War heroes

At the end of the WWII Srultchik was left wandering nearby his shtetl now surrounded by American troops that came to bank what was left to be saved. He knew the war was over, yet the wounds were still fresh and the only welcoming that actually consoled him was food and warmth. However being alone with no one to share all the thoughts flashing thru him was only causing tears welling up. He was a young man when the war broke out and still hears the pounding of the SS as they barged down his door evicting his family and dragging them out in the middle of the night. This was the last he saw of them, now all he carries are memories.

After rummaging around for days Srultchik met familiar faces from his home town, they quickly bonded and set out to look around for any relatives hopefully left alive, to no avail. The Red Cross, the army’s information booth all had no evidence stating anyone they were looking for was still alive.Saddened by the truth but hardened by their experiences they were determined to regain their composure and restart from where they left off.

There were many men and women that were unfortunately single once again and many were eager to move on. Some in order to avoid being lonely, others to rebuild a home.Srultchik and his new group of friends felt the need to restart in a place where they would feel comfortable and secure, not needing to worry of another war.

It did not take long for them to conclude that the only place they would have these feelings would be in a place they could proudly call ‘home’!And so it went, Srultchik and his friends decided that they are moving to Eretz Yisroel! What other country can help rebuild a Jewish home and live without fear of our neighbor turning into a Gestapo?

It was not easy trekking to this home away from home. It was days of roving, but all in good spirit and with something to look forward to, which is more than any of them had in the last few years.Their arrival was welcoming and a chill awoke down their spines when they saw once again so many Jews living collectively and little Jewish children playing together on the streets.

It did not take long for Srultchik and his friends to restart families of their own, trying to build a future with a better forecast. Interestingly enough it was very rare to find war victims that wanted to forget where they came from, what they had been thru and what and whom they left behind. This was part of what they wanted transpired among the next generation, not allowing anyone to forget what had happened and most important, and probably more important then catching any Nazi on the flee would be to ensure that no one ever denies the Holocaust from happening.

It was people like these that ensured places like Yad Vashem would eventually be created. It was thanks to such heroes that moved on but didn’t leave go that a Simon Wiesenthal center got erected. And last but not least, it is because of such accidental heroes that people like Eichman y”s were brought to trial.

Srultchik used to meet his Aliya’h friends quite often, and they would always note how they owe Israel so much for helping them regain their raison d’etre. They decided to think of something they can do for Eretz Yisroel as a token of appreciation.

Not too long after, at one of their regular get-togethers, Srultchik had brought up the interesting concept about how the government would help support people moving into remote areas in order to create new “Yishoevim.” This he felt would be the nicest way to give back, if they could settle in an area that makes a statement of a Jew and his country he calls home.

There was not much hesitation about the idea being grand, yet some felt they could not move again and it was too much for them, however they would assist in convincing their families, friends and children to hopefully help Israel by branching out on all four corners of the map and proving their love for the Holy land.

It was hard, and after time it only became harder, but determination was what kept some of these people alive to begin with, and no struggle like this was going to blow away because of hardships. Finally it started to pick up and people started moving into settlements and caravans were being set up, water was being channeled in, eventually even electricity reached some of these popular new hot-spots. It was the Zionistic thing to do, and it set off with a bang!

The government was encouraging more and more people to build up such areas and all over this little country with only a dot on the map, towns were being allocated and new area names were being endorsed.

Love, devotion, dedication and sacrifice are what built up such Yishoevim! The sweat, the time, the money and the patience is irreplaceable to any of these people, young and old for becoming the heroes of that era, and helping Israel spread its wings and conquering every corner of the land.

Years and years later, came this heavy knock on a front door. Srultchik who is known in his area today as Srulik or Yisrael and over the years became one of the few original Aliyah friends still alive from his little group, lives in one of the Shtachim and uses a cane to walk, slowly approaches to answer his door. He opens it up to be confronted with three Israeli soldiers who march right into his house. They have little time and came with a paper and a message, “You are evicted and have one week to leave the premises or we will use all force necessary and granted by law to drag you out, have a nice day.” With that they left.

Srulik was speechless, he had to sit down, his legs would not hold him up anymore, and he felt like he aged 20 years in one minute. He sat down and felt something he had not felt happening in years, his eyes were welling up and tears were streaming down. He was once again being evicted! He was once again not wanted! He was once again feeling helpless and alone. “How could this happen? How could this happen again to me? How could the Israeli government want us out of something they supported? Over something that belongs to us? Over something we fought wars, battles and built from sand? How could the same person who led our armies into battle be the one to hand it over to the enemy?”

