Irene Lancaster's Diary

Happiness on Israel's Independence Day

Yesterday was the second anniversary of this blog.

It was also Israel's Remembrance Day.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3540586,00.html

Our local synagogue commemorated this day, in which Israel's fallen soldiers are remembered, with a dignified service, culminating with the blowing of the shofar. The evening blended into Israel's Independence Day and 60th birthday, celebrated with dancing and singing into the night:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/981681.html

This afternoon, I sat outside reading a splendid book, entitled Happiness, by Matthieu Ricard, the Dalai Lama's official French translator:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/matthieu-ricard-meet-mr-happy-436652.html

As the songs continued into today, and I was asked to prepare a fruit salad for a Shabbat at friends, who could envisage anything more joyful than contemplating Israel's 60th on a glorious May day, whilst reading a book of pure wisdom.

Muslim Public Affairs Committe doesn't like Boris and David Cameron with Israeli soldiers, especially of the female persuasion

Some people are a bit upset about Boris' win over Ken Livingstone;

http://www.mpacuk.org/content/view/4593/

What is more offensive to the Muslim Public Affairs Committee? The fact that victorious Boris and Conservative leader, David Cameron, are happy to be photographed in the company of Israeli soldiers? The fact that these soldiers are female? Or the fact that the female Israeli soldiers are Jewish?

It is generally agreed that one of the challenges facing Muslim society in Britain today is their problem with modernity, which includes the advances made by women in the field of education especially. No wonder the paradise dreamed up by suicide bombers offers eternal pleasures with passive females.

The fact is that most people agree that Israeli soldiers, male and female, are uncommonly thoughtful and helpful, and contribute greatly to Israeli society as a whole.

Maybe this is why when they go to university, usually after the army, they tend to have a mature approach to their studies.

Unlike in some countries!

Food for thought there.

St. Boris' victory - is this a turning of the tide?

As Israel's 60th approaches, life seems to be getting easier for the Jews of Great Britain:

Relief will be palpable that Ken Livingstone has been ousted as Mayor of London. He was the single most common reason given here in Israel for why aliyah from Britain to Israel was advisable.

http://www.engageonline.org.uk/archives/index.php?id=22

and

http://www.engageonline.org.uk/blog/article.php?id=1862

Livingstone sent a shiver down the spine of a great many people in the Jewish community. A very wily politician, who knew when to quote the Chief Rabbi out of context, for instance, he (together with others in recent history) had the populist touch and a penchant for improving public transport. He also knew that Jew-baiting is popular with certain segments of the community. And as he made it clear, time and time again, it was votes that he was after, i.e. power at all costs:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3888419.stm

The response of some of the most thoughtful bloggers has been very encouraging.

Here is Cranmer, for instance:

http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2008/05/mayor-johnson-what-music-to-ears.html

and here is Ruth Gledhill of The Times on May 2nd being St. Boris Day in the Russian Orthodox Church:

http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2008/05/st-boriss-day.html

But there are also other signs of the slight easing of pressure on the British Jewish community.

For example, the BBC has broadcast a number of programmes that have demonstrated a slight thawing in their relationship towards the State of Israel:

http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/the-bbc-on-gaza.html

Yours truly was even phoned up yesterday evening by one of their journalists, who wanted assistance in tracking down an Israeli hero from the Mandate period for a programme that they will be broadcasting shortly as part of their 60th anniversary celebrations

The Church of England has also demonstrated greater understanding of the problems faced both by the Jewish community and by Israel than it did even three years ago:

http://www.zionismontheweb.org/Anglicans_have_betrayed_the_Jews.htm

and

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=43222

The Council of Christians and Jews is now being led professionally and has taken on some of the aid organisations, whose bias and language had been all too obviously anti-Jewish in tone:

http://www.ccj.org.uk/Presidents.html

And we now also have Anglican Friends of Israel, whose recent booklet in celebration of Israel's 60th, with its Forward by Anthony Julius, has been extremely well received:

http://www.anglicanfriendsofisrael.com/

What still remains to tackle are the British universities, and their ridiculous penchant for boycotts

http://www.engageonline.org.uk/blog/article.php?id=1780

as well as those Jews in Great Britain who seem to have something of an identity crisis:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/02/israelandthepalestinians

But this is a good day for London, for Great Britain, for St. Boris and for St. George, and will be welcomed by the vast majority of fair-minded people.

The BBC on Gaza, Zionism and British Jews

An example of fairer reporting on Israel from the BBC. How Gazans are being treated in Israeli hospitals which are themselves the target of Gazan terrorists:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7375439.stm

Also the first of a two-parter on Radio 4 in honour of Israel's 60th anniversary, entitled

British Jews and the Dream of Zion:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/britishjewsdreamofzion/pip/y3vos/

The Chief Rabbi of the UK was excellent on the religious aspirations of Zionism. Other gems were Tony Benn saying something nice about Israel (despite interviewer Jonathan Freedland's best efforts to get him to criticize the country). It appears that Benn was sailing on the Sea of Galilee when the war ended and then returned to his kibbutz, to join in the general euphoria. Mind-boggling!

