HaKol
The Voice of the
Pelham Jewish Center
April 2023/Nissan-Iyar 5783
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In This Issue
Can We Talk About Israel & the U.S.?
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Leadership Messages
Rabbi Benjamin Resnick
Education Director
Ana Turkienicz
HaKol Editor
Barbara Saunders-Adams
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Congregant News
& Donations
Israel Speaker Series Kickoff:
Ro' Neumann & Shachar Liran-Hanan
Stephen Handelman
Barbara Saunders-Adams
David Halperin Speaks
Andrea Rothberg
Oren Kessler Speaks
Stephen Handelman
Book Notes
Barbara Saunders-Adams
Food For Thought
Share a Simcha
Tributes & Donations
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Dear Friends,
Rabbinic tradition preserves a marvelous anecdote about Ben Azzai, a second century student of R. Yehoshua and of R. Akiva. Once, while sitting and expounding on matters of Torah, he was suddenly surrounded by a great conflagration. His fellow rabbinical students, apparently troubled, hurried to inform their teacher, R. Akiva, about what they had seen. R. Akiva approaches Ben Azzai immediately and asks him–the rebuke implicit–if perhaps he was pursuing dangerous mystical secrets. “Oh no,” Ben Azzai replies, “I was just learning and interpreting words of Torah and stringing them together like garlands of pearls, Torah to Prophets, Prophets to Writings. And the words became as happy as they were on the day they were given at Sinai.”
This charming and somewhat mysterious tale appears in a 7th century collection of midrashim on the Song on Songs. Like many of the legends that surround Ben Azzai, it presents him as an assiduous and supremely talented if somewhat peculiar student. Among his many idiosyncrasies–including his extreme piety and his decision to forgo family life in favor of constant study–is the fact that he apparently refused formal rabbinical ordination, preferring instead to remain a student despite his being universally lauded as a great sage. This theme runs throughout most of the legends about his life and–for a tradition that was and remains rather focused (perhaps to a fault) on scholastic attainment–it is quite striking. And in the lead up to Shavuot in just a few weeks, it discloses two core rabbinic ideas about the nature of Torah and revelation.
First, it valorizes “normal” modes of learning and scholarship over and above mystical pyrotechnics. Mysticism, according to the mainline view of the ancient rabbis, may be well and good, but it is also perilous and, perhaps, beside the point. Sinai, in Ben Azzai’s estimation, was not a moment of shattering theophony, but instead a time of deep study, which can be recreated and reexperienced anywhere and everywhere that Jews get together to learn.
Second, Ben Azzai’s great wisdom and interpretive power is ultimately a function of his decision to remain a student and to insist–despite a great deal of evidence to the contrary–that he was not yet worthy of the title “Rabbi.” This reflects not only deep humility, but also a profound understanding of how Torah is meant to function in our lives. It is not a resource to be mined nor even a jewel to be uncovered and polished. Instead it is a “Spring that runs from Eden, watering the garden, and never stopping.” There are always greater depths, always deeper waters, always new shoots.
I look forward to learning Torah with all of you in the weeks and months and years ahead.
Brachot,
Ben
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Education Director
Ana Turkienicz
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On April 13, 2023, Israel lost one of its greatest authors, Meir Shalev z”l (may his memory be for a blessing). Meir Shalev died at the age of 74, from pancreatic cancer.
We are entering a period of historic dates in the Jewish calendar that address the critical time between the Holocaust and the Creation of the State of Israel.
I took the liberty of sharing here a moving piece written by Meir Shalev on the occasion of the first time an Israeli President gave a speech at the German Parliament, the Bundestag. Weizman, who understood the weight of this historic moment, asked the author Meir Shalev to write the speech for him.
As we read the speech, it’s easy to understand why Meir Shalev is considered one of the greatest Israeli authors of his time. His words encapsulate the complexity of our shared history. I find it very fitting to this time, when the Jewish world commemorates Yom Hashoah (the Holocaust Remembrance Day) and celebrates Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day) one week after the other. Below, please find President Weizman’s words, as they were written by Meir Shalev, z”l, slightly abbreviated:
“It was fate that delivered me and my contemporaries into this great era, when the Jews returned to and re-established their homeland. I am no longer a wandering Jew who migrates from country to country, from exile to exile. But all Jews in every generation must regard themselves as if they had been there, in previous generations, places, and events. Therefore, I am still a wandering Jew, but not along the far-flung paths of the world. Now I migrate through the expanses of time, from generation to generation, down the paths of memory.
