Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

BLOOMINGTON Good neighbors make for a good community gathering.

At least 70 attended the first Festival of Jewish Life on Sunday at the Moses Montefiore Temple in Bloomington, celebrating the greater community and all things Judaism, as well as the synagogues 140th anniversary.

Meryl Brown, Moses Montefiore Temple president, said in advance of the celebration: We're hoping it goes off with a bang.

She also said her temple loves community, and that love extends to the whole community not just their own.

We want all of Bloomington-Normal, that not only knows us, but also knows, likes and trust us, Brown said, adding that all were invited to come and have fun with them.

Moses Montefiore Temple President Meryl Brown, left, plays guitar and sings as part of children's programming at the Bloomington synagogue's first Festival of Jewish Life on Sunday. In back from right are Emma Goldfarb, of Bloomington, and her 3-year-old son Noah Goldfarb.

Brown said the celebration lined up perfectly with Simchat Torah, a holiday where they celebrate going back to the beginning of the Torah.

And its a big deal, she noted. Every week, Brown said they read a portion of the Torah in order.

We read throughout the entire five books of Moses, and then we start over again, she said.

Rabbi Rebecca Dubowe told The Pantagraph that celebrating their life and culture is about responding to challenges, such as the rise of anti-Semitism, by stepping forward together in solidarity with our community.

She also said they should show their children who often are the only Jewish ones in their schools that many people care about them, and they care about other kids, too.

When asked what celebrating Jewish life means to him, temple member Herm Brandau, 81, of Bloomington, said its about celebrating life. He noted Jewish people have a long history with tragedy, but concentrating on the good in human nature is important.

Psychologists will tell you, unfortunately, that it's easier to stir up negative feelings than positive feelings, Brandau said. It's more of an effort and an effort worth doing to really stir up people's positive beliefs for other people, and even themselves.

Dayna Brown was another synagogue member present. She said its important to celebrate their community, because theyre a small but a very strong one.

A lot of us grew up in other areas where there were more Jewish celebrations, said Brown. It's really exciting for us to be able to share some of our traditions with our neighbors and friends.

Food was also served during the event, including falafel from The Rock, fresh grilled hot dogs, and Jewish bakery items. There was a kosher wine tasting by the Mystic Kitchen, too.

Temple member Beth Sender, 66, of Normal, helped run the bakery table. She pointed to how their synagogue has active and energetic members of all ages and persuasions, and that makes her happy to see.

Sender listed food items tabled, such as their challah bread, which is eaten Friday nights on Shabbat. They were made by Marty Toher, who she said is a wonderful baker.

They also had Rugelach, which Sender said is cinnamon and nuts rolled in sugar with a buttered crust. And its delicious.

She agreed sharing culture means sharing their cuisine, too, while adding that means inviting out the community.

We want the community to know more about us and that we value our friendships and relationships with other members, said Sender.

Guests and members of the Moses Montefiore Temple in Bloomington spin around as part of an Israeli dance tradition on Sunday at the first Festival of Jewish Life.

The Childrens Corner opened up just after noon for music and songs, story time, and activities for the kiddos. A puppet show was also put on.

Temple principal Myriah Monical read one childrens book detailing Jewish holidays, like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, plus naming ceremonies. One page read: Here is a yarmulke, here is a shawl. Here is the synagogue, open to all.

Another stated: Here are two candles, with flames burning bright. Here is the challah we eat Friday night.

She then read another text titled Are We Still Friends, which encouraged kids to celebrate their differences and appreciate their similarities.

Synagogue member Megan Goldfarb went to the festival with her son Noah Goldfarb, 3, and daughter Emma Goldfarb, 6. She said celebrating their culture is about family, perseverance and community.

Emma Goldfarb shared with Monical that her Hebrew name is Shaindel. Her mother said it means beautiful.

Phani Aytam, of Bloomington, attended with his daughter, Shree Aytam, and wife, Sandeepa Aytam. He said he worked with Rabbi Dubowe on the Not In Our Town project, and added the event was everything our community is about.

He said that includes diversity, and celebrating our differences.

Aytam also said he came because he just wanted to be there for all of our neighbors.

One of the most compelling reasons for early settlers to immigrate to the Americas was to exercise their right to religious freedom. As a result, members of several minority religions, including Judaism, were some of the first to brave the journey across the Atlantic Ocean.

The Jewish Virtual Library has records of the Jewish population in the United States dating back to 1654when there were just 25 Jews. Today, the Jewish population has grown to more than 7 million individuals, comprising a range of Jewish subgroups, from Orthodox to Reform. Though there can be drastic differences between how individuals practice and express their Jewish culture and beliefs, Jews in America remain largely liberal and the community's population has steadily grown more diverse in race and ethnicity.

In lockstep with American history, the journey of Jews in the U.S. is riddled with struggle, yet consistently illustrates the resilience and success of the Jewish community. Based on historical accounts, news, and government records, Stacker compiled a list of 30 important events to have occurred in American Jewish communities since the 14th century.

Keep reading to discover some significant events in American Jewish history.

You may also like: Greatest speeches of the 20th century

Gans was a Czech Jewish mining engineer and metallurgist. He was invited by Sir Walter Raleigh to accompany an expedition to the Virginia territory that was funded by Queen Elizabeth I. Gans was chosen due to his astounding innovations in the copper smelting process, which reduced the purification time from 16 days to four.

A 1655 letter from the Reverend Johannes Megapolensis provides a record of these refugees, stating that last summer some Jews came [to New Amsterdam] from Holland.At the time, the Dutch occupied significant stretches of what is now the Brazilian coast, which is why Megapolensis referred to it as Holland.

Though the congregation of Shearith Israel was established in 1654, they did not build a synagogue until 1730. The building was located in lower Manhattan next to a nearby spring, which was used for various religious rituals. Since 1730, Shearith Israel has worshipped at five separate locations around New York City.

In order for Jews to be considered naturalized citizens of the British colonies, they had to live there for at least seven years. Although this was better than the predicament of Jews in England, who could never be considered full citizens, simply surviving for seven years in the British colonies was no small feat due to harsh living conditions and scarce resources.

Just like any other demographic, there were Jews on both sides of the Revolutionary War. As the leader of the Shearith Israel congregation, Seixas declared a public day of fasting and prayer on May 17, 1776. Part of the prayer he wrote asks God to send the Angels of mercy to proclaim Peace to all America and to the inhabitants thereof.

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Due to the separation of church and state outlined by the U.S. Constitution, Jews were considered full citizens of the newly minted country and could run for any public office they wanted. However, this constitutional right did not eliminate the stigma against Jews that still persists in some forms today.

Myers began his study of medicine at the age of 15, earning his medical degree from Edinburgh University in 1789 before returning home to South Carolina. He married Frances Minis, and they had eight children together while Myers practiced law and pursued politics. Tragically, a hurricane hit South Carolina in September 1822, destroying Myers' home and killing him, his wife, and four of their children.

The subtitle of The Jew explained the publication's purpose: a [defense] of Judaism against all adversaries, and particularly against the insidious attacks of Israel's Advocate. Israels Advocate was a Jewish missionary journal that was moderately popular at the time. Despite its newspaper format, The Jew was hardly a source for hard news, as its content primarily consisted of dismissals of other media and descriptions of scandals within various Jewish organizations.

Not only did Jackson publish the first Passover Haggadah in America, but he was also the first Jewish printer in New York City. Because he had fonts with both English and Hebrew characters, he could typeset and print books in both languages, making him very popular with various Jewish congregations in the city.

Yulees father was Moses Elias Levy, a businessman who had made so much money manufacturing lumber in the Caribbean that he bought 50,000 acres of land in Florida to create a "new Jerusalem" for American Jews. When Yulee left home to marry the daughter of a former Kentucky governor, he adopted a Christian lifestyle but was subject to anti-Semitic attacks for the entirety of his career.

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The Board of Delegates of American Israelites first met in New York City on November 27, 1859. Their primary goals included educating American Jews, tracking statistics about the American Jewish population, ensuring the civil rights of American Jews, and building and maintaining lines of communications between their organization and other Jewish organizations around the world.

In addition to his invocation to the House of Representatives, Raphall was a prominent rabbi, teacher, and religious writer in Europe before coming to America. He published the first Jewish periodical in England and, with the help of a partner, produced the first translation of parts of the Mishnah from Hebrew into English.

Before 1862, only Christian chaplains were allowed to serve in the military and provide religious support to soldiers. However, in December 1861, soldiers and civilians alike launched a campaign to expand the position to include support staff from other religions as well. Congress added a sentence to the law which explained that Christian could be interpreted as any religious denomination.

The Union of American Hebrew Congregations still exists today, though it underwent a name change in 1959and is now known as the Union for Reform Judaism. This change occurred due to the divergence of different sects of Judaism, each of which has a different set of religious practices and beliefs, though core beliefs and the primary religious text of the Torah are consistent across all sects.

Pogrom, a Russian word meaning to wreak havoc, is typically used in reference to the anti-Semitic violence perpetrated by Russian authorities beginning in 1881 and extending throughout both of the World Wars. These sprees of destruction, assault, and murder extended beyond Russia throughout Eastern Europe and include events like Kristallnacht in Germany. It is estimated that some 2.5 million Jews were displaced by the pogroms.

