by Ilana Messika
The Jewish Agency Global School Twinning Network Program has succeeded in pairing more than 600 schools in advance of the new academic year.

The program, geared to connect Jewish youth in Israel and the Diaspora, pairs 300 of the 4,900 schools in Israel with Jewish schools around the world, such as Uruguay, Peru, Hungary, Russia, and Azerbaijan.

“We believe that Jewish students who are more connected to Israel and more knowledgeable about the country will also be better positioned to share their love of the land with others,” Amihai Bannett, a program coordinator in the Twinning Network Head Office, told Tazpit Press Service (TPS).

The Global School Twinning Network is part of the Agency’s “Partnership2Gether (P2G)” family of programs, which share a goal of bringing Jewish Federation communities together with Israelis and cultivating relationships through joint projects and shared experiences.

The network has grown from 360 schools to 650 schools in less than five years, with 52,000 students participating in the program last year.

Participating Israeli schools may be either religious or secular, and the schools abroad represent a wide swath of the various streams of Judaism in the Diaspora. The program is available to all ages from kindergarten through 12th grade.

“We match schools that have similar interests and ideologies,” explained Bannett. “For example, we are launching a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Twinning program this year with a shared curriculum of science and technology that will highlight Israel as a ‘start-up nation.’”

Students in the program will improve their English and Hebrew together with regular meetings via Skype and Facebook, share school projects, travel in joint delegations and visit each other’s homes. Virtual classrooms are also created to enable students to connect even if they are not in the same time zone.

Simcha Abergel, head of Judaic studies and Hebrew at the Sir Manasseh Meyer International School of Singapore, her school’s partnership with the Israeli Ahiya School of Avnei Hefetz in Samaria presents her students with a unique opportunity.

“Several of our students are Israeli, but our goal was specifically to target the non-Israeli youth in order for them to actively experience the Israeli system of education and to understand how Jewish tradition is put into practice in a Jewish state,” she said.

Teachers also engage in a joint training program and plan content and activities for the new school year together.

“We have been collaborating in recent years with the Israeli Ministry of Education to offer teachers, both Israeli and internationally, an introduction to dilemmas faced by Jews in the Diaspora and in Israel and to give them content they can use to help their students connect to their peers in the twin school,” Bannett said.

The Global Twinning Network was awarded the Jerusalem Unity Prize on June 1 for its work in promoting unity between Jewish communities around the world and Israeli society.

“Unity is achieved by creating relations between people,” program director Hagar Shoham-Marko concluded. “The wider and deeper the network of connections, the closer are the different parts of the Jewish people.”

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shook hands Wednesday with Israel’s female interim head of its embassy in Ankara, Shani Cooper, who has been appointed to field the office until permanent ambassadors are appointed by the two countries.

The ceremonial handshake was part of a tradition carried out with the diplomatic corps each year to celebrate Turkey’s Victory Day on August 30.

This time, Erdogan specifically asked to welcome Cooper — a move seen by analysts as an effort to send a positive message to Israelis who are closely watching the Turkish leader in the wake of a six-year break in relations between the two countries.

Cooper responded warmly to the request, expressing Israel’s support for Erdogan and the Turkish nation.

Erdogan requested an interpreter, through whose services he responded with positive remarks on the diplomatic relations between the two countries. He wished Cooper good luck on her position as well.

Earlier in the day, Erdogan’s office sent the approved, signed agreement with Israel to the office of Turkey’s prime minister. Simultaneously in Israel, the government cabinet ministers also issued their final approval on the document as well.

The agreement is considered to be officially ratified and becomes effective after seven days if no objections are filed on either side.

By Anna Rudnitsky

Biblical archaeology was revolutionized several years ago when evidence of the existence of the kingdom of David was brought to light in the form of a fortified Iron Age town excavated in the Elah Valley by Hebrew University Professor Yosef Garfinkel and Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) archaeologist Sa’ar Ganor.

The place was described by the Bible as the location of the battle between David and Goliath. The highlights of the findings of the Elah Valley excavations are now to be presented to the public for the first time at an exhibition scheduled to open at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem on September 5.

“Archaeology cannot find a man and we did not find the remnants linked to King David himself,” Professor Garfinkel told Tazpit Press Service (TPS). “But what we did find is archaeological evidence of the social process of urbanization in Judea.”

According to Prof. Garfinkel, the evidence of urbanization fits in with what is described in the Bible as the establishment of the Kingdom of David, when small agrarian communities were replaced by fortified towns. “The chronology fits the Biblical narrative perfectly. Carbon tests performed on the olive pits found in Khirbet Qeiyafa show the town was built at the end of the 11th century BCE,” Garfinkel explained.

