| Erev Shabbat - Parashat Pekudei 5784 | 5 Adar 2 5784 - March 15, 2024 | | | Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon Appointed New Nasi of World Mizrachi
The World Mizrachi Movement has appointed Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon as its new Nasi. The internationally acclaimed halachic expert, author, educator and lecturer succeeds Kurt Rothschild, who served as World Mizrachi's President until his passing in 2022.
In a joint statement, World Mizrachi's Rabbi Doron Perez and Rabbi Danny Mirvis hailed Rav Rimon as "an exceptional leader and ambassador for Mizrachi's values of the People of Israel, the Torah of Israel, and the Land of Israel."
Mirvis, who has been Acting CEO since Rabbi Perez's son, Daniel, was taken captive on Simchat Torah, added, "with Rabbi Doron Perez as our Executive Chairman and Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon as our Nasi, we are blessed to be led by two individuals with incredible vision, passion for Jewish unity, and strong track records of growing and building major initiatives for the Jewish world."
Together with the appointment of Rav Rimon, World Mizrachi is also entering a strategic partnership with Sulamot, an organization founded and chaired by Rav Rimon, which develops cutting-edge educational technologies, experiential Jewish programming and innovative curricula for Jewish studies, taught in schools around the world. Sulamot's most recent initiative, Atufim, works closely with kibbutzim in the Gaza envelope to provide urgent relief and long-term support for communities impacted by the war.
Since the commencement of the war, World Mizrachi has organized over 85 missions for thousands of participants from around the world to show support and solidarity with Israel. Through its five leadership training programs, global branches, shlichim, representatives in the National Institutions, printed resources, online materials and programming, World Mizrachi provides Religious Zionist education and leadership for Jews across the world.
Rav Rimon, who also serves as the Chief Rabbi of Gush Etzion and Rosh Yeshiva of Lev Academic Center (JCT) commented: "I believe deeply in the leadership of Mizrachi as well as the mission. Medinat Yisrael, Torah, and Am Yisrael – I feel very connected to this vision. The Mizrachi movement has a unique shlichut, as it has had throughout the generations. Today the mission of Mizrachi is to bring unity in the Jewish people, to spread the light of Torah among the Jewish people, to bring the light of Eretz Yisrael to the whole world." | | | 
"Mizrachi Chicago – you are amazing!"
That is what we heard from the representatives of the IDF families to whom we sent meals for Shabbat as part of this year's Raffle – Support IDF Families campaign.
So far, we have arranged for 355 meals to be sent, showing our care and concern for the IDF Families and creating personal connections with them.
We are continuing this effort, now in partnership with the Efrat Development Foundation. As before, each $60 donated will result In a Shabbat meal for an IDF family whose parent/spouse is on active IDF duty. Tax-deductible donations are to be sent directly to the Efrat Development Foundation by clicking here. | | | Mishkan of Dreams Rabbi Stewart Weiss 
"And Betzalel did all that Hashem commanded Moshe."
Rashi notes the strange way that this Pasuk is structured. Rather than say, "Betzalel did all that Moshe had commanded him" the verse intimates that Betzalel somehow knew the (private) discussions that were previously held between Hashem and Moshe! What is going on here?
Rashi (Brachot 55) comments that Moshe and Betzalel had a fundamental difference over the order of the Mishkan's building: Moshe thought to first create the various objects to be placed in the Mishkan - the Menora, Mizbeyach, Aron, etc) - while Betzalel felt it is the building that must first be constructed, and only then the objects placed inside. Moshe demurred to Betzalel, acknowledging that this, indeed, was the right order and the one which Hashem had communicated to him. "You certainly befit your name!" says Moshe, "you are "B-Tzel-El," in the shadow of G-d," i.e. as close to Hashem as a shadow, such that you were able to hear His words spoken specifically to me.
There is much to say here. First, this episode is indicative of Moshe's amazing sense of humility; the great man of Israel, more than 100 years old, is prepared to concede to a boy of 13!
And it shows Moshe's Mida of Emet-Truth; if Betzalel has it right, then that must be the way to go.
But another overriding principle is at work as well: The house must take precedence, and be built first, even before the most precious of its furnishings. But friends, this does not only apply to the Mishkan! The House of Israel, too, needs to be built, and built up, before its various parts can be assembled. We must create a society that is based on Unity, love of our fellow Jew, Chesed and Justice in which to house our most precious objects - Jews of every type.
There is a well-known institute in Jerusalem with numerous holy objects to be used in a future Mishkan. Nearby is the site of the Bet HaMikdash, and a bit further away is our seat of government. I find it ironic and sad that the Kotel and Knesset, which should be elevated places of commonality and camaraderie, and symbols of our collective honor and pride, are all-too often arenas of divisiveness, political enmity and intra-Jewish strife.
Chazal discuss the many blessings that flow to us from G-d. But these Brachot must have a home, a receptacle, a crucible in which to reside. And what is that? It is Shalom/Peace - both external and internal. In fact, peace between our fellow Jews far outweighs peace between us and the outside world. And that is our greatest, most pressing challenge: to construct a national home for all of Am Yisrael built on Unity.
If we build it, they - the Brachot, as well as all the Jewish People – will surely come. | | 
| HaMizrachi Parasha Weekly - YOUTH EDITION
 Solo Learning
Shabbat Table
In School
| |  | Featuring Thought-Provoking Questions, Fun Activities, and Fascinating Insights! | | | | | HaMizrachi Parasha Weekly - CHAVRUTA
At Home
In School
Parent-Child Learning
Youth Groups
| |  | Featuring Diverse Sources, Guiding Questions, and Relevant Halachic Topics | | | For G-d and For Good | Pekudei 5784 Rav Doron Perez
Executive Chairman of Mizrachi World Movement One of the greatest teachings of the Torah is that every human being is created in the image of G-d, the capability for good and G-d.
This is the message we see in this week's parasha when G-d's presence rested in the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. The Ramban says this was the purpose of the Exodus, because ultimately just as the neshama (soul) transforms the physical individual, so does the soul of the world, the Shechina (G-d's Presence), transform the collective. Life is about good and G-d. To live not with only instinctual and physical drives, but with spiritual morality, with ethics and a desire for G-d and for good.
But that is also our weakness – because of this strength, it is so hard for us to imagine that other human beings could do such horrific things to others. Can we as Jews ever imagine that a society will steal human beings, murder, torture, rape and then barter in human life? This is the most barbaric desecration of human life and the G-dly soul.
Those of us who aspire to G-d and good, to live and let live, have to confront this evil. May the goodness of G-d and the belief in the goodness of human beings should be our greatest strength in confronting the evil in the world, and that those who affirm life should always triumph over those who celebrate death. | |
Pekudei 5784
Sivan Rahav-Meir,
media personality and World Mizrachi's Scholar-in-Residence | | | 
When the Students Surpass the Teacher
Rabbanit Sally Mayer  In Parshat Pekudei, the Mishkan finally comes together. The Jewish people invested greatly in this holy project, donating precious gems and materials, fashioning the beautiful vessels and curtains, carving beams and forming connectors, and putting it all together into the grand resting place for Hashem's Presence in the camp. In the final pesukim of our parsha and of Sefer Shemot, we hear that the cloud symbolizing G-d's Presence filled the Mishkan. However, there is a discordant pasuk inserted just before the end of the parsha (40:35): "And Moshe was not able to enter the Tent of Meeting, for the cloud had rested upon it, and the Glory of Hashem filled the Mishkan." Why mention again that the cloud filled the Mishkan, and point out that Moshe could not go inside? It seems strange – the point of the Mishkan was for Moshe and the Kohanim to go inside, to speak to G-d and serve Him; isn't it disappointing that Moshe, who invested his soul in the project, cannot enter right at the climax of the dedication?
Upon reflection, however, the fact that Moshe cannot enter the Mishkan is actually the symbol of its success. Imagine an architect who designs a couple's dream house, and the builder who takes the plans and brings them to fruition. The greatest success of those experts is when the couple takes the keys and begins to live there – and by necessity, then, those who designed and built it are locked out! Our greatest joy is when our children grow up and lead independent, successful lives separate from us, not when we have access to every detail of what is happening with them as we did when they were small.
This idea is also reflected in a famous story about the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai. The Talmud in Menachot 29b relates that when Moshe went up to receive the Torah, he asks Hashem why He is "tying crowns" atop some of the letters in the Torah, and hears that in the future, there will be a sage named Akiva ben Yosef who will interpret these crowns. Moshe asks to see this incredible scholar, and finds himself transported many centuries into the future, into Rabbi Akiva's beit midrash. However, Moshe finds that he does not understand the discussion and feels despondent – how can he be the one receiving the Torah and be a stranger in the beit midrash of the future? When a student asks Rabbi Akiva the source of a certain halacha and Rabbi Akiva responds, "This is a law that was given to Moshe at Sinai," Moshe is mollified. But why does this make Moshe feel better? The answer is the same as we discussed above: he knows he has succeeded when his work, his creation, surpasses him. When the Torah Moshe taught is taken further, to places he didn't dream of. When the Mishkan he built is off-limits because Hashem's Presence has moved in.
Here in Israel during the war, we have been watching with pride as our children bravely defend the country, standing shoulder to shoulder with other young Israelis of all backgrounds and ideologies, willing to sacrifice together for the good of the nation. As our children and students use their free time to volunteer on farms, cook dinners for soldiers' families, run activities for children who were torn from their homes. We are so proud of them and consider whether we can learn from them about caring, courage, and unity, even after the war. What Am Yisrael has built has surpassed us, Baruch Hashem.
Rabbanit Sally Mayer serves as Rosh Midrasha at Ohr Torah Stone's Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem. She is a member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau (www.mizrachi.org/speakers). | |  | | Chicago Mizrachi Pina Chama in Itamar
dedicated in honor of our
Chayalim Bodedim
Maintenance costs for the month of
Adar 2 5784
have been sponsored
in memory of
Chaim Leib, z"l, ben Yitzchak v'Rachel Rivka
by
his loving family
--------------- and ---------------
in memory of the IDF forces and Israeli citizens
who perished in the recent war.
by
Ephraim Dachman | | | To watch and view the picture gallery of the Mizrachi Chicago Pina Chama in Itamar Dedication and Hachnasat Sefer Torah in the Shomron (July 30, 2023)
CLICK HERE | | | How volunteers used AI to identify the missing from October 7 Data scientist Karine Nahon and her team created new ways of seeking identity clues in 200,000 videos from the Hamas rampages in southern Israel. Abigail Klein Leichman  For nine months before the 7th of October, Prof. Karine Nahon, head of the Data, Government and Democracy Program at Reichman University, was leading protests against the government's proposed judicial reform.
