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Sept. 5, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: What does 'doing the right thing' entail?

Caroline B. Glick: The master strategist

Sept. 4, 2008

Ron Kampeas: Biden, Palin take lead in clash on Mideast issues

Bruce Dancis: With humor as their weapon, the Three Stooges took on Hitler

Sept. 3, 2008

Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: Productive school years don't just happen

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Quick lamb stew serves up flavors of India

Sept. 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Costly Advice

Caroline B. Glick: Calling Israel's bluff

JWisdom: Wandering in Wonder by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

August 29, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: 20/20 sightlessness

Caroline B. Glick: When history is not repeated

JWisdom: Blessed or Cursed: It's Really Up to You by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 28, 2008

Steve Lipman: A Comeback for the 'Jewish Jordan'

Jeffrey Weiss: Researcher reports 'intriguing' diabetes breakthrough

August 27, 2008

Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald: Removing the perfectionist's mask

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Nunn: Summer harvest linguine

JWisdom:: The Missing Link in Spiritual Life by Rabbi David Aaron

August 26, 2008

Yaffa Ganz: Grandma gets lessons in staying cool

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: The Dems' 'soft' jihadist

JWisdom:: Today: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Plague of indifference

August 25, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: A friend is bearing a silly grudge from a supposed wrong. What recourse do I have?

Daniel Pipes: Barack Obama through Muslim Eyes

JWisdom:: The knowledge you need to overcome your insecurities by Malka Schulman

August 22, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Life's essential ingredient

Caroline B. Glick: Dominos anyone?

JWisdom:: Actually, Do Sweat the Small Stuff! by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 21, 2008

Today in Biblical History by Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Popularization of Kabbalah: 20 Menachem-Av 1558 CE

Jonathan Rosenblum: Lessons from the Beyond

JWisdom: : The Olympian within is rooting for you -- yes, you! –- to go for the gold

August 20, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Misleading Platform Platitudes

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Chicken Salad with Asian Dressing

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: America's Defense of the Jews --- Until WWII by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

August 19, 2008

Dennis Prager: If the Almighty doesn't exist

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Obama's Islamist problem has nothing to do with his upbringing

JWisdom: Think your life is messed up? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 18, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Business with Friends

Diana West: Roars About Russia, Bare Whispers About Islam

JWisdom: Relationship agony: The real cause by Malka Schulman

August 15, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: To love the Divine

Caroline B. Glick: Georgia, Israel, and the nature of man

JWisdom: The Truly Righteous Don't Demand Entitlements by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 14, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Confessions of broken spirit

Libby Lazewnik: The Numbers Game

JWisdom: Six Questions You'll Be Asked in Heaven? - Uh - Let's Just Take One for Now! by Gavriel Aryeh Sanders

August 13, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Georgia should be on their minds

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Go Greek: Pair flavorful lamb kebabs with a hearty salad

JWisdom: Human hybrids aren't science fiction by Rabbi David Aaron

August 12, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bless us

Daniel Pipes: The West's Islamist Infiltrators

JWisdom: From Sadness to Gladness: The Route from Tisha b'Av to Rosh Hashana by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

August 11, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: A Jewish view on fair pricing

Caroline B. Glick: Ignoring failure in Gaza

JWisdom: 'Communication' Is Not The Answer! by Malka Schulman

August 7, 2008

Rabbi David Gutterman: A Continuing Story With a Sustaining Goal

Rabbi Berel Wein: Mourning and morning

JWisdom: Yes, we are still in exile by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 6, 2008

David Ashenfelter: Government made military engineer's life a living hell because of his faith, Defense Department report documents

Jonathan Tobin: Speak the Truth; Defeat the Lies

JWisdom: Jewish Spirituality: Fusion or Confusion? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 5, 2008

Chris Leppek: Church/state wall beginning to crumble?

Paul Greenberg: Exit Olmert (no encore, please)

JWisdom: Serenity: Make the commitment by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin (Read by Gavriel Sanders)

August 4, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Am I taking advantage of another's psychological quirk?

Andrew Silow-Carroll: A black and a Jew walk into the White House…

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: Edward R. Morrow visits the ‘living dead’ by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review August 22, 2006 / 28 Menachem-Av, 5766

For Cuban exiles, Castro's death will bring seismic change

By Leonard Pitts, Jr.


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | For some of us, Dec. 26 was the emptiest day of the year.


After weeks of anticipation, the calendar moving with glacial speed, the big day — Christmas — had finally arrived in a blaze of tinsel, plastic and wrapping paper. It was, for a child, the closest thing to paradise.


The day after dawned like an afterthought, as if the sun itself had a hangover. Dec. 26 always felt like the fairground after the fair, the ballroom after the ball. There was always a sense of confetti waiting for the pushbroom.


That's because anticipation had been shoved aside and reality had reasserted itself like a toothache. You awoke from your happy daze to an insistent question: Now what?


Something very similar will probably happen soon to the Cuban exile community. News broke at the end of July that Fidel Castro, needing surgery for a stomach disorder, had ceded power — supposedly temporarily — to his brother Raul. News of the dictator's ill health prompted street parties in Miami.


Nearly three weeks later, Castro is said to be recovering, but in a statement to the nation this week, the dictator did little to quell the sense that his demise is near. He told his people to be optimistic, but warned them to brace for "adverse" news. The recent headlines have fueled speculation that a day the exile community has awaited for decades, the day of Castro's death, may finally be at hand.


That day will be Christmas for many of those who lost relatives or years to his prisons, lost property to his government, lost their country to his grasp. They fled, many of them, to South Florida and built a community defined in large part by that loss, defined by the wait for redemption, the wait for a monster to die.


It is that definition that occasions these words. Maybe Castro dies next week, maybe he dies next year, maybe he dies before these words see print but the one sure thing is that he dies. And when he dies, the exile community throws a party that makes Mardi Gras look like a church picnic. They party, with apologies to Prince, like it's 1959.


And then what? What happens on the morning after? The question is not solely one of geopolitical pragmatism, though that's part of it. As The Miami Herald recently reported, many in the exile community are grappling with renewed urgency with the practical questions Castro's death will raise. They are asking themselves what the role of the exile community should be in the new Cuba, whether members of the exile community will or should repatriate to the island, how the exile community can help bring investment to the country.


Important questions. But, again, there's a bigger question: Can there still be an exile community without exiles? When opposition to something defines a people, what happens when that something ends?


Who will Cuban America be after Castro dies? For so long, righteous hatred of this man has been the glue that held the community together; it has been a generational hand-me-down, a rationale for misguided attacks on free speech, a rationale for keeping Elian Gonzalez away from his father, a litmus test for political hopefuls, a fuel for radio talk shows, a prism through which to view sports, politics, life, a reason for being.


Castro's death may or may not change Cuba — where is the evidence that his people will rise in revolution after he dies? — but it will definitely bring seismic change to the exile community. It holds out the potential for still deeper assimilation into the national mainstream and yet, paradoxically, also the potential for dislocation and loss of mission.


In a real sense, much of the exile community has depended on Castro for its sense of identity. No one can yet know what that identity will be once Castro dies.


Therein lies its promise and its challenge. The party will be nice. But the real story begins on the empty morning after.

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© 2006, The Miami Herald Distributed by TMS

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