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Lessons in Fusion” speaks to the fluidity of Jewish identity in the contemporary world
Reviewed by BERNIE BELLAN In preparing to write this review I searched our archives to see whether we had ever published anything previously about Primrose Mayadag Knazan; sad to say, we hadn’t.
It’s about time we made up for that oversight, as Primrose had already established herself as a playwright of considerable talent, having had her three plays been awarded “Best of Fest” at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival on each occasion she premiered a new play at the Fringe.
Her plays have also been produced by the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, and Sarsavati Productions.
With “Lessons in Fusion”, Primrose enters into the world of fiction writing and, while the book is described as a “Young Adult” novel – not being a young adult myself, I wondered whether I would be as interested in this particular book as much as someone who was in their teens.
It turns out that “Lessons in Fusion” would hardly be limited in its appeal to young readers. As someone who has blended two different cultures in her own life: Filipino and Jewish, Primrose Mayadag Knazan offers readers who might come from a more traditional background tremendous insight into identity, how it is forged over time, and the challenges faced by individuals who, because of the way they look, are stereotyped by others.
The storyline of “Lessons in Fusion” takes place in the pandemic world in which we all now find ourselves, although the action moves back and forth in time as we begin to develop a better understanding of the novel’s protagonist, 16-year-old Sarah Dayan-Abad.
Sarah is a precocious young woman who has developed a keen fascination for “fusion” cooking – blending ingredients from different cultures to create dishes that are an amalgam so totally original they lead to her developing quite a following on a blog she had started when she was 14 years old, titled “fusiononaplate”.
Here is how she describes her blog, when asked to give some information about it by the creators of a new online cooking show in which Sarah would like to participate: “Fusion comfort food, a mash-up of East and West and everything in between. Easy recipes of our classic cravings with a twist.”
Now, given Sarah’s interest in food, one would ordinarily expect that is something she might have inherited from her mother, Grace, who is “Filipinx” (the proper term for someone of Filipino descent, we are told, rather than “Filipino”). Grace, however, has almost no interest at all in cooking, especially Filipino food. The reasons for that become clearer as the story develops.
The reviews that I’ve read of “Lessons in Fusion” to date all make a big fuss over how the author introduces each chapter in the book with a recipe. Apparently Primose Mayadag Knazan is quite the food connoisseur, writing a regular column for the Filipino Journal about food in Winnipeg, as well as maintaining an Instagram account devoted to food,@pegonaplate.
As the story unfolds, Sarah is accepted into a competition known as “Cyber Chef”, in which five young people – all under 20, will compete on a weekly basis until only one is left. By the way, the chapter in which the competition is explained in some detail starts with a recipe for Chanukah latkes, so if this review is just a tad too late to influence your latke recipe, you might want to consider buying the book for next year. Just consider some of the ingredients in Sarah’s latke recipe: “sweet potatoes instead of russets. Instead of traditional sour cream or applesauce…raita made with yogurt, green apple, and mint” – I think you get the idea why the book is titled “Lessons in Fusion”.
Now, I’ll be honest: I barely looked at the recipes in this book, although they seemed tantalizing enough. Yet, for anyone who’s really into cooking, I’m sure the recipes in the book would be reason enough to buy it, as many of them are traditional Jewish recipes turned into something so imaginatively different from what I think most of us have come to accept that we would have a hard time recognizing them.
But, more than the recipes and the fastidious attention to food details that the book incorporates, “Lessons in Fusion” is a coming of age story that is so contemporary in its being set during the pandemic that it offers many real life lessons which can be useful for all of us.
Sarah, for instance, is a good student, yet she’s been forced into online learning as a result of the pandemic. Cooking is a diversion for her – as it had become for so many others once we found ourselves being confined to our homes during the many lockdowns that characterized the first year of the pandemic. While she has two good friends, with whom she communicates online (and you have to appreciate how thoroughly the author is familiar with what is known as “textspeak”), we can still appreciate the extent to which the pandemic has truncated what should have been some of the best parts of young people’s lives.
I don’t want to go into any further detail about the cooking show in which Sarah participates, lest I spoil any surprises for readers.
