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Beit Avichai’s Jerusalem and the Jewish People

11 years ago
22 Comments
by ck
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Jerusalem Day, or Yom Yerushalayim (יום ירושלים), commemorates Jerusalem’s reunification in 1967. This day begins on the 28th day of the month of Iyyar in the Hebrew calendar or, this year on Wednesday, May 28. A wide range of events take place in celebration of this day. Synagogue services include the recitation of the Hallel prayer for praise and thanksgiving, street parades, parties, singing and dancing and the inevitable lectures on the history and future of Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, a public reception is held by the mayor and state ceremonies and memorial services for those who died in the Six-Day War are also held. In Israel, some people mark the occasion by traveling or even hiking to Jerusalem.

Ever since the advent of viral videos, we’ve been witness to a spate of Jerusalem centered videos – some good, some bad. To the “great” list we can now add a video produced by Beit Avichai, a cultural center and music venue built by the Avichai Foundation. The Avichai Foundation was endowed by Wall Street Billionaire Zalman Bernstein, founder of the investment management firm Sanford Bernstein. The Foundation is committed to the perpetuation of the Jewish people, Judaism, and the centrality of the State of Israel to the Jewish people.

The video is meant to promote Beit Avichai’s wide ranging celebrations of Jerusalem taking place on May 22nd – if you’re in town, check it out here, otherwise, just sit back and enjoy the video!

Or, while you’re at it, you may actually want to contemplate the actual centrality of the State of Israel to the Jewish people. Certainly that’s not an issue in Israel, for obvious reasons. But in America, home to the largest or second largest group of Jews in the world, Israel, let alone Jerusalem, let alone Judaism, doesn’t seem to be of such central importance. Overall, 57% of American Jews have never been to Israel according to our friends at Pew Research. 94% of American Jews state that they are proud to be Jewish, and 69% say that they are very or somewhat attached to Israel. 75% claim a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people. That having been said, among Jews between the ages of 18-49, 38%-39% claim little or no emotional attachment to Israel and among unaffiliated Jews, that number rises to 51%. What does that say to the notion of Jewish Peoplehood? With 58% of Jews married between 2005-2013 marrying outside the faith, and 3/4 of those not even raising their children as Jews, do we in fact have anything in common especially since those numbers are only trending up? Looks to me like the Avichai Foundation has its work cut out for it. Good luck and happy Jerusalem Day – that is if you care about Jerusalem at all.

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ck

Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.

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  • BS”D
    Discussion with Moishela (with his family)
    A Handicapped child
    28 Nisan 5776 (May 6, ‘16)

    “It Is TRUTH!”

    Mommy, There will be big revelations this coming week. Most people won’t understand what they are hearing or seeing but there will be enough people that will understand. The world is in great danger. The drums of war are heard everywhere. Worldwide we see countries pulling out their most deadly weapons and exhibiting them together with their armies marching in formation to the sounds of war. The rattling of missiles, beating of the drums is happening in almost every country of the world. While most of the people stop and scratch their heads trying to figure out why in the world everyone is talking about war. It’s not clear in any way what the reasons are for countries to go to such an extreme. But the world has bowed its head and just let the Reshoim continue their plans to take over all of the world and march most of humanity directly to their death.

    This coming week should reveal more of their plans. The people of America are trying to make Donald Trump their president in order to overcome the shackles that have been put on them by the Reshoim or socalled popular vote of the people of the United States. I doubt very seriously if there will be an election at all.

    Hashem is going to bring upon the world such an enormous tragedy, such an enormous test for the righteous and those who want to be righteous, that in all history, since man was created, no test, no spiritual test has ever been so difficult.

    But Hashem is preparing us for it. He created us and He knows who will pass and who will fail, Chas Vesholom. However we don’t know what the outcome will be. So, Am Yisroel, hold on tight to your Emunah and Bitachon in Hashem. Hold on tight to your Davening and to our customs, our learning Torah, to everything that makes us Yidden. Hold onto your outward Tzniusdik look of a Yid. Hold on with all your heart, your soul and your might so as not to be blown away by the incredibly strong winds of destruction that will destroy most of the world. There will also be fire and water together with the wind that will destroy two thirds of our planet eart.This is not a joke, it’s not made up. It is Truth! It’s not a movie or a story written in a book. It is the Truth! One day soon we are going to realize that it is Truth. I hope for all Am Yisroel and for all the righteous Goyim that accept the Truth that we survive this most difficult time and live on to achieve eternity.

