European Jewish Congress sees rising anti-Semitism in Poland

The European Jewish Congress expressed "grave concerns" Thursday over what it says is a rise in anti-Semitism in Poland and a "deteriorating relationship between the Polish government and the Jewish community." The Brussels-based organization says no Polish government minister has met with leaders of the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland, the official community, for around a year amid the rise in anti-Semitic incidents. "Across Europe, governments consult with the local official leaders of the community to seek their counsel and coordinate a response to anti-Semitism," the group's president, Moshe Kantor, said. "However, Poland stands out as an example of a leadership which appears to have little interest in opening a dialogue with the Jewish community."

Members of the far-right group, the National-Radical Camp, marking the 83rd anniversary of their organization (Photo: AP)

The statement comes after Jewish leaders in Poland wrote to ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski in early August with their concerns, noting the increased presence in public life of extremist far-right groups and greater hate speech and violence targeting Jews.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski (Photo: AP)

They didn't receive an answer or a meeting with Kaczynski, but within days Kaczynski met with several Jewish representatives from other organizations, including the Orthodox Chabad movement.

That meeting led to fears among official Jewish community representatives that Kaczynski was trying to marginalize them and whitewash the issue of anti-Semitism.

Supporters of the far-right National-Radical Camp during anti EU protest (Photo: AP)

Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said Jews still feel much safer in Poland than they do in parts of Europe where anti-Semitism is much stronger and sometimes violent, including France, Scandinavia and Hungary. But he said the situation is getting worse and "the biggest concern is a lack of communication with the government." "For first time in many years people are not feeling 100 percent comfortable, as they used to," Schudrich told The Associated Press on Thursday. "It's not that the government supports this but we need it to be more vigilant in articulating their rejection of any form of anti-Semitism or racism."

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Belarus court approves construction over two demolished Jewish cemeteries

Residential towers will be constructed over ancient Jewish cemeteries in Belarus, following a ruling by the country's district court, despite petitions from the local Jewish community headed by Yakov Gutman, President of the World Association of Belarusian Jewry.

 

Two Jewish cemeteries in Gomel, Belarus, at least one of which is from the 12th century, were completely demolished recently after a highly publicized public battle failed to secure their preservation. With the destruction, human remains can be found strewn around the leveled ground.

Jewish bones litter the site of two soon-to-be-constructed towers (Photo: zvarot.by)

"The bones of Jews have become construction waste, and are mixed in with concrete," said Gutman after the ruling.

Two years ago a similar decision was made in the country to demolish a Jewish cemetery in Mazyr. The Belarus Jewish community also accused President Alexander Lukashenko of sanctioning the destruction of three synagogues in Lyuban and Minsk, and two other Jewish cemeteries.

"It's a disgrace," said Rita, whose grandmother was buried in the cemetery. "We weren't informed of anything. People went through the Holocaust, and end up like that. Now we don't know where her grave is," she bemoaned. "We want to go there, but my grandmother's grave is gone. How can you do something like that?"

Construction on the site unearthed the Jewish remains (Photo: zvarot.by)

The Belarus Jewish community—dating back to the 12th century—numbers some 10,000 people today. Gutman says local Jewish heritage has suffered irreparable harm under Lukashenko and activists are afraid to fight it out in local courts, particularly given his know cavalier attitude toward human rights.  Indeed, the president was arrested in 2004 for human rights violations.

Commenting on the court's ruling, the Belarusian Ministry of Construction and Social Services said it possesses no information as to the location of the aforementioned cemeteries. MK Ksenia Svetlova of the Zionist Union wrote to President Lukashenko, asking for his assistance in the matter.

"I ask you to intercede and make sure no harm comes to the cemeteries," Svetlova wrote during the struggle against demolished. Today she works to prevent construction in the area.

An overhead view of the site (Photo: gp.by)

"A year ago your government's minister of foreign affairs signed a declaration created by the World Jewish Congress according to which your government—like any other government which signed the declaration—will do everything in its power to preserve heritage sites which are holy to any religion. Among these sites are Jewish cemeteries," she again wrote the Belarusian president. "Many Jewish heritage and cultural sites may be found in Belarus," she continued, "and up to now Jews have enjoyed freedom of religion and worship, like members of other religions. Cemeteries are holy sites, a point thus far understood and religiously respected in your country."

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Jewish human rights organization rebukes German magazine for Trump 'Nazi salute' cover

This week's cover of a popular German news magazine depicting US President Donald Trump draped in the American flag while giving a stiff-armed Nazi salute is drawing sharp criticism from a prominent Jewish group. Stern magazine's illustration is part of a cover story headlined "Sein Kampf," which translates as "His Struggle" and is a play on Adolf Hitler's infamous "Mein Kampf." It comes as part of the wave of backlash Trump has faced for not denouncing the Nazis, anti-Semites, racists and white supremasicts at the Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virgina, earlier this month.

Trump's 'Nazi salute' cover (Photo: AP)

Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center human rights center said it has been "outspoken in criticizing President Trump for failing to make a distinction between Nazis and KKK protesters and those who opposed them." But it said "the depiction of the president as a latter-day Hitler by a major German publication is untrue and beyond the pale."

It says "Germans must surely know that by misappropriating" Nazi symbols "they belittle and becloud" past crimes.