What I was most interested in reading is how Sarah develops her identity as a Jewish Filipinx. She and her siblings all attend what is described as a “Hebrew Immersion program” in a “private school”, where the students wear uniforms, so I’m assuming it’s based on Gray Academy. Sarah has had a bat mitzvah and is quite proud of her being Jewish.
Yet, beyond her interest in Jewish food, what seems to drive Sarah’s Jewish identity more than anything is her closeness to her baba. At the same time though, the book does describe Sarah’s more tenuous relationship with her Filipinx grandmother, her “lola”, and how cooking also brings the two of them together eventually.
One aspect of the book that might serve as a wake-up call for some readers is how Sarah is stereotyped because of her appearance and, although she can understand how she is regarded by almost anyone she meets (including online) as Filipinx, she herself regards her identity as first and foremost Jewish.
At one point Sarah is asked whether she considers herself “White or Filipino”?
She answers: “Jewish” – to which the questioner responds: “That wasn’t my question.”
So Sarah launches into a more detailed explanation: “But that’s what I am. My parents are Jewish. (Grace had converted when she married Sarah’s father.) I was raised Jewish. It’s not just my religion. It’s my culture. I get all the jokes. I celebrate the holidays. I eat and cook all the food. I even speak some Yiddish. I had family that died in the Holocaust. Go back far enough, I had family that were chased out of Russia. It’s in my blood. I carry it on my shoulders. I. Am . Jewish.”
That exchange goes on, with the questioner insisting on finding out whether Sarah identifies as “White” or not, and with Sarah not sure how to answer the question.
As someone who has been writing extensively about identity in this newspaper, and how much Jewish identity is evolving so rapidly as more and more individuals who have either converted to Judaism or live with someone who is Jewish bring with them backgrounds that are not Jewish, I find it quite fascinating to read a quite authentic description of how confusing it must be for a young person who comes from a blend of ethnic identities when asked to explain their own identity.
For that reason alone I would recommend “Lessons in Fusion” as a real eye opener to so many in our community – and well beyond the Jewish community, in helping to understand how someone might identify strongly as Jewish even when that person’s identity is rooted in a background that is quite different than something with which many of us are familiar.
As for how well written “Lessons in Fusion” is, as a first-time novelist, Primrose Mayadag Knazan shows remarkable talent, although given her success as a playwright to date, it should come as no surprise that she has made the transition to fiction writing so successfully.
“Lessons in Fusion”
By Primrose Mayadag Knazan
Published by Great Plains Publishing , 2021
288 pages
More about Primrose Mayadag Knazan
Primrose Madayag Knazan brings an interesting perspective to what it means to become Jewish
By BERNIE BELLAN
As someone who had already established a solid reputation as a successful playwright, Primrose Madayag Knazan knew that she was taking on a challenge of quite a different sort when a publisher proposed that she consider writing a book of fiction aimed at the Young Adult market.
“Writing plays was easier than writing a novel,” Primrose told me during the course of a lengthy phone interview.
“But Great Plains (her publisher) approached me with the idea of writing a book. They said I’ve always been so successful with plays, why don’t I write something – either non fiction or Young Adult?”
The timing was right for her to begin thinking about writing a book, she says. It was the fall of 2020, the Covid pandemic had set in, and she actually had more time to write since she was working from home. Her two young boys were both in school and, while she was certainly busy enough – she had begun writing a food blog as well as writing a regular column for the Filipino Journal about food, Primrose says that she didn’t have any plays in the works, so the idea of writing a book at that time appealed to her.
Around the same time, the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis happened, Primrose notes. “It opened people’s eyes about diversity and representation.”
So, the idea of tackling those themes, along with her passion for writing about food, jelled into the basis of “Lessons in Fusion”.
As I explain in my review of the book, the story centres around 16-year-old Sarah Dayan-Abad. The fact that Sarah’s name is a blend of Jewish and Filipino names is no coincidence. And yet, while there are distinct parallels in Sarah’s life to Primrose’s, Primrose wanted to make clear that Sarah is largely an imagined character.
Having grown up in Winnipeg herself, Primrose says that, while she was raised Catholic, she didn’t find the Catholic church appealing.
“I grew up at a time when I didn’t fit in with other Filipino kids,” she says.
For instance, she notes that she “always wanted to be a blonde. I knew a part of me always wanted to be White.”
At the same time, she says that “ever since I was a kid, I wanted to write plays, books, poetry.
