Impact, Obama and Good News
23rd October 2026
12th Heshvan 5787
Shabbat Shalom lovely friends
This may be a strange decision to make but I am going to try and write a positive newsletter to you today, even though it may seem that our world is falling apart.
Yesterday evening I opened up my WhatsApp to find no less than 30 messages from Marcus Sheff, the CEO of Impact-se. Since this is a very rare occurrence, tired as I was, I decided to take a look and found articles from the world media which published Impact-se’s reports on the Syrian textbooks. The work has only just begun on creating even more changes in textbooks, introducing tolerance to people who have only been taught hatred, in this region and beyond.
On Monday, Marcus and I met with Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, to give him a report of our enormous successes. He was amazed! He knows all the countries in which we have changed the textbooks and believes that what we have done is nothing short of miraculous
Not a bad start eh? I would be naïve if I thought that the news is only good so I have to mention Barak Obama, who finally showed us his true colours. I am one who long tried to rationalise the presidency of Barack Obama and criticise those who criticised him. However, this week when he claimed that the Jews had apparently stolen their own Homeland while he was speaking in Belfast on October the 13th. His words succeeded in continuing the misrepresentation of the Jewish people’s return to the land of Israel into a story of persecuted European Jews who sought refuge and then took Palestinian land and provoked the violent response on ourselves.
If you are over 70 but you don’t have to be Welsh to remember the Aberfan disaster when an entire slag heap (residue from coal mining), illegally built over a stream, slid down the hillside and killed an entire school of children. It happened 60 years ago and Wales still mourns.
The elections near, the slanging match continues, and the current government refuses to condemn the actions of the Jewish lunatic fringe who use God’s name in vain. Settlers, a word with disturbing connotations, but think about it, like everything in life it has many meanings. The ordinary folk who live in Maaleh Adumim, Ariel, Efrat (incidentally, Gush Etzion was always within the boundaries of Israel) or the Jerusalem neighborhoods of French Hill, Ramot or Gilo who CNN and BBC, Guardian and NYT give the misnomer of “settlements ” indeed derogatory connotations
Oh boy, I said that today my musings would be positive and here I am doing the opposite. Back to the beautiful side of life which is being overshadowed but not erased by our elections and the US mid-terms or by-elections.
So after our highly successful visit to Ehud Olmert, we went for dinner to Nattie and Yolli Zonszein in order to meet up with the lovely Perla Jinich. Perla was a classmate of Zvi in the Yiddische School in Mexico and of course Yolli is Mexican too. It was delightful (Nattie is a great cook) and conversation was, as always, lively.
Our amazing, wonderful friend Kim aka Dr Kimball Taylor, arrived on Wednesday. It is always such a joy when he comes to stay, taking a few days before he goes to the Jewish Agency meetings. This time he decided to join me, despite coming off about 26 hours of flights from Western Canada, and meet my granddaughter, Talia, to buy her all sorts of things for her student apartment to make it livable. Talia is incredible and we tried to get through her list of needs while she darted from place to place. We succeeded and Kim even helped her carry everything to her fourth floor walk up flat!!!!
Thursday was one of those truly special days — joyful, moving and full of unexpected moments. Kim and I met Keith and Deidre Beville from Australia at Shalva. They always make a point of including Israel in their travels, and it was lovely to see them again.Another small group was just beginning a tour at 11.30, led by our own Yuval and Lewis. There was a couple from Baltimore and a gentleman from London, all of whom had made Aliyah, so we decided to join forces. After a short introduction, we headed up to Dr Dan’s Room, where Yuval and I shared the explanations. From there, we visited the basketball court and swimming pool. Yoav Engel came into the lift and came straight to hug me! His son, Ofir, had been kidnapped to Gaza by Hamas on that fateful day, 7 October 2023, a date etched into all our souls. Thank heaven, Ofir has been brought home to his loving family and is slowly recovering. When we reached the synagogue, we had the rare honour of meeting Kalman Samuels, the founder of Shalva, who came to talk to us. And there was another lovely surprise: Barbie and I discovered that we shared mutual friends, the Kaufthal family. After the tour, we all sat down to lunch in Shalva’s fabulous restaurant, where Barbie and I chatted and laughed our way through the meal. It was a truly wonderful day.
Back to reality. Michigan Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayad came out of the anti-Israel closet. As I tell everyone here in our elections and even more so in the US Mid-terms, get out and vote.
I am ashamed and angry that Jewish thugs brutally attacked Heidi Levine, photographer for the Washington Post. There can be no justification for such violence, and if we care about the values Israel stands for, our government must condemn it and demand that those responsible face justice.
I keep thinking back to the riots in France in 1968 and 1969 which happened simultaneously with the student riots in the USA. Anger about the cost of living, housing and the future is real, and people have the right to protest. But when demonstrations turn into organised violence, intimidation and the looting of shops such as Louis Vuitton, I find myself wondering whether something much deeper is at work. We cannot assume that every rioter has the same motive but since of late the extreme left and the immigrants (predominantly from Muslim countries) join forces to disrupt the current rule. What worries me is how quickly threats and slogans can become a justification for violence, and how often people seem more eager to explain it away than to say plainly that it is unacceptable. The response is the rise of the extreme right.
Back to heartwarming events! Tonight we have dinner that will include Australians, a Panamanian, a Canadian, a former Romanian, a former Welshwoman (me) and of course Zvi who was born a Palestinian!! When we got home from Shalva, I had the house to myself. Zvi went to a rehearsal and Kim went to visit friends in the Old City. After a quiet cup of coffee I set about making the salads for tonight. I never decide beforehand, I just find what’s in the fridge and get cooking. Actually I began with the pumpkin soup, remembering to put a nice chunk of ginger into the pot! That should open everyone’s sinuses! I went on to make Zvi’s courgette salad, cucumber salad, zucchini and mushroom salad and a beetroot salad. Today just the guacamole to start and when I finish writing I’ll take the salmon out of the freezer. I think we will have fruit salad for dessert, with Ice-cream of course.
Tomorrow we will have lunch with Bryan Isaacs, a dear friend from Cardiff. Bryan and friends have done a fantastic job of buying ambulances for Magen David Adom, quite apart from being a lovely man.
Deciding what to write is not always easy. I don’t want you to think that life here is tough. We have tough moments but we live very well, Israelis enjoy life. We enjoy our parks, wildlife, treks and of course that so very typical pastimes of eating and shopping. The cost of living is high but hopefully we will deal with that after the elections!!
One very important part of life here is music. Music of every kind, Eastern, Western, Chassidic and Jazz………. So let’s get started.
I love this song, the words are so hopeful. Ye sit’s with soldiers but it shows us that they are just ordinary people. Enjoy. https://youtu.be/M8Nz-wBEf7o?si=L9ozzV2FECXc-_vp
A song that should be sung at every wedding (especially my grandson Yosef to Tsofia) It is so beautiful. https://youtu.be/OGugR9Ey6gU?si=b3JK3r4rhKa6q7wr
Mi haish, Who is the man, who desires life, loves​​ days,
in order to see good? Keep your tongue from speaking​ evil
and your lips from deceitful​ speech
Turn away from evil and do good.
Seek peace and pursue it. https://youtu.be/-N-uzKNW7rY?si=lC4xHCCAtfSS9yv8
I wish you a beautiful Shabbat filled with family, joy and good thoughts. It felt good to intersperse the usual news with the things that make me happy
Shabbat Shalom from our veranda and the glorious view of Jerusalem
Sheila