Thursday 30 April 2009

The millionaire and the cabbie

I can’t think about anything pithy today, sorry. A few short weeks after Roy, now this. Roy Collins, nobody ever heard of him. Oh sure, you’ll find plenty on Google, but then it’s a common name. This Roy was one of the four of us mates back in the 60’s, Tony, Tony, Roy and me. He married Sharon, gave up his market job and took to the life of a cabbie (not necessarily in that order). Well, he always did love cars. Nahum Sharfman. Whenever you find that name on Google you know it’s the same one. Started up famous names like www.shopping.com, www.commtouch.com and a slew of lesser known companies. A very different kind of guy. Roy was 62, Nahum 61. And they both wore jeans. With Roy I spent untold hours in my youth, Nahum I only met once, for a couple of hours, about six months ago. I worked for him for four years though, on the phone and email sometimes repeatedly throughout the day. They both had a natural easy going humility and you’d never guess the millions that separated them. One a nuclear physicist, the other a cabbie. They both had very different belief systems and lifestyles from mine but that didn’t get in the way either. Sharon wasn’t well. Roy, fresh from a complete medical with clean results, took her off to Spain for a break and one day he didn’t wake up. Best way to go you might say, although Sharon and Gemma may disagree. Nahum also took his wife for a break. For him this meant a private plane. They had some difficulties and landed but took off again shortly afterwards. Over Corfu they came down for their final descent. I miss you both.

Tuesday 28 April 2009

Independence Day Ramblings On the way to the office today my mind wandered to a quote in the rear window of my aging jalopy from the Book of Peter, the Book of Paul and yeah, the Book of Mary. This Land is Our Land. Zo Artzenu. And it occurred to me that, indeed, they verily did Overcome, presumably becoming multo richo in the process. And so, undoubtedly, shall we (overcome, that is). But would they and their friends recognise our right to do so? Even though one of them is Jewish? It was no less than Martin Luther King who said, "Anti-Zionism is inherently anti-Semitic, and ever will be. What is anti-Zionism? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the globe. It is discrimination against Jews... because they are Jews. In short, it is anti-Semitism." (http://lady-light.blogspot.com/2009/01/anti-semitism-martin-luther-king-and.html) The late Mr King did not of course remain with us to see how Israel at 61 has become everybody’s excuse to hate the Jew (and by extension, the religious Christian too). From his speeches it seems clear that he knew his end was not far off. But I like to think that he at least would have remained true to his beliefs, although I fear he may well ultimately have been sidelined by history, which is of course whatever the media of the day wishes to make of it. I am reminded of that disastrous emperor whom we were taught, fiddled while Rome burned. Does anyone really know much about Nero? Well, he converted to Judaism when the media was pagan (that much hasn’t changed). And became persona non grata forever. Independence Day. Yom HaAtzma’ut (or, as the wife’s aunt used to say, Yom HaAtzbanut, which I shan’t translate). It hasn’t somehow been quite the same these past few years. Perhaps we’ll have to put a little more effort into it next time. Pinhas

Monday 27 April 2009

I was forwarded this link (edited) from "Voices" this morning: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/131032 The story talks about the Vatican's plans to take over more of Har ZION, specifically the room they believe was the LAST SUPPER. The Church wants to reenact the MASS (wafer-matza and wine) from the original Pesach service of J__ and become one step closer to the resurrection. The Catholic Church is aiming its sites on Mt. Zion to become the VATICAN EAST. And with LITTLE to NO opposition. (So, we'd have the Church in control of Mt. Zion, chas v'shalom, the Wakf in control of Har HaBayit – not good). In fact, Israel is all for it, because they are desperate for Christian dollars! The reason for the Pope's visit (despite/in addition to what they tell you…peace, good will, etc.) is a CELEBRATION of the handover of land on Mt. Zion to the Catholic Church. I know it's so close. I know we're fighting against tremendous odds, but PLEASE….. Papers are to be signed THURSDAY MORNING, this Thursday morning, chas v'shalom. Your immediate action this moment is needed. If hundreds of faxes are sent immediately, then maybe the government will realize that THE JEWISH PEOPLE DO NOT WANT TO GIVE MT. ZION PROPERTIES to the Catholic Church. A SIMPLE LETTER. Just write. Don't think of genius phrases, just write a few sentences AGAINST handing over land on Mt. Zion to the Vatican. Faxes are better than emails, because they are tangible, but if you can't fax, the email address is below. Email and fax Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon, who will represent Israel at the Thursday meeting. The Director-General of the Foreign Ministry can be emailed at mankal@mfa.gov.il, and the fax number is 02-5303704 (from abroad, replace leading 0 with 972). Please stand up for a Jewish Jerusalem right now. OK so Mr Ayalon seems a decent enough chap, I saw him at a JGS pre election meeting (although he must learn not to lose it when under fire). This is a translation of the fax I sent: Israel Beiteinu (our home)? Or Vatican their home? How come you are surrendering (mosrim) for lucre (betza kesef) the place which gave its name to the entire country? The people will not forgive you, not those alive today, not those of the past and for sure not those of the future. Mr Ayalon, I viewed you as a different sort of politician, a bit invigorating somehow - you still have time to justify that. What do you think?

Friday 24 April 2009

Welcome to Pith from Pinhas.

The original Pinhas was a pithy character who didn’t much like what was going on around him, picked up a spear and dealt with it. That earned him a Covenant of Peace, which is a pretty pithy thing to do with a spear. He then went on to live pithily ever after, and there are those who say he’s still with us, some 3300-odd years later, which makes him even older than me. Oh, and he was the only person ever given the surname Cohen (priest in Hebrew) in recognition of services rendered to the Jewish People. In later life (according to some) he changed his name to Elijah, took to prophecy and started flying around in fiery chariots, many years before the Wright brothers. He is said to visit every Jewish family Seder meal at Pesach (Passover) and every Jewish child who can stay up late enough is convinced he slips past big sis when she opens the front door and drinks from the oversized wine cup put out for him.

He also finds time to drop in on every Brit Mila (circumcision) ceremony where boys, usually at eight days old, get their names. And this is where I come in. Screaming and kicking, this Brit got the name Pinhas. So I had to start growing old pithily.

And there is no shortage in this benighted century of the kind of stuff that raised old (well he was actually very young at the time) Pinhas’s hackles, but I don’t know where to get a licence to carry a spear. What I do know is how to operate a qwerty keyboard with two fingers.

So in order to get my own bit of immortality I thought, why not start a blog? Everything is of course relative, and the only data retrieval system yet invented with a shelf life of more than a few years seems to be the old-fashioned book, but who knows? Somebody may even read this stuff.

I don’t mean to keep this to myself, and my mates are welcome to submit brief and pithy articles for publication. I am welcome to accept or reject them. And if you like what you see, you can try your luck at joining my mates too.

See you in cyberspace

Pinhas