Jewish-Muslim Dance Angers Hamas

By COLlive reporter

The video of a group of observant Jews sharing a joyous and friendly dance together with peaceful Arabs in the Persian Gulf island Muslim nation of Bahrain drew the ire of a terrorist group.

The Hamas terror organization, responsible for the murder of many Jews, said the harmonious all-kosher pre-Chanukah party was a “shameful spectacle.”

“Surprisingly,” they wrote in a statement, “a group of dignitaries and merchants in the State of Bahrain hosted a racist and extremist delegation of Zionists and they openly dance with Jews in a shameful scene.”

A video of the men dancing to a Chasidic niggun melody was posted on the COLlive Facebook page and quickly went viral. It garnered over 145,000 views and reached some 361,127 people, according to Facebook statistics.

The dance around the Menorah was one of the highlights of a private trip of a group of American Jews to Bahrain and Dubai last week, organized by businessman Lazer Scheiner of New York.

Twice a year for the past few years, members of the group travel to locations around the world, visiting holy gravesites of Tzaddikim and strengthening small Jewish communities.

In the past they have visited a previously unknown Jewish community in the remote city of Belmont, Portugal, as well as Morocco and Uman in Ukraine.

Accompanying the travelers on these journeys, including to the Muslim countries this past week, was Rabbi DovBer Pinson, the Kabbalah scholar and spiritual teacher who leads communities in Brooklyn and Monsey, NY.

The trip, which served to strengthen Jewish communities living in Arab lands, began in Dubai, where a population of some 1,000 Jewish expats live and work.

In Dubai, they met with the Jewish community and influential members of the community at large, and made plans for opening a Shul and a Kollel.

Later, they gathered for a Chassidic farbrengen to mark the auspicious day of 19 Kislev.

The group then traveled to the country of Bahrain, where they prayed in a 500 year old Synagogue and visited the Jewish cemetery, where they recited an emotional Kaddish.

Later, the group of businessmen met with the leaders of the Bahrain community, to discuss how to strengthen the Jewish community there and how to encourage Jewish survival and Jewish life.

The group was hosted in a palatial home belonging to a wealthy local resident whose name was not disclosed out of fear for his safety, a source told COLlive.com.

“He allowed them to kosher the kitchen in the palace with the assistance of Chabad, and he invited the group to a dinner party which was joined by many of his friends,” the person said.

“The trip was an amazing Kiddush Hashem and life-altering experience,” the source said. “Walking through these Arab countries, wearing a Yarmulka and Tzitzis, we felt proud to be Jewish, and the locals were very accommodating and welcoming.

“We saw that when Jewish people have Gaon Yaakov and are proud and happy to be Jewish, we can have a great influence on the world and we can be a light unto the nations,” they said.