He felt a sense of ‘deja vue’, a Pandora box being opened. Everything he believed in, everything he strived for was being taken from him once again, the place he called ‘home; the place he once called secure, the only place where he thought this could never happen just flashed back as he recalled the banging on his door back in Europe evicting everything and everyone he felt close to.

He was Srultchik again! He went up to his small attic, pulled out a suitcase he thought he would never use again and put in his personal belongings, his tallit and teffilin, a few seforim and some pictures he only looked at on assumed Yarzheits and Yamim Naraim.

He then removed his small satchel that was put away neatly in a corner, and he felt warm tears streaming down his cheeks as for the first time in years he pulled out his uniform he still had from when he was a prisoner at the war camps, and a Yellow Star Of David.He had to cut the pants a little so they would fit him now, and put on a belt to hold up the pants, and attached the Yellow star to his shirt, and an old small torn siddur with Viduy written in a beautiful handwriting on the inside cover.

He took his suitcase with him, and exited his house not turning back and walked across the street and into the Shul. He opened the Aron Kodesh and started reciting Ani Maamin slowly word for word with tears constantly flowing creating a dampness on his precious treasured Siddur.Saying “Ani Maamin Be’Emunah Shleima Beviyas HaMashiach, Ve’Af Al Pi Sh’Ysmameia Im Kol Ze Achake Lo Bechol Yom SheYavo!”

It is beyond our imagination what such a person could feel like during such times, but the closest we could come to imagining a such would be if one day police would evict any Jew living on the other side of the train tracks here in our Antwerp ghetto, stating that this land now belongs to the ethnic people that outnumber the Jews.

How would we react? Would we not be furious and have the desire to fight back. This is not even scratching the surface of what our brethren in Israel are fighting for, but it could and should give us an idea.

Though the story saddens us we must do our part of support, we must move on yet not forget, and pray for the true Geulah Bimheira Beyameinu, Amen.

Am Yisrael have no fear

One of the hardest things to deal with is fear. Fear is not always something that just comes and goes, at times it simply takes time to pass like once one gets older while sometimes one needs help overcoming the fear. Actually the harder thing besides the actual fear is admitting we are scared.

Another funny possibility is when a person tells you not to worry about something, and all of a sudden you see the person who just tried to calm you down take all necessary precautions in event of.

After the UK bombings, the Belgian media advised its citizens that there is no reason to worry here and no threats were made. Yet this week it seemed like an urgent call was made to various security firms to present their products onto the open area for all to see.

A couple days ago, anyone to walk down the Hoveniersstraat could not help notice the wires hanging, and interesting electronics being placed in specific places. It seems that an open bid was quickly dispatched in order for major security firms should show off their toys. Ironically even an English company participated to show how good their security is.

Companies from all over Europe were found installing temporary surveillance cameras, hidden eyes, speed bumps on the street with cameras installed to allow police to see the mechanics under each vehicle that passes among other nifty gadgets.

I was hoping to hear that after the bomb that already occurred on the Hoveniesstraat many years ago, and since 9/11 and since the major heists that occurred in our area, one could only hope that the Diamond district would be by now the safest place at least in Antwerp.

Yet it seems that either there were threats or the brains actually were summoned together and actually figured out that maybe just maybe the street is not that well protected after all.

What struck as strange were especially those speed-bump security bumps. Our street is already closed off to all cars. I figure since there are no restrictions YET for pedestrians maybe they would like to be a little more careful, but cars? Cars that have access to the street already must of passed heavy scrutiny in order to get their pass, now we have to fear that someone may have placed TNT or whatever under the hood of someone else’s automobile.

I guess this is what I mean by fear. If it was not enough having extra police man the streets and stand post sometimes even with machine guns at the for-ever breaking down poles that restrict unauthorized cars from entering, then according to me, adding extra security again is more out of fear and not precaution anymore.
This is how government entities admit their fear. You can’t expect them to openly address the public and state “we are worried of an attack and are taking extra precautions,” that could frighten the people. Instead they just increase the security.

What bothers me the most of increased security is not the fact that people that have no business being in certain places cannot enter, merely the fact that the way to protect the people working in the Diamond District is to lock them up to keep intruders out. Its what we would call an ‘Ipcha Mistabre’ we get jailed so the villains cannot attack us, while they walk around freely. This situation is very common in areas like Johannesburg where life could be luxurious in your own home, having maids and pools and richer lifestyles for many that live there. However once you leave your cage your on your own, you even don’t drive away from your driveway without watching the gates close properly.