It was while she was in university here – where she was taking a double major in psychology and sociology, that she also had her first immersion in theatre. Primrose says she fell in love with the theatre and, years after she graduated, she became involved in it again, as an actor, as a producer, and as a playwright.
Her first plays were written for Winnipeg’s Fringe Festival (the first one was written in 2000) and each time she entered a new play there (three times altogether), her plays went on to win “Best of Fest”.
It was also while she was in university that she met the man who would eventually become her husband, Josh Knazan.
Yet, while Josh came from a firm Ashkenazie Jewish background, he didn’t insist that Primrose convert to Judaism before they married.
“It was after he proposed to me that I told him I wanted to convert to Judaism – not before,” Primrose explains.
Ever since converting – in 2002, under Rabbi Alan Green’s tutelage, Primrose says that she has become “very comfortable in being a part of the Jewish community.”
“Judaism is such a beautiful religion that I fell in love with it. With Catholicism there are no shades of gray. Everything is black and white. Judaism is so much more nuanced.”
“I’m an outgoing person,” she says. “I’ve been able to be involved in the synagogue (Shaarey Zedek). I have a lot of new friends.”
And, while Primrose says that she has made sure that her two kids will grow up in a Jewish milieu – her older son was just recently Bar Mitzvahed, she says, the notion of “fusing” Filipino and Jewish culture is something that she is keenly interested in doing.
The story in “Lessons in Fusion” centres around food – and not just Filipino or Jewish food.
Raising two boys, especially one who was now a teenager, did give Primrose a certain insight into how young people think – and how they communicate, especially through texting.
Portions of “Lessons in Fusion” have some of the young characters texting with each other. “When I showed it to my son, he told me that I had it all wrong. No one texts in full words,” he said. “I had to learn textspeak from him.”
Something that Primrose wanted to avoid though, in writing a Young Adult novel, was “writing anything dystopian”. She says that she didn’t want to write yet one more book about “the end of the world”.
At the same time that she wanted to tackle issues of “diversity and representation” in her book, Primrose says that her older son was an “inspiration” for her when he told her he “didn’t want to read ‘issue books’ or books about ‘racism’.”
And, while Primrose and Josh are determined to give their two boys a solid Jewish upbringing, they both want them to be exposed to Filipino culture as well, Primrose says.
“They were both in the Hebrew Bilingual program at Brock Corydon” – the older boy has now graduated and is at Grant Park, but they’re both also involved in “Filipino dance”.
Unlike the character Sarah in “Lessons in Fusion”, moreover, who does not have a close relationship with her Filipino relatives – save one aunt, Primrose and Josh’s boys have close relationships with both their Jewish and Filipino relatives.
Sarah, however, identifies entirely as Jewish. The idea of creating a character who, even though she looks Filipino, doesn’t think of herself as Filipino at all, came to Primrose when she herself wondered what she would have been like had she been “raised exclusively Jewish”?
As noted, Primrose has a real passion for food – experimenting with it, writing about it and, as she explained to me, helping to promote local Filipino restaurants and stores.
“My head is focused on food blogging and promoting Filipino food,” she says.
“But when the pandemic happened,” so many restaurants had to close down, including many Filipino ones, she observes. So, her blog and column in the Filipino Journal became even more important to Primrose. She says that “in the past two years I’ve taken the food blogging seriously. I’ve always wanted to feature Manitoba products” as a way of helping local producers.
And, while “Lessons in Fusion” is largely a coming of age novel, as Sarah participates in an extremely demanding competition where she is required to come up with entirely original recipes for a TV show on a weekly basis, Primrose observes that “the growth in Sarah’s recipes parallels the growth in Sarah as a person to the point where she blends her two cultures” – and feels wholly comfortable in both.
That’s also the story of Primrose Madayag Knazan’s life: Someone who feels totally comfortable in her own skin as she blends Filipino and Jewish cultures into a unique amalgam. And, for someone who is as interested in identity as I am – and how fluid it is, having Primrose as part of the Jewish community offers one more reason why other members of our community should feel warm in the knowledge that the Jewish community is a blend of cultures and one in which people of quite different backgrounds can feel totally accepted.
