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How the Sifrei Torah in Rhodes were saved

January 12, 2011 by

I promised an interesting story about the sifrei torah in Rhodes. This is a story we discovered at the brand new Jewish museum in Rhodes.

The source of this article comes from an article written in 2004 by Aron Hasson in the “Ke Haber?” newsletter. Aron Hasson is the founder of the Jewish Museum of Rhodes. I highly recommend visiting there as it is a gem!

In 1943, the German military took control of Rhodes. Early in 1944, British bombs resulted in the deaths of thirty-four Jews. Realizing that the situation in Rhodes was not secure, the community decided to find a way to safeguard their sifrei torah, among them one that was about 800 years old.

In secret, they turned over the sifrei torah to the Turkish religious leader, the Grand Mufti of Rhodes, Seyh Suleyman Kaslioglu, who hid them in the pulpit of a mosque that was located in the new city of Rhodes, far from the old town which was the target of the bombings.

In July 1944, the Jews of Rhodes were deported by the Germans, most of them to Auschwitz. Of the 1,676 Jews deported, only about 151 survived the war. At the end of the war, all of the sifrei torah were returned to the survivors and to this day are preserved in the synagogue in Rhodes.

In a conversation in 1971 with a Jewish friend of his, the Grand Mufti confided, “One of the greatest moments of my life was when I was able to embrace the Torah and carry it and put it in the pulpit of the mosque because we knew that no German would ever think that the Torahs were preserved in the pulpit of the mosque.”

In a later interview with the daughter of the Grand Mufti, in 2004, she revealed that she “had Jewish blood.” Further investigation showed that the Grand Mufti’s father-in-law was Jewish and that through the years, the Grand Mufti had meetings with the Grand Rabbi of Rhodes and other Jewish leaders.
The Grand Mufti

Mosque

Mosque pulpit

Filed Under: Kosher Tours, Rhodes Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Li River, China

November 29, 2010 by

If you are a person who likes art, you probably have seen Chinese landscape paintings that portray very tall, pointed mountains. If you are like me, you probably have thought that it must be a stylized version of the Chinese landscape that the artist was portraying. Well, in fact, the Chinese landscape does have tall, sharp-peaked mountains. They account for some of the world’s most magnificent scenery.

The same Karst process that formed the peaks in Halong Bay, Vietnam, formed the mountains in and around Guilin, China.

About an hour and a half from Guilin is the small city of YangShuo which also lies amid these magnificent mountains and along the Li River. Some of the best shopping in China can be done in the clean, attractive market at YangShuo that runs perpendicular to the river.

Market in YangShuo

Market in YangShuo

Once on the river, it is almost impossible not to gasp at the beauty of the landscape. Everywhere one looks there are magnificent landscapes.

Li River

Li River


Li River

Li River

While cruising down the Li River, one can see a viewing stand.

Viewing stand

Viewing stand

The viewing stand was built for viewing a production unlike anything I had ever seen before.

The Chinese director, Zhang Yimou known for films such as Raise the Red Lantern and To Live and Curse of the Golden Flower and also for his directing of the opening and closing of the Beijing Olympics, has produced a show on the river. The show is presented each night, often twice a night, and although it is not in a Chinese population center, the seats are always filled. The stand holds about five thousand!

Zhang Yimou, when asked to produce a show immediately decided that the best theater of all was the river itself and the ten mountains that surrounded the small inlet where it is staged. When the mountains were lit at the beginning of the show, it was a breathtaking experience!

The show depicts the life of the local people in their villages. It shows farming, fishing, and local customs.

Fishermen on the water

Fishermen on the water

The fishermen, on their rafts, move from side to side and raise and lower the red fabric making a beautiful impression.

The women (below), walking on catwalks on the water are wearing dresses that light up. They switch on and off the dresses in amazing patterns.

Women lighting up the night

Women lighting up the night

It all is accompanied by beautiful music. Aside from the magnificent spectacle the show is, the wonderful part is that almost all of the 600 or so performers are local people who had lived a rather impoverished existence and who now earn a significant amount of their livelihood performing in this show. What a wonderful project! And wow! It will take your breath away.

Filed Under: China, Kosher Tours Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

As easy as yi, er, san

October 31, 2010 by

The first day I was in China on my last trip (October 5), I had a couple of things I wanted to do before my people arrived. The first was to purchase a Chinese sim card for my telephone. I had my own cell phone (unlocked and able to receive foreign sim cards) and a loaner (that I placed my Israeli sim into). That way I would have one Israeli phone and one Chinese phone to cover pretty much any situation.

