"Chabad of CBD" opportunity

Here’s an opening for the warriors in the battle for the title of Chabad shliach in the CBD.

Seeing that each side is backed by a well-heeled BRW rich-lister – Joe Gutnick v. Nathan Werdiger, why doesn’t one of them invest in the original Melbourne Shul and turn it into a REAL “Chabad of CBD”?

The senior Werdigers

Joseph Gutnick with the Legend sponsored Mount Isa AFL Team

 (Note to Colliers: If our suggestion is taken up, AJN Watch would appreciate a spotter’s fee. Thanks.)



Message to Solomon Lew: Give the average Aussie a go.

Is there any way to describe Solly’s letter in the AJN other than pure spin and chutzpah?

Observing him and his partners in the “Retail Coalition” trying to impose GST on imported goods valued under $1000 is an unsightly and greedy attack on Australian families who have found a way to save substantial amounts on by purchasing products available from on-line businesses.

What Lew doesn’t realise is that while being GST-free is helpful, the main reason we are buying over the web is because prices are far, far lower than Solly and his friends are charging us in their stores. In fact the GST component often doesn’t even cover the shipping costs involved. What really makes us go online are the actual prices of the goods purchased – often 30-40% below the local cost.

From Herald-Sun

Your crocodile tears about the threat to Australian jobs should have been shed when big retailers were devastating most of the small shops and shopping strips all over the country.

And do you think that we have forgotten how you and the others who do nearly all their buying overseas have totally ruined the Australian clothing and footwear manufacturing industries. How much concern was there about those Aussie jobs?

One would’ve thought that after Gerry Harvey backed out of this crusade your Yiddishe kop would also have also realised that you and your companies aren’t gaining any friends by continuing this campaign.

And it seems that even Dr Seuss has issues with Sol:

and there's even a Hebrew version...

POST SCRIPT:

Here's an item in today's Sunday Age "Heckler" column:

We wonder what this nephew thinks about Uncle Sol's idea to charge GST for on-line purchases?

How will our kids afford a home?

Posted by a very concerned parent:

The price of housing in both Melbourne and Sydney is totally out of hand and getting worse by the week. How will our children ever be able to afford even the most basic accommodation? Here's an article published in yesterday's Age:

Melbourne housing now 'severely unaffordable'

Chris Zappone   January 24, 2011

Australian homes among least affordable


Sky-high house prices in some of our biggest cities have made Australia one of the least affordable places to live in the world. Melbourne has scored near the bottom of an international ranking of housing affordability, stoking fears runaway house prices have made Australia a less equitable country.

Update The Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, which ranked 325 markets by affordability, listed Melbourne as the world's 321st most affordable city, more reasonably priced than only Sydney and a handful of other locations.

London is more affordable than Geelong.
The ratio of house prices to median yearly household income was 9 in Melbourne, versus 9.6 in Sydney - the second least affordable city in the world, in spot number 324, according to data produced by the US-New Zealand anti-regulation group Demographia in a survey of six English-speaking nations and Hong Kong.

The group put the median Melbourne house price at $565,000 with the median household income at $63,100. Hong Kong came in last at number 325, with an income-house price ratio of 11.4, while Saginaw, in Michigan ranked No. 1, with a multiple of 1.6. Demographia considers markets with a median multiple of 3 or less "affordable", while those with 5.1 or more are considered "severely unaffordable". Australia's major markets were all considered "severely unaffordable''.

US-based geographer and author Joel Kotkin said that even after the housing bubble implosion in the US and Britain beginning in 2008, the ratio of home prices to incomes has grown in major cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, London, Toronto and Vancouver. "Perhaps most remarkable has been the shift in Australia, once the exemplar of modestly priced, high-quality, middle-class housing, to now the most unaffordable housing market in the English-speaking world," he said. "The real issue is affordability and Australia has gone from a middle-class paradise in that regard into a more stratified society - just as we find in Britain and parts of the US." SNIPPED
 House prices plateaued in mid-2010, amid interest rate rises and a weaker pace of sales. The national city dwelling price fell 0.2 per cent in November, to $466,000, according to RP Data-Rismark information. Six in 10 Australians live in major cities. The third quarter 2010 rankings were compiled from national housing reports and estimates drawn from census data on incomes, with calculations made in local currency.