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Community leader Sheldon Zamick role model of perseverance despite life’s vicissitudes
By MYRON LOVE For Sheldon Zamick, life is a marathon, not a sprint – and there is always more to learn. In a life marked by struggles, he has overcome adversity and written a story of success both in business and community leadership.
Over the years, he has given of his time and experience to a great variety of charitable organization – including the Jewish Federation, the CJA, the JNF, Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Canadian Magen David Adom, the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue (he is currently the Board’s finance chair), the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Mount Carmel Clinic, the Variety Club, Muscular Dystrophy, Habitat for Humanity, Siloam Mission, and the Canadian Institute for the Blind. The most recent charitable organization that has benefited from his leadership has been the Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium.
He took on his most recent challenge as executive director of the Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium last year after stepping away from a 40-year career in real estate sales. “This is a really big responsibility,” he says of taking the helm of the LWRC.
As noted on the LWRC webpage, the organization was founded in 1998 “to facilitate scientific research on Lake Winnipeg following evidence of water quality deterioration related to the 1997 Red River ‘Flood of the Century’. The LWRC was incorporated in Manitoba in 2001 and received charitable status in 2008”.
“Our organization does vital research in regard to Lake Winnipeg,” Zamick points out. “Our 328-ton, 110-foot-long ship, the MV Namao – which celebrated its 50th birthday this past August (during which over 1200 supporters toured the boat) in Gimli – is out regularly in the spring, summer and fall on Lake Winnipeg taking water samples. We provide the research platform for scientists to conduct research with regard to climate change and the state of the lake and fish population. We offer science education year round, group tours and summer camp programs for kids.”
He adds that the consortium works closely with many stakeholders, including the Universities of Manitoba and Winnipeg, and receives funding from the Winnipeg Foundation, the Canada Water Agency, Manitoba Hydro, the Manitoba Government, the City of Winnipeg, the town of Gimli, other municipalities and many individual donors.
“It has been great getting the opportunity to meet with various government officials, research partners and donors,” he says.
Sheldon Zamick is a role model demonstrating that an individual growing up in humble surroundings and having to deal with adverse circumstances can succeed in life. He recalls how he had to go to work early in life – at the age of 12 – to help support his family. “We moved around a lot when I was growing up in the North End because my parents could never afford to buy their own home,” he recounts. “That is what drew me to a career in real estate.”
His first job, he says, was peeling potatoes in the basement at Kelekis (a long gone North End Winnipeg restaurant which those of us of a certain age still fondly remember). “I had to learn at an early age to be self-sufficient,” he notes.
In his university days, he worked part time as a corrrections officer – taking as many shifts he could get – at the Winnipeg Remand Centre.
He also demonstrated his leadership capacity at an early age. At 17, he served as president of the USY chapter at the former Rosh Pina Synagogue (even though his parents couldn’t afford to be members of the shul).
After graduating from the University of Manitoba with degrees in Economics and Psychology, he founded TV Facts Magazine, a free weekly TV and shopping guide which some readers may remember. “TV Facts was part of an international chain of publications,” he recounts. “I had to travel to New York to learn how to run a magazine. At our peak, we were putting out 50,000 copies a week – which were available in over 500 locations.”
It was in 1985 that Zamick pursued his interest in becoming a realtor – a profession in which he excelled. Over 40 years as a realtor, he received numerous sales awards, also recognition for his leadership role in his profession and his numerous contributions to the wider community. In the former field, he served for five years as a member of the Winnipeg Real Estate Board, including a term as treasurer and chairing the Government Relations committee.
In 2013-14, he was elected as a director of the 120,000-member Canadian Real Estate Association.
Zamick was recruited into volunteering in the Jewish community, he notes, in the mid-1980s by Laurie Goldberg and the late Larry Rosenberg, who were co-chairs of the Federation’s Young Adult Division. Sheldon subsequently served as co-chair –with Sid Halpern – of the 1987-88 Combined Jewish Appeal’s New Gifts Division.
“We were responsible for contacting members of the community who hadn’t given for a long time,” he explains. “We were really successful in persuading many of them to contribute to the campaign and (by extension) the community.”
That year, he and current outgoing Federation president Paula Parks were nominated to receive our community’s Young Leadership award. Zamick was presented with the Harry Silverberg Young Leader of Distinction Award by Nora Kaufman, the late Harry Silverberg’s daughter.
