Ellis Shuman's Blog, page 9

The World Must Hear These Stories

No words can ever give justice to the victims of the horrific Hamasterrorist attack on October 7, 2023. Men and women, teenagers and babies, Holocaustsurvivors and soldiers – all of them innocent Israelis targeted by Hamas whenit invaded their communities, destroyed their homes, murdered themindiscriminately, and took them hostage.

Tragically, more Jews were killed on October 7th than on any other day sincethe Holocaust. Countless stories are emerging from this tragedy. Firsthandaccounts of the horrors as well as tales of those who heroically fought off theterrorists. The world must hear these stories.

A new website provides eyewitness accounts from inside the massacre.October7.org is a memorial for the victims and intended to make sure that thestories of survivors who endured unimaginable horrors are never forgotten.

The October7.org website was built by a group of dedicated Israeli volunteerswho gave their time and skills to keep these memories alive. The site iscurrently in English, French, and Japanese, with other languages to follow.

Read the eyewitness and survivor stories on October7.org. And neverforget.

Originally posted on The Times of Israel.

My Message to the Innocent Palestinians in Gaza

Youhave no electricity, water, or fuel. Your homes are being bombed and you havebeen told to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip, ahead of an IDF ground invasion.You cry out to the world for help. You ask us to hear your pain. But eventhough the majority of you are innocent, this is difficult, because yourleaders attacked us. Attack is not really the appropriate word. It wouldbe more fitting to say that your leaders massacred us.

Theloss of civilians anywhere is tragic, and unfortunately many civilians arekilled during warfare. But in this case, as in the past, there are two sides andthey are not morally equal.

On the one hand, there are those who specificallytarget civilians. They shoot and kill men and women, children and the elderly,in their homes and at their parties. They take babies and grandparents hostage,and destroy families and burn their homes.

On the other hand, there are thosewho say 'Evacuate your homes," because, as IDF spokesman Rear Adm. DanielHagari today told reporters, "We are fighting a terror group, not theGazan population. We want civilians not to be harmed, but we cannot live withthe rule of Hamas-ISIS near our border."

Doyou not see the difference? We try not to harm civilians while Hamasspecifically targets civilians. They dance in the streets and give out sweetswhen Israelis are killed, and it doesn't matter if the victim was a solder or ateenager. Hamas has ruled the Gaze Strip in a reign of terror, teaching murder inits curriculum.

Palestiniansof Gaza, we made a mistake for many years thinking that Hamas was acting in yourbetter interests. We opened our gates for your workers; we allowed yourfishermen to sail their boats. We allowed money into the Gaza Strip, thinkingit would be used for schools and hospitals. Instead, Hamas stockpiled rocketsand grenades, rifles and mortars. All in a calculated plan to launch amurderous assault on Israeli citizens.

Hamashas failed you and you are paying the price. We know you are suffering, in thedark and without basic necessities, but it is Hamas that is responsible forthis war. 

We ask you to get out of the way. We don't want to harm you, andcertainly not to kill you. We would prefer to live near you, side by side aspeaceful neighbors, and we tried this many times in the past. What we areasking you now is that along with your cries for help, you should also cry outagainst what Hamas has done, not only to us, but to you as well.

Originally posted on The Times of Israel.

Photo by Mohammed Ibrahim on Unsplash.Photo published on August 13, 2022.

War Diary: Day 5

Our hearts break again and again with thoughts of Saturday's massacre.Women and children murdered in their homes. Families torn apart by death anddestruction. Young infants, elderly grandparents, teenagers—taken hostage into Gaza.Soldiers shot down as they sought to protect innocent civilians. Over 100members of Kibbutz Be'eri – murdered. 260 youths attending a music festival –murdered. The death toll keeps rising and is now over 1200, with thousands moreinjured. Our hearts break.

Having lived in Israel for five decades, we have experienced war before.Yom Kippur—when our country was taken by surprise by the armies of Egypt andSyria. The wars in Lebanon. The battles in Gaza. Terrorist attack afterterrorist attack. Suicide bombings, stabbings, and even kidnappings. But nothinglike this.

My son at forty-years-old no longer reports for service in the IDFreserves. My son-in-law is also over the age. I don't know any residents of thecommunities near the Gaza Strip. I am not related to any of those murdered,injured, or taken hostage. Yet, this war is very personal to me.

Two days ago, rockets struck near my home in Moshav Neve Ilan. Onelanded close to Highway 1, near Shoresh. Another landed in Har Adar, injuring twopeople. Another rocket struck Abu Gosh, near its new mosque. Each time thesirens sound, we take cover, and now we have a concrete saferoom to protect us.

We have been building an apartment on top of our house where my daughterand granddaughter will live. We were close, so close, to finishing the apartment.The kitchen was due to arrive this week and the lighting fixtures were to beinstalled. But now everything is on hold. There are no workers, no deliveries,no installations.

Our Arab contractor and his brother came to our house two days ago. Theytook down the temporary wall blocking the stairs leading up to the apartment. Nowwe can run upstairs to the saferoom when we hear the sirens. This saferoom willserve as my granddaughter's bedroom in better days.

On the moshav, the youth are collecting food to send to the soldiers onthe frontlines. Soldiers who will inevitably advance into Gaza in the nextstages of this war, ready to give their lives in defense of our country. Civiliansare forming long lines to give blood. Schools are closed throughout the country.My office is working remotely from home. There is no traffic on the roads.Silence, mostly, except for the fighter jets in the skies.

Our house shakes when the Israeli Air Force strikes in Gaza. We hear thebombings. When a rocket is intercepted in the skies over Tel Aviv, we hear theexplosion. This war is so very near. So very personal.

These are difficult days and there is more hardship ahead. The horrorsof Saturday will continue to haunt us for years to come. Israel, which has beenso divided over these past few months due to our horrible government (to put itmildly) is united like never before. We are strong. We will get through this.

 

# # #

Israel at War. Again.

It'searly Saturday morning, October 7th, and my wife and I are sitting on thestairwell in our home with our four-year-old granddaughter listening to thesirens. A boom overhead, a very loud boom. "It's just a game," we reassureour granddaughter, and she laughs. We wait until the sirens stop beforereturning to the living room.

Butthis is far from being a game. Just hours before, dozens, maybe hundreds, ofHamas terrorists had driven unimpeded through the Gaza Strip border fence andinvaded some twenty kibbutzim and nearby towns. They fired their guns and threwtheir bombs, murdering over 300 Israeli soldiers and civilians (at latestcount) and injuring over 1,500. They abducted an as-yet unknown number ofIsraelis, including women and children, into the Gaza Strip and their fate iscurrently unknown.

Hamascaptured a number of kibbutzim and entered an Israeli army base. They destroyedat least one tank. They went from house to house on their murderous rampage.They looted and set fire to homes.

Bylate Saturday night, Israeli security forces had regained control of thesecommunities. Dozens of terrorists were killed after prolonged clashes. Soldiersand policemen were injured; some were killed. Hostages were released. But weare still counting the dead and our citizens are still captive in Gaza.

Israelis at war. Again.

It'searly Sunday morning, October 8th. From my home in the Jerusalem Hills, I canhear Israeli Air Force fighter jets on their way to bomb Hamas infrastructure inGaza. Last night, while watching the television newscast,we could hear the booms of the Iron Dome defense system shooting down Hamasmissiles over Tel Aviv. Some of those missiles got through and landed inIsraeli cities, causing more injuries and property destruction.

Thereis one person responsible for what happened yesterday, and it is Prime Minister Netanyahu. He allowed his extremistgovernment to divide the country, to distract us from the real dangersthreatening our existence. He was warned that the government's so-calledjudicial reform and the civilian protests that came in response would be seenby our enemies as a sign that we are weak. And Netanyahu, and his government,refused to listen.

Hundreds,if not thousands, of our finest soldiers and military pilots announced theirrefusal to report for reserve duty because the government was destroyingdemocracy. Former IDF commanders and security officials spoke out against whatthe government was doing. And Netanyahu ignored them.

Takenby surprise

Justa few weeks ago, my wife and I saw the film "Golda", which portrayedour late prime minister during the days of the Yom Kippur War, when the IDF wastaken by surprise. Even today, there are those who blame Golda Meir for herrole in that catastrophe, although top defense officials were much moreresponsible.

Thereis no doubt in my mind that one day Netanyahu will be held accountable for whathe has done to our country.

But,politics aside, there is something much more disturbing. Israel has the mostpowerful armed forces in the Middle East. Our intelligence system is regardedworldwide as being one of the best. We take out terrorists with precisionstrikes, we capture enemy commanders, and we have won the wars that threatenour existence. But yesterday, our military forces failed us.

Theseare the questions I ask:

·        Why didn't the army knowabout Hamas's plans, which must have taken months to organize and coordinate?

