French Holocaust survivor and pro-abortion campaigner Simone Veil dies at 89

PARIS—French politician Simone Veil, who survived the Holocaust and led campaigns for the legalization of abortion in France in the 1970s, died at her home in Paris on Friday, her family said. She was 89 years old.

A Jewish survivor of the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen with the prisoner number 78651 tattooed on her arm, she was a fervent European and fighter for civil liberties, becoming the first elected president of the European Parliament in 1979. Although out of the national limelight since 2007 when she quit her seat at France's top constitutional court, she commanded wide respect across the political spectrum and remained among the most popular politicians in opinion polls.

Veil marking the 60th anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation in 2005 with then-President Chirac (Photo: AFP)

Tributes honoring her courage and determination to advance women's rights were paid from within France and beyond.

"May her example inspire our fellow countrymen, who will find in her the best of France," French President Emmanuel Macron said in a message to the family. Veil's concentration camp experience turned her into a passionate advocate of European unification but she was best known in France for legalizing abortion when she was health minister in 1974 under then President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

(Photo: AFP)

Virtually unknown when she joined the cabinet, she fought doggedly against a hostile parliament and divided public opinion to push through a bill that became known as "the Veil Law", making France the first mainly Roman Catholic country to legalize abortion. "Great debates that have for a time divided the French people appear with the passing of time as a necessary step to forming a new social consensus that is part of the tradition of tolerance in our country," Veil said in a speech defending the abortion law in 1974.

(Photo: AFP)

Veil was born Simone Jacob in Nice, on the French Riviera, on July 13, 1927, and from a young age experienced the spread of anti-Semitism in Europe. "Your mother is a Jew, you will burn in hell," a classmate once told her. In spring 1944, aged 16 and living under a false identity, she was arrested together with her family by the Germans. Her father, mother and brother died in concentration camps, though a sister who was active in the French Resistance survived imprisonment in the Ravensbruck camp.

(Photo: MCT)

After the war, she studied law at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris and became a magistrate, winning honorary degrees from the US Princeton University and Israel's Weizman Institute. She was married to Antoine Veil, a prominent businessman who led several leading companies and died in 2013. They had three sons. "She embodied for an entire generation the struggle of women for the freedom to decide on motherhood," said Jean Louis Debré, former president of the Constitutional Court. "More profoundly, she represented for men and women seeking a new future a European desire for peace and prosperity."

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Tillerson urged to appoint special envoy on anti-Semitism

Religious leaders in the US along with lawmakers and former federal officials have urged Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asking him to fill the position of Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat anti-Semitism at the State Department.

"As faith leaders who care deeply about combating anti-Semitism, we know how critically important this Special Envoy role has been in representing our government abroad on a range of issues affecting the safety and welfare of Jewish communities," read an open letter written by the ADL and signed by nearly two dozen representatives of the Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Jewish faiths.

"We urge you to clarify your position and commit to filling this statutorily mandated appointment as soon as possible."

US Secretary of State Tillerson (Photo: Reuters)

The Special Envoy position, which was created in 2004 under the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act, helped define the State Department's working definition of anti-Semitism, in addition to monitoring, reporting on and combating acts of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incitement abroad. The position has been vacant since US President Donald Trump took office in January.

Bloomberg reported in February the White House was considering eliminating the position, along with other special envoy positions dedicated to climate change and Muslim communities among others.

Plans to elimite the position as part of the Trump administration's efforts to make drastic cuts in government spending were also crticized by the American Jewish Committee, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, more than a 100 Holocaust organizations, educators and scholars.

US Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, who authored the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act under George W. Bush's administration, also came out against plans to defund the office, noting recent bomb threats made to Jewish centers across the US as well as recent acts of vandalism at Jewish cemeteries.

"It is vital that one senior law enforcement official has the mandate to lead efforts across the government to anticipate, prevent and respond to threats and attacks—especially violent ones—against the American Jewish community," Smith said in a statement.

Hannah Rosenthal, who served as the special envoy from 2009 to 2012, asserted that "If someone is not tasked with this responsibility, it will not be done."

She went on to say the working definition of anti-Semitism formulated by the office has been helping American diplomats around the world "push back" against offensive activities and speech.

Her successor, Ira Forman, who served as the special envoy from 2013 to January 20, 2017, echoed those sentiments, saying US leadership around the world "will vastly diminish if the office of the special envoy is not supported by senior leadership at the State Department."

A State Department official quoted by NBC News said the Department wants to ensure it was "addressing anti-Semitism in the most effective and efficient method possible and are exploring the best means to continue to do so."

The State Department, he said, "remains concerned by high levels of anti-Semitism in many other countries."

Tillerson was asked about the vacant position when testifying in front of the US House of Representatives' State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee on June 14.

Rep. Grace Meng, D-NY, said during the hearing, "We have written a bipartisan letter and made repeated calls from Congress for you to fill this seat. By what date do you know if you will have appointed a new special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism?"

 

Tillerson said the State Department was trying to ascertain whether the special envoys "weakened our attention to those issues," arguing that other diplomats avoid dealing with the issue because there is a special envoy in place.

"One of the questions I’ve asked is, 'If we’re really going to affect these areas, these special areas, don’t we have to affect it through the delivery on mission at every level at every country?'... And by having a special person, an envoy out here, one of my experiences is, mission then says, 'Oh, we’ve got somebody else that does that,' and then they stop doing it. And so it was not the intent."

The ADL rejected Tillerson's assertions, saying, "We appreciate the sentiment you expressed that all diplomats should feel responsible for combating anti-Semitism. However, concerns about anti-Semitism do not always make it on to the agenda of diplomatic meetings, especially when many other legitimate and pressing issues require attention. By contrast, when the Special Envoy meets with foreign officials, anti-Semitism is the agenda."

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Police make arrest in vandalism at Boston Holocaust memorial

Police say they have arrested a man who used a rock to smash a glass panel at the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston.

James Isaac faces arraignment Wednesday on charges of malicious destruction of personal property and destruction of a place of memorial. It could not be determined if he has a lawyer.

New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston (Photo: AP)

 

Police were called by a witness to the memorial early Wednesday to find a glass panel on one of the memorial's 54-foot-high towers shattered.

The memorial that opened in 1995 is on the Freedom Trail near Faneuil Hall and City Hall and is open at all times.

The six glass towers are lit internally and etched with millions of numbers that represent tattoos on the arms of many Jews sent to Nazi death camps.

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Rabbi, several others arrested in public benefits fraud case

Rabbi, several others arrested in public benefits fraud case

Prominent New Jersey rabbi and his wife suspected of illegally soliciting more than $1 million from federal public assistance programs by underreporting incomes; three other couples suspected of of the same fraudulent scheme.

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The neo-Nazi who converted to Judaism

For most people only faith in reincarnation can explain such a story. But Yonatan Langer, a kippa wearing Jew from West Berlin, is quite capable of recounting his previous incarnation: it ended only a few years ago. Yonatan, 33, or Lotz if you go by his original name, was a neo-Nazi. In the neighborhood where he lived in Berlin, he spent time in Neo-Nazi clubs, used the Nazi salute, and admired the SS.

"Hitler, Himmler, Hess—they were heroes to me, war heroes," said Langer in his interview for the newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung.

Yonatan Langer

Just a few years ago he used to celebrate Hitler's birthday, but today he celebrates the Jewish holidays and puts on tefillin every morning. This week, in New York, he is set to complete his conversion to Judaism, after undergoing the traditional circumcision of a bris. Langer managed to get out of the very depths of the violent and racist scene. He attributes his change mainly to the conversations he had with the director of the group Exit. which helps neo-Nazis "get out of the extreme right and start a new life." "It's actually quite simple to convert extreme right-wingers, or radical Islamists," Langer said. "You just need to allow them to take part in life, and extremism is solved by itself."

Langer recalled having a dream, during a time in his life when he was starting to distance himself from his friends. In it, he was standing in a warm cave, when the word "Kabbalah" appeared on the wall. Langer awoke from the dream, jumped out of bed and ran to his computer. From there he went to an introductory course for Kabbalah. These days, he studies Hebrew, works at the Kabbalah Studies Center in Berlin and tries to work through the vicissitudes he underwent.

(Translated & edited by Lior Mor)

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Ynet reporter to receive B’nai B’rith journalism award

Ynet reporter Yaniv Pohoryles will receive on Wednesday the 2017 B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage.

  Pohoryles, home page editor and writer for the Jewish World section of Ynet, was chosen for a series of nine articles published over the course of 2016 that covered Jewish communities in the US and France, Jewish demography, Israel-Diaspora relations, Jewish sportsmen, fundraising, aliyah and kosher food in the Diaspora, among other topics. "I'm very happy that the issue of Diaspora Jewry and new olim is getting broader coverage in the Israeli media," Pohoryles told Ynetnews. "I feel that for many years, the issue has been under-reported or put into the niche of folklore, without any mind given to its wider aspects."

Ynet reporter Yaniv Pohoryles

Pohoryles went on to say the B’nai B’rith award "is yet more proof there are many who find interest in such topics and that their impact is wide-reaching." "I want to thank Ynet for giving me this stage and hope to write many more articles and stories on these fascinating issues," he concluded. US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman will deliver the keynote address at the awards ceremony, which will be held at the Konrad Adenauer Conference Center in Jerusalem's Mishkenot Sha’ananim neighborhood. Also recognized will be Israeli singer/songwriter David Broza, who will receive a special special citation for fostering Israel-Diaspora relations through the arts. The citation has previously been conferred upon Israeli musicians Nurit Hirsh (2014), David D'Or (2015) and Idan Raichel (2016).

David Broza at the Ynet studio (Photo: Yaron Brener)

"Broza has appeared before countless Diaspora communities, groups and organizations during a career that has spanned more than 40 years," the B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem said in a statement. "His original songs and passionate performances are cherished throughout Israel and the Diaspora, offering a common language and point of reference for Jews of diverse backgrounds. A powerful musician, dedicated peace advocate and music industry innovator, Broza awes and inspires audiences with his sincere message and musical allure."

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Polish human rights official under fire for Holocaust remark

A leading Polish human rights official has come under fire for saying the "Polish nation" took part in the implementation of the Holocaust—a controversial statement in a country whose official view is that Poland never collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.

The statement was made by Adam Bodnar, the country's human rights commissioner, who spoke Wednesday on the state-run TVP Info broadcaster.

 

The sign to Auschwitz extermination camp, located in Poland (Photo: EPA)

"There is no doubt that the Germans were responsible for the Holocaust, but many nations took part in its implementation. Among them—and I say this with regret—the Polish nation," said Bodnar during his interview. Bodnar later apologized for the comment, but members of Poland's conservative government nevertheless said he should resign. The flap threatens to weaken Bodnar, who heads one of the last state institutions still independent from the ruling conservative Law and Justice party. After taking power in 2015, the party moved quickly to consolidate its hold over the Constitutional Tribunal, public media and other state bodies in a way that has eroded checks and balances, sparking criticism by the European Union. Bodnar's office has criticized the government for its steps against the constitutional court and over other human rights issues. Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Dziedziczak called Bodnar's comment "scandalous," untrue and added it "disqualifies him from public life."

Bodnar

Bodnar quickly apologized for his choice of words and clarified that he did not mean to say that the entire nation took part in the Holocaust, only that some Poles had committed crimes against Jews. The behavior of Poles toward Jews during Germany's wartime occupation of Poland remains an extremely sensitive subject. Poland was subjected to a cruel occupation during the war and was the site of many death camps where the Germans murdered Jews, Roma and other minority groups. Poles today are hugely offended at suggestions that they took part in the Holocaust. There is a state campaign to fight the term "Polish death camps," which non-Poles have sometimes used. After referring to a "Polish death camp" in a '12 speech of his, then US president Barack Obama raised the ire of the Polish population, until his administration had to issue an apology. There also have been greater efforts in recent years to face the difficult issue of the Poles who did collaborate in violence against Jews for profit or other motives. However, the subject is anathema to the government, which prefers to speak only of the Poles who risked their lives to save Jews, sparking some criticisms of historical whitewashing.

