Voyeurism

In a world as ours, you get easily sick. Sometimes I can understand - but not fully agree - with the idea of keeping your children far away of the media, unless they are not able to do the selection of the information by themselves. Anyway, it is not always easy to create your nest of normality unde the bombardment of bad news about special people.

For me, this week, the top example of voyeurism was the snowslide of articles about Hasidism and sexuality. The news were there for a long time, but I discovered them in a long row. Praised, explained and rejected, the authors are entering into the merry-go-round of talking over and over again about private life, customs and bedrooms. Most probably, the stars of the yellow media grew up and it was nothing else to talk about in the press? We talk about the "sexual habits" of groups as Satmar and Gur, to a relatively uneducated audience. No, we are not Amish or Mormons (a post about them and us, after Shabbat, promise) and not sexual deviants. For your information, the anti-Semitic rhetorics contain various references to so-called sexual "irregularities". Probably Deborah Feldman (whose book I will read one day, but not now) is not aware about this.

I also can understand that an academic is keen to share the results of her research to a wider audience, but I would prefer to address first my scholars and not the wide media. Academic work is hard work, and you need appreciation for your results, but why not thinking twice about the consequences of such discourses in a media avid of sensationalism.

I think that among both secular and religous Jews, there are happy people and sad people, people happy with them lot or people struggling against their yetzer hara. Each of us is different, and this is a blessing. Some of us are poor, the others rich. It is always important to accept everything happening to you with humility and integrity. You can use your words for cursing or explaining the world, adding value or expressing your self-hate for not understanding why we are living.

Shabbat Shalom!

Youth Aliyah – saving the Jewish children from the hand of the criminals

Youth Aliyah (עלית הנוער Aliyat Hano'ar) rescued 22,000 Jewish children from the Nazis during the Third Reich. They were resettled in kibbutzim and youth villages and received proper schooling.

The organization was founded in 1933 by Recha Freier, a rabbi's wife, an idea supported by the World Zionist Organization. Freier supervised the organization's activities in Germany, and Henrietta Szold in Jerusalem, founder of the Hadassah. Recha Freier was born in Germany at the end of the 19^th century and died in Jerusalem, in 1984. In 1957 she founded the Israeli Composers Fund and sponsored the Israel Testimonium, a music event that took place in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. She also wrote poetry and prose.

In 1919 Recha married Rabbi Dr. Moritz Freier (1889–1969), whom she had met in Breslau, where they also began their married life. They soon moved to Eschwege, where her husband was already a rabbi. Here, their first son, Shalhevet, was born in 1920. From 1922 to 1925 her husband served as a rabbi to the Jewish community in Sofia and while there she taught at a German high school. In 1923 their second son, Ammud, was born, followed in 1926 by a third son, Zerem. In 1929 the couple welcomed a daughter, Ma’ayan. In 1925 the Freier family moved to Berlin, since Moritz had been hired by the Jewish community of Berlin to officiate as rabbi at three synagogues: Rykestrasse (Prenzlauer Berg), Heiderreutergasse (Alte Schul) and Kaiserstrasse. In addition to being a busy young wife and mother, Recha worked as a writer and folklorist.

The involvement of the organization increased after March 31, 1936 when even German elementary schools were closed to Jewish children. "The utter senselessness of Jewish life in the Diaspora stood palpably before my eyes," Freier wrote.

After a brief period of training in Germany, Youth Aliyah youngsters were placed on kibbutzim for two years to learn farming and Hebrew. Kibbutz Ein Harod in the Jezreel Valley was one of the first cooperative settlements to host such groups.

Just before the outbreak of World War II, when immigration certificates to the British Mandate of Palestine became difficult to obtain, Youth Aliyah activists in London came up with an interim solution whereby groups of young people would receive pioneer training in countries outside the Third Reich until they could immigrate to the Holy Land. Great Britain agreed to take in 10,000 endangered children, some from Youth Aliyah groups.

After the Holocaust and World War II, emissaries were sent to Europe to locate children survivors in Displaced persons camps. Children's homes in Eastern Europe were moved to Western Europe, fearing that evacuation from Communist countries might be difficult later on. A Youth Aliyah office was opened in Paris.

Later, Youth Aliyah became a department of the Jewish Agency. Over the years, the organization has brought young people to Israel from North Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Soviet Union and Ethiopia.

In 1958, Youth Aliyah was awarded the Israel Prize for its contribution to education, being the first year in which the Prize was awarded to an organization.

Directors of Youth Aliyah after the establishment of the State of Israel include Meir Gottesman (1978–1984), Uri Gordon and Eli Amir.

Sources:

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/freier-recha

János Rónai, the brave Zionist from Hungary

I was always surprised by the variants of Hungarian-breed Judaism, and most specifically but their strong Hungarian patriotism that prevented many to see the terrible plans the rest of the population was preparing for them. I have the same curiosity for the way of thinking of the Satmar Hasidic group but also for the Modern-Reform orientations.

