Everybody wants spirituality. To be a good person means to walk in G-d's ways. How does that translate to reality? The only guidebook to spirituality that has stood the test of time is the Hebrew Bible. The Bible says that the Jews will be a light onto the nations. But if you are not a born Jew, you have to convert, which is not so easy!! If you do convert, it is a lot of work to be a Jew (three times a day prayer, keeping kosher, observing the Sabbath).
This blog will show you how to be Jewish without the work!!
Thursday, December 9, 2021
Jerusalem approves construction of new neighborhood-Atarot at the old airport and then backs off and Hamas’s War Against Yerushalayim By Hillel Fendel and Chaim Silberstein and Stephen Sondheim, a giant of American musical theater, dies at 91 and The Portion of Vayigash
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
After Joseph's silver goblet was found in Benjamin's sack, Benjamin was returned to Egypt to be imprisoned and to become the viceroy's slave. Judah, the "responsible adult", approaches Joseph and tells him all that had transpired from the day that the brothers had sold Joseph until Benjamin's arrest. He related how their father Jacob continued to mourn the loss of his favorite son and how deep was his connection to Benjamin, the sole remaining son of his beloved wife Rachel.
Joseph could no longer restrain himself and he revealed his identity to his brothers. Joseph prepares wagons and donkeys loaded with the best that Egypt had to offer, and the brothers return to their father with the news that not only was Joseph alive but that he was, for all practical purposes, the ruler of Egypt. Jacob was understandably skeptical, and it was only when he saw the "wagons" that he was convinced that Joseph was, in fact, alive. "And the spirit of their father Jacob was revived." (Genesis 45;27)
We find two "hints" as to what Joseph's hidden message was to his father with regards to the "wagons". The first hint: atop the letter "hei" in the word "ha'agalot" (the wagons) we find an abundance of crowns. This is an allusion to the last portion that Jacob was learning with Joseph prior to his disappearance- the laws of the "eglah arufah" (the decapitated calf)- a play on the word "eglah" which can mean either calf or wagon. (Rashi)
The second hint: There is an addition to the left foot of the letter "chet" in the word "vatechi" (revived) alluding to the fact that the Holy Spirit rested upon Jacob. (Remazei Rabbenu Yoel)
The Three Musketeers at the Kotel
Stephen Sondheim, a giant of American musical theater, dies at 91
Born to a NY Jewish family, the composer is credited with pushing the musical into a darker, richer, and more intellectual place with works like 'Company,' 'Follies' and 'Sweeney Todd'
Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim poses after being awarded the Freedom of the City of London at a ceremony at the Guildhall in London, on Sept. 27, 2018. Sondheim, the songwriter who reshaped the American musical theater in the second half of the 20th century, has died at age 91 on Nov. 26, 2021, at his home in Roxbury, Conn. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen Sondheim, the songwriter who reshaped the American musical theater in the second half of the 20th century with his intelligent, intricately rhymed lyrics, his use of evocative melodies and his willingness to tackle unusual subjects, has died. He was 91.
Sondheim's death was announced by Rick Miramontez, president of DKC/O&M. Sondheim's Texas-based attorney, Rick Pappas, told The New York Times the composer died Friday at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut.
Sondheim influenced several generations of theater songwriters, particularly with such landmark musicals as "Company," "Follies" and "Sweeney Todd," which are considered among his best work. His most famous ballad, "Send in the Clowns," has been recorded hundreds of times, including by Frank Sinatra and Judy Collins.
The artist refused to repeat himself, finding inspiration for his shows in such diverse subjects as an Ingmar Bergman movie ("A Little Night Music"), the opening of Japan to the West ("Pacific Overtures"), French painter Georges Seurat ("Sunday in the Park With George"), Grimm's fairy tales ("Into the Woods") and even the killers of American presidents ("Assassins"), among others.
Tributes quickly flooded social media as performers and writers alike saluted a giant of the theater. "We shall be singing your songs forever," wrote Lea Salonga. Aaron Tveit wrote: "We are so lucky to have what you've given the world."
