Friday, January 31, 2025
Hamilton man faces hate crime charges for online threats directed at Jewish community
A Hamilton man who was previously arrested for online posts, which police described as "threatening" towards the Jewish community, is now facing additional hate crime charges.
Investigators began monitoring the online activity of 32-year-old Harley Mitchell at the end of Sept. 2024 and placed him under arrest days later on Oct. 1. He was charged with two offences, including uttering death threats and failing to comply with probation.
Since then, authorities say they have continued to investigate Mitchell's online posts and made a request to the Office of the Attorney General to review and approve additional hate crime charges.
That submission was approved on Thursday and Mitchell was charged with advocating genocide, wilful promotion of hatred and antisemitism. Authorities say his initial charges will remain.
"Hate has no place in Hamilton," police said.
A representative for Mitchell was not immediately known.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/01/31/hamilton-hate-crime-investigatio-jewish-community/
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Thursday, January 30, 2025
Jewish women are braiding challah and hair to mark the release of Israeli hostage Agam Berger
When four young Israeli soldiers were released in Gaza over the weekend, the first thing many people noticed about them was their defiant gestures in front of their Hamas captors.
The second was their braided hair.
Some close observers of the hostages concluded that the braids — also seen on some of the children released during a temporary ceasefire in November 2023 — were the handiwork of Agam Berger, who had become the only Israeli woman soldier left in Gaza.
Now, with Berger released Thursday after 482 days, her supporters are returning the gesture, crafting braids of their own to celebrate her freedom and inspiration.
Some Jewish day schools in the United States urged their students to wear braids on Thursday. At least one synagogue is holding a challah-braiding event. A wig store catering to Orthodox women braided all of its display models, while El Al said women who worked for the airline had all braided their hair on Thursday. And an array of "Braids for Agam" graphics have circulated on social media, in both Israel and abroad.
https://www.jta.org/2025/01/30/culture/us-jews-are-braiding-challah-and-hair-to-mark-the-release-of-israeli-hostage-agam-berger
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Wednesday, January 29, 2025
UAV strike leaves Rebbe Nachman's gravesite in darkness
A Russian drone attack left the city of Uman, Ukraine, and its environs without electricity - as hundreds of Jews made their way to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov.
"There is no deadline for the electricity to reutrn," Rabbi Natan Bin-Nun, chairman of United Breslov, said.
The direct strike to the city's energy infrastructure took place at around 2:00 a.m. local time, despite the fact that the Ukrainian army succeed in intercepting most of the UAVs.
"The damage is very significant," local reports said.
On Wednesday, Breslov hasidim mark Rabbi Natan of Breslov's first visit to the gravesite of his teacher Rabbi Nachman.
"Because it is so close to Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath - ed.), we expect that there will be an unusually high number of visitors this year," the gravesite's keeper, Rabbi Natan Tzemach, said.
"We are preparing to provide electricity to the areas of the gravesite, by using special generators," Bin-Nun promised. "In the meantime, the residents and visitors are forced to use emergency lights and means of warmth, just like at the start of the war."
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/403067
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Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Jewish protesters for Gaza target Kindertransport memorial on Holocaust Memorial Day
On the day commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, North London Peaceniks and Jews Against Genocide placed effigies of murdered Palestinian babies at the sculpture in Liverpool Street to draw parallels between the Nazi genocide at Auschwitz with what they claim is a genocide in Gaza.
A plaque left beside the sculpture reads: "Mourning the millions of Jewish children not on the Kindertransport slaughtered in the Holocaust, and the many thousands of Gazan children slaughtered by Israel in the genocide."
They also laid a wreath for Gaza at the Cenotaph in central London alongside one with yellow stars labelled 'Juif', 'Jude' and 'Jood'.
Michael Newman, Association of Jewish Refugees chief executive, said: "The Kindertransport monument commemorates the lives of the mostly Jewish children who were given sanctuary in this country.
