Mazel tov to Israel. The USA just announced that Israel has been approved to join the Visa Waiver Program.

Journalist Sharon Idan posted the following image from the Ben Gurion Airport security cameras to Twitter this morning:

Globes has an astounding statistic. 

The news is reporting that the Supreme Court has decided against the continued restrictions limiting Israelis abroad from returning to Israel.

I recently went on a trip to Germany. Something I never thought I would do.

So, how did this happen?

The City of Fulda sponsored a program bringing children of Holocaust survivors and victims from Fulda to Fulda. My grandfather was from Fulda, and while he got out after a stint in Buchenwald,  his parents, my great grandparents, (among other relatives) were deported and murdered in Sobibor. They put together a program tracing roots, memorializing the victims, seeing the current community, seeing what was and what is.

Fulda is a city about 100km from Frankfurt. Outside of Frankfurt it is the biggest city in its area, and it is located in the state of Hessen.  The current Jewish community is largely made up of Russian Jews who came from the Soviet Union after the Cold War and after the Berlin Wall fell and the fence between East and West Germany came down, though there are still two German Jews in town.

So we get to Germany, and the City sent someone to pick us up from the airport and drive us to Fulda. We checked into Hotel Esperanto and settled in. As I had asked about kosher food and no kosher food being available in Fulda, the city had ordered enough kosher meals for me, my father, and my cousins from the glatt kosher restaurant, Sohar, in Frankfurt. We had dinner with a German beer. Just for a shout out, the food was very good throughout the trip - 3 meals a day from Sohar, though some of the items were difficult to identify (being very European dishes), and all 3 meals each day were meaty. Other people in the group either didn't keep kosher and ate hotel food or made their own arrangements with a combination of bringing food along and eating what was ok from the hotel.

Another point to note is that I wore my yarmulka openly the entire trip. I went in not sure about whether to wear a kipa or hat. I had been told about the danger, but I felt it was likely exaggerated, and I had also heard that while some places in Europe really have problems, Fulda is a friendly and quiet town with no such incidents (and not such a large refugee/migrant population). So, I brought a hat along and was ready to wear it if I should feel uncomfortable or if I should feel in danger. I and my father were the only ones to wear our kipas in public - everyone else who was religious in the group wore hats. And I felt perfectly fine the entire time. We were easily identified as Jews, and received a number of random "shaloms" from people in the streets or present at events we attended. In addition to the random shaloms, we also had people approach us thanking us for coming to Germany and that they travel to Israel regularly for business or vacation. So I think wearing a yarmulka openly was a success. I felt comfortable and I think I showed myself as a proud and unafraid Jew comfortable in my own skin (I am not commenting anything about those who chose not to - everybody made their own decisions for their own reasons each with his own considerations and no one decision is more legitimate than another. I am just saying I am happy I decided to do what I did).

The first day, on Wednesday, after breakfast we got a walking tour of the main area of Fulda. The tour started with a few minutes walk over to the plaza in front of the train station. This plaza is where the Jews of Fulda were marched to, in front of the screaming gentile residents who were also throwing stones at them, by the Nazis for deportation, once in 1941 and again in 1942. We then contineud to walk through town and saw the street named for the Maharam Schiff, who lived there and headed a yeshiva in Fulda a few hundred years ago. From there we went to the street called Jerusalemplatz which is the location of the old Jewish cemetery. This cemetery no longer exists but is a park and a residential building and parking lot.

The cemetery was closed in 1906 as the city expanded and the community stopped using it (actually the last burial was in 1927 of someone who had purchased a plot there before it had been closed in 1906). From 1906 the community began burying its dead in the new Jewish cemetery, which we would see on Friday.