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Jihadist who threw grenade in French kosher shop gets 28 years

Jihadist who threw grenade in French kosher shop gets 28 years

The French jihadist who perpetrated the 2012 attack in Sarcelles, injuring one, is to serve 28 years behind bars; prosecution describes decision as 'a miracle.'

Reuters|Published:  23.06.17 , 12:18

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Hidden trove of suspected Nazi artifacts found in Argentina

In a hidden room in a house near Argentina's capital, police believe they have found the biggest collection of Nazi artifacts in the country's history, including a bust relief of Adolf Hitler, magnifying glasses inside elegant boxes with swastikas and even a macabre medical device used to measure head size.

Some 75 objects were found in a collector's home in Beccar, a suburb north of Buenos Aires, and authorities say they suspect they are originals that belonged to high-ranking Nazis in Germany during World War II.

Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich (C-L) and DAIA President Ariel Cohen (C-R) attend an event at the headquarters of the Delegation of Argentine Israeli Associations (DAIA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina (Photo: EPA)

 

"Our first investigations indicate that these are original pieces," Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told The Associated Press on Monday, saying that some pieces were accompanied by old photographs. "This is a way to commercialize them, showing that they were used by the horror, by the Fuhrer. There are photos of him with the objects."

Among the disturbing items were toys that Bullrich said would have been used to indoctrinate children, a large statue of the Nazi Eagle above a swastika, a Nazi hourglass and a box of harmonicas.

A member of the federal police shows a box with swastikas containing harmonicas for children at the Interpol headquarters in Buenos Aires (Photo: AP)

Police say one of the most-compelling pieces of evidence of the historical importance of the find is a photo negative of Hitler holding a magnifying glass similar to those found in the boxes.

A member of the federal police holds an hourglass with Nazi markings at the Interpol headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina (Photo: AP)

"We have turned to historians and they've told us it is the original magnifying glass" that Hitler was using, said Nestor Roncaglia, head of Argentina's federal police. "We are reaching out to international experts to deepen" the investigation.

The photograph was not released to the public, but was shown to The Associated Press on the condition that it not be published.

Members of the federal police show a bust relief portrait of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler at the Interpol headquarters in Buenos Aires (Photo: AP)

The investigation that culminated in the discovery of the collection began when authorities found artworks of illicit origin in a gallery in north Buenos Aires.

A knife with Nazi markings (Photo: AP)

Agents with the international police force Interpol began following the collector and with a judicial order raided the house on June 8. A large bookshelf caught their attention and behind it agents found a hidden passageway to a room filled with Nazi imagery.

Authorities did not identify the collector who remains free but under investigation by a federal judge.

A Nazi medical device used to measure head size (Photo: AP)

"There are no precedents for a find like this. Pieces are stolen or are imitations. But this is original and we have to get to the bottom of it," said Roncaglia.

Police are trying to determine how the artifacts entered Argentina.

Photo: EPA

The main hypothesis among investigators and member of Argentina's Jewish community is that they were brought to Argentina by a high-ranking Nazi or Nazis after World War II, when the South American country became a refuge for fleeing war criminals, including some of the best known.

Photo: EPA

As leading members of Hitler's Third Reich were put on trial for war crimes, Josef Mengele fled to Argentina and lived in Buenos Aires for a decade. He moved to Paraguay after Israeli Mossad agents captured Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, who was also living in Buenos Aires. Mengele later died in Brazil in 1979 while swimming in a beach in the town of Bertioga.

Photo: EPA

While police in Argentina did not name any high-ranking Nazis to whom the objects might have originally belonged, Bullrich noted there were medical devices.

Photo: EPA

Photo: AP

"There are objects to measure heads that was the logic of the Aryan race," she said.

Ariel Cohen Sabban, president of the DAIA, a political umbrella for Argentina's Jewish institutes, called the find "unheard of" in Argentina.

"Finding 75 original pieces is historic and could offer irrefutable proof of the presence of top leaders who escaped from Nazi Germany," Cohen told the AP. 

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Teenager raises $15,000 to send Holocaust survivor to Israel

A Southern California teen raised about $15,000 to send an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor to Israel so the man can meet his last living relative and finally receive his bar mitzvah, according to a newspaper report Monday.

Drew Principe, 17, said he came up with the idea for a fundraiser after meeting Henry Oster during a school assembly in January.

Oster told students at Viewpoint High near Los Angeles about his experiences during World War II.

Holocaust survivors celebrating their bar mitzvahs at the Western Wall (Illustration Photo: EPA)

In 1941 he and his family were deported by Nazis from their home in Cologne, Germany, a few weeks before he was supposed to celebrate his bar mitzvah, usually held at 13. They were taken to a ghetto in Poland before he was taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was sent to a few different camps before being liberated at 17 and eventually moving to Los Angeles to become an optometrist.

Principe discovered that Oster had never been to Israel, so the teen decided on the spot to give the man a bracelet he had bought on a trip to the Holy Land a few years ago. The bracelet has the Shema, a Jewish prayer, inscribed on it.

"It really is a gesture that cannot be measured," Oster told the Ventura County Star about the gift. "I don't wear jewelry, but I have not taken this off except for the shower."

Principe and Oster began a "life-changing" friendship, the teen told the newspaper.

An online fundraiser took off and quickly raised close to $15,000.

Oster and his wife along with Principe and his family left on Monday for Israel, where Oster will meet his cousin and be formally recognized by the Israeli Holocaust memorial as a survivor.

He will also celebrate the bar mitzvah he never had.

Ultimately, Oster said, he decided to accept the offer and have the ceremony in memory of those who died and will never have the chance to experience the ceremony.

"I decided to honor my father and my parents and ... the desecrated Torah and all the victims who never had a chance," Oster said.

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Israeli Consul General share Iftar together

In times when inter-religious tension leads public discourse and provides the source for conflict around the world, a message of unity between Jews and Muslims is being broadcast from Los Angeles during an Iftar meal between NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Israeli Consul General Sam Grundwerg.

