Some memories live forever …

 

On what would have been Alisa’s 50th birthday, I, her mother, sisters and brother will pause and spend a few minutes looking back.

Doesn’t it seem like yesterday when your first child was born? To me, it does, and decades later, you recall the excitement—more appropriately called nervousness—that had been building as the “due date” approached. Lamaze birth classes are attended, a “go bag” in anticipation of the onset of serious labor is prepared, you might even practice driving to the hospital, the mother-to-be buys a neutral color layette of onesies, blankets, booties and caps because there were no “gender reveal” parties in those days.

During dinner, your wife tells you what the doctor said during that day’s visit: “You’re not there yet. It will be another week before you go into labor.” Two hours later, she announces: “We have to go to the hospital.” You get the go bag and say to yourself, “I hope the Oreo cookies are still in there,” and follow the route to the hospital that you practiced the day before.

When you arrive, a nurse matter-of-factly takes the soon-to-be-mother’s necessary information, and you’re escorted to a drab labor room. The doctor arrives before you even have a chance to check on the Oreos, does an exam and proclaims “any minute now.” Your wife, with your help, is doing her breathing routine through labor pains. A nurse asks if I want to go to the delivery room (in the 1970s that was considered cutting edge), hands me a pair of scrubs to wear and escorts me to the delivery room, where I stand by the side out of the way. The doctor and mother go to work. You hear the first cries of a newborn and the doctor announces: “It’s a girl!” Then she’s whisked off to the nursery. You head to the nursery, where a nurse holds up your daughter, who we would name Alisa, behind the thick glass of the nursey so you can see her and take a photo.

I see Alisa’s birth in my mind’s eye as clearly as another event that took place less than 21 years later. That was when I held her hand after she succumbed to a wound she suffered in a terror attack in 1995. 

Alisa's high school yearbook photo

On what would have been Alisa’s 50th birthday this week, I, her mother, sisters and brother will pause and spend a few minutes looking back.
We’ll remember how Alisa’s life, though brief, left a profound legacy of resilience, compassion and commitment to faith. We’ll recall that at the age of 4, she told her parents that she was not going to the public school around the corner from their home in West Orange, N.J., but to “a Jewish school where Becky,” a fellow student at her nursery school, “is going.” We enrolled her, and Alisa, like the proverbial duck takes to water, took her education to heart.

Alisa developed a love not only of Judaism but the State of Israel. Taking her first trip with an aunt when she was 11, her last trip at the age of 20 was her sixth.

That final trip, which began in December 1994, would allow her to immerse herself in Jewish studies at Nishmat in Jerusalem. It also allowed her to live in an apartment with four young women like herself and gave her the time to run daily, join a gym, and to, in the words of Nishmat’s dean Rabbanit Chana Henkin, “sneak off to daven at the Kotel.”
Looking back, I believe Alisa’s dedication to her faith was a central part of her character and guided many of her life decisions. This dedication illustrates an important lesson: that one’s faith and culture are not mere background details but are essential parts of an individual’s journey towards personal growth. Whenever Alisa and her siblings would return from a trip to Israel, I noticed that they came back not just as better Jews but as better people. With this thought in mind, the Alisa Flatow Memorial Scholarship Fund was created to afford others the opportunity to seek their own roots and to understand their personal values deeply through study in Israel.

Today, almost 30 years after her murder, friends remember Alisa as warm and caring, with an openness and compassion that resonated with everyone she encountered. Known for always having a smile on her face, she had a unique way of making others feel seen and valued.

Her final gift came when her organs were donated following her death. Three lives were saved and, importantly, that act reinvigorated organ donation in Israel, which had become moribund.

With four girls in our family now named after her, Alisa lives on. Each of her nieces and nephews attend or attended “a Jewish school,” and they have been developing their own religious awareness. Watching them grow into upright and proud Jews is a blessing. Today, when a grandchild’s religious observance causes me to shake my head in wonderment as to where that came from, the parents tell me “to blame Alisa,” but it’s all good in the end, and I smile from ear to ear.

Alisa’s short life teaches us that a legacy of empathy, kindness and commitment can spread outward long after a life is cut short. Her story underscores that while we cannot always control our circumstances, we can shape our impact through how we respond to hardship. Alisa’s life and legacy encourage us to think of our own values—and that is quite a meaningful and enduring legacy.

So, happy birthday, Alisa! L’chaim.

Echoes of Osirak: How Israel’s strike on Iran will shape American Jewish identity

 

For many who remember 1967 and 1981, the strike will reaffirm their belief in Israel as the ultimate safeguard of Jewish survival.

Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities and military leadership will reignite not only international debate but also an internal reckoning within American Jewry.

