24-Sep-14: Forward-looking statements (and reflections on the past) about the new year that starts tonight

Screenshot from the new Malki Foundation Blog. Clicking there
brings up the electronic version of the new brochure for
The Malki Foundation

We don't make a secret here that we are passionate promoters (unpaid and non-executive) of a charity that bears our murdered daughter's name and that does really good non-sectarian, strictly non-political work very efficiently. It's a small not-for-profit whose ethical standards match our expectations (we defined them when we founded the organization) and which we wish more people actively supported. An honest charity that achieves what it says it wants to do is never something to be taken for granted.

Tonight marks the end of a rather difficult and challenging year, according to the Jewish calendar. The new year, 5775, starts at sunset.

In Jewish tradition, new year is a time not only for making resolutions (which it is) but for thinking back on what happened in the year just ended and how we ourselves coped. Introspection is a serious value, and Judaism places considerable emphasis on it. Not to get too philosophical about it, but the mood set by our tradition is about "How can I do better?" Actually, how can we all do better?

Now we're very aware that not everyone who reads this blog of ours is Jewish or celebrates the new year in the middle of September. We also know that, as much as we would want people to know about our daughter's beautiful life - the one stolen from her and us by the murder-obsessed Islamist thugs of Hamas in August 2001 when she was just fifteen years old - most of our readers have just a passing familiarity with Malki, our daughter, and with The Malki Foundation that bears her name.

That's exactly as it ought to be.

Those for whom the story resonates will find their way to the source material. Those who come here because of an interest in the threat posed to all of us by terrorism are very welcome, and please don't feel that we're demeaning your interest. Quite the opposite - we appreciate it hugely and are grateful for the steady growth in readership that This Ongoing War has had in the past two years.

Apple and honey: the most symbolic of
Jewish new year customs

But for everyone who reads these words, we have a new year's eve request. Please pay a brief visit to a new blog we have just set up, called The Malki Foundation Blog. Nothing political, nothing contentious, but it's still going to be interesting to those who wonder about how being at the receiving end of an act of incomprehensible hatred can get a person to wake up and start doing something that brings a little more good into the world.

Please, in particular, take a look at a beautiful new brochure that has just been mailed out to the charity's supporters around the world, and that can be viewed online here. Pointing your friends to it would be hugely appreciated. Thank you. And may this be a wonderful new year for all of us who cherish peace, family life and mutual respect. Shana tov, ketiva vehatima tova (translation: a prayer that you be inscribed and sealed for a good year כתיבה וחתימה טובה - שנה טובה).