Eating Falafel on Holiday...

In a country where it rains. Incessantly. Mercilessly.

After obscenely high temperatures and 75% humidity, it makes a pleasant change. For the moment. I'll probably be cursing perfidious Albion - or at least the perfidious Albian weather - by this time next week.

After a long, liquid encounter with a friend a couple of days ago, I stopped for a late night bite at Notting Hill's Falafel King (certainly not the best Falafel joint in London - try Maoz for that. But I was desperate...)

There were two smartly dressed men at the counter, conversing in Hebrew. Odd, I thought. Israelis only wear suits if they have to, or they are paid to do so...

I thought nothing more of it until I read this.

Oh dear. Perhaps the poor things were having an official dinner...

(The second half of the article, where the hapless Chef de Protocol of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign affairs first tries to chat up Ms Goldman, then tries to retract the interview in a fit of irrational pique is absolutely priceless. "I am going to file a complaint against you...there will be consequences." Charming!)

Goy sues employer, loses

OK, perhaps I shouldn't be so flippant...

From The Yeshiva World News:

A lawsuit filed by goyim employed in Bnei Brak’s Maynei HaYeshua Hospital seeking additional compensation for being the institution’s shabbos goyim was not successful. The workers took their case to the Tel Aviv Labor Court, demanding payment according to the law which says a Jew who works on shabbos R”L must received additional pay.

The full story is here.

Now, as I understand it, it is forbidden for a Jew to cause another Jew to break the Sabbath - by employing another Jew on a Saturday, for instance.

One can - just about - understand the legislation referred to in the case, entitling Jews whom work on the Sabbath to extra pay, if one accepts that the day of rest has cultural/ethnic considerations over and above the religious duty to maintain the Sabbath; that the seventh day has a special significance to all Jews, not just observant ones.

On the other hand, one could argue that the Shabbos Goy is providing a unique service, one that relatively few people in the country can provide on behalf of the hospital (it's in Bnei Brak; I assume that it is a religious establishment). Perhaps if the petitioner had a slightly stronger negotiating position to start off with...but then, I assume that there isn't anyone at all in the hospital - Jew or Goy - entitled to the additional payment

I'll be speaking to Mrs Goy in due course; I wouldn't mind a premium added to my per diem for services rendered during the day of rest. (The fact that I do precisely nothing Chez Goy most days, Sabbath or not, is neither here nor there, obviously...)

Hat tip to Religion and State in Israel

"Who is a Jew", Redux

Anshel Pfeffer writes about the issue - in far more eloquent and informed manner - here.

Have a good weekend!

So, who exactly is a Jew, anyway? (UK version)

Not in Israel, mind; with Rabbis revoking the conversion status of immigrants ill-advised enough to stand in the way - literally and figuratively - of well connected Rabbis, I suspect that this is what Father Jack describes as an ecumenical matter...



(nb: If you are not familiar with Father Ted, I beseech you, please seek it out. I think even Voltaire would have been proud of its cleric-baiting credentials)

...but more to do with the recent ruling of the British Court of Appeal concerning the admissions policy of the Jews' Free School.

It isn't a straightforward matter, involving - as it does - the arcane rules that govern the quasi independence of so-called 'faith schools' in the United Kingdom, schools whom receive funding for their day to day operations from central government but are largely left alone to administer academic and bureaucratic matters as they wish.

Faith schools, whilst forbidden from explicitly excluding applicants because they are not members of the denoted faith, are allowed to set criteria to establish priority if they are over-subscribed; in simple English, this means that if there are more kids clamouring for a place than places actually available, then the school is allowed to put in place tie breakers to decide who gets in and who stays out.

It is an important point because 'Faith' schools are commonly believed to outperform - significantly - secular schools in the state sector. Parents have been known to rediscover generations-dormant piety, to baptise their children in faiths that they have never subscribed to, and to do other (otherwise) outlandish things in order to secure a place in their school of choice.

Church schools usually employ the criteria of giving preference to actively practising Christians, with references from their parish priest and evidence of active participation in church activities required. It is easy work for a determined parent to make mincemeat of this stipulations...

JFS (as it was rebranded a few years ago) - and, I assume, other Jewish 'Faith' schools - falls under the jurisdiction of the British Rabbinate - Orthodox, that is. Their tie-breaker in the case of over-subscription - and JFS is always oversubscribed - takes the halachaic definition of Judaism as the starting point; a child born to a Jewish mother.

A case has been rumbling along omniously lately, concerning a child denied a place at JFS because his mother became Jewish under the auspices of a ceremony not recognised by the Rabbinate - i.e. not an Orthodox ceremony.