On previous trips, attractive young ladies had been set up at counters at the airport to sell sim cards as people arrived. This time, there were none. I assumed it was because I arrived at 4 a.m.

So, after getting into my room, showering and changing my clothes, and checking my email, I went to the desk and asked where I could buy a sim card. I had noticed that there was a Carrefour department store adjacent to the hotel. I asked if they had them. I was told that the sim card policy in China has changed and that now there is much more regulation on them and therefore one can only purchase one at a store licensed to sell them and after filling out many forms. Fortunately, there was a China Telecom shop only a couple of blocks away.

It was a bright sunny day and everything felt wonderful. There were beautiful people, tall majestic trees with rustling leaves, and colorful shops. As I walked, I almost felt like singing. I love visiting China so much. It was like coming home to an old friend.

When finally I arrived at the telephone store I am not sure who was more perplexed– the salesgirl or me. You see, this store was not in a tourist area. It was frequented by Chinese people who unlike me, speak Chinese. How was I going to accomplish this?

I held up my phone and said “sim” hoping the word was an international one. I opened it up and showed her that one was missing. I could see a flicker of recognition. She called someone on the telephone, I assume to check how she should proceed. The person spoke to me in English. I said I wanted a sim card. I handed the phone back to the sales person. She tried to warn me, I assume because she might have assumed my phone was locked, but I pointed to it and said “OK.” “Hao, Hao.” (Hao is one of the words I know in Chinese. It means “good,”) So far, so good. She took me to another sales person, seated behind a desk. I sat down.

The new lady handed me an envelope on which were written four 8 or 9 digit numbers. She pointed to them. I remembered that in China people are very interested in the significance of numbers and they actually choose the license numbers of their cars– bidding high to get the most fortuitous ones, as for example, the number 8 being a fortuitous number, therefore, when appearing in a license, commanding a higher payment than the unlucky number 4. I chose one of the numbers at random. It was to be my telephone number.

At some point, the woman behind the desk called an English speaking colleague and after that she would hand me the telephone whenever she had a question. They asked for identification and so I handed them my passport. I had to show them which letters spelled out my name and where my birth date was. It was strange, having to stop every few seconds for questions to be asked in Chinese of the person on the phone and then the voice on the other end of the line asking them of me in English. All of us laughed at the awkwardness of the situation.

They filled out many different forms and then finally asked for a local address. Of course my local address was the hotel where I was staying as of that morning. In my jet lagged fatigue, I had forgotten the name of the hotel, but I did have the plastic card that was the room key with me. It was in a folder given to me by the hotel and had all of the relevant information.

And then, after a payment of about $20, I left with many smiles, many giggles, and my Chinese telephone.

Now wasn’t that simple? As easy as yi, er, san!*

*One, two, three

Filed Under: China Tagged With: , , ,

China, October 2010

October 25, 2010 by

The words will come later. Right now, enjoy the sights with me.

Note: This was NOT produced by my daughter who does this professionally and could have done a great job. This is my first attempt to make a movie.

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Filed Under: China Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

1000 words about why I love to travel

September 15, 2010 by

Well, only in the metaphoric sense, that is.

I love to travel for many many reasons. I love seeing new people and places. I love learning about other cultures and countries. I enjoy learning their history and seeing their customs and their handicrafts. I love learning their legends and folktales. Perhaps, most of all, I enjoy the magnificent sights I see. And so, here in a picture is a thousand words about why I love to travel.

Beauty at the middle of the world

Beauty at the middle of the world

Filed Under: Ecuador, Kosher Tours, South America Tagged With: , , ,

The Jews of Quito

August 26, 2010 by

One of the joys of visiting and revisiting places is that I get to see the same people time after time. I will be talking about the people I met in Quito, but to preserve their privacy, I won’t identify any of them.

The Quito Jewish Community has two major elements:

1. The large indigenous community that has a beautiful community center and a synagogue and lovely grounds. People in the community are of European origin, most of their families arriving before or during the Second World War. They number around 500 and have a community school of high academic quality that has a non-Jewish majority and afternoon religious school for other children in the Jewish community. The community is a Conservative community and so people who live throughout the Quito area can belong and attend services there. We were lucky enough to visit their complex and to see their synagogue.

After entering the complex, one sees two buildings with a patio area between them. To the left is the huge auditorium/banquet hall, said to the be second largest banquet hall in Quito. On the lower floor is a room that we used for lunch. It was also large and because the building was built on the side of a hill, it had large windows and an outdoor area as well. Further to the left outside is the swimming pool.

