Jewish Quotes AND Quotes about Jews

Famous Judaism Quotes Quotations

*** “I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations ... They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern.”

- John Adams, Second President of the United States
(From a letter to F. A. Van der Kemp [Feb. 16, 1808] Pennsylvania Historical Society)
(See the Jewish impact on the world)

*** “This is an exceedingly strange development, unexpected by all but the theologians. They have always accepted the word of the Bible: In the beginning God created heaven and earth… [But] for the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; [and] as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

- Robert Jastrow
(God and the Astronomers [New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1978], 116. Professor Jastrow was the founder of NASA’s Goddard Institute, now director of the Mount Wilson Institute and its observatory.)

*** ”...If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky way. properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and had done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it.

The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”

- Mark Twain
(“Concerning The Jews,” Harper’s Magazine, 1899
see The Complete Essays of Mark Twain, Doubleday [1963] pg. 249)

*** “If we were forced to choose just one, there would be no way to deny that Judaism is the most important intellectual development in human history.”

- David Gelernter, Yale University Professor

*** “It is against their own insoluble problem of being human that the dull and base in humanity are in revolt in anti-Semitism. Judaism, nevertheless, together with Hellenism and Christianity is an inalienable component of our Christian Western civilization, the eternal “call to Sinai” against which humanity again and again rebels.”

- Herman Rauschning, The Beast From the Abyss, pp. 155-56

*** “If we had lived in the second millennium BC, the millennium of Abraham, and could have canvassed all the nations of the earth, what would they have said of Abraham’s journey? In most of Africa and Europe, they would have laughed at Abraham’s madness and pointed to the heavens, where the life of earth had been plotted from all eternity ... a man cannot escape his fate. The Egyptians would have shaken their heads in disbelief. The early Greeks might have told Abraham the story of Prometheus ... Do not overreach, they would advise; come to resignation. In India, he would be told that time is black, irrational and merciless. Do not set yourself the task of accomplishing something in time, which is only the dominion of suffering. On every continent, in every society, Abraham would have been given the same advice that wise men as diverse as Heraclitus, Lao-Tsu and Siddhartha would one day give their followers: do not journey but sit; compose yourself by the river of life, meditate on its ceaseless and meaningless flow.”

“The Jews started it all—and by ‘it’ I mean so many of the things we care about, the underlying values that make all of us, Jew and Gentile, believer and aethiest, tick. Without the Jews, we would see the world through different eyes, hear with different ears, even feel with different feelings ... we would think with a different mind, interpret all our experience differently, draw different conclusions from the things that befall us. And we would set a different course for our lives.”

- Thomas Cahill, The Gifts Of The Jews

*** “Mankind, East and West, Christian and Muslim, accepted the Jewish conviction that there is only one G-d. Today it is polytheism that is so difficult to understand, that is so unthinkable.”

- T.R. Grover, The Ancient World, p. 186

*** There is a famous story in which the Kaiser asks Bismarck, “Can you prove the existence of God?” Bismarck replies, “The Jews, your majesty. The Jews.”

“The Jews, however, are beyond all doubt the strongest, toughest, and purest race at present living in Europe; they know how to succeed even under the worst conditions (in fact better than under favorable ones) by means of virtues of some sort, which one would like nowadays to label as vices-owing above all to a resolute faith which does not need to be ashamed before “modern idea…

It is certain that the Jew, if he desired-or if they were driven to it, as the antisemites seem to wish-could now have the ascendancy, nay, literally the supremacy, over Europe; that they are not working or planning for that end is equally sure… The resourcefulness of the modern Jews, both in mind and soul, is extraordinary…”

- Friedrich Nietzsche
German Philosopher (1844 - 1900)

*** “Asked to make a list of the men who have most dominated the thinking of the modern world, many educated people would name Freud, Einstein, Marx and Darwin. Of these four, only Darwin was not Jewish. In a world where Jews are only a tiny percentage of the population, what is the secret of the disproportionate importance the Jews have had in the history of Western culture?”

- Ernest van den Haag, The Jewish Mystique
(New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1971, pg. 13)

*** “Energy is the basis of everything. Every Jew, no matter how insignificant, is engaged in some decisive and immediate pursuit of a goal… It is the most perpetual people of the earth…”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German dramatist, novelist and poet (1749 - 1832)

*** ”...whatever other qualities Jews may posses, likable or the reverse, no one who knows them well can deny that they are personally interesting. By that I mean, specially alive, alert, quick at comprehending people or events and at making pungent or witty comments on them… One might at times find the rather hothouse family atmosphere, with it intensities and frictions, somewhat trying, but one could be sure of never being bored.”

- Ernest Jones - British psychoanalyst (1879-1958)

*** “For the Jews have long been in revolt not only against the Romans, but against humanity; and a race that has made its own life apart and irreconcilable, that cannot share with the rest of mankind in the pleasure of the table nor join in their libations or prayers or sacrifices, are separate from ourselves by a greater gulf than divides us from Sura or Bactra of the most distant Indies.”

- Philostratus - The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 3rd Century CE Teacher

“The Jews proved not only unassimilated, but inassimilable, and… the demonstration that this was so proved one of the most significant turning points in Greek history, owing to the gigantic influence exerted throughout subsequent ages by their religion, which not only survived intact, but subsequently gave birth to Christianity as well.”

- Michael Grant,From Alexander to Cleopatra: the Hellenistic World,
(New York: Charles Scribner & Sons, 1982., p. 75)

*** “The dispersion of the Jews was both a boon and a bane; their nation was disjoined, but their culture was enormously enhanced. Whereas a unique omneitic outlook set the Jews apart from other peoples, a common language, literacy and learning bound the disparate Jewish communities together and provided a firm foundation for further creativity. The exercise of this multifaceted creative propensity rebounded to benefit not only the societies that harbored the Jews, but all humankind.”

- Samuel Karlinsky, The Eight Day - The Hidden History of the Jewish Contribution to Civilzation (Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1994.), xviii.

*** “Wishing to make Speyer into a city, I thought to increase its honor a thousand fold by bringing in the Jews.”

- Bishop Ruediger - Huozmann - 1084

*** “So prominent was the Jewish role in the foreign commerce of Europe that those nations that received the Jews gained and the countries that excluded them lost in the volume of international trade.”

- Will Durant, The Story of Civilization - The Reformation. (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1953)

*** “The preservation of the Jews is really one of the most signal and illustrious acts of divine Providence… and what but a supernatural power could have preserved them in such a manner as none other nation upon earth hath been preserved. Nor is the providence of God less remarkable in the destruction of their enemies, than in their preservation… We see that the great empires, which in their turn subdued and oppressed the people of God, are all come to ruin… And if such hath been the fatal end of the enemies and oppressors of the Jews, let it serve as a warning to all those, who at any time or upon any occasion are for raising a clamor and persecution against them.”

- Thomas Newton - British Clergyman: Bishop of Bristol (1704-1782)

*** “The brief legal emancipation of Jews during the Napoleonic wars released unparalleled economic, professional, and cultural energies. It was though a high dam had suddenly been breached.”

- Amos Elon, The Pity of It All - A portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch 1743 -1933 (New York: Picador, 2002) pg. 6

*** “For the Jewish impact on humanity has been protean. In antiquity they were the great innovators in religion and morals. In the Dark Ages and early medieval Europe they were still an advanced people transmitting scarce knowledge and technology. Gradually they were pushed from the van and fell behind, by the end of the eighteenth century, they were seen as a bedraggled and obscurantist rearguard in the march of civilized humanity. But then came an astonishing second burst of creativity. Breaking out of the ghettos, they once more transformed human thinking, this time in the secular sphere. Much of the mental furniture of the modern world too is of Jewish fabrication.”

- Paul Johnson
(Christian historian, author of A History of the Jews and A History of Christianity pg. 585-6)

*** “For many people during many centuries, mankind’s history before the coming of Christianity was the history of the Jews and what they recounted of the history of others. Both were written down in the books called the Old Testament, [the Torah] the sacred writings of the Jewish people ... They were the first to arrive at an abstract notion of God and to forbid his representation by images. No other people has produced a greater historical impact from such comparatively insignificant origins and resources ...”

- J.M. Roberts, History Of The World

*** “The Jew lends himself easily to Communism because it enables him to devote himself to a high cause, involving all of humanity, characteristics which are natural to him as a Jew.”

- Edmund Wilson - U.S. literary critic and author (1895-1972)

*** “People often avoid making decisions out of fear of making a mistake. Actually, the failure to make decisions is one of life’s biggest mistakes.”

- Rabbi Noah Weinberg, 48 Ways To Wisdom, Way #4

*** “Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has appeared in the world.”

- Winston Churchill - Prime Minister of Great Britain

*** “Our survey of three and a half millennia of Jewish history is closed. But the story which we have set ourselves to tell is unending. Today, the Jewish people has in it still those elements of strength and endurance which enabled it to surmount all the crises of its past, surviving thus the most powerful empires of antiquity.

Throughout our history there have been weaker elements who have shirked the sacrifices which Judaism entailed. They have been swallowed, long since, in the great majority; only the more stalwart have carried on the traditions of their ancestors, and can now look back with pride upon their superb heritage. Are we to be numbered with he weak majority, or with the stalwart minority? It is for ourselves to decide.”

