Via Nefesh B’Nefesh:In a contest designed to make spirits soar, students in Grades 4 – 7 are invited to create a logo for one of Nefesh B’Nefesh’s Aliyah planes. One Grand Prize winner will be selected to have his/her design reproduced on a Nefesh B’Nefesh Aliyah plane and will receive roundtrip airfare and accommodations for two to Israel for a 4 day/3 night trip in the summer of 2009. This winner will also have his/her work posted on BabagaNewz.com and announced on www.nbn.org.il/contest. Three runners up will also have their artwork published and each will receive a gift pack from BabagaNewz.com.

The contest is currently underway and ends at 5:00 p.m. Monday, February 5th, 2009, and is open to students in the United States and Canada, except where prohibited. Complete rules and the official entry form (to be signed by parents) may be downloaded at BabagaNewz.com/destinationisrael.

BabagaNewz.com, an educational website for Jewish middle-schoolers and teachers, is teaming up with Nefesh B’Nefesh, the organization that is revitalizing Aliyah (immigration to Israel) from North America and the United Kingdom.

All entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges whose decisions are final. No purchase is necessary. Schools are encouraged to submit groups of individual entries, one per person.

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The 2008 Weblog Award Finalists have been announced. Becoming a finalist is a bigger honor than winning, because finalists are chosen by committee. Winning requires lots of votes, so bigger blogs have an advantage. Of course, that may be sour grapes because last year I was a finalist in the category of Africa and the Middle East and came in fifth–I’ll let you be the judge.

Looking over the list I found many Jewish and Israeli blogs.
Religion: Jew Wishes
Africa and the Middle East (I was a finalist in this category last year): Israelly Cool, Elder of Ziyon, and Fundamentally Freund.
Technorati Authority 201-300: Israel Matzav
Technorati Authority 51-100: Daled Amos

Congratulations to all the finalists and I wish them all good luck in the final competition. It takes a few days for voting to be set up.

If I missed anyone please let me know and I’ll add you.

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Some bloggers thrive on war news. They excel at live blogging, or explaining Israel’s point of view to the world at large. Neither approach works for me, as I avoid political discussions and have no inside information. And since my town is not directly affected, I find it difficult to write about the home-front situation. But here is my contribution.

I found out about the operation Shabbat afternoon, from a neighbor whose son is an officer. He was in training exercises all day Friday, and was ordered to appear at the airport on Shabbat at 3PM. The family had to make arrangements for someone else to pick up the car after Shabbat. During lunch he took calls from his soldiers, who apologized profusely for calling on Shabbat. When his mother asked whether he’d be coming home this weekend, he said it wasn’t likely.

I’ve spoken to a couple of friends who are in the range of the rockets, including one who has been experiencing kassam rockets from Gaza over the years. Now, she hears our attacks in Gaza. She is relieved that action is being taken, but there is an additional emotional toll. “Hannah,” she said, “You have no idea what one of those explosions sounds like. Even when you know it’s your side, your heart just flips over.”

My son in yeshiva is also in rocket range, and has had to go into a shelter a couple of times. He’s pretty blase about the whole thing so I guess I will be too, at least on his behalf.

If you’d like to help, Treppenwitz provided a list of worthy medical organizations. In addition, I’ve been getting updates about the action in the south from Connections Israel. Here is one of the recent emails:

Read more on War in Gaza: Report from the Home Front…

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From the Motherlode blog at the New York Times, on Jewish couples who have conflicts about holiday customs similar to those of intermarried couples:

I heard recently from Tami Kamin-Meyer, a lawyer with two sons, ages 10 and 14, living in Columbus, OH. “Both my husband of nearly 16 years and I are Jewish,” she wrote in an e-mail. “But his brand of Judaism is far more American than mine. My family is Israeli, and while I am a first generation American, my celebration of Jewish holidays, including traditions and attitudes, are closely aligned with Israeli customs rather than American.” When their first child was born, her husband wanted to hang stockings in the living room, but she did not. (They don’t.) He is more comfortable with prayers and holiday songs in English, which she prefers them in Hebrew. (They incorporate a little of both.)

I didn’t know that hanging stockings is a Jewish-American Chanukah custom. But then I’ve been away a long time.

(I am being sarcastic here, but I guess it didn’t come through. Sarcasm doesn’t work so well on blogs.)

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My post on Green Prophet yesterday turned out different than expected:

Why Baby’s First Gift Shouldn’t Be Formula from the Hospital
By Hannah Katsman

Soft drinks. Fast foods. Cigarettes.

Companies that market these products are well-known for targeting children and teens in order to develop “brand loyalty.”

But the campaign to capture the taste buds of future consumers begins even earlier–in the hospital nursery, where formula companies use aggressive methods to ensure that babies’ first taste of artificial milk comes early and bears the name of their company.

They know that parents are most likely to continue feeding the brand served to babies in the hospital.

What’s the problem with formula, and why is this a “green” issue?

Ironically, early introduction of formula and a diet of “junk” food are both implicated in increasing the incidence of diseases such as diabetes and obesity.

Formula companies insist that they do not want to undermine breastfeeding–they merely want to compete for their share of the formula market for women who cannot or choose not to breastfeed. Sound familiar?

