Tuesday, November 12, 2024

11/12 Links Pt2: 2024 has been a year of a ‘tsunami’ of antisemitism; The echo of broken glass from Amsterdam; Afghanistan’s last Jew arrives in Israel

From Ian:

Michal Cotler-Wunsh: What the results of the US election mean for the fight against antisemitism worldwide
In the midst of a raging war of authoritarian regimes and their proxies on civilization, at an existential moment in an algorithmic world rife with conflict, fear, despair and distrust, the results of the U.S. elections offer a glimpse of hope — first and foremost, that common sense will not give up to radical extremes without a fight.

It should be a moment of soul-searching, particularly for those who detest President-elect Trump, including legacy media in an age of digital platforms. It should be a wake-up call to all those who are committed to liberal values, which have been taken captive by a so-called “progressive” left that pulls back and not forward, is rejected by a huge public, and was exposed in the inability or lack of willingness to condemn the horrors of the Oct. 7 massacre.

Instead, many took to the streets in sympathy with its murderous perpetrators, sounding alarms that warn of an international and national security threat — including to the USA. The tsunami of antisemitism that was exposed, unleashed and mainstreamed provided a litmus test on the reality that threatens the foundations of democracies.

It was antisemitism to which the October 7 perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity were indoctrinated, and it is antisemitism, led by a murderous Islamist regime in Iran, that continues to fuel a multi-front war with the intent to destroy Israel, the proverbial Jew among the nations, and all those who support her right to exist.

The previous Trump administration advocated a historic pivot, represented in the Abraham Accords, from the “three no’s” of Khartoum to the three yes’s: to recognition, negotiation and peace. A return to this potential paradigm shift is significant not only for the State of Israel; it constitutes a critical change of perception toward a growing radical evil axis.

Antisemitism, a lethal shape-shifting hate, is a predictor for the collapse of all the spaces and places where it spreads. Its modern and mainstream strain manifests in tearing down posters of baby Kfir Bibas, stolen from his home into the terror tunnels of Hamas; in attacks on Jews/Zionists on campuses, on the streets and online worldwide; and in demonstrations in support of Gaza, including in the streets of New York City, days after six hostages including one American-Israeli were executed after surviving more than 11 months of hell.

Recognizing Israel as what it is — the nation state of a prototypical indigenous people, who returned to their ancestral homeland after thousands of years of exile and persecution — is a necessary first step, which enables negotiations and paves the path to peace.
Antisemitism envoy: 2024 has been a year of a ‘tsunami’ of antisemitism
The violent attack against Jews in Amsterdam over the weekend was not unique to Europe but just another incident in what Israel’s antisemitism envoy Michal Cotler-Wunsh described as a “tsunami of antisemitism” this year.

She said October 7 was the “worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust” and led to the “mainstreaming of antisemitism” around the world, including anti-Zionism, which denies Israel’s right to exist.

Is It Safe For Israelis In Eruope?
Israeli fans were assaulted after a soccer game in Amsterdam by groups of young people. Five people were treated at hospitals, and dozens were arrested after the attacks, which were condemned as antisemitic. According to Cotler-Wunsh, “what is happening in the streets in Europe is happening on university campuses, at sports and cultural events.”

She added that, in the same week, the only kosher restaurant in Washington, D.C. had its windows shattered, and in New York, a father walking with his six-year-old was attacked, with the child nearly pulled from his grasp.

“It’s not just about traveling or not going to sports events,” the envoy said. “It is much larger. It is much bigger. The genie has been let out of the bottle.”
Now is the time to push the Heritage Foundation’s “Project Esther” forward
The Heritage Foundation rightly called the global Hamas support network an existential threat to Israel and all Jews in the Diaspora. In response, they recently conceived of “Project Esther” to serve as an antidote to the Jew-hatred sown in the meadows of higher learning and readily spread in the corridors of democratic policymaking and the mass media. This project is now needed more than ever because the damage caused by the pro-Palestinian interest groups has infected the minds of impressionable youth in the United States, clearly evidenced by the flaming diatribes launched at Jewish students on campuses throughout the country since Oct. 7, 2023.

Unfortunately, the perils of Jew-hatred have not been confined to the hallways of academia. These dangers are now palpable in industry, corporate life and, similarly, in the medical profession. According to the American Jewish Medical Association, founded in the wake of Oct. 7 by New York plastic surgeon Yael Haas, Jewish doctors are increasingly subject to scorn, harassment and deprecation at the merciless hands of colleagues who boldly express enmity toward them.

Tuesday’s election victory declaring former President Donald Trump as the winner of the highest office in the land has lifted the democratic decree that has threatened Israel’s right to defend itself—holding back 2,000-pound bombs and importuning the Jewish state to cease its efforts to eradicate the terror networks abutting their borders. The democratic decree is likewise lifted by the Republican sweep of the Senate. As the majority party controlling the Senate, any of Trump’s future foreign-aid packages to Israel will be less likely to face opposition from the legislative branch.

Just as Queen Esther took a proactive role in removing the decree against the Jews in Persia in the mid-fourth century BCE, we must embrace a proactive role in lifting the decree of destruction placed upon Israel. This decree caused the attrition of support for the Jewish state by a Democrat-led presidential administration and a Democrat-controlled Senate that has been influenced by the Hamas support network.

To combat the effects of the pro-Palestinian groups, we must push forward an agenda to denude college campuses, industries and media of their virulent Jew-hatred, which pose an existential threat to Israel and Diaspora Jewry.

Project Esther, defined by the Heritage Foundation as “a national strategy to combat antisemitism,” has gathered religious groups across the theological spectrum. Forming the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, Project Esther has chosen the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV)—the largest rabbinic public-policy organization in America dedicated to restoring America’s moral foundation—to represent the interests of the Jewish community. Representing 2,500 traditional rabbinic leaders in public policy, CJV has garnered the respect of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. This provides an excellent starting point for reversing the damage of the democratic decree.

Trump’s victory and the simultaneous retaking of the Senate by the Republican Party provide a welcomed opportunity to undo the harm caused by the pro-Palestinian policymakers to Israel’s viability. To that end, it is imperative that we advance a comprehensive plan that assures the Jewish state receives the fiscal, military and practical support it sorely needs.


Seth Mandel: All Eyes on Paris
All of which raises wider questions about the attempts to exclude Israelis from international sports competitions. Although many tried to isolate the Amsterdam incident, it didn’t happen in a vacuum: Israel’s national team in the Union of European Football Association (UEFA) has been playing its home games in… Budapest. Maccabi Tel Aviv—the team that played in Amsterdam the night of the pogrom—plays its European home games in Hungary and Serbia. Its home games.

