One after another, the police sped down Jaffa Road. There must have been at least 100 vehicles in just a few minutes. The reason was clear: there had been a terror attack. But we didn’t know what or where.

I called my wife Jody to see if she had any information. She had been with a client and hadn’t listened to the news. Next I called home to make sure the kids were safe. They were. I asked Merav to check the web. There was nothing. All the while the sirens continued to whiz past. We began to speculate on what had happened.

Was it a suicide bomber on a bus? An explosion at a cafe? The police all seemed to be heading in the direction of the King David Hotel. Wasn’t British Prime Minister Gordon Brown staying there? Had U.S. Democratic candidate Barack Obama already arrived. About that time, my cell phone died, leaving us incommunicado.

The bus came and we got on. The driver had the radio turned up loud and every alighting passenger asked if he’d heard anything. He hadn’t. The news reported everything was as usual (as usual as things can be in Israel).

At the corner of King David and Agron Streets, the police had blocked off the road. We were directed into a monumental traffic jam heading up the hill. We thought we’d turn left onto Keren Hayesod at the summit, but instead we were forced to turn right, back to where we’d come from. We got out and decided to walk.

As we approached Liberty Bell Park, the streets were beginning to fill up. Photographers toting cameras with telescopic lenses, reporters with microphones, a video crew all raced past us on foot. A helicopter hovered overhead.

Traffic was blocked, but pedestrians were getting through. At the foot of King David Street, opposite the King Solomon Hotel, a large crowd had gathered. Police were everywhere. Hundreds of onlookers were sneaking under the police tape to get closer. The atmosphere was like a rock concert, only somber. And still we didn’t know anything.

We pushed our way through the crowd. Finally, a glimpse of destruction. Two crushed cars and a gargantuan yellow tractor. An apparent copy cat attack of the one three weeks ago where a Jerusalem Arab plowed a tractor into a bus downtown killing 3. There were rumors in the crowd that a bus had been flipped here too, but we didn’t see it.

We stayed for a while, craning our necks, trying to learn more, then finally we headed back home. I checked Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, YNET. The story was now up. The similarities to the previous attack were chilling. Bulldozer on the rampage. Driver shot dead by a civilian, followed by a policeman. 16 wounded, one in serious condition.

The bulldozer driver had apparently been working just around the corner in nearby Yemin Moshe, one of Jerusalem’s most fashionable and expensive neighborhoods. Two accomplices fled and the police were sealing off any possible escape routes.

Immediately after the attack, politicians began calling for a ban in the employment of East Jerusalem Arabs as construction workers in the city. But how? Jerusalem these days is one big construction zone. Bulldozers abound. Do we need to fear walking past a new building going up like we once avoided cafes and buses? What means will the terrorists use next?

Amir went down to his room to continue researching his options for when he joins the army. He has his placement interview and examination in just over two weeks. Then he’ll be part of the force protecting the rest of us from such heinous attacks. Merav and Aviv were watching TV, oblivious to what was going on just a few minutes away from our house.

In another hour we have guests coming from overseas for a pizza party. Tonight I have a conference call with the States. Just another day in Jerusalem. Life goes on. But a normal life? Never.

Jewneric recently had the opportunity to speak with Neil Gillman, Aliyah Shaliach for the Jewish Agency for Israel for DC and its surrounding areas and a prominent Jewish leader. We asked him a series of questions to help us better understand and appreciate their significant contributions to our community.

Born in London to a traditional Jewish family, Neil Gillman reached the conclusion that a young Jewish state and a young Jewish person were a perfect shidduch and made Aliyah at 22. Having completed Ulpan he served for a year in the IDF. In 1999 he began working with English speaking Olim in Israel, assisting them through the ongoing absorption process. Since August 2006 he has been based in Rockville and has already helped hundreds of people to make Aliyah. He is joined by his wife Aliza, herself an Olah from Pittsburgh and baby Mordechai, born in the US. They will be returning home to Israel in August 2009.

–

1. All organizations should be addressing a problem in the community. What is that exact problem and how are you solving it?

The Jewish Agency for Israel is addressing a wide variety of challenges in the community, both in Israel and the diaspora. My own personal role is encouraging Aliyah and promoting programs which strengthen the connection between American and Jews and Israel.

