By GREER FAY CASHMANDAVID RUBINGER’S iconic photo of the IDF paratroopers at the Kotel during the Six Day War in 1967.(photo credit: DAVID RUBINGER/GPO)
Stop anyone at random on any street in Israel and ask if they know the reason that Zion Karasenti, Haim Oshri and Dr. Yitzhak Yifat are famous, and you’ll be met with a shrug of the shoulders or a blank stare.The three are the awestruck trio of paratroopers who inadvertently became the iconic poster boys for Israel’s triumph in the June 1967 Six Day War. They were photographed by the late David Rubinger, who captured so much of the history of the State of Israel in the lens of his camera.Although Jerusalem Day is celebrated in accordance with the Hebrew calendar anniversary of Mordechai Gur’s historic announcement “the Temple Mount is in our hands,” the more universal date on which he uttered those words was June 7, 1967. Since then, the three paratroopers, who are now in their seventies, have been feted at numerous events in Israel and abroad, where they are asked to recount the emotions they felt when they first set eyes on the Western Wall.Because only a narrow corridor separated the wall from the houses of Arab residents, the paratroopers were not even sure that this was the Western Wall, until an Israel flag was hoisted and Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who was then chief rabbi of the IDF, blew the shofar.Thirteen years ago, on what was then the 40th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, Rubinger, Karasenti, Oshri and Yifat returned to the site, which is now so different from what it was previously, to reenact the photo.People who had not known the trio over the years would be hard pressed to reconcile the images of the three senior citizens with those of the three young paratroopers.Rubinger, like the three IDF veterans, had been asked many times to tell the story behind the photo. Curiously, he didn’t like it and preferred others that he had taken at the time, but his wife, Annie, who managed his business affairs, insisted that this was his best shot – and, obviously, she was right.Rubinger died in March 2017, just three months before the 50th anniversary of his famous photo. Even after he retired from being a professional photographer, Rubinger never went anywhere without his camera – just in case there was another historic frame to capture for posterity.■ POLAND SEEMS keen on boosting its image in Israel, but one of the more interesting events, involving Polish Ambassador Marek Magierowski, fell flat for reasons beyond his control.Last week Katarzyna Rybka-Iwanska, head of communications and public diplomacy at the Polish Embassy, sent out a notice advising that Magierowski would be participating in a World Jewish Congress web talk on “The Polish Roots of Zionism.” The conversation was due to take place at 6 p.m. last Thursday, Israel time, which was not exactly convenient for the religiously observant, as it was only an hour before candle lighting, and left no time for last minute arrangements on the part of those who wanted to hear what the ambassador had to say.Jewish Mean Time, or the traditional 15 minute academic leeway, came and went, and nothing happened. People in Israel and abroad posted Facebook messages to ask what was wrong. Eventually, they were informed that there was a technical hitch, and that they would soon be advised of a new link. This was followed some time later by an apology stating that due to technical difficulties, the WJC had decided to postpone the talk, and that the event would be rescheduled.Meanwhile, Rybka-Iwanska sent out another notice that the ambassador would be speaking in Hebrew on two consecutive nights this week. The first was a tourist-oriented discussion on Tuesday night on why Poland is a safe place to visit, and why tourists should go beyond Warsaw, Krakow and Gdansk, and what the post coronavirus changes will augur. The second is scheduled for Wednesday, June 3, at 6 p.m. and will focus on dialogue between Jewish and Polish youth. The latter event is cohosted by Ghetto Fighters’ House.■ UNITED TORAH Judaism MK Moshe Gafni this week resumed his place as chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, and later, in a radio interview with Yaakov Eichler, praised his temporary replacement, MK Oded Forer of Yisrael Beytenu, for doing a professional job and for “being a mensch.” When Forer took over as temporary replacement several months ago, Gafni, who has been a member of the Knesset Finance Committee for more than a decade and its chairman for the past five years, began to pack up his belongings, which were in the Finance Committee room. Forer told him to leave things as they were, because he was certain that Gafni would be back. Gafni was not so sure. But even his rivals concede that he is the best person for the job, because he really cares about society’s little guys who suffer most from economic hardship.When Gafni was reinstated this week, newly installed Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin remarked: “Who said the Knesset is lacking in political stability?” It was a double day of joy for Gafni, who also celebrated the engagement of his eldest granddaughter.