Wednesday, December 10, 2025

12/10 Links Pt2: The West is sleepwalking into a Jewish exodus; ‘One Ring’ of pro-Palestine propaganda shaping the war on Zionism; Columbia Report Details 'Disturbing' Anti-Semitism From Instructors at Ivy League School

From Ian:

‘After what happened to my generation, I hoped we’d moved past anti-Jewish racism’
Nine centenarian Holocaust survivors share stories from the past – and fears for the future – at the German embassy

If you had told a 13-year-old Alice Hubbers in 1938 – as she witnessed the wanton brutality of Kristallnacht – that she would one day be taking tea in the residence of Germany’s ambassador to London, she would have questioned your sanity.

Yet here she is, 87 years later, tucking into doughnuts and English scones beneath enormous chandeliers in Belgravia, celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

Hubbers, now 100, was one of nine centenarians invited by the ambassador on Dec 8 to a unique gathering for some of the last Holocaust survivors. They have all led lives blighted by Nazi persecution, which saw the murder of many of their parents and wider family.

Susanne Baumann, the German ambassador to London, addressed her guests as “my dear centenarians”, telling them she wanted to take the chance to honour not only their longevity, but “to take this opportunity to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your inspirational and generous commitment to sharing your moving personal accounts with us over the years and for your courage in reaching out to the younger generation in the UK and Germany, who are thankfully able to grow up in freedom and in safety”.

She also wanted to treat them to a celebration ahead of both Christmas and Hanukkah. “It might not be quite as exciting as a birthday message from the King,” she conceded, “but please allow me to officially congratulate you all again today.”

Marion Koppel, who is “101 and a half”, says: “I think it’s quite impressive, if I may say so.”
The West is sleepwalking into a Jewish exodus.
There is also a growing political calculation that Jews are demographically irrelevant, especially compared with Muslim voters, with the U.S. being the only partial exception. Islamists and Far-Left activists are larger and louder blocs, so leaders choose numbers over decency.

Given all this, it is unsurprising that Jews across the West are asking: Do we have a future here? Should we encourage our children to stay? Is Europe safe? Is North America safe? Is Australia safe? Is South Africa safe? Should we move assets abroad? Should we obtain an Israeli passport as insurance? These are not hypothetical questions. Jewish emigration from France, Belgium, Sweden, and the UK has already accelerated. The U.S. is behind Europe, but rising too.

The West will not lose its Jews in one dramatic moment. It will lose them through a slow drip of insult, a steady rise in fear, and a growing sense of no longer belonging. A key question is whether today’s Diaspora Jews will repeat the mistake of their forefathers and wait for catastrophe before acting. The tremors before the earthquake rumble louder each day.

If Western nations lose their Jewish communities, they will forfeit things they never realized Jews had given them: parts of their moral compass, their historical memory of totalitarianism, a large portion of their intellectual class, and history’s finest early-warning system of civilizational decline.

Throughout history, how a society treats its Jews predicts its future with unerring accuracy. Antisemitism is a symptom of broader decay that putrefies its way into a society’s core. Western civilization will not fall because its enemies are strong, but because it is abandoning the people who held the line when others looked away.

Jews will not turn on the West; they will quietly leave, taking with them their culture, innovation, generosity, reverence for law, belief in democracy, and their disproportionate contributions to science, medicine, the arts, finance, technology, journalism, literature, and public life.

They will leave because a civilization that will not defend its Jews will defend next to nothing. The West — much of it confused, cowardly, morally exhausted, and presently self-absorbed — may not even notice the loss until it is far too late.
Yisrael Medad: ‘One Ring’ of pro-Palestine propaganda shaping the war on Zionism
The results of an intriguing study on anti-Israel and anti-Zionist language usage were published on December 2. Veteran blogger Elder of Ziyon displayed a detailed table with results of a study that reviewed the terminology employed in academic papers going back from 2005 through 2024. His findings are that antisemitic and activist anti-Zionist language is used in thousands of academic papers, thus reinforcing a negative subjective narrative.

The phrases and terms used in these papers included “Jewish supremacism,” “Talmudic rituals,” “Israeli Occupation Forces,” Gaza as an “open air prison,” and “Judaization,” among others. Such language seeps from the academic world into mainstream media op-eds, and then back again. Students and university colleagues are regularized to express themselves by using the exclusionary language of castigation and of animosity regarding Jewish nationalism and Middle East politics.

