Haveil Havalim, Number 92 (or so)

The count appears to be a bit off, but we'll stick with the current numbering for now.

What the Heck is Haveil Havalim?

HH is a Blog Carnival. A blog carnival is a post with links to other posts about a similar subject. The subjects of the Haveil Havalim carnival are Israel and Judaism.

People around the web submit their own, or other's, posts, and the job of moderator for that week is to organize and add pithy comments for each post.

A blog carnival is a good way of finding about new blogs on a subject; that's why I'm here.

Who the Heck am I?

As most of the readers of this post will probably be HH participants and their followers, it will probably be the first time you are hearing about me.

I am a blogger living in Jerusalem, originally from New York. My primary focus on this blog is modern board games - no, not Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, and other games of that ilk. I mean board games for grown ups that are meant to challenge you, not just pass the time. There are several thousand good games that you never heard of that are played by millions of people around the world, particularly Europeans (hence their unofficial name "Eurogames"). You can start your journey on Board Game Geek.

They are intelligent, beautiful, multi-player, not overly long, with no player elimination, and little luck, yet don't require a lifetime of learning, such as Chess or Go, or knowledge about useless trivia, such as trivia games or war games. And they are fun.

I run the Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club, which meets every week from 6:30 to 11:30 in my apartment in Arnona and gets between 10 and 15 people a week. In addition, there are now other clubs around the country: Tel Aviv, Modiin, Beit El, Cochav Hashachar, Haifa, etc. Since we teach the games, no prior experience is necessary. Contact me for more info.

While my primary blog interest is board games, I also blog about Israel, technology, IP, law, philosophy, creativity, literature, and a host of other things. Some of the Israeli bloggers are friends of mine, and while I try to avoid politics, I can't resist saying something, occasionally.

See the highlights on my sidebar for some samples. See the blogroll on the other sidebar for a sampling of my blogging inspirations.

For some reason, Soccer Dad called me "Jerusalem Gamer" in his post, and the name appears to be spreading. If you need to, just refer to this blog at "Yehuda".

So here we are. On with the carnival.


Personal

Ask Shifra discovers that she's still white in Mirror Mirror on the Wall, as does Chayyei Sarah in The Kosher Bar.

Dot Co Dot Il plays Trivial Pursuit with a variant in Shabbas Pursuits.

me-ander talks about getting what you want when you let go in Letting go....

Letters of Thought reflects on childhood imaginations carried over into adulthood in Living in my head, and then recounts a horrifying close call in Just a Normal Guy from Tel Aviv.

lost in bec's world imagines her upcoming aliyah in the aliyah tear-jerker, rated PG.

The IgNoble Experiment worries about her nocturnal activities in The Falling Tree.

Life in Israel davened for the amud, a rare event.


International Judaism

normblog points to an article on the lost Jews of Brazil in Old Jews, new Jews.

View from a Height points to an article about eruv making in the Rocky Mountains in Eruv Rav.

Bagel Blogger reports on Matisyahu's latest release: Jerusalem, in Matisyahu -'Jerusalem' - Looking beyond the Pop Culture veneer. Matisyahu is a reggae rapping hassidic Jew high on the pop charts, for those who don't know. BB links to his latest video on YouTube.

Elie's Expositions talks fascinating Jewish Urban Legends in JUL Jewels.

Jewish Blogmeister, among others, notes the alleged attack by Jews on a Pakistani in New York in Jewish Religious Thugs?

Israel matzav talks Who's good for the Jews in the US elections?

There are no feminists on a sinking ship humorously envisions Dirty Orthodox Jewish political attack ads for Shul Rabbis. And keeps tally on the states in which he's eaten kosher pizza in Kosher pizza: a personal Odyssey.


Israel Happenings

David at Israelity uncovers a new secret Israeli weapons training program: pillow fighting.

Jewlicious redesigns their site and points us to the Washington Post's writeup on Emek Refaim street in Jersualem.

Judeosphere reports on a flying car invented by Israelis in Jews Build Really Cool Flying Car.

Life in Israel considers Israel's latest marketing messages in spaghetti-strap marketing (sans pictures, unfortunately :-) ).

There are no feminists on a sinking ship talks about the Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem, as do many others.