The traditional Muslim fast-breaking meal was held Thursday night at Grundwerg's home in the city as part of a joint initiative between the Israeli Consulate and the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Israeli Consul General Sam Grundwerg, Russell Simmons and leaders from the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (Photo: Michael Mivtzari)

 

Jewish and Muslim religious leaders from the area as well as local officials participated in the meal. In addition to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, producer and entrepreneur Russell Simmons was also in attendance.

Photo: Michal Mivtzari

During the evening, fruitful dialogue was held, led by Abdul-Jabbar, aimed at promoting discourse, appreciation and respect between local Jewish and Muslim communities.

Photo: Michal Mivtzari

"The basic values of Islam, Christianity and Judaism are the same values: they are based on compassion, tolerance and helping the needy. Those who incite us toward each other do so not out of religious belief but out of their own political and economic ambitions. Therefore, we, the believers, need to take advantage of every opportunity to sit together and share our messages of unity with all those who seek peace and a thriving world," said Abdul-Jabbar.

Photo: Michal Mivtzari

Grundwerg added, "The wonderful event that took place this evening allows us to celebrate qualities that we have in common and also the differences between us that enrich our community diversity. This meeting demonstrates that people of good will from different religions and cultures can celebrate together and live together in harmony, mutual respect and unity."

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Multifaith Iftar meals bring settlers, Palestinians together

An early June evening, Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem. Approximately 60 people sit on a garden patio under an awning, waiting for the sun to disappear over the western mountains before breaking the day-long Ramadan fast with dates and water, to be followed by a larger meal of chicken and rice.

In-and-of-itself, the scene is unremarkable. The nightly break-fast meal, known in Arabic as iftar, is a central feature of the Muslim holy month, a time for families and friends to gather together, pray and share quality time, often outside in the temperate evening climate.

Rabbi Yossi Froman prays the afternoon service facing Jerusalem while religious Muslims bow towards Mecca (Photo: Rabbi Mordechai Vardi/TPS)

But this gathering is not quite your traditional iftar, in at least one significant detail: Approximately half the attendees are Israeli residents of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc communities of Efrat, Alon Shvut, Kfar Etzion, Bat Ayin, Tekoa and others, who have come to celebrate the end of the fast, talk about co-existence and build relationships. The evening, hosted by the Shorashim/Judur organization, a local NGO that calls itself a “grassroots movement of understanding, nonviolence, and transformation among Israelis and Palestinians,” is second of four break-fasts the organization will be hosting in June and just one of dozens of interfaith programs throughout the month. For established Israeli organizations such as Givat Haviva, The Abraham Fund Initiatives and newer groups like the Abrahamic Reunion, iftar has become an opportunity for Israeli Jews and Arabs to come together on neutral ground for a religious/cultural experience that participants say transcend politics. For settlers and Palestinians , the issues are obviously more charged. “I came here tonight to deal with a type of emotional sickness that I think we all—Israelis and Palestinians—have,” said Rabbi Hanan Schlezinger, a New York native who has lived in Alon Shvut for 30 years. “We are both traumatized by fear, suspicion, misunderstanding. “I would only have the chutzpah to speak for myself and perhaps for other Israelis, but in our communities Palestinians are essentially invisible. When they aren’t working in construction building our houses, we don’t see them. Iftar is an opportunity to share a meal together, to relate to one-another as individuals with similarities. That experience has helped open my eyes and my heart to people who live less than a five-minute drive from my house,” Schlezinger said. Virtually all of the Palestinians at the gathering asked not to be identified, for fear of retaliation by Palestinian Authority officials or Hamas operatives for “normalizing” relations with settlers.

Jerusalem (Photo: AFP)

Notably, however, the fear of retribution did not dissuade them from breaking bread with the Israelis, just 200 meters from the Gush Etzion junction—a site where Israelis have been stabbed, shot and intentionally run over by Palestinian terrorists, and where Palestinians have to go through roadblocks and random security checks. “Most Palestinians associate settlers with violence, roadblocks, IDF soldiers are constantly searching our houses and arresting people and more,” said one Palestinian participant. “And then there are political pressures from the PA not to “normalize” relations with settlers. “But it is absurd, when you think about it. So many Palestinians already talk to settlers – we build their houses, we clean them, we tend their gardens. So ‘boycotting’ them in social terms only means taking the humiliating side of that relationship, without seeing them as individuals who are deeply connected to this land, and to show them the same side of Palestinians. Iftar is a terrific opportunity for people to meet as equals,” the person said. In addition to the cultural aspects of iftar, for religiously minded Jews, the opportunity to eat together presents an opportunity to discuss spiritual similarities and differences between the two faiths. The Islamic themes of Ramadan – tauba (repentance), zakat (charity) and tarawih (penitential prayers) are parallel to the religious themes of Elul, the Hebrew month of repentance leading up to Rosh Hashana. In addition, Muslim and Orthodox Jews share many cultural norms that fly in the face of aspects of modern society. “We had one person, an older Muslim man, who came to our our house for an iftar and he sees a pushka (tzedakah box) that we have on the wall. His face lit up and he asked me, ‘Hey! is that for sadaqa?,’” using the Arabic word for charity, said Rabbi Lee Weissman, a member of the Breslov hasidic sect who lives in California and is the author of the Jihadi Jew blog.

“So we start to talk about sadaqa.. and the idea of giving a little everyday to make it a habit, and about giving before you pray. The conversation quickly became this soaring conversation about the nitty gritty of giving, and within a few minutes we had gone from being ‘you people’ to us: Just a couple of religious folks trying to figure out how to stay connected to God and each other in a confusing world,” Weissman told TPS.

Article reprinted with permission from TPS.

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Ex-journalist pleads guilty in Jewish threats case

A former journalist pleaded guilty on Tuesday to cyberstalking and making fake bomb threats, admitting he threatened Jewish organizations and made "false and salacious" allegations about an ex-girlfriend to her employer to disrupt her life.

