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Thursday, July 07, 2022

07/07 Links Pt2: Twenty-Year Scars of the Second Intifada; Four Jews Killed in Highland Park Parade Shooting; Do North Carolina Democrats Have an Antisemitism Problem in the Party?

From Ian:

FDD: Twenty-Year Scars of the Second Intifada
20 years ago, on the first night of Passover 2002, the most infamous suicide bombing in Israel took place. That night, and the weeks that followed, marked a dramatic turning point in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians which still dictates the contours of the conflict today. Options for a political settlement that might have existed before, disappeared into a new reality.

In March 2002 alone, more than 100 Israelis were killed in suicide bombings; hundreds more were injured. Sitting at a cafe, riding a bus, walking through an outdoor market became imbued with a feeling of danger. When Israel responded, protests against Israel erupted in all the major Western capitals, though there were few, if any, protests against the Palestinian suicide bombings. The European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution calling for sanctions against Israel. International media coverage of the operation was overwhelmingly negative.

The 1993 Oslo Accords were pitched to Israelis with a promise that they would improve security. And if that first promise remained unfulfilled - even after Israel recognized the PLO and carried out the withdrawals from Gaza and the West Bank as called for in the Agreements - then the whole world would see who the bad guys really were and stand by Israel.

Neither promise was realized and this left deep scars on the Israeli psyche. An enormous skepticism emerged about peace with the Palestinians. Moreover, the broad center of Israeli politics no longer is moved by expectations of global support.
A centenary of the Mandate for Palestine's land rights - whose land rights?
UK Hypocrisy Must Be Corrected
I strongly suggest that Britain recognizes the historic and legal fact that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital from time immemorial and moves its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. More so, move the British consulate from Jerusalem to Ramallah. Both actions would correct the double standard the British government has been and is currently deploying.

These two actions would indicate that Britain is willing to start correcting its wrong behavior toward Jews and their homeland.

London must remember, it does not dictate a capital of a country, rather it must respect a country’s sovereignty. All British embassies are situated in capital cities around the world. No other sovereign nation would accept being told where it should designate its capital, Israel included.

Jerusalem vs. British Perfidy
From the time it assumed the Mandatory role in Palestine-Eretz Yisrael, Britain has been a fervent obstacle and subverter of Israel’s existence.

There is no “east” Jerusalem, there is only Jerusalem. Addressing Jerusalem as “east and west” is ignoring the important fact that the Western Wall and the Temple Mount are located in the old city of Jerusalem, which was illegally occupied by Jordan for 19 years. That is how Jerusalem was divided into “east” and “west.” By war and occupation, not by willingness to tear the city apart.

President Donald Trump finally followed the ‘Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995‘ enacted by US Congress. That act recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and called for Jerusalem to remain an undivided city, and moved the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. After that move, the sky did not fall and hell did not break loose.

The Arab countries, Israel’s greatest foes, accepted the fair and legal act. Nothing bad will happen, only good will come, if Great Britain follows the US act with dignity, ending its ongoing bias against the State of Israel and Jews. Britain would thereby correct its historic administrative corruption related to the Mandate for Palestine. Other countries should follow suit.
Four Jews Killed in Highland Park Parade Shooting
Multiple area Jewish spiritual leaders told JTA that while they did not want to speculate as to the motives of the shooter, their communities were wrestling with their feelings of security being upended. “I think our Jewish antennae go up a little bit on these things,” said Rabbi Jodi Kornfeld of Beth Chaverim Humanistic Jewish Community in nearby Deerfield.

Moffic, a longtime contributor to JTA sister site My Jewish Learning, told Chicago public radio station WBEZ the day after the shooting that “I do feel safe” in this community as a Jew, but added, “Of course this affects our psyche. It’s why we have many security measures at our synagogue.” Other rabbis noted that, while their own congregants may have been safe physically from the attack, they are feeling the damage psychologically.

Although local authorities have not yet said whether they believe the shooter’s motivation was antisemitic, at least one Highland Park rabbi reported that the suspect, whom authorities said had pre-planned his attack for weeks, had previously visited a synagogue: his own.

