Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 8, 2022

Rob Eshman, The ForwardMarch 5, 2022

This story was originally published on Feb. 4 by the Forward. Sign up here to get the latest stories from the Forward delivered to you each morning.

Is it time to throw back a shot of Stoli, or throw out the whole bottle?

That dilemma is vexing liquor store owners, bartenders and restauranteurs who want to show solidarity with Ukraine by boycotting an iconic Russian brand.

The hitch: Stoli is made in Latvia, not Russia, by a company whose owner, Yuri Shefler, is a Russian Jew withUK and Israeli citizenship.

Those not-so-well-known facts are the reason people took their anger at Putin out on Stoli.

Balthazar will not be selling Stolichnaya vodka until the war in Ukraine is over, Keith McNally, owner of New Yorks famed Balthazar restaurant,declared on Instagramon March 3.

Numerous commentators to his posthave pointed out Stoli is made in Latvia, a NATO country, by a company headquartered in Luxembourg.

A slightly deeper dive reveals the owner of the S.P.I. Group, which produces and sells 380 brands of alcohol in 170 countries, is Shefler, who has run afoul of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past which is one reason why Shefler runs his empire from his home in Geneva, Switzerland.

Shefler, 54, bought the Stoli brand in 1997 for $285,000 from a state-owned company. Russias Supreme Court declared the sale illegal in 2001 and banned Shefler from selling the brand inside its borders.

Shefler himself was accused of misappropriation of the brand and forced to leave the country.

Born in Oryol in Russia to a Jewish family, Shefler graduated from Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. He was chairman of JSC Vnukovo Airlines, then established the SPI Group in 1997.

The group owns prestigious wineries around the world through its Tenute del Mondo Group, numerous liquor brands including KAH tequila and Writers Tears whiskey, and thousands of acres of agricultural land.

That has made Shefler a wealthy man, with a net worth of $2.5 billion. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman boughtSheflers superyachtLa Serene for a reported $500 million in 2015. In 2021, after Angelina Joliesold Shefler the wine chateaushe owned with Brad Pitt, Pitt sued.

Shefler is married to Tatiana Kovylina, a former Victorias Secret model, and the couple has four children.

In a recentInstagram post, Kovylina expressed what she felt about the Russian invasion, posting a black-and-white portrait of her birth family in Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, before neighbors became enemies.

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There is not one logical, clear or rational explanation for what is happening now, she wrote, Except that someone wanted it so much.

This isnt the first time Shefler and his brand has been caught up in anti-Russian rage. In 2013, when Putin introduced ananti-gay lawbanning what it termed, propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations and imposing fines on gay pride organizers, many LGBTQ organizations called for a boycott of Stoli. American sex columnist Dan Savage launched a Dump Russian Vodka campaign targeting Stoli.

In response, Stoli CEO Val Mendeleev condemned the laws and said the brand was solidly behind the gay community.

We fully support and endorse your objectives to fight against prejudice in Russia, Mendeleev wrote in a public letter quoted by CNN. He said Stoli has been, actively advocating in favor of freedom, tolerance and openness in society.

During that time the web site for Stoli vodka appeared in rainbow colors.

At least part of the confusion over Stolis Russian-ness or lack thereof stems from its success at branding itself as an authentic Russian representative of Russias most famous product.

Founded under Soviet rule in the late 1930s (the exact date is disputed), the 95 proof rye and wheat distillate poured into America in 1972, when PepsiCo cut a deal to market and distribute it in the West. As a rare Soviet product to leak out from the Iron Curtain, Stoli quickly and lastingly caught the publics imagination, becoming as tied to Russia as Guinness is to Ireland.

But another reason for targeting Stoli, say supporters of the ban, is that the company still produces its grain alcohol at a factory in Tambov, Russia, which it thenexports to its distillery in Latvia. The company has a small office in Moscow and employs 600 people in Tambov. The bulk of its workforce is in Riga, Latvia.

If the boycott works, a Latvian gay rights activist toldThe New York Timesin 2014, Latvians will lose their jobs. Who are they going to blame? Putin? No, they are going to blame gays.

During the current conflict, as numerous stores andeven state governorscalled for banning Russian vodka, Stoli posted to its web site a message that itstands with Ukraine.

Despite this, Balthazar owner McNally, at least according to his Instagram post, held firm.

Old news, he responded dismissively to a poster who pointed out the facts surrounding Stolis ownership.

No word yet on whether he will reconsider, but one commenter had a different idea when it came to boycotts.

How about, @thefuglyhouse wrote, also not serving any oligarchs in any of your restaurants?

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The Jew caught in the middle of the Stoli boycott - St. Louis Jewish Light

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Posted By admin on March 8, 2022

Who knew that the actor with the scarred face, who would define the onscreen tough guy stereotype of Italian mobsters was just a Jewish guy with a Shanya Punim.

Born Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund in what is now Lviv, Ukraine, Paul Muni began acting in Chicago alongside his parents in the Yiddish theater. He had range from the beginning. At 12, he made his stage debut as an 80-year-old man, leveraging a penchant for makeup that followed him through his time on Broadway and as a contract player at Warner Brothers.

According to PJ Grisar, in The Forward, as a kid, he was scouted by Maurice Schwartz (father of Tony Curtis), who brought him to New York to tread the boards there.

After a long run at the Yiddish Art Theatre, he began performing in English, and on Broadway, at the age of 31. He soon moved to Fox Studios, where he simplified his name to Paul Muni. He earned an Oscar nomination for his first feature, 1929s The Valiant and soon had a chance to flex his makeup skills, playing a multitude of characters in that years Seven Faces. But both films flopped, and he returned to the stage. He might have stayed there, were he not noticed once more,this time by agent Al Rosen.

