Charges in AIPAC case dropped

While the situation itself is interesting, I'm actually more interested in the charge that was used. Via Yourish:

The case stank to high heaven from the get-go, and now the charges have been dropped.

The Justice Department has informed two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that it will be dropping charges against them for mishandling classified information.

What exactly were they charged with? Well, nothing.

The indictment indicates the FBI asked for and received a special warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor the AIPAC lobbyists. While they were charged under the 1917 Espionage Act, the counts against them specifically did not allege they were agents of a foreign power.

These were bogus charges to begin with, and the suspicion is that there is someone in the FBI who has a serious problem with Jews. The two AIPAC reps were charged under a WWI-era law that no one really uses anymore:

Despite the suggestive tenor of the indictment, prosecutors have not accused either man of spying. Rather, the government has charged them under an old and vaguely worded law that prohibits people in possession of such information from disclosing it further.

The reach of this law, which dates from the World War I era, has never been clear. By its terms, it would seem to require every person to protect the government’s secrets — a principle hardly in keeping with the American system of robust public debate. While it is reasonable for the government to demand that its employees and contractors protect the information it entrusts to them, it’s not okay to criminalize discussions among people who do not work, directly or indirectly, for the government. Traditionally, the government has treaded carefully with this law, using it sparingly even against government employees.

And this is how the law was used:

Prosecutors also would make it a crime for private citizens to receive improper leaks — though their brief denies it. In one count, the government charges the AIPAC officials with conspiring with their source, former Pentagon official Lawrence A. Franklin, to have him disclose information to them — and then to disclose it further. In a separate count, Mr. Rosen is charged with aiding and abetting Mr. Franklin’s leak to him by providing a fax number to which to send the material. If this is a crime, then journalists and congressional staffers could be as vulnerable as people who wrongly provide information to a foreign power.

All seriousness, if the law allowed for this, one could easily arrest the NYTimes editorial board for their disclosure of information last year, or other journalists for numerous other things. My personal opinion is that while journalists should be more careful about what they disclose in general by being more responsible (and less about 'breaking stories' or scoring political shots), this would be horrible - and the government typically agrees by not enforcing this law. But for the government to suddenly enforce it here smacks of either anti-Semitism or anti-Israel sentiment.

JES: Parents' Auto Insurance

Often, when talking to friends about finances or cars or cellphone bills or something along those lines, friends will note that their parents cover their cellphone or auto insurance bills - whether they're simply remaining on their family's plan or whatever. While cellphones are less problematic, I've always thought that auto insurance could be - especially if the person moves out of state, it may even be illegal.

But even assuming that most people are doing it legally, it seemed widespread enough that on the question about how much auto insurance costs a person, one of the options is "Someone else covers my insurance." In total, 14.2% of respondents have their insurance covered by someone else, but obviously it's more important to focus on those in the younger crowd... and the numbers are really surprising. While I expected a sizable portion to answer that it's covered, I didn't expect 47% of the people between 18 and 24 years old who have cars to say that someone else covers the insurance. Even if we factor in singles vs. marrieds (and say that singles, especially if they're close to home, will likely stay on their parents' insurance), 39% of marrieds and 63% of singles have their insurance paid for.

Interestingly, all singles between 25-29 who have a car pay for their own insurance, while 81% of marrieds do - so the trend is not long-lasting. But for almost 2/5, then still almost 1/5 to have their insurance paid for while they're in their twenties is a pretty nice savings for the couple - while quite a drain on their parents' finances.

Oh Stern Girls!

My sister sent me an IM with the following story.

Sister: Can i just tell you what happened in class today? The Professor asked "why does the Ramchal call olam haba a chupa?" and a girl goes "because isn't chupa the ultimate achievement"
Me: That girl is both stupid and wrong

Let's all take a moment to appreciate the stupid people. Would life be worth living if we couldn't make fun of them?

Serach's Grandmother, Edith Luchins

Via my mother-in-law, here is a beautiful piece about Serach's grandmother, Edith (Hirsch) Luchins, who was (among other things) a brilliant woman who was the first woman to serve on the board of the Orthodox Union (OU), the first woman to be appointed as a full professor at the prestigious engineering school, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and had the privilege of being close friends with both the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Albert Einstein (the Rebbe used to send dollars to Einstein through her).

I never had the opportunity to meet her, as she passed away in 2002; Serach adored her.
The article:

Edith Luchins is an inspiration for any woman. Her story is specifically interesting to me since she lived in New York City before she moved to the Albany area. She had an incredible life in pioneering in Mathematics and in the community.

