Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 22, 2022

LVIV, Ukraine, March 20 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy chided Israel in an address to its parliament on Sunday, asking why it was not providing missile defences to his country or sanctioning Russia over its invasion.

Replying to Zelenskiy, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid was non-committal, saying in a statement that Israel, which has sent a field hospital and other humanitarian aid to Ukraine, would continue to assist its people "as much as we can".

A mediator in the Ukraine-Russia crisis, Israel has condemned the Russian invasion. But it has been wary of straining relations with Moscow, a powerbroker in neighbouring Syria where Israeli forces frequently attack pro-Iranian militia.

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"Everybody knows that your missile defence systems are the best and that you can definitely help our people, save the lives of Ukrainians, of Ukrainian Jews," Zelenskiy, who is Jewish himself, told the Knesset in a video call.

"We can ask why we cant receive weapons from you, why Israel has not imposed powerful sanctions on Russia or is not putting pressure on Russian business," he said in the address, one of several he has made to foreign legislatures.

He mentioned Israel's Iron Dome system, often used to intercept rockets fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

"Either way, the choice is yours to make, brothers and sisters, and you must then live with your answer, the people of Israel," Zelenskiy said.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin two weeks ago in Moscow and has spoken frequently with him and Zelenskiy, since then, was among the more than 100 of the parliament's 120 members who took part in the video call.

He made no immediate comment after the Ukrainian leader spoke.

In his address, Zelenskiy drew a comparison between the Russian offensive and Nazi Germany's plan to exterminate European Jewry during World War Two.

"Listen to what is being said now in Moscow, listen to how they are saying those words again: the final solution. But this time in relation to us, to the Ukrainian question," he said.

Zelenskiy cited no evidence in making that allegation or identify who might have used the term. Putin has used an expression which means "final decision/final resolution" once in the past 30 days, according to Reuters monitoring of his remarks, but not in a context that carried the same resonance or meaning as the Nazi terminology.

Zelenskiy's reference drew condemnation from Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial in Jerusalem to the six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany in World War Two. It said such "irresponsible statements" trivialised the historical facts of the Holocaust.

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Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Max HunderWriting by Matthias Williams and Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Alexander Smith, Jeffrey Heller and Frances Kerry

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Israel will help Ukrainians 'as much as we can,' foreign minister says - Reuters.com

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Posted By admin on March 22, 2022

People gather on a seaside promenade in Tel Aviv on May 6, 2021. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images via JTA.org)

By Caleb Guedes-Reed

Israel is the ninth happiest country in the world, according to the World Happiness Report, a project of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Israel has moved slowly up the rankings in recent years, going from No. 14 in 2020 to No. 11 in 2021. The report, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, says it factors a countrys GDP, social support, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, citizen generosity and perceptions of corruption into its ranking.

The U.N. is known as a harsh critic of Israel, singling it out with continual condemnations andmore critical resolutions than any other nation. Its Sustainable Development Solutions Network was founded in 2012 to advance U.N. sustainability, anti-poverty and industry goals around the world.

Each countrys response to COVID-19 was also a factor in the ranking,the report noted. Israel was one of the first countries tosuccessfully vaccinate a large percentage of its population.

Deaths from COVID-19 during 2020 and 2021 have been markedly lower in those countries with higher trust in public institutions and where inequality is lower, the report reads.

As usual, the Nordic countries held their spots at the top of the list, with Finland ranking as the happiest country in the world for the fifth year in a row. Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland placed in the top four, with the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden and Norway the only others ahead of Israel.

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Israel the Ninth Happiest Country in the World, UN Nonprofit Says - Jewish Exponent

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Posted By admin on March 22, 2022

Israel believes that a new nuclear agreement between Iran and the powers is a done deal that will be signed within a few weeks, if not days. The impression in the political and defense establishment is that the Biden administration is anxious to sign the deal and end the nuclear saga, at least as far as America is concerned, both to stop Irans uranium-enrichment activities and in order to focus on more important and urgent issues, chiefly competition with China and the war in Ukraine.

Israeli officials admit that their ability to influence Washingtons positions in the negotiations has been negligible in light of President Joe Bidens desire to reach a deal quickly. The White House paid little attention to Israeli reservations, and U.S. negotiators declined to harden their positions in response to Israeli arguments.

The Americans have claimed in discussions with the Israeli government that they were only seeking to restore the status quo of the original nuclear deal signed in 2015. The aim is to fix the damage caused by former President Donald Trumps withdrawal from the deal three years later under the influenced by then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The main remaining obstacle to an agreement to emerge in the Vienna talks in recent weeks involved reservations by Russia, which at the last minute demanded that lifting of sanctions on Iran not be affected by the sanctions imposed on Russia following the war in Ukraine. Moscow, which in the past did considerable trade with Iran, feared that it would not benefit from the easing of sanctions on Iran. But it seems that this problem is close to being solved.

Israels critique holds of the new deal is that it does not restore the status quo, because in the intervening years many things have happened. First, Iran has acquired considerable technical knowledge, installed new centrifuges and amassed a large quantity of enriched uranium (which will mostly be sent abroad under the new deal). Second, the date under which the sanctions imposed on Iran begin to be gradually reduced is drawing near. This sunset process is due to begin as early as 2025 (less than two years from now) and end in 2031. Among the first restrictions to be lifted is the ban on operating new centrifuges.