What is at work here results not in detached independent scientific research, but rather, it eventually locks the public into an ideological entrenchment primed and positioned to disallow any refutation. Moreover, there is no possible defense by those targeted as “colonialists.” Even more dangerous, it is a rhetoric of volatility.

The articulation may seem to be lofty academic verbiage, but it is just a repeat of medieval theological cancellation as when Jews were forced to engage in demeaning, unfair disputations. Today’s anti-Zionist hordes – safe in their self-constructed castles of words that reinforce the visceral animosity they already have in place – always have the advantage.

Raef Zreik, an Israeli Arab who is a senior lecturer of Jurisprudence at Ono Academic College and a senior research fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, wrote a 2023 article titled “Zionism and Political Theology.” It purports to “identify what is unique about the political theology of Zionism” and “explores what the consequences of this uniqueness might be.”


Seth Mandel: Nick Fuentes and the Problem of ‘Prestige Inflation’
Fuentes is also undeniably talented. His impish performance combined with his Peter Pannish stature makes it easy to forget he is an actual white nationalist who spreads some of the most dangerous ideas on the planet. That’s an obvious problem, because self-deprecating cynicism is harder to keep out of the mainstream than raging skinhead monologues.

There’s another problem, and it has to do with the way partisanship infects everything in American public discourse. Disaffected right-wing young men are quick to embrace provocation for its own sake, believing that there must be a connection between their own misery and the library of ideas that have been withheld from them by gatekeepers. And telling them that something is “offensive” only makes it more attractive to many of them.

And Fuentes gets bipartisan help. The NCRI study found something anyone paying attention has seen recently: “Since September 2025, there has been a noticeable shift in which visual narratives around Nick Fuentes changed dramatically. Previously described and shown in ghoulish, unattractive terms; his image became presented as extremely appealing, even for ostensibly liberal-left outlets.”

And “high-status” descriptions of him in the mainstream media have exploded. Some left-of-center outlets such as the New York Times are telling their audience that, while Fuentes is bad, he is also extremely important. That grows his audience. Others who ostensibly oppose his ideas want very badly to be able to tag all of conservatism with Fuentes’s stink. They have a strong ideological incentive to boost Fuentes’s celebrity even though they have a moral obligation to do the opposite. The result is an ecosystem of negative partisanship that elevates knowingly evil people and ideas. We can call this “prestige inflation,” because Fuentes’s status is manufactured in part by people who want the public to believe that following him is an important part of understanding modern American politics.

Whatever happens with Fuentes, this is a blueprint for foreign actors to follow if they want to derail American civic culture.

To be clear, the mainstream media were the last ones to the party regarding Fuentes. They did not create him or groom him for stardom, and they are not primarily responsible for him. But they should absolutely stop inflating him. And right-wingers who like the repugnant Fuentes should confront how easily they became dupes for foreign actors under the guise of “America first.” Conservatives used to understand that evil exists and isn’t made less evil just because it bothers liberals. Those who still understand that have a responsibility to say so.
‘Under siege’: Creators describe rising antisemitism in Hollywood
‘I knew I’d find out here what’s really going on in TV, because Israel always knows,” said Mad Men creator, Matthew Weiner, on Monday at the final day of Jerusalem Sessions, a three-day event for leading television industry professionals from Israel and around the world held at the National Library of Israel. “The Israeli artists and producers I’ve met here are amazing.”

Weiner was joined at the event by Joel Fields, co-creator of The Americans, another of the greatest television series of all time, in a summit modeled after international events such as Series Mania and Canneseries. In addition to the presentations, it was a networking event, with plenty of time for snacks and schmooze, and highlighted the capital’s role as a hub for creativity and innovation.

Jerusalem Sessions was an initiative of the Jerusalem Media Initiative at the Jerusalem Development Authority, and was supported by the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage, and the Jerusalem Municipality. Representatives of the major Israeli players in the content and creative technology sectors, including SIPUR and Lightricks, were also present.

Just before the event began on Monday morning, Fields spoke to The Jerusalem Post about his recent decision to help launch the Jewish Entertainment Alliance, sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, with Homeland creator Howard Gordon, actress Ginner Goodwin, and others to help combat antisemitism in Hollywood.

