Sunday, November 30, 2014
US Ambassador Prays at Har Nof Shul
A visit of the United States Ambassador to Israel Daniel B. Shapiro and the Founder and President of United Hatzalah Eli Beer after the horrific massacre at the Har Nof synagogue.
- A visit of ambassador Dan Shapiro as the home of the United Hatzalah paramedic Yanki Erlich who was injured while treating the victims of a massacre while running away from the shooting of the terrorists.
Israel Matzav: Sunday November 30 is Jewish Nakba Day
Israel's President, Reuven Rivlin, will conduct a ceremony at his residence on Sunday marking the expulsion of Jews from Arab countries. Ben Dror Yemini explains.
The Knesset decided only this year to set aside a special day, November 30, to mark the Jewish Nakba. Most school children in Israel know about what was done to the Jews of Kishinev and also about what was done to the Jews in Deir Yassin.
But most Israeli students don't know about Jewish Nakba. They don't know about a long series of pogroms and massacres perpetrated against Jews in most Arab countries. The Kishinev pogroms in 1906 claimed the lives of 29 Jews. A year later, in pogroms in Morocco, 50 Jews were murdered in the city of Settat, and another 30 were killed in Casablanca.
How many high school students know about them? And how many know about the pogrom in Aden in 1948 in which 82 Jews were murdered? And how many know about the hundreds more who were killed during that period in Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Libya only because they were Jews?
The "narratives" have taken control of the university campuses and school system. On their behalf, Israeli students are told "the other side's version of the story." Not that one should belittle the pain of the Palestinians. God forbid. The thing is that there is nothing unique about the Palestinian story in particular. People fled. Some were deported too. But where were things any different?
And yet, the Jewish Nakba vanished into thin air, despite the fact that it was far more severe. After all, the Jews of the Arab states didn't declare war on the Arab countries; they didn't have a leader like the Mufti who was planning and plotting to eradicate all the Arabs – every last one. On the contrary, they were peaceful citizens wherever they were.
* * *
Let's set the record straight. The disintegration of the empires, beginning with the Ottoman, through to the Austro-Hungarian, and on to the British, intensified the demand on the part of various peoples for self-determination – no more multi-ethnic states under imperial rule, but nations with a sense of independent identity instead. Some would call it an imaginary heritage, but that's not important.
The result was huge waves of population transfers, beginning in 1912 and through to the years following World War II. Around 52 million people underwent the experience, including tens of millions in the period after the war.
Millions of Germans, Hungarians, Poles, Ukrainians, Turks, Greeks, Bulgarians, Romanians, Indians, Pakistanis and more and more were forced to leave their birthplaces to make way for national entities, old and new. One would be hard pressed to find a single conflict during the period in question that did not end without a population exchange.
And the same happened in the Jewish-Arab conflict too. When the Peel Commission decided in 1937 on a population exchange, one of the reasons it offered to support its decision was the fact that the Iraqis had carried out against the Assyrian minority, despite earlier assurances to safeguard their rights.Read the whole thing.
The population exchanges between Greece and Turkey also served as a backdrop for the commission's decision. At the time, this was the position held by statesmen, scholars and intellectuals. Furthermore, in 1930, the Permanent Court of International Justice, the highest international judicial instance at the time, approved population transfers by force when it ruled that the purpose of mass population transfers was to "more effectively aid the process of pacification of the Near East."
Israel Makes Palestinian Family Pay For Synagogue Attack
Jerusalem - Nadia Abu Jamal’s world has fallen apart since her husband’s deadly attack on a Jerusalem synagogue: Israeli authorities have ordered the demolition of their home and revoked her residency rights.
The widow of Ghassan Abu Jamal is especially fearful for her three children, Walid, six, Salma, four, and three-year-old Mohammed.
Their 31-year-old father and his cousin Uday, 22, launched a brazen attack on a Jerusalem synagogue on November 18.
Armed with meat cleavers and a pistol, they killed four rabbis and a policeman before being shot dead by police, in the city’s deadliest attack in six years.
Israel has retaliated by ordering the demolition of the Abu Jamal house and ordering Nadia back to her native West Bank.
The children, however, will be allowed to stay in Jerusalem where they were born but as punishment for their father’s crime they have lost all social benefits, including medical coverage.
Mohammed, the youngest, has a heart condition, and Nadia does not know how she will be able to care for him anymore.
“My children have already lost their father. Now they want to destroy the only home they ever had and send me away,” said Nadia, holding Mohammed in her arms.
She wears a black veil that brings out the palour of her face, and tears swell up in her eyes.
“What wrong have my children done?” she cries out.
“This is collective punishment. It is unfair.”
Nadia’s home is in the teeming neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir, in occupied East Jerusalem, where houses on a ridge overlook the eastern part of the Holy City.
After she was served demolition orders by the Israeli authorities, Nadia emptied the house and moved next door to stay with her mother-in-law.
The family has appealed the demolition order, and now they are anxiously awaiting word from Israel’s supreme court.
Israel has used punitive house demolitions for years in the West Bank.
But the policy was halted in 2005 after the army said they had no proven deterrent value and instead were likely to encourage violence.
Human rights watchdogs and the international community have condemned the practice as collective punishment against the families of perpetrators.
“They told us, the day after the (synagogue) attack,” that they had revoked my residency rights in Jerusalem and that the house will be razed to the ground, said Nadia.
“If we’d known that my husband was planning an attack, of course we would have stopped him,” she said.
Her face is drawn and she is still in shock when she recalls how she learned about the attack.
“I heard it on the radio, I heard that the man I loved had done such a thing.”
