Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund

My apologies to those of you who have wondered why I haven’t been blogging recently. I’ve been writing my second book and most of my creative energies and much of my time have been going into that!

Lots happening in Israel as always. As we’ve discussed previously, the Israeli government, under heavy pressure from the Obama Administration, agreed to a misguided temporary (ten month) freeze on Jewish building of homes in Samaria. Thank G-d, it hasn’t yet  affected our children’s projects. In fact, we are continuing to have a great impact on the ground in the lives of the children, and the demand for our services is growing all the time. Our successful projects, which are supported by our friends around the world, are actually making the demand for a rapid end to the building freeze even greater!

With Blessings and Shalom from Shiloh,

David Rubin

I often try to find the delicate balance between my current events commentaries and my reports about the latest  happenings with our children’s projects. As the saying goes, there is never a dull moment in Israel. Yet, despite the fact that people enjoy reading my news updates,  sometimes my urge to comment on the latest news reports takes over. It often takes a gentle reminder from a friend/supporter to blog about what’s new with the children (so thank you Michelle!).  Feedback from the readers, whether through comments on-site or off, is always welcome.

The Music Therapy program is literally bursting at the seams! While I would be very happy if the need for this program would disappear, the recent increase in terror shooting attacks on the roads, as seen in the recent murder of a kindergarten teacher, a father of seven children, has only increased the demand for our services, and the therapy with music program is one of the most popular. We have close to one hundred children being treated in that program alone in the course of a month, which has necessitated the evacuation of a storage room to enable the creation of a second Music Therapy Room in the Center, so we can have simultaneous music treatments in two separate rooms designed specifically for music. This of course will increase our equipment and infrastructure needs, as we will need to duplicate most of the instruments, as well as acoustically insulating the rooms so they won’t disturb the treatments in the other rooms. This will require the partnership of our beloved friends and supporters and, as always, a little help from above, but we will get there!

Here in Israel, we celebrate our New Year on Rosh HaShanah, which usually falls in September. Obviously, most of the Western world celebrates New Year’s Day on January 1st, and therefore, I want to wish all of you a happy, a healthy, and a spiritually uplifting year!

David Rubin

Shiloh, Israel

The Israeli Cabinet decided tonight to support Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s call for a ten-month building freeze in Judea and Samaria. This pusillanimous move by a weak leader under pressure is a blatant capitulation to the evil, implicit demand of American President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton that Israel surrender its Biblical heartland to the hostile Muslim terrorists. This is a surrender in the spirit of the notorious Neville Chamberlain whose capitulation to the dictates of Adolf Hitler were the beginning of the end for European Jewry.

Netanyahu, whose Likud party was  elected with (unfortunately) strong support from the  Israeli communities in the liberated territories (reestablished after the miraculous Six Day War of 1967), has now officially betrayed those pioneers in the Biblical heartland by freezing all building, including building needed for natural growth. His fellow Likud cohorts have proven to be men and women lacking in principles as well, as they backed this immoral and discriminatory policy, which officially halts all Jewish building while allowing and even encouraging Arab Muslims to expand and grow their cities and towns with the blessings of Obama, Clinton, and George Mitchell. 

But we can’t just blame the Obama Administration or even Netanyahu and his Likud party. Every resident of Judea or Samaria (and those who identify with us) who voted Likud or Yisrael Beitenu had better do some serious self-reckoning. This evil decree was indirectly created by those foolish voters who voted Likud or Yisrael Beitenu rather than for the (Land of Israel faithful) National Union, thinking that by voting Likud, they would somehow have influence over the Likud government’s policy.

We are today reaping the rotten fruit of that misguided thinking.

David Rubin

Shiloh, Israel

Today’s top headline: US President Barack Obama has been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Please forgive my cynicism, but aside from pandering to the Muslim world, bowing to the Saudi king, scheming to prevent Israeli families from having babies in Samaria, Judea, and Jerusalem, and appeasing the world’s most notorious dictators, it’s hard to know what Obama’s foreign policy accomplishments are.

I am so impressed with the choice of the Nobel committee that I would like to already send in my suggestions for next year!