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Brandeis was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson. During the vetting process, political opponents of Brandeis painted him as a radical, rooting their accusations in anti-Semitic sentiments. Before serving on the Supreme Court, Brandeis gained a reputation as the peoples attorney due to his extensive pro bono work.

Now known as AJCongress, the American Jewish Congress was born out of dissatisfaction with another prominent Jewish organization of the time: the American Jewish Committee. Those that seceded from that group to form the American Jewish Congress desired to focus more on humanitarian aid and the establishment of a diverse Jewish community, believing that the American Jewish Committee had been dominated by aristocratic German Jews.

[Pictured: Nathan Straus, Louis Dembitz Brandeis, and Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise on March 7, 1922.]

The Immigrant Acts of 1921 and 1924, also known as the Emergency Quota Act and the National Origins Act, placed the first explicit quota on the number of immigrants that could come into the U.S. The 1924 legislation strengthened what had been passed in 1921, defining exactly how many immigrants from each country could receive visas to the U.S. in order to keep undesirable ethnic groups, like Jews, at bay.

The National Conference of Christians and Jews was originally founded due to a flurry of anti-Catholic sentiment that appeared when Al Smith ran for the 1928 Democratic presidential nomination. Its founding members included Jane Addams and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughs. Though at first the organization only extended aid to Christians and Jews, it underwent a name change during the 1990s and is now the National Conference for Community and Justice, serving individuals of all religions.

[Pictured: Succoth Feast in New York on October 5, 1925.]

On September 5, 1939, German troops invaded Piotrkow, Poland, scouring the nearly deserted city for Jews and murdering them on the spot. This behavior continued throughout the region as World War II raged. News of the brutality of the Axis powers was consistently published in American newspapers.

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With the Immigration Act of 1924 still in place, the vast majority of Jews displaced by World War II were unable to immigrate to the U.S. Because they could not come to America, many refugees had to find new homes in Europe or risk being sent back to their home country, where supporters of the Axis powers still lived.

On May 14, 1948, what was previously the Provisional Government of Israel proclaimed itself a new State of Israel. President Harry S. Truman and the United States recognized the State of Israel as the de facto authority of the Jewish state that same day.

The modern Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations brings together 51 Jewish organizations to advance a set of common goals. The conference is rooted in pro-Israel sentiment, and many of its explicit goals support the advancement of the State of Israel as well as the promotion of interfaith relationships, especially with Muslim communities.

Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Jews involved themselves as both leaders and foot soldiers of the civil rights movement. Henry Moscowitz, Kivie Kaplan, and Arnie Aronson were prominent Jews who helped to found the NAACP. Additionally, Jews accounted for a disproportionate number of the white people active in the civil rights movement, making up half of the young people who participated in the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964.

As with most identity-based groups, the vast majority of Jewish organizations are peaceful; however, the Jewish Defense League is an exception. Now considered an extremist group by many law enforcement standards, the Jewish Defense League aims to protect Jews by whatever means necessary, even resorting to violence. Its beliefs are founded on the rhetoric of Rabbi Meir Kahane, who painted American society as an inherently hostile environment for Jews.

[Pictured: Members of Jewish Defense League Demonstrate Near Soviet Mission to the U.N., New York City, USA, 1971.]

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Riding the wave of 1960s feminism, Rabbi Sally, asPriesand was known, was a deeply spiritual woman who entered a joint program between the University of Cincinnati and the Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion in 1964. After graduating with a degree in rabbinical studies, Priesand worked in various congregations as an assistant rabbi for nearly two decades until she was finally able to find a congregation to lead at the Monmouth Reform Temple in New Jersey.

After Sally Priesands ordination as a rabbi under the Reform sect, widely considered the most liberal form of Judaism, the pressure was on for more conservative institutions to follow suit. The Jewish Theological Seminary was one such institution. Two years after the vote to admit women, Amy Eilberg graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Praised as a living memorial to the Holocaust, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is located among many other Smithsonian museums on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The museums programming serves as a way to remember those who were murdered during the Holocaust and seeks to educate individuals about the causes of genocide to help prevent future tragedies.

Lieberman served as a senator in Connecticut from 1989 to 2013. Though he originally aligned himself with the Democratic Party, he began running as an independent in 2006 after losing the Democratic primary. A graduate of Yale University, Lieberman was an active participant in the civil rights movement and eventually ran on the Democratic presidential ticket alongside Al Gore.

On October 27, 2018, a gunman opened fire on Jews observing Sabbath services at the Tree of Life synagogue in the historic Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill. Six people were injured and 11 were killed, prompting national outrage and panic among Jewish communities. The gunman admitted to police during the shootout, I just wanted to kill Jews. In response, the Tree of Life community and other groups across the U.S. held vigils and repeated the traditional Jewish sentiment, May their memory be for a blessing.

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One of the most compelling reasons for early settlers to immigrate to the Americas was to exercise their right to religious freedom. As a result, members of several minority religions, including Judaism, were some of the first to brave the journey across the Atlantic Ocean.

The Jewish Virtual Library has records of the Jewish population in the United States dating back to 1654, when there were just 25 Jews. Today, the Jewish population has grown to more than 7 million people, comprising a range of Jewish subgroups from Orthodox to Reform. Though there can be drastic differences between how individuals practice and express their Jewish culture and beliefs, Jews in America remain largely liberal and the community's population has steadily grown more diverse in race and ethnicity.

In lockstep with American history, the journey of Jews in the U.S. is riddled with struggle, yet consistently illustrates the resilience and success of the Jewish community. Based on historical accounts, news, and government records, Stacker compiled a list of 30 important events to have occurred in American Jewish communities since the 14th century.

Keep reading to discover some significant events in American Jewish history.

You may also like: Greatest speeches of the 20th century

Gans was a Czech Jewish mining engineer and metallurgist. He was invited by Sir Walter Raleigh to accompany an expedition to the Virginia territory that was funded by Queen Elizabeth I. Gans was chosen due to his astounding innovations in the copper smelting process, which reduced the purification time from 16 days to four.

A 1655 letter from the Reverend Johannes Megapolensis provides a record of these refugees, stating that last summer some Jews came [to New Amsterdam] from Holland.At the time, the Dutch occupied significant stretches of what is now the Brazilian coast, which is why Megapolensis referred to it as Holland.

Though the congregation of Shearith Israel was established in 1654, they did not build a synagogue until 1730. The building was located in lower Manhattan next to a nearby spring, which was used for various religious rituals. Since 1730, Shearith Israel has worshipped at five separate locations around New York City.

In order for Jews to be considered naturalized citizens of the British colonies, they had to live there for at least seven years. Although this was better than the predicament of Jews in England, who could never be considered full citizens, simply surviving for seven years in the British colonies was no small feat due to harsh living conditions and scarce resources.

Just like any other demographic, there were Jews on both sides of the Revolutionary War. As the leader of the Shearith Israel congregation, Seixas declared a public day of fasting and prayer on May 17, 1776. Part of the prayer he wrote asks God to send the Angels of mercy to proclaim Peace to all America and to the inhabitants thereof.

You may also like: Best-run cities in America

Due to the separation of church and state outlined by the U.S. Constitution, Jews were considered full citizens of the newly minted country and could run for any public office they wanted. However, this constitutional right did not eliminate the stigma against Jews that still persists in some forms today.

Myers began his study of medicine at the age of 15, earning his medical degree from Edinburgh University in 1789 before returning home to South Carolina. He married Frances Minis, and they had eight children together while Myers practiced law and pursued politics. Tragically, a hurricane hit South Carolina in September 1822, destroying Myers' home and killing him, his wife, and four of their children.

The subtitle of The Jew explained the publication's purpose: a [defense] of Judaism against all adversaries, and particularly against the insidious attacks of Israel's Advocate. Israels Advocate was a Jewish missionary journal that was moderately popular at the time. Despite its newspaper format, The Jew was hardly a source for hard news, as its content primarily consisted of dismissals of other media and descriptions of scandals within various Jewish organizations.

Not only did Jackson publish the first Passover Haggadah in America, but he was also the first Jewish printer in New York City. Because he had fonts with both English and Hebrew characters, he could typeset and print books in both languages, making him very popular with various Jewish congregations in the city.

Yulees father was Moses Elias Levy, a businessman who had made so much money manufacturing lumber in the Caribbean that he bought 50,000 acres of land in Florida to create a "new Jerusalem" for American Jews. When Yulee left home to marry the daughter of a former Kentucky governor, he adopted a Christian lifestyle but was subject to anti-Semitic attacks for the entirety of his career.

You may also like: Most dangerous countries for journalists

The Board of Delegates of American Israelites first met in New York City on November 27, 1859. Their primary goals included educating American Jews, tracking statistics about the American Jewish population, ensuring the civil rights of American Jews, and building and maintaining lines of communications between their organization and other Jewish organizations around the world.

In addition to his invocation to the House of Representatives, Raphall was a prominent rabbi, teacher, and religious writer in Europe before coming to America. He published the first Jewish periodical in England and, with the help of a partner, produced the first translation of parts of the Mishnah from Hebrew into English.

Before 1862, only Christian chaplains were allowed to serve in the military and provide religious support to soldiers. However, in December 1861, soldiers and civilians alike launched a campaign to expand the position to include support staff from other religions as well. Congress added a sentence to the law which explained that Christian could be interpreted as any religious denomination.