Last Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid published an unusual announcement criticizing what seems to be Washingtons plan to remove Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the administrations list of terrorist organizations. Bennett followed that up on Sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting by saying that the IRGC is the largest and most murderous terror organization in the world that is not merely an Israeli problem, but one shared by all of Americas allies.

In practice, sanctions will continue to apply to the Revolutionary Guards due to U.S. Commerce Department regulations. But Israel believes that nullifying the 2019 decision by the Trump administration putting the IRGC on the terrorist list is a worrying symbolic move, indicating Washingtons anxiousness to rid itself of the Iran problem at whatever cost. On the other hand, Israel is still hoping the deal will not include dropping the International Atomic Energy Agencys open cases of suspected violations at several sites around Iran. Bennett has had several talks on the matter with IAEA Director Rafael Grossi. Israel believes that keeping the investigations alive can serve in the future as leverage with the international community to impose more demands on Iran.

Israel is not happy about the impending deal, but diplomatic officials are emphasizing the need to refrain from reacting hysterically. Unlike Netanyahu, Bennett has chosen not publicly confront Washington over the deal. Netanyahu and his supporters still hark back longingly to his speech before Congress in March 2015, where he directly attacked then-President Barack Obama and tried to foil passage of the deal in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Those close to the current prime minister contend that Netanyahus move was desperate and hopeless, and that its failure made Israel look weak. In addition, they assert that Netanyahu caused incalculable damage to the relations with the U.S. Democratic Party and to bipartisan support for Israel in America. Bennett and other senior government figures dont see any point in making the same mistakes.

Bennett and Netanyahu have recently squabbled publicly about Israels policy in the years after the deal. Bennett claims that not only did Netanyahu convince Trump to back out of the nuclear deal but failed to prepare the Israel Defense Forces for the possibility that sanctions would not bring Tehran to its knees, but instead cause it to violate the agreement and advance its nuclear program. Aiming to avoid that error, Bennett is undertaking major steps toward preparing the army for the day after the deal.

This buildup, now underway by the IDF, Mossad and the other arms of the security establishment, is directed at a scenario whereby the nuclear deal collapses and Israel is forced to reconsider military action to stop the Iranian nuclear program (as Netanyahu considered during the years 2009 to 2012, before finally being dissuaded by the defense establishment). Concurrently, Israel is taking a more aggressive approach towards Iran, in line with Bennetts avowed position back when he was in Netanyahus government four years ago. This approach directs more fire with a not inconsiderable risk of entanglement directly at Iran rather than at its proxies on Israels borders.

Last week Haaretz reported an unusual attack attributed to Israel, in which Iranian drones were destroyed at a base in the Kermanshah region in western Iran. The attack in early February, which destroyed several hundred drones, occurred a day after Iran attempted to send two attack drones into Israeli airspace. The drones were intercepted by American fighter jets over a third country. Retaliation against Israel came March 13, when Iran fired missiles at an installation in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, that Tehran says was used by Israeli intelligence.

According to foreign media reports, Israeli activity against Iran extends over a broad array of targets sabotaging nuclear facilities, attacking drone and missile sites, destroying military facilities and munitions held by Iran and its Shia militias in Syria, as well as cyberattacks.

Another area in which there has been much progress, hitherto occurring almost entirely under the radar, pertains to the tightening of cooperation between Israel and Arab countries in the region, to establish a joint warning and interception system for Iranian missiles and drones. It is even possible that the matter has already been discussed seriously between Israel and Gulf countries. In the future, Israel hopes that Saudi Arabia, which despite improved relations still avoids open ties with Israel, will join these understandings as well. The plan is to deploy radars in these countries, which are closer to Irans borders, so as to greatly increase the warning time the home front command has to prepare in the event of an Iranian missile being launched at Tel Aviv.

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Israel goes on the offensive as world powers, Iran nearing a nuclear deal - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on March 22, 2022

Knesset Member Alon Tal was forced to postpone a virtual town hall on Sunday night that was meant to help mend Israels ties with Jews abroad after antisemites took over the call, praising Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and writing profanities onscreen.

Tals office said he was rescheduling the meeting for next week.

Antisemitism has not disappeared from the world, but we will not allow hate to win, Tal wrote in a tweet about the incident.

Tal, a US-born member of the centrist Blue and White party, has emerged as a key voice in the Knesset on improving ties between Israel and Jewish communities abroad, specifically with American Jewry. Polls have identified a growing disconnect between Israel and American Jews, particularly those who belong to more progressive streams of Judaism.

Tals Zoom meeting, titled How Israel can better represent Jews around the world, was aimed at discussing those issues.

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However, shortly after the open-access meeting began, a number of people signed onto the call in a form of harassment known as Zoombombing and began writing in the chat Hitler was right and other praise of the Nazi leader, and took over over the screen to write profanities.

Tal was forced to end the call early. He has rescheduled it for next Sunday evening, his office said.

We will continue to strengthen our partnerships with our friends around the world. And most importantly, we will have no fear at all, Tal said, referencing a famous Hebrew saying by the Hasidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov.

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Antisemites overrun MKs town hall aimed at mending Israels ties with Jews abroad - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on March 22, 2022

Anna left her village in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine, near the Black Sea, on March 6, with her children Vadik, 6, and Dasha, 3, her mother Nadejda, and her younger sister Vika, aged 13.