I can’t blame the police here for needing to do take these extra measures however looking at it from the other end of the lens, it seems funny that the honest and working folk have to be locked up so the bad guys can’t reach them.

Hopefully these precautions are simply because one can’t be too careful, yet will never have to be proven affective.

Antverpeneshaigetz@yahoo.com

Olympic bombs

Tragic is the only way to formulate while looking at pictures and reading up on statements being said about the crazy attack on London. Disaster struck the center of town and left everyone on the trot like chickens without a head!

It appears like hundreds were wounded and quite a few dead. The last report I heard was 45 deaths. I am sure this number will still go up; the English are fortunate not to know about such happenings and are maybe naïve of the consequences. We on the other hand have had our share of excitement in our Homeland. The numbers rise as simple casualties do not recover from their wounds and are usually not counted with the actual numbers released of deaths as they were not declared DOA.

The results of such occurrences are devastating and should affect all of us. It should be a sad moment worldwide. Though agreed that the result could have been worse, as there were at least 5 bombs that went off in central locations at crucial times…we should all be thankful it was not worse, yet be saddened by the violence and the type of world we now live in.

There are no boundaries left in society. Someone gets angry; there are no working things out anymore. Our instincts have been reformatted to no longer think before we act. As soon as someone steps on our toes the control panel in our system bridges over the antivirus system that cleans out the trouble nicely. And instead we return with a vengeance. We react with yelling- back, fighting, arguing, and giving the silent-treatment or what-not.

The big boys are even worse, if they are not happy, let’s attack them, let’s place bombs and kill innocent people, let’s recruit suicide bombers to teach them a lesson. No more of the “let us meet and see how we can work this out in a civilized manner.” Moreover no one is allowed to differ with anyone. So what that you and I don’t have the same opinion about certain matters, therefore I have to revolt and riot against you? Therefore we cannot be friends, family or neighbours? Rarely is this the only way to solve matters.

There is no denying that the use of force by the big guns and sometimes returning in anger would be normal and maybe even the correct remedy for certain situations, but under no circumstances should anyone on the side get hurt!

We too should take a lesson in anger management. It sounds a little much to compare our verbal abusing between family and friends to a tragedy like today’s occurrence. We too blow up sometimes at friends, family or colleagues without thinking, hurting not only our direct opponent but it could affect people not directly involved simply because we did not think before we blurred out our feelings and emotions.

We could and should learn from anything that happens around us, and today for us should be a good training-day to reprogram our systems and ensure that we do not negotiate with terrorists!

Antverpeneshaigetz@yahoo.com

"Get" divorced

It’s a strange mannerism to wish Mazel-Tov upon hearing of a divorce in our religion. Though offering our congratulations is one of our customs. Actually in the figure of speech, a couple would approach their counsel and state that “they would like to get divorced.” A slight play of words here seems to go unnoticed. The word ‘like’ is actually a synonym to ‘being fond of’.

As sad as it may sound, divorces are quite popular. Never before in Jewish history had the divorce rate within our religion been so high. Though we offer our congrats on hearing news of a divorce, the response in return is not “Bekarov bei dir,” unless you know the guy your saying it to.

However here is a newsflash for y’all. According to logistical compassing it seems like the divorce rate has potential to rocket thru the roof in one of the New Jersey ‘Yeshiva’ communities.

This ever-so-fast growing ant farm township called Lakewood, homes the largest American Talmudic college for young men. Over the past number of years, the town no longer caters solely to the Biblical students, but it has become a harbor for many younger and older families to flock in the surrounding of holiness in what is known as a ‘Yeshiva community’.

It would sound strange or shocking to hear that in such a place the divorce rate will increase?!

So here is the fun part. Many of the community residents are enrolled as full time scholars. Though many of their wives are the breadwinners in order to support their rabbinical husbands, there are many that receive government funding and aid in order help provide a low mortgage and food-stamps and what not to certain families.

Now before I reach the punch-line of this fun story, I wish to take a moment and anchor my view cautioning readers that the following does not tell truth about all residents and/or students in that town. Yet I am not denying that I would be naïve to believe that this only affects one or two rotten apples in the basket.