After initially criticizing the general "hatred" displayed at the Charotteville, Virginia Nazi rally that devolved into a violent

brawl, Trump then denounced those who took part in the Charlotteville rally, including those who chanted "Jews will not replace us." However, Trump followed this up by saying that "very fine people" were on "both sides" of the demonstrations, which drew neo-Nazis, white nationalists and members of the Ku Klux Klan. One woman was killed when an alleged white nationalist drove his car into a group of counterprotesters.

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US rabbis protest Trump by dropping holiday conference call

American rabbis critical of US President Donald Trump will not try to organize a conference call with him for the Jewish High Holy Days in protest of his response to a white nationalist rally in Virginia.

The conference call for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur was a tradition under former president Barack Obama, but was never planned under Trump. Rabbis representing the liberal and centrist branches of American Judaism said they would not attempt to plan any such call ahead of the holidays next month.

Trump (Photo: AFP)

After initially criticizing the general "hatred" displayed during Charotteville, Virginia Nazi rally earlier this month that devolved into a violent brawl, Trump then denounced those who took part in the Charlotteville rally, including those who chanted "Jews will not replace us." However, Trump followed this up by saying that "very fine people" were on "both sides" of the demonstrations, which drew neo-Nazis, white nationalists and members of the Ku Klux Klan. One woman was killed when an alleged white nationalist drove his car into a group of counterprotesters. "The president's words have given succor to those who advocate anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia," the rabbis said Wednesday in announcing their decision. The announcement came from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, which represent the liberal Reform movement; the Rabbinical Assembly, which represents the centrist Conservative movement; and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said he did not know whether the Trump administration had been considering participating in such a conference call this year.

Photo: AFP

The Rabbinical Council of America, which represents modern Orthodox rabbis, had joined the presidential holiday call in the past but did not sign this week's announcement. Rabbi Mark Dratch, executive vice president of the group, said, "We respect the office of the presidency and believe it is more effective to address questions and concerns directly with the White House." The council had issued a statement soon after the violence in Charlottesville criticizing Trump's remarks as a "failing of moral leadership" that "fans the flames of intolerance."

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British Jew speaks on the rise of anti-Semitism in Britain

A poll published recently by the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism showed that about a third of British Jews considered leaving with 37 percent of Jews feeling they need to conceal their ethnicity in public and only 59 percent felt welcome in the country. Sharon Klaff, a British Jewish activist, was asked to explain why.

 

"There's been a rise of overt anti-Semitism in the UK over the last few years, typically within the Labor party and specifically since Jeremy Corbyn took over the leadership," she said.

Anti-Israel demonstrations in Britain (Photo: citizenside.com)

"British Jews are quite aware of being discriminated against via statements made by various people like some MPs in the British government. So yes, there is an air of very open anti-Semitism here, we see the same Neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism in America and on our own streets. However, the anti-Semitism I think is the most dangerous is the Islamic anti-Semitism that seems to be a worldwide phenomenon right now."

Have you witnessed any anti-Semitic incidents in the UK personally?

"Yes, I have. I'm a bit of an activist. I go to a lot of meetings, mostly in London but across the country. I was one of the people at the meeting at the University College London campus when we were raided by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and they took over our lecture hall. It was Hen Mazzig who was speaking, the Israeli, and what happened was they had to run us into another room where they were banging at the door trying to get in. We were in a way held under siege at that campus for quite some time until the police could work out a way to get us out of there."

Have you considered leaving the UK? Have your friends and family?

"I know that there are people leaving the UK, making Aliyah. My heart, of course, is in Israel, but my family lives here. I'm not making plans to make Aliyah but I know that there's an air of people wanted to perhaps start to make plans to leave.

"At the end of July, when the Al-Aqsa incident was taking place, there was a big demonstration outside the Israeli embassy and we were there to hold a vigil for the family that was slaughtered that Friday night. What we witnessed there was a bit of a change in the anti-Semitism on our streets, in that it was very aggressive. It was a little bit frightening. They didn't send too many police there to start with, and then they stole our flag and ran down the street with it. I sent you a video of how they burned our flag.

"What I witnessed for the first time in demonstrations is that there were people there carrying flammable canisters in their hands, ready for action. That's a little bit frightening."

Anti-Semitic graffiti in the UK (Photo: The Community Security Trust)

What role does the rise of Jeremy Corbyn play in these matters?

"Jeremy Corbyn is a longstanding anti-Israel activist. He was involved in that even in his early days as an MP, he in fact is a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign is like a big umbrella (organization—ed.) and it works by having (daughter) organizations across the country. At any time of any day of any week you can find an event that's taking place by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign or that's backed by them. For instance, they work together with Friends of Al-Aqsa, as they did when they had the very big Palestine Expo in London at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre. It's the first time they've had a huge event/

"They say about 1,500 people attended over the weekend. They had a list of the most vile, anti-Israel anti-Semitic speakers and they also had a kind of an indoctrination of children.

Labor party leader Jeremy Corbyn (Photo: AP)

"They had a children's corner where they were teaching children about the prophets of Palestine, and they turned King David into Daud. So the children hear about Daud and Goliath, they hear about not Moses but Musa crossing the Red Sea.

"So what we have is a sense of "Palestinianism", which is the weapon that the Arabs of the area are using as a weapon to attack Israel and through Israel, to attack Jews."

How scary is it to be a Jew in the UK nowadays?