I would like to hereby nominate several highly worthy candidates for next year’s Nobel Peace Prize:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Caesar Chavez of Venezuela, Fidel Castro of Cuba, and last but not least, Hassan Nasrallah of Hizbullah - As is well known, these are all men of peace, proponents of non-violence and moderation, and according to Obama,  leaders  who can be reasoned with, if we would only show more understanding for their needs and concerns.

May the best man win!

David Rubin

Shiloh, Israel

Two attacks in one week. Last week, resident Yair Hirsch, a manager at the local olive oil factory and a father of several young children, was wounded in a terror shooting ambush while driving on one of the internal roads on the eastern side of Shiloh. Just one week later, a teenage girl was wounded when young Muslim terrorists threw rocks at her parents’ car as they were driving to the supermarket. These events received hardly a mention in the ”mainstream” media with its unspoken agenda to minimize the appearance of suffering amongst the Jewish residents of Samaria and Judea. The false image of “quiet” on the roads of the so-called West Bank, in actuality the Biblical heartland of Israel, is just that, an illusion.

Despite the distressing news, let us be very clear about where we are going! As we speak, two housing projects are underway in Shiloh and a new school complex to house a new school building is under construction to meet the needs of our growing young population. The Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund will be there to meet the needs of all the children, whose lives the Muslim terrorists would like to destroy. As much as they try to create hell for the children of Israel,  we will do everything we can (with the necessary help from our supporters), both to restore the lost innocence of childhood for these children and to rebuild the Biblical heartland of Israel.

“…they rebuilt the cities and they settled in them.” (The Book of Judges 21:23)

David Rubin

Shiloh, Israel

On a tragic night several years ago, a young married woman named Rachel, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, and the mother of a little girl, lost her husband in a horrible crash on the roads near Shiloh. For a couple of years, it seemed as if she was in a state of emotional collapse. She couldn’t handle both her own pain and that of her daughter. I remember meeting her one day in Jerusalem and listening to her trembling voice describing her efforts to find a good psychotherapy program for her young child. I told her about the subsidies that Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund was offering for our various play therapy programs in Shiloh and I am convinced that that very moment was the beginning of their recovery from trauma. I am happy to report, and Rachel has said it herself many times, that our therapy programs were a life-saver for Rachel’s daughter.

Tonight was Rachel’s wedding at Tel Shiloh, the site of Ancient Shiloh, the place where the Tabernacle stood for 369 years in Biblical times. It is also Shiloh to where the men of the tribe of Benjamin came in the summer to find wives from the young maidens of Shiloh who were dancing in the vineyards in their white dresses (Book of Judges 21:19-22).  So too in our times, Rachel’s young groom found his wife in Shiloh and there was singing and dancing in the vineyards once again.

Congratulations to Rachel, to her daughter, and of course, to Rachel’s new husband. Mazal Tov to them and to all those who have the privilege of turning trauma into miracles in our times!

David Rubin

Shiloh, Israel

Eleven months ago, I blogged on this site about the new American President Barack Obama, whose charisma, smooth talk, and minority status captivated Jews across America. Polls reported that the first-term senator was elected with 78% of the Jewish vote. During Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s trip to the White House back in March, he referred to Obama in the concluding press conference as “a great friend of Israel”. On the other hand, a recent Smith Poll taken in Israel revealed that only a miniscule 6% of Israelis consider President Obama to be “Pro-Israel”.

How are we to understand all this? Which perception is correct and which is wishful thinking? In my blog, written well before the Inauguration, I chose to give the new President the benefit of the doubt. I decided to hope that he might transcend his Muslim roots, reach out to Israel and stand with freedom and liberty, as an expression of America’s Biblical roots. This despite the ominous warning signs that were manifest in Obama’s close associations with violent leftists and haters of America. These included former but unrepentant terrorist William Ayres, or Obama’s Israel and America-hating pastor Jeremiah Wright, who the new president had often referred to as his “mentor”, and his extreme “Palestinian”  pal Prof. Rashid Khalidi. These relationships were all close until it proved politically necessary to deny them. I saw all of this and was very wary, but since his election, it has become even clearer that the warning signs were real and that President Barack Hussein Obama is no friend of Israel, but is in fact a veiled leftist Muslim enemy who is trying to achieve friendship with the Muslim dictatorships at Israel’s expense. 

