Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 1, 2021

Three Israeli filmmakers who were imprisoned in Nigeria for 20 days were released from custody Wednesday night, and boarded a plane for their journey back to Israel.

Nigerian authorities released the trio from prison Tuesday evening and handed them over to US custody. American embassy staff then took them to the local Chabad center to spend the night.

They were given their passports and phones just before their flight took off for Istanbul Wednesday night.

The three Israelis will arrive at Ben Gurion Airport Thursday morning at 8:50 am.

Rudy Rochman, a pro-Israel activist with almost 95,000 followers on Instagram, filmmaker Andrew Noam Leibman and French-Israeli journalist Edouard David Benaym were arrested July 9 while shooting a documentary in a separatist region of southeast Nigeria.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories

The Israelis were in Nigeria to film We Were Never Lost, a documentary exploring Jewish communities in African countries such as Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda and Nigeria. They were focusing on the Igbo Jewish community in Nigeria.

In a statement published on Instagram Wednesday night, the trio said that they were wrongfully taken on Friday July 9th, 2021 at 7:30 AM (Nigerian time) to the local DSS facility in Anambra State, Nigeria where they were held for 24 hours before being transported to the DSS headquarters in Abuja, 9 hours away with dangerous trasport [sic].

The DSS, or Department of State Services, is Nigerias internal security agency.

The men said they were taken into custody at gunpoint by over a dozen DSS men wearing black ski masks.

Rudy, Noam, and David were caged and held for 20 days in horrendous conditions, locked into a small cell, sleeping on the floor with no access to showers or clean clothes. They were interrogated and mistreated without ever officially being arrested or accused of anything.

The three men said in their statement that they were officially cleared of all wrongdoing, but were instructed by the Nigerian government to leave the country immediately.

They promised to find another way to tell the story of Igbo Jewish life.

From L-R, Andrew Leibman, Rudy Rochman, Abuja Chabad Rabbi Mendy Sternbach, Gabbi Kreinman; Acting Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria Yotam Kreinman David Benaym eat dinner at Chabad-Lubavitch of Abuja, Nigeria on July 28, 2021, after Leibman, Rochman and Benaym were released from detention. (Courtesy)

The filmmakers spent three Shabbats in prison, and were provided with Kosher food by the local Chabad and members of the Jewish community. They were denied legal representation during their incarceration, according to members of the Jewish community with knowledge of the situation.

According to media reports, Nigerian authorities from the Department of State Services arrested and interrogated the trio on suspicion that they had come in contact with Biafran separatists.

One of the men entered Nigeria on a French passport, and the other two on American passports. This made it difficult for the Israeli embassy to get involved at the onset, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

The families of the three Israelis said Wednesday that local political elements had twisted the gifting of a Torah scroll to a local community to claim it constitutes support for separatist political ambitions.

The Torah scroll is currently with the local community.

The men took off from Ben Gurion Airport on July 5 and landed in Nigeria the next day.

https://wewereneverlost.raisegiving.com (Click Here)We are setting out to Africa soon to document the stories of the

Posted by We Were Never Lost onWednesday, May 5, 2021

According to locals, the crew was detained at a synagogue during services in the Igbo village of Ogidi. The Igbo consider themselves a lost tribe of Israel.

The filmmaking crew thought it would be a nice gesture to bring several gifts with cultural symbolism to the communities it planned to visit, the families said in their statement, adding that one of the gifts was the Torah scroll.

Unfortunately, members of non-state political groups have hijacked for their own purposes images of the filmmakers gifting a Torah to a local community, the families charged.

A relative of one of the men told The Times of Israel last week that separatist social media accounts had taken advantage of the Israelis trip to claim that the three were supporting Biafran separatist groups.

The documentary series is designed to educate viewers about the religious and cultural experiences of lesser-known Jewish communities. Their goal is to interview members of Jewish communities across multiple African countries, along with Jewish communities in China, India, Afghanistan and elsewhere, the families said.

Igbo mother and child. (photo credit: Shai Afsai/Times of Israel)

This documentary is not intended to make any political statements about the countries in which filming will take place, nor does the filmmaking team endorse any political movements. The filmmaking crew acts as a guest visiting the country and its various communities there are no political overtones, they said.

The filmmakers were aware of the political sensitivity surrounding the filming of the Igbo community. Last Thursday, the We Were Never Lost Facebook page stressed: We do not take any position on political movements as we are not here as politicians nor as a part of any governmental delegations.

Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, Nnamdi Kanu, wears a Jewish prayer shawl as he leaves his house in Umuahia, southeast Nigeria, to meet veterans of the Nigerian civil war, on May 26, 2017. (Marco Longari/AFP)

In January, a conflict broke out in southeastern Nigeria between Nigerian forces and the military wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement. The fight is ongoing.

