1000 Israelis gather for historic symposium on Jewish resettlement in Gaza.
Jews from around Israel attended a historic symposium emphasizing the importance of Jewish settlements in Gaza. ‘In enemy eyes, everyone is a settler. “ This writer took a look at the audience in the conference.
As it so happens, seniors often are involved in seminars for information and cannot be relied upon to move to a front line community like Gaza. So it’s hard to say how many in the crowd were serious.
Lital Slonim, head of the Political Desk and Public Relations in the Nachala Movement, spoke about the link between security and Jewish settlement:
The Nachala Settlement Movement led by Daniella Weiss and the Samaria Regional Council rebuilt Evyatar in the aftermath of a May 2021 terror attack. 1,424 people have been killed to Palestinian violence since September 2000. (30.5.2023)
“These days, many people already understand the connection between living securely in the land of Israel, and encouraging Jewish settlement in Judea, Samaria, the north and the south.
It’s already been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt, that in order to provide national security to the entire country, we need to ensure Jewish settlement.
Rabbis, members of the Knesset, and over 1000 attendees have demonstrated overwhelming sovereign support for reclaiming and resettling the Gaza Strip.”MK Tally Gotliv emphasized the strategic importance of embracing the entire land of Israel: “Our enemies do not desire life. The only thing that matters to these murderers is their perception of the land.
I call upon our government to immediately establish a security wall and tower in the northern strip of Gaza. A right-wing government that doesn’t create a discourse referring to the entire Land of Israel is not right-wing.”
MK Ariel Kallner spoke about moving beyond Oslo: “Everyone is talking about a concept that has fallen apart. The root of all evil that we’ve experienced is the misconception of Oslo followed by the disengagement from Gush Katif, and followed by the perception that Jewish settlement is a security burden. It’s essential that we uproot these misconceptions from their roots and return to Zionist values.In enemy eyes, everyone is a settler. According to our enemies, we don’t have any right to existence. The only way to subdue and conquer this evil is to encourage and enable Jewish settlement throughout all of Israel.”
The Nachala Movement emphasized that “in the book of Judges after G’d gave Gaza to the tribe of Judah, they did not succeed in driving out all those inhabitants who had chariots of iron.
Fast-forward 3000 years, and the people of Israel are engaged in a war in Gaza called Swords of Iron. With G’d’s help, the nation of Israel will overcome her enemies and reestablish sovereignty in Gaza.”
A few days ago I attended the Pinyan Ha Ben for the firstborn of friend’s children (original) from SouthAfrica.
At my table was a female General Practitioner who works for one of the HMO’s in Gilo, a a suburb of Jerusalem, close to Arab Israeli villages. She observed that half the staff are Arb in her Clalit center and data indicated that physicians from the Arab sector entering the system has risen and now accounts for 30% of the new physicians in Israel. The proportion of active Arab physicians are approaching their proportion of the population which is 21%. According to the female physician that I spoke with, her impression is that the figure is 50% in Gilo.
Remember the first time you listened to Eric Clapton? If you haven’t, listen to J.J.Cale, Call Me The Breeze. I can listen to it again and again. Maybe listening increases serotonin?
Now I really see the interest this study arouses because Serotonin is the joy secretion.
The effect of losing “get-up-and-go” neuron inspiration is a loss of the fundamental of being human, “bipedalism”. The Long Covid brain fog ties directly into the gastrointestinal bulwark of life and neurotransmitter’s horsepower that prevents malaise. Virus pathogenesis (persistence) is devastating when embedded in the delicate intestines. One might suspect autoimmune consequences as well or misery on steroids. A “Long Covid” epidemic might be with earthlings forevermore.
Who knew that our serotonin reserves were so limited and devastatingly consequential.
I am inclined to believe in the phrase “garbage in garbage out”. If one exercises results come with patience depending on the effort. I cannot recommend that Yoga is for everyone, but it is good for me. The practice of 1hour and a half almost everyday is what gets me going. You can easily put together a series of standing poses ( I have repetitious sun salutations and breathing stretches done slowly) . The standing session consists of about 10 poses with variations and that takes about 40 minutes. Floor movements are also slow and take about 30 minutes ending with relaxation breathing of 20 minutes. I started about two months ago practicing Yoga at home for 10 minutes using the routine that I had been taught by Shula my Yoga instructor. Then slowly increased to session. An additional benefit is that I do not need a sleep machine. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and used a positive pressure machine for about 20 years. I decided to try sleeping without it, and over several weeks, the waking up during the night reduced to once or twice and feel overall energetic.Yoga breathing can help sleep apnea by strengthening upper airway muscles. Although not a direct treatment for sleep apnea, Yoga breathing exercises help strengthen, tone and open the upper airway muscles which can help reduce the symptoms of sleep apnea.
