160504
4th
May, 2016
Dear
Friends,
It
isn't Shabbat, Pesach has been and gone and it is almost Holocaust
Remembrance Day here in Israel.
Those
who can tell their story and those who heard their stories are slowly leaving
this earth and we must, we have to honour their memory and the memory of those
who perished. How we ensure they are never forgotten is up to you, up to me, up
to all of us. This link of Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum gives you the
testimonies of the survivors. Click on a town and hear the words http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/remembrance/multimedia.asp#!prettyPhoto
We are
not a people that wreaks revenge, we are a people that avenges the deaths of
millions by thriving, by celebrating life, which is why I want to begin by
telling you of our Passover, our Pesach.
We
set the tables in a "Chet" shape, an open rectangle, with everyone
sitting around the outside so we all faced one another, a feat achieved by
putting our lounge suite onto the famous veranda to leave space for the tables.
All achieved with the incredible help of Elisabeth and George Gelb. It really
was delightful. 26 people, 4 languages, rapt attention and space in the middle
for the little children to play. We ate all the traditional foods – from the
parsley dipped in salt water (karpas), the sinus clearing freshly grated
horseradish (maror), the delicious combining (charoset), the hard boiled eggs
in salt water and then the real food. The traditional foods depend upon the
provenance of the family, being Ashkenazi we don't eat rice or beans or any
legumes (kitniot) which may seem to limit the menu but really doesn't! The
reading of the Exodus was fascinating, especially as the children are getting
big enough to join in and of course the songs at the end great fun – especially
when singing about "only One Kid" (Chad Gadya) we make the
appropriate animal sounds!!!
Passover
continued with a short visit to Tel Aviv to see our lovely French
friends Alain and Martine. We went to the Tahana and discovered the IDF
Museum next door. Somewhat dilapidated for lack of funds it is still a
fascinating museum, full of history and artefacts. Well worth a visit. Imagine
my delight at finding a kosher for Passover Pizza place (Mehadrin even) in Tel
Aviv – really!!! I had Matza Spinach Lasagne which was absolutely delicious.
On
Wednesday we went to Mahane Yehuda on the light rail. It was packed. The
display of fruit and vegetables was back in soft fruit mode. Amazing nectarines
and peaches, piles of cherries and grapes, everything aplenty. We went to
Tzidkiyahus for our pickles, then across to Shmulik for the cheeses – wonderful,
tasty, local cheeses, every single one kosher for Passover. The sound of the
costermongers and the aroma of their wares don't change – they are as sweet as
their displays.
On
Thursday we celebrated the second days of Passover by inviting 11 friends to
dinner on Thursday and then Shabbat dinner by inviting another 10. It was so
much fun!!!! I loved the discussions, some arguments and their delight at
hearing my Zvi's melodic Kiddush. Many Israelis are amazed to find I change all
my dishes, as per the tradition of Passover, and we do not allow any food into
the house unless Kosher for Passover. A few try to tell us the "in the
modern day" one doesn't need to do all those things but I do it for my
parents, and their parents and theirs……….. and for our children, for Jewish
continuity, and because I love it!!!
Sunday
Zvi and I went on a special Press Club Tour of the new Israel Museum "Pharaoh
in Canaan – the Untold Story" Exhibit. Highly recommended http://www.imj.org.il/exhibitions/presentation/exhibit/?id=1073
Sunday
night my Cardiff friend Adrienne came to stay with her Abe. They had a
Bar-Mitzva at the Kotel the next morning and stayed with us rather than schlepp
from Haifa early in the morning. Adrienne and I talked of our childhood and our
traditions, old friends and new lives, and I got to know Abe as we sat out on
our veranda overlooking Jerusalem.
Why
on earth would I bother with such normal stories when the world is
going crazy? Because that is how we cope. We do not try to find logic in a
world where a Palestinian terrorist who was shot by a soldier makes more news
than ethnic cleansing in Africa, hundreds of thousands murdered in Syria and
bombs in Churches in Iraq. We do not try to find logic in a world which denies
the Holocaust to excuse their deeply rooted racism. We do not try to find logic
in hatred for Israel which gives the world Tikkun Olam on every level, hatred
based on lies and rhetoric. We cannot find logic in the media which spits
hatred on Israel, ignores the killing of Christians, while kowtowing to Islam.
