Israelife Slideshow 2
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April 15, 2013
Boston hospitals scramble to care for wounded after blasts
At Boston Children's Hospital, the list of the wounded included a 2-year-old boy with a head injury, a 9-year-old girl with leg trauma and six other children under the age of 15.
Over at Massachusetts General Hospital, which was caring for 29 victims, injuries ranged from cuts and bruises to serious shrapnel wounds. Trauma surgeons said they had performed several amputations by mid-evening on Monday.
In total, three people lost their lives and more than 100 were injured when two bombs ripped through the crowd on a resplendent Monday afternoon at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, creating a gruesome scene of panic and carnage.
The explosions, which authorities said were 50 to 100 yards (45 to 90 metres) apart, knocked runners at one of the nation's most storied long-distance races off their feet and sent dozens of gravely injured spectators to the city's emergency rooms.
Images showed blood spattered along the street.
“It's really too easy to say how everyone is going to do,” said Peter Fagenholz, a trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General, who personally operated on six patients, none of them runners.
Boston Children's Hospital did not provide additional details about the children in its care. Most of the victims, who were sent to hospitals across Boston, have not yet been publicly identified by name.
Many runners were heading for the finish when a fireball and smoke rose from behind cheering spectators and a row of flags representing the countries of participants, video from the scene showed. The cheers turned to screams and panic.
Fagenholz said the most serious cases – none of them children – arrived at the hospital within the first 15 minutes. And while he said the injuries were not “other worldly,” the scale of the incident caught him off guard.
He said the oldest patient he cared for was 71 years old.
“We take care of accidents all the time. It's just depressing that this was intentional,” he said.
Fagenholz said many of the patients would have a difficult recovery.
“A number of patients will require repeat operation tomorrow and serial operations over the next couple of days,” he said. “People, they are pretty brave, you know. It's a terrible thing and most patients attitude is, do what you need to do and try to make me better.”
Reporting by Stephanie Simon; Writing by Edith Honan; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Eric Beech
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Jewish community ‘vigilant’ in the wake of Boston Marathon bombings
The head of the security network for U.S. Jewish organizations said the community is “standing vigilant” following bombings at the Boston Marathon.
Two people were killed and more than 30 injured in two blasts at the marathon on Monday, according to reports. One of the bombs exploded at the finish line.
“We know that unfortunately 30 percent of terrorist attacks had Jewish institutions as secondary targets,” said Paul Goldenberg, director of the Secure Community Network. “However, I must stress that there is absolutely nothing here that indicates any connection to an attack on the Jewish community. But based on history, we are standing vigilant for at least the next 48 hours.”
Police exploded at least one device in Boston that did not go off.
The identity of any perpetrators has not been discovered.
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How to Define Spirituality Part 2
By Adam Siegel
Last week, my colleague and friend Yeshaia Blakeney wrote about the challenge he frequently faces in trying to explain the nature of the spiritual counseling at Beit T’Shuvah (see How to Define Spirituality Part 2 Read More »
Israelis Likely to Keep Waiting in Long US Visa Lines in Sherman vs. Boxer
Los Angeles’ newly re-elected Congressman Brad Sherman's first bill introduced, House Resolution 300 or the Visa Waiver for Israel Act of 2013 is threatened on a new front in addition to earlier issues raised and answered in this blog by Congressman Sherman.
Sherman’s bill to enable Israelis to travel under a visa waiver program to the to the U.S.is endangered by Senator Boxer’s inclusion in the Senate version of the S.462 U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Act:
…Includes Israel in the visa waiver program when Israel satisfies such program's inclusion requirements and provides, subject to security concerns, reciprocal travel privileges for U.S. citizens.
That means, as explained by the JTA, a requirement that the Homeland Security secretary grant Israel visa waiver status after certifying with the secretary of state that Israel “has made every reasonable effort, without jeopardizing the security of the State of Israel, to ensure that reciprocal travel privileges are extended to all United States citizens.
As Ron Kampeas writes in the JTA:
A legislative effort led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to enable Israelis to enter the United States without visas may be stymied by the government – Israel’s government.
The hitch is Israel’s inability or unwillingness to fully reciprocate, something required for visa-free travel to the United States. Israel, citing security concerns, insists on the right to refuse entry to some U.S. citizens.
AIPAC is pushing for an exemption for Israel from this rule. But congressional staffers say Israel is unlikely to get such an exemption, which U.S. lawmakers view as an attempt to bar Arab Americans from freely entering Israel.
“It’s stunning that you would give a green light to another country to violate the civil liberties of Americans traveling abroad,” said a staffer for one leading pro-Israel lawmaker in the U.S. House of Representatives.
So Brad Sherman is finding himself stymied by Israel, AIPAC and Boxer on his first attempt at introducing a bill aimed at making life easier for Israelis and Americans. By inadvertently including Israeli Arabs and Arab Americans Arabs in the visa waiver benefits this has produced the blowback from the Israeli government, AIPAC and the more plugged-in Senator Barbara Boxer.
It would be a shame to lose the advantages of increased freedom of travel between the U.S. and Israel to what some perceive as the necessities of Fortress Israel and Fortress America.
