Friday, July 29, 2022
Lufthansa will create a position to fight antisemitism after kicking more than 100 Hasidic passengers off a flight
The Lufthansa airline is creating a senior management role dedicated to preventing discrimination and antisemitism two months after it barred a large group of Orthodox Jewish passengers from boarding a flight.
However, an independent investigation commissioned by the airline said there was no evidence of institutional antisemitism behind the incident, which the company's CEO deemed "categorically inappropriate."
In a letter to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Lufthansa Airlines CEO Jens Ritter said the airline had established an internal task force to investigate the May 4 incident in which more than 100 Hasidic passengers were kicked off a connecting flight from New York to Budapest because some of them had not worn masks and committed other flight violations, such as gathering in the aisles.
The incident had outraged Jews in the United States and Europe, some of whom alleged that the crew had been discriminating against all visible Jewish passengers, even those who had complied with the rules. The Conference of Presidents was one of several Jewish groups to criticize Lufthansa in the aftermath and demand a full accounting of the incident.
Most of the passengers were traveling to a pilgrimage and did not know each other; a Lufthansa supervisor was caught on video remarking, "Everyone has to pay for a couple," and, "It's Jews coming from JFK. Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems."
The incident also attracted the attention of Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. State Department's special envoy for antisemitism, who said this week that she would be meeting with the head of the worldwide Lufthansa Group, as well as the head of the airline in North America, to discuss allegations of antisemitism against the airline.
"It's hard to believe but often it's ignorance rooted in certain perceptions, and ignorance that stems from an antisemitic nature," she said during a webinar hosted by the Anti-Defamation League, speculating as to the Lufthansa crew's motives for kicking off all Hasidic passengers.
In the Lufthansa letter, dated July 22 and first obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the airline's task force acknowledged that some of its crew members had been "insensitive and unprofessional" in dealing with the passengers. But the report concluded, "The thorough investigation did not reveal any sentiments of antisemitism, prejudice or premeditated behavior by Lufthansa representatives."
Ritter also blamed "an unfortunate chain of inaccurate communication, misinterpretation and unintended misjudgments" on the final result, while pointing out that the "several Orthodox Jewish passengers" who were not complying with regulations had "created a tenuous situation" and prompted "several announcements" from the captain.
The CEO promised that the German airline would take further action, including establishing a senior management role "for the prevention of discrimination and antisemitism," creating new staff training around issues of antisemitism and adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism.
It had also run the report's methodology by Felix Klein, Germany's top commissioner on antisemitism. The connecting flight in May was in Frankfurt, Germany.
"Lufthansa deeply regrets the denied boarding and the impact it had on our passengers," Ritter said.
The airline had previously apologized to the passengers for failing to limit its denial of boarding to "non-compliant guests."
On Wednesday, Lufthansa cancelled nearly all flights leaving Frankfurt and Munich, stranding 130,000 people, after thousands of employees staged a walkout for better wages.
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Thursday, July 28, 2022
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt to meet with Lufthansa executives over barring of Hasidic travelers
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department's special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, said Wednesday she is going to meet soon with Lufthansa's chief executive in North America, Norbert Mueller, to discuss allegations of antisemitism against the German airline.
In May, a Lufthansa ground crew allegedly prevented all identifiably Jewish passengers from boarding a flight from New York City because some of them were not complying with mask regulations. The airline expressed regret for the incident, in which an estimated 100 people were barred from boarding "rather than limiting it to the non-compliant guests." It also apologized "for the offense caused and personal impact," but didn't mention the fact that the group was Jewish.
During Wednesday's webinar, hosted by the Anti-Defamation League, Lipstadt said that while it remains unclear why airline staff prevented the group from boarding a connecting flight in Frankfurt, Germany, they were targeted for being Jews.
"It's hard to believe but often it's ignorance rooted in certain perceptions and ignorance that stems from an antisemitic nature," she said.
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Wednesday, July 27, 2022
What sort of Yiddish did Jews in Hungary speak?
When you hear Yiddish on the streets of Brooklyn these days, the likelihood is it's Hungarian Yiddish. Even Galician, Polish, and Lithuanian Hasidim use the Hungarian dialect today. One reason could be that the Hungarian-descended Satmar Hasidim have been more successful at maintaining Yiddish as its daily vernacular. Most Hungarian-Hasidic women, for example, speak Yiddish among themselves, while women from other Hasidic groups tend to speak English.
But calling these Hasidim "Hungarian" doesn't mean that they immigrated from present-day Hungary, a relatively small country (although it's four times the size of Israel). The "Jewish" geography of Hungary is the once vast Hungarian kingdom that existed before World War I, which included large expanses of today's Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Croatia and Austria. In this respect, when speaking of the pre-World War I Jewish community in Hungary, you can compare it with "Jewish Lithuania", which is exponentially larger than the contemporary State of Lithuania, and also includes Belarus, large parts of Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, and Poland. "Jewish Lithuania" covers mostly the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the Middle Ages, one of the largest nations in European history.
When the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed and new nations emerged from former Hungarian territories, many ethnic Hungarians remained on the other side of the new borders, while Jews in the territory of modern Romania, Ukraine, and Slovakia continued living in a culturally Hungarian environment, which includes the historical centers of "Hungarian" Hasidism: Satmar and Klausenburg are both cities in present-day Romania (Satu Mare and Cluj-Napoca, respectively); Munkacs (Mukachevko) is in Ukraine; and Nyitra (Nitra) is in Slovakia.
There is a historical irony in the fact that Hungarian Hasidim speak more Yiddish today than other groups: in the old country, Hungarian Jews more often spoke Hungarian than Yiddish, and in western Hungary some even spoke German, or a mix of German and Yiddish. Among the generation of Hungarian-Jewish immigrants that arrived in the United States after World War II, and helped established the current Hasidic dynasties, many spoke Yiddish with a strong Hungarian accent. On the streets of Williamsburg many Jews of the older generation continued to speak Hungarian.
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Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Russia raps Israel on Ukraine but plays down Jewish Agency court case
Russia criticised Israel's stance on the war in Ukraine but said on Tuesday that a dispute over a Jewish emigration agency was a legal matter that should not spill over into bilateral ties.
Russia's justice ministry is seeking the liquidation of the Russian branch of the non-profit Jewish Agency, which helps Jews move to Israel.
Authorities have alleged breaches of privacy laws by the agency, and are expected to present more details before a Russian court on Thursday.
"There is no need to politicize this situation and project it onto the entire range of Russian-Israeli relations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"It's necessary to take a careful approach here, but also to realise that all organizations must comply with Russian law."
The case has stirred worries in Israel about a crisis with Russia, which is home to a large Jewish community and wields clout in next-door Syria.
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Monday, July 25, 2022
Jewish Americans are increasingly concerned about left-wing anti-Semitism
The events surrounding the taking of hostages at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, on Jan. 15 by Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old British Pakistani armed with a pistol, received considerable attention and live coverage in the United States.
Following the escape of the hostages and the subsequent storming of the synagogue by law enforcement—which resulted in the death of Akram—dialogue and discussion ensued regarding issues of anti-Semitism in the United States, synagogue security and the Jewish community's general sense of safety.
We undertook two simultaneously administered surveys of Jewish and non-Jewish Americans between February 1 and February 6, 2022, close enough to the Colleyville events for them to remain "fresh" in people's memory and far enough away to allow for reflection and internalization of the ramifications of the experience.
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Thursday, July 21, 2022
Russia moves to dissolve Jewish Agency branch that promotes immigration to Israel
Russia's Ministry of Justice has requested the liquidation of the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency, a non-profit organisation that promotes immigration to Israel, according to a Moscow court.
The website of the Basmanny district court said the ministry filed the request on July 15 and it would be discussed on July 28. No reason for launching the case was given.
The move against the Jerusalem-based agency, the largest Jewish non-profit organisation in the world, follows criticism by Israel of Russia's war in Ukraine, where Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid accused it in April of carrying out war crimes.
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Wednesday, July 20, 2022
Rockland County police searching for white Ford F-150 truck in connection to recent attacks on Hasidic Jews
Rockland County investigators are searching for the person or people responsible for assaulting three Hasidic Jews last weekend.
As CBS2's Alecia Reid reported Tuesday, the incidents are being considered potential hate crimes.
Rockland police are searching for a white Ford F150 pickup truck.
"There's cause for concern," said Harvey Heilbromn of West Nyack.
In three separate incidents early Sunday morning, police say someone inside the suspect vehicle fired a BB gun and threw eggs at people walking on the street.
"Along the avenue of Route 306, which is also part of Main Street, as well as West Maple Avenue," Ramapo Police Det. Lt. Chris Franklin said.
It all happened within a half-mile radius. All three victims were Hasidic, police said.