"The theater has lost one of its greatest geniuses and the world has lost one of its greatest and most original writers. Sadly, there is now a giant in the sky. But the brilliance of Stephen Sondheim will still be here as his legendary songs and shows will be performed for evermore," producer Cameron Mackintosh wrote in tribute.
Six of Sondheim's musicals won Tony Awards for best score, and he also received a Pulitzer Prize ("Sunday in the Park"), an Academy Award (for the song "Sooner or Later" from the film "Dick Tracy"), five Olivier Awards and the Presidential Medal of Honor. In 2008, he received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement.
President Barack Obama, right, presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to composer Stephen Sondheim during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, on, Nov. 24, 2015, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Sondheim's music and lyrics gave his shows a dark, dramatic edge, whereas before him, the dominant tone of musicals was frothy and comic. He was sometimes criticized as a composer of unhummable songs, a badge that didn't bother Sondheim. Frank Sinatra, who had a hit with Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns," once complained: "He could make me a lot happier if he'd write more songs for saloon singers like me."
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To theater fans, Sondheim's sophistication and brilliance made him an icon. A Broadway theater was named after him. A New York magazine cover asked "Is Sondheim God?" The Guardian newspaper once offered this question: "Is Stephen Sondheim the Shakespeare of musical theatre?"
A supreme wordsmith — and an avid player of word games — Sondheim's joy of language shone through. "The opposite of left is right/The opposite of right is wrong/So anyone who's left is wrong, right?" he wrote in "Anyone Can Whistle." In "Company," he penned the lines: "Good things get better/Bad gets worse/Wait — I think I meant that in reverse."
He offered the three principles necessary for a songwriter in his first volume of collected lyrics — Content Dictates Form, Less Is More, and God Is in the Details. All these truisms, he wrote, were "in the service of Clarity, without which nothing else matters." Together they led to stunning lines like: "It's a very short road from the pinch and the punch to the paunch and the pouch and the pension."
Taught by no less a genius than Oscar Hammerstein, Sondheim pushed the musical into a darker, richer and more intellectual place. "If you think of a theater lyric as a short story, as I do, then every line has the weight of a paragraph," he wrote in his 2010 book, "Finishing the Hat," the first volume of his collection of lyrics and comments.
Early in his career, Sondheim wrote the lyrics for two shows considered to be classics of the American stage, "West Side Story" (1957) and "Gypsy" (1959). "West Side Story," with music by Leonard Bernstein, transplanted Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" to the streets and gangs of modern-day New York. "Gypsy," with music by Jule Styne, told the backstage story of the ultimate stage mother and the daughter who grew up to be Gypsy Rose Lee.
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It was not until 1962 that Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics for a Broadway show, and it turned out to be a smash — the bawdy "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," starring Zero Mostel as a wily slave in ancient Rome yearning to be free.
Yet his next show, "Anyone Can Whistle" (1964), flopped, running only nine performances but achieving cult status after its cast recording was released. Sondheim's 1965 lyric collaboration with composer Richard Rodgers — "Do I Hear a Waltz?" — also turned out to be problematic. The musical, based on the play "The Time of the Cuckoo," ran for six months but was an unhappy experience for both men, who did not get along.
It was "Company," which opened on Broadway in April 1970, that cemented Sondheim's reputation. The episodic adventures of a bachelor (played by Dean Jones) with an inability to commit to a relationship was hailed as capturing the obsessive nature of striving, self-centered New Yorkers. The show, produced and directed by Hal Prince, won Sondheim his first Tony for best score. "The Ladies Who Lunch" became a standard for Elaine Stritch.
Composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, left, is shown with cast members of "Pacific Overtures" after the closing performance of the revival musical at New York's Church of the Heavenly Rest at York Theater, Sunday, April 14, 1984. The actors are, from left, Kevin Gray, Ernest Ababa, and Tony Marino. (AP Photo, File)
The following year, Sondheim wrote the score for "Follies," a look at the shattered hopes and disappointed dreams of women who had appeared in lavish Ziegfeld-style revues. The music and lyrics paid homage to great composers of the past such as Jerome Kern, Cole Porter the Gershwins.
