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Rabbi Jonah Layman

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About the Gaza Flotilla

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Shalom Hartman Institute - Jewish Scholarship, Education, Leadership for Israel, Diaspora

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Rosh Hashanah Day 1 - 2015/5776 Making Peace With the Enemy

I can remember the moment as if it happened yesterday. It was Shabbat afternoon November 20, 1977. My parents and I had just finished eating lunch. We turned on the TV to watch a remarkable moment in Israel’s history unfold before our eyes. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt was about to arrive in Israel. With tears in our eyes we watched as his plane touched down - imagine a plane with Arabic writing landing in Tel Aviv! We watched Prime Minister Menachem Begin shake Sadat’s hand and embrace him. We watched as Sadat shook hands with Golda Meir and then listened as Israel’s army band played Egypt’s national anthem. No one in their wildest imagination just 4 years before could have ever imagined that such a moment could arrive. Surely the messiah would arrive too! Even though I was only 15 at the time I still understood the context for that remarkable moment. I had followed the Yom Kippur war as a 6th grade student in my Jewish Day School and I had the assignment of summarizing the ...

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