A previous unilateral declaration of independence by the Igbo people in 1967 sparked a brutal 30-month civil war that left more than a million people dead.

In 2018, fugitive pro-Biafran separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu gave a radio broadcast saying he was in Israel and indicating he owed his survival to the Jewish state.

Kanu, a former London real estate agent, heads IPOB and the outlawed pirate radio station Radio Biafra. He maintains the Igbo people, who are in the majority in southeast Nigeria, are a lost tribe of Israel and it is his mission to lead them to the promised land of Biafra.

Kanu is facing treason charges in his homeland. He was arrested by Interpol in the Czech Republic in June 2021.

AFP and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Read the original here:

Israeli filmmakers leave Nigeria after nearly 3 weeks in prison - The Times of Israel

Category: Israel | Comments Off on Israeli filmmakers leave Nigeria after nearly 3 weeks in prison – The Times of Israel
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 1, 2021

On Thursday reports claimed that some Syrian insurgents or rebels had clashed with the regime in Tasil, only five kms. from the Golan Heights and the ceasefire lines with Israel.

If the situation deteriorates it could have major ramifications for Israel and Jordan as well as for the Syrian regime and pro-Iran elements, such as Hezbollah, that have cells and bases near the Golan.

The Syrian regime retook areas in Deraa and near the Golan in 2018 after seven years of civil war. The southern front was a largely stable frontline for years but the Syrian rebels collapsed quickly and Syrian civil defense volunteers, called White Helmets, were evacuated through Israel to Jordan in July 2018.

A year later pro-Iran elements linked to Hezbollah set up shop near the Golan and even prepared killer drones that they intended to use against Israel which carried out airstrikes in late August 2019 against the drone squad.

cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });

Other tensions dominate as well. While some former rebels came over to the regime and now act like local warlords or power-brokers, there are also Russians in southern Syria who came as part of a deal to help make the transition more palatable.

Former rebel Ahmad al-Audeh, for instance, accepted Russias terms and joined the Russian-backed Syrian regime 5th Corps and even headed its 8th brigade. At the same time there are tensions in the area with the powerful Druze minority in Jebel Druze and the Hauran areas. The Druze have generally supported the regime out of fear of jihadists and extremists among ISIS and the rebels. ISIS used to control areas near the southern Golan.

Pro-rebel accounts say that so-called former rebels have re-taken or liberated Tasil and other areas now. The tweets say they have taken Syrian soldiers prisoner, who they describe as men who work with the regime. Pictures posted online allegedly show the Syrian rebels with their boots on a photo of Syrian regime leader Bashar Assad.

The Assad regime presides over a divided Syria. Northern Syria is occupied by Turkey and has extremist groups like HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) in Idlib and the newly US-sanctioned Ahrar al-Sharqiya. Meanwhile, in eastern Syria the US-backed SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) control a vast area, including areas liberated from ISIS in 2018. The regime controls Damascus, Homs, Hama, Aleppo and key cities such as Deir Ezzor.

Pro-Iranian groups dominate the area from Albukamal and T-4 base in Syria. This patchwork of control also includes Russian forces in Latakia. Recent reports said Russia was concerned about Israeli airstrikes in Syria. The Syrian regime wants an end to sanctions and to increase its largely gutted economy. It wants to work with China and other countries. Meanwhile, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and the Gulf states have considered more normalization with the Syrian regime. Fighting in Deraa will raise concerns in Jordan.

Israel provided aid and support to Syrians near the border from 2011 until the regime retook the area. Israel has demanded that Iran not retrench in Syria and that anti-Israel groups like Hezbollah and militias linked to Iran not set up bases near the Golan.

In the past some Hezbollah members linked to the Golan file of Hezbollah have met with accidents in some parts of southern Syria or border areas. In one case Hezbollah blamed Israel for an airstrike near the Lebanon-Syria border and vowed revenge. Hezbollah has done this several times in the last two years, cutting holes in the border fence in April 2020. In 2019 it fired an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) at Israeli forces.

Russia has allegedly sent a delegation to southern Syria to try to broker quiet in the area. Syrias regime has sent tanks according to other accounts. Those who follow the Syrian rebels appear to think this latest round of fighting is more serious than in the past.

In the past a group linked to ISIS, called Jaysh Khalid, controlled areas between Tasil and the Golan border. It is unclear if those ISIS cells that once existed, and which were pounded and destroyed by the regime in 2018, could also pop up again.

Read the original here:

Reports of clashes in Southern Syria near Israels Golan - The Jerusalem Post

Category: Israel | Comments Off on Reports of clashes in Southern Syria near Israels Golan – The Jerusalem Post
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 1, 2021

Israels Green Pass rules rolled back out on Thursday, making certain events only available to people who are vaccinated, recovered or can present a negative coronavirus test result.

