Quicksilver כספית

When the High Priest dies... (Rehnquist Memorial Amnesty)

The Bible teaches us that, after the High Priest dies, there shall be an amnesty for those killers exiled to the six cities of refuge.*

In memory of Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, would it not be fitting to institute an amnesty or moratorium for those on death row?

Do you think a Chief Justice Rehnquist Memorial Amnesty would appeal not only to opponents of the death penalty, but also to those trying to bring the Ten Commandments and other Judeo-Christian beliefs into our judicial system?

Maybe somebody should design a Chief Justice Rehnquist Memorial Amnesty logo to be placed on supporting blogs and websites?   I will list all supporting links here...

Kaspit

PS1. Would Justice John Roberts support Catholic teachings on the death penalty? Ann Althouse (and on Justice Scalia). Stephen Bainbridge. David Giacalone.

PS2. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens against the death penalty

PS3. What might Jewish law (halakhah) teach about the death penalty in the U.S.? An article. Rabbi Asher Meir (citing R. Moshe Feinstein). Jewish-Catholic consultation. OU Rabbi Yosef Edelstein (from Wikipedia). Should Karla Have Been Executed? by Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz. On the electric chair: amicus brief, Bryan v. Moore, SCOTUS. (Jlaw) Lawrence Bush good article and Jewish Peace Fellowship analysis (tx Arieh).

Blogs: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty blog and on SCOTUS. Injustice Anywhere blog, e.g. on Massachusetts Gov. Romney’s proposal. a Public Defender blog.

Eulogies: Here. Here. Catholics for Bush. Blogs for Bush. News. SCOTUS blog.

Other links: The Death Penalty Information Center.  Catholics Against Capital Punishment. Derechos Human Rights (excellent links). Alaska Justice Center site. Equal Justice USA.

* The 6 cities of refuge were to serve, in effect, as ancient prisons for those who had committed manslaughter. See Numbers 35:9-34, High Priest amnesty at v.28. Also Exodus 21:12-14, Deut. 19:1-13, Joshua 20)

Is a Jewish business established only by humankind?

Christians apparently can claim that their corporations are founded by God. How rare is this?

We are a Christian based business owned and founded by God. In fact, every decision we make, from the name and logo of the business, to the prices we charge, are all guidance from the Lord God Almighty." (source) (Google cache)

For Christians, doesn't such an advertising claim create a moral or theological dilemma?. For instance, how does one haggle over prices or negotiate joint decisions with a businessman who is entirely guided by the Lord? Is it disrespectful to bring customer or supplier complaints to a Christian business with such a lofty back office?

I've never heard of a Jewish business making a comparable claim. Would Jewish law (halakhah) sanction an advertised claim that the business is founded by God? Don't we deserve a leg up on the competition, too?

Kaspit             כספית

PS I've been sent a print advertisement with a similar claim -- by a Christian funeral home. Why go anywhere else?

Tobacco business and Jewish ethics

Are tobacco business operations allowed under Jewish law? While most of the cigarette recent smoking comments on Hirhurim discussed whether smoking is permitted to individuals, Charlie Hall raised a question of Jewish business ethics:

"Is it acceptable to derive benefit from selling addictive substances? This is not a theoretical issue: [James S. Tisch,] The President/CEO of Loews, which owns Lorillard Tobacco, is on the board of Mesorah Heritage Foundation [1]. [Lorillard] is the oldest tobacco company in the US. Their original mill is still standing along the Bronx River in the New York Botanical Garden. Here is what I found on Lorillard's website:"

"All cigarettes are dangerous and smoking can cause serious diseases, including lung cancer. Cigarette smoking can also be addictive. Lorillard supports the continuing efforts of public health authorities to inform the public about the dangers of smoking. Lorillard believes that the public should pay attention to and rely upon the Surgeon General’s warning printed on every cigarette package and in every cigarette advertisement, as well as the wealth of other information provided by public health authorities in making informed decisions about smoking.”

Does Charlie Hall have a valid point here? Besides tobacco companies, it would also be worthwhile to consider Jewish law on tobacco advertising and retail cigarette sales.

