One Day We'll Be Old

This is a wonderful, moving music video by Israeli composer Asaf Avidan, remixed by German DJ--the song is called One Day/Reckoning (Wankelmut Remix)--it has topped the music charts across Europe. 

The reframe:
"One day baby, we'll be old
Oh baby, we'll be old
And think of all the stories that we could have told."

On a simplistic level, this music video is about two lovers torn apart and wondering how they'll look back one day and imagine what if only they had been able to make things work.

On a deeper level, perhaps this music video is a representation of the Israel and German who produced it--more than six decades after The Holocaust and the murder of 6 million Jews by the Germans and the feelings of lose and of what could've been instead. 

"No more tears, my heart is dry
I don't laugh and I don't cry
I don't think about you all the time
But when I do I wonder why"

Why the murder of six million men, women, and children--helpless--shot, starved, gassed, burnt in the ovens, electrified on the fences, attacked by dogs, and experimented on by sadististic scientists?

"We can't cry anymore, the heart is dry."

As time passes and we age--we think what could have been if we were allowed to live in peace --"think of all the stories  we could have told."

Now in Israel, again Six million Jews living in the Middle East, the fulfillment of the promise by G-d to Abraham, the return to The Promised Land. 

But the Middel East is composed of more than 20 countries and contains 20% of world's Muslim population or has roughly 315 million Muslims. In some areas, fundamentalism has taken root, and it is a volatile and dangerous neighborhood to live in.

Missles fly to Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem and and the people of the Holy Land take cover in bomb shelters as thousands of missiles threaten them.

In modern history, Israel has lost over 22,000 soldiers,with another 75,000 wounded, and there have been about 4,000 civilian victims of terror attacks. 

To put this in the perspective of a country the size of the U.S., this is the equivalent of us losing more than 1.1 million American soldiers, having almost 4 million wounded, and another 200,000 civilian victims of terrorism--it's unthinkable!

"I don't laugh and I don't cry"

Now Israeli's are blamed for defending their small country and the remnants of their people from being driven into the sea by those surrounding them on all sides. 

"Here I go again, the blame
The guilt, the pain, the hurt, the shame
The foundering fathers on our plane
that's stuck in heavy clouds of rain"

Next is Iran who threatens to wipe Israel off the map and is rushing to develop the nuclear weapons to accomplish their malevolent goals. 

"I don't think about you all the time
But when I do I wonder why"

Why won't you let us just live in peace--leave us alone, once and for all. 

"One day, we'll be old
Oh baby, we'll be old
Think of all the stories we could have told"

If only, all could live and let live--think of all the better stories we could tell and all the lives not lost, and all the promise of a better future.

One Day We'll Be Old

Sorry Amanda Todd

Just watched this video with my daughter about Amanda Todd, the 15 year old girl from Canada who hung herself on Wednesday. 

She made some mistakes with some guys--looks like she was taken advantage of--and then she was ruthlessly bullied, tormented, tagged, shamed, followed, beaten, and encouraged to kill herself. 

After depression, anxiety, drugs, alcohol, cutting, and drinking bleach, she finally hung herself and is gone. 

To those horrible people that pursued this young women and essentially murdered her--you are vile and disgusting and G-d will one day bring you to final judgement. 

To the family of Amanda Todd, our heart, prayers, and sympathy goes out to you--your daughter and all decent people like her deserve better from society. 

If we can only learn from this tragedy, perhaps her death will not have been in vain. 

She wrote: "I have nobody. I need somebody. :(" 

Hopefully, she is now with the heavenly father--and has not just somebody, but the one that matters the most.

Sorry Amanda Todd

First They Came For...

This was a short film/music video that my daughter brought to my attention. 

It reminded me of the famous quote about how anyone can be targeted and if we do not speak out, who will be there to speak for us. 

"First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me."

- Martin Niemoller

Warning: Graphic images--nudity and violence.

First They Came For...

Holocaust, Still a Nightmare In Our Souls

This is an amazing video of the horrors of the Holocaust expressed through modern-day Israeli Rap music and ballet interpretation.

The video is to the violin accompaniment of a broken and wrenching tune of Adon Olam--a prayer in which we recognize the almighty--"When all shall end, He alone, shall reign supreme--He was. He is. He shall be. In glory."

The main part of the video starts at 0:45.

The singer asks: "Why exterminate childrens' dreams, adults' memories?"

As he raps, we shall not forget--"A big scream...It is stuck inside me. Six million! burned in my memory."

Again asked: "Who has the right to extinguish a culture?"

With Iran--the free world is threatened again.

Now we must "not to be afraid, to stand up!"

And "to live in dignity and to die in dignity."

May G-d remember the souls of those murdered for merit and have mercy on mankind.

The children of David be strong--"The path to heaven is 'survival.'"

"Dust to dust, our souls go to heaven."

Holocaust, Still a Nightmare In Our Souls

Not Just Another Killing Field

I took this picture a number of weeks ago of an artistic American flag with a peace symbol over it--and this is a wonderful goal and we wish for the day for all the world. 

However, today is not that day, as it is understood that Iran and Hezbollah were behind, as in President Obama's words, a barbaric attack on dozens of innocent Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. 

This terrorist attack resulted in the deaths of at least 7 people, including children and pregnant women and the wounding of over 30 others. 

This occurred eighteen years to the day since the attack that killed 85 civilians at a Jewish Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Moreover, it is almost the 40 year commemoration in September since the attack that killed 11 Israel athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. 

As former President Bush stated after the 9/11 attacks, "Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done."

May the souls of those murdered innocent civilians rest in peace, and may those who targeted and sponsored them pay the price they've earned for themselves. 

We should not and cannot accept a world where getting on a bus or a plane or going to the office, pizzeria or the like is just another terrorist killing field. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Not Just Another Killing Field

"They Came In Peace And Went Home In Coffins"

There is a very moving article in Commentary Magazine (22 May 2012) called "IOC: Been There, Done That, On Munich."

It is about a request made to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for a single minute of silence at the 2012 London Games to commemorate 40 years since the murder of 11 Israeli olympic athletes at the Munich Olympic games. 

However, the IOC in utter disrespect for the slain athletes has refused even this one moment to memorialize the victims--the athletes--of their own games. 

It is a disgrace on the IOC governing body--who are supposed to represent the best that the world has to offer in terms of competition and achievement, and instead they will be proponents and symbolize the opposite--the dark side, where terrorism, murder, and hatred prevail. 

While the Olympians who work hard to perfect themselves in body and spirit are heros, the IOC are showing themselves morally weak and spineless. 

The wife of slain olympic athlete, Andre Spitzer, said it best:

"They came to Munich to play as athletes in the Olympics; they came in peace and went home in coffins, killed in the Olympic Village and during hostage negotiations."

To those who would deny a moment of silence for the slain, she states:

"Silence is a fitting tribute for [the] athletes...Silence contains no statements, assumptions or beliefs and requires no understanding of language to interpret."  

However this silent commemoration can send the critical message: "That what happened in 1972 can never happen again."

I love the notion she presents that: "A spirit of friendship, solidarity, and fair play," is more powerful than politics.

But unfortunately to the Olympic committee members today, the opportunity to commemorate the dead, respect the living and set a high moral standard for all is overcome by antisemitism and moral cowardice. 

Hopefully, the tremendous lifting spirit that permeate the Olympics athletes genre can infuse the IOC to change their decision and to see their way to provide a more noble and lasting message of peace to the global community.

To the families of the victims, let us offer up the traditional prayer of condolence: "May G-d comfort you among all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem."

(Source Photo: here of the plaque in front of the victims quarters at the Munich Olympics)

"They Came In Peace And Went Home In Coffins"

Where Is The Outrage?

This past week a self-professed Al Qaeda jihadist, trained in the militant camps of Pakistan and Afghanistan murdered in cold blood three Jewish children and a teacher (who happened to be the father of the two boys killed, ages 3 and 6).  

The 8-year old girl pictured above was the beautiful daughter of the school's headmaster and was yanked by hair while the killer reloaded his gun and then shot her in the head, point blank. 

A fifth victim, another student, a boy age 17 is critically wounded in the hospital.

The Killer, Mohamed Merah had just the prior week, in two attacks, murdered 3 black French solders as well. 

So why did he do it?  He tells us it was to avenge Palestinian children and for the French foreign interventions, as he said on the video "you kill my brothers, now I kill you."

So now this terrorist with an extensive rap sheet (as many as 18 prior acts of violence) is dead, and yet insanely, the terrorists consider him a martyr.

And while condolences are heard to all victims, is there sufficient outrage at the murder of innocent school children and terrorists' complete disregard for human life and societal norms? 

More than a decade after the tragedy of 9/11 with nearly 3,000 murdered, followed by almost 6,400 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, we still cannot fully come to terms with the enemy we face and the threats they pose.   

The people killed in terrorist attacks around the world--whether in a school yard in Toulouse, a luxury hotel in Mumbai, train attacks in London and Madrid, a nightclub attack in the Philippines, a plane flight over Lockerbie Scotland, a truck bomb at the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut, a homicide attack at a pizza parlor in Jerusalem, and countless others around the world have stained our consciences with the blood of innocents, so that the girl pictured, killed this week with a bullet to the brain is no longer special to anyone except her family, friends, and people who loved her. 

The blood of the victims of terrorism is not cheap and neither is that of Jewish children--it is high time for outrage at the enemy that takes human life so gleefully. 

(Source Photo: here)

Where Is The Outrage?

The Evil That Men Do

This time I barely know what to write, except that I have been very upset the whole week.

