2020-11-22

I DISAGREE WITH WHAT THIS JEWISH PAPER SAYS, BUT IT IS WELL DONE AND WRITTEN. OPINIONS ARE FREE FACTS ARE SACRED J. P. SCOTT DIXIT. I HOPED THEY RESPECT MY OPINIONS AS I RESPECT THEM I THINK THAT GLOBALISM SHALL BE A TRAUMA FOR THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. LETS´S CONFOUND TORQUEDA. HE IS NOW AT WORK CURTAILING LIBERTIES AND FREE EXPRESSION

 

‘Soros’ documentary gets negative reviews

A new documentary about George Soros, pictured above giving an interview in the film's trailer, has been called a 'hagiography.' (Screenshot)

(JTA) — A new documentary about George Soros, made by someone who used to work for him, was released online Friday to less-than-positive reviews.

According to reviews, the movie is largely about Soros’ support of global human rights causes and portrays him in an almost exclusively favorable light. Critics have lamented that the movie is light on detail about Soros’ life and career.

If Soros’ charity “had a headquarters that offered tours, this is the film they’d have on continuous loop in the visitors’ center,” read a review from VarietyThe New York Times review said that, “even as hagiography, ‘Soros’ is unfocused; it races from topic to topic, with clips that seem arbitrary at best.”

Soros, 90, the Jewish Holocaust survivor and billionaire hedge fund manager, is known for his prolific giving to human rights groups and liberal causes around the world, and to Democratic politicians in the United States. He is most famous on Wall Street for his shorting of the British pound in the 1990s. In recent decades he has become a prime target of conservatives and right-wing activists, whose criticism of him often veers into conspiracy theory and anti-Semitic stereotypes that have inspired violent attacks.

The movie, called “Soros” and released in virtual cinemas, was made by Jesse Dylan, a former video producer for Soros’ Open Society Foundations who is also Bob Dylan’s son.

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Tom Hanks joins campaign to turn Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue into anti-racism center

Actor Tom Hanks, center, points to veterans at the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC on March 11, 2010.(Wikimedia Commons)

(JTA) — Actor Tom Hanks and singer Billy Porter have agreed to help lead a fundraising campaign to help turn Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue into an anti-racism center.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and Joanne Rogers, wife of the late television show host Fred Rogers, will also be members of a “cabinet” to support the renovation of the Tree of Life building, where a gunman killed 11 Jews in 2018, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers said in a statement Wednesday.

“Through this effort and with the support of people of all backgrounds, we will transform a site of hate and tragedy into a site of hope, remembrance and education,” the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle quoted Myers as saying.

The community is raising funds for the project in a campaign titled “Remember. Rebuild. Renew.” Reports about did not specify the campaign’s fundraising goal.

Eatery said to be world’s 1st lab-grown meat restaurant opens near Tel Aviv

A chicken burger advertized on the website the The Chicken, a restaurant that serves lab-grown meat in Nes Tziona, Israel. (screenshot)

(JTA) — The world’s first lab-grown meat restaurant has opened near Tel Aviv, the Los Angeles-based VegNews reported.

The eatery, whose name is “The Chicken” — a reference to the pseudo-intellectual quandary over whether it precedes the egg or the other way around — is adjacent to the factory of its mother company, SuperMeat, in the Tel Aviv suburb of Nes Tziona, according to a VegNews report from last week.

Tables must be reserved in advance and patrons do not pay as the restaurant is still in test phase, Walla reported. They are, however, requested to answer questions or offer feedback.

The menu of The Chicken features two burgers made of “crispy cultured chicken fillet” grown from cells in SuperMeat’s factory.

“The burger has a juicy chicken flavor, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside,” SuperMeat CEO Ido Savir told Fast Company. The taste is indistinguishable from that of slaughtered animals, he said.

SuperMeat was established in 2015 to offer an alternative to meat whose production requires animal suffering.

Some rabbis argue lab-grown meat is exempt from traditional kosher meat requirements, but others say the same prohibitions, including salting and separating from dairy, do apply.

“Here, from the beginning it’s not considered meat because it’s a microscopic thing. … And even if it were really meat, because it changed its form, a ‘new face has arrived here’ and it’s not considered meat, and it’s clearly parve,” an Israeli rabbi told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2016.

Toronto suburb to rename street named after Nazi naval officer

Hans Langsdorff was commander of the Nazi German battleship Graf Spee. (Keystone/Getty Images)

(JTA) — A suburb of Toronto will rename a street named for Nazi naval officer Hans Langsdorff.

The town council of Ajax, a suburb northeast of Toronto, voted 4-3 this week to rename Langsdorff Drive after a Jewish-led campaign, according to B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish organization that advocated for the change.

The town is named after a British ship, the HMS Ajax, that won a 1939 battle against a ship commanded by Langsdorff.

An online petition to change the name garnered more than 900 signatures. The vote to change the name came after a Holocaust survivor testified at the town council meeting.

“Taking action against the glorification of Canada’s enemies and a man who fought for the most evil regime in history sends the right signal to those concerned about the rise of hate in our time,” said Michael Mostyn, B’nai Brith Canada’s CEO.

In Israel, Pompeo makes historic moves, including first visit to West Bank settlement for a secretary of state

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi after a security briefing on Mount Bental in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on the border with Syria, Nov. 19, 2020. (Patrick Semansky/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

(JTA) — Mike Pompeo became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit an Israeli settlement in the West Bank on Thursday.

At a news conference in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pompeo also said that the Trump administration will cut ties with any groups that support the boycott Israel movement, which the U.S. will officially consider anti-Semitic.

