Yom HaZikaron-Memorial Day Programs

Very powerful programs produced in Hebron (in Hebrew) for:

Holocaust memorial day:
Part 1 http://www.vimeo.com/4293100
Part 2 http://www.vimeo.com/4308527

Memorial Day: http://www.vimeo.com/4371828

New video about Professor Ben-tzion Tavger z"l, who uncovered the Avraham Avinu shul in Hebron:
http://www.vimeo.com/4308910

All new videos and other information at: http://profile.to/hebron.jewish.community

For anyone who understands some Hebrew, very very worthwhile!

30 years ago - Returning to live in Hebron

Pesach 1968 - Jews return to Hebron to celebrate Pesach.

Erev Rosh HaShana 1971 - Jews move from the Hebron Military Compound to the newly founded Kiryat Arba

Erev Rosh Hodesh Iyar 1979 - Jews Return to the city of Hebron

A week and a half after Pesach a group of 10 women and 40 children left Kiryat Arba in the middle of the night, driven in a truck through the deserted streets of Hebron. They made their way to the abandoned Beit Hadassah building, originally built in the 1893 as a medical clinic for Jews and Arabs in Hebron, abandoned since the 1929 riots.

The women and children, assisted by men, climb into Beit Hadassah through a back window, bringing with them only minimal supplies. They swept some of the decades-old dust from the floor, spread out some mattresses, and went to sleep.

When they awoke in the morning the children began singing: v'shavu banim l'gvulam - the children have returned home. Soldiers guarding on the roof of the building, coming down to investigate, were astounded at the sight of the women and children. Quickly they reported to their superiors, and soon the "Beit Hadassah women" were a national issue.

Prime Minister Menachem Begin was not in favor of Jewish settlement in the heart of the city, but opposed physically expelling the group. He ordered the building surrounded by police and soldiers, and decreed that nothing, including food and water, be allowed into the building. Begin was soon visited by Rabbi Moshe Levinger, whose wife Miriam and many of his children were among those inside Beit Hadassah.

"When the Israeli army surrounded the Egyptian third army in Sinai during the Yom Kippur War, we gave the enemy soldiers food, water and medical supplies. If this is what we supplied Egyptian soldiers who had attacked and killed our soldiers, at the very least allow the women and children in Hebron the same."

Begin had no choice but to agree. The women and children lived like this, under siege, for two months. No one was allowed in and anyone leaving would not be allowed to return.

One day a little boy in Beit Hadassah had a tooth-ache and left for a dentist in Kiryat Arba. When he arrived back at Beit Hadassah the soldier guarding at the entrance refused to allow him back in. The little boy started crying, saying, "I want my Ema (mother)." At that time the Israeli cabinet was in session, and a note was relayed to the Prime Minister that a little boy was crying outside Beit Hadassah because he wasn’t allowed back in. Following a discussion by the cabinet, the little boy was permitted to return to his mother in Beit Hadassah.

After over two months the women and children were allowed to leave and return, but no one else was allowed in. They lived this way for a year.

On Friday nights, following Shabbat prayers at Ma'arat HaMachpela, the worshipers, including students from the Kiryat Arba Nir Yeshiva, would dance to Beit Hadassah, sing and dance in front of the building, recite Kiddush for the women, and then return to Kiryat Arba. In early May of 1980, a year after the women first arrived at Beit Hadassah, the men were attacked by terrorists stationed on the roof of a building across from Beit Hadassah. The Arab terrorists, shooting and throwing hand grenades killed six men and wounded twenty. Later that week the Israeli government finally issued official authorization for the renewal of a Jewish community in Hebron.

On June 11, 2000, exactly twenty years after the murder at Beit Hadassah, a new building in memory of those men killed was dedicated in Hebron. Beit HaShisha, the House of the Six, will house six new families. This beautiful structure will eternalize the names of six young men who gave their lives in Hebron, and who deaths led to the return of Jews to the heart of the city. Hebron's Jewish community had to wait twenty years to memorialize these men, but that dream is now a reality.

See photos of:
Beit Hadassah: http://www.hebron.com/english/article.php?id=274
Beit HaShisha: http://hebron.web.aplus.net/english/article.php?id=228
The Six: http://www.hebron.com/english/article.php?id=273

The Two-State Solution

The Two-State Solution
Owings Mills, Md.
Leonard Bloom
Special to the Jewish Times

For true peace in the Middle East, there must be two states living alongside each other in peace and security. It’s the only solution.

