The more we know from security analysts and military experts, the greater will be the clarity of our thinking about achievable goals in Israel’s war with Hamas and how Israel wages war, and the clearer we will be in our values as we wade through the pain, sorrow, and grief after October 7.

I have written twice in this blog after the pogrom since October 7, the first of which I posted the photos of two young sisters (ages 25 and 22) who grew up in my synagogue’s elementary school and were murdered at the music festival on October 7. What happened to our Jewish brothers and sisters shook Israel and the Jewish world to our foundations in a way we’ve not experienced as a people since the end of the Shoah in 1945. Even in the aftermath of the 1973 War of Yom Kippur when Israel was existentially threatened by Egypt’s and Syria’s surprise attack, we as a people have not been so shaken. We thought after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 that “never again” would we be vulnerable to the butchery of savage antisemites. October 7 showed the depths of human depravity and that we remain vulnerable, even though we have Israel today.

Our desire for revenge and retaliation engulfs so many of us in these initial weeks, and though I feel all of it like many of you, as time passes and as I learn and listen to Israeli intelligence and military experts about achievable goals that Israel’s IDF can accomplish against Hamas, and as I worry about the lives most specially of the 220 Israeli hostages, I am beginning to understand tactically the options facing Israel and what might be possible, without (of course) any guarantees.

This week, I participated in a webinar sponsored by J Street and hosted by J Street’s CEO and President Jeremy Ben-Ami. I had written to Jeremy the day before because I have felt so deeply torn, tortured, and confused about what Israel has experienced and what it is planning to do in its massive military build-up on the Gaza border. Jeremy suggested that I tune into the next morning’s webinar with two Israeli security analysts, Nimrod Novick and Noa Shusterman-Dvir. I’m glad I did (see link below). What follows is a summary of what they shared with the hundreds of participants on the webinar. Their clarity of thinking, experience, understanding of the military and strategic options facing Israel, and their cool analytical minds helped to clarify my own thinking and moral confusion, and I am grateful to them.

The two analysts asked and addressed the essential questions and challenges facing Israel in these days, and they analyzed the multiplicity of responses upon which the Israeli war cabinet and the IDF must deliberate and decide. They said there are three essential goals in this war: to save the 220 hostages, to eliminate the military and governing capacity of Hamas over Gaza, and to plan for the days, months and years after the war is won.

The first question Jeremy posed is whether they thought it is feasible to eliminate Hamas’ militarily and governing power and what they expected from the Hezbollah threat in the North should a northern front open. They presented 3 options for the IDF regarding Gaza:

[1] A massive Israeli invasion and the difficulty of success given the 300 miles of Hamas tunnels and booby-traps and the potentially high number of Israeli losses, the loss of the 220 hostages, and the death and injury of thousands more Palestinian civilians;

[2] A tactical incursion into Gaza, meaning a limited operation of killing Hamas leadership in Gaza and outside Gaza in Qatar where the top Hamas leadership has lived and operated for years;

[3] Waiting until the lack of fuel that Hamas needs to support life in the tunnels in its operation of air compressors forces the 20,000 to 30,000 Hamas terrorist fighters to come to the surface and fight Israel in the open. Israel has said that it supports humanitarian aid to Gazans including water, food, and medicine, but not fuel because Hamas needs the fuel to support their tunnel existence and to build more missiles to be used against Israeli civilians. That fuel, however, is necessary also for humanitarian purposes in Gaza, for electricity and hospitals, etc.

Novick and Shusterman-Dvir said that in the early days after October 7, Israel’s “blood was boiling and Israelis had a difficult time considering what might be next in Gaza, and who or what organizations would govern.” They noted, properly, that Israel cannot ultimately destroy Hamas, that to think it can is an illusion, but Israel can destroy Hamas’ capacity to govern Gaza and remain a military threat to Israel. They confessed that this war will take time to fulfill Israel’s three broad goals above. By waiting to attack, the time gives negotiators in Qatar the opportunity to free more hostages. Israel does not, however, have years to wait, but in waiting weeks or a month or two, it can leverage the time needed to retrieve more of the hostages and enable Hamas fuel to run out thus forcing a land battle when massive numbers of Israel soldiers can put boots on the ground and have a far greater potential for success with far fewer losses.

These two experts did not believe that this war will go on for months. They reasoned that Israel will use a combination of the three options, each in its time. They were highly confident, despite the army’s failure in the initial hours of October 7 to protect Jews in the south, that the IDF is highly capable and will be successful in the execution of the war and the destruction of Hamas’ weapons depots, military centers, and many mid-level operatives, especially the thousand or more terrorists that entered Israel and attacked our people so mercilessly.

Jeremy questioned Novick and Shusterman-Dvir about the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. The first thing they said is “Israel is not Hamas. We don’t starve people, but time is running out. One hundred trucks of aid are required every day to enter Gaza.” The evidence suggests that Hamas and Egypt are holding up those trucks from entering Gaza for their own reasons.

They commented that allowing Hamas to free 2 hostages every 2 to 4 days is unacceptable. At some point, they said, Israel will demand the release of all the hostages without conditions.

Regarding the north – they noted that Hamas is likely frustrated that Hezbollah has not joined full force into the battle against Israel. Both Israel and Hezbollah are engaging with each other sending missiles back and forth. However, Hezbollah seems to be only trying to show that it is doing something without going too far and risking a full-scale war with Israel. America’s military presence in the region is a significant deterrent against both Hezbollah and Iran.

They expressed their concerns about the opening of another front in the West Bank. The IDF has arrested 1000 suspected Palestinians there of which 750 are likely Hamas.

Finally, they spoke about the options for the governance and control of Gaza after the war. They believed that some kind of coalition of forces ought to be established including the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, the UN, Saudi Arabia, and Israel to govern and help rebuild Gaza so that Islamic terrorists like Hamas do not rise to power again and threaten Israel.

At the conclusion of the webinar, I sensed that cooler heads are emerging on the Israeli leadership side, and though Israelis and so many American Jewish supporters of Israel want a massive retaliatory ground campaign, those in the military command are thinking more carefully than they may have been thinking in the initial days of Israeli and Jewish rage following October 7. The effect of the United States also cannot be underestimated. President Biden, Secretaries Blinken and Austin, are advising Israel, advocating for humanitarian aid being delivered to Gaza, and urging Israeli patience.

This hour-long webinar can be watched here – https://jstreet.org/j-streets-response-to-hamas-attacks-israeli-palestinian-crisis/

I recommend listening to the following:

The podcast “The Axe Files” with Ilana Dayan, a leading Israeli journalist in an extraordinary conversation with David Axelrod on the before and after October 7 massacre of Israeli Jews

The podcast “Politics War Room” with James Carville and Al Hunt in their interview this week with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Admiral James G. Stavridis

An interview by CNN’s Jake Tapper of the son of a founding member of Hamas who flipped years ago because of Hamas’ brutality, became an Israeli informant from within Hamas, and now is an American citizen living somewhere in the United States https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox?projector=1

The humanitarian disaster in Gaza ought to be of great concern to every Israeli and Jew who cares about the health, well-being, and safety of innocent Palestinians living in that wretched corner of the world, especially Palestinians who hate Hamas, who want only to live without fear, and who would welcome any other Palestinian representative that accepts the legitimacy of the State of Israel.

Anyone who denies the truth of the Hamas massacre of 1400 people in southern Israel and Hamas’ hostage taking of 210+ women, children, men, babies, and elderly Jews on October 7, and shifts the narrative, as so many are now doing, from Hamas’ atrocities against the Jewish people to accusations against the Jewish State that Israel is committing  war crimes, is morally compromised.

Yes – Palestinians are suffering greatly in Gaza, but not because of Israel; rather, because of Hamas. Over the 17 years of Hamas’s extremist and brutal rule, it took hundreds of millions of dollars of aid from UNRWA and Arab nations to build a fortified underground labyrinth of 300 miles of tunnels, and doing little to assist Gazans in developing their lives and communities, establishing an economy that provides jobs for Gaza’s 50 percent unemployed, and building schools and hospitals to educate and care for its citizens. Hamas could have done well for its people during that time with such vast financial resources, but instead it built an elaborate and complex infrastructure to attack Israel and murder Jews. That truth ought to be clear since October 7.

Again, Hamas is to blame for the state of Gazan life, not Israel. Despite legitimate criticisms that can be lodged against Israel in its treatment of Palestinians living under Occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, nothing excuses the Hamas atrocities on October 7 or Hamas’ consistent abuse of its own people.  

The attack against Israel, the cruelty and savagery of Hamas’ assault, hit Israel very hard. Hamas was temporarily victorious and, at least in the short term, succeeded in provoking rage in the Arab street throughout the Middle East and setting back years of diplomacy aimed at bringing peace to Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Hamas did something else as well. It unified Israel and the Jewish world that had been fractured during a year when pro-democracy activists feared a civil war might erupt in the Jewish state as a consequence of PM Netanyahu’s coalition government’s efforts to diminish the authority of Israel’s judicial branch and compromise Israeli democracy.

In America, I’m hearing that many Jews (especially young Jews) who before October 7 did not identify strongly with Israel, Zionism, and Judaism have been awakened to who they are as part of a unique people that contributed much to western civilization and who often have stood alone against antisemitic hate and violence.

Even more significant than these consequences of Hamas’ attack on October 7, Hamas dealt a serious blow to Israel’s deterrent capacity and international image. What now worries so many of us who love Israel and are concerned with its long-term security and viability, is that unless Israel eliminates Hamas’ capacity to attack Israel again, Israel will be on the road to being a failed state. That would be an intolerable consequence and contrary to what the Zionist movement and the establishment of the State of Israel were meant to do, provide safe haven for the Jewish people against pogroms and violence and be a center for the development of the Hebraic spirit.

Israel has no choice except to go into Gaza on the ground, to root out Hamas leadership and its 20,000+ terrorists, and destroy Hamas’ underground tunnel system and the armaments that are stockpiled there. The risk of failure is an existential one to the Jewish state and Jewish people. Not completing this effort successfully will encourage Hamas to strike again, and for Hezbollah and Iran to fortify the ring around Israel and one day attack all at once.

The future between Israel and the Palestinians and the moderate Arab world need not be necessarily dark. There can be in time a peaceful negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that will bring to Israel security and peace, and to the Palestinian people the fulfillment of their national aspirations in two states for two peoples. It is hard to imagine this in the current situation. After the Yom Kippur War it was difficult to imagine that Israel and Egypt and then Israel and Jordan could make peace after its history of deadly conflict. But it happened.

I believe that peace is possible because there are thousands upon thousands of Palestinians living in Israel and under Occupation who want peace and a state of their own, just as there are thousands upon thousands of Israelis who want it too, despite their suspicions of Arab and Palestinian intentions.

We Jews here in America are different from our Israeli brothers and sisters, and we have to understand what our differences are, though I think October 7 brought us closer together. We American Jews have been acculturated to want to be liked and loved by others in America, to be respected by different religious, racial, ethnic, and political groups. We learned early on in our history in the United States that to get along means to go along, to assimilate into the American mainstream, and to contribute to our society to protect ourselves against antisemitism. We American Jews succeeded beyond the wildest expectations of my grandparents’ generation. We are, according to polls, the most respected religious group in the United States.

In Israel, however, Israelis are surrounded by potential enemies and they care less about being liked than being safe. Despite that, the impulse of Israeli Jews has been to improve the world. Israel has contributed an enormous amount to the betterment of humankind in every conceivable discipline, but Israelis don’t worry so much about being loved. They worry about being secure, and if they can be secure without being loved, that’s enough.

Perhaps this war against Hamas has taught us American Jews something new; that though it’s adaptive for us to get along with everyone, if the “other” doesn’t understand us or empathize with us, then perhaps the alliances we have nurtured over so long need to be revisited and hard conversations need to be had with those who, whether they realize it or not, harbor deep-seated animus and distrust towards Jews, or ignorance about Jews and our identity and relationship with the people and State of Israel.

Polls, thankfully, indicate that the vast majority of Americans side with Israel against Hamas in this war. Peoples of faith throughout Christendom are expressing their solidarity with the Jewish people. The Congress of the United States is overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, though there are a few Members on the far left who side with the Palestinians against Israel, and there are those in the MAGA Right who are no doubt antisemites.

Never before has a President of the United States ever spoken and acted towards Israel with the depth of support and understanding than Joe Biden. He will go down in history as the greatest friend of Israel ever to occupy the Oval Office, and there have been other pro-Israel presidents going back to Harry S. Truman.

The young American stand-up comedian, Drew Michael, posted this past week on Instagram words that unveil a morally questionable reality spreading among some in the young adult progressive non-Jewish population in the United States as well as among university students, faculty, and some presidents of colleges and universities. He wrote:

“Last Saturday [October 7], Jews everywhere were deliberately dehumanized through an act of terror, traumatized by some of the worst images imaginable, and then re-traumatized by the antisemitic discourse that followed.

The gist: when Jews are murdered, raped, and kidnapped on camera, it’s the Jews’ fault; when Palestinians die, it’s the Jews’ fault. When Jews say something antisemitic, we are lying.

And this isn’t coming from MAGA neo-Nazis; it’s coming from the left. Any other form of bigotry, liberals accept the narrative of the people most affected by it: racism is defined by people of color; homophobia is defined by queer people; but antisemitism, when Jews try to define it, people question us, refute us, gaslight us by telling us we are trying to manipulate them (which is double antisemitism).”

We Jews are forced to recognize in these days who are our friends and allies, and who are not. Not recognizing which is which is not good for our sense of Jewish identity and well-being.

It is my hope that Israel prosecutes this war decisively according to the highest ethical standards and rules governing warfare. And it is my fervent hope that innocent Palestinians will be spared from death and injury because of the hell that Hamas has unleashed upon them, and that every Israeli soldier and every hostage will return home to their families and friends whole.

May peace come to Jerusalem.

Two beautiful young sisters who grew up in my synagogue’s Day School, Norelle (age 25) and Roya (age 22) Manzuri, were murdered along with Norelle’s fiancé of 2 weeks, Omit Cohen, at the music festival in southern Israel on October 7. The hellish and excruciating pain their parents, Sigal and Menashe, and their young brother, Shai, feel is unbearable. My community at Temple Israel of Hollywood grieves with them and the families of all Israelis who have been murdered and we pray for healing of those thousands who have been injured. We share the anxiety of all Israeli families whose loved ones have been taken as Hamas hostages and of families whose children are Israeli soldiers preparing to fight and risk their lives on behalf of the people and State of Israel.

As Israel prepares to enter Gaza to remove Hamas’ authority and capacity to murder and terrorize our people (as well as Gazan Palestinians), everyone will have to hold onto mixed emotions and conflicting values in the prosecution of this war. Our higher Jewish moral aspirations for peace and non-violence cannot keep us from supporting what Israel must do in this war, to fight, because not fighting and leaving Hamas in place sends the message to Hezbollah and Iran, advocates of the destruction of the State of Israel and the indiscriminate murder of Israelis, that they can attack Israel and Jews with impunity.

Israel’s going to war based on revenge alone, however, is not morally justified, but failing to fight back is suicidal. Therefore, Israel has little alternative against the uncompromising terrorist organization of Hamas. I hope that Israel’s commanders and soldiers will fight with cool precision according to international standards of war, and they will do so with the courage necessary to prosecute this war as it needs to be done and not according to red-hot vengeance.

I respect pacifists for the non-violent moral principles by which they live, but there are times when aggressive self-defense is our people’s only option. This is one of those times. For me, who has been peace advocate my entire adult life, I feel the cursed tension in my advocacy for fighting to victory over Hamas knowing that Israel’s necessary actions are going to result in the death and injury of many of our own soldiers and the death and injury of many innocent Palestinians caught in the middle of this fight, who do not support Hamas, but who live as human shields to that terrorist organization. This is the burden that comes with national sovereignty and this is the call of moral responsibility.

Tonight (Wednesday, October 18) at 6:45 pm Pacific Time, there will be a memorial service at Temple Israel of Hollywood for Norelle, Roya, and Omit. You can join in person or by zoom – Click here to join the Zoom

You may also make a donation on behalf of the Manzuri family that has been set up by their relatives at Manzuri GoFundMe

Zichronam livracha – May Norelle, Roya, Omit and all who have perished be remembered with love and as abiding blessings to their families, to all who know and love them, and to the people of Israel.

Allison Kaplan Sommer, a journalist with Haaretz, wrote to me to let me know that the Image of the soldier with the two babies is fake. Please do not forward it to others. But, the Israeli flag in lights is real. I am going to delete that fake photo.

My apologies and gratitude to Allison.

Like so many of you, I have been reading non-stop and watching the news coming out of Israel, as well as communicating with my friends in Israel who are living during these unprecedented days of suffering and sadness in the loss and disappearance of family, friends, and fellow Israelis.

Many have asked me how they can help Israel and where they can contribute to support our people. There are many good causes, and I offer J Street’s site below for you to look and then decide the best avenue through which you can contribute and make a difference.

There will be ample time to analyze what went wrong with Israel’s intelligence and the political ramifications that this historic failure and the war against Hamas will mean for Israelis and innocent Palestinians.

Now is the time, as I stated in an earlier blog-post, for the Jewish people to stand united with Israel, to give our full moral and emotional support to our people there, to condemn Hamas’ inhumanity and brutality, and to pray for the well-being of our soldiers fighting this necessary war and the hostages taken so cruelly from their homes and families.

Ways to Support Those Impacted by the Ongoing Crisis

All politics aside, when Israel is attacked, the world Jewish community is called to unite with the State of Israel as it seeks to protect its people, defend its borders, and eliminate Hamas military installations and terrorism that pose a threat to the people of Israel and the Jewish state.

Israel characteristically comes together in times of war. There is no left or right. There is only a united nation in defense of its people. The Talmud reminds us “Kol Yisrael aravim zeh ba-zeh – All Israel is responsible one for another.” It was true centuries ago when this statement was first uttered, and it is true now. Political divisions ought to be set aside.

Fifty years ago at this time, I was in Israel during the Yom Kippur War, and I remember as clearly as if it was yesterday not only how the entirety of the Jewish state and people came together in common cause, but how Diaspora Jewry responded. That sense of unity has been repeated time and again since.

As one Jew, one Zionist, and one lover of the people, Land and State of Israel, I pray for the success of Israel’s defensive campaign in this war and that peace is restored as quickly as possible, that Israelis captured by Hamas terrorists are returned to their families and homes unharmed, that those who have lost loved ones find comfort amongst all who mourn in Zion and Jerusalem, and those who have been injured amongst our people are healed.

Much ink has been spilled in recent years commenting on the descent of millions of Americans into the acceptance as “normal” the dark spirit of intolerance, bigotry, hate, cruelty, suspicion, and mistrust. These corrosive tendencies, characterized in Judaism as יצר הרע – Yetzer HaRa (“the evil inclination”) is contributing mightily to the breakdown of community in America, to a lack of faith in America’s democratic institutions and traditions, and to the increasing incidence of violence directed at minorities and threats against elected officials, their families, and career professionals in the Department of Justice across the country. If all that weren’t bad enough, Donald Trump’s relentless mob rhetoric of vengeance and hatred threatens everyone who challenges him as he shamelessly unleashes his black-hole of hatred into the bloodstream of America.

The spirit of unity within diversity that characterized the aspirations of the founding generation of the United States in the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the 13^th, 14^th, 15^th, and 19^th Amendments, the New Deal and Great Society legislation, among many other progressive efforts since, seems to be dissipating before our eyes as right-wing autocratic extremists, still a minority of Americans, use democratic processes to justify themselves as they appeal to the lowest common denominator of anger, hate, frustration, greed, resentment, intolerance, and arrogance.

The High Holidays have just concluded during which, hopefully, our minds and hearts were opened to the truth that we need not be victims to the ruthlessly evil, that moral depravity need not control us, that history is not predetermined, that we can change our circumstances through concerted and willful action, and that human agency can expand in real terms the principle first articulated in the Book of Genesis (1:27) that we human beings are created בצלם אלוהים – b’tzelem Elohim (in the Divine Image), meaning that every woman, man, and child is endowed with infinite value and infinite worth, and that the principles of equality, justice, mercy, and respect for the “other” (those unlike us) are imbued in the human spirit if we allow our better angels to inspire us to act ethically and compassionately towards all.

A colleague told his congregation on Erev Rosh Hashanah: “Tomorrow hasn’t happened yet…” Those three dots at the end of that phrase is the space within which we American citizens can shape the outcome of the coming 2024 election cycle as well as what our criminal justice system can do in effectively and fairly prosecuting alleged perpetrators of crime thereby protecting us from unwittingly being sucked into the black hole of the ruthlessly evil that now defines a formerly great American political party.

Yes – America has changed over the years, for better and worse. But good people can be found in every community. President Barack Obama reminded us once that “anyone who threatens our values, whether fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues, will always fail in the end.”

This next year will be pivotal to the future of American democracy and what it means to be American. Tomorrow hasn’t happened yet… It really is up to us to determine the future.

I wish for us all in 5784 an אומץ לב – Ometz Lev (a courageous heart) and much love. We will need a great deal of each as we move through the days, weeks, and months ahead.

Postscript – On February 1, 2024, Pearl passed away after 114 years 123 days of life since the day of her birth on the first day of Sukkot, the 15th day of Tishre, 5670 corresponding to Thursday, October 1, 1909. At the time of her death, Pearl was the 9th oldest living human being in the world, the 3rd oldest American, the oldest living Jew in the world, and the longest living Jew in recorded history. Zichrona livracha.

I celebrated with Pearl Berg’s family and friends today, October 1, 2023, Pearl’s 114^th birthday. Pearl is now the 9^th oldest living human being in the world – the 3^rd oldest living American – the oldest living Californian – and the oldest living Jew in the world. The oldest living person is Maria Banyas of Spain at 116 years 201 days.

I have written about Pearl several times over the years. She is a long-time member of my congregation, Temple Israel of Hollywood in Los Angeles. She was born on October 1, 1909 in Indiana.

I first met Pearl 35 years ago when she was a spry 79 years-old. Pearl is still sharp, though clearly slowing down. Her sons Dr. Robert Berg of Washington, D.C. (age 86) and his older brother Dr. Allan Berg of Philadelphia (age 88), come to visit their mother regularly in her home in Los Feliz, an old Los Angeles neighborhood just east of the famed Hollywood sign and down the hill from the famed Hollywood Observatory.

Pearl is a marvel not only because of her extreme old age, but because she remains a positive and kind woman who welcomes graciously all visitors. In seeing her today, her eyes were closed but when I asked if she could hear me, she nodded affirmatively.

My connection with Pearl and her family precedes my birth. Pearl’s husband Mark (z’l) employed my mother in the early 1940s as an office worker in his Los Angeles scrap metal business when my mother was 25 years-old (born in 1917). When Mark died 35 years ago and I prepared my eulogy for him, my mother told me that Mark was the kindest of bosses. When she departed from his business to volunteer at an army base in San Luis Obispo, California during World War II, Mark gave her a going-away office party. She never forgot it. My mother died in 2015 at age of 98, and I thought she was old, but she was a youngster compared with Pearl. Actually, we’re all youngsters, regardless of our age when compared with Pearl.

Pearl’s parents were itinerant photographers, traveling in the winter months throughout the Midwest and South, going by train from city to city as they sought opportunities for work. In the summer months they worked in the North. From Indiana, they moved to Canton, Ohio after their second daughter Selma was born in 1913. Her family moved then to Pittsburgh where they joined the large Reform synagogue, Rodef Shalom, where Pearl was confirmed in 1926. An excellent student but with few professional opportunities for young women available except teaching, nursing, or secretarial work, Pearl enrolled at a secretarial school in Pittsburgh and easily got a job upon graduation.

When Pearl’s father’s used car business failed during the Great Depression, her family moved to Los Angeles. After a week in LA, Pearl met the love of her life, Mark, on a blind date. Mark was smitten at first sight, and that evening he told his mother that he met the girl he was going to marry. Pearl and Mark were married on November 15, 1931 in Boyle Heights at the home of the rabbi of the local shul.

Pearl and Mark Berg – the year of their wedding in 1931

Jewish life was always a priority in Pearl’s life. She and Mark joined Temple Israel of Hollywood in 1938 where they raised their sons Alan and Robert, each distinguished in their own right. She was an avid supporter of Hadassah over eight decades and a life-long supporter of the State of Israel.

When I offered a blessing for Pearl at her 110^th birthday, I added the traditional “to 120!” She quipped: “Please God ‘NO!’”

Well, Pearl – the Eternal One seems to have other plans for you.

Happy Birthday and with love – to 120!

An edited version of the above is posted at the Times of Israel – https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/pearl-berg-at-114-10th-oldest-living-person-in-the-world-and-oldest-living-jew/

For a list of the oldest recorded living humans in the world, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_living_people