The Logic in Madness

MY FRIEND I LOST IN THE SIXTH DAY WAR

Zeev Galili — Mon, 21 May 2012 05:45:04 +0000

by Zeev Galili

TRANSLATED BY Ada Geller

My Six-Day war is the war in which I lost a friend who, more than anyone else, left his indelible imprint on mine and my family’s lives. The existential anxiety that preceded the war and the triumphal intoxication in its wake, were obliterated once the bad news arrived – Joshua Diamant had been killed in the battle for Jerusalem

An Energy Bomb

Joshua burst into our lives like a storm. We were then a young couple with a few months old baby-girl and having to juggle diapers, livelihood, mortgage, and studies. But he, though merely three years younger than us, seemed from a different planet. While appearing to be a carefree bachelor in shorts and sandals, wearing a knitted skullcap, sporting a thick mustache, and always smiling, he was in fact a bundle of explosive energy that during the days worked in road construction, and at nights helped out in his father’s small textile plant. And all the while, he studied at the university, taught at half a dozen schools, was a tour guide, served as a reserve paratrooper, and even managed to beat two international chess grandmasters, Smyslov and Gligoric, in a simultaneous game, .

An Amateur Photographer As Well

He initiated the contact with us in his typical manner. He and my wife were classmates in a statistics course. After she failed a test, he offered to tutor her. He kept his promise, and appeared one day, unexpectedly, at our doorstep. Shortly thereafter we became soul mates and he became a member of our family. He cared devotedly for our baby daughter and for her brother that was born two years later. He photographed them frequently. Upon revisiting the old albums recently, we realized that most of our children’s photos from that period were taken by him.

A Deep Depression

My wife and I entered into a long period of deep depression following his death. Upon hearing the tragic news, we went to console his parents, Abraham and Tova, who lived in our neighborhood, and then to his grave at the Mount Herzl cemetery where the fallen soldiers were buried hurriedly while the smell of death still hung in the air.

Later we withdrew into ourselves. His mother died shortly thereafter. His father came to visit us each Sabbath but with great sensitivity did not mention Joshua. He, this bereaved father, a soul as gentle as his son, was considerate of our bereavement. Thus together we silently communed with Joshua.

Joshua’s Namesakes

The wound of losing Joshua kept bleeding for years. Only four years later, upon the birth of our third son whom we decided to name Joshua, we experienced some measure of relief. The skullcap I wore during my son’s brit-milah has remained on my head ever since. I felt that I thereby had earned the privilege to have known Joshua. We bonded with his sisters, visited his gravesite annually, discovered that there are at least six other of his namesakes, and taught his legacy to our children.

What could be said about the legacy of a man whose life was cut short at the age of twenty seven? His was, seemingly, a standard path of studies at Kfar-Ha’Roeh Yeshiva, service as a paratrooper, and studies at the University. His is, seemingly, a story of a good and gentle guy, a loyal friend, a devoted son, a man imbued with the love for Israel, a deeply religious man radiating his belief on his surroundings, a truly charitable and pious man. Yet if I were to describe him I would say that of all people known to me, he exemplifies, as much as anybody, the image of the righteous man.

The Curse of Forgetfulness

As the years passed by and we aged along our children and grandchildren, Joshua remained a twenty seven year old but his image blurred.

When my editor asked me to write about “My Six-Day War”, my instant response was that I have nothing to say since the IDF did not recruit me and I spent the war as a civilian in the rear. This was immediately followed by Joshua’s memory flashing through my mind, and by the realization that the passing of time that had served to dull the pain and heal the wounds, resulting in forgetfulness.

Suddenly I found myself trying to remember his sisters’ names, where and how he got killed, and other details pertaining to his life. Upon goggling the name “Joshua Diamant” I found someone else but not our Joshua, who is nowhere to be found on the internet. I took it as a personal offense.

Then I remembered Dr. Yehuda Meltzer, the publisher of “Aliath Gag.” He is a pleasant man of culture, the son of the poet Simson Meltzer who wrote “A Poem for Rashi”. I went to meet him.

Yehuda is a nice man but ideologically a world apart from me. He believes that settling ‘Gush Emunim’ was disastrous for Israel, I believe otherwise. We have, however, one thing in common – longings for Joshua. Our meeting left me teary eyed.

Similarly to mine, Yehuda’s ties with Joshua were formed during a few short years but left an indelible impression. They had met accidently, when Yehuda, who served years as a teacher, was suddenly reassigned at the eve of the war to a combat platoon where Joshua took him under his wings and cared for all his needs

Death’s Alley

Joshua was in the paratrooper’s division that was to parachute and fight in the El-Arish area. When he heard that instead his division had been reassigned to fight in Jerusalem, he was elated. He told his friends: “imagine where we are heading. There is nothing as important as that for a Jew.”

Joshua’s unit advanced along the Shechem Road while snipers on both sides of the road left many dead and wounded. The column reached a narrow alley with a machine gun at its end. The task of Joshua’s squad was to storm the alley. He charged out in front of his squad, exposed to the fire, until felled by an enemy’s bullet.

For Jerusalem’s Sake

During the battle he told one of his friends: “Should something happen to me, tell my parents that it was for the sake of Jerusalem”

One of the Biblical commentators (“Megaleh Amukot”) provides the following exegesis to verse 6:2 in the Song of Songs “My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.” He writes: ““My beloved” is God himself who comes down to take into his embrace the souls of the righteous.

He then continues to ask: “Why do young ones die sometimes and sometimes old ones die?”

And there is no answer to this question.

An Israeli Poet, a Holocaust Survivor, Responds to the Poem in which Guenther Grass Writes that Israel is a Threat to World Peace

Zeev Galili — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:06:09 +0000

The Israeli poet, Itamar Jaoz-Kest, a Holocaust survivor who as a child was incarcerated in the Bergen-Belsen Extermination Camp, writes a poem in

response to the poem written by German author, Guenther Grass, in which he says:
“Israel’s nuclear power endangers fragile world peace”

Here is the poem translated into English and German, followed by the Hebrew original.

ITAMAR YAOZ-KEST

THE RIGHT TO EXIST

Open letter-poem to the writer Gunther Grass

“Israel’s nuclear power endangers fragile world peace.”

.Quote from the press by Gunther Grass:

Danger

I want to be a danger to the world.

And if the world is planning to destroy me – let not a stem of grass remain on the face of the earth after my destruction! Let not one speck of a blade of “Grass” for the pipe of Mr. Gunther Grass be left on the face of the earth, the world to which I pose a danger

That is my right!

It is my right to live or to die while all who rise up to eradicate me are being destroyed. It is my right to never again be carted off in a freight train destined for the great vacuum of the earth – a sobbing-child with head nestled in the bosom of my mother. She disappears into the ashen air rising from the land of Votan

And in that very hour, was soldier G.G on duty with the armed train-guard troops?

My heart persists and asks: where did the soldier Gunther Grass travel then, when I was a ten year old child trapped in a death-train?

Actually, it’s all the same to me, and you are a very honorable author, daily breathing in the clean, fresh air, imbued with the odor of Jewish ashes, in your old-new Germany.

That air which I breathed only once, seized and taken to your elusive land of beautiful rivers. So I have forbidden the two soles of my feet to touch again the land of your fathers

And perhaps I still awaken from time to time in my house, even in this seventh decade of my years. I reach out my hand to the bed next to mine, to my wife’s bed, reassured that life continues as it should

In the mornings, the powerful daylight of Eretz Israel fills my home. I turn on my TV and I turn on the radio, I watch and listen, as if possessed by the devil, to the sermons of Iran’s Ayatullolahs and to the arrogance of an Iranian Minister, displaying in his two hands a map of Land of Israel and its dimensions. He says “It is so small that in six to seven days it is possible to wipe it off the map,” or as you would say, “Ausradieren – To banish and to wipe out!” And I hear the sermons of the Mosque preachers in Israel and in the Arab lands calling out, “Ausradieren! – To banish and to wipe out!”

But why is their intention always directed towards myself, the Jew, and never towards you – Mr. Gunther Grass!

Nevertheless, there is a right belonging only to the Jews. This is the right to take with us as we are being annihilated this satiated world, grand libraries and spiritually uplifting music and all – into the nothingness, to share our ruin and our descent into the grave. Then radioactive rays will poison the four directions of the sky for all the inhabitants of earth.

Yes, we have the right!/ and this is also my right!/ the right of the people of Israel to close shut the creaking gates of the world/ upon its final descent from the stage of history/with the power of the final weapon/ and we have the right to declare/ at the price of the great fear born of three thousand years/ “If you force us again to descend from the face of the earth to its depths/,the entire globe will be turned back into nothingness.”

For is not the right to live a two way street? For you and for me/or/not for you if not for me!

Mr. Gunther Grass, esteemed author! The tin drums of the universe are thundering!

Oh, how I played with tin drums when I was an innocent child in my mother and father’s house.

But the drum stayed with those who took over the houses of our childhood. Still, its sound resounds in our ears night and day.

And this is the reason that we returned to Eretz Israel, tens of years ago, or hundreds of years ago, out of longing for the Land of our fathers devotion, the Land where our fathers and mothers also suffered persecution and fear. And the Land was waiting for us in the bosom of time.

For the truth is that it was not the promise of quiet and peace that called to us, that pulsated under our skin, but the desire to live to the maximum as our true selves, just as you are permitted to live your true self, honorable writer and poet.

Yes, I envy you: why is your right to live unchallenged and absolute! Why is my right to live defined as an echo and a silence!

And it is I who is a danger to the world?

And it is I – the eternal dangerous man – who also asks you this:

If it has been decreed that I must be wiped off the face of the earth to serve only as fertilizer for the rebirth of new grass, what is the reason and measure of justice that

you and your sons and the sons of your sons will continue to play with certainty among the fragrant grass, gazing up at the healing sun in the center of the horizon, while it is we the Jewish People whose existence will eternally suffer uncertainty and doubt?

Translated by: Shira Twersky-Cassel

ITAMAR YAOZ KEST {ZEEV GALULI}

==============================================================

: Guenther Grass {RIGHT}

Der israelische Dichter Itamar Yaoz-Kest, ein Überlebender des Holocaust, hat einen offenen Brief geschrieben, ein “Brief-Gedicht”, als Erwiderung auf das Gedicht mit dem der Deutsche Günter Grass den Staat Israel anklagt, “den bereits zerbrechlichen Weltfrieden zu gefährden“

Das Brief-Gedicht wurde auf dem Blog des Journalisten Ze’ev Galili in hebräischer Sprache veröffentlicht, und der Titel lautet: “Das Recht auf Existenz: Ein dichterischer Brief an den deutschen Autor”. Der Brief wendet sich namentlich an Grass, der zugegeben hat, während des zweiten Weltkrieges ein Mitglied der Waffen SS gewesen zu sein

Das Brief-Gedicht beginnt wie folgt

Gefahr

ja, ich möchte gefährlich sein

ich möchte der Welt eine Gefahr sein

und zwar so, dass nach meiner Vernichtung, auch nicht ein einziger Grashalm

auf dem Angesicht der Erde bliebe

und nicht ein einziger Grashalm für Gunther Grass’ Pfeife

auf der Erde, wo ich, seit ich geboren bin, eine Gefahr für die Welt darstell

Denn dies ist mein Recht

Es ist mein Recht zu leben, oder aber zu sterben, indem ich diejenigen, die vernichten, vernichte, und nicht wieder als weinendes Kind in einem Güterwaggon fahre

hin in die Leere der Welt, während ich meinen Kopf auf dem Schoss einer Mutter berge, die in der frischen Luft des Wotans Landes spurlos verschwindet

Später in dem Gedicht äußert Yaoz-Kest etwas, das nach einer bewusst gemachten Feststellung im Sinn der “Samson Option” klingt

Und während so das helle Licht des Landes Israel in mein Haus eintritt, stelle ich das Radio ein, und es ist schwer, die Predigten der Ayatollahs des Iran zu überhören und die Worte des angesehenen iranischen Ministers, der mit seinen zwei Händen die Landkarte Israels zeigt, um dann zu sagen: “Es ist so klein… innerhalb von sechs oder sieben Tagen kann es von der Landkarte ausradiert werden”, ist das nicht ein Wort in Ihrer Sprache – “ausradieren”. Und hier bin ich und höre die Predigten der Imame in den Moscheen des Landes Israel und in den arabischen Ländern, wie sie verkünden “ausradieren!”, aber sie beziehen sich immer auf mich und nicht auf Sie, Gunther Grass.

Und dennoch, es gibt ein Recht, das allein uns Juden vorbehalten ist (falls irgendein menschliches Wesen auf der Erde dieses Recht hat): falls wir zerstört werden, diese müde und übersättigte Welt mit uns aus dieser Existenz heraus zu nehmen, zusammen mit ihren wundersamen Bibliotheken und ans Herz gehenden Melodien – einfach so, nachdem wir ins Grab sinken, während der Boden noch radioaktive Strahlen in alle vier Winde verbreitet

Wirklich – wir haben das Recht! Und es ist auch meins!

Denn es ist das Recht der israelischen Nation zuletzt die Tür zur Welt hinter sich zu schließen, nachdem sie diesen Platz verlassen hat (nicht aus eigenem freien Willen!), und wir haben das Recht zu sagen, den Preis hat die 3000 Jahre alte Furcht bezahlt: “Wenn ihr uns noch einmal vom Angesicht der Erde fort zwingt, in die Tiefen der Erde hinunter – dann möge die Erde der Nichtigkeit entgegen schlingern.”