Since Obama’s term in office began, his words and actions have become more extreme.  Even his slick computer-savy media advisors can’t hide his infamous and degrading bow in deference to the Saudi King, nor can they put a convincing, positive spin on his obviously pro-Muslim speech in Cairo. Furthermore, his advisors’ photo release of his “chat” with Netanyahu with the soles of his shoes pointed at the Israeli leader’s face was a clear display of insult known well in the Muslim world (note the “old shoe attack” on former President Bush). We see that President Obama is,  unfortunately, both an “Obamination” for Israel and a threat to world peace, as his perceived weakness in confronting the terrorists and his coolness towards Israel, will no doubt be exploited by the world alliance of  terrorist organizations.

 So how do we explain Netanyahu’s praise for the “great friend of Israel”? Whether or not he believes what he said, he is simply pandering to the leader of what is still the most powerful nation in the world, but such pusillanimous behavior is never respected nor rewarded. Let us state this as clearly as we possibly can - Netanyahu and Israel need not fear.  Obama’s views and opinions are not the views and opinions of the average American, many of whom believe that God’s promises to Israel are forever. The God of Israel is much greater than the great Obama.

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will continue to speak the name of the Lord our God.” (Psalms 20:7)

That is the best answer to Obama and his deceitful plans for “peace”, for any “peace plan” that isn’t based on Biblical history and historical fact has no chance of succeeding.

David Rubin

Shiloh, Israel

I grew up in the United States, where both Mother’s and Father’s Day are important holidays. Now an observant Jew living in Israel, I often reflect on the importance of those days, but not just once a year. The Ten Commandments that were given to Moses and the Israelites on Mount Sinai well over 3,000 years ago featured a commandment to “Honor your father and your mother”. Half of the Ten Commandments are considered to be commandments between people and people, while the other five are between people and G-d. Interestingly, the commandment to honor one’s parents is listed as being between people and G-d, in order to emphasize the crucial role that one’s parents play in this world. One of my professors in Teachers Colllege at Columbia University once aptly referred to education as “the responsibility of parents that is shared with the schools”. Likewise, the Torah clearly was teaching about the central and primary role of parents in the education of their children. We parents don’t own our children, but they are expected to honor us, and we have the responsibility and privilege of raising them up to be honorable and moral adults.

Which brings me to Ruby Rubin. These days when I speak or write about Ruby Rubin, I am almost invariably speaking or writing about my now ten year old son, who was wounded with me in a terror shooting attack in Israel seven years ago. From the trauma of that attack emerged the Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund, my non-profit organization to help Israeli children, which was and is my response to the terrorists.

Yet there was another Ruby Rubin who was central in my life, and that was my father of blessed memory, who returned his soul to his Creator over twenty years ago. He lived a life that was dedicated to children, not just his own, but many thousands of others. As a dedicated teacher in Brooklyn, NY for some 30 years, he taught with a gentleness and patience that I often admired, especially in my many years of teaching, many years later. He taught in one public school, educating children of all races and religions in the era of deteriorating neighborhoods and high crime in Brooklyn. He was mugged at gunpoint while supervising his school’s lunchroom, but he refused to stop teaching there after the mugging. 

Ruby also ran a summer camp for children in a large bungalow colony in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. Through the years, he always had a vision of what he wanted to accomplish in that camp, always keeping in mind both the short-term and long-term needs of the children who were entrusted in his care for those crucial two months of the year. Often it was sports activities, or a very comprehensive “color war”, which taught the values of creativity and cooperation combined with intense competition. Then there were the activities of a more spiritual realm —- getting in touch with nature through hikes and camping out, or trying to gently inspire the children with Jewish tradition with a Sabbath evening service, to the extent that he thought they could handle it and to the extent that he sensed that their parents would desire it.

Although I am sure that I inherited my father’s love for children and his passion for educating the next generations of children, the one thing that stands out foremost in my mind about him is the constant sense of optimism and idealism which was the prism through which he viewed life.

