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By Kathleen O’Brien/The Star-Ledger blog.nj.com

Both Zsuzsanna Gabor and Georgette Chinitz were able to survive World War II because of a non-Jew who risked much to help them.

In Gabor’s case, it was Julia Paulik, the owner of a leather goods manufacturer that employed her father as bookkeeper and manager. It was she who would wrap loaves of bread in fabric to sneak into their warehouse hiding place.

And it was she who kept their secret — from even her own husband, who didn’t want to jeopardize the family’s safety by getting involved in the problems of others, no matter how desperate.

Once the war passed, Gabor’s family remained close to her. She was a guest at Gabor’s wedding, and Gabor named her daughter after her.

But the Communist takeover of Hungary proved more dangerous to Paulik than any prying Nazi. She and her husband lived on a farm, a small country estate, and owned a pig. In 1953, when food was scarce, that pig — combined with the kilo of black pepper they were saving to cure the pork — drew the rage of Communist authorities, who accused them of hoarding food.

Gabor, then pregnant, arranged to be a character witness at Paulik’s trial. She told the court of Paulik’s bravery in hiding them. The judge asked if she had been hidden because she was a communist, or because she was a Jew. Gabor tried to avoid answering, but eventually said it was because she was a Jew.

“The judge said that didn’t count,” Gabor recalled. Paulik was sentenced to jail. A diabetic, she died there.

Chinitz’s savior, Catherine Laborderie, was posthumously awarded the “Righteous Among the Nations” medal given by the Israeli government to non-Jews who helped Jews during the Holocaust. It was arranged by Chinitz’s cousin, who as a teenager was hidden in a haystack in the same village.

Chinitz traveled to Laborderie’s small village of Bruguieres three years ago to participate in the awards ceremony, which was led by a representative from the Israeli consulate.

They dedicated a plaque in the village square listing the members of her extended family who had been deported to Auschwitz, and erected a new tombstone on Laborderie’s grave.

“We wanted to honor her memory,” Chinitz said. “I don’t think we would’ve survived without her.”

See related story.

By Kathleen O’Brien/The Star-Ledger blog.nj.com

The rejection letter sounds one-quarter therapeutic, three-quarters bureaucratic:
“The duration of your persecution does not fall under the current guidelines imposed by the German government.”

Despite her family escaping the round-up of Jews in Vichy-ruled France, despite spending months traversing the Alps barefoot by moonlight, living on nuts and sheep’s milk, Georgette Chinitz was ruled ineligible for a monthly check from the German government.

The reason: Her family’s terrifying experience didn’t last long enough to qualify for payments from Germany to compensate for the damage inflicted by the Third Reich.

That might change soon as eligibility has recently been expanded to include people whose lives were disrupted for 12 months, instead of the previous 18-month cut-off.

Chinitz is one of an estimated 16,000 Holocaust survivors who could join the ranks of the 278,000 survivors worldwide receiving reparations for being forced to live in concentration camps, ghettos, or in hiding.

The topic of reparations triggers strong — and highly individual — reactions, said Susan Schechter, coordinator of Eldercare Services at Jewish Family Services at Metrowest.

“Some people view it as ‘blood money.’ It’s an appeasement, I guess, or repayment for their suffering. And nothing can ever repay them for the life they should have had: their youth, their education,” she said. “There’s no amount of money that can ever replace what they lost.”

Others derive great solace from receipt of the regular payments of a few hundred dollars. “They finally feel some sense of redemption, or of getting some recognition for what they suffered,” Schechter said.

Still others allow for some practicality in their outlook, said Schechter: “Other people have, with time, softened a bit and have seen that in their old age, they could use the money.”

Government payments to concentration camp survivors — or Wiedergutmachung, German for “to make good again” — began in 1953. Over the years, a coalition of Jewish charities, called the Claims Conference, has negotiated payments to new categories of victims from the sprawling world war.
This latest group could see “pension” payments of roughly $300 a month.

Providing proof for a claim can be daunting, as the chaos of war destroyed everything from birth and residency records to the very relatives whose memories a claimant might tap.

“Some people say to me, ‘I have no documents,” and my answer is to them, “Well really, nobody does,’” said Schechter.

HIDING IN HUNGARY
If 90-year-old Zsuzsanna Gabor is approved for a monthly reparation check, she’ll use the money to pay for transportation to her dialysis. That doesn’t even begin to compensate for having spent nine months hiding in a cold dark cellar in Budapest — “What I went through, nobody could pay me” — but at least it’s something.

