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Saturday, May 6, 2023

05/06 Links: Islamist antisemitism is flying under the Jewish radar; Why do Jews pray for the royal family?; The EU's Endless Appeasement of the Ruling Mullahs of Iran

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: Islamist antisemitism is flying under the Jewish radar
Using the language of intersectionality they have positioned themselves as the representatives of a group that is under attack. Part of this is a campaign to raise awareness of what they consider a rising tide of Islamophobia. That’s something that is guaranteed to appeal to the sensibilities of liberal Jews, who are keen to ally themselves with another faith that suffers discrimination.

But while prejudice against Muslims can be real, most of what is usually characterized as Islamophobia is actually merely accurate reporting about Muslim support for extremists and prejudice against Jews. Talk of Islamophobia is, for the most part, merely a scam intended to divert attention from Islamist hate, as well as their groups’ willingness to rationalize terrorism as long as the victims are Israeli Jews.

This was made clear in May 2021 when Israeli efforts to fend off attacks from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists based in the Gaza Strip led to Muslim violence against Jews in the streets of American and international cities.

The INSS report notes that research shows that while American Muslims are more likely to show antisemitic attitudes than other Americans, they also don’t believe groups like CAIR or the similarly toxic US Council of Muslim Organizations represent them.

Those groups dominate the public discourse about Islam in the United States. At the same time, the most prominent Muslims in politics are also the most extreme, like “Squad” members Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), both of whom have engaged in prejudicial rhetoric about Jews and support the antisemitic BDS movement (and therefore aligned with Islamists rather than moderates within that community).

As the INSS report concludes, American Jews ought to be more careful about the identity of Muslim groups with whom they seek interfaith dialogue. Jewish community-relations councils throughout the United States still treat CAIR and other BDS supporters as legitimate partners, despite their complicity in terrorism (CAIR was founded as a political front for Hamas fundraisers and still treats those convicted of aiding terrorists as “political prisoners”) and antisemitism. So long as they ignore the way Muslim extremists are joining forces with the intersectional progressive left, they are failing to understand the source of some of the most potent threats to their communities.

No discussion of antisemitism in America should ignore the hate that Islamist groups are spreading. Yet despite the fact that most Jews say they are deeply worried about antisemitism, few seem to take the threat from home-grown Islamists seriously.
The ITIC has documented ‘Incitement and encouragement for terrorist attacks in Hamas TV shows during Ramadan’. (pdf)
“Hamas’ media department series for Ramadan 2023, called “The path of sacrifice,” was devoted to Palestinian terrorist operatives who carried out attacks. Their objective was to ramp up anti-Israeli incitement and encourage terrorist attacks in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and inside Israel. Following Hamas policy, the incitement was aimed not only at its own operatives but at the operatives of all the armed terrorist organizations, as well as Palestinians who have no organizational affiliation and on their own initiative attack with simple, easily available weapons, such as knives and vehicles. The series’ emphasis was on terrorist attacks in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and inside Israel without reference to terrorism from the Gaza Strip.”


The Jewish traditions behind the big day
The coronation this Saturday will no doubt be seen around the world as an example of British pageantry and pomp at its best. But few will realise its quintessential Jewish roots.

When pundits talk about how traditional it is and refer to the ceremony for Queen Elizabeth II or those of previous British monarchs, they may not appreciate that its format is considerably older and that the template used is the coronation of King Solomon.

His accession to the throne is described in the First Book of Kings, chapter one, verse 38 onwards and is among the earliest coronations ever recorded in detail, dating back to around 970 BCE.

It started with Solomon being escorted to the venue by both religious and military leaders — as will Charles — and then crowned by the High Priest Zadok, as Charles will be by his modern equivalent in the church, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The key role of the High Priest emphasised that the coronation was not just a political event but had higher significance, and was primarily a religious appointment sanctioned by God.

The same will apply to Charles, which is why it will be the Archbishop is officiating, not the Prime Minister.

As a side note, it is worth recording that the idea of divine approval later morphed into the concept of the divine right of kings, a notion taken to its extreme when Charles 1 dismissed Parliament.

This led directly to the Civil War, his replacement by Cromwell and the re-admission of the Jews to England after a 400-year absence. The role of Zadok will be recalled even more obviously by the recitation of Handel’s magnificent Zadok the Priest as part of the music for Charles’ ceremony.

