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 »

Pete Chagnon
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has recently come under fire for quoting a fictional Bible passage.
According to a CNSNews.com article, in her Earth Day news release, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) attributed this quote to the Old Testament: "To minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us." However, many biblical scholars cite a problem with that quotation: it doesn't exist in the Bible. 
It was not the first time Pelosi has used this alleged biblical passage. The California Democrat has used it on several different occasions, and has even attributed the passage to the Old Testament Book of Isaiah. 
Dr. Raymond Bohlin is president of Probe Ministries, a non-profit apologetics ministry. He offers his findings. 
"You're just not going to find that kind of statement anywhere in Isaiah, let alone anywhere directly in scripture at all -- Old Testament or New Testament," says Bohlin. "So, you know, it's hard to know where something like that gets started. But it's unfortunate that she's referring to it as a scripture quotation because it's not." 
Although Bohlin agrees that Christians need to be good stewards ...   more »

M. Abdul Hafiz
THERE are speculations galore that between now and June, before things slide into the thick of American election, Israel is likely to attack Iran, with the latter reacting with a quick ripostethus starting a mutually bruising war in the gulf. We couldn't care less if either Democrats or Republicans benefit from the possible catastrophe, but it does worry us in this region as to what might happen to Afghanistan and Pakistanboth Iran's neighbours but closely aligned to the United states. India, another US ally whom the US administration has been able to have on her side in its stand-off with Iran, will also matter in the ensuing conflict. How the next armageddon in a region close to ours will be eventually played out in the present milieu is of profound interests to observers. To make matters complex, a number of ethnic economic factors are also involved. Thus, the scenario appears alarmist and, hopefully, it is just that.
The June deadline for a possible Israeli assault on Iran has come from diplomats who watch the Middle East closely, some of them having been interacting with Israeli officials, others with Iran and its neighbours in the region. Their lunch ...   more »

Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili
Iran's top national security official held talks Monday with the acting secretary of Russia's National Security Council aimed to defuse international concerns about Tehran's nuclear program.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said his talks with Russia's Valentin Sobolev focused on what he called a package of "serious" Iranian proposals designed to minimize the nuclear threat around the world.
Jalili did not disclose details about the package.
He said Iran is ready for talks with world powers, but that such discussions must respect the Islamic Republic's growing role as a regional power.
Russia has has been a key ally with Iran in its nuclear standoff with the West.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's top investigator arrived in Tehran today for talks the IAEA says will focus on allegations Iran has researched how to make nuclear weapons.
Olli Heinonen is scheduled to begin three days of negotiations Monday. He held talks in Tehran last week as well.
Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, insists that Heinonen's visits are part of Tehran's routine cooperation with the U.N. nuclear agency. Soltanieh heads the Iranian delegation in the talks.
Original Source
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By Daniel Pipes  
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | As Barack Obama's candidacy comes under increasing scrutiny, his account of his religious upbringing deserves careful attention for what it tells us about the candidate's integrity.
Obama asserted in December, "I've always been a Christian," and he has adamantly denied ever having been a Muslim. "The only connection I've had to Islam is that my grandfather on my father's side came from that country [Kenya]. But I've never practiced Islam." In February, he claimed: "I have never been a Muslim. … other than my name and the fact that I lived in a populous Muslim country for 4 years when I was a child [Indonesia, 1967-71] I have very little connection to the Islamic religion."
"Always" and "never" leave little room for equivocation. But many biographical facts, culled mainly from the American press, suggest that, when growing up, the Democratic candidate for president both saw himself and was seen as a Muslim.
Obama's Kenyan birth father: In Islam, religion passes from the father to the child. Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (1936-1982) was a Muslim who named his boy Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. Only Muslim children are named "Hussein".
Obama's Indonesian family: His stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, ...   more »