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Jewish Journal

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October 17, 2023

IDF Blames Islamic Jihad for Rocket That Hit Gaza Hospital

Israel, News /

The Israel Defense Force (IDF) claimed a rocket that struck the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday was a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group.

Various media outlets had initially reported that the strike, which resulted in hundreds killed, was from an IDF missile. The IDF has since claimed that their analysis concluded that “an enemy rocket barrage was carried out towards Israel, which passed through the vicinity of the hospital when it was hit. According to intelligence information, from several sources we have, the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is responsible for the failed shooting that hit the hospital.”

Additionally, Israel’s official account on X, formerly known as Twitter, noted that Al Jazeera “documented the moment that the Islamic Jihad launched a rocket which misfired and hit a hospital in Gaza, killing hundreds.”

The IDF also posted raw footage purportedly showing the misfired rocket from Gaza.

IDF Spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus posted on X that the IDF does “not target hospitals.”

Additionally, The Times of Israel reported that there are multiple videos purportedly showing “the moment the rocket fell short and exploded inside the Palestinian territory on Tuesday” and that “experts on X” were able to geolocate the Al Jazeera video “to the hospital.”

PIJ is reportedly denying responsibility for the hospital strike, calling the IDF’s allegations “false and baseless,” per Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X, “The entire world should know: It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF. Those who brutally murdered our children also murder their own children.”

The IDF called out media outlets for being “quick to run Hamas’ headlines — without fact checking. We now know that an Islamic Jihad rocket aimed at Israel misfired and hit the hospital in Gaza.” The IDF post shared screenshots of headlines from CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, BBC, The New York Times, Al Jazeera English, Associated Press (AP) and The Los Angeles Times.

Most of these media outlets have not deleted their initial posts reporting that the IDF was behind the strike, information they attributed to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Later reports noted the IDF’s claim.

Al Jazeera English, however, seemingly continues to refer to the incident as an “Israeli air strike.”

The Israel War Room X account also accused The New York Times of “stealth-editing your headlines to cover your lies” on the story. “Maybe don’t take terrorists at their word next time.”

But the initial reporting that the IDF was behind the strike has made its way to elected officials and human rights NGOs. Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) repeated the claim in posts on X urging President Joe Biden (D) to lobby for a ceasefire. As of press time, neither Tlaib nor Omar have directly acknowledged the IDF’s conclusion on X, although Tlaib did later post that “Netanyahu has lied to the public before.” Omar also reposted MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin telling journalists to “take official Israeli statements with a healthy dose of skepticism when reporting on what happens inside Gaza.”

Similarly, Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, posted on X that the hospital strike was “the cost of the [United States’] and [European Union’s] unreserved support for Israel: more civilians killed; more war crimes; more, more, more.” She has not acknowledged the IDF’s conclusion to the contrary on X.

A spokesperson for Amnesty International told the Journal, “On the evening of 17 October, Amnesty International’s Secretary General posted on X noting that hundreds of people had reportedly been killed at the Baptist Hospital al-Ahli in Gaza. She made no attribution to any parties or individuals in relation to the explosion in her post. Amnesty International is investigating the incident at the hospital in Gaza City to ensure that those responsible are held to account.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog skewered the media in a post on X, writing: “Shame on the media who swallow the lies of Hamas and Islamic Jihad — broadcasting a 21st century blood libel around the globe. Shame on the vile terrorists in Gaza who [willfully] spill the blood of the innocent. Never before has the choice been clearer. Israel is standing against an enemy made of pure evil. If you stand for humanity — for the value of all human life — you stand with Israel.”

Others lambasted the initial reporting of the IDF being behind the hospital strike. “Hamas just pulled a fast one on journalists around the world,” the American Jewish Committee posted on X. “They lied. Terrorists in Gaza misfired a rocket meant to kill Israeli civilians. They struck a hospital in Gaza instead. Hamas lies. Gazans die.”

“Now we know it was actually [a] Palestinian Islamic [Jihad] rocket that hit the hospital in #Gaza, every single media outlet, lawmaker, diplomat and NGO that rushed to condemn Israel in this vile blood libel, ought to immediately retract and apologize!” International Legal Forum CEO Arsen Ostrovsky posted on X.

Richard Goldberg, senior adviser to the think tank Foundation of Defense Democracies, posted: “If [the] IDF assessment [is] correct, every single news outlet should retract immediately and issue apologies. An attempted blood libel carried out by western media 10 days after the massacre. New standards needed ASAP from top executives across all outlets. This CANNOT continue.”

A spokesperson for the AP told the Journal that their initial tweet on the matter was “attributed to the Gaza Health Ministry” and that they included the IDF’s claim in a subsequent tweet. A spokesperson for The New York Times told the Journal that they had no comment outside of their live briefing description that stated, “The Gazan health authorities said the blast had been caused by an Israeli airstrike; the Israel Defense Forces said it was caused by a rocket fired by a Palestinian armed group that malfunctioned after launching. Neither assertion could be immediately verified.” The New York Times spokesperson also noted that “the initial tweet was attributed to Palestinian authorities in Gaza.”

A spokesperson for CNN told the Journal, “We updated the story with Israel’s response once we had it, and we also had [Senior Adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister] Mark Regev on our air giving Israel’s perspective shortly after the blast. Our reporting has been clearly attributed throughout this developing story.” The CNN spokesperson added that “an hour after the first tweet, we also tweeted the IDF’s denial,” pointing the Journal to this tweet.

The Journal’s requests for comment to Omar’s office, Tlaib’s office, Reuters, The Los Angeles Times, BBC, Wall Street Journal and Al Jazeera English have not been returned by press time.

UPDATE:  Biden said on Wednesday that Defense Department intelligence shows that the hospital explosion was likely caused “by the other team,” not the Israelis.

Also on Wednesday, the IDF released a recording purportedly featuring Hamas terrorists discussing the failed PIJ rocket launch. The IDF also released drone footage showing that the rocket landed in the parking lot of the hospital rather than the hospital itself. The Times of Israel noted that “the lack of a crater” from the explosion “indicates that the source of the blast was not an IDF strike.”

IDF Blames Islamic Jihad for Rocket That Hit Gaza Hospital Read More »

The Death of Hope With War in Israel, Chaos in Gaza

Commentary, Opinion /

It is folly. But it is the kind of folly that has defined this conflict, defying common sense and good intentions for 50 years.

The Gaza Strip is one of the most hopeless places I have ever been in my life.

Most of us will never step foot there, but if you’ve been, you won’t forget it. The corrugated tin roofs perched on rickety huts that people call home in the sprawling refugee camps. The open sewage. The poorly paved roads. The lack of basic infrastructure. The undernourished children.

But most of all there is the despair and anger in the eyes of adults, that always seems close to the surface. I was there as a young reporter in the late 1980s and again in the 1990s as violence flared anew. That persists today, as the attack on Israel that broke out this weekend made clear.

What is so striking, tragic in fact, is the obvious reality that Gaza could be a gem. This strip of land crowded with 2 million people — many still categorized as refugees five decades after the conflict in question — sits along the Mediterranean Sea, where it’s easy to envision a thriving port. A fishing industry. Resorts with beautiful beaches and tourism. An international airport.

None of that has ever happened for Gaza.

Instead, the current Islamic authoritarian government — Hamas (officially categorized as a terrorist organization by the United States) — spends its limited resources on other matters. On Saturday, it mustered its strength and treasure and focus to launch an attack on Israeli civilians. To slaughter 260 young people attending a music festival in the desert. To hunt down families on farms and kill them in their homes. To – if early reports are to be believed – rape women. To take more than 100 hostages, including the elderly, people with dementia, tiny children.

The mind reels at the barbarism on display, and true to horrific form, celebrated in some Palestinian quarters and, officially, in Iran. Also at the hopelessness of the gesture, because Hamas cannot vanquish Israel, of course. Cannot eliminate the Jewish state, as is its stated intention. And its attack only invites retaliation by one of the best equipped armies in the world.

As the Al-Jazeera anchor asked an Israeli expert on its air on Saturday: “How humiliated are Israelis right now?” As if that was the point.

It is folly, in fact. But it is the kind of folly that has defined this conflict, defying common sense and good intentions for 50 years and a dozen administrations.

This is an action that will live in infamy, and stain the Palestinian cause yet again. It will probably spell the end of Hamas, as Israel will not rest until it has eliminated every member of this organization that so brutally attacked its civilians. This new cycle of violence, after so many cycles before it, will – I fear – convince the last pie-eyed optimists that peace is not possible between Israel and Gaza.

You cannot begin to understand this one action without understanding the hubris, greed and entrenched emotion around what belongs to whom; whose victimhood is more virtuous; and what injustice is the real injustice.

I began my journalism career with the hope of understanding, and then explaining and telling both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I studied Hebrew, then Arabic, and jumped into the then-Palestinian territories (now Palestine) to seek to understand the root of the problem. If the world could see for themselves, if the stories could be told, I thought, a reasonable outcome would happen.

