Are you a Zionist?

Can a Jew who doesn't live in Israel be a Zionist?

Rabbi Avi Weiss says no.



I tend to agree.

Hulk Hogan Knows Best: Jews in the Exile and Keeping Kosher

It seems like everyone has their own reality TV show these days.

Even... Hulk Hogan.

Believe it or not, but VH1 has started a reality series about everyone's favorite professional wrestler, Hulk Hogan, entitled, Hogan Knows Best, featuring the exploits of Hulk Hogan and his family. The show has even devoted a number of episodes to Hulk Hogan (and family) learning about what it means to keep Kosher.

While the episodes are quite funny, I really don't know which is sadder - Hogan's attempts at keeping Kosher - or the many observant Jews who seem to be so at home in the Exile known as Miami Beach, enjoying their chance to be Hulkamaniacs (kind of like the Jews who had such a great time at Achashveirosh's party - of Purim fame - celebrating the end of Am Yisra'el, content to live merely as Persians of the Mosaic persuasion.)

Check it out for yourself here.

Each episode is about two minutes in length. If you can't watch them all, I recommend episodes 3 - 6, and 8.

WARNING: There are some immodestly dressed women in these episodes (namely, Hogan's wife and daughter.)

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Galut-Lovers Anonymous

There are many people in this world who are caught within the tangled web of harmful addictions.

Some are addicted to drugs, others to alcohol, and yet others, it seems, are addicted to living in Galut - The Exile.

The lucky ones recognize their addiction early on and begin taking the necessary steps to fight and overcome it, while others live their lives ignorantly unaware of their addiction, bringing untold suffering upon themselves and their loved ones.

It seems as if some French Jews fall into the latter category.

French Jews flock to area: South Florida is experiencing an influx of Jews who fear persecution in France

Rod Kukurudz decided to uproot his family from a comfortable life in France to Surfside when his then 16-year-old daughter, Audrey, came home one night in 2005 -- upset and fearful.

''Dad,'' she told him, ''now even if it's hot I have to wear a scarf to hide my Star of David,'' while riding the Paris Metro...

In their hearts, many of the French Jews arriving in South Florida feel they are refugees, and there's a movement to press the U.S. government for such status. A group has posted a petition on the Internet -- www.petitiononline.com/ID22206/petition.html -- urging the U.S. Congress to approve a refugee program for French Jews.

Both Cohen and Kukurudz miss life in France, but they have no regrets about leaving. They did it for their children.

''So they can have a future,'' Cohen said.

Sad...

For them, their children, and for us here in Israel.