BEET & SWEET POTATO LATKES
The Nosher Staff
YIELD: 15 LATKES
These brightly hued latkes made with beets, carrots and sweet potatoes are as delicious as they are beautiful to look at. The additional sugar in the beet and sweet potato can cause them to burn more easily, so watch carefully when frying.
INGREDIENTS:Any ratio you wish
DIRECTIONS
1. Using a hand grater or food processor, coarsely grate the beet, sweet potato and carrot. Set aside in a large bowl.
2. Heat 3-4 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil in a large pan over medium-high heat.
3. Drain excess liquid from vegetable mixture. Add eggs, matzah meal, or flax meal instead of eggs. (or flour) and salt and pepper to vegetable mixture.
4. Using your hands or a large soup spoon, form patties. Fry on each side until golden brown, around 4 minutes each side.
5. Remove from the pan and add a pinch of salt on each latke. Note: You may need to add a little extra oil in between frying each batch.
6. Serve while warm with applesauce and sour cream.
This war has initiated changes in all of us. We are now comfortable being Jewish. We want to do something for the “Cause”, rather than to make our individual lives better. Gone is the idea that what motivate me is solely my needs: I don’t have to focus on my needs or my offsprings. (Rabbi Manis Friedman). Now we can focus on the job of Jews. With the defeat of Hamas, the whole world is focused on us. What should we say to the world? We ARE THE Jewish people and we speak to the world. Don’t state the obvious, that we have a right to defend ourselves. Don’t say that Israel is the only Democracy in the Middle East. Democracy only works when it is practiced by people who obey the Ten Commandments. As long as America was Bible based it flourished. That is a Democracy based on a Foundation. Every Jew in the world must speak up for moral integrity. We never saw this coming. However, secular education, a liberal arts education, is demoralizing. This is a crisis. For many years, we relied on two sources for morality, religion and education. We discovered that during WW11 that the more educated were more monstrous than THE UNEDUCATED.
Now we see that the barbarous acts were done by religious and educated. WE are living in an age of neutral, a lack of morality. Neither here no there. WE see that the whole world today is not horrified. The focus is on Jews, because we are the only ones with a morality.
WE know who we are. We are the chosen people. We have the entire Book of Genesis, which proclaims that the world was created by G-d and the Jewish People have a small place bequeathed for all eternity.
WE have atheists proclaiming Jews.
But not always. Just let a group shout invectives about the Jewish people. A professor at Columbia stood up against the shouting demonstrators. The next day he came to class. A studentsaid to the professor, “Welovedthatyou, stood up. We know that you are one of thechosenpeople.We want to hear your message”. 1)Don’t think about your needs. Think about the needs of Hashem’s worlds. Whose world are you fixing, TO G-d, I am an Atheist. He says, I don’t need you any more. Our society has technology. I am the new G-d. G-d says can you make a man out of dust? Man grabs some dust. No says G-d, not MY dust. So you can make man only from MY substance.
2. Yes clean up the world so it is a G-dy world.
3) Don’t be needy. Be needed. Be outside yourself.
What then WILL we do when there is no more Evil? The world of Mashiach will be times of being authentic, an do (Jews) tell the world what they can do to help. With the authority of a Chosen people. You are needed , not needy.
A few days after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, I (Alan had an article published in these pages giving people some general tips and suggestions on how to deal with weight gained during the holiday period, and how to get back on track to shed weight and promote better health. Like all of my Jerusalem Post articles, it later appeared on social media.
One person who commented was very upset that this article was posted while we were in the grips of a national tragedy and a war. First of all, this article had been prepared for publication before the Sukkot holiday even started. Second, and I think far more important, our health cannot take a back seat even when the worst of the worst has happened.
It is especially important in the most stressful and pressured times, that we strive to keep our health intact. Those stressful times are exactly when we turn to food, especially poor-quality food.
What is it about being under stress or great emotional burden that causes many people to turn to food for relief?
Let’s first establish one important fact. Food will never take the place of problem-solving or working through an issue. In our current situation, no matter how many donuts, pieces of cake, or chips you eat, it will not have any positive or negative impact on the IDF’s current offensive.
Food poisoning from junk food (illustrative) (credit: INGIMAGE)
Junk food will make our problems worse, not make them go away
It is true that food tastes good and brings pleasure from taste and texture, and it is also a mechanism for social integration. But, physiologically, food serves two basic purposes. First, it is the main mechanism for putting needed nutrients in our bodies; second, food can resolve hunger (real hunger, not emotional hunger).
