The greatest Jewish crisis: Growing estrangement from Israel

NEW YORK—The five young Jews who sat down in front of a group of Israeli journalists, educators and politicians (both secular and religious) at AIPAC’s impressive conference room last week came to the meeting armed and equipped with all the necessary punchlines for a first date. From the moment they entered the room, they kept smiling and speaking nicely, and there was no evidence of the crisis between Israel and American Jewry in their pleasant conduct.

“We are members of an organization called GatherDC, which was founded about a year ago. Our goal is to create networking opportunities between young Jews living and working in the American capital,” said one of the members of the group, which also included a young rabbi.

Considering the location of the meeting and the friendly message these young people arrived with, it seemed like a promising start. What could go wrong with Jews who just want to spend some quality time together? But several minutes later, the Israeli delegation members found out that the pleasant words were hiding a complex and alarming reality, which could be referred to as “Israel’s relations with the US Jewry in 2017.”

Pro-Israel rally in New York. A sight which should no longer be taken for granted (Photo: EPA)

  

“I joined because I saw on Facebook they had Happy Hour,” one of the young women said when asked why she had decided to join an organization that defines itself as Jewish but non-religious. “It’s an organization that aims to create friendships and connections between Jews. Being Jewish is much more than Israel; it’s family, roots, ties, community and nostalgia. It’s neither about Israel nor about religion.” And what about Israel, the Israelis in the room asked. Is it part of the organization’s narrative? “Israel is a difficult topic,” the group’s rabbi replied. “It’s hard to deal with Israel, so it’s not a topic with deal with. We are neutral in our content, and Israel is a topic that evokes disputes. We prefer not to deal with Israel.” And one of the young women added, “I don’t really understand what Israel has to do with my Jewish identity. I ignored Israel for years. It’s hard to come together on this topic today.” Some 6,000 young Jews are already coming together as part of the organization today, but not for Israel. They come together on everything, in fact, apart from Israel. In the Jewish American narrative, Israel no longer unites. In fact, it turns out, it actually divides.

This insight repeated itself quite a few times throughout the tour of the different Jewish communities in Washington and in New York. And as the hours and days went by, the extent of the rift became clearer: That majestic dream that was revived 70 years ago and turned into great pride it was once nice to be affiliated with, lost its glamour on the way and turned into an emotional, national, political and identical burden.

Young members of the GatherDC organization. ‘I don’t really understand what Israel has to do with my Jewish identity’ (Photo: Attila Somfalvi)

“Israel united the Jews in the past,” said a senior member of one of the major pro-Israel Jewish organizations in the United States, who requested to remain anonymous, “but it’s becoming increasingly difficult. Today, the discourse about Israel is divisive. The conversations about Israel get very heated. Even in the synagogues, rabbis are forced to stop discussions about Israel because they become very loud and focus on left-right division.” In AIPAC, which works to strengthen the relations between Israel and the US and exerts political pressure on Capitol Hill in favor of the Jewish state, officials try to convey a sense of optimism but admit there are difficulties. “The number of Jews involved in any type of activity is small,” a senior organization official noted. “We haven’t found sufficiently creative ways to make people come and be active. The Israelis should know that their decisions have consequences in the US Jewish community. In any event, we will keep working for Israel, but there are new challenges every day.”

The roots of American Jews’ slow disengagement from Israel branch out in many directions, and it’s hard to put a finger on the main reason for the serious crisis in the ties these days. It would be pretty superficial to blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or the stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. But Israel’s policy on the territories and the Palestinians, the decisions the government made on the Western Wall and conversion issues, as well as the ultra-Orthodox’s attitude towards Reform and Conservative Jews, who together make up the majority among some 7 million American Jews, all contribute to the expending rift between the two parts of the Jewish people—here and there.

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove (center) in a debate with rabbis from the three streams. ‘Very concerned by the relations between the two communities’ (Photo: Attila Somfalvi)

An average young American has trouble accepting and coming to terms with what he sees in Israel today. He finds it even more difficult to live with the brutalization of the political and public discourse, which reminds him quite a bit of Donald Trump’s American political discourse. Considering the fact that most American Jews are secular (in Israeli terms) and liberal, and vote for the Democratic Party, it isn’t difficult to understand the inability to identify with the Israeli public discourse. And it doesn’t just have to do with the conflict between Netanyahu and former US President Barack Obama. The Jews, mainly the young ones who were not raised on the ethos of the Jewish state’s establishment, have trouble declaring themselves pro-Israel. Such a declaration carries a price, a heavy one. Quite a few young Jews prefer to disengage from Israel and from declared Zionism and clearly opt for the humanistic values they were educated and raised on. On campus, for example, they join human rights organizations that are willing to admit them as long as they don’t define themselves as Zionist. “Wanting to join a movement that supports black peoples’ rights on campus, and supporting Israel and the occupation of the territories in the same breath, don’t go together,” explained a senior official in one of the Jewish organizations. “Young Jews are forced to make a choice, and supporting Israel makes things difficult for them when dealing with questions of identity.” “I’m very concerned by the relations between the two communities,” admitted Conservative Rabbi Eliot Cosgrove of New York during a panel with two colleagues, and Orthodox rabbi and a Reform rabbi. “At the moment, there are two communities going in opposite directions. In Israel, positions and hearts are being hardened, and the Haredim are managing the discourse over our personal identity. The Western Wall is a symbol of the hardened soul of Israelis who aren’t trying to understand their brethren. “I don’t think the dispute is only about religion, however. I read that 65 percent of Israelis didn’t want Elor Azaria to go on trial. A liberal and democratic American who reads this sees a critical democratic value being jeopardized in Israel. It’s extremely troubling.” Guila Franklin Siegel, associate director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Greater Washington, described a situation in which—regardless of Israel—young Jews are fleeing the familiar community life in the US. “An average Jew will tell you today that he doesn’t have to belong to a congregation,” she said. “More and more young people are refusing to be part of synagogues. They come together around specific subjects. Most Jews who do connect with Judaism do it through the Reform and Conservative movements. People don’t want to pay so much money to the synagogues, so they organize groups and engage in other social activities. Being Jewish these days is expensive. Young people just won’t pay.”

Since arriving in New York, Israeli Consul-General Danny Dayan has been warning Prime Minister Netanyahu of the serious crisis faced by the Jewish people.

“We have to decide whether we are a state for Jews or a state for Israelis,” he says. “If we’re only a state for Israelis, fine, but it has consequences and carries a price. I believe we should be a state for Jews, but today we don’t pass the ‘Jewish state’ test. We stopped showing an interest in the US Jewry as soon as their donations became less important and as soon as we got a sympathetic administration in the White House. The Western Wall and the conversion issue are just symptoms resulting from our lack of interest in them.”

Eric Goldstein, CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York. ‘We had people who for years donated millions every year, and now they want to stop donating to Israel’ (Photo: Attila Somfalvi)

Dayan’s warnings, by the way, went unheeded. Netanyahu listened and nodded as usual, but nothing has changed so far. Gidi Grinstein, president of the Reut Institute and a social entrepreneur promoting “Tikkun Olam” (literally, “repairing the world”), has warned of the erosion of Israel’s status among US Jews and of the ramifications of this erosion. In a small forum led by senior members of New York’s Jewish community, Grinstein defined the situation as “a perfect storm” and the cancellation of the Western Wall plan as “a nuclear explosion.” “US Jews are a national asset, which reinforces Israel’s national security,” he explained. “But the situation is very serious and extremely dangerous, as more and more Jews are drifting away from Israel, donating less and being less connected. We must not give up, but the situation is very complex.”

The cancellation of the Western Wall egalitarian prayer area plan and the controversial conversion bill infuriated US Jews primarily because of the feeling of rejection from the State of Israel.

“Most US Jews don’t want and don’t need help from Israel,” Guila Franklin Siegel explained in a meeting with the Israeli delegation in Washington. “They simply want to be accepted. It’s called acceptance. It was a very bad year because of the Rabbinate and the Western Wall plan. How can a Jewish student be taught to love Israel, when Israel informs him he isn’t Jewish? We were hit in the head this year, and it will take time to fix what happened.” And if we’re back in Washington, life isn’t as simple as it used to be on Capitol Hill either. While it’s still easy to pass decisions and laws in favor of Israel with a vast majority in Congress, the changes in the American left present new challenges for Israel’s supporters. In a meeting with a senior Democratic Congress member and with two political advisors from both sides of the aisle, the three warned of the consequences of Prime Minister Netanyahu's past and present actions in the American political arena, when he decided to address the two Houses of Congress in defiance of President Obama. While they define the speech as “excellent,” they believe its negative implications are still felt to this very day.

AIPAC officials have also been warning of the changes taking place both below and above the surface. “The easiest thing today is to pass a decision for Israel,” said a senior AIPAC official, “but it won’t last if we’re not active. More and more Democrats are changing their thinking, and we are concerned by the future generation of politicians. In the Right, there is a rise in anti-Semitism, while in the Left there is a rise in anti-Israel sentiments.”

“Two things concern me, the Iranian threat and the question of whether support for Israel will become a one-party thing,” said the Democratic Congress member who asked to speak off-the-record. “At the moment, most Congress members are in favor of legislation for Israel. But if this becomes a one-party thing, it would dramatically harm Israel. Netanyahu's Congress speech was prepared inappropriately, and it created real tensions among the Democrats. “Ten years ago, people in the Democratic Party would vote according to AIPAC’s request. Today, that’s no longer the case. The liberals in this party are much tougher and more influential, and it’s harder to get them to sign in favor of Israel. there’s no doubt that the tensions between Obama and Netanyahu created political damage and a certain rift in Congress. That’s why it’s so important to preserve the bridge between Israel and the US Jewry. But the Israelis don’t understand what’s important to us.”

Eric Goldstein, CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York, had even harsher criticism to dole out. “In the past, we would unite around Israel,” he said. “Today, Israel is much more complex for the Jews of New York. Israel is becoming more right-wing, and that clashes with the opinions of these people, the vast majority of whom voted for Hillary Clinton. In the past five years, there has been a real retreat in the Jews’ support for Israel. We had people who for years used to donate millions annually, and now they want to stop donating to Israel. We are fighting it, but it’s reality.

“I totally understand the pain of people who are told in Israel that they’re not Jewish enough,” he explains. “We’re in a situation in which we have started to lose focus of Israel’s importance to the Jews in America, and that’s very, very troubling.”

The writer was a member of a Gesher and Diaspora Affairs Ministry delegation meeting with US Jews.

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German court rules 'bookkeeper of Auschwitz' fit to go to jail

A German court ruled on Wednesday that a 96-year-old German known as the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz" was fit to go to prison, rejecting his plea for the sentence to be suspended.

 

Oskar Groening, who is physically frail, 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. However, he had not started serving his sentence due to a legal argument about his health.

Former Nazi SS guard Oskar Groening, at court (Photo: AFP)

Prosecutors said in August that a medical examination showed Groening was fit to start serving his prison sentence, though Groening's lawyer disputed that. On Wednesday a court in the northern German town of Celle said: "The higher regional court thinks, based on expert opinion, that the convicted man is able to serve his term despite his advanced age." It said enforcing Groening's sentence would not breach his fundamental rights and added that special needs related to his age could be catered for in prison. In a 2015 court battle seen as one of the last major Holocaust trials, prosecutors said 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.

(Photo: AP)

Groening, who admitted he was morally guilty, said he was an enthusiastic Nazi when he was sent to work at Auschwitz in 1942, at the age of 21. Some 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust carried out under Adolf Hitler.

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Russian probe asks if czar's murder part of ritual carried out by Jews

The head of a Russian Orthodox Church panel looking into the 1918 killing of Russia's last czar and his family said in a statement that angered many angered Jewish groups the panel was investigating whether it was a ritual murder.

 

Father Tikhon Shevkunov, the Orthodox bishop heading the panel, said after Monday's session that "a large share of the church commission members have no doubts that the murder was ritual."

A representative of the Investigative Committee, Russia's top state investigative agency, also said that it will conduct its own probe into the theory, which further inflamed tensions among Russia's Jews.

Father Tikhon, heading the commission, spoke about the czar's execution having ritual characteristics (Photo: AP)

 

Boruch Gorin, a spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities, Russia's largest Jewish group, expressed a strong concern Tuesday about the claims that he described as a "throwback to the darkest ages."

Some Christians in medieval Europe believed that Jews murdered Christians to use their blood for ritual purposes, something which historians say has no basis in Jewish religious law or historical fact and instead reflected anti-Jewish hostility in Christian Europe.

Nicholas II, his wife and their five children were executed by a Bolshevik firing squad on July 17, 1918, in a basement room of a merchant's house where they were held in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. The Russian Orthodox Church made them saints in 2000.

(Photo: AP)

The speculation that the czar and his family were killed by the Jews for ritual purposes has long been promoted by fringe anti-Semitic groups.

Gorin said his group was shocked and angered by the statements from both the bishop and the Investigative Committee, which he said sounded like a revival of the century-old "anti-Semitic myth" about the killing of the imperial family.

Nicholas II and his family were executed at the outset of the Bolshevik Revolution (Photo: AP)

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill attended Monday's meeting of the church panel investigating the killing of the czar and his family. He didn't address the issue of whether the killing was ritual, but emphasized that the church needs to find answers to all outstanding questions and "doesn't have the right for mistakes."

Bishop Tikhon's words carried particular weight given his reported close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and influence within the church.

The bishop elaborated on his statement Tuesday, telling the state RIA Novosti news agency that the "Bolsheviks and their allies engaged in the most unexpected and diverse ritual symbolism." He claimed that "quite a few people involved in the execution—in Moscow or Yekaterinburg—saw the killing of the deposed Russian emperor as a special ritual of revenge" and added that Yakov Yurovsky, the organizer of the execution who was Jewish, later boasted about his "sacral historic mission."

Father Tikhon (L) is considered close to Russian president Putin (center) (Photo: AP)

While Tikhon steered clear of singling out Jews as those responsible for the killing, Gorin said that the use of the term coined by anti-Semites of all stripes was "extremely alarming."

"Bishop Tikhon's invectives undoubtedly cast a shadow over the Russian Orthodox Church," he said. "And a representative of the Investigative Committee talking about the same theory yesterday casts a shadow on the government as a whole."

Gorin said he expects both the church leadership and Russian government officials to provide explanation.

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Man planning to bomb Jewish center sentenced to 25 years in prison

A Florida man will be hospitalized for psychiatric treatment and likely serve 25 years in prison for plotting to bomb a synagogue and Jewish school center during Passover last year.

A Miami federal judge ordered that sentence Tuesday on 41-year-old James Medina, who pleaded guilty to a religious hate crime and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The maximum sentence is life in prison. Authorities said Medina planned to attack the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center. Medina was arrested in April 2016 after approaching the center with a fake bomb provided by an undercover FBI informant.

Illustration (Photo: AP)

FBI recordings showed Medina supported the Islamic State extremist group and claimed an obligation to attack Jews in the US. His lawyers say Medina suffers from significant mental health problems.

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Simon Wiesenthal Center seeks witnesses to Babi Yar massacre

The Simon Wiesenthal Center for preserving the memory of the Holocaust announced it is seeking out Holocaust survivors who survived the Babi Yar killing fields in the Ukraine during World War II and who would be willing to testify in the trial of some of the perpetrators, who were only recently located. The center, named after the storied Nazi hunter, located the names of 80 people who participated in the Babi Yar massacre, while two of those involved were located alive and well by the German two months ago.

The two perpetrators, whose identities were made public, were located by Germany thanks to information received from the Simon Wiesenthal Center. None of the people who carried out the massacre—which involved the murder of some 50,000 Jews starting September 1941—has been indicted thus far.

Memorial at the Stutthof concentration camp (Photo: Ezra Wolfinger/NOVA)

The center is also continuing to seek out people who survived Poland's Stutthof concentration camp. Two of the soldiers who served in Stutthof near the end of 1943, when gas chambers were active in the camp, were indicted for their part only two weeks ago. The center is attempting to find witnesses to testify in the trials, and has located some 20 people who were interned there during the aforementioned period. Survivors from the Zhytomyr and Kamianets-Podilskyi camps in the Ukraine are also being sought by the center. Hungarian Jews who were not citizens were deported to the two camps in the summer of 1941, and were murdered there by Ukrainians, Hungarians and Germans. Locating survivors from the camps is considered to be a last ditch effort to try the Nazi criminals. Germany's policy on indicting Nazi war criminals underwent a change ten years ago. In the past, to indict a Nazi criminal the prosecution would have had to prove he had committed a specific crime against a specific victim with the motive being racist hatred, conditions which are nigh impossible to prove today, with so few witnesses left and the difficulty in singling out the criminals who participated in the extermination—as most Jews had no idea who their assailants were.

The policy shift was made possible thanks to a decision that stipulated the entire existence of death camps was predicated on murdering innocent people, and that therefore anyone stationed there may be indicted for being an accessory to murder based on their service alone. The attendant punishment for said offense in Germany was five to ten years.

The trial of John Demjanjuk served as precedent to try others based merely on their service in death camps (Photo: AP)

The change made is much easier for the prosecution, which no longer needed a witness to finger the defendant, which itself paved the way for the prosecution of many criminals who could not have been indicted otherwise. The conviction of John Demjanjuk, purported to be a Treblinka guard dubbed by prisoners "Ivan the Terrible," based on the policy shift was a precedent. After his trial, widespread searches were underway in an attempt to locate anyone who served in the death camps or murder squads, and two other criminals who served in Auschwitz were also convicted.

