Israel@70
Supplement to Jewish News April 9, 2018 jewishnewsva.org | April 9, 2018 | Israel@70 | Jewish News | 15
Israel@70
Celebrate Israel@70
Stories, authentic Israeli food, music, art, camels, a HUGE Israeli flag, and more Virginia Arts Festival and United Jewish Federation of Tidewater present
Israel Story’s Mixtape: The Stories Behind Israel’s Ultimate Playlist Sunday, April 15, 7:30 pm
Harbor Club at Waterside District 333 Waterside Drive, Norfolk
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a community-wide celebration of the State of Israel’s 70th year Sunday, April 22, 11 am–4 pm Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus FREE* Visit simonfamilyjcc.org/israelfest for more information and to volunteer, or call 321-2304.
ixtape: The Stories Behind Israel’s Ultimate Playlist—explores seven decades of Israeli stories and songs. Mishy Harmon’s award-winning podcast, Israel Story will take the audience behind the scenes of some of Israel’s most iconic (and obscure) songs as they unpack the dramas, complexities, social tensions, and humor of life in Israel.
Experience Israel through art, education, food, games, and entertainment with activities for all ages.
Mishy Harmon.
Visit VAFest.org/IsraelStory for tickets. $35 (Military, senior, and student pricing available).
Simon Family JCC and CRC along with community partners, including Congregation Beth El’s Celebrating Judaism Through the Arts, present:
Israel Today@70 with Eyal Rob Thursday, April 19, 6:30 pm Congregation Beth El, Free 422 Shirley Avenue, Norfolk
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o-founder of Israel’s first music television channel, Israeli journalist and culture critic, Eyal Rob brings the Tel Aviv music scene to Tidewater, reflecting the Jewish nation’s songs through wars, peace, struggle, and hope. This interactive Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebration is for all ages. (See page 31.)
Israel Fest
Eyal-Rob.
Visit JewishVA.org/IsraelToday#EyalRob to RSVP (required) or call 321-2304.
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Children’s Israel activities with Simon Family JCC summer camp counselors, Strelitz Early Childhood Center and Hebrew Academy of Tidewater teachers, Sababa Beachaway, PJ Library, the Nature Bus, and more, include: • A scavenger hunt through Israel for kids and teens • Live Animals in Tidewater’s version of the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo • Storytime in Hebrew and English • Sababa lawn games for teens • Archeological dig for ancient coins in Beer-Sheva • Robotics Build & Battle • Sand art in the Negev • Israel sensory tables for toddlers • Diaper Derby through Israel • Much, much more! Activities for the entire family include: • Authentic Israeli street food with visiting Chef, Guy Beery • HQ Trivia—Test your Israel knowledge • Israeli Cinematheque featuring films from the past seven decades • Camel rides • Henna • Virtual reality trips through Israel
• Collaborative community art projects • Learn to be more Sababa like Israelis— lessons on Jewish mindfulness • Shop for Israeli art, jewelry, flags, books, essential oils, and more • Backgammon tournament • Israel photo ops galore • Music of the past 70 years by Israeli DJ, Eyal Rob Exhibits on display include: • Community Umbrella Installation. More than 300 hand painted works of art by students across the community through the generosity of the Gifford Foundation • Beit Hatfutsot’s Celebrating Israel@70: Snapshots of the People Behind a Young State • Israel21c’s 70 Years of Israeli Achievements— A Timeline of Success • Israel Matters, a Stand With Us multi-panel display sharing facts about Israel’s people, history, vibrant economy, innovations, maps and more. And, be sure to join hundreds of people at 2:30 pm at the soccer field, to be part of Tidewater’s largest Israeli flag, ever! (More details on page 31.) *Tickets required for some experiences and food.
Israel@70 N o r fo lk to M ig da l H a’e m e k
K
Katie Becker Lazarus
atie Becker met Yoni Lazarus at Hunter College in New York while they were both in doctoral programs. Married in 2012, the couple made aliyah, moving to Jerusalem with their ninemonth-old child in 2014 during Operation Protective Shield. The Lazaruses moved north to
Migdal Ha’emek in 2016, where they now live with their three small children. Earlier this year, The Jerusalem Post profiled the couple in an article titled, On the same track. The article notes, “Katie…grew up first in Virginia Beach then in Norfolk, Va., which had an Orthodox community of around 100 Jewish families. She and her identical twin sister and their two siblings attended the community day school there through eighth grade.” The school, of course, was Hebrew Academy of Tidewater. Her parents are Susan and Jon Becker. Katie Lazarus now works in an early childhood center and in two preschool programs treating children with autism. In addition to working for the army in Haifa in his area of endurance sports and sports medicine, Yoni Lazarus operates his own physical therapy practice. The Post article concludes, “Though the Lazaruses have successfully coped with some Israeli challenges such as “learning Hebrew, finding jobs and a community,” naturally they still miss their families. Besides becoming more established economically, their present goals are “to raise a happy, well-grounded family, inspire others to move to Israel and to strengthen the community that we joined two years ago.”
