Florida Textbooks

05/15/2023

The Florida Department of Education announced that they had rejected more than 30 social studies textbooks and worked with publishers to make changes to more than 45 other textbooks. The announcement is in line with efforts by Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature and Department of Education to ensure that textbooks do not include what the leadership considers inappropriate subjects (such as race and gender identity), or topics which might make students feel “guilt or anguish” for past actions committed by their race. Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. stated that their goal is to include materials “that focus on historical facts and are free from inaccuracies or ideological rhetoric.” Opponents of this oversight argue the new rules are politically motivated, preventing students from learning about and discussing important and serious themes such as racism and race relations, sex education, and other topics. One book that was rejected was “Modern Genocides,” a book that teaches about the Holocaust and other examples of genocide. The reasoning is not clear, though it is said that the book included discussion of disallowed “special topics,” a vague standard that includes “critical race theory,” “culturally responsive teaching,” and “social emotional learning.” Another book that was rejected was a social studies book for middle school students about the Hebrew Bible, which the Board said contained “politically charged language.” What question asked in the book was not acceptable to the Board of Education?

Banned Books Week! by San José Public Library is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

A. “The Hebrew Bible refers to the Israelites as the Chosen People. Abraham Lincoln referred to Americans as the Almighty’s ‘almost chosen people.’ In what way are the Chosen Israelites similar to Americans?”

B. “What social justice issues are included in the Hebrew Bible?”

C. “What does the Hebrew Bible mean when it refers to loving your neighbor as yourself? How do we reconcile that with our relationship to dictatorships in the world?”

D. “How is the slavery of the Israelites in Egypt the same or different than the enslavement of Blacks in America prior to the Emancipation Proclamation?”

E. “Since the Hebrew Bible says that Jews are the Chosen People and Israel is the Promised Land, why are so many old Jews living in Florida?”

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The Ten Commandments

05/08/2023

The Texas Senate recently passed a bill along party lines with the 17 Republicans voting in favor and the 12 Democrats opposed, which will require public schools to allow students and employees time every day to pray and to read the Bible. The Senate also passed a bill along party lines which was authored by Republican Senator Phil King, which requires all public schools to display the Ten Commandments in a “conspicuous place” in each classroom in a “size and typeface that is legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom.” These bills now go to the State House of Representatives for a vote, and if approved there, to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk for his signature. Senator King stated that implementation of the Ten Commandments proposal will remind “students all across Texas of the importance of a fundamental foundation” of America. Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said that “bringing the Ten Commandments and prayer back to our public schools will enable our students to become better Texans.” What was the reason that some opposed the Ten Commandments bill?

Dobruška synagogue, Ten Commandments 01 by Czeva is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

A. Oni Blair, executive director of The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, issued a statement saying that “this legislation could not be more blatant in its goal of promoting Christianity above other religions. Furthermore, it will lead to discrimination against those Texans who do not follow any religious creed and who should not be forced to view the words of Christian theology while in school. If the bill is signed by Governor Abbott we shall immediately begin legal proceedings to ensure the enforcement of the United States First Amendment, guaranteeing separation of church and state.”

B. Rabbi Nathan Grossman of the Orthodox Union called on Governor Abbott not to sign the bill should it reach his desk. “While we agree with the concept of children not being forbidden to express their religious beliefs in school, we feel that this bill is misguided. The Ten Commandments are the first ten of the 613 commandments given by God to the Jewish people. That they have been accepted by our Christian brethren only emphasizes the wisdom of these laws. However, the Ten Commandments as laid out in the Torah are not the same as the Ten Commandments according to Christian sources. The displaying in schools of the commandments as viewed by Christians is a direct assault on the beliefs of Jews and in particular the Jewish children of Texas.”

C. Beto O’Rourke, losing Democratic candidate for governor of Texas in the 2022 election, issued a statement saying, “I am a proud Irish-American, the descendant of Catholic immigrants who came to Texas 100 years ago. Through my family’s history I acutely understand the pain of religious conflict as it played out for so many generations in Ireland between Catholics and Protestants. And I know that the Ten Commandments that I learned in my catechism class is not the Ten Commandments that my Protestant and Jewish friends learned. This law will only further divide, rather than unite our communities, as well as the community of non-believers. This approach is not the approach that we should be taking in the great state of Texas.”

D. The Venerable Jan Hai of the Texas Buddhist Association in Houston, stated that his organization is opposed to the Ten Commandments legislation. “The values of the Ten Commandments are the values of Buddhism, as stated in our Five Precepts, where we commit, among other things, to abstain from killing living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication. But the first commandment states that ‘You shall have no other Gods before me.’ As Buddhists we do not believe in any kind of deity, so the Ten Commandments is simply not appropriate for our children to be exposed to every day in school.”

E. John Litzler, general counsel for the Texas Baptists Christian Life Commission, opposed the bill, noting that it is the responsibility of religious leaders, not the state, “to educate children on their religious freedom.” He then added, “I should have the right to introduce my daughter to the concepts of adultery and coveting one’s spouse. It shouldn’t be one of the first things she learns to read in her kindergarten classroom.”