First, Israel must retreat to its pre-1967 borders, and its capital will be in Tel Aviv.

Second, a new state will be declared in the so-called “West Bank”. The new state will be called Judea, and its capital will be in Hebron. [Hebron, after all, was King David’s first capital; see I Kings, Chapter 2, verse 11.] And for strategic reasons, the Golan Heights would be incorporated into Judea.

These two states, Israel and Judea, will be under a federation called Jewish United States Territories in Common Era (or simply “JUSTICE”) and its capital will be in Jerusalem. [Like Maryland with its capital in Annapolis; Virginia with its capital in Richmond; and with the overall federation—- the U.S. A.—- having its capital there between in Washington, D.C.

JUSTICE will be responsible for common matters, such as military defense, foreign relations, monetary policy and immigration control.

Each of the two states in the JUSTICE federation, Israel and Judea, will be responsible for local matters, such as police and fire departments, education, health and social welfare programs.

In Israel, the predominant culture will be secular; and in Judea, the predominant culture will be according to Torah Judaism.

All of the citizens—- whether Jewish, Christian, Moslem or whatever—- will be requested to pledge allegiance to JUSTICE. Moreover, at age 18, they will be requested to devote two years to government service and, thereafter, one month per year until age 50. The government will determine the type of service rendered—- be it military, environmental, health, social services, infrastructure, etc.

Remember, both are requests, not mandatory requirements. If any citizen refuses either request (or both), that individual citizen may still reside in JUSTICE, own property, have businesses, and enjoy all civil rights and protections. However, they will no longer have a right to vote, nor hold any public office, nor have a government job. If they don’t pledge allegiance and agree to serve the government and its people, why should they have any input and/or control over the government?

Wait, have we forgotten something? Oh yes, the so-called “Palestinians” in the “West Bank”.

Why should they be refugees for 60 plus years? Why should three generations live in squander in refugee camps, relying upon handouts from a UN agency? Why shouldn’t they participate in a government and a culture that is much more familiar and comfortable for them, not alien?

There is something like 3 million Arab people in the “West Bank”, give or take, and there is something like 100 million in various Arab states. Those Arab states, on the surface, have been vociferous champions of the “Palestinians” for many years, so let them take in the “Palestinians” on a pro-rata basis (amounting to a roughly 3 percent population increase per Arab country). And if you extend it to all Moslem countries—- with a population of around 1.5 billion—- that amounts to a very minimal 0.2 % population increase per Moslem country. Like a drop in a bucket.

In leaving Judea, the “Palestinians” must be totally compensated for the fair market value of their land and property plus full reimbursement for relocation expenses; and all of the Jewish people in present-day Israel and throughout the Diaspora will be asked to raise sufficient funds to take care of relocating the “Palestinians” out of Judea.

Haven’t population transfers occurred throughout history? And a fair number relatively peacefully?

Compare that with the Jewish experience. In Israel’s defensive wars initiated by the Arabs, approximately 800,000 Jews were evicted (or fled in terror) from a variety of Moslem countries—all without compensation—and Israel took in those refugees and integrated them into their society. Why shouldn’t the Arabs and/or Moslems do that?

Now, upon floating this proposal, there will be a tremendous hue and a cry—an uproar from all of the Arab and/or Moslem countries, the E.U., Russia, China—- all over the world—- and likely from our own State Department.

They will all say it’s racist, ridiculous, absurd, barbaric. But isn’t it at least as logical as the position taken by the Palestinian Authority for Israel to absorb some three million Jew-hating Arabs into their country and after Israel is substantially truncated)?

Why shouldn’t Israel state this position to the PA: “You’re asking us to commit national suicide. Were asking you to agree to a different population transfer, one more conductive to your own people; and we will even pay for it completely. Isn’t that much more reasonable?”

Again, the objective should be two states of similar cultural and religious backgrounds going back around 3,000 years and united, yet independent—where one state is not obsessed with hatred and the feverish desire to kill the other and push them into the sea—but rather, a free people with an open border there between and all living in peace and security.

Truly, an ideal two-state solution.

Leonard Bloom writes from Owings Mills.