The Union of American Hebrew Congregations still exists today, though it underwent a name change in 1959and is now known as the Union for Reform Judaism. This change occurred due to the divergence of different sects of Judaism, each of which has a different set of religious practices and beliefs, though core beliefs and the primary religious text of the Torah are consistent across all sects.

Pogrom, a Russian word meaning to wreak havoc, is typically used in reference to the anti-Semitic violence perpetrated by Russian authorities beginning in 1881 and extending throughout both of the World Wars. These sprees of destruction, assault, and murder extended beyond Russia throughout Eastern Europe and include events like Kristallnacht in Germany. It is estimated that some 2.5 million Jews were displaced by the pogroms.

You may also like: Political cartoons from the last 100 years

Brandeis was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson. During the vetting process, political opponents of Brandeis painted him as a radical, rooting their accusations in anti-Semitic sentiments. Before serving on the Supreme Court, Brandeis gained a reputation as the peoples attorney due to his extensive pro bono work.

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Community convenes Sunday for Festival of Jewish Life in Bloomington - The Pantagraph

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Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

Zachary Lockman is Professor of Middle Eastern studies and history at New York University and a long-time MERIP contributor and supporter. He has authored a number of books and articles, including Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam, and the Egyptian Working Class, 1882-1954, with Joel Beinin (1987),Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948(1996) and Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism(2004; second edition, 2010). Lori Allen is a reader in anthropology at SOAS University and author of A History of False Hope: Investigative Commissions in Palestine (2020). Allen interviewed Lockman on the changing attitudes towards Zionism among American Jews. This is the first of a two-part series.

A gathering of American Jews at the departure of the Train of Food Aid to Israel In 1949. [Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images]

Zachary Lockman: Its mainly younger American Jews who are shifting. I think there has been a sea change. Slow, much delayed, not as advanced as we might like it to be, but I think one can see it, and it shows up in opinion polls.

Lori: Maybe it would be useful to lay out what you see as the predominant attitudes among Jewish Americans towards Israel historically. Who slept better knowing there was a Jewish state in the world, as Peter Beinart sums up a certain kind of commitment?[1]

Zachary: Many ancestors of todays American Jewish community came during the period from 1880 until immigration was shut down in 1924. Several million Jewish migrants came along with all the Poles, Italians, Ukrainians, Hungarians and everybody else in that mass outpouring from Europe. Most of these people were largely working class or lower middle class for the first generation or two. The Zionist project, which emerges in roughly the same period1880s, 1890swas not of great interest to them. The percentage of Jews leaving Europe who chose to go to Palestine was minuteone or two percent of that vast outpouring. The vast majority went to the United States, Latin America or Western Europe. For the first couple of generations, there were Zionists within the American Jewish community, but it was very much a minority camp. There may have been a vague sense of sympathy among someespecially as conditions in Europe got dramatically worse in the 1930sbut Zionism didnt seem particularly relevant to the lives of most American Jews.

Segments of the American Jewish community were actively hostile to Zionism. Into the 1930s and 1940s, Reform Judaism was formally opposed to Zionism because it saw it as undermining the place of American Jews in the United States, which was still tenuous due to, among other issues, anti-Semitism and economic problems.

With the second, third, even fourth generations of descendants of these migrants, Zionism became more prominent. And of course, the Holocaust had an impact.

There was also an effort by the Zionist movement to appeal to American Jews. The Zionist movement understoodby the late 1930s and early 1940sthat their relationship with Britain was breaking down, that the United States would emerge as a superpower and that they needed to build support there. After the Second World War, the US had the worlds largest Jewish community by far, which was increasingly well established economically and politically.

There was a growing sympathy for Israel in the 1950s and 1960s, but it wasnt very tangible. American Jews were donating money to Israel, buying Israel bonds and having a general sympathy, but it still seemed very distant to most American Jews who were coming into their own in America as a community. One measure of that is the fact that not many American Jews visited Israel, and the numbers emigrating there were very small. While theres a sense of connection, a sense that Israel is an answer to the Holocaust, there was no sense of obligation that American Jews should go live there or do more than express support.

Its only in the later 1960s that the United States becomes Israels main ally. Many (not all) American Jews understood the crisis leading up to the June 1967 War as another threat of annihilation, resulting in an outburst of support and donations.The Israeli victory, which was understood as a miracle, produced a surge of sympathy and connection deeper than what came before.

Many (not all) American Jews understood the crisis leading up to the June 1967 War as another threat of annihilation, resulting in an outburst of support and donations.The Israeli victory, which was understood as a miracle, produced a surge of sympathy and connection deeper than what came before.

Identification with Israel became, for many American Jews, part of their identity. And at the same time, the United States, from the late 1960s, begins selling weapons and providing aid to Israel. Support for Israel and American Jewish identity comes to feel seamless, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, when Israel is seen as a valuable ally and like us in many waysas opposed to the Arabs who were something different and threatening and so on.

The whole question of terrorism becomes central starting in the 1970s. People like the young Benjamin Netanyahufuture prime minister of Israelwere central to that enterprise of portraying terrorism as a threat by Muslims to both Israel and the United States. This provided an emotional and moral piece to the geostrategic alliance between the two countries.

Lori: This is quite a remarkable chronology. But when youre talking about the 1940s and 1950s, I was struck by your assessment that American Jews may have been supportive, but the support wasnt very deep. I was thinking about the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry and how much work the American Zionist Emergency Committee did. They were really organized, able to get huge numbers of petitions sent to Truman and his government calling for opening up Palestine to Jewish immigration. So, do you think thats just a specific moment? Or that was not very representative?

Zachary: That moment occurred in the immediate wake of revelations about what had happened to the Jews of Europe. These are peoples relatives they left behind when they immigrated some decades earlier. It did have a powerful impact. But it was understood as what can happen to European Jews, other Jews. The belief was, its not going to happen to us, but it will happen to fellow Jews unless they have a state and can defend themselves. Zionism was still a minority movement among American Jews. But as a result of the Second World War and its aftermath, Zionism could mobilize people to raise money, to send petitions, to put pressure on members of Congress. Truman wanted the Jewish vote in 1948 and he was sympathetic to Zionism as well.

Im talking about the existence of an increasingly significant Zionist camp, allied to a range of organizations, which later we come to think of as the Israel lobby. AIPAC goes back to the early 1950s. It grew out of that American Zionist Emergency Committee. But its not all that influential early on. They couldnt do anything about Eisenhower telling the Israelis to get out of Sinai in 1956, or about the Eisenhower administration saying: No, were not selling weapons to Israel, and were keeping Israel at arms length because we want good relations with our Arab friends. They protested, they argued, they had allies in Congress, but its nothing like the strength they would acquire in the 1970s when, for other kinds of reasons, Johnson and Nixon become very pro-Israel out of their own geostrategic understanding of things.

I think most American Jews in this period were supportive of the creation of Israel, but it didnt affect their lives very directly. Some people donated money to mainstream philanthropic organizations. Jews in the United States were becoming increasingly affluent. They would become among the most affluent ethnic groups in the United States. They tended to be political liberals. Certainly, from the 1930s, they were all voting for the Democratic Party and loving Franklin Roosevelt. Those Democratic leanings remain in place down to the present. This is in part because theres a historic memory of persecution, and the threat of extermination, and the status of being an outsider. People know that there are still anti-Semitic forces in American society who see the United States as a white Christian nation. And, that is not unjustified, as we know. They see alliances with other oppressed groups, with those who are discriminated against, as also being in the interest of Jews.

Lori: With exceptions such as people like Meir Kahane [founder of the right-wing Jewish Defense League and proponent of expulsion of Palestinians from Israel], right?

Zachary: Yes, but. Kahane was a product of the 60s. Partly, he was imitating the Black Power movement in a moment of growing tensions, which come out of the race situation in the United States between Blacks and Jews. And he was an opportunist. He established a base of like-minded Jews. His message was: like the Black Panthers, we need to have a Jewish Defense League to protect Jews who are being attacked in certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn by Black people and to fight for the rights of Soviet Jews who are an oppressed minority. And that had some appeal for some American Jews. But he was condemned by all the mainstream groups, and eventually took his show to Israel.

Lori: According to Shaul Magids biography of Kahane, he was very appealing to some who were poor and marginalized.

Zachary: Of course, the Democrats are just one part of the American Jewish community. Theres also the religious sector, those we call the ultra-Orthodox, the Haredim, who have a different relation to the political system and have their own organizations. Their attitude towards Israel varies. In general, in earlier decades they dont care that much.

Lori: Your chronology is fundamental for understanding where we are today. The 1970s and 80s were a period complicated by the civil war in Lebanon, which I think caused some people to think twice about Israel.

Zachary: But even before that, in the United States, among a generally liberal secular community at least, Israel is seen as a liberal secular place. Most Jews were not going to move to Israel, because were Americans, were happy here. At the same time, already in the 70s, some voices attuned to liberal Zionists in Israel were questioning Israeli state policies. These trends were inspired by the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, the emergence of a religious-nationalist settler movement and the 1977 electoral victory of the Likud.

Already in the 70s, there were some little groups in the United States generating interest in and sympathy for the Palestinian cause. Some American Jews started paying attention to the Middle East and understood it in anti-imperialist terms, especially those radicalized by the movement against the war in Vietnam. One of these groups was Breira, which means, choice or alternative. They began putting out a left Zionist critique of Israel and of the widely pro-Israel stance of the major Jewish American organizations.