- Cecil Roth, A History of the Jews
(Oxford University: Shocken Books, 1961) pg. 423

*** “Small minds discuss people. Average minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas.”

- Unknown

*** ”...it would be a mistake…to ascribe to Roman legal conceptions an undivided sway over the development of law and institutions during the Middle Ages… The Laws of Moses as well as the laws of Rome contributed suggestions and impulse to the men and institutions which were to prepare the modern world; and if we could have but eyes to see… we should readily discover how very much besides religion we owe to the Jew.”

- U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in his The State

“In the facades we put on for others we demonstrate our potential; through our children we reveal our reality.”

- Lawrence Kelemen, To Kindle A Soul p. 195

*** “It’s not how much or how little you have that makes you great or small, but how much or how little you are with what you have.”

- Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch
(Horeb, vol. 1, pg 46)

*** Intolerance lies at the core of evil.
Not the intolerance that results
from any threat or danger.
But intolerance of another being who dares to exist.
Intolerance without cause. It is so deep within us,
because every human being secretly desires
the entire universe to himself.
Our only way out is to learn
compassion without cause. To care for each other
simple because that ‘other’ exists.

- Rabbi Menachem Mendle

*** “Intelligent people know of what they speak; fools speak of what they know.”

- Minchas Shabbos Pirkei Avos 3:18 / Ethics Of The Fathers

*** A renowned genius once asked a student, “What are you watching when you sit on a hillside in the late afternoon as the colors turn from yellow to orange and red and finally darkness?” He answered, “You are watching the sunset.” The genius responded, “That is what is wrong with our age. You know full well you are not watching the sun set. You are watching the world turn.”

- Jeremy Kagan, “The Jewish Self”

*** “The entire purpose of our existence is to overcome our negative habits.”

- Vilna Goan, Commentary to Mishlei 4:13

*** Rabbi Zusha used to say: “When I die and come before the heavenly court, if they ask me, ‘Zusha, why were you not Abraham?’ I’ll say that I didn’t have Abraham’s intellectual abilities. If they say, ‘Why were you not Moses?’ I’ll say I didn’t have Moses’ leadership abilities. For every such question, I’ll have an answer. But if they say, ‘Zusha, why were you not Zusha?’ for that, I’ll have no answer.”

Until today (1888), no people has succeeded in establishing national dominion in the Land of Israel. No national unity, in the spirit of nationalism, has acquired any hold there. The mixed multitude of itinerant tribes that managed o settle there did so on lease, as temporary residents. It seems that they await the return of the permanent residents of the land.

- Professor Sir John William Dosson
Modern Science in Bible Lands, London: Harper and Brothers, 1889, pp. 449-450.

*** “If a Jew doesn’t make Kiddush (to sanctify himself by maintaining a distinctly Jewish lifestyle), then the non-Jew will make Havdalah for him (by making the Jew realize he is truly different).”

- R’ Chaim of Volozhin

*** Most people are servants of their passions, but the truly free person is the one who can control his desires. When the sages taught “Only one involved in Torah is truly free” (Pirkei Avos 6:2), they meant to say that only Torah allows one to free himself from the shackles of desire and to truly exercise free choice. Without Torah, one is not free at all, he is a slave, controlled by a master foreign to his better instincts. While intellectually he might have correct ideas of how to live, ultimately his master - his passion - will force him to act otherwise.

Excerpt from: The Torah Treasury pg. 146

*** This people are not eminent solely by their antiquity, but are also singular by their duration, which has always continued from their origin till now. For, whereas the nations of Greece and of Italy, of Lacedaemon, of Athens and of Rome, and others who came long after, have long since perished, these ever remain, and in spite of the endeavors of many powerful kings who have a hundred times tried to destroy them, as their historians testify, and as it is easy to conjecture from the natural order of things during so long a space of years, they have nevertheless been preserved (and this preservation has been foretold); and extending from the earliest times to the latest, their history comprehends in its duration all our histories (which it preceded by a long time).

- Pensees by Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952 - Paragraph 620, p. 285

*** Only if you have some knowledge of the human sacrifices, the vicious temple rites, the degrading superstitions and customs that were practiced . . . can you realize how much the modern world owes to the Hebrew prophets, whose monotheism and moral teachings entered into Christianity and Islam….

- from Ancient and medieval history,
by Carlton J. H. Hayes and Parker Thomas Moon.
New York: The Macmillan company, 1929.

*** “All that is thought should not be said, all that is said should not be written, all that is written should not be published, all that is published should not be read.”

- Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgenstern of Tomashov (the Kotzker Rebbe)

*** “Certainly, the world without the Jews would have been a radically different place. Humanity might have eventually stumbled upon all the Jewish insights. But we cannot be sure. All the great conceptual discoveries of the human intellect seem obvious and inescapable once they had been revealed, but it requires a special genius to formulate them for the first time. The Jews had this gift. To them we owe the idea of equality before the law, both divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of human person; of the individual conscience and so a personal redemption; of collective conscience and so of social responsibility; of peace as an abstract ideal and love as the foundation of justice, and many other items which constitute the basic moral furniture of the human mind. Without Jews it might have been a much emptier place.”

- Paul Johnson
(Christian historian, author of A History of the Jews and A History of Christianity)

*** “Death is merely moving from one home to another. The wise man will spend his main efforts in trying to make his future home the more beautiful one.”

- Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgenstern of Tomashov (the Kotzker Rebbe)

*** “No ancient people have had a stranger history than the Jews. ... The history of no ancient people should be so valuable, if we could only recover it and understand it. ... Stranger still, the ancient religion of the Jews survives, when all the religions of every ancient race of the pre-Christian world have disappeared ... Again it is strange that the living religions of the world all build on religious ideas derived from the Jews. .... The great matter is not “What happened?” but “Why did it happen?” Why does Judaism live?”

T.R. Glover
(The Ancient World, Penguin, pp. 184-191)

*** “This one book (the Bible) ... has attracted to it, and had concentrated on it, vastly more thought and has called forth more works, explanatory, illustrative, apologetic, upon its text, its meaning, its geography, its theology, its chronology, its evidences, its inspiration, its origin, than all the rest of the literature of the world put together. An immense bulk of the world’s literature owes its origin to this book.”

- Carlyle B Heynes in The Bible, Is it a True Book

*** “The world says that time is money, but I say that money is time. In order to earn enough money to satisfy his desires, one must sacrifice inordinate amounts of time. For me, that sacrifice is too great.”

- Chofetz Chaim

*** “What is the Jew?...What kind of unique creature is this whom all the rulers of all the nations of the world have disgraced and crushed and expelled and destroyed; persecuted, burned and drowned, and who, despite their anger and their fury, continues to live and to flourish. What is this Jew whom they have never succeeded in enticing with all the enticements in the world, whose oppressors and persecutors only suggested that he deny (and disown) his religion and cast aside the faithfulness of his ancestors?!

The Jew - is the symbol of eternity. ... He is the one who for so long had guarded the prophetic message and transmitted it to all mankind. A people such as this can never disappear.

The Jew is eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity.”

- Leo Tolstoy
(What is the Jew?
quoted in The Final Resolution, pg. 189, printed in Jewish World periodical, 1908)

*** “There is a striking point that runs through Jewish history as a whole. Western civilization was born in the Middle East, and the Jews were at its crossroads. In the heyday of Rome, the Jews were close to the Empire’s center. When power shifted eastward, the Jewish center was in Babylon; when it skipped to Spain, there again were the Jews. When in the Middle Ages the center of civilization moved into Central Europe, the Jews were waiting for it in Germany and Poland. The rise of the United States to the leading world power found Judaism focused there. And now, today, when the pendulum seems to be swinging back toward the Old World and the East rises to renewed importance, there again are the Jews in Israel…”

- Professor Huston Smith
The Religious of Man, New York: HarperCollins, 1989

*** “When we scan the diaspora of Jewry over the entire globe and throughout the entire civilized world, we are surprised to see that this Nation, which is almost the most ancient in the world, is in truth the youngest in terms of the land under its feet and the sky above its head. As a result of the relentless persecutions and forced expulsions, most Jews are but recent new-comers to their respective lands of residence. Ninety percent of the Jewish people have lived in their new homes for no more than 50 or 60 years! (The Jewish People) are dispersed throughout over 100 lands on all five continents.”

- Leschzinsky
“The Jewish Dispersion”, pg. 9 (Heb.) click here for history

*** “The struggle for world domination is between me and the Jews. All else is meaningless. The Jews have inflicted two wounds on the world: Circumcision for the body and conscience for the soul. I come to free mankind from their shackles.”

“When over long periods of human history I scrutinized the activity of the Jewish people, suddenly there arose up in me the fearful question whether inscrutable Destiny, perhaps for reasons unknown to us poor mortals, did not, with eternal and immutable resolve, desire the final victory of this little nation.” (Mein Kampf, p.64)

*** “The Ten Commandments have lost their validity… Conscience is a Jewish invention. It is a blemish like circumcision…”

- Adolph Hitler
(Herman Rauschning, Hitler Speaks, p. 220) (click here for more)
(click for why do people hate the Jews?)

