Yom HaShoah

The siren wailed at 10 a.m. for two minutes. From my window, I saw only one other person, a cab driver who had stopped his car and was standing in the street.

Benny Gantz's speech was better than either Rivlin's or Netanyahu's. Rivlin seemed clueless, while Netanyahu was eloquent but possibly self-serving.

After I washed clothes and opened my door, Sophie came out of her apartment. She invited me to walk in the hills with her.



She knows the names of plants and birds and taught me some interesting things about Eilat. We spoke in Hebrew for a while after I mentioned that I'm having a terrible time learning. It was a warm day, but summer has thankfully been late in arriving, so I don't feel I can complain.

After our walk, I walked through Canada Gardens to go to the store and spent time with Louie. A few combined families were out and the city gardeners were eating their lunches in the shade.



My digestive tract had done something healthy this morning, so I prepared a lunch of veggies, basmati rice, and tehina.

I worked on my tarot book briefly and also studied Hebrew for a very short time, but I'm hoping it's the start of a good habit.

The news today has focused primarily Yom HaShoa and on Holocaust survivors. Efforts had already been underway to preserve their memories and the history before the last generation is gone. There are 189,000 survivors living in Israel today and their average age is 84 years old, so they are very vulnerable.

In the U.S. there are 1,000 new cases of corona virus every day in the United States. In Israel, there have been a total of 181 corona virus related deaths. According to i24 News, there are more people recovering than people contracting it. There are fears of a second wave. The month-long holiday of Ramadan

Also in the news: Trump wants to suspend immigration to the U.S. for the duration of the pandemic,  Israelis have mixed responses to the new unity government, and Saudi Arabia is closing mosques for Ramadan.

Antisemitism was already more noticeable before the pandemic. I expected that conspiracy theories would emerge, but was surprised that they started immediately. I've been trying to ignore articles about it, even though they've been shockingly horrible. The latest: Israel created the virus so it can profit from developing the cure.

However, an Arab member of the Knesset, Mansour Abbas, who is the leader of a religious party in the Joint Arab List, offered a prayer from the Quran in memory of the victims of the Shoah. "I stand here to show solidarity with the Jewish people here and forever." More of his remarks were published in The Jerusalem Post. (I feel better about having voted for the Joint Arab List in the third election.)

Kelly-Ann's internet connection has been poor, so she wasn't able to keep her appointment with me this evening.

It was a cat feeding, Spotify listening, and Rabbi Sacks viewing evening. (Rabbi Sacks was very busy with interviews today.)

Tonight begins the 13th day of the Counting of the Omer:

When you realise that listening to views different from your own is not threatening but enlarging,
you have discovered the life-changing idea of argument for the sake of heaven.