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1. Father & Daughter Nearly Lynched in Wadi Joz
by Maayana Miskin
Yitzchak Levi has accused Jerusalem police of apathy in the face of an Arab attack that could have ended in death.
Levi, an artist who was one of the designers of the parochet (Holy Ark curtain) for the rebuilt Hurva synagogue, says that he, a colleague, and his baby daughter were attacked while driving through a neighborhood in the capital city. He recalled the attack in an interview with Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language news service.
The incident took place on Friday, after Levi had visited the Hurva. As streets in the Old City were crowded, Levi decided to take a detour through Emek Yehoshafat (Wadi Joz), a primarily Arab neighborhood just north of the Old City's Herod Gate. It “is considered a calm area,” he said.
"Suddenly, about 100 Arab rioters attacked us with a barrage of hundreds of rocks,” he recalled. “The car was warped by the blows, and then a boulder hit the front windshield and smashed it.”
Levi's 18-month-old daughter was sitting in the back seat of the car, asleep in her carseat. The noise woke her. Fortunately, Levi said, she was only lightly injured, and suffered “just a few scratches.”
"We were afraid they were going to lynch us,” Levi said. “They approached until they were right next to us, which meant the rocks were not thrown so hard, but even so, they smashed all the windows.”
"I felt like they were going to slaughter us,” he added.
Levi managed to escape by screaming for help, which distracted the attackers for several seconds – long enough to allow him to slam on the gas and speed away.
Levi managed to reach police stationed nearby. There, he said, he was shocked at the officers' indifference. “The police were totally calm, as if this were a normal event... They were apathetic when they saw us,” he accused.
"I took my daughter out to see if she had been hurt, and out of dozens of officers just one came over and said, 'Did something happen to the girl?' in an apathetic tone,” he continued. “I told him to look at what had happened to us, so he would wake up. They saw the car but didn't do anything.”
"Apparently they think it's reasonable for Jews to be pelted with stones...” he concluded in frustration.
The police suggested that he drive to a police station in a nearby Arab neighborhood to file a complaint. Levi, who feared another attack if he were to drive into an Arab neighborhood again, decided to file a complaint in the station in the Russian Compound instead.
Emek Yehoshafat, the Valley of Jehoshafat, is where the nations will be brought for judgment, according to the Prophet Yoel(Joel), chap 4. It is incorrectly called Wadi Joz by the Arabs who mispronounced the name and shortened it. Located between Mount Scopus and the Herod Gate in the Old City walls, it is the site of the Rockefeller Museum of Antiquities and a center for car repairs. It is normally considered a safe neighborhood, but this could be a sign of things to come, Levi warned. “Wadi Joz is a place where people used to go to fix their cars, to chat... and yet this happened there. People shouldn't be surprised if tomorrow this happens in other 'calm' places,” he said.
2. IAF Blasts Gaza Smuggling Tunnel
by Maayana Miskin
Israel Air Force planes blasted a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border early on Monday morning. The strike was carried out in response to the recent wave of rocket attacks from Gaza. Gaza terrorists fired five rockets at southern Israel on Saturday and Sunday, and last week, an attack on Netiv HaAsarah killed a Thai worker.
An IDF spokesman said the strike was successful, and the planes involved returned safely.
"The IDF will not put up with attempts to harm the citizens of Israel or IDF soldiers, and will continue to act with strength and determination against any entity using terrorism against the state of Israel,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman added that Israel sees Hamas as responsible for the rocket fire, because of its role leading the de facto government in Gaza. Hamas has not claimed responsibility for the most recent rocket attacks, which appear to have been carried out by Fatah and Islamic Jihad.
Users of a Fatah Internet forum claimed recently that Hamas has been enlisting Gazan families living near the border with Israel to help them prevent Fatah from firing rockets at southern Israel. The families report sightings of Fatah rocket launching cells, and in return receive payments, cell phones, weapons, and Hamas protection.
3. Former Obama Aide New Head of AIPAC
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Lee “Rosy” Rosenberg, a jazz recording industry veteran capitalist who accompanied U.S. President Barack Obama on his campaign trip to Israel two years ago, takes over on Sunday as the new president of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Rosenberg also served on the president’s national campaign finance committee.
The new AIPAC president hails from Chicago, the home state of President Obama, and also is on first-name terms with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, President Obama’s senior advisor.
Steve Rosen, a former 23-year, high-ranking AIPAC official, told the Chicago Tribune, “I don't think AIPAC has made any secret of the reality that his friendship with the president played a role in Rosy's rise. He's a guy who works very hard at fundraising [and] in the political arena. It was not as if he was plucked out of nowhere. He paid his dues. But I'm sure nobody was blind to the fact that he's from Chicago.“
Rosenberg is known as an expert in bringing in big money from powerful people who generally are not outwardly committed to Israel.
AIPAC claims more than 100,000 members and is considered the most powerful Jewish lobby in Washington. It opens its annual three-day conference Sunday and will hear addresses from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Their relationship has been sorely tested the past two weeks because of American and Arab opposition to Israel’s building for Jews in long-established Jewish neighborhoods in parts of Jerusalem that were resorted to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967.
