Media Releases – December 1997
December 1997
December 3, 1997 The Children of Karmei Tsur
December 3, 1997 A Formula For National Suicide
December 10, 1997 The “Soiling” of the “Magic Carpet”
December 11, 1997 Protest Rally
December 17, 1997 Jewish Leaders Must Extract A Moral Thorn by Anne Roiphe
December 17, 1997 LET MY BROTHER GO !!!!
December 19, 1997 Letter to Jonathan Pollard
December 29, 1997 We Are Our Own Worst Enemies
December 29, 1997 Hanukkah 5758
December 31, 1997 Why Israel Is So Special
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Jerusalem, December 3, 1997
The Children of Karmei Tsur
Karmei Tsur is located in Judea, in the heartland of
Biblical Israel. The Media. and those who have
abandoned the concept of pioneering in Israel, would
disdainfully label it a “settlement.” By so designating
it, in their eyes there would be no care or concern for
the fate of its Jews.
Yet there is much to be concerned about: i.e. the
welfare of these heroic “settlers” and their children.
Particularly is this true nowadays when there is so much
pressure on Israel from America and Europe to make
further sizable withdrawals from Judea and Samaria, and
to give over to Arafat, segments of what was always a
part of historic Israel. The harmful consequence of
additional withdrawals can no longer be disregarded.
The very lives of Jews living in these areas, if and
when the army were to leave would be placed in serious
danger. That danger can no longer be disregarded. The
proponents of an IDF pullback have heretofore had an
unsatisfactory pat and simplistic answer to protesters:
“No sacrifice is too great in order to attain peace.”
But there’s the rub! There isn’t the slighest chance that
such withdrawal will lead to peace. The contrary is true.
It will lead to further attacks on Jews who will be left
without even the loose security they now receive from the
army. The surrounding Arab populace has a long track record
of being antagonistic to the Jews. As bitter experience has
shown, nearby Arab villages would breed and harbor terrorists,
particularly where there are no longer any restraints that
exist because our army would no longer be on the scene.
Women In Green, as part of their November monthly tour,
traveled to Karmei Tsur. Unless you personally were on the
winding route leading to the area where Karmel Tsur is located,
you cannot fully comprehend the bravery of its Jewish residents.
Unfriendly Arabs virtually surround their community. The past
practice of Arafat glorifying terrorists, holding them up as
heroes and martyrs, actually encouraged Arab violence against
Jews. Arafat believes that violence is an effective tool, and
will cause Jews to abandon areas he demands to have. Such an
approach applies not only to Judea and Samaria, but to all of
Israel as well. Peace is not possible with a “peace-partner”
whose self-acknowledged hero is Sadaam Hussein.
The children of Karmei Tsur were adorable. We distributed toys
to them that American Friends of Women In Green had gathered from
contributors abroad, for children of such communities. How the
children loved these toys, and how appreciative they were. It
virtually brought tears to our eyes. It was not difficult to
foresee that these children would grow up to be proud and
vigilant fighters for Israel; armed with their magnificent
Heritage, they would be our future protectors. At the same time
they would be humane, and considerate of others, as their
Tradition teaches them to be. We must not abandon these children
by further army withdrawals from this area. These children are
our future, and we owe them adequate security, and a chance for
meaningful growth and survival in their Biblical homeland.
Ruth and Nadia Matar
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Jerusalem, December 3, 1997
A Formula For National Suicide
Forget about nationalistic feelings! Don’t
give a second thought to the Lord’s Promises of this
Land to the Jewish People as explicitly set forth in the
Book of Books. Pay no attention to the history of
your People and the holy and ancient ties it has always
had with the “Land of Israel.” Just from the elementary
consideration of survival, it is sheer madness to
contemplate giving up any further land to someone whose
unchanged program it is to destroy you.