That UEFA policy has been in effect since soon after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre touched off the current war. In other words, fans of Israel’s national team and its premier club team must travel out of the country to attend any of their games. The violence in European stadiums threatens to create the soccer version of a hostage situation and make it impossible for Israeli fans to ever watch their team play.

And it’s not exactly up to Israel. Host cities will decide for themselves if their own fans and locals are too dangerous for soccer. Mostly likely, the threat itself is everywhere but the cities that can handle such threats will continue to host games. Paris is one such city, but its reduced attendance isn’t a great sign. In any event, here’s the test for similar cities around the world: Can you prevent your residents from burning the city to the ground over the presence of Jews playing soccer? Given the reports of follow-up violence in Amsterdam tonight, and the fact that the city’s police force aided the pogrom, that’s not a test everyone will pass. Maccabi’s upcoming game against a Turkish squad had to be moved out of Istanbul for security reasons. A September game between Israel and Belgium was played in Hungary because Brussels refused to host.

Of course, the attempts to ban Israelis around the world didn’t begin with Gaza. As the Associated Press explains: “Israel’s neighbors in the Middle East play in Asian competitions. Israel did too until the 1970s, when it was expelled from the Asian Football Confederation after several Arab and Muslim nations refused to play against it. Israel was invited to European qualifying for the 1982 World Cup and has been a member of UEFA since 1994.”

Playing in the European league has gone better than playing in the Asian league so far, as evidenced by the fact that European teams aren’t refusing to play the Israeli teams. But for how long will that hold? Some teams’ home cities, as mentioned above, are refusing to host such games already. It’s far from unthinkable that teams will start refusing to play Maccabi or Israel’s national team, especially if they can’t play in their home city (which is what happened with Belgium’s team).

Then there are the free-speech battles that the anti-Israel rioters are desperately trying to provoke, and almost certainly will. The model for the anti-Israel demonstrations, especially since Oct. 7, has been to roam around looking for a physical confrontation while calling explicitly for violence. Hungary simply has less freedom to protest across the board; that’s not a model that Western Europe should import. Yet, as evidenced by the events in Amsterdam, it’s harder than it looks to get a “pro-Palestinian” demonstration to stay on its route.

The easiest solution would be for anti-Zionist protesters to just, you know, not be violent. But considering how successful they’ve been at using the heckler’s veto to effectively ban matches with Israelis so far, we should expect continued escalation.
Phyllis Chesler: The re-emergence of Jew-hate in Amsterdam
This “Jew hunt” was not perpetrated by Christian Caucasians as in the past. This time, it was pre-planned and apparently carried out by Holland’s Muslims, some of whom are likely second- or third-generation citizens. How can Holland deport those found guilty of perpetrating a pogrom on Jewish civilians if the perps are Dutch citizens? Can the Dutch, both Muslim and non-Arab, be de-programmed?

Probably not, at least not without a major, overwhelming, mandatory re-education plan.

In their works, prescient French novelist Jean Raspail and scholar Bat Ye’or, an Egyptian-Swiss woman whose real name is Gisèle Littman, predicted the coming of “Eurabia” and the downfall of Western civilization. So did writers like Andrew Bostom, Oriana Fallaci, Richard Landes, Bernard Lewis, Douglas Murray, Robert Spencer and Ibn Warraq, with some pointing to instances in Europe of so-called “no-go” zones in areas with significant Muslim populations and little police oversight, sexual assaults of women some call “infidels,” honor killings and a refusal to assimilate.

Let’s not forget the assassination in 2004 of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by Moroccan-Dutch Islamist Mohamed Bouyeri, who was born in Holland and whose hit list included Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch parliamentarian. He stabbed a five-page note into Van Gogh’s body, which he addressed to Ali, who he called a “heretic” and a willing collaborator of “Zionists and Crusaders.” Bouyeri believed that a “Jewish cabal” controlled Holland.

Despite such warning signs, those who spoke against the rise of Islamic extremists were called “Islamophobes,” racists, fear-mongers and conspiracy theorists.

De Winter wrote that the violence that took place overnight Nov. 7-8 “emerged from deep-seated, historically entrenched antisemitism.” He also noted that “Moroccan youth have participated in weekly anti-Zionist demonstrations through the streets of Amsterdam.”

The attackers in Amsterdam did not paraglide into the city as Hamas did, but many were on scooters. De Winter believes that these Muslims are “collectively humiliated” by the Dutch “indifference” to their religion and by the “infidel” demands placed upon them to assimilate.

What next? Well, according to Dutch journalist and editor Esther Voet, the day after the “Jew hunt,” an Israeli TV crew was trying to broadcast a report from Dam Square in Amsterdam and was confronted by pro-Palestinian protesters. “They called for police protection to return to their hotels. The police refused.”

With the protesters behind last week’s pogrom still on the streets, we will likely see more pogroms in Holland and other parts of Europe. Will the police in those cases respond in a more timely fashion than the Dutch police did?

Time will tell. France, which is hosting a soccer match in Paris with Israel on Thursday, is deploying 4,000 security personnel to ensure that what happened in Amsterdam does not happen there. Israeli security officials, meanwhile, are telling Israelis to stay home.

Let’s be clear on this: Only Israel rescued the Jews under siege in Amsterdam last week. The Dutch government did not do so, nor did any neighboring European country. The world’s “peaceniks” and the United Nations were nowhere in sight.

What happened in Amsterdam reflects what has happened to Jews historically in Europe and throughout the Muslim world. Israel has not caused this Jew-hatred. Israel is, in fact, the only rational response to antisemitism. It is the height of madness to demand that there be no Jewish state or for Jews to willingly negotiate for an even smaller, almost tiny, part of the land in which we are the indigenous people, a people who have now returned to our inheritance.
The echo of broken glass from Amsterdam
These events emphasize the growing need for Jews to consider aliyah, not only in response to this surge in antisemitism but also because there is an urgent need to build a better society in Israel, as we are seeing more and more that it is the only safe haven for the Jews.

What happened in Amsterdam serves as a stark validation of these concerns. We need a strong and vibrant Israel, and we need Jews from around the world to not only support Israel by sending donations but by sending themselves. Israel is the place where all Jews can freely express their Jewish identity without fear of persecution and where we can build together a better future for our people.

The existence of Israel should not mean that Jews must fear to live in the Diaspora. We have the right to live safely and proudly in any country we choose. The responsibility lies with governments and societies to combat antisemitism vigorously and protect their Jewish citizens.

