There's something fun about writing in the Uni computer room.
It's a bit like spending time in the library, only instead of people breathing and pushing papers there's a clickety-clack of key boards.

I just had the most fascinating lecture about the Canaanite movement; how they were secular and wanted to create a new nation separate from Judaism which would bring together the different groups in the Middle East (the movement opposed Zionism and Pan-Arabism, as their goal was to create a nation based on the view that Jews (in the jargon, the "Hebrews") and the Arabs in the Levant were descendants of the ancient Canaanite people.

It's pretty neat, in a Nationalist way I suppose.

They opposed the Partition Plan, regarding it as a total disaster to the whole ethos of a united land and new nation, as it created an even greater rift between the local Arabs and the immigrant Jews.

It's an interesting History which had a great impact on Israeli and Hebrew culture after the formation of the state. It had a lot of potential, but it neglected to take Arab culture, history and language into account, which I think would have proved just a hindrance just as powerful as Judaism and the British mandate were in the formative years of the movement.

The lecture was specifically about Aharon Amir one of the ideologues of the movement who died (at 85) just a few months ago, because he was a writer and poet who, though not a recruited author, was quite clear in his ideology in his writing.

I think the nucleus of the idea, a new nation separate from the authority of religion and based on the land and territory, is still powerful. Because of the greater rift that is occurring between Israel and the (American) Diaspora (and other various socio-political reasons), it seems that there will be no other choice, eventually, to somehow create an alternative nationality that will incorporate all the multi-cultures that are found in this tiny stretch of sand.

I love The Daily Show, I find Jon to be one the funniest men in television today.
Here's a small portion of Mr. Stewart handing the asses of McCain, Obama and Clinton back to them in the shape of brisket.



Via.

In October 2000 there was a lynch. It was all over the News. It isn't easily forgotten, especially not with images as iconic as this.

It took me no time to find these links.
The only link I could find of this disgusting story, beyond the blogosphere, was in Ha'aretz weekend supplement (printed edition) in Hebrew. Today I got an RSS feed of the story translated into English. Unlike the Hebrew article, which has markup errors and is thus basically unreadable on-line, the English edition doesn't have pictures and I have not been able to find any other photos of the lynching. A group of dozens Jewish boys between the ages of 15-18 from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev assaulted and almost murdered two Palestinian teens from Shu'fat, which is just a stone throw away form that Jewish neighborhood.

The lynching took place on the 30th of April (yes, a month ago) and it was only brought to the media this past week.
What is even more disgusting is that the 30th of April this year was National Holocaust Memorial Day, obviously the date was not chosen for the hell of it, especially because Palestinians come to Pisgat Ze'ev Mall often enough for them to be familiar to Jewish population.

The article is a horrifying and illuminating read. I must be growing cynical in my old age as I was not surprised at all that something like this happened. The fact that I share with those "good Jewish boys" an iota of commonality is sickening.

Did I mention there was a book burning as well? Oh, and that Israel is the 4th largest arms dealer in the world.

I end this extremely depressing entry with the hope that someday lynches, burnings and profiteering through the suffering of others will be shocking and nauseating.

I am not shocked and nauseated that these things happen in the country in which I live.
That is the saddest thing of all.

I'm tired.
I'm never taking a course that requires me to wake up at six AM.
Or alternately I could start going to sleep at reasonable hours...
But fuck that right?

But the fact that I'm tired won't stop me from reporting this shit, that went down in the beginning of last weekend and which may or may not be resolved.
It pissed me off royally.
Beyond the tragic and cruel nature of these invalidated conversions, it spotlights a grave and important matter about the relationship of religion and state in Israel.
That it is rotten.

I got into an argument about what is acceptable involvement of religious establishment in the state.
Personally, I think they can fuck off, since these establishments are chauvinistic, sexist and racist.