The American Jewish organizations came down very hard on critics of Israel, even the liberal Zionists, and they did their best to suppress these critiques. This is the heyday of AIPAC, with the US government now providing billions of dollars for Israel and encouraging it to do whatever it wants.

The invasion of Lebanon in 1982 freaked out some number of liberal, maybe especially younger, American Jews, who saw what the conquest of much of Lebanon and the siege of Beirut looked like and then the massacre at Sabra and Shatila. But that uneasiness existed only in certain limited circles.

Looking back, I think you can see some very big changes, albeit slow ones. People started talking about Palestine, and the question of Palestine increasingly was seen as central to this whole set of issues. But they understood a distinction between 48 and 67. Whats happened since 1967 is still understood as an unfortunate aberration from the Golden Age of 1948 to 1967. That vision is the core of the two states solution whose death occurs over a long process.

Support for Palestinian rights gathers momentum and becomes much more the norm in left liberal circles, especially on campuses. Momentum is with critics of Israel, or for supporters of Palestinian rights, and thats why Israel, in the last decade, has launched a hasbara counteroffensive to punish critics and try to claw back support on campuses.

This counteroffensive is supported by student organization like the Maccabees and Stand With Us, and projects like Canary Mission. Some of them are funded by the Israeli government directly or indirectly, others by right-wing Israelis or right wingwe dont often know.

Lori: As a professor, how have you seen this shift on campuses over time?

Zachary: The emergence of JVP [Jewish Voice for Peace], for example, as a sort of Palestine solidarity group has done really well in building a base. It would have been unimaginable 20 years ago for a Jewish group to explicitly define itself as anti-Zionist.

It would have been unimaginable 20 years ago for a Jewish group to explicitly define itself as anti-Zionist.

The assaults on Gaza horrify a lot of people. The asymmetry of power and violence and death is hard to miss. The American Jewish community is bifurcated. There are segments who are in the hardline right more than ever.

Lori: Peter Beinart is, himself, maybe an interesting case: a prominent liberal Zionist who has become increasingly critical of Israel. I dont know if hed describe himself as anti-Zionist now, but from earlier positions in which he believed that Israel could be the liberal democracy he thought Herzl promised, he now recognizes the Palestinian right of return. How important do you think voices like Beinarts are? Or another one-time liberal Zionist, Sylvain Cepel, who wrote The State of Israel vs. The Jews?

Zachary: Beinart is a great example. As you note, he was a liberal Zionist who always had some criticisms but basically believed that Israel should be a Jewish state and could be a Jewish and democratic state. And then he had a shift some years back. He said its contrary to what he understands by Jewish values and Judaism and the meaning of Jewish history. Hes very articulate and smart. And he demonstrates that its possible to say these things, and not be taken out and executed.

Lori: But there is a dynamic among American Jews and Israeli Jews where, if you voice something thats too critical, and certainly, anti-Zionist, you can be excommunicated by a family, by a community. Look what happened to Richard Goldstone, who was smeared and threatened because of the UN commissions report on Gaza in 2009, a commission which he chaired. Do you see that kind of ploycalling Jews anti-Semites and self-hatingas being stronger these days than in the past? Or has that always been a trope?

Zachary: I think this goes way back, but its actually less effective now than it once was. Again, the Jewish communityIm talking about the organized, very Israeli-connected Zionist mainstream organizationswere very effective at shutting down criticism of Jews as Jews. And pushing them to the margins, delegitimizing them. I think that worked pretty effectively in the 70s and 80s. I think they dont have as much power as they did because the community has changed. Younger American Jews dont care about those big organizations. They may or may not belong to a local synagogue, but the synagogues themselves have changed. There are lots of liberal lefty rabbis who are, to varying degrees, critical of Israel. I think the antisemitism claim is still used, but its much less effective. Maybe Im being overly optimistic.

Lori: I want to believe you, but

Zachary: Its still used, of course. But my sense is people take it a lot less seriously. They may or may not agree with a critique, but there is now room for critique. And its coupled with a much greater understanding of the question of Palestine broadly, and who the Palestinians are. The whole flow of revisionist history, some of it produced by Israeli scholars since the 1980s, has given people access to information previously unknown.

The whole flow of revisionist history, some of it produced by Israeli scholars since the 1980s, has given people access to information previously unknown.

Lori: Does any of this suggest that maybe the shifting US public discourse doesnt matter? Because Peter Beinart would say that those young American Jews are not engaging, critically or otherwise, with Israel at all. Theyre leaving the playing field open to the very engaged orthodox and right-wing folks.

Zachary: Im not that pessimistic, or not pessimistic in quite that way. Certainly, a lot of younger Americans, including Jews, are quite critical of Israel. The Palestinian question is slowly seeping into wider circles. Think about the election of the first Palestinian to Congress, Rashida Tlaib. A couple of members of Congress have raised the question of Israels treatment of Palestinian children, and what happens to the kids in Gaza or elsewhere. Theyre a minority, but its on the agenda in a different kind of way. And every year, at the California Democratic Partys state convention, there are resolutions critical of US support for Israel and demanding an end to aid. Twenty years ago, if somebody had raised such an idea, they would have been gone in 20 seconds. Now in some quarters, these things have majority support. Still, you can ask, How significant is this? Its a slow process of building up, which I like to hope is significant. It may take another twenty or thirty years to make a difference, which is a horrifying thought. But the configurations within the American Jewish community, as in the world, have shifted. Today Israel is allied with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates and they have their own bloc.

Id like to take some heart from the fact that there is a pole of attraction in the community, in the United States more broadly, where people are aware of this issue and dont see Palestine as different from anyplace else.

Think of the Tony Judts 2003 essay in the New York Review of Books, and the impact it had. The fact that a respected public intellectual could ask if we need this ethno-national state that does these nasty things was a bombshell. He got very trashed. But its become a legitimate question in many circles. Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer got very trashed for their 2006 article criticizing the Israel lobby. Of course, the Republican Party has embraced the position of the Israeli right unequivocally, and that alliance is growing stronger, which tells you something about a common platform of right-wing racism, white or Jewish.

Lori: I want to hold on to and nurture your optimism. Your analysis that public discourse on Israel has shifted still assumes a liberal context. The arguments that folks in JVP and elsewhere are making are liberal arguments that dont seem to matter to much of the Israeli right or any right-wing American.

Zachary: Were in a very unhappy political situation at the moment, where the right has the momentum. How that battle will play out, we dont know. But that makes politics matter all the more because were now engaged in a struggle to defend liberal democracy in some very basic way. At least an increasing number of the people who are engaged in the democratic side of thingssmall d democraticare also full of contradictions. The people who will be critical of Israel, and especially an Israel which seems to embody the very things were fighting against here at homean ethno-national conception of the politythe American Jewish community, like all communities, will be divided on this.

I think the bifurcation will probably deepen and continue in various ways, so that the younger generationI mean, the liberal left, secular segment of the American Jewish communitywill chart its own course and see itself as an embattled minority in the United States that has to join the camp of democracy, for its own future, in alliance with other people. Others will go in a different direction.

For more on Zionism and the history of Zionism, see this documentary featuring Professor Lockman. For more on the politics of Israel and Palestine, see MERIPs Israel-Palestine Primer.

[1] Peter Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism (Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing, 2012), p. 3

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Changing Attitudes towards Zionism among American JewsAn Interview with Zachary Lockman - MERIP

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Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

A group of professors at the University of California, Berkeley, Law School signed a statement protesting a decision by some student groups to adopt a bylaw not to host Zionist speakers.

We hereby endorse the principle of free and open speech at the law school, the statement reads. We also condemn the discriminatory bylaw adopted by a small minority of our law student groups refusing to accept speakers who have Zionist views or beliefs. We believe this rule is not only wrong but is antithetical to free speech and our community values. These bylaws would also impermissibly exclude a large majority of our faculty from participating in the work of these organizations, including our Dean.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, said that only a handful of student organizations initially adopted the bylaw earlier in the semester, and he objected to it in a letter to all student groups.

He implied in a recent op-ed in The Daily Beast that media outlets have overblown the controversy.

No group has violated the Law Schools policy and excluded a speaker on account of being Jewish or holding particular views about Israel, he wrote. Such conduct, of course, would be subject to sanctions.

He added, At this stage, all some student groups have done is express their strong disagreement with Israels policies. That is their First Amendment right. I find their statement offensive, but they have the right to say it.

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Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

Bril was a champion Dutch boxer and Holocaust survivor

Sitting in his boxing gym just outside Amsterdam, former Dutch champion Barry Groenteman is reminiscing about the times he used to visit his grandmother.

When she was living in a retirement home and he would go to see her, he'd often come across an older man "who was always shadowboxing: in the hall, with the nurses".

Groenteman continues: "He'd show me his ring, with the Star of David on it. And my grandmother would whisper: 'That's Ben Bril.'"

For the young Groenteman, it was an introduction to a man who would have a huge impact on him and whose story he feels compelled to tell.

Like him, Bril grew up as Jewish boy in Amsterdam, and - also like him - boxing became his life.

But there the comparisons end. Groenteman was born in 1986. Bril was born in 1912. By the time he reached his 30s, his life had been transformed by invasion, violence and anti-Semitism.

On Monday, the Dutch boxing world will come together to celebrate the return of the Ben Bril Memorial night, at Amsterdam's famous Carre Theatre.

