Anti-Semitism

In the Arabic world the Arabic leadership has for generations used the Dimihi Jews as ‎excuses for all the woes in their failures as leaders. Since the advent of Zionism and the ‎failure of the Arab Nationalistic movement against the imperial powers Israel, since it’s ‎conception, has become "THE" major cause for hatred of Jews / anti-Semitism within the ‎Arab mind. This is graphically illustrated in the massive pro-"Falestinian" anti-Zionism ‎‎/Israel /Jews worldwide misinformation hatred campaign. The Liberal "Human Rights ‎Groups" of the "Western World"; which once saw little Israel as a gleaming spot of ‎humanity, now solely see the Arab slanderous vicious hatred point of view spread in the ‎Internet of the "Oppression" and "Occupation" and "Apartheid" Israel.‎

In Europe, the Ukraine and Russia anti-Semitism is, and has always existed it is inbred ‎with many of the Christians as part of the belief passed down that Jews were solely ‎responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. This is deeply believed with the Eastern ‎Orthodox Church. Over the past two decades the Moslem populations within Western ‎European from their high birthrate and with the increased immigration rate has ‎dramatically increased the sympathy for the "Falestinian" cause. The distraction of the ‎minds of the Western Europeans to the "Zionist" enemy Israel and anti-Semitism is a ‎ploy to distract the Europeans from the slow takeover of their societies from within by ‎Islam.‎

In the USA the white supremacist groups movement in the United States has become ‎more active in recent years due to the increased frustration over America's economic ‎woes and a racial backlash against Barack Obama's election as President in 2008. This ‎rise in supremacist violence was highlighted recently in the Kansas City shooting by ‎Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr.‎

According to a recent BJF Update -Birmingham Jewish Federation Newsletter "Mark ‎Pitcavage, director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League recently ‎stated Supremacists have gotten "much more agitated and angrier, and we... see an increase ‎in criminal activity, in violent hate crimes, acts of terrorism and plots coming out of the ‎white supremacist movement".‎

Behavioral patterns among hate groups in the USA, and Moslem Terrorist groups, are ‎notoriously difficult to track, as members tend to be secretive and deeply suspicious of ‎outsiders. The Internet makes it easier to spread hatred from individual to individual and ‎group to group. Most adherents to extremist cause out of fear of being discovered don't ‎affiliate with any group at all. The landscape has become even more complex as many ‎established white supremacist groups have collapsed into a myriad of splinter groups. ‎

Anti-Semitism has become increasingly central to the ideologies of hate groups over the ‎decades as they see Jews as the manipulators behind blacks, Hispanics and other ‎perceived enemies. This view of anti-Semitism was reflected in the Kansas City suspects ‎own thinking.  Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Montgomery, AL-based Southern ‎Poverty Law Center has said that these groups are "very much animated by anti-‎Semitism, “It’s essentially been Nazified in last 30 years. They no longer see blacks as ‎the ultimate enemy. Jews are now considered the ultimate enemy."‎

Aliyah, Ma'alot and My "Little Brother" David Sklar z"l

The Military Section of the cemetery in Meona

"A State is not handed to a people on a silver platter" Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel

My family and I are the "adoptive (Representative) family" of a young American who was also a new "Oleh" to Maalot in 1976, and a "Fallen Soldier" David Sklar z"l.

David was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the 4th of June 1962 and at the age of 9 his family made Aliyah to Hertzliya. David and his family his older sister Deborah and his mother Chaya, who was divorced, arrived to Maalot a very short time before I had entered the IDF as a "Chayal Boded" in September of 1976. His mother Chaya Sklar z"l worked at that time as a secretary to Elaine Kopp -today Levitt, who had also recently arrived in Maalot in charge of a Jewish Agency Volunteer for Israel program.

David and his family lived in the "New Binyan HaMalit"(the only multi storied (8) building in Maalot with an elevator) near today's Shouk (Marketplace). David had only recently entered Yad Netan High School near Akko  and he was like a little brother to me.
David  was constantly coming over to spend time with me talking, listening to my album collection and playing American sports - softball, baseball and football. At that time the Anglo-Saxon community was very small and close and we did a lot of activities together.

David would relate to me his experiences and secrets in life as any younger brother would to an older one. Our friendship was close since he was badly treated and ignored as a child by his father and he was in need of an "older" brother to be there for him.

I had arrived in Israel as a volunteer for Kibbutz in the aftermath of the tragic Yom Kippur in September of 1974. I came here to experience my Jewish heritage up close and I came alone with no family here in Israel and I was very much alone. A stranger in a new land still not sufficient in Hebrew. 
I joined a Garin for a new Kibbutz in the Arava - the prairie north of Eilat-Garin Shikma of Kibbutz Ketura. My Garin went to do Hebrew Ulpan and Hacshira at Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin. Regretfully the Garin came apart and most of the members left Israel. During my time with the Garin I had changed my status to new "Oleh" - Immigrant.
When I left Kibbutz knowing I had a call-up for the army I had to find a place to live. The Jewish Agency offered me a singles apartment in Maalot and I went to see the area and because of the green pastoral setting of the Galilee and the local friends I made I decided to live here.
In those early years there were still very few telephones to call home by and the only means of communication was by the exchange of "aerograms" air mail letters which would take anywhere from 10 days to two weeks to arrive. So to have someone like David, his sister and mother, my fellow "Single Soldier" neighbor Kenny Sherman, my upstairs neighbor from England the painter Elana Black and her young daughter Sharon, Elaine Kopp and her two children Mike and Marla was very nice.

When my future wife Rena made Aliyah in March 1978 to Ma'alot (from Far Rockaway NY)  it was Chaya Sklar who told me about her and her arrival and she encouraged me to meet her. So when I came home on my first leave from "Mivtzah Litani" (Operation Litani) in March of 1978 I waited outside the old Aliyah Center on Ma'ale HaBenim Street at 11PM+ that night, since Rena was working as an RN at Nahariyah Hospital, for her arrival home. Since I was on a short leave and time was of importance and though the hour was now very late I went and knocked on her door and when she opened it I introduced myself and she replied; "Very nice my name is Rena and I am tired" and she than closed the door. That is how we met thanks to Chaya.

As time went by Rena and I married in January of 1979, as far as I know we are the only Americans to marry in Maalot. David was enthralled and was so happy. As time went on our "Anglo" community would meet and play sports at the park of the local symbol – a large tall water Tower, every Saturday. Local kids became participants and David was proud to be part of the "action".

In the spring of 1979 we moved to our new apartment on Karen Haysod, across the street from the original “Anglo Saxon couple” Beronica (An RN From St Louis Missouri) and Peter (An ex Egged Bus Corporation Driver born in Germany but raised in South Africa) Zilberstein and their three boys, Shai, Yoel and Gideon.

When our oldest son David was born David was ever so happy to be the proud "Uncle" he would spend hours with his "nephew". When David graduated High School in 1980 he was eager to join the IDF and to be "Kravi". Despite his handicaps, his small frame and eyesight he strove to be in the Tank Corp.

In the spring of 1982 Rena and I had made a decision to leave Israel so that I could complete my college degree so as to have a "better future". Our last meeting with David was very sad and with the threat of war that was in the air. As he sat on the couch with his "nephew" on his lap, I warned David to take care and asked him to promise me that in combat he would heed my lessons I taught him and to wear his body armor vest.

We separated saying "See you later" and not goodbye. We left for Birmingham Alabama my hometown to live and Rena got a job immediately at the Children's Hospital in the vast Birmingham Alabama Medical Center In June of that year I had just reentered studies at a junior college prior to returning to University, when the First War in Lebanon had broken out. As a Medic in Charge of a Mobile Hospital I quickly prepared to fly back but my commander told me NO stay and get your degree. According to the orders, "We are advancing only to the Litani." so the "war" will be over soon.

Near the end of June fighting intensified and I was torn between going and staying. The family did not want me to go and the pressure was on. I returned from my studies on the 5th of July 1982 to a message that my Dad had received by phone to call our neighbor. I thought that Daphne Even Zohar -our American born neighbor was calling to notify us of the installation of the phone that we had ordered three years before! (In the old days of Bezeq, the Israeli Telecommunications Company was a monopoly and they were king. You could wait years to have the privilege of having a phone installed)

When I returned the call later, due to the 8 hour time difference, Daphne informed me that David who had been gravely wounded in Beirut had died from his wounds in Rambam Hospital in Haifa.

As to how it happened I learned this standing over his grave prior to the ceremony on a very hot Yom HaZichron (Memorial Day) a few years ago. As I stood there beside the grave they came one by one and I

Yom HaZichron 2014

met his entire tank crew and his commander. The years had gone by and they were now in their 40’s with grown children. They came from all over Israel to stand there in silence out of respect for their comrade. As old soldiers do we talked and they told me what exactly had occurred and how David was wounded. What I learned that day was that prior to the beginning of the war the Commander of the Unit had wanted to transfer David to a non-combat role, due to his difficulties in his physical ability to do the heavy work demanded of a member of a tank crew. I asked his commanding officer that fateful what if question. "What if there had been a few more

days of tranquility?" He said that David would more than probably have been transferred. It just goes to show how fickle one's destiny can be and how fate had stepped in and the war had begun it stopped the process of the transfer and it had determined David's life.

