Breaking news: COVID: Entrance of vaccinated to Israel postponed again amid outbreak and Shalom Pollock trip tomorrow (Tuesday, July 20) to the Golan and Salvador Dali and Naharyia and ‘Better late than never’: Church of England apologizes for anti-Semitism and Elie Kligman: Second Orthodox Jew Drafted to Major League Baseball Team By Hana Levi Julian and Bennett Govt. Appoints Arab MK (Who Called for Destruction of Israeli Town) to Defense Committee and When Jews were banned from sitting at the Western Wall
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
Breaking news: COVID: Entrance of vaccinated to Israel postponed again amid outbreak
Amid concerns over the rising number of coronavirus cases, police to employ an SMS-based system to verify the location of those quarantining.
Vaccinated tourists will not be allowed to enter Israel on August 1, as previously decided, Health Ministry's Director General Prof. Nachman Ash said in a press briefing on Sunday. "We are postponing the date for the entrance of tourists, it is not going to happen on August 1," Ash noted, adding that a new date is not set yet."Unfortunately, the current situation does not permit us to allow tourists to enter," he added. The director general also warned Israelis that with the Delta variant raging in the world, this is not a time to fly abroad. He said that the authorities are examining how to restrict traveling, either by expanding the list of countries under travel ban or severe travel warning, or by other means.Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with relevant ministers and officials to work on stepping up the enforcement of coronavirus regulations, which since last week falls under the responsibility of the Public Security Ministry.
The authorities are working to ensure that the enforcement system will combine the use of technological means as well as of police officers and local inspectors."Our goal is to establish sensible guidelines, alongside aggressive and effective enforcement against violators," Bennett said. "Anyone who violates the guidelines endangers his health and the health of the rest of the citizens of Israel. We will not allow this. The Delta variant is soaring all over the world. Implementing regulations in the field is a critical element in fighting the pandemic to defeat the mutation."It was decided that verified coronavirus carriers who breach isolation will be criminally charged.In addition, Bennett gave instruction to the ministry and the attorney general to regulate the legal aspect of employing technological tools to monitor those in quarantine, including allowing the police to verify the location of individuals in isolation through an SMS system.In addition, it was announced that priority in enforcement will be given to weddings and another events considered at high risk of spreading infections. Starting from Wednesday, access to indoor weddings and parties with over 100 participants, will be reserved only to individuals who are vaccinated, recovered or have a negative corona test, or holders of what the government has dubbed "Happy Badge."Ash said that in the upcoming days, they will recommend the cabinet to bring back the full green pass system. Until the end of May, the green pass system was used for several venues and activities, including restaurants, synagogues and gyms.In addition, he remarked that they are preparing for the school year, and they hope that rapid testing will be an essential element of the outline to keep schools operating safely. Also on Sunday, the Health Ministry announced that participants in summer camps will be asked to show a green passport, a recovery certificate or a negative coronavirus test taken within the previous 72 hours. The requirement applies also to outdoor programs. Earlier in the day, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said that the possibility of another lockdown exists, but the government is not considering it as of now and the goal is to avoid it."Of course it is possible that there will be another lockdown, but we are not discussing it now," Horowitz said in an interview to Army Radio.
"Everyone can understand that if there is a huge outbreak here, including in serious morbidity, we will get there. We are taking measures so that we are not going to need it."Some 430 new virus carriers were identified on Saturday, with 1.47% of the 33,000 tests processed returning a positive result. The previous day the cases were 1,120 out of 76,000 tests – the highest since March. At the beginning of June, Israel was registering some 10-20 new cases a day. The new outbreak apparently started in some schools and quickly spread.While the increase in serious morbidity – which is considered the most important parameter to consider - has remained limited, the number of patients in serious condition is nonetheless on the rise. Some 63 patients were in serious conditions on Sunday morning. Four weeks ago, they were 19. At the peak on the pandemic in January, there were some 1,200 patients in serious condition, a number that placed unprecedented strain on the country's health system. Months before, experts were suggesting that Israeli hospitals could handle up to 700-800 serious patients without compromising the quality of the care. Ash said that the number of serious patients is expected to further increase.On Friday, Bennett said that the Pfizer is less effective against the Delta variant, which currently represents the vast majority of cases in Israel."We do not know exactly to what degree the vaccine helps, but it is significantly less," he noted.Israel is conduction research to understand what is causing the drop in efficacy, if the time elapsed since receiving the two shots is the central elements or other factors have a significant role, ash remarked.
On Tuesday, July 20 we will leave at 8:00 from the Inbal hotel This is a long day and we want to see as much as we can. We will be in Jerusalem after 7:00 I believe. Cost 320 shekels
Our itinerary will be:
Ride through the Judean desert and Jordan valley.
Stop at the Jordan valley memorial overlooking the vast, magnificent Jewish farming miracle in the valley.
Kfar Nachum - unique remains of a fabulous Jewish town overlooking the Kinneret from the Talmudic period.
Tel
Chai - The site of the heroic defense of the furthest Jewish settlement
in 1920. The legendary Joseph Trumpeldor gave his life there and thus began a tradition that led to the IDF. A very moving and lifelike reenactment of the drama is presented.
Beautiful Metula, Israel's most northern town on the Lebanon border - beauty, history and drama in one spot as we look deep into south Lebanon
Banyas springs and waterfalls. This world famous beauty spot has important history and archeology from the second Temple period. We will enjoy it all.
Elie Kligman: Second Orthodox Jew Drafted to Major League Baseball Team By Hana Levi Julian
History was made on Tuesday in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Washington Nationals' selection of 18-year-old Eli Kligman, the second Orthodox Jewish player to be drafted to the League in two days.
Kligman's father, an attorney and a licensed baseball agent, and a friend of mine from San Diego, represents his son. He shared the good news about his son's selection with baseball players while riding with the Israeli baseball team on their pre-Olympics road trip.
The first Orthodox Jewish player, 17-year-old Long Island native Jacob Steinmetz was drafted on Monday by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Steinmetz, a pitcher, reportedly has thrown the ball up to 97 miles per hour.
Steinmetz also refuses to use transportation on the Sabbath, and instead chooses hotels within walking distance of the stadium, but at least for now, he plays on the Sabbath.
Las Vegas native Kligman throws the ball at 90 miles per hour when pitching, according to MLB.com, although he also has played catcher and shortstop and switch-hits as well, batting both as a left-hander or right-hander.
He prays three times a day, eats kosher and is Torah-observant; meaning he declines to play on Friday nights or Saturday – the Jewish Sabbath.
It has been Kligman's dream to make the majors, but he has made it clear that he will not compromise his Jewish faith by playing on Shabbat. "The day of Shabbos is for God," he told the New York Times earlier this year. "I'm not going to change that."
'Better late than never': Church of England apologizes for anti-Semitism
"The historic trauma of medieval English anti-Semitism can never be erased," said the director of a UK Jewish NGO.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
The Church of England announced that it intends to apologize to the Jewish community for its role in promoting anti-Semitism, which culminated in the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290 — despite the fact that the Church was not established until centuries later.
According to the Telegraph, the church plans to perform a "symbolic repentance" during a service this Sunday, on the 800-year anniversary of the Synod of Oxford.
The 1222 Synod of Oxford set forth a number of discriminatory laws aimed at the Jewish communities, including that Jews must wear badges differentiating them from gentiles and pay higher taxes than other citizens.
The Church of England will take responsibility for general Christian anti-Semitism in England that predates its establishment, as the institution came into being in 1534.
"The phrase 'better late than never' is truly appropriate here," Dave Rich, policy director at Jewish watchdog group Community Security Trust, told the Telegraph.
"The historic trauma of medieval English anti-Semitism can never be erased and its legacy survives today — for example, through the persistence of the 'blood libel' allegation that was invented in this country.
"But at a time of rising anti-Semitism, the support and empathy of the Church of England for our Jewish community is most welcome as a reminder that the Britain of today is a very different place," Rich said.
On the heels of the May 2021 Israel-Hamas clash, British Jews have suffered from an uptick in anti-Semitism. In one incident, pro-Palestinian protesters called for the rape of Jewish women.
A statement from UK NGO Campaign Against Antisemitism praised the church for its decision, saying it has "much to repent for" in terms of fostering a culture of anti-Semitism.
"The Church of England, inspired by decrees from Rome, was absolutely central to the horrific anti-Semitism suffered by English Jews in the Middle Ages, including…the invention of the blood libel, massacres and the first national expulsion of an entire Jewish community from a European country.
"For the Church to confront its past is laudable, and we commend the Church of England for taking this historic step, which sends a powerful message not just about historic misdeeds but about how our faiths and society can better themselves today."
Bennett Govt. Appoints Arab MK (Who Called for Destruction of Israeli Town) to Defense Committee
Arab Member of Knesset (MK) Ibtisam Mara'ana, of the Labor party, was appointed on Tuesday as a substitute member of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, as part of the formulating of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's coalition.
The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is one of the most prestigious in the Knesset, where Israel's many of Israel's sensitive issues are discussed, though the actual secret stuff is discussed in a separate subcommittee.
Mara'ana stated after the appointment that "the foreign policy and security of the State of Israel is also mine, I have the right and duty as an elected official to be entrusted with it."
Mara'ana has previously made a series of controversial statements, including ones disparaging the Holocaust and state memorial days.
In February, Mara'ana was disqualified from running in the election by the Central Elections Committee, but this decision was repealed by the High Court of Justice.
In April, she told the Knesset that Palestinian Arab society is suffering from trauma and stress, just like the Jews are following the Holocaust, calling for a "mutual recognition of each other's pain."
In 2008, Mara'ana said in a press interview that she would "destroy Zichron Yaakov, and that you [Jews] should return to the United States or Poland."
She also posted a Facebook post in which she expressed support for an Islamic Jihad terrorist who was on a hunger strike, called on the Tel Aviv Municipality to illuminate the municipal building with the colors of the PLO flag, and wrote in praise of Nakba Day, Israel's Independence Day that the Arabs mourn as a catastrophe.
WESTERN WALL, 1929.(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
In apportioning blame for being forced to fire missiles and rockets at Israel in May, Hamas highlighted the actions of the police at the Temple Mount on the evening of Memorial Day for the Fallen, when the loudspeakers were temporarily disconnected to allow the ceremony to proceed with decorum. In his May 15 Qatar speech, Ismail Haniyeh did not forget to mention "our people within the 1948 borders are the ones defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque." Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared back on September 16, 2015 that Jews "have no right to defile it with their filthy feet" and a year earlier, on October 17, 2014, announced that "We have to prevent them, in any way whatsoever, from entering… our Al-Aqsa…They have no right to enter it. They have no right to defile it."But prior to 1967, it was the Western Wall that was the contesting arena for the clashing political/theological outlooks, borrowing from Carl Schmitt's Politische Theologie. As the Islamic narrative has it, the "Wall of Buraq" is "The wall at which [the Prophet Muhammad] tied his camel [and] is reserved by the Muslims," as Imam Abdullah Khadra preached in 2017. Mahmoud Al-Habbash, adviser to Abbas on Religious and Islamic Affairs, declared also that year, "The Al-Buraq Wall is part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is part of our faith, our religion, our existence, and part of the survival of our people… not a single millimeter of [the Al-Buraq Wall] may fall under any sovereignty other than that of the Palestinian people."It was the 1929 riots that brought the Western Wallto the forefront as the Temple Mount is today.The September 30, 1929 JTA report noted that British Mandate "authorities are making a careful inventory of appurtenances at the Wailing Wall strictly required for religious services, with the intention of not allowing any other objects, such as a screen separating men and women worshipers, matting, benches or stools." As an exception, the "ritual wash stand, a small Aron Kodesh (Ark) containing the Holy Scrolls, and a small table for reading the Torah will be permitted."The riots that year had led to a British Commission of Inquiry appointed in 1929 and one of the main topics was whether Jews actually were permitted to sit before the Wall. Years before the infamous university "ghetto benches" of Poland and Austria in the 1930s and the Nazi edicts prohibiting Jews from relaxing on park benches, the Commission decreed that "No benches, chairs or stools shall be brought to or placed on the pavement before the Wailing Wall." Already in 1926, Colonel George Stewart Symes, Chief Secretary to the Government of Palestine, spoke on behalf of the Mandatory Power before the Permanent Mandates Commission at its ninth Session in 1926 and said: "Jews were accustomed to go to the western Temple wall to bewail the fallen grandeur of Israel. The site, however…belonged to a Muslim Waqf, and, while the Jews were allowed to go there, they were not legally allowed to do anything which would give the impression that the site in question was their own property… the Muslims who owned the site in question had raised objections to the bringing of stools by the Jews to the site, for (they said) after stools would come benches, the benches would then be fixed, and before long the Jews would have established a legal claim to the site."So on guard were the Arabs that on the Shabbat, October 19, 1928, they attacked a 60-year-old beadle, Yitzhak Mizrachi, and beat him over the head with an iron rod when he refused to remove the folding chairs, according to Haaretz, he had brought to the Wall for the worshipers.BUT WAS it Zionism's fault, the effort to establish an internationally recognized right to a Jewish homeland, with immigration and settlement, which heightened the tensions? Was it the increased political power of the Mufti Amin Al-Husseini? Was it religious fanaticism? After all, expatriate Israeli historian and social activist Ilan Pappe wrote, "While Kamil al-Husayni was Mufti [until March 1921], the Muslim authorities reacted mildly to the Jewish breaches of the status quo at the Wall… Increasingly the Jews brought chairs and benches into the area, and the Palestinians connected this behavior to statements made by Jewish and Zionist figures about the need to build the Third Temple." Was the Muslim reaction indeed "mild," as claimed? Or were there indications of increasing tension, conflict and occasional violence? What was the situation at the Western Wall prior to World War I?The root of the confrontation was a firman (decree) issued by Ibrahim Pasha in May 1840, which forbade the Jews to pave the passage in front of the Wall, it being only permissible for them to visit it "as of old." The Counsel for the Muslims further referred to a decision of the Administrative Council of the Liwa in the year 1911 prohibiting the Jews from certain appurtenances at the Wall. The Counsel for the Jews, on the other hand, referred the Commission in especial to a certain firman issued by Sultan Abdul Hamid in the year 1889, which says that there shall be no interference with the Jews' places of devotional visits and of pilgrimage A REVIEW of the various contemporary Hebrew newspapers at the time indicate that there were multiple incidents when Jewish rights were curtailed and even prohibited, notably preventing the bringing of chairs, benches and lamps to the courtyard. Already on August 29, 1905, The Hashkafa reported that students of the Mea She'arim Yeshiva on their way to the Wall had been set upon by Arabs from a nearby cafe. On May 10, 1911, HaTzfira reported that the Sefaradi shamash at the Wall had been beaten and benches smashed. On August 8, one Yehuda Levy was struck in the eye while walking near the Kotel. On August 8, 1909, HaTzvi published a short item on the progress of a collection of funds that would be used to purchase the Wall courtyard area. This activity perhaps could have been unsettling.What should not be ignored is the contretemps over the Parker Mission. A British adventurer, Captain Montague Parker, had been engaged for some two years in archaeological excavations around the Temple Mount but was intent on searching for Solomon's "gold". Using a bribe of $25,000 for Azmey Bey, who also included Sheikh Khalil, the hereditary guardian of the Mosque, in the secret scheme, Parker's team entered the Haram al-Sharif compound itself in April 1911. After searching the area of Solomon's Stables at the southern portion, on April 17, they entered the Dome of the Rock surreptitiously and began work at the Cave under the Foundation Stone. During the night of April 