2. You could be doing so many other things in the world. What about this particular idea strikes you?

I made Aliyah in 1996 for ideological reasons. 12 years on (I celebrated an Aliyah anniversary last week) I still believe that Israel is the best place to be living a full Jewish life. I’m lucky enough to be one of a select group of people, sent by the Jewish Agency for Israel to assist other people in realizing their dream of making Aliyah.

3. What organizations or people do you look to for inspiration?

The people that I look to for inspiration are most often the very ones that I’m assisting. Making Aliyah is rarely a simple move. The sheer determination that many of my Olim have to overcome the obstacles is mind blowing and quite humbling.

4. What is the biggest issue facing the Jewish Community today and how would you deal with it?

The rate of intermarriage keeps increasing and the size of the community in the US is decreasing rapidly as a result. Far smarter people than myself have been grappling with this issue for many years and will continue to do so.

5. If one Jewish leader could come back and take a role in strengthening the Jewish community today, who would it be?

Clearly a very broad question! The ability to work miracles would be a significant plus so I’ll go with Moses.

6. What is the most exciting Jewish project you have encountered in the past two years?

Our 8 ½ month old son is by far the most exciting Jewish project I’ve ever encountered (his Grandparents back me up on this one!)

7. What is your favorite part of your job?

A young girl wrote to me the other day to say that having been in Israel for 18 months she’s just got engaged to her Israeli boyfriend and that she wanted to thank me for making it happen – I get a real high from that sort of thing.

8. What do you feel are your biggest challenges?

I’m helping people to make a move which is one of the biggest steps that they’ll take in their life. I have to make sure that they are as well prepared as possible so that they have the best chance of succeeding. I don’t want someone to fail to realize their dreams because I didn’t do my job properly.

9. What do you think is the best way to foster a sense of responsibility amongst potential new leaders?

Start young. I’m always amazed when I encounter the resumes of young men and women here who have fit far more into their lives by the time they apply for college than many people do in a life time. In almost every case this only happens when their parents guide them appropriately from a young age.

10. What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders?

Remember that one determined person can make a real change in the world.

As of now, there are plans for two kosher restaurants being prepared for the world event, however they may not be enough. There are plans for Rabbi Moskowitz’s attorney to appeal to the Chinese authorities to relax the restrictions for Kashrut.

–Dave

9:41AM IL: The International Red Cross has just shown the coffins of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, confirming intelligence reports that the two are not among the living.

10:08AM IL: A short time ago, two coffins, presumably containing the remains of IDF reservists Sergeant-Major Ehud Goldwasser and Staff-Sergeant Eldad Regev, were returned to Israel by representatives of the International Red Cross.

The first order of business is the identification process of the remains of the soldiers. The coffins are returned two years and four days after the soldiers were taken prisoner by Hizbullah terrorists in a cross-border attack in northern Israel. Once the bodies have been positively identified, Israel will permit the release of Samir Kuntar and four other Lebanese terrorists and the return of the remains of 199 terrorists.

Simultaneously, IDF Major-Generals Elazar Stern and Gadi Shamni will make their way to the homes of the Goldwasser and Regev families to inform them of the fate of their sons.

In a somewhat ironic twist, Stern, who is the head of the IDF’s Human Resources Branch, notified both families that their sons were taken captive. Today, Stern’s last day in the IDF, he must now inform the families their loved ones are no longer among the living. Shamni is the IDF Central Division Commander and the senior commander of the two. (Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
[From Yeshiva World News]
–
Two black coffins purported to contain the remains of two Israeli soldiers were carried on Red Cross trucks across the Lebanese border on Wednesday as a long-awaited prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah got underway.

Members of Hezbollah handed over the Red Cross coffins believed to contain the bodies of two Israeli soldiers.

Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militia, said the coffins, which were handed over to the Israeli military at the Rosh Hanikra border crossing, contained the remains of two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were captured in a cross-border raid that started the war between Hezbollah and Israel two years ago.

The transfer of the two coffins was the first confirmation by Hezbollah that the two soldiers were dead. Hezbollah had refused to clarify whether the soldiers had been killed at the time of their capture or afterward, although it had long been assumed in Israel that they were no longer alive.