"It remembers the bravery of the parents who sent their children away and the altruism of the families who took in the youngest victims of Nazi oppression. As the national organisation supporting victims of Nazism, the AJR is highly offended by misusing Holocaust memorials to make political statements. It's a dangerous distortion and creates a false equivalence."
Designed by artist Frank Meisler, 'The Kindertransport – The Arrival statue' (2006), serves as a memorial to the thousands of unaccompanied European Jewish children who fled to London on the Kindertransport in the Second World War.
https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/jewish-protesters-for-gaza-target-kindertransport-memorial-on-holocaust-memorial-day/
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Monday, January 27, 2025
‘I fear for the future of my children here’, says Jewish protester dragged out of Irish Shoah event
The Jewish woman who was dragged out of Ireland's official Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony after she silently protested against a diatribe on Gaza by President Michael Higgins has told the JC she fears for the future of her children in the country.
Lior Tibet, 37, was forcibly removed from the event along with a pregnant Jewish friend by security staff after they – along with four other Jews – stood up and turned their back on Higgins when he spoke about the "thousands searching for relatives in the rubble" of Gaza.
"After what happened yesterday I'm really worried about how this will affect my kids. The atmosphere in Ireland is not what it used to be.
"When I first came here, I loved this country. But after October 7, it feels like I am having an existential crisis. It's hard to believe it's the same country," said the mother of two.
Tibet's pregnant friend, who wished to remain anonymous, accused Higgins of politicising the event.
She said: "It was horrible. I couldn't believe it. I told them I was pregnant, and the security guard continued to push me out with their bodies. It was so disrespectful."
The friend added that she was particularly shocked by the speech given that Holocaust survivors Tomi Reichental and Suzi Diamond had specifically asked Higgins not to bring up Gaza.
Tibet, who is from Israel but has lived in Dublin for seven years, said they were demanding a public apology from both the President and Holocaust Education Ireland.
When President Higgins began discussing Gaza, the two women silently turned their backs to him in protest.
Tibet said: "The moment I stood up and turned my back, they grabbed me and started dragging me out. They didn't ask, they just pushed. I'm a Jewish woman at a ceremony for my community. I have a right to be there."
https://www.thejc.com/news/world/i-fear-for-the-future-of-my-children-here-says-jewish-protester-dragged-out-of-irish-shoah-event-qs0rdfgy
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Thursday, January 23, 2025
Man accused of trying to enter Nashville Jewish Center in disguise appears in court
The man accused of disguising himself in an attempt to enter a Jewish community center in Nashville appeared before a judge for the first time Thursday morning.
A front desk employee, security guard and detective all testified at Travis Keith Garland's preliminary hearing before Judge Melissa Blackburn, who found there was probable cause for the charges against him. Now those charges — criminal trespassing and assault — will be heard by a grand jury, the next step in the criminal court process.
Garland, 31, is also facing an additional charge in connection to the case.
Attorneys said during the hearing that a grand jury on Wednesday indicted Garland for a civil rights violation.
Blackburn declined to reduce Garland's bond from $250,000, which was set when Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk appeared in night court himself after the defendant's arrest, an unusual action, to request a high bond.
After Garland's arrest, Jesse Feld, the Gordon Jewish Community Center's executive director, said they are "not intimidated by these bad actors."
"We are committed to continually providing a safe and secure environment for our vibrant Jewish community to continue to grow," Feld said last week.
The Gordon Jewish Community Center is a centralized, interdenominational institution for the Nashville area Jewish community through its many programs — camps, religious holiday celebrations and a film festival, among others — and its facilities for fitness and educational programs. Though many within Nashville's Jewish community are spread across five major congregations and other worship spaces to observe Shabbat, it often gathers as one for events at the Gordon JCC.
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2025/01/23/man-accused-of-trying-to-enter-nashville-jewish-center-disguised-in-court/77874939007/
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Friday, January 17, 2025
Swastikas carved into wall at Whitby Library ‘direct attack’ on Jewish community: Mayor
An act of antisemitic vandalism at the Whitby Central Library last week, where several swastikas were carved into the wall of one of the washrooms, has Mayor Elizabeth Roy "deeply troubled" and vowing not to let the incident "divide our community."