 

 

"For this, I deeply apologize," said Juan Thompson, who has remained incarcerated since his March arrest amid a spike in threats across the continent.

 

In a release, Acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim said Thompson, of St. Louis, fueled "fear and distress" early this year with fake bomb threats to more than a dozen Jewish community centers and organizations nationwide.

Juan Thompson (Photo: AP)

"Thompson made these threats as part of a cruel campaign to cyberstalk a victim with whom he previously had a relationship," Kim said. "Thompson's threats not only inflicted emotional distress on his victim but also harmed Jewish communities around the country."

From January to March, more than 150 bomb threats were reported against Jewish community centers and day schools in 37 states and two Canadian provinces, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish group that battles anti-Semitism.

Authorities say an 18-year-old Israeli-American Jewish man arrested in Israel in March was believed responsible for most of those threats along with a wave of more than 2,000 threats against US Jewish centers, airports, malls, police stations and other institutions.

Thompson, 32, told US District Judge P. Kevin Castel in Manhattan he was "slightly nervous" as he pleaded guilty to charges that each carry a potential penalty of five years in prison. He agreed not to appeal any sentence at or below 46 months, nearly four years, in prison.

Thompson said he sent emails and faxes to his ex-girlfriend's employer after she ended their relationship last summer and later made bomb threats, claiming his ex-girlfriend had planted bombs at several local community centers in New York and other states.

"I believed that these false threats would be taken seriously by the community centers and place them in fear for their safety," he said.

He said he committed the crimes "to disrupt my ex-romantic partner's life" and cause her distress.

Prosecutors said Thompson's emails to the woman's employer claimed she had broken the law, among other things.

They said Thompson sometimes used his girlfriend's name while making threats against Jewish community centers, schools or other facilities. One message claimed he had placed two bombs in a Jewish school and was "eager for Jewish Newtown," a reference to the 2012 school massacre in Connecticut, prosecutors said.

The government collected evidence from about two dozen laptops, tablets and cellphones seized from Thompson's home.

Thompson was fired from the online publication The Intercept last year after being accused of fabricating story details.

His sentencing is set for Sept. 15.

In a statement after the plea, the Anti-Defamation League said his conduct "was inexcusable and stoked fears of anti-Semitism at a time when such incidents were on the rise."

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Feds: Neo-Nazi plot targeted civilians, nukes and synagogues

Federal prosecutors said a neo-Nazi arrested after agents found bomb-making materials in his Florida apartment while investigating the slayings of his two roommates planned to use the explosives to harm civilians, nuclear facilities and synagogues.

Court documents filed Monday say a third roommate arrested in the killings told authorities that 21-year-old Brandon Russell had been targeting the sites.

(File photo: EPA)

The murder suspect, Devon Arthurs, was arrested last month after telling police he fatally shot 22-year-old Jeremy Himmelman and 18-year-old Andrew Oneschuk because they were neo-Nazis who disrespected his recent conversion to Islam.

Arthurs told police Russell was not involved in the shootings, but that he was planning a bombing.

The documents also stated that police found two rifles, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a skull mask in Russell's car.

Russell admitted to making the HMTD, but claimed he had been a member of a college engineering club and that the substance was for "setting off model rockets and balloons," the documents stated. Agents said they found nothing related to rockets in the apartment.

On May 20, after speaking with authorities, Russell said he wanted to leave town and visit his father in Palm Beach and left the Tampa area while an arrest warrant was being prepared. Contacted by law enforcement, his family said they hadn't heard from him.

Russell had picked up a friend, another self-described neo-Nazi, William James Tschantre, 20, who was identified in a Monroe County Sheriff's Office report. Tsanchtre told the agents that he grabbed his life savings, $3,000, quit his job and left with Russell.

Devon Arthurs (Photo: AP)

The pair told agents they stopped at a sporting goods store and purchased rifles and ammunition before heading south.

"According to Russell's friend, they had no specific destination in mind and had no plans to hurt anyone or do any harm," the court documents state.

The next morning, Russell was arrested by Monroe County sheriff's deputies at a Burger King in Key Largo after the FBI had issued a "be on the lookout" advisory. In his car, according to court filings, they found two rifles, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, binoculars and a skull mask.

In arguing for his bond, which was granted by the court pending a decision on the details of his release, Russell stated that the rifles and ammunition he purchased could be used for hunting. His attorney, Ian Goldstein, said he would comment after a hearing the judge scheduled for Tuesday afternoon to announce the conditions of Russell's release.

Prosecutors have asked the court to reconsider, arguing that Russell's bomb-making materials and flight were cause enough to keep him behind bars. Russell is charged with unlawful storage of explosive materials and possessing a destructive device and unregistered firearm.

"Detonating this type of bomb could easily cause a vehicle to explode, killing all of the occupants and causing grave damage within a large distance around the explosion site," Acting U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow wrote.

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Einstein letters on God, McCarthy, Israel go up for auction

A collection of letters written by Albert Einstein is set to go to auction next week, offering a new glimpse at the Nobel-winning physicist's views on God, McCarthyism and what was then the newly established state of Israel.

The five original letters, dated 1951 to 1954 and signed by Einstein, reveal a witty and sensitive side of the esteemed scientist. They were sent to quantum physicist David Bohm, a colleague who fled the United States for Brazil in 1951 after refusing to testify about his links to the Communist Party to the House Un-American Activities Committee.

(Photo: Getty Images)

Bohm's widow's estate put the documents on the block after she passed away last year. One of the yellowing pages, bearing Einstein's signature and embossed seal, and a handwritten general relativity equation, opens at $8,000 and is expected to sell for at least twice that. In all, the collection is expected to fetch over $20,000.

Einstein and Bohm became friends when they both worked at Princeton University. Their letters touch on quantum physics, the nature of the divine and Bohm's miserable time in Brazil.

"If God has created the world his primary worry was certainly not to make its understanding easy for us," Einstein assured Bohm in February 1954, a year before his death.