Swelling cities
Separately, a report from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship calculates that if 260,000 migrants come to Australia per year, both Sydney and Melbourne will need to expand by 430,000 hectares, or 4300 kilometers by 2060. “Expansion of urban areas raises issues such as likely increases in traffic congestion, city (air) pollution, and competition for land as a resource,” the report concluded. “The latter is an important issue since peripheral land of a number of capital cities has been relatively productive agriculture land, which can supply fresh food to the local area with lower freight requirements.”

The report on the physical impact of immigration was prepared by Flinders University and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Sustainable Ecosystems Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

'Severely unaffordable'
The Demographia report showed Australian cities shared the mantle of “severely unaffordable” with American, Canadian, British and New Zealand cities. Demographia listed Melbourne as the world's 321st most affordable city, more reasonably priced than only Sydney, which came in at 325th, and a handful of other locations. The survey found that the ratio of house prices to median annual household income was 9.6 in Sydney. It put the median house price at $634,300 and median income $66,200.SNIPPED
Sydney-based real estate research and investment group Rismark believes Australian homes will become more affordable through 2011, as incomes remain strong and house prices flatten out. "As Australia's business investment and export boom drives strong household income growth at the same time as interest rates keep dwelling prices in check, we are likely to see a substantial improvement in residential real estate valuations," said Rismark joint managing director Christopher Joye. SNIPPED

If the situation is so dire for the general popluation, al achas kamoh vekamoh for obersernant Jews who are so severely limited to where they can live?

Whatever happened to the much ballyhooed plans for a “shtetel” in Melton and/or Caroline Springs - which the AJN reported on some time ago? And what about all those Adassniks who were considering a move to Frankston? (Actually we hear that a number [of non-Adassniks] have already moved there or are in the process of doing so.)

And what happened to that magnificent initiative of the late Mr Izzy Herzog ע''ה to construct affordable apartments on the corner of Hotham Street and Glen Eira Road? That large piece of land still looks like a moonscape with nary a hut on it. Mr Herzog’s idea of building 20-25 flats there - exclusively to local frum families - would make a sizeable dent in the demand – at least for a while.

AJN Watch considers rocketing home prices as one of the most serious issues facing our community, one that needs to be taken up immediately by the Shuls and organisations. We cannot continue to tolerate a situation where families with 5 - and even more - children are cramped into 2 bedroom flats. And even these do not come cheap. Weekly rental of over $400 is quite common. And if you want to buy one, have over $400,000 ready.

It’s over to you - the leaders of  Melbourne and Sydney Kehillos. For the sake of your and our children and grandchildren.

Amazing grapes: "Without fear of Shmitta and foreskin..."

Forwarded from the SBA list:

Someone has emailed me a copy of a label for a brand of Israeli grape juice “Hamalug”. It carries the Hechsherim of both Agudas Yisroel and Rabbanut Jerusalem.

The (English) ingredients list includes the following gems:

“preservatives according to standards”,
“underwent pasteurization”,
“blessed by Borei Pri Hagefen”,
“Accepted as well by Maran Bet Yosef”,
“JNF (!?) 88 calories at 100ml”,
“Terumah (priestly tithe on produce)"
“This Tirosh is bottled in a new bottle and cooked”

But the gold medal must go to.....
"Without fear of Shmitta and foreskin” (!!!).

(For those who didn't catch on, that last attribute was their (or Google's) translation of נקי מחשש שמיטה וערלה (“naki mechashash shemittah v’orloh”)…

Rabbis 'on the wagon': What next?

A whole month without Mashkeh! How are they going to survive?
After all, many of them have congregants who MUST be driving them to drink...

And lucky that this year there are 2 Adars - otherwise Purim would have messed up this Febfast shtick.

Where are the Chabad rabbis?

