Jews prepare for Tisha B’Av fast

Chef fulfils Holocaust survivor's dream

Leah Samet, 93, an energetic Holocaust survivor from Ramla, had a dream—to sit in her living room with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, with famous Israeli chef Assaf Granit cooking delicacies for her and her family, just like on television.

Samet's eldest daughter, Tsipi Gover, 67, saw in Yedioth Ahronoth an article about the project "Fulfilling Small Dreams for Big People," and decided to try her luck and ask for help in realizing her mother's dream.

Granit and Samet (Photo: Hagit Frenkel)

Gover knew the chances for Granit to agree to this were slim, as he is, putting it mildly, very busy. As the co-owner of Jerusalem’s famous Machneyuda restaurant and London’s award-winning The Palomar, and the host of the Israeli prime time show Kitchen Nightmares (based on Gordon Ramsay’s "Kitchen Nightmares"), Granit is famous for being a hard guy to reach.

But, to everyone's surprise, Granit immediately agreed when the request was made.

"I have a large family—two daughters, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren—and I love to host," Samet said. "I cook all the time for everyone, and I like someone to cook for me, too. I saw chef Granit cooking on television, I like the way he cooks and I wanted to (experience it)," explained Samet.

Granit with Samet's family (Photo: Hagit Frenkel)

On Sunday, at 1pm sharp, Chef Granit came with his team of cooks to Samet's small kitchen. With the help of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, he conducted the work in the home kitchen, just like on television, and prepared a mouth-watering dairy meal. "My grandmother was also called Leah and they remind me of each other," Granit said, noting that he was very moved by her request. "Since Leah came from Eastern Europe, I decided to prepare a meal based on the food from the area from which she immigrated to Israel. "In Israel, eastern food has a great influence on the local cuisine, perhaps because of the climate, but the traditional food of Eastern European Jews deserves respect in the Israeli kitchen, and I am happy to cook for Leah in this style."

Photo: Hagit Frenkel

Samet, who survived World War II in the Czernowitz ghetto in Romania, married her late husband in a displaced persons camp in Germany and immigrated to Israel in 1948. "My favorite food is baked potatoes," Samet said. "I did not ask for a special menu, the main thing is for the whole family to eat together." Laughing, her daughter added: "potatoes are easy on her teeth, their soft."

In the kitchen, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren finish cutting the vegetables into a salad. Chef Granit bakes the mushrooms, tastes the sauce, and arranges the airy "polenta" made of potatoes on a serving plate.

Photo: Hagit Frenkel

The grandchildren and the great-grandchildren are a little weary that Granit may just shout at them, like on television, but to everyone's delight the atmosphere is pleasant as everyone sits around the antique table in the dining area. Great-grandma Samet sits at the head of the table, all raise their glasses for a toast, and chef Granit receives a warm and loving hug from the old lady as she tells everyone: "It really is a dream come true."

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Alarm bells in Turkey after synagogue attack

On a quiet backstreet not far from Istanbul’s famous Galata Tower on Thursday night, a group of Turkish ultra-nationalists launched an attack on the city’s Neve Shalom Synagogue. Protesters held placards bearing photos of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque, where Israeli authorities last week imposed new security restrictions for Palestinian worshipers. They hurled stones and kicked the synagogue’s steel doors. “Zionists, come to your senses,” said Kursat Mican, a local leader of the Alperen Hearths group that spearheaded the protest. “If you prevent our freedom of worship there then we will prevent your freedom of worship here.” Ivo Molinas, the editor of Turkey’s Jewish newspaper Shalom, summed up the feeling of many Turkish Jews with a post on Twitter. “I am a Turkish citizen,” he wrote. “Why are you protesting in front of my place of worship?” No one was injured in Thursday’s attack, which was later followed by a second protest by an Islamist group outside Istanbul’s Ahrida Synagogue. But the demonstrations served as a reminder of the challenges confronting Turkey’s small Jewish community, which not only contends with widespread anti-Semitism but also finds itself caught in the crossfire any time Israel faces criticism. Turkey has a complex relationship with its small Jewish minority, which today numbers around 17,000 people. Officials talk proudly of the fact that Ottoman Sultans welcomed Jews expelled from Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, and of the efforts made by Turkish diplomats to save Jews from the Nazis. But anti-Semitic tropes are deeply engrained and widespread in the media, popular culture and in political rhetoric. A new historical drama, Payitaht, aired on the state broadcaster’s flagship entertainment channel, depicted a plan to kill the Ottoman Sultan by plotters who exchange coins imprinted with the Star of David. Hitler’s Mein Kampf can often be found on sale in mainstream bookshops and supermarkets. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself once used the term “spawn of Israel” to insult a protester after a mining disaster in 2014. His ministers, advisors and officials have repeatedly been criticized for using anti-Jewish language and conspiracy theories when attacking critics or seeking to explain economic or political problems.

The phenomenon is not confined to Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). Anti-Semitic diatribes are also prevalent in anti-imperialist and left-wing nationalist circles, as well as their right-wing and Islamist counterparts.

However, Erdogan, who casts himself as a leader of the Muslim world, has taken a tougher stance on Israel than some of his predecessors.

Ahrida synagogue, where the cantor's podium was built to resemble Noah's ark

Although Turkey and Israel announced a rapprochement last year after a six-year diplomatic freeze, Erdogan has made clear that he will continue to censure Israeli policies towards the Palestinians. Following the decision to place metal detectors—since removed—at the Al-Asqa mosque after the killing of two Arab-Israeli policeman by Muslim gunmen, Erdogan issued a series of harsh condemnations.