I commend the Dutch authorities’s swift response in condemning the attacks and launching investigations. Yet, more needs to be done. We need comprehensive educational programs to combat antisemitism, increased security measures for Jewish institutions and a zero-tolerance policy for hate crimes. Some politicians have even demanded that perpetrators of hate crimes be deported, as some of these crimes in Europe are being committed by migrant asylum seekers, refugees who came from other wartorn countries and often brought their prejudices and hate with them. The violence that was perpetrated against them in their home countries they are now perpetrating against Jews—and that is unacceptable.

To our Jewish family in Amsterdam and across Europe: Know that you are not alone. The global Jewish community stands with you, and we will continue to advocate for your safety and right to live openly as Jews without fear. We must stand firm in Israel and in our current homes, proud of our heritage and unafraid to display our identity.

To our non-Jewish allies, we call upon you to stand with us against this tide of hatred. Antisemitism is not just a Jewish problem; it’s a societal one. When Jews are attacked for their identity, the very fabric of a free and open society is threatened.

Let us draw strength from our history of resilience. We have faced darker times and emerged stronger. Let the lights of our soon-to-be-kindled Chanukah menorahs serve as a beacon of hope and a reminder that light will always triumph over darkness.

The path forward is clear: education, solidarity and an unwavering commitment to combating hate in all its forms. From Amsterdam to Jerusalem, let us work together to build a world where such attacks become nothing more than a distant memory.
‘Never again?’ No
While hordes of politicians, celebrities, “influencers” and “wannabes” somberly intone “Never Again,” 86 years after Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass” that ushered in the Holocaust, cowardice reigns in the West.

“Never again” is a pledge of Jewish defiance and Israel its embodiment. From the physical borders of the state and from Entebbe to Amsterdam, wherever Jews are threatened, Israel has taken on the role of defender of the Jewish people. If one is an optimist, “Never again” was also a way for the European community to verbalize that it understood the magnitude of its crimes in World War II. Repeating the mantra, Europe pledged it would never let it happen again, and its allies—primarily, the United States, Canada, Australia and others—were partners in that pledge.

The first is right, admirable and proper.

The second is either untrue or a broken promise.

The mantra of “never again” presumed that the lessons of the Holocaust were universal and that “genocide”—which, according to the United Nations, is “the organized killing groups of people for their race, religion or national origin”—would be universally rejected and that the rejection is permanent.

It is neither.

Despite the bastardization of the word “genocide,” there are real post-World War II genocides to consider. Here are a few: Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s; the 1994 attacks on the Tutsis in Rwanda; attacks by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Iraq’s Yazidis (it took the United Nations 10 years to label that one at a genocide); the Kurds of Northern Iraq who were subjected to chemical weapons attacks in Halabja; a two-phased attack against the Rohingya in Myanmar; the ISIS persecution of Iraqi Turkmen, which was recognized in 2017 by the Iraqi parliament as a genocide; and, one year later, the sexual slavery of Iraqi Turkmen girls and women was recognized as a one by the United Nations. The United States has labeled China’s repression and killing of Muslim Uyghurs a “genocide.”

There is more, but what does this short list tell you?
Seforim chatter: History of the Jews in the Netherlands (Amsterdam) (with Prof. Bart Wallet)
We discussed Dutch Jewry in the Middle Ages, the Spanish-Portugese community of Amsterdam, the Ashkenazic community of Amsterdam, Pekidim V'Amarkalim, 19th century, Dutch Jewry during and post WWII, and more.


‘The global intifada is here’: Security expert’s warning after Amsterdam violence
International security expert Max Abrahms has issued a grave warning about the rise of antisemitic violence following attacks on Israeli football supporters in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said Maccabi Tel Aviv fans had been attacked and abused by "antisemitic hit-and-run squads".

“The global intifada is here and it is going to be a problem until the national authorities crack down on these migrants and seal up the borders. There’s no question,” Mr Abrahms told Sky News host Rita Panahi.


Chabad Media Director Suspended by X for Harmless Post About Pogrom
The X account of Motti Seligson, the Media Director of Chabad.org, has been suspended by the social media platform. Seligson is being accused of violating X’s policies, over a non-controversial post he wrote discussing the horrific pogroms in Amsterdam.

In fact, the X post in question was a peaceful call for violence to be stopped.

Although Seligson’s account is still visible, his account has been locked, meaning that he is not able to post anything new, and his ‘incriminating’ post has ben hidden.

Seligson appealed the decision, but was informed by the platform that the support team upheld the initial decision to lock his account. (It is not clear at this point what specific violations they feel he committed, or whether they informed him at all.) Rabbi Yaakov Menken, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, called attention to the suspension / locking.

Seligson’s ‘violation’ post read: ‘Jews being brutally attacked on the streets of Amsterdam. Run down by terrorists in cars, lynched by mobs, stabbings. This kind of thing has not been seen on those streets since the 1930’s. Local heroic Jews from Chabad are rescuing people…”
What happened to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam? A complete timeline
In the run-up to Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Europa League match against Ajax last Thursday, tensions began to rise in Amsterdam.

Throughout the city, posters were put up calling for the game to be cancelled and for Israel to be expelled from Uefa, European football’s governing body.

Sheher Khan, a member of the Dutch capital’s council, asked the city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, to ban the Israeli team from coming. “If you invite a club from Israel, it will lead to demonstrations and confrontation, inevitably,” he later told the New York Times.

On November 5, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported that Mossad agents would accompany Israeli fans to Amsterdam because they feared that violence might erupt.

Wednesday
Before the game, city authorities began to clamp down on what they believed to be potential sources of trouble.

Several areas of Amsterdam, including the central station, the Johan Cruijff Arena, at which the game was due to be held, and the subway between the two, were designated as "safety risk areas" to allow the police to stop and search individuals within them between 1pm and midnight, the Dutch newspaper NL Times reported.

Week 4 Palestine, a group of local anti-Israel activists, were told by authorities that they had to move a protest planned to take place outside the stadium to a street about 15 minutes walk away.

F-Side, the hooligan group that supports Ajax, said they would not tolerate the demonstration and would "intervene where necessary" to prevent it.

“Violent confrontations are a realistic prospect,” Halsema told AT5, a local television station, after he announced the decision.

Announcing their protest’s move to a new location, Week 4 Palestine and several other anti-Israel groups wrote on Instagram: “We will make the world a narrow place for the occupat!on!! Even if we are oppressed or restricted, we will continue to stand up. This is a direct clash with our enemy (IOF [Israeli Occupation Forces] and Mossad) [sic].”


