A Post-Holiday Wrap-Up

This small country on the sunny shores of the Eastern Mediterranean is a land of many contrasts. That contrast is most evident in the back-to-back observance of Memorial Day and Independence Day. First we observe 24 hours of greiving, followed by 24 hours of elation. Now that's a contrast!

Speaking of contrasts, I had some time to catch up on reading and saw two interesting items in the paper last Thursday, April 19th.

The first is entitled "The Good Jailer". Two weeks ago, a ceremony was held in which the Feinstein family of Jerusalem was reunited with a Bible that had been held by the Goodwin family of London for some 60 years. Thomas Henry Goodwin, a guard in the British prison in Jerusalem received the Bible from two condemned Jewish prisoners, Meir Feinstein, 19 and Moshe Barazani, 21. The pair were sentened to death by hanging by the British in 1947, Feinstein for his role in the bombing of the Jerusalem train station and Barazani for carrying a grenade for the purpose of assasinating the British military commander.

The second is titled "The Friendly Fires of Hell" by Robert J. White-Harvey. He tells the sad tale of 10,000 Jewish prisoners, survivors of the Holocaust, who were marched out of the camps as the war in Germany came to a close in May, 1945. Why did the Germans march at least 10,000 poor, wretched survivors to Lubeck Harbor on the German Baltic coast? One imagines that the Germans just didn't know what to do with them as the war was coming to a close, and they wanted to hide their crimes from the eyes of the approaching Allies. The motive becomes more clear when we see what the Germans did when the surviving survivors arrived at the port. They were put onto ships as follows: 4,500 were put aboard the Cap Arcona, a once elegant passenger liner, 2,800 were crammed onto on the Thielbeck, a small rusty old freighter flying a white flag, and the balance on the Athen.

It doesn't take much imagination to figure out that the Germans planned to set sail and then sink the ships at sea. I guess that's one way to get rid of Jews when the gas chambers are closed for repairs !

The plot thickens... At the very same moment that the Jews were boarding these ships, the British were arming four squadrons of RAF Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers to carry out Operational Order 73: To detroy the concentration of enemy shipping in Lubek Bay.

When the British bombers arrived, they found the Cap Arcona teeming with 4,500 wretched passengers, not to mention two old rusty freighters flying white flags and obviously carrying 1000's of passengers, as well as the hospital ship Deutschland.

The British pilots completed their mission successfully. In just 20 minutes, four ships in the harbor were sinking in flames and 7,000 Jews were dead. The British called it a "friendly-fire" incident and slapped a 100 year top-secret classification on the files. The great-grandchildren of the 7,000 victims will have to wait until the year 2045 in order to learn any more about this "horrible accident". It's apparent that the British wanted to keep it quiet in order not to cast a sour note on an otherwise victorious conclusion to the war. Either that, or they were really emabarassed that the RAF hires pilots with really bad eyesight.

Until those files are opened in another 38 years, you can visit a small memorial erected by residents who lived near the beach where a great many of the Jewish bodies washed ashore and were buried. The Germans also opened a small two-room exhibit in nearby Neustadt-in-Holstein to document the tragedy in 1990.

Back to April 21, 1947. Anti-British "terrorists" Feinstein and Barazani await execution in their cell. The British acquiesce to Arab demands, and impose a blockade on Jewish immigration to Palestine. When ships laden with hundreds of thousands of Jewish survivors approach the beaches of Palestine, the British impound them and send the Jews to concentration camps in Cyprus and other locations. The British sit and wonder how they will solve their Jewish problem... Hmmm... where have we heard that before?

Feinstein and Barazani had been born in Palestine, and knew first hand what the British were up to. They joined underground Jewish organizations that were committed to driving the British out of the land... Hmmm... where have we heard that before?