A Christian organization, Ezra, brought the family to a Christians for Israel shelter in the Vinnytsia region of western Ukraine, and the latter bused them to a summer camp complex outside of Chisinau (Kishinev) in Moldova. There, they sat and waited nearly a week to visit the Israeli Consulate.

With a grandmother, aunts, cousins, and a sister already in Israel, Anna and her mother will most likely be found eligible to immigrate.

This reporter met the family at the head of a long queue at the Israeli Consulate in Chisinau as they waited to present their papers. They had been on the road for 11 days and looked tired out.

Last Monday, a new system to reduce the bottleneck at the consulate came into effect. It provides for a two-step process, and for teams to go out to the refugee centers, rather than require the refugees to come to the consulate.

Those wanting to go to Israel now present their documents for an initial check by Nativ, the organization within the Prime Ministers Office that judges whether applicants from the former Soviet Union are eligible for immigration.

Ukrainian refugees bound for Israel at Chisinau Airport, Moldova, March 18, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

If they look kosher, they are put on planes to Israel organized by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and then continue the process with Nativ in the Jewish state.

At the beginning of the war, most aid organizations on the ground in Ukraine and Moldova agreed, there was total chaos.

Ukrainian refugees queue outside the Israeli Consulate in Chisinau, Moldova, March 17, 2022. (Sue Sureks/Times of Israel)

There were cases where a harried Jewish community would contact four organizations to get them out, and four buses would turn up.

Many different groups were trying to help, but there was no coordination.

Now, more than three weeks into the war, the system appears to be working smoothly, with an impressive level of cooperation between Jewish organizations not usually known for working together.

Alla Bolboceanu, the Joint Jewish Distribution Committees representative in Moldova (right) with Violetta Labunskaia, who does the JDCs public relations, at the Jewish Community Centers gymnasium, which has been converted into a dormitory, Chisinau, Moldova, March 17, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

Alla Bolboceanu, the JDCJoint Jewish Distribution Committees Moldova representative, said, We are not experts in crisis management, but weve become experts in three weeks.

A dizzying number of organizations are involved in rescuing Jews and many non-Jews who hitch a lift on the buses out of Ukraine, with each running its own hotline, among them the Jewish Agency, the JDC, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), the local Jewish community, and Chabad.

Some of the cases are particularly challenging.

Daniel Pitchonko, 23, a Jewish Agency representative, has been overseeing the case of three elderly people a father in his late 80s who is blind and suffering from dementia, a daughter on crutches, and a son who is intellectually disabled.

Jewish Agency representative Daniel Pitchonko in Chisinau, Moldova, March 17, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

In another case, Chabad provided a special ambulance for a severely autistic boy and his parents from Mykolaiv. The boy had developed a leg infection which, due to the difficulty of obtaining drugs, had become septic. Israeli doctors in Chisinau took one look and sent him for emergency surgery, whereupon his grandmother suffered a heart attack. Both ended up in the hospital in Chisinau.

In Chisinau, this reporter ran into Georgii Logvynskyi, a Jewish lawyer and former member of the Ukrainian parliament, who said he was running buses out of some of the most dangerous parts of Ukraine to the Moldovan border, each with a police escort. He also has a hotline.

Former Ukrainian parliament member Georgii Logvynskyi (right) with the Alexandr Bilinkis, president of the Moldova Jewish Community, at the indoor tennis court that Bilinkis provided to serve as a hub for new arrivals from Ukraine, March 17, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

The refugees cross the border into Moldova and are given a rest and refreshments. Both Christians for Israel and the JDC run reception centers at Otaci, a border town in which former Jewish shtetl homes adjoin mainly unfinished palaces built by Roma businessmen just before the Soviet Union collapsed.

In Chisinau, where the newcomers are bused, it is the JDC and the Jewish community that are running and helping to fund the show. The Jewish communitys president, Alexandr Bilinkis a businessman with interests in food and retail has made his indoor tennis court available to serve as a hub for the incoming buses. He has also helped, with the JDC and other Jewish organizations, to arrange for around 1,500 beds in summer camps and hotels in and around Chisinau.

At the hub, a place designed to help orient the visibly disoriented, the JDCs head of administration, Viorelia (she didnt want to give her surname), was ready for the latest buses, megaphone in hand. She was soon besieged with questions by many of the 400 or so daily arrivals. When the war started, I became like a soldier, she said.

As they flowed in from the buses, some of the refugees helped themselves to the food and drink that was on hand. Others made straight for the tennis court, where they were asked to go to the corner in which their chosen destination was written on the wall.

The Jewish Agencys Olga Tendler (in black) organizes the new arrivals from Ukraine who want to come to Israel at the JDC/Moldova Jewish community hub in Chisinau, Moldova, March 17, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

There are four possibilities.

One is to go to Israel. Whoever moves to the Israel corner is asked to click on a QR code (theres help for the elderly) and immediately register with the Israeli Consulate. They are bused to facilities organized by the JDC and the Jewish community.

Another option is to get on a bus to Romania and then be picked up and hosted by Jewish families in Germany. People making this choice must send proof of their Jewishness online to a representative of the German Jewish community. If approved, they are given accommodation in Chisinau for the night and leave for Germany the following day.

