The Ugly American (Canadian) in Jerusalem
583535
This book would be more accurately titled "a bunch of random journal entries by an Ugly American in East Jerusalem." Delisle spends a year in East Jerusalem with his girlfriend and their children while she works for Doctors without Borders. The book is his travelogue of that time, but Delisle manages to spend a year in an incredibly diverse and vibrant city and not be changed in the least by it. He shows contempt for almost everyone he meets and seems continually surprised when things are different from a North American City. He never asks why people do what they do, just is surprised by their actions.

A few examples:
He gives several presentations and workshops on cartooning to Palestinians throughout the year. During the first one, he "accidentally" shows a cartoon of a naked woman and man. One might think that he could figure out that in a society where women dress modestly and often go veiled, they might be a little offended by the nudity. In fact, a third of his audience leave immediately. At the next presentation, he shows the same images to "see what would happen." One might expect that he would learn from his first experience and be more sensitive to the Muslim culture, but he doesn't. He does it again and again.

During passover (which he bizarrely calls the "Jewish Easter" which shows a major misunderstanding of both holidays), when Jews are forbidden to eat products with yeast in them, he gets annoyed that many of his regular foods are hidden behind plastic sheeting. Instead of asking why this is or is it's ok to buy them, he pushes the plastic aside and takes what he wants (p. 241). What he doesn't realize is that by doing so, he could be making many foods in the store unkosher and if someone saw what he was doing, possibly cost the store time and money to clean up his mess.

He is especially critical of Israeli Jews in the book, seeming to have no understanding of Judaism and no desire to learn. He repeatedly comments on the prevalence of weapons among Israeli Jews, but never seems to ask why. He eats in a cafe where people are remembering those who died at a suicide bombing at the same cafe a few years earlier, but gets continually surprised that there is security guard at the door who checks his bag. He never connects the dots and understands that the check is to make sure he isn't a suicide bomber. He looks at a guard with a gun at Masada and comments that "you see weapons even in the most peaceful places" (p. 157). But never asks the guard why she is there or why she carries a gun.

He goes to the ultra-orthodox neighborhood of Mea-Shearim a lot. He draws a sign he saw on the wall that asks tour groups not to pass through the neighborhood. I was in Jerusalem at the same time as he was and know that the sign continues and asks tourists to dress modestly and respect the beliefs of the residents (though this part of the sign is not in the book). He seems to think that the residents just don't like tourists, and ignores the fact that the tourists may act in ways that are offensive to the residents. I'm not sure he understands that some of his behavior is offensive, though clearly he doesn't care when it is.

The most shocking frame of the book is when he compares ultra-orthodox Jews to monkeys on page 107. I didn't get the impression that he is overtly anti-Semitic, but I think the last people to make such a comparison were the Germans in the 1930's.

The books reads like the journal of a man who walks through life untouched by any of it. It's a random collection of images and tells no coherent story. Many of the images and stories contain no explanation or if they do, it is often incomplete or incorrect. He generally cares only about doing his drawing but has no care to learn what or who he is drawing. He's an ugly American (though he is from Canada) and it's a shame he wasted the opportunity of spending a year in Jerusalem.
3040982
Excellent book.  Clear picture of what is going on in Israel/Palestine.. Written in a clear and concise manner that does not cover the authors disgust at what is happening. As a Jew, As an American, as an inhabitant of this planet earth I cannot ignore the injustices being perpetrated. Reading this book will give you a view into the day today life of people in the area we to seldom see in the daily press..
3535520
IF YOU WERE ME AND LIVED IN ISRAEL