While random eating might make us feel “good” for a few minutes, turning to food, especially highly processed junk food, will not solve other problems, and it certainly can cause many. Research has taught us that the three main ingredients for both comfort and addiction are salt, sugar, and fat. Further, combining fat with either sugar or salt enhances the addictive power. Advertisement
DURING THE COVID-19 pandemic, many gained weight. A Harvard University study of 15 million people looked at weight changes the year before the start of the pandemic, and then after one year.
As it turns out, 39% of patients gained weight during the pandemic, with weight gain defined as above the normal fluctuation of 2.5 pounds. Approximately 27% gained less than 12.5 pounds, and about 10% gained more than 12.5 pounds, with 2% gaining over 27.5 pounds.
In her research regarding eating habits during the pandemic, Manhattan Community College Health Education Department chairperson Lesley Rennis states that “strong emotional states make us turn to comfort food to feel safe and in control. Comfort foods not only taste good, they actually lessen the impact of stress hormones.”
How? Eating sweet and starchy food helps our bodies make serotonin, which makes us feel calmer, and decreases the stress hormone cortisol. Several studies show that people feel less stressed and anxious after consuming carbohydrate-rich foods. Rennis says fatty foods, like cheese, have a numbing effect, which helps decrease the emotional response to stress.
Different people are attracted to different hyper-palatable foods. This is any food which for any individual creates a situation for always wanting more of that food. Maybe you remember the old Lays potato chip commercial: “Bet you can’t eat just one!”
For many, it can be the potato chip. For some, chocolate, and believe it or not, even something like chicken can be called hyper-palatable. All substances of abuse cause the brain to release high levels of dopamine. This release can be two to 10 times the amount our brain releases normally, giving the user a sense of a “rush” or “high.”
Even though we get an increase in serotonin and dopamine, and that makes us feel happy and good for a short time, there is a lot of baggage that comes with most of the hyper-palatable food. These are usually foods high in sugar, fat, and cholesterol.
Just like reaching for a cigarette, drinking alcohol, or snorting cocaine can bring good feelings, food can do the same; and similarly, the long-term ramifications of overconsumption can be devastating.
THERE ARE plenty of ways to deal with stressful situations, which I enumerated in my previous article. Food should not be one of them. But this brings us back to the criticism I received. Living a healthy lifestyle, such as trying our best to incorporate the six precepts of lifestyle medicine into my life, is a full-time job.
It applies during finals for students, during stressful periods in the workplace, during pandemics, and even during a war. If you are a soldier on the battlefront, you are eating what they give you, and there isn’t a choice (although I know of many who are going out of their way to send healthy food).
But for the rest of us, sacrificing our health will only make things worse. So eating a plant-predominant diet, trying to be active and exercising, sleeping enough (I know it’s hard, I too have a child in the reserves), controlling our stress through appropriate means, not abusing substances, and maintaining our social relationships are integral. We aren’t going to be perfect – it’s not a perfect time – but every effort we can make will pay dividends. Avoid hyper palatable foods –combine high levels of fat sugar sodium or carbohydrates. They trigger the brain’s reward system and encourage excessive eating. Sweetness, saltiness or richness; stay away.
I can’t emphasize enough the power of exercise for both physical and mental health. Daily brisk walks do wonders. If you can add some muscle-building and stretching, the effects are even better.
We are all in this together. Let’s help each other during this period, so when we make it to the other side, our health won’t be any more compromised than it needs to be. Making health a full-time job will “add hours to your day, days to your year, and years to your life.”
The writer is a health and wellness coach and personal trainer with more than 25 years of professional experience. He is the director of The Wellness Clinic. He can be reached at alan@alanfitness.com.
Doron Katz Asher, an Israeli-German Citizen , 34, and her two daughters Raz, four, and Aviv, two, were taken captive while staying with relatives near the Gaza border. Doron’s husband, Yoni, saw a video of his wife and daughters being loaded on to a truck with other hostages. I fear that such re-unions will not be seen again.
Image caption, Yoni Asher embraces his wife Doron and their daughter Raz, four, and Aviv, two, after their release
“I am determined to bring about the resurrection of my family from the trauma and the terrible bereavement we went through,” Mr Asher told the BBC following their release.
“I don’t celebrate, I won’t celebrate until the last of the kidnapped returns,” he said.
“The families of the kidnapped are not posters, they are not slogans, they are real people, and the families of the kidnapped are from today my new family, and I will make sure and do everything that the last of the kidnapped comes home.”