Turkey’s Jewish citizens defend the right of politicians and the public to criticize the state of Israel. The problem, they say, is that ordinary Jews face blowback. “The intensification of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian always extends to the Turkish Jewish community,” said Karel Valansi, a columnist at the news portal T24 and the Jewish newspaper Shalom. “There is no clear distinction in the minds of many in Turkey between Israel and Jews.” Turkish officials have made efforts to publicly support and promote the Jewish community in recent years. In 2015, a Hanukkah celebration was held in public in Istanbul for the first time in several decades. The same year, one of Turkey’s deputy prime minister’s attended the re-opening of Edirne Synagogue, near the border with Bulgaria, which was given a $2.5 million renovation after languishing for many decades in a state of disrepair. But Aykan Erdemir, a former member of parliament with the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) now based at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, said that life has become more difficult for Turkey’s minority groups in the wake of last year’s attempted coup. Erdogan portrays the failed putsch, which left 250 dead, as a plot by foreign and domestic powers conspiring to destroy the country—tapping into deeply-ingrained national fears about threats to the Turkish state. “Turkey was a challenging place for religious minorities even before the coup,” said Erdemir. “Things, however, have gone from bad to worse within the last year. Turkey’s government-controlled media systematically demonize minorities, presenting them as fifth columns.”

President Erdogan (Photo: Reuters)

Erdogan condemned the attacks on Istanbul synagogues, saying that it was “a big mistake” to target a place of worship. “We have no issues with the houses of worship of Christians or Jews,” he said. Opposition leaders also denounced the attacks. Despite the protests, Turkish Jews say that physical assaults against them have been rare in recent years and that the government has taken warnings of Islamic State attacks very seriously. Some say they feel safer in Turkey than they would in Europe. But most agree that Turkey must do more to tackle the hate speech that Jews encounter in public debate, the media and on social networks. And they would like to see greater awareness of the fact that Jews are separate from Israel, so that they do not have to brace for a backlash each time it hits the headlines.

Selin Nasi, a columnist for the Turkish newspapers Shalom and Hurriyet Daily News, said that Turkey’s Jews want to feel accepted by politicians and by society. “They want to be treated as equal citizens,” she said. “They don’t want to be perceived as enemies. They love their country. They don’t want to come to the fore each time a crisis breaks out and be held responsible for what Israel is doing.”

Reprinted with permission from The Media Line.

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2 US men get 35 years for terrorizing New Jersey Jewish communities

Two New Jersey men were sentenced Friday to 35 years in prison after having been convicted of dozens of terror offenses committed at Jewish communities in the north of the state, according to website Northern Jersey.

Between 2011 and 2012, Aakash Dalal and Anthony Graziano from Lodi, NJ, tried to burn down two synagogues in the cities of Paramus and Rutherford, threw Molotov cocktails into the home of a rabbi in Rutherford, and spray-painted anti-Semitic graffiti at synagogues in the cities of Maywood and Hackensack.

Both men were 19 at the time the crimes were committed. They were indicted in 2013. Dalal was convicted of terrorism and 16 other counts in November 2016, while Graziano was convicted of terrorism and 19 other counts in May 2017.

Graziano and Dalal in court (Photo: AP)

Dalal, a former student at Rutgers University, was charged as the "mastermind" behind the attacks who instructed his childhood friend, Graziano, to carry them out but did not commit them himself. Brian Sinclair, an assistant Bergen County prosecutor, said the two were sentenced together as they worked together in complete cooperation. "They were partners in hate. Partners in intimidation and ultimately in crime," Sinclair said. "They saw the world with the same set of eyes. They saw Jewish people not as people but as subhuman and like reptiles," he added. Graziano threw a Molotov cocktail into the Congregation Beth El temple in Rutherford on January 11, 2012, while Rabbi Nosson Schuman, his wife and five children slept in the apartment upstairs. The family members suffered light burns. Graziano and Dalal also vandalized synagogues in Hackensack and Maywood in 2011, drawing swastikas and writing "Jews did 9/11." Graziano apologized to the Jewish community at the sentencing, asking for leniency. "I want a second chance to live a law-abiding life," he said. His lawyer presented him as a victim of brainwashing by Dalal, who told Graziano in one chat message: "I don't trust you until you kill a Jew."

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British anti-Semitic incidents at record high, charity says

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Group dedicated to protecting Jews in Britain report 767 anti-Semitic incidents involving abusive behavior or assault in first half of 2017, marking a 30% increase since 2016; 70% of attacks take place in London and Manchester. British anti-Semitic incidents at record high, charity says : http://ift.tt/2eQjPLb

ADL condemns anti-Semitic sermons by two California imams

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned on Wednesday the anti-Semitic sermons by two imams in California who, following recent violence in Jerusalem and Israel’s decision to install security measures—that have since been removed—at the Temple Mount, "spewed angry and hateful invective toward Jews," as the ADL newsletter reported.

The ADL stated that Sheikh Ammar Shahin of the Islamic Center of Davis in Northern California prayed God would “liberate the al-Aqsa mosque from the filth of the Jews” and “annihilate them down to the very last one. Do not spare any of them.”

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt (Courtesy)

Also last Friday, Mahmoud Harmoush, the imam at the Islamic Center of Riverside, spoke in his sermon about a plot set in motion between World War I and II to usurp the land of Palestine from Muslims through “killing, crime and massacres.” He went on to suggest that Jews are currently trying to extend the Israel-Palestinian conflict to “most of the Middle East, and even, as I said, Mecca and Medina.” He ended his sermon with a call for Allah to “destroy them … disperse them and rend them asunder. Turn them into booty in the hands of the Muslims.” In response to both sermons, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said that “these statements are anti-Semitic and dangerous. We reject attempts to cast the conflict in Jerusalem as a religious war between Jews and Muslims. At this time of heightened tension, it is more important than ever for the Jewish and Muslim communities to come together to condemn the use of stereotypes and conspiracy theories, and to rebuild trust so that people of all faiths can coexist with mutual respect in the Holy Land and around the world. ”

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Items from Auschwitz death camp to tour Europe, America

An exhibit of some items from the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz are going on a tour of Europe and North America to bring its tragic truth about the Holocaust to a wider audience. The exhibit—titled Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away—will be the first-ever traveling show done by the museum and will include 600 original items. Most of them will come from the Auschwitz museum, but also from other collections, like Israel's Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., and from survivors.

