It’s safe to assume that a strictly vegan restaurant is Kosher,

Yes or no. Discuss.


(Also, I think I broke Facebook.)

I posted this with permission. This was a MySpace conversation in messages.

The original bulletin:

Ron Paul, the Libertarian Republican candidate for President, may have some racist connections.

Recently, the white supremacist website, Stormfront.org, stated on their front page that Ron Paul is "one of us".

Ron Paul also accepted donations from several white supremacy groups and refused to return their donations.

Now some letters published in The New Republic, under the name of Ron Paul and authored in the first person, have come to light which call Martin Luther King a "gay pedophile", as well as slamming blacks.

Things are looking bad for the Ron Paul campaign now. But his supporters are lying to themselves and trying to invent a conspiracy theory to explain away these pesky racist letters - check it out:

http://revolusion2008.blogspot.com/2008/01/conscience-of-ron
-paul-supporter.html

My reply:

Thanks for the info! Ever since his 'That is like saying "Iran is about to invade Mars." I mean, they have nothing. They don't have an army or navy or air force,' I have been saying that in the better case he is an idiot, in the worse, he is an Enemy of Israel.

Aharon answers:

He says stuff in the Republican debates that sounds favorable to Israel, but I've also read some of his quotes in context about certain issues with Israel - and it isn't good.

He has said about the Israeli-Lebanon wars: "all the terrorists and innocents are not on the same side". That was enough to piss me off and despise this guy.

Me again:

Ron Paul is plain scary. He doesn't get that in Lebanon we weren't in war with the Lebanese people, but with Hezbollah and its allies, who were more than happy to sacrifice innocent Lebanese lives to attract attention to their "cause". How on earth does that make us the terrorists?

Aharon:

His idiotic reasoning says that because we killed some Lebanese civilians in the wars with Hezballah, that we are the same as Hezballah, Fatach, Chamas, etc, who all try to kill Jews and destroy Israel completely. OF COURSE, civilian casualties are going to happen in wars - that's inevitable - that doesn't mean Israel TRIED to kill civilians..... Ron Paul is an idiot...

Me:

Let me quote my brother's Lebanese neighbor. (Yes, there is a reason why he lives in Hungary instead of Lebanon.)

"Hezbollah are happy whenevre civillians die. If it's Jews, they are happy, because there are fewer Jews. If it's Muslims, they are happy, because they can get the attention of the whole world and the pity of the U.N." Funny that a Lebanese pediatrician understands that, but an American presidential candidate doesn't! The Hezbollah (and the Fatah and so on) love using human shields, love being planted in civillian surroundings, so there are as many civillian deaths as possible so thet the UN will be outraged.

Of course I have no idea why I expect anything good from America. After all, Jonathan Pollard is still inprisoned.

Aharon:

EXACTLY. That's so true..

I am so glad I'm not the only one who thinks this way.

My mother's birthday is the 16th. She would be turning 56. She has been gone for almost seven years. I still miss her and not a day passes without wondering what she would have thought about certain things.

I remember her last B-day with us, it was shortly after my bar mitzvah. The family--my sister Serach, mom, dad and I celebrated her birthday with a train ride to Jerusalem, eating cake on the train, then going to the Kotel and then to see my elder brother. It was such a happy day!

It was her habit to recite Psalm 23 with each of us before bed every night. Now I recite it by myself every night, hoping to maintain that connection between heaven and earth, between mom and me.

I miss my mother. I love my stepmother and I'm very happy for my father and her, but still, I wish mom was still with us.

On Wednesday I'm celebrating my mother's birthday with a train ride with my brother and nephew. It won't be from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but it will be a train ride, like 7 years ago.

My birthday was brilliant! It was one of the best ones I've ever had!

I didn't get up too early, because I knew it was going to be a long day. I was actually woken up at around 9 a.m. by Maya  who called to wish me a happy "Gregorian" birthday; my Jewish birthday was in December. She was very sweet to call during her break, she set my mood for the day! The only thing I wished was that she'd been here, though. Maya, I miss you girl!

My bro made Texas sheet cake for me which was eaten at lunch. I had more cake than lunch, or so my brother-in-law said. I got some cool gifts from them. The best one was a little square book called "Jewish Budapest". It's one of a series. These little books show photos of Budapest centered on different topics: the Danube, churches, photos taken of the same places 100 years apart. I collect these books, but I never knew there was one about Jewish Budapest!