In another letter from February 1953, Einstein compares "the present state of mind" of America gripped by McCarthyist anti-Communism to the paranoia in Germany in the early 20th century under Kaiser Wilhelm II. Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s led a hunt for alleged communist traitors he believed worked in the government and the army.

Bohm, who left the United States in the midst of the so-called Red Scare, conveyed dismay and displeasure about living in Brazil, where he was working at the University of Sao Paulo. He said he had trouble adjusting to the local food.

Einstein, then 75, offered sympathy to his younger colleague for the "instability of your belly, a matter where I have myself extended experience." He suggested getting a good cook.

Einstein said the foreseeable future didn't portend a "more reasonable political attitude" in the United States, and that Bohm ought to hold out in Brazil until he gets citizenship before leaving for a more "intellectual atmosphere."

One idea that came up was relocating to Israel, which had declared independence in 1948. But despite Einstein's ties to Israel's Hebrew University, he believed the country offered limited opportunities. Einstein himself declined an offer in 1952 to become Israel's president, though he served remotely on the Hebrew University's first Board of Governors and left his papers to the school in his will.

"Israel is intellectually active and interesting but has very narrow possibilities," the Nobel laureate wrote. "And to go there with the intention to leave on the first occasion would be regrettable."

(Photo: courtesy of the Albert Einstein Archive)

Despite Einstein's counsel, Bohm, who was Jewish, left Brazil for Israel in 1955, where he taught at Haifa's Technion Institute of Technology for two years. There he met his wife, Sarah Woolfson. They married in 1956. A year later the couple moved to the United Kingdom, where Bohm taught at Bristol University until his death in 1992.

Mrs. Bohm returned to Israel after her husband's death and resided in Jerusalem. She died in April 2016 and her estate put her husband's letters from Einstein up for sale at Winner's auction house in Jerusalem.

Roni Grosz, curator of the Albert Einstein Archives at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, home to the world's largest collection of Einstein material, said copies of the Bohm letters were already in the archive and that there was "nothing extraordinary" about them. But he said anything connected to Einstein tends to generate interest.

"There's today tremendous interest in all things Einstein. Einstein documents, letters, drafts are being on sale all the time," he said. "There's barely a month that passes with no Einstein documents in auction or in sale."

The auction, which includes copies of other letters sent by Einstein and correspondence by fellow Nobel laureate Louis de Broglie, will be held on June 20, though early bids are being accepted online.

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Warsaw mayor faces summons on estate returns

Warsaw's city mayor and other officials will be summoned this month to testify before a special state commission investigating questionable restitution of private property that was seized under communism, the deputy justice minister said Monday.

The commission was formed recently in response to growing outrage at the returns, which concern highly valuable plots and buildings, in Warsaw and some other cities, that were seized by the state from private owners—Poles, Jews and others—under a 1945 communist-era decree.

Warsaw

Democratic Poland opened the possibility of the return of property, but in many cases the process has gone wrong, the rightful heirs have been tricked out of their rights and the tenants evicted by the new owners, sometimes with nowhere to go.

The commission led by Deputy Justice Minister Patryk Jaki will review cases. It has the power to take wrong decisions to court to seek their reversal or compensation for the rightful inheritors. It is beginning with restitutions in Warsaw. Jaki said Monday that the first hearings will be June 28-30 and will concern a building in Twarda street from which a renowned high school was evicted. Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz refused to appear and had questioned the commission's authority. The panel wanted to know to what extent she was aware of the irregularities that had been described in the media. A house returned to her family was among those investigated. Some other city officials have been put under arrest on suspicion of helping in the irregular restitutions and will be brought before the panel.

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US Holocaust museum seeks funds to preserve war diaries

A.C. Strip has long understood the significance of the diary his older brother kept as they fled the Holocaust with their parents. He turned it into a self-published book that he gave to his brother as a 90th birthday gift. But Strip never considered the diary to be an important historical document. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum is making him rethink that.

Strip's brother's journal is one of more than 200 diaries written by Holocaust victims and survivors the museum hopes to digitize and make available to the public with the help of its first crowd-funding campaign. The museum is seeking $250,000 for the project and will begin soliciting donations through Kickstarter on Monday, the birthday of the most famous Holocaust diarist, Anne Frank.

A page of Joseph Stripounsky's diary with a sketch showing "Master Teddy Bear," is shown at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, Wednesday, June 7, 2017 (Photo: AP)

 

The diary has forced Strip to confront painful memories. On a recent visit to Washington to be interviewed for the project, he found it too difficult to tour the museum. But he visited the nearby National Museum of African American History and Culture and gained some perspective on what the Holocaust Museum is trying to accomplish.

"I had forgotten some of these things in my own lifetime, all these stories about people like me and my family," Strip said. "The African-American museum is bringing these things to life that will not permit people to forget, and the Holocaust Museum, their job is not to permit people to forget."

Curator Kyra Schuster, shows diaries laid on a table at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, Wednesday, June 7, 2017 (Photo: AP)

Strip, a native of Antwerp, Belgium, was 5 and Joseph 17 when their family fled the Nazis. Then known as the Stripounskys, they escaped across the border to France and spent a year holed up with a farming family in a small village before going to Spain, Portugal and, finally, the United States.

Joseph—who later became an engineer, settled in New Jersey and lived to 91—chronicled the journey in meticulous detail, using four notebooks. He accented his writing with sketches, maps and newspaper clippings. One sketch shows "Master Teddy Bear," a stuffed animal the family bought for young A.C.

A page of Joseph Stripounsky's diary shows a pocket created on a page with extra pages inserted inside, at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, Wednesday, June 7, 2017 (Photo: AP)

Strip, 81, a lawyer who lives in Dublin, Ohio, broke down in tears several times while discussing his family's journey in a telephone interview. While his immediate family got across the Belgian border, two aunts and two uncles didn't make it. Their papers were Czech, not Belgian, and they were later killed by the Nazis. Two of Strip's orphaned cousins later joined his family in the US and were raised by his parents. He considers them his brothers.

"Our family, like so many others, got beat up pretty bad," he said.