The Tidewater Umbrella Project now in the Cardo of the Sandler Family Campus.
jewishnewsva.org | April 9, 2018 | Israel@70 | Jewish News | 17
Israel@70 OP-ED
Israel at 70: It’s time to reclaim the Z-word, Zionism Gil Troy
JERUSALEM (JTA)—All too often, when I ask campus organizations that are pro-Israel and deeply Zionist why they avoid using the “Z-word” in their messaging and literature, I’m told, “Zionism doesn’t poll well.” True, not polling well is one of today’s great sins. But imagine what our world would be like if our ancestors feared the polls. The American Revolution wouldn’t have polled well. Suggestions that Northerners crush slavery in 1860 wouldn’t have polled well. And proposing a new Jewish state in 1897 wouldn’t have polled well either. At the time, most European Jews believed enlightened Europe was outgrowing anti-Semitism
—that polled well. Let’s learn from our heroic predecessors—and from feminists, gays, and African-Americans, whose first attempts to defend their rights didn’t poll well either. Take back the night, resist internalizing our oppressors’ hatred of us. Reclaim the Z-word: Zionism. You cannot defeat those delegitimizing Israel by surrendering Zionism, the movement that established Israel. If a century ago Zionism brought pride back to the term “Jew,” Jews and non-Jews today must bring pride back to the term “Zionist.” In his book on “the strage career of the troublesome” N-word, the AfricanAmerican Harvard Law professor Randall Kennedy explains the “protean nature” of
Isr a e l 20 07 fo r a 50th w e dding anniv e r sa ry
political words. Groups can triumph with linguistic magic by defining themselves and their aims; when enemies define them, they lose. Kennedy warns against allowing the hater to define the hated, and that’s what is happening. First, “shame on them”: Shame on the anti-Zionists who single out Jewish nationalism, meaning Zionism, in a world organized by nationalisms, and call it “racist.” Shame on them for libeling a democratic movement. Shame on them for ignoring Judaism’s national-religious duality, which allows non-Jews to convert into the Jewish religion and join the Gil Troy. Jewish nation, making Zionism among Jewish people project? If so, you stick with the least biologically based, least racist, it because you belong to the Jewish people. most permeable forms of nationalism. And you help perfect that state through And shame on them for racializing the Zionism—embracing different schools of national conflict between Israelis and Zionist thought. It could be Religious Palestinians—inflaming hatred, making Zionism or left-leaning Labor Zionism peace more elusive. or right-leaning Revisionist Zionism or Alas, shame on us, too. Zionism should Cultural Zionism. be a more popular term than “Israel.” In honor of Israel’s 70th birthday, I Until 1948, Zionism was the movement just published The Zionist Ideas, updataffirming that Jews are a people with a ing Arthur Hertzberg’s homeland and that like classic anthology The other nations, Jews have Zionist Idea. Adding the the right to establish a “s” broadens the constate on that land (others versation, from the 38 may, too—nationalism thinkers in his book to involves collective conIsrael’s ranking the 170 in mine. As part sciousness, not exclusive on the of its publication and in land claims). Since 1948, world honor of Yom Haatzmaut, Zionism has been the “Happiness Index.” Israel’s Independence movement to perfect that Day, I am urging readstate. ers to host Zionist salons, Like all countries, home-based conversaIsrael makes good and tions addressing “what Zionism and Israel bad moves. If you’re anti-Zionist, you mean to me today.” reject Israel’s very existence. If you’re critEstablishing Israel in 1948 fulfilled the ical of Israel somehow, you’re a thinking Zionist idea—that powerless Jews need a human being. state as a refuge, immediately, and as a America’s president offers an opporplatform to flourish and express Jewish tunity to understand that distinction. values, long-term. Seventy years later, The 77 percent of American Jews who debating Zionist ideas welcomes debate hate Donald Trump still remain proudly from left to right, religious and nonreAmerican. Why can’t we love Israel and ligious, about what Zionism and Israel Zionism regardless of particular prime can mean to me as Jew, as a person—and ministers or policies, too? how some of these ideas can help Israel Here’s the real question for Jews: Do become a model democracy. you feel connected to Israel, today’s great
11
First row: Nathan Levy, Jacob Levy, Burton and Marcia Moss, Amy Levy, Ben Levy, Marc Moss. Second row: Suzanne Moss, Tom Moss, Kevin Moss, Max Moss, Alaurah Moss, Gary Moss, Mariah Moss, Hannah Moss, Sophie Levy, David Blais, Sarah Blais, Pam Blais, Rosemarie Blais, Gilly Blais, Kirk Levy, Marcia Hofheimer, and Stacie Moss.
A
Marcia and Burton Moss
dding to our family’s collective memories, this was our “dream come true”—a perfect travel and life experience to share with our family, and especially our grandchildren—to see for themselves the miracle that is Israel and feel the
pride in their people. There have been many visits by us before and after, collectively 50 plus, but for us, this was the best, filling our hearts and souls with gladness!