*** “The preservation of the Jew was certainly not casual. He has endured through the power of a certain ideal, based on the recognition of a Higher Power in human affairs. Time after time in his history, moreover, he has been saved from disaster in a manner, which cannot be described excepting as ‘providential.’ The author has deliberately attempted to write this book in a secular spirit; he does not think that his readers can fail to see in it, on every page, a higher immanence”

- Cecil Roth, Oxford University
(History of the Jews, New York, 1963, p. 424)

*** “I have already explained with clear proofs that the soul is the dominant factor in the nature of the Jew. For example, being stiff-necked is one of the bad qualities that Jews have. Practically speaking, that means that Jews refuse to accept criticism and will not listen to corrective advise. This is in fact because they are not essentially materialistic. Only something which is materialistic is readily altered. Consequently Jews are very resistant to change and will not accept the advise of others. Further, the Rabbis say (Talmud - Beitzah 25b) that they are the most aggressive and pushy people.”

- Maharal of Prague (Rabbi Yehuda Loewe, 1526 - 1609)

*** “Israel’s great achievement, so apparent that mention of it is almost trite, was Monotheism. It was an achievement that transformed subsequent history….One may raise the question whether any other single contribution from whatever source since human culture emerged from the stone age has had the far reaching effect upon history that Israel in this regard has exerted both through the mediums of Christianity and Islam and directly through the world of Jewish thinkers themselves”

- from The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man,
by H. and H. A. Frankfort, John A. Wilson, Thorkild Jacobsen, William A. Irwin

*** “The Jews have played an all-important role in history. They are pre-eminently an historical people and their destiny reflects the indestructibility of the divine decrees. Their destiny is too imbued with the “metaphysical” to be explained either in material or positive historical terms.

I remember how the materialist interpretation of history, when I attempted in my youth to verify it by applying it to the destinies of peoples, broke down i the case of the Jew, where destiny seemed absolutely inexplicable from the materialistic standpoint. And, indeed, according to the materialistic and positivist criterion, this people ought long ago to have perished. Its survival is a mysterious and wonderful phenomenon demonstrating that the life of this people is governed by a special predetermination, transcending the processes of adaptation expounded by the materialistic interpretation of history.

The survival of the Jews, their resistance to destruction, their endurance under absolutely peculiar conditions and the fateful role played by them in history; all these point to the particular and mysterious foundations of their destiny…

The historical not only represented man’s external relations, but that it might also reveal the very noumenon and essence of his being. The peculiarity of Jewish destiny consists in its incommensurability with either the pre-Christian or the Christian era. Scientific criticism applied to traditional Biblical history can neither discredit the universal role played by the Jews nor offer a satisfactory explanation of their mysterious destiny. Nor does this criticism grapple with the absolutely peculiar tie existing between the Jews and the ‘historical,’ and their extraordinarily intense feeling for history.”

- The Meaning of History by Professor Nicholai Berdysev
Moscow Academy - London 1935, pp. 86-7

Simple to Remember

Why I No Longer Hate Israel

Portuguese blogger explains why he changed his views, fell in love with Israel

By Romeu Monteiro - Ynet News

I’m a 22-year-old Portuguese gay activist and PhD student. I’m not Jewish, Israeli or even religious, but I am a Zionist and strong supporter of Israel, and I want to explain why.

My story begins at the age of nine, when I went to the school library to get the Diary of Anne Frank. I had no prior idea about the Holocaust and I could not comprehend such persecution. I had never met a Jew, but I was raised to see other people as similar to myself.

The book’s story haunted me: This girl, slightly older than me, hiding for years, confined, isolated, being persecuted for who she was, constantly fearful of being discovered... How horrible; how could this have happened?

A few months later, I discovered I was gay. I was 10 and in Anne’s attic: Confined, isolated, hiding who I was, fearing what would happen if I was discovered... I felt strongly identified with Anne and the Jewish people, and this feeling never abandoned me.

Shortly after, the second Intifada started. I began seeing Israel, a country which I knew almost nothing about, on the news constantly, for the worst reasons. I learned that the Jews had invaded Palestine after the Holocaust to get a country and were occupying and controlling the native Palestinians who lived in the remaining land.

The TV showed us these people blowing themselves up inside buses and cafes and I, like most people around me, thought: “How desperate must someone be to kill themselves like this? How could the Jews go from being oppressed to oppressors? Have they not learned the lessons of History?” I grew up loving the Jewish people but hating Israel.

In 2008, when I was 18 and in college, I found myself criticizing Israel and the Gaza Strip blockade in a YouTube video about the death of Rachel Corrie. I got an answer from an Israeli commenter about my age, who wrote that there was no blockade, as several trucks were crossing into the Strip daily.

This greatly confused me and I asked him to present me with his arguments in defense of Israel. I said I would change my mind if they were convincing. He wrote me a long message, telling me about the massacres of Jews in Palestine before Israel existed, the wars of extermination, and the indoctrination for hate of Jews and Israel in the Middle East, among other things, which he compared to several examples of the humanist character of Israel and its society.

I read it all and, after verifying the information, I was convinced...

Angry and betrayed

My world shook. I became aware that I was making unfair judgments and spreading hate and false propaganda about Israel... I was sad with myself and I felt angry and betrayed that I had trusted so much in organizations I thought were fighting for peace, equality and against prejudice, like I saw them doing for gay rights.

I realized I was being fed ignorance and hate by people who were, at best, as ignorant and prejudiced as those they were "fighting" against while believing themselves to be enlightened individuals and making me believe it too...

I read more and more about Israel, and I became fascinated with the amazing story of a people who, against all odds, had managed to survive and remain united through centuries of persecution, fight for their homeland, rebuild their country and revive their language - just like a phoenix rising from the ashes, striving for freedom and peace.

I realized Israel is a democratic, tolerant, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, rapidly developing nation. A place I could live in free and more accepted than in my home country, and the only place I could safely set foot at in the Middle East.

I found myself in love with Israel, something I never thought I would do and never really want to be.

In 2010, there was the flotilla incident. Suddenly, all media were reporting about Israel. The news reports were grossly distorted and I knew I had to do something. I found myself arguing about it with professors at the university and I started sharing videos of the IDF through my Facebook account.

I thought I would be risking much socially, but I knew it was a matter of justice, as someone had to tell the truth and not allow Israel to be demonized with no right to defense once again. After the flotilla I kept posting pro-Israel stuff, and had serious and even ugly discussions about this issue with several people.

Each discussion revealed more ignorance and double-standards and made me a stronger Zionist and supporter of Israel and its people. I thought I was the only one defending Israel but I gradually discovered other people doing it.

Once, a friend whispered in my ear: “I am also more on the side of Israel... but, please, don’t tell anyone!” She was scared to voice her opinion, and this reinforced my conviction that I had to be vocal about my defense of Israel; I was speaking for many people who were afraid to do it.

At the end it’s a matter of justice. If there’s a people that fights for its right to self-determination and to live in peace, I will be on their side. If there’s a group that is demonized by prejudice and ignorance, I will fight prejudice and ignorance with them. If there’s a culture whose main values include tolerance for different sexual orientations, races and religions - clashing with another one that educates for intolerance and hate - I know which side I'll support.

I am a Zionist and I support the right of the Jewish people to self-rule and to life in peace, like I believe every thinking human being should.

Romeu Monteiro is an electric engineering Phd student at Carnegie Mellon University. You can see his blog here.

Muslim, Zionist and Proud

His father praised Hitler, but Kasim Hafeez writes about love for Israel, Jewish people By Kasim Hafeez - Ynet News I am a Zionist, a proud Muslim Zionist, and I love Israel, but this was not always the case. In fact, for many years I was quite the extreme opposite. I experienced the high levels of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity taking place on British university campuses, because I was the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel activist. Growing up in the Muslim community in the UK I was exposed to materials and opinions at best condemning Israel, painting Jews as usurpers and murderers, and at worse calling for the wholesale destruction of the "Zionist Entity" and all Jews. In short, there was no accommodating a Jewish State in the Middle East. To grow up around this constant barrage of hatred directed at Israel has a massive effect on an individual’s own opinions. More disturbingly, many of these people weren’t radical or extreme, but when it was about Israel the most vicious of rhetoric poured out, coupled with the casual anti-Semitism that seemed too prevalent, when the phrase "stop being a Jew" used as an insult. My father, however, was much more brazen in his hatred, boasting of how Adolf Hitler was a hero, his only failing being that he didn't kill enough Jews. By the time I had reached 18 I was completely indoctrinated to the fold of radical Islamism. My hate for Israel and for the Jews was fuelled by images of death and destruction, set to the backdrop of Arabic melodies about Jihad and speeches of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah or Osama Bin Laden. These views were reinforced when I attended Nakba Day rallies, where speakers predicted Israel's demise as Hezbollah flags were waved proudly in the centre of London.

 The Case for Israel

 Was there a case for Israel? In my mind, of course not, there was no shadow of doubt. Even the most moderate clerics I came across refused to condemn terrorism against Israel as unjustified; the Jews must obviously deserve it, I believed. So what changed? How could I go from all this hatred to the great love for and affinity with Israel and the Jewish people? I found myself in the Israel and Palestine section of a local bookstore and picked up a copy of Alan Dershowitz’s The Case for Israel. Given my worldview, the Jews and Americans controlled the media, so after brief look at the back, I scoffed thinking "vile Zionist propaganda." I did, however, decide to buy it, content that I would shortly be deconstructing this propaganda piece, showing that Israel had no case and claiming my findings as a personal victory for the Palestinian cause. As I read Dershowitz’s arguments and deconstruction of many lies I saw as unquestionable truths, I searched despairingly for counter arguments, but found more hollow rhetoric that I’d believed for many years. I felt a real crisis of conscience, and thus began a period of unbiased research. Up until that point I had not been exposed to anything remotely positive about Israel. Now, I didn't know what to believe. I'd blindly followed others for so long, yet here I was questioning whether I had been wrong. I reached a point where I felt I had no other choice but to see Israel for myself; only that way I’d really know the truth. At the risk of sounding cliché, it was a life-changing visit.

No apartheid state

 I did not encounter an apartheid racist state, but rather, quite the opposite. I was confronted by synagogues, mosques and churches, by Jews and Arabs living together, by minorities playing huge parts in all areas of Israeli life, from the military to the judiciary. It was shocking and eye-opening. This wasn't the evil Zionist Israel that I had been told about. After much soul searching, I knew what I had once believed was wrong. I had been confronted with the truth and had to accept it. But I had a bigger question to confront, what now? I’d for years campaigned against Israel, but now I knew the truth. The choice was obvious: I had to stand with Israel, with this tiny nation, free, democratic, making huge strides in medicine, research and development, yet the victim of the same lies and hatred that nearly consumed me. Doing this is not easy and that’s something that has become very obvious. I have faced hostility from my own community and even some within the Jewish community in the UK, but that’s the reality of standing up for Israel in Europe today. It is not easy, and that’s what makes it so necessary.

 This isn’t about religion and politics; it’s about the truth.

 When it comes to Israel, the truth is not being heard, the ranks of those filed with blind hatred continue to swell, yet many have not been exposed to the reality, away from the empty rhetoric and politically charged slogans they are so fond of. We can change this situation but we need to be strong and united. Israel is not just a Jewish issue - it’s about freedom, human rights and democracy, all the values that Western nations cherish. It’s also about trying to be a light among nations. Israel’s international humanitarian aid work speaks for itself, but if we don’t get the message out there, no one will. We don’t have to be head-bowed apologists leading with :Israel’s not perfect…" - we should never be afraid to say: I am a Zionist and I’m proud. I stand with Israel. Now I ask, will you do that? Kasim Hafeez is a British Muslim and former Islamist who is now a proud Zionist and stands with Israel. He runs www.theisraelcampaign.org and has a blog on this site. He is also on the advisory board of StandWithUs in the UK and recently completed a university speaking tour .

Everything You Need to Know about Kosher Wine

It’s not your parents’ syrupy sweet beverage any more.

by Maurie Rosenberg

I have enjoyed wine pretty much as long as I can remember. As a child I was allowed only a tiny bit on special occasions like Kiddush and Passover. In college I was not quite, shall we say, as flavor discriminating as I am now, being a wine critic and author of a guide to kosher wines.

Kosher wine has come of age. Gone are the days when kosher wine could only be described as sweet, sweeter and so cloyingly sweet that it hurts my teeth just to think about it. So without further ado, let’s shatter some misconceptions.

1. Wine is not “kosher” because it is blessed by a rabbi.

This might be the most common misconception about kosher products in general. I know of a rabbi who provides a service in his local community, in cooperation with a regional supermarket, by marking the shelves of all the items which have kosher certification. He does this by placing a small sticker next to the shelf label of the appropriate item to make it simple and convenient to identify those products that qualify. One day a woman observed this activity and, startled with the speed with which he affixed the green dots on a group of similar items, commented: "Rabbi, you're saying those blessings awfully fast, aren't you?!"

Kosher wine esnures the absence of problematic ingredients like ox blood.

Kosher means “prepared” – i.e. processed according to Jewish law. When it comes to wine, various ingredients present kashrut challenges including: casein (a dairy derivative), enzymes (from animals), isinglass (from non kosher fish), and even ox blood (exactly what it sounds like). Further, kosher wine must have rabbinic supervision from the time the grapes become juice, up until the wine is sealed in the bottle.

2. Wine is a mitzvah (under certain conditions).

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Kosher wine is prescribed for use in many Jewish rituals: Bris Milah (circumcision), the wedding chuppa (canopy), the Kiddush that begins Shabbat and holiday meals. While most occasions call for just one cup, on the holiday of Purim, wine is the beverage of choice for the festive meal, recalling wine’s significant role in the "banquets" described in the Megillah story. On Passover we are required to drink four cups at the Seder (a challenge for many). As one rabbi said: "Who else but Jews would complain about how much they have to drink?"

3. Enjoy the variety.

Some wines are great for desert, others for a quiet evening of sipping, and others are especially food-friendly with meat, fish or cheese. White wines are generally younger, fresher and fruity with hints of apple, pineapple, pear and the like. Red wines can be full-bodied with notes of black current, plum, tobacco, leather and wild berries, with months or years of aging in charred oak barrels and a big finish. They can be silky and smooth, or tart and astringent, or even perhaps both at the same time. Wines can be cool, sparkling, light and refreshing for everyday or special occasions.

Two thousand years ago, a Talmudic sage said: "The best kind of wine is that which you enjoy." This rabbi might also have been the first known wine critic, as having rated a 200-year-old vintage "of the highest excellence."

4. Israel produces some of the world's best kosher wines.

Drip irrigation enables grapes to thrive in deserts all over the world.

Chalk, limestone, sand and volcanic soil can provide excellent growth medium for premium wine grapes. These conditions are often found in desert climates, which until recently were not sufficiently friendly to reliable vineyards. In the second half of the 20th century, two key developments allowed noble grape varieties to thrive in deserts all over the world:

Stainless steel tanks and refrigeration allow grape juice and wine to be kept cool after the summer harvest in warmer areas, and during fermentation (the process by which microbes, called yeast, eat the sugar, converting it to alcohol and carbon dioxide).

Drip irrigation, a process refined in the 1960s on an Israeli kibbutz in the Negev, allows a hungry world to be fed with far less water (agriculture places the largest demand on our global water supply) and far greater nutrient control. It also provides for consistent results from year to year in places that could not otherwise sustain agriculture.

Israel is blessed with many state-of-the-art wineries that merge a synergy of technology and tradition. Israeli and other kosher wines are now recognized as "world class" from leading authorities, with many regularly receiving the highest awards and recognition.

5. Don't cook with a "cooking wine."

Just because a bottle says "cooking wine" doesn't mean it is better for cooking. In fact, it is usually inferior wine that is not good enough to drink. My rule is: Wine that is not good enough to drink is not good enough to cook with.

When cooking, add wine early enough to allow the alcohol to evaporate and produce a subtle taste (except for fortified wines that you might want to add at the end). Reduce the wine to intensify its flavor; if you cook wine uncovered for 10 minutes, it will reduce to half or less. Use white wine for lighter-colored dishes and red wines for darker meats or stews.

Wine offers uncommon value in a world of ever-rising costs. In 1940 a typical bottle of kosher Kiddush wine cost about one dollar. In today's terms that translates to $12-15 for a standard bottle. Today you can buy many sweet Kiddush wines for under $5, and in the $12-15 range you can find some very good to excellent wine.

6. Wine is good for you, body and soul.

Almost every week there is another story about the health benefits of wine. Is it white wine or red wine, the tannins, anti-oxidant compounds, flavonoids, enzyme releasers or something else?

“Kosher,” with its added levels of supervision and quality control, has established itself in a broad perception as cleaner, healthier, higher quality, and even safer. Of course, the real reason Jews keep kosher is because of our spiritual health. (Hence the term, “soul food.”)

Wine is an exceptional beverage that can be a metaphor for so many profound ideas in life: balance, nuance, integrity. Wine can even be a metaphor for a completed and perfected human life: It starts off as a simplistic and immature product (grape juice represents childhood; it must develop character as it goes through fermentation (struggle represents the challenge of evil); only then does it become the mature product we call wine.

We could discuss this in more detail over a glass of wine. As Tevya sang in Fiddler on the Roof: "Be happy! Be healthy! Long life! Drink, l'chaim, to life!"



Aish.Com

Kosher Wine and Its Rich Flavor Explained

When it comes to kosher wine, there are numerous misconceptions and one of the widest spread one is that this is a certain style of wine. The truth is that just any kind of wine could be made kosher in case it has been prepared according to the Jewish laws of wine making.

Another really popular misconception is that the wine needs to be blessed by a rabbi. It is important to remember that there is no religious blessing involved in the process.

The wine just needs to be certified as kosher to make sure that the wine is in accordance with the Jewish dietary laws.

The concept of a rabbi blessing the wine is similar to thinking that the USDA blesses the steaks.

There are some rules that need to be kept in mind when preparing kosher wine.

The equipment and tools used in the process must be kosher, meaning that they cannot be involved in the making of non-kosher wine.

The wine must be handled by Sabbath-observant Jews during the entire process, except the case when the wine is mevushal.

The ingredients of the wine must be kosher, including the yeast, gelatin, casein, isinglass and other products used in the process. This is why the majority of the kosher winemakers are using bentonite for fining which is uncommon to regular wine making.

In case of Israel there are some special rules that apply because of the Jewish laws. Naturally these regulations do not apply outside the country. Here the wine has to be at least four years old and the vineyard has to be left fallow once every seven years. The vineyard can only be used to grow grapes and no other agricultural plants.

The reason for which only Sabbath-observant Jews are allowed to handle the wine is that the Jew people didn’t want to have wine that might have been used in pagan religious activities. The non-Jews weren’t really trusted so there was need for someone to supervise the procedures.

The majority of kosher wine is made mevushal, or pasteurized. In case of white wine this happens before fermentation, while in case of red wine, it happens after. In our days this process is a quick one, and without the actual boiling of the wine.

While in the past people have boiled it, in our days there are some other methods as well, to make sure that the flavor will not be altered.

The wine that is usually served at special occasions is mevushal. This happens so because in many cases the caterers might be non-Jews, and if they would handle the wine, it would become non-kosher. The pasteurized wine might be handed by just any person, and it still remains kosher.

To find kosher wine, you will have to be looking for a U inside a circle. This symbolizes that the wine in question is kosher. Also you might find some wine that have a K inside a circle. This symbol also certifies that it is kosher. The K could also be found in a star, and this symbol has the same meaning.



Flavor Red Delight

5 Most Important Things to Know About Passover

Our greatest contributions to the world summarized in five words: memory, optimism, faith, family, and responsibility.

by Rabbi Benjamin Blech.

Scholars have long wondered why Jews who number less than one quarter of one percent of the world – as Milton Himmelfarb memorably put it, "The total population of the Jewish people is less than a statistical error in the annual birth rate of the Chinese people” – have had such a profound influence on almost every field of human endeavor.

What accounts for the remarkable fact that in the 20th century, Jews, more than any other minority, have been recipients of the Nobel Prize, with almost one-fifth of all Nobel laureates being Jewish?

Perhaps it all goes back to the very beginning of the birth of our people and the Passover holiday that we will shortly be celebrating.

Passover conveys five major concepts that became our mantras for how to lead successful and productive lives. They are the five most important things to know about Passover, and to incorporate into every day of the rest of the year. Because we’ve absorbed them into our national psyche for the thousands of years since the Exodus, we’ve been privileged to fulfill in great measure our prophetically mandated role to become a light unto the nations.

They are our greatest contributions to the world and can be summarized in five words: memory, optimism, faith, family, and responsibility.

The Importance of Memory

The Irish Catholic writer Thomas Cahill was so overwhelmed by how the Jewish people literally transformed the world that he authored what proved to become an international bestseller, The Gifts of the Jews. One of the major gifts he credits to Jewish genius is the invention of the idea of history.

"Remember that you were strangers in the land of Egypt." "Remember that the Lord took you out of the bondage of slavery." Remember is a biblical mandate that had never seemed important to anyone else before the Jewish people came on the scene. It was the Passover story that initiated a commitment to memory.

Henry Ford was famous for his belief that "history is bunk." The Ford motor company is also famous for producing the Edsel. And both were probably equally stupid blunders. History is the only way we can learn from the past. History allows us to grow by standing on the shoulders of giants. Make a mistake once, and you’re human. Never learn from what happened before, and you’re brainless. That's why it's so important to heed the famous words of George Santayana that "Those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it."

Memory links our past to our future. It turns history into destiny.

We know how horrible it can be to live without a personal memory of events that preceded. For an individual we have a name for it that fills us with terror: Alzheimer's. It is a disease we fear perhaps even more than death because it leaves us living corpses. Strangely enough, we don't have a similar word for the condition that describes ignorance of our collective past. Knowing what came before is almost as important in an historic sense as it is in a personal one. Only by being aware of our past as a people can our lives become filled with purpose and meaning.

Memory links our past to our future. It turns history into destiny. Learning to treasure it was the first step in our climb up the ladder of greatness.

The Importance of Optimism

To study the Passover story in depth is to recognize that the most difficult task Moses had to perform was not to get the Jews out of Egypt, but to get Egypt out of the Jews. They had become so habituated to their status as slaves, they lost all hope that they could ever improve their lot.

Without hope they would have been lost.

The true miracle of Passover and its relevance for the ages is the message that with God’s help, no difficulty is insurmountable. A tyrant like Pharaoh could be overthrown. A nation as powerful as Egypt could be defeated. Slaves could become freemen. The oppressed could break the shackles of their captivity. Anything is possible, if only we dare to dream the impossible dream.

In the story of America's Great Seal, a particularly relevant chapter is the imagery suggested by Benjamin Franklin in August 1776. He chose the dramatic scene described in Exodus, where people confronted a tyrant in order to gain their freedom.

"Pharaoh sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his head and a Sword in his hand, passing through the divided Waters of the Red Sea in Pursuit of the Israelites: Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Cloud, expressive of the Divine Presence and Command, beaming on Moses who stands on the shore and extending his hand over the Sea causes it to overwhelm Pharaoh."

The motto he suggested, words based on the Passover story, inspired George Washington and the founding fathers of the American colonies to rebel against their British oppressors: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God."

It was the biblical record of the Exodus that enabled the spirit of optimism to prevail for the followers of Martin Luther King in their quest for equal rights, because they were stirred by the vision of Moses leading his people to the Promised Land. It was the hope engendered by recalling how God redeemed our ancestors that allowed even Jews incarcerated in Auschwitz to furtively celebrate the Festival of Freedom and believe in the possibility of their own liberation.

That optimistic spirit, based on our own miraculous history, is the second great gift we have given to mankind and defines our identity.

The Importance of Faith

A pessimist, it's been said, is someone who has no invisible means of support.

Jewish optimism is rooted in a contrary notion, a firmly held belief that we are blessed with support from above by a caring God. And that faith in a personal God gives us faith in ourselves, in our future and in our ability to help change the world

The God of Sinai didn't say "I am the Lord your God who created the heavens and the earth." Instead, he announced, "I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage." The God of creation could theoretically have forsaken the world once he completed his task. The God of the Exodus made clear He is constantly involved in our history and has a commitment to our survival.

The Passover story conveys that history is not happenstance. It follows a Divine master plan.

Thomas Cahill credits the Jews not only for monotheism but for this additional groundbreaking idea of a Divine being with Whom we share a personal relationship. This, he points out, is key to Western civilization’s concept of personal accountability, conscience and culpability for ourselves and the rest of the world.

The Passover story conveys that history is not happenstance. It follows a Divine master plan. It has a predestined order. “Order” in Hebrew is “Seder” – and that is why the major ritual of Passover is identified by that name. Coincidence is not a Jewish concept. Coincidence is just God's way of choosing to remain anonymous.

Faith gives us the certainty that whatever our present-day problems, history moves in the direction of the final messianic redemption. That is what has always motivated us to believe in progress and to participate in tikkun olam, efforts to improve the world.

The Importance of Family

Passover taught us yet another major truth: the way to perfect the world is to begin with our own families.

God built his nation by commanding not a collective gathering of hundreds of thousands in a public square but by asking Jews to turn their homes into places of family worship at a Seder devoted primarily to answering the questions of children.

It seems all too obvious. Children are our future. They are the ones who most require our attention. The home is where we first form our identities and discover our values.

More even than the synagogue, it is in our homes that we sow the seeds of the future and ensure our continuity. No wonder then that commentators point out the very first letter of the Torah is a bet, the letter whose meaning is house. All of the Torah follows only after we understand the primacy of family.

The world may mock Jewish parents for their over-protectiveness and their child-centered way of life, but they are the ones chiefly responsible for the extraordinary achievements of their progeny.

At the Seder table, the children are encouraged to be the stars and their questions are treated with respect. And that is the first step to developing Jewish genius.

The Importance of Responsibility to Others

One serious question begs to be asked as we celebrate our Divine deliverance from the slavery of Egypt. We thank God for getting us out, but why did God allow us to become victims of such terrible mistreatment in the first place?

A remarkable answer becomes evident in numerous Torah texts. We were slaves in Egypt – and so we have to have empathy for the downtrodden in every generation. We were slaves in Egypt – and so we have to be concerned with the rights of the strangers, the homeless and the impoverished. We experienced oppression – and so we must understand more than anyone else the pain of the oppressed.

The tragedy of our encounter with injustice was in no small measure meant to prepare us to serve throughout all future generations as spokesman for those with whose pain we can personally identify.

The purpose of our suffering was to turn us into a people committed to righting the wrongs of the world, to become partners with God in making the world worthy of final redemption.

We begin the Seder by inviting the hungry and the homeless to join with us. We conclude the Seder by opening the door for Elijah. It is our acceptance of responsibility to others that is the key to hastening the arrival of Messiah.

From earliest childhood every Jew identifies with these five powerful ideas that are at the heart of Passover and its message. And precisely because memory, optimism, faith, family and responsibility have become such vital characteristics of our people, we have been able to achieve far beyond what anyone might have considered possible.



Aish.Com

Israel's Top 10 Surfing Beaches

By Jessica Steinberg

With 186 miles of sandy beaches, and a sea that is virtually free of seaweed and sharks, Israel is a great spot for surfers, say the country's experts. ISRAEL21c picks the top 10 beaches.

Israel has a stretch of sandy beaches extending for about 186 miles, and a sea that is virtually seaweed- and shark-free. While conditions may not be up to scratch for pro surfers, local experts say it's a great spot for beginners and laid-back surfers.

"The water's warm, there are no strange animals and you only have to worry about two weeks of jellyfish in July," says Nir Almog, known to many as the father of Israeli surfing. "We've got soft, weak waves and you can surf absolutely anywhere. You can't find that everywhere in the world."

What's more, there's summer as well as ample winter surfing, thanks to the relatively mild Israeli weather conditions in the country's center, which is where most of the surfing beaches are located. The waves are actually higher during the winter following heavy rainstorms, and that's when the surfing swells show up, Almog tells ISRAEL21c.

During the summer, the water temperature in the Mediterranean can be as high as 28 to 29 degrees Celsius, while the winter waters cool down to some 14 degrees. Wave height also varies, with summer waves ranging from about one and a half, to three feet on medium surfing days, while mornings consistently offer the best swells, with waves "breaking long and perfect," according to Almog. Fall and winter swells can reach from six to 10 feet, which is the time for the more experienced Israeli surfers to hit the waves.

Almog should know. It was his father, Shamai 'Topsi' Kanzapolski, a Tel Aviv lifeguard, who was recruited by Dorian 'Doc' Paskowitz, a California doctor who came to Israel in the 1950s, hoping to create Israeli surfing champions. Paskowitz brought six long boards made partially from balsa wood, each depicting the blue-and-white national flag.

At the time, Israeli lifeguards were catching the waves with the Hasake, a flat, wide board that had initially been used for near-shore fishing by Arab fishermen. Slowly, as the lifeguards and other locals began to use Paskowitz's offerings, a surfing tradition was born, with Almog riding along on his father's board.

At the time, the waves on Tel Aviv's beaches were very high and would break right on the beach due to a lack of piers, creating a fairly dangerous setting for surfing.

Increased development along the beachfront helped to create safer conditions, and now Tel Aviv locals "can stay put on their own shores" for decent surfing, says Almog, who can be found riding the waves when he's not in one of his two Intersurf stores. But there's surfing to be had in all the major beach towns and cities, from Tel Aviv and Herzliya to Haifa, Netanya, Ashkelon and even in Gaza.

1. Hilton beach, Tel Aviv

In Tel Aviv, locals are fond of the two Hilton beaches, named for the hotel that towers above this particular stretch of sand. With two jetties that protect the waves from incoming currents, the beach offers one of the best reef breaks in Israel. The reef can hold swells ranging from one to seven feet and while the waves start off weak, they strengthen closer to shore. The Hilton Bet shore, also known as Topsy, is a break directly north of the Hilton that is similar in makeup to the other Hilton beach, but with a slightly different reef that tends to be less crowded. According to local surfers, the break often performs better in small to medium swell conditions. Former Israeli skateboard champion and surfer Arthur Rashkovan grew up on the Hilton Beach, in what he calls a "mini-California, surfer's paradise."

2. Maravi Beach, Tel Aviv

If you're surfing in Tel Aviv, try the Maravi Beach, which means Western Beach and is in fact the city's southernmost beach, situated between Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Surfers like it during the summer, when there are numerous short boarders, long boarders and body boarders, and, according to a local blog, "everybody is really mellow, no localism to worry about." A structure fashioned of cement and stone poles that juts out of the water forms a manmade reef where waves break left and right, offering even better forms than the beach breaks of Herzliya.

3. Dolphinarium Beach, Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv's Dolphinarium Beach, named for an old dolphin tank that is now used as a nightclub (that was the site of a suicide bombing in 2001), offers reasonably consistent surf during the summer months, but even better conditions in the winter. Also known as the drummers' beach for the drummers, free-style dancers and jugglers who gather there late on Friday afternoons, you can also rent surfing, windsurfing and para-surfing equipment at the water sports club located on this beach. With offshore winds from the southeast, wind swells are more typical than groundswells and there are great waves from the northwest with good surf during all stages of the tide.

4. Zvulun and Dabush beaches, Herzliya

Take a ride over to Herzliya where a selection of beaches offers decent surfing in winter and summer. Almog likes Zvulun and Dabush beaches, which offer good surfing early in the morning when there's a southern wind. Dabush is north of Herzliya's third sea break, while Zvulun is north of Dabush. Zvulun offers slightly longer rides than Dabush with larger waves and a sandy beach. For Almog, the favorite Herzliya beach is south of the Herzliya marina, known as Marina Beach and home to the yacht crowd. As the city's southernmost beach, it sits between the marina and the first of the three Herzliya wave breaks, and the waves that come in are perfect to ride. "It works the best when there are northern winds," says Almog, particularly on early winter mornings, at around five a.m., when all is silent except for the sound of the waves.

5. Kontiki and Sironit beaches, Netanya

Just up the coast a bit are the nine miles of Netanya beaches that don't receive the highest marks from surfer dudes, but have "okay waves for surfing," according to Almog. Look for Kontiki and Sironit beaches which are connected to the piers, offering decent waves. However, since the "sand moves all the time," on this open beach, it's considered a fickle surf spot for many. At the same time, Netanya Beach is a major site for sailing, diving and snorkeling, and there's ample opportunity to paraglide and parachute off the Netanya cliffs.

6. Beit Yannai Beach, Netanya

Just north of Netanya is a beautiful stretch of beaches connected to the Alexander Stream. Home to famed, giant soft-shell turtles, the banks of the stream are adjacent to the shifting sand dunes and a eucalyptus grove. The beach, where the stream meets the Mediterranean, is home to Israeli parachute surfers, where the wooden posts of what was once a pier, stand out against the waves. Local legend has it that the pier was used before the establishment of the state to land illegal immigrants arriving in defiance of British Mandatory restrictions, but Dudi Shani, director of the national park that contains the beach, says the story is untrue. There are always a few surfers in these waters, and it is the first beach in Israel designated exclusively for kite surfing.

7. Shonit, Sdot Yam beaches, Caesaria

Almog doesn't weigh in on surfing in the town of Caesarea, but surf blogger Tzachi Paz has only glowing reviews for his childhood surf spot. Growing up on the beach between Caesarea and Givat Olga, Paz divides the Caesarea strip of beachfront into three major spots. He describes the Shonit Beach as a great beach for surfers, with rocks at a depth of about 328 feet and another point that sometimes creates a deep, long wave that long boarders like to use. Sdot Yam, another well-known beach in the area has great waves during winter storms, creating walls of waves for surfers.

8. Arubot Beach, Caesaria

The best spot for surfing in Caesaria is Arubot Beach, about a quarter of a mile to the south of Shonit. Located next to major wind turbines, surfers ignore the 'Do Not Enter' signs and make their way down to the beach. According to Paz, there's a myth that the waves only work during winter storms - and many surfers flock there during the winter. But it's also great during the summer, when the waves are perfect and there are few other surfers. Paz describes these waves as the types that are "long, open, start out flat and become a step and wall as you approach the beach."

9. Bat Galim beach, Haifa

Farther north brings you to the Haifa Bay, where the Backdoor and Casino surf spots are located on the Bat Galim (Daughter of Waves) Beach on the southern tip of the bay. They're considered to be very good beaches, particularly in the winter when the storms have strong southwest winds offshore. Protected by two jetties, Backdoor is considered Israel's best reef break, as it is covered with moss that feels soft when it rubs against surfing bodies. With a hollow right wave, it has gained the reputation for the best tube-riding wave in the country. A little further down is Casino, an open ocean break that lacks jetties but provides a great long boarding wave. As a 'split peak' - which means that you can ride both lefts and rights, the wave is at least one foot bigger then Backdoor when it's 'firing.'

10. Goote, Delilah beaches, Ashkelon

While Ashkelon has been a surfers' spot for some time, it's a newer beach destination. Goote Beach is the best surf spot in this southern beach town, with jetties around the marina that make the waves smaller, and a break just south of the marina that holds great waves during winter storms. With waves higher the farther south you head in Israel, Herzliya will have knee-high waves while Ashkelon will have waist- to chest-high waves. According to Grant Shilling, writing about surfing for This Magazine, Delilah Beach in Ashkelon, named after the biblical story of Samson and Delilah, said to have taken place on this spot, is another popular surfing beach. But surfing in Ashkelon has been affected by the rockets launched from Gaza, an ironic turn of events given that surfing lingo for catching a big wave is 'riding a bomb.


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Surfing in Israel



Source: Israel21c

Surfing in Israel

By Adina Laufer

Hanging ten on blue and white waves

Winter or summer, Israeli beaches offer just the right conditions for some 'epic' surfing. If you've never surfed in the sea, Israel should be your trial destination.

