Eurovision Update

Nice to share the happy news that Israel made it into the finals of Eurovision, to be held Saturday night.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/defying-haters-israels-eden-golan-advances-to-the-eurovision-grand-final-on-saturday/

With thanks to the Times of Israel for pointing out that the European Broadcasting Union that televises Eurovision used its high-tech "anti-boo technology" (I'd make fun of the name, but will refrain because I'm glad there is such a thing) to make sure home viewers did not hear the hate in the actual arena.

A large rally protesting Israel participating in Eurovision (although, from the photos, it just seems to be an anti-Israel rally) was held in Malmo, and, sadly, another is planned to Saturday, when the final competition happens. 

Rooting for Eden and Israel! Shabbat Shalom!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/09/eurovision-israel-protests-eden-golan/ (if you want to read more).

Hurricane

 "Hurricane" is probably a better title, so that no one worries that the weather here has gone crazy (although it did pour TWICE on Monday, and rain after Purim is unusual and rain after Pesach is downright rare. Monday was Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Memorial Day and my friend Michal, whose mother was born in a DP camp to her Holocaust-surviving grandparents, very movingly described standing in the pouring rain for the two minute national siren that causes the nation to stop and stand in honor, and feeling that Gd was crying with her).

The "Hurricane" I'm referencing is Israel's entrance to the international singing competition, Eurovision (I wrote once before about Eurovision and, in homage to all of us clueless Americans, called my post "Euro-Whata?"). This year, there has been a huge amount of controversy associated with Eurovision. Aside from calls and petitions for Israel to be refused entry to the competition, the song itself, originally called "October Rain" was disqualified for being "too political" and required several weeks of rewrites before being accepted with its current, much more oblique, lyrics ("it's really about making it through any challenging time".  Yeah, right....).

Singer Eden Golan, all of 20, did not participate in the Eurovision opening ceremony on Monday, instead opting to go to a Yom HaShoah memorial event with the Swedish Jewish community. Golan was "welcomed" back with boos and screams of "Free Palestine" during the dress rehearsal the next day, to the extent that she had to wait to start her song (how this young woman has done such an excellent job keeping her composure is beyond my comprehension [I got teary just watching the video of the dress rehearsal]). Golan was born in Israel and moved to Russia when she was six for her father's work. They didn't move back until Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 (her mother is Ukranian). If she'd like my input, I think North Korea might not be a bad place to move next, if she's trying to have more hate in her life.....

During the actual competition, Golan will be on stage with backup dancers (all of whom are wearing clothing that looks like rags/bandages. The yellow outfit she was originally supposed to wear was rejected as "too political" given its references to freeing the hostages. Sigh). For anyone interested in hearing the song, I'd like to point you to this beautiful AI video (kol isha, no real humans are shown): Hurricane Video

Israel is participating in the semi-finals Thursday (ie hopefully the day you are receiving this). Voting for one's home country is not allowed, so if you'd like to vote/send Israel some love, please visit https://www.esc.vote/. 

Pesach Roundup 2024

 It was a pretty mellow Pesach, and that suited me juuuuust fine.

Seder highlight: Menashe saying the Four Questions in Spanish, with Penina joining in when she could (I suggested that they increase the adorable newlywed vibes and practice to say it in unison next year).

Chol HaMoed highlight (although, since this was the only family trip I participated in, there was no competition): Guided tour of the gorgeous new National Library of Israel 

and a fun time messing around in the Library's sculpture garden:

The thrill of being in Israel for Passover truly never goes away. From seeing the streets get cleaned early in the morning erev Pesach

to having entire rows closed off in the supermarkets because they're chametz 

and having a chuckle at the sign on the soda machine assuring that everything inside is kosher for Passover.

The flip side is also true: the emotional depth of being in Israel is so intense.....Yizkor: the last time this memorial prayer was said was over Sukkot, just as the war was starting. How many people were saying it for the first time this Pesach? How many parents mourning children, especially soldiers killed in action? Took my breath away to think of.....

The Hostages You Might Not Have Heard About

 Every morning when I daven the blessing "matir assurim" (You free the captives", which, goodness knows, never felt so relevant in my life as it has the past 6.5 months....), I stop for a few minutes and say the names of each of the hostages (as far as we know. See chabad.org/hostages). 

There are the "special ones", like the Bibas children, adorable Kfir ben Shiri, who, if still alive, turned one in captivity and has spent the bulk of his short life as a hostage, and his four year-old brother Ariel ben Shiri 

And the hostages I have some tenuous connection to: NationOnPause.org sent me a new name to daven for after Elad Katzir was confirmed murdered (felt like a kick in the gut when I opened my email and saw this, even though I had already heard the confirmation of his death)

Now I am "dedicating my Shabbat" to 83 year-old retired journalist Oded ben Bilha Lifshitz (doesn't he look like everyone's favorite grandpa??)

But then there are other names on my list....Last month, at a talk outside the United Nations, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, said that hostages include 8 Muslim Arabs, a Catholic and a Hindu, 8 Thai Buddhists and at least 2 black African Christians. Here are some of their stories:

Bipin Joshi, from Nepal who, only three weeks before October 7, arrived in Israel on an academic program about farming

Mohammed El Alatrash, a Bedouin father of 13

Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a Muslim Bedouin

Hamza Alziadna, a Muslim Bedouin. An uncle murdered on October 7, another uncle hailed as a hero for stuffing more than 30 people into his 14-seat minivan and speeding through Hamas shooters to save people from the Nova music festival, and Hamza taken hostage along with a brother, sister and their father, Yusuf Alziadna.... 

