Avner Netanayhu - Tanach Champion

When we were first married we lived in Givat Mordechai and had an older neighbour who personified the old world Secular-Labour-Zionist ideology.

He was very careful in his use of Hebrew and often corrected my use of language. To him the revival of the Hebrew language was one of the great achievements of the Zionist movement and it distressed him to hear the language abused, particularly in the media.

He was one of the first people I knew to get an Internet connection which he used to study Tanach, which was one of his hobbies. He was delighted when we named our first child Yehoshua a biblical name,

On Shabbat afternoons he used to drive to Har Herzl to meet with other like minded people and in the Shadow of Herzl's grave used to discuss and study Zionist text, poetry, and ideology.

To me he represented the world view of Ben Gurion and the other founders of the State who came here out of a firm sense of Jewish history, language, and geography based largely on the Tanach.

Unfortunately these values seemed difficult to pass onto future generations. Our neighbour's children all left Israel and grandchildren hardly spoke Hebrew. Similarly Ben Gurion and Chaim Weiztmann had children or grandchildren who left Israel.

It seems that this inability to pass on a love for Eretz Yisrael and Torat Yisrael was a big failing of the Labour Zionist movement.

This is why it was so refreshing to see the son of our current prime minister, who comes from several generations of prominent Zionists is continuing in his father's footsteps, not only in his love for Eretz Ysiarel, but he has won the Jerusalem Regional Bible competition and will go on to represent the region in the National Championships on Yom Haatzmaut.

Well done Avner Netanyah, may you continue in your father's footsteps in your commitment to the Jewish People and the Tanach.

(As an aside, the article uses the phrase "נתניהו ג'וניור" this abuse of the Hebrew language is a great example of what upset my former neighbour)

Hat Tip: Life in Israel

An Israeli, a Palestinian, and Peace Negotiator walk into a Bar

Here are 2 cute jokes courtesy of Barry Rubin…

An Israeli, a Palestinian, and an American peacemaker walk into a bar. They each order a drink. The American turns to the Israeli and says: "You pay for everyone as a confidence-building measure."

……

The UN secretary-general announces the creation of a great UN world soccer team, including all the member countries.
But, asks his deputy, "Then who would we play against?"
"Well, Israel, of course," the secretary-general answers.

Did I just agree with Larry?

About a year ago I outlined my idea of how we can move towards peace in this tiny land.

Basically my theory is that high-level peace talks only lead to distrust and friction as our leaders meet as adversaries across a negotiating table. Everyone is pushing for a better deal and in the process demonizing the “other”.

In additional, borders, fences, violence, and mistrust make it increasingly difficult for Jews and Arabs to interact on a personal level.

I believe that the best way forward is to leave the “political process” and instead invest in educational, medical, and social opportunities for Jews and Arabs to interact.

If a generation grows up that don’t think of the “other” as “the enemy” possibly they will be able to make peace (I’m talking about at least 20 years from now, not “Peace Now”). The exact details of the peace plan, whether a Palestinian State (with open borders and a Jewish minority), or a semi-autonomous state, or a bi-national state, or any other solution can only de discussed once we have learned to live together.

I’m not sure whether I should be glad or frustrated that today there was a column in the (new look) Jerusalem Post which agrees with me that we need to find ways for Jews and Arabs to interact.

Frustrated because the author, fellow Modi’in resident Larry Derfner is well known for his incoherent articles. Although presented as a left-wing columnist, he is not a good spokesman for the left as his columns normally make so sense other than whatever the problem, Israel (or “The Settlers”) are to blame.

I hope that the fact that in this instance I seem to be agreeing with him does not dis-prove the logic in my idea.

The Tefillin Bomber

Many blogs and news sources have discussed the story about the plane that was diverted when a young man davened with Tefilin on flight.

If you haven’t heard the details, what basically happened was that 17 year old Calev Liebowitz bordered a 7:30 flight from New York to Kentuky with his sister. During the flight he davened with Tefillin. A flight attendant asked him what they were and he politely explained that they were Jewish religious prayer items.

The flight attendant who had never encountered Tefillin before told the pilot that there was a passenger with an object strapped to his head and praying. The pilot decided to be extra cautious and landed the plane in the nearest airport where Calev and his sister were briefly detained and questioned before establishing that it was a simple misunderstanding and they were released and put on the next flight to Kentuky.

Grunting has an interesting interview with Calev and his sister Dalia.

What was heartening about this story is that as far as I can tell, no one did anything wrong.

Calev davened on the plane but was polite and explained what he was doing when questioned.

The flight crew were understandably cautious, given recent events by religious extremists to blow up planes.

The ground crew quickly ascertained that this was a mis-understanding and released Calev and Dalia quickly without pressing charges (not sure whether they also apologised).