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'Entry forbidden to Jews' at Polish hotel

A photo of an anti-Semitic sign hanging outside of a hotel in the town of Cesarzowice "Entry forbidden to Jews, Commies, and all thieves and traitors of Poland", said the sign.

 

In nearby Wrocław, one of the largest cities in Poland, there was an anti-Semitic incident in November, 2015. Piotr Rybak, leader of the extremist "National Radical Camp", burnt an effigy in the figure of a religious Jew at an anti immigrant rally in a city square. According to one of the reports out of Poland, Rybak is the owner of the "The Polish House", the hotel, with the sign.

The sign

The website of the Anti Defamation League (ADL) stated that Rybak is in custody after anti-Semitic calls at a rally in Wrocław during an Independence Day celebration this month. Rybak was arrested after he violated his parole agreement after a two year trial for the events at the November, 2015, rally.

Last month, Rybak, who was indicted for incitement against Jews, managed to avoid a prison sentence of ten months. He was sentenced to three months of partial house arrest.

In light of the anti-Semitic sign, the ADL called on the Polish authorities to investigate the incident and take the necessary steps against the perpetrators.

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German artists build Holocaust memorial near far-right leader's home

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German political art group builds Holocaust memorial near the home of a far-right politician who said history should focus more on German WWII victims; the art collective said it would remove memorial if politician would kneel in front of it and ask sincerely for forgiveness; politician denies he criticised memorial, adding that he had said the Holocaust was a disgrace. German artists build Holocaust memorial near far-right leader's home : http://ift.tt/2jeCMpC

Giant swastika unearthed in Germany

Construction workers in Germany have unearthed a giant concrete swastika on a sports field in the northern city of Hamburg.

 

The German news agency dpa reported Tuesday workers were digging in the ground with an excavator to build changing rooms when they suddenly hit the four-by-four meter (13-by-13 foot) Nazi symbol.

The swastika was found in a Hamburg construction site (Photo: AP)

Members of the sports club at the Hein-Kling stadium in the city's Billstedt district told dpa the swastika served as a foundation for a monument that was torn down decades ago. City officials say they want the swastika, which was buried 40 centimeters (1.3 feet) below the ground, gone as quickly as possible. Because it's too heavy to be transported away, they are planning to destroy it with jackhammers.

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Letters and milk jug: Warsaw Ghetto archive goes on display

Letters and other witness accounts of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto—the records of a community destroyed in the Holocaust—have gone on display for the first time.

 

The exhibition, titled "What we were unable to shout out to the world," opened at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw this week. It includes letters, journals, official records and other documents in Polish and Yiddish as well as an old metal jug used to hide documents from the Emanuel Ringelblum archive.

An exhibition opened at a Warsaw museum showcasing documents from the city's ghetto (Photo: AP)

 

Ringelblum, a Jewish historian and social activist, and some 50 to 60 helpers collected the documents during World War II to preserve a record for posterity of Jewish life in the Warsaw ghetto during the German occupation of Poland. They gathered on Saturdays, and came to be known as the Oneg Shabbat, meaning "Joy of the Sabbath."

(Photo: AP)

They hid their trove in 10 metal cases and two metal milk cans, evidence that was recovered after the war.

(Photo: AP)

Ringelblum and all but three of those who helped him were killed in the Holocaust. The Germans imprisoned 400,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, where they suffered severely from starvation and diseases before most were deported to the Treblinka death camp and murdered.

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Paris school room named for Jewish boys slain in 2012 attack

PARIS - A conference room at a Paris middle school has been named in honor of two Jewish boys who were shot to death by an Islamic extremist in southern France more than five years ago.

The dedication of the room in memory of Arie and Gabriel Sandler is part of an effort by the Georges Brassens school to fight racism and anti-Semitism in France, which is home to Europe's biggest Muslim and Jewish populations.

The program seeks to make French values and the country's various religions and cultures more familiar to the school's students, many of whom are Muslim with roots in France's former colonies. It includes visits to the Paris Museum of Jewish art and history and the Arab World Institute.

(Photo: AP)

 Samuel Sandler, whose grandsons were 3 and 5 years old when they were killed during an attack at a Jewish school in Toulouse, said the naming ceremony was a "very moving" moment.

"Because of the murderer's weapon, they weren't able to go to school anymore," he said, yet "all schoolchildren will remember them."

The chilren's grandfather Samuel Sandler speaks at the naming ceremony (Photo: AP)

 The program, called "Humanity," has existed for years but it has been reinforced since a series of attacks by Islamic extremists in 2015 amid a peak of both anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim acts in France. The two teachers who lead the project, Jacqueline Courier-Briere and Nasser Dja Bouabdallah, said their method consists in answering all questions "without taboos" during respectful debates among students who range from 11 to 14 years old. Among the topics addressed are "Is a Muslim allowed in a Catholic church" and the more complex freedom of speech issues that emerged when satiric newspaper Charlie Hebdo was targeted in a deadly attack. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in revenge for Charlie Hebdo's depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.

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Holocaust survivors celebrate Bar and Bat Mitzvah at Kotel

Despite being over 70 years late, dozens of Holocaust survivors from southern Israel celebrated a Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremony at the Western Wall earlier this week.

"We ran away with nothing, only the clothes on our back," said Ravichev Aspir. "My mother told me that in our religion, it's customary for boys and girls to celebrate when they reach that age, but it's not something we could have done."

Holocaust survivors celebrating Bar, Bat Mitzvah at Kotel (Photo: Noam Moskovich)

Aspir was 11 when the war began. "My father was 51, so they did not enlist him in the Red Army," she elaborated. "Together with my mother and brother, who was 17 at the time, we fled to the remote areas of Russia, where the Nazis had not yet invaded. We had nothing, we were hungry all the time, and we lived in a crowded place. I remember most of the time I was just cold and very hungry."

When the time came to celebrate her Bat Mitzvah, her parents could not hold the event. After the end of the war, the family stayed in Russia because their home in the Ukraine was completely destroyed.

