AACI Trip to Portugal part 2

Once more, thanks to Jack Cohen as roving reporter, for sharing the interesting details of his recent trip to Portugal with the AACI. This is Part Two.

Click Here to view Part One

Sunday we drove north-east from Lisbon, arriving at the small town of Castelo de Vida (Castle of vines) around noon.  The main reason for visiting this town is that it has a recognized and partially restored synagogue.  We were met by the former Mayor Mr, Carolino, who was the Mayor during the revolution of 1974.

He was able to trace his family origins back to 1320 from Toledo in Spain. The family business was metal working and they continued that in Castelo de Vida, and he showed us their working shop with some original tools. Because he was the Mayor and because he was a Bnei Anusim he bought and renovated a small partly hidden synagogue in the Juderia, which he took us to see.  Where the Juderia starts there are Magen David in the stone pavements.  The synagogue is a small museum and has a memorial wall with the names of 400 Converso Jews who were taken from there and murdered by the Inquisition in Lisbon.

After lunch we drove further towards the Spanish border and at a place called Portagem there is an intact Roman bridge over the river Sever that separated Portugal from Spain. Next to it is a Roman tower that used to be the customs post in the 15th century.  It was here that a large portion of the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492 paid to cross into Portugal.  Altogether there were ca 100 – 200,000 Jews who entered Portugal and because there were so many of them they were distributed around all the towns and villages in the region.  The total population of Portugal was then only ca. 1 million so the Jews were a large and influential group. On the wall of the tower was a plaque commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Jews expulsion from Spain.

We then drove to the highest point locally at Marvao where there is a small village adjacent to a huge Moorish castle.  The name of the Moorish General was Marwan, so it is named after him, and he had his headquarters there with a magnificent view over this area of Portugal.
From there we drove to Trancoso where we are staying while we visit the Jewish areas there and in nearby Belmonte.  At dinner we were addressed by Jose (Yosef) Levy Domingos, a journalist by profession, but a leader of the Jewish community in Belmonte and by the local Rabbi Elisha Salas, who originally came from Chile and is now an emissary of Shavei Israel to the Crypto-Jews.

The visit to Trancoso and Belmonte represents the core of our reason to be in Portugal and our interest in the Secret Jews.  We drove about an hour from Trancoso to Belmonte, where we were met by Yosef.  He took us on a walking tour of the extensive Jewish quarter (Juderia) and pointed out specific items of interest.  For example, it was always known where the Juderia started and now there is a magen David in the pavement to indicate the location.  He showed us crosses carved into the stone lintels to show where the Inquisition had confiscated Jewish houses.  Then he took us to the impressive new synagogue Beit Eliahu that he was involved in planning and building in 1996.  It has 32 families (300 members) that have returned to Judaism, and there are many more who retain their secret Jewish status even today.

It is estimated that ca. 40,000 New Christians (Secret Jews) were murdered by the Inquisition from 1536 – 1821, when it was finally abolished.  Of those, about 1,200 were burnt in autos da fe, mostly in Lisbon and Evora.  But, even after the Inquisition the Secret Jews were not safe.  During the 48 years of the Salazar dictatorship no Jewish practices were allowed in Portugal.  It was only after the 1974 revolution that religious practises other than Catholicism were allowed.  Still even today many Bnei Anusim will not openly declare that they are Jewish, but many will confess this confidentially. It is impossible to estimate the actual number of Secret Jews.

Returning to Trancoso we were taken on a tour of the extensive Juderia.  Here the houses are made of stone and all are grey.  The Jews, to show that they were converses, carved crosses on the lintels, but they modified the crosses with the letter shin at the ends and also added menoroth.   It was required that conversos move out of the Juderia and be replaced by Old Christians so that the conversos would be removed from Judaic influences.  It was a capital offense to “Judaize”, i.e. say or do anything about Judaism, including having Hebrew books.  Since the practice of Judaism was publicly banned and there were no Jewish institutions, the secret practise of Judaism continued underground, in the home.  This explains why so many of the victims of the Inquisition were women.
Yosef took us to the new modern Jewish Center that they have built there that is not yet officially opened.  He told us that although they have support from the local municipality, a priest complained to him that the JC was built too close to a church.  He replied that they built the Church on land confiscated from Jews, who they killed.  But, in general there is strong support for the return of Jewish worship and symbols as well as the open return of the Jews themselves.

watch this space for part 3 of 3 about the Portugal trip… click here for part one

here is a link to Jack’s blog. http://www.commentfromisraelblog.blogspot.co.il/2013/05/castelo-de-vida.html

The AACI is your place for Kosher and Friendly travel. Always staffed by AACI personnel to insure your worry-free trip.Click here for upcoming trips.