Yosef Schanowitz, the rabbi of the Highland Park Chabad, told the Orthodox news site Anash that he recognized the alleged shooter, who he said had been turned away from Chabad by its armed security guard during a Passover Seder this year. A spokesperson for Chabad told JTA the congregation has a security camera but didn’t say whether footage of the incident was captured.

The building’s security guard also confirmed to the Forward that the suspect had visited the congregation during Passover, saying he gave his name and sat in the sanctuary for 45 minutes before leaving.


Do North Carolina Democrats Have an Antisemitism Problem in the Party?
As reported, two of the NCDP anti-Israel resolutions were proposed by Nazim Uddin, who is the Director of Internal Communications of the Progressive Caucus of the NC Democratic Party. In a shocking June 19 tweet, Nazim Uddin referred to the North Carolina Jewish Clergy Association — which includes progressive Democrats — as “a racist anti-Palestinian hate group.”

Rev. McAllister and Uddin sit together on the board of VJP, an organization that promotes a one-state solution. Such a position is at odds with the Democratic Party’s national platform, which supports a “two-state solution.” VJP also promotes the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

I reached out to NCDP chair Richardson and executive director Meredith Cuomo for details on the planned mediation. Neither responded.

The NCDP source informed me that the mediation is “scheduled for Saturday, July 23,” which is Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, and explained, “Obviously, that date is problematic for any rabbis who might want to be invited to attend.” The anti-Israel resolutions at the heart of this matter were adopted on June 18, which was also on Shabbat. This was the same weekend as Juneteenth and Father’s Day. As a result of this scheduling, the African-American Caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party boycotted the state convention.

Matt Hughes, 2nd Vice Chair of the NC Democratic Party and Chair of the Resolutions and Platform Committee, made a powerful statement rejecting what he called “significantly one-sided” resolutions against Israel, pointing out that “Human Rights Watch even went so far as to suggest that both the Fatah-led West Bank and the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip may be committing crimes against humanity.”

Hughes encouraged his fellow Democrats to be more willing to condemn left-wing antisemitism, and encouraged those who reject the anti-Israel resolutions to become more involved in the party.

A self-described “lifelong Democrat” wrote to a Democratic official, “I am dismayed that the party I have supported all my life is being controlled by antisemites in the state I now call home. … As party leaders, you have a choice to stay silent when there is discrimination or do the right thing. I hope you consider doing the right thing.”

Another woman also describing herself as a “lifelong Democrat” wrote party officials, “In a time of rising antisemitism, such demonization of Israel and its Jewish supporters runs the risk of further inciting violence against Jews. While Israel is mentioned more than 20 times in the NC Democratic Party’s 2022 Final Resolution Report, issues such as inflation, gas prices, food prices, guns, and assault weapons are not mentioned a single time. There is no justification for this.”

Loyal North Carolina Democratic voters are asking the party to stand up against internal antisemitism. Let’s hope the party steps up to fix this problem.


How BBC Manipulated a Major Arab World Survey in Order to Slam Israel
Israel and the ‘Authoritarian’ Middle East
To say that the BBC is cherry-picking from the EIU’s 82-page report is putting it mildly.

Yes, the Middle East and North Africa remain the lowest of all the regions covered in the Democracy Index, with five out of 20 countries listed in the bottom 20 of the global ranking. However, regarding Israel, this is what the EIU found:
That said, the picture is not uniformly negative across the region, owing to positive trends in Israel, where an Arab party is in government for the first time as a minor player in a wide-ranging coalition…Israel continued to buck the regional trend in 2021. The inclusion of Ra’am, an Arab political party, in the broad-reaching coalition that came to power in June represents the first time that an Arab party has been part of the government in Israel. This led to an improvement in the electoral process and pluralism and functioning of government categories.”

By lumping Israel together with Tunisia and Morocco in a sentence that includes “the Middle East and North Africa is the lowest ranked of all regions covered in the index,” readers of the BBC piece may conclude that Israeli society is less than open and free.

Israel’s ‘Flawed Democracy’
Another example of BBC’s reporting being devoid of crucial context is the description of Israel as a ‘flawed democracy.’