When the Germans arrived in Hungary in March of 1944, her parents knew it was time to hide. The owner of the leather goods store her father managed offered them the company’s warehouse. They lived there for three weeks, and were warned of visitors by the watchman, who would tug a piece of twine that was tied to a sheet of newspaper in their storage room. The paper’s rustling would send them scurrying silently into a crawl space.

Soon they relocated, one at a time, to the tiny wood store cellar three blocks away. Gabor, 22 at the time, had a dream in which it was snowing when it was safe for them to emerge. Her two older sisters scoffed at her: “Are you crazy?”, one asked, gesturing to the spring weather outside. “Where’s winter?

But her dream was prescient: The family of five did have to hide until the following January, when Russian troops reached the city. They lived on bread snuck in by the company owner, who also smuggled out their garbage.

The three sisters couldn’t wash their hair the entire time, and the lack of a bathroom made them rue their menstrual cycles. The girls passed the time with memory games, trying to summon up everything from street names to childhood nursery rhymes.

At a time when Hungarian Nazis were literally tossing Jews into the Danube, discovery risked death. Nor could they count on help from Budapest’s citizens — a German officer told her father that when the German occupiers arrived, 10,000 letters revealing the whereabouts of local Jews awaited them. Only a quarter of Budapest’s Jews survived the war.

Toward the end of the family’s confinement, her father lost his nerve and decided they should give themselves up. “We can’t survive, we can’t survive,” he moaned over and over. Her mother comforted him, stroking his hair and saying, “We have to. We have to. We gave life to these three children,” Gabor recalled. Once calmed, his normal resolve returned.

Until now, however, this experience — this persecution — was insufficient to warrant any German payment. “I wasn’t in a concentration camp so I didn’t get any money,” said Gabor, in her Hungarian-accented English. “They said because I was hiding, they weren’t paying.”

The new eligibility rules provide for payments to Jews trapped in Budapest’s ghetto during the Nazi occupation toward the final months of the war.

No amount of money could compensate for what her family endured in 1944, but she would welcome the money anyway. “I’m very poor,” she said. “I live through hard times.”

Until recently she lived on her own in Fair Lawn; she recently moved in with her son across town. He’s “a good boy” (he’s 59) who takes her to dialysis, but it would be nice to have some extra money to hire outside transportation now and then.

ESCAPING ROUND-UPS IN FRANCE
Chinitz’s parents fled Belgium for southern France after the Germans invaded; she was born in Toulouse in 1941.

“At the time, the French authorities — the gendarmes — were kind. But it didn’t last,” she said. When the Vichy regime took hold, the locals advised her parents to move to the nearby village of Bruguieres, where they were taken in by an unmarried woman in her 60s.

Chinitz’s family dodged one round-up of Jews because families with children under the age of 2 were exempt. Her two uncles were taken, however. When the increasingly pro-German authorities next instructed the remaining Jews to report to the village square with one valise apiece, her mother told her father, “We’re going the other way.”

Thus began a two-month ordeal in which the family traveled, barefoot and at night, over the Maritime Alps of southeastern France into Italy, guided by the “Maquis,” the Free French guerilla fighters. Her mother was pregnant; her father carried young Georgette on his shoulders.

After being hidden in an Italian priest’s stable, they crossed the Alps again — this time with a newborn — to reach Switzerland.

She has no memory of that journey, taken when she was 2, but learned about it in bits and pieces whenever she’d overhear her mother talking with friends.

For Chinitz, now a 71-year-old widow who lives in Edison, the case for accepting the payments isn’t complicated.

“I don’t see it as ‘blood money,’” she said. “These are monies that were confiscated by the Nazis when they raided Jewish apartments, Jewish artwork. They just cleaned them out.”

She views it this way: “I’m getting Jewish money back.” If her re-opened claim is approved, she’d use it to give sedaka, or to charity.

‘IT CHANGED MY LIFE’
If Chinitz and Gabor end up being awarded reparations, they might discover the money carries a profound emotional message. That’s what Monique Dorman, of Cedar Grove, found once payments from the German government started to arrive in her bank account.

She applied several years ago, but kept getting letters demanding more information, followed by silence once she answered their questions. “You feel you’re being victimized again by the Germans — not the original Germans, but their children, their grandchildren,” she said.

When she received her first payment about six months ago, it helped her feel she’d finally completed a phase of her life.

“It changed my life. Not the money so much, but to be validated, to receive acknowledgement that my life had been impacted by this horrible thing,” she said. “They’ve acknowledged what happened. To them, I’m finally a human being.”

Before the payments, she felt she could never accept invitations to share her Holocaust story at local schools. Now, she can.

