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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.

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The Three Musketeers at the Kotel

The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember.

The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave.

Tel Aviv Tests Solar Energy Fabric That Shades By Day, Lights Up By Night

By Simona Shemer, NoCamels -

Shade by day, light by night? The city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa has implemented a "cool" new street fabric that provides both — without the need for electricity.

The municipality is currently piloting a new, eco-friendly system in northern Tel Aviv, which uses solar energy to supply shade during daytime hours and illumination when the sun goes down.

Through its features, the Lumiweave system saves "at least 50 percent of the cost of installing the infrastructure of standard lighting and 100 percent of electricity costs," a statement from the company said. Lumiweave also enables the customer to control the timing and intensity of lighting.

Lumiweave is an outdoor fabric material embedded with solar and organic photovoltaic (PV) cells that store solar energy during daytime hours for off-grid lighting in the evening. It provides shading while it harnesses the sun's energy, the system's designer Anai Green tells NoCamels. More specifically, the sheet is made of polymer strips with LEDs that emit light after receiving energy from the PV system attached to it during the day.

Green's solution combines a "workable approach" to climate change and the growing challenge of shading in urban areas, with a solution that operates on a basis of renewable and clean energy, that enables lighting without using polluting fuels.

"Thinking about sustainability, green energy, and climate protection is part of the DNA of the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality. From the planning stages to the execution stages, we think green, plan green, imagine green," said Ron Huldai, mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo, in the company's statement. "I believe that Lumiweave will turn out to be a groundbreaking venture."

The system was designed to withstand all weather conditions and can even continue to provide lighting even after three days without sun.

The sheet has been installed for an experimental period in the city's Atidim Park, an industrial area of the Ramat HaChayal neighborhood.

The lightweight and flexible system was developed by Israeli industrial and product designer Anai Green, who was selected as one of four innovators to win the 2nd International C40 Women4Climate Tech Challenge in 2020. The challenge, at the time in its second year, was organized by Women4Climate, a group of mayors, entrepreneurs, innovators, students, scientists, and activists that aims to enhance women's participation and leadership in building a sustainable future.

The city of Tel Aviv joined C40 Cities 2017 among 96 cities that represent one-twelfth of the world's population and a quarter of the global economy.

It doesn't require any additional or existing infrastructure, which makes it particularly innovative, Green explains.

"There are no carbon emissions at all," she says, "We use it to light public space without spreading light pollution — because the light is under a canopy." Light pollution refers the effects of unwanted, excessive, or poorly implemented artificial lighting.

"We spread light in the area we want to light only," Green adds.

The pilot project, organized as part of a collaboration with CityZone Innovation Laboratory, an innovation lab developed in a partnership between Atidim Park, Tel Aviv University, and the Tel Aviv municipality, has been overseen by Green and Lumiweave cofounder Tal Parnes, a serial high-tech entrepreneur.

"Since Atidim Park has set the goal of advancing technologies in the smart city field, through a unique experimental laboratory – Cityzone – Tel Aviv's Environment and Sustainability Authority approached Atidim to install the shading sheet in the park area and the Park gladly complied," Sagi Niv, CEO of Atidim Park Tel Aviv, tells NoCamels. "In collaboration with the park management and the entrepreneurs, an ideal location was chosen that took into account the needs of people passing through, and considered the angles of the sun in different seasons on one hand, and the significant exposure to the [businessman working in the area] on the main boulevard of the park."

What's next for Lumiweave?
Anai Green is an industrial and product designer that grew up in Israel and attended the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. She worked in Japan before opening her own design studio in Israel. Anai's interests have included lighting, furniture, the design of spatial objects, and the relationship between materials, form, and technologies "to bring her designs to impact everyday life in urban settings," according to her profile on the Women4Climate website. Prior to her work on Lumiweave, Green was a collaborator in Megama, a strategic design office, for the Landscape Urbanism Biennale" called "32N Urban Shade." The project focused on the significance of natural and built shade in the coastal city of Bat Yam, Israel.

Lumiweave "combines Anai's unique interests in emerging LED lighting technologies, flexible PV cells, with the potential of textiles in outdoor uses to address the problem of rising temperatures in urban environments," the profile reads.