[From NYTimes]

An American Court of Appeals in Chicago, Illinois decided in a split 2-1 decision against the right of Jews to Mezuzot on the doorposts of a condominium apartment if the bylaws of the building prohibit signs and objects of the outside of doors. This provision is mainly for the ban of family vacations photos, political placards, for-sale notices, and Chicago Bears pennants.. The court stated that the hallway rule “is neutral with respect to religion.”

The case involves the Shoreline Towers of Chicago and condominium owners Lynne Bloch and her two children, who live in three units. Building managers had removed the mezuzot from their doors while the family was at a funeral for Lynne Bloch’s husband in 2004. The family put them back on the doorposts several times until the city passed a law allowing religious displays on doors. The family sued for damages, but the court backed the right of the condominium group to establish its own laws. The Blochs are considering appealing to the Supreme Court, claiming there was an intention to discriminate against observant Jews.

Honorable Diane Wood, the dissenting judge, said that leaving the rule in tact would amount to “constructive eviction” of observant Jewish residents. “Hallway Rule 1 operates exactly as a red-lining rule does with respect to the ability of the owner to sell to observant Jews,” she wrote in her opinion. “The [condominium] association might as well hang a sign outside saying ‘No observant Jews allowed.’” Judge Wood also noted that the condominium association’s brief charged that the Bloch family was trying to get a “pound of flesh” from the group. She pointed out that the phrase appears in a literary work by Shakespeare and refers to the character Shylock, a moneylender who was punished by being forced to convert to Christianity. “This is hardly the reference someone should choose who is trying to show that the stand-off … was not because of the Blochs’ religion, but rather in spite of it,” she wrote.

[From Israel National News]

Jewneric recently had the opportunity to speak with Jeremy Epstein, Word of Mouth & Social Media Consultant and a prominent Jewish leader. We asked him a series of questions to help us better understand and appreciate their significant contributions to our community.

With a brother who is younger by 19 months, Jeremy’s mom was convinced that “one of them wouldn’t make it to adulthood.” Well, he did, and being the eldest of 5 children, all graduates of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, MD, is one of his life’s most formative experiences. Jeremy also spent 1 year in Germany studying the Holocaust (at the German taxpayer expense!) and then 2 years in Japan. Since, he’s worked for companies big (Microsoft) and small (2-time entrepreneur) and loves to blog on marketing (www.jer979.com) and whatever strikes his fancy (http://jer979.blogspot.com).

——

1. What is the single most significant project you are involved with in the Jewish Community?

Now that I have 3 kids, I look at “significant projects” in a different light and take small victories wherever I can find them. For the past 2 years, I have served on the Board of my synagogue, Kemp Mill Synagogue and as Chairman of the Technology Committee. I have a fantastic team of 15 who each serve a rotating week of “call” where they are on point to address any issues that come up in our support of the office staff. We’ve also got a password-protected team blog for knowledge sharing (too often this type of knowledge sits in the head of 1 or 2 people), all can remotely access the office PC’s for updating/maintenance.

I am very proud of having brought some operationally efficiency, knowledge management, greater member participation (previously all of the work was done by 1 guy), and we’ve been able to (slowly, but surely) raise the shul’s effectiveness (in teaming with our great staff, of course)

2. What organizations or people do you look to for inspiration?

Jewishly or otherwise? Well, if Jewishly, I love reading Esther Kustanowitz’s blog (jdatersanonymous.com) as she cleverly addresses the challenges that Jewish singles face today. I also love MEMRI (www.memri.org) for the light they bring to what is being said in Arabic language press. As a former AIPAC intern and board member, I have the utmost respect for that organization.

And on a secular front, well, you could visit my blog at www.jer979.com and see my always updated “blogroll” to see where I get my inspiration (most of which is online)

Above all, are my friends. I’m a big networker and my start page is the Status Updates Page of Facebook. That’s how I learn about what great things people are doing and what’s important (once 6 people had made mentions about “Client 9 and Spitzer,” I knew something was going on and, only then, did I go to a conventional news outlet)

Oh whoops, the answer should have been “my wife!” J

3. If one Jewish leader could come back and take a role in strengthening the Jewish community today, who would it be?

Man, you don’t ask easy questions, do you? It’d have to be somebody who could (re)awaken a sense of pride for being Jewish and someone who is a fighter, not a wimp.

I want to say someone like Menachem Begin, but he’d probably be a bit too controversial. Let’s go with Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. He was a bit crazy, so he’d have the ability to deal with all of the mishigas that is the Jewish community.