Die Samson Option – Israels Feinde mit wegzunehmen, und möglicherweise der ganzen Welt irreparablen Schaden zuzufügen – machte unter israelischen Strategen einschließlich Ariel Sharon die Runde, als eine allerletzte Möglichkeit für den Fall, dass Israel vor der Auslöschung stehen würde

http://aro1.com/israelisches-brief-gedicht-an-grass

===============================================================

זכות הקיום : איגרת-שיר לסופר הגרמני

סַכָּנָה,
אֲנִי רוֹצֶה לִהְיוֹת סַכָּנָה,
אֲנִי רוֹצֶה לִהְיוֹת סַכָּנָה לָעוֹלָם,

כְּדֵי שֶׁלְּאַחַר הִשָּׁמְדִי לא תִּוָּתֵר עוֹד פִּסַּת עָלֵה-עֵשֶׂב עַל-פְּנֵי כַּדּוּר-הָאָרֶץ,
אוֹ פִּסַּת עָלֶה ‘גְּרַאס’ – לְמִקְטַרְתּוֹ שֶׁל מַר גִּינְטֶר גְּרַאס
עַל-פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה שֶׁבָּהּ, מֵאָז יוֹם הִוָּלְדִי, מְהַוֶּה אֲנִי סַכָּנָה לָעוֹלָם.
כִּי זְכוּתִי הִיא זאת!
זְכוּתִי הִיא לִחְיוֹת אוֹ לָמוּת תּוֹךְ כְּדֵי הַשְׁמָדַת מַשְׁמִידַי, מִבְּלִי לִנְסועַ עוֹד כְּיֶלֶד-בֶּכִי בְּרַכֶּבֶת-מַשָּׂא
אֶל וָקוּם-הָעוֹלָם, בְּעוֹדִי מֵנִיחַ אֶת ראשִׁי בְּחֵיק אֵם הַנְּמוֹגָה בָּאֲוִיר הַצַּח שֶׁל אֶרֶץ ווֹטָאן,
וּפַח-הַשֶּׁתֶן מַתִּיז נִיצוֹצוֹת צְהֻבִּים-אֲפֵלִים אֶל קִירוֹת הַקָּרוֹן – כְּמוֹ יְרִיּוֹת-רוֹבֶה הַמַּתִּיזוֹת
נוֹזֵל צְהַבְהַב-אֲדַמְדַּם מִצַּד שׁוֹמְרֵי הָרַכֶּבֶת וּבֵינֵיהֶם – אוּלַי – גַּם הַחַיָּל ג.ג., כְּשֶׁהוּא חֲבוּשׁ קַסְדַּת-פְּלָדָה.
וְעַכְשָׁו לִבִּי מִתְפַּתֶּה לְהַקְשׁוֹת וְלִשְׁאול: לְאָן זֶה נָסַע הַחַיָּל גִּינְטֶר גְּרַאס בְּאוֹתָהּ הָעֵת?
בְּעֶצֶם, כְּבָר הַיְנוּ-הַךְ!
וּמַה עוֹד יִכָּתֵב בְּנוֹשֵׂא זֶה? אוּלַי כְּבָר הַיְנוּ-הַךְ!
הֲגַם כִּי נוֹשֵׁם אַתָּה יוֹם-יוֹם אֶל רֵאוֹתֶיךָ, סוֹפֵר מְכֻבָּד עַד-מְאד, אֶת הָאֲוִיר הַצַּח וְהַנָּקִי, אַךְ הַמָּהוּל
בְּרֵיחוֹ שֶׁל אֵפֶר, בְּגֶרְמַנְיָה הַיְּשָׁנָה-חֲדָשָׁה.
אָכֵן, אֲנִי נָשַׁמְתִּי אוֹתוֹ רַק פַּעַם אַחַת וִיחִידָה, בְּעֵת נוֹסְעִי אֶל אַרְצְךָ יְפַת-הַנְּהָרוֹת ,(לְאַחַר הַפַּעַם הָרִאשׁוֹנָה- הָרִאשׁוֹנָה וְהַקַּדְמוֹנִית)! וְהִנֵּה אָסַרְתִּי עַל שְׁתֵּי כַּפּוֹת רַגְלֵי לִדְרךְ עַל אַדְמַת אֲבוֹתֶיךָ.
וְאוּלָם, עוֹדִי מִתְעוֹרֵר מֵעֵת לְעֵת, גַּם בֶּעָשׂוֹר הַשְּׁבִיעִי שֶׁל שְׁנוֹת חַיַּי, וְשׁוֹלֵחַ יָדִי אֶל הַמִּטָּה הַסְּמוּכָה לִי,
אֶל מְקוֹם מִשְׁכָּבָהּ שֶׁל הָרַעְיָה, כְּדֵי לְהִוָּדַע כִּי הָעוֹלָם כְּמִנְהָגוֹ נוֹהֵג עַכְשָׁו.
וְכָךְ, בְּהָגִיחַ אוֹר הַיּוֹם הָעַז שֶׁל אֶרֶץ-יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל בֵּיתִי, אֲנִי פּוֹתֵחַ טֶלֶוִיזְיָה וַאֲנִי פּוֹתֵחַ רַדְיוֹ וּמַאֲזִין כִּכְפוּא-שֵׁד לִדְרָשַׁת האֲיָטוּלוֹת שֶׁל אִירָן וּלְדִבְרֵי הַשַּׂר נְשׂוּא-הַפָּנִים שֶׁל אִירָן, הַמַּרְאֶה בִּשְׁתֵּי כַּפּוֹת יָדָיו אֶת מַפַּת אֶרֶץ-יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמוֹר: “הִיא קְטַנָּה כָּל-כָּךְ…תּוֹךְ שִׁשָּׁה-שִׁבְעָה יָמִים אֶפְשָׁר לִמְחק אוֹתָהּ מֵעַל הַמַּפָּה”,אוֹ בִּלְשׁוֹנְךָ: “אַוּסרַדִירֶן”. וְהִנֵּה אֲנִי מַאֲזִין גַּם לִדְרָשׁוֹת מַטִּיפֵי הַמִּסְגָּדִים בְּאֶרֶץ-יִשְׂרָאֵל וּבְאַרְצוֹת-עֲרָב בְּהַכְרִיזָם “אַוּסרַדִירֶן!”, אַךְ כַּוָּנָתָם תָּמִיד אֵלַי וּלְעוֹלָם לא אֵלֶיךָ, גִּינְטֶר גְּרַאס.
וּבְכָל זאת, יֵשׁ זְכוּת הַשְּׁמוּרָה רַק לָנוּ הַיְּהוּדִים (אִם אָכֵן יֵשׁ זְכוּת כְּעֵין זוֹ לְבֶן-אֱנוֹשׁ עֲלֵי-אֲדָמוֹת): לְהִשָּׁמֵד וְלִטול עִמָּנוּ אֶל הָאֵין-יֵשׁ אֶת הָעוֹלָם שְׂבַע-הַיָּמִים, עַל סִפְרִיּוֹתָיו הַמֻּפְלָאוֹת וְעַל מַנְגִּינוֹתָיו מַכְמִירוֹת-הַלֵּב – כָּךְ-כָּךְ, לְאַחַר רִדְתֵּנוּ אֶל הַקֶּבֶר, בְּעוֹד הָאֲדָמָה פּוֹלֶטֶת קַרְנַיִם רַדְיוֹאַקְטִיבִיּוֹת
לְאַרְבַּע רוּחוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם.
אָכֵן – לָנוּ הַזְּכוּת! וּזְכוּת זוֹ – גַּם שֶׁלִּי הִיא!
כִּי זְכוּתוֹ שֶׁל עַם-יִשְׂרָאֵל לְהָגִיף סוֹפִית אֶת שַׁעֲרֵי הָעוֹלָם לְאַחַר לֶכְתּוֹ מִכָּאן (שֶׁלּא מֵרְצוֹנוֹ הַחָפְשִׁי!),
וְלָנוּ הַזְּכוּת לְהַגִּיד, בִּמְחִיר הַחֲרָדָה בַּת שְׁלֹשֶׁת אֲלָפִים הַשָּׁנָה: ” אִם תְּאַלְּצוּ אוֹתָנוּ בַּשֵּׁנִית לָרֶדֶת מֵעַל פְּנֵי כַּדּוּר-הָאָרֶץ אֶל מַעֲמַקֵּי כַּדּוּר-הָאָרֶץ – יִתְגַּלְגֵּל-נָא כַּדּוּר-הָאָרֶץ לְעֵבֶר הָאַיִן”.
הֲלא זְכוּת-הַחַיִּים הִיא זְכוּת דּוּ-כִּוּוּנִית: גַּם לְךָ וְגַם לִי, אוֹ/לא לִי וְלא לְךָ.
גִּינְטֶר גְּרַאס, סוֹפֵר נַעֲלֶה! תֻּופֵּי-הַפַּח שׁוּב רוֹעֲמִים בְּתֵבֵל!
הוֹ, כַּמָּה שִׂחַקְתִּי בְּתֻופֵּי-פַּח בְּעוֹדִי יֶלֶד רַךְ בְּבֵית אַבָּא-אִמָּא, אַךְ נוֹתַר הַתוף בִּידֵי הַדַּיָּרִים
אֲשֶׁר בָּאוּ תַּחְתֵּינוּ, וְאַף-עַל-פִּי-כֵן קוֹלוֹ עוֹד הוֹלֵם בְּאָזְנַי בַּיָּמִים וּבַלֵּילוֹת.
וְזוֹ סִבָּה-מִן-הַסִּבּוֹת לְכָךְ, שֶׁבִּקֵּשׁ גּוּפֵי בְּאֶרֶץ-יִשְׂרָאֵל, לִפְנֵי עֲשָׂרוֹת בַּשָּׁנִים,
אַחַר מְחוֹז-חֵפֶץ שֶׁהוּא חֶמְדַּת אָבוֹת וְגַם חֶרְדָתָם.
וְאוּלָם, לא הַשֶּׁקֶט קָרָא לָנוּ לָבוֹא, בְּקוֹלוֹ הַתַּת-עוֹרִי, כִּי אִם הָרָצוֹן לִחְיוֹת אֶת עַצְמֵנוּ עַד תום,
כְּשֵׁם שֶׁאַתָּה חַי אֶת עַצְמְךָ עַד תום – סוֹפֵר וּמְשׁוֹרֵר נִכְבָּד.
כֵּן, אֲנִי מְקַנֵּא בְּךָ: מַדּוּעַ זְכוּתְךָ לִחְיוֹת, הִיא – כֵּן!
וּמַדּוּעַ זְכוּתִי לִחְיוֹת, הִיא – קוֹל הַדּוּמִיָּה? וַאֲנִי הַמְהַוֶּה סַכָּנָה לָעוֹלָם?!
אוּלָם אֲנִי – אִישׁ-הַסַּכָּנוֹת, הֲגם כִּי בֵּן-הַנֶּצַח – שׁוֹאֵל אוֹתְךָ:
אִם נִגְזַר עָלַי לְהִכָּחֵד מֵעַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה וְלִצְמוחַ מִמֶּנָּה מֵחָדָשׁ בִּדְמוּת גִּבְעוֹלֵי הָעֵשֶׂב,
מַה טַעַם וּמַה מִדַּת הַצֶּדֶק, כִּי אַתָּה וְצֶאֱצָאֶיךָ תּוֹסִיפִו לְהִשְׁתַּעֲשֵׁעַ בֵּין גִּבְעוֹלֵי הָעֵשֶׂב הַנִּיחוֹחִיִּים
וּלְהַבִּיט בְּשֶׁמֶשׁ-הַמַּרְפֵּא שֶׁבְּאֶמְצַע הָרָקִיעַ,
בְּעוֹד אֲשֶׁר אֲנַחְנוּ – חַיֵּינוּ בְּסָפֵק-הַתָּמִיד?

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http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/gedicht-zum-konflikt-zwischen-israel-und-iran-was-gesagt-werden-muss-1.1325809

Guenther Grass

The secret life and death of my grandfather, uncovered after one hundred years

Zeev Galili — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:53:09 +0000

By Zeev Galili

Translated by Leah Keshet

For years, I have been walking in the footsteps of my grandfather who was killed in the disaster at Meron one hundred years ago* I interviewed tens of family members and historians of the period * I dug through memoirs and books of historical research and discovered only part of the pieces of an ancient puzzle * And suddenly there appeared an unknown great-grand-daughter from Canada and the diary of her grandmother describing the whole period, and the picture emerged * Following this discovery – a reunion with family members of my uncle, who had emigrated from our land 103 years ago * A story about family from the land of Israel and a story about personal rediscovery.

A few weeks ago, I turned on my computer in the morning, and the first email that flashed on the screen leapt at me like a bolt of lightning.

An unknown lady wrote that she had read an article I had written on the internet some dozen years earlier, about my grandfather Moshe Rosenthal, who had been killed in the disaster on Lag Ba’Omer, 1911 in Meron.

The writer, who knew that she was the great-grand-daughter of Moshe Rosenthal, wanted to find out how we were related. She added that she had in her possession a copy of memoirs, the handwritten diary of her grandmother, Yocheved Segal Z”L

I almost fell off my chair in surprise and excitement. Yocheved Segal was the youngest sister of my mother, and a beloved aunt. I had no idea that she had a granddaughter in Canada – a mathematics professor, Leah Edelstein-Keshet

That was only the first in a sequence of exciting events. As an after-thought, my aunt’s “new” grand-daughter told me that she had found the grave of my grand-father in Safed during her two-week visit in Israel. This grave had disappeared years ago and I had looked for it with no success for over 20 years.

After a short time, Leah Keshet sent me the biography and I read it in a single breath. This “diary” consists of some hundred pages of clear handwriting

After a short time, Leah Keshet sent me the biography and I read it in a single breath. (This “diary” consists of some hundred pages of clear handwriting.) At first reading, I already realized that the diary is a treasure of knowledge about the family and the historical period. A few days afterwards, I made a pilgrimage to the grave of my grandfather with my wife and daughter, to say hello and to read the Tehilim to the grandfather whom I had never had the privilege of meeting.

Opening page in Yocheved's Memoirs

A research dead end

Many years previously, I had decided to write a book about my family, with my grandfather as a central figure. About the reasons that brought me to this decision, I already wrote in an article that led Leah Keshet to contact me. During these years, I systematically interviewed and recorded every branch and generation of my family, at every opportunity – in days of celebration and in days of mourning. I dug through archives, memoirs, and research books. I interviews tens of family members and researchers.

In contrast to plentiful material that I collected about my father’s family (Toister, a family numbering thousands of second, third, and fourth order cousins), nothing remained from Grandfather Rosenthal. No brothers nor sisters, no cousins, and no distant relations. Nothing. Everything I knew about him came from my mother’s stories alone.

I knew that the family had come from somewhere in a sailboat, which, I had determined, was around 1740-1760. According to family legend, en route to Eretz Yisrael, the boat anchored near an island. The passengers disembarked to wait for the wind to renew. In their haste to re-embark, it later turned out that one of the children had been left behind on the island.

The material I had collected with great pains over many years had been, until a month ago, like pieces of a gigantic puzzle with many missing central parts.

Who was my grandfather

The image of my grandfather has been etched in my mind ever since I can remember and keeps me restless. You could say that I drank in the story of his life and death with my mother’s milk.

Safed in 1895jpg

He was born in Safed in 1858. He married my grandmother when they were both 18, studied for five years in a Yeshiva, and then decided to do something that would revolutionize his life, the life of a citizen of the old settlement of Safed.

As described by David Tadhar in the Encyclopedia of the Pioneers and Builders of the Settlements (Yeshuvim), he was “among the students of the old Yeshiva of Safed who was brought to the lands of Rosh Pina to remove the stones and till the soil”.

In Rosh Pina, he started a new life, completely different from the life in Safed where he was born and where his parents and parents’ parents were born. He brought forth two sons and four daughters into the world: Israel, Shmuel, Rivkah, Pnina, Shoshana, and Yocheved.

