BPR Mailing List Digest: 09/17/00

Philologos
BPR Mailing List Digest
September 17, 2000

Digest Home | 2000 | September, 2000

To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Sept 17, 2000 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 09:40:50 -0400

8:00 PM Eastern

DISC - MONSTER WAVES - Scientist explore the causes of
powerful waves off the coasts of Hawaii.(CC)(TVG)

TLC - BEST KEPT SECRETS - "The Military" - Bunkers;
weapons; lost atomic bomb; the Infowar.(CC)(TVG)

9:00

DISC - THREE MINUTES TO IMPACT - Scientists, astronomers and
evolutionists discuss the possibility and the effects of an
asteroid or comet collision with Earth.(CC)(TVG)

HIST - MILITARY BLUNDERS - "Battle of the Bulge; A
   Bridge Too Far" - Allies ignore their own intelligence of
   Hitler's intentions in the Ardennes; lightly armed British
   paratroops go up against two crack S.S. Panzer
   divisions.(CC)(TVG)

TLC - BEST KEPT SECRETS - "The FBI" - FBI undercover work;
policing the Internet; solving cybercrimes;
bombings.(CC)(TVG)

10:00

HIST - HISTORY UNDERCOVER - "Sex and the Swastika" -
The Allies spread lurid tales of Nazi debauchery to try to
bring down the Third Reich.(CC)(TVPG)

TLC - BEST KEPT SECRETS - "Mysterious Societies" - Many
cults appear on the surface to be normal, healthy
organizations.(CC)(TVG)

11:00

HIST - Sworn to Secrecy Super Guns From the Paris Gun in World War One
to the secret Iraqi super gun, Charlton Heston narrates the history behind the
race for long range firepower throughout the
century. [TV G ]

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Evangelizing the Jews: The New Techniques
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 09:52:55 -0400

Evangelizing the Jews: The New Techniques
by Rabbi Tovia Singer

To bring about the Second Coming, fundamentalist Christians believe they
must convert the Jews. Having failed in the past, they are now armed with a
new arsenal of deceptive techniques.

No Sunday services take place here; this congregation meets only on Friday
evenings and Saturday mornings. You will never see a cross or an altar;
there is an Aaron Hakodesh (holy ark) with a star of David adorning its velvet
cover, and a Bimah (stage for prayer services) in the center of the sanctuary.
The majority of the men who worship here wear kipot, and their tzitzit hang
down the sides of their pants. This congregation's rabbi, among many other
functions, reads from the Torah and makes Kiddush every Shabbat. Most of
the women are modestly dressed. Joyous shouts of "Shabbat Shalom" and
"Baruch Hashem" can be heard as young couples greet each other. The
sanctuary pulsates to a modern Israeli musical beat.

If this sounds like a description of a traditional Jewish house of worship, think
again. The above is actually a description of any one of the hundreds of
Messianic "synagogues" which flourish throughout the world.

Confused? Many are.

Such congregations are designed to appear Jewish, but they are actually
fundamentalist Christian churches which use traditional Jewish symbols to
lure the most vulnerable of our Jewish people into their ranks. Messianic
"rabbis," many of whom are Jewish by birth, are committed to bringing the
Jewish people to know Jesus. Their agenda is to make Christianity more
palatable to the uneducated Jew, and to the astonishment and horror of the
Jewish community, their marketing ploys are proving to be successful.

Twenty-two years ago, twelve Messianic congregations existed in the United
States. Today, more than 300 actively attract and recruit Jews who, because
they lack a sound Jewish education and support system, are buying the
manipulative rhetoric and persuasive techniques of the Hebrew-Christian
missionary movement.

Additionally, there are over 600 Christian missions dedicated to converting
the Jewish people. It is estimated that there are more than 200,000 Hebrew-
Christians in North America and Israel. As an exit-counselor who works with
families to reclaim their Jewish family members from these churches, I can
testify that the cost in terms of Jewish souls is dear.

WHO ARE THESE MISSIONARIES?

In order to understand the dynamics of the missionary problem, we must first
understand who exactly these missionaries are.

To the Jewish community, the word "missionary" is a charged word, with a
multitude of misconceptions attached to it. Typically, the word "missionary"
is associated with those people who stand on street corners, annoyingly and
ubiquitously distributing literature that tries to persuade individuals to believe
in Jesus.

When we think of missionaries we might think of an organization with
members, mailing lists, secretaries, and buildings to which we can point and
say, "You see that building on 31st street, between Lexington and Park
(New York headquarters of Jews For Jesus)? They are the missionaries."

This is merely one of a variety of misconceptions we have about missionaries
and how they operate.

A number of years ago I lectured at a large university campus in Ohio. In my
conversation with a dean we began to discuss the work I do. He immediately
reassured me that at his university, they did not have a missionary problem.
He recalled how years earlier there were indeed missionaries on his campus
who distributed pamphlets and misused traditional Jewish symbols for the
purpose of evangelizing. "But we don't have that here anymore," he insisted.

"Tell me, are there any fundamentalist born-again Christians on your
campus?" I asked.

He quickly snapped, "What? Are you kidding? This is the Midwest! We're
packed with them!" I then told him that indeed he had a serious missionary
problem on his campus because, in reality, fundamentalist, born-again
Christians are dedicated to the idea of bringing every Jew to a belief in Jesus.

Our second mistake is that we tend to view the Christian world as a
monolithic group of gentiles who all essentially believe the same thing. In
fact, the Christian world -- with hundreds of variant denominations that differ
on numerous fundamental theological issues -- is far more diverse than the
Jewish world. At a baseball game, it is sometimes difficult to know who the
players are without a scorecard. Let's break down the Christian world for a
moment so that we know precisely to whom we are referring.

THE COMPLEX CHRISTIAN WORLD

The Roman Catholic Church is by far the largest denomination in
Christendom. Yet despite its past often-bitter relationship with the Jewish
people, today Catholics are for the most part not interested in converting
Jews. I need not worry that a Catholic priest is going to evangelize any of my
patients at a hospital. If anything, he is one of the people who will show me
where I can secure a kosher meal.

Another significant segment of the Christian world, especially in North
America, is the Protestant community. For our purposes, we will over
generalize and divide the Protestant world into two groups.

One group, the mainline or liberal Protestants (Methodist, Unitarian, etc.), is
not at all interested in converting Jews. Liberal leaning Protestant
denominations tend to shy away from any form of Jewish evangelism. It is,
however, the other highly motivated and vocal segment within the Protestant
community -- the fundamentalist, born-again Christians -- who are unyielding
in their staunch commitment to convert the Jews.