The government basically forced the community to sell the cemetery, that had been completely destroyed in Kristallnacht, to the government who would then convert it to being part of the city and despite agreeing not to build a building on it, they built the park and a building which went up too fast to stop. According to what we were told, when the park and building were being built, bones were frequently seen in the ground and among the construction. Recently the government made a memorial room at the bottom of the building, with no external signs indicating such a memorial, that contains pictures of the old cemetery, some Jewish items and some other memorial stuff. As well, some people made a memorial at the edge of the park with a stone bearing an inscription about the cemetery, along with a number of stone son the ground bearing the names and dates of some of the people buried in the cemetery - there was even a stone with the name of the grandmother of one of the people on the trip. The other end of the plot has a wall plaque honoring, again, the Maharam Schiff. No mention anywhere of a Jewish cemetery that had been there (and still is, underground), though there are people working hard to change that, pressuring the government to make a public memorial sign.

We continued to walk though town, seeing some general historic sights of Fulda. We also saw the bus depot which used to be the cattle market that was largely used by Jewish businessmen. The Jews were not allowed to be members of the variosu guilds, so they could ot be craftsmen and had to turn to other businesses, such as the classic money lending and insurance and whatnot, but also they dominated the cattle market. My great grandfather had been a cattle trader, so he worked in that very market. Someone else in the group had his father who had been a leather worker, and eh too had worked in that market.

Soon after we went for a reception in the castle, in which City Hall is now located, with the Lord Mayor, the Oberburgermeister, Lord Mayor Wingenfeld. We met some people from the current Jewish community at this event, and some other prominent people, and then the lord mayor came. He is a very genial fellow, young and friendly. He pushed hard for this and funded the entire program, seemingly with no political gain to him, so I am not quite sure why, unless it is truly altruistic or if there are reasons I am not aware of. The Lord Mayor greeted people and then spoke to the crowd. He spoke about history and community and the need to be aware of what happened and prevent such things in the future, and more.

That was basically the end of the official day, but we had a little more in store for the Goldmeier group. The driving force behind the trip, and behind a lot of what goes on for the memory fo the Jews of Fulda, is a Christian woman named Anja. She has taken on remembering the victims of oppression and  has done tremendous research into the Jews of Fulda, has pushed to open the city archives, pushes for memorials, and was very involved in this trip. Anja does not work for the government, but does all her work on her own, but she has made strong connections and pushes the government offices to assist and cooperate. I will also add that the Director of Culture for the eCity of Fulda is a man named Dr. Hylan. Dr Hylan opened the archives for us but he has also been instrumental in researching the history of the Jews of Fulda through the archives, and he has ordered the archives be put online and made fully available to the public - and they are.

So, after the reception with the Lord Mayor, Anja took us to see where the old shul was. The old shul was a beautiful structure on Am Stokhaus St, honorarily named Juden Grasse. The old shul is now a small residential building with a parking lot, and another larger residential building behind it. Next to the shul was a building with a mikva and a smaller beis medrash which they used during the weekdays. The mikva was discovered and still exists fully intact, but we could not see it as it is underground and has been sealed. The city rented the storefront (used to be a car dealership) at the bottom of the building and has put a memorial for the shul in there with images of what it looked like. Outside the parking lot on the wall around the lot is a plaque with the names of the 200+ Jewish residents of Fulda who were deported in the 1942 deportation. My great grandparents names were in this memorial, along with some other relatives.

the stables/garage

The small street in front of the shul going down the hill was known as Judenberg, back in the day. On the other side of that little street, in what is now all residential buildings, was the yeshiva of Fulda, and another smaller shul (for the "eastern Jews"). We then walked a couple more blocks and saw the building where my grandfather and great grandparents lived. We were able to go into the building, but not into the apartment because the guy who lives there now was not home when we were there - he has let other relatives in to see in the past. Interestingly, behind the building is now a parking lot, but it used to be where they kept the cattle, with what are clearly barn doors and windows for lowering hay still all there. Funny story my father told - the Jews had cattle, and the gentile neighbors kept pigs there. So, the Jews had to be careful to take in their buckets and not leave them outside, or else the goyim would use the buckets to milk their pigs and that would be a problem for the Jews to then use the buckets for the cows milk.