But it’s not a communication problem, it turns out. It’s a political problem by people who do not want to solve it. This was true for too many years for Yasser Arafat. It is true for Hamas.

In the ensuing decades, Israel has shifted from spunky underdog in the minds of many, to flawed regional power, to evil oppressor. None of those identities are right. Israel is complicated and full of disappointments, an exercise in the dastardly human condition.

But Hamas – I can’t find the gray there. They mirror the nihilism of Al-Qaeda, ISIS and the like. They have shown their colors.

My 89-year-old father is in Israel, visiting with my older brother and his family for the Jewish holidays. I am not that worried about them; they are in the middle of the country.

Instead, I worry for the death of hope. I mourn for the dead and wounded, for the kidnapped, the tortured. And I mourn for the suffering that will be visited on so many Palestinians who have no control over their own destiny. I mourn for the despair in the hearts of so many who would dream of peaceful coexistence.

This piece was originally published in The Wrap, and is republished with permission.

The Death of Hope With War in Israel, Chaos in Gaza Read More »

The Nazis Are Back

Commentary, Opinion /

The current war in Israel brings a new urgency to questions of the fate of Jewish children as targets of genocide. History repeats itself today on Israeli soil: Jews are being killed as Jews. Following the terrorist, antisemitic, racist attacks by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and their collaborators on innocent civilians we are forced as experts on violence against children to call these actions by name.

A genocide “means … to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group“ (UN). We emphasize that it is obvious from the death toll that Jewish children have now become targets of murder and abuse just like in the Nazi era.

The Nazi elite implemented its genocidal policy onto Jewish children. Their favorite vocabulary included “judenrein,” which means “clean” or free of Jews. Free of Jews means free of Jewish children. This freedom meant killings, massacres, extermination, abuse, torture. Jewish children had to run for their lives. The numbers are only estimates and well known: 1.5 million children were murdered in the Holocaust. “The Germans as you know, hate Jewish children,” said 10-year-old child survivor Sara Lajbowicz in Poland in 1945

Historical Background

Following the victory over the Nazis it became obvious that only a small number of Jewish children had endured the widespread Nazi camp system, round-ups and mass killings all over Europe in hiding—with foreign families, in monasteries, in partisan units or in the Soviet Union. They were the victims of a unique atrocity against the Jewish child. The Nazis carried specific murder actions against Jewish children. In ghettos they proclaimed “children´s actions,” which were manhunts, and they boasted about doing their duty. Nazi stakeholders from the leadership elite, such as Heinrich Himmler in October 1943 in Posen, declared their specific aims to murder Jewish children so that they could not come back and take revenge. And Rudolf Höss, commandant in Auschwitz, wrote in his in his postwar memories: “The destruction of Judaism was necessary to free Germany, to free our descendants for all time from the toughest adversaries.”

To Jews under Nazi rule it became obvious that they targeted Jewish children specifically. Emanuel Ringelblum, Jewish historian and chronicler of the Warsaw ghetto, wrote in 1942:

“Constantly we receive testimonies of the murder of Jewish children and elders. … Of course, the intention here is not just any field, but simply the extermination of young people. … Except for the pharaoh who ordered the sons to be thrown into the Nile River, we know of no other similar case. On the contrary, they always left the children alive to give them to Christianity. Even in the darkest ages, in the middle ages, there was a spark of humanity in the rough hearts of the barbarians who, in general, forgave the lives of babies. However, this did not happen with the Nazi animal that devoured precisely the most beloved, which awakens the greatest of mercies—the innocent children.”

The Voice of the Children

The testimonies of the tiny number of Jewish children given right after the Holocaust tell us of their harrowing experiences. They brutally had to learn that Jews were killed because they were Jews. They starved in the ghettos, were incarcerated in camps, hounded over the countryside, lost their families, and fended for themselves, escaping one life threatening situation after the other. Moreover, we have no documentation of the experiences of the children who did not survive—the 97 percent who didn’t make it. The younger a child was, the more he or she regarded the world of the Holocaust as “normal”; it was not possible for them to use the time before as a reference. After the war´s end it became obvious that survival did not yet mean life; it was an intermediate state, and they had to learn to live again. For the little ones in particular they often knew the preliminary stages of death better than life.

Today

As they grew older many child survivors starting writing their memoirs and gave testimonies. Their voices were heard. In 2009 Holocaust survivors of the concentration camps, many of whom were child survivors, released their declared legacy to younger generations: The last eyewitnesses turn to Germany, to all the European countries and the international community to continue the human gift of remembrance and commemoration in the future. We ask the young people to support our struggle against Nazi ideology and for a just, peaceful and tolerant world, a world in which antisemitism, racism, xenophobia and right-wing extremism have no place.”