On the right is the synagogue building itself. Although the congregation president did speak with us about the community, we were not able to take a full tour of the facilities since we still had a lot to do and wanted to get back to the hotel well before shabbat so that people would have time to prepare.

The synagogue grounds

The synagogue grounds


The doors and entrance hall

The doors and entrance hall


The synagogue interior

The synagogue interior


Synagogue under attack by camera-wielding tourists

Synagogue under attack by camera-wielding tourists


The inside of the domed roof

The inside of the domed roof


2. The Israeli/Orthodox element
The first two times I visited Quito, I became acquainted with these people. They are almost all ex-patriots living in Quito for various reasons. Although it is possible to acquire many kosher products in Quito, the lack of the thriving Orthodox community means that they need to rely on each other to be neighbors, friends, and family. They do not have a synagogue and so they lean on each other when they need strength. Watching them interacting with each other is something special. They have become a family, accepting of each other, caring, and warm. They enjoy seeing and playing with each other’s children. When they came to spend shabbat with us, the visiting Israelis/ Australians/ Americans they were open and friendly and simply nice people. They joined in our tfilot (prayers), zmirot (songs), and divrei torah (homilies.) By now, returning to Quito is a bit like visiting family.

Filed Under: Ecuador, Kosher Tours, South America Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Steak for dinner or no dinner at all?

August 20, 2010 by

On my recent tour of Ecuador and Peru, our travelers had requested to see a bullfight. Traditional bullfights being rather bloody and gory and altogether inappropriate for a religious group, we chose instead to go to a bloodless bullfight.

We went to a beautiful hacienda not far from Otavalo, Ecuador, and had lunch there, prepared by our own chef, Boaz under the supervision of our mashgiach, Eyal. Lunch was delicious.

After lunch we were invited to the bull ring. We were told that this is a place where aspiring bullfighters are trained and the bull itself is being trained for bullfighting. The bull was kind of small and didn’t have much desire to perform, but he was persuaded by waves of the cape and the footwork of the matador.

After a demonstration, volunteers were solicited. To my dismay, our chef and our mashgiach both volunteered to fight the bull. Someone rightly called out, “anyone but the chef, please!” The chef was a pleasant young man who produced fantastic meals in the most unlikely places. The mashgiach was a delightful young man whose wife is soon expecting their first baby. Neither one was expendable.

But fight they did. Here’s how it started:

And here’s how it ended:

As we say in Hebrew, Kol HaKavod! Way to go, guys!

Filed Under: Ecuador, Kosher Tours, South America Tagged With: , , , ,

Who was that masked man?

July 28, 2010 by

At about 8:00 p.m. Monday, I left my home for the airport for the trek to South America. I met my colleague who also will be working on the tour with me. After an easy check-in, we boarded the plane close to on time and settled into our seats. The configuration of the plane was 3/3/3. She and I had the two aisle seats on one row in the center section. For a long time it appeared that the middle seat might remain unoccupied. The only tell-tale clue was someone who had walked past us and when asked by the flight attendant where his seat was, he replied, “it’s the jump seat.” Yes, the plane was that packed, and so in a while we greeted the person who was to sit between us on this 15 hour trip.

He was a young man who had come to Israel as a tourist and to visit friends. He is an English teacher in Sao Paulo, and his English was pretty good. Of course, over the duration of the flight, we had some time to talk. When he heard that we had some hours in Sao Paulo, he wrote down for me information about where we should go and how to get there and back.

When finally we reached Sao Paulo and ascertained that our luggage had been checked through, he said that perhaps instead of taking the bus that he had originally recommended, we join him in his taxi that he had ordered. He said that they would be passing through the center of the city and it was not a problem to drop us off.

Of course we agreed. He told us that this taxi driver was wonderful, very reliable- and that’s why he had him pick him up at the airport. As we rode, our friend told us about Sao Paulo—what a huge city it is! He also told us a lot about the Jewish community which has 5 non-ultra-Orthodox day schools! He didn’t know how many ultra-Orthodox day schools there are. One school, established by Safra for his sister’s children, hires teachers who will teach in English so the children become fluent in English and are able to study abroad. Of course the children also learn Hebrew.

He and the taxi driver (who spoke no English) talked about our taking a bus back to the airport and about where we might find the bus. Then the taxi driver suggested that he transport us back to the airport for less than we would have to pay for a bus. Naturally, we agreed. After all, our friend had told us that the driver was reliable.