·        Why did the army rely on abillion-dollar anti-tunnel border system, allowing terrorists to simply drivethrough the fence to enter Israel?

·        Why didn't the army stopthem at the border?

·        Why didn't the Israeli Air Forcesend our attack helicopters into the skies to bomb the terrorists' easilyidentifiable white pickup trucks as they sped around the country?

·        Why didn't the army stopthe terrorists as they hurried back to Gaza with their Israeli hostages?

·        Why did the army wait for hoursto rescue the civilians trapped in their homes as terrorists continued theirmission of destruction? These civilians cried out on social media, "Saveus!" They spoke with television broadcasters, "I don't know where myfamily is!" They said they heard Arabic being spoken outside theirsaferooms. And still the army didn't come.

·        Why did it take so long forthe army to regain control of those communities?

·        Why did it take so long forthe government to begin to respond with attacks on the Hamas terrorist state inGaza?

Netanyahuis ultimately responsible for the attack that took us by surprise, but something must be clear. Hamasis a terrorist organization. They are not a humanitarian leadership concernedwith the welfare of innocent Palestinians. They are terrorists who don'thesitate to kill women and children. They will stop at nothing in their fightto destroy Israel.

Butwe will stop at nothing to defend ourselves. Hamas must be defeated, once andfor all. We have many days of war ahead, and it will be hard. Painful. Israelwill win. Victory will come at a cost and we must be prepared.

Thisis not a game. This is war. 

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

# # #

Wars of the Jews

YomKippur eve. At the very same hour that leftwing activists clashed withreligious worshippers in Dizengoff Square, I was praying in the synagogue on mymoshav. I was a secular Ashkenazi Jew standing alongside religious Sephardicresidents of my community. Listening to melodies I wasn’t familiar with, I wasvery much out of my comfort zone, yet I felt very welcome. Isn’t this whatJudaism is supposed to be like? The news from Tel Aviv suggested we are farfrom that.

Themore I think about those events, the more I am abhorred. After the SupremeCourt ruled that the Tel Aviv Municipality has the right to bangender-segregated prayer services in public spaces, a provocateur gatheredlikeminded right-wingers and set up a mechitza divider of Israeli flags so thatthey could conduct Yom Kippur services there.

YisraelZaira, head of the extremist Rosh Yehudi Orthodox group, insisted on violatingthe court ruling to pray in public with men and women separated. Zaira hassaid, “When you see the secular world, you have to think of how to change it.”Instead of allowing him to freely act against the secular world, he should bearrested for his infractions.

Onthe other hand, leftwingers who have played a major role in the 38-week-longprotests against the government, a battle to keep Israel’s democratic valuesthat I completely support, took the law into their own hands and clashed withthe religious Jews. They screamed at the worshippers, swore at them with criesof ‘Shame!’, physically assaulted them, and spouted hatred at their fellowJews.

Leftversus right. Religious versus secular. Jew versus Jew. And all this on theholiest day in the Jewish calendar. Two wrongs don’t make a right. In theseclashes there were no winners. We are all losers.

Whereis the government?

Youwould think that in a time of clashes in our society, there would be an adultin the room to referee between the sides and calm everything down. In normaltimes we would assume that this role should be played by the prime minister.But these are far from normal times. Our prime minister declared that “leftistshad rioted against Jews”, implying that he doesn’t consider leftists to beJews. By siding with the rightwing extremists he brought into his government,Netanyahu has become a rightwing extremist.

Thereis a government outcry now, when secular Jews attacked religious Jews, but whyis the government silent when religious extremists attack Women of the Wallprayer goers at the Kotel, Judaism’s holiest site? Where is the government whenreligious Jews attack Conversative and Reform Jews celebrating family eventsand prayers near the Kotel plaza?

Askfor forgiveness

Weare all Jews, yet we are far from living up to what is expected of Jews.

YomKippur is the holiest day on our calendar, when we are supposed to cometogether as a people and beg forgiveness for our sins. In the violent acts wehave witnessed, we have sinned against our fellow Jews, our religion, and ourGod. We need to ask for a lot of forgiveness.

Meanwhile,on my moshav, Yom Kippur prayers went on. I was entranced by the Sephardicmelodies and customs, so different from the Kol Nidre services I have attendedin the past. There are many types of Jews, with different backgrounds andcustoms, and yet we are all one people. I felt welcome praying on my moshav. I,too, was asking forgiveness. We should all be praying.