"We are committed to ongoing dialogue and action to combat antisemitism and ensure that every resident feels safe and supported in Whitby," Roy said. "Acts of hate like this not only target specific individuals or groups but also seek to divide our community. We will not let that happen."
Staff at the library responded to the incident by immediately covering the graffiti and calling police, who responded to the scene.
"Such hateful symbols have no place in our community, especially not in a library, which should be a safe and welcoming space for all," says Rhonda Jessup, CEO and Chief Librarian.
This incident is all the more distressing, Roy said, following the "abhorrent act of hate" that happened last summer when a large swastika was burned into the grass at Prince of Wales Park.
"This incident is a direct attack on our Jewish community and the values of inclusion, respect, and safety that define our town."
https://www.insauga.com/swastikas-carved-into-wall-at-whitby-library-direct-attack-on-jewish-community-mayor/
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Thursday, January 16, 2025
'Jews are the evil of the world:' Slovenian synagogue vandalized
A medieval-era Slovenian synagogue was defaced with antisemitic graffiti on Sunday night, according to Maribor Synagogue director Boris Hajdinjak and German ambassador to Slovenia Sylvia Groneick.
"Jews are the evil of the world," graffiti spray-painted on the Jewish holy site read, according to photographs shared on Facebook by Hajdinjak. "Death to the Jews, Glory to Slovenia."
Other graffiti called on others to "read more of the Talmud," Jewish religious texts that often feature in claims made by antisemites and conspiracy theorists.
Hajdinjak said that law enforcement had been made aware of the vandalization of the national cultural site, which the synagogue claims on its Facebook page to be "the most important monument of Jewish cultural heritage on Slovenian soil."
"Jews have always been a small minority in Slovenian history. That is why it is exceptional that a medieval synagogue has been preserved in Maribor. Namely: there are not many European cities that have a preserved medieval synagogue," Hajdinjak said on Facebook Monday. "Truly strong countries are countries that include all their inhabitants, including the smallest minority. I believe that the majority of the inhabitants of the Republic of Slovenia agree with this opinion."
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-837876
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Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Man arrested after threatening to behead, kill Jews in Bellaire
A man from Spring, Texas, was arrested on Jan. 9 after making online threats to kill Jewish people in Bellaire.
Saif Tajiran, 33, has been charged with making a terroristic threat, enhanced to a hate crime.
Houston Jewish Funerals in Bellaire received a disturbing email with the subject line, "Beezlebub," on Oct. 29.
The email read: "I would like to help bury jews so speed the process to bury more jews. Could I get a job? If you hire me I can work fast and I will save you jews money. Think of how great this could be! I will save us more time to bury more [jews!] If you want I can behead more [jews] and we can become rich together. You know us [jews] have no morals, values and that we only care about ourselves! Yeshua Yahweh it will be perfect!"
Tajiran used his own email address, even including his own phone number.
A Bellaire police officer called the number, and when a man answered, the officer told him he was calling about an email he received. Police say the man began telling the officer the same statements that were in the email.
On Jan. 9, thanks to the collaborative efforts of Bellaire CID, traffic units and remote operations, Tajiran was located and arrested without incident. His bond was set at $50,000.
"This situation is a disturbing reminder that hate exists, even in a welcoming city like Houston," Houston Jewish Funerals owner Andrew Starr told the JHV.
"However, we must stay strong and resolute in our sacred mission to help Jewish families honor their loved ones who have passed in the traditions of our faith."
https://jhvonline.com/man-arrested-after-threatening-to-behead-kill-jews-in-bellaire-p34407-89.htm
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Tuesday, January 14, 2025
'I'm a soldier in the Jewish army:' Hasidic Rebbe's son shares excitement at joining IDF
Hasidic musician and singer Mendel Roth posted a video summarizing his first hours as a new IDF recruit in the new haredi "Hashmonaim" brigade.
"I am a Jewish soldier of the Jewish army in the Holy Land," Roth, the son of the Shmore Emunim Rebbe, said in the video he filmed with excitement from his room at the brigade's base in the Jordan Valley.
"I want to say that I am very excited," he added and shared about his roommates with whom he will spend the next eight months of basic training.
He was impressed by the army and said: "This is a serious business, from the few hours I have been here, it is a historic feeling, we are making history, doing something great, we are going to fight for the people of Israel, to unite the people of Israel."
In conclusion, he said, "There are sweet guys here, souls sweet as honey, with fear of God, pure souls, how wonderful it is that I took this step. "Am Yisrael Hai."
On Sunday, a day before his enlistment in the IDF, Roth published a new song with a message to his brothers from the haredi community, stating that it is important to join forces together, defend Israel and enlist in the IDF. About a month ago, he announced in a post that received thousands of likes and hundreds of comments that he was enlisting for combat service in the IDF.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/401997
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Monday, January 13, 2025
British authorities chastise a Jewish charity for fundraising for an Israeli soldier
British authorities told a London Chabad center to refrain from fundraising for the Israeli military because doing so is against the law, according to an official warning issued Wednesday.
The Chabad Lubavitch Centres North East London and Essex raised about $2,300 for a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces in late 2023. The group's modest fundraiser was one of countless such efforts organized by Jews around the world on behalf of Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza.
But raising money for a soldier of a foreign military is illegal under U.K. law. Members of the public opposed to the fundraising effort filed 180 complaints against the organization, according to the Charity Commission, which began investigating in December 2023.
"It is not lawful, or acceptable, for a charity to raise funds to support a soldier of a foreign military," Helen Earner, director for regulatory services at the Charity Commission, which oversees charities in England and Wales, said in a statement.
She added, "Our official warning requires the charity to set things right and is a clear message to other charities to stay true to their established purposes."
The trustees of the Chabad center, which is affiliated with the worldwide Jewish outreach movement based in Brooklyn, called the commission's findings "regrettable" but did not dispute them.
"We acknowledge that in facilitating a campaign to provide warm clothing and the like, however briefly and however modest its results, the charity exceeded its purposes and we are grateful for the guidance provided by the Charity Commission to ensure that this won't happen again," the center told the Jewish Chronicle.
The case marks the first time that the Charity Commission has chastised an organization over its fundraising for the Israeli army, but it may not be the last. The commission has taken on 200 regulatory cases since the war between Hamas and Israel broke out and has made 40 referrals to law enforcement, it said in a press release, which also noted that those cases involve organizations with a variety of different viewpoints on the conflict.
Last July, the commission announced an investigation into the humanitarian relief agency World Aid Convoy after it raised money through Gaza Now, a media outlet that supports Hamas, which is designated as a terror organization by the British government. A few months earlier, Al-Manar Centre, an Islamic institution in the city of Cardiff, was targeted by the commission for posting to its Facebook account a video "that could suggest support for Hamas."
Regulators in other countries are also contending with a large number of fundraisers for Israeli troops that may skirt or run afoul of local laws. Jews across the Diaspora have donated hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment to IDF units and individual soldiers. In the United States and France, where the bulk of fundraising has taken place, pro-Palestinian voices have criticized this use of tax-exempt dollars, calling for government action against it. Some countries, including Canada, have bans on charitable support for foreign militaries in their legal codes, though they are not always well enforced.
The regulatory battles come as the Israeli military has heavily relied on grassroots donations from around the world since the war with Hamas broke out in Oct. 2023. Following its nearly unprecedented mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops, the Israeli military did not possess sufficient protective gear, and masses of individual soldiers took to social media to solicit donations to make up for shortages. The military officially denies any shortages but demand for items such as tactical helmets and combat boots has remained high 15 months into the fighting, and as reserves units return to the frontlines.
Of all the countless fundraising efforts since Oct. 2023, the one launched by the London Chabad center is not very large or prominent: a small fundraising page set up to support a single soldier.