If you've never surfed in the sea, Israel should be your trial destination. With a 300-kilometer stretch of sandy beaches, and a sea that is virtually seaweed- and shark-free, Israel is a great spot for beginner surfers, say the country's experts.

"The water's warm and you only have to worry about a couple of weeks of jellyfish in July," says Nir Almog, a member of Israel's founding surfing family. "We've got soft, weak waves and you can surf absolutely anywhere. You can't find that everywhere in the world." Almog's father, Tel Aviv lifeguard Shamai "Topsi" Kanzapolski, was recruited by Dorian Paskowitz, a California doctor who came to Israel in the 1950s and wanted to create Israeli surfing champions. Paskowitz brought six long boards made partially of balsa wood, each depicting the blue-and-white Israeli flag. At that time, lifeguards were catching the waves with the Hasake, a flat, wide board that had initially been used for near-shore fishing by Arab fishermen. The lifeguards and other locals began using Paskowitz's boards, and slowly a surfing tradition began, with Almog junior riding along with his father.

The Tel Aviv waves were very high in those days, and would break right on the beach due to a lack of piers, creating a fairly dangerous setting for surfing. Subsequent property development along the beachfront helped to create safer conditions, and now Tel Aviv locals can easily stay put for decent surfing, says Almog, who tends to surf along his city's shores. Beyond Tel Aviv, there's surfing to be had in all the major beach towns and cities, from Herzliya to Haifa, Netanya, Ashkelon and even Gaza.

Surf the water, not the Net

What's more, Israel also offers year round surfing, given the relatively mild Israeli winter conditions in the country's center, where many of the surfing beaches are located. During the infrequent heavy winter rainstorms, the sea's waves are higher and that's when the surfing swells and local surfing stars show up, says Orian Kanzapolski, Topsi's youngest son. He's also a surfer and owner of Topsea, a Tel Aviv surfing school quirkily named after his father.

The water temperature in the Mediterranean varies from winter to summer. During the hot summers, temperatures can rise as high as 82 to 84 degrees Fahrenheit (28 to 29 Celsius), while the winter waters cool down to some 57 degrees (14 Celsius). Wave heights also vary, with summer waves ranging from about one and a half to three feet (0.5-1 meters) on medium surfing days, and early mornings consistently offering the best swells, with waves "breaking long and perfect," in Almog's words. Fall and winter swells can reach from six to 10 feet (2-3 meters), which is the time for the more experienced Israeli surfers to hit the waves.

"When I was a kid, we had to convince parents to bring their kids to learn how to surf," Orian recalls. "Now it's the opposite. Moms are trying to convince their kids to surf the water instead of the Internet. It's more mainstream."

With its long sandy beaches, shark-free seas, and great surf, Israel is becoming an increasingly popular surfing destination (Photo courtesy www.goisrael.com)

Surfing in Israel has become more popular because of these welcoming conditions, says Orian, explaining that given the relatively mild waves, Israeli waves are especially suitable for beginners. As more people have become interested in the sport, the number of surfing schools has grown, particularly during summer and winter vacations, when they offer special courses for kids and their parents. The Kanzapolski brothers estimate that there are some 30,000 surfers in Israel, about 20 surf shops and about two dozen surf schools.

No surfing stars, yet

Both Almog and his younger sibling helped to found the fledgling industry, after following in their father's footsteps, mastering the Tel Aviv waves and creating businesses built around the seaside sport. Their father first began making surfboards in a small shack on the Hilton beach in Tel Aviv that doubled as his makeshift store. The business and the sport received a boost when an army sergeant and fellow surfer told Topsi about a new material being used by the army, called polyurethane, which would be easier to mold and use than wood in surfboard production. It was the early 1970s, and Topsi began using polyurethane for the surfboards that he made, sold and rented to local kids. When Almog finished his army service, he apprenticed at a boat shop, learning how to work with fiberglass, and eventually opened Intersurf, his company that manufactures and sells surfboards in Israel. His younger brother, Orian, went in a different direction, opening a surfing school in Tel Aviv. What unites all the local surfing enthusiasts is their thrall and love for the still recreational sport of surfing. "There are some very good surfers in Israel but they don't surf for prizes," says Kanzapolski. "They love surfing as a sport, and they love the water."

For now, there's little money in Israel for surfing as a sport, and both Kanzapolski and Almog say it's a recreational experience, in which learning is encouraged and newcomers are welcome. While there are some local celebrities, such as Adi Gluska, who trains on the O'Neill Europe junior team and Gili Zilka, another well-known local surfer, there aren't yet any career surfers and scant media attention is paid to the sport.

What is changing is the number of people falling in love with surfing and wanting to learn how to surf up and down Israel's coast during all seasons. Almog notes that while many people try the sport once or twice, only a small number stick with it. Living near the sea is one necessity and even when one does, the water doesn't always oblige.

Scouting out the best waves

Still, surfing is considered a "cool" sport and with the combination of the popularity of the clothing, increasingly attractive surfboards and the freestyle surfing spirit, demand has grown. More surfing schools are opening and a "surfing scene" is emerging, with more people buying surf-style clothing or heading to the beach on the weekend to watch the fledgling surfers, if not to surf themselves. Most important to surfers is determining which beaches offer the best waves.

In Tel Aviv proper, locals like Orian and Nir Almog prefer the two Hilton beaches, named for the hotel towering above that particular stretch of sand. With two jetties that protect the waves from incoming currents, the beach offers one of the best reef breaks in Israel, holding swells ranging from one to seven feet that become stronger closer to shore. The Hilton Bet shore, also known as Topsy in honor of Israel's first surfer, is a break that is similar to the one on the other Hilton beach, but with a slightly different reef that tends to be less crowded. According to local surfers, the break often performs better in small to medium swell conditions. At the southern end of the Tel Aviv beach is the Dolphinarium Beach, named for an old dolphin tank now used as a nightclub. It offers decent surfing conditions during the summer months and even better conditions during the winter. Known also as the "Drummers Beach" because drummers, free-style dancers and jugglers tend to congregate there late on Friday afternoons, this beach offers great waves from the northwest with good surfing during all stages of the tide.

Almog favors Herzliya's Zvulun and Dabush beaches in both summer and winter, that offer good surfing conditions early in the morning when there's a southern wind blowing. His especially likes Marina Beach, just south of the Herzliya marina, which is also home to the yachting crowd. As Herzliya's southernmost beach, it sits between the marina and the first of the three Herzliya wave breakers, creating very ridable waves. "It works the best when there are northern winds," says Almog, and particularly during the dark, early mornings in winter, around five o'clock for 'dawn patrol,' when all is silent except for the surfers riding the crashing waves.

Literally "riding a bomb"

Up the coast from Herzliya are the eight miles of Netanya beaches that generally don't receive the highest of marks from the surfer dudes, but are considered "okay for surfing," says Almog. The Kontiki and Sironit beaches are an open stretch of beach in which the sand moves all the time, making it a more fickle surf spot. At the same time, Netanya Beach is a major site for sailing, diving and snorkeling, and there's plenty of space to paraglide and parachute off the Netanya cliffs.

The Caesarea strip of beachfront is divided into three major spots, including the Shonit, Sdot Yam and Arubot beaches. Orian Kanzapolski's favorite spot is Arubot, located near some major wind turbines, where surfers ignore the Do Not Enter signs and make their way down to the beach for some of the best Israeli surfing.

Farther north brings surfers to Haifa Bay, where the popular Backdoor and Casino surf spots are located on the Bat Galim (Hebrew for "Daughter of Waves") beach on the southern tip of the bay. They're considered excellent surfing beaches, particularly during the winter when storms create strong southwest winds offshore. Protected by two jetties, Backdoor has a moss-covered reef break that makes it a soft landing for surfing bodies. And with a hollow right wave, it has gained the reputation as the best tube-riding wave in the country.

At the other end of the coastline, Ashkelon has always been a surfers' spot for its locals, but is a newer beach destination for the rest of the country. Goote Beach is considered the best surf spot in this southern beach town, with jetties around the marina that make the waves smaller, and a break just south of the marina that holds great waves during rare winter storms. Surfing in Ashkelon has been affected in recent years by rockets launched from Gaza, an ironic turn of events given that surfing lingo for catching a big wave is called "riding a bomb."

Finally, there are the waves of Gaza, which has some 50 or 60 surfers compared with the 30,000 in Israel. The previously mentioned Doc Paskowitz, along with his sons David, Josh, and Jonathan, headed for the Gaza border a few years back to deliver some surfboards. Now Explore Corps and Surfing4Peace have sent surfboards and wetsuits to the 20 or so Palestinian wave riders. The Gaza Surf Club is situated on the beach at Sheikh Khazdein, a beachfront neighborhood in southern Gaza City, which is the place where surfers hang out on Friday afternoons in the Gaza Strip.

And so, north or south, winter or summer, there are almost always some waves to ride in Israel. They're not always "crackin'," but are fairly "epic," according to reliable surfing sources, who promise that it is definitely possible to "hang ten" on a surfboard on blue and white waves.

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Your Israel Experience

Israel’s Top 10 Extreme Sports

Israel offers thrill-seekers everything from surfing and spelunking to paragliding and parkour, in some of the world’s most spectacular scenery. ISRAEL21c takes a look at the top 10.

