Breaking Down Judaism | Rabbi Wolpe | Rubin Report

Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report talks to Rabbi Wolpe (Senior Rabbi of Sinai Temple) about Judaism, Orthodoxy, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, the political component to Judaism, the state of Jews in America in 2017, and more.

Happy Easter ! Frohe Ostern! Joyeuses Pâques !

Jordan's Former Crown Prince under House Arrest over Alleged Coup

THE OBSERVER: Authorities also arrested two aides after raiding King Abdullah’s half-brother’s palace in capital Amman

Jordanian authorities raided the palace of the kingdom’s former crown prince on Saturday and arrested two senior aides after uncovering what intelligence officials believe was an attempted coup against the ruling monarch, King Abdullah.

The arrests focused on a network allegedly connected to Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, a half-brother of King Abdullah, who was removed from his post 16 years ago.

Prince Hamzah said in a video recording he was under house arrest and had been told to stay at home and not contact anyone.

Speaking in English in the video, passed by his lawyer to the BBC, he said he was not part of any foreign conspiracy and denounced the ruling system as corrupt.

“(Jordanians’) well[-]being has been put second by a ruling system that has decided that its personal interests, financial interests, that its corruption is more important than the lives and dignity and future of the 10 million people who live here,” he said. » | Martin Chulov, Middle East correspondent, and Michael Safi | Saturday, April 3, 2021

Hitler, Nazis, Zweiter Weltkrieg - und wie die Deutschen heute damit umgehen | Meet the Germans

"Don't mention the war"? Hitler und die Nazis ein Tabu in Deutschland? Keinesfalls. Hier begegnet man der Vergangenheit auf sehr vielfältige Weise. Rachel Stewart hat sich 75 Jahre nach dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs auf Spurensuche begeben - und dabei auch Timur Vermes getroffen, der mit seiner Hitler-Satire "Er ist wieder da" einen internationalen Bestseller gelandet hat.

Die gebürtige Britin Rachel Stewart lebt seit 2016 in Deutschland und lernt noch immer Neues, Überraschendes und Erstaunliches über die Deutschen und ihre Kultur. Für “Meet the Germans” taucht sie in den deutschen Alltag ein - und mit wahren Kulturschätzen wie “Bier”, “Fleisch” oder “Weihnachten” wieder auf. Aber auch kontrovers diskutierte Themen wie “Deutsche Digitalisierung” oder “Voll emanzipiert? Frauen in Deutschland” gehören natürlich zu “Meet the Germans” dazu.

Boris Johnson ‘a Clown’ with No Diplomacy Skills, Says Ex-deputy in Diaries

THE GUARDIAB: Ex-Foreign Office deputy Sir Alan Duncan says PM mistakes regular headlines for political power

Boris Johnson’s former deputy at the Foreign Office has described him as an “embarrassing buffoon” in a new book. Sir Alan Duncan, the MP for Rutland and Melton from 1992 until the last election, said the prime minister was “a clown, a self-centred ego, an embarrassing buffoon, with an untidy mind and sub-zero diplomatic judgment”. “He is an international stain on our reputation,” Duncan added, in diaries which have been serialised in the Daily Mail.

The diaries, made into a book titled The Thick of It, cover his final four years in parliament during Brexit and Johnson’s move to Downing Street. Duncan served on the Conservative frontbenches for 18 years and was a former minister for international development.

In the diaries, Duncan also quotes the business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s criticism of Johnson.

In an entry on 29 March 2017, Duncan wrote that he had run into Kwarteng in New Palace Yard in Westminster.

“He says Boris doesn’t appreciate that diplomacy is not about having nice conversations with your friends: it’s about how you engage with those who are awkward,” he wrote. » | Molly Blackall | Saturday, April 3, 2021

‘Raise My Taxes – Now!’: The Millionaires Who Want to Give It All Away

THE GUARDIAN: Abigail Disney has parted with $72m – and thinks the rich need to pay far more tax. As Covid widens the inequality gap, she and an international league of the super-rich are urging governments to take their money

Abigail Disney has always been very, very rich, or, as she describes it, “too rich”. The money came with her name: she is the granddaughter of Roy Disney who, with his brother Walt, founded the Walt Disney Company in 1923. Disney, 61, refuses to say how much she has, but acknowledges she would have been a billionaire in her own right had she not realised in her 20s that it was her fortune that was making her miserable, and decided to start giving it away.

She has been donating to good causes ever since – $72m (£52m) and counting, mostly to groups helping women in prison, women living with HIV, and victims of domestic violence. But giving it away is no longer enough. She wants the tax collector to take more money, not only from her, but from “all of the absurdly rich people across the world”.