They were in South Western Beirut stationed at a road block across from an IDF Field Hospital not far from the Shi’ite Quarter of Dahiya, and the “Falestinian” refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla. They had been under fire from the PLO mortars in the vicinity of the Borj Al Brajne earlier that hot sultry summer morning when one of his crew-mates who had been on duty as the “radio listener” asked David to change with him so he could relieve himself. David eagerly replied and climbed back onto the tank to be “in communication” –listening for orders on the company network. Due to the heavy humidity and heat David had not properly closed his Flak Vest. As his crew-mates and commander recalled there was the sudden renewal of mortar fire briefly and a shell which landed near the tank sent a large piece of shrapnel into David’s back to front. They immediately rushed David to the doctors and medics at the field hospital. An evacuation helicopter was called in and David was evacuated to Rambam Hospital where the doctors labored  some 24 hours to save him but the damage had been too great and he died at the age of 20 the 5th of July 1982.

In April of 1984 we returned to Maalot to a tragic situation. We found that Chaya had "freaked out" over her mourning of David's death and her "Ex" husbands attitude towards her. She could not be consoled her grief was too much. We were informed that she had driven David's sister Deborah into leaving Israel to New York and to cutoff all communication with anyone in Israel. Chaya’s grief and loneliness drove her to attempt suicide several times and than she found religion. She became an extremist in her hatred of Arabs and she lashed out at all her previous friends and when she died in Kiryat Arba she asked to be buried near David in the cemetery in Meona.

Once she died there was no one to represent yet alone mourn or remember David. Since there was "No Family" to officially represent David, I volunteered my family out of our love and respect for him.

Now on every Erev Yom HaZichron at the evening outdoor ceremony one of my children go up on the stage and light the candle for him. And I am always at the next days ceremony at the Soldiers section of the cemetery in Meona at his grave ever year on Yom HaZichron.

Now David is remembered and will be remembered. There is and will be someone to say Kaddish for him. May his memory be blessed -יהיה זכרו ברוך Ei Hiyeh Zichron Baruch.

In the Marble Garden- In Memory of my "little brother" ‎Corporal David Sklar
Written by Yakov Marks

On that day‏,‏
I always wanted to know
When "we" are standing‏,‏
For that minute of silence
as the siren is heard throughout the ‎‎land‎ ‎
Can they see us standing there‏?‏

In the closed eyes of the grieving ‎parents
A full length movie passes
From their birth up to that terrible ‎day‏.‏

For their comrades in arms
There is definitely a different movie
From the date of their first ‎acquaintance,‎
Until that tragic moment.‏

In almost all the "Marble Gardens" ‎across Israel.‎
It's something that is generally  ‎accepted ‎
That their resting place is the most ‎well groomed and hallowed.‎

The Exodus: Myth, Legend or Truth?‎

Is the story in the Bible of the Exodus a myth? More than probably yes. The actual question should be, “Is it based on a cumulative of several narratives?” The answer is yes more than probably. Remember the first five Books of the Bible are based on "Oral Tradition" since the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE, in the form of primitive drawings.

Now let us examine the possible proofs of the myth that is the Passover narrative described in the Exodus.

The only contemporary Egyptian source which actually mentions Israel is the stele (pillar with inscription) of King Merneptah from the fifth year of his reign (1207 B.C.E.), recording among his many victories: "Carved off is Ashkelon, seized upon in Gezer…Israel is laid waste, his seed

no more."

 This inscription implies that an entity named Israel existed in Canaan at the time, yet it is difficult to determine precisely what it was. One thing, however, may be regarded as certain: if the Israelites indeed emerged out of Egypt, their migration took place before the end of the thirteenth century B.C.E.

In the Leiden Museum in Holland there is a papyrus that was written at the end of the Middle Kingdom, around 1650 B.C.E. that was found in Egypt. It is called, “The Admonitions of an Egyptian” written by an Egyptian known as Ipuwer. Scribes copied it in the 19th Dynasty, in the 1200s B.C.E. In his story Ipuwer recount plagues described in the Bible. (The biblical plagues befell the Egyptians at the time of Moses and the Exodus, which has been dated sometime between (1570 to 1290 B.C.E.) The disparity of the dates between the Ipuwer and the story of the Exodus is enough to convince many scholars that there is no relation exists between the two but the similarities of the plagues mentioned are striking.

