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The Eye of the Storm
by Batya Medad
Batya Medad made aliya from New York to Israel in 1970 and has been living in Shiloh since 1981. Recently she began organizing women's visits to Tel Shiloh for Psalms and prayers. (For more information, please email her.) Batya is a newspaper and magazine columnist, a veteran jblogger and recently stopped EFL teaching. She's also a wife, mother, grandmother, photographer and HolyLand hitchhiker, always seeing things from her own very unique perspective. For more of Batya's writings and photos, check out:
And:
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Nisan 28, 5770, 4/12/2010
The Holocaust and MeTo set the mood, watch the new version of the classic Passover song Chad Gadya: Unlike many of my peers of the immediate post World War Two Jewish world, I was brought up totally oblivious of the Holocaust. No, it wasn't a silent, repressed and repressing shadow shading and affecting my life. It just didn't exist, didn't affect my immediate family. My parents' voices and those of the other neighborhood grown-ups were totally American though with Jewish inflections and Yiddish slang. And before you guess wrong, I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, New York. The fathers in the spanking new garden apartment neighborhood of Bell Park Gardens, Bayside, New York, were all United States military veterans. That was a condition of acceptance to the Veterans Authority co-op. I wonder if any sociologists have written their doctorates on why that and other similar housing developments were almost exclusively filled with young Jewish families. BPG was over 90% Jewish and so were the other nearby garden apartments, Oakland Gardens and Windsor Park. The same went for the one and two-family homes in the neighborhood. All of the new, post-WWII neighborhoods in northeastern Queens were Jewish. Churches could only be found in older, pre-World War Two areas.  I first heard about the Holocaust when The Diary of Anne Frank was published. It was featured on television shows, and I probably heard about it in Oakland Jewish Center's Hebrew School, which I attended for five years, three days a week. At that time there weren't many books, especially for children, written about the Holocaust. I tried to take out The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich from the Hebrew School Library, but the librarian offered me Minister of Death, about Eichmann, instead. I presented it to my Sixth Grade class for an oral bookreport. As soon as I named the book and author the teacher interrupted:
In those days, one didn't question authority, certainly did not argue with teachers. I did read the book, though I probably didn't fully comprehend it. I only became aware and met children of Holocaust survivors when I joined Betar. Many of my Betar friends had the opposite Jewish childhood. All of the parents in their circles were survivors or got out just in time. Think of it as an old film picture and negative. From different directions we ended up embracing the same ideology. Many of us made aliyah and live in Israel. My children, Israeli born and raised, grew up with strong knowledge and awareness of the Holocaust. Jewish History is intertwined with Israeli culture and education. Personal history, stories of bravery and survival from their friends' grandparents give them an intimate knowledge beyond anything I can comprehend or pass on. Today is Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day. It's a day I feel as a stranger here in Israel. That may sound peculiar considering my politics and ideology. Regardless as to how I arrived, I have no doubt that as a Jew my place is the Land of Israel. Tags: Inside Israel ,Jewish World |
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Nisan 25, 5770, 4/9/2010
No Excuses, Our Land Is The Essence
Shabbat Shalom, Shavua Tov, Have a Peaceful Shabbat and/or a Good Week depending on when you read this. Just to remind you that I blog more frequently and on a greater variety of topics on Shiloh Musings and me-ander. You're invited to visit them.
I'm taking advantage of the "extra daylight savings hour" before Shabbat to write this. A negative comment to one of our dear friend and former neighbor Tzvi Fishman's Arutz 7 blog really bothers me. Fishman wrote about the importance of the mitzvah/commandment to live in the HolyLand, and someone wrote that he wouldn't come, because the country isn't perfect. It's not the first time I've heard that ridiculous, irrelevant excuse for not living in Israel. The mitzvah to live here is to live in the Land. It overrides politics, judicial, philosophy etc. If we want perfection, we must work for it and not expect G-d to hand it to us on a "silver platter." Those miracles ended with the last "mon," G-d given food which nourished us when we wandered the wilderness for forty years, in between the exodus from Egypt and entering the Land of Israel, the Holy Promised Land. Anyone who hangs out waiting for others to do the hard, dirty difficult work may find him/herself written out of Jewish History. Vote with your feet, hands and children. For those of you who don't want to make aliyah, because you don't want your children to serve in the IDF Israel Defense Forces don't think you love your children more than I love mine. Living here in Israel gives my kids a more precious life, something money can't buy. It's a higher spiritual level than anything any place else in the world. G-d won't reward us with the Moshiach, Messiah for the deeds done in Golus, Galut, the Diaspora, only for what's done here. If you truly believe in G-d, you'll obey G-d's commandments. Shabbat Shalom uMevorach Have A Peaceful and Blessed Sabbath Tags: Inside Israel ,Jewish World |
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Nisan 23, 5770, 4/7/2010
Signs of The Moshiach, Messiah, All One Family
Now we're back from the Passover Holiday. I've been blogging all through on Shiloh Musings and me-ander. You're invited to take a look.
Living in Shiloh for almost thirty years, we've become part of a very Jewish community. Diaspora-based ethnic distinctions are getting more and more blurred. Every year after switching the kitchen back to its normal chametz mode we reward ourselves by celebrating the Moroccan Maimona, a Jewish holiday we knew nothing about growing up in Ashkenaz (Eastern European) New York Jewish families. Like most of our neighbors with married children, we have grandchildren of "mixed ethnic" Jewish identities. Everyone is 100% Jewish, but it's common for Yemenite grandmothers to have Ashkenaz grandchildren. Or, like us, our Tunisian progeny eat their rice, forbidden by our ethnic custom, at our Passover table. Menus, like families, are very mixed. After thousands of years of exile, we Jews have become comfortable, too comfortable in many of our temporary homes and cultures. We've adopted and adapted foods, menus and cooking styles, clothing, art and music from our hosts frequently forgetting that those locations were supposed to be be temporary punishments. Recent polls have shown a new a wonderful tolerance and acceptance of this phenomena. This is very different from the early days of the State of Israel when the European Zionists unabashedly discriminated against North African and Indian Jews. We're in the midst of a process, preparing ourselves as a People to accept Moshiach Ben David, when he shows himself, speedily in our days, G-d willing. Tags: Inside Israel ,Jewish World |
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Nisan 16, 5770, 3/31/2010
Stop the farce now!Chag Pesach Sameach! For those of you in Israel, I hope you'll be visiting the Festival at Tel Shiloh. Today and tomorrow from 10am-5pm. There are workshops, tours and more activities for the entire family. Check out the Artisans' Fair and eat at the Tabernacle Cafe`. There's more than this blog for those interested in reading my articles; check out Shiloh Musings and me-ander. What's A Mediator? or Why Israel Should Ignore American Pressure?  I got a kick out of seeing something in Israel's extreme Left Haaretz newspaper which echoes what I blog about the United States and its mediation sic between us and the Arabs. What's a mediator? Mediators don't impose, especially prior to mediation. United States President Barack Hussein Obama is so sure that his agenda is the right one that he is not embarrassed to go against all principles of mediation. Yes, he's a fraud; he's not a mediator. The United States is putting unprecedented pressure on Israel to impose its pro-Arab position. It's time for Israel to declare American "mediation" ended, null and void.
Stop the farce now! Tags: Barack Obama ,Defense/Middle East |
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Nisan 9, 5770, 3/24/2010
Chanukah, Passover and Purim, All ConnectedThere's plenty more to read on my other blogs, Shiloh Musings and me-ander. Also recommended is a visit to Tel Shiloh during Passover; special activities are scheduled for Weds and Thursday March 31st-April 1st 1st and 2nd days of Hol Hamoed 10:00-17:00. For more details contact telshilo@gmail.com . Chanukah, Passover and Purim, All Connected I'm pretty sure that I get on this basic track every year.
"We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt..." So you can say: "Here we go again..." Seraphic Secret, a very popular, excellent blog, has a post about Passover and freedom and that's what got me going this morning. The freedom discussed in the Passover Haggadah is of loyalty, allegiance and faith to our Jewish G-d. It's Mordechai refusing to attend King Achashverosh's festive banquet and his standing proudly, straight and tall as Haman walked by. It's Judah the Maccabee confidently fighting for Jewish religious independence and practice when the experts told him he hadn't a a chance, too small and weak for the mighty Greeks. Present day, the modern State of Israel is being ruled by those who although they live in the Land of Israel, are slaves to the United States, the United Nations, foreign leaders and alien values. It is not enough to be here in the Land of Israel. We must burn away the chametz of the mind.
Chag Kasher v'Sameach Have a Healthy, Happy and Strictly Passover Remember: You are What You Eat Tags: Politics & Gov ,Jewish World |