ISRAEL

Oct. 31, 1917 — The Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade surprises the Turkish defenders and captures Beersheba in one day, breaking the Ottoman defensive line near Gaza and obtaining needed water for advancing British troops.

Nov. 1, 1945 — The Jewish Resistance Movement sets off explosions at over 150 sites along the railway of Mandatory Palestine and blows up three British gunboats in synchronized attacks known as the Night of the Trains. Nov. 2, 1917 — British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour reveals his government’s endorsement of “the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national home” in the Balfour Declaration, a letter to Zionist leader Lord Rothschild.

Nov. 3, 1878 — Religious Jews leave Jerusalem and establish the agricultural settlement of Petah Tikvah (“Gateway of Hope”), now Israel’s fifth-largest city, on 3,400 dunams (roughly 756 acres) bought near the Yarkon River and the Arab village of Mulabbis.

Nov. 4, 1995 — Yigal Amir, a law student opposed to the Oslo peace process, fatally shoots Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin after a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Rabin had played a prominent role in most of Israel’s history.

Nov. 5, 1990 — Rabbi Meir Kahane, 58, is fatally shot by Egyptian-American El Sayyid Nosair in a New York hotel where Kahane is speaking. Kahane was elected to the Knesset in 1984 as the head of Kach, which later was banned for inciting racism.

Nov. 6, 1987 — Zohar Argov, who as one of Israel’s first Mizrahi music stars is known as the “The King” but is haunted by addictions to cocaine and heroin, hangs himself in jail at age 32 after being accused of attempted rape.

Nov. 7, 1944 — Hannah Senesh (formerly Szenes), a poet and Haganah paratrooper, is killed by a Hungarian firing squad in Budapest five months after being captured while trying to cross the border from Yugoslavia.

Nov. 8, 1923 — Yisrael Meir Friedman Ben-Shalom, the future Pashkaner Rebbe, is born to a Hasidic and Zionist family in Bohush, Romania. He and his wife, Zipporah, smuggle themselves into Palestine in 1946 and soon found a kibbutz.

Nov. 9, 1952 — Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, dies at his Rehovot home after a yearlong illness. A native of Poland, he moved to England in 1904. He developed political friendships that contributed to the Balfour Declaration.

Nov. 10, 1975 — The U.N. General Assembly passes Resolution 3379, defining Zionism as racism, on a vote of 72-35 with 32 abstentions. The resolution is revoked in December 1991 in connection with October’s Madrid peace conference.

Nov. 11, 1902 — Yisrael Amir is born in Vilna in the Russian Empire. He makes aliyah in 1923 and rises through the Haganah. Despite no aviation experience, David BenGurion names him the first Israeli Air Force commander in May 1948.

Nov. 12, 2009 — Former Knesset member Eliyahu Speiser dies at age 79. A native of Haifa, Speiser begins working for Israel’s dominant political party, Mapai, in 1965 and is involved in the merger that produces the Labor Party in 1968.

Nov. 13, 1893

— Acclaimed Israeli painter Reuven Rubin is born in Galatz, Romania. He sells his bicycle in 1912 to afford to travel to Jerusalem and enroll in the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. He

also studies in Paris.

Nov. 14, 1956 — Six days after Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announces that Israeli troops will withdraw from the Sinai, the Knesset debates the plan amid calls to keep the army in place until Egypt enters peace talks.

Photo by Fritz Cohen, Israeli National Photo Collection Moshe Sneh, shown as a member of the Knesset in 1961, was one of four leaders of the Jewish Resistance Movement when he was with the Haganah in 1945.

Knesset photo Eliyahu Speiser studied at the University of Paris and served on the embassy staff there before his political career.

TODAY IN ISRAELI HISTORY

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Mira, Selma, and Abe One Good Deed volunteer with her matches Matched in August 2020

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ISRAEL NEWS

Israel May Finally Open Up to Tourists in November

By Jan Jaben-Eilon

Unless something drastic or unexpected occurs – such as an outbreak of hostilities with its neighbors or a sudden surge in COVID-19 – Israel will open up for tourists in November.