Ukrainian refugees grab a bite at the JDC/Moldova Jewish community hub in Chisinau, Moldova, March 17, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

The third possibility is to get on a bus to Bucharest airport. This is for people who have bought, or been sent, airline tickets that will take them to relatives or friends elsewhere in the world.

And the fourth is to go to a fully funded hotel in Romania, for up to a month, either to decide where to go or to wait for visas to countries such as the US and the UK.

Non-Jewish arrivals who want to go to Israel can apply so long as they have Israelis willing to invite them and serve as guarantors. The rest are referred to a government center for refugees in Chisinau.

In the Israel corner, the Jewish Agencys permanent representative, Olga Tendler, was explaining the Law of Return, which sets the criteria for immigration.

Weve had a grandmother aged 94 from Kyiv, who was a partisan in World War II shes already in Israel. Today, 14 people arrived in wheelchairs. It breaks my heart, Tendler said.

Shoemaker Mikhail Andelman, 79, with his 1943 birth certificate, at the Joint Distribution Committee/Jewish community of Moldova hub for incoming Ukrainian refugees, in Chisinau, Moldova, March 17, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

There are many elderly people at the hub. One is Mikhail Andelman, 79, a shoemaker, who was born in Russia but left for Ukraine with his family at the age of three. He wasnt sure how he got here from Korosten, a city in the Zhytomyr region in northern Ukraine. Someone gave him a phone number to call and he got on a bus. Christians for Israel spotted him at the border and brought him to the hub.

Many non-Jewish women with children are in the Israel corner, hoping that their marriages to Jewish husbands will let them get on a plane.

Nadia Tkachuk, 40, an English teacher from Kharkiv with poor spoken English, wondered, How am I going to get a job and be able to feed my kids?

Anastasia Cherkulayeva, who had arrived with her two daughters, Yeva, 10 and Maria, 6, on a bus organized by the Odesa Jewish community, explained that the family had immigrated to Rishon Lezion, in central Israel, in 2014, only to return when Anastasias mother was diagnosed with cancer. Her father was already dead.

Anastasia Cherkulayeva from Odesa with daughters Yeva and Maria, at the Joint Distribution Committee/Jewish community of Moldova hub for incoming Ukrainian refugees, in Chisinau, Moldova, March 17, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

Anastasias husband, who is unable to leave because the Ukrainian authorities demand that all men aged 18 to 60 stay in the country, was at home in Odesa looking after the family dog. Her mother, a serious cat breeder, would not leave her 50 felines behind. With tears welling up in her eyes, Anastasia said, It was a hard decision to leave.

Igor and Ira Brodsky, from Sievierodonetsk in the eastern Luhansk region, were in their buildings basement when a shell tore through the ceiling of their fifth-floor apartment. Now heading to their son in Bat Yam, they were worried about their 11-year-old dog, Marcel, who was dressed in a pink coat. Did they have the right documents for him to get onto the plane?

The next step for those aiming to reach Israel is the Israeli consulate.

Yehor and Ira Brodsky (left) with their dog Marcel, and Nadia Tkachuk, with her daughter Sofia and son Grisha, at the JDC/Moldova Jewish community hub in Chisinau, Moldova, March 17, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

There, Nativs head of mission, Dr. Boleslav Yatvetsky, told The Times of Israel that he had instituted a new, far more efficient system over the past few days, which sees teams going out to refugee locations with a one-stop shop.

The teams comprise representatives of Nativ, the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the IFCJ, and the Jewish Agency.

Ukrainians refugees receive their entry papers to Israel, at an emergency shelter in Chisinau, Moldova, March 15, 2022. (Flash90). Dr Yatvetsky is on the right.

Applicants start with Nativ, to have their documents checked. If they look eligible, they go to the IFCJ station to get a plane ticket. If they have passport problems for example if a child doesnt have a passport the Foreign Ministry issues a one-time pass. (Thanks to wartime flexibility, people without passports are crossing the Ukraine-Moldova border).

The new system is enabling three Nativ officials (this was due to increase to five) to process 100 families a day, rather than 60 as before, Yatvetsky said.

Dr Boleslav Yatvetsky, the Nativ representative at the Israeli Consulate in Chisinau, Moldova, March 17, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

He added that between 30% and 80% of each busload was not eligible to fly to Israel. If people insisted on doing so, they were advised to buy their own flight tickets in Romania.

Next to Yatvetskys office is that of Benny Haddad, a Nativ veteran now working for the IFCJ, which funds the now daily flights to Israel out of Chisinau airport, which is otherwise closed because of the war.

The organization is also sending humanitarian aid to the refugees in Moldova.

In Israel, it supplements the work of the Absorption Ministry by helping the new immigrants for their first six months.

Benny Haddad (left), representing the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, with Yonatan Feldman, who organizes refugee flights to Israel, at the Israeli Consulate in Chisinau, Moldova, March 17, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

Widely regarded as a logistics supremo, Haddad, a fluent Russian speaker despite his Tunisian roots, works with Chabad, the local Jewish community, and the JDC to help fund accommodation and food for the refugees while they are in Chisinau.

He has a dashboard on his computer showing how many people are occupying beds at any one time. The JDC provides the data.

The IFCJ splits the flight costs equally with the Jewish Agency but is taking the organizational lead in Moldova. The agency is doing so in Poland and Hungary.

Haddad noted that Jews were also fleeing from Russia and its ally Belarus, some via Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and other central Asian republics. He had heard of one family who had flown out of Russia to Dubai intending to reach Israel.

Ukrainians at the Palanca border in Moldova, March 3, 2022. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

This is an event of apocalyptic proportions, said Haddad. When we stand at the border, we mainly see women, alone with children. You ask them where theyre going, and they say they dont know.

We havent seen this kind of thing since 1945. Around 3.5 million people have already left Ukraine. You just cant get your head around it.

Anna, meanwhile, was planning to get to her sister in Afula, northern Israel. She and her non-Jewish husband got married on March 4, a condition for him to eventually follow her to the Jewish state.

What was the first thing she would do when she reached her sister?

She replied, Have a good shower and go to bed.

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From chaos to cooperation: Moldova learns to cope with Ukrainian refugees - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on March 22, 2022

In the first organized effort of its sort, around 20 women and men signed a petition to the Rahat Municipal Council demanding that it stops holding gender-segregated cultural events, two weeks after Bedouin women were ordered to sit at the back during a choir performance offamed Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum's songs.

Posted signs around the municipal culture hall directed men to the front rows and women to the balcony, with ushers hired to enforce the gender mandate. The announcer warned that he would not begin the show until the audience was seated in accordance with the rules. Apparently, the demand came in the context of pressure from the Islamic Movement, which opposed holding a performance for a mixed audience of men and women.

The cultural center in Rahat, the first to have been erected in a Bedouin community, was dedicated about a month ago in the presence of President Isaac Herzog. On the afternoon of March 5, the Siraj Choir, based in Rameh in Israel's north, performed their program Lady Umm Kulthum to a 400-strong audience. The concert was organized by the non-profit organization Hajar Jewish-Arab Education for Equality, which operates bilingual educational institutions in Beer Sheva.

>> From the archive: Umm Kulthum in the men's section (2009)

I came to the performance full of enthusiasm, said Dr. Rawia Aburabia, a scholar of gender studies and law at Sapir Academic College. After a festive reception, with coffee and cakes, we heard an announcement in Arabic only that men have to go in though one entrance, which leads to the front of the auditorium, and women and families must use another entrance, leading to the rear.

Women who attended the performance say that Jewish and Arab women from northern Israel who took seats in the front rows were not asked to move to the back. Gender separation is enforced selectively only on the Bedouin women, said Aburabia. There was complaining but all in all order was maintained, partly because of the moderators announcement that the performance would not begin until everyone obeys the seating rules.

She added that she would not have bought tickets had she known that Bedouin women would be required to sit in the back. They are trying to enforce a norm that is unacceptable to me, she said. I felt humiliated. They are assigning me a different seat just because I am a woman? No one would have agreed to such a division between Jews and Arabs. In a case like that, the very same Bedouin men who sat in the front rows would have been the first to protest.

Its infuriating that they sent us to the back. It wasnt our choice, said Hanan Alkrinawi, director of a program for at-risk youth on behalf of the Welfare Ministry. I know every single one of the men who sat in the front rows: Why can he sit there and I cant? We mix in the labor market and we do not accept being off to the side or at the back. They are claiming that this is the tradition. But it is the men who created it. If we keep silent, the situation will not change.

In the days following the concert, Dr. Aburabia sought to put an end to gender segregation at future events. It was a stunning performance, but I was left with a bad taste in my mouth, she related. Its possible to write an article or a post on Facebook, but I have decided to emphasize the extent to which the segregation and the means of applying pressure to the audience are illegal.

Alongside eighteen other Bedouin men and women, she published a letter demanding that the council fulfill its obligation and actively prevent this invalid practice from taking root in the culture hall in Rahat.

Rahats Mayor Faiz Abu Sahiban has confirmed that the event was indeed gender-segregated. Tradition requires separation between men and women, both on happy occasions and in mourning, he said. This is the first time there has been an event like this in Rahat, and we didnt want to risk having social problems without separating. It isnt connected to the law. In our community women prefer to sit at the back, even at happy occasions and even if a woman has come there with her husband. This is their choice. The ushers were only for the local people. I dont force anything on the Jewish women. This is our tradition, and it is necessary to respect it.

According to Hajar CEO Sam Schub, There was sensitivity among local officials in Rahat, who wanted separate seating. Ultimately though, this was a marginal thing. Although there were signs and ushers, the audience members sat wherever they wanted. No one was compelled. Its regrettable to hear about women who feel they were forced to move. We should see the whole event as a positive thing, including the protest against the segregation."

In reply to a query from Haaretz, the Justice Ministry has said it would investigate.

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Women ordered to sit at the back at concert in Israel's south but only Bedouin women - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on March 22, 2022

Dozens of jets from several countries will participate in drills scheduled to take place in Greece. Credit: Twitter/Hellenic Airforce

Air forces from nine countries, including the US, France, and Israel will take part in the annual Iniochos drill in Greece, simulating airstrikes, evading air defenses, and search and rescue ops.

In the exercise which will begin on March 28 and is scheduled to last through April 8 air forces from Canada, Italy, Cyprus, Slovenia, and Austria will also participate.

Egypt, Albania, Austria, North Macedonia, the United Kingdom, India, Kuwait, Croatia, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia will be sending observers to the drill.

According to the Hellenic Air Force, the drill is meant to simulate a variety of scenarios, including evading attacks from surface-to-air missiles, strikes on land-based targets, search and rescue, and protecting or attacking an airborne target.