Pini Herman, PhD. specializes in demographics, big data and predictive analysis, has served as Asst. Research Professor at the University of Southern California Dept. of Geography, Adjunct Lecturer at the USC School of Social Work, Research Director at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles following Bruce Phillips, PhD. in that position and is a past President of the Movable Minyan a lay-lead independent congregation in the 3rd Street area. Currently he is a principal of Phillips and Herman Demographic Research. To email Pini: pini00003@gmail.com To follow Pini on Twitter: Follow @pinih
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Two explosions hit Boston Marathon finish line, at least 2 killed
Two explosions hit the Boston Marathon as runners crossed the finish line on Monday, killing at least two people and injuring 23 on a day when tens of thousands of people pack the streets to watch one of the world's best known marathons.
Pictures from the scene showed blood stains on the ground and several people knocked down. Massachusetts General Hospital was treating victims of the explosion in its emergency room but information about their condition was not immediately available, a spokeswoman said.
Police reported at least one explosion and witnesses said there were two, which hit as spectators were cheering on people finishing the Boston Marathon, which was first run in 1897.
Reporters in the media center heard two blasts.
Boston police said two people were killed and 23 injured.
Scores of people, some bloody, wandered the streets around the finish line, though their numbers were thinning as police, some carrying heavy weaponry, tried to clear the area and a pungent smell hung in the air.
Mike Mitchell of Vancouver, Canada, a runner who had finished the race, said he was looking back at the finish line and saw a “massive explosion.”
Smoke rose 50 feet (15 metres) in the air, Mitchell said. People began running and screaming after hearing the noise, Mitchell said.
“Everybody freaked out,” Mitchell said.
Ambulances, fire trucks and dozens of police vehicles converged at the finish line.
U.S. President Barack Obama was notified and directed his administration to provide whatever assistance was necessary, the White House said.
“Blood everywhere, victims carried out on stretchers. I saw someone lose their leg, people are crying,” the Boston Globe's Steve Silva reported from the citing, the Globe said on Twitter.
Hundreds of thousands of spectators typically line the 26.2 mile (42.19 km) race course, with the heaviest crowds near the finish line. The blasts occurred more than five hours after the start of the race, at a time when most top athletes were off the course but slower amateur marathoners were still running.
The transit agency shut down all service to the area, citing police activity.
Ambulances arrived on the scene within minutes and runners and spectators could be seen crying and consoling each other.
The Boston Marathon has been held on Patriots Day, the third Monday of April, since 1897. The event, which starts in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and ends Boston's Copley Square, attracts an estimated half-million spectators and some 20,000 participants every year.
Earlier on Monday, Ethiopia's Lelisa Desisa and Kenya's Rita Jeptoo won the men's and women's events, continuing African runners' dominance in the sport.
The New York Police Department stepped up security around landmarks in Manhattan, including near prominent hotels, in response reports out of Boston, said Paul Browne, deputy commissioner of the NYPD.
New York police were redeploying counterterrorism vehicles around the city, Browne said.
Reporting by Scott Malone, Tim McLaughlin, Edith Honan, Frank McGurty and Mark Hosenball; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Grant McCool
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Stars of David ripped from Jewish tombstones in Milan
More than a dozen tombstones at the Jewish section of Milan's main cemetery were vandalized.
Vandals over the weekend tore off Stars of David decorating some 13 tombstones. Police in the northern Italian city are investigating.
The Milan Jewish community spokesman said it was too soon to tell whether anti-Semitism or “simple theft” was behind the vandalism. Thieves are known to steal metal decorative elements from cemeteries to melt down or sell as scrap.
Milan Mayor Giuliano Pisapia said he “forcefully condemned” the vandalism.
“For my part, I express solidarity to the families and to the entire Jewish community,” he said in a statement. “Every act of violence, every act of lack of respect, toward whatever religion or community, is a stain that must find the unanimous condemnation of the entire city.”
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Canadian university student union strips funding of anti-Israel group
The University of Manitoba Students' Union voted to strip funding and official club status from an anti-Israel group on campus.
The April 11 vote concerning Students Against Israeli Apartheid, or SAIA, went against legal advice and bucked the trend among other student councils at Canadian universities that in recent months have voted to divest from Israel.
Following the 19-15 vote, SAIA is prohibited from receiving funding from the student union or using student union facilities for club activities.
The resolution references the Manitoba Human Rights Code and accuses the club of “discrimination” and “harassment.”
Prior to the vote, the student union's attorney issued an opinion reading in part that “the actions of SAIA were well within the grounds of legally protected and acceptable political discourse.” The legal opinion warned that barring the group could expose the student union to legal liability, according to the National Post.
SAIA has branches on several Canadian campuses and organizes the annual Israel Apartheid Week. Supporters of SAIA have said they will fight the decision by the student union at the Winnipeg university.
“We are shocked that UMSU would ban Students Against Israeli Apartheid without any evidence or basis for the accusations brought forward in the motion,” said spokeswoman Liz Carlyle in a statement released by the Winnipeg Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid.
