Video Celebration for Israel’s 73rd Anniversary: The Suburban, Apr. 12,2021
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November 29th, 1947 – An Eye-witness Account of the Night the UN Adopted the UNSCOP Report Recommending the Creation of Two States on the Territory of the British Mandate, One Jewish and One Arab, at Lake Succedss near New York: Excerpted from Amos Oz: ‘A Tale of Love and Darkness,’ London: Vintage Books, 2005, Pp. 341-345“Like a frightening dream crowds of shadows stood massed together silently by the yellow light of the streetlamp, in our yard, in the neighbouring yards, on balconies, in the roadway, like a vast assembly of ghosts. Hundreds of people not uttering a sound, neighbours, acquaintances, and strangers, some in their night clothes and others in their jacket and tie, occasional men in hats or caps, some women bare headed, others in dressing gowns with scarves round their heads, some of them carrying sleepy children on their shoulders, and on the edge of the crowd I noticed here and there an elderly woman sitting on a stool or a very old man who had been brought out into the street with his chair.The whole crowd seemed to have been turned to stone in that frightening night silence, as if they were not real people but hundreds of dark silhouettes painted on to the canvas of the flickering darkness. As though they had died on their feet. Not a word was heard, not a cough nor a footstep. No mosquito hummed. Only the deep, rough voice of the American presenter blaring from the radio which was set at full volume and made the night air tremble, or it may have been the voice of the president of the Assembly, the Brazilian Oswaldo Aranha. One after another he read out the names of the last countries on the list, in English alphabetical order, followed immediately by the reply of their representative. United Kingdom: abstains. Union of Soviet Socialist Republic: yes, United States: yes, Uruguay: yes. Venezuela: yes. Yemen: no. Yugoslavia: abstains.At that the voice suddenly stopped, an another-worldly silence descended and froze the whole scene, a terrified, eerie silence, a silence of hundreds of people holding their breath, such as I have never heard in my life either before or after that night. Then the deep, slightly hoarse voice came back, making the air shake as it summed up with a rough dryness brimming with excitement: Thirty-three for. Thirteen against. Ten abstentions and one country absent from the vote. The resolution is approved.
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Jerusalem Poems
Seymour Mayne
Isranet, Apr. 15, 2021
How find…
How find silence, Jerusalem—
Your tombs restored
on the Mount of Olives
hold firmly
and loudly
that the future
will take root
with hand,
brow, flesh
and blood.
New Jerusalem’s…
New Jerusalem’s
cypresses give shade.
Draw little water.
Ordained by dust
they shelter streets
and silence at night.
* * *
Shawled figures
pray, pray here
for your roots
and endurance
and for those
who tend.
My shoes pray openly…
My shoes pray openly
here at the wall.
They bless naked feet,
paths, sheltered streets,
stairs that await,
invite the dancer and the young.
* * *
Pray shoes, pray worn soles,
old believers
your tongues bide the secret
of those who go unknown
but hold the city
from wrath and destruction. …
[To read more poems on Jerusalem by Seymour Mayne, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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‘Two-Gun Cohen’: The Chinese General Who Swung the UN Vote
Ruth Corman
Jerusalem Post, Apr. 14, 2021
My husband, Charles, was related to the only Jew, probably the only Westerner, to become a general in the Chinese Army – known as “Two-Gun Cohen” – who played a historic part in China’s abstention and the UN’s recognition of a Jewish state in 1947.
In 1961 Charles’s mother, while staying at the King David Hotel Jerusalem, had to call the house doctor. Dr. Cyril Sherer arrived and, serendipitously, they discovered they were cousins! Cyril, a Londoner, lived many years in New Zealand but was now in Jerusalem. It was he who told the family about their illustrious cousin.
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Independence Day: In 73 Years, Israel Has Accomplished So Much
Editorial
Jerusalem Post, Apr. 13, 2021
As Israel celebrates its 73rd birthday on Thursday, it is worth remembering that there are those who have said from the very beginning that it cannot survive.
Pinstripe diplomats in the US State Department said as much in 1948, trying to convince US president Harry Truman not to recognize the nascent state. Arab leaders said it that same year in mobilizing armies to fight the Jewish state. European politicians said it before the Six-Day War as Israel’s Arab neighbors were tightening the noose and threatening to destroy the country.
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For Further Reference:
How the Israeli Economy Will Overcome the Corona Crisis (Shlomi Fogel and Rotem Sella) | JLC 202: Vimeo, Hebrew with English subtitles — One of the most fascinating discussions at our recent Jewish Leadership Conference was a session focused on the coming political and economic renaissance in Israel.
Israel Honors Pfizer Chief At Independence Day Ceremony: Times of Israel, Apr. 15, 2021 — Israel paid tribute to the chief executive of international drug maker Pfizer Inc. during its Independence Day celebrations Wednesday, thanking him for a partnership that has helped the country carry out one of the world’s most successful coronavirus vaccination campaigns.
By 2065, Israel Will Be Most Crowded Nation On Earth – Good News: Barbara Sofer, Jerusalem Post, Jan. 15, 2021 –– I sit down to read the recent Gregorian New Year’s supplement of the influential economic magazine The Marker. We’re all interested in economic trends, and 2020 was an unpredictably grim year. The lead article headline looks particularly interesting: “Turning Point: Israel’s Big Population Challenge.”
Three best books on Zionism, recommended by Gil Troy: Gil Troy, Fathom Journal, April 2020 — There are many academic books on the history of Zionism, the various schools of Zionist thought, particular Zionist thinkers, the accomplishments of Zionism, the sins of Zionism, and how to defend Zionism.
Einstein’s Last Speech: Yair Rosenberg, Tablet, Apr. 16, 2013 — On Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, in 1955, Albert Einstein was scheduled to address the American people on ABC, NBC and CBS.
WATCH: Speaking to My Friend Ari Fuld HY”D on Israel Memorial Day: Pulse of Israel, YouTube, Apr. 14, 2021 |