There is no civil marriage in Israel, the closest we have is common-law unions which were established so that "un-marriageable" couples could have legal standing.
Who are the "un-marriageable" you ask - they are members of the population that cannot get married through the Rabbanut. The system was initially built for couples who according to Halakha couldn't marry each other: Cohens and divorces mainly. But this also includes Mamzerim (bastards) who cannot marry through the Rabbanut, Jews cannot marry Muslims or Christians, nor can Muslims and Christians marry each other, there is no same-sex marriage either.
This, is of course easily solved by marrying elsewhere; Cyprus, Canada, the USA, Anywhere that allows foreign nationals to marry.

And after marriage (which brings great civil benefits) comes divorce (more and more these days and don't let anyone tell you otherwise).
It's a great invention, Jews are practical that way.
Of course it is the Husband that must grant the Wife the Get (divorce), she can "choose" whether to accept it or not. Not that the man would give a shit, all he needs in order to have a Halachikly legal family (while not divorced to his first wife) is something like a 100 signatures from 100 Rabbis and he can marry and have (halachicly)legal children - bigamy and polygamy are illegal in Israel - so he can ignore with impunity the pleas his Wife makes so that they can be rid of each other. There are sanctions, monetary usually, but go beg a Yeshivah Bochur to pay alimony when he can't sustain himself without a wife, or just a run of the mill asshole who doesn't want to pay alimony and that putting him in jail only postpones the writ of execution of whatever he owes his wife, his lawer and his children should he have any. The wife, due to all this, is now an Aguna - another side effect of the Rabbis revocation of the conversions - there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Agunot women in Israel.

My side of the argument was that we either take the anti-patriarchy hammer and bash the Rabbanut until nothing is left of that racist, sexist establishment, or have the state acknowledge the fact that there is more to Judaism than Orthodoxy so that that the pluralism we pretend to have in Israel have some basis in reality.

A mixture of reform and revolution - I'm more keen on rebuilding from the grassroots, but others kind of like the way things are... or at the very least don't mind the way things are; seeing as the privilege of being born Jewish has the added bonus that no one will be nosing around our private life and checking to see if we're actually being Jewish.

It makes me sick.

I've heard people say it takes time for these things to change, after all blacks in the USA only got civil rights in the 60's of the 20th century and the women only got the vote less than a hundred years ago.
Change is slow but it happens.

Yes, change is slow... when those in power have no incentive to change, when the atrocities that these establishments perpetrate don't touch their lives, then change can be slow.
When the status quo is just fine and dandy to The Man, then change can be slow.

Classical liberal* bullshit.

*No offense to any liberals who may be reading this.

The Israeli papers are rife with Holocaust related News and most of it is very boring, but this, this takes the cake and I just have to share.
I'm really interested to know what you all think of it.

The authors of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion would have gotten a kick out of this.

Hamas TV claims 'Satanic Jews' planned, perpetrated Holocaust
By Anat Rosenberg

Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV aired a documentary on April 18 claiming that Jews planned and perpetrated the Holocaust in order to rid the nation of the "burden" of the weak and disabled.

Palestinian Media Watch, a group that monitors Palestinian Arabic language media and schoolbooks, uploaded part of the program onto YouTube in a segment called "Hamas Holocaust Perversion: Jews Planned Holocaust to Kill Handicapped Jews."

The Al-Aqsa TV clip edits together footage from the World War II Nazi Genocide, showing Jews being rounded up and taken to a train as well as emaciated corpses lying in a pile, alongside images of Israeli leaders David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir.

The accompanying commentary claims that Ben Gurion said "the disabled and handicapped are a heavy burden on the state." To rid them of that scourge, the video claims, Ben Gurion and "the Satanic Jews thought up an evil plot to be rid of the burden of disable and handicapped in twisted criminal ways."

The video also claims that Jews made up the Holocaust and blamed the Nazis for it in order to "benefit from international sympathy."

The Holocaust "was a joke, and part of the perfect show that Ben Gurion put on," said Amin Dabur, head of the Palestinian Center for Strategic Research organization, in the video.