(Photo: Noam Moskovich)

  

After completing her studies at the university, Aspir returned with her husband to Ukraine and in 1994 immigrated to Israel with her husband and son. She now lives in Arad. "I am very excited about the event at the Western Wall. Because of such events Israel came to be, and that is what I feel now," said Aspir.

(Photo: Noam Moskovich)

Alexander Buchnik, 87, born in Moscow, was also very excited to finally celebrate his Bar Mitzvah. "I do not remember much of the war. My father was drafted into the Red Army, and we do not know what happened to him to this day," he said. "My mother took me and my two little brothers and escaped from the war.

"When I was 13, Moscow was liberated from the Nazis, and we went back there, but we had no way to celebrate a Bar Mitzvah. Mother was busy surviving and keeping us alive, we could not think about it at all."

Buchnik and his family immigrated to Israel in 1994. "I've been thinking about having a Bar Mitzvah all my life, and all my life I felt like I've missed out on so much," Alexander said. "I am excited and happy; at last I will become a real Jew."

Liebman Semyon, a native of St. Petersburg, was about five years old when the war began. He was in preshool with his two-year-old sister when the authorities came and took the children to a remote city. Their mother joined them at a later stage.

(Photo: Noam Moskovich)

  

"It was absolutely forbidden to talk about Judaism or about having a Bar Mitzvah, so we did not talk or initiate any conversation about it," Semyon recalled. "When I received an ID, they suggested I change my name and that I don't state my nationality in order to hide my identity. I said I did not want to change anything." "This is an amazing surprise and holds great significance for me," he added. "I suddenly feel like a child before a big event. I'm really excited."

(Photo: Noam Moskovich)

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the chairman of the Friendship Foundation, which organized the event, said he "finds it difficult to think of anything more moving than elderly Holocaust survivors who get to celebrate a late Bar and Bat Mitzvah, in the holiest place for the Jewish people."

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation noted this was one of the most special events to take place in the history of the Western Wall.

"The light and darkness here are mixed up, but the hope is absolute, and this is proof that it is never too late," Eckstein added.

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2 ex-Nazi guards indicted for WWII Stutthof camp deaths

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Holocaust survior and prolific writer dies age 94

US Supreme Court Justice to be awarded Genesis Prize

A prominent Jewish organization on Wednesday awarded US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg its first lifetime achievement award.

 

The Genesis Prize Foundation noted Ginsburg's "groundbreaking legal work in the field of civil liberties and women's rights" in its announcement.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is to be awarded the Genesis Prize in 2018 (Photo: AFP)

The foundation sponsors the annual Genesis Prize, an award informally known as the Jewish Nobel. It said the five winners of the Genesis Prize—former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actor Michael Douglas, violinist Itzhak Perlman, sculptor Anish Kapoor and this year's recipient, actress Natalie Portman—had selected Ginsburg. "We honor Justice Ginsburg as an outstanding daughter of the Jewish people who made an enduring contribution to human civilization, who is an example of talent and achievement and who is committed to bettering the world," the five said in a joint statement. "She is a source of inspiration not just for Jews but for people of all faiths and ethnicities around the world."

Ginsburg, 84, has served on the Supreme Court since 1993. She is just the second female justice and often cites her Jewish heritage as a source for her love of learning and sensitivity to the plight of oppressed minorities.

Previous winners Michael Douglas (L) and Michael Bloomberg selected Bader Ginsburg to receive the lifetime achievement award (Photo: Genesis Prize Foundation)

Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak is scheduled to present the award to Ginsburg at a ceremony in Tel Aviv in July 2018. The Genesis Prize was inaugurated in 2014 and is run in a partnership between the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, the private Genesis Prize Foundation and the chairman's office of the Jewish Agency, a nonprofit group with close ties to the Israeli government. It is funded by a $100 million endowment established by the foundation.

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Protestors in 60,000-person Polish rally call to 'remove Jews from power'

Tens of thousands of nationalists marched in a demonstration organized by far-right groups in Warsaw Saturday, as white supremacist Poles celebrating Independence Day chanted xenophobic slogans.

The far-right march was one of many events marking Poland’s rebirth as a nation in 1918 after being wiped off the map for 123 years. Earlier in the day, President Andrzej Duda presided over state ceremonies also attended by European Union president Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister.

But the march has become the largest Independence Day event in recent years, overshadowing official state observances and other patriotic events. Some participants expressed sympathy for xenophobic or white supremacist ideas, with one banner reading, “White Europe of brotherly nations.”

(Photo: EPA)

Participants marched under the slogan “We Want God,” words from an old Polish religious song that US President Donald Trump quoted during a visit to Warsaw earlier this year. Speakers spoke of standing against liberals and defending Christian values.”

Many carried the national white-and-red flag as others set off flares and firecrackers, filling the air with red smoke. Some also carried banners depicting a falanga, a far-right symbol dating to the 1930s.

Police estimated that 60,000 people took part. Many were young men, some with their faces covered or with beer bottles in hand, but families and older Poles also participated.

The march has become one of the largest such demonstration in Europe, and on Saturday it drew far-right leaders from elsewhere in Europe, including Tommy Robinson from Britain and Roberto Fiore from Italy.

(Photo: Reuters)

  

State broadcaster TVP, which reflects the conservative government’s line, called it a “great march of patriots,” and in its broadcasts described the event as one that drew mostly regular Poles expressing their love of Poland, not extremists; though one participant in the far-right march interviewd by the channel said he was taking part “to remove Jewry from power.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that some of the protesters chanted "pure white Europe—no Jews, no Muslims" and "purify Poland." 

“It was a beautiful sight,” Interior Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said. “We are proud that so many Poles have decided to take part in a celebration connected to the Independence Day holiday.”

Far-right march on Poland's Independence Day (Photo: AP)

A smaller counter-protest by an anti-fascist movement also took place, drawing about 2,000 participants. Organizers kept the two groups apart to prevent violence. However, there was one incident in which the nationalists pushed and kicked several women who chanted anti-fascism slogans and had a banner saying “Stop Fascism.” Independence Day marks Poland regaining its sovereignty at the end of World War I after being partitioned and ruled since the late 18th century by Russia, Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Duda oversaw ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, walking past a military guard before the raising of the flags and cannon salutes. After delivering a speech he took part in a wreath-laying ceremony, kneeling and crossing himself at the monument to all unknown soldiers killed fighting for the country.