Berlin Jewish youth soccer team attacked by knife-wielding pro-Palestinian mob
Players from TuS Makkabi, a youth under-17 soccer team in Berlin, were reportedly chased and assaulted on Thursday after playing against DJK Schwarz-Weiß Neukölln, according to international media reports.

The players were reportedly chased by a crowd wielding sticks and knives, according to German news site Tagesspiegel daily.

Players from the opposing team reportedly yelled “Free Palestine” at the Jewish team, one of the player’s fathers told the media. The children were also allegedly spat at repeatedly, and the father claimed the referee failed to intervene.

Schwarz-Weiss Neukölln promised to throw out the youth involved in the incident, according to The Telegraph. The “incidents like this don’t belong on soccer pitches – and certainly not on ours,” a spokesperson said.

Alon Meyer, the president of Makkabi Germany, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper witnesses confirmed “threats, including chasing people with knives, undoubtedly took place.”

Berlin Interior Senator Iris Spranger condemned the attacks, according to the German press agency DPA International.

"Just recently, there were attacks on players from the sports club TuS Makkabi Berlin. These acts show that antisemitic violence and discrimination have not disappeared in our city either," Spranger said on Saturday.

The Staatsschutz hate crime police unit is reportedly investigating the incident.


Ezra reports from Amsterdam, where migrants are rioting against Jews

'Hamas are a freedom organization': Anti-Israel Dutch protesters speak out after soccer fans beaten

NY Rep. Torres blasts former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan for ‘justifying a pogrom’ in Amsterdam
New York Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres blasted Mehdi Hasan after the former MSNBC anchor cast the vicious attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam as the work of “hooligans,” not antisemites.

Torres, who has bucked many in his party with his unapologetic pro-Israel stance, didn’t mince words Sunday in an Instagram post responding to Hasan seemingly downplaying the attacks, which left at least 20 to 30 fans of Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv team injured and hundreds more terrorized.

“Mehdi Hasan is justifying a pogrom against Jews in Amsterdam,” Torres posted on Instagram Sunday. “Yet make no mistake: mainstream media will continue platforming Hasan because America no longer treats antisemitism as a moral line that should never be crossed.

“A society that fails to stigmatize antisemites will get more of them.”

The broadside against Hasan came after the progressive journalist, who still frequently appears on cable news after being ousted from his MSNBC hosting gig, responded to President Joe Biden calling the attacks antisemitic.

Hasan, in a Nov. 8 post on X, argued that soccer “hooligans” before Maccabi’s match with the Dutch team AFC Ajax had torn down a Palestinian flag and chanted anti-Arab slogans.


'After the Jew-hunt, the intifada': Geert Wilders condemns latest tide of antisemitism after thugs chanting 'cancer Jews' carry out fresh violence in Amsterdam, torching a tram
Far-right Dutch firebrand Geert Wilders has condemned the latest wave of anti-Semitisim to hit Amsterdam, after thugs chanting 'cancer Jews' violently rampaged across the city, culminating in the torching of a tram.

Video footage of the tram, near the '40-'45 Square in western Amsterdam, taken on Monday night, showed a firework being lit inside before exploding, lighting a large fire inside and shattering a window.

Rioters could be heard cheering as the firework went off. Local media reported that they were heard screaming chants of 'cancer Jews'.

Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), took to X to warn: 'After the Jew-hunt, the Intifada.'

Five people, all of them Dutch and aged between 18 and 37, were arrested following the latest flareup of violence, bringing the total number of people arrested since Thursday to 68.

The tram inferno follows days of violence towards fans of an Israeli football team - during what was labelled a 'Jew hunt'.

The city's police force said there had been a tense atmosphere after five people were taken to hospital on Thursday following an Ajax match against Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv, where dozens of people were detained.
'Cancer Jews': Trams set alight, violence erupts in Amsterdam in second wave of violence
Violence erupted on the streets of Amsterdam on Monday night in the second wave of antisemitic attacks to hit the Dutch capital over the last week, according to local media reports.

One of the city's famous trams was set alight by rioters dressed in black and armed with fireworks, according to De Telegraaf. The rioters threw debris and shouted "Kanker Joden" (cancer Jews), but it is used to mean "f*** the Jews."

Rioters reportedly burned a tram in the city's western suburbs and clashed with police earlier in the day.

A police spokesman said a tram at the '40-'45 Square in the west part of Amsterdam had caught fire, likely caused by fireworks thrown at it. The windows of the tram were shattered.

No one was injured in the incident, as the tram had been empty, the spokesman said.

Masked men reportedly roamed the streets yelling "Free Palestine." De Telegraaf reported that journalists witnessed a bystander being ripped from his bike and beaten by the rioters.

It was later reported that private vehicles and bikes were destroyed.

The young rioters reportedly actively sought to confront officers.

Geert Wilders, leader of the PVV, responded to the events by saying, "After the Jew-hunt, the Intifada."

Wilders has been a strong defender of Israel and the Netherlands's Jewish population while being deeply critical of Dutch immigration and integration policy.

Wilders heads the Dutch Parliament's largest party, the Party for Freedom (PVV); however, due to being an extremely controversial figure within Dutch politics, he was blocked from becoming Prime Minister or even a minister.

Instead, Wilders helped organize the ruling bloc and assisted in steering policies, in effect being the de facto Prime Minister.


‘No room for politics,’ says lawyer creating report on Hamas sexual crimes
The Israeli law professor and activist Yifat Bitton grew increasingly alarmed as she saw the volume of imagery of Israeli women circulating on social media in the aftermath of Hamas’s terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“As someone who has been an expert in fighting sexual violence, it immediately worried me,” she said during a Nov. 6 lecture at Yeshiva University in Manhattan, noting that Hamas terrorists were occupying military bases, kibbutzim and the Nova festival site. “There’s no way these women won’t be sexually hurt.”

Bitton contacted other legal scholars and activists to try to grasp the enormity of what was happening and to discuss preserving evidence.

“I am devoted to protecting those in harm’s way and dedicated to my brothers and sisters in Israel,” she told JNS. “I decided to step in and see how I could help.”

The president of Achva Academic College, Bitton began hearing testimony of first responders and survivors and documenting the rape and sexual assault that occurred that day.

“My decision was not to go for the hardcore evidence. I was not competing with the police in that respect,” she told JNS. She tried to find “what people missed,” she said, including overlooked clues.