Dabur added that the "Jewish plan" focused on developing "strong and energetic youth [for Israel]," and that the figure of six million Jewish victims is mere propaganda.

Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car/ Dan Pagis
here in this carload
i am eve
with abel my son
if you see my other son
cain son of man
tell him that i

Another year goes by and one of the two most solemn days have arrived again.
Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day - יום הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה
The date chosen to mark this day is the date of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which all things considered is a good thing to commemorate.
The Hebrew date is 27th of Nissan (unless it falls on Shabbat) and so it turns around throughout April and May over the 19 year cycle of lunar and solar calendars.

I keep thinking that something profound and important should be said about this incident in History, but there really isn't.
One thing I keep hearing and thinking is that the Holocaust, the Shoah, the Calamity, was unique.
In its magnitude (though that was surpassed by others), in its industrial method, in its ideology.
The reason my home exists was because the world felt sorry for those who were homeless.

One of the things I always felt was a kind mission of Jews as a people who has historically been persecuted is to commemorate the persecution and genocides of other people.
In Israel we could do a better job at (which it putting it lightly).
I could go on and give a list of genocides committed in the 20th century alone, but anyone who is interested can just Google genocide and holocaust, you'll get more information than you know what to do with.
Read with a critical eye and reach the conclusions you see fit about human beings and humanity as a whole.

*In Hebrew the Forget-Me-Not is called Remember-Me - זיכריני

Chag Sameach to those who Celebrate and a Good Weekend to those who don't!

I wrote briefly about what the meaning of Pesach is earlier this week, but I thought it was worth reiterating on the actual day of the Holiday.

The meaning of Passover is that of freedom and self-determination. It's probably the reason it's my favourite holiday, as the actual Hagaddah (the small book of the Telling of Pesach over the years and generations) tells us that every generation must behave as though it had been released from bondage.
To me that also means we must remember those still in bondage and suffering under oppression - Like the Palestinians who due to security for the holiday have had whatever was left of their freedom movement completely revoked in the West Bank, it's same old, same old in Gaza - and persecution - like the Darfurain refugees which have come into Israel escaping genocide and have been treated like infiltrating spies by virtue of them being Muslims.

In most Traditional Haggadot the verse: "שפוך חמתך על הגויים" appears, it translates as "Pour thy wrath upon the nations" - that is GD punish those who aren't Jews that don't recognise us, which is, ummm, a "teeny" bit racist and will, ahem, be replaced with a more progressive supplement I will devise by next year. We spoke a bit about what I mention above, but no enough and not at any length, so I felt it was a bit of a miss, but there is always the rest of the year to raise awareness of the goings on this little stretch of desert scape, mountain and shore.

I think this is the first year where the meaning of the holiday to me went beyond just what the holiday represented to me and my family.
A good thing by all accounts methinks.

This is probably it regarding meta-holiday musings.

Just got back from the Seder at sister's in laws in the south (near Be'er Shevah).
Traffic at one a.m!
Only on Pesach and Independence day.

Didn't get to add any of the nifty thing I spoke about, but there was very interesting talk none the less.
Well, we did add Miriam's cup, but it was half-arsed so I don't really count it.
Drank a Margarita and at least five glasses of wine.
More sleepy than intoxicated now.
Today is a new day.

In every generation we must see ourselves as though we had been enslaved and are now free.
Next year in a conflict free Jerusalem.

Three tests down, four to go.
Though technically two, seeing as I'm retaking two tests in the second semester, but who cares right?! I just want to get it over with.
I now have a chance to catch up on all the reading I didn't do for Uni during the semster, that is the novels and essays which are probably crucial for the second semester, which I, in a bout of uncontrollable procrastination... procrastinated upon.

Not a good idea.