Of course, we do not have to forget that Herzl is of Hungarian origin, for example. In my search for understing Hungarian Zionism and Hungarian Jews in general, I discovered János Rónai, who set the basis of the Zion Society in Hungary. 

I should continue the search and the process of understanding. 

Photo: The tomb of Herzl on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem

A new present future for the Austrian Jewry

The Jewish communities in Europe are changing the leadership: Vienna is the last new-comer.

Only a couple of minutes before I've read the following story about the fate of Jews from Vienna during the hard times of the WWII, in another testimony about the brave Soviet Jews: The Jews of Hope, by Martin Gilbert.

The story was told to Gilbert by a Jew from Bielorussia, Lev Ovsishcher (pp. 57-58):

"He tells me that when the Jews from Vienna were brought to Minsk in 1941, believing that they were coming to work, the local Jews said, starkly, "You are brought here to be killed". The Jews from Vienna, Ovsishcher recounts, 'became alarmed and excited. The Germans brought up a carriage of water. Everyone was so thirsty they began to drink. After drinking the water they became calm. The water contained a bromide. Shortly afterwards they were killed. No survivors were left. Nobody knows their surnames'". (May the names of these criminals be erased for ever)

Short story of Sambusky Cemetery

Before moving to a new place, take care to be sure that you can find enough stories to read and write.

Jerusalem is, obviously, such a place. Today, I had the pleasure to read the sad story of Sambusky Cemetery. I promise that, one day, I will start writing about all the Jewish cemeteries of my life. Many are full of the hope of green. Many others, especially in the lonely corners of Eastern Europe, they are neglected and half destroyed. Nobody is there any more to take care of them. I must confess I did not expect such situation in Jerusalem, but you never need to consider Jerusalem as a perfect city. It is only the city.

My modest thoughts on Iran

Every time I have some small chunks of free time, I waste it reading news, many news, many many news.

In the last seven days, the chief media subject was Iran:to attack or not to attack, to sanction or not, to give them or not more fuel for the coming parliamentary non-democratic elections, how to survive the attack and whose help to rely upon (none, of course). 

You can hardly miss one day without a single set of minimum 5 news about Iran. Many are even asking more and more news, as they ignore the fact that free journalists are in prison in Iran and they are not allowed to report with the speed of CNN. 

Meanwhile, we enter tomorrow the jouyous month of Adar when we prepare to celebrate the victory of the Jews against the anti-Semitic plan of the Jew-hater Haman from the Persian Empire. We won thanks to the gracious beauty of the hidden Jewess Esther. Remember this: we WON.

Being a Jewish Journalist in Jerusalem

The roads of journalism, especially when it comes to the Middle East, are very hidden and not always - if ever - going through clean zones of the human mind (I am too kitch and fluffy, here I know).

New York Times will have a new bureau chief, who - 'anyone surprised ?' - is not so Twitter-friendly with the Jewish state and many Western journalist sent there, from chief media institutions, are highly recommended for this position if they do not speak Hebrew, and do not like the Jewish state and, if possible, are fluent in Arabic. This remainds me of some situations I am quite familiar with when a journalist with a solid background in the Middle East issues was completely banned of writing news about the area, unless accepted titles consonant with the dirtiest pro-Saddam and pro-Iranian propaganda. 

Comparatively, an undergraduated of Arabic studies will always be qualified to report about the Middle East. I am the first to recognize the important of being able to read the newspapers of the country you are covering in the original language. I am only fighting for the same right of being qualified if a fluent speaker of Hebrew. Anyway, they will not send me to report about Egypt of Bahrain anyway - 'too biased, you know' - but they will not have any second thoughts to do so with a journalist close to Hamas. Are you able to see the logical failures of such an approach?

From many ridiculous points of view, the overall attitude of the New York Times regarding the Jewish issues, is at least schizophrenic: the coverage of the horrific events during WWII was shameful (if you want to know more, pay a visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC and you will give up any effort of reading your NYT ever); but they also used to publish the Jewish dateson the front pages (there were some good Chabad influences here, as far as I know); recently, they  published several articles about the Haredi life (including an article about eating disorders, whose logic I was not able to grasp) but also a fantastic statement of Thomas Friedman, about "Jewish lobby". Balanced reporting means to confuse completely your readers through the fringe of madness?

I don't want to answer. In the last 12 months I am reading NYT maybe once the month and the Guardian probably twice the year. I avoid as much as possible Haaretz.  

PS: I saw this article only now: CNN decided to 'reorganize' its office in Jerusalem by firing the Israeli Jews journalists. Abu-Dhabi looks as a better source of news, for some of Turner's employees...