“The fact that he [Rosenberg] and the president have had a relationship helps now,” Illinois Democrat Rep. Mike Quigley told the Tribune.
Rosenberg’s ventures have included real estate, a music recording company, and high-tech startups and investing in jazz documentaries.
He replaces Michigan-based David Victor, who recently signed an AIPAC letter asking Congress to “demand” that the Obama administration "enforce existing sanctions law and impose crippling new sanctions on Iran."
4. Rally to Demand Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount
by Hillel Fendel
After days of waiting, organizers of a “freedom of worship” rally for Jews on the Temple Mount have finally received police approval. It will be held Tuesday evening in downtown Jerusalem.
Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick has announced that the rally will be held at 6 PM at the Mashbir Plaza on King George St., under the banner, “The Time for our Freedom has Arrived.”
“We will call for freedom of worship throughout the Temple Mount,” Glick said, “- even for Jews.”
Flyers for the rally state, “In its response to the Supreme Court regarding our demand to pray on the Temple Mount, the State representatives wrote that freedom of worship is not prevented there, but that they are ‘concerned’ about the ‘security ramifications.’ This means that the State is admitting that it is giving in to terrorism! Caving in to terrorism is a danger to democracy!”
The organizers had originally asked that the rally be held close to the Temple Mount, but “we agreed to the police request to relocate it because of the recent Arab disturbances. We hope the police will remember this in the future.”
The organizers further demand to be able to celebrate this coming Passover holiday on the site of the Holy Temple by being allowed to offer the Paschal sacrifice. One Halakhic [Jewish legal] approach over the generations is that this would be permitted, even under the present circumstances and without a Temple.
To emphasize their desire, the organizers call on participants to bring sheep and goats to the protest.
5. State: Passover Sacrifice Would Provoke Muslims
by Maayana Miskin
State attorneys asked Sunday for the Supreme Court to forbid Jews to bring sacrifices on the Temple Mount. The appeal to the court was a response to a petition from the Temple Mount Institute, which requested permission to bring a sacrifice on the Temple Mount prior to Passover.
The Temple Mount Institute argued that Jews are commanded to bring a sacrifice prior to Passover, and that by prohibiting them from doing so, the state was violating its own laws protecting freedom of worship.
State attorneys argued that the sacrifice would be a dangerous provocation of Muslim sensitivities. “Performing the ritual on the Temple Mount would deal a severe blow to public safety and security,” they said.
The sacrifice would be dangerous “particularly at the current time,” they said, apparently in reference to recent Muslim riots over the dedication of the rebuilt Hurva synagogue in Jerusalem's Old City. Muslim and Palestinian Authority leaders incited their followers to violence, claiming that the rededication of the synagogue was part of a Jewish plan to seize control of the Temple Mount.
In past years, the Supreme Court ruled that Jews may not offer sacrifices on the Temple Mount due to the possibility of a violent Muslim response. The Temple Mount Institute has performed an educational demonstration of the Passover sacrifice instead.
6. First Sabbath at the Hurva: Then and Now
by Hillel Fendel
First time in 62 years: Hundreds gathered for Sabbath prayers at the renewed, majestic Hurva synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Puah Shteiner, who spent her early years in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter and was exiled as a little girl when Jordan captured and largely destroyed the area, was one of hundreds who returned to the newly-rebuilt Hurva Synagogue this Sabbath for an emotionally charged, historic experience. She and her husband Rabbi Chaim Shteiner, a leading rabbi at Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, were one of the first Jewish couples to move into the refurbished Old City quarter following the Six Day War in 1967.
“We truly felt that the rebuilding of this synagogue for the third time means that we are now ready for the third rebuilding of the Holy Temple,” each of them separately told Israel National News.
They are not the first to make the connection. Some 200 years ago, about a century after the synagogue was destroyed for the first time, newly-arrived students of the Vilna Gaon in Jerusalem began rebuilding it – after their saintly and renowned teacher taught them that that would be part of the Redemption process.
Mrs. Shteiner, who wrote a book [translated into English as “Forever My Jerusalem] about her childhood in the Old City with her father, the saintly Rabbi Shlomo Min-HaHar, said, “I spent the years 1945-48 here in the Old City, and I remember walking with my father and my older sister to pray in the Hurva synagogue. It was more pleasant than praying at the Western Wall [whose “plaza” at the time was only a few feet wide – ed.], where the Arabs were always pushing and shoving us, and the British didn’t exactly take our side - but at the Hurva we felt at home. It was the central synagogue of Jerusalem in those times; it was very beautiful and very tall. The commemorative arch that was built [in 1977] was only about 2/3 as high as the original height…”
Blue Ceiling, White Stars
Puah said that though the new building is very beautiful, “it’s missing the ceiling that I remember. It was a deep blue ceiling, with stars; I remember looking up and thinking that there was no ceiling at all, but rather just the heavens. Others remembered it the same way… But now there is just a white ceiling, though with a beautiful painting in each of the four corners…”
Another Rung
Mrs. Shteiner said that she followed the construction as it proceeded – “we live right across the street… I didn’t expect to be as emotional about it when it was completed, but in the end, I was truly drawn into it – especially on the day they brought in the Torah scrolls; there were so many people, and everyone was truly excited, and I was walking together with my older sister; it was a very special moment… We really felt that we had ascended another rung in the ladder of Redemption.”