Kaspit

[1] The Artscroll Talmud is a project of the Mesorah foundation. The Tisch family, of course, is involved in numerous other Jewish philanthropies besides Artscroll.

Mainstream Jewish relief efforts after hurricane Katrina

Update: JTA news "Jewish groups pitch in to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina"

Mainstream Jewish organizations are coordinating an enormous outpouring of charitable and volunteer efforts in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. The attached joint memo deals with relief efforts at the local community level; it exemplifies the high-level degree of coordination. (If only FEMA and Homeland Security had the kind of leadership...)

I received a cover letter that stressed: "Please know that we are concerned with ALL the residents of the area and contributions you send will go to help all residents of the area." (I think this is implicit in the attached memo.) This emphasis is important to me, in light of the disproportionate poverty of the many non-Jews who need help.

Kaspit

PS I deleted the memo's contact info, due to confidentiality and spam concerns. Let me know if you need this information.

No child left behind?

No child left behind... unless they were among the poor and/or black of New Orleans. Am I being too harsh? Due to a muddle of prejudice, incompetence and systemic  disregard for the underclass, the response of our government is shameful. In its urgent charitable work and political response, the Jewish community ought not overlook the injustice(s) at work.

"Hurricane Katrina pulled back the curtain, exposing the things many knew existed and even more wished not to acknowledge: race, class, privilege, cavernous health and income disparities; poverty amidst opulence..."  (Effect Measure)

The Commons: "60 percent of New Orleans residents are black, but it has been little noted that a third of those black families do not own a car -- nor do 15 percent of white families. It is these people who were left behind when those with cars evacuated."

"We all have seen over the years images depicting the horrors faced by refugees in third world countries.  But the images of people in our own country, rich as it is in so many ways, without any food or water for days, using the floor as toilets, sitting among rotting cadavers, or women with infants (in one report I read) being given two diapers and told to scrape them off and reuse them, are hard to accept.

[... This] not only raises questions about how we treat the poor among us, but forces us to confront some difficult issues about race in this country. Ann Althouse asks over on her blog, "Were the provisions for flood prevention and for evacuation and shelter so inadequate because mostly black people were affected? Would the rescues have come more quickly if the victims were white? Would viewers and reporters express more utrage at the pace of relief if we were seeing white victims?"  Good questions." From Susan Stabile at Mirror of Justice (Catholic legal theory blog)

As New Orleans journalist Mark Schleifstein and many others had forewarned, the levee failure was predictable and predicted so "either the President doesn't know what he's talking about, or he's not telling the truth" when he claimed otherwise. (Mark Kleiman)

Surely the dreadful emergency response will be investigated. Maybe the delay was caused by the deal to hire Halliburton has been hired for storm cleanup in Louisiana and Mississippi?! Or maybe the Federal Emergency Management Agency was busy directing donations to Rev. Pat Robertson!? (Courtesy of Hungry Blues coverage of justice aspects) Even Newt Gingrich criticized the relief effort (Timnah, with more tales of injustice in New Orleans.)

Why the foot-dragging, why the dreadful responsiveness to those who were left behind?

Arguably, BusinessWeek noted, the Bush Administration had us "mistakenly lulled into thinking" that terrorism is the most urgent threat. Homeland Security? (Dubious public health measures?) Perhaps hurricane Katrina will wake us up. Too many people are threatened at home by economic and social injustice, by environmental and health risks, by political invisibility. Hurricane or not, their vulnerability is real. In a world of complex risks, it is our responsibility not to get too distracted.

Certainly, the resourceful Jewish community should be taking care of our own displaced families and children. At the same time, I suggest that our tzedakah (charity) also reach those with far less resources, who are most exposed in a structural economy of prejudice and uncertainty.

 

Kaspit

Previous posts on Katrina: where to donate (and global warming), social justice, looting for food under Jewish law, toxic pollution, Mark Schleifstein, and BusinessWeek noted.   

Looting after hurricane Katrina per Jewish law

Is "looting" permitted under Jewish law (halakhah) after a disaster? I received this email:

I think a strong argument can be made that according to Jewish law, one can violate most laws in order to save one's life (except for the big 3--idolatry, murder, illicit sexual relationships) as the key is v'chai bahem [i.e., you shall live by the commandments -- K].  It seems that for some of the people, they have reached that state of desperation. Whether the situation is so dire that looting and stealing is justified would probably depend case by case.

This email then correctly cites Talmud Sanhedrin 74a and an article at J-Law "Stealing To Save Someone's Life" by Charles J. Harary, Esq. The article's conclusion doesn't do justice to its thorough halakhic analysis, but here is the bottom line:

In conclusion, the dominant view in Jewish law follows the Shulchan Aruch and the Rambam, which allows a person to steal or damage property of another to save his own life. Thus, one may break in to the house of another, or steal insulin if that was necessary to save his life. However, such a person must compensate the owner of the property.

The Jlaw.com article also compares Jewish law to Anglo- American law on stealing to save a life.

[I also wonder whether Jewish law might allow the taking of food and other perishable goods, which have been de facto abandoned by the owners (ye-ush). However, abandonment (ye-ush) usually cannot take effect unless the goods are outside of the possession (reshut) of the owner.]

This post does not refer to any specific cases of taking or stealing due to the Katrina hurricane and disaster. Certainly, Jewish law condemns indiscriminate theft and looting. Still, I agree that Jewish law may readily condone situations where people are in doubt about feeding and otherwise caring for themselves and their family. The situation in New Orleans is quite shocking.* Prayers...

Kaspit

* See the agonizing Times-Picayune editorial that "Hurricane Katrina has created a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions."

[UPDATED NEWS] Jewish environmental journalist as Jonah: Mark Schleifstein on catastrophic hurricane risk

Prophecy was not the intent of Pulitzer-prize winning Mark Schleifstein, an environmental reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Still, Schleifstein hit the nail on the head when he warned that a hurricane could have a catastrophic impact. He co-authored: "Washing Away: How south Louisiana is growing more vulnerable to a catastrophic hurricane" (Eye-opening journalism. Awards for the series listed below.)

{ADDED} Mark Schliefstein is Jewish and non-partisan. He tells me that he serves both as the gabbai in his Conservative shul (Shir Chadash, Metairie) and "I try to be as available as I can, considering my work schedule, for filling in at evening minyan at the Orthodox shul around the corner on Canal St. in New Orleans." Here's his understated precis of the last few days:

My house has about 10 feet of water in it, based on satellite photos I've seen, as does Beth Israel [DovBear]. Don't know yet about my synagogue. We stored our torahs in a third floor room in our Jewish Community Center, across the parking lot from us, and expect they survived. We stayed at the paper during the storm, safe place, and ended up evacuating the next day when water was rising a bit too quickly around the building. Loaded into the back of newspaper delivery trucks, I went to Houma, La., 65 miles southwest, where we put out our web edition of the paper the next two days, and my wife went to Baton Rouge and then flew out to her dad in Atlanta. He's in the Jewish Tower. I'm now in Baton Rouge, sharing a dorm room with 10 staffers at Louisiana State University.

{ADDED} Of course, now Mark's series is getting a storm of attention for exposing the danger and the flaws and negligence with preparedness efforts, e.g., Cox News, SLC editorial, Ronda Hauben on the negligence of prevention, Eric Zorn, and The Wall Street Journal (HT Romenesko on journalism).

Gristmill reports on what Mark says the press should cover now (i.e., coastal wetlands not yet the questionable global warming connection).

Transparent Grid recaps the "Washing Away" series' worst case scenario, see also TG's part II and part III (Bush budget cuts).

Mark Schleifstein is a splendid journalist and environmental hazard investigator. I couldn't find on the web all his excellent earlier work, e.g., on chemical industry pollution in Louisiana. His prior articles and accomplishments include:

Have evacuation plan, will travel  (Dec 2004)

Biggest mercury polluter in La. to clean up its act  (August 5, 2005) (You can be sure I wouldn't skip his work on quicksilver, which PPG uses in Lake Charles, Louisiana to make chlorine. More on mercury air pollution here.)

Washing Away: How south Louisiana is growing more vulnerable to a catastrophic hurricane, notes the SJE bio, "won the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2003 Excellence in Media award and the 2003 National Hurricane Conference media award. It also was a finalist for the 2003 Edward J. Meeman Award for Environmental Reporting for newspapers with over 100,000 circulation. He also recently received the Governor's Award from the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, presented annually to the person or organization deemed to have made the most outstanding contribution toward the protection and wise use of the state's natural resources."

