Jewish cemetery in Poland turned into parking lot

Human remains from an old Jewish burial ground in eastern Poland have been dug up and dumped in an empty lot to make way for the construction of an electrical substation and a parking lot, authorities said Thursday.

Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich described the excavation as the worst desecration of a Jewish cemetery he has seen during the 17 years he has been a rabbi in the country.

Man holding human remains removed from an old Jewish cemetery and dumped in huge mounds in Siemiatycze, Poland to make way for the construction of a supermarket, parking lot and an electrical transformer station (Photo: AP)

Jewish religious law holds that bodies should only be disturbed once they are buried under limited circumstances, such as saving lives. A day after visiting the construction site in Siemiatycze, a small town that was about 60 percent Jewish before World War II, Schudrich showed The Associated Press photos of large mounds of earth with human bones, including a large part of a human skull. "This is a full-out scandal," the rabbi, who originally is from New York, said. "Sometimes people can do something by mistake and could not realize they are seeing bones, but skulls are hard to miss." An official with the local authorities, Bogumila Kazimierczak, insisted that the building work did not take place on the grounds of the Jewish cemetery, but on already developed land that is managed by an automobile association. The mayor's office had no information indicating construction there should be prohibited, Kazimierczak said.

Human remains removed and dumped in mounds (Photo: AP)

Schudrich disputes that, saying the land in question was part of the old cemetery. He said that while another part of the cemetery owned by the state was returned to the Jewish community after the fall of communism in Poland, the area in question was not because it was private property. The rabbi said he warned local authorities that it was holy ground and asked them to inform him if there was ever a request to build there. "I went there three or four years ago and I told them that if you put a shovel in the ground, you are going to find bones," Schudrich said. Prosecutors have opened an investigation.

The new parking lot (Photo: AP)

Only 70 of the 7,000 Jews estimated to have been living in Siemiatycze on the eve of World War II survived the Holocaust, and none are believed to living there now, Schudrich said. "This is a very egregious violation of the final resting place of the Jews of this town," Gideon Taylor, co-chair of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, said. Poland, which was home to Europe's largest Jewish community before the Holocaust, has more than 1,000 Jewish cemeteries across Poland. In most cases no Jewish communities are left to look after them, Taylor said. "It's essential that local authorities protect them because there is no local Jewish voice to protect the memory of those who died," Taylor said.

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Little-known face of famed Nazi hunters shown in Paris

Their heroic quest to bring down fugitive Nazis such as the so-called "Butcher of Lyon" is widely known. But there's more—a lot more—to the steely, yet unassuming, married duo of Nazi hunters Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, and a new exhibition in Paris is looking to tell that tale.

The French capital's Shoah Memorial is this week hosting the world's first-ever exhibition into their story. Using personal archives, including previously unseen video, "Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, Fighters for Memory" seeks to explain the couple's fight to a new generation. It opens Thursday and runs until April 29.

New Paris exhibits showcases the life of Nazi hunting couple Beate (L) and Serge Klarsfeld (Photo: AP)

 The aim of the exhibition, say the organizers, is to show how Beate, 78, and Serge, 82, did much more than hunt Nazis, as is often portrayed in the media and in a 1986 film starring the late Farrah Fawcett. Notably, the devoted husband and wife team, married since 1963, played a pivotal role in understanding the horrors of the Final Solution in occupied France. "Yes, parts of their story are known," curator Olivier Lalieu said. "But we are showing that they are not just Nazi hunters ... Serge is a historian and pioneer in the writing about the persecution of Jews. They added much to our understanding of what happened during the Holocaust." The exhibition's timing was chosen carefully, coming five decades since Beate gained international attention for exposing the Nazi ties of West German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger in 1968, and four decades after the publishing of Serge's book, "Memorial of the Deportation of French Jews."

(Photo: AP)

 Objects steeped in memory add fresh color to their story—such as the lock that Beate used to chain herself to a La Paz bench in a famed 1972 protest against the "Butcher of Lyon," Klaus Barbie, who had fled Europe, changed identity and sought protection by the then Bolivian dictatorship. After the fall of the regime, Barbie was finally extradited to France in 1983, where he was convicted of crimes against humanity. The exhibition also seeks to shed light on the personal dimension to Serge Klarsfeld's fight against impunity for perpetrators of the Holocaust. A French Jew, he managed to escape the Gestapo in Nice in 1943. His father, Arno, was captured and deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where he died. During an interview with The Associated Press, Serge Klarsfeld solemnly located his father's name on the wall at the Shoah Memorial. It lists the names of 76,000 Jews who were deported from France as part of the Nazi plan to eradicate Jews of Europe.