Holocaust survivor may be eligible to receive monthly pension payments from the German government.
Zsuzsanna Weisz Gabor is one of many Holocaust survivors who may be eligible to receive monthly pension payments from the German government. She was 22 years old in March of 1944 when the Nazis invaded Hungry during World War II. Her parents and two sisters hid for more than 9 months in Budapest to avoid concentration camps.

See related story.

From www.StandWithUs.com

1. The name “West Bank” was coined by Jordan during its illegal occupation (1949-1967).

2. The West Bank was known as Judea and Samaria –the birth place of Judaism — for thousands of years.

3. The only time that Jews were prohibited from living in the West Bank was during Jordan’s illegal occupation (1949-1967).

4. There has never been a Palestinian Arab state prior to the one currently being proposed.

5. The Green Line was never an internationally recognized border. (It was the cease-fire line from 1949.)

6. UN Resolution 242 states that future secure borders are to be negotiated.

7. Israeli settlements cover approximately 1.7% of the West Bank; 5-8% if you count the fence.

8. 75-80% of West Bank Israelis live in communities close to the Green Line.

9. 98% of West Bank Palestinians live in Palestinian-governed Areas A and B. Less than 2% live in Israeli-administered Area C.

10. Palestinians have communities on 40% of the West Bank, while 60% of the West Bank is virtually empty.

For more facts, visit www.standwithus.com

by Rabbi Ken Spiro www.aish.com

An excerpt from Spiro’s WorldPerfect: The Jewish Impact on Civilization

The creation of the United States of America represented a unique event in world history. Unlike other countries where democracy evolved over a period of hundreds of years, the United States was the first country to be created, from its inception, as a democracy. And the Bible ― and Jewish values ― played a major role in this process.

Many of the earliest “pilgrims” who settled the “New England” of America in early 17th century were Puritan refugees escaping religious persecutions in Europe.

Over the next century, America continued to be not only the land of opportunity for many people seeking a better life but also the land of religious tolerance. By the middle 1700′s, the east coast of America was settled by a virtual “Who’s Who” of Christian splinter sects from all over Europe. Among them were:

* the Puritans, whom we already know so well
* the Quakers, an extremist Puritan sect who did not believe in ministers and for whom a Society of Friends meeting together was good enough to bring down the Holy Spirit
* Calvinists, who early on had challenged the Catholic belief that the bread and wine became the body and blood of Jesus in the celebration of the mass
* the Huguenots, or French Calvinists
* the Moravians, followers of John Hus, the protestant martyr from Bohemia
* the Mennonites, a Swiss sect of Anabaptists who rejected infant baptism
* the Amish, the most stringent of the Mennonites

These were just some of the numerous groups who arrived in America in search of religious freedom.

The majority of the earliest settlers were, of course, Puritans. Beginning with the Mayflower, over the next twenty years, 16,000 Puritans migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and many more settled in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Like their cousins back in England, these American Puritans strongly identified with both the historical traditions and customs of the ancient Hebrews of the Old Testament. They viewed their emigration from England as a virtual re-enactment of the Jewish exodus from Egypt. To them, England was Egypt, the king was Pharaoh, the Atlantic Ocean was the Red Sea, America was the Land of Israel, and the Indians were the ancient Canaanites. They were the new Israelites, entering into a new covenant with God in a new Promised Land. Thanksgiving ― first celebrated in 1621, a year after the Mayflower landed ― was initially conceived as day parallel to the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur; it was to be a day of fasting, introspection and prayer.

Gabriel Sivan, in The Bible and Civilization, (p. 236) observes:
No Christian community in history identified more with the People of the Book than did the early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who believed their own lives to be a literal reenactment of the Biblical drama of the Hebrew nation. They themselves were the children of Israel; America was their Promised Land; the Atlantic Ocean their Red Sea; the Kings of England were the Egyptian pharaohs; the American Indians the Canaanites (or the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel); the pact of the Plymouth Rock was God’s holy Covenant; and the ordinances by which they lived were the Divine Law. Like the Huguenots and other Protestant victims of Old World oppression, these émigré Puritans dramatized their own situation as the righteous remnant of the Church corrupted by the “Babylonian woe,” and saw themselves as instruments of Divine Providence, a people chosen to build their new commonwealth on the Covenant entered into at Mount Sinai.

In England, the Puritan identification with the Bible was so strong that some Puritan extremists sought to replace English common law with Biblical laws of the Old Testament, but were prevented from doing so. In America, however, there was far more freedom to experiment with the use of Biblical law in the legal codes of the colonies, and this was exactly what these early colonist set out to do.

The earliest legislation of the colonies of New England was all determined by Scripture. At the first assembly of New Haven in 1639, John Davenport clearly stated the primacy of the Bible as the legal and moral foundation of the colony:

Scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and men as well as in the government of families and commonwealth as in matters of the Church … the Word of God shall be the only rule to be attended unto in organizing the affairs of government in this plantation. (See Abraham I Katsch, The Biblical Heritage of American Democracy, p. 97)

Subsequently, the New Haven legislators adopted a legal code ― the Code of 1655 ― which contained some 79 statutes, half of which contained Biblical references, virtually all from the Hebrew Bible. The Plymouth Colony had a similar law code as did the Massachusetts assembly, which, in 1641 ― after an exhortation by Reverend John Cotton who presented the legislators with a copy of Moses, His Judicials ― adopted the so-called “Capitall Lawes of New England” based almost entirely on Mosaic law. A very significant political evolution was taking place in the New World. Unlike the Puritans in England who, of necessity, lived under English common law and were ruled by a King and Parliament, the Puritans of America had no central authority or national governing body. Yet, they did not lapse into anarchy. Instead, they created communities governed by elected councils of elders similar to the “presbyters” of England. Their communities were both stable and prosperous, with mandatory school systems modeled after the Jewish ones.

This unique political evolution goes a long way toward explaining the strong sense of independence shared by the colonies and the early success of democracy in America. The Puritans felt that God was watching them, and fear of Heaven was a thousand times stronger than fear of the crown.

It almost seems as if these early settlers had recreated the Biblical period of the “Judges,” when, following the conquest of Jericho and settlement of Canaan, Israel had no king or central authority and “every man did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)

What was right in Puritan eyes, of course, was what the Bible said. But what did it say exactly? So much of it could be subject to interpretation of the reader.

Without the Jewish Oral Law, which helped the Jews understand the Bible, the Puritans were left to their own devices and tended toward a literal interpretation. This sometimes led to a stricter, more fundamentalist observance than Judaism had ever seen. For example, the Jewish Sabbath is a day of refraining from work as the Bible mandates. However, “work” ― in Hebrew melacha, or Sabbath prohibitions ― is defined by Jewish Oral Law as cessation of all creative activity that was in progress when the Tabernacle was being built and which, the Bible states, ceased on the Sabbath. But the Puritans took the commandment to cease work as unconditional. And their prohibitions were actually more restrictive than what the Jews had themselves practiced. Even household chores such as sweeping floors, making beds, or feeding animals were not allowed for the twenty-four hours of the day of rest. Adherence was enforced by fines and public floggings.

While we stress the importance of the Hebrew Bible to the early American settlers, it is important to note that, of course, the “New Testament” was revered as well. However, the Hebrew Bible was seen as the original and pure source of Christian values, and also as a legalistic and ritualistic guide, something which the New Testament was not.

In addition, there was a political agenda involved in this special focus in the Old over the New Testament. Many New Englanders viewed the New Testament as an instrument of justification, used by powers-that-be in Europe, to preserve the existing order. Had not Paul written in his letter to the Romans (13:1-2):

Every person must submit to the authorities in power, for all authority comes from God, and the existing authorities are instituted by him. It follows that anyone who rebels against authority is resisting a divine institution, and those who resist have themselves to thank for the punishment they receive.

That sure smacked of the divine right of kings and condemnation of the rebels of the Puritan revolution. No wonder that the Hebrew Bible, with its message of obedience to God alone, of personal responsibility, and of freedom from tyranny, was far more in tune with the mindset of these Protestant splinter sects of America.

Focusing even further on the issue of individual responsibility, the Massachusetts Bay Colony enacted legislation requiring parents to teach their children to read and understand the basic principles of religion and capital laws. All towns in New England with a minimum of 50 households were required by law to establish schools and appoint teachers.

In 1670, British commissioners making a survey of conditions in the American colonies reported that in Connecticut fully one-quarter of the annual revenues were set aside for free public education. Universities were established (the first being Harvard University founded in 1636 as training school for Puritan ministers), and many printing presses were imported for the printing and dissemination of books.

In insisting on education for all, the Puritans were following Jewish law. (Had not the 12th century Jewish philosopher Maimonides admonished: “Appoint teachers for the children in every country, province and city. In any city that does not have a school excommunicate the people of the city until they get teachers for the children.”)

Education for all thus became a hallmark of early America and not just New England. In addition to Harvard, many other colleges and universities were established under the auspices of various Protestant sects: Yale, William and Mary, Rutgers, Princeton, Brown, Kings College (later to be known as Columbia), Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth etc. The Bible played a central role in the curriculum of all of these institutions of higher learning with both Hebrew and Bible studies offered as required courses. (See Lawrence A. Cremin, American Education: The Colonial Experience 1697-1783, p. 16.)