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Israel@70
Laura Gross “Running the Tel Aviv Half Marathon
That’s why Zionism didn’t end in 1948—the debates continue. If Zionism as an idea asserts that Jews are a people with a homeland, and Zionism as a movement builds, protects and perfects the state, Zionism as a value is more personal. Zionists see it as a way of explaining Judaism as a culture, a civilization, an ethnicity, a tradition, not just a religion. It anchors us in a self-indulgent, throwaway society, providing a sense of community in an often lonely, alienating culture, and a sense of mission in an often aimless world. Reclaiming Zionism often entails moving from Political Zionism—asking what we can do for our country—to Identity Zionism—asking, with apologies to JFK, what your country can do for you. There’s a reason why Israel ranks 11th on the world “Happiness Index,” despite the nation’s many challenges. Most Israelis are instinctively Identity Zionists. Their identity blossoms from the
Zionist state—which appreciates strong family values, robust community ties, deep patriotic feelings— and a broader sense of mission in life. That’s part of the package Birthright participants and other tourists appreciate when visiting Israel. And that’s the recipe that makes so many Israelis happy despite the rush-rush of their society and the roar-roar of some Palestinian neighbors demanding their destruction. Zionism isn’t the only way or the best way, it’s just my way, my people’s way. I’m not smart enough to improvise another framework. Identity Zionism includes commitments to Jewish education, Jewish action, to making Jewish ethics come alive, to Jewish peoplehood and Jewish community—these are core Zionist values I, for one, would—in Churchill’s words—never surrender. Today, the #MeToo conversation spotlights how often victims—especially
women—internalize persecution, letting bullies win. Anyone interested in abandoning Zionism first should ask: How much of this internalizes the delegitimization campaign? If we don’t stand up for ourselves, who are we? If we let those haters win, what are we? And if we don’t start celebrating and reclaiming the Z-word now—at Israel’s 70th—then when? Gil Troy is the author of “The Zionist Ideas,” which updates Arthur Hertzberg’s classic work “The Zionist Idea,” and was just published by The Jewish Publication Society. He is a Distinguished Scholar of North American History at McGill University and was in Tidewater last month.[See page 12] Follow on Twitter @GilTroy The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.
with your daughter—priceless Israel experience!!”
Aly and Laura Gross in Tel Aviv in February, 2018.
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jewishnewsva.org | April 9, 2018 | Israel@70 | Jewish News | 19
Israel@70 Israel at 70: How 1948 changed American Jews Ben Sales
( JTA)—One year after Israel’s establishment, in the dead of night, three students ascended a tower at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and raised the Israeli flag. The next morning, the Conservative rabbinical school’s administration took it down. That act of surreptitious Zionist protest was one of several at JTS during the years surrounding 1948, when Israel gained independence, Michael Greenbaum wrote in an essay in Tradition Renewed, a JTS history edited by Jack Wertheimer. Students supported the new Jewish state. However, the seminary’s chancellor, Louis Finkelstein, opposed American Judaism focusing all its efforts across an ocean, and also needed to appease a board wary
of Jewish nationalism. But the students persisted. Once, they sang the Israeli anthem Hatikvah following graduation ceremonies. Another time, they convinced their colleagues at the Union Theological Seminary, the Protestant school next door, to play the anthem from their bell tower. Today, nearly all American Jewish institutions are vocally, even passionately pro-Israel. But even in the years after the Jewish state won its independence 70 years ago, that feeling was not yet universal. Before the Holocaust, Zionism itself was polarizing among American Jews. Many, especially in the Reform movement, felt support for a Jewish homeland would cause their loyalty to America to be called into question. The other side was represented by Louis Brandeis, the first
Fro m C airo to Is r a e l
O
John Correll
ver a three-day weekend in 1990 while on a job assignment in
Jewish Supreme Court justice, who saw no conflict between American values and Zionist aspirations. By the time Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948, American Jews, scarred by images of the Holocaust and Nazism and inspired by newsreels of tanned kibbutzniks, were largely supportive of Zionism. But they were not yet turning out for organized political advocacy and mass tourism to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Instead they were getting used to the idea of a Jewish sovereign state—gradually incorporating it into their culture, prayers and religious outlook. “After the mid-1930s, the majority of American Jews had come to be positive one way or another about the idea of a Jewish homeland,” says Hasia Diner, director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History at New York
Ros es , th e 19 67 wa r , an d a h u sban d Jennifer Zoberman
W
Cairo, Egypt, I decided to visit
hile attending the University
Israeli friends who lived in the Jewish set-
of Arizona in Tuscon, my par-
tlement of Ariel. When the Egyptian taxi
ents paid for a European trip
driver picked me up from my hotel, he
for me, but I said, “I must go to Israel to
was very talkative and friendly until I told
help.” So, we lost our trip money.
him the airlines was El Al. There was dead
It was not possible to fly to Israel from
silence and he didn’t say another word. I also met a fellow amateur radio (ham)
University. “While 1948 on the one hand was very exciting and [had] lots of communal programming and celebrations, it was slightly anticlimactic in the sense that opposition had been gone for at least 10 years.” North American Jewish support for Israel was turbocharged by the Truman administration’s quick recognition of the state, and by the Israeli army’s victory against the Arab states in its war of independence. In February of that year, Golda Meyerson (later Meir), raised $400,000 in one day (the equivalent of some $4 million today) on behalf of the provisional state on just one stop in Montreal. In the weeks following independence, she started a drive in the United States and Canada for $75 million more (or about $750 million in 2018 dollars).
the U.S. due to the 1967 war, so I flew to Yossi with John Correll (sitting.)
