Home Care In Jerusalem, NC

Currently, staff at headquarters in Jerusalem and the West Bank are working from home to be with their families and offering them the necessary support.

Diego Lopez Marina/ACI Prensa/CNA World October 11, 2023

Alistair Dutton, secretary-general of Caritas, said in an Oct. 9 Facebook post that he is “deeply concerned” about the ongoing war in Gaza and Israel and announced that the organization has been forced to “suspend its activities” for security reasons but “has prepared an emergency plan to offer assistance as soon as the situation allows. We pray for peace and urge both sides to uphold international humanitarian law.”

A statement from Caritas Jerusalem shared the same day by Dutton noted that in Gaza more than 123,000 people have been displaced due to the ongoing conflict, according to updated data from the United Nations. He also noted that “the situation is critical for civilians on both sides.”

Hamas Islamic terrorists have de facto declared war on Israel. They have killed hundreds of people and taken dozens hostage since launching a full-scale invasion against Israel last weekend. Israel has responded with a major offensive against the Gaza Strip.

Caritas Jerusalem, a Catholic charitable organization hat serves the needs of people in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, reported that some of its staff are among those displaced. Consequently, there was no alternative but to suspend its activities.

“One family sought refuge at Holy Family Church in Gaza; another found shelter in a UNRWA [U.N. Palestine Refugee Agency] school, but unfortunately their home was completely destroyed. In addition, another family moved in with a relative whose house was also completely demolished,” Caritas Jerusalem explained.

In the midst of this context, the charitable agency announced the launch of the Gaza Staff Support System, called “Together Putting Love Into Action,” an initiative that seeks to provide assistance to colleagues based in Gaza “who are grappling with extremely challenging and complex circumstances.”

“The primary aim is to foster a strong sense of unity and emotional support within Caritas Jerusalem, recognizing that the forthcoming nights in Gaza will be especially demanding,” the statement said.

Currently, staff at headquarters in Jerusalem and the West Bank are working from home to be with their families and offering them the necessary support.

The statement explained that “all educational institutions and recreational facilities in Jerusalem are closed, along with the closure of West Bank checkpoints.”

The statement concluded: “For safety reasons, all Caritas Jerusalem operations in the field have been suspended. Our immediate focus is on the well-being of our staff. We ask for your prayers for peace and safety, and invite you to stand with us in our appeal for a just and enduring peace in the Holy Land.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish celebration also known as the Festival of Lights, lasts from Sunday, Dec. 18 to Monday, Dec. 26. And for those days and festive nights, you’re going to need something to eat.

The holiday marks the Maccabees’ uprising against the Syrian Greek army and the miracle that followed. Just enough oil was found to illuminate the menorah, or lamp, in the newly rededicated Holy Temple in Jerusalem for one day, but it lasted for eight full days.

Traditional foods eaten during the celebration the include challah, brisket, latkes, rugalach and sufganiyot (which are jelly-filled doughnuts).

Here’s where to find Hanukkah foods for holiday gatherings in Charlotte:

Location: 4001-C Yancey Rd. #100, Charlotte, NC 28217

Chef Alyssa’s Kitchen is offering a Hanukkah menu that includes gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and vegan choices. Entree offerings include beef brisket, seared flounder or salmon, Frenched chicken breast or spaghetti squash with eggplant caponata. Braided Challah is available and served with honey butter.

Side dish choices are:

Menu

Price: Price varies, as items are a la carte. Beef brisket or seared flounder is $70, and seared salmon or Frenched chicken breast is $78. Challah is $26. Orange Olive Oil Cake with Raspberry Jam is $6 per slice or a cake for $20.

How to order: Online

Deadline: Monday, Dec. 19 at 3 pm

Pickup: Pickup or delivery on Friday, Dec. 23, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Location: 6619 Sardis Road, Charlotte, NC 28270

This kosher food service offers individual servings of options including bagels and lox, sandwiches, hummus bowls and salads, or deli platters for serving larger crowds.

Menu

Price: Prices vary, as items are a la carte. A bagel and lox box is $14 per person, or platters are available for 10+ people, starting at $160.

How to order: Order online

Deadline: Two hours’ notice is needed Monday-Thursday. Shabbat takeout orders are due Wednesday by midnight. Daily menu orders for Friday are due by Thursday midnight. Kosher Charlotte is closed Saturday and Sunday but is available for weekend catering events.

Pickup: Pickup or delivery is available.

Location: 11025 Monroe Rd, Matthews, NC 28105

Location: Park Road Shopping Center, 4205 Park Road Charlotte, NC 28209

The bakery — which is closed at both locations Mondays and Tuesdays — will offer raspberry sufganiyot for preorder.

Menu

Price: Raspberry sufganiyot is one for $4 or 6 for $22.

How to order: Online.

Deadline: Preorders open for the week on Mondays and same-day pickup is available, but the order is not guaranteed if placed after opening.

Pickup: Dec. 17-18, 7 a.m.-2 p.m. or Dec. 24, 7 a.m.-noon

Editor’s note: Portions of this article were previously published on Nov. 29, 2021, and have since been updated.

“Nothing happens unless we first dream.” – Carl Sandburg, American poet

Why was that night very different from all other nights? Because...We’ll get to that. But first, the backstory.As a young girl growing up in Philadelphia, Roxanne had a clear sense that Israel was home. As a teenager, she was hoping that 1967 would be the year of her first trip, but the Six Day War, with its miraculous victories and Jerusalem reunification, intervened. But what parents would permit their child to visit a dangerous war-torn place? In 1970, Roxanne was a high school graduate, still dreaming of traveling to Israel. Her Jewish observance and command of Hebrew had progressed over the years, and Israel was still a focus. But, again, her parents said no. Did we mention that her parents had never journeyed out of the United States?Her future husband, Ross, had no particular Israel inclinations. Ross grew up in Charleston, West Virginia. At its peak, Charleston was home to a couple of thousand self-identified Jewish families – many unaffiliated with Charleston’s two synagogues. His background was similar to many American boys of that era – he was the star student of the afternoon Hebrew school, had a bar mitzvah, and not much after that.Ross was attending the University of Philadelphia Medical School when he met Roxanne, who was about to start Bryn Mawr College. They gradually became inseparable, and they were married in 1972. Ultimately, Ross became a doctor specializing in radiation oncology and Roxanne received her master’s degree in pastoral counseling.Many dreams attained – still more to come.The Abrams’s first-ever trip to Israel was in 1984. With their children (ages nine and three at that time), they were booked on a family program featuring no fancy hotels. They stayed in a yeshiva dormitory in Kfar Haroeh, which is located between Netanya and Hadera. It is now a thriving religious moshav with over 1,500 residents. At that time, it had about 1,000 residents, an open-air shul and two features that impressed them the most: a huge silo prominently topped by a menorah; and, the makolet (small market) where everything was kosher! For Ross, this was quite a change from Charleston, West Virginia. For Roxanne, this place of dusty roads was the “real Israel” that she longed for.For professional reasons, the Abrams moved from Durham, NC to Silver Spring, Maryland; Milwaukee; Boston; Baltimore; and Chicago. By 2006 they were thinking about moving to Israel. In 2007, they bought an apartment in Jerusalem. Roxanne would visit several times a year to focus on her Jewish learning, primarily at the Shearim seminary in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood. Ross would come occasionally, as he was quite busy as chairman of the radiation oncology department at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Israel was gradually becoming the center of Roxanne’s life. In 2018, Ross retired. At the end of that year, they together moved to Jerusalem.Now to the most recent dream. Rewind to this past Passover. Corona. Lockdown. Families separated from their loved ones. Grandparents forbidden from attending Seder with their grandchildren. Three Abrams children and 10 grandchildren are living in the US. But their daughter, son-in-law and five granddaughters reside in Jerusalem. As observant Jews, a Zoom Seder was out of the question.On Sunday, March 29, at 1:36 p.m., Roxanne posted the following message on the Har Nof listserv:I had a vision last night that I’d like to share with you, and then ask everyone to be part of sharing it. As I was changing after Shabbat, I heard the lovely voice of a child somewhere nearby practicing “Ma Nishtana.” It was delicious, and I thank this anonymous neighbor for the lovely moment. Then I heard, in my mind, something a bit different. I heard all of the children of Har Nof singing “Ma Nishtana” on Leil Seder – all of them together, from their balconies. I imagined a beautiful spring evening, on which all of the grandparents and great grandparents in the neighborhood could leave their emptier-than-usual tables and hear, in safety and good health, the sound that they are longing for. We can pick a time... and have a shared experience that reminds us that yes, this night is different from what we hoped and expected, but we are celebrating ge’ula [redemption] in the past, present and future...8:30 p.m. was chosen. What followed from the listserv posting was an explosion of transmission in all areas of social media. Endorsements followed from key religious leaders, including Rav Chaim Kanievsky and Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein.The event was promoted in many places, including Radio Kol Chai, and Israel Radio News. The Jerusalem Municipality made Hebrew and English videos that were placed on Facebook The result: Tens of thousands of children all across Israel appeared at 8:30 p.m. on Seder night – on their balconies, at their windows and in their gardens – to chant the “Ma Nishtana.” This magical serenade uplifted the spirits of thousands of grandparents, forlorn that a miniscule, aggressive virus had prevented them from hearing that chant from their own grandchildren. As one appreciative grandparent wrote to Roxanne: “The chorus of young voices last night was so magical, so invigorating, so nurturing, so absolutely beautiful.”Ross was employed at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem until the recent disruptions. Roxanne is a tutor at the Shearim seminary in Jerusalem. They raised three daughters and one son and currently are privileged to have 15 grandchildren, kein yirbu. Roxanne commented, “I had an idea and promoted it. There may have also been some others who also thought of it. The more people who thought of it, the better it is.”Why was that Passover night very different from all other nights? One listserv posting did it. Just ask the “Ma Nishtana” balcony/window/garden kids and their grandparents. For as Carl Sandburg wrote, nothing happens unless we first dream. Thanks, Roxanne.

"It is an honor to serve the third Jewish commonwealth and take part in the celebration of democracy."

JUNE 16, 2021 22:17

When new Blue and White MK Alon Tal grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, as Albert Rosenthal, he wanted to be a congressman.

On Wednesday, he was sworn in as a member of Knesset.

He had run for Knesset unsuccessfully before – but this time, as he puts it, the stars lined up. He was 11th on the Blue and White list that won eight seats, and entered the Knesset after three of the party’s ministers quit through the Norwegian Law.

“This is the greatest privilege of my life,” Tal told The Jerusalem Post in his first interview as an MK. “It is an honor to serve the third Jewish commonwealth and take part in the celebration of democracy.”

Tal credited his accomplishment to the Young Judaea Year Course, which brought him to Israel. On the program, he worked on the farm of the sister of Benny Gantz, his future officer in the IDF and now the leader of his party. He remained loyal to Gantz and the party, even when it fell below the electoral threshold in the polls.

“Benny is fearless, and he always treated his soldiers like a mensch,” he said.

Tal’s key issues as an MK will be advancing environmental sustainability, the status of women, religious pluralism and improving Israel’s relations with what he calls “the alienated progressive Jewish world.”

A resident of Modi’in, Tal is the gabbai (sexton) of the Shalhevet Hamaccabim Masorti (Conservative) synagogue. He is an attorney, the founder of the Israel Union for Environmental Defense and of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, and was appointed as chairman of Tel Aviv University’s department of public policy in 2017.

Tal will be the eighth US-born MK in Israel’s history, following Yehuda Ben-Meir (National Religious Party), Marcia Freedman (Meretz), Meir Kahane (Kach), Dov Lipman (Yesh Atid), Michael Oren (Kulanu), Yehudah Glick (Likud) and Moshe Tur-Paz (Yesh Atid).