This will be followed by the Archbishop anointing Charles, exactly as Zadok did to Solomon, and also with oil specially brought from the land of Israel, emphasising the connection across the millennia not only historically but physically too.

It is notable that it is the anointing, not the crowning, that is the pivotal moment at Westminster, which is why it will be done privately and the only part hidden from public view.
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis: Charles's embrace of faith shows how just how much times have changed
His Majesty King Charles III has made it clear that he wants representatives of the Jewish community and other minority faith communities to be present for the coronation service. In addition, he has established an unprecedented opportunity, following the service itself, for faith leaders to be incorporated into the formal proceedings. I will be privileged, together with four other senior faith leaders, to greet the King with words of tribute and blessing. At every stage, the Palace has been sensitive to the requirements of halacha (Jewish Law) when considering how best to include us. With this in mind, in accordance with the laws of Shabbat, I will not be using a microphone.

This is in addition to The King and Queen’s gracious invitation to host Valerie and me at St James’ Palace over Shabbat, when we will cherish the extraordinary opportunity to light Shabbat candles, make kiddush, eat our specially catered Shabbat meals, sing zemirot and chant Havdalah within regal surroundings.

We are blessed to have a Monarch who holds a deep, personal conviction that there is great strength in the diversity of our country and who cherishes his warm relationship with British Jews.

In the Book of Ecclesiastes, we are taught that: ‘there is a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to cry and a time to dance with joy’. Nearly a thousand years ago, the Coronation of a Monarch was a time to weep for the Jewish community, but today, thank God, it is a time for great celebration. As we enter this Carolean era, may our country be blessed to know many more moments of such celebration, and may God save the King!
King Charles praised for helping chief rabbi observe Shabbat at coronation
Britain’s chief rabbi will join other faith leaders at Saturday’s coronation of King Charles III but faces a unique problem — how to ensure his attendance does not breach the Jewish Sabbath.

Ephraim Mirvis on Friday praised the “respectful, sensitive” way that Charles’s office had handled the situation — even inviting the rabbi and his wife Valerie to spend the night at St. James’s Palace.

That will enable the chief rabbi to walk to the nearby Westminster Abbey on Saturday morning, rather than breaking Sabbath rules by using motorized transport.

A kosher caterer has been brought in to prepare their Friday night dinner of coronation chicken, Mirvis told Sky News.

After the Christian coronation service, the chief rabbi will join British Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist leaders in making a spoken declaration in unison towards their newly crowned monarch.

“It will be quite brief, but exceptionally powerful,” Mirvis said, while stressing that he was not required to speak into an electronic microphone in the abbey, again to respect the Jewish holy day.

The unprecedented joint declaration from the religious leaders reads: “Your Majesty, as neighbors in faith, we acknowledge the value of public service.

“We unite with people of all faiths and beliefs in thanksgiving, and in service with you for the common good.”

Mirvis consulted with judges from Britain’s Beth Din Jewish court who agreed it was permissible to enter a Christian church on this Sabbath, out of respect for an invitation from the sovereign.
‘My coronation role will be small but significant’ says Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis has paid tribute to the King’s commitment to Britons of all faiths, saying he “welcomes enormously” his historic decision to include them in Saturday’s coronation.

Speaking to the JC, the Chief Rabbi also praised the King’s sensitivity in ensuring the laws of Shabbat are observed, by providing kosher food when he and his wife spend the night before the ceremony at St James’s Palace, and by making clear that when Mirvis makes his contribution to the ceremony, his words will not be amplified.

“We as a community are blessed, as are members of all faiths in the UK, in having in Charles III a champion, and we welcome enormously the extent to which he is going to include us in the coronation for the very first time in history,” said Rabbi Mirvis.

“The role that I will have is relatively small, but it’s nonetheless very significant.”

According to the coronation order of service published by the Church of England, Mirvis and four other faith leaders will step forward in a line to stand in front of the King at the end of the Westminster Abbey ceremony, and then “extend good wishes and blessing to him”.

The text has already been agreed. Mirvis and the other four faith leaders — the Sikh journalist Lord Singh; Aliya Azam of the Christian Muslim Forum; Radha Mohan Das, on behalf of the UK’s Hindus; and Bogoda Seelawimala Thera, leader of the London Buddhist Vehara.

They will tell the King: “Your Majesty, as neighbours in faith, we acknowledge the value of public service. We unite with people of all faiths and beliefs in thanksgiving, and in service with you for the common good.”

Rabbi Mirvis said: “I think this is wonderful. And because it will be Shabbat, no microphone will be placed in front of us when these words are being said. Here is one of many examples of the King’s sensitivity to the Jewish faith.”
Why do Jews pray for the royal family?
King Charles III is not a lone leader, a solitary sovereign with absolute power. His role lies within a constitutional monarchy. He wears the crown, but it is a symbol for the authority shared by those we elect and ask to govern our country.

Why, you may ask, would we swallow each other alive without it? These are harsh words. Says the Talmud: “Just as in the sea large fish swallow smaller ones, so too were it not for the fear of authority, those with more power would devour those with less” (Avodah Zarah 4a).

Government establishes the rule of law for everyone so instead of “survival of the fittest” or “might is right”, everyone has rights as a citizen of the state and can expect to be treated fairly and equally.

The 13th-century Spanish commentator Rabbeinu Yonah uncovers an even more comprehensive lesson from the phrase “people would swallow each other alive”:

“This is teaching us that a person should pray for the peace of the whole world and should feel the pain felt by others… they should not make supplications and requests for their needs alone, but rather they should pray for all people, that they may live in peace, because with the welfare of the monarchy comes peace and stability all around.”

Jewish tradition is particular, it applies to our people and our faith alone. But it houses a universal message that is so relevant and important for today.

We must care beyond our own community and share in the common humanity of the world; power should never be placed in the hands of just one person and everyone is accountable.

A wise and just king understands the important role he must play in the betterment of society. May His Majesty serve all of us well and live up to his great calling.
A kippah and synagogue feature on newly released coronation stamp
One of a set of new coronation stamps which celebrates religious diversity in Britain features a figure in a kippah and a drawing of one of the community’s oldest synagogues.

On the left side of the stamp is depicted the front of the grade I-listed Princes Road Synagogue in Liverpool.

Saul Marks, the synagogue’s senior warden, said, “It is a thrill and a surprise for our beautiful shul building to be featured in the coronation collection.

“It is particularly fitting for us because we will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the building in September next year.’

Princes Road, one of the few synagogues to enjoy a grade-I listing, was built by architects William and George Audsley.

It was the model for another grade-I listed synagogue, the New West End Synagogue in Bayswater, central London, which was built by George Audsley. However, Princes Road is distinctive for the circular apses at the side which contain the stairs to the women’s gallery.


Top Biden aide says Israeli-Saudi normalization is a US national security interest
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday that the US sees a benefit to its national security in brokering a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, underlining the Biden administration’s commitment to continue focusing on expanding the Abraham Accords in the coming period.

While the top Biden aide’s framing of an Israel-Saudi normalization deal as a national security interest appeared to go further than previous administration talking points on the issue, left unclear was to what degree the friendly statement to a largely pro-Israel crowd signaled a cogent policy shift or additional focus from the White House.

“We have the interest and bandwidth to promote normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and in fact, it’s this administration that has produced the first tangible step of these two countries coming close together with the opening of the airspace over Saudi Arabia for civilian flights from Israel,” Sullivan said during an address about the Biden administration’s Middle East policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“But ultimately getting to full normalization is a declared national security interest of the United States, we have been clear about that,” he added.

While Saudi officials have privately expressed interest in such an agreement in recent years, the prospects of Israeli-Saudi normalization remain distant.

Riyadh has presented extensive demands to the United States regarding major improvements to their bilateral relationship as a prerequisite for a deal. The hardline nature of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which has already garnered several blistering condemnations from the Gulf kingdom over its policies toward the Palestinians, has made normalization less palatable to either the palace or the street.

Nonetheless, the current US government has made some progress, including on issues that eluded the administration of former US president Donald Trump, which brokered the Abraham Accords.
Top security officials deliberating potential development of offshore gas for Gaza
Top security officials have held deliberations on the potential development of natural gas fields off the Gaza Strip’s coast, as part of recent meetings between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Israeli television reported Friday.

According to Channel 13 news, the discussions are being led by National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian — the military’s liaison to the Palestinians — after getting the green light from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

The network did not specify when the internal talks were held, but described them as linked to summits held in Egypt and Jordan earlier this year. Following the meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh in March, which focused largely on de-escalating tensions, Israeli and PA officials said they agreed to work toward improving the economic conditions of the Palestinian people as well as the financial situation of the cash-strapped PA, which would benefit from the development of the Marine 1 and 2 fields located some 30 kilometers (19 miles) off Gaza.

The sides have held sporadic negotiations on the matter over the years but failed to reach an agreement due to numerous hurdles. Along with Israeli objections and other disputes, the PA has exercised no control over Gaza since being ousted from there in 2007 by the Hamas terror organization, which now controls the coastal enclave.

The television report said among the issues raised in the deliberations is that as the PA is not a state, Israel wants Egypt to be in charge of the effort. It also noted the difficulties resulting from Hamas’s rule over Gaza.


Pregnant Jewish woman’s car flips over in Samaria rock-throwing attack
A pregnant woman’s car flipped over around midnight as she sought to evade rocks that terrorists threw at her on the road between Huwara and Yitzhar.

The Israel Defense Forces arrived on the scene and rescued the woman, whom they sent to the hospital, but were unable to find the attackers.

The woman’s husband, Elazar Riger, said the victim was “physically fine” with just a few bruises. “Understand, this is the reality of our daily lives here in Samaria,” he said. “Thousands of rocks are hurled every single hour, every day, and stories like this repeat themselves daily.”
Israeli troops kill two Palestinian gunmen suspected of recent West Bank attack
Two Palestinian gunmen were killed by Israeli troops during a raid early Saturday on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank, the military and Palestinian health officials said.

In a joint statement, the Israel Defense Forces and police said soldiers and undercover Border Police officers entered the camp near the city of Tulkarem to arrest several suspects accused of being behind a shooting attack on Tuesday near the West Bank settlement of Avnei Hefetz in which one person was lightly injured.

“The two gunmen were shot and killed after attempting to flee the scene,” the statement said. Police later published a video showing the armed gunmen being shot dead as they attempted to escape via a rooftop.

The pair were identified as Hamza Jamil Kharyoush and Samer Salah al-Shafei, both 22.

Kharyoush and al-Shafei were claimed as members of the so-called Tulkarem Battalion, a new loosely organized Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group wing in the West Bank city.

Palestinian media reports said the two were “members of the resistance” and killed during an exchange of fire.


The Israel Guys: BREAKING: Terror Attack in PALESTINIAN TOWN of HUWARRAH
Yet another terror attack was committed by a Palestinian in Huwarrah. The question is, just how much more of this can Israelis take?

The iron dome malfunctioned when Israel needed it most, during the last round of rockets from Gaza. And Israelis really love their fruit roll ups!




Palestinian administrative detainees to go on ‘open-ended’ hunger strike
Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prison under administrative detention have decided to go on an “open-ended” hunger strike in the next few days, a committee representing the inmates announced over the weekend.

The committee called on the detainees who are planning to join the hunger strike to start “writing their wills.”

Palestinian sources say more than 1,000 detainees are currently being held in Israeli prison under administrative detention, a procedure that allows the security forces to hold suspects on the basis of classified information without charging them or bringing them to trial.

Most of the administrative detainees are former security prisoners who spent time in Israeli prison for security-related offenses and terrorism, the sources noted.

Previous hunger strikes
Last year, dozens of administrative detainees went on a 19-day hunger strike in protest of the policy of administrative detention. The detainees claimed they decided to suspend the hunger strike after receiving promises from the Israeli authorities to look into their demands.

Also last year, hundreds of Palestinian administrative detainees boycotted Israeli courts as part of a campaign to put pressure on Israel to end the policy.


Seth Frantzman: Massive US embassy compound in Lebanon goes viral, sparks conspiracy theories
Photos posted on Twitter Friday by the US Embassy in Beirut showing the progress of construction on the new compound for the embassy have received an unusual amount of interest in the region and globally.

As of Saturday, there were some 1.5 million views of the photos and hundreds of comments, quoted tweets and bookmarks of the post. The reason is the photos show the huge mass of the new multi-building compound. The US has said it will sit on a 43-acre site. Other posts by the embassy get far fewer replies or interactions.

The US Embassy's post on Twitter was relatively short in terms of description. It simply said, “things are progressing at our new compound” and a follow-up tweet noted the visit of the Lebanese foreign minister. The compound, when completed will become one of the largest of its kind and it will have been an expensive project.

Does US investment in Middle East illustrate its feelings on security?
The US has done this before in the region, investing in large embassy compounds. It has a large compound in Baghdad and the embassy in Kabul was built on 36 acres of land before Kabul fell to the Taliban. A new consulate in Erbil is also of massive size, sitting on some 50 acres of land. These are expensive projects too, running into the hundreds of millions and billions to build and maintain.

The decision to invest heavily in Beirut and Erbil would appear to illustrate where the US feels the future and security of the region are going. While in the 1980s, the US embassy was targeted in Beirut by terrorists, today the sense is that Beirut is a good choice. There aren’t a lot of other options. There is hostility to the US in Baghdad, generally driven by Iranian-backed militias.
Israel has freedom to act against Iran nuclear threat - US
Washington allows Israel freedom of action against the Iran nuclear threat, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.

“We have made clear to Iran that it can never be permitted to obtain a nuclear weapon,” Sullivan said in an address to the Washington Institute think tank on Thursday. “As President [Joe] Biden has repeatedly reaffirmed, he will take the actions necessary to stand by this statement, including by recognizing Israel’s freedom of action.”

“This is an issue that occupies the president’s attention, my attention, on a daily basis,” he said. “Iran’s program has advanced considerably. It is a genuine danger to regional security and to global security, and, indeed, to the United States of America. And we are going to continue to take action to, yes, deter Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and then to seek a diplomatic solution that puts this on a long-term pathway of stability.”

The national security adviser said the US continues to use diplomatic channels regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

“The best way to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is an effective agreement,” he stated. “I regard the decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA, without anything to replace it or any strategy to deal with it other than the imposition of sanctions—which we have continued and added to actually—is not necessarily a pathway to a clear and straightforward [deterrence].”
The EU's Endless Appeasement of the Ruling Mullahs of Iran
The beneficiaries of EU's increased trade with Iran are most likely the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The EU's trade with Iran, which helps increase the Iranian regime's revenue, is doubtless making it easier for the theocratic establishment to provide weapons to Russia...

The Iranian regime has, in fact, set up a specific route across the Caspian Sea in order to supply large quantities of munitions to Russia... "posing a growing challenge for the U.S. and its allies as they try to disrupt cooperation between Moscow and Tehran," according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Iranian regime, probably because it knows that the European Union will not take any action, is ratcheting up its engagement and weapons exports to Russia.

The Iranian regime is simultaneously profiting from its trade with the EU and from its weapons sales to Russia, thereby empowering Putin to escalate his war against Ukraine.
Murals Across Israel Show Solidarity With ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ Protesters in Iran
A fifth mural was recently completed in Israel that features aspects of both Israeli and Iranian culture while also showing support for the nationwide, anti-government protests led by women that is currently taking place in Iran, the Iranian designer behind the art told The Algemeiner.

The murals produced, funded and designed by Hooman Khalil in collaboration with local Israeli artists include in Hebrew, English and Farsi the phrase “Women, Life, Freedom,” which has become the unofficial slogan of protesters in Iran who took to the streets after the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died while in the custody of Iran’s morality police. Each mural also depicts different women killed by Iranian authorities, including Amini. Khalili’s first mural was unveiled in Jerusalem in January and was completed by Israeli artist Ana Kogan. Khalili has since designed murals in Nazareth, another in Jerusalem outside the Museum for Islamic Art and two in Netanya.

“All of these murals are ultimately doing one thing: they are reminding the world that the Persians have been the friends of the Jews for 3,000 years. I do as much as I can to unify both cultures in one mural,” Khalili, 48 told The Algemeiner. “In all the murals you’ll see the flag of Jerusalem, because all my murals are pointing back to Jerusalem, you’ll always see a woman riding a lion with a sword in her hand, because it’s a women-led revolution, [and] you’ll always see the flag of Iran with a lion with a sword in his hand, with the sun rising in his back, [which is] the Zorastrian symbol.”

Khalili was born in Iran but left his birth country with his mother when he was 3 years old. His father remained in Iran and the artist has not seen him in 45 years. He currently lives in California and works as a creative director for a boutique hotel. In November of 2022, he helped create a mural in San Francisco, California, in support of the Iranian protesters. A picture of the mural went viral on social media and was seen by the Vice Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan Nahoum, who then contacted Khalili and asked him to design murals in Israel in support of the people of Iran fighting for human rights.
"Attention @ElonMusk, Twitter Bans Rabbi Yishai Fleisher"
Despite the new ownership and policy changes, Rabbi Yishai Fleisher, the spokesperson for the city of Hebron as well as an advisor to Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, was banned from Twitter over the weekend, without warning, and permanently according to the message he received.

Fleisher, a dues-paying Twitter user and also a legacy blue-check holder, tweeted:
“Consider: If Israeli security kills a terrorist and retrieves the body they probably shouldn’t give the bad guy a second life by allowing the Jihad to run a big funeral to honor that terrorist.

Maybe instead, finish the job, take the terrorist’s body and throw it into the sea. Let the Jihadists and their supporters know that if they raise a hand against Israel their death will be final.”


A reasonable suggestion, tweeted by Yishai Fleisher.

The question of what to do with the bodies of dead terrorists, especially in light of the bodies of dead Israelis that are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza is a much-discussed question in Israeli public policy circles, in an attempt to find additional means of deterrence.

Barry Tigay pointed out on Twitter that former President Barack Obama threw Bin Laden’s body into the sea, so it’s not even an original or radical idea that Fleisher put forward.


Disturbed Frontman David Draiman Announces Band’s Second Tel Aviv Summer Concert ‘Due to Incredible Demand’
David Draiman, the Jewish lead vocalist of Disturbed, announced this week that the heavy metal band will do a second concert in Israel this summer in response to an overwhelming demand after their first show sold out.

“Israel, I’m amazing at the love you’re showing us,” the Sound of Silence singer said in an Instagram video, announcing the concert on June 29 in Tel Aviv to follow the band’s show a day earlier at the Expo Tel Aviv convention center. The singer added that two Israeli bands will also perform with Disturbed on stage — Saffek during the June 28 concert and Subterranean Masquerade for the performance the following night.

“And we’re planning to invite a couple more acts from the amazing Israeli scene to join us as well,” Draiman revealed. He concluded by saying, “I’m so excited to come to see all of you and celebrate your beautiful metal scene along with your music. See you on June 28 and now June 29 in Tel Aviv.”

Disturbed will perform in Israel as part of their Take Back Your Life Tour world tour. This will be the band’s second time performing in Israel following their sold-out show at Live Park in 2019.

Draiman’s father and grandfather served in the Israel Defense Forces and both of the singer’s maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors. His grandfather was also a cantor in Israel and Draiman trained as a cantor as well before starting his professional singing career.


German Artist Nearing 100,000 Cobblestones to Mark Victims of Nazis
A German artist who is preparing to lay the 100,000th cobblestone commemorating a person who was deported and killed by the Nazis has no intention of giving up making the brass-capped blocks, saying demand is higher than ever.

By placing Stolpersteine ("stumble stones") outside the victims' last known address, 75-year-old Gunter Demnig aims to draw attention to the fate of individuals in the Holocaust.

The project started about three decades ago when Demnig laid the first stones in Berlin and Cologne.

Nearly 100,000 cobblestones later, they can be found in 30 countries across Europe, from Finland to Italy, Hungary, Russia and Ukraine. Political Cartoons on World Leaders

"I never dreamed of this," Demnig said, saying he had expected a few hundred or maybe 1,000 stones.

"I was naive enough to believe that it would have to decrease at some point ... but it's the other way around: interest is getting greater and greater."

He expects to lay his 100,000th stone this year.

In his workshop, Demnig embosses the name and date of birth and circumstances of death by hand. He lays most of the stones, which can be requested by anyone, himself, with the costs paid by donations and sponsorship from private individuals as well as companies or institutions.

"People ask why I don't have it done in a factory? I say Auschwitz was a murder factory. That's why it's important to me that the writing is hammered into the plaques by hand," he said.
The 76ers’ Josh and Marjorie Harris back Israeli girls’ basketball initiative
The Leyada School gymnasium in Jerusalem was a sea of ponytails and pinneys on a recent Tuesday afternoon, as dozens of Israeli middle school girls battled it out on the basketball court for the day’s top honors.

The skidding of sneakers on polished wood and thud of basketballs meeting the floor were punctuated — and at times drowned out — by cheers, whistles and encouraging shouts from their coaches. The players, some of whom had spent hours traveling to the tournament, barely noticed at first when a similarly ponytailed, sneakered woman walked into the gym. But within a few minutes of Israeli First Lady Michal Herzog’s arrival, she was swarmed by players. Accompanying Herzog was Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Marjorie Harris. The two mingled with the players before handing out trophies for the first-of-its-kind basketball tournament for girls living in Israel’s periphery.

Harris, who owns the Philadelphia NBA team with her husband Josh, first got involved in youth sports in Israel more than a decade ago. “We decided we wanted to do something to help the Ethiopian community in Jerusalem and the whole country,” she explained to eJewishPhilanthropy before the tournament, “and we thought using the power of basketball would be a great tool and a great avenue.”

Soin 2015 the Harrises created the 48ers, a youth basketball league for boys. Since the founding, the couple has given in excess of $1 million toward the project, Josh Harris told eJP. Its name is a nod to the year of Israel’s founding, in the same vein as the Philadelphia 76ers. The Harrises soon joined forces with Liran Gerassi, the founder and CEO of The Equalizer, a nonprofit that incorporates sports and education into programming for Israelis who live in the country’s geographic, and often socioeconomic, periphery. As a college student in Jerusalem in 2009, Gerassi started a youth soccer program for at-risk students. Eventually, he was connected with the Harrises, and traveled to New York to meet with them.
Rising football star Harry Sheezel could be ‘greatest ever male Jewish athlete in Australia’
Jews in Australia have seen their community prosper in many areas, from business to the arts to the highest levels of government.

But there is one arena that Aussie Jews have not featured prominently in: Australia’s biggest sport, Australian Rules Football (AFL).

AFL, referred to colloquially as “footy,” is a uniquely Aussie sport, which has been played in some form since teams from Melbourne and Geelong first came together in a paddock in East Melbourne in 1858.

Professional footy is played between two teams of 18 players using an oval ball. Goals are scored when the ball is kicked, airborne, through two tall goalposts set on each end of the oval field. It is similar to rugby but has more players, an oval-shaped pitch and different rules regarding kicking, throwing and tackling.

While many Jews are passionate fans and have been involved with the game’s administration, such as Rabbi Joseph Gutnick, the former president of Melbourne Football club, few Jews have ever played at the highest level of the game.

This has changed with the drafting of a Jewish player, Harry Sheezel, who was selected in November as the 3rd overall pick in the 2022 AFL draft.

A bonafide prodigy, the 18-year-old Sheezel began his footy journey in a local Jewish sporting league, as a member of AJAX (Associated Judaean Athletic Clubs), Australia’s only Jewish football club. Sheezel also graduated from Melbourne’s largest Jewish day school, Mount Scopus Memorial College.
Oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible manuscript to be displayed in NYC
After stops in London, Tel Aviv, and other locales, the world’s oldest nearly complete Hebrew Bible will be on view in New York City beginning on Sunday.

Known as the Codex Sassoon, the book — which was written by a single Jewish scribe on 400 pages of parchment about 1,100 years ago — will be on view at Sotheby’s auction house (1334 York Ave.) by appointment through Tuesday, May 16. The following day, it will be sold at auction and is estimated to fetch between $30 million to $50 million — possibly making it the most expensive book or document ever sold.

“Codex Sassoon has long held a revered and fabled place in the pantheon of surviving historic documents and is undeniably one of the most important and singular texts in human history,” Richard Austin, Sotheby’s global head of books and manuscripts, said. “With such eminence, the Codex has an incomparable presence and gravitas that can only be borne from more than 1,000 years of history.”

The Codex Sassoon is named after the book collector David Solomon Sassoon — a member of the influential Jewish Sassoon dynasty — who acquired it in 1929 when it resurfaced after 600 years. Sassoon paid 350 pounds sterling, the equivalent of about $28,000 today.

Sassoon added his bookplate to the binding’s inside cover, extending a centuries-long string of inscriptions detailing the book’s Jewish ownership, much of it throughout what is present-day Syria. The record does not show what happened between when the synagogue where it had been housed was destroyed and Sassoon’s acquisition.

Codex Sassoon’s most recent owner is Jacqui Safra, part of the storied Jewish banking family, who paid for carbon dating that put its age at about 1,100 years old. Only the Dead Sea Scrolls and some early medieval fragmentary texts are older, Yosef Ofer, a professor of Bible studies at Israel’s Bar Ilan University, told The Associated Press.




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