"On a daily basis you don't notice it. You go about your life, you go to work, you do your shopping. But I know that the Haredi Jews are very often under physical attack. In the area that I live in I haven't seen any attacks and I must say that I'm more aware: I look around a little bit, I check who's behind me sometimes when I'm in certain areas. If I go to demonstrations I'm a little bit more cautious.

"As in any country the majority of people actually are not involved in the political arena. They may read about it in the press, mostly in the Jewish press, but I think by and large a lot of people just ignore it.

Are Jews in the UK facing violence on a daily basis?

"I wouldn't say that. What you see is mostly done at demonstrations. I go shopping in Golders Green, which is a Jewish area, I don't really see violence there. There's a kind of focus on demonstrations."

Do you feel you need to hide your Jewish identity on a daily basis?

"I don't, but I made a conscious decision—being born in South Africa, where racism was the name of the game—never to hide who I am. I'm very open about who I am, I'm very open about my political beliefs but there is an air here, and there always has been, of people not talking about their Jewishness when they go to work, not being too open about it. I know that on certain university campuses this is rife. This is where it really bubbles to the surface. So on certain university campuses the Jewish students are a little bit more cautious about wearing a Star of David around their necks or being overtly Jewish in their daily actions."

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Actors join forces to restore ancient Jewish cemetery

Actors from the Israeli Habima and Cameri theaters will join forces to preserve the ancient Jewish cemetery of the city of Bitola in Macedonia, Which lost its entire Jewish population during the Holocaust.

Two years after the actors visited, they decided to put on a special show whose proceeds would be devoted to the rehabilitation of the cemetery and about 6,000 of its neglected tombstones.

A neglected tombstone in the Jewish cemetery in Bitola, Macedonia

The team of actors from both theaters visited the Balkans on their tour for the show "Our Class," which deals with the complicated ties between Poles and Jews during the Second World War. It was staged in four countries.

During their stay in the city of Bitola, the actors visited the ancient Jewish cemetery in the city where 10,000 Jews have been buried from 1497—the days of the expulsion from Spain until the Second World War. These graves are almost the only remnant left by the large Jewish community of Macedonia, which numbered 7,144 people on the eve of World War II, and was annihilated by the Nazis. Touched by the sad tale of the city's Jewish community, the actors are set to stage a special performance of "Our Class," directed by Hanan Snir, with all proceeds going towards preserving the ancient cemetery. The special performance will take place at the Habima National Theater on August 27, with ten actors appearing in the performance—five from Habima and five from Cameri.

The Israeli ambassador to Macedonia, Dan Orian, took the rehabilitation of the cemetery as a personal project and has managed to rehabilitate around 3,800 of its 10,000 graves.

"The Jews of Bitola were hit first by the Nazis and then by neglect," said Israeli Ambassador to Macedonia Dan Orian, who took the preservation and protection of the cemetery as a personal project and has managed to save around 3,800 of its 10,000 graves from complete destruction. "We are trying to bring the story back to our consciousness and create a new and unique connection with Israel."

"As we were previously worked towards preserving the heritage, culture and memory of entire communities destroyed in the Holocaust, we do so again in an emotional endeavor that brings our trip from two years ago full circle," said Odelia Friedman, Habima General Manager.

Top-down view of the Jewish cemetery in Bitola

At the outbreak of World War II, the Jewish community of Macedonia was assembled in the capital of Skopje, and in March 1943 all its members were deported to the Treblinka Nazi extermination camp, together with the rest of the Jews of Macedonia, where they were exterminated by the Nazis. There are no Jewish residents left in Bitola.

In the last two years, the cemetery was slowly turned into a memorial park for the legacy of the city's Jewish residents, though when it comes to the grave sites, Ambassador Orian said that the project is currently NIS 300,000 short for its overall plan of cleaning, restoring and preserving all salvageable, adding that if they had the funds, they could "complete the entire process within a year."

"Our goal is to document all the tombstones on a digital format so that they are accessible to everyone on the internet," Orian said.

According to him, the Macedonian government joined the initiative, with three ministers took part in the launch event for the cemetary's restoration.

Orian added that the mayor of Bitola promised to maintain the cemetery after its restoration. "There is tremendous importance to the restoration of the cemetery," Orion concluded.

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Poll: One third of British Jews considered leaving

Nearly one-third of British Jews have considered leaving the country in the last two years over fear of anti-Semitism, according to a poll by YouGov for the Campaign Against anti-Semitism (CAA), which was published on Sunday.

The multiyear reseach found that 31 percent of British Jews considered immigration at least once in the past two years—a three percent increase from 2015.

The anti-Semitism Barometer research was conducted between 2015-2017 and surveyed 3,411 British Jews in 2015, 1,660 in 2016, and 1,614 in 2017.

Demonstration against anti-Semitism in London, Britain (Photo: AFP)

The poll also found that 17 percent of Jews—about one in six—feel unwelcome in Britain, while 37 percent feel they need to hide their ethnicity in public.

Sixty-five percent of British Jews said the British government did not do enough to protect them, and only 39 percent felt confident anti-Semitic hate crime would be prosecuted.

Meanwhile, more than 80 percent agreed that the Labour Party was too tolerant of anti-Semitism.

The Labour Party has been embroiled in a series of anti-Semitic scandals in recent years, and its chairman Jeremy Corbyn, a prominent pro-Palestinian activist, has been accused of being too tolerant of anti-Semitism.

Labor Chairman Jeremy Corbyn, often embroiled in anti-Semitic scandals

Meanwhile, a Sky News poll found that anti-Semitic views in Britain were actually on the decline.

