OHR SOMAYACH'S ASK THE RABBI 
Issue #261, January 1, 2000 
Parshat Shmot
=====================================
In this issue:
HIP!  HIP!  PHOOEY!   
DULBERG UPDATE 
PUBLIC DOMAIN
=====================================

HIP!  HIP!  PHOOEY!

Eric Posnack <eposnack@sapient.com> wrote:

Dear Rabbi,
I once heard that the expression, "Hip, hip, hurrah!" has anti-
Semitic roots.  The reason given was that during pogroms in 
Europe and Russia, excited masses would scream, "Hierosylma est 
Perdita," Latin for "Jerusalem is lost," which later was shortened 
to its acronym, "hep."  Is there any truth to this?

Dear Eric,
	The phrase does have anti-Semitic roots.  Rioters in 
Europe sometimes shouted "Hep! Hep!" while on prowl for Jews, 
and mob harassment of Jews in Hamburg, Frankfurt, and other 
German cities in 1819 became known as the "Hep! Hep!" riots.  
Hitler's storm troopers adopted this jeer.

	Regarding its source, Professor  Robert Michael of the 
University of Massachusettes Dartmouth (E-mail: 
rmichael@umassd.edu) told us: "I have been looking for years but 
have not found any authoritative source for this phrase.  Lots of 
arguments from German historians who feel it is just a call as for 
goats to get moving."

	But according to Dagobert Runes in The War Against the 
Jew, "Hep! Hep!" was an anti-Semitic riot slogan shouted by the 
Crusaders, deriving from the first letters of the Latin phrase 
"Hierosylma Est Perdita (Jerusalem is destroyed)."  Another 
source claims it was a common toast used at Roman feasts to 
celebrate Rome's defeat of Jerusalem in which one person would 
say "Hierosolyma Est Perdita -- Jerusalem is destroyed," and the 
guests would shout "Hurrah!"

	Interestingly, the word "hurrah" is similar to the word 
which King David predicts the "Children of Edom (Rome)" will 
shout as they destroy Jerusalem:  "Remember, G-d, for the 
children of Edom the day of Jerusalem -- for those who say 
'Arruh!  Arruh!  Destroy it to its very foundation!"  (Psalms 137)

************

DULBERG UPDATE

Most of you may already know about the Dulberg girls, two 
observant Israeli children taken away from their mother by the 
Italian courts.  The Revered Rabbi Nissim Karelitz, shlita, has 
called this "the classic case of redemption of captives in our time."

	In brief:  After four years of divorce, Moshe Dulberg of 
Genoa Italy reopened custody hearings against his ex-wife Tali 
when he learned of her move towards observant Judaism.  He 
claimed that being an observant Jew renders her unfit to act as 
mother to their two girls.

	In an outrageous court case in which Orthodox Jews were 
likened to drug addicts and war criminals, the Italian courts 
accepted the father's claim.  The mother's great love for her girls 
and the girls' adamant wish to remain with her were accepted as 
evidence against the mother as proof that she was indoctrinating 
the girls into a strange cult.

	As a result, the court awarded complete custody to the 
father.  The mother has been declared no longer legal guardian and 
is cut off from all contact with the girls in their native tongue, 
Hebrew.  Her one monthly visit involves severe and complicated 
restrictions, and the girls are suffering as a result.

	The father attempts to break the girls of their observant 
lifestyle.  For example, he keeps the girls separate from one 
another and reads to them from the New Testament.  Last year the 
father converted to Catholicism and has been baptized.  For a full 
summary of this case, write  to <amechad@isdn.net.il>

	On a positive note, your emails, faxes, and letters of 
protest have apparently had a substantial effect.  If you have not 
already done so, write, fax or email your protest to the following 
addresses, expressing your outrage -- respectfully, of course -- at 
the injustice of this court decision that denies the basic human 
rights of these girls and their mother:

(1) Ambassador Francesco Paolo Fulci/
Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations
Two U.N. Plaza, 24th Floor
N.Y., N.Y. 10017
Phone: 212-486-9191
Fax: 212-486-1036
Email: Italy@un.int

(2) His Excellency Ambassador Ferdinando Salleo, Permanent 
Representative of Italy to the United States, Embassy of Italy
1601 Fuller St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
Fax: 202-483-2187.

(3) The Honorable Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of Italy
Palazzo del Quirinale
Rome, Italy 00187
Fax 3906-46992384

(4) The Honorable Massimo D'Alema, Prime Minister of Italy
Palazzo Chigi, 370 Piazza Colonna
Rome, Italy 00187
Fax: 39066783998

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THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
Comments, quibbles, and reactions 
concerning previous "Ask-the-Rabbi" features

Re:  Y2K and the "Year 2100 Prayer Book Bug" 
(http://www.ohrnet.org/ask/ask260.htm#YR):

	Regarding the date for rain prayers changing to the 5th 
and 6th in the year 2100; I once saw an old siddur that had the 3rd 
& 4th.
                                            Zvi Freund <miltonf@villagenet.com>

	Hopefully, by the year 2100 the mashiach will already 
have come and re-established the central Beit Din in Jerusalem, so 
that all the calendar issues will be based on witnesses and the 
judge's decision.
        Gianfranco Di Segni, Rome (Italy) <gdisegni@ibc.rm.cnr.it>

	It's really incorrect to call this year the millenium.  The 
millenium is next year, not this year, because in their calendar 
there is no year 0.
                                                             M. Perlman via the Internet


Re:  Food Fight (http://www.ohrnet.org/ask/ask259.htm#Q2):

	Regarding confiscating food from students:  I was advised 
that when taking anything from a student I should ask him to give 
it to me rather than taking it.  I try to be sure to return the item 
after school to show that I am acting for his benefit and not for any 
personal gain.
                                           Breindi Frishman <breindi@juno.com>

Re:  Colored Candles 
(http://www.ohrnet.org/ask/ask258.htm#Q2):

	Regarding the reason for colored Chanuka candles:  Many 
manufacturers recognize that some of us are too ferklempt to 
remember which night it is, so the candles are color coded:  Two 
reds for the first night, three greens for the second night This is 
sometimes harder than calculating the nights since most of the 
subtle pastels are indiscernible to folks like me with red/green 
color blindness.
                                                       Jerry Jacob <jj@forprofit.com>
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