New Ethiopian immigrants reach Israel during Operation Solomon in 1991

It was great to speek at the Women’s International Zionist Organisation last night. Thank you to the Sassoon family for the experience, which included a pre-speech shawarma at the new Sami’s branch in Golders. (The Iraqi pitta there is heavenly!)

I thought I’d share a portion of my speech here. So here is its conclusion, in which I spoke about some of ways that both Israel and the Hasidim have inspired me…

I’m inspired by historical giants such as the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Nachman and the Chabad Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson. I’m fascinated and haunted by Elie Wiesel’s stories of the Hasidim in Block 57 at Auschwitz who continued to sing, dance and pray to G-d, even in that darkest of times.

I’m inspired by the very 21st century Hasidim of the NaNach Breslovers, who dance to techno music on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. When I stopped blogging for a while in 2011, it was the Nanachs who were the first to email and ask if I was okay. They never directly told me whether or not I should continue blogging. They just told me that I should be happy and then I would make the right decision.

And of course I’m inspired by the modern state of Israel and how it took the Jewish story from the camps of the Shoah to the rescue of Entebbe in a single generation. There are so many figures in Israel’s history that particularly inspire me. The one I keep coming back to is Menachem Begin, the warrior turned peacemaker who devoted his every waking hour to the love of his people.

Then there are the names we are less familiar with and the stories that receive less attention. For instance in May 1991, when Israel airlifted Ethiopian Jews away from impending death. Many of these Ethiopians had never even seen an aeroplane before that day. Over 1,000 people queued to enter the plane which had only a 500-person capacity. The pilot simply removed seats and other items to make more room.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I don’t want to leave any of my people behind.”

Over the next 36 hours Israel saved 14,324 Jews and flew them home, symbolically arriving over the Red Sea. Seven babies were delivered on-board. As the Ethiopian Jews arrived in Israel many kissed the ground. At the absorption centre they were served food, one of the servers was an elderly woman with a tattooed number still visible on her arm.

Jews were also emergency airlifted to Israel from the Yemen. Again, many of them had never seen a plane before. That very week the Jews in Yemen had read the portion of the Bible about G-d carrying the Jews on eagles wings. Imagine how they felt as a huge metal ‘eagle’ appeared and flew them to the Promised Land.

There are more recent stories, such as in 2009 when a Hamas rocket aimed at Israel misfired and severely injured a Palestinian. Israel took the injured Palestinian into one of its own hospitals for treatment. These are beautiful stories that we all need to share with the world more.

And what about the story of a 15-year old Palestinian boy who was bitten by a deadly viper snake as he worked in his family’s fields in Jenin in the West Bank. He was soon in enormous pain and in imminent danger of death.

His father rushed him to Jenin Hospital but they lacked the correct anti-serum. So he was taken to an Israeli hospital – the HaEmek Medical Center. There Muhammed and his father were greeted in Arabic and rushed to the emergency room where the boy’s life was saved by a team of doctors including both Jews and Arabs. He was kept in intensive care for two days and then moved to continue his recuperation in another ward.

Established in 1924, HaEmek Medical Center is a community hospital serving a population of Jews and Arabs. With a mixed medical staff of Jews and Arabs, its guiding philosophy is ‘Coexistence Through Medicine’.

This is Israel and those are the people and stories that so inspire me.

I also love the sense of hope that is inherent in the state of Israel, including in the title of its moving national anthem. Israel is a vibrant, brilliant country, remarkably so given both its youth and the circumstances it was created and built under. To me, etched into every part of Israel is an unwritten message: just look what is possible in life.

This is the ultimate example of how one can start afresh, even after the cruellest of blows. And that truth is there to inspire anyone who cares to connect with it.

And that is what I am admiring and supporting.

In my efforts for Israel I don’t generally aim for loud, controversy-seeking pyrotechnics. Although fireworks can be fun, the Jewish people have shown me candles last a lot longer.

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