Judea Magazine, No. 5.1
Hebron Etzion
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"Rebuilding Jewish Life in Judea, Israel"
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JUDEA ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE Vol.5, No.1 Shevat-Adar I 5757/Jan-Feb 1997
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Contents:
* The Helicopter Disaster
* Building Report
* Building Rights in Jerusalem
* Shmuel Meir: Redeeming the Jewish Homeland
* City of David Visitor's Center
* To Paint in Hebron
* Children's Books from Sifriat Beit El
* Whose Flag on Rachel's Tomb?
* Holding on to Carmei Tzur
* Each Generation Builds Jewish History
* The Face of the Cease-Fire: Arab Violence Continues / Palestinian
Police Kidnap JNF Workers / Eyewitness in Hebron, 1929 / A Different Kind
of Sport / Hear What They Say / Did You Know?
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THE HELICOPTER DISASTER
On 4 February 1997, two IDF helicopters carrying 73 soldiers into
Lebanon collided in mid-air over northern Israel. There were no
survivors. The country collectively went into shock. Everywhere you went
you met someone who knew someone who was killed. We saw on TV the
exploding ammunition from the burning helicopters, filled mostly with 20-
year-old soldiers. People on the ground reported hearing cries from the
wreckage, but not a single person survived the intense fire. Some could
only be identified by DNA and dental records because even the tags in
their boots were gone.
The stories of the young men filled the TV and radio -- interviews
with their friends, stories about their special talents and plans. There
were some family men who left wives and children. And there were fiances
and girlfriends whose lives were suddenly changed forever.
Flags were lowered to half mast, movie theaters and restaurants were
closed, and I even saw a memorial candle and flowers at the post office.
Many lit memorial candles at home. The President of Israel, former Air
Force commander Ezer Weizman, vowed to personally visit every home in
mourning during the next week, and he did.
* *
Arutz-7 Radio spoke with Rabbi Mordechai Elon, Head of the Horev
Yeshiva High School and a leading lecturer in Israel:
A7: Rabbi Elon, all day long when we turn on the radio, we hear
crying, and eulogies, and very sad and difficult things. Sometimes they
are even too difficult to bear. Is there a danger that this will hurt
the morale of the country, or of the soldiers in the army, and their
desire to continue?
Rabbi Elon: First of all, our hearts, like everyone's, are charred
and burnt from this terrible loss. I think that the danger that you are
describing does exist, and I am not sure that it is being dealt with
correctly. Unfortunately, we are quite experienced in memorial days and
funerals, not on this scale, but still we have been through this
before....We have to ensure that we do not enter into a state of
depression. I don't think that this will effect the younger soldiers,
because they are involved in "doing," which is greater than all of this
unsupervised mourning. But whoever is not involved in "doing," is
exposed to this all-pervasive media message of sadness and depression,
which is basically a message that there is no continuation. We as Jews
are accustomed to deal with mourning by saying Kaddish - "May G-d's Name
be Magnified and Sanctified" - we strive for greatness while mourning,
not the opposite. We try to find out what we can do to improve the
situation, to turn the bad into good.
A7: It appears that one of the few times that the religious and
secular publics get together is at funerals, when the rabbis and the
members of the burial societies come to help the grieving families. I'm
not sure, though, that the families understand the Kaddish prayer, or the
Psalms that are recited, etc. Do you share this feeling? What can be
done? Should some of the customs be changed a bit so that the ceremony
will be more understood?
Rabbi Elon: I think that nothing needs to be changed, but we must
explain much better. We are all G-d's soldiers, and when one of the army
falls, our thoughts turn immediately upwards, that the name of G-d should
not be diminished, but that it should rather continue to grow and that
G-d's plan for the world should, despite all, come to fruition. When we
say, "May you be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem,"
this does not mean that "misery loves company," but rather that we are
part of a great process and a great nation, and that the mourners should
feel that their private suffering has a broader significance.
The terrible loss being faced by so many families right now, when it
is understood as part of a historic and momentous process - this does not
take away the pain, but it raises it to a different level. The pain
remains tremendous, but there is then the ability to deal with it on a
different level. It could be that our terminology should be improved.
For instance, we needn't say "Let us repent," but rather, "Let's see what
we can do better, what can we improve." I think that there was an awesome
sacrifice made here - 73 of our sons, which has raised up all of us. The
question is how to continue this ascent, how to make it last longer than
just the one or two days of national mourning, how to raise it above just
the outward signs of mourning. I think that the way to do this is by
involving ourselves in constructive actions, to fill in what has been
lost.