“I am delighted that Prof. Alon Tal got into the Knesset,” Oren said. “He will surely make a major contribution to preserving Israel’s environment. I am especially proud that another American-born Israeli and former paratrooper has chosen the path of public service to our state.”

It is 5 P.M. on a windy spring afternoon in Jerusalem. Despite the drastic drop in temperatures, in the East side of the city, more than 250 people headed to the Palestinian National Theatre to witness Mish Zabta – “it is not working,” in English – one of the main productions of the Palestinian Circus School (PCS).

PCS is headquartered in Birzeit, a Palestinian town north of Ramallah in the central West Bank.

Due to the escalation of violence in the recent months in the city, it has gotten more difficult for Palestinians to get a permit to cross from the West Bank to Israel. However, with the assistance of the ICRC, a PCS crew of eight people, composed of acrobats and technicians, have been granted a permit to perform in the city for at least six months.

For more photos, click here.

On the stage, there are three chairs and a pole. Warm lighting highlights a mural that represents the small and crowded village where Mish Zabta’s three characters come from.

Behind the scenes, Ahmad AbuTaleb, Mohammad AbuTaleb, and Nour AbuRob are getting ready while the people flood into the theatre.

Nour, from Jenin, a city in the northern West Bank, joined the PCS eight years ago. For him the circus is a way to express what he feels inside.

“Some people express themselves dancing or telling stories. I use the circus because I can raise awareness on many things that do not work in the West Bank while I make people laugh and forget about the difficulties that they face every day,” Nour said.

The Abu Taleb twins joined the PCS because it was something new in the occuppied Palestinian territories and they thought that it was a nice way to exercise. After a while, they realised that “the circus is not only about acrobatics and performing. It is a part of our lives because we can convey important messages to society and it allows children to play and be happy.”

It is 5:30 P.M. when the curtain rises on Mish Zabta in East Jerusalem for the first time.

Mish Zabta is a new production of the PCS that combines acrobatics, music, juggling and humour. Through laughter, it tells the story of three ambitious young men looking to fulfil their dreams of a better future, after having obtained university degrees abroad. Upon their return, while looking for a job and trying to enjoy themselves, the men face many challenges that turn their hopes and expectations upside down.

According to Shadi Zmorrod, the General Director of the PCS, the idea of the show came after the war in Gaza in 2014. A young team of the PCS wanted to portray obstacles in their daily lives and the emotions that young people face these days, including fear, excitement and a sense of hopelessness, through a creative and funny production.

“Mish Zabta wants to reveal the many problems that Palestinian youth face in such a way that it also creates an outlet for the audiences, after the difficult times they have had to experience,” said Shadi.

The audience, made up of mostly young people, enthusiastically respond to the actors. Viewing these serious problems through the performance of a clown somehow makes their reality seem bearable.

The trauma inflicted by the spiral of violence, especially among the most vulnerable people, such as children and youth, can affect their emotional development and results in mental health complications.

In a place like Jerusalem, children are forced to grow up too fast. Giving them the opportunity to relax and have fun allows them to enjoy being a child again.

“I have had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the trampoline show and the acrobats. A scene also reminded me of when I fight with my sister over a chair. The way they were fighting was so funny,” said Jana Amr, a 10-year old girl.

“Creativity, life learning skills, child’s self-esteem, teamwork, trust and diversity are just some of the positive aspects that the circus can promote,” said Christian Cardon, ICRC Head of Mission in Jerusalem, who enjoyed the show with the children.

“Today, it is Zabta (working) because more than 600 children have laughed and enjoyed themselves,” he added.

It is 6.30 P.M. The sun goes down behind the walls of the Old City while the audience of children and young people file out of the Palestinian National Theatre. Mish Zabta made them laugh and relieved them of their worries, at least for the last hour.

Jesus Serrano Redondo – ICRC Media Delegate

For more photos, click here.