There are lots of ways to implement Lumiweave, Green tells NoCamels, saying that its "really good for parks, bicycle paths, and walking areas." It can also be used as umbrellas and canopies of varying sizes.

Green says Lumiweave already has new projects in Tel Aviv, including changing the canopies of the Sarona neighborhood. She is also in discussions with relevant parties to install Lumiweave's smart shade in parks in the cities of Ra'anana, Kfar Saba, and Ganei Tikva. The Ariel Sharon Park, located southeast of Tel Aviv, is also on that list. Green tells NoCamels the company is in talks with NTA Metroolitan Mass Transit System, the company developing the Tel Aviv Light Rail to install Lumiweave at various stations.

"We have started to develop parasols for restaurants and hotels," Green says, "They will have shade and then at night, it will light up automatically. The workers will have full control over it. We are now developing the possibility of controlling it from the phone — we're creating an application."

Lumiweave is also developing light motion materials. They are creating a shade and light that will turn on automatically when it senses a person approaching and will turn off when there is no presence of people. "It will be flexible in the way that we can manipulate it," she says.

"The LumiWeave venture Is an initiative that combines many vital aspects of sustainability, including shading, green energy, pollution reduction, cost reduction while making a green contribution to the environment, and in any case improving the quality of life of all of us in the public space," Niv said in a statement.

"We are very pleased to work with the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality on fulfilling our vision of improving the experience of staying in the public space, while preserving the environment, by sustainable systems that can be installed easily and cheaply, anywhere and anytime," Green said.

Additional reporting by Max Kaplan-Zantopp

Caption: Lumiweave is an outdoor fabric that stores solar energy during daytime hours to create lighting at night.
Courtesy: Anai Green.

Can't Afford Israeli Real Estate? Israeli Arabs Opt for Nablus and Jenin

The cost of living and housing crisis cause Israeli Arabs to shop and
invest in the northern West Bank, where one can buy a luxury apartment
for $120,000

Regular visitors to the West Bank will be familiar with the large red signs warning that Israelis are forbidden to enter Area A, the part under full Palestinian control according to the Oslo Accords, and that doing so is a crime.

What these signs really mean is that entry is forbidden to Israeli Jews. Israeli Arabs can enter West Bank cities to shop, import goods and invest in Palestinian real estate.

In one place, however, the absence of the red sign is notable – immediately after the Jalameh (aka Gilboa) checkpoint in the northern West Bank, which Israeli Arabs drive through each Saturday to shop in the nearby city of Jenin. According to the Jenin Chamber of Commerce, Israeli Arabs make up 75 percent of customer at local markets.

Two weeks ago – during Ramadan, a time of significantly higher purchases of food, clothing and gifts for Muslims – the Jalameh and Rihan checkpoints were closed against the backdrop of heightened security tensions, denying Arab Israelis of the opportunity to shop in Palestinian cities.

Last Saturday, the checkpoints were reopened. Israeli media reports linked this with the decision not to impose a total closure of all crossing at the West Bank and Gaza borders during the intermediate days of the week-long Passover holiday, with the goal of allowing Palestinian workers to continue entering Israel.

Yet perhaps because people were afraid to go to a city where there are daily reports of gunfights between Israeli soldiers and armed Palestinians, just 2,000 cars passed through the Jalameh checkpoint that day, compared to 6,500 to 7,000 on a normal Saturday and the 10,000 typical of a Saturday during Ramadan.

Amar Abu Bakr, the head of Jenin's chamber of commerce, hopes the city's economy will slowly recover.

"The halt in people from the Galilee coming to Jenin was a severe blow for the local economy," he says. "It could have been even worse if it had happened ahead of Eid al-Fitr in early May. I hope that now the checkpoint has been reopened, things will get back on course."

'Large families buy in bulk'

A source in the defense establishment says that during a normal Ramadan, Arab Israelis spend 120 million shekels ($37 million) on shopping in Jenin, meaning the losses from the week-long closure of the checkpoints added up to around 30 million shekels. Most visitors to Jenin's markets come from the Galilee area, where around half of Israeli Arabs reside.

