was somewhere else entirely. It was necessary to make some order and align the expectations and decide what standards should be appropriate and that they be transparent to everybody involved.”

The fact that the new standards are United States law has allowed the RCA’s guidelines to gain wide approval. But others who seek more far-reaching change in the conditions under which kosher food is prepared — though they applaud the move — worry that they do not go far enough.

Meir, however, defended the new guidelines as having been written precisely to avoid overreaching.
“Are we undertaking to supervise something beyond that the food is kosher? The answer is no,” he said. “That’s not what we’re asking people. Are we setting specific guidelines for good conduct? The answer is also no. The standard that is being demanded in the RCA guidelines is law-abiding behavior. We are not making a new standard, a new bar above and beyond what the laws and regulations require.”

But there have been attempts at a “new bar,” most notably the Hekhsher Tzedek program, now embraced by the Conservative movement. Launched in 2007, also as a response to the Agriprocessors violations, a commission of rabbis came up with a set of very specific requirements — from wages to working conditions to health insurance and maternity leave policies — that would earn a company a seal of approval, or Magen Tzedek.

The guidelines were laid out in a first draft that began circulating in September for the sake of eliciting comment. They go far beyond simply adhering to the law and are an attempt to infuse social justice principles into the production of kosher food.

Morris Allen, the rabbi who founded the project, sees the RCA principles as an affirmation of a conversation he says he first started.

“I think it’s an endorsement of our work and it’s a result of our work,” Allen said. “It may not be a direct endorsement. There are clearly nuanced and substantive differences. But ultimately it’s a far cry from people saying two years ago that there is nothing about ethics in the production of kosher food. They said kosher food is just about whether it’s prepared according to the ritual law. We have moved far from there.”
Still, Allen said, he has questions about how the RCA is going to enforce its guidelines. Unlike Hekhsher Tzedek, which demands that producers prove they are in compliance in order to receive the hechsher, or approval, the RCA guidelines are reactive, and their effect will be apparent only when supervising agencies decide that certain misconduct demands withholding certification.

Others interested in putting the ethics of workers’ rights on par with food production also worry that the RCA is not going to positively change the current environment.

Shmuly Yanklowitz is the founder and co-director of Uri L’Tzedek, an Orthodox social justice organization that has focused attention on the condition of workers at kosher restaurants, giving out its own “ethical stamp,” the Tav HaYosher, to those that are free of “abuse and exploitation.” According to Yanklowitz, 30 restaurants have already received the seal.

“I think that the RCA standards help to move the community in the right direction by considering these issues, but we need to move from theory and broad ethical standard to precision and accountability,” Yanklowitz said. “Any standards without accountability and full transparency will carry very little weight.”

Yanklowitz also added that there was a Jewish context for including employee rights as part of the concept of kashrut, pointing out that Jewish law prohibits the oppression of workers.

It is the broadness of the RCA guidelines, though, that has gained it such ringing support from those who had been opposed to more activist efforts like those of Hekhsher Tzedek.

“The Hekhsher Tzedek certification was not about secular law or Halacha at all. It sought to enforce social norms like ‘just wages’ and fair treatment,” said Rabbi Michael Broyde, who wrote critical articles about Hekhsher Tzedek for the Forward and was part of the RCA task force that drew up the new guidelines. “It never focused on American law at all. This proposal is grounded in enforcing American law.”

An even harsher critic of Hekhsher Tzedek was Agudath Israel, the Haredi Jewish communal organization. When the proposed rules for receiving the Magen Tzedek were first discussed in September 2008, the group put out a statement harshly denouncing them as “misguided and misleading” and likely to foster “a distorted understanding of kashrus, and a corruption of the halachic process itself.”

The new RCA ethical principles have been greeted very differently.

Agudath’s view now, according to Avi Shafran, a spokesman for the organization, is, “The guidelines seem a responsible way of addressing nonkashrut-related lapses in the kosher food industry.”

Contact Gal Beckerman at beckerman@forward.com

Senate passes Iran sanctions.

Senate passes Iran sanctions 

By Ron Kampeas · January 28, 2010   Jewish Telegraphic Agency

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The U.S. Senate passed a comprehensive Iran sanctions bill.
The bill passed by voice vote Thursday evening hews closely to a companion bill passed last month in the U.S. House of Representatives; White House requests to roll back some of the harsher provisions were unheeded.

The bills target Iran's energy sector, singling out for sanctions any entity -- individual, company or even country -- that deals in refined petroleum with Iran, a major oil producer, but with a refining sector in disarray.
The Obama administration has preferred to emphasize multilateral sanctions targeting Iran's leadership coupled with diplomatic outreach. Both bills must now be reconciled and the final version is likely be signed by Obama, despite his reservations.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which led lobbying for the bills, urged swift passage and signing.

"Iran's possession of nuclear weapons capability would be a devastating blow to America's national security interests," spokesman Josh Block said. "The U.S. and our allies must impose biting diplomatic and economic pressure to try and peaceably prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and avoid confronting more distressing alternatives.

The bills allow Obama waivers for national security reasons. Obama's predecessors have exercised such waivers with earlier sanctions bills.