  

(Photo: EPA)

Tusk, who attended at Duda’s invitation, also paid his respects at the monument.

Ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski noted that Poland has not always been fully independent since 1918, a reference to Germany’s occupation during World War II and the decades spent under Moscow’s direction during the Cold War. Still, he said: “The Polish state was internationally recognized the whole time and that is a great achievement.”

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Prince Charles letter urges US to confront the 'Jewish lobby'

Prince Charles has come under attack following revelations that he penned a letter advocating for the US administration to “take on the Jewish lobby” and attributing unrest in the Middle East to “the influx of foreign Jews,” according to reports first published in The Mail on Sunday.

In the letter written to a close friend, Laurens van der Post in 1986, the prince highlights the exodus of European Jewry over the course of the 20th century as a phenomenon that "helped to cause the great problems."

Prince Charles (Photo: MCT)

The missive was written following the conclusion of an official visit by the prince and his late wife Princess Diana to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. Sharing with van der Post that he had “learned a lot about the Middle East Arab outlook” during his travels, and delighting in trying “to read a bit of the Koran,” the prince adds “I now begin to understand better their (Arabs’) point of view about Israel. Never realised they see it as a US colony. “I now appreciate that Arabs and Jews were all a Semitic people originally and it is the influx of foreign, European Jews (especially from Poland, they say) which has helped to cause great problems,” the prince wrote at age 38. He then goes on to suggest that the Jewish influx is the cause of terrorism, which can only be stopped when it comes to an end. “I know there are so many complex issues, but how can there ever be an end to terrorism unless the causes are eliminated?” he asks. “Surely some US president has to have the courage to stand up and take on the Jewish lobby in US? I must be naive, I suppose!” The terms “Jewish lobby” is often considered to be inherently anti-Semitic due to the negative connotations it carries with roots in traditional forms of Jew-hatred, depicting an avaricious conspiracy influencing world powers and pulling the strings of international politics. While Prince Charles has never publicly espoused anti-Semitic views, his views on Israel have been called into question. According to a diplomatic source quoted in the Mail Online, at the time of writing the letter “the Prince had in American terms and international terms, fairly dodgy views on Israel. He thinks American policy in the Middle East is complete madness.” By contrast, the Mail Online article details Prince Charles’s warm relations with the Arab world and general propensity among members of the Royal Family to avoid irritating Arab countries by being seen in any way to cosy up to Israel.

Prince Charles during his visit to Bahrain (Photo: AP)

Suspicions of the Royal Family’s adversity to Israel is further underpinned by the fact that not a single member has ever paid an official visit to the 69-year-old country. This year, the prince was scheduled to break the pattern by visiting Israel to mark 100 years since the Balfour Declaration, committing the UK to the establishment of Jewish home in Palestine. Following intervention from the Foreign Office however, citing negative implications vis-a-vis UK-Arab relations, the trip was scribbled off the prince’s itinerary.

 

After the letter surfaced, a Clarence House (the royal residence in London) spokesperson attempted to distance the prince from the views expressed in the letter.

They were “not The Prince’s own views”, but instead reflected the opinions of those he met on his trip.

“The letter clearly states that these were not The Prince’s own views about Arab-Israeli issues but represented the opinions of some of those he met during his visit which he was keen to interrogate,” the statement said.

“He was sharing the arguments in private correspondence with a long standing friend in an attempt to improve his understanding of what he has always recognised is a deeply complex issue to which he was coming early on in his own analysis in 1986.

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Satmar Hasidic group founds new NY town

The residents of Monroe, New York decided Kiryas Joel, the village within Monroe comprising the seat of the ultra-Orthodox Satmar Hasidic group, will break off and become a town unto its own called Palm Tree, effectively creating the United States' first Haredi town.

 

The village was originally named after the Hasidic group's first Grand Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, and the town will also commemorate the late leader, this time using his last name of Teitelbaum, which is German for "date palm tree."

A Satmar follower votes on creating the new town

 

The anti-Zionist Satmar group's founding rabbi founded his followers' first habitat some 45 years ago, after their original Brooklyn domicile proved insufficient, but also due to fears of external influencing swaying the closed-off Haredi community.

Monroe residents celebrate the results

Now the township will be breaking off on its own, with 84 percent of Monroe's residents supporting the split in a referendum held this past Tuesday in the city. As part of the new town's creation, thousands of miles will be appended to Palm Tree's municipal territory, to be taken from existing nearby neighborhoods.

The Satmar Grand Rebbe writing New York's governor to officially petition him to create the new town

Palm Tree's newfound independence will come with a price tag: the Haredi community will have to operate all attendant municipal services on its own, including garbage collection, policing, fire fighting and rescue services.

The Satmar group will also have to begin issuing building permits, oversee sanitation services, collect municipal taxes, income taxes and sales taxes and operate welfare services.

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Indonesian museum removes Nazi-themed exhibit after outrage

An Indonesian museum that allowed visitors to take selfies with a life-size wax sculpture of Hitler against a backdrop of Auschwitz concentration camp has removed the exhibit following international outrage, the manager said Saturday.

 

De ARCA Statue Art Museum in the Javanese city of Jogjakarta drew swift condemnation from rights groups after details of the controversial display were published in foreign media. The exhibit features a sure-footed Hitler standing in front of a huge photo of the gates of Auschwitz—the largest Nazi concentration camp where more than 1.1 million people were killed.

Visitor taking a selfie with the sculpture of Hitler (Photo: AFP)

The museum’s operations manager, Jamie Misbah, said the wax sculpture had been removed after the building was alerted to criticism from prominent Jewish human rights organization the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “We don’t want to attract outrage,” Misbah told AFP. “Our purpose to display the Hitler figure in the museum is to educate.” The Hitler sculpture is one of about 80 figures, including world leaders and celebrities, at the wax and visual effects centre. The Nazi-themed exhibit was a popular attraction for visitors to take selfies, and photos circulating on social media show customers—including children—posing with Hitler and in some cases using the Nazi salute.