Here is everything you need to know:

When there is an event with more than 100 people, whether inside or outside.

cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });

Sports and culture, hotels, gyms and workout studios, restaurants and cafes, cafeterias, conferences and synagogues.

Stores, malls, pools, museums, libraries, national parks and nature centers and any other location that is not specifically mentioned above.

No. Children under the age of 12, who are not eligible to be vaccinated, do not have to take a test or show a vaccination or recovery certificate to enter a Green Pass location.

These Green Pass rules will stay in effect until August 8, 2021.

Read this article:

Israel's new COVID-19 rules: Everything you need to know - The Jerusalem Post

Category: Israel | Comments Off on Israel’s new COVID-19 rules: Everything you need to know – The Jerusalem Post
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 1, 2021

In recent years, Israeli tech has been carving a name for itself in the alternative protein field, coming up with varied ways to replace real meat, the production of which is a key contributor to global warming.

In the main, meat substitutes are being made either from plant-based materials or from the multiplication of real cells taken from animals without causing them harm.

As a vegetarian since 2012 and a 95% vegan for four or five years (sorry, but almond milk doesnt cut it for me in a real British cup of tea), I have followed developments closely.

I gave up meat for moral and environmental reasons, but still secretly salivate over the gorgeous smells that emanate from the kitchen when my most carnivorous son grills a steak.

This is why I accepted an invitation to a glitzy event held by Redefine Meat in Tel Aviv earlier this week to launch the companys first series of plant-based alternative meat products.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories

The atmosphere was high-end, the message was that this was a quality product. The designer flower arrangements were real (these days you never know), the bar was large and sumptuously stocked, there were free tattoos (the carnivore son will never forgive me for not having taken him) and several stylish pop-up restaurants presented taster dishes with oodles of style.

An illustration of the 3D printed whole muscle cut of beef by Redefine Meat (Courtesy)

The company combines soy and pea proteins, coconut fat, sunflower oil and natural flavorings and colorings into food formulations that it prints out with the aim of achieving the same appearance, texture and flavor as animal meat. It is the most advanced Israeli firm in the field using 3D printing, which helps it to meet one of the hardest challenges produce alternative meat in the form of a single chunk with volume, such as a steak, that fully replicates the texture of the real thing, complete with the muscle, fat, blood and juices.

Seated at an elegant bar, and served an excellent red wine, we were treated to tiny chunks of meat that had been slow-cooked and then finished off on a grill whose adjacent amplifier round-sounded the realistic sizzling sound.

To me and the non-tattooed son I had taken, who still eats meat and was there to give me the carnivores view, it was excellent. Tasty, juicy, and very like the real deal, we agreed.

Also superb was the lamb kebab, served at the representative of Middle Eastern food, the Jaffa Restaurant.

Redefine Meats lamb kebab on the barbeque. (Courtesy, Redefine Meat)

Over the course of an hour, we stuffed ourselves with alternative chili con carne (our family hates coriander, so no judgment on that), Asian food (ditto the coriander), Italian meatballs and Texan beef burgers all variations on the theme of minced meat.

The burgers were great truer to the real thing, I thought than those of US company Beyond Meat, which is sold in Israel.

Redefine Meat burgers can be cooked rare, medium or well done. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

We wandered around trying to gauge the mood among the many foodies and tech people who were crowding in.

Two tech investors and committed vegetarians, Jason Chapnik and James Merkur, had flown in from Canada to taste the product with a view to adding Redefine Meat to their mainly tech portfolio.

A pair of heavily made-up middle aged-sisters sitting by the Italian restaurant said they were well impressed and hoped the world would go vegetarian.

Yaakov Mania, whose Mania Group manages the largest pig farm in Israel and supplies some 35% of non-kosher meat sold in Israel, according to the companys website, was less enthused, pronouncing the texture of his burger to be reasonable, and adding that the taste and smell dont take me anywhere. It doesnt have the fat that is so dominant in a burgers beef, he said. Maybe a bit of liquid smoke would help?

Redefine Meat is already working on a pork alternative. Mania admitted that this could pose a threat to his business.

The glitzy launch event in Tel Aviv before the public arrived, July 27 2021. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

Mor Cohen, the former head chef of the Carlton Hotel in Herzliya, who will take up the same position at the David Kempinski Hotel, a branch of the super-luxury hotel chain due to open later in the year on the seafront in Tel Aviv, was more upbeat.

The slow-cooked chunk of meat felt very close to the real thing, he said. It had good texture it was nice and chewy, but the taste isnt there yet. All the mince was very successful. The Asian dish caramelized nicely. The mince was very successful, not strong in taste, but I can see myself using it.

We will consider using it in the hotel, but I wont become completely vegan, he went on. I think its appeal will mainly be to vegetarians and vegans. Alternative meat is at a very early stage and education is needed to move more people to veganism.