 

AACI Trip to Portugal part one

Special thanks to guest blogger, Jack Cohen who experienced this wonderful trip first hand and was kind enough to share his experience.

This is the first part of three installments. stay tuned for the next installment.

And watch for photos to come (I hope)

Our first day on the trip to Portugal was exhausting.  We flew overnight with a stop-over in Brussels, since there is no direct flight from Israel to Lisbon.  In the early morning we took a coach tour of Brussels and we saw some of the many grandiose buildings that King Leopold II had built. He had a huge personal fortune because he personally owned the Belgian Congo in Africa, and exploited the natives to produce rubber (for details see “King Leopold’s Ghost” by Adam Hochschild).  Then we hopped back aboard a plane and flew 2.5 hrs to Lisbon. Our intrepid guide Michael Tuchfeld met us at the airport and we went off in our shiny coach.  We had a tour of Lisbon with our Portuguese guide and it is very beautiful, quite hilly and varied.  Although Lisbon had been settled by the Romans, who called it Lusitania, most of Lisbon was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 1775, so very little remains that is earlier.  We saw the medieval monument called the Belem Tower (Belem is derived from Bethlehem) and the relatively modern monument to the Portuguese discoveries of the world (from Brazil to Japan).  We went to the district of Alfama that used to include a Jewish quarter and we saw the street still called the Juderia.  There had been three Jewish quarters in Lisbon but nothing remains. After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, about one third of those who left went to Portugal.  After King Manual I ascended to the throne he decided to keep the Jews but get rid of their Jewish identity, so he forbade the practise of Judaism and had the Jews forcibly converted, but he gave them a grace period of 20 years during which they would not be investigated.  In 1496 he wished his son to marry the daughter of the Catholic King of Spain, but they made a requirement that all Jews be expelled from Portugal.   Even though he issued an edict of expulsion, instead he forcibly converted those who remained practising Jews.  However, in 1506 there was a massacre of Jews in Russio Square in Lisbon, about 2,500 were murdered in the square outside one of the main Churches.  According to the history books, King Manuel did not intend this to happen so he arrested the perpetrators. We went to see the memorial stone with a Magen David carved into it that commemorates the massacre and nearby an inscribed apology from the Church. While we were there, Michael told us that we were not ordinary tourists, like Japanese or Italians, but as Jews we had a particular connection to that spot and that history.  While we were gathered around this memorial some passers-by stopped to hear what was being said.  One man afterwards spoke to us and told us that his father had been Jewish but his mother was Catholic and although he was brought up Christian he thought of himself as partly Jewish and he said he liked Israel and said “shalom” to us when he left.   This was a very nice gesture. On several occasions we were told that there is no anti-Semitism in Portugal.  There are no anti-Semitic parties like in Hungary or Greece and there are no groups of fascist thugs as there are in Britain and Germany. Indeed estimates of the proportion of Portuguese with Jewish antecedents vary from 20% to 50%.  We then climbed back aboard the bus and went to the venue where the Jewish community had arranged kosher meals for us during our stay in Lisbon and then finally after eating to the hotel Altis and a much needed sleep.

Day 2 and we drove to Evora about an hour’s drive from Lisbon.  On the way there we saw cork trees growing, for which Portugal is famous.  Evora is a beautiful old town that had an important role in Jewish history in Portugal.  In the 15th century it had the largest Jewish population in Portugal (ca. 4,000) and had a large Juderia.  Since the King liked to vacation in the town he was glad to have his many Jewish assistants live there. That was until he decided to force the Jews to give up Judaism and convert to Christianity.

