Prevent Swine Flu - Say "Asher Yatzar" (now, in ENGLISH)

After posting about this flier yesterday, issued by the NYC Board of Health -- in Yiddish, my good friend, Special Ed, found it for me in English as well.

Make sure your school, shul and workplace remind people about the importance of washing their hands with soap to prevent Swine Flu infection...and don't forget to say, "Asher Yatzar" -- print it up, hang it up, and stay healthy!

Just click the image for a full sized printable version.

This has been a public health message from the NYC Board of Health....and the Muqata Blog.


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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Dreams 101

I had a very odd dream last night -- I was transported back [in time?] to Yeshiva College, and was required to attend a course in English Composition.

I was unsure why I had to take the course as it seemed apparent to that I had already fulfilled the requirement for graduation. I raised all sorts of issues to the professor who replied "those are advanced topics, we won't be discussing those in the framework of this course." The dream seemed to drag on and on, and I found the whole experience rather weird.

It could be that Yeshiva College has been on my mind because of the largest fraud in the history of the universe, committed by Bernard Madoff (trustee of Yeshiva University and Chairman of YU's business school) -- and the involvement of J. Ezra Merkin -- the scion of a philanthropic family known for its support of Modern Orthodox causes and also a YU trustee and chairman of YU's investment committee. The email letter I received (in triplicate) from YU's president, Richard Joel was reassuring about YU's financial future (depsite someone on YC's campus rumor-mongering that tuition would be raised to $50K/year for undergraduates.)

Maybe it had to do with my free-food post last week about YU (which I'm sure Madoff would appreciate these days).

Any dream analysts out there?

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Hebrew isn't only difficult for Olim.

The local Arabs have many problems with it as well.

The best sign of all was in Beit Lechem...the last time I saw it was in 1995 before Israel created the BeitLechem bypass, bypass road. It was in English and said, "No Barking"







Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

JPost: Biting the Hand that Reads You?

This post will probably kill my chances for being ever linked to the Jerusalem Post again, but I'm so annoyed at their current ad campaign that I had to post about this.

Last week, while driving through Kfar Sava, I saw the above huge red billboard.

Sorry, Stanley.

What the heck?

An ad for the Hebrew-only business magazine of the Jerusalem Post -- it's a nasty swipe at the head of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fisher.

Stanley's an American, who was brought to Israel by then-Finance Minister Netanyahu. With an impeccable record, it's about time that Israel appointed professionals, rather than petty, incompetent political hacks -- even if they are "imported" from outside of Israel.

So, the ad people working for the Jerusalem Post thought it would be "clever" to make fun of the fact that Stanley Fisher is "imported from America" and they attempt to imply that his Hebrew is sub-par to understand the Hebrew-language Jerusalem Post Business Magazine. (FYI, his Hebrew isn't bad at all)

Not only are they insulting one of the most respected people in Israel's financial community, but *I* was insulted.

Making fun of olim for their lack of Hebrew skills?

And from the company that runs the primary English Language paper in Israel?

What the heck are they thinking at the Jerusalem Post?

They think that's funny?

Shame.



A special thanks to my wife for taking the pictures of the billboard for the blog while we were driving :)

On second thought, it would have been much funnier is if they wrote:

Olmert: You won't be able to read this in jail!

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael