Teaching and Peace Talks

BH

My day teaching began with myself walking into a blazing hot room (air conditioner is broken) full of tired, uninterested nine and ten year olds. Nevertheless, we hit the ground running and got them engaged and motivated through some humor, and an introduction to the book that we are going to be reading for the first part of the year "James and the Giant Peach". My major error today was planning on today being only an introduction to the course and its materials without any sort of backup lesson should the intro and discussion on class procedures not fill the whole class time today (which of course it did not) . I would have begun a short ways into our novel for English (math didn't end up being such an issue time wise) but With the holidays being what they are this month Class days are so disjointed, i just worried that the students might have a hard time keeping up with the book. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Middle east peace talks have begun this week between President Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and PA President Abbas. for what ever reason , everyone seems very disenfranchised with the whole process, I couldn't imagine why....

New York

BH

New York Is so interesting. One of the pieces of this blanket statement that has been somewhere on my mind recently is the way people view and interact with other from different groups (races, religions). It seems that one of the byproducts of a city of a zillion people going a zillion miles a minute is the "necessity" stereotypes. It has become wildly apparent that most people here run completely off of stereotypes. In fact, it appears to be the only thing that has transcended the racial/cultural divide.this is not my big gripe about New york, nor is it something that is "the problem with this place", It just seems that while most people (all?) are aware of stereotypes, everyone flagrantly and deliberately runs all interactions and notions of others through stereotypes. It's like some impenetrable force field that insures nobody ever has to waste their time actually looking at someone because they already know who they are and where they came from. The best part is, because everyone works from this set of preconceived notions about one another, no one seems to mind at all. in fact it saves them the time from having to make a friend or an enemy, or neither.

La Haine

BH

Long, Long day of school meetings and curriculum writing hoopla. Once I finally got home I watched La Haine. great French movie from the mid nineties set during the riots in Paris. two days till school starts. on the bright side, it looks like we'll be taking a vacation to Nashville to visit family later in the month! It'll be mice to be out of Brooklyn for a while. Speaking of which, Murfreesboro made it in the news all the way up here! Of course, it was for someone trying to stop the mosque construction in town by setting the equipment on fire, but I can still be excited. Whats bets it turns out the owners did it just for the money, that would have been as good a time as any. It would be nice if i was correct.

Not to overdo it but...

BH

So I'm not sure if anyone here has ever taken a gander at Chinese Universities at all, but none of their websites are functional in almost anyway, especially the English versions (not exactly translated well either). Just thought I would share as I was perusing Beijing schools. however i will say that both Japan and China have surprisingly well developed philosophy and religious studies departments, as far as a cursory glance would tell anyway.

http://www.blcu.edu.cn/english/index.asp
http://ev.buaa.edu.cn/index.php
http://english.ruc.edu.cn/
http://www.ouc.edu.cn/E_ouqd.html

Heres where to find them all:
http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/highschool/66744.htm

Times, they are a changin'

BH


Up all night working on the curriculum for math, science, Rosh Hashanna, and Shlach(in a loose definition of the word work). Had a Farbrenging for Chai Elul which turned out to be much more productive that I had thought it would have been (or at least I hope it will be ;) ) One thing I'm noticing as far as this curriculum I am working on is that almost no one has asked to see it prior to two days before school starts. Its nice to feel as though my administration trusts me but somehow my intuition tells me that it has more to do with oversight and apathy than my extrodanaire ability as an brand new educator, but that might just be me. In any case I am looking forward to the coming year teaching and finishing smicha (BH) because I need to start Grad school soon! I'm going to be here's some photos of things until school actually starts!

The colour blue and a new Kurdish voice

The colour blue and a new Kurdish voice: "Al Jazeera Blogs"

Purim in Spokane!

BH

So here I am in spokane, washington for purim. How did i get here? Well, I was chosen as one of Dovid Luna's friends to go and represent everyone at the yeshiva who were friends with Dovid. There was, unfotunatly, only enough money for one ticket. anyway, due to this tragedy, I am making frelich in Spokane. I'm glad I could be here for Dovid even though I wish it was under much differant curcimstances, and I also wish I could be with my Kallah and all my friends (including Dovid) in Crown Heights, but this is were I am and am supposed to be right now. So frelichen Purim to everyone and I can't wait to get back and see everyone!!

Heres a thought

BH

If the whole idea of individuals not alerting the beis din of the mockery being made in they're name is because we're afraid they'll agree with these schutzim and force us to close down, why is the response instead to just close down...? I'm having a hard time seeing the logic. If they were to G-d forbid attack you, would your defense be, instead of calling the police, to punch yourself in the face? how about doing a little standing up for ourselves, and showing that not only can we write good, but we stand up to bullies good too.

BDE Dovid Luna

BH

A friend of mine, Dovid Luna just passed away in a car accident. I didn't get a chance to see him very much recently except for at my L'chaim when we danced togather for a few seconds, but i did get to learn with him for a while and gain some great advice about all kinds of things. He was a amazing Jew, chossid, and all around good guy. He is really going to be missed. Your Neshama should get an Aliyah Dovid ben Avraham.

What are they thinking?

BH

I'm really interested in what these peoples thought process is. Do they think that everyone will stop blogging? do they think that everyone is going to take them seriously? Do they actually believe that the way they are doing things is correct? What is going going through there heads when they are deciding how to hurt another Jew ad desecrating the the mission of the Rebbe? Do they feel justified or self-righteous? here's something more important, do they think that they even have a chance at succeeding in their "mission/chillul H-shem"? Do they imagine the Rebbe smiling and nodding his head that this misdeed? cowering behind a idiotic email address may keep any consequences from befalling them now, but do they think that blackmailing another Jew and impersonating a Beis Din doesn't have its spiritual consequences? When you see something you believe is wrong, I was taught (by my parents and the Rebbe's teachings) You stand up face to face with it and say I think you should stop, or change what your doing, then you help in the change. My Name is Yisroel and you should stop what you are doing, the people you have offend are good Jews and I'm sure would forgive the awful things you said and did. this is Lubavitch, we go on shliuchus, we love Jews. Try that angle instead.