Reading material critical of Israel, it appears that the underlying criticism is that the Palestinians were the indigenous peoples of Palestine and the Jews were colonial invaders.
Jews should therefore change the narrative they use to justify the Jewish state to the world, so that the Jewish people will appear as the indigenous people of the Land of Israel, and the Arabs/Muslims/Palestinians will appear as the colonial invaders.
In the Jew’s current narrative, they had a homeland 2,000 years ago, but after being defeated militarily, they went into exile and returned with the rise of the Zionist movement. Many people – Jews, Arabs and others – interpret such a story as tantamount to the Jews abandoning their country, with the Palestinians inheriting it. So when Jews started arriving in the Land of Israel under Zionist auspices, many people consider that the Jews were coming to some other people’s land, hence “colonial invaders.”
Although it is widely believed that for the last 2,000 years there were no Jews in the Land of Israel, in fact Jewish continuity in the Land of Israel was never interrupted A case can be made that since the Jews never abandoned or surrendered their land, it never ceased being a Jewish possession.
Whatever the legalities of the matter, emphasis of Jewish justification for the State of Israel should switch from Jewish travails in the Diaspora to all the stories that illustrate that the Jews preserved their continuity in the Land of Israel through these 2,000 years, often with necessary help from the Jews in the Diaspora.
Larry Feldman
Toronto
Day school funding
In his speech to the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto on the occasion of reaffirming the Ontario’s commitment to assisting the UJA’s Tomorrow Campaign, Premier Dalton McGuinty waxes effusive in his praise of the Jewish community and states that he is proud to support us in our endeavours (“McGuinty repledges $15M to Tomorrow Campaign,” Sept. 17). He goes so far as to quote mishnaic passages in lauding our community’s commitment to ensuring our future. In light of McGuinty’s campaign against the support of fairness in the funding of faith-based education in our province, only one word comes to mind when reading the speech of the premier: nauseating!
Jerrold Landau
Toronto
The joy of music
Thank you, Dr. Michael Gordon, for your wonderful article on “The joy and benefits of music” (Sept. 3). You were indeed lucky to be brought up in musical family. I was blessed and lucky, too, to have had a Bubbe Bessie and Aunt Sara. Neither were trained in voice or could play a musical instrument, but they will forever be remembered leading the singing in English and Yiddish to hundreds of people who were huddled, night after night, in an underground air raid shelter in Stepney London throughout the World War 11 blitz.
Despite the non-stop bombing, young and old sang popular songs, and with added spontaneous cockney humour. It is among my most precious experiences in life, which has personally held me in good stead.
Today, at the Reuben Cipin Healthy Living Community, we have ongoing programs and events, which include music and humour, and this has considerably helped to make our residence “the” place to live.
It also confirms the doctor’s common-sense message to seniors and families “to get out there and sing, play, listen to and promote anything and everything related to music.”
And I humbly add that from music, together with humour, “the joy can be endless, and the benefits seem to be extraordinary,” as the doctor says.
Monty Mazin, Chair, Program Committee
Reuben Cipin Healthy Living Community
Toronto
People search
I am seeking information about Enshel Bogner or his descendants. Bogner was rescued during World War II by Mundek Lukawiecki in the forest near Lubaczow in Poland.
Joe Warner
Toronto
[email protected]
416-497-0140
