113 bereaved boys take part in mass bar mitzvah at Western Wall
(JNS.org) The Jewish charity Colel Chabad on Monday hosted a mass bar mitzvah celebration at the Western Wall in Jerusalem for 113 boys who had lost a parent.
Each boy received a new set of tallit and tefillin as well as a dress tie and kippah, and made the traditional blessing over the Torah for the first time. Many of the boys came from economically disadvantaged families that could not have afforded to organize a full bar mitzvah celebration. Causes of death for the boys’ parents included illness, accidents, terrorism, and suicide.
The Colel Chabad bar mitzvah program, in its seventh year, was the brainchild of Rabbi Yitzchak Mishan of Brazil, a father of 13 who lost his wife to illness. Colel Chabad also runs a bat mitzvah program for girls.
“During times of happiness, I know that these families feel that something is missing in their lives,” Mishan said in a statement. “So our goal was to ensure that these children know that they are not alone, that they can be truly happy, and that life will go on despite the obvious pain and loss they are feeling.”
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Report: Israel sought European mediation for talks with Hamas
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel asked European officials to serve as arbitrators in talks with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas about the return of remains of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge last summer, al-Araby al-Jadeed reported Monday.
According to the London-based news outlet, senior Hamas officials said they refused to discuss the issue as long as Israel still holds prisoners who were released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, but were later rearrested.
Meanwhile, Arab media outlets reported that Hamas leaders are conflicted over whether to have indirect lines of communication with Israel to discuss a five-year cease-fire. It was recently reported that Qatari officials contacted Israel on behalf of Hamas and offered to mediate a long-term cease-fire agreement. While Hamas leaders in Gaza were in favor of this initiative, Hamas leaders abroad remain opposed to any negotiations that could bring about a long-term cease-fire.
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Abbas slammed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad for urging Arab intervention in Gaza
(JNS.org) Leaders from the Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad slammed Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas for purportedly suggesting that Arab states intervene in Gaza with military force resembling their action in Yemen.
Abbas made the suggestion during his remarks at the Arab League summit in Egypt, where he praised the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen as “acceptable and advisable” and said that “there are other cases, there are other countries suffering from division and discord.”
“We suffer from division. We were the first to suffer from division,” Abbas said, in reference to the split between the PA-controlled West Bank and Hamas-controlled Gaza.
“Abbas had previously described Gaza as a rebellious region and seeks to pit the world against his own people, not to mention that he works with the Israelis against his Palestinians,” Hamas member Mushir al-Masri said at a rally against Abbas in northern Gaza on Sunday evening, the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Dawood Shehad, a spokesperson from Islamic Jihad, said Abbas’s statements are “poisonous and to destroy every effort towards national unity and internal cohesion.”
“Gaza will never become a separate entity from the rest of Palestine, and the conspiracy Abbas is warning of is actually of his own making,” Shehab said, according to the Anadolu Agency.
At the Arab League summit, Arab leaders agreed to form a joint military force to confront regional threats such as the Islamic State terror group and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
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Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert found guilty of bribery in retrial
(JNS.org) Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert was convicted for bribery in a retrial at the Jerusalem District Court after previously being acquitted. Olmert was found guilty of accepting illegal payments from an American businessman in 2012 based on new evidence reviewed by the court.
The court ruled that Olmert received about $600,000 from Morris Talansky while he was mayor of Jerusalem, and additional funds while he served as a cabinet minister. The court did not rule, however, that Olmert used the money for any illegal activities.
“In light of the new evidence, we have changed our conclusion… The defendant was obligated to report that cash to the state comptroller. Failure to report precluded any oversight and thus a causative connection was established. [Olmert’s] efforts to convince [his aide Shula] Zaken to say the money was a campaign fund indicate that he knew what he was doing,” the three judges who made the ruling wrote in their decision.
In March 2014, Olmert was found guilty on different bribery charges, for accepting $160,000 from the developers of the massive Holyland apartment complex in Jerusalem while he was mayor.
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Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman
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