Grapevine, May 15, 2024: Confusion between national defense and racism

People, nations and indigeneity 

In this changing world in which the previously downtrodden are becoming the masters, there can be confusion between national defense and racism.

National defense is not necessarily a military battle. It can also include quotas on immigration to safeguard the interests of the native-born population.

Yet “native-born” and “indigenous” are not always synonymous. For instance, there are white Australians who can trace back their lineage on the island continent for six or seven generations and more. But the indigenous populations of both Australia and New Zealand are black, not white. The white man invaded both countries and deprived the indigenous populations of their natural rights – less so in New Zealand than in Australia.

An invasion of a slightly different nature is taking place on the European continent, with several countries welcoming refugees from many parts of Africa and Asia. What happened in most cases was that the refugees began to outnumber the local population and to impose their own beliefs and values on the host country.

Now, in addition, several European countries are willing to recognize the state of Palestine. Regardless of where one stands politically, the writing was on the wall. Sooner or later, there was bound to be a Palestinian state.

If the Jewish people could declare a state after more than two millennia in exile, and emerging states in Europe began to reclaim their national heritage following the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Palestinians have no shortage of examples to follow, regardless of vetoes by Israel and the United States.

Far-right Dutch political activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek, a lawyer with a great gift for oratory, is rigidly opposed to immigration and highly critical of those European governments that have allowed non-white refugees to enter their countries and take over.

Last week she was in Hungary, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where she presented her argument against immigration. Views on what she expressed were divided. Many people characterized what she said as hate speech. In her case, it probably was, but there was more than a grain of truth in her presentation, which at surface value sounded like racism, but it happens to be part of today’s reality. In the Netherlands alone, Dutch natives in several major cities are outnumbered by non-white immigrants.

Quoting American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, Vlaardingerbroek spoke of an era of tribal wars and ethnic conflicts in which the invaders have been invited in by corrupt elites. Citing vicious crimes that took place in the space of a week in cities in different European countries, she emphasized the link between mass immigration and crime. Pointing to the general indifference, she noted: “This is a society that has accepted its defeat.”

One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist or the president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, such as Prof. Yedidia Stern, to realize that all the talk of totally defeating Hamas is so much twaddle. Even if the leadership is destroyed, there are future leaders waiting in the wings.

But Israel, like Europe, refuses to read the writing on the wall.

Israel's Eurovision triumph

CONSIDERING THE pessimism with which Israel entered the Eurovision Song Contest and the obvious snub that Eden Golan received from juries representing the participating countries, the fact that she attained fifth place, in the final analysis, was akin to winning.

Eurovision is a platform for performers to reach global attention, but few of the songs, even those of the winners, are sufficiently memorable to have lasting effects.

What was great was that Golan received an encouraging video call from Wonder Woman Gal Gadot, who told her that she, too, had been booed. Gadot also told Golan that she was a great artist and that she didn’t realize her own power.

Golan was simply thrilled to be performing at Eurovision at all, and quite happy to be placed fifth. But a look at Israel’s Eurovision history indicates that she also did much better than some of Israel’s top-rated singers had done in past years.

For example, Shlomo Artzi finished 11th, as did Ilanit, and Sarit Hadad came in 12th. Lior Narkiss finished 19th, and neither David D’Or nor Kobi Oz qualified for the finals. Noa (Achinoam Nini) and Mira Awad, representing coexistence, came in 16th, and Harel Skaat 14th. So Golan has every reason to feel good about herself.

One family's Torah

FOUR GENERATIONS of the immediate and extended Leibler family came together with some of their close friends last Thursday to complete the writing of a Torah scroll which was dedicated to the late Isi Leibler. Later, people danced with the scroll to the Hazvi Yisrael Synagogue, where Leibler had been a congregant.

The date was significant in that it marked the third anniversary of Leibler’s death, and the first day of the Hebrew calendar month of Iyar, in which Israel and much of the Jewish world honor the memories of soldiers who fell in defense of Israel, and civilians whose lives were cut short as victims of terrorism, and immediately afterward celebrate Independence Day. Leibler considered Israel’s independence to be the most important achievement of the Jewish people.

