The Big Apple consumed most of my week taking a bite out of my writing time so this Shabbat message will be a bit condensed. While in NYC we were grateful to witness 3 generations of Folk Singers and Peacemakers. It was a once in a lifetime experience to hear the musical blending of the legendary (91 year old) Theodore Bikel, the iconic Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary) and the brilliant David Broza. Throughout their lives and songs, they’ve brought messages of Peace and Harmony to our global community.Theodore (named after Herzl) moved to Palestine in 1938 where he started his theatrical career before moving to the States in 1954. He has portrayed Tevye more than 2,000 time and also co-founded the Newport Folk Festival with Pete Seeger and others. Peter (with Paul and Mary) marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma and DC. 15 years ago, Peter founded Operation Respect, to help combat bullying with a curriculum brought to schools and camps throughout this country and the world. The reason for our NYC visit was David’s Peacemaker Award given to him by the Lab/Shul for his talent, generosity and peacemaking efforts globally and specifically within Israel as evidence of his album East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem. It was a night we will treasure and remember.

It’s time to pay tribute to the Patriarchs and “Fatherly” Heros of our Lives.  Happy Father’s Day to all Dads, Abbas, Tateh (Yiddish), Baba (Turkish), Babbo (Italian) and Vader (Dutch), hence Darth Vader (Dark Father). The first Father’s Day was established in 1910 and President Nixon made it official in 1972 though it is not a federal holiday.  There are an estimated 70 Million Fathers in our country and 200,000 of them are stay-at-home parents. Times are truly changing as traditional parenting roles are blurred and melded, though parenting today seems to becoming too intrusive.  Those “helicopters” need to start hoovering into the distance so kids can again learn experiential independence.

Teaching in the reverse is evident in this wonderfulCyberSeniors initiative. Youth teach seniors how to use the internet to connect with each other and their families. The results are touching, humorous and meaningful so much so a documentary is in the works to showcase this phenomenon.

Last week one of my favorite videos wasn’t working by the time it reached you so here is that sassy little dancer that should put a smile to your face.

Condolences to the family and friends of the nine innocent souls gunned down in Charlotte, NC by a hate filled racist bigot with easy access to a firearms.  May the memories and spirit of those victims rise and reflect the need to bring love and understanding to misguided and brainwashed individuals.

All people deserve to be in a loving relationship and those who judge, discriminate and take action to prevent marriage equality should get off their high horses and take a hike.  Israel doesn’t judge…in fact, this week it will embark on its 10th annual Tel Aviv/Jaffa Gay Pride Week attracting 100,000 participants. Gender Acceptance is this year’s theme so not surprisingly, they have invited Caitlin Jenner to attend.  They are waiting for her response. The Tel Aviv beach and surrounding buildings are rainbow decorated with open arms to all.

During the Caitlin Jenner media frenzy, one man posted a WWII photo to counter what he thought heroism really meant. He then went on a quest to find the photographer of his hero photo and discovered a sad but compelling story.  The photo was of one scene (of many) of a miniature recreation which is the passion of the photographer who started his photographic journey after being severely beaten because he is a cross-dresser.  I know it’s a complicated ironic story but it is fascinating to see the circle of incidents surrounding true bravery.  A documentary is in the works of the photographer, Mark Hogancamp .

Jerusalem has been (for millennia) and will always be the Heart, Soul and Capital of the Jewish People and the State of Israel.  It is a sacred city shared by Jews, Christians and Muslims.  One day, Jerusalem and Israel will be at Peace but for now the territory is in dispute… even on our US shores. On Monday the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the White House to prevent the Congress from requiring the State Department from printing Israel on US Passports for Americans born in Jerusalem, such as Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky who was born there (to Americans) in 2002 and his parents want his US passport to state Israel as his Place of Birth, instead of Jerusalem, which is protocol.  Even though Israel was legally partitioned by the UN in 1947 and West Jerusalem has been officially part of Israel since the 1948 establishment of the State, (the old city of) East Jerusalem was still off limits to Jews till 20 years later (during the Six-Day War*) when the Israel Defense Force captured theCity of Gold and opened it up to all religions. Fact: Jerusalem is not Occupied Territory. Israel officially declared Jerusalem its capital in 1950 but only (to this day) Guatemala and El Salvador accept this fact.  Normally, in wars, when countries capture territory, they get to declare it theirs. When others (throughout history) conquered Jerusalem, many people (including Jews) were prevented from access yet when Israel controls the territory, all are free to pray and visit, yet despite these freedoms, the world still discriminates against Israel. Honestly, Constitutional Law is a foreign language to me so I truly can’t criticizes the decision other than to say that our Government (and the rest of the world) should respect and acknowledge Israel’s choice of her capital.

Tides against Israel are strong and rampant. Anti-semitism/Anti-Israel is constant.  Many forget that nearly 1 Million Jews from Arab Countries were kicked out of their homes during the 1950s. Numerous entities continue to add their names to the BDS movement and this week enemies tried to force the UN to add Israel to the list of Children’s Rights Violators. Thankfully, Israel supporters lobbied to prevent this unfair acquisition about last summer’s Gaza War where Hamas used children and schools as their war shields just so they can accuse Israel of violations. Of course, Hamas should be on the list but they too were “excused”.