Take a trip to the Middle East and lets visit Israel and learn about the State of Israel also called Medinat Israel. Your home would be in the Middle East on the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Judaism, Christianity, Island and the Bahai faiths believe it or not consider Israel as a Holy Land. You might live in Jerusalem which is one of the oldest cities in the world. The history of this city is described on page 4 and the picture of page 5 brings it alive and into your home allowing you to experience living there too. If you are a boy you might be named Noah and a girl Maya or Talia. What I called my mom growing up Ima and my dad Abba. Shopping with Ima and Abba in the Shouk or open air market you would be able to get just about anything from clothes, to good to assorted products. Halov is milk and lechem is bread and the money used is called shekels. For fun you would invite visitors to swim in the Dead Sea as you take a swim learn about the Dead Sea and why nothing can survive there and more when you read the beautifully illustrated story on pages 12-13. Visiting grandparents is like going to have a real feast. Smell the foods and check out what they make on pages 14-15. My favorite was watermelon, turkey and grilled meat. Whats yours? Football with friends on television and when you visit them you play outside and practice your track and field games. You work hard to get into the Maccabiah games which are international contests like the Olympics. Boys learn a form of self-defense called Krav Maga and sometimes little sisters try their hand at it too. Who can resist glida? If you want some find out on page 20 and 21 what it is and go and try some yourself. The author continues by explaining Purim and the customs and the history behind reading the Megillat and the celebration of the ancient Queen Esther who saved her people from the evil king. When you read in English you read from left to right in Hebrew from right to left. Do you know why? Find out how the ancient tablets required that someone hold the surface of the stone they were suing as a hammer and why it required a strong hand to hold it and why we write from left to right. Read pages 24-25 and learn more. Find out about school and what they learn about ancient and modern Israel in the biet safer or the house of books. A special glossary of terms at the end and students can do some more research about Israel long ago and today and learn why so many love to visit there and enjoy the food, the people and the customs. If you were me and lived in Israel live would be different and definitely exciting. For history teachers, elementary teachers, parents, study groups, clergy and young adults to learn about a special place that means so much to so many long ago and today. Illustrated by Kelsea Wierenga helping readers join in the tour and visit the country as once again author Carole P. Roman takes us on a memorable journey to the Middle East.
1340389
From the name of the production company (Hatikvah Film Foundation -- Hatikvah is the Israeli national anthem) to the innocuous packaging design and description on the vhs case, this "documentary" seems designed to lure unsuspecting Jews to watch what purports to be an interesting documentary about Jerusalem and the Prophets of Israel,  but which slowly reveals itself to be a ruse and is rather an underhanded attempt at conversion, selectively mirepresenting the Hebrew Bible and ending with the hope that Jews will come to see who their "true" messiah is.  Why not be forthright and honest about your intentions from the get go?  I appreciate the support for Israel but am very offended by the sneaky way this film goes about proselytzing.  It is not done in good faith, to say the least.  (Note: I took this film out at the public library and was completely surprised when I realized its true contents)
2417465
I really enjoyed this book.  Some of the information he brings to life bring light into the references to the city of Jerusalem and the birth of the nation of Israel.  I highly recommend this book.
4391640
A wonderful little book prepared as a guided tour through the major historical sites in Jerusalem, ranging from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to the Knesset.  Chronological if only by way of starting at the oldest center of the old city and working forward. But each step is so deeply layered in time.  The book is first and foremost a chronicle of the folly of humanity as embodied by the idiotic wars between the various brands of clergy, and the more bloody affairs related to racial and ethnic riots.  So much of it based on ignorance escalating into endless rounds of reprisal.  You can see so many preposterous legends fabricated out of nothing and being transformed into venerable truths.  The story of Mohammads  midnight ascension from Jerusalem apparently fabricated after the fact, with some assuming that he must have risen from the rock at Jerusalem, and others saying its not possible because no city could be more holy than Karbala  if he ascended to heaven from anywhere, it had to be there.  The heroes of the story are the Victorian Englishmen such as Warren, Storrs, and Ashbee.  The list of improvements made under the British is substantial  sanitation, water supplies, education, and medical care.  In fact, part of the aura of the city seems to stem from the value that outsiders put upon the place as well as the improvements that were made to the infrastructure.  So this is not a complete history, but presents so many hallowed shrines in a very interesting light.  I liked the quote of some anonymous nun that even if the Lithostratus Pavement Stones were late Roman and therefore never trodden trodden by Jesus, they were still holy by way of the many centuries of prayer said over them.  That pretty much tells the story of this particular book.
3499304
Jerusalem comes to life in this tale of orthodox Jewish singles and matchmakers. The descriptions of the lives of the characters and the city itself jump off the page and are so realistic I felt I knew everyone and could picture everything so clearly. For anyone who has intimate firsthand knowledge of this life, or anyone who is curious, this book is sure to please. The author did a brilliant job of capturing all the emotions of the various characters. A beautiful book.
4838640
Power money and a perfect place for making speeches.  America will suffer along with Israel.  Christians be wary and Look out gun owners.
1394582
Is VAPID Americanization bad for Israel?  Is national unity a pejorative?  According to Segev, social collectivism is dead, Americanism is thriving in Israel.  Private parties now supplant group celebrations.  If Paul Newman were to reprise his role as Ari Ben Canaan from the 1961 film, "Exodus," he might portray a capitalist in Ramat Aviv Gimmel, and not a committed Kibbutznik.  Segev feels that more Israeli's pay homage to the Elvis statue at an Elvis Diner on the road to Jerusalem, than to a Herzl statue that stands outside of Herzliya, that beachside bastion of prosperous capitalism.  Personally, aside from this post-Zionist's thesis, the book is worth reading if only for the bounty of tidbits of Israeli social history and the voices of Israel's scholars that are included.  Segev smartly uses a recurring theme of statues, and the reader is left with a fresh look at the future of Israeli society.
339762
Not very long ago, I went to the West Bank to care for my ill father.  I flew to Amman/Jordan; and the next morning I left Amman at 6:30 am and arrived to my destination in the West Bank at 7:15 PM.  This trip usually takes a little more than an hour if it wasn't for the extremely difficult conditions the Israeli occupation has created.