I watched this multiple award-winning movie called The Stoning of Soraya M.

Have you seen it yet? 

It was one of those life-changing events for me that taught me about (in)justice, adversity, and purpose.

It is a 2008 film that was adapted from a book by a French-Iranian journalist. 

It is based on a true story about a journalist whose car breaks down in a remote Iranian village.

There, he learns from a decent, well-respected women, Zahra about the nefarious plot and stoning death (read murder) the prior day of her niece Soraya M. 

Soraya is targeted by her abusive husband Ali who wants to divorce her in order to marry a 14 year old girl in the village. 

When Soraya refuses the divorce knowing that she and her children will be destitute without Ali, she suffers violently, both verbal and physical abuse. 

Soraya is asked by the mayor and Mullah of the village to help (as a job) a recently widowed man with his house and son and she is kind and generous to them--she appears a genuinely good person, the diametric opposite of her sorely evil husband.

However, Ali uses Soraya's kindness to the other family to turn against her and he concocts a story of infidelity by Soraya and the man; he cajoles and threatens the others to go along and bear (false) witness against Soraya. 

Soraya is condemned to death by stoning in a mockery of a "trial" behind closed doors that she is not permitted to attend or even be represented at--the mayor, Mullah, and her own father decide she is too die for her treacherous infidelity to her husband--based on a complete fabrication!

The men and boys in the village go "crazy" chanting for her death, that G-d is great, and preparing carts of stones for the carrying out of the (in)justice. 

Soraya has a heartfelt goodbye with her two young daughters, while her two older sons--who are turned against her by Ali--prepare to participate in the stoning. 

Aunt Zahra tries everything to save Soraya, but cannot stop the crowd from carrying out their false retribution on her. 

They march Soraya to a dirt yard, where the hole has been dug for her.

They tie her hands, and bury her to the waist.

She is given the opportunity to say a few last words and asks completely bewildered as we all are, how could her neighbors, friends, and family--who know her (the real her, the truth of who she is), do this to her. 

But just when you think, the story will end--in her death or sudden saving--the movie surprises with a blow by blow showing of her brutal stoning death.

Her own father throws stone at her, but misses. Then her evil husband Ali takes aim and hits her twice right in the head and she is bleeding from a hole there. Then her own sons.  The "religious" Mullah.  Only the widowed man she had helped, refuses. All the other townsmen and boys throw stone after stone for what seems endless minutes as her face, head, torso, spine is crushed, shredded, torn.  

When her husband checks to see if she is finally dead, she is still somehow able to partially open one eye--he jumps back in horror that the "witch" is still alive and then she is overwhelmed by rocks from everyone all at once, putting the final end to this poor woman's life. 

Soraya was given one of the worst deaths that can be imagined--long, painful, literally "in your face" and by virtually all the people she loved and cared about--and all based on a complete lie!

To show the woman that their infidelity will not be tolerated, the men make a Colosseum-style event to the gruesome death and then add to that punishment that Soraya is not allowed to be buried, so that the dogs end up eating her remains.

After watching this movie--this life event--that happened to Soraya and G-d knows how many other helpless women who are violently mistreated, abused, and even murdered, I could not get the image of Soraya buried waist-deep in the ground, taking hits stone by stone, and bleeding out from her mangled body. 

I did not sleep (well) this week and I am still emotionally recovering from this movie. 

Thank G-d, the journalist escaped with the recording to tell the story of Soraya M. and all the other tortured women (and men) out there.

I know that I am deeply shaken by the graphic portrayal in this movie and of the injustices that are done, the evil that seems to prevail, and the pain that is left behind.  

Only faith in G-d's higher purpose for us--to learn and grow through all adversity--and of some ultimate justice and the reward of the righteous and punishment of the evil can fill this wound where I myself feel like I've been stoned too. 

(Source Photo: here)

The Evil That Men Do

Never Lose Faith; Never Give Up

I really liked this story on CNN (source WRAL) on Holocaust survivor, Morris Glass, who is having his bar mitzvah at 83--Mazel tov!

Mr. Glass was denied his rite of passage as a teenager to become a bar-mitzvah, because his family, like so many at the time, where being murdered by the Nazi's in the Holocaust.

As he is one of the dwindling few Holocaust survivors left to tell his story--I value and appreciate these lessons that Mr. Glass shares in the interview:

- Be grateful for your loved ones.

- Never forget that terrible things happened to people (slavery, murder...) and could happen again, if not prevented.

- Everything you do, you should do right, even the little things.

- You are free to serve G-d, not free from responsibility.

- You are the future.

- Never lose faith; never give up.

To me, these are lessons in life and in leadership that are universal whether we are at bar mizvah age (13) or at 83 and whether you are you celebrating Passover, Easter, or whatever.

Happy holidays.

Never Lose Faith; Never Give Up