Face2Facebook
by Sara Layah Shomron
It has been 5 years since the uprooting, expulsion and destruction of Gush Katif.
There seems to be a glitch on the radar screen of major mass media news coverage concerning the former Gush Katif residents' plight and current situation. In order to remedy this I have finally discovered Facebook and am finding it an amazing vehicle to connect with people worldwide.
The "Gush Katif - historical fiction novel” Facebook page is now up and running with the aim to increase public awareness by providing a more personal look at former Gush Katif residents via select youtube videos and pertinent news articles. This Facebook page will also provide a forum to engage in relevant discussion, announce Gush Katif events, and encourage organizing Gush Katif Od Chai awareness events.
What was it like living in Gush Katif before the summer of 2005 is featured on this Facebook page via youtube videos of the historically accurate, fictional novel “Grains Of Sand The Fall Of Neve Dekalim” by Shifra Shomron (Mazo Publishers).
What has life been like since the summer of 2005 for Gush Katifers is seen on this Facebook page through select news articles and youtube videos. These videos allow people to go behind the major media news coverage and get a more intimate look and better understanding of the issues still being grappled with 5 years later. I encourage you to leave a comment on the Facebook page after watching a video.
Let your voice be heard on the page's Discussion section. Let’s engage! The first Discussion topic: your thoughts about 5 years later.
Please join and share this new Facebook page with interested others.
Showing posts with label Grains of Sand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grains of Sand. Show all posts
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
ON ASSIGNMENT IN JERUSALEM - INTERVIEW WITH SARA SHOMRON
100714
On Assignment in Jerusalem
By A. Ozoous
July 17, 2010
.jpg)
INTERVIEW WITH SARA SHOMRON (Pictured)
Publicist for the book GRAINS OF SAND, The Fall of Neve Dekalim, written by her daughter, Shifra Shomron
(For a copy of the book, go to the author’s website for a list of bookstores: Or contact Mazo Publishers; also a Literature Study Guide is available for the book for free downloading. For more information, contact the publicist at publicist.sls@gmail.com)
I caught up with my friend, Sara Shomron, at the Teachers Conference in Jerusalem, doing what she does best – promoting her daughter’s book. If a kid ever wanted a publicist for their book, they couldn’t find a more loyal, dedicated person than a mother like Sara. The following is about a young Jewish boy who received an awakening to his identity & to his Land after accepting the challenge of a school project and a personal encounter with the author of GRAINS OF SAND. I believe this book should be in every family library and every synagogue for the future education of Jewish children and their identity to the real world of Israel & the young people who are in the struggle to keep it a homeland for the Jews. The interview is in Sara Shomron’s own words:
A 7th grade boy in New Jersey was given a history assignment along with his classmates in conjunction with the State History Day Competition. Conflict & Compromise in History was the year’s theme for students 7th grade and up from New Jersey public schools and this Jewish boy in a public school did not know what he was going to do his project on – he had no idea – so he and his mother sat down at the computer and Google-searched for a subject of interest. Mother & son somehow fell into an interview Shifra had given about her book, and he was wild. He couldn’t believe someone close to his age had written a book about the expulsion of Gush Katif.
He had never heard of Gush Katif before. Even his connection to Israel was minimal so he decided it would be a terrific project to do for his class assignment. He got a hold of the book and as part of his research he contacted my daughter Shifra and asked her questions via email, and they corresponded.
For his history assignment he submitted his project and earned the grade of 100. His teacher encouraged him to participate in the state-wide competition of New Jersey in 2008. This 7th grade boy who had not previously heard of Gush Katif now entered his project called: In the Shadow of a World Destroyed, Memories of an Expelled Teenager, based on Shifra Shomron’s novel Grains of Sand, the Fall of Neve Dekalim and on April 30, 2008 this boy heard over the loud speaker, Gush Katif is a winner! He won first place for his entry in this New Jersey state-wide competition for the Southern Regional Division of National History Day Competition at Rider University.
Afterwards, the Northern & Southern State Regional winners were combined to determine who would be the finalist of the state competition. This boy was not a finalist, but several months later, he marked his Bar Mitzvah. At his Bar Mitzvah each and every table at the reception had a name of a destroyed Gush Katif community, because he wanted all the people present to know of and to remember Gush Katif. It wouldn’t have been the same if Gush Katif hadn’t been part of it. He made Gush Katif known and did his best to increase awareness and keep the memory alive of Gush Katif – a young boy who had never heard of it prior to falling into Shifra’s interview and reading her book, the power of the word, the power of the book and the power of the internet.
He has developed an amazing love for Gush Katif, and in particular a love for Israel.
(Name of the boy withheld by request, due to the age of the minor.
For a transcript of his words about the book, go to Gush Katif is a Winner!
Or, he can be heard speaking on UTube: Readers Discuss the Book Grains Of Sand: The Fall Of Neve Dekalim -- Part 2
also view:
Readers Discuss the Book Grains Of Sand: The Fall Of Neve Dekalim -- Part 1
On Assignment in Jerusalem
By A. Ozoous
July 17, 2010
.jpg)
INTERVIEW WITH SARA SHOMRON (Pictured)
Publicist for the book GRAINS OF SAND, The Fall of Neve Dekalim, written by her daughter, Shifra Shomron
(For a copy of the book, go to the author’s website for a list of bookstores: Or contact Mazo Publishers; also a Literature Study Guide is available for the book for free downloading. For more information, contact the publicist at publicist.sls@gmail.com)
I caught up with my friend, Sara Shomron, at the Teachers Conference in Jerusalem, doing what she does best – promoting her daughter’s book. If a kid ever wanted a publicist for their book, they couldn’t find a more loyal, dedicated person than a mother like Sara. The following is about a young Jewish boy who received an awakening to his identity & to his Land after accepting the challenge of a school project and a personal encounter with the author of GRAINS OF SAND. I believe this book should be in every family library and every synagogue for the future education of Jewish children and their identity to the real world of Israel & the young people who are in the struggle to keep it a homeland for the Jews. The interview is in Sara Shomron’s own words:
A 7th grade boy in New Jersey was given a history assignment along with his classmates in conjunction with the State History Day Competition. Conflict & Compromise in History was the year’s theme for students 7th grade and up from New Jersey public schools and this Jewish boy in a public school did not know what he was going to do his project on – he had no idea – so he and his mother sat down at the computer and Google-searched for a subject of interest. Mother & son somehow fell into an interview Shifra had given about her book, and he was wild. He couldn’t believe someone close to his age had written a book about the expulsion of Gush Katif.
He had never heard of Gush Katif before. Even his connection to Israel was minimal so he decided it would be a terrific project to do for his class assignment. He got a hold of the book and as part of his research he contacted my daughter Shifra and asked her questions via email, and they corresponded.
For his history assignment he submitted his project and earned the grade of 100. His teacher encouraged him to participate in the state-wide competition of New Jersey in 2008. This 7th grade boy who had not previously heard of Gush Katif now entered his project called: In the Shadow of a World Destroyed, Memories of an Expelled Teenager, based on Shifra Shomron’s novel Grains of Sand, the Fall of Neve Dekalim and on April 30, 2008 this boy heard over the loud speaker, Gush Katif is a winner! He won first place for his entry in this New Jersey state-wide competition for the Southern Regional Division of National History Day Competition at Rider University.
Afterwards, the Northern & Southern State Regional winners were combined to determine who would be the finalist of the state competition. This boy was not a finalist, but several months later, he marked his Bar Mitzvah. At his Bar Mitzvah each and every table at the reception had a name of a destroyed Gush Katif community, because he wanted all the people present to know of and to remember Gush Katif. It wouldn’t have been the same if Gush Katif hadn’t been part of it. He made Gush Katif known and did his best to increase awareness and keep the memory alive of Gush Katif – a young boy who had never heard of it prior to falling into Shifra’s interview and reading her book, the power of the word, the power of the book and the power of the internet.
He has developed an amazing love for Gush Katif, and in particular a love for Israel.
(Name of the boy withheld by request, due to the age of the minor.
For a transcript of his words about the book, go to Gush Katif is a Winner!
Or, he can be heard speaking on UTube: Readers Discuss the Book Grains Of Sand: The Fall Of Neve Dekalim -- Part 2
also view:
Readers Discuss the Book Grains Of Sand: The Fall Of Neve Dekalim -- Part 1
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Gush Katif 5th Commemoration Round-up
Gush Katif 5th Commemoration Round-up
by Sara Layah Shomron
This time of year is hard for me, as it has been for the past five years. We're approaching the commemoration of the uprooting from Gush Katif and its destruction. Gush Katif is at the forefront of my mind as memories shadow me, yet time passes and we've tried to progress despite the almost unimaginable loss.
My family is part of the new Neve Dekalim community at Nitzan, not the caravilla site, which we were glad to leave, rather the new Neve Dekalim community adjoining the pre-existing dati-leumi (national religious) Nitzan community. This video (featuring my daughter Nechama!) updates on the various Gush Katif community building projects. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdxv3I6vww0
I'll be doing a few things to commemorate the uprooting. From July 13th - 15th I'll be attending the International English Teachers' summer conference at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem where, as official publicist, I'll promote my daughter Shifra Shomron's book, "Grains of Sand: The Fall of Neve Dekalim" at a display table in the exhibition hall. The book will also be featured in the conference's July 13th poster session, "Teenager's Voice-Grains of Sand: The Fall of Neve Dekalim." I'll give a brief presentation and then Shifra will take the floor. For a sneak preview, please click on the link to our poster session's handout: http://www.slideshare.net/ETAI2010/teenagers-voice-grains-of-sand-the-fall-of-neve Click on zoom+ (directly below the bottom of the handout page) to enlarge the print. It is especially exciting to see that Gush Katif is represented at this very important international conference.
My family will also be participating in some of the 70 Gush Katif commemoration events planned throughout the country. We invite you to join us. Please mark your calendar and look to attend. For a memorial event near you, contact the Gush Katif Committee, tel. (08) 973-8000, or the new English language website, www.gushkatif.org which is worth a look even after the events are over.
The last two items below are posted on the INN Facebook discussion section. I encourage you to let people know what you are doing to mark the 5th commemoration:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=102510354100&topic=15332
1) Monday, 12 July, at 20:00, at the Petach Tikva Sharet Hall, next to the Municipality of Petah Tikva:
The program is in Hebrew. Rabbi Raffi Peretz of the Atzmona Mechina and Anita Tucker from Netzer Hazani.
2) Thursday, 15 July, from 19:30-21:15, at the OU Center, Jerusalem.
(22 Keren Hayesod Street):
A program especially created for English speakers will take place next week, Thursday, 15 July, from 19:30-21:15, at the OU Center, Jerusalem. It will feature speakers Dror Vanunu, International Coordinator of the Gush Katif Fund and Rachel Saperstein, Director of Operation Dignity. An exclusive film produced by the Gush Katif Committee will be shown. This is one of 70 such events taking place across the country.
3) Thursday, 22 July, from 15:00-21:00, at the OU Center, Jerusalem:
Exactly one week later at the same venue, a special event SALUTING YESHA ARTISTS will take place, G-d willing, with the majority of the artists participating being former residents of GUSH KATIF. The occasion will also serve as a benefit for the organization HONENU which provides support and legal counseling for Jews who run afoul of the authorities while defending Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. Come to the Israel Center ( Keren Hayesod Street 22) between 15:00-21:00 on Thursday, 11 Av (22 July) to give support. This is a social, cultural, civil rights activity open to all at no charge. Not to be missed! (bli neder I’ll be there promoting Shifra’s book, and hope to see you there!).
Because the spirit of Gush Katif has not been broken... Katif Od Chai!
by Sara Layah Shomron
This time of year is hard for me, as it has been for the past five years. We're approaching the commemoration of the uprooting from Gush Katif and its destruction. Gush Katif is at the forefront of my mind as memories shadow me, yet time passes and we've tried to progress despite the almost unimaginable loss.
My family is part of the new Neve Dekalim community at Nitzan, not the caravilla site, which we were glad to leave, rather the new Neve Dekalim community adjoining the pre-existing dati-leumi (national religious) Nitzan community. This video (featuring my daughter Nechama!) updates on the various Gush Katif community building projects. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdxv3I6vww0
I'll be doing a few things to commemorate the uprooting. From July 13th - 15th I'll be attending the International English Teachers' summer conference at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem where, as official publicist, I'll promote my daughter Shifra Shomron's book, "Grains of Sand: The Fall of Neve Dekalim" at a display table in the exhibition hall. The book will also be featured in the conference's July 13th poster session, "Teenager's Voice-Grains of Sand: The Fall of Neve Dekalim." I'll give a brief presentation and then Shifra will take the floor. For a sneak preview, please click on the link to our poster session's handout: http://www.slideshare.net/ETAI2010/teenagers-voice-grains-of-sand-the-fall-of-neve Click on zoom+ (directly below the bottom of the handout page) to enlarge the print. It is especially exciting to see that Gush Katif is represented at this very important international conference.
My family will also be participating in some of the 70 Gush Katif commemoration events planned throughout the country. We invite you to join us. Please mark your calendar and look to attend. For a memorial event near you, contact the Gush Katif Committee, tel. (08) 973-8000, or the new English language website, www.gushkatif.org which is worth a look even after the events are over.
The last two items below are posted on the INN Facebook discussion section. I encourage you to let people know what you are doing to mark the 5th commemoration:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=102510354100&topic=15332
1) Monday, 12 July, at 20:00, at the Petach Tikva Sharet Hall, next to the Municipality of Petah Tikva:
The program is in Hebrew. Rabbi Raffi Peretz of the Atzmona Mechina and Anita Tucker from Netzer Hazani.
2) Thursday, 15 July, from 19:30-21:15, at the OU Center, Jerusalem.
(22 Keren Hayesod Street):
A program especially created for English speakers will take place next week, Thursday, 15 July, from 19:30-21:15, at the OU Center, Jerusalem. It will feature speakers Dror Vanunu, International Coordinator of the Gush Katif Fund and Rachel Saperstein, Director of Operation Dignity. An exclusive film produced by the Gush Katif Committee will be shown. This is one of 70 such events taking place across the country.
3) Thursday, 22 July, from 15:00-21:00, at the OU Center, Jerusalem:
Exactly one week later at the same venue, a special event SALUTING YESHA ARTISTS will take place, G-d willing, with the majority of the artists participating being former residents of GUSH KATIF. The occasion will also serve as a benefit for the organization HONENU which provides support and legal counseling for Jews who run afoul of the authorities while defending Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. Come to the Israel Center ( Keren Hayesod Street 22) between 15:00-21:00 on Thursday, 11 Av (22 July) to give support. This is a social, cultural, civil rights activity open to all at no charge. Not to be missed! (bli neder I’ll be there promoting Shifra’s book, and hope to see you there!).
Because the spirit of Gush Katif has not been broken... Katif Od Chai!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Mind Control in High School Literature
A few months ago, the Israeli Ministry of Education decided to poll the "public" in order to decide which works of literature would be added to the resurrected required curriculum in EFL English studies.
Some of the suggested works proved controversial, and the debate even made the local press*. (*Strangely, now when I went back to the site/link, I found that the talkbacks have been deleted. There had been quite a public debate.) A number of teachers wanted the debut historical novel, Grains of Sand, by Shifra Shomron, who based her novel on her experiences as a teenager expelled from her home in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif.
I'm considered a veteran high school English teacher here in Israel, and I admit to having encouraged Shifra with her writing and offered her to blog on Shiloh Musings. It's a good book and I think that its inclusion would have made the students think and encouraged Israeli students to try writing. But the book didn't make it into the official recommended list.
Ironically, while Shifra's book is very understated, personal and non-political, a much more controversial book did make it in. Actually, I'm overjoyed that The Wave by Morton Rhue is one of the two choices for top level (5 point Bagrut) Israeli students.
I think it should be required reading to prepare our students for IDF army service. We don't want "just following orders" Nazi-like robots in the army, and we certainly don't want our children to be mind-controlled.
The Fall of the Last Community in Gush Katif
Shared via AddThis
The Last Hours of Netzer Hazani
Shared via AddThis
Every time I see films of how our soldiers systematically, methodically and trained to overcome their emotion as they force innocent Israeli Jews from their homes, I'm spooked, scared out of my wits. It's inhuman and against Jewish Law how our soldiers behaved. I'm glad that my sons were already out of the army when Disengagement happened.
Descended from the same Jewish souls who sympathize with every underdog, even the fakes and antisemitic ones, our politicians, leaders, media and judicial must have undergone some perverse mutation. How else can this be explained?
It would be best if Israeli high school students would be exposed to the dangers of cults and brainwashing in their native Hebrew, but it looks like it's up to the English teachers to immunize the youth against the mind control of the "politically correct."
Some of the suggested works proved controversial, and the debate even made the local press*. (*Strangely, now when I went back to the site/link, I found that the talkbacks have been deleted. There had been quite a public debate.) A number of teachers wanted the debut historical novel, Grains of Sand, by Shifra Shomron, who based her novel on her experiences as a teenager expelled from her home in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif.
I'm considered a veteran high school English teacher here in Israel, and I admit to having encouraged Shifra with her writing and offered her to blog on Shiloh Musings. It's a good book and I think that its inclusion would have made the students think and encouraged Israeli students to try writing. But the book didn't make it into the official recommended list.
Ironically, while Shifra's book is very understated, personal and non-political, a much more controversial book did make it in. Actually, I'm overjoyed that The Wave by Morton Rhue is one of the two choices for top level (5 point Bagrut) Israeli students.
"The setting of the book is Gordon High School in 1969. The plot of the book revolves around around a history teacher (Mr. Ben Ross), his high school students, and an experiment he conducts in an attempt to teach them about how it may have been living in Nazi Germany. He hopes this answers the question of why the Germans allowed Adolf Hitler and the genocidal Nazi Party to rise to power, acting in a manner inconsistent with their own pre-existing moral values...
Laurie, a student in Mr. Ross' class, starts to think that The Wave is having too much of an impact. A huge majority of the school is in The Wave, and its members attack students who refuse to join. Using her influence as the School Newspaper Editor, Laurie releases an entire issue of The Grapevine dedicated to showing the dangers of The Wave. While some thank her, especially teachers and parents, others do not. Laurie's boyfriend David, who has been in The Wave since the beginning, tries to get her to stop bad-mouthing The Wave. He eventually shoves her to the ground and this makes him realize how dangerous The Wave really is."
I think it should be required reading to prepare our students for IDF army service. We don't want "just following orders" Nazi-like robots in the army, and we certainly don't want our children to be mind-controlled.
The Fall of the Last Community in Gush Katif
Shared via AddThis
The Last Hours of Netzer Hazani
Shared via AddThis
Every time I see films of how our soldiers systematically, methodically and trained to overcome their emotion as they force innocent Israeli Jews from their homes, I'm spooked, scared out of my wits. It's inhuman and against Jewish Law how our soldiers behaved. I'm glad that my sons were already out of the army when Disengagement happened.
Descended from the same Jewish souls who sympathize with every underdog, even the fakes and antisemitic ones, our politicians, leaders, media and judicial must have undergone some perverse mutation. How else can this be explained?
It would be best if Israeli high school students would be exposed to the dangers of cults and brainwashing in their native Hebrew, but it looks like it's up to the English teachers to immunize the youth against the mind control of the "politically correct."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)