WITH HEART AND MIND
Dear friends,
Marsha and I will be visiting our children and grandchildren in Israel this summer and it got me to thinking: with the constant drumbeat of controversy and the (to my mind) unconscionable way Israel has been portrayed and isolated in the international community, it’s important to remember just how precious Israel is and what a blessing it is to the world. There are so many reasons to be proud of the remarkable accomplishments of this brave and intrepid country. Here is one such list from journalist Barbara Sofer, which I found particularly inspiring:
? The head of the Jewish Agency is a former Soviet Prisoner of Zion.
? Among the nation’s hit songs is “Mi She’amda,” a Seder song about divine deliverance from all those who want to destroy us.
The IDF and the police sent a field hospital to earthquake traumatized Haiti. It was a 15-hour flight, but our hospital was up and running first.
Israelis celebrate Independence Day with thousands of students competing in the International Bible Contest.
Fring, an Israeli company, has perfected a technology which allows protesters in Teheran to reach Facebook and Twitter, which the Iranian government has blocked.
An Israeli invention, an exoskeleton suit, allows paraplegics to walk.
The world’s largest plate of hummus was created by 50 Jewish and Arab chefs who got together in Abu Ghosh to prepare a four-ton plate. They served it in a satellite dish.
The showroom for Better Place, manufacturers of the first electric car invented by Shai Agassi, has opened in Ramat Hasharon.
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 The students at the yeshiva in Kiryat Shmona stayed through the rocket fire for the entire Second Lebanon War to help the elderly.
Israel has more inventions per person than any other country. Just one, the BabySense system, helps protect infants around the world from sudden infant death syndrome.
The UN, which rarely bestows praise on Israel, named it the world’s most efficient recycled water user in a report for World Water Day.
According to The New York Times, Tel Aviv has become one of the world’s foremost entrepreneurial hot spots. It has been named by Forbes as one of the world’s top party cities.
According to Saul Singer and Dan Senor, who wrote Start-Up Nation, the secret of Israel’s economic success is “the unique ethos of the military-reserve system, under which taxi drivers can command millionaires and 23-year-olds can train their uncles. Camaraderie fostered in youthful service, together with ingrained audacity, transfers to civil life. In addition, a cosmopolitan mind-set, learned from travel around the world, produces secure international connections.”
In a country with more museums per capita than anywhere else, there’s now a shofar museum at the Odem Forest in the Golan Heights.
Righteous Gentiles who saved Jews in the Holocaust can move here, no matter their age or health.
David Pur, the oldest man alive, lives in Israel. He’s 115. His advice: “Don’t lose your optimism.”
Indeed we must not lose our optimism, our sense of pride and our dedication to a safe and secure Israel. Am Yisrael Chai!
Faithfully yours,
Gary A. Huber |
