Tomorrow is the funeral of Shimon Peres.  I did not agree with all of his politics and views, but I admire how he gave his life for Israel.  He was the last of the founding fathers of the Modern State of Israel.  He was the ninth President of Israel, the Prime Minister of Israel (twice), the Interim Prime Minister (twice) and was a member of 12 cabinets.  At the time of his retirement in 2014, he was the world’s oldest head of state.

Peres could speak Polish, French, English, Russian, Yiddish and Hebrew.  He really was an extraordinary and gifted man.  He was educated in the Talmud by his grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer, who later was burned alive, along with the rest of Peres’ family who remained in Poland, by the nazis.  The actress Lauren Bacall was his cousin.

Peres and his immediate family immigrated to the land of Israel in the 1930s.  Here, he was very active in the youth movement, agriculture, and the Haganah (became the IDF).

While reading about Shimon Peres, what I found very interesting is that he wrote songs and poetry and one of his songs was performed by Andrea Bocelli!

Let’s take this opportunity to pray for the leaders of Israel.  They are under tremendous pressure from other governments and the United Nations, not to mention all of our security issues related to our “neighbors” and our enemies within.