Rabbi Chaim Berlin wrote in 1945 in the introduction to the
monumental Talmudic Encyclopedia, "As we learn more and more details of
the terrible holocaust that our people has just undergone, and we learn
that one-third of our people has perished, it is incumbent upon each of
us to be three times the Jew that we were before."
(Arutz 7 News Service, 6 Feb 97)
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BUILDING REPORT
Registration has been opened for 222 housing units to expand Alon
Shvut in Gush Etzion.
In Dec 96, the Ministry of Housing began planning the infrastructure
for 48 new houses in El David. According to the village secretary, 100
sq. meter homes are planned at a price of around $100,000.
Beginning on 1 Feb 97, the new Jewish villages in Judea and Samaria
had their special national priority area status restored, in varying
degrees, reversing the policy of the previous government. Priority Area
A villages in the Etzion Bloc area include: Bat Ayin, Carmei Tzur,
Metzad, Maale Amos, El David, and Tekoa. Priority Area B villages
include Alon Shvut, Elazar, Har Gilo, Kfar Etzion, Migdal Oz, Neve
Daniel, Kedar, and Rosh Tzurim.
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BUILDING RIGHTS IN JERUSALEM
Murray Greenfield
The land in the Ras el-Amud neighborhood of Jerusalem is owned by
Jews who want to build housing. It amazes me to see that there is such
turmoil over Jews building in Jerusalem on land that they own.
I wonder what would happen if there were a group of blacks in the
U.S. who owned land in Washington, D.C., who were told they could not
build because the whites didn't want them to. I venture to say Mr.
Clinton would be the first on the picket line.
(_In Jerusalem_, 3 Jan 97, p. 2)
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SHMUEL MEIR: REDEEMING THE JEWISH HOMELAND
Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Shmuel Meir, 42, was killed by an Arab-
driven truck a few months ago, leaving a wife and 8 children. He was a
champion of the underprivileged and a tireless fighter for the growth of
Jewish Jerusalem.
Meir won Jerusalem Municipality approval, 20-5, including the
support of then Mayor Teddy Kollek, for a Jewish neighborhood on the
Mount of Olives (Ras el Amud). "Why is it all right for Jews to be
buried on the Mount of Olives, but not to live there?," he would ask.
"The entire issue of Jerusalem must be seen in the right
perspective. A hundred years ago, there was nothing. Today, with God's
help, we have a city of over 600,000 people. No one ever guaranteed that
the Jewish People would return to Jerusalem and solve all its problems in
one day. We mustn't lose heart. We should thank God for what we have,
and with His help, there will be more."
He added, "This has been a very good year for acquisition of land,
and we have made some excellent purchases. I hope next year will be as
good. This is one of the miracles that has no rational explanation. If
one has no faith, there is no explanation. The Arabs are selling, and
thank God we have Jews willing to buy, and good transactions are being
made. We must keep this up with everything we have, with all our
strength. We have to buy another building, and yet another house and
carry on projects to build more neighborhoods. I hope that by next year
we will be able to dedicate the neighborhood of Har Homa, and start
building in additional areas where there are no Jews as yet."
(From Yehoshua Mor Yosef, _Nekuda_, reprinted in _Yesha Report_, Feb
97)
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CITY OF DAVID VISITOR'S CENTER
Jacob Dallal
A visitor's center has been opened in the City of David in the
Silwan neighborhood, adjacent to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of
Jerusalem. The center is run by the Elad organization which initiated
the Jewish presence in the neighborhood. The City of David served as the
center of Jerusalem during the First Temple period. Today there are 12
Jewish families living there, as well as a kollel (offering religious
studies for married men) with 30 students.
(_In Jerusalem_, 20 Dec 96, p. 1.)
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Creating in the Eye of the Storm:
TO PAINT IN HEBRON
Orit Buchnik
[In Hebron, in an old house in the Beit Hadassah neighborhood, in a
studio with an arched ceiling, Shmuel Moshnik paints in a tumult of
feelings. The colors are deep, strong, and warm. The drawings are
mostly of places: Hebron, Jerusalem, the Judean Hills. To support
himself and his family, Shmuel (known as Shmulik by his friends) teaches
history and works as a tour guide.]
In the city where Abraham and his son Isaac are buried, recent
events remind us somewhat of the drama of the sacrifice of Isaac. I
would have expected the actors in this drama, imprisoned in a ghetto
surrounded by terror, to be wild-haired fighters arrogantly carrying
around weapons. Instead I met the real soldiers in this battle --
families trying to live a normal life in spite of everything.