Early Life and Education

Born Edith Hirsch in Brzeziny, Poland in 1921, she and her family emigrated to New York City in 1926. Edith was very good at mathematics. She was a member of the mathematics club and often tutored other students. One day, she decided to take a course in psychology which was taught by Abraham Luchins. Abraham was a graduate student in educational psychology at New York University. The course compelled Edith’s interest in cognitive psychology, as it applied in mathematics education.

A collaboration in the theory, and a romance, started between Luchins and Edith. She enrolled at Brooklyn College, receiving her BA degree in 1942. She and Abraham married after she had graduated.

During the war, Edith worked in support of America in the industry. Eventually, Abraham joined the army. During this time, Edith enrolled in a graduate program at New York University while teaching math at Brooklyn College. Edith received her M.S. degree in 1944 from N.Y.U.

Edith gave birth to her first child in 1946. She was not able to take her comprehensive exams or write her thesis upon completion of her courses. A second child was born in 1948.

In 1949, the Luchins moved to Montreal. They remained there for 5 years while Abraham began teaching at Mc Gill University. Edith worked with her husband in the area of psychological issues in mathematics. During this time, two more children were born.

In 1954, Abraham was offered a position at the University of Oregon. Edith continued her studies and received her PhD in mathematics in 1957. She gave birth to their fifth child year later.

Edith held the N.Y.S. fellowship of the American Association of University Women during 1957-58. At this time, she wrote several papers that were published in articles - On strictly semi-simple Banach algebras, and On radicals and continuity of homomorphisms into Banach algebras. Some titles!

Professor Luchins

In 1962, Edith started teaching mathematics at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. She was the first woman to be appointed as a full professor at the prestigious engineering school. Her field was mathematics, of course.

Before her retirement from Rensselaer, Edith was also a guest professor of mathematics at West Point from 1991-92. Retirement wasn’t easy for her. She found herself back at Rensselear mathematics department. Edith was loved and adored by students and the faculty. She was appointed an adjunct professor of cognitive science in 1994. Edith received the Distinguished Teaching Award, the Darrin Counseling Award, the Martin Luther King Jr. Award, and the Rensselaer Alumni Association Outstanding Faculty Award.

On top of that, Edith was honored with the Award for Distinguished Public Service at West Point. In 1998, she was made an honorary member of the International Society for Gestalt Theory and its applications.

At one time, Edith directed a National Science Foundation study on why so few women studied mathematics. She collaborated with Mary Ann McLoughlin and wrote a paper on Olga Taussky Todd.

Edith received a grant from a Rensselaer Teaching Fellowship to integrate geometry and calculus through computer graphs. She has written 12 books and over 70 articles.

Edith died in 2002. Her obituary in the Renssellaer Campus News reads as follows:

Luchins’ research focused on mathematics and psychology. She had worked on mathematical models of order effects in information processing; on gender differences in cognitive processes and their implications for teaching and learning mathematics; and on the roles of heuristics and algorithms in mathematical problem solving, with and without the use of computers. She was also interested in the history of mathematics, and, in particular, the history of women in mathematics.

In the Albany area, she was very active member of the Congregation Beth Abraham Jacob where she established work in Jewish communal life. She was the first woman to serve on the Board of Directors of the Orthodox Union.

Edith Luchins was a great woman and role model for all women, and she concludes my series on women who overcame gender barriers and other obstacles to fulfill their dream. I hope you enjoyed learning about these people with me.

What is your dream? What are you doing to make it come true?

An Apt Comic

From Zero Hedge (the smartest blogger I've ever read... I think - I don't know how much I actually understand):

No less an authority than FDR's Treasury secretary and close friend, Henry Morganthau, said in 1939: "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work…..I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started, and an enormous debt to boot!" Similarly policy makers’ current aggressive actions remind me of the quote “Never in the history of the world has there been a situation so bad that the government can’t make it worse”.

And some comedy, compliments of the 1934 (now bankrupt) Chicago Tribune

Well Waddaya Know XXVI

Last week's Q & A:

Meir Kahana's group "Kach" had what symbol on their flag:

a fist	55 (82%)
a menora	3 (4%)
a sword inside a magen david	6 (8%)
a map of greater Israel including large chunks of Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan	3 (4%)

Votes so far: 67

Kach's flag was yellow and had on it a magen david and inside it a fist and the words "rak kach".

This week's question is up to the right.