What makes the city attractive to them is clear. It s just a 30 to 40 minutes drive from Nazareth and its surrounding towns, and many say there's no other market like it in either Israel or the West Bank in terms of both the variety of goods available and the low prices. For instance, a kilogram of rice costs only six shekels in Jenin, compared to 10 at Israeli supermarkets.

"Large families buy in bulk here," says an Arab woman from the Galilee who goes shopping in Jenin every few weeks. "There are people who buy 12 kilograms of rice on every trip."

In Ramadan, the price difference is especially noticeable, she says, because the meals after the fast are festive ones in which a lot of effort is invested, so people buy more expensive foods than they usually might – for instance, almonds, raisins, pine nuts and dried fruit. In Israel, a kilogram of pine nuts costs 140 to 150 shekels. In Jenin, it costs 85 shekels.

"In Jenin, you can find food products and brands from the Arab world which you can't find in Israel, another reason making the city an attractive place to shop," the woman says. "Most of the markets are cheap food markets, but here and there you can also find some regular stores carrying brand names," she says.

According to economist and accountant Ziyad Abou Habla, the director of the Economic Council of for Arab Society Development, the ability to shop in Jenin is important, especially for more poorer of Israeli Arab society. "50 percent of Arab families in Israel live beneath the poverty line," he says. "The difference between the Palestinian and Israeli economies in terms of prices makes the Palestinian one an alternative for meeting the consumer needs of members of Arab society, particularly for people living under the poverty line in Israel. But middle-class people also go shopping in the West Bank, and for them, it's not just a matter of economics. The same nation lives on both sides of the Green Line" – the pre-1967 borders of Israel – "and there are many relatives on the other side. During the month of Ramadan, many people go there to break their fast, visiting relatives in Ramallah or Tul Karm or going to some restaurant."

Thabet Abu Ras, co-executive director of Abraham Initiatives. Credit: Limor Edrey

Recent security tensions have threatened the economic situation in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, as well as in Israel, where Arab citizens are more vulnerable. Jews might stop buying at markets located in shopping centers along the pre-1967 border, such as in Husan, near Betar Ilit, or the village of Barta'a, half of which is in the West Bank, the other in Israel. But the larger markets are located in the center of West Bank cities, and it is Arab Israelis who still venture there.

Recent years have seen a strengthening of economic ties between Palestinians on both sides of the pre-1967 border. Freedom of movement from Israel to the West Bank allows Israeli Arabs to buy cheaper products or services like car repair and dental work for much less money. It also enables the work of businesspeople who deal with imports or who invest in real estate in Palestinian cities.

Since most of this business is conducted using cash, there are no precise figures on the extent of investments or Arab purchases made by Israeli Arabs in the West Bank. However, a study published in 2018 by the Palestine Monetary Authority, the Palestinian equivalent of the Bank of Israel, products amounting to 3 billion shekels (920 million dollars) are purchased by Israeli Arabs in the West Bank each year. The study was based on a survey conducted among Israeli Arabs, in which 50 percent or respondents said cheaper prices in the West Bank made them go shopping there. A further reason mentioned by respondents was that one can use cash freely in the West Bank, in contrast to Israel, where there are limits on cash transactions.

Jenin is the Palestinian shopping capital, and according to a source in the defense establishment, Arabs from Israel spend 850 million shekels a year there. The main shopping street in Jenin is Abu-Bakr Street, where most markets are open-air. A new shopping center, the City Center Jenin, recently opened there, spanning seven floors, each with an area of 2,500 square meters (27,000 square feet). An adjacent street has an area selling building materials, flooring and plumbing goods, an attractive location for contractors building in Israel.

Nablus is another popular destination, but visits there focus more on hotel stays than on shopping. Ramallah is considered the most expensive city, but it too is a destination for leisure purposes. "In addition to retail shopping, there are thousands of Arab-Israeli businesses in Palestinian cities," says economist Yitzhak Gal, a research fellow at Mitvim – the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies who researches Middle Eastern economics. "The Palestinian economy has been in deep freeze for a long time. Two factors work in its favor: the work of Palestinian laborers in Israel, and activity involving Israeli Arabs. Before the coronavirus crisis, each one of them accounted for 15-20 percent of the Palestinian GDP per capita. During the lockdowns there was a great slump, larger than in Israel, and then you could see the impact of severing business ties with Israeli Arabs on the Palestinian economy."