The prayers this past Sabbath drew people from all over the city, including the Dean of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, and the co-founder of Yeshivat Birkat Moshe in Maaleh Adumim, Rabbi Yitzchak Shilat. “There were women there of all religious stripes – in fact, the women’s section is a bit small,” Mrs. Shteiner said. “It holds only about 60 women, as it did until 1948. Apparently the designers didn’t take into account that more women go to synagogue now than did then…” The men’s section has 200 seats.
Day-to-Day
The prayers will be held according to Ashkenazi custom, in accordance with the long-standing tradition at the Hurva. Rabbi Simcha HaCohen Kook, Chief Rabbi of Rehovot and grand-nephew of the saintly Rabbi Avraham Yitzhcak Kook, will be the synagogue's rabbi. He delivered a special address there in the afternoon.
Day-to-day operations will be handled by a group associated with the Zilberman yeshiva in the Old City; the prayers for the State of Israel and the IDF will be recited every Sabbath.
For the next several weeks, the synagogue will be open daily only for prayers – 7:45 AM and 5:30 PM – but shortly after Passover, it will be open daily for visitors. ‘Women from all over the Jewish Quarter arrived on Friday night,” Mrs. Shteiner said. “It was truly a joyous occasion for all, no matter what religious outlook. Some women came up to me and wished me Mazel Tov…”
Rabbi Shteiner
Rabbi Chaim Shteiner, who also remembers walking to see the Hurva with his father occasionally – he lived in the new city – said, “The building is absolutely beautiful, even if it’s not a perfect replica… The Holy Ark is truly magnificent, even more so than the one in Yeshivat Ponovezh [in Bnei Brak]… All in all, the rebuilding of the new Hurva synagogue gives a sense of impending Redemption.”
Synagogue Shares Joy of New Couple
In its first week of operation, the synagogue has already seen its share of joyous occasions. In addition to two britot (ritual circumcisions), a young couple – an American who made Aliyah without his family and is now serving in the army, and a girl of Ethiopian extraction – was married there this past Tuesday night. Because of their paucity of both relatives and means, they originally feared that their nuptials would be little more than a brief ceremony – but in the end, they "chanced" upon the Hurva on the day it was dedicated, and were treated to a large and joyous wedding with hundreds of people, musicians from the dedication ceremony, and food donated by a local restaurant. As the Sages teach, "Whoever brings joy to a bride and groom is as if he has rebuilt one of the ruins of Jerusalem" – and, apparently, vice versa.
7. Supreme Court Accused of Delaying Justice for 'Freeze' Victims
by Maayana Miskin
The Land of Israel Legal Forum has accused the Supreme Court of dragging out proceedings on two petitions regarding the Judea and Samaria construction freeze. By lengthening the process, Forum members say, the court has given the state time to continue destroying Jewish-built structures.
The government agreed four months ago to halt, for ten months, all construction in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, in an attempt to coax the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table. The building "freeze" has had serious financial ramifications for construction companies, those who purchased homes, and others.
The Legal Forum filed a petition arguing that the building freeze is illegal, and asking that the government be required to compensate those who suffered financial damages due to sudden ban on construction. However, the court “wants to avoid giving a verdict regarding compensation,” Legal Forum attorney Motti Mintzer said Monday. The petition was submitted immediately after the building freeze became official, he noted.
In a parallel effort, the Land of Israel Legal Forum worked with MKs Danny Danon and Uri Ariel to create an agreement on compensation payments for direct victims of the freeze, final details of which have not been worked out.
In addition, Mintzer filed a petition on behalf of several individuals whose homes in Judea and Samaria are slated for demolition.
While the court delays its decision on that petition, the State continues to demolish the homes, he said. “We requested an interim injunction, to halt the destruction of properties mentioned in the petition,” he said. “The court has not responded, and is playing games... The court gave the state 30 days to respond. Then it asked us for a response, which we gave immediately. A month and a half has gone by without a response from the Supreme Court.”
“This delay of justice is worse than a distortion of justice,” Mintzer said. He has supplied the court with evidence of demolitions that continue to take place despite the ongoing trial, he said, but the court did not order the state to explain its actions or halt the demolitions until a verdict is given.
The Supreme Court is not necessarily working with the state, he said. However, he said, “This court has an agenda, and in the current conditions they prefer not to give a verdict.”
The Compensation Suit
The Judea and Samaria building freeze has had a financial “domino effect,” Mintzer said in explanation of the Legal Forum compensation suit. “There is a chain reaction. Renters were supposed to move into apartments, which were supposed to be empty” after their current residents had moved on to permanent homes, he said. “There is a domino effect, and indirect damages adding up to hundreds of millions of shekels.”
The government has shown readiness to compensate those directly harmed by the building freeze under the Danon-Ariel arrangement, Mintzer said. However, he said, the state has not offered compensation to indirect victims, such as those whose banks rescinded mortgage offers due to the freeze.