The King’s brother became the Head of the Inquisition in Evora and was especially cruel in mistreating the conversos, Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity. Passing the Roman remains we went to the main town square, Giraldo Square, where the headquarters of the Inquisition had been and where they burned the Jews at the auto-da-fe, where Jews were given the last chance to recant or be burnt alive. We sat there and ate our lunch, strange feeling, everything around was normal.  Both the Jewish victims and the hateful perpetrators would not have believed this outcome.

We then visited the town library that had been a private scholarly library founded several hundred years ago.  In their vault they had an original volume of a book published in 1496 by Abraham Zacuto who was an advisor to the King and a famous mathematician.  He compiled tables of data that enabled many navigators to successfully expand the Portuguese empire.  But, even he had to flee to avoid forced conversion.  He escaped to N. Africa and then to Holland.  It was a privilege for us to see this original book, usually kept in a safe.

We returned to Lisbon and that night we went out to hear Fado music, the authentic voice of Portuguese culture, in an area known as the Bairro Alto.

Today we drove west from Lisbon to the farthest western point in continental Europe.  En route we stopped in the beautiful little city of Sintra, where we toured the former Royal Palace that was a vacation home to many Portuguese Kings.  On the very top of the hill, which we didn’t visit was the Moorish Castle from which the Arabs controlled the area for 300 years.

Then we drove to Cabo Roca (Rocky Cape) where many of the adventurous sailors went to pray as they stared across the Atlantic Ocean into the unknown.  It is a very remote and wild area with very high cliffs.  But driving a little along the coast from there we came to the wonderful little holiday resort of Cascais (pronounced Cashcaish), where we stopped to have lunch and sat in the sun by the beach.  By the way the weather has been perfect for touring, except the wind was very strong at Cabo Roca.

Then we continued along the coast to Estoril, past the famous casino, and along the Tegus River back to Lisbon.  Tonite is Shabbat, so we are walking to the kosher restaurant to have our Shabbat meal. The synagogue Shaare Tikvah is just around the corner from there.  It is quite large but very discrete.

watch this space for part 2 of 3 about the Portugal trip… click here for part two

here is a link to Jack’s blog. http://www.commentfromisraelblog.blogspot.co.il/2013/05/trip-to-portugal.html

The AACI is your place for Kosher and Friendly travel. Always staffed by AACI personnel to insure your worry-free trip.Click here for upcoming trips.

 

With Brush and Pen – A Selection of Some of the Winning Entries

This gallery contains 44 photos.

AACI Children’s and Teen’s Arts Exhibit With Brush and Pen   Join the fun on facebook – Tag yourself in our photo album. (You don’t have to be a member of facebook to view the album.) Children’s & Teen’s Art Show Opening Night was fabulous and the crowd was standing-room only! View this gallery for images …

An unknown American hero of the Holocaust

With thanks for this blogpost to Jack Cohen

(the original post can be found at http://www.commentfromisraelblog.blogspot.co.il/2013/04/an-unknown-american-hero-of-holocaust.html

Beyond the famous individuals who saved thousands of Jewish lives in the Holocaust (Shoah), such as Raoul Wallenberg and Oscar Schindler, there are the less famous heroes, some of whom were overlooked and forgotten.  Among these were the British Major Frank Foley, the Portuguese Consul in Hungary Sousa Mendes (who may have been of Bnei Anusim origin), the Japanese Vice-Consul in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, and a Chinese diplomat in Berlin, Feng-Shan Ho, each of whom saved many Jewish lives by providing visas, against the wishes of their Governments.  Another, who worked for the US Government in Washington DC and who deserves to be included among them, was Josiah E. DuBois Jr.  By his actions he may have saved more Jewish lives than any other righteous gentile. We were informed about the story of Josiah DuBois in advance of the upcoming Yom Hashoah by Leslie Portnoy, a regular lecturer at AACI who always gives a meticulous and enlightening talk.