Shmulik is surprised that I plan to write about him. He says that
it is hard to describe one form of art through another. He is right: it
is impossible to describe in words the deep, strong and warm colors that
characterize his paintings. The stones which Shmuel Moshnik draws are
stones with character. Each stone renders the magic of Hebron.
His drawings are also influenced by the intense passions of events
as they unfurl here, and they reveal his inner feelings. His paintings
vary but almost all are connected to a place: Jerusalem, Judea, Wadi
Kelt. Almost half of them describe Hebron.
"I am not given to sudden outbursts of feelings or loud arguments.
However, during the past six-seven years rarely a week goes by without my
painting several pictures. After the Oslo Accords, though, I was so
overwhelmed by the depth of betrayal that I did not paint for two
months."
I ask Shmulik how he came to live in Hebron. He answers: "When we
arrived from Russia in 1970, my mother was studying Hebrew in an ulpan
where she met Saraleh Shem-Tov, one of the first settlers in Hebron.
Saraleh invited a group of new immigrants to visit for Shabbat. My
mother was totally impressed. This was the Israel that we had imagined
to ourselves -- people of ideology ready to give of themselves. Because
of that I came to live here in the summer of 1976 and I too fell under
the spell of Hebron and its people."
(From _Nekuda_, January 1997, p. 46)
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CHILDREN'S BOOKS FROM SIFRIAT BEIT EL
Over the years I have bought several books (in Hebrew) from Sifriat
Beit El (Beit El Library) -- most of them for young children. Among our
favorites is Uri Orbach's "Maybe on Shabbat They Will Throw Candies," in
which Orbach describes in rhyme and humor various situations from the
perspective of a young religious boy. Shai Tzarka's illustrations
enliven Orbach's sense of humor. My daughter is waiting for their next
book, due out soon. Another favorite is "Doron and the Tractoron"
written by Sheila Shorshan, the widow of Doron, murdered by Arab
terrorists a few years ago. It tells the story of a young father and his
special relationship with all the children of his small town and how one
day it all ended. We learn how his son, then about eight years old,
deals with the loss of his father. The book, sensitive and well-written,
is enhanced by the beautiful drawings of Kristina Kadmon. Both books
embody very different and very real aspects of life in Israel.
Beit El's catalog is full of possibilities to enrich ones Jewish and
Israeli knowledge, from the story about a Bnei Akiva counsellor to a
volume tracing the history of Gush Emunim, the movement which spearheaded
Jewish settlement in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. All of their publications
are in Hebrew only. Contact Sifriat Beit El at tel: 972-2-997-3073 or by
mail: Sifriat Beit El, D.N. Mizrach Binyamin, Israel.
**********************************************************************
WHOSE FLAG ON RACHEL'S TOMB?
The Tomb of Rachel, greatly respected in Jewish tradition, has stood
on the road between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, in Judea, since the time of
Rachel's death at childbirth with Benjamin. The Torah tells us, "And
Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath....And Jacob set a
pillar upon her grave."(Gen 35:19). Why did Jacob bury Rachel on the road
to Bethlehem? Because he foresaw that the exiles would pass the spot and
that Rachel could beseech God to protect them. A midrash tells how her
son Joseph stopped to pray on his way to exile in Egypt.
Sir Moses Montefiore obtained permission from the Ottoman government
to renovate and expand the Tomb in 1841. After the Holocaust, the Chief
Rabbinate of Israel established an eternal flame at the site for the
millions who perished. The Tomb has always been and continues to be an
important place of Jewish pilgrimage.
The area of Rachel's Tomb is clearly in territory controlled by
Israel, according to the agreements made by the previous government.
There was very specific focus on the place at the time the maps were
being made and the lines were drawn very intentionally to keep Rachel's
Tomb in Israeli hands.
In February, the Arabs demanded the removal of the three Israeli
flags that have flown near Rachel's Tomb for years, because they consider
it a provocation and an insult to their sensibilities. In response,
Israel lowered the flags. MK Benny Elon has requested an explanation.
* *
Kollel students study at Rachel's Tomb every day. On January 2,
1997, a new Sefer Torah was brought for use at the kollel, sponsored by
the Rachel's Children Reclamation Foundation Inc. To assist in the
efforts to protect Rachel's Tomb, please contact the Foundation at the
Manhattan Beach Jewish Center in Brooklyn, New York. (Communicated by
Deborah Haies)
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HOLDING ON TO CARMEI TZUR
The Jewish village of Carmei Tsur in the Etzion Bloc is located
north of Halhoul. The next round of Israeli withdrawals in Judea is to
include the Halhoul area. Efforts are currently underway to assure that
the only access road to Carmei Tsur is not placed under Arab control
after that withdrawal.
