The Definition of Awesome: Shimon Peres says Jews should keep Shabbat

Yes you read that post title correctly. President Shimon Peres of Israel believes Jews should keep Shabbat.

That’s bold words coming from one of the oldest and seasoned veterans of Israeli politics (At 86, he’s been a Knesset member since 1959, until 2007 when he became president).

As much as I’d like to dig into this one – particularly on Peres’ past history on religious items and issues – I’m gonna take a pass on this one and just be happy one of the most powerful people in Israel just outwardly advocated for keeping of the fourth commandment.

(And because I’m a little overwhelmed with work + tired + not in best of moods to write because of something that’s going to happen today…. which I’ll be writing about before the end of  the week).

For more on the above story, check out Arutz Sheva’s coverage of it here.

Nuff’ said!

Benjamin Netanyahu’s UN Speech Full Text Transcript, Sep 24, 2009

As promised, here is the full transcript of Netanyahu’s UN Speech. People are calling it Churchillian, likening it to other famous Middle East speeches and moments such as the various handshakes, or soldiers at the Kotel after the Six Day War or Ben Gurion declaring the existence of the State of Israel in Independence Hall in 1948.

Sure it’s all that and then some. But for me… Awesome will do just fine.

I wonder if Livni would’ve done the same thing…

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen…

Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland. I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state, and I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s UN Speech Video, Sep 24, 2009

I’m posting video of the entire speech.
Why? No reason really…
It just happens to be the definition of awesome.
Nuff’ said.

The remaining parts can be found in the rest of the post.

The transcripts will be set up on another post.

Justification for my CUPE article and response to criticism

Last week’s edition of the Jewish Tribune featured a story of mine entitled: “Anti-Israel rhetoric flies at CUPE meeting, but no time left for voting.” A day after the paper’s distribution, I was forwarded emails from Hasbara members, who were upset about the content of the story.

This post will explain why I wrote what I did. Actually it’s more like explaining why I included this piece of information in the story.

Stephen Harper at Chabad Flamingo 03/26/09

The following story is a classic example of the kind of day-to-day experiences one can expect as a journalist.

It’s been a crazy day, having been out since 6:20 am. After going straight from morning prayers to school, where we spent the whole morning wrapping up the newspaper, I then spent the next few hours trying to get in touch with actors and journalists to interview them for a project due Monday. I finally called it a day around 5:45, catching the GO Bus back home. I usually walk from the GO Station (after the bus lets me off) to another station where I got on another bus – YRT VIVA Purple – which takes me within a ten minute walk from home. The bus goes down Bathurst from Highway 7 to Atkinson (my stop), where  I notice a long line of cop cars right outside Chabad Flamingo, the synagogue right from across my street. The intersection at Bathurst has Worth Blvd. (my street) on one side, and Flamingo Rd. on the other, and right on that corner is the synagogue.

Wondering what’s up, I call home, maybe they know. My sister answers the phone:

“What’s going on outside Chabad Flamingo,” I ask.

“Who’s the most important person in Canada,” my sister responds.

“Umm… the Prime Minister?”

“That’s right, ” she replies sarcastically.

“Wait, are you telling me he’s at Chabad Flamingo?”

“Well done, Tevy. You’ve figured it out.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper @ the synagogue beside my house!!

I will post more about this later tonight (with photos!) because I have go learn Torah now (that’s prioritizing at it’s best)!

More on this breaking (well it already happened so I guess it’s simply ‘broken’) story and blog post later tonight!

Getting friendly with politicians

One of the biggest ethical issues in the world of journalism is the fear of getting too close to your sources. I call it a fear because the traditional notion of getting too close to your sources could lead to the loss of objectivity – a cornerstone of journalistic integrity. I came across this problem firsthand yesterday amidst my reporting for the Toronto Observer. It was a neat experience to say the least, but it wasn’t until after my encounter did I realize that I may have been unintentionally coerced to write my story more favour of the views of my source.

Throughout the week, I’ve been covering a story for the concerning the new Green Energy Act released by the Ontario provincial government. One of the big issues is the possibility of wind turbine systems being erected to use more wind energy, rather than the usual fuel and coal energy we all know and love. It’s particularly important where I’m based because of the famous Scarborough Bluffs, which the province has has it’s sights set for for a the potential introduction of the systems. Many residents in the area have expressed concern for this new process so that’s where my coverage comes in… (I’d love to discuss the story, but that’s not the blog topic.. for more information feel to research to issue on your own;)

One of the first people to be quoted in papers expressing “a not so positive” outlook on the act was Paul Ainslie, councilor for Ward 43 – Scarborough East (the area where the Bluffs are located). I would certainly have to get in touch with him if I wanted to get a better local perspective of the situation.

It’s a little after 5 p.m. and I’m still in the newsroom at Centennial, finally finished gathering information, ready to see if I could contact the councilor. I never intended to actually have a quote by the end of the day, but that didn’t bother me because I knew I had enough time to get his word and still come up with a story by my deadline. I come across his website, where I notice he has calendar. I click on the link, which I hope will give me an idea of his schedule outside of City Hall responsibilities. Not only did I find that, but low and behold there was a scheduled Town Meeting tonight in the area for 7 p.m. Now… normally when these super awesome things come up, I’m never fully prepared; I’m usually missing a camera or recorder, or have no questions prepped. This was not the case!

So after clearing stuff at home, which means no dinner in un-kosher Scarborough, I made my way down to the Cedar Ridge Creative Centre for this meeting. I had to walk a bit of the way (15 minutes) because the TTC buses could only take me so far. It was weird walking down one the streets because some people had stepped out of their houses and literally stared me down as I walked by them… Probably wasn’t me, but hey when was the last time they saw a Jew walk down their street at night?

Once I got there, I was clearly the youngest of the dozen or so people who showed up for the meeting. It’s too bad not enough people show up for these things because they’re actually quite informative and you get to build a relationship with the people running your neighbourhood. The meeting went for about an hour and a half. Later I approached the councilor and began talking to him. We had the interview, which went very well, then told him about our paper and how we’re always looking for stories and issues. I said that we have no problem writing stuff once it gets out, but we suck when it comes to finding it ourselves, or getting spoilers and releases like how big media outlets receive. He understood that, expressing how you put in so much work into something yet little feedback comes in return and its a little disheartening. It’s always great to maintain active network of relationships.

After exchanging contacts, I picked up my stuff and proceeded to leave… then the fun starts…

“How did you get here?” he asks me.

“I took the bus, than walked here,” I replied.

“Can I give you a ride to Lawrence?” (where the bus is)

“Sure… I’m heading back to campus by Morningside and Ellesmere…”

(Here’s where I stuck my foot in my mouth):

“Actually, where are you headed?”

Ainslie: “East around that area, want a lift?”

“Sure! That be great.”

So I got ride to along with the councilor in his big black van back to campus. We schmoozed about the community, school, yeshiva in Israel, how he failed the LSAT 3 times and then started a food business and other things. That was really nice of him. I’m naturally very appreciative when kind deeds are done for me.

But then as I began waiting for the bus, I wondered had I accepted too much from him? I’ve never shied away from accepting a ride somewhere (See future post of rant about public transit) and at that point he was just another human being, who deserves proper respect like any other person, who’d do something for me.

But when writing my stories, including this one, it doesn’t resonate in my mind how nice a source was to me beyond the matters of exchanging information for stories. This doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate them taking the time to answer my questions. Rather, it’s the opposite. I don’t know about you, but I’d love to be cited in newspaper articles regardless of what paper it is. Yes, you have bear in mind the role source plays in stories, but I don’t know anyone who would deliberately shoot down a source (aka with malicious intent) in a story. Unless substantial reasoning exists, that’s not right…

I hope I can maintain a respectful relationship with my sources in the future.

Professor Obama

Like many yesterday, I took the time to watch inauguration ceremonies.

The location: From the seat of my Magazine Journalism class. For me, it seemed different not sitting @ home watching something like this, rather @ school. But I don’t think it’s that unusual nowadays that technology has allowed us access to pretty much whatever we want, wherever we are.

Nonetheless, our entire class was fixated towards the overhead screen at the front of the class and with several others were right outside our class watching off an even bigger screen in the main atrium of the HP Campus @ Centennial College. Having President Obama in a sense “give us lecture” with his inauguration speech was fun to watch.