Memory shortens distances. Two hundred generations have passed since my people first came into being, and to me they seem like a few days. Only two hundred generations have passed since a man named Abraham rose up and left his country and birthplace for the country that is today mine. Only two hundred generations have elapsed from the day Abraham purchased the Cave of Machpelah in the city of Hebron to the murderous conflicts that have taken place there in my generation. Only one hundred fifty generations have passed from the Pillar of Fire of the Exodus from Egypt to the pillars of smoke from the Holocaust. And I, a descendant of Abraham, born in Abraham's country, have witnessed them all.
I was a slave in Egypt. I received the Torah at Mount Sinai. Together with Joshua and Elijah, I crossed the Jordan River. I entered Jerusalem with David, was exiled from it with Zedekiah, and did not forget it by the rivers of Babylon. When the Lord returned the captives of Zion, I dreamed among the builders of its ramparts. I fought the Romans and was banished from Spain. I was bound to the stake in Mainz. I studied Torah in Yemen and lost my family in Kishinev. I was incinerated in Treblinka, rebelled in Warsaw, and emigrated to the Land of Israel, the country when I had been exiled and where I had been born, from which I come and to which I return.
I am a wandering Jew who follows in the footsteps of his forebears, and just as I escorted them there and then, so do my forebears accompany me and stand here with me today.
The sharp-sighted among you may be able to discern them: An entourage of prophets and peasants, kings and rabbis, scientists and soldiers, craftsmen and children. Some died of advanced years in their beds. Others went up in flames. Still others fell by the sword.
Just as memory forces us to participate in each day and every event of our past, so does the virtue of hope force us to prepare for each day of our future. After all, in the past century alone we have been suspended between life and death, between hope and despair, between displacement and rootedness. Ours is the terrible century of death, in which the Nazis and their assistants destroyed a large portion of us in the Holocaust, but it is also the mind-boggling century of revival, of independence, and -- recently -- of a chance for peace.
Never before has a President of the State of Israel spoken in this esteemed place. I wish to thank you for the honor you have bestowed upon us, and I am happy to see familiar and friendly faces here. Mr. President, Madam and Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chancellor: Israel remembers with exhilaration your visits to us and the sincerity that you expressed, both toward events of the past and in hopes for the future. You were with us, too, at that difficult time when we escorted our Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin of blessed memory, who was murdered on the path of peace, to his final resting place. Yitzhak Rabin, who was one of the leaders on the road to peace. I express my gratitude and blessings for the friendship and cooperation that prevail between Israel and Germany today, as reflected in many diverse spheres of economic, security, and cultural affairs, along with one that is especially close to my heart -- scientific research. German and Israeli researchers are sharing their expertise and skills, and German assistance in Israeli scientific research is one of the factors that Israeli citizens appreciate most highly.
However, ladies and gentlemen, this is not an easy visit. Only fifty years, a mere moment in the lengthy history of my people, have passed since the end of that terrible war. It was not easy for me to visit the Sachsenhausen concentration camp today. It is not easy for me to travel around this country and hear the memories and voices crying out to me from the ground. It is not easy for me to stand here and speak with you, my friends in this house.
Jews have lived in Germany for a thousand years or more. German Jewry was the oldest Jewish community in Europe until the Nazis destroyed it. From the first traders who came here in the footsteps of the Romans to the scientists of the twentieth century, from Kalonymos to Mendelssohn, from the blood libel of Fulda to the horrors of Kristallnacht, from the badge of shame to the yellow patch, from Martin Luther's anti-Semitic missives to the Nuremberg Laws, from the commentaries of Rashi to the poems of Heinrich Heine, Rabbeinu Gershom, the Light of the Exile, Walther Rathenau, Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Albert Einstein -- these are only some of the names that this country has known. Among the millions of my people's children whom the Nazis led to their deaths, there were other names that we might have uttered here today with the same degree of esteem and admiration. But we do not know their names. How many unwritten books died with them? How many uncomposed symphonies suffocated in their throats? How many scientific discoveries did not mature in their intellects? Every one of them was killed twice: Once as a child led by the Nazis to the camps, and again as the adult he or she might have been. The Nazis stole them not only from their families and their people, but from the whole of humankind. I, as President of the State of Israel, can grieve for them and commemorate them, but I cannot forgive in their name. I can only demand that you, members of the Bundestag and Bundesrat, with full cognizance of the past, set your minds to the future. It is yours to discern any manifestation of racism, quash every expression of neo-Nazism, know how to identify these phenomena courageously, and expunge them from your midst, lest they grow and spread. (...)