Many of these colleges even adopted some Hebrew word or phrase as part of their official emblem or seal. Beneath the banner containing the Latin Lux et Veritas, the Yale seal shows an open book with the Hebrew Urim Vtumim, which was a part of the ceremonial breastplate of the High Priest in the days of the Temple. The Columbia seal has the Hebrew name for God at the top center, with the Hebrew name for one of the angels on a banner toward the middle. Dartmouth uses the Hebrew words meaning “God Almighty” in a triangle in the upper center of its seal.

So popular was the Hebrew Language in the late 16th and early 17th centuries that several students at Yale delivered their commencement orations in Hebrew. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Pennsylvania taught courses in Hebrew ― all the more remarkable because no university in England at the time offered it.

Many of the population, including a significant number of the Founding Fathers of America, were products of these American universities ― for example, Thomas Jefferson attended William and Mary, James Madison Princeton, Alexander Hamilton King’s College (i.e. Columbia). Thus, we can be sure that a majority of these political leaders were not only well acquainted with the contents of both the New and Old Testaments but also had some working knowledge of Hebrew. Notes Abraham Katsh in The Biblical Heritage of American Democracy (p. 70):

At the time of the American Revolution, the interest in the knowledge of Hebrew was so widespread as to allow the circulation of the story that “certain members of Congress proposed that the use of English be formally prohibited in the United States, and Hebrew substituted for it.”

Their Biblical education colored the American founders’ attitude toward not only religion and ethics, but most significantly, politics. We see them adopting the biblical motifs of the Puritans for political reasons. For example, the struggle of the ancient Hebrews against the wicked Pharaoh came to embody the struggle of the colonists against English tyranny.

Numerous examples can be found which clearly illustrate to what a significant extent the political struggles of the colonies were identified with the ancient Hebrews. The first design for the official seal of the United States recommended by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson in 1776 depicts the Jews crossing the Red Sea. The motto around the seal read: “Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God.” The inscription on the Liberty Bell at Independence Hall in Philadelphia is a direct quote from Leviticus (25:10): “Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” Patriotic speeches and publications during the period of the struggle for independence were often infused with Biblical motifs and quotations. For example, Benjamin Rush, in his editorials denouncing the Tea Act, drew on inspiration from the Hebrew Bible:

What did not Moses forsake and suffer for his countrymen! What shining examples of patriotism do we behold in Joshua, Samuel, Maccabees and all the illustrious princes, captains and prophets among the Jews.

Likewise, Thomas Paine’s anti-monarchial pamphlet Common Sense cited the Hebrew Bible and words of the Prophet Samuel concluding:

These portions of the Scriptures … admit no equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath here entered his protest against monarchial government is true, or the Scriptures are false.

Even the basic framework of America clearly reflects the influence of the Bible and power of Jewish ideas in shaping the political development of America. Nowhere is this more evident than in the opening sentences of the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Whereas, these words echo the Enlightenment’s ― specifically John Locke’s — idea of “the inalienable rights of man,” without a doubt, the concept that these rights come from God is of Biblical origin.

This and the other documents of early America make it clear that the concept of a God-given standard of morality is a central pillar of American democracy. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in his The State acknowledges the obvious:

…it would be a mistake…to ascribe to Roman legal conceptions an undivided sway over the development of law and institutions during the Middle Ages… The Laws of Moses as well as the laws of Rome contributed suggestions and impulse to the men and institutions which were to prepare the modern world; and if we could have but eyes to see… we should readily discover how very much besides religion we owe to the Jew.

Thus we see that it is with the birth of American democracy that we have the next milestone in the process of the spread of Jewish ideas in civilization. For the first time in history, Jewish ethical ideas were legally enshrined into the laws of a non-Jewish nation. That country, the United States, would, in turn, become a powerful model to be emulated by numerous countries around the world.

The Israel Defense Forces demonstrates the basics of Krav Maga, with an official IDF instructor.

By Wayne Stiles www.JPost.com

People often ask me if I have a favorite place I’ve visited in Israel. “You mean other than Jerusalem?” I usually reply with a smile.

No other city in history comes close to Jerusalem’s significance.

Others have had more power, more land, more people, more natural resources—even more prestige—but none has more significance. And none ever will.

Yet when you see Jerusalem for the first time, you may wonder why all the fuss. Except for the Temple Mount with its golden Dome of the Rock, the city seems drab. No skyscrapers pierce the skyline of Israel’s capital city. Only some scattered antennae, towers, domes, cranes, crosses and crescent moons protrude in a tangled mess—like wheat and tares. Myriads of dumpy buildings and uneven rooftops betray the hodgepodge of intentions each era has imposed on the city’s fixed spaces.

The tour group I traveled with began the sharp descent from the Mount of Olives by following a narrow road with high walls on either side. On top of the walls, colored pieces of broken glass jutted up from the concrete as a primitive barbed-wire fence. Immediately to my left was a sign: “Tombs of the Prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.” Although the first-century A.D. kokhim (shaft) tombs could not have belonged to these sixth- and fifth-century B.C. prophets, I found it interesting that Zechariah, who foresaw Israel’s King coming on a donkey, would allegedly rest on the slope where his words found fulfillment.

The high wall on my left overlooked a vast Jewish graveyard—the largest in the world. Literally thousands of white tombs give testimony to the Jewish hope that when the Messiah comes, “His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives” (Zech. 14:4), and those buried there will stand first in line for blessing (see Daniel 12:2; Revelation 20:11-15). Just last week I saw a group of mourners surrounding a grave.

The high wall to my right enclosed the grounds of the Dominus Flevit Church. The chapel’s name means, “the Lord wept,” memorializing the moment Jesus wept over Jerusalem (see Luke 19:41). The roof of the quaint chapel resembles the shape of an inverted teardrop. I entered and walked to the altar on the right and the large arced window that frames the city of Jerusalem. The window’s decorative wrought-iron bars depict a cup, a loaf, thorns and a cross. A few potted plants and candles sat on the sill. The capstone above the window supports a stone relief of Jesus riding a donkey with his face in his hands.

As I stared out the window at the city over which the Lord had wept, it seemed as though I gazed through a porthole of time. The wrought-iron elements of Jesus’ Passion overshadowed the city. I couldn’t see Jerusalem without also seeing the cross.

As I continued down the steep road, I had to marvel at the contrast on either side of me. One wall guarded the hope that the Messiah will come one day. The other wall guarded the belief that he already had come. Only a narrow, steep road separated these two walls. Somehow the distance seemed much greater.

Passover and Easter bring to mind pictures of the Messiah—both for Jews and for Christians. The Mount of Olives echoes these hopes from its slopes.

By Dore Gold www.JewishPress.com

Anti-Israel hatred on campus crests each year during an event called “Israel Apartheid Week.” With this ominous name and programs that thrive on ignorance and blind disregard for the facts, tens of thousands of college students are urged to rise up against Israel – painfully evoking the types of racist characterizations of the Jewish people which defined attitudes once heard in Europe in the middle of the last century. Warning: this year’s display will come to a campus near you before the end of February.

These campus initiatives were incubated in 2001 at the first Durban Conference, proclaiming “no apartheid South Africa in the 20th century and no apartheid Israel in the 21st.” This battle cry sparked the BDS movement calling for boycotts, divestment and sanctions to punish Israel, and it all evolved into an invective-loaded campaign that found a degree of favor on campuses coast to coast, not to mention among some labor unions, churches, media and cultural institutions. But it is based on a lie.

Typically, those hurling these charges against Israel hope that their audiences are ignorant of the facts. In apartheid South Africa, blacks were not allowed to use white hospitals, they could not attend white universities and they could not participate in the South African parliament. Visit Hadassah Hospital today, or any other health facility in Israel, and see Jewish and Arab doctors caring for Jewish and Arab patients. Witness for yourself at Hebrew University or any institution of higher learning as Jewish and Arab professors teach students of different backgrounds. Go to the Knesset, and observe the debates involving both Jewish and Arab parliamentarians.

Given this reality, Justice Richard Goldstone, a former judge on the South African Supreme Court wrote in the New York Times on October 31, 2011: “The charge that Israel is an apartheid state is a false and malicious one that precludes, rather than promotes, peace and harmony.” Goldstone, it should be remembered did not have a problem criticizing Israeli policies in the aftermath of its 2008-2009 military operation in the Gaza Strip. But when it came to calling Israel and apartheid state like the old South Africa, with which he was intimately familiar, he firmly rejected the charge which was completely divorced from the reality of Modern Israel.

No nation has fought racism more consistently than the Jewish people, whether through the anti-apartheid activists in the South African Jewish community or through those American Jews who joined the civil rights movement and locked arms with Martin Luther King, Jr. The Jewish State was founded on the very same moral outlook, reflecting the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam, or repairing the world, which is deeply held across the Jewish religious spectrum. When Israeli medical teams rushed to international disaster zones in Turkey (1999), Kosovo (1999), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2008), and Haiti (2010) helping the afflicted regardless of their race or creed, they were driven by the very same core Jewish value.

Moreover, no group cherishes or champions freedom of speech more than the Jewish people. But, the systematic dissemination of hate-based lies is not what freedom is about. This crosses the line. No one has a license to lie, manipulate, or manufacture falsehoods. Make no mistake, the primary characteristics of Israel Apartheid Week programming are terrible, unjustified charges expressly aimed at demonizing Israel. Unsubstantiated allegations, constantly repeated, take a toll on American opinion despite bedrock gut support for Israel which, thankfully, exists as a strong counter-force to this mass exercise in propaganda. Studies confirm that when accurate information about Israeli policies, society, and values is provided, the false arguments are uniformly rejected.

Our most critical challenge is to educate the young and to begin this process during high-school years or earlier -– long before they arrive on college campuses. Our students feel confident and empowered when they know the facts and can challenge group-think favoring Israel’s isolation, dismantlement, or destruction. We are duty-bound to engage students in creative, effective ways, through the media they best relate to: Facebook, Twitter, and other Internet communication. We must knock down the posturing of the IAW agitators, who could not care less about promoting peace or helping people in the Mideast. Encouraged by foreign governments that do NOT share Israel’s commitment to democracy and human rights, they are the purveyors of hatred, akin to many others who have preceded them.

Here’s the good news. Friends of Israel are not backing off or ignoring the challenge. Important new initiatives are already working hard to roll back the hatred. We must spare no effort to protect full legal rights and freedom of speech for pro-Israel students on campus. Visual communications which have the power to speak the truth immediately and graphically are one super-critical tool required for this process.

Specifically, I conclude with a vitally important call to action, as easy to do as it is effective: I invite you to watch a film of monumental importance called Crossing the Line. This powerful 30-minute documentary exposes the growing anti-Israel sentiment taking root on college campuses across North America. Once you understand the problem, I hope you will join me in my quest to make sure that all Jewish [and gentile-Christian] students are educated and empowered with the facts about Israel.

Dr. Dore Gold is President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and former Ambassador of Israel to the United Nations. He is a senior adviser to the Prime Minister of Israel. To find out about a screening of Crossing the Line in your area visit www.stepupforisrael.

By John P. Mello Jr. www.PCWorld.com

After spending centuries hidden in caves where they were accessible to no one, and decades on display in a Jerusalem museum where they were viewed by the few, the Dead Sea Scrolls arrived on the Internet today, where they can be seen by everyone.

Using technology from Google, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem has created an online exhibit for the scrolls, which were discovered in the Judean Desert in 1947, where they’d been hidden in 11 caves since 68 BCE. The scrolls have been on exhibit at the museum since 1965.

The exhibit is going live just in time to celebrate the beginning of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, which starts at sunset on Wednesday, Sept 28.

More than just pictures posted to the Web, the exhibit is interactive. Not only can you zoom in and out on a scroll — which is photographed at 1200 megapixels, almost 200 times the resolution of the average consumer digital camera — but you can click on areas of Hebrew text in the scroll and get an English translation of it. Viewers may add comments regarding the documents that others can see and comment on, too. What’s more, you can perform text searches on the scrolls.

The scrolls include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence. At the online exhibit, you can see:

** The Great Isaiah Scroll. One of the original seven scrolls discovered in 1947, it is also the most complete and the longest at 734 millimeters (28 inches). It contains the text of the Hebrew version of the Book of Isaiah, known for its description of the End of Days: “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up sword against nation; they shall never again know war.”

** The War Scroll. Also one of the original seven scrolls, this document describes the final war at the End of Days between the “Sons of Light” and “Sons of Darkness.”

** Commentary on Habakkuk Scroll. Another of the seven found in the caves of Qumran in 1947, this scroll discusses religious politics of the day and the arrival of the Romans on the scene. No historical figures are mentioned by name, but there are allusions to characters such as the Teacher of Righteousness,”the Wicked Priest,” “the Man of Lies,” and others, whose identities haven’t been determined.

** The Temple Scroll. Discovered in 1956, this scroll is written on the thinnest of parchments — 0.10 millimeter thick — and purportedly provides the details of God’s instructions to Moses regarding the construction and operation of the Temple.

** The Community Rule Scroll. This is a sectarian document, also part of the 1947 find, that sets down community rules such as admission of new members and conduct at community meals.

The Dead Sea Scroll project is part of a larger effort by Google to bring important cultural and historical collections to the Web, according to Eyal Miller, of Google New Business Development, and Eyal Fink, a software engineer at the Israel Research and Development Center. Other similar projects Google has participated in include the Yad Vashem Holocaust photo collection and collections at the Prado Museum in Spain.

“We are thrilled to have been able to help this project through hosting on Google Storage and App Engine, helping design the Web experience and making it searchable and accessible to the world,” Miller and Fink wrote in a Google blog. Google technology provides similar access to exhibits at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

If you live in the West, this can happen …

Facts of what can and will happen as Muslim populations increase. Please be aware that this is for educational purposes only; not to spread hatred, but to spread awareness and vigilance so that the takeover won’t be allowed to happen.

Transcript of the video:
Adapted from Dr. Peter Hammond’s book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat

Islam is not a religion, nor is it a cult. In its fullest form, it is a complete, total, 100% system of life.

Islam has religious, legal, political, economic, social, and military components. The religious component is a beard for all of the other components.

Islamization begins when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their religious rights.

When politically correct, tolerant, and culturally diverse societies agree to Muslim demands for their religious rights, some of the other components tend to creep in as well.

Here’s how it works:

As long as the Muslim population remains around or under 2% in any given country, they will be for the most part be regarded as a peace-loving minority, and not as a threat to other citizens. This is the case in:

United States — Muslim 0.6%
Australia — Muslim 1.5%
Canada — Muslim 1.9%
China — Muslim 1.8%
Italy — Muslim 1.5%
Norway — Muslim 1.8%

At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs. This is happening in:

Denmark — Muslim 2%
Germany — Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom — Muslim 2.7%
Spain — Muslim 4%
Thailand — Muslim 4.6%

From 5% on, they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. For example, they will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves — along with threats for failure to comply. This is occurring in:

France — Muslim 8%
Philippines — 5%
Sweden — Muslim 5%
Switzerland — Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands — Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago — Muslim 5.8%

At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves (within their ghettos) under Sharia, the Islamic Law.
The ultimate goal of Islamists is to establish Sharia law over the entire world.

When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they tend to increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions. In Paris, we are already seeing car-burnings. Any non-Muslim action offends Islam and results in uprisings and threats, such as in Amsterdam, with opposition to Mohammed cartoons and films about Islam. Such tensions are seen daily, particularly in Muslim sections in:

Guyana — Muslim 10%
India — Muslim 13.4%
Israel — Muslim 16%
Kenya — Muslim 10%
Russia — Muslim 15%

After reaching 20%, nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings, and the burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, such as in:

Ethiopia — Muslim 32.8%

At 40%, nations experience widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare, such as in:

Bosnia — Muslim 40%
Chad — Muslim 53..1%
Lebanon — Muslim 59.7%

From 60%, nations experience unfettered persecution of non-believers of all other religions (including non-conforming Muslims), sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon, and Jizya (the tax placed on infidels), such as in:

Albania — Muslim 70%
Malaysia — Muslim 60.4%
Qatar — Muslim 77.5%
Sudan — Muslim 70%

After 80%, expect daily intimidation and violent jihad, some State-run ethnic cleansing, and even some genocide, as these nations drive out the infidels, and move toward 100% Muslim, such as has been experienced and in some ways is on-going in:

Bangladesh — Muslim 83%
Egypt — Muslim 90%
Gaza — Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia — Muslim 86.1%
Iran — Muslim 98%
Iraq — Muslim 97%
Jordan — Muslim 92%
Morocco — Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan — Muslim 97%
Palestine — Muslim 99%
Syria — Muslim 90%
Tajikistan — Muslim 90%
Turkey — Muslim 99.8%
United Arab Emirates — Muslim 96%

100% will usher in the peace of ‘Dar-es-Salaam’ – the Islamic House of Peace. Here there’s supposed to be peace, because everybody is a Muslim, the Madrasses are the only schools, and the Koran is the only word, such as in:

Afghanistan — Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia — Muslim 100%
Somalia — Muslim 100%
Yemen — Muslim 100%

Unfortunately, peace is never achieved, as in these 100% states the most radical Muslims intimidate and spew hatred, and satisfy their blood lust by killing less radical Muslims, for a variety of reasons.

‘Before I was nine, I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; the tribe against the world, and all of us against the infidel. — Leon Uris, ‘The Haj’

It is important to understand that in some countries, with well under 100% Muslim populations, such as France, the minority Muslim populations live in ghettos, within which they are 100% Muslim, and within which they live by Sharia Law. The national police do not even enter these ghettos. There are no national courts, nor schools, nor non-Muslim religious facilities. In such situations, Muslims do not integrate into the community at large. The children attend madrasses. They learn only the Koran. To even associate with an infidel is a crime punishable by death. Therefore, in some areas of certain nations, Muslim imams and extremists exercise more power than the national average would indicate.

Today’s 1.5 billion Muslims make up 22% of the world’s population. But their birth rates dwarf the birth rates of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and all other believers. Muslims will exceed 50% of the world’s population by the end of this century.