Tunisian synagogue set on fire by Molotov cocktails

Two Molotov cocktails were hurled at a small synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba late Tuesday, setting fire to the building.

 

The Molotov cocktails were thrown from the roof into the yard of the synagogue, which is located in al-Hara al-Kabira ("the Big Quarter"). The firebombs hit palm tree leaves—apparently leftovers from Sukkot—which caught on fire.

A reporter at the scene told the AP the synagogue was empty and the fire was quickly extinguished.

 

Some damage was caused to the structure but no one was hurt, the head of the local Jewish community, Perez Trabelsi, told Reuters on Wednesday.

In recent days, violent protests over price hikes have left one person dead and raised fears of broader unrest in the country that was the birthplace of the Arab Spring, with police arresting more than 200 people, witnesses and the interior ministry said.

While there were no protests in Djerba, locals said the assailants had exploited the fact that there was a reduced security presence as police were busy combating anti-government protests elsewhere in the North African state.

"Unknown people took the opportunity of the protests and threw Molotov cocktails into the lobby of a Jewish religious school in Djerba," Trabelsi said.

At the time of the attack, violent clashes were raging in some 20 Tunisian cities as people protested against rising prices and new taxes imposed by on January 1.

About 50 policemen were wounded in the clashes, said Interior Ministry spokesman Khelifa Chibani.

"Last night criminals looted and burned security centers, 45 police cars were torched and some government offices were attacked," he said. "They blocked roads and carried out robberies in many cities ... Obviously, these are not protests, but theft and damage to public and private property."

Mainly Muslim Tunisia has a Jewish minority of fewer than 1,100 people, many of them (300-500) in Djerba.  Jews have lived in Tunisia for over 2,000 years and Djerba is home to Africa's oldest synagogue, El Ghriba, which was hit by al Qaeda-linked militants in 2002 in a truck bomb attack that killed 21 people including Western tourists.

Itamar Eichner contributed to this report.

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Jewish kids in Yemen receive humanitarian aid

The hardships caused by the civil war in Yemen have affected the small Jewish community remaining in the country as well.

 

Most Yemenite Jews fled the country after the establishment of the State of Israel, but reports indicate 67 Jews remain in the war-torn country, including 17 families.

 

(Photo: EPA)

(Photo: EPA)

The Jews live in an enclosed compound in the capital Sana'a, under the protection of the Yemenite army. They recently received humanitarian aid by a local organization funded by a British charity. The organization says that the community received aid packages at least five times.

In the past, the charity has assisted the Jewish community including when they faced floods in the Amran and Al Hudaydah regions in 2016.

(Photo: EPA)

(Photo: EPA)

(Photo: EPA)

The civil war in Yemen began in 2014 when Shiite-affiliated Houthi rebels took over Sana'a. The situation has deteriorated in recent months. According to international aid organizations, the severe limitations on aid delivery are leading the poor country towards a catastrophic famine.

The country's woes are compounded by the recent land-crossings and seaports closures imposed by Saudi Arabia after missiles were fired from Yemen at their country. Facing international pressure, the Saudis agreed to lift the sea and land blockade to allow delivery of humanitarian aid.

(Photo: EPA)

(Photo: EPA)

Some 8.4 million Yemenis are in danger of starvation and more than a million have contracted cholera. The United Nations warns that the humanitarian crisis in Yemen is the most severe in the world. At least 10,000 citizens have been killed in the war.

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Fire at French kosher market targeted by anti-Jewish vandals

A fire broke out Tuesday at a kosher market south of Paris that was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti last week, French officials said.

No one was reported injured but the fire damaged much of the Promo & Stock store.

Authorities are checking to see if the fire is linked to last week's vandalism (Photo: AP)

Authorities believe the fire in the suburb of Creteil was a criminal act because the store's protective shutters had been forced open, Antoine Besme of the regional prosecutor's office told The Associated Press.

He said a preliminary investigation was opened and authorities were checking to see if the fire is linked to last week's vandalism.

Albert Elharrar, president of the Creteil Jewish community, told the AP the manager of the shop is Muslim.

"That shows the spirit of the city of Creteil where the Jewish community lives," he said.

People walk in the kosher market after the fire (Photo: AP)

The fire also raised concerns because it broke out three years after a deadly Islamic extremist attack on a kosher market in Paris.