The poll examined how many respondents agreed with seven anti-Semitic statements. The number of people who agreed with at least one statement among the seven dropped from 45 percent in 2015 to 36 percent this year.

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Sign at Swiss hotel directed to 'Jewish guests' draws scorn

Switzerland's tourism office on Tuesday decried an "unfortunate" incident in which a small Alpine hotel posted a sign asking "Jewish guests" to shower before swimming in the hotel pool.

 

The Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded the closure of the Paradies Arosa hotel in the eastern town of Arosa, and issued a statement on Tuesday calling on "the broader Jewish community and their Gentile friends to blacklist this horrific hotel." On Twitter, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely called for "justice" against the hotel's management.

Officials said the hotel had apologized for the incident and taken the sign down.

 

Swiss Tourism spokesman Markus Berger called the sign unacceptable, adding: "It always needs to stay in perspective: This is one unfortunate incident."

Under "To our Jewish Guests," the sign read: "Please take a shower before you go swimming. If you break the rules, I am forced to cloes (sic) the swimming pool for you. Thank you for your understanding."

Tzipi Livni, a former Israeli foreign minister, posted an image of the sign on her Facebook page and wrote that "there can be no tolerance and no indifference" to anti-Semitism and racism, in comments that also alluded also to violence around a white supremacist rally in Virginia in the United States.

We "must not let there be a place in the free world for Nazi flags or Ku Klux Klan masks or ugly signs in hotels directed at Jews only," she wrote. "We cannot allow acts of hate against Jews around the world to become normal."

Hotel management did not immediately respond to an e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Berger cited a recent trend of Orthodox and other Jews traveling to four Alpine villages in the area in the summertime, including Davos. He said didn't know the origin of the trend, but that numbers "definitely in the thousands" have grown in recent years. He said many area hotels serve kosher food, and that Jewish guests "feel well-treated" there.

"It's just this one lady at this one hotel who was not on top of the situation," Berger said. "It's an isolated incident that doesn't need for greater action to be taken."

Switzerland's foreign ministry, responding to a request for comment from The Associated Press, said that it has been in touch with the Israeli ambassador and "outlined to him that Switzerland condemns racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination in any form. Switzerland has been strongly committed for years—as it is at the moment, for example, within its presidency for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance—to raise awareness to the dangers of racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination."

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Boston Holocaust memorial vandalized for second time this summer

The New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston has been vandalized for the second time this summer.

Police said a 17-year-old Malden boy smashed a glass panel on the memorial Monday evening. He was detained by two bystanders until officers arrived on the scene. Police said he will be charged with willful and malicious destruction of property.

Boston Holocaust memorial (Photo: AP)

 

The police department's civil rights unit also is investigating to determine if additional charges are warranted.

It is the second time the memorial has been damaged in the past few months.

In June, police said James Isaac used a rock to shatter a roughly 9-foot-tall glass panel on one of the memorial's six 54-foot-high towers. Isaac has pleaded not guilty to vandalism charges.

Photo: AP

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.

The repaired memorial was rededicated in July.

The Jewish Community Relations Council and Combined Jewish Philanthropies released a statement late Monday night saying that they are "appalled and saddened" by the latest vandalism.

Photo: AP

"We will remain resilient and will have a timeline for rebuilding the memorial once we have assessed the damage," the statement said.

Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh wrote on Twitter that he was "saddened to see such a despicable action." He thanked the public and Boston police for the "quick arrest" of a suspect.

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From Poland to Uruguay: Jewish identity in pictures

A teenage boy reading the Torah at a summer camp in Panama, two teenage girls blowing a shofar in Houston, Texas, and a bat mitzvah at the Hebrew school in Chile—these are just a few of the daily Jewish experiences documented by 100 teenagers from three different continents as part of the Jewish Lens photo competition. The result is a beautiful exhibition of 25 selected projects, which was inaugurated last weekend at Beit Hatfutsot—The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.

The exhibition, which is a joint initiative of the museum and photographer Zion Ozeri, reveals how Jewish youth around the world perceive their Jewishness.

Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste, director of the Koret International School for Jewish Peoplehood Studies (ISJPS) at Beit Hatfutsot, says she wanted to enlist the smartphone and youth’s tendency to take pictures of everything to manifest their Jewish belonging: “How are they part of the people? In what sense?”

Ezequiel Noble, Noar Panama, Panama City, Panama: The joint prayer and Torah reading in the Noar Panama summer camp are formative events in Ezequiel’s life. The concept of God being everywhere is a meaningful part of his Jewish experience. The gathering in the open space brings together people who have the same desire and share the traditions of the Jewish people.

She received many diverse answers: Some 100 photographs were submitted to the competition, and the 25 selected ones, she says, point to “teenagers who focus on the family, the different generations, the items on the book shelf, the youth movement, the synagogue. Each with their personal point of view, but together we see an abundance and diversity of Jewish identity in the 21st century, as reflected in the eyes of teenagers.”

Nathan Brenner, Temple Adat Elohim Religious School, Thousand Oaks, California, US: Nathan uses the technique of perspective to illustrate that the Torah is limitless, connecting out past, present and future. ‘It is our job to pass on the legacy, and the best way to do that is to encourage young students to learn, love and embody the book that makes Jews who they are.’

