Category Archives: Extraordinary Individuals

Unique Jews In a Category of Their Own

Jews of the Week: Heroes of Israel

This week we honour a small handful of the many heroes that emerged during the recent catastrophe in Israel:

Michael Shamai, a former IAF pilot, was completing his shift flying a medical rescue helicopter when he got the call about the attack. Together with his Ecuadorian copilot, he immediately headed south to rescue as many victims as possible. Shamai had to fly multiple missions “in the dark” without GPS navigation, maneuvering away from gunfire and rockets, without any protection or even a helmet, saving dozens. Guy Madar was celebrating the holiday with his family in Kiryat Gat when he heard of the attack. He grabbed his firearm, got in his car, and drove down to Re’im where he encountered terrorists. He killed six of them and rescued an injured soldier. He then joined a policeman on the scene and they continued driving further south together before being ambushed by another group of terrorists. Madar and the policeman both got shot, but managed to eliminate all the terrorists. Madar secured a tourniquet to his bleeding leg, and was nearly unconscious when discovered by a team of IDF soldiers, who at first confused him for a terrorist before seeing his tzitzit. In Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, social worker Amichai Shindler was hiding with his family in the safe room when terrorists tried to burst inside. He kept them at bay, so they set off explosives near the door. Shindler absorbed the blow to save his wife and six children, losing his right arm and suffering major injuries to his face, jaw, and left hand. He lay bleeding for another three and a half hours before medics arrived. At Kibbutz Be’eri, paramedic Amit Mann was treating victims and saving lives for hours on end without rest before terrorists appeared. She did whatever she could to protect and hide the wounded in her clinic before being murdered. Aner Elyakim Shapiro was at the music festival and packed into a nearby bomb shelter with a large group of people. Terrorists threw grenades into the shelter, and Shapiro bravely threw them back outside. He deflected seven grenades before the eighth detonated in his hand. Shapiro perished, but saved everyone else inside. Witnesses described him as a “guardian angel”. Matan Abergil was in an armoured personnel carrier with 6 other soldiers when a terrorist threw a grenade inside the vehicle. Abergil quickly jumped on top and absorbed the blow, saving all of his fellow soldiers.

Top: Michael Shamai (left) and his copilot Jorge Ordoñez. Bottom from left: Amit Mann, Matan Abergil, and Amichai Shindler

Those We Have Lost

Hamas in the Torah

An Interview with an IDF Soldier on the Front Lines

Hamas Massacre Smashes Israel’s Faulty Strategy

The Real Reason Biden Came to Israel

Hamas Chief Lives a Life of Luxury in Qatar

The Dizengoff Square Candle Memorial

Words of the Week

The less we fear God, the more we fear the non-Jew and develop in our collective psyche an inferiority complex toward him. The latent power of fear in the soul seeks an outlet, and object to fear. It is either God or others… When it becomes clear in our minds and our hearts that a Jew must fear God alone, the fear of God becomes the motivating power necessary to stand up and fight against our enemies.
– Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Jew of the Week: Judah the Faithful

The Church’s Greatest “Heretic”

Lope de Vera y Alarcon (c. 1619-1644) was born to the Spanish nobility in San Clemente, Spain. Despite being a Christian knight, de Vera wished to learn Hebrew and study the Bible in its original language. He enrolled at the University of Salamanca at 14. His studies drew him to Judaism, and at just 20 years old, he rejected the New Testament and his old Christian faith. The Inquisition immediately arrested him and threw him in prison. He refused to eat their non-kosher meat. His trial lasted for over a year, in which he continually affirmed that Judaism is the only true faith. Soon, de Vera formally converted to Judaism, circumcised himself with a bone knife, and took on the name Juda el Creyente, “Judah the Faithful” or “Judah the Believer”. His imprisonment lasted six years, during which time many priests and missionaries tried to win him back. Instead, he managed to convince at least a couple of them to abandon their Christianity, too! The frustrated Inquisition had enough and sentenced him to execution. He was burned at the stake on July 25, 1644. His final words were reportedly a verse from King David’s Psalms: “Into Your hand, Lord, I commit my spirit.” Despite his apostasy, one Inquisitor wrote of him: “Never has such firmness been witnessed as that displayed by this young man. He was well reared, scholarly, and otherwise blameless.” Another Inquisitor declared that “de Vera was the Church’s greatest heretic”. At the time, his story inspired and strengthened Jews all over the world, and caused countless Marranos (Spanish Jews forced to convert to Christianity) to return to their faith. Today, many Spanish and Portuguese people are rediscovering their Sephardic Jewish roots and converting back to Judaism, and see Judah the Faithful as a role model and hero.

‘The Spanish Inquisition Tribunal’, by Francisco Goya

Growing Number of Latin Americans Turn to Judaism

Intriguing Stories of Latinos Converting to Judaism

Words of the Week

Our Sages taught: Those who are insulted but do not insult others, who hear their shame but do not respond, who act out of love and are joyful in their suffering, about them the verse states: “And they that love Him are as the sun going forth in its might.” (Judges 5:31)
– Talmud, Gittin 36b

Jew of the Week: Clara Lemlich Shavelson

A Yiddish Feminist Icon

Clara Lemlich (1886-1982) was born to a religious Jewish-Russian family in what is now Horodok, Ukraine. She grew up speaking Yiddish, and learned Russian against the wishes of her parents. This actually allowed her to start a business in her youth, writing letters in Russian for her neighbours. She used the money to buy books, and soon took a deep interest in socialist literature. Following the horrors of the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903—in which 49 Jews were killed, over 500 injured, and 1500 Jewish home destroyed—the family fled to the US and settled in New York City. Lemlich got a job in the garment industry, working long hours in terrible conditions, with no breaks or benefits, and poor compensation. She joined the International Ladies’ Garment Worker’s Union and soon got elected to its executive board. Lemlich started to organize strikes and protests. During one protest, gangsters hired by her employers broke her ribs. Undeterred, in November of 1909 she gave a rousing speech (in Yiddish!) and got 20,000 workers to join her in a massive strike which came to be known as the “Uprising of the 20,000”. This then inspired male garment workers to stage a strike, too, resulting in the “Great Revolt” that brought 50,000 to protest. The result was that employers finally took notice and slowly began improving conditions for their employees. Lemlich, however, was blacklisted from working in the garment industry. Instead, she turned her attention to universal suffrage and wrote: “The manufacturer has a vote; the bosses have votes; the foremen have votes, the inspectors have votes. The working girl has no vote…” and until she gets to vote, “she will not get justice; she will not get fair conditions.” Lemlich founded the Wage Earner’s Suffrage League. Two years later, she married Joe Shavelson and started a family, switching gears to spend most of her time raising her children. Her activism continued, though, for example participating in a housewives’ boycott of kosher butcheries to protest price gouging. She would go on to join the Communist Party of America, and then to work for Progressive Women’s Councils. She campaigned against nuclear weapons, genocides, and the Vietnam War. At 81, she moved to California to be with her children and lived in a nursing home. Even then, her activism didn’t stop and she convinced the nursing home management to join in on boycotts protesting high prices on fruits and vegetables. Today, Lemlich is recognized as a major feminist icon and an inspiration for countless Jewish women.

Feminism in Judaism and the Curses of Eve

Words of the Week

The world suffers a lot not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people.
– Napoleon Bonaparte