Those were the values that he hopefully succeeded in passing along to the thousands of children whose lives he touched, and I am honored to have been touched by him as well. Happy Father’s Day to all!

David Rubin

Shiloh, Israel

It is a rare politician that manages to transcend the maxim that “politics is the art of the possible” and advances from politician to visionary. Prime Minister Netanyahu may or may not have failed that test in his Bar Ilan University response speech to President Obama’s pro-Muslim speech at Cairo University.

Obama had implied in his infamous praise of Islam and criticism of Israel speech, that Israel was formed as a response to the Holocaust in Europe, thus supporting the Muslim canard that Israel was created at their expense to atone for European guilt. Netanyahu adequately responded to this, by giving a history lesson about our ties to the Land of Israel. He also spoke positively about the pioneers who are struggling against all odds to build up the Biblical heartland of Israel, although I wasn’t pleased that he spoke against the expansion of west bank settlements (communities in Samaria and Judea). Such a policy is inherently unfair, as it ignores the rampant illegal expansion of Arab towns. and should never be based on foreign pressure against Israel.

The main problem as I see it, is that no one will remember the proud history lesson nor the nice words about the “settlers”, but they will remember and repeatedly quote that Netanyahu finally agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Sure, he placed several conditions on its creation, such as the recognition of Israel as a Jewish State and Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital city. These conditions might make the plan’s acceptance by the Arab world a non-starter. With G-d’s help, they will refuse this peace plan as they’ve refused all the others that fall short of guaranteeing Israel’s destruction.

Even so, calling for such a state is dangerous, not only because of the precedent that it sets, but because it is morally and historically wrong to say that such a state deserves to come into existence. Even if the Muslim Arabs of the Land of Israel are considered to be a people, they certainly have no historical roots as a nation in this Land that G-d gave to His chosen nation Israel. Furthermore, to promise them a state is to reward the fathers of terrorism, while not stopping the inevitable pressure on Israel from Obama and his cohorts to compromise on these statedly firm conditions.

To be a visionary is to not be afraid to be morally right even if it hurts your international popularity. Netanyahu may yet surprise us by standing firmly behind his conditions, and if he does, there will be no surrender of our Biblical heartland because the Arabs are extremely unlikely to accept his conditions. In that case, his speech will be praised as a brilliant move in the chessboard of international diplomacy. If not, he will go down in history as just another spineless Israeli politician who failed the true test of a visionary — which is not collapsing one’s principles due to pressure and at the same time seizing the opportunity to speak truth to power.

David Rubin

Shiloh, Israel

The pressure is on. But the essence of that pressure has changed. Rather than just calling for a two-state solution (translation: another Muslim terror state, this time in the historic heartland of Israel), We are now being told by Obama’s surrogates, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden, that we need to stop all “natural growth”. As I asked on a recent CBN news report (see link below), what exactly is being implied here? Are they suggesting that we not provide our children with homes to live in? Are they demanding that we stop having children? While not (yet) explicitly stating that, the demand reminds me of Hitler’s infamous Nuremburg Laws, in which he regulated the sexual behavior of German citizens, both Jewish and Gentile. In this case, the American administration is only speaking about the Jewish residents of Samaria and Judea (the so-called West Bank), so I guess it can’t be racist, since it passes the Left’s litmus test of political “correctness”. According to the arrogance of politically correctness, a policy can’t be racist if it fits a particular extreme left-wing ideology, which in this case jibes with radical Islamic ideology.

Let it be said clearly for the political leaders of the world to hear: We will continue our natural growth in the Biblical Heartland of Israel. We will continue to have many children, we will continue to build homes and schools for them, and we will continue to build therapy programs for the terror victims who need our help because of the Muslim Arab terrorism. But if you side with those terrorists in attempting to stop our natural growth, you will be going against a historic, Divinely-ordained  process that is much greater than you.

“The smallest will increase a thousandfold, and the youngest into a mighty nation. I am G-d, in its time, I will hasten it.” (Isaiah 60:22)

David Rubin

Shiloh, Israel

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2009/May/Obama-Calls-for-Halt-of-Jewish-Settlements/