The diary project is important because Holocaust survivors are rapidly dying off, museum officials said. If the Kickstarter campaign succeeds, the money would mostly pay for the work needed to translate, catalog and digitize them. The museum has diaries written in 18 languages.

Curator Kyra Schuster, shows diaries laid on a table at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, Wednesday, June 7, 2017 (Photo: AP)

"We're living in scary times. Holocaust denial has been on the rise. Anti-Semitism and hatred is extremely worrisome. It's on the front of a lot of minds, certainly this institution. These diaries, these first-person accounts, testimonies, this is the evidence," said Dana Weinstein, the museum's director of membership and new audience engagement. "This evidence will stand as proof that the Holocaust happened."

Many of the diaries were much shorter than Joseph's, kept on scraps of paper or scrawled onto family photographs. The museum received one diary from Warsaw, Poland, that had been hidden behind a radiator in a bombed-out building. It looked like a deck of cards, but it turned out to be four sheets of paper that were folded many times. The author was a woman known as Deborah—it could have been an alias—and that's all the museum curators know.

Strip's brother was careful to write down everything. His maps were so accurate that, during a trip to France two years ago, Strip was able to use them to find the village and the farmhouse where his family hid.

A page of Joseph Stripounsky's diary with a sketch showing a map, is shown at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, Wednesday, June 7, 2017 (Photo: AP)

The last name of the family they stayed with was Mech. Strip visited the mayor's office and asked the secretary if anyone with that name still lived in town.

"She went to the computer, picked up the telephone, came back and said, 'One of Mr. Mech's children will be here in 5 minutes,'" Strip said. "Five minutes later, a very nice gentleman, 62 years old, who wasn't born at the time I was there but who knew the whole story, came in, took one look at me and he started crying."

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US First amendment lawyer defending neo-Nazi website publisher

A Las Vegas-based lawyer specializing in free-speech cases is representing the publisher of a leading neo-Nazi website who has been sued for orchestrating an anti-Semitic online trolling campaign against a Montana family.

Marc Randazza told The Associated Press on Friday that his law firm is defending The Daily Stormer's founder, Andrew Anglin, against afederal lawsuit that real estate agent Tanya Gersh filed against him in April.

"Everybody deserves to have their constitutional rights defended," Randazza said. "Nobody needs the First Amendment to protect Mr. Rogers. That's not what it's there for."

Gersh is represented by attorneys from the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

White supremacists 'hail Trump' with Nazi salute (File photo)

Gersh's suit claims anonymous internet trolls bombarded her family with hateful and threatening messages after Anglin unleashed a "campaign of terror" by publishing their personal information, including her 12-year-old son's Twitter handle and photo. In a string of posts, Anglin accused Gersh and other Jewish residents of Whitefish, Montana, of engaging in an "extortion racket" against the mother of white nationalist Richard Spencer. The suit accuses Anglin of invading Gersh's privacy, intentionally inflicting "emotional distress" and violating a Montana anti-intimidation law. Randazza, who said Anglin never directly sent any messages to Gersh, argued the suit's allegations "leave room for disagreement" over whether Anglin did anything wrong. Randazza's clients have included adult entertainment websites; the 8chan online message board, a popular forum for racist internet trolls; and Mike Cernovich, a right-wing author and attorney who has promoted a conspiracy theory about Democrats running a child-sex slavery ring from a Washington pizza restaurant's basement. "If it's unpopular and people want to shut it up, then we have represented them," Randazza said.

Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin

The Daily Stormer used a crowdfunding website, WeSearchr, to raise more than $152,000 in donations from nearly 2,000 contributors to help pay for its legal expenses. Anglin uses a mailing address in Worthington, Ohio, for his website, which takes its name from Der Stürmer, a newspaper that published Nazi propaganda. The site includes sections called "Jewish Problem" and "Race War." Other targets of The Daily Stormer and its "Troll Army" of readers have included prominent journalists, a British Parliament member and Alex Jones, a radio host and conspiracy theorist whom Anglin derided as a "Zionist Millionaire."

Neo-Nazi-alt right leader Richard Spencer (Photo: AP)

Gersh's lawsuit said she agreed to help Richard Spencer's mother sell commercial property she owns in Whitefish amid talk of a protest outside the building. Sherry Spencer, however, later accused Gersh of threatening and harassing her into agreeing to sell the property. Anglin's initial Dec. 16 post about Gersh urged readers to "take action" against her and other Jewish residents of Whitefish, posting their telephone numbers, email addresses and Twitter handles. "And hey—if you're in the area, maybe you should stop by and tell her in person what you think of her actions," he added.

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Cochin Jews reconnect with their cultural past

On Thursday, hundreds of members of the Cochin Jewish community and their descendants drove to Jerusalem, where the held a special ceremony that recounted their community's immigration to Israel.

 

More than 60 years have passed since their emigration from India and quick assimilation to the young state. It seems that out of all immigrant communities, the Cochin became the most integrated, and perhaps because of this, the story and heritage of their fascinating community remained known only to its members.

Cochin Jews (Photo: David Rubinger)

The ceremony in Jerusalem is the crowning glory of the renewed revival of the community in recent months. The awakening experienced by the Cochin includes a magnificent study of roots held simultaneously by hundreds of members of the community. The customs, the songs, the rich culture that only the older generation remembers are now reawakening. "We are an ancient community that, according to the Scriptures, came to India during the time of King Solomon," said community member Yoel Elias in an interview with Ynet. "We have a glorious heritage, and still many do not know about us, often thinking we are Yemenites or Ethiopians or something in the middle."

(Photo: David Rubinger)

Cochin is a district in the state of Kerala, home to a vibrant Jewish community of some 2,500 people, who lived in five towns: Erinculam, Kochi, Paror, Mala and Channamglam. The beginning of the Jewish settlement was in the time of King Solomon, when the Jews moved there for trade purposes. Jews came to Kerala after the destruction of the Second Temple, and later came the Paradesi Jews—foreign Jews in the local Malayalam language—in the 16th century after the expulsion from Spain. On ancient copper tablets dating back to 1000 CE, the charter of rights granted to the Jews of Kerala by the local ruler exempted them from taxes but bestowed on them all privileges enjoyed by the tax-payers, such as riding elephants, carrying lamps, parasols and accompanying orchestras in parades—things reserved for only the nobility.