How did a star of the Yiddish theater come to play the lead in the 1930s definitive gangster film for two old money anti-Semites such as Howard Hughes and Howard Hawks? It took some convincing. Muni originally turned the role down, fearing he wasnt a good physical fit, but his wife, Bella Finkel, knew better and told him to audition. Hawk and Hughes liked what they saw.

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It made sense that Muni, given his immigrant background and knowledge of both New York (where the Camontes hail from) and his own hometown of Chicago, could deliver an indelible and credible performance. He drew from life and was known for researching his roles by studying dialect and mannerisms, reading relevant material and, of course, developing makeup to mask his matinee idol face.

After multiple nominations, Muni finally earned his Oscar in 1936. According to Britannica.com, Muni convinced Warner Brothers to make The Story of Louis Pasteur. Despite a shoestring budget, the biopic of theFrench microbiologistwas a major hit, and Muni finally won an Oscar for best actor.

After the lacklusterWe Are Not Alone(1939), Muni returned to Broadway, starring inKey Largo(193940). He subsequently divided his time between stage, screen, and, later, television. He won aTony Awardfor the Broadway production ofInherit the Wind(195557), in which he portrayed a character modeled onClarence Darrow. His later notable films includeAngel on My Shoulder(1946), a comedy about gangsters, and his final film,The Last Angry Man(1959), for which he received an Oscarnominationfor his portrayal of a crusading doctor. Muni also had prominent roles in several TV anthology series, and after a 1962 appearance on the showSaints and Sinners, he retired fromacting.

Muni, died in August of 1967 at his home in Santa Barbara, at the age of 71.

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Do you know this Jew? His punim helped define the look of Hollywood gangsters - - St. Louis Jewish Light

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Misha Breyburg, a Ukrainian American Jew born in Odessa, wants everyone to know where he stands on the invasion of Ukraine.

So on Saturday, the Medithrive cannabis dispensary, where Breyburg is the CEO, got a face-lift: The front of the building in San Franciscos Mission District was painted the bright blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag.

This hits especially close to home, especially for Jewish Ukrainians, he told J. I couldnt live with myself if I didnt do something.

Breyburg did more than paint the store. He also arranged for the donation of all proceeds from sales on March 6 to Sunflower of Peace, a Boston-based nonprofit that, according to its website, provides medical and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Ten percent of all sales for the rest of the week, through March 13, will go to the organization as well, Breyburg said. On Monday, the CEO said hed raised in the high five figures.

It felt pretty incredible, he said.

Breyburg, 50, came from Odessa in the late 1970s with his family at the beginning of a wave of Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union to the Bay Area.

He grew up in the city, and after a stint in Israel he joined the family construction business, building high-end homes back in San Francisco. The family was Russian-speaking and deeply attached to Odessa, the famously international and multilingual port city with a rich Jewish history dating back centuries theyd left behind.

I was always proud of my Russian, Ukrainian, really Odessite background, he said.

Breyburg got into the cannabis business after he saw how much the drug had helped friends of his parents who suffered from cancer. When a well-known dispensary was closing in the Mission, he convinced his parents he could make it work, although it was a tough sell to get Ukrainian Jewish immigrants to agree to invest in cannabis.

Somewhat begrudgingly, my dad agreed, he said.

The business has thrived since then and does delivery through most of the Bay Area (delivery orders are included in the fundraiser).

His parents have been glued to the TV since the invasion, he said, and hes been watching too as Russian troops continue to bombard Ukraines cities. He hopes his fundraiser can make a small difference.

Breyburg said he is amazed at how unanimous U.S. public opinion has been in support of Ukraine, and he urged people to give money or raise awareness at this crucial moment in time.

Because I am from Odessa, because I am a Jewish person, because I know what happened to our people, I cant be silent, he said.

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Ukraine-born Jewish cannabis CEO raises thousands for war relief J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on March 8, 2022

As Ukraine enters its ninth day of war with Russia, more than 1 million refugees have now fled into neighboring countries, following an invasion that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed was meant to denazify the country. On March 1, a Russian missile struck an important Holocaust memorial Babyn Yar, the memorial site to the Nazi massacre of more than 100,000 people, including 33,771 Jews over two days in 1941.

For Tanya Gustol, what she calls Putins propaganda talk has been particularly painful to hear as a Jewish Ukrainian. Especially since Jewish Ukrainians had really begun to celebrate their identity, and the country was talking more openly about its history. Gutsol, who emigrated to Chicago in 2005, says her entire family is in Kyiv and plans to stay.

My family, they, you know, I feel like its the mentality of Ukrainians to say, this is our land, were not going anywhere, she said. At the moment, my parents are on the right bank of the river Dnieper and then my sister and her familys on the left bank. Its hard to get in between both because, you know, everyones been monitoring whats going on and the bridges are mostly closed.

To cope with this sense of helplessness, Gutsol has attended rallies. She has also worked with other Ukrainians in Chicago to gather supplies for the Ukrainian military. Through an Amazon list, theyve collected bulletproof vests, radios, ballistic helmets, binoculars and tactical knee pads. A planeload of goods took off for Poland earlier this week.

Last weekend, she said, so many people from the Ukrainian community came out that volunteers had to sign up for shifts. Gutsol believes the show of moral support is just as important as material aid. I think when youre sitting in Kyiv, somewhere, you know, underground and you hear the sirens go on and youre just feeling so lonely and scared, she said. You want to know that people outside care about you, care about the situation.

Members of Chicagos Jewish community some with family ties to the region, others with longstanding relationships with Ukraines Jewish communities have shown up in force so far by attending rallies, raising money and organizing supply drives for Ukraines Jewish community and the country at large.

