Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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This beautiful time of year is the heart of spring in Israel. Once Purim ends, people fall into a cleaning frenzy. In my yishuv, Susya, you can read the daily messages of people giving away "chometz" starting the day after Purim: "Giving away breadcrumbs, pasta, and cornflakes ... will throw out on Friday. It is sitting in our entranceway," people write. Sometimes a photo is posted with the words "giving away" in Hebrew. And then there are the sales - locally made olive oil in five-kilo...
When I speak to groups and describe Susya, I often mention that there is no common crime. They seem incredulous. In this day and age, how can such a thing be possible? Growing up in the U.S,. a child of the 1980s, I remember all too well the faces of kidnapped children posted on milk containers. We'd see them every morning as we ate our breakfast. The warnings about kidnappers were constant. "Don't take candy from a stranger" and the ever-popular "don't talk to strangers," and we girls were...
March 18th was a warm summer-like day in the Southern Hevron Hills. When Pastor Roger Diaz of Fellowship Church in Winter Springs, Fla., called me telling me the group had just left Kiryat Arba, I got myself into gear and packed up my water and gun. My son drove me to the Ancient City of Susya, which is a mere five-minute drive from modern Susya, my home. I arrived just in time. The bus was beginning to unload passengers and I recognized Roger Diaz and a few other congregants, too. For the past...
My day starts at the crack of dawn. I hear the rooster across the street at 5 a.m. My alarm goes off after I open my eyes. I push “snooze” until 5:05. Then again until 5:10. At 5:15 I swing my legs over the side of the bed and drag myself up. Bathroom, teeth, get dressed, lace up walking shoes. At 5:25 I walk downstairs. The dogs have galloped into the “stairs room” and are waiting for me on the other side of the gate. We have two gates, to keep them downstairs. They’ve jumped over them a few times, but generally they stay put. They follow me...
On Dec. 12, a terrorist opened fire on a passenger bus on Route 60, just north of the Jerusalem tunnels. The bus continued to the security checkpoint before getting assistance. Twenty-three bullets hit the bus and three people were injured. The young boy in this photo was killed. Just him. Out of 23 bullets, only one person was killed. Miracle? Our rescue medics (Hatzalah) were at the scene quickly. We were not qui k enough to save the one boy though. We don’t always succeed. It is a hard part of the work. Take a look at the photo. Not just a...
It’s Chanukah. But it doesn’t feel like it so much. My one boy, the eldest, has finally finished his reserve service. now what? Now he is planning an overseas trip with his friend, a common plan for Israeli soldiers exiting their army service. My second boy who has been in Gaza, then Lebanon, then Syria, then the Golan Heights, tells me he is coming home this afternoon. So, I have to ready his bed, get the laundry done so the machine is clear for his things, make food, and make sure there are things he likes. I want to share greetings and ble...
What is going on and what are we seeing before our eyes? Is it real or is it just entertainment? As an American Conservative Jew, I grew up celebrating Jewish holidays in our dining room with my cousins. We’d get through the meal quickly and run off to the basement where we would watch movies. Every Rosh Hashanah we would watch “Grease” on the VCR and sing along with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. We knew all the songs all the dance moves. This was our joy. This was how we spent our time. Recently, while speaking with an American frien...
Last night in Alei Zahav, a large community in the Shomron, we met with a large group of medics from the region, to distribute equipment. Specifically, medic bags. These were newly trained medics, who went through their three-month training period, which we require after they complete the six-month, 200+ hour course. In the three-month training period, they get supervised real-life experience in the field. We don’t throw anyone into the field fresh and new. Among the attendees at the g...
Fellowship Church recently hosted the spokeswoman for Rescuers Without Borders in Israel, Natalie Sopinsky, who gave an "on-the-ground and very personal" perspective of the Gaza and Hezbollah conflicts. "On my speaking tour, I get the same questions over and over," Sopinsky said. "One of them is: What do you see happening ... will there be peace?" Eleven months and counting as of Sept. 24, and now Hezbollah has launched all out attacks on northern Israel. The red dots on this map represent the m...
