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J.A.G.U.A.R. the Jewish Artist’s Gallery, Ubiety, Access, Resources
Originally in the Old City of Jerusalem, it continues the work of the House of Love and Prayer, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s urban Art and Creativity Community in S. Francisco that Eliahu Gal-Or and Rabbi Joseph Cooper co-directed until 1976, when the whole community Aliyah to become Moshav Modiin. It is a hybrid form of Yeshiva which integrates Science, Art and Torah study in a co-operative space where religious and secular Jews find a common ground to breaking down barriers, suspect and prejudice, share learning, skills and talents which G-d (undoubtedly, according to the author of this document) bestows on H-s creatures. A Gallery of this type enables the artist to exhibit and sell his intellectual and physical product, free from the constraints of political or affinity protexia which prevents morally principled emerging Jewish artists from getting established and earn their livelihood. Ubiety (from ubi which means where in Latin, in other words a place to be and to be found at) is having a reliable address to be found at, with a mailbox and/or private telephone number when traveling or living elsewhere, leaving behind for exhibition or sale books, painting, records and any other products or intellectual property. Access: to communication lines, Internet, etc… Resources: objects which one does not possess or normally takes along traveling; in S. Francisco art supplies, musical instruments, film and video equipment could be found and/or borrowed by artists in need, who contributed their tithe to keep the House open and its refrigerator full; in its heyday, the HLP fed hundreds of hungry people a day, and many more found jobs or loans they never dreamed of qualifying for, besides meeting business and life partners. Its last embodiment as J.A.G.U.A.R. in the Old City offered delicious Shabbat meals in a non-humiliating environment, hosting concerts, exhibitions and video evenings until the main supporter could not afford the expense and no one else was found to help with the expenses. This kind of facility is too urgently needed in Jerusalem today to wait until a truckload of paperwork is processed. The author of this document, who is a Halacha and Law abiding citizen of Israel is supporting it as he has always done out of his own pocket alone, which is not adequate for properly fulfilling its mission, which now includes:
WWW.KOTL.TV: A live video streaming Internet TV station, meant to webcast live and recorded Torah classes from the Kotel, based on one or more wireless cameras relayed to the web by a base station, plus live coverage of Bar Mitzvahs in the same place, to allow family members who cannot travel to watch the ceremony from their computer or TV set.
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This is artificially generated Brownian Noise
VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Due to the temporary inability of our main sponsor to keep up his financial support of our activities, we have been forced to close the facility on Misgav Ladach 17; Your help is urgently needed and may be extended by:
1) sending a check to: (please use Air Mail, we really need $ quickly to keep the .org in existence)
The Shabbat Fund, P.O.B. 31403 - Jerusalem 91313 Israel
2) sending a bank transfer to "The Shabbat Fund"
acct. # 113332 - Bank Mizrahi, Old City Branch, Jerusalem, Israel -
We really and urgently need a vehicle and the means to renovate the Me'Or Modiim factory building and put it in use as a multimedia production school/studio; the budget is $ 30.000 and a serious sponsor will have an unbelievable opportunity to improve the quality of life and society in Israel on a pilot scale.
In the meantime our office is operating in Jerusalem on the Ben Yehuda Midrahov, at Luntz 3, Suite 248 - Reaching mainly youth at risk which congregates at night on Zion Square. We need to rent an additional, larger office to use as classroom and recording studio on weekdays, and for Seudot Shabbat when possible; The budget is US $ 3.600.00 a year in advance to rent the space, US$ 250.00 a week to run it and flexible for Shabbat, with the possibility of naming the facility by the contributors according to support.
please e-mail Eliahu Gal-Or for further details.
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- Dear Hevra,
I am temporarily unable to travel abroad, but the Worldwide Community Switchboard offers a needed social service to youth at risk in the inner city of Jerusalem and needs itself the means to meet its expenses and go on with its appointed task; rent and utilities must be paid already, and sooner or later there will be found some form of official support, but in the meantime the checks must be kept from bouncing, and your support is ESSENTIAL AND NEEDED URGENTLY to continue the activity of the Intellectual Stock Exchange (one of the many paths to continue those of the House of Love and Prayer)and in the meantime its premises are functioning at much less than its potential for lack of funds.
The goals stated on the ISE's Founding Charter of 1987 are:
1): To promote Aliya to Israel in the lifestyle of Torah.
2): To help new immigrants acquire technological skills.
3): To develop communication aids for the handicapped.
4): To promote understanding between religious and secular Jews.
5): To promote the holiness of Jewish life and marriage.
In the Jewish Quarter, on Rehov Misgav Ladach 17, the JAGUAR Jewish Art Gallery, Ubiety, Access, Resources was started on Lag baOmer 5761 with a pure olive oil fire on its terrace overlooking the Har haBait and the Kotel.
It only lasted three unbelievable months, until the main contributor's portfolio dipped to the point that he was forced to close the faucet of his maaser that offred Joyous Shabbat seudot near the Kotel, and the rent could not be met anymore.
After a year, we have again a small office near Zion Square, and we are rebuilding our activities, but really need some help now to succeed.
I have not given up the hope that we will eventually find and be able to afford adequate space in the Jewish Quarter too; when we do and the budget permits it, J.A.G.U.A.R. will once again offer to its members and guests delicious Italian food catered by Luciano (me) of Me'Or Modiim.
A cover charge of NIS 35 will include membership for the year, whatever I will manage to offer including some top live entertainment and the chance for whoever failed to find his/her soulmate on TUbAv or Pesach Sheni to catch up to the
highest mitzvah of them all.
The center will take time and money to be refurbished and equipped, and consist in its final form, besides the terrace, of a studio for audio and video recordings and conferences, which confortably accommodates up to 100 people for Bar Mitzvah receptions, lectures and meetings, plus technical rooms, a professional level kitchen and accessories.
JAGUAR will make available to its members an art gallery, ubiety (address/phone/office/mailbox/computer/Internet...) access including the use of video/audio recording, editing and conferencing equipment, with high quality satellite and
land connection for multiple location events, a wireless video link to the Kotel for the live broadcast of Bar Mitzvahs or Shiurim by satellite or Internet, and a matchmaking service between the funding needs of Jewish artists and the appropriate Philanthropic Resources.
One of the center's main aims is to offer a base for forming a group of artists who co-operatively produce and mantain websites, etc...
There will be an electronic lab to refurbish donated computers and recycle them to needy people, with training classes in computer skills at the center, or in case of homebound or handicapped, volunteer @home tutoring...
Intellectual (I.E.: you know someone who can help and are willing to ask them...or teach us a little bit of what you know about getting funded so we can use our time doing the work which is needed istead of just clutching at straws to stay open) and/or financial support is urgently needed and if there is any other need which this center can fulfill it will be actively considered subject to compatibility
with the above ones.
There will be Melave Malkas, poetry readings, shiurim, learning groups, trips, the publication of a weekly newspaper: "the Jewish Straight" initially in English but branching into Hebrew, Italian, French and Spanish editions to allow the publishing of original material by members and contributors.
On Shabbat you will be once more invited to eat and sing with us, meet old friends and make new ones, or just hang out in a bright spot; we don't ask you to be somebody or something else, provided that our respect for you is reciprocated.
Mazel Tov to all those who (I still wish this will eventually include me too... Reb Nachman says: "Don't ever give up!) )are already getting married instead of just waiting to meet their soulmate, but if YOU are among the latter, keep JAGUAR on the list of places where you hang your h@t.
B"H soon we will have a new place and restart our activities; what follows was the typical schedule of events before the cash flow froze to a halt:
H" has always sent me the right person at the right moment, and I am sure our parties will be big time; just imagine the quality of light emanating from a pure olive oil fire as it is seen from the Kotel and illuminates the Har haBait. It is meant to bring Moshiach closer and tell him how ready and eager for Geulah we all are. Bring your cameras, the view is still there and totally gevaldig, even if the rent is still US$ 1.800.00 a month, right now seen by me only in dreams...!
- For reasons not communicated to me, the following posting was censored by Ariella who moderates the reb-shlomo@shamash.org mailing list; I will not share here why I think she did that, but you can make your own guess, and if you feel the way I do about censorship as an abomination belonging only to fascist regimes, please express yourself here by e-mailing me your comment.
Dear Hevra,
Thanks to everybody for the positive feedback on JAGUAR; I am inundated by private mail and do not have too much time to answer all of them privately, but some questions which were asked require a prompt answer and I think it best to answer this one letter in public, while respecting the sender's
privacy:
B"H
Dear Eliyahu!
Congratulations for your interesting programme. It is good to offer something for people in maybe critical situations. PLUS soul-mate... Wish I were there. I am sure, I would be a regular at your place.
Why would you dispose of scenes showing couples being divorced already, etc?
Because those partners might have new partners and old healed wounds should not be re-opened; at least one of the partners' neshamot does get wounded by a divorce, and most likely both get wounded except that the one woounding his/her self in the process goes into denial out of pride instead of admitting to a mistake, thus trying to transfer the blame to the ex-partner.