"We must continue fighting every day," he said.

 

(Photo: AP)

The couple hopes that future generations can take something away from their activism against extremism and hatred and quell the rise of the far right. "Young people will perhaps find an example in what we did, hopefully in this retrospective," Serge said. With youthful fire in her eyes, Beate warned against complacency, pointing to the recent successes of nationalist parties in France, Germany and other places in Europe, particularly in the east.

(Photo: AP)

 "The young people have to engage themselves," she said. "They can take this message from our actions, in the photos. We had the strength to do it. If the young people have the strength? I don't know. I hope." As for the media attention, they're used to it following the movies, a myriad of documentaries and a swathe of articles. The real emotion, according to Serge, is being present at the Shoah Memorial and alongside the millions of documents it houses that the Nazi hunting couple relied on to carry out their decades-long investigations and protests around the world.

 

(Photo: AP)

Those archives, bristling with vital information, helped the Klarsfelds—among other things—bring justice to former Nazis Kurt Lischka, Herbert Hagen and Ernst Heinrichsohn who were convicted in the German city of Cologne in 1980 over the deportation and murder of 40,000 French Jews. 

"We always paid homage to the Memorial because they helped us with archives. And today, it is the memorial that pays homage to us when we are old," Serge said, looking to his wife.

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Living history: Rabbi Steinsaltz’s archive comes to light

About a year after being rushed to hospital in serious condition following a stroke, Rabbi Adin Even-Yisrael Steinsaltz—considered one of the greatest minds of our generation in Israel and worldwide—is still recovering.

In honor of his 80th birthday, the Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications, which he founded in 1965, is opening up its archives and bringing to light his extensive correspondence with top Israeli leaders throughout the generations, as well as scholars and statesmen from around the world, revealing a little of Israeli history.

Rabbi Steinsaltz with late President Peres. ‘A quality stamp on the Jewish people’s ways of life’

Organized in chronological order, the letters uncover the rabbi’s comprehensive relationship with different people who supported his life’s work—the Talmud’s translation into Hebrew, which received the name “The Steinsaltz Talmud," the Lubavitcher Rebbe, prime ministers (from David Ben-Gurion to Benjamin Netanyahu), international figures (like former French President Jacques Chirac) and intellectuals and religious figures (like Nobel Prize Laureate Shmuel Agnon, Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and others). In fact, the impressive gallery of names includes almost every significant Israeli public figure (as well as international figures). The correspondences point to different leaders’ deep appreciation of the 80-year-old rabbi’s work over the years.

Rabbi Adin Even Yisrael Steinsaltz was born to a secular family in Jerusalem in 1937. As a teenager, he decided to become religious and joined the Chabad movement. After studying chemistry and physics at the Hebrew University, he worked as a school principal. He holds a degree in mathematics too.

New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s letter to Rabbi Steinsaltz in 1994

Later on, the rabbi decided to focus on writing many diverse books on Judaism. The highlight was “The Steinsaltz Edition,” a Hebrew translation and commentaries on the 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud. His comprehensive work won him the Israel Prize for Jewish studies in 1988, as well as the President’s Prize in 2012. He gained international recognition too. Time Magazine referred to him as “A once-in-a-millennium scholar,” and he was considered to have a particularly close relationship with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who was the subject of his book “My Rebbe.” A moment before completing his monumental commentary of the Bible, he suffered a stroke, which he is still recovering from.

A letter from Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, in 1962. ‘The partition between religious and secular is artificial’

At the Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications, which is now headed by his son, Rabbi Menachem Even-Yisrael, I received a plastic folder which encompasses a glorious history. It starts with a simple notebook page on which David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, wrote his opinion on contemporary Israeli Judaism in 1962: “We must foster more mutual tolerance among our people, and accept the fact (which isn’t new, but has existed in my opinion since our very first day) that there are different opinions on spiritual matters, and bestow upon the entire young generation the recognition of the history of our people and its creation in all stages of its development.” As for the division between “religious” and “secular,” he added that “this distinction between Jews is not, as far as I know, part of the spirit of Judaism.”