No negotiations because Palestinians shun practical solution, interim agreement

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3840241,00.html

The Palestinians do not wish to negotiate with Netanyahu because they perceive him as a practical politician seeking practical solutions; this is the kind of mess the current Palestinian leadership wishes to stay away from. It doesn’t even want to get close to it
....
“We won’t be signing yet another interim agreement with Israel,” a very senior Palestinian figure says in closed-door sessions. “Ever since the Camp David talks, no agreements have been signed with Israel, and the Abbas government will not breach the Palestinian consensus of refusal. We also don’t wish to get our ‘state in progress’ from Israel. We already have it. We got it on our own.”

“The current situation serves us well. Palestine is growing, the security situation is decent, Hamas is under siege in Gaza, and global public opinion endorses us and opposes the occupation. There is no rush for us. The demographic clock is ticking and the option of a bi-national state is being realized. We have no incentive for entering talks with an Israeli prime minister who wants to get down to business, that is, who wants to show results.”
...The Palestinians are willing to engage in vague negotiations with the Netanyahu government while knowing in advance that this will not lead to any results, but are unwilling to embark on practical talks as long as there is a chance that this will lead to results on the ground. They fear a situation whereby they will be asked to reject or accept a viable interim agreement, which includes the evacuation of some settlements and the transfer of more land to their control.

-- By Sever Plocker, Ynetnews.com.  1/27/10

Israel's position on the Hamas government

 

"The Israeli position is that the Hamas government in Gaza does not meet the conditions set forth by the international community and the Quartet. And as long as Hamas continues to attack Israel with missiles and other means, Israel will not open the border crossings. With this, Israel is doing everything possible to ensure that humanitarian aid enters Gaza in a controlled manner so that it is ensured that the population receives what it needs, including medical care in Israel. But Israel will not allow a neighbor that calls for its destruction to enjoy the benefits of an open border."

 

1/26/2010

 

 

Below is the text of the videotaped message from President Barack Obama for the ceremony commemorating the 65th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The video of the President’s message will be posted on whitehouse.gov later today. Please share this message with anyone who might be interested.

 

 

 

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 27, 2010

 

 

Text of the videotaped message from President Barack Obama for the ceremony commemorating the

65^th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau

 

Good morning.  And thank you to everyone who worked to bring us to this day, especially the International Auschwitz Council and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

 

To President Kacynski Prime Minister Tusk and to the people of Poland—thank you for preserving a place of such great pain for the Polish people, but a place of remembrance and learning for the world.

 

Although I can’t be with you in person, I’m proud that the United States is represented there today by a delegation of distinguished Americans, including Ambassador Feinstein; my wife Michelle’s chief of staff, Susan Sher; and my good friend, and the son of Holocaust survivors, Julius Genachowski.

 

And let me commend you for recognizing a woman who has devoted her life to preserving the lessons of the shoah for future generations—Sara Bloomfield of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

 

But most of all, I want to thank those of you who found the strength to come back again, so many years later, despite the horror you saw here, the suffering you endured here, and the loved ones you lost here.  Those of us who did not live through those dark days will never truly understand what it means to have hate literally etched into your arms.  But we understand the message that you carry in your hearts.

 

For you know the truth that Elie Wiesel spoke when I stood with him at Buchenwald last spring.  There, where his father and so many innocent souls left this earth, Elie said that “memory has become the sacred duty of all people of goodwill.”

 

We have a sacred duty to remember the twisted thinking that led here—how a great society of culture and science succumbed to the worst instincts of man and rationalized mass murder and one of the most barbaric acts in history.

 

We have a sacred duty to remember the cruelty that occurred here, as told in the simple objects that speak to us even now.  The suitcases that still bear their names.  The wooden clogs they wore.  The round bowls from which they ate.  Those brick buildings from which there was no escape—where so many Jews died with Sh’ma Israel on their lips.  And the very earth at Auschwitz, which is still hallowed by their ashes—Jews and those who tried to save them, Polish and Hungarian, French and Dutch, Roma and Russian, straight and gay, and so many others.     

 

But even as we recall man’s capacity for evil, Auschwitz also tells another story—of man’s capacity for good.  The small acts of compassion—the sharing of some bread that kept a child alive.  The great acts of resistance that blew up the crematorium and tried to stop the slaughter.  The Polish Rescuers and those who earned their place forever in the Righteous Among the Nations.

 

And you—the survivors.  The perpetrators of that crime tried to annihilate the entire Jewish people.  But they failed.  Because 65 years ago today, when the gates flew open, you were still standing.  And every day that you have lived, every child and grandchild that your families have brought into the world with love, every day the sun rises on the Jewish state of Israel—that is the ultimate rebuke to the ignorance and hatred of this place.

 

So to those of you who have come back today, I say, no, you are not “former prisoners.”  You are living memorials.  Living memorials to the loved ones you left here.  And to the spirit we must strive to uphold in our time—not simply to bear witness, but to bear a burden.  The burden of seeing our common humanity; of resisting anti-Semitism and ignorance in all its forms; of refusing to become bystanders to evil, whenever and wherever it rears its ugly face.

 

Let that be the true meaning of Auschwitz.  Let that be the liberation we celebrate today—a liberation of the spirit that, if embraced, can lead us all—individuals and as nations—to be among the righteous.  

 

May God bless you all, and may God bless the memory of all those who rest here.

 

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