By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — For an American used to Memorial Day as a time for mega-store sales and picnics, the Israeli equivalent requires a significant reformatting of expectations. The official number of those who died while serving in one or another security function or as a result of terror is close to 23,000, with
Controversies surround Israel’s secular holidays Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–It’s always refreshing when serious people refuse to give up hope – as a growing number of “peaceniks” in Israel have done – about solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The latest effort comes from three distinguished Israelis: a former admiral, a former peace negotiator and a businessman. I understand the article in
Authors urge unilateral steps by Israel to build peace Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Israel has something of an anti-European complex. That’s the impression readers of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s “national newspaper,” are likely to get from a report by its Jerusalem-based correspondent Patrick Martin. Writing about Israeli reactions to the incident that cost a colonel his job because, as Martin put
Israel’s love-hate relationships with Europe Read More »
Middle East
By Ira Sharkansky KIBBUTZ AMIAD, Israel–Our apartment in Jerusalem’s French Hill neighborhood is about 810 meters above sea level. We began our trip to the Galilee by driving to the tunnel under Mt Scopus, and then through the Judean Desert to the Jordan Valley. At the junction to the road north we were 300 meters below
Sightseeing through the Galilee Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Yaakov Lappin WASHINGTON, D.C –At the start of this week, hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists planned to board passenger planes and fly to Israel. Their plan, according to Israeli intelligence assessments, was to join Palestinian demonstrations in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, events that had a high potential to turn violent. The activists,
Israel’s organization turned ‘flytilla’ into a non-event Read More »
Middle East
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — On Tuesday night I shared a fascinating lesson plan from Yad Vashem (Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority) with my Community Jewish High students. The lesson juxtaposed two reports from a transport that carried Jews from Dusseldorf, Germany to Riga, Latvia that left on December 11, 1941.
Let’s be the ‘village’ that supports Israel locally Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM –The full Hebrew name of Holocaust Memorial Day is yom hasho’a v’hagvurah, the day of catastrophe and heroism. The commemorations in Israel tend to put at least as much stress on the heroism as on the catastrophe. Thus the annual state ceremony at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial complex, in
Yom HaShoah and the Iran threat Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — What was supposed to be a routine ceremony in the official residence of the President of Israel turned out to be a spirited rebuttal in the current debate about the relationship between Israel’s Supreme Court and the Knesset. It has been flamed by a new proposal by Minister of
Peres and Grunis oppose letting Knesset override Supreme Court Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM –I surmise that most of the media in the Diaspora that report on Israel will describe the way the Government of Israel handled the “flytilla” earlier this week to have been not only successful but also prudent. That’s not the only impression I get here. To recap: Several hundred activists
How did Israel handle ‘flytilla?’ Depends on whom you ask Read More »
Middle East
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Only a 15-minute walk from our home in French Hill is Mt Scopus. That is the site of the Social Science Faculty and several other units of the Hebrew University. A half-hour walk around the perimeter of Mt Scopus–outside the campus–is a good way to spend a cool morning.
A walking tour of Jerusalem with Ira Sharkansky Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM– I’ve believed for a long time that the greatest danger that the Jewish state is currently facing doesn’t come from the outer threat of Iranian nukes but from within, particularly from the continued expansion of the settlements. I thought I saw ample evidence of it when my wife and I spent
Palestinian Jew-hatred a major threat to peace Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Even to my untrained eye and deaf ear Gunther Grass’ poem that has created such a furor in Israel and in Germany isn’t great poetry. It reads even in the original like an old man’s rant in search of attention, even though the author who is a distinguished writer
Yishai overreacts to Grass’s poem Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — It is hard to know if this is a time to cry, laugh, or more simply to recognize the intractable nature of Israel’s problems in the Middle East. I’m not about to go back to Fall River, and certainly not to my grandparents’ home town of Bialystok. I’ve gotten used
Iran and Palestine follow ‘no-negotiation’ strategies Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
HEBRON, Israel — While many Israelis fly off to various points around the globe for Passover, those of us who stay home and are fortunate enough to have some time off during the week-long holiday use the time to explore and get to know the country better. One group that’s helping make that happen
Israelis pour into Hebron for Passover Read More »
Jewish Religion, Middle East