Family of 'Palestinian' terror victim were Bob Kraft's guests of honor at the Super Bowl
I am sure that many of you recall Ezra Schwartz, the American yeshiva student (who studied at the same high school I did) who was
murdered in a 'Palestinian' terror attack here in Israel a bit more than a year ago. More of you may recall that Patriots' owner Robert Kraft ordered a
moment of silence to honor Ezra before a Monday night football game in Foxboro during the shiva, after Kraft himself had shown up at the family's home to pay a condolence call (and embarrassed then President Hussein Obama into calling the family).
On Sunday, the Schwartz family got to see one heck of a football game - as Kraft's VIP guests. That's right, the Schwartz's (pictured above) were Patriots' owner Robert Kraft's VIP guests at
Super Bowl LI in Houston.
Oh, and this is far from the only not-so-random act of kindness on Bob Kraft's list. Remember
Max Steinberg, the IDF lone soldier (who was killed in Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in the summer of 2014) whose mother was asked by buffoon John Kerry
how her day is going? Here's what Bob Kraft sent Steinberg's parents in Los Angeles.
In fact, many of Kraft's acts of kindness seem to connect football to Israel. This is from the third link above.
Kraft is also a huge supporter of Israel and routinely takes football
players to goodwill trips to Israel, even during the height of the
Second Intifada.
Kraft took Patriots players on the tours, including star quarterback Tom
Brady in 2006 – who, though not Jewish, keeps a menorah that Kraft gave
him in his Brookline home. These players in turn share stories and
photos of Israel to their millions of fans with counterbalance all the
negative press and opinions about Israel.
One of Kraft’s most distinctive philanthropic projects is supporting
American Football Israel, including Kraft Family Stadium in Jerusalem
and the Kraft Family Israel Football League.
Another project is an annual reception that Kraft continues to hold after his wife Myra's death (they used to do it together) for all of the kids from Boston who are in Israel on one-year programs. That one should be happening in the next month or two.
There's more too:
He takes time out of his busy schedule to
write letters to the families of fallen IDF soldiers and personally
doing the huge mitzvah of nichum aveilim (visiting the bereaved) Kraft
is nosei b’ol chaveiro ( carrying the burden of your people) by helping
these bereaved parents find some comfort with his condolence visit and
remembering them over a year later and flying them down to the Super
Bowl to be his personal VIP guests at the Super Bowl.
As Ezra Schwartz’s aunt Rachel said, he has a
“good neshoma” and is a true “mentch” in every sense of the word, it is
not for us to say that her theory of the last minute miraculous
turn-around in the Super Bowl is not somehow ordained from above,
although quarterback Tom Brady did famously say “God, [there’s] got to
be more than this” on “60 Minutes” in reference to winning his third
Super Bowl. Kraft indeed deserves credit where credit is due. (Hakaras
Hatov.) we just shared it with you, now share this story and the
inspiration. G-d Bless you, Mr. Kraft!
For those of you who root for other teams who find the Patriots' constant success frustrating and annoying, now you know why he merits it. Go out and perform acts of kindness for others like Kraft does, and maybe your time will succeed too.
Oh yeah, in case you missed, the Patriots came from down 28-3 with two minutes left in the third quarter to beat the Falcons 34-28 on Sunday night. Watching here in Israel at 5:30 am was quite sweet.
Go Pats!
Labels: IDF, Israel's football team, Maimonides, Robert Kraft, Super Bowl LI, terror victims
Bereaved Parents Comfort Family of Ezra Schwartz at OneFamily: “We Are All With You”
 |
| Ruth Schwartz, Ari Schwartz, Nachum Lemkus, and Brenda Lemkus at the OneFamily Center in Jerusalem |
Coping with the loss of a child in a terrorist
attack is one of the loneliest experiences a parent can face. For Ari
and Ruth Schwartz, who lost their son Ezra in a terror shooting in
November, the isolation is intensified because the family
lives in America, far away from the support of other bereaved parents.
That’s why
OneFamily Fund,
which provides support to victims of terror, sponsored the family on a
visit to Israel and arranged for them to meet with other parents who
have lost children to
terror.
“The Schwartz family has the difficult task of
mourning the murder of their son, Ezra, all alone, in America,” said
OneFamily Chairman Marc Belzberg. “Today, at OneFamily, they benefitted
from the warm embrace, the shared experiences and
the heartfelt advice of many other Israeli parents who, like them, lost
a child to terror.”
Ari and Ruth participated in a support session with
members of bereaved families. Ruth shared her memories of Ezra, noting
that “everything was more fun when Ezra was around. His personality was
so big.” Ari asked the parents questions
that could only be directed to others who have shared the experience.