There are two rules about Jewish evangelism that must always be kept in
mind.

The first rule is that the Christian who makes the very first critical and
successful contact with the Jew is never a professional missionary. It will not
be a paid staff member of Jews for Jesus or Chosen People Ministries.
Rather, it is almost always a layperson -- perhaps a secretary at the office, a
roommate in college or someone on the same swim team -- who makes that
initial connection. Only after the lay evangelical Christian has made this
preliminary contact will the professional missionaries step in to the
conversion process.

Secondly, the Christian layperson who makes that all-important first contact
with the Jew is invariably a gentile. It is extremely rare for a "Hebrew-
Christian" to successfully make that initial contact with a Jew. The perceived
betrayal of the Jewish people by the Hebrew-Christian's apostasy sullies his
message in the mind of a Jew. Only after the lay gentile born-again Christian
has made that first crucial and successful encounter with a Jew will the
Hebrew-Christian missionaries step in to finalize the conversion.

In essence, the central role that Christian missions like Jews for Jesus plays
is to act as a clearinghouse and support system for evangelical churches
around the world. As a result, these "Jewish missions" spend much of their
resources and manpower teaching lay missionaries in gentile churches.

How serious a problem are these Protestant fundamentalist Christians? How
many born-again Christians are there in the United States?

Their numbers are not small. According to most estimates, there are well
over 50 million Americans who identify themselves as born-again Christians.
That is, approximately one in five Americans is part of this army of lay people
dedicated to "share" their faith with a Jew. When I spoke in Nashville a
number of years ago, an Assemblies of God minister bluntly told me that he
would rather convert one Jew than 50,000 gentiles.

WHY THE JEWS?

A question that naturally comes to mind is: Why the Jews? Why are these
fundamentalist Christians so consumed with bringing the Jewish people to
"know Jesus?" Why has the largest Protestant denomination in the United
States, the Southern Baptist Convention, passed numerous resolutions
encouraging more than 15 million American members to target and
evangelize the Jewish people?

There are several reasons.

Firstly, the New Testament specifically prioritizes Jews for conversion. In the
book of Matthew (10:5), when Jesus is instructing his apostles, he warns
them, "Go not into the way of the gentiles ... but only go to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel." The Apostle Paul echoes the identical sentiment in the
first chapter of the book of Romans when he declares, "Go to the Jew first,
then to the Greek (i.e. gentile)." We find a recurrent and unique emphasis on
reaching the Jews in the New Testament, especially in the Gospels, almost
to the exclusion of the gentiles.

A second reason for this obsession relates to the Church's fascination with
eschatology, the study of the End of Times. Fundamentalist Christians are
consumed by the prophecies surrounding the end of days. They want to
know when the Messiah will come/return. How will this take place? To which
nations did the prophet Ezekiel refer when he described how apocalyptic
nations would wage war against Jerusalem before the final hour leading to
the messianic age (Ezekiel 38-39)? Christian bookstores typically set aside
an entire section dedicated to eschatological inquiry.

How does all this apocalyptic speculation and discussion relate to our
subject?

At the end of the book of Matthew (23:39), Jesus is quoted making a very
important statement. He says, "I will not return until you say, 'Blessed is he
who comes in the name of the Lord.'" Because Jesus was speaking to a
Jewish audience at the time he made this statement, Christians have always
understood this statement to have one meaning: Jesus will not make his
second coming until the Jews are converted.

The Jews, therefore, are holding up the show.

Fundamentalist Christians also believe that Jesus is going to make his
second coming in or about the year 2000 (counting from Jesus' birth);
therefore, the Jews must be converted by then, en masse, in order to enable
Jesus to return.

(Bear in mind that there remains considerable controversy among Christians
as to the year of Jesus' birth. Many Christians -- largely based on Luke's
narrative -- place the 2,000th year from Jesus' birth in the year 2007).

Finally, the most significant reason for the church's preoccupation with the
Jews stems from the credibility problem that the faith of a Jew presents to
Christendom.

THE MESSIAH COMPLEX

Jesus was a Jew and Christians claim that he is the promised Messiah
about whom the prophets spoke. The idea of the Messiah -- who will come at
the end of days to usher in a utopian society of love, peace, and the
universal knowledge of God -- is exclusively Jewish. Fundamentalist
Christians insist that if the Jews would only look in their own Hebrew
scriptures they would find Jesus literally bouncing off every page. It,
therefore, stands to reason that the Jews should have been the first to
embrace Jesus and his teachings, if in fact Jesus was the prophesied
Messiah. Yet, the Jews were the very people who did not accept Jesus.

This has always been a troubling reality to the Christian Church since its
inception. It is for this reason that only the conversion of a Jew to Christianity
can lend credibility -- never the conversion of the gentile.

Peering back into world history, it would probably be quite difficult for any of
us to think of another program that has been a more miserable failure than
the church's persistent effort to convert the Jews to Christianity.

Bear in mind that Christianity swept through Europe almost overnight. The
same is true for Latin America. Yet the Jews, with all their problems of
persecution and forced exile, still would not convert.

With the approach of the end of the second millennium, evangelicals were
faced with a serious dilemma: How were they to finally bring the Jewish
people to accept Jesus?

This quandary was no small theological challenge to the church. With the
year 2000 in sight, two critical conferences were convened a little more than
a quarter of a century ago. The first was held in Switzerland and the other in
Thailand. The main questions that were asked at those two symposiums
was: Why has the Church been so unsuccessful in their past efforts to
convert the Jews, and what new techniques can be employed to attract
masses of new Jewish converts to the church by the turn of the century?

It was at these two unlikely locations that devout evangelists placed the
Jewish people under a microscope. Indeed, it was at these symposiums that
those Christians understood that the church had a number of serious
challenges with respect to converting the Jews.

PUBLIC RELATIONS PROBLEM

The first problem they discovered was that the church had a significant public
relations problem. They concluded that Jewish people historically tend to
equate Christianity with persecution. Jewish people often feel somewhat
uncomfortable just hearing the words "Jesus Christ," and when they see a
cross or a church icon, it rarely conjures up warm, affectionate feelings. On
the contrary, whereas Christians tend to feel quite comfortable in
synagogues, or observing Jewish ceremonies, Jewish people tend to feel
alienated by churches and their icons.

Taking this public relations problem head on, these evangelists initiated a
unique approach. It goes something like this, "You're Jewish? We Christians
just love the Jewish people! Persecution? Oh, no! Any Christian who
persecuted a Jew in the name of Jesus couldn't be a real Christian. A real
Christian only loves the Jewish people!"

