There were moments of joy and moments of sorrow last week when a distinguished delegation of imams from France, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, and the UK visited Israel.
When they met with President Isaac Herzog, there was an atmosphere of mutual admiration, respect, and even laughter. Moreover, they broke into song and applause toward the conclusion of their meeting.
At Yad Vashem, the mood was somber.
Their visit included a guided tour in Arabic through the Holocaust History Museum, followed by a moving memorial ceremony in the Hall of Names, where they laid a wreath and lit the eternal flame in memory of the six million Jews who perished or were murdered in the Holocaust.
The delegation, led by Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, Chairman of the Conference of Imams of France, came to Israel to promote a message of peace, coexistence, and partnership between Muslims and Jews, and between Israel and the Muslim world – a message that resonated deeply throughout their visit.
One of the participants, Dahri Nour Mouhammad, from the UK, where he holds the position of Executive Director of the think tank of Islamic Theology and Counter Terrorism, said after the tour: “I could not bear seeing the pain and grief on the faces of the Jewish people in the pictures. It was completely beyond my i
magination. The problem is, there are still Muslims who believe the Holocaust did not happen.
“From here, our message will be very clear to the Muslim community: you have to admit the Holocaust happened,” he said. “People from the Islamic faith should come visit the Holocaust museum – to see plainly with their eyes, to read the history, and to feel the pain and grief that the Jewish people went through.”
This was not the only experience of pain and grief that transmitted itself to the delegation.
They also visited scenes of the Nova Music Festival massacre – which unfortunately continues to be history in the making until such time as all the hostages still in Hamas captivity in Gaza are returned home.
Yad Vashem
■ APROPOS YAD Vashem, where Holocaust survivors are and have been among both employees and volunteers, one of them is Moshe Abeles, a Hungarian-born Auschwitz survivor who lives in Jerusalem and has worked as a volunteer at the Yad Vashem library for 25 years.
It has been previously mentioned in this column that there are Holocaust survivors with remarkable resilience, who after enduring the horrors of the death camps, came to Israel and experienced a number of vicissitudes – but continue to live to an advanced age. Last week, Abeles was honored by Yad Vashem with a small ceremony for his 100th birthday. Among the speakers who came to pay tribute to him were Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan.
Also present among Abeles’ relatives was his cousin Hadassah Mantinband, whose father had been Abeles’ first grade Hebrew teacher in Hungary.
■ REGULAR INVITEES to the annual Bastille Day reception hosted by French ambassador Frederic Journes at his residence may wonder why they did not receive an invitation this year. As is widely known, many organizations and institutions either postponed or canceled events following Iran’s barrage of ballistic missiles targeted against Israel.
Embassies were no exception, and the Bastille Day reception has been moved from mid-July to the final week of September.
■ AMONG THE embassies that rescheduled events was the Indian Embassy, which annually hosts a yoga festival as part of International Yoga Day in late June.
Ambassador Jai Prakash Singh, generally known as JP, this year decided that hostilities between Iran and Israel were not conducive to what yoga is all about.
International Yoga Day was proclaimed by the United Nations 11 years ago.
This year, the Indian Embassy is hosting it in Jerusalem’s Mamilla neighborhood on Tuesday, July 15 at 6:45 p.m., in partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affair and the Jerusalem Municipality. Ambassador Singh will be present, as will senior representatives of the ministry and the municipality.
The event is open to the general public, though pre-registration is required and all participants must bring a yoga mat.
Two highly reputed Jerusalem-based yoga instructors – Maayan Shenhar and Maayan Rodan – will lead the practice against the backdrop of the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, with live sitar music by Tavor Ben Dor.
Yoga is more than just a physical exercise. It is a celebration of peace, balance, inner spirit, and cross-cultural connection.
Registration is at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe3t32_ujCM
■ YOGA WAS also one of the subjects raised last week when Ambassador Singh met Herzliya Mayor Yariv Fisher. They discussed ways to cooperate in culture, yoga, student exchanges, and community engagement as part of India’s policy of people-to-people ties.
The only ambassador who is familiar to the Israeli public is Mike Huckabee of the US, who receives so much media coverage and is invited to so many events, that it’s virtually impossible not to know his identity.
But Singh is the hero of a docu-feature film about an Indian diplomat who rescued a young Indian woman who had been lured to Pakistan and forced into a marriage that she did not want and in which she experienced fear and violence. The film, The Diplomat, has been screened in Israel, including in the presence of members of the local and foreign diplomatic communities. It was extremely well received and has been lauded in reviews in both India and Israel.
Singh is a friendly, approachable individual, and people attending the Yoga Day event will have the opportunity to meet a real live diplomatic hero.
■ MEANWHILE, VIETNAMESE ambassador Ly Duc Trung is getting ready to celebrate the 32nd anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Israel, as well as the 80th anniversary of diplomacy in Vietnam after it gained independence from Japan.
The reception later this week will include a photo exhibition entitled Echoes of a People by Prof. Benjamin Peretz, Professor Emeritus of Pediatric Dentistry at Tel Aviv University.
■ OVER THE past few years, Australian ambassadors have hosted receptions to mark World Drowning Prevention Day. Australian Ambassador Ralph King continues to do so, and will host a reception toward the end of the month.
World Drowning Prevention Day, declared in the April 2021 UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/75/273 “Global drowning prevention,” is held annually in July. The global advocacy event serves as an opportunity to heighten awareness of the tragic and profound impact of drowning on families and communities, and offers life-saving solutions to prevent it.
An estimated 235,600 people drown every year, and drowning is among the ten leading causes of death for children aged 5-14 years. More than 90% of drowning deaths occur in rivers, lakes, wells, domestic water storage vessels and swimming pools in low- and middle-income countries, with children and adolescents in rural areas being disproportionately affected.
Australia is one of the leading countries in training children to swim, and in promoting lifesaving activities to prevent drowning. Most of the leading figures in the Israel Life Saving Federation are Australian expats who honed their water sport skills on the beautiful Bondi Beach in Sydney.
■ WHAT US Ambassador Mike Huckabee missed at the American Independence Day celebration in Jerusalem was the fireworks. He loved to watch them back home in Arkansas, but surmised that no one in Jerusalem feels that they have to fork out a lot of money to hear explosions and see rockets.
Actually, if peace comes and the hostages are all returned soon, Huckabee can look forward to the Jerusalem sky being lit up by fireworks next Israel Independence Day.
■ COMING UP soon at the National Library is a flower exhibition – or more accurately, a presentation of the presence of wildflowers in Israel’s history and culture, tracing their role from the early days of Holy Land pilgrimage, Zionist education, and scientific exploration, through to contemporary artistic expressions.
Drawing on rare materials from the library’s vast collections, the exhibition illuminates how flowers have inspired poets, educators, environmentalists, and artists alike.
Nowadays, many floral arrangements in Israel include yellow flowers as a reminder of the fact that efforts must be continued to bring home all the hostages – living and dead – who were abducted by Hamas and have been kept in appalling conditions in Gaza for a year and three-quarters.
Yellow flowers can also be seen in the parks and mini gardens that have sprung up all over Jerusalem under the tenure of Mayor Moshe Lion. Some are wild flowers, some are not.
Many public gardens were established during the long period that Teddy Kollek was mayor. Kollek was known to go berserk if anyone plucked a flower from a public garden. To him, this was tantamount to stealing.
Obviously, Lion is also fond of flowers, and in addition to small gardens on street corners, they have been planted in colorful arrays on traffic islands, giving motorists stuck in Jerusalem’s heavy traffic congestion something pleasing to the eye during the long waiting periods for traffic to flow again.
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