We do
not try to find logic in the Shoah because there is none.
This
afternoon
all places of entertainment and restaurants will close, throughout Israel. The
television will show only movies about the Shoah, testimonies of Survivors,
stories of the greatest horror the world has ever known. Tomorrow morning, at
10:00 precisely, Israel will come to a standstill as the siren wails our grief.
It is an eerie, all-encompassing grief, as if the souls of those who perished
are screaming out "But you said Never Again". The siren wails over
our amnesia, over our determined obliviousness to what is happening in our
country – in your country. Jews are again the scapegoat after a clever,
thorough and intentional campaign of anti-Semitic rhetoric by a very clever
enemy.
We
believed it could never happen again but it has and is. Ethnic cleansing has
taken place many times, cruel and determined. The Tutsi genocide in Rwanda; the
Armenian genocide by the Turks; Cambodia, Bosnia, Darfur, Iraq, each horrific,
each created by intense hatred, but none as precise, as calculated, as
organised as the Holocaust. I cannot envisage 6 million Jews, or 10 million
victims, I really cannot. Two nights ago we went to see a prize winning film at
Yad Vashem "Son of Saul". The film doesn't follow the
"usual" Holocaust movies – no foot-clicking Nazi guards or emaciated
bodies; a hand-held camera follows the face of the hero as he goes about his robotic
gruesome business just trying to survive, until he decides to save the body of
a young child. A harrowing and important movie. Tonight we will see a new
production of "Anna" the story of Anne Frank at the Cameri Theatre in
Tel Aviv. I cannot imagine 6 million, but I can identify with one young girl.
Will
our children remember?
Will our children care? Can our children recognize the warning signs? Can we?
To
set one lie aside,
one that is perpetrated constantly as a great excuse to hate Israel, The Reverend
Dumisani Washington speaks on Prager University about refugees – the Jewish
refugees from Arab countries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY0FOPa-j-E
To
set another lie aside – The Temple Mount and UNESCO. Khaled Abu Toameh
explains why the Palestinians don't want security cameras on the Temple Mount http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6798/temple-mount-cameras
The
Holocaust was just a German thing- Prof Alan Dershowitz shows us the lie
there too http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7964/holocaust-villains-heroes
As I
look at the view from my veranda, I wonder why we are vilified. IsraAid
is in Ecuador, Japan, Nepal, Haiti – wherever needed http://www.israaid.co.il/; Mashav, the
governmental aid programme teaches agriculture to feed the hungry and provides medicine
to the sick http://mfa.gov.il/mfa/mashav/Pages/default.aspx
; Save a Childs Heart Brings children to Israel irrespective of race or
religion http://www.saveachildsheartus.org/
; 180,000 Palestinians were treated in Israeli hospitals https://www.standwithus.com/news/article.asp?id=1671 - all this and so much more yet we are vilified.
Why? Sadly, there can be only one reason.
Now
do you understand why I began with the stories of a wonderful Passover?
What holds us together as a people are traditions. What will keep us safe is
our pride in what and who we are. The second we regret our inheritance as Jews
and go back to the groveling, apologetic, Uriah Heep stance, we are lost.
Perhaps
two songs relate to our constant struggle against hatred. Vehi Sheamda, our Passover Prayer (English translation). The
song has haunted me for days – I cannot stop singing it, praying https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rnoQeukJP0
The
second song is of greater importance perhaps. Al Kol Eleh – Above all this. The
honey and the sting; the bitter and the sweet; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbw2FTYHCTg
This
morning I am meeting some very special friends at the Botanical Gardens Caffit.
Surrounded by beauty, nature, kindness and personal history I can better understand
the importance of our inherited memory of a time without beauty, nature,
kindness and the determined attempt to wipe out our inherited memory.
Bring a
little love into the world and the light will brighten a million lives. Bring
honesty and morality and it will brighten a billion.
Remember,
it starts with you.
With
much love from Jerusalem, the Golden City, the core of our dreams and prayers.
Sheila
No comments:
Post a Comment