Someone who has materially failed to honor
its outstanding obligations under an Agreement, yet
insists, notwithstanding, that you carry out your end
of the bargain. Someone who has allowed murderers of
Jews to find a safe haven in the territories now
under its domain, and protects these killers from
being punished.
Someone who to this very day propagandizes
and educates its followers to destroy Israel, and
that includes Tel Aviv as well as Jerusalem. No
People on this Earth, under such circumstances, would
even contemplate giving up any portion of Land now under
its possession and control, to such an enemy, under
the maniacal guise that this is being done to bring
peace to this area.
That is why Women In Green demonstrated outside
the Prime Minister’s Office when the members of his
Cabinet held their meeting there on Sunday, November 30,
1997. Their message to those Ministers who are responsible
for our People’s survival and well being was simple: “Not
One Inch.”
Ruth and Nadia Matar
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Jerusalem, December 10, 1997
The “Soiling” of the “Magic Carpet”
The Israeli Media is making a hey-day out of the
fact that Tsila Levine, the Yemenite child cruelly
separated from her parents practically at birth, and now
grown up, does not have the same DNA count as her
purportedly newly found mother. What is shocking is the
media’s complete shift away from the central question
involved in the whole tragic Yemenite Story, which is
the need for a full, truthful and accurate account of
what happened to Tsila shortly after she was born to
Yemenite parents.
There are unfortunately many, many Tsilas in this
pathetic Yemenite story. Whether Tsila or any one of
the adopted Yemenite children, who were torn away from
their biological parents by illegal means, managed to
finally be re-united with their real parents, is
certainly of human interest and newsworthy. It does
not, however, change the importance of the underlying,
more important aspect of the problem, and that is: “Who
was responsible for these heartless and wrongful acts of
kidnapping children from their natural parents in the
first place? Who was involved in handing them over for
wrongful adoption?”
This widespread shameful process of virtually
kidnapping Yemenite children took place shortly after
the arrival of Yemenite Jews in large numbers in Israel
in the early 1950s. Their arrival was heralded in the
world press as “Operation Magic Carpet” and occurred by
means of an exciting and romantic airlift of Yemenite
Jews to Israel from the Arab State of Yemen, where they
had been sorely oppressed and lived under abominable
economic, political and social conditions. However,
even under such a deplorable situation, it was never
reported that their children were stolen from them by
the Arabs. That abominable act, ironically, was one
which the Labor Government was to orchestrate.
George Klein is the Director of the Interior
Ministry’s Removal Archives. On September 16, 1996, he
testified before a State Commission of Inquiry
investigating the disappearance of Yemenite children.
His testimony was that all adoptive files are kept in a
safe room to which only he has access, and is guarded by
the GSS. Privately, it is reported, that he later said
that under orders from certain personnel of the GSS,
precise lists of names and adoption files were secretly
destroyed in or about 1989, when a hullabaloo was being
publicly raised about the disappearance of Yemenite
babies. The true facts, and the ramifications thereof,
the old Labor Guard will not allow to come to light. Is
the Media’s actions deliberate in obfuscating a real
investigation into this matter? Are they distracting the
public from the real issues of the missing Yemenite
children by blowing out of all proportion the DNA
reports of Tsila’s reported failure to reunite with her
real family? Listen tonight at 9 P.M. to the Women In
Green’s Hour Radio Show on 97.3 FM for further details!
Ruth and Nadia Matar
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Jerusalem, December 11, 1997
Protest Rally
The Women in Green call upon all Yesha residents and Yesha
supporters to join the rally organized by the Shomron communities
against the second redeployment (withdrawal), this coming Sunday,
December 14, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm in front of the Prime Minister’s
office.
Davka now, when it seems almost clear that the government intends
to go ahead with the suicidal abandonment of our homeland and thus
strangle some 25 yishuvim in a sea of Arab terror, we have to go out
to the streets and show solidarity with our brothers and sisters in
distress.
