by Rabbi Yonah Bookstein
3 days ago
Have you ever prayed, cried and longed for a lost loved one for a year?
You know how the pain, even after a whole year, will not go away?
Imagining holding on for 1,900 years.
Then you will understand what Jerusalem means to a Jew. Our lives our inseparable.
Every prayer I offer, every song I sing, every celebration I enjoy — is connected to Jerusalem.
Sunday is the 10th of Tevet when we observe a sunrise to sunset fast in memory of what happened in Jerusalem more then 2,500 years ago. In 588 BCE, the siege of the city by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia started on that day, and it was an event that ultimately culminated in the destruction of the first Temple built by King Solomon, and the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah and expulsion of ten of the tribes of Israel.
As the Jewish people, we eventually returned and rebuilt the Temple. But a few hundred years later we lost our Second Temple and were exiled into our longest, darkest exile.
Since Jewish sovereignty’s return to the newer parts of Jerusalem in 1948, and the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, Jewish tears have finally started to dry.
You might think that we would cancel this minor fast day. After all, the Jewish people are back in Jerusalem. The Sh’mah once again resonates across the city. The priestly blessings are again being offered on the Festivals.
So why am I fasting on Sunday? Because we cannot fully celebrate yet — not the way we are behaving.
The reason we lost Jerusalem was not because of external forces or foes, it was because of our own divisions, infighting, and abandonment of our Jewish mission.
Dearest brothers and sisters, it is important to use our voices to call upon our elected leaders to protect Jerusalem. But we know that the future of Jerusalem doesn’t depend on who is president or a vote in the UN.
The future of Jerusalem is for God to decide. We have the chance to show the Master of the Universe that we have finally outgrown our divisions and infighting. We can love and care for one another. We can increase our commitment to our Holy mission on planet Earth. We can show that we truly are ready for the promise of Jerusalem.
That is what Sunday’s fast is about. As the Rambam wrote in Mishna Torah a thousand years ago:
Even if you can’t fast, please consider dedicating some time, energy, and resources to do some soul-searching.
That is how we can guarantee that we never lose Jerusalem again.
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It’s nice to end a year on a high note, and the Better Government Association ’s settlement of a private email dispute with the Emanuel administration certainly qualifies.
The agreement negotiated by BGA attorney and open records expert Matt Topic required City Hall to release thousands of emails from the mayor’s personal account and established a new policy that prohibits all city employees from using their personal email addresses to discuss government business.
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It’s a significant victory in the fight to make City Hall more transparent, but that battle is continuing, and we’ll have new skirmishes on new fronts as we press more public officials to comply with Illinois’ open records laws instead of trying to circumvent them.
We can’t let them hide conversations that affect our lives and our tax dollars in personal email accounts that are often inaccessible.
Settlement of our City Hall lawsuit changes the rules in Chicago, and it can also serve as a template for transparency efforts around the country.
We find comparable bans on the use of personal email for government business in only wo cities — Austin, Texas and Washington D. C. — and just a few states, including Illinois, have broad enough “public records” definitions to include some personal accounts.
This prohibition should apply to government offices in every city and state, and that may require journalists and watchdogs to do what the BGA did: Submit open records requests, file lawsuits when they’re stonewalled, and settle cases if they can obtain the personal emails they’re asking for and change public policy.
Our friends at the Chicago Tribune filed a lawsuit similar to ours requesting a smaller set of the mayor’s personal emails , and his text messages, and their case is continuing.
We wish them well, and our settlement does nothing to diminish their effort.
But our fight accomplished the primary goals of every BGA open records lawsuit: Get the information we’re seeking, reform misguided policies, and avoid protracted litigation at taxpayer expense.
Critics of our settlement say we shouldn’t have agreed to anything less than a court review of emails, instead of accepting a pledge from the mayor’s lawyers to provide every email related to public business that we’re entitled to under Illinois’ open records law.
But we decided that if the mayor wanted to hide explosive emails he probably wouldn’t have initiated settlement discussions in the first place, or put his attorneys’ law licenses at risk by playing games in a binding legal document.
Still, if it turns out he was trying to scam us, trust me — we’ll be back in court.
And if you’re wondering about the lack of emails on incendiary issues like the Laquan McDonald shooting, consider that:
+ Our case isn’t over — a number of City Hall emails were redacted or withheld on exemption claims, and we’re challenging some of them. If the city doesn’t adequately address our concerns, I repeat: We’ll be back in court.
+ The mayor’s personal accounts were set up to automatically delete emails after 90 days, which eradicated years of conversations.
We probably can’t recover those deletions, but we can ask if the use of auto-delete features by Emanuel and other public officials violates state record retention laws.
From our initial investigation, it appears those emails should have been retained for at least a year, not 90 days.
So yes — we have more transparency at City Hall today than yesterday, and that’s good. But there’s lot of watchdog work ahead of us.
And we’re on it.
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Asian stock indexes were mixed Monday while the dollar rebounded after a U. S. job report showed strong wage gains, giving more ammunition to U. S. policymakers planning further rate rises.