Ukraines rich and complicated Jewish history dates back many centuries. Despite the progroms of the early 20th century and one of the worst mass murders of Jews during the Holocaust at Babyn Yar, today Ukraine has one of the worlds largest Jewish populations. While Jewish Ukrainians live in many parts of the country, the largest communities have been concentrated in Kyiv, Dnipro, Odessa and Kharkiv. The city of Uman has also attracted thousands of Hasidic Jews every year who come to visit the grave of the 18th-century Rabbi Nahman of Breslov, the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement.

While I am Jewish, I help [all] those in need, said Leonard Mogul, who runs the Arts4Kids Foundation, a Chicago-based organization that introduces children to art.

Mogul was born in Odessa, a city that was once the center of Jewish life in the region and left Ukraine as a refugee during the collapse of the Soviet Union. He arrived in Chicago in 1989 at the age of 11. He still has family there. And like many Ukrainians in the Chicago area right now, he spends his nights checking for news and trying to reach friends and family to make sure theyre ok.

Im at the edge of my nerves, receiving these updates, jumping up in the middle of the night, calling Ukraine to check up on relatives and people close to you to make sure they are OK, he said.

So he couldnt just sit still and do nothing.

We as human beings need to remain human beings and the only way to better our world is to do things, he said.

Mogul has been helping fundraise to purchase supplies like helmets and first aid kits to send to Ukrainians who are volunteering to fight. And hes teamed up with United Giving Hope, an organization that provides humanitarian assistance to refugees at the U.S.- Mexico border. Theyre collecting things like underwear, socks, diapers, soap and feminine hygiene products to make backpacks of supplies for 100,000 women and children who have been displaced and are in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Their goal is to put together 600 care packages.

Rabbi Michael Siegel at Anshe Emet Synagogue, a Conservative Jewish synagogue in Chicagos Lakeview neighborhood, says many in his congregation have relatives from Ukraine, some whose families came to Chicago between 1880 and 1925, when more than two million Jews left Eastern Europe.

Ukraine has not even a mixed history with the Jews if you go back, not all that long ago, its a pretty, pretty horrific history. But, you know, its a very different country [now]. And so people have come to terms with that as well, he remarked.

Rabbi Siegel said hes been flooded with people asking: What can we do?

The synagogue has supported a Jewish summer camp program in Ukraine for a decade (Rabbi Siegels daughter has been a counselor), so they have longstanding ties to the Conservative Jewish community there. He said for this reason he has been encouraging people to support Masorti Olami, an organization that fosters Conservative Judaism and, through that work, has people on the ground in Ukraine.

Im sensitive about the idea that, you know, well, Jews are only interested in Jews. Thats just not the case, he said. Judaism always functions from the particular to the universal. In other words, we begin with literally charity at home, with your family, with your community, but it never stops there. Its always moving toward the larger whole.

The rabbi said one of the big questions he and others in the community have been wrestling with is a moral one about the American role in this conflict especially because the U.S. has said it will not send ground troops or enforce a no-fly zone in Ukraine.

As a Jew, Im thinking about the times that we have castigated the United States for not bombing the railroad tracks to Auschwitz. Why couldnt they just do that? he asked. In the back of my mind Im wondering, Is this another railroad tracks to Auschwitz moment where were going to watch people die wholesale? Weve watched people die wholesale in Syria. And so when are we responsible to actually bomb the railroad tracks? Whats Americas role at this point? And what happens when America doesnt want to take that role?

He said he doesnt have the answer.

Along with smaller efforts, established organizations like the Jewish United Fund (JUF) have been working on large-scale efforts to provide assistance on the ground in Ukraine, everything from supplying potable drinking water to providing emergency shelter for those who have been displaced.

JUF has advanced $2 million in emergency funds to its partners on the ground the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), and World ORT, said Jay Tcath, executive vice president of the Jewish United Fund.

JUF has been working in Ukraine since it gained independence. In the weeks leading up to the invasion, Tcath said the organization began to prepare, sending satellite phones in case cell service was cut, food, medical supplies, cots, pillowcases and bedding for those seeking shelter in synagogues and Jewish community centers.

This was especially critical for the large population of elderly [in Ukraine], many of whom are Holocaust survivors, said Tcath.

There are nearly 10,000 Holocaust survivors in Ukraine, many of whom are homebound and were already dependent on this sort of humanitarian aid for survival before the Russian invasion, according to JUF.

At Heritage Russian Jewish Congregation, an orthodox synagogue on Chicagos North Side, all the members come from the former Soviet Union. Rabbi Eliezer Dimarsky, who grew up in Kyiv, said of the 100 families who make up the community, half are from Ukraine.

Everyone has someone who has stayed there, Rabbi Dimarsky said.

Some couldnt leave because they are elderly or for health reasons. Some stayed for patriotic reasons, Dimarsky said.

While many community members come from Russia and many from Ukraine, they have always felt a sense of community identity as Jews, the Rabbi says. This has meant the congregation has been united in its support for Ukraine. The synagogue has been fundraising and theyre doing a special service each morning for Ukraine.

The prayers theyre reciting come from the Book of Psalms, also known as the Psalms of David. These Hebrew prayers look for comfort and elevation from the depths of despair and divine answers in times of trial.

In the Jewish tradition, the reading of these psalms comes at a time of trouble in an attempt to gain Gods favor.

There is not much I can do in a physical way, Rabbi Dimarsky said. [I am] hoping and having trust in God that the goodness will prevail.