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the turnover of all retail and wholesale activity within the Palestinian GDP declined from $700 million in the second quarter of 2019 to $470 million in the second quarter of 2020. The The Palestinian economy has not fully recovered from the coronavirus crisis. GDP in the last quarter of 2021 stood at $3.2 billion, $100 million less than the last quarter in 2019.

According to a source in the defense establishment, the fact that the crossing at Jalameh was closed for a year and a half over the pandemic is one of the driving forces for the recent series of deadly attacks against Israelis. This source says that "over that period, Jenin withdrew inwards, with attendant unemployment, anarchy and crime. There is a clear balance here. When economic ceases activity on this scale, especially in locations where Hamas and Islamic Jihad have such a large influence, this is a warning sign of trouble to come, and unfortunately, it did come."

Buying in the West Bank, selling in Israel

Prof. Aziz Haidar of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute published a book in 2021 about the new Arab-Palestinian middle class living in Israel. He says in his book that the 1967 conquest of the territories contributed to the rise of an Arab middle class in Israel, along with other processes. "The acquisition of higher learning, integration into the labor market and the opening of businesses were three processes that led to the growth and expansion of the Arab middle class in Israel since 1967," says Haidar. "Commerce is a massive factor in the Arab economy. For years, merchants within the Green Line bought products in the West Bank cheaply, subsequently selling them in Israel. On the other hand, salaried Israelis went to buy products in the territories. They saved money, which helped in raising a middle class."

However, he says, the Palestinian middle class, especially the younger generation, tends to shop more in malls and stores owned by Israeli Jews, mainly out of a desire to buy brand names. "At least 20-25 percent of the Israeli-Arab middle class do their shopping at malls and in Israeli chains," he says.

As'ad Shibli, a former high school principal in the Bedouin village of Shibli, near Mount Tabor, goes to Jenin regularly, meeting many of his former students there. "I shop there once a month," he says. "Anything I can buy in Israel, I can get there for 30 percent less, sometimes even cheaper. Jenin is not just a refugee camp you hear about in the news. There are also villas and affluent neighborhoods there. Two months ago I went to a neighborhood near Jalameh, where someone had a swimming pool under his house. But the refugee camp there is like a third-world slum. That's where problems come from."

Thabet Abu Ras, co-executive director of Abraham Initiatives, a Jewish-Arab NGO advocating and equality between Jews and Arabs in Israel. He lives in Kalansua, in Israel, and shops regularly in Tul Karm, a West Bank city. "I enjoy shopping in Tul Karm more than I do in Netanya," he says. "In Netanya, I find quite different prices, sometimes finding products that are culturally incompatible. When I go to a market in Tul Karm, I find exactly what I want as an Arab, that is my culture and my food – and the prices are lower. When I need to iron clothes, I go there too. Economy cannot be dissociated from culture. That's why Israeli Arabs stream to West Bank cities, particularly ones that are close to the Green Line."

According to Abu Ras, "10 new hotels have been built in Nablus in recent years, intended mainly for tourists from Israel. Everything is cheaper. I was there with my wife for two nights, at a nice hotel. It cost 600 shekels for two nights, including breakfast. Then I walked to a Turkish bath, and later to a restaurant with authentic Palestinian food and music. That is my cultural place, something I can't find in Israel. I do find it there."

Investing in Nablus and Ramallah

Abu Ras owns an apartment in Nablus. Arab Israeli in West Bank real estate is another trend that began in recent years. In some sense, it is similar to real estate investments overseas that have also sprouted in Israel. A specific trend is investment by Israeli Arabs in Turkish real estate. With prices in Israel increasing wildly, it's no wonder that Turkey or the West Bank are seen as good alternatives.

The price differentials are definitely alluring. A 100-square-meter apartment in an upscale Ramallah neighborhood could cost between 350,000 and 400,000 shekels (around $105,000-120,000). In Jericho, you can buy a 200-sqaure-meter villa with a 750-square-meter yard with a pool for one million shekels. In other cities, prices are even lower. An apartment in Nablus costing 150,000-200,000 shekels could be a reasonable solution for an Arab family from the Galilee whose son is studying medicine at al-Najah University in Nablus, especially since prices in the West Bank are on their way up.