I am a wandering Jew. With the cloak of memory around my shoulders and the staff of hope in my hand, I stand at this great crossroads in time, the end of the twentieth century. I know whence I have come, and with hope and apprehension I attempt to find out where I am heading. The State of Israel is in the midst of a process that is encouraging and exciting, but at the same time worrying and frightening. It has already claimed the lives of the architects of peace, the Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated in cold blood by an enemy of peace, and before him, the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat. The peace process is the most important process that has surfaced since the establishment of the Jewish state. And we are now in its very midst.
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: For more than a century of Zionist endeavor, we have hoped for this peace and struggled to achieve it. We did not return to our borders in warships; we did not march home waving spears. We returned in convoys of dreamers and in boats of oppressed refugees. We returned, and, like our forefather King David who purchased the Temple Mount, and our patriarch Abraham who bought the Cave of Machpelah, we bought land, we sowed fields, we planted vineyards, we built houses, and even before we achieved statehood, we were already bearing weapons to protect our lives.
Time and again we stretched out our hands, and time and again we were rejected. Time and again we went to war; time and again we killed and were killed. Time and again we left our homes, offices, universities, and orchards for the battlefields. Time and again we discovered that beyond even the greatest victories, only crises and losses lurked. We yearn for this peace; we dream of it and pray for it. It appears at every juncture of Jewish thought: In the Torah, the Psalms, the Talmud, the commentaries, liturgy, and homiletics. But for these very reasons -- our infinite longing for peace, our penchant for recalling our history, especially in its most terrible episodes, those written in this country -- we must be cautious and practical.
We deal with this fragile, delicate process of peace suffused with hope and, I am sure, with sang-froid and wisdom. Terrorist organizations and extremist Islamic states wish to sabotage the process, as do extremist elements in our midst. The atmosphere is charged; things are not easy -- not only because murderous extremism is striving to destroy this peace, but also because even those who love peace are apprehensive, and both camps still have unhealed wounds and fresh memories. The blood still cries out to us.
Many peace treaties have been signed in the course of history. (...) Our most recent agreement with the Palestinians includes a clause about educating both peoples for a life of peace. In the Middle East, where ancient fundamentals of vengeance and settling of scores millennia old intermingle, extra caution is required. The mind strives to be practical and judicious; it wishes to build the future. The feet, however, tread on the residues of that generation, and the hands are the hands that built the ramparts of Jerusalem at the time of the Return of Zion. The work was done with only one hand, for the other hand clutched a weapon. In 1977, the late President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, and the late Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Begin, met in Jerusalem. A peace treaty was signed in Egypt, a treaty with which I am personally familiar. Since then, we have concluded a peace treaty with Jordan, signed the Oslo agreements with the Palestinians, created a dialogue and economic relations with other Arab countries, and embarked on initial peace contacts with Syria -- contacts that are by no means easy. There is a scent of hope in the air, but we must not submit to delusions. The two peoples are still alien to each other. A bridge of understanding is being built, but we still have to complete it and make sure that its structure is firm.(...)
We have also installed democratic governance and built a massive cultural and educational system: Schools, research institutes, libraries, museums, conservatories, and universities. But transcending all of these -- which exist in any civilized state -- we have wrought a unique cultural miracle: The revival of our language, the Hebrew language. It is the language in which I am speaking to you now, the language which, more than anything else, symbolizes and attests to our revival. We and our language are alive. We who have arisen from the ashes, and the language that waited in the shrouds of Torah scrolls and between the pages of the prayer books, are alive. The language that was whispered in prayer only, that was read only in synagogues, that was sung only in liturgy, that was shrieked in the gas chambers -- in the prayer "Shma Yisrael '' -- has been revived. I know that German is richer than Hebrew in many ways, but I do not lack the words to express my feelings, nor have Jews ever lacked words to express their faith, love, dreams, yearnings, and hopes.