World Union For Progressive Judaism wupj.org

United Giving Hope unitedgivinghope.com

These supplies are needed: Backpacks, travel-size toothpaste, toothbrushes, wipes, diapers, child socks and underwear, small blankets, feminine hygiene products, bars of individually wrapped soap, deodorants, adult socks and underwear, bandaids, first aid kits, plastic baby bottles and travel-sized hand sanitizer. All supplies must be new. Drop off: 436 Franklin St., Waukegan, on March 5, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Volunteers needed to help pack on March 9. Email Pastor Julie Contreras (julie@unitedgivinghope.com) or Leonard Mogul (arts4kidschicago@gmail.com).

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As the fighting in Ukraine intensifies, Chicagos Jewish community rallies in support - WBEZ Chicago

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Posted By admin on March 8, 2022

From the early waves of immigration from Eastern Europe, to the post World War I pogroms, to new efforts to sustain communal life in Ukraine, and now to the Russian invasion, Ukraine has frequently been a topic in this publication. Here are a few articles from the last 127 years that show some of the ways Ukraines history has been entwined with the lives of Bay Area Jews.

Just days after the end of World War I, the Ukrainian army officially banned Jews from serving. Instead, Jews had to pay a higher tax.

The army will be entirely restricted to Christians, the paper said.

The country would soon be partitioned, leading to a yearslong conflict between powers inside and outside the country that only ended when the Soviet Union successfully absorbed most of the country in 1921.

Only a few months later, the newspaper heard from a man who fled Ukraine. He said fears of Bolshevism, which was being blamed on the Jews, were behind a surge of antisemitic violence.

Despite the warnings and threats of the government, anti-Jewish pogroms are of daily occurrence in the Ukraine and new cities are being added to the list of those in which disorders have broken out.

Jewish Settlers Meet No Opposition from Peasants said a headline describing a report from the Ukranian Comzet, the Soviet department that settled Jews in the countryside of Ukraine as part of a Soviet plan to create special Jewish colonies to till the land and live out an agrarian communist lifestyle.

Although pogroms had swept across the land scant years before, now the relation between the new Jewish settlers and the neighboring peasants in the Ukraine are normal, the report said. Its a chilling sentence, considering what happened in the early part of the next decade, when Ukraine suffered a devastating famine known as the Holodomor caused by Josef Stalins deliberately destructive agricultural policy, in 1933-1934. An estimated 4 million died.

Crisis! the headline blared.

The paper was aghast at the Nazi invasion of Ukraine and Hitlers aggressive move.

This time he was so sure of himself that he didnt even wait to observe any of the little diplomatic niceties that preceded his first attack on Czechoslovakia at Munich, the paper said. His army just marched in, occupied the country, and thats all there was to it.

In an uncanny parallel to Jews in the U.S. mobilizing to support Ukraine today, in 1944 this paper ran a notice; a conference was being scheduled to address sending supplies to aid the Jews of the Ukraine, now returning to their devastated homeland after the Soviets had regained control.

The fruits of years of creative work of the rich Ukrainian and Jewish cultural life lie in ruins, it said. Although the Ukrainian Committee has shipped tons of clothing, thousands of household kits, medical supplies and food to alleviate the suffering of refugees from this area, much more is now needed.

At the end of the 1950s, a correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency ran a series of special reports from the Soviet Union, which were also published in the Jewish Community Bulletin, as this publication was then known. They described Jewish identity in a state where religion was stifled, shedding light on the complicated way Ukrainian Jews thought about their identity.

A child born to Jewish parents in the Ukraine is registered as a Jew, not as a Ukrainian, he wrote. Thus Jews, regardless of their place of birth, are always classed as someone outside the local community. A Soviet Jew is always a Jew. although he may attend Ukrainian schools [and] speak Ukrainian as his first language.

A poignant reminder of the traumatic decades of the 20th century can be found in the classified ads placed by people attempting to track down displaced loved ones and get in touch with lost relatives, some of whom had emigrated. They were numerous right after the war, but even in 1969, the Jewish Family Service Agency had placed an ad on behalf of a man in Massachusetts looking for his cousin.

RUBENSTEIN, Samuel (Schmulich) or RUBIN, Sam, born in Ukraine, arrived USA 1921. Mother Bessie; father Moyshe. Sister resides in Russia.

Chernobyl had exploded, and Bay Area Jews from Ukraine were worried about relatives at home. The nuclear plant is only 80 miles north of Kyiv, which at the time had a Jewish population of around 200,000. While western Europe was reporting high levels of radiation from the leak, inside Ukraine the lock on Soviet media showed a different world.

Last Wednesday morning, my grandmother said, Everything is normal, theres nothing to worry about, Vladimir Naroditsky told the paper in dismay.

Jews here in Kharkov, Ukraine, frequently ask my opinion as they struggle with what is perhaps the hardest decision of their lives: to emigrate or to stay, wrote Joel Levin in a guest column from Ukraine, where he worked at a Jewish nonprofit.

He said there was no easy choice. Although there was still a sense of optimism after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, economic conditions were dire and antisemitism was creeping back into public discourse. Official government discrimination against Jews is a thing of the past, he wrote. Unfortunately, it is now coming back as it often does in times of severe economic dislocation. I have seen it and it is an ugly, ugly thing.

The paper reported on a local visit by the only Ukraine-born Reform rabbi in the country, Alexander Dukhovny. He served a congregation in Kyiv and 39 smaller Reform congregations around the country. (I travel a lot, he said.)

Dukhovny thought that Reform Judaism could be a big draw for Ukraines secularized Jews, whod been cut off from their traditions by years of Soviet rule.

There is a big desire for Ukrainian Jews to learn more about Judaism, he said. They are searching for their identity.

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Timeline of Ukrainian Jews in our pages over the years J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on March 8, 2022

Mr. Goldsmith was a wealthy man. One of his gentile business acquaintances, Mr. Garcia, owned a finance company.