Orion Hernandez Radoux from Mexico. He is German-Israeli Shani Louk's boyfriend.  A photo of Shani, half dressed and lying face down in the back of pickup truck while surrounded by jubilant Hamas terrorists, won the AP "Team Photo of the Year" Award. I choose NOT to post that photo, but one showing her glowing with life:

Please Gd, as we end Passover, the Holiday of Freedom, may all of these people and every one of the 133 people still being held hostage, be home soon, and may our beautiful county only know permanent peace and security. Chag Sameach.

Guest Post by Kara

 From my friend and neighbor, Kara, who sums up the current situation better than my Pesach-cleaning brain can:

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Clean out the cabinets for Pesach, but make sure you’re stocked with food for 3 days.

Don’t watch the news, but keep an eye on Iran.

Keep your kids safe, but draft your son tomorrow.

Make your summer tickets, but don’t plan too far ahead.

Send your kids to Jerusalem on the bus every day, but watch out for Ramadan terror attacks.

Bring the hostages home at any and all cost, but absolutely no ceasefire with Hamas.

Attacks are imminent, so store your passports and stock your safe rooms, but don’t panic.

Talk to your kids about what’s happening, but not too much.

Finish Hamas, but also pull the army out of Gaza almost completely.

Strike Lebanon on the daily, but don’t go to war.

Take care of your mental health, and don’t stay stuck inside, but don’t go too far from home.

Celebrate our Exodus from Egypt, but also your GPS says you’re in Cairo.

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My son went into the Army last Wednesday.

Too many emotions to describe.

Love.

Pride.

Fear.

Duty.

Pride.

Separation.

Honor.

Pride.

Love.

Hashem should bless and keep all of our soldiers safe. Physically, emotionally, healthy in body and spirit.

Sruli, Yisrael, named for the land that has always had my heart, we love you and are so incredibly proud of you, and are with you every step of the way.

Blessing him before he leaves

Shabbat Shalom

Iranian Missile/Drone Strike, aka: What.....A.....Night.....

 Iran has increased its rumbling (for lack of a better word) for the past few days, leading many schools that started Pesach break on Friday to send kids home with extra work for *after* Passover has finished in case school can't resume. Friday, Iran sent warnings that an attack would happen in the next 24-48 hours. Okaaaaay......Penina and Menashe spent Shabbat with us, not so much because any of us were so stressed, more because we were having a mellow Shabbos and they had had a busy week. Shabbos, thankfully, was beautifully quiet. Maybe Iran was having second thoughts? Went to the tehillim group on my street and said some extra.....

Menashe, Penina, Ilana and I went to the biggest grocery store in the area Saturday night to do our Passover shopping. I felt like, "at least if something happens, we'll have our matzah and jam". Didn't buy the dairy products, so no cream cheese and jam :)

And then.....

Around 10:30, just as we were finishing the shopping, Iran announced that they had started sending missiles that wouldn't arrive for a few hours

and the Israeli government announced that everyone should stay near a bomb shelter

and that all schools and pre-Pesach camps/programs would be closed today and tomorrow (Sunday and Monday)

WHAT A NIGHT. The first missiles arrived around 1:30 in the morning. The noise was unbelievable.....a LOT of missile interceptions seen/heard from our city (b''H although many areas close to us got azakot/sirens and had to enter their bomb shelters, our city did not) and fighter jets going all through the night. (I heard that something like 99% of the Israeli air force was in the air last night)

(A friend's photo and caption)

We were up most of the night (I have NEVER texted with so many people at 3 in the morning before) and have also never before said so much tehilim in the middle of the night (Shalom Shachne found an article [it's in Hebrew, lmk if you want the link] that says that the most popular Google search from Israel last night was for people looking to say tehillim). 

Best memes of the night (just a little Pesach humor)

All in all, an extremely miraculous night. Thank you, Hashem. According to the Wall Street Journal, over 350 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles were launched at Israel and zero people died and only one person (a Bedouin girl) was seriously injured. In the meantime, economists are estimating that the cost of thwarting that attack (also known as "the first direct flights from Iran to Israel since 1979"), cost over $550 million (maybe you want to invest in an Israel Bond?!)

And sorry I am too darn tired to write a more coherent blog post. This will have to do!!

I Didn't Know Him.....And Yet I Feel Sad.....

When the war started, spreadsheets went around asking people to sign up to do mitzvot or learn religious texts/say tehillim for a particular hostage. All of the children who were being held hostage instantly had a long list of people praying for them. I found two people who, in those early days, didn't have anyone signed up for them and began to do my bit to help Elad ben Chana (single, age 47) and his mother, Chana bat Sarah. Their father/husband Rami, hy''d, was murdered on October 7 at their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, where Elad was his parents' main caretaker. Chana was released November 24 and is in poor health due to lack of receiving her medications and inadequate food while being held hostage (looking at you, Red Cross: you're doing a LOUSY job here. In the early days, I tried to believe your "we can't say what we're doing but we're really doing a lot behind the scenes". But now it just seems like Roosevelt playing with Stephen Wise  all over again). 

Every Friday, I've been signing up with Nation On Pause for Elad ben Chana. I've found out a little about him. He was a farmer....He loved soccer, especially the Maccabi Haifa team, traveling hours to get to their stadium....He volunteered for the Hadar Goldin Foundation (horrifically ironic, since Hadar Goldin, too, was kidnapped into a terror tunnel and killed by Hamas)....He loved his niece and nephew,,,,,,

And now he has been added to the list of those murdered.....Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ, Hamas' totally evil first cousin) killed him in January, and an Israeli commando brigade operation brought his body back to Israel where it was buried on his beloved kibbutz. This was the news that greeted us when we turned our phones on after Shabbat. I didn't know him, and yet I feel sad.....

Elad ben Avraham, hy''d, may your memory be for a blessing

HTTP://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-795684