On October 7, the data scientist switched gears, using artificial intelligence (AI) to determine the status of thousands of people missing after the Hamas attacks on Israeli Gaza border communities.
"At 10 o'clock that morning, eight or nine of the leaders of the protests met on Zoom. We decided to create a civilian war room," Nahon related at the recent AI Day led by the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center with the Tel Aviv University Center for AI and Data Science.
"We really didn't know what we were talking about," she admitted.
"We didn't know yet that there were hostages and missing people. We thought at the time that about 30 people were dead and we wanted to help somehow, to evacuate people." By the afternoon, as reports of killings and kidnappings continued rising, Nahon and her committee canceled all 150 protests planned for that evening and called a meeting for 8am Sunday morning. "Everyone took on a project. I offered to be in charge of finding missing people. After all, how many could there be? I was sure this project would just take five or six hours and I'd go home," she said. Former IDF chief of staff Dan Halutz and high-tech executive Ari Harel volunteered to co-lead the effort with Nahon. Data force The volunteers began by trying to determine how many residents, visitors and Supernova rave partygoers were actually in the affected areas that day. Nobody could give them these numbers – not the IDF and not the Interior Ministry. "So we said to each other, what is our force? Our force is data, information that exists with the people who were there on the ground."
Nahon contacted all 25,000 people in her judicial protest WhatsApp groups, seeking volunteers. "The next day, we had 1,500 volunteers manning a huge war room from morning to night."
Each of these volunteers sent out calls for photos, videos or lists from anyone who'd been in Gaza border communities on October 7.
"Two days later, we had collected 200,000 videos. It was mind-blowing," said Nahon. Later they also received official government footage from security cameras and GoPros.
"You find yourself with vast big data. You don't know whom you're looking at. You can't use regular AI tools because they work on facial recognition. How do you recognize a face from the body, when the face doesn't exist or is covered in blood?
"You can't go to Target and find software that looks for missing people. We had to invent our own algorithms. We had to develop tools so our volunteers could tag things and create metadata."
Volunteers from the tech world, academia and business examined frame after frame attempting to identify people by face, voice, tattoos, jewelry, even patterns on underwear or pajamas.
They scoured TikTok, Telegram and WhatsApp, scraping any data that mentioned people in the south that day. Hamas alone had 150 Telegram channels where terrorists were uploading videos of their massacres. "It was a struggle to get the videos before the platforms removed them," said Nahon. Time was ticking "We had 15 different 'clients' — governmental agencies and security forces — waiting to hear from us every second," she said. "And time was ticking. Everyone in the war room saw a metaphorical clock before their eyes. We knew that after a week the chances of finding people alive was almost zero."  Nahon didn't allow them to work remotely. Every volunteer had to be present in the war room at the Expo Tel Aviv convention center for the three and a half weeks the team was deployed.
"We developed techniques and AI from voice recognition to facial recognition to body recognition to social network analysis," says Nahon. "But technology alone was not enough. It was not a regular lab where you have time to test and experiment. This was an event where there was zero margin for error. You can't say you saw somebody without being 100 percent sure; a whole country was waiting to hear how many missing people are still alive and how many are dead." As the machine-learning technologies that pored over 200,000 videos got smarter over time, so did the people using them. Human intelligence "In order to identify people at a time when they looked very, very different than in their daily lives, we had to use a lot of human intelligence," says Nahon.
For example, after seeing white Toyota trucks used by the terrorists in some of the videos, they trained the system to look for these vehicles in all the videos. Volunteers skilled in graphics improved the quality of poor videos so the AI could do its job better. "We used social network analysis with natural language processing so we could know who were the terrorists who kidnapped a particular person," Nahon said. "The catch is, once they get to Gaza, you don't see the kidnapped people anymore. The terrorists who kidnapped them continue to circulate around. So we said, instead of trying to find the hostages let's try to find the people who took the hostages and then maybe we can track down more information on the hostages." Ask the right questions After three days, the war room volunteers narrowed an initial list of a possible 10,000 missing people to about 4,300 whose whereabouts remained unknown. After three and a half weeks, they managed to determine the status of all but 50 before passing their data to government and security officials. "AI is wonderful and allows us to solve problems that we didn't think we could solve," Nahon said.  "But it all comes down to creating a space where you ask the right questions. In our space, I didn't look for one [specific] algorithm. I told everybody who had an idea to start working. We had 10,000 missing people to find in a short amount of time."
In the event of another multi-casualty disaster, she said, "we'll be able to create this war room again in two hours because we learned a lot."
And although her short-lived team isn't authorized to share the novel technologies and techniques to other countries, she is hopeful that the Israeli government would do so if a need arises.
"We basically invented at least six algorithms that did not exist before and could help in other multi-casualty events in other places in the world," Nahon said.
On February 28, ahead of International Women's Day, Nahon received a Peres Center for Peace and Innovation Medal of Distinction as one of 20 heroines of October 7.
israel21c.org | | A Disgraceful Acceptance Speech at the Oscars Jonathan Glazer, the Jewish director of The Zone of Interest, equated Israel with Hamas and turned his back on his people. Rabbi Menachem Lehrfield  When accepting the Oscar for Best International feature at the Oscars for his trailblazing Holocaust film, The Zone of Interest, director Jonathan Glazer chose to turn his back on his people. In his acceptance speech, he stated to roaring applause, "Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack in Gaza." Never mind how confusing his statement is. Is he refuting his Jewishness? Refuting how his Jewishness and the Holocaust is being hijacked? How? What occupation? Israel hasn't occupied Gaza since 2005. What is clear is his lack of moral clarity. Glazer equates Hamas's unprovoked massacre of Jews, murdering 1200, raping scores and taking hostage 240 innocent Israelis with Israel's response to an existential threat to its people. If Hamas would release the hostages, put down its arms and renounce violence, peace would be at hand. It is a disgrace for someone to use the memory of the Holocaust to equate victim with perpetrator. And Jonathan, if you did mean to refute your Jewishness, which I suspect you didn't, the Jews who thought they could refute their Jewishness during the Holocaust ended up in the same gas chambers as those who proudly held on to their Jewish identity until their last breath. I can understand a call for ceasefire and peace, but at this pivotal moment you said nothing about the 130 hostages who are still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Shame on you to use such a prominent platform to cave into the propaganda of Hamas, enemies who would like nothing more than to replicate the Holocaust. This is the time Jews around the world need to stand with their people and to proudly state that you are a Jew. I am proud to be a Jew. I am proud to be part of the people that is fighting a just war, a people who wants nothing but peace. I celebrate our heritage as a people who have bestowed upon the world the concepts of equality, sanctity of life and the dignity of the human being made in the image of God. Your film shows the great evil human beings can do to each other, and the need to fight evil.
Today, don't confuse those fighting for civilization and decency with those fighting for murder and savagery. It is not too late to retract your remarks. aish.com | | US ships begin long, slow trip to build Gaza dock in unique operation The ships that are on the way now include the USAV James A. Loux, the USAV Montorrey, USAV Matamoros and USAV Wilson Wharf. Seth J. Frantzman  Several small landing craft ships departed the US this week for the long, slow, trip across the Atlantic to eventually reach their destination off the coast of Gaza. According to USNI, "four Army watercraft left the pier at Fort Eustis, Va., sailing down the James River, to the Chesapeake Bay and the open Atlantic." The ships that are on the way now include the USAV James A. Loux, USAV Montorrey, USAV Matamoros, and the USAV Wilson Wharf. "On Sunday, USAV General Frank S. Besson Jr. (LSV-1) left the pier at Fort Eustis and more Army vessels are set to join the five that departed this week," USNI reported. These ships are part of the US Army's 7th Transportation Brigade of the 18th Airborne Corps. Hundreds of soldiers will accompany them. US Army Brig.-Gen. Brad Hinson, the assistant commanding general for support of the 18th Airborne Corps, spoke to reporters about the mission this week. Ships to make slow journey to Gaza The ships departed on Tuesday and will make a slow 11 knots across the ocean, taking weeks to cross the Atlantic and then cross the Mediterranean. One of the ships, the Wilson Wharf, had its name changed last year. According to the US Army, the name changes reflect a decision by Congress to remove names linked to the Confederacy. Wilson's Wharf had been called the USAV Chickahominy. This battle, also known as Gaines' Mill, took place in 1862 and was part of the Seven Days Battles of the Civil War. The ship was renamed for a Union victory at Wilson's Wharf in 1864. According to a report from the US Combined Arms Support Command in September 2023 "on May 24, 1864, Confederate Maj.-Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry division (about 3,000 men) attacked the Union supply depot at Wilson's Wharf, on the James River in eastern Charles City, Virginia. The division was repulsed by two African American regiments of the United States Colored Troops under the command of Brig. Gen. Edward A. Wild (about 1,800 men), who were in the process of constructing a fortification, which was subsequently named Fort Pocahontas." The other ships also have names taken from US history. The Matamoros refers to an 1847 battle in Mexico during the Mexican-American war. The USAV Montorrey is also named for a battle during the same war. The James A. Loux is named for a soldier who "distinguished himself while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam," according to Navsource, a website that covers naval history. Loux was part of the 458th River Patrol Boat Company during a battle in 1971 in which he was killed in Vietnam.  Three of the ships heading to Israel are from the Runnymede class of what are known as large landing craft. Thirty-five were constructed since 1990. They are 174 feet long and have a crew of 13. They can transport a variety of cargo. By contrast, the James Loux is longer at 273 feet and is part of a different class of ship called the General Frank Besson class of support vessel. It has bow and stern ramps and it can be beached to deliver cargo. It can transport up to 15 tanks. It can carry almost three times what the landing craft can carry. Only eight of the Frank Besson class ships have been built.
US Central Command said on March 12 that the Loux, Monterrey, Matamoros, and Wilson's Wharf "from the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, XVIII Airborne Corps, departed Joint Base Langley-Eustis en route to the Eastern Mediterranean to establish a roll-on, roll-off dock capability that allows the ship to shore humanitarian assistance to Gaza. SP4 James A. Loux, Monterrey, Matamoros, and Wilson Warf are carrying equipment and supplies needed to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies." The James Loux has taken part in operations in the region in the past. In 2020 it took part in Native Fury 20, a drill in the UAE. By contrast, the Matamoros took part in a 2020 operation to support transportation of vehicles from an amphibious landing dock ship based near Guantanamo Bay in Cuba during humanitarian relief in Haiti. In 2020 the Wilson's Wharf, under its former name of Chickahominy, played a role in UNITAS LXI, a drill in Ecuador that brought together forces from nine countries to focus on training together. These ships are well placed for the operation ahead off the coast of Gaza. This is a unique operation. It is also a unique opportunity to bring these capabilities together for a real-world crisis, after many years of drills. jpost.com | | | Here is a direct link to join the group - | | 
Here is a direct link to join the group - | | | Israeli communities devastated on Oct. 7 draw thousands seeking to bear witness, support victims Visits play key role in fundraising efforts to support Israelis and in showing solidarity Tamara Zieve A macabre type of tourism has defined the trips of many visitors to Israel since Oct. 7. While some struggle with the concept of visiting the sites of the Hamas massacres, wary of invading the privacy of the victims, especially when the grief is still so raw, the act of bearing witness, showing solidarity and support and fundraising are among the key reasons why thousands of people have visited the affected Gaza border communities since security restrictions were lifted for civilians who wish to travel to the area. Since Oct. 7, the Jewish Federations of North America and the individual federations have run at least 60 solidarity missions to Israel, bringing some 1,000 community leaders on brief visits, usually lasting about 48 hours, to show their support for the country and to bear witness to the atrocities committed during the massive Hamas terror attacks. A JFNA spokesperson told Jewish Insider that these trips are part of the reason that the umbrella organization has managed to raise over $783 million in emergency fund allocations for Israel, $360 million of which has been allocated to supporting the affected communities, helping provide food, housing, mental health services and special needs. The money also goes toward supporting the Jewish Agency's fund for victims of terrorism, as well as funding rebuilding plans and business loans. "Those leaders are often significant donors… and also people whose job is to go back and tell their communities what they saw. So certainly people come and it inspires them to donate but also people go back home to their communities and they can say, 'I was in Be'eri, this is what it was like, this is the help that they need, this is where the money is going.' It makes such a difference for people to understand the specifics of it," the spokesperson explained. Not all the solidarity missions have visited the massacre sites, especially in the immediate aftermath of the attack, both for security reasons and out of sensitivity to the devastated communities. "Every single thing is coordinated with the communities, with residents of the communities, every tour," the spokesperson said. A community member is always with the tour group and instructs them on which houses are off-limits, which residents don't wish to talk with them, which areas are not to be photographed and which conversations cannot be recorded. "And the groups are very receptive to it, but it's an ingrained part of the protocol," they added, noting that they had a similar situation in Ukraine where JFNA led missions after the war with Russia broke out. Adele Raemer, a survivor of the Oct. 7 massacre and an evacuee of Kibbutz Nirim, where 11 people were killed and five kidnapped, grappled with the concept of "tragedy tourism." She ultimately decided that its importance outweighs any feelings of discomfort, and she has shown people around her own ravaged kibbutz as well as visiting neighboring communities. In a blog post for The Times of Israel, Raemer wrote of her visit to Kfar Aza: "As we made our way through the surrounding devastation, I grappled with my own inner conflict. On the one hand, it was important and meaningful to me to go in order to bear witness to these sites. As a survivor, myself, of the massacre, I felt an obligation to learn more so as to be an even better witness. On the other hand, I felt somehow as if I was trespassing on holy land, in a community that needed respect and reverence, where so many people whom I knew personally were slaughtered. Was I performing a brave, responsible deed or was I desecrating these places once again in what might be conceived as being a sort of gruesome 'tragedy tourism?'" Referencing both South Africa's genocide accusations against Israel at the International Court of Justice, as well as the Holocaust-denial-level response that some have adopted in response to Oct. 7, Raemer concluded: "It is for this reason that we CANNOT just sit silent." "It is for this reason that it is our duty to bear witness any way we can, to every inch of proof, any way we can, in every place we can, and write, blog, vlog about w hat we have seen and experienced with our own eyes. It is for this reason that, as hard as it was for me, I needed to go to the sites of these atrocities, back to the region where I live, and my home, to bear witness and share that with the world," Raemer wrote. Indeed, the JFNA spokesperson said that colleagues in Israel had shared "that the people that have come express an immense amount of gratitude, to be in Israel, to be with Israelis and to be able to bear witness. But on the flip side, they say that every time they meet with Israelis, the Israelis have expressed an immense amount of gratitude and support. As you know, Israelis are feeling pretty isolated right now. So people come in the middle of war, to show up and bear witness and give their solidarity and bring the support of their community has been something that they've expressed over and over is really important and that they really take to heart." New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is among the leaders who have visited Israel on the solidarity missions, just weeks after the Hamas attack. Mark Medin, executive vice president of UJA-Federation of New York, has led many of the trips. "I think bearing witness and understanding the scope of what happened and having people be able to serve as ambassadors to tell the story, I think is an essential component of diaspora Jewish responsibility right now," he told JI. "There are two wars going on. There's a physical war that, nine million Israelis are in the middle of and hundreds of thousands of Israeli young boys and girls, young men and women are fighting on the frontlines every day, and it's an information war for the Jewish world that the diaspora Jewish community has to fight as well, in order to help support the physical war that's happening on the ground." "This is not as not an Israel-only issue, this is an issue facing the Jewish world," he continued, pointing to an antisemitic attack that occurred the night before in his own town of Scarsdale — just outside New York City. "So, the rise of antisemitism, the need to support Israel, the sense of 'we're all in this together' I think is paramount." "And in order for American Jews to fully understand and appreciate what happened on Oct. 7, the scope of the impact, the trauma that the country is feeling, the personal conflicts and mental health challenges that every Israeli is going through, I think you have to bear witness and, and understand that," Medin said. "If you do, you're able to be a much stronger advocate; back in in America, you're able to talk to your family, to your professional colleagues, to your friends, to the media, to members of Congress to elected officials, with firsthand authenticity, about the barbarity of what happened on Oct. 7, about the struggle that the people of Israel are facing to bring the hostages home, about the struggle the people of Israel are facing in public safety and security, not only to the frontline communities, but to people that live in Modiin and Tel Aviv and Yerushalayim as well," Medin continued, noting that this was also important for philanthropy to Israel. Medin also noted that large numbers of delegations have been traveling to Israel to volunteer and support the hard-hit agricultural sector, by picking, packing, sorting and cooking produce. "The sense of appreciation and solidarity that we feel from Israel is beyond profound," Medin told JI. "The amounts of thanks that every Israeli that we meet with, every hostage family, every kibbutz survivor, every injured soldier, every bereaved mother, the sense of appreciation that they say for recognizing that they're not alone at this time, that people care enough to put themselves in harm's way to come into a war zone, to help volunteer, to bring solidarity, to bring support, is really, I think is a very important factor for the people of Israel. And I've just been stunned by the level of appreciation and the sense of gratitude that the Israelis have shown towards us in every meeting we've had." Yossi Hoffman, a ZAKA volunteer, together with other volunteers from the emergency response organization who were among the first responders to the Oct. 7 attack, has throughout the war been volunteering to support the soldiers, delivering equipment to them and providing them with barbecue dinners. The donations that had made these efforts possible began to dry up, so Hoffman and his colleagues put their heads together to think of a way to continue their morale-boosting efforts for the soldiers. Hoffman subsequently began leading guided tours, predominantly for tourists, to Kibbutz Takuma, where cars burned on Oct. 7 are piled up; to the Nova music festival site at Kibbutz Re'im, where terrorists murdered some 360 people and kidnapped about 40; to Kibbutz Nir Oz, where about a quarter of its members were killed or kidnapped; and finally to the Magen army base where the group cooks a barbecue for hundreds of soldiers. "There is no greater joy than knowing that soldiers who are now going into Gaza or coming out of Gaza, fighting for us, are enjoying, eating well and getting strength to go and fight," Hoffman said. The tour costs 1,000  NIS per person (some ＄277) and the money goes towards the barbecues, the bus and donations toward the rehabilitation of Kibbutz Nir Oz. Tourists from Australia, the U.S., South Africa, New Zealand and Europe have participated in his tours, Hoffman told JI. But some Israelis also wish to bear witness. Lee Sefton, a British immigrant to Israel, joined one of Hoffman's tours together with a fellow British-Israeli friend.
Despite her apprehension about participating in the tour, she ultimately decided to go. "I felt it was important for as many people to see the devastation with their own eyes, to bear witness to the brutality that took place on Oct. 7 and to share it as widely as possible given the extent of the denial that I'd seen on social media," she said. "I also felt it was difficult to grasp the scale of the atrocities through the fragments you see on the news." "It quickly becomes very clear, however, when you are confronted with what looks like a car junkyard, but is actually piles of hundreds of burnt-out cars stacked one on top of another scattered with bullets holes that had been removed from a road nearby; or after you've walked through a peacefully quiet kibbutz where half of the homes have been completely burnt out or destroyed and you hear the stories of how the people tried to escape or were killed by Gazans, who they believed to be their colleagues and friends; or when you're standing at the site of a massacre at a music festival where you see rows and rows of wooden posts dug into the ground, each one topped with a photo of a beautiful young person that was there to dance and had either been slaughtered or kidnapped," Sefton told JI. "Witnessing this brings it all into terrible clarity and it is overwhelming to process." At the site of the Nova Festival, Sefton met a soldier who had been at the party with 12 of his friends; all of them managed to escape. Within hours of reaching home, he was called up for reserve duty. "He was happy to share his experience of what happened on that fateful day, and I was blown away by his composure and how surprisingly upbeat and reassuringly positive he was," Sefton said of the soldier, who was on temporary release from the army when she met him. The barbecue at the end of the day, she said, was uplifting and heartwarming, and she was struck by the volume of gratitude the soldiers expressed for the group. "I found it incredibly humbling to speak to these young men who seemed fearless at the prospect of returning to Gaza to fight," Sefton reflected. "I wondered if they found the arriving tour buses to the base annoying or tiresome, but they were more than happy to share their experiences with us and were just as inquisitive to hear ours. They were so thankful to us for being there, which seemed so ridiculous. We had just come in to help for a day, we were the ones that were so grateful to them" Sefon said she would urge anyone who has the opportunity to go on a tour of this kind to do so. "Lots of what I witnessed on this tour will be etched in my mind forever, but my main takeaway from the day after everything that I'd seen and the people I'd spoken to is just how resilient this country and its people are and the hope they have for the future," Sefton said. jewishinsider.com | | South African Foreign Minister: South Africans serving in the IDF will be arrested South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said that South African citizens who serve in the IDF will be arrested the moment they return to the country. Tziki Brandwein South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor announced this week during an African National Congress dialogue on South Africa's solidarity with Palestine, that South African citizens who serve in the IDF will be arrested the moment they return to the country.
"I've already issued a statement alerting those who are South African and who are fighting alongside or in the Israeli Defense Force; we are ready - when you come home, we will arrest you," she declared to the crowd who met her statements with applause.
Pandor clarified that her government's support for the Palestinians did not have to do with the upcoming elections. "We didn't meet the Palestinian people on October 8th, we've been together in the struggle for many decades," she claimed.
The Minister added: "The people of Palestine trained the freedom fighters of the liberation movement. This is a relationship of freedom fighters, of activists, of nations that share a history. A history of struggle for justice and freedom."
Pandor's statements come as Israeli-South African relations have hit an all-time low amid the South African-led suit against Israel in the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide. israelnationalnews.com | | Risking His Life to Recover Bodies on October 7 Simcha Greiniman, a veteran volunteer for Zaka, witnessed the horror of the Hamas massacre upfront. Yehudis Litvak  In the days following the Hamas brutal terrorist attack on October 7th, Simcha Greiniman, senior volunteer for Zaka International, was charged with collecting the victims' bodies and body parts in the burned houses and cars in the south of Israel. Having witnessed the horrific sights, he now travels around the world, presenting the hard evidence of Hamas crimes.
For the past 32 years, Simcha Greiniman has been volunteering for Zaka International, a rescue and recovery organization dedicated to identification of the deceased under difficult circumstances and bringing them to burial. Father of five and grandfather of three, Simcha works as a carpenter for his day job, but he is always on call and ready to respond to any emergency.
 On October 7th, Simcha was celebrating Simchat Torah together with his family in his synagogue in central Israel. At 2:20 PM his phone rang. Because Simcha is a medic, he carries his phone with him 24/7, even on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, and if it rings, he answers.
"That's when it started," says Simcha. Until then, his town of Modiin Ilit did not have any sirens and no one suspected that anything was amiss. "I pick up the phone and it's a major from the army. I served in the IDF search and rescue special forces for 27 years, so I was always connecting the army and Zaka on the scenes. The army asked me to call up about 30 people. I got them ready to go on a bus." All 30 are Orthodox residents of Modiin Ilit who have served in various IDF special forces. He went home to inform his wife of the situation. "At 2:45 p.m., a full bus left from Modiin Ilit. I am told that I'm next in line to be called up." A few hours later, Zaka asked him to come to the scene and bring his large truck, which is generally used to transport equipment, not bodies. Not a good sign. "I take a group of five people with me, volunteers who are capable of dealing with hard situations, people I can trust to cope with whatever awaited us. We head toward Ashkelon, where we are asked to help at the hospital. On the way, I am told to change direction towards Sderot, further south. The whole time there are sirens and we have to jump out of the truck and lay down on the side. When we get to Highway 34, I stop at the light. I can't continue driving because I can't believe what I am seeing. On my right side, I see a car flipped over and bodies outside. On the other side, I see a burnt car and more bodies outside. We wondered if a missile fell there and we had somehow missed a siren. "I called Zaka right away to ask what was going on and if we should get off the truck and start collecting the bodies. I didn't want to take any chances of doing something without knowing what we were heading towards. The answer was straight: shut your lights – it was dark already – and whatever you do, don't stop the truck. They said, 'If you stay in this position, in the next few minutes you'll become a target. There are terrorists in the fields around that area, and you better get out of there as fast as you could. Head towards the entrance of Sderot.'
 "We drive as fast as we could, driving in between the bodies and the burnt cars. As we get to the entrance of Sderot, we hear massive shooting at the police station two blocks away. Bombing, shooting – it's crazy what's going on, and all this under constant missile attacks! Every few minutes you have to jump out and take cover. "As I park the truck, I see a burnt ambulance and an empty terrorist car with a machine gun on top. On the other side, there is a police tent with a pile of 22 bodies already waiting for me. We are asked to start loading those bodies. We load them. They tell me to take all the bodies now, even though there isn't room to properly transport them in a dignified manner. This is for two reasons. Number one: if we leave any body, it could be abducted into Gaza. And number two: if we leave bodies outside, we have to leave at least two soldiers to watch those bodies, and they need every soldier to respond to the attack. "So we make another pile of bodies, and another pile and head back on Highway 34, with four Jeeps with soldiers guarding the truck so we don't get hit by terrorists. Along the way, we stop to collect more bodies on the road while the police take pictures and collect information. "At the first car, the two front doors are open and there are no bodies, but there are trails of blood. One goes into the field, another goes to the other side of the highway. We check around and collect those two bodies and we look at the back seats. There are two baby car seats ridden with hundreds of bullets. "The second car is totally burnt. We see a skeleton, totally burnt. We try to pick up those bones to collect them, and they disintegrate in a second. There's nothing left, only ashes. That means that the heat in the car reached over 600 degrees Celsius. We have to bring special vacuum cleaners to vacuum every corner of the car and make bags with marks: this came from the front of the car, from the back, right side, left side, clearly marking all the evidence." Identifying the remains that disintegrated into ashes posed a problem for the State of Israel, which does not yet possess such technology. The United States built a device for extracting human DNA from ashes following the 9/11 terrorist attack. This device takes seven months to build, and once it's ready, it takes several months for the extraction process to be completed. Israel is currently building such a device. Meanwhile, many of the bags with ashes were sent to the US for identification, which is still ongoing. That day Simcha and his team collected 72 bodies. "My truck, from floor to ceiling, was packed with bodies – police officers, soldiers, civilians, and terrorists," he says. In the aftermath of the attack, Israelis also collected 1,500 bodies of terrorists. They keep them in the hope of exchange for bodies of Israelis held by Hamas. Simcha continues, "The next morning, we continue collecting on Highway 232. We are attacked by two terrorists, who shoot towards us. A soldier that is with us gets killed on the spot before both terrorists are killed by other soldiers." For the next 18 days, the team continued collecting bodies and body parts in the kibbutzim in the south. They were asked to deal with 1,750 cars that contained human remains. "I worked on these cars one by one," Simcha says, "making sure every drop of blood came to burial." They also went through all the houses in the areas that were attacked. "I know what happened in every house," he says, "There are no words to explain what we went through, what we dealt with, and what we saw. But I do not know any names. That way I can keep some emotional distance and be able to live with the situation." Testifying Around the World Simcha says, "I got a call from Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador at the United Nations, to come to speak in the UN about women's rights, about what I saw. I testified about it. The government then took me to speak to the press around the world. I just came back from Washington, D.C. where I met a lot of congressmen. Two weeks ago, I spoke in the Parliament in England, France, and Germany. "I do not hold back, like I am doing now, and I give them all the horrific details about what we saw. It took these nations 50 years to deny the Holocaust, but it only took 50 seconds to deny what happened over there. When I bring the hard evidence, no one can face me and say that it never happened. We have all the information, everything is documented." How does Simcha deal with such heartbreaking work without falling apart? "It's not easy," he says. "My life has a mission – I am here for the Jewish people. It is a merit to help families recover the bodies of their loved ones and help them to reach closure. I am doing something that not everyone is able to do. Thank God, I am able to do it." Simcha has risked his life for the sake of this mission. "Firemen run into fires because it's their mission in life," he says. "We run into places where we can fulfill our mission."
Simcha calls for all the Jews around the world to stay united and to continue praying for Zaka volunteers, emergency responders and soldiers, so that they can all continue their holy work. aish.com | | US delegation cuts Saudi trip short after rabbi ordered to remove kippah 'No one should be denied access to a heritage site, especially one intended to highlight unity and progress, simply for existing as a Jew.' Vered Weiss  A US delegation to Saudi Arabia cut short its visit after an official from the Islamic kingdom asked an Orthodox Jewish rabbi to remove his kippah.
The chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Rabbi Abraham Cooper, was told to remove his kippah when the delegation approached Diriyah, a historic town that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, near the capital city Riyadh. Rabbi Cooper refused to remove his kippah, a head covering Orthodox Jewish men are commanded by the Torah to wear at all times. In a statement, Rabbi Cooper wrote, "No one should be denied access to a heritage site, especially one intended to highlight unity and progress, simply for existing as a Jew."
He added, "Saudi Arabia is in the midst of encouraging change under its 2030 Vision. However, especially in a time of raging antisemitism, being asked to remove my kippah made it impossible for us from USCIRF to continue our visit."
Cooper explained in the statement, "We note, with particular regret, that this happened to a representative of a U.S. government agency promoting religious freedom." "USCIRF looks forward to continuing conversations with the Saudi government about how to address the systematic issues that led to this troubling incident," he concluded. Rabbi Cooper and Reverend Frederick Davie were invited to Diriyah and without warning, Saudi officials asked him to remove his kippah "while at the site and anytime he was to be in public, even though the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs had approved the site visit." This incident comes at a time when relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia are cooling after normalization talks between the two countries showed significant progress prior to October 7th and the ensuing war between Israel and Gaza. Reverend Davie declared that the incident with Rabbi Cooper stands in stark contrast to the religious reforms Saudi Arabia is currently instituting under its Vision 2030 plan. worldisraelnews.com | | Ramat Gan Safari: Rhino rams car carrying mother and children Mafanzi, a new rhino who recently arrived from France, was seemingly startled by the vehicle that stopped to view him.  The Ramat Gan Safari reported an unusual incident that occurred on Wednesday on its premises.
One of the rhinoceros in the park hit a vehicle carrying a mother and two children as it traveled through the special complex where private vehicles can travel among the wild animals. The vehicle was damaged but the mother and children were unharmed.
Black Rhinos are among the largest land animals in the world. They can grow to about six feet tall and 12 feet long and can weigh up to 6,385 pounds. Native to Africa, they are considered critically endangered due to poaching for their horns.
The Safari stated that the perpetrator was Mafanzi, a new rhino who recently arrived from France where he had been kept in the zoo in Lille. They noted that the animal was not used to vehicles and probably got scared and therefore rammed the vehicle.
"The Safari staff moved Mafanzi to a large enclosure that is separate from the 'savanna' so he would calm down and so the incident would not repeat itself. It is assumed that Mafanzi was startled by the vehicle which stopped to look at him. We apologize for the experience that the mother and her children experienced. They were treated in the safari infirmary, the safari staff calmed them, and are assisting them," the safari stated. israelnationalnews.com | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment