The good news is that I’m on holiday with all my kids and grandchildren in Kibbutz Lavi.
Also good news is that my father-in-law is home from hospital after a 10 day stay.
Less good news is that it’s very difficult to nigh-impossible to blog on an ipad.
Therefore I’ll leave you with a couple of short links as reading material for Shabbat:
No Camels brings us the wonderful news of a possible cure for melanoma:
Now, a new Tel Aviv University study sheds light on the precise trigger that enables melanoma cells to become invasive killers, providing a future method to block cancer by pinpointing the precise place in the process where “traveling” cancer turns lethal.
…
The researchers found that the direct contact of melanoma cells with a layer of the skin turned on a set of genes that promotes changes in melanoma cells, rendering them invasive.“Now that we know the triggers of melanoma transformation and the kind of signaling that leads to that transformation, we know what to block,” Levy says. “Maybe, in the future, people will be able to rub some substance on their skin as a prevention measure.”
Kol hakavod to the researchers, Tel Aviv University’s Dr. Carmit Levy, along with researchers from the Technion, Sheba Medical Center, and the Hebrew University. May their research bear fruit for the benefit of millions of melanoma patients worldwide.
From life saving to life-affirming and remembrance, a Torah scroll was dedicated at the Kotel this week in memory of Eyal, Gil-Ad and Naftali, the three teens kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists.
Arutz Sheva was on scene as a Torah scroll was dedicated Tuesday at the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem, in memory of the three Israeli teens abducted and murdered by Hamas terrorists last summer – Eyal Yifrah (19), Gilad Sha’ar (16) and Naftali Frenkel (16).
The families of the murdered teens were present at the special event, as were Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi David Lau, Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, Kotel Chief Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, and other leading rabbis.
Gilad Sha’ar’s father Ofir spoke to Arutz Sheva about the Torah dedication, calling it a “complicated event” in that it is both a memorial to the murdered teens encompassing the pain of their loss, but it also contains the joy of dedicating a Torah scroll at the Kotel.
Memorial plate for the Torah scroll in memory of the three teens
“The symbol of the three boys was the unity of kol am Yisrael (the entire nation of Israel – ed.) all this year and especially all the time of the kidnapping,” said the bereaved father.
“The most special place to show this unity is here in the Kotel, where everyone can feel belonging here in this place.”
When asked whether the murder of the boys sparked a change in Israeli society, he noted that there is a tendency for one news story to replace another and the public to become indifferent.
But at the same time, Sha’ar said he perceived that people last summer felt “not the same,” in a change for unity he hopes can continue in the coming years.
What a wonderful inspiring thought to take home for Shabbat and for the month of Elul, the month of introspection and ski hot, which begins tomorrow.
Wishing you all chodesh tov and Shabbat Shalom!
Anne's Opinions 
Hi Anne, There’s alot of “melanoma” research going on, my sister took part in a number of trials , none of which helped her an iota, unfortunately. Let’s hope this new technology is more successful. You should be playing with your grandkids, not writing on ipads! We shall be babysitting our gc this coming week and in 2 weeks will spend a shabbat away with all of them. Enjoy. Shabbat shalom. Rachel
Hi Rachel, good to “see” you here. I’m so sorry about your sister, and of course the new research is not going ot help her now. But as you say, maybe this will help new melanoma patients. Halevai!
Don’t worry, I was enjoying my holiday very much! I was resting up between pool time and eating (which is all one does at Lavi 😀 ) so I thought to write a quickie post.
I had plenty of playtime with the grandkids, and I’m still hoping to host 2 kaytanot savta (‘camp grandma”) in the next couple of weeks since we missed out these last 2 weeks with my FIL in hospital.
Enjoy your chevra too!
What a nice lot of news. Enjoy your holiday and stop blogging! Go to the pool or something!
Shabbat shalom & Chodesh Tov
I went to the pool and something! Blogging is my hobby. It’s hard to let it go. You gotta admit it was only a short one this time.
“Less good news is that it’s very difficult to nigh-impossible to blog on an iPad.”
Which is why I gave up trying to write that article on our visit to Israel with our non-Jewish friends a couple of years ago, and left it till we got home.
Anne, just make notes (you know, pen, notebook, words) for when you get home, and chill out. We’re all sure the Kibbutz offers lots of nice, relaxing activities, such as losing gracefully to the grandkids at table-tennis, etc, or letting them cream you at the various board games they are ferociously good at.
We will survive the gap in blogging…somehow!
Brian, I deliberately did not take my laptop with me because that’s the only thin I can blog on when I’m away. My ipad is good for short posts or just reading – but that was my intention. I hadn’t planned on writing a post but I had the time and the energy.
Yes, I lost out miserably to my grandchildren – at bowling! In 2 sessions I came last every time. I can’t throw a ball straight. Oh well… 😀
We had a grand time but now we’re home and it’s back to real life… sigh…
Completely off topic, but worth, I think, and airing on your blog is the following:
a relatively new organisation in the UK (formed at the time of Protective Edge last year), the Campaign Against Antisemitism now posts email newsletters to us signers on. They posted, today, the following article on Jeremy Corbyn, the (sadly) leading candidate in the UK Labour Party Leadership election:
http://antisemitism.uk/jeremy-corbyn-and-antisemites/?mc_cid=f84395b948&mc_eid=5939d59c16
Please read the article (it’s not very long but does contain links to more detail on the claims made against Corbyn), and decide whether you agree with me or not, and please say so, one way or the other.
In my view, this makes Corbyn at best a borderline antisemite, at worst…
Notice how he uses the so-called “Livingstone Formulation” in the third paragraph of the article when he defends Stephen Sizer, saying he was being victimised because he “dared to speak out against Zionism”, when the Church of England hierarchy specifically accused him of posting and/or linking to antisemitic on his website.
The Livingstone Formulation is a term coined by David Hirsh, the founding (and still chief) editor of the Engage website (www.engageonline.wordpress.com) – go there and put Livingstone Formulation into the search box. it happened when Ken Livingstone employed antisemitic tropes on an occasion and was called on it. He “protested” that he was accused of antisemitism when he was criticising Israel. No, he used antisemitic tropes.
This is what Corbyn is doing in his defence of the Rev. Stephen Sizer.
To add even more bad news to that, the following (part of a comment by me at engage online):
I know he has history (Philip Collins was a Blair advisor), but he has the following half-a-dozen or so sentences in his column in The Times of 18 August (no link possible as it’s behind a pay-wall):
“Yesterday I saw a video of Jeremy Corbyn calling for a public inquiry on pro-Israeli influence in the Home Office. The Labour MP John Mann has been subject vicious antisemitic attacks, apparently from Corbyn supporters. It needs to be said plainly: no decent liberal can vote for this. There must be continual vigilance against the antisemitism of the hard left. Croce invented a term for it. Onagrocrazia. Government by asses.” (the first part of this secton of his column had been upon Benedetto Croce)
Do I need to say more, except to remind everyone that it was August Bebel who coined the phrase that “antisemitism is the socialism of fools”. Never truer than as stated by Collins.
Thanks for all this Brian. Very useful. I’m writing a post as I type about all this and more.
great job at Tel Aviv University. I hope that this works out!
Pete, USA
Pingback: Meanwhile the West crawls back into its Jew-hatred | Anne's Opinions