In tribute to Rabbi David Montag, 68, spiritual scientist, Reb Carlebach's L.A. "Ohr Chadash" founder, grandfather, and teacher

Rabbi David Montague, Professor of Physics most recently at East L.A. College, died of a massive coronary at his home north of Pasadena on Thursday, 20th March 2008, the Jewish holiday of Purim. He died one month short of his 69th birthday.

A funeral service was held in Los Angeles on Sunday, 23 March. Burial followed at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Commerce, California.

Rabbi Montag co-founded the L.A. congregation, Ohr Chadash, with Reb Carlebach who granted him smicha, along with Rav Wasserman. Ohr Chadash was the predecessor havurah to today's Happy Minyan. Rabbi Montag served as Reb Carlebach's emissary in Los Angeles. He possessed a thorough knowledge of the unseen universe, teaching college-level physics at several colleges in L.A. (most recently East L.A. College) and teaching Kaballah avocationally. He was knowledgable in many areas of science and technology - he was deeply involved in the digital media revolution, reporting from the annual Consumer Electronics Show, but he shunned mobile phones out of concern about their carcinogenic properties. Ironically, at the time of his heart attack at home, he was not able to make it to a landline to dial 911.

Rabbi Montag has passed on his legacy to many former college students. His family survivors include his first-wife, Bracha and daughter, Esther, now of Montpellier, Idaho; his sons Michael of Arcata, California (Humboldt County) and Daniel of Los Angeles. David's second wife of 16 years, Olga Volozova (whose wedding Reb Carlebach officiated), and David's step-son, Daniel, of Hollywood.

Shiva for the late Professor Rabbi David Moshe Montag is being observed through Friday at Daniel Montag's apartment in L.A.: 137 1/2 S. Sycamore (one block east of LaBrea, between 1st & 2nd Streets) Shacharit 7:00am; Mincha 6:30pm. May his family and friends be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Express your feelings, pay tribute to Rabbi David Montag, share your grief, and offer condolences to the family through the Comment capability below. Please indicate if you have photos you'd like to have posted at http://www.davidmontag.com/ - such as this one filmed by Olga 16 years ago.

Enjoying the whole megillah at Purimpalooza 2008 JConnect LA

Jconnect Executive Director, Cheston Mizel and wife, Laura, explain the history of Jconnect's five Purimpaloozas.



Jewish-Americans celebrate Am Yisrael's survival on Purim - mindful of the need to defend it against those who make Jewry their enemy in each generation. Jconnect makes the religious and the cultural expression accessible to the new generations.

(The) Moshav (Band) Celebrates Shushan Purim at the Carlebach Happy Minyan, L.A.

Great musical performed filmed March 22, '08 in available (low) ambient lit performance. (Video improves as performance progresses, by second of 11-parts). The Chai Center's Rebbetzin Olivia Schwartz leads a hora in honor of an announced engagement in segment 6. (Click second button for videos menu).

How could anyone in his right mind not be on the side of Israel?

Easter gift from agnostic, Hugh Fitzgerald, published in DhimmiWatch:

The Israelis, or a majority of them, know their true situation. It is their government, from which so many Israelis are now so obviously disaffected, that refuses to know. But that government is wrong. Soberly recognizing the permanent meaning, and menace, of Islam, and acting and planning accordingly, and helping or insisting that other countries, including the United States, recognize the real nature of the threat that Israel faces, is not a counsel of despair.

Nor is helping those other countries, including the United States, to understand that the Jihad against Israel is a Lesser Jihad, one of many whose sum is the worldwide Jihad, a "struggle" by Muslims, using various instruments that go beyond, and are more effective, than terrorism, to remove all obstacles to the spread and then to the dominance of Islam.

Read it all.

Kabbalistic Artist's Paintings "World of Unlimited Possibilities" Exhibited in L.A.

The artist, Benson Simmonds, known for his acting, dramatic instruction, and paintings, opened a 24-hour charitable show Tuesday 18 March, The World of Infinite Possibilities.



Live, jazz entertainment was performed by at the opening by the talented and gracious, Richard Glazer Jazz Trio. Singer/songwriter Mary Rand (www.myspace.com/maryrand/) also entertained.

The show ran at SPF:a (www.spfa.com/) 8609 Washington Blvd, Culver City, Calif 90232. 30% of art sale proceeds will go to For the Child to help child victims of domestic violence.

What Israelis Gave for Peace - to learn from

Hat tip to Paul of Moral Madness: "Not one more inch! Gaza Pullout, it gained nothing."

Purim's Live, Global, Solidarity Rallies to be Webcast

Purim Thursday: Join The Largest Ever Online Solidarity Rally For Israel

A global series of simultaneous pro-Israel rallies are planned for Purim night.

The solidarity rallies on March 20 will be presented live on the Internet by the sponsoring organization, One Family Fund, which supports victims of terrorism. A Web site (www.together4israel.org) created for the event will allow the public to participate.



Alan Dershowitz, the well-known American lawyer, and Irwin Cotler, a member of the Canadian Parliament and a human rights expert, will begin the event from Sderot with residents of the rocket-plagued town.