Dad and Miriam, the stepmother, called after lunch, then Chaim and Serach. It's always nice talking to both of them. The great surprise came when Devraa called me from Hong Kong! We never got along and we always did the pleasantries over e-mail. That reduces the risk of a row by about a billion per cent. She and I had a nice little chit-chat. She said that practically the whole family shunned her except Hevel and Chaim when she broke the news of becoming a Netzari Jew. Not that I approve, but she is an adult, doesn't need my permission to believe in some 1st century rabbi being the messiah. What's more, it is not my place to judge her. After all, my other sister believes the Lubavitcher Rebbe was the messiah. I think 3/4 of my sisters are weird. Serach is pretty sane, though.

I met several Szarvas friends at the open-air ice rink in City Park. The rink is probably the largest open-air artificial ice rink in the region, possibly in Europe. I got the tickets for my friends and me from Kevin and Hevel, too. We agreed to meet at 5, though Ottó said he might be late. In spite of that everyone was there around ten to 5. It was Melinda's first time skating. She did well, and I hope she didn't get too  many bruises to lose interest in the ice.

We skated tillaround 7 p.m. then we went over to Salamon, a glatt kosher restaurant for dinner. Hevel and Kevin met us there. We had basically the best dinner ever! They are very good with being Hungarian kosher: just enough Hungarianness to make it different from what you can eat in Tzfat. Of course we started the meal with some lovely kosher pear and plum pálinka (liquor, sometimes translated as schnaps or brandy) that put me in a highly elevated mood. Then we ate and talked and acted like a noisy Jewish family around the Shabbat table, minus the singing.

Dinner was really good, but too much. To work it off, my friends and I walked up to the Castle District and then came back down on foot. Finally I caught a cab and got home around 3 a.m.

Glitter images are just way too much fun. Here are a few I love.

Miss Wonder arrived today. She had a smooth flight, she ate nuts and less-than-wonderful airline food, brought Krembos and music! Mmm, Moccha Krembos! Can't wait for the Shabbat!

Thursday is my Hebrew birthday. I plan to spend it with Miss Wonder and my brothers and their families, taking Miss Wonder across the border to Kassa, now Kosice, where her great-grandparents on her father's side hail from. We'll have lunch somewhere there and possibly stop by the Orthodox Synagogue. I am not 100% sure about the details yet, if anyone knows the city and has recommendations, please let me know!

A few days ago I was tricked into cooking. I made some vegetable soup and fries with a fry sauce. It was okay, and I really enjoyed playing in the kitchen. In response to that Hevel bought me two cookbooks by Jamie Oliver. Now we are in the process of kosherizing recipes. :-)

The times ahead for Israel are not promising to be peaceful. There is always the threat of Iran, and then Olmert wasn't that off when he said that unless an agreement can be reached about the two-state model very soon, the ever increasing number of Palestinian will eventually cause the end of the Jewish state. Even if the solution will be a three-state model, as suggested by the ever beloved Dry Bones cartoon, I do believe that Jerusalem should be under international control: Jews should never again be prevented from access to their holy sites--and the same with Muslims and Christians should be true.

Too much has been already sacrificed for a peace that seems to never come. Just yesterday I was getting nostalgic for the summers I spent at my brother Chiram's. His stepson and stepdaughter were just around my age, and when he moved to a moshav on the Gaza Strip, this city boy was more than happy to spend most of his summers there. Even when my parents were living and teaching in a similar community I looked forward to spending the summer with Chiram.

That moshav is no longer. The houses demolished by the IDF, the synagogue where I spent many hours with my brother desacrated and robbed by the "new settlers", the moshav is now only a memory that is hidden away in the old photoalbums.

My great-nephew was just born. His brit milah will be on Tuesday. Expelees from the moshav--now mostly scattered in various communities, only a handful of them still together--will gather for this occasion. The first baby born since the expulsion. The firstborn son of one of them is now being celebrated with a bittersweet melancholy. Will he grow up in a free and democratic Israel? Will his life spent in peace or war?

Tonight we lit the sixth candle. The cold December night will be warmed by the six small flames in the window. They remind me of the miracles Hashem can and will perform for His children.