Ninja Breakfast To Keep You Going all day. It has been a WHILE since this blogger talked about food and recipes. A few blogs back mention was made to stay away from salt, sugar and fats. All of us are stretched and stressed. I recommend using the Ninja to make your own Steel cut grains. Packages of Steel cut oats are available in America but not in Israel. The trick is to have an ample supply of the groats in your pantry. I keep a supply of oat, wheat, rye, and spelt whole grains. The packages are each 500 grams. Some health food stores provide the grains in barrels.The wheat I ground unto flour. The kitchen aide grain mill attachment was given to me by someone who decided it took up too much room in her kitchen. So today Henry Penny ground up wheat for 3 lbs. of dough in order to make the bracha over Challah.
The Ninja will grind the groats to a flour cracker consistency. I keep the cracker mixture in the fridge.
The amount per serving is 4 tablespoons mixed with two tablespoons of Goat or Buffalo yogurt. Include some of the clear liquid. Add some boiling water, mix and place the bowel in the fridge overnight. This combination of calcium and grains breaks downthe grains.
Instructions: In the morning after exercise: Add some cinnamon to taste to the soggy bowl contents, stir.
Set microwave to 100%. start for 1 minute, check, stir and repeat after stirring.Since I am active and require more protein, I’ll add an egg and repeat the process. Can also ad leftover lentils, or beans or goat cheese, ground buts, seeds (sesame, flax, sunflower, pumpkin). Remove from microwave and add some sliced banana. This breakfast is very satisfying and keeps me satiated until my next meal 5 hours later.
Ingredients
For the Almond Snacking Cheese Roll
1 cup blanched almonds-place almonds in pot of boiling water, drain and place a second time in boiling water. When comfortable to handle press the almond and the peel will squeeze off.
Add the almonds to a food processor (I used the smaller bowl fitting in my food processor). Blend until the almonds are finely ground but don’t over blend or it will start turning to almond butter! Now add the remaining ingredients to the ground almonds and blend to combine, stopping to scrape the sides down as needed, until it’s as smooth as possible.
Scoop the mixture into the prepared mold, use a spatula to compress firmly, and smooth the top. Place on a baking paper sheet and compress into a log shape.
Gramman dedicated to Joanne Weiss on her 90th Birthday.
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters swarmed the streets surrounding Rockefeller Center on Wednesday, clashing with NYPD cops and chanting “River to the sea,” long seen as an antisemitic slogan, in an effort to support Gaza by derailing the annual tree lighting.
Waving Palestinian flags and signs calling for the “end to genocide,” the rallyers gathered along Sixth Avenue alongside hordes of tourists waiting in line to see the iconic ceremony.
Unable to get to the NYC Christmas tree, the enormous crowd instead swarmed around the tree outside the News Corp building, which houses The Post and Fox News, and which has already been targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters on at least two occasions.
“Free, free Palestine!” the protesters chanted.
One rallier was seen climbing on top of the pillar bearing the building’s address, and another was seen carrying a massive sign bearing a swastika, comparing the Israel Defense Forces to Nazis.
People who like to draw serious political cartoons for a living – people like me – have to be extra careful in these divisive times.
In just the last month three major newspapers – the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Guardian in Britain – have pulled down or decided not to publish cartoons drawn by the best editorial cartoonists in the world.
Michael Ramirez, Monte Wolverton and Steve Bell each bravely applied their talents and opinions to the brutal war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas that started Oct. 7.
For their troubles, they were charged with being Islamophobic, anti-Semitic or racist by readers, their fellow journalists and editorial boards. Bell was even fired.
The most recent example was at the Washington Post, where my good friend (of Daryl Cagle). Michael Ramirez ran his caricature of a Hamas spokesman, Ghazi Hamadi, in a suit with five women and children roped to his body.
“How dare Israel attack civilians…” the Hamas spokesman was saying.
You’d think it’d be easy for anyone to get the point Ramirez was making. Many cartoonists have used the same idea of Hamas or Hezbollah wearing children as human shields, including me.
But many readers immediately expressed outrage on social media and bombarded the paper’s comment section from their silos.
Ramirez was charged with excusing Israel’s war crimes and pushing Israeli military talking points and accused of being a racist for his malicious, offensive and “grotesque caricature” of a Palestinian.
The reader outrage was so intense that the boss of the Post’s opinion section, David Shipley, “re-evaluated” his decision.
He didn’t just pull it down from the paper’s web site. He issued an apology for having “missed something profound, and divisive” and published a selection of critical comments by readers.
Ramirez ably defended himself on Michael Smerconish’s Nov. 11 show on CNN.
Calling the charges against him “ridiculous,” he said, “The cartoon was very specific. It pointed out the hypocrisy of an organization that uses civilians as shields” and said his critics “used the race card as a way to eliminate a contrary political opinion they don’t agree with.”
I Cagle, agree with Ramirez. It was outrageous how quickly – and abjectly — the Post caved to the complaints of its noisiest, most partisan and most sensitive readers.