We have developed a suitable vocabulary for our special needs. We await, we yearn, we desire, we anticipate, we long for, we hope, we thirst, we crave, we imagine... I stop here in order to apologize to the interpreters in case they find it hard to select the right words.
These two cadavers, revived after so many years -- the Jewish state and the Hebrew language -- are the very essence of our lives in this century. In this of all centuries, which observed us devastated and dead, we have risen again. And we now use this language, which in exile we used to speak to G-d only, to speak to each other. We still pray in Hebrew, but now we also use it to speak, to write, to work and study, to argue, to court each other, and to sing. And the miracle is all the greater because if Isaiah, Solomon, and Jesus were here today, they would understand what I am saying just as I and my daughter and grandchildren understand their words, spoken and written and preserved in the same language thousands of years ago. (...) Ladies and gentlemen, we are a people of memory and prayer. We are a people of words and hope. We have neither established empires nor built castles and palaces. We have only placed words on top of each other. We have fashioned ideas; we have built memorials. We have dreamed towers of yearnings -- of Jerusalem rebuilt, of Jerusalem united, of a peace that will be swiftly and speedily established in our days.
Amen.”
I find it hard to believe that although the speech above was written and delivered in 1996, almost 30 years ago, its content and its vibrancy are still relevant to this very day. At this critical time in Israel, where the very heart of its existence is at stake, we thank G-d for the gifts of Israeli authors, and prophets, and for the inspiration and hope in their words. May the strength of their spirit and the power of their speech continue to guide and nurture us as we navigate the complexities of Jewish life and the challenges that we face again and again as history continues to unravel.
Happy Yom Ha’atzmaut,
Ana
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HaKol Editor
Barbara Saunders-Adams
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Dear Friends,
I am so pleased with the high level of participation for the PJC Conversation Series: Can We Talk About Israel & the U.S.? The speakers added to our understanding of events in Israel, past and present, that influence our relationship with the Jewish state. There were some suggestions about how we, as American Jews, can be supportive of a Jewish and democratic state. As in any close relationship, when times get rough, it is better to get closer, rather than pull apart. I hope the conversations will continue.
In this issue of Hakol, you will find descriptions of the talks and the provocative questions which were asked and addressed. There is still more to come. On April 20 at 7:00 pm on Zoom, Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund, will discuss the future of the Israel-Diaspora relationship. Our Scholar in Residence Weekend (April 21-22), features Rabbi Mikey Goldstein, Chief Rabbi of the Masorti-Israel Congregation. He will talk about the place of Israel in living a full Jewish life. Our Series will conclude with an Israel Slam on Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel Independence Day, April 27. At the Israel Slam, congregants, clergy and faculty will tell their personal Israel stories.
Also included in Ana's column is the speech President Ezer Weizman gave to the Bundestaat in 1996. Written by the Israeli author Meir Shalev, the speech encapsulates the essence of what Israel means to the Jewish people. On this 75th anniversary of the state of Israel, we can be proud of what Israel has accomplished.
Happy Yom HaAtzmaut!
Barbara
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Can We Talk About Israel & the U.S.?
PJC Speaker Series
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Do American Jews have a role to play in the current Israeli debates? The PJC’s Speaker Series, “Can We Talk About Israel and the U.S.?”, offered some provocative answers in a series of conversations with speakers from Israel, leading advocacy organizations and authors. The series kicked off March 23 with two young Israeli representatives in Westchester, Ro'i Neumann and Shachar Liran-Hanan. Introduced by Rabbi Resnick, they provided moving accounts of their background, and discussed their concerns about the future.
Ro'i Neumann, the fourth generation of a family that fled Europe to Palestine before it became the state of Israel, is in Westchester between high school and the army to nurture relationships between Israelis and Americans. His family connection to Israel is deep: his great grandparents built kibbutzim and worked the land, his grandparents fought in the war that ended with the creation of Israel, and his parents also served. He began his presentation with a photo of his great-grandmother holding her grandson's M16 rifle. She was proud that her grandson (Roi's father) wasn't fighting for a foreign power, but rather for the IDF, the Israel Defense Force.