Those gathered will remember how a serial national champion was forced into hiding and then sent to the Nazi concentration camps by a former Olympic team-mate. They will look back on his remarkable survival and consider his legacy today - inside and outside of the ring.

Bril grew up in one of the poorest parts of Amsterdam as the second youngest of seven children.

It was a tough upbringing, according to Steven Rosenfeld, who is a relative of Bril's through his wife Celia and has written a book about his life: Dansen om te overleven (A Dance with Survival).

"They lived in tenements, he didn't sleep in a bed, he slept on straw, they didn't have a toilet, he had to carry buckets down to the street," Rosenfeld says.

For the young Bril, fighting was a part of daily life. There were scraps with friends of course, but also clashes with rival groups from different communities in the tightly packed city, according to Ben Braber, a historian who has written extensivelyexternal-link about Jewish life in Amsterdam during the inter-war years.

But while some of his friends carried on brawling, Bril turned his hand to sport.

"Boxing was very popular in the Jewish quarter before World War II," says Braber.

"For some boys, it was hard fist-fighting for gamblers, but other young Jews joined clubs. They were popular because the training and the matches were an escape from daily routine, also [from] daily poverty.

"And [the young men] built their self-esteem, because the art of self-defence requires courage, stamina, quick reactions but also technical skills."

Bril was one of those young men, and his career sparked into life early when - at the age of only 15 - he was selected to fight for the Netherlands at the Amsterdam Olympics of 1928.

He turned 16 on the opening day of the Games (there are some suggestions he had to falsify his birthdate in order to qualify and was in fact only 15) and reached the quarter-finals in his weight class - flyweight.

As he got older, Bril found work in a butcher's shop, and used his new job to help develop his sport.

"He told me that when he had to chop up meat he always used his left hand, even though he was naturally right-handed, to strengthen his left jab," Braber remembers.

Rosenfeld recalls Ben's "brick-like" hands, toughened, he was told, by dipping it into pickle brine.

Through the late 1920s and the 1930s Bril became a serial champion, winning eight Dutch titles and national fame.

But life in Amsterdam would change dramatically over those years - especially for Jews like him.

Economic crisis, the rise of Nazi Germany and an associated increase in anti-Semitism in the Netherlands made discrimination against Jews increasingly prevalent.

Bril experienced this directly when, despite his domestic success, he was left out of the Dutch team for the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

At the time, says Rosenfeld, he didn't fully understand what had happened, but it later became clear that he was blacklisted by anti-Semites on the Dutch national boxing committee.

Despite that, three years later in 1935 Bril claimed what, for him, would always be his greatest success - and the source of that Star of David ring he wore even as an old man.

He travelled to Tel Aviv, in what was then Mandatory Palestine, to take part in the second edition of the Maccabiah Games for Jewish athletes from around the world.

He and a fellow Dutch Jew, his friend Appie de Vries, both won gold medals and returned to a hero's welcome among the Jewish community in Amsterdam.

It was at about this time that Bril started wearing the Star of David on his shorts, to match the ring he had won.

It is something of a tradition among Jewish boxers to wear the Star in that way and Bril was certainly not the first.

The great 1920s American lightweight Benny Leonard, known as 'The Ghetto Wizard', did it in his heyday.

And, much later, as his own career took shape, Barry Groenteman would honour the man who inspired him by himself displaying the Star of David in the ring.

For Braber though, Bril's act of identifying himself in that way, in 1930s Netherlands, is "very significant".

"He clearly identified himself as being Jewish, but he also wanted to be identified [by others] as being Jewish - that was an important matter to him," he says.

Right up to 1939, Bril was still wearing the Star in the ring, and handing out signed publicity photos of himself wearing those trunks.

Rosenfeld, who also interviewed Bril extensively for his book, says Bril's first motivation in wearing the Star was an expression "of his sports accomplishment" in winning at the Maccabiah, rather than a political statement.

But he was clearly well aware of the wider situation around Europe and wasn't afraid to act on his own initiative.

In 1934, Bril went with a Dutch Jewish group to compete in Germany.

The Nazis had been in power for a year. The state had already begun to discriminate officially against Jews. The atmosphere was hostile and daily life was being made increasingly difficult.

Bril was appalled by what he saw.

"We saw brown uniforms everywhere, swastika flags, the word 'Jew' on Jewish people's businesses," Bril told a Dutch newspaper many years later.

"I said then, as long as this regime is in power, I will never go to Germany."

Despite his hurt at being overlooked for LA four years earlier, when the call came in 1936 for the Dutch champion to travel to Berlin for the Olympic Games, he turned it down.

As his amateur career continued and his fame grew, Bril married his wife Celia. They had a son - Abraham - and opened a sandwich shop in the city of Utrecht.

But their lives, and those of everyone in the country, were turned upside down by the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939. In May 1940 Germany invaded the Netherlands.

Initially little changed, but gradually life for Dutch Jews became more restricted, and increasingly under threat.

"In 1941, stricter regulations came in which were clearly an attempt to segregate the Jews in the Netherlands from the rest of the population," historian Braber says.

There were restrictions on which public spaces Jewish people could enter, and in particular an attempt to force bars and cafes to ban Jews from their premises, which often ended in violence.

This sparked the creation of a number of Jewish defence groups, some centred around the sports clubs like the one of which Bril was a member.

On 11 February 1941, Dutch Nazis marched into the Jewish district of Amsterdam.

A previous incursion two days earlier had resulted in attacks on Jewish homes and businesses, and there was a fear, says Braber, that synagogues would be the next target.

So the defenders - armed with bricks, metal bars, anything they could get their hands on - prepared themselves for another confrontation.

This time it was even more violent and bloody, "a ferocious battle", says Braber, that resulted in the death of at least one Nazi and led to repercussions against the Jewish community.

Within two weeks some 400 men had been rounded up and deported - many survived no more than a few months.

Although Braber was told by a friend of Bril's that Bril was involved - and many men he knew certainly were, including his trainer and a number of fellow boxers - it is unlikely that the champion took part directly in the fighting.

Rosenfeld says Bril was told to stay away, because his fame might make him a target.

But the brief confrontation in Amsterdam's Waterlooplein square, with Jewish fighting groups at the core - "a form of Jewish resistance unique in Europe," says Braber - was a stark demonstration of how life in the city had changed.

The intimidation, violence and official discrimination continued to grow in intensity in the months that followed and in July 1942 - shortly after it became compulsory to wear a yellow star - came the first deportations of Dutch Jews.

"At that point virtually nobody in the Netherlands knew exactly what was happening in those camps where Jews were sent," says Braber.

"What we know now about gas chambers and extermination camps only became clear after the war. Nonetheless, some 20% of people who were called up [for deportation] didn't turn up, and went into hiding."

That number included Bril and his family. As Braber points out, the decision to hide was a perilous one: "'Can we stay together, can we get help, are these people trustworthy?' All these types of things you have to think about."

According to Rosenfeld, the Brils were sheltered in a variety of different places and - despite the danger - were often out and about.

But eventually they were betrayed and held in custody - in a bitter echo of Bril's sporting life - by Sam Olij, who had been Bril's team-mate on the Olympic boxing squad of 1928.

Bril had also boxed with Olij's sons in Amsterdam, but the Olij family had become committed Nazis. According to Dutch sports historian Jurryt van de Voorenexternal-link it was Olij's son Jan who arrested Bril and his wife and son.

The Bril family were sent to the camps. First to Vught in the Netherlands, then - up by the German border in the north - to Westerbork, and finally to Bergen-Belsen, where it's estimated 50,000 people died, Anne Frank among them.

De Vooren has described Olij as "a notorious Jew hunter" who committed "the worst kind of betrayal in Dutch sport". After the war, he served nine years' imprisonment and died in 1975, while his son Jan was said to have fled to Argentina.

There is one moment that stands out from Bril's life in the war beyond all others. It was a moment fraught with danger, but one in which he acted instinctively. It came at the Nazi concentration camp at Vught, and we can hear about it through Bril's own words, because he told the story to Braber in the 1980s.

"A boy had attempted to escape [but] they caught him," said Bril.

"They placed him on a rack, and he was to get 25 lashes of a whip. Suddenly the commander called out: 'Boxer - step forward!'

"I had to carry out the punishment, but I refused. The commander said that if I didn't I would get 50 lashes, so I took the whip but when I hit him, I aimed to strike too high.

"The commander got mad: 'Not so!' he cried. He grabbed the whip and started beating like mad. I walked back to my line."

Why Bril suffered no consequences for his refusal to carry out the order is not known, but those who witnessed it were under no doubt as to what they had seen.

"[Ben Bril was] the only man I saw during two and a half years in concentration camps - or heard of - who risked refusing to carry out a formal order of the SS," Braber quotes the head of Vught's Jewish administration as testifying after the war.

It was, says the historian, "a very courageous act".

But Bril would also have to fight in the camps, both in Vught and in Westerbork. As a famous boxer he was a target - someone who the guards might want to see in action.

In 1988, on Dutch television, Bril told of one life-changing moment. "I boxed for my son, who was dying," he said.

He was to fight against a 'kapo' (a camp inmate who was appointed by the Nazis to guard and control the other prisoners) in Vught.

The man asked Bril not to knock him out. He replied that he would comply on condition that the man help him get medicine, and agree not to beat the inmates in his block.

Steven Rosenfeld says the man complied, and Bril's son overcame his illness.

