The war against Hamas is far from over. More than half the people abducted by Hamas and taken to Gaza are still in captivity. Several of the people butchered and burned by Hamas have not been identified, partially because there is no record in Israel of their DNA. Soldiers are falling in battle daily, but Israelis have chosen life, and instead of wallowing in self-pity are containing their grief and are already building for tomorrow while honoring the victims and heroes of yesterday.
This week, President Isaac Herzog and his wife, Michal, each wrote a letter in a Torah scroll which, when completed, will be deposited in the Kibbutz Be’eri synagogue as a symbol of rebirth.
Herzog has a very strong connection with Kibbutz Be’eri. A week after the massacre, he was there for the resumption of work at the Be’eri printing plant. When German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier came to Israel on a solidarity visit, Herzog accompanied him to Kibbutz Be’eri. Placards on the fence of the President’s Residence carry blown-up photos of the Kibbutz Be’eri art gallery, before and after the massacre, and on Wednesday, December 6, Herzog and his wife, along with mayors and heads of kibbutzim and moshavim from the southern areas of the country that are part of the Gaza border area, will gather at Kfar Maccabiah for the unveiling of a monument in tribute to all the victims of the October 7 massacre.
Some people may think that this is too soon, in view of all of Israel’s unfinished business, but the ceremony, which includes the unveiling of a 3-meter high statue created by the late sculptress Dina Recanati, is a symbol of continuity, while simultaneously paying tribute to those whose lives were cut short in a series of atrocities.
Earlier in the week, when writing the letter in the Torah scroll in the presence of Be’eri synagogue founder and sexton Rachel Friker, who was rescued from the slaughter, Herzog said that he was emotionally moved to be performing such a powerful mitzvah. It was particularly moving for him, he said, to know that this Torah scroll would find its home in the Kibbutz Be’eri synagogue.
Also in attendance were members of the family of the late Elhanan Kalmanzon, who, together with his brother Menahem and nephew, rescued numerous members of Kibbutz Be’eri, before he was killed,
Addressing the Kalmanzon family, with whose grief he sympathized, Herzog was confident that in the future they would again experience days of joy.
Hanukkah candle lighting
On Thursday night, both religious and secular Jews will light the first Hanukkah candle. The date will be December 7 – exactly two months after the Hamas massacre. May it shed its light through the darkness, remove uncertainty from the families of the hostages in Gaza, and bring the hostages home.
■ ON THE subject of two months from October 7 – that’s how long it took for UN Women to issue a statement condemning Hamas’s use of sexual violence during its brutal assault on October 7. The condemnation came only after widespread criticism of UN Women’s failure to speak out in the strongest terms in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
Among the participants in a demonstration outside the UN building in New York City on Monday, December 4, was Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, from the Davis Institute for International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who said: “We are at a crucial moment in human history.
“Since October 7 I found myself in a position I never asked for myself – to be a voice for those who have remained voiceless, who have been silenced by unimaginable acts of violence.”Elyakam-Levy in mid-October established the Civil Commission on Oct. 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, as increasing evidence of the gruesome crimes emerged.
“I understood that we are witnessing a chapter in the history of humanity and of our people that will be torched in our souls for generations to come, and that needs to be documented,” she said. “It needs to be amplified not just for the sake of women in Israel, but for all women around the world.”
It pains her that although Hamas itself broadcast its inhuman acts to the world, UN organizations and global institutes have either failed to give recognition to what happened, or have been late in doing so.
“This deafening silence raises the haunting questions: Are Israeli women protected under international law? Are Israeli women even human?”Calling for radical transformation of the international system, Elyakam-Levy declared that all women deserve more. “Humanity deserves more,” and the voices of all victims should be heard.
■ THE WORLD lost two brilliant academics last week – 10 years and a lot of geography apart, but very similar in many other respects. In fact, Israeli political analyst Hanan Kristal said that Shlomo Avineri was the Israeli equivalent of Henry Kissinger. Indeed, there were many similarities between them.