What happened last month at the Philadelphia Inquirer to my good friend Monte Wolverton was another example of how careful editorial cartoonists have to be today.
My small business represents Wolverton and syndicates his work. His Oct. 18 cartoon showed an oversized Israeli army boot crushing Hamas terrorists.
It ran in many other newspapers without any complaints, but the Inquirer reconsidered and decided to take it down and apologize because its editors thought the cartoon reinforced “pernicious anti-Semitic tropes about Israeli aggression.”
I (Eagle) suggested to Monte that he withdraw the cartoon and apologize for it because I think any big military boot in an editorial cartoon could be seen as a Nazi boot and portraying Jews as Nazis is an anti-Semitic trope.
The most outlandish – and unjustified — case of cartoon cancelling happened to the highly respected Steve Bell of the Guardian newspaper in Britain. He was fired after 40 years at the paper, over a cartoon that was never even published.
His fatal cartoon depicted Benjamin Netanyahu carving the map of Gaza on his bare belly with a scalpel and saying “Residents of Gaza get out now.” The cartoon drew upon a famous photo of Lyndon Johnson, lifting his shirt to show a scar from a recent surgery, which formed the basis for a famous cartoon by David Levine, with LBJ showing a scar shaped like Vietnam on his belly – an image familiar to all cartoonists and a good analogy. Gaza is Netanyahu’s Vietnam.
Bell quoted his bosses as saying the cartoon could be seen as anti-Semitic because somehow they believed it was playing on the “pound of flesh” line spoken by Shylock, the Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s 1596 play The Merchant of Venice.
On my “Caglecast” podcast I asked the top three editorial cartoonists in Israel if Bell’s cartoon qualified as anti-Semitic and they agreed it wasn’t even close. Declaring Bell’s cartoon anti-Semitic was a ridiculous stretch. (Cagle doesn’t explain who are the Israeli Cartoonists he asked). See blow
From PARTNERS IN Kindness blog: (The writer) My father grew up in an observant Jewish home. When he was in his teens he rebelled against his father’s ways, and became an ardent fan of jazz music, which was not a part of his Orthodox roots. He went away to college, in the Midwest, and then enlisted in the Army Air Force, and, ultimately, married and raised his children–my two sisters and my brother—and so, had to leave his religious observance fully behind.
My parents raised me in a secular, yet morally instructive way. But I was a rebellious and wild young man, just like my father, through my adolescence and teenage years. He was unable to rebuke me, as perhaps he should have, not just because he felt hypocritical; for, mainly, after all, he loved me very much.
In the year 1981, when I was just 26 years old, I lived in a halfway house in Boston, after having been discharged from a psychiatric hospital. The rent for the home was a financial burden for my father, and though I was working at a local drug store, I was unable to pull my weight. And on top of it all, I was altering my lifestyle to become an Orthodox Jew.
This was a source of tremendous conflict for my dad; perhaps he felt contrition for the way he had gone against his fathers’ path of Faith.
On my 27th birthday, at Passover time, he came to visit me and to take me out to a kosher deli in Brookline to celebrate. Although I was struggling, I strove to “keep it together,” to fulfill my obligation to honor him.
I had read, and had been deeply moved by, the story in the Torah about how our Forefather Jacob had sought his father Isaac’s blessing. We were parked outside the home, and as I felt so wonderful, he was treating me—I was subsisting on tuna fish and herbal tea, the only food that was kosher at home or at work—I decided to ask my father for his blessing, just like Jacob did. In my mind I begged him to overlook my woeful life circumstances. I knew my sisters and my brother were more accomplished and healthier than I.
My Dad, who hadn’t practiced Judaism for nearly 50 years, leaned forward over the steering wheel, and whispered the Hebrew word, “Yiverechacha.” It means “You shall be blessed,” and is the first word of the Priestly Blessing pronounced by the Cohanim in the Holy Temple, and on Jewish Festivals.
This blessing which my dad gave me with a full heart, has sustained me through my life, making it possible for me to achieve recovery; become successful in my work and in my marriage; and to be a member of my Jewish community. Furthermore, this blessing has inspired me to pray daily for the welfare, health, and happiness of my family. Thank G-d, they enjoy meaningful and serendipitous lives; but, most of all, they have continued to love me and give their own blessings to me and my wife, who have flourished and enjoyed each other for nearly 30 years.
The Winter Cathedral at Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s annual Lightscape show (all photos by Liz Ligon)
Brooklyn Botanic Garden invites you to Lightscape, a magical mile-long illuminated trail with new works of art that promises to be an immersive and amazing experience for visitors of all ages. Lightscape has fast become NYC’s contemporary classic for the holidays, offering an imaginative, joyful spin on winter traditions. The expanded and reimagined trail builds on the natural beauty of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s landscapes, trees, water features, and architectural details, taking visitors on an otherworldly nighttime journey through 18 installations while enjoying seasonal treats and festive music. The crowd favorite Winter Cathedral returns near the trail’s end, but almost all works of light art this year are brand new to the garden.
