South Bay Solidarity Mission to Israel

Rabbi David Kunin, Congregation Beth David When we visited the site of the Nova massacre there were red anemones everywhere.  It brought to mind the poem In Flanders Field.  The pictures of the young people and the rows of trees planted in their memory brought forth feelings of sadness and futility.  They were there celebrating life, the natural world, and rejecting hatred.  Their fight continues.  Senseless hatred is the real enemy.  It will not vanish even when Hamas is defeated, unless we transform all hearts. This is my take on the original poem by Canadian John McCrae one of the War Poets.  He died in 1918.  My apologies to the poet for my emendations.                                                                                       In Novas Field                                                                  In Novas Fields, the anemones grow                                                                   Between the trees row on row,                                     

The Miracle at Yad Mordechai Rabbi David A. Kunin, Congregation Beth David   On Tuesday we journeyed to the South to better understand the horror that overtook Israel and the Jewish people on October 7 th .  As the trip was planned, I wondered if visits to the south would add much beyond a prurient almost tourism.  But this could not be further from the truth.  Yes, we all had heard the stories, and seen the videos on our screens, and they are still with us, even after all this time. Yet, much of the impact was lost even in the words, photography, and videos shown on the media during the last 5 months.  It was necessary to be there and bear witness and to remember the horrors, and the heroes and victims.    A bit more than 75 years kibbutz Yad Mordechai survived a siege during Israel’s war of Independence.  Rather than falling to the Egyptian Army’s onslaught, the kibbutz survived, forcing the Egyptians to bypass the strategic village.  October 7 th  marked a second Yad Mordechai mirac