They probably considered talking things over with the British military officers over tea at the King David first, but that wouldn't have made it to the front page of the New York Times. In the end, they decided to blow up the military officers. The Jew-haters of the world point to this as evidence that the Jews are the real terrorists in the world, and that the state that they created was created through terrorism. They still use this perverted calculus to justify destroying that state through terrorism, such as boarding school buses and putting bullets through the brains of young Jewish school children.

The end of the story: While in prision awaiting their execution by the British, Feinstein and Barazani decided to commit suicide so as not to give the British the satisfaction of seeing them hang. Feinstein had a Bible in which he and Barazani inscribed some last words, one inscription in Hebrew, the other in English, expressing their desire to die as proud men.

They presented the inscribed Bible to the aforementioned guard on duty, Thomas Henry Goodwin, and committed suicide shortly thereafter. Goodwin ultimately returned to England, taking the Bible with him. Before his death more than a half-century later, he asked his family to locate Feinsteins family in order to return the Bible to them. Goodwins son Dennis contacted the Prime Ministers office who in turn located Feinsteins nephew Elazar Feinstein. In a ceremony in Jerusalem a few weeks ago, Goodwin arrived from London and presented the inscribed Bible to Feinstein, who turned it over to be displayed at the Underground Prisoners Museum.

Post-script: We've heard this suicide thing before, just look at the story of Masada. So nu??? What would you do? Is suicide more noble than being put to death at the hands of an unjust authority.

In short, I don't think so. You never know from where your salvation will come. How did Feinstein and Barazani know for sure that the minute they were put on the gallows, some Zorro-like figure on a horse with a sword wouldn't come and slash the hangman's ropes? How do we know for sure that the British Governor wouldn't at the last moment issue a stay of execution? We will never know what could have been.

When you see the universe as G-d's handiwork, and trust that He runs the world in ways that we cannot see or understand, that there is no such thing as "coincidence" and everything happens for a reason, then to take your own life is arrogance, because it says that you think you know what is going to happen in the future better than the Big Guy upstairs who created you.

Well, hope you all had a meaningful Holocaust Memorial Day and a meaningful Memorial Day and a meaningful Independence Day. They come and go every year at this time, but believe me, they have an influence that lasts far longer.

To the Bat Cave

Our Memorial / Independence Day observances are now coming to a close in this small country on the sunny shores of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Sunday night we headed up to the Andarta for the central Memorial service at 8:00 PM, then made our way to the shul to see a documentary called "The 17th Victim". It starts with a bus that was bombed by terrorists near Megiddo in 2002. One of the victims was burned beyond recoginition, and as no one came forward to report a missing person, the body was buried in an anyonymous grave. The documentary maker, David Ofek, was so disturbed by this that he began his own private investigation. Time and time again he reached dead ends, but finally, in what can only be described as a miracle, he found his needle in a haystack and discovered the identity of the unknown victim, enabling the family to rebury him and grieve.

The next morning, the kids went off to school for their respective Remembrance ceremonies, and at 11:00 AM, the sirens sounded all over the country for the traditional minute of silence. Afterwards, Imma and I headed out to the supermarket to stock up for our Independence Day barbeque and then picked up all the kids from school.

Back at home, Imma prepared our traditional and quintessential Independence Eve meal: Homemade Felafel. After dinner, we headed up to the shul for the special Independence Day tefillot (prayers). I met Shalom there, and invited him back to our place. Back home, a group of us headed to the neighbors down the block who host an annual open house. We shmoozed, listened to the music from the big concert being given in the park across the road from us, and saw two sets of fireworks, one at 9:30, the second at 11:30. Got to bed around 1:00 AM.

I was the first one up at 7:00 AM, Ezri was the only one I was able to wake up to come to the morning davening (prayer) at 8:00, followed by a pancake breakfast. It was festive! I even treated Shalom to breakfast.

