AISH

http://www.aish.com/jw/s/Heroic-Soviet-Prisoner-of-Zion.html?s=mm
Heroic Soviet Prisoner of Zion
by Beth Sarafraz
The valiant courage of Sylva Zalmanson.
Today Sylva Zalmanson is one of Israel’s most successful artists. 45 years ago she made headlines as a Soviet refusenik, a Prisoner of Zion, whose unwavering courage, decisiveness, defiance and dignity, even while in captivity, made her a symbol of freedom and faith.
The Soviet Union was collapsing under the weight of their self-constructed Iron Curtain; only a trade deal with the West could save them from their flat-lined economy.

The Americans said no deal, unless you let those Jews go. Faced with an offer they couldn’t refuse, the Kremlin let 163,000 souls depart the Soviet “paradise” for Israel. The price of freedom was paid by newlyweds Sylva and Edward Kuznetsov, Mark Dymshits, Yosef Mendelevich and the other activists forced to stay behind, locked in prison camps.

It is astonishing that she never gave up hope. Born in 1944 to a middle-class Jewish family in Riga, she graduated Riga Polytechnic University in 1968, worked as an engineer-designer and dreamed of living a Jewish life. Repeatedly requesting and being denied an exit visa to leave the USSR for Israel, Sylva and her husband Edward Kuznetsov became members of a group of dissident activists who came up with a plan to escape.

The plan was called the Dymshits-Kuznetsov Hijacking Affair or “Operation Wedding,” the latter a code name for the pretext that the hijackers – who had purchased every seat on a chartered domestic aircraft – were planning to attend a family wedding elsewhere in Russia. Once on board, they would take over the controls of the “borrowed” government plane and Major Mark Dymshits, a former Soviet military pilot and Jewish refusenik, would fly the aircraft over the Russian border, over Finland, into Sweden, bound for Israel. Aware that the KGB was watching and waiting, on June 15, 1970, they nevertheless decided to go through with the plan. They never made it onto the plane. Some were arrested at Leningrad’s airport and others were caught in the nearby woods.

In December, 1970, the group of refuseniks, (two of them non-Jews) were put on trial for high treason. In the Leningrad courtroom, confronted by a panel of Communist judges, the verdicts were a foregone conclusion, but the play-by-play drama was told to the world media by sympathetic observers.
Young, fearless, and the only woman in the dock, Sylva was ordered to stand and state her case. She proclaimed: “If you would not deny us our right to leave Russia, this group wouldn’t exist. We would just leave to Israel with no desire of hijacking a plane or any other thing that’s illegal. Even here, on trial, I still believe I’ll make it someday to Israel. This dream, illuminated by 2,000 years of hope, will never leave me. Next year in Jerusalem!”

The Communist court was infuriated when Sylva went on to recite, in Hebrew, Psalm 137: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand lose its cunning.”
In a story for Studio Magazine, Israeli visual artist Pesach Slabosky wrote, “The prosecutors called her first, thinking that they could break her, and then the men would follow suit, but when she took a defiant posture, the men could do no less.” Two of those men, her husband Edward Kuznetsov and Mark Dymshits, were sentenced to death by firing squad.
Edward KuznetsovEdward Kuznetsov
Today many young people do not realize how difficult it was for Jews in the USSR. It was essentially illegal to practice Judaism; violators would be visited by the KGB and punished. “Unofficial” illegal activities included: attending synagogue, learning Hebrew, studying Torah, celebrating Jewish holidays, eating kosher food, circumcising baby boys, reading or owning “Jewish” books – even fictional ones such as Leon Uris’s Exodus. Jews who objected to being national scapegoats, targets for beatings and worse, were denied exit visas to leave the country. Jews who merely applied for such permissions were considered traitors, enemies of the state, put under KGB surveillance, harassed, ridiculed, not accepted into universities and fired from their jobs. Many were arrested, put on “show” trials and imprisoned in the Gulag network of Soviet forced labor camps.

PHOTOS

The Operation Wedding trial was broadcast around the world, creating furious street protests in America, Europe, and Israel, triggering an international outcry from 24 governments, the Vatican, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, 35s Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and world leaders such as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir – resulting in the two death sentences being commuted to prison terms and other prison terms shortened. This was a defining moment, a pivotal event for Russian Jewry, seeing the free Western world fighting for them. In the 1960s, only 3,000 Jews were permitted to leave Russia for other destinations. After the Leningrad Trial, from 1971 through 1980, a total of 347,100 Jews emigrated (163,000 going to Israel), according to the Cambridge Survey of World Migration.

Sylva was sentenced to ten years in the Gulag (including six months in solitary confinement). Only 26, she was wearing a thin cotton dress to survive a decade of life in central Mordovia’s brutal Potma prison/forced labor camp.

In 1971, her first year of captivity at Potma, Moses I. Feuerstein, former president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, reported Sylva was “deteriorating physically” and had a life expectancy of “only a few years at the most.” Feuerstein’s best efforts failed to secure her release.
In 1972, her second year of imprisonment, Amnesty International stated: “The health of Sylva Zalmanson has deteriorated sharply… At present, she is in the camp hospital.” She had seriously burned her foot with hot water and couldn’t walk.

Actress Ingrid Bergman traveled to London in March 1973 to participate in a protest held by the 35s Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry. Bergman refused all food except that served to Sylva in the labor camp – one spoon of watery cabbage soup, one mouthful of dry black bread, one small potato, one slither of dried cod, and one quarter ounce of sugar and butter. “Sylva,” according to Bergman, “was an innocent victim of extreme deprivation of human rights and freedoms – the policy of her country’s leaders.”

Nothing helped. Finally, Sylva’s Israeli Uncle Avraham contacted Jewish Defense League founder Rabbi Meir Kahane, begging for help to save his niece. At Potma, said Avraham, she was refused medical care for ulcers and tuberculosis and was dying.

Asked how she survived all of that, Sylva replies philosophically: “A wise man once said: ‘God forbids us to find out how strong we are.’ For me, the idea of freedom became a goal in life which was more important than anything else, for which I was willing to do anything. I moved toward this goal without looking back, no matter what. My freedom was connected to my homeland, Israel.”
On August 22, 1974, Sylva was exchanged in a Russian spy swap and flown immediately to Israel. She spent her days campaigning for the release of her husband Edward, her two brothers Wolf and Israel, and the others – enduring a 16-day hunger strike in 1976 in front of the United Nations. She befriended and stood by Avital Scharansky who was pleading for the release of her husband, Anatoly.

Veteran Jewish newspaper editor and HarperCollins author Esther Gordon remembers Sylva from those days: “I met Sylva at a conference of Jewish Federations. She stopped at my table and I asked about her bracelet. I knew it was for a Prisoner of Zion and wanted to know which one. Tears came to her eyes and ran down her face. Wiping them with her fingers, she partially covered her mouth, but I did hear the whisper, ‘My husband.’ I asked her to please sit down with me and we talked till she composed herself. I did not realize then that she was ‘the star’ of the convention – brought to show us in person why we were protesting and raising money. She was always surrounded by crowds during the several times our paths crossed at many meetings that weekend. But each time our eyes met, we acknowledged each other with understanding looks and nods. I never forgot those eyes.”

Sylva’s daughter, Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov, comments: “During her whole life in the USSR and especially in prison, she had to stay strong; she would never show them her weakness. Once she arrived in Israel and traveled to help promote awareness, once she was surrounded with love and respect – after four years of being alone in a hostile environment – she couldn’t stop crying. Her emotions were overwhelming. She could only cry around good people – like Esther Gordon.”

On April 27, 1979, Edward Kuznetsov and five other refuseniks were released in exchange for three Soviet spies. Sylva and Edward, married for only five months at the time of their arrest, had been imprisoned and separated for nine years. Finally reunited, they started a family and had their daughter Anat. However, soon after the couple divorced. It seems it was the fight for freedom which drew them together, and once achieved, there was no second act for them – unlike the Scharanskys who had a fairytale reunion and are together as a married couple, to this very day.

Sylva worked in Israel as an engineer, raised her daughter Anat, “the light of my life,” and painted in her spare time. Today, retired, she devotes her time to helping Anat make her documentary film “Operation Wedding” (it will premiere in 2016) about the 1970 hijacking attempt, which opened the doors for Jews to escape the USSR.

And she paints her heart out. There is not a trace of despair or bitterness in Sylva, nor in the worlds she creates on canvas. “In my work, there is no prison theme. But I remember in the beginning. My first portraits were marked by a deep sadness with a fair share of suffering. Later, the feeling of freedom, love of life in all its expressions – which I had been deprived of in prison – poured onto the canvas. That is why my favorite topics are portraits, flamenco, the animal world…”
She is grateful to be living in Israel. “I thank God for every day that I live in this beautiful and amazing country that is a miracle on its own, with people I am proud of. This is the reward for all my suffering.”
A version of this article originally appeared in the Jewish Press.
[NOTE: Some parts of this story were translated from Russian to English by Mr. Igor Limonik who is originally from Zhitomir, Ukraine – once a center of Jewish life and culture. Igor is an aspiring artist and professional Russian-English translator, who now lives and works in Brooklyn.]

http://www.aish.com/ci/s/Oversharing.html?s=mm
In Judaism, the more valuable and treasured something is, the more private and protected we keep it.
by Rabbi Efrem Goldberg

Sharing is not always caring.
We are living in a transparent generation where the trend is towards sharing in the extreme. Over coffee with friends, at the water cooler with co-workers, and on social media, people are revealing more and more about their personal lives, their innermost thoughts and feelings, and their most private experiences.

In theory, the movement towards greater sharing should yield better relationships, closer connections, and improved capacity for emotional intimacy. After all, being open with a person is a fundamental part of connecting with that person. And yet, more and more research confirms that in fact it is doing the opposite. An obsession with sharing and a proclivity for being revealing actually damages relationships, hurts self-esteem, increases anxiety, lowers self-control, and breeds narcissism.

In Judaism, the more valuable and treasured something is, the more private and protected we keep it. The more it is accessible, revealed, and exposed, the cheaper it becomes. Indeed, the Torah’s perspective is that genuine intimacy is achieved when something is private, exclusive, and inaccessible to others. This is true physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The less we practice privacy and modesty in each of these arenas, the greater the challenge we have achieving authentic intimacy in them.

A New York Times article on privacy and sharing on the Internet began, “Imagine a world suddenly devoid of doors. None in your home, on dressing rooms, on the entrance to the local pub or even on restroom stalls at concert halls. The controlling authorities say if you aren’t doing anything wrong, then you shouldn’t mind. Well, that’s essentially the state of affairs on the Internet. There is no privacy.”

The article continues by quoting research that confirms what the Torah has known all along: “The problem is that if you reveal everything about yourself or it’s discoverable with a Google search, you may be diminished in your capacity for intimacy. This goes back to social penetration theory, one of the most cited and experimentally validated explanations of human connection. Developed by Irwin Altman and Dalmas A. Taylor in the 1970s, the theory holds that relationships develop through gradual and mutual self-disclosure of increasingly private and sensitive personal information.

‘Building and maintaining an enduring, intimate relationship is a process of privacy regulation,’ said Dr. Altman, now an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Utah. ‘It’s about opening and closing boundaries to maintain individual identity but also demonstrate unity with another, and if there are violations then the relationship is threatened.’”

