Thursday, March 14, 2024

Superhero lullaby

This is the song we have on repeat in our home at the moment. I'm sure many of you have already seen it. Due to the war our town has decided to cancel the annual Purim parade. Instead our younger children's school is having its own mini-Purim event and their class have decided that they want to perform this song as a thank you to all the school staff and families (including the headmaster himself) who dropped everything on October 7 and went off to reserve army duty to quite literally defend their homes and families.

For our young kids this song is their lived reality. These "superheroes" are their teachers, their friends' parents and siblings, school staff and neighbours.

Their school has taken in Israeli children from the north and the Gaza border who've been made refugees in their own country. They've heard first hand from these children about what it's like to live on the border with Lebanon in recent months under Hizballah bombardment, what it was like to be a child in Sderot or a nearby moshav on October 7 hiding with family in a shelter, praying the roaming Hamas gunmen wouldn't find them.

And they understand the response of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Israelis who left their regular lives as bus drivers, teachers, restaurant owners and lawyers, threw on a uniform and went off to defend all of us. They ask to watch this video over and over again because it is a great reassuring comfort to them, to know that we have a "people's army" of the mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and neighbours and teachers who have gone out to protect them, people who are doers and helpers, people who are doing all they can to keep them and all the children of Israel safe.

I know there are those who say "see, all Israelis are soldiers, you all deserve to die!" (yes, that is a quote from a "friend" who was at university with me) If you don't believe we have the right as a people to defend ourselves then I guess that might be the way you view this song.

If on the other hand you believe that Israelis and Jews have the right to self-defense against murderous terrorists who make no pretense of their desire to annihilate us and wipe our country off the map, then this song is one of reassurance. In some countries they sing lullabies and tell children stories about imaginary monsters and things that go bump in the night. Our children know that there are real monsters right on our borders and that sometimes the thing that goes bump in the night is real too. This song and the real life heroes it is about is the comforting lullaby for all Israel's children that there are flesh and blood superheroes out there every day protecting them.

Wednesday, March 06, 2024

Alive!!!

 



If any Israeli song is due for revival in our difficult times, it’s this one.

This is Ofra Haza performing "Hai" (Alive) and winning Israel's nomination for the 1983 Eurovision song contest held that year in Munich, Germany.

She went on to be first runner-up at that year's Eurovision competition, and the song has ever since been an Israeli and Jewish anthem of hope, survival and resilience.

The Eurovision competition was held that year in Munich, Germany, a location fraught with painful associations for Jews and Israelis, from its central role in Nazi era Germany to the 1972 massacre of eleven Israeli athletes by the Palestinian Black September terror organisation when the city hosted the Olympic games. 


In 1983 First Lebanon War was raging, as after years of constant rocket attacks and terror assaults launched into northern Israel by Yasser Arafat's PLO in southern Lebanon, Israel tried to restore security to the residents of northern Israel, whose children were growing up spending as much time in communal bomb shelters as their own homes. 

Meanwhile, the Cold War was also still in play. In the Soviet Union, growing numbers of Jews risked everything to live as cultural and religious Jews, fighting for the right to learn and speak Hebrew, the right to observe their Jewish faith, and most of all the right to emigrate to the Jewish homeland in Israel.

Many of these brave Jewish activists in the totalitarian Soviet Union were at the time sitting in prisons in Soviet cities and the infamous Siberian prison camps. Others had been fired from their jobs and labeled "parasites" for not working, a designation that often led to arrest. Soviet Jewry's struggle was alluded to in Ofra Haza's fierce celebration of Jewish life and survival, especially the line: "my sons seeking to return home".

Here are the deeply symbolic lyrics Ofra Haza sang (my translation):

Hear, my brothers,

I'm still alive!

And my two eyes are still raised towards the light


I’ve many thorns

Yet many flowers

And ahead of me too many years to count


I ask,

And I pray:

It's good that we have not yet lost our hope


A hymn passes

Through generations

Like a spring that flows eternal


Alive, alive, alive

Yes I'm still alive

That's the song my grandfather

Sang yesterday to my father

And today I’m still 


I'm still alive, alive, alive

The nation of Israel is alive 

That's the song my grandfather

Sang yesterday to my father

And today I’m still


My days are busy (alive, alive)

As are my nights (alive, alive)

And in my skies the pillar of fire still rises


I'll always sing: alive, alive!