■ FEW PLACES in the world are free of antisemitism, not even far-flung Australia, where Jews have contributed much to the arts, culture, medicine, law, politics and business development. But all that is overlooked by white supremacists and by certain anti-Jewish elements within the Muslim community.Australian Jewry was outraged last year when it became known that a 12-year-old Jewish boy had been relentlessly and ruthlessly bullied at school and forced to kiss the foot of a fellow student who happens to be Muslim. A photo of the boy’s humiliation went viral, and evoked shocked reactions from around the globe.It didn’t end there. The boy and his mother suffered ongoing and frightening antisemitic harassment, and the boy was severely beaten. Last month the mother testified on Zoom before a Victorian State Parliament Inquiry into Anti-Vilification Protection. The boy has since been enrolled in another school, where he is quite happy, but has received no word of apology from his former school. The situation might not have been resolved without the help of the Anti-Defamation Commission.Listening in to the mother’s testimony was noted Australian historian Prof. Susan Rutland, who specializes in the history of Australian Jews. Together with Prof. Zehavit Gross of Bar-Ilan University, Rutland is researching antisemitic incidents in government schools, and has learned that most such incidents go unreported, either because the students do not tell their parents, or because the students are afraid that if they tell their parents, the parents will make a fuss and the situation will be aggravated. Sometimes the parents are afraid and simply move their child to another school.Rutland recently completed a comprehensive biography of Jerusalem Post columnist Isi Leibler, who before coming on aliyah was one of the most influential, courageous and effective leaders of the Australian Jewish community, especially in matters relating to the liberation of Soviet Jewry. Rutland is a dedicated researcher, who discovered things about Leibler that he had either forgotten, or of which he himself had been unaware. The book is now in the process of being published. Three generations of the Leibler family have been involved in various branches of community leadership in Australia and beyond.■ IN OTHER news about Australians living in Israel, International Human Rights lawyer Jeremie Bracka, who is also a stand-up comedian with a gift for taking on other identities, replete with accents and idioms, spent lockdown time devising a three-part series called “Corona Shmorona,” the videos of which can be seen on his Facebook page, but which he is eager to perform for live audiences. Each episode is different from the other. One is called “Bubba Stella Cholera.” Another has the title of “Mindlessness with Yogi Sagi” and the third is “Socialites without Borders in Lockdown.”It appears that COVID-19 will still be with us for some time to come, so even if Bracka has to wait awhile for a live gig, the material will still be relevant. Comedy is a serious business which is not always recognized as such, whereas law can have very serious consequences.Bracka is a prizewinning alumnus of Melbourne’s Monash University. Before that he went to Mount Scopus College, the Jewish day school that was established in the same year as the State of Israel. Another former student of the school is Mark Regev, who is winding up his term as Israel’s ambassador to the UK.Although Mount Scopus is a community school whose students included representatives of the whole of Melbourne’s Jewish demographic mosaic, from ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist to Jewish in name only, it is amazing how many Mount Scopus old collegians, including the writer of this column, live in Israel.Bracka is also a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at the Hebrew University’s Minerva Center for Human Rights in Jerusalem and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg). He lectures in constitutional law, human rights law and transitional justice.Following his aliyah, he did a stint with the Foreign Ministry and worked with the Israel mission at the United Nations, representing Israel in the Human Rights Committee. Later, while working in the international law department at the ministry, he was involved in negotiations with the Vatican as well as in other international legal issues.■ AFTER AN absence from the airwaves for most of the period of the Health Ministry’s restrictions, Gili Tamir returned to Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet on Sunday with her program It’s Your Right. A doctor of social work, Tamir helps listeners understand their entitlements under the law, and also assists them in wading through bureaucratic red tape. When she doesn’t know the answer to a question, she pursues the subject relentlessly until she finds the answer.She occasionally brings on the program experts in certain fields, such as labor laws, to answer the questions of listeners, but for the most part it’s a solo act in which she painstakingly makes sure that the listener fully comprehends what she’s saying. Listeners on Sunday hailed her return with joy, declaring that they would rather speak to her than anyone else.During her absence, KAN 11 brought experts to different programs to answer questions about unemployment, furloughs without pay, grants and pensions. These sessions were moderated by broadcast journalists who felt the need to reiterate either the question or the answer in their own words, thus robbing several listeners of the opportunity to air their individual problems.Tamir has no intermediaries, which means that she can deal with more people. When the issue is too fettered by bureaucracy, she asks the listener to leave his or her telephone number with a studio assistant or to continue the conversation on Facebook.Her willingness, even eagerness, to help transmits itself so positively to listeners that it encourages them to be polite. Once in a while there’s a nudnik or a stereotype brash Israeli, but more often than not people are very polite, speak in civilized tones, and are unfailingly appreciative of her advice.All this is just another reason for public radio.