One of the child survivors whose declared aim was to fight for peace was Hannah Pick-Goslar, friend of Anne Frank. “If it happens once—it can happen twice.” This is the opposite of “never again.” Unfortunately it happened again, on October 7 in the genocidal attacks of Israel by Hamas, in villages and kibbutzim.

The terrible events of violence against children and their families, including parents sacrificing themselves to save or hide their children, are very strong psychological and historical triggers to Jewish children survivors of the Holocaust and their offspring. To them, the Holocaust was never really over. The world cannot ignore this strong connection. Ruti, daughter of Hannah Pick-Goslar, living in Jerusalem, a 2nd-generation Holocaust survivor, says: “It´s there all the time, you carry it every day with you—even though everything looks nicely. It is always in the back, it says, ‘be careful, everything can be omit in once.’” This is exactly what happened to civilians, families and babies on October 7 when Hamas and its collaborators made every effort to carry out its genocidal policy by brutally attacking Israeli citizens.

This is exactly what happened to civilians, families and babies on October 7 when Hamas and its collaborators made every effort to carry out its genocidal policy by brutally attacking Israeli citizens.

We as Holocaust scholars owe it not only to Holocaust survivors to speak out. We owe it also to the victims of the new Nazis. Hamas and its collaborators kidnapped Jewish children and elderly to Gaza; they conducted a “manhunt” and executed civilians. You can´t say “yes, but …” It is important to name it for what it is: a Nazi-like, genocidal policy. And anyone who supports this is failing both historically and morally and is supporting a Nazi-like ideology. Now, the world is full of Hamas and its supporters. On TikTok and Instagram, the videos show and celebrate cruelty and sexual and racial abuse. The Nazis produced similar materials.

We as Holocaust researchers are calling you to speak out and take action against this!

The granddaughter of a Holocaust child survivor stated on October 12, 2023: “The past few days have been devastating to any Israeli citizen. What is important to grasp as we’re talking about this past week of horror is that Israel is a very small country, which means that when over 1,300 civilians are slaughtered, and over 130 are kidnapped, every single family knows someone who lost their loved ones. And while we mourn all of them, we are also being drafted to protect our country, all at the same time. As a granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, Mirijam Lapid, it feels really hard to put any words together. My grandma’s story of survival has always sounded so surreal, like nothing you can imagine yourself living through and surviving with such bravery. One of the main goals of the establishment of our country has always been providing a safe home for all Jewish people and promising ‘Never Again.’ As more footage and stories are being shared throughout this week, you can’t help but realizing it is happening again. The descriptions told by survivors of the horrific deeds towards innocent civilians—men, women, children, babies and elderly (some of them are Holocaust survivors themselves)—is unbelievably heart-wrenching. My heart goes to all Holocaust survivors who are now reliving and rewatching the worst shape of human cruelty in front of their very eyes.“

Dr. Boaz Cohen is Head of the Holocaust Studies Program at Western Galilee College Akko in Israel. Dr. Verena Buser, from Berlin, is a research fellow at Western Galilee College.

 

The Nazis Are Back Read More »

A Day Like No Other

Commentary /

Today was unlike any day I’ve ever experienced. It consisted of two very distinct, very powerful emotions. Early this morning I was speaking with friends in Israel, texting with others, and combing the web in search of the latest updates on the impending war. I’ve been to Israel more times than I can remember. I say age-old prayers for Israel and its people at least a dozen times a day, more than that on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. These prayers have been a regular part of my life for the last thirty-six years. I mention this only to suggest to you the centrality of Israel in my life.

On the Shabbat of October 7,  like so many others, I received the searing news that there had been a tragedy in Israel. A tragedy so horrifying that I could scarcely believe what I was hearing. Some one-thousand terrorists from Hamas —whose charter includes the genocidal goal of eliminating the State of Israel and killing Jews wherever they are found—crossed the border from the Gaza Strip and began a massive slaughter of innocents, a modern-day pogrom. For those of you who don’t yet know about them, here are some details of that pogrom, which unfortunately, I must now share because without them the word “horrifying” will remain vague and hollow.