On the other hand, I spent most of yesterday watching various Eddie Izzard sketches and Achmed the Dead Terrorist, who is much, funnier than Walter by the way. He also inspired me to create an icon, which shall be used at times I find things to be very, very silly (or stupid, or just plain infuriating) indeed.
To much Izzard I must say, he's rubbing of on me.

So Pesach, yeah.
End of Hebrew Slavery, freedom, eating constipation inducing food.
Lovely time of year, innit?

We'll be doing the Seder at my sister's in-laws this year, seeing as both parental units will be away. Wine and veggie kneydlach soup.
There will also be the reading of stories, singing, interpretations of said stories and song, hopefully Robbie and I can hijack the singing and get it over with as quickly as possible and that we can skip over all the songs that talk about how GD is great. I'd rather hear about how with shrewd planning and cunning three siblings managed to create such a panic on the Nile that Pharaoh thought to himself - Dude, these Jews are just not worth the effort.
'Course who else are going to be the Plebs in Egypt if not those crazy Hebrew Fuckers (who until Moses came along, were actually Henotheists) who believe in this One True GD nonsense, I mean really.

One of the things found on the Seder table is a plate on which is placed food items symbolic of the Holiday like a chicken leg or neck which symbolises the sacrifice at the Temple (of which remains only the Western Wall and a bunch of silly religious edicts which mark a Cohen as different from the rest of the Jewish people) and bitter herbs for, you know, the bitterness of our existence and all the bitching.

I'm being glib, but all these are fascinating symbols and they can all mean different things to different families, not just the Tribal meaning.
What I like about Pesach is how it's a Holiday that it's meaning is also very modern. I mean I can't think of other Holidays which is basically says "Oppression is Bad, Freedom is Good and it must be Universal".

Pretty neat.

One of the things that have yet to trickle into Israel from the Diaspora (or if it has it's hasn't even registered on the mainstream) is the presence of new Traditions, like Miriam's cup or the adding of an orange and/or olive to the Seder plate.
I'm thinking of suggesting it, maybe update Pesach a bit, make it a bit more actual.
Tradition is meant to symbolise the meanings of Holidays and if Holidays lack meaning, what are they good for then - eating and drinking into a stupor?

Everyone knows AIPAC right?

Well, apparently according to the people at Ynet, a group by the name of J-Street, is offering an alternative.

At the moment it would seem they have no funding whatsoever, I haven't even found their Homepage.

And that is all for the moment, reporting from the studying front.

I hope to see you again at some point.

If you've seen Juno you'll be amused.
If you've seen Juno AND you're Jewish/are well versed in Jewish culture, you might not want to drink anything while watching this.
If you haven't seen Juno this may contain spoilers to the very general plot of the movie

Enjoy!



Hat tip to qilora who linked to it.

What is the world coming to, I ask you?
Is nothing "sacred" any longer?
Have we lost all sense of proportion when it comes to historical perspective?
Or just plain common sense?

The 14-year-old girls, whose actions were supported by their parents, The Independent said were protesting antisemitism in Shakespeare's portrayal of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. The exam questions they refused to answer were actually about The Tempest, a different work of Shakespeare's.
"Many Jewish people would not listen to Wagner on the same grounds," The Independent quoted school principal Rabbi Abraham Pinter as saying. "I do not see an exact comparison and I don't share their view, but their decision is something I respect," he said, adding "I think Shakespeare was reflecting the ethos of the time in his portrayal of Shylock. If he was alive today, he would probably be going on anti-war marches."

On the one hand, you have to admire the ingenuity of the girls' reason (though I suspect it was the parents who gave them the idea) to get Shakespeare out of their hair. On the other hand, what kind of education is these girls (and other kids in UK schools) are getting?!

This little article made me think how lucky it is that Cats is no longer showing on the West End anymore.

Via.

According to a survey conducted by the Conservative/Masorati movement in Israel:

Eighty-seven percent of the public believe that nominal gender equality is entirely justified, and 54% claim that Jewish tradition discriminates against women — this according to a survey conducted by the Masorti (Conservative) Movement in Israel this week on the occasion of the organization's 30th birthday.