■ WHILE ON the subject of public broadcasting, Eldad Koblentz, who is the CEO of KAN 11, which is officially the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation, is to be commended for giving so many behind-the-scenes researchers and news gatherers the opportunity to prove their mettle on screen or behind the radio microphone. The talents of many highly gifted people are never discovered, because no one gave them a chance. Koblentz seems amenable to giving everyone a chance. More power to him.■ AT THE Judaism, Israel and Diaspora Conference hosted by Haaretz last week, US Ambassador David Friedman warned that the greatest threat of all to Jewish life outside of Israel is Jewish illiteracy about Judaism.Jewish illiteracy also exists in Israel. On one of the television stations, children in the eight to 10 age group were questioned on what they knew about Shavuot. They managed to come up with the various names of the festival, but were way off center on everything else. One of them was vaguely aware of the Book of Ruth, but couldn’t pinpoint who Ruth was.On the other hand, whenever there is anything newsworthy in the world that could be of interest to Israelis, it is amazing that the news departments of Israel’s radio and television stations always find someone in the country in question who is a fluent Hebrew-speaker and who is not necessarily employed by the Foreign Ministry or the Jewish Agency. Sometimes, it’s even a non-Jew whose level of Hebrew would put many people living in Israel to shame. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who revived Hebrew as a spoken language, would be very surprised at how far and wide it has spread.■ THE OLD saying of “two Jews, three opinions” rang true at the above- mentioned conference. Whereas the report in the Hebrew edition of Haaretz focused on what President Reuven Rivlin had said, the English edition focused on Friedman and Jewish Agency Herzog. In other words, what would grab the attention of the English-language reader would not necessarily appeal to the Hebrew-language reader and vice versa.■ APROPOS RIVLIN, most of the nation’s newspapers quoted the interview with Transportation Minister Miri Regev that was published in the weekend edition of Yediot Aharonot. The rambunctious Regev, who never pulls her punches, created a minor earthquake when she stated that Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz is not yet ripe to serve as prime minister, but that he could learn from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Regev made far more o utrageous remarks about Rivlin, but these were overlooked.■ IF YOU thought that former defense minister and head of the now defunct Kadima Party Shaul Mofaz had disappeared from the political landscape, think again. He is part of a group of retired army generals and former Mossad chiefs who are advocating for a fair deal for the Druze and Circassians under the slogan “A brother does not betray a brother.”After defeating former Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni in the Kadima primaries in March, 2012, Mofaz subsequently became opposition leader, but did so poorly in the next elections that he bowed out of the political arena. But now he’s found a cause that has brought him back together with Uzi Arad, Amiram Levin, Aharon Zahavi-Farkash, Amal Asad, Mufid Amad, Dan Halutz, Noam Tivon, Amos Gilad, Avi Zamir, Hasson Hasson and former Mossad chiefs Danny Yatom, Tamir Pardo and Shabtai Shavit.The group is fighting for a proper budget to meet the needs of the Druze and Circassian communities, additional housing for these communities, a suitable amendment to, or annulment of, the Nation-State Law and increased employment opportunities.Last Monday, at the request of Netanyahu, Finance Minister Israel Katz, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Fateen Mulla and acting director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office Ronen Peretz met with Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Muafek Tarif and the committee of Druze community leaders for the purpose of formalizing an additional five-year plan to develop and strengthen the Druze and Circassian communities.■ LEGAL PROBLEMS, coronavirus, economic woes and other affairs of state did not prevent Netanyahu from marking the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Israel and Nepal, which were formalized on June 1, 1960. Netanyahu held a telephone conversation with his Nepalese counterpart, KP Sharma Oli, in which both expressed satisfaction with the manner in which bilateral relations have developed over the years, and agreed to exchange high-level visits to each other’s countries in the future in order to further expand the relationship, especially in the field of technology. Oli emphasized the importance of technology in Nepal’s healthcare and agricultural production. The two prime ministers also spoke about the global battle against COVID-19 and its economic and social impact.Congratulatory messages were also exchanged between Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali.■ THE HUGE turnout in Tel Aviv on Monday night of people of different faiths, races and economic status to protest the government’s inertia in relation to domestic violence, and the murder of 11 women in the first five months of this year, was proof that a common cause unites people of varied backgrounds. This is obvious with the riots in America and with protest demonstrations in Israel.At the root of the problem are people who should not be in the police force. Every year there is a ceremony at the President’s Residence honoring outstanding and dedicated police men and women who are in various branches of law enforcement. The honorees include people with Russian, Ethiopian and North African names, native Israeli Jews and Arabs – in fact, people who represent the country’s demographic mosaic and who individually and collectively have given outstanding service. But police forces in all countries fail to run proper, in-depth profiles on new recruits. The result is that the reputation of the police is marred by vicious, trigger-happy racists and by sexual predators.There is a long history of police officers forcing their attentions on young women under their command. If the victims dare to report them, the victims are ostracized and become targets of contempt, so much so that long-cherished dreams of becoming policewomen evolve into nightmares, and they have little choice other than to leave.According to many reports, police in Israel do not pay much attention to complaints by women who have been beaten or threatened by spouses, boyfriends or male relatives. It’s only when such women are killed or seriously injured in an attempted murder, that their unheeded complaints are made public.Domestic violence in Israel is a very old story. Veteran roving diplomat Bruce Kashdan, when he lived in Jerusalem before paving the path for relations of any kind with countries with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations, more than 30 years ago organized a meeting of battered wives on the stage of the Jerusalem Theater. The very personable Kashdan moved in many circles and had friends at all levels of society who confided their problems to him.The women sitting in a circle on the stage ranged from a judge’s wife to a house cleaner. What they all had in common were husbands who beat them. Very little was being done for them, and not much has changed, with the notable exception of the creation of shelters for battered wives and their children. But why should a woman have to leave home if her husband beats her? Surely, he should be made to leave home. But it doesn’t work that way.Most of the plans to combat domestic violence start at too late a point in life. The starting point should be in kindergarten, where children who have witnessed their fathers beating their mothers can be told something in the nature of a fairy tale that includes a passing reference to the daddy hitting the mommy by accident and apologizing profusely. The children can then be asked questions about the story, and those who can relate to daddy hitting mommy will say so, and will probably add that unlike the character in the story, he doesn’t apologize. Teachers can then contact municipal social workers and pass on the information. Too often in media reports of domestic violence, there is a sentence to the effect that the couple was unknown to social workers.Anti-violence values should be part of every school curriculum. Some violent children who have witnessed and experienced violence at home vent their anger on weaker classmates, and then grow up to be bullies.Teaching of martial arts from the earliest possible age should be compulsory in all schools. Empowering the weak is a means of protecting them. When a woman who has spent all her school years practicing martial arts knows how to defend herself, a man is less likely to attack her, even if he himself is a martial arts practitioner – especially as martial arts require considerable self-discipline.■ GANTZ HAS not been cooling his heels. In addition to working meetings with well-known figures such as Rivlin, Friedman and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Gantz also accompanied Agriculture Minister Alon Schuster to Moshav Tzofit near Kfar Saba, where he met with farmers from all over the country, including Tzofit’s Uri Rabinovich, who hosted the event, and beekeeper Yossi Peer and his son Niv, who represented the Israel Honey Production and Marketing Board.The Peers, who are second- and third-generation honey producers, brought samples of different kinds of honey for everyone to taste, and Gantz said that he starts his day with a spoon of honey and lemon juice, which he believes is good for his health.The farmers also brought samples of what they grow and produce: various cheeses, dates, herbs and spices, potatoes, watermelons, grapes and more. The general discussion centered on the difficulties the farmers are facing and the importance of maintaining and advancing agricultural techniques and produce as a traditional source of income and food nutrition for future generations.greerfc@gmail.com
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