Two phenomena particularly attracted the attention of Garfinkel and Ganor when they began excavations at the site of Khirbet Qeiyafa about 10 years ago. Numerous iron stones were found and a wall of unusual form, with hollows in two places, enveloped the site.

The archaeologists only realized in the second year of their excavations that they had found a fortified town from the Iron Age that perfectly fit the description of the Biblical town of Sha’arayim. The name in Hebrew means “two gates,” and the hollows in the modern wall, built on top of the ancient one, were precisely in the same place as the previous existence of two gates, which is quite a rarity for a relatively small town.

The geographical location of the town also fits right in line with the Biblical depiction of Sha’arayim, mentioned in the context of the aftermath of the battle between David and Goliath when the Philistines “fell on the way to Sha’arayim.” The town is also mentioned in the Book of Joshua as being situated near Socho and Azeka, two archaeological sites surrounding Khirbet Qeiyafa.

Other remarkable finds at the site include two inscriptions in the Canaanite script that are considered to be the earliest written attestation to date as to the use of the Hebrew language. A pottery shard contains the distinctly identifiable Hebrew words, “king,” “don’t do,” and “judge.”

The Bible Lands Museum exhibition, “In the Valley of David and Goliath” will feature the pottery shards as well as a clay model of a shrine found at the site and the huge stones used in the wall around the town. “Although I led the excavations, I myself was amazed to see the different pieces brought together in a way that allows visitors to get a clear picture of how the town looked and that gives them an opportunity to go back in history to the times of the kingdom of David,” Professor Garfinkel said.

Is entering Area B without coordinating it with the authorities a criminal offense? Israeli police have apparently begun to charge Israeli citizens who enter these (few) parts of Judea and Samaria where, according to the Oslo agreements, the PA enjoys civil control and security is managed jointly by Israeli and PA forces.

On Friday, August 26, the Petah Tikva Magistrate Court agreed to a police request to distance a group of 13 Breslov hasidim from Judea and Samaria for a period of 60 days because on Thursday night they had entered the village of Kifil Haras (Timnat Heres, location of Joshua’s tomb), near Ariel in Samaria, to pray at the tomb. The group was attacked by rock-throwing Arabs. Soldiers and police who arrived at the scene promptly detained the Jews.

Kifil Haras is located in Area B, which Israeli citizens may enter at will, just as they are permitted to drive on sections of Route 60 which cuts through the Area B Arab town of Hawara, as well as on the road from Jerusalem to the Jewish community of Nokdim.

Legal aid society Honenu attorney Chai Haber said in a statement Monday that he finds it difficult to understand the police unprecedented approach, “claiming that entering Area B, which is permitted to Israeli citizens, constitutes the criminal offense of ‘public nuisance,’ due to the fact that Arab terrorists throw rocks and endanger the lives of Israeli citizens.”

As is often the case in these hearings, Judge Smadar Abramovitch-Kollende sided with the police and ordered the restraining of all of 13 detainees from entering any part of Judea and Samaria for 60 days.

Haber complained against Israeli security forces who detained his clients. He said that “instead of protecting the worshippers, the IDF and the police decided to detain them. I was not surprised to hear from the police representative during the deliberation that not one of the rock-throwing Arabs had been detained.”

“This is a slippery slope,” Haber argued, adding: “Tomorrow the IDF could decide that instead of dealing with the individuals throwing rocks on the roads, they will detain the Jewish residents driving on the main roads, some of which are in Area B. We will file an appeal on the scandalous decision to distance the worshippers from all of Judea and Samaria.” He also wondered “why it is that the left-wingers who entered [Area A] Ramallah [in June 2016] and were attacked [by local Arabs], were not detained, while the worshippers who entered Area B were detained.”

The police argued that although entry to the Area B village of Kifil Haras is permitted to Israeli citizens, there are scheduled, guarded entries to the village, and because the Breslov group did not coordinate their arrival with security forces they were charged with being a “public nuisance” and with “disturbing a public servant in the performance of his duty.” Police claim that by riding into the village unaccompanied, the hasidim provoked local Arabs’ anger, endangering their own lives and the lives of the soldiers who were sent into the village to protect them. In court, the police argued that a week earlier Breslov hasidim had entered the city of Shechem (Area A) in order to reach Joseph’s Tomb in Area C — which police believed bolstered their demand to bar them from all of Judea and Samaria, including Area C.

As we mentioned earlier, attorney Haber asked police in court whether the rioting Arabs had been detained and was told that none of them had been picked up, because, according to police testimony, security forces did not want to “create a provocation, but rather acted to save the lives of the suspects.”