Later in the day, he visited the Psagot winery in a settlement near Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority’s capital, and his office announced that the State Department will enforce that goods produced in places in the West Bank “where Israel exercises full control” will be labeled “Made in Israel” when sold in the U.S. The international requirement since 1995 has been to label such goods as made in the West Bank.

He also visited the Golan heights, which most of the international community sees as occupied territory, and spoke from a hilltop. The State Department recognized the territory as part of Israel last year.

“I very much wanted to come here on this trip to tell the world that we have it right. That we, the United States has it right. That Israel has it right,” he said Thursday.

Netanyahu applauded the series of historic moves as “wonderful,” while the Palestinians condemned them.

“[T]he State Department took the wrong view of settlements. It took a view that didn’t recognize the history of this special place,” Pompeo said. “And instead, now, today the United States Department of State stands strongly to the recognition that settlements can be done in a way that are lawful and appropriate and proper.”

Prior U.S. administrations have seen settlement expansion as an impediment to peace and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On BDS, or the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, Pompeo added that “we will immediately take steps to identify organizations that engage in hateful BDS conduct, and withdraw US government support for such groups.”

The movement “urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law” in regards to its occupation of land in the West Bank, but many critics say it is built on anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic concepts.

While at the winery, which has named a vintage after him, Pompeo wrote in the visitor’s book that he hopes he will not be “the last secretary of state to visit this beautiful land.”

Correction: This article originally cited an incorrect claim in a New York Times article that Pompeo was the first U.S. secretary of state to visit the Golan Heights. 

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750 Jewish and Holocaust scholars sign petition protesting far-right politician tapped to lead Yad Vashem

Effi Eitam, seen in a 2014 photo, is a former general who led a religious Zionist party. (Flash90)

(JTA) — A broad coalition of Jewish studies scholars and directors of Jewish and Holocaust museums has signed a petition opposing the proposed appointment of Effi Eitam, a far-right Israeli politician, to chair Israel’s Holocaust museum.

The petition, which has 750 signers, is the latest protest against Eitam. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies advanced Eitam’s candidacy earlier this year to be the next chairman of Yad Vashem, which serves as a Holocaust museum, memorial and research center. Eitam is a former decorated general in the Israel Defense Forces and was a government minister who led a right-wing religious Zionist party.

His critics say he is unfit to lead the institution because he called for most Palestinians in the West Bank to be expelled and for Arab Israelis to be excluded from the country’s political system. Eitam also was reprimanded by the IDF’s chief of staff because soldiers under his command beat a Palestinian to death. His supporters point to his experience as a general and political leader.

Israeli politicians, Holocaust survivors and the Anti-Defamation League have called for his name to be withdrawn. Now they have been joined by the hundreds of scholars, including Susannah Heschel and Deborah Lipstadt. The list also includes the current or former directors of the Buchenwald memorial and Jewish museums in Budapest, Warsaw, Munich and elsewhere.

“Eitam’s hateful rhetoric towards Israeli Arabs and Palestinians stands in opposition to the stated mission of Yad Vashem,” the petition reads. “Appointing Effi Eitam as Chair of Yad Vashem would turn an internationally respected institution devoted to the documentation of crimes against humanity and the pursuit of human rights into a mockery and a disgrace.”

Jon Ossoff defends Raphael Warnock as a ‘beloved’ ally of Georgia’s Jewish community

Democratic Senate candidates Rev. Raphael Warnock, left, and Jon Ossoff acknowledge supporters during a rally in Marietta, Ga., Nov. 15, 2020. (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Jon Ossoff, the Jewish candidate running in a key runoff election for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia, defended his fellow Democratic hopeful Rev. Raphael Warnock in the wake of attacks on Warnock’s Israel record.

“Reverend Warnock is a beloved friend and ally of Georgia’s Jewish community and a friend of Israel,” Ossoff told the Forward on Wednesday. “Kelly Loeffler’s baseless attacks on the reverend make me sick.”

Warnock, the senior pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, is running to unseat Loeffler, a Republican. Not long after Warnock advanced to the January runoff earlier this month, Jewish Insider published an article titled “Raphael Warnock signed letter likening West Bank to apartheid South Africa.” Loeffler tweeted on Nov. 9 that Warnock has a “long history of anti-Israel extremism.”

Warnock signed the letter in question after a trip with other Christian clergy to Israel last year. It called for a renewed commitment to a two-state solution and decried “the conditions in which Palestinian communities live.” The letter also said that “the heavy militarization of the West Bank” was “reminiscent” of the way apartheid South Africa governed Namibia, its colony.

A 2018 sermon by Warnock circulated as well in which the pastor said “We need a two-state solution where all of God’s children can live together … We saw the government of Israel shoot down unarmed Palestinian sisters and brothers like birds of prey. … It is wrong to shoot down God’s children like they don’t matter at all.”

Warnock has since said that he is staunchly pro-Israel.

“Claims that I believe Israel is an apartheid state are patently false — I do not believe that,” he said earlier this month.

Valerie Habif and Joanie Shubin, who founded Jewish Democratic Women’s Salon, Atlanta, an activist group that helps elect Democrats in Georgia, defend Warnock.

“He has been a friend to Atlanta’s Jewish community throughout his tenure at the Ebenezer Baptist Church and a regular speaker and visitor to Atlanta’s synagogues,” they told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

In his statement, Ossoff attacked his opponent, Sen. David Perdue, for a widely criticized ad in which the Republican incumbent’s campaign lengthened the size of Ossoff’s nose.

