More Alike Than You Think

Marketplace on National Public Radio had an intriguing and even uplifting story recently about an unusual partnership.   Two companies, one marketing kosher meats, and the other selling halal meats, work fairly closely together with common goals.   The Jewish and Muslim dietary laws governing how meat is slaughtered and processed are very similar, and these two companies both decided to take it another step.   They both have rules to ensure the animals they slaughter are not raised in "factory farms" and are treated humanely while they're alive.  The fact that they both came up with this business plan independently and found out about each other via a mutual friend makes the story even more pleasant.   

This story is another example of "we are more alike than different."   And it's nice to hear about a Jew and  Muslim cooperating and working together on similar goals rather than shooting each other.

Montana? Who Knew?

Who knew that there once was a fairly large Jewish population in Montana? In the 19th century, Helena had a synagogue that seated 500 people. This article is about the fact that today there are three Rabbis in Montana. The story deals with a problem with the Helena police department's Israeli trained police dog, named named Miky:

Miky, pronounced Mikey, is in a Diaspora of his own. He was born in an animal shelter in Holland and shipped as a puppy to Israel, where he was trained by the Israeli Defense Forces to sniff out explosives. Then one day, Miky got a plane ticket to America. Rather than spend the standard $20,000 on a bomb dog, the Helena Police Department had shopped around and discovered that it could import a surplus bomb dog from the Israeli forces for the price of the flight. So Miky came to his new home in Helena, to join the police force.

The problem, the officer explained, was that Miky had been trained entirely in Hebrew.

You can read the rest of the story and learn how one of the state's three Rabbis is helping out with Miky and teaching his handler how to correctly pronounce the pooch's commands.