But they did much more than save their lives, as Haber noted: the Jewish worshippers, some of them only 14 years of age, were detained for interrogation at 3 AM and brought to court only after 2 PM the next day. This was in violation of Israel’s Youth Law. Another violation: their parents were not invited to the court deliberation. Haber said some of the minors complained of police brutality and one of them said that a policeman threatened him with a Taser gun.

Seven young men and women who were detained by police on Monday on charges that their prayer outside the Temple Mount constituted a disturbance of the public peace, were released after police demanded that they sign a restraining order barring them from the Old City for 15 days, legal aid society Honenu reported.

Six of the detainees refused to sign the order and were released on the condition that they appear in Magistrate Court Tuesday, when police will be asking the court to bar them from the Old City.

Honenu attorneys have been complaining repeatedly that Jerusalem Police are so fearful of Arab rioting that they have begun to target Jews who are not attempting to disrupt the unholy status quo of the Temple Mount, but are merely engaging in action that might potentially anger the Arabs — regardless of the fact that the action is absolutely legal.

Shira always tries to get to the annual Shmiras Halashon conference in Jerusalem’s Binyanei HaUma. It’s quite enthralling and energizing to be with thousands of other women, all gathered together to try and help bring Moshiach and hasten the building of the third Beis Hamikdosh by being more careful about their speech.

The evening is always honored by the presence of rabbanim, from all over the world, who are renowned speakers. Some of them may have flown in especially for this particular evening and even leave for the airport straight after giving their talk. Their words, ideas and examples give tremendous chizuk and encouragement to everyone and provide plenty of practical ideas on how to dan le’kaf zechus, judge your friends and neighbors favorably even when things don’t look so good, how to avoid speaking loshon horo, how to banish all sinas chinam, baseless hatred, from your hearts . Everyone goes home full of good intentions to improve themselves and their speech and behavior and with practical steps to take to help ensure their success.

But this year, for various reasons, none of Shira’s relatives or friends were able to go with her. One wasn’t well, one had just recently given birth, her daughters were just too exhausted to go out again after a full working day and a large family to take care of. So for the first time in many years she hadn’t bought tickets in advance. She also made a mental note to herself to pick up CD recordings at the end so that she could give them to her married children to listen to at home. Normally she would arrive, meet up with her companions and go straight to their seats. But this time she knew she’d have to stand in line for a while to get a ticket. She hoped her seat wouldn’t be too high up as the osteoarthritis in her knee was playing up and hurting badly and both standing in line for the ticket and climbing stairs to get to her seat were not activities she looked forward to.

As she approached the building she took out her purse and prepared a handful of shekels ready for the many women who were collecting outside. A destitute kallah, a family on the brink of starving, a child in need of very expensive medication or an operation in chutz le’areetz for a life-threatening illness. She tried to give something, however small, to everyone. She knew it wasn’t easy or pleasant to stand around asking for money and so many people were far worse off than she was. She glanced into the box office and saw with dismay just how long the lines were, but now that she was here she was determined to get a seat somehow, wherever it was.

She joined the end of the line and had been standing there for no more than a few minutes when she felt a tap on her shoulder. A woman she had never met before asked her, “How many tickets do you need to buy?”

“Just one.”

“Oh good. Well I bought quite a few in advance from one of the women in my neighborhood who was selling them, and not all of my children could come so I have one left. Would you like to buy it from me?”

Before Shira could ask where the seat was the woman continued, “It’s one of the best seats in the hall. It’s in row 7, right at the front.”

Shira couldn’t believe the hashgacha pratis. Not only did she not have to wait in line for her ticket but she also wouldn’t have to climb any stairs. And for the first time ever she would be close enough to be able to see the speakers and not have to rely on the video screen.

The body of the terrorist, Abd al-Malik Saleh Abu Kharoub, was returned to his family for burial on Tuesday night.

He was buried near the Old City of Jerusalem, in a small funeral at night, as per an agreement made between the terrorist’s family and the police.

On March 9, 2016, Kharoub and a second terrorist, Muhammad Jamal Al-Kalouti, opened fire at a bus in Ramot, Jerusalem and the drove past the Old City and began opening fire on civilians near a train station.

The two were killed by police.

Al-Kalouti’s body was returned last week, and was buried in the Bab al-Zahra cemetery in Jerusalem in a small funeral at night.

At the time, officials only returned Al-Kalouti’s body after the family deposited NIS 20,000 in collateral with the police and pledged not to have more than 30 people at the ceremony.