Day 2, Thursday, was not specifically Jewish in content. Fulda is very central Germany, and is a popular destination for conferences from around the country because it is on the train line and is about maximum 3 hours travel from every major city in Germany. Fulda is also the closest city to what was the wall and fence between East and West Germany, the US Army had a small base outside of Fulda at one of the main junctions of the fence - this is called Point Alpha. I would note that because of this army base, many Jewish soldiers pent a lot of time as part of the Jewish community in Fulda throughout the years, but that ended when the US Army closed the base and pulled its troops out after the wall came down. Point Alpha is now a museum about the division of Germany, and the people who suffered because of it. And near that is the army base that is now a museum about the US Army activities there. I would note, that when Germany was reunited, Soviet Jews came flooding into West Germany - with Fulda being a nearby town, many went to Fulda, and they largely make up the Jewish community in Fulda now.

Thursday afternoon we had off, while some people got private tours of where their families had lived.

Friday we went back to the old cemetery and heard the story more in full than the brief description we had been given on the first day. This time it was with Dr Hylan as well who also showed us images from the city archives of the city expansion and of the cemetery. We also now got to go into the memorial room and see the pictures and items therein. We (most of us) went as a group to the old shul and heard more about that, again with official pictures from the city archives. We later went to the new cemetery and saw the graves of relatives buried there. They had some interesting graves and memorials - including a memorial plaque of the Jews of Fulda who had died in battle in World War I. We then met with Dr Hylan at the archives and he showed us records of our families. Besides for seeing records of the individuals, we discovered that when the Jews were deported their homes were sealed and eventually sold by the State. When they would seal a home, they would catalog all the items inside and put them up for sale. The archives had recorded lists of items sold from any relevant person - things like curtains 50 Rechsmarks. 2 gold rings, 17 Recihsmarks, 4 knives, 3 Reichsmarks, mirror 2 Reichsmarks, etc. And, the Nazis had altered the records of the Jews, adding the name Israel to the records of Jewish men and the name Sarah to the records of Jewish women.

Shabbos was interesting in that we got to interact with the current Jewish community. We walked about 20 minutes to the new shul. The shul is located inside what sued to be a house - two people on the trip had been born in that house! Their parents went back after the war and left Fulda for greener pastures in 1949. In the meantime, these two brothers had been born there. This building also used to function as the school, so it was where my grandfather, and everyone else, went to school for Jewish studies after general school hours. Now the building functions as the shul and the lower floor bears a museum of sorts with images and memorials of the community and the school.

The shul only has services on Shabbos -Friday night and Shabbos morning, and on Monday morning. After davening the community eats Shabbos dinner and lunch together, though ti is really a light pareve meal - I am told the only time they have meat at the communal meal is Pesach night. The rabbi is a young man born in Moscow, living in Fulda, after having lived in Israel for a number of years. He led the davening, read the torah and spoke at the meals. He spoke in 3 languages - Russian, German and Hebrew. The rabbi also services other, smaller, communities, so he trades off with someone else, Reven Melamed who is one of the directors of the Jewish community of Fulda, and travels to the other communities, being in Fulda about 2 Shabbatot per month and in other communities on other shabbatot. Rabbi Jedwabni seems very dedicated to his work and the community and is doing avodas kodesh, giving these people some Judaism to be connected to. The crowd was just 15-20 people. The davening was nice, the meals were pleasant, we chatted with some of the community members and the rabbi, sang songs and had a nice time. The community is almost entirely old Russian Jews, so unless the course of the world undergoes some seismic change and God sends  more Jews to Fulda, pretty soon (in 30 to 40 years) there won't be a Jewish community left - there are no kids, and the younger people left long ago for other cities in Germany or Europe. I would note, the front gate and entrance is kept locked and they only use the back entrance, and a police car is stationed in the lot near the door during the times of services or other activities takign place in the shul.

Saturday night there was a concert, as the City of Fulda is celebrating a Jubilee year - celebrating its 1275th year. The concert was a special production of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Wednesday through Friday I also went running early in the morning. Fulda is really a beautiful, quiet, city.

