If I read newspapers from left to right, I would have learned about Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington DC or POTUS Donald J. Trump’s first news conference and what some news outlets said was his dissing of a reporter from AMI Magazine, which serves Orthodox Jewish readers.
But fortunately, I read my papers from right to left, starting with sports, so I learned quite a lot this week on Israel and the Jewish people.
The New York Times reported in its Sports section on Team Beer Sheva at Turner Stadium in the Negev. In a story titled,
An Israeli Desert City Blooms as a Soccer Power we learn about Hapoel Beer Sheva, and the men and women, young and old, who dress in red and chant songs in support of Israel’s reigning soccer championship team, the Leicester City tea, story of Israel.
Show them some Love.
Inching a few pages forward, I saw that Attorney David M. Friedman, POTUS Donald J. Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. Ambassador to the State of Israel apologized on Thursday for his language during the “highly charged presidential campaign,” a reference to his comments comparing many American Jews to the Jews who aided the Nazis in the Holocaust. He called them “worse than kapos.” “The inflammatory rhetoric that accompanied the presidential campaign is entirely over,” he said. His appearance, including three interruptions by audience members who attacked him for his opinions about Palestinians before a Senate committee can be see below.
He loves the Jewish people, will be diplomatic and nuanced, even to liberal Jews.
Speaking of attacks, the Yeshiva University hockey team is dominating its league this season. (see video HERE) The New York Times reports that “All-Jewish Hockey Team Dominates.” Yeshiva University is now a top team in Division II of the Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association, after winning the Division IV championships last year. This is a follow-up to an earlier story this year on the popularity of roller hockey in yeshivas SEEN HERE.
Show them some Love (and drop by the YU Seforim Sale this weekend.
Speaking of love, in a Valentines story from Brooklyn Isaac and Rosa Blum are profiled. He is 94, she is 93; they met as teenagers 75 years ago in a ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland. He helped to save her life, and together they survived the war and labor camps. They still have nightmares, but survive on their love.
Lovely.
And on the topic of surviving on love… and bible knowledge, we meet Yair Shahak and Yaelle Frohlich in Testament to Their Marriage: Couple Compete in Worldwide Bible Contest. They competed together in Israel in the National Bible quiz show, and Mr. Shahak placed first. Recognized after the televised contest by their cab driver in Jerusalem, they were quizzed again as he drove them to their destination.
May their love grow like the many facets of the Tanach