One of the most contentious problems regarding the Exodus investigation is the fact that there is no archeological evidence for various places mentioned in the biblical travel itinerary of the Israelites as they fled Egypt for the Promised Land in Canaan. A number of biblical sites have been corroborated by Egyptian map sources done in the Late Bronze age, in Dynasties XVIII and XIX between 1560-1200 B.C.E while most date the Exodus in the range of 1400-1200 B.C.E.  Among the sites recorded are; Dibon (Numbers 13:45), a city where the Israelites' camped on their way to invade Canaan, and Hebron (Numbers 13:22), another city targeted for invasion, Iyyn and Abel (biblical Abel Shittim) both in Numbers 13: 45-50; Yom haMelach (Numbers 34:3); and Athar (Hebrew Atharim) (Numbers 21:1). This evidence is strong that these cities did indeed exist at the time of the Exodus since they are found on the temple walls of ancient Egyptian kings. Most importantly they are documented in the most important extra-biblical source Egypt.

Is the story of Joseph as a Hebrew advisor to Egyptian kings in the narrative of the Bible at the time of the Exodus true? A tomb dated to around 1353-1335 B.C.E.  in the Saqqara region of Egypt was originally discovered by the legendary archeologist Sir Flinders Petrie in the 1880s belonged to a man called Aper-el, the Egyptian version of a Hebrew name. This Aper-el (El-being the Hebrew reference to God indicating that this advisor was a Hebrew/Jew) was a vizier to the famous Amenhotep III (1370-1293 B.C.E., 18th Dynasty) and later to his son, the monotheistic king Akhenaten. In the book of Genesis, Joseph rose from captive to be second only to the Pharaoh, and he was empowered to save Egypt from starvation during a seven-year drought.

Was Aper-el/Aperia indeed a Hebrew advisor to the young king Akhenaten? If so, did Aper-el/Aperia influence Akhenaten's thinking toward monotheism? In any case, it would place a Hebrew advisor to the kings within the range of years claimed for the Exodus just as Joseph was to an Egyptian king hundreds of years earlier.

Next, there is a papyrus from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, about 1740 B.C.E. possibly from Thebes, in the Brooklyn Museum which contains a list of slaves. On the list is a slave named Shifra and others with Semitic names. As the Exodus narrative goes in the Bible, a Hebrew woman with the same name, Shifra, was one of two midwives the Pharaoh commissioned to kill all the male Hebrew children at the time Moses was born (Exodus 1:15).  

As Jews our prayer book contains the phrases zecher l’ma’asei bereshit and zecher litziyat mitzrayim — “to commemorate the acts of Creation” and “to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt.” Just as the Shabbat Kiddush consists of two paragraphs. The first recounts Creation; the second, the Exodus. So why remember and commererate things that didn't happen?

Apparently God (or, if you prefer, whoever gave the Ten Commandments) thought the Exodus significant enough to open the Ten Commandments with reference to one event — the Exodus: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the Land of Egypt.” Even one who doesn’t believe that God gave the Ten Commandments would have to explain why reference to something that never happened would so move the ancient Israelites. In addition, the two versions of the Ten Commandments — the one from God in Exodus and the one from Moses in Deuteronomy — differ with regard to the reason for Shabbat. The first version’s reason is the Creation (by keeping the Shabbat, we reaffirm weekly that God created the world); the second version’s reason is the Exodus (“You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt” — and only free people can have a day of rest each week).

So as a story, "Why do we Jews have it?" People don't make up stories like that, certainly not about themselves. So there must be some truth behind the story so that we can be proud of it. There's nothing like a good legend to lift a nation's confidence. That's why most peoples of the world claim to have powerful forebears, like great kings and mighty warriors. "So why do we Jews claim to have come from such lowly and ignoble origins. What purpose could that have served? Why would people invent an embarrassing legend about themselves? Yet we Jews proudly declare a most undignified beginning: we began as a slave nation. Every year we retell the Exodus saga, and say: "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt." Even the escape from Egypt cannot be accredited to our own power: "G-d took us out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm." G-d had to "reach out" and save us. Such an un-heroic heritage!

So while those who proclaim to be the descendants of demi-gods are today subjects for archaeologists and historians. The children of Israel, descendants of simple slaves, are alive and thriving. The message of Passover to us as Jews is that there is no need to cover up our humble beginnings. The Jewish belief is that greatness is not a thing of our past; it is with us now and it will be with us in the future ahead of us.

So was the story of the Passover and of the Exodus a “Morality Play” as is with many of the stories of the Bible meant to teach the uneducated? More than probably yes. The story of the Exodus of the Jewish people was meant to inspire, not by glorying in an illustrious past, but rather by promising a brighter future. We the Hapiru –the ancient Hebrews were slaves, but we have a destiny to bring freedom to all the oppressed people of the world.