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Al Jaffee, z"l

04/17/2023

Al Jaffee died last week at the age of 102. Jaffee was one of “The Usual Gang of Idiots” who wrote and produced Mad Magazine under the leadership of editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines. Mad Magazine’s humor had a very Jewish slant, including regular use of Yiddish and faux-Yiddish words, such as furshlugginer, bveebleftzer, ganef and farshimmelt, as a result of the fact that so many of their writers were Jewish. Jaffee was best known for creating the fold-in back cover and writing the “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions” feature. Besides writing for Mad Magazine, Jaffee was a regular contributor to the Moshiach Times, a children’s magazine published by the Chabad Lubavitch movement, where he wrote The Shpy, about a bumbling secret agent/Torah scholar whose mission was to defeat the YH, the Yetzer Hora (the Evil Inclination). In an homage to the speech pattern of Humphrey Bogart, the Shpy pronounced words beginning with the letter S in a “softened way” with an SH sound. For example, the Shpy once said, “I shtarted Shpy pre-shchool when I was very young and shtudied hard in the hope that I might eventually get into Shecret Shpy Shchool.” And when he invented a repellent to keep the Yetzer Hora away, he marketed the product with the slogan “Let us shpray.” What character did Al Jaffee create who assisted the Shpy on his missions?

20101009 New York Comic Con-8 by Marnie Joyce is licensed under CC BY 2.0

A. Sham Shpade.

B. Mendel the Mensch.

C. Captain Klutz.

D. Kalman the Kosher Cowboy.

E. Alfred E. Jewman.

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Convention Seder

04/09/2023

There is an annual convention in April at the Javits Center in New York which always falls around the Passover holiday. In 2013, a Jewish participant came up with the idea of holding a seder for the Jewish attendees at the convention. He chose New York’s Katz’s Deli as the site for the seder. This seder has been held annually ever since (except for two times during the pandemic), with a few dozen attendees enjoying matzah ball soup, tzimmes, wine, and pastrami on matzah. The afikomen is hidden under one of the chairs in advance, and whoever sits in that chair gets a prize. What is the name of the group which holds this seder at Katz’s every year, and what is the afikomen prize?

Katz's Deli by Tam is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

A. The group JETS, the Jewish Entrepreneurs at the Toy Show, holds the Katz’s Deli seder during the annual Toy Fair New York trade show. The person sitting in the chair with the afikomen gets to write a trivia question to be included in the next year’s edition of Trivial Pursuit: Judaism.

B. The group JAWS, the Jewish Auto Writers Society of America, holds the event during the New York International Auto Show at the Javits Center. The person sitting in the chair with the afikomen gets to drive a fancy car for the duration of the show.

C. The group, JAPS, the Jewish Anime Producers Society, holds their annual anime seder at Katz’s Deli during the ANIME NYC Expo at the Javits Center. The person sitting in the chair with the afikomen gets to draw what will become the cover of the Hagaddah which the group will use at next year’s seder, featuring Moses and the Israelites drawn in anime style.

D. The group FU-Jews, the Jewish Florists Union, holds the annual seder event to coincide with the New York Spring Floral Extravaganza at the Javits Center. The person sitting in the chair with the afikomen receives a floral arrangement featuring a wandering Jew plant.

E. The group, Bible Tribal PriBle, or the Biblical Tribe of the Priestly Blessing, is a group of Kohanim, the priestly descendants of Aaron. Every year they attend the Star Trek Mission New York convention at the Javits Center, where they commune with fans of Mr. Spock, who brought fame to the two handed salute of the Kohanim by adopting it as the Vulcan salute. The person sitting in the chair with the afikomen gets to bless all of the attendees by reciting the Priestly Blessing and the Star Trek introduction, Space, the Final Frontier…

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Passover Price Gouging

04/03/2023

Jews worldwide are preparing for Passover, with the first seder taking place this coming Wednesday. Traditionally, Jews do a thorough cleaning of their houses, removing all chametz, or forbidden foods, particularly leavened bread. Dishes are changed, shelves are lined, and kosher-for-Passover products replace the year-round foods in the kitchen. Sadly, however, there are unscrupulous businesses which take advantage of those celebrating this holiday. New York Attorney General Letitia James recently issued a consumer alert warning New Yorkers to be “cautious of practices targeting Jewish communities before Passover.” What type of business did she particularly criticize for raising prices dramatically prior to recent Passover holidays?

Photograph by Mark D. Zimmerman

A. James particularly criticized some hardware stores and local shops for raising the price of cleaning supplies including brooms, vacuum cleaners, and garbage bags. She referenced one store in an Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn which her investigators found selling paper towels for $4/roll, rather than the normal price of about $1/roll.

B. Attorney General James expressly warned New York state liquor stores that there will be no tolerance for price-gouging of kosher wine at Passover time. The attorney general noted that last year her office had received over 100 complaints about unusually high prices for kosher-for-Passover wines. She reminded wine and liquor store owners that they were at risk of having their state liquor license pulled if they violated New York State anti-price gouging laws.

C. Attorney General James called out car washes, as Orthodox Jews not only clean their houses, but they apply the same rules to their vehicles. Many religious Jews bring their cars to car washes prior to the holiday, and in recent years there are reports of car washes in Orthodox neighborhoods raising their prices by 50% prior to the Passover holiday.

D. The attorney general specifically warned New York’s Fulton Street Fish Market vendors, whose sales of carp, whitefish, and pike account for 80% of their April sales. Said James, “At a time when our Jewish citizens celebrate around the seder table with matzah, haroseth, bitter herbs, and gefilte fish, we must ensure that they are not taken advantage of by unscrupulous fishmongers and other vendors.”

E. The attorney general’s consumer alert called out sellers of beard brushes for unfairly raising their prices. “The search for chametz is one of the most important pre-Passover traditions,” said the attorney general. “We must be sure that our Orthodox citizens not be taken advantage of as they buy beard brushes so they can thoroughly clean their beards of any hiding bread crumbs.”

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RASHI, RAMBAM and RAMALAMADINGDONG

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Weekly Quiz-2023

Florida Textbooks

05/15/2023

The Ten Commandments

05/08/2023

Al Jaffee, z"l

04/17/2023

Convention Seder

04/09/2023

Passover Price Gouging

04/03/2023