First Bnei Menashe to become IDF officer
Shalem Gin and family
David recently wrote about the graduation ceremony for his daughter in the army. At the same time, there was another ceremony taking place in Mitzpe Ramon, this one for new officers. Among the graduates was Shalem Gin, the first officer from the Bnei Menashe.
The Bnei Menashe are one of the most far flung Jewish communities, concentrated in the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur. Tradition has it that the Bnei Menashe are descendents of one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel who were sent into exile by the Assyrian Empire more than 27 centuries ago. The Bnei Menashe wandered through modern day Afghanistan and China before settling in northeastern India near the Burmese border.
Approximately 1,700 Bnei Menashe have immigrated to Israel with the help of Shavei Israel, a non-profit organization that has helped support and educate the community both in India and Israel. Another 7,232 are still in India, awaiting a government decision that will allow them to make aliyah as well.
Gin, 20, moved to Israel with his family in 1995 when he was just an infant. He joined the IDF in 2009 and enlisted in the Engineering Corps. After attending officers’ training school, he will now return to his unit as a platoon commander.
Gin told Yediot Ahronot that his new standing as an officer “brings great joy and pride to me and my family,” and added that he hopes more Bnei Menashe will follow suit.
Dollars and sense in Israel
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Israeliness, Life
It’s nice to know that some people are doing well financially in Israel. According to a new study on worldwide wealth, while there was globally a 17% increase in the number of millionaires in 2009. the rate in Israel was nearly 43%.
I guess that worn out joke – ‘how do you make a million dollars in Israel? Bring $2 million’ – is no longer the blueprint here.
The World Wealth Report, released by Merrill Lynch and the Capgemini consulting firm, states that there were 8,419 millionaires in Israel in 2009, compared to 5,900 in 2008. According to the Ha’aretz report, that brisk growth rate was surpassed only by Hong Kong and India. The study defines a millionaire as a person with at least $1 million in investable assets, excluding primary residences, and with an offset for liabilities.
In 2008, the number of millionaires in Israel had declined by 28% compared to the year before, because of the global economic crisis.
The growth in the Israeli millionaires’ club last year is the result of a 40% increase in the value of capital market financial holdings and a 15% increase in non-financial assets such as real estate.
Millionaires aren’t the only growth industry in Israel. According to the report, the number of multi-millionaires (those worth over $30 million) rose from 73 to 83 last year.
While not begrudging anyone their big payday, the rest of us are still struggling month to month, with record numbers living under the poverty line. Another old adage, “the rich get richer while the poor get poorer”, while not a joke, is relevant today more than ever.
Not just any third birthday
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Religion, War
One of the most quickly forgotten aspects following any terror attack is the survivors. We all mourn the victims, obsess about the perpetrators, and move on, as those left behind attempt to pick up the pieces of their lives.
Three-year-old Moishe Holzberg has proven to be the exception. A year ago, Moishe’s parents, Rabbi Gavriel Holzberg, 29, and his wife Rivka, 28, were killed along with 170 other victims when Pakistani Islamic terrorists carried out a series of attacks in Mumbai in India. The Holzbergs, who had lived in Mumbai for six years as official emissaries of the Chabad movement were killed with seven other people at Chabad House.
The two-year-old life of Moishe was saved when he was spirited away from the attack by his Indian nanny Sandra Samuel. He’s been raised at Kfar Chabad near Tel Aviv by his grandparents for the last year. And on Wednesday, the community hosted a memorial ceremony for the couple, which was attended by 2,000 people. During the event, Moishe celebrated his first haircut, a coming-of-age event for three-year-old boys, known as an “upshirin” in Yiddish or “chalaka” in Hebrew.
“Moshe may be without biological parents, but the entire Chabad family has adopted him,” the head of the Chabad Youth Organization in Israel, Rabbi Yosef Aharonov, told The Jerusalem Post which attended the event.
Across a blue-grey curtain on the wall of the womens’ section of the tent, dozens of blue and white balloons spelled out “Moishe, three years old.” Moishe himself was carried in by Sandra shortly before the beginning of the event, and stood before a gaggle of reporters and cameras, calmly, even lazily, taking in the spectacle.
Rabbi Holzberg’s father, Rabbi Nachman Holzberg, said that the outpouring of support for his family has been tremendous over the past year, and that Moishe was doing very well. Holzberg also expressed his hope that the tragedy “will only bring the entire world closer to redemption.”
Samuel, surrounded by a sea of reporters and swarmed by well-wishers from the moment she entered with Moishe, said that she was feeling a mix of emotions at the event, both great happiness that Moishe was doing well and sadness at the fact that his parents could not be with him.
Samuel said that “the baby is fine, he’s a normal kid, he plays, he jumps.”
With a mixture of sadness and joy, which, after all, is a regular recipe in Israel, the shortened lives of the Holzbergs and the hopefully long life of their son Moishe was celebrated in the only way Israeli know how – with all their hearts.
Yoga puts religious Israelis in an uncomfortable position
Filed under: A New Reality, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Sports
Today’s Western societies are into all kinds of Eastern recreational and spiritual pursuits. There are also scores of Israelis from multiple generations returning home from backpacking jaunts to India and elsewhere in the East on an ongoing basis. Combine the two phenomena, and the booming popularity of yoga in Israel seems like an obvious eventuality.
For Israelis who are interested in spirituality avenues that are new to them, regardless of potential conflict with their Jewish roots, yoga is hardly a problem. But for the increasing numbers of Israeli Orthodox Jews who are experimenting with flavors from other faiths and integrating them into their own traditional frameworks, yoga isn’t always a straightforward pursuit.
Other spiritual paths might be less problematic for religious Jews looking to pepper things up: Buddhism, for example, is often justified on the grounds that it is essentially a code of ethics with possibly nothing to teach in terms of deities. And other religions have their own potential beefs (pardon the apropos expression) with yoga. However, some Jewish theologians, including a well-publicized responsum by Chabad Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, have justified yoga practice among Jews on the grounds that one ought not throw the baby out with the bathwater – in other words, just because many yoga practitioners include chants dedicated to multiple deities in their practices, that doesn’t mean that the spirit-calming and body-stretching advantages of yoga ought to be avoided.
Another complication to the situation is that it might not be so straightforward that yoga’s Hindu chants to more than one god represent idolatry. Many other theologians have posited that since they all essentially represent manifestations of the one primary godhead, Brahman, the additional Hindu gods can be seen as analogous to Jewish mysticism’s concept of the sephirot, the kabalistic manifestations of the Jewish God’s various components of holiness.
Regardless, there are thousands of religious Israelis who are simply scared of yoga’s spiritual elements and prefer to focus on its exercise-based advantages. Case in point is Californian immigrant yogi Aviva Schmidt, whose yoga studio in Jerusalem, “Power Flow,” has been christened by Ha’aretz as “Israel’s first kosher power yoga studio.”
Located in Jerusalem’s posh Rehavia neighborhood, “Power Flow” specializes in power yoga, which is different from conventional yoga in that the exercises are quicker and more exhausting. “They call it yoga for athletes,” Schmidt said. “It’s not your slow, meditative and gentle yoga, it’s a workout.”
As Schmidt explains her approach to the conundrum….
“Yoga is based on Eastern tradition and focuses a lot on meditation. Different positions are worshipping different idols, which goes against Judaism. So I keep it very pareve: for example, I don’t say the names of the positions, there is no chanting, no ohming. I do focus on the breathing, as this is very important in yoga, but any kind of eastern philosophy stays outside.”
Hey, whatever floats your boat. We’ve heard of kosher cell phones and kosher sex, so kosher yoga? Why not.
Image of Israelis doing yoga courtesy zivpu from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
Liverpool’s magical mystery tour comes to Tel Aviv
Two admirers 'meet the Beatles' in Tel Aviv/
Devoted to the mythological symbols of Liverpool -The Beatles and the Liverpool Football Cub – the exhibit, sponsored by Liverpool’s tourism association and on display until the end of the month, is aiming to encourage Israeli tourism in Liverpool.
According the organizers of Imagine Liverpool, Tel Aviv was chosen because there aren’t many cities in the world with such a large concentration of both Beatles and Liverpool soccer fans. One of Israel’s sons – Yossi Benayoun – is a star on the team, and of course, who isn’t a Beatles fan, as demonstrated by the Beatlemaniac reception Paul McCartney received here last year.
While the incredible photographs of the Fab Four shot in 1968 in Rishikesh, India by a young Canadian photographer Paul Saltzman are the real star of the exhibit, yesterday’s gala opening featured another star – Julia Baird, the half sister of John Lennon.
Baird runs the Cavern Club Tours, devoted to the location where The Beatles played regularly and were discovered by Brian Epstein. Amid the tiny quiche hors doeuvres and complimentary wine and Heineken beer, Baird talked about growing up in Liverpool nearby Lennon, and touted the attractions the city holds today.
Musical entertainment was provided by the always excellent Beatles cover band Magical Mystery Tour, and a ‘splendid time for all’ was had. “Not bad at all,’ was Baird’s assessment of the band performing her late brother’s tunes.
The exhibition is at Dizengoff Center, 3rd floor of the
southern building (entry via gate 1, 3, 5 or 7). Open from 10:00 am to 9 pm. daily.
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