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A Jewish family in Matthews hopes authorities will find who was responsible for carving a swastika onto their truck.

"I was sort of mad, sad, broken-hearted, and really angry that someone would damage my property like that especially with that kind of a symbol because, as a Jew, it symbolizes the murder of six million of my brothers and sisters,” the victim, who did not want to be identified, said.

He wonders if the sign of hate could lead to something worse.

The owner of the truck called Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and notified his neighbors using the Nextdoor app.

Neighbor Ann Margret Gidley created a GoFundMe account to help pay for repairs and surveillance equipment.

So far, 50 people have donated to the cause.

"It's unacceptable,” Gidley said. “We won’t stand for it in this community. Our voices are stronger than yours.”

No arrests have been made.

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/swastika-carved-into-jewish-familys-truck-community-steps-in-to-help/967607741
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For all of CNN’s suggestions that President Trump was a racist and anti-Semite, they sure don’t seem to catch those tendencies of prospective employees during the hiring process. Instead, they have them resign after they’re exposed on social media. It’s especially troubling when the prospective employee had publicly celebrated the deaths of “jewish pigs” in Jerusalem.

On Thursday, CNN photo editor Mohammed Elshamy was exposed as an anti-Semite after numerous political operatives and news outlets dove into his Twitter history and discovered his hatred. Elshamy has since made his Twitter account private.

In a series of tweets, political strategist Arthur Schwartz highlighted Elshamy’s elation at the news Jews were killed by terrorists in Jerusalem back in 2011. “More than 4 jewish pigs killed in #Jerusalem today by the Palestinian bomb explode,” he wrote.

He seemed to celebrate the killings, tweeting: “HAMAS HAMAS HAMAS #Anti-Israel #Gaza #Palestine #Hamas”.

Daily Wire reporter Jordan Schachtel pointed out that Elshamy was celebrating a terrorist attack that “killed a Christian woman who was studying in Israel & severely injured a 14-year-old Israeli girl who would succumb to her wounds 6 yrs later. The attack injured 39 more.”

Schwartz called out CNN for hiring Elshamy despite a public tweet that read: “Israel is the main enemy for the people of Egypt and shall always remain despite rulers who lick Jewish legs 3/3 #IsraelEmbassy.”

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2019/07/25/cnn-photo-editor-celebrated-deaths-jewish-pigs-anti-semitic
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After meeting with Jewish leaders, Assemblyman Tyler Diep (R-Westminster) apologized this week for political mailers that appeared to employ ethnic stereotypes.

“I want to take this opportunity to publicly share my sincere apology to anyone in the Jewish community who was offended by my campaign during the 2018 election,” Diep said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “There is no place for anti-Semitism in our society, and while my campaign had no intention of doing so, we failed to recognize the sensitivity of the problem. I now have a greater understanding for the seriousness of anti-Semitic sentiments.”

Diep’s statement followed a private meeting held last week with rabbis and other faith leaders from Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Diep’s chief of staff, Peter Kim, denied the Daily Pilot’s request to attend the session in the assemblyman’s Huntington Beach office, but those who were there said Diep offered his regrets.

“I think that Assemblyman Diep appreciated the background we provided to him and his staff,” said Rabbi Stephen Einstein of Temple B’Nai Tzedek in Fountain Valley. “Diep expressed to us his intention was not to be hurtful. He understands more why some of these things were felt deeply, and I think he has definitely learned from this.”

It was “mainly him listening, and he gave context about his own personal life as an immigrant and learning parts of the community and how this is really news to him,” said Peter Levi, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League. “It was certainly not his intention to offend in this way.”

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-jews-mailer-offensive-oc-20190704-story.html
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A group of more than 100 descendants of Jewish refugees who fled the Nazi regime are challenging the German government’s rejection of their applications to restore their citizenship.

Anyone who was deprived of their German citizenship during the 12 years of Nazi dictatorship on political, racial or religious grounds – as well as their descendants – is potentially eligible for its restoration, according to a clause enshrined in the country’s constitution.

But several hundred applicants, some of whom submitted claims from the UK after the EU referendum, have been turned down, most commonly on the basis that applications are only valid if citizenship has been passed through the father.

Other exclusions have been made on the grounds that the qualifying ancestor lost his or her citizenship having escaped Germany after the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, but before being officially stripped of it by the Nazis in 1941, meaning they are classified in legal terms as having relinquished their citizenship of their own free will.

The Guardian has heard the detailed stories of 12 people who are seeking answers from the German government after their applications were turned down.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/10/jews-fled-nazis-descendents-german-citizenship
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Every June, 2,000 Russian-speakers flock to the Catskill Mountains to take part in a weekend event that many liken to Burning Man, but without the dust and with significantly more vodka. Founded 11 years ago by a collective of Russian Jewish immigrants (namely the Feldman family, whose patriarch Jay “Gesha” Feldman died in 2016), JetLAG owes much of its creative spirit to the bounteous imagination of its creative director, Pavel Lion—known widely in the Russian-speaking diaspora by his stage name Psoy Korolenko. With his wizardly beard and wildly expressive eyes, Korolenko has been a fixture in the international Russian literati and Yiddish music scenes for the past decade, typically billed as an “avant-bard & wandering scholar” and carrying an encyclopedic knowledge of cultural references low and high, which often appear in his comical songs along with ample multilingual worldplay. By now, it’s safe to consider him JetLAG’s spirit animal.

And what of the name, JetLAG? Naturally, in true Korolenko fashion, it is an understated pun. Korolenko was in Moscow talking with JetLAG President Vicky Feldman by phone, he recalled: “We were experiencing jet lag,” he said—”time difference. And I was thinking, ‘Why don’t we call it something ‘camp,’ or rather something ‘lag,’” lager being the Russian word for camp. “And we immediately felt that this is sort of a bad pun, because it addresses gulags and others lags, which are bad—but ours is good. It’s a kind of lag that is full of love. And the thing is, JetLAG is a symbolic enough name because it’s about overcoming distances, geographical and spiritual.”

Hence the JetLAG tagline, a motto for its motley of discerning tastes: “You’ll find what you love, you’ll love what you find.”

