Amid Passover week's holiday celebrations and festive Seder meals marking the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt, Israel is more and more deeply riven over another impending exodus; that of some 8500 Israeli residents of the southern Gaza Strip, who, after over 30 years and with families, bag, baggage and even graves, are slated – so far, at least – to be pulled back into Israel proper over the summer in the government’s deeply disputed “Disengagement Plan.”
The Israeli Army plans to collect weaponry once-issued to the settlers, reportedly in an effort to head off feared violence towards security forces. But when I asked New York-born Anita Tucker, a farmer and veteran resident of the Netzer Hazani community - a community expected to turned over to the Palestinians, she dismissed the idea out of hand terming it Israeli government "psy-ops" against the settlers intended to break their spirit. An audio link to her comments is further below. Do give a listen; I will post the rest of the interview in a day or two.
Meanwhile, at the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem’s Old City, the annual Passover collective priestly blessing - Birkat Hacohenim - of thousands of Jewish worshippers assembled on the plaza’s took place Tuesday morning.
Photos of the event are posted in the next few entries; scroll down and make sure to click on the picture itself to see the full-sized version. I shot the pics in RAW format and saved in TIFF (which means "freakin' humgeous files - 17 meg apiece," to the rest of us non-digital photo mavens...) and nipped 'n' tucked in Photoshop so they're real hi-rez, even when saved for the web in compressed .JPG format. I work and slave over a hot laptop all the livelong day so you can just enjoy, and what, what thanks do I get... hmmmph.
And now back to the English - language portion of our regularly scheduled blog...
Jews from the four corners of the earth, who trace their lineage back to Moses and his brother Aaron who led the Children of Israel out of slavery and into the Promised Land, stand garbed in ghostly white prayer-shawls with heads bowed and hands outspread soon after sunrise, and recite the ancient cadences:
May the Lord Bless and Keep You
May the Lord Cause His Countenance to Shine Upon You and Bless You
May the Lord Turn His Face to You and Bless you With Peace
Many Israelis from across the political and religious spectrum, fearing civil war perhaps no less than Palestinian attacks into Israel after the pullout, are deeply hoping that those words won’t have been chanted in vain.
Click here for the audio version of this entry, with Tucker's comments, and actuality (sounds from the scene) at the Western Wall - make sure your speakers are turned on: http://members.tripod.com/mister_d1/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/260405gazawall.mp3
That file is stored here: http://mister_d1.tripod.com.
Cross posted at www.israelity.com
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Wednesday, April 27
Tuesday, April 26
Passover in Jerusalem
The following series was shot at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on the Intermediate Days of the Passover Holiday. Here, worshippers hold aloft a Seferadi community Torah scroll, encased in a traditional solid wooden housing during festive morning services at the Western Wall. Click on the photo to see a full-sized image.
Posted by Dave
Passover in Jerusalem
Sprigs of fragrant branches and leaves, inhaled to refresh the senses are commonly passed around at Sepharadi community services, and as seen here during morning prayers at Western Wall, Passover 2005. Click on the photo to see a full-sized image.
Posted by Dave
Passover in Jerusalem
Fathers and sons during annual Passover communal Priestly Blessing at Western Wall, Jerusalem. Click on the photo to see a full-sized image.
Posted by Dave
Passover in Jerusalem
Ultra-orthodox youths on scaffolding get a better view of the ceremony, as multitudes of worshippers crowd the plaza. Click on the photo to see a full-sized image.
Posted by Dave
Wednesday, April 20
Monday, April 18
'May All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat' vs 'Occupied Territories'
I've been tele-fundraising from Israel to the UK in recent days for a small, but very intensive Jerusalem-based charity (http://www.ezranet.com) that distributes food baskets, clothing and related aid to the really poverty-stricken throughout the country; 2,500 baskets weekly, 10,000 by Pessach in a special campaign.
Several of those I spoke with in Great Britain - Jews, mind you - in London and Manchester were, and although a minority, quite adamant in their refusal to donate food to near-starving Israeli children... until Israel "changed its policies in the Occupied Territories."
Now, while on-line with them, I bit my tongue and stayed professional and on-message, clarifying that the donations were totally non-political (as is the organization), non-sectarian and were meant, as in the Passover passage, "Kol Dichfin, y'tee v'uchal - "May all who are hungry come and eat." Lot of good professionalism did for these kids.
One woman I spoke with (and I now wonder if she ever carried a child in her arms OR her womb) - insisted, despite my repeated attempts to sway her to understand that we were discussing hot soup for a cold and hungry child, and not politics - that "everything was politics."
Another I spoke with opened the conversation with a hearty chuckle, and, "I'm not sure you understand just how un-sympathetic I am." (Sigh). Talk about a callous heart.
I guess what struck me the most was the obsessive, near-gleeful, meaness of their attitude; hungry kids be damned - politics first!
And while we cavil about high-level academic snubbing of Israelis at UK universities and the like, in-duh-viduals like these are really ok, "quite fine thank you," in the local parlance, I suppose with poverty-stricken Jewish children going hungry - as long as their noxious ideological appetite get a good meal out of it.
I suggest we show them and their ilk where we stand: please go over to http://www.ezranet.com, click onto the donations page in the upper right-hand corner of the home page and send a kid a few hot meals for this coming Shabbat and Pessach. They accept dollars and UK pounds, with over 90 percent of it going toward real food and it's a tax-deductible donation in the US and UK.
May we all, the House of Israel and her supporters worldwide have a healthy and happy Passover festival.
(Cross-posted at www.israelity.com)
Several of those I spoke with in Great Britain - Jews, mind you - in London and Manchester were, and although a minority, quite adamant in their refusal to donate food to near-starving Israeli children... until Israel "changed its policies in the Occupied Territories."
Now, while on-line with them, I bit my tongue and stayed professional and on-message, clarifying that the donations were totally non-political (as is the organization), non-sectarian and were meant, as in the Passover passage, "Kol Dichfin, y'tee v'uchal - "May all who are hungry come and eat." Lot of good professionalism did for these kids.
One woman I spoke with (and I now wonder if she ever carried a child in her arms OR her womb) - insisted, despite my repeated attempts to sway her to understand that we were discussing hot soup for a cold and hungry child, and not politics - that "everything was politics."
Another I spoke with opened the conversation with a hearty chuckle, and, "I'm not sure you understand just how un-sympathetic I am." (Sigh). Talk about a callous heart.
I guess what struck me the most was the obsessive, near-gleeful, meaness of their attitude; hungry kids be damned - politics first!
And while we cavil about high-level academic snubbing of Israelis at UK universities and the like, in-duh-viduals like these are really ok, "quite fine thank you," in the local parlance, I suppose with poverty-stricken Jewish children going hungry - as long as their noxious ideological appetite get a good meal out of it.
I suggest we show them and their ilk where we stand: please go over to http://www.ezranet.com, click onto the donations page in the upper right-hand corner of the home page and send a kid a few hot meals for this coming Shabbat and Pessach. They accept dollars and UK pounds, with over 90 percent of it going toward real food and it's a tax-deductible donation in the US and UK.
May we all, the House of Israel and her supporters worldwide have a healthy and happy Passover festival.
(Cross-posted at www.israelity.com)
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