On January 9, 2015, Islamic extremist Amedy Coulibaly killed four people during a hostage-taking at a kosher supermarket in Paris. That took place one day after he killed a policewoman in a southern suburb of the capital and two days after his associates, brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, killed 11 people at a newspaper office in Paris and a policeman on a nearby street.

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Trilingual song to be sung at UN for International Holocaust Remembrance Day

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, three Israeli performers will sing a stirring song in Hebrew, English and Arabic, dedicated to the catastrophe's survivors, at a United Nations (UN) ceremony marking the somber day.

 

"And a million eyes are gazing at me now, I am the last one left to tell (the story)," go the lyrics of the song "The Last Survivor", written by Moshe Klughaft and composed by Amir Benayoun, who will be joining Miri Mesika and David D'Or onstage in singing the song.

"Every day, some 40 Holocaust survivors die in Israel, and this song declares their desire—to never cease sharing their account," said Klughaft, the song's writer. "While writing it, I imagined a future reality in which there will only be one Jew left alive who experienced the Holocaust. The song was written with him in mind."

Amir Benayoun

The UN ceremony will be attended by ambassadors from all over the world as well as Holocaust survivors in honor of International International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which correlates to the liberation of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. It also marks 30 years since the Walk of Life event was initiated. Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon, who invited the singing delegation to the event, said, "Especially at the UN, where we are exposed to modern anti-Semitism, there is a need to declare loud and clear: never again!" In the words of the song's composer, Amir Benayoun, "Soon there will be no more survivors left to speak. Our duty is to be their voice. We will have to combat Holocaust denial and this song, in three languages, will be one of the tools." Ahead of the performance at the UN, a music video was recorded with the participation of Holocaust survivors from the Israeli organization "Amcha", which offers psychological and social services to Holocaust survivors and their families, who were filmed alongside photos of themselves as children.

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German neo-Nazi imprisoned for mocking Holocaust

A 32-year-old German neo-Nazi has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for incitement after posting a picture of a miniature of the Auschwitz death camp on Facebook with an offensive caption. Judge Manfred Weber at the district court in Hohenstein-Ernstthal in eastern Germany told the man Thursday "you made fun of Auschwitz survivors—that's very bad."

Railway leading to Auschwitz (Photo: AP)

The German news agency dpa reported that the sentence of the previously convicted neo-Nazi also took into consideration his earlier charge for criminal assault and the posting of a photomontage of Adolf Hitler in combination with a swastika and firecrackers. The display of Nazi emblems is illegal in Germany.

The man from Glauchau in Saxony, whose name was not given in line with German privacy rules, can appeal the conviction.

In October, a German court on sentenced an 88-year-old ‘Nazi grandma’ to six months in jail, the fifth in a string of similar convictions for the repeat Holocaust denier.

Ursula Haverbeck (Photo: AP)

Ursula Haverbeck has often denied the mass murder of millions of Jews by the Nazis, which constitutes incitement of racial hatred under German law.

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Rabbinate stalls on recognizing Orthodox diaspora rabbis

After more than a year since a promise was made by Israel’s highest religious institutions to delineate criteria for the country’s recognition of the credentials of rabbis in the diaspora, many Orthodox rabbis have expressed dismay with the fact that the Joint Committee of the Chief Rabbinate and the Rabbinical Courts that was established to clarify and regulate the issue has met on only one occasion since. Last year, Ynet learned that the courts refused to recognize Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, the modern Orthodox rabbi who converted Ivanka Trump. Pressured into taking action on the matter by threats that the issue would be taken to the High Court of Justice (HCJ), the Israeli rabbinate pledged in December 2016 that it would discuss the issue. However, the execution of the special committee’s raison d'être appears to have been brought to a complete stagnation since.

The Chief Rabbinate (Photo: Atta Awisat)

 Israel’s chief rabbis David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef announced the creation of the ad hoc committee for evaluating the matter and even declared that it would convene for the first time within a number of days. However, more than a year has elapsed since the pledge was made and the committee has only ever met once in February 2017, a fact which has been a source of anger for the ITIM organization, which says “it helps people navigate the religious authorities’ bureaucracy in Israel.”

Moreover, much to the organization’s chagrin, the committee refuses to publish the protocols and minutes of the sole meeting.