63

No, that's not a typo. My Dad's birthday is 5 Iyar, and he is now 63 years old - Yom Huledet Sameach, Dad! And on the English calendar, my best friend Shragi (of the Well Waddaya Know series) is 26 years old today, and I hope his hesder and Bar-Ilan friends remember that when they're all celebrating Yom Ha'atzma'ut today.

For Israel's 61st birthday this Yom Ha'atzma'ut, here a couple of the pieces I really liked from past years that were posted here. Shragi sent in a composition from someone titled "This Is Israel", and Stam wrote a beautiful piece last year called "Between Two Worlds".

Choice Angst

My mother forwarded me one of the more interesting pieces I've read in a long time, and I think that a lot of the readership here will appreciate this one. It's titled So Many Choices in Life, So Much Angst, and it essentially argues, based on a study published in Scientific American, that people are better off just making choices rather than spending all their time debating them or trying to find "better" ones. A choice quote:

...when it comes to making decisions, people fall somewhere on the spectrum between two extremes: " 'maximizers' (those who always aim to make the best possible choice) and 'satisficers' (those who aim for 'good enough,' whether or not better selections might be out there)." In the end, the article said, maximizers are usually less content than satisficers with their final decisions -- they have regrets about what they might have had with one of the other options. The more options there are, the more opportunity cost there is and the more chance for regrets.

We've discussed this before on this blog, but it's interesting to see it spelled out in a study like this. Read the whole piece, it's interesting.

Yom HaZikaron

I am not the person to write about this, really. Check out Baila (22,570*), A Soldier's Mother, and of course Jameel, who will have many other good reads.

* The number of soldiers and terror victims the State of Israel has lost since its creation.

Yehi zichrum baruch.

I've always appreciated the wisdom in the State's having Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha'atzma'ut back to back, which allows for a nechama of sorts, as Treppenwitz put it:

Today is Yom Hazikaron (memorial day for Israel’s fallen soldiers) and tomorrow night begins Yom Ha’atzma'ut (Independence day).

The back-to-back proximity of these two days is intentional. It forces the mourners of the former (there are almost no families that have not lost a member or close friend) to recognize that their loss helped make the latter possible. Likewise, it forces the celebrants of the latter to understand the staggering price paid by the mourners of former.

In a couple of hours, the festivities will be beginning. Happy 61st birthday, Israel. May it put us on the path toward a full geula.

Pazit: Empowering Jewish Women

Some of you may have noticed that one of the sponsors of next week's presentation on the Jewish Economics Survey is a new organization called Pazit. Pazit (www.Pazit.org) is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering Jewish women to take control of their financial futures.

Last week, I drove to Philadelphia to spend some time with my grandfather, who was very active in Jewish communal affairs over the last 65 years or so, while my grandmother got hip surgery after a fall. I was talking to him about the survey, and I mentioned Pazit and its purpose, and he noted while nodding that it's a serious problem: Many Jewish women are brought up with the attitude that the husband is in charge of the finances, despite the fact that many of them are the ones managing the day-to-day finances and bills. As the website says, it's important to empower Jewish women to transcend stereotypical roles and take control of their finances.

Interestingly, since I added a couple of questions about how aware a person thinks they are of their finances a couple of weeks ago, over 3/4 of men but just 2/3 of women answered "Pretty Good" or "I've Got It Covered". (32% of the men and just over 1/4 of the women answered "I've Got It Covered"; 8% of men and 13% of women answered "Not Good" or "Poor".)*

If you're interested in learning more and attending upcoming money management workshops and other events, sign up for the Pazit Google Group on the Pazit homepage.

* Also interesting, at least to me, is that men were more likely to downgrade their opinion of their grasp of their financial situation after taking the survey, while women were more likely to upgrade theirs.

Vus iz Dus??

I have NO IDEA what to say about this.... so check it out and add your response to the comment sections....

http://www.vimeo.com/3805691
password: hollywood

Great Cartoon

Very true

EZ Reads, 4/24/09: Shabbos

A couple nice and interesting thoughts to go into Shabbos with:

• Adventures in Chinuch on lashon hara and NMF#7 on spilled milk.

JES Quote: Seamstress

One of the most interesting respondents so far answered the following to the question "What question(s) do you think should have been asked on the survey that were not?"

How much people pay for Simchos, to make them or to go to them.
Makeup, wigs, gowns, etc.
I'm a seamstress and I see what people buy for Kallahs, and it's terrible, the attitude that girls have about what they NEED in order to get married, and it's even more terrible how cowed the mothers look, and how they jump to do what the girl wants.
I'm only --, so I can't talk about the 'good old days' yet, but what's going on?
I bought my own clothes from when I was 18. These mothers are spending hundreds of dollars on alterations alone, and I am not the most expensive seamstress in town.
Why do people pay to have their two-year old's hair put up in pins?! Or anyone's, except the kallah's?
The whole industry is scary.