The Jewish state is indeed a less than perfect attempt at a representative form of government. In this, Israel is no different than the United States, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

Indeed, the latest annual edition of the EIU’s Democracy Index placed Israel above these Western democracies.

Scoring 7.97 out of 10, Israel was ranked 23rd out of 167 countries, which were assessed based on their electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.
EU envoy calls for ‘international pressure’ to halt evictions of Palestinians
An EU envoy warned Thursday over the possible mass displacement of Palestinians from a West Bank area at the center of a protracted legal battle, after a controversial Israeli court ruling.

The European Union’s ambassador to the Palestinians, Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff, issued the warning as he toured Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, where evictions of Palestinians have increased after they lost a land rights case in Israel’s top court on May 4.

“If mass evictions and forcible transfer were to be the case, that would be the biggest forcible transfer for decades — that’s our concern here,” he told AFP.

Israel’s High Court ruled that the more than 1,000 residents of the villages of Masafer Yatta had “failed to prove” their claim of permanent residence in the area before the army declared it a restricted military site known as “Firing Zone 918.”

The judgment ended a two-decade legal struggle, paving the way for the Palestinians to be evicted from their homes.

Von Burgsdorff told AFP that there has been a dramatic rise in demolitions since the ruling.


BDS Should Be Prosecuted as a Hate Crime, President of City of Madrid Tells Visiting US Jewish Delegation
The head of the city government in the Spanish capital Madrid is urging that the promotion of the boycott campaign against Israel be considered a hate crime, as part of a new initiative to combat antisemitism in the cities and regions of the European Union.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the president of Community of Madrid, told a visiting US Jewish delegation on Tuesday that she had presented three amendments to a comprehensive strategy to combat antisemitism drawn up by the EU and debated last week by its Committee on the Regions — a body that allows regions and cities a voice in the formation of European law and policy.

The Madrid delegation’s key demand was that support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel as a prelude to its replacement with a single Palestinian state, be prosecuted as a hate crime under European law. According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism endorsed by the EU, “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” — a position embraced by the BDS campaign — is an example of antisemitic rhetoric.

Under Ayuso’s proposal, BDS advocates who demand the elimination of the State of Israel as a sovereign entity could face criminal proceedings.

Ayuso told the visiting American Jewish Committee delegation that during the last school year, the study of the Jewish legacy in Spain had been introduced into the curriculum of the capital’s schools.

“We are a government that has not stopped citing the important links between Spain and the Jewish communities around the world, that has not forgotten ‘Sepharad’ [Spain’s historic Sephardic community] or its legacy,” she declared.
Jewish Voice for Peace post on July 4: America was colonized, just like Palestine
The left-wing activist group Jewish Voice for Peace published a July 4 post on Facebook urging its followers to "remember parallels between the colonization of Turtle Island ('North America') and Palestine," including "land theft," "ethnic cleansing" and "violent repression of resistance."

The post also claimed that "if you support Palestinians' right to return, […] you should also support Indigenous people's demand for #LandBack."

"This July 4th, remember parallels between the colonization of Turtle Island ("North America") and Palestine: Land theft. Ethnic cleansing. Environmental destruction. Forced displacement of people from their homes, and sequestration into isolated areas with (artificially) scarce resources. Criminalization and surveillance. Violent repression of resistance. Colonial control over lives, and denial of self-determination and sovereignty. Erasure of native history and culture. Ideologies (Manifest Destiny, Zionism) of entitlement to, and justification for, these atrocities," the post reads.
"Of course, there are also major distinctions. It's inappropriate to even discuss the colonization of Turtle Island as a monolith, since the various peoples here endured it in different ways and at different points in time. Still, if you support Palestinians' right to return and right to self-determination in their homeland, you should also support Indigenous people's demand for #LandBack — for restoration of Indigenous sovereignty and stewardship, and respect for their deep connection to and knowledge of their lands.
This Financial Giant Blacklists Companies That Supply Arms to Israel
A prominent financial services firm under fire for encouraging divestment from companies that help Israel combat suicide bombers may also be promoting divestment from firms that supply the Israeli military and police with weaponry, according to an independent investigation conducted by a Washington, D.C., think tank.