Posted by "Baby-boomer Lubavitcher":

The youngsters in our midst (and by that I mean anyone under 40-45) would hardly remember or maybe even know of the "world war" that the Rebbe waged against the various governments of Israel - demanding that they put into place legislation which ensured "Giyur keHalacha", ie, that all conversions recognised by the Rabbanut and therefore the state must be according to the dinim of the Shulchan Aruch.

It would be well worthwhile for those "youngsters" to do some research to learn how our holy rebbe shook heaven and earth to try and force the Israeli politicians to introduce this.

Sadly he failed, resulting in – amongst other scandals - the assimilation of half a million goyim from the former Soviet Union who are today recognized as Jewish citizens of Israel.

The Israeli government has recently passed laws approving 'quickie' conversions to be performed by the Army rabbinate in a manner which is not acceptable as Halachic to the rest of the Rabbinate in Israel.

The leading Torah sages there have issued proclamations attacking this new move and no doubt we will be hearing much more about this in the coming days.

I am however puzzled about the absence of similar denunciations by the Chabad rabbis both in Israel and the Diaspora. They know as well as I do how close this issue was to the Rebbe's heart.

Shouldn't they be in the forefront of this latest campaign?

Yelamdenu Raboseinu, why are you quiet? Why aren't you involved in the holy battle for the integrity of our Torah and the honor of our Rebbe?

As I recall, last time, it was Reb Arel S. leading the troops here in Melbourne - gathering hundreds of signatures demanding Giyur keHalacha. Maybe it's time for a repeat performance?

PS. On a number of local blogs there has been - for the past weeks - debate and argument about who is and who isn't a "Shliach" and a "Head Shliach". My view is that anyone who doesn't publicly support, shturem and undertake Peulos for the Rebbe's inyonim has no right to make any claim for that title.

A Melbourne Jewish Xmas story

From JB, (Brooklyn, NY):
I see you have been including some of the 'flavour of the season' on your blog, so how did you miss a most interesting Aussie Kratzmach story - published 10 years ago in the Yated - written by Melbourne's S. B. Abelesz?

Thanks for bringing it to our attention - AJN Watch

(For more details about the doctor in the above photographs click here.)

This story happened last year to Chaim K., whose business manufactures and supplies blinds to commercial and private buildings.

A day earlier he had been called by a builder to give a quote for the supply of blinds to a new apartment block.

When Chaim arrived there - as always, wearing his yarmulke - the builder, a giant of a man with tattoos on both arms, greeted him with: "Are you Jewish?"

A little concerned, Chaim answered: "Yes, but what difference does that make?"

The builder responded with: "The job is yours!"

No quote, no nothing!

A now-surprised Chaim asked him the reason for the puzzling behavior.

The builder replied that some 20 years ago his baby became very sick on Xmas day. He tried calling doctors everywhere but to no avail -- no one would come for at least several hours.

Meanwhile the child was having convulsions and the parents were getting extremely desperate. So they rushed him to Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital.

Upon arrival they raced up to the duty nurse and asked if there were any doctors available. She calmed down the agitated parents and told them that they were extremely lucky. Since it was Xmas, their baby would be cared for by the very best specialists in town.

The anxious parents, who had just gone through hell trying to find any doctor at all, were quite puzzled by her words and couldn't understand what she meant, until she explained that due to the holiday all doctors and specialists on duty are Jewish and they are all first-class.

As she finished talking, a doctor wearing a yarmulke hurried in, took the child and told the parents to relax and not to worry as their son will be well-looked-after.

The boy needed immediate surgery which was indeed undertaken and completed successfully and, as the nurse had said, all the doctors in attendance were Jewish.

"To this day," the builder continued, "I am grateful to those Jewish doctors and specialists who saved our son's life. And that is why, once I realized you were Jewish, I gave you the order without any further talk."

The gentile giant added: "There is no way that I am ever going into a hospital on the Jewish New Year!"

Question to Lamm and Chester - 2

Further to our post "Question to Lamm and Chester: You want Sudanese illegals and Arabs living near your kids?", here's a couple of articles from Arutz Sheva highlighting the serious issues created by Israel's illegal immigrants.

