Vicky Mamieh
Mexico
Paul Newdick
United Kingdom
Michael Grauss
Germany
Eyla Benedykt
Brazil
Jonathan Touboul
France
Lena Rekar
Germany
Joe Ozer
United Kingdom
Pasteur Luc Henrist
France
A Time for Shecheyanu
Vicky Mamieh
Mexico Representative
Development Corporation for Israel (Mexico) SA de CV
A friend recently asked me if I was ready for Rosh Hashanah and the ensuing High Holidays. “Oh yes, of course,” I was quick to respond. “My freezer is full of kebbes, mecshi and the like. My refrigerator is packed with apples, pomegranates, honey, cooked Swiss chard leaves and yes, of course, the carpenter is coming to build my sukkah in the garden.” I was very proud of my response.
It is about thanking the Almighty for another chance at life…
That´s not what she meant of course, and, after profound introspection and thoughtful prayer these past days, I fully understand what she was getting at. Rosh Hashanah is not about filling one´s tummy, but goes much deeper than that. Besides getting the family together to celebrate another year in joy and good health, it is about saying with one´s full might the blessing of “Shehecheyehanu”. It is about thanking the Almighty for another chance at life, at correcting our past mistakes and moving forward with a renewed energy.
This year, I hope, will be one of excellent health, happiness, and peace for all. L´chaim!
A Time to Connect
Paul Newdick
United Kingdom
Celebrating the new year is always a good time to send greetings to friends. It is the same for the Christian organisation I work for, in that it is an appropriate moment to wish Shanah Tovah to some of the olim (Jewish immigrants to Israel) we have been able to help over the years. It is great to be able to catch up with many of these people and hear about how they have settled in Israel.
Over the past thirty years, Ebenezer Operation Exodus has been able to help around 190,000 Jewish people from around the world, with the majority making aliyah (immigrating to Israel) from Russia and other former Soviet Union countries. However, we have also helped olim from Europe, the U.S., South America, and other continents. Whilst we cannot keep in touch with everyone, many of our national teams have built close relationships with the prospective olim when they have been heavily involved in assisting them with the aliyah process.
Over the past thirty years,
Ebenezer Operation Exodus has been able to help around 190,000 people from around the world
As Rosh Hashanah is a time of reflection, it is good to remember that Hashem has been faithful over the past thirty years since Ebenezer Operation Exodus was established. He has given us the workers, volunteers, and resources we have needed to assist so many make aliyah to the Jewish homeland from across the globe.
A Time to Change
Michael Grauss
Executive Director of Germany
Development Company for Israel (Europe) GmbH
The Jewish year 5781, was truly an exceptional, challenging year for all of us. Thankfully, our loved ones here were not hit by COVID-19, but we all suffered from not being able to visit our families or to celebrate all the different festivities during this year with each other.
…they have shown once again how well and successfully the Israel Bonds family works together.
The last year also brought changes to Israel Bonds. The German office became the new headquarters for Israel Bonds within the European Union after the formalization of Brexit. For our clients, nothing has changed, except that from now on, our company operates in the European Union under the new name of Development Company for Israel (Europe) GmbH. These structural changes required flexibility and adaptability from us, and they have shown once again how well and successfully the Israel Bonds family works together.
Celebrating Rosh Hashanah means reflecting on what we have done and how we’ve behaved and treated others in the past year and considering our intentions for the upcoming year. The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are a time of looking inward and asking for forgiveness from God for the sins we have committed and from the people we might have hurt unintentionally. This can be hard and painful, but it is a necessary step to start the new year with a clear mind and soul.
We are looking forward to this new year 5782, and trust that we will have the strength to cope with challenges ahead. Hopefully, we will be able to meet with our investors, friends, and supporters again in person. This is something I am really looking forward to!
Shanah tovah umetuka, uG’mar chatimah tovah to all of us. May we all have a blessed new year!
A Time to Hear the Shofar
Eyla Benedykt
Brazil Representative
Development Corporation for Israel (Brazil) Consultoria Ltda.
Rosh Hashanah is a time for renewal and a fresh start, an opportunity to evaluate and reflect on everything we've done in the past year, to change what wasn't good and to focus on a much better and sweeter new year! It is a time to decorate the table, bring the family together, fill with honey and sweetness the round challah that reminds us that life is cyclical, and that we are always in moments of renewal. And we eat pomegranates, so that our lives may have as many mitzvot and blessings as the seeds of that fruit.
Listening to the sounds of the shofar in the synagogue is one of the strongest and most memorable moments of the holidays for me, as this very peculiar sound connects me with G-D and reminds me of my childhood with my whole family in Montevideo, Uruguay. I'm sure that next year, my family and all the families in the community will once again celebrate Rosh Hashanah sitting together with their own families and friends!
May this Rosh Hashanah begin a of cycle renewed health and bring us the inner strength we need to be better people and turn difficulties into opportunities.