Morningstar Inc., a financial research firm that advises investors, is facing accusations that its recently acquired research firm, Sustainalytics, downgrades companies that help Israel combat terrorism and bolsters the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS), which wages economic warfare on the Jewish state. A third-party analysis published by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) alleges that Sustainalytics employs biased methods to investigate and downgrade firms doing business with Israel and its security sector.

Company ratings produced by Morningstar and similar research firms act as a primary guide for investors and can greatly impact how a company is valued, and the FDD report analyzed evidence presented in a 134-page review of the company’s methods conducted by the law firm White & Case that cleared Morningstar of any wrongdoing.

But evidence presented in the White & Case report indicates that Sustainalytics may place a company on its investment "watchlist" for the "supply of arms" to Israel or other nations involved in conflicts, according to Richard Goldberg, who authored the FDD report. In downgrading a company that supplies the Israel Defense Forces, for instance, Sustainalytics could be relying on metrics that negatively impact Israel more than others—aiding the BDS movement in its attempts to drive divestment from the Jewish state, according to Goldberg.

"Blacklisting companies that help Israel maintain the security barrier and blacklisting companies that supply the IDF critical arms to support counter-terrorism—these are hallmarks of the BDS campaign," Goldberg told the Washington Free Beacon. "I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Sustainalytics is using the BDS campaign itself to establish these categories. The [ratings] product is teeming with anti-Semitism and the company’s continued employment of these watchlists likely constitutes a breach of state anti-BDS laws."
'BDS National Committee supports liberal Zionist agenda' - anti-Israel org
The BDS National Committee (BNC) is enabling pro-Israel activism and is a danger to pro-Palestinian activism due to the BDS leadership body's normalizing relations with progressive Jewish organizations and monopolizing Palestinian symbols and activism strategies, the Jisr Collective media group asserted on Tuesday, in the latest in the schism in the Palestinian activist sphere over the Boston Mapping Project.

The article published by Jisr has become popular with a faction of organizations and activists that have publicly supported The Mapping Project.

BNC's normalization with "Zionists"
In response to the BNC's rejection of the map project that charted Jewish and Zionist institutions in Boston and framed them as "structurally tied" to US media, police and government, Jisr alleged that the BNC had rejected the initiative to appease the "the liberal Zionist camp" and to avoid scrutiny of an FBI investigation into the map.

"Whether the BNC is a form of controlled opposition, or if it began as principled and then degraded in the hands of liberal zionists, is up for debate," wrote Jisr.

Jisr pointed to a letter from the BNC to BDS Boston explaining their ideological objection to the Mapping Project as proof of the BNC's unprincipled policies.

“The [mapping] project unstrategically targets and provides names and ‘physical addresses’ of institutions and individuals, and promotes messaging that includes phrases such as ‘resistance in all its forms,’” said the letter leaked by the Jewish Journal's Aaron Bandler. “By having BDS in your group’s name, and yet promoting messaging which indirectly advocates for armed resistance and associating with groups that do, you have violated a key guideline of our movement.”

According to Jisr, the BNC had been hijacked by NGOs such as J Street, committing to principles counter to their cause such as foregoing claims on "stolen lands" within the 1947 armistice lines. BDS's objectives do call for a right of return for Palestinians to Israel proper.
BDS at Harvard
Yet this view has become de rigueur in a contemporary Harvard education. The Chan School of Public Health hosts courses such as “The Settler Colonial Determinants of Health,” which focuses on demonstrating how Israel’s “settler colonial” society undermines the health of “indigenous people.” Harvard Divinity School’s program of Religion and Public Life has hosted a year-long series of anti-Israel seminars, platforming numerous speakers who advocate for the “decolonization” and even the “de-Judaisation” of Israel. It is hard to imagine that any other national entity would be subject to seminar after seminar informing them that their own national aspirations are uniquely illegitimate.