Paris and stayed in a hotel for two weeks
operator living in the settlement. Yossi invited me to his house to use his radio equip-
until I could get a flight to Israel. I worked
ment in which I made many international contacts—including several to the States. At
on Kibbutz Ramat Hakovesh for the entire
the time of my visit, I was engaged to be married and one of the U.S. amateurs called
summer, allowing Kibbutzniks to serve in
my fiancée on the telephone. Through a “phone patch” (no cost) we were able to talk
the military.
to each directly (This was long before the internet. At the time, international calls were very expensive). I spent my final day in Jerusalem where I met a good friend from Sweden who also happened to be in Israel. My trip to Israel was brief, but truly an international experience!
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Jennifer Zoberman working in the rose fields.
At that time, I had no idea that a year later I would meet the love of my life, Israel Zoberman, and he turned out to be an Israeli! Israel, who attended college in Chicago during the war, was recruited by the Israeli consulate in Chicago to speak on his country’s behalf.
Israel@70 “There was a sense that once America recognized the state, Zionism had won, and everyone wanted to link with the winners,” says Jonathan Sarna, a professor of Jewish history at Brandeis University. “It was growing very quickly, it took in all of these refugees, which solved that problem.” After Israel secured its independence, American Jews began to engage with the new nation in small ways. There was no rush of tourism, but American Jews would show their support by purchasing goods from Israel, reading books about Israel or holding Israeli dance classes in their community centers. “Here’s this new state they had to kind of develop this relationship with, [and] the cultural realm was really the place it was happening,” Emily Alice Katz, author of the 2015 book Bringing Zion Home, told the New Books Network podcast. “There were these years in which it wasn’t as much about rallying the troops for these massive outpourings of aid or political influence, but it was more of this coming to know Israel.” Part of the reticence to support Israel stemmed from the ethos of 1950s America, with its focus on suburban growth, the “melting pot” and assimilation. Against that backdrop, American Jews were trying to prove they belonged as social and cultural equals in American society. So again they were fearful of “dual loyalty” charges that could stem from vocal support for a Jewish state. In a watershed moment in that debate, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion sent a letter in 1950 to Jacob Blaustein, president of the American Jewish Committee, which for many years had been hesitant to throw its support behind the Jewish national movement. Ben-Gurion pledged not to speak for American Jewry or intervene in its affairs, and to dial down his insistence that American Jews move to Israel. In exchange, Blaustein recognized “the necessity and desirability” of supporting Israel in its nation building. “The 1950s were the heyday of American Jewish assimilation,” says Sara Hirschhorn, an Israel studies professor
at Oxford University. “It was the postwar era, when American Jews were benefiting from the same things everyone else was benefiting from – the GI bill, all kinds of ways for people to move into the middle class—and they wanted to continue to make the most of that.” Nevertheless, Israel began to show up in American Jewish religious practice. A Conservative prayer book published in 1949 had readings about Israel, but not the prayer for Israel that is now standard in many prayer books. Religious schools gradually shifted their pronunciation of Hebrew from European Ashkenazic to Sephardic-inflected Israeli. Non-Zionist religious leaders, like Finkelstein of JTS, eventually were sidelined. The biggest shift, Sarna says, was American Jewry viewing Judaism’s history as one of “destruction and rebirth.” That outlook posed the Holocaust and the establishment of Israel as its two poles and, Sarna said, remains dominant in
American Jewish thinking today. He noted that Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day and its Independence Day are commemorated about a week apart by design. “The theme of destruction and rebirth becomes a very important theme in the lives of American Jews,” he says. “So much so that American Jews don’t know the history of Zionism going back, and have bought the idea that it’s all about the Holocaust being linked to the birth of the State of Israel.” American Jews became more open in their celebration of Israel about a decade after 1948. Exodus, the 1958 novel by Leon Uris that painted Israel in heroic terms, was a national best-seller and was adapted into a popular movie in 1960 starring Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint. In 1961, the Yiddish star Molly Picon starred in a Broadway musical about a visit by American Jews to Israel, Milk and Honey, which ran for more than 500 performances. A few years later, the Israel
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Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair showcased the country’s charms. And as Cold War tensions continued into the 1960s, Israel began to be seen as a U.S. ally against the Soviet Union. In 1967, Israel’s existence was again threatened by Arab armies. Between the anxious buildup to that war and Israel’s lightning victory, American Jewish acceptance of Israel had turned to adulation, placing the Jewish state at the center of their identity. The few dissenters are found on the non-Zionist left, among various haredi Orthodox movements, and in the quiet grumblings of some mainstream leaders and rabbis who think the emphasis on Israel has thwarted the development of distinctly American Judaisms. “Slowly but surely, Israel became more important for American Jews,” Sarna says. “1967 is at once a reflection of Israel’s growing importance, but at the same time it is a great intensification of Israel’s centrality.”
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jewishnewsva.org | April 9, 2018 | Israel@70 | Jewish News | 21
Th e Yo m Kippu r Wa r an d o r ang e cr at es Steve Snyder
I
n the summer of 1973, shortly after graduating from college, I went to Israel as a volunteer worker on
Kibbutz Ramat Hashofet in Northern Israel. I was there from June 1973 to May 1974, working mainly on the assembly line of the Kibbutz orange crate factory. The Yom Kippur war broke out in October 1973. A significant portion of the Kibbutzniks were army reservists, so they were immediately mobilized— leaving the volunteers and remaining Kibbutzniks to work and run the Kibbutz. During that time, all of us who were volunteers formed an emotional bond with the Kibbutz and the people who remained. The two young men pictured here with me are Wafik and Jemail, two Drues Arabs from a nearby village who worked alongside us on the assembly line in the orange crate factory.