He mentioned how his grandparents moved to Israel when he was a child and said that his sister, brother-in-law, and other relatives live here, before he described how he has observed the rise of antisemitism following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Leaked email reveals ABC omitted key detail from Gaza report
In a leaked email sent to the GHF seeking comment on the story an ABC correspondent outlined the contractor's claims on behalf of a colleague working on the interview, but added the missing boy's "adoptive mother" had told the broadcaster she did not believe her son had been killed.

"She told us she believes he was taken by American contractors and fed and cared for because he was in a bad state when he attended the aid site," the email said.

That detail was left out of the ABC's report, which Markson claimed demonstrated bias against the GHF - established by Israel and the United States to provide aid to Gazans in place of the United Nations.

The organisation has faced repeated accusations of violence on and near its aid sites, including claims Palestinians were being deliberately targeted by security forces.

Both the GHF and UG Solutions have rejected the former security contractor's account and have claimed he was "terminated for misconduct".

According to a separate email seen by Markson, the former also contacted the ABC in September, claiming they had located Amir alive and well.

Responding to GHF's request to do a follow up on the story, the same ABC correspondent suggested such a report was unlikely to air.

"As you pointed out, there were some inconsistencies and elements of the story which could not be verified. Consequently, I'm not sure if we will cover this new development as we did not cover the initial allegations, but I've emailed my editors about it," the email said.

An editor's note was subsequently added to the ABC's digital story containing the original interview.

"About one month after this interview, media reports emerged that ‘Amir’ had been found alive following a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation investigation," the note read.
‘Dereliction of duty’: ABC's ‘extraordinary bias’ revealed in bombshell leaked emails

West Midlands Police may face second hearing and warned about misleading parliament
West Midlands Police (WMP) is likely to appear before the Home Affairs Select Committee for a second time to answer more questions about the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from the clash against Aston Villa last month.

In a December 9 letter to WMP Chief Constable Craig Guildford, the committee’s chair Dame Karen Bradley thanked him for his appearance earlier this month but added: “In the light of subsequent developments, we have a number of questions relating to the actions of West Midlands Police in respect of this fixture.

"It is therefore our strong expectation that you will return to give further oral evidence to the Committee in the new year.”

Bradley also demanded the force provide the committee with additional information including a copy of the community impact assessment carried out for the fixture, including details of when and how Jewish community representatives were consulted.

The chair also requested a copy of the email summarising the Chief Inspector's meeting with Dutch police; a summary of any communication between the force and Maccabi Tel Aviv over the fixture, including confirmation they had not been informed the Ultras were not attending; and a summary of any communication WMP had with Uefa regarding the fixture.

At WMP’s first appearance at the committee earlier this month, Assistant Chief Constable Mike O’Hara suggested that members of the Jewish community had backed the ban on Maccabi fans, a claim the force have since rolled back on.

Bradley urged WMP to “clarify the remarks made by Assistant Chief Constable Mike O’Hara that Jewish community representatives objected to the presence of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, something which we now understand to be untrue”.

She added: “Misleading Parliament, intentionally or otherwise, is a serious matter and we would be grateful if you would correct the record and explain how this mistake occurred.”

During the first evidence session, Guildford admitted that WMP’s intelligence report used to justify the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans contained a reference to a football fixture that never happened between Maccabi and West Ham United.

He also revealed that claims that 5,000 police officers were required to police Maccabi’s fixture with Dutch side Ajax in Amsterdam last year – which were disputed by official Dutch reports and the Mayor of Amsterdam – were based on an assumption by WMP.


Home Secretary denies entry to Pakistani influencer over antisemitic remarks and calls for jihad
The Home Secretary has denied entry to Pakistani influencer Tuaha Ibn Jalil, blocking his planned UK speaking tour after being alerted to his history of antisemitic comments and incitement to violence.

Jalil, who has two million Instagram followers, was scheduled to speak at mosques, community centres, a university, and a school across the UK. However, his visa was revoked after The Times brought his inflammatory statements to the attention of Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary.

Past remarks by Jalil included claims that “Israelis and Jews … are controlling the whole world through interest-based finance” and the repetition of racist conspiracies about Jewish people controlling the media.

He has also urged Muslims to travel to Palestine for “jihad” and expressed frustration that, as a Pakistani citizen, he cannot enter Israel to wage holy war.

“We cannot go to Palestine because Palestinians don’t have an airport,” Jalil said. “The only airport is in Israel and we cannot land there because they do not allow us. It is not possible for us to travel to Israel on our passports. We cannot do jihad right now.”