B’nai B’rith Canada hailed the vote as “precedent setting” and called for other universities to follow suit.
Not all Canadian backers of Israel supported the move. Ezra Levant, a conservative television commentator and outspoken supporter of Israel, condemned SAIA, but warned that the vote set a dangerous precedent on campuses and made the anti-Israel group look like the victim.
Josh Morry, a student union member, was behind the resolution. He said SAIA's events were making Jewish students feel uncomfortable.
“I didn't have to prove that Israel Apartheid Week has actually incited hatred, but that it is likely to undermine the dignity or self-esteem of students on campus who are Zionists,” Morry told the Jewish Review.
The University of Manitoba student union’s decision comes after the student council at York University endorsed the boycott movement against Israel several weeks ago. In the fall, the graduate student unions at York, the University of Toronto and Concordia University in Montreal also passed resolutions advocating for a boycott of Israel.
The University of Manitoba has approximately 28,000 students.
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Facebook Family Photo Album Time (or A Rant On Why I Now Hate Facebook)
I used to love Facebook. Of course, I would have never admitted it. But the truth is, up until about 2010, Facebook was mainly a website for young people. Young people doing stupid things. And it was glorious. But now, I can't stand it. Now, all it is is one big family photo album full of weddings and babies all the time and I'm so bored with it I can barely bring myself to go on.
A new” target=”_blank”>www.tamarashaynekagel.com and follow her on twitter Facebook Family Photo Album Time (or A Rant On Why I Now Hate Facebook) Read More »
In their memory…
Something quite extraordinary happened last night: 25,578 stars shined bright. All together, all of a sudden. It was in the middle of my town square, as thousands of citizens shared an hour of remembrance and respect for 25,578 Fallen Israeli Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism. We all stood there together, shoulder to shoulder, and listened to names being read, stories being told and candles being lit. It was so cramped I could feel the people behind, in front, and next to me breathing. At times, I could hear someone break into tears, as others embrace him or her, supporting, physically and mentally. When the cantor started chanting the El Male' Rachamin (“God, abounding in mercy”) prayer, I looked to the sky, and noticed how all the stars turned brighter and sparkled like never before. It was them, our heroes. Still watching, still guarding, still young and smiling, just like in the pictures we see.
On this day, our Memorial Day, we are all together. On this day it seems, more than ever, like all of Israel are brothers and sisters. On this day, we all salute the young boys and girls who died while protecting Israel and Israelis from the enemies who try to take us down, over and over again, since 1948. Every year, more names appear on the memorial wall. More names who were once people, who could have lived a full life if it wasn't for our everlasting battle for our home.
The Israeli soldiers, who lost their lives in wars since 1948 to this very day, took the bullet for my family and me, so we could sleep at night. Some were 18 year olds, young men and women who just finished high-school and were getting ready to begin their lives. Others were older people with families who were called to serve again, just for the war-time. When thinking about those veterans, there is no left wing or right wing. Sometimes it doesn't matter whether deaths were in vain or for a higher cause. The only thing that matters is the loss, and the support we can provide for the families who experience this loss for another 364 days.
Everything is different that day: the radio only plays quiet songs, the television broadcasts Memorial Day specials and most of the stores are closed. Every working place, campus, military base and school, conducts a ceremony, and a national ceremony is held in Jerusalem. On 11am, everyone stops everything they're doing, and we all bow our heads in a 2 minute long siren, heard all over the country. But it is not just the official atmosphere which is different; it's also what each and every one of us feels inside. None of us pretends, and it is not a façade- it is real. We are all Israelis, and we share that Israeli experience every day. We all know each other, and we all share the grief with the families who lost their loved ones. For one day, all citizens of Israel share that loss with them, and show the proper respect for those who fought for our right to continue to live here, and for those who did nothing but living, and were killed by suicide terrorists for no reason.
Tomorrow, we will celebrate our 65th Independence Day. Many are against placing the saddest day of the year only a few hours before the happiest one. They say it is not right to abruptly switch grief with joy. For some, this transition is impossible, and for years they skipped the Independence Day celebration. I am not sure what I think of that, but I do know one thing: Israel has turned 65 on Tuesday thanks to the 25,578 stars which are now shining bright in the sky. For 65 years, we feel protected and safe thanks to those stars, and we owe our lives to them.
I read this sentence I just wrote, and can't believe the words. Israel has been a state for 65 years now, and for some reason, it still fights for its existence. How can this be? How did it happen? Can you imagine still needing to fight for your home? It is absurd, but somehow it is just the way things have been here for 65 years now.
Every year, those who recruit to the IDF carry the same prayer in their hearts: May my children will not need to recruit, may we have no need in the IDF in the future…My parents said this prayer 30 yeas ago, I said it four years ago, and my brother said it a year and a half ago. Now all I can pray for is that this long chain of prayers will finally stop. That there will be no more deaths for the sake of our people and for the sake of our home. That we could all finally live in peace, here and in the area.
In memory of those who are no longer with us, who, like flowers, were picked up in their bloom, I light a candle. For their family members, I salute you. May they all rest in peace and may there be no more early deaths.