Sid: Well, I have on the telephone from Tele Aviv, Israel Shira Sorko Ram. As far as I’m concerned Shira and her husband Ari put out a newsletter from Israel. There organization is called, Maoz. Shira, Maoz means strength.
Shira: That is correct.
Sid: And I image a lots of people get your newsletter and don’t know even what Maoz means.
Shira: No.
Sid: Now what is behind, why would you pick Maoz, that word for your ministry?
Shira: We took it from the scripture, the Lord is my strength. And the word for strength is Maoz. It means fortress or strength and so we said, “That’s what we’re going to have to have in order to make any type of impact in Israel.”
Sid: Well, you should know because forty years ago in 1967 you emigrated from the United States to Israel. Now let’s be candid, most American Jews haven’t even been to Israel let alone are thinking of Aliyah or becoming citizens of Israel. And forty years ago there was probably even less talk about that. What caused you to leave the wonderful American lifestyle and go to Israel?
Shira: Well, we were getting ready, my family and I were going to have a tour here and so we were planning to get here in October 1967 and while we were planning that the six day war took place when in six days Jerusalem came back into the hands of the Jewish people. Judea and Samaria, Gaza, the Golan Heights, even the Sinai Desert, they all came back into the hands of the Jewish people. And so that raised an interest in my mind because I was saying this is a sign of the last days. Jerusalem coming back into the hands of the Jewish people is a sign of the last days. And so that’s when I began to think a little bit stronger about coming to Israel. Now also I know that this a fact that when I got here many young Jewish men and woman from the United States immigrated at that time. There was a big immigration of young people from the States. I don’t know if it has ever been like that since, but there was just a number of thousands of American Jews who came at that time because of the excitement of Jerusalem coming back into the hands of the Jewish people.
Sid: But you went by yourself, am I right?
Shira: Well, I came over on the tour and I was getting ready to go back on the tour and we were standing out in front of a hotel, that was it getting ready to get on the bus to go to the airport and the bus came late. And meanwhile I was talking to my Father because I had been working in documentary films and my Father said, “You know this is remarkable what’s happening in Israel. I mean, even the people themselves are saying “The days of Messiah are here,” people that did not know who the Messiah was, but they still said, “Something’s happening.” So he said, “Why don’t you make a documentary film about what God is doing in Israel by bringing the land back into the hands of the Jewish people. And so because that bus was late, I decided I would stay here for a few days and then I decided a few weeks, and then a few months and at that time I was hooked, I was here.
Sid: But what did your parents think about you being, I mean that you’re young, your single, you’re there in Israel by yourself. What did your parents think about that?
Shira: My father is a man of prayer; he was a man of prayer he has gone on to his reward now. But he loved Israel and he prayed for Israel all the time; wrote about Israel, and I do believe that I’m here. My life is spent here in Israel, because of the prayers and the love that my Father had for Israel. So yes I’m here,
Sid: Okay what was it like forty years ago in Israel?
Shira: Totally amazing, I can remember the first Independence Day after the Six Day War.
Sid: Now at that time, they hit you on the head with those little funny hammers that were plastic?
Shira: They had the hammers.
Sid: I’ve been out there in the streets when that happens.
Shira: Oh it’s terrible, but any way…
Sid: It doesn’t hurt, but okay.
Shira: I was living in Jerusalem at that time, I lived in Jerusalem for six years after you know getting there in 1967 and everything is new to me. Everything is new, I didn’t know what to expect. But on the Independence Day, which was in the May of 1968 okay, so it’s the first Independence Day of Israel when Jerusalem was back in the hands of the Jewish people.
Sid: That had to be so exciting.
Shira: Well here’s what happened, I went out of my house and I saw people everywhere moving in a certain direction which was towards the Western Wall, you know, the new Western Wall as far as Israel is concerned. So I followed and there were thousands of people, they were all making their way to the direction of the Western Wall. Well it filled up very fast, but outside of the city gates of Jaffa around the old city there were, I don’t know maybe 50,000 people and I stood there and they all started singing this song which all Jewish people know, “Jerusalem of Gold,” And they started singing Jerusalem Jerusalem of Gold and you could image how it sounded for 50,000 people sponteously singing about Jerusalem, it was earthshaking I have to say.
Sid: I can feel it as your saying that. So you’re swept with this crowd, there looking at the Western Wall for the first time in Jewish possession, what a moment! You had no doubt that you were suppose to be there at that point I’m sure.
Shira: Oh, it was a euphoria that lasted in Israel for about six years. It lasted from 1967 six day war until 1973 the Yom Kippur War when the Arabs did a surprise attack on Israel and 2,000 soldiers were killed.
Sid: I’ll tell you what, hold that thought, but there is so much history in Shira-Sorko-Ram that I want to get it out in this interview…