In 1973, "A Little Night Music," starring Glynis Johns and Len Cariou, opened. Based on Bergman's "Smiles of a Summer Night," this rueful romance of middle-age lovers contains the song "Send in the Clowns," which gained popularity outside the show. A revival in 2009 starred Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones was nominated for a best revival Tony.
"Pacific Overtures," with a book by John Weidman, followed in 1976. The musical, also produced and directed by Prince, was not a financial success, but it demonstrated Sondheim's commitment to offbeat material, filtering its tale of the westernization of Japan through a hybrid American-Kabuki style.
In 1979, Sondheim and Prince collaborated on what many believe to be Sondheim's masterpiece, the bloody yet often darkly funny "Sweeney Todd." An ambitious work, it starred Cariou in the title role as a murderous barber whose customers end up in meat pies baked by Todd's willing accomplice, played by Angela Lansbury.
The Sondheim-Prince partnership collapsed two years later, after "Merrily We Roll Along," a musical that traced a friendship backward from its characters' compromised middle age to their idealistic youth. The show, based on a play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, only ran two weeks on Broadway. But again, as with "Anyone Can Whistle," its original cast recording helped "Merrily We Roll Along" to become a favorite among musical-theater buffs.
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"Sunday in the Park," written with James Lapine, may be Sondheim's most personal show. A tale of uncompromising artistic creation, it told the story of artist Georges Seurat, played by Mandy Patinkin. The painter submerges everything in his life, including his relationship with his model (Bernadette Peters), for his art. (It was most recently revived on Broadway in 2017 with Jake Gyllenhaal.)
In this Sept. 7, 1985 file photo, Lee Remick, left, poses for a photo with Stephen Sondheim, right, during the finale and curtain call at Follies, party at Avery Fischer Hall in Lincoln Center, in New York. (AP Photo/Mario Suriani, File)
Three years after "Sunday" debuted, Sondheim collaborated again with Lapine, this time on the fairy-tale musical "Into the Woods." The show starred Peters as a glamorous witch and dealt primarily with the turbulent relationships between parents and children, using such famous fairy-tale characters as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel. It was most recently revived in the summer of 2012 in Central Park by The Public Theater.
"Assassins" opened off-Broadway in 1991 and it looked at the men and women who wanted to kill presidents, from John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley. The show received mostly negative reviews in its original incarnation, but many of those critics reversed themselves 13 years later when the show was done on Broadway and won a Tony for best musical revival.
"Passion" was another severe look at obsession, this time a desperate woman, played by Donna Murphy, in love with a handsome soldier. Despite winning the best-musical Tony in 1994, the show barely managed a six-month run.
A new version of "The Frogs," with additional songs by Sondheim and a revised book by Nathan Lane (who also starred in the production), played Lincoln Center during the summer of 2004. The show, based on the Aristophanes comedy, originally had been done 20 years earlier in the Yale University swimming pool.
One of his more troubled shows was "Road Show," which reunited Sondheim and Weidman and spent years being worked on. This tale of the Mizner brothers, whose get-rich schemes in the early part of the 20th century finally made it to the Public Theater in 2008 after going through several different titles, directors and casts.
He had been working on a new musical with "Venus in Fur" playwright David Ives, who called his collaborator a genius. "Not only are his musicals brilliant, but I can't think of another theater person who has so chronicled a whole age so eloquently," Ives said in 2013. "He is the spirit of the age in a certain way."
Sondheim was born March 22, 1930, into a wealthy Jewish family, the only son of dress manufacturer Herbert Sondheim and Helen Fox Sondheim. At 10, his parents divorced and Sondheim's mother bought a house in Doylestown, Pa., where one of their Bucks County neighbors was lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, whose son, James, was Sondheim's roommate at boarding school. It was Oscar Hammerstein who became the young man's professional mentor and a good friend.
He had a solitary childhood, once in which involved verbal abuse from his chilly mother. He received a letter in his 40s from her telling him that she regretted giving birth to him. He continued to support her financially and to see her occasionally but didn't attend her funeral.