Her daughter Salma sits nearby listening, but not uttering a word, a frown across her face.
Salma stares at holes carved into the walls of their home by the demolition crew, and where explosives will be placed.
Her mother says everything that has happened since the attack and fear of what is to come have taken a toll on the children.
“Before, they were not like this. Now they’re always upset, they’re becoming aggressive. They don’t sleep at night. They’re afraid Israeli soldiers will come and blow up the house.”
Nadia’s in-laws say they cannot come to terms with what pushed Ghassan and Uday to attack the place of worship.
Ghassan’s relatives say he used to struggle to make ends meet and feed his children always but was too proud to ask his family for help.
Uday’s house also faces demolition.
On November 19, a day after the synagogue attack, Israeli forces razed the east Jerusalem home of a Palestinian who had killed two Israelis with his car last month.
“Answering violence with violence will only encourage youths to carry out more attacks,” said Uday’s mother.
Hamas (close connection to CAIR) newspaper: "No such thing as an Israeli civilian"
Felesteen, a Hamas newspaper, has an article looking at international condemnations of the Jerusalem synagogue slaughter, and describing how they are all wrong and that every Jew in Israel is in fact a military target.
The article does not distinguish between Jews living on either side of the Green Line. It says that Jews have had mandatory army service since 1948 and therefore they are all considered valid targets.
After going through a series of increasingly bogus arguments that every Israeli Jew should be killed because of what they have done to Arabs and olive trees, the article concludes:
During the Gaza war, former general Giora Eiland wrote an op-ed in YNet saying that there is no such thing as innocent civilians in Gaza. He was broadly criticized, and rightly - the Geneva Conventions defines who is a civilian and who is not, and he cannot redefine it no matter what war crimes Hamas commits.
I somehow doubt that the many "human rights" activists who slammed Eiland will ever say a word about Hamas when it says the same thing about Israelis.
The article does not distinguish between Jews living on either side of the Green Line. It says that Jews have had mandatory army service since 1948 and therefore they are all considered valid targets.
After going through a series of increasingly bogus arguments that every Israeli Jew should be killed because of what they have done to Arabs and olive trees, the article concludes:
Certainly President Obama and his advisers are not ignorant of these facts, and they know full well that it is the legitimate rights internationally for the peoples of the occupied territory to resist the occupiers in every way including the use of arms. But the US president is committed to the strategy adopted since President Wilson in 1919 as Israel is an asset that serves the interests of the major powers and the United States. Obama's predecessors have committed to defend them and protect them and enable them to perform their function to serve US national interests in the Arab world, despite exceeding international laws and norms.It then goes on to blame Abbas for not being adequately amenable to terror attacks against Jewish civilians.
During the Gaza war, former general Giora Eiland wrote an op-ed in YNet saying that there is no such thing as innocent civilians in Gaza. He was broadly criticized, and rightly - the Geneva Conventions defines who is a civilian and who is not, and he cannot redefine it no matter what war crimes Hamas commits.
I somehow doubt that the many "human rights" activists who slammed Eiland will ever say a word about Hamas when it says the same thing about Israelis.
Bloody Battle for Israel at Oxford University Rabbi Shmuley and Dennis Prager Face Ferocious Anti-Israel Advocacy at the Oxford Union Debating Society
Oxford, England, 5 am – I’m trying to get two hours sleep tonight prior to my flight back to America, but cannot. I am supercharged from tonight’s debate at the Oxford Union on Israel versus Hamas. It was easily the most hard-fought debate on Israel I have ever participated in. It was ferocious, exhilarating, vicious, electrifying, and disturbing.
When I first called my close friend Dennis Prager, the celebrated American radio host, to join me at the Oxford Union for their premier Middle East debate of the season, Dennis was at first reluctant to come. He has to broadcast his national show every day.
I told him it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to defend Israel at the world’s most prestigious debating society. Europe was turning against Israel. Oxford was the world’s most famous University, educating future world leaders. The scars to Israel’s reputation from the war in Gaza was still fresh. Now was the time.
He agreed to come.
Dennis, like me, is a veteran of debates on Israel. But I informed him that nothing could prepare him for the ferocity of the attacks on Israel that we were likely to endure.
Indeed, as the debate began before a capacity audience, Dennis seemed stunned at what was being said. Israel is an apartheid regime. Israel is slaughtering the Palestinians and is guilty of genocide. Israel is doing to the Palestinians exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews. What the Jews experienced in the Holocaust is exactly what the Palestinians are enduring at Israel’s hand. Israel in its six-decade history has had one goal: the theft of Palestinian land and the eradication of the Palestinian people. America is like ISIS. ISIS beheads only a few prisoners, but America annihilates innocents in Pakistan each and every day with drone strikes. There is no real difference. Israel is guilty of war crimes. Israel’s security fence is an apartheid wall that is built mostly through the gardens and property of innocent Palestinians. Hamas does some bad things. But it’s all Israel’s fault. Hamas is a bonafide resistance movement to Israel’s occupation. Terrorism directed at Israelis is an organic response to Israeli colonial rule
Many of the arguments came from world-renowned Israeli academic Avi Shlaim, with whom I always had a warm relationship in the eleven years I served as Rabbi to the students at Oxford. The other arguments came from a highly intelligent female Oxford doctoral candidate, with whom I interacted warmly at the pre-debate dinner, and from a Berkeley-Oxford female Professor who was likewise pleasant. The rest of the attacks came from Oxford students in the floor debate segment of the program.
I had heard all these things before. But never from some of the most highly educated people in Europe. And never with such ferocity and vehemence.