And I'll reach out: alive, alive!

To my friends from over the seas 


I ask...

Alive, alive...


Listen my brothers,

I'm still alive!

And my two eyes are still raised towards the light 


So welcome

To all my guests

And to my sons seeking to return home


I ask...

Alive, alive...


Alive! I'm still alive, alive, alive!!!


שמעו אחי,

אני עוד חי

ושתי עיני עוד נישאות לאור.


רבים חוחי

אך גם פרחי

ולפני שנים רבות מספור.


אני שואל

ומתפלל

טוב שלא אבדה עוד התקווה.


עובר מזמור

מדור לדור,

כמעיין מאז ועד עולם


אני שואל...


חי, חי, חי

כן, אני עוד חי.

זה השיר שסבא

שר אתמול לאבא

והיום אני.


אני עוד חי, חי, חי,

עם ישראל חי.

זה השיר שסבא

שר אתמול לאבא

והיום אני.


הומים ימי חי חי

ולילותי חי חי

ובשמי עמוד האש עוד קם.


אשיר בלי די, חי חי

אפרוש ידי חי חי

לידידי אשר מעבר ים.


אני שואל...

חי, חי, חי...


שמעו אחי,

אני עוד חי

ושתי עיני עוד נישאות לאור.


אז כה לחי

לכל אורחי

ולבני המבקשים לחזור.


אני שואל...


Sunday, March 03, 2024

Let my people come home!


Watching all the back and forth diplomacy as though the 134 hostages are just balls in a ping pong game for Hamas and Qatar, and yes, the UN and the US and the EU and our supposed "allies" to play with. Tools to beat Israel with. Weapons of diplomacy to force Israel to choose in a sick trolley problem.

Even if we don't personally know these 134 Israel hostages they are our people, our family. And we want them home now safe and well.

And the message shouldn't be "bring them home", like if only Israel wanted it enough it could happen. Their freedom is a choice of the bad guys who invaded our country and kidnapped our people and are holding them hostage. The message has to be "Let my people go!!" - Hamas and co who kidnapped them have to release them, let them go, no terms.

Hamas are criminals who kidnapped children, women and men, young and old, and carried them off to Gaza like chattel, paraded them in Gaza as booty, as spoils of war, as "things", just because they were Israeli. They poured over the Israeli border and stole vehicles and livestock - and people, living and dead.

It is on Hamas to let the hostages go, and that is the message Hamas should be hearing from Qatar and Egypt and the US, the UN, the EU, the British and every nation in the world which considers itself a decent member of the family of nations. Not that our hostages are pawns to be toyed with. Not that Israel has to give and take. Not that Israel should be forced to choose between letting Hamas regroup to mount another October 7 or getting the hostages released. Let my people go. Now.

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Give me shelter



On the face of it many Israelis have returned to some kind of regular routine despite the war situation, but we are a nation in trauma, PTSD nation in a way that many outsiders don't understand or don't even see.

The Hamas attack on October 7th twisted so many things which should be safe in to things which are now dangerous.

Like the way that the public shelters you see in many places in Israel, especially near the Gaza border, which should be symbols of safety, set up all over to protect from the threat of Gaza rockets, were turned in to death traps by Hamas on October 7th.

As part of the Hamas invasion on that terrible Shabbat they fired massive numbers of rockets from Gaza in to Israel and people logically ran for cover to these public shelters, especially the hundreds and hundreds of people caught out in the open at the Nova dance festival.

And then the terrorists came and threw grenades in to the shelters full of civilians sheltering from the rockets. And fired RPGs in to shelters full of civilians seeking safety from the rockets. And fired kalashnikovs and M16s in to the shelters full of civilians seeking sanctuary. From places of safety these open public shelters became death traps where Hamas murdered and maimed hundreds of people.