It is tragic enough that Rabbi Ovadia Yossef came out today calling
for the implementation of the further abandonment of our homeland to
terrorists (I guess that this was the price he had to pay in order to
get his expensive car back after it was stolen and found in the PA)-
even INSIDE Yesha there are Jews and among them Rabbis who would
not abandon their own yishuv – but have no qualms volunteering their
fellow Jews of smaller yishuvim to “redeploy.”
NOW is the time for the national camp to show solidarity and come out
to the defense of all the smaller yishuvim – Beit-El, Itamar, Yizhar,
Carmel, Maon and others.
I hope all large yishuvim such as Efrat, Alon Shvut, Ariel, Karnei Shomron
etc. will join the protest rally on Sunday. Besides the yishuvim in Yesha,
we expect of course the settlers from Tel Aviv, Haifa, Be’er Sheva
and Jerusalem to join!
If this country could be closed down by the Histadrut because of some
monetary matters – hasn’t the time come to close down the country
when they are tearing our homeland into pieces??
When will we understand what King Solomon understood long ago
in the famous story: that the real mother is the one who refused to
cut her baby in two. Our cherished homeland is not to be cut in pieces
nor is it to be given over to strangers.
YOU CAN DO 2 THINGS:
1) Come on Sunday and bring at least 5 friends (urge them to also
bring friends)
2) Fax Ariel Sharon who is the one drawing maps and tell him:
NOT ONE INCH !!
Remind him he regretted having participated in Yamit-
We will not accept a second apology for Yesha!!
His phone: 03/6388113/4
or: 02/6753231/85
fax: 03/6388115
Each fax and phone call counts!
Nadia Matar
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The New York Observer, December 17, 1997
Jewish Leaders Must Extract A Moral Thorn
by Anne Roiphe
Phil Baum, Abraham Foxman, Robert Rifkin and all the members of the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations: You
cannot push this away forever. Jonathan Pollard is on our consciences,
giving us collective and private nightmares, and you know it. There is a
growing swell of concern and anxiety in the community. Rabbi Avi Weiss’
recent request for a religious court suit against the Conference of
Presidents, Rabbi Irving Greenberg’s statement in Mr. Pollard’s defense
that “Enough is enough” and Elie Wiesel’s “Now is the time for human
compassion” confirm the rising sentiment in the community, one whispered
even in the corridors of all the major Jewish organizations, that Mr.
Pollard has become a moral thorn deep in our hearts.
The leadership is telling us it doesn’t matter that this man who spied
for Israel was given a life sentence without parole, a punishment far
greater than that given men and women who have spied for America’s
allies. Jonathan Pollard has been in prison for 12 years, often in
isolation. We ordinary Jews who do not run organizations and are not
privy to the complicated political balancing of truth against deception
cannot see why our leadership does not call out for equal justice under
the law in this case.
In America, thousands of murderers and child molesters are released
after a few years in prison, but a man who was both conflicted and
passionate in his loyalty, who did what he thought was right for a
country he loved, who admits his guilt, is still behind bars without
hope for freedom. Why is this? Jews at first were frightened by the
dual-loyalty accusation. It seemed bad for all the Jews in the State
Department. It seemed particularly to frighten or shamen our leadership
that a Jew had betrayed America. But would the Irish community be
embarrassed if it was one of theirs trying to defend Ireland? Are Jews
in America still so fragile and defensive? Why was Defense Secretary
Caspar Weinberger so vindictive? Was he afraid of something Mr. Pollard
might reveal about the other secrets the United States was keeping from
Israel, or did he just loathe him for his defiance or for his
Jewishness? This we will never know, but what we do know is that
American justice has turned to vengeance in the Pollard case, and that
we cannot ignore. It endangers us as American citizens. It shames us as
American citizens.