Dozens of planes from each country are participating in the exercise, which is being held largely along the Greek coast and over the Mediterranean.

The drill comes amid Russias invasion of Ukraine. According to Channel 12 news, Israel and the other participating nations will be implementing initial lessons from the war in Europe during the exercise.

While none of the participating nations border Russia, the network said the drill would demonstrate their partnership and unity amid the possibility the war in Ukraine may spread to other countries. It is a signal to Putin that these countries are working together to defend their sovereignty, the report said.

The drill also takes place while US and French naval forces, led by two aircraft carriers, have been deployed in the Aegean off Greece.

The USS Harry Truman has been conducting exercises in the northern Aegean Sea and the Ionian Sea since the beginning of March and is expected to dock at Souda Bay in Crete by March 25, while the French ship Charles de Gaulle is currently south of Crete and is expected to moor at the port of Piraeus, south of Athens.

Last week the U.S. confirmed it is also sending anumber of KC-135 tankers to Greece.Pentagon spokesman John Kirby explained that the tankers would provide additional aerial refueling support to the commander ofU.S. European Command.

These tankers could, for instance, enable a land-launched F-35A to double its combat radius, an article in theNational Interestexplains.

The presence of range-extending tankers means that U.S. and NATO attack aircraft would not need to be positioned further than Germany to operate in Ukrainian airspace. This would make enemy forces operating in Eastern Europe much more vulnerable to U.S. and NATO air attacks, should that somehow become necessary, it adds.

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Air Forces from the US, France, Israel to Join Massive Drill in Greece - Greek Reporter

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Posted By admin on March 22, 2022

Arnold Allen has no doubts about the quality of his stoppage win over Dan Hooker.

This past Saturday at UFC London, Allen turned in the best performance of his UFC career, stopping Hooker with strikes just 2 minutes and 33 seconds into the first round. The stoppage came with a small amount of controversy however, as though Hooker was clearly hurt, Allen never actually dropped The Hangman, finishing the fight with punches and elbows while Hooker covered up along the fence. UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, a teammate of Hookers, was particularly upset, saying during his live reaction to UFC London that the stoppage was premature. Allen, however, disagrees.

I think it was the right call, Allen told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. I cant really see how Izzy can think that was early. The man himself didnt complain, so thats the biggest tell for me. All thats gonna happen in that position, where hes sort of curled up, is more shots landed, so I dont know whats Izzys thinking.

Early or not, Allen got the win, his ninth in a row since joining the UFC in 2015, and now sits on the cusp of title contention in the UFCs stacked 145-pound division. The main reason Allen isnt already there with a nine-fight winning streak is struggles with activity. Allen has only fought twice in a year once since signing with the UFC, and while the 28-year old wishes he had been able to be more active thus far, he also notes that his slower schedule has probably helped him in the long run.

It seems to be working, Allen said, when asked about fighting only once a year. It seems to be going well. Before I fought for the UFC I fought, I think one year within 12 months I fought six times. So I do like being active but it seems to be working out. When I signed I was probably out of my depth a little bit, so having that slow progression and being forced to slow my roll a little bit kind of worked out well. But I feel like my skills are now up there with the elite guys.

Allen should get a chance to prove that theory soon, and break out of his one-fight-a-year mold. Following the win, Almighty called for a fight with the UFCs fifth-ranked featherweight, Calvin Kattar, hopefully later on this year.

Someone was saying June but Junes definitely too soon for me, to be honest, Allen said. August? This year. Lets start small. [Laughs]. This year. The weird thing is, obviously I havent been the most active, but now being in that top-five talk, those guys tend to fight once, twice a year.... But obviously, Im gonna fight this year. Ive got a couple little boo-boos on my hand but it shouldnt be as bad as last time, hopefully.

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Arnold Allen refutes Israel Adesanyas reaction to Dan Hooker stoppage: I think it was the right call - MMA Fighting

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Posted By admin on March 22, 2022

Taking in refugees in time of crises appears to be a universal consensus. "All are welcome," say the advocates of free immigration who preach for an open, diverse, and multicultural society. When it come to those who escaped to save their lives, there's no debate - our gates must be open for them.

As for all the others, unlimited immigration may pose a threat to the local community which they enter and eventually the nation. This is because of the consensus that the welfare state is a derivative of the nation state - the more heterogenous a society, the less solidarity it can sustain.

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Tel Aviv City Hall lights up with the colors of Ukrainian flag in wake of Russian invasion

(Photo: Guy Yechieli)

In 2004, British journalist David Goodhart published an article in Prospect magazine, titled "Discomfort of strangers," which caused an uproar.

The bottom line of the article was that in the past we were a homogenous society, with common values. Due to this, we were blessed with solidarity that gave way to welfare states. Immigration waves created diversity. The more diverse we became, the more we forgot the common ethos, in the absence of which, the solidarity between people in a given country erodes.

Prof. Robert Putnam of Harvard University was even more determinative in portraying the negative effects of diverse societies. "The more diverse the group around us ethnically - the less we trust those around us, including people who look like us," he wrote.

This is also known as the "liberal paradox"- the more homogenous a society, the more solidarity it h; the more heterogenous a society, the more alienated it is.