The layout of the Mishkan, the holy Tabernacle, consisted of the outer courtyard that hosted the altar where sacrifices were offered, the Kodesh, or the holy section, that housed the menorah and the table, and the last section was the Kodesh Ha’Kadoshim, the Holy of Holies that housed the Aron (Ark) and was only entered by the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur. Our sacred ark, which held our sacred tablets of the Ten Commandments and the original Torah scroll, was in the most private and inaccessible part of the Mishkan.

Rabbi Soloveitchik suggested that we model our personal lives after the structure and layout of the Mishkan:

From the time I was young, I learned to restrain my feelings and not to demonstrate what was happening in my emotional world. My father would say that the holier and more intimate the feeling, the more it should be concealed. There is a hidden curtain that separates between one’s interior and the exterior: “and the dividing curtain shall separate for you between the Holy and the Holy of Holies.” What location is more sanctified than the inner sanctum of one’s emotional life?

In this world “devoid of doors” we need to be all the more mindful to keep our curtain up and protect the Holy of Holies of our lives. This is not to suggest that one should not share his or her emotions and feelings at all and keep them bottled up; obviously that is unhealthy and potentially dangerous. But the Holy of Holies was seen by a selective audience, only the Kohen Gadol.

Share your strong feelings, innermost thoughts and personal emotions with your spouse, or a family member you trust, or a close friend or confidant. But, not every thought or feeling needs to be made public. Not every personal experience or event merits sharing. Not every moment of frustration or point of pride with your job, with your children, or with your experience at a restaurant needs to be fodder for Facebook or with friends.

Failing to be judicious and thoughtful in what and how we share profanes our lives and makes achieving intimate relationships difficult. Maintaining the capacity for privacy and mystery ultimately protects our Holy of Holies and elevates all the relationships in our lives.

http://www.aish.com/jw/s/My-Grandfather-Patriot--Traitor.html?s=mm
My Grandfather: Patriot & Traitor
There’s a time to uphold the law and there’s a time to outright break it.

My maternal grandfather, JA Samuels, was a successful trader in precious metals, who helped to found the commodities exchange in New York City. Because of his wealth and influence, he was also very involved with trying to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust, including travelling with esteemed rabbis on Shabbos in an effort to raise money for this purpose.
My grandfather’s business, like most, was disrupted by the depression years, and later, the outbreak of World War II. On 9 December 1941, my grandfather unexpectedly received a call from the Japanese Consulate in New York. They wanted to place a huge order for various precious metals that they urgently required, an order which would have brought a very large profit to my grandfather in those difficult financial times.

What made the call rather unusual was its timing. Just two days earlier, on 7 December 1941, “a date that will live in infamy”, in a stunning surprise attack, the Japanese Navy had bombed Pearl Harbor, the United States naval base located in Hawaii, causing massive destruction of both life and property and thrusting the United States into World War II. Over 2 400 Americans were killed and close to 1 200 were wounded as a result of the attack. The very next day, 8 December 1941, the United States declared war on Japan.

In spite of the much needed income, without any hesitation my grandfather told the Japanese Consulate that he was unwilling to do business with them, querying how, after President Franklin D Roosevelt had declared war on Japan, he, a citizen of the United States, could do business with the enemy. The Consulate responded that the US government had given them 30 days to leave, thus making such a deal entirely legal. My grandfather, in turn, responded that, even if this was technically the case, it was almost certainly not what the government had intended by providing such a generous grace period, which was likely only done in order for them to conclude their outstanding business and move things out – not for them to start up new business. Accordingly, he reiterated his position, firmly stating he would not do any business with them, and proceeded to hang up the phone.
I can only imagine the thoughts that went through my grandfather’s mind after he put down the receiver. After all, with the country now at war and only beginning to emerge from the many difficult years of economic depression, money was already very tight and he no doubt thought hard about the many Jewish lives that such a sum could have helped save.

A Call from the White House
And that was the end of it. Or so my grandfather thought. Unbeknownst to him, the US government had started listening to all of the calls going in and out of the Japanese Consulate and had overheard his entire conversation. Imagine his surprise when, only a few hours later, he received a call informing him of this and instructing him to come to the White House for an urgent, private meeting with President Roosevelt, who wanted to thank him personally, as well as formally recognise his exemplary actions.
Although he was an observant Jew, like many religious Jews of that era, my grandfather never wore a yarmulke at work. For his meeting with the president, however, he felt he needed to make an exception, as he wasn’t just representing himself, but every Jew – so he purposely donned his yarmulke for the meeting. In appreciation for my grandfather’s unwavering patriotism, President Roosevelt promised that, henceforth, any platinum which the government might need during the war would be purchased exclusively from him. My grandfather may have lost out on some material reward from the deal he had refused to make with the Japanese, but he more than made up for it with the spiritual reward he reaped from the tremendous Kiddush Hashem (sanctification of God’s name) that he created

Saving Jewish Lives
As much as my grandfather’s patriotism couldn’t be bought, it was eventually trumped by his loyalty to his people. When it came to saving Jewish lives, he didn’t let any laws stand in his way and was even willing to give up his life if necessary. When the danger to the Jews in Europe became clear, he channelled all of his efforts into getting them to America. My grandfather worked hand-in-hand, from a private office in his house, with Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl, z”l, who desperately tried to save Hungarian Jewry, including, at one point, begging the Allies to bomb the train tracks leading to Auschwitz.

Anyone who wanted to immigrate to America not only needed money and means to get there, but, in order to secure a visa, required a sponsor, who was required to complete an affidavit stating that he accepted financial responsibility for the applicant. My grandfather spent an enormous amount of time and money obtaining the proper documentation for each person he sponsored, and he sponsored hundreds of individuals, including my father’s family. Unfortunately, not every person wanted to, or could, come.
Eventually though, the immigration office decided that, after having completed the forms to sponsor several hundred applicants, my grandfather could not be allowed to sponsor anyone further. Left without any other option, my grandfather made the extremely difficult decision to hire someone to make a forged stamp and letterhead for him. With these tools in hand, he started sending out thousands of forged affidavits to those who needed them, knowing full well that this was an act of treason that could earn him the death penalty.

It wasn’t until people actually started trying to enter into the country using these forged documents that the government took note of what was happening and began to investigate. My grandfather was subsequently arrested and put on trial. The day of the trial came and my grandfather braced himself for the worst. As the prosecutor began presenting his case, family legend has it that the judge interjected and said to the prosecutor, “If you had seen today’s papers you would know that that they just reported all of the horrific things that the Nazis have been doing to the Jews in the concentration camps. How can you call what this man did treason? This was an incredibly brave and humanitarian act!” With that, the judge dismissed the trial and my grandfather was released.

Close to a decade later, my grandfather travelled by ship to bury his father in England next to his mother, who had died and been buried there many years earlier. News of his trip made the local papers and, when the ship he was travelling on arrived at the dock, he was quite surprised to be greeted by a crowd numbering in the hundreds. They had all come out to meet him and to thank him for saving their lives. Although they hadn’t made it quite as far as America, the affidavits he had sent to them had made it possible for them to escape from the death sentence they surely faced in Europe.
JA Samuels with his wife, MadalineJA Samuels with his wife, Madaline

Although we knew some of the details of the work that my grandfather had done, the real scope and impact of his actions didn’t really sink in until after he had passed away. From what seemed to be out of nowhere, hundreds upon hundreds of people turned up at the funeral and then at the shiva house to pay their respects to this man who had saved their lives and the lives of their families. Shortly after, my brother discovered among our grandfather’s papers some of the lists of the many names to which he had sent affidavits, both real and forged.

My grandfather taught us by his living example that sometimes circumstances require us to behave in a way that upholds the spirit of the law, even if our actions wouldn’t really be in violation of the letter of the law. But he also taught us that sometimes, circumstances require us to recognise there’s a higher law than the one written by man, and we have to do everything in our power to uphold it. My grandfather knew the difference and was willing to pay the ultimate price if it came to it.
Reprinted from Jewish Life magazine, www.jewishlife.co.za

The Eichmann Letter and Ban Ki-Moon
Excusing evil, again.
by Rabbi Benjamin Blech

Two stories made the headlines this past week – and to my mind there is an ironic connection between them.
The first is a revelation about one of the chief architects of the Holocaust. It was never disclosed until now but it serves as a remarkable and fascinating footnote to Israel’s execution of Adolf Eichmann for his unspeakable crimes against humanity and the Jewish people. In the aftermath of Eichmann’s trial which found him guilty of a major role in the death of 6 million, we now learn that he sent a letter pleading for his life and a pardon on the grounds that “I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty.” He was only, as he went on to say, “acting under orders” – the very same justification used by his codefendants at the Nuremberg trials.
No guilt, no remorse, no repentance – because Eichmann was able to rationalize the most barbaric acts perpetrated by the Nazi regime under his direction. In his evil mind, an excuse was sufficient for self-justification; a reason warranted absolution and forgiveness.
The letter, handwritten by Eichmann in German, and other original documents from the case, were made public for the first time last Wednesday by Israel’s current president, Reuven Rivlin, during an event to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day

The then Israeli president, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi rejected Eichmann’s plea. The hanging of Adolf Eichmann, the only time Israel ever carried out capital punishment, was meant to send a clear message to the world and to future generations that unmitigated evil dare not seek to be pardoned by rationalizations and that no explanations may ever be considered cause for justification.
In a handwritten note attached by Ben-Zvi to the telegram rejecting Eichmann’s appeal, the president wrote a biblical quotation: “But Samuel said, ‘As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women” (Samuel 115:33).
Absolute evil requires condemnation, without explanation or qualification.
The revelation of Eichmann’s letter, especially as it coincided with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, was a stark reminder of a truth the world needs desperately to recognize if it hopes to avoid a repetition of the tragedy which blackens the memory of the twentieth century: Absolute evil requires condemnation, without explanation or qualification.

And then, in an unparalleled irony which brings into question the very legitimacy of the United Nations, the Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon made clear that it is precisely this very idea that he neither accepts nor comprehends.
In response to the contemporary violence and terrorism plaguing Israel – terrorism of almost unimaginable cruelty – Ban Ki-Moon expressed his reaction to these horrific acts as events which need to be understood as “only human nature in response to the occupation.” They may on the surface seem wrong, he explains, but we can’t forget that Palestinian terrorism has a reason. It is no less than a response to Israeli provocation – and the meaning of its response, in all of its manifold perorations, according to Ban Ki-Moon, is nothing less than “human nature.”
Let’s try to absorb the full meaning of the Secretary-General’s slander against our supposedly human – and God given – nature. Webster’s dictionary is a good place to start. Human nature, Webster’s tells us, is “the ways of thinking, feeling and acting that are common to most people.”

So “common to most people” would be some of these recent Palestinian expressions of politically motivated response to grievances:
Stabbing a mother to death in front of her six children
critically wounding thirteen-year-old boy by stabbing him while on his bicycle
murdering Jews whose only crime aside from their identity as Jews was to gather together for prayer in a synagogue
randomly shooting to death people enjoying a coffee in a Tel Aviv café
The list goes on in gruesome and horrifying detail. It is a story of ceaseless cruelty which ought to shock the civilized mind by its depravity.