A leader of Australian and world Jewry, and a prominent figure in the global Let My People Go campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry, Leibler was also a successful international businessman in both the diamond and the travel industries. He was also an avid collector of Judaica, including art, ritual objects, but most of all books. Over the years, he amassed more than 40,000 books on every possible subject related to Jews and Judaism.

For some 20 years he also wrote a very popular weekly column for The Jerusalem Post.

When his wife, Naomi, a former president of World Emunah, and their four children, Tamara, Romi, Gary, and Jonathan, were thinking of how to honor and perpetuate his memory, the consensus was to write a Torah scroll and to donate it to the Jerusalem synagogue that he attended.

The Leibler apartment is in a building that has a large communal reception hall, so that when any of the occupants hosts an event with a large attendance, the hall is at their disposal.

People lined up for more than an hour and a half to write the final letters in the scroll. In actual fact, they don’t personally write. They place a hand on the writing arm of the scribe – in this case, Rabbi Shmuel Rosenfeld.

There were also women who wanted to participate in the writing, but as this was an Orthodox event, they could only do so by osmosis – namely, by placing a hand on the shoulders of their husbands, who in turn clasped the arm of the scribe.

Also on the table on which the final letters of the scroll were written were copies of Lone Voice, the well-researched biography of Isi Leibler that was written by Australian historian Prof. Susan Rutland, alongside the Hebrew translation written by Avirama Gonen. The original in English was published shortly before Leibler’s death. The Hebrew edition, published by Bar-Ilan University Press, will be officially launched on July 7.

Once the writing of the scroll was completed, a bridal canopy was set up, the Torah being regarded as the bride of the Jewish people, and everyone walked or danced to the synagogue to the sound of recorded religious songs emanating from a van driven by an ultra-Orthodox man.

Most of the people who live on the same street as Naomi Leibler are religiously observant, and they came out to either photograph, applaud, or join the procession.

In the synagogue itself there were Jews of every ilk – ultra-Orthodox to secular, Ashkenazi and Sephardi, Sabras and immigrants.

There was a joyous atmosphere, as other Torah scrolls were removed from the Ark, and men danced around the bimah with all eight scrolls, including the new one, which will be used every week for a whole year, and then from time to time.

Rabbi Shai Finkelstein, of the Nitzanim Synagogue in the capital’s Baka neighborhood, explained the importance of writing a Torah scroll, which is not just a record of ancient history but something that is used in the present and will continue to be used in the future, thereby symbolizing Jewish continuity.

The spirit of the occasion was enlivened by two ultra-Orthodox klezmer musicians, after which there was a dinner for the family and some of its closest friends, with the family sharing memories of Isi Leibler, who, from his youth till his final days, fought injustice, was unafraid to speak his mind, and was a person of great integrity.

Two days later, two of the four Leibler siblings – Romi and Jonathan – attended the Sabbath service at Hazvi Yisrael, in which they played active parts.

Also at Hazvi Yisrael, history was made by Marsha Wachsman, the first woman to head the synagogue board, who was reelected following the conclusion of her first term of service.

The Einstein Effect

EVENTS RELATED to milestone anniversaries often begin a year in advance of the actual date. This apparently holds true for the upcoming launch of Benyamin Cohen’s book The Einstein Effect, which will take place on Wednesday, May 22, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Israel Institute of Advanced Studies on the university’s Safra Campus in Givat Ram.

Einstein was one of the leading personalities who advocated for the establishment of a university in Jerusalem.

Next year, the Hebrew University will celebrate its 100th anniversary and will commemorate the 70th anniversary of Einstein’s death.

Cohen, who lives in New York, will be in Israel next week at the invitation of the Einstein Archives for the Israel launch of his book, which will include a conversation that he will have with Prof. Hanoch Gutfreund, former HU president, with moderation by Dr. Ben Segenreich, a former journalist for Austrian national TV and currently an academic adviser to the Albert Einstein Archives. The launch will be held entirely in English.

There will be two more launch events during Cohen’s stay in Israel – one, on May 23, in Ashkelon, and then the following week, on May 28, in Beit Shemesh.

