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ISRAEL
AFFAIRS
From the Israel
Affairs Committee
Bob Braitman
I have been given the
honor of representing Israel Bonds to our congregation
during Yom Kippur
Services. While I will try to be brief during the appeal itself, I
hope you
will read these moving words from Rabbi Ari Goldstein of Annapolis MD
and join
me in supporting the State of Israel.
The Olympic games
have had their share of powerful and
emotionally driven moments.
There was the euphoric excitement of our entire nation when the underdog United
States hockey team beat the USSR at Lake Placid in 1980. “Do you believe in
miracles?!?!” Of course, there was the immense pain of Munich in 1972 when eleven
member of the Israeli Olympic delegation were taken hostage and subsequently murdered. There was the great moment of demonstration when Tommie Smith and
John Carlos bowed their heads and raised their black-gloved fists during their medal
ceremony at the Mexico City games in 1968.
There was another moment that wasn’t broadcast live but was meaningful for
me as well. The event was windsurfing and in this event Gal Friedman, won the first-
ever gold medal for Israel. For me, the real excitement began when it occurred to me
that we were about to hear Hatikvah, our Israeli national anthem. Suddenly, the hair
on my arms stood up. My heart started to pound. And then, when the first few notes
began to play I wept tears of incredible joy and pride. For a moment in time, the entire
world was compelled to pay tribute to Israel and the Jewish people. If only the
generations and generations of our ancestors who lived through unspeakable horrors
could have seen this.
Interestingly enough, the words of hatikvah are much older than the state of Israel.
They were part of a nine-stanza poem called “tikvateinu” written over a number of
years by Naphtali Herz Imber beginning in 1877. His poem marveled over the beauty
of Israel and the strength of the Jewish people. As we can imagine, it became highly
popular in the hearts of the early Jewish settlers of Palestine. In 1933 it was adopted
by the Zionst Congress as the anthem of the Zionist movement and in 1948 it became
the anthem for the newly established State of Israel.
Now, for a group of settlers and Zionist visionaries to adopt an anthem which speaks
of our eyes gazing towards our vision of Zion and our hope, which is not yet lost, to be
free in Israel … well, that is perfectly understandable. But, now that we do have a free
Jewish homeland, is this anthem reflective of our feelings and relevant to our condition?
The great original leaders of the Zionist Congress and Israel itself knew that we could
take nothing for granted. They knew that sadly our condition was, and would remain
tenuous. We had a responsibility to be mindful of how central Israel was in the hearts
of so many.
The same can be said for us. We take great pride in our military might but we all know
that many peoples are hell bent towards our destruction. As a result, it is not just a
value, but a duty and responsibility to strengthen and secure our homeland.
There was the euphoric excitement of our entire nation when the underdog United
States hockey team beat the USSR at Lake Placid in 1980. “Do you believe in
miracles?!?!” Of course, there was the immense pain of Munich in 1972 when eleven
member of the Israeli Olympic delegation were taken hostage and subsequently murdered. There was the great moment of demonstration when Tommie Smith and
John Carlos bowed their heads and raised their black-gloved fists during their medal
ceremony at the Mexico City games in 1968.
There was another moment that wasn’t broadcast live but was meaningful for
me as well. The event was windsurfing and in this event Gal Friedman, won the first-
ever gold medal for Israel. For me, the real excitement began when it occurred to me
that we were about to hear Hatikvah, our Israeli national anthem. Suddenly, the hair
on my arms stood up. My heart started to pound. And then, when the first few notes
began to play I wept tears of incredible joy and pride. For a moment in time, the entire
world was compelled to pay tribute to Israel and the Jewish people. If only the
generations and generations of our ancestors who lived through unspeakable horrors
could have seen this.
Interestingly enough, the words of hatikvah are much older than the state of Israel.
They were part of a nine-stanza poem called “tikvateinu” written over a number of
years by Naphtali Herz Imber beginning in 1877. His poem marveled over the beauty
of Israel and the strength of the Jewish people. As we can imagine, it became highly
popular in the hearts of the early Jewish settlers of Palestine. In 1933 it was adopted
by the Zionst Congress as the anthem of the Zionist movement and in 1948 it became
the anthem for the newly established State of Israel.
Now, for a group of settlers and Zionist visionaries to adopt an anthem which speaks
of our eyes gazing towards our vision of Zion and our hope, which is not yet lost, to be
free in Israel … well, that is perfectly understandable. But, now that we do have a free
Jewish homeland, is this anthem reflective of our feelings and relevant to our condition?
The great original leaders of the Zionist Congress and Israel itself knew that we could
take nothing for granted. They knew that sadly our condition was, and would remain
tenuous. We had a responsibility to be mindful of how central Israel was in the hearts
of so many.
The same can be said for us. We take great pride in our military might but we all know
that many peoples are hell bent towards our destruction. As a result, it is not just a
value, but a duty and responsibility to strengthen and secure our homeland.
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Born to the Wild
Written by Michal Alon-Shaanani,
A member of The Israeli Wildlife Hospital
and Rehabilitation Center
Written by Michal Alon-Shaanani,
A member of The Israeli Wildlife Hospital
and Rehabilitation Center
In the hour when the Holy One, blessed be he, created the first human
being, He took him and let him pass before all the trees of the Garden of
Eden and said to him: "See my works, how fine and excellent they are!
Now all that I have created, for you I have created it. Think upon this and
do not destroy and desolate My World, For if you corrupt it, there is no
one to set right after you." (Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28)
There is a tremendous thrill in hearing the free spirited cry of a Griffon vulture
above the steep bluffs of the Israeli desert or the cry of a white tailed sea
eagle soaring above the green mountains overlooking the Sea of Galilee.
Alas, the calls of the White tail eagle and Griffon vulture are getting scarcer
each day. Israeli wolf, Mountain gazelle, Nubian ibex and leopard, to name
a few mammals, as well as half a billion migrating birds that honor us with
their brief presence twice a year, are amongst the many endangered wild
species of the holy land that were trusted in our hands.
Urbanization, pollution, farming, hunting, pesticides and other perils
caused by humans are threatening the mere existence of these magnificent
creatures that roamed our promised land even before Abraham got the keys.
Have we been good guardians to the animals of this land? Or have we
listened to the serpent and are we losing our paradise? Can we still fix
what is nearly broken?
You might imagine that a modern country such as Israel that is well advanced
both in the technological and medical fields would have remedy. And we do.
Modern medicine can provide great help in healing many of the animal
casualties, and rehabilitation experts can return most of them to the wild.
For the unfortunate ones that suffer permanent damage and cannot be
set free, we can still provide proper facilities and include them in monitored
captive breeding programs that will secure a future generation of that species.
Wildlife populations can still be saved and rehabilitated. But who is going
to do that? Previous programs have been shut down due to lack of funding.
"Born to the Wild", The Israeli Wildlife Hospital and Rehabilitation Center,
is a dream about to materialize. Plans have been laid, specialists are at
hand, and veterinarians are available and waiting to rescue precious lives.
We have the knowledge and the motivation to act. We are now operating
on borrowed time and juggling borrowed money, but we cannot do it for
much longer.
In the harsh reality of our small country, resources are limited. There is
always something that seems more urgent to think about and while we
contemplate whether security or education comes first, wildlife populations
are diminishing before our very eyes, never to return. It is now up to
us - people who care. We need your help.
In the past 20 years many Israeli species have become extinct. Never
again will the brown bear, cheetah, Mediterranean monk seal or Mahely's
horseshoe bat be part of Israel's landscape. We don't want to regret more
losses (and wish we had done something while we still could). We want our
children to know nature as we knew it, as our ancestors knew it. We have
a divine legacy and we are obliged to pass it forward.
Like the heroic success of our fellow American rehabilitators in bringing
back the California condor from the brink of extinction, we too could fight
to bring the glorious bounty of biblical wildlife back to the safety zone
and cherish what was trusted into our hands.
We would love to have you aboard as ambassadors, educators, supporters
and members of our society. Together we can make a difference and save
a living part of our heritage. Please, log on to http://www.latevanolad.org.il/
to learn more.
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United
Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.