Israel Politics

shlemazl notes European hypocrisy in Outrage as a European Fascist is Snubbed by Israel.

The Muqata finds unexpected color in the Labor Party Central Committee meeting in Central Committee Musings - The Carnival's in Town.

Israel at Level Ground answers a provocative question about the Palestinian situation for the Washington Post in Blogging in The Washington Post, and Skpye-ing Algeria.

Meryl Yourish continuously reports on the bleak truth. This time, about political map-making in UN mapping Shebaa Farms: Toldja so.

Meanwhile, Israellycool notes the failure of the U.N. peacekeeping force to do ... uh, anything at all, in Working 9 to 5.

My Right Word discusses secret talks between Israel and Hamas in How to get Israel into Deeper Trouble.

Shiloh Musings confronts troubling signs of repression in Protesting.

ConservaJew weighs in on troubling news from Iran in What if We Named it "Operation Moses Can Kick Your Ass"?

Slightly Mad reviews a film and the knee-jerk reactions in October's Cry.

Greetings from the French Hill considers our lessons from history in Teaching History Is Unnatural.

Boker tov, Boulder notes GWB's waiver of the law in talking to terrorists in Sorry I Missed This.

The History News Network notes the similarities between situations faced by Israel and India in India Reminiscent of Israel.

Elder of Ziyon notes the ridiculously sized Gaza security services in Gaza: the most secure place on the planet.

Jewish Current Issues notes discrepancies between Yuval Steinitz's and George W. Bush's take on Iran threat assessment in The Yuval Steinitz Master Class.

Soccer Dad snips a letter from Walter Riech recounting why he was fired as head of the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Arafat denial.

More on Iran, from El Rejunte.il who notes the similarities between past European reactions to Hitler and present reactions to Iran's president in No one do nothing.

Israel matzav notes a DEBKAfile report on Palestinians using anti-tank missiles in DEBKAfile confirms: 'Palestinians' fired anti-tank missile at Migdalim. He also notes the report that Egyptians see Israel, US as enemies.

Daled Amos notes some positive results from the last war in Enjoy It While It Lasts. And also posts the Abridged Version of Obsession: Radical Islams's War Against The West.


Media

Media Backspin notes the difference between Reuters and AP's captions of the same picture in Photo-Ops Are Childs Play.

Bagel Blogger actually gets BBC to issue a correction in BBC Finally Corrects Qana Fatality count. He is also running his second caption contest (and presents the winners of the first contest) in Bodgey Bagel's 2nd Caption Contest.

It's Almost Supernatural recounts South Africa's Cape Time's trouble in getting is reporting straight with regard to Avigdor Lieberman in Lieberman Puzzles the Cape Times.


Religion

Westbankmama talks about the journey to becoming religious in Following the Letter of the Law. It's a beautiful story about cleansing, preparation, and an unexpected visitor in the shape of a loaf of bread.

A Simple Jew presents how a quest for genealogical information has also led on a path to return in Question & Answer With Shoshana (Bershad) - Genealogy & Judaism.

Smooth Stone explores where his moniker comes from in Hey, who's the guy with the sword?, an article about David and Goliath.

Heichal HaNegina recounts a real hassidic story about golden coins and honoring one's parents in A Niggun Made from a Golden Mitzva.

lost in bec's world bakes more than challah in mmmm....challah....! mmmmm....love...!

Verbiage posts from the maggid on why we have Two days of Yom Tov in Chutz L’Aretz.


Random Acts of Hatred

Elder of Ziyon finds that anti-semites feel the need to outdo anti-Israelites in Anti-semites can't stomach Neturei Karta.

Judeosphere records the "actually, we're used to this type of nonsense, so it doesn't really surprise us anymore" collapse of the ironically named Stop the Hate campaign in "Stop the Hate" Campaign Turns Hateful.


Random Acts of Kindness

Elie's Exposition finds hessed at a butcher's shop in Another Small Act of Kindness.

Cross Currents notes a philanthropical gift in An Excellent Move.


And that's all for this week's Haveil Havalim. Do enjoy, link, comment, and blogroll. Next week's HH will be at Soccer Dad. Email submissions on Blog Carnival or by email to dhgerstman at hotmail dot com.

Yehuda