But those who suffer the most are the children, because they are made into unwitting media to deliver gratuitous hate to the other partner. I am not saying here that divorce is not a mitzvah when there is a serious reason for it; better that a child should have only one loving parent around than two
strangers who teach him/her how to not love, ultimately, a half of oneself, since the child in question is the sum of both selves in places where it is futile to attempt to replace one of those selves vith a spare copy of the
other one. What I have been trying to do since House of Love and Prayer days is to help prevent that kind of divorce in which both partners really still love each other but are put one against the other by the lack of parnassah, exacerbated by inefficient and/or corrupt civil servants who deprive them of their rights, starting from the one about knowing those rights and thus using them. Or when malicious, self-interested neighbors and false friends or social workers sow discord to further their aims. Very often those are themselves divorced and like multi-level marketing criminals, try sucking more and more innocent people into their vicarious identity crises to assuage their subconscious guilt about having betrayed their partner's trust. Finally and for as long as it lasts, I have a place for people to get
together and help each other emerge out of the muck. Remember what Hillel, and Anne Frank after him have left said and adopt that maxim as a guiding star: "If I am only for myself what am I ? ... and if not now, when? ".
Is there not a "historical truth" interesting for everybody, and especially in connection with Shlomo?
Yes, but Shlomo, and not only him, have taught us often that peace takes precedence over truth, although, may I add, lying for reasons other than peace (I include as peace also what is needed to win a just war), is still the infringement of a Har Sinai commandment, and "genevat daat" the witholding of information is another word for fraud.
People having been there might remember: these and these have been present, where are they? I would not censor the videos, by no means.
If you look at the posting again, you will see that I only intend to exclude, after consulting the people involved if I can, those scenes which include them; I know of many couples, including most of the time me and Shoshana, who after having divorced, have decided, especially to help their children grow into mentally healtier Jews and human being, to be friends instead of sparring enemies and raise them with an example of love and understanding before their eyes, but it takes sincerity to make this system work.
Could I have yr phone-number?
Israeli cellphone NEW #: 054-5827632
PLEASE NOTE: THE OLD NUMBER IS NO LONGER ACTIVE.
Founding a new settlement in Modiin-area sounds great. Behatzlachah!
Our children deserve it, instead of being ripped off of their fair share of commonwealth by crooks. I have run out of money and indeed of marriage by investing considerable resources in legal expenses on behalf of the "silent majority" none of whom chipped in at least a few dollars, and have run out
of cash. Therefore I decided that it is cheaper to start something new than to keep fighting the old war. This way I will be allowed to build in peace; there was so much love and brotherhood 20 years ago, but now I have to go to Bat Ayin or Kadita if I want to restore my soul with a whiff of positive
energy. Anyways from the terrace of JAGUAR I have a fabulous view of Kotel and Har haBait (except that there are still the wrong buildings on it, but I know the shiputzim are coming soon, with a Rebbe like Shlomo how can I doubt it?) and in these last days I have received so much positive feedback (tax
deductible contributions to "The Worldwide Community Switchboard - Israel non-profit association # 58-012-435-2 can really go a long way (I have to renew the paperwork with PEF to make them deductible in the US but plan a trip there end-July to perhaps register a NPO in the States making all the process more efficient) and are desperately and urgently needed.)that I know for
sure how my work is needed and a place like JAGUAR can make a serious
difference in Israel with its rehabilitative potential, on the
peace-between-Jews process.
>
>Best wishes, and much coach for going on
(signature removed by Eliahu>
>P.S.
I've asked XXX a few times, whether (s)he would know a shidduch for me, but (s)he did not react, though we have been friends for many years and (s)he knows me very well. Now I am asking you: do you have an idea?
I wish, but I am still new to the matchmaking game, and I know that HaSh-m would not have created your neshama without creating also its Basherte, and no one gets to taste the quality of old wine if all the wine is drunk when it is new. I have proof of this but it is not meant to be elaborated and
remains within the realm of privacy.
I have posted only the relevant parts of your letter, stripping it of your name and the rest of its text, because I believe that more list readers might have the same questions; I will welcome all feedback and further questions, but please address them to instead of egalor, which cannot handle any more volume of correspondence.
Hag Sameach to all,and remember that when it's time for action, the Torah must be put down gently, not dropped on a hard surface.
Eliahu Gal-Or
- This space is reserved for anything you want posted, if we agree to post it, and if fits with the site; just e-mail it to me at and don't be angry at me if for whatever reason I did not post it. When this site grows in technical ability, we will run a truly uncensored mailing list and help you obtain due process by posting anything that was censored elsewhere, bearing in mind that if we do not agree with it our response will come along with it leading to a lively debate. It may take long before we reach the size of Utne Cafe (The best of them all, and we highly recommend a visit there) but we'll hopefully be at least halfway there on a couple of years. Our studio/laboratory in Me'Or Modiim is the next to be refurbished and opened as a place where any artist can produce and exhibit in any medium. We welcome donations of books, equipment, leftover building materials and besides money, the most urgently needed thing is a (legally)functioning vehicle. Don't hesitate and claim your blessing now.
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