Now that I have your full attention, here it comes. It seems that if a person already receiving government aid gets divorced, the government forks out more benefits, as the husband now has an additional payment of support for alimony and more.


So the latest fad is getting divorced. Basically it is now proven that divorce actually enhances your marriage. I wonder if a marriage counselor though this one up when his patients came in stating that their marriage is a wreck and mainly due to financial stress.
“Oh, no problem, get divorced and all you will live happily ever after!”

“That will be 100 dollars for the consult please.”

I wonder if the Rabbanim posted a signed statement about this too?

Antverpeneshaigetz@yahoo.com

Hot and cold

The heat is on! Meteorologists and global warming scientists had warned us over the past years that summers will intensely increase in delivering a heat that Europe and the world is not used to. In the 20th century the last 15 of them were the hottest recorded. It is suspected to keep getting warmer in our 21st century.

The heat affects us in so many ways, especially making daily tasks much tougher. Concentration is one of the difficult issues. Cooking, working or anything for that matter is much more tiring.

Growing up in Europe I cannot recall anyone in our neighbourhood that had air-conditioning. I do remember the searing days, and boy were they hot, but anyone that had a fan was already considered lucky and was admired. Then fans became quite popular, especially those handheld ones that all the kids had. Even driving with your windows open was at times unbearable and people installed small fans to ventilate while driving.

What did we do about it? Cold showers, water fights, swimming, drinking fresh lemonade or cold tea or the best was to play with the garden hose with all our friends.
But our daily lives continued ‘ business as usual’ we did not fathom about air conditioning. Truth be told, we loved spending the day or evening al fresco.
Even staying out late was allowed, as it only got dark at crazy hours.

Nowadays, we live in altered society. Even convertibles have air conditioning! Who makes cold tea? Did nobody then hear of Lipton? The only places that reason far beyond my understanding is still without air-condition are the Belgian hospitals! I don’t expect the hospitals to be fully equipped like a hotel, but in today’s day and age and with the current “greenhouse effect” it seems only unintelligent to check in any patient into such places to survive, let alone a victim of dehydration or heat stroke.

In the new world we live in, besides installing the not-such-a-luxury-anymore air-conditioning, people feel that a certain respectfulness or appearance is no longer required when hot. The attire that walks the street during such hot days is seemed to mesmerize our brain cells and instil forgetfulness in getting dressed before going off to work or play.

Men whom are generally found wearing ties or jackets seem to have even trouble buttoning their top few shirt buttons. Women seem to be so forgetful they don’t even put on…. anything. The only ones that should actually impress us are the Hassdic folk. Hot or cold, they are wearing the wool Tzitzis, hats, jackets and the works!!

Maybe not everyone has installed central air at home yet, but we are all well acquainted with it. Most of us could not bear a moment of working or driving without the a/c on. Some of us that don’t have a/c in our cars rather drown in their own sweat then get caught with the window down. It’s important here too for people to think that you have a/c.

The fun and entertaining aspect of the revolution in a/c is to watch people at the workplace or even at home fight about it. “It’s so cold in here” or “is it on?” “If you’re the only one that’s hot in here then you have a problem, we are cold!!” or “if your cold put on a sweater”.

And if you want to broaden your grin about these quotes, try and figure out which comment was a male quote and which was a female quote?

Stay cool!
Antverpeneshaigetz@yahoo.com

And for slanderers let there be no hope...

Recently we had been confronted again with unfortunate events within our community. The arrest of two religious Chassidim came as a shock to many around us. Sadly they are still doing time in Belgian prison and are in need of urgent Heavenly interventions and mercy.

The regrettable truth is that under ordinary circumstances innocent people don’t get arrested. Yet here in Belgium we have learned that the use of ‘Code Napoleon’ could actually brand a person guilty until proven innocent.

However it seems that mainly evidence has caused them added trouble, it seems that it was not only the long hand of the law that put them into this malevolence. They seemed to have had their phones tapped and were apprehended with taped evidence against them.

The interesting part that culminated herein was the forensic intelligence that seemed to have translated their ‘Yiddish’ conversation into local tongue.

It would have been bad enough needing to believe that there may be actual people behind the scenes within the police system that actually mastered our ancient speech.

Honestly it would probably be sad to discover that they even felt a need to include someone with this knowledge onto their payroll. It would be a black mark on the Jewish community, making us appear to be on a list that requires such personnel to monitor the seemingly frequent transgressions made.