Sunday was checkout and flying back to Israel, with a little bit of walking around town in the downtime. Being a very Christian city, all the stores and businesses, not including some restaurants, are closed on Sundays. The main strip was eerily quiet.

My main takeaway, I think, is that we have it so good nowadays, and we, most of the time, don't even realize it. We have freedom. We have so much freedom we love to fight with each other. We have so much freedom we strive to find ways to serve in ways that were unimaginable in previous generations, when they were just happy to be allowed to live their miserable lives and not be killed or deported ( and I am not just talking about the time of the Holocaust) before the end of the day. We have so much freedom we can go where we want, when we want, how we want. We can daven openly, learn torah openly, work in any profession a person might desire to work in, participate in sports or other public activities, easily find readily available kosher food in most places. We have it so good.


some other pictures of interest:

the park that used to be a Jewish cemetery

memorial at the edge of the cemetery/park

memorial plaques of the deported Jews of 1942 outside what used to be the shul

imahes of the old shul

there was a mine field between the two fences

wandered into the train station and saw the train is exactly like the Israeli trains

Dr Hylan at the cemetery\park

on display in a show we wandered in to

the section for children

a bush grew over the grave. we had to pull back the branches to access the grave

group picture at City Hall, in the castle

This is a good example of why I was always taught by my parents not to fly on a Friday, why I always make sure when going somewhere on a Friday to leave enough padding time for emergencies, and why rabbonim have called many times for people to not travel too close to Shabbos.

According to the report on Kikar given by one of the religious passengers, a flight (El Al) from London to Tel Aviv was supposed to take off on Thursday afternoon. With an expected flight time of 4 hours, that should have presented no "Shabbos problems" for anybody. Due to a crazy storm the flight was delayed, delayed again, and delayed even more. Finally Friday mid-morning they got permission to take off. After yet more delays they eventually landed in Israel just 40 minutes to spare before sunset. With the plane still needing to taxi in, and get everybody off and through the airport, they got out just minutes before Shabbos began. That's not very helpful for people who do not plan on spending Shabbos at the airport itself.

So, El Al was not mechalel shabbos. Despite their best efforts at getting in early enough, they clearly were limited by circumstances beyond their control. Yet, according to the article, people are complaining about how El Al  mistreated them, didn't make them stay in London, risked causing chilul shabbos, left them stranded in the airport, etc.

All true, perhaps. I would not be so quick to lay the blame at El Al's door. I mean, after already 19 hours of delays was he so sure that there would be no more delays? People need to take responsibility. Besides for poor treatment (there are complaints about when food was served, etc that i dont care about), all these people knew they were getting on a flight that was already seriously delayed and was now going to be landing very close to Shabbos - any further delays would put them at risk. These adults got on the plane knowing that, and now are blaming others for letting them fly.

People need to be responsible for their decisions. El Al flew and landed before Shabbos. If someone felt their observance of Shabbos was going to be at risk they should not have gotten on the plane. As soon as they saw how close the already delayed flight would be getting them in, anybody concerned should have made alternate plans.

And don't travel so close to Shabbos!

You think it's funny, but when you hear the following report, you will see we are not too far off from that...

NFC is reporting that a new service is being offered for the Haredi traveler. The Rabbinic Committee for Issues of Transportation has realized that a lot of the travelers for the upcoming Pesach holiday are yeshiva students going to visit their family abroad. They have found a way to minimize the amount of time the Haredi traveler has to spend in the airport.

A member of the committee said, "the average Haredi, who guards himself spiritually, would never agree to any price to walk around Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv. What is the difference between Dizengoff and the airport? Only that he has no choice but to be in the airport. So now we have found an alternative."