This makes Harvard less welcoming for Jewish students. Those who wish to enter the classes of Amos Yadlin, a retired Israeli general and politician, at Harvard Kennedy School have had to walk through a gauntlet of protesters accusing them of complicity in genocide. Jewish students have had to walk next to the “apartheid wall” constructed in Harvard Yard during Passover, which employs Holocaust imagery to depict Israel’s behavior toward Palestinians and declares that “Zionism = Racism.” Inside many classrooms, Jewish students are too intimidated to speak out against the new intellectual and social orthodoxy that deems Israel to be the world’s worst human-rights violator. Having witnessed this process repeat itself across the university, we can’t avoid the suspicion that such hatred of the world’s largest Jewish collective is a smokescreen for something darker.

The Crimson’s endorsement of BDS has engendered a backlash within the Harvard community. Multiple former Crimson editors, current Crimson editors, and former Harvard president Lawrence Summers have all issued denouncements. An open letter opposing BDS has recently been signed by close to 150 faculty members . However, most of these signatories teach at Harvard’s medical and business schools and are therefore far removed from the classrooms in which such issues are likely to be discussed. The departments that produce future politicians, journalists, and members of the intelligentsia—especially Harvard’s Divinity School, Kennedy School, and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences—have become fortresses of anti-Israel ideology.

That Harvard students are absorbing and endorsing BDS attitudes raises central questions about their educational experience. Does nothing in their training demand a critical assessment of these ideas? Why have Harvard students, supposedly loyal to the value of veritas, abandoned the pursuit of complex truths in favor of wholesale condemnation of the world’s only Jewish country? Most importantly, if hatred of the Jewish state becomes the default position across campus, do Jewish students have a future at Harvard? The university should take a long, hard look at the attitudes currently holding favor within its confines.
Lawyer for local Ben & Jerry's franchise owner applauds Unilever's stance against BDS
Ben & Jerry's is suing its parent company after it struck a deal with the Israeli franchise to continue production and sale of the ice cream in Israel and the West Bank. We speak to Alyza Lewin, lawyer for the local franchise owner Avi Zinger, who says Unilever has been standing by her client.


British Council Arts provides financial support to hardcore antisemitic vandals
Earlier this year in March, Amnesty International UK @AmnestyUK‘s Kristyan Benedict @KreaseChan teamed up with Hawiyya Dance Company and PalArt Collective @PalArtCol to promote the false notion that Israel is an apartheid state.

Benedict is a known antisemitic agitator who routinely shares incendiary posts online. We researched the two other groups, we discovered antisemitism and a propensity for violence. It turns out that the British Council Arts @BritishArts gives funding to Hawiyya.

Shahd Abusalama is co-founder of Hawiyya Dance Company. Her Holocaust inversion, terror glorification, and antisemitic posts on social media is abhorrent to us all. Also, Shahd appears to be a member of the violent antisemitic Palestine Action group. We wrote about her extensively here. Shahd Abusalama in Palestine Action launch video

Another Hawiyya co-founder is Jamila Boughelaf. Jamila works for the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) @EducEndowFoundn and she too promotes Holocaust inversion and vile antisemitism on social media.

Jamila and other Hawiyya members also support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign.


BBC coverage of US statement on Abu Akleh investigation
That item concluded with an interview (over three minutes long) with Shireen Abu Akleh’s brother who was not challenged by Donnison even when he asserted that the US State Department statement “looks more like […] probably I would say an Israeli drafted it” or on any of his other claims or allegations.

On the afternoon of July 4th the BBC News website published a report by Raffi Berg on its ‘Middle East’ page titled ‘Shireen Abu Aqla: US releases result of test on bullet that killed reporter’.

That report presents readers with a link to the US State Department’s statement, a link to a Tweet from the secretary general of the PLO’s executive committee, a link to a statement put out by the Abu Akleh family and links to a statement from the IDF and a Tweet from Israel’s minister of defence.

As was the case in two previous reports by Raffi Berg, readers find superfluous qualifying punctuation in relation to the mission of the IDF forces operating in Jenin on May 11th:
“The IDF said its troops had gone into Jenin to apprehend “terrorist suspects” following a wave of deadly attacks against Israelis by Palestinians, two of whom came from the Jenin district.”

On July 5th a report by David Gritten headlined ‘Shireen Abu Aqla: US report on journalist’s death unacceptable, family says’ was published on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page.
Remembering Nosrat Goel: Iranian Jewish martyr
For the past two decades, I have had the special honor of reporting on the news and recent history of my ancient Iranian Jewish community which today is largely based in Southern California. Perhaps their most difficult stories involve tragedies that came about when scores of Jewish families endured antisemitism after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.