However, according to the article, only 24% of seculars would attend synagogue more often if partition were removed. In the article they make it sound like seculars should and could be going more often to synagogue.
Isn't the point of secularism that people don't go to worship an entity, the existance of which is under constant debate?

Israel at the moment is ruled by Orthodoxy, never mind if they're Haredim, Hasidim, black kippah or knitted kippah. Orthodoxy rules and everything more progressive than Tradition! as Tuvia* like to proclaim is deemed unauthentic at the very least. Some Orthodox Rabbis even go so far to call Reform Jews worse than gentiles, this is assuming they know the difference between the progressive movements which most Israeli religious or not, don't.

My family has been a member of the Conservative Shul in our town ever since we came on Aliyah and though the participation has lessened due to us kids growing up and moving away (or just not caring as the case may be with me) we still go there on the High Holidays and sit together as a family.

I the first time I went into a synagogue that wasn't my family's and was absolutely shocked at the fact that I had to go upstairs to the Ezrat Nashim** and be away from the actions. People were shocked that I was shocked, didn't I know anything about Tradition!

The wonderful thing about Judaism, or at least that was always how I thought about it, is its pluralism and the fact that tradition evolves and changes to suit the times, there's a reason Judaism survived for so long. It's adaptability, or more the the point the willingness of the people who practice it to change with the times.
At least some of the people.

Israel is very much behind the Diaspora when it comes to the Progressive streams of Judaism. People view Conservative and Reform here as the same, they've never heard of Reconstructionist or Renewal, which i knew nothing about until I live in the US for a while.

There are Women rabbis, but they're not allowed on the Religious Council, marital law is tightly controlled by the Rabbanut, the Israeli Rabbinical council, where the signing of the Ketubah*** is still required as is the immersion of the bride in the mikveh****.
My sister got married through the Rabbanut and told me it was a horrible process.
My other sister got a civil marriage, which one can only get outside of Israel, though divorce is still only through the Rabbanut and they are known to not give a divorce on certain occasions.
Weddings conducted by Conservative or Reform Rabbis in Israel have no legal standing, which is ridiculous because according to Jewish law all you need is two people as a witnesses and an item worth more than a pruta (penny) and you're married in "the eyes of GD" obviously. fixed in editing.

So yeah, Israel has it's problems in regard to its "national" religion.

*From "Fiddler on the Roof".
**Women's section.
***Marriage contract in which the new husband "aquires" the wife from the brides father.
****A purification pool of constantly moving water.

It being the Season, I've begun knitting again - also there may be a Stich n'Bitch group starting up at some point in the near future *crosses fingers*, so I thought I'd get a head start.
That and knitting always makes me feel cosey and my house being the draft machine it is, it seemed like the best thing to do when the Internet was boring, I'd finished my book and all I wanted to do was clear my head before the guests for the Hannukah get-together this late afternoon would be arriving.

I think I'm going to be skipping breakfast for the next few days to get rid of all the oil I consumed this week, Sufganiot (fluffy traditional deep-fried dough-nuts), Levivot (crunchy traditional deep-fried potato latkas) and Cream-bo (a traditional Israeli chocolate covered marshmallow biscuit winter treat).

Yeah, Hannukah, like the majority of my "Holy"days are all about the Food... and remembering stuff:
Hannukah itself isn't about "They tried to kill us, they failed, let's eat", like almost all the other Jewish holidays.
It's really an alternate date for Sukkot, which at the time the Jews couldn't celebrate because the Temple wasn't under Jewish rule, but under Hellenic rule - Greek.
Hannukah is all about the Jews under Greek rule in the land of Israel and how we defeated the Greek who had the audacity *gasp* to be all imperial on the Jews.
The Jews rebelled, called the Hellenized Jews Heretics, had a miracle in the Temple - to do with purifying it with too little oil and the need to light the Holy Menora (another Israeli Symbol, beyond the Magen David), hence all the deep fried food - and the Jews celebrated a belated Sukkot (which became canonised in the holiday calendar)... after punishing the heretical Jews and kicking Grecian Ass of course :)

Yay for military might!
Yay for burning light!
Hooray for deep fried food!
Down with imperialist Hellenization!

