Product Labeling, The Newest Attack on Israel

From Aipac

In November 2015, the European Union (EU) took the calculated step of imposing new labeling guidelines on certain Israeli exports produced in areas that came under Israeli control during the defensive 1967 Six-Day War. Though billed as mere “compliance” with long-standing European policy, the EU’s new foray into labeling marks a significant step in a dedicated campaign to pressure Israel into sensitive, unilateral concessions to the Palestinians. The EU’s action—taken outside the context of peace negotiations—is designed to impose Brussels’ vision of Israel’s future borders. These commercial attacks against Israel increase the prospect of isolating the Jewish state, while strengthening its most vitriolic critics and slowing the pursuit of peace.

Europe has pursued a policy of "differentiation" for nearly a decade—treating Israel as two distinct entities, one legitimate, one not—often cast in the mundane language of law and commerce. To wit, though Israel's first free trade accord was with the European Union, and it remains Israel's largest export market, the EU in 2004 disqualified Israeli exports produced in areas acquired during the Six-Day War from the preferential treatment afforded all other Israeli products.

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Drug for rare muscular dystrophy fast-tracked

Israeli company BioBlast targets orphan diseases that traditional pharmaceutical companies won’t touch.

By Abigail Klein Leichman for Israel21c

Treatments for extremely rare medical conditions are few and far between. The number of cases of “orphan diseases” doesn’t justify the amount of cash needed to get a pharmaceutical developed, tested and approved.

This is exactly the niche that Tel Aviv-based BioBlast Pharma was created to fill in 2012. Now its three experimental platforms are moving closer to market.

Cabaletta, BioBlast’s lead product for treating two rare and currently untreatable conditions — oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) and spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) — received Fast Track approval in June from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expedite the drug’s development, review and potential approval specifically for treating OPMD.

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You have to see what was just uncovered in Jerusalem!

Incredible archaeological discovery brings Bible to life.

Dr. Eilat Mazar has unearthed a new discovery from her latest archaeological excavation in Jerusalem: the bulla of King Hezekiah of Judah. The clay seal stamped with Hezekiah's name was found in the royal quarter of the Ophel and marks Mazar's newest biblically related find.

The inscription on the bulla reads: "Belonging to Hezekiah [son of] Ahaz, King of Judah."

Watch this video about King Hezekiah's seal.


 


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Why the Maccabees Aren’t in the Bible

The books that tell the Hanukkah tale didn't make it into the Hebrew Bible -- but they are in the Catholic one.

By Rachael Turkienicz for MyJewishLearning.com

The First and Second Books of Maccabees contain the most detailed accounts of the battles of Judah Maccabee and his brothers for the liberation of Judea from foreign domination. These books include within them the earliest references to the story of Hanukkah and the rededication of the Temple, in addition to the famous story of the mother and her seven sons. And yet, these two books are missing from the Hebrew Bible.

In order to begin addressing the question of this omission, it is important to understand the formation of the Hebrew biblical canon. The word “canon” originally comes from the Greek and means “standard” or “measurement.” When referring to a scriptural canon, the word is used to designate a collection of writings that are considered authoritative within a specific religious group. To the Jewish people, the biblical canon consists of the books found in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible).

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The new Jewess: A rising generation of actresses overturns old tropes

by Danielle Berrin for JewishJournal

The year is 1950. The setting is a dimly lit movie studio backlot. It’s the middle of the night, and an attractive young woman named Betty Schaefer is explaining to her screenwriting partner why she became a writer instead of what she really wanted to be — an actress. The movie is “Sunset Boulevard.”

“I come from a picture family,” Schaefer (Nancy Olson) tells Joe Gillis (William Holden). “Naturally, they took it for granted I was to become a great star.  So I had 10 years of dramatic lessons, diction, dancing. Then the studio made a test.  Well, they didn’t like my nose — it slanted this way a little. I went to a doctor and had it fixed.  They made more tests, and they were crazy about my nose — only they didn’t like my acting.”

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The Pilgrim Family: A Jewish Perspective On Thanksgiving

Arnold M. Eisen For The Blog/Huffington Post

With assistance from the phenomenal memory of a friend of mine from high school days, I can still recall the essay I wrote for 9th-grade English class about Thanksgiving. "Of Bands and Bullwinkle," I called it, the reference of course being to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and the balloon of my favorite cartoon character. The tone, my friend and I presume, was a combination of mild disapproval that a solemn occasion intended for the collective expression of gratitude to God had become a day devoted to parades, football and filling up on turkey--and real affection for the parades, the games, and especially the turkey. Parenthood and middle age have only increased my affection for all three. I liked Thanksgiving a lot when I wrote that piece, and still do.

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The Talmudury Tales

Women without underarm hair, transvestites seeking illicit sexual relations, lepers who can’t shave, nazirite gentiles, grape-eaters, and other Chauceresque characters, in this week’s ‘Daf Yomi’

By Adam Kirsch

Literary critic Adam Kirsch is reading a page of Talmud a day, along with Jews around the world.

Throughout Tractate Nazir—whose end Daf Yomi readers approached this week—there has been a very natural assumption that the only people who can become nazirites are Jews. Indeed, it never occurred to me that it could be otherwise: Isn’t naziriteship a part of Jewish law, as laid down in the Torah? Yet in Nazir 61a, the rabbis point out that the textual basis for naziriteship, in the Book of Numbers, is not crystal clear on this point. The subject is introduced with the words, “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When a man or woman shall clearly utter a vow, the vow of a nazirite, to consecrate himself to the Lord.” The phrase “speak to the children of Israel” seems to imply that what is to follow—the rules and restrictions of naziriteship—is intended for Jews only.

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