"The injuries don't seem to be major at all, but the fact that objects, projectiles are being thrown at members of the community, specifically Jewish members, is alarming," said Ari Rosenblum, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Rockland County.
Investigating the incidents as a potential hate crime, police have increased patrols in the area.
"We as a police department take this very seriously and plan on using resources to stop this," Franklin said.
Rosenblum said physical security is of great concern, as this isn't the first time members from his community have felt threatened.
"One of my staff a few weeks ago, walking home from synagogue, an SUV pulled up, yelled obscenities, then moved on," Rosenblum said.
Police have been following up on leads in Sunday's incidents and have information that could lead them to a suspect, but due to recent incidents, not everyone is sticking around.
"I know someone who's moving to Chappaqua just to escape this," Heilbromn said.
While police continue to investigate these incidents, the Jewish Federation of Rockland County will be announcing a major long-term security initiative in coming weeks.
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Tuesday, July 19, 2022
NBA star Joel Embiid goes viral for dancing the hora at Jewish friend’s wedding
NBA star Joel Embiid is an enormous man — around 7 feet tall and 280 pounds, to give an idea. But that didn't stop him from joining in a hora dance and getting lifted in a chair at a Jewish friend's recent wedding.
Embiid went viral over the weekend as videos of the Philadelphia 76ers center joining in the Jewish nuptial fun — with a huge smile, to boot — circulated around social media.
The wedding took place in Napa, California, for Michael Ratner — a filmmaker who made a documentary about Embiid's life, from his native Cameroon to the University of Kansas — and Lauren Rothberg, the head of brand for Rhode, Hailey Bieber's new skincare line.
Both Ratner and Rothberg shared videos of Embiid in the action on their Instagram accounts, the New York Post reported. In one, he is seen joining in the hora circle; in others, he is shown holding a woman on a chair at the center of the circle.
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Monday, July 18, 2022
Hasidic Jewish Refugees From Ukraine Find Shelter In Hungary
After Russia launched its invasion on February 24, Ukrainian Hasidic Jews, like millions of other Ukrainians, fled the country -- clearly unconvinced by Russia's claim that it was seeking to "de-Nazify" Ukraine. They sought refuge with families and charitable organizations wherever they could. One such organization is the Machne Chabad rescue village, located on the shores of Lake Balaton in Balatonoszod, Hungary.
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Friday, July 15, 2022
Brooklyn Hasidic man gang beaten in front of five-year-old son
A Hasidic man was brutally beaten by a group of three men on Wednesday in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The victim, who has been identified as Crown Heights community activist Yosef Hershkop, reportedly got into an altercation with the perpetrators after hitting their car while trying to park on Montgomery Street, according to COLlIive.
The three men proceeded to follow Hershkop as he looked for another parking spot and eventually caught up with him. Hershkop initially spoke to the men, who demanded money for the damage done to their vehicle. Violence ensued after Hershkop suggested filing a police report, Hamodia reported.
The three men punched Hershkop multiple times as he sat in his car before another man crossed the street and appeared to deescalate the situation. A neighborhood patrol volunteer who interacted with the victim shortly after the beating told Hamodia that Hershkop's face was "busted up" and that he was in a state of shock, unable to speak coherently. The victim's 5-year-old son was in the car during the attack, per COLlive
Crown Heights Shomrim tweeted that "Our volunteers responded to a brutal assault by a few thugs. Despite a fast response the victim was in shock and wasn't able to give details."
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Thursday, July 14, 2022
Investigations Continue at Warsaw’s World War II Jewish Ghetto
Notes from Poland reports that archaeologists working in the Warsaw ghetto have uncovered children's shoes, tableware, ceramic tiles, diary pages, burned books, and book pages written in Hebrew and Polish. Established by the Nazis in 1940, an estimated 460,000 Jews were held captive in the ghetto, an area covering just 1.3 square miles. Researchers led by Jacek Konik of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum have been investigating an area near a memorial mound named for Mordechai Anielewicz, head of the Jewish Combat Organization, which was based nearby at 18 Miła Street. Anielewicz is thought to have died at the site in May 1943 during an uprising triggered by the deportation of many of the captives to death camps. "It was here that the soldiers of the Jewish Combat Organization, surrounded by the Germans, probably committed mass suicide," Konik said. The Nazis demolished the Warsaw ghetto after the uprising. To read about a torah pointer uncovered in a Polish town whose Jewish community was decimated by the Nazis, go to "Artifact."
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Wednesday, July 13, 2022
Bringing Judaism to the World: Meet Rabbi Elya Silfen, Founder of a Free Online Jewish Learning Program
As director and founder of Chabad Academy, a free international online Jewish learning program affiliated with the Bais Chabad Torah Center in West Bloomfield, Rabbi Elya Silfen has made it his life goal to help others connect with and learn about Judaism.
However, his own encounter with Judaism was one that happened by chance. "I grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as a totally secular kid," Silfen, 35 of West Bloomfield, explains. "There wasn't much of a Jewish education over there."
Yet once Chabad came to town, Silfen says he was "totally hooked."
On Friday nights, he began attending Shabbat services while still in high school. "It was cool to hang around cool Jews," Silfen describes. "That sparked my interest."
A Life-Changing Experience in Israel
As senior year of high school approached, Silfen's parents told him he could take a gap year before starting college. When someone asked him if he wanted to spend that year in Jerusalem, Silfen, who had never been to Israel, was immediately intrigued.
For his time, he would earn college credits and experience a full-fledged travel program. Yet there was one caveat: Silfen would be attending a yeshiva.
However, joining the yeshiva worked in his favor. As the youngest of his roommates, Silfen met young Jews from all over the world, including Australia and South Africa.
"I wanted to emulate them," Silfen recalls. "They were 24 and I was 18."
In learning about Judaism, Silfen discovered a whole different side to the religion that he hadn't known previously. He studied mysticism and what it meant to have purpose in life.
Before, "it was always about candles, eating matzah and attending boring services on Yom Kippur," Silfen says. "This was just a flip on its head. It was very relevant and very practical."
As the year wrapped up, Silfen wanted to continue his Jewish studies. For the next seven years, he pursued a rabbinical degree, working in investment management at Morgan Stanley for several years before deciding he wanted to become a full-fledged rabbi.
"This was always my passion," Silfen says of rabbinical studies.
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Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Three-year-old boy dies in hot car parked outside Jewish preschool in South Florida
A 3-year-old boy died after being left in a car outside a South Florida preschool where both his parents are staff members, police said.
The child was one of several children from the same family who attend Lubavitch Educational Center in Miami Gardens, the Miami Herald reported.
Temperatures outside were in the mid-90s Fahrenheit. The unresponsive child was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The boy's father was being interviewed by police late Monday, the Herald reported.
"This tragedy hits close to home, and many in our school community have been affected by it. No words can capture the heartbreak and sadness we feel," Rabbi Benzion Korf, the center's dean, said in a short statement issued late Monday.
Korf said a therapist and grief counselor would be available for staff and students at the center on Tuesday.
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Monday, July 11, 2022
ADL says suspect who threatened Jewish community is in custody
A suspect is in custody after a threat caused the San Antonio Jewish community to cancel services.
On Saturday, the FBI notified the Jewish Federation of San Antonio about the potential threat to an unconfirmed community facility.
As a precaution, services across the city were canceled.
Within a few hours, a local temple updated its membership, the threat was over. Now, the National Anti-Defamation League says a suspect is in custody.
In a statement, the league's director writes:
"ADL is thankful to federal, and local law enforcement for taking this threat to Texas Jewish communities seriously and working diligently to identify and apprehend the suspect."
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Friday, July 08, 2022
Baruch Lebovits, convicted child abuse dies at 71
A cantor from a prominent Hasidic family whose child abuse conviction shook up both his community and Brooklyn politics has died.
Baruch Lebovits died Saturday at 71, 12 years after he was first convicted of repeatedly sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy. He was buried in Jerusalem on Monday at a funeral attended by hundreds after a separate large gathering in Borough Park, Brooklyn, on Sunday.
The sendoff offered no indication that Lebovits stood at the center of a saga that had bitterly divided his community and traumatized many within it.
Lebovits was sentenced to 10 to 32 years in prison after being convicted of eight sex abuse counts during a 2010 trial, at a time when Brooklyn prosecutors were seeking to shed the image of being soft on alleged offenders from Orthodox communities. He was released after his conviction was overturned on a technicality in 2012, then sent back to prison in 2014 after pleading guilty to felony sex offenses with a minor when the case was prosecuted again. He was released after 82 days and settled back into his life in Brooklyn.
By that point, the case had gained widespread attention because of Lebovits' representation by celebrity attorney Alan Dershowitz, advocacy on his behalf by top Satmar rabbis and intimidation and retribution against his accusers.