"In the immediate aftermath of 7 October, there was concern, fuelled by social media reports, that due to the haste and sheer numbers of reservists being called up, there was not anything like enough winter clothing and protective gear to keep these young people safe from harm," the center told the Jewish Chronicle. "Understandably, our community wanted to help."
https://www.jta.org/2025/01/13/global/british-authorities-chastise-a-jewish-charity-for-fundraising-for-an-israeli-soldier
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Thursday, January 09, 2025
Norwegian teen kicked out of convenience store 'for being a Jew' - interview
A Norwegian teenager was physically removed from a Bergen convenience store on New Year's Eve after a clerk learned he was a Jew and a Zionist, the 19-year-old shared in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
Nataniel Elpeleg was headed into town with friends to celebrate the new year when they stopped at a Narvesen convenience store to buy hot dogs.
The teenager reportedly struck up a conversation with a clerk, who told him he was from Yemen and the Palestinian territories. Elpeleg said he was naively excited and told the clerk he was half-Israeli.
"I really want to have peace with you guys. I hope we can be friends in the future," Elpeleg recalled.
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-836884
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Wednesday, January 08, 2025
Historic Jewish synagogue built over 80 years ago destroyed by Eaton Fire in Pasadena
One of the three fast-moving wildfires in southern California has destroyed a historic Jewish synagogue near Los Angeles.
The Eaton Fire, which began on Tuesday evening, engulfed the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center in suburban Los Angeles overnight. Photos and videos shared by local news media and residents show the synagogue in flames, with a bright orange sky as the backdrop.
Several neighboring temples have expressed their condolences for the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, whose congregation has ties to the region that date back more than 150 years.
"Our hearts go out to the entire community and particularly those members of the Pasadena temple (who) have been so directly impacted, many of whom also have lost or are still in danger of losing their homes," Temple Beth Israel, located in Pomona, California, wrote in a Facebook post. "We will, of course, open our hearts and our resources in anyway that we can be helpful."
Neither the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center nor the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection immediately responded for comment when contacted by USA TODAY on Wednesday.
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Tuesday, January 07, 2025
Orthodox Jewish group asking again to build synagogue in one N.J.’s wealthiest suburbs
A proposal to construct an Orthodox Jewish synagogue and daycare is again facing opposition in the latest round in a decades-long fight to build the house of worship in one of Essex County's wealthiest suburbs.
The Chai Center for Living Judaism is asking the Millburn Township Planning Board to approve construction of a two-story, 21,027-square-foot synagogue at 165 Old Short Hills Road in the township's Short Hills section.
The synagogue would seat 275 people in a building that would also include classrooms and office space, according to documents filed with the township.
Classrooms on the second floor would be used for students attending Hebrew school on Sunday mornings, and the building's basement floor would include classrooms for a 50-student daycare, according to previous planning board meeting minutes and a traffic study.
The plans also call for a playground and 95 parking spaces.
The construction was proposed by the same Orthodox Jewish group that previously proposed building a synagogue in Short Hills in several applications dating back to 2000. In 2023, the group sued Millburn after an application to build on a neighboring property was rejected. The court case is still pending.
The latest application for the 3.32-acre property on Old Short Hills Road was first submitted in August. It was discussed at several township planning board meetings, but has not been voted on by the board.
The application is scheduled to be discussed again at the planning board's meeting on Wednesday. The planning board's attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
A flyer opposing the project was posted on social media, encouraging residents to attend a previous planning board meeting in December. The synagogue project could have a "significant impact" in the neighborhood, including on traffic, security, parking and property values, according to the flyer.
"This is not a small community center, it's a campus that's being proposed on a road that's already busy, already crowded, and already under strain," one resident said during the public comment period at a December township committee meeting.
The man said he is Jewish and opposes the project for logistical reasons, not religious ones. He said he was concerned about increased congestion, noise and light pollution and an impact on nearby property values.
"What happens to that investment when a massive development is dropped in the middle of a quiet residential area? Do we shrug our shoulders and hope for the best?" he asked. "Or do we stand up and ask the hard questions?"
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Monday, January 06, 2025
‘F*** the Jews’ Vandalized Car Shakes Sydney to its Core
Antisemitism has reared its ugly head once again in the land down under.
On Monday morning, Jewish residents in Sydney's Queens Park woke up to a white car on Henry Street vandalized with "F*** the Jews" spray-painted in bold black letters. Initial reports suggest that the car was vandalized sometime between 7am Sunday and 5:45am Monday. Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command has since launched an investigation and is urging witnesses to come forward with any information that might help identify the perpetrators.
Surprisingly, the targeted vehicle's owner isn't even Jewish.
"My neighbours, they'd be disgusted. There's no place for that in this community or anywhere in Australia," owner Stuart Veron tells ABC News
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese quickly condemned the violence during his press conference from Queensland today.
"There is no tolerance for antisemitism in Australia, from my government, nor should there be tolerance from anyone else," Albanese stated. "Antisemitism is a scourge, and any event such as this, targeting people because of who they are, is not the Australian values that I hold dear, and the Australian values that are held dear by the overwhelming majority of Australians."
Australia has seen an alarming sequence of antisemitic violence in the past few months. During the early hours of November 21, vandals torched a vehicle and defaced others with anti-Israel graffiti in nearby Woollahra. On December 6, Melbourne's Adass Israel Synagogue was set on fire as worshippers arrived for morning prayers. Finally, another car was set ablaze and two homes in Woollahra were targeted with antisemitic slurs just five days later.
David Ossip, who heads the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, expressed growing alarm at the increasingly violent pattern of Jewish hatred.
"It is unacceptable that Jewish Australians and Australians of all backgrounds have had to wake up yet again and see messages of hate prominently displayed in their neighborhood," he said. "We cannot allow ourselves to become desensitized to acts of Jew-hatred and allow illegal conduct such as this to become normalized.""
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Friday, January 03, 2025
Inside the matchmaking crisis rocking the US Orthodox community
With their long marriages that rarely end in divorce and their large families, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's easy to find love in the Orthodox Jewish community.
As birthrates fall among the secular and rise and rise among the devout, it seems impossible to consider that chassidim would find their centuries-old system of matchmaking not up to scratch.
But, a recent study on dating among American Orthodox Jews by the Orthodox Union's (OU) Center for Communal Research has revealed the depth of the challenges faced by those in the community as they try to find a partner.
Rabbi Moshe Hauer, Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union, told the JC that the impetus for the study came from the significant number of single Orthodox men and women striving for marriage but unable to find their appropriate match, a phenomenon which many in the community have already labelled a crisis.
"It's on the minds of the single men and women of our community. It's on the minds of all who care about them and all who care about the future of the Jewish community. What else should we be focusing on if not the issues that are weighing on people and are concerning them?"
Between 5 February and 6 March 2020, the OU surveyed more than 2,300 single Orthodox Jew from 18 to 82 years old who were users of eight Jewish dating apps or part of singles' groups. It also features interviews with 41 single Orthodox Jews, 25 shadchanim or matchmakers, and 21 communal leaders.
The report found that almost 90 per cent of respondents said they believe that marriage would make their lives happier and fuller. So, what's keeping Orthodox men and women from tying the knot?
According to the report, many of the singles surveyed don't feel like they can find a partner on their own and have instead turned to matchmaking services – whether they be apps or community matchmakers – to find their beshert for them.
"They've been told that they can't find a partner on their own," said Aleeza Ben Shalom, a shadchan (matchmaker) best known for her turn on Netflix's Jewish Matchmaking. "That's the message from the beginning, right? 'We need to do it for you.' 'We know you better than you know yourself.' 'You need to go to a shadchan.' And the community's not really set up for them to find a partner on their own."
Ben Shalom, who works with both frum and secular singles, added that the communal lifestyle of Orthodox Jews as well as the habit of separating men and women makes it that much more difficult for singles to take initiative and find their own matches – while the emphasis on families over the individual increases the pressure to pair up.