Katz: Tel Aviv Luxury Areas Flooded Next by Illegal Immigrants

 MK Yaakov "Ketzaleh" Katz (National Union) is warning northern Tel Aviv residents to unite with the rest of the city in fighting an influx of illegal immigrants, or face a flood.

 Katz argued Wednesday that wealthy residents of northern Tel Aviv cannot abandon the city's impoverished southern neighborhoods in the fight against the influx of illegal immigrants without the flood eventually reaching the north as well.

 “Soon thousands will be protesting in central Tel Aviv and in a year or two thousands will be protesting in the north, as many of them carry AIDS and tuberculosis,” he said. Katz was referring to Tuesday's rally against illegal immigrants living in southern Tel Aviv.

 “The silence of the residents in northern Tel Aviv is like the orchestra playing on the deck of the Titanic while its stern is sinking,” Katz commented.

 High Percentage of Migrants are HIV Carriers

According to a new report released this week by the Health Ministry, 17 percent of HIV carriers in Israel are illegal immigrants.

 In addition, 13 percent of those with tuberculosis, are migrants, according to the report. The ministry said it is reportedly examining ways to develop a network in which to offer medical services to the illegal immigrants.

‘Bleeding Hearts Making Israel a Country of Goyim and Criminals’

A former hareidi religious legislator warned the government on Tuesday to stop “bleeding hearts” from making the country a refuge for non-Jews and criminals.

Journalist Yisrael Eichler, a former Knesset Member in the United Torah Judaism party, told Arutz 7 that while non-Jews from poor countries come to Israel, “the media prefers to deal with a screwball who puts up posters” and feel sorry for foreign workers and refugees who are flooding the country.

“I call on all the religious Knesset Members to immediately stop this wave that is turning Israel into a refuge for Russian and African non-Jews as well as criminals who flee from their native countries," he said.

The recent arrest of a non-Jewish Russian immigrant, charged with the gruesome murder of two parents, two children and two of their grandparents, sparked Eichler’s anger at Israel’s liberal immigration policies. Russian authorities asked Israel to extradite the suspect three years ago for armed robbery, but the government allowed him to remain in the country.

Many European countries are closing their doors to immigrants from Asian and African countries, and the United States regularly deports illegal immigrants.

 Israel currently is embroiled in efforts by mainstream media and secular groups to prevent the deportation of children of illegal immigrants, deflecting a campaign led by National Union MK Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz against the growing infiltration of thousands of Sudanese and other Africans.

Southern cities, such as Arad and Be’er Sheva, are being flooded with Africans who, along with the growing Bedouin population, threatened to leave Jews as a minority in the Negev.

“Everyone feels sorry for the children of foreign workers, but what about the 750,000 poor Jewish children in Israel? No one feels sorry for them,” Eichler noted.

“Why doesn’t a Jew want to leave his own country and move to Israel if he has no reason to do so? Why do non-Jewish people from Russia and Ukraine want to come here when there are other countries in the world?” he asked.

Answering his own questions, Eichler castigated the media and “bleeding hearts” who support the growing non-Jewish population. He praised the aliyah of Jews from Russia but charged former Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir for the "crime of deciding to bring non-Jews along with Jews.”

He told a story of a Jew who moved to Israel from the former Soviet bloc, where he had been attacked several times by anti-Semites. The immigrant met the same non-Jewish attacker on a bus in Israel and asked him how he arrived in Israel. The man answered, “I found a Jewish girl friend and made Aliyah.”

Nittel, Natalie and Jewish Santas

Friday night is again "Nittel Nacht". Here are a few snippets and snaps showing how this event is commemorated amongst many in our community.

Nittel Nacht  [Text from Wikipedia] 

Nittel Nacht is a name given to Christmas Eve by Jewish scholars in the 17th century, although Rabbi Samuel Eides already observed the day by the late 16th century. In the Middle Ages (in Christendom), Jews were forbidden from appearing in public during the high Christmas holidays, and as such the day marked the beginning of a siege of sorts for certain Jewish populations. Jewish mystics believed apostates were conceived on Nittel Nacht. Studying the Torah was also forbidden, although some read the Toledot Yeshu instead. Passing the time playing card games was also popular.