The rally will then move to Jerusalem, where psalms will be read at the Western Wall. At the same time there will be a gathering in London followed by rallies in New York City at the Kehilat Jeshuran synagogue, in Los Angeles at the Simon Wiesenthal Center and finally in Australia.

To Sir, With Love - with Chabadnik as Sidney Portier

NBC Today Show's video: skeptical, dangerous South Bronx Jr High School undergoes transformation from worst to first- under rookie Principal Shimon Waronker - a Spanish-speaking, Lubavitcher Chassid.

Christian Tourism to Israel Increases Support for Strong Jewish State

Pastor Kay Arthur Supports Israel Tourism Execs
Originally uploaded by gameways

Pastor Kay Arthur encourages Christian leadership's support for Israel, spiritually, politically, and in personal pilgrimages. Ms. Arthur stands together with Israel Tourism Ministry's Rami Levi, El Al's CEO Ofer Gat, Israel's Ministry of Tourism Director-General, Shaul Zemach; El Al Chairman Izzy Borovitch.

G. Gordon Liddy Tough on anti-Semites; Importance of Strong, Independent Israeli Defense

G. Gordon Liddy greets Unity Coalition for Israel's Esther Levens
Originally uploaded by gameways

G. Gordon Liddy, prior to speaking-out against anti-Semitism and over-restraining Israeli self-defense. He addressed the first Judeo-Christian, "Proclaiming Justice to the Nations" Alliance dinner. Pictured chatting with Unity Coalition for Israel's Director, Esther Levens, at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville.

Pastor Kay Arthur Encourages Christians' to Defend Israel

Pastor Kay Arthur Encourages Christians' to Defend Israel
Originally uploaded by gameways

Pastor Kay Arthur encourages Christians to better understand the Judaic nature behind Christianity, including making personal pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Israel. At Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, Pastor Jerry Sutton.

Christian teens honor the 12 tribes of Israel with Israeli folkdancing

Christian teens honor the 12 tribes of Israel with Israeli folkdancing
Originally uploaded by gameways

A pageantry of folk-dances and banners representing the 12 tribes of Israel adorned the Proclaiming Justice to the Nations' dinner at the NRB in Nashville.

"It was a slaughterhouse"- Zaka; Muslim slays 8, wounds 40 at Jerusalem's Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva

The attacker entered the yeshiva and opened fire on students before he was gunned down himself by an armed civilian. Witnesses say that the attack began in the seminary's library with the terrorist spraying bullets in every direction before anyone could react.

"It was a slaughterhouse," said Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, head of the Zaka emergency service after surveying the scene at the Merkaz Harav seminary, one of the most prominent Jewish educational centres in Jerusalem.

While most of the students are high-school age, the dead were all thought to be between 20 and 30 years of age.

It was the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians in nearly two years and the first attack inside Jerusalem in four. It occurred at the start of the Hebrew month in which the Purim holiday occurs, and many of the witnesses at first thought the gunfire was firecrackers in celebration.

The part-time yeshiva student who killed the terrorist, 40-year-old Yitzchak Dadon, said that he shot the attacker in the head with his personal weapon. David Shapira, a yeshiva graduate and officer in the paratroopers, heard the shots from his nearby home, ran to the yeshiva and "finished [the terrorist] off."

Asked by a Channel 2 TV reporter what weapon the Palestinian Authority terrorist had, Dadon said, "A Kalachnikov," and turning to the camera, he angrily added, "The Kalachnikov that you gave him, President Peres ..."

The scene outside the yeshiva was furious and passionate, with at least 50 ambulances and as many police cars on the streets outside, and angry yeshiva students and local residents lined up behind police tapes, chanting, “Death to Arabs,” “Olmert — you are to blame” and “Who gave them weapons?”

Daniel Seaman, head of the Israeli government press office, said: “Jerusalem is a town where Jews and Arabs live together. The terrorist took advantage of the fact that he could move freely in west Jerusalem.”

In Gaza City, Palestinians went out into the streets and fired rifles in the air in celebration of the attack against the Jews of Jerusalem. Some fired weapons in the air, and threw sound bombs in the streets, while drivers pressed on their cars horns. Other Palestinians delivered candies and sweets in the streets in celebration. Mosques loudspeakers in Gaza also broadcasted verses of the Quran, the Moslem holy book, with speakers saying "we congratulate our people for the heroic and selective attack in Jerusalem."

The Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva is located near the entrance to Jerusalem, in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood. The yeshiva, founded by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, is at the heart of the national-religious movement in Israel.

