Muslim Clerics Celebrate Chanukah in Kiryat Shemona, Israel

Our far-flung Hedgehog correspondent in Tzfat (Safed) and Kiryat Shemona, Linda Stern, directed my attention to this story from Ynetnews.com, about how Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles arranged for moderate Muslim clerics from Indonesia to visit Israel. They celebrated Chanukah with Rav Tzefaniya Drori, the Rosh Yeshiva (Dean) of the Yeshiva Hesder of Kiryat Shemona. (In the photo, Rav Drori shows his visitors a vial of olive oil for lighting the Chanukah menorah.) They also visited Sederot, in the south of Israel, the everyday favorite missile target of Hamas.

Considering that some 16 months ago, in July and August 2006, a less-moderate Islamic group, Hezbollah, was raining rockets down on Kiryat Shemona and other northern Israeli cities and towns, and that another less-moderate Islamic group, Hamas, is still launching rockets almost daily at Sederot, a photo of the Muslim clerics dancing with Yeshiva students to celebrate Chanukah is encouraging. Anyone who would like to help out the yeshiva, can contact Linda by e-mail at lystern@netvision.net.il.