170106
6th
January 2017
Shabbat
Shalom on the very first newsletter of 2017!!! Shabbat Shalom and Happy
Orthodox Christmas.
What a
confusing week! Congress voted to overturn the UNSC vote on Jerusalem;
President Elect Trump's office says he won't make Mexico pay for the
"Wall", of course the wall is very clearly built in many parts of the
border; Turkey, a Moslem country despite the efforts of Attaturk, yet again
suffered a terror attack, this time in Izmir outside the courthouse, because
they arrested the perpetrators of the horrific nightclub attack on New Year's
Eve; Hanan Ashrawi, spokesperson for the PA, a Christian, has declared that
Jerusalem is not Jewish thus denying her own religion; Egypt's A-Sisi has made
the decision to give Saudi Arabia two disputed islands in the Red Sea after
years of angry dialogue, yet A-Sisi who is giving his people what they need is
denounced as a tyrant; the diabolical war in Syria continues, Assad the
murderous tyrant is supported; and …..Israel will play in the World Baseball
Classics in Korea in March……….. now that is really confusing!!!
Probably
the most confusing, saddest, most divisive yet legally correct occurrence in
Israel was the case of Elor Azaria, sadly nicknamed "The
shooting soldier". Under normal circumstances I would be on his side,
fearful of the repercussions of charging a soldier on duty with manslaughter
for killing a terrorist. Under normal circumstances I would worry that others
will not act quickly enough in similar situations for fear of prosecution. It
sounds so cut and dried, but there are many aspects that are not. The terrorist
was already lying on the ground, unable to move, after stabbing a soldier, but
alive. Azaria shot him while he was already disabled. Azarias Mother was known
to inculcate her children with hatred for Arabs – which almost certainly created
the mind-set for what he did. The huge publicity surrounding the case, the
media hype, was not conducive to logical public opinion, as I said it was
divisive but nothing, no matter how one feels, excuses the threats on the life
of the judge by the extreme right. The final question is "Should he
receive amnesty?" No. The Knesset is not above the law and the law has
spoken. http://www.timesofisrael.com/conviction-expected-for-idf-soldier-who-killed-palestinian-attacker/
Further
confusion? Our dear friend Professor Gabby Barkay, he of the Temple
Mount Sifting Project, occasionally takes special groups and guides them on
Jerusalem Archaeology. A few days ago, Prof Barkay was speaking to a group of
visitors to the Temple Mount, as always speaking respectfully. He was
approached rather forcefully by the WAQF who admonished him for using the term
Temple Mount rather than Harm al-Sharif! As if that is not bad enough, the
Israeli police, who were present, told him not to use the term Temple Mount
again!!!!! Has the world gone mad? http://www.timesofisrael.com/islamic-guards-try-to-boot-guide-for-saying-temple-mount-on-temple-mount/
So you
thought I was going to begin on the straightforward and obvious….. well, I have
one more and it is a really incredible one. The United States Senate has
put forward a proposition to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem. Wait
a minute! Zvi and I sat with former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the
floor of that austere institution when they voted unanimously to move the
Embassy to Jerusalem in 1995!! The unanimous vote of the democratically elected
representatives of the American people was vetoed by a supposedly democratic
process over the last 20+ years! A similar Senate bill was presented in 2011 to
obligate the President to recognize the former vote and equally ignored. Sorry
but I thought that the Senate represented the people who made a decision – it is
anti-democratic to overthrow the will of the people, isn't it? https://worldisraelnews.com/senators-reintroduce-legislation-recognize-jerusalem-capital-israel/
Professor
Alan Dershowitz
decided that he would help to reduce confusion concerning the legality and legitimacy
of the State of Israel. How can the current vociferous denigration of Israel be
explained? Anti-Semitism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGODRIuOyeM
We had a quiet Friday night and then on
Shabbat Lunch visiting family came from Detroit. It was wonderful. Francie and Julian
Greenebaum,
their daughter Jennifer and her 3 amazing children, Sarah, Rachael, Damiano and
Charlotte arrived uncertain what to expect. We turned it into a Q&A for the
children trying to keep our responses lighthearted but factual. It was a
blast!!! They have so enjoyed their trip to Israel, seeing the real Israel not
the CNN version. They love Jerusalem, thoroughly enjoyed their Israeli food and
the sheer quantity and variety!
