In addition to having the privilege of meeting Jeff Seidel, that same day, I walked away with my first Siddur. While a Siddur to many who have never opened one is just a “book,” to others, like myself, it’s way my way of now being able to legitimately daven. Never in my life have properly benched, and never in my life have I once said the bedtime Shema. Since receiving my Siddur, these two things have become routine for me. What was once just random text and words to me, are now thanks, appreciation and protection, to and from HaShem. To feel the protection I now feel when I go to sleep, that came from the prayers in the Siddur, and I would never have received my Siddur if I had never met Jeff Seidel. So for Jeff Seidel, I am forever grateful!
Laura Price – Fall 2014
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George Deek is an Arab-Israeli diplomat. In 2018, Deek was appointed Israeli ambassador to Azerbaijan. He is the first Israeli Arab Christian to become an ambassador. Deek grew up in an Eastern Orthodox Christian family in the Ajami neighborhood of Jaffa, in a building where the other tenants included Muslims, Catholics, Jews and a Catholic priest of Jewish ancestry.[2][3] His father, who worked as a tax advisor,[3] was one of the leaders of the Christian community in Jaffa who served as chairman of the Orthodox Association, and was considered a well-known and popular figure in the city until in 2015 a square was inaugurated in his memory in Jaffa in the presence of Mayor Ron Huldai.[4] According to Deek, his grandparents fled to Lebanon for safety when the 1947–1949 Palestine war, having been told that the Jews would slaughter them if they remained in their homes, but expecting to return home once Arab armies defeated the Jews.[3] According to Deek, when the war ended, his grandparents felt that they had been “deceived”, and decided to return illegally to their home in Jaffa rather than remaining in Lebanon as refugees. Since reentering the country was illegal, Deek’s grandfather, an electrician, was arrested and jailed.