The Jews of Cochin lived as a cohesive community, maintained a traditional lifestyle around the synagogues, and lived in harmony with the members of the other communities— yet dreamed of the Land of Israel and aspired to immigrate to Israel. In the 1950s, the entire community decided to sell its assets, purchase plane tickets, and finance their settlement in Israel. They did so even though they never suffered from harassment and, on the contrary, had good relations with the locals. "This is a community that dreamed of the Land of Israel, who prayed to come to Israel one day, who did not play musical instruments for 3,000 years because of the destruction of the First Temple," Elias recalled. "When they wanted to make music, they sang or clapped their hands, they did not use instruments. Our history is wonderful and interesting, but few people know it."

A few months ago, an idea quickly became popular with the entire Cochin community: some members of the community began to build a family tree on MyHeritage. Very quickly it grew, and now includes about 9,000 people.

"After two months of work, there are close to 400 people working at the same time to fill the family tree and to upload our entire family history to it," said Elias. "Suddenly there is an amazing inter-generational connection. More and more people joined in the task of building the tree, the young people began asking questions—who was Grandfather? What had he done with his life? This is amazing. People are beginning to take an interest in the story behind the people, and they upload content to the tree that was, until today, stashed in a drawer or bookcase."

 

(Translated & edited by Lior Mor)

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German woman returns to her roots, converts to Judaism at 81

At the age of 81, Mazal (Monica) Hartzfeld converted to Judaism.

The little girl from Düsseldorf, Germany, who spent her childhood in the dark days of Nazi Germany, came full circle in Gush Etzion in Israel, where she completed the conversion process via seminars by AMI, an organization which offers Judaism conversion seminars in Israel for those who are not Israeli citizens.

Mazal (Monica) Hartzfeld

"I was three years old when it all began," she told in an interview with Ynet. "At the time, we lived in Düsseldorf, and when the war started, I could see as a young girl the attacks on people and on their property."

"My great grandfather was Jewish, and the subject of Judaism was very dear to my father. He always told us stories from the bible," she recounted, saying the last few words in Hebrew and pointing to the bible which always had a place of honor at their home. "My dad was baptized as a Christian, but he never went to church, and he didn't baptize us, his children." Even though she had "Jewish blood" running through her veins, her family managed to escape the death sentence that her neighbors were received—even those who were only considered one-quarter Jewish by the Nuremberg Laws. "There were others who were under similar circumstances who managed to survive," said Hartzfeld. "But it wasn't simple. You needed a patron; someone local who will protect you and take care that the authorities won't know (of your heritage). It wasn't easy, but that's how dad managed. "I remember them taking me and my sister to school, and people would whisper behind our back and say 'how is it that they let a Jew attend school? That’s impossible." At some point during the war, Hartzfeld said that her family felt "like the ground was burning under our feet," and decided to flee to a rural part of the country. "It was better for us there. People accepted us, and that's where we stayed until the war ended. We didn't have a home to return to, since Düsseldorf suffered massive bombing, but at least the war was behind us." How was growing up as a Jewish woman in Germany after the war?"I was never persecuted," noted Hartzfeld. "I was a little girl when it all started, so I didn't suffer like my dad did, but even as a child I could feel the distancing. Once someone knew of your roots, they immediately treated you with this sort of distance. That's how it always felt. "That's how it was until the 60s, when the reforms took place and Germany changed. For my dad, though, it was difficult until the very end."

When did you become interested in religion?"Even as a child I understood that Judaism is very important to my father. He always spoke proudly of it, when everyone else saw it as obscene. He would tell me about the special kitchen that his mother had, where they prepared food and ate in accordance to the Jewish Kosher laws. "He used to tell me, 'even if you disagree with what's written in the bible, never mock it; respect it.'" When she grew up, Hartzfeld thought to build a life for herself, outside and far away from her father's Jewish ideals. "I married a Chirstian, of course, and I wanted to raise a Christian family and leave the rest behind me, but it happens. My marriage didn't last. The kids grew up and left, and I found myself soul searching. "It was obvious to me that I didn't feel any connection with Christianity, and like my father, I always saw Christ's whole story as somewhat fictitious," said Hartzfeld, who decided to go back to her roots. "I started learning Hebrew, and then the bible. I read more and more, and finally reached the Jewish community in the city I lived in back in Germany, and asked if I could join their prayers at the synagogue. They replied that whoever wants to join can, and that's how it started." Hartzfeld was a diligent student, and despite her age, managed to complete the longest Judaism conversion process in Israel. "It was most exciting in Shavuot," said Hartzfeld. "Do you know what it means for me to receive the Torah?" she rhetorically asked, speaking about the holiday's tradition. "I dreamt about it for many years. Now, I'm 81-years-old, and I'm finally there." According to Rabbi David Ben-Nissan, coordinator of private conversion at AMI, Hartzfeld became a household member of the Jewish community. "She reached out a few years ago to convert. It was just amazing to witness," said the Rabbi. "She came in every Shabat from beginning to end, went to all the prayers and lessons, always driven. She would even help me with my German during long lessons. "As far as she's concerned, it's the right path, it's what's true for her. I was impressed by how a person of her age just refused to give up. This is true Jewish conversion from the purest place there can be. There is nothing here except a sincere desire to join the Jewish people." When Hartzfeld, who now proudly calls herself by her Jewish name from her youth, ended by answering the seemingly obvious question—why? "I don't even know how to explain it. From the moment I arrived to my first prayer at the synagogue, it felt like I returned back home. This is the life I always wanted to have. I feel now like everything had a reason. There was a reason for our survival, there was a reason for my dad's speeches about Judaism, there's a reason that—even at my age—I'm still in good health. "In the morning, when we wake up, we (Jews) thank god for returning our soul to us. As far as I see it, he returned my soul to me for this. So I, myself, can return."

 

(Translated & edited by Lior Mor)

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