This novel technique enables Christians to freely evangelize Jews by
distancing themselves from their Christian forbears. In this way, potential
Jewish converts will not feel alienated by Christendom.

These evangelists realized, however, that simply smothering us with love
could not in itself be totally effective. Jews would not simply start converting
to Christianity en masse because evangelicals loudly condemned anti-
Semitism. They understood that the essential reason why Jews do not
convert is because they do not want to stop being Jewish, and Jews view
Christianity as antithetical to Judaism.

With this realization, these highly motivated missionaries developed an
entirely new and remarkably simple approach to Jewish evangelism. It goes
like this, "When you're becoming a believer in Jesus, you are not converting
to another religion. On the contrary, you're becoming a 'fulfilled Jew' or a
'completed Jew.' After all, Jesus was a Jew and his followers were Jewish;
therefore, believing in Jesus must be the most Jewish thing you can do."

Messianic "synagogues" do not observe Christian holidays. You will never
find a Christmas tree or blinking colored lights around December in a
Messianic congregation. Instead, these missionaries celebrate Jewish
holidays with a "Christological" spin. Throughout the world, Messianic
congregations hold elaborate and well-publicized Passover Seders.

A MESSIANIC "SEDER"

At first glance, a Messianic Seder table appears quite traditional, with all of
the customary essentials: Seder plate, matzah, and wine. Once the
ceremony begins to unfold, however, even the most uninitiated will
immediately realize that something is askew. Participants are told that the
wine at the Seder table represents the blood of Yeshua/Jesus, and the
matzah represents his body. Do you know the real reason why Jews have
three matzoth at the Seder table? To represent the Holy Trinity: the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Do you know why the matzahs are perforated?
Because Jesus was pierced through when he was crucified. Why does the
matzah have stripes? Because Jesus had stripes across his back as a
result of the beating he endured during his trial. Why is the middle matzah
broken? Because Jesus was brutally broken on the cross. Why is the
matzah wrapped in a white towel? Because Jesus was wrapped in a white
burial shroud. Why is this middle matzah hidden? Because Jesus was
hidden away in the tomb following his crucifixion. Why is the matzah brought
back at the end of the meal? Because Jesus will return in the Second
Coming at the End of Days.

Messianic congregations will never be listed in the Yellow Pages under
churches. They are always listed with the synagogues. Additionally, the
Messianic movement has created a remarkable tool for Jewish evangelism
called a "communications card." This card carefully guides evangelicals on
how to talk to a Jew in a manner that will not alienate them as potential
converts. A two-column card which is usually wallet-sized for easy transport
and access reads:

"Don't say Jesus Christ; Do say Messiah Yeshua," "Don't say convert; do
say "Messianic, completed, fulfilled Jew." Don't say "Christian; do say Bible
believer," etc.

In essence, the Messianic movement's fundamental approach seeks to blur
the distinctions between Judaism and Christianity in order to lure Jews who
would otherwise resist a straightforward Christian message. To the horror of
the Jewish world, it is a tactic that has achieved remarkable success with
the most vulnerable segments of our community -- the very young, the very
old, and our Russian brethren.

Why are these at-risk Jews so desperately susceptible to this current
missionary assault? Why do evangelicals cull our Jewish youth with relative
ease? The answers to these questions will be discussed in Part 2 of this
article.

Rabbi Tovia Singer is the national director of Outreach Judaism, an
international organization dedicated to countering the efforts of Christian
groups and cults who specifically target Jews for conversion. He is the author
of the "Let's Get Biblical" tape series and Study Guide, numerous articles,
and is a frequent guest on television and radio shows. For further information,
please contact: Outreach Judaism, P.O. Box 789, Monsey, New York
10952; (914) 356-1915; or www.outreachjudaism.org

http://aish.com/issues/jewishpeople/Evangelizing_the_Jews_The_New_Techn
iques.asp

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Hindu Priest To Give House Prayer
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 13:05:23 -0400

September 12, 2000

Hindu Priest To Give House Prayer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Hindu priest from Parma, Ohio, will deliver
Thursday's opening prayer in the House.

Venkatachalapathi Samuldrala will be the first Hindu ever to give the House
invocation, said Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

Thursday was chosen to coincide with an address to a joint session of
Congress by India's prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Brown said. He
requested that Samuldrala be invited to serve as guest chaplain.

Guest chaplains, nominated by members of Congress, offer opening prayers
two to three times a week when Congress is in session. On Tuesday, Sister
Catherine Moran of New Jersey became the first Roman Catholic nun to give
the opening prayer.

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Tzemach News Service items
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 13:06:26 -0400

SUMMIT UNLIKELY: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators headed home after
talks Thursday and Friday in New York and Washington did not lead to any
breakthroughs, a spokesman in the Prime Minister's Office said Saturday
night. Acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami will remain in the US to
take part in the opening of the UN General Assembly this week. The United
States has quietly shelved the prospect of another summit between Israel
and the Palestinians. Arab diplomatic sources said at one point Arafat
left a meeting with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in New York.
The sources said Albright kept referring [correctly--ed] to the Al Aqsa as
the Temple Mount, the name used by Israel. At first, Arafat interrupted
Albright and said the proper name is the "Al Aqsa mosque." When the US
secretary repeated the term "Temple Mount," Arafat left the session. In
the end, Clinton was called to reconcile Arafat and Albright. In perhaps
the most important development in recent days, Palestinian negotiator
Nabil Sha'ath publicly acknowledged that Arafat proposed to Clinton in New
York last week that the Temple Mount be placed under "Islamic sovereignty"
through the special Jerusalem Committee of the Islamic Conference
Organization, with functional control in the hands of a Palestinian state.

The Clinton administration, in a desperate run for a Mideast peace accord,
is looking to Arab leaders to ease Arafat into a compromise over
Jerusalem. The strategy appears not to be succeeding. Saudi Arabia's Crown
Prince Abdullah has publicly ruled out compromise. Last month, preparing
for the final stretch, Albright sent Edward Walker, a US diplomat with
wide experience in the Middle East, on a long trip to Arab capitals. He
tried to convince Arab leaders that the Jerusalem problem can be resolved
only by compromise. Several governments made statements indicating they
have no intention of coaxing Arafat into compromise.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: Arab MK, Abd el-Malek Dahamshe (United Arab
List), interviewed this week on PA-TV, said in answer to a question, "We
exaggerate when we use the term 'peace' ... we are talking about 'Hudna'."
'Hudna' is a traditional Islamic term which means a cease-fire. A 'Hudna' was
called by the Arabs in 1948. It did not mean the end to war; only a break --
cease-fire ('hudna') -- in the fighting. Rhetoric is one of the weapons of the
Arabs.

