From: Tamar Adelstein
BS"D
SOLIDARITY WITH OUR SISTERS IN SOUTHERN ISRAEL: Crown Hts. Women for the Safety & Integrity of Israel by Tamar Adelstein
Chai Elul 5780/September 7, 2020
Dear Friends,
On September 3, 2020 Crown Hts. Women for the Safety & Integrity of Israel organized a special event In Solidarity with our Jewish Sisters in Southern Israel.
Below we present to you a brief write-up of the program and links for you to listen to our guest speakers, Tzivia Pizem and Anita Tucker who live there.
K'siva V'Chasima Tova,
Tamar Adelstein, coordinator
With one sigh of feeling for another person's pain,
even the most impenetrable barrier can be broken through.
(from the sayings of the Baal Shem Tov)
PART ONE
As we listened to the sounds of sunny accolades reverberating throughout the Middle East and beyond over the new normalization of relations between the State of Israel and the UAE, we found ourselves sighing and then spilling tears of indignation that nary a glance had been cast at the unnatural "normal" clouding the lives of our Jewish sisters in Southern Israel, day in and day out.
Heeding the Lubavitcher Rebbe's call to protest, protest, protest when Jewish lives are in danger, we organized an event in solidarity on September 3rd for our Jewish sisters who have been living under fire since August 8th when Hamas renewed balloon bombing the area.
Good friends who live there, Anita Tucker and Tzivia Pizem, shared their stories with us via zoom. In addition to reciting Tehillim, we also studied selections from the Rebbe's many talks about bringing true peace and security to Israel.
What a contrast! Instead of wasting time writing thousands of pages in one foolish peace plan after another, the Rebbe provides a clear cut, common-sense and Jewish path to peace in roughly ten lines or less. Repeating them throughout the decades of his leadership, the Rebbe's words remain as relevant today as when he first voiced them as is his prophesy that: In the end, they will have no choice but to follow Jewish Law.
In the meantime, the eerily calm voice of the Tzeva Adom, the Red Alert, rings all too often. Depending on where one may be at the time, a person has from zero to 15 seconds to find a shelter before the enemy's pink and blue balloons burst into deadly flames.
Although miracles do occur almost every time the balloons explode and few are bodily hurt, long-lasting damage, overt and subtle, reaps havoc on the minds and hearts of those who live in within missile range.
Homes, buildings and equipment hit directly or ruined by flying shrapnel and crops burnt to the ground constitute major financial loss. Victims seeking material and monetary relief find themselves victimized a second time when Israeli bureaucracy makes applying for assistance a long and frustrating undertaking.
Israeli politicians who permit and enable the flow of goods and services into Gaza for so-called "humanitarian" reasons when our Jewish sisters and their families are under attack is immoral and a dereliction of duty by the Israeli government which is mandated to protect its citizens in time of war and terror.
By refusing to take real measures that would remove Hamas and the Palestinian Authority from power or measures that would restore law and order to YESHA, the State of Israel knowingly endangers Jewish lives in and around these areas.
We were appalled at the comments Brigadier General Nimrod Aloni made at Kibbutz Be'eri following the lop-sided cease-fire agreement that was brokered last week. It's bad enough that the terms reward Hamas who, as usual, instigated the conflict but when the IDF's top brass admit "the agreement is only meant to last 2 months, more or less" and pathetically hopes that "economic cooperation and Qatari money will postpone the next round of fighting" it's time to shift the script as we keep saying.
Are you aware, dear reader, that there is no effective shelter in S'derot's women's mikvahs? A woman in the midst of her preparations or in the middle of immersing has no way of reaching safety, even with 15 seconds, once the Red Alert sounds.
Let us be blunt – must she be left with no choice but to run naked in order to protect herself?! This is absolutely unacceptable, but don't think the Israeli Government is going to proffer funds anytime soon to properly secure the seven mikvahs in S'derot or anywhere else for that matter.
We appeal to you to contribute to Chabad of S'derot's campaign to construct a brand new mikvah built to bomb shelter specifications.
You can donate by check to:
Chabad of S'derot
specify mikveh on the check
mail to:
1216 Sterling Place
Brooklyn, NY 11213
or
Donate via: paypal.me/chabadsderot
We also ask that you to join us on insisting the State of Israel - which was established after the Holocaust to be a safe haven for the Jewish People, fulfill its mandate to protect every Jew who lives there. No Jewish woman should ever feel pressured by fear to give up the mitzvah of Taharas HaMishpacha or be a nervous wreck trying to keep it!
You can learn more about life in S'derot by clicking the links below to hear from Tzivia Pizem, the Lubavitcher Rebbe's shlucha who lives there.
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 6:
PART TWO
Anita Tucker, one of Gush Katif's first pioneers reminisced with us about the wonderful life she and her husband and family merited for over thirty years living in Netzer Hazani, the name of their community in Gaza.
Employing drip irrigation methods to farm their sandy land, the Tuckers saw much success growing delicious fruits and vegetables and beautiful flowers.
Anita recalled that before Land for Peace, she and her Arab neighbors got along very well and helped one another. After the Expulsion most of these same peace-loving Arabs were helpless to prevent the PA and Hamas from confiscating their land. Later many of them were branded collaborators, tortured and then executed by the architects of Oslo's "peace" partners.
An upbeat person, Anita has not yet lost hope that one day she will be able to go back home. In the meantime, though, it bothers her that everywhere else parents and grandparents can take their children on heritage tours to places like Poland, Russia and even Spain to show them their roots, yet when it comes to Gaza, in the independent State of Israel, that is an impossibility.
You can listen to Anita's talk on the link below.
PART THREE
Although saddened by the stories we heard, our spirits were soon restored when an excerpt from the Rebbe's talks we read through about the conquest of Yericho came to life the very next day!
Yericho, the Rebbe explains, was the lock and key to entering the land. Its conquest by Yehoshua sealed the eternal deed to and everlasting bond that G-d made with Avraham, our forefather, for the Jewish People to take possession of the Land of Israel – as Jewish Law rules: the point of transfer of property is when the purchaser has the key in hand.
With the key in hand, the land would no longer be known as the land of Canaan but rather forever called the Land of Israel the Holy Land – which, the Rebbe notes, Gentiles too acknowledge.
Now, dear readers, as much as a sigh can break through barriers, how much more so will simcha or joy that comes up from cleaving to words of Torah and Tefilla said the Baal Shem Tov. Like a master key, with one twist, simcha can open any lock barring the way.
Such was the case when the very next day, on Erev Shabbos, Josh Wander, a journalist for Israel 365, and a small group including MK Yehuda Glick rode into Yericho to blow shofar in the ancient Shalom Al Yisrael synagogue situated there.
Accompanied by a convoy of the IDF, Wander said that for some reason the visit was not, as usual, coordinated with the PA and, yet when they arrived, they encountered no opposition or trouble!
Open the link below to read and watch more about this truly historic simcha in Yericho. https://www.israel365news.com/157893/joshua-captures-jericho-after-blowing-shofar-watch/
***Special thanks to Robin Ticker, Evelyn Haies, and Anna Adelstein for making the event a success!
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