EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK YOUR PARENTS! FOUR HOURS OF FAMILY FUN! AN EXTRAORDINARY FAMILY Beating Back Fear EVENT TO HELP CHILDREN 0 peration Iraqi Freedom had just begun and 18- year-old Simcha Tzippy Cohen, a friend of my family, was sitting in a sealed bomb shelter in Jerusalem, wearing a gas mask. She and other seminary students were poised for a possible missile attack by Iraq against Israel. "I remember experiencing a tiny drop of fear, but for the most part, I felt safe," said Simcha Tzippy, daughter of Golda and Rabbi Avraham Cohen of Southfield. She's a 2002 honors graduate of Beth Jacob School for Girls in Oak Park, part of Southfield-based Yeshiva Beth Yehudah, where her father teaches. Simcha Tzippy's fearlessness surprised me at first. Palestinian terror has killed at least 760 Israeli and foreign civilians over the past 30 months, sending ripples of shock and anguish across the Jewish state. But then I understood what spurred her candor: In Israel, she's at peace with God, despite the risk. ROBERT A. "Israel is the closest place in the world SKLAR you can be to God," she said. "There is so Editor much holiness in this land that it's hard to feel unsafe." We spoke last Sunday, the same day the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported that Palestinians in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin had renamed their main plaza Na'mani Square to honor the memory of the Iraqi suicide bomber who murdered four U.S. soldiers the day before. Also Sunday, Islamic Jihad took responsibility for a nail-studded suicide bombing that injured more than 40 people outside Cafe London in mid-town Netanya. The Syrian-backed terror group hailed the blast as "Palestine's gift to the heroic people of Sim c ha Iraq." Such barbarity harkens to the Holocaust Cohe n when, as Israeli writer Naomi Ragen writes, "1,000 German Jewish young people, all beautiful, strong and healthy, were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz as a `birthday present' to Hitler." . What Drives Her An upbeat outlook, no matter how troubled the times, is hardly out of character for Simcha Tzippy, a bright, aware teenager. "On days when we hear about suicide bombers and shootings," she said, "we intensify our prayers to God and pray for those who were hurt. But it only strengthens the fact that I know I am so privileged to be here now." Since Aug. 25, "here" has been the Bnos Chava Teachers Seminary at Neve Yerushalayim College in Har Nof, Jerusalem's westernmost neighborhood. "We study Torah subjects and about our role as Jewish mothers," she said. "I love it so much, but I miss home ter- ribly!" Yeshiva Beth Yehudah President Gary Torgow describes her as "a wonderful, committed daughter of Israel" whose "heart and actions are fully committed to her family, her community and her people." Simcha Tzippy plans to leave for Detroit on June 9 and teach at Beth Jacob. The oldest girl in a large family, she has been a big help to her parents in caring for the younger children and creating a home nourished by Judaism's tradi- tions and ideals. The Cohens moved from Brooklyn to Southfield in 1992. Despite terror in Israel and war in Iraq, Simcha Tzippy is strong enough to embrace not only her studies, but also the environment in which they are taught. "On the many tours that our school has taken us on," she said, "I've seen unparalleled beauty β€” and it is all connected to my Jewish history and what I learn each day." Ten days after Allied bombs began to pelt Baghdad and she had to don a gas mask, she welcomed Shabbat by pray- ing in Jerusalem's Old City at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site. In the shadows of that historic treasure, in the land where our forebears once prayed, she suddenly was awestruck. "I actually was standing in the same place where the Holy Temple used to stand," she said. "This is the holiest spot in the world! As this thought washed over me, I felt a warm feeling envelop me." In that inspired account is the secret of Israel's tug: a 4,000-year-old history and heritage of one people, our peo- ple, linked by Torah's divine light. God's Role A participant in the Partners In Torah program her father runs from Yeshiva Beth Yehudah, Simcha Tzippy is eager to share her sense of God's will. She tells about consoling a friend who saw the No. 20 Egged bus blow up in a terrorist act that killed 11 and wounded 50 near Hadassah Hospital-Ein Kerem on Nov. 21. "I was up with her late that night as she tried to get those horrible images she saw that day out of her mind," Simcha Tzippy said. The two finally realized that God spared the girl. "Even though she will always carry that picture in her mind, she loves this country perhaps more than Tzippy most of us after having experienced the special favor from God," said Simcha Tzippy, unwittingly teach- ing me about Israel's mystical influence. Islamists, the fundamentalists who hijacked ele- ments of Islam and brushed it with terror, obviously don't understand the depth of Jewish spirit they must overcome to claim Israel as theirs. Says Simcha Tzippy: "The more they attack this little, beleaguered country, the more we love it β€” the more we appreciate our special Jewish heritage and close connection to God." Love is important, but let's remember that it alone won't give Israel the resolve to confront a reeling economy, scant tourism, a freshwater shortage, rising unemployment, hous- ing demds, drug trafficking, hunger, poverty and grave threats to national security. Israel's spiritual vigor personalizes its call. Torah calls to Simcha Tzippy. As she put it, "This thought revolves in my mind each day as I perform mitzvot: praying twice a day, reciting blessings, dressing modestly, eating kosher food and learning Torah. We also help families here in Israel and do little things, like returning a lost object or just being nice. I thank God for giving me this opportunityto learn and grow in Israel." With warfare raging in the Mideast, the burden falls to Israel's leaders to repel the attempted expulsion of Jews from their ancestral homeland. I urge them to fortify their arsenal with the bulwark of faith, support and zeal that diaspora teenagers, like Simcha Tzippy Cohen, hold for the ancient land of hope. ❑ WITH SPECIAL NEEDS SVNDAY Ana. No"; - 4 PM Great Lakes Crossing Auburn Hills FOUR HOURS OF UNLIMITED PLAY!* Limitecrteatrictions in Prize Zone TICKETS: $40 (16 and Over) $20 (Ages 4-15) Under 4 FREE! Children 15 and under must be accompanied by an adult. SpringElation benefits -;JARC's Harris Children andβ€ž,, Family Divisidn, which provide'6::.eryices to hundreds of -Children with special rieedS.and their families. jam PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE! www.jarc.org SpringElation 4/ 4 2003 5