Though strictly speaking, I see myself being a Hellenized Jewess. I mean all that beautiful culture mingling with mine! Who could resist?
.
.
.
Oh, right.

Candles, fried-food and chocolate money! Woot!

Happy Hannukah all of you and a Happy Winter Season to everyone!

A few days ago I was reading the blog of an entertaining graphic designer, she's a Palestinian Arab and mentions it probably as much I mention that I'm an Israeli Jew (meaning offhandedly and not always politically), which is cool. It's always good to remember that the blogosphere isn't different shades of White.
However, she wrote something that bothered me and I didn't comment, because my GDess the backlash it would have caused, and the grief it would have given both her and I wouldn't be worth it.
So I'm going to write my much longer, would be comment, here on my own little piece of the Internet.
( Cut so that all your f-lists are comfy )

Should I prepare for my own backlash?
*hides* ;)

I read an article in Ha'aretz today, the weekend magazine ran an article called My God, What did we do? by Dalia Karpel about a new documentary that reveals the trauma of female IDF soldiers of the (first) Intifada. Just a warning, the article can be difficult to read for some, so enter with caution.

In the article, the six women who appear in the documentary speak a little about they had to do there. They are all in their early to mid-thirties, seeing as they were in their late teens to early twenties at the time. In the article the phrase "shell-shock" is used over and over again, as these women talk about the how they felt during and after their military service in the Territories.

The term "shell-shock" is a benign and archaic way to say Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which is somewhat endemic to this part of the world. I very much empathized with the women in the article in this regard, having also experienced the symptoms and what the knowledge of what they had to do in the name of "security".( Cut for f-list convenience and for choosing to continue reading about this disturbing subject )

I'm not sure how to go about writing about the olive picking today.
I wanted to write something with meaning and stuff like that, but thinking about it, just writing about it most likely meaningful enough.

I didn't know anyone, but everyone was very nice and told me where to go and what to do. It was very sad, the olive grove is cut off from the villages beyond the Wall and only the land owners have permits to move into and onto the land with a donkey and a old tractor, so we were something like 30 Israelis and 6-10 Arabs.
There isn't any "modern" or "efficient" way to pick olives, you pick up a big stick and beat the tree branches until the olives fall down. Problem, the branches are so thick because no one can prune them... you need special permit to prune the trees.
So we hand picked almost all of the olives in the three groves we visited today.
The tarp we used was holey and so many olives fell through onto the ground, eventually we just used our sandwich bags to collect them and someone was smart and brought shopping bags with which we used as well.

The first grove we were in was just adjacent to the Wall and right next to a check-point, there wasn't anybody there except the soldiers on guard duty who pretty much ignored us, but border patrol came to see us in the late morning, they glared a little but gave no problem what so ever, so there were no clashes with authority thankfully.

Some of the trees were so full of fruit, but there was no way to shake them loose other than to climb up and put them in our bags, so up the trees I climbed like a monkey - I don't climb trees, I never liked to and I was never good at it, but these olive trees really liked me, I even sat on the canopy and accidentally hit the people below me as I dropped the fruit onto the tarp they used to collect the olives.

During our break, when I bumped my head on a low branch and fell on my ass (which was funny I'll admit, though a bit humiliating) the Arab man in charge of us, Osama, made us coffee, oh my GD it was so good and I was so caffeinated and energized after I was running around and climbing up trees like a crazy person!

I'm not sure how much we actually helped them, more than they would have gotten otherwise, but there were so few people and so many trees, I just feel horrible for the situation that Wall puts them through.