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Israelis protest over Israel's unwillingness to admit more Ukrainian reugees

(Photo: Tal Shimoni)

When examining second and third generation immigrants in Europe, it's clear that while some of them are adapting and integrating, some remain outsiders.

For instance, those who immigrated to Britain from the Indian subcontinent integrated well, and as of today, they are now the most educated ethnic group in the country. Some of the Muslims, however, who arrived from the same region, primarily Pakistan, opted to maintain some of the outdated values - by Western standards - and were less successful in integrating in their adoptive country.

Israel is now facing similar dilemmas. Israel last week voted to approve the so-called citizenship law that is meant to minimize the immigration from countries that have "hostile elements". One must be crazy to agree to immigration from a place in which most of the population supports Hamas.

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Children belonging to the Ethiopian Jewish community are pictured in a compound where several Jewish families live, in the city of Gondar, Ethiopia

(Photo: AFP)

So, the more generous Israel becomes, the larger and more frequent the non-Jewish immigration waves will be, and for every ten thousand ineligible migrants who are allowed in, tens of thousands of their family members will seek to join them.

Still, no Israeli government is willing to say that only those eligible for the Law of Return can make Aliyah.

Regarding Ukraine, mass immigration is not to be worried about. Those coming here already passed through other countries on their way. It can be assumed that they would prefer to stay in Germany or France, rather than make their way to Israel. If they c in Israel, it's because they have family here. Israel needs to offer temporary asylum. There is no risk of overflow.

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Ukrainian refugees on the Polish border

(Photo: Reuters)

When it comes to our domestic issues with diversity, Israel needs to do two things to try and create a solidarity among the people. First of all - equality for all Arab minority. Jews have been a minority in other countries for centuries, and what we hate the most, we shall not impose on others.

Second, a conversion revolution that would allow hundreds of thousands of Israelis that came from Eastern Europe to go through rapid conversion to Judaism. They tied their faith to the Jewish nation, they will integrate. They serve here as soldiers, as engineers and doctors. This is a unique chance to break the ultra-Orthodox monopoly on conversions.

Israel is a nation state, not an immigration state. If it's Canada's right to decide to be an immigration state, it's Israel's right not admit Muslims and Christians, who have many other states to immigrate to.

There is only one Jewish state, that was established as a safe haven and national home to the Jewish people. The diversity didn't work in Yugoslavia, which dispersed into seven different entities with distinguished national identities, cultures, ethnicities, and religions. The Soviet Union also scattered into 15 entities, each claiming the right to self-determination.

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Pro-Ukraine protest at Ben Gurion Airport

(Photo: Roi Rubinsten)

Those who want to flood Israel with illegal immigrants and asylum seekers threaten its self-determination and push to create "diversity" with potentially detrimental long-term effects.

It will not happen because of the few thousand refugees arriving from Ukraine. But, if we listen to the progressive parties and allow free immigration - of Palestinians, Ukrainians, and African asylum seeks - we're bound to lose our solidarity and come to become a conflicted and alienated society.

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Israel must help refugees, but unbridled immigration not the answer - Ynetnews

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Posted By admin on March 22, 2022

When said aloud, the word sounds almost like music: Mamaliga. An almost-facsimile of polenta, the cornmeal-based dishmamaligais native to Romania and neighboring Moldova, as well as parts of Ukraine. Written as mamelige in Yiddish, and mmlig in Romanian, the dish inspires an almost romantic yearning, particularly among Ashkenazi and Romanian Jews. In his famous song "Rumania, Rumania" originally recorded in 1925, Yiddish theater actor and singer Aaron Lebedeff extols the delights of the eponymous land through its comestibles: "Vos dos harts glust kenstu krign: A mamaligele, a pastramele, a karnatsele, Un a glezele vayn, aha!" (In English: "What your heart desires you can get; a mamalige, a pastrami, a karnatzl, and a glass of wine, aha!")

Mamaliga is, in its most basic form, quite simple: coarsely-ground yellow cornmeal the same kind used for polenta cooked with water and salt over a low heat. It takes about half an hour to cook, stirring constantly, says Roza Jaffe, a home cook and Holocaust survivor from the region of Bessarabia, which today straddles Moldova and Ukraine. (I personally spent upwards of an hour standing over my Dutch oven in both of my attempts to make it, though I am a notoriously slow cook).

Corn was brought to numerous European countries by 15th century traders from modern-day Mexico. In her 1994 cookbook, "Jewish Cooking in America," Joan Nathan writes "it only took hold in Romania and parts of Italy." However, Ashkenazi Jewish foodways scholar Eve Jochnowitz noted that mamaliga technically originated in the region of Bukovina which, while a part of pre-World War II Romania, is now in Ukraine. And yet, the dish remains firmly rooted in Jewish foodways. In her recipe headnote, Nathan quotes Florence Naumoff, a home cook with whom she exchanged a number of letters: "'My mother used to use the expression, 'Es [m]amaliga licht in punem,' literally "when you eat Mamaliga it shows in your face,' when she met someone who looked Jewish.'" The dish is also commonly served during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, as Nathan notes in a 2020Tabletarticle.

Served simply, mamaliga may be adorned with butter, sour cream, and even a bit of salty Romanian bryndza cheese (often swapped out for feta in the U.S.). Or, it can be turned into something show stopping and rich, like the Romanian dish mmlig n pturi: a lasagna-like concoction layered with butter, cheeses, eggs, and sometimes in a treyf, or unkosher, rendition meat. Mamaliga can even be sliced and pan-fried, much like polenta.