Plans are for the new Kempinsky Hotels dairy lobby bar to convey a message of good health and will focus on vegan food, while the main restaurant will specialize in line-caught fish and fish from eco-farms. Sustainability is important to us, Cohen said.

My carnivore son concluded, If I was only given Redefine Meat, I wouldnt know the difference, but if I was given both to compare, I would. Although a little on the vegetarian spectrum, hes not about to give up on meat.

So why is it so difficult to get the taste right?

Plant-based alternative blood served at the launch event for Redefine Meat, Tel Aviv, July 27, 2021. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

Handing us a syringe from which to taste alternative blood (it was pretty realistic.), Tal, who heads Redefine Meats Food Development Group, explained that while a piece of fruit has just 150 different tastes, a slab of roasted or grilled beef has around 2,000.

It is complex characteristics like these that company scientists have had to break down, analyze and recreate. We do analytical and sensory comparisons, a food technologist called Shelly explained.

Another technologist, Yael, provided us with earphones and asked us to say which barbeque sizzling sound was from a Redefine product and which was from the real thing. We both got it wrong.

We also failed to pick which of two amplified images of raw bovine meat was real.

Which is the real meat? (Spoiler: Its on the left.). An amplified image of real meat and Redefine Meats plant-based alternative, Tel Aviv, July 27, 2021. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

Established in 2018, Redefine meat, now nearly 100-employees strong, works with scientists from Israel and overseas and uses a variety of tech that includes Artificial Intelligence.

Evidence collected by the company so far suggests it appeals principally to vegetarians and vegans as well as flexitarians worried by health and damage to the environment.

Were continually working on improvements, explained Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, Redefine Meats CEO and co-founder, who started the Rehovot-based business with Adam Lahav, now chief business officer, in a garage in Ness Ziona, and now aims for it to become the biggest meat company in the world.

He sees it competing not with alternative protein giants such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Meat, but replacing any need for the cow by producing alternatives to every beef cut there is and replicating the entire sensual experience of eating meat.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, Redefine Meats CEO and co-founder. (Courtesy, Redefine Meat)

In ten years from now, we will look back and think it was crazy that we grew and then slaughtered animals to enjoy good food, he said.

We traveled the world to learn what meat is and why we love it so much, he said. We talked with restaurateurs and chefs and butchers to understand what works, and spent three years on technical development. We started tastings 18 months ago (for around 1,000 people) and tonight, were launching our first range of products.

These include the lamb kebab, the 170-gram beef burger, sausages, cigars, and mincemeat, to be distributed via Best Meister.

They are being phased in at high-end meat restaurants, delicatessens and butcher stores before being supplied to supermarkets. Among the restaurants are Tel Avivs Hudson, Hatraklin Bistro, C2, Asif and Bodega American Kitchen. Elsewhere they will be on the menu at Sinta Bar in Haifa, in the north, and at Eddies Hideaway in Eilat in the south.

Read this article:

At sizzling event, Israels Redefine Meat launches its 3-D cow alternative - The Times of Israel

Category: Israel | Comments Off on At sizzling event, Israels Redefine Meat launches its 3-D cow alternative – The Times of Israel
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 1, 2021

AP - Oregon-Northwest

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has approved killing up to four uncollared wolves in eastern Oregons Baker County, where officials say the Lookout Mountain wolf pack attacked four cows in 14 days. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports the state has confirmed that wolves killed or hurt the cows from July 14 to July 26, and it approved a kill permit for the affected livestock producer. State rules allow for the lethal removal of wolves when repeated attacks present a significant risk to livestock and when nonlethal methods such as electric fencing or hazing havent stopped the attacks.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) The Boise Police Department says officers removed flags emblazoned with the emblem of the neo-fascist Proud Boys organization after someone hung them from several overpasses on a busy Idaho interstate. Police spokesperson Haley Williams told the Idaho Statesman that officers removed the flags on Saturday morning. It wasnt immediately clear who hung up the flags on Interstate 84 overpasses in Boise, but Williams said anyone with information should contact the police department. The Proud Boys are considered a hate group by organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Proud Boys members describe themselves as a politically incorrect mens club for Western chauvinists.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) The eviction moratorium in Idaho put in place by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent the spread of the coronavirus ends Saturday, raising concerns that many Idaho renters could be made homeless. Idaho officials have spent about $34 million of the $214 million received in federal coronavirus rescue money to help with outstanding rent, utility payments and other expenses. But homeless advocates say documentation and a lack of internet access to participate in online court hearings have stymied many renters. Those evicted face a tough housing market as home prices and rents have risen sharply with Idahos rapid population growth.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) It has been a month since Oregon lifted statewide coronavirus-related restrictions, but this week the Gov. Kate Brown has announced the reimplementation of mask requirements in schools and state agency buildings. The return of some mask mandates in Oregon follows a surge in COVID-19 cases due to the highly transmissible delta variant and updated masking guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest mandate occurred Friday, when Brown announced new mask guidance for Executive Branch state agencies. The new guidance requires all state employees, visitors or customers regardless of vaccination status in any indoor state agency space to wear face coverings.