Hamas raped young women, took them hostage, murdered them and paraded their naked bodies through the streets of Gaza, all the while laughing and shouting. Hamas used automatic weapons to gun down at least 260 young people at a music festival. Hamas murdered entire families in their beds, infants, men, women, and young children. In one instance, there was a room in which a family of five had been beheaded. According to Israeli Army sources, their five severed heads had been propped up against a wall —the mother’s, the father’s and their three children’s. It was said to be so gruesome that veteran medical and military personal were afraid to enter the room.

Other families were burned alive. Hamas took babies hostage, young children were ripped from their mother’s arms and driven across the border into Gaza. Elderly women were murdered, others were kidnapped, some of them are reported to have been Holocaust survivors. As I write this, the total of the murdered numbered one thousand two-hundred human beings. All killed simply for being Jews. The number of wounded — and these wounds include bullet holes, shrapnel wounds, and loss of limbs—is in the thousands. The number of people taken hostage is assumed to be at least 127. This is an event for which there is not a string of words capable of conveying the shock to a tiny nation for whom a single soldier, held in captivity in Gaza for five years, was traded for a thousand known terrorists.

My family, my friends, my brother, my sister, my mother; everyone around me is distraught. My friend, the writer Wayne Robins, portrayed these feelings so poignantly: “I feel like the graves of our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and back dozens of generations have been desecrated. If asked if I knew anyone lost or missing in the current paroxysm of inhumanity, I feel like, not anyone, everyone. Everyone.” Hamas’s slaughter of innocent Jews makes it the worst catastrophe to have struck the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

So, when I hear people minimizing what happened, relativizing it, dismissing it, or ignoring it altogether, as has happened so many times in our long history, I feel as if I’m living in a lurid dream. A dream where the sky is made of dirt and the ground is made of air. I am lost in that dream. For the moment we are all lost. Running and screaming, crying and praying. I shuddered when I read a post from Columbia University professor, Joseph Massad. Writing in the The Electronic Intifada, he sounded jubilant about what he’d termed “the Palestinian war of liberation,“ and the “shocking success” of the “Palestinian resistance.” I got sick to my stomach when I read this line in a statement from the Harvard Student’s Group: “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” The words “unfolding violence” are to my ears, insane; they are themselves a manifestation of evil, a shriek of moral insanity.

Violence didn’t “unfold.” A terrorist group, funded and trained by Iran, endeavored with all their debased will to create a stratagem that would allow them to massacre Jews — just as it’s written in their Charter. Hamas’s pogrom didn’t take place in a war zone; it took place in people’s bedrooms. Unfolding violence? Does an infant commit violence? Is an old woman capable of violence? Good God, beheading babies? Raping and murdering young women, parading their bodies in the streets to cheers and laughter, burning people alive, taking children hostage? Who the hell are these “students,” these so-called best and brightest?

Now, to the next part of my day.

I arrived in Crown Heights, Brooklyn for a brit milah celebration around 10:30 AM. Another grandchild was born to us last Wednesday. A beautiful boy. A light, a gift, a shining star. Just as my son Isaac announced his baby’s name out loud for the first time, he and I glanced over at one another, tears of joy filling our eyes. It’s amazing, I thought. All the pain I’d been feeling has now been transformed into rejoicing. All the fear and doubt I’ve been wrestling with has turned to courage and certainty. 

The miraculous nature of the gift of this baby, this gift we’ve received from God, had, for the moment at least, become unmistakable. Out of the millions upon millions of moments I’ve experienced over the course of my sixty-three years, there are so few that have been permanently etched into my memory.

And now, as evening descends, I have —with a soaring sense of gratitude—come to realize that only one of this day’s distinct and powerful emotions will remain with me forever.

I leave it to you to guess which one.

Follow Peter Himmelman at peterhimmelman.substack.com

A Day Like No Other Read More »

Gluten Free Easy Making Gluten Free Kosher Products for the Holidays – And Beyond

Food /

For years, Esther Anzaroot and Lily Nissim made gluten-free food at their homes in Brooklyn and sold it to customers directly. However, their business quickly grew, and they knew they needed to find a better solution.

“We couldn’t keep up with the demand from our at home kitchen business,” said Anzaroot.

This summer, the two women began selling their line of products, which they call Gluten Free Easy, to 100 kosher stores around the nation. Locally, their frozen puff pastry sheets and squares, pizza rounds and pita bread are available in retailers like Cambridge Farms (Valley Village), Ariel Glatt Kosher Market (La Brea) and Western Kosher (Pico-Robertson and Fairfax). The products are soy free, dairy free, certified by Kof-K and available on their website, gf-easy.com.

Anzaroot and Nissim came together to start Gluten Free Easy after Anzaroot’s son married a woman with celiac disease and couldn’t eat gluten.