“We’ve long known that the world is hugely unequal,” says Disney. “But now the pandemic has really shown it to all of us, and no one in all conscience can continue to ignore it.” Disney is speaking over Zoom from a pristine white sofa in her San Francisco home. Today, she looks more hippy chic than heiress: her light-brown hair falls in long, gentle curls, and there is a discreet peace dove tattooed on the inside of her wrist.

“It is like when your kids have a bath, and you pull the plug out and slowly all the little toys at the bottom are revealed,” says Disney. “That is what has happened here: now we all know what is going on under the surface.” As well as killing more than 2.5 million people, the pandemic and global lockdown response has plunged some 150 million more into “extreme poverty”, according to the World Bank. The Washington-based institution described Covid-19 as “a heat-seeking missile speeding toward the most vulnerable in society”. » | Rupert Neate | Saturday, April 3, 2021

The Patriotic Millionaires »

‘Kill the Bill’ Protesters Rally across England and Wales on Saturday

THE GUARDIAN: Demonstrations against crackdown on right to protest are organised in 25 cities including London

Protesters are rallying in central London and 24 other towns and cities in England and Wales on Saturday against a crime bill that critics say will severely restrict the right to stage demonstrations.

The police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, which passed its second reading in parliament last month, will modify existing public order legislation to make it easier for police to ban or shut down peaceful protests if they are considered too disruptive or likely to lead to disorder.

Opponents of the bill have called it an attack on the right to protest and a step towards authoritarianism. They warn that in conjunction with new laws giving agents of the state licence to commit crimes while undercover and changes to the judicial system, the balance of power is being tipped towards the authorities, eroding individual freedoms. » | Damien Gayle | Saturday, April 3, 2021

Moscheereport: Islam und Homosexualität

Schwul und Muslim - das geht nicht. So sehen es viele Gläubige im Nahen Osten, aber auch in Deutschland. Warum das richtig sei und auch so bleiben solle, berichtet ein Imam im Moscheereport. Constantin Schreiber berichtet im Moscheereport über das Verhältnis zwischen Islam und Homosexualität.

Verbotene Liebe - Homosexualität im NS-Regime

Gleichgeschlechtliche Liebe war in den Augen der Nazis entartete Sexualität. Tausende schwule Männer kamen in den Konzentrationslagern ums Leben. Das schwul-lesbische Filmfestival Pink Apple in Zürich widmete im Mai 2015 diesen verboteten Liebesgeschichten einen Schwerpunkt.

Homosexualität in der Geschichte: Von der Antike bis heute

In der Antike gehört Homosexualität zum Alltag – und ist nicht strafbar. Mehr als ein Jahrtausend später im Mittelalter werden Homosexuelle verbrannt, die Nationalsozialisten unter Adolf Hitler verfolgen, misshandeln und töten homosexuelle Menschen. Wie sich der Umgang mit Homosexualität, vor allem der Kontext homosexueller Handlungen, im Laufe der Geschichte gewandelt hat, erfahrt Ihr in diesem Video mit MrWisssen2Go Mirko Drotschmann. Homosexualität als Begriff für gleichgeschlechtliche Liebe ist natürlich viel jünger als gleichgeschlechtliche sexuelle Handlungen und Liebe. Die gibt es vermutlich seit Beginn der Menschheitsgeschichte. Aus der Antike kennen wir einige Darstellungen solcher Handlungen. Die Praktiken sind weit verbreitet, haben aber eine andere Bedeutung als heute. Mirko erzählt Euch von antiken Vasen mit eindeutigen Bildern, homosexuellen Handlungen im Krieg, von Richard Löwenherz, der mit Philipp II. von Frankreich das Bett teilt, um seinen Vater zu verärgern. Dann geht es im Video über Homosexualität in der Geschichte um das christlich geprägte Mittelalter. Im Mittelalter werden Menschen für homosexuelle Praktiken bestraft. Vom Mittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit an werden Homosexuelle bis weit ins 20. Jahrhundert kriminalisiert, stigmatisiert und verfolgt. Trauriger Höhepunkt ist die Verfolgung von Homosexuellen im Nationalsozialismus. Die Nazis richten eine eigene Behörde dafür ein, die „Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung der Homosexualität und Abtreibung“. Auch nach dem sogenannten Dritten Reich werden homosexuelle Handlungen in der Bundesrepublik nach §175 des Strafgesetzbuches jahrzehntelang unter Strafe gestellt. 1994 wird der bereits abgemilderte Paragraph 175 in der Bundesrepublik komplett aufgehoben. In der DDR sind Homosexuelle seit 1988 rechtlich gleichgestellt. Mirko spricht auch über die LGBTQ+-Bewegung, die Stonewall-Aufstände in den USA, und damit einhergehende Veränderungen. In diesem Video versucht Mirko, die Geschichte des Umgangs mit Homosexualität nachzuzeichnen.

Wir danken an dieser Stelle Frau Dr. Jana Kristin Hoffmann für die hilfreichen Anmerkungen!

Die gefälschte Bibel

Glaubt man der Bibel, dann hat Gott zur Zeit des Propheten Mose Völkermorde, die Todesstrafe und Tieropfer befohlen. Gleichzeitig gab Gott durch Mose jedoch das Gebot: „Du sollst nicht töten“. Auch distanziert sich Gott durch einige Propheten des Alten Bundes deutlich von den Ritualen der Tieropfer. Wie kommt das? Hat Gott zwei Meinungen - oder wurde die Bibel gefälscht?

Es erstaunt: Für die Katholische und die Evangelische Kirche sind alle Teile der Bibel, trotz der vielen Ungereimtheiten und offensichtlichen Fälschungen, das wahre „Wort Gottes“. Um die Antwort zu finden, warum es so viele Widersprüche in der Bibel gibt, muss zuerst der Frage nachgegangen werden: Wer hat die Bibel geschrieben? Wer hatte entschieden, welche Schriften in die Bibel aufgenommen wurden und welche nicht - und warum nicht?

Die Antwort ist ernüchternd: Es waren durch alle Zeiten die Pharisäer, Schriftgelehrten und Theologen, die diese Entscheidungen getroffen haben - im übertragenen Sinn die „Priesterkaste“. Doch welche Interessen waren im Spiel? In der TV-Dokumentation „Die gefälschte Bibel“ wird diesen Fragen nachgegangen. Die Ergebnisse überraschen und lassen erstaunen.

Nikotin ~ Droge mit Zukunft! | Doku | ARTE

Opinion: Boris Johnson’s Government Is Built on Cruelty

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Determined to make good on the nativist promise of Brexit, it has embraced anti-migrant authoritarianism.

LONDON — Last week, as Britain focused on its gradual emergence from lockdown, the home secretary, Priti Patel, laid out the government’s “New Plan for Immigration.”

The details were deeply sinister. Only those coming through resettlement schemes, who amount to less than 1 percent of refugees globally, would be welcomed. Everybody else, forced to take life-threateningly dangerous journeys, would be branded “illegal” and aggressively penalized. They would be blocked from key state support, given diminished family reunion rights and be permanently liable for removal, even if granted asylum.

These drastic proposals — which some suggest could contravene the United Nations’ 1951 Refugee Convention — have been months in the making. Last year, Ms. Patel reportedly raised the possibility of sending asylum seekers to islands in the south Atlantic and considered deploying the Navy to prevent people from reaching Britain’s shores. Her plan, inhumane and wrongheaded, exemplifies how the British government treats migrants and refugees.

But such cruelty goes further than the asylum process. Since Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government took office in December 2019, promising to “Get Brexit Done,” it has sought to institute a harsher, more punitive system of immigration and border control. In the name of British sovereignty, it has suffused its rule with anti-migrant authoritarianism. » | Maya Goodfellow | Thursday, April 1, 2021

Top UK Brain Surgeon Calls for Urgent Inquiry into Assisted Dying

THE GUARDIAN: Henry Marsh reveals he has advanced prostate cancer and says law ‘insists I must suffer’

Henry Marsh, one of the UK’s leading brain surgeons and a bestselling author, has called for an urgent inquiry into assisted dying after revealing he has advanced prostate cancer.

Marsh, the author of Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery, said dying of cancer could be “a very horrible business” but the law “insists I must suffer”. Politicians had “shown a striking lack of compassion by ducking this issue for too long and are inadvertently guilty of great cruelty”, he said.

His call for an inquiry is backed by more than 50 MPs and peers from different parties, some of whom have previously voted against changing the law. Their letter to Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, argues that the UK has now fallen behind many other countries on the issue of assisted dying.

Last month Spain became the latest European country to approve legislation giving patients with incurable diseases or unbearable conditions the right to choose to end their lives with the assistance of a doctor. » | Harriet Sherwood | Thursday, April 1, 2021

ORF Zeit.Geschichte: 30 Tage bis zum Untergang Österreichs 1938

The RCA's Ban on Smoking Tobacco versus Judaism's Take (2009)

Timeshift: The Smoking Years (BBC)

Ask The Rabbi: Is Smoking a Sin?

The Difference Between Judaism, Christianity & Islam

What Is God?

This lecture was Sponsored in memory of Barbara Schwartz by her family.