My mother, Shoshana, the fifth of his children, was born 14 or 15 years after his arrival in Rosh Pina.

From my mother I learned that my grandfather had gone through a spiritual and intellectual transformation in his move from Safed to Rosh Pina. Despite the exhausting work, the hunger, the diseases, the machinations of the Turkish regime and of the surrounding Arabs, he succeeded to broaden his education beyond the knowledge of the Talmud that he had gained at the Yeshiva.

One of his students, Amram Schneider, from Nathania, told me in my childhood (this was in 1945) that my grandfather had thoroughly mastered French, science, and Hebrew.

The silk factory in Rosh PinA

In Rosh Pina, he had started with exhausting manual labour, later to became a manager-clerk in the Baron Rotchild’s silk factory, where he worked for eight years. After the factory closed in 1905, he became a teacher in Rosh Pina, Mishmar Hayarden, and Metula. In 1911 he was killed in the disaster at Meron, when he was but 53 years old, leaving a widow and four daughters.

His oldest son, Israel, had emigrated about two years earlier, and disappeared. His second son, Shmuel, had come down with yellow fever in Mishmar Hayarden, and eventually died in Safed a few months before the death of his father.

The death of the father, brought to an end 29 years of life that had been – despite physical difficulties – a life of happiness and honor. A life surrounded by nature, with a livelihood of honest work. A life made up partly of manual labour, thousands of light years from the life in Safed of which his sons and daughters knew not. All of them had been born in Rosh Pina, and knew only the new world of that period, the world of the Baron’s settlements.

The disaster in Meron

Exactly one hundred years ago, in Lag Ba’Omer a huge tragedy befell Meron. The handrail on the balcony where hundreds of celebrators had crowded to see the traditional bonfire lighting, collapsed. Tens of pilgrims were killed and injured.

[IMAGE OF NEWSPAPER ARTICLE IN “HA-OR” 18.5.1911]

In the “Hapoel Hazair”, published about a month and a half later, the disaster was described as follows:

“.. The rabbi went up on the roof to light the bonfire on the grave of Reb Shimon Bar Yochai.. The silence of the Lord enveloped the natural beauty and surrounding splendor. At that time, the pressure of the crowd was massive.

“And suddenly, the worn-out metal rail (of the balcony) was torn off the roof, sweeping with it heavy stones, and the crowds that leaned against it fell on the dense masses that were standing below. It became a bloody scene, as building blocks and metal pieces seemed linked in conspiracy to hurt and destroy without pity. Ten people were killed and thirty injured. The Hillula became a “yellala” (cry of anguish). Rivers of blood and streams of tears washed the plaza of the Tsadik.

The author, Sha”i Agnon, who had arrived at Meron that same day (on foot from Jaffa) and who was miraculously unharmed wrote: “.. and I, who a short while earlier stood with the living, became a carrier for the dead.”

Among those killed in the disaster was my grandfather, Moshe Rosenthal.

How Yocheved found out about the disaster

YOCHEVED SEGAL

In the diary of Yocheved, I learn for the first time how the family received word of the disaster. And here is what she writes:

“Lag Ba’Omer arrived and Father had not thought at all about going to Meron because times were bad, and also our home was far from the village [at this time the family lived in Metulla. The mother, Esther, was staying in Jerusalem to make preparations for the wedding of the oldest daughter, Rivkah] so he did not want to leave us [the four daughters] alone. But the farmers tempted him: they were taking the wagon to Safed, and they would take him there and back. And another farmer, a friend of the family, took us to his home until Father got back.

“They left on Sunday and [were intending] to return on Wednesday, since [it was] a 12 hour journey. We went back home on Tuesday at noon, to prepare for the Sabbath and to do the laundry. And there was no water.

“You had to go far and bring water in four tins in crates on a donkey. On Wednesday night we waited for Father. All the farmers came back and said that he would return the next day. They already knew that he had fallen from a roof in Meron with ten others, and that he was wounded in a hospital. But we knew nothing..

“Only on the next day, the farmers learned that he had died. And the children in the village heard about it. I went to return the donkey with the tins that we had borrowed from a farmer, and one of the children ran in the street and shouted at me: Your father is dead and you are riding around! I left the donkey and the tins and ran home crying when I heard that Father had died. We all immediately ran to the farmers and they said that this was not true, that he is only slightly wounded and that he would be home for Shabbat.

“Only on Thursday night, the news came to the village that he had truly died. And they [the farmers] were worried that we would become a burden to them. So they brought two mules and a horse, and we packed a few belongings, and at midnight we departed with a fellow. We travelled for 12 hours without even a drop of water. Our hearts were broken, because we had lost the head of our family, our dear Father.

“They took us to Safed. There Mother had a big family and her parents were also there. They took us to Father’s sister who also lived in Safed… she was sitting Shivaa, and we all sat on the floor until the lighting of the candles. It was Friday afternoon when we had arrived. Then a few family members gathered and they all felt sorry for us that we were left without a father. And Mother had not yet come back [from Jerusalem] as she did not know of the tragedy that had befallen us.”

So wrote my aunt, Yocheved Segal.

This was not a return to Safed, but an exile to Safed. The four sisters were thrown to the town they had never known. In one stroke, their horizon shrank to the lowest class of young ladies of their age, the class of orphans in Safed with no protector.

This exile was to influence the family for over one hundred years. When I look back at all the family knowledge I had collected, I discover that in looking for my grandfather, I was actually seeking my own identity.

A city that devours its inhabitants

Safed of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was not a “Charmed city”. It was a city that devoured its citizens.

Throughout the 19th century, the city was hit by terrible earthquakes that reaped a bloody harvest. Thousands of victims were killed and injured. Many of these were killed in epidemics, and many survivors were looted in attacks by Arabs, bedouins, and Druse.

After the big earthquake in 1837, only 1500 Jews were left in the city that previously held 3500. Up to the turn of the century, many thousands of pilgrims came to Safed, but many then escaped from it. In the census of 1922, the population numbered only 3000 Jews.

It was not only natural disasters and conspiring neighbors that made life in Safed so difficult. This was a city with a poisoned atmosphere – poison of fear for survival, the evil of poverty, superstition, and religious fanaticism.

A well-known saying (that rhymes) in Yiddish goes: beware of persons from Safed or Tiberias, as from fire and water. (Salst sich heiten fon a Tverianar und a Tsfaster wie fon feier und wasser.)

The modernization that started to permeate the Holy Land with the arrival of the first Aliya and the foundation of the settlements of Baron Rothchild had skipped over Safed.

In Safed there were no public institutions. There was no town council, no educational system, no public health system, nor municipal service. There was hostility to any form of education other than the traditional one. Innovators had to fight to create a public school, a library, a kinder-garden. Only the few rich families in Safed (and there were some) could provide an education for their children by hiring private tutors. The poor who wanted their children to learn a trade to support themselves had to turn to the (Christian) missions. The first attempt to create a modern Hebrew public school, an initiative of the Baron Rothchild, was put down with contempt by the ashkenazi Jews. All 120 students who were accepted in the first year were sephardic community members.

TSFAT AT ABOUT 1900

The worst curse that hung over Safed – and over the entire ancient settlement in the land of Israel – was the curse of the “Halukka”. This was the name of the lifestyle based on a monthly dole from funds that were collected overseas. The money was distributed by a network of “kollelim”. Each kollel distributed funds to its members based on their affiliation. The kollel set the rules of behaviour of the followers – how to dress, where to pray, and how to educate their children. Whoever failed to satisfy these conditions was excluded from the Halukka. Although the Halukka funds sufficed only for rent and the cost of water, they were the balance between some sort of existence and destitution.

The “black bats” and the ban on women

About the nature of the city, we learn from its reaction to the disaster in Meron.

“And the zealots of Safed started immediately taking action, and called for a large meeting in the synagogue of the Holy Ha’Ari to find the guilty. They declared a full ban on women travelling to Lag Ba’Omer to Meron, and also on going for a walk in the city and even on going to market to buy fish, or meat, so that there would be no contact with men. And it was forbidden to play musical instruments in Meron. And on all these decrees, they sounded the shofar (ram’s horn)..”

(The Hapoel Hatzair, Alef Tamuz, 1911)

Reb David Shube, one of the founders of Rosh Pina, tells in his book “Memories from the House of David” about his initiative to bring modernization to Safed. He initiated the creation of a Hebrew school and library.

And here is what he says about founding the library and the school:

” … this library was what brought the first rays of light to the city of Safed, and spread them in the dark alleyways and helped many to develop the spirit of the young generation that was thirsting for knowledge. The creation of a library in Safed at that time was a total revolution.. we had to prepare for war with the “black bats”.

He continues to recount how the “black bats” retaliated. They hounded all the participants in the project and threatened them with loss of their part of the “Halukka”. They also pestered the library patrons with curses and insults.

That was the Safed that Moshe Rosenthal had left. That was the Safed to which his widow and four daughters were forced to return.

One of the things that I had realized was that my grandfather did not leave Safed, but rather, escaped from the city and from its “black bats”. The tragedy meant that his daughters, and my mother among them, were forced to head back into the darkness of the bats. And with that, I understood why a disaster that occurred over one hundred years ago so affected my family. It also made me feel as if this calamity happened only yesterday, as if it were my own personal tragedy.

In her biography, Yocheved describes the beautiful life, especially in Mishmar Hayarden (where the family moved from Rosh Pina).

“We had a nice apartment, and the salary was pretty good: 60 Franks per month – this was then a large sum. My brother Shmuel ZL” had a large field full of grain and he brought us wheat, chickpeas and lentils, and we raised a few goats as there was good pasture there, and a few chickens and ducks. In the yard we put in a vegetable garden, so there was plenty at home. Mother ZL” made all kinds of cheeses from the milk, as well as butter and sour cream.”

The Wonderful discovery of Leah Keshet

Most of the above information – but the tiniest part of what was revealed to me over the past month – came to me thanks to Prof Leah Edelstein-Keshet. The discovery of this great-grand-daughter was very important and moved me no less than the discovery of the family story that was uncovered with her help. Leah is the grand-daughter of my aunt Yocheved the author of the memoirs, and the daughter of my cousin Tikvah.

LEA KESHET

Tikvah was a notable scientist, who emigrated to USA in 1962 and later to Canada with her only daughter, Leah ,9 years old at the time, and her husband, Michael Edelstein, a mathematician.

Contact with my branch of the family had been lost even earlier, but years of distance kept it from being renewed. The rediscovery, and recent translation of Yocheved’s biography (aided by her close friend, Nima Geffen, a professor of Mathematics from Tel Aviv University) brought Leah and her husband Yehoshua Keshet to visit Safed and, thus, indirectly, to contact me.

How the vanished grave was rediscovered

The episode of the discovery of the grave of my grandfather and also of his son, Shmuel, occurred through a chain of events that Safed elders (“ziknei Tsfat”) would attribute to the type of miracles that Safed has been blessed with.

Eliahu Ben-Tovim - thanks to whose tireless efforts the grave was discovered

Leah Edelstein-Keshet and her husband Yehoshua came to Safed and visited the Hameiri Museum. There they chanced to meet the archivist, Uri Gordoni whom they asked about the history of the Lag Ba’Omer disaster and the grave of Moshe Rosenthal. Through a spontaneous visit to the Safed cemetery they later met his contact, Eliahu Ben-Tovim, who recognized from afar as a foreign-looking couple, wandering aimlessly, and likely needing assistance.

Ben Tovim approached them and offered his help. He led them to the grave of my uncle, Shmuel Rosenthal, and of the nearby grave of Moshe Rosenthal. The names and dates of death left no room for doubt about the identity of these as the actual graves of our family members.

The grave before it was refurbished

Eliahu Ben Tovim has for years worked as a volunteer, finding holy graves in the Safed cemetery. With great labour, all the while, he removed collapsed earth and crawled in tunnels to uncover tens of graves of the righteous. A highlight of these discoveries, two years ago, was the identification of the grave of the notable Eliezer Azikri, composer of the poem “Yedid Nefesh” that is recited on the Sabbath eve.

In the past, Ben-Tovim served 29 years in the Israeli army. He then took up police work in logistics, and the research in the cemetery he carries out voluntarily in his own free time.

I asked Ben-Tovim how he found my grandfather’s grave without even looking for it. He told me that his commander in the army, named Rosenthal, asked him to find his family’s graves in Safed. Ben-Tovim discovered a large plot with many graves of people whose family name was Rosenthal. It is not at all clear if these are all related to us. But among those graves were found the graves of Moshe Rosenthal and his son Shmuel. When he met with the Keshet couple, he remembered that he had read about Moshe Rosenthal in an article that I had published in the “Makor Rishon” and that also appears on the internet. This recollection then led to the contact between me and Leah Keshet.

The Keshet couple are both mathematicians, and Yehoshua has a strong inclination to statistics. They told Ben-Tovim that the probability of the events surrounding the discovery of the grave was so statistically small, that it is hard to believe that it happened. And so they followed in the footsteps of our old wise ones who said that “astrology does not apply to the nation of Israel”.

The riddle of the disappeared uncle

Yocheved’s diary solved many puzzles that relate to our family history. But one riddle remains that Yocheved did not solve – the puzzle of the brother who vanished – Israel.

Leah quickly pointed to this riddle, a puzzle that burdens the family for over 102 years.

The oldest son of the Rosenthal family emigrated from the Eretz Yisrael in 1909, as a 26 year old. His emigration was seemingly linked to some personal tragedy. According to family tales, he was in conflict with his wife, possibly over epilepsy developed by his son, possibly over differing viewpoints about a religious life style.

In the family stories, this chapter remains sealed. It is told that the son wandered about, homeless and abandoned by his mother, and that he was eventually found, dead, in one of the wadi’s. Contact with the brother that had settled in USA was weak, and limited to an occasional $5 that he sent to his mother. That was until his heart stopped suddenly in the year 1932.

Uncle Israel Rosenthal who vanished 102 years ago and has been now found.

For a long time, the death of the brother was hidden from his mother (my grandmother). My own mother succeeded to stay in touch with the brother’s widow, Eva, for many years, and during those years, she sent dollars to the USA to be returned to the mother, as if from her living son.

At one stage, contact broke off and was not renewed until these days, thanks to the resourcefulness of my aunt’s grand-daughter.

A family reunion after 103 years

Leah Keshet succeeded to find the date of arrival of uncle Israel Rosenthal in the USA with the aid of lists of immigrants provided by the Ellis Island Foundation. There lay a first surprise: He did not come directly from Palestine, but from Paris, where his first wife had stayed behind. By consulting various documents, it appears as if he returned to Israel to divorce and marry another woman from Safed, named Hava (Eva) Adelman, who joined him in USA. These facts were unknown in the family and uncovered only recently thanks to American documents.

Israel Rosenthal’s name appears on ship’s manifest in 1909 Ellis Island records.

According to the census that was conducted in the USA during the years 1920 and 1930, Leah Keshet found that Israel had five surviving children. Two others had died as infants. The surviving children grew up, had families of their own and many have descendents.

Leah Keshet did not rest. She sent messages everywhere, and dug into genealogical websites, and one day, I received the message: “Eureka! I found someone!” One of the descendants of uncle Israel, Sharon, had replied to the inquiry.

Only a few days later, the Keshet couple made their way from Vancouver Canada to New Jersey. There they met several family members, among them Isaac Rosenthal. He is the last surviving son of my uncle, i.e. he is my first cousin. And this is how a Jewish family from the land of Israel was reunited, after a separation of 102 years.

Leah Keshet in her meeting with my cousin Isaac Rosenthal

y reunion after 103 year. In the centre, Leah Keshet and to her right Isaac Rosentha

Zeev Galili — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:46:13 +0000

By Zeev Galili

Translated by Leah Keshet

A few weeks ago, I turned on my computer in the morning, and the first email that flashed on the screen leapt at me like a bolt of lightning.

After a short time, Leah Keshet sent me the biography and I read it in a single breath. This “diary” consists of some hundred pages of clear handwriting

Opening page in Yocheved's Memoirs

After a short time, Leah Keshet sent me the biography and I read it in a single breath. (This “diary” consists of some hundred pages of clear handwriting.)

At first reading, I already realized that the diary is a treasure of knowledge about the family and the historical period. A few days afterwards, I made a pilgrimage to the grave of my grandfather with my wife and daughter, to say hello and to read the Tehilim to the grandfather whom I had never had the privilege of meeting.

A research dead end

The material I had collected with great pains over many years had been, until a month ago, like pieces of a gigantic puzzle with many missing central parts.

Who was my grandfather

The image of my grandfather has been etched in my mind ever since I can remember and keeps me restless. You could say that I drank in the story of his life and death with my mother’s milk.

Safed in 1895jpg

My mother, Shoshana, the fifth of his children, was born 14 or 15 years after his arrival in Rosh Pina.

One of his students, Amram Schneider, from Nathania, told me in my childhood (this was in 1945) that my grandfather had thoroughly mastered French, science, and Hebrew.

The silk factory in Rosh PinA

The disaster in Meron

[IMAGE OF NEWSPAPER ARTICLE IN “HA-OR” 18.5.1911]

In the “Hapoel Hazair”, published about a month and a half later, the disaster was described as follows:

Among those killed in the disaster was my grandfather, Moshe Rosenthal.

How Yocheved found out about the disaster

YOCHEVED SEGAL

In the diary of Yocheved, I learn for the first time how the family received word of the disaster. And here is what she writes:

So wrote my aunt, Yocheved Segal.

A city that devours its inhabitants

Safed of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was not a “Charmed city”. It was a city that devoured its citizens.

A well-known saying (that rhymes) in Yiddish goes: beware of persons from Safed or Tiberias, as from fire and water. (Salst sich heiten fon a Tverianar und a Tsfaster wie fon feier und wasser.)

The modernization that started to permeate the Holy Land with the arrival of the first Aliya and the foundation of the settlements of Baron Rothchild had skipped over Safed.

TSFAT AT ABOUT 1900

The “black bats” and the ban on women

About the nature of the city, we learn from its reaction to the disaster in Meron.

(The Hapoel Hatzair, Alef Tamuz, 1911)

And here is what he says about founding the library and the school:

That was the Safed that Moshe Rosenthal had left. That was the Safed to which his widow and four daughters were forced to return.

In her biography, Yocheved describes the beautiful life, especially in Mishmar Hayarden (where the family moved from Rosh Pina).

The Wonderful discovery of Leah Keshet

LEA KESHET

Tikvah was a notable scientist, who emigrated to USA in 1962 and later to Canada with her only daughter, Leah ,9 years old at the time, and her husband, Michael Edelstein, a mathematician.

How the vanished grave was rediscovered

Eliahu Ben-Tovim - thanks to whose tireless efforts the grave was discovered

The grave before it was refurbished

In the past, Ben-Tovim served 29 years in the Israeli army. He then took up police work in logistics, and the research in the cemetery he carries out voluntarily in his own free time.

The riddle of the disappeared uncle

Yocheved’s diary solved many puzzles that relate to our family history. But one riddle remains that Yocheved did not solve – the puzzle of the brother who vanished – Israel.

Leah quickly pointed to this riddle, a puzzle that burdens the family for over 102 years.

Uncle Israel Rosenthal who vanished 102 years ago and has been now found.

At one stage, contact broke off and was not renewed until these days, thanks to the resourcefulness of my aunt’s grand-daughter.

A family reunion after 103 years

Israel Rosenthal’s name appears on ship’s manifest in 1909 Ellis Island records.

Leah Keshet in her meeting with my cousin Isaac Rosenthal

y reunion after 103 year. In the centre, Leah Keshet and to her right Isaac Rosentha

THE DESIRE FOR GENOCIDE LIVES ON

Zeev Galili — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:22:10 +0000

By Asher Torren

“I am inciting you to confront, using all means possible, anyone who speaks out against the resistance, any means possible.” Thus ends a speech by a Kuwaiti University professor aired on Al-Jazeera TV on February 2, 2009.

The professor, who goes by the name of Abdullah F. Alnafisi, a graduate of the American University in Beirut and a Ph.D. in politics from Churchill College of Cambridge University, UK, has the United States as object of his projected confrontation and the “Jews”, cursed by eternal hate in the Koran.

Who will carry out the confrontation foreseen by the professor? Why, Al Qaeda, naturally, but the white militia members and the Ku Klux Klan, which the professor collectively calls “rednecks”, they might jump the gun and do it for the Moslems. Are these “rednecks” on the Jihad bandwagon, too? Why not? Jimmy Carter is a redneck and his bread is buttered by the Arabs. (Just a thought; Does Bill Clinton qualify as “redneck”)

Genocide

What are the “possible means” for these attacks? WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction, nothing less. Little “confetti” of anthrax, as professor Abdullah so casually describes to his kafiehed listeners, will do it. And, dear listeners, please do not to worry about supplies, “Al-Qaeda has labs, Hezbollah has labs.” They even “sell the stuff to Rumania and Hungary”.

Targets? Washington D.C. obviously, and while you are at it, do that big Nuke plant on the shore of Lake Michigan as well. You do all that to the “infidels” and the “cries of joy” of the Moslems will reach heaven, where a “real celebration” will commence

Back Into The Cave

An attack of WMD on America has been given a certain amount of plausibility by a number of government officials. In this case, however, if this honorable ex-member of the Kuwaiti parliament has anything to do with the aforementioned attacks on America’s shore and the ever-hated Jews, we have very little to worry about. You see, Doctor Abdullah F. Alnafisi, who claims he is not a cave-dwelling Bedouin, thinks the United States is located in North Africa. (His statement So), while the flames of the crematoria remain low among the old European genocide practitioners the fervor for mass killing burns strong among the Moslems.

Here you can see and hear the voice of Abdullah F. Alnafisi

Barack Obama – Narcissist or Merely Narcissistic?

Zeev Galili — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:00:10 +0000

Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. – 8/13/2008

Barack Obama appears to be a narcissist. Granted, only a qualified mental health diagnostician can determine whether someone suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and this, following lengthy tests and personal interviews. But, in the absence of access to Barack Obama, one has to rely on his overt performance and on testimonies by his closest, nearest and dearest.

Narcissistic leaders are nefarious and their effects pernicious. They are subtle, refined, socially-adept, manipulative, possessed of thespian skills, and convincing. Both types equally lack empathy and are ruthless and relentless or driven.

Perhaps it is time to require each candidate to high office in the USA to submit to a rigorous physical and mental checkup with the results made public.

Upbringing and Childhood

Obama’s early life was decidedly chaotic and replete with traumatic and mentally bruising dislocations. Mixed-race marriages were even less common then. His parents went through a divorce when he was an infant (two years old). Obama saw his father only once again, before he died in a car accident. Then, his mother re-married and Obama had to relocate to Indonesia: a foreign land with a radically foreign culture, to be raised by a step-father. At the age of ten, he was whisked off to live with his maternal (white) grandparents. He saw his mother only intermittently in the following few years and then she vanished from his life in 1979. She died of cancer in 1995.

Pathological narcissism is a reaction to prolonged abuse and trauma in early childhood or early adolescence. The source of the abuse or trauma is immaterial: the perpetrators could be dysfunctional or absent parents, teachers, other adults, or peers.

Behavior Patterns

The narcissist:

* Feels grandiose and self-important (e.g., exaggerates accomplishments, talents, skills, contacts, and personality traits to the point of lying, demands to be recognised as superior without commensurate achievements);

* Is obsessed with fantasies of unlimited success, fame, fearsome power or omnipotence, unequalled brilliance (the cerebral narcissist), bodily beauty or sexual performance (the somatic narcissist), or ideal, everlasting, all-conquering love or passion;

* Firmly convinced that he or she is unique and, being special, can only be understood by, should only be treated by, or associate with, other special or unique, or high-status people (or institutions);

* Requires excessive admiration, adulation, attention and affirmation – or, failing that, wishes to be feared and to be notorious (Narcissistic Supply);

* Feels entitled. Demands automatic and full compliance with his or her unreasonable expectations for special and favourable priority treatment;

* Is “interpersonally exploitative”, i.e., uses others to achieve his or her own ends;

* Devoid of empathy. Is unable or unwilling to identify with, acknowledge, or accept the feelings, needs, preferences, priorities, and choices of others;

* Constantly envious of others and seeks to hurt or destroy the objects of his or her frustration. Suffers from persecutory (paranoid) delusions as he or she believes that they feel the same about him or her and are likely to act similarly;

* Behaves arrogantly and haughtily. Feels superior, omnipotent, omniscient, invincible, immune, “above the law”, and omnipresent (magical thinking). Rages when frustrated, contradicted, or confronted by people he or she considers inferior to him or her and unworthy.

Defense mechanism

Narcissism is a defense mechanism whose role is to deflect hurt and trauma from the victim’s “True Self” into a “False Self” which is omnipotent, invulnerable, and omniscient. This False Self is then used by the narcissist to garner narcissistic supply from his human environment. Narcissistic supply is any form of attention, both positive and negative and it is instrumental in the regulation of the narcissist’s labile sense of self-worth.

Perhaps the most immediately evident trait of patients with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is their vulnerability to criticism and disagreement. Subject to negative input, real or imagined, even to a mild rebuke, a constructive suggestion, or an offer to help, they feel injured, humiliated and empty and they react with disdain (devaluation), rage, and defiance.

From my book “Malignant Self Love – Narcissism Revisited”:

“To avoid such intolerable pain, some patients with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) socially withdraw and feign false modesty and humility to mask their underlying grandiosity. Dysthymic and depressive disorders are common reactions to isolation and feelings of shame and inadequacy.”

Talented and skilled

Due to their lack of empathy, disregard for others, exploitativeness, sense of entitlement, and constant need for attention (narcissistic supply), narcissists are rarely able to maintain functional and healthy interpersonal relationships.

Many narcissists are over-achievers and ambitious. Some of them are even talented and skilled. But they are incapable of team work because they cannot tolerate setbacks. They are easily frustrated and demoralized and are unable to cope with disagreement and criticism. Though some narcissists have meteoric and inspiring careers, in the long-run, all of them find it difficult to maintain long-term professional achievements and the respect and appreciation of their peers. The narcissist’s fantastic grandiosity, frequently coupled with a hypomanic mood, is typically incommensurate with his or her real accomplishments (the “grandiosity gap”).

An important distinction is between cerebral and somatic narcissists. The cerebrals derive their Narcissistic Supply from their intelligence or academic achievements and the somatics derive their Narcissistic Supply from their physique, exercise, physical or sexual prowess and romantic or physical “conquests”.

Pathological narcissism

Another crucial division within the ranks of patients with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is between the classic variety (those who meet five of the nine diagnostic criteria included in the DSM), and the compensatory kind (their narcissism compensates for deep-set feelings of inferiority and lack of self-worth).
Obama displays the following behaviors, which are among the hallmarks of pathological narcissism:

* Subtly misrepresents facts and expediently and opportunistically shifts positions, views, opinions, and “ideals” (e.g., about campaign finance, re-districting). These flip-flops do not cause him overt distress and are ego-syntonic (he feels justified in acting this way). Alternatively, reuses to commit to a standpoint and, in the process, evidences a lack of empathy.

Ignores data that conflict with his fantasy world, or with his inflated and grandiose self-image. This has to do with magical thinking. Obama already sees himself as president because he is firmly convinced that his dreams, thoughts, and wishes affect reality. Additionally, he denies the gap between his fantasies and his modest or limited real-life achievements (for instance, in 12 years of academic career, he hasn’t published a single scholarly paper or book).

- Feels that he is above the law, incl. and especially his own laws.

- Talks about himself in the 3rd person singluar or uses the regal “we” and craves to be the exclsuive center of attention, even adulation

- Have a messianic-cosmic vision of himself and his life and his “mission”.

- Sets ever more complex rules in a convoluted world of grandiose fantasies with its own language (jargon)

- Displays false modesty and unctuous “folksiness” but unable to sustain these behaviors (the persona, or mask) for long. It slips and the true Obama is revealed: haughty, aloof, distant, and disdainful of simple folk and their lives.

- Sublimates aggression and holds grudges.

- Behaves as an eternal adolescent (e.g., his choice of language, youthful image he projects, demands indulgence and feels entitled to special treatment, even though his objective accomplishments do not justify it).

Body Language

Many complain of the incredible deceptive powers of the narcissist. They find themselves involved with narcissists (emotionally, in business, or otherwise) before they have a chance to discover their true character. Shocked by the later revelation, they mourn their inability to separate from the narcissist and their gullibility.

Narcissists are an elusive breed, hard to spot, harder to pinpoint, impossible to capture. Even an experienced mental health diagnostician with unmitigated access to the record and to the person examined would find it fiendishly difficult to determine with any degree of certainty whether someone suffers from a full fledged Narcissistic Personality Disorder – or merely possesses narcissistic traits, a narcissistic style, a personality structure (“character”), or a narcissistic “overlay” superimposed on another mental health problem.

Moreover, it is important to distinguish between traits and behavior patterns that are independent of the patient’s cultural-social context (i.e., which are inherent, or idiosyncratic) – and reactive patterns, or conformity to cultural and social morals and norms. Reactions to severe life crises or circumstances are also often characterized by transient pathological narcissism, for instance (Ronningstam and Gunderson, 1996). But such reactions do not a narcissist make.