Facing an onslaught that included charges that Israel is an apartheid regime that is slaughtering the Palestinians, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and Dennis Prager defended the Jewish State.
Dennis and I fought back with every fiber of our being. Hamas is a genocidal organization that proudly touts its charter calling on the annihilation of Jews utterly unconnected to any conflict. It seeks the murder of all Jews, including those sitting in the Oxford Union chamber. It aids and abets honor killings of Palestinian women, shoots gay Palestinians in the head on false chargers of collaboration, machine-guns all Palestinian protesters who dare to defy its rule, violently punishes any form of criticism, engages in daily forms of deadly incitement against Jews, celebrates when Westerners, including in Britain, are blown up by bombs, ended any vestige of democratic rule once it was elected, and builds its military installations under hospitals and nurseries so that the infirm and the vulnerable can serve as human shields to its cowardly terrorists. Israel has tried since its creation to make peace with Arab states and has endangered its security with repeated territorial concessions that were met with nothing but terror attacks. Arabs in Israel live with greater freedoms and human rights than any Muslim country on earth. There is no excuse for terror. Jews even under the horrors of Hitler didn’t turn to blowing up German children. The justifications for terrorism that were being offered were an affront and an abomination to Islam which, just like Judaism, abides by the commandment not to murder.
The debate was electrifying and deeply felt on all sides. Rather than being dispirited, the small but defiant pro-Israel lobby that sat behind Dennis and me threw a barrage of ‘points of information’ at the Israeli-attacking academics. The full video of the debate will be available on the Oxford Union website in a few days.
When the debate was over the President of the Union invited all to drinks. I sat with my opponents. I discussed their trips to Israel. The wounds of the debate were raw but the Union tradition is one of courtesy and mutual respect, whatever the disagreements.
And rather than feel at all dispirited, I was energized and alive. I knew from the moment I accepted the debate invitation a few months back that we would lose the vote. Indeed, hearing the jeers against Israel from the vast majority of those in attendance was painful. But we would fight with all our might. We would enter the lion’s den for Israel. We would defiantly tell the truth of the noble and majestic democracy that is the Jewish State of Israel. We would strike a blow for the Jewish state in an extraordinarily hostile environment.
(Interestingly enough, Naomi Wolf was there, having just given a lecture attacking Israel for human rights abuses three hours before our debate. All this was curious, given that Naomi had withdrawn from our planned debate on Israel in New York with the excuse that she was going to speak at Oxford. She never mentioned that we would be there on the exact same day).
And we made tremendous progress.
As soon as the debate was over a group of students asked me for an immediate meeting, that night, to start up the Oxford L’Chaim Society once again to defend the honor of Israel. The student who offered to be President was not Jewish. He told me that as of March of this year he was an active member of Pal Soc (the Palestinian Society) at Oxford. He endorsed and fought for boycotts of Israel. But then he heard me speak at the Union in the debate in Iran. It changed him, he said. He left Pal Soc and joined the tiny but courageous pro-Israel lobby.
Sure enough, at the debate the Israel side lost the vote. But we gained our adversaries’ respect.
The author faced unrelenting anti-Israel attacks at the hallowed halls of Oxford Union.
And to be fair to the Union, we were not jeered, interrupted, or heckled. Amid the ferocious battle for Israel and the hundreds of students poised against us, we made our case with passion and each side respected the other’s right to speak. That’s why I love the Oxford Union, and why I did countless joint events with the Union when I was Rabbi in Oxford.
I believe with all my heart that Israel can and will win arguments in the marketplace of ideas. If not today, then tomorrow. It ultimately will happen. The truth will prove victorious. We dare not shun debates. We must welcome and engage them.
Conclusions: First, Israel is under siege on European campuses. It has determined and active adversaries who are clobbering the more timid Jewish opposition. Second, if we stepped up our game on campus we can begin to reverse the tide of defamation and fraudulence to which the Jewish state is being constantly subjected.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, “America’s Rabbi,” is the international best-selling author of 30 books, winner of The London Times Preacher of the Year Competition, and recipient of the American Jewish Press Association’s Highest Award for Excellence in Commentary. He has just published Kosher Lust: Love is Not the Answer. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.
Read more at http://observer.com/2014/11/bloody-battle-for-israel-at-oxford-university/#ixzz3KZwXtSh1
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Friday, November 28, 2014
Tehillim (Pslams) 121
A Song of Ascents.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains:
From whence shall my help come?
My help cometh from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved;
He that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, He that keepeth Israel
Doth neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is thy keeper;
The LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The LORD shall keep thee from all evil;
He shall keep thy soul.
The LORD...
Israel - Foreign Minister: Offer Israeli Arabs Money To Move To Palestinian State
Israel - Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman proposed on Friday that Arab citizens of Israel be offered financial incentives to leave the country and relocate to a future Palestinian state.
Lieberman, whose ultra-nationalist party is a core part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, has previously spoken about redrawing borders but not about using sweeteners to encourage Arabs to uproot to a Palestinian state.
His proposals were made in the form of a manifesto, presented with expectations rising that Israel may have to hold early elections in the coming months as Netanyahu’s coalition frays. Elections are not formally due until 2017.
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Lieberman, one of the most strident voices in favor of the separation of Jews and Arabs, said Palestinians living in Jaffa and Acre, two mixed cities on the Mediterranean coast far from the West Bank, should be encouraged to move if they want.
“Those (Israeli Arabs) who decide that their identity is Palestinian will be able to forfeit their Israeli citizenship and move and become citizens of the future Palestinian state,” he wrote in the manifesto, entitled Swimming Against the Stream, published on his Facebook page and his party’s website.