For most people, Einstein’s name is synonymous with physics and his theory of relativity, which redefined humanity’s understanding of the universe.

For author Cohen, however, Einstein is so much more: the world’s most unlikely celebrity, a social media star with 20 million followers, a Nobel Prize winner whose face adorns coffee mugs and T-shirts, whose influence is seen in everything from weather forecasting and GPS technology to the search for aliens and the invention of time machines. He was also a talented violinist.

In Cohen’s new book, he interviews people from all walks of life who are inspired by Einstein, including Gutfreund, whose impressive CV includes professor emeritus of the university’s Racah Institute of Physics.

In addition to being the author of several books, Cohen is the news director of The Forward.

Since retiring from the physics department, Gutfreund has been actively involved in the Albert Einstein Archives as its academic adviser, traveling worldwide, lecturing, and opening exhibitions about Einstein, who, in addition to being one of the founders of the Hebrew University, willed his personal archive and the rights to his works to the university.

In 1923, when the university’s Mount Scopus campus was still in the process of construction, Einstein visited and gave the university’s first lecture in physics. He was a member of the university’s board of governors and chairman of its academic committee. He remained involved in the university’s development up until the time of his death in April 1955.

Israel’s founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, invited Einstein to become the president of Israel, but he declined, preferring to remain an academic.

Blood is thicker than water

President Isaac Herzog may not take kindly to the news item released last week regarding his older brother Michael Herzog, who is Israel’s ambassador to the United States.

It seems that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the ambassador do not see eye to eye on certain issues, which means that Netanyahu will not extend the latter’s stay when his term expires in four months’ time, though, according to the news release, Michael Herzog would like to continue in the role.

Herzog's diplomacy

AS COINCIDENCE would have it, the news release pertaining to his brother came more or less at a time that President Herzog was attending a VE Day ceremony in Latrun, which also coincided with Europe Day and with the negative remarks by some right-wing ministers on US President Joe Biden’s decision to conditionally suspend US arms shipments to Israel.

The event was primarily to thank the nations whose Allied forces had defeated Nazi Germany. But the president could not refrain from relating to the diplomatic damage that may have been wrought by those ministers, to whom diplomacy is apparently alien.

“This is a notable opportunity to thank the State of Israel’s allies also today, and especially to our greatest ally, the United States of America,” said Herzog. “I would like to say thank you to President Biden, who is a great friend of the State of Israel, and who proved as such from the first day of the war.

“In the context of this morning’s news,” Herzog continued, “it is important for me to say that even when there are disagreements and moments of disappointment between friends and allies, there is a way to clarify the disputes, and it is beholden upon all of us to avoid baseless, irresponsible, and insulting statements and tweets that harm the national security and the interests of the State of Israel.”

This is not the first time that Herzog has had to use his own diplomatic skills in an effort to prevent a serious rift between Israel and the United States.

Rabbi's reunion

LIFE IS full of strange coincidences. Jerusalemite Rabbanit Miriam Hauer thought that given that Israeli hostages are still in captivity in Gaza, and that there are daily reports of fallen soldiers in the war against Hamas, Independence Day would be a rather sad affair. But on a personal level, it turned out to be quite exciting.

An email from her daughter who lives in the United States informed her that a man claiming to be a relative was coming on a roots trip to Israel. The man’s name was included in the message together with a question as to whether it was familiar.

Indeed it was, and it took Hauer back 76 years to Israel’s first Independence Day.

A relative who had survived Auschwitz and had afterward given birth, had come to the country with her husband and infant child, and was already pregnant again. She was a cousin of Hauer’s mother, with whom she came to stay briefly before moving to Tel Aviv, where she gave birth on the very day that the State of Israel was proclaimed.

Naturally, Hauer’s family was invited to the circumcision ceremony, which was a far more modest affair in those days, when both money and supplies were scarce. The Egyptians were already dropping bombs on Tel Aviv, and Hauer, who was then a young girl, told her mother that it was too dangerous for them to go. But her mother insisted, saying that family was important.