When I arrived to the border crossing, I cleared the Jordanian side of the border crossing in about 30 minutes, after that, I took the buss that is used to shuttle the Palestinians between the Jordanian and Israeli ends of the border crossing.  The buss waited for 4 hour on the bridge(over the Jordan River)until the Israelis allow them to cross, the buss I rode was full with people, families with their children who started getting wrestles and cried as time went by.

As I was waiting inside this bus, I was thinking what if a woman or a child wanted to use the bathroom, where would they go! I looked around and there was no bathroom insight.  After crossing the Jordan-Israel border, we were driven in another buss to Jericho where we started yet another tedious trip to our destinations in the West Bank.

In Jericho we took a taxi which drove us for hours on dirt roads to avoid the endless wait on the Israeli checkpoints.  On one check point we waited and waited and waited and later the driver was told by the Israeli soldiers manning the checkpoint to turn back, it was getting dark by then and the driver managed to find a dirt and muddy road between the olive orchards.

Although I applaud Mr. Carter for his courage and honesty, I wish that he has said more about the injustices imposed on the Palestinians by the Israeli occupation.
3756245
Limor Livnat writes in this book that after the Six Day War, someone scribbled "Am Yisrael Chai" (the people of Israel live) on the Arch of Titus in Rome.

You see, the Arch of Titus is there to celebrate the destruction of Jerusalem, over 1900 years ago.  The Roman Empire is gone.  And the Jews they went after, by no means as numerous or wealthy as the Romans, are still around.  Livnat says that this means that the Jews have "defied history."

I wouldn't put it quite that way.  But I do think we ought to realize that Big Empires can topple, while a much smaller people can withstand losing some battles and wars.  In particular, I wouldn't be surprised if the Jews, having outlasted the Romans, managed to outlast some of their more recent foes.

Livnat is an Israeli politician.  I think it might be worth comparing her, especially given her role as Education Minister, with Hanan Ashrawi, who once served as Arafat's Education Minister.  Not all people are alike, and I think the contrast between these two people is enormous.  Livnat is a genuine public servant, while Ashrawi has merely been a counterproductive propagandizer.

Livnat, speaking at the Golda Meir center in Haifa, says that women can be leaders.  And that they can be feminists as well.  The Knesset is dominated by men right now.  Livnat feels that there is no reason why it couldn't be half women and half men.  Neither do I.  And she points out that there are some attitude changes that may need to be made to accomplish this.  But she insists that "a woman can be a feminist and religious, a feminist and a capitalist, a feminist and an astronaut, or a feminist and a quilt-maker."  I strongly agree.

As for leadership, maybe that would be a problem if a leader always had to be the person who could lift the heaviest weight.  Luckily, that isn't the case at all.

Livnat states her vision for the future.  She sees an Israel that will defend and protect Jews both in Israel and elsewhere.  One which will continue to absorb immigrants from everywhere and will have stronger bonds with the Jewish diaspora.  A Jewish and democratic Israel (as she explains, that is not a contradiction) that is at peace with its neighbors.  And an undivided Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Right now, all this may look preposterous, much as Herzl's vision of a Jewish state must have seemed preposterous a century ago.  But her dream is merely one that has come true for many other small nations.