Originallyposted on the Times of Israel

Photo by Maayan Nemanov on Unsplash

"The Man Who Fell Asleep Everywhere" - short story

When I firstmet the elderly man, he was sitting on the supermarket floor, leaning back againstthe laundry detergents in the cleaning supplies aisle. Thinking he had passedout, I bent down to shake him into consciousness. But then I noticed somethingstrange. He was snoring.

"Should Icall the manager?" asked an acne-faced stock boy who appeared out ofnowhere, a look of innocent inexperience in his eyes. "Or anambulance?"

"Wait aminute. Let me see if I can wake him up."

The man on thefloor opened his right eye, and his left eye followed. A smile formed on hislips. "Sorry about that," he apologized.

"I thoughtyou had fainted!"

"Oh, no, Idon't faint," he replied. "I just fall asleep. Help me to myfeet."

He was aboutseventy, I guessed, and quite frail. He reached to the air freshener shelf forbalance as he stood up. His glasses had dropped from his face, but they were heldclose to his chest by an eyeglass chain. His hair was thick, white, and wild. Heintroduced himself as Martin.

"I'll beokay," he said as he hobbled toward his shopping cart. I noticed it wasempty except for a carton of slim milk, a container of low-fat goat yoghurt, anassortment of apples and oranges, and a large jar of dill pickles.

"Can I getyou some water? Or maybe coffee to wake you up?" I said, holding himsteady.

"Coffeewould be nice," he admitted.

We abandonedour shopping carts, to the displeasure of the stock boy, and I led Martin tothe coffee counter at the far side of the supermarket. "Sit here," Iinstructed him, pointing at a small table.

Read the rest of the story on The Bookends Review.

Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash

Nodding in Hebrew

Ihave a confession to make. After living 50 years in Israel, my Hebrew is stillnot up to par. I watch the nightly newscast on television and read an articleor two in the weekend newspapers, but most of my life is in English. I work inan English-speaking environment and I talk with my wife and my children in English(with my granddaughters, I do speak Hebrew). My creative writing is in English(this article, for example), and I read for pleasure in English.

Recently,I made an exception to my reading habits. I read Mrs. Lilienblum's CloudFactory, the debut novel of the award-winning Israeli author Iddo Gefen, inHebrew. I had previously enjoyed his short story collection, Jerusalem Beach,a book that won the $100,000 2023 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. Icouldn't wait for his novel to be published in English (sometime next year?),so I read it in Hebrew, the language in which it was written.

Mrs.Lilienblum's Cloud Factory is thoroughly enjoyable, very witty, with fullydeveloped characters and an amazing plot. I highly recommend reading it in anylanguage.

Anotherconfession to make. There was an occasional word or two in the book with whichI was not familiar. I did understand the meaning of those words in the contextof how they were used and if I chose to do so, I could simply skim thosesentences without losing the essential beauty of the writing. In one case, however,I really wanted to know a word's meaning as it was used repeatedly in the text.

להנהן

Tonod. How could I not know the translation of such a simple word?

AsI continued to read, I couldn't get that particular word out of my mind. To mysurprise, it appears in every chapter of the book, sometimes more than once. Inpresent tense, in past tense. He nodded; we nodded.

הנהנתי

מהנהנים

הנהונים

The author will have to excuse me, butpossibly the word was overused? Reading in bed at night (another confession tomake – I usually read on my tablet but in this case, I was actually reading apaperback), I said the word aloud every time I came across it in the book. Thisannoyed my wife. She is now reading the book herself, also noticing the excessivenodding taking place.

Ifinished reading Mrs. Lilienblum's Cloud Factory and uncharacteristically,dived right into another book in Hebrew. Eshkol Nevo's excellent new short storycollection is entitled לב רעבin Hebrew, which translates as 'Hungry Heart', based on the song by BruceSpringsteen. For some reason, the first page of the book suggests that it willbe published in the future in its English edition as Attachments.

Tomy surprise, I came across a familiar word.

להנהן

Insome of the stories, the word appears more than once. In different tenses, ingender feminine, or in plural. I nodded. She nodded. We nodded.

Afterreading two Israeli books in their native language, both of which I highlyrecommend, I have learned one thing about Hebrew literature. Your characters mustbe nodding as much as possible if you want readers to enjoy your writing.

 

Originallyposted on The Times of Israel

Related article:
Review of Iddo Gefen’s ‘Mrs. Lilienblum’s Cloud Factory’

Shana Tova!