ITIM claims that the foot dragging by the rabbinate in formulating the criteria is deliberately intended to enable it to create an unofficial “blacklist” of senior rabbis with more liberal religious propensities that they do not recognize. One of the rabbis that has not been recognized so far by the Israeli Rabbinate is Rabbi Adam Scheier, who leads the Orthodox congregation of Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal and has ties with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The synagogue which he leads is one of the largest in North America. Rabbi Scheier expressed his deep disappointment at the Rabbinate’s conduct, accusing it of “lack of action” and “causing a rift” between the State of Israel and diaspora Jewry. He also warned that its actions “do not contribute” to the future relations of the two sides. “We called on the Rabbinate to act with complete transparency to improve communications and relations with diaspora Jewry,” Scheier said, adding that the the Rabbinate’s ways have led the diaspora to the conclusion that “it either doesn’t have enough strength to deal with this serious problem or it simply simply doesn’t find it urgent or interesting to deal with important problems that are related to the diaspora Jewry.”

Ivanka Trump (Photo: AP)

The director of ITIM, which threatened to appeal to the HCJ, Rabbi Dr. Seth Farber also lamented the committee’s failure to take action. “This contempt and condescension of the Rabbinate toward rabbis in the Jewish community outside Israel has been going on for a number of years and is deepening the deep rift between Jews in Israel and Jews around the world,” he argued. “This is behavior that is contrary to the fundamental principles of the Torah, that obligates us be extra cautious not to harm converts.” The Chief Rabbinate also issued a statement responding to the accusations, claiming that the matter was under discussion. “After a number of meetings, discussions and advisory sessions and a discussion in the Chief Rabbinate Council, together with the members of the Supreme Rabbinical Court, to determine recognition in the courts outside Israel, the Israeli Rabbinate Council nominated a joint staff of the Chief Rabbinate Council and members of the Supreme Rabbinical Court to submit recommendations to the Chief Rabbinical Council in order to determine criteria for recognition in foreign courts,” the statement read.” “The team held a meeting and in addition we convened an internal advisory meeting to determine the criteria, and as part of this, it even turned to the courts outside Israel to receive expert opinions. The team submitted its recommendations to the Israeli Chief Rabbinate Council that has held a number of meetings on the matter.”

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US Jewry sees 70% increase in anti-Semitic incidents

A total of 1,299 anti-Semitic incidents took place in the United States in the first nine months of 2017—an increase of almost 70 percent from the previous year, according to figures released by the Anti Defamation League (ADL). 

 

The statistics include assaults, destruction of property and attacks against Jewish institutions. The report was revealed Monday at a Knesset session of the Committee for Immigration, Absorption and the Diaspora.

Hate vandalism (Phot: JCCNV)

The number of attacks on Jewish schools and community centers doubled, as incidents of harassment and destruction of Jewish property are experiencing a sharp rise on US college campuses under the guise of anti-Israel attacks. Carol Nuriel, executive director of the ADL office in Israel, stressed that many incidents go unreported either due to the victim's fears or because identifying an incident as anti-Semitic is often problematic. Nuriel reported that from January 1 to September 30, 2017, there were 703 incidents of harassment, 162 bomb threats against Jewish institutions, 584 incidents of destruction of property—including 52 against institutions; and 12 physical assaults. The incidents took place across the United States. New York, which has the largest Jewish community, witnessed 267 incidents; California witnessed 197; Florida—69; and Pennsylvania—58.

The ADL refereed as well to the radical right wing march in Charlottesville Virginia last summer where anti-Semitic and racist slurs were hurled and swastika flags waved.

Immediately after the march, there was a sharp uptick in anti-Semitic incidents. Of the 306 incidents during the third quarter, 221 took place on the day of the march or immediately after. The Charlottesville march was only one of 33 radical right wing marches that took place in the US during the year. Incidents at Jewish schools doubled in 2017 compared to the previous year: 269 compared to 130 in 2016. There were 142 assaults and 114 incidents of property destruction. The ADL reported that there were 118 anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses up to September 2017, up from 74 the previous year –an increase of 59 percent. According to a recent poll by the World Zionist Organization, 70 percent of US Jews have experienced some form of anti-Semitism during the last year; only 12 percent claim to never have experienced such an incident. However, only 10 percent of victims have reported the incident according to Yaakov Hagoel, deputy director of the organization.

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