12. 1995
B
ULLETIN BOARD IN THE PARISH HOUSE.
Hurray! We’re going on holiday!
Everybody who can, bring your children and friends. We are going to Kinneret for two days!
The German Mission is allowing us to put up tents on their land!
We will be going swimming, so don’t forget your bathing suits!
We are collecting money for communal meals, everybody give what you can!
Hilda, Zhanna, and Anastasia Nikolayevna will do the shopping.
Great children’s games and fiendish competitions.
At sundown there will be a service, and then a shared meal round the campfire!
The next morning little Simeon and his father, Nikolai, will be baptized.
We will have fun and enjoy ourselves the whole day, and before leaving we will tidy up everything down to the last speck of dust!
Two buses will be at the parish house at 8 am.
Do not be more than 10 minutes late.
Or 15 at the outside!
Hilda
13. 1996, Galilee, Nof a-Galil
F
ROM A CONVERSATION BETWEEN
A
VIGDOR
S
TEIN AND
E
WA
M
ANUKYAN
“To tell you the truth, I had never before been on one of their holiday outings. In the first place, Milka had gone to see Ruth in America. Noami brought me two grandchildren for the holidays. She was finishing her doctorate and wanted to sit down and work for three days. Fair enough. In the second place, it was Daniel arranging the trip, and the whole of Israel said he was an incomparable guide. My grandchildren would hear what their great-uncle had to say. I was confident that he would not say anything bad, and when he started waving his Cross about, we would go off to play football or take a boat and go sailing. In any case, he always came to us for Passover and nothing happened. He read the Haggadah better than anybody else in our family. And besides, he was my elder brother. You know, Ewa, I really take no interest in all this religious stuff. Of course, when I was young I was interested in everything, but mainly because of Daniel. When I grew up I found tractors far more interesting. I really did have some good ideas about tractors. If only I had had the time and opportunity I would have designed a small-wheeled tractor which would have been sold all over the world. I will come back to that when I have more free time.
“So anyway, we got on the bus and went to Kinneret.
“We didn’t take the short route, but drove by way of the Jezreel Valley to Afula. There we picked up a woman called Irina and her three daughters and went past Gilboa, past Mount Tabor, and on to Tiberias. What can I say? It was as if I was traveling through these places for the first time because of what Daniel told us about every village, every bush, every donkey we met on the way. What a lecture he gave us about donkeys! I’m not joking. He knows everything about the donkeys and she-donkeys of Israel. How he praised them, especially the one which recognized the angel when its owner, Balaam, failed to recognize it himself. How many stories there were about donkeys which were lost, donkeys which were carrying valuables, to say nothing of the she-donkey which bore Yeshua into Jerusalem. Altogether, the children’s ears were flapping, both the little ones and the older ones. It was a whole treasury of stories. Wherever you looked there was an hour-long story. He told them something about serpents, but I fell asleep at that point and missed the most interesting part.
“We reached Tiberias but he said straight away that we would not stay for long. I have been there a few times but he took us to parts I had never seen before, and talked so interestingly about them, too.
“I have been living here for the whole of my life and do not know this land. Incidentally, he said he had doubts about the ruins of the synagogue there. He thinks it is a Roman temple of a later period, and argued his case like an architect. How does he know these things? My grandchildren were again all ears. Then we got to Tabgha. There is a river there, a swimming pool, a beautiful garden, all on the shores of Lake Kinneret, their Sea of Galilee. A German came and showed us where to put the tents and provided a few rooms for the old women. We went to the shore. There is a jetty there and Daniel turned and said this was the very place Peter and his brother set off in their boat to catch fish. Do you know, Ewa, I believed him. It is true, the fishermen were going out from there to fish.
“He organized everything so well. We sat on the grass, had something to drink, a snack, then they went to the shore on their own business. There is a Cross and they conducted a service on a stone table. I took the grandchildren down to the jetty and made little boats for them to sail. Then the Christians said their prayers and we all sat down at a big table in the orchard with bread, wine, and roast chicken and everyone was happy. All the people were smiling, and they love each other. That is a really special talent my brother had. What a great pedagogue he could have been. He could have taught history, or botany. In fact, he could have taught the Jewish tradition, too. He knew it all inside out.
“The next day a family from Russia came to have their child baptized in the Holy Land. That struck me as a sound idea. If they were going to baptize a child, it was better to do it here than there. In the old days, you know, you would be persecuted, you could lose your job for christening a child, but now there’s no problem. You know, Ewa, when my grandsons were circumcised, they cried, especially Jacob, and my heart sank. Why cut them? It could all be done symbolically.
“In that sense, christening is better, it’s completely painless. The baby was very happy, and I have to say that Daniel performed it very adroitly. I would have been afraid the baby might slip out of my arms.
“Then there was a big party but there was nothing particularly Christian about it. They even had a competition to see who could hit one pebble with another, and who could skip a stone across the water. Well, actually no one can rival me at that. I won hands down.
“You know, he looked after all of them, the grown-ups and the children, like a kindly old grandad and I thought that he really was very good at his job. We Jews don’t need that so much, but for other people having such a good teacher and guide and counselor is splendid. It struck me then that Daniel was a man of God. He never did evil to anyone, only good. He never said a bad word about anybody and never needed anything for himself. Anything at all. If all Christians were like him, Jews would have a very favorable view of them. Ewa, I’m so sad that I never said anything like this to him. I didn’t see him alive again.
“What are you wailing about, my girl? Of course, he should have lived many, many more years.”
14. 1995, Hebron
P
OLICE
R
ECORD OF QUESTIONING OF
D
EBORAH
S
HIMES AFTER THE SUICIDE OF
B
INYOMIN
“I understand your grief, but I must ask you to stop shouting. This is a formality, but we are required to take a statement. Do you think I’m enjoying having to question you? Please, stop shouting or you will have your baby.”
“That’s not your problem.”
“Fine, fine, you’re quite right it’s not my problem. Tell me, who found Binyomin in the attic?”
“Sarra, our daughter.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“What time?”
“At 6:30. I had made coffee and asked Sarra to take a cup to Binyomin.”
“Please stop shouting. Please. We’ll be finished in a minute. It’s not going to take long. Tell me in more detail.”
“Sarra went into his room. Usually he locked himself in but the door was open. He wasn’t there. She put the cup on the table and went to the attic because he would sometimes sit up there.”