I recommend this book.
509462
Although I would have to say that I have been researching Jewish Supremacism for some time now on my own, this book is by far the best that I have ever seen at putting all the information about the Jewish question together in one source. As a result, the objective reader - in my humble opinion - cannot help but come to realize the extent of Jewish control in America and the world over. Read this book and tell all your friends about it before it is too late.
They certainly won't get the truth from the Jewish controlled media and press! Otherwise you most certainly would have heard by now that Israel is the only country in the Middle East to have nuclear and biological weapons. In fact, Israel has nuclear submarines patrolling the Atlantic Ocean w/ warheads pointed at every major US city and military base right now. It seems they want to be ready just in case America were to ever wake up to Israel's treasonous deeds and real intentions for America. And "I'm sure" that you have heard through the American media that Israel has blatantly ignored UN resolutions w/ regard to repeatedly invading its neighbors i.e. Lebanon, Syria, etc. and its deplorable Human Rights record in Palestine.  Moreover, Israel is in violation of over 70 UN Resolutions since its creation 1948. In addition to that Israel is now an Apartheid state; officially sanctioning segregation and Jewish racial superiority. Can you imagine the domestic and international outrage if in America we were to build walls and keep blacks/hispanics/asians within them; denying them even the most basic of human rights for 50 years?  Yet, somehow the American press remains eerily silent about these issues. Ask yourself why? Could it be because the Jews control all the media outlets?
And somehow the media finds a way to say that the reason the radical Islamists hate America so much is because they hate our FREEDOM! What a bunch of bull!! They hate us because we repeatedly support Israel's hegemony in the Middle East financially, militarily and diplomatically.
It's funny isn't it. Harboring WMD and failing to adhere to UN Resolutions are the same exact reasons US President George W. Bush chose to go to war with Iraq, but you don't even hear so much as a whimper from the press and government about Israel's treachery. Indeed, Bush kisses Israeli [back] every chance he gets. He is the first American president to ever deny right of return to the Palestinians and publicly endorse Israel's right to a purely Jewish state i.e. racism and segregation. What a gutless puppet!! It's time we fight the real enemy, and not send our troops to die in Iraq for greater Israel!!
In closing, if you have that lingering feeling that something is wrong with the world, but just can't quite put your finger on it then read this book! I promise you, you will never see the world the same again. It's time to take America back for Americans! Stephen
1879527
I am a foreigner in this country. A friend of mine suggested to buy " Overheard in AMerica" to understand this very unusual place. Even tough a lot of things I do not understand ( I am foreigner), it offers a personal and funny view of USA. I realized how many obese (fat) people live here. I can see the people in USA have nice clothes. I also see some sexy girls in Miami and Los Angeles. I am not a reporter like Mr Borat but I can report and recommend this book. I am so excited that I am going to order more copies for Christmas presents ( If you are jewish is a good Hanukah gift) If you live outside the USA this is a great introduction to the USA. When you come here (if you have enough money) you will overheard so many things you never heard before. I told you, I am a foreigner.

Go buy it, you like it
4651936
This is a wonderfully semitic, not anti, and universal story in its theme of one man's search for God -- or Hashem, in this instance. Affable, mild-mannered, pretty passive, physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is being painfully visited by some Job-like sequelae, or he's wondering if they are, in fact, related to a flunking student's secreting a bribe among his papers. Then his rather histrionic wife Judith (Sari Lennick) reports that she wants a divorce and is having an emotional (so far) affair with Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed). Smarmy Ableman won't stop commandeering Larry's body and mind -- hugging him tightly, grabbing his hands, insisting everything is just fine. All the while, Larry repeats that he hasn't done anything. Larry wrecks his car. He's up for tenure and someone's sabotaging him. And to add insult to injury, The Columbia Record Club is after him for unsolicited purchases. Of course it's time to seek rabbinical guidance. And there are three rabbis and a host of parables. The humor is omnipresent. It's in the deadpan delivery of hilarious lines, the contrast amplifying them; the closeup of Larry's moved-in-for-good repugnant brother Arthur (Richard Kind) noisily downing a carton of milk inches from his face in the wee hours; it's Judith reminding her daughter that Arthur hogs the bathroom to keep draining his sebaceous cyst --"you know that," she scolds. A dentist discovers a message in Hebrew inside a non-Jew's dentures, vaulting him into a God-seeking pilgrimage. The names of people discussed by the main characters, yes, are sort of hyper-Jewish to the absurd, even onomatopoeic. It feels in extremely good cultural fun. It's really okay to laugh at oneself. The directing by Joel and Ethan Coen and the camerawork by Roger Deakins are spectacular-- long shots, close ups: son Danny (Aaron Wolff)  running ahead, the pursuing bully not yet seen; the telescoping ladder arriving in anticipation of its climber; observing the dentist up close through his one lens as he scrutinizes his perceived message from God; the prolonged pregnant silence of Danny at the pulpit, the congregants' faces switching from pride to abject angst. The humor is that delicious dry type, both wonderfully subtle and complex, so reminiscent of the teamwork of Mike Nichols and Elaine May. The acting is top-shelf, Michael Stuhlbarg extraordinary.  Ellen Chenowith and Rachel Tenner know their casting.  The music is smartly congruent and full of range, from the stroke of a few keys, to the Jefferson Airplane, and circling back to a very somber sober Yiddish prayerful piece and again to the work of Carter Burwell. This is a great story (also the Coens) that suggests that much of life comes to us on its own, or Hashem's, terms and we must " receive it with simplicity."
1400180
British author Charlotte Mendelson gives us the Rubin family of Hampstead in her novel, "When We Were Bad". The family, super-star Rabbi Claudia Rubin - picture buxom beauty Nigella Lawson wearing a tallis - and her author-husband Norman, have raised together four children, all of whom are still part of the family, even at the advanced ages of early 30's and late 20's. Claudia is the firmament around which the other family members move and to whom they owe their love, livelihoods, and most of all, allegiance. "Rabbi Claudia" is the most famous, "out-there", rabbi in London and is a popular author, speaker, and...rabbi to her congregation in Belsize Park.