Thousands of Jews were abruptly forced to flee Iran at that time in order to escape the new Khomeini regime’s persecution of Jews, the regime’s random confiscations of Jewish businesses, assets and properties as well as the regime’s thugs suddenly arresting and torturing of Jews in hellish prisons. Yet the most painful stories are those involving the Khomeini regime’s random and senseless executions of innocent Jews in the early years of the revolution. I am asked on a frequent basis why I continue to write about and speak about these executions that occurred more than 40 years ago and the answer is because the world has forgotten these crimes the regime has committed against Iran’s Jews! This week 41 years ago the Khomeini regime’s revolutionary thugs for no reason executed Nosrat Goel, a Jewish mother of four children from the city of Shiraz who at the time of her execution was pregnant with her fifth child. Her story is one of the thousands of stories of pain and heartache Iranian Jews in America still carry with them. We remember Mrs. Goel’s horrific story and call on the international community to hold this demonic regime in Iran that killed her responsible for their crime.

Mrs. Goel’s heartbreaking story was shared with me several years ago by her cousin, Mr. Asher Aramnia, a now 84-year-old Iranian Jewish businessman living in Los Angeles. Mrs. Goel’s nightmare began on July 3, 1980, when the Khomeini regime’s Revolutionary Guards thugs in the city of Shiraz randomly arrested her while she was working in a hair salon. Aramnia said the regime’s thugs were looking for a infamous prostitute in Shiraz by the name of “Zahra” and when they could not locate the prostitute, they randomly arrested Mrs. Goel and claimed she was the prostitute they were required to find and arrested. At the time, Mrs. Goel and 23 other individuals the regime claimed were criminals were taken to Adelabad Prison in Shiraz and locked up. She was supposed to be held and tried the next day before the regime’s religious court but unfortunately circumstances during that day turned for the worst when the regime’s notorious Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali arrived later on at the prison. Khalkhal was the regime’s infamous “hanging judge” who at the start of the revolution had been travel across Iran carrying out random executions of “drug offenders” and other “enemies of the new regime” he saw fit.
Toronto Police Arrest Man Responsible for Antisemitic Graffiti Near York University
The person responsible for graffitiing antisemitic messages near York University in Canada has been arrested and charged, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) announced on Tuesday evening.

Trevor York, a 35-year-old Toronto resident, responded to the charges in court earlier that morning, TPS said. He faces multiple counts of “Hate Motivated” property damaging, mischief, and breaking and entering.

As previously reported, York’s offensive graffiti depicted a Jew with sidelocks and a Star of David inside crosshairs next to a message that says, “Shoot a Jew in the head.”

It compounded concerns about the safety of Canada’s Jewish community, which has experienced record highs of antisemitic hate crimes for six consecutive years, with almost eight incidents occurring per day in 2021.

“It’s not a surprising thing in this area, but it makes me feel a little bit nervous, a little big sad, a lot angry as well,” York University graduate student Garrett Ryan told CP24, a local news outlet, in June. “It’s frightening that people are trying to incite violence on us.”
German museums return 5 Nazi-looted artworks to heirs of Jewish banker
Several German museums have handed over five artworks to the heirs of a Jewish banker who was forced to sell them when he faced persecution by the Nazis during World War II.

The Nazi-looted pieces of art were returned to the family of Carl Heumann on Monday, announced the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, also known as Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK). They include Albert Emil Kirchner's "Fischerweide" (1854) from the Lenbachhaus in Munich; Jakob Gensler's "Girl with Parrot" (1840) from the Dresden State Art Collections; and two watercolors by Peter Fendi titled "Catholic Priest with Communion Vessels" and "Porch of a Church with Crucifix, Priest and Altar Boy."

Also restituted was Johann Jakob Schillinger's "Devil's Bridge" (around 1800) from Berlin's Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings).

The Berlin State Museums attributed another work to Heumann's collection that had been bought at auction – Friedrich Jentzen's "Portrait of the Master Builder August Stüler" (around 1830) – but it was agreed with Heumann's heirs that the portrait will remain with the museums.

