Grandma's army

One of my grandsons just successfully completed his officer’s course and his whole immediate family - plus sundry other family members -   attended the impressive and moving closing ceremony. He will now be one of the two commanding officers of his special commando brigade – at the ripe old age of 22! At the same time, another of my grandsons is finishing his army career, after serving as the deputy commander of the commando brigade in which he began his service - making  four years and eight months altogether.    He waited until fulfilling his army duty to the end, before informing the family of his engagement to his long-time girlfriend. He is already 25 and   only now will be beginning life as a married civilian, with no profession. However, an arduous army career has helped him acquire confidence, self-esteem and belief in his ability to face life’s challenges.          As part of my extended family – o...

When they had no country of their own, and at the  mercy of their host countries - the Jews were, by far, the most dispossessed people on earth. It is no wonder they are known as “the wandering Jews”. The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchman. 13 million people were uprooted from India in the 1947 partition – to name a few examples. When, as a tiny country Israel gained independence in 1948, it had to absorb 850,000 Jews who were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and progroms.  These refugees had to leave all their property and belongings behind. Entire Jewish communities were wiped out; almost an ethnic cleansing. Centuries of religious customs, traditions, and culture vanished from...

Pandora was the first human woman in Greek mythology. She was entrusted with a jar, on condition that it remained closed. When her curiosity got the better of her and she opened it, all the world’s sorrows, plagues, etc. escaped. When she managed to close it - only hope remained. Pandora was the first human woman in Greek mythology. She was entrusted with a jar on condition that it remained closed. When her curiosity got the better of her and she opened it, all the world’s sorrows, plagues, etc. escaped. When she managed to close it - only hope remained. Hope is an existential necessity in a life clouded by uncertainty. I believe hope is what enables the survival of the Jewish people. Without hope for a better future, how could a people suffer the unbearable “present” throughout the ages, whether it was programs, exile, persecution, genocide. The stories comprising the narrative of the Jewish people as written in the Pentateuch, invariably show an unforeseen futu...