But this is what the Secretary-General of the United Nations, an organization ostensibly created to bring about the best of human kind, really believes is the truth of human nature – a truth which can then explain the prevalence of evil as nothing more than an expression of our innate and unalterable state of being.
For anyone who shares the biblical belief that human kind was created in the image of God, we dare not excuse evil behavior with the rationalization that we are really no better. Human nature at its source is rooted in our spiritual essence. Our souls seek to do good. True, free will allows the possibility of evil. But it can only sicken us when we see how people pervert their spiritual essence and ignore their divinely granted real “human nature”.
The Holocaust was made possible by people who felt their evil could be excused, that their crimes could be justified. How sad that 70 years later, the spokesman for the nations of the world repeats the same canard camouflaged only by slightly different verbiage. It would be tragic if we didn’t react with well-deserved outrage at the suggestion that by our “human nature” we could readily commit cruel acts of violence and murder – because a world which agrees with that obscene proposition would be but a step away from making it a reality.
Published: January 30, 2016

Justifying Terror, Obsessed with Israel
Ban Ki Moon gets it wrong on many counts.
Justifying Terror, Obsessed with IsraelJustifying Terror, Obsessed with Israel
Ban Ki Moon gets it wrong on many counts.
by The Elder of Ziyon


Yes, it is outrageous that Ban Ki Moon essentially called terror attacks a natural result of “occupation,” and Netanyahu was right in slamming him for it.
But that wasn’t the strangest part of the speech.
The title of Ban Ki-Moon’s talk was “Secretary-General’s remarks to the Security Council on the Situation in the Middle East.”
There were 52 paragraphs in the speech according to the official UN record.
Of those 52, three were about Lebanon. Two referred to Syria – one about refugees and one about the Golan.
The entire rest of the speech was about Israel and the Palestinians.
READ MORE
http://www.aish.com/jw/me/Justifying-Terror-Obsessed-with-Israel.html?s=mm



The Amazing Life of Rabbi Ronnie Greenwald
by Suri Cohen
Community activist, international spy swapper and hostage mediator, political mastermind, mentor for troubled teens, beloved camp director and dedicated Jew.
The last text we got from Rabbi Ronnie Greenwald, two days before his death on Wednesday, January 20th, was a photo of him and a friend, up to their necks in the sunny blue waters of a Miami swimming pool. Rabbi Greenwald was radiating his trademark ebullience, and the picture was cheekily captioned, "It's 16 degrees in Monsey."
It was to that photo that my mind inevitably drifted when we received the shocking news of his untimely passing. For it encapsulates so much of what made him unique and so very beloved – the slightly rakish insouciance, the unwillingness, or even inability, to stay within the neatly defined borders of convention, the sense of fun that made his chronological age of 82 appear like part of the joke, and the infectious joie de vivre that seemed to include the entire world in its orbit.
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http://www.aish.com/jw/s/The-Amazing-Life-of-Rabbi-Ronnie-Greenwald.html?s=mm


Lola Lieber: Faithful Holocaust Heroine
by Beth Sarafraz
A glimpse into the eventful, fearless life of an indomitable survivor.
When Lola Lieber’s husband, Mechel, was arrested by the Nazis during the Holocaust, she did the unthinkable. Pretending to be a gentile, she walked into Gestapo Headquarters and asked to speak to whoever was in charge. She was taken to the office of SS Lieutenant-Colonel Adolf Eichmann, Gestapo Chief and overseer of Hitler’s “Final Solution” – the extermination of European Jewry.
She told Eichmann her husband wasn’t a Jew, had been picked up by accident, arrested by mistake. When Eichmann picked up the phone to call the jail where Mechel was being held, it became obvious the ploy wouldn’t work. All the jailers would have to do to determine if a man was Jewish, was check if he was circumcised. Understanding how badly things would play out, Lola turned and as calmly as possible, strolled out. Miraculously, no one stopped her. Mechel escaped later and reunited with his beloved bride.
Lola Lieber was a fearless woman who survived the Holocaust. At the time of her death at 91, she was the mother of three, grandmother of 12, great-grandmother of 50, great-great grandmother of four, a successful artist and author of A World After This: A Memoir of Loss and Redemption
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http://www.aish.com/ho/p/Lola-Lieber-Faithful-Holocaust-Heroine.html?s=mm

Tablets for Living
by Rabbi Noson Weisz
Exploring the depth of the Ten Commandments.
Yitro(Exodus 18-20)
Tablets for Living
The Torah contains 613 commandments. But, on Mount Sinai -- the only occasion in history when the entire Jewish people had a face-to-face meeting with God -- God chose to emphasize ten.
The first two of the Ten Commandments we heard from the mouth of God directly without Moses as an intermediary, whereas the other eight we heard through Moses.
According to many commentators the first one isn't really a commandment at all, but more in the nature of an introductory statement to all the commandments. But there is a special common denominator that unifies these ten and sets them apart from all the others; they are the only commandments that appear on the "Tablets of the Law."
The significance of being inscribed on the tablets is explained thus by Moses:
"He (God) told you His covenant that He commanded you to observe, the ten declarations, and he inscribed them on two stone tablets." (Deut. 4:13)
These ten declarations have a dual aspect. Aside from being commandments in their own right like the rest of the 613, they constitute a special covenant between God and Israel. We refer to them in the Passover Haggadah as the "Two Tablets of the Covenant." It is this covenantal aspect that we propose to explore in this essay.
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http://www.aish.com/tp/i/m/48956041.html?s=mm

http://www.aish.com/jl/l/dam/Giving-Comfort-The-Ring-Theory.html?s=mm
Giving Comfort: The Ring Theory
How to best interact with someone going through a crisis.
by Rabbi Efrem Goldberg
         
Over the last few years, a few YouTube videos were made mocking the sometimes stupid and foolish things that people say when visiting the sick or comforting the mourner. Things like, "I know someone who had the same sickness as you. They suffered terribly and died after a short time. I hope that doesn't happen to you." Or, "sorry for the loss of your child; at least you have other healthy children that you should be grateful for." I know of one woman who shared with her family and friends a list she had compiled of the top ten moronic things people said to her when she was sitting shiva.
the Ring theoryClearly, the people who uttered those imprudent and thoughtless expressions meant no harm and indeed would be horrified to learn that they had compounded pain rather than relieved it. Rather than stemming from malice, I suspect that these comments are the result of an earnest desire to be comforting and yet feeling at a loss for the right thing to say.
Susan Silk, a clinical psychologist, recently wrote an op-ed for the LA Times in which she shared her fantastic "Ring Theory" for helping people in crisis:
Draw a circle. This is the center ring. In it, put the name of the person at the center of the current trauma. Now draw a larger circle around the first one. In that ring put the name of the person next closest to the trauma. Repeat the process as many times as you need to. In each larger ring put the next closest people. Parents and children before more distant relatives. Intimate friends in smaller rings, less intimate friends in larger ones. When you are done you have a Kvetching Order. One of [my] patients found it useful to tape it to her refrigerator.
Here are the rules. The person in the center ring can say anything she wants to anyone, anywhere. She can kvetch and complain and whine and moan and curse the heavens and say, "Life is unfair" and "Why me?" That's the one payoff for being in the center ring.
Everyone else can say those things too, but only to people in larger rings. When you are talking to a person in a ring smaller than yours, someone closer to the center of the crisis, the goal is to help. Listening is often more helpful than talking. But if you're going to open your mouth, ask yourself if what you are about to say is likely to provide comfort and support. If it isn't, don't say it. Don't, for example, give advice. People who are suffering from trauma don't need advice. They need comfort and support. So say, "I'm sorry" or "This must really be hard for you" or "Can I bring you a pot roast?" Don't say, "You should hear what happened to me" or "Here's what I would do if I were you." And don't say, "This is really bringing me down."
If you want to scream or cry or complain, if you want to tell someone how shocked you are or how icky you feel, or whine about how it reminds you of all the terrible things that have happened to you lately, that's fine. It's a perfectly normal response. Just do it to someone in a bigger ring.
Comfort IN, dump OUT.
The Ring Theory is a brilliant prescription for how best to interact with someone going through a crisis. It captures something we intuitively know yet too often fail to practice. In fact, it probably should be posted on hospital room doors and entrances to shiva homes.
However, for all of its brilliance, the Ring Theory takes something for granted that, unfortunately, is not a given at all. The theory provides guidance for those choosing to engage. But ask anyone who has gone through a crisis and he will tell you, the majority of people in his life didn't comfort or dump, neither in nor out. They simply disappeared.
Yes, at the moment of crisis, family, friends and community often rise to the occasion. True, funerals and shivas are often well-attended, hospital rooms and ICU's get lots of visitors, and parties to divorce get invitations the first few weeks following the separation. But what happens when the acute crises passes? How present are we in the lives of those we claim to care deeply about when the urgency subsides and the catastrophe dissipates?
As time goes on, without consciously intending to, many take an "out of sight, out of mind" approach, leaving the afflicted person feeling forgotten, neglected, insignificant and alone. What the "Ring Theory" doesn't account for is that doing nothing and staying silent towards someone struggling with illness, loss, divorce or unemployment can be more painful than saying or doing the wrong thing. An insensitive comment is hurtful, but at least it communicates an attempt to connect and comfort. Silence and neglect, however, leave a person feeling invisible, that she doesn't matter, and that friends think that her problems are contagious and transmittable.
Sometimes our silent presence is the greatest comfort of all.
Nobody suffered more than Job. The response of his friends is very instructive and in fact is codified in Jewish law. The book of Job describes that as he suffered profoundly, his friends silently comforted him. Isn't that an oxymoron? If they remained silent, where was the comfort? The answer is simple: their mere presence communicated much more at a louder decibel level than anything they could have possibly said. In fact, Job’s suffering was so inexplicable and incomprehensible that there was nothing meaningful to offer at all. Had they opened their mouths, they likely would have provided great material for a YouTube video.
It is for this reason that Jewish law requires us to remain silent until the mourner speaks first. Moreover, even once we speak, the Rambam cautions us not to be talkative or loquacious lest we say the wrong thing or set the wrong tone with our words.
Sadly, there are many in our community suffering from illness, loss and other sources of pain. Simply put -- they rely on us, their friends and community to care enough to enter the Ring. Perhaps we will be towards the center of the circle, or maybe we will be in one of the outside concentric rings. But the worst thing we could do is to disappear from the picture all together.
Reach out, visit, send a text, spontaneously drop off flowers or a Challah, invite for a meal, or just let them know that you pray for them, think about them, and empathize with them. Find the important balance between showing up and providing them necessary space.
Let's do all we can to make sure that these videos have no sequel because we have learned how to comfort IN, dump OUT and that sometimes our silent presence is the greatest comfort of all.
Published: May 11, 2013

http://www.aish.com/jw/me/Tel-Aviv-Shooting-Attack.html?s=mm
Tel Aviv Shooting Attack
by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
The world should learn from the terrorist’s father how to properly respond to terror.

In Israel the new year began with a terror attack in the heart of Tel Aviv.

On Friday, January 1, the cafes and shops along Dizengoff Street were packed. One of the many passersby was Nashat Melhem, a 31 Arab-Israeli, with emotional problems and a criminal history.

After he wandered into a health food store and sampled the merchandise, Melhem calmly stepped outside, pulled an automatic weapon from his backpack, and sprayed bullets at a group of Israelis celebrating a friend’s birthday at a pub across the street. “We dropped to the floor and I remember the smile on his face,” one witness, who gave his name as Noah, described afterwards. When the carnage was over, seven people lay wounded in the street (four seriously) and two men – Alon Bakal, the pub’s 26 year old manager, and 30-year-old Shimon Ruimi – were dead.

The attack was the latest in a line of horrible murders in the Jewish state in recent months, and was even more violent in its scope, featuring the mass shooting of innocent civilians in the center of a major city. Melhem remains at large, the subject of a huge manhunt in Israel – and creating major fear for Israelis that they might, God forbid, be his next victims. Israeli police suspect Melhem is behind the murder of an Arab taxi driver in Tel Aviv soon after the shooting.

Instead of condemning the murders, some figures and media outlets around the world seemed to try to justify the attack.

“Tel Aviv shooting: suspect 'wanted to avenge cousin's death'” Britain’s influential Guardian newspaper announced in a headline, creating the impression that the attack was somehow reasonable.
That sentiment was echoed by MK Ayman Odeh, who heads a coalition in Israel’s Knesset of Arab parties. Appearing on Israeli TV in the aftermath of the attack, MK Odeh asserted that the root cause of Melhem’s attack was Israel’s occupation of Arab lands – before criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “a human being that just incites”.
In the United States, many media outlets http://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-ids-suspected-shooter-in-deadly-tel-aviv-attack/ emphasized that some relatives had said Melhem was sad after the death of his cousin in 2006 in a police confrontation. CBS news was typical in describing Melhem as “traumatized” by his cousin’s death in 2006, implying that his decision to open fire on the crowd in Tel Aviv was somehow reasonable or even justified.

In reporting on the terrorism sweeping Israel, in October 2015, Time Magazine was typical in headlining its report “The Desperation Driving Young Palestinians to Violence”. Rather than condemning attacks on Israelis, the very fact that Israelis were being murdered was perversely offered as proof of the legitimacy of their attackers’ grievances. Instead of portraying Arabs as free agents who are capable of choosing their actions like other people, it peddled an offensive old stereotype: of Arabs as somehow (unlike other people) unable to refrain from violence.

Yet after the Tel Aviv attack, it was those closest to Nashat Milhem – relatives and friends who might have been expected to share in his sense of desperation or trauma – who didn’t try to explain away his murderous rampage, but who worked with the police to help apprehend him and head off further violence, instead. It was Nashat’s own father, Muhammad – a security guard and volunteer with the Israeli police – who recognized his son from media reports and contacted the police to alert them of the attacker’s identity.

“It's important to me now that they reach my son and arrest him, because he's still armed, and just like he murdered two people he could murder more," Muhammad Milhem explained. "I'm worried and I want to hear that he's in the police's hands." After coming home from work at 6 AM, he was inundated with calls from concerned friends and relatives who thought they’d recognized Nashat from surveillance footage being shown on TV. He turned right around and returned to the police station to help them in their search.

Muhammad Milhem told reporters that “I am an Israeli citizen, a law-abiding citizen. I heard what my son has done, and I am sorry. I did not educate him to act in that way. I went to the police and helped the security forces. I did not expect that my son would do such a thing.”

Mahmad Masri, a member of the local council in the town of Ar'ara, where Milhem lives, echoed Muhammad Milhem’s sentiments. "We are in shock. The shooter is my neighbor. The entire village is surprised and condemns the event."

As Israeli police work to track down Milhem and prevent further carnage, the world should learn from the actions of his family and community how to respond to terror: not by trying to explain away or vindicate evil – but by condemning it, forcefully and fully. Violence is neither inevitable nor justifiable.

http://www.aish.com/sp/so/One-Town-7-Churches-No-Synagogue--My-Sons-Kippah.html?s=mm
One Town, 7 Churches, No Synagogue & My Son’s Kippah
My son wore his new kippah publicly, like a billboard announcing his heritage. I didn’t want him to stick out.
by Mara Campbell
         
My eldest son tore open the package, his excitement palpable. He pulled out his new yarmulke and immediately asked me to help him pin it. A navy blue number with a silver Magen David, my son had picked this kippah out to be his “formal” one. I watched him dash off to the mirror to admire himself with a mixture of pride and amusement.
I was surprised, however, when he elected to wear it while accompanying me to work that evening. I was on a photojournalism assignment to cover the dress rehearsal of a local dinner theatre. The rehearsal was in a church we’d been to many times and which many of his friends attend. As we walked in the door, I realized that my son had never worn a yarmulke publicly in our town. A familiar feeling of uneasiness settled around me.
In our small town of seven churches and no synagogue, sticking out is always a little uncomfortable. We are open about our Judaism to those who are interested, but we certainly don’t advertise it. For us, faith is a private and exquisite thing centered on our relationship with God. And as I watched my son walk into the rehearsal space, I realized he was practically wearing a billboard announcing his heritage. I’ll admit for a moment, I wished he hadn’t worn his kippah. I didn’t want him to stick out.
My son’s friends greeted him and I settled into the task of simultaneously photographing and documenting the rehearsal. The play took place in an imaginary Middle Eastern town and was loosely based on the birth of Jesus. With the semi-exotic setting, most of the kids and adults were wearing costumes including headscarves and robes, as well as fake beards, stiff as steel wool and (judging by the itching) just as comfortable. I felt relief as I realized that my son and his yarmulke were among the less noticeable sartorial choices in the whole room.
Then it happened. A younger brother of one of my son’s close friends saw the yarmulke. This boy, only eight years old, was naturally very curious about it. He walked up, tapped my son on the shoulder, and said “Hey, what’s that on your head?”
As my son turned around to answer him, a woman appeared at the boy’s side and pulled him away so quickly, it was like watching a magician remove a tablecloth from underneath a fully set table. I was surprised not to see a puff of smoke follow the movement. I watched her from my seat near the front. I was surprised overhear the following, related sotto voce, “You shouldn’t ask people things like that! He’s wearing it because he is a Jew,” and then her voice became inaudible.
I watched, feeling saddened, both by the choice she made and the opportunity she denied my son. Her pulling the boy away so aggressively for asking a question made being Jewish and wearing a kippah seem shameful and secretive. If my son had been allowed to answer, it would have been a learning opportunity both for him and for his friend’s brother. I was half tempted to discuss the matter with her after the rehearsal or perhaps to reassure the boy that his asking my son was actually a sign of respect and interest. But, like most mothers of many children, I let it go and headed for home, the demands of my household intruding on my inclination to educate.
What a missed opportunity. What a chance that passed by. Imagine if we were all like that eight year old boy, interested and questioning, fascinated and open to the explanation of what makes others unique? And then I realized: I was no better than that woman, with my fears about the reactions of the town.
My son is due to get another new yarmulke this week, his “casual” one. It is as vibrant and colorful as a Rastafarian cap and he can’t wait for it to arrive. I am no less eager. I hope he wants to wear it around. And I hope people ask him about it.
He will stick out, yes. But he already sticks out due to his warmth and his spectacular personality. His kippah is just the proverbial icing on the cake.

Tell Me who Are the Jews Or Die
by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
An American sergeant in WWII risks his life ordering 1000 POWs to say they are all Jews.
American Jewish servicemen fighting Nazi troops during World War II faced even greater dangers than their non-Jewish comrades. If they fell into enemy hands, Germany didn’t treat them as ordinary POWs with the attendant rights demanded by the Geneva Conventions. Instead, Jewish prisoners were handled the way Germans handled all Jews: they were dispatched to death or slave labor camps, with little chance of survival. The American Army even advised its Jewish troops to destroy their dog tags and other identifying documents if captured by Nazi forces.
The group of over a thousand American soldiers were captured in late 1944 and early 1945 in the Battle of the Bulge and transported to the Stalag IXA POW camp near Ziegenhain, Germany. One of their first orders was to separate out the Jewish troops and present them to their German captors.
The German camp commander, Major Siegmann, delivered the order in English to the ranking American serviceman in the camp. This was Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, a stocky 24-year-old from Knoxville Tennessee. Remembered by his fellow troops from basic training as a gentle, unassuming soldier, Sgt. Edmonds might have seemed an unlikely candidate for the heroism he was about to display.
According to his son, Rev. Chris Edmonds, who has spent years speaking with witnesses and piecing together what happened that day on January 27, 1945, instead of ordering Jewish troops front and center, Sgt. Edmonds turned to his men and said, “We are not doing that, we are all falling out.”
READ MORE
http://www.aish.com/jw/s/Tell-Me-who-Are-the-Jews-Or-Die.html?s=mm

Eagles of Death Metal Defies Terrorism
by Judy Gruen
The rock band played in Israel and returned to Paris, demonstrating its courage and commitment to freedom.
The rock and roll band Eagles of Death Metal (EODM) performs in concert like every rock band does – piercingly loud. So on the night of November 13, about an hour into their set at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, it took a few seconds for the band members to realize that the horrific staccato noises they were hearing came from a relentless hail of bullets. A blast of gunpowder hit drummer Julian Dorio’s nose as the reality of what was happening dawned.
November 13, 2015 became another infamous date of terror when Jihadist terrorists struck Paris again, carrying out simultaneous assaults in multiple locations, killing 140 altogether. The greatest carnage was at the 1,500-seat Bataclan, where 90 mostly young concertgoers were killed and hundreds more wounded. Though the terrorists aimed directly at the band members, none were injured physically, though 36-year-old Nick Alexander, EODM’s merchandising manager, was killed, along with three employees from their record label.
READ MORE
http://www.aish.com/ci/a/Eagles-of-Death-Metal-Defies-Terrorism.html?s=mm

Muslims and Jews Saving Each Other
by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
10 true instances when Jews and Muslims – at times risking everything – saved each other's lives.
With increased tensions between Jews and Muslims, perhaps it is a good time to recall the following ten true instances when Jews and Muslims – at times risking everything – saved each other's lives.
Saving Albania’s Jews
Albania, a small mountainous nation on the Balkan peninsula, is the only Muslim-majority country in Europe – and is also the only European nation that emerged from World War II with more Jews than before the war.
After Hitler came to power in 1933, Albania’s pre-war Jewish population of about 200 was soon swollen with hundreds of Jewish refugees from elsewhere in Europe, who hoped to travel on from Albania to Israel or other countries. Many stayed, and by the time German forces occupied Albania in 1943, up to 1,700 Jews lived in Albania.
READ MORE
http://www.aish.com/ci/s/Muslims-and-Jews-Saving-Each-Other.html?s=mm

VIDEO] Israel: The World's Most Moral Army
by Col. Richard Kemp and Prager University
Is the Israeli military a paragon of wartime ethics? Or an oppressive force that targets innocent Palestinian civilians and commits war crimes?
Colonel Richard Kemp, who was the commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, was in Israel during its war against Hamas in 2014, and analyzes whether Israel's military is ethical, evil, or somewhere in between.
WATCH HERE
http://www.aish.com/jw/me/Israel-The-Worlds-Most-Moral-Army.html?s=mm

http://www.aish.com/sp/pr/The-San-Bernardino-Massacre-And-Prayer.html?s=mm
The San Bernardino Massacre And Prayer
Why those who think “God isn’t fixing this” are wrong.
In the aftermath of the horrific terrorist attack in San Bernardino a new phrase – prayer shaming – has made its way into the coverage of much of the media. In its own way, it too is an attack on the spiritual values that define our civilized society.
“Prayer shaming” describes the reaction of a significant number of commentators in the press and social media to a response to tragedy that in the past would almost certainly have been greeted with respect and reverence. The blazing headline of the NY Daily News illustrated it most starkly. Following a caption in eye-catching red “14 dead in California mass shooting” a super large font screamed the message: “God isn’t fixing this”. That was trailed with these words: “As latest batch of innocent Americans are left lying in pools of blood, cowards who could truly end gun scourge continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes.”