"Often, singles will share that they don't feel like a full-fledged member of the community or that their full value is seen unless they're in a relationship," Ben Shalom said. "Religious singles are very involved in their communities and have a communal lifestyle, so living single in a community is very difficult because the communities mostly cater to couples or families, so there's a tremendous amount of pressure on a single to move from single to community."
But the report found that many of those surveyed had negative experiences with matchmakers and Ben Shalom, who has trained over 350 matchmakers and dating coaches, is not ignorant of the potential downsides of her trade:
"I've had singles come to me and say, '[the matchmaker] tells me I have to change my clothes, change my attitude, change my job, change my location, I have to do all these things, or I'll never find a match, or they have talked down to me, or they tell me nobody will ever want me.' There's a lot of negative interactions with Shadchanam, where the Shadchanam, unfortunately, are pointing the finger and telling a single everything that's wrong with them as opposed to just saying, 'here's how I can help you.'
"We shouldn't be giving them advice to change who they are. We should be giving them advice to empower them to be their best selves and put their best foot forward whatever that is and I think that that's what's really lacking," Ben Shalom said.
Within the report's sample, more than a third (male 35 per cent, female, 36 per cent) of respondents met someone they dated in the last six months through friends and family, well over the 20 per cent who said they met through a matchmaker. Friends and family therefore play more of a pivotal role in helping single men and women find a suitable partner.
For Ben Shalom, the OU's report is just a confirmation of what she already knew to be true about the challenges of dating in the Orthodox community and, with the survey data having been collected back in 2020 and only being published last year, she's concerned it's too little too late – at least for those unlucky surveyed singles still waiting to find their perfect match.
"I'm interested in solutions. Questions and challenges, of course, always exist, and they've always been present within dating. I don't think that I'm terribly surprised about any of the information. I'm more curious – great, now we have this data – what do you want to do with it? Because I think that there's a lot of information that we often know, and we just don't know where to move forward with it," she said.
But Rabbi Hauer disagreed.
"The OU created the Center for Communal Research not for the purpose of academic research - it was in order to be able to really inform the community regarding issues that the community is grappling with, to provide them with data so that it's not simply just speculation, but that it's as driven as it can possibly be by real data," he said.
"The role of education is making people aware of and sensitising them to an issue and to its challenges. Education has a core role in helping people do things better."
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Thursday, January 02, 2025
Suspect At Large After Firebombing Chabad Synagogue in Ukraine
A firebomber struck a Chabad synagogue in Ukraine late Tuesday night as Jews across Mykolaiv gathered for public Hanukkah celebrations. Thankfully, no one was hurt in the attack. Police are reportedly still hunting for the suspect, who fled the scene after throwing the explosive.
Rabbi Sholom Gottlieb, who leads the Mykolaiv Jewish community, described how the attacker scoped out the building before striking.
"Last night, just before midnight, an unknown individual approached the synagogue door," he said in a statement to local media. "After checking that there were no people around, he threw the firebomb."
Ukraine's Jewish community, now numbering around 45,000, ranks as Europe's fourth-largest. But those numbers tell a story of decline, as before the Soviet Union fell in 1991, nearly half a million Jews called Ukraine home. Many fled to Israel, America, and Europe after communism's collapse. Russia's illegal 2022 invasion of Ukraine continues to spark further Jewish emigration from the country.
Though Ukraine is led by Jewish president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, its soil witnessed some of history's worst antisemitic atrocities, including the Babyn Yar massacre during the Holocaust. Disturbingly, some Ukrainians still celebrate Nazi collaborators like Stepan Bandera as national heroes.
Bandera led the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) during WWII. While he advocated for Ukrainian independence from Soviet rule, he also collaborated with Nazi Germany by ordering pogroms and ethnic cleansing against both Jews and Poles.
After the war, Bandera lived in exile in West Germany, continuing to lead the Ukrainian nationalist movement from abroad and working against Soviet influence. A KGB agent named Bohdan Stashynsky killed him on October 15, 1959, by using a cyanide gas gun in the stairwell of his apartment building.
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