Shachar Liran-Hanan is a shlicha, an emissary of Israeli society—but not a representative of Israeli government—charged with building connections between Israelis and American Jews and overseeing the shinshinim. Shachar grew up in a secular home with little connection to Judaism. Her introduction to American Judaism was at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires. Shachar explained that in Israel religion is black or white: You are either Orthodox or not. Most Israelis are not exposed to Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and other forms of Jewish worship. Shachar found her experience at Camp Ramah to be eye-opening. She feels more Jewish in America than she does in Israel. Camp Ramah fostered her Jewish identity.
When asked about the matsav, the current situation in Israel, Shachar described it as yam suf, the parting of the waters as written in the Torah. She observed that the current government, though democratically elected, does not represent the majority of Israelis. She feared the proposed judicial changes will upset the delicate balance of power between the government and the courts and threaten the democratic nature of the states. Rabbi Resnick pointed out that this administration is nogea b'dvar, several of the ministers will be "touched" or benefit from the changes. Noting the huge protests around Israel over the proposed changes, both speakers said the support of American Jews was critical for safeguarding the future of Israeli democracy.
The same theme was picked up in the second conversation of the series, led by Alex Sinclair, Ph.D., Chief Content Officer for Educating for Impact, an organization that provides strategic and educational consulting to European Jewish communities. Putting the challenge in stark terms, Dr. Sinclair said the current turmoil in Israel was about much more than just the judicial overhaul. It reflected a “culture war” between two opposing interpretations of Judaism: a fundamentalist approach which allowed no compromise in either the interpretation of Jewish ritual or the definition of the state, and a more “liberal” approach.
As such, it amounted to a “struggle for the soul of the Jewish people,” he said. The diaspora, particularly in America, where liberal versions of Judaism predominated, had an important role to play. Dr. Sinclair, who lives with his wife and three children in Modi'in, Israel, served as a professor of education for almost two decades at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where PJC member Barbara Saunders-Adams was a student. He emphasized that his definition of “liberal Judaism” had nothing to with politics. He meant it to define an approach that accepted different ways of Jewish religious practice as valid.
But, repeating the point made by the two young Israelis in the first conversation, he said that liberal perspective is gradually losing traction in Israel, as the country’s demographics are changing (with growing population of haredim). The fundamentalist approach begins in the early grades of religious schools, where children have “zero exposure to Western thought and science.” It spills over into politics as well, where there is no acceptance of Palestinian nationalism. The danger is the development of a Judaism “that looks like Iranian Islam,” he warned.
Dr. Sinclair cautioned there was little diaspora Jews could do to influence the internal political debate, since most fundamentalists already considered them irrelevant. Instead, diaspora Jewry’s most useful response would be to strengthen their own communities at home through renewed commitment to the larger liberal values of inclusiveness and tolerance. “Until we have that conversation about Judaism, we’re fighting with one hand tied behind our backs,” said Dr. Sinclair, whose first book, Loving the Real Israel: An Educational Agenda for Liberal Zionism, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in 2013. “We need your voice in this struggle,” he continued, referring to liberal Jewry. “Without that voice, this cultural struggle will be lost.”
Steve Handelman &
Barbara Saunders-Adams
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Speaker Series: David Halperin |
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David Halperin, the CEO of the Israel Policy Forum, spoke to a group gathered at the Pelham Jewish Center (PJC) on March 28. His topic was “Israel in the Moment: a Crisis of Policy and Politics.”
Halperin stressed the three elements most important to the future existence of the state of Israel: security, a Jewish homeland and a democratic government. He noted that, while some of the effort to reform the judiciary in Israel arises from Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s self-interest in avoiding jail on corruption charges, there are other forces at work. Members of Netanyahu’s right wing coalition are pushing in that direction as well: the Ultra Orthodox want to more easily revise rules that will favor them (e.g. not serving in the IDF); Shas members want to remain government ministers despite having their own legal difficulties; and the settlers want to move more Jewish people into the West Bank, despite Palestinian objections. Halperin stressed, however, that it is truly incredible that Prime Minister Netanyahu – in pursuing this course – is threatening the security of Israel, which has always been his top priority.