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EACH GENERATION BUILDS JEWISH HISTORY
The agreements turning wide areas of the Land of Israel over to
foreign rule, after they had been in Jewish hands for 30 years, raise
many questions about Jewish rights in Eretz Israel. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
of Efrat, commenting on the weekly Torah portion, offers some helpful
insights. On the verse "You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and
how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you unto Myself" (Exodus
19:4), he notes Rashi's interpretation.
All other species of birds use their claws to carry their young
since they need all their wing power to protect them against attack from
more powerful birds. But the eagle, the ruler of the skies, soars over
all his would-be enemies and fears nothing from other birds - for
himself. He is, however, concerned about his young. He bears them upon
his wings so that, if arrows from human beings are directed upwards, he -
the parent - will be wounded or slain, but his young will remain alive.
Our generation may not be able to keep all of the Land, but the task may
be one for future generations.
After all, the Hebrew words for son and daughter are from the same
root as the word for building. Each generation is another floor, another
story, in the building of Jewish history, another link in the golden
chain of Jewish being. Each generation becomes dependent upon the
subsequent generations and all future generations are based upon the
earlier ones.
(From R. Riskin Commentary of 10 Jan 97, courtesy of Root & Branch
Association, rbranch@netmedia.net.il).
***********************************************************************
The Face of the Cease-Fire:
ARAB VIOLENCE CONTINUES
A bomb was planted at an Alon Shvut bus stop. Fortunately, it
injured no one when it blew up. A Bat Ayin resident escaped being
kidnapped by a carload of Arabs. On 19 Feb 97, Arab rockthrowers
attacked the 6 pm bus to Tekoa and El David that passes through Zaatra.
Stone roadblocks were thrown up at least twice that week to damage cars
and expose occupants to more rockthrowing. Similar attacks have been
reported this month on the Halhoul bypass road to Kiryat Arba, where an
Israeli Arab was seriously injured by a rock. It is now more than three
years since the Oslo Peace Accords and after the Hebron Accord. But out
here in the countryside, there is no peace.
***********************************************************************
PALESTINIAN POLICE KIDNAP JNF WORKERS
The Palestinian Police arrested two Arab forestry workers employed
by the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet L'Yisrael), and held them for
2 1/2 days at the Bethlehem police station.
The two had been working on thinning the forest next to Tekoa, which
is in Area C, when they were approached by a group of Arabs, struck, and
then forcibly taken into custody by Palestinian police traveling in a
civilian vehicle, back to the Bethlehem jail.
As soon as the Israeli security services learned of the arrests,
negotiations regarding their release were initiated at the local Israel-
Palestinian Coordination Office, but without success. After prolonged
efforts to free the two, Israeli officers finally threatened to seal off
Bethlehem until the two were released.
This was not the first such kidnapping in the area. Three months
earlier, another Arab who had worked at different Jewish villages in the
Etzion Bloc was kidnapped and held for a few days.
(_Gushpanka_ No. 62, Jan 97, p. 8)
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EYEWITNESS IN HEBRON, 1929
Amir Gilat
Miriam Morris will never forget the terrible childhood memory of the
1929 Hebron massacre. When she was 8 years old, Arab rioters broke into
her family's house with knives and axes in their hands, and began to
slaughter. By instinct, her mother, Avigail, caught her and pushed her
under the bed. Afterward, her mother held on to her younger sister
Deborah, 4, and defended her with all her strength.
"I remember clearly how the door suddenly broke open, how I hid
under the bed with my brother Joseph, 5, and how in front of my eyes I
saw terrible scenes of severed heads and limbs. People attacked us. It
was hell. With terrifying shrieks the Arab rioters slashed and cut the
people." 68 years after that terrible massacre in September 1929, Morris
spoke for the first time about those difficult events.
She was born to Bezalel and Avigail Lazerovsky. In 1923, when she
was 2, her family moved to Hebron. Their home included dormitories for
students at the Knesset Israel Yeshiva.
Miriam remembers the day before the massacre very well. "We felt
the tension. That Friday wasn't like any other Friday before. As
children, we noticed strange things. We didn't put on pajamas but went
to sleep in our clothes. Before morning, they woke us up and told us to
go to Eliezer Slonim's house, who was a well-connected man. The idea was
that his house would protect us."
"When we got there we saw two policemen standing next to the house.
The scene I remember is of many people standing and praying and suddenly
someone shouted, 'The policemen have disappeared.' Then I heard pistol
shots and people ran to the rooms. My father and a few other people
stood by the door and tried to keep it from opening. My brother and I
stood next to Mother, who was holding Deborah, and then she pushed us
under the bed."
"Then the Arabs burst into the room with their knives and axes. I
remember myself looking out from under the bed and seeing above me the
face of an Arab with an orange turban holding a knife. After all the
cries and shouts of the rioters came a moment of quiet. And then the
cries and shouts of the wounded began. I crawled out and heard cries for
water. I went to look for water and returned to the room. Next to the
bed I saw my mother lying still, covered with blood. Next to her I saw
Deborah with her head half severed. After a while a truck arrived with
police who began to take away the dead, wounded and survivors."
In the riots in which 70 Jews were killed, Miriam lost her father,
her grandfather who had chosen to visit them that Shabbat, one of her
aunts, and her sister Deborah. Miriam still possesses her father's
official death certificate. According to the Hebron Police, he was
"killed in disturbances." "That's what they called what happened there,"
says Miriam.
Miriam's mother was brought after the massacre to the mortuary of
the Neviim St. hospital in Jerusalem. She was unconscious and everyone
believed she was dead. One of her sisters worked at the time at Hadassah
hospital, which was put on alert immediately after the massacre became
known. But the British refused to allow the wounded to be brought to
Hadassah. The sister feared that something had happened to her family
members and went looking for them. When she arrived at the mortuary at
the Neviim hospital, she found Miriam's mother. She looked at her and
refused to accept that she was dead. "She went to the nearby market,
found two porters, and told them to come with her to the hospital with a
stretcher, to steal a body from the mortuary. They brought her to
Hadassah where it was revealed that Mother was still alive. She was in
hospital for a year and then once again rose to her feet."
Miriam's other grandfather and grandmother were saved during the
slaughter. They rented the second floor of a house owned by an Arab who
lived on the first floor. When the riots began, he stood in the doorway
and blocked the rioters from entering. "There were many Jews in Hebron
who were saved by Arabs. Not all the Arabs in Hebron are murderers."
"Let it be clear," Miriam concludes, "Jews have a right to live in
Hebron. Jews were there thousands of years before, and they get to
fulfill their right."
(_Maariv_ Shabbat, 24 Jan 97, p. 12)
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A DIFFERENT KIND OF SPORT
Arafat has appointed the newly-released murderess of Ofra resident
Tzvi Klein as Director of the PLO Authority Youth and Sport Department
(SNS News Service, 18 Feb 97)
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HEAR WHAT THEY SAY
The editor of the Palestinian Authority daily _Al-Hayat Al- Jadida_,
Hafiz Al-Barghuti, in an editorial from 30 September 1996, reacts to the
reinforcement of arms and IDF military preparations in the territories
following the events of September 26, 1996: "If they shell Nablus...we
will be in the heart of Tel Aviv...and if they attack Ramallah...they
will find us in Petah Tikva...if they destroy a [single] village - no
settlement will survive. There will be destruction and massacre, and
great disaster will befall us and them..."
* *
The Palestinian news daily _Al-Nahar_ published the following
statement in Jerusalem on 5 September 1996: "The Palestinian Legislative
Council, in its twentieth conference, which convened on the morning of
the 4th of September 1996 in Ramallah, discussed the American aggression
against our sister state, Iraq."
* *
Arafat's Address to Palestinian Police in Gaza - 24 Sept 96
(Just prior to the shooting which killed 16 Israeli soldiers)
Policemen: Our soul and blood we'll give for you, Abu Ammar!
Arafat: For thee, Palestine. For thee, Palestine! I say, oh my
noble brothers, our noble martyrs, rest in peace and be
confident. Our blood is a small price to pay for the
cause that brought us together.
Policemen: On with martyrdom, no to subjugation!
(From Israeli & Global News, 22 Oct 96, http://www.emet.com)
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DID YOU KNOW?
...that the symbol on the flag of the PLO contains the image of ALL the
territory of Israel, which it claims for itself, not just Judea and
Samaria ("West Bank").
...that PLO spokesman Farouk Kadoumi stated: "The two-country compromise
-- a Palestinian State next to Israel -- is only a milestone on the way
to the destruction of Israel." (_Boston Globe_, 1990).
(Excerpted from Israel Information Service (IIS) pamphlet, P.O. Box
1874, Jerusalem)
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JUDEA Magazine is a bi-monthly electronic magazine produced and
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of Jewish life in a tiny and unique corner of civilization. Mail
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