When a person belongs to a society or culture that has often been described as narcissistic by scholars (such as Theodore Millon) and social thinkers (e.g., Christopher Lasch) – how much of his behavior can be attributed to his milieu and which of his traits are really his?

The Narcissistic Personality Disorder is rigorously defined in the DSM IV-TR with a set of strict criteria and differential diagnoses.

Narcissism is regarded by many scholars to be an adaptative strategy (“healthy narcissism”). It is considered pathological in the clinical sense only when it becomes a rigid personality structure replete with a series of primitive defence mechanisms (such as splitting, projection, projective identification, or intellectualization) – and when it leads to dysfunctions in one or more areas of the patient’s life.

Pathological narcissism is the art of deception. The narcissist projects a False Self and manages all his social interactions through this concocted fictional construct.

Usually far too late

When the narcissist reveals his true colors, it is usually far too late. His victims are unable to separate from him. They are frustrated by this acquired helplessness and angry at themselves for having they failed to see through the narcissist earlier on.

But the narcissist does emit subtle, almost subliminal, signals (“presenting symptoms”) even in a first or casual encounter. Compare the following list to Barack Obama’s body language during his paublic appearances.

These are:

“Haughty” body language – The narcissist adopts a physical posture which implies and exudes an air of superiority, seniority, hidden powers, mysteriousness, amused indifference, etc. Though the narcissist usually maintains sustained and piercing eye contact, he often refrains from physical proximity (he is “territorial”).

The narcissist takes part in social interactions – even mere banter – condescendingly, from a position of supremacy and faux “magnanimity and largesse”. But he rarely mingles socially and prefers to remain the “observer”, or the “lone wolf”.

Entitlement markers – The narcissist immediately asks for “special treatment” of some kind. Not to wait his turn, to have a longer or a shorter therapeutic session, to talk directly to authority figures (and not to their assistants or secretaries), to be granted special payment terms, to enjoy custom tailored arrangements – or to get served first.

The narcissist is the one who – vocally and demonstratively – demands the undivided attention of the head waiter in a restaurant, or monopolizes the hostess, or latches on to celebrities in a party. The narcissist reacts with rage and indignantly when denied his wishes and if treated equally with others whom he deems inferior.

Idealization or devaluation – The narcissist instantly idealizes or devalues his interlocutor. This depends on how the narcissist appraises the potential his converser has as a Narcissistic Supply Source. The narcissist flatters, adores, admires and applauds the “target” in an embarrassingly exaggerated and profuse manner – or sulks, abuses, and humiliates her.

Narcissists are polite only in the presence of a potential Supply Source. But they are unable to sustain even perfunctory civility and fast deteriorate to barbs and thinly-veiled hostility, to verbal or other violent displays of abuse, rage attacks, or cold detachment.

The “membership” posture – The narcissist always tries to “belong”. Yet, at the very same time, he maintains his stance as an outsider. The narcissist seeks to be admired for his ability to integrate and ingratiate himself without investing the efforts commensurate with such an undertaking.

For instance: if the narcissist talks to a psychologist, the narcissist first states emphatically that he never studied psychology. He then proceeds to make seemingly effortless use of obscure professional terms, thus demonstrating that he mastered the discipline all the same, as an autodidact – which proves that he is exceptionally intelligent or introspective.

Narcissist is shallow

In general, the narcissist always prefers show-off to substance. One of the most effective methods of exposing a narcissist is by trying to delve deeper. The narcissist is shallow, a pond pretending to be an ocean. He likes to think of himself as a Renaissance man, a Jack of all trades. The narcissist never admits to ignorance in any field – yet, typically, he is ignorant of them all. It is surprisingly easy to penetrate the gloss and the veneer of the narcissist’s self-proclaimed omniscience.

Bragging and false autobiography – The narcissist brags incessantly. His speech is peppered with “I”, “my”, “myself”, and “mine”. He describes himself as intelligent, or rich, or modest, or intuitive, or creative – but always excessively, implausibly, and extraordinarily so.

The narcissist’s biography sounds unusually rich and complex. His achievements – incommensurate with his age, education, or renown. Yet, his actual condition is evidently and demonstrably incompatible with his claims. Very often, the narcissist lies or his fantasies are easily discernible. He always name-drops and appropriates other people’s experiences and accomplishments.

Emotion-free language – The narcissist likes to talk about himself and only about himself. He is not interested in others or what they have to say, unless they constitute potential Sources of Supply and in order to obtain said supply. He acts bored, disdainful, even angry, if he feels that they are intruding on his precious time and, thus, abusing him.

In general, the narcissist is very impatient, easily bored, with strong attention deficits – unless and until he is the topic of discussion. One can publicly dissect all aspects of the intimate life of a narcissist without repercussions, providing the discourse is not “emotionally tinted”.

If asked to relate directly to his emotions, the narcissist intellectualizes, rationalizes, speaks about himself in the third person and in a detached “scientific” tone or composes a narrative with a fictitious character in it, suspiciously autobiographical. Narcissists like to refer to themselves in mechanical terms, as efficient automata or machines.

Serious about himself.

Seriousness and sense of intrusion and coercion – The narcissist is dead serious about himself. He may possess a subtle, wry, and riotous sense of humor, scathing and cynical, but rarely is he self-deprecating. The narcissist regards himself as being on a constant mission, whose importance is cosmic and whose consequences are global. If a scientist – he is always in the throes of revolutionizing science. If a journalist – he is in the middle of the greatest story ever. If a novelist – he is on his way to a Booker or Nobel prize.

This self-misperception is not amenable to light-headedness or self-effacement. The narcissist is easily hurt and insulted (narcissistic injury). Even the most innocuous remarks or acts are interpreted by him as belittling, intruding, or coercive. His time is more valuable than others’ – therefore, it cannot be wasted on unimportant matters such as mere banter or going out for a walk.

Any suggested help, advice, or concerned inquiry are immediately cast by the narcissist as intentional humiliation, implying that the narcissist is in need of help and counsel and, thus, imperfect and less than omnipotent. Any attempt to set an agenda is, to the narcissist, an intimidating act of enslavement. In this sense, the narcissist is both schizoid and paranoid and often entertains ideas of reference.

These – the lack of empathy, the aloofness, the disdain, the sense of entitlement, the constricted sense of humor, the unequal treatment and the paranoia – render the narcissist a social misfit. The narcissist is able to provoke in his milieu, in his casual acquaintances, even in his psychotherapist, the strongest, most avid and furious hatred and revulsion. To his shock, indignation and consternation, he invariably induces in others unbridled aggression.

He is perceived to be asocial at best and, often, antisocial. This, perhaps, is the strongest presenting symptom. One feels ill at ease in the presence of a narcissist for no apparent reason. No matter how charming, intelligent, thought provoking, outgoing, easy going and social the narcissist is – he fails to secure the sympathy of others, a sympathy he is never ready, willing, or able to reciprocate.

. Narcissistic and psychopathic Leaders

The narcissistic or psychopathic leader is the culmination and reification of his period, culture, and civilization. He is likely to rise to prominence in narcissistic societies.

The malignant narcissist invents and then projects a false, fictitious, self for the world to fear, or to admire. He maintains a tenuous grasp on reality to start with and this is further exacerbated by the trappings of power. The narcissist’s grandiose self-delusions and fantasies of omnipotence and omniscience are supported by real life authority and the narcissist’s predilection to surround himself with obsequious sycophants.

The narcissist’s personality is so precariously balanced that he cannot tolerate even a hint of criticism and disagreement. Most narcissists are paranoid and suffer from ideas of reference (the delusion that they are being mocked or discussed when they are not). Thus, narcissists often regard themselves as “victims of persecution”.

The narcissistic leader fosters and encourages a personality cult with all the hallmarks of an institutional religion: priesthood, rites, rituals, temples, worship, catechism, mythology. The leader is this religion’s ascetic saint. He monastically denies himself earthly pleasures (or so he claims) in order to be able to dedicate himself fully to his calling.

The narcissistic leader is a monstrously inverted Jesus, sacrificing his life and denying himself so that his people – or humanity at large – should benefit. By surpassing and suppressing his humanity, the narcissistic leader became a distorted version of Nietzsche’s “superman”.

But being a-human or super-human also means being a-sexual and a-moral.

In this restricted sense, narcissistic leaders are post-modernist and moral relativists. They project to the masses an androgynous figure and enhance it by engendering the adoration of nudity and all things “natural” – or by strongly repressing these feelings. But what they refer to as “nature” is not natural at all.

The narcissistic leader invariably proffers an aesthetic of decadence and evil carefully orchestrated and artificial – though it is not perceived this way by him or by his followers. Narcissistic leadership is about reproduced copies, not about originals. It is about the manipulation of symbols – not about veritable atavism or true conservatism.

In short: narcissistic leadership is about theatre, not about life. To enjoy the spectacle (and be subsumed by it), the leader demands the suspension of judgment, depersonalization, and de-realization. Catharsis is tantamount, in this narcissistic dramaturgy, to self-annulment.

Narcissism is nihilistic not only operationally, or ideologically. Its very language and narratives are nihilistic. Narcissism is conspicuous nihilism – and the cult’s leader serves as a role model, annihilating the Man, only to re-appear as a pre-ordained and irresistible force of nature.

Narcissistic leadership often poses as a rebellion against the “old ways” – against the hegemonic culture, the upper classes, the established religions, the superpowers, the corrupt order. Narcissistic movements are puerile, a reaction to narcissistic injuries inflicted upon a narcissistic (and rather psychopathic) toddler nation-state, or group, or upon the leader.

Minorities or “others” – often arbitrarily selected – constitute a perfect, easily identifiable, embodiment of all that is “wrong”. They are accused of being old, they are eerily disembodied, they are cosmopolitan, they are part of the establishment, they are “decadent”, they are hated on religious and socio-economic grounds, or because of their race, sexual orientation, origin … They are different, they are narcissistic (feel and act as morally superior), they are everywhere, they are defenceless, they are credulous, they are adaptable (and thus can be co-opted to collaborate in their own destruction). They are the perfect hate figure. Narcissists thrive on hatred and pathological envy.

This is precisely the source of the fascination with Hitler, diagnosed by Erich Fromm – together with Stalin – as a malignant narcissist. He was an inverted human. His unconscious was his conscious. He acted out our most repressed drives, fantasies, and wishes. He provides us with a glimpse of the horrors that lie beneath the veneer, the barbarians at our personal gates, and what it was like before we invented civilization. Hitler forced us all through a time warp and many did not emerge. He was not the devil. He was one of us. He was what Arendt aptly called the banality of evil. Just an ordinary, mentally disturbed, failure, a member of a mentally disturbed and failing nation, who lived through disturbed and failing times. He was the perfect mirror, a channel, a voice, and the very depth of our souls.

The narcissistic leader prefers the sparkle and glamour of well-orchestrated illusions to the tedium and method of real accomplishments. His reign is all smoke and mirrors, devoid of substances, consisting of mere appearances and mass delusions. In the aftermath of his regime – the narcissistic leader having died, been deposed, or voted out of office – it all unravels. The tireless and constant prestidigitation ceases and the entire edifice crumbles. What looked like an economic miracle turns out to have been a fraud-laced bubble. Loosely-held empires disintegrate. Laboriously assembled business conglomerates go to pieces. “Earth shattering” and “revolutionary” scientific discoveries and theories are discredited. Social experiments end in mayhem.

It is important to understand that the use of violence must be ego-syntonic. It must accord with the self-image of the narcissist. It must abet and sustain his grandiose fantasies and feed his sense of entitlement. It must conform with the narcissistic narrative.

Thus, a narcissist who regards himself as the benefactor of the poor, a member of the common folk, the representative of the disenfranchised, the champion of the dispossessed against the corrupt elite – is highly unlikely to use violence at first.

The pacific mask crumbles when the narcissist has become convinced that the very people he purported to speak for, his constituency, his grassroots fans, the prime sources of his narcissistic supply – have turned against him. At first, in a desperate effort to maintain the fiction underlying his chaotic personality, the narcissist strives to explain away the sudden reversal of sentiment. “The people are being duped by (the media, big industry, the military, the elite, etc.)”, “they don’t really know what they are doing”, “following a rude awakening, they will revert to form”, etc.

When these flimsy attempts to patch a tattered personal mythology fail – the narcissist is injured. Narcissistic injury inevitably leads to narcissistic rage and to a terrifying display of unbridled aggression. The pent-up frustration and hurt translate into devaluation. That which was previously idealized – is now discarded with contempt and hatred.

This primitive defense mechanism is called “splitting”. To the narcissist, things and people are either entirely bad (evil) or entirely good. He projects onto others his own shortcomings and negative emotions, thus becoming a totally good object. A narcissistic leader is likely to justify the butchering of his own people by claiming that they intended to kill him, undo the revolution, devastate the economy, or the country, etc.

The “small people”, the “rank and file”, the “loyal soldiers” of the narcissist – his flock, his nation, his employees – they pay the price. The disillusionment and disenchantment are agonizing. The process of reconstruction, of rising from the ashes, of overcoming the trauma of having been deceived, exploited and manipulated – is drawn-out. It is difficult to trust again, to have faith, to love, to be led, to collaborate. Feelings of shame and guilt engulf the erstwhile followers of the narcissist. This is his sole legacy: a massive post-traumatic stress disorder.

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SAM VAKNIN

Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self Love – Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain – How the West Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.

Visit Sam’s Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com You can download 22 of his free ebooks in our bookstore

Benny Peled as “Canaanite"”

Zeev Galili — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:12:48 +0000

“The Jews attempted, to establish a State”. Br. Gen.Benny Peled

After the death of Aluf [Br. Gen.] Benny Peled, who was the commander of the Israeli airforce during the Yom Kippur War, many praises were said in his memory. About his having been a daring, courageous warrior; about his enormous contribution to restructuring the air force and re-establishing it after the Yom-Kippur War; about his leadership, meticulousness, and thoroughness; about the criticism he expressed against the Israeli government in the areas of taking responsibility, learning from mistakes, and proper management.
Mentioned here and there were things he said during and after his military career about the character of the State of Israel. These were presented as amusing items. He requested that a bell be rung upon his death and an announcement be made that there had just died a man who held that the Jews attempted, to establish a State, but all that they had been able to accomplish was another Jewish Kehilla [organized community like in GHETTO].

During his lifetime, Peled often made similar pronouncements. . These were not slips of the tongue. He was a serious person with a thought-out belief system, which, in effect, was identical to the point of view known as “Canaanite”.

Accept an Arab Chief-of-Staff

During a televised interview on the occasion of Israel’s Jubilee he stated that he was prepared that the very next day there should be an Arab commander of the air force, or an Arab Chief-of-Staff, or even an Arab prime minister. This would be conditional upon their taking an oath of loyalty to the State and be prepared to die for it. An added condition would be that the state would be secular and democratic, based on Hebrew law. Not the religious Hebrew law, he emphasized, but the Hebrew law thast is not tied to Jewish religion.