Halperin asserted that there are three options to Jews in the diaspora, specifically in America. We can say it is not our business. We can be indifferent, or even hostile to the this right-leaning government. Or, we can align ourselves with Israelis who are on the offensive to fight these judicial reforms. He encouraged the PJC group to be proactive: to get involved; to speak up; to make our voices heard through actions such as demonstrating in favor of liberal democracy.
Rabbi Ben Resnick has said that the purpose of this speaker series is to “advance the conversation about Israel” for all of us at the PJC. In exhorting the PJC members to speak up, and to get involved in the struggle for democracy in Israel, David Halperin certainly took us in the right direction.
Andrea Rothberg
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Speaker Series: Oren Kessler |
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In his first appearance in America to promote his recently published book, “Palestine: 1936,” Oren Kessler took us back almost 90 years to the first Arab national uprising against the British Mandate and the Zionist enterprise. Kessler, a former journalist (Jerusalem Post, Ha’aretz) who has served as deputy director for research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, DC., introduced us to some of the major figures on all three sides: David Ben Gurion, Chaim Weizmann, Musa Alami, Haj Amin al Husseini, Winston Churchill, and Orde Wingate. Kessler said the revolt (which lasted from 1936-1939) has attracted surprisingly little attention from researchers and historians, but it was crucial to understanding the formation of the state of Israel, and it still has repercussions today.
The Great Revolt, promoted by the Islamic Mufti, Hajj Amin, turned out to be a tragedy for the Arabs. Kessler speculated that had there been a less intransigent Arab leader, many lives could have been saved on all sides. Just as important, the early proposal by the British Peel commission to partition the land—what today is called a two-state solution—might have succeeded, since there was some residual grudging Arab support. Amin, however, made it politically impossible—and dangerous—for other Palestinian leaders to take a different view.
Kessler’s thesis prompted a discussion and a flurry of questions from the 30 people who attended. Sandra Goldman asked why Britain was interested in maintaining the Palestine Mandate. Kessler replied that the British needed the help of the Zionists in the fight against the Ottoman Turks during World War I, and then encouraged the Haganah to develop a nascent armed force which eventually became the Israeli Defense Force in the shadow of Hitler’s threat to Europe. Another early motivation was the fact that Palestine was strategically positioned as an oil hub, thanks to the pipeline from Iraq to the port of Haifa on the Mediterranean. Oren signed and sold books at the end of the discussion. There is a copy of Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict in the PJC library.
Stephen Handelman
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Palestine 1936
The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict
by Oren Kessler
Palestine 1936 is the story of two simultaneous national movements and the first major clash between them. The book is based on extensive archival research including diary entries in three languages - Arabic, English and Hebrew. Told in Oren Kessler's engaging voice, this is a must read for those interested in uncovering the roots of the Middle East Conflict and the reason there has been no resolution to date.
The Great Arab Revolt of 1936 began in response to the call of Jerusalem's fiery Mufti,
Haj Amin al Husseini, after the British first considered making part of Palestine a homeland for the Jews fleeing Europe. The Holy Land erupted in a rebellion that targeted both the Jewish community and the British Mandate, lasting three years and costing thousands of lives.
The 1936-1939 revolt was the crucible in which Arab identity coalesced, uniting rival families and classes in the struggle for independence from British rule. It would ultimately implode, shredding the social fabric, sidelining pragmatists, and pushing waves of refugees from their homes. The revolt to end Zionism had instead crushed the Arabs, leaving them crippled in facing the Jews' own drive for statehood a decade later.
Kessler adds color to his research by digging up the words of the major players in the conflict. According to Ben Gurion, a humorless pragmatist, "the two nation's 'nationalisms' were irreconcilable". The Jewish philosopher Jabotinsky called the situation "the tragedy of 'two rights' to self-determination". The charismatic and persuasive Chaim Weizmann helped the Zionists gain support from the British Mandate. Arab philosopher,
Musa Alami, said that "he would rather see the land remain desolate for 100 years until Arab know-how caught up rather than let the Zionists develop it and Arabs receive the trickle-down-effect". In his book, The Arab Awakening, the Arab thinker, George Antonius, contends, "there is no room for two nations" and "the Jews as a minority in an Arab state would spell disaster". The British preferred the courteous Arabs to the feisty Jews, but "grudgingly admired the Zionists".