Just in case you don’t fully understand the paper’s intent that prayers are no more than platitudes, that turning to God in a time of crisis is a cowardly reflex achieving nothing other than the avoidance of personal responsibility, the headline sarcastically adds quotes from four politicians offering prayers on behalf of the victims and their families in order to mock them as archaic and pious sentiments which have no place in the real world confronting evil and terror.
Our nation’s Pledge of Allegiance speaks of one nation under God. Prayer-shamers, however, don’t believe the Almighty “can fix” anything and any mention of His involvement in our affairs and any call for His assistance is nothing less than an abdication of our own obligations.
What an incredible perversion of faith and lack of understanding of prayer.

Man becomes truly powerful only when he comprehends his human powerlessness.
In a remarkable passage in the Torah we find the perfect paradigm for the relationship between prayer and personal responsibility, between our dependence on God and our recognition of the need for us to exert our own efforts to the best of our abilities. When Amalek attacked our ancestors shortly after the Exodus from Egypt, Moses instructed his disciple Joshua to form an army and fight the enemy. But at the same time Moses, aided by Aaron and Hur, son of Miriam, ascended a hill overlooking the battle in order to fervently pray for victory. The link between prayer and battle, divine assistance and human effort, was profoundly illustrated by what happened next. Whenever Moses lifted his hands in prayer the Jews gained the upper hand in combat. Whenever Moses stopped beseeching God, the tide of war shifted in favor of Amalek. Once understood, Moses didn’t stop praying for even a moment – and that is what assured victory.

Man needs God – and God wants man. Man becomes truly powerful only when he comprehends his human powerlessness. Prayer is the link between the creator and his creations. Without prayer man thinks he is God – and that unwarranted sense of ego insures his defeat and destruction.
And that is the meaning of faith. Faith is not knowing what the future holds. It is knowing who holds the future.
Faith is not knowing what the future holds. It is knowing who holds the future.

Prayer defines us. Prayer gives us hope. Prayer puts into words the values we hold most precious, the people we most treasure, the ideals for which we live and for which we are prepared to give up our lives.
When the survivors of the San Bernardino massacre realized they were saved they did what countless generations past did in similar circumstances. They prayed. They prayed because they could not help but express gratitude for their deliverance. And together with all those who heard of this calamitous event they joined in prayer for the souls of the victims. Those who perished will find eternal reward in the heavens above – and our prayers will keep alive their memories for us here on earth.

Prayers are not pointless. All prayers are heard by the Almighty. And all prayers are answered in God’s own and inscrutable ways.

So yes, God is fixing this - and the answer to the evils of Isis and the terrorists of our times is what it has always been, the partnership between our efforts and God’s intervention. For the first, we need to do battle; for the second we need not to shame but to share in a collective groundswell of impassioned prayer, the kind of prayer which will convince God that we truly deserve God’s redemptive intercession.

http://www.aish.com/j/as/From-Jediism-to-Judaism-Star-Wars-as-Jewish-Allegory.html?s=mm
JEWLARIOUS
From Jediism to Judaism: Star Wars as Jewish AllegoryFrom Jediism to Judaism: Star Wars as Jewish Allegory
A look at some of the Jewish elements – coincidental or otherwise – of Star Wars.
by Daniel Perez
         
A long time ago in a place far, far away...
It is a period of civil war. A new government has declared the practice of the old faith a crime punishable by death, disbanding an ancient order of sages and sending many into exile. Rebel fighters, striking from a hidden base, have won their first major victory against the evil Empire, stirring a spirit of defiance among the populace. Outarmed and vastly outnumbered, the ragtag band of rebels – aided by an all-powerful, all-permeating Force that binds together all life in the universe – remain the only hope for restoring peace and freedom to their people.

It's one of the greatest epics known to mankind. No, not Star Wars. The above synopsis is actually the story of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish festival that commemorates a miraculous victory of Israelite insurgents against the tyrannical Seleucid Empire roughly 2,200 years ago.

With Star Wars Episode VII set to premiere in just a few short weeks, I got to thinking about how certain aspects of the Star Wars universe are eerily similar to the history, beliefs, and teachings of the Jews. Now George Lucas did not set out to create a fantasy universe full of Jewish references, but the connections are nevertheless there. So let's put the “Han” back in Hanukkah (Harrison Ford, by the way, technically a member of the tribe) and look at some of the Jewish elements – coincidental or otherwise – of Star Wars.

A Galaxy of Hebrew Names

The heroes of the Star Wars series are members of a “rebel alliance,” basically Maccabees in outer space. It's right there in the name: Jedi. The Hebrew letter yud is often anglicized as a “J,” and syllables occasionally get dropped in translation. Hence, a Biblical name like “Yehoshua” makes its way into English as “Joshua.” It's not much of a stretch to see how “Jedi” can be derived the original Hebrew word for Jew, “Yehudi.”
Remember Luke Skywalker's Jedi rebbe, Grand Master Yoda? Is it just me, or is his peculiar syntax reminiscent of someone whose first language is Yiddish (“Yodish”)? More to the point, his name sounds a lot like “yada,” the Hebrew word meaning “to know.”1

And how about those Skywalkers? Luke Skywalker might sound like a gentile name, but that name was clearly chosen to alliterate with his twin sister Leia (Leah). Also keep in mind that their parents were an interfaith couple. The father, Anakin Skywalker, played by the unmistakably un-Jewish Hayden Christensen, tried to convert to Jediism, but as we know he ultimately turned to the Dark Side instead. Their mother was Queen Amidala, portrayed by the beautiful and talented Israeli-born actress Natalie Portman. Suffice it to say their marriage did not end well, and it wasn't until much later in life that their children discovered their Jedi-ish identity.

Learning Academy

When an aspiring Jedi Knight goes to the Academy, he or she must complete what is essentially an apprenticeship with one more learned in Jediism than they are. Similarly, a future rabbi's yeshiva experience will consist largely of chavruta learning (studying with a partner – lit. “friendship”). Fun fact: The name for a young, unmarried yeshiva student, “bochur,” actually means “chosen” (as in “The Chosen People”). The idea of a foretold “Chosen One” who would “restore balance to the Force” was a theme running throughout the Star Wars films, wherein Anakin Skywalker was recognized for his extraordinary potential as a Jedi. As mentioned above, he went “off the derech” and became the villainous Darth Vader. In Return of the Jedi, however, Vader/Skywalker fulfills the “prophecy” when he does teshuvah (our term for repentance, which literally means “return.” Whoa. Return of the Jedi!), thwarting Emperor Palpatine to save his son's life, and ultimately, the galaxy.

Of course, if you tell a young rabbi-in-training that he is the “Chosen One,” it sounds cool and dramatic and is technically true, but then, the same can be said of all of his classmates.
While the Star Wars films don't feature Jedi trainees delving into sacred texts (it doesn't make for the most exciting movie montage), some of the greatest rabbinic books of ethics and Jewish philosophy would be right at home in any Jedi library. “Duties of the Heart,” “The Path of the Just”....tell me these don't sound like the reading list for a hero of the Light Side.

The Force

While Jediism isn't a theistic religion per se, its practitioners do teach of a Force that, in the words of Reb Obi-Wan Kenobi "...is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together." That almost sounds like some sort of Chasidic teaching – just replace “energy field” with “entity” or “consciousness,” and “created by,” with “that creates,” and what you have starts to come across less like new age hippie talk and more like an introduction to Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism.

One idea that devout Jews of all stripes share, is that God, the creative “Force” that sustains all, is the source of a Jew's power. “Ein od milvado,” there is none besides Him. The Jew expresses his or her connection to the universe by striving for an ever closer relationship with its Creator.

Another aspect of Jedi belief is the notion of balance, the idea that the Light Side and the Dark Side are both aspects of the same Force seeking equilibrium. The religions that branched off from Judaism tend to show the Creator and Satan, or “The Devil,” in an adversarial relationship, almost a sort of de facto dualistic theology with a God and an anti-God, if you will. Judaism maintains that the Satan (lit. “Accuser”) is the angel associated with temptation, and prosecution in the Heavenly Court. He's basically Slugworth to God's Willy Wonka. He's got a dirty job to do, but in the end, we're both serving the same Boss.

Judaism also teaches that the source of Light and Darkness are One and the same, as it says in the prayer book: “Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who forms light and creates darkness, Who makes peace and creates all things.” The source for this line of liturgy can be found in the Hebrew Bible, Isaiah 45:7: “Who forms light and creates darkness, Who makes peace and creates evil; I am the Lord, Who makes all these.”

Incidentally, one of the traditional names for God – invoked particularly by the Jewish mystics – is HaMakom, literally “The Place.” The deeper idea conveyed by this name is that the Creator does not exist within the universe; the universe exists within Him. It sounds a lot like The Force. The key conceptual difference between the fictitious all-uniting Force of Star Wars and the Shechinah or “Divine Presence” is that the former is impersonal and passive, the latter is an omnipotent consciousness that actively intervenes in human history, speaking with Prophets and working miracles until this very day.

So if you see the new Star Wars movie, directed by Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (who couldn't sound more Jewish if his name was Saul Cohen or Herschel Rosenblatt), perhaps you'll be able to seek out and appreciate the surprisingly Jewish flavor of the Star Wars universe.
Check out my crowdfunding campaign for a graphic novel based on the true story of the Hasmonean Revolt. Just click here. You can also follow our progress at Facebook.com/Maccabaeus.
Happy Hanukkah, and may the Force be with you!

In the upcoming graphic novel Maccabaeus, Judah and his brother, the Je(hu)di rebels of their generation, do battle with Seleucid Imperial troops.

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Jonathan Pollard’s Final Punishment
by Rabbi Benjamin Blech
He cannot move to Israel for at least five years. The reason reeks of hypocrisy.
After thirty long years of imprisonment, unprecedented punishment for the crime of spying on behalf of an American ally, Jonathan Pollard is at last a free man.
Almost.
Pollard’s incarceration in a maximum security prison which he spent in solitary isolation for lengthy periods of time is finally over. Even those appalled by his offense must surely find sufficient compassion in their hearts to be gladdened by his long-awaited release, having more than paid for his unlawful actions many years ago. Today Pollard is a frail and sickly man, far from a threat to American security, anxious only to live out his remaining years with a small measure of comfort and tranquility.