4. Who are the current Jewish leaders that you think are affecting the most positive change?

What’s the guy’s name from Birthright? Oh yeah, Steinhart. EVERYONE to whom I’ve spoken about his program raves about it. That’s a huge mitzvah that he started. I think Joe Lieberman, for standing on principle would be another. Ehud Olmert…NOT.

5. What is the most exciting Jewish project you have encountered in the past two years?

Does the birth of my 3rd child count?

6. What is your favorite part of your job as a lay leader?

Can I say ‘shirking additional responsibility” under the guise of being over-committed?

7. What do you feel are your biggest challenges balancing work and the community?

Short-term vs. Long-term. Material vs. spiritual.

I know that, when all is said and done, my legacy to my family, friends, and community is because of what I do over the long-term in the spiritual/communal world, but I have a really difficult focusing on that when staring down day school tuition bills as they come towards me like an oncoming, runaway train.

8. What do you think is the best way to foster a sense of responsibility amongst potential new leaders?

There’s a great scene in the moive Amistad, where the leader of the former slaves is talking with his attorney. The lawyer says, “I’ve prepared all of the documents and witnesses, what are you going to bring?”

The former slave says, “I am going to bring the strength of my ancestors because at this moment, I represent their reason for being.”

When we all take a moment and reflect on what has been done to enable us to be where we are now and how the community has played a key role in that, how can we shirk our responsibility?

As my friend Jen once said, “I recognize now that I have to live vertically, with a responsibility to the generations that came before and those that come after.”

9. What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders?

We have a unique value proposition. Don’t be afraid of it.

One thing everyone can agree on, though: it is a striking piece of architecture. The NIS 246 million bridge, designed by renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, was built to provide an uninterrupted overpass for the city’s new light rail line, slated to start running in 2010. The white bridge is held up in the air along the entire length of its 360 meters by 66 iron strings that descend gracefully from a 188-meter high tall spire that towers over its surroundings.

Calatrava is no stranger to bridge building – he has built more than 40 around the world, including, most recently, a bridge nearing completion over the Grand Canal in Venice. The bridge in Jerusalem, he said, is his unquestionable favorite, reminding him of a harp or a tent in the desert.

The design of the bridge is not the problem, say local architects; it’s the location. “It’s impossible to see the bridge in its full glory,” explained architect Hillel Schocken to the Haaretz newspaper.

“The bridge has no room to breathe,” added architect Saadia Mandel. It “needs a giant living space so that we’ll be able to sense it.”

Mandel and Schocken are quite right. The bridge is boxed in by some truly ugly apartment buildings, the kind where laundry hangs down from the balconies. From the main entrance to the city, all you can is the bridge’s tall white spire; its delicate strings only come into view when you are nearly upon them.

Possibly realizing that its surroundings might not do it justice, Jerusalem City Hall handed out a colorful pamphlet at the inauguration ceremony with a computer-simulated image of the bridge in the future, surrounded by two modern high-rises that do not yet exist.

Jerusalem architect and historian David Kroyanker, while liking the bridge in general, nevertheless wondered why Jerusalem needs a new landmark “in order to brand itself. (Jerusalem) is a historical city thanks to its walls, the Dome of the Rock and its churches.”

Local pundit and comedian Jackie Levy also appreciates the bridge, calling it “a spectacular and interesting creation in and of itself.” However, he went on in an article in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, “this bridge is the kind of luxury that is given as a gift to someone who already has everything.” Jerusalem, he explained, is lacking in so many things that a bridge of this magnitude, whose price tag tripled over the course of its construction, is “pretentious and wasteful.”

However, not all the opinions were negative. Architect Kroyanker hopes the bridge will contribute to the city’s modernist image. “This doleful city deserves some secular symbolism,” he said. And he is relieved that “nothing worse” was done. “In Jerusalem, there has been a tendency over the last few years to integrate elements that I call ‘ultra-Orthodox aesthetics,’ like the menorah, the Star of David,” he said. “The bridge is the least of all evils.”

My own opinion on the bridge is positive. I agree that it is out of character in its bleak surroundings, but the entrance to Jerusalem has always struck me as pitifully uninspiring with its narrow winding road ending in a profusion of plebeian traffic lights and pedestrian traffic.