Things that stood out from yesterday’s proceedings:

1) Rick Warren reciting the Shema: Talk about catching me off guard… I was sitting @ my desk working on an in-class assignment meanwhile the CNN feed is being shown on the overhead because our Prof wanted to watch it. I wasn’t constantly watching, but I heard everything loud and clear. All of sudden I hear the words “Hear O Israel…” and I’m thinking What? I turn to look and yes indeed, Rick Warren was reciting the Shema. For those who don’t know, the Shema is the most important verse in Judaism. Written in the Torah, it’s recitation represents a fulfilment of the paramount commandment of acceptance of G-d’s absolute sovereignty (Artscroll Siddur). Good for Warren, who’s also a pastor, for reciting the holy words. Jews all around the world watching must have felt special @ that moment…

2) Wow did Chief Justice John Roberts screw up reciting the words for Obama during the swearing in. He said way too much for him to repeat afterwards and spoke way to fast. To be honest, Obama did look a little nervous. And @ one point I actually thought he said one of the words wrong… And every time I watched a replay on the news, you didn’t hear the mistakes, rather a quick snippet of Obama reciting a line or two. Wonder if anyone else noticed it?

3) My mom asked this one: “What if Obama has to go to the washroom?”
It’s not like he can’t go during the speeches, parades, balls, or whatever event that requires him to be on television. They probably snuck him out in between proceedings.

4) How much bloody coverage Michelle Obama’s dresses get: Okay, I maybe conservative in this case but honestly, is it really that important to know every single detail about the clothes worn by the First Lady? Maybe it’s because I’m a guy too… At one point when discussing the dress, I actually learned something interesting about the dress – it had to do with the tradition of these balls and the likeness of Michelle Obama towards Jackie Kennedy and what they both symbolize to the American public. Fine. But they still went overboard with the coverage…

5) The balls: 10 Balls? He had to go to 10? And dance @ them all? The same dance? Talk about patience… It’s actually quite admirable to see someone who genuinely seems to enjoy and care about all the places and things he saw and heard. Must be gratitude. Michelle Obama on the other hand… you could tell her attention span was dwindling @ times…

6) CNN’s Live Feed + Facebook Statuses: How cool was that? In addition to watching the inauguration, you could also check your friend’s Facebook statuses too. In fact, most of them were probably watching the inauguration the same way you were too. I was very impressed.

So January 20th, will be a day history will never forget.
They better not forget it. I had my Bar Mitzvah on January 20th (2001).

December 16- This Day in History

Besides from the most important thing that happened on this day, a lot of other cool things happened on this day as well. People born, people died… famous events etc.
I already knew of a lot of these things but there were a few cool ones I hadn’t seen before. So after doing some research, here’s a brief list of cool things that happened on the day I share my birthday with:
Notable events:
1998– Operation Desert Fox begins– The US and UK bomb Iraq because of an alleged failure to comply with UN Security Council resolutions. You can look as this day as a monumental day in how things began developing towards present day Iraq.
1991- Independence Day for The Republic of Kazahkstan. Very nice! I knew I was connected in more than one way to Kazahkstan asides from my infamous Borat costume. Let’s celebrate with a song!

One of my favourites:
1991- UN General Assembly Resolution 4686 is passed, which revokes UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 after Israel makes revocation of resolution 3379 a condition of its participation in the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991
Why is this a big deal? Pretty much the UN reversed a ruling that Zionism is considered racism. Like there was ever any question of that concept in the first place boggles me. The final vote was 111-25 (13 abstained). President Bush told the General Assembly:

“…to equate Zionism with the intolerable sin of racism is to twist history and forget the terrible plight of Jews in World War II and indeed throughout history.”

Let this be a lesson for everyone…I encourage everyone to look up information about this historic event.