This year’s Lightscape is complete with a newly curated playlist featuring Taylor Swift, Elton John, Philip Glass, and Viter Ukrainian Folk Choir among others, as well as a Brooklyn hip-hop zone celebrating the genre’s 50th anniversary. Pop-up dining areas throughout the trail offer hot buttered rum, s’mores in a jar, homemade donuts, and other seasonal treats and warm beverages. Allow an hour to 90 minutes for your visit.
Lightscape runs from November 17, 2023, through January 1, 2024. On select Value Nights, adult tickets are just $24.
I suggest that you visit the Partners in Kindness website. The last tube showed that we can’t put medical labels on new boens’.
My dear soldier,* Sent to Aisha Ha Torah I can picture you in my mind, a child of love, an offspring of Hashem with a holy soul. You know this week we learn of our forefather Yaakov, who studied for 14 years in the Yeshivah of Shem and Ever. Shem had lived through the time of the flood and seen the degradation to which humanity had succumbed. Yaakov needed to learn of the ways of Galut, as he was raised in the holy family of Yitchak. So here, what is the meaning? When a Jew goes out in the world in every encounter he brings sparks of holiness. He raises light. I know you are from a very holy place, a loving family and a warm community. I want to give you a blessing for a holy. restful, Shabat, a Shabat of clarity, and renewal. May your heart stay open to love. I am a grandmother and great grandmother. My grandson.Naftali Golshevsky is now in Nahal training. Maybe you will meet this Charedi youngster of 18. Fondly, Chava Farkash Cirota.
This is the kind of sale I would definitely attend. I’d walk in and show off some of my hand knitted creations. And the ladies would go gaga. Sunday Dec 3rd 11-to 3 Family Lancy: 401 Central Avenue Cedarhurst, NY
My brother’s niece Batyah Cohen in Israel collecting for her son and his unit From: joseph schikman Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2023 14:49:58 PST
To. Hillcrest community
My brother’s niece Batyah Cohen in Israel..
Is personally collecting and shopping (or having others shop)for her son’s unit in the Israeli army.
“My son’s unit is one of the units that is in charge of guarding cities in Yehuda and Shomron. Many of these cities are surrounded by villages that have become increasingly hostile as the war progresses. Right now his unit is looking to get knee pads but any unused funds will go towards rain and winter gear as the weather turns. Knee pads are $35 a pair and thermals and rain gear tend to be in the $15-$20 range. If you’re interested in contributing towards his unit, donations can be made via Venmo- https://venmo.com/code?user_id=2630673449877504191 Or PayPal @sarahbatyah
נפש ב נפש מציעה טיסות חינם להורה אחד שיבקר את ילדו החייל הבודד בישראל. העבירו את זה לכל מי שאתם מכירים שזה יהיה שימושי עבורו https://www.nbn.org.il/operation-hug/
Nefesh B Nefesh is offering free flights for 1 parent to visit their lone soldier child in Israel. Pass it on to anyone you know that this will be useful for https://www.nbn.org.il/operation-hug/
Benefit for Jerusalem reservists
The municipality recently launched special benefits within the Jerusalem club for the reserve servants, residents of the city. The benefits will buy the reservists benefits at a number of selected eateries and restaurants in the city. The benefits are provided subject to registration with a Jerusalem club and approval from a reserve officer. After performing the operation and within five business days, the reservists will receive an SMS message with a voucher code that can be presented at the business. Among the businesses that provide benefits, you can find well-known restaurants in the city, such as Rehavia Sushi, Big Apple Pizza, Domino’s Pizza and Shoshana Bar.
“Remember,” the former secretary of state said, “there was a cease-fire on Oct. 6 that Hamas broke by their barbaric assault on peaceful civilians and their kidnapping, their killing, their beheading, their terrible, inhumane savagery.”
Those three words — “that Hamas broke” — aren’t trivial. They give the lie to the “Cease-Fire Now” mirage, or imposture, that has become a rallying cry at pro-Palestinian demonstrations. They are at the heart of what the war is about, and the key to how it can end. And they are the bright dividing line between those who would allow Hamas to get away with murder, and those who would refuse.
Why should it matter that it was Hamas that broke the cease-fire when Palestinian civilians are being killed in large numbers by Israeli bombs and bullets? Those saying that it shouldn’t matter argue that questions of culpability become secondary, if not irrelevant, when kids’ lives are at stake. If Israel has the power to save those kids by halting its campaign, goes the argument, then it has a moral obligation to do so.
