ORANGE Shabbat

-----Original Message-----From: Gush Katif [mailto:gkatif@netvision.net.il] Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 9:57 AM
To: Gush Katif
Subject: July 15-16 - A World Wide Orange Shabbat For Gush Katif


Dear Friends and supporters,

The organization Americans For a Safe Israel has set for next Shabbat ( July 15-16 ) to be an ‘orange Shabbat’ in synagogues and congregations all over the States in order to raise public awareness and ask for each one to pray and take action for the cancellation of the expulsion decree threatening the communities of Gush Katif and North of the Shomron.

We are calling upon the Rabbis, the heads of the congregations, and the people to hold prayers, and organize talks and information panels about Gush Katif.
On the seventeenth of Tamuz, we fast each year to remember the beginning of the siege on Jerusalem by the Babylonian army, destroyer of the Temple in Jerusalem. A few days before this date Israeli soldiers are about to set a siege on the residents of Gush Katif, in order to expulse them from their homes and turn them into Jewish refugees in the Land of Israel.

No one can imagine yet, the dramatic consequences of the so-called disengagement plan of Prime Minister Sharon, which is leading the country to a disaster in terms of security, national interests, for the economy and the society in Israel
This is the moment and the time to gather and stand to the right of the communities of Gush Katif and the Shomron,

Dror Vanunu
USA: Friends of Gush Katif
PO Box 1184
Teaneck, NJ 07666
www.katifund.org

1623 Third Avenue, Suite 205, New York, NY 10128
Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717; afsi@rcn.com; www.afsi.org
Contact: Helen Freedman, Executive Director; June 29, 2005

TO PARTICIPATING SYNAGOGUES IN ORANGE SHABBAT IN AMERICA’S SYNAGOGUES – AFSI WILL HELP YOU WITH NEEDED MATERIALS –

Synagogues across America will be participating in ORANGE SHABBAT in AMERICA’S SYNAGOGUES, Friday night, July 15 and Shabbat, July 16, organized by Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI.
ORANGE is the color of solidarity with Gush Katif and the N. Shomron, the communities slated for ethnic cleansing by the Sharon government. By wearing something ORANGE on that Shabbat, American synagogues will be filled with people displaying their unity with our embattled brothers and sisters in Israel.
At Kabbalat Shabbat services, on Friday night, July 15, special prayers should be said on behalf of Gush Katif/Gaza and N. Samaria. Wherever possible, congregants of all synagogues should be invited to participate in Friday night meals, at a nominal cost, where they will meet and greet each other in a unified effort to oppose the PM Sharon expulsion plan. Where speakers are available, they should be given an opportunity to explain the facts of Sharon’s plan to transfer approximately 10,000 Jews from their homes and lands in Gush Katif/Gaza and N. Samaria. Prayers will be said, songs will be sung, and awareness that appeasement of terror in Israel will spread to America, endangering our soldiers in Iraq, as well as civilians in America.
Shabbat morning, July 16, it is hoped that rabbis will devote their sermons to the crisis, and may invite guest speakers to speak at various times during the day, such as at Shalosh Seudot, and following Havdalah services. It is hoped that millions of prayers ascending to heaven at the same time will cause a cancellation of the immoral, illegal, cruel and destructive Sharon expulsion plan.
Please plan to be part of the ORANGE SHABBAT. Call AFSI, 212-828-2424 with questions. Consult our website, www.afsi.org for information that may be helpful to you. Let us know your plans for ORANGE SHABBAT. We will publicize them, thereby encouraging other synagogues to join in this nationwide effort.
Thank you for your anticipated response.
Helen Freedman, Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI