Biking in Israel

This week I bought a bike in the local bicycle shop.

Not a fancy one, but a good one. So now I am the proud owner of a yellow Giant Iguana bicycle.

My son Adam is the bicycle pro in our family and what he can do with a bike is amazing.

He briefed me what to buy.

Yesterday I made my maiden voyage through the fields of Emek Hefer along the Alexander Stream - Nahal Alexander.

The weather was great and the sights likewise.

The disturbance I caused to the nature, riding on a bike, was minimal and the birds and other animals I met on my way just went on doing what they did and the didn't even give me a second look.

A bottle of tap water and some dates were my food provisions.

Along the track there were still puddles from the last rains, but the day self was sunny and pleasant.

On my way I met 3 colleague bikers and meeting them was like meeting with old friends.

I want to train to make a long distance trip through Israel and I even may take groups of tourist bikers to explore the country on bikes.

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שיווין זכויות לכל המתגייסים לצה"ל

בקרב אום קטף בסיני, בלילה הראשון של מלחמת ששת הימים, נהרג לידי יוסף אמון מהכפר ירכא

יוסף היה לוחם מג"ב שסופח לפלוגה שלנו כדי לעבור את קורס המ"כים, הוא היה יותר מבוגר מאיתנו, אדם שקט ומופנם

אני נפצעתי באותו הקרב ואושפזתי לתקופה יחסית ארוכה ולכן לא הייתי בקשר עם הפלוגה ועם משפחות החללים

הכרתי את בני העדה הדרוזית כאנשים ישרי דרך ואמיצים עוד מימי ילדותי בגליל

משך השנים היו לי חברים בצבא מהעדה, אנשים משכמם ומעלה

שמרתי על קשרים עם אנשי הכפרים בגליל ואני נוהג לבקר שם מתי שזה מתאפשר

לפני כמה שבועות פנה אליי עו"ד ד"ר סלמאן ח'יר אחרי שחתמתי על עצומה למען שיוויון זכויות לבני העדה הדרוזית והצ'רקסית

הוא ביקש שאעזור לו בעידוד הציבור היהודי לחתום על העצומה

עצוב לי מאד שכל כך מעט אנשים תומכים ביוזמה

מדובר הרבה על "ברית הדמים" שיש בין הדרוזים לבין העם היושב בציון, אני מעדיף לקרוא לו "ברית האחים" כי אנחנו רוצים לחיות ביחד

מצב העדה לא טוב, יש אבטלה בעיות חינוך ותחושה קשה שהמדינה מפנה לעדה עורף

מילים לבד לא יספיקו ואני מבקש גם ממך לחתום על העצומה כדי שכל אלה התורמים למדינה יחושו שהמדינה מכירה בהם כשווים בזכויות ולא רק בחובות כדי שבני העדה יוכלו לחיות בכבוד לידינו כאחים אמיתיים

The Islam in Jewish eyes

After almost a century of wars between Arabs and Jews we should stop and ask ourselves some questions.

Is this a religious or political conflict or a political one or a mishmash of both?

What would happen if 100 Rabbis would gather and would accept Muhammad as a Prophet?

He didn't claim to be the son of God. The Muslims are circumcised like the Jews. They don't eat pork and have a special ritual to slaughter animals the proper way.

There is nothing in a mosque what opposes the Jewish law and in the synagogue is nothing against the Islam.

There are no Muslim laws that are against the Jewish ones and there is no Jewish law that forbids to accept Muhammad as a prophet.

Now imagine Judaism would accept Muhammad as a prophet, then the Muslims would have to think again if Jews are there enemies or upgraded themselves from being Cousins to Brothers.

Judaism would be a special part of the Islam and Salaam Aleikum - Peace will be on you.

That would spoil the whole reason of being wars between the two sides.

Just think of it.

Till then let's wish our Muslim cousins Ramadan Karim - a happy Ramadan.

The danger of Dr. Internet

We all feel sometimes bad.

The baby doesn't react "according to the book".

The child has symptoms of an unclear disease.

An adult has some pain without any clear reason.

Our parents' health is not like it used to be.

Too often we find ourselves consulting with "Dr. Internet" and get the most frightening or unclear information.

Internet offers us an exiting new world with a wide spectrum of information.

But Internet does not give us a tool to digest the information professionally.

We find ourselves with information we cannot verify and use.

That is a danger. There are no shortcuts, one has to eat healthy food and live in a healthy way. If questions rise see your physician, ask him / her tough questions and if you are unconvinced get a second opinion.

Dedicated to our physician Dr. AbdelAziz Jum'ah in honour of the month of Ramadan

رمضان كريم - كل عام وانتم بخير

Eating Kosher

Eating Kosher is an issue most people on this World are unaware of.

Religious Jews eat Kosher food and even early Christians, including Jesus, who were religious Jews ate Kosher.

Even Muslims eat Halal food, which has much in common with Kosher food.

So what is this Kosher thing? In principle it is a set of rules that defines what a Jew may or may not eat. Pork meat is a big no, Rabbits the same, Giraffes and Camels likewise. A Jew may not mix meat and milk too.

My Grandfather who lived in Galicia, which was first Austro Hungarian, later Polish, than a part of the Soviet Union and now a part of Ukraine had to travel often. As he kept the Jewish law he couldn't eat just anywhere, so usually he ate only fruit and vegetables. I never knew my grandfather as he was killed by the Nazis, but my father told me about him. He always took a silver spoon with him when he was on the roads and would order a soft boiled egg to eat it with his spoon and that was Kosher.

Many years later my friend R. and I were young kids and members of the Zionist youth movement Habonim, a sort of a scout movement.

R.'s family were members of the Orthodox Synagogue and we were Liberals.

Once when we were on our way to a meeting we were hungry, so we bought something to eat. I am vegetarian, so I opted for French Fries and R. took an egg salad. We walked on and I noticed that R. was taking bites and than was spitting something. I thought that this is a special Orthodox way of eating, but it still intrigued me, so I asked him why he spits while he eats.

His answer struck me: There is Pork in the salad and that is not Kosher ......

Then I understood that Kosher for one is not necessarily Kosher for another and sometimes people make up their own rules.

R. is now a member of a Kibbutz in Northern Israel and I guess he is not too worried anymore about eating Kosher anymore.

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European Heaven & Hell

When I read Only for Love of "Greenpeace", I saw this joke, it is an old one, but it is nice and shouldn't offend anybody.

Heaven is where the police is British, the cooks are French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian and it's all organised by the Swiss.

Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lover's Swiss, the police German and it's all organised by the Italians.

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Flight 1549

I just saw "60 Minutes" with Katie Couric about Flight 1549.

This flight took off from LaGuardia Airport on January 15th, 2009 on way to Charlotte NC.

The plane's engines broke down and landed in the Hudson River.

The plane's crew: Captain Chesley Sullenberger, 1st officer Jeffrey B. Skiles, flight attendants Donna Dent, Doreen Welsh and Sheila Dail are real heroes and made a perfect landing saving all passengers.

A Holocaust survivor wrote Captain Sullenberger in a thank-you letter:

"He who saves one soul it's as if he saved the entire world."

כל המציל נפש אחת כאילו הציל עולם ומלאו

Captain Sullenberg saved 155 souls and many more on the ground in Manhattan and New Jersey.

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Krembo's Wings

Some things can bring tears to one's eyes.

Adi Altschuler established here in Israel, at the age of 16, a youth movement for all children named the Wings of Krembo.

What is a Krembo? It is in Hebrew: Creme + bo = there is creme inside.

Why Krembo? Adi says that Krembo's are manually packed, one at a time and we should behave to all people the same way.

Adi volunteered at the age of 11 taking care of a handicapped boy called Kfir. She decided that Kfir should be member of a youth movement together with other children of all ethnic backgrounds and religions.

She established the Wings of Krembo movement.

The movement is doing a great job, but lack funds to do more.

Please have a look at this video of Adi on You Tube and this second video. Both are in Hebrew with English subtitles.

You can also read an article about it in English.

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What Ski, Avocado and Subaru have in common?

Yesterday we visited Jerusalem. We saw the Temple Mount, where once the Temple stood and now the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque are situated. From there we went to the Via Dolorossa and visited Bet Hesda - Bethesda near st. Anna Church. A group of Catholics were standing near the remains of the pools where according to the Christian tradition Jesus healed a man on Shabbat. The priest leading the group told them that Jesus angered the Jews because it was done on Shabbat, breaking the Jewish law.

As far as I know the Jewish law doesn't forbid healing people on Shabbat and here in Israel everything needed is done to safe lives on Shabbat like any other day. Life is at the highest level of importance in the Jewish tradition, we call it Piku'ach Nefesh.

A group of Christians listening to a story where the Jews are accused of doing something that makes no sense to a fellow Jew, doesn't help improving the relations between the two religions.

What does it have to do with Snow Skiing, Avocado and Subaru?

Well in the sixties of the last century someone brought Avocado trees to Israel. It was a great success until farmers started planting Avocados at such a rate that there were too many.

In the eighties the Subaru was brought to Israel. Subaru was an unknown brand from Japan. But in Israel people fell in love with the car and as a result the roads of Israel became filled with Subaru's.

It reminds me of Moishe who opened in the heath of summer a snow ski equipment shop in Eilat and after a week a bunch of similar shops were opened nearby.

Why? If it is good for Moishe it must be good for others too....

We call it "Herd Mentality" when people adopt a view without checking the facts. Isn't enough to tell a beautiful story about a good person who healed a sick man? Is there any need to link it to the evilness of the Jews? Evil persons can be found in any people.

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Anne Frank one of the "Greatest Dutchmen"?

Anne Frank was a Jewish girl born in Germany and educated in the Netherlands, who became an icon after her death. As many young people of her age, she wrote a diary. The diary called "The diary of a young girl", describes the hardship of the Jews in the Netherlands during the Holocaust from her point of view.

Anna died just before the end of WWII in Bergen Belsen concentration camp.

After the war her father Otto, who survived the Holocaust, published this diary, which was translated into dozens of languages.

Anne and her family lost their German nationality in 1933, because of the anti-Semitic Nazi laws and they became stateless. Most people who know her story, think she was a Dutch girl, but as a matter of fact she never became Dutch.

Ironically she was nominated as the eighth on the list of the "Greatest Dutchmen". After WWII the Germans returned the German nationality to the Jews, who lost it under the Nazi regime.

The Dutch were not so generous.

Both my parents who were active members in the Dutch Resistance in Holland during WWII had the Polish nationality and had to wait till 1953 to become Dutch. My father had to report himself every month or so to the Dutch police being a foreigner.

My mother was afraid that we would be sent back to communist Poland and it caused her many sleepless nights.

It didn't bother the Dutch that my parents could have been killed in the Resistance or in a concentration camp, but the law must be kept strictly, specially for the Jews.

About 10 years later I became Israeli and so are my wife and kids.

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Why Polar Bears don't eat Penguins

In nature animals have natural enemies that hunt and eat them. The lower the animal is in the Ecological pyramid the higher is the risk. The animals that eat plants are hunted by those that eat meat. The smaller the animal is the greater the danger.

Animals that live in extreme environments suffer also from weather like in deserts or polar areas. In these areas food is extremely scare and every little piece is used.

Once I was asked why Penguins are not eaten by Polar Bears.

The question intrigued me, but the answer wasn't clear to me.

As far as I could recall I never saw a picture of a Polar Bear eating a Penguin.

It took me some time till I solved the riddle.

The Polar Bears live in the Northern hemisphere and the Penguins

in the Southern hemisphere, so they never meet....

This YouTube video shows the impossible meeting.

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Srebrenica remembers its dead

When I read the following article in the Dutch paper "De Volkskrant", I got really furious:

Srebrenica herdenkt zijn doden - Srebrenica remembers its dead
ANP
Published on July 11, 2009 08:35, updated 08:37
Srebrenica / DEN HAAG --
In the Bosnian village of Srebrenica Potocari was on Saturday the commemoration of the genocide in 1995. In the cemetery around the monument more than five hundred victims got also a decent burial. Victims whose remains were buried in the mass graves of Muslims during the last twelve months and were now identified.
The International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) has so far identified a total of 6186 victims of the massacre after the fall of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995. This was done using DNA testing by comparing ten thousand pieces of genetic material from bones in the mass graves with tens of thousands of blood samples from survivors.

The Bosnian Serb army conquered Srebrenica and massacred some eight thousand Muslim men and boys as a result. The Dutch UN battalion Dutchbat could not prevent the genocide. The genocide is commemorated each year on July 11 on the square near the parliament in The Hague.

What really happened is "slightly" different as you can read here

Rebuilding the Family

When I was a young kid, our family had only a few real friends.

Family Verveer were real friends. They lived some blocks away from us, so we met each other relatively often.

They survived the Holocaust in an unbelievable way in hiding, a mother (Jettie), 3 sons (Jack, Bob, Daan) and a daughter (Chaja) who went as toddler through the hell of concentration camps.

The father who was an active member of the resistance was killed by the Nazis.

Mrs. Verveer was an unbelievably brave woman of huge quality.

Some months ago I ran into an article David (Daan) Verveer wrote about the family.

It is called "Rebuilding the Family" and worth reading every word of it.

By bus to Eilat, a good idea?

Some days ago I planned a trip to Eilat.

I didn't want to drive up and down 5 hours in each direction, so I opted for a bus.

I ordered a return ticket on-line on the Egged Website. (the service is in Hebrew only ...)

It was cheap about NIS 130.- which is $35.-

So far so good.

On the way to Eilat it was a morning bus and quite empty. It left at 07:45 from Natania and it was not too hot. The bus was an old bus and the air conditioner knew better days. But it wasn't hot yet. There is a little space for the legs ....

I arrived 5 hours later in Eilat and took my rented car at Eldan. I was a nice Mazda 2 and it was a pleasure to drive around with it.

I stayed at the very basic but nice Melony hotel that too was extremely cheap, about $45.- a night including a fridge in the room, breakfast and a nice swimming pool. It is about 5 minutes from the center, that might be a slight problem.

After I finished all my business I went to the bus station to get on the bus. The ticket was waiting for me in a ticket automate. But .... although I booked my seat some days before I couldn't choose my seat and I found myself on the backseat. Again in an old bus with a air conditioner that hardly worked, but this time we left at noon at 40 degrees Celsius and my seat was at the Western side of the bus, right the sunny side both from the side and behind. The bus was packed and in front of me were two women, who decided that we should travel 5 hours behind a closed curtain. So I travelled 5 hours back home from Eilat without knowing where I was with a burned back and nowhere else I could sit.

By bus to Eilat, not such a good idea! Thanks Egged and thanks to the two passengers in front of me, for planning this torture.

Next time I think I'll take a Camel to Eilat .....

A piece of iron wire

Sometimes when I see how people are running things, I recall the Hebrew expression "A piece of iron wire – חתיכת חוט ברזל". 

Only the "Old-Timers" remember it, so it is really old-fashioned. The expression reminds us of the times Israel was poor and so were most of its citizens. There was no money to repair things properly, so a piece of iron wire was the default solution.

Instead of taking a task and to plan it "from A to Z" or as the Greeks used to say: "τὸ Α καὶ τὸ Ω", it becomes something like a Quilt. Don't misunderstand me I love Quilts, but only if they are on beds.

When I visited the Erets Yisrael Museum in Ramat Aviv not far from Tel Aviv University I saw an art piece, a mug with a broken handle "fixed" with a piece of wire. It is the Metaphor of the 21^st century and the way we plan things.

The Wave

Some twenty years ago I saw a film called "The Wave" for the first time.

It is about an American teacher Ron Jones.

He ran an experiment with his students. In the experiment he showed how avarage normal students, can adopt Nazi theories in an innocent way, without realising it.

The experiment is actually an answer to the question, how could the Holocaust happen and how did it start.

The way Ron Jones handled the material was a problematic one, as he actually showed his students, how far they could go and what could have happened if he hadn't stopped the process.

The film is worth looking at. At "The Wave" website you can find links to the film on Youtube.

It teaches us an important lesson: when you see injustice - do something, raise your voice and don't stand aside.

Guiding around in Israel

Last week, for the first time in about ten years, Israel was visited by a Cruise Ship, the MSC Poesia.

During the two days they were here the passengers visited one day the north of Israel and one day Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the PNA.

Years ago I finished the tourist guide course and got my license. I use it now and then to take groups around and to show them Israel. It was not my main profession, but a hobby I can earn money with. It is great to have people from countries around the world and take them to places you love.

On the first day I had a group of Italians and we visited the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the Wedding Church in Kfar Kana and we had a view from Tiberias towards the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum and its surroundings. Together with my group more than 50 buses were operated simultaneously. The hardest part of the exercise was not losing somebody and finding some space for "my" group.

The second day I guided a German speaking group. We had a panoramic view from the Mount of Olives and went along the Via Dolorosa the the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We also visited the Western or Wailing Wall.

From there the group visited Bethlehem and I passed them to my Palestinian colleague.

It comes to show that Palestinians and Israelis can work together and honour each other in all fields. I and my colleagues from both sides of the border had one goal, to give our guests the best service we can during their visit in the Holy Land.

Prof. Dr. Michael Julius Flack z"l

Professor Emeritus Dr. Michael Flack (Flach) - מיכאל בן ליאון הלוי who was an educator all his life, passed away in Brno Czech Republic on January the 4th, 2009, 88 years of age. Born on September the 12th, 1920 in Lviv (Lemberg in German and Lwow in Polish) now Ukraine, than Poland. His mother tongue was German, as child he learned in Polish, he studied in Czech and teached in English.

He was a poet, musician and scholar. His father Ing. Leo Flach was an officer in the Austrian Army during WWI and lost his arm during the battles in France. His mother Dr. Elzabeth Flach - Kober had a Ph.D. when girls hardly learned.

In WWII the whole family was deported by the Germans to Theresienstadt. Michael was transported to Theresienstadt on December 14th,1941 where he was the co-director of building L-318, a house of young children, most of them lost their families before they arrived. From Theresienstadt he was transported to Auschwitz on September 28th, 1944. He survived Theresienstadt, Auschwitz and Meuselwitz and the Death March.

The book "There are no Butterflies here" was compiled from poems written in Theresienstadt and saved by Michael's mother Dr. Elzabeth (Elka) Flach. Most of the poems which were published as "Anonymous" or "MIF" were written by Michael.

After the war he moved to the USA and was Dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at Pittsburg University. He had students from all countries around the world, who became prominent leaders in their societies.

He was my father's cousin. May he rest in peace - יהיה זכרו ברוך

Grandmother Paulina Gerstmann - Kober

I never knew my grandmother Paulina, she was killed by the Nazis with her 2 little daughters and husband Dr. Salomon Gerstmann, my grandfather, in Lwow - Lemberg in Galicia, then in Poland, now Lviv in Ukraina.
Tonight starts the Holocaust Day - Yom Hasho'ah, the day the Jewish people memorializes the victims of the Holocaust.
The day overwhelms me. How can a normal person think of six million people, who were killed in six million murders? How can one try to try to imagine the death of all of them.

On this day I remember my grandmother Paulina - Pnina, I never knew, as I was born after she was killed with her little daughter in her hands.
She was born in the end of the 19th century in the town of Lemberg in Galicia, than a part of the Austro Hungarian empire. She and her siblings were highly educated people and were part of the Jewish Kober family with branches in Latvia, Czechoslovakia and other parts of the Austrian empire. On the picture you can see her with her father Eliasz Leib. By miracle the picture was sent to relatives outside Europe and preserved.

The men of her family served in the imperial Austrian forces in WWI at the German side. Leon Flach, her sister's husband served as officer and lost his arm in the battle of Verdun.
His medals show even now, almost one century later, how brave a person he was. The memories of the other men of the family were lost at the moment the families were killed and their houses were looted.
My grandmother got married after WWI, her husband Dr. Salomon Gerstman was a medical doctor by education, but because of antisemitic laws, he had to make a living in selling Kosher wines. He also served as military doctor in the Austrian and Polish armies.

Almost all members of the family who served their country so bravely during WWI were sent to death in WWII together with their families.
On Holocaust day I'll think in love and respect of my grandmother Pauline, like I think of her many other days during the year and through her I'll honour all of my family and the other six millions who were killed by the Nazi death industry.

May their memory be blessed.

About 30 years after my grandmother was killed, I married my dear wife Pnina, the mother of our 5 children, who bears the same name as my grandmother.

Ugly words

In the sixties, I decided to teach myself Yiddish.
I didn't have a granny to speak with in that language, the Nazis looked after that when they killed her together with my baby aunt in the ghetto in Poland.
So I purchased the only Yiddish paper I could put my hands on "Sovetish Heimland".
I took me hours, days and weeks to decipher the text written in Hebrew letters, but I learned the language.

What really bothered me then, was the fact, that in the paper all signs of Judaism were lacking. The copy I had was clearly written during Hanukkah, but the festival wasn't mentioned, not a word even.
Not less I was bothered by the fact, that Hebrew words used in Yiddish were written in a phonetic way, as if the writers wanted to cut any link between Hebrew and Yiddish.
The word Emmes עמעס f.i. comes from Hebrew אמת and means Truth or Pravda in Russian. That word was used to cover up the biggest lies.
As kid I understood, that when people start to "juggle" with words, democracy has a problem.

Words that really bother me nowadays are privatization, entrepreneur and peace.
When they are used it means usually that something is covered up.

In the early sixties our leaders had enough power not to use it. Nowadays being a politicians is a shortcut to make money and use the public resources for their own benefit. I remember the Dutch prime minister Dr. W. Drees whose house I passed every day while biking to school. We used to wish him a good day and he wished us a good day too. He wasn't covered by platoons of bodyguards and driven around in armoured cars. Neither was Queen Juliana. When you are really strong, you don't have to show off using public money.

Privatization means the public resources are taken and passed to people who can be of use at a later stage. Maybe the previous situation was not ideal, but at least many services were given to people who are now poor and deprived from them.

A new class of people the entrepreneurs was created, people who use their skills to earn money from things they don't own. They can be ambulance chasers, who put their hands on real estate that is not theirs. Banks and pension funds are taken and used to make their owners rich.

People are deprived from medical care, elderly people have to live without real pension and the richer get more richer and the poor don't survive.

I know people who worked their whole lives and made a few people extremely rich. Now when they are old and not healthy anymore, there is nobody who really cares.

In parks we see the "luckier" elderly, taken care of by completely strangers at poverty wages, so their kids can carry on running after the money and making their careers.

All kinds of people take the beautiful word peace and use it for their political benefit.

All this in the name of the free economy and the progress. What really should happen is returning to the basics and finding a way to live in harmony with ourselves and nature.