Grapevine: Re’ut remembers

SOME PEOPLE are worried about whether future generations will commemorate the Holocaust. Parents of students at Jerusalem’s Re’ut School know that on this particular score, they have nothing to worry about.

Through the Gidonim project, in conjunction with the Society for the Advancement of Education, students, graduates, and teachers have been going to Poland almost every year since 2004 to clean, reconstruct, and document Jewish cemeteries.

All the work is carried out on a volunteer basis, and volunteers also contribute to the costs involved. Often, they find fragments of tombstones lacking in information, but sometimes just enough to conduct a successful search for the identity of the deceased.

Alon Goldman, chairman of the Association of Czestochowa Jews in Israel and vice president of the World Society of Czestochowa Jews and Their Descendants, is thrilled that the mystery was solved over a tombstone fragment describing the merits of the deceased, but without his or his father’s name. Through old Yiddish newspapers, it was possible to discover his identity.

Most of the cemeteries have been neglected for years, and wild vegetation has made it difficult to gain access to all the graves. Where possible, volunteers have cleared away bushes and cleaned tombstones and fragments that were found.

Between May 16 and 22, 2024, they will again spend a week clearing and cleaning at the Jewish cemetery in Czestochowa.

Mount Herzl gets less respect

■ IN THE area closest to the Old City, it is forbidden to construct buildings that are taller than its walls; to do so would be considered a desecration. It seems, however, that there is far less municipal respect for Mount Herzl, where Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl is buried, along with several presidents, prime ministers, and other national leaders, as well as fallen soldiers, who gave their lives in defense of the state and its people.

The 40-story Marom tower overlooking Mount Herzl, which some time ago received the green light from the municipality and the District Planning Committee, is already under construction and being advertised in the Hebrew media. Though far from the tallest tower in Israel, it will be, for the foreseeable future, the tallest tower in Jerusalem, despite the many protests against its domination of the capital’s skyline.

As part of the city’s new Gateway project, it is close to the light rail, the Central Bus Station, the Navon railway station, and the Jerusalem International Convention Center.

Designed by New York architect Ian Bader, PEI Cobb Freed and Partners, and Hook Architects, the project is scheduled for completion between 2025 and 2026. It will include a hotel, cultural center, art gallery, museum, and convention center, in addition to commercial and office space.

In advertisements, it has been described as a groundbreaking architectural icon in a prime location. What the high-rise entrepreneurs chose to ignore is the warning by Israeli geologists that it’s only a matter of time before Israel experiences a massive earthquake. The geologists have reportedly been saying that the country is unprepared for dealing with such a calamity.

It’s almost amusing to think that when the Leonardo Plaza hotel was built in 1974, it was one or two floors higher than stated in the permit that the entrepreneurs had received. It took a lot of convincing and protektzia to allow the additional construction to remain. These days, 20-story towers are more or less average.

Mourning US- and Canada-born Israelis

■ THE ANNUAL memorial service hosted by AACI honoring the memories of American- and Canadian-born Israelis who lost their lives in service to Israel or as victims of terror will be held on Thursday, May 9, at the KKL Rabin Forest. There will be a tour and explanation of the memorial site at 5 p.m., and the ceremony will begin at 5:30.

The names of fallen soldiers and victims of terror are engraved at the site. This year, since Oct. 7, the list will include more than 70 additional names. US Ambassador Jack Lew and Canadian Ambassador Lisa Stadelbauer will attend, together with Maj.-Gen. (Res) Doron Almog, chairman of the Jewish Agency.

The keynote speaker will be Joseph Gitler, founder and chairman of Leket Israel, whose reservist son-in-law, 26-year-old Sgt. Maj. David Schwartz, is among the fallen soldiers.

Belev Echad rehabilitation

■  MANY RESIDENTS of the Protea Hills retirement village in the hills of Moshav Shoresh, near Jerusalem, are like extended family to each other. Thus, when Iris and Yenon Mizrahi lost their granddaughter Raz, a Border Police officer who was murdered at the Supernova Festival on Oct. 7, many of the other Protea Hills residents shared in the grief.

Raz, who had previously been wounded while on duty, returned to service after a long and painful rehabilitation process, aided by Belev Echad (With One Heart).

In an attempt to assuage the grief of the mourning grandparents, the Protea Sweet Charity committee – comprising Judy Aronson, Levanna Elkeslassay, Yedidyah Gross, Becky Mevorach, Judith Nahmias, Channan Sommerfeld, and Miriam Yankelevitch – held a pre-Passover bazaar together with other residents, from which proceeds went directly to Belev Echad.

The following evening, Belev Echad held a program that, inter alia, included a short film, a stirring speech by a wounded soldier, and a heartfelt address by Raz’s mother, Nirit Mizrahi.

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