Lord Walney, the government’s former independent adviser on political violence, called it “insane to let this man into the UK” and urged the government to revoke Jalil’s visa “immediately.”
Iceland becomes fifth country to boycott Eurovision 2026
Iceland’s national broadcaster RUV has confirmed it will not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026.

It is the fifth country to confirm that it will not participate in the singing competition as a result of Israel’s participation, joining the likes of Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Slovenia.

Prior to the announcement, Iceland’s minister for media, Logi Einarsson, told RUV that he would consider it “unfortunate” if Iceland participated alongside Israel.

Russia was banned from Eurovision after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but Israel has continued to compete for the past couple of years despite disputes.

In September, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Slovenia threatened to withdraw unless Israel was excluded over the war in Gaza.
Casualty Statistics Driving a False “Settler Violence” Narrative in the West Bank
Nearly every day, newspapers globally report on the number of Palestinians reportedly killed in the West Bank by the IDF or by Israelis living in the West Bank. Taking the numbers from the UN, outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, ABC Australia, and the BBC have all referenced Palestinians killed by both “Israeli forces and settlers.”

While the IDF is known to take precautions during its operations in the West Bank to minimize harm to civilians, many of those killed are not ordinary Palestinian civilians at all, but rather terrorists with affiliations to terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, or lone actors committing attacks against Israelis and the IDF.

However, the media are not reporting on these incidents accurately, with outlets consistently crafting stories in which it is suggested that Palestinian civilians are being routinely attacked and murdered by Israelis living in the West Bank.

Casualties Reported
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank from October 7, 2023, until December 2025.

B’Tselem, a fringe Israeli “human rights group,” that has previously accused Israel of committing genocide, has also kept data of the Palestinians killed in the West Bank, including the name, location, date of death, and type of injury.

From October 7, 2023, through October 31, 2025—the latest date of available data—B’Tselem lists 963 Palestinian deaths by Israeli forces in the West Bank and Israel. Just under 50 percent of those killed are recorded as having known terror-group affiliations, not including lone-wolf attackers who attempted or carried out assaults on Israeli civilians or security forces.

In the same period, B’Tselem recorded an additional 24 Palestinians killed by Israeli civilians and 13 killed by unidentified parties. These figures include individuals affiliated with terror organizations such as Hamas or Islamic Jihad, as well as unaffiliated attackers who carried out terror assaults. In total, B’Tselem reported approximately 1,000 deaths over the two-year period.

The OCHA lists 1,020 Palestinian casualties in the West Bank and Israel for the same period (October 7, 2023, until October 31, 2025). This includes 23 Palestinians killed by Israeli civilians or off-duty soldiers. It does not provide the name and type of injury for each individual. The casualties in this list include Palestinians who died of direct “confrontations” with Israelis, meaning it also includes terrorists that were killed during or after comitting a terror attack.

When comparing OCHA and B’Tselem’s data, several patterns emerge. While the datasets differ somewhat in methodology, categorization, and total counts, their overall trends remain consistent.


‘Loud, Bold, and Unchecked’: New Campus Antisemitism Report Card Fails the Ivy League
StopAntisemitism, a Jewish civil rights advocacy group, has conferred mediocre and failing grades to over a dozen elite American colleges in a new annual report, citing the institutions’ failing to mount a meaningful response to the campus antisemitism crisis.

Of all the Ivy League universities assessed by StopAntisemitism, only three — Cornell University (C), Dartmouth College (B), and Princeton University (D) — merited higher than an “F.” StopAntisemitism, which is led by executive director Liora Rez, said other schools in the conference, such as Harvard University and Yale University, continue to offer Jewish students a hostile environment, citing as evidence feedback it has received from Jewish students who attend them.

“At Harvard, Jewish students report high levels of self-censorship and antisemitism, with federal authors finding the university showed ‘deliberate indifference.’ Despite new initiatives, the campus climate remains tense and accountability uncertain,” the report says. “At Yale, Jewish students faced harassment, exclusion, and blocked access, prompting a federal investigation. Despite policy changes, the campus remains hostile and unsafe for Jewish students.”

