March 12, 2023
Jewish Life and Culture- Hi all, Despite a very low attendance this past weekend, students mixed with each other in an effort to better understand what a mitzvah truly represents. They debated if it is a commandment, or a good deed. They all were aware of the 613 mitzvahs, even though they acknowledged many of them would be nearly impossible to accomplish in modern times. Yet, they made justification for laws pertaining to marriage, punishment, prayer, and food; all of which could be carried out! Have you reflected on the mitzvoth recently, such as #584, respect your father or mother.
Judaic Studies- We had another great week in Kitah Zayin!
This week we watched two videos and discussed how Israel had to make tough choices for defense and peace. Both would be a moral dilemma that not everyone agreed with.
The first video went into the time in the 1960s Egypt recruited Nazi scientists to create a missile that could be topped with nuclear material. The Mossad attempted multiple ways to hunt down the Nazis but were extremely unsuccessful. The Mossad found former SS Lieutenant Colonel Otto Skorzeny ,who could help them eliminate the scientists due to his connection with them during and after the war. Besides the obvious problem of him being a former SS Colonel and responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews, he was also Hitler’s favorite military officer due to his relentlessness, and was high up on Simon Wiesenthal’s Nazi war criminal list. The officer would agree to work for the Mossad, under the condition he would not be persecuted for his crimes. Ultimately, the Mossad made the agreement and all the Nazis helping Egypt were either killed or escaped back to Europe.
The second video was about exchanging the Jewish settlement of Yamit in the Sinai desert for peace with Egypt. In 1982 Egypt offered Israel peace under the condition Israel withdrew from the Sinai desert that it had captured during the Six Day War in 1967. If Israel agreed, they would finally have peace with one of their neighbors, but at the cost of losing a large amount of land and existing Israelis who settled there after the war. In the end, Israel agreed but was forced to send the IDF to Yamit to forcibly remove the residents who settled there and ultimately bulldoze it to prevent them from returning.
Students discussed after each video if they felt the right decision was made by Israel, how they would feel if they were there to witness the events, and how these decisions shaped Israel today.