SPK president Hermann Parzinger said "it is very moving to see the connection between the Heumann family and Germany when you know the fate of Carl Heumann and his children during the National Socialist era. A great collector, and yet his name and fate are almost unknown today. Provenance research brings his and many other life stories to light again, and every return is also a bit of memory."
The Blinded IDF Soldier Who Won a Triathlon Medal
Oren Blitzblau was blinded while serving in Gaza in 2005 but told more than 400 guests that the rehabilitation he received from the charity helped turn his “nightmare to dreams”. Incredibly, he went on to serve another decade in the IDF and became israel’s first blind Ironman and a medal winner in paratriathlon.

There was barely a dry eye in the room at the Royal Lancaster Hotel as he spoke of his pride in his achievements and thanked Beit Halochem UK for enabling his successes and those of others over the decade since it’s inception. “I won’t forget tonight, he said. “Although I can’t see you I can feel your love.”

Rivlin, Israel’s 10th president, told the event that his country would show the world it can remain both Jewish and democratic. He said: “For me the state of Israel will never be something I take for granted – that’s why our army is so important. Without it israel could not exist. Beit Halochem provides the very best rehabilitation for soldiers and victims of terror.

“On my visits I’m always inspired by the veterans‘ strength of character. The spirit of these heroes always wins.”

Rivlin, Israel’s 10th president, told the event that his country would show the world it can remain both Jewish and democratic.

He hailed the work of Beit Halochem UK which has included raising £21m in 10 years, singling out chair Andrew Wolfson and CEO Spencer Gelding. The 83-year-old former president – who reminded guests he had his barmitzvah in the year The Queen ascended the drone – praised the charity for strengthening bilateral relations through the “inspirational’ Veteran Games which bring together injured British and Israeli vets and their families to build ties and compete in sport.
Another 150 Ethiopians Arrive on ‘Aliyah’ Flight to Ben-Gurion International Airport
The arrival of an Ethiopian Airways jetliner at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport earlier this week set the scene for an emotional reunion between family members, some of whom who hadn’t seen their relatives for two decades.

The operation, spearheaded by Israel’s Minister of Immigrant Absorption Pnina Tamano-Shata, is designed to help the remaining community of Jews living in refugee camps in Gondar and Addis Ababa make their way back to Israel. So far, more than 5,000 people who have first-degree relatives already living in Israel have moved or are scheduled to move in the near future.

The flight consisted of 150 people and was made possible through a joint initiative of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ); Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration; and the Jewish Agency for Israel as part of “Operation Tzur Israel” (“Rock of Israel”).

Escorting the group back to Israel, Yael Eckstein, president of the IFCJ, said helping to bring the final remnants of Ethiopian Jewry home to Israel is a central part of their mandate.

“It’s a source of great pride to be able to assist hundreds more olim to come home,” she said. “The most powerful part of this flight is knowing that many of these passengers have been waiting for decades for this moment, and we see it as a central Zionist ideal to be able to make these types of reunions possible.”
Vietnamese Israelis - 45 Years Later
From 1977 to 1979, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin permitted entry to 360 Vietnamese "boat people" in the aftermath of the Communist takeover in that nation, citing parallels with Jews struggling to find refuge during the Holocaust.

Most settled around Jaffa and Bat Yam, and the community today numbers 150-200.

Tongi Noyan, 28, works as a real estate broker in Tel Aviv. He speaks perfect Hebrew with no accent. He said the majority of Vietnamese Israelis are Buddhists, like his father, with some being Christian, like his mother. Some have also recently converted to Judaism.

While noting that many members of the community left Israel for the U.S., France or other countries, including Vietnam, to him Israel is home.

"Of course I'm a true Israeli....I speak Hebrew, I was born and raised here."
National Library finds rare 18th-century text detailing Portuguese Inquisition
An 18th-century document detailing the activities of the Portuguese Inquisition, which punished people for upholding Jewish traditions and committing other transgressions, has been found by the National Library of Israel and made available online, the library announced.

The library’s Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People on Wednesday publicized the 60-page document written in Portuguese, which mainly recounts public hearings and executions taking place between 1540 and 1669, most of them in Lisbon called autos-da-fé, which were carried out by the Catholic Church. The manuscript was found in the library’s archives.

The victims detailed in the documents were mostly then-recently converted Christians accused of maintaining their Jewish customs, but also included “Old Christians” found guilty of committing acts of “sodomy, bigamy, possession of forbidden books, and sacrilege,” the library’s statement said.

The inquisition began in 1536, as a response to a surge of forcibly converted Jews crossing into the country from neighboring Spain, where they were fleeing similar atrocities. The hearings and executions carried on for more than two centuries and were considered acts of penance for the accused. The public spectacles brought large crowds who came to watch the brutal executions carried out, which included so-called sinners being burned alive by the authorities.

The archive’s director, Dr. Yochai Ben-Ghedalia, said the rare findings “shed light on the realities of a complex chapter in Jewish history” and the rigorous nature of the church’s enforcement of its rules.

“We hope the newly discovered document will help scholars better investigate this fascinating and difficult period of history,” he added.
Earliest inscription from Jerusalem's City of David deciphered
An ancient inscription in Jerusalem's City of David was deciphered with the words cursing the "governor of the city," the Israel Institute of Biblical Studies announced on Wednesday.

The institute's head, Gershon Galil, deciphered the earliest and most important inscription discovered to date in Jerusalem.

Galil is also a professor in the Department of Jewish History and Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa.

"The new inscription proves that Jerusalem was not only a fortified city but also a very important cultural and cultic center, where excellent scribes and sophisticated magicians managed to write this important monumental inscription, as well as hold voodoo ceremonies," Galil said.

"Being the earliest known inscription of this sort in Canaan, it must have served as a model for other writers and priests in later periods and in different places in the land."

The inscription consists of 20 words and 63 letters in the ancient proto-Canaanite script. It reads as a curse wishing the death of the governor of Jerusalem: "Cursed, Cursed, you will surely die; Governor of the City, you will surely die."
James Caan, ‘Godfather’ and ‘Misery’ star, son of German Jews, dies at 82
Caan, who played a cowboy in 1967’s “El Dorado,” told an interviewer in 2008 that he’d “rodeoed professionally for nine years. As a matter of fact, I started in Las Vegas. All the cowboys used to come there. [Entrepreneur] Steve Wynn used to come around on his little paint horse at the roping arena. To this day he still introduces me as ‘The Best Jewish Cowboy‘ he’s ever met.”

After “Brian’s Song” and “The Godfather,” he was one of Hollywood’s busiest actors, appearing in “Hide in Plain Sight” (which he also directed), “Funny Lady” (opposite Barbra Streisand), “The Killer Elite” and Neil Simon’s “Chapter Two,” among others. He also made a brief appearance in a flashback sequence in “The Godfather: Part II.”

But by the early 1980s, he began to sour on films. He had begun to struggle with drug use and was devastated by the 1981 leukemia death of his sister, Barbara, who until then had been a guiding force in his career.

He returned to full-fledged stardom opposite Kathy Bates in “Misery” in 1990.

Once again in demand, Caan starred in “For the Boys” with Bette Midler in 1991 as part of a song-and-dance team entertaining US soldiers during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. The following year he played a tongue-in-cheek version of Sonny Corleone in the comedy “Honeymoon in Vegas.”

Other later films included “Flesh and Bone,” “Bottle Rocket” and “Mickey Blue Eyes.” He introduced himself to a new generation by playing Walter, the workaholic, stone-faced father of Buddy’s Will Ferrell in “Elf.”
James Caan and his entourage visiting Gush Etzion, 2016.

On a 2016 visit to Israel, Caan toured Jewish settlements in the West Bank and urged Israel not to return to its pre-1967 lines. “The European and American demands to return to the 1967 borders — aren’t sensible, and I object strongly to those demands,” he said.

He returned to Israel to film 2019’s “Holy Lands,” in which he played a retired Jewish cardiologist who moves to Israel to raise pigs in Nazareth.

Married and divorced four times, Caan had a daughter, Tara, and sons Scott, Alexander, James and Jacob.




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