The flow of Israeli Arabs students to campuses in the West Bank is another reason for buying real estate there. Some estimates put the number of Arab-Israeli students there at 9,000, 5,000 of them at the American University in Jenin, in which private residential buildings have been appearing in recent years, meant for renting out to students. Some apartments there have been purchased by Arab Israelis.

Shopping mainly in Jenin

Elias Habib, an architect from Haifa who also deals in real estate, discovered a sign belonging to a Ramallah real estate company called Nabali Fares six months ago. The company is used by Israeli Arabs to buy apartments in the West Bank. The sign was in the Hadar neighborhood in Haifa. This may have been an attempt to expand business by opening an office in Haifa, but it has since closed down. The company did not respond to calls by TheMarker.

According to Habib, the Palestinian real estate market is attractive not just for purchasing apartments, but also for renting them. "Last month I was approached by two female medical students at the Technion, who had started their residency at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem,

he says. "Their budget for renting was 3,000-4,000 shekels a month. It was hard to find a good apartment in Jerusalem for that price, but beyond the barrier, in the West Bank, one can find good properties that are significantly cheaper."

But the Palestinian real estate market could also deter investors because of potential legal problems. Habib says that a few years ago he was interested in purchasing apartments in Ramallah, after he visited the city and saw the accelerated development there, but says he refrained from doing so after a relative warned him of problems regarding property registration.

According to Sami Ali, a resident of Jisr al-Zarqa who advises Palestinian real estate companies, it's difficult to purchase real estate in the West Bank due to a fear of the takeover of land by Israeli settlers. He says that when it comes to buying an apartment inside a building, an Israeli Arab can register an apartment after undergoing a background check, but the purchase of land by someone other than a Palestinian resident is more complicated. The solution is to buy through a liaison who has Palestinian residency, in whose name the land is officially registered.

"In recent years it has become more popular to buy real estate in the West Bank," says Ali. "It's a combination of the short distance – a drive of an hour or two – and the low prices, a third of those in Israel. The greatest demand is for Ramallah, because it has good rental potential. It's the seat of the government ministries, and of the offices of international organizations and of the representatives of foreign countries, which are less sensitive to rental prices. The international representatives can pay $800-$900 a month for an apartment, as compared to a Palestinian family that will pay $500-$600. In other cities the prices are half or a quarter of that.

"I assume that if the security situation continues to deteriorate, the effect will also be felt in real estate," Ali says. "When buyers show an interest in an apartment, one of the fears that comes up is regarding the security-diplomatic situation – what will happen if war breaks out or a closure is declared, how will that affect housing prices? The real estate company owners are trying to reassure people and to explain that in case of damage caused by the security situation, there are insurance companies that provide compensation."

A lot to lose

In light of security incidents in recent weeks, the question is what will happen to Israeli Arabs if the explosive situation worsens. In his book, Haidar describes how the first intifada contributed to the development of retail businesses in Israeli Arab society, when customers stopped shopping at West Bank markets. The book also notes that during the second intifada, when there were serious restrictions on movement, 1,500 new businesses opened over three years in the so-called Little Triangle Area (a concentration of Arab towns in north-central Israel). In other words, there are some people who might profit from closing the border, but clearly many in the Arab community will lose from a deteriorating security situation.

"I remember that period, the closure was total," says Abu Ras. "Before the second intifada, the Arabs bought a great deal in the West Bank, but now a renewed closure of the West Bank to Arabs is far more significant, because since that time the Palestinian middle class has expanded, and purchases in the West Bank are far more extensive. Therefore, closing the West Bank to Israeli Arabs would be of greater significance now."

Bennett: Holocaust memory is part of Jews' DNA, passed from generation to generation

Bundestag president lights candle at Knesset memorial ceremony, noting 'historical guilt,' but MK Akunis says he will never forgive Germans for their role

By Rachel Bernstein

For Jews, Holocaust memory is genetic, passed from generation to generation, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said during a memorial ceremony in the Knesset on Thursday as part of a series of events to mark Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"The memory of the Holocaust is not just a memory but a layer, part of the DNA that is passed down from generation to generation," Bennett said.

