News

EBulletin for September 16, 2016

Shalom ZOA Members, Friends and Supporters of Israel,

Whatever the weather was outside yesterday evening, inside the Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue there was great warmth; whatever amount of electricity flowed through the circuits throughout the hotel, it was surpassed by the electricity that flowed through the air inside two ballrooms there as we held our 2016 Gala, honoring Andrew C. McCarthy, Rabbi Steven Saks, Amy and Eric Clayman and Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick.

It truly was as billed: an evening of uplifting and enlightening speeches and great Patriotism, Zionism, and an outpouring of love for America and Israel from our honorees, and other Gala participants Morton Klein, Dom Giordano, Allen L. Rothenberg and Cantor Adam Gilbert, plus Rabbi Aaron Krupnick and Rabbi Isaac Entin, and Lee Bender and Kevin Ross.

Enjoy some photos below courtesy of Richard Chaitt below. In about a week we hope to have video of the award presentations and acceptance speeches available, as well as more photos.

We are extremely grateful to the businesses, professionals and service-providers, and foundations, families and individuals who supported the Gala and our organization via our Tribute Book and Ad Journal, and to all who purchased tickets and attended the Gala. Please patronize our advertisers. We will email and have on our Web site shortly a copy of the Gala Tribute Book and Ad Journal.

Special thanks are in order to those who were an integral part of the event: Office staff Linda Rosen and Beth-Ellen Kroope, lay leaders Lee Bender, Heather Berman, Howard Katzoff and Len Getz, and the many, many volunteers who worked diligently in the months and weeks leading up the Gala, and throughout the day yesterday.

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Coming Up Soon: Greater Philadelphia ZOA’s Next Event:

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Save the Date:

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We Never Left: The Jews’ Continuous Presence in the Land of Israel

By Lee S. Bender and Jerome R. Verlin

Early in his first term, President Obama told the whole world in his speech from Cairo: “It is easy to point fingers — for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought by Israel’s founding.”

 

This was gravely misleading.

 

Israel was not “created and founded,” artificially and out-of-the-blue, in 1948 — but rather, Israel re-attained its independence that year as the natural fruition into statehood of the once-sovereign homeland of the Jewish people, who — over almost two millennia of continuous foreign invader and empire rule — never deserted that home, despite all attempts to eradicate them.

 

And that is the case we must make.

 

The argument for Israel is typically made on the legal side — the Balfour Declaration, the San Remo Conference of 1920, the Palestine Mandate, UN Security Council Resolution 242. These are critical, yes, but not enough to counter the pervasive, but wholly false, sentiment that Jews stole Arab land.

 

Many Americans, both hostile and friendly to the Jewish homeland, wrongly believe that “the Romans exiled the Jews.” This shows how deep-seated and widespread this vast misperception of an almost-2,000-year separation of Jews from the land of Israel is among the American public.

 

For example, former President Carter in the “Historical Chronology” of his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, writes: “135 [CE]: Romans suppress a Jewish revolt, killing or forcing almost all Jews of Judaea into exile.” President Carter’s introductory “Palestine Historical Chronology” doesn’t mention Jews again until 1917, suggesting a Jewish absence of 1,782 years.

Read the remainder of the article at: https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/09/11/we-never-left-the-jews-continuous-presence-in-the-land-of-israel/

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We value each and every member!

shabbat shalom 1a