17-18, they were discovered and fled. On the morning of April 19, 1911, a crowd of angry Muslims, outraged at what they considered to be a desecration of the holy Mosque of Omar or the Dome of the Rock, rampaged through the streets of Jerusalem.Coincidentally, Muslims insisted that the Wall was not properly a synagogue, which might imply a more permanent Jewish presence. During 1911, Arab residents near the Wall complained that Jews should not be allowed to bring chairs in order to sit but, rather, ought to stand during their visits, "lest in the future Jews claim ownership of the place." Chairs, tables, and screens separating men and women were all regarded as "innovations" that might later be used to support a Jewish claim of possession.In March 1911, one month before the Parker Haram al-Sharif incident, the Ottoman parliament had debated the issue of Zionism. A report sent to the district governor in Beirut that spring by the local governor of Nablus, quoted Jerusalem's Greek Orthodox Patriarch as complaining that the "indigenous population's properties and land are being lost, transferred to foreigners and Jews" The subsequent prohibition eliminating benches and screens and tools from being used by Jews at the Wall was taken in late November 1911 by the Turkish Administrative Council of the Liwa that passed a resolution stating, inter alia, "...His Eminence the Mufti, the Awkaf Department and the Sharia Court stated… that it is inadmissible by Law in all respects that there should be placed chairs, screens and similar articles… which may indicate ownership… nobody has the right to place such articles, or to make innovations as to occupy the site of the wall of the Noble Aqsa Mosque".In the December 12, 1911 edition of HaTzvi, Itamar Ben-Avi published a passionate column in which he wrote, "With the Western Wall, we will die or live!"AT THE end of January 1912, a four-person deputation appeared before the Jerusalem Pasha to plead the case for permission to be able to sit on benches at the Wall. HaMoriah cautioned its readers on February 13 that only an instruction from the Turkish capital could resolve the issue.In its February 23, 1912 issue, HaTzefira informed that a new emissary from Constantinople had arrived in Jerusalem and there were hopes of raising the matter with him, but from the May 15, 1913 issue of HaZman we know that the prohibition was still in effect and not only benches but also portable chairs were now included.HaTzvi of March 12, 1912 contained a report of the meeting of the Jewish community's "The Committee of Eighty" which deliberated the issue after a delegation as received by the Pasha.They learned that the Mufti as head of the Waqf demanded that no Jewish appurtenances that could be seen as expressing ownership be permitted at the Wall. The courtyard is adjacent to the Haram and is part of its property as the Haram overlooks it. Nevertheless, despite the Waqf's ownership, Jerusalem's Jewish community protests this prohibition as it negates the custom of the past 300 years that Jews have been praying at the site. It was decided to plead the case at Constantinople.HaTzvi of July 12, 1912 reported that the Western Wall stones had been smeared with feces over Tisha Be'Avand on August 6, 1912 noted that the Haham Bashi, the Sefaradi Chief Rabbi, had sent a protest letter. Two days earlier, on August 4, police came and removed all stools upon which the worshipers sat, tossed holy books to the ground and spilled out oil from the lamps. On August 9, HaMoriah informed its readers that the Arab who spilled out the oil and removed the stools vociferously denied throwing any psalter to the ground for, as he insisted, David was also a Muslim prophet.Although the Chicago Sentinel Jewish weekly published on July 26, 1912 that the prohibition on seating had been rescinded, on March 25, 1913, HaTzvi noted that during the Mussaf prayer the previous Shabbat, two Turkish soldiers pushed their way through the crowd looking for benches and chairs. Moreover, during the week, a search was made for a water container usually kept there.By the outbreak of World War I, the benches were back, but the following the election of Haj Amin Al-Husseini in early 1921, the tensions renewed over Jewish rights at the Western Wall until the 1928 Rosh Hashanah screen removal led to the riots the following August.The delegitimization of Jewish national identity, of our historical presence here and the making of arbitrary rulings backed by violence to suppress and deny those rights as at the Kotel a century ago and today on the Temple Mount are indicative of an ongoing clash that cannot be ignored, neither Jews nor the world can be allowed to forget.