 

Auschwitz from above (Photo: Bild)

"Today, when the world is moving in uncertain directions," the exhibition can be a "great warning cry for us all" against building a "future on hatred, racism, anti-Semitism and bottomless contempt for another human being," museum chief Piotr M.A. Cywinski said.

SS belt buckle from exhibit (Photo: AP)

The exhibit aims to tell victims' stories through their personal items. It will also show an original barrack from the Auschwitz-Monowitz part of the camp and a German freight train wagon that the Nazis used to bring inmates to the camp in.

Eyeglasses from Auschwitz (Photo: AP)

The exhibit comes following a controversial art project by Israeli art student Rotem Bides, who features items she stole from Auschwitz. Bides, whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors, explained her actions by saying that "millions of people were murdered based on the moral laws of a certain country, under a certain regime. And if these are the laws, I can go there and act according to my own laws."

Wooden box made by Auschwitz inmate (Photo: AP)

Some items, like an SS military belt buckle, are linked to the perpetrators, the German SS- men who built and operated the camp in occupied Poland during World War II.

The Not Long Ago. Not Far Away project will visit seven cities in Europe, starting in Madrid later this year, and seven in North America. The names of the cities in North America have not been released yet. Some 1.1 million people, mostly Europe's Jews, but also Poles, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war, were killed in the camp's gas chambers or died of hunger, disease and hard labor during World War II. The state museum was established in 1947 to preserve the memory of the victims and be a warning to future generations. In 2016, a record number of over 2 million people visited the Auschwitz museum.

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Muslim couple receives MA in Jewish Studies

Last month, a diverse class of 36 graduate students from the Ono Academic College received an MA in Jewish Studies, among them ‎Muhammad and Aida Masarwa, a Muslim couple from the village of Sulam in the north.

  

Their classmates—a group dominated by ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox Jews—warmly embraced them throughout their years of study together.

Muhammad, 62, is a retired teacher of Arabic and civics, while Aida, 52, continues to teach Hebrew in their local grade school. In recent years, the couple has studied Bible, history, Jewish philosophy, Hebrew literature, Kabbalah, liturgical poetry, midrash, as well as Jewish viewpoints on exclusion and social justice.

Aida and Mohammed Masarwa

"We wanted to study for a Master's Degree, and we heard there was an option to study Judaism, so we said we would try,"‎ explains Mohammed Masarwa. "Since retiring, I have worked as a tour guide. This program interested me, and it does not seem strange to study Judaism. We live in this country, we hear about Judaism, and we wanted to expand our knowledge."

Masarwa‎ added, "‎I am a Muslim, and although I have extensive knowledge of Judaism, it’s clear to me that I still have a lot to learn. But to our surprise, we discovered that many of our Jewish classmates did not necessarily know more about Judaism than my wife and I did. The reason for this, in my opinion, lies in the fact that Judaism is similar to Islam in certain respects."

Muhammad and Aida had already earned bachelor’s degrees, so encountering Jewish students in an academic setting was nothing new to them. "‎Despite the differences between the students, the classes had a free, open atmosphere, and everyone felt comfortable stating their opinion," Masarwa said.

Among the students, he said, "‎the atmosphere was very open and pleasant. ‎They received us very respectfully, which is notable because the Jewish students did not resemble each other—each of them came from a different background and from a different culture. Together, we created an interesting discourse about Judaism and Islam."

Graduates receiving an MA in Jewish Studies

The couple’s four children are also in academia (medicine, optometry and pharmacology) and welcomed their parents’ decision to return to school. "‎They know we always enjoy learning new things, they just laughed at the fact we would be studying for a Master's Degree at our age," he said.

Their family was also very positive about their decision to study Judaism in depth. "We are open people and live with Jews, so everyone embraced our decision. Our children come from an academic background, so it was not strange to them that we decided to study for another degree—even in Judaism—considering the fact that we are educators," Masarwa explained.

Muhammad and Aida’s classmates included students from all parts of Israeli society. Moshe Yisraeli, a graduate of the hesder yeshiva in Kiryat Shmona—a program that combines traditional Jewish studies and military service—said he approached graduate school with some concern.

"This is a kind of Jewish study that is different from what I have known all my life. ‎It was very interesting to be in classes with Reform, secular and religious people. The arguments were not as volatile as the media often likes to present them," Yisraeli said.

Dr. David Biton, head of the School of Jewish Studies at Ono Academic College’s Kiryat Ono campus, said that after the success of this first class, enrollment has doubled for future classes.

"‎The MA program exposes students to different dimensions of Judaism and to the various groups that comprise it, creating connection and belonging between the past and the present, between East and West, between the visible and the concealed, and between tradition and modernity. The purpose of the program is to make higher education accessible to all segments of the Israeli population," he said.

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Egypt approves $2.2 million plan to renovate ancient synagogue

Egypt's Ministry of State of Antiquities has announced plans to renovate the Eliyahu Hanavi (Prophet Elijah) Synagogue in Alexandria at the cost of some $2.24 million, the head of the Department of Coptic and Islamic Antiquities, al-Saeed Helmy Ezza, told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The synagogue, which was built in 1850, was forced to close its doors after part of the ceiling over the women's prayer section collapsed several months ago.

Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Alexandria, Egypt

The renovation, according to Ezza, will include an architectural restoration of the structure and will begin as soon as the ministry's board of directors approves the project. Ezza said that although the law stipulates the Jewish community should bear the full cost of the renovation, it was decided to allocate to the project 40 million Egyptian pounds (2.2 million USD).

When the synagogue was built in the 19th century, Alexandria had a magnificent Jewish community. As late as the 1930s, it numbered more than 20,000 Jews. These days, however, the community consists of only 18 registered Jewish members. It is trying its best to maintain the synagogue and help any of its members who are in need.