But Pollard’s punishment is not yet over. By the terms of his release, he will be denied the one dream most precious to him, the one hope for which he prayed while fulfilling the terms of his sentence. Jonathan Pollard wants to end his days on earth together with his wife in the land of Israel. And this, the American government has told him, he is not allowed to do for at least five years.
What is the rationale for this cruel ruling? Why add this restriction if Pollard’s release from prison clearly makes the statement that he has paid his dues to his country, to his government and to society? We just learned the answer from Joseph E DiGenova, the former United States attorney who prosecuted Pollard. “If Mr. Pollard were allowed to go to Israel, where his case has been a cause celebre, there would be a parade and events just rubbing it in the United States’ face.”

The United States was afraid to release Pollard earlier and continues to be afraid to let him now emigrate to Israel because there might be some who will publicly express approval for his past actions - and the highest priority must be given to prevent criminals from becoming lionized.
READ MORE
http://www.aish.com/ci/s/Jonathan-Pollards-Final-Punishment.html?s=mm


New York Times Whitewashes Palestinian Terror
by Gilead Ini
The paper consistently covers up and excuses Arab terror.
This week began as the last one ended – with more Palestinian stabbing attacks against Israeli Jews, and more dead. And yet, this information might surprise readers of The New York Times.
On Sunday, a 20-year-old Israeli woman was stabbed to death, another Israeli was rammed by a car and attacked with a knife and a third was assaulted by a knife-wielding teen affiliated with the Islamic Jihad terror group.

All three assailants were killed in the course of their attacks.

But the headline to the Times’ story about Sunday’s attacks did away with cause and effect, muddled victim and aggressor: “1 Israeli, 3 Palestinians Killed in Attacks in West Bank.” The online headline was later changed, but the print headline Monday morning was equally obtuse: “West Bank Faces Spate of Assaults That Kill 4.” The “West Bank” faced nothing. It was Israelis who faced assaults.

This was par for the course – and in some ways, even mild – for how the Times has covered the so-called “stabbing intifada,” the recent spate of Arab-on-Jewish murder.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recently called on his people to protect Jerusalem holy sites from the “filthy feet” of Israeli Jews, and terrorists have heeded the call, taking to the streets to thrust knives into any Israeli they encounter – other recent stabbing victims include an 80-year-old woman and a 13-year-old boy on a bike.

But even this incitement, and even this terror, is no match for the creativity of The New York Times. When a Palestinian assailant was caught on film last month wielding a knife and rushing at Israelis, before quickly being neutralized by Israeli security personnel, Times reporters simply avoided telling readers about the video.
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http://www.aish.com/jw/mo/New-York-Times-Whitewashes-Palestinian-Terror.html?s=mm

Handling the Son of Hamas
by Debra Heller
The riveting recollections of the Shin Bet handler who worked for ten years with Israel’s super-mole, Mosab Hassan Yousef.
by Debra Helle
“Hamas wasn’t just a movement to us. It was the family business. It was our identity. It was the cause for which my father had dedicated his life.”
Mosab Hassan Yousef wasn’t exaggerating when he uttered those words in The Green Prince, the documentary that was recently made about him. Mosab’s father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, had helped found the Hamas terror organization, was one of the leaders of the Intifada, and was frequently imprisoned by the Israelis. In fact, as recently as October 19, the IDF raided his house in the West Bank village of Beitunia and arrested him yet again, accusing him of inciting the recent violence. That his son, Mosab, risked his life to spy on his father on behalf of Israel, thereby preventing countless terrorist attacks and suicide bombings, and bringing about the arrest of many in the Hamas hierarchy, including his own father, is perhaps one the most fascinating stories in the annals of espionage literature.

Few know Mosab’s story better than Gonen Ben-Yitzchak, his handler inside the Shin Bet, Israel's security service. Gonen, whose code name was "Captain Loai,” joined the Shin Bet a year after Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was murdered in November 1995, motivated by a desire to help Israel defend itself against violence.

His encounter with Mosab was almost coincidental. It all began when, as a 17-year-old in 1996, Mosab purchased a cache of illegal guns with the intention of murdering as many Israelis as he could.
“I hated Israel and believed we had the right to make the Israelis feel our pain.”
As detailed in his autobiography, Son of Hamas, co-written by journalist Ron Brackin, the youthful Mosab had been imbued with a hatred for Jews. He was jubilant when Saddam Hussein fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, and was disappointed when Israel wasn't destroyed. As set forth in its 1988 mission statement, he sincerely wanted Hamas to “obliterate Israel” and “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.”
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http://www.aish.com/jw/id/Handling-the-Son-of-Hamas.html?s=mm

http://www.aish.com/jw/s/The-World-Stands-with-France-What-about-Israel.html?s=mm
The World Stands with France. What about Israel?
Is it too much to ask the world to declare that when Jews are murdered it is as much of an outrage as when terror strikes in Paris?
by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
The tricolore red, white and blue of the French flag hung in the gym of the Chicago school, along with a sign declaring the school “Stands with France”.
The occasion was a basketball game. Girls from my daughter’s Jewish middle school team were squaring off against girls from a French school. When they arrived at the court, my daughter and her teammates handed the French coach a letter, expressing their sorrow at the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris the week before, and professing solidarity with their French peers.

Taking the letter, the French coach postponed the game, first addressing the students directly. Despite belonging to different cultures, he intoned, all of the players were united in grief. This Jewish school has always been a staunch friend, and he warmly thanked my daughter and her teammates for their support.

I was proud of my daughter, gratified that she and her teammates had thought of their rivals’ feelings and grateful to their Jewish school for teaching that we always have a responsibility to reach out and help others. But mingled with my pride that night was exhaustion.

The heartache had kept coming in waves all day. First, news broke that there had been another terrorist stabbing in Tel Aviv on Thursday, November 19, 2015. Then the news that two men were now dead, stabbed in broad daylight on a busy street full of passers-by. Men were gathered inside a Judaica shop to recite the afternoon service when the attacker struck. People inside managed to barricade the shop door, but three men outside were stabbed. Aharon Yesayev, 32 and Reuven Aviram, 51 were killed.

Then another terror attack rocked Israel. An Arab terrorist opened fire with a submachine gun on cars stopped in traffic and then crashed his car into another. Three people were killed and many people were injured. Rabbi Yaakov Don, a 51 year old father of four and beloved teacher was one of the fatalities. “He was my children’s teacher!” a friend posted on Facebook, describing him as a gifted educator and gentle soul. Also killed was Shadi Arafa, 24, an Arab employee of a Palestinian cellphone company.

The fifth fatality of the day was 18-year-old Ezra Schwartz, a student from Sharon, Massachusetts. Like many Jewish American teens, he was spending his post-high school year in Israel studying and volunteering. The day of his murder, he’d been distributing food and candy to soldiers near Jerusalem. “I write through tears,” a friend of mine who knew Ezra wrote. Another recalled getting together with his parents – she could only imagine their heartbreak. When my son came home from school, he looked shaken. Several of his classmates knew the Schwartz family. “He could be my son!” cried a friend of mine, and I knew what she meant. Ezra could have been any of our teens, full of idealism, eager to visit the Jewish state, brimming with plans for the future.

And I wondered if the students at the French school my daughter played against that night would reach out to her and her heart-sick teammates and their families too. While the world rightly rallied around France in their hour of need, where is the call outside of the Jewish community to do the same when Jews and others are murdered in Israel?
Cities around the world don’t light up their national monuments in the blue and white of Israel’s flag after terror attacks in the Jewish state, as they beautifully did after the Paris attacks. Facebook doesn’t offer users the chance to change their profile picture to the colors of Israel’s flag, as they optioned after the mayhem in Paris.
Is it too much to ask the world to declare that when Jews are murdered it is every bit as much of an outrage as when terror strikes in Paris?

I was gratified when I saw photos of Israel’s Knesset and the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City lit up in the French tricolore. I was happy when my daughter and her friends announced they proudly stood with France. Will the world also stand with us in our grief, in our pain as we bury and mourn our best and our brightest?
Will you condemn terror attacks against Israelis as forcefully as you do against others? Will you call attacks against Jews and Israelis for what they are – terror – and not label them a false “cycle of violence”? Will you condemn terror when it strikes in Israel, and not appeal for “calm on all sides”? Will you be as outraged when innocents are mowed down on the streets of Tel Aviv as you were when people were killed in Paris? Will you stand with us?
Please do not let us stand alone.

http://www.aish.com/jw/me/The-Mufti-and-the-Holocaust.html?s=mm
The Mufti and the Holocaust
by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
Who was Haj Amin Al Husseini and what role did he play in the Holocaust?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent comments on the Holocaust have landed him in a lot of hot water.

After asserting that Haj Amin Al Husseini, the wartime Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, gave Hitler the idea of executing Jews, saying the best way to deal with Jews was to “burn them”, Netanyahu was roundly and justly criticized. Many even accused him of giving credence to Holocaust revisionists and deniers.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel castigated the Israeli leader, saying “We know that responsibility for this crime against humanity is German and very much our own." Historians rushed to denounce Netanyahu’s faulty grasp of history. Mobile killing squads were in operation before 1941, they pointed out, already murdering Europe’s Jews.

Netanyahu distanced himself from his statements, explaining “I had no intention to absolve Hitler of responsibility for his diabolical destruction of European Jewry. Hitler was responsible for the final solution to exterminate six million Jews. He made the decision.”
But, Netanyahu, the son of a prominent Israeli historian, pointed out, “It is equally absurd to ignore the role played by the mufti, a war criminal, for encouraging and urging Hitler, Ribbentrop, Himmler and others to exterminate European Jewry.”

Although Netanyahu’s remarks were not accurate, there is little doubt that Haj Amin Al Husseini encouraged genocide during the Holocaust.

During the Nuremberg Trials that followed World War II, Dieter Wisliceny, a deputy of Adolph Eichmann, described the Mufti as one of Eichmann’s closest confidants: “The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry...and had been the permanent collaborator and advisor of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of the plan. According to my opinion, the Grand Mufti, who had been in Berlin since 1941, played a role in the decision of the German government to exterminate the European Jews. He had repeatedly suggested to the various authorities...the extermination of European Jewry. He was one of Eichmann’s best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures.” When Eichmann was captured and tried in Israel in 1961, Golda Meir called for Al Husseini to be tried, as well.

Although the Mufti was hardly the first to call for killing Europe’s Jews – mobile killing units had already murdered close to a million Jews by the time the Eichmann met the Mufti – Al Husseini was at the very least an enthusiastic supporter, and possibly a collaborator in wiping out Jews.

As a young man, in 1920, Al Husseini gained notoriety by doing just that. The son of a previous Mufti of Jerusalem, in April 1920 Al Husseini used a local pilgrimage ceremony near Jerusalem to whip up anti-Jewish fervor. In the ensuing riots, five Jews were murdered and hundreds were injured.

Convicted of incitement by the British authorities, Al Husseini fled to Damascus – then returned a few months later after being pardoned by a new British High Commissioner. The following year, Al Husseini assumed the role of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. He was still in his twenties and his religious qualifications lagged behind many of his rivals, but he had a forceful personality and was able to rally many of his fellow-believers around a popular cause: hatred of the region’s Jews.