Extreme sports – the popular term for a slew of inherently dangerous, sometimes counter-cultural activities – are disproportionately popular in Israel. Israelis love a challenge, and a bit of danger added to the mix is just perfect for thrill-seekers across the country.

“This combination of adrenaline and nature is far more suitable to the Israeli mindset than any high-tech amusement park,” says Moshe Meyers, CEO of Israel Extreme, a company specializing in off-the-beaten-track tourism.

“This tiny country has so many natural sites for every type of extreme sport. We have some of the most beautiful and challenging sites in the world. I don’t know any other country with so many participants,” Meyers tells ISRAEL21c.

Fortunately, this small land has natural settings suitable for every type of extreme sport, from remote desert canyons to snow-capped peaks. And with such a keen local audience already paving the way, tourists from abroad are also rapidly discovering that the country is a great go-to destination for the thrill of their lives.

Our picks for Israel’s 10 most challenging extreme sports:

1. Down below

Beyond the obvious airborne, waterborne or ground level sports, going underground is a rapidly developing extreme option in Israel.

“Caving is possibly the most dangerous challenge sport there is,” says Sergey Shipitsin, one of Israel’s most accomplished speleologists (a scientific specialist in caves). “It’s also one of the few activities where you can still go where no one has gone before.”

Shipitsin, 43, tells ISRAEL21c that “Israel is a dream country for the cave explorer,” ranking among spelunkers’ top 10 countries. Israel has four main caving areas: the Jerusalem Hills, Mount Sodom (unique in the world), the Upper Galilee and the Hebron Hills in the West Bank.

Mount Sodom – basically a block of salt rising 230 meters above the Dead Sea – is pierced by labyrinth caverns and tunnels formed by rainwater, including the world’s biggest salt caves. If you know where to look, the Jerusalem Hills have thousands of caves, many of them eminently explorable.

Caving (known as potholing in the UK), which includes climbing, hiking and rappelling, is not an activity to be attempted alone, or without the proper equipment and preparation.

In 2004, Shipitsin and some fellow cavers set up Sarma, a non-profit organization dedicated to cave exploration and rescue, which now has some 3,000 members.

“Israel has many people experienced in both cave exploration and rappelling. We organize challenge trips underground and training courses. You don’t have to be particularly fit – we had children aged seven and a 74-year-old in last weekend’s tour,” he says.

2. Into the abyss

Rappelling – the controlled descent down a rope known as “abseiling” in British English and “snappling” in Hebrew – against the cliffs of the Ramon crater in the Negev, or down wadis in the Judean Desert, produces an unbelievable adrenaline rush.

Israel is blessed with some tremendous rappelling sites, not all of them in the desert. Try Khirbet Oren on Mount Carmel, where the stone wall rises from the valley almost vertically; the Kesh on the border with Lebanon; the prehistoric Pigeons Caves near Karmiel; or the notoriously challenging Black Canyon trail in the Golan Heights, which involves traversing rushing water and hiking through a unique nature reserve.

For training, we counted 12 rock-climbing walls in Ashdod, Haifa, Jerusalem, Kibbutz Ha’Ogen, Kiryat-Ono, Kfar Blum, Petah Tikvah, Ramat Yishai and Tel Aviv.

3. Jump out of a plane

“Anyone who doesn’t parachute once in his or her life is missing out,” says Ziv Kochva, a parachuting guide at the Paradive jump school near Habonim Beach opposite the Carmel mountain range. Paradive is Israel’s largest jump school.

“Parachuting is an empowering experience – a tremendous feeling of freedom. Fear that turns into elation: Nothing can be compared with it,” says Kochva.

Israel has its own skydiving fraternity, many of them graduates of paratroop units or the Israel Defense Forces’ jump school at Tel Nof. Civilian skydivers must take a course and get at least 10 jumps under their belt before being allowed up to 12,000 feet. But the beauty of parachuting is that you don’t need to take a test – anyone can experience it through tandem jumps, harnessed to a guide.

Free-falling is for the particularly strong of heart. “It can be the greatest experience of a lifetime,” Kochva exclaims. “You drop for 50 seconds at 200 kph, then spend five to seven minutes floating down in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s a closed area – a nature reserve and the only part of the Mediterranean coastline closed to flights.”

Since opening a decade ago, Paradive has conducted more than 300,000 jumps. Parachuting is definitely not a cheap thrill, yet “all sorts of people – from 12-year-olds to some in their 70s, and not necessarily former paratroopers,” take to the air, says Kochva. “Often they come as a birthday present – it’s a present they never forget.”

4. Fly like a bird

“Anyone who doesn’t parachute once in his or her life is missing out,” says Ziv Kochva, a parachuting guide at the Paradive jump school near Habonim Beach opposite the Carmel mountain range. Paradive is Israel’s largest jump school.

“Parachuting is an empowering experience – a tremendous feeling of freedom. Fear that turns into elation: Nothing can be compared with it,” says Kochva.

Israel has its own skydiving fraternity, many of them graduates of paratroop units or the Israel Defense Forces’ jump school at Tel Nof. Civilian skydivers must take a course and get at least 10 jumps under their belt before being allowed up to 12,000 feet. But the beauty of parachuting is that you don’t need to take a test – anyone can experience it through tandem jumps, harnessed to a guide.

Free-falling is for the particularly strong of heart. “It can be the greatest experience of a lifetime,” Kochva exclaims. “You drop for 50 seconds at 200 kph, then spend five to seven minutes floating down in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s a closed area – a nature reserve and the only part of the Mediterranean coastline closed to flights.”

Since opening a decade ago, Paradive has conducted more than 300,000 jumps. Parachuting is definitely not a cheap thrill, yet “all sorts of people – from 12-year-olds to some in their 70s, and not necessarily former paratroopers,” take to the air, says Kochva. “Often they come as a birthday present – it’s a present they never forget.”

5. Bicycle country

Mountain biking has become incredibly popular in Israel in the past decade – as has urban bicycling. The country has dozens of biking clubs boasting thousands of members, and as diverse a set of biking trails as you’ll find anywhere in the world.

Myriad routes wind through some of the most distinct terrain, traversing dried-up desert wadis, wind-swept hilltops, lush vegetation and even snow. Downhill enthusiasts will love the Hermon Mountain, while the arid south of the country offers yellow-tinted vistas and the silence of the desert. Riding through the Negev by moonlight is particularly recommended as a unique experience.

6. Just enough for the city

Urban anarchists take to parkour, also known as freerunning — the non-competitive, utilitarian discipline of French origin in which participants use only their bodies’ natural abilities to negotiate a route lined with obstacles. City teenagers, in particular, can increasingly be spotted bounding, climbing, vaulting, rolling and swinging through their local concrete jungle. Sometimes they can even be spotted leaping from one rooftop to the next. But be warned – a few have already been injured and the police are on the lookout for participants.





7. Thrills on wheels

You don’t see the same numbers of skateboarders tearing up Israeli streets that you do in North American cities, but skateboarding is alive and kicking in this corner of the Middle East. Israeli cities have many new marble-lined plazas that come alive after office hours. And unlike in other countries, skateboarding is not a crime in Israel and there is no police harassment of skaters.

The Sporteque in Tel Aviv is the best and biggest park in the country with a vert, a mini-ramp, a mini-vert, four quarters, three fun boxes, four banks, two rails, a pyramid and a pro shop selling all the required paraphernalia. Head for Golda Park in central Tel Aviv for the country’s best unofficial skate spot.

Jerusalem boasts a newly rebuilt concrete skate park at Gan Sacher, adjacent to the Supreme Court, while skaters also hang out at Safra Square, next to City Hall. Crazy Roller in Herzliya has a mini-half pipe and a 3.4 meter high vert, and there are also skate parks in Ra’anana, Katzrin and Shoham.

8. Above the metropolis

Here’s a challenge for you: Running up to the top of Israel’s highest skyscraper, the Azrieli Tower in Tel Aviv. It started as a wager between a few local nutcases, and has since developed into every wannabe hunk’s rite of passage. The super-fittest can make it up the 1,144 stairs and 54 floors in seven minutes.

9. Surfing safari

When the waves are high, thousands of surfers and windsurfers flock to the Mediterranean waters all along Israel’s coastline, which is dotted with surf schools. It’s not Hawaii, but the sea often throws up sufficient swell and the shallow, sandy beaches are ideal places to learn how to surf all year round.

The country has produced some fine surfers, including Israel’s first Olympic gold medalist in windsurfing, Gal Fridman. In fact, Israel is a major force in this sport, and has hosted international windsurfing championships. Surfing in Israel began in the 1950s when a young Californian, Dorian Paskowitz immigrated to Israel with six long boards and introduced the sport to Tel Aviv. Today surf schools dot the country’s coastline,

10. Most incongruous sport in the Middle East

The highest point in Israel, Mount Hermon, hosts Israel’s only ski slope, with three chairlifts and a wide range of ski trails at novice, intermediate and expert levels. But be warned: Not all Israelis are expert skiers even if they think they are, and accidents abound. More family-oriented activities at the ski slope include sledding and Nordic skiing.


Israel21c