See the original post:
Here is the latest Idaho news from The Associated Press at 3:40 am MDT - KTVZ

Category: Anti-Defamation League | Comments Off on Here is the latest Idaho news from The Associated Press at 3:40 am MDT – KTVZ
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 1, 2021

'); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(""+val.title+""); if (val.poly != "" && val.polyimg != "") { $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append('"+val.ihtml+""); $("#expandable-weather-block .weather-index-alerts").show(); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body h2").css({"font-family":"'Fira Sans', sans-serif", "font-weight":"500", "padding-bottom":"10px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body p").css({"font-size":"14px", "line-height":"24px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body span.wxalertnum").css({"float":"left", "width":"40px", "height":"40px", "color":"#ffffff", "line-height":"40px", "background-color":"#888888", "border-radius":"40px", "text-align":"center", "margin-right":"12px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body b").css("font-size", "18px"); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body li").css({"font-size":"14px", "line-height":"18px", "margin-bottom":"10px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body ul").css({"margin-bottom":"24px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body pre").css({"margin-bottom":"24px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body img").css({"width":"100%", "margin-bottom":"20px", "borderWidth":"1px", "border-style":"solid", "border-color":"#aaaaaa"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).css({"borderWidth":"0", "border-bottom-width":"1px", "border-style":"dashed", "border-color":"#aaaaaa", "padding-bottom":"10px", "margin-bottom":"40px"}); }); } function parseAlertJSON(json) { console.log(json); alertCount = 0; if (Object.keys(json.alerts).length > 0) { $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body ").empty(); } $.each(json.alerts, function(key, val) { alertCount++; $("#mrd-wx-alerts .alert_count").text(alertCount); $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body ").append(''); $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(""+val.title+""); if (val.poly != "" && val.polyimg != "") { $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(''); } else if (val.fips != "" && val.fipsimg != "") { // $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(''); } $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(val.dhtml+"

Instruction

See more here:
Sign in Southbury that compared Democratic Party to Nazis addressed during special meeting - WFSB

Category: Anti-Defamation League | Comments Off on Sign in Southbury that compared Democratic Party to Nazis addressed during special meeting – WFSB
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 1, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) The United States is ramping up pressure on Poland in hopes of stopping legislation that would prevent families from receiving restitution for property seized during the Holocaust and communist era.

The U.S. said Wednesday that Poland is the only country in Europe to have regressed over the past year in meeting commitments to return seized property or provide compensation for Holocaust victims and their families. The public admonishment is likely to anger Polish authorities, who have rejected previous criticism on the matter.

The issue is one of several points of friction that have arisen or gotten worse between Washington and Warsaw since the Biden administration has been in office. Others include differences over the Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream 2 pipeline and a proposed restrictive media law.

The proposed compensation law, which may be enacted in August, has already been denounced by Israel, Jewish groups and the U.S. The new U.S. criticism comes just before the one-year anniversary of the release of a congressionally mandated report tracking European progress in adjudicating Holocaust claims. That report called out several nations but was particularly critical of Poland.

On the eve of the anniversary, Cherrie Daniels, the U.S. special envoy for Holocaust issues, said the Polish legislation would cause irreparable harm to both Jews and non-Jews by effectively extinguishing claims for restitution and compensation of property taken during the Holocaust that was subsequently nationalized during the communist period.

If adopted, the law would prevent property ownership and other administrative decisions from being declared void after 30 years, which would mean that pending proceedings involving communist-era property confiscations would be discontinued and dismissed. It affects Polish, Jewish and other property that are subject to contested previous determinations.

Poland says its a response to fraud and irregularities that have emerged in the restitution process, leading to evictions or giving real estate to property dealers. Authorities insist restitution claims will still be possible through courts, regardless of the claimants nationality or place of residence.

But those explanations have been rejected by both the U.S. and Israel, which has said adoption of the law would cause grave damage to Polish-Israeli relations.

We are disappointed that the Polish government and the opposition seems too often to purposely conflate property restitution or compensation with (WWII) reparations, Daniels said. We would like to see the Polish government, at a minimum, amend the legislation so that claimants with pending claims can continue to pursue them through the existing administrative process.

Daniels, Israeli officials and others like the World Jewish Restitution Organization and World Jewish Congress have called for Poland to enact a comprehensive law or establish a procedure that deals with the compensation issue, which becomes more urgent with each passing year due to the death of aging Holocaust survivors.

The State Department has identified six countries where significant compensation concerns have still not been addressed, but of those, only Poland has regressed, according to Daniels. The others are Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.