And the present Professor of Chemistry at Manchester University waxed lyrical about the links between beer and Chaim Weizmann's acetate produced in the same department and which were crucial to the British 1st World War effort. Weizmann went on to become Israel's first President:

http://www.president.gov.il/chapters/chap_3/file_3_3_1_en.asp

Historian, Colin Schindler

http://www.engageonline.org.uk/archives/index.php?id=34

was interviewed in London's Brick Lane, once home to a great many English Jews.

http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/brick-lane/biography/jewish-brick-lane-in-progress

A far cry from this then:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/643841/the-minaret-vote.thtml

As the siren sounds at 10.00 am on Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day

The siren is sounding as I read this magnificent pastiche by Walter Laqueur on Melanie Phillips' blog:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/643971/the-lost-world-of-disraelia.thtml

How Israel might have been. As I sit here at my desk, looking out over our patio, flowers blooming, watching the ships come sailing in to Haifa harbour, I am struck especially by this passage from Walter Laqeur, in which Haifa becomes the centre of the Jewish world:

'[Disraeli] died in 1882 and is buried in the garden of his villa on Mount Carmel. After his death, this building became a refuge for distinguished political refugees from all over the world.

Trotsky spent several years there in the 1930s and later also Che Guevara, Solzehnitsyn, as well as Ayatollah Khomeini and most recently the Saudi entrepreneur Osama bin Laden. On fine autumn evenings in the late 1960s one could watch these four walking in the Carmel forest, surrounded by several learned rabbis, heatedly discussing fundamentalism, pro and contra.

The impressive building also served as an Institute of Advanced Philosophical Studies. It is difficult even to imagine the intellectual history of the late 20th century but for a number of historical confrontations which took place in this building, such as Heidegger debating Wittgenstein.'

Well, 'If you will it, it is no dream'.

As someone remarked during Pesach,

'Isn't it amazing that we have to come up the Carmel via Freud St to access you on Einstein St and just a bit further on lies Haifa University in the grounds of the glorious Carmel Forest.

Delusions of grandeur? No, not really. Just the fulfillment of a dream.

Holocaust Memorial Day in Arabic - on Israel's 60th

Today my friend came round for dinner and brought a memorial light so that we could remember the Holocaust, when 6 million, including members of both our families, perished in the Holocaust. Ours were in Poland.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/979478.html

Her son rang her and then my daughter phoned me and said she would be attending a ceremony in Tel Aviv and visiting me for Shabbat.

We turned on the TV and watched the very moving ceremony at Yad Vashem. Both the President and Prime Minister were dignified. The amazing people who had been chosen to light candles told their tragic Holocaust stories which through their own efforts they had turned into transformative experiences, helped by the State of Israel.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870533584&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The music, played on harmonicas by children, was haunting. But the thing that meant the most to me was to have turned on the Arabic channel by mistake and to hear the story of Europe's Jews being told in Arabic.

This must be one of the great miracles of Israel.

What is Pesach for? Gefilte fish or freedom from slavery

A thoughtful post by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen on the increasing expense of being Jewish, especially at Pesach time

http://www.jeremyrosen.com/blog/2008/04/freedom-from-what.html

With the expense of travel and food (although in Israel the latter tends to be cheaper than in England, and sometimes cheaper at Pesach than at other times during the year), what is Pesach really for?

Is it to remember that we were slaves in Egypt, and that we continue daily to be slaves to our desires, emotions and ambitions, or is it a time when no expense should be spared to reunite one's family, scattered all over the world?

Or maybe is it a bit of both?

All I know is that I have plenty of food left over and am glad that I've just been invited to a party, so will be able to donate the gefilte fish and orange cake that somehow just didn't get to be eaten last week.

Another blistering day: time for the matzah brei

On another sizzling morning, we went for our daily early morning swim and, on arriving back, were told by our Liverpudlian neighbours that it was the hottest Pesach in Israel since the 50s!

Which is no doubt why we elected to have matzah brei, to use up two cracked eggs and the cinnamon we had bought in masses before the festival.

Matzah brei is made of eggs, water or milk, oil, sugar and cinnamon and ressembles a pancake or latke. It is of Ashkenazi origin and would certainly suit colder climes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matzah_brei.

But it was delicious and will no doubt fortify us on our blistering train journey to Tel Aviv at noon.

Brei comes from the German, meaning paste, or pulp (as in 'beaten to a ....'). I wonder if it is therefore supposed to symbolise mortar, like the charoset eaten at the Seder, and also the slaves in Egypt.

Just a thought!

It's just two weeks until Israel's 60th and the flags and bunting are out in full in Haifa - in contrast with this reaction to yesterday's St. George's Day in Bradford:

http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2008/04/st-georges-day-cancelled.html

In many ways England and Israel are miles apart: physically, emotionally, intellectually, psychologically, spiritually.

A pity really, because they could really learn from each other.

The Book Thief

I've just finished reading The Book Thief.

A friend lent it me and it's the only book I've every read which I feel transcends commentary.

For those who want commentary, here's plenty:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Thief-Markus-Zusak/dp/0385611463

Of khamsins and centipedes

Well, the khamsin sand-storm has well and truly arrived, as we battened down the hatches and made for the sea on the 8.00 am bus. According to the BBC, it is 40C and humidity of only 16.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=4359

Unlike yesterday, there was quite a wind up already on Dado, and a number of tourists on the beach. As is often the case in Israel, the men's changing rooms were open, but not so with the women's. A man with a bunch of keys tried to find some that might be open, but despite appearances to the contrary, he didn't work on the beach and was merely a citizen of Haifa going for a stroll and trying to be helpful!

However, all's well that ends well, and we finally made our way back up the Carmel at 9.30, found that the washing put out at 7.20 am had dried (most unusual for humid Haifa) and ate a huge breakfast of matzah, cream cheese, fruit and (shame to say) some of the remains of my birthday cake. There's also a chocolate mousse with strawberries to finish.

I started preparing a salad for lunch and found what looked to me like a mini scorpion in the sink. Turned out to be a centipede, which the husband disposed of as humanely as possible, without killing.

Just now been had an e-mail query about Jews in Ghana, so if anyone knows anything about this community?

And look forward to a noon siesta in the almost 100 F heat.