Stern - Thieves, Protection, Law and an Email

Paula R. Stern..
A Soldier's Mother..
29 February '12..

How's that for a title?

Every once in a while, a wave of thefts plague our city of Maale Adumim. Most times, it turns out to be the Bedouins, who live in the dry river bed and across the mountain. Sometimes, it is Arabs from nearby neighborhoods and yes, there have been times when it was Jews. The Bedouins have an interesting and simple life, for the most part and there are times in my hectic run to and from one meeting to another, that I almost envy them. A Bedouin once tried to explain his theory of life and theft. According to this kind man who felt hospitality was not just a virtue, but an obligation - we all own things. If he can steal...I mean take...something from you, it is your fault, not his. It isn't theft because if God had not wanted him to have it, he would not have been able to steal...I mean take...it from you.

After a short time of trying to explain my philosophy, I gave up. Different worlds, different philosophies. I also gave up trying to convince a very nice Arab from Hebron that polygamy wasn't right. He asked if I wouldn't prefer my husband to move his second wife in with me, rather than sneak off and cheat somewhere. As I couldn't fathom being one of two (or more) wives, he simply couldn't understand the concept that I'd be handing my incredibly beloved husband the door. In his world, the first wife's only option would be to return in disgrace to her father's home - in my world, the man would walk around with the "first" wife's footprint on his...well, never mind.

Getting back to the Bedouins that have settled around my city. Every once in a while, usually at night, they climb up the mountains to my city and try to enter a house, and, if God lets them, they take whatever they can. For the most part, when Bedouins enter, they rob, but do not harm. They want property. That doesn't mean they can't or won't cause physical harm when confronted, but rather it isn't their intended result.

Intel, Jerusalem, and Shabbat Riots

The Muqata
15 November 09

Intel Corporation.

Synonymous with "success", this superpower of a high tech company was at the forefront of bringing "hi-tech" to Israel, and was a crucial factor for the success of Israel's at attracting serious technology ventures.

What does this have to do with Shabbat riots in Jerusalem? Keep reading.

Intel came to Israel as a result of one person, the visionary and legendary Dov Frohman.

Frohman was born on March 28, 1939 in Amsterdam -- his parents, Polish Jews, were Abraham and Feijga Frohman. In 1942, the Nazi grip on Holland’s Jewish community tightened, so Dov's parents decided to give their child to acquaintances in the Dutch resistance who placed him with an orthodox Christian farming family who hid him during the war. Dov's parents died in the Holocaust.

Located by relatives at an orphanage in Israel after the war, he was war adopted by relatives, grew up in Tel Aviv, served in the Israeli army, and in 1959, enrolled at the Technion - Israel's Institute of Technology to study electrical engineering.

After graduating from the Technion in 1963, Frohman traveled to the US to study for his masters and Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1969, after completing his Ph.D., he took a job at a foundling "startup" company, Intel Corporation.

It was while troubleshooting a fault in an early Intel product that Frohman in 1970 developed the concept for the EPROM, the first semiconductor memory that was both erasable and easily reprogrammable -- even when power was turned off it would remember what was stored on it. The EPROM became an international cornerstone for all electronics on the planet, propelling Intel towards become a global technology leader.

Many people in a similar situation would simply take their earnings, profits, bonuses, and retire.

Not Dov.

He used his leverage as inventor of the EPROM, to convince Intel of the impossible -- to establish a small R&D chip design center in Haifa. Dov made aliya, moved to Israel, and set up Intel’s first research lab outside the United States -- in Israel. Intel management thought he was crazy, but it was hard arguing with the inventor of the EPROM. While the R&D center in Haifa was a success, Dov wasn't content -- and he convinced Intel to create "Fab-8" -- a manufacturing facility for Intel semiconductor computer chips in Jerusalem.

At the heart of Fab-8 was the "clean room", where the computer chips were made -- over a thousand times cleaner than an operating room in a hospital; where even the smallest of dust particles could ruin a production run.

And there was a mezuza on the entrance to the clean room -- probably the only world-class clean room on the planet with a mezuza on its entrance.

The complexity of running a state-of-the-art clean room meant that you couldn't simply turn off ovens which grow the silicon wafers on Friday afternoon and restart restart them after the Shabbat on Saturday night -- they need to run around the clock.

While no production was actually running at Fab-8, there was s skeleton crew walking around ensuring that nothing was overheating, exploding or causing a life-threatening emergency.

The problem for Intel was that each production facility was compared to the other plants, and Jerusalem's Fab-8 plant wasn't running on Shabbat -- thereby reducing their factory output by 1/7th compared to the rest of Intel's plants which ran 7 days a week.

Intel did their best, using ingenuity, process, smarter ways of working -- even innovative "shabbat clock" robotic operation to help compete with the other plants, yet Intel presented Israel with an ultimatum in 1995. Intel wanted to build another, brand new plant in Israel, but on the condition it would be open on Shabbat.

(Read full article)

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Holidays in Captivity and Letters to Jonathan Pollard

Justice4JPnews

September 21, 2009

Our sages teach that captivity is the worst of all possible afflictions because it includes all the other afflictions:

"The sword is worse than death, famine is worse than the sword, captivity is worst of all"
(Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 8a)

The worst days in captivity for a Jewish captive are Shabbat and Jewish holidays. Even without a Jewish calendar, the neshama of the captive senses the extra Kedusha (holiness) of these days, and its suffering is increased exponentially, not only because of the afflictions it is enduring, but especially because of its inability to act upon the Kedusha.

There is little consolation for a soul that is fettered and deprived of the most basic Jewish expression at holiday times - how much more so during the Yamim HaNoraim - The High Holidays.

The letters that Jonathan is receiving at this time are his lifeline, his reassurance that people on the outside care very deeply. Jonathan often remarks to his wife, Esther, how very much he enjoys the letters and how varied they are. They run the gamut, he said, from one end of the spectrum to the other in terms of stories, anecdotes, prayers, and personal life experiences. Some people write of how they much are praying for Jonathan, others recount personal problems so severe that Jonathan is now praying for them (along with all of his prayers for Am Yisrael).

Most people express the hope that Jonathan will write back, but he simply is not able to. Why not? Because all of his out-going mail is routed via the National Security Agency in Washington where it is supposedly "vetted" to ensure that it does not contain classified information. In the process of being "vetted" somehow all of his out-going mail gets lost or destroyed. It does not reach its destination. This is an age-old vengeful technique that is intended to demoralize a prisoner.

Fortunately, Jonathan does receive all of his incoming mail. Incoming mail goes directly to the prison mailroom where it is checked to ensure that the letter is in English and does not contain any contraband. (No bubble gum, stamps, glitter, stickers, money etc permitted). Only letters and photos are permitted (Photos in modest quantity: up to 5). Letters in Hebrew are shown to Jonathan very briefly (not sufficient time for him to read) and then discarded; it is clearly preferable to write in English.

As soon as the mailroom staff checks the mail, it is distributed and Jonathan receives all of his letters, without exception.

Especially now at holiday time, please keep writing! Please know that all of your letters reach Jonathan as long as they are correctly addressed and contain no forbidden enclosures. Please know as well, how very much these letters mean to him.

Jonathan Pollard: 8705 days in prison

Here is Jonathan's address:

Jonathan Pollard #09185-016
c/o FCI Butner
P.O. Box 1000
Butner, NC
U.S.A 27509-1000

Feel free to send a copy of your letters to justice4jp@gmail.com.
With your permission we will share copies of some of the letters with our
readers.

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