Sondheim attended Williams College in Massachusetts, where he majored in music. After graduation, he received a two-year fellowship to study with avant-garde composer Milton Babbitt.
One of Sondheim's first jobs was writing scripts for the television show "Topper," which ran for two years (1953-1955). At the same time, Sondheim wrote his first musical, "Saturday Night," the story of a group of young people in Brooklyn in 1920s. It was to have opened on Broadway in 1955, but its producer died just as the musical was about to go into production, and the show was scrapped. "Saturday Night" finally arrived in New York in 1997 in a small, off-Broadway production.
Sondheim wrote infrequently for the movies. He collaborated with actor Anthony Perkins on the script for the 1973 murder mystery "The Last of Sheila," and besides his work on "Dick Tracy" (1990), wrote scores for such movies as Alain Resnais' "Stavisky" (1974) and Warren Beatty's "Reds" (1981).
Over the years, there have been many Broadway revivals of Sondheim shows, especially "Gypsy," which had reincarnations starring Angela Lansbury (1974), Tyne Daly (1989) and Peters (2003). But there also were productions of "A Funny Thing," one with Phil Silvers in 1972 and another starring Nathan Lane in 1996; "Into the Woods" with Vanessa Williams in 2002; and even of Sondheim's less successful shows such as "Assassins" and "Pacific Overtures," both in 2004. "Sweeney Todd" has been produced in opera houses around the world. A reimagined "West Side Story" opened on Broadway in 2020 and a scrambled "Company" opened on Broadway in 2021 with the genders of the actors switched.
Sondheim's songs have been used extensively in revues, the best-known being "Side by Side by Sondheim" (1976) on Broadway and "Putting It Together," off-Broadway with Julie Andrews in 1992 and on Broadway with Carol Burnett in 1999. The New York Philharmonic put on a star-studded "Company" in 2011 with Neil Patrick Harris and Stephen Colbert. Tunes from his musicals have lately popped up everywhere from "Marriage Story" to "The Morning Show."
An HBO documentary directed by Lapine, "Six by Sondheim," aired in 2013 and revealed that he liked to compose lying down and sometimes enjoyed a cocktail to loosen up as he wrote. He even revealed that he really only fell in love after reaching 60, first with the dramatist Peter Jones and then in his last years with Jeff Romley.
In September 2010, the Henry Miller Theatre was renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. "I'm deeply embarrassed. I'm thrilled, but deeply embarrassed," he said as the sun fell over dozens of clapping admirers in Times Square. Then he revealed his perfectionist streak: "I've always hated my last name. It just doesn't sing."
Members of Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades take part in a memorial service in the southern Gaza Strip on November 15, 2021.
The Hamas terrorist organization, responsible for the murderous attack early this week near the Western Wall in Jerusalem, has one interest these days: to rile up violent Arab opposition to Israel with the battle-cry: "The occupation [Israel] is taking over Al-Quds [Jerusalem]!"
Sunday's murderous attack, in which Eliyahu David Kaye was murdered, was perpetrated by a Hamas political wing member. It took place just a few days after two Border Guard policemen were brutally knifed by a teenaged terrorist from eastern Jerusalem.
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Just hours after Kaye was murdered and four other Israelis were wounded, one seriously, Hamas organized a celebratory rally in one of the Arab neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem. Hundreds of terrorism supporters cheered what they called the "heroic" attack.
Gal Berger, Arab affairs correspondent for Israel's state-owned Kan TV/radio network, has researched Jerusalem's emotionally-charged Damascus Gate. Berger compiled an impressive list showing that during the five months beginning this past May 21, nearly every single day featured one or more reports on Damascus Gate in PA Telegram accounts.
That is to say, this Jerusalem hot spot and site of many Palestinian terrorist attacks is being very carefully kept in the news for every possible incident that could somehow be construed as an Israeli provocation. Hamas, in turn, takes advantage of the "events" to pour fuel on the fire.