After the advent of the Gregorian Calendar, Orthodox Christians and Catholic Christians observed Christmas Eve on two separate dates; this led to Rabbinic debate, and Nittel Nacht is observed in accordance with the local Christian community. Certain pious Jews observe Nittel Nacht twice each year.

By the 20th century, Judeo-Christian relations had matured to where these customs faded in popularity, although Nittel Nacht is still observed by certain Orthodox groups.

Nittel nacht in 770:

The previous two Lubavitcher rebbes (obm) playing chess on Nittel Nacht

More photographs here.

Other article on the topic here, here, here and here.
Note: AJN Watch takes no responsibilty for the "Kashrut" of those sites.

On a slightly more serious note, we wonder how many families who have named their daughters "Natalie" realise that the meaning of the name  is associated with "Nittel", ie, "birthday of JC" or "born on Xmas" ?

Here's a selection from several "Meanings of Names" sites confirming this:

Question to Lamm and Chester: You want Sudanese illegals and Arabs living near your kids?

(Received from an Israeli reader):

Dear AJN Watch.
A friend has just sent me a scan of the comments by Danny Lamm and Philip Chester re the statement by our Rabanim against renting properties to undersirables. I would appreciate if you could post these few words on behalf of all ex-Aussies in Israel.

                                      -Former Melbourne Bnei Akiva member

Even if Philip Chester and Danny Lamm were simply doing the politically correct thing in condemning that Rabanim and didn't really mean it at all, it is still damaging and a massive Chutzpah.

Fancy issuing a statement welcoming potential crooks and murderers into our cities and our neighbourhoods!

Do Lamm and Chester have any family members in Israel? And if so how many Sudanese or Arabs live in their street?  And what do those family members think about their view?

The rabbis here, together with the community leaders know exactly what problems they create - both gashmiut and ruchniut, as well as the crimes and attacks perpetuated by these people.

Sitting in your safe Caulfield mansions and preaching to us is not welcome.

In future, please keep your useless and unhelpful advice to yourself.

Chabad Menorah turf wars: Calling the local galach...

Previously Chanukah was about celebrating the victory of the war of the Chashmonaim against the Hellenists. These days Chanukah seems to celebrate turf wars in Chabadland - at least in our CBD. See here and here.

Now another seemingly ridiculous battle by 2 Chabad rabbis which took place in some unheard of township somewhere in New York state has been brought to our attention. And suggestions are being made that they get the local galach to make peace. Fair dinkum! See the penultimate paragraph of the second article.

Back-to-back menorah lightings in Millbrook
By CHRISTINE BATES - Staff Reporter
December, 17, 2009

MILLBROOK — Two menorah lightings happened in front of the Thorne Building in the village as two rabbis held back-to-back celebratory events on the second day of Hanukkah, Saturday, Dec. 12.


First to arrive in front of the Thorne building was Rabbi Yakov Borenstein from Chabad of the Mid-Hudson Valley. According to Hindy Borenstein, the rabbi’s wife, he was able to secure permission from the village at the last minute to begin a celebration at 6:30 p.m.

Borenstein said that for the 6:30 ceremony Curtis Roth of Millbrook stood on a ladder and lit two candles on a portable 9-foot aluminum menorah; Borenstein then offered a message of bringing light to the world. About 30 area residents joined in the celebration, which included Hanukkah songs, music and traditional holiday food. By 7:20 p.m. the menorah had been packed up, and cars were pulling away from the curb.

A new crowd of about 30 people formed on the sidewalk for the second menorah lighting at 7:30 p.m.

Sheldon and Adele Lobel, Millbrook residents, said they noticed a sign at the library advertising the 7:30 p.m. event and were excited for Millbrook’s first evening of public menorah lightings.

Charlotte Mann said she had heard there would also be a menorah made out of canned food that would be donated to a food pantry.
The crowd was a bit restless in the cold when Rabbi Hanoch Hecht, also known as the “Six-Minute Rabbi,” of the Rhinebeck Jewish Center, pulled up some time after 7:30 with his family and set up a large, rustic, wooden menorah. Hecht had received official permission from the village several weeks before, and the event had been widely publicized, including in The Millerton News.