The State of Israel…At 70 Marks the return in 1948 of a proud Jewish people seeking refuge from persecution after nearly two thousand years in exile. A people who took to The Land, after being denied such land rights in Europe. Men and women who dug in, defended and worked hard to create an oasis of beauty and an opportunity for self-determination. This despite constant threat from unaccepting neighbors and prevalent prejudice from world governing bodies. Undaunted, forced to send generations of her youth to defend the dream, Israelis have not just persevered; they have thrived. Resurrecting a long-dormant language. Contributing breakthroughs in science, irrigation, technology, medicine and defense systems, Adding richly to the arts. A perfect country? No. But what country, people or human being is perfect? Israel at 70 is a Miracle. A testament to the abilities of man. So with pride and admiration we say, “Happy Birthday, Israel!” May you find the peace you so desire and richly deserve.
Jay and Jodi Klebanoff
22 | Jewish News | Israel@70 | April 9, 2018 | jewishnewsva.org
Israel@70 Ben-Gurion University researchers offer cyber-safety tips to protect cameras, baby monitors, doorbells, and other IoT devices BEER-SHEVA, Israel—Off-the-shelf devices that include baby monitors, home security cameras, doorbells, and thermostats were easily co-opted by cyber researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). As part of their ongoing research into detecting vulnerabilities of devices and networks expanding in the smart home and Internet of Things (IoT), the researchers disassembled and reverse engineered many common devices and quickly uncovered serious security issues. “It is truly frightening how easily a criminal, voyeur or pedophile can take over these devices,” says Dr. Yossi Oren, a senior lecturer in BGU’s Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering and head of the Implementation Security and SideChannel Attacks Lab at Cyber@BGU. “Using these devices in our lab, we were able to play loud music through a baby monitor, turn off a thermostat and turn on a camera remotely, much to the concern of our researchers who themselves use these products.” “It only took 30 minutes to find passwords for most of the devices and some of them were found only through a Google search of the brand,” says Omer Shwartz, a Ph.D. student and member of Oren’s lab. “Once hackers can access an IoT device, like a camera, they can create an entire network of these camera models controlled remotely.” The BGU researchers discovered several ways hackers can take advantage of poorly secured devices. They discovered that similar products under different brands share the same common default passwords. Consumers and businesses rarely change device passwords when purchased so they could be operating infected with malicious code for years. They were also able to logon to entire Wi-Fi networks simply by retrieving the password stored in a device to gain network access.
Oren urges manufacturers to stop using easy, hard-coded passwords, to disable remote access capabilities, and to make it harder to get information from shared ports, like an audio jack which was proven vulnerable in other studies by Cyber@BGU researchers. “It seems getting IoT products to market at an attractive price is often more important than securing them properly,” he says. Tips for IoT Product Security With the goal of making consumers smarter about smart home device protection, BGU researchers offer a number of tips to keep IoT devices, families and businesses more secure: 1. Buy IoT devices only from reputable manufacturers and vendors. 2. Avoid used IoT devices. They could already have malware installed. 3. R esearch each device online to determine if it has a default password and if so change before installing. 4. Use strong passwords with a minimum of 16 letters. These are hard to crack. 5. Multiple devices shouldn’t share the same passwords. 6. Update software regularly which you will only get from reputable manufacturers. 7. Carefully consider the benefits and risks of connecting a device to the internet. “The increase in IoT technology popularity holds many benefits, but this surge of new, innovative, and cheap devices reveals complex security and privacy challenges,” says Yael Mathov, who also participated in the research. “We hope our findings will hold manufacturers more accountable and help alert both manufacturers and consumers to the dangers inherent in the widespread use of unsecured IoT devices.”
Israel@70 Israeli doctors perform lifesaving spinal surgeries in Ethiopia Josefin Dolsten
I
sraeli doctors performed surgeries to fix severe spinal deformities as part of a weeklong medical mission to Ethiopia. Eight doctors, two nurses and one physical therapist from the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem traveled on the mission last month to the city of Mekelle, in the African country’s north. The Israeli medical team performed five surgeries at the Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, which serves some 8 million patients, but does not have a spine surgeon, according to Dr. Josh Schroeder, a spine surgeon at Hadassah who led the mission with Dr. Allon Moses, the chairman of Hadassah’s Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease.