As we neared the center of the city, the taxi driver suggested that he keep our carry on bags for us. The truth was that our carry on bags were pretty heavy and we knew that it would make things easier for us. He told us that he would not be transporting anyone with luggage and that our bags would be safe.

We had his business card and we had the recommendation; it sounded good. As we left the taxi, we agreed to meet at the same location at 3 p.m. As we left, the driver gave us an umbrella to use since it was drizzling.

We walked through the park and then saw across the street an amazing building that our friend recommended we visit. It was the Museum of Contemporary Art. Museum of Art, Sao Paulo There was a long line of people waiting to get in. I went to ask how much a ticket was. It turned out that today, entrance to the museum was free.

The exhibit was wonderful. There were both European and South American artists represented and the exhibit was well narrated in English as well as Spanish. There was even a wonderful exhibit and video on the restoration of one of the pieces that was exhibited.

After our museum visit, we just walked and looked at the city. Close to 3 o’clock the two of us started to think about what we had done—leaving our carry-on bags (each containing our notebook computers and all of the information relevant to our tour) in the taxi of a person we didn’t know. Yes, we had his card and I had taken a photo of his license plate (because I wanted a photo of a Brazilian license plate), but how much good would that do us if we wanted to be on a plane in 2 hours…

We waited from about 10 minutes to the hour. We watched taxi after taxi pass. We began to doubt ourselves and then, on the dot of 3 o’clock, the driver pulled up to the curb and took us to the airport. He charged exactly what he said he would charge and our carry-ons were completely intact.

It was perfect.

Our only question… we never got the name of our benefactor from the plane. Who was that masked man?

Filed Under: South America Tagged With: , , , , ,

Galapagos Islands, Part 12 of the Ecuador, Galapagos, Peru Tour

July 2, 2010 by

The islands are alive. One feels there like a visitor and often like an interloper. On Espanola Island, we encountered a greeting party. Of course we saw the sea lions who as always were playful and fun. They always are either playing or lazing around in the sun. Maybe that’s why I find them so amusing. They live a life most humans would envy. These guys were taking it easy.

Seal lions on a break

Sea lions on a break

We also were greeted by marine iguanas

Marine iguanas

Marine iguanas

But most surprising was the blue footed booby welcoming committee. About every 10 feet, there was a couple of blue footed boobies standing along the trail. It was as if someone had placed them at their posts. Here they are:

Blue footed booby welcoming committee

Blue footed booby welcoming committee

Another couple

Another couple

And another

And another

The big treat, though, was to see the albatrosses. In June, they were everywhere. In January, there had been only one or two sighted. So here is one, up close and personal:

An Albatross

An Albatross

Even closer

Even closer

Of course, once again we saw the Nazca boobies, really beautiful white birds.

Nazca boobies

Nazca boobies

Unfortunately, our visit to the Galapagos had to come to an end, but next is a glimpse at Lima, Peru!

Filed Under: Kosher Tours, South America, The Galapagos Islands Tagged With: , , , , ,

Galapagos Islands, Part 11 of the Ecuador, Galapagos, & Peru Tour

May 23, 2010 by

One of the most amazing things about traveling to the Galapagos is the sense one has of not needing to speak. The landscape, the animals, and the birds are all just there for us to enjoy. Each time we went to visit another island or another location on an island, it was a new experience even though sometimes we would see the same animals and birds over and over again. Each time was special.

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

This bird has to be one of the most magnificent sights I have ever seen. And, like the other Galapagos birds and creatures, he was not frightened by the humans and held still for a good number of pictures.

Cactus trees

Cactus trees

Lava Lizard

Lava Lizard

Another amazing critter!

Nazca or Masked Booby

Nazca or Masked Booby

The Nazca Boobies are very beautiful and what is even more exquisite is a very young Nazca Booby. They are fluffy and white. Here’s a mother and her baby.

Nazca Booby and baby

Nazca Booby and baby

Flamingo

Flamingo

In certain light, it seems as if the endemic flamingos glow. They do not. They get their beautiful color from the sea animals that they eat.

A cooperative Blue Footed Booby

A cooperative Blue Footed Booby

And yes, that is really the way they look. They tell me that it really attracts the girls (girl boobies, that is) which is a good thing.

What you can’t possibly imagine is how completely amazing this place is and how right the world seems with this beautiful life just living and thriving in a tranquil landscape.

And once again,

The Land Iguana smiles in approval

The Land Iguana smiles in approval

Filed Under: Ecuador, South America, The Galapagos Islands Tagged With: , , , , ,
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