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Tag: family
A real miracle or the doing of extraordinary people?
Posted by Daniel Gordis in Featured Articles on December 11, 2009 | 60 Comments
Dec. 10, 2009
DANIEL GORDIS , THE JERUSALEM POST
It's been almost a year since St.-Sgt. Dvir Emanuelof became the first casualty of Operation Cast Lead, losing his life to Hamas mortar fire just as he entered Gaza early in the offensive. But sitting with his mother, Dalia, in her living room last week, I was struck not by loss, but by life. And not by grief, but by fervent belief. And by a more recent story about Dvir that simply needs to be told, especially now at Hanukka, our season of miracles.
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This ...
A Response from Dr. K
Posted by Daniel Gordis in Featured Articles on May 11, 2009 | 48 Comments
A number of years ago, we had a bit of a motley crew over for Shabbat lunch. I remember that my brother was in town, visiting from New York. Another friend, a significant player in the Federation world was also there, as was a high school friend of one of our kids. And we were joined by one more friend, an Israeli Arab woman whom we'd initially met through my work.
It was an interesting, though hardly relaxed, Shabbat afternoon. (The conversation took place in English ironically, since even though the Arab woman spoke a mellifluous Hebrew, our American Jewish leader friend didn't. But the abandonment of Hebrew on the part ...
The House on Graetz Street
This may be the week to pick up a correspondence I inadvertently dropped. It all started with a note from a friend who lives on Graetz street. "This is probably up your alley," he wrote. "If you want to answer him, you can."
Attached was a note from Munir K., who had written to my friend asking for information about his erstwhile home on Graetz. Dr. K., now a physician in the States, had lived on Graetz Street in the 1930's and 40's, and was wondering what had happened to his house. (For the record, Dr. K. gave me explicit, written permission to use both his letter and his name any way I wished. I've used only parts of the letter, ...Ushpizin (2004)
Moshe and Mali Bellanga are dirt poor and childless, having joined the Breslov Hassidic community in Jerusalem as adults. Their powerful faith is tested by their childlessness, and by their poverty, as well. Their love, and their marriage, are severely tested when Moshe pays an extraordinary sum for a gorgeous etrog in preparing for the Sukkot holiday. "Friends" from his former life, now escaped convicts, soon visit, and matters get extraordinarily complicated. The Hardei community is the source of much contention in Israel, largely because Haredim do not serve in the army. But this touching film, in which the actors themselves are Hardeim and married to each other, casts an entirely different, and loving, light on this poorly understood community. A beautiful film.
Campfire (2004)
It's the early 1980's, and a single mother decides to move with her two daughters to a religious-Zionist settlement in the "occupied territories." The movie casts a not always flattering lens on the passions and beliefs of the community, shown through the trials of the two teenage daughters and the way they are treated by a host of characters. Painful, sometimes funny, and always poignant.
Broken Wings (2002)
Israel is not all about war, army, immigration. Sometimes it's just about regular people trying to live regular lives. This film, about a single mother raising her teenage children alone, isn't at all critical of Israel. Indeed, it's not "about" Israel. But because it takes place in Israel, it offers a window into parts of Israeli life, even while dealing with a subject much more universal. Memorable and beautifully done.
Foreign Sister (2000)
Foreign workers are a major dimension of Israeli life, and not a necessarily pleasant one. Israel has allowed thousands of people to enter to work here, but their status is often grey, and their conditions sometimes deplorable. This movie actually addresses the case of foreign workers in reasonable conditions, and even so, points to the underbelly of Israel's underclass, an issues Israel is eventually going to have to confront. See this movie, and you'll understand the issue better than ever before.
Bema’aglei Tzedek
Bema'aglei Tzedek is another great organization that focuses on social justice. Some of the issues central to the organization include decreasing the number of Israeli families living under the poverty line; increasing the accessibility of public spaces to the disabled; and preventing the trafficking of women. The organization awards a seal of approval to businesses and restaurants that respect the rights of their employees and are accessible to those with disabilities.
The Ma'aglei Tzedek Website
Dr. Daniel Gordis is Senior Vice President of the Shalem Center, where he is also a senior fellow. The author of numerous books on Jewish thought and currents in Israel...
The Jewish State must end, say its enemies, from intellectuals like Tony Judt to hate-filled demagogues like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even average Israelis are wondering if they wouldn't be better off somewhere else. 