The most blatant finding of his daily documentation, Berger wrote, was "undoubtedly the obsession in these groups regarding any report or development that happens at Damascus Gate." These include not only notable events such as disturbances, but even routine police requests for an ID card there or policemen descending the Gate's well-known steps into the Old City. Not surprisingly, religious Jews simply passing through on their way home or to the Western Wall are often immediately termed "Israeli provocations" – and emotions are aroused accordingly.
Berger conjectures that Hamas "takes advantage of what goes on at the Damascus Gate, fans the flames, and tries to strengthen them – and mainly, rides atop the existing reality" of strong Arab emotions about the area.
It is well known that at least twice over the past several months, Hamas has sought to fight Israel's actualization of its sovereignty over its capital by initiating violence. The first time was the traditional Jerusalem Reunification Day march this past June. Hamas threatened that if the planned route was not changed and distanced from the Temple Mount, it would respond militarily. Israeli authorities in fact changed the route, and still, Arabs threw rocks and attacked policemen during the march, and released incendiary balloons from Gaza towards Jewish towns and fields. Israel retaliated by attacking Hamas installations, but Hamas boasted: "We proved our deterrence ability against Israel. We forced the occupation to change the route of the march, to change civilian air routes, and to reinforce its Iron Dome deployment."
Several weeks before that, Arabs rioted on the Temple Mount and began attacking Jews in Jerusalem's Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood. A few days later, Hamas terrorists fired thousands of rockets at Israel, killing 12.
That is to say: Hamas did not fire rockets at Israel in order to "protect" Jerusalem from Israel, but rather used the march and the Shimon HaTzaddik/Sheikh Jarrah events as a pretext to fire the missiles. Hamas has been piling up these deadly rockets by the thousands for many years, waiting for any excuse of controversy in Jerusalem to fire them at Israeli citizens.
Thus, we can say that any news that emanates from Hamas must be viewed as an attempt to chip away, or worse, at Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. Especially now, when the Biden Administration is still considering opening an official consulate for the Palestinian Authority in Israel's capital – both illegal and a logical absurdity – is it important to be on guard against every Hamas provocation.
Readers may wish to be reminded of the Hamas Covenant, which reads, in part: "Israel will rise and remain standing until Islam eliminates it, as it eliminated its predecessors… Our struggle against the Jews is so extremely wide-ranging and grave that it will need all the loyal efforts we can wield, to be followed by further steps and reinforced by successive battalions from the multifarious Arab and Islamic world, until the enemies are defeated and Allah's victory prevails."
The charter also arouses fanatic violent-religious emotions and beliefs among Muslims by insisting on the need to "establish in the minds of all the Muslim generations that the Palestinian issue is a religious issue, and that it must be dealt with as such, for it contains Islamic holy places, [namely] the Al-Aqsa mosque [the Temple Mount in Jerusalem], which is inseparably connected to the holy mosque of Mecca …"
Both Sides of Hamas
The terrorist who murdered Eli Kaye on Sunday near the Kotel was a member of the political wing of Hamas. Just two days before, Great Britain took a major step to define this branch of Hamas as a terrorist organization. (The military wing has long been outlawed in Britain as a terror gang, as in many other countries.)
If the proposal is legislated into law as expected, it will be a crime to belong to Hamas, to fly its flag, or to wear a uniform that implies support for Hamas. The punishment: up to 14 years in prison.
The explanation for the decision was a bit muddled, however. On the one hand, some sources said it was because Hamas had carried out hundreds of deadly attacks against Israel and fired thousands of rockets into its territory. However, it was also said that Britain fears for the safety of its own Jewish community, such that the decision is part of its fight against anti-Semitism. Hamas responded with scorn to this latter claim, saying it was a lie to claim concern for British Jews, and that the decision is clearly a "pro-Zionist" one.
As if there is a difference… Once again, the world struggles, and fails, to understand that there is no essential difference between Zionism – the movement to restore a national Jewish presence in the Holy Land – and Judaism. It is impossible to be anti-Zionist without being anti-Semitic, and vice-versa.
A Hamas spokesman said after Kaye was murdered, "The war for Jerusalem will continue until the conqueror is banished." From our side, KeepJerusalem and all those who love Yerushalayim say: "History and the Jewish nation and religion are on our side, and we will never allow our holy capital to fall from our hands."