DuBois was born in Camden, NJ, in 1913 and went on to study law at Penn U.  In 1941, at the start of the Holocaust, DuBois was working in the Foreign Funds Control Board of the US Treasury.  A request for $170,000 to pay a bribe to rescue 70,000 Jews came to his desk and he immediately approved it and passed it on to the State Dept.  He was later horrified to find that State had deliberately delayed dealing with the request, and despite his efforts he was not able to get them to act for five and a half months, by which time the Jews had already been murdered!  This was a shock to him and he started collecting information on the apparently deliberate and systematic actions (and inaction) of the State Department under Asst. Secty. Breckenridge Long, whose policy was later expounded in an intra-department memo of June 1940: “We can delay and effectively stop for a temporary period of indefinite length the number of immigrants (i.e. Jews) into the United States. We could do this by simply advising our consuls to put every obstacle in the way and to require additional evidence and to resort to various administrative devices which would postpone and postpone and postpone the granting of the visas.”. Thus, 90% of the US quota places available to immigrants from countries under German control were never filled. (Later Long was caught lying to Congress about the number of visas authorized and was forced to resign in 1944.  But, he and other anti-Semites had done irreparable damage to the Jewish people.

In response to this systematic policy, that was never opposed by Secty. of State Cordell Hull or Pres. Roosevelt, Du Bois began to collect information and on 25 December 1943 he wrote a Report to his boss, Treasury Secty. Henry Morgenthau, who happened to be Jewish but who had deliberately avoided taking up the case of the European Jews with Roosevelt.  This now famous case of whistle-blowing was entitled “Report to the Secretary of the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of the Jews.”  To avoid the same kind of bureaucratic silencing that had been going on for those crucial years DuBois told Morgenthau that if the Secretary did not pass his report on to the President he would resign and present the report to a press conference.  To avoid problems in the election then due in onlly 10 months, Roosevelt established the War Refugee Board, in which DuBois was General Counsel, with his colleague John W. Pehle as its Director.

Very quickly the WRB began to take actions to rescue the lives of Jews in Europe by various means, including bribery.  (This usually required sending money, but they also arranged for Raoul Wallenberg as an emissary under Swedish auspices to help rescue the Jews of Budapest)  They also established havens for Jewish refugees in N. Africa, Sweden and elsewhere, but only one in the USA, at Fort Ontario, New York, that housed a mere 982 Jews.  After the war ended in 1945 it was estimated that the WRB’s direct actions had saved ca. 200,000 Jews, and many more had been rescued, ca. 48,000 in Transnistria alone, as well as the 120,000 saved in Budapest.  All of this could not have happened if DuBois had not acted on his principles.  He ended his crucial Report with these words: “If men of the temperment and philosophy of Long continue in control of immigration administration, we may as well take down that plaque from the Statue of Liberty and block out the ‘lamp beside the golden door.’”  However, WRB director Pehle described the work as “too little, too late”.

Later DuBois was part of the legal team as part of the Nuremberg Trials that prosecuted those who ran I.G. Farben, the chemical company that used slave-labor under the Nazis.  He wrote a memoir about this trial entitled “the Devil’s Chemists.”After that he played no further role in these events and his crucial role was almost entirely forgotten until Arthur Morse in his 1968 book mentioned him.

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PS. This is my summary of Leslie Portnoy’s lecture that was based largely on Rafael Medoff’s book “Blowing the Whistle on Genocide: Josiah E. DuBois and the struggle for an American response to the Holocaust,” Purdue Univ. Press, 2008.

original post can be found at:  http://www.commentfromisraelblog.blogspot.co.il/2013/04/an-unknown-american-hero-of-holocaust.html

AACI is the home for English Speakers in Israel with offices in Jerusalem, Netanya, Tel Aviv, Beer Sheva and Haifa.

AACI Jerusalem – Dr. Max and Gianna Glassman Family Center
Pierre Koenig 37, corner of Poalei Tzedek 2 (across from Hadar Mall)
Talpiot, Jerusalem
MAP
Buses # 10, 21 & 49 stop on Pierre Koenig across from AACI; 71, 72, 74 & 75 stop at Tzomet Habankim, a 10-minute walk away.
(02) 566-1181 for more information about any programs or to register.