“Israel should even encourage them to do so with a system of economic incentives,” he said.
The last round of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, who seek a state in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as their capital, collapsed in April.
Lieberman has in the past called on Israeli Arabs, who make up about 20 percent of Israel’s 8 million population, to take a loyalty oath if they want to remain in Israel, a measure that Netanyahu denounced at the time.
But Netanyahu is now backing a contentious bill that would define Israel as the Jewish nation state and enshrine certain rights for Jews. Critics say it would discriminate against Arab-Israelis and put religion and ethnicity above democracy.
The bill comes at a time of high tensions in Israel, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, where a dispute over access to a religious site sacred to Jews and Muslims alike has ignited Palestinian streets protests and lethal attacks on Jews.
A poll carried out in 2010, after Lieberman addressed the United Nations and set out plans for the borders of a future Palestinian state to be redrawn to include Arab towns in Israel, showed that 58 percent of Israeli Arabs opposed the idea.
Jerusalem - IDF's Chief Rabbi: Temple Mount Is Of No Religious Significance To Islam
Jerusalem - The IDF’s chief rabbi, Brig.-Gen. Rafi Peretz, was recorded speaking strongly against members of the Muslim faith who pray at the Temple Mount. In a transcript of a religious lecture uploaded to the website Kippa, at Mechina Atzmona, Peretz is quoted as answering student questions regarding the significance of the Temple Mount in Islam. Channel 10 later aired a recording of the lecture.
“Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran even once,” Peretz said. “Not at all. Not even once. You know what? It’s not even hinted at. You know what? 90% of Arabs don’t know what’s written in the Koran. I’m telling you this—we know a lot better than them,” he added.
Addressing Al-Aksa, the chief rabbi can be heard asking, “What are they doing at the Temple Mount? [if the Muslims] bow down to Mecca in prayer, while their behinds are turned to the Temple Mount.”
Peretz’s speech lasted around an hour. The lecture was not given while the rabbi donned his IDF uniform.
Addressing Al-Aksa, the chief rabbi can be heard asking, “What are they doing at the Temple Mount? [if the Muslims] bow down to Mecca in prayer, while their behinds are turned to the Temple Mount.”
Peretz’s speech lasted around an hour. The lecture was not given while the rabbi donned his IDF uniform.
The Brig.-Gen. released a statement through the IDF’s Spokesperson Office asking to clarify that his words were taken out of context and “do not reflect the views of the IDF’s chief rabbi.” The IDF message conveyed that “the Rabbi apologizes if his words offended the Arab population.”
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Syrian Jihadi: "Jews are the kings of sex"
From MEMRI:
If we're the kings of sex in this world, then that might explain why the jihadis are so keen on sex in the next world.
Meanwhile, this Kuwaiti cleric was careful to only refer to Jews as "sons of Zion," as in "All the wars throughout history, from the time of our Prophet Mohammed until this day, were started by the sons of Zion. All of them!"
See? he's only anti-Zionist!
In a recent TV interview, Syrian Islamist scholar Muaz Al-Safouk said that the world is shaped by the Jews, "the kings of gold, sex, and the media, who spread immorality, atheism, apostasy, and discord," and that only the Islamist Jihadi movements can break their backs.
If we're the kings of sex in this world, then that might explain why the jihadis are so keen on sex in the next world.
Meanwhile, this Kuwaiti cleric was careful to only refer to Jews as "sons of Zion," as in "All the wars throughout history, from the time of our Prophet Mohammed until this day, were started by the sons of Zion. All of them!"
See? he's only anti-Zionist!
Cartoon Implies Israel is a Police State
The cartoon above appears in The Times of London (subscription only). Ostensibly it makes fun of UK cabinet minister Theresa May, who is responsible for legislating anti-terror measures to protect British citizens.
However, it also, in its satirical way, implies that May is getting her inspiration from foreign intelligence agencies. The Stasi was the feared Communist East German secret police while the KGB was responsible for subterfuge on behalf of the Soviet Union.
So why is Mossad, an intelligence agency that cooperates closely with its Western counterparts such as the CIA and MI6, lumped together with the Stasi and KGB? This is particularly inappropriate given that Israel and the UK are on the same side when it comes to defeating jihadist terrorism.
Ultimately, while the focus of the cartoon is not Israel, it still succeeds in falsely portraying the country as a police state.
Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: The entire bogus history of Palestinian Arab nationalism exposed by a stamp
In 1925, Arab leaders in Palestine were very upset over those two letters, so they went to court.
From the Palestine Bulletin, October 13, 1925:
As already reported, the Chief Justice, Sir Thomas Haycraft, and Mr. Justice Corrie, heard on Saturday last the complaint preferred by Mr. Jamal Husseini against the Palestine Government. The plaintiff demanded that the Court should oblige the Government to remove on "stamps" and other official documents the Hebrew letters "E-I" (being the initials for the Hebrew word, "Eretz-Israel," leaving only the word "Palestine" in Hebrew.That last sentence says volumes.
