IsraNews – 10 Sivan 5771 – 12 June 2011
IsraNews - 10 Sivan 5771 - 12 June 2011
Parashat Sh'lach
"Israel Is Set Apart"
by Jerry Waxman
This is the first installment of our weekly news round-up. As most other news accounts concerning Israel focus largely on its security measures and problems with its enemies, at Israel MagNet we look for a different story. While politicians and journalists only concern themselves with violent clashes and heated disputes over land rights (and wrongs) we find stories of accomplishment and achievement. We promote the side of Israel that is constructive and positive and making improvements in life for all of Israel and all of the world.
We also pertain to the uniqueness that is Israel. Some stories - where other nations single us out in one way or another - may not seem so positive. But they must be included. In addition to all the great things that the people of Israel have accomplished, we also must always be aware that the rest of the world does not exactly support Israel.
And now, a summary of this last week:
Israel Has Been Set Apart
Jonathan Pollard is in the news now because he would like to visit his father who is very ill. Naturally we are hopeful that Jonathan will visit his father and that his father will recover. Meanwhile, his plea to be allowed to see his father brings up a broader concern about the whole Jonathan Pollard saga.
I will grant that I don't have all the information about Pollard's crime. And I will grant that Pollard's supporters may not be telling the whole story. In any event, the United States, specifically President Obama, the one man able to pardon Pollard, owes all Jewish people an explanation - "Why is Jonathan Pollard still locked up?" If he really is a security risk, tell us why that is so. Absent a good explanation, we are left with an obvious conclusion: Pollard is serving a prison sentence that is many times worse than anyone else has served for similar crimes because he was acting on behalf of the Jewish state.
European Sports: How Did FIBA Make Its Decision?
Rules are rules, and in sports rules must be adhered to. But to what extent? Certainly rules about uniforms are necessary. But again, how strictly do these rules need to be interpreted? The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) was approached with this question when the Israeli women's basketball team requested an exception. A religiously observant team member wears a t-shirt under her jersey for purposes of modesty.
FIBA answered that the t-shirt would not be allowed. Why? It's a rule. Why can't this one rule about a uniform be bent? How does it affect the game? Does a t-shirt give a player an advantage?
It may not be right to jump to conclusions. But something tells me that if the woman with a t-shirt were playing for a different country and of a different religion, FIBA's answer would be different.
Farewell to Al Schwimmer, War Hero Of A Different Kind Al Schwimmer passed away Friday on his 94th birthday. He distinguished himself in Israel's early struggles by smuggling aircraft into Israel. He was arrested in the U.S. for doing so, and stripped of his civil rights. Schwimmer thereafter made his home in Israel, where he established Israel Aircraft Industries. In 2001 as he was leaving office, President Clinton issued a pardon for Schwimmer. It must have surprised some people. Schwimmer had never asked for a pardon. It just came.
. . .Week of 3-9 Sivan / 5-11 June 2011 . . .
. . .Headlines . . .
Pollard: Let me see dying father . . .
FIBA: Orthodox Jewish Basketball Player May Not Add T-Shirt To Uniform . . .
U.S. investing $9 million in Israeli alternative fuels start-up companies . . .
Al Schwimmer, Founder of Israel Aircraft Industries, Passes Away . . .
. . .World History Timeline . . .
Weekly summary of the Gaza Crossings: May 22 to 26, 2011
. . . . . See the rest of this story| |
***
Initiated by a group of dedicated parents who sought an alternative to the either religious or general studies schools in the area, Meitarim Raanana grew out of need to offer teens a well-rounded high-quality open-minded Jewish education. After 18 months of planning, the program opened as a private school in Raanana this year. The need for a new form of education was apparent when community support for this project yielded high than expected registration for the school's first year.
"Meitarim let's us make choices about our education today that will impact our future. Our teachers support us and guide us towards decisions. In the end, we the students need to take responsibility for our choices, both academic and extracurricular. In my old school everyone in my grade took the exact same classes, here I take classes with kids who share my interests. At Meitarim Raanana I have lots of friends and I like going to school." Ben, age 14.
The school curriculum requires that each semester all students take a minimum number of required courses in following areas of study: Judaic courses, math, science and English and phys ed. In those disciplines they can chose from a number of electives. Additionally, students take electives in music, visual arts, philosophy, history and literature.
. . . . . See the rest of this story| |
***
Edited by Bella Gutterman and Naomi Morgenstern
(The Source) The Gurs Hagaddah: Passover in Perdition is a deeply moving description of the lives of the Jews imprisoned in the Gurs detention camp in southwestern France, prior to their transports to the death camps. It contains actual memoirs of former inmates, including accounts of their deportations to the Gurs camp, as well as photographs, poems, paintings and sketches of the camp, and a copy of the handwritten Hagaddah used at the Passover seder in 1941. It is a remarkable volume.
The inmates at Gurs tried to maintain spiritual and cultural activities and regular prayers, Shabbat and holidays, history, Bible and Talmud classes, played an important role in their spiritual resistance. "I never saw such devoutness, such religious fervor as I did in those miserable, cold and damp huts, in those makeshift prayer halls," wrote one of the rabbis interred there (page 34). (The camp authorities encouraged religious activities thinking it would lessen the feelings of resentment and frustration). One particularly moving illustration shows Rabbi Leo Ansbacher, the camp's chief rabbi, standing on a platform giving a sermon to crowds of inmates. The snowcapped French Pyreenes are in the background.