One of the teens who used their cellphone to document their Jewish identity was Miriam Handel of Texas. “We are used to seeing this situation in so many pictures of youth who feel like posing for the camera, and here there may be a call for some form of subversion. It’s a penetrating picture. They are looking straight at the camera and blowing a shofar, appropriating a role that used to belong to men until now, with a lot of pride and joy," Avnon-Benveniste says.

Miriam Handel, Kehillah High, Houston, Texas, US: Jewish identity revolves around expressing oneself creatively and giving meaning to years-old rituals. The ancient meets the contemporary, tradition meets movement, and young people make their voices heard in a Jewish way.

 “I find the picture of a girl being blessed with hands on her head very moving,” Avnon-Benveniste adds. “You see here a ceremony of a girl who feels very blessed—both for being Jewish and for being at the center of a community—receiving a blessing for her bat mitzvah, or for Shabbat, and she feels close to the people around her. I see it as a very beautiful choice of a girl who says, ‘I feel blessed to be Jewish.’”

Micaela Norambuena, Instituto Hebreo Santiago, Chile: ‘Three threads connect me to the Jewish people—my family, the Jewish school where I study, and the Tzeirei Ami youth movement to which I have belonged since the age of 10.’ Tradition, customs, Hebrew, Zionism and community are the essential parts of Micaela’s identity that enable her to continue to take an active and meaningful role in the community.

Another picture that made the exhibition was taken in Chicago and given the name “And These Words.” According to Avnon-Benveniste, “This picture looks inwards. We can’t actually see who is behind those hands, but we see the holy moment in which a person who could be a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, prays and reads ancient verses, seeking a moment of peace, of giving thanks, of introspection in the Jewish world of prayer.”

Justin Aronwald, Solomon Schechter Day School of Metropolitan Chicago, Northbrook, Illinois, US: And these words, which I command ‘you this day… bind them as a sign on your hand, and let them serve’ as a symbol between your eyes (Deuteronomy, 6:6-8). ‘When the Torah is imprinted on our hands, on our bodies, it reminds us about our Jewish history and traditions and gives us morals to live by.’

The competition was launched at quite a difficult time for Jewish communities around the world, when Jewish identity has become a source of anti-Semitic and political persecution.

Avnon-Benveniste believes the differences between the situations of communities in Europe and in North America make it difficult to receive a comprehensive answer on how to deal with these hardships. The message, however, remains clear.

Sarah Strenger, Kulanu School of Jewish Studies, Margate, New Jersey, US: Sarah’s family has always collected tzedakah (charity) in an empty Jack Daniel’s bottle. This Jewish tradition goes back as long as she can remember, entwined in her childhood memories. Here, seen from the top, the bottle resembles a pond with the coins rippling out from the center, sending out waves of tzedakah to help those in need.

“Our challenge as a nation is to ensure that when young Jews look forward at the Jewish world, it will be out of hope rather than—God forbid—out of fear or conflict, as happened in different periods in history. Our challenge is to march as individuals, as families, as communities and factions side by side, and say: ‘It doesn’t matter what we’re going through—be it an external or internal threat—we’ll get through it together, out of joy and excitement about the future, rather than out of fear of what will happen," she says.

Sarah Davis, Bet Torah Mount Kisco, New York, US: ‘Almost everything I know about Judaism I learned through the hands of my mother and grandmother. The traditions that I will one day teach my children will have been passed down through them.’

“I hear people from all around the world answering the question ‘what makes you part of the Jewish people?’ and there are always plenty of different answers. So it’s a great privilege to be dealing with these issues," Avnon-Benveniste adds. “I’m always very excited by the depth they ascribe to questions of identity, how much respect youth have for their family members, their parents, their grandparents. We see it in each and every picture."

Grzegorz Sadurski, JCC Krakow, Krakow, Poland: This street art is a sign of revitalization in Krakow’s Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz. Jewish symbols in the style of artist Marc Chagall recall history and life in Kazimierz. They evoke ritual, music and folklore to tell the continuing story of Jewish life in Poland.

“When you browse through the pictures, one by one, you see how personal the connections are, yet they sit on some kind of sequence of the people’s identity, which is diverse but outlined. At the end of the day, this nation has a Jewish identity that is clear to all those who are part of the Jewish story,” she concludes. 

Dana Zejerman, Escuela Integral Hebrea, Montevideo, Uruguay: This picture holds the three pillars of Dana’s Jewish identity—education, a Jewish way of life and continuity. The picture was taken in the school library, where she is studying. The hundreds of books represent education and knowledge, the Bible symbolizes for Dana the Jewish way of life, and the children in the background represent the future.

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Orthodox Jewish group sues NJ town to keep religious markers

MAHWAH - An Orthodox Jewish community group has sued a New Jersey town that has moved to block the group from building a religious boundary made up of white plastic piping through town.

The Bergen Rockland Eruv Association and two New York residents filed the federal lawsuit Friday against the town of Mahwah. They say the town is violating their constitutional and civil rights.

Some Orthodox Jews consider the boundary, called an eruv, as being needed to allow them to do things like carry keys and push strollers on Shabbat.