Bril also helped organise fights which were staged for the entertainment of the camp authorities. Those taking part might have got extra rations or other benefits, according to Braber.

Groenteman made a powerful television programme about Bril's story and recalls being shown, by a former inmate, the papers detailing some of the fights in Camp Westerbork.

"I saw such a lot of names I know, I know their grandchildren," he says.

"The scariest thing was that they were so similar to the schedule papers that hang in changing rooms now, when I'm going to an amateur event with my guys. That was hard."

Almost all of Bril's extended family died in the Holocaust, but his son Abraham and his wife Celia survived the war along with him.

In January 1945, from Bergen-Belsen, the family were included in a prisoner exchange that saw them taken first to Switzerland, then to a United Nations camp in Algeria, before making it back to Utrecht.

Bril didn't return to the ring as a fighter after the war, but he couldn't leave boxing.

He became a senior official in the sport, acting as a referee and judge at fights around the world, all the way into the 1970s.

He went to the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964 (where he once again showed his character by leaping into the ring to protect a fellow referee who had been punched by a competitor), Mexico City in 1968 and Montreal in 1976.

He missed the 1972 Games in Munich, and its own tragic story, only because of a dispute with the boxing authorities in the Netherlands.

Ringside or on the canvas, he played a small role at the start of the careers of some of the greats, officiating in fights involving world champions Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Bril died in 2003 at the age of 91. The first memorial night in his honour was held four years later.

Groenteman made his first appearance at the Carre at the 2011 event. He fought with the Star of David on his trunks, both to honour his family and the man who had inspired him as a youngster.

"I think that day I boxed the best fight in my whole career," he says.

"People get their strength from their religion, from meditation, from mindfulness, from where they come from. I always felt when I was boxing with the Star on my trunks, it gives me more power.

"We're raised up with the attitude: 'Never walk away from where you come from.' Ben Bril stood for who he was."

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Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

JTA Three apparent Nazi sympathizers have been arrested in connection with a rash of antisemitic vandalism in a tiny Spanish town whose name for nearly 400 years was Castrillo Matajudios or Fort Kill the Jews.

For years, the town, which changed its name in 2015 to Castrillo Mota De Judios, or Fort Jews Hill, has been plagued by antisemitic graffiti. Some of it referenced the Holocaust, while others had to do with the Inquisition, the medieval expulsion of Jews from Spain. All of it vexed the towns mayor, who has sought to rehabilitate the towns image and put it on the map as a destination of Jewish significance.

These are cowardly, intolerant and ignorant people who do not value neither heritage nor people; nor do they have respect for anyone or anything, the mayor, Lorenzo Rodriguez, wrote when sharing pictures of some of the damage last year. These intolerant people are not allowed here.

Now, Spanish police have arrested three people two men and a woman whom they said were responsible for the incidents, as well as others in which Jewish sites were vandalized near Madrid.

The investigation has shown that the detainees are related to xenophobic movements with a marked antisemitic discourse, whose messages focus on hatred against the Jewish population and its environment, Spains Civil Guard law enforcement agency said in a statement. The three detainees are considered members of a radical right-wing criminal group that acted in concert to commit this type of crime, adopting security measures to avoid being discovered.

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In searching the suspects houses, police found Nazi paraphernalia, as well as non-lethal weapons, the Civil Guard said.

Camp Kill Jews, twinned with Aushwitch [sic], one instance of graffiti in Castrillo Mota De Judios read. Others included slogans like, Juden Raus, Long live Catholic monarchs, The mayors sold out to the killer Jew, and referenced Toms de Torquemada, the high inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition.

Vandals also attempted to burn down the towns flag, which bears the Star of David, as early as a year ago. Last summer, they allegedly spread more graffiti and set fires around the town to further harass the residents, after the town was twinned with an Israeli town, Kfar Vradim.

The suspects were also believed to be responsible for antisemitic incidents near Madrid, including posting antisemitic messages on the door of a synagogue and drawing graffiti on a Jewish community center and a Jewish cemetery.

Despite going by the name Castrillo Matajudios for nearly 400 years, the towns 52 residents voted to change the name in 2014 and the change was imposed in 2015. Archival records showed that before the Spanish expulsion and onset of the Inquisition, it was in fact originally settled by Jews in 1035 fleeing a nearby pogrom, who named it Castrillo Motajudios, or Fort Jews Hill.

The expulsion, and following inquisition aimed at rooting out any remaining Jews and Muslims who had insincerely converted to Catholicism, resulted in terms referencing violence against Jews to enter the vernacular in Spain and the wider Spanish-speaking world. Matar Judios To Kill Jews is still a common term for Easter festivals in Northern Spain where celebrants enjoy spiked lemonade, while the surname Matajudios is also a common last name in Colombia. In France, a town bears the name Mort-Aux-Juifs, which has a similar meaning.

Since the change, the town has also proposed building a Jewish research center to study the pre-expulsion Jewish heritage of the region.

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Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

Protestors outside City Hall call for the resignations of L.A. City Council members Kevin de Leon and Gil Cedillo in the wake of a leaked audio recording. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

By Louis KeeneOctober 16, 2022

The most jarring remarks in a leaked audio conversation among three Los Angeles city council members and a local labor leader target a Black child the son of a white council member accused of using the boy as a political prop.

But the recording released a week ago also slurs other groups, including Jews.

Im sure Katz and his crew have an agenda, Los Angeles Federation of Labor head Ron Herrera said in the leaked recording of a meeting with city council members late last year.

Los Judos cut their deal with South L.A., then-council president Nury Martinez replied, using the Spanish words for Jews. Theyre gonna screw over everyone else.

Herrera was referring to Richard Katz, a Jewish former California state assemblyman who served on LAs redistricting commission last year. Katz, 72, was appointed to the role by Bob Blumenfield, the citys third district council member, who is also Jewish. (Blumenfields district did not change much in the redistricting.)

The tape has thrown the city into political turmoil. Martinez and Herrera have resigned, though council members Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Leon have so far ignored calls to follow suit from their colleagues, indignant Angelenos, both mayoral candidates and President Joe Biden.

Katz, who as an assemblyman helped create the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority and now owns a consulting practice that focuses on transportation, spoke to the Forward about antisemitism in politics, being caught in the crossfire in a major political moment, and what he wants to see changed in city politics.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

It was just so shocking, startling, off the wall stuff you cant make up. There were a couple hours of disbelief because its so outside the norm. I dont know how you make sense of stuff that in some ways is irrational, or just racist and bigoted.

You get a pretty thick skin in politics Ive been doing this a long time. But Ive never seen anything quite like this before. And it makes you stop and think, particularly because were in Los Angeles. Were not in Alabama or Arkansas, Texas. And wed like to think things are different here. Its a reminder that things may be different in a lot of ways, but there are still people who are the same.

Well, I know them all. But Gil Cedillo Ive known going back 40 years. I havent talked to any of the four since then.

In some forms. When I was in the legislature, there was an assemblywoman from somewhere out in the High Desert area, who in a committee hearing, made a comment about how she knows how contracts are negotiated: Somebody makes a quote, and then you Jew down the price. The Jewish caucus met with her and talked about it, and she said that was just something she heard growing up. But two weeks later, her husband, who was on the Hesperia City Council, said the exact same thing. So every once in a while you come across things like that.

Luz Rivas, who represents my old district in the Assembly, reached out the other day, just to touch base and see how I was doing. Theres a couple of people like that who have reached out. But I think part of it is the antisemitism was not quite as overt as some of those other comments in there.

Shes wrong. There was no deal. And there was no Jewish part of the deal or African American part of the deal. The commission that I was on, the public commission, took the Voting Rights Act very seriously. Im not a lawyer. But I would guess that if any judge listened to that tape, they would come to the conclusion that its a prima-facie case that they violated the Voting Rights Act just in that meeting.

The whole thing was designed to maintain their power and to identify people they thought were threats to that power. And I dont know if they thought it was smarter or easier to identify people by ethnicity or religion, rather than geographic area, but thats what they did.

At a minimum, I think all four people need to resign.

I also think, though, that it underscores the need for the communities to spend more time together. Going back to when Tom Bradley was mayor, there was an African American-Jewish dialogue that took place after the Watts Riots. And then later on as other things happened in the city, there were ongoing Jewish-African American dialogues, Jewish-Latino dialogues and Jewish dialogues with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. I think those are very instructive. The only way to get past stuff like this is to know who your neighbors are and understand and respect them. Passing a resolution saying that were going to be nice to each other doesnt really make it happen.

There are deep divisions, and there is a lot of mistrust, and we cant get through it playing A against B or D off against C. This city has tremendous potential, and we like to think of ourselves as a multiracial, multicultural city of the 21st century. Yet right below the surface, there are a lot of problems. And its reflected in unemployment, views of policing, and day-to-day problems that people are dealing with. Theres economic disparity, a shrinking middle class and the growth of the one percent and folks at the poverty level. And thats not an acceptable future for us.

Louis Keene is a staff reporter at the Forward covering religion, sports and the West Coast. He writes the weekly California Briefing.

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Off the wall: What the Jewish man slurred in leaked LA city council recording has to say about it - Forward

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Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

Provided by Salon Donald Trump

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the Faith & Freedom Coalition June 17, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee. Seth Herald/Getty Images

Early Sunday morning, former President Donald Trump fired up Truth Social to express views that many are viewing asanti-Semitic.