Hecht lit the central candle, and then two more candles, one for each night of Hanukkah. He stood to the side of the lighted candles and spoke about placing a menorah “by the window, adding one candle every night to overcome darkness in a step-by step-process.”
His words were followed by Hanukkah songs, warm latkes made by Tzivie, the rabbi’s wife, and sufganiot, powdered sugar jelly doughnuts.

And then we get this from the Chabad Info site (which admittedly isn't considered "mainstream" Lubavitch).

Here we were grumbling about having footballers at the Menorah lightings while at the same time our brethren over there are getting galochim to do the honors! (What say, next year we invite the Greek Orthodox Archbishop to light the Shamash?)

Shliach Hosts Chanukah Party in Church

A priest was welcomed to light the Shamash at a Chanukah gathering organized by Rhinebeck Jewish Center's spiritual leader Rabbi Hanoch Hecht, before the party moved indoors, to the local church. On his site, the rabbi claims to be a fighter of cults and missionaries.

 The public lighting of a menorah in front of the Thorne Building to commemorate Hanukkah occurred in Millbrook for the first time last year, twice on the same night.

This year Rabbi Yacov Borenstein, after lighting the first candle on Wednesday night atop the Walkway Over the Hudson, brought his towering menorah to Millbrook on Thursday, Dec. 2, the second night of Hanukkah, to remain in place until Dec. 9.

The observance of Hanukkah with hot cider, latkes and jelly doughnuts is becoming part of the Millbrook holiday season. Town of Washington Supervisor Florence Prisco, Millbrook’s Deputy Mayor Stan Morse, Paula Redmond from the Millbrook Business Association and Doug Fisher, minister of Grace Episcopal Church, participated. Prisco and Morse greeted the gathering, and Prisco helped to light the second candle with a blow torch as Curtis Ross stood on the ladder to reach the light.

“It’s a safe ladder,” said the rabbi. “I have good insurance.”

All of the candles were then switched on so people could read the words to Hanukkah songs.

In the cold evening air, Borenstein and his wife, Hindy, talked about the meaning of the Jewish holiday. “A little light dispels the darkness and makes the world a better place,” said the rabbi. “It’s not asking much.”

He recounted the story of the Maccabees, who were outnumbered and surrounded by Greek soldiers, and the miracle of the lamp oil, which lasted for eight days.

Following the ceremony, the leftover food and tables were packed up, and the rabbi drove off in his car with a small menorah with three glowing lights attached to its roof.

On Sunday night, Dec. 5, Rabbi Hanoch Hecht from the Rhinebeck Chabad conducted another Hanukkah celebration in front of the Thorne Building, attended by a large number of Millbrook residents.

The Rev. Fisher lit the central candle, known as the shamash or helper candle, and Rabbi Hecht lighted five more for the fifth night of Hanukkah. After a brief prayer and dancing, the group quickly adjourned to the warmth of the parish house of Grace Episcopal Church across the street for hot coffee, latkes and donuts.

The rabbi distributed Hanukkah gelt, chocolate wrapped to look like large gold coins, and Fisher welcomed everyone. The last time the church had an event bringing religions together was in 2002 after 911, when a rabbi spoke at the church and Muslims, Jews and Christians got together at the parish house.

The Millbrook organizers of the event, Steve Peter, Adele and Sheldon Lobel and Joan Blankstein, were very happy that the evening had brought the entire community together.

Lobel suggested that perhaps Fisher could get the two rabbis together before the event next year to have just one Hanukkah lighting. They have already purchased the menorah.

“We want to do good things,” said Lobel.

3 + 3 = 7 ?

UJEB is probably one of the most important organizations in Melbourne - offering an essential and non-overlapping service in educating those children in our community who are not enrolled in a Jewish day school.

We support it with all our heart and hope that you do too.

But how does 3 plus 3 doesn’t add up to 7…?

Their parents must be SO proud!

Sending kids to a Jewish youth group used to mean that you hoped they would spend their time there being imbued with Jewish and mentchlich values and ideals.

Habonim, it seems, has decided to go in the opposite direction.