Before World War II, Poland was home to Europes largest Jewish community of some 3.5 million people. Most were killed in the Holocaust under Nazi Germanys occupation and their property was confiscated. Polands postwar communist authorities seized those properties, along with the property of non-Jewish owners in Warsaw and other cities. The end of communism in 1989 opened the door to restitution claims, most of which would be coming from Poles.

Poland is the only European country that has not offered any compensation for private property seized by the state in its recent history. Only the remaining communal Jewish property, like some synagogues, prayer houses and cemeteries, mostly in disrepair, have been returned where possible or compensated for.

The still unresolved matter has been a constant source of bitterness and political tension between Poland and Israel as well as the United States, which has pressed the Poles to address it through successive administrations and called them out publicly for a lack of progress.

The year-old report was mandated by Congress in a law known as the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today, or JUST, Act, which was signed by former President Donald Trump in 2018 with the support of many lawmakers from both political parties and Jewish groups.

Both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, have made combatting anti-Semitism a priority. Last month, Blinken and his German counterpart signed an agreement to begin a formal U.S.-Germany Holocaust Dialogue to ensure that the lessons of the Nazi era are not forgotten as the number of survivors dwindle.

The matter unexpectedly surfaced again at the State Department this week when a swastika carved into an elevator was discovered on Monday at the agencys main headquarters in Washington. Blinken, the stepson of a Holocaust survivor who was raised in the Jewish tradition, condemned the vandalism and said it was a sign that the fight against anti-Semitism must be relentless.

Read this article:

US ramps up pressure on Poland over Holocaust restitution - Associated Press

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on US ramps up pressure on Poland over Holocaust restitution – Associated Press
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 1, 2021

HENRICO, Va. -- 72 years ago Halina Zimms wish came true.

I was born in Poland. Lodz, Poland, said Halina. Everybody wanted to come to America. That was something everyone dreamed of.

To reach the U.S., the immigrant living in Henrico endured a road less traveled -- and far more dangerous than most.

I used to watch movies of Shirley Temple all of the time, said Halina.

But unlike Hollywood, the 93-year-olds remarkable tale is true.

When she was just 11, Halina, her parents and two sisters made a life or death decision and fled their home.

In 1939, when the Germans marched into Poland, things changed completely, explained Halina.

As a Jewish family, they were being hunted.

Provided to WTVR

There were rumors going around that the Germans were killing Jews and killing people. People didnt believe it. Nobody believe it, said Halina.

The family lived in a one room house for two years.

A day was like a month because it was so long, said Halina. Very Scary. Very Scary.

But eventually, the Nazis caught up. Halina knew she had to flee, and she bid farewell to her parents.

That was the worst experience saying goodbye to them. Because I would never see them again. I knew that, said Halina.

With the help of a mother in the village, Halina assumed the identity of her daughter.

She was a wonderful, wonderful Christian woman. If it wasnt for her we wouldnt be here, Halina said.

Using an official birth certificate and identification papers, Halina Zimm became Wanda Kazuzick.

Provided to WTVR

For two years, the teen worked as a servant for a wealthy Polish couple in Warsaw where some were skeptical of Halina.

Ill never forget his words. Get up youre a Jew. And you know what we do to Jewish People, said Halina. Youre going to be shot.

War was raging around them.

You could hear the fighting and machine guns and all of that. Then everything suddenly stops, said Halina.

Eventually, Halina escaped again she was 15.

I learned very quickly how to survive, said Halina.

By wars end, Halina walked for weeks back home. She yearned to see her family -- a reunion with her sisters three years in the making.

Her parents were gone. They perished in the concentration camp at Treblinka.

It was very dark time in history. Very difficult time in history, Halina said.

In 1949, Halina and her husband immigrated to the United States, settling in Richmond.

"Its been such a long time, said Halina, holding old photographs. Things come back to you when you look at those things.

Halina said her story is too important not to share.

A lot of people who came to this country didnt want to talk about it because it was too painful to talk about it. MMm Mmm. Not me, she said.

She accepts invites to speak at high schools and service groups.

As long as they ask me. As long as they ask me. I could never say no, said Halina.

Crowds are exposed to an extraordinary history lesson.

They listen. They can relate because Im trying to be honest with them, said Halina.

As a child, Halina Zimm chose a road less traveled to survive.

I was young. I was always going places, said Halina.

In her golden years, this senior is taking you on a journey to remember.

Ive seen so much hate in my life, said Halina. Hate is wrong. It can destroy you. You can never be happy if you have hate in your heart.

See the original post:

She survived the Holocaust by running, hiding and changing her identity - wtvr.com

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on She survived the Holocaust by running, hiding and changing her identity – wtvr.com
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 1, 2021

A few years ago, Shoshana Greenberg stood outside a building in Lodz, Poland, once owned by her family, with an old photograph in her hands and tears running down her face.