Claudia Rubin could be called a narcissist, I suppose; totally without a sense of humor about her family and world, she expects everyone to do and everything to be to her liking. Her four children, Frances, married to a widower and the mother of a young son; Leo, about to marry in a huge wedding, deserts his bride at the altar and runs off with the officiating rabbi's wife; Simeon, a young druggy and lay-about who adores his mother; and Emily, a late 20's woman who also can't get her life together. Norman is an habitually failed biographer, happy to let wife Claudia be the star in the family. Rabbi Claudia would like to present her family to the world as "perfect", but the reality of the situation begins to erase the perception.

Charlotte Mendelson's novel is a comedy-of-manners, though, as I write this review, I'm making the characters and the plot sound, well, grim. The plot covers a four or five month period in the Rubin family's life, beginning with Leo deserting his bride and ending a few nights after the Passover seder-from-hell. During that time, the children and Norman "find" themselves, in word and deed, and Rabbi Claudia's life is never the same. But, it really shouldn't be, as the reader finds out.

This book is a tough one to rate. I found it 5 star delightful but others won't. I didn't mind putting up with Rabbi Claudia and her narcissism but then I like characters with an edge. If you're thinking of buying this book, please read all the other reviews. Most are valid, I think. Then choose.
4314871
I applaud the courage of the Southern Baptist Convention for declaring that it will target Jews to convert to Christainity in America.  6 million Jews in America are not Christians -- that's the biggest segment of any group which are not Christians.  Jews have led America in pushing immorality and laws that hurt Christianity.  Don't you know a Jewish lawyer in your town?  I rest my case.  Protecting Christian America means converting Jews to Christianity.  There are other alternatives, but I would support converting Jews.  America is under threat -- it's the Jewish fault.  Terrorist use America's "support" of Israel as an excuse for their attack.  After reading this book, I realized the damage that Jews have done to the security of America with their Jewish lobby groups pushing for support Israel.  I did not know much about the Jewish State before reading this book.  After reading this book, I realized how immoral it would be to support a state that is neither Christian nor uphold any of the Christian values.  I guess converting Jews in America will help ultimately to making Israel more moral because have you met a Jew in America who doesn't support the State of Israel, which they call "Jewish Homeland"?
1458533
In northern Iraq, in the town of Mosul (much in the news of this writing) is the El Ahalaham mosque. About 50 feet under the mosque is a limestone sarcophagus that contains the mortal remains of a Jew, Jonah son of Amittai.  Nearby are the vast, mud-covered, largely unexcavated ruins of ancient Ninevah, once the greatest city in the world and the capitol of the bloody Assyrian empire, the ruthless enemy of Israel and Judah.
The talking vegetable stars in the CGI animated JONAH: A VeggieTales Movie trivialize this story about apparently real events and people from 775 BC.
The real story has a reluctant prophet who i s compelled to deliver a final messaage to a wicked city: repent or be vaporized.  Jonah hates the enemy so much he runs away.  Maybe he knows God to be merciful and fears that the cruel regime in Ninevah will repent.  Unfortunartely, you can't run away from God, so when strange curcumstances alow Jonah to be swallowed and and then spit up by a great fish, this astonishing story spreads throughout the land.  Perhaps years later, when Jonah finally reaches Ninevah where the people worship a great man-fish god, they are ready to believe Jonah becuase he himself came out of a supernatutural fish-god and thus Jonah is trustworthy as God's spokesman.  Why else would they even let Jonah in the gates?
And to Jonah's chagrin, God shows mercy to these bloodthirsty pagans.
Incidentally, around 765 BC, according to ancient records in the great library at Damascus, Ninevah became for a period of time monotheistic.  Amazing, if you think about it.
An animated Jonah could be a great project.  This version is simplistic and borderline stupid. An insult even to kids.
And someone please tell me, why talking vegetables?