Mr. Garcia approached Mr. Goldsmith. Id like to borrow $400,000 from you for a financing Im currently negotiating, he said. Im also open to selling you some of my current interest-bearing loans.

Im willing to consider granting you a loan, if the terms are favorable, replied Mr. Goldsmith. Regarding your current loans, send me details and I will review them.

The two worked out mutually acceptable terms for the $400,000 loan.

Mr. Garcia sent records of five loans that he offered to sell. Mr. Goldsmith noticed that one of them was to Mr. Cohen, clearly a Jewish name. He considered Mr. Garcias price for the loans, and calculated that they would be profitable. However, he wondered whether there was an issue of ribbis in purchasing the loan of Mr. Cohen.

Whats the problem? someone asked. Mr. Garcia lent him the money, and was allowed to charge interest. Youre not lending to Mr. Cohen; youre just buying the loan from Mr. Garcia!

However, another person said: I dont think that its allowed, since youre benefiting from the interest that Mr. Cohen pays.

Furthermore, Im not even sure you can provide Mr. Garcia the $400,000 loan, since he has Jewish clients, that person added. Ultimately, you are benefiting through him from the interest that the Jewish clients pay!

That makes no sense! replied the first person. Who cares what Mr. Garcia does with the money that you lend him? You are not lending to his Jewish clients; youre lending only to him!

Mr. Goldsmith decided to consult Rabbi Dayan, and asked:

Am I allowed to lend Mr. Garcia money to finance his loans to Jewish clients? Am I allowed to buy from Mr. Garcia the interest-bearing loan to Mr. Cohen?

A Jew is allowed to borrow from a gentile with interest, and, conversely, charge interest when lending to him, replied Rabbi Dayan. It is even permissible to lend with interest to a gentile, who will subsequently of his own initiative lend the money with interest to another Jew, provided that there is no direct liability or responsibility between the two Jews (Y.D. 168:5; Shach 168:5).

However, if a non-Jew lent money to a Jew with interest and subsequently transfers the debt to another Jew, Rama rules based on Rashba that if the Jewish borrower pays the non-Jew, who in turn pays the Jewish buyer it is permitted. However, the Jewish borrower may not pay the Jewish buyer directly (Rama, Y.D. 168:10).

Taz (Y.D. 168:12) explains that the Rashba allowed paying via the non-Jew only if the non-Jew did not fully sell the loan, but rather borrowed from the other Jew and committed the first loan as a kind of collateral until he repays.

However, if he fully sold the loan, so that the Jewish buyer can irrevocably collect directly from the Jewish borrower, Taz writes that it is prohibited for the Jewish buyer to collect interest, midRabbanan, even if given via the non-Jew, since the Jewish buyer is now considered the lender (Chavos Daas, Chiddushim 168:[20]).

Nonetheless, Taz writes that if interest already accrued to the non-Jew, a Jew may buy the loan from him with the current accrued interest, and even accept it directly from the Jewish borrower. Shach, in Nekudos Hakesef, does not allow accepting it directly, but many Acharonim concur with the Taz (Bris Yehuda 31:10; Toras Ribbis 24:1; The Laws of Ribbis, 12:15-17, 13:45-47).

Thus, concluded Rabbi Dayan, you may lend Mr. Garcia money to finance loans to Jewish clients, but buying the loan of Mr. Cohen would not allow you to collect future interest.

Verdict: If a non-Jew sells an interest-bearing loan of a Jew to a Jewish buyer, the buyer can collect the accrued interest even directly from the Jewish borrower, but may not collect future interest when the Jewish borrower is now liable directly to him.

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Posted By admin on March 5, 2022

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraines comedian-turned-president, sure can tear up the dance floor. The fancy footwork he put on display in 2006when hewonthe debut season of his countrys version of Dancing with the Starscontinues to serve Zelensky well today, as he marshals local and global resources to try and repel a Russian invasion of his country. Israel could desperately learn a few artful steps from the worlds newest poster child for inspiring leadership.

Cold War 2.0 has found the government of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett torn between the tug of realpolitik and the imperatives of morality. But straddling the fence has become an increasingly untenable position for Israel, where this conflicts inflammatory rhetoricRussian President Vladimir Putins claims of denazification has met Ukrainian comparisons of Putin to Adolf Hitlerhas resonated particularly loudly among Israelis, who are well aware that Zelensky is Jewish. Harsh realities have forced an evolution of thought among Bennetts cabinet, which is inching too slowly toward the only decision that makes sense for Israel.

If Israels special relationship with the United States has been the solid rock of its security, Russia represents the hard place sandwiching Israel from the other side. In an era when the U.S. government is taking great pains to extract itself from the Middle EastU.S. President Joe Bidenswithdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan last summer was the most salient data point in recent memoryRussia is very much present in Israels immediate backyard. Israel is not indifferent to this predicament.

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraines comedian-turned-president, sure can tear up the dance floor. The fancy footwork he put on display in 2006when hewonthe debut season of his countrys version of Dancing with the Starscontinues to serve Zelensky well today, as he marshals local and global resources to try and repel a Russian invasion of his country. Israel could desperately learn a few artful steps from the worlds newest poster child for inspiring leadership.

Cold War 2.0 has found the government of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett torn between the tug of realpolitik and the imperatives of morality. But straddling the fence has become an increasingly untenable position for Israel, where this conflicts inflammatory rhetoricRussian President Vladimir Putins claims of denazification has met Ukrainian comparisons of Putin to Adolf Hitlerhas resonated particularly loudly among Israelis, who are well aware that Zelensky is Jewish. Harsh realities have forced an evolution of thought among Bennetts cabinet, which is inching too slowly toward the only decision that makes sense for Israel.