He later served as the CJA’s campaign director from 1989 to 1992. “During the 1989-90 campaign – that included Operation Exodus (aimed to help Jews leave the dying Soviet Union) – we raised an extra $2 million- bringing in a total of $6-million that year.”
In 1992, Zamick was afflicted with a condition that might have derailed a lesser individual. He was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a condition that left him legally blind. The ever resilient Zamick however took the diagnosis in stride. In 2022, he told an online publication called “Slideshare” that, after the diagnosis, he chose to be thankful for what he had rather than focus on what he had lost.
He added that while legally blind, he still has some sight in certain lighting. “It is a unique way to live,” he told Slideshare, “but you have to adapt to it and I haven’t let it stop me.”
He has been helped immensely by his longtime, supportive wife, Florence.
Typically, following his diagnosis, he threw himself into volunteering with the Canadian National Institute of the Blind. He served on the board of the CNIB for 16 years and was a leader in raising the funds one year – when the CNIB was facing government cutbacks.
Zamick is planning to retire from his current position at the end of this month. He says that he and Florence are looking forward to spending more time with family and friends, travelling –a pasttime they both enjoy, and getting together with their children – Natalie in Toronto and Steven and his wife Ally, along with granddaughters Isabella and Mikayla in Montreal.
He is however, still open to new possibilities. “You never know who might call next,” he observes.
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Local author Avra Love (yes, my daughter) scores three book deal with new Jersey-based Scribal Scion Publishing
By MYRON LOVE Avra Love’s first children’s book has just been released. “Don’t Wake Mommy! A Story About Honouring Parents” is part of a three-book deal that Avra signed with James Gershfield, the president of New Jersey-based Scribal Scion Publishing. The book focuses on Aaron, a Jewish little boy who loves his parents dearly and is always trying to please them.
In “Don’t Wake Mommy!”, Aaron is trying to be considerate of his mommy, who is trying to get some sleep. So, when he discovers water leaking in the basement, he tries to deal with the problem himself – without having to wake his mother – with predictable results.
“Don’t Wake Mommy!” is Avra’s second published book. She published her first, a book of short stories called “Into the Junk Drawer and Other Stories” on Amazon in the spring of 2022. The book sold well – around 250 copies and received very positive comments from many of its readers.
“I have been writing for as long as i can remember,” she comments. “Over the years, I have dabbled in prose and poetry, short stories and longer pieces.”
She began writing the stories that make up “Into the Junk Drawer” shortly after giving birth to her son, Ares, in late 2021. The book consists of a collection of 35 stories – each two to three pages long and each with a moral or a twist at the end.
She became aware of James Gershfield in the summer of 2024 after I wrote a couple of stories about him in the Jewish Post about biographies he had written about his parents, former Winnipeggers Rabbi Edward and Toby Gershfield. His mother was a granddaughter of the late revered Rabbi Israel Kahanovitch.
James Gershfield published both books through Scribal Scion Publishing, which he founded two years after retiring from a 40-year career as a software developer. Scribal Scion Publishing focuses on Jewish books that inspire and comfort. Genres include memoir, biography, religion, and comfort for mourners, as well as children’s books.
In a comment to Avra, Gershfield wrote that “I think you have a great talent for coming up with fun stories for kids – stories that also teach some valuable lessons”.
Avra reports that she wrote the draft of “Don’t Wake Mommy!” several years ago. “Working with James, I learned a lot about the unique features of writing children’s stories. While the process (of publishing) took longer than I expected, I am very happy with the final result.”
She notes that the second book in the series – “Taking Care of Mommy” – should be out next year and the third ,‘”Aaron’s Buried Treasure” – the year after that. In the meantime, she has another group of short stories almost ready for publication and is working on a Chanukah craft fair murder mystery.
“Don’t Wake Mommy!” is available online at Amazon or you can call 204 334-4961 to get your copy.
Local News
Lifelong friend of Israel and the Jewish people John Plantz is the epitome of humility
By MYRON LOVE In the Torah, the prophet Micah, asks the question: “O man. What does the Lord require of you?” to which the Lord responds: “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
John Plantz tries to live those precepts every day. Though recently retired as the Christian Friends of Israel’s director, the lifelong supporter of Israel and our local Jewish community has been and remains actively involved as a volunteer in several of our institutions, among them Canadian Magen David Adom, Friends of JNF Canada, Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Canadian Friends of Haifa University, Leket Canada, Operation Lifeshield, and the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba. (He and his wife, Irene, were Endowment Book of life singers a few years back.)