German born Kissinger arrived in America with his parents in 1938, while Polish-born Avineri arrived in Israel with his parents in 1939. Neither lost his native accent, though Kissinger’s was much more pronounced. Each chose political science as his area of expertise and had a distinguished career in academia. Each had a phenomenal grasp of both history and reality. Each took time out from the scholastic ivory tower to enter the political arena – Kissinger as US secretary of state, and Avineri as director-general of the Foreign Ministry. Each was an influential teacher, a fascinating interviewee, and a riveting orator.
Long after he returned to academia, Kissinger remained an influential and respected force in Washington. Avineri left the ministry because he believed that he could make a greater impact through his writing and his speech-making than he could in the realm of diplomacy. And indeed he did. He was invited to serve as a visiting professor at numerous overseas universities, and he was also a frequent official observer of presidential, prime ministerial, and legislative elections in different countries.
In eulogizing the two men, Oren Nahari, who is one of the great intellectuals of Israel’s communications industry, did not use exactly the same terminology as Kristal, but he did point to similarities between the two, as well as similarities in other spheres between Israel and the US. For instance, he said that just as the CIA and the FBI are competitors rather than cooperative colleagues, so the Mossad and the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) are rivals rather than collaborators.
Something he did not mention with regard to similarities is the bureaucratic cruelty relating to dividing families. Both in Israel and the US, as well as in several other countries, families are divided because certain members are considered to be illegal immigrants, or one part of the family is permitted to immigrate and another is not.
A case pending in the US is that of a 62-year-old physician in Virginia. Siavash Sabhani was born in the US to a father who was an Iranian diplomat. This never caused him any problem in the past, but this year, when thinking of retirement and extensive travel abroad, he was shocked, when applying to renew his passport, to receive a letter informing him that he should never have received a passport in the first place, because as the son of a diplomat, he was not automatically entitled to US citizenship. He has spent more than $40,000 in lawyers’ fees and in applying to become a legal American citizen. It is not certain that he will succeed.
If deported, it will be to Iran, where he has never lived and against the regime of which he has frequently spoken. His life will be in danger and, at the very least, he will be imprisoned indefinitely.
■ AMONG THE films currently being screened on Netflix is Blue Bayou, based on the true story of a Korean-born man who, as a three-year-old, was adopted by an American couple. Now in his thirties, he is married with a step-daughter with whom he has an excellent relationship, and a pregnant American wife. Only at the conclusion of the film, when he is being escorted to the plane taking him to Korea after a fruitless attempt to remain in America, are viewers shown faces of other so-called illegals who have spent nearly all their lives in America, but, through some cruel bureaucratic hitch, have been deported. They number in the tens of thousands.
■ IN ISRAEL, KAN 11 has taken up the battle on behalf of Tamra Alem, an Ethiopian whose mother and siblings live in Israel. Tamra’s brother Maro, while serving in the IDF, fell in Operation Swords of Iron. Tamra was permitted to come to Israel for three months to help his mother in her grief. The Interior Ministry will not allow him to stay permanently, saying that it has no proof that he is his mother’s son. Only after Yigal Guetta of KAN 11 took up the cause for Tamra to remain with his family, were arrangements made for a DNA test, the results of which will determine whether he can stay beyond the three-month limit and be granted citizenship. Some Ethiopian families have been waiting for 15-20 years to be reunited, and still have no guarantee that this will happen.
Israeli-born children of foreign workers are deported together with their parents, even though the only language in which they are fluent is Hebrew and all their friends are Israelis.Non-Jewish widows of Israeli citizens have also been deported, even when they have Israeli-born children who are citizens because their fathers were Israeli.Where is basic human compassion?
■ DURING THE hostage crisis, it has frequently been said by many people that Israel is one family. If one probes deep enough, there is a certain truth to this. Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Yosi Havilio, in rejoicing last week over the return of hostage Ofir Engel of Kibbutz Ramat Rahel, mentioned that he was related the Engel family. Engel is a distinctly Ashkenazi surname, and Havilio a Sephardi surname, but “mixed” marriages are so common in Israel these days that very few people make a big deal of an Ashkenazi-Sephardi marriage. Children of such unions, sometimes known as Ashkesephards, are lucky to grow up with both traditions and cultures, and to feel at home with both.
