By GREER FAY CASHMANThe newly rebuilt Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter with a model of the Jewish Temple menorah in the foreground(photo credit: EITAN SIMANOR)
■ SHABBAT NACHAMU, the Sabbath of comfort that comes after Tisha Be’av is usually associated with the birthday of the late prime minister Menachem Begin, who celebrated his birthday in accordance with the Jewish calendar. Although Begin’s birth was indeed an historic occasion, perhaps of greater interest to more people is the 100th anniversary of the first visit to the Hurva synagogue by Viscount Herbert Samuel, the British High Commissioner. It would have been hailed by residents of the Old City under any circumstances, but the fact that Samuel was Jewish, and had been raised in a traditional Jewish home, was of particular significance to the local Jewish community.Even before his arrival in Jerusalem, his son Edwin, a soldier in the British Army had come to Palestine and rented a room in Tel Aviv with the Grazovsky family. One day he heard the sound of piano being beautifully played. He went to investigate, and when he knocked on the door of the room from where the music was coming, it was opened by the pianist Hadassah Grazovsky. The two fell in love and were married soon after the groom’s father took office in Jerusalem. The wedding was at the Augusta Victoria Hospital in 1920 and two years later, the bride returned to Augusta Victoria to give birth to David Samuel, who eventually inherited his grandfather’s title, fought with the British Forces in the Second World War, and later became a distinguished academic in Israel. Lord David Samuel was the only native-born Jerusalemite in Britain’s House of Lords.In order to mark the 100th anniversary of both the visit to the Hurva and of the wedding, Yad Ben Zvi will host a Zoom Conference on Friday, July 31, beginning at 10.30 a.m., moderated by David Ansbacher, a consultant to the Jewish Quarter Reconstruction and Development Company. The two main features at the opening will be a galley talk by Louise Fisher, the curator of the State Archives and a moving rendition of the Nachamu prayer by Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, who prior to the coronavirus crisis frequently led prayer services and read from the Torah at synagogues within reasonable walking distance from his home. Other details can be found on the Yad Ben Zvi website.Pre-registration is required at act.ybz.org.il or (02) 539-8855. Cost of participation is NIS 39.■ LAST WEEK photojournalist Sharon Marks Altshul posted on her Facebook page that July 17 was Firgun Day, meaning that people should be gracious to each other, and singled out deputy mayor Fleur Hassan Nahoum as being “amazing” because she’s everywhere.To which Hassan Nahoum returned the compliment, saying that Marks Altshul knows this only because she is everywhere, too.Hassan Nahoum did not limit her firgun to Marks Altshul, but distributed a lot of it in different directions on her Facebook page.