From its humble beginnings as an offshoot of the East Coast Russian festival circuit, JetLAG has steadily grown into the largest open-air Russian music gathering in the United States. Its unique setup—three distinct and far-flung stages, strategically positioned along a mile-long strip of land skirting the Delaware River—lends itself to an extraordinary array of artistic expression.

https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/287604/jetlag-russian-jewish-burning-man-catskills
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The American Hebrew Academy, a prestigious and ambitious Jewish boarding school in North Carolina, abruptly announced its closure Tuesday morning, surprising its students and leaving its faculty without jobs.

The closure was announced in an email signed by both the AHA’s chief executive and the chairwoman of the board. The email was notification to most of the employees of their termination, effective Wednesday, and said that final checks would be paid on Friday.

“The American Hebrew Academy began as a dream, it was a dream fulfilled for 18 years, and it is a dream that must, unfortunately, come to an end,” the email read.

By Tuesday morning, the school’s website had been replaced with a landing page that read, “The American Hebrew Academy is closed.” The number listed on the page to contact the school’s CEO is disconnected. By Wednesday, the page had changed to read, “The American Hebrew Academy will be closed for the 2019-2020 school Year.”

The closure left faculty and students in shock, and forced to find new schools and jobs in less than three months. But the school had been unable to reach a level of enrollment that could have offset the costs of maintaining its spacious grounds and modern facilities.

https://forward.com/news/national/425764/few-immediate-clues-but-a-history-of-financial-issues-before-boarding/
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A Hasidic Jew who tried working at a non-kosher McDonald’s restaurant?

A story which broke last week regarding a lawsuit filed by an allegedly Hasidic man from Florida who charged the McDonald’s fast-food chain with religious discrimination for not hiring him raised eyebrows, given that every branch of the iconic burger joint in North America is not kosher.

Nevertheless, it was reported that Morton Javadi, described by a number of mainstream news outlets as being Hasidic, had filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s, claiming that the fast-food restaurant’s refusal to hire him over his beard constituted religious discrimination.

Allegedly, management told him that he would have to shave his long beard if he wanted the job. According to his suit, McDonald’s policy requires all male employees to be clean-shaven.

But as first noted by the blog DansDeals, there is ample evidence readily available that Javadi is clearly not a member of the Hasidic community, but in fact appears to be either a Messianic Jew or a non-Jewish missionary presenting himself as Jewish.

Javadi and his wife, who refer to themselves as “Rabbi Mort and Rabisa Summer”, run the Missouri-based “Mahi Ministries”.

While the Mahi Ministries website features pictures of “Rabbi Mort” wearing a large knitted kippah, tefillin (phylacteries), and a Jewish prayer shawl, glaring mistakes in the site regarding terms and concepts in Judaism.

For example, the site claims that the word “Pharisees” refers to Persian Jews, and comes from the word “Farsi”. In fact, Pharisees comes from the Hebrew word “Perushim”, meaning “separated” or “set aside”.

Mahi Ministries also claims that the use of the word “korban”, or sacrificial offering, in the Talmud is a loan word from Farsi, based on the Persian word “gorban”. In fact, the Hebrew word “korban” appears in the Hebrew Bible, and its usage in the Talmud is not based on Farsi.

The ministry’s videos provide more explicit evidence that “Rabbi” Mort and “Rabisa” Summer are missionaries posing as observant Jews, with numerous references to and citations of the New Testament, claims that Muhammad “was a Hebrew”, prayers appearing to mix Hebrew with Farsi, and an attempt to reconcile apparently conflicting claims by Jesus and John the Baptist in the New Testatement.

On a GoFundMe page, the Ministry tried to raise $5,000 for “Middle Eastern Missionary Work”, and linked to fundraising projects run by Christian missionary groups abroad.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/266358
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The Greens at Chester developers have sued town and Orange County officials for allegedly trying to thwart their 431-home project before any houses have been built in order to prevent an influx of Hasidic residents.

The 101-page complaint filed Friday in federal court in White Plaints is studded with links to video clips and a slew of statements that residents and officials made at both public and private meetings, all reflecting what attorneys argue was fervent opposition to a Hasidic settlement and discriminatory efforts to derail an approved development.

The developers, known as Greens at Chester LLC, are demanding the court reverse the town’s building-permit denials and order it to issue permits for any houses that comply with plans the town approved in 2013. They also are seeking $80 million in compensatory damages for each of eight claims, $20 million in punitive damages for four of those claims, and compensation for property they say the town effectively has taken away.

https://www.recordonline.com/news/20190722/developers-of-hasidic-housing-project-sue-chester-orange-officials
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On March 11, 2006, American Jews were preparing for Purim, which was just two days away. They planned parties, gift baskets, and megillah readings secure in the knowledge that in the land of the free, they could practice their faith without fear of government interference. Meanwhile, in McAllen, Texas, another religious community seeking to peacefully practice its faith was in for a rude surprise.

That day, members of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas gathered at a pow-pow, a religious ceremony involving drums, dances, and eagle feathers. The tribe welcomed outsiders to observe the ritual, so a stranger politely observing and asking questions did not raise any suspicions. This man, however, was an undercover agent for the federal government’s Fish and Wildlife Service. His mission? To investigate the tribe’s possession of contraband eagle feathers.

Once he discovered the origin of the feathers, the agent confiscated them and threatened the pastor conducting the ceremony with fines and jail time should he continue to use eagle feathers in accordance with his faith. This demand was untenable to the pastor, Robert Soto, because sacred feathers are an important part of his tribe’s dances and traditional rites.

This story might seem surprising to the uninitiated, but tension between Native Americans and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been ongoing for more than a decade and should concern anyone who values religious liberty.

Contrary to popular opinion, most religious liberty cases do not involve same-gender marriage, abortion, or anti-discrimination laws. They involve religious believers like Pastor Robert Soto who simply want the government to leave them alone so they can observe their faith in peace.

Most of the feathers the agent confiscated came from eagles and other birds covered by the Migratory Birds Treaty Act. This law prohibits possessing feathers that come from a long list of birds. Because many Native Americans use eagle feathers in religious and cultural ceremonies, the Department of the Interior created an exception that allows Native Americans to possess them.

https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/orthodox-jews-and-indian-eagle-feathers/2019/06/21/
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After Volodymyr Zelensky won the Ukrainian presidency in a landslide this April, his country became the only country besides Israel with a Jewish president and prime minister. It’s remarkable given that only a tiny minority of Ukraine is Jewish, and the international press dwelled on it. Yet Mr. Zelensky’s Judaism was a nonfactor during the campaign.

A few weeks before the election, Mr. Zelensky told a writer on these pages that “the fact that I’m Jewish ranks about 20th on the long list of my features.” As a comedian who sometimes mocked politicians who were overtly religious in public, he has no interest in making faith part of his political and national identity. He stayed true to this attitude when stressing national unity in his May 20 inaugural address. He identified as a Ukrainian responsible for all Ukrainians—even those in the country’s diaspora. He didn’t mention religion.

Mr. Zelensky was born to a family of intellectuals 41 years ago in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. The future president was never religious. Vadik Pereverzev, a childhood friend, tells me that “we knew he was a Jew by ethnicity, but it wasn’t shown in holidays, communication, or following Sabbath. His family was absolutely the same as others.” He remained family-oriented as an adult, but “what Volodymyr took from his family as tradition is an enormous work ethic”—not a religious identity. When he attended a Jewish event, Mr. Pereverzev says, it was likely for work.

“Religion for me is the most intimate question,” he said in a December interview. “I am not ready to share it with anyone.” The president has said he has visited many houses of worship and believes in God. Mr. Zelensky’s wife is not Jewish, and his children were reportedly baptized in the Orthodox tradition to which about two-thirds of Ukrainians adhere.

“Zelensky is Ukrainian,” said United Jewish Community of Ukraine chairman Mikhail Tkach. “He was taught in a family where they knew they were Jews by origin. He understands what Sabbath is. The question of whether he prays . . . is not the most important one.” Mr. Tkach has met Mr. Zelensky and thinks of him as a secular, nonobservant Jew. “As soon as you become the president of a predominant Orthodox country, you must respect the laws of this country. You must respect the traditions of this country. This is our Jewish law. Therefore, I have no doubt that Volodymyr will respect Orthodoxy, in general Christianity, and any other religion in Ukraine.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/understanding-ukraines-jewish-president-11561070080
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Lamar Odom shared a personal moment of prayer at the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Schneerson in Queens, N.Y.

Odom donned a skullcap in the photo as he stood at the final resting place for the leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, an Orthodox Hasidic sect of Judaism.

The basketball player shared that Schneerson, who is often referred to as "The Rebbe," was introduced to him by his mentor, Rosh Lowe, a former Broadway child actor turned speaking coach.

"Today, I and my 2 children, Destiny and LJ, visited the gravesite of the spiritual leader and founder of the Chabad movement, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson. He is the mentor of my speaking coach, Rosh Lowe, and shared a beautiful message of love and kindness to the world," Odom tweeted on Thursday.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell also recently visited the Rebbe's grave on the 25th anniversary of his death.

The British-born beauty shared he had a profound impact on her life as she visited his gravesite to "gain blessing and inspiration."

"I would not normally show my prayers at the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson)'s resting place, but since I was snapped I decided to put it out myself. In honor of #TheRebbe and his vital teachings 25 years after his passing," she wrote alongside two photos of herself at his grave.

The 49-year-old model shared more about the Rebbe's influence on her life in a second post on social media.

"An inspirational leader, scholar, and teacher, the Rebbe taught that we are all inherently good and we each have the potential to change the world for the better, one good deed at a time. I have personally learned so much from his wisdom and teachings, and while I never met him," Campbell shared in the lengthy post.

"With so much discord and division across our society, the Rebbe's words are more relevant than ever, and we so desperately need to take them to heart and learn from his example to always see the good in others, even those with whom we may disagree. Today I rededicate myself to the Rebbe's life-long mission of creating more light and goodness, and making a better future for ourselves and all of humanity."

Campbell wasn't the only celebrity to honor the Rebbe's memory. Paula Abdul shared a message about the Rebbe's Sabbath candle campaign, which encourages all Jewish women and girls to mark the start of the Sabbath by lighting candles.

"His teachings to better our world through unconditional love are more urgent now than ever! Join me in his Shabbat Candle campaign, spreading light before sundown this evening," Abdul shared on Twitter.

According to The Times of Israel, 400,000 people visit the Rebbe's gravesite each year.

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/lamar-odom-pray-lubavitcher-rebbe-grave
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A McDonald's in central Florida discriminated against a Hasidic Jewish job applicant, by refusing to hire him because of his beard, a federal agency said in a lawsuit this week.

The U.S. Equal Employ­ment Opportunity Commission filed the suit against Chalfont & Associates Group, owner of the McDonald's in Longwood, Florida, just north of Orlando.

That McDonald's store wanted to hire Morteza Javadi for a part-time maintenance job in September 2016, but only if he shaved off his beard, according to the EEOC lawsuit filed Tuesday.

"During his interview, the hiring manager told the applicant he would be hired, but needed to shave his beard to comply with McDonald's grooming policy," according to an EEOC statement.

"The applicant told the hiring manager he would not shave his beard due to his religious beliefs. The applicant offered to wear a beard net as a solution, but was denied."

The management's refusal to hire the man violates federal statutes which prohibit dis­crimination based on religion, according to the agency. The law also "requires employers to reasonably accommodate an applicant's or employee's sincerely held religious beliefs, unless it poses an undue hardship," the EEOC said.

"The fact that McDonald's has grooming policies does not exempt them from following the law," EEOC Regional Attorney Robert Weisberg said in a statement.

"McDonald's was aware the applicant could not shave his beard for religious reasons, but refused to accommodate his religious beliefs. Employers should never force applicants to choose between their sincerely held religious beliefs, which can be reasonably accommodated, and earning a living."

Representatives for Chalfont & Associates Group and McDonald's could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday.

The EEOC is suing for back pay with interest, out-of-pocket costs for the plaintiff and punitive damages.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mcdonald-s-florida-refused-hire-jewish-man-because-his-beard-n1031416
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The hallucination of an evil Jewish conspiracy that controls not only world politics, but also cultural affairs and even dictates opinion is one of the most quintessential antisemitic stereotypes. And as if the Holocaust would have never happened, its popularity is unbroken until the present day. A recent report in the German weekly Der Spiegel and an op-ed in last Sunday’s Haaretz by Ilana Hammerman (which had already been published a week earlier in Hebrew) are the most recent expressions of the delusional idea that some kind of conspiracy pulls the strings behind the scene to manipulate society on behalf of Israel and the Jews.

 The article in Der Spiegel titled “Lobbyism in the Bundestag” was published on July 12 and alleges that two associations, acting on behalf of Israel and the Jews, have disproportionate influence on German politics. The recent decision of Germany’s federal parliament, the “Bundestag,” to condemn the BDS movement would be a result of the suspicious manipulation by these organizations. The two associations that are targeted in the Spiegel piece are the “Initiative for Values” (Werteinitiave), a German Jewish civil society group and the “Middle East Peace Forum,” an NGO that, according to unsubstantiated Spiegel allegations, acts on behalf of the Netanyahu government. Indeed, both groups have spoken out openly for the Bundestag’s recent anti-BDS motion. Yet, in the Spiegel article, this actually desirable act of democratic participation by civil society actors is portrayed as sinister and illegitimate manipulation on behalf of an alien country: Israel. This is antisemitism in its purest form.

The same kind of conspiratorial delusions plagues Haaretz writer Hammerman. The title of her recently published op-ed reads: “The evil new apparition that is stalking Germany today: Criticism of Israeli policy has been banned and persecuted as antisemitism, and those pulling the strings sit in Israel.” The quintessence of her piece is that the Israeli government would be active in Germany to incite against Muslims and to silence criticism of Israel. In order to corroborate her point, she slanders a recent presentation by German-Israeli author Arye Shalicar at Berlin’s Humboldt University as “arrogant, toxic and racist incitement, mostly against Muslims,” on behalf of the Israeli government. In fact, in her almost 2,000-words-long op-ed, Hammerman does not produce one single quotation that would substantiate her charge that Shalicar’s talk was racist or anti-Muslim. The allegation has also been dismissed by other participants of that event. “There was absolutely nothing racist and nothing anti-Islamic in Shalicar’s talk,” says Soraya Mentiply, a young German Muslim who was present at the event. Tabea Krause, who was in the audience as well, confirms Mentiply’s rejection of Hammerman’s racism charges against Shalicar.

FURTHERMORE, SHALICAR was not speaking on behalf of the Israeli government. The event on June 19 was a book launch at which he presented his essay, “The new German antisemite,” a personal account about his experience with Jew-hatred. The book covers experiences from the author’s childhood in Berlin as well as encounters that he made with foreign journalists in Israel, while serving as an IDF spokesperson. Shalicar was invited by two NGOs, the Berlin branch of the German-Israeli Friendship Association and the Mideast Freedom Forum. Even though Shalicar is an Israeli government employee, on that evening he spoke as an independent book author. Mentiply and Krause both confirmed that Shalicar focused on his personal experiences and barely spoke about politics. Nevertheless, according to Krause, “there was a woman in the audience who insisted that Shalicar was steered by the Israeli government and that his self-presentation as an independent author was a deception. However, she would not produce any evidence for that allegation.” Mentiply confirmed that statement and identified the woman who made it as Haaretz writer Ilana Hammerman. Both Mentiply and Krause reported that Hammerman during a Q&A session accused Shalicar to be a government propagandist for the “racist state of Israel.” Another woman, who later would leave the hall together with Hammerman, asked Shalicar how much longer he wants to keep talking about antisemitism, when in fact there is none in Germany and after Germany already had appointed an antisemitism czar.

The charge that antisemitism isn’t real, but rather invoked to silence criticism of Israel, is a classic adaption of the age-old antisemitic myth that Jews manipulate and thereby control public opinion. As early as 1879, German antisemitic historian Heinrich von Treitschke – who coined the notorious phrase “the Jews are our misfortune” – wrote: “Whoever dared to criticize the undeniable weaknesses of the Jewish character was denounced by almost all of the press as a barbarian and as a discriminator of a religious group.” Current-day Jew-haters, to paraphrase Israel’s former ambassador to Germany Jeremy Issacharoff, claim the right to demonize Israel, but render criticism of this form of antisemitism censorship.

It is one of the great ironies of antisemitism that its proponents claim to be silenced, as more actually speak out to spread their toxic ideas. In her op-ed, Hammerman claims that free speech is being banned in Germany. However, according to other participants of Shalicar’s book launch at Humboldt University, it was Hammerman who spoke more than anybody else in the audience. “The whole event lasted for 90 minutes of which that woman [sic Hammerman] spoke 25,” says Krause and elaborates: “She was the first person to speak at the Q&A. But rather than asking questions, she kept talking for 10 minutes about all kind of matters that had nothing to do with the book launch. After that, she kept interrupting other people who wanted to ask questions until the audience got really mad at her.” Mentiply confirms: “I don’t know whether her opening remarks really went on for 10 minutes. But it was more than five minutes for sure.”

In her Haaretz op-ed, Hammerman writes, “I received hostile responses: Neither the speaker, the moderator nor the audience were interested in a discussion. I received evil looks, was asked to remain silent, and Arye complained that I was a disturbance – so much so that he would require a relaxing massage because of the evening.”

Hammerman doesn’t seem to understand that the audience simply disagreed with both her style and the content of her statements. Instead of blaming herself for the disapproval that she encountered, she blames the Israeli-orchestrated control of public opinion in Germany. This form of projecting one’s own failures on the Jewish scapegoat certainly is yet another classical expression of antisemitism.

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-antisemitic-myth-of-Jewish-control-is-alive-and-kicking-595998
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“We’re leaving because of the situation for the Jews in France,” said Simon and Alice Midal, long-time residents of Levallois-Perret, a wealthy suburb northwest of Paris.

At 76 years old, the couple has decided it is time to bid adieu to France, and will be on a flight together with some 100 immigrants leaving on Wednesday.

A delegation of journalists on a tour with the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) met with the couple – pillars of the Jewish community here – on Tuesday.

After working in leadership positions within several Jewish organizations including B’nai B’rith, the European Jewish Congress and the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, Midal said the rising tide of antisemitism in France has made him and his wife realize that it was time to leave.

Both were born in Switzerland in 1943, where their Parisian parents had fled to escape the Holocaust.

“We’re both retired, but we’re very proud Zionists,” he explained. “We were in youth movements and the Jewish scouts, all which were very Zionistic.”

Midal said antisemitism in France has become catastrophic, and that notwithstanding laws against racism, including antisemitism, there is little enforcement.

https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Were-leaving-France-because-of-antisemitism-says-Jewish-couple-595852
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A tennis champion who won the women’s doubles at Wimbledon 63 years ago claims a club refused to accept her because she is Jewish.

Angela Buxton, who won at Wimbledon in 1956 with her American partner Althea Gibson, said she applied shortly after her win to join the All England Club, to which she had expected to be accepted due to her status as a top player.

Buxton told The Sunday Times that she believes antisemitism was the reason she was never accepted though she has continued to wait and reapply.

“It’s an unfortunate example of how the British really treat Jews in this country,” she told the newspaper. “This sort of thing exacerbates the feeling towards Jews. It’s perfectly ridiculous, it’s laughable. It speaks volumes.”

The club disagreed with Buxton’s characterization. “While the decision-making process for membership of the All England Club is a private matter, we strongly refute any suggestion that race or religion plays a factor,” a statement from the club said, according to The Daily Mail.

Buxton also said that she had experienced antisemitism during her career.

Author Bruce Schoenfeld in his book “The Match: How Two Outsiders — One Black, the Other Jewish — Forged a Friendship and Made Sports History” reported that Simon Marks, the Jewish owner of the department store Marks & Spencer, allowed her to practice on his private tennis court.

As a teenager, Buxton applied to join the Cumberland Club, the top tennis facility in North London. Coach Bill Blake reportedly rejected Buxton, saying: “You’re perfectly good, but you’re Jewish. We don’t take Jews here.”

https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/wimbledon-champion-claims-she-was-denied-club-membership-due-to-antisemitism/
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Ireland’s oldest Jewish cemetery is to be refurbished and reopened to the public more than 40 years since its closure, under new plans from Dublin City Council.

The council took ownership of the cemetery on Fairview Strand in Ballybough two years ago from the Dublin Jewish Board of Guardians, who could no longer afford its upkeep.

Founded in 1718, it is one of the earliest surviving Jewish burial grounds in Ireland or Britain and merits consideration for National Monument status, according to a conservation and management plan commissioned by the council.

However, the historic fabric and character of the cemetery is under threat due to the overgrown condition of the grounds, the dilapidated state of the mortuary house and encroachment from neighbouring sites.

“Of particular concern, given international experience, is the risk of anti-Semitic vandalism leading to the defilement of this sacred space” if its poor condition is not addressed, the plan states.

Mortuary house
The cemetery is bounded by a high wall and the only external indication of its presence is a plaque on the front of the mortuary house which states it was built in 5618, the Hebrew calendar date which translates to 1857 in the Gregorian calendar.

The mortuary house was built 139 years after the cemetery first opened, as a defence against grave robbery and the theft of headstones, and until recently was the residence of the cemetery caretaker. It is no longer habitable.

The cemetery has almost 150 headstones with inscriptions in both Hebrew and English, and holds about 200 graves. It was in use from 1718 until the end of the 19th century, when the Jewish community moved to the south side of the city and established a new cemetery near Dolphin’s Barn.

Just a handful of burials took place in Fairview in the early years of the 20th century, with the last interment in 1958. The cemetery officially closed in 1978.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/ireland-s-oldest-jewish-cemetery-to-reopen-after-40-years-1.3956466
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A Jewish community leader has been tortured by four assailants who attacked the millionaire businessman at his home in Maastricht, Netherlands. Police have not ruled out anti-Semitic motive behind the brutal robbery.

Benoit Wesly, 73, had a nightmare experience last weekend when he suddenly woke up to four masked men standing over his bed. Seconds later he was being punched and kicked in the head as assailants kept demanding the combination to his safe. They also stabbed the elderly man and pushed him down the stairs, where he was tied to a chair.

Wesly’s mouth and nose were then tightly covered with a piece of cloth, and the attackers poured water over his face. The waterboarding torture method, reportedly widely used by the CIA last decade, did the trick – Wesly caved in and gave the robbers the code to his vault.

The assailants fled the residence with the victim still tied to the chair, but eventually Wesly managed to free himself and drove to the police station to report the brutal robbery. He was taken to a hospital with no life-threatening injuries.

Police are now investigating the motives behind the attack, not ruling out anti-Semitism. The millionaire businessman is the head of the Jewish diaspora in Limburg province (Israëlitische Hoofdsynagoge Limburg) and serves as an honorary consul of Israel.

https://www.rt.com/news/464058-dutch-jewish-community-leader-tortured/
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The late US Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., wrote that “there are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes.”

Brennan died a few years before Discovery Channel launched its hit reality show Dirty Jobs, but he would certainly have approved.

The show, which ran from 2003 until 2012, followed its indefatigable host Mike Rowe as he carried out a range of difficult — often disgusting and messy — tasks, alongside ordinary people for whom these tasks were their everyday jobs in real life.

Introducing his role in each episode, Rowe would begin by saying, “I explore the country looking for people who aren’t afraid to get dirty — hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.”

Over the course of numerous seasons, Rowe investigated a diverse assortment of such jobs in almost 170 episodes — apprenticing himself to sewer inspectors, pig farmers, hot-tar roofers, sludge recyclers, high-rise window cleaners, pest exterminators, a hippopotamus keeper, and bat-poop collectors — among many others.

Some of the jobs were so hideous that even Rowe recoiled. One episode saw him testing a “shark suit,” a steel mesh body suit made from several hundred thousand tiny metal rings, meant to protect its wearer from shark bites. Having attracted dozens of sharks by dumping a pool of blood and fish bits into the sea, Rowe jumped in.

“The sharks come in, and you let them bite you,” he later told an interviewer. “If you live, the suit works. If you don’t, it’s unfortunate.”

For Rowe, this was a one-off event; for the suit’s manufacturer, the live test is a crucial part of the process that enables them to bring their product to market.

After the series was canceled by Discovery, Rowe was asked which had been the most difficult assignment of all. He replied that he had found “catfish noodling” (don’t ask!) very challenging, although “for epic, monumental dirtiness, the bat cave wins.” But he then revealed that in terms of “pure exhaustion,” indoor demolition and being a house mover were the jobs he had found most challenging of all.

Catfish noodling and collecting bat feces can hardly be considered mainstream, but indoor demolition and house moving certainly are. Both of them are vital to the regular functioning of our day-to-day lives, along with garbage collection, sewer maintenance, animal farming and slaughter, as well as the many other unpleasant tasks we all rely upon to live our lives, but with which we have no meaningful contact.

Rowe’s mission was to wake us up to this undeniable reality.

As it happens, this idea is embedded into the heart of the Jewish faith. The Torah portion of Chukkat begins with the curious phenomenon known as “para aduma.” A red-haired cow was burned, and the ashes were later used in a carefully choreographed ritual process to purify those who had come into contact with a dead body. Oddly enough, everyone involved in the preparation of the ashes would themselves become impure, albeit at a lower grade than those the ashes were aimed at purifying.

The commentaries all acknowledge this strange anomaly as emblematic of the unfathomable nature of the strange commandment. After all, it is exceptionally odd that the very people who ensure the purification of the impure would themselves become impure.

Or perhaps not. Perhaps the Torah is teaching us an important lesson. Perhaps, in order to fulfill God’s will and elevate the world around us, we are called upon to do a “dirty job.” Perhaps the greater good can only be served, and society can only function as it should, if we are willing to get our hands dirty.

The Talmud (Pesachim 57a) records that Issachar of Barkai, a High Priest during the late Second Temple period, would wear silk gloves so as not to get his hands dirty while he performed his ritual duties. The passage is presented as a criticism, and the Talmud goes on to record a gruesome, unrelated event in which both of Issachar’s hands were severed by King Jannai as punishment for disrespecting the monarchy.

The implication is clear: As a public servant, you need to get your hands dirty.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/07/12/why-do-so-many-look-down-on-hard-work-and-refuse-to-get-their-hands-dirty/
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Members of Montreal's Hasidic community say there has been a rise in hateful incidents since Bill 21 was tabled and passed in the National Assembly.

Last week people were shocked to learn of a construction worker who sprayed tar on children.

The children said the attack was unprovoked but one worker who was questioned on the scene said he had asked them to move and when they didn't they were sprayed by mistake.

At first it was ruled an accident but police later agreed to investigate.

Now members of the Hasidic community are coming forward with videos of other incidents they say are hate-related.

One video shows a hooded man getting out of a truck that slows down it approaches a group of Hasidic men.

As the men pass he steals one of their hats and flees in the vehicle.

Sam Muller said hate incidents against his community appear to be increasing lately, and the instigators do not appear to be people who live near Hasidic Jews.

"It's absolutely sure that the steps the provincial government and the provincial elected officials have taken with introducing Bill 21, similar bills surely don't help," said Muller.

"They surely don't give the right message to racists, or antisemitic, or hateful people that Quebec is not the place for racism."

Another security video also shows a group of Hassidic men outside a synagogue. The person who shared the video said the men were subjected to anti-semitic slurs and had eggs thrown at them, although that is not visible.

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/montreal-s-hasidic-community-claims-rise-in-hate-crime-incidents-1.4504254
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In Jewish publishing, there will always be a market for basics like the Bible and associated commentary, but Jewish books are also beginning to reflect a renewed interest in Jewish studies from those outside the Jewish community. Additionally, new writers are trying to make sense of the rise in anti-Semitism.

Schocken Books, a division of Penguin Random House that specializes in Jewish literary works, often focuses on evergreen topics. For instance, Robert Alter's The Hebrew Bible: A New Translation With Commentary is among Schocken’s bestsellers. In light of the increasing number of anti-Semitic acts in the U.S. and abroad, however, Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt's Antisemitism: Here and Now (2019) has over 27,000 copies in print, according to the publisher.

"We’re about to go back for a fourth printing,” says Altie Karper, editorial director at Schocken. “We’d had high expectations for the book, but constantly unfolding current events have certainly given it a boost."

But most ripped-from-the-headlines books on anti-Semitism haven't yet been released. "What’s more indicative of trends, I think, is in the submissions I’ve been getting," says Karper. "A lot of them are indeed on the subject of the recent rise in anti-Semitism. And, interestingly enough, I’ve also seen an uptick in Holocaust memoirs and histories, with authors saying that the rise in contemporary anti-Semitism has been their motivating factor.”

In January, Schocken is publishing To the Edge of Sorrow, a novel by Aharon Appelfeld that follows Jewish escapees from a Ukrainian ghetto during World War II who hide in a nearby forest and rescue others from trains headed toward concentration camps. Coming in April, Filled with Fire and Light: Portraits and Legends from the Bible, Talmud, and Hasidic World by Elie Wiesel collects the late Nobel laureate's lectures on personalities from Jewish history.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/religion/article/80623-jewish-publishing-goes-beyond-basics.html
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Supermodel Naomi Campbell has paid tribute to the grand Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Schneersonon the 25th anniversary of his death.

Sharing a picture of the Rebbe on Instagram Ms Campbell wrote an accompanying caption that described him as an “inspirational leader, scholar, and teacher.”

She wrote: “The Rebbe taught that we are all inherently good and we each have the potential to change the world for the better, one good deed at a time.

“I have personally learned so much from his wisdom and teachings, and while I never met him, I’ve visited his resting place in Queens to gain blessing and inspiration.”

https://www.thejc.com/news/world/supermodel-naomi-campbell-pays-tribute-to-lubavitcher-rebbe-on-25th-anniversary-of-his-death-1.486214
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Two men charged with assaulting and robbing a fellow Hasidic man outside Monroe Town Hall were arraigned Monday in Orange County Court on robbery and criminal mischief charges.

The victim, Herman Wagschal, is one of the organizers of the effort to create the 1.9-square-mile, 610-resident Village of Seven Springs next to Kiryas Joel, and he was en route to deliver a revised petition related to that effort to Monroe Town Hall the morning of March 28 when two men accosted him.

Shlome Katz, 32, of Monroe was arrested immediately after the attack in Town Hall. Moses Hirsch, 31, of Monroe, turned himself in the next day to Ramapo police in Suffern.

Wagschal, who has a carry permit, was wearing his handgun in a holster at the time. He said he did not brandish the gun; Monroe Supervisor Tony Cardone told police Wagschal “attempted to draw the firearm to defend himself,” causing the assailants to flee.

An Orange County grand jury indicted Hirsch and Katz on a count of second-degree robbery, a felony; and misdemeanor criminal mischief. Hirsch also faces a misdemeanor arson count. Both men are free on $10,000 bail.

On Monday in front of Judge William DeProspo, their lawyer, Daniel Castricone, entered not-guilty pleas on behalf of his clients.

“They waited for the victim to arrive at Town Hall,” Senior Assistant District Attorney Christopher Kelly said in court, and then they set upon him from behind. “They wrestled with him, they stomped him and they hit him.”

They took the petition, Kelly said, and Katz took Wagschal’s phone and fled with it into Town Hall. Hirsch took the petition and took it to a stream, where he burned the papers, Kelly said.

Neither defendant has any criminal records, Kelly, said, so prosecutors didn’t oppose maintaining the posted bail.

DeProspo advised Katz and Hirsch that the law discourages co-defendants. He scheduled a court date on Aug 1 for the men to decide if they wish to continue, or have new counsel for one of them.

After court Castricone said his clients belong to a small faction of anti-Zionist Hasidim who believe that they are in exile until the Messiah returns. They believe they must be subservient to secular authorities, Castricone said. They don’t vote, they oppose the Orthodox community forming villages, and oppose Kiryas Joel’s village government and school district.

“There’s a lot of evidence yet to come out,” Castricone said. “I’m confident that my clients will be found not guilty.”

https://www.recordonline.com/news/20190708/two-men-plead-not-guilty-in-assault-of-hasidic-man-outside-monroe-town-hall
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50,000 people came to pray and pay their respect at Lubavitcher Rebbe's grave in honor of his 25th Yahrtzeit, or the anniversary of his passing, over the first weekend of July.

Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi who was the last leader of the Lubavitcher Hasidic dynasty.

As the head of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, he was responsible for sending Jews all over the world to open thousands of educational and social centers. 

Schneerson's resting place is in Cambria Heights, Queens, not too far from the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Schneerson's gravesite is seen as a holy site to many of his adherents, where thousands will go each week.

https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/50000-admirers-and-followers-visit-Lubavitcher-Rebbes-grave-594847
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Police in Krakow briefly detained the chief rabbi of Poland after he tried to climb the fence of a synagogue whose congregation has been evicted by leaders of that city’s Jewish community.

In the unusual incident Thursday at Krakow’s Izaak Synagogue, Rabbi Michael Schudrich was asked to explain his actions and present his identity card to police officers monitoring a protest rally outside the synagogue, which Schudrich attended.

The protest by several dozen people was over the eviction of a congregation led by Chabad rabbi from the synagogue by the Jewish Community of Krakow, which owns it. The Chabad rabbi, Eliezer Gurary, had worked there for years with the consent of the Jewish Community of Krakow, the official representative of the city’s Jewish community and a non-profit which is a member of Schudrich’s Union of Jewish Communities of Poland.

The Jewish Community of Krakow, which hired security guards to prevent Gurary’s congregation fron entering the building, said in a statement that Gurary’s congregants had damaged the synagogue, though Gurary has denied this. Schudrich in a statement Tuesday condemned the eviction.

A standoff situation evolved, in which dozens of Jewish protesters, many from Gurary’s congregation, came Wednesday and Thursday to protest the synagogue’s closure. Schudrich on Thursday joined the protest and climbed the fence as media filmed the incident.

The Jewish Community of Krakow has a few dozen official members and is run by Tadeusz Jakubowicz and his daughter, Helena. It owns property worth millions of dollars.

https://forward.com/fast-forward/427058/chief-rabbi-poland-synagogue-detained/
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This summer, Tuesday is the night for Jewish-themed films at the Southampton Arts Center (SAC). All the movies to be screened celebrate the Jewish experience as a part of the Southampton Jewish Film Festival, which began July 9.
The next film on July 23, “Hag: The Story of the Hasidic Actors’ Guild,” is an outrageously funny mockumentary survey of Jewish visibility in cinema and fictionalized history replete with archival “behind the scenes” footage, interviews, and staged scenes. The 2008 film documents the life of Yisrael “Izzi” Lifschutz who acted in or consulted on such Hollywood films as “The Chosen,” “Stranger Among Us” and the independent classic “Pi” (which he also co-produced). This It also goes beyond its humor to speak to contemporary Jewish experience. As Mr. Lifshutz boasts, “I’m so animated they call me the kosher ham.”

http://www.27east.com/news/article.cfm/General-Interest-Southampton/599206/Jewish-Film-Festival-Presents-Hag-on-July-23
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In Montreal’s Hasidic community, awareness of health and nutrition has come a long way. A company called Organic Juicery is evidence of that.

Its founder and owner, Trany Hochauser, a Hasidic Montrealer, was met with skepticism when she first entered the health field. “People have this preconceived notion that Hasidim here in the community have no interest or knowledge about health and nutrition,” she says. “I am happy to have been the one to shatter those ideas.”

Hasidim brought their eating habits from Europe. As Gitta Bixenspanner – an author, lecturer and teacher – explains, “Life was different then. You ate what you had. You couldn’t afford to be picky. Today, you have a variety of foods to choose from.

“Gone are the high-fat kugels and fried chicken. We’ve replaced them with salads and grilled vegetables. Our eating has evolved,” she says.

Bixenspanner has spent the last 40 years teaching and educating younger generations of Hasidim how to live a healthy lifestyle. Articles about health and nutrition were once taboo in the community. As much as she tried, she couldn’t get them published in local and community publications. But she didn’t give up. Slowly, she broke the barrier.

“Today,” she says, “we fortunately have plenty of healthy options for a fair price. There is no reason not to explore different foods.”

Hochauser took advantage of the wealth of modern health information. She buried herself in nutrition books, to perfect her freshly squeezed juice recipes, and attended lectures delivered by nutritionists.

Organic Juicery’s products are 100 per cent natural and rich in vitamins and minerals. “Fruits and vegetables contain so many health benefits, so why not take advantage of that?” she explains.

And that is exactly what she’s done. Organic Juicery is thriving. What started as a home business has now expanded. The company is now renting a warehouse, adding items to its production list and offering delivery service throughout Montreal.

Hochauser says that there is a dearth of kosher health food in Montreal’s Hassidic community, but that this fact has helped her business. “Because there is no kosher health store here in the Hasidic community, my juices are sold in the regular grocery stores,” she explains.

“This allows people, even those who would never walk into a health food store, to come across health products when they shop for regular groceries. The juices are on the shelf, in plain sight. If it is right in front of them, they will more often reach for that healthy juice bottle.”

It’s a very different atmosphere than what came before. “There is so much new information and healthy recipes available in Jewish publications,” she says. In addition, more and more health products are being certified kosher by even stringent heksherim.

https://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/the-push-to-get-healthier-food-choices-into-montreals-hasidic-community
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Does every Jewish mother want her son to become a doctor? Not always. If you’re a member of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Israel, where many young men are expected to spend their days learning Torah full-time, many mothers in these communities would much rather say, “my son the rabbi” than “my son the doctor.”

And while there are ultra-Orthodox doctors, many of whom immigrated from abroad or found religion later in life, a Hasidic doctor who grew up in a local Hasidic community is as rare as a unicorn.

For Yehuda Sabiner, the path to medical school was an unorthodox one. The son of the dean of a Hasidic Gur yeshiva in Jerusalem, Sabiner, now a 29 year-old father of three, said that he has wanted to enter the medical profession since he was four years old, when he innocently asked his pediatrician what he would have to do to become an MD.

When he told his parents that he wanted to be a doctor, they saw it “as a cute thing that children say,” he recalled. But when he continued insisting on his chosen profession at age 16, it ceased being amusing and became a source of concern for members of his family.

“As I grew up, I saw you can do it as a religious mission, as hesed [lovingkindness], which is very important part of the Jewish tradition. My mother had tears in eyes and said ‘I thought we passed the hard times,’” Sabiner told the Forward. But as he continued in yeshiva, getting high marks in Talmud and appearing to be on track to eventually become a rabbi or a religious court judge, his parents began to relax, although he would occasionally bring up the subject of medicine throughout.

While the ultra-Orthodox world is anything but monolithic, its overall workforce participation is significantly lower than in the national-religious and secular sectors, and many members of the most fervent Haredi communities shun secular studies and higher education.

According to figures released by the Israel Democracy Institute in December, some 45 percent of Haredim live in poverty and just under half of Haredi men are unemployed. Employment figures tend to be lower among members of “Lithuanian” or non-Hasidic Haredim. Despite these figures, however, there has been an increase in the number of Haredim studying for professional careers and the average Haredi monthly income increased by eight percent between 2015-16, “reflect[ing] a rise in ultra-Orthodox salaries among those employed,” according to the IDI. These gains can be credited to the “rise in the number of well-educated members of the ultra-Orthodox community and the advancement of ultra-Orthodox workers in the labor market (as a result of a combination of appropriate skills and education, and government programs).”

Sabiner’s dreams did not fade after his marriage. When he again announced that he intended to become a doctor, his parents replied that it was an issue for him and his wife to handle, while his new bride broke out crying.

https://forward.com/life/426919/meet-israels-first-hasidic-med-school-student/
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Between neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville, the synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh and the shul shooting in Poway, Calif., the Jewish community has been on edge for more than a year.

Synagogues and Jewish institutions are holding active shooter drills, scrambling to beef up security and struggling to raise money to pay for it all. Anti-Semitic incidents, as recorded by the Anti-Defamation League and the NYPD, have soared over the last two years.

Now, a new survey by the nonpartisan, Washington-based Public Religion Research Institute finds that nearly 20 percent of Americans consider it permissible for businesses to refuse service to Jews on religious grounds. That figure — 19 percent — represents a seven percent jump from 2014, when 12 percent considered such a refusal permissible.

According to the survey, “Increasing Support For Religiously Based Service Refusals,” Republicans are more likely than Democrats to support service refusal to Jews, 24 percent to 17 percent.

“A small but increasing number of Americans think it should be permissible to turn away customers based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or race,” said PRRI founder Robert Jones. “While legislative agendas and the media have mostly focused on such policies in relationship to the LGBTQ community, this survey indicates that these sentiments about religiously based service refusals extend to other minority groups such as atheists, Muslims, Jews and African Americans.”

The survey, which polled 1,100 people in April, comes amid an emerging legal battle between businesses’ “public accommodation” and business owners’ “freedom of religion” right to place convictions before profit. While it did not specify what “religious” grounds or scripture a business owner could cite, the study indicated that substantial minorities of U.S. citizens view it permissible for the owner of a small business to refuse service — in such places as restaurants or bakeries — to members of other religious groups and minorities.

https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/ok-to-refuse-service-to-jews-new-study-finds/
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At dawn on Sunday, yeshiva students from Yeshiva Tzeirei Hashluchim Tzfat joined the Golan Heights Chabad House in Had Ness on the Golan Heights, led by Chabad emissary Rabbi Sholom Ber Herzel.

The group worked together to set up up a printing press at the future site of Ramat Trump — in English, Trump Heights — “alongside the sign that became an international landmark,” as the rabbi put it.

One hundred copies of the Tanya were printed just prior to the start of the Hebrew month of Tammuz. The 18th Century foundational textbook of Hasidic philosophy, which examines the deeper, metaphysical nature of Jewish life, was written by the founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement.

“Even before the first tractor has touched the ground, a spiritual “housewarming” was carried out in the future settlement, in the form of printing the Tanya on the site,” said Rabbi Herzel.

The first copy is to be bound in leather and presented to U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David M. Friedman. The remaining copies are to be distributed to the local residents free of charge, the rabbi said.

https://www.jewishpress.com/news/jewish-news/chabad-2/chabad-rabbis-print-tanya-at-ramat-trump-in-golan-heights/2019/07/01/
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