There was no crib in the apartment in Tel Aviv, and so the baby, after undergoing the circumcision, was placed on the parents’ bed, with Hauer kneeling alongside to make sure he didn’t fall off.

The Egyptians continued bombing, and Hauer, terrified that the baby might be harmed, grabbed a pillow and covered him with it in an effort to ensure his safety.

The infant and his parents later moved to America, and contact waned.

Hauer hadn’t thought of the incident in years until she received the email from her daughter. The man who was coming on a roots trip, as well as to spend Independence Day in Israel, was none other than the baby born on that first Independence Day in 1948. So, in the final analysis, Independence Day this year was a very exciting occasion for Rabbanit Miriam Hauer.

"Thank you to the IDF"

SO MANY families have soldiers fighting in Gaza or on the northern border that individuals and organizations have been scratching their heads to find suitable ways to say thank you for the risks being taken and the patriotism and courage being demonstrated.

In honor of Independence Day, the Zionist Council in Israel together with the Yedidim organization distributed 50,000 bracelets of appreciation inscribed “Thank you to the IDF.”

According to ZCI CEO Oz Haim, “It is especially important at the present time to unite and say thank you to the IDF and also to remember those who sacrificed their lives in defense of the State of Israel.”

Yisrael Almasi, CEO of Yedidim, underscored that the soldiers of the IDF and the security forces are engaged in sacred work. “They protect us day and night at all borders of the country, and our gratitude to them is immeasurable.”

Making the impossible, possible 

WOUNDED IDF veterans who suffer disabilities for the rest of their lives but find ways in which to make their lives meaningful are a living inspiration to anyone in a similar position. One such person is Noam Gershony, a wheelchair tennis champion who won a gold medal in the 2012 Paralympic Games and has won championships in Australia, France, and the United States.

A former pilot in an Apache attack helicopter, he was severely injured in a collision with another helicopter. After a long period of rehabilitation, he joined the Beit Halochem sport center in Tel Aviv. It was there that he began to play wheelchair tennis. He also took up surfing, and has also learned to walk with the aid of crutches or a cane.

In addition to his passion for sport, he also volunteers to help at-risk youth, and also teaches mathematics to teenagers.

He is frequently called on to lecture to youth and adults, most recently by the SQLink Group to present a Remembrance Day lecture to management and staff.

Remembrance Day is a subject very close to his heart, as his copilot did not survive the helicopter crash.

In an emotionally riveting address, Gershony shared the story of his life, which illustrates the strength of the human spirit in overcoming what appears to be the impossible.

In the crash, Gershony had suffered so many bone fractures that it seemed unlikely that he would ever regain his physical strength. Yet with determination and excellent medical treatment, he became a champion athlete.

His story took on particular relevance under the present circumstances.

As his story unfolded, the word “impossible” took on new meaning for his SQLink audience in the realization that anyone can rise from the lowest point to the top, if they only have the willpower to do so.

In thanking Gershony at the conclusion of his address, SQLink CEO Tamir Goren and head of human resources Sivan Vaknin said that following the tragedies of October 7, Gershony’s story and the example that he set were of great significance to those who needed inspiration and a sign of hope.

Interreligious dialogue and coexistence

On his way to Baku in Azerbaijan, Rabbi Marc Schneier, the president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, traveled via Jerusalem, where he gave a few addresses before continuing on to his meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Schneier had specifically gone to Azerbaijan to present Aliyev with the translation of his acclaimed book Sons of Abraham, which had been translated into Azerbaijani by the State Committee on Religious Associations of the Republic of Azerbaijan, at Aliyev’s instruction.

Schneier and Aliyev enjoy a close friendship. At their meeting Schneier thanked his host for his steadfast commitment to interreligious dialogue and coexistence, particularly the strengthening of Muslim-Jewish relations in these challenging times.

Over the past 30 years, Schneier has been a leading figure in helping to improve the interrelationships of ethnic groups and faith communities, and is responsible for founding one of the most dynamic synagogues in the United States.

In 1989, he established the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, initially to rebuild the historic black-Jewish alliance in the US and, for the past 20 years, to build Muslim-Jewish relations globally.

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