Ultimately, The Great Arab Revolt's only accomplishment was cutting the immigration quota to Palestine by one fifth of the 1935 number, thus increasing the death toll in Europe.
In a recorded conversation, David Ben Gurion said to Moshe Shertok, "the Partition Plan is the first step in the complete redemption of all of the Land of Israel".
After reading Palestine 1936, it is not surprising that there has been no resolution to the Middle East conflict.
Barbara
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Tourists
Yehuda Amichai
Visits of condolence is all we get from them.
They squat at the Holocaust Memorial,
They put on grave faces at the Wailing Wall
And they laugh behind heavy curtains
In their hotels.
They have their pictures taken
Together with our famous dead
At Rachel's Tomb and Herzl's Tomb
And on the top of Ammunition Hill.
They weep over our sweet boys
And lust over our tough girls
And hang up their underwear
To dry quickly
In cool, blue bathrooms.
Once I sat on the steps by a gate at David's Tower, I placed my
two heavy baskets at my side. A group of tourists was
standing around their guide and I became their target marker.
"You see that man with the baskets? Just right of his head
there's an arch from the Roman period. Just right of his head"
"But he's moving, he's moving!"
I said to myself: redemption will come only if their guide tells them, "You see
that arch from the Roman period? It's not important: but next
to it, left and down a bit, there sits a man who's bought fruit
and vegetables for his family."
Translated by Glenda Abramson & Tudor Parfitt
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Adam & Jen Gerber
Adam & Jeneice Ilkowitz
Alain Sasson
Alec Cecil & Diane Zultowsky
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Thanks to Committee Volunteers
Marjut Herzog
Evelyn Trachten
Jessica Winquist
Ana Turkienicz
Andrea Prigot
Andrea Rothberg
Beth Yelsey
Craig Falberg
Diane Cohen
Doris-Patt Smith
Eleanor Dreyfus
Elise Goldenberg
Heather & Sofie Schneider
Hildy Martin
Irina Dynov
Jeniece Ilkowitz
Joel Peck
Judy Cooper
Judy Shampanier
Matt Marcus
Mike Dvorkin
Mike Teitelbaum
Mimi Steinberg
Naomi Jaffe
Rachel Cochie
Roger Krulak
Roselle Glick
Suzanne Wies
Victor Birutti
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"Share a Simcha" allows congregants to share their news with our PJC community. Please submit news about family members -- engagements, births, job updates, kid achievements, community acknowledgements and any other milestones -- to the HaKol Editor, Barbara Saunders-Adams.
. Mazal Tov to proud grandparents Beth and Neil Yelsey on the birth of their first grandchild, Galen Paul Yelsey, son of Benjamin & Paula Yelsey.
. Yom Huledet Sameach! Evelyn Trachten!
. Mazal Tov to our two National Merit Scholarship Awards Finalists: Julia Myerson & Adina Sasson
Simcha is a regular HaKol feature, so keep your news and updates coming!
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Donations to the PJC from...
- Jonathan & Marjut Herzog
- Spencer & Ronnie Barback
- John & Jennifer Lanser
Donations to the Rabbi's Discretionary Fund from...
- David & Jeanne Radvany
- Jonathan & Marjut Herzog
- Meryl Druckerman
- Morris Stampfer
- Barbara Saunders-Adams
Billing statements are emailed monthly.
Checks made out to the Pelham Jewish Center can be mailed to Pelham Jewish Center, P.O. Box 418, Montvale, NJ 07645. Credit card payment instructions are on your monthly emailed billing statement, or go to https://thepjc.shulcloud.com/member.
If you are interested in paying via appreciated securities or IRA distributions, please email Mitch Cepler.
It is the policy of the Pelham Jewish Center to make every effort to assist members experiencing financial challenges. Financial challenges should never be a barrier to being an active member of the PJC community. You can reach out to President Steve Martin, Treasurer Mitchell Cepler or Rabbi Benjamin Resnick to speak confidentially concerning your ability to pay PJC dues and Learning Center tuition.
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