Sneak Preview of Photos from Children’s and Teen’s Art Show – With Brush and Pen – April 11 2013

Last Thursday, April 11th AACI hosted the premiere of the 3rd Annual Children’s and Teen’s Art Show, with “Brush and Pen” thanks to a generous contribution by former AACI President, Gordon Sugarman (Betsy Sugarman ז”ל Memorial Fund) in memory of his beloved wife, Betsy z’l.

Kol HaKavod to all the kids and teens who participated…and their families…and of course, our beloved staff and volunteers who made this event happen!

In addition, Dr. Max & Gianna Glassman, whose generous gift has allowed us to thrive in our new facility in Talpiot were present and Dr. Max addressed the assembled crowd and Gianna assisted in the presentation of awards.

To say it was an amazing night barely describes the excitement, joy, enthusiasm and talent that we witnessed in a standing room only crowd.

We shot lots of photographs and even some video. The photos are up on our facebook page (please like us if you have not already done so) and even if you do not use facebook ordinarily, you can view them here.
http://on.fb.me/YwxdAg

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Here are just a few of the beautiful examples of talent demonstrated by our young artists. Please come to AACI-Dr. Max & Gianna Glassman Family Center to view the art and prose that is on display. And visit us on facebook to tag your work and photos of you.

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Enjoy the photos and please tag them and share them with your friends and family, and if you have more photos to add, please let us know so we can include your photos too.

Stay tuned for more to come… video, and photos of the entries.

If you are not already getting the AACI e-newsletter, sign up here so that you will be informed about other great events for the whole family happening at AACI.

Plans are already in the works for a great July 4th/Canada Day Celebration and you will surely want to join in for lots of fun!

If you would like to share in the excitement by sponsoring an event like this, or one that would be meaningful to a person you would like to remember or honor, please contact Bryna Lee at 02-566-1181 ext. 324 or bjacobson at aacidotorgdotil.

AACI Jerusalem – Dr. Max and Gianna Glassman Family Center
Pierre Koenig 37, corner of Poalei Tzedek 2 (across from Hadar Mall)
Talpiot, Jerusalem
MAP
Buses # 10, 21 & 49 stop on Pierre Koenig across from AACI; 71, 72, 74 & 75 stop at Tzomet Habankim, a 10-minute walk away.
(02) 566-1181 for more information about any programs or to register.

Happy 65th Birthday Israel!

with thanks to http://www.jewishfed.org/event/israel-65th-independence-day-party for the graphic

Special thanks to Reesa Stone for this post in honor of Israel’s 65th birthday celebration.

Reams and reams are written in the days before Israel Independence Day about how wonderful it is to live in Israel. Indeed, Israelis have just been ranked the seventh happiest people in the world. This, despite the wars, the growing isolation and anti-Zionism in the world, the terrorist and missile attacks. I’ve decided to add to the list from my own perspective as an immigrant ex-Winnipeger, a veteran resident of 28 years in Beer Sheva, and an observant Jew, in no particular order, my 65 facts (one for each year of modern State of Israel’s existence) that still make my heart flutter and why I thank G-d every day that I live in Israel:

1. Everyone has two birthdays, a Gregorian and a Jewish one. (editor’s note – this is because we have the Gregorian calendar that most of the world uses plus the Hebrew calendar that informs the Jewish and Israeli people of the timing of the Jewish holidays, birthdays and yahrtzeits, which are anniversaries of the death of a loved one that are observed by the family.)
   

   with thanks to http://www.squidoo.com/hanukkah-begin for this graphic

2. In some years, there is as much as a month between the two birthdays. We call this period the birthday ‘Chol Hamoed’ (a term used for the intermediary days of Passover and Sukkot), and reserve the right to celebrate anytime.
3. There is only one possible three-day holiday. In Israel, only the first and last days of Pesach (Passover) and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) are chagim (holidays) and not the first and last two days, as is the case everywhere else in the world. The only holiday that is two days is Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year), so when it falls on Thursday and Friday, we add Shabbat and have a three-day holiday. We never have to worry about Sukkot or Pesach. Which means that
   

   with thanks to http://suzeweinberg.typepad.com/brooks_and_suze/2013/03/celebrating-passover.html for this image