Under Al Husseini’s leadership, resentment of Jews reached a fever pitch. Accusing Jews of wanting to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, he sparked a series of pogroms that began in Jerusalem in August 1920 and soon spread to Safed, Hebron, Haifa, Tel Aviv, and elsewhere. Within days, 133 Jews had been butchered and 339 injured.

When the fiery Mufti was caught receiving funds, weapons and military instructions from fascist Germany and Italy a few years later in 1936 – planning a revolt against British rule – the British issued a warrant was issued for his arrest. Al Husseini fled – first to Iraq, and later – at Hitler’s personal invitation – to Germany, arriving in Berlin in 1941.

Al Husseini lived in luxury during the War, splitting his time between Berlin and Rome. He was photographed with Hitler and often dined with Heinrich Himmler. Hitler gave him a staff of sixty to run an Arabic-language radio service from Berlin and foment anti-Jewish sentiment in the Middle East. Jews, the Mufti exhorted on the air, “live...as parasites among the peoples, suck their blood, steal their property, pervert their morals”. The Mufti also helped raise a dedicated Muslim Division of the Waffen SS in Yugoslavia.

As Barry Rubin & Wolfgang G. Schwanitz write in their book Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East (Yale University Press, 2014), the Mufti also offered Hitler the possibility of wider geopolitical strength. “In exchange for Berlin’s backing, (Al Husseini) pledged to bring the Muslims and Arabs into an alliance with Germany; spread Nazi ideology; promote German trade; and ‘wage terror,’ in his own words, against the British and French…. The Nazis were eager for this partnership. They established special relationships with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Ba’ath Party, the Young Egypt movement, and radical factions in Syria, Iraq, and Palestine. Berlin also hoped to build links with the kings of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. These Arab movements and Nazi Germany had the “warmest sympathy” Hitler explained, “for three reasons. First, we do not pursue any territorial aspirations in Arab lands. Second, we have the same enemies. And third, we both fight against the Jews. I will not rest until the very last of them has left Germany.'”

Inspired by the Holocaust, it seems Al Husseini hoped to emulate the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews in the Middle East. Envisioning huge crematoria for Jews in the Dotan Valley near Nablus, Al Husseini confided his plans to burn the bodies of Jews from the Land of Israel, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and North Africa in them. (http://jcpa.org/al-aksa-libel-advocate-mufti-haj-amin-al-husseini/#sthash.nYRtkqCg.dpuf)

The defeat of Nazi Germany put an end to the Mufti’s plans. Arrested by the French after the war, Al Husseini was allowed to escape, and made his way to Egypt, where he remained influential and outspoken in his Jew hatred.

Though his military might was over, he continued to spread his ideas until his death in 1974. Al Husseini influenced the nascent Arab League to put a clause in its charter that its purpose was to destroy the “Zionist entity” and to declare war against the nascent Jewish state. In 1996, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted Yasir Arafat’s younger brother and sister saying that Al Husseini has been a “father figure” to the young Arafat during his childhood in Egypt.

Al Husseini's toxic legacy of virulent Jew-hatred lives on today. In helping shape Arab policy, in influencing a young Yasir Araft, in spreading slanders about Jews that persist to this day, Al Husseini continues to be a force for ill-will and hatred throughout the Middle East and beyond.
Published: October 25, 2015

http://www.aish.com/sp/so/The-Rabid-Anti-Semite-who-became-a-Proud-Jew.html?s=mm
The Rabid Anti-Semite who became a Proud Jew
Co-founder of Hungary’s far-right, anti-Semitic party discovers he’s Jewish, forcing him to rethink his life and reconnect to his roots.
by Moira Schneider
How does one react on discovering at the age of 30 that one is Jewish? And how much more shattering would that revelation be if one is a raving anti-Semite?
For Csanád Szegedi, it was “the most traumatic and probably the worst day of my life.”

The guest speaker at Aish Hatorah South Africa’s gala dinner held in Johannesburg last week, Szegedi related how, as a 20-year-old university student in 2003, he had co-founded the far-right, anti-Semitic Jobbik Party; created concomitantly was a paramilitary organization, Hungarian Guards, which struck terror into the hearts of minorities, making him the embodiment of Hungarian Jewry’s worst fears.

By 2012 Jobbik had grown to be the second largest political party in Hungary. It was at this time that a political rival claimed to have documentary proof that Szegedi was in fact Jewish.
“To clarify the rumour, I sat down with my maternal grandmother to ascertain whether this was true,” he recalled through his colleague and translator Jonathan Megyeri. “My grandmother, who had survived Auschwitz and had a number tattooed on her arm, admitted she was once Jewish, but she had closed that chapter after the Shoah and was not Jewish anymore.

My grandmother who survived Auschwitz and had a number tattooed on her arm admitted she was once Jewish.
“She said my maternal grandfather was also Jewish and had worked in a forced labour camp during World War 11.”
There was no escaping the shocking truth: Csanád Szegedi was a Jew.

His inner turmoil was compounded by the fact that his appearance did not gel with his internalized image of Jews. “I cannot be Jewish,” he thought to himself. “I don’t have a big enough nose, a hunchback and two bags of money under my arms!”
Szegedi, who had never encountered a Jewish individual, decided he had to meet a “real Jew”, specifically from the religious community. “But I did not have many rabbi friends,” he notes in something of an understatement.

So he googled “Budapest rabbi” and found one who worked in outreach. At first the rabbi thought he was joking. “He suspected it was candid camera,” Szegedi remembers.
“He gave me an appointment and I went to see him. I thought he was going to throw me out. Much worse – he told me I should sit down and learn!”

With his wife, Szegedi was invited to synagogue where “I held the book upside down.” The enmity and hatred he encountered there was so great that the rabbi had to call a meeting, where Szegedi faced some aggressive questioning from the community.
“Despite all this, I thought I have no other way to choose but to walk the Jewish way.” He has since become kosher and Sabbath observant.

During his interrogation by the community, an old man had asked him “very softly” when he was going to be circumcised, something he refers to as “not my favourite part of Judaism.” A year later, after the procedure “which I never thought I’d undergo,” Szegedi received his first “aliyah” on Yom Kippur.
“It was the first time I had the opportunity to be called by my Jewish name,” he relates. “The old man came up to me and said: ‘I pardon you now.’”

In the light of these developments, have his mother and grandmother embraced their Judaism? “I have had long conversations with both,” he says, “and I must admit that neither was particularly happy with the outcome of events.

“My grandmother worked so hard for the past 50 years to try to assimilate and it seems she failed in the end. My mother is simply afraid of embracing her Jewish roots.”
While his grandmother passed away a year ago, Szegedi’s mother, who had no knowledge of Judaism, has accompanied him to synagogue on a few occasions and he has taken her on a visit to Israel.

The 33-year-old now says he is “not too proud” of the fact that he was second in command of the proto-Fascist party and for three-and-a-half years has been “extremely busy” attempting to atone for his past.

Amidst much emotional upheaval, the main issue engaging his mind was how to make up for “all the bad deeds” in his previous life. The Av Beth Din in Budapest suggested he go around to schools, college campuses and universities explaining the dangers of anti-Semitism, as well as address Jewish communities, all of which he has been doing for the past 18 months.
But has he done anything to eradicate anti-Semitism amongst the people he used to lead? The question is whether it is worthwhile to engage in conversation with someone who is anti-Semitic, especially where political interests are concerned, he retorts, seemingly sidestepping the issue.

Since Jobbik is the most popular party for those under 30, there is “something wrong with the education system if all the youngsters could be attracted to this type of nonsense.”
He is, however, not shirking his personal responsibility. “I am far from being satisfied that my lecturing does the job,” he concedes. “I try to do everything I can through my story to get my ideals out in public.”
To this end, Szegedi is writing a book and a documentary film is in the pipeline. “My story will get to more people and I could have more influence than I have,” he says.

While he has endured threats from his former party, these are “mainly over. I received many e-mails. Some people in the party are very aggressive, but this never led to any real danger.”
“What makes someone anti-Semitic?” he ponders, voicing the eternal question. “I had never met a Jewish person in my life.”
The only thing to do to fight anti-Semitism is to do more to be Jewish, be proud and definitely do not hide it.
Indeed, how then did he pick up on these ideas? Szegedi attributes this to having grown up amongst young people who were “very nationalistic.” In addition, “anti-Semitic literature became available in the 1990s and I did a lot of reading,” he says, fingering the explosion of the Internet. “You must be careful what young people access,” he warns.
“Anti-Semitism cannot be rational – it stems from frustration and depression. I did not meet the kind of monsters portrayed in anti-Semitic circles,” he says of his integration into the Budapest Jewish community.

“The only thing to do to fight anti-Semitism is to do more to be Jewish, be proud and definitely do not hide it,” he concludes.
While Szegedi’s wife is not Jewish “yet,” she has embraced his change in direction, describing it as a “new path we can only walk together.” Previously, she had been neutral to “a little bit positive” towards Jews, he explains.
“I firmly believe you cannot run a Jewish home without the support of the woman,” he states. “While I had my doubts along the way, she was always supportive and pushed me in the right direction.
“She put magnets on the fridge with the different blessings for food. She’s the one that dresses my kids up for Shabbos,” he says, referring to their two sons aged four and seven years. “We started this path together and I thank her very much.”

As for coping with the Hebrew prayers, Szegedi says although the language is logical, it is “not easy for the European mind. I could probably count on the fingers of one hand, the number of times my rabbi was happy with me!”
Sharing the “main message” of his life, Szegedi states: “Some of you may not consider yourselves observant, but I doubt that any of you went further away from God than I did.

“God has proven to me that he is not particularly looking for vengeance, but he’s also very (quick) to pardon.”

As to his three core reasons it is worthwhile being Jewish, he says: “You are Jewish anyway, so you might as well enjoy it! From a spiritual point of view, we belong to a nation that God watches over personally.

“Most importantly, we’re part of a family that, thanks to organizations like Aish HaTorah, welcomes back every lost member. Thank you, my South African family, for welcoming me.”
Published: October 25, 2015

http://www.aish.com/jw/mo/3-Ways-the-Media-Distorts-Attacks-in-Israel.html?s=mm
3 Ways the Media Distort Attacks in Israel
And what you can do about it.
by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
         
When Israelis faced five separate stabbing attacks on Saturday
 Oct. 17, they were luckily able to fight off their attackers and defend themselves.

How did the world’s press report on these attacks? “Four More Palestinians Shot Dead on the Streets”. “Israelis Kill Four Palestinians”. “Palestinians Shot Dead in Alleged Knife Attacks”.

These headlines (from the Irish Independent, USA Today and Sky News respectively) are typical of much reporting when it comes to the Jewish state, portraying Israelis under attack as aggressors and glossing over (or omitting) details of the terrorism that Israelis are facing every day.

Here are three common media distortions we’re seeing in coverage of the current violent attacks in Israel and what you can do about them.

1. Upside-Down Reporting : Terrorists as Victims, Victims as Aggressors
It might seem unbelievable that people who arm themselves with knives, guns and meat cleavers and go out to murder Jews would be called victims but many news reports perversely insist on painting a picture of innocent Palestinian victims and Israelis as cold-blooded killers.
An Oct.17, 2015 headline in the British Telegraph newspaper announcing “Israeli security forces kill four more Palestinians as knife attacks continue” misleadingly make it seem as if an ongoing massacre is going on against Palestinians – not a wave of terror attacks against Israelis. An Oct. 19, USA Today insert carried by papers across the country reported “West Bank Bands Together: from making food to slingshots, Palestinians do what they can to fight Israel” – the take-away impression being that fighting Israelis is a noble pursuit, not the reality of shooting toddlers, stabbing children, and attacking Israelis viciously – targeting them only because they are Jews.