The head of Germany's parliament, along with the prime minister, President Isaac Herzog and other Israeli officials, lit a memorial candle in the Knesset for the ceremony.

State of Jerusalem: The MaqdasyinKeep Watching

"I bow my head with humility and shame in face of the Holocaust victims," Bundestag President Barbel Bas said in German ahead of the official Knesset ceremony "Unto Every Person There is a Name," during which the names of Nazi genocide victims were read aloud.

"It is forbidden for us to forget and we will not forget," she said. "From our historical guilt stems a commitment. It is upon us to fight resolutely against antisemitism in all of its forms, and it is upon us to preserve the [victims'] memory, and to pass on their memory to the younger generations."

Likud MK Ophir Akunis said during the ceremony that he will not forgive the Germans for the Holocaust.

"Others may be able to forgive the Germans," he said in Hebrew, after addressing Bas briefly in English, noting that 97 percent of the Jewish community in Thessaloniki, where his family hails from, was killed in the Holocaust. "I do not forget or forgive, nor will I forgive this act of pure evil, ever."

Likud MK Ofir Akunis at a Holocaust memorial day ceremony held at the Knesset in Jerusalem, April 28, 2022 (Screen grab)

But Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy called Bas's participation in the Israeli parliament's ceremonies for Holocaust Remembrance Day, which began Wednesday evening, "a significant and important expression of the special connection that exists between the countries, for the historical responsibility that Germany took for the war crimes, and Germany's commitment to Israel's security."

Bas lit the memorial candle in front of the Knesset in memory of Irma Natan, a Jewish resident of Duisburg and head of the welfare committee for the Jewish community, who was killed in the Holocaust. Bas is also from Duisburg, in western Germany.

President Isaac Herzog at the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem, April 28, 2022. (Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO)

Herzog and his wife, Michal, also joined the ceremony after laying a wreath at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem earlier Thursday. Herzog read aloud the names of several family members murdered in the Holocaust, as well as "the 10,000 Jews of the Lomza Ghetto in Poland, murdered and massacred and exiled to Auschwitz in January 1943, like lambs to slaughter."

Bennett and his wife, Gilat, also placed a wreath during the annual wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial museum before joining the Knesset ceremony.

During the ceremony, the prime minister also shared the story of his wife's grandfather.

"He was never able to forgive himself for not protecting his mother and his two brothers, who were killed at the hands of the Polish," Bennett said. Israel and Poland have had tense ties in recent years, particularly over Polish legislation that intended to bar Holocaust restitution claims, and Warsaw's legislation seeking to ban comments assigning any blame for the Holocaust to Poland.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz participated on Thursday in a memorial ceremony at the Massuah Museum in Kibbutz Tel Yitzhak.

"In Holocaust Remembrance Day speeches, we occasionally mention Israel's security threats, led by Iran — which seeks to acquire nuclear weapons and pose an existential threat to us," Gantz said. "Therefore, the State of Israel must have military power and it must have moral power alongside it. We must be strong and know how to defend ourselves on our own. This is an important lesson of the Jewish people for generations and we must be moral so that we have something to live for."

Bundestag President Barbel Bas lights a candle at the Knesset on April 28, 2022, as part of activities marking Israel's Holocaust remembrance day. (Noam Moskovitz/Knesset)

"Preserving human morality and humane values are some of the key lessons of the Holocaust," he added. "These… stem from our ability to live as one strong and cohesive society, not as a people scattered in Diaspora."

Bas is the first senior German official to attend Holocaust Remembrance Day events at the Israeli parliament.

The Bundestag president v isited Yad Vashem on Wednesday alongside Levy, and met with former Israeli chief rabbi Meir Lau, who shared his story of surviving the Holocaust.

Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel and around the world marks 24 hours of remembrances dedicated to the victims of the Nazi genocide. The annual memorial day is one of the most solemn days on Israel's national calendar. Much of the country shut down for two minutes for a memorial siren at 10 a.m. Thursday.

Interview'Hitler lied constantly, clearly planned to dominate Europe'

Why did the US ignore diplomats who boldly raised an alarm about Hitler before WWII?

In new book 'Watching Darkness Fall,' former US ambassador David McKean illustrates how antisemitism, apathy and internal politics set America back in the war against Germany

By Rich Tenorio28 April 2022, 11:28 pm

United States Ambassador William E. Dodd leaves the presidential palace in Berlin, September 6, 1933, after presenting his credentials to President Paul von Hindenburg. After receiving military honors, the new ambassador made a brief speech in which he mentioned the cultural ties between the two nations. (AP Photo)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, his secretary Marguerite Lehand and ambassador to France William C. Bullitt ride from the railroad station to FDR's Hyde Park, New York, home on July, 22, 1940, after a trip to Washington. (AP Photo)
Joseph P. Kennedy, then chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission is shown at work in his shirt sleeves during Washington's heat wave on July 16, 1934. (AP Photo)
Joseph Patrick Kennedy, known as Joe Kennedy, the American Ambassador in London smiling as he leaves the House of Commons, London on August 29, 1939, after being present at the special sitting of the house. (AP Photo/Staff/Len Puttnam)

In 1938, William Dodd, the United States ambassador to Nazi Germany, publicly declared that Hitler wanted to kill all the Jews not just in Germany, but the entire European continent. Months later, the Kristallnacht pogroms indicated he was right.

Despite Dodd's perception, the US diplomatic corps overlooked a number of totalitarian threats at the time, according to "Watching Darkness Fall: FDR, His Ambassadors, and the Rise of Adolf Hitler," a new book by David McKean.

The author is himself a former US ambassador to Luxembourg under the Obama administration. The inspiration for the book came while McKean was serving there from 2016 to 2017.

State of Jerusalem: The Maqdasyin

Although a relatively small country, Luxembourg has the second-largest military cemetery in Europe after Normandy; those buried there include Gen. George S. Patton. McKean was struck by how powerful the memory of World War II remained in Luxembourg, which was overrun twice by Germany. He eventually decided to write a book focusing on four members of president Franklin Delano Roosevelt's diplomatic corps during the leadup to war.

"I just thought it was such a different way of looking at our foreign policy during this period," McKean told The Times of Israel. "To learn how these ambassadors, who for the most part came from fairly similar backgrounds, turned out to be very, very different in their approach to the job… It is an incredibly interesting perspective on our diplomacy at the time."

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On the positive side, there were Dodd and the colorful William Bullitt — a millionaire and bon vivant who served as ambassador to the USSR and France. They helped get Sigmund Freud out of Austria after the Anschluss, and made a questionable return home once Paris fell.

As for the negatives, it's a toss-up between two controversial figures. Joseph P. Kennedy, the patriarch of the future political dynasty, saw his tenure as ambassador to the UK end after defeatist comments to the press in 1940. Breckenridge Long was an ambassador to Italy who praised Benito Mussolini, then hindered Jewish refugees from reaching the US while serving as assistant secretary of state during WWII.

McKean said that Kennedy "was not cut out to be an ambassador," and that Long "was just a terrible appointment."

United States Ambassador William E. Dodd leaves the presidential palace in Berlin, September 6, 1933, after presenting his credentials to President Paul von Hindenburg. After receiving military honors, the new ambassador made a brief speech in which he mentioned the cultural ties between the two nations. (AP Photo)

Contemporary reverberations

Lately, McKean has been thinking about the role of diplomacy during the current Russia-Ukraine crisis. He has high praise for the performance of Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the US, who was a guest at President Joe Biden's State of the Union address on March 1.

Former US ambassador to Luxembourg and author of 'Watching Darkness Fall,' David McKean. (John Pratt McKean)

"Ambassadors can often play a critical role in conveying information both to and from their home country," McKean said in a follow-up email. "For example, for millions of [Americans] who saw her at the State of the Union and have seen her on news shows, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, has become an important voice for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression."

"Not only has she [been] able to talk directly with members of Congress and officials in the White House, she has made the case — very effectively — to the American people, that Ukraine needs more US military aid and tougher sanctions on Russia," McKean continued.

