The grueling heat last Friday did not deter several hundred people from showing up at a joint Kabbalat Shabbat event near France Square.
The weekly Friday gathering to welcome the Sabbath has been going on for months but was attended by a larger crowd than usual because Beit Avi Chai, which runs its own weekly Kabbalat Shabbat program, had decided to join forces with the Jerusalem Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
What was particularly interesting was that unlike protest demonstrations at which police security barriers are erected to keep the crowds in check, there were no security barriers, and police were barely in sight.
The event was held under the title of “For the Sake of our Brothers, Sisters, and Friends.”
Portraits of hostages who are still being held by Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza were affixed to a row of yellow chairs.
Billboard posters urging the immediate return of the hostages were affixed to the fence of Terra Sancta. Alongside the fence, near the Balfour-Aza intersection, are two tents which are the headquarters of the forum.
Organizers had not estimated how large a crowd there would be, and even though hundreds of white plastic chairs had been set up in rows around a center area for speakers and musicians, there were many people standing.
There were yellow banners attached to poles, and national flags of hope featuring the Star of David superimposed on the yellow ribbon which has become the emblem for the homecoming of the hostages.
A group of volunteers handed out bottles of water, large black umbrellas imprinted with the words “Bring them home NOW,” and song booklets inside of which were yellow chrysanthemums.
Speakers referred to similar events as designed to be the conscience of the world, and warned that threats and attacks against Jews were attacks against democratic societies.
Among those present was Josef Avi Yair Engel, of Kibbutz Ramat Rahel, the grandfather of teenage hostage Ofir Engel, who was released after 54 days in captivity. Ofir is the nephew of Yair Engel, who lost his life during military service in 1996, and in whose memory Mitzpe Yair, a lookout point, was created in the kibbutz.
The senior Engel, who is a dual national who also holds Dutch citizenship, and remains an active supporter of the families of hostages, voiced his appreciation to the prime minister of Holland and the Dutch government for helping to secure Ofir’s release, and added that since Ofir came home, not a single member of the Israeli government had called to find out how he is doing. Ofir is also active on behalf of the hostages and their families.
Josef Engel is not the first to note the reticence of Israeli government ministers with regard to contacting Israeli families who have lost loved ones in Gaza or whose loved ones are still in captivity.
Family members who are interviewed on radio and television are routinely asked about which, if any, officials have been in contact with them. While there have been a few members of Knesset and municipal representatives, by and large, elected officials have kept their distance.
The event concluded with a stirring, jazzed-up rendition of “Lecha Dodi,” the piyut that welcomes the Sabbath bride.
Remembering Varda Blechman
■ APROPOS RAMAT Rahel, in September 1930 Varda Blechman was the first baby born on the kibbutz. She died at the early age of 44. She was the mother of Anat Hoffman, a former member of the Jerusalem Municipal Council, former director of the Israel Religious Action Center, and one of the founders of Women of the Wall.
How Israel-Hamas War impacted Jerusalem business
■ HOW HAS business in Jerusalem been affected by the war? This will be the key point of discussion at a conference to be held at the Friends of Zion Museum on Sunday, June 30.
Among the participants will be Arie Wissmann, chairman of Wissmann Holdings, a furniture group that was founded in Jerusalem in 1932, and is among the few veteran business enterprises that are still going strong. Elsewhere throughout the city, many businesses have closed down, sometimes after only a year in operation.
On the other hand, real estate investors and developers are moving ever higher.
High-rise buildings remove natural sunlight from people’s lives. Even when the cranes are gone, occupants of upper floors of such buildings will be able to see what’s happening on lower floors next door and across the road, impinging on other people’s privacy.
Among the speakers at the conference will be Energy Minister Eli Cohen; MK Osher Shekalim, chairman of the Knesset lobby for small- and medium-sized businesses; rags to riches businessman Rami Levy, who is constantly expanding his range of businesses; and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion.
David Newman addresses Jewish Historical Society of England
■ BRITISH RABBIS and the synagogues in which they served have long occupied the attention of British-born David Newman, professor of geopolitics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and former dean of BGU’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Newman will address the Israel branch of the Jewish Historical Society of England, on Monday, June 24, at 7:45 p.m., at the Hibba Center, 75 Herzog Street, a few doors away from the small shopping center.
Newman will be speaking about the meeting of provincial rabbis in 1912 which set the tone for relationships with London’s religious establishment for subsequent decades.
As the majority of devotees to the historical society are of British background, the subject will provoke nostalgic recollections among some of the audience.
greerfc@gmail.com