Grapevine, July 10, 2026: Mixed Irish feelings

On the day after the Irish parliament passed a bill banning imports from Israeli settlements, some of the members of the Israel-Ireland Friendship League wondered whether Irish Ambassador Sonya McGuinness would still be attending their special event at the National Library in Jerusalem.

But McGuinness knows how to separate politics from culture – and she didn’t disappoint.

Moreover, she didn’t shirk the truth. In her address, in which she mentioned the scourge of antisemitism, which is so prevalent around the globe, she admitted that it also exists in Ireland, but added that it cannot take away from the tremendous contribution the Jewish community made to Ireland’s evolution.

The occasion was the presentation of the 23rd volume of The Genealogical History of the Jewish Communities of Ireland, compiled by Stuart Rosenblatt, the president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Ireland.

Unfortunately, Rosenblatt could not be present to receive all the kudos, but in a letter he wrote and asked the Friendship League chairman, Malcolm Gafson, to read at the event, he recalled that, as a schoolboy, his teachers had assessed that he had no academic future.

The 23 volumes, in which he has recorded the names of 82,000 individuals after painstakingly going through the documents of 15 synagogues and those of Jewish organizations, attest that his teachers were mistaken.

His greatest honor, wrote Rosenblatt, is to have his work included in the collections of Israel’s National Library.

Naomi Schachter, the library’s director of partnerships and external relations, said that thanks to people like Rosenblatt “we can safely safeguard the history of the Jewish people.”

Rabbi David Rosen, a former chief rabbi of Ireland, surmised that of all of the chief rabbis of Ireland, he probably had the most extensive contacts.

His wife's mother was born in Ireland, and his grandparents were Irish citizens. His father, Rabbi Kopul Rosen, though not having served in Ireland and not an Irish citizen, was invited by the then-chief rabbi of Ireland, Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog, to speak at the 75th anniversary celebrations of the Adelaide Road Synagogue in Dublin.

Some of the original material pertaining to Irish Jewry was on display and explained by Dr. Yochai Ben-Ghedalia, the director of the library’s archives and of the Rosenblatt collection, and by the archivist responsible for the Rosenblatt collection.

Irish expats were very excited to find details about their own families and friends as they inspected the documents on display.

Gafson underscored the value of the documents in helping people of Irish citizenship or heritage see evidence that their parents and grandparents had been allowed to settle in Ireland and build their communities.

Harpist Rivka Arki Amar played Irish folk songs and some traditional Jewish melodies on a Celtic harp.

Former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, together with Helen Clark, a former prime minister of New Zealand, will be in Israel next week to meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials, as well as with Palestinians who have been affected by violent Israeli extremists.

The two are members of The Elders, an organization founded by Nelson Mandela. An independent group, it includes former heads of state and government, global leaders, and Nobel Prize laureates.

The two women, who are primarily interested in prospects for peace, will hold a press conference on Thursday, July 16, at 10:15 a.m. at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem.

“Sport is more than competition. It’s a way of life,” said Matalon. Among those present was martial arts champion, social entrepreneur, and honorary chairman of the Paralympic Committee Danny Hakim and Paralympic rower Moran Samuel, who came with the gold medal that she won in Paris.

Tanzanian Ambassador Alex Gabriel Kallua hosted numerous ambassadors and other diplomats as well as leading business and academic figures, including Honorary Consul for Tanzania Kasbian Nuriel Chirich, at an international Swahili Language Day reception at his residence in Herzliya Pituah.

Yitzhak Eldan, a former chief of State Protocol and currently the long-term founder and president of the Ambassadors’ Club of Israel, was asked to sing a song in Swahili. He learned it in the 1960s from African students who were studying in Israel.

In addition to promoting the Swahili language, the event was used to give guests a taste of Tanzanian cuisine, which is primarily based on coconut, green bananas, cassava, aromatic spices, mango, pineapple, papaya, and other tropical fruits.

Kallua said that the focus of this year’s Swahili Language Day was peace, solidarity, and economic diplomacy worldwide. He also emphasized Tanzania’s commitment to strengthen relations with Israel at all levels, including tourism. In the latter context, he spoke of Tanzania’s spectacular tourist attractions.

Haskel commented on the excellent relations between the two countries and the role of Swahili in promoting peace and harmony.

A memorial exhibition was held honoring the late Rabbi Edward Belfer, who died a little under three months ago.

Belfer and his wife, Frances, originally from Australia, then Jerusalem, moved to the Protea Hills Village in order to live among Zionist-oriented native English-speakers.

The rabbi, who was also a cantor, had no problem with Hebrew, but for his wife, it was a difficult hurdle, and she felt and still feels much more comfortable and secure with English.

The Protea network was the brainchild of immigrants from South Africa, whose motivation was to provide an environment where people could live out the twilight of their lives with dignity and in the company of others. It proved to be an ideal place for the Belfers.

Rabbi Belfer loved to sketch, but never really had time to do anything about painting. It was his wife who painted eye-catching abstracts in brilliant hues.

Belfer joined the art class at Protea and caught the attention of his teachers, not only due to the emergence of a rare albeit latent talent, but because he was so good at encouraging fellow students and giving them a good feeling.

That was a characteristic that had accompanied him his whole life. He was a man who didn’t blow his own trumpet, but always found positive things to sway about other people, and to quietly help without fanfare, when help was needed. He quickly endeared himself to fellow residents, to whom his death was a real shock.

The exhibition was held in the corridors of the main public area, and people turned up in droves. Frances Belfer’s sister and brother-in-law, Yvonne and Joe Kay, came from Australia especially.

Two of Frances Belfer’s children, Aviva and Simon, who live in Israel, were there. Simon was accompanied by one of his sons – Shai.

David, the third of the three Belfer siblings, sent an emotion-filled video from Australia. He had been in Israel shortly before his father’s death, and he could not believe that this had been their last time together.

The public area at Protea Hills has a huge multipurpose auditorium, where some 250 residents were seated to listen to eulogies from Belfer’s art teachers, Guy Moshayov and Kirill.

Moshayov had someone read his speech, which was brimming with superlatives about Belfer the artist, and Belfer the humble human being. Modest would have been a better word than humble, because Belfer was no slouch when it came to asking questions. He was very curious about art techniques, whether he was doing something correctly, and, if not, how to improve it.

There was also a concert, after which people crowded around Frances Belfer to tell her what an uplifting event it had been, how much they missed Eddie, and how glad they were to have known him.