“I wanted her to be able to taste our cultural foods,” she said. “When we realized that everyone wants their ethnic cultural foods, we decided to offer GF doughs to give customers autonomy in the kitchen.”

Gluten Free Easy, which has a large following on Instagram, shares recipes for delicious foods like cream horns, mini apple pies, ricotta squash pizzas and summer tomato basil tart.

Posting these recipes and showing what can be done with gluten free foods is exciting for Nissim, who wants everybody to be able to eat tasty dishes.

“We love seeing kids enjoy their food and feeling like everyone else, even though they are on GF diets,” she said. “It’s so hard to be singled out when it comes to meals.”

Anzaroot and Nissim hope to be able to expand their business so that gluten-free consumers can partake in all different kinds of foods.

“[We want this] to be available to everyone that is on gluten free diets and to be able to buy it easily and enjoy it,” said Nissim. “Many people have guests who are gluten free, so it’s important to make this available widely to any home cook who wants to cook gluten free for both family and their guests.”

“It’s important to make this available widely to any home cook who wants to cook gluten free for both family and their guests.” – Lily Nissim

And now, here’s a Gluten Free Easy recipe that’s perfect for your upcoming holiday meal.

 

GF Eggplant and Beef Mini Flatbread Recipe 

Ingredients:

For the flatbread:

-2 packages GF Easy Mini Pizza Dough Rounds

– Olive oil for brushing

For the toppings:

– 1 small eggplant, cubed very small

-1-2 tbsp olive oil

-1-2 tbsp neutral oil (canola, vegetable, etc)

– 1/2 pound ground beef

– 1 small onion, finely chopped

– 2 cloves garlic, minced

– 1 teaspoon ground allspice

– 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

– Salt and pepper to taste

– 1 cup tomato sauce (canned or fresh)

– Toasted pine nuts, for garnish (optional)

-chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Instructions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 425°F (220°C). Place the cubed eggplant on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until tender and slightly browned. Remove from the oven and set aside.
  1. In a skillet, heat the neutral oil over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onion and minced garlic, and sauté until they become translucent.
  1. Add the ground beef to the skillet and cook, breaking it apart with a spatula, until it’s browned and cooked through.
  1. Season the beef mixture with ground allspice, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine the spices evenly.
  1. Remove the pizza dough from the package and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  1. Brush the pizza dough with a little olive oil.
  1. Spread the tomato sauce evenly over the dough.
  1. Combine the seasoned beef with the cubed roasted eggplant.
  1. Spoon the beef and eggplant mixture over the tomato sauce.
  1. Sprinkle the pine nuts evenly over the top.
  1. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until the crust is golden and the flatbread is cooked through.
  1. Remove the flatbread from the oven, let it cool for a minute or two, then garnish with the fresh parsley leaves if desired.
  1. Optionally serve your delicious Eggplant and Beef Flatbread with tahini sauce. Enjoy!

 

Gluten Free Easy Making Gluten Free Kosher Products for the Holidays – And Beyond Read More »

A Day in A War Unlike Any Other

Commentary /

It was not how I planned to start my day, much less spend most of it.  But it was one of the most uplifting days I’ve had, certainly since the war started on October 7, and in quite a while.

On Sunday, my good friend David Nekrutman called. Together, as Orthodox Jews, we have been building bridges and lasting deep relationships with Christians for decades.  Like me, he launched an emergency fund from the Isaiah Projects to help with the war effort in Israel and has been making tangible impact among many civilians. David asked if I would be able to help him through the Genesis 123 Foundation Israel Emergency Campaign to resettle entire families from the Gaza border area for a week or more in hotels as these communities were being evacuated so as to avoid any civilian casualties.

Even though our Israel Emergency Campaign had other primary objectives including helping soldiers, providing civilian security, and supporting the most at-risk youth in the Gaza border area, I said “yes” to David, without hesitation.  First, I knew if he was doing something, it was real and credible.  Second, we’ve been blessed by the support of thousands of mostly Christians donating as little as $2 and I had the money handy.

Yesterday, after finishing an early interview with a South African radio station, David asked if I wanted to come to the Jerusalem hotel to meet the people who’ve been evacuated for their safety.  I arrived shortly after and was there for several hours, visiting, speaking to the families, providing words of encouragement, hearing their stories, and listening to their needs. While we brought them to Jerusalem to uplift their spirits, I came away uplifted and grateful for the privilege of being able to help them, thanks to the generosity of so many who care about our safety and well-being here in Israel.