But wait: Doesn’t Hamas also have the power? Hamas has a long record of firing those rockets from the vicinity of schools. It has sought to prevent ordinary Gazans from obeying evacuation orders, deliberately putting them at increased risk. It hides in a vast network of tunnels while civilians must fend for themselves above ground.
The Israeli government and Hamas agreed on Wednesday morning to a four-day cease-fire in which Hamas would free 50 of the hostages. But Hamas did that only because it’s under intense military pressure. It could get a real and lasting cease-fire for the people of Gaza — and probably safe passage out of the territory for many of its members — in exchange for releasing all the hostages, surrendering its arms and renouncing its rule in favor of some other Arab power.
That Hamas has done none of these things isn’t shocking: It’s a terrorist death cult. What’s shocking is that people in the Cease-Fire Now crowd don’t appear to have much interest in making any demands of Hamas equivalent to those they make of Israel.
They want Israel to stop firing. But do you often hear them insisting that Hamas return the favor? They want Israel to provide Gaza with humanitarian relief in the form of electricity, fuel and other goods. But I haven’t seen those protesters in the street demanding that Hamas provide Israel with humanitarian relief in the form of immediately freeing all hostages. They claim to want a “free Palestine” for all its people. But I never hear them criticize Hamas’s dictatorship, or its contempt for the civil and human rights of its own people, or its members’ avowedly antisemitic boasts of slaughtering Jews.
There is a buried, unwitting compliment to Israel in this asymmetry — an assumption that, as a Western democracy, the Jewish state is susceptible to moral suasion, public shaming, or at least diplomatic pressure in a way Hamas and its patrons in Iran aren’t.
Yet that compliment is rarely accompanied with even a gesture of respect for Israel’s grief, or the legitimacy of its grievance with Hamas, or its need to keep its citizens safe, or even its right to exist as a sovereign state. Even when Israel’s notional right to self-defense is briefly acknowledged, every exercise of it is immediately deemed a war crime, whatever the evidence.
For Israelis, what “Cease-Fire Now” means is “Surrender Now.” No wonder they decline to heed the call.
What about for Palestinians — women, children and noncombatant men for whom the calls for a cease-fire are supposedly intended? Would they benefit? In the short term, of course: Palestinian lives would be saved if Israel held its fire.
But a cease-fire wouldn’t spare just civilians. It would spare, and embolden, the main fighting force of Hamas. It would also embolden terrorist allies like Hezbollah. That’s a virtual guarantee for future mass-casualty attacks against Israel, for ever-larger Israeli retaliation, and for deeper misery for the people of Gaza. No Israeli government of any political stripe is going to allow the territory to rebuild so long as Hamas remains in charge.
That gives a second meaning to “Cease-Fire Now”: Either a demand for Israel’s total capitulation, or a recipe for a perpetual cycle of violence between a terrorist group sworn to Israel’s destruction and a Jewish state that refuses to be destroyed. Whatever else one thinks of Israel, no country can be expected to sign its own death warrant by indulging those who, if given the chance, would annihilate it.
There are good intentions, if also ignorance and shortsightedness, among many of those demanding a cease-fire. But there is also the bottomless cynicism of others who accept, and even celebrate, Hamas as it uses living Gazans as human shields and dead Gazans as propaganda victories. The tragedy of these protests, like so many “antiwar” movements in the past, is that the naïve and earnest are again being manipulated as tools of the cunning and cruel.
Instead of Cease-Fire Now, we need Hamas’s Defeat Now. Only on that basis does a lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike have any chance to follow.
Morton Williams Supermarket has been targeted with anti-Israel, antisemitic boycotts and destruction of property at the Columbia University location.
JCRC-NY calls upon New Yorkers to support Morton Williams Supermarkets! Recently the Jewish owned supermarket chain, Morton Williams, has been targeted with anti-Israel, antisemitic boycotts and destruction of property at the Columbia University location. The chain, a community staple, has been named to the Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace BDS list, resulting in two Columbia students entering the store at 2941 Broadway, defacing Israeli products and verbally assaulting the store employees. Read more about the attack here. Co-owner Avi Kaner stated “You have a right to your opinion. You don’t have a right to deface private property. These actions are blatantly antisemitic. They have to be called out.”We urge you to join us in BUYING OUT the Israeli product section and doing all of your Thanksgiving shopping at Morton Williams Supermarkets! Show your appreciation for Morton Williams and their continued support for Israel and the Jewish community!
It is my understanding that you are scheduled to show the film Israelism on your campus. It is greatly alarming, as not only is it a film made with a very clear agenda – to delegitimize Jewish support for Israel – but it is of particular danger to the Jewish students on campus specifically in these polarized times.