Counsel for the plaintiff based his prosecution on Article 22 of the British Mandate for Palestine that states that anything inscribed in one of the official languages must be transcribed into the other two languages. The initials "E-I" (Eretz Israel) were inscribed in Hebrew only, in contravention to the provisions of the Mandate. The Chief Justice asked Counsel whether he would agree that the initials "E-I" be also inscribed in Arabic and English. Counsel replied in the negative. Their Honours then pointed out that the initials "E-I" was the translation of Palestine. Counsel contended that "E-I" was not the right translation of "Palestine" their meaning being "The Land of the Jews." He said that "Palestina" was already inscribed, and that the affixing of the initials "E-I" was tautological. He was of opinion that their addition constituted a political point to prove that the land was that of the Jews. The Philistines and the Jews were two separate nations, existing at separate times, and the meaning of one did not apply to the other. He requested the Court therefore that: it should order the deletion of the initials "E-I" from stamps and other official documents in Palestine - or alternatively, to order the inscription of the words "Suria El Jenobia" (Southern Syria), Palestine's Arabic cognomen.
Jamal Husseini, who was one of the architects of the 1929 massacres of Jews and remained a major Arab leader in Palestine through the 1940s, felt that in order to keep things equal, Arabs should be able to officially use their own name for Palestine just as the Jews were using Eretz Yisrael.
And what name is that? Southern Syria!
This is already several years after Arab leadership officially abandoned their desire to integrate Palestine into Syria, but it shows that Arab masses clearly still considered Palestine to be a mere district of a larger Arab nation, not a nation of its own.
Notice also that Husseini regarded the Arabs of Palestine at the time to have been descended from the Philistines, not the Canaanites, as today's Arab leaders pretend.
Also, Jamal Husseini admitted that the Jewish people are a nation - something strenuously denied by Palestinian Arab leaders today.
This little episode shows that Palestinian nationalism is a fiction. It only exists as a means to destroy Jewish nationalism, and if it wasn't for Zionism there would never have been any desire on the part of Arabs to have an independent Palestinian state.
It shows that Palestinian Arabs have changed their supposed history as a people in reaction to whatever the contemporary political climate allows.
There is one more lesson from this episode as well.
The Palestine Bulletin article was reproduced in the Macquarie University law school archives. But their version engaged in a little political correctness replacing the word "Philistines" with "Palestinians" and "Palestina" with "Palestine." Because it is not fashionable for modern Westerners to acknowledge that there were no "Palestinian" nation, ever. The idea that a law school would silently change the text of a 1925 newspaper article in order to align it with today's zeitgeist is but a tiny indication of how history itself has been distorted by today's universities for political purposes.
You can learn a lot from a stamp, if you are willing to keep your mind open.
From Kuwaiti Arab to Israeli Jew
By Mark Halawa
It seems like it was only yesterday that I was a young teenager wearing a dish-dasha (white robe) in Kuwait, and now I wear a kipah and live in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is where my grandparents on my mother’s side met. My Jewish grandmother met my Palestinian Muslim grandfather when they were both in their late teens. She later converted to Islam, got married to my grandfather, and lived in Shechem for many years. Following the 1970 Black September uprising, my grandfather-who was a high-ranking officer in Jordan’s Arab Legion-was cashiered when King Hussein purged his army of Palestinians. The family relocated to Kuwait, where oil profits were fueling huge business and construction projects. In Kuwait, my mother met my father and got married.
My father was born in Beisan (Beit She’an in Hebrew), Israel, and owned a successful construction company in Kuwait that built some of Kuwait’s popular landmarks (which I proudly show off to my friends over Google Earth today). My father attended university in Egypt and was a staunch follower of the Nasser school of thought, Pan Arabism-the unification of the Arab World. I was brought up to believe that Israel was the only obstacle to Arab unity, a satellite presence planted by Western colonial powers to keep the Arab world divided. Therefore, Israel had to be destroyed.
Our family was as secular as a family can be in Arabia. My father was more of a deist than an atheist-he believed in a creator, but strongly rejected all religions, especially Islam. My mother wasn’t into religion either at the time, as her priorities were our home and social events. At home we were loosely traditional; we partially observed Ramadan (not the fasting part) and celebrated the two Eid holidays by hosting feasts and visiting friends, family and business partners.
The only religious influence around was my grandfather. Out of love for him, I accompanied him to mosque several times. I never really learned how to pray; I’d stand, kneel and bow in sync with everyone else, then sit on the ground and listen to the sermon. The “sermon” often consisted of the imam’s nonstop screaming and shouting about the evils of the Jews. The imam would tell many stories of the horrible things Jews did to Prophet Mohammad, and explain how Allah doomed them to the level of animals, and that fighting the Jews was the duty of every Muslim who loved his religion.
I’ll never forget how the Imam described Joseph’s brothers as “evil Jewish brothers of the prophet of Islam, who threw him down the well and then sold him into slavery.” The imam then said, “You see how Jews treat their own brothers!” That story angered me. Then, according to custom, the imam finished his sermon with a stream of supplications calling for the destruction of the Jewish people, while the crowd responded to each supplication with a thunderous “Amen!” Even then, as a ten-year-old, this was quite chilling.
After an eventful prayer session, we’d walk back together to my grandparents’ home to have lunch with everyone. The smells of my grandmother’s delicious food took my mind off of the horrible stories I heard at mosque. But as we ate, I’d think to myself, How could my sweet grandmother have belonged to an evil Jewish cult built on killing of innocent people? Is that why she left? And was she a descendant of pigs and monkeys? Or perhaps the imam was exaggerating? After all, my father told me that religious people were crazy: “Never trust people with beards! ”
When my parents went on vacation, they usually left us with our grandparents. As kids will do, I snooped around in my grandparents’ room, and once found my grandmother’s birth certificate, along with old pictures. The last name on the birth certificate was Mizrahi. It struck me as an odd name that I had never heard of. The header on the document was in Arabic, Hebrew and English. I didn’t know what Hebrew looked like, but I recognized the letters I had seen in the small book my grandmother would sometimes read from when she sat alone in the guest room, tears trickling down her face. I suspected my grandmother was reciting Jewish prayers, because on the news, I had seen Jews praying by “Ha’it al Mabka”-the Wailing Wall in Arabic.