Cigarette companies have long claimed that they do not encourage smoking and only want current smokers to switch brands. Most governments reject this claim and severely restrict the way tobacco companies market their products.

Breastfeeding is an easy target. It’s free, already under attack, earns little profit for anyone and therefore has virtually no corporate funds backing it. But just one bottle of formula compromises a baby’s immune system and increases the risk of illness in the short and long term.

A bottle of formula implies that formula is endorsed by the hospital, and worse, sends the not-so-subtle message that the mother’s own milk is not good or plentiful enough. And just like it only takes a few cigarettes to become addicted, early introduction of formula can lower milk supply and is associated with early weaning.

Israel and the WHO Code

The World Health Organization (WHO) recognized the deleterious effects of formula marketing on the health of babies and mothers and developed the WHO Code of Marketing Breastmilk Substitutes in 1974. The aim of the Code is to

Read more on Why Formula Marketing in Israeli Hospitals is Bad for Babies…

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Chanukah Sameach! My camera is broken and I’m too lazy to scour the net, so you will have to manage without the traditional picture. As compensation I present some links.

• Standing Together has ideas for supporting Israeli soldiers this holiday.

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Who could imagine that a rude storekeeper would attract such attention in our little country, never admired for its warm customer service?

According to financial magazine Globes, a woman came with her autistic child into a pizza store for a lesson in practical living, giving him a 20-shekel bill and instructing him to buy a slice of pizza and a can of tomato juice. The store owner helped another customer instead, despite the boy having stated his order three times. Finally the owner told the boy’s mother, “This isn’t a school.” The mother put the story into an email decrying the owner’s rudeness toward children with special needs and included his name and address. Thanks to the internet (she only sent it to fifty of her closest friends), the email spread far and wide and the pizza store owner was harassed. Mothers came into the store, dropped off a copy of the email, and left. Garbage was thrown. 25,000 members joined a Facebook group advocating a boycott of the store.

The Globes reporter was the first party to ask owner Shraga Gross for his version of the story. According to Gross, three mothers came in with their autistic children for this life lesson. The mothers did not coordinate with the store, and chose a time when it was full of customers. Gross claims that the boy did not utter a word, but he did tell the boy’s mother, “This is not a school.” He admits that he may have been impatient but objects to the personalized campaign against him.

Whichever version is correct, Gross didn’t commit a crime. I’ve been ignored and treated badly by storekeepers and I’m not even autistic. It seems to me that learning that not everyone will go out of their way to be kind to people, whether or not they have special needs, is an important life lesson.

Hat tip: Commenter Keren
For another example of Israeli customer service see Benji’s post here.

Update: I don’t condone rude behavior. However, the mother was out of line in publicizing the storekeeper’s name because of one isolated incident. It’s not like the store has a policy that discriminates against autistic children. If she would have e-mailed the story without mentioning the name I would support her 100%.

Read more on Updated: Lessons for Life: Rude Pizzeria Owner Lambasted on Internet…

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Over the last few weeks, four toddlers have gotten ill and died suddenly of mysterious causes. Two children remain hospitalized; one is recovering and one is still in intensive care. The Health Ministry debated over whether to announce that they are investigating the deaths as they didn’t want to induce panic. But if word got out about the investigation, the ministry would be accused of withholding information. They are awaiting final lab results but so far there no connection has been found among the children, who came from different parts of the country and had different symptoms. It seems to be a statistical anomaly, and at least one of the children had previous health problems.

Earlier this week an email rumor began circulating claiming that the deaths were related to contaminated Bamba, the heavily marketed children’s snack food. One email forwarded to me this morning was about an uncle working in Superpharm who received a call asking him to take Bamba off the store’s shelves.

Manufacturer Osem’s stock dropped six percent in the stock market as a result of this rumor. My readers know that I am no fan of Bamba. But as a pediatrician friend pointed out, if even one batch of Bamba caused illness Israeli hospitals would be full to capacity with sick children. Negative health effects of Bamba, Bisli, Crembos and other snacks marketed to children are only incremental.

Jameel also wrote about this story.

Read more on Bamba not related to mysterious deaths of toddlers…

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In my next article for the Israeli environmental blog Green Prophet, I want to write about the lack of a breastfeeding culture here in Israel. Women enter motherhood with an unprecedented lack of knowledge about breastfeeding and babies, and they don’t even know what they don’t know. Here women commented that they didn’t know that they could pump to supply breastmilk for their babies and keep up their supply after returning to work.

Mothers, and fathers too: What do you wish you had known about breastfeeding or mothering when you had your first baby? Please share in the comments. As usual all readers, parents or not, are welcome to join the conversation.

Read more on Babies and breastfeeding: What did you not know but wish you had?…

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Yesterday I did three things that I almost never do: Drive to Jerusalem, take my teenage daughter alone on an outing, and watch a movie from beginning to end. But this was a special occasion–we went to see “A Light for Greytowers” produced by Robin Garbose.

The Israeli screenings received extra publicity because the actresses and singers are Orthodox Jewish women, who will not allow the film to be screened to mixed audiences. The Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival accepted the film on its artistic merit but later retracted the invitation, deciding that women-only screenings were discriminatory.

Garbose’s response appeared in Haaretz:

Read more on A Light for Greytowers: Movie Review…

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