Pointing out the facts of recent terror attacks is one antidote to these upside-down news reports that invert aggressor and victim. That’s what NBC anchor Jose Diaz-Balart did recently during a live report. MSNBC/NBC correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin – reporting from Jerusalem – claimed that a would-be terrorist who’d been shot dead by police earlier was unarmed. Both of his hands were open and both of his hands did not have a knife.” But back in the studio, Mr. Diaz-Balart brought up a picture of the attacker, pointing out to viewers, “We can clearly see the man – with what appears to be, at least in his right hand, a knife.”

We don’t all have the influence of Mr. Diaz-Balart, but we can all learn how to counter bald-faced lies and distortion from him: pointing out the truth about attacks in reader feedback, letters to the editor, in blogs and social media – can take the air out of lies and distortions about Israel.

2. False Equivalence
Another slander that’s gaining traction about the Jewish state is that Israel is somehow culpable for the violence that’s roiling Palestinian society.

That was the assumption behind a recent CNN headline “More Die as Violence and Finger-Pointing Plague Israel, Palestinians.” The Oct. 18, 2015 headline came after the five failed terror attacks, and the day before the massive fatal attack in Beersheva’s Central Bus Station. Where was the violence on the part of the Israelis? Where the finger-pointing? Surely shooting an armed terrorist who is in the act of attacking isn’t the same sort of violence as carrying out the attack in the first place?
An Oct. 19 op-ed in The New York Times described an almost-unrecognizable Jerusalem, one in which mobs of Jews parade through the streets chanting “Death to Arabs”, in which Arabs are fearful of letting their children out of doors lest they be shot by murderous Israelis like “Jerusalem’s gun-wielding mayor.” This is a willful distortion.

This type of false equivalence has real consequences, convincing people that Israelis are some responsible for being stabbed, shot at, run over, attacked and murdered. It creates a climate in which Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking at Harvard on October 13, 2015 – the same day that three Israelis were murdered and twenty wounded in two separate attacks – could say both Israelis and Palestinians shared the blame for the violence. It desensitizes us to the fear and violence Israelis are experiencing. Sir Eric Pickles, Chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel group in Britain, has called this desire to be balanced “pathological”.
One way to respond is to speak up: don’t be afraid to present a more nuanced, truthful version of events. Arm yourself with facts. Read Israeli news outlets, turn to websites such as www.honestreporting.com and www.camera.org for help.

3. Giving a Platform to Lies and Extremism
One striking feature of much Israel coverage is the extent to which extreme people, organizations and views are given air and print time.
CNN, in an Oct. 18 report, quoted Israeli officials about the five terror attacks the day before – then cast doubt on them, saying “But the official Palestinian version of events doesn’t always match the account given by Israeli authorities”. According to this alternate account, CNN reported, a Palestinian terrorist didn’t attempt to stab an Israeli; instead, the Palestinian was the victim, hunted down and shot in cold blood by an Israeli “settler”.
Who is this alternative source? According to CNN, it’s WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency. But does WAFA deserve to be treated as a credible news source?

Based on translations of its Arabic news source, the answer is absolutely not. This is the news outlet that on December 30, 2014, called the two terrorists responsible for murdering five Israelis as they prayed in a Jerusalem synagogue “martyrs...who ascended (to Heaven).” In the current wave of violence, WAFA has consistently referred to terror attacks against Israeli civilians as military operations, praised those killed in attempting to carry out attacks as “martyrs” and misreported the deaths of terrorists killed in self-defense as they carried attacks as cold-blooded executions.
An Associated Press (AP) story on October 15, 2015 story about the roots of Palestinian rage: “East Jerusalem Palestinians at Center of Wave of Unrest” similarly relied on highly biased information sources. Quoting Ir Amim, “an advocacy group that promotes equality in the city”, the AP painted a dystopian vision of Jerusalem in which “Arab neighborhoods have potholed streets, overcrowded classrooms, and suffer from insufficient public services like water, sewage and garbage collection”.
But Ir Amim is hardly an unbiased source. Described by one of its own officials as promoting a political agenda rather than coexistence, the organization – funded by Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and EU – is extremist in its Israel-bashing and has called for the US to “sever diplomatic ties” with the Jewish State. A 2010 film series they funded was described at the time by the then-editor of the Jerusalem Post as “contain(ing) just about every imaginable one-sided, context-deficient, unbalanced misrepresentation of Israel rolled into one nasty package.”

In this climate we all have to be careful consumers of news. We must make an effort to question where our news sources are getting their information and evaluate whom they’re quoting. When you read extreme-sounding claims about Israel, take a moment to read about the source. Educate yourself about Israel and the news. Don’t be afraid to speak up. We all have a stake in making sure that distortions and lies about the Jewish state don’t go unchallenged.

With thanks to Honest Reporting for highlighting many of these and other examples of media bias against Israel.
Published: October 20, 2015

http://www.aish.com/jw/id/The-Murder-of-a-Hero.html?s=mm
The Murder of a Hero
by Sara Yoheved Rigler
In trying to save a life, Rabbi Nehemia Lavi paid with his life
Rabbi Nehemia Lavi, 41, was celebrating the Third Meal of Shabbat with his wife and seven children in their rooftop sukkah above their Jerusalem Old City apartment. Rabbi Lavi related a teaching of the Vilna Gaon that there are two mitzvot that a man can fulfill with his whole body: Living in the Land of Israel and sitting in a sukkah. (Women, who are commanded to immerse in a mikvah, have three whole-body mitzvot.) He remarked to his family that they are, at that moment, fulfilling both these mitzvot. Suddenly they heard a woman screaming. Rabbi Lavi, an officer in the I.D.F. Reserves, grabbed his gun and ran downstairs to save her. As Israel’s Chief Rabbi would say at Nehemia Lavi’s funeral, he thus was fulfilling a third mitzvah with his whole body.
The Arab terrorist, who had already murdered 22-year-old Aaron Banito Bennet and seriously wounded his young wife Adelle, killed Rabbi Lavi by repeatedly stabbing him in the chest and neck. Then he took the rabbi’s gun and shot the Bennets’ toddler in the leg. Adelle, with a knife in her shoulder, managed to run to an Israeli police outpost fifty meters away before losing consciousness. The police neutralized the terrorist..
Nehemia Lavi was a lover of Jerusalem’s walled Old City. Although he grew up in Beit El, a town 33 kilometers outside Jerusalem, Nehemia moved to the Old City 23 years ago, as a yeshiva student at Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim. He became an educator. He taught young men at the yeshiva and children at the Moriah Talmud Torah in the Jewish Quarter.
He was also a lover of the Land of Israel. He took a tour guide course and became a certified guide, not because he was seeking another vocation, but just because he wanted to learn everything about the Land of Israel.
Rabbi Lavi had zeal to serve. As a combat soldier in the I.D.F. and then the Reserves, he was regularly called up for reserve duty. Disappointed that after turning 40 he would no longer be called up, he took a chaplain's training course so that he could continue to serve in the Reserves as an officer. He finished the course just 2 weeks ago.
In the Muslim Quarter
Some twenty years ago, Nehemia and his wife Netta moved into Beit Witenberg on HaGai Street in the Muslim Quarter. This large complex had been purchased by Rabbi Moshe Witenberg, a wealthy Eastern European Jew, in the 1880s. Rabbi Witenberg used part of the building to construct a magnificent Chabad synagogue with an extensive library, rented out twenty apartments, and used much of the building for his charitable institutions. Rabbi Witenberg died childless in 1899, after insuring with the Turkish authorities that the property would be consecrated as a charitable foundation and remain in Jewish hands. In 1920, Arab rioters attacked the Witenberg complex, burned down the synagogue, including its many Torah scrolls and priceless Chabad manuscripts, and looted and destroyed the apartments.
Although the original residents were afraid to return to Beit Witenberg after it was reconstructed, Jewish immigrants from Hungary moved in. They stayed there until driven out by the Arab riots of 1929, in which 133 Jews in the so-called “Muslim Quarter” were murdered. (An official census conducted by the British Mandate government in 1922 had found that the majority of residents of the “Muslim Quarter” were Jews.) In the wake of the Arab riots of 1929 and 1936, the “Muslim Quarter,” including its many Jewish-owned properties, became Judenrein.
After Israeli forces liberated the Old City from Jordanian rule in the Six Day War of 1967, Jews slowly returned to the Jewish Quarter. Reclaiming Jewish properties in the Muslim Quarter, however, was much harder. It took many years of legal action, much money, and the dedicated efforts of Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim to return scores of properties to Jewish hands. Finally, in 1987, a mezuzah was once again affixed to the entrance of the Witenberg complex.
Despite the danger of living in the Muslim Quarter, Nehemia Lavi and his family moved into Beit Witenberg on Hagai Street twenty years ago. His apartment there was both a home and a statement that Jews would not be intimidated by Arab violence from reclaiming their ancestral homeland or even this one, small, holy part of it.
The Number 18 Bus
Nehemia Lavi understood that courage, like fear, is contagious. The act that best reveals his bravery took place in 1996. At 6:30 in the morning of February 25, Jerusalem’s #18 bus was filled with people on their way to work. A suicide bomber boarded the bus and blew himself up, killing 26 people. Exactly one week later, at the same hour on the same #18 bus route, another suicide bomber blew up the bus, killing 19 people. Exactly one week after that, at the same hour, knowing how scared the driver and passengers would be, 22-year-old Nehemia Lavi, carrying a large Israeli flag, got on the #18 bus at the beginning of its route. With encouraging words and the blue-and-white flag of the Jewish nation, Nehemia instilled courage into the driver and passengers. He rode the bus until its last stop and then back the whole route in the other direction. It was a statement: We Jews will not submit to fear.
Nehemia Lavi understood that courage, like fear, is contagious.
Courage, like fear, is contagious. At Nehemia Lavi’s funeral this past Sunday, they announced that after the conclusion of the Simchat Torah holiday, “Second Hakafot,” dancing with the Torah as on Simchat Torah, but with the rousing accompaniment of a band, would take place on Hagai Street in the Muslim Quarter, at the very place where Nehemia Lavi and Aaron Banito Bennet had been murdered. The square has been renamed, “Nehemia and Aaron Square.”
Hundreds of Jews poured to the site. As the band played, Am Yisrael Chai (“The Jewish Nation Lives”), on the cobblestones recently cleansed of Jewish blood, hundreds of Jews danced with Torah scrolls in their hands and courage in their hearts.
The following day, rabbis started holding Torah classes at Nehemia and Aaron Square. Member of Knesset Mutty Yogez moved his official office to the Square. And the youths whose classmates from the Lavi family are now fatherless are sitting there on Haggai Street learning Torah and singing songs of Jewish faith and fortitude.
All of these are a statement: We Jews will not submit to fear. 

Our brother Nehemia, this is the courage you taught all of us by your brave example. Your courage is contagious.