Anti-Semitism was commonplace in Kuwait. I remember a show that the Palestinian boy scouts would put on, which ended with the burning of the Israeli flag. One year, I took part in one of the shows. In a twisted way, the organizers wanted to show their success in creating a generation of defenders of the “cause,” which helped them raise millions in donations from sympathizers.
My father was a strong supporter of the PLO himself. Since the 1960s, a portion of his monthly salary was deducted and sent to the organization founded by Yasser Arafat (also an engineer working in Kuwait at the time), which promised to finance armed groups to liberate Palestine one day. Arafat raised money from wealthy Palestinians working in Kuwait, as well as from Kuwaitis and the Kuwaiti government. Later, he’d turn against the same government that helped him become a political force, by aligning with Saddam Hussein against Kuwait. My father said that with the hundreds of millions of dollars Arafat raised, he could’ve created five-star services and infrastructure in the West Bank, but he decided to appropriate the money instead.
In the summer of 1990, when I was 12 years old, our lives changed completely. We were on vacation when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded and annexed Kuwait. My father’s business-along with much of the country-was ravaged. Our savings became worthless pieces of paper. We could not return to Kuwait, so we immigrated to Canada. My father managed to sneak back into Kuwait for a few days to retrieve important business documents that would later be useful in recovering compensation from a United Nations fund.
But life in the new world didn’t suit my family well, and they returned to the Middle East, while I stayed in Canada to attend university.
During my final year at the University of Western Ontario, while I was studying at the Weldon Library, I went down to use the pay phone and found a man sitting at a small table cutting up a green apple. From his dress, he looked Jewish, so I went up to him and asked him straightforwardly, “Hi, are you a Jew?”
He looked up with a smile and answered “No, but I like to dress this way.”
I wondered to myself, Are Jewish people supposed to be funny? I introduced myself and told him that I wanted to do something to advance peace in the Middle East. I added that I didn’t believe in religion and didn’t completely hate Jews because my grandmother was Jewish.
He introduced himself to me as Dr. Yitzchok Block, a professor of philosophy from Harvard who taught at UWO. He invited me to sit down, and cut me a piece of his apple. He asked me, “Which side of the family is that grandmother from?”
I replied, “My mother’s side. My father’s parents died before I was born.”
Dr. Block said gently, “If that’s the case, then by Muslim law you’re Muslim, and by Jewish law you’re a Jew. A Jew can convert 10 times and he’ll still be a Jew, and by Jewish law religion is transferred by the mother, which makes your mother Jewish, and makes you a Jew. ”
I was completely dumbfounded. Memories flooded into my mind-my grandmother, the “evil Jews,” mosque sermons, Israeli TV . . .
I ran home and told my roommate, who said, “So that makes you a ‘Mus-Jew.’” I was not amused.
I went up to my room, called my mom, and told her what happened. She told me to stay away from Dr. Block. But I called my grandmother, and we spoke for quite some time, and she told me about her family and younger brother who died in the early days of the establishment of Israel. I finally mustered the courage to ask her, “Tata, are you Jewish?” I never heard my grandmother as distressed in all my life. She cried and told me more stories about her family and how Jews and Arabs used to be friends.
I decided not to pursue the idea that I was a Jew, as I was finishing university and this wasn’t a topic worth upsetting my family over. I did speak on the phone once with Dr. Block and met with his son-in-law, Rabbi Lazer Gurkow, who was a rabbi of a congregation close by. He recommended books to read and mentioned his synagogue.
One evening, while rollerblading on the street, I suddenly fell to the ground, although the street was smooth and there was no visible cause for the fall. I immediately felt that it was a “push” from up above. My right wrist was sprained and bandaged, and I couldn’t go to work for some time.
That Saturday morning, I remembered that Jews went to synagogue on Saturdays. I contemplated going to Dr. Block’s synagogue to check it out, but I was hesitant, thinking, “I look so Middle Eastern; I’ll probably scare people off.” I decided to go anyway. I looked up the address and called a cab, not knowing it would be the last time I would ride in a cab on Shabbat.
When I arrived at the shul, I thought, I’ll just go in, how bad could it be? If worst comes to worst, I won’t come back again. I opened the door, and there stood an Indian gentleman, who handed me a kipah and greeted me with “Shabbat Shalom.” Cool, I thought. I looked around for Dr. Block, and found him standing all the way in the back, with a book in his hands. He greeted me with the same reassuring, warm smile and said, “Good Shabbos.”
I asked him, “What are you reading?”
He replied, “I like to learn on Shabbos.”
“Aren’t you done studying by now?” I asked, thinking to myself that he must be retired at this age.
He answered, “Even if I would live another lifetime, I wouldn’t be done learning.” That sentence didn’t register until much later in life.
The congregation was a mix of all ages, and everyone was responding to the rabbi enthusiastically. I was handed a prayerbook, and someone was calling out the page numbers. Soon I found myself reading a song that I’d be reading every Shabbat from then on:
“Ve-shamru v’nei Yisrael et ha-Shabbat, la’asot et ha-Shabbat le-dorotam berit olam. Bei-ni u-vein b’nei Yisrael ot hi le-olam, ki shei-shet ya-mim ah-sah A-do-nai, et ha-sha-mayim ve-et ha-aretz uva-yom ha-shevi’i shavat va-yi-nafash.”
