who is michael babel?

Answer 1

do you mean Michael Bublé? He is a pop singer of standards

Answer 2

From my search, I got this:

Michael Babel is by no means connected with his namesake. Michael's ancestors are from Kiev and Berdichev. To date, no family or kinship ties have been discovered with Isaac Babel. He has chosen a different road in his life and creative work.

"I grew up in the neighborhood of Tishinskaya Street, Gruzinski Val Street and the Byelorussian Railway Station, - Michael Babel tells this about himself in a book with the merry title "The Dreamers" (which means "The Preoccupied people" in the translation from Hebrew), - I lived in a huge house where all inhabitants sometime were and would be under arrest. We lived in a two-room flat where one room was ours, and our neighbors were in the other…"

He knew the seamy side of Soviet life and the situation of Jews in the "country of equals" early enough.

He was imparted the feeling of Judaism from his birth owing to his "Haredi grandfather, blessed be his memory"...

Then came the usual way of school, institute of higher education, work... And at a mature age already, he chose a "new path" that changed his existence and brought him to the Country of the Exodus.

Michael Babel wrote the book "My Israel". In the early seventies he submitted it to seven publishers in Moscow who rejected it, but it was published in Israel in 1990. Now, in this book he tells how he discovered for himself his Jewish predestination. At first, "I wanted to be a citizen of the world, and only of the world, because I was not offered any choice". " I climbed the mountains, clambered higher and higher… But… I am not G-d, I could not live in heaven. I am merely a man. And I came down to earth, to that part of the earth where the winds of two thousand years had brought me… Then I found out my rock- the Wall of Lamentations…"

This "new path" turned out to be the main road of his life. Finally, after the demonstrations of the Jews for their return to Zion, the Soviet authorities released Michael and his comrades from the USSR in 1973.

The reality of the Land of Israel had a sobering effect on the Zionist dreamer who saw the final aim of his struggle in finding his real homeland. But it is here that he found the Faith…

Michael Babel considers himself and the other Jews as personally responsible for the destiny of the Land of Israel. He warns about the doom of the new utopian idea that has replaced the decrepit communist utopia. "Communism and absolute pacifism are specters. A specter haunts the Middle East - the specter of absolute pacifism".

This was written in 1994. But today we see to what kind of results the "peace process" has come and to what end those "dreamers" (the preoccupied people) have come that had started this process…

Michael Babel proposes to ponder the painful issues on which the existence of Jewish Israel depends. And first and foremost over that issue that is designated by the mere word "demography".

Probably his viewpoint will give rise to irritation and to objections. The title "Will Israel exist until the year 2018?" - would be appropriate to his book "The Non-Jewish State or the Last Utopia" by analogy to Andrei Amalrik's famous book "Will the Soviet Union Exist until 1984?" (that was printed in 1969).

However, it seems that Michael Babel himself is not completely convinced that his forecast about the end about Israel's new history is inevitable. After all, Moses said to the people: "And if you obey the voice of the LORD your G-d, being careful to do all his commandments which I command to you this day, the LORD your G-d will set you high above all the nations of the earth" (Deuteronomy, 28,1). And the prophet Isaiah has written: "Whereas you have been forsaken and hated… I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age" (Isaiah 60, 15).

But it is necessary to fulfill the condition that has been put forth for this time to come - the time of the Messiah. Hence, what is necessary is a sober evaluation of modern Israel's situation. Michael Babel's efforts are directed to reach this goal.

In this context, Michael is also a cheerful man who excellently wields the weapon of laughter. Some people would find this laughter inappropriate. But as his famous namesake Isaac Babel said, "a cheerful man is always right"...

Dr. Zalman Simcha Levin