The film Israelism is not educational. It is not inclusive. It is not portraying an interesting viewpoint but rather simply promotes anti-Israel sentiment. There is never a time to air this film, but especially not at a time when the ADL reports that incidents of harassment, vandalism and assaults against Jews have increased by 388 percent over the same time last year. It truly saddens and hurts me that your institution thinks this is acceptable.
The movie openly gives justification to those shouting “Kill the Jews”, “Globalize the Intifada” etc. Showing this movie denies reality, incites further terror and violence and opens up for more bloodbaths — and opens up a major security risk on your campus for Jewish students. Just consider the quickness of groups of students blaming Israel for the murderous orgy and abduction of nearly 250 babies, children, teens, adults and seniors, on October 7. Before Israel even had time to react, to get a clear picture of the scope of the damage, students on US campuses were in full defensive mode. Please do not allow your campus to be a platform for terrorist ideology.
These letters to schools have been set up. Just click each one and send. Dear Friends, We are happy to report that over the last 2 days we generated ove 5,000 emails to the Dean of Hunter College, and Hunter College subsequently canceled their showing of “Israelism”. Watch the trailer; YOu will see a short glimpse of Noam Chomsky , Together we really make a difference!Many other universities are still planning to show the film.
Big eye roll. I was expecting an educational, informative documentary on a potentially interesting topic. Rather, this movie is geared toward racists and ignorant privileged college age kids looking for a cause to be upset about. It’s full of sensational out-of-context half truths. If you have little/no knowledge of Middle East history and you’re a follower, you’ll fall into the trap. Others likely to fall into the trap are marginally affiliated Jewish kids who hated Hebrew school. Yeah, I know, you would’ve rather gone to soccer practice – this movie is for you! Fall into it, rage through your youth, dye your hair blue, live “your truth” i toward racists and ignorant privileged college age kids looking for a cause to be upset about. It’s full of sensational out-of-context half truths. If you have little/no knowledge of Middle East history and you’re a follower, you’ll fall into the trap. Others likely to fall into the trap are marginally affiliated Jewish kids who hated Hebrew school. Yeah, I know, you would’ve rather gone to soccer practice – this movie is for you! Fall into it, rage through your youth, dye your hair blue, live “your truth” …..
neighborhood bully, he’s just one man His enemies say he’s on their land They got him outnumbered about a million to one He got no place to escape to, no place to run He’s the neighborhood bully.The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive He’s criticized and condemned for being alive He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in He’s the neighborhood bully.The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land He’s wandered the earth an exiled man Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn He’s always on trial for just being born He’s the neighborhood bully.Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized Old women condemned him, said he should apologize Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad He’s the neighborhood bully.Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim That he’ll live by the rules that the world makes for him ‘Cause there’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac He’s the neighborhood bully.Well, he got no allies to really speak of What he gets he must pay for, he don’t get it out of love He buys obsolete weapons and he won’t be denied But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side He’s the neighborhood bully.Well, he’s surrounded by pacifists who all want peace They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease Now, they wouldn’t hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep He’s the neighborhood bully. Every empire that’s enslaved him is gone Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon He’s made a garden of paradise in the desert sand In bed with nobody, under no one’s command He’s the neighborhood bully.Now his holiest books have been trampled upon No contract that he signed was worth that what it was written on He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health He’s the neighborhood bully.What’s anybody indebted to him for? Nothing, they say. He just likes to cause war Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed They wait for this bully like a dog waits for feed He’s the neighborhood bully.What has he done to wear so many scars? Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon and stars? Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill Running out the clock, time standing still Neighborhood bully.
How to get going every morning at 80 years of age: Even if you have only had less than usual hours of sleep an hour of Yoga will energize you.
Leon & Robyn Seemann batmanandrobyn00@gmail.com via community.sehc.us
6:19 PM (6 minutes ago)
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Artists Circle for IsraelOur online performance is still available! Need a break from constantly checking your phone for updates? Overloaded with news? Sit back for a moment with Artists Circle – we got you. Tune in for our online performance of song, dance, story, and laughter to uplift, connect, and provide some much needed positivity. Available for ten more days – through November 30!
Morton Williams 
i toward racists and ignorant privileged college age kids looking for a cause to be upset about. It’s full of sensational out-of-context half truths. If you have little/no knowledge of Middle East history and you’re a follower, you’ll fall into the trap. Others likely to fall into the trap are marginally affiliated Jewish kids who hated Hebrew school. Yeah, I know, you would’ve rather gone to soccer practice – this movie is for you! Fall into it, rage through your youth, dye your hair blue, live “your truth” 
savyatseventy 