In addition to performing the five surgeries, the Israelis also provided medical training to Ayder staff. The patients, all aged 18 and under, had spine deformities so severe that they were causing potentially lethal complications, including pressure on internal organs and lung infections, Schroeder says. The surgeries were complex, with some taking eight hours. “The problem with pediatric cases
is if you don’t treat them in time, they progress,” he says, “and these cases were so bad that if we wouldn’t have operated on these children, at least half of them would be dead by next year.” In addition to performing the five surgeries, the Israelis also provided medical training to Ayder staff. The medical
device company Medtronic donated the equipment necessary for the surgeries. Schroeder says he was happy to have coordinated and participated in the mission. “We’re working in a really privileged society, both in Israel and the United States, and things that we have at our fingertips don’t exist over there,” he says. “These people, you can really change their lives with a reasonably short intervention.” The Hadassah and Ayder hospitals have a partnership dating back five years, with Israeli medical students doing rotations in Mekelle, and Ayder physicans receiving training and supplies from Hadassah. (JTA)
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CONTACT: ALEX POMERANTZ, DIRECTOR OF VIRGINIA, MIDATLANTIC REGION | ALEX.POMERANTZ@FIDF.ORG | 757-472-9054 jewishnewsva.org | April 9, 2018 | Israel@70 | Jewish News | 23
Isr a e l fo r th e fir st tim e …
M y trip to Isr a e l wa s th e b est trip
a story with sequel after sequel
Amy Zelenka
Suzanne Barr
I
never get tired of saying that every Israel experience is special—each one meaningful in
its own way. Whether it’s with a Birthright trip, bar or bat mitzvah, a Federation mission, or any other means of visiting—a trip to Israel is unique among all other travel destinations. Beyond special, however— Suzanne Barr in the center, holding sign upon arriving in Israel.
beyond unique or meaningful—is the first time one visits Israel; the
Amy Zelenka at Ceasarea with sons Sam and Adam in 2009.
first time one experiences the Jewish state; the first time you come home from Israel and feel a sense of other-world-
I
n 1967, I heard about a United Jewish Appeal Young Leadership Mission to Israel from our friends, Mavolyn and Sonny Lefcoe. I was advised that it would be a hard trip, but I wanted to go anyway. After making some calls, I managed to get on the trip, which
liness, simply because the candy wrappers on the ground in the parking lot of the
was comprised of about 30 people from around the country. The only people I knew
airport are written in English, and not in Hebrew. Who would think that something as
when I signed up were the Lefcoes.
humble and ubiquitous as a candy wrapper would cause that kind of inner turmoil?
The 14-day trip left on September 17, 1967, just months after the Six-Day War.
After all, what’s the difference between a Milky Way and a Mekupelet? Yes, it’s choc-
Everything was planned for us…. We flew El Al, met with people in the government,
olate, but it’s more, because the Mekupelet (with its Hebrew writing on the wrapper is
walked up Masada, went to all of the highlights, visited schools. It felt like walking
our chocolate—made in Israel—made in our home). My children used to request that
through the bible. Israel was a new country, and since we were there just after the war, tanks were all
I bring home chocolate from Israel with each trip I made. They even called it “the land of milk chocolate and honey!” I guess it just tastes better. But I digress. My friend and colleague Hal Sacks (of blessed memory) used to tell me: “The only
around. If a solider was walking, we’d stop and pick him up. There were no shopping centers, and we’d see camels walking on the highway. I’ve only made four scrapbooks in my life, and one is from my trip to Israel—taken
thing more powerful than seeing Israel for the first time is seeing it through the eyes of a first timer.” And Hal was right. I’ve had the great fortune of visiting Israel many
with my instamatic camera. People always say their trip was the best trip, but I think my trip was the best trip.
times during the past 20 years, and each time I’ve gone with a first timer, I’ve appreciated Hal’s observation more and more. Through the eyes, ears, and senses of a first timer, I’ve gotten to re-live the feel of touching the sun warmed stones of the Kotel—
G r ate f u l fo r e na bling pa r e nt s
connecting me with thousands of years of Jewish struggle and joy. I’ve been able to re-experience dipping my toes into the cool swirling waters of the Dan River, knowing that those same waters which originate in the snow-capped Hermon Mountain, also cooled the feet of my ancient ancestors throughout history. To see Israel with a first timer is to better appreciate the sights and smells of the spice market; to hear the voice of David Ben Gurion declaring the establishment “of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel” (while standing in
I
Judy Sacks Anderson
n the summer of 1972 when I was only 17, my parents, Hal and Annabel Sacks, sent my 15-year-old brother, Skip
the very room where the declaration was made 70 years ago). From the ancient to
and me to Israel on a sociology trip from
the modern…from hummus and falafel stands to gourmet, fusion, Michelin 3-starred
Virginia Wesleyan College.
restaurants…from vineyards in the Golan to experimental greenhouses in the desert… Israel is a masterpiece, but not a typical one.
We spent a good portion of the summer working on Kibbutz MishMarot picking potaHava Levene (far right) gives tour at Neve Michael. Judy Anderson (far left).
Compare it to a fantastic book that you just can’t stop reading—a book that you
toes and learning about life as a Kibbutznik.
absolutely love. But once you’ve finished it, you’re a little bit sad, because you know
At MishMarot, I met the father of my chil-
that you’ll never be able to read it again for the first time. Israel is different. It’s a book
dren and cemented my love for a country where I could be comfortable as a Jew. I
with many sequels and more being “written” every day. And if you want to see it again
I am thankful for parents who enabled my relationship with Eretz Y’Israel.
for the first time, all you have to do is go with a first timer!
I was fortunate to go to Israel with my dad for his last trip in 2009.
24 | Jewish News | Israel@70 | April 9, 2018 | jewishnewsva.org
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B e fo r e Tid e wat e r h a d M issio n s
Banana fi e lds an d fishing boat s
Arnold Leon
Rob Goodman
n 1964, Telsa and I
attended
M
y 1965 summer
the
in Israel was one
national UJA con-
of my most spe-
ference in New York
cial. After a flight from Ankara
City. While there, I noticed a meeting of
to Tel Aviv, I hitched hiked
a “Young Leadership
to Tiberias and then up the
Reunion.”
Curious,
road to Kibbutz Ginosar. It was
I went in. A caucus
Sabbath eve and they never
was taking place with
turned anyone away on the
people who had been
Sabbath. I got up the next
to Israel. Intrigued, I found out that the UJA New York office
David Leon’s Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall. Steve, David (center), Arnold, and Miles Leon. Telsa Leon in back in the Women’s section.
Rob and Martha Goodman at the back of the Western Wall.
morning and asked when I could go to work. Ginosar was a secular kibbutz and they welcomed my request with
was planning another
immediate placement in the banana fields. A week later, I volunteered to help on a
Mission for the following summer. At that time, no
fishing boat purse netting sardines and Mushte (also called “St. Peter’s Fish”), and for
groups had gone to Israel from Tidewater. Telsa
the next six weeks, I was a fisherman on the Kinneret, the Sea of Galilee.
and I and Leon and Selma Cardin signed up for
When Martha and I traveled to Israel several years ago, we visited Ginosar. The
the three-week trip.
banana fields were greenhouses; the fishing dock was there, but no longer used, and
The trip left from JFK in July 1965. First, we
the kibbutz had a new hotel. None of that mattered. My memories still burned brightly.
spent time in Paris learning about Jewish communities and their problems. From Paris, we flew to Vienna, Austria. At that time, Jews that managed to escape Russia
Telsa and Arnold Leon landing in Tel-Aviv summer 1965.
India signs on with Israeli firm to fight drought
went to Vienna where they had a facility that indoctrinated and prepared the Jewish families for life in Israel. Run by the JDC, it was somewhat clandestine. After a week in Vienna, we flew to Israel, with approximately 20 of the Russian emigres on the plane. It was very emotional when we landed, as many of the Russians bent down and kissed the ground. We traveled all around the country. In 1965, Jerusalem was divided. As a matter of fact, staying at the King David Hotel, we could see the Jordanian line—which was just behind the hotel’s gardens—complete with the machine guns positioned facing us. We couldn’t go the Wall; Beersheba still had dirt roads; Ashdod was just being built. While there, we met with Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, Teddy Kollek (who became the mayor of Jerusalem), Yitzkah Rabin, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, and Abba Eban—basically all of the early leaders! It was an incredible trip. When we came home, we told the Federation leaders about the trip and soon after, the community got the ‘Mission Bug’ and started organizing trips from Tidewater. I’ve been many more times. We took Steve there for his Bar Mitzvah in 1973 and David for his in 1977. On the 1973 trip, we were the first commercial plane to land at the airport after the Yom Kippur War. In fact, we landed next to U.S. 1. The Israelis were negotiating the peace treaty in the dining room of the King David Hotel when we arrived. We were told we couldn’t get into our room because “the Kissinger party still had the room.” Oh well. I told them to tell him, “To take all the time he needs.” During Governor Chuck Robb’s administration, we were invited on the Virginia-Israel Mission to Israel. It was very successful and we returned with the agreement with ZIM to use the Port of Hampton Roads. Every experience is different and unique, and I always highly recommend for people to travel to Israel.
I
n a move that could alleviate India’s deadly drought problem, the country’s Tata corporation signed a memorandum of understanding with an Israeli firm that specializes in extracting drinking water from the air. Watergen and Tata representatives signed the document in New Delhi during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to India earlier this year, the Israeli firm says. The memorandum seeks to create a mutual entity in India to manufacture Watergen units. Financial terms were not disclosed. Watergen’s president, Mikhael Mirilashvili, showcased his company’s plan for solving the water crisis in India by 2022 to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Modi’s visit to Israel. Watergen’s two models of atmospheric water generators can extract up to 6,000 liters of water from the air every day, depending on the air humidity, the company says. The medium scale units produce up to 600 liters of water daily. In the framework of the memorandum,
a pilot program featuring the midsize unit will be set up this year in India. Last year, Watergen instituted a GEN-350G pilot in New Delhi’s Connaught Place, where nearly 2,000 people received drinking water from the air every day, the firm says. Some of the units can operate on solar energy. The Tata-Watergen agreement is one of at least nine deals sealed during the visit, in which businessmen from Israel accompanied Netanyahu. The Israel Electric Corp. is joining with the government of the Andhra Pradesh state to help with critical infrastructure, The Jerusalem Post reports. And the Israeli startup Phinergy is cooperating with Ashok Leyland on clean energy systems from aluminum-air batteries. At least 330 million people are affected by drought in India, which hit hard in 2016, the government has told the Supreme Court. Dozens have died of heatstroke since the drought began, including an 11-year-old girl, Yogita Desai, who had spent close to four hours in 107.6 temperatures gathering water from a pump. (JTA)
jewishnewsva.org | April 9, 2018 | Israel@70 | Jewish News | 25
Israel@70 Tidewater’s Jewish community responds to the State of Israel in 1948 Placing our trust in the “Rock of Israel,” we affix our signatures to this proclamation at this session of the Provisional Council of State, on this soil of the homeland, in the city of Tel-Aviv, on this Sabbath Eve the 5th day of Iyar, 5708. (14th May, 1948) Bobbie Fisher
S