4. We have only one seder (traditional Passover festive ritual meal). If there is no other reason to live in Israel, this is it. We have one seder on Pesach and finished.
5. Bread is VERY hard to find during Pesach.
6. Jewish holidays are national holidays. We don’t have to ask for extra time off work, or to postpone exams for Rosh Hashana/Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) or Pesach, or for Shabbat (Sabbath) for that matter. The country shuts down automatically.
7. It is understood that you will take off from work on the day your child is drafted into the army (editor’s note – and that you go with your child to the induction center to take photos and see him or her off).
8. Israel is such a small country that it is possible to visit many different places in a short period of time.
9. It’s even possible to literally walk the country’s length and breadth.
10. Not only is it possible to walk Israel’s length and breadth, it’s considered a mitzvah to do so. During vacation times, attractions, holy and historic sites, walking trails, and nature reserves are clogged with people touring, visiting, picnicking and enjoying.
11. Falafel (little fried balls made of chick peas) is available everywhere, all the time. And it’s cheap.
12. Ice cream is available everywhere, most of the time. It’s still an Israeli trait not to eat ice cream in the winter. This quaint trait, however, is changing.
    

    with thanks for photo from http://staff.pausd.org/~cbly/1web_design/09_10/final6/noa/food.html

13. Pita and laffa (Iraqi bread) are considered staple foods and are available in any supermarket.
14. Most supermarkets are kosher and are closed on Shabbat. Those few shops that provide non-kosher food (usually meats and shellfish) have signs on them proclaiming they are not kosher.
15. The sunsets are not only beautiful, but mark, not the end of another day, but the beginning of a new one. (Editor’s note – In the Hebrew calendar, the days go from sunset to sunset instead of sunrise to sunrise)
16. Snow days are almost national holidays. It’s a given that if snow falls anywhere in the country, people are going to take the day and go visit it.
17. Snow days are very rare. Even after living here for so many years, I really don’t miss the snow.
18. From May to October, you can plan any event outdoors and not worry about it being rained out.
    

    photo with thanks to: http://www.birding.in/birds/Upupiformes/Upupidae/eurasian_hoopoe.htm

