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April 23, 2004
A people of courage and faith
New publication from Aish.com shows Israeli tenacity in face of
terror.
TOBY KLEIN GREENWALD SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Israel: Life in the Shadow of Terror Edited by
Nechemia Coopersmith and Shraga Simmons
Aish.com, Jerusalem, 2004.
415 pages. Hardcover.
$24.95 US
Israel, Life in the Shadow of Terror, edited by Rabbi Nechemia
Coopersmith and Rabbi Shraga Simmons, is as eclectic in theme as
it is in authorship, and it goes far beyond its title, for the book
is not just about terror and it is not only about shadows.
After its heartfelt opening section on Living with Terror, where
you may find yourself close to tears at every chapter close, it
moves on to Israel Perspectives, Israel Diaries and The Mideast
Conflict. The closing section, Coming Home, is filled with hope,
but the beauty of the book is that the sections on terror and diaries
also present a country and a people who are determined to meet the
horror of the last three and a half years with courage and faith.
All of the content is gleaned from the pages of Aish.com,
a Jewish content Web site with more than a million visits a month,
according to Coopersmith. The editors of the book have preserved
the style of the Web site writing, which gets to the core of the
issue quickly.
"We saw an urgent need for Jews to identify personally with
the situation in Israel," said Coopersmith. "We had a
body of articles – a living history – that evolved over
the course of the last three years that put a human face on these
events."
Israel, Life in the Shadow of Terror features such diverse
personalities as Elie Weisel, Natan Sharansky, Yossi Klein Halevi,
Jon Medved (a Jerusalem venture capitalist), rabbis Noah Weinberg
and Nachum Braverman and others, alongside students, tourists and
young mothers or fathers who have made aliyah.
The Living with Terror section deals exclusively with human interest
stories that are related to the violence. Sara Yoheved Rigler, an
Aish.com regular with a number of excellent contributions to this
book, describes her meetings with wounded teenagers who survived
the suicide attack on the Dolphinarium in "Children of Death,
Children of Life."
There are stories that intersect. We read about Shiri, with her
"long, thick blond braid reaching her waist, adorning her beautiful,
lively face" who was planning on going to dental school but
who died on the bus that was bombed on its way from Gilo. Dr. Avraham
Rivkind of Hadassah Hospital describes, in a different chapter,
how he cried for the first time at losing a patient when Shiri died.
In "A Tale of Two Families," Rigler tells the story of
Michal Franklin, whose grandmother survived the Holocaust only to
stand at her granddaughter's graveside, and of the Nechmad family,
whose parents had survived the pogroms in Syria but their grandson,
Eli, fatally injured in a suicide bombing in Beit Yisrael, was buried
on the same day as Michal.
In the Israel Diaries section, we see people trying to get on with
their lives. Sarah Shapiro, who also helped edit the book, describes
her obsession with planting flowers in the midst of the horror,
and her attempt to dialogue with Arab women who sit near her in
a café.
The Mideast Conflict section is cogent and filled with facts and
timelines. It will be of greatest interest to someone seeking an
historical-political understanding of modern Israel's history of
conflict.
Among the best chapters in this section are "Twenty Facts about
Israel and the Middle East" by Wiliam J. Bennett, Jack Kemp
and Jeane Kirkpatrick, " 'Occupied' Territories?" by Dore
Gold, Israel's former ambassador to the United Nations, and a chapter
explaining the factors behind biased reporting, called "Why
are They Saying all Those Terrible Things about Israel?" by
Lenny Ben-David, who was Israel's number two diplomat in Washington
from 1997-2000.
Coming Home winds up the book with first-person stories that are
uplifting without being saccharine. Jenna Ziman, formerly of Los
Angeles, describes with touching wit how she tried to get up the
courage to tell her mother that she was moving to Israel. Her mother
stared at her, stunned. "In her eyes I saw a stream of terrifying
images: burnt out buses, suicide bombers ... but I also saw my mom
understood, maybe for the first time, that her daughter had come
to understand her role in the world ... and she surrendered."
Ziman mercifully allows us some laughter, though, by concluding,
"And ... she finally replied, 'Well, do you have the right
clothes? Should we go shopping?' "
Aish.com fully use their medium by listing input offered by their
site visitors, in "Fifty-five Ways to Help Israel." The
suggestions range from the practical to the sublime: "Buy Israeli
products.... Get the facts.... Pray.... Donate blood.... Promote
unity.... Invest.... Support Israeli medical institutions.... Yearn
for redemption."
This chapter comes almost at the book's end. It highlights the diversity
of the Jewish people and is a fitting conclusion to a tome that
seeks to both enlighten and inspire, and succeeds in doing both.
We are left with more comprehensive historical knowledge, with an
understanding of what the Israeli people have been enduring and
with admiration for their hope and courage.
Toby Klein Greenwald is a journalist, community theatre
director and editor of WholeFamily.com. Copies of the book may be
purchased online at www.shadowofterror.com.
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