“And the Children of Israel observed the Sabbath, to make the Sabbath for their generations an eternal covenant. Between Me and the Children of Israel it is a sign forever, that in six days did G‑d make the heaven and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.”
I didn’t understand Hebrew, but between my Arabic and the English translation, I could understand the words. “Between Me and the Children of Israel it is a sign forever.” It was true. By then, my tears were streaming down.
I met a few people over Kiddush, including an African Falasha gentleman and an Egyptian couple who, when they learned of my birthplace, asked me in Arabic, “Do you speak Arabic?” I felt like saying, “Shush, the Jews are here!”
After the Kiddush, Dr. Block invited me to his home for lunch. I wasn’t used to accepting too much from people, so I politely declined, but he said, “We’re having several guests, and one more won’t be a bother. My wife makes delicious chicken.”
I gave him a big smile and told him it would be my pleasure.
At Dr. Block’s home, there were around 10 people at that table, a mix of students and professionals. The conversation was lively, and people were encouraged to ask challenging questions. Later, we read parts of a story about a queen named Esther and how she strived to save her people from an evil man who wanted to destroy the Jews. It reminded me of the systematic anti-Jewish indoctrination I grew up with. We didn’t finish the story of Esther, and I wondered whether the Jews were saved in the end.
Dr. Block was a great host. He walked me to the door and thanked me for coming over. I told him it felt like I’d done this before-it was weird. He said, “It’s not hard to believe. Every Jew is born with a little Torah and a little menorah inside.” He nudged me with his shoulder and said, “All it takes is for another Jew to bump into him to light it up.”
When I got home, I waited until after sunset to turn my computer on, like I was advised, and I started searching until I found “The Book of Esther.” I devoured the story until the end, sighing with relief that G‑d had saved the Jews from the plot of those who wanted their destruction. I felt a sense of ownership of my newfound Jewish identity, and decided I wanted to experience Shabbat some more. I spoke with my employer, and I started observing Shabbat regularly.
A few months later, I moved to Toronto for further university studies. I started going to shul there too, and I studied at the Lubavitch yeshivah every Tuesday to learn more about my newfound background. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. I also taught myself Hebrew, and became more observant of Shabbat laws. Life started to have more meaning for me, and I felt comfortable telling my friends and family I was a Jew.
Initially, my family was tolerant of my Jewish involvement, viewing it as a passing phase. Then my mother started to become more religious as a Muslim. I learned that she had started to cover her hair after my aunt died in a car accident. As she became more observant, she started attacking me with the same words and phrases Muslims use against Jews. My mother’s extreme religious level clashed with my father’s anti-religious beliefs, and they eventually divorced.
I didn’t fare well with my father, either. Once, while we were discussing how terrorism and crime was becoming out of control in the Middle East, I asked, “Why is the life of an Israeli soldier fighting for his people worth less than that of a terrorist civilian aiming to kill and maim others because he was told to do so by a fanatic?” My dad himself had taught me that fanatics brainwash children into becoming suicide bombers, but when the topic involved Jews, the narrative suddenly changed. He called me a Zionist and threatened to remove me from his will.
One day, a rabbi told me that since I didn’t have physical proof of my Jewish claims, and my family had been outside of Jewish life for a few generations, I’d have to convert. I had a difficult time wrapping my head around the idea of conversion. My family didn’t want to speak with me, I had shed the skin I’d worn for the past 26 years of my life to become a completely different person-and now I had to convert? I reminded myself that deep inside, the main reason I wanted to be Jewish was to marry a Jewish girl and continue the family line.
I decided to take the plunge and went to the Beit Din in Toronto. We started the process, and later I was advised to spend some time at a yeshivah in Israel. I went to Israel and fell in love with the land and the people I had been told were “animals” and “killers.” I found a genuine family of Jews from all around the world. Jews of all colors and nationalities, Jews who were creative, innovative, accepting and loving . . . just like the first Jew I encountered at UWO.
After three years of learning Jewish law and philosophy, I was invited for an interview with the Beit Din of Rav Nissim Karelitz. I was tested thoroughly on various topics of law, and I passed flawlessly. I was officially accepted as a member of the Jewish people. My dream finally came true-I could marry and have Jewish children, as Jewish as everyone else.
On August 6, 2014-the day right after Tisha b’Av-I made my way to a Second Temple-period mikvah by the Western Wall in preparation for my wedding ceremony.
It was a beautiful summer day in Nes Harim, at the outskirts of Jerusalem, overlooking the Judean hills. Our guests included close friends from Israel, Canada, the United States, Finland, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates. My yeshivah rabbis, classmates and business associates also attended. Rabbi Israel Weisel officiated.
My bride Linda and I came from different sides of the planet, both geographically and culturally. Linda grew up the daughter of a Lutheran priest in Finland, and I a secular Muslim in Kuwait, but after our individual journeys to Judaism, this was more than we could both have dreamed of.
Today, I live in Jerusalem with my wife, where we plan to raise a family and build a Jewish home for generations to come, continuing where my grandmother left off.
Yazd, Iran - Iran's Jewish Community Finds Greater Acceptance Under President Rouhani
In this Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014 photo, Iranian Jews men enter the Molla Agha Baba Synagogue, in the city of Yazd 420 miles south of capital Tehran. Iran. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Yazd, Iran - More than a thousand people trekked across Iran this past week to visit a shrine in this ancient Persian city, a pilgrimage like many others in the Islamic Republic - until you notice men there wearing yarmulkes.
Iran, a home for Jews for more than 3,000 years, has the Middle East’s largest Jewish population outside of Israel, a perennial foe of the country. But while Iran’s Jews in recent years had their faith continually criticized by the country’s previous governments, they’ve found new acceptance under moderate President Hassan Rouhani.
“The government has listened to our grievances and requests. That we are being consulted is an important step forward,” said Homayoun Samiah, leader of the Tehran Jewish Association. “Under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, nobody was listening to us. Our requests fell on deaf ears.”
Most of Iran’s 77 million people are Shiite Muslims and its ruling establishment is led by hard-line clerics who preach a strict version of Islam. Many Jews fled the country after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Jews linked to Israel afterward were targeted. Today, estimates suggest some 20,000 Jews remain in the country.
Tensions grew under Ahmadinejad, who repeatedly called the Holocaust “a myth” and even sponsored an international conference in 2006 to debate whether the World War II genocide of Jews took place. Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi once accused Jews as whole of being drug dealers.
But since Rouhani took office last year, Jews say they have been heartened by the support they’ve received. His government agreed to allow Jewish schools to be closed on Saturdays to mark Shabbat, the day of rest. Rouhani also allocated the equivalent of $400,000 to a Jewish charity hospital in Tehran and invited the country’s only Jewish lawmaker to accompany him to the United Nations General Assembly in New York last year.
In this Nov, 2014 combo image made up of 8 photos, Iranian Jews pose for photographs holding a painting of Moses with "The Ten Commandments," after prayers at the Molla Agha Baba Synagogue, in the city of Yazd 420 miles (676 kilometers) south of capital Tehran. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
“We were fearful in the `80s. We were feeling the pressure. Now, we are not concerned anymore. We feel secure and enjoy freedoms,” said Mahvash Kohan, a female Jewish pilgrim who came to Yazd from Shiraz. “In the past, Israel and others were providing incentives such as housing that lured some Jews. Now, it’s not like that. And Iranian Jews have better living and working conditions in Iran. So, no one is willing to leave now.”
Still, human rights groups say Jews and other minorities in Iran face discrimination. Last year, officials in Iran’s presidency denied that Rouhani had a Twitter account after a tweet that appeared to be from the leader offered a greeting for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. Iranian state television also has aired anti-Semitic programming.
Those taking part in the recent Yazd pilgrimage to the tomb of a famed Jewish scholar, however, praised the Iranian government’s new outreach.
“We’ve gathered here to pray and celebrate our Jewishness,” Kohan said. “We are proud that we freely practice our religion.”
In this Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014 photo, an Iranian Jewish man lights candles at the at the tomb of Harav Oursharga, one of the holiest Jewish sites in Iran, in the city of Yazd 420 miles (676 kilometers) south of capital Tehran. More than a thousand people trekked across Iran this past week to visit a shrine in this ancient Persian city, a pilgrimages like many others in the Islamic Republic until you notice men there wearing yarmulkes. (Credit: AP)
In this Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014 photo, an Iranian Jewish man holds a Torah scroll at the Molla Agha Baba Synagogue, in the city of Yazd 420 miles (676 kilometers) south of capital Tehran, Iran. More than a thousand people trekked across Iran this past week to visit a shrine in this ancient Persian city, a pilgrimages like many others in the Islamic Republic until you notice men there wearing yarmulkes. (Credit: AP)
In this Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014 photo, Iranian Jews pray at the Molla Agha Baba Synagogue, in the city of Yazd 420 miles (676 kilometers) south of capital Tehran, Iran. More than a thousand people trekked across Iran this past week to visit a shrine in this ancient Persian city, a pilgrimages like many others in the Islamic Republic until you notice men there wearing yarmulkes. (Credit: AP)
In this Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014 photo, an Iranian Jewish man prays at the Molla Agha Baba Synagogue, in the city of Yazd 420 miles (676 kilometers) south of capital Tehran, Iran. More than a thousand people trekked across Iran this past week to visit a shrine in this ancient Persian city, a pilgrimages like many others in the Islamic Republic until you notice men there wearing yarmulkes. (Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS)
In this Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014 photo, an Iranian Jewish man carries a Torah scroll at the Molla Agha Baba Synagogue, in the city of Yazd 420 miles (676 kilometers) south of capital Tehran. Iran, a home for Jews for more than 3,000 years, has the Middle East�s largest Jewish population outside of Israel, a perennial foe of the country. But while Iran�s Jews in recent years had their faith continually criticized by the country�s previous government, they�ve found new acceptance from moderate President Hassan Rouhani. (Credit: AP)
In this Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014 photo, Iranian Jews pray at the tomb of Harav Oursharga, one of the holiest Jewish sites in Iran, in the city of Yazd 420 miles (676 kilometers) south of capital Tehran. More than a thousand people trekked across Iran this past week to visit a shrine in this ancient Persian city, a pilgrimages like many others in the Islamic Republic until you notice men there wearing yarmulkes. (Credit: AP)
In this Friday, Nov. 21, 2014 photo, an Iranian Jewish man prays at the Molla Agha Baba Synagogue, in the city of Yazd 420 miles (676 kilometers) south of capital Tehran, Iran. More than a thousand people trekked across Iran this past week to visit a shrine in this ancient Persian city, a pilgrimages like many others in the Islamic Republic until you notice men there wearing yarmulkes. (Credit: AP)
In this Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014 photo, an Iranian Jewish man carries a Torah scroll as women touch it at the Molla Agha Baba Synagogue, in the city of Yazd 420 miles (676 kilometers) south of capital Tehran, Iran. More than a thousand people trekked across Iran this past week to visit a shrine in this ancient Persian city, a pilgrimages like many others in the Islamic Republic until you notice men there wearing yarmulkes. (Credit: AP)
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