Mark's "2001 series, Unequal Opportunity: How local programs to help disadvantaged businesses are enriching wealthy entrepreneurs, won the 2002 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism ...  The 1998 series, Home Wreckers: How the Formosan termite is devastating New Orleans, was a finalist for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting and won awards from the [AAAS] .... A 1996 series, Oceans of Trouble: Are the World's Fisheries Doomed? won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service .... The 1994 series, Stacking the Deck: The Birth of Louisiana Gambling, won .... The 1991 series, Louisiana in Peril, was a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism. .... Before joining The Times-Picayune, he worked for the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger, the Norfolk, Va., Virginian-Pilot, and the Suffolk, Va., News-Herald. He is married and has two children." Source: Society of Environmental Journalists w/ Photo credit.

Katrina, hurricanes and global warming

I caution against blaming Katrina on global warming, as does Ross Gelbspan (generally a good environmental journalist). Granted, oil and energy policies should change, but Arthur Waskow overplays the Katrina card.

See the analysis, links and debate at RealClimate. Here's a scientific paper on hurricanes and climate change courtesy of Prometheus. Gristmill debates this connection, too. (Cp. enviro law who sees a connection.)

My 2 cents is that there is a macro relationship but we are too prone to articulate a spurious correlation.

You can donate via UJC, the Orthodox Union, or see Miriam's list. A Chabad effort. Prayers...

Kaspit

For a halakhic argument regarding climate change, see Eliezer Diamond's paper. The Harvard publisher claims:

He convincingly argues that halakhic reasoning about notions of conventionality and equity in environmental matters could be applied meaningfully to the problem of global warming. Such application requires a careful analysis of concrete human situations as well as a creative analysis of Jewish legal sources.

My own tongue-in-check post on energy policy and halakhah here.

While here I've looked the global warming connection, other Jewish bloggers properly compare Katrina to the tsunami (Mystical Politics) and refute Jews who connect hurricane Katrina's refugees to divine punishment for Israel's evacuation of Gaza (DovBear, Hirhurim, Miriam at Bloghead, and Orthomom).  Cp. Christians who say that Katrina is divine retribution New Orleans and gays. Hat tip Gristmill.

Aaron Twerski, the first chassidic, "ultra-Orthodox" dean of a US law school

Aaron D. Twerski was installed today as dean at Hofstra law school. Haaretz article: "Ultra-Orthodox Jew is first Hassid named dean of U.S. law school.”

Prof. Twerski has written about Agent Orange, product liability including toxic torts, causation, consumer injury,and tort reform. Excerpts from his legal writings -- see the 1st comment -- show that Prof. Twerski cares about toxicality and corporate ethics. Plus, one Jewish joke. These excerpts may not be easy for non-lawyers, but they prove Dean Twerski’s familiarity with toxic products and poisoning. Enjoy. And....  mazal tov, Dean Twerski.

Kaspit

[UPDATED] Orthodox Jews living in polluted counties, per right-to-know data

UPDATE: Let me know if you would like your county or zipcode listed here with its environmental data. You can also get more detailed zipcode-specific data through EPA's Envirofacts (use their "Quick Start").

You can find water, air and toxic pollution information on any US zipcode and county, thanks to right-to-know laws. For instance:

• Lakewood NJ, an Orthodox mecca, is located in one of the worst counties ranked by clean water act data. More data from Envirofacts.
• Kew Gardens, Queens is home to many yeshivot. Queens' poor air quality ranks among the 10% counties worst in the U.S. Queens is also one of the worst counties for lead poisoning, with 7% of housing units at risk. (Envirofacts data.)
• Montgomery County, MD. Poor ranking with water and air quality. (Thanks, Viva.)

The internet “EDF Scorecard” and EPA's Envirofacts exemplify what might be possible through the new Israeli environmental information law.

Kaspit  כספית

PS EDF Scorecard and EPA Envirofacts contain different sets of information. You may want to check both. The EPA has a neighborhood, street-level mapping capacity, too.