“Who is Silvia? what is she”
Song: “Who is Silvia? what is she”
(from Two Gentlemen of Verona)
Who is Silvia? what is she,
That all our swains commend her?
Holy, fair, and wise is she;
The heaven such grace did lend her,
That she might admirèd be.
Is she kind as she is fair?
For beauty lives with kindness.
Love doth to her eyes repair,
To help him of his blindness;
And, being helped, inhabits there.
Then to Silvia let us sing,
That Silvia is excelling;
She excels each mortal thing
Upon the dull earth dwelling;
To her let us garlands bring
Chana Stein and I have the same background. So it is not surprising that we both remembered this ode when we were speaking about Sylvia. So often when we give people here details they have either been helped by her or know of her.
Now to business which means more business for Sylvia and her team.
There were two young women with their mother. Both of them very attractive , dressed to the nines with very modern head coverings and eyelashes from here to eternity. The one said she always accompanied her mother to hospital and had this time been refused. The father was inside the offices where he succeeded in a permit for her. They escorted their mother out in great glee and then came running back to thank us laughing and with big smiles. We had done nothing. Just given them some attention and the feeling that there were two women there for them.
A young man with a very healthy list of convictions, three pages long, most of which were that he had been in Israel illegally. The first was from June 2006. He has been in contact with Elem, an organization which helps young people with problems. We always give such people the phone numbers of Sylvia and also of Leap a new program initiative within the Center for Advancement of Peace Initiatives. LEAP is a non-profit legal aid project dedicated to assisting West Bank Palestinians in protecting their legal rights under Israeli law. He is prevented until 27.3.2052. Let is not be said the Israeli bureaucracy has no sense of humour. Actually had he been elderly it would have emphasized the latter.
Shlomit took a man who had to pay a fine to Alon Shvut He has received the fine on 26th August which had to be paid in 90 days. He said that the policeman who had given him the fine said that he had until the end of November to pay it. In spite of the fact that two months had been of 31 days and another day or two had passed by the time he paid the fine it cost him 500 shekel extra.
There were many people today but as soon as we wrote to A. the gate was opened fairly quickly. As usual many people photographed the tag for Sylvia and also the phone number of Leap.
A busy day which gave us the feeling that we are still needed there.