To friends and family near and far, blessings of health and happiness for the Jewish New Year. Shana Tova!
(Pictured: a pomegranate from our tree)

"Deep Sleep" - short story

Pete was having problems sleeping at night. Insomnia ruled as hetossed and turned, his mind rehashing the day’s troubles. Endless traffic jams.Pressures in the office. The demands of his boss. The nasty looks and bitingcomments of his wife. The unpaid bills, the unfiled tax returns, the threats ofhis mother-in-law to visit.

Night after night, Pete couldn’t get the sleep he needed. He rolledback and forth, thrashing out unintentionally at his wife, interrupting herdreams and recoiling from her sharp elbowed jabs in his ribs.

She was sympathetic to his predicament, up to a point. “See a doctor,”she insisted. “He’ll write you a prescription for something.”

“I don’t want to get addicted to sleeping pills!”

Pete was willing to try anything, except for pills. He went for latenight jogs; drank a glass of red wine before bedtime. He avoided his cell phoneand instead read until his eyes were blurry. He listened to meditation tracks,to whales, to waves hitting the shore. His mind numbed but nothing worked. Hestill couldn’t sleep.

In the mornings he rolled out of bed red-eyed and struggled to hisfeet. Splitting headaches and aching muscles followed him to the bathroom. Acold shower did little to cleanse him of the night’s struggles. One cup ofcoffee, and then another one. Nothing could refresh him for the demands of the newday.

“Take care of yourself!” his wife demanded, offering no suggestionswhat he should try next.

“Maybe we need a new mattress,” he said.

Read the rest of the story in Meat For Tea - The Valley Review. Volume 17, Issue 3, Page 9.

Review of 'From Southerner to Settler' by Susannah Schild

Isubscribe to the Hiking the Holyland newsletter because I love hiking. Thereare many pleasant trails, and some challenging ones, not far from my home inthe Jerusalem Hills and I discovered many new ones through the colorful blogposts on the Hiking the Holyland website. Created by Susannah Schild in 2018,the site documents hikes all around the country with its mission of sharingIsrael's beauty and history with the world.

Schild hasjust published her first book - From Southerner to Settler: Unexpected Lessons from the Land of Israel (June 2023). The book is not a hikingguide, but rather the story of Schild's aliyah and her love for family, Judaism,and Israel. With a strong emphasis on nature, the book also relates the originsof Hiking the Holyland.

The authorleft her home in New Orleans and moved to Israel with her husband and two smallchildren in 2003. "We were here," she writes. "We had made it.We were home. In the place where we had vowed we would raise our children andlive out our future."

Looking for a place where they could live as religious Jews, the family first settled in Ramat Beit Shemesh, but it didn't go well. Confronted with Ultra-Orthodox extremism, they left and found a warmer welcome in Neve Daniel, south of Jerusalem. In the Gush Etzion community they built their house, from the ground up, and planted a garden, something the author says gave her "a deep love for the land."

"Themove to Israel was entirely worth every sacrifice that was required," sherelates. "We were living the Jewish dream, quite literally. A peopleunited as a family and a nation in the Holy Land."

ReligiousJudaism plays an integral, indispensable role in Schild's life, and this isrepeatedly emphasized in the book. This may seem excessive to secular readers,but one can respect the openness and honesty with which she shares herconvictions and faith. For the author, "the living Torah is here for allto experience, especially our children. This is what it's really like to liveas a religious Jew in our homeland."

In thesetroubled times in Israel, the author focuses on the positive. She wonders ifshe can succeed in presenting to her family "the beauty of Israel, theinspiration, the camaraderie of the Jewish people, and the feeling of being athome, all bound up together and served on a silver platter."

For theauthor, hiking is much more than a way to enjoy the nice weather and nature. Itis "an opportunity to really to get to know Israel, the physical land ofour forefathers and to understand its hidden messages … a deeper understandingof our Torah, our most precious treasure."

Schild shares not only her love for hiking, but so much more. One respects her world of faith, optimism, and love for the land, as told in this very readable, personal tale of her journey from the American south to Gush Etzion.

Susannah Schild, born and raised in New Orleans, moved to Israel in 2003 with herhusband and two small kids. Many years and a few children later, she discoveredthe quiet and inner peace that comes from being in nature. She is a The Timesof Israel blogger and lives right outside of Jerusalem in Gush Etzion. From Southerner to Settler is her first book.

Originally posted on The Times of Israel.