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May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women
Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces
Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage
Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study
Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: 'Noodles,' Asian style is a carb sub, sure. But they are also amazingly delicious and colorful

April 19, 2013

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: When violence seems the only answer

Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama's visit to Israel had no impact on public opinion or government policy

Morgan Housel: Gold collapse: The start of something big?
Harvard Health Letters: Can you die of a broken heart?

Pete Spotts: Livable super-Earths? Two candidates among Kepler's latest finds

Nora Schultz: Oxytocin helps beat booze cravings

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: Middle Eastern cuisine meets Italian delicious with this lentil and eggplant pastitsio

April 17, 2013

Shira Rubin: Too much of a good thing? 'Palestinians' realize downside of foreign aid boom

Geoffrey Mohan: Can computers decode dreams? Researchers take a first step

Morgan Housel: BAD NEWS: EVERYONE IS RIGHT!
Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 heart-healthy eating tips help cut saturated fat but not taste

Michael Craig Miller, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Told your child has sensory processing disorder? Seek a second opinion

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Corn and Curry Add Zing to Chilled Soup

April 15, 2013

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Death of Education?

Kristen Chick: Egyptian Christians respond with harsh words to attack -- rocks, Molotov cocktails, and gunfire -- against main cathedral

Marcy Darnovsky and Karuna Jaggar: High Court to decide if you should own your DNA
Howard LaFranchi: US bracing for more Russian blowback after taking action against 18 more human rights violators

Kristin Ohlson : The loneliest fight

The Kosher Gourmet by Dana Velden: A tasty, rich dish that hints at spring's arrival while still anchored in a favorite winter staple

April 12, 2013

Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: The Inspired Loner

Caroline B. Glick : Must we continue to be enablers of our own destruction?

Mark Clayton: New cybersecurity bill: Privacy threat or crucial band-aid?
Morgan Housel: Twitter: The carnival barker of investing

Harvard Health Letters.: Dietary supplements: Do they help or hurt?

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jackie Robinson's Friend, Hank Greenberg; CNN's Jake Tapper; Texas County in the News is named for 19thC. Jewish soldier and Congressman

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: FRUITY QUINOA STUFFED PEPPERS: A flavorful, colorful and edible vessel of delicately fluffy, mildly nutty filling combined with chewy apricots, tangy cherries, and crunchy pistachios

April 10, 2013

Edmund Sanders: Kerry leaves Israel with hopes, but few results

Nicholas Blanford: Iran's 'axis of resistance' loses its Palestinian arm to Syrian war

Peter Grier: North Korean missiles: Could US shoot them down?
Morgan Housel: Warning: Don't waste your capital being fooled by profit prophets

Donald Hensrud, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Take vitamin supplements with caution --- even approved, they may actually do damage

Eryn Brown: 74 DNA discoveries move cure closer for three cancers

Mark Guarino: Google Glass already has some lawmakers on high alert

The Kosher Gourmet by Dana Velden: A soup to feed every guest, no matter how finicky

April 8, 2013

Jonathan Tobin: What Part of No Preconditions Do American Jews Not Get?

Christa Case Bryant: No Place on Earth

Fred Weir: Is Putin finally trading his own party for a new power base?

Hara Estroff Marano: The Spice of Life
P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: Harvard Health Letters: Generic drugs: Don't ask, just tell

David Cook : Husband-hunting advice from Princeton alum triggers outrage, humor

The Kosher Gourmet by James T. Farmer III : A simple, rustic white pizza: Good ingredients, fresh herbs, and an infused olive layered upon a crispy crust hits the spot


Jewish World Review April 9, 2008 / 4 Nissan 5768

‘We interrupt this program…’

By Paul Greenberg


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Easy off, easy on. That's what the billboards used to say out West along I-40 somewhere between Amarillo and Albuquerque under that pitiless sky stretched endlessly across the treeless High Plains. The signs usually advertised some Roadside Attraction. A gas station-cum-petting zoo, a souvenir shop (AUTHENTIC TURQUOISE JEWELRY!), or maybe a "museum" featuring Genuine Indian Artifacts — pottery, arrowheads, maybe a skeleton of Prehistoric Man behind glass.


