I'm Back!

Yes, finally.

And I'm enjoying the silence here after the noise in New York City.

At JFK, I grabbed two newspapers from the choice offered when boarding my El Al flight back home.  I read through them hungrily, like drinking water after a fast.  I just took a break to say T'filat HaDerech, The Travelers' Prayer, and photograph the sunset.

As I finished reading I looked at my hands and found them black with newspaper ink, as if tainted by the news.

And now, almost twelve hours after retuning home, I see nothing to cheer me on the news here.  The egotisitcal politicians aren't looking out for us, for our security and future.

It makes no more sense than Monty Python.

Disengaged

I guess I'm presently typical of your typical non-Israeli.
That's how I feel here in New York. I rarely get on a computer and don't hear the radio, nor see newspapers, at least not more than once or twice a week at best. I gave up trying to find news about Israel on TV.

Headlines are about Billy Joel's ex-wife the famous model and her very peculiar marriage with her soon to be additional "ex." There's also important news about Madonna and her "admirer."

So, I don't know at all what is going on. I guess I'm presently typical of your typical non-Israeli. News topic among people here concern the price of gas for the car and whether they're voting for Obama or McCain.

And yes, there are some great sales. Lord & Taylor have some things 50%off sales price. With the dollar down, bargains. But why is the dollar down? Nobody seems to know. Probably all the outsourcing.

Next week, G-d willing, I'll be back in the real world, but at present, I'm disengaged.

That's Why

I'm writing from New York.  That's why I haven't posted for a while.

It has always seemed so incomprehensible to me that World Jewry, American Jewry especially
Israel is not a priority.
were so quiet and passive and accepting while Nazi Germany kept upgrading increasing the discrimination against Jews which culminated in the systematic murder of six million.

On numerous occasions I asked my father how much he, a person who always read the newspaper, knew about what was happening. I always had trouble believing it, but he insisted that very little news came out.

These past few years, I've been in New York every summer. I read newspapers, get to see the news on TV, and I'm in the dark about what's happening in the world. That's should expose me to more news than people knew about all those decades ago.

When I was growing up, the nascent television had a maximum of 13 channels. Now there are hundreds. We've just spent two Shabbatot in New York Jewish communities, gone to synagogue, listened to the sermons.

Israel is not a priority.

That's it. Even though there was a terror attack in which Jews were murdered recently, if there were headlines, they were fleeting. The fact that the terrorists continue to attack Sderot and the Negev is considered boring old news, which doesn't sell papers or bring in advertising revenues.

There may be a potential of support for Israel and our rights to live in all of Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, but we can't expect to activate it since they don't know what's really happening. Hasbara, public relations for Jewish rights needs to go to the people.

We keep hearing that we are exposed to so much information and news, but I have a feeling that it's not true at all. We must work hard to find a way of letting the world know.