Grandma's army

Like everything else about the Jews, probably there is not a people in the world who have a national anthem which has gone through so many countries, and versions of its origins.  It’s been wandering around for centuries,  until finally coming to rest in Palestine at the end of the 19th century. The real story of Hatikvah mirrors the story of the Jewish people – complex, convoluted, controversial.   An ardent Zionist, Naphtali Imber moved to the land of Israel in 1882, and in 1886, he published his first book of poems in Jerusalem, which included “Tikvateinu” (our Hope). His passionate poem strongly expresses the ancient hope of the Jewish people to return and reclaim their ancient homeland. It was adopted as the anthem of the “Lovers of Zion”, and later of the Zionist Movement at the First Zionist Congress in 1897. In its current version,  Hatikvah  incorporates only the first stanza from the original poem. The remaining stanzas focus on the establis...

World War II was different from any other military campaign - it was actually two wars running on parallel lines. One was with the usual objective of conquering territory. The other objective was a war of worldwide liquidation of   the Jews. In fact, Hitler was so obsessed by hatred that his last anti-Semitic tirade was written in his will, right before putting the pistol to his head! Three weeks in the summer is an annual period of mourning for many Jews. It begins on the day when the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans in 69 BCE, and concludes when both Temples were destroyed. It is the saddest day of the Jewish calendar, and incorporates many other tragedies  that happened to the Jews at the same time of the year. Fasting during the last day of this period (this coming Sunday), the book of Lamentations is read in the darkened synagogues. Although the events described above happened over 2,000 years ago, the book of Lamentations, which is part of...