KEEPING SCORE: Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng index was practically unchanged at 22,507.32 while the Shanghai Composite in mainland China rose 0.5 percent to 3,169.15. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.1 percent to 2,048.30 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.1 percent to 5,817.30. Trading in Japan was closed for a holiday. Benchmarks in Southeast Asia were mixed.
US JOBS: Friday’s Labor Department report painted a mixed picture of U. S. employment. It showed that companies added a solid but slightly disappointing 156,000 jobs in December. On the other hand, hourly pay jumped 2.9 percent from the year before, which was the biggest monthly increase in seven years. For 2016 overall, job growth in the world’s biggest economy remained steady in 2016, although the pace was slower than in 2015.
ANAYST VIEW: «U. S. markets have closed off the first week of the year with a steady set of gains across sectors and the same can be seen in most Asian markets,» said Jingyi Pan, market strategist at IG in Singapore. «With improving indicators in the U. S. and across Asia, we could see a second set of gains this week in this data-filled week. »
CHINA OUTFLOWS: Official data showed that China’s foreign exchange reserves contracted in December for the sixth straight month, falling by $41 billion to just over $3 trillion, according to the People’s Bank of China. The central bank said Saturday its effort to stabilize the yuan was a major reason for the drop in forex reserves. The latest figures underline Beijing’s willingness to use its huge stockpile of foreign currency to stabilize the yuan, which has been declining as residents and companies send more money overseas amid flagging confidence in China’s economy.
WALL STREET: Most major U. S. benchmarks crept higher, finishing the week with a big gain as investors remained optimistic about the U. S. economy. The Dow Jones industrial average flirted with the 20,000-level but finished up 0.3 percent at 19,963.80. The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent to 2,276.98. The Nasdaq composite jumped 0.6 percent to 5,521.06. The small-cap Russell 2000 index slid 0.3 percent to 1,367.28.
CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 117.35 yen from 116.93 yen in late trading Friday. The euro was unchanged at $1.0533.
ENERGY: U. S. benchmark crude oil slipped 27 cents to $53.72 a barrel in electronic trading in New York Mercantile Exchange. The contact rose 23 cents to close at $53.99 a barrel on Friday. Brent crude, which is used to price oil sold internationally, added lost 17 cents to $576.93 a barrel in London.

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A $22.96 tax bill sent from Manchester to West Gardiner for a school bus turnaround used by both towns prompted West Gardiner selectmen to fire off a terse letter that suggested it could fight back by charging new fees of its own.
The Pond Road parcel in Manchester is used by buses picking up students in West Gardiner and Manchester and was built by West Gardiner at a cost of $2,300 on the 12-acre lot near the Manchester/West Gardiner town line, the letter signed by West Gardiner’s three selectmen says.
West Gardiner also plows and sands the short stretch of road between the turnaround and the town line. The letter said West Gardiner officials were “disappointed” that Manchester has chosen to charge an annual property tax of $22.96 for the property, and it warns West Gardiner could bill Manchester for the use of the turnaround, and plowing and sanding of that section of road.
“We do not charge your town for using our turnaround,” the letter signed by Gregory Couture, Merton Hickey and Randall Macomber says. “Also, we currently plow and sand from the turnaround to the town line. Perhaps you should abate our taxes. We could start to charge for the use of our property and for plowing and sanding of your road.”
E. Patrick Gilbert, Manchester’s town manager, said Manchester started charging West Gardiner property taxes on the parcel in 2014, after an auditor from Maine Revenue Services advised the town that the parcel, owned by West Gardiner but located in Manchester, could not be labeled a municipal property because it is not a Manchester municipal property. Municipal properties are exempt from property taxes.
So, starting in 2014, a tax bill was generated and sent to West Gardiner, with the property valued at $1,400.
“For years, we never taxed it, because we recognized it as tax-exempt,” Gilbert said Friday. “When that happened, in 2014, we put it on the books. We were advised we had to tax it.”
To address the issue, in a proposal that goes to selectmen in Manchester at their Tuesday meeting, Gilbert said selectmen could agree to reduce the value of the property to the lowest amount, $100, recognized by Manchester’s TRIO tax-processing system.
That would reduce the annual tax bill for the property to $1.63, Gilbert said, which would be billed to the town of West Gardiner.
But Gilbert said, if selectmen in Manchester wish, they could abate the $1.63 tax, tell West Gardiner to ignore it, or pay it out of petty funds.
“I think the board will consider doing something, recognizing that use of the property and wanting to be a good municipal neighbor,” Gilbert said. “It’s not much money. They could abate it.”
The land was sold to West Gardiner in 1999 for $2,000 by longtime West Gardiner Selectman Merton Hickey, according to Manchester tax records.
Selectmen in Manchester are scheduled to discuss the issue at their 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday at the Manchester Town Office.
Selectmen are also scheduled to discuss whether the town should adopt a moratorium temporarily banning retail recreational marijuana operations in Manchester. Gilbert said no proposal is currently on the table.
Many central Maine municipalities, including Augusta , Gardiner , Richmond , Clinton and Madison , are considering or have adopted moratoriums on recreational marijuana businesses, while officials in the town of Oakland voted to ban such businesses, long-term.
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