“The tourism industry in Israel has been bombarded with information related to the government protocol for incoming tourists,” said Cheri Levitan, CEO of Israel-based Kenes Tours. However, “the official revised protocol will not be published until November.” From what Atlanta-based Levitan is hearing, significant changes are expected to be announced that will make it easier for U.S. citizens to travel to Israel.

For instance, upon landing in Tel Aviv, visitors will no longer be required to undergo serological testing at Ben Gurion Airport. Quarantining will not be required. Anyone who has received a COVID-19 booster will be permitted to enter the country. “Vaccinated tourists [who are] part of a tourist group organized by an authorized Israeli tour operator like Kenes Tours will be permitted to visit Israel no matter when they received their last vaccine,” Levitan said.

In general, she added, “for groups whose members all either had a booster or had their last vaccine no more than six months prior to arrival in Israel, the bureaucratic processing will be minimal, and entry will be streamlined.”

When it occurs, the easing of requirements for individuals or groups of tourists will be a huge relief to Israel’s tourism industry, which was hit particularly hard by the pandemic. At times, Israel practically closed its borders. In 2020 alone, the number of tourists dropped nearly 100 percent, with a loss of billions of dollars.

Just a couple of months ago, Israel started allowing in small groups of organized tours as an experiment, but the constantly changing regulations continued to plague the industry. “So many organizations want to send groups to Israel but have been stymied by the complete lack of clear instructions when the country will open up and under what circumstances,” said Mark Feldman, director of the Jerusalem district for Diesenhaus Unitours, in August. “It’s nothing short of deplorable that our government continues to speak out of both sides of the mouth, leaving potential tourists bewildered by when Israel will allow them in.”

This conundrum could be solved soon, and the timing couldn’t be better for the industry. Jewish tourists can hopefully start making plans to be in Israel for Chanukah, starting the end of November, and Christians can plan their trips to the Holy Land for the Christmas holiday.

“We hope to have more concrete and specific guidelines from the Ministry of Tourism within the next couple of weeks,” said Levitan.

Tourists from Europe, however, will have an easier time entering Israel than those from the U.S. The first group of tourists to be allowed in will most likely come from countries with reciprocal agreements that include digitized vaccination records. Since the U.S. doesn’t have a national digitized system, it may be more complicated. At this point, it seems that individual American tourists will be required to fill out the online forms through the Israeli Ministry of Health website, in the same way that first-degree relatives of Israeli citizens have been required to do during the pandemic.

Residents of New York and California, which have digital “green passport” systems, may have an easier time than the rest of their countrymen.

Once in Israel, tourists will need to follow local mandates, such as wearing masks indoors. To enter public venues such as hotels, restaurants, conferences, bars, tourist attractions, and synagogues holding more than 50 people, Israelis as well as tourists also are required to show a Green Pass. Alex Gandler, deputy consul general of the Consulate General of Israel to the Southeast, notes that the changes in that program came into effect in early October. Due to those changes, anyone holding a Green Pass dated prior to Oct. 3 needs to reapply for a new one. Instructions to obtain the Green Pass can be found at https://corona.health.gov.il/ en/directives/green-pass-info/.

Essentially, Green Pass eligibility is for those who have been vaccinated or those who have recovered outside of Israel. The validity of the pass depends on

“We hope to have more concrete and specific guidelines from the Ministry of Tourism within the next couple of weeks,” said Cheri Levitan. Potential tourists have been bewildered by Israel’s timeline for letting them in, according to Mark Feldman, Jerusalem district director of Diesenhaus Unitours.

Changes in Israel’s Green Pass program came into effect Oct. 3, notes Alex Gandler, deputy consul general of the Consulate General of Israel to the Southeast.

the number of vaccine doses that person has received, and on the results of COVID testing in Israel.

Despite the complexities, Levitan is optimistic. “Let’s hope when the policy is announced, it will be clearer and allinclusive,” she told the AJT. ì

Roe v. Wade in Jeopardy

Tuesday, November 9, 2021 7:00 pm on Zoom

Andrea Young, Executive Director, ACLU of Georgia

Panelists

Dr. Mimi Zieman, NCJW Atlanta Reproductive Justice Chair

Staci Fox, President and CEO, Planned Parenthood of Georgia