A Time for Remembrance
Jonathan Touboul
Executive Director of French Speaking Countries, and the French Team
Development Company for Israel (Europe) GmbH
For our community, the year doesn't begin on January 1st, with a bang, but rather in September with a shofar, marking the beginning of the Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
The sound of the shofar is intended to awaken our conscience and guide us toward introspection.
Rosh Hashanah, the “Day of Judgment”, is followed by a period of ten days of penitence that will conclude with the celebrations of Yom Kippur, the "Day of Atonement".
The sound of the shofar is intended to awaken our conscience and guide us toward introspection.
Celebrating Rosh Hashanah helps us remember that we are perpetually required to be better and refine ourselves. We recite the story of Abraham and the Akedah—the binding of his son Isaac. On Erev Yom Kippur, we ask that any vows and commitments that cannot or have not been fulfilled, be annulled or cancelled. Looking back and confessing our failures, and then considering how to improve, paves the way for a better life in the future.
Even more than in past years, this festival season is a time of hope as well as a period full of uncertainty. We must all use the spiritual strength surrounding this “elevated” season to jump into the new year with elevated objectives.
A Time to Ask Forgiveness
Lena Rekar
Administrator, Germany
Development Company for Israel (Europe) GmbH
Working with Israel Bonds brought me, a Catholic Christian, closer to the Jewish holidays and the Jewish traditions. Seeing my colleagues preparing for the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur made me think a lot about the values connected to these days.
…a special concept because it underlines the importance of community and relationships. These are two important pillars for our well-being
in this world, and it´s important to take care of them.
The time between these two holidays has left an especially deep impression on me. Seeking forgiveness and reflecting about what has been good and what has been bad in the last year is familiar to me from my own religion. In Catholicism, when you seek forgiveness, you confess to a priest, and he will tell you what you need to do to receive mercy. This could be speaking a prayer three times or helping in the next service. But you don´t turn to the people you have wronged or whom you didn´t treat with respect and ask them for forgiveness.
That is exactly what impressed me. Before Yom Kippur, it is the tradition to turn to those to whom you want to apologize. G´d's forgiveness comes through the forgiveness of those toward whom you have behaved incorrectly. For me, this is such a special concept because it underlines the importance of community and relationships. These are two important pillars for our well-being in this world, and it´s important to take care of them. This is a universal lesson for every human being!
I wish all the KOL readers a shanah tovah. May you be inscribed in the Book of Life for a good year!
A Time for Family
Joe Ozer
Executive Director of United Kingdom
Development Company for Israel (International) Ltd.
The new year always presents new hopes and horizons for the year ahead, as well as a chance to look back at the past year, take stock of what one did well, and not so well. We always want the new year to surpass the previous one, but this doesn’t ever happen on its own. Self-reflection is also the cornerstone of the Jewish new year, and as we move into the year 5782, we are all encouraged to look back before looking forward.
For me personally, as with all the major Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah is about getting together with my family. Thankfully, I’ve been blessed with a large and close extended family. We all gather at my aunt’s house, conduct the pre-dinner ceremonies, and then eat, drink, and connect for the rest of the evening.
Since being together was, of course, not possible over the past year and a half during the pandemic, this new year is especially sweet, as restrictions have been lifted, allowing us to return from our exile!
…as we move into the year 5782, we are all encouraged to look back before looking forward.
Family will also be a key factor for Israel Bonds in the coming year. As an organization, we don’t have just staff members and clients…we have a wider Israel Bonds family. And our international family is growing. We are excited about upcoming changes and new bond offerings to be announced shortly, and you’ll be hearing more about these new initiatives in the weeks to come.
PHOTO CREDIT: Blake Ezra Photography
A Time for Repentance and Courage
Pasteur Luc Henrist
France
On the morning of September 11th, 2001, while shaving, I was listening to France Inter radio. The press reviews were particularly moving: most newspapers had remembrances of what happened exactly twenty years ago: a tragedy that struck the United States in the heart of New York and that attacked our Judeo-Christian values head-on.
Now we are in 5782 and we dread the future Impact of what COVID may have in store for us; it is likely to be even stronger and more dramatic than what we have experienced so far. Deuteronomy 30:6 tells us: "Be strong and take courage! Do not be afraid and do not be frightened..." These are the words we will need to face this new year. Be strong, be courageous, do not be afraid and do not be frightened. But who can do that? A passage from that day’s Haftarah gives us the answer: "Israel, return to the Lord your God! Tell him, 'Forgive us all our trespasses and make us welcome!’” (Hosea 14:2-3).
Be strong and take courage! Do not be afraid and do not be frightened…
So, the key to gathering our courage is to return to God and repent. It is making the effort to discover His feelings and make them our own. This is what this second text of the Haftarah, Joel 2:18, speaks about: "The Lord loves his land jealously..." It is He who will give us the strength and courage to face the future.
An example is the strength given to Marie Durand (1711-1776), a Huguenot (Protestant) woman who, locked up in the Tower of Constance for thirty-eight years, had engraved in stone one word: RESIST.
This month of festival provides a source from which to draw strength and endurance in order to achieve our objectives in the year ahead.
G’mar Chatima Tovah!
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