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Survivors of death trains, ghetto and porgroms in Romania finally recognized

Holocaust survivors from the city of Iași in Romania are finally eligible for reparations, Claims Conference President Julius Berman announced Wednesday. Some 15,000 Jews were murdered in the pogroms in Iași in 1941. Some of those who survived the pogrom were forced to board train cars, where they were locked for days. As the train made its way slowly from town to town, many of the Jews died of suffocation, dehydration and having lost their minds. The Jews who remained in Iași, which is in northeastern Romania, had to live under curfew inside an open ghetto in a designated part of the city. They were under constant threat of being expelled to labor camps and suffered violence and cruelty at the hands of both German and Romanian soldiers.

Jews in Iași in 1941 (Courtesy of Indiana University and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

In addition to monthly stipends for the survivors from Iași, who haven't received any reparations so far, the Claims Conference has recently negotiated with Germany additional benefits for Holocaust survivors.

Among these benefits is an increase in the 2018 budget for nursing care at home for survivors from $399 million to $462 million. Furthermore, the requirements have been eased for eligibility for stipends among survivors who had to hide or live under a false identity during World War II. So far, only those who lived under these conditions for six months or more were eligible for reparations, but now some 1,000 additional survivors who lived under these conditions for 4-6 months will be eligible as well. Finally, those who received a one-time payment at a lower sum than what is paid today will be eligible for payment from the Claims Conference.

Jews in Iași in 1941 (Courtesy of Indiana University and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

According to the Claims Conference, since 1952, Germany has paid $70 billion in direct compensation to some 600,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors across the world. Some 40 percent of that sum (about $28 billion) were paid to survivors living in Israel. These reparation payments continue to this very day.

One of the survivors from Iași is 83-year-old Koka Palmon. "Without the help of the Romanians, the Germans wouldn't have known where the Jews were hiding, and they (the Romanians) enjoyed carrying out these pogroms. If they hadn't cooperated, the killing would not have been to this extent," she told Ynet. "The Romanians are the one who set the flames using German hands, and it is a mitzva to take every penny. They took enough, they looted and killed, so we shouldn't be acting like we're asking for charity."

Palmon, who was born in 1934 in Iași, told her story for the first time a year ago, when she was crowned the runner up in the Holocaust Beauty Queen contest. It was only then, with a microphone in her hand and facing an audience of dozens of people, including members of her family, that she first recounted the horrors she had endured.

Koka Palmon

"I didn't say anything (before) because I didn't want to remember, and I didn't want to hurt my children. But since I started talking about it, I've been giving talks and lectures on it," she said. The day the pogroms started, she recounted, her father left home to open up the family-owned restaurant, so Palmon's mother went to look for her husband. "They hid him there, but the property owner decided if she couldn't hide her own husband, then my mother couldn't either. And so people were taken out of the basement where they were hiding, and my father had to go to the police station," Palmon said. "On the way there, the policemen hit him with a rubber baton. They hit and shot other people too. My father, who was quick, ran and made his way through the crowd, and then lied down on a pile of dead people, playing dead himself," she continued, visibly emotional. The next day, she said, "the order came to take everyone who lived to a stock rail car, and they closed the cars with bars so there wouldn't be much air left," she added with a pained look on her face. "My father would urinate into his hand and drink it. That's how he survived."

Her father also tried to trade his gold wedding ring for some water, "but the soldier took the ring and brought the water to the window, out of reach for my father, and when my father asked for the water, the soldier shot his hand, and the bullet went right through," Palmon went on to say.

Jews in Iași in 1941 (Courtesy of Indiana University and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

"When my father returned home, he looked like a scarecrow. I didn't recognize him and fled from him. For a while, after he recovered, he was taken to do hard labor, as did my mother, and I would go with her," she recounted. "When the Russians started bombing, a bomb fell right on our house and we lived for half a year inside a basement with no food or water. When my mother took me out to get bread, I remember an SS officer walked by us and punched me hard right where my yellow Star of David was, and I fainted. People started gathering around him, and he fled, because he was afraid he'd be lynched," she continued. "These stories are just part of my suffering in life." After miraculously surviving the Holocaust, Palmon made aliyah to Israel, where she lived with her family at the height of the austerity period. She now has four children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. "You can't quantify the suffering of survivors who lived in fear they would be caught or exposed as Jews, which meant an immediate death sentence," said Claims Conference chief Greg Schneider. "The survivors who lived under these conditions, even for a few months, deserve the recognition these payments bring with them." "The horrors experienced by the Jews of Iași have finally been recognized, after more than 70 years," added the head of the Claims Conference's negotiations team, Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat. "These survivors went through incomprehensible suffering and, for those who are still with us, we were able to achieve a certain measure of justice after all of these years."

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Study finds cancer rates higher among Holocaust survivors

Hungary set to remove 'anti-Semitic' Soros posters

An online statement issued by the Hungarian government said that a campaign aimed at the Jewish billionaire George Soros will be coming to an end on Saturday, raising speculation that the move was connected with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming visit to the country.

Posters were on display in Hungary's streets showing the Hungarian-born Jewish emigre laughing, with the caption: "Let's not let Soros have the last laugh". Some have been daubed with graffiti such as "Stinking Jew". 

Hungarian government poster portraying financier George Soros and saying 'Don't let George Soros have the last laugh' (Photo: AFP)

The caption is a reference to government claims that Soros, who has donated billions to rights groups around the region, wants to force Hungary to allow in migrants. The posters are the fourth media blitz this year by the rightwing government of populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban to trumpet its fight against migration, Brussels and Soros. Launched at the start of July, the huge images were splashed across billboards as well as tram and bus stops across the country.

Photo: Reuters

After some of the posters were defaced with offensive graffiti, Hungary's largest Jewish organisation Mazsihisz called on Orban to remove them. Soros, 86, called the imagery "anti-Semitic" in a rare statement Tuesday.

Government officials insisted the campaign was not about Soros's background but informing Hungarians about the security risks posed by his alleged support for mass immigration.

Photo: AP

In a reply to Mazsihisz, Orban accused the "billionaire speculator" of wanting to "settle a million migrants" in the European Union, something Soros called "disinformation".

Orban also urged Hungarian Jews to help him "fight against illegal migration" which he said "imports anti-Semitism" into Europe.

Photo: Reuters

Earlier Tuesday a Hungarian news site cited an unidentified source in Orban's Fidesz party as saying that the government wanted to avoid potential embarrassment before Netanyahu arrives.

The country's position on the Soros posters has created confusion ahead of his visit, the first by an Israeli premier since communism ended in 1989.

Photo: Reuters

After Israel's ambassador initially condemned the campaign, the Israeli foreign ministry—reportedly at Netanyahu's request—issued a separate "clarification" that criticism of Soros was legitimate.

While Israel "deplores" anti-Semitism, Soros "continuously undermines Israel's democratically elected governments by funding organizations that defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself", a statement said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban (Photo: AP)

Despite the fact that the Hungarian government said it would be ending the campaign saturday, it also denied it was doing so prematurely as a result of Netanyahu's visit in three days, a report said in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

According to the report, a government spokesman said that the campaign would end as scheduled, regardless of Netanyahu’s visit.

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WATCH: Jerusalem Great Synagogue Choir sings 'Jerusalem of Gold' in Paris

The celebrations for the 50 year anniversary to the unification of Jerusalem may have ended in Israel, but Diaspora Jews are still celebrating.

Last month, 14 members of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue Choir, with me among them, went out on tour in France and Germany with cantor and conductor Eli Jaffe to mark half a decade of a united Jerusalem.

The first major stop on the tour was at the Paris's Grande Synagogue de la Victoire, which is considered one of the biggest synagogues in the world. There are close to 2,000 seats in this beautiful synagogue, which was founded in Paris's 9th arrondissement in 1873.

The neoclassic de la Victoire, which stands 26 meters (85 feet) high and extends 44 meters (144 feet) wide, looks more like a cathedral than a synagogue. The wealthy banking family Rothschild has been praying there for many generations, frequenting it to this very day, along with other prominent Jewish families in the city.

The synagogue also has an important Israeli connection. "The idea to establish a state in the Land of Israel began here, in 1894, when Theodor Herzl visited Paris as a journalist," the synagogue's president, Jacques Canet, told Ynet.

"He wanted to meet the synagogue's president, Gustave de Rothschild, after Rothschild bought lands in Rishon Lezion and Zikhron Ya'akov. Three years later, Herzl came up with the idea of holding a Congress in Basel."

 

The choir performs at the Grand Synagogue in Paris (Photo: Aline Azaria)

 

Ahead of the concert, the choir gathered at a nearby synagogue for final rehearsals along with cantors Shmuel Shapiro and Yitzchak Meir Helfgot, the latter considered one of the greatest cantors of our generation. The Paris synagogue's own cantor, Aron Hayoun, also took part in the concert along with the local synagogue's choir.

On the day of the concert, just as we were about to leave the hotel, sirens filled the air. A police officer was attacked by a terrorist at Notre-Dame Cathedral, a short walking distance from the synagogue.

France as a whole, and particularly the capital Paris, has been on high alert following the series of major attacks carried out by Islamists in the country in recent years, which claimed the lives of some 240 Frenchmen and women within two years.

But the synagogue's rabbi, Moshe Sebbag, is not worried. "The Jewish community feels safe here," he said, noting the Jews in Paris are not afraid to walk on the street or take their children to school. "Community life continues freely here."

The choir performs at the Grand Synagogue in Paris (Photo: Aline Azaria)

With security arrangements outside the synagogue complete, the audience—including ministers, parliamentarians, rabbis and many other public figures—settled in their seats.

During the concert, choir members joined the cantors in singing songs about Jerusalem, and the audience rewarded them with roaring applause. At the end of the concert, conductor Eli Jaffe received a heavy tome detailing the history of the synagogue with a dedication from the synagogue's president and rabbi. 

 

The next day, the choir took the fast TGV train, making the 600 km (370 miles) trip from Paris to Frankfurt in less than four hours. It was still a great time for the choir members to get some sleep before the second concert—a KKL-JNF event at the Westend Synagogue, the main house of prayer for the Jewish community in the city. Five hours later, the synagogue was packed to the rafters. In the audience was Frankfurt's mayor, who is considered very pro-Israel. How pro-Israel? He proudly wore a pin of the Israeli flag alongside Germany's flag on the lapel of his jacket. KKL-JNF donation boxes were everywhere, as the audience joined in to say the Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel and sing the Israeli national anthem as well as songs by Naomi Shemer. When the choir joined cantor Yoni Rose for "Jerusalem of Gold," all levees broke with the outpouring of emotion in the room, even among those who don't really understand the words. When a Jew hears the word "Jerusalem," he can't help but feeling a lump in his throat.

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'I was unable to defend one Jewish woman - my own mother'

He is regarded a best-selling writer, commentator, award-winning journalist and the head of several non-profit organizations, including the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem, which he also founded. But the most important thing the American Dr. Mike Evans lives and works for is the State of Israel.

In an exclusive interview with Ynet, he tells of what led him to become one of the most widely-heard voices speaking out in favor of Israel on the international stage, effectively devoting his life to the State of Israel.

Owens, 70, the writer of 71 books, is an evangelist Christian and a well-known figure in the United States. He was born to a Jewish mother and Christian father, but was brought up to be a devout Christian who suffered continual abuse from his anti-Semitic father.

“My mother was Jewish. She came from an orthodox family, whose parents arrived from Eastern Europe and Belarus,” he says. “Her grandfather was Rabbi Michael Katzenelson. She herself didn’t like Christians, and when I was four she told me Christians had killed Jews, that Jesus is dead and there’s no need to resurrect him, and that the pope and Hitler too were Christians. But she married my father, who was a Christian, and had seven children with him.