The northern entrance to San Francisco, where I grew up, is flanked by the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge. The New York skyline never fails to draw gasps from visitors approaching it from all sides. Even our own little Tel Aviv has its share of skyscrapers and a wide highway flowing into its bowels (not to mention a huge billboard from Chabad proclaiming the Lubavitcher Rebbe as the messiah – only in Israel!).

If the Bridge of Strings can add a little grandeur to Jerusalem, it may be able to restore some of the pride that we have lost as the city gets poorer and dirtier. A simpler, more traditional bridge might have saved money, but it’s not the sort of statement that would proclaim to the world that we are about more than ancient relics, that we are a modern metropolis full of verve and creativity.

That’s a tall task for a bridge but it should be pointed out that Paris’ venerable Eiffel Tower was also derided as a “monstrous and purposeless installation in the heart of our capital city.” It is my hope that, in time, Jerusalem’s Bridge of Strings may become similarly beloved.

In an attempt to take a break from the philosophical and creative ideas that have been the basis for most of my posts to Jewneric, I will be delving into the issue of Kashrut.

Between myself and the other posters on Jewneric there has been adequate discussion on issues relating to Kashrut. From Jellybeans to Postville, anyone interested in an array of Kashrut issues can browse the articles that come up with the Kosher and Food tags and read up on many pertinent Kashrut interests.

It is nothing new that an item may receive a certificate of Kashrut by mistake. There are Kashrut alerts for products on a consistent basis and anyone looking to learn more can subscribe to Kashrus magazine and their email alerts. (A recent alert involves Budweiser beer, and according to the website, until further notice, anything else beats a bud.)

Also not so new is questionable Kashrut, anyone who spent time in Israel quickly learns that Kosher symbols that claim to be observing the highest levels of Kashrut might be Treif to you. The confusion comes about primarily through the different opinions regarding gelatin.

While veal’s Kosher status is a fun topic, the issue I wish to take up is Red Bull. No Hashgacha on the can. Check the website and we are told yes. Red Bull is certified as Kosher by the KF: a London based supervising agency. And while that may be the end of the story for some, other people have not been as satisfied.

If you look through the FAQ on Red Bull’s website you’ll notice three separate questions: Is it Kosher; Is it Hallal; Is it for vegetarians. And while we Kosher people tend to be pretty picky about what we eat, the people on the Hallal side are generally willing to take a Kosher symbol just the same. And if it is a product suitable for vegans, Hallal doesn’t enter it and some would think Kosher doesn’t either (unless grape juice was an ingredient).

So why all the fuss?

Red Bull is made with the super-ingredient, Taurine. Anyone interested in astronomy or astrology will recall the constellation, Taurus. It doesn’t take an etymological genius to realize that Taurine is an ingredient derived from the animal Taurus. And anyone who has been to Mexico or Akron, Ohio knows that the Taurus is the Bull.

To paraphrase the line from Anchorman: “Red Bull: It’s made with real bull, so you know it’s working.”

Red Bull’s claim is that all of its ingredients are synthetically produced, ergo, the C₂H₇NO₃S of Red Bull is connected only by name to the acid originally derived from ox’s bile.

Anti-climactic and unoffensive, Red Bull is still Kosher, for those who trust the KF and for those who don’t think that Red Bull is full of it.

For those still not so sure, the Israeli conceived Astrix energy drink is a nearly identical product (even bottled by the same plant) boasting the O-K (Parve) supervision on the can. It is available at Key Food in the heights and many other places although they do not have a formal distributer just yet.

That is the problem with “Waltz with Bashir”, an animated movie I saw last night about the first Lebanon War.

I cannot morally speak about the movie. Any words I would say would ruin it for you. I just can say that it blew me away.

It touched upon every single emotion that my being knows how to emote. I walked out of the theater both drained and empowered. I understood the war much better, yet, I did not understand the war at all. I felt connected to something much greater than myself, and extremely solitary at the same time. I realized that I am human, and that humans are, well, human.

At this point, I can see naysayers scoffing at my empty rhetoric. “A movie can’t do that. It doesn’t have the power,” they jeer, “it’s just Ezra’s tendency to over-dramatize everything.”

They may be correct. And I implore them to see the movie and to tell me what they think.

It’s worth your time.