Still, it started out as a peasant food, author and food scholar Darra Goldstein explained over email. When corn eventually arrived in Romania from Mesoamerica (now Mexico, Guatemala, and other nearby countries) by way of Spain, it was swapped in for the millet historially eaten as a staple grain. So associated with poverty was mamaliga that, Goldstein said, Lithuanian Jews looked down on Romanian Jews for eating it, calling them "mamaliges," which Goldstein clarified as an insult: "Calling someone a 'mamaliga' is like calling them spineless, a milksop."

A dish once firmly rooted in the realm of home cooking, mamaliga became a restaurant staple in the 20th century, when dairy restaurants mainly kosher spots that eschewed meat for dairy-based treats burst onto the scene. Opened in large part by Jewish immigrants from countries like Romania and Poland, as Ben Katchor describes in the book "The Dairy Restaurant," these affordable restaurants flourished in the early 20th century. Dairy restaurants were frequented by hordes of Jewish customers hoping to quash their perennial yen for blintzes and gefilte fish. One of the earliest known dairy restaurants was opened by Romanian immigrant Jacob J. Kampus. (Kampus, described in a quote from a 1900 Yiddish newspaper, included in Katchor's book, was a "world famous" maker of blintzes, kreplach, and mamaliga.)

One of the most prominent of these establishments, Ratner's Delicatessen, was opened by Galician immigrants, brothers Jacob and Harry L. Harmatz. Ratner's was a Jewish culinary bastion of the Lower East Side, and mamaliga (spelled marmaliga) was indeed on their menu, served with cheese and butter. Theo Peck, great-grandson of Jacob Harmatz, remembers eating the mamaliga at Ratner's counter growing up, served without any particular ceremony: "My aunt would just go into the kitchen and plop it in a bowl and give it to me, like 'here ya go!'" Peck said over the phone. The dish, Peck recalled, was served there until the restaurant closed in 2004. (However, it appears that the dish was not kept around for its popularity, nor for sentimental reasons Peck added that his cousins, who owned Ratner's toward the end, didn't take much interest in the food and therefore didn't bother to update the menu.) Mamaliga appeared on the menu at a number of these spots, but simply didn't seem to leave a lasting impression on clientele. As Katchor said over the phone, one such place, Gefen's, stopped serving the dish early on. Simply, "because no one wanted it."

Try to find mamaliga on the menu at a kosher deli or restaurant specializing in Jewish food today, and you're more or less out of luck. The vast majority of New York's dairy restaurants closed by the late 20th century and yet, the city is still (relatively) rich with options for milkhik favorites like blintzes and pierogi, but mamaliga options are few and far between. Even B&H Dairy, perhaps the last remaining holdover of the dairy restaurant's halcyon days, doesn't serve it today though it's also no longer under Jewish ownership. (Fawzy Abdelwahed, who is Egyptian and Muslim, took over B&H Dairy in 2003 with his wife Ola, who is Polish and Catholic, had in fact never heard the word 'mamaliga' before I asked them about it.)

One could, however, find mamaliga today at a few Eastern-European not specifically Jewish establishments. Order it as a side dish or appetizer at Romanian Garden in Sunnyside, Queens; or at the Midwood, Brooklyn restaurant Moldova, (which specializes in the food of the eponymous country) as part of the house special Mamaliga Trapeza, which comes with sides of pork stew, cheese, sour cream, and scrambled eggs.

Jochnowitz offered a theory on why mamaliga didn't last in Jewish restaurants: "Some Yiddish foods totally cross over, and some don't," she said over the phone. "I was speaking about bagels somewhere, and someone said: 'the bagel sort of is a template; you can project anything you want onto it.' People make chocolate bagels and blueberry bagels. It's like the zero: It's the blank slate. The bagel is the tabula rasa." Mamaliga, on the other hand, is comparatively exactly what it is. It can be dressed up, but not necessarily played with: "It's sort of the opposite of the bagel." Explaining further, Jochnowitz said, "You can't make a mamaliga emoji." (We certainly haven't seen one yet.)

Perhaps the closest you'll get to finding mamaliga in a kosher New York restaurant is at Knish Nosh, a tiny eatery in Rego Park, Queens. But it's not on the menu there, either. If you're lucky, the cook, Ana Vasilescu (who is Romanian, but not Jewish), will offer to make it for you, as she sometimes does for interested customers. While the everyday version of mamaliga is made mainly of cornmeal, and served with bryndza and sour cream, Vasilescu will sometimes make a more decadent baked version, layered with cheese and meats like sausage and bacon (or mushrooms for those who keep kosher). Vasilescu's decked-out mamaliga seems to point to the best way to keep people interested in the dish. To make a really good mamaliga, explained Nathan over the phone, "you've got to put a lot of things together."

Of course, as people like Jaffe, who left behind a life of scarcity for one of relative abundance in countries like the U.S., access to myriad ingredients and foods grows and formerly everyday staples become less common. If I were to offer my own guess, I'd say that the shift from eating mamaliga every single day to cooking it up a few times a year, on special occasions, stems not from availability; perhaps cooking mamaliga has become less about sustaining oneself, and more about sustaining a tradition.

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Why this classic Romanian-Jewish dish is nearly impossible to find - Salon

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