(Photo: AP)

Misbah said he thought it was “normal’ for visitors to take photos in front of displays, but said the museum respected the exhibit had upset people from around the world. Historians have blamed poor schooling for the lack of awareness and sensitivity about the Holocaust in Indonesia, which is home to the world’s biggest Muslim population and a small number of Jews. In January, a controversial Nazi-themed cafe in the western Javanese city of Bandung closed. The venue, which featured swastika-bearing walls and photos of Hitler, sparked global uproar when reports about the unusual venue surfaced several years ago.

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Fresh face visits the Kotel

Worshipers at the Western Wall plaza on Thursday were amazed to see Hollywood star Will Smith, 49, admiring the holy site after arriving in Israel for a unannounced and surprising visit that lasted only four hours.

 

 

Smith landed in Israel after finishing shooting for his role as the Genie in the upcoming live-action version of "Aladdin," one of Disney's biggest productions. The filming took place in London, but in the past ten days the production has been filmed in Jordan.

Will Smith, at the Kotel (Photo: The Western Wall Heritage Foundation)

Smith and his son Jaden strengthened their ties with Israel recently when they founded a company called Just Goods Inc., which offers fair trade, US made, recycled and green products, such as water in eco-friendly recyclable cartons, and hired Israeli Ira Laufer to head it.

"Will enjoyed it when he was in Israel a year and a half ago," said Laufer, adding: "He wanted to go back together with the production crew and his eldest son Ace (Trey Smith) to visit the holy sites." Among investors in the new company are quite a few prominent figures, including Queen Latifah, Tiger Woods, DJ Calvin Harris, Lionel Richie and others. "Even the investors were swept by the idea. Not necessarily because they expect to see a return on their investment, but because they realized he was really doing something important."

The Israeli connection was further expanded last week, when the company's products were re-launched in a unique program led by PlayGround, whose founder is Israel-born Guy Poreh, one of the world's most prominent figures in advertising.

"It wasn’t a given that we would be privileged to work with such a company, such people and on such an important and great mission," Poreh said. "I would like to believe that a lot behind our choosing stemmed from our ability as Israelis to make things happen against all odds, especially here in the US, and we plan to do it big."

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Russian tycoon funds digitizing Jewish manuscript collection

A Russian Muslim billionaire is funding an Israeli project to digitize a major collection of Jewish manuscripts seized by the Soviets a century ago and held by the Russian state library, Israeli officials said Tuesday.

 

On the 100th anniversary of Russia's October Revolution, Israel's National Library and the Russian State Library announced an agreement to digitize the Gunzburg collection's 2,000 manuscripts.

Russian tycoon Ziyavudin Magomedov funded the collection's digitization project (Photo: AP)

 The project was made possible by an undisclosed "generous donation" from Russian oligarch Ziyavudin Magomedov's Peri Foundation. The 49-year-old energy and shipping magnate is Russia's 58th-wealthiest person, with an estimated worth of $1.5 billion, according to Forbes. His foundation has financed heritage projects across Russia, particularly in his native Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic. But it has never undertaken a project of Jewish interest.

Magomedov said his organization has financed conservation efforts for Eastern Orthodox, Muslim, and now Jewish heritage projects.

Item from the Gunzburg collection (Photo: Reuters)

"I think it's important for the whole cultural world, for preservation," he said, emphasizing the importance of "soft power" in the modern world. The Russian State Library's Gunzburg collection includes over 2,000 manuscripts and thousands of printed volumes, including biblical texts, Talmuds, rabbinic interpretations, and philosophical treatises by Aristotle, Averroes, Maimonides, Al-Ghazali and others. Baron David Gunzburg, a Jewish-Russian aristocrat, amassed one of the largest and most important collections of Jewish manuscripts before his death in 1910.

Photo: Reuters

His wife agreed to sell the books to the forerunner of Israel's national library in Jerusalem in May 1917 for the princely sum of 500,000 rubles. The outbreak of the Russian Revolution prevented delivery of the books, which were seized by Soviet authorities and placed in Russia's state library. "The collection was supposed to come to the national library a century ago," said David Blumberg, chairman of the National Library of Israel. "The Soviet revolution disrupted that matter. The Soviets nationalized the collection." Since then, Soviet and Russian governments have refused to release the collection, despite diplomatic appeals by Zionist leaders and the Israeli government. Once digitized, the Gunzburg collection's books will be available online at the National Library of Israel's digital manuscript archive, which was launched earlier this year.

Photo: Reuters

Ze'ev Elkin, Israel's minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage, said the agreement was a small amount of "historical justice," despite the fact that the manuscripts will remain in Moscow. "We are dreaming about it, but even this stage is very important for us," he said.

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Natalie Portman honored in Israel with 'Jewish Nobel Prize'

Natalie Portman has been awarded Israel's 2018 Genesis Prize in recognition of her commitment to social causes and deep connection to her Jewish and Israeli roots, organizers of the prize announced on Tuesday.

The $1 million award, known as "the Jewish Nobel Prize," is granted each year to a person recognized as an inspiration to the next generation of Jews through professional achievement and commitment to Jewish values.

The Oscar-winning actress said she was "deeply touched and humbled" by the recognition.