Seemingly set out to berate Jewish Americans over what he perceives as being a lack of support for Israel, Trump said "U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel - Before it is too late!"

This isn't the first time that Trump has made similar statements that could be easily seen as anti-Semitic. In 2021, Trump toldIsraeli journalist Barak Ravid during an interview for his podcast"Unholy: Two Jews on the news" that"People in this country that are Jewish no longer love Israel."

"I'll tell you, the evangelical Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country," Trump said to Ravid. "It used to be that Israel had absolute power over Congress. And today I think it's the exact opposite."

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Judging by Sunday's Truth Social rant, Trump's views haven't changed since 2021.

"No President has done more for Israel than I have," Trump says. "Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S. Those living in Israel, though, are a different story - Highest approval rating in the World, could easily be P.M.!"

"Of all the horrendous things Trump has ever said, "U.S. Jews have to get their act together" may be the worst," TweetsWashington correspondentJohn McCormack.

"People have different interpretations of this," says attorneyRon Filipkowski. "Based on watching every interview of him for two years, I think what he is saying is that he was Israel's great champion, but American Jews didn't support him in 2020, and they better get behind him in 2024 or Israel will suffer."

"Anyway, just want to note that this tweet is still up from the House Judiciary GOP," says Daily Beast reporterJustin Baragona along with a share of the mentioned tweet which reads "Kanye. Elon. Trump."

Rapper Kanye West, who has tried very badly to endear himself to Trump over the years, at every risk to his reputation as a Black artist, went on an anti-Semitic rant of his own last week.

"I'm a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I'm going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually can't be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda," he wrote, in one of his first tweets in years. The Tweet was later removed by Twitter for violating the platforms rules and guidelines.

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"U.S. Jews have to get their act together," says the former president of the United States - msnNOW

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Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

Former President Trump said Sunday that he "could easily be" the prime minister of Israel in a post on his Truth Social account, in which he also said that Jewish people in the U.S. should be more appreciative of what he has done for Israel.

Between the lines: It is not clear what prompted Trump's remarks, but they echo similar comments that the former president has made about the U.S. Jewish community since he was elected in 2016.

What he's saying: "No President has done more for Israel than I have," Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.

The CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League Jonathan Greenblatt said Sunday in a statement: "We don't need the former president, who curries favor with extremists and antisemites, to lecture us about the U.S.-Israel relationship."

Flashback: In 2021, Trump accused U.S. Jews who are not orthodox of "no longer loving Israel" and claimed "evangelical Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country."

The big picture: Trump's remarks were published on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, which marks the conclusion of the annual Torah reading in synagogues and the beginning of a new cycle.

Go deeper... Trump blasts Netanyahu for disloyalty: "F**k him"

Editor's note: This story has been updated with a statement from ADL CEO and national director Jonathan Greenblatt.

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Trump: I could "easily" be Israel's prime minister - Axios

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Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a protest against the Israeli government on April 6, 2022. Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images

By Jacob KornbluhOctober 16, 2022

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu writes in a new book that President Joe Biden pushed him last May to end the heavy airstrikes in the Gaza strip in response to 4,000 rockets fired at Israel because he was facing pressure from congressional Democrats. According to the Gaza health ministry, 243 Palestinians, including 66 children, and 12 Israelis were killed in the 11 days of intense fighting between Hamas and Israel.

Bibi, I gotta tell you, Im coming under a lot of pressure back here, Netanyahu quotes Biden as saying during one of the six phone calls the two leaders held that week that led to a ceasefire. The conversation, as reported by Netanyahu in his memoir, Bibi: My story, slated for publication on Tuesday, belies the presidents more recent dismissal of Democratic voices critical of Israel as relatively insignificant. An advanced copy of the book was obtained by the Forward.

This is not Scoop Jacksons Democratic Party, Biden reportedly continued, referring to the hawkish Democratic Senator from Washington who died in 1983. Im getting squeezed here to put an end to this as soon as possible.

Bidens aggressive attempts to reach a ceasefire underscored a generational divide on Israel among Democrats, with those on the left led by Reps. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley who formed The Squad after their election in 2018. Last year, eight Democrats voted against funding for the replenishment of Israels anti-missile Iron Dome defense system, though some supported it in a subsequent vote. And 16 opposed a resolution condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. A recent Pew Research survey showed that 53% of Americans who identify themselves as Democrats hold a negative view of Israel.

Earlier this year, in his first interview with the Israeli media ahead of his 10th trip to the Jewish state, Biden said he is not worried about anti-Israel sentiment in Congress. Theres no possibility, I think, of the Democratic Party or even a significant portion of the Republican Party, walking away from Israel, he said.

Netanyahu had a stronger relationship with former President Donald Trump than with his Democratic predecessors, but the relationship frayed Israeli ties with Democrats.

But the book also shares behind-the-scenes details of an episode in which Netanyahu risked Democratic support for Israel well before the rise of The Squad.

At the height of tensions with former President Barack Obama over the Iran nuclear deal in March 2015, the prime minister accepted an invitation from then-Republican House Speaker John Boehner to address a joint session of Congress. Sixty members boycotted the speech. No Obama administration officials attended.

Netanyahu writes that he needed a majority in Congress to oppose the deal, and would not be dissuaded from making the address, despite stern warnings from Jewish Democrats and senior cabinet members about rupturing relations with Israels most important ally. A longtime friend, Mort Zuckerman, then publisher of U.S. News & World Report, advised him to at least be as respectful as possible to Obama. Youre going into a political tinderbox, Zuckerman told the prime minister. Democratic sensibilities are at their height. Ive never seen anything like this tension.

Netanyahu writes that he took that advice and it served him well. Sen. Chuck Schumer, then Senate minority leader and an opponent of the deal, approached him after the speech and said it moved six Democrats to support a Republican-led bill that would give Congress a role to review and eventually vote on the deal. I was relieved, Netanyahu writes.

The deal, however, eventually passed Congress: 98-1 in the Senate and 400-25 in the House.

Even if Democrats couldnt derail the speech, Netanyahu worried that his own sinuses would. He reveals that the night before he couldnt fall asleep, thanks to a severe cold. During a practice run, he couldnt make it through a sentence. I cant believe this is happening to me, he told his wife Sara. The most important speech of my life and Im going to be foiled by this? The various remedies he tried all failed. But the next morning as he entered the Capitol, the miracle of miracles happened, he writes. His sinuses cleared.

During the speech, Netanyahu continued, he noticed that Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House leader, turned her back on him. When speakers spot indifferent or hostile members in an audience, they often get dejected, he writes. Not me. Nothing energizes me more.

Back in the hotel, I was drained of energy, like a boxer after a bruising fight, he added.

Netanyahu dedicates several chapters to his strained relationship with Obama, including a detailed description of their first White House meeting, in which Obama told him to relinquish settlements in the occupied West Bank. He writes that his clash with Obama was not personal but ideological. And he criticizes Obama officials who attacked him as narrow-minded, describing them as people who never risked their lives on a battlefield.

The book claims that Obama refused to commit to vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution against Israel six years before the U.S. abstained on UNSC 2334 that condemned Israeli settlements. It was after the May 31, 2010 IDF raid on the Mavi Marmara flotilla from Turkey in which nine Turkish passengers, including one U.S. citizen, were killed in clashes with Israeli commandos as the ship attempted to break Israels maritime blockade of Gaza. If I do that, America will be isolated, Obama told Netanyahu, who asked the U.S. to use its veto power if the UN body rushes to judgment against Israel. The veto was not needed after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promised to appoint an impartial commission that later confirmed the blockade was legal.

Though the pair frequently feuded in public over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu writes that in late 2009 he privately sought to ease the tension with the president by agreeing to impose a 10-month freeze on settlements, and that he later proposed a peace summit at Camp David. The strategy was to buy more time to develop Israels military capabilities and to ease international pressure in the wake of a strike on Irans nuclear facilities.

But his attempt to get the U.S. to greenlight military action failed. In a 2012 Oval Office meeting, Obama warned Netanyahu that the Israeli move would be a mistake and result in the collapse of the sanctions regime against Iran. He later dispatched a number of administration officials to frustrate Israeli preparations for an attack.

During Obamas visit to Israel in 2013, Netanyahu met even greater resistance as he lobbied for a U.S. strike on Iran. Nobody likes Goliath, Obama said, according to Netanyahu. I dont want to be an eight-hundred-pound gorilla strutting on the world stage. For too long we acted that way.

Years later, at the start of his first meeting with Trump at the White House, the new president asked Netanyahu, Why didnt you bomb them? Netanyahu said he replied, Because I didnt have the votes at the time. But its still an option.

When Trump was elected, Netanyahu saw great opportunity, and set four goals for the American presidents first term: Move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognize Israels control over the Golan Heights, withdraw from the Iran deal and make peace with the Arab world. All four of them, Netanyahu writes, were accomplished before Trump left office.

Despite bumps in the road, our years together were the best ever for the Israeli-American alliance, Netanyahu writes at the conclusion of his memoir, calling Trump a true trailblazer.

But the start of the Trump-Netanyahu relationship was not auspicious. Netanyahu was dejected by an early call from Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law and point person on Middle East peace, to Israels Ambassador Ron Dermer, suggesting Israel should freeze construction in the settlements for a couple of years to pave the way for a peace deal. Normally, I dont give in to despondency. But I did now, Netanyahu writes about his reaction at the time. Pointing to the pressure he got from former President Bill Clinton and Obama, Netanyahu asks, Was I now condemned to another four years of this nonsense?