■ DESTINED TO become a poster child for defenders of four-legged friends is Mia Leimberg, who, when taken hostage at Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, was accompanied by her dog, Bella.No one knew where Bella was and a frantic search yielded no results.
Everyone was amazed when, following her release, Mia returned to Israel last week with Bella in her arms.
Never doubt a dog’s intelligence. Bella, sensing danger, had refrained from barking or drawing any attention to herself in Gaza, but had remained close to Mia, who shared scraps of food with her, from the meager amount that the hostages received. The masked Hamas activist who escorted Mia to the Red Cross van was astounded when he saw Bella, but did not prevent Mia from taking her home.
■ GLOBAL CONFERENCES on highly important issues attract many heads of state and other influential people. That’s what happened last week in the UAE at the opening of COP28. It would be a safe bet to say that a significant number of those attending were much more interested in bilateral discussions with as many world leaders as possible than in environmental issues, and references to many of these bilateral discussions were posted on the leaders’ social media platforms. For example, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi featured on X a photograph of himself with Herzog, who led the Israeli team, while Herzog featured photographs of himself with Modi on both Facebook and X.
Modi, on his social media platforms, wrote: “Had a very productive meeting with President @Isaac_Herzog of Israel earlier today. Our talks covered a wide range of global and bilateral issues.”
During their talk, Modi expressed his condolences on the loss of lives in the October 7 terror attacks and welcomed the release of hostages. He reiterated the need for continued and safe delivery of humanitarian aid for the affected population, and emphasized India’s support for a two-state solution and an early and durable resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.
In Israel, the Indian Embassy organized a yoga workshop in Tiberias for families who had been evacuated from Kfar Yuval, and also sent some of its officials and their families to lend a hand at the cucumber farms in Moshav Ahitov, saying that the embassy was glad to have the opportunity to support hardworking farmers who play such a vital role in society.
■ IN ONE way or another, most of the heads of diplomatic missions in Israel have become involved in Israel’s war with Hamas, and in the hostage situation. French Ambassador Frederic Journes visited the Magen David Adom National Operations Center in Kiryat Ono last week and lit memorial candles to honor the memories of three MDA EMTs who were killed in the line of duty on October 7. The ambassador received a briefing from MDA CEO Eli Bin on how MDA operates both in peacetime and in the line of fire.The ambassador noted that on October 7, MDA teams had risked their lives under fire to save many other lives that might otherwise have been lost.
■ JUST TWO hours after the terrorist attack in Jerusalem last Thursday, the nearby United Hatzalah headquarters was visited by Mindy Levine, director of the Yankees Universe Fund and wife of the New York Yankees baseball team’s president Randy Levine.
Her visit was part of a solidarity trip to Israel in the aftermath of the horrific Hamas attack of October 7. Levine confirmed her support and that of her husband for all that United Hatzalah is doing.
Levine met with its president and founder, Eli Beer, as well as with volunteers who had been among the first arrivals at the terror scene in Jerusalem to treat the wounded. During the meeting, Levine said: “We are in Jerusalem, in the middle of a war, just a few moments after a terror attack that just occurred, and you were first on the scene, and thankfully you saved lives again.
“Randy and I are so proud of the association we have with this organization. The No. 1 priority of our visit to Israel was partnering with United Hatzalah, because United Hatzalah saves lives. What means the most to us is that you save lives and respond to emergencies regardless of race, religion, nationality, or political affiliation. A life is a life, and United Hatzalah recognizes it. That is one of the many reasons why we support you. We salute you and all the work you’re doing.”
Levine was given an overview of the organization’s lifesaving activities and met with volunteer EMTs from across the Israeli demographic spectrum – Jews, Muslims, and Christians. She toured the command and dispatch center and witnessed how technology allows United Hatzalah to send out any of its 7,000 volunteers to anyone in need of medical assistance within an average response time of less than three minutes.
At the conclusion of the visit, Levine distributed baseball hats to the volunteers. The hats had been especially manufactured for this occasion and featured an Israeli flag, a United Hatzalah logo, and the logo of the New York Yankees.