Back home, Imma made fresh waffles for those who didn't get out of bed on time, and then we packed up some snacks and lots of water and headed out for the traditional Independence Day tiyul (hike). We decided to hike the trail up Nachal Dolev to the bat caves. The trails were full of people so it was slow going. After a half hour of hiking we arrived at the bat caves, but the iron gates at the entrance were locked, so everyone (well, almost everyone) was disappointed. We decided to continue our eastward trek towards Yerushalayim. We hiked for a full hour more, climbing up the hills and down the valleys, hoping to reach Mayan Sifla (The Sifla spring). The trails were crowded and it was slow going. We proceeded eastward an additional half-hour, but the ladies decided that we should start to head back. We will try to make our way up to the spring on another day when it is not quite so crowded.

The hike down was a lot quicker, we made it back to the car in under 1 1/2 hours. As soon as we returned home, we started to prepare for the big barbeque.

Not only is today Independence Day, it's also Eli's 16th birthday! We invited Saba and Savta to our barbeque, and we put up steaks, burgers, hot-dogs and chicken. Yummy.

Now it's time for us all to rest our tired feet until the next day off, which is Lag B'Omer, which unbelievably is only 11 days from now!

Chances are good that you can see some nice pictures of our hike on Lori's blog, whose link you will find conveniently listed elsewhere on this page.

Our Memorial Day

Memorial Day begins Sunday evening here in this small country on the sunny shores of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Memorial Day in this country is a lot different than Memorial Day in the USA.

In the USA, memories are short. Memorial Day parades are becoming few and far between. Patriotism is out of fashion. Families spend the day at the beach, at the shopping mall and return home for a barbeque.

My first Memorial Day here was a real shocker. Tonight, Sunday, I will be observing my fourth. Let me try to describe it for you:

As the sun sets tonight, thousands of people will stream towards the Andarta (monument) to the fallen sons and daughters of the town. There, we will stand in line and pass a display of the photos and names of all the fallen. Memorial candles are lit everywhere. There are thousands of people milling about. Soon, the memorial Tekes (ceremony) will begin on a central stage. Family members of the fallen make their way to a reserved seating area in front of the stage. The chief Rav (rabbi) of the town delivers opening words, followed by the mayor, then a presentation by some school kids, high school kids read some poems, selected family members speak.

Then the grande finale: The family members rise from their seats and recite Kaddish in unison.

At that moment, in every city and town in this microscopic country of 8,000 sq. miles, the family members of over 22,000 fallen sons and daughters, PLUS the family members of the thousands murdered by terrorists, are all standing and reciting Kaddish in the evening darkness.

The sun rises the next morning. There are 5.5 million people in this country that will observe Memorial Day today. Hundreds of thousands of them travel to the cemeteries. They make their way to the graves of their loved ones. They grieve and they wait in the sun. Then, at 11:00 AM, a sound is heard throughout the land. Air-raid sirens wail simultaneously throughout the country for one minute. It is a minute that is spent reflecting on the sacrifices that enable us to live freely in the land of our forefathers.

The families return home. The sun sets again. Independence Day commences. Fireworks fill the sky. Barbeques are ignited. Freedom is celebrated.

Happy 59th Birthday to this small country on the sunny shores of the Eastern Mediterranean!

My First Ever Post!

My father, he should live to be 120, always told me to "Keep a Journal". When I didn't follow his advice, he told his grandkids. They have taken his advice to heart, and some of them have become not just bloggers, but extreme bloggers. Now I hardly speak to my kids, I just read their blogs, and occassionally leave comments.

After we picked up our lives and moved our family to this small country on the sunny shores of the Eastern Mediterranean, I maintained an email list of family and friends and tried to send an email at least monthly. That lasted about a year, after which life got in the way and the emails became fewer and farther between.

Over the following 3 years, I developed a habit of keeping a single "Log" file on my computer, in which I've occasionally entered random thoughts, usually about current events and things I've heard or read in the media.

Now, for your reading pleasure, I plan to take that "Log" and post here things that I wrote to myself in the past, along with new posts on contemporary topics. It won't necessarily be in chronological order, but you'll quickly see that there are just one or two common themes that run through them all.

Welcome, and I hope I will gain many friends and few enemies!