“My father came from the conservative south. He raised us as Christians. He used to go to church, but he was a hypocrite too. On Friday evenings he would get drunk, and when he’d come home, he would beat up my mother, calling her a Jewish whore, and say I was not his son but rather a bastard, an illegitimate Jewish offspring. He therefore never called me ‘son,’ he never loved or hugged me. Instead he abused me.”

Owens meets with Shimon Peres and Pope Francis

 

The young Mike feared for his life. “My goal in life was to reach age 20, since I was sure my father was going to kill me before that. When I was 11, he attempted to kill me for trying to defend my mother. That was the only time. I had never defended her while he was beating her up. But that time I said ‘Stop it,’ and he chased me, choked me, and when I looked in his eyes, I knew I was going to die. That I was never going to be 20. I knew I wasn’t going to make it through the night. I threw up on myself and fainted, and when I opened my eyes a few hours later, I was angry I was still alive.

"I remember that anger. I prayed angrily in the dark: God, why was I born? It didn’t make any sense. I was a small, broken child. And that was when I realized it, the moment I had said that. I was born to defend the Jewish people. That’s the night I arrived at that realization.”

Owens at the Western Wall

Ever since then, Owens has been devoting his life to Israel. He is regarded an important lobbyist in the international arena, he has met American presidents, heads of state, and the pope. “I was unable to defend one Jewish woman - my own mother. It’s true I was unable to defend her, but that pain became my strength.”

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Chief Rabbinate blacklist of US rabbis points to widening rift

Israel's Chief Rabbinate has compiled a blacklist of overseas rabbis whose authority they refuse to recognize when it comes to certifying the Jewishness of someone who wants to get married in Israel.

The list, obtained by The Associated Press, includes a number of prominent Orthodox rabbis in North America. Among them are a social activist in New York who has advocated for greater rights for women, a Canadian rabbi who is friendly with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a close colleague of the rabbi who converted Ivanka Trump.

The list, which includes 160 rabbis from 24 countries, is another sign of a deepening rift between overseas Jewish communities and Israeli religious authorities.

The Chief Rabbinate (Photo: Atta Awisat)

Tensions have already been mounting between the world's two largest Jewish communities since the Israeli government last month froze plans to create an expanded egalitarian prayer section at Jerusalem's Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray. The rollback of a deal reached last year to open up the holy site to liberal streams of Judaism was seen as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's capitulation to pressure by his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners. Those ultra-Orthodox partners also control Israel's Chief Rabbinate. Jews who immigrate to Israel are required to provide the government's Interior Ministry with proof of Judaism in the form of a letter from a rabbi. But those who wish to wed in Israel face an additional hurdle. While the Interior Ministry's criteria are clear-cut and inclusive, the ultra-Orthodox-dominated Chief Rabbinate takes a much stricter line. For instance, it does not recognize the validity of Reform or Conservative Judaism, which is practiced by the vast majority of North American Jews. The Chief Rabbinate's blacklist included not only Reform and Conservative rabbis overseas, but some of the most prominent Orthodox rabbis as well. Rabbi Avi Weiss, an Orthodox clergyman based in Riverdale, New York, who advocates a "more open and inclusive Orthodoxy," said he was unaware of the list and could think of no reason why he was placed on it. "The whole thing seems to be nonsensical on every level," Weiss said. Although he said he didn't find it personally painful, its existence was "tragic" because it only served to "alienate" fellow Jews. Another member of the list, Rabbi Adam Scheier, who leads an Orthodox congregation in Montreal and has ties with Trudeau, called it "an affront to the hard work and devotion of so many of my colleagues—of all denominations." The blacklist, he said, appeared to be "one of the many cases in which the Chief Rabbinate has carried out its function without transparency or process." Rabbi Daniel Kraus of Kehilath Jeshurun, a major Orthodox synagogue in Manhattan, also is on the list. Kraus serves with Haskel Lookstein, the rabbi who converted Ivanka Trump. Lookstein's name was not on the list, and while his conversions have been questioned by the rabbinate in the past, they are now accepted. Also rejected were rabbis teaching at Yeshiva University, the flagship university for the US Modern Orthodox movement, a rabbi with the Chabad movement at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and prominent Modern Orthodox rabbis pushing for greater openness in Judaism. In March 2016, an Israeli court ordered the rabbinate to release a list of rabbis whose testimony it had approved to ITIM, the Jewish Life Advocacy Center, an organization that helps Israelis deal with the rabbinate's bureaucracy. ITIM asked the Chief Rabbinate for the names of rabbis whose letters were approved and rejected in 2016 at the beginning of this year. The rabbinate complied in April. ITIM founder Rabbi Seth Farber charged that the rabbinate has no explicit criteria for determining the Jewishness of people who wish to marry in Israel. "There's little rhyme or reason," Farber said. "These are peoples' lives at stake." A single rabbinate official, Rabbi Itamar Tubul, is responsible for determining the validity of rabbinical letters testifying to marriage applicants' Jewishness. Neither the Chief Rabbinate's spokesman nor Tubul's office responded to requests for comment.

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Ultra-Orthodox cult leader drowns in Mexico

Rabbi Shlomo Erez Helbrans, 55, leader of the "Lev Tahor" ("Pure Heart") ultra-Orthodox sect, was found drowned in a river in the Mexican state of Chiapas on Friday, according to local media.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying the reports were being looked into by the Israeli embassy in Mexico.

Sect leader Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans

According to local media, Helbrans' body was pulled from the river by rescue forces on Friday afternoon after the rabbi was swept away by strong currents while swimming before Shabbat.

Rabbi Helbrans was the head of a group of forty ultra-Orthodox families who entered the state of Chiapas about three weeks ago, after crossing the border from Guatemala.

Helbrans was born Shlomo Elbarnes into a secular family in Jerusalem, only becoming religious as a young man. He studied at the Itri Yeshiva in Jerusalem before founding the Lev Tahor sect in the 1980s.

