In every generation...

It says in the Haggadah, "In every generation there are those who rise up to destroy us, but the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand."

Today is Yom HaShaoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day, and these were the words that came to my mind during the minute of silence we observed as the siren cried out.

Whether it was Hitler, Himmler and Eichmann then, or Nasrallah, Abbas, ISM, PLO, Hamas and Ahmadinejad now, the reality hasn't changed. There are those who have a massive irrational hatred of Jews and the Jewish people, and they work to implement our destruction using whatever methods or tools they are best able to use.

Today, the death of one evil man, Osama Bin, was announced.

I was thinking how the US tracked Bin Laden down for 10 years, and in the end killed him as they should have.

While we in Israel capture the murderers of the Fogels, and we capture other terrorists and then let them sit in jail, only to give them educations, learn more terrorism, and then free them later; terrorists such as child killer Samir Kuntar, who at this point doesn't even approach the evil that exists free in the village of Awarta.

Israel sits and talks peace with the terrorist Arafat (who when he was alive sponsored terrorism even as he spoke with us), with the PA President - a proud Holocaust denier (whose troops killed a Jew just last week who only wanted to pray), and perhaps soon even with Hamas.

With antisemitism on the rise globally, PM Netanyahu said the world hasn't learned the lessons of the Holocaust, the Shoah.

But I wonder if it is not really Israel that hasn't learned the lessons of the Shoah and ultimately what should be done to those who would rise up to destroy us.

But there is consolation in the end.

Regardless of what we do and how bad it gets along the way, and how much we won't properly defend ourselves by acknowledging and destroying our enemies, in the end God saves us from their hands and from ourselves.

There is that.

Visiting Israel?
Learn to Shoot at Caliber-3 with top Israeli Anti-Terror Experts!

Follow the Muqata on Twitter.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Two Minutes of Siren

10:00 AM, Holocaust Memorial Day, April 21, 2009
Begin Blvd, Jerusalem
Cars come to a halt, as Sirens Wail throughout the country.

(photo credit: Avital Pinnick)

10:02 AM The air raid sirens around Israel just tapered off. Israel, the country stood silently for 2 minutes to the backdrop of memorial air raid sirens to remember the victims of the Holocaust.

Just months ago the sirens blared daily throughout Southern and South-Central Israel as Palestinian rockets were routinely shot at Israeli communities.

The 2 minute siren wail is a good time to consciously reflect on remembrance for those slaughtered by the Nazis, their supporters and sympathizers.

As I glanced out the window, buses and cars pulled over to stop. People got out of their cars and stood silently.

Even on main highways in Tel-Aviv, people stopped.



Never Again.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Chareidim and the Holocaust Siren

Most Chareidim I know stand for the sirens that wail across Israel on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Commemoration Day) and Yom HaZikaron (Israel's Memorial Day), yet every year the news goes out of its way to get video footage or picture stills of Chareidim who ignore the siren.

As explained in this video, many people think the top 3 commandments of the Chareidim are as follows:

1. Throw rocks at ambulances on Yom Kippur
2. Burn the Israeli flag on Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israel Independence Day)
3. Ignore the memorial sirens on Holocaust Commemoration Day) and Israel's Memorial Day)

Most just want to get home and be off the streets at that time...the following video has an interesting take on it. (It's in Hebrew, but easy to follow)

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Beis Yaakov Punishment: Say Tehillim.

One important position on my blog that I adopted last year was that I promote aliya, regardless of a person's individual stream of religious observance. I have Hareidi friends, feel comfortable walking around Mea Shearim, and while I don't own a black hat anymore, it certainly doesn't bother me.

There are many aspects of Hareidi, "ultra" orthodoxy that I admire.

However, the following story sent me to (hat-tip; Marcy) leaves me scratching my head.

Seven pupils at a Beit Ya'akov school in Netanya were punished after they stood up for the siren that sounded Monday in honor of Holocaust Memorial Day (Monday), Yediot Aharonot reported.

According to the report, the school principal removed the girls from their classroom and forced them to stand up for the rest of the day and read psalms.

In Haredi circles, using sirens and "moments of silence" to mark memorial holidays is considered a gentile custom and is discouraged.

Haredi rabbis often encourage their followers to recite psalms or other prayers silently during the siren.

These girls may have been saying tehillim quietly...but the fact that they stood up for the siren (Zionist adoption of "gentile practice") is why they were punished.

And their punishment? They were forced them to stand up for the rest of the day and read psalms...is that the sort of punishment/negativity about tehillim that Beis Yaakov wishes to impart to their students?

There are many ways the school can educate students about their philosophy of not standing up for a siren on Yom HaShoah, but to use tehillim as a punishment and "punishing" them in the first place will only make them want to rebel, adopt a negative attitude towards tehillim, and worst of all -- they will probably stand quietly again next year.


PS: A shout-out to Annie, who's brother is sitting next to me.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

Yom Hashoah in Budapest

The sirens didn't wail here in Budapest like they did in Israel this morning. Traffic didn't come to a standstill, people didn't stop working or talking. Life goes on as usual here in Budapest on Yom Hashoah.

This morning I visited the great synagogue of Budapest. This massive structure is over 200 years old, and was initially part of the Neolog "stream" of Judaism...similar to Reform. The Chatam Sofer put a "cherem" on this shul, and I therefore did not enter the building, but took pictures of the outside and visited the areas surrounding the building.



If you click on the picture above, you'll notice dots on top of some of the letters of the pasuk "ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכה" -- and I haven't figured out why.

During the Holocaust the shul was used as a concentration camp. Adolf Eichman had an office behind the rose window in the women's balcony, and the Germans used it as a radio tower. In the courtyard of the synagogue, there are mass graves of thousands of Jews from the ghettos in Budapest.

(picture of mass grave)

Raoul Wallenberg who came to Budapest as secretary of the Swedish Foreign Ministry in July 1944 with instructions to save as many Jews as possible. He issued thousands of Swedish identity documents to Jews to protect them from Nazi deportation and is credited with ultimately saving as many as 100,000 people. He worked with the Swiss consul Charles Lutz, as well as Portuguese and Spanish legations to create "protected" houses and a "protected" ghetto to house the Jews with international identity papers. Wallenberg was last seen leaving the city on January 17, 1945, right after the Soviet army liberated the city.

Wallenberg and other righteous gentiles are memorialized in the shul's courtyard.

In the holocaust museum next door, there were all sorts of objects I had never seen before in real life from the Holocaust.

This dress was made out of tallit -- to degrade and defile it.

Torah scrolls were cut up and used as parts of drums.

The following was rather interesting:

Here is a "Haftorah Scroll"...if you click on it, you'll see that although it's a scroll, there's nikud and simanei kriya written in as well (makes reading it rather easy)


Anti-semitic sentiment in Hungary during the Holocaust...

The Jewish ghetto in Budapest.

This visitor seemed a bit out of place in the museum.


A Chevra Kadisha tzedakka box in the museum...I thought it was rather morbid.


Yet, of everything I saw this morning I found this the most surprising. Outside the museum was the following "souvenir" coin machine...which would engrave on coins different "mementos."

I found the sign on it rather...offensive?

Will write more later.

--Jameel.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael