As is the case when comparing so much of American and Israeli cultures to one another, the first thing that struck me was the lack of personal involvement.  While everyone I met was horrified by the attack, I didn’t sense the kind of personal sadness and even mourning that we are used to in Israel whenever a similar attack occurs.  But then again, Israel is a tiny country and there really is a sense of camaraderie, even family feeling here that is missing in most other countries.  And it is one of the reasons I love living in Israel.  Despite the many disputes and debates that receive front page attention in both local and international media, there is a closeness within Israeli society that I have never seen anywhere else.

But what continued to amaze me as I followed the story on American television was the nature of the discussion surrounding the event.  There was a great deal of focus on the legal issues – should the terrorist suspect be accorded the same civil rights as ordinary criminals, what criminal charges would be brought against him and what sort of sentencing could he expect.  There was some discussion of the failure of American intelligence agencies to prevent the attack.  But there was absolutely no serious discussion about the motivation behind the attack.  What would cause successful immigrants to the US to plan and execute such a heinous attack? 

There was amazing hesitancy to discuss the issue that was staring everyone in the face but no one wanted to admit it.  When the captured terrorist could finally talk, he stated his one and only goal in carrying out the attack – the defense of Islam.  And the various politicians and television commentators that commented did not know what to do with this statement.  I wonder if it is so foreign to the American psyche to admit that members of a given religious group could have, as part of their ideology, the desire to destroy America.  But, as an Israeli, this is the sort of assumption that we have been working with for more than 100 years. 

America is under attack and has been since the 11^th of September 2001.  And Israel is under attack and has been since its inception as a modern State in 1948.  And Europe is under attack – witness terrorist attacks in Madrid, London and most recently in Bulgaria.  This last attack was carried out by Hizbollah, but Europe still hesitates to label Hizbollah as a terrorist organization.  What all these attacks have in common is the ideology of their perpetrators – Islamic Jihadists who seek to destroy western society, western values and anything connected with Jews and Israel. 

An interesting article in the Israeli press by Dr. Dore Gold, Israel’s former ambassador to the UN, highlighted the dangerous changes that have taken place in American foreign policy which have made it impossible for the US to effectively meet the challenges of this sort of enemy.  http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=4277  But the problem is far deeper than American policy.  It is a fundamental unwillingness on the part of the American people as well as western societies as a whole, to confront a society, a civilization that is fundamentally hostile to democracy, and intolerant of religious difference.  Theirs is a holy war at a time when westerners have convinced themselves that holy wars no longer exist.

Another article in the same newspaper spoke to a totally different issue.  http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=4279 It reflected on the growing interest in Israeli society to explore our Jewish roots.  It is written by a secular man who called upon his fellow secular Jew to embrace our traditional sources, such as the Bible and its commentaries.  It called for immersion in the source of our own culture.   There was a time, when an article of this sort would have been unheard of in a largely secular Israeli press. Today, many secular Jews are seeking a renewed connection to their tradition and their roots.

I can’t help but believe that the two articles are connected.  Our culture is rooted in the Bible and in the centuries of Biblical discussion that has formed the basis for Jewish philosophy and literature from ancient times to today.  Ours is not a culture of hate but one that calls upon man to love his fellow man.  Every religion has its more fundamentalist adherents and its more liberal ones.  And within our own society we struggle with debates as various groups put forward their own interpretation of texts and religious commandments.  But we are a people of the Book and words define the debate, not violence.  And while we may differ in the ways we believe, we respect the rights of others to believe differently.

The issues facing Israel are serious indeed.  Threats from an increasingly unstable Syria, which is becoming more of a forward base for Iranian terrorism every day, probably tops the list, followed by the threat of a nuclear Iran.  But the entire free world is facing similar threats, albeit on a smaller scale for now.  But most of that world is unwilling or incapable of recognizing that threat. 

An examination of our ancient sources can provide wisdom and a source of hope.  There is good and evil in the Biblical world and Israel is encouraged to identify good and evil, to seek the good and hate evil.  (Amos 5:14-15) This is the challenge facing all of us today.  We cannot accept the moral equivalence and hesitancy before evil.  We must identify evil and fight against it.  And throughout the battle, we must turn to G-d to assist us in our fight.  Ultimately, as we embrace Biblical sources as part of our lives, as we incorporate Biblical values in our decisions, it will be easier to identify good and evil and more natural to turn to G-d in our prayers.

Shalom,

Sondra Baras
Director, Israel Office
CFOIC Heartland

Der März war ein sehr arbeitsreicher Monat für mich und meine Mitarbeiter bei CFOIC Biblisches Kernland, da wir Besuch von einigen Gruppen bekamen. Auch eine CFOIC-Gruppe war dabei, unter der Leitung vonKim Troup, der Vorsitzenden unseres Büros in den USA. Ihre Gruppe reiste vom Norden in den Süden und verbrachte einen Großteil ihrer Zeit in Judäa und Samaria. Mein Mann Ed und ich feierten mit ihr am Freitagabend den Shabbat mit einem gemeinsamen Abendessen in Jerusalem. Meine Assistentin Estelle und ihr Mann Shraga waren auch dabei. Ich habe an Wochentagen schon auf der ganzen Welt Shabbat-Abendessen geleitet und dabei versucht, eine Shabbat-Atmosphäre herzustellen. Aber diesmal konnte ich mit meinen christlichen Freunden ein echtes Shabbat-Abendessen genießen. Wie schön das war!

Bevor alle zum Flughafen aufbrachen, setzten wir uns noch einmal zusammen und hielten Rückblick auf die Reise. Der Reihe nach konnte jeder sagen, was ihm an der Israelreise am besten gefallen hatte. Jeder hatte natürlich ganz persönliche Eindrücke mitzuteilen. Jedoch sagten alle übereinstimmend, dass es für sie eine große Freude und Inspiration bedeutete,  Zeit mit Menschen im biblischen Israel zu verbringen, von orthodoxen Juden die Bibel ausgelegt zu bekommen und das leidenschaftliche Bekenntnis zu Israel von denjenigen zu hören, die Terrorattacken überstanden und internationale Ächtung erduldeten und trotz allem an diesem wunderbaren Land festhalten. Als ich die Rückmeldungen zu dieser Reise, die ich lange und gründlich vorbereitet hatte, hörte, war ich überglücklich – denn genau um die genannten Punkte geht es uns bei CFOIC.

Schon 15 Jahre arbeitenKim Troupund ich daran, dass Christen und Juden das biblische Israel gemeinsam unterstützen. Dies sind keine leeren Worte. Dies ist die Realität, die wir geschaffen haben und die wir auf die eine oder andere Weise mit zehntausenden von Christen auf der ganzen Welt teilen. Wir danken Ihnen, dass Sie uns dabei geholfen haben. Ich hoffe, dass auch Sie uns bald in Israel besuchen und wir uns gemeinsam für die Menschen in Israel einsetzen.

Es grüßt Sie herzlich

Sondra Oster Baras
Vorsitzende vonCFOIC Israel

Meet Naama

Naama can be summed up in one word, growth! Agriculture is the main industry in Naama.  In addition, the community is growing as new families join this lovely farming village. The naturally hot and arid climate means that all agriculture requires intensive irrigation and most crops are grown in greenhouses. In Naama, they have become particularly successful at growing herbs and spices. The people who have made their home here fell in love with the stark beauty and the intense terrain. They have built their hopes and dreams by sinking their roots deep into the soil of their forefathers, living close to the very place where Joshua led the Children of Israel across the Jordan River as they entered the Promised Land so many centuries ago.

Help Naama

Unfortunately Naama has experienced their share of tragedy, but, in keeping with Jewish custom, they choose to respond to death with life. Guy Hason was killed when he was just 24 years old, while serving in the IDF, and in response, his family built an exercise room in his memory to serve the young men of Naama. This is a place where Guy’s best qualities are an inspiration for young men preparing for their military service.   The people of Naama have asked for $2,700 to completely equip the exercise room. This is a project that was started by one family to honor their son, and today it has become a vital part of the community.  CFOIC Heartland feels honored to be a part of this project.

Shalom from Colorful Colorado,

Kimberly Troup,
Director, US Office 

 Visit Naama

Driving through the stark, yet breathtaking Jordan Valley is a journey usually made on your way from the Galilee to the Dead Sea. Taking a few extra hours to explore the riches found in the Jordan Valley and meeting the people who call this unique area home can be especially rewarding.

 Call us to schedule your visit to Naama and the Jordan Valley at 800-647-3344 or +972-9-792-0958.

 Support Naama

Growing up in Cleveland, I was one of the lucky ones.  My parents had both grown up in the US and enjoyed the freedom and dignity that Jews had always enjoyed in that country.  But more than one quarter of my classmates were children of Holocaust survivors.  Their parents had come to the US after the war, desperate refugees who had lost everything.  Many of my friends had parents who had nightmares every single night which took them back to “there”, to that hell of a place that they could not escape, which haunted them forever.  Some of my friends had parents who shared their experiences with their children, scarring them forever with the horrors that they had experienced.  Others had parents who could not talk about it but whose silences and nightly screams told them more than any story could.

Yesterday, I went to a program on the Holocaust in which three Holocaust survivors shared their stories.  What they all shared was the fact that they had been children in the Holocaust and had been separated from their parents so that they could survive.  I was particularly moved by one woman’s story.  Her parents had originally been from Poland but had moved to Paris when she was a young child.  At the age of 8, her parents placed her and her two younger siblings in a Christian orphanage.  The heads of the orphanage separated her from her sister and brother and no adult explained to her what she was doing there.  But soon, she realized that the people around her hated Jews.  So she understood that she had to hide her Jewish identity. 

As the years passed, she suppressed her Jewish identity completely and began to hate Jews, learning this hatred from the church, which ironically had saved her.  She absorbed Christian teachings and embraced them, all the while suppressing her Jewish identity.  Or as she expressed it:  “I became an anti-Semite.”  For 25 years she was an anti-Semite until 1967 when the Six Day War awakened in her a powerful desire to identify as a Jew.  Almost overnight, she could identify as a Jew and feel proud.  Her journey culminated in a move to Israel where she reconnected with her Jewish roots and raised her family. 

This woman today volunteers in Yad VaShem and guides Christian groups as they learn about the Holocaust.  And she tells the French priests that she often meets –”I became an anti-Semite in the church.” And in this way, she challenges the European church to confront the anti-Semitism that was so much a part of its heritage.

Today, I received an extremely moving letter from one of our supporters.  She tells the story of her father who fought in Europe as an American soldier during World War II.  He had suffered in the war and rarely spoke about his experiences.  And only after his death did she discover that he had taken part in the liberation of Auschwitz and had saved photographs that recorded the horrors of that place.  He lived with these horrors all his life but never shared them with his family.

A few years ago, I visited Vienna with my husband and we took a tour that traced the history of the Jewish community of Vienna, from the middle ages until the Holocaust.  Our guide was not Jewish but she cared deeply about the Jewish people.  But when she told the story of the destruction of the Jewish community of Vienna during the Holocaust, I felt her discomfort.  I asked her if her parents had lived in Vienna at the time and what they had done during the war.  She became immediately defensive and I realized that I had touched a very raw nerve.  She was at once sympathetic to the Jewish plight and incapable of confronting the role that her parents and their neighbors had played in this terrible part of history.

The Holocaust encompasses us all, not only Jews.  While those of us who were born after the War could not possibly be culpable in any way, every one of us must ask him or herself how the Holocaust affects us.  As a Jew, I cannot escape the lessons of anti-Semitism that have followed my people for hundreds of years and the modern State of Israel must absorb these lessons in making decisions for the future of our people. And as citizens of Israel, these issues are a daily presence in our lives. 

As non-Jews, and as Christians, you must also find your place in this terrible history.  If you were not there, you cannot be culpable.  But you can ask yourselves where your parents were and whether your traditions included anti-Semitism.  Just a few days ago, a friend in Norwich, England sent me an article and photographs taken at a reburial ceremony in which the bones of murdered Jews from the 13^th century had been discovered and given a proper Jewish burial.  Hundreds of years ago, the English were murdering Jews for no other reason than they were Jews.  Today, Christians in Norwich were attempting to bring these remains to a proper resting place.

We cannot erase the past, but we can create a totally different present and future.  Three wonderful Christian women from England visited with me today and planted trees in Karnei Shomron.  As we discussed the significance of this tree planting, I quoted the last verse in Amos: “I will plant you again in your land never again to be uprooted.”  Just 70 years ago, the idea that the Jewish people would return to the Land of Israel and establish their own state here, that we would indeed plant trees in our land, was a dream.  In fact, many of the Holocaust survivors told of holding on to just that dream as they struggled to stay alive.  Today, the dream has become a reality and Christians are planting trees in our land. 

We cannot change the past, but we can ensure that the present and future are different.  This is what we are doing today, you and I, as we stand together to build Israel.  But we dare not forget nor gloss over the terrible past that we both must come to terms with.

Shalom,

Sondra Baras
Director, Israel Office
CFOIC Heartland