Lev Tahor is an ultra-Orthodox sect comprised of predominantly Israeli Haredi extremists who leave their families behind in Israel as part of a wider boycott of Zionism. The group is widely considered to be a cult for its extreme conduct which adheres to the strict word of Jewish scripture.

Lev Tahor in Guatemala

In the 1990s, the movement was under investigation by Israeli authorities for allegedly collaborating with Islamist elements against state security. Helbrans fled to the United States along with several students who were smuggled out of Israel with fake passports. As such, an additional investigation into Helbrans for kidnapping was launched.

Whilst in the United States, Helbrans was arrested and served two years in prison for kidnapping after assisting a 13-year-old boy go into hiding from his secular mother.

After his release from prison in the US, Helbrans was to be deported to Israel, but instead fled to Canada where he was granted refugee status after claiming persecution in Israel for his religious and political beliefs.

According to estimates, the sect numbers about 230 people, of whom about 150 are children.

About three and a half years ago, Canadian authorities blocked the group from transferring underage members to Guatemala after Canadian courts issued a decree requiring some children to be transferred to foster families after being found to have been severely abused.

Welfare officials in Ontario and Quebec claimed that they had evidence of abuse involving beatings, underage marriage, and illegal education. However, the sect succeeded in transferring a number of the children to Guatemala giving rise to a legal battle over the last few years to expel them back to Canada.

In September 2016, at the request of Israeli authorities, Guatemalan law enforcement raided the Lev Tahor compound and arrested its leaders on suspicion of child abuse. The raid prompted its members to leave the site to a new location in eastern Guatemala, and complain that they were being persecuted due of their faith.

Helbrans and the group had crossed the Guatemalan border into the Mexican state of Chiapas several weeks ago. 

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6 more New Jersey couples charged in benefits fraud probe

LAKEWOOD - Six more couples were charged with theft Thursday as part of an investigation that has uncovered more than $2 million in public welfare benefits going to New Jersey families that made too much to receive them.

Prosecutors in Ocean County say the six couples received nearly $400,000 combined in Medicaid, food, heating and other benefits. The charges by summons come after seven other married couples in the town of Lakewood were charged with similar crimes last month.

Those arrested as part of the joint state, federal and county investigation include a rabbi and the former leader of a Jewish religious school. The investigation is continuing, and more arrests are likely.

Two of the main suspects, Rabbi Zalmen Sorotzkin and wife Tzipporah (Photo: AP)

The town has seen huge population growth with an influx of ultra-Orthodox families, and the charges have been met with some anti-Semitic backlash. Vandals cited the reports in fliers posted on cars around town last week and posted a banner containing an anti-Jewish slur on a Holocaust memorial in front of a synagogue. A message on the banner included an ethnic slur for Jewish people and stated they "will not divide us," along with the name of a group supposedly responsible for it. State authorities announced Sunday they were offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to conviction of those responsible.

Anti-Semitic fliers in Lakewood

Religious leaders in the town have spoken out against the welfare fraud allegations, but also to make sure people don't use the investigation to condemn the entire community. "We have a failure in our community that we have to address," Rabbi Aaron Kotler, leader of the world's largest yeshiva outside of Israel, told NJ.com. "Theft is wrong. We need to do better to educate people." Members of the Vaad, a group of religious leaders and business owners in the town, acknowledged that the problem may be linked to the number of rabbinical students in Lakewood's numerous yeshivas. Many qualify for poverty relief while studying, and Vaad members said the students need to do a better job of leaving public assistance once they begin making money. "The challenge for the Orthodox community is to get these students quickly into the workforce," kosher grocery story owner Abe Muller told NJ.com, "where they pay taxes like everybody else, and make them understand the rules." Seven couples were arrested last week, including Rabbi Zalmen Sorotzkin, of Congregation Lutzk, and his wife, Tzipporah. A lawyer for one of those charged last week said that everyone arrested will be vindicated. Those charged Thursday were Eliezer and Elkie Sorotzkin, Samuel and Esther Serhofer, Yisroel and Rachel Merkin, Jerome Menchel and Mottel Friedman, Tzvi and Estee Braun, and Moshe and Nechama Hirschmann. It wasn't immediately clear whether the couples had lawyers to comment on their behalf. Phone messages left with those who had listed numbers were not returned.

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200 make aliyah from US and Canada on 4th of July

While Americans were celebrating their Independence Day and the Canadians marked Canada Day earlier this week, 201 new immigrants from the US and Canada made aliyah to Israel on Tuesday, arriving on a charter flight organized by Nefesh B'Nefesh, a nonprofit organization that promotes and facilitates aliyah from the US, Canada and the UK.

 

Hundreds of people were standing outside the airport, welcoming the immigrants with cheers and song.

The Nader family (Photo: Avi Hai)

Among the immigrants who arrived were 34 families and 51 single men and women. The oldest immigrant has just celebrated 82, and the youngest is only a month and a half old. The total number of children on board was 78, with five pairs of twins. Of the total number of immigrants, 47 will live in the periphery, while the rest will settle in the central cities. Jared Bates, 18, immigrated to Israel from Ontario, Canada, to join the IDF next year. In the meantime, he will be welcomed in Kibbutz Yagur, where he will learn Hebrew. "I see it as an adventure," said Bates. "All my life I was a Zionist, and I studied in Jewish institutions. Today I'm applying everything I was taught to do, and there is no better feeling. I feel now what it means to be a true Zionist."

Dr. Jeremy Berg, 44, who immigrated to Israel from Chicago with his wife Jennifer, 38, and their three young children—Eli, Rafi and Elka—said the decision to immigrate to Israel was clear for them, as they have been sending their children to Jewish education facilities, which are considered private.

The Berg family (Photo: Doron Cooperstein)

"When my little girl's education costs more than I have to pay for educating my three children in Israel, the choice becomes very simple," he said.