To understand how these events may shape the Jewish American view of Israel, we must look back: to the lightning-fast Six-Day War in 1967, the daring destruction of Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981 and similar strikes in Syria in 2007. Each of these actions, controversial on the world stage, deeply influenced how American Jews saw Israel—and themselves.

In June 1967, Israel’s preemptive strike against the Egyptian air force and its rapid victories over neighboring armies sent shockwaves through the Jewish world. The New York Times ran a three-line headline across all seven columns of the front page.

In the United States, a Diaspora community long accustomed to marginalization, assimilation and caution suddenly stood a little taller. Israel’s success gave many American Jews a sense of pride and power. Synagogues filled, donations poured in, and Jewish identity—so often tied to Holocaust memory—began to include strength and resilience. Israel was no longer just the underdog, but a symbol of Jewish survival on its own terms. Israel seemed to be saying: “Threaten us annihilation, we’ll take you seriously and do what we have to do.”

Fast-forward to 1981: the strike on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor.

To read the full column, please visit Echoes of Osirak

The Iranian terrorists among us

 The general session of the United Nations was held this past week in New York City. Government leaders from around the world attend in order to enjoy a worldwide platform to talk about their country’s hopes and aspirations. 

There’s no restrictions, as far as I can tell, on who can come to NYC or what can be said in the General Assembly hall.  Terrorist Yasir Arafat was given legitimacy many years ago and, today, the same goes for the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Long designated as a state-sponsor of terrorism by the U.S., Iranian diplomats were given security protection courtesy of the U.S. as home sponsor of the UN.  

This happens as the Iranian government attempts to kill Americans on American soil.  That includes former President Trump and Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State, not to mention Iranian ex-pats. 

Form a deeper look at the UN farce, read this column by the Free Press’s Jay Solomon. Walking free in New York

Let us know what you think. 

List of terror organizations is missing one - Fatah

 

The U.S. must put Fatah on its list of terror groups

Even Fatah officials admit that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades is the “military arm” of the party. 

By Stephen M, Flatow

Imagine if the ruling party of any country announced that it had begun carrying out terrorist attacks. Imagine the shock and horror if the U.K. Conservative Party, Canada’s Liberal Party or the U.S. Democratic Party made such a declaration. Yet that is exactly what Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, just did—and the international community is silent.

Logo of the Al Aqsa
Martyr's Brigades

After the killing of an IDF officer near the city of Jenin in Judea/Samaria on Sept. 14, the official Fatah Facebook page featured a video praising the murder. A translation by Palestinian Media Watch states that the video referred to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades organization as Fatah’s “military arm.” It further declared that Fatah “takes responsibility for the operations of its military arm” and that the Brigades “is officially announcing” that it will be carrying out additional “operations.”

Nobody had ever heard of the Brigades until the autumn of 2000, when the Palestinian Arabs launched what they called the second intifada. That campaign of terrorism was led by what was described by the media as a “new” group called the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

But it was obvious that a terrorist group couldn’t spring up fully-formed overnight, with an entire network of highly trained bombers and shooters already in place. And it didn’t. The Brigades was a front group constructed by Fatah in order to continue the violence the party had promised, in the Oslo Accords, to give up.

The most notorious of the attacks by the Brigades were a Jan. 2002 assault on a bat mitzvah celebration in Hadera that killed six and wounded 33; a March 2002 suicide bombing in front of Jerusalem’s Yeshivat Beit Yisrael that killed 11 (including two infants) and wounded more than 50; and a suicide bombing at the Tel Aviv central bus station in January 2003 that killed 23 and wounded more than 100.

To continue reading, go to jns.org

Terror pays, terrorists don't pay; especially if they are Palestinian

 

Abbas cheers shooting of Americans (but gets a big check from U.S. anyway)

The Office for Justice for US Overseas Terror Victims has never arrested a Palestinian terrorist involved in attacks on Americans.

By Stephen M. Flatow

As five Americans and three Israelis lie wounded in a Jerusalem hospital, some of them fighting for their lives, the official web site of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas is praising the terrorist who shot them.

Yes, the same Abbas who will be receiving more than $500 million in aid from the Biden administration this year. Most of the money will be channeled through third parties, but it’s all fungible—it covers bills that Abbas and the PA would have to pay if the U.S. wasn’t paying them.

Abbas is chairman of both the PA and Fatah, which is the largest faction of the PA. Abbas was a leader of Fatah for many years under Yasir Arafat, before succeeding him as chairman.

Here is what Abbas’s official Fatah website had to say about the shooting attack on the Americans and Israelis in Jerusalem:

“Praise to the one whose rifle only speaks against his enemy. Long live our people’s unity and long live the free hero. Praise to the rifle muzzles, our people will fight the occupation with all kinds of resistance.” (Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch)

According to my data base, at least 146 American citizens have been murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists since the 1968. The international community has largely forgotten them.

Read the full column at Israel National News.