1973- O.J. Simpson becomes the first NFLer to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. And now rots in prison.
1971- “National Day” for State of Bahrain AND Victory Day in Bangladesh– this day marks the surrender of the Pakistani army in the Bangladesh War of Independence and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, paving the way for independence in Bangladesh.
1966- Jimi Hendrix Experience releases its first single “Hey Joe,” in the UK. And a legend is born.
1969- MP’s in English Commons vote to abolish hanging. 2 days later the House of Lords voted in favour of abolishing the death penalty completely.
1960- 1960 New York air disaster– While approaching New York’s Idlewild Airport, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 collides with a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation in a blinding snowstorm over Staten Island, killing 134.
1944- The Battle of the Bulge begins. This was the last major offensive by the Germans in WWII before eventually losing the war. Thank G-d for that.

1773- The Boston Tea Party. That’s right, today was the day that members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Natives and dumped several crates of tea into Boston harbour as a protest against the Tea Act.
1689- English Parliament adopts Bill of Rights after Glorious Revolution.
1497- Vasco da Gama goes where no man has gone before- around the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had made it to, but turned back.

Birthdays:
1770– Ludwig von Beethoven, the musician who gave us Fur Elise, Symphony No. 9, Moonlight Sonata,  and my favourite: his 5th Symphony.
1775– Jane Austen, novelist, Pride and Prejudice.
1883– Max Linder, French pioneer of silent film, it’s said he created what was probably the first identifiable motion-picture character who appeared in successive situation comedies. Jewish too.

1901- Margaret Mead, American anthropologist.

1913– George Ignatieff, He was a Russian-born Canadian diplomat, but today he’s relevant because he’s the father of Michael Ignatieff, the soon-to-be next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
1934- Elgin Baylor, NBA Hall-of-Famer.
1938– Frank Deford, American Sportswriter.
1941– Lesley Stahl, American journalist, 60 minutes.
1946– Benny Andersson, singer and songwriter for ABBA – OR, the reason I almost my mind this summer while working because of having to listen to ABBA over and over again…
1949– Billy Gibbons, ZZ Top guitarist. A real musician, and what facial hair! >
1962– William “The Refrigerator” Perry, American football player, awesome nickname- at his peak weight he was 382 lbs!
1963-Benjamin Bratt, American actor, Law & Order, Traffic
1966- Clifford Robinson, American basketball player
1967– Donovan Bailey, Canadian sprinter, 2-time Olympic gold medalist, held the world record for the 100 metre dash at 9.84 seconds. He’s also from Oakville, Ontario, my previous hometown. One of my favourites :

1975– Ben Kowalewicz, Canadian musician, Billy Talent. Solid, solid band.
1977– Eric Belanger, Canadian hockey player, Winnipeg Jets.

Deaths:
1859– Wilhelm Grimm, One of the Brothers Grimm, fairy tale writer
1916 (old style calender, so for us its actually on December 29)- Rasputin, powerful Russian monk. legend has it that on this day he was poisoned by Romanov family members who believed his influence on the Tsaritsa became too dangerous. He didn’t die right away but this event is known as the catalyst for his downfall.
1922– Eliezer Ben Yehuda, the man who revived the Hebrew language. Read his bio. What a fascinating story he has. He lived a tough life – after his wife died of tuberculosis and three of his five children died within a span of 10 days – but managed to revive a seemingly dead language. Many orthodox authorities rejected his teachings because of the sanctity of the Hebrew language, which is regarded as “Lashon HaKodesh” or holy language/tongue, and should only be used for the discussion of holy/torah matters, not everyday conversational use (they consider it a misuse of the language, thus explaining the prevalence of Yiddish as a conversational language.) Personally, I agree with the orthodox point of view, but what Ben-Yehuda did was extremely vital to the well-being of Jewish identity. One of the first things any Jew learns is the Aleph-Beis (the alphabet), and without it, it’s extremely difficult to grasp much. Also, when defining a nation, better yet an organized group of similar people – language is usually one of those dominating characteristics. Thank G-d for bringing a man like Elizer Ben Yehuda into this world.
1922– Gabriel Narutowic,1st President of Poland, assassinated a week after his election.
1976– George, a goose that lived to 49 years, 8 months. I read this and thought wow.
1980– Colonel Sanders, Mr. Kentucky Fried Chicken

You can also find more interesting stuff about December 16 by taking this quiz on Sporcle. I surprisingly didn’t do all that well, which I honestly can’t explain.

Hope you enjoyed that!