I first met John Plantz more than 25 years ago when I joined the board of the old Jewish Public Library; he was the volunteer librarian back then – and he told me his story.
His first encounters with Jews came while he was growing up near the former Jewish farm colony at Camper – about a two hour drive northwest of Winnipeg. “It was one of the Baron Hirsch farm colonies,” he recalled. (Hirsch started several Jewish farm colonies in Western Canada and Argentina in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.) When I was a kid, there were still a lot of Jewish families in the area.”
Post high school Plantz found himself adrift – unsure of what he wanted to do with his life. He worked in construction for a time, tried joining the RCMP (but they weren’t taking on any new recruits at that time) – and contemplated going to university. He also thought about playing professional baseball.
Then he heard about an evangelical bible school – Briercrest College and Seminary – in west central Saskatchewan, and applied for admission. He says that he was initially attracted to the institution because of its sports program. However, he also found himself becoming increasingly interested in the Bible and became a devout Christian. His experience at Briercrest further fostered his passion for Israel.
In 1979, he graduated with a Bachelor of Religious Education and a teaching certificate. In 1983, John married Irene Plett. He recalls that, at the reception, he suddenly leaned over to his new bride and said, “One day, I’m going to Israel.”
From 1978 to1988, he worked as a youth pastor and as a “circuit preacher” in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In 1989 he decided to go back to school, to attend Briercrest Seminary to obtain his Masters of Ministry with studies in archaeology in Israel.
“As I studied the Bible more intently,” he recalls, “one of my professors suggested that if I really wanted to understand the Bible better, I should hear it taught from a Jewish perspective.”
To that end, in 1991, he began attending the Beth Jacob Synagogue in Regina. He went to Shabbat services regularly for a year and became friendly with the rabbi. One day, after Shabbat service, the Rabbi asked him if he was Jewish because he had a Jewish friend with the same last name.
“My plans to visit Israel were already in the works,” he says, “and so I tucked this away as something I should pursue while there.”
In Israel that first time – the first of many visits to Israel – 28 at last count – he took archaeology courses at the Hebrew University and went on some digs. He also looked into his surname and found that it was a Hungarian Jewish name.
When he returned to Canada, he asked his grandfather, Ralph Plantz, whether he was, in fact, Jewish, his grandfather acknowledged that he did have Jewish ancestry. When John asked why his grandfather had never mentioned it before, the response was that no one asked.
“My ‘zaida’ (which is how John now refers to his late grandfather) always encouraged us to treat Jewish people with respect,” John notes.
While still a devoted Christian, he says that he does consider himself Jewish.
After coming back from Israel that first time John began volunteering with Christian Friends of Israel. He also began volunteering at the old Jewish Public Library.
“I loved being at the library,” he reminisces. “I had studied both Hebrew and Yiddish so I could work comfortably with the collection.”
He speaks fondly about some of the regulars who visited the library. “I learned a lot from them,” he says.
He remembers the late Noach Witman in particular. “Noach was one of the kindest men I have ever known,” he says.
(Witman was the founder and long time host of the Jewish radio hour Sunday afternoons – which is still on the air every Sunday from 1:30 to 2:30 on CHJS radio 810 on the am dial.)
During that time, Plantz began to attend north Winnipeg synagogues on Shabbat and volunteer for a number of Winnipeg-based Israel fundraising organizations.
In 2018, he assumed the role of Manitoba Director of Christian Friends of Israel, a position he just retired from at the end of August. He declares however, that he will continue to work on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people as long as he is able.
He is proud to report that his seven children all share his and Irene’s passion for the Children of Israel and all helped out at the Jewish Public Library. “All five of my sons took Yiddish lessons and one of my daughters studied Hebrew,” he says.
Plantz quotes the Prophet Jeremiah as declaring that – to paraphrase – as long as the sun, the moon and the stars are in the sky, “the seed of Israel shall not cease from being a nation before me”.
“And so must be our love for the Jewish People and Israel,” Plantz concludes.