(I think that the mother converted to Judaism in the early 1970s, and in Israel, under a reform Rabbi. But I don't remember exactly.)

Anyway, the point is that her son was turned down for a place - or, to be exact, not given the preference that would have secured him a place - because "his mother had converted to Judaism in a procedure not recognised by the Chief Rabbi".

Her husband sued, and after having the case dismissed in the High Court, won the appeal on the grounds that the policy employed - of enforcing the matrilineal definition of Judaism, in conjunction with the recognition of only sanctioned conversions - was discriminatory.

(The whole issue is more complicated than this, fiendlishly so, and this summary is informed more by my knowledge of British school admission law than of Judaism per se - if I've misunderstood anything, please let me know.)

It is also worth noting that the mother of the boy attends Shul regularly.

The ruling has caused a stink. A big one. Lord Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom commented that the ruling brands Judaism as racist, and others have suggested that the ruling could be employed as the starting point for a court-defined definition to that vexatious question...


I must confess to being more than a little puzzled. Looking at it from a personal perspective: As applied up until now, the admissions policy at JFS would give precedence to my son - the child of an agnostic Catholic (don't ask what that means, it'll take too long) and a secular Jew - over the child of an observant, but non-Orthodox Jew.

That doesn't sound completely right.

On the other hand, it isn't for me to even attempt to define what is and what isn't correct when it comes to matters like this. If you have any thoughts, do drop a comment or two. I am genuinely curious...

The evil genius of Israeli advertising (continued)

My mother, who lives in London, is a very late - and very enthusiastic - adopter of the internet. Scarcely a day passes without her sending me by email the newest chain letter threatening all sorts of unpleasantness if I don't forward it to my nearest and dearest within 17 hours (I bin, without reading), latest health scares (I refer her to snopes.com without further comment) or grim amusement courtesy of youtube (I usually watch - a guilty pleasure).

Last night, she forwarded this to me. It is in Russian and I doubt that she noticed that it is an advert for the Israeli State Lottery.

It is so wrong on so many levels. It is also bloody funny. I think someone needs to give the fellows in McCann Erickson a new set of toys to play with...

Football against the Enemy

I'm sure this seemed like a good idea at the time...




ps - For what it's worth, I don't think the ad is racist, as has been suggested quite a bit. However, it does beg a rather interesting question: Why can't the Palestinians fetch their own ball themselves? Or, to look at it another way, why are the Palestinians completely invisible?

pps - The game is called Football, ok? Not Soccer. Only the Americans call the game Soccer.And we know how good they are at the game...what's that? Reached the finals of the Confederation Cup? Narrowly beaten by Brazil? Oh...(slinks off, stage left, deflated.)

ppps - This blog's title is also the title of, in my opinion, the best book written about football, ever. The author, Simon Kuper, has also written another interesting book about the uncomfortable relationship between Ajax Amsterdam and their devoted - fanatical, even - Jewish fan base. Both books are really worth reading...

Under the Eucalyptus Tree

A couple of weeks ago, we went on a ramble in the Yehudiya Forest Nature Reserve in the Golan, a bracing walk ending at the Brichat Meshushim - the Hexagonal Pool. The pool is so named because of the striking features along its walls, pillars of hexagonal-shaped (more or less) stone. There's a technical explanation, involving the crystallisation of cooling lave, I believe; but like most other technical things, it only confused me...



Getting to the pool requires a 20 minute walk along a steep downhill path. It was a hot morning, and we were all perspiring like crazy by the time we got to the bottom. The pool was indeed a sight for sore eyes...

There are more pictures here. (Not by me, though, I was too lazy to take the camera.)

Unfortunately, what goes down must eventually come back up (actually, that isn't technically correct, is it? Never mind. I'm sure you understand what I mean...): the Small Noisy One was stung by a bee just before we left, and was too upset to walk. I carried him on my shoulders all the way back up. He's quite a big child, and I'm quite a lazy father. Fun it wasn't.

At the top, I recuperated in the shade of an Eucalyptus tree. Mrs Goy thought that the Nature Reserve was on the site of an old Syrian army base; according to folklore, the trees were in place because an Israeli spy called Eli Cohen convinced the Syrian army to plant them because they would provide excellent shade for the troops.

They also made the air bases easy to spot from the air...

Eli Cohen was eventually captured and hung by the Syrians; he is one of a number of operatives honoured at the cumbersomely-named Israeli Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Centre, which oddly seems to be located somewhere near the soulless Glilot Junction on Kvish Hof, Motorway No. 2, which runs between Tel Aviv and Haifa.

There's an article about it here.

TTFN