“[Warnock’s] spiritual leadership and his interfaith outreach are deeply appreciated across our state,” Ossoff said. “Maybe Senator Loeffler should focus her attention on David Perdue who lengthened my nose in his attack ads.”

Black Jewish novelist Walter Mosley honored with National Book Foundation’s lifetime achievement award

Walter Mosley at the premiere of the third season of the FX show "Snowfall" at Bovard Auditorium at the University of Southern California, July 8, 2019. (Leon Bennett/WireImage/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Black Jewish novelist Walter Mosley received one of the National Book Foundation’s highest honors on Wednesday night: the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Since 1988, the lifetime achievement award has gone to Joan Didion, Ursula Le Guin and Toni Morrison, among others. Mosley is the first Black man to win the medal in its history, but not the first Jewish man — writers such as Saul Bellow, Philip Roth and Arthur Miller have won it in past years.

Mosley, 68, is perhaps best known for his “Easy Rawlins” mystery series, centering on Easy, a Black private detective in Los Angeles in the 1960s. The first of the series, “Devil in a Blue Dress,” was adapted into a 1995 movie starring Denzel Washington.

Mosley has not just stuck to the crime genre, however; he has written more than 60 books spanning genres, from Afrofuturist science fiction to plays. He even won a Grammy Award in 2001 for Best Album Notes for comedian Richard Pryor’s compilation “…And It’s Deep Too!”

Mosley began writing later in life, at age 34. One of Mosley’s mentors, the Irish novelist Edna O’Brien, encouraged him to write his first novel by telling him: “You’re Black, Jewish, with a poor upbringing; there are riches therein.”

“In a way, to be a Jew is to be a part of a tribe,” Mosley said in 2010, reflecting on his Jewishness. “Being a part of a tribe, you can never really escape your identity. You can be anything inside, but in the end you’re always answerable to your blood.”

He was born to a Jewish mother and a Black non-Jewish father in Los Angeles. He once told the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival: “I grew up with half-sour kosher pickles and collard greens, and I enjoyed both sides of my family.”

“I feel equally descended from both of my parents and their backgrounds,” he added in that interview.

In his acceptance speech at the virtual National Book Award ceremony, Mosley mused on the nature of being the “first,” and referenced the 1970 record by Curtis Mayfield, “We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue”:

There’s a great weight hanging over the reception of an award when the underlying subject is the first Black man to receive. We, the people who are darker than blue, have been here, on this continent, in this storm, for 400 years. As of a matter of course, we have been chained, beaten, raped, murdered, robbed of our names, our history, and often even our dignity. This has been an ongoing process. An unending anguish. And so one might be cowed by the monumental negative space surrounding that pinprick of light that this award represents.

Trump’s White House is throwing an in-person Hanukkah party despite COVID concerns

An invitation to the White House Hanukkah party (Courtesy)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump White House is throwing an in-person Hanukkah party, one of a series of recent events the administration has held despite coronavirus concerns.

The reception will be held Dec. 9 in the afternoon, a day before the holiday’s first candle lighting, according to an invitation obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Donald Trump has come under fire for holding a number of crowded events at the White House, including several that are believed to have spread the coronavirus. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist, called the reception for recently confirmed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett a “superspreader event.”

Jewish staff held semi-formal Hanukkah parties during the Clinton administration, but George W. Bush was the first president to make them a formal event. President Barack Obama continued the tradition, increasing the parties to two per year to meet demand. Trump also has held two Hanukkah parties each year of his presidency.

PADRE DANIEL. PRESBÍTERO, RUEGA POR NOS. ONCE AÑOS SE CUMPLEN DEL ASESINATO POR YIHADISTAS DE ESTE `PÈ. ERA UN SACERDOTE CASADO. COADJUTOR DE UNA PARROQUIA DE MOSCÚ. SU MUJER Y SU HERMANO DAN TESTIMONIO DEL MARTORIO DE ESTE CONFESOR DE LA FE QUE MURIÓ SANTO. PREVIAMENTE HABIA BAUTIZADO A VARIOS WAHAVIS POR LO QUE RECIBIÓ AMENAZAS. EN 2009 REPORTAMOS EN ESTE BLOG SU TRÁGICA MUERTE. QUE ÉL INTERCEDA POR RUSIA POR ESPAÑA Y EL MUNDO

 ARTÍCULO SUBIDO DE ORTHODOY TODAY

HE LED HIS ENTIRE LIFE LIKE A CONFESSOR

Fr. Daniel Sysoev Through the Eyes of His Brother

Part 1. He Managed to Unite All of Moscow. Fr. Daniel Sysoev Through the Eyes of a Brother Priest.

In December 2009, just a month after the brutal slaying of the great missionary Fr. Daniel Sysoev, Moscow radio host Sergei Gerasimov dedicated an episode of his show to the martyr. Among his guests were Fr. Daniel’s brother Vasily, who offered an intimate look at him through his memories of his brother both as a child and as a tireless missionary and priest.

Fr. Daniel SysoevFr. Daniel Sysoev    

  

Sergei Gerasimov: Greetings, dear listeners. Today we have a mournful, somewhat gloomy program, but perhaps, in some sense, joyful. It is dedicated to the memory of the murdered Fr. Daniel Sysoev.

Vasily, please tell us a little about how he was at home, who he was, how you perceived him.