The unprecedented brutality of the terror attacks left many first responders, who had never encountered so many examples of sexual violence, traumatized.

“People would share with me that they saw a naked woman’s body that looked to have been violated sexually,” Bitton told JNS. “For many of them, it was the first time they were doing so. They were looking for someone to tell it to, and they trusted me.”
Kibbutz Nir Oz votes to rebuild following October 7 destruction
A majority of Kibbutz Nir Oz members voted on Monday to return to their destroyed homes and rebuild, instead of relocating the kibbutz.

The kibbutz was among the hardest hit communities during Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel. One in four residents was either killed or kidnapped, including the Bibas family, mother Shiri, husband Yarden and their two children, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months old.

In a letter to the government, the kibbutz members stressed their expectations for a large-scale and generous construction plan, according to Israel's Channel 12 News.

In May, Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. Moshe Edri, the head of the government body overseeing the rehabilitation of the Gaza border region, said residents of Be’eri, Nir Oz and Kfar Aza would only be able to return home in two to three years.

Edri said that residents of those communities would be set up in temporary housing until then.

In December, Israel’s Cabinet approved the outline for a strategic multi-year plan to rehabilitate and develop the Gaza-adjacent region and its population.

The plan comprises a broad budgetary framework for five years (2024-2028) of up to 18 billion shekels ($4.9 billion).

Following the Oct. 7 massacre, all residents within seven kilometers of the Gaza border were evacuated.

In January, the IDF Home Front Command allowed the partial return of some communities, including those of Kibbutz Bror Hayil, Kibbutz Dorot, Kibbutz Gvar’am, Moshav Mavki’im, Moshav Yakhini and Kibbutz Yad Mordechai.


Art beyond borders: Shalva exhibit brings Israel’s story of war and resilience to Houston
An art exhibit that highlights the experiences of Israeli individuals with disabilities as they process the trauma of war is on display in the United States for the first time.

The Shalva Art Exhibit was curated to offer visitors a glimpse into the resilience and hardships faced by Israelis since October 7, 2023.

After being displayed in multiple countries, such as Korea, Hong Kong, Sweden, Israel, and England, the exhibit is currently in the US at Congregation Beth Yeshurun, located in Houston.

In the weeks following the war, Shalva’s art therapy team worked with teenagers and adults with disabilities to help them process and express their feelings in response to the traumatic events.

This program included regular Shalva participants and welcomed individuals with disabilities from evacuated communities within Israel.

Together, they created works of art that highlight how people with disabilities experience the impact of war from different parts of Israeli society.


Facing ‘unprecedented circumstances,’ colleges have ‘no North Star,’ says longtime higher-ed leader
Harvard University, Columbia University, Barnard College and Michigan State University were among the schools where some classes were reportedly canceled last week in response to former President Donald Trump winning the presidential election.

The fact that these universities did so angered “their Jewish peers, who were offered no such grace during months of anti-Israel campus protests where participants openly praised Hamas and hurled genocidal slogans after Oct. 7,” the New York Post reported.

Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, former president of nearly 30 years at George Washington University and University of Hartford and author of the book Presidencies Derailed: Why University Leaders Fail and How to Prevent It, thinks that “Columbia wants to do the right thing but finds itself pulled in conflicting directions.”

“Unprecedented circumstances have left them with no North Star to chart,” he told JNS.

“They face challenges from multiple constituencies and don’t know how to respond,” Trachtenberg added. “This is a novel experience for them.”

The prominent lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a professor emeritus of law at Harvard University, told JNS that it is “inappropriate” for Columbia to support the cancellation of classes in response to the election.

“The university should not allow professors to cancel classes because of such reasons, and I highly doubt they would have canceled if Harris had won the election,” he said, of Vice President Kamala Harris. “It is the complete introduction of politics into the school curriculum and universities need to remain neutral.”

“Students need to learn to cope,” he added. “When I was teaching at Harvard during Sept. 11, the university canceled classes. I told my students to defy university policy and come to class because we needed to talk about what happened.”

“If I were a student at a university that allowed this I would demand a tuition rebate proportionate to the class that was canceled,” Dershowitz added.
The show where children learn Tel Aviv is a ‘Jewish colony’ and do an ‘apartheid’ puzzle
A children’s exhibition on Palestine at Peterborough Museum depicts Tel Aviv as a “Jewish colony”, features the word “apartheid” in a puzzle activity and refers to Israeli actions in Gaza as “plausible genocide”.

The month-long display, which is organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, is titled Palestine: From the Bronze Age to the Present Day, even though the name “Palestine” does not appear until late antiquity.

One exhibit shows a map of “Palestine” – made in 2022 – that erases Israel entirely. The map also describes Palestinians in Israel as living in “Palestine 1948 (Israel)”; and represents 185 Israeli cities and towns, including Tel Aviv, as“Jewish colonies 1948”.

The exhibition includes various interactive activities to engage children, such as map-colouring and crossword puzzles, with many activities framing the conflict in stark, politically charged terms.

A wordsearch puzzle lists among answers the word “apartheid”, while one book on display, entitled Jewish Voices, features Jewish pro-Palestinian protesters and a quotation that refers to Israeli actions in Gaza as “plausible genocide”.

Another book shows a map of Palestine in 1917 that omits the area of Transjordan – now the state of Jordan – that originally formed part of the Mandate of Palestine entrusted to Britain. Other maps in the book dated 1948, 1967 and 1995 have areas shaded in blue which are represented as “under Jewish control”.

The accompanying text in the book says that “in 1948, Zionist military forces expelled 750,000 Palestinians from their homes”.

At the centre of the exhibition stands a tall roller-banner timeline, headed “A History of Palestine – From the Bronze Age to 1948” , which glosses over Jewish history and the Jewish connection to the land.

In the entry for 1200 to 2000 BCE it mentions the “seperate [sic] kingdoms of Israel, Judah and Samaria” emerging in the “interior and north”. The term “Palestine” first appears in the entry on Alexander the Great’s conquest of Western Asia from 322 BCE, that does not refer to Judea.
Ontario school played Palestinian protest song in Arabic as its Remembrance Day music
An Ottawa school played an Arabic-language Palestinian protest song associated with fighting in Gaza as the soundtrack to its Remembrance Day presentation, causing outrage and distress for some students and parents.

School board promises ‘thorough investigation’ into playing of Gaza protest song at Remembrance Day ceremony

The song was the sole musical accompaniment to a slide show of Canadian soldiers and words about peace shown at three Remembrance Day ceremonies for different age groups at Sir Robert Borden school on Monday, according to students and parents.