19. The Hoopoe is Israel’s national bird – not the mosquito.
20. The Hoopoe, (doochifat in Hebrew) like all things Israeli, comes with its own story. It is said to have carried King Solomon’s invitation to the Queen of Sheba to visit Jerusalem. The rest, as they say, is history.
21. Neot Kedumim, a park located not far from Jerusalem, is dedicated to educating Israelis about the natural flora of Israel. All plants and trees mentioned in the Bible have been planted there, often in the same arrangements as recorded. This gives one an idea of what was meant when in Sefer VaYikra (Leviticus) it is said that the Kohen is to take the ‘cedar of Lebanon and the hyssop’…
22. The Jerusalem zoo is home to all the animals mentioned in the Bible (along with many that aren’t).
23. The shoemaker to whom I take my shoes to fix is one of the liberators of Beer Sheva who fought in the War of Independence in 1948-49.
24. Heroes are everywhere and dress up as ordinary people.
25. After the liberation of Beer Sheva in 1949, the first park that was built was called Allenby Park, named after Field Marshal Edmund Allenby, who liberated the city from the Turks during the First World War in 1917.
26. Every year, there is a ceremony in Beer Sheva on October 31 marking ANZAC day. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Armed Corps. October 31 is the day in 1917 that Allenby and his troops made up of Australians and New Zealanders liberated Beer Sheva.
27. A few years ago, Allenby Park was re-dedicated and a new statue of Allenby was unveiled. Not only did the British ambassador come for the ceremony, so did Edmund Allenby’s grandson and family.
28. Israeli universities have a second sitting for all exams. This practice was adopted for those students who had army reserve duty during the first exam period.
29. During the Lebanon War in 1982, a third exam sitting was implemented, for those students who missed both the first and second sittings due to the war. ‘Moed gimmel’, as it’s called, is still available for those who need it.
30. When my son was in the army, I sent out an email on the Beer Sheva email list requesting information on where to find some equipment he requested I buy. Not only did I receive dozens of replies with the information, I also received offers to borrow the equipment, or even just to take it for free.
31. Many of those emails also included words along the line of “I am including your son in my daily prayers for the welfare of our soldiers”.
32. Some of those people who added my son to their prayers needed to first ask me his name, as they were complete strangers. But that didn’t matter because
33. Soldiers, no matter their age, are everybody’s children.
34. A lecturer in one of the colleges was fired when he did not admit a student in army uniform to his class. It was a unanimous decision.
35. Various presidents, prime ministers, and members of Knesset (Israeli Parliament) speak (or spoke) Hebrew with a foreign accent.
36. When people comment on my accent, I mention the above to them. It always makes them smile.
37. When there was a chance that the Israeli national basketball team might qualify to play in the European championship a few years ago, a national debate ensued as to whether they should play or not. The final game of the championship was scheduled for the evening of Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Remembrance Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism). It seemed inappropriate to play a championship game on that night.
38. The Europeans agreed that if Israel did qualify to play in the final game, they would move the game to the afternoon hours, so it would finish before sunset and not conflict with Remembrance Day. The Israeli team did qualify, and the game was moved to the afternoon.
39. The Israeli team agreed that if they won the championship, there would be no celebrating that night. (They lost anyway…)
40. In previous years, Israel has not participated in the Eurovision Song Contest because it was held on Yom HaZikaron.
41. Verses from the Bible or the commentators have become idioms in everyday Hebrew. Rashi’s “What’s the sabbatical year to Mt. Sinai?” roughly translates to “what’s that got to do with the price of tea in China?”
42. In Hebrew, anything outside of Israel is called “outside the Land. As in “she went outside the Land for a vacation.” Because, for us, there is only one Land. (editor’s note – this is known as “chutz l’aretz” in Hebrew, abbreviated as “chul.”
43. Part of the state education curriculum is trips to various areas of the country.
44. Most schools have a siddur (prayer book) party at the end of Grade one, celebrating the children’s ability to read from the siddur.
45. Most schools also have a chumash (Bible) party at the end of Grade 2, celebrating the children’s ability to learn Torah.
46. My children’s schools took the kids to Jerusalem for their chumash party. What better place to celebrate learning Torah?
47. Streets in Israel are often named after Jewish and Israeli figures.
48. In Beer Sheva, each neighborhood has a theme for its street names. In one neighborhood, all the streets are named for animals found in Israel, another for pre-state historical figures, while in my neighborhood all the streets are named for places in Israel.
49. The main street in my neighborhood is Jerusalem Street.
50. There is one older neighborhood where each street is named for one of the twelve tribes of Israel.
51. When that neighborhood grew and more names were needed, the new street was given the name Osnat. Osnat was the wife of Joseph, son of Jacob.
52. If a street is named after a person, the street sign often comes with little explanations of who the person was. Explanations such as “medieval Jewish commentator,” “Supreme court judge,” and “Chief Rabbi of the IDF” make walking down the street an educational experience.
53. When there is a pigua (terrorist attack) or a grad missile attack, the phone lines crash within five minutes. This is because everyone across the country is phoning everyone to make sure everyone is ok.
54. It is not unusual for thousands of people to attend a funeral of a terror victim or a soldier killed in battle.
55. It is also not unusual for thousands of people to visit the families of a terror victim or a soldier during the shiva period. (editor’s note – shiva is the 7 day mourning period immediately following the burial of the family member)
56. It is also not unusual for thousands of people to pray for the quick recovery of wounded soldiers or terror victims or send presents or even come visit.
57. Then, when a family of a killed or wounded soldier or terror victim celebrates a wedding or a birth or a bar mitzvah, thousands of people follow their simcha (celebration) and rejoice with them. This is because
58. Kol hayehudim eravim zeh lazeh-All Jews are responsible for each other, in sorrow and in joy.
59. Strangers passing you on the street will greet you with Erev Tov (good evening), or Shabbat Shalom (Peaceful Sabbath – have a good Sabbath), or Chag Sameach (Happy Holiday).
61. Flowers are everywhere. All year round.
62. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where I work, is a world leader in research in water use, de-desertification, and agriculture.
63. One of the smaller BGU campuses in the city is dotted with experimental fruits, thorn-free sabra plants, and one-of-a-kind trees.
64. When asked, our very secular neighbor happily joins us to make a tenth in a minyan (10 men together needed to say certain prayers)
65. We know when mincha (afternoon prayers) is on Shabbat at the neighborhood synagogue by watching for groups of men walking down the street.
66. My children are all sabras (native-born Israelis).