Thankfully this is not the case, though I am unsure which we would prefer. It seems that the local authority does NOT require a Jewish linguist on their payroll, as it is very rare and sporadic when they seem to need one for our rare instances of felonies.

The troublesome part is that they searched within the local Jewish community for one to do the Jewish work. A local Jewish female, obviously very knowledgeable bilingually (Flemish and Yiddish) was employed to translate these recorded conversations.

Though I admit, the job sounds original. It sends shivers down my spine! The thought of a local person of our community working close knit against our own people should have been left in Germany after WWII!

Were this to be a Jewish person offering their language skills on an occasional basis to local hospitals or in the event that someone needs police intervention and has difficulty conversing with the local languages would be one thing.

This mind-boggling truth was far beyond the wildest dreams. The audacity of any Jewish individual translating taped conversations in order to assist in apprehending Jewish people is stepping into a minefield.

It is fascinating that this story is only leaking out now and I wonder what our community leaders can and will do about it.

According to criminal law, crimes are offences against social order. Even in common law, there is a legal fiction that crimes disturb the peace of the sovereign. The government officials who in turn act as agents are responsible for the prosecution of offenders. Hence the criminal law “plaintiff” is the sovereign, which in practical terms translates into the monarch or the PEOPLE. The crime herein proves what is known as ‘mens rea’ (guilty mind). This is one of the distinct elements to consist with a criminal offence. Which in simple English by default places the translator in the hot seat as a criminal. I know that according to the Jewish law she is guilty but here thanks to the laws of the land, we may be able to prosecute the translator.

A wise man once said. “A society should not be judged on how it treats its outstanding citizens but how it treats its criminals.” (F. Dostoyevsky)

Has the jury reached its verdict? What say you? We find the translator guilty on all accounts!
Antverpeneshaigetz@yahoo.com

guilty plea

Children seem to fall victim of their parents failures and crimes all too often.
There are so many different places where we find a child suffers his entire life for something he had little or actually no control over. The most interesting type being the MAMZER. What was his crime? Simply the fact that he was born crucified his simple existence.

This is a very interesting concept and should not even be that simple to explain. However, one of the many responses to this question of WHY, is simply because the adults who acted immorally must suffer the consequences. This is one of the biggest or probably the biggest lesson one must learn is that we are all responsible for our actions, and at times one can jeopardize lives and standards in a split second just for acting on a moment of weakness.

However it still remains a hard assignment for an innocent child to live with. Even if we agree that the consequences are harsh, still this child could be challenged for the rest of his life.

So too the school system and /or the parents! There seems to be a problem that until recent past I had been convinced that this problem was one that occurred outside of Antwerp. However I have gotten wiser and less naïve lately upon learning that there are young children that are not invited back to school due to their parents’ lack of funds or their willing to spend their money on education.

I am not blatantly exposing guilt solely on the schools or on the parents for every action. There are unfortunate cases of parents that could afford but feel they don’t have to pay tuition for some G-forsaken reason. These parents besides my opinion that they be tarred and feathered, their kids will be forced to suffer.

Unfortunately some of us were only blessed with brains or good looks, while others have been blessed with fortunes. It is funny how at times we find that the less fortunate with no funds finds it easier to at least try and pay in order to ensure their children’s education, while some richer folk demand a discounted rate. Yet there are those that simply cannot afford education costs especially since they were blessed with larger families and have high expenses, still at times there are stories of schools that will evict the children of non paying parents.

What I find most troubling is the fact that our schools will have less problems not letting a girl attend her classes if her parents didn’t pay tuition, than a boy. As boys must get an education, while girls can be taught how to cook, clean, sew by the best teachers on the planet, MOMMY. Though I do not wish to mingle or mess with our sages, personally such exploitation sounds worse to me than the blessing of “Shelo Asani Isha!”

However the schools that take this unanimous decision probably consult a Rabbi or minister and after deliberation, they probably fight who is to sign the letter which they don’t have the guts to actually sign, unless they have some leader or quote that they can blame it on.

To be honest, it actually terribly sad knowing that this is happening in our little township as the Schar Limud compared to England and America is only a fraction of the cost from there to here. We are quite fortunate to have such low scholastic dues that it only should sadden us to learn that some in our midst cannot attain even these low rates.

Fact is that this is yet another MAMZER story, because the school authorities or the in some cases the parents are Mamzeirim the child has to suffer.

What a beautiful world we live in!
Antverpeneshaigetz@yahoo.com