Staying Real in Israel
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More anti-semitism in Europe…So what else is new?
It would seem to me that it is obvious that the time has come for the Jews still in exile to come home. The Creator cannot make it TOO much clearer without it getting REALLY painful, and He would prefer NOT to do that to his Chosen People.
But, if there is no other way for the Jews to get the message (we Jews can be a bit on the stubborn side…you know, stiff-necked and all…), our Father in Heaven has been known to turn up the heat on His children.
You can choose the easy way, or do it the hard way…

Budapest: Stones thrown at rabbi’s house during seder


Rabbi Shmuel Raskin’s home in Hungarian capital pelted with stones three times during holiday meal. ‘The rabbi was saved by a double window. Police came, but were indifferent,’ says one of guests present. Jewish Agency representative expresses concerns over rise of extreme Right in Hungary

Reprinted from Ynetnews.com Anat Shalev

Sitting around Rabbi Shmuel Raskin’s table for the second seder in Budapest and singing Passover songs, holiday celebrators were shocked when stones suddenly crashed against the windows. Ynet learned of the threatening incident, which members of the local Jewish community are attributing to the rise of the radical Right in Hungary.

Sitting next to Rabbi Raskin was Eran Elbar, a Jewish Agency representative in eastern Europe. “At around 11 pm, stones were thrown at the window behind the rabbi and myself. We didn’t make a big deal about it. We closed the shutters a bit and continued. A half hour later, we opened the shutters again, and another stone was thrown,” said Elbar.

The second incident prompted the seder guests to call the police. Police officers stationed themselves along the street, but that apparently did not deter the stone-throwers.

The rabbi himself could not be reached for comment because the holiday is not yet over in Hungary.

“Afterwards, at midnight, what seemed to be a rubber bullet from a slingshot or some primitive weapon was fired at the window. The police are still looking into the weapon. The hole made looks like a gunshot,” Elbar explained.

Another guest, a photographer working in Hungary who has attended the Raskin seder for the past few years, said that the double window installed for extra insulation against the cold apparently protected the participants from harm.

“The interior window in essence stopped the bullet from hurting the rabbi, and this is how he was miraculously saved,” explained the photographer. According to him, the improvised rubber bullet fired after midnight passed “right over the rabbi’s head.”

‘The Right growing stronger’

The photographer claimed that the police addressed the incident poorly: “They didn’t see that there was a rubber bullet and insisted that only stones were thrown. They told us, ‘We’re not going to go knocking on all the doors now to find who threw a stone at you.’ I understood they were going to do anything, so I ordered the security from the embassy to the site, and they arrived quickly.”

The photographer was deeply shaken by the evening’s events. “I couldn’t fall asleep all night. The rabbi is like my father and the Chabad House is like my second home even though I’m not religious. The Right is growing stronger here, and now there are concerns that there will be legitimacy granted to hurting foreigners. I am worried by the situation we have reached. I have lived and worked here for a few years and collaborate with Hungarians. What is going to happen now?”

Jewish Agency representative Elbar also said the incident affected the seder guests. “Even though no one was hurt, we all felt like this was a significant event. There is a sense that Jews need to lower their heads in light of strengthening of the extreme Right that could make headway in the upcoming elections. There are pamphlets everywhere for the party against the Jews,” said Elbar.

For more than 1000 years, the Jewish capital city of Jerusalem was the focus of THE happening for Jews around the world. During the 1000+ years that the Jewish Temple was standing on Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount) in Jerusalem, this week, the week of the Jewish festival of Pesach/Passover, was one of three weeks throughout the year that all Jews would travel to the Jewish capital and camp out for a week of barbecues, eating, drinking, merriment and spirituality unmatched anywhere or anytime.
Passover was one of the three times every year that Jews were commanded for “aliyah l’regal”, or pilgrimage to the Holy Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. All the Jews would set up their tents and spend the week in prayer and festivities, eating the barbecue of the roasted sacrifices, enjoying kosher wines and celebrating the closeness of the Jewish people to the Creator.
Today, in the modern Jewish State of Israel, the Temple has not yet been rebuilt, but the Jewish people are keeping the tradition. Passover week continues to be a week of family celebration and trips through the length and breadth of Israel. Festivals abound in all parts of the Holyland, spiritual happenings, musical events and concerts, treks into the wonders of nature…Israel comes alive for the entire week as Jews of all levels of religious observance celebrate the week of the Jewish Holiday of Freedom in our Homeland, each in his or her own way, in the cities or in the Negev Desert, in the holy hills of Safed or on the heights of the Golan overlooking the Kinneret, Sea of Galilee.
And many of us yearn for the days, soon to come, we hope and pray, when we will once again be able to all go up to Jerusalem to visit the Third Holy Jewish Temple, may It be built speedily in our days, and enjoy the Festival of Passover fully once again…