A lengthy New Yorker article in November 2014 detailed the saga. Titled "The Outcast," the article stitched together and expanded reporting from local and Jewish press, including the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and New York Jewish Week, to show how the father of a boy who said Lebovits had molested him broke communal norms by involving the police, then paid dearly for his transgression. Lebovits's abuse was widely known within the Hasidic community, the article concludes, but the father — Sam Kellner — was punished more harshly, including by being framed as trying to extort the Lebovits family in exchange for dropping the case.
The case had implications across the local community and beyond. An Orthodox man who died by suicide shortly after his wedding in 2010 was reported to have suffered alleged abuse by Lebovits, and another man in the community who was tried for sex abuse said he had been abused by Lebovits himself.
Meanwhile, the handling of the case became a prominent issue in the 2013 Brooklyn district attorney election in which Charles Hynes, the D.A. who prosecuted both Lebovits and, seemingly more doggedly, Kellner, was ultimately trounced.
Both Lebovits and Kellner are household names, according to a source in the Hasidic community in Brooklyn — Lebovits as a serial sex offender, and Kellner as an example of what can happen to those who go outside the community's legal system to civil authorities.
Lebovits had a beautiful singing voice and was a charismatic presence in the Munkatch Hasidic synagogue where he prayed, the source, who lives in Borough Park, told JTA on the condition of anonymity. But his abuse of young boys was well known, the source said, and the fact that he faced few consequences within the community sent a troubling message that his funeral underlined this week.
"Seeing the way he is getting the highest level of respect even though everyone knew and knows how dangerous he was — this is a reminder that the the bad guy wins," the source said.
A Hebrew-language website affiliated with the Chabad movement published pictures from his funeral procession on Sunday, and an obituary published in Hebrew in Israeli Orthodox media omitted any mention of Lebovits' conviction, guilty plea or time in prison. It lauded him as a learned member of Brooklyn's Hasidic community who came from a prominent rabbinic family and noted that his survivors include a brother who is the current leader of the Nikolsburg Hasidic sect, based in Monsey, New York, and a businessman son.
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Thursday, July 07, 2022
Stay away from Ukraine this Rosh Hashanah, ambassador warns Jewish pilgrims
More than four months into its devastating war against Russia, Ukraine is sending a new message to the world's Jews: Don't come here for Rosh Hashanah.
Tens of thousands of Jews usually flood into Uman, a central city that is home to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, a 18th-century Jewish luminary, annually for the Jewish new year.
Even in the first year of the pandemic, when global travel ground to a halt and the gathering was officially banned, Jewish pilgrims sought to make their way to Uman.
"Due to concerns for the lives and well-being of the visitors to Ukraine and in light of the blatant Russian war in our country, despite all efforts, we can not guarantee the security of pilgrims and do not currently allow tourists and visitors to enter Ukraine," Korniychuk wrote.
The statement did not say whether it constitutes an official ban on traffic into Ukraine, which receives thousands of arrivals daily through its land borders with Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova.
Israelis and Jews from the around the world have been among those entering the country to provide aid and respite to war refugees, who are now estimated to number more than 6 million just within Ukraine's borders.
Korniychuk exhorted would-be pilgrims to pray for the end of the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
"Your prayers are important to us. Please pray that before Rosh Hashanah, the war in Ukraine, which broke out due to blatant and cruel Russian aggression, will come to an end and pray for the victory of Ukraine," he wrote.
"We hope that the prayers will be fulfilled, and that Ukraine will once again be a country that generously receives visitors from Israel, and especially Jews who come to Ukraine to visit the graves of the righteous."
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Wednesday, July 06, 2022
Ben & Jerry’s Really Wants to Boycott Jewish Settlements
Jewish-founded ice cream company Ben & Jerry's is not giving up the fight to boycott Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria.
Last year the company sparked a major backlash by effectively joining the anti-Israel BDS movement and forbidding its products from being sold in Jewish towns in the biblical heartland.
But Ben & Jerry's parent company, global food giant Unilever, isn't so enthusiastic to tie itself to a "social justice" crusade.
Unilever has reached a deal to allow the local Israeli distributor to continue selling Ben & Jerry's ice cream wherever he pleases. Ben & Jerry's responded on Tuesday by filing a US federal lawsuit against Unilever, in a bid to torpedo the agreement.