Natalie Sopinsky lives in Suissa, Israel, in the southeast Negev. She shares her daily life with Heritage readers, her thoughts, her reality in the land she loves. Welcome to Israel ... where we allow terrorist murderers free reign. They have education, jobs, families, possessions...they are normal citizens. So why do they hate us so much? What pushes a mother to kill? What causes a mother to be a killer, to forfeit her life, to lead a life in jail? Why attempt to kill an Israeli soldier? As we...
Just now, Friday morning, 10:45 a.m. I am in the kitchen, cleaning, cooking, making room on the refrigerator for a new Shabbat list. So many magnets and photos crowd the refrigerator door…what do I remove to make room. What don’t we need. I love all the photos. Here sticking out and taking up way too much space is a calendar from the Arad Country Club. This is where I swim during the winter. I got my daughter a membership, too. She likes the gym. I’m thrilled that someone in my family enjoys exercise! So many kids are lazy….not my girl! B...
Our first Susya soldier fell. It was the first night of Chanukah. We were eating dinner and my daughter, 16, saw a message in her medical whatsapp group. The head Medic was wishing a friend of mine sorry on her son. I saw it, and said "he probably got injured" and we continued eating. The mother, a good friend of mine, is one of our original medics here. She is a strong person, one of my group of friends, and is one of those women who seems to do it all. She can even do a lay-up on the basketbal...
Yesterday I was speaking to a friend on the phone in the USA. She asked me about my children, about the situation here, about any updates. Then she tried to change the subject. She actually started talking about something else. I don’t remember what she said. I could not focus. None of us can really think about anything else. For us, there is nothing else. Just this situation. This war. Our kidnapped citizens. Our dead friends. Our soldiers fighting. Each day another announcement of fallen soldiers, listed by age and name, rank, division, u...
This Pesach started out like so many others ... beautiful sunny weather, lots of tourists, families gearing up for Seder and Chol haMoed vacations together in all the fun places in Israel with water. Life events in Israel are strong and fast. Weddings are tremendous events, with hundreds of guests. When I attended my first wedding in Israel I was astonished at the number of guests ... something like 600 ... ("who is paying for this?" I thought to myself) also the attire, so many in jeans and...
What a dichotomy. Life in Israel vs. life in the U.S. Being a Jew has its challenges and rewards in both places...but being an American Jew vs. being an Israeli Jew is vastly different. I was just in the U.S. for about 10 days including Parsha Chaya Sara and I stayed in a modern orthodox community. What was the talk around the Shabbat Table? To us, it's Parshat Chaya Sara which covers Sarah's death and Abraham's purchase of the famous Ma'arah h'Machpelah where she is buried. The parshah also...
I'm sitting in my sukkah, fighting off the heat. This week we all have an extra room outside. We eat all our meals in the sukkah, despite the heat of the day. We are obligated by the Torah to do this, to remember our exodus from Egypt, and we take it seriously. It's simply the way of life here. To NOT have a sukkah would be strange, an embarrassment. We would stand out and people would talk. All around Israel this is happening. Our medics, always standing by, have sukkahs, too. Growing up in...
This summer, like the past nine summers, I am the Susya pool lifeguard. Everyday my day starts at 6:30 a.m. Our summers here in Har Hevron are slow and easy. Not much goes on. That is a blessing. In the summer of 2017, right on the first day of summer vacation, there was a terrible tragedy in nearby Kiryat Arba. Some of you may remember, a beautiful 8th grade girl was stabbed to death in her bed. The day before this horror, the 8th grade class of girls was at the pool for their class...
It was during the Second Intifada, horrific terrorist attacks were breaking out daily-shootings, bus bombings, tragedy after tragedy. An attack in Otniel, in the Hebron Hills, left a student and teacher severely injured. Two local doctors quickly arrived on the scene, and did all they could to save them. Sadly, they weren't able to. The doctors poured their hearts out to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel. "We could have saved them. They could have still been alive. But we... Full story