Extravagant simchas and similar answers are among the oft-mentioned responses to "biggest financial problems facing the Orthodox Jewish community today". I'm curious - do people think this is a "keeping up with the neighbors" phenomenon or do people have a skewed sense of what is necessary to make a "nice simcha" in the first place, or both? Or perhaps most of the time people really are not being extravagant, and making a simcha is just really expensive no matter how you slice it?

On a slightly different note, we did a little informal poll of friends around our age asking if they'd rather have had the wedding they did or a pretty simple wedding and some of the rest of the money spent toward a house. I think that all the guys wanted the money for a house. The girls were a mixed bag - some wanted the house, some said "I have to admit I really want the wedding", and some wanted something in between. Most felt that the wedding was a lot more for their parents' desires.

Something is [Maha]rotten in the state of Denmark

Over at JewSchool, there is a summary of an excellent rant-style article on the recent pseudo-ordination (or MaHaRa"T-Madricha Hilchatit Ruchanit Toranit, if you are keeping score at home) of a woman, Sara Hurwitz, by Rabbi Avi Weiss, of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, written by Jonathan Mark.

Though I loathe the tendency in religious/political debates to ignore cogent criticisms strictly because they may come from a "different camp", Mark is a columnist for the Jewish week and a congregant of R' Weiss', so this hardly can be dismissed as some right-wing and/or ultra-orthodox hatchet-job.

In his own words:

The irony is that YCT was founded to be the avante-garde of “Open Orthodoxy.” (”Open Orthodox” is their idea of a clever Maharat-type name for Very Modern Orthodox.) But after the YCT Guy Maharats graduate, several of them say they want jobs not in the avante-garde but in mainstream OU-YU congregations, the kind that give out lifetime contracts and a house.

Trouble is, mainstream OU-YU shuls want mainstream rabbis with mainstream training. YCT students get excellent, even brilliant pastoral training. Rabbi Dov Linzer, YCT’s dean, has a profound appreciation of Jewish education, and not just for the elite. Some at YCT can teach Torah beautifully, particularly Davidi Jonas, whom I’ve heard the most and whose shiurs I try not to miss. Nevertheless, not all but too many YCT Maharats lack gravitas; not all but too many are concerned with leftist politics rather than Jewish education and Jewish concerns; not all but too many offer sermons that are anecdotally and intellectually shallow; not all but too many are self-indulgent when leading services. (Self-indulgent? One YCT Maharat, when leading a Kol Nidre davening, decided on his own to chage the time-honored melody of Kol Nidre to a tune that only he knew, leading to an almost tangible disappointment among many congregants. Imagine going to shul on Kol Nidre night and hearing, instead of the inspirational classic, a YCT whim, as if Kol Nidre night was a summer camp where a YCT counselor might decide to lead Shabbos davening to “Puff the Magic Dragon.”)

OU-YU shuls have a right, and I respect their right, to choose rabbis with whom they are simpatico, rabbis who are traditional about everything from Kol Nidre to women’s ordination. So hey, YCT, I’m going to give you a clue: If some of you aren’t getting hired by OU shuls, or not getting admitted to the RCA, it’s not because of Sara Hurwitz. So you might as well call her rabbi, if that’s what you really believe. You’re already known for being a left-wing yeshiva. Be radical and proud. Some people might admire your guts. Calling her Alta Maharat won’t fool anyone. You’re already in a street fight with OU-YU. Why get cute?

Read the rest here.

EZ Reads, 4/23/09

Please have in mind Liba Yehudis bas Rochel, who is having surgery today. A collection of some fascinating pieces over the last couple of weeks...

• Via Search for Emes, some of the most interesting photos of Charedi life I've seen.
• Ha'aretz with a really fascinating piece discussing "Jewish music", from rabbinic decrees to corporate sponsorships to getting their songs onto Israeli radio charts.
  
• R' Ally at Alleyways to Torah with a poignant post on another type of abuse:

  Imagine the scene: A mother and father invite a female "professional" and her "friend" to their house one afternoon. They are welcomed in and shown the kids bedroom. Then the parents bring in their children aged 4, 7, 11 and 14. The parents leave the room and the couple begins to act intimately. The children observe this for 45 minutes until the couple finishes. They visit 3 times a week.

