26th
June 2026
11th
Tammuz 5786
993
days since 7th October 2023
Shabbat
Shalom! I’m back! I missed writing to you
last week but we had a wonderful time discovering the City of Baku in
Azerbaijan. More of that later.
“The
proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in
trying to prolong them. I shall use my time”. Jack London
Goebbels understood that
propaganda works best when people do not realise they are being manipulated. He
had no interest in reasoned debate. His target was always the “man in the
street”, bombarded with simple slogans repeated until lies sounded like truth.
Facts became irrelevant; repetition became everything. That is why today's
disinformation campaign against Israel is so dangerous. It relies not on
history or evidence, but on relentless slogans, manipulated images and
accusations designed to provoke emotion rather than thought. “Genocide”,
“apartheid”, “colonialism” repeated often enough, many people stop asking
whether they are true. That is the power of propaganda: it replaces reason with
reflex.
New
York City
may be the saddest example of all. For so many years it felt like a very Jewish
city: not only because of the number of Jews who lived there, but because
Jewish life, Jewish humour, Jewish argument and Jewish values were woven into
its very fabric. New York, the city that was the true example of the Goldener
medina – the Golden Country that Jews dreamt of; the place where they could
find freedom before the founding of the State of Israel. To see such a city
elect leaders openly hostile to Israel, who succeed in sending voices
increasingly comfortable with that hostility to Congress, is deeply painful. It
did not happen all at once. It happened because slogans were repeated,
falsehoods were dressed up as compassion and hostility to the Jewish state was
slowly recast as virtue, until too many people forgot what prejudice looks like
when it is wrapped in fashionable language.
New
York is not alone.
The poison spreads wherever this propaganda is allowed to pass for truth.
Manchester, Melbourne, Montreal and too many other cities have all seen the
same ugly result: anti-Israel hysteria bleeding seamlessly into open
antisemitism, with violent acts carried out by the far Left, by old-fashioned
Jew-haters and by those who no longer bother to distinguish between the two.
That is the true outcome of propaganda. It does not merely distort facts; it
legitimises hatred and gives prejudice permission to act.
Theodor
Herzl
understood, with a sadness that still feels painfully familiar, that no matter
how successful, patriotic or well integrated Jews became, we would still be
“the other” when it suited the mood of the times. So he turned the whole
question on its head. Instead of asking how Jews might fit in elsewhere, he
asked why we should not simply go home. In doing so, he reminded us of
something both simple and profound: that we are not a race, nor merely a
religion, but Am Yisrael, the People of Israel. A people bound by
memory, faith, history and destiny, whose hearts never stopped turning towards
Zion. That is why we say Am Yisrael Chai. The People of Israel lives.
Eitan Chitayat, together with Dr Einat Wilf say it all right here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1teGYJPo1EM
Israel
must also have the courage to confront the wounds within its own open and democratic
society. We cannot condemn the lies told about us abroad while ignoring the
ugly truths at home: young Jews attacking innocent Palestinians, encouraged by
ministers such as Ben Gvir; the intolerable burden placed on those who do serve
in the IDF while large parts of the Haredi and Arab sectors do not; the
disgraceful anti-enlistment riots by extreme Haredi that bring roads and cities
to a standstill; and a government which, too often, seems more interested in
reshaping the character of Israel than in protecting the values on which it was
founded. This weakens Israel from within and hands our enemies the weapon they
seek.
Fifty
years ago this week,
an Air France flight from Tel Aviv was hijacked by two PFLP terrorists and two
German accomplices. At Entebbe, Uganda, Jewish and Israeli passengers were
separated from the others in a scene chillingly familiar to Jewish history.
Israel did not hesitate. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Defence Minister
Shimon Peres sent planes and commandos 4,000 kilometres to bring their people
home. In a ninety-minute operation, 102 hostages were rescued. Yoni Netanyahu
was the only Israeli soldier killed, while Dora Bloch, taken to hospital, was
later murdered by Ugandan forces. Entebbe remains a defining moment when Israel
showed the world—and Jews everywhere—that we do not abandon our own.
Venezuela is no friend of Israel
but when they suffer a truly catastrophic earthquake, as happened on Wednesday,
the Israeli emergency medical and rescue delegations race to help in the rescue
of those buried in the devastation and the clean-up left in the wake of the
doublet earthquake, both over 7 on the Richter Scale within 39 seconds of each
other with 26 aftershocks which has killed at least 164 people and destroyed
infrastructure.
The
Maccabiah
is known, and rightly so, as the Jewish Olympics. However, this year major
countries like Canada, Britain and Australia are not sending teams to the Maccabiah,
citing insurance and flight problems, but 90 year old Samuel Marshall is not
fazed, he is still leading India's delegation to the Maccabiah games, onto
Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem for the opening ceremony. He has been involved since
his first Maccabiah in 1957. Thank you, Samuel, you have shown the true
Maccabiah spirit.
Israeli
politics
are warming up toward a September election (hopefully). Who is Gadi Eizenkot?
The
quiet man, the former Chief of Staff, who in his own way, without deriding his
fellow candidates, is reaching high into the polls. His honesty and refusal to
enter the dirt and nastiness of politics came about when he left the current
government after his son Gal z”l was killed in Gaza. He said that the
government was not worthy of his son or the fallen, or of the hostages who died
in captivity. That is not a biography you can manufacture and it's the one
credential Netanyahu cannot answer.
Baku,
Azerbaijan.
