Shabbat Shalom

This week, I thought I’d point you in the direction of this image on Mottel’s blog - I think it’s beautiful.

שבת -שלום

Jewish Literature Challenge – second book to be reviewed

… will be ‘The Holocaust – The Jewish Tragedy’ by Martin Gilbert.

Jewish Literature Challenge – first book review

Just to point you all in the direction of my first book review towards the Jewish Literature Challenge – you can read it here.

The book was Thomas Friedman’s ‘From Beirut to Jerusalem’ – I hope it inspires you to read it yourself!

Zichronam l’Vracha – May their memories be for a blessing

 

Here’s a link to the 24 Hour Museum article about Holocaust Memorial Day.

 

***Update***

I also found this information on the BBC website’s Archive – they are recordings of various witnesses to the Sho’ah, ranging from broadcasters, the Red Cross, authors and holocaust survivors.  I am aware that some things on the BBC website are not available to certain locations – I hope that this is not the case for this link.

International Survey of Jewish Monuments

I found this website a little while ago – it may be of interest to some of my readers…

ISJM.org

Please see the description of the website below, which I have copied from its home page:

“The International Survey of Jewish Monuments (ISJM) is an independent, non-profit, membership based, educational organization dedicated to the documentation, study, care and conservation of historic Jewish sites throughout the world.

A primary role of ISJM is to serve as a clearing-house of information about current projects and programs that effect Jewish monuments, especially through the posting of news, photos, reports, directories and other materials on this site.

This new website will collate information from around the world, and we invite ISJM members and users to contirubte information.”

יום הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה

Tomorrow is Yom Ha Shoah.

Yom HaShoah was inaugurated in 1951 and signed into law signed by the Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion and the President of Israel Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.

In the UK, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust has a website which you can visit here.  Currently, you can light a virtual candle on the website to show your support – why not do so?  I have.  The theme of the Trust this year is Stand Up To Hatred.

[This image from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website.]

שבת -שלום

[Thsi image from the Rose of Sharon website - 'Kiddush' by Kotovsky]

Perspective

It’s easy to get exercised about the smallest things.  Humans are essentially selfish animals and I personally think that this is driven by our animal instincts that drive us to survive.  In the modern world, this translates into wanting to having everything the way we want it – and my goodness it better happen now!

I go to the gym.  I enjoy going to the gym.  After several years of following no organised fitness programme, followed by a year or so of running, followed by nothing, followed by now using a fantastic personal trainer, I love knowing that I am fitter and stronger than I have ever been.  But I’m not where I want to be yet and probably never will be.  I’m a perfectionist, so I’m doomed to failure, but it doesn’t stop me trying to lift that heavier weight, put in that extra 30 seconds on the rowing machine, stretch that little bit further.

I’m really frustrated right now.  The gym has been packed ever since the New Year with the New Year Resolution (NYR) members.  The ones who pose and gossip and take up all the room.  I know this is a sweeping generalisation, but this really is how it looks.  The staff spend all their time catering to the NYRs and taking it for granted that the rest of us are fine and happy.  The staff have also ‘improved’ things, again for the NYRs, by providing unecessary help desks to the detriment of workout space.  Do you get my drift?

So, after the umpteenth time of going to the gym late in the evening (when it’s supposed to be quiet) and not being able to do a proper routine or warm up or cool down, I was not a happy woman last night.  I was really, really annoyed.  The only thing keeping me from throwing in the towel was the fact that my personal trainer is fantastic and he only works out of that gym (self employed).  I took a step back and decided that if I complained there and then, I would (a) lose my temper and look like an incoherent, spoiled brat and (b) end up talking to someone who wuoldn’t take any notice anyway.  So, I finished what routine I could and went home in a grumpy, dissatisfied mood.

I was still festering on this when I happened across a programme on Channel 4 ‘Unseen Gaza’.  Here’s the summary of what it was about:

Is what has been presented on our screens and in our papers a true reflection of events on the ground in Gaza? And how do these reports differ to those aired in other countries?

With reporters unable to enter Gaza, attempted media manipulation from both sides and strict regulations governing what images that can be shown on British TV, Jon Snow asks a range of journalists from at home and abroad about the challenges of getting the full story.

To what extent does the choice of news outlet affect opinion of the conflict?

OK.  Of course, the programme showed footage of inside Gaza.  Of course this footage was from channels that are more likely than not to have a pro-Palestinian slant.  Of course there was plenty of blood, gore, death, despair and destruction.  But that was the point.  Because the mainstream media was prevented from getting in, those in the West that wanted to see what was happening had no choice but to go to these channels that had journalists already in Gaza, none of whom don’t seem to need to (or want to) restrict what can and cannot be watched for the sake of public sensitivities.  And of course, the footage will all be one-sided.  On the other hand, when Western media did obtain footage from journalists within Gaza, they immediately sanitized it, both because they were required to by law, but also because they had their own agendas.

Sometimes, I think that Israel can be its own worst enemy. ‘Managing’ information in such a controlled way has meant in this case that access to information is restricted to pro-Palestinian sources, which of course are as likely as anyone to jump on the propaganda bandwagon.  The usage by Israel of the Israel Project as illustrated in this programme to manage information releases reminded me of a film media junket – everything was so slick and presented. 

So, there I was last night, being bombarded with images of death and destruction that had me caught like a rabbit in the headlights.  I didn’t want to see that every day of the war, but I wanted more than I was getting.  I wanted the truth.  But, what is the truth?  I am reading a Thomas Friedman book at the moment, ‘From Beirut to Jerusalem’ – for anyone who doesn’t know, he’s a Pulitzer Prize winner and currently writes Op-Ed pieces for the New York Times.  He writes that in the Middle East, you will only ever get versions of the truth – that there is no real, singular, truth.  Depressingly, I agree with him.  The truth you get from Israel will not be the truth you get from Gaza, will not be the truth you get from anywhere else.  The greatest victim of war, is the truth. (And of course, this problem is not restricted to the Middle East).

So, my title for these ramblings is ‘Perspectives’.  Why?  Well, of course the programme shocked me out of my grumpiness about such irrelevant concerns as workout space at the gym.  And it opened my eyes to just how much the media war had been waged since the start, by all parties.  I knew it was being managed, but not to what extent.  War is dirty, on many levels.

But, as I said at the beginning, human beings are essentially selfish animals – we want what we want and we want it now.  In that sense, I am just like everyone else.  I wanted news – real news, and I wasn’t getting it.  I want space at my gym and I’m not getting it.   At the end of the day, I am at a total loss and am totally powerless to do anything about Gaza/Israel, but I can do something about my gym membership.  And because I can’t do anything about the former, I will do something about the latter in a much more forceful way than is probably warranted.  Managing the news doesn’t smooth the angles, it just makes me trust what I see less and my frustration at that becomes superimposed onto other issues.  And I am also frustrated with myself.  The revelation that even after watching that programme last night, I am still fixated on getting what I want, when I want it and how I want it – it’s not pretty. 

I’m as selfish as everyone else.

Prayers

I want to commit to praying daily at home, in the morning and the evening.  Given that I work (don’t we all!), leave the house at an excrutiatingly early hour and get home late too, I am planning on doing this on a best efforts basis to start off with.  As in, I will do it when I remember and can do it with kavana (sometimes, blundering around half asleep isn’t the best frame of mind for being observant!).  However, I think that if I can get into a rhythm, it will fall into place and feel very meaningful indeed.

So, please can someone advise as to what I should be praying?  I know there is a prayer on waking – Modeh Ani – and I know that there are also prayers for bedtime, but I don’t know what they are.  If someone can point me in the right direction, I would be very grateful.

So much to learn… and yet what has the biggest impact on me is what I am learning about myself whilst I move forward on this journey.  I never thought I would feel moved to ask this question. The ‘me’ I am now is  a very different ‘me’ to the one I was a year ago!

Concentration Camp Guide – Marc Terrance

I have just taken delivery of this fantastic book – or should I say my BH has it at home! Click on the image to get to the page on Amazon!

Essentially, the author Marc Terrance (who is not Jewish) has spent a lot of time, money and effort visiting many WW II concentration camps and other memorials and written a guide book for other travellers.  The difference here is that he has focussed on providing exact directions on how to get to each place and included much practical travel advice in his book.  He also has a website which provides updates as soon as he is aware of them.  This is so detailed and such a useful resource, I thought it deserved a mention.

Can you tell what I’m hoping to do…?