If Israels special relationship with the United States has been the solid rock of its security, Russia represents the hard place sandwiching Israel from the other side. In an era when the U.S. government is taking great pains to extract itself from the Middle EastU.S. President Joe Bidenswithdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan last summer was the most salient data point in recent memoryRussia is very much present in Israels immediate backyard. Israel is not indifferent to this predicament.

Putin is the primary benefactorof Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose decaying country functions as a staging ground for Iran, Israels mortal enemy; Assad has tendered hissupportfor Putins Ukraine campaign. Rolling Israeli Air Force operations to prevent the entrenchment of Iran and its terrorist proxies in Syria demand criticaldeconflictionwith Russian pilots in that theater, lest Jerusalem come into open confrontation with Moscow.

The potential for such a clash escalated dangerously in January when Russian and Syrian fighter jets began flyingjoint patrolsover the Golan Heights, which lies between Israel and Syria. A Russianelectronic jamming systeminstalled on the Hemeimeem Air Base in Latakia, Syria, further compromises Israels long-held air superiority in the neighborhood. Russia also plays an outsized role in the Vienna negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal, which is seen by many in Jerusalem as having ominous implications for Israels security.

Caught between its historic allegiance to the United States and its need for coordination with Russia, Israel has been struggling awkwardly to remain on the Ukraine wars ever-shrinking sidelines and preserve its credibility with all parties. Bennett instructed his ministers tomaintaina low profile and keep the chatter to a minimum. He has spoken multiple times with bothZelenskyandPutin, even proposing tomediatea cease-fire between them. (Bennett was careful to firstrun the ideaby the Biden administration.)

Israel has dispatchedhumanitarian aidto the region butrefrainedfrom rendering any military assistance, even, according to unconfirmed reports,scuttlinga U.S. bid to transfer Iron Dome defensive missile batteries to Ukraine. Complicating Israels situation further is the presence of established Jewish communitiesand more than a few Israeli citizensin both Ukraine and Russia whosewelfareand, in many cases,extractionIsrael seeks toguarantee.

Russian bombs have fallen on Uman, Ukraine, where the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov has been a popular Jewish pilgrimage site, and in the vicinity of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. Zelensky referenced both cities specifically in a Hebrew-language Facebook appeal to all the Jews of the world, whom he beseeched to raise their voices against the killing of Ukrainians because Nazism was born in silence.

These tenuous circumstances have prompted Israel to employ a haphazard playbook. On Feb. 23, Israels first official communique on the crisis upheld the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of Ukraine but conspicuously avoided any mention of Russia as the guilty party trampling on Ukrainian independence with its full-scale invasion.

An Israeli official, championing this questionable language,rationalizedthat the United States and the world understand the complexity of our situation. By the next day, Israel had pivoted to a good cop, bad cop footing. Bennett, speaking on Feb. 24 to graduates of the Israel Defense Forces officer academy,declinedto rebuke Russia by nameinstead pray[ing] for peace and calm and expressing solidarity for the embattled people of Ukrainewhile Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid lashed out that same morning against the Russian attack, which hecondemnedexplicitly as a serious violation of the international order.

The middle ground is collapsing. The United States, via its ambassador to the United Nations, conveyed itsdispleasureat Israels refusal to join 87 other countries in sponsoring last Fridays Security Council resolution that denounced Russias incursion into Ukraine. Putin has put Israel on notice as well. Were concerned over Tel Avivs announced plans for expanding settlement activity in the occupied #GolanHeights, which contradicts the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Convention, Russias U.N. missiontweetedon Feb. 23, taking a shot across Israels bow after the United States already recognized Israels rights to the Golan Heights in March 2019.

Israels ambassador in Moscow was also summoned and reprimanded by Russias deputy foreign minister, who took exception to Lapids words. Even UkrainecriticizedIsrael for not doing enough on its behalf. Nobody has been fooled by Israels attempt to talk out of both sides of its mouth.

Time has run out for the Bennett government to get with the program and stop equivocating. Although it cannot neglect the definite repercussions for its delicate ties with Russia, Israel has never had a realistic option other than to join Team America. Realpolitik cuts both ways: The strategic depth provided by U.S.diplomatic,economic,andmilitarybacking is considerably more vital for Israel than anything Russia will ever propose to deliver.

The U.S.-Israel special relationship has withstood the challenges of domesticpartisanship, proving far more dependableowing also to the executive branchs accountability to public opinion in U.S. politicsthan Putinscapricious effortsto accommodate Israel. Additionally, as a democratic nation and in light of the Jewish peoples particularly tragic experience with brutality, Israel is morally bound to speak out vigorously against unprovoked Russian aggression.

Jerusalem is starting to get the message. On Feb. 27, Lapid warned his fellow ministers against extendinghelpto Russian Jewish oligarchs who either have been or may yet be the targets of international sanctions. Later in the week, on March 2, Israel voted in favorand signed on as a co-sponsorof a U.N. General Assemblyresolutioncensuring Russias assault on Ukraine. Old habits die hard, however. Remarks made by bothBennettandLapidjust one day earlier feigned neutrality once again, as if Russia bears no responsibility for the atrocities being perpetrated in Ukraine.

At a time when Bennett is banking on the United States to stand by his side in confronting Iran, he should be laser-focused on Bidenscommitmentof unwavering support for Israels security and freedom of action. Allowing bad blood to build up in the Oval Office threatens to undermine that pledge.

After then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Biden on his 2020 election victory in a backhanded fashionnot referring to the fact that Biden had actually defeated incumbent Donald Trump in the 2020 electionBiden waitedalmost a full month from his inauguration to return Netanyahus call. Bennett cannot afford to have the White House switchboard put him on hold.