Other elite schools such as the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Wesleyan University didn’t perform well either. Ds and Fs were given to the lot. Meanwhile, in the Washington, DC metropolitan region, a destination for students aspiring to future roles in government, American University and Georgetown University earned Ds.
'It's Such a Shame That Your People Survived': Columbia Report Details 'Disturbing' Anti-Semitism From Instructors at Ivy League School
Columbia University published its fourth and final anti-Semitism report on Tuesday. It paints a "disturbing" picture of life as a Jewish student at the Ivy League institution, where instructors smeared Jews and Israelis in their classes as occupiers and "murderers" and used unrelated lectures on topics like astronomy to rail against "genocide" in Gaza.

The report recounts a number of "disturbing incidents in classrooms" that Columbia's Task Force on Antisemitism uncovered through conversations with Jewish and Israeli students. Some of those incidents—like the January storming of an Israeli history class by keffiyeh-clad students who distributed pro-Hamas leaflets and harassed Jews—were highly publicized when they happened. Others were unknown until the report's release.

A section titled, "Scapegoating Jewish and Israeli Students for Their Ties to Israel" details scores of incidents in which Columbia instructors "singled out Jewish and Israeli students for personal scapegoating because of their real or perceived ties to Israel" in violation of federal anti-discrimination guidelines. One Israeli student was told, "You must know a lot about settler colonialism. How do you feel about that?" Another was called an "occupier," while a third was told that, because she served in Israel's "army of murderers," she "should be considered as one of those murderers."

Jewish students from the United States were singled out, too. One reported being told by an instructor, "It's such a shame that your people survived in order to commit mass genocide." Another emailed his professor to challenge her framing of Israel's war on Hamas, only to hear the professor read the email aloud to the entire class without the student's permission.

The contents of the report are aligned with the Trump administration's diagnosis of pervasive anti-Semitism at Columbia. They also suggest Columbia has a long way to go to address the issue, even after the school agreed to a $221 million anti-discrimination settlement with the federal government.


Berkeley denies liability, opts to pay $116,000 to settle lawsuit alleging anti-Israel bias
The Regents of the University of California, a 26-person body that governs the public school system, agreed on Wednesday to pay $116,000 to Yael Nativ, an Israeli dance instructor, and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law to settle a lawsuit alleging anti-Israel bias.

The center and the professor alleged in the suit that the University of California, Berkeley rejected Nativ’s application to be a visiting professor in the 2024-25 academic year due to her Israeli nationality. She taught at the school in 2022.

Nativ sued in Alameda County Superior Court in August, after Berkeley’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination found in September 2024 that the school had discriminated against her.

Paul Eckles, senior litigation counsel at the Brandeis Center, told JNS that the suit was “a fairly simple case” with “really a straightforward application of employment law.”

“Our client had been a visiting professor. She had a successful first experience there and had been invited to return, but then, following Oct. 7, when things heated up on the campus, her application to return was denied,” he said. “The university’s discrimination office investigated and determined that she, in fact, was a victim of national origin discrimination.”

Eckles told JNS that it is “troubling” that the university didn’t take any further action and that Nativ’s pleas for it to do so “fell on deaf ears.”

“It’s sad that it took a lawsuit to get this addressed, but Berkeley ultimately did the right thing,” he said. “We’re gratified that we were able to bring her some justice.”

The agreement states that the university’s governing body “denies liability.”
Former CNN Producer Now Works As Qatar Foundation Foreign Agent Working To ‘Elevate and Promote’ Regime ‘Within US Media,’ Records Show
A veteran producer at CNN now serves as a registered foreign agent for the Qatar Foundation working to "elevate and promote" the regime-led nonprofit "within U.S. media," federal disclosures reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.

Monika Plocienniczak joined CNN as an associate producer in 2010, shortly after she graduated with a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. She left the network five years later to work in the public relations industry, eventually joining the New York-based firm RF Binder as a managing director in December 2023.

It was then that Plocienniczak registered as a foreign agent representing the Qatar Foundation. In her federal disclosure, which is active through October 2026, Plocienniczak says she provides "work related to media outreach and engagement to elevate and promote the public profile of Qatar Foundation within U.S. media around its three core mission areas: education, research, and community development."

The Qatar Foundation has paid RF Binder at least $460,000 since Plocienniczak registered as its agent, according to the firm's semi-annual statements. The most recent of those disclosures covers a six-month period ending on April 30, meaning Qatar has likely paid the firm more in the second half of 2025.