When it was time to celebrate Passover in April 1941, eight thousand of the Gurs inmates signed a document that they were willing to give up bread for the eight days of Passover, not knowing in advance that they would be given flour for matzot instead. One of the inmates, Aryeh Zuckerman, painstakingly wrote down the Haggadah in block Hebrew letters over a period of months for use at this seder - this is the Gur Haggadah. Copies of it were printed in Toulouse for everyone's use at the Seder and some copies of the Hagaddah were sent to friends and family living outside the camp. Those copies were illustrated by a non-Jewish inmate, FritzSchliefer, a communist, with postage stamp size pictures showing the atrocities of the camp. He was later deported to Drancy and then to Auschwitz for his role in the seder.
The Gurs Haggadah was discovered lying in a box in the archives of Yad V'Shem, the holocaust historical museum in Jerusalem, and was displayed there during Passover 1998. Visitors to the exhibit wanted to know more about the story behind the Haggadah and the archivists from Yad V'shem researched the circumstances surrounding its creation. They spoke with Rabbi Ansbacher who then lived in Tel Aviv, who was able to talk at length about the Gurs camp as well as the son of Aryeh Zuckerman who wrote a chapter called "My Father's Haggadah."
. . . . . See the rest of this story| |
***
Relatives of Jonathan Pollard – incarcerated for the past 26 years for espionage – are entreating US officials to allow him to see his father, 95-year old Morris Pollard, following the latter's hospitalization in dire condition.
Esther Pollard, his wife, said she received a call from her crying husband Saturday. "He was crying so hard that it was difficult to process, and now I'm crying too. He said his father Morris was dying and they don't know if he will last through the day," she said.
The wife added that the father and son had tried speaking on the phone, but that the elder Pollard was too weak even to hold the receiver to his ear. She said his sudden illness had come as a shock because he had been relatively healthy for his age.
"Jonathan told him how much he loves him and thanked him for all he had taught him throughout the wonderful years they had together," Esther recounted.
"Jonathan's voice broke when he told his father how sorry he is that the hopes and dreams of being together over the vacation were not realized, and asked him in a choked voice to kiss his mother when he gets to heaven, to tell her he loves and misses her."
The wife says her husband pleaded with her to do everything in her power to convince the authorities to allow him to leave the prison and be with his father in his final hours.
. . . . . See the rest of this story| |
***
European basketball's governing body says it will not make allowances for an Israeli women's player's religious observance in the upcoming European championship.
University of Toledo and Israeli national team point guard Naama Shafir is an Orthodox Jew who wears a T-shirt under her jersey for reasons of modesty.
European basketball regulations say all players must wear precisely the same uniform and Munich-based FIBA Europe told the AP early Friday that it would not make an exception.
FIBA Europe spokesman Sakis Kontos said "rules must always be upheld" and the decision is "final."
The decision means the 21-year-old Shafir cannot compete at the tournament, which opens June 18 in Poland, if she insists on wearing the T-shirt.
. . . . . See related story| |
***
A joint Israeli-American venture developing alternative fuels from cellulosic feedstocks has scored a $9 million investment by the U.S. Department of Energy.
HCL Cleantech is joining forces with the American biofuels startup LS9. Meanwhile, HCL has appointed an American manager in the stead of its founder, Eran Baniel, and has set out to raise more than $20 million.
The investment by the Energy Department is part of the Obama administration's plan to reduce America's dependence on oil. The department says on its website that it is investing $36 million in six small-scale projects in the United States, each developing processes to produce energy either from biofuel - originating from organic sources - or forms of renewable energy.
HCL's solution makes use of technology used in Germany decades ago, under the Nazis, to produce sugars from nonfood organic sources, mainly acidic cellulosic sources. The U.S. government grant will be used to improve the production technique, said Baniel. LS9's role in the joint venture will be to process the sugars produced by HCL into fuel. The two startups will be building a joint plant, either in Virginia or North Carolina, Baniel said.
HCL was founded in 2007 based on research and development by Dr. Avraham Baniel, Eran's father, and Prof. Aharon Eyal. Baniel the elder is now 93, probably making him Israel's oldest high-tech entrepreneur. Avraham Baniel has spent 69 years doing industrial chemical research and developing its application. Eyal is a professor of applied chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Their company conducted feasibility tests of the technology in 2008 and proved that it works.
. . . . . See the rest of this story| |
***
Schwimmer, an American citizen born in New York, was convicted in 1950 of violating the Neutrality Act for smuggling planes to Israel during the 1948 War of Independence. He was stripped of his civil rights, but not imprisoned.
The American Jew was able to covertly bring the aircrafts to Israel by establishing false companies, one of which was purportedly the official airline of Panama. Schwimmer was in the Air Transport Command in World War II, providing him with many contacts that were pilots and in the airplane industry. He was able to use his contacts to transport the planes to Israel.
Schwimmer was pardoned in 2001 by then outgoing U.S. President Bill Clinton. The pardon was awarded without any formal request from Schwimmer.
. . . . . See the rest of this story| |
***
***
The Friendly Universe - Law of Attraction in Action
Filed under: IsraNews
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Leave a Reply