We wonder how happy the parents are about this.

(Also it’s quite obvious that the AJN can’t find anything else newsworthy to report about this group.)

NY Jewish Week: Why is Israel 'Schnorring'?

This is not the type of article one would expect to read in the AJN. And understandably so. After all a major proportion of that newspaper's revenue comes from the massive “shnorr” campaigns by various Israeli governmental and semi-governmental entities.

(And, by the way, isn’t it somewhat incongruous that the banner for this article in the New York Jewish Week has ads 'shnorring' for Israel's Magen David Adom?)

As Jewish organizations scramble to muster aid to a northern Israel scorched by a wildfire the government was hard-pressed to contain, the relief effort has triggered a debate over who should pick up the tab for an evident lack of preparedness.

In his blog on The Atlantic Monthly’s website, Jeffrey Goldberg, a former IDF soldier and author not known as an Israel critic, questioned in a series of posts why Jews in the diaspora should absorb the firefighting costs of a government that presides over a thriving economy, and one that has been widely acclaimed for its technological innovation.

“Israel’s per capita GDP is nearly $30,000,” wrote Goldberg. “Israel is a rich country. The fact that it doesn’t possess adequate firefighting equipment is its own fault. The fact that the leadership of its fire service is incompetent is its own fault. At some point, the good-hearted Diaspora Jews who still think of Israel as a charity case are going to have to tell their cousins to learn to fully fund basic services like firefighting if they want to be thought of as citizens of an advanced country.”Goldberg, whose posts have ignited their own firestorm of feedback, is not alone in rapping Israel’s government.

Writing in The Jerusalem Post on Monday, Daniel Gordis, without addressing the fundraising campaigns, noted that the catastrophe, which cost 42 lives, pointed to a jarring lack of preparedness as well as infrastructure problems and bad decision-making, such as the order to send into the fire zone a bus full of prison-guard cadets that was consumed, killing everyone aboard as well as the Haifa police chief. That horrific incident accounted for nearly all the casualties.

 “The real issue is that just beneath the veneer of this startup nation with its hi-tech firms, its glistening Tel Aviv glass and chrome towers and its luxury hotels lining the beaches of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, this is a country plagued by ailing and unsupervised infrastructure,” wrote Gordis, who is senior vice president of the Shalem Center think tank. “The most honest moment of the entire Carmel Forest catastrophe came Thursday evening, when a fire service spokesperson virtually cried in an interview with Channel 2, saying that the country was completely out of fire-fighting materials, that equipment wasn’t working, and that somehow the fire had to be stopped, because ‘the State of Israel is at stake.’ ”

Israel, one of the most sparsely forested nations, has about 1,400 firefighters protecting 7.6 million people. The state appeared out of its league in responding to an earlier catastrophe, again in northern Israel, when in 2006, Hezbollah rockets smashed communities near the border as Israeli troops routed terrorists from southern Lebanon. Then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was assailed for inaction and embarrassed when a Russian-born billionaire, Arcadi Gaydamak stepped in to facilitate the evacuation of thousands of residents.

This time around, Israel’s spontaneous, perhaps desperate, response was evident in a story circulating from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s press office involving the city’s deputy fire commissioner, who, at the request of the consulate here, worked the phones last Thursday to find a supply of fire-retardant foam.
“We don’t use it here in New York, where we only have occasional brush fires,” Deputy Commissioner Frank Gribbon said in an interview Tuesday. “So we turned to the U.S. Forestry Department.” That put Gribbon on the phone with companies in San Francisco and St. Louis that turned out to be subsidiaries of a company based in Tel Aviv, Israel Chemicals Ltd.

By the end of the day Gribbon had assurances that the Israeli company was sending a planeload of the foam to Israel.
“In a crisis, sometimes this is what happens,” said Gribbon of the irony.

The Jewish National Fund has kicked off a $10 million campaign for fire relief, with $500,000 already sent to Israel. The organization will refocus its previously scheduled benefit concert on Dec. 12 at Hofstra University on Long Island, originally intended to raise money for a reservoir, toward reforestation and aid to the victims.

