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July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

June 13, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine

Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends

JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 12, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

June 11, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say?

Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult'

JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination

June 6, 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem

Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs

JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 5, 2008

David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend'

Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread

JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 4, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster'

Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus

JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler

June 3, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East

Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel

JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator?

He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Dec. 4, 2006 / 13 Kislev, 5767

Alas, babble on: English becoming de rigueur

By Mitch Albom


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | As I write this, I am on a plane to France. On my lap are two books:


"French Beyond the Basics" and "The Everything French Verb Book." I purchased them last week at a U.S. bookstore, along with four French study CDs, none of which I have been able to listen to but all of which are in my bag, as if they might fly out and start playing themselves.


I am doing what I always seem to do when I go a foreign country: trying to learn the language overnight.


On the one hand, I feel like an idiot (or, as the French say, an "idiot"). You can't master anything on an airplane — even if you did study it for three years in high school and one year in college.


On the other hand, at least I am trying. I wonder if in 50 years, anyone even will bother.


Once upon a time — you know, like, our childhoods? — learning another language was deemed critical. You were forced into a class as soon as you started high school, sometimes even junior high school. They gave you a textbook with an illustration on the front — the Eiffel Tower, a bullfighter — and you began, for the first time in your life, to learn new, funny-sounding translations for the simplest words you knew.


Je m'appelle — My name is.


La table — The table.


Chapeau — Hat.


They showed you filmstrips and played tapes. You had a teacher who would call you "monsieur" or "mademoiselle." The thinking was that this was important. It wasn't that everyone in class had a plane ticket. It was just a sense that someday, somewhere, you might encounter foreigners, you might visit one of those faraway places you dreamed of, and you would need to communicate.


We were learning a survival skill.


Or it least it felt that way.


It doesn't anymore. TV, movies and particularly the Internet have elevated English to a loftier status, while rendering other languages almost quaint: nice if you want to bother, but, then again, why bother?


Everyone speaks English now. Foreign businessmen coming to America have all mastered "business English." With trade barriers lowering in Europe, one language became imperative, and you know which language that was.


Young foreigners who like American culture have seen enough MTV videos to get by in our country — even if the words they know aren't our most admirable contributions to the mother tongue.


And as tech services and telemarketing spread overseas, even people in more remote parts of the world are discovering they can get paid by American companies — at superior wages to what their national employers pay — if they just learn the English language.


In short, there is motivation.


But where's the motivation the other way?


It is dwindling. And that's a shame. There is something beautiful about every language in the world. There are phrases that only make sense in that language, sounds that roll off the tongue in a particular way, similes, metaphors, colloquialisms, odd expressions.


There is also something humbling about having to meet people on their terms, instead of expecting them always to meet us on ours. Food may be food, but ordering in a foreign restaurant and having to say, "Do you have mustard?" and only being able to say, "Do you have mustard?" and seeing the waiter say, "Eh?" and having to repeat, only much louder, "DO YOU HAVE MUSTARD?" — well, you can see where the ugly American image begins.


I suspect that in 50 years, people will be wearing devices that instantly translate their English into whatever language their geography requires. I also suspect that the people listening to them will say, "Don't bother. I can speak English."


Meanwhile, I am still trying to conjugate the verbs "aller" and "jouer" before I land, and trying to pronounce the phrase "Quelle joie d'etre de nouveau a Paris." In English, that would be "It's great to be back in Paris" but the actual words translate to "What a joy to be new in Paris."


What a joy to be new. I like that. I can't pronounce it to save my life.


But it's worth a try, and it always should be worth a try.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

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