• Jameel notes the new IDF Homefront map which shows joyfully how everyone in Israel is in range of rocket attack. Comfortable.
• A great post on what it means to be a Cleveland sports fan. Oy.
• JoeSettler notes some Israeli scientists who may be figuring out how to cure deafness.
• ADDeRabbi took part in a rare mitzvah: Petter Chamor.
  

Check it out.

JES Presentation - May 6th

The first presentation on the Jewish Economics Survey (take it here) is two weeks from today, May 6th, at 8:00pm at the Mt. Sinai Jewish Center in Washington Heights. The address is 135 Bennett Ave., New York, NY, 10040.

In the days leading up to the survey, I'll try to post a few things about both the survey and related subjects, likely touching on issues that I'll be mentioning either during the survey or a Q&A session which will follow.

One issue which I probably will not get into too much, but is extremely important, is touched on by Ariella in a post today: Paying yourself for your time. What people often think is pampering (saving an hour by sending laundry to the dry cleaner instead of doing it yourself) is often far more costly (because you'll work three hours after taxes to earn the same money). It's also money you don't have which can be better used to save or earn you money, whether by paying off credit cards or investing.

An interesting tidbit regarding life insurance responses on the survey so far, when you break it out - the % of each group which has life insurance:

• Single, no kids: 7.7%
• Married, no kids: 26.7%
• Single, kids: 50.0%
• Married, 1 child: 62.1%
• Married, 2 children: 64.4%
• Married, 3 children: 92.6%
• Married, 4 children: 96.2%
• Married, 5 or more children: 78.8%
  

There are actually more responses of 5+ children than either 3 or 4, so it's not the sample size [there are actually a similar number of responses in each slice, there are simply far more "No" answers in the 5+ group]. Most likely, once people have families of a certain size they are pressed for money, and life insurance is an expense that is deemed less necessary than others - understandable when pitted against expenses for current, tangible items. Of course, the flip side of this is that the devastation to the family (and by extension, the community) has that much more of an impact in a large family if chas v'shalom something happens.

In addition, the other groups I've highlighted are also a little troubling. (The single with kids group is a small sample size, however - just a handful of responses.) While it is more understandable that a family with no children or a single person living on their own might not have life insurance, that over a third of families with 1-2 children also don't have is a concern.

Again, the survey is available here; please pass it around to friends, family, shul e-mail groups, community organizations, and the like. The more data we can collect the more useful the survey can be and the greater the impact it can have. Thank you so much!

Well Waddaya Know XXV

Last week's question and answer:

In a session of group drumming done with sufferers of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) what is done to give them a sense of security?

A. the playing was done in the order the participants were seated	0 (0%)
B. a regular beat was maintained	5 (19%)
C. A and B	11 (42%)
D. the tempo started out slow and was gradually increased	10 (38%)

Votes so far: 26

This week's question is up to the right.

America Eats for Israel - April 22nd, 2009

As they've done with greater and greater success each year, America Eats for Israel's big day is tomorrow, April 22nd. The purpose:

In its fifth year, America Eats for Israel is an international (US and Canada) project run by High School Students to raise money for tzedakah. This year the money raised will be going to help American Friends of Meir Panim, aid relief in Israel. On April 22nd, 2009 restaurants will donate 10% of all revenue on that day to America Eats for Israel, who will then forward the money to American Friends of Meir Panim. This requires quite a bit of coordination and work, but with your help everything will run smoothly and we will ultimately raise tens of thousands of dollars for Israel.

They have a list of restaurants on the site. If you're already going out to eat especially, just try and go to a participating restaurant and know that 10% of what you order is going to help people in Israel who need it.

R' Aviner on Segulot: "Something that does not exist"

From his blog:

[from "Be-Ahavah U-Be-Emunah" – Parashat Shoftim 5769 – translated by R. Blumberg]

People often times turn to Rabbis asking for "segulot" [spiritual aids or shortcuts] to help the sick. Besides going to the doctor, they look for spiritual tricks, recitation of a particular verse, or an amulet, just so there is some change for the better. Unfortunately, they are searching in vain for something that does not exist.

Some will respond: “Who says? My aunt had no children, she used a 'segulah' and now, thank G-d, there are children around her table.” Yet someone else had a childless aunt who used no "segulah," and children were born to her anyway. [...]

Is it written that when our great Sages had troubles, they used "segulot," with mezuzot and amulets? Where have we heard of such a thing? Not in the Torah, not in the Mishnah and not in the Talmud. Rather, they prayed and they repented and performed kind deeds.