Natalie Portman

"I am proud of my Israeli roots and Jewish heritage. They are crucial parts of who I am," she said in a statement released by the organizers. She said she would use the prize money to "make a difference in the lives of women in Israel and beyond." Portman was born in Israel and moved to the United States as a young girl, evolving from a child actress into a widely acclaimed A-list star. She won the 2011 Best Actress Academy Award for her work in "Black Swan," and in 2015, she directed and starred in "Tale of Love and Darkness," a Hebrew-language film made in Israel based on an Amos Oz novel. The Genesis Prize noted Portman's social activism in areas such as gender equality, combating poverty, microfinance and animal rights. "She exemplifies the core traits of the Jewish character and values of the Jewish people -- persistence and hard work, pursuit of excellence, intellectual curiosity, and a heartfelt desire to contribute to make the world a better place," said Stan Polovets, co-founder and chairman of the prize's foundation. He called her a "role model" for millions of young Jews worldwide. The foundation said Portman's award money would go to a number of women's causes, promoting education, economic advancement, health and political participation. It said a "significant portion" of the funds would advance women's equality in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to present the award to Portman at a ceremony in Jerusalem next June. The Genesis Prize was inaugurated in 2014 and is run in a partnership between the Israeli prime minister's office, the private Genesis Prize Foundation and the chairman's office of the Jewish Agency, a nonprofit group with close ties to the Israeli government. It is funded by a $100 million endowment established by the foundation. Portman is the fifth winner and first woman to receive the prize. Previous recipients included former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actor Michael Douglas, violinist Itzhak Perlman and sculptor Anish Kapoor.

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Historic Jewish quarter of Marrakesh sees revival

MARRAKESH—The once teeming Jewish area of Moroccan tourist gem Marrakesh is seeing its fortunes revived as visitors including many from Israel flock to experience its unique culture and history. “You’re now entering the last synagogue in the mellah,” the walled Jewish quarter in the heart of the ochre city, Isaac Ohayon says as he enthusiastically guides tourists in the courtyard of the Lazama synagogue. “Many visitors come from Israel—you wouldn’t believe the demand!” adds the jovial 63-year-old hardware shop owner.

Moroccan Jews and Israeli Jewish tourists participate in Simchat Torah festivities at a synagogue in Marrakesh (Photo: AFP)

This place of worship and study was built originally in 1492 during the Inquisition when the Jews were driven out of Spain. Known as the “synagogue of the exiles,” it hosted generations of young Berbers who converted to Judaism and were sent from villages in the region to learn the Torah, before finally being deserted in the 1960s. In classrooms now transformed into a museum, fading color photographs tell the story of a now-dispersed community, with many having left for France, North America and especially Israel. The caption on one sepia shot of an old man sitting by a pile of trunks says it all: “They are traveling toward a dream they have prayed for for more than 2,000 years.”

A Moroccan Jewish man looks out his window at the street below from his house in the ‘mellah’ Jewish quarter of the Medina in Marrakesh (Photo: AFP)

Rebecca is now in her 50s and grew up in Paris, but she has “great nostalgia” for Morocco and returns as often as she can. “The Jewish Agency began recruiting the poorest in the 1950s and then everyone left after independence (from France), at the time of King Hassan II’s policy of Arabization,” she says. The Jewish Agency of Israel is a semi-official organization that oversees immigration to the country.

A view of a street in the ‘mellah’ Jewish quarter (Photo: AFP)

Before the wave of departures, Morocco hosted North Africa’s largest Jewish community, estimated at between 250,000 and 300,000 people.

There are fewer than 3,000 left, according to unofficial figures. Marrakesh at the foot of the Atlas mountain range was home to more than 50,000 Jews, according to a 1947 census. Now, 70 years later, around 100 are thought to remain, many of them extremely elderly.

Before the wave of departures, Morocco hosted North Africa’s largest Jewish community

Jewish-owned homes inside the mellah were sold to Muslim families of modest means, and the walls of the district were eroded by time. “Sometimes we can’t get even 10 men together for prayers,” says one woman worshipper at the old synagogue, preferring to remain anonymous. But at celebrations marking the end of the festival of Sukkot, which commemorates the Jewish journey through the Sinai after their exodus from Egypt, and the Simchat Torah holiday, the place is buzzing with song, dance and traditional dishes. The worshipper says she has “never seen so many people” there. Jacob Assayag, 26, proudly calls himself “the last young Jew in Marrakesh.” “Since the quarter was restored, there have been more and more tourists,” says the restaurateur and singer.

Moroccan Jews and Israeli tourists participate in a religious ceremony to observe Sukkot at a synagogue in the ‘mellah’ (Photo: AFP)

A restoration project begun just over two years ago has already seen 17.5 million euros ($20.5 million) spent.

Ferblantiers Square, a large pedestrian area near the spice souk lined with benches and palm trees where tourist buses gather, also benefited from the revamp.

 

Twenty years ago, the quarter was renamed “Salaam (’peace’ in Arabic),” but this year saw its original “El Mellah” name restored on the orders of King Mohamed VI “to preserve its historic memory” and develop tourism.

The streets with their ochre facades once more bear their names on plaques in Hebrew: the synagogue, for example, is on Talmud Torah Street.

There is much to see inside the mellah.

(Photo: AFP)

Camera-toting tourists snap vigorously at shopfronts and the carved wooden doorways of houses in the quarter. “Many people come every year from Israel for the (Jewish) holidays, and this year has seen even more, maybe 50,000,” says Israeli tourist guide David, leading a group from Tel Aviv via Malaga in Spain on an eight-day trip. “I feel at home in Morocco because I was born here,” adds the 56-year-old from the port of Ashdod just north of the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip.

His parents left Marrakesh in the 1960s, when David was just four years old, “because they were Zionists.”

Around 100 Jews are thought to remain in Marrakesh, many of them extremely elderly (Photo: AFP)

Ohayon says visitors from the Jewish state are often bowled over by Marrakesh. “Moroccan Jews can’t forget their homeland and Israelis who come here for the first time find the spirit of tolerance here almost unbelievable when they themselves live under constant tension,” he says. Officially, Morocco has neither diplomatic nor economic ties with Israel, as this is a sensitive topic. Just two Arab states, Egypt and Jordan, have signed peace treaties with the Jewish state. But in reality, there are few obstacles to both business and tourism.

Moroccan media reports say commercial exchanges between the two countries this year have amounted to more than four million dollars a month.

The kingdom, seen as a safe destination, recorded a more than 10 percent rise in tourist arrivals between January and August this year over 2016, with eight million visitors.

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