220421
21st
April 2022
Gut
Shabbes, Shabbat Shalom, I hope you had a beautiful Easter and Ramadan Kareem
Time
and again I try to understand what drives the international media to villainise
Israel. Let me set the scene. The Temple Mount, Harem el Sharif by whatever
name you choose, is holy to the three monotheistic religions. A very few times
a year, with full agreement with the WAQF and the Jordanian Government, a small
number of Jews are allowed on to the Temple Mount. This year in the lead-up to
Ramadan and Passover there were already major disruptions of the fragile peace,
such as attacking Jews on their way to the Western Wall with sticks and rocks;
a gang of Arab youth standing in wait for a public bus carrying Jews and Arabs
to the Dung Gate being throwing huge rocks at the bus injuring those inside;
the gun and knife attacks you heard of in the news…….in other words something
was definitely about to happen.
In
the meantime,
inside the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, young political hooligans
desecrated the Mosque by entering with their shoes on sporting Hamas flags,
collecting rocks and fireworks, destroying artifacts, then using all of the
above to attack Jews and the police who as a last resort entered the Mosque,
arrested the perpetrators and allowed some twenty thousand peaceful worshippers,
from all over the area, to finally enter the Mosque to pray. One friend, a
devout Moslem devoted to peace, felt dismay and anger at the desecration and
sheer terrorism which led to the storming of the Mosque.
Perhaps
the best example
of the perfect response to antagonistic journalism came from Deputy Mayor of
Jerusalem Fleur Hassan Nahoum in an interview with the BBC on the
subject of the rioters in Al Aqsa https://youtu.be/fON2xpENZ1o
To
suggest that we simply do not go to The Old City is to suggest that
the war in 1967 was lost and Judaism and Christianity have lost the battle for
their holy sites. I still remember my first visit to Jerusalem in 1963 when we
could only look over the beauty of the City of Gold from a distance, singing
the Passover prayer – Next Year in Jerusalem. We were not referring to the
still small new city, nor the number 14 but, not even Mount Herzl, our prayer
was for what was held in those ramparts surrounding our holiest of sites, The
Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
On
the other hand,
in a project that has lasted several years, the Via Dolorosa has been made
wheelchair accessible! Those of you who know the Old City will understand just
how huge the project was, trying not to destroy and ancient stones in the
narrow passageways that make up the Stations of the Cross, but it was finished
just in time for Easter and the thousands of pilgrims that have returned to
Jerusalem after Covid.
So
we clearly survived
our personal battle with Covid! As I told you our Seder was cancelled, everyone
having to hurriedly cobble together food and preparations, and Zvi and I read
the Story of the Exodus from Egypt, managing to get almost to the end before
collapsing into bed. Our food was made up of contributions from my incredible
daughter who left her famous long cooked beef and turmeric chicken, balloons to
cheer us up and flowers outside the door, then standing outside to wave and
blow kisses with the children; Leor came with the four girls (having just
recovered from Covid) after they raided the Kosher le Pesach (Mahedrin even)
ready food store in Abu Ghosh – yes that's what I said, the Mahedrin kosher for
Passover ready food store in Abu Ghosh a predominantly Moslem town right next
to us https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghosh
. Abu Ghosh shares its Biblical name with Kiriat Yearim, a religious village
next to it where obviously many of the clients for the Mahedrin store came
from! To continue, our downstairs neighbour Yael called to me to open the door
where I found home made Gefilte fish and chicken soup with kneidlach…… and
other neighbours acted similarly leaving gifts of flowers and wine!!
The
next few days
went by in a fog of coughing and generally feeling sorry for ourselves, but
actually gave our bodies time to rest from our insanely active lives. We spent
a lot of time catching up on Netflix series and eating the wonderful gifts of
food. Luckily I always like to be prepared (a former Girl Scout) so all our
Passover dishes were already brought up from our storeroom! It was probably the
quietest Passover we ever had but we are out of it, received our official
letters of "freedom" from the Ministry of Health and yesterday
finally both did antigen tests and were negative!!
Just
a word about the last week. Do not be disturbed by the public words of the various
Arab leaders, especially King Abdullah of Jordan, or to be more accurate his
Prime Minister, who condemned Israeli incitement on Harem al Sharif. Firstly
the Temple Mount is officially under the direction of Jordan, secondly King
Abdullah was having back surgery in German, his population is now 70%
Palestinian(remember the last 2-State solution) and his position as a Bedouin
leader is tenuous and finally all the Arab leaders speak to the populace but
keep to their position re Israel.