Vasily Sysoev: He was always, for us, a radiant person. We loved him very much, because he was a model in everything. He was the firstborn. He defined that extraordinary rhythm and that extraordinary height to which all of us in our family will strive now, because the death of a martyr is probably the very best, as he believed, for any Christian. In essence, he led his entire life like a confessor. There’s even a story from his childhood, when he was in first grade, in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, and he was put in front of the entire class, with children who were also soviets, raised in atheism. And the teacher asked: “So, what, you believe in God, and you know some prayers?” Of course, the whole class started laughing and starting shouting about how Gagarin went into space and didn’t see God there. And after a short pause, Fr. Daniel said: “Yes, I believe in God, and I know many prayers.” This was probably one of the first most striking examples of his life as a confessor, and at such a young stage of life. And the last stage, we saw literally just a few days ago—the martyric crown that he received from God.

He was always very kind and responsive and would do anything we asked of him—if it was for the good, of course. He rallied us around his parish. My older brother Pimen and I sang in his choir. Our younger brother Tikhon served in the altar with his blessing. Our younger sister also came quite often. She was still very young then, and mama didn’t let her go so far alone, but she came a lot and sang with us. He never forgot us, and always helped us when things were difficult. He baptized my son, and he served my wedding and Pimen’s wedding in his Church of the Apostle Thomas. We’ll always remember him, his wonderful smile. I can’t remember a single moment when he wasn’t smiling. He smiled and he joked. He was always happy, never sad. There was this remarkable time when he broke his leg, just two years ago, if I remember correctly. The situation was that the dean didn’t send a replacement priest to the parish. So he had to serve himself, because (inaudible) the services should never stop, that they are the foundation of the whole Christian life (inaudible). So he came out during the Great Entrance himself on this broken leg. I could see him walking with this crazy pain in his leg. He overcame it and was smiling. He read the appointed prayers and went back into the altar, where they sat him in a wheelchair, and he continued the Liturgy. This was the meaning of his life. He went through it all with a smile on his lips.

Fr. Daniel SysoevFr. Daniel Sysoev    

Sergei Gerasimov: It was still soviet times when your parents came to the faith. And you were born in an already-believing family?   

Vasily Sysoev: Fr. Daniel was born before our parents were baptized. They were baptized together in 1979. Of course, Fr. Daniel couldn’t simply just get baptized. From childhood, he was distinguished by the gift of a certain mysticism from God. During his Baptism, he saw an angel. And he testified of this to our parents immediately, when they were going around the font and he asked them: “Do you see him?” Of course, our parents said they didn’t see anything. He told me about it many times in private conversations, how he saw some man in fiery clothing, standing next to the font. And after their Baptisms, our family began to be educated in Christianity. So, yes, Pimen and I were born in an already Orthodox family, but Fr. Daniel was born before our parents were baptized.

Sergei Gerasimov: What was the reason for his interest in Islam? Why did he choose such an extraordinary field for his missionary work? I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else doing missionary work in that particular field.

Vasily Sysoev: That’s a very interesting question. I asked him that too, as did many people. And every time, he would answer with a smile on his lips, saying, “I never wanted to deal with this stuff,” because he considered Islam to be something in between religion and satanism. He never wanted to do this, but he said that, “God directed me there, and like a disobedient child, forced me to do it. I accepted this cross with patience and faith in Him.”

Sergei Gerasimov: Did he really receive threats? Was there any pressure?

Vasily Sysoev: There was very strong pressure both on the internet and with threatening phone calls. He received threats from Islamists right up until he was murdered. I personally witnessed several attacks like this against him personally, when people came up to him and threatened to cut his throat, and so on.

Sergei Gerasimov: They would come up to him right there on the street?

Vasily Sysoev: On the street, in the mission field, and so on, and so on. For example, on Sabantuy,1 when Father was preaching at the Bitsa Equestrian Complex, some people who were obviously Wahhabis came up to him and threatened that if he didn’t leave, they would cut his throat at some point, to which he smiled sweetly and said: “I’m sorry, I can’t leave. I’m preaching the word of Christ, fulfilling His command.”

Sergei Gerasimov: And how did you learn about his murder, Vasya? How did the family take it?

Vasily Sysoev, with Fr. Daniel's widow, Matushka Julia in the backgroundVasily Sysoev, with Fr. Daniel's widow, Matushka Julia in the background    

Vasily Sysoev: I heard about it maybe half an hour later. Some of the church staff called me. I don’t want to name any names, but they told me that Fr. Daniel was shot in the head, and that he was now in the ICU. I got in touch with my father and brother when they were on their way to the church, because they jumped up immediately, of course. They only had time to grab some money. We arrived at the scene. We didn’t tell our mother right away, you understand, because we had to get all the facts straight first. The police were already there when we arrived; they didn’t let us into the church. They wouldn’t even let the priest in who wanted to get Communion to take to Fr. Daniel in the hospital. But as we later learned, it wasn’t necessary, because he had served the Divine Liturgy that day and had already communed. So we arrived to the hospital in this turmoil. There we learned that Fr. Daniel had departed to the Lord at 12:15 AM, without suffering, as we believe, because the first bullet hit him in the neck, in the carotid artery, and the killer finished him off with a controlled second shot to the head. Most likely, he didn’t feel anything, because he immediately lost consciousness from the loss of blood.   

Sergei Gerasimov: Vasily, you told me about how he appeared after his death?   

Vasily Sysoev: Yes, our sister talked with his oldest daughter, Justina. Her mother [Matushka Julia] said that he appeared to her one night to ask her forgiveness. And she asked him, and they forgave one another. And there were several miracles that occurred surrounding his funeral. The first miracle was connected with his vestments. It was his wish to be buried in his first vestments, which were long and very simple. However, our kind but careless altar servers had lost the cuffs and belt a year ago and couldn’t find them for a whole year. They rummaged through everything according to his instructions—the entire church—but couldn’t find them. And then, literally the next day after this tragedy, the priests had to go to the morgue to wash his body and solemnly dress him there. They went into the altar and saw lying there in the most visible place, the given cuffs, laid out carefully. The belt was also found a few hours later and was taken to the morgue where he was being vested.