PVC piping placed on utility poles around a New Jersey town bordering New York as eruv for Jewish community (Photo: AP)

 Mahwah officials, though, say the markers violate local laws that prohibit signs on trees, rocks and utility poles, and they will start issuing summonses next week if it isn't removed. They haven't commented on the lawsuit. The town lies about 33 miles (53 kilometers) northwest of New York City. "The object, motivation and effect of the actions of the township is to suppress the religious practices of the plaintiffs and certain other Jews who reside in Airmont and other parts of Rockland County (in New York)," the lawsuit states. "The eruv presents no aesthetic, safety, traffic, fiscal or other concern to Mahwah." Eruvs are set up in communities of Orthodox Jews across the country, including one made of fishing line that stretches along utility poles for 18 miles around New York City. Some have led to disputes, including a six-year legal fight in Tenafly, New Jersey, which was forced to pay a Jewish group more than $300,000 in legal fees and allow them to keep their eruv up.

The Jewish community's supporters say the incursion into Mahwah is only because the layout of utility poles doesn't form an enclosure around the Rockland County border.

PVC piping placed on utility poles around a New Jersey town bordering New York as eruv for Jewish community (Photo: AP)

In a unanimous vote Thursday, the Mahwah Town Council voted to begin issuing summonses Aug. 18 if the piping is not removed. But Yehudah Buchweitz, an attorney representing the South Monsey Eruv Fund, a subsidiary of the Bergen Rockland Eruv Association, told The Record that the eruv will remain despite the threat of summonses. "There's no law that I'm aware of that actually prohibits the lechis," Buchweitz said, referring to the pipes that make up the eruv.

Mayor Bill Laforet has asked the council to hold off on issuing summonses and instead create a negotiating window with the eruv group. Laforet said a legal fight could prove costly for the town.

PVC piping placed on utility poles around a New Jersey town bordering New York as eruv for Jewish community (Photo: AP)

The dispute comes as Mahwah reconsiders a new law limiting its parks and playgrounds to New Jersey residents. That measure came about after town residents complained of families with New York license plates using a park near the state border, but the county's prosecutor ordered the police not to enforce it after Mahwah's police chief raised concerns that people reporting violations were targeting Jews. The eruv expansion and park ordinance follows years of growth among the Orthodox Jewish population in southern Rockland County in New York. There have also been complaints around the region of aggressive solicitation by real estate brokers looking to buy homes for the Jewish community in the suburbs of New York City and around New Jersey as real estate in New York becomes too expensive.

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Bosnia's Jews, Muslims, Christians chide politicians

Bosnia's religious leaders say politicians are standing in the way of peaceful coexistence between Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities trying to forgive and forget after the atrocities of a devastating 1990s war.

Hundreds of churches, mosques and synagogues bear witness to more than five centuries of Bosnia's multi-faith past, and the capital Sarajevo is known locally as a "small Jerusalem" with its main ethnic groups—Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks—all worshipping within meters of each other.

Rabbi's assistant Igor Kozemjakin, at Sarajevo Ashkenazi Synagogue in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Photo: Reuters)

But Mufti Husein Kavazovic, head of the Islamic community in Bosnia, says people of faith cannot achieve peace alone. "It is up to political elites to do more. For a start, it would be good that they stop their ideological manipulation of religion for their own political goals. It is up to us, of course, not to allow them to do that," he said. Even though nationalists from all three ethnic groups still insist on exclusivity for their own groups, religious leaders are keen to heal rifts after the 1992-1995 war in which about 100,000 civilians were killed and millions displaced. Friar Zeljko Brkic at Kraljeva Sutjeska—among the oldest Franciscan monasteries in Bosnia and dating from 1385—said: "Bosnia can only survive as a multi-ethnic state, no matter how much politicians try to convince us that this is not possible."

Friar Zeljko Brkic, at Kraljeva Sutjeska Franciscan monastery in Kraljeva Sutjeska, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Photo: Reuters)

His Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim peers agree. "It is very important that we have here different cultures and religions, and that based on that we can easily build and verify our own identities," said Nektarije, a deacon at the Orthodox monastery Zitomislici in what is now the Catholic Croat-dominated southern part of the country. Jakob Finci, the president of the Jewish community in Bosnia, gives Sarajevo as an example of close cooperation, citing Muslims there helping Jews to hide during World War Two and Jews providing food for people of all faiths in the three-year siege by Bosnian Serb forces.

Effendi Ibranovic Dzemail, at Sulejmanija Mosque in Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Photo: Reuters)

"Sarajevo is the best proof that living together is possible and that it represents the only way of life for us," he said. This week, about 120 leaders from 27 countries arrived in Sarajevo to take part in a meeting of the youth-led Muslim Jewish Conference, founded by Ilja Sichrovski in Vienna in 2010. "We feel at home here," Sichrovski said.

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Polish Jews ask far-right leader to denounce rising anti-Semitism

The leaders of Poland's Jewish community have written to the country's most powerful politician, urging him to denounce what they say is rising anti-Semitism that has left them fearing for their future in the country.

The letter, a rare voicing of concern, comes nearly two years after the election of Law and Justice, a deeply conservative, nationalistic and anti-migrant party that is backed by some groups with anti-Semitic views.