(This is in contrast to the Chasid flying out of Montreal last year who didn’t speak French or English, but decided to daven Mincha as the flight was preparing for take-off, he was quite correctly removed from the flight)

Many people have come out with guidelines on Davening on a plane, in particular I’d recommend Gil Student’s post on Praying on an Airplane, but the general guidelines are clear:

• If at all possible, daven before or after the flight.
• If appropriate, inform the cabin crew that you are going to pray, especially if it is on a route which probably does not regularly have religious Jews.
  The flight crew may ask you to wait as they are about to give out meals or prepare for landing etc, follow their instructions.
• Make sure that you do not disturb others, do not organize a minyan or obstruct the food cart or other passengers.
• Daven in your seat, or if there is an available space, ask the cabin crew if it would be OK to pray there.
• Most important, be friendly and polite, remember that other passengers or crew have probably never seen a Jew pray before and may be curious or concerned, especially in light of recent (non-Jewish) radicals who have carried out attacks in the name of religion.

An interesting side-note to the story is that with all the publicity many people have had a least a basic education on Tefillin, and there has been at least one individual who decided to put on Tefillin for the first time as a response to the story.

Iceberg in a Tallis

Did you see the following picture posted on Snopes.com?

Is it just me, or does it really look like this is an iceberg wearing a Tallit.

Stranger things have happened...

The man who smuggled himself into Auschwitz

A few weeks ago, the BBC had a remarkable story of Denis Avey, a British POW held in Auschwitz who twice traded places with a Jewish Prisoner to witness first hand what was happening in the Death factory adjacent to his POW camp.

I find the story chilling, although at some level unbelievable. The concept of willing breaking into a concentration camp sounds too similar to the fictional book/movie “Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”, which presents a totally implausible view of life in a Concentration Camp.

The other element in the story, that he successfully smuggled goods to Jewish prisoners sounds too similar to the story of “The Girl With the Apple” which also turned out to be fiction.

I tried to find other sources that covered Denis Avey’s story, but so far I have only found links to the same BBC article. If the article is true, it serves as an important testament to the goodness that is possible in the midst of the worst evil imaginable.

Here are some extracts from the article:

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8382457.stm

When millions would have done anything to get out, one remarkable British soldier smuggled himself into Auschwitz to witness the horror so he could tell others the truth.

Denis Avey is a remarkable man by any measure. A courageous and determined soldier in World War II, he was captured by the Germans and imprisoned in a camp connected to the Germans' largest concentration camp, Auschwitz.

...

He describes Auschwitz as "hell on earth" and says he would lie awake at night listening to the ramblings and screams of prisoners.

"It was pretty ghastly at night, you got this terrible stench," he says.

He talked to Jewish prisoners but says they rarely spoke of their previous life. Instead they were focused on the hell they were living and the work they were forced to do in factories outside the camp.
...

He says he would ask where people he'd met previously had gone and he would be told they'd "gone up the chimney".

"It was so impersonal. Auschwitz was evil, everything about it was wrong."

He also witnessed the brutality meted out to the prisoners, saying people were shot daily. He was determined to help, especially when he met Jewish prisoner Ernst Lobethall.

...

Mr Lobethall told him he had a sister Susana who had escaped to England as a child, on the eve of war. Back in his own camp, Mr Avey contacted her via a coded letter to his mother.

He arranged for cigarettes, chocolate and a letter from Susana to be sent to him and smuggled them to his friend. Cigarettes were more valuable than gold in the camp and he hoped he would be able to trade them for favours to ease his plight - and he was right.
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Mr Lobethall traded two packs of Players cigarettes in return for getting his shoes resoled. It helped save his life when thousands perished or were murdered on the notorious death marches out of the camps in winter in 1945.

...

But before he died Mr Lobethall recorded his survival story on video for the Shoah Foundation, which video the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses. In it he spoke of his friendship with a British soldier in Auschwitz who he simply called "Ginger". It was Denis.

He also recalled how the cigarettes, chocolate and a letter from his sister in England were smuggled to him in the midst of war.

"It was like being given the Rockefeller Centre," he says in the video.

Mr Avey traded places twice and slept overnight in Auschwitz. He tried a third time but he was almost caught and the plan was aborted.

He suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when he came back from the war and has only recently been able to speak about what he did and what he saw.

He admits some may find it hard to believe and acknowledges it was "foolhardy".

"But that is how I was," he simply says.

WARNING: Jewish produce

According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, the UK has decided to single out Israeli manufactured products in the “West bank” so the consumers won’t accidentally by from Jews.

According to the article:

… according to guidelines put out by the department [British Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs], "Traders and retailers may wish to indicate whether the product originated from an Israeli settlement or from Palestinian producers. This could take the form, for example, of 'Produce of the West Bank (Israeli settlement produce)' or 'Produce of the West Bank (Palestinian produce)', as appropriate."

In addition, the guidelines said that "traders would be misleading consumers, and would therefore almost be certainly committing an offence, if they were to declare produce from the OPT (including from the West Bank) as 'Produce of Israel'.

In other words, their could be two farmers growing tomatoes in adjacent fields. One of them of Jewish decent, the other not Jewish, and importers are encouraged to label each product differently so that consumers can decide whether to buy from Jews or not.

How would the British react if all imports from Northern Ireland were labelled as “Catholic'” or “Protestant”?

There were times in history when it was acceptable to place distinguishing marks on Jewish businesses, books, or products. I had thought that this type of behaviour was no longer acceptable in Western Countries, I was clearly wrong.