  • BS”D
    Discussion with Moishela (with his family)
    A Handicapped child
    1 Iyar 5774 (April 30, ’14)

    “L’Shanah Haba’ah B’Yerushalayim”

    Time is moving on and speeding up. I can’t say that we’re moving at the speed of light, but we’re moving on. It’s like a tank, a large tank that moves slowly but is very deadly and we are moving onwards forwards into the Nevuas of Hashem. Now we can see much more clearly what is on the horizon and if we look closely through our binoculars we can see clearly destruction and death, Shelo Naida.

    We can see clearly how every single prophecy is coming true. On one hand it’s very frightening. On the other hand it gives us hope. It gives us hope that finally, finally we’re coming to the end of this terrible Golus; this most difficult time in all of our history, running from country to country every time the Goyim started killing us, trying to find a place where we could live in peace and worship Hakodosh Boruch Hu in every way without being attacked. We had to move from place to place and we had to reestablish ourselves financially so that we would have bread to give our children, our families. We suffered the fear of going upwards and then falling downwards in our spirituality. All of this will soon be over and it can be seen already with the naked eye, so-to-speak. Maybe we need the help of the binoculars, but we can see it already. We can smell the smoke of war and we can taste it as well.

    We can understand now in our minds how two thirds of the world can be destroyed and we can be so depressed with this thought that we hopefully can forget our extreme Gashmiusdik world and decide finally to do true Teshuva. So I think my fellow Jews that it is time. It is time right now before the real troubles start. It is time to do Teshuva and to learn to depend only on Hakodosh Boruch Hu. Hashem is giving us many incentives for this, and many ways to learn to come so close to Him, so that you will fear nothing but Him. It’s our job to start to learn, how to be true Avdai Hashem and Ovdai Hashem. I hope and I pray that all Am Yisroel, every single one of Am Yisroel, will take my message seriously and stop with all the nonsense that most of you are occupied with. Push it all aside. See it for what it is – emptiness, and come closer to Hashem which is everything, all-encompassing, which is totally spiritual in nature and come close to the only Truth which is so absolutely Divine, so absolutely beautiful and pleasant and wonderful and all-encompassing that you will soon forget the hard grimy materialistic world and be swept up in the beauty and the holiness of the spiritual world of Hakodosh Boruch Hu, Hakol Yachol, the Creator of all existence.

    Can you just imagine looking up and seeing the third Bais Hamikdosh looming above us, inviting us to come and bring Karbonos, finally after so many years? Can you imagine that? It will turn from a dream to reality, but we have to really desire this. We have to really long for it in order that we will also be Zoche to be part of it. L’shana Haba’ah B’yerushalayim, Yerushalayim Habenuyah!

    Sefiras Haomer this year, is part of the countdown. We are going now from slavery to freedom and we are going to see many miracles on the way so between when we began counting until Shavuos there will be many changes in this world, difficult changes. It will be hard to understand maybe for many, but in the end all of the pieces of the puzzle will be put together and we’ll see a clear vision of what Hashem wants from us. We will also be aware of what this distorted world has taken away from us. Everything will be clear, pristine clear, clear as can be. We will have no doubts. We will trust Hashem completely.

    I feel that Lag Baomer this year is going to symbolize the end of a certain way of doing things. I feel that things are going to change drastically after Lag Baomer, in Eretz Yisroel and generally in the world. We are looking for tremendous changes after Lag Baomer, and by Shavuos and after Shavuos, tremendous changes.

    Q: How are these changes different then the last 13 years?
    A: Well in the last 13 years the world has changed completely. It has become a world that once was frivolous and on the surface happy. Everybody running off to Europe or Israel from Brazil to Africa to Thailand and every place in the world. It was a time of Gashmius above and beyond anything we could dream of. Now things have gone down in the Gashmius very much. People are confused because the world has become threatening and dark. People are afraid to fly. People don’t have the money to go on vacations and never mind vacations, people don’t even have money for food. Fear hovers over the world. People are afraid because it has become a harsh and very difficult world and most people are living with a tremendous fear and rightfully so.