Greenberg, now 74 and living in Tel Aviv, was on a quest to reclaim property lost during the Holocaust. Her father was head of a prominent, wealthy Jewish family in Lodz that owned industrial buildings, residential homes and holiday properties.

When the Nazis came, the property was confiscated along with the family jewellery. They were forced into the Lodz ghetto. Later, Greenbergs father and his siblings were sent to Auschwitz, and only her father survived. After the war, the new communist government in Poland nationalised property that had been confiscated while destitute Holocaust survivors rebuilt their lives from scratch elsewhere.

Since the fall of communist Europe in 1989, most countries in the former Soviet bloc have taken steps to provide restitution and compensation to their pre-war Jewish citizens. Poland is the only major country that has not implemented such a programme and now it is on the verge of making recompense even harder.

In the coming weeks, a new law is expected to pass its final stages in the Polish parliament that will set a 30-year time limit on legal challenges over confiscated properties, in effect axing thousnds of claims.

The Polish government has said the new regulations are aimed at preventing fraud and irregularities. It has also said it is not responsible for the Holocaust, an atrocity committed by the German [occupiers]. But many other countries including the UK, Israel and the US have sharply criticised the move.

Israels foreign ministry said: This is not a historical debate about responsibility for the Holocaust but a moral debt of Poland to those who were its citizens and whose property was looted during the Holocaust and under the communist regime.

Last week, the US said the legislation would cause irreparable harm to both Jews and non-Jews by effectively extinguishing claims for restitution and compensation of property taken during the Holocaust that was subsequently nationalised during the communist period.

The UK Foreign Office and the British embassy in Warsaw have raised concerns with the Polish government. Eric Pickles, the UKs special envoy on post-Holocaust issues, tweeted: Restitution of confiscated Jewish property remains unfinished business. Polands many friends urge it to agree a fair and reasonable scheme.

Gideon Taylor, chair of operations at the World Jewish Restitution Organisation, told the Observer that the legislation was a terrible mistake that would basically eliminate any claims. He added: The arguments made by the Polish government that there needs to be legal certainty is correct, and a very reasonable position. However, with that comes a necessity to address the underlying issues.

Other former Soviet bloc countries had squared up to the past. But Poland is trying to ignore the past, and paper over what was a huge injustice. Some prominent Polish figures had advocated addressing history openly and transparently but unfortunately there are stronger voices that reject any attempt to look at what happened. The hope is that wiser heads will prevail, but its very difficult, Taylor said.

Three years ago, Poland made it a criminal offence to accuse the country of complicity in Nazi war crimes, with a penalty of up to three years in prison. After an international outcry, particularly from Israel and the US, the Warsaw government backtracked, making it a civil rather than a criminal offence.

Before the second world war, there were more than 3 million Jews living in Poland, the largest community in Europe. About 90% were killed in the Holocaust, many in the Nazi death camps. Now the Jewish population of Poland is about 10,000.

The Polish embassy in London said the legislation does not discriminate against any person or any particular group, nor is it intended to antagonise any party, including Israel or the Jewish diaspora.

It added: Polish law allows all entitled individuals, irrespective of their nationality or origin, to pursue their rights, including in civil proceedings, to obtain compensation for property lost due to postwar nationalisation.

Poland attaches great importance to commemorating victims of the genocide committed by the German occupiers on its territory during the second world war.

Greenbergs father asked her to one day reclaim the familys property. Finally in 2016, she had her day in a Polish court. On the witness stand, I was stronger than steel. My fathers voice spoke from my mouth, in the name of my family and all 6 million Jews who died, she said.

After the court ruled she was the legal heir, she went to her fathers grave. I told him he had won, that the familys dignity had been restored.

But within weeks the Polish land registry office denied her request that the property be registered in her name, citing a caveat registered in the 1950s. I was shocked. I was the heir but not the owner.

The new law is a further blow to Greenberg and other descendants seeking restitution. The property does not belong to the Polish government, it belongs to my family. It doesnt matter how many years have passed, she said. I hope the world will not be silent. I dont forget and I never forgive. Never.

See the original post here:

Anger as Poland plans law that will stop Jews reclaiming wartime homes - The Guardian

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on Anger as Poland plans law that will stop Jews reclaiming wartime homes – The Guardian
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 1, 2021

His books are saturated with despair. Over and over again, his emotionally traumatised characters are caught inescapably in plots that doom them to a life of anguish. Often, they kill themselves.

Now, the psychological wounds and suicidal thoughts that blighted WG Sebalds own life and secretly inspired him to begin writing fiction are to be laid bare for the first time in a forthcoming biography.

What lay behind his writing was this great trauma that he was expressing and suffering, said Carole Angier, author of Speak, Silence: In Search of WG Sebald, the first major biography of the German author who wrote The Emigrants and Austerlitz.

The book, which will be published later this month, sheds new light on why Sebald often chose to write about the Jewish and German tragedy of the Holocaust.

