DLeigh-Ellis



Full text of Dan Sheldon's UJS speech

By DLeigh-Ellis, November 4, 2011

A campaign has been instigated to remove Dan Sheldon from his UJS post, following a dispute with our own Mr Hoffman, after which Mr Sheldon was accused of slander. Funny thing to do when JH's avenues of criticism so often involve ugly words being thrown around like confetti.

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Cifwatch standards! Misreporting Guardian emphasis on Hasidic element of Tottenham riot

By DLeigh-Ellis, August 10, 2011

Hello all, it has been a while. Just dropping in with a single post, don't worry.. I won't darken your doors for long. Firstly, I wanted to wish everybody in London and the other flashpoints health and safety. I hope all out there are being careful and looking after each other through all this madness.

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Bigger Than Klezmer

By DLeigh-Ellis, August 25, 2010

Tomorrow I will be heading off to the annual Towersey folk festival, now in it's 46th year and still going strong, (even if it's just me and the lady going this year, the rest of the group having deserted us for the far cooler and more hip Shambala.) Day tickets are still available if anybody fancies a nice day out with some good tunes, fresh lemonade and a warm atmosphere. This is the website...... http://www.towerseyfestival.com/

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Has Israel Been Let Down by the Diaspora?

By DLeigh-Ellis, June 5, 2010

As you may or may not have noticed I have ceased my blogging on this website. This is primarily due to the lack of discourse that tends to follow my posts, the response more often than not being a litany of anti-intellectual wishful thinking. Coupled with a highly personal attack on my character from the infinitely petty Avraham Reiss and his misleading and cow-towing website, I feel that the platform for debate at JC blogs has been whittled away by those who shout the loudest.

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Eyjaffjallajoekull: The word on everyone's lips (if it was a little easier to pronounce)

By DLeigh-Ellis, April 18, 2010

Remember a few weeks ago, when British Airways were shaking in fear at the prospect of immediate strike action. Remember the accusations they levelled at the union, that striking would cause permenant damage to BA finances... It's amazing how well they are now doing considering the Iceland volcano. Surely, if a few walkouts could potentially prompt the collapse of a national institution then they would be absolutely crippled by the prospect of the total grounding of their European flights.

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Miaow Miaow - The latest craze for the addicts of prohibition.

By DLeigh-Ellis, April 18, 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/7602664/...

I came across this article lurking somewhere around the bowels of the telegraph website. It is perhaps the most telling example of the failure in debate that has now resorted in the continuing assumption that the only way to tackle the issue of drug policy is through maintaining a black and white façade of prohibitionist nonsense.

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B-L-G, Blogging and Kabbalah, the root of the word....

By DLeigh-Ellis, April 13, 2010

‘To blog or not to blog,’ or perhaps it should be, ‘A blog in the hand is worth two in the bush,’ or perhaps even… ‘A blog a day keeps the doctor away.’

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Tikkun Olam, lost idealism (and a brief digression into science-fiction)

By DLeigh-Ellis, March 15, 2010

Tikkun Olam is a concept that has drifted in and out of fashion over the centuries. Generally associated with left-leaning political thought, the basic interpretation of Tikkun Olam is the manifestation of a desire to ‘repair,’ or ‘complete the world.’ It has led to many socially directed projects, not least the Yemin Orde youth village on Mt Carmel in Israel, which I will discuss later.

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Tikkun Olam, A brief digression into science-fiction and a new Israeli agenda

By DLeigh-Ellis, March 13, 2010

Tikkun Olam is a concept that has drifted in and out of fashion over the centuries. Generally associated with left-leaning political thought, the basic interpretation of Tikkun Olam is the manifestation of a desire to ‘repair,’ or ‘complete the world.’ It has led to many socially directed projects, not least the Yemin Orde youth village on Mt Carmel in Israel, which I will discuss later.

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Karen Armstrong: Reviving the Golden Rule

By DLeigh-Ellis, January 20, 2010

Another excellent talk from Ted.com, this one has been around since the summer but it is still well worth a look.

http://www.ted.com/talks/karen_armstrong_let_s_revive_the_golden_rule.ht...

The talk contains an old rabbinical notion that any interpretation of scripture that bred hatred or disdain would be illegitimate, something that we could take on board when considering the relations between textual interpretation and politics.

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Dancing Bears and Opium

By DLeigh-Ellis, January 12, 2010

In the week where Alastair Darling has been called to defend the motivations of Tony Blair in his decision to join the war in Iraq and full-body airport scanners have been rolled into service at airports across the UK, it is refreshing to see the efforts of Kartick Satyanarayan, whose work to provide sustainable incomes for individuals and families has had a profound effect across India.

See link :-
http://www.ted.com/talks/kartick_satyanarayan_how_we_rescued_the_dancing...

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I've missed the Point, I've missed the Point, No - I've missed the point

By DLeigh-Ellis, January 9, 2010

http://static.2mdn.net/866610/IPS_IDcards_spartacus_300x250.swf

ID card opponents likened to brutalised slaves, in need of a light dose of corporal punishment. That seems to be the message of the new IPS promo, one wonders if they actually understood the point of Spartacus?

For more, see John Lettice's blog http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/08/ips_spartacus/

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Written Bible may be Several Centuries Older than Previously Thought.

By DLeigh-Ellis, January 9, 2010

Much like David Mitchell's character in the unrivalled Peep Show, I am a keen amateur student of ancient history and archaeology. Days when little stories like this emerge tend to be some of the best.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/January/Israeli-Prof-Deciph...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100107183037.htm

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Now Testify!!! Little Toolbars and Big Agendas.

By DLeigh-Ellis, January 8, 2010

Remember that moment in Nineteen Eighty-Four where Winston’s entire day is shattered by the sudden announcement, ‘Oceania is at war with Eastasia, Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.’ The sudden change in antagonists is nothing but a flash of a whim to Oceania itself, but to Winston it means a fortnight of hard work, rewriting history to make Oceania’s past more compatible with the present.

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Review: Outwitting History, by Aaron Lansky

By DLeigh-Ellis, January 5, 2010

Sometimes a book comes along just at the right time in your life for you to read it and truly appreciate it. For me, Aaron Lansky’s 2005 semi-autobiographical project, ‘Outwitting History,’ was one such volume. The book’s tagline, ‘how a young man rescued a million books and saved a vanishing civilization,’ concisely sums up the events described within.

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Copenhagen Dreaming

By DLeigh-Ellis, December 16, 2009

As I write this the headline on the BBC website reads, ‘Climate Talks Stall Amid Protests.’ It has certainly been an enlightening week for those who doubted our (world) leaders ability to come to any form of consensus regarding a united effort to combat climate change. It has been even more enlightening for those who anticipated the corporate footsoldiers that are the Danish police to be as repressive, if not more so, than their counterparts in Britain.

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Do the parents of 'M' really know what they are fighting for?

By DLeigh-Ellis, December 9, 2009

As an ex-pupil of JFS I am following the current debate regarding the admissions policy with a keen eye. My interest is defined further because of my own personal experience of the JFS ‘brand’ of Judaism. In order for the reader to understand I should probably explain that I am a child of a Jewish mother and non-Jewish father. Furthermore, due to the fact that my parents, were never married, my mother was required to produce my grandparents ketubah as proof that she herself was Jewish. This is before I was even considered for a place in the school.

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Who else is just waiting for the BNP mask to drop?

By DLeigh-Ellis, November 20, 2009

The BNP have proudly announced their imminent takeover of Barking and Dagenham council this week. Unfortunately, they may be correct in their prediction yet the question remains, will they be honest in their assertions or continue to hide behind the frame of political correctness they all toooften find themselves railing against.

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The fatal flaw of Melanie Phillips 'moderate Muslim test.'

By DLeigh-Ellis, November 13, 2009

I will happily admit that I’m not the greatest fan of Melanie Phillips rants in the Daily Mail, but then again, I’m not a huge fan of the paper in question itself, so it’s understandable that I might instinctively recoil against the often simplistic and tired arguments contained within.

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The Creation Debate: Why it Misses the Point

By DLeigh-Ellis, November 12, 2009

The creation debate has reasserted its surly Neanderthal head in recent years. Arguably, this is more a result of the antipathy between those who term themselves as ‘creationist’ and the scientific establishment, heralded by talented orators such as Richard Dawkins. The greatest continual outpouring of creationist theory probably comes from the Conservative, fiercely Christian population of America, perhaps symbolized most clearly in the policies of the last US president whose policy directions were consistently inspired by his interpretation of his faith.

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