Unilever's deal with Avi Zinger, the owner of American Quality Products Ltd., gave him total independence to manufacture and continue selling ice cream in Judea and Samaria with the Ben & Jerry's logos appearing only in Hebrew and Arabic and not English.
The lawsuit claims that Unilever breached its deal with Ben & Jerry's by circumventing the latter corporation's July 2021 board decision to halt distribution in what it termed "occupied Palestinian territory." The move drew widespread condemnation in Israel, including from then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who described it as a "moral mistake."
The boycott was slated to begin later this year when contracts with Zinger were set to expire.
According to Reuters, the ice cream maker is now seeking an injunction against Unilever's move in order to "protect the brand and social integrity Ben & Jerry's has spent decades building." Its board voted 5-2 to sue, with two Unilever appointees dissenting, the report said.
The court reportedly denied a Ben & Jerry's request for a temporary restraining order to freeze the agreement with Zinger.
After concluding the deal, Unilever released a statement saying that it had "used the opportunity of the past year to listen to perspectives on this complex and sensitive matter and believes this is the best outcome for Ben & Jerry's in Israel. The review included extensive consultation over several months, including with the Israeli government.
"Unilever rejects completely and repudiates unequivocally any form of discrimination or intolerance. Antisemitism has no place in any society," the statement added.
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Tuesday, July 05, 2022
Russia orders Jewish Agency to alter operations inside country
Russia has ordered the Jewish Agency for Israel to modify its operations inside the country in a move that could hamper the organization's ability to function, according to Israeli media reports.
The development comes amid tensions centered on Israel's position on the war in Ukraine, which Russian forces invaded in February, and ongoing Israeli strikes against Iranian assets in Syria, where Moscow remains the dominant military player.
The Jewish Agency's primary function is to promote and facilitate Jewish immigration to Israel and, as such, the reports said Russia's decision could significantly curtail the capacity of Jews to make aliyah.
"People from the Jewish community have been feeling the Iron Curtain setting on them and they fear they won't be able to escape the country," one report quoted senior sources in Russia's Jewish community as saying.
Russia's Ministry of Justice issued the directive in a letter sent last week to the Jewish Agency, whose representatives, in coordination with Israeli officials, are in the process of formulating a response.
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Friday, July 01, 2022
The Pilgrimage to Monsey
It's not often that a town's main attraction is its cemetery. However, on the eve of every Jewish month, thousands of Jews from the tri-state area (and beyond) flock to the Viznitz Cemetery in Monsey, New York, to visit the graves of the holy leaders buried there, including the Ribnitzer, Skulener, and Viznitzer rebbes. Local police direct traffic on the suburban streets surrounding the cemetery to accommodate the busloads of arriving Jews, many of whom are not even direct followers of these late Hasidic leaders. Nevertheless, the devout come to pray at the graves of these rebbes buried on American land.
Beyond the gates of the walled cemetery, there is a hubbub of activity. At the entrance stands a small building with restrooms and light refreshments: coffee, cookies, candy. A paved parking lot stretches out behind the welcome center, and the main attraction lies up ahead and to the right. The cemetery is situated on an incline; a woman collects charity at the foot of the hill next to a large sign with the customary cemeterial prayer, and the path leading up to the main gravesites—divided by a fence separating women and men, with a special designation for those of kohenitic descent (who refrain from close contact to the dead)—is flanked by tombstones on both sides.
At the graves of the rebbes, there are plastic folding chairs and prayer books, matchboxes and memorial tealights, paper and pens to write kvitlech, or notes. Large white tents are pitched in the grassy spaces, where donations are collected. The masses of men, women, and children engaged in the location's prescribed activities give the impression that this organized spiritual operation has been running smoothly for years. But it wasn't always this way.
The popularization of this cemetery in American Orthodox Jewish life is a relatively recent phenomenon. I grew up directly across the street from these burial grounds, and I have seen it evolve over the past few years from a relatively quiet resting place to an action-packed tourist attraction. The influx of visitors to this Monsey cemetery—where famous dynastic leaders, the ashes of Jews gassed and burned in Chełmno, and, more recently, Joseph Neumann, the victim of the Monsey Hanukkah stabbing attack, are interred—is demonstrative of Orthodox Jewry's deepening connection to American soil. The Jews buried here serve as a bridge between the old country and the new Jewish American world, transforming the otherwise mundane landscape into a spiritual magnet where callers find comfort in a connection that is, quite literally, closer to home.
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