I came home dusty, dirty, brambled and feeling really, really good.
And tired.

Some of you know, some of you don't. But about a week or so ago there was an explosion in fandom regarding Antisemitism(1). Seeing as it was all very US-Centric I didn't feel I had much to contribute and to tell the truth I didn't think I could give any proper account for being a minority seeing as the country I live in, being Jewish is the privileged majority, specifically Ashkenazi Jews, like me.
Basically, in Israel, religiously, racially and ethnically, I'm the "WASP"(2). I am greatly privileged by this, even in countries outside Israel, unless I told someone no would know I was Jewish (I'm pale and fair and have no physical characteristics that would mark me as Jew), when I speak English I have a South African accent, thanks to being the child of immigrants, and my name isn't a Hebrew name, again, thanks to being the child of immigrants.
All this makes me extremely, extremely privileged.
At home I am "the majority" and don't need to pretend to be anything else and in other "White Majority" countries I can pass with little effort.
( so as not to eat your f-list )

Another thing that erupted from this whole kerfuffle, is a meme (that's what it is) that began at oyceter and it's called common and hidden knowledge and it comes to challenge what we know or what we thing we know about certain things in cultures no our own. Lots of people have already done their own, some of them have been about Judaism, so it seems redundant for me to do one about that.
So I've decided to test my readers knowledge about the basics of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
I ask you not to answer the questions in the comments, as I'll be posting the answers sometime later on, you can tell me if you think you know the answers, but actual answers later.
( Common and Hidden Knowledge on the Israel-Palestinian Conflict )

Hope you guys do well!

Notes:
(1) A few more links: here, here, here and here. There will probably be more later today or tomorrow so just keep track of metafandom which is a great link gathering comm in any event.
(2) If I start on the personal politics, woman and queer thing I'll never get to my point, but having certain politics, being female and queer, does cause trouble.

ETA: coffeeandink made a link roundup of other "Hidden and Common Knowledge" posts, including others in the comments.

21/10/07 ETA: The answers to the Hidden and Common Knowledge questions are here.

In addition, the genocide in Darfur must be stopped.

I'm watching "Fiddler On the Roof".

It's interesting seeing the Hollywood rendition of my ancestors.

Funny too.

"Yentl" was better if a whole lot less believable, though you never know, girls have been going around masquerading as boys since the the division of the sexes and vice versa of course.

In addition, the genocide in Darfur must be stopped.

After three cups of coffee, an entire day of sleep and meeting with friends late in the evening, I finally feel normal again.

This year, unlike last, I didn't feel hungry at all, I actually didn't eat that much at the breaking of the fast, mainly drank and had a really drawn out supper.

It was a good day. It past quickly, I did my best to think positively and help my mother as much as I was able without falling asleep standing up - not eating and drinking took a lot out of me this year, I think I lost weight over the past few months.

Another thing that this contemplation brought upon is the fact that I really, really hate the religious institution in this country, the invidious restrictions and subtle oppression are so much more apparent to me for some reason. The Schul my family goes to is a part of the Conservative movement, which one of the more progressive movements in Judaism that still takes Hallacha into account, albeit with modern and contemporary interpretation.
Marriage through the Conservative institution isn't recognised as legal.
Female Rabbis aren't recognised as legitimate Rabbis by various rabbinical institutions in Israel.
Queer Jews, are at this point, invisible in the Conservative movement.
The validity three "R" movements (Reconstructionist, Renewal and Reform) are considered apocryphal in Israel.
In Israel, if you are Jewish, it is culturally appropriate to be either secular or religious, an in between stage, or religious-that-is-not-Orthodoxy just doesn't fit in with the way Israel is structured.
And it creates a huge divide in the Jewish population. As though there's any wonder we can't get along with "Other" people.

A point was supposed to be made, not really sure what it was. Something to do with Identity and political ramifications of all sorts of things, but it's after one AM and I'm tired.

In addition, the genocide in Darfur must be stopped.