Asked what the government should do, Rabbi Nachum Levy, 60, said: “I would like to see Olmert go with a strong hand.” Where? “Everywhere, in Gaza and the north and inside,” he said, “and not dismantle settlements.” (from Israel National News & combined sources)

Saudi Savagery Spotlights Culture Clash; Mosque Worshippers Pickpocketed

The Morning After Obamania
Krauthammer concerned about complications the morning-after Obamania (hat tip, Israel-Commentary.org, Attackcartoons.com)


Obama has an astonishingly empty paper trail. He's going around issuing promissory notes on the future that he can't possibly redeem:

• ·Promises to heal the world with negotiations with the likes of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad;


• ·Promises to transcend the conundrums of entitlement reform that require real and painful trade-offs;


• ·Promises to fund his other promises by a rapid withdrawal from an unpopular war -- with the hope, I suppose, that the (presumed) resulting increase in American prestige would compensate for the chaos to follow.
  

President Bush waived congressional restrictions to directly transfer $150 million to the Palestinian Authority.

President Bush waived congressional restrictions to directly transfer $150 million to the Palestinian Authority. The transfer ordered Friday is part of a package of more than $500 million in Palestinian assistance earmarked for use this year.

Congress in recent years has banned direct transfers of cash because of fears that the money could end up in terrorist hands and because of concerns about P.A. corruption.

Much of the pro-Israel community also strongly opposes direct transfers. The Bush administration says the Palestinian Authority needs the cash to leverage loans at a time that it is confronting extremists and pursuing peace talks with Israel.

Global News: Dutch Wilders looking for a broadcaster for his Qur'an film

(AP) Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders said Monday he has begun negotiations with Dutch broadcasters about airing the 15-minute film, "Fitna." He said he will only allow them to show it in its entirety, and if they refuse, he plans to show it to the media and post it on the Internet.

"We have never learned to be intolerant toward people who are intolerant toward us, toward cultures that are intolerant toward us," he said in a recent Associated Press interview....

If it airs, Dutch Muslims are expected to file criminal complaints for racial or religious vilification. Prosecutors would then have to decide whether to charge Wilders with any offense.

JihadWatch publisher, Robert Spencer, augments:

Will accuracy be a defense in that event? After all, the Qur'an does teach violence against, and the subjugation of non-Muslims (see 9:5, 9:29, etc. etc.). And jihadists do point to such verses to justify their actions. So if Wilders' film sticks to the facts, will it really constitute religious vilification?

Islamic World News: From the "Islam is Peace" blotter:

Muslim Uncle Butchers his 15-Month-Old Nephew in Jeddah Supermarket

JEDDAH, 3 March 2008 — Early morning shoppers at a supermarket in Jeddah were left reeling yesterday, with some falling unconscious, after a well-built Syrian man clinched a knife and decapitated his 15-month-old nephew in front of his mother in the store’s fruit and vegetable section.

Saudi royals withhold oil-riches from human-welfare programs, leading Muslims to steal wallets from Mosque pray-ers.

Police said they had received reports from a number of locals that their wallets had been stolen while attending prayers in a mosque located in the north of the capital. Police later monitored the mosque and were able to apprehend one suspect, who had in his possession a stolen wallet. The man led police to his accomplices.

Armed Robbery Rate Alarming in Saudi Capital City; High-Unemployment Blamed

Riyadh police announced that they apprehended three suspects — two of them of Arab nationalities and the third an African — in connection with a number of muggings in Riyadh, the capital.

Over the past year armed robberies have increased in the capital at an alarming rate. Police have exerted efforts in apprehending suspects, the majority of them local youths who are also involved in car thefts and muggings. In one incident reported by the local police a few months ago, three suspects threatened a foreign worker in a grocery store with a machine gun.

Limmud and Jewlicious, explore Jewish-pride, religion, culture, survival

Los Angeles metro-area experiences 2 Judaic-themed happenings within 3-weeks. Check-out some of Jewlicious 4.0's name-act, Jewish-pride, musical highlights. Rav Shmuel confronts the pain of prejudice against Jews with humor, performing his "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" for the Jewlicious Festival audience. Moshav inspires Yids to "Come Back" to their motherland. Y-Love combines cultures in spiritual rap and hip-hop.



Debbie Friedman's medley of folk and freilach had the broad spectrum of gals and guys at LimmudLA turning the whole venue into a dance party.

Here are the Limmud attendence statistics:

L.A. Limmud is latest version of global learning extravaganza
By Sue Fishkoff for JTA Published: 02/19/2008
COSTA MESA, Calif. (JTA) -- It was the Karlin-Stoliner rabbis in the Havdalah congo line that had everyone buzzing.Sure, there were great workshops, spirited davening, morning yoga and late-night shmoozing, and all the other multigenerational, multidenominational, plura-palooza that Jews in the know have come to expect from the Jewish learning extravaganza known as Limmud, which made its Los Angeles debut this past weekend.But of the dozens of sessions that took place over three days -- from a midnight screening of the low-budget Chasidic zombie movie “Night of the Living Jews” to Deborah Lipstadt’s Sunday morning talk on Holocaust denial -- what stuck in the minds of many of the 650 participants was the two Chasidic guys in their long black coats and fur shtreimels.

Mrs. Deidre and Dr. Richard Sterling were among the LimmudLA participants who appreciated Israeli General (ret.) Shimon Erem explaining his boss David ben Gurion's ideology to nurture alliances with gentile friends supportive of the Jewish national refuge.