Israel is not the only regional actor striving tohedge its bets. In fact, Washington should pay close attention toand take measures to rectifythe erosion of Pax Americana in the Middle East, which poses great risk to U.S. interests. (Examples of this phenomenon include the abstention of the United Arab Emirates during last Fridays vote at the U.N. Security Council, of which it is currently a member, and Saudi Arabias refusal to increase OPEC+ oil production quotas.)

Meanwhile, as the United States and a possibly expanding NATOunite in an effort to send Russias economy back to theDark Ages, Israel needs to eliminate all lingering doubts that it might not be playing on the right team.

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Israel Shouldn't Be Neutral in Russia-Ukraine War

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Posted By admin on March 5, 2022

The country that did the most to look after its citizens in Ukraine, and the Jews there, is also the country that shut its gates and to a certain extent its heart to all the other victims.

The country whose ethos is based on a scathing indictment of the world that kept silent, looked away and locked its gates is doing the exact same thing in this moment of truth.

'Holocaust distortion': Israel's Yad Vashem fights its own Ukraine war

The country that so deftly leveraged the worlds guilt to achieve its political goals could find itself facing a new outlook around the world, a world that may not forget its silence and hesitations and will one day settle the score with it.

And finally, the country that has gotten away with its endless occupation could find itself facing a new world that maybe, just maybe, will no longer agree and no longer remain silent.

Its touching to see Israeli diplomats go out of their way to free from the inferno every Israeli passport holder, including those who hardly ever set foot in Israel, even though for weeks they were urged to get out and didnt give a damn. In a country whose citizens seek a second passport for safetys sake, the Israeli passport was suddenly discovered as an insurance policy.

The concern for Jews to whom it never occurred to move here might just excite aficionados of Yiddishkeit. But when war refugees are stopped at Israels airport, deported or required to deposit huge sums they dont have in order to taste freedom and security, its clear that something in Israels moral compass is warped, even pathological.

To look after your own poor is fine, but to look after them alone is monstrous. Concern for your own people is understandable, but concern for them alone is perverted.

Is there really a difference between a Ukrainian child fleeing for his or life, someone who doesnt have a Jewish great-grandmother, and a Ukrainian child who does? Whats the difference? The difference is called racism. This rummaging in blood, at a time of war yet, is called selection.

As the European Union slowly wakes up, revealing itself to be far more united and ideological than we thought, the ugly face of the country of refugees and the Holocaust emerges. Decades of selection at Ben-Gurion Airport, including the turning away of refugees from all over the world, have made their mark; the decades of dispossession and occupation that have gone unpunished by the international community are also bearing fruit.

In this hour of darkness that has descended on the world, Israel is emerging as the land of darkness unto the nations. Nobody should have expected it to be a light unto the nations. Why on earth light, why? But at least we could have expected it to be like everybody else.

How great it would have been if Israel had acted like dark Poland or grim Hungary, let alone Sweden or Germany, which are now the true light unto the nations, and opened our gates like them.

Israel has a commitment to refugees not only because of its past its also obligated to the Ukrainian refugees mainly because of the large community of Ukrainian workers in Israel. A country that forbids the devoted caretakers of its elderly and cleaners of its homes to invite in their relatives to save their lives is clearly an immoral country. The welter of shabby excuses about Ukraines conduct during the Holocaust only makes the picture worse, punishing the grandchildrens grandchildren for the sins of their fathers and mothers.

Galina, a house cleaner living in this country for years, is prohibited from bringing her children to her new home only because theyre not Jews. This is really happening and apparently is even accepted by most Israelis.

No, its not fear of Russia. Fear of Russia is only the excuse. Its also not the government, the current one or another. This crisis finally proved that theres no moral difference between the current government and its abominable predecessor.

Theyre both equally obtuse and hard-hearted. Naftali Bennett is the same as Benjamin Netanyahu, Miri Regev is the same as Ayelet Shaked, and Merav Michaeli is also a partner.

Its something buried deep in the national DNA, amid years of brainwashing about the need to be strong, only strong, amid tall tales of the Chosen People and the only victims in history, allowed to do anything. And this image is accompanied by a cultivation of xenophobia in dimensions illegal in any other country. All this is now coming to light in a particularly ugly display.

Maybe its the original sin of a country that was established on the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of refugees, maybe its the Zionist religion that advocates Jewish supremacy in every facet. Whatever the reasons, none of this justifies requiring a deposit of a single shekel from a war refugee at Ben-Gurion Airport.

And darkness was upon the face of the deep.

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Israels rejection of Ukrainian refugees shows that its the darkness unto the nations - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on March 5, 2022

ANKARA/JERUSALEM, March 5 (Reuters) - Turkey and Israel will discuss steps to improve cooperation during talks between the two countries' presidents next week in Ankara, the Turkish presidency said on Saturday, as the regional rivals work to repair long-strained ties.

Israel and Turkey mutually expelled ambassadors in 2018 and relations have remained prickly, but Ankara has recently worked to improve relations with several countries in the region as part of a charm offensive launched in 2020.

As part of the rapprochement, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will visit in Ankara on March 9-10 at the invitation of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish presidency said.

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Erdogan and Herzog will "review all aspects of Turkey-Israel bilateral ties" and "discuss steps that can be taken to improve cooperation," it said. The two presidents will also hold talks on "recent regional and international developments," it added.

Herzog's spokesman said the visit was being coordinated with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, adding it will be the first by an Israeli leader since 2008.

"The two presidents will discuss various bilateral issues, including Israel-Turkey relations and the potential for expanding collaboration," he said in a statement.

Ankara, which supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has condemned Israel's occupation of the West Bank and its policy towards Palestinians, while Israel has called on Turkey to drop support for the militant Palestinian group Hamas which runs Gaza.