RF Binder has also filed scores of disclosures—including as recently as September—that show emails the firm sent U.S. media outlets on behalf of the Qatar Foundation. They present Qatari professors, doctors, and "businessmen" as "experts" who are available to speak on topics like "propaganda on social media in the Gulf region," the "startup ecosystem in Doha," "Donald Trump's election win," and "the Israel-Hamas conflict, Israel-Hezbollah conflict, and regional repercussions."

Some of those "experts"—like Mehran Kamrava, a Georgetown University in Qatar professor who has accused Israel of showing a "pattern of systematic killing" in Gaza—were subsequently quoted by outlets like the Washington Post and Bloomberg. CNN featured a Qatar-endorsed "expert," Hamad Bin Khalifa University professor Sultan Barakat, in a December 2023 segment titled "Concerns over how the Israel-Hamas war is impacting the region." Barakat said that "Iran does not seek conflict with the United States," but "Netanyahu does."


Abu Shabab's death sparks wave of anti-Hamas militia recruitment
Groups operating from Israeli-held areas of Gaza say they will continue to fight Hamas despite the killing of their most prominent commander, reporting more recruits since an October ceasefire as they eye a role in the enclave's future.

The emergence of the groups, though they remain small and localized, has added to pressures on Islamist Hamas and could complicate efforts to stabilize and unify a divided Gaza, shattered by two years of war.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged Israeli backing for anti-Hamas groups in June, saying Israel had "activated" clans, though Israel has given little detail since then.

Last week, the man seen at the heart of efforts to establish anti-Hamas forces - Yasser Abu Shabab - was killed in southern Gaza's Rafah area. His group, the Popular Forces, said he died mediating a family feud, without saying who killed him. His deputy, Ghassan al-Duhaini, has taken over and vowed to continue on the same path.

Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007 and has so far refused to disarm under the ceasefire plan, has branded such groups collaborators - a view that Palestinian analysts say is broadly shared by the public. It moved swiftly against Palestinians who defied its control after the US-backed ceasefire took hold, killing dozens, including some it accused of working with Israel.

Nearly all of Gaza's two million people live in Hamas-held areas, where the group has been reestablishing its grip and where four Hamas sources said it continues to command thousands of men despite suffering heavy blows during the war.

But Israel still holds over half of Gaza - areas where Hamas' foes operate beyond its reach. With President Donald Trump's plan for Gaza moving slowly, there is no immediate prospect of further Israeli withdrawals.


Syria permits group to restore Jewish property seized under previous regimes
Syrian authorities on Wednesday granted a license to a Jewish-Syrian organization that plans to work to return properties confiscated under previous governments, one of its founders said.

“This is a strong message from the Syrian state that we do not discriminate between one religion and another… Syria helps all Syrian men and women of every religion and sect who want to build our new state,” Syria’s Social Affairs and Labor Minister Hind Kabawat told AFP, announcing the authorization.

The president of the Jewish Heritage in Syria Foundation is Henry Hamra, who fled from Syria to the US in the 1990s with his father, Yusuf Hamra, reportedly the last rabbi to leave Syria amid restrictions placed on it by the deposed Assad regime.

Henry Hamra, who ran unsuccessfully in Syria’s legislative elections in October, said the group will “work on making an inventory of Jewish properties and returning those confiscated during the previous regime, as well as protecting, caring for and restoring holy sites so that they are accessible to all Jews in the world.”

Hamra met with Kabawat in Damascus on Wednesday, according to photos published by Mouaz Moustafa, head of the former Syrian opposition group Syrian Emergency Task Force.

Photos published by AFP also showed Hamra praying with his son Joseph at Damascus’s al-Franj Synagogue, which he previously visited in February with his father, the synagogue’s former rabbi.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a Jewish group, including two unnamed Israeli rabbis, also visited two synagogues in northwestern Syria’s Aleppo that had closed decades ago.

SOHR published footage from the visit showing the group in front of the entrance to a synagogue. According to SOHR, the visit took place under heavy protection by authorities.


Israeli Druze leader seeks US security guarantees for Syrian counterparts
Israeli Druze leader Sheikh Muafak Tarif urged the United States to guarantee the security of the Druze community in Syria to prevent a recurrence of intense violence earlier this year in Sweida, a Druze-majority province in Sunni-dominated Syria.

Washington needed to fulfill its “duty” to safeguard the rights of Syria’s minorities in order to encourage stability, Tarif told Reuters on Tuesday during an official visit to the UN in Geneva, adding that US support would also remove the need for Israeli intervention in Syria’s south.

“We hope that the United States, President Trump, and America as a great power, we want it to guarantee the rights of all minorities in Syria … preventing any further massacres,” he said.

US President Donald Trump vowed in November to do everything he can to make Syria successful after landmark talks with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Bloody clashes in July

The Druze are a minority group whose faith is an offshoot of Islam and its members are spread primarily between Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.

In July, clashes between Druze and Bedouin residents broke out in Sweida after tit-for-tat kidnappings, leading to a week of bloodletting that shattered generations of fragile coexistence.

The violence worsened when government forces dispatched to restore order effectively sided with the Bedouins, with widespread reports of looting, summary killings and other abuses.

Israel entered the fray with encouragement from its Druze minority, attacking government forces with the stated aims of protecting Syrian Druze.

Tens of thousands of people from both communities were uprooted, with the unrest all but ending the Bedouins’ presence across much of Sweida.

Hundreds of civilians, mostly Druze, were killed, many of them by government forces.

In the aftermath, Druze leaders called for a humanitarian corridor from the Golan in Israel to Sweida and demanded self‑determination, which the government rejects.
US seize tanker said to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran
The United States seized a tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced later that day.

"For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations," Bondi posted on her X account.

The tanker is a vessel named "The Skipper," which was sanctioned by Washington in 2022 over ties to Iran and Hezbollah, according to CBS News.

Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that the United States had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, three officials told Reuters on Wednesday, a move that raised oil prices and may further inflame tensions between Washington and Caracas.

US President Donald Trump confirmed the seizure.

Trump has also ordered a massive US military build-up in the region, including an aircraft carrier, fighter jets, and tens of thousands of troops.


Iran authorities summon Jewish rep. over community's pro-Israel likes on social media
Homayoun Sameyah Najafabadi, the Jewish representative in Iran’s parliament, was summoned by Iran’s security agencies over Jewish Iranians liking and commenting on Zionist and Israeli content on social media, he confirmed in an open letter published on his personal Telegram that was addressed to Iran’s Jewish community.

"Unfortunately, in the past two weeks, I was summoned to these agencies because some fellow Jews posted comments and liked false content, causing misunderstandings among the country’s intelligence agencies," he wrote.

He then called on members of Iran’s Jewish community to refrain from leaving any comments or social media activity, such as likes, that would "cause suspicion."

"You are requested, if you have published any unusual, sensitive, or misconstruable comments or likes in cyberspace, to delete them as soon as possible," he said in the letter.

Najafabadi: Iranian Jews should 'unfollow the IDF'
"If you are a member of channels associated with the Zionist regime, including Israel in Persian or the IDF and other hostile pages and channels, you must unfollow them immediately," Najafabadi warned.

"If you do not delete comments or likes or continue to subscribe to the aforementioned channels, then legal activity may arise, and it will become more difficult to resolve the issue in the future," he added.


Sixth defendant sentenced for antisemitic assault in Times Square
Salem Seleiman was sentenced last week to two years in state prison for his role in an antisemitic hate crime against Joseph (“Joey”) Borgen in Times Square in May 2021, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said.

Seleiman, 30, pleaded guilty on Sep. 29 in New York State Supreme Court to a count of second-degree assault and a count of third-degree assault as a hate crime.

“Salem Seleiman took part in the repugnant and bias-motivated assault of a Jewish man, who was peacefully attending a rally,” Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, stated. He added that “the victim was targeted based on his religion and did nothing to warrant physical violence.”

“In recent years, we have seen increased threats and violence against Jewish New Yorkers, and we want the community to know that our Hate Crimes Unit takes these matters extremely seriously,” Bragg said.

The attack occurred on May 20, 2021, as pro- and anti-Israel rallies took place in Times Square, according to court documents.

Borgen, who was wearing a yarmulke, was thrown to the ground, punched, struck with a crutch, pepper-sprayed and kicked, prosecutors said. During the assault, he said that he was taunted with slurs, including “filthy Jew.”
Nazi-looted Rothschild Vienna Mahzor to be auctioned at Sotheby’s for up to £5.5m
One of the rarest medieval Hebrew prayerbooks in existence is set to go on sale at Sotheby’s in New York this February, after its restitution to the Rothschild family more than 80 years after it was stolen by the Nazis.

The Rothschild Vienna Mahzor, completed in 1415, is a High Holiday prayerbook used for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Fewer than twenty illustrated Hebrew mahzorim from the medieval period survive today, and only three – including this one – remain in private hands. Sotheby’s has valued it as $5-7 million (£3.9m-£5.5m).

The manuscript was produced in Vienna by a Jewish scribe named Moses son of Menachem. Its layout, script and decorative panels reflect the artistic traditions of Jewish communities in Central Europe at the time. Notes added in the margins over later centuries show how it moved between communities that adapted it to their own Ashkenazi liturgical customs.

In 1842, Salomon Mayer von Rothschild bought the Mahzor in Nuremberg as a gift for his son, Anselm Salomon, and it remained in the Viennese branch of the family for generations.

Following the Anschluss in 1938, the Nazis seized the Rothschild Palais in Vienna while Alphonse and Clarice Rothschild were in England. Their art collection and library were confiscated. While many items were inventoried and distributed to museums or sold, some manuscripts – including the Mahzor – were moved directly into the Austrian National Library without proper documentation. Because it lacked confiscation markings, the book went unnoticed during early restitution efforts.
Breakthrough in 1994 Panama plane bombing: plotter captured
The mastermind of a 1994 Panamanian airline bombing that killed 21 people is finally being brought to trial. Twelve members of Panama’s Jewish community died in the bombing, the target of the attack.

Ali Hage Zaki Jalil, of Lebanese descent, had been living on Venezuela’s Margarita Island, where he was seized by authorities last month. Panama is seeking his extradition.

Few are familiar with the bombing, which took place on July 19, 1994, just one day after the yet more horrific attack on the AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) building in Buenos Aires, in which a suicide bomber drove a truck filled with explosives into the structure, killing 85 people and injuring hundreds.

U.S., Israeli and Panamanian intelligence long believed the bombings were connected, as they used the same methods and explosives.

Flight 901 of now-discontinued commuter airline Alas Chiricanas took off from the city of Colón to Panama City at 4:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time. The small twin-engine plane exploded shortly after takeoff.

“It was a 15-minute flight. And, in fact, I took that same flight the day before,” Panama’s Ambassador to Israel Ezra Cohen told JNS.

Four Hezbollah operatives were believed to be involved. One, the suicide bomber, was identified in a 2020 FBI bulletin as Ali Hawa Jamal. He likely smuggled the explosives on board inside a portable radio, as he had a Motorola Radio P-500 with him during the flight, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

At first, investigators weren’t sure if it was an accident or sabotage. They soon fixed on a bomb as the cause. They debated whether it was drug-related or politically motivated terror targeting Panama’s Jewish community.

The second hypothesis soon became the likeliest scenario. In 1994, the FBI issued a bulletin seeking “unknown” males of “Middle Eastern descent” in connection with the attack.

Two terrorists were eventually captured, but Jalil remained at large.


Rio de Janeiro law makes October 7 a memorial day for Israeli victims of Hamas
Brazil’s State of Rio de Janeiro has passed a law that makes October 7 an annual “Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Massacre of the People of Israel by the Terrorist Group Hamas,” with the aim of “showing the importance of this date for the entire society of Rio de Janeiro.”

The initiative, which was sanctioned by Gov. Cláudio Castro, means Hamas’s massacre of 1,200 people and kidnapping of 251 people, including Brazilians, is formally recognized within the civic calendar. It amends Law No. 6645 of January 2010, which relates to the approval of commemorative dates in the state’s calendar and is now in force.

When proposing the bill in 2024, State Deputy Átila Nunes said: “The legislative proposal calls on current and future generations to reflect on one of the largest attacks carried out by the extremist group Hamas against Israel, on October 7, 2023, which culminated in the cold-blooded murder of babies, children, women, and the elderly, in addition to hundreds of young people, including foreigners of various nationalities, in the middle of the Jewish holiday, Shabbat. We intend that the commemoration of this date enables the development of a critical conscience so that crimes against the People of Israel are no longer repeated.”

“The scope of this proposal is to provide total solidarity to the people and government of Israel and to the Brazilian and Rio de Janeiro Jewish community,” he said.

CONIB (Israeli Confederation of Brazil) welcomed the approval of the new memorial day, which it said “reaffirms the commitment of the State of Rio de Janeiro to the fight against terrorism and to the preservation of the memory of the victims, an essential step so that atrocities like this will never be relatable or forgotten.”




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