America should have given whatever Israel needed over the table. I am
surprised that the Jewish leadership did not loudly protest State
Department unfriendliness to a friend in jeopardy. Maybe there is a good
reason for that decorum. Maybe they didn’t want to rock the
international boat. Maybe they were too timid or maybe not. But the fact
is that Mr. Pollard, a real human being who believed he was acting in
Israel’s best interests, has been squeezed between the big players and
is suffering on and on, his life mutilated.
It is like watching an awful accident in slow motion. Mr. Pollard lies
beneath the wheels of politicians: our own leadership, the State
Department, the Israelis who are watching out for their own hides. And
we the Jewish public know that this is not right. I have heard the
argument that Mr. Pollard is expendable for the good of the community.
But Jews do not sacrifice our own. The good of the community must rest
where it always has in America: on equal application of the law, and on
our faith in our personal and communal dignity being equal to that of
all other citizens.
Jonathan Pollard has expressed remorse. He shouldn’t have spied on the
United States, even if he thought he was protecting our beloved, and he has
paid a high price for his deed. I have been asked if he is crazy, as if a
positive answer would alter the justice issue. He is no crazier than anyone else
would be in his circumstances. I have heard people complain that they don’t
like his second wife or they don’t like his friends. I have heard rumors, untrue,
that he spied for China or for money. This is a man with many enemies, all of
whom want the rest of us to stop mentioning his name. But we can’t stop
because, as his incarceration continues, he becomes a special kind of tragic
political prisoner. Abe Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, you are a
man of courage and honor. Jonathan Pollard should be your cause because you
understand that if he can be crumpled up and thrown away, so can I and
so can the rest of us. Mr. Baum, the executive director of the American Jewish
Congress, has said there is no issue of anti-Semitism in the Pollard case. Maybe we
haven’t found the smoking gun, but most of us believe that in some way this unequal
treatment, this odd matter of why Israel didn’t already have the
information Mr. Pollard gave them, is related to anti-Semitism. Today, Mr. Pollard
has no information that is not old news. He is no threat today to our State
Department or to Israel’s Mossad. He is just a man locked up too long.
He is not Dreyfus. He did do what he is accused of doing. Nevertheless, there
is an echo of the Dreyfus affair, a sense that one man should not be singled
out for such severe punishment, an aura that evokes in us memories of other Jews
unjustly jailed or lynched. We cannot be calm when there is even a hint
of anti-Semitism rising from our courts. Wishing the hints away, Mr. Baum,
does not convince us that all is well in our republic. And the same goes for
Mr. Rifkin, president of the American Jewish Committee.
I agree that the Jewish community has many pressing issues on its table.
It always has. It always will. Jonathan Pollard is just one man, and
some among us think that is reason enough to ignore his plight. But it
doesn’t work that way. We are who we are because of how we respond to
those of our own who need our help. We do not ignore the hungry or the
desperate because they are powerless. So, too, we cannot ignore Jonathan
Pollard sitting in jail and listening to the steel bars slam again and
again.
The Jewish leadership has a chance here to show our young people that we
have ideals and principles, even when it’s difficult, when it appears
that we are making ourselves unpopular. This is one issue in Jewish life
that is not of the right or the left, the Orthodox or the secular. It
brings us together and reminds us that we are one people, both
vulnerable and strong. We will keep our covenant by standing together.
We need to let our young people know that we will not allow ourselves to
be singled out for especially harsh treatment, and that whatever went on
in the State Department that put Israel’s survival at risk we do not
accept as normal. This is a matter in which noise is required. Such is
politics in the real world. Everyone who cares must speak up. The Jewish
leaders may one day respond to their constituency.
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Jerusalem, December 17, 1997
LET MY BROTHER GO !!!!
The Women in Green call upon everybody to join our Hannuka
letter campaign for Jonathan Pollard. We want Jonathan to be
bombarded over the next few weeks with thousands of letters
of support and affection.
We call upon all of you to spread his address (see below) and
convince your family, friends and congregation to do the same.
We have been in touch with the Israeli Education Ministry today
suggesting that all Israeli schoolchildren should also join
in this campaign. The idea was welcomed and we hope they will get
their act together to organize it. Parents of children should
turn to their children’s school and try to organize it on their
own.
Simultaneously we call upon everybody to write Prime Minister
Netanyahu and demand that he does everything for Jonathan’s release.
Address:
JONATHAN POLLARD # 09185-016
P.O.BOX 1000
BUTNER NC
USA 27509-1000
Jonathan and Esther Pollard website:
www.interlog.com/~abrooke/jp
———————————————————————
PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU
Office of the Prime Minister
Jerusalem
ISRAEL
Ruth and Nadia Matar
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Jerusalem, December 19, 1997
Jonathan Pollard # 09185-016
P.O.B. 1000
Butner, NC 27509- 1000, U.S.A.
Dear Jonathan,
On our Wednesday evening radio show in English and again on our
Thursday morning show in Hebrew on Arutz 7, we urged our audience
to write to you for Hanukkah. We also urged them simultaneously
to write to Prime Minister Netanyahu on your behalf.
It is a long delayed acknowledgment of the indebtedness of the
People of Israel for all that you have done for us. It is also an
attempt to share this holiday with you and to express our fervent
prayers on your behalf that indeed you will be spending “Next
Year In Jerusalem” with us here. What a great “Simchah” that will
be for the Jewish People to have you free and able to come
“home.”
Women In Green have been your staunch supporters since the very
outset of our founding more than three years ago. We have
demonstrated outside of the American Consulate in Jerusalem on
your birthday, and held demonstrations in the past asking
for your immediate release. It is therefore heartwarming for us
that this Israeli government is beginning to openly support your
pardon. However, we are not content with this “beginning” alone
and have been in contact with the Ministry of Education to have
the children in our schools write words of encouragement and
appreciation to you. The Ministry has accepted our proposal and
the children will soon begin writing letters to you. We are also
encouraging people to write to Prime Minister Netanyahu, and to
President Clinton, urging the latter in the name of fairness and
justice to release you forthwith.
We wanted to let you know that just as Hanukkah symbolizes the
resolute will of the Jewish People to have its Heritage survive,
you symbolize for us a modern example of the spirit of the
Maccabees. You, like them, attempted to defend and fight for your
People at a time when their very existence was endangered. You
are a shining example for all of us that at times of great danger
to the Jewish People, and to Israel, you came forth willing to
sacrifice your life, your career, and your physical well
being in order to warn us about the plans of our enemies to
destroy us. Realistically, America as well has greatly
benefitted by Israel’s survival, and therefore all Americans
should be grateful to you.
You, Jonathan, have made it possible for a new light to come out
of Zion. For that, we, and all people interested in a just, moral
and ethical world, are eternally indebted to you.
Faithfully,
Ruth and Nadia Matar
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Jerusalem, Hanukkah, December 29, 1997
We Are Our Own Worst Enemies
Nowadays there are so many flagrant abuses
and assaults committed against the dignity and exalted
nature of Judaism, the Jewish People and its
inextricable and historical ties to the Land of Israel
and to Jerusalem, that incidents of such a nature no
longer come as a surprise, nor seem to cause any great
upset. There is a continuous stream of these sort of
falsehoods, slights, and hate accusations that emanate
from the Arab and Moslem camps; oftentimes these false
charges are tactically and incitefully employed by
Arafat, Mubarak or their various followers, or even by
parties with whom they have an unholy alliance.
Not to be outdone, and ably abetting and
fostering this kind of abuse, are the self-hating,
or anti-religious Jews who are, by and large, devoid
of any knowledge or understanding of their own formidable
Jewish Heritage. They are blatant in their lack of Jewish
pride, and will excuse any desecration of the Jewish State
of Israel, the Jewish People or our religion, and in fact,
will gleefully join in such assaults.