Lauded as one of the worlds greatest writers when he died aged 57 in a car crash 20 years ago, Sebald always had a troubled relationship with his father, a German soldier who fought in the second world war, the biography will show.

He fought with his father an old-fashioned authoritarian man his whole life, but their relationship took a turn for the worse when, at the age of 17, Sebald was shown a film at school about concentration camps. It was the early 1960s, and at the time, Angier says, the Holocaust was never spoken of in German families. That was Sebalds first visual and visceral encounter with it.

The film traumatised him. He saw his father as a Nazi, who had served without question in Hitlers army.

Painfully aware that his parents had accepted and benefited from Hitlers rule, he began to find their silence on the subject agonising. He could never get his parents to talk about the war, Angier says. He would accuse his father, and his father would clam up and say he didnt remember. Then he would get angry and they would have a row.

At around the same time, Sebald who was brought up as a Catholic began to question the church. He became a dissenter.

He grew depressed and eventually had a breakdown. He said later he came close to the edge of his reason at this time, and that this can happen if someones identity thats been built up over many years is destroyed or falls to bits, Angier says.

He would later explore these feelings in Austerlitz, his final masterpiece, about a Jewish refugee whose parents perished in the Holocaust. Adopted by Christians after arriving in Britain on the Kindertransport as a small child, the refugee discovers his Jewish identity on the brink of adulthood and then, after repressing the trauma of what happened to him, has a nervous breakdown later in life.

Sebald hid his own breakdown from his family and never sought any formal treatment. He continued to suffer from serious episodes of depression, anxiety, panic and terrible feelings of isolation throughout his life, and ended up having three major breakdowns in total, the biography reveals for the first time.

The second occurred during his first term as a 22-year-old teacher at Manchester University. Overwhelmed by his feelings of alienation, hopelessness and panic, Sebald fell into another acute depression, similar to that of the narrator of Max Ferbers story in The Emigrants. He later confirmed that what he wrote there was true of himself, that he went through a crisis during that time.

At the time, he confessed to a friend he thought he was going mad and that sometimes hed like to let go, but there were people who were holding him back.

Angier assumes this was his family: I think he was suicidal, or had suicidal thoughts, throughout his life. It was at this point that he started writing fiction. He wrote his first novel, which has never been published. The hero is a very gloomy, hypersensitive character. Its definitely entirely based on himself its a very autobiographical piece.

It was while he was teaching at Manchester University in his early 20s, in this vulnerable state that he got to know the first Jewish person he had ever met, his wonderful landlord, Peter Jordan, a German refugee. Here was a real person, who had grown up exactly like him, spoke his language, lived in the same way, skied on the same hills and hed had to flee and his parents were murdered. Meeting him brought home to Sebald the human reality of these terrible crimes.

Sebald who, by this time, had started calling himself Max, instead of Winfried, his Nazi-approved birth name was struck by one particular aspect of Jordans behaviour. Like Sebalds parents, Jordan did not like to speak about the war.

He did that typical refugee thing of not thinking about it, not facing what happened to his parents. That is the story that Sebald is always telling, of these people who are both the survivors and victims of Nazism, forced into exile, carrying a burden for the rest of their lives and trying not to think about it, to avoid trauma. In Sebalds books, however, this strategy never works.

Later, he wanted to reproduce in his readers the same sense of shocking reality he had felt, so he put photos of Peter Jordan and his family in The Emigrants and pretended they belonged to his fictional character Max Ferber. The characters history is the history of Peter Jordan and all the photographs are of his family, Angier reveals.

Sebalds final breakdown, at the age of 35, was the most severe. On a journey through Italy, he started to imagine men were pursuing him around Verona with murderous intent. He felt absolutely terrified and convinced that all these terrible, sinister things were happening around him. He feared he was going mad, an experience he recounts in his first published work of fiction, Vertigo. He was in a very, very disturbed state.

He tells a friend later that when he visited Milan cathedral, he got to the top and nearly fell into the abyss.

It was this breakdown that tipped him over into serious writing. That breakdown was crucial. It is then that he begins to write literary fiction. He fills his characters with his own despair. Writing fiction allowed him to express the trauma he was feeling and hiding from the world. He always said he only started to write to get away from his academic routine. That was not true. He started to write to explore and deal with this terrible depression that hed fallen into. And it wasnt wholly personal, in fact the main trauma was the historical burden he was carrying.

But Angier is keen to point out that his books also display his deadpan sense of humour. People think his books are incredibly pessimistic and gloomy, which they are, but he was also mordantly funny. Humour was a coping mechanism a socially acceptable way of expressing his gloom. And he was very charming and funny in real life.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or by email-ing jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at http://www.befrienders.org

Link:

Revealed: the secret trauma that inspired German literary giant - The Guardian

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on Revealed: the secret trauma that inspired German literary giant – The Guardian
Tags: