Touring Beit El, Kfar Ivri, and More

Last week I joined a group of women from various parts of the country under the leadership of my neighbor Rachel Sela for an amazing tour.

There were only three stops/locations, and each was special representing our undeniable connection to the Land of Israel and Bible.

First we went to nearby Beit El, where they have a visitors center dedicated to the story of Jacob's Ladder. But for us the significance of Beit El concerned the split of the Davidic Dynasty, long after our Forefather Jacob slept and dreamt in Beit El.

Next stop was the real Givat Shaul, Hill of Saul, where archeologists have found remains of palaces from Biblical times. But this structure has nothing to do with the bible at all, though it was meant to be a palace. In the mid-1960s Jordan's King Hussein wanted a summer palace in  eastern Jerusalem, which he illegally occupied at the time. We were there on a very hot day, but the winds blowing through the incomplete shell were strong.

The Hashemites are long gone, and Jerusalem has grown tremendously under Israeli sovereignty.

Afterwards we visited Beit Hashivah, which although is in an Arab neighborhood and part of Jerusalem, the land is really owned by Jews. Prior to Israeli Independence there had been a Jewish farming village there, Kfar Ivri, near the present neighborhood of Neve Yaakov, which also has a history of being a Jewish farming village. 

We met some of the Jewish residents, new and old who told us the story and how they are trying to revitalize this Jewish neighborhood. A number of young families now live in the building, and there's a yeshiva where men learn during the day.

Over fifty years ago, my husband and I spent a few Shabbatot there as guests of one of the original families, so it was very moving for me to finally return.

The oldest and most veteran of the Jewish residents is the well-known Ezra Yachin, pictured on the left. In his youth is fought in the pre-state underground Lechi, aka Stern Gang. He has written many books about his experiences and related topics. His memoir, Elnakam is published in both English and Hebrew.

Ezra still travels around the country talking to young and old about his life and Israel's history.

We ended our tour with dinner on the roof of Beit Hashivah. It was truly a wonderful day.

Geula Cohen, Remembered, 30 Shloshim

Tzachi Hanegbi speaking at his mother's shloshim

Last night I attended the Geula Cohen, ZaTza"L, event in the Beit ATza"G, Uri Tzvi Greenberg Center to commemorate her Shloshim, 30 days since she had passed away. For us, Geula was family. My husband had worked for her and with her for decades.

The hall was packed mostly with older people who had known Geula personally in her various roles, crusades and projects. There were very few politicians, but many activists and ordinary Israelis who had been inspired by Geula's history and contributions, yes, in the plural, to the establishment of the State of Israel, her unwavering support of Jewish Rights and Sovereignty in all of the Land of Israel and her promotion of the teaching of the poetry of Uri Tzvi Greenberg and the legendary fighters/member of Lechi and Etzel.

Tzachi Hanegbi, Geula's son, spoke beautifully and very suitably especially given the location of the event. I'll just repeat one very telling story, which he revealed to us last night. For a relatively short period of time they both served as Members of Knesset, Geula representing Techiya and Tzachi the Likud. Then there was the elections in which Techiya didn't get enough votes to be in the Knesset. Tzachi was nervous about how his mother would take it but forced himself to visit her soon after the results were out.

Instead of finding Geula depressed and/or angry, Tzachi was amazed to find his mother already galvanized, lobbying for her next project/cause. Geula's forced retirement from the Knesset was dedicated to the promotion of the teaching of  Uri Tzvi Greenberg, his contributions to Hebrew and Jewish Literature, poetry and more. If it wasn't for the vision of Geula Cohen, Uri Tzvi Greenberg would be forgotten.

We must never forget Geula Cohen who was a great Jewish fighter for the Jewish Land, State, People, History and Literature.

Jerusalem Field Trip to The "Underground Museum"

A couple of weeks ago, the senior citizen "vattimkim," program I attend every week had a field trip to Jerusalem. I already blogged about our visit to the Jerusalem Municipality complex at Safra Square where we saw their amazing scale model of some of the city.

Just behind Safra Square is what's known as Migrash Harusim, the Russian Compound, in which there's a police station, jail and the jail that the British used when they were occupying the Land of Israel, during the Mandate.

In that old jail is a museum dedicated to the Jewish prisoners who had been arrested, held and executed by the British before the declaration of Independence of the State of Israel. Over the almost half a century I've lived in Israel, I visited that museum a number of times. Each time there are updates and improvements to help the visitors gain a good comprehension of what imprisonment was like there during that difficult time.

Most of the Jewish prisoners had been members of the Etzel and Lechi, known as the "underground." Since members of the Haganah and Palmach cooperated with the British by informing on the Etzel and Lehi, fewer of them were jailed. Pretty much everyone in our group has a good knowledge of pre-state history and knows the historical context of the Underground Museum. Our guide had to take that into account, and she was wonderful. When members of the group wanted to enter a room that the guide hadn't planned on showing, she cooperated happily.

Most of the group I was with didn't need

This is a wonderful museum, not too large. It is easy to get to by public transportation, bus and the lightrail. The tour guides are excellent, as are the public toilets.

Vacationing Up North

Cross-posted on A Jewish Grandmother.

Last week I posted a few pictures from our A Bissel Vacation up north taken and posted on my phone. Yes, a smartphone is very much like a mini laptop computer. I don't see the need for a tablet, even though my Samsung J7 isn't the most powerful of phones. But typing on a tiny/mini-keyboard and saying really interesting isn't for the phone. So now I'll tell you more about our vacation.

My husband works for the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, and they had joined with the Kinar-Galilee Hotel for a truly interesting program that began Thursday evening, then a tour Friday morning and a Shabbat full of activities. As an employee of the Begin Center Education Department, my husband was needed to guide one of the buses. As a result we had a wonderful weekend and finally made it to the Kinar, which is really a great hotel.

As the sun set, I took some amazing photos of the hotel grounds and Lake Kinneret:

Dr. Udi Lebel, PhD

Here are more of the photos I took. Thursday night we heard a lecture by Dr. Udi Lebel, PhD, "Beyond the Pantheon": Bereavement, Memory and the Strategy of De-Legitimization Against Herut, which was totally fascinating. He talked about the enduring hatred Ben-Gurion had for anyone who had been associated with the Etzel and Lechi. For example the two men on the screen behind Lebel were twin brothers who had both been killed during the War for Independence. The difference was that one had been with the Haganah and the other Etzel, so the family only got bereavement benefits for the son killed while in the Haganah. They were told they'd lose those benefits if they made a joint memorial for their two sons.

After that we watched the excellent one-man show, "Mr. Begin," which was totally amazing. If you have the opportunity to see it, go. It was in Hebrew.

The following morning we were off to tour to Shlomo Ben-Yosef memorial and grave in the old cemetery in Rosh Pinna, the Memorial for Mishmar HaYarden and Tel Chai.

There were two busloads of people, and we heard very positive reactions. On Shabbat there were two more lectures,  "From Ben Gurion to Levi Eshkol" by Muki Tzur and Herzi Makov, Director of the Begin Center spoke about From Menachem Begin to Yitzchak Shamir.  The veteran singing duo Tzemed Re'im were also there to entertain and act as part of the choir at the Ashkenaz synagogue.

All and all it was a really excellent program which ended after Shabbat. If they repeat the program, try to attend if you can.

Geula Cohen, Israeli Heroine and Icon 90!

We've known Geula Cohen and her family, her late husband Emanuel (Adam, his underground Lechi name) Hanegbi and son Tzachi Hanegbi, pretty much ever since we came to Israel. My husband first met Emanuel before our aliyah when he had been a student in Machon Hamadrichei Chutz L'Aretz.

The Begin Heritage Center Auditorium and meeting rooms (set up with screens and speakers so people could see and hear the event) were packed, while many others found themselves even closed out of those extra venues, since there just wasn't enough space for all who wanted to attend this very special tribute/birthday celebrating Geula Cohen's 90th. It's so wonderful when someone who contributed so much to the Jewish People and the State of Israel is alive to hear what quite often just gets said at memorials.