Typical of this group is a person like Leah
Rabin, the late Prime Minister’s wife, who has announced
publicly on more than one occasion that she has more in
common with Yassir Arafat, whom she received in her
home, than she has with Haredi observant Jews. It was
she, who, contrary to our Jewish tradition, adorned
herself with gold jewelry at the funeral of her husband;
moreover, she deliberately and flagrantly slighted many
Jewish people by refusing to wear a head covering, which
is the accepted practice in our religion on such occasions;
yet, with regard to her visit to the Pope in Rome, she put
on a head covering out of respect for him. And at a recent
dinner at the White House, she deliberately went out of her
way not to accept kosher food that was offered to her, but
instead chose the identical non-kosher food. This foolish,
self-hating Jewish woman brings great disrespect to her own
People and to the State of Israel by such behavior.
But even out-doing Leah in her unacceptable
foolishness and outrageous conduct, is the recent
behavior of the former Mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek.
On a recent visit to Rome, he too sought out an audience
with the Pope. The Pope greeted him, pointing out that
Kollek had just came from Jerusalem, “the spiritual
center of the world.” Kollek pridefully later told
reporters that he responded to the Pope’s comment by
saying: ” I thought that Rome was.” Can you believe that
a Jew, the former Mayor of Jerusalem, would be capable of
making such a ridiculous statement, and later boast that
he made it? Sacrilegious? Lacking in self-respect?
How inappropriate that this man was once the Mayor of
the Historical and Biblical City of Jerusalem!
Ruth and Nadia Matar
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Jerusalem, December 29, 1997
Hanukkah 5758
Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Jews to
practice their religion. Led by the Maccabees, the Jews
overcame and defeated the superior forces of their
Syrian oppressors. There are some historical
considerations and comparisons worth noting as to what
actually occurred at the time of the Maccabean revolt.
The background of that war of Hellenism vs. Judaism is
extraordinarily relevant to the prevailing situation in
Israel today. The simplistic view, and one generally
taught to our children, is that the struggle that existed
in Jerusalem in the years immediately preceding the
Maccabean revolt in the year 175 BC was between the
wicked King of Syria Antiochus IV and the Jews.
There are, however, noted scholars who hold that
the main enemy for the Jews at the time was not the
Syrian King at all; it was rather Jews themselves who had
assimilated and adopted Hellenism as a way of life.
These Jews pretty much abandoned what they thought to be
the provincial practice and faith of Judaism. These
scholars claim that although these Jews were a decided
minority, they were prominent, wealthy and powerful.
These Hellenistic Jews wanted to rid themselves of their
severe critics among the Jews, who still adhered to
Judaism and its practices. Their solution was to induce
Antiochus IV to outlaw the vital rituals associated with
Judaism of observant Jews, such as circumcision, kashruth
and keeping the Sabbath. The view of these historians is
that it was these Court Jews who caused Antiochus IV to
promulgate the outlawing of the practices of the Jewish
Religion in Jerusalem; that view is buttressed by the fact
that this Syrian Monarch ,without exception, allowed the
nations he conquered to continue to practice their own
religion. He did not impose the Greek Hellenistic outlook
by force. Antiochus IV did so only in Jerusalem in contrast
to the vast number of other nations over which he ruled.
In his reign over Israel, he depended a great deal on his
Court Jews to control the local populace, and therefore was
wont to follow their advices.
Peres’s socialistic universal approach, and his
own abandonment of the practices and customs of Judaism, has
a strikingly similar ring to the actions of the Jewish
Hellenists of old. Moreover, he apparently has the Oslo ear
of President Clinton to aid and abet him in overriding the
wishes of the majority of Jews to retain their Biblical
homeland intact. Peres. too, has struck at the very core of
Judaism by abandoning the Holy Temple Area to Arafat, but no
Jew would be deemed heroic today, were he react to such act of
treachery as did the Maccabees of old.
Ruth Matar sadly, but incisively, noted at the
end of her recent radio program, that if the Maccabees
were alive in our generation, they would be termed by the
present left-oriented media as “religious fanatics,” and
just as “Women In Green” are today unjustly labeled by such
media as “right-wing extremists,” so too would normal, prideful
and nationalistic Jews such as the Maccabees be so designated.
We are an ancient People. Much that has happened before, is
recurring in a different form today. But there is no trace
today of the descendants of the assimilated Jews who were
opposed to the Maccabees. That too will be the fate of those
who think like Peres and Beilin. Notwithstanding all its
problems, The Jewish People will survive, and continue to
faithfully practice Judaism in its Biblical Promised Homeland
forever. Amen. Selah!
Nadia Matar
*************************************
Jerusalem, December 31, 1997
Why Israel Is So Special
I guess what all Jewish parents are interested in is how
to convey to their children, and perhaps to themselves as
well, the positive side of being a Jew in this modern
world. Hanukkah is a holiday which ideally can afford
them a splendid opportunity in that regard. Today, what
Hanukkah, by and large means to Jewish children, is that
they receive a comparable amount of presents which
Christian children receive for Christmas. But Hanukkah
has a far more important message than that for Jewish
children. It tells them about an event in our history
which occurred more than two thousand years ago, where a
handful of their forefathers, led by the Maccabees,
bravely resisted a powerful foe who was bent on wiping
out their uniqueness, their religion, and, in effect, the
Jewish People.
As always in Jewish history, God intervened and miracles
occurred. Those miracles, our prayer book tells us,
relate not only to that one flask of oil which
miraculously burnt for eight days. It was an occasion
where powerful and numerous enemy warriors fully equipped
with the best existing weaponry, were delivered into the
hands of ill equipped Jews who physically were weak, and
comparatively few in number. Spiritually, however, they
were mighty, holding fast to the faith of their
forefathers. It was the fulfillment of their Prophet
Zechariah’s vision that: “Not by military force, and not
by physical strength, but by My spirit, says the Lord of
Hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). That should be the source of
pride for every Jew, that his ancestors, including the
Jewish Prophets, were spiritual giants and gave to the
world a moral and ethical code by which to live; it is a
code which has been adopted by Western Civilization in
principle, but unfortunately, not widely practiced in
actuality.
Telling this story of Hanukkah to our children,
therefore, will be a source of pride for them, where they
can easily be made to realize that they descend from
ancestors who were brave, heroic and wise, remaining
faithful to their God and their religion, in the most
trying of circumstances.
What a formidable setting to spend a joyous day during
Hanukkah in Hebron, in the City of our illustrious
forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! Add to the
occasion a puppet and magician show, clowns, free animal
balloons, and treats, all brought to Hebron by the Women In
Green, which made that Holiday ever so much more fun.
Moreover, watching the faces of the small children of Hebron
aglow with delight when our Women distributed the toys, dolls,
and games we brought for them; it made those who were watching
identify with their heroic brethren in Hebron. It is these
residents of Hebron, virtually modern Maccabees, who make it
possible for all Jews to continue to visit Hebron and be
inspired by our Patriarchs. In addition, those who came with
us to Hebron, children and adults alike, carried away with
them the fantastic memory of the lighting of the sixth
Hanukkah candle by the legendary and heroic “re-settler,” and
Patron of Hebron, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, with the Cave of the
Patriarchs serving as a picturesque backdrop. That finale to
the Women In Green’s annual Hebron family Hanukkah Party,
wrapped up a day that would long be remembered and cherished by
all who were there.
That is the power of Israel. To restore the pride in
being a Jew, and to inspire, and recharge! This Land of
the Bible comes alive to all who come to live in, or
visit their homeland, and especially Hebron, the dwelling
place of their famous ancestors, and initially the
ancient Jewish Capital during the reign of King David.
Ruth and Nadia Matar