The agreement reached is that if there is a group of 10 people or more traveling, for a fee of 35NIS, a representative will come to the house the day before the flight to process Early Check in for the group (the price is being partially subsidized by an anonymous donor).

the service will include checking in luggage, along with transporting the luggage from the travelers house. The travelers will have to arrive at the terminal 1.5 hours before the flight (instead of the usual 2.5-3 hours before), his passports will be processed in a separate line, and he will be escorted directly to the flight. the airport portion of the service costs 22NIS and has a minimum of 4 travelers in the group.

the one problem, that might even be the major obstacle to this arrangement, is that anybody using this service will not be able to shop in the Duty Free shops before the flight. A travel agent that deals with the Haredi public was quoted as saying that the Haredi consumer is one of the most dominant shoppers of the Duty Free in the airport, and he is not sure there are many who would be willing to give that up for this service.

Two biggies right away...

1. No Birkat Kohanim. In Israel the kohanim do birkat kohanim every day. In chutz la'aretz, only on the holidays (aside from sefardim who do it every day)..

2, realizing how great daf yomi really is. For someone who is travelling, it would be hard to keep to his learning schedule. He does not have his chavrusa, his regular shiur, he might be tired, distracted, etc.. With daf yomi, none of the matters. Wherever you go you just join a local shiur and pick up from where you left off...

I was aware of the reputation Israeli travelers have as being loud, obnoxious, brash, and more. We read often in the papers, after vacation season, about how certain hotels in various cities will not rent rooms to Israelis because of how Israelis take stuff from the rooms, from the towels and robes, to the sinks (literally according to some stories I have read in the past)!



So this was a pleasant surprise.


We just flew on Alitalya Airlines to the USA. While the trip was long and tiring, the flight itself was pretty good. The kids were well behaved (or as well behaved as one could expect from kids locked up in a tin can hurtling through the air).


The stewards and stewardesses were very friendly and helpful all the way through.


We asked one of the stewards for a couple cups of drink. He came back with a bottle and said to just take the whole bottle for the whole family. I have never seen that before. He then did it again two more times during the flight, giving us whole bottles for the whole family when being asked for one cup. They were helpful with our kosher meals, and friendly in general.


That steward told my wife, when she commented how nice it was that he gave us the bottles, that the Jewish kids who fly with them are so well behaved, much more so than other kids, and he loves helping them out...

So, a cynic would now say that there is a difference between a "Jewish" kid and an "Israeli" kid and the difference would clearly be based on religion. I do not think, at least for this discussion, that difference is valid. I do not think he differentiated so, based on the context of the discussion.

The same steward told us a story. He was asking for some advice what he should do in the future in similar situations. The story happened: a couple of religious Jews got on the plane at JFK to Israel via Milan. There was a serious delay of something like 4 hours at JFK due to weather. They were on the plane preparing for takeoff and these Jews asked about their connecting flight in Milan to Israel.

He told them that it is too late and they already missed the connecting flight. The next connecting flight from Milan to Israel would be 10pm. That clearly was not an option for these two,, as that would already be during the shabbat and prohibited for them to fly on it. They asked to be removed from the plane, as they preferred to be stuck in NY for shabbos, rather than be stuck in Milan for shabbos.

He could not do that at that point and said they would have to go to Milan and find something there. He tried to help them with arrangements for shabbos (he said he tried calling some of his Jewish friends to ask for someone in the community who would help them, but his friends were on vacation so he could not reach them).

He did not know what happened to them and what they did. He did want to understand the situation and why they had been stuck, and what he could do if a similar situation arises in the future. We helped him come up with some ideas, such as having prepared the number of a couple different reps from the Jewish community in Milan, such as the Chabad house, a local Rabbi, etc.

This steward is doing an amazing job. he is performing beyond his immediate scope and is trying to do his job well and satisfy his customers, even beyond his immediate responsibility.

But, my point is, again, he says he wanted to help them, and he felt bad for their predicament, because he enjoys serving the Jewish passengers, as they are so much better behaved and nicer than the other passengers.

Some Jews must have made a kiddush hashem with stellar behavior to give this guy such a good impression. Kol Hakavod to whoever they might have been. On the other hand, we cana lso see how our performance and behavior really can give someone a good or bad impression of all jews, whether it is fair or not.