Netanyahu also blamed Ron Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress and a longtime friend and adviser to Trump, for driving a wedge between him and the U.S. president. Lauder badmouthed him, he writes, and pushed his own peace deal with the Palestinians. In a recent book, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman revealed that Lauder had pitched a Middle East peace plan built on the two-state solution that Trump was enthusiastic about.

When Trump visited Israel later that year, he complained to President Reuven Rivlin that Bibi doesnt want peace. In response, Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman produced a video which showed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas calling for the destruction of Israel and glorifying terrorists in Arabic. They hoped Trump would adjust his thinking about the Palestinian leader. I could see that the video registered with Trump, at least momentarily, Netanyahu writes.

He also showed Trump a slide presentation that compared the distance between Tel Aviv and the occupied West Bank, to the distance between Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue and the George Washington Bridge. Mr. President, I said, would you let a regime that wants to annihilate you set up a state at the George Washington Bridge? Of course not. Neither would we, Netanyahu writes.

Netanyahu also posits that without interference from Lauder though he doesnt mention him explicitly by name the Abraham Accords would have been signed at the beginning of Trumps term rather than the end.

In Netanyahus first term as prime minister, 1996-1999, Lauder secretly negotiated a peace deal on behalf of Netanyahu with then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad.

Netanyahu disputes Kushners account that Trump was caught off guard when the prime minister indicated at the January 2020 rollout event for the Mideast peace plan that the U.S. backed his intention to annex Israeli settlements in the West Bank. According to the former prime minister, Trump agreed in a letter he sent the day before the ceremony to immediately recognize Israeli control over 30% of the West Bank, in exchange for a written commitment from Netanyahu that he would allow the creation of a Palestinian state over the rest of the territory. But following Netanyahus declaration, the White House pressured him to retract his declaration and worked to foil the plan.

What transpired to bring about this change is still unclear, Netanyahu writes, wondering whether Kushner and Friedman didnt fully explain to the president what the commitment entailed. Whatever the reason, it was inappropriate and cost me a great deal.

Following the election of Biden, Netanyahu tweeted his congratulations to the president-elect while Trump was still contesting the results, though he waited for weeks for a return call after Biden entered office. In the book, Netanyahu doesnt respond to Trumps profane remarks about the prime ministers outreach to the president-elect as detailed in a recent book by Israeli journalist Barak Ravid but acknowledges that it elicited the ire of President Trump, who to this day believes that he was the first foreign leader to do so.

Netanyahu writes that despite a fraught relationship with Obama he enjoyed a close friendship with then-Vice President Biden and appreciated his frankness. Biden often repeated a line he once told Netanyahu: Bibi, I dont agree with a damn thing you had to say, but I love you.

On many occasions the feeling was mutual, Netanyahu writes.

The Biden-Netanyahu relationship is nearly 40 years old, beginning when Netanyahu first visited Washington in the early 1980s. On Bidens recent Israel trip, during the welcome ceremony at Ben-Gurion International Airport, Netanyahu was the first dignitary Biden shook hands with after his fist bumps with other Israeli leaders, despite the White Houses earlier assertion that Biden wouldnt shake hands with anyone because of a spike in coronavirus cases. You know I love you, Biden told Netanyahu, comments which were aired live on Israeli television.

At the start of the Obama administration, as Netanyahu was facing pressure to endorse a two-state solution and resume negotiations with the Palestinians, Biden told Netanyahu he would serve as his backchannel ally. You dont have too many friends here, buddy, Biden told Netanyahu during a meeting at the official vice presidents residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Netanyahu writes of the conversation. Im the one friend you do have. So call me when you need to.

A year later, as Biden visited Israel to ease tensions between Obama and Netanyahu, the then-vice president was blindsided by a plan to build 1,600 units for Jews in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Netanyahu, who immediately expressed regret about the move, writes that before departing Israel Biden told him in a phone call that there had been much pushback in Washington against the announcement but he was glad they were able to put the matter to bed.

Thanks for getting my chestnuts out of the fire, Netanyahu quoted Biden as saying.

Netanyahu accused the Obama administration of always judging him in the worse possible light.

Netanyahu writes that he may have struck too tough a tone with former President Bill Clinton at their first meeting in 1996. He was angry that Clinton had interfered in the Israeli election, sending his political advisers to help Netanyahus rival, Shimon Peres.

The American president bristled at what he considered Netanyahus lecturing.

But Clinton, Netanyahu writes, also seemed to know how to diffuse tensions between the two.

Bibi, Ive got to hand it to you, Netanyahu quotes Clinton telling him in their first phone call after his surprise upset. We did everything we could to bring you down, but you beat us fair and square.

Netanyahu writes that he was charmed by Clintons honesty. He was refreshingly politically incorrect.

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Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

A visit to Jerusalems only boxing club is like stepping into the past: the former bomb shelter in a working-class neighbourhood of Jerusalem is a riot of old-school paraphernalia, and a CD of 1970s disco provides the soundtrack for training sessions.

This is the kingdom of Gershon Luxemburg, better known as Grisha, a fit 78-year-old who barks instructions while chewing menthol gum. Born in Uzbekistan, the former Russian champion came to Israel as a young man; today he trains many new Russian-speaking migrs.

I learned to box as a child so I could fight back when I was beaten up at school for being Jewish, Luxemburg said. I fought in Lebanon and the Yom Kippur war. Jews are not afraid to fight, to defend themselves. But no one wants to die because of Putins war in Ukraine.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Israel prepared for a new wave of immigration from the former Soviet state. About 13,000 Ukrainians with Jewish heritage have made aliyah, or emigrated, since then. Unexpectedly, double that have come from Russia, meaning around one in eight Russian Jews have left the country.

Since Vladimir Putins mobilisation announcement in September, their numbers are growing. Last week, Alla Pugacheva, the queen of Soviet pop, reiterated her criticism of the war and announced she had come to Israel with her husband, who has Jewish roots.

Mikhael, who has been coming to Grishas gym for the last two years, was born and raised in Moscow. Working in the tech industry in Israel, he now finds himself unable to visit his mother and sister, who still live in the Russian capital.

Theres no way I can go home now. I decided to make aliyah and I am happy here. I did my service in the Israeli army. But in Russia its not the same. I do not want to be part of that, the 33-year-old said.

Israels law of return much reviled by Palestinians, to whom it does not apply gives people born Jewish, converts, spouses of Jewish people and those with Jewish parents or grandparents the right to move to the country and acquire Israeli citizenship.

Since 1950, Israel has seen several waves of aliyah immigration from countries including Sudan, Ethiopia and Yemen, as well as an influx of more than 1 million people after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989.

For Ukrainian-born Knesset member Yuli Edelstein, a prominent refusenik who spent three years in a Siberian penal colony, there is a sense that history is repeating itself.

Danger has been part of the Jewish experience in Russia for generations. No one will ever forget that, he said.

When I left Russia I was very young and knew very little about my Jewish roots and Israel. But I had a destination. This time, people are leaving in a rush its driven by fear.

The aliyah process has been expedited for Ukrainians, who are classed as refugees, but unexpected demand from Russia has overwhelmed the Jewish Agency, the quasi-governmental body that facilitates immigration. On top of the 26,000 Russians who have already arrived in Israel so far this year, another 35,000 are waiting for paperwork to be processed.

Israels aliyah and integration ministry, the foreign affairs ministry and the treasury met after Putins military call-up to discuss emergency budgets, lodging options and organising flights for new arrivals.

Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning

The Jewish Agencys work, however, is under threat. In July, Russias justice ministry recommended that the organisation be shut down for violating Russian privacy laws, sparking a diplomatic spat.

Despite pressure from its western allies to take a forceful stance, Israel has tried to remain neutral in the war in Ukraine, as it relies on Moscow to facilitate its military operations in Syria. The threat of closing the Jewish Agencys offices, however, led Israels caretaker prime minister Yair Lapid to warn that such a move would be a severe blow to bilateral relations. A case is slowly working its way through a Moscow court, and the agencys future is uncertain.

Its not clear at all what the Russians are hoping to achieve by targeting the Jewish Agency. The government is not monolithic maybe one branch is seeking to slow the emigration and another is aware of the possible diplomatic implications, said a source connected to the issue who asked not to be named to avoid jeopardising the Jewish Agencys case.

Its hard to predict what will happen next, but there are two contradictory outcomes: either people will fear to put themselves forward as candidates for aliyah, now its been frowned upon by the government, or it will lead to an even bigger surge in numbers.

Putins mobilisation led to a scramble for flights to Israel, where Russian citizens are still welcome as tourists. Five new private agencies have also opened to help Russians make aliyah, and Agence France-Presse reported that municipal administration offices across the country have seen huge increases in people looking for records to back up their claims of Jewish heritage. Many of those contacting the authorities for help are mothers desperate to get their sons out of the country.

I got an Israeli passport many years ago because I always knew something like this was possible. I always knew the dark days of the Soviet Union could return, said Anna Klatis, a journalism professor at Moscow State University who left for Jerusalem with her 16-year-old daughter in February.

It is tough for my daughter to adjust to a new place and learn Hebrew for school. Maybe she will have to do military service here. But I could not let her grow up in a place where freedoms are vanishing.

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Its driven by fear: Ukrainians and Russians with Jewish roots flee to Israel - The Guardian

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