Do
you know what the Maimouna is? In essence it is a celebration of the end
of Passover, Pesach, but it also so much more!! A tradition started by the Jews
of the town of Magheb in Morocco, it is an epicurean festival of huge
proportions accompanied by enough sugar to ensure diabetes in all who attend!!
A fabulous display of multicoloured sweet treats, all lovingly prepared by the
hostess. It is said to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Maimonedes,
indeed many explanations of both the name and the reason but here it is well
explained https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/maimouna-a-post-passover-celebration/ We will go to our friends and neighbours Yehudit
and Zalman Zvidetski for the Maimounah and if you wonder at their very Ashkenaz
name and its relationship to Morocco, Yehudit's family come from Morocco!
Everything has honey, whether the pancake like moufletas, stuffed dates,
coconut cookies, little mini finger food style sticky, gooey deliciousness.
Luckily for me I have a nut allergy otherwise I would be at least 10 kilos
heavier just looking at it all!!
Yesterday
was very special.
Daniel's best friend Justin (aka Paddy) and his fabulous wife Daniella and two
of their four children, Orly and Sam, came to visit. In celebration of their
visit, Poodle came especially from Tel Aviv and Rachel, Yosef, Talia and Ayala
came too! It was such a joy. We all sat outside despite the somewhat brisk
weather. After checking out the food on the table the children all went inside
and did some drawing and painting led by Talia, which left all of us to just be
together. We spoke about the Dr Daniel Cammerman Impact-se Library and of course
had hoped to go to see the Dr Dan's Room in Shalva but Shalva closes for
Passover. They'll be back soon by which time the final touches will be made to
the Studio and the young people of Shalva will be having fun there. We also
spoke about Impact-se and the incredible work done by the organisation/research
institute I am so proud to Chair. www.impact-se.org
If I may be very British and tell you that Justin was "gobsmacked" at
our work.
I
must get to my preparations for the second half of Passover! We are alone
tonight but we have wonderful guests on Friday night – Nattie and Yolli
Zonszein – and I need to have something really tasty because Nattie always
comes up with delicious concoctions for us when we visit them – she is a
fabulous cook.
So
that's it for this week. I just hope and pray that the coming week will be more
peaceful and that we can celebrate each other's festivals, our differences are
all part of the beauty of Jerusalem, as I always say the rainbow would be very boring
if it was all one colour, we need each other to create the rainbow of humanity
that reveres the Golden City.
One
aspect of Passover is that it is not the first nor the last story of oppression
of Jews, although one of ultimate triumph as we leave slavery to freedom, but
one song, a short Passover song, that expresses that is V'Hee Sheamda, He who
stood up.
And this (Hashem’s blessings and the Torah) is what kept our fathers and what keeps us surviving. For,
not only one arose and tried to destroy us, rather in every generation they try
to destroy us, and the Almighty saves
us from their hands. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnnKFpiP1hs
Since
your favourite songs come from Koolulam and my favourite song is Al Kol Eleh
and we all love Shlomi Shabat I decided to combine them all with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxzR9Z-kG6Q
The Israeli police and
Border Guards get a rotten press and after all they are the front line not only
against crime and terrorism but to help us all on every level. They are above
all ordinary human beings, Jews, Moslem and Christian Israelis, who have a
sense of duty. I loved this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwVhpiQzlUM
The chorus says it all
Here
is home, here's the heart
And
from you I'll not depart
Our
forefathers, our roots,
And
we are the flowers, the tunes
A
tribe of brothers and sisters
Wishing
you a wonderful Shabbat and of course a sweet Maimunah. With much love from
Jerusalem the city so beautiful that everyone wants it! There's plenty to
share!!
Before
I go, I have to beg you to teach your children to accept those different from
themselves, it's called Tolerance. Tolerance has nothing to do with tolerating
things that you abhor, it is teaching our children about that rainbow of
humanity, that only when all the colours shine in their own space, in their own
way, touching but not mixing, will we raise a generation of understanding. It
doesn't happen only in schools, it comes from home, it comes from the heart.
Sheila
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