These words, being said in the midst of the ninth or tenth war of Israel with the Arabs sound like an hallucination. Yet behind them is a world-view that has taken root quite well in Hebrew literature, in the consciousness of a large segment of the public and whose impression is recognizable these days as well.This is the concept called “Canaanite”
Or Young Hebrews.

“The Movement of Young Hebrews”

The roots of the movement can be traced back to the early forties [1940], with the emergence of an ideological-political trend that called for complete separation between Jewish history and its spiritual and cultural heritage and that of the “Hebrew Nation” that was being shaped in the Land of Israel. The movement organized itself in order to establish a “Hebrew” national entity and as a “territorial, cultural society open to all with no distinction of race or belief”. The major spokesmen of the muvement were the poets Yonatan Ratosh and AhAron Amir, the author Binyamin Tammuz, the journalist Amos Kenan, and the linguist Uzi Ornan.

The movement negated the Jewish religion, its values and commandments; sharply criticized ghetto-like Jewry and claimed that “Hebrew” history had been distorted in the period of the Second Temple, when the Jewish People was transformed from a nation to a religious community, a process which was completed with the Bar Kokhba Rebellion and brought about the separation of the people from the land. The movement sought to break the bond between the Hebrew nation and the Jewish People and to establish a state where all its inhabitants – Arabs, Moslems, Christians, Druse, Bedouin, Cherkassians – would become one nation.

From Egypt to the Tigris

The movement regarded Israeli territory as a natural and integral part of the land of Euphrates which, to their minds, was the “Classic Land of the Hebrews”, stretching from the border of Egypt to the Tigris [River]. The new Hebrew Nation was going to wage war in the future with repressive Pan-Arabism. The victory of the Hebrew State and its very existence were dependent on those who would stand at the forefront of all striving for independence and progress in all of the land of Euphrates, and by being in the vanguard as a nucleus of its rebirth on a national, secular basis –not religious nor communal – but on the classic Hebrew model of antiquity which is shared by all the inhabitants of the land and its peoples, before the rise of Judaism and the other religions. “Arabism” according to the movement’s view was foisted upon the peoples of the “Land of the Euphrates”, just as Judaism was foisted upon the Hebrews, and both should be freed..

Canaanite Myths

The movement based its claim on the image of the “Classic” Hebrew past, as described by the scholar Adiya Gurewitz (A. G. Choron). His meeting with the poet Yonatan Ratosh in 1938 was considered the catalyst in the founding of the movement. This picture of the past (seemingly based on speculative, scientific reasoning) brought the movement to its “turn towards the mythical pre-Israelite and Canaanite foundations”, which in their view was the origin of the culture of the land of Canaan, a culture common to the Israelites and the rest of the Canaanite peoples.

“

NIMROD SGULPTURE

The New Man in the Land of Israel”

The Canaanite myth of the movement did take hold except for limited intellectual circles. The notion that a new nation was born here fell on fertile soil, which Zionism itself had nurtured. The renewal of the Yishuv [prestate Jewish population] was in the throes of the “Hebrew Revolution” in the social and cultural spheres. All of the secular Zionist movements championed the idea that they were to strive to create “a new Jewish People and a new Jewish Man in the Land of Israel. Hebraism was intended to distinguish between the new Israeli and his institutions and the Galut [Diaspora] Jew. This is how they spoke then of the Hebrew Man, the Hebrew Yishuv, Hebrew labor, the first Hebrew city, the Hebrew University, the Hebrew Gymnasia [high school], and the Hebrew writer’s union.

From Zionism to Anti-Zionism

There can be no doubt that the roots of Canaanism stem from the basic principles of the modern Jewish national outlook as expressed in secular Zionism. Just as Zionism sought out Hebraism in order to redefine society in the Land of Israel as a renaissance of a bygone national entity. Like Zionism, the belief was that a people can change its character and substance. Jacob Katz, the historian, says that “the Canaanite ideology as a doctrine, can be seen as the ultimate extension of the Zionist idea to its elastic limit”. Since Canaanism based itself on the image of the ancient past it also painted a different image of the future. In this manner the Canaanite idea changed from a stage in the development of the Zionist idea into a radical anti-Zionist ideology.

personal connection
with the “Canaanite”

I first learned of the “Canaanite Movement and its ideas in the early fifties. A schoolmate, gave me an issue of the movement’s magazine “Aleph”. I remember clearly the title of the issue which read: “Stop Unrestricted Immigration”, intending the mass Aliyah of the first years of the State.

Reading this magazine aroused a stormy emotion, difficult to explain today. During that period I also read the “Sulam” a right wing magazine edited by Dr. Yisrael Eldad, who preached ideas completely contrary to those preached by “Aleph”. I, with the uncritical eyes of a 14 year old, however, did not sense the contradiction and this calls for an explanation.

The Parent-Child Gap

In order to understand the emotional flare-up that was aroused by “Aleph” – within me and many other young readers – a portrayal of the spirit of that generation is necessary. This was a period in which a cultural and intellectual gap was produced between the generation of those born in the Land and their parents. The parental generation was the Diaspora generation, one that spoke Yiddish (or Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, Arabic). They were the scorned generation of people “who went like sheep to the slaughter”. They were a generation of bowed, fair-skinned “Sabonim”[lit. soap-bars, a pejorative reference to holocaust survivors who escaped the alleged Nazi practice of making soap from human fat], who worked at demeaning occupations (“store-keepers”, “merchants”).

The generation of the native-born was (in its self-image) a tanned, sturdy generation that knew every trail in the Land, from Dan to Elat. They were the generation of fighters in the underground and the warriors of the War of Independence, those who do all the ground work on behalf of others. that established the State. Moreover, the generation of native-born were those whose Hebrew was their natural mother-tongue, and for the most part the only one they spoke. This generation was the outstanding product of the Zionist revolution and its educational system- the schools and youth movements.

The Revolution of Hebrew Speech

The teachers of that generation seemingly knew perfect Hebrew. They were more expert than we in all the source-material – from the Bible, Mishna, Midrahim, Rishonim and Achronim, to the luminaries of the new Hebrew literature. Their Hebrew, however, was not their natural language. They had learned it from books through mighty efforts. Yet, they did not dream, nor curse, nor count in Hebrew, but used the languages of their or their parents’ countries of origin. They tortured us with pedantic purisms of the language that turned our lives into a hell. . And in order to pass the exams we were required to learn by heart the verb and noun declensions.

THE SYMBOL OF THE HEBREW MOVEMENT BASED ON THE LATTER A IN CANAANITE

I remember the tremendous impression made by the thin grammar text written by Uzi Ornan, one of the leaders and foremost proponents of the Canaanites. The book, “Dikduk HaPeh VeHaOzen” [The Oral and Aural Grammar] , showed us suddenly that he whose natural tongue is Hebrew does not require all the rigid rules formulated in the periods when it was a “dead” language. All you need is listen to the sounds coming out of your mouth..

But more impressive than this grammar book were the new writers in the new Hebrew. There was Binyamin Tammuz, Amos Kenan, S. Yizhar and many others. Last but not least was Uri Avnery’s “Ha’Olam HaZeh” weekly (and following him was “Yediot Achronot” daily) that wrote the spoken language and, by their writing, influenced speech patterns as well.

The Canaanites came into this reality and said the ‘people is the language and the language is the people’. This was a self-evident truth that required no demonstration.

From the Hebrew to the Canaanites

The movement was not content only with the language aspect of its reach, but suggested a new perception of space and history. Our country was not only the State of Israel but the entire region of the Fertile Crescent. Our ancestors were not only Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but all the ancient inhabitants of the land – the Israelites, the Canaanites, the Phoenicians – all belong to the Hebrew nation. We Hebrews, then, are the descendants of the great Hebrew people who invented the alphabet, that built mighty fleets, and created an empire of the whole Mediterranean basin. We brought culture to Europe, and the elephants of our great commander Hannibal, the Carthaginian, crossed the Alps and threatened to bring down the Roman Empire.

This approach, which sounds like a myth totally divorced from reality, was well-received in the milieu of that generation. Secular-Zionist education prepared the ground for an acceptance of this world-view. What then did this education say to the young? It said that we were erasing 1800 years of Jewish Diaspora history and returning to our magnificent past – to the kingdoms of David and Solomon, the Maccabean heroes, to Elazar Ben Ya’ir the Zealot rebel against Rome who led the warriors at Masada. This was a generation that did not want to learn Jewish Diaspora history, since there was no such thing as Jewish history (“since it’s all only evil decrees and persecutions”).
Into this atmosphere, in which Judaism had been long abandoned, “Hebraism” came along and made a leap forward. Not a leap to the beginning of “Jewish” history but to the beginning of “Hebrew” history. It was not to be the Jews who are returning to their homeland, but the Hebrews who are a nation separate from the Jewish People. The symbol of this leap in the plastic arts was the statue of “Nimrod” by Yitzhak Danziger. The statue was sculpted in 1938 and aroused great excitement. “In this heroic figure” – wrote an Israeli journalist – “The new Israeli found a reflection of whom they aspired to regard as their spiritual ancestors. No more the Diaspora Jews like unto their parents, but mythological figures, ancient military heroes and mighty hunters“. The author Binyamin Tammuz wrote: “I found myself standing in front of ‘Nimrod’. I broke into a run in his direction, embraced the statue and kissed it. It was only afterwards, with my eyes full of tears, that I was dumbfounded at having been caught red-handed doing that.”

What Is the base of Our Hebrew?

Quite a few people have already pointed out that the historical grounds for the concept are shaky. Israel and the Canaanite nations were not one people, not from the cultural nor religious aspect, and it is a near certainty that they did not speak the same language. What kind of Hebrew do we speak? It is the Hebrew that came to us from the Bible and Apocrypha, from the Dead Sea Scrolls, from the Cairo Genizah treasures, from the Mishnah and the Midrashim, from the liturgical poets of the Land of Israel, from Maimonides, Rashi, and the Responsa literature, and the tens of thousands of books written in Hebrew over the centuries. Over and above them all was the Siddur [Daily prayer book]. Zionism achieved its great accomplishment by stimulating spoken Hebrew, not by reviving the Hebrew language. It was not actually a renewal of spoken Hebrew. Jews had always read and written Hebrew. Along with the wonderful Jewish languages they developed in the Diasporas, they also cultivated spoken Hebrew. A Jew from Izmir who spoke Ladino and a Jew from the European lands who spoke Yiddish, when they met in Jerusalem, could communicate with each other in Hebrew. This is our one and only Hebrew, the language of the Jewish People, and the only people in the world speaking that language.

The Bells of Hannibal

Some years after being exposed to the Canaanite idea, I became well-acquainted with one of its advocates. His name was Yosef Ve’adia. Short, balding, and dark-skinned, he was some forty years older than I. I was then writing as “The Young Reporter” in the “Cherut LaNo’ar” newspaper, and he was the linguistic editor and in charge of artistic subjects. He fascinated me with his great knowledge and his precise speech. I was already more discriminative with regards to Canaanites and I asked him for an explanation of this concept, which severs the Hebrew People from the Jewish People. Ve’adia told me that a short time after he was born his mother abandoned him and he never saw her again. He said to me: I checked and found that a large number of the “Canaanites” were people who had a personal break with their parents. This break enabled them to make the break between Hebraism and Judaism.

This perhaps explains what the poet Yonatan Ratosh said in 1944: “It doesn’t happen overnight that someone can clear out his mind from the intoxicating, ancient Jewish poison that trickles day after day and year after year”. About Judaism he added that it is “a sick culture, a culture of a society of immigrants, a spiritual leprosy”.

Professor Yehoshua Porat, in his biography of Yonatan Ratosh, tells about the Jewish Revisionist circle in Paris which conducted lively cultural and political activities. “They were all assimilated in their world-view and in their culture, and were unwillingly obliged to adopt Jewish Nationalism, only after they had come to learn that they were undesired by the milieu in which they wanted to become integrated. They thoroughly hated the traditional East-European Jewish immigrants, the Yiddish speakers dressed in their traditional robes, since they ‘were disgusting and aroused revulsion’ … One of the members of the circle said “the desire to escape from Jewish fate and contact with these Jews was the leitmotif in forming their viewpoints…”

Porat goes on to say ”The adoption of the Hebrew national identity that omits the entire period of the hated Diaspora, was the perfect, personal, unmatched, and winning solution. Since they couldn’t easily become Frenchmen, they didn’t want to be Diaspora Jews either. This is why they chose to become Hebrews”…One of the members of the group once said, that thanks to the Canaanite ideology “I now hear the bells of Hannibal’s elephants instead of the cries of the Rabbis”.

The mystery is solved. The Hebrew-Canaanite ideology is actually an outstanding Jewish phenomenon, i.e., our self-hate and desire to assimilate. From this viewpoint one can say that the Hebrew-Canaanite idea is not dead. It continues to exist in the very midst of the State of Israel.

The Logic in Madness

Column of Zeev Galili

Makor Rishon [Primary Source – An Israeli Weekly]

Translated by Joseph Schachter [items in brackets added for comprehension]

How the British Eliminated the Intifada of 1936-1939

Zeev Galili — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:24:37 +0000

HEBREW VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE

One picture is worth a million words. Such is the photograph above. It illustrates the method by which the British administration in Palestine successfully eliminated the first Intifada [Arabic for uprising] during the years 1936-1939.

The photo shows a British armored railroad wagon behind a railcar on which two Arab hostages are seated. In this way the British prevented the mining of the railroad tracks by Arab terrorists. This type of railcar preceding the regular trains turned the Arabs seated there (generally Mukhtars and notables from villages along the railway route) into cannon fodder. Should they try to blow up the trains, they would explode along with their own people and their leaders.

HOW THE PHOTO WAS FOUND

This photo was provided by Gadi Talmor, who found it among the effects of his late father, Chaim Kahanov. His father had served in the Hebrew settlement police together with a friend named Zecharia Oryon. While on one of their usual patrols, guarding the fields, they noticed the railcar with the hostages and Oryon took the photograph with a simple box camera. The photograph lay in a drawer and when examining his father’s effects it was found, scanned, and this is the result.

600 JEWS KILLED

The first Intifada of the Arabs in the Land of Israel exacted a heavy price from the Yishuv [name for pre-state Jewish population] – more than 600 killed and 2,000 wounded in a Yishuv numbering only 400,000. Murderous gangs marauded then as they do today: broke into settlements, murdered men, women, and children, set crops on fire, and destroyed workshops. They also attacked British installations – telephone lines, police stations, railway lines, bridges, and petroleum pipelines. For a time they controlled the entire mountain area of Judea and Samaria and the British did not dare to go there.