eventy years ago, when the State of Israel was born, it was with no small support from Tidewater’s Jewish community. Some still recall what that day—and the years preceding May 14, 1948—was like. Joe Segal, for example, remembers saving his own pennies and asking friends to donate to Zionist causes. “As members of AZA, it was a point of pride with us,” he says. Others heard parents worry that they might be violating federal law by aiding and abetting the organization of a foreign state. Some remember how cautious they felt on November 29, 1947, when the UN declared that the nation of Israel was now a sovereign Jewish State. But none can forget how members of Tidewater’s Jewish community came together so fervently to support the realization of the biblical promise: a real Jewish homeland. There were banquets, dances, and events with speakers such as Abba Eban, Golda Meier (then Myerson), the Mayor of Dublin, Ireland—and many others, all of whom visited to raise funds to help the new state. They remember what some of those funds produced: the purchase, outfitting and voyage of the ship known to history as the Exodus. In 1947, a Jewish paramilitary organization known as the Haganah was conducting the Aliyah Bet, a clandestine mission to remove Jewish refugees from Displaced Persons camps established after Word War II, and board them on vessels to (illegally) immigrate to Palestine. The Haganah bought these ships and made them seaworthy. The largest was the Norfolk-based USS Warfield. Then dilapidated and possibly headed for the scrapheap, the Warfield had been a packet steamer that ferried passengers to and from Baltimore. “It was
an overnight trip,” remembers Boodie Friedman. “The ship had staterooms, elegant dining rooms with white-gloved waiters who served the passengers. But by 1947, it had run into disuse.” The Warfield was designed to carry no more than 500 passengers, but the Haganah intended to refit it with bunks and toilets and load it with enough food and water for 4,500 refugees on its ultimate seven-day voyage from France to Palestine. Those provisions were solicited and collected through the efforts of many people throughout Tidewater, but everyone who remembers those efforts gives the lion’s share of the credit to David Friedman, Boodie’s father. David had long been active in the Norfolk District of the Zionist Organization of America and held leadership positions in several local Jewish organizations. Once they learned about the Warfield, David, a grocer by trade, contacted his wholesalers and suppliers—local chains such as Colonial Stores—to seek contributions of non-perishable food. Friedman says, “I don’t remember all of it, but I know there were crates and crates of canned Carnation Milk and Campbell’s Soup, floor to ceiling.” Once fully loaded, the newly renamed Exodus left for Baltimore to pick up its crew and sailed to Italy to be refurbished. Any jubilation felt by Tidewater and American Jewish communities was short lived, as on July 17, 1947, just six days after the Exodus left France with its first cargo of refugees, the ship was rammed on both sides by two British destroyers, with devastating consequences. The British boarded the ship, ultimately killing at least four and gravely wounding 120 of the crew and passengers. The story is documented in many books—including 1958’s Exodus, by some-time Norfolk resident Leon Uris, which was subsequently
26 | Jewish News | Israel@70 | April 9, 2018 | jewishnewsva.org
made into the 1960 movie of the same name. Joe Segal says that his wife, Millie, did some research for Uris. He proudly displays an autographed copy of Exodus, including a handwritten note of thanks from the author. The Exodus incident, and the subsequent abhorrent British treatment of the refugees at Haifa, sparked global outrage. The world began to understand the critical need for a Jewish state. The rundown ship that sailed from Norfolk in the early months of 1947 became a lasting symbol of the struggles of a people, the triumph of freedom, and the birth of a homeland. Friedman remembers how hard his father and so many of his friends and colleagues worked to support Israel’s establishment. “It was his wish that Virginia would be the first of the United States to acknowledge Israel as an independent state,” he says. “He was always so proud that that wish was granted in 1948 by Governor William Tuck, the 55th governor of the Commonwealth, who issued an official recognition of Israel before any of the other 47.” While some memories remain vivid, others have faded. And some are more or less borrowed: “I was born in March of 1948,” Lorie Friedman relates. “I was the first grandchild on either side of the family, and my mother Doris tells me that the sun rose and set on me – for about two months. When Israel was declared a state two months later, she told me, I became second best. Israel, so hard fought for and so sorely won, became number one. Being second place is a position I’ve been proud to occupy.”
With the same commitment, Tidewater continued to support Israel after 1948. When Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion introduced the idea of issuing bonds in 1950 to raise money for the new nation’s struggling economy, the Tidewater community responded, attending fundraising events hosted by celebrities such as Eddie Cantor and Metropolitan Opera tenor Jan Peerce. In fact, it was Peerce’s visit to Norfolk that sparked a memory that is still recalled frequently, and always with great affection. Peerce was observing yartzheit and went to Norfolk’s Temple Israel to say kaddish. “It was the custom at Temple Israel to ask visitors if they wanted to daven,” says Ted Kruger. “Peerce agreed, and when he began to sing, his voice just filled the room.” Another member of the congregation obviously unfamiliar with Peerce’s career but genuinely impressed, said, ‘Hey, mister, you have a nice voice. You could be a cantor.’ “We all cracked up at that,” says Barry Einhorn. “And we never let him forget it,” adds Barry’s wife Lois. Memories aside, this community’s passion for Israel remains fervent, building on the dedication of American Jews that culminated in the founding of the Jewish state, now 70 years ago.