This week had a very strong Welsh flavour. Lunch with 5 amazing
Welsh, Cardiff girlfriends; coffee with a Welsh Lord who was my madrich in
Habonim; meetings with Angela and Adele about the upcoming St David's Day
celebrations on March 1st for all the Welsh Jews who came here
on Aliya, and there are many. The Welsh community was a strongly Zionist, in
fact in my childhood Wales was very pro-Israel which came with their firm
Christian beliefs but sadly, since that time both religious and social reasons
for supporting Israel have disappeared. The Welsh party will be held in Jerusalem,
at the Botanical Gardens, and we hope to have an amazing programme. In the past
it was organised by the wonderful Gerald and Mimi Rapport and Les and Viv
Greenbaum, but they handed it over to us this year after many years of
successful effort. Here's a little about the Jews of Wales http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Wales.htm but you really need to read the books of
Bernice Rubens and the poetry of Dannie Abse to understand.
I also had a meeting with a wonderful lady called Virginia
Myers who I met at the Jerusalem Press Club. We met in the German
Colony and it was a wonderful start to a good friendship. The German Colony,
next to the Italian and Greek Colonies denoted the areas where pilgrims of
various countries would settle in Jerusalem. When the British Mandate came in
to Jerusalem on the heels of the First World War, the first thing they did was
to change the Teutonic names of the streets to William Deedes, David Lloyd
George, Josiah Wedgewood etc. A truly magnificent area with many Bauhaus
buildings and a restaurant culture that is truly exceptional.
Anyone who thinks Jerusalem is just antiquities and Bible should
check out this site. Just click on each "old" photo and you will get
the "now", the wonderful modern Jerusalem http://www.bac.org.il/specials/article/jerusalem-en
The weather has been crisp and wintery in Jerusalem with major
rainfall along the coast. Yesterday Zvi was in Nes Ziona and as he drove along
he suddenly saw a magnificent total double rainbow, the colours clear and
bright, the arc defined – since it was a complete arc one could not know which
end held the pot of gold!!
Tonight we will be with Zvi's children for Shabbat. I love the
way they begin with singing Shabbat Shalom to welcome the lighting of the
candles and the bringing in of the Sabbath before Zvi sings the Kiddush, the
blessing over the wine, his strong bass-baritone succeeding over the noise of 8
children!
In just 12 days we leave for Florida. We have many friends
there, both residents and snowbirds, who we hope to see and will be speaking at
several Temples and Shules. If you want us to talk to your group we may be able
to fit in one more. Many of those friends are from Latin America an excuse to
give you my favourite video of the week with the paintings of my favourite
artist – Botero - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k72XPLCrSCk
Rabbi Israel Meir HaCohen was a great Rabbi known as Chafetz
Chaim – the one who desires life. His words resound throughout our faith
"Mi ha Ish – who is the man" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N-uzKNW7rY
Wow! As Mi ha Ish finished this music came on! I don't know
which market they sang in but it is so Israeli and so much fun – who needs the
sophistication of Tel Aviv when you can have the warmth of this place! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvzRcbCELyg
Zvi has gone to his course on autobiographical writing and then
will race off to his parliament and I
can tell you without any doubt that the subject for discussion will be Elor
Azaria. It will be the subject this evening with the children too……….
So, are you a little less confused or did I complicate your
thoughts even more? So many of the questions don't have an answer but there is
one thing you can be sure of, Israel is here, Jerusalem is ours and you will be
welcomed with open arms whenever you come to this little miracle of democracy in
the middle of a sea of war, tyranny, corruption and confusion.
With much love from our home to yours, from the land of small,
round, hardy lemons (Stanley) and more flavours and concoctions of a hundred
traditions cooking away on a million stoves to bring in the Shabbat.
Traditions.
Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem
Sheila
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