Call it cut-rate sacrilege. Then, after the kids had had their run and the grownups were caffeinated, it was back on the interstate to the next rest stop and/or alligator farm. It was all fairly depressing, but anything for a break from the glaring sun.


I thought of all that on reading what happened to a bunch of foreign reporters/tourists when they went to Lhasa, capital of Tibet — the Roof of the World, Land of Lamas, Shangri-La and all that. It's now Occupied Tibet, though the commissars doing the occupying pretend that Tibet is an "integral" part of China, and that Tibetan culture/religion is just another quaint curiosity for the tourists. A show to take in. And be taken in by. Every communist regime from Pyongyang to Havana has become quite proficient at running these Potemkin tours.


This time the visiting delegation was being escorted through the Jokhang Temple, a regular tourist stop in Lhasa, and was part way through its Official Briefing — i.e., pack of lies — when reality erupted. A group of some 30 monks burst into the proceedings, shouting things like: "Don't believe them! They are tricking you! They are telling lies! Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free!"


It was as if, in the middle of the same old play, the whole set had collapsed, and the real world had come flooding in. ("We interrupt this program to tell you the truth….")


Some of the monks wept as they told the foreigners their stories. They said they'd been held in the temple for weeks while the Tibetan capital was jolted by the violent protests that had finally made the world news. Naturally the UN's "Human Rights" Council — long dominated by exemplars of freedom like Cuba, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Vietnam and Zimbabwe — declined to debate the Chinese clampdown on the demonstrations. In Lhasa, the bodies were soon collected, the monks silenced, and iron order restored. But for a moment human voices had been heard.


It was enough to bring back memories of Tiananmen Square, 1989. Remember the great demonstrations, the rumble of tanks? And then the appearance of a lone human being defying the Power of the State while the whole world watched? The line of tanks slowed, then stopped. The invincible machine had proved vincible. For a moment the spirit of man, stark, solitary, yet never defeated, was glimpsed, never to be forgotten and always waiting to reappear. Every tyranny lives in fear of such a moment.


It was also enough to bring back a long-ago visit to another citadel of human rights, the late Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of unlamented memory. It was 1983, and we innocents abroad were being given a stage-managed tour of Zagorsk, the ancient monastery an hour from Moscow that the guidebooks say not to miss. For centuries the focus of pilgrimages and then the seat of the official, state-approved version of the Russian Orthodox church, the monastery was being run much like any other Intourist attraction.


From afar the gold-and-white churches, with their delicate crosses glistening in the sun, had beckoned like a mirage. The priest who welcomed our group of American journalists whisked us through an adjoining museum, where thousands of icons had been collected, classified and catalogued like so many genuine Indian arrowheads. As a spiritual center, Zagorsk had long since been converted into a roadside museum — a discreet, Disneyesque view of religion.


As we were escorted in and out of the various chapels at Zagorsk and past walls of icons, much as one would be invited to admire the remains of an extinct culture, an undercurrent of murmuring could be heard all around us. It came from the pilgrims who didn't realize that religion was a thing of the past. They'd come to Zagorsk to do penance, heal their souls, say their thanksgivings, praise Him….


No desperate monks interrupted our tour to shout the truth, and yet the prayers all around said more than any protests whole about which was the living culture and which the fading regime.


At one point a troika of official priests conducted our Official Briefing. An editorial writer from Virginia — Gene Autry Owens of Roanoke — quickly dubbed them the Three Stooges, and the name stuck, for they were perfect representatives of Sovreligion. Each explained how grateful to the all-powerful State its subjects were. They were less priests than goodwill ambassadors for tyranny, exemplars of what happens when the church becomes but an arm of the state.


We came away knowing this kind of "faith" can't last; its falsity is transparent. It doesn't touch the soul. On the contrary, its very purpose is to anesthetize it. (Any American who thinks religion would benefit by government support might profit by the history of the Soviet-sponsored kind.)


Something tells me the temples of Lhasa will still ring with prayers long after the current Chinese empire follows its predecessors into the annals of the past. One day a free Tibet will no longer be a dream. And a free China will no longer be limited to an island off the coast of the mainland. Call it faith. And while its fruits may be long in coming, it is more convincing than Official Briefings, more enduring than tanks.

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JWR contributor Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Send your comments by clicking here.

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