Members of the far-right group, the National-Radical Camp, marking the 83rd anniversary of their organization (Photo: AP)

Observers including the country's human rights commissioner have noted a rise in anti-Semitism and other hate speech and as well as attacks on dark-skinned people since the party came to power. "We are appalled by recent events and fearful for our security as the situation in our country is becoming more dangerous," Leslaw Piszewski, the head of the Jewish community in Poland, and Anna Chipczynska, the head of the Warsaw community, wrote in the letter. Chipczynska told The Associated Press on Thursday that the community sent the letter last week to Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the ruling party leader, but so far had no reply. The Associated Press made several attempts to reach the party spokeswoman but all calls went unanswered.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski (Photo: AP)

The letter says there has been a "rise of anti-Semitic attitudes in recent months, accompanied by aggressive hate speech and violent behavior that are directed towards our community" and asked Kaczynski to decisively condemn the anti-Semitism. Among examples it mentions the increasingly visible presence, even at state events, of members of an extremist right-wing group, the National Radical Camp, and an attack last week on a visiting Israeli soccer team. It also cited a recent comment by a lawmaker from Law and Justice, Bogdan Rzonca, who said on Twitter earlier this month that he wondered "why there are so many Jews among abortionists despite the Holocaust." Another incident that raised the community's concern was when a journalist for state television TVP, Magdalena Ogorek, highlighted the Jewish ancestry of a senator, Marek Borowski, when criticizing his politics. The incident sparked a wave of critical comments, and the head of TVP demanded an explanation from Ogorek.

Supporters of the far-right National-Radical Camp during anti EU protest (Photo: AP)

Some Polish observers have said the climate evokes the mood in the country in 1968, when the communist regime waged an anti-Semitic campaign against Jews that culminated in thousands being expelled from the country. "We are afraid for our security and our future in Poland," the Jewish leaders wrote to Kaczynski. "We do not want a return to the year 1968." Poland's Jewish community was the largest in Europe before the Holocaust, with some 3.3 million people. Today's community is much smaller but had been growing amid a new tolerance that came with the collapse of communism in 1989.

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Notorious neo-Nazi Ernst Zundel dies in Germany

Ernst Zundel, a far-right activist who rose to notoriety over decades of public neo-Nazi activity in Canada and the US before being deported back to his native Germany on Holocaust denial charges, has died. He was 78.

Marina Lahmann, a spokeswoman for the community of Bad Wildbad in Baden-Wuerttemberg where Zundel lived, told The Associated Press on Monday that Zundel died over the weekend. She had no further information, saying the paperwork had not yet been processed.

Zundel (Photo: AP)

"We can only confirm at the moment that he died," she said. Media in Canada quoted a statement from his wife, Ingrid Zundel, saying that he died of a heart attack at his home on Sunday. His wife, who lives in the United States, told CTV news she had spoken to her husband "just hours before he passed on and he was as optimistic and upbeat as ever." Born in Germany in 1939, Zundel emigrated to Canada in 1958—allegedly to avoid German military service—and lived in Toronto and Montreal until 2001. He achieved international notoriety for his neo-Nazi beliefs and writings, including "The Hitler We Loved and Why," and operated Samisdat Publishers, a leading distributor of Nazi and Nazi-era propaganda. He also provided regular content for an eponymous far-right website. Canadian officials rejected his attempts to obtain citizenship in 1966 and 1994. After leaving Canada, he moved to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where he had married fellow right-wing extremist Ingrid Rimland. But in 2003 he was deported back to Canada for alleged immigration violations. After he arrived in Toronto, he was arrested and held in detention until a judge ruled in 2005 that his activities posed a threat to national and international security and he was deported to Germany, where he was being sought for Holocaust denial. Denial of the Holocaust is illegal in Germany. Because Zundel's Holocaust-denying website was available in Germany, he was considered to have been spreading his message to Germans. Zundel, who portrayed himself as a peaceful campaigner being denied the right to free speech, was convicted in Mannheim in 2007 of 14 counts of inciting hatred for engaging in years of anti-Semitic activities and sentenced to five years in prison. After serving his sentence, a crowd of some 20 supporters clapped and shouted "bravo" as he was released from prison in Mannheim in 2010. Outside the prison, he refused to comment on his beliefs about the Holocaust, saying only "it's kind of a sad situation, there's a lot to say" before adding "I'll certainly be careful not to offend anyone and their draconian laws."

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Congregation at oldest US synagogue reviewing legal options

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German prosecutors say "bookkeeper of Auschwitz" fit for prison

A medical examination showed a 96-year-old German known as the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz" was fit to start serving his prison sentence, German prosecutors said on Wednesday, but his lawyer said a court should decide whether he was well enough. Oskar Groening was sentenced to four years in prison in 2015 for his role in the murder of 300,000 people at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz in what was seen as one of the last major Holocaust trials.

Oskar Groening, defendant and former Nazi SS officer dubbed the 'bookkeeper of Auschwitz' (Photo: AP)

 

He has not yet begun serving his sentence because his lawyer appealed the verdict—though the Federal Supreme Court in November upheld the 2015 ruling—and it has since taken time for the files to be transferred back, said Kathrin Soefker, a spokeswoman for prosecutors in Hanover.

Photo: Reuters

 Prosecutors have rejected Groening's request for a reprieve after a medical assessment determined he was fit for detention, she said. "After getting an official medical opinion we assume Mr. Groening is able to go to prison," Soefker said. "A 96-year-old has physical constraints but if he can get appropriate medical and nursing care in a prison or correctional facility, he is fit for prison," she added.

SS member and Auschwitz Guard Oskar Groening (Photo: EPA)

But Groening's lawyer, Hans Holtermann, told Reuters he did not think Groening can survive imprisonment.

Photo: Reuters

"We will apply for a decision to be made by the court," Holtermann said. "We think a sensible assessment (of Groening's health) should have been carried out and that has not happened yet," he said. Groening, who is physically frail, has said he was an enthusiastic Nazi when he was sent to work at Auschwitz in 1942, at the age of 21.

