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Jabotinsky Legacy Remembered at NYC Memorial

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Stressing the importance of the Temple Mount to the Jewish people was Likud MK Moshe Feiglin.
Stressing the importance of the Temple Mount to the Jewish people was Likud MK Moshe Feiglin.
The annual Ze’ev Jabotinsky Memorial event, held each year by Americans for a Safe Israel/AFSI and the Nordau Circle, took place Tuesday evening, August 6, at the Westside Institutional Synagogue in NYC, with over 250 people in attendance. The special guests that evening were Cantor Zev Mueller, AFSI’s Chairman Mark Langfan, Rabbi Pesach Lerner, and MK Deputy Minister of Defense, Moshe Feiglin.

Helen Freedman, AFSI’s Executive Director, opened the program by greeting the audience, giving introductory remarks, and introducing Cantor Mueller who led in the singing of the American and Israeli anthems, along with a very touching and beautiful C’ale Maaleh Rachamim.

The Jabotinsky ideology was identified as the motivating force in AFSI’s work, confirming that the belief in Jewish biblical, legal, and historic entitlements to the whole land of Israel is AFSI’s guiding principle. The group was shocked to learn that in 2005 the Israeli Ministry of Education decided to exclude Jabotinsky from their history books. With much effort, his name was restored three years later, and it was in honor of Jabotinsky’s 70th yahrzeit, 2010, that AFSI’s beloved Chairman, Herbert Zweibon,. z”l, sponsored an exciting essay contest among Israeli high school students.

The 73rd yahrzeit memorial event served to remind us of the remarkable achievements of Jabotinsky, despite many daunting obstacles. He was an intellectual, a writer, the ideological bedrock of the Likud, the creator of the WWI ‘Jewish Legion’, Betar, the Irgun, and the Haganah, Israel’s Defense Force. He was a prophet who saw the coming of the Holocaust and on the eve of Tisha B’Av, 1938, Jabotinsky called upon Polish Jewry to save themselves from the oncoming devastation.

It was that same year, Sept. 1938, that the Munich pact between Chamberlain, France, Italy and Germany was agreed upon with the give-away of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland in order to achieve “peace in our time.” Winston Churchill summed it up by saying, “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will have war.” The parallels in today’s Israeli situation, with the EU, the U.S., the UN, and the Arab world united in attempts to force Israel into giving up its precious Judea and Samaria for “peace with the Arabs,” are eerily similar. People who learn from history understand that there can be no peace under such circumstances, with people who are pledged to Israel’s destruction.

Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Executive VP Emeritus of the National Council of Young Israel, devoted much of his talk to reminding us of the plight of the Gush Katif refugees, forced out of their homes in Tisha B’Av 2005. Rabbi Lerner, who had just returned from Israel, quoted from Rashi and the Bible in asserting that all the land of Israel belongs to the Jews and expulsions such as that which took place in 2005 were reprehensible and self-defeating.

AFSI’s Chairman, Mark Langfan, famous for his amazing maps of all sizes and types which illustrate the unique features of Israel’s story, gave an energetic presentation using large blow-ups of his maps. The one that is best known depicts the dangers of a so-called “demilitarized” PA state in Judea and Samaria, with its rockets aimed directly at the lowlands of Israel which lie along the Mediterranean, and which house 80% of Israel’s population. The mountainous Shomron is reminiscent of the Sudetenland in its strategic value to the country. Langfan’s maps also show the water aquifers that lie under the mountain range, which provide water to the majority of Israel’s population. Giving away this biblical heartland of Israel would echo the events of 1938.

MK Moshe Feiglin, Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, was warmly greeted by the audience members. Like Rabbi Lerner, he quoted Rashi and the Bible in asserting the rights of the Jewish people to their homeland. He also stressed the importance of the Temple Mount to the Jewish people. As a Member of the Knesset, he was removed from the Mount on one occasion and forbidden to return there.

All Jews were banned from Israel’s holiest site during the month of Ramadan. Feiglin stressed that Israel cannot give up its rights to its holiest sites and survive as a Jewish state. He emphasized the importance of leadership that understands the biblical entitlement of the Jews to their promised land. He believes he can provide that leadership.

David Krakow, a long-time member of the Nordau Executive Committee spoke briefly about the organization’s connection to Jabotinsky and especially mentioned Emanuel (Manny) Zweibon, z”l, who had been the Secretary-Treasurer of the Nordau Circle of the Jabotinsky Fraternal Order. An engineer by trade, Manny was not only one of the founders of the Nordau Circle, but it was he who found a burying place for Jabotinsky in upstate New York, and was responsible for having his remains transferred to Israel in 1964.

The evening concluded with the reminder that AFSI’s Chizuk missions to Israel serve as the very best way for people to experience Israel as the promised land. This upcoming trip, Oct. 20-23, promises to be another inspiring and exciting adventure in the real Israel. Contact AFSI: 212-828-2424; [email protected] for information and to make reservations. The itinerary can be found onAFSI’s website: www.afsi.org.

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