AACI Jerusalem – Dr. Max and Gianna Glassman Family Center
Pierre Koenig 37, corner of Poalei Tzedek 2 (across from Hadar Mall)
Talpiot, Jerusalem
MAP
Buses # 10, 21 & 49 stop on Pierre Koenig across from AACI; 71, 72, 74 & 75 stop at Tzomet Habankim, a 10-minute walk away.
(02) 566-1181 for more information about any programs or to register.

 

Marking Special Birthdays

image used with thanks to http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Birthday_candles.jpg

Special guest post. We welcome back, Daveed Shachar. As usual, opinions expressed by guest bloggers are not necessarily that of the management of AACI.

On Sunday I turned 63, and got to thinking about why 63 is such an important birthday.

The birthdays marking many of the major transitions in our lives occur regularly, once every 21 years. These dates are rare, as the first digit is exactly double the second digit. If we extend this to include numbers in which the final digit is equal to half of all preceding digits, we have the following ages:

21
42
63
84
105

At the age of 21, we finally exit full stupidity and begin to reach understanding. As Mark Twain wrote, “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” We’re old enough to start having children and impart what we know to the next generation.

At the age of 42, we enter maturity. Since it takes around 25 years to train a person to be a fully functioning member of 21st Century society, a 42-year old has had 17 years to move up the ranks and become both knowledgeable and experienced enough to be a useful and contributing member of society. Many of us are becoming grandparents, watching on horrified as the 21-year olds demonstrate how little they know about child-bearing, and, by example, how little we knew when we were in our early 20′s.

At the age of 63 we enter middle age. (editor’s note – I really want to agree with this) Most people, although at the peak of their professions, are being replaced by young whippersnappers. Almost all men and most women are past child-bearing age. The ones who aren’t becoming grandparents are becoming great-grandparents.

At the age of 84 we enter old age. We’re watching yet another generation get born, terms like great- and great-great becoming both satisfying and scary.

The ones who enter the world of triple-digit age become irrelevant. When they turn 100 they get a check from the president of Ireland, or a birthday card from the Queen, or sometimes a letter from the American president, and then when they make it to 105 get their pictures in the paper and sometimes even make it into the Guiness Book of Records. At family gatherings, they are either applauded for living so long, something they usually had very little to do with, or ignored completely as too old to be either useful or even interesting. And this at precisely the age when many of them have accumulated vast stores of knowledge and interesting stories about life going back so far that sometimes the century has changed twice within their lifetimes.

Personally, I’m happy to take all the joy of watching my grandchildren grow, while leaving the lion’s share of responsibility to the parents. We hope that they get much joy from their children, while secretly hoping their children annoy them at times as much as they did us, when they were tykes.

In gematria, the Jewish system of assigning numerical values to the letters of the alphabet, 63 is equal to 27, khaf and zayin, which turned around spell zach, which means pure, plus 36, which is the number of people keeping the world from coming to and end, also known as the lamed vav, or lamed vavniks.

“This widely-held belief, this most unusual Jewish concept is based on a Talmudic statement to the effect that in every generation 36 righteous “greet the Shechinah,” the Divine Presence (Sanhedrin 97b; Sukkah 45b). “
–Rabbi Raymond A. Zwerin, THE 36 – WHO ARE THEY?, Rabbi Zwerin’s Kol Nidre Sermon, Temple Sinai, Denver, Sept 15, 2002/5763

Therefore, a person who turns 63 is imbibed with the combined qualities of righteousness and purity. May the Almighty give us the wherewithal to maintain them for as long as possible.

Daveed Shachar
April 3, 2013