The former diplomat pointed out that just as Roosevelt relied on his ambassadors in Europe to be his eyes and ears on the ground in the years leading up to WWII, so, too, ambassadors around the world often play that role today.

Behind every great man…

When Roosevelt first took office in 1933, he had limited foreign-policy interests – while the public had significant isolationist tendencies, a legacy of WWI. McKean also noted sizable hostility toward immigration among Americans of the day.

"It was not an issue the American people accepted as something we should take interest in," said McKean. "Waves of European immigrants were never a popular issue. The United States, frankly, was also quite an antisemitic country at the time."

However, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt overruled Long when it came to saving the mostly Jewish passengers on the refugee ship SS Quanza in 1940.

"She was clearly a great humanitarian and in many ways Franklin's political conscience," McKean said.

In one chapter of the book, the Roosevelts are having breakfast, each reading the morning paper. When the first lady learns that Long is impeding immigration, she becomes furious: "Franklin, you know he's a fascist!"

Dr. William E. Dodd, United States Ambassador to Germany, speaks at the Festival for International Exchange of Pupil at a Berlin concert hall May 29, 1935. (AP Photo)

"She was a truth-teller," McKean reflects, "with a very honest humanitarian streak."

McKean cited similar reasons for his admiration of Dodd, calling him "sort of the unwavering moral compass… I think he told Roosevelt the truth."

As the book explains, Dodd was hardly philo-Semitic when he took up his ambassadorship in 1933. Although he rented two floors of a posh Berlin residence from a wealthy Jewish businessman and his family who lived on the third floor, he failed to recognize their motivations in renting it out to him.

"Dodd was so happy to get the apartment at a good rate that he did not recognize that the family living on the third floor did this hoping for American protection," McKean said.

However, following his first meeting with Hitler, Dodd saw the Nazis as they really were. "They were evil, to put it simply," McKean said.

Unheeded warnings

As Dodd kept interactions with the Reich to a minimum, his warnings went largely unheeded in Washington.

'Watching Darkness Fall,' by David McKean. (Courtesy)

"[Some] of the things he was concerned with — such as the length of cables sent to Washington, and the wealthy lifestyles of other diplomats — meant that he managed to not be taken seriously by a number of people in the Department of State," McKean said. "In particular the secretary [of state] at the time, Cordell Hull did not consider him an able diplomat… I fault [Dodd] a little bit. I think he was somewhat naive."

In contrast, there was the worldly Bullitt, the so-called "Champagne ambassador" known for his romances and the extravagant parties he held in Paris. The book describes him as ambitiously angling for higher positions. In 1937, he briefly left Paris on his own initiative to go to Berlin and meet with high-ranking Nazis in the twilight of Dodd's tenure there. After conferring with Hermann Goering, Bullitt wrote a private letter to FDR noting the Reichsmarschall's distaste for Dodd, which he said was widespread in Germany. He shared a scathing take on Goering: "as you know, he strongly resembles the hind end on an elephant."

As Dodd's ambassadorship came to an end, Kennedy's began at the Court of St. James's. The latter questioned whether FDR wanted to appoint an Irish-American to this post, but the president backed him.

Joseph P. Kennedy, then chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission is shown at work in his shirt sleeves during Washington's heat wave on July 16, 1934. (AP Photo)

"[Roosevelt] felt Joe Kennedy had done a good job at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and actually a very good job as head of the Merchant Marine," said McKean, who in addition to his longtime work in government is also the former head of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston, named after the former ambassador's son, the future US president.

FDR nominated the elder Kennedy in 1938 for reasons beyond his past performance in office. A presidential election was on the horizon, and an ambassadorship would sideline this political rival.

"It was good to have [Kennedy] out of the country in 1940, an election year," McKean noted. "[FDR] did not want Kennedy — who was very influential, particularly with the Catholic vote, and an enormously wealthy individual — he did not want him around."

The author is himself a former US ambassador to Luxembourg under the Obama administration. The inspiration for the book came while McKean was serving there from 2016 to 2017.

State of Jerusalem: The Maqdasyin

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McKean said that Kennedy "was not cut out to be an ambassador," and that Long "was just a terrible appointment."