The group included BatGalim Shaer, the mother of
Gil-Ad Shaer, one of three teens who were kidnapped and murdered last
summer. The kidnapping took place in the same location as the shooting
that took Ezra’s life. During Ezra’s shiva, OneFamily
paid to fly BatGalim and her daughter to America to provide personal
support.
Others included Nachum and Brenda Lemkus, whose
daughter Dalia was stabbed to death in 2014 in the same location where
Ezra Schwartz was killed and the three teens had been kidnapped and
murdered; Tirza Levy, mother of Rabbi Nechemia Lavi,
killed in the Old City of Jerusalem in October when he came to the aid
of other terror victims; Ronit and Ury Cherki, whose son Shalom was
killed in car ramming at a bus stop in April; Cheryl Mandel, whose son
Daniel was killed in combat at 2003.
The meeting also brought together Rivkah Moriah,
whose son Avraham David Moses, killed in the terror attack on the Mercaz
HaRav yeshiva in 2008; Pirhia and Yossi Apter, who lost their son Noam
in a terrorist attack on a yeshiva in Otniel
in 2002; and Penina and Simcha Malik, whose son Gedalia was killed
fighting in Jenin.
Sarah Rosenfeld, whose son Malachi was killed in a
drive-by shooting on his way home from a basketball game in July,
started the session by telling Ari and Ruth that the purpose of the
evening was to give them a big hug and “a gift from
our own lives.” And the evening ended with hugs all around.
The parents greeted Ari and Ruth with love and
support, shared their own bereavement stories, and spoke about their
journey of grieving and recovery. Most importantly, they let Ari and
Ruth know they are not alone.
“Losing a child, we are now different, “said Simcha
Malik. “But here (at OneFamily), we are normal. We have our own
language, our own society.”
Batgalim Shaer advised the couple to focus on their
four surviving children. “Remember what you do have,” she said, “not
only what you have lost.”
Brenda Lemkus warned against the feeling that
bereaved parents need to project an image of strength. “You don’t need
to be strong for anyone,” she said. “You only need to be strong for
yourself.
Nachum Lemkus urged the family to carry on with
projects that their son would have wanted them to do. “Do it in his
name, no matter what it is.” Ari agreed, noting that the original
purpose of the visit was to help fix up the park in Gush
Etzion, as Ezra was doing at the time of his death.
Ronit Cherki urged the couple to respect their own feelings. “Trust yourself about what you need,” she advised.
Rivkah Moriah spoke about the benefits of
OneFamily’s youth camps over Chanukah, Passover, and in the summer for
the four remaining children in the Schwartz family. The camps, she said,
give the children a chance to enjoy themselves without
guilt. “There is no sense of betrayal having a good time among other
bereaved children.”
Simcha Malik told the couple that part of their
journey would be to progress past the point where other people feel they
need to give to them. “It’s the other way around,” he said.
OneFamily provides financial assistance,
therapeutic programs, legal assistance and a steady stream of personal
encouragement for each victim and their family. The organization’s
presence and resources ensure that victims and their families
never need to feel alone.
*******
As some of you might recall, Ezra HY"D (May God Avenge his blood) graduated from my alma mater,
Maimonides School in Brookline, Mass. The defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots held a
moment of silence for Ezra during the shiva week. Ezra was a huge Patriots fan.
The story above was provided by OneFamily. I have mentioned
OneFamily on this blog several times in the past. The organization was started by friends of Mrs. Carl and me.
Labels: Maimonides, New England Patriots, One Family, terror victims
US may have no choice but to cut UNESCO funding
The New York Times reports that under current law, if the 'Palestinian Authority' wins full membership in UNESCO, as seems likely, the United States may have little choice but to
cut off funding.
Unesco membership “is in the core security interests of the United States,” the agency’s director general, Irina Bokova, said in an interview here. “I think the United States should take a very careful look at this legislation, in their own interests. I don’t believe it’s in the U.S. interest to disengage from the U.N. system as a whole.”
The irony is that the Obama administration agrees and has been a strong supporter of Ms. Bokova. But lawyers at the State Department see no way around the laws, which date from 1990 and 1994 and provide no possibility of a presidential waiver.
...
Mrs. Clinton has asked the American special envoy to the Middle East, David M. Hale, to negotiate with the Palestinians and Arab countries to break the impasse. The State Department has said it hoped to press the Palestinians to withdraw their request.
There have been discussions about inviting the Palestinians, longtime nonstate observers at Unesco, to sign three major conventions — including the World Heritage Convention, which could list key sites currently under Israeli control as Palestinian — as a nonstate signatory, the way the European Union has done. Such a move would give the Palestinians some of the advantages they seek in joining Unesco without full membership.
