by Liba Pearson
Those who took up arms weren't the only heroes in the Holocaust.
Memory occupies a place of sanctity in Judaism.
"For Jews," says Esther Farbstein, a Holocaust researcher and writer, "remembrance, zicharon, is an obligation. We are commanded to remember."
After the daily morning prayers, we read the six remembrances: The exodus from Egypt, receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai, Amalek's attack on the Jewish people, the sin of the golden calf, Miriam, and the Sabbath day.
They're a strange combination: the first two are evidence of God's power and love for the Jewish people, and of the landmark events that formed us as a nation -- our most exalted moments.
The second two are painful, shameful -- the tribe of Amalek's attack on the nation's weakest as we made our way out of Egypt and, later, when the Jewish people betrayed God by worshipping the Golden Calf.
The fifth reminds us when God punished Miriam, our prophetess and leader, the source of water in the desert, for slanderous speech.
And the final is Shabbat, our calendar's holiest day, which our sages write is a taste of the world to come.
How is it that we are ...   more »

Iran has stopped conducting oil transactions in U.S. dollars, official confirms
Dependence on the dollar reduced in face of increasing U.S. pressure
U.S. unhappy about Tehran's nuclear program and alleged involvement in Iraq    
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer, has stopped conducting oil transactions in U.S. dollars, a top Oil Ministry official said Wednesday, in a concerted attempt to reduce reliance on Washington at a time of tension over Tehran's nuclear program and suspected involvement in Iraq.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's President, has called the dollar a 'worthless piece of paper.'
 Iran has dramatically reduced dependence on the dollar over the past year in the face of increasing U.S. pressure on its financial system and the fall in the value of the American currency.Oil is priced in dollars on the world market, and the currency's depreciation has concerned producers because it has contributed to rising crude prices and eroded the value of their dollar reserves.
"The dollar has totally been removed from Iran's oil transactions," Oil Ministry official Hojjatollah Ghanimifard told state-run television Wednesday. "We have agreed with all of our crude oil customers to do our transactions in non-dollar currencies."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the depreciating dollar ...   more »

Ap, herb keinon and jpost.com staff
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert returned Wednesday afternoon from an unannounced trip to Jordan, where he met King Abdullah II.
A palace statement said Olmert's closed-door talks at an Amman hilltop palace with Jordan's ruler come as part of the king's efforts to Push forward peace negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Abdullah urged Olmert to work on "improving the living conditions of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," the statement said.
It said the king told Olmert that his negotiations with the Palestinians must "lead to an agreement between both sides before the end of the year, according to the two-state solution" and "pledges by all sides at the Annapolis meeting," in reference to the Annapolis Conference in Maryland, last November.
The palace statement quoted the king as saying a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement must "deal with all outstanding final status issues and the end result would be the establishment of an independent Palestinian state."
The statement also said that Olmert briefed Abdullah on his talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and praised the king's efforts to "ensure progress" to "help achieve peace between Palestinians and Israelis."
Al Jazeera reported ...   more »

JTA
Bahrain will name a Jewish ambassador to the United States, a report said.
Huda Azar Nunu, a Jewish woman who is a lawmaker in Bahrain’s upper house, will be named to the Washington position, according to a report this week in A Sharq al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily published in London.
"The sources denied that the appointment of Nunu as a woman and a Jew is a public relations campaign by Bahrain in the West, emphasizing that Huda Nunu has proven her qualifications, whether through her membership in the Consultative Council or through her work in human rights associations, of which she is an active participant in Bahrain," the newspaper said.
Bahrain, a Persian Gulf state sandwiched between Iran and Saudi Arabia, has a tiny Jewish population dating back to Talmudic times. Nunu is descended from Iraqi Jews who migrated to the port of Manama in the late 19th century. Jews in Bahrain have kept a low profile but generally have been treated well.
The nation is considered among the more progressive in the region, and was among the first to allow women to run for public office.
Original Source
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'Social change' organization says 'masculinity' too narrowly defined
A state-funded organization in Maine touted as "a stellar program for social change" is advertising a seminar that essentially provides information to impressionable school-age boys on how to be homosexual, according to a pro-family organization opposing the plans.
The seminar, "Queer, Questioning, Quiet: Developing Gender Identity & Male Sexual Orientation," is promoted by the Boys to Men organization in Portland, Maine, during its coming 2008 conference. The session will feature a presentation by speakers from the homosexual Proud Rainbow Youth for Southern Maine, officials said.
"I think it's outrageous," Michael Heath, chief of the Christian Civic League of Maine, told WND. '"This is now starting to happen in public schools throughout our state. The public needs to wake up, become aware, and speak out against it."
The Boys to Men website advertisement about its conference says the outreach is "targeted primarily to middle and high school boys and their adult male mentors." The workshop on homosexuality, the website said, includes "speakers from the Maine SpeakOut Project and PRYSM (who) will discuss their own coming-out experiences and use these as a springboard for exploring LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered) issues and resources ...   more »