Papal baggage
Filed under: coexistence, History and Culture, Politics, Religion
Only two popes have ever visited Israel. In 1964, which was a good 29 years prior to the Vatican’s eventual recognition of Israel as a sovereign state, Pope Paul VI set foot in the Holy Land.
And in 2000, when a pre-intifada Israel seemed poised to position herself as the venue for ushering in a new Millennium of peace and tolerance, Pope John Paul II went on an inspirational whirlwind tour of the land. He held a mass for tens of thousands on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, met with dignitaries and religious leaders from many sectors and even made appearances at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and the Western Wall (pictured).
The Polish-bred, relatively reconciliatory and dovish pontiff made quite an impression, and many felt that the visit represented a landmark in global healing. As John Paul II said in a statement in Jerusalem,
“We know that real peace in the Middle East will come only as a result of mutual understanding and respect between all the peoples of the region: Jews, Christians and Muslims. In this perspective, my pilgrimage is a journey of hope, the hope that the twenty-first century will lead to a new solidarity among the peoples of the world, in the conviction that development, justice and peace will not be attained unless they are attained for all.”
Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched a highly comprehensive mini-site aimed at commemorating the occasion, with resources including an extended streaming commemorative video (link towards the top of the main page).
Ha’aretz recently announced that it had discovered plans for the current pontiff, Benedict XVI, to come to Israel this coming May (just a few weeks prior to Bob Dylan‘s expected arrival), thanks to an invitation issued by President Shimon Peres.
Apparently the Vatican has yet to confirm Ha’aretz‘s announcement, prompting many to wonder what the full story here may be. It might just be a case of bureaucracy needing to work itself out, but the complex context and baggage surrounding the controversial Benedict and his relationship with the Jews and their homeland are undeniable. In the meantime, news site eFluxMedia has done an impressive job of enumerating some of these factors….
[There's] an ongoing controversy over Vatican moves to elevate to sainthood the World War II-era pontiff Pius, who many Jews accuse of failing to speak out against the Nazi mass-murder of Jews, the Holocaust.
The German-born Benedict defended Pius when commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death this year. However, he has put Pius’ beatification – an important step towards sainthood – on hold.
Late last year the Vatican turned down an invitation by Peres to visit the Holy Land in 2008, citing a stall in long-standing negotiations with Israel.
The talks focus on taxation of church property and visas for Catholic clergy – issues that have marred Israel’s relations with the Holy See for decades.
Image courtesy escapedtowisconsin from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
Once upon my son’s potty
Filed under: Art, General, Life, Pop Culture, Profiles
It’s potty-training time at my house, which means two things. Firstly, the occasional accidents around the house and garden – which my older two children unfortunately find highly amusing, making potty-training a little more challenging than usual – and secondly, the dusting off of Alona Frankel’s book, Once Upon a Potty.
Once Upon a Potty is the bible of toilet-training. Though I’ve looked, I haven’t yet found a book that explains the process to a child in a better way. The drawings are old fashioned, the language occasionally stilted, but boy does Frankel get the message across clearly, and with humor.
I’m obviously not the only mother to think so. Since Frankel, an Israeli who lives in Tel Aviv, first translated the book into English in 1980, (it came out in Hebrew in 1975), the book sold four million copies in the US alone. The boy’s version was listed as No. 1 in Publisher Weekly’s all-time best-selling hardcover childcare charts, while the girl’s version came in at number three.
Even today, any article on toilet training is likely to end with a recommendation to buy the book. No-one, it seems, has come up with anything that betters it.
Frankel is an interesting woman. She was born in Krakow, Poland in 1937, and spent World War II in hiding, first alone and then later with her parents. She moved to Israel with her family in 1949. Like so many writers, Frankel wrote the book when her son Michael was a baby to help him through a trying period. It was her first book, and after it’s publishing success, she went on to write and illustrate 35 other titles, winning many awards though the years.
In April this year, a new multimedia exhibition was launched at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, telling the stories of 90 survivors of the Holocaust who have made impressive contributions in the fields of art, literature, science etc. Frankel is one of those featured.
In an article in the Herald Tribune at the time, Yehudit Shendar, the exhibit’s curator and deputy director of Yad Vashem’s Museums Division, praised Frankel and the other featured survivors for their ability to “become part of society with a vivaciousness which is totally surprising.”
So what is it about Once Upon a Potty that remains so enduring?
It’s that wonderful down to earth Israeli quality to call a spade a spade, or in this case – as my son will vouch – a poo, a poo.
Baruch Obama
Barack Obama had quite a whirlwind trip here yesterday. He met with three past prime ministers, the current prime minister and pretty much everyone who wants to be prime minister. It was as much as a photo opportunity for Israeli politicians who want to be seen with the possible next president of the United States as it was for Obama.
Obama was received quite well as he was shuffled from meeting to meeting, with a visit to Yad Vashem, a quick stop in Ramallah, an important visit to Sderot and a predawn visit to the Western Wall. Personally, I think the most important aspect of his trip was his visit to Sderot. Obama delivered his only speech of his trip there (and said all the right things of course). As a result, Sderot’s plight will get mentioned in nearly every newspaper in the world today and all three major television networks in the states surely mentioned it last night.
Politics here unfortunately tend to be single-issue oriented. I think we, as Jews, need to wake up and realize that while the security and peace for Israel is important for the America, it is not the number one issue. Yair Lapid nails this in an excellent column in Yediot this week.
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