Repeated requests to interview the Palestinian ambassador to Unesco or his deputy were declined. Palestinian officials have previously said they see membership as part of the recognition they seek as a state, which the Palestinian envoy to Unesco, Elias Wadih Sanbar, referred to as “a new era in which Palestine is recognized.”
An Arab ambassador, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there was also discussion of approving full membership for the Palestinians but delaying it for six months, although that would not prevent a cutoff of American money. There is also talk that other Arab states could make up the shortfall in the Unesco budget.
But Arab representatives say that it will be very difficult for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to compromise. Any “package deal” short of membership, one of them said, “would look like bribery.”
Unesco has a two-year budget of $643 million for 2010-11 and a projected budget of $653 million for 2012-13. Since the United States normally pays its 22 percent share toward the end of the year, a cutoff could mean no payment for 2011, another $70 million blow to the budget. The result would be immediate cuts in programs and personnel.
Ms. Bokova is hopeful for a resolution, but she said that on a recent visit to Washington she found “skepticism and lack of knowledge” about today’s Unesco.
Likewise, American officials doubt Congress will alter the legislation. Many Republicans, who control the House, are hostile to both the United Nations and the Palestinian statehood bid.
Boo. Hoo. UNESCO has changed since the politicized '80's?
Give me a
break.
Labels: Maimonides, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, Rachel's tomb, UNESCO, Unilateral declaration of independence (UDI)
UNESCO converts Maimonides to Islam
Just when you thought they couldn't get any
crazier, UNESCO has
converted the Rambam (Maimonides) to Islam.
On a final note, a recent UNESCO report on science, Jewish physician and theologian Maimonides is classified as a Muslim named “Moussa ben Maimoun.” So the Rambam - for Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon – has been forced to “convert” to Islam by the UN’s revisionist historians.
During the Middle Ages, the French Inquisition confiscated and burned Maimonides's books. From the elegant Parisian boulevards, UNESCO’s inquisitors are now following the same dreadful solution of rendering history and the Holy Land "Judenrein."
And this is just the latest chapter in UNESCO's war against the Jews, writes Giulio Meotti.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted a decision calling on Israel to immediately cease all archaeological works in the Old City of Jerusalem. In particular, UNESCO, one of the UN’s most prominent and influential agencies, attacked the renovation of the Mughrabi Bridge that links the Western Wall plaza and Temple Mount.
The decision, initiated and promoted by Arab states, was adopted by consensus of the Western members of the commission. Indeed, the vote is the latest anti-Jewish initiative launched by the UN office meant to promote culture, education and science around the world. In fact, UNESCO’s robber barons are sanctifying the current global campaign aimed liquidating the legitimacy of the Israeli regime.
In 2009, UNESCO designated Jerusalem as “capital of Arab culture,” working with Palestinian Authority officials and key Arab figures to protest against what they described as “the Israeli occupation of Holy Jerusalem.” Other cities granted the title over the years were Algiers, Damascus, Cairo, Tunis, Amman, Beirut and Khartoum.
The Arabs find it difficult to convincingly portray Israel as usurper of the land as long as the world believes there is a huge connection between the people of the Bible and the land of the Bible. UNESCO is denying this connection by depicting Jewish history in the Middle East as no more than an insignificant, brief sojourn by arrogant colonizers.
UNESCO appears to deny that the Jewish people has laid its roots in Israel more than 4,000 years ago, or that 1,000 years before Christ, King David made Jerusalem the Jewish city par excellence, never entirely abandoned even in times of deadly persecution.
The City of David in Jerusalem, a major target of UNESCO’s anti-Jewish fury, is now the hottest open archaeological site in the world, with biblical artifacts, ancient burial spots and royal seals. There, UNESCO is using archeology to bash Israel and treats Israeli archeologists as nationalistic martinets.
Read the whole thing. It is truly sickening.
The picture at the top is a statue of the Rambam outside his birthplace in Cordoba, Spain, which I visited with Mrs. Carl, and with son #3 child #6 in tow, in 2001. The
Rambam is likely rolling over in his grave upon hearing of his 'conversion' to Islam.
Moses Maimonides is known as the greatest Jewish philosopher and codifier of Jewish law in history. Born in Cordova, Spain, he was forced to flee from fanatical Moslems at the age of thirteen, where he traveled with his family to North Africa, and ten years later to Palestine. As a result of the devastation left by the Crusaders, Palestine was virtually uninhabitable, forcing the family to move to Fostat (current day Cairo).
Yet another reminder that it's long past time to withdraw from the 'United Nations.'
Labels: Cordoba, Maimonides, Rambam, UNESCO