I met Hirsch, an octogenarian Holocaust survivor whose left eye was taken out as a child by a Nazi’s rifle butt.  Despite having only one eye, Hirsch is a veteran of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and was among the troops who pushed Egyptian army back across the Suez Canal, eventually surrounding Egypt’s Third Army just 100 kilometers from Cairo.

While Hirsch fought against Egypt, over the decades he shared that he had many positive relationships with Gazan Palestinian Arabs, hosting actual friends in his home, and being hosted in theirs. Something changed. While he doesn’t believe that his friends are terrorists, he sees that their children and grandchildren are.  This challenges his world view of peaceful coexistence. Even though he only has one eye, Hirsch has seen a lot.

I asked him which was worse, the surprise Egyptian and Syrian attack 50 years ago, or the Hamas terrorist attack this month.  He wasn’t sure, but noted that the Egyptians were fighting an army, and Hamas crossed the border expressly to kill, maim, violate, and kidnap civilians.  Hirsch is in a wheelchair and was grateful for the first good night’s sleep he had in a while. And he loved that Christians around the world were the benefactors of this opportunity.

I met Rachamim and Abigail who left home with their younger children but whose older adult children stayed back.  But they wanted to have all their family with them and were hoping that their other kids would be joining them soon.  We had a great conversation about our families, and think that their son might be a good fit for one of my single daughters. Who knows. Maybe a match will come out of this war.  Either way, they were pleased to be in Jerusalem and appreciative our help.

I met another family, three generations.  If you didn’t know any better, you’d think that they were on vacation. Except they spent the previous nine days stuck in their house next to their bomb shelters with just 15 seconds to take cover each time incoming rockets were fired their way. Neighbors and loved ones were killed. They enjoyed the warm Jerusalem sun, something we just take for granted, as the kids ran around in and out of the hotel.  I prayed that the memories they will have will be of this wonderful and needed respite, and not of the war itself.

If this were not all enough, and even more stories to share, when I paid for a large portion of the hotel bill, I asked the woman working what would happen if all these people were not staying in the hotel now.  “We would all be out of work,” she replied without hesitating.  Interestingly, she was an Arab, underscoring that our kindness has a positive trickle down much wider than just the dozens of evacuees.

Right next to the hotel is the showroom of J. Mark Interiors, a NY and Jerusalem based architecture and design firm owned by my good friend, Jeffrey Mark. Since I was there anyway, I went to visit. Jeffrey asked my help coming up with a project that he and his staff could get behind to be part of the war effort, rather than just sitting around worrying.  I told him about his new neighbors in the hotel. I told him that we needed to pay for meals for the families, especially on Shabbat, the sabbath.  I told him that this one-week respite that’s been paid for was not enough, and that we needed to raise funds for at least 2-3 more weeks, probably bringing more people.  I suggested that we needed activities for the kids to engage them, and give the parents some time alone.

Jeffrey sprang into action, garnering his staff, mapping out plans, and making a compelling and emotional video about the needs, asking his clients and friends to participate financially.  Within hours, people waking up in NY began responding generously.

God willing, more of the evacuees’ family members will show up this week. God willing, we’ll raise so much money that the next month is covered for these people, and we’ll have to find others to help. God willing, they will be able to go home soon, safely.

But none of these people are working now.  Some are farmers.  If they don’t tend to their crops, they will lose an entire season, and hundreds of thousands of shekels.  One photographer has had all his work canceled through December.  So I made an additional proposal.  Before they leave, let’s give each family a 10,000-shekel gift card to use in a local grocery store, giving them peace of mind that even with no income, there will be food on the table for some time.  God willing, people will continue to respond generously, and we can do this too.

The Genesis 123 Foundation has established a dedicated link to receive all war related donations, the proceeds of which will go to these stated needs.  Please visit www.love.genesis123.co.

Jonathan Feldstein was born and educated in the U.S. and immigrated to Israel in 2004. He is married and the father of six and grandfather of three (so far). Throughout his life and career, he has worked to build bridges with Christian supporters of Israel through the Genesis 123 Foundation, and hosts “Inspiration from Zion,” as the only Orthodox Jewish host of a weekly podcast about and from Israel on the Charisma Podcast Network. He can be reached at firstpersonisrael@gmail.com.

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Manhattan Synagogue Surpasses Historic $18 Million Campaign For Israel

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Park Avenue Synagogue’s Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove told his congregation to take out their phones and donate to Israel, suffering from the barbaric Hamas attack. Cosgrove told the Journal that it was for pikuach nefesh, or saving lives and he hopes other congregations and individuals will also donate to Israel at this time of war and crisis.