Today for millions of Israelis these public shelters, many painted in cheerful colours or decorated with murals, are a symbol of the October 7th massacres.

Drive down to the Gaza border area in the weeks and months after that horrific day and you'll still see these shelters lining the roadsides where Hamas terrorists rampaged. Many of the happy bright murals adorning the stark concrete are pockmarked with bullet holes and shrapnel.

By the open entrances notices have been hung up indicating that this shelter has been cleared by Zaka, the volunteer organisation that ensures the respectful burial of the dead and any body parts or tissue left behind after a terror attack (or other disaster). Cryptic marking indicate whether and how many dead were found at this site.   

These open public rocket shelters are a constant reminder of what Hamas did to us, the cynical way they turned would should have been a sanctuary in to a death trap.

Each time we walk by a shelter like this. Every time we pass one on the road. The sight of one outside a hospital or by a bus stop.

They are a constant reminder of the evil atrocities Hamas perpetrated against our people that terrible day.

Most of the time the shelters I see like this are (in local terms) are nowhere near the scenes of carnage in the Gaza border areas. In the first couple of months of the war many areas of central Israel were under daily rocket bombardment too. Open public shelters like these were set up near bus stops and public areas in towns like 

A friend recently wrote about how during a visit to a local zoo with her grandchildren it started to rain. The children excitedly ran to what looked like an artificial cave but turned out to be a disguised rocket shelter. She couldn't bring herself to go in. Better to get drenched in the rain than revisit the nightmare of the public shelters of October 7th. 

Since that day there are many Israelis too traumatised by the shelter massacres to even take cover in one of these from rockets. A friend who's relatives were at the Nova festival tells me that she'd rather take her chances lying on the ground out in the open but able to run if need be than enclosed in the concrete of what was once a sanctuary but now a symbol of Hamas mass murder. 

Saturday, February 10, 2024

שלח את עמי Let my people go


I will never forget the day Prisoner of Zion Natan Sharansky was freed. Our entire small primary school gathered in the big hall, crowding around a small television on a rickety trolley watching this moving event live as this great man of short stature walked to freedom.


We all grew up with the struggle for Soviet Jewry an integral part of our lives. Our parents, family, rabbis and teachers travelled to the USSR to smuggle Jewish religious texts, vital medicines and clandestine tapes with recordings of Hebrew lessons. We wrote letters to Soviet Jewish children our ages and hoped that they would make it past the Soviet censors.

On Shabbat and festivals, especially at the Pesah seder, our tables always had an empty chair or more, waiting for our brother and sisters trapped behind the Iron Curtain. We had special prayers for their freedom, that one day they would be able to join us. 

That day in February on the little tv screen we were watching the realisation of our dreams and our prayers, one of the greatest heroes of our generation walking to freedom, a walking embodiment of our hope that one day all the Jews stuck in the Soviet Union would also go free and fill the chairs waiting for them at our Shabbat tables. 

That day is engraved on my memory, a formative experience in my childhood. A real life struggle of Jews held captive by an evil tyrannical regime. With every yellow chair I see, every hostage poster, remind me of those hopes and prayers: LET MY PEOPLE GO! May we merit to welcome them home to freedom very very soon. 





תמיד אזכור את יום השחרור של אביך. אספו את כל בית הספר והצטופפנו באולם הגדול סביב לטלוויזיה הקטנה וכולנו ציפינו בלייב ברגע המרגש הזה. גדלנו לתוך המאבק למען יהודי ברית המועצות, עם הורים ומורים שהיו נוסעים לשם כדי להבריח ספרי קודש, תרופות חיוניות וקלטות ללימוד עברית, ובשבת ובליל הסדר תמיד היה כסא רק, מחכה לאחינו יהודי ברית המועצות והיו תפילות מיוחדות שיום אחד הם יצאו לחופשי ויצטרפו אלינו. והנה על הטלוויזיה רואים את אחד הגיבורים של דורנו יוצא לחופשי, התגשם חלום ותפילה, תקווה מהלכת שיום אחד כולם יצאו לחופשי למלא את הכסאות המחכים להם ליד שולחן החג. זה חרוט אצלי בזכרון לעד וכל כסא צהוב וכל פוסטר של חטוף מזכירים לי את אותה התקווה ותפילה: שלח את עמי!

Thursday, February 08, 2024


I was volunteering in a picturesque citrus orchard yesterday picking clementines with some friends, our attempt to help our country during wartime. Suddenly a mobile phone rang out. One of the women sat down on a plastic crate under the shade of a tree heavy with fruit and cheerfully answered her daughter's call. I stepped away to give her privacy but even from a distance I could see body language that told of bad news. Tragically we have all become too used to that in recent months. It was the news about the passing of Hanan Drori, a friend of her son-in-law.

Three Israeli soldiers from the small town of Psagot who fell during the war: Amihai Witzan z"l and Moshe Yedidya Raziel z"l, were killed defending kibbutz Kerem Shalom during the Hamas invasion on October 7th, saving the kibbutz residents from being massacred like so many of their neighbours.

Hanan Drori z"l died this week after he was seriously injured in northern Gaza during December. His wounds were infected with a virulent fungus, and despite attempting innovative new treatments doctors were unable to save him.

Amihai was Yedidya's counselor in the Bnei Akiva youth group. Yedidya was Hanan's counselor. All three were counselors at the local Bnei Akiva group in Psagot. Three generations of brave Zionist leaders who fell in defence of Israel. May we be worthy of their sacrifice.

Monday, February 05, 2024

A few friends from overseas have said to me recently, why doesn't Israel just capitulate, free all the Hamas terrorists (and yes, they are terrrorists, people with gallons of Israeli blood on their hands from bombings, stabbings, shootings and more) and end that war in Gaza, enough already, it's just a tool for Netanyahu and his right wing government to stay in power. 

The thing is it isn't. If you're overseas maybe you've already forgotten October 7th and moved on. Here in Israel we haven't. 

This really isn't a left right issue, a religious secular issue, a liberal versus conservative issue or a moderate versus extreme issue. This is a mainstream across the board issue of a nation still deep in trauma from the massacre of October 7th. For us it isn't February, it is the 120th October and counting. We have not moved on. Our people are still hostages in the tunnels of Gaza. Thousands of Israelis from towns and villages in the Gaza border are still refugees in their own country. Hamas is still sitting pretty in Qatar acting as though it has the upper hand and gleefully reminding us that it's already working on the next October 7th style attacks. 

This is not about "revenge" on Hamas for October 7th. This is about making sure Hamas is dismantled so that it can never do it again. This is about Israel's survival and protecting Israeli lives.

This war is a long way from being won and to see not just Israel's enemies but her supposed "friends" and "allies" trying to force a ceasefire before the goal of eliminating the Hamas war machine and infrastructure has been achieved is a sign that either they don't understand what is at stake for Israel or that they simply don't care, prepared to sacrifice yet more Israeli lives and possibly Israel itself for their own illusion of quiet. 

So the hostge deal and with it Hamas' outrageous demands are being pushed harder and harder on Israel. Release convicted blood thirsty Hamas terrorists serving multiple life sentences from Israel's jails, impose a ceasefire in Gaza, withdraw Israeli forces. 

There are a great many Israelis, including liberal, progressive Israelis, including families of hostages, including a great many soldiers and reservists, who are very worried about releasing Hamas terrorists in exchange for hostages, who are furious at the prospect of a deal which means a ceasefire, granting Hamas the reward they wanted for the atrocities of October 7th - the release of their murderous terrorists and their brutal regime intact to commit a rerun.

I've been to shiva after shiva after shiva after shiva, where tearful parents and spouses entreat whomever will listen: let the IDF finish the job, don't give Hamas a victory, don't give them a reward for what the did on October 7th, don't let our family's sacrifice have been in vain, don't leave Gaza without destroying Hamas, without getting the murderers who planned and carried out October 7th, don't give Hamas the reward of releasing more murderers (including the Nukhba squads who carried out October 7th) to murder more Israelis.