The Atlantic’s Goldberg suggests that instead of contributing to JNF, concerned donors should consider victims of the fire such as the Yemin Orde orphanage near Haifa, which was severely damaged in the fire.

JNF CEO Russell Robinson, said Goldberg’s assertion that the government should go it alone “shows a complete lack of understanding and ignorance.

“The same could be said about the U.S. and [Hurricane] Katrina or special campaigns for floods or mudslides or wildfires in Montana or 9/11. That means we should only be dealing with things for which are prepared?”

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, noted on Tuesday the difference between the government of Israel asking for money, which it has not done, and supporters of the Jewish state wanting to show solidarity through checkbooks and donation boxes.“This is a response by a Jewish community that feels they want to help,” said Hoenlein. “There are legitimate internal questions that have to be addressed about how much infrastructure they have and how the response was delayed. But it’s very hard for any country to have the capacity to handle something they haven’t experienced before. To sustain the fleet of airplanes you need [to fight forest fires] is difficult for any country.”

“People are distorting this as some sort of embarrassment that the country feels they have to appeal for help.”

In an interview on Tuesday, Goldberg said that while the government has not directly asked for donations, “it doesn’t have to have its hand out because it knows the JNF will get diaspora Jews to [donate] so they can waste money on whatever they waste money on.”

He said since his initial blog post he has heard from supportive Israelis who also oppose what Goldberg calls “schnorring” for fire equipment funds.

“They’re big boys in the Israeli government,” said Goldberg. “They’ve had years of incompetence on this issue. The air force got out of the fire suppression business 10 years ago. Are you a ‘startup nation’ or not?”

He was referring to a book by Dan Senor and Saul Singer subtitled “The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle.”

In a blog linked to Goldberg’s, Yaacov Lozowick, a Jerusalem historian, noted that given the magnitude of the drought-fueled flames as they raced through the forest, it is not likely that any level of preparation would have made a significant impact. Still, Lozowick noted that “Israel is a sovereign country with a functioning state, and we’ll deal with whatever needs to be dealt with. Lost lives are lost forever, but all the other parts of the story will be fixed; even the charred forest will eventually recover, though it may take a generation.”

Donations, he said, are better sent to earthquake relief in Haiti or flood relief in Pakistan.

But even as the last embers smolder, there are no signs of the fundraising abating, as Jewish organizations here open their hearts and wallets to help Israel, often in the spotlight for helping other countries in their times of need, cope with its own large-scale disaster.

Funds have been established by the Jewish Federations of North America, American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. AJC said on Tuesday it will make an initial donation of $100,000 from its Israel Emergency Assistance Fund and will sponsor tree-planting ceremonies for ambassadors of countries that helped quench the flames, including Azerbaijan, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Holland, Italy, Jordan, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the U.S.

J Street, the pro-peace-process lobby, announced on Monday a $10,000 donation to match an additional $10,000 the lobbying group will raise to help rebuild damaged communities in the north. “Many of us have spent considerable time in the north — hiking, living, and exploring a lush and fascinating part of Israel — and some of us have family and friends affected directly by the fires,” said the Washington-based organization in an e-mail. “We want to do our part.”

The Orthodox Union and National Council of Young Israel each called on their member congregations to help. The OU established its own fund, the OU-Forest Fire campaign, while Young Israel will collect funds for the Israel Trauma Coalition, an organization formed to help communities in the north affected by missile attacks during the 2006 war against Hezbollah. The coalition partners with more than 60 organizations to deliver services. Both the OU and Young Israel promised to absorb administrative costs to enable 100 percent of donations to go to Israel.

Also pitching in is the American fundraising arm for the University of Haifa, which established an emergency appeal with a multi-million dollar goal to provide humanitarian support to the university community. “Our students and faculty live in the communities threatened and devastated by the fire and the campus itself is vulnerable,” said Aaron Ben-Ze’ev, the university’s president.

Goldberg said he personally donated to the Jewish Federation of North America emergency fund and plans to go to Israel in two weeks with his family in search of a volunteer opportunity.

“I feel this very deeply,” he said. “And it’s because I feel it so deeply that I’m pissed off.”