Not the first place one may put on the bucket list of countries to visit but oh
my, would you be wrong! Baku is the most beautiful city with fabulous
architecture, incredible museums, concert halls, music academies, sports halls
and arenas around every corner. The carpet museum blew our minds! Imagine a
building in the shape of a rolled carpet! People were open and kind; religion,
while Moslem, is clear, but I didn’t see one hijab except in the tourist hotel.
In short, we highly and warmly recommend a visit to Baku, I promise you will be
enthralled.
We
got back from Baku
on Monday evening and then on Tuesday evening we went to the magnificent National
Library for a concert of the Jerusalem Music Academy in honour of the 250th
anniversary of the United States. A 100 strong student choir and a student jazz
band entertained us with wonderful excerpts from Porgy and Bess, West Side
Story, indeed almost every significant American modern music played and sung brilliantly;
jazz and choir. A fine tribute to the USA and a brilliant performance by the
students.
Today,
after writing to you,
I’ll finish off preparations for Shabbat and then take to the road, and head
off to see Rachel and family. Out of our village onto the main road, turning up
toward Ramot and then climbing up, up, up toward Nebe Samuel, Samuel’s Tomb.
There I will pull into the vista point to wonder at the mosaic that is
Jerusalem. Just as she is clearly made up of puzzles pieces joined by trees,
trees everywhere, Jerusalemites form a mosaic of race, creed and colour.
Christians - Orthodox, Copts, Catholic, Anglican; Muslims both Sunni and Shia; Mekoya
Mandaeism and, of course, Jews a multifarious society indeed. As I come down
the hill again, careful to reduce my speed because of the speed trap at the
bottom of the hill, I see Ramallah on my right. Many modern high-rise buildings
springing up everywhere but there is a huge difference, in Ramallah there is no
human mosaic, it is one colour, no diversity, sadly diversity of faith is not
just discouraged but dangerous. Oh dear, I started this paragraph with
determined optimism but slid into places to which I didn’t intend going. On the
other hand, I live on this wonderful open side of the fence so I’m lucky! That’s
it, changing subject.
On
a much lighter note, the World Cup has taken over our household and, I suspect,
that like Zvi, most of the male population are happily glued to their
televisions until the wee small hours. I should add that I mean football—the
proper game, where you actually kick the ball with your feet rather than carry
it around under your arm! What always strikes me is that countries which can
barely exchange diplomatic niceties somehow manage to play each other with
respect, shake hands at the final whistle and leave the politics off the pitch.
Unlike the Olympics, football usually remembers that the game itself is what
really matters. If only the rest of the world could do the same.
This
time Zvi and I sit side by side at our computers in the Mamad, by choice, not
because we are being bombarded. Together, but each busy with our own writing.
Zvi will head off for his parliament in the Botanical Gardens coffee shop and I
already told you where I am going! By the way, The Botanical Gardens has a
wonderful Tastes and Sounds of India celebration in the Botanical Gardens this
weekend. All invited by the beautiful and Sari’d Indian Ambassadress to Israel.
Maybe the parliament will eat curry to heat up their discussions!!
This week we celebrated 30 years of marriage
and I would love to hear from those of you who were at the party, the huge
celebration on June 23rd 1996, held under the beauty of the Walls of
the Old City of Jerusalem. The poles of the Chuppah were decorated by Gideon
and Rachel and held by Amiad, Leor, Valeri z”l and Gideon, with Jill as my Maid
of Honour, my late cousins Jean and Stuart stood in for my late parents, Kalman
and Alla (Zvi’s amazing parents) stood with us under the chuppah, or marriage
canopy, and the proceedings were led by Rabbi David Rosen at the request of his
brothers Jeremy and Mickey z”l. I will never forget singing “If I Forget Thee
Oh Jerusalem” opposite the newly lit walls, thanks to Edmundo and Raquel Safdie.
One funny aspect, in the nearby Sultan’s Pool the rehearsal was taking place
for the official ceremony of the Lights and we went down to ask the producer if
he would quieten the rehearsals just during the ceremony, he agreed. However,
as Zvi broke the traditional glass we suddenly heard about 300 Ram’s Horns (Shofars)
cut through the night!!!!
Perhaps
that’s the cue for the first song.
If
I Forget Thee Oh Jerusalem. https://youtu.be/jues4wiAFnQ?si=Y3Hgjru_RzNHHCSO
As
the 1,000th day since the horrors of 7th of October
nears, perhaps we should hear this song of sadness and hope. When the sun
will rise again by Nunu https://youtu.be/v3CVIpa4Rxc?si=ELfmqfjXyDJ2_0lV
One
of the songs performed at the Celebratory Concert for America’s 250th
birthday was “Somewhere” from West Side Story. A Steven Spielberg film,
Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics by Steven Sondheim, the story of Romeo and
Juliette in New York; but the song? For me it is the prayer that somewhere the
world will be safe for Jews and a reminder that now we have a safe haven for
the Jewish people, right here in Israel. https://youtu.be/oae6SW5bgeQ?si=qoBYhk_G5tt5FIq2
Shabbat
Shalom dear friends. You are so important to me. Nothing pleases me more than
meeting you and hearing from you, to know that you read my musings, that my
letters help you to understand this complex part of the world. I wish you
peace, Shalom, Salaam, Pax, Pais, this weekend ad every weekend. Maybe the
light from our candles can eradicate the darkness and bring kindness.
With
love from Jerusalem
Sheila
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