HARSH MESURES

Finally, the British decided to apply harsh measures. Anyone caught carrying arms was sentenced to death or a lengthy prison term. About 150 Arab rioters were hanged. Collective punishment was employed in every village from which shots were fired (they had no Kassam rockets then). Heavy fines were exacted, the crops were set alight, and houses destroyed.

Several times the British struck back with cruel retaliatory measures. In response to the murder of the regional governor’s aide by an Arab from Jenin, a convoy of military vehicles loaded with 24 tons of explosives headed there with which they blew up a considerable portion of the town.

When the mining of railroad tracks increased, the British seated the village family-heads living along the rail route in open railcars in front of the train. In this way any explosion would harm the Arabs first. This method was also used in vehicle convoys where the British obliged Arab taxis to precede them and set off any mines.

6000 ARABS KILLED

During the Arab uprising some 2000 Arab homes were destroyed, – 6000 were killed… another 6000 were arrested. Most of the rebel leaders were killed, exiled, or fled the country. The economic damage sustained by the Arab population was enormous – burnt fields, uprooted orchards, a cessation of trade with the Jewish Yishuv, and severe unemployment.

Desyruction of Jaffa 1938

The biggest retaliation was carried out against the ancient neighborhoods in Jaffa, which was a nest of vipers from the very start of the riots. On June 18, 1936, warning leaflets were distributed there. Later the residents were removed from their homes, the area surrounded with barbed wire and engineering units went in and blew the houses up.

APPEALS REJECTED

A series of appeals in the courts by the Arabs against the destruction of the houses were rejected, but the Chief Justice, [Sir Michael F. J.] McDonnell, censured the destruction of Jaffa, and the Arabs exploited the condemnation in their propaganda.

The response of the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope, to the Chief Justice’s declaration was harsh. “This declaration has been interpreted by the Arabs as a direct encouragement in their struggle against the government” – he reported to London. As a result the British judge was recalled.

Tr. Joseph Schachter

THE UNCLE OF THE NAZI GENERAL VON MANSTEIN WHO CONVERT TO JUDAISM

Zeev Galili — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:55:48 +0000

HEBREW VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE SEEף

http://www.zeevgalili.com/?p=1765

AVRAHAM VON MANSTEIN

In the new Jewish cemetery in the German city of Wirtsburgh there is a headstone with the following inscription:
Buried here is Count Avraham Ben Avraham von Manstein, a true-convert of blessed memory, converted as an adult, a righteous man, a generous man, born 18-5-1869, died as a Jew on 17-1-1944 and transferred to a Jewish grave with much honor on 5-7-1970

I was told about the headstone by my friend Dr. Rami Reiner of the University of Beer Sheva.
Who was Avraham Ben Avraham von Manstein?
What brought him to convert to Judaism?
How did he survive in Nazi Germany almost to the end of the war?
What is his connection to the Nazi General Erich von Manstein?

There are answers to these questions. They are connected to Wirtsburg’s old Jewish cemetery, where Jews were buried since the beginning of Wirtsburg’s Jewish community early in the 12th century. To the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichi this old cemetery was the inspiration for a cycle of poems in his book, “Open, Close, Open”. In the opening poem Amichi writes:

On my table a stone shard inscribed AMEN,
A gravestone fragment, remains of a Jewish cemetery
Destroyed a millennium ago in the city of my birth.

The gravestone of the true-convert von Manstein, the uncle of the Nazi General and the memorial to the old Jewish cemetery in Amichi’s poem unite to tell the story of the Jewish destiny, “the Jewish time bomb” in Amichi’s words.

THE HOUSE BUILT OF GRAVESTONES

My friend, Dr. Rami Reiner, told me the story of the two cemeteries. He learned about them by accident. The story begins in 1987 in the city of Wirtsburgh. This is a very old city which had many Jewish communities thrive and then slaughtered there throughout its history. In 1987 they started to demolish a structure in the center of the town and a passer by noticed Hebrew inscriptions on the building’s stones. The discovery was related to theology professor Karl-Heinz Muller who made arrangements for the gravestones’ preservation. The building was dismantled carefully and its historical significance became clear. 1474 gravestones and gravestone fragments were recovered from the site with a total weight of more than seventy tons. These stones were transferred the local university warehouse for processing, cleaning, repair and systematic documentation. Yehuda Amichi writes:

N0w a good man, a benefactor, collects the shards.
A sad man, a loving man
He cleans them spotlessly
Photographs them individually than
Arranges them on the floor…
shard to broken shard
Like the resurrection of the dead,
A mosaic like toy statue.

ONE OF THE GRAVESTONES

The benefactor in the poem is Karl-Heinz Muller, the good man who saved this treasure from destruction.

JUDEO-CHRISTIAN PROFESSOR

Dr. Reiner describes Muller as a “totally righteous man, more Jewish than Christian”. Muller himself says he is a “Judeo-Christian”. He attends church on Sundays and prays in a synagogue on Saturdays. He reads (but does not speak) Hebrew, and “his own library looks like the bookcase of the head of a Talmudic College (Yeshiva).” In his home he has a statue of Jesus with a pair of phylacteries (tefilin) adorn his head. He translated to German Yehuda Amichi’s poems.

After two or three years of preliminary work Muller sought experts to help him with the gravestones research. With the help of Professor Brauer, who teaches Orthodox history in Bar Ilan University of Tel Aviv, he got in touch with Professor Simon Schwartzfuchs, an expert on French Jewry. Professor Schwarzfuchs agreed to participate and recruited Rami Reiner as an Assistant.

At the time Reiner was a B.A. student in Jerusalem’s Hebrew University (Hebrew literature and Talmud) while serving as a Rabbi/teacher (R”M) in Rabbi Riskin’s Yeshiva Neve Shmuel in Efrat, Judea. (“A very “open” Yeshiva. We used to take our students to the theater. All R”M’s like myself served in the military and they even allowed me to study in the University.”)

Dr. Rami Reiner

Reiner was asked to join the research team as an assistant and research partner thanks to his command of the German language and his background in Talmud and Jewish Laws. (He studied six years in the Kol Torah Yeshiva for youngsters headed by his father.)

NO GRAVES FOR THE SLAUGHTERED

The old Jewish cemetery of Wirtsburg, says Dr. Reiner, was first established by Bishop Siegfried following the Second Crusade Pogrom of February 1147. In that pogrom twenty or so Jews were killed.

One hundred years later, in August 1298, nine hundred of Wirtsburg Jewish community were killed as result of a blood libel (holy bread riots). Fifty years later another disaster came to the Jewish community. The Black Plague hit the city; the Jews were blamed and a lot more Jews perished when mobs torched their homes.

Expressions of the great disasters found their way into the gravestones inscriptions. Sentences like “The sons of Esau rose and killed them”, “Rabbi Moshe the murdered”, “In life and death avenge their vengeance”.

In spite of the harassment and killing there were gentiles who joined the Jewish people. We learn from gravestone inscriptions informing us about a woman, “..who left her father…” and lived with our Father Avraham. Six hundred and fifty years after that woman convert, the Baron Ernest von Manstein came into Our Father Avraham’s covenant.

THE BARON WHO CONVERTED TO JUDAISM

I got in touch with about a dozen German archives in search of information about the true-convert and obtained the following profile. The Baron was born in 1869 to one of the best known family in the Prussian nobility. At the age of 21 he came to Wirtsburg to join the military. As a talented musician he served in a military band. At that time he got in touch with the Jewish community and developed close relationship with Torah and Talmudic scholars. He studied Torah in the Talmudic College (yeshiva), and expressed desire to convert to Judaism. His requests were repeatedly denied, but he persisted and eventually his sincerity won. He was sent to Amsterdam, where he was purified in a Mikva (ritual bath), circumcised and properly converted by a Jewish Halachic Court (Beit Din).

Upon returning to Wirtsburg he became inseparable from the Jewish community. Few years later he met Francisca Bezold, a woman nineteen years his senior and a true-convert. They were married and established a Jewish home known for excellence in charity and graceful deeds.

Not enough information was obtained from the German archives to form a comprehensive and correct view of the true-convert Baron and the Nazi General von Manstein, nor was I able to obtain accurate accounts of his life’s circumstances, his conversion and his death.

Following the publication of my first article about the conversion of Baron von Manstein I received many messages from people in Israel who knew the Baron well and they helped me to learn more about his life and death.

THE GENERAL WAS AN ADOPTED SON

The reader Shlomo Mark from Jerusalem wrote:
“I am familiar with the story since a friend of my father studied music with the true-convert Manstein. The General Field marshal Erich von Manstein was the adopted son of the von Manstein family. His biological father was the infantry General Eduard von Lewinski. He is named after a village in Pomerania (today Poland), pronounced “Lowinsko” in Polish and “Lewinski” in German.”

AS A MUSICIAN

“Originally a Roman practice, it was customary in European Aristocratic that families blessed with many children would give a family without children one child for adoption. The adoptive family would raise the boy as their own son and heir. Artillery General von Manstein, von Lewinski’s good friend, adopted the boy as his own son. After the biological father passed away the field Marshal called himself Erich von Lewinski and von Manstein. His original name cast suspicion of him being of Jewish origin but as far as I know his biological father was not a Jew. The true-convert Avraham Ben Avraham von Manstein was, therefore, the brother of the adoptive father of General Erich von Manstein.”

THE GENERAL ORGANIZED THE FUNERAL

The reader Shlomo Mark adds, ” My father’s friend, who studied music with the true-convert Avraham Ben Avraham von Manstein, knew that General von Manstein himself arranged a military funeral for his uncle.”

“At that time the General had been relieved from all his military duties by Hitler. This gave him the time to organize a funeral for his uncle during one of World War II most difficult periods. The funeral was held with full military ceremony, the coffin was draped with Nazi swastika flag and the military escort detachment was made of uniformed SS soldiers.”

“I WAS THE TRUE-CONVERT MANSTEIN’S STUDENT”

The reader Rachel Ben Gedalia, from Rishon Letsion told me this story:

“My father, Yehuda Friedman, was a disciple of the Count (The Baron von Manstein was known among the Jews as the Count.) and a frequent guest in his house, He studied with the Count in the Seminary for Talmudic Teachers and Cantors in Wirtsburg between the years of 1931 and 1935. The Count also taught painting and was at the time a famous painter.”

“I have two signed original paintings of his hanging in my house. One from 1907 and the other, a view of the river, with the city of Wirtsburg in the background. The picture, dated 31-8-20, has the Hebrew date of 17 Elul inscribed too.”

Rachel Pree-Chen of Jerusalem relates: “My late husband was the Count’s student in the Wirtsburg Seminary in the years 1935-37. He knew the count well and was a guest in his house. They played together in a musical trio. The Count sent my late husband a postcard on the 10th of May, 1937. His delicate and courteous , yet friendly, approach to his students was obvious from the postcard. He was a great man. His road to become one of us and live a full Jewish life with his wife was a long one.”

Rabbi Zako Grunwald told me his parents had a very friendly relationship with the Count-convert, who gave them as wedding present one of his paintings, with the date of their wedding, 29-4-24 and in Hebrew 24 Nissan TARPAH, inscribed.

ONE OF HIS PAINTINGS

And to make the picture even clearer, the community Rabbi of Wirtsburg, Rabbi Yaakov Avrat sent me a picture of the musical quartet which von Manstein headed.

DIED IN THE NAME OF GOD’S SANCTITY

The riddle of the life and death of the true-convert Avraham Ben Avraham von Manstein was solved by Simon Greenbaum, 84, of Jerusalem. These are his words:

“I visited my mother’s grave in Wirtsburg in 1953. There I met with David Rosenbaum, the head of the Jewish community of Wirtsburg and the administrator of the Jewish senior citizens there. Rosenberg took me to the cemetery and the first grave we visited was the Baron von Manstein’s grave in the first raw. Rosenbaum was responsible for transferring this true-convert from the Christian cemetery to the Jewish cemetery. He mentioned von Manstein’s family strong resistance to the move and it took a court’s decision to gain the permission for the transfer.”

“In 1942 the Nazis ordered all the Jews of the Wirtsburg area to go to the city’s main square and from there marched them to the railroad station. Baron von Manstein came to the square covered with his prayer shawl (talit) and wearing phylacteries (tefilin) on his forehead and arm. The Nazis tried to turn him back saying, you are not a Jew, repeatedly, but he adamantly said, where the Jews go, I go too.”

“He was transferred with the rest of the Jews to the Terezinstadt concentration camp and died there two years later. Members of my family have said that most victims died in Terezinstadt from starvation. On his nephew, the General’s initiative his body was transferred to Wirtsburg and was buried in Christian cemetery with full Nazi honors.”

“David Rosenbaum himself was also sent to Terezinstadt concentration camp with rest of the Jewish community but managed to survive. He was close to the Baron and stayed with him in the camp.”

“Simon Greenbaum added that years before his conversion Baron von Manstein studied Torah with Ansbacher, a Torah scholar. Ansbacher ran a shoemaker supply store. The whole day he sat in his store and studied Torah, and when a customer walked in he would ask him to wait until he finished with the problem at hand.

After his conversion Baron von Manstein worshipped daily at a small synagogue known as the “Matsah house”. In the past the structure has served the community as a matsah bakery. He also taught Torah lessons regularly at the synagogue.

THE BARON AS A SCRIBE OF HOLY BOOKS

The true convert Avraham Ben Avraham von Manstein was also a scribe of holy books. Among many he hand-scribed the Scroll of Ester which he gave as a present to the Gutman family. I was told of this by one the descendents of the Gutman family, Itzhak Gutman of Alon Shvut in Judea. He said “My grandfather, Eliezer Dov Gutman, was a teacher of sacred subjects. He died in Europe before the Holocaust. He had three sons, Itzhak, Shimon and Yaakov. The three brothers did go through the seven hells of the Holocaust. The oldest, Itzhak, was murdered in Auschwitz. My father Yaakov and his brother Shimon came to Israel after Holocaust. All three brothers received from the Baron von Manstein gifts of sacred books dedicated by hand in Hebrew calligraphy.

In one of the dedications the baron wrote, “In living memory of the Bar Mitzvah celebration of the youngster Itzhak… son of Rabbi Eliezer, Ben Rabbi Itzhak, my teacher and friend, may his light shine… honored by Avraham Ben Avraham, known as Ernest von Manstein and his wife.” The books dedication was dated 1926.

My Grandfather, Rabbi Eliezer Gutman, received the Scroll of Ester hand written by the Baron himself. My grandfather was an amateur scribe of sacred book himself. Baron von Manstein studied Torah with my grandfather and my great-grandfather. The Scroll of Ester is now with my cousin Ahron Gutman from Kiryat Ata (near Haifa).