Sergei Gerasimov: Vasily, tell us please, what are the current theories of the murder? And about your experience with the Interior Ministry, the FSB, and so on.

Vasily Sysoev: Right after it happened, we were taken in to the General Prosecutor’s office for questioning. They kept us there for three pointless hours—we needed to go see our mother, but they wouldn’t let us go. We had nothing new to say, of course, because we didn’t witness the crime. But we heard in passing that, of course, the main theory was that it was religious. Among others, the main theory was Islam, although they were trying all they could to silence it. When they questioned us, they asked: “Are you sure this is the handwriting of Islam? Do you think Islam could act this way?” But we, of course, had to answer that it was true that other than the Muslims, Fr. Daniel had no ardent opponents, because what he did was quite unpleasant for them. Especially unpleasant was that just a few weeks before his death, he baptized several Wahhabis, which in principle could be cause to sign his death warrant.

Fr. Konstantin Bufeev: Sorry, I’d like to clarify here—it was Wahhabis. These were not representatives of modern Russian Islam, but precisely those whom we consider to be radicals.

Vasily Sysoev: Yes, they were Wahhabis. But Fr. Daniel never separated Wahhabism from Islam. So, as far as I know, the investigation is, of course, silencing the theory about Islam however it can, so as not to cause inter-religious conflicts. Officially, they are trying to push everything onto pagans, saying they didn’t like him. And they don’t really say anything about it.

Sergei Gerasimov: But is there some investigation going on now? Do they keep you informed, or no?

Vasily Sysoev: They called our father and Fr. Daniel’s widow in for questioning today.

Sergei Gerasimov: How did Fr. Alexei handle this?

Vasily Sysoev: Fr. Alexei is carrying on quite strongly. We didn’t really expect it from him. We thought that, like any father, of course, putting ourselves in his place, both of us older brothers have sons too, who are also firstborns. And if we lost them, I’d probably go crazy. But he’s holding on. Of course, he didn’t sleep for several nights in a row—he had to take sedatives. But at the same time, he gave the most calming homily at the burial, when they brought his body into the Church of the Apostle Thomas.

Sergei Gerasimov: Vasily, it’s no secret that Church families have disagreements and confrontations between fathers and sons too. Many children who are raised in a priest’s family, especially during their transition period, revolt, like a revolution. They rebel against God too, against their education. How did Fr. Daniel grow up? How did he take your parents’ faith? Were there any disputes? Or was there just an element of absolute trust in God, without any of those age-related rough spots?

Vasily Sysoev: As far as I remember, his teenage years were very easy compared to the rest of us, because he really loved the word of God and read it from childhood. The seminarians jokingly called him “blessed,” because when they would go to his room in seminary, they would see how he was sleeping like a child, with the Sacred Scriptures lying open on his chest, which he would read until he fell asleep. So I can say that the word of God was the main source of his existence. And like a plane, he was headed for takeoff right from the very beginning. There probably wasn’t a single moment when he doubted or wanted to go in some other direction.

<…>

Additionally, I would just like to say that Fr. Daniel’s work should not end. In fact, there are still some very serious books that he wanted to publish while he was alive, which need financial assistance to publish, including his Law of God,2 his conversations that he held for people who wanted to be baptized… Among other things, of course, his main idea of building a church of the Prophet Daniel should not be forgotten. The church must be built. And I urge everyone to donate, both businessmen and politicians, and anyone who can help, because this is the cause he devoted himself to.

Vasily Sysoev
Translation by Jesse Dominick

Pravoslavie.ru

11/20/2020

1 A Tatar, Idel-Uralian and Bashkir national summer holiday—Trans.

2 This has since been published in both Russian and English, and can be purchased here: https://danielsysoev.com/product/the-law-of-god/.—Trans.

2020-11-21

Всенощное бдение 21 ноября 2020, Покровский женский монастырь, г. Москва toma de hábito de novicias en el monasterio del Manto de Nuestra SEÑORA de monjas. Hermosa ceremonia voces blancas

MIS ORACIONES Y MI CORAZON CON ARMENIA EL PRIMER PAIS CRISTIANO

 RUSSIA SENDS HUMANITARIAN HELP TO ARMENIA BUT DENIES MILITARY SUPPORT

 

Armenia the first christian country has been crucified again. Putin gave no answer tp the demands of TIFLIS to FFRONT THE AGGRESION OF THE MUSLIMS AND TURKS. ARMENIANS ARE VICTIMS OF THE GREATEST GENOCIDES IN HISTORY. MY HEART AND PRAYERS ARE WITH THEM.

Duduk Meditation Memories of Caucasus Armenian Flute

Трансляция: Всенощное бдение. 18:00 (суббота) 21 ноября 2020.

HOLOCAUSTO DEL CASTELLANO

 

EL HOLOCAUSTO DEL CASTELLANO

 

Esa fea ministra Celáa, millonaria y tiesa va caminando que no le cabe un piñón por el ano, es de ideas fijas; se ha sacado de la manga una pragmática si se quiere un dictad que a mí me hace llorar y crujir los dientes. 

Supone ni más ni menos que la derogación de la lengua castellana... un verdadero holocausto cultural, un asesinato. LO QUE IMPLICA ES acabar con aquello que yo más amé: mi lengua franca y la de cerca de seiscientos millones de habitantes de este planeta. 