MK Ksenia Svetlova (Zionist Union), who attended the event, said it brings her back to the day when she came to Israel with her family, some 26 years ago. "I'm very glad to be here and welcome the new immigrants, who come to join us in the State of Israel," she said.

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Congressman apologizes to those hurt by gas chamber video

A Louisiana congressman apologized Wednesday for what he called the "unintended pain" caused by a political video he recorded inside a gas chamber of a Nazi concentration camp, an action that Holocaust experts called inappropriate and disrespectful.

In May, Rep. Clay Higgins visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camps in Poland, where more than a million Jews were killed in the Nazi genocide.

In a five-minute video posted on YouTube and on his Facebook page Saturday, Higgins describes the horrors that took place in the gas chamber, and adds that "this is why homeland security must be squared away, why our military must be invincible."

Clay Higgins (Photo: AP)

The video ends with an image of the first-term Republican lawmaker and former sheriff's captain that he used during his campaign last year: With a badge on his chest, he bows his head reverentially, his face partially obscured by the brim of his cowboy hat. The image is superimposed over images of the US and Israeli flags.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum had criticized the video Tuesday in a Twitter post, saying the building where genocide was committed against thousands of Jews should not be used as a stage. On Wednesday, Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the video contained political rhetoric that was inappropriate, although he didn't think Higgins had bad intentions.

In a statement issued later Wednesday, Higgins said he did not intend to offend or disrespect anyone.

"My intent was to offer a reverent homage to those who were murdered in Auschwitz and to remind the world that evil exists, that free nations must remember, and stand strong," Higgins said in his statement. "However, my message has caused pain to some whom I love and respect. For that, my own heart feels sorrow. Out of respect to any who may feel that my video posting was wrong or caused pain, I have retracted my video." Higgins added that he was offering a "sincere apology for any unintended pain."

Photo: Reuters

Higgins caused some controversy about a month ago for something he wrote after a terror attack in London.

"The free world ... all of Christendom ... is at war with Islamic horror," Higgins wrote, going on to say of terrorists: "Hunt them, identify them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all."

His election to an open congressional seat last year was fueled in part on the popularity of anti-crime videos he made as a deputy, then later captain, in the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Department. The video he made at Auschwitz was reminiscent of those earlier productions.

"It's hard to walk away from gas chambers and ovens without a very sober feeling of commitment," a stern and earnest Higgins says outside the building. "Unwavering commitment to make damn sure that the United States of America is protected from the evils of the world."

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Holocaust survivor Veil to be inducted in Paris Pantheon

Holocaust survivors joined France's president and European dignitaries Wednesday at a special memorial ceremony for Simone Veil, who rose from the horrors of Nazi death camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen to become president of the European Parliament and one of France's most revered politicians.

Best known in France for spearheading the legalization of abortion, Veil faced down sexist criticism and repeatedly broke barriers for women in politics. She died last week at age 89.

Simone Veil (Photo: MCT)

During a national ceremony with military honors Wednesday at the Invalides monument, home to Napoleon's tomb, President Emmanuel Macron announced Veil will be inducted into Paris' Pantheon mausoleum—the final resting place of dozens of French greats.

French President Emmanuel Macron at the ceremony (Photo: EPA)

  

European flags around France were lowered to half-staff to honor a woman whose experience at Auschwitz-Birkenau made her a firm believer in European unification.

Former French presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande attend the ceremony (Photo: EPA)

Macron praised her as inspiring "respect and fascination."

"She loved Europe, she always fought for it ... because she knew in the heart of this European dream there were above all dreams of peace and freedom," he said.

Photo: EPA

Veil lost her parents and brother in Nazi camps, and spoke frequently about the need to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

"She knew that memory is here so that the unthinkable does not happen again," Macron said.

Photo: EPA

"Just as you leave us, Madam, please receive an immense thank you from the French people", he concluded in front of the coffin covered with a French flag, in the presence of hundreds of ordinary citizens and high-profile guests including former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande.

Veil will be the fourth woman to be honored at the Pantheon. She will join two women who fought with the French Resistance during World War II, Germaine Tillion and Genevieve de Gaulle-Anthonioz, and Nobel Prize-winning chemist Marie Curie.

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Vandals post anti-Jewish banner at New Jersey Holocaust Memorial

Vandals posted a banner containing an anti-Jewish slur on a Holocaust memorial in front of a New Jersey shore town synagogue where several Jewish residents were recently accused of misrepresenting their incomes to improperly obtain public welfare benefits.

 

Photos posted online Sunday by the state chapter of the Anti-Defamation League show the covering on the memorial in Lakewood. A message on the covering included an ethnic slur for Jewish people and stated they "will not divide us," along with the name of a group supposedly responsible for the covering.

State authorities announced Sunday they were offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to conviction of those responsible.

The sign posted on the memorial

Seven married couples who live in Lakewood, including a rabbi and his wife, now face charges they misrepresented their incomes to get a combined $2 million in public welfare benefits they weren't entitled to. Three couples were arrested late Tuesday in Lakewood after four couples, including Rabbi Zalmen Sorotzkin, of Congregation Lutzk, and his wife, Tzipporah, were arrested Monday. The couples eventually were released without bail after making initial court appearances. Prosecutors say they failed to disclose income from numerous sources on applications for Medicaid, housing, Social Security and food assistance benefits. The state and federal investigation centers on Lakewood, which is home to a large and growing ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Lakewood is the state's fastest growing town and has more than 100 private religious schools. The population increase has intensified concern over how public money is spent and sparked complaints from neighboring communities that say they face overly aggressive solicitation from real estate agents looking to find homes for the Jewish community.

Anti-Semitic fliers placed on cars after the arrest

In another incident, anti-Semitic fliers referencing the recent arrests were placed on the windshields of dozens of cars in Lakewood. It wasn't clear if the same people are responsible for both acts. New Jersey's chapter of the Anti-Defamation League tweeted Sunday, saying that town officials, residents and community leaders "must offer full throated condemnation of this anti-Semitic attack."

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