Photo: AP

In 2015 prosecutors argued that although Groening did not kill anyone himself while working at Auschwitz, in Nazi-occupied Poland, he helped support the regime responsible for mass murder by sorting bank notes seized from trainloads of arriving Jews. Many Germans want to draw a line under the Holocaust and instead focus on the country's post-war democratic identity.

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Israel National Library launches digital manuscript archive

Israel's National Library launched an online database on Wednesday aggregating tens of thousands of digitized Jewish manuscripts belonging to collections from across the globe.

Scholars and laypersons can access almost half of the known handwritten Jewish texts from Spain to Afghanistan, which have been digitized and catalogued online. In some cases, parts of a manuscript that have been long divided between collections will be reunited, digitally for the first time in centuries.

Part of the National Library collection (Photo: National Library)

The archive contains nearly 4.5 million images from 45,000 manuscripts—slightly more than half of all known volumes. They include prayer books, biblical texts and commentary, philosophy, literature and scientific writings, in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic and more.

The database, called Ktiv, Hebrew for "written word," is the culmination of a project conceived by Israel's founding prime minister David Ben Gurion. In 1950, Ben Gurion launched the initiative of ingathering Jewish texts scattered in libraries and collections around the world and bringing them to the fledgling state in the form of microfilms. The new database, a joint venture with the Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society, takes that endeavor into the 21st century, with multispectral and high-definition images and an internet search engine.

The National Library partnered with some of the world's largest collections of Jewish manuscripts, including the British Library, Parma's Palatina Library and the Vatican Library, in an effort to bring all the known texts under one digital roof. "To the best of my knowledge, this is unprecedented not only for Jewish studies and Judaica," National Library Director Aviad Stollman said. "There is no project with this scope that aggregated so many manuscripts from so many places in the world." Stollman said the project will continue to amass additional images of Jewish manuscripts held by other collections that haven't yet partnered with the library, and that their work is expected to continue for years to come. The library is also working to make the texts within the manuscripts searchable to users online.

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Jewish mothers’ Israel journey spotlighted in American media

A new trend of American Jewish mothers who decide to visit Israel for the first time in their lives has gotten significant coverage in American media in recent weeks.

Even major TV networks, such as Fox, ABC and NBC, reported about the “MOMentum” trips, a Zionist project organized by the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project (JWRP) and Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

“MOMentum” is an eight-day subsidized journey in Israel. More than 11,000 Jewish mothers from 26 countries around the world—most coming from the United States—have already taken part in the project. To be eligible for the journey, women must have children under 18, not observe Shabbat, and have never been to Israel before.

According to JWRP, the “MOMentum” trip stretches from the mystical Galilee city of Safed to the ancient desert mountaintop fortress Masada, and features extensive itineraries and curated curricula encompassing everything from Jewish values to contemporary Israeli society. Among other things, the mothers climb Masada, bathe in the Dead Sea, travel to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, pray at the Western Wall, and get photographed against the backdrop of the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock.

The trips inspire women to connect deeply with their Jewish heritage, and transform themselves, their families, and ultimately their communities and the wider world.

Photo: Aviram Valdman/JWRP

 During the journey, the Jewish mothers meet with mothers from Israel and from all over the Jewish world—meetings aimed at creating friendships across the continents. The mothers also meet soldiers and young Israelis who are about to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and some of them receive Hebrew names during ceremonies in the Judean Desert. JWRP was founded in Maryland in 2008 to promote the empowerment of Jewish women, whom they realized could change the world through Jewish values.

Photo: Aviram Valdman/JWRP

The project, and the thousands of mothers who have already participated, have been covered by multiple US TV stations and newspapers, which dedicated reports to the Israel journeys and interviewed the Jewish mothers, who shared their incredible experiences with tearful eyes upon their return home.

One of them, Amanda Rothbard of Philadelphia, told a local Fox affiliate: “This was the first time I visited Israel. I was selected from over 40 applicants. I went there not knowing one person, and I left there with 23-plus sisters and family. We learned how to really empower ourselves as women, how to be better wives and mothers and friends.”

Rothbard added, “We went to a military base and met young Israelis before they enlisted in the army. In Israel you don’t have any choice—they graduate high school and go straight to the military. We got the chance to meet those who will be the next IDF leaders, the sergeants and lieutenants. They really love their country. As a mother, to not have a choice to send my child off to war—and I met with many of their mothers—it was such an empowering and emotional journey.”  

Photo: Aviram Valdman/JWRP

Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs partnered with JWRP in 2013 after identifying it as a strategic and important project.

“The ‘MOMentum’ trip emphasizes the Israeli government’s commitment towards the Jewish Diaspora and provides an unprecedented opportunity for Jewish women from different backgrounds to strengthen their Jewish identities and connections to Israel,” said Dvir Kahana, director general of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. “I see the partnership with JWRP as critical to our vision of empowering women while recognizing their unique role in raising and educating the next generation to ensure a thriving future for the Jewish people.”

 

Photo: Aviram Valdman/JWRP

“Women often express concern about leaving their children for eight days for a MOMentum trip,” said Lori Palatnik, JWRP’s founding director. “I explain that they are not leaving their kids, they are going for their kids. What they will gain on this life-changing trip will spill over into their homes in the most beautiful and profound way.”

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