The collection includes documents pointing to tight relationships on both sides of the Israeli political spectrum, with letters from late Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin lying side by side.

In his letter, Rabin wrote: “The ‘interpreted Talmud’ opens the gates of Talmud to anyone wishing to study.” He expressed his hope that “this work will expand and deepen the unity among the Jewish people in Israel and in the Diaspora.”

With the Lubavitcher Rebbe

President Shimon Peres wrote, “I would like to congratulate you for the publication of the 25th volume of the Babylonian Talmud. You belong to a handful of people who, through their actions, place a stamp of quality on the Jewish people’s way of life.” In the minutes from his institute’s foundation in 1965, Rabbi Steinsaltz presented his doctrine to the advisory committee members, explaining that the goal of the project was not just to translate and understand the Talmud, but also to impart the Talmudic “ways of thinking.” As he put it, “The problem of studying the Talmud is not in parroting back information studied by others. The essence of the matter is that a person enters what is called ‘the sea of Talmud’ and learns how to swim in it. In other words, the Talmud requires a familiar type of identification with the course of events, with the lines in it, with its ways of thinking, of taking the road of negotiations.”

With late President Zalman Shazar and late Knesset Speaker Kadish Luz

Late Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, who headed the institute during his time in office, even asked other “public figures, activists and intellectuals” to join. In his letter, he stated that “the punctuated text with the full translation from Aramaic, with his commentaries and scientific explanations, are all an important asset for the textbooks of the Jewish people’s writings. Such a publication can facilitate in bringing people closer and attracting anyone interested in these treasures.”

While the initiative was highly appreciated by the religious and secular public, the ultra-Orthodox sector reacted with a public boycott and even slurs. One of the main opponents was Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach, the unshakable leader of the Lithuanian-Haredi community.

Eventually, however, the Haredim gave in and began creating their own versions of the Talmud with translations and interpretations. In fact, they introduced as many as 16 different imitation versions making the Talmudic text more accessible to those who are unfamiliar with it, but the boycott on the rabbi and his work remained unchanged.

French President Jacques Chirac expressed his admiration for the rabbi in a letter from 1994

Below the surface, however, the exchange of letters indicates he had close friendships with people in the Haredi public as well, like Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and other prominent rabbis, whose letters offer a different narrative. Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, for example, referred to the translation volumes as “a valuable asset and a treasure trove.”

Prime Minister Levi Eshkol hoped to turn the rabbi’s work into an Israeli asset

Israel’s former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau had a lot of appreciation for the rabbi too, as did Rabbi Mordechai Yehudah Leib Sachs, who rushed to issue a letter of support in response to the resistance in the Lithuanian circles. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, who was considered the greatest “posek” (a legal scholar who decides the Halacha) in the United States, expressed his public support for the translation project in several letters.

"The general motto of Father’s entire life’s work was very clear,” says Rabbi Menachem Even-Yisrael. “It’s more important for people to know what they’re doing than how they do it. The goal is knowledge.

With late Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti

“Today people talk about religionization and all that. An organization like ours should have taken the lead on that issue. The goal wasn’t to make people become religious, but to make the Jewish world of knowledge more accessible. Father took a book like the Talmud and made it accessible. “I would like to quote my grandfather, who said it was better to be agnostic than ignorant. This is a state with a Jewish character, let’s say even pluralistic, but what does that actually mean? What is the meaning of this identity? They will tell you to your face: I don’t know.”

Rabbi Menachem Even-Yisrael with his father. ‘Get to know your culture’

Rabbi Even-Yisrael advises all those who are against instilling Jewish knowledge to “simply learn, without being afraid that the child will become religious tomorrow morning. The Jewish folklore, the Sacrifice of Isaac story, is not a religious story. At least get to know your culture. “I was in Rome a couple of weeks ago, and everyone knows where the Colosseum or the Vatican are. Ask an Israeli for the Western Wall’s location, and he’ll tell you it’s in Jerusalem. But have you been there? And where is the Valley of Megiddo, do you know? It’s an amazing place, filled with important events. Knowledge is an important thing, and in the new generation of Israelis it’s super important, because the question being asked is ‘why am I here?’ And many people simply don’t have an answer. Why, actually?”

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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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