Geula began her contribution to the Jewish People when still a teenager in what was then called Palestine, part of the Mandate the British were entrusted with to establish a Jewish State. When the British refused to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish State, a number of underground groups were formed to "convince" the British to leave. Among them, and the least compromising of all, was Lechi aka the Stern Group. As its iconic radio announcer Geula made her mark. At one point the British succeeded in arresting and trying her for the "crime." Actually, she was tried and sentenced for two crimes, her radio work and having a gun on her. They sentenced her for seven years for carrying a gun and two for broadcasting on the radio. She could not understand why they thought the gun was more a danger to their rule than her broadcasting, because she believed firmly in the power of words. No surprise that later on she made her mark as a journalist, and after that, when she was a Knesset Member, her speeches and phraseology were electrifying.

Geula has kept to her principles to this day, earning the respect of the Israeli establishment, even those who don't agree with her. In 2003 she received the coveted Israel Prize on Independence Day for her lifetime achievement and special contribution to society and the State.

Here are some photos I took at the celebrations:

We should all be thanking Geula Cohen, ad me'ah vi'esrim...

Countdown to Israeli Independence Day!

In one more week we'll all be celebrating Israeli Independence Day!  Sixty-six 66 years since David Ben-Gurion took on the world and declared that enough was enough.  The Jewish State, aka the State of Israel was declared!

The odds were completely against us, and the world sat by watching, expecting to see a simple bloody rout. There was no way that a bunch of poor Jewish farmers, beggars and undernourished survivors of Hitler's concentration camps could defeat the Arabs who had the de facto backing of Great Britain and other countries.

Juara Haganah Museum

Ben-Gurion didn't even have a united Jewish army to fight with him. Actually, that was mostly his fault. He was so against the Etzel and Lechi during the latter years of the British Mandate that he even cooperated with the British by informing against them in a period known as the sezon, The Hunting Season.  He continued with his extreme hatred of those Jews who didn't support him politically by tricking the Etzel, led by Menachem Begin, and attacking the Altalena which resulting in the death of Jewish patriots and the destruction of valuable weapons which had been brought to liberate Jerusalem from the Arabs.

Altalena on fire

It wasn't only the Revisionists, Jabotinsky followers, members of Etzel and Lechi that Ben-Gurion tried to defeat, he also did everything he could to brainwash, deprogram religious North-African Jews from strictly observing Judaism. Children were sent to secular boarding schools to be "educated" and turned into Leftist, secular Israelis aka modern Jews.

Honestly, when I began this post, I didn't plan on rehashing the terrible side of early Israeli history. But in order to understand today's State of Israel we must remember the awful, disgraceful side, too.

When we wonder why the Israeli Left, and even Center, are so rabidly anti-Jewish Life in Judea and Samaria, and we wonder why Shabbak, Israel's "secret police" can be so cruel to fellow Jews instead of concentrating on our real enemies, and we wonder how the Israeli Judicial System can judge Patriotic Jews so unfairly, we just have to think of David Ben-Gurion.

They are the spiritual, political, immoral heirs of David Ben-Gurion.

What's the great irony here in Israel sixty-six years later? The descendants of Ben-Gurion and his followers are less interested in Israel than the descendants of those he tried so hard to destroy.

Considering all of the civil war, a battle for Jewish souls going on during the War for Israeli Independence and the early years of the state, it's even more amazing that G-d allowed the state to survive and thrive.

We wouldn't have a State of Israel if G-d hadn't supported us. There's no rational way to describe our victories in 1948, 1967 and 1973.

That's why it is so important to thank G-d with Prayers including the Hallel on Israeli Independence Day!

Israeli Independence Day Prayers in the Mishkan Tabernacle Synagogue, Shiloh

Yes, we still have a long way to go, but we won't succeed without the Help of the Almighty!

Clarifying The Past

Being a Jew and living in Shiloh, a location so rich in Jewish Biblical History, it's so clear to me that our past is our present, totally intertwined, in a way that no other People experience.

Recently, my husband has been involved in researching the kidnapping and murder of Alexander Rubovitz, a young, teenage Lechi (Stern Group) activist by Roy Farren of the British Police. To this day, over sixty years later, the body has never been found. There was no funeral, and no "closing" for his family, friends and compatriots.

That's not the only story from our struggle against the British for the Independence of the State of Israel recently researched. Natan Brun, whose father, Akiva, had been accused by the British of planning on bombing London decided to learn the facts.

Akiva Brun had also been a member of Lechi. The British hated and feared the Lechi, which had split from the Etzel Irgun during World War Two. The crucial issue was whether or not to take a hiatus from attacking Britain which was then fighting Nazi Germany.

The Etzel misread the situation, ignoring the fact that England was fighting for its own survival, not for any greater good. At the same time Britain refused Jewish refugees entry to Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. It didn't care how many Jews were murdered, whether by Nazis or Arabs. Today the next generation is in the Knesset. Etzel leader Menachem Begin's son, Benny is a Likud MK, and Lechi leader Yisrael Eldad's son Arieh is a Ichud Le'umi (National Union) MK. Yes, the same political-philosophical struggle continues.

Tim Franks' opening paragraph is attention-getting but skirts criminal libel.

Did Al-Qaeda draw on Jewish inspiration for its attacks of 11 September 2001? It may seem unlikely, but more than 60 years ago, Jewish militants were arrested in Paris on suspicion - as newspapers in Britain, France and the US reported at the time - of planning to bomb London from the air.

Both the Lechi and the Etzel were careful never to harm innocent civilians. It's slanderous to imply that there could be any connection between them and Al-Qaeda.

No surprise that Natan Brun "...has come up with conclusive evidence that the gang was planning only to drop leaflets, not bombs over London." It's obvious that the British discovered that, too, because Akiva Brun wasn't executed by the British. He was allowed to return home to his family after the British Mandate ended.

And it would be a kind, humanitarian gesture if the British would assist in finding the body of Alexander Rubovitz. Let him be given a proper Jewish burial. Sixty-two years have passed since he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered. Considering that Great Britain attended Durban II, I don't hold much hope that they care about the teenage Jew they murdered all those years ago.

Raise Up The Barricades! Alei Barricadot!

I don't usually read my fellow A7 blogger, Ben Bresky's blog about Jewish music, but somehow this morning I took a look. I noticed that it was about a "Sarah." Now, the only Sarah recently in the news is Sarah Palin. What would she be doing in Jewish Music blog?

Wrong Sarah. He had written about Sarah Livni, the poor Etzel fighter, who's probably turning in her grave to the tune of "Alei Barracadot!" Yes, Sarah was Tsippi's mother, and as you can see from the pictures, Tsippi did not inherit her mother's looks.

Strange coincidence, just the other day, I sang the refrain from that song. It was after my friends and I had finished our weekly "divided" T'hilim Psalms. One of them mentioned a peculiar funeral she had been at. The attendees sang. It wasn't strange to me. I have been to quite a number of funerals of former Lechi and Etzel fighters, and they always ended with the singing of the fighting songs, especially "Alei Barricadot." If I'm not mistaken, the custom began during the Israeli War of Independence.

Raise Up the Barricades
by M. Ashbel

Today my little Sarah
We'll part as I go to war
To establish the state
On both sides of the Jordan
Harden your heart
And tighten your belt
Embrace me, take the Sten
And join me in the ranks
Raise up the barricades we shall meet
Do not cry For such is my fate Wipe away your tears

Raise up the barricades we bring freedom with blood and fire.
Rifle to rifle, barrel to barrel
Bullet to bullet we shall fire
Raise up the barricades we shall meet
And if on the gallows
I shall give my life for the nation
Do not cry
For such is my fate
Wipe away your tears
Hold the Sten close to your heart
And choose for yourself another
From the men of my squad

We're missing good inspring songs to help us to the victory we need today.