After 12 years of increased authoritarian steps, the voters of Turkey sent a message to their ruling Islamist leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, that his behavior is unacceptable.  This is certainly good news for the region and the Turks.  To give you a taste of this despicable man, he’s blamed many woes of his country on the Armenian Lobby,  the Jewish Diaspora, Atheist and homosexuals and attempted to block all social media to his citizens . There will be no love-lost if this leader leaves. A coalition government must be formed in the next 45 days or elections will take place again. Good riddance…

Congrats…

The long overdue removal of Cuba from the US terrorist list brings our countries closer to normalizing relations leading the way for increased tourism and stronger diplomacy. The three remaining countries on the terror list are Syria, Sudan and Iran. Yet there is possible hope on the horizon regarding Iran with some Israeli military are cautiously optimistic about the Iranian deal. http://news.yahoo.com/israel-military-cautiously-upbeat-iran-nuclear-deal-083330296.html

But Israel can’t afford to breath too easily since her compass of concern is still on high alert. In the South, Gaza is still shooting rockets (even this week) at civilians and continues to build more tunnels; In the North, Hezbollah in Lebanon is estimated to possess a stockpile of 100,000 rockets; And in theNortheast, after 4 years of civil war, the Syrian army is devastated and infested by Da’ash (ISIS). Israel has 360 degrees of concern though with the fish in the Mediterranean as her only friendly neighbors.

The long overdue memorial to the slain Israeli Olympic athletes will be breaking ground this year after decades of requests by the families and Israel.  The memorial will be on the site of the athletes village where 11 Israelis were killed.  And with a complete change of heart, the International Olympic Committee is even considering including a tribute during the opening ceremony for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games.

The FIFA house of cards is collapsing fast and furiously. Corruption has infested the ranks for decades and the crimes are all coming to light. Shortly after winning the presidency (for the 5th time), Sepp Blatter resigned over the deep seated corruption. But the best episode this week involves their former Vice President Jack Warner who is now spilling the beans but tried to defend his actions by using a satirical   article from the Onion Newspaper. Sadly the corruption has also lead to over 1,000 deaths as poor immigrants are forced to labor in the excessive Qatar heat to build the World Cup stadium. Qatar has got to be the worst place on Earth to host a World Cup and we know corruption greased the palms of the decision makers. In addition to their corrupt government, they have adverse relations with Israel so even though they made an exception for Israeli athletes to play in the games, Israeli fans wouldn’t be allowed to enter the country to watch the games.  Here is a petition that will be sent to FIFA trying to revoke the 2022 World Cup decision.

After a brilliant 18 year old realized our ocean pollution problem, he set out to create an Ocean Cleansing System which will be deployed in 2016.  There are 5 giant ocean patches of garbage that will be cleaned up in the decades following the introduction of his system.  Here is an article and video if you’re interested in this issue:

I love this creative way actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson is trying to influence our Supreme Court Justices to make the right decision on Marriage Equality.  The SCOTUS decision is due within the month so please check out Jesse’s action plan to sway their thoughts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53cSbzo419U

Refuah Shlema (speedy recovery) to John Kerry as he broke his leg while biking in the French Alps though his recovery will not stall the Iranian discussion but this did not stop Iran from reporting bogus allegation that his injury was actually an assassination attempt.

Bravo to France for instituting a new law that requires Supermarkets to donate all leftover food they are unable to sell.  We, here in the US, discard 43 billion pounds of food every year.  Think how that amount of food would benefit the hungry of our society.  Many wonderful agencies, like Forgotten Harvest and Gleaners, do rescue some of our uneaten food, but certainly these efforts could be quadrupled if grocery stores were required to donate their excesses.

As another crop of college grads will embark on their job hunt shackled to their enormous student debt, isn’t it time to reform our country’s collegiate financial situation? Proud that our ownSenator Gary Peters is helping to alleviate this debilitating situation for our college students.

Even Senator John McCain agrees that Citizens United is one of the worst decisions of SCOTUS (Supreme Court). It has unleashed the corruptible lobbying effort of millionaires and corporations to buy influence and waste money.  Please keep this in mind when voting for our next president as they will have the power to appoint Justices who will or will not support efforts like Citizens United.

American Pharoah is not predicted to win the Belmont Stakes (Triple Crown) but his run so far is still miraculous. AP’s owner is Ahmed Zayat, a 52 year old orthodox Egyptian Jew who immigrated to the US at the age of 18.  His father was Anwar Sadat’s physician and his grandfather was a famous Egyptian writer. Good luck to the Zayat family and American Pharoah.

Eyal, Gilad and Naftali,
we will never forget and never forgive those terrorists who took you away from us and from your families.

In addition to that, and as a moral nation, we will not forgive those Israelis who shamed us by taking the life of Mohammed Abu Khadir.

We all as Israelis, and as a nation that praises human life, say No to all types of terrorism!
May they all rest in peace!
Am Yisrael Chai”
Mohammad Zoabi