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove asked congregants to take out their phones and donate on behalf of Israel to UJA Federation of New York’s Israel Emergency Fund. There were 1,000 in attendance as well as about 6,000 watching the livestream. 

While emotional services took place in synagogues around the world this past shabbat, the Friday night service at Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan was especially historic. In what is certainly a first at any synagogue, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove asked congregants to take out their phones and donate on behalf of Israel to UJA Federation of New York’s Israel Emergency Fund. There were 1,000 in attendance as well as about 6,000 watching the livestream. He said he wanted 100% of people donating, and having raised $16 million, after an e-mail he’d sent out, he wanted to reach a total of $18 million. The rabbi said his own family donated $36,000. 

Cosgrove said all Jews are in pain over the murder of 1,300 murdered by Hamas and he noted that many have called October 7 the worst day for Jews since the Holocaust. But he noted this time there is the IDF, which will make sure that “the blood of Jews in not free for the taking … The eyes of history are upon us,” he told the congregation, adding that Jewish communities respond with days of kindness and not days of rage. He said he will not seek forgiveness for Israel’s right to self-defense and noted that in 1967 his father went to Israel to help as a doctor.

“Dire and desperate times call for desperate measure,” Cosgrove told The Journal. “This isn’t about one person or one community, but we hope to inspire other individuals and communities to do the same. I hope people will answer the call.”

He said learning of the horrific attack of October 7 was terribly surreal. “This is beyond anything I ever imagined possible,” Cosgrove told the Journal. “My heart is broken. We are traumatized. But we are not paralyzed.”

The synagogue raised more than $18 million.

Raz Betser, a recent hire from Israel on the synagogue’s educational team, said on October 7 she was texting with her brother Guy, who built a house in Kibbutz Kfar Aza with his own hands and was there with his wife, Ofri and their daughter. She heard there was an attack but since the Iron Dome intercepts most rockets, she was hopeful. But she saw Israeli news that terrorists crossed the border and were in Kfar Aza. Her brother texted that he could hear shooting outside his house. Three hours later, she learned they were rescued by the IDF.

She recounted his eventual message to the congregation: “There were three terrorists in our hour for two -and-a-half hours … I held the door handle of the bomb shelter. The Israeli Army managed to neutralize all of them and rescue us from the house.”

The house was destroyed due to a rocket hit and while they survived, their friends did not. 

Congregant Naomi Grabel told the Journal it was difficult for many to digest that Jews had been so brutally murdered in unimaginable ways and that Hamas is now believed to be holding nearly 200 hostages. “I arrived at the synagogue miserable, but I left hopeful,” Grabel said. “There is nothing the rabbi challenges us to do that we don’t rise to because we respect him greatly.” She said the October 7 attack left her feeling heartbroken and stunned. She also said she was proud that New York City Mayor Eric Adams spoke in alliance with Israel.

“The Jewish relationship with the African American experience is so significant,” Adams told the congregation. “And when others placed themselves on the sideline, the Jewish community placed themselves in harm’s way to fight on behalf of African Americans throughout this entire country. How could I sit on the sideline now? How could I sit back and watch the devastation that I saw?”

He said nobody should be silent in the face of atrocities. “Every group in the city should be raising their voice.” He added  people in America have been radicalized by social media and that has caused an uptick in antisemitism and racism.

 At a rally earlier in the week, Adams told a Jewish crowd of thousands “your fight is our fight” said that many Jews fought on behalf of civil rights in the 1960s and beyond.

Rabbi Neil Zuckerman, whose son is now serving in the IDF, told the congregation that while he lives in America, “my home is where our brothers and sisters are experiencing pain and trauma … my home is where fellow Jews are attending multiple funerals and shivas today. My home is with those who are running to bomb shelters. My home is somewhere in the north right now, where a young man is with his unit on an Army base, celebrating shabbat … training, waiting …” People should take solace in the power Jews have now and not like the Kishinev pogrom in the Russian Empire 120 years ago.

“This is not Kishinev in 1903, where Jews were attacked, murdered raped, where they responded by cowering and hiding behind boxes watching the carnage,” Zuckerman said. “We live in a time where the sovereign nation of Israel is strong, where planes are chartered to fly from places like New York City, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Peru, Australia, because Israelis when attacked, heard the call and ran toward the battle in record numbers showing up for reserves.”

Zuckerman added that there are two words Israelis are saying: “Beyachad yenatseach — Together we will win.”

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