http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20080226bronfman.html

 all great people with great ideas.

http://picasaweb.google.com/yosefabramowitz/HallelBatMitzvahThursdayEvening

http://picasaweb.google.com/yosefabramowitz/BatMitzvahFriday

Announcing the Winners of the 3rd Annual JVibe Music Awards 

After a month of voting and hundreds of votes tallied online and through mail-in ballots, JVibe would like to announce the winners of our 3rd Annual JVibe Music Awards.  The winners are as follows: 

·         Best Jewish Album:  Matisyahu,

to Be.  Runner up:  Moshav, Misplaced.·         Most Innovative Music:  Idan Raichel Project.  Runner up:  Balkan Beat Box.    ·         New Artist Most Likely to Stick Around: 

The winning performers are currently highlighted at JVibe.com and announced in

JVibe would like to thank all of our voters and offer congratulations to the award winners.        For more information about JVibe, please visit JVibe.com or call 1-877-568-7462 to subscribe. Subscriptions are free in Alabama

JVibe is a publication of JFL Media,

. 

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/107025.html

Yesterday, in the down-pour overlooking Haifa Bay, Hallel and I, along with our friend Ziva and guide Mina (derech erez company), walked in the muddy footsteps in pursuit of Eliyahu.  Hallel’s hafotorah portion in a  week recounts how the Israelites sinned by following the god Baál; Eliaja challenges, before the entire nation, the priests and prophets of Baál to a dual, of sorts.  The entire nation shows up to watch the spectacle, surrounding Mount Carmel.  Eliyahu sleeps in a cave on the way up the mountain the night before the showdown.  Then climbs up.  He challenges the Baálers to prepare a sacrifice, call out to their hollow god and see if their diety can light it.  We visited the cave, pictures that say it all will be forthcoming.  We went to the site of the showdown, pictures forthcoming. Hallel practiced perfectly her portion in the very spot of the of the showdown, her sweet voice echoing gently in the hall some Carmelites have erected over the site. More shortly.

Basic schedule:  Thursday evening, light hike in kisuie in the full moon

Friday  9am and 10:30am tours of the experimental orchards and kibbutz for visitors

Friday 3pm group photo

6:30pm services

7:30pm festive dinner with kibbutz

9pm at keren kolot, tea, coffee and cakes for guests

Shabbat morning

9:30 services

10amish torah service

11:30  festive kiddush in hallel’s honor

noon-1pm festive dairy lunch

afternoon hiking

6pm light dinner

7:30  kabalat panim, havdalah, slide show, speeches

8:30pm  joint party for Adir (ketura) and Hallel

Sunday

Fun day with friends and family

For Immediate Release February 12, 2008

Contact: Micah Naftalin (202) 237-8262 x103

UCSJ MOURNS THE PASSING OF TOM LANTOS:

Champion For Progressive Foreign Policy, Holocaust Survivors, Soviet Jews and Human Rights

Washington, D.C. “UCSJ joins his family, Bay Area constituents and all

Americans in mourning the passing of Tom Lantos - California’s 12th District

Congressman and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee - the only

Holocaust Survivor ever elected to the U.S. Congress,” declared Micah H.

Naftalin, UCSJ’s national director in a statement issued today.

“Soviet Jewry activists owed Tom a special debt of gratitude. In the 1970s

and 1980s, he championed our cause in so many ways: a partner in grassroots

activism through his support of UCSJ’s Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews, a

pioneering leader of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, and a committed

leader of the House’ Committee of Conscience Vigil, where members inserted

biographies and messages of support for Refuseniks and Prisoners of

Conscience into the Congressional Record. His wife Annette Lantos co-chaired

UCSJ’s Soviet Jewry Congressional Wives committee for more than a decade.

“Our paths crossed many times over the decades, in connection with promoting

Holocaust remembrance as well as Soviet Jewry and human rights/religious

freedom in the Soviet Union and in the post-Soviet era.,” Naftalin notes. In

the early 1980s, Naftalin served as acting director of the U.S. Holocaust

Memorial Council, when planning and fundraising began for the U.S. Holocaust

Memorial Museum, in the nation’s capital during the chairmanship of Elie

Wiesel. “One of my fondest recollections of that period was working with

Tom and Annette Lantos to get the street name in front of the Museum changed

to Raul Wallenberg Place in honor of the “Righteous” heroism of the diplomat

who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews, including Lantos.

“In his final days, Lantos maintained his priorities, encouraging colleagues

in the House and Senate to offer support to the work of the ‘Coalition

Against Hate,’ a consortium of 30 human rights and religious freedom NGOs in

Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, organized by UCSJ and the Moscow Helsinki

Group,” Naftalin observed.

“The Holocaust, the plight of Soviet Jews, the courage of the Soviet

dissidents and the continuing concern for human rights and religious freedom

in that region are but examples of Tom Lantos’ leadership and advocacy in

the realm of America’s foreign policy. His death is America’s great loss.

UCSJ mourns his passing,” Naftalin concluded.

—###—

The Covenant Foundation will be publishing a book celebrating their 18th anniversary, filled with essays and speeches of the various winners.  Since I had to dig it up anyway for them, I’m pleased to share with you the award speech, delivered at the GA. Enjoy.

(the video of the presentation is available on-line at http://www.jflmedia.com/covenant.htm)

Thank you so much. Thank you so much.  Thank you for affirming my rebellious past as part of the journey.  

In this week’s Torah portion, Yaakov has a dream of angels going first up and then down a ladder.  Our commentators teach that this dream awoke Yaakov to the awareness that the angels and God are always with him. 

On my journey I have had so many angels it is not possible to name them all in the 3 minutes I have.  But some of my dearest ones are here today. 

I am proud to welcome my father, Dr. Martin Abramowitz, a dedicated senior Jewish civil servant but also the master of Jewish baseball cards.  

Larry Moses and Cindy Chazin of the Wexner Foundation;
you took a chance many years ago on a student rebel and Read more

The Kraft family, who own the New England Patriots, are patrons of Jewish Peoplehood in so many ways and still win the top honor amoung Jews who own sports teams for their contributions to their communities and to strengthening the Jewish people.  Thank you for an amazing season.  They will be here in Israel in March with some Patriots.

Super Tuesday:  Here’s my commentary from Beliefnet.com on the place of religion and values in the national elections.  click here.

We were back home on the kibbutz for Shabbat:-) Up again at the hospital on Tuesday.

click here for photos.