Jerusalem approves construction of new neighborhood
New 'Atarot' neighborhood to be built in area of former Jerusalem airport, to help ease housing shortage.
after this was approved then they backed off for now
The Jerusalem Municipality, through the local planning and construction committee, decided today (Wednesday) to recommend to the district committee the deposit of a new plan for the establishment of the Atarot neighborhood.
The planned neighborhood is located in the area of the abandoned Atarot Airport, on an area of approximately 1,243 dunams (307 acres) and would see the construction of a new residential neighborhood comprising thousands of housing units, including 800 protected housing units, space for hotels, areas for public buildings, open public areas and employment and commercial areas.
Arutz Sheva has learned that senior defense establishment officials have given conditions for the approval of the new neighborhood: to leave an "exposed" area of 70 meters in front of the Arab neighborhood of Kfar Akev, and to determine that the first row of houses in front of the village will not be residential but for employment.
The plan to build the neighborhood includes the establishment of an area for employment and commerce near Road 45, and the preservation of the existing historic terminal building in the Atarot Airport area, all as part of a significant urban planning that produces a walking urban outline, including an array of paths and open public spaces between the neighborhoods.
The plan constitutes a significant land reserve available in the city, which enables development not at the expense of high-value open spaces. The plan also provides a significant response to the housing needs in the city.
The plan is being developed by the Housing and Construction Ministry and is being overseen by architect Yuval Kadmon.
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon said: "I welcome the approval of the establishment of the new neighborhood. This is another program as part of a number of programs that I lead and promote, to reduce gaps and create housing solutions for young people from all sectors. This is the right way to improve the quality of life."
Ofer Berkovitz, chairman of the Hitorerut and chairman of the opposition, said that "this is a historic permit for construction in Jerusalem. There was tremendous pessimism at the beginning of the road, that we will not be able to bring about the establishment of the neighborhood, but here today it happened. We are very proud of this critical move for young people, for lowering housing prices, for keeping the lungs green. I will continue to work so that the district committee also approves the plan and does not succumb to outside dictates."
US Forces Cancellation of Haredi Neighborhood in Atarot, Jerusalem
Photo Credit: City of Jerusalem (file photo)
Satellite photo of Atarot industrial park and the old Atarot airport in northern Jerusalem.
The Israeli government has informed the US that Israel won't be moving ahead with the construction of a much-needed neighborhood for Haredim (Ultra-Orthodox) in the Atarot section of northern Jerusalem, according to a report by Barak Ravid.
The 9000-unit neighborhood was supposed to have been built on the remains of the former Atarot airport, and plans for the construction had been approved by the City of Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committeeon Wednesday in response to the current housing crisis. But upon learning of the plans, the US State Department officials expressed their disapproval of the project, as they want the Atarot neighborhood to become part of a future Palestinian State.
"We worked hard to design the neighborhood to address the needs of the hareidi-religious public and to make sure the plans fit [that] sector," said Eliezer Rauchberger, acting mayor and chair of the Planning and Building Committee on Wednesday. "I thank the mayor and all the professional staff their hard work. This is an historic day in Jerusalem."
The site, which measures 1,243 dunams (307 acres), would have had thousands of housing units, one or more hotels, and public buildings – bringing in commerce and employment.
Artist's rendering of the future Atarot neighborhood, Courtesy of the Housing Ministry
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon noted that the hareidi-religious neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo was built 50 years ago – and since then, no other neighborhood has been established for that large community.
The Atarot airport went defunct during the Second Intifada, due to concerns the Arabs would try and shoot down the planes as they took off and landed.
If the Palestinian Authority manages to take over the Atarot area, Jerusalem will be cut off from the north.
In modern times, Jews resettled in Atarot in 1919, but were forced to evacuate in 1948, after the Arabs massacred a supply convey in March 1948. Atarot was then illegally occupied by Jordan until 1967. While they controlled the area, the Jordanians plowed over the Jewish graveyard in Atarot.
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