rabbijaffe

Rounding off my adoration for Karmei Tzur, I have one last story.

I had some of nice neighbors. They were a young couple, immigrnants from Russia. Now, they weren’t well off, but at the time I was dirt poor. They had offered on occasion to wash my laundry for me, seeing as I had no washing machine.

One day I visited their caravan to ask if I could do my laundry.

They opened the door with smiles from ear to ear, eyes beaming with excitement and joy. When I asked if it were possible to do my laundry, this is what they told me:

The settlement has a custom that when young, new immigrant couples move there, the settlement purchases for them all new appliances.

They couldn’t contain how this made them felt, and they told me that were just so happy that someone had done something so amazing for them, they wanted to continue doing amazing things themselves.

They told me they were giving me their old washing machine!

Only in Israel.

As Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Day of Rememberance) ebbs away, I once again find myself with the same memories. 

About a decade ago I was coming home to Karmei Tzur (one of the most amazing places on earth), and when I was at the junction and stepped on the bus, I knew immediately something was wrong.

When I stepped on the bus I looked at the faces of the passengers. They looked broken, like something terribly important had been taken away from them.

After minor inquiry I discovered that one of my neighbors had not made it home that evening.

On that night I learned that Dr. Shmuel Gillis, a sweet and gentle man, a father of five beautiful children, was shot in the face on his drive home. His car spun off the side of the road, and he died instantly.

The pain and anger I felt that day is undescribable.

And it doesn’t compare to what it felt like to watch his children say the Mourner’s Kaddish in the local synagogue.

That day I lost a certain part of myself. That day I lost my innocence. One thing is for certain: I am not the same person I was before that day.

May the memory of Shmuel Gillis be a blessing forever.

In returning to the wonderful world of lavishing praise upon Israel, I wanted to tell a couple of stories about some people that stand out in my mind from the yishuv (settlement) where I used to live, Karmei Tzur.

But first, if I may, I would like to just say a word or two about what settlements mean to me. Karmei Tzur is a very small settlement in the West Bank of Israel, just a little bit south of Jerusalem. It is quite isolated, and surrounded on all sides by relatively hostile Arab villages.

The mental picture many people have of these settlements is one of violent, aggressive, angry people wandering around speaking about how much they dislike Arabs.

The mental picture I have (after five years of living in four different settlements) is of beautiful families and friends living together in peaceful villages, hoping that no one shoots at their cars as they come and go.

But I digress.

I wanted to tell the story of someone from one of those settlements, Karmei Tzur, who made my day and provided me with an eternally memorable story.

I was a bit of a recluse in this settlement, living by myself and minding my own business. Lonely, but happy to be lonely. A certain genteleman asked if I could show him my tallit bag (the bag where I store my prayer shawl) in the local synagogue. He noticed I stored it in a specific place in the synagogue, and told me that he thought the bag was really nice, and he wanted to ask me some questions about it.

I thought nothing of it.

We went to my spot in the sanctuary, and he looked over the bag. He rubbed it, commented on how gentle the texture was. We are talking about what is quite possibly the most generic bag in the history of the world. To be honest, he kind of freaked me out a little. I couldn’t imagine a more simplistic tallit bag, that anyone could find cheaply in Jerusalem in five minutes, and was no different than half the bags in the room.

And I put it away, and the moment passed.

That evening, maybe five hours later, I went to my place in the synagogue for the afternoon prayers. I opened up my little cubbie, and found inside a gift-wrapped coffee mug.

The man for whom I had been weirded out by earlier was only asking me strange questions because he wanted to verify where my location was in the synagogue. He had overheard me tell someone it was my birthday, and he wanted to make sure it didn’t pass without someone doing something nice.

This is the way people are in Karmei Tzur.  

I can honestly say, I was more than shocked when I stumbled upon this article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/22/hitlers-mein-kampf-seen-a_n_190064.html

In short, and I know this might be hard to imagine, in India Mein Kampf is quickly becoming a popular book amongst students wishing to learn business management.

Now, I’ll be honest. I do not believe I am admitting intense ignorance by stating that I have not actually read this piece of important world literature. 

Nevertheless, I don’t get it. As far as I understood, Mein Kampf is just a book spewing hate. Since when is hateful propoganda something we can learn management skills from?

And if you tell me the book outlines Hitler’s plan for taking over a country and getting overwhelming loyalty and compliance from hundreds of thousands of people in a relatively short period, I’m still rather confused. Wouldn’t a good business model come packed with a sustainable plan? How would you like your business in just six year to be in ruins, with every member of the company feeling horrific guilt about the actions the company took, the CEO dead from suicide, and all of its executives achieving eternal infamy?

And even if one could somehow manage to suck the minute good from such a book, how does a person allow their eyes to pass over words emanating from such an atrocious, impure source? I’d feel filthy with each passing word!  

On every level I do not get this. 

I work at a really wonderful synagogue in Fulton, Maryland called Temple Isaiah. My primary role is to teach the school’s 7th grade Holocaust curriculum.

Thank God, it appears my efforts have immeasurable benefits. I told my students more times than I can remember two central themes:

1. We need to think long and hard what we can do to make sure people will never forget the tragedies that happened to our people during the Holocaust. But:

2. All our efforts are absolutely irrelevant if we do not remember to take a stand and help as much as we possibly can when we see someone else suffering.

The results:

After being inspired by the movie Paperclips, my students decided to do this wonderful tzedaka (charity) project that we’re calling Pennies for Peace:

We are trying to raise 1.5 million pennies, symbolic of the 1.5 Jewish children who perished during the Holocaust.

Once we’ve achieved our goal, and we’ve done everything in our power to show the world our accomplishment, we will be giving the money raised to a noteworthy charity which works toward the relief of victims in Darfur. (Shortly my students will be voting on which charity we will use, but I assure you I will do my due diligence to make sure it is reliable and trustworthy.)

If you have a large bag of pennies sitting in your living room, or would like to put out a penny jar in your high school, or simply would like to mail me some spare change after buying a coffee, please send your pennies to the following address, and may God reward you for your kindness to humanity:

Rabbi Yitzchak Jaffe

7th Grade Teacher

Temple Isaiah Religious School

12200 Scaggsville Rd. 

Fulton, MD 20759

Today is Yom Hahshoah, Holocaust Memorial Day.

I was impressed to find that the main story on CNN.com was one related to the Holocaust: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/04/21/holocaust.nazi.hunting.reactions/index.html

The article expresses the conflicting emotions of how one should perceive living Nazi war criminals.

What if you knew there was one such criminal, now in his late eighties, living in the states as a law-abiding, peaceful citizen?

Do you say:

1. He’s an 80-year old man. What’s the point of punishing him now? And even if you could, what would it really accomplish? Is there a punishment that could really fit this level of a crime? At this late stage, let him die naturally, without me tainting my nature with vengeful thoughts, and let hell do it’s dirty work to him for eternity.

Or do we say:

2. There is most certainly no statute-of-limitations for such a horrendous crime. It doesn’t matter if he’ll be dying naturally in a week and hasn’t so much as received a parking ticket since relocating. He must pay, and pay big, for the crimes he has committed. It is the right of every good and decent person in this world to eliminate this symbol of pure hatred and evil.

I see both sides. I instinctively agree more with the second opinion, but sympathisize tremendously with the first as well.

What do yo think?

I’ll never forget the day I looked up from my West Bank caravan and had these thoughts, with a smile from ear to ear:

If I were still living in New York City, I might be spending $2,000+ a month to live in a dinky one-bedroom apartment with the gorgeous view of yet another building a few yards away.

And here I was. Living in peace and harmony. I had my own two-bedroom caravan for 100 shekalim (App. $25) a month. And what did I see when I looked out my window? Off in the distance, on a breathtaking hilltop, a shepherd walking along with a flock of sheep behind him.

Compare and contrast.

Gosh, sometimes I really miss Israel…

In my last blog I spoke about the advantages of the gun laws in Israel versus those in America.

First off, I want to place a disclaimer on my previous statements:

I am by no means a card carrying member of the NRA, or an advocate of arming every citizen in this country. I believe that the ability to own a firearm is a right of the citizens of the United States of America, but in order to achieve the true benefits of this right, our country is replete with responsibilities. These responsibilities, include, first and foremost, the systematic and intelligent reduction (I’m not starry-eyed enough to write ‘elimintation’) of illegal firearms. But just as important, they include well-structured regulation policies, which include extensive training for all firearm owners. This training would be HEAVILY focused on firearm safety.

An advantage of my time, albeit brief, in the Iraeli army, was all the gun safety training. After one month you are trained for life never to point a gun, even if unloaded, at anyone EVER.

But that’s not the purpose of my blog today.

I had an idea and I wanted to submit it for “peer” review.

In the past several years I’ve heard many people talk about a worry that our school’s, and particularly Jewish schools, are simply not safe. Ask the average student how hard it would be for terrorists to plot a successful attack on their institution, and you’re likely to hear them ramble at length about how terribly simple it would be. The same might go for just a common criminal off the street.

My suggestion for how to reduce these problems…

(you’ll pardon my momentary sigh and gulp as I think to myself that I’ll probably get in trouble for writing this)

There need to be people, several people, who are on the premises at all times when there are students around who are specifcally trained and organized to deal with the many possible problems that could arise. Who would best suit this purpose? 

The teachers.

My proposal would be to form a group of teachers (the number would depend on the size of the institution), either volunteers or receiving an extra mild salary supplement, who would be armed at all times, and would have monthly drills by security experts on plans for dealing with all sorts of tragic situations that could arise.

I imagine people at this point would have a dozen questions (problems?) on such a proposal. Luckily enough, I’ve thought of a few in advance that I’ll address:

1. I suppose the immediate reaction of many parents reading this might be, “Oh my God, my kid would get shot the very first day.” 

I think it would be imperative that part of the plan requires that any teacher participating signs a contract that states that if they show the weapon unnecessarily on school property, or even make mention of it in the classroom setting, this would be a cause for immediate cessation of their role in the program and/or termination from the institution.

The weapons by necessity be concealed at all times for two reasons: a) The identities of carriers should be unknown, similar to Air Marshalls on US flights. b) It would be uncomfortable for many people in the building. I believe quality security could exist without extreme inconvenience (Yes, I hate the modern US airport). The program would not serve to change anything in any way except for making the school a safer place.

2. Someone might worry that such a plan might be entirely ineffectual. Could we really expect a few trained teachers to stand up to several terrorists? Within this lies the true secret to this or any other security program. Potential attackers must know of the existence of the program, and know which institutions are utilizing it.

Can a car thief steal a locked car that has an alarm, a Club, and VIN etchings? If he’s pretty good, most certainly. If two cars are sitting next to each other, one with all of these features, and one with none of them, which one does the thief choose? 

Simply having the features serves as a major deterrent, which is the real essence of security in the first place. Research has shown that simply having a sign in front of your house for a security company serves to keep away house thieves, even if you have no such system. 

Any terrorist wishes to succeed. If they enter the school knowing there’s only one security guard making occasional rounds, the school is a sitting duck. If they enter the school knowing there are several people scattered throughout the institution who are armed and trained, and who know the building better than they do, maybe they’ll think twice before they enter to damage. 

We get to send the message: “Stay out!” If even one person in the next one hundred years DID NOT attack an institution because he heard the message loud and clear, wouldn’t this all be worth it? 

…

I’m young. I make mistakes every day of my life. But as far as I’m concerned there are minimal drawbacks to such a program, if any. I’m really curious what others have to say, so if you read this, please tell me your opinion.

In continuing my freeflowing praise of Israel, I wanted to talk about something relating to Israel that I can’t stop thinking about lately.

We live in a post-9/11 world where every human being is hyper-sensitive to personal and communal security. And yet Israel, which is surrounded by hostile, historically aggressive nations on three sides, and water on the other, has figured out the secret that the rest of the world hasn’t yet.

Arm the good guys!

That’s right. The ordinary great guy walking down the street. Give him the means, the training, and the right to defend himself, and watch a society improve dramatically.

Let the police and military come afterwards to pat them on the pack for saving the day.

These are my favorite examples/proofs from the last several years:

Not very long ago a crazed Palestinian started driving a bulldozer down a crowded Jerusalem street destroying anything and everyone in its path. Someone actually jumped on the side of the bulldozer and shot the driver. Not a soldier or a policeman (or Jason Bourne, for that matter). Look at the way the hero of the day was dressed! It was just an ordinary Tuesday.

For another couple of examples check out this article (the article comes from a funny source, but the stories are 100% accurate):

http://gunowners.org/pr0202htm.htm

This article speaks of two instances where ordinary citizens shot and killed terrorists before they were able to carry out their evil deeds. If these citizens were unarmed, they would have been forced to stand there helplessly while they watched the unthinkable unfold before their very eyes.

What a blessing to have the ability to save so many souls.

Perhaps the most impressive thing Israel has to offer by way of intelligently arming its citizens is the kitat konnenut program. Individual settlements have trained and armed volunteer first response units designed to protect the homes and families of the residents. In this final article note that whereas tragedy most certainly did strike in the settlement Kiryat Arba, it was the kitat konnenut who ensured that things didn’t get far worse:

http://www.all4israel.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page&pageID=39

In conclusion, Israel is a country where the ordinary citizen is fully capable of being a hero, protecting and defending the right of our people to exist in our land! May Israel’s heroes, volunteer or not, continue to defend our homeland with success!  

My wanton praise of Israel will have to take a short break. I will be away in Chicago for all of Passover, and unlikely to post for the next week and change.

If anyone happens to check in: I would like to wish you the most amazing Passover the world has ever known.