■ THERE ISN’T much you can do with a dollar bill, unless it happens to be one of the dollars that were handed out to people by the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The rebbe’s dollars had some kind of mystical power, a transferred goodwill that transformed negatives into positives.
In a previous hostage situation, in which much of the Israeli public joined the family of kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit in calling for the government to bring him home, Rabbanit Chani Canterman gave one the rebbe’s dollars to Gilad Schalit’s mother, Aviva, assuring her that her son would be released. And indeed, it did happen – not immediately, but nonetheless against the odds.
On Sunday night of this week, Chabad and other hassidic movements celebrated Yud-Tet Kislev, commemorating the release from prison of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad. This time, it was Rabbanit Chani’s husband, Rabbi Eli Canterman, who gave it not as a symbol of faith and hope, but as a symbol of appreciation for courage and caring for one’s fellow being. The recipient was Yossi Frankel, who on the day of the Hamas massacre, despite the danger, immediately drove his ambulance to the scene of the conflagration and rescued many people.
But there was yet another dollar that had been among those distributed by the rebbe – and this one was auctioned, eventually fetching $1,000. That’s a terrific return on an investment by any standards. The rebbe’s dollars were all marked in advance with the Hebrew calendar date of their distribution, as a means of testifying to their authenticity.
The Cantermans, who are the Chabad directors of the Talbiyeh-Mamilla Chabad Center in Jerusalem, had debated with themselves as to whether it would be appropriate under the present circumstances to hold a Yud-Tet Kislev event, but eventually decided that they could not let a year go by without celebrating such an important hassidic anniversary, particularly because it was intended for the English-speaking population, many of whose members are not sufficiently fluent in Hebrew to follow an event conducted entirely in Hebrew.Chabad events seldom start on time, and although this one which was held at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, was only a few minutes late in getting underway, it looked at the beginning as if it would be a flop. But then the foot-draggers started coming in and by the time the speeches started, there were several hundred people in attendance.
The main musical entertainment was provided by Srulik Hershtik who comes from a long line of Hungarian cantors, and was himself a child prodigy. Although there are a lot of universal melodies in Hassidic liturgy, each Hassidic movement also has its own unique melodies, and Hershtik obliged with favorite Chabad tunes, the livelier of which had most of the males in the audience, rising spontaneously from their seats to dance in a circle around the synagogue chamber.
The two speakers were former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, and Rabbi YY Schochet, who specially came from England for the occasion.
Although Lau speaks English fluently, he chose to speak in Hebrew, saying that he was sure that most people would understand.
Amongst other things, he mentioned his first meeting with the Rebbe, not long after the Yom Kippur War. In reaction to a similar situation that has existed in Israel and the Jewish world over the two months, Haredim (Ultra Orthodox) had in 1973 put aside their differences with Zionism and the secular community, to collect money and goods for Israel. Lau, had been recruited to go on a speaking tour to the US – his first visit there – to talk to Jewish communities and create a bridge between the Haredim and the State of Israel. While in the US, he asked for a meeting with the Rebbe which was arranged for him. Thinking that it would be a three to five minute encounter as usually the case, Lau presented himself as 770 Eastern Parkway, New York at 11 p.m., but had to wait till 1.30 a.m. before it was his turn. The Rebbe conversed with him in Yiddish. Their meeting went on for two hours and twenty minutes. Eight years later, when Lau was again in New York and sought another meeting with the Rebbe, their conversation again lasted for two hours and twenty minutes. But Lau, who usually steers clear of politics, can never forget a question that the Rebbe asked of him at that first meeting. If Israel had been so unprepared, as it was again in October of this year, with public anger directed against the government, what the Rebbe could not understand was that if Israelis were dissatisfied with their leaders, why did they elect them again?
Shochet put the emphasis on family – not just the nuclear family, but the global Jewish family. “Being Jewish is not something individual and personal,” he said. “It’s being part of a collective. We have a common history and a common destiny. We are family. We need to remove prejudice from our hearts and be what we are to each other – family.”greerfc@gmail.com