Grapevine: Celebrating Walter

Anyone who wanted to see a 100-year-old man dancing and mastering some groovy steps should have been at Chabad Talbiyeh services last Shabbat, where journalist Walter Bingham was being feted on his centenary.

Cantor Yisrael Hershtik, who is the special occasion cantor for Chabad of Talbiyeh, conducted such an inspiring service at the former President Hotel – which now serves as an activities center for a number of organizations, including Chabad – that one of the leaders of the Reform congregation that meets upstairs came down to the Chabad minyan to ask Rabbi Eli Canterman the identity of the person with the wonderful voice.

Actually, there were a lot of good voices in the congregation, providing excellent backup for Hershtik and his son.

At the conclusion of the service, as often happens at Chabad get-togethers, there was a lot of singing and dancing, and Canterman grabbed the guest of honor and began dancing with him as the singing rose to a joyful crescendo. Despite his age, Bingham had no trouble synchronizing with Canterman’s fancy footwork. Other male congregants quickly formed a circle around them, singing enthusiastically as they danced.

Although it’s not done in Orthodox circles for men and women to dance together, no one objected when Bingham’s daughter, Sonja Kent, broke through the circle to dance with her father. It was definitely a dance, not a shuffle.

Within minutes, the youngest men moved back furniture and pulled out trestle tables, on which a sumptuous kiddush gradually appeared. Taking pride of place was a large birthday cake, beautifully decorated in blue-and-white frosting, courtesy of the International March of the Living, under whose auspices Bingham will be traveling to London at the end of the month for a major Kindertransport commemoration.

Dominating the table were three mammoth metallic blue balloons spelling out 100. Table napkins also had “100” printed on them in large type.

The kiddush was enhanced by boxes of decoratively cut fruit ordered by Bingham’s relatives in London from a Jerusalem supplier of top-quality fruit and vegetables. There were vegetables, salads, dips, potato kugel, herring, cholent, cold cuts, cakes, and more, plus two kinds of whisky, vodka, wine, grape juice and soft drinks. The food simply kept coming, and so did people from other congregations.

When Bingham was asked to give a speech, he left it to his daughter to read a synopsis of his life which was published in the most recent issue of The Jerusalem Report.

After she finished reading, people wanted to hear what Bingham had to say when comparing Hamas with the Nazis.

“Hamas learned from the Nazis,” he said, but noted that every empire that ever tried to wipe out the Jews has itself disappeared.

Canterman added that it started with Pharaoh in ancient Egypt. Just as Hitler put the Jews to work in forced labor before enacting what he believed to be the “Final Solution,” Pharaoh enslaved the Hebrews or Children of Israel (who were the precursors to the Jews), and only after they had worked under the most inhuman of conditions did he issue a decree to the effect that all male children born to the Hebrews should be killed. Similarly, but not having the power to introduce slave labor prior to butchery and torture, Hamas followed the lessons learned from Pharaoh and Hitler.

In recent years, Bingham, who left Germany as a teenager on a Kindertransport, returned there to talk to German children about the Holocaust. He found them to be much more knowledgeable [about it] than Israeli children.

The Friendship Circle

■ IN ADDITION to running Chabad of Talbiyeh, the Canterman family operates the Friendship Circle, which provides holiday camps and other activities for special-needs children. Some of the young men who help in this heartwarming endeavor also attend the Sabbath services and added to the spirit of the occasion.

One of them, an officer in the IDF reserves, is also a qualified physician, who obtained his degree in Naples.

When asked whether he had studied abroad because he failed his psychometric exam in Israel, he replied that he had never even bothered to apply for it. Israel’s quota system for entry to medical school is such that he would have had to wait for three years before he could begin. He was not prepared to do that. His degree is acceptable all over Europe, but not in Israel. He came home not only because of Israel’s war against Hamas but also because of the growing antisemitism in Europe. “I would not want to be in Europe today,” he said.

He is full of admiration for what the Cantermans are doing, together with their children, in creating an environment of caring for others, irrespective of their brand of Judaism.

Chanie Canterman says they could do so much more if only they had permanent premises to call their own and from which to grow. They are paying rent in the premises they occupy now. These premises are slated for demolition, and a hotel will be built on the site. Exactly when that will happen, no one knows, but for the time being all the tenants are happy to be where they are.

Three celebrations for three digit birthday

■ MEANWHILE, BINGHAM, having reached a triple-digit age, is having three celebrations on three consecutive Saturdays. The one on January 13 will be at Chabad of Rehavia, and on January 20 at Shir Hadash on Emek Refaim. Listeners to Walter’s World or readers of the articles he writes in The Jerusalem Report and The Jerusalem Post are more than welcome to attend either or both.

Bingham has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest working journalist in the world.

In all probability, he’s also the oldest skydiver. For his 95th birthday, he jumped out of a plane.

Heaven only knows what he’ll do for his 105th. He gets a kick out of shocking people – in a nice way, of course.

greerfc@gmail.com

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