Me gusta pasear por el diccionario y desenterrar palabras olvidadas que oí en boca de mis mayores. Mis amigos me achacan, y con razón, que elaboro a veces textos rebuscados, y yo me alegra, pues les hago consultar el diccionario. 

Nuestra lexicografía es portentosa y nutridísima, cuajada de matices. 

Ayer por ejemplo mi mujer me reprendió porque llamé a mi nieta “perillana"·. Un vocablo que a mí me llamaba mi padre, cuando andaba tirando varetas por los berrocales de Segovia ay perillán, perillán. 

Sin embargo mi mujer creía que estaba insultando a Carla con una palabrota. 

Significa perillán: picardioso un tanto díscolo y amante de ir a su aire sin importarle un bledo lo que digan los demás. 

La lengua me ha dado de comer y de escribir hasta que llegaron los del contubernio, que determinó que escribiéramos gratis que nos callásemos y que nos cretinizáramos a la vez que nos desespañolicemos y dejáramos de ser cristianos, haciéndonos comulgar con ruedas de molino y obligándonos a decir que habíamos visto un buey volar; que el castúo extremeño era una lengua culta y no un mero dialecto de las Hurdes, como el bable, el mirandés, o la gacería de los trilleros segovianos.

Los idiotismos o hablas regionales enriquecen un idioma y las jergas que doña Celáa quiere meternos por sus conductos excretorios nos empobrecen y confunden.

Tratan de crear entre nosotros la confusión de Babel. Quieren dividirnos, cuartearnos.

Fue un grito de viva Cartagena el de la Constitución del 78 por lo general para engañar a los españoles y barajarnos.

La cosa viene de largo: con Billy Gates, que ha sido el terror de este milenario.

La serpiente no tiene prisa, se arrastra lentamente. Es gestión a plazo largo.

El holocausto del castellano con miles de voces yendo a la hoguera de nuestra lengua bendita es una táctica ya ensayada por el contubernio en Rusia. 

Lenin quiso cambiar el idioma eslavo y arrinconar a Dostoievski y a Gogol suprimiendo varias letras del abecedario ruso, palabras que sonaban mal a oídos de los marxistas. 

La Iglesia ortodoxa sigue empleando esa vieja escritura cirílica y el eslavófilo en el oficio divino.

 Se ha resistido  gracias a Dios a seguir los pasos del Vaticano que introdujo las lenguas vernáculas y suprimió el latín so pretexto de que el vulgo no lo entendía. 

¿Entendemos entonces el lenguaje de Dios? yo me pregunto.

Cuanto más misterioso es un idioma más se acerca a las incógnitas impenetrables de nuestra existencia: de dónde venimos y adónde vamos, para lo cual no hay una respuesta clara como la procesión trinitaria o la resurrección de la carne.

Por ejemplo el término que identifica a la divinidad (bog) o “kolokol” (campana) el soviet integrado por judíos en su mayor parte fracasó, porque los rusos suspiran a todas horas con un ay Dios mío (bozhe moi), y las campanas volvieron a sonar en las torres de las iglesias con Jeltsin.

Aunque no sé por cuánto tiempo porque Rusia ha vuelto a ser un hervidero de prostitución.

Durante la revolución francesa Robespierre, de la mano de los enciclopédicos, mandó a la guillotina vocablos del antiguo régimen.

 En 1945 Alemania también cambió su idioma. Dejó de utilizarse la ortografía gótica. Se quemaron todos los periódicos nazis que utilizaban esa escritura rúnica y se mandó al cadalso toda memoria que aludiese a cruces gamadas.

Se prohibió la palabra “fraulein” (señorita) por su carácter sexista. A pesar del cambio, los alemanes no dejaron de ser románticos y continuaron  cantando sus “Lieder” y musitando al oído de sus amadas:

─Ich liebe dich, meine suss fraulein (estoy hasta las cachas por ti, mi dulce Elsa)

Cambiar un idioma por decreto es querer ponerle puertas al campo porque los idiomas andan por sí solos. 

En una lengua no manda nadie.

A mí Camilo José Cela me dijo una vez que la lengua no sigue nunca la huella marcada por el BOE, pero la Celáa y sus parciales se han adueñado de la estafeta oficial.

Así que esa señora vasca millonaria, que anda muy tiesa pues debe de padecer almorranas, pisando fuerte al caminar, toda orgullosa y prepotente, con esa arrogancia de los israelitas, y su califa el Pedro Sánchez, el de la cabeza gorda, lo tienen crudo.

Claro que detrás de este califa que detenta la Moncloa hay otros califas mayores del poder oculto ─Perico no es más que un monago o si se quiere un sátrapa de esa siniestra mano que mueve la cuna─ dictaminó ordenes para dar paso al holocausto de España vetándonos nuestra lengua franca, nuestro idioma común.

Nos quieren robar el alma.