While Erdogan has spoken to Herzog before, Israel's presidency is a largely ceremonial role. In November, he spoke to Bennett, the first such call to an Israeli prime minister in years.

Last month, Turkey said it would not abandon its commitment to a Palestinian state in order to broker closer ties with Israel. Erdogan has said energy cooperation could be on the agenda during talks with Herzog. read more

(This story corrects 'president' to 'leader' in paragraph 5.)

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Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Christina Fincher

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Turkey says Erdogan and Israel's Herzog will discuss ways to improve ties - Reuters

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Posted By admin on March 5, 2022

With Iran and the great powers approaching the signing of a nuclear agreement in Vienna, the Israeli political, security and military circles are anxious to discuss the next step. Their options include continuing efforts to thwart the agreement by communicating with the US and European parties, persisting with economic pressure, or putting the military option on the table, despite its high cost, especially with the outbreak of the Ukrainian war.

In recent days, Israelis have put forward what they say is a middle alternative, between accepting the nuclear agreement, despite its harm to the occupying power, and the offensive option that may encounter international opposition. This alternative is intensifying special security and intelligence operations by Mossad, including the assassination of nuclear scientists, cyber penetrations, or the targeting of nuclear facilities with surgical operations.

Israeli military circles are saying that if a new nuclear agreement is signed with Iran, Mossad will be at the forefront of Israel's secret war against the ballistic missile project and the production of a nuclear warhead for Iranian missiles. This, however, is a serious challenge to Mossad's boss, David Barnea, at a time when his agency is undergoing organisational changes and a wave of resignations of its senior leaders.

READ: Undermining Iran's power is a 'moral imperative'

For Israelis, the importance of Mossad's role comes in light of the failure of its political leadership to change the provisions of the nuclear agreement to be signed. The political leadership has made a strategic decision not to clash with the Joe Biden administration, as Benjamin Netanyahu did when he clashed with Barack Obama in 2015. Meanwhile, secret channels witnessed Israel's attempts to influence the contents of the agreement and persuade Washington to insist on certain points in the negotiations in Vienna. Similar efforts were exerted by the diplomatic channels of the Foreign Ministry with Britain, France and Germany, but all to no avail.

The security community is watching a number of risks resulting from the signing of the nuclear agreement, especially given the weak US position in the negotiations with Iran following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. It seems that Biden is running out of patience and rushing to conclude an agreement with Iran, while emphasising that Israel is not a party to the new agreement. Israel, however, opposes him and has made its position clear to the great powers, stressing that it maintains the independence of its decision on how to deal with Iran after the signing of the agreement, especially since its security will be affected in several important areas.

The nuclear agreement is raising numerous Israeli concerns. These concerns include Iran's abilities to: progress in uranium enrichment and become a nuclear "threshold state"; continue on the secret military path to building a nuclear bomb; proceed with the ballistic missile project; maintain its support for its allies in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Gaza following the lifting of some important economic sanctions; and finally the flow of funds it will gain from the sale of oil, and the resolving of frozen funds that will enhance its economic strength.

At the same time, with some exceptions, most Israeli forums have begun to realise that the signing of a new nuclear agreement with Iran effectively neutralises the Israeli military option and prevents it from launching a pre-emptive strike on Iranian nuclear sites. Therefore, senior Israeli politicians are demanding economic and security compensation measures from the US after signing the nuclear agreement and the provision of additional guarantees that enhance Israeli security.

The apparent absence of an Israeli military option against Iran does not mean that Mossad is also out of the picture. Rather, it is expected that a huge budget allocated by the government for the military option will be directed to the implementation of the new plan that Mossad will lead. This is in conjunction with the army's focus on preventing the Iranian military presence in Syria and the transfer of Hezbollah's advanced weapons in Lebanon via Syria as part of the "battle between wars". Mossad will be tasked with weakening Iran's economic and operational capabilities.

Israeli forums consider this a very big challenge to the head of Mossad, who is leading Israel's secret campaign against Iran, especially since the agency is going through a series of internal shocks as part of the new organisational changes and a wave of resignations of its seniors. Mossad will be tasked with collecting intelligence information for future operations, especially those related to the sites where the missile's warhead intended to carry the nuclear bomb is manufactured, the mechanism of its activation and targeting many nuclear and rocket scientists.

Besides this, Mossad is expected to continue cyber-attacks against sensitive facilities in Iran related to the nuclear programme and ballistic missile project, and to encourage opposition elements in Iran such as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (People's Mujahidin), to take measures against the Iranian regime in order to shock it with various actions.

The nuclear agreement with Iran, which is likely to be signed in the coming days in Vienna, is bad for Israel in all respects, but simultaneously, it gives it a relatively important period to prepare a reliable and effective military option for the day of confrontation. The agreement does not include an international request for Iran to dismantle the advanced centrifuges they have installed or cease the research and development of newer centrifuges. Instead, Iran will have partial removal of sanctions imposed on it.

READ: IAEA Chief to visit Iran in possible boost to nuclear deal

This means that Israel may pursue a serious policy of convincing the US that Iran, under the agreement, will be more aggressive and violent, with much more money to do so. With quite a few unresolved issues at stake that Iran has with Israel and other countries, there will be "pillars of blood, fire and smoke". This calls for continuous operational and intelligence coordination in the face of Iranian threats to overcome them, increasing, in the first place, the number of options to deal with them once the agreement is signed.

Concurrently, the Israeli military and security forums say that they should be better prepared to confront this threat in the future, as only partial compensation for the intended agreement. Until then, we will be facing an escalation of mutual operations between Israel and Iran throughout all possible fields of confrontations, including military, security, cyber and economic, in a campaign that is only expected to escalate.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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Near completion of the Iran nuclear deal advances Israel's military option - Middle East Monitor

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