The musical selection was distracting and distressing to some in the audience, particularly Jewish students, some of whom complained to the principal afterwards.

Principal Aaron Hobbs defended the selection during one of those meetings, saying it was chosen to bring diversity and inclusion to Remembrance Day that is usually only about “a white guy who has done something related to the military.”

Hours later, after Hobbs had “a closed-door meeting,” staff said when National Post tried to contact him, he sent an email to the school community apologizing.

“It has come to my attention that the inclusion of the song ‘Haza Salam’ in the program caused significant distress to some members of our school community. For this, I would like to offer my apologies,” Hobbs said in the letter.

“We acknowledge that Remembrance Day is a solemn occasion, where the focus should remain on honouring those who have sacrificed their lives for the freedoms we hold dear. The inclusion of a song that could be seen as politically charged was not in line with the values of respect and unity that we strive to uphold at this school,” Hobbs said in his letter.


UN official: Israel committing ‘acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes’ in Gaza
A top UN official condemns what she terms “daily cruelty” in Gaza, describing “acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes.”

“What distinction was made, and what precautions were taken, if more than 70% of civilian housing is either damaged or destroyed?” Joyce Msuya, interim chief of the OCHA humanitarian agency, tells the Security Council. “We are witnessing acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes.”


Francesca Albanese celebrates rabbis in her own anti-Israel image
Early on in the Mishnah in Chapters of the Fathers, Joshua ben Prachiya instructs readers to “Make a rabbi for yourself, acquire a friend and judge everyone favorably.” Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for Palestinian rights who has been long and widely accused of Jew-hatred, appears to have appointed rabbinic supporters in her own anti-Israel image.

“Thanks to the rabbis who came from all over New York to support me and stand in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters,” Albanese wrote last week. “Their words resonate with me every day since: only united, Jewish, Palestinians, people of conscience, will we win the battle against colonial genocide and apartheid, and help usher in a new era of justice and freedom in the Levant.”

The U.N. adviser, whom the global body considers an independent “expert,” shared a link to the anti-Israel, Chassidic sect Neturei Karta (“Guardians of the City”), whose social-media handle states that it is “opposed the establishment and retain all opposition to the existence of the so-called State of Israel.”

“On Nov. 1, anti-Zionist Jews gathered outside the New School, New York City, countering Zionist protests against U.N. rapporteur Francesca Albanese,” the group wrote. “With banners reading, ‘True Jews say: We appreciate U.N. and UNRWA support for oppressed Palestinians,’ they showed solidarity, rejecting Zionist intimidation and standing for justice in Palestine. Free Palestine.”

The group, which is ostracized by mainstream U.S. Jewry, attended one of the stops on Albanese’s speaking tour in the United States and Canada, following her release of a report and presentation of it to the U.N. General Assembly. The report purports to provide “clearly identifiable” evidence of Israeli genocide against Palestinians.


Fact-checkers are absent when ‘Editor & Publisher’ covers Israel
For a magazine that prides itself on journalistic standards, Editor & Publisher seems to throw those standards right out the window when Israel is the subject of their reporting.

A feature story in the October issue of E&P—the leading trade magazine of the U.S. news media industry—described the difficulties faced by some reporters covering the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But the biggest difficulty with the article was its parroting of blatant anti-Israel falsehoods.

The author of the article, Gretchen A. Peck, who is a contributing editor, set the tone in her introduction, by describing how Hamas “militants” (she never calls them terrorists) attacked Israel, resulting in a “brutal” response from Israel (she never uses such adjectives about Hamas).

Peck states as fact that “at least 41,020 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza,” without explaining that the “Ministry of Health” is, in fact, controlled by Hamas. She also fails to note that about half of the casualties in Gaza have been terrorists, not civilians.

Peck proceeds to interview several journalists based in the Middle East. She repeatedly quotes them making false statements but never corrects them.

First up is Julian Borger, world affairs editor for the British newspaper The Guardian. He refers to what he calls “the mass killing of civilians” by Israel, using terminology that makes it sound as if Israel is perpetrating another Holocaust.

Borger makes a big point about the fact that journalists have been among the dead in Gaza. He puts it this way: “There have been suspicions that journalists have been particularly targeted [by Israel]. That may be true, but it’s unproven.”

If it’s unproven, if it’s just a “suspicion,” then why is Borger saying it in public, and why is E&P giving him a platform to spread it? Is that an appropriate professional way of reporting—to cite unproven rumors?

Borger recalls that he was reporting from Jerusalem during the 2000 Camp David Summit. “Negotiations broke down,” he recalls. In fact, they didn’t just “break down”—Yasser Arafat rejected Israel’s offer of wide-ranging concessions, and then launched the mass-murder spree known as the Second Intifada. But for some reason, Borger and E&P didn’t think that was relevant to mention.


Netanyahu to Iranians: Another attack on Israel would ‘cripple’ Iran’s economy
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that a third Iranian attack on Israel “would simply cripple Iran’s economy,’ in his second English-language video statement addressed to the Iranian people within months.

“A few weeks ago, I spoke directly to the people of Iran. Millions of people around the world, millions in Iran itself saw that video. And after they saw it, many Iranians reached out to Israel. So today, I want to once again address the people of Iran,” Netanyahu said.

“It would rob you of many more billions of dollars,” he said of a potential additional attack, after claiming that the October ballistic missile attack on Israel cost Tehran $2.3 billion.

A Netanyahu spokesperson later clarified that $2.3 billion represented the cost of the more than 200 ballistic missiles fired at Israel.

His warning that another attack would “cripple” Iran’s economy could also be interpreted as a threat that if Iran attacks again, Israel will seek to cause significant economic damage to Iran.

Netanyahu last addressed the Iranian people just two days before Tehran launched some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1, sending most of the population rushing to bomb shelters and safe rooms. The assault — Iran’s second direct attack on Israel, after a drone and missile strike in April — caused relatively minor damage to military bases and some residential areas in Israel and killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank.

Iran said its October 1 attack came in retaliation for the killing of Tehran-backed terror leaders and an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander.

Iran has threatened to strike Israel again after Israel retaliated last month with an airstrike on Iranian air defense batteries and military sites protecting crucial energy facilities.

Netanyahu said that the October attack “did marginal damage to Israel.”

“But what damage did [it] do to you?” he asked. “That sum could have added billions to your transportation budget. It could have added billions to your education budget.”

“But instead, Khamenei exposed the regime’s brutality and turned the world against your country. He robbed you of money that should have been yours,” the prime minister said.

Netanyahu argued that Iranians’ lives would be transformed if the regime spent money on education, infrastructure and health care instead of on wars with Israel.


Iranian cleric at COP29 attacks Israel in speech
Religious and interfaith leaders from around the world gathering in Azerbaijan for COP29 have condemned a cleric from Iran after he used his opportunity to speak to attack Israel.

More than 350 leaders representing over 50 different religions took part in the pre-COP29 summit in Baku, entitled “World Religions for a Green Planet”, and each was allotted five minutes during their turn to explain why environmentalism is important within the confines of their own religion.

At least one delegate, a senior Iranian Shia cleric named Hamid Shahriari, used his time to instead lambast the “hyper-capitalist axis” led by the United States, which he said was responsible for the “worsening situation every day for the women and children of Palestine and Lebanon.”

Without mentioning Israel by name, referring to the country instead as “the aggressor”, Shahriari charged the country with being “more interested in killing children” than environmental practices.

Shahriari, who was appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei as the general secretary of The World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought in 2019, said the “aggressor’s war” constituted a war crime and its perpetrators “must be brought to the International Court”.

He questioned why the “cries of more than 23,000 children” who have died is of “no importance to international leaders pursuing world peace”.

He said it was “not enough” to simply condemn, imploring “international leaders to come together to punish [Israel] for their actions.”

“World peace,” he said, “will only be guaranteed comprehensively when all criminals are brought to justice. Justice is the only way to save humanity from the evil of war. In Islam, justice depends on punishing those who have committed crimes.

“Otherwise,” he added, “just war is the duty of every Muslim and Islamic nation.”


Germany detains teen with ‘extremist Islamic views’ over suspected attack plot
German prosecutors on Tuesday said that a 17-year-old had been arrested for plotting an Islamist terror attack, with media reports saying he wanted to target a Christmas market.

He is suspected of “preparing a serious violent attack” and “conspiracy to commit murder,” and had “extreme Islamist views,” said the prosecutors in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein.

The suspect is a German national and was arrested on Wednesday last week in the town of Elmshorn, they said.

The Bild daily reported that the suspect had planned to attack a Christmas market with a truck.

In December 2016 a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market killed 12 people, the deadliest jihadist attack ever committed in Germany.

Alongside several other countries, Germany has been on high alert for Islamist attacks since the Palestinian terror group Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault on Israel that killed 1,200 people and sparked the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

Authorities say they have foiled several planned attacks.

However, three people were killed and eight wounded in a knife attack at a street festival in the western city of Solingen in August, allegedly carried out by a Syrian asylum seeker and claimed by the Islamic State group.
‘Kiss the flag, Nazi’: The anti-Israel event at Microsoft
Over the past year, I have read far too many biased media accounts regarding what has been happening at “pro-Palestine” protests across the United States and the world. Until now, I was fortunate to not be a witness to the misconstrued events, however, my luck has turned. I’d like to set the story straight.

I am a software engineer working for Microsoft at their Redmond campus near Seattle. On Tuesday, October 22, I learned of plans for an event from a social media post that was shared with me. Screenshot of announcement of the No Azure for Apartheid event posted on Instagram story of ‘monsoonflwr’

As I read the words “Let us honor our Palestinian martyrs,” my stomach began churning. Like many Jews/Israelis, I associate the word martyr with dead terrorists. The location only intensified my anxiety. The East Campus Plaza is only a building away from where I work. I, along with dozens of fellow Jewish coworkers, sent emails to security and HR, asking, hoping, praying that the event honoring our people’s murderers would not be allowed to proceed. Vexingly, all we heard back from security and HR were versions of “we are aware and working to address these concerns.” But asking what action is being taken to ensure our safety and getting a response of ‘action is being taken, fear not’ does not actually help us to ‘fear not.’

Eventually, late in the afternoon of Wednesday, October 23, we were informed that the event organizers had been notified they could not hold their event on campus and that they had to move it to a public space. Despite my and others’ doubts that this would indeed happen, there was no longer much that could be done as the business day had ended and our concerns had seemingly fallen on deaf ears.

The next day, I heard from a coworker that they had seen the protestors assembling exactly as they’d advertised on the East Campus Plaza. Putting aside my safety concerns, I decided to head down there and attempt to record some of the events and potential interactions that might take place and involve employees to hopefully make it easier to hold any organizers and instigators accountable after the fact.

Fortunately, the event was on the small side, with only about 30 to 40 people present. Despite claiming in every publication and in their press conference that the event was a vigil, they spoke only briefly of the dead and held two minutes of silence for them. The rest of the hour-long event was dedicated to the defamation of Microsoft, the company at which they perplexingly choose to continue working despite alleging that it profits from genocide and Israel.
Vandals slash out faces, Jewish stars, from Milan mural depicting Holocaust survivors
An Italian mural depicting two Holocaust survivors has been vandalized, with the faces of the survivors erased, Italian news sites reported on Tuesday.

The mural, which first appeared in Milan on September 30, was created by well-known pop artist aleXsandro Palombo.

It featured Liliana Segre (an Italian senator for life) and Sami Modiano, who are among the last remaining witnesses of the Holocaust, and who both survived Auschwitz. The mural depicted them with yellow Stars of David on their chests.

Palombo created the piece in response to threats made against Segre during a pro-Palestine protest on September 28, during which posters were held up with the words “Zionist agent” written across Segre’s face.

According to the reports on Tuesday, the vandals erased Segre’s and Modiano’s faces on the mural, as well as the Stars of David and the prisoner number on Modiano’s suitcase.

The Shoah Museum in Rome said that the vandalism “not only harms art but defaces the value of memory, which is fundamental for building a conscious and just society.”

The museum’s president, Mario Venezia, said the vandalism was a “vile and demented act.”

Venezia added that the defacers failed in erasing the memory of the two survivors.

“A scratch does not erase people, nor their past. They may damage the walls, but history and its teachings remain intact,” he said.


Lithuania’s governing coalition to include party led by alleged Jew-hater
The move by the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party to form a government with the Nemunas Party has inspired concern from the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“The Social Democrats’ decision to enter a coalition with the Nemunas Party—a party whose leader has been indicted for inciting violence and hatred against Jews—undermines the core values that unite our nations,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said in a statement on Nov. 8.

Remigijus Žemaitaitis, the party’s founder and leader, stepped down from parliament earlier this year rather than face impeachment following a court ruling that he had violated his oath of office with antisemitic social-media postings. Zemaitaitis awaits trial and disputes that his online writings promoted hate.

Cardin warned that “at a time when antisemitism is on the rise around the world, giving a platform to antisemitic rhetoric and acts of hate is not just a betrayal of shared democratic ideals, but a physical threat to the safety of Jewish and minority communities.”

Describing the attack in Amsterdam against Jewish soccer fans as “a stark reminder that violent antisemitism is a real and escalating threat,” the senator called for Lithuania “to protect the rights and dignity of all its citizens, including its Jewish community, and words and acts of violence must have consequences.”
Israeli startups raised nearly $1b in October
Israeli privately-held tech companies raised over $8 billion in the first ten months of 2024, up from $6.9 billion in all of 2023.

Israeli startups raised nearly $1 billion in October 2024, according to reports and press releases seen by "Globes." The figure may be more as some companies prefer to remain in stealth and sometimes do not publicize the investments they have received.

Israeli privately-held tech companies raised $7.2 billion in the first nine months of 2024, according to IVC-LeumiTech. So with last month's figure over $8 billion was raised in the first ten months of 2024. indicating a recovery from 2023 when $6.9 billion was raised in the entire year, after $15 billion was raised in 2022, and a record $25.6 billion was raised in 2021.

In October 2024, the biggest financing rounds were completed by: cybersecurity company Armis, which raised $200 million; payments platform Melio, which raised $150 million; proptech company DoorLoop, which raised $100 million, and cloud backup company EON, which raised $77 million.
Google, Amazon set to compete in tender for Israel’s AI supercomputing platform
Leading technology companies Google and Amazon will compete in a closed tender to provide data infrastructure for Israel’s supercomputer, aimed at equipping the high-tech industry and academia with faster computational power to train large artificial intelligence models.

The tender, led by the Israel Innovation Authority, which is in charge of setting out the nation’s tech policy, is part of the NIS 1 billion ($266 million) National AI Program, geared to help Israel maintain and strengthen its position as a global leader in light of the fast-evolving technology.

“We want Israeli companies to push for this big revolution of AI by collecting relevant data, uploading them to the cloud, and start training them to get insights in order to supply services and new products,” Aviv Zeevi, head of the technology infrastructure division at the Israel Innovation Authority told The Times of Israel. “We don’t want Israeli companies to be delayed by the fact there is not enough infrastructure or it’s too costly for them to train the data.”

Supercomputers are next-generation machines that can process exponentially more data than classical computers with a number-crunching capability to perform calculations at blazingly fast speeds. They use a significant number of graphics processing units (GPUs) — which offer high processing and computational abilities that ordinary computers cannot achieve — to run complex simulations, address questions about nature and climate change, and develop new AI-driven technologies in areas from transportation and medicine to drug discovery.

Israel still ranks among the top 10 ecosystems for artificial intelligence, but it is far from unlocking the full potential of revolutionary technology as competition in the global AI race intensifies.

Over the past year, industry leaders and tech entrepreneurs have raised concerns that Israel is missing the AI wave and needs to implement a long-term strategy to allocate money and resources to boost education and academic research, encourage startups, and provide the infrastructure and computational power needed to run AI models.


Afghanistan’s last Jew arrives in Israel three years after fleeing Taliban rule
Zebulon Simantov, Afghanistan’s last Jew, has arrived in Israel after fleeing the Taliban’s rule three years ago, media reports said Tuesday.

Simantov, 65, fled Afghanistan in September 2021 with the help of businessman Moti Kahana to Istanbul, Turkey to continue on to Israel, but enjoyed living there and remained until now, The UK Jewish News reported.

Kahana told The Jewish News that Simantov, increasingly ill due to the move and living in a wheelchair, found it a challenge to continue living in Turkey and has now moved to Israel.

Simantov’s older brother Binyamin told the Walla news site he was surprised to receive a call on Thursday night that his brother had arrived in Israel.

“I couldn’t believe what I heard. On Saturday evening we drove to see him in the place he lives in southern Israel,” Binyamin said. “We haven’t seen each other for almost 25 years.”

Simantov has five siblings and two daughters in Israel.
Gal Gadot hosts Academy members for screening of Israel’s Oscars choice
Movie star Gal Gadot hosted a reception and screening on Monday for Israeli filmmaker Tom Nesher and her debut film, “Come Closer,” Israel’s submission for an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature Film.

The Los Angeles-based event was attended by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as well as celebrities, filmmakers and members of the local film industry.

Gadot, of “Wonder Woman” fame, and Nesher, an emerging filmmaker, haven’t worked on a film together, but it’s typical for known names in the industry to promote and host screenings of films during the runup period to the Oscar nominations.

Nesher’s “Come Closer” is based in Israel and tells the story of Eden, a young woman who deeply cares for her younger brother, believing there are no boundaries or secrets between them. When he’s killed in a car accident, Eden discovers his secret girlfriend Maya and embarks on a journey to discover more about her, leading the two women to an obsessive bond.

The film was inspired by the Nesher family’s real-world tragedy when Tom’s brother Ari was killed in a hit-and-run in 2018. Tom Nesher’s father is a renowned filmmaker, Avi Nesher.

“Come Closer” received 12 nominations for her debut film at the recent Ophir Awards, Israel’s equivalent to the Oscars, winning Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Leading Actress award for Lia Elalouf, and Best Editing.
German-British artist Frank Auerbach, who fled the Nazis as a child, dies at 93
Frank Auerbach, who fled Nazi Germany for Britain as a child and became one of the major modern artists of the 20th century, has died aged 93.

Auerbach’s gallery, Frankie Rossi Art Projects, said on Tuesday the artist died at his home in London the day before.

Born in Berlin to Jewish parents in 1931, Auerbach was sent to England in 1939 under the Kindertransport scheme to spare him from Nazi persecution. British writer and philanthropist Iris Origo sponsored his passage, and that of five other children.

His parents, Max Auerbach and Charlotte Nora Borchardt, remained behind and were killed in Auschwitz.

Once in England, Auerbach was sent to Bunce Court School, a German boarding school that was relocated to England in 1933 following the Nazi rise to power.

In an interview with The Standard in 2013, he recalled learning that his parents were dead when he was just 10 years old.

“During the war there were Red Cross letters which had just 25 words, so all you got was a very brief message, but then these letters ceased coming to me in 1943. It marked an end but I can’t even remember someone saying your parents are no longer alive,” he said. “It was just gradually leaked to me.”

In the years following the war, Auerbach attended the Borough Polytechnic Institute, where he was taught by British-Jewish artist David Bomberg.




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