TRIED TO EMIGRATE TO ISRAEL

After his conversion the Baron continued with musical career, mainly teaching music both at the Seminary and privately. He tried few times to immigrate to Israel without success. When the Nazis came to power they did not treat him as a Jew since, according to their racial theories, he was still an Aryan. It is also possible that he was spared harsh treatment due to his family’s prominence. Nevertheless, his personal fortunes were tied to the destiny of the Jewish people and he never requested special privileges.

YEHUDA AMICHI ON THE TRUE-CONVERT

The reader Maor Bar directed my attention Amichi’s poem about the true-convert.

To the True-Convert

By Yehuda Amichi

Ben Avraham learns to become a Jew.
Quick, he wants to be.
Do you know what you are doing?
Why the haste? A fig tree
A person is not: all so soon,
Leaves and unripe fruit at once.
(And the fig tree is a Jewish tree)

Are you not afraid of the pain of circumcision
Cutting, cutting non-stop
Until nothing of you is left
Except the sweet pain of the Jews?

I know, you want back a baby to be
Carried on decorated pillow and passed
From woman to woman and mothers
With breasts and uterus. You want smell
Of Perfume in your nostrils
And wine to the lip-smacking mouth.

=============================================================================

GENERAL ERICH VON MANSTEIN

The British Historian Anthony Beaver writes in his book about the Battle of Stalingrad that General Erich von Manstein is considered the most brilliant strategist of World War II. He led the Panzer Corps when they overrun Russia in June 1941. In five days he covered half the distance to Leningrad. His wife was a committed Nazi sympathizer, but von Manstein himself despised the Nazi leadership, especially Himmler and Goering. He did not shy from making fun of Hitler and trained his dog to raise his front leg in a Nazi salute every time he heard a “Hail Hitler”.

Privately he used to tell his close friends about the Jewish blood flowing in his system, but this did not stop him from issuing a command to his troops saying, “It is necessary to root out the Jewish-Bolshevik system once and for all.” And added, “It is a necessity to use extremely harsh measures against Judaism”.

When the German Sixth Army got trapped in Stalingrad Hitler sent von Manstein to the front hoping he will turn the dire situation around. General von Manstein understood immediately there is no chance to rescue the besieged German force without a retreat from Stalingrad. This did not happen since Hitler ordered “no retreat” and “fight to last bullet”.

The General did prepare his rescue plan in case Hitler would change his mind but did not have the fortitude required to present it when it became clear Hitler insists on his “No surrender, no retreat” policy. Manstein stayed out of the besieged zone and could not provide much help from outside. In 1950 he was sentenced to 18 years in jail for war crimes but was released after serving only three years for “medical reasons”, but, nevertheless, he lived for 20 more years afterwards. His memoir, “Lost Victories” was published in 1953.

TRANSLATED BY ASHER TORREN

DARKNESS AT NOON

Zeev Galili — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:02:01 +0000

sir winston churchill 1939

It was Arthur Koestler, the Jewish author, who coined the phrase “Darkness at Noon” in a book bearing that title published in 1940. Throughout the book Koestler analyzed the political and psychological processes that permitted Stalin to carry out his campaign of murderous purges in which most of his colleagues in the [party] leadership were butchered. Essentially, Koestler tried to explain what brought the victims to cooperate with the hangman until the very last moment. They continued to believe in communism even in the moments before facing the firing squad. They died believing that in their deaths they were making their contribution to the Communist Revolution.

Koestler joined the Communist Party in 1931. Like many thinkers in the West, Koestler was captivated by the magic

of communism and believed in the “World of Tomorrow”. He made many trips to the Soviet Union and came to know some of the leading lights of the Stalinist regime. This spring of 1938 he left the Party. Three years later he published the book whose main hero, possibly not by accident, carries the Jewish name Rubashov (as did Israel’s third president, Zalman SHaZ”aR Rubashov)…

The God That Failed

Koestler and a handful of Western intellectuals came to these conclusions and in 1949 published the book “The God That Failed”. In it they gave expression to their disappointment with the communist idea and the murderous methods occurring in the Soviet Union. Many others continued to believe in communism for many years during which rivers of blood were shed in Russia. Many persisted in their belief until the final collapse of communism and there are those who continue to believe in the world of tomorrow to this very day. Among them are quite a few Jews and Israelis.

TOTAL ECLIPSE

Nowadays we have returned to a total eclipse. Once more darkness prevails in midday, a darkness that beclouds thought, obscures vision, and leads to paradoxical conclusions. This time it is not faith in the world of tomorrow, but in the obscure ideal of democratization and globalization of the world, including the benighted Moslem world.

Correspondingly, world anti-Semitism has increased and when Israel acts in self-defense versus Islamic Fascism it is confronted by mass demonstrations and threats to prosecute [IDF] officers and soldiers for “war crimes”.

What has darkened the skies nowadays is not the stance of the statesmen. From the United Nation’s Secretary who finds war crimes in Gaza but does not see the rockets launched by Hamas, to the Pope “who didn’t know” that one of the Holocaust deniers among his priests was elevated. The head of the observers Hans Blix [UN Weapons Inspector] explains with self-satisfaction that the work of the observers needs to continue ad infinitum; the UN General Secretary, Kofi Annan, who specialized in flattering tyrants with smooth talk; the German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer who excitedly explains “but the Anericans have not convinced me that Sadam possesses weapons of mass destruction”; the sycophant French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin; the Pope who speedily receives Sadam’s envoy and even sends him a personal courier – all of them are simply liars and hypocrites. They know the truth.

Darkness at noon is in the hearts of the millions who thronged the streets from Canberra to Toronto, from London to Rome in anti-Israel demonstrations.. Darkness at noon dwells in the hearts of intellectuals, authors, and artists who are ready to bring countless arguments why the head of the poisonous asp of Iran should not be crushed.

Cynicism, Cruelty, Stupidity

Statesmen are cynical, liars, and wicked. This does not prevent them from being fools as well. The closest analogy fitting our times is the period prior to the Second World War.

One of my readers writes thus:

“Achmedinajad’s actions and the new policy of Barack Obama have led him to examine Winston Churchill’s memoirs, especially the first volume, “The Gathering Storm”. I suggest to all knowledge seekers to read it carefully, and to specifically consider that the enormous tragedy of World War II could have been avoided. That could have been done had the major powers paid attention to what was happening in Germany in those years, to consider the illusion of peace, shortsightedness and helplessness of most of the free world’s leaders at that time”.

Churchill wrote about this in the book’s foreword:
[
How in their foolishness, thoughtlessness, and good nature the English-speaking peoples allowed the villains to rearm.

“Give Hitler a Chance”

A look at the newspapers published during that period and later research studies indicates that on the side of the unknowing multitudes who supported ‘peace at any price’ (it was then called appeasement) were the statesmen. The latter, out of cynical and villainous motivations, arrived at historic conclusions based on plain folly.

Characteristic of the ambiance of those days was a brief letter which appeared in the “London Times” on March 21, 1939, less than six months prior to the outbreak of the war. In the letter the writer says that Hitler should be given every chance “to take constructive steps”. Indeed, the letter goes on to say, that in the invasion of Czechoslovakia Hitler committed a terrible crime, but he still has “moral justification” in view of the injustice caused to the Germans in the Versailles Treaty signed at the end of World War I. Therefore, the writer states, “Britain should strive towards peace between the two nations.”

The widely circulated “Daily Express” writes: “Where is Prague? If the madmen of collective security (i.e. those demanding action against Hitler) achieve their desire you may suddenly find yourself in the trenches”. If there was anything which frightened the British masses most it was a return to the trenches. The trauma of the terrible slaughter of the First World War when millions of youths died in the trenches was still fresh.

“We Believe in Hitler’s Sincerity” [Retranslated from the Hebrew]

The fair-minded “Observer” writes: “Shall we fight in a vain effort to maintain a situation that would have been forbidden to transpire by the Versailles Treaty?” The intellectuals followed suit, joining the ignorant masses and the media. The well known historian Arnold Toynbee (who became famous by his theory on declining cultures and was known as an outstanding anti-Semite) announced that he believed in the “sincerity of Hitler’s desire for peace in Europe”.

Many researchers maintained that alongside the cynicism, foolishness, and blindness, there was also a prevailing atmosphere of unwillingness to recognize the truth. Everything, you see, was written in Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”, but it was not only the masses who didn’t know [the contents of] the book. The statesmen who determined Britain’s policies had not bothered to read it as well. Chamberlain’s appeasement was supported by the media and intellectuals as well as by the masses. When Chamberlain returned from Munich and held in his hand the famous agreement of “Peace in our Time” he was received by British crowds, who according to observers, were fired up, bordering on hysteria.

Only in the summer of 1939, several months before the war broke out, did the atmosphere change in Britain. In a Gallup Poll, 76% of respondents indicated that Britain should maintain its guarantee to go to war against Germany if it attacked Poland.

This view was not held by most British statesmen, except for Churchill, even after he became Prime Minister.

In his memoirs, Churchill writes that the coming generations will probably be unable to ignore the fact that the most important question of whether we were to continue to fight on alone was never on the agenda of the War Cabinet. The answer was inherently clear and obvious to all those involved in governmental affairs. We were too involved to waste time on such groundless academic issues.

Ian Kershaw, the British historian in his book “Fateful Choices”, quotes this excerpt and devotes an entire chapter to prove that Churchill simply lied.

The answer to the question whether Britain should continue with the war was not obvious. Britain had not arm itself throughout the years in which Churchill warned about the danger of Hitler. Now, all of Europe was under German jackboots, and hundreds of thousands of British soldiers were waiting on the coast of Dunkirk for evacuation or slaughter, and the question was not at all academic. Many hours were wasted in cabinet discussions where the majority held that some way had to be found to come to an agreement with Hitler, or at least with Mussolini, or whether to continue the war..

American Isolationism

The situation as far as the overseas English-speaking superpower was concerned was not any better. American public opinion was for absolute isolationism. Americans wanted to live well and quietly and it did not matter to them that Europe was about to go up in flames, as long as no-one crossed their borders. President Roosevelt, who held a strategic world view of the place of the United States in the world, did not succeed in changing this attitude until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. When the Czechoslovakian crisis came to a head in September 1938, Roosevelt was quick to publish a memorandum in which he stated that America should, in no way, be perceived as taking part in the anti-German bloc. In a secret conversation with the British ambassador he clarified that even should Britain participate in the war, the United States would not get involved unless there be a German invasion of Britain.

The American ambassador to Britain, Joseph Kennedy, (the father of who was destined to become President John F. Kennedy), was one of the proponents of the British policy of appeasement. Kennedy, who was a declared pro-Nazi, told the German ambassador in London that he “certainly understood the German policy vis-à-vis the Jews”. When the war did break out, Kennedy said that he had hardly any concept as to why it occurred.

And What of Today?

Today there is no American isolationism but the evil winds of 1938 are blowing forcefully in America. Obama is going to have talks with Ahmedinajad and is flattering Syria in an attempt to find an opening to grant legitimacy to Hamas.

Where is the Churchill of our times who will warn us of the illusion of peace. The shortsightedness and incapacity of most of the free world’s leaders in their foolishness, thoughtlessness and good nature have allowed the villains to supply themselves with weapons.

Is there a Churchill to day who can say like he said at 1939:

I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: ‘I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.’ We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival

[Translated by Joseph Schachter February 15, 2009 - items in brackets added for comprehension]

The Logic in Madness

MY FRIEND I LOST IN THE SIXTH DAY WAR

An Israeli Poet, a Holocaust Survivor, Responds to the Poem in which Guenther Grass Writes that Israel is a Threat to World Peace

Der israelische Dichter Itamar Yaoz-Kest, ein Überlebender des Holocaust, hat einen offenen Brief geschrieben, ein “Brief-Gedicht”, als Erwiderung auf das Gedicht mit dem der Deutsche Günter Grass den Staat Israel anklagt, “den bereits zerbrechlichen Weltfrieden zu gefährden“

Das Brief-Gedicht beginnt wie folgt

זכות הקיום : איגרת-שיר לסופר הגרמני סַכָּנָה, אֲנִי רוֹצֶה לִהְיוֹת סַכָּנָה, אֲנִי רוֹצֶה לִהְיוֹת סַכָּנָה לָעוֹלָם,

The secret life and death of my grandfather, uncovered after one hundred years

A research dead end

Who was my grandfather

The disaster in Meron

How Yocheved found out about the disaster

A city that devours its inhabitants

The “black bats” and the ban on women

The Wonderful discovery of Leah Keshet

How the vanished grave was rediscovered

The grave before it was refurbished

The riddle of the disappeared uncle

Uncle Israel Rosenthal who vanished 102 years ago and has been now found.

A family reunion after 103 years

A research dead end

Who was my grandfather

The disaster in Meron

How Yocheved found out about the disaster

A city that devours its inhabitants

The “black bats” and the ban on women

The Wonderful discovery of Leah Keshet

How the vanished grave was rediscovered

The grave before it was refurbished

The riddle of the disappeared uncle

Uncle Israel Rosenthal who vanished 102 years ago and has been now found.

A family reunion after 103 years

THE DESIRE FOR GENOCIDE LIVES ON

By Asher Torren

“I am inciting you to confront, using all means possible, anyone who speaks out against the resistance, any means possible.” Thus ends a speech by a Kuwaiti University professor aired on Al-Jazeera TV on February 2, 2009.

Genocide

Back Into The Cave

Barack Obama – Narcissist or Merely Narcissistic?

Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. – 8/13/2008

Upbringing and Childhood

Behavior Patterns

Defense mechanism

Talented and skilled

Pathological narcissism

Body Language

Usually far too late

Narcissist is shallow

Serious about himself.

. Narcissistic and psychopathic Leaders

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To the True-Convert

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Ben Avraham learns to become a Jew. Quick, he wants to be. Do you know what you are doing? Why the haste? A fig tree A person is not: all so soon, Leaves and unripe fruit at once. (And the fig tree is a Jewish tree)

DARKNESS AT NOON

The God That Failed

TOTAL ECLIPSE

Cynicism, Cruelty, Stupidity

“Give Hitler a Chance”

American Isolationism

And What of Today?

זכות הקיום : איגרת-שיר לסופר הגרמני

סַכָּנָה,
אֲנִי רוֹצֶה לִהְיוֹת סַכָּנָה,
אֲנִי רוֹצֶה לִהְיוֹת סַכָּנָה לָעוֹלָם,

personal connection
with the “Canaanite”

Ben Avraham learns to become a Jew.
Quick, he wants to be.
Do you know what you are doing?
Why the haste? A fig tree
A person is not: all so soon,
Leaves and unripe fruit at once.
(And the fig tree is a Jewish tree)