2020-11-20

ESPAÑA ENDEMONIADA. CELÁA Y EL MOÑOS CALCAN LA HOJA DE RUTA DE LA REVOLUCIÓN LENINISTA DE INSPIRACIÓN JUDAICA AL DESTERRAR AL CASTELLANO DFE NUESTRAS AULAS. AMBOS DEBERÍAN SER DETENIDOS Y FUSILADOS

 

ESPAÑA ESTÁ SIGUIENDO LAS PAUTAS DE LA INFERNAL REVOLUCIÓN RUSA. EL SOVIERDT TAMBIÉN PROHIBIÓ EL ESTUDIO DEL RUSO Y CAMBIÓ LA LENGUA RUSA CON UNA NUEVA ORTOGRAFÍA Y GRAMÁTICA. EL DEL MOÑO Y ÑLA AVUTYARDA VASACA LEY CELÁA PROHIBEN EL ESPAÑOL EN EWSPAÑA. ¿ESTÁ NUESTRA PATRIA ENVENENADA POR LOS DEMONIOS DEL SIONISMO? EN CUAQUIER CASO ESPAÑA NECESITA UN EXORTCISMO. LOS DEMONIOS SE HAN APODERADO DE SU ALMA. UN SERMÓN DEL METROPOLITA DE PSKOV NOS HACE PENSAR EN TALES EVIDENCIAS

 

HOW INDIVIDUALS AND NATIONS BECOME DEMONICALLY POSSESSED

Sermon on the Gospel reading about the Gadarene demoniac, November 15, 2020

    

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

The event we remember today is shocking—the casting out of demons from the two Gadarene demoniacs. No one could handle them, and they couldn’t handle themselves. Only God freed them from this demonic possession. But in this Gospel story there is something even more amazing that the people and the demons wrought, and not God. If the Lord cast the out demon from the demoniac, then people cast God from themselves. This is even more astounding! People saw the ineffable miracle of God in the healing of an incurably sick man, which brought wonder upon the entire region and upon those present. But instead of falling down at Jesus’s feet to thank Him, saying, “Stay with us forever”, they said, “Depart from us!” This is a real diabolical wonder that takes place in the human race.

Now even certain Orthodox priests are saying that demonic possession doesn’t exist, that it’s a mental illness, that it’s nothing but Orthodox people’s emotional over-exhilaration, and sometimes even simulation. They weren’t here [in the Pskov Caves Monastery] in the 1980’s when Fr. Adrian served the rite of exorcism in the Church of the Meeting of the Lord. We saw with our own eyes how a thirteen-year-old girl just tossed off strong men as she headed for some goal known only to her. People don’t think about what’s happening in their own lives, in the lives of their close ones, and in the life of a country and people; how God’s spirit works, how guardian angels influence people’s thoughts and deeds, how the devil and the demons influence those deeds, thoughts, and the state of the soul. Man is always falling for these terrible influences, because the evil spirits, the devil, demons, the multitude of spirits who are at enmity with God, who hate man and hate God even more, act upon our souls and minds in ways that we don’t even suspect.

The holy fathers warn us not to think too much about this, because it’s beyond the capacity of the human mind. As a rule, when people begin to think about it they fall into a state where the demons start taking over their minds and souls. But we do need to understand and know about this! Continual concentration on the infernal and cruel subject of demons—which definitely exist—can drive a person out of his mind and make him a plaything of the demons. But it is necessary to remember this. Sometimes whole nations become subservient to these spiritual beings, the demons. Demons move into people’s souls, which then unite in spirit with evil and madness, and then destroy themselves, their minds, and their country. They do things in a state of ecstasy, intoxication, and infernal joy that they are later ashamed of, and they don’t understand how they could have possibly done such things! They as if realize their dream, but that dream was sent to them from the devil and taken from the devil. From time to time we see how dangerously a man proceeds when he’s in a state of “heated blood”, as St. Ignatius (Branchaninov) wrote, and as if possessed, lurches after a certain goal. He wants it very much, pays attention to nothing else, hears nothing else, and is in a state of total ecstasy and intoxication. We can see that something peculiar and abnormal is happening to that person. He has joy—but it’s demonic joy.

We recall, “Serve ye the Lord with fear and rejoice in Him with trembling.” But there is no trembling here! Only terrible intoxication. Such people are stubborn; they do not obey the Church and reason. These people are suicides, who only later understand it. These people are involuntary murderers—they kill the souls and lives of many people. But they only understand that as time goes by. Examples of such terrible madness and demonic possession were our Russian revolutions. It was not without reason that our Russian saints warned that demonic possession awaited the Russian people. At the end of the 1820s, St. Seraphim of Sarov warned about the terrible events to come. In 1823–1824, when a man who would later participate in the Decembrist uprising of 1825 came to St. Seraphim, who was standing near the holy spring that had welled up by his prayers, the saint refused to bless that sincerely religious revolutionary who came to him for a blessing. He sent him away with the words: “Everything you are scheming is a terrible demonic obsession. You will lead Russia and the Russian people to catastrophe.” St. Seraphim’s disciple asked him why he refused to bless the believing man. And St. Seraphim pointed to his usually pure, translucent spring now completely murky, and said, “They will stir up and darken Russia, just like this spring.”

St. John of Kronstadt also warned of the events that would take place in February, 1917, saying that Russia would soon go mad. He died in 1908, having warned everyone about this in advance. St. Theophan the Recluse, St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), and our contemporaries saw with horror how demons entered people, and they told us about it. Bishop Theophan said, “Demons have possessed people’s souls, and the Russian people have become demoniacs.” The great Russian poet, Maximillian Voloshin, wrote:

“The people, madly obsessed,
Are beating their heads against the stone,
And tearing their bonds like ones possessed…”

We recall the deaf and dumb demon-possessed boy whom the Lord healed. Voloshin writes:

“Is it not that spirit possessing you,
O, Rus’, you deaf and dumb!
The devil has stolen your reason and freedom,
He throws you into water and fire,
Against the rocks and to the woods.”

Such events unfortunately repeat themselves. Very few people understand what’s happening during these times of demonic possession. The larger part, to our profound regret, perceive their own demonic possession as something admirable, “beating themselves against the rocks… throwing themselves into fire and water”, killing themselves and others. The holy passion bearer Tsar Nicholas II, who did very much for our Fatherland, was defamed and slandered. He had lifted all spheres of the people’s lives (from agriculture to health services) to an unprecedented level for that time. For many years, everything in soviet Russia was compared to the level of 1913. The country was victorious in the bloody First World War. Russian troops were ready to free the Russian territory occupied by Germans, march into Berlin, Vienna, and Constantinople (now Istanbul). The armies of Yudenich and Kolchak were right near Constantinople. Russia was the only country in the world where there were no ration cards during the war. Cards were distributed only for sugar so the people wouldn’t make moonshine. But there were ration cards in neutral Switzerland, and in the USA, which entered the war the day after the Tsar’s arrest. A victorious country that had overcome all the complications of wartime was crushed by its own demonic possession.

To be sure, external forces also participated in the revolution. But we happily accepted this demon of revolution and destroyed a great country. Later, when people came to their senses, they reproached themselves. But it was too late! Just imagine the demonic insanity! The first order of the Provisional Government, the dream of those handshake liberals, was to cease disciplinary measures in a fighting army. The second crazy idea whirling in the demonic maelstrom was the order to fire all governors and vice governors. The entire vertical of power collapsed. The Germans who had retreated under Nicholas II were advancing. The police and gendarmerie were let go and a people’s militia was created using criminals released from prisons (the so-called “Kerensky nestlings”). These insane actions by demon-possessed people, supported by the demon-possessed portion of the population, led up to the point in 1917 when there was no more Russia. The Germans were outside Petrograd. Industry was pummeled, agriculture dead. In 1918 the GNP was equal to thirty percent of what it was the year before. Civil war erupted. And those exaltations over the toppling of Nicholas II, over the new world, were utter madness. Glory be to God, the strength of the Russian people who were raised in the Orthodox faith kept the country from disintegrating altogether. It was even reborn. All the projects that had been engineered under Nicholas II (the famous GOELRO plan;1 the industrialization plan; and five plans for the metro system lay on Tsar Nicholas’s desk) were brought into being, thank God. But at what cost!

And what demonic madness remained! The entire Church structure was practically destroyed; millions of people repressed; an astronomical number of deaths; the culture demolished, and a great heritage destroyed or taken out of the country. In our province [Pskov] there are a multitude of ruined churches and old estates. In their demonic madness the people destroyed all the best the country possessed. It came to the point where our religious and non-religious heritage was denied and rejected. Only in 1934 were schoolchildren allowed to study history and literature.

Suicidal demonic possession often happens to large communities of people. The doctors talk about this in another way, but what they say is also interesting. I am now preparing articles on the events of 1917 and I think, Lord, how could people burn down their own house with the conviction of suicidal fanatics?! Many doctors of that time—Bekhterev, Rossolimo, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov and others were no strangers to the revolutionary mood. Even so, they all say that it was mass psychosis. But Orthodox Christians say that it was demonic possession. Unfortunately, many Orthodox Christians are far from completely understanding this. The events of 1917 speak to this.

To be honest, not all religious people saw the revolutionary events as evil, demonic, and suicidal. Moreover, theological seminaries were often hotbeds of revolutionary movements. During the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, revolutionary cells formed in a number of seminaries. That means that there was a real enfeebling of the Church, a demonic delirium. It is no coincidence that one of the secretaries of our country’s communist party was a former seminarian.2 Most horrible is that a person who has faith can lose it. Who loses faith? Someone who once had it. Who becomes demonically possessed? Mostly believers—the devil attacks them. The devil is not so interested in unbelievers—they’re outside God as it is. We have to remember this. And how many priests and bishops also greeted the events of February 1917 with elation! Many of them became new martyrs after they had come to their senses. To be sure, it’s easy for us to talk about this in hindsight. And of course, we are not judging anyone. But this demonic possession had stolen into the very heart of our religious nation!

Demonic possession is a reality. No matter how the diabolic powers laugh at it! They are precisely the ones who are laughing at us when we talk about the spiritual illness of demonic possession, possession by the devil. For the devil there is nothing more useful than convincing people that he doesn’t exist, that there is no such thing as demonic possession, that it simply doesn’t occur that he can completely take a person over and lead him around where he wishes, and do it in such a way that the person doesn’t even guess what’s happening. That person will elatedly think that those thoughts are his own, that it’s his own decision.

Brothers and sisters! Let’s remember that each of us can meet this illness, just like ordinary somatic illnesses, on our own paths. None of us have any guarantees. It is very arrogant and prideful to think that this happens somewhere with someone else, but not to us. People have the tendency to put up their guard against gloomy thoughts. But when this illness happens, they shrug their shoulders and say, what can we do? Signs of this illness exist. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the effected person is going to climb the wall and throw things around. The holy fathers tell us what happens to the human soul, to a person’s morality, when he is possessed by a demonic spirit. It’s pride, trusting only in oneself, inner rebellion against the Church with its rules and life, high-mindedness, judging, not admitting your own mistakes, stubbornness in your sins—first of all not sins of the flesh, but mental, emotional sins. If you feel this then go and talk to a priest; come to confession and talk about this first of all, because this illness is precarious and has very serious consequences for the soul and its salvation.

We rarely talk about this subject. And thank God! It’s too scary! But from time to time we are obligated to remind our flock and our own selves about it, no matter how people relate to it (even if it’s with displeasure and misunderstanding), in order to protect ourselves and our close ones from the possibility of getting this serious illness—which is only cured by humility, love, peace, hope in God, and prayer to the Lord. May the Lord preserve you!

Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Pskov and Porkhov
Translation by Nun Cornelia (Rees)

Pravoslavie.ru

11/19/2020