When they’re not monitoring Hebron’s network of anti-terrorist security cameras and gathering intelligence, female soldiers of the (IDF) stationed here love to hang out with Batsheva Cohen. The dynamic Chabad representative bakes challah with the soldiers, explores questions of Jewish identity, and infuses their tour of duty here with a joyfully Jewish experience.
“We have an unusual relationship with the local soldiers because we live so close to the base. In most areas the settlement is in one place and the base elsewhere,” Cohen told Lubavitch.com.
The Friday challah baking sessions started after the IDF women were transferred to another Hebron base too far to walk on Shabbat to participate in meals. Cohen arranged with the base commander to pick up the women twice monthly for Jewish programming. Their time together includes challah baking, explanations of Jewish laws unique to women, and upcoming holidays.
“We baked customary key-shaped challah bread for the first Shabbat after Passover which I later delivered to them along with wine,” said Cohen. “They all thanked me with their backs turned because they’re not allowed to take their eyes of the monitor screens while on duty.”
Cohen, whose home becomes a magnet for tens of soldiers every Friday night, hosted 40 IDF women on Shavuot, who helped her prepare a full dairy meal. During the meal, they played a holiday trivia contest to learn more about Shavuot.
“We’re always looking for opportunities to engage with the local soldiers, to reach out to them,” said Cohen who hosted the entire battalion, commander included, of the base closest to the center, on a recent Shabbat. “They army is always looking for ways to save money. I told the commander, why not send the cook home for Shabbat and come to us.”
That Shabbat, 68 soldiers joined 20 other visitors to Hebron around the table at the Chabad center. Batsheva’s husband, Danny, leads the Shabbat dinner with lively conversation, a much needed inspiration for the soldiers.
Hebron is the largest city in the West Bank with 100,000 Palestinians and over 800 Israelis. Home to the famous Cave of the Patriarchs, it is regarded as one of Israel’s Four Holy Cities and lies 20 miles south of Jerusalem.
Sivan 12, 5769, 6/4/2009
Who does the US really believe 'Palestine' belongs to?
No other people has ever claimed Palestine as their national home. National Home for THE JEWISH PEOPLE JUNE 30, 1922 HOUSE RESOLUTION 360 - UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED
"Palestine of today, the land we now know as Palestine, was peopled by the Jews from the dawn of history until the Roman era. It is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people. They were driven from it by force by the relentless Roman military machine and for centuries prevented from returning. At different periods various alien people succeeded them but the Jewish race had left an indelible impress upon the land.
"Today it is a Jewish country. Every name, every landmark, every monument and every trace of whatever civilization remaining there is still Jewish. And it has ever since remained a hope, a longing, as expressed in their prayers for these nearly 2,000 years. No other people has ever claimed Palestine as their national home. No other people has ever shown an aptitude or indicated a genuine desire to make it their homeland. The land has been ruled by foreigners. Only since the beginning of the modern Zionist effort may it be said that a creative, cultural, and economic force has entered Palestine. The Jewish Nation was forced from its natural home. It did not go because it wanted to.
"A perusal of Jewish history, a reading of Josephus, will convince the most skeptical that the grandest fight that was ever put up against an enemy was put up by the Jew. He never thought of leaving Palestine. But he was driven out. But did he, when driven out, give up his hope of getting back? Jewish history and Jewish literature give the answer to the question. The Jew even has a fast day devoted to the day of destruction of the Jewish homeland.
"Never throughout history did they give up hope of returning there. I am told that 90 per cent of the Jews today are praying for the return of the Jewish people to its own home. The best minds among them believe in the necessity of reestablishing their Jewish land. To my mind there is something prophetic in the fact that during the ages no other nation has taken over Palestine and held it in the sense of a homeland; and there is something providential in the fact that for 1,800 years it has remained in desolation as if waiting for the return of the people."
[Written by Representative Frank Appleby, New Jersey]
Sivan 11, 5769, 6/3/2009
The Saba from Netanya, Rav Yosef Schwartz in Hebron
David Wilder was born in New Jersey in the USA in 1954, and graduated from Case Western Reserve University with a BA in History and teacher certification in 1976. He spent 1974-75 in Jerusalem at the Hebrew University and returned to Israel upon graduation.
For over fifteen years David Wilder has worked with the Jewish Community of Hebron. He is the English spokesman for the community, granting newspaper, television and radio interviews internationally. He initiated the Hebron internet project, including email lists of over 15,000 subscribers who receive regular news and commentaries from Hebron in English and Hebrew. David is responsible and continues to update the Hebron web sites, portraying various facets of Hebron, utilizing text, audio, video and pictures. He conducts tours of Hebron's Jewish Community and occasionally travels abroad, speaking at Hebron functions.
David Wilder is married to Ora, a 'Sabra,' for 30 years. They lived in Kiryat Arba for 17 years and have resided at Beit Hadassah in Hebron for the past eleven years. They have seven children and many grandchildren.