TERRORIST ATTACKS IN JERUSALEM: The victim of the Saturday night
stabbing
attack in Jerusalem's northern Neve Ya'akov neighborhood is reported to be
in serious condition in Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem. The
victim was waiting at a bus stop when an Arab man attacked him from
behind. The attack occurred shortly after 9:00 p.m. On Friday night, also
in Neve Ya'akov, a woman in her fifties who was speaking on a public
telephone was stabbed in her back. Her current condition is unknown at the
time of this report. Police report the knife used in the Saturday night
attack was recovered from the scene of the attack. Jerusalem police have
established a special unit to investigate the attacks, adding they are
checking the possibility of a connection between the two. Angry Neve
Ya'akov residents were out in the streets on Saturday night, shouting,
"Arabs have taken over the neighborhood," blaming the government and
police for having abandoned them. Neve Ya'akov is Jerusalem's most
northern Jewish neighborhood, bordering several Arab communities.

MICRONESIAN PRESIDENT GETS ROYAL WELCOME IN ISRAEL: It has
been a busy week for Micronesia President Leo Falcam, who is being
warmly welcomed on his first visit to Israel in gratitude for his nation's
courageous stand at the UN on the question of Jerusalem. Ever since
Falcam became vice president several years ago, Micronesia has
consistently voted with Israel and the US in the UN General Assembly
against anti-Israel resolutions, including the condemnations of a Jewish
building project at Har Homa in southern Jerusalem in 1997. Now president,
Falcam and his nine-member entourage stopped off in Israel for a four-day
visit and tour of biblical sites on the long way home from attending the UN's
"Millennium" summit in New York last week. Micronesia is a federation of
over 600 small Pacific islands; only 70 or so are inhabited by some 130,000
residents. The nation gained independence from the US in 1986, and Israel
was one of the first nations to grant recognition. Falcam, besieged all week
by the local press, said his country will never forget Israel's quick vote of
support for his nation. In addition, the population of Micronesia is nearly
100% Christian. In a meeting with representatives of the International
Christian Embassy Jerusalem on Thursday, Falcam explained that many of
his people have an "emotional" attachment to Israel as the "Promised Land,"
and that his nation's support for Israel's claim to Jerusalem is "unshakable."
After Micronesia joined the UN in the early 1990s, its leaders were dismayed
by the spate of unfair resolutions leveled against
Israel [one-third of all UN resolutions have been directed at Israel --ed].

CARDINAL SEEKS TO INFLAME JEWS: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a
leader of the Vatican's conservative wing, has created a storm by declaring
that the Catholic Church is waiting for Israel and Jews to embrace
Christianity. The statement, contained in a new book by one of the closest
aides to Pope John Paul II, is likely to retard progress in Catholic-Jewish
relations, which appeared to culminate in the pontiff's visit to Israel earlier
this year. Ratzinger, who heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, the guardian of Vatican orthodoxy, is quoted by the German
magazine Focus as writing: "Catholics do not want to impose Christ on the
Jews, but they are waiting for the moment when Israel also says yes to
Christ." The comment is expected to ignite a firestorm among Jewish leaders
in the Diaspora and cause dismay among Israeli circles convinced that
relations with the Vatican had taken an irreversible turn for the better.
Ratzinger's comment came a week after he issued another Vatican
document, Declaration Dominus Iesus, which stunned Protestant leaders by
proclaiming the primacy of the Catholic Church and effectively delegitimizing
non-Catholic churches by characterizing them as "gravely deficient."

TNS: Week Ending: 16 Elul 5760/16 September 2000
Tzemach News Service - http://www.tzemach.org/fyi

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Mutant bunny at heart of controversy over DNA tampering
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 13:11:25 -0400

Mutant bunny at heart of controversy over DNA tampering

By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff, Globe Correspondent, 9/17/2000

Eduardo Kac has held the pet of the future in his arms, and it is Alba,
a white bunny that glows in the dark.

Kac, an artist who lives in Chicago, persuaded a team of French genetic
researchers last fall to join him in an artistic venture featuring a
living, breathing rabbit whose DNA is combined with that of a
phosphorescent jellyfish. Alba appears normal, but, when illuminated
with the kind of ''black lights'' used in nightclubs, she gives off an
otherworldly green glow from every cell in her body: her paws, her
whiskers, and especially her eyes. As word has slowly leaked out about
Alba - who was supposed to ''interact'' with Kac in a faux living room
as a piece of performance art, but is instead confined to her French
laboratory after protests - it is bringing outcries from scientists and
animal rights activists shocked at the idea that the powerful tools of
biotechnology would be used for an art exhibit. And there is no way to
know, they say, whether the animal is suffering, or what effect the
mutant bunny would have on the ecosystem if she were to escape and
reproduce.

But Kac, who will answer his critics at a public forum tomorrow in
Chicago, said that the gathering fury is all a part of what he calls an
ongoing experiment in ''transgenic art,'' a project whose aim is to
create a character, at once ''loveable'' and ''alien,'' that society
must confront.

''It is a new era, and we need a new kind of art,'' said Kac, 38. ''It
makes no sense to paint as we painted in the caves.''

When scientists completed a rough draft of the human genetic blueprint
earlier this year, it was hailed as one of the greatest achievements in
the history of science and medicine. Yet social critics say that the
work of Kac, and a vanguard of others who are now exploring life as an
artistic medium, is a sign that the breakthrough will be seen as a
monumental cultural milestone as well. Just as man's first steps on the
moon had wide reverberations in the realms of art, popular culture, and
religion, so, too, will genetic engineering.

''This is a reminder of how some of the most controversial and
far-reaching changes will have nothing to do with medicine,'' said
Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania. Genetics
''is going to profoundly change our philosophy, our society, our
culture.''

The same techniques used to create Alba could also be used to fashion a
line of glow-in-the-dark pets, scientists said. Modern dogs and cats,
they added, are themselves products of a kind of genetic engineering, in
the form of breeding by humans over thousands of years. But modern
genetic techniques quicken the pace and expand the palette.

''In a sense, this rabbit is not any sillier than a Chihuahua,'' said
Mark Hauser, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Harvard
University, and author of ''Wild Minds,'' a book about animal
psychology.

Kac and Alba remain apart while Kac tries to persuade the French
government laboratory, called the National Institute of Agronomic
Research, to grant him custody of the bunny. The scientist who created
her for Kac, Louis-Marie Houdebine, said he doesn't know when, or if,
Alba will be allowed to join Kac, but said that she is healthy, and even
noted that she has a ''particularly mellow and sweet dispostion.''

In the meantime, other artists have joined in Kac's quest to use art to
push biotechnology into the cultural sphere. On Sept. 9, a show,
entitled ''Paradise Now: Picturing the Genetic Revolution,'' featuring
artists who use biotechnology, opened at a SoHo gallery. The show
includes a set of cloned trees; an image created using bacteria
engineered to produce colored enzymes; and a work called ''The Human
Race Machine,'' a software program that allows gallery-goers to scan in
their face and then shows how they would appear as another race - East
Indian, Latino, Asian, Caucasian, and African.

This spring, Mass MoCA, a gallery in Western Massachusetts, opened a
similar show called ''Unnatural Science.''

Kac, who was born in Rio de Janeiro, said his motivation was to show
that even transgenic animals created in a lab have ''an emotional and
cognitive life.'' Originally, he wanted to commission a glowing dog that
would then live with his family and that people could ''play with and
look in the eye.''

But then Kac talked to Louis Bec, a French artist and curator, who told
him it would be difficult to create a glowing dog, but that he should
talk to Houdebine, director of research of the Biology of Development
and Biotechnology Unit, at the National Institute of Agronomic Research.
Houdebine agreed to become involved, and to let Kac use a genetically
modified rabbit for an exhibit in the south of France coordinated by Bec
called ''Digital Avignon.''

The technology that made Alba possible is widely available, scientists
said. It is not unusual for researchers to use green fluorescent
protein, which can be attached to particular cells, or used to trace the
action of particular chemicals, to study how animals and tumors grow,
and in tracking the workings of genetic diseases such as Huntington's.

Houdebine said his group had already been using rabbits in its research,
but that he was intrigued by Kac's desire to involve the public, and had
''never considered'' whether an entire animal would glow in the dark.
Seen under a bath of ultraviolet light, and looking through a filter,
the rabbit's most striking feature is its brightly glowing green eyes,
said Houdebine.

This spring, a delighted Kac traveled to meet Alba at the lab, 30
minutes outside of Paris, a trip that he said evoked in him ''a deep
sense of responsibility.''

Disappointment soon struck, though, when the French institute's director
heard of the plan: He forbade Kac to use the rabbit in his exhibit, and
said that he could not take it home with him to Chicago, where Kac
planned to ''bring it into his loving family'' - a wife and a 5-year-old
daughter.

Kac said the old director has since left, and said, sounding like a
father who has lost a custody battle, that he still hopes to ''free
Alba.'' He also maintains a Web site with a long manifesto on the
ongoing ''GFP Bunny'' project, detailing man's history of domesticating
rabbits and littered with references to Nietzsche, Kant, and other
European philosophers.

Kac is an assistant professor at the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago.

Even one of Kac's most passionate critics applauds him for drawing
attention to what is now being done in genetics research.

''It kind of turns the searchlights back on scientists,'' said Stuart A.
Newman, a professor of cell biology and anatomy at New York Medical
College who uses glowing proteins to track how animal limbs develop.
''There are some pretty awfully deformed animals in transgenic research,
and scientists have sometimes done these things with no good theory
behind it.''

Newman, who also serves on the board of directors of the Cambridge,
Mass.-based Council for Responsible Genetics, will be one of the
speakers at tomorrow's symposium, which is being held at the
Chicago-Kent College of Law.

GFP Bunny, Kac said, is actually his second work of transgenic art. The
first, now on exhibit at the ''Paradise Now'' show, which is being held
at a gallery called Exit Art, is called ''Genesis.'' In it, he
translated a passage from the Book of Genesis into Morse code and then
into a DNA code that was then injected into a bacterium.

The installation includes a Web site that allows people from around the
world to look at the bacteria, and whenever someone logs on, a strong
ultraviolet light shines from above, mutating some of the bacteria.

The passage from the Bible, Kac explained, grants man dominion ''over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living
thing that moves upon the Earth.''

But the mutations introduced by the light modify the message, he said,
''rejecting it.'' We have come to a time where we must stand in awe
before the power and possibilities of nature, he said: ''It's an
expression of humility.''

Globe correspondent Tom Haines contributed to this report from Paris.

This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 9/17/2000.
� Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/261/nation/Cross_hare_hop_and_glow+.s
html

via: isml@egroups.com

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Build your own spaceship
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 13:13:31 -0400

Friday September 15, 8:07 PM

Build your own spaceship
By Kurt Kleiner

IF YOU have an itch to fly into space and half a million dollars to
spare, you may soon be able to nip down to the store and buy a
spaceship in kit form. Once assembled, the craft, called the Kitten,
will take you and two friends 200 kilometres up at a top speed of
Mach 4. It's not quite Earth orbit, but who's counting?

"It should be as reliable as any other kit--a boat, a helicopter or a
small private sub," says James Hill, president of Cerulean Freight
Forwarding Company, based in Oroville, Washington, which plans
to sell the kits.

Cerulean is the latest of 19 entrants into the X Prize competition, a
contest which will award $10 million to the first private group to
launch a reusable vehicle into space, defined as 100 kilometres up.
In marketing the Kitten as a kit that enthusiasts can buy, Cerulean
is going one better than its competition.

The idea may not be as far-fetched as it seems. Amateurs already
build and fly kits for all kinds of aircraft, including helicopters and
jet planes. The Kitten will be built from many off-the-shelf
components that already have safety accreditation from the Federal
Aviation Authority. This makes it easier to make sure the craft is
safe, says Hill.

The ship will use engines made from ceramic materials and burn a
mixture of methane and liquid oxygen, generating a maximum 3g of
thrust. This should propel the craft through a sub-orbital hop, after
which it will glide back to Earth like NASA's X-24 lifting body
(shown above).

To save weight, compressed nitrogen will both cool the engines
and power hydraulic systems, while a laptop computer with special
software will help the pilot fly the craft. Because the Kitten won't
reach orbit, it won't need a heavy heat shield for re-entry.

Hill says universities might buy the kit to run zero-gravity
experiments or other space research. The first Kitten could even be
ready in three years, if additional investors step forward.

"An amateur-built spaceship would probably face tough scrutiny
from regulators," cautions Dick Knapinksi, a spokesman for the
Experimental Aircraft Association, an enthusiasts' group based in
Oshkosh, Wisconsin. "At the very least, the US would have to
waive the 18-kilometre ceiling that limits private pilots now, he
says.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/000915/12/ajf9c.html

via: isml@egroups.com

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Prayer Continues at Tenn. Shelter
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 13:25:55 -0400

September 16, 2000

Prayer Continues at Tenn. Shelter

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Darnell Yancey didn't mind having to pray
over his hamburger and cupcake, regardless of what the federal
government thinks.

``If you're down in spirit, you need to pray,'' Yancey said after lunch
Thursday at the Christian-run Memphis Union Mission.

The mission, which feeds 200 to 300 homeless people a day, lost
its federal aid two months ago when inspectors realized there were
mandatory religious services before meals. Federal law prohibits
agencies receiving food from the Agriculture Department from
putting stipulations on it -- religious or otherwise.

Rev. Mark Calhoun, who has overseen the ministry for the past
three years, said he didn't know of the rule until an inspector
pointed it out to him. He worried how he would feed the homeless
without the government aid, worth about $30,000 a year.

But when news of the aid cutoff reached the airwaves of Christian
radio stations last week, $100,000 in private donations came in
from people as far away as Seattle, New York and Portland, Ore.

Calhoun said the support shows ``God is bigger than government
and we never did put our trust in the government.''

The shelter, founded in 1945, has received USDA commodities,
such as meat, for 10 years. The aid represents about a third of the
mission's budget, which comes mainly from private donations.

Terry Minton of the state Department of Agriculture, which oversees
USDA programs in Tennessee, said the intent of the rule is to
ensure there are no restrictions prohibiting the poor and the needy
from getting food. If the religious services were made voluntary, she
said, the government would restore its aid to the shelter.

The USDA did not readily have statistics on how many shelters
have lost aid since the rule was put in place more than a decade
ago, but Minton said many religion-based shelters choose to make
services voluntary rather than risk the lost support.

Calhoun said it's not a choice for his mission.

``It's the old 'give a man a fish or teach him to fish.' We've chosen
the later and the government has chosen the former,'' Calhoun said.

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Churches To Protest Nazareth Mosque
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 13:34:11 -0400

September 17, 2000

Churches To Protest Nazareth Mosque

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Church leaders in the Holy Land have
launched a worldwide campaign to protest Israel's role in the
construction of a large mosque in Jesus' boyhood town of
Nazareth.

Holy shrines might be closed in the future as part of the campaign,
a church official said Saturday, speaking on condition of
anonymity.

The mosque is to be built next to the Basilica of the Annunciation,
where tradition says the Angel Gabriel foretold Jesus' birth.

Church officials complain Israel made excessive concessions to
the Muslims while ignoring promises made to Christian leaders,
including Pope John Paul II.

Tensions boiled over last year with Christian-Muslim violence.
Christians wanted the plot for a piazza to accommodate pilgrims
during the millennial year. Muslims, who say a Crusader-era sage
is buried at the site, wanted it for a large mosque.

Israel's government brokered a compromise that would allow a
mosque to be built after the millennial year, using a third of the half-
acre plot.

The Vatican missionary news service Fides reported that the
Custodians of the Holy Land are considering shutting down their
holy sites to protest what they describe as Israel's refusal to
address their concerns.

The group also alleges that Christian pilgrims visiting the northern
Israeli town of Nazareth have been harassed by militant Muslims.

Church leaders have begun sending letters to foreign governments,
church officials said.

Israel's role as a guardian of Christian sites is becoming an issue
in Mideast peace talks, especially in determining the future of
Jerusalem's Old City and its holy shrines.

In the past, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a Muslim, sided with
the Christians in the Nazareth dispute, apparently to rally Christian
support for his claims to east Jerusalem, including the Old City.

Israeli governments, meanwhile, appeared reluctant to alienate the
Muslims, who make up the vast majority of Israel's 1 million Arab
citizens.

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - (Fwd) Arutz-7 News: Sunday, Sept. 17, 2000
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 18:51:26 -0400

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 19:06:23 +0200
To: arutz-7@IsraelNationalNews.com
From: Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@IsraelNationalNews.com>
Subject: Arutz-7 News: Sunday, Sept. 17, 2000
Send reply to: netnews@a7.org

Arutz Sheva News Service
<www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Sunday, Sept. 17, 2000 / Elul 17, 5760
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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
   1. THE DISMANTLING OF THE MINISTRY OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS
   2. RUNNING ROUGHSHOD OVER THE RELIGIOUS PUBLIC
   3. RESPONSES
   4. VIOLENCE IN N'VEI YAAKOV; NETZARIM; MIGDAL OZ
   5. MK CALLS FOR RECALL OF AMERICAN AMBASSADOR
   6. EPIDEMIC CONTINUES
   7. ISRAELIS WIN LASKER PRIZE
   8. BEIT NACHSHON APPROPRIATELY NAMED

1. THE DISMANTLING OF THE MINISTRY OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS
Prime Minister Ehud Barak's secular revolution appears to be becoming a
reality, with the help of Justice Minister Yossi Beilin. Beilin has
already begun dismantling the Ministry of Religious Affairs, as outlined
in a four-month plan he and his staffers have drawn up. The process
begins with the closure of certain departments - a move that does not
require Knesset approval - within a month and a half.

Beilin, whose plan it is to "give other religions in Israel a greater
sense of partnership," explains his strategy in his introduction to the
program (quoted in HaTzofeh):
"Our diplomatic relations with the Vatican are improving... and the
same
is true regarding the appeasement process with the Arab world. This
will require us in the coming years to increase budgetary allocations
towards developing Islamic and Christian institutions...
Inter-religious understanding and coordination will be required... The
dismantling of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, and the transfer of
its activities to other government ministries, is indicated... It
behooves us to find a way to grant the other streams of Judaism and
other religions in Israel a feeling of greater partnership and
equality..."

The Ministry's departments that are scheduled to be closed over the next
few weeks include: Diaspora; Ritual Items; Halakhic [Jewish Legal]
Research; Holy Sites; Synagogues; Mikvaot [Ritual Baths] and Eruvin
[Ritual Sabbath Domain Delimiters]; the Ministry's Northern Branch; and
others.

Arutz-7's Yosef Zalmanson asked Yossi Beilin's spokesman Amir Abramovitz
today how the "need to increase inter-religious cooperation and
understanding" necessitates the closing of the one government ministry
that appears to be best qualified to take on exactly this task.
Abramovitz responded, "The Ministry of Religious Affairs is the one
single obstacle to the provision of proper religious services. The
Attorney-General has said that it is far from properly-run. The problem
lies in its very existence. The Minister has too much power and the
control of too many funds... The Ministry has become such a desired
'goodie' for Shas and the NRP that recent coalition agreements
stipulate that there be two Deputy Ministers and the rotation of the
Minister and Director-General every year…"

2. RUNNING ROUGHSHOD OVER THE RELIGIOUS PUBLIC
The weekly Cabinet meeting was the scene of yet another front of the
"secular revolution" this morning: Three new Basic Laws were presented
for government approval. They included the Laws of Judicial Rights,
Freedom of Expression and Assembly, and Social Rights. The Cabinet in
fact approved the first two, but the third - Social Rights - was not
accepted. This was due to Absorption Minister Yuli Tamir's insistence
that a special clause be included guaranteeing equal rights for women.
Meimad Minister Rabbi Melchior objected to all three laws.

National Religious Party head Rabbi Yitzchak Levy explained to Arutz-7
today why the religious parties strongly object to at least two of the
above laws:
"The Law for Equality in Judicial Rights will pave the way for the
Supreme
Court to nullify practices required by Jewish Law - and Islamic Law, in
the Islamic courts - such as the nullification of certain types of
testimony. The Halakhah [Jewish Law] will be subject to the preferences
of the Supreme Court!.. The Law of Freedom of Expression will worsen
the current situation in which there are practically no limits on
immodest speech or libel and slander. I recall that when I was Minister
of Education, I was able to stop a school from bringing in an unclothed
woman model - but with this new law, which grants broad freedom of
speech, would I be able to stop such a thing? Similarly with libel - it
will be easier for a person to publicly slander others, without fear of
facing prosecution... It's true that Chief Justice Aharon Barak always
says that new Basic Laws will protect minority groups, such as the
religious sector, but the fact is that in practice we simply do not see
this. Instead, the Court uses these Laws to erase the Jewish character
of the State... These are issues that do not enjoy a public consensus.
If Prime Minister Barak wants to destroy the delicate social fabric of
our country, then let him fly with this program. But if not, then he
must wait for a consensus on these issues."

Rabbi Levy has also written a sharp letter to Prime Minister Barak,
warning him that his policies are leading to the collapse of religious
education in Israel. "The dismantling of the Religious Affairs Ministry
is merely a camouflage for the lowering of the guillotine on the
glorious educational enterprise of Religious Zionism," Levy wrote,
warning that the religious-Zionist public will not accept this. "I am
dumbfounded to see that you are lending your hand to the destruction of
this enterprise that we have worked so hard to build up over the
decades…" The proposed budget for 2001 calls for a cut of "tens of
millions of shekels" to religious education, Rabbi Levy said, showing
the government's "disdain" for the religious public. He elaborated on
the issue for Arutz-7's listeners:
"I don't have any particular sentiments about the Ministry of Religious

Affairs per se, but I am very concerned about the substance. It's
important that the parents of the tens of thousands of yeshiva high
school and junior high school students, who already pay very high
tuition, realize what this will mean. Secondary-school religious
education is in direct danger of collapse. If now we have 70 yeshiva
high schools [for boys], and 35 ulpanot [girls' high schools], with
between 100 and 300 students each, then soon there will be only 10 such
institutions, and only the most wealthy families will be able to send
their children."

He explained what the closure of the Religious Affairs Ministry would
mean:
"These institutions are presently funded by the Education Ministry for
the
morning hours, but because of their dual-program curriculum, and the
fact that many of them have dormitories, the Religious Affairs Ministry
stepped in to provide the schools with an additional payment per
student. [These range from 80 shekels per month per junior high school
student with no dormitory, to 390 shekels per high school dormitory
student. - ed. note; figures provided by HaTzofeh reporter Moti Zaft]
If these sums are now allocated via the Education Ministry, we are in
trouble; it is clear that if the Minister is from Meretz, for instance,
he is quite likely to decide that special education in the Negev may be
a higher priority for him than religious education. For our
institutions to lose these sums would be almost a death blow. All the
praise that we have received over the years about our education and the
students that we produce and the contribution they make in every field -
all this will be forgotten..."

3. RESPONSES
Rabbi Michael Melchior, Meimad's representative in the government, said
again that the way in which Barak is going about his social revolution
is harmful. "He must remember that Meimad is a partner in this
coalition with the understanding that any religious-social changes will
be carried out only after they are mutually agreed upon," said Rabbi
Melchior.

Arutz-7's Yosef Zalmanson asked Amir Abramovitz - spokesman for the man
behind the push to close the Religious Affairs Ministry, Justice
Minister Yossi Beilin - for his response to the claim that the proposed
changes will cause severe damage to the religious high school system.
"There is no intention to hurt the educational services that are being
provided," Abramovitz replied

Zalmanson then asked about the proposed Basic Law on Judicial
Equality: "Do you really intend to force the Religious Courts to be
conducted according to civil law? There are many ways in which the two
are simply incompatible!" Abramovitz responded, "There is no intention,
at this time, to change the way the religious courts are run."

Basic Laws must receive Knesset approval to be passed into law; Justice
Minister Beilin is confident that the required majority will be found,
even though the government does not currently enjoy Parliamentary
support.

4. VIOLENCE IN N'VEI YAAKOV; NETZARIM; MIGDAL OZ
Two Jews have been stabbed in the northern Jerusalem suburb of N'vei
Yaakov over the past two days. Shlomo Chaiditov, 50, who was attacked
last night, is in serious but stable condition in Hadassah Ein Karem
Hospital. A woman was stabbed in the same location the night before,
and was injured lightly. In both cases, the attacker fled to the nearby
Arab village.

Arab rock-throwing at the Netzarim junction in Gush Katif, Gaza, has
become a popular sport among Palestinian youth. Hundreds of boys of all
ages participated in the latest incident today, and one IDF soldier was
hit in the head. Israeli troops responded with tear gas and rubber
bullets, and the army closed the Karni Checkpoint and did not allow
Palestinians to cross into pre-1967 Israel. The road to Netzarim was
also closed for several hours today. Palestinian soldiers stationed
outside Netzarim did nothing to stop the attacks.

Meanwhile, the religious Kibbutz Migdal Oz in Gush Etzion has been the
target of three shooting attacks over the past month. There have been
no casualties, but the attacks have slightly unnerved the residents.
Kibbutz leader Eli Karniel explained that the Arab village of Biet Fajr
is 500 meters south of Migdal Oz, and "every six months or so, an
amateur terrorist cell sets itself up on the road between us, and fires
towards the Kibbutz. The shots hit our cement factory there... In
general we feel quite safe, as everyone does in Gush Etzion, but these
incidents are unnecessary, and can certainly lead to worse things if not
checked now. Such incidents are the result of the unclear message that
our government is sending regarding the future inclusion of Gush Etzion
in the State of Israel."

5. MK CALLS FOR RECALL OF AMERICAN AMBASSADOR
MK Uzi Landau (Likud) calls upon Prime Minister Barak to demand that the
United States recall its ambassador to Israel - Martin Indyk - in light
of comments he made in favor of the partitioning of Jerusalem. Indyk,
receiving an honorary doctorate from Hebrew Union College in London late
last week, said, "There is no other solution but to share the Holy City.
It is not, and cannot be, the exclusive preserve of one religion."

An American Embassy spokesman said last night that Indyk's remarks do
not indicate a change in American policy on Jerusalem. MK Landau said,
"It is inconceivable that an ambassador would call for the partition of
the capital in which he is serving." Khalil Jahshan, a leading
anti-Israel Arab lobbyist in the U.S., reacted to Indy's comments by
saying, "We are delighted to see a representative of the U.S. government
saying publicly what we have heard privately."

6. EPIDEMIC CONTINUES
An 80-year-old woman became Israel's tenth victim to succumb to the West
Nile fever this morning. The Health Ministry reports that 110 people
have taken ill with the disease so far. Five additional towns have
received Environment Ministry approval to spray mosquito-infected areas
with the "fog" pesticide - including Beit She'an and Kibbutz Yad
Mordechai.

7. ISRAELIS WIN LASKER PRIZE
Two researchers from Haifa's Technion University will be the first-ever
Israeli recipients of the prestigious Albert Lasker Basic Research Award
this Saturday night. The award is the most distinguished American honor
for medical research; many awardees have later won the Nobel Prize.
Professors Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover will be recognized for
their pioneering research - carried out over two decades ago - on the
degradation of intracellular proteins. The two showed how ubiquitin - a
small protein named for its ubiquitous [omnipresent] distribution in
nature - attaches itself to other proteins, thus marking them for
destruction. This system has become the key to the understanding of the
emergence and progression of cancer and other diseases.

8. BEIT NACHSHON APPROPRIATELY NAMED
Arutz-7's Ariel Kahane spoke with Esther Wachsman today about a cultural
community center for mentally-incapacitated children named for her son.
The center is called Beit Nachshon, and was given the name in memory of
IDF soldier Nachshon Wachsman, who was murdered six years ago by
Palestinian Arab terrorists after they held him hostage for several
days. Mrs. Wachsman explained her family's connection with the cause:
"We have a son with Down Syndrome, and are very aware of the
difficulties faced by family members. These children go to special
schools in the morning, but instead of returning home in the afternoon
and disrupting normal family life and often preventing the other
children from receiving the attention they need, Agudat Shalva [Shalva
Association] becomes a form of afternoon home for them... Shalva is
like a cultural center for these special children, and provides them
with all sorts of activities, such as computers, physical activity,
speech therapy, arts, and even one night a week when they sleep there,
giving the families 36 hours of respite..."

Mrs. Wachsman, whose son has been in Shalva for seven years, explained
how Beit Nachshon came about: "A wealthy man from Belgium visited us on
the last day of our 'shiva' [traditional mourning period] for Nachshon,
and said that the time had come to expand the Shalva center - which at
the time only had two rooms. He gave the first major contribution,
which has since expanded, and asked permission to call the new building
that he wanted to construct "Beit Nachshon," after our son. We saw this
as a most appropriate manner of eternalizing our son's memory, as a way
of perpetuating life. The circle was closed for us, in that the
monument for Nachshon was not merely stones or a building, but something
that was on behalf of life, help for the needy and disadvantaged… Just
as Nachshon could have been any soldier, so too any family could have a
son like the brother that Nachshon so loved - religious, secular, right,
left, Ashkenazi, Sefardi.."

Hebrew News Editor: Ariel Kahane
English News Editor: Hillel Fendel

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========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Australian locust plague spreads to richest farmland
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 18:54:28 -0400

September 17, 2000

Australian locust plague spreads to richest farmland
By Mark Chipperfield in Sydney

AUSTRALIA is facing a plague of locusts on an unprecedented scale which
threatens to destroy vast swathes of the country's richest farmland and
devastate lucrative vineyards.

The voracious pests have struck simultaneously in Western Australia,
Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. In South Australia, where some
minor outbreaks have been reported, the Australian Plague Locust
Commission expects the first large-scale hatchings to happen this week,
producing a vast new infestation.

Peter Walker, a forecaster with the locust commission, said: "We believe
that it's the first time in living memory there's been an outbreak on both=
sides
of the continent."

Authorities have ordered in extra crop-spraying aircraft and pesticides as=
the
plague sweeps south from the arid centre of the continent to threaten
Australia's richest agricultural land. Farmers in the worst-affected areas=
are
holding emergency meetings to discuss how best to prevent millions more
locusts from hatching and destroying their crops.

The locust commission, which is co-ordinating efforts, predicts that the
locusts will cause up to =A3200 million damage to grain, vegetables, viney=
ards
and other crops. This year's plague is being blamed on unusually wet winte=
r
conditions in Australia.

Having devoured native vegetation, the insatiable insects soon swarm to
farmers' crops. One outback station owner, Shane Oldfield, said his proper=
ty
was being invaded by an army of locusts from the north.

Mr Oldfield said: "We had good feed - heaps of feed - but they're just com=
ing
through in waves. They've been here for six weeks and the damage they do
is just incredible. I've never ever seen anything like this before."

Field workers in Western Australia have forecast that the current plague w=
ill
outstrip anything ever seen in the state. Kevin Walden of the local agricu=
lture
department said: "Our last major plague was in 1990 and that was our
biggest recorded by a long shot. Our work so far suggests that this will b=
e
twice as big as that one."

While the various state governments have pledged financial support to help=
to
fight the menace, the actual scale of the outbreak and the total bill now
depend on the vagaries of the Australian spring.

Malcolm Campbell, the Victoria state commissioner to the locust authority,=

admitted that it was almost impossible to predict how badly an individual
farmer might fare.

Mr Cambell said: "It depends greatly on weather conditions and timing.
Generally speaking, 10 per cent of crop production is destroyed in a major=

locust outbreak. But this 10 per cent is not across the board. You might
have one farmer lose an entire crop, but another nearby escape unscathed."=

For the moment, Australian farmers are preparing for the worst, and prayin=
g
for a stretch of cool weather to help to curb the menace.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=3D000163167039689&rtmo=3DV6sSfkqK&at
mo=3D99999999&pg=3D/et/00/9/17/wloc17.html

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

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