Jewish news briefs: August 21, 2015

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New all-female Yazidi brigade determined to avenge Islamic State atrocities

(BreakingIsraelNews.com/JNS.org) A renowned singer has recruited 123 Yazidi women to form an all-female fighting unit in order to fight back against the Islamic State terror group, which has been committing systematic genocide against the Yazidi community. The fighters, aged 17-30, are currently in training to join Kurdish soldiers on the battlefront against Islamic State in Iraq.

Xate Shingali, 30, who has performed traditional Yazidi music throughout northern Iraq, received special permission from the Kurdish president to form the all-girls’ brigade, calling the group the “Sun Girls.” She formed the unit last month and has already recruited 123 women, all eager to take revenge on the Islamic State fighters that are decimating their people.

Since the jihadist group invaded and conquered the predominantly Yazidi region of Sinjar in northern Iraq last year, murdering 5,000 Yazidis and capturing hundreds of others, it has built a flourishing trade in abducted Yazidi women and girls, selling them as sex slaves to Islamic State fighters and wealthy sheikhs. According to girls who have escaped or were ransomed by their families or other benefactors, the slaves might be raped up to 30 times a day, and they are sometimes sold over to several different buyers, enduring unimaginable cruelty and abuse in the process. Girls who refuse to have sex with their owners are often summarily killed.

Shingali and her brigade are determined to avenge their families and friends by fighting Islamic State on the front lines. Many of them have sisters or cousins who were forced into sex slavery, and they are filled with a righteous determination to fight the men who have violated their loved ones and shattered the lives of thousands of Yazidis across the region. Some are eager to fight alongside fathers and brothers who are already battling Islamic State.

According to the Mail Online, Jane Fares, the unit’s youngest recruit at 17, escaped from Sinjar mountain when Islamic State laid siege to the entire region last year.

“My father was so happy when I had told him I had joined. … We are happy to fight alongside the Peshmerga (Kurdish military forces). Before, I was scared, now I cannot be scared of them. Any second they tell us to fight ISIS (Islamic State) I am ready… I hope to kill them all,” she said.

Another recruit, Hadia Hassan, wants revenge for her father’s cousins, who are still trapped in Islamic State-controlled territory, and a female cousin who recently escaped the group’s adopted capital in Raqqa, Syria.

“What I have seen happen to all the girls makes me want to fight ISIS,” she said, adding that her 15-year-old sister also wanted to join the Sun Girls but is too young.
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2 Iron Dome batteries deployed in southern Israel

(JNS.org) The Israeli military on Thursday deployed two Iron Dome missile defense system batteries in the country’s south, one in Ashdod and one in Beersheba. According to the Israel Defense Forces, the move was made due to concerns of an escalation of terrorist rocket fire at Israel should Palestinian hunger striker Mohammad Allan die, Israel Hayom reported.

Allan, an Islamic Jihad terrorist who in accordance with an Israeli High Court of Justice ruling is no longer an administrative detainee, remains hospitalized in intensive care at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. He informed doctors that his 65-day hunger strike was over and permitted them to administer full medical treatment, including feeding.

Barzilai hospital director Dr. Chezy Levy said Allan was conscious, no longer attached to a respirator, and receiving supplementary treatment to replenish severe nutritional shortages caused by his prolonged fast.

“Following the High Court’s decision in his regard, we are working to have him agree to receive the needed treatment and gradually mouth feed him,” Levy said.
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U.K. to reopen embassy in Iran

(JNS.org) The United Kingdom is set to reopen its embassy in Iran nearly four years since it was closed.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is scheduled to visit Iran this weekend with a delegation of business leaders, a senior government source told the BBC. Hammond will become the first British foreign secretary to visit Tehran in more than a decade.

Hammond is scheduled to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani; Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei; and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

The British embassy in Tehran was shuttered in 2011 when Iranian protesters stormed it. While the U.K. did not entirely sever relations with Iran, they were downgraded to the lowest possible level. But since then, ties between the two governments have been slowly warming up, with the nuclear deal signed last month being the impetus for the embassy’s reopening.

Iran will also reopen its embassy in London, an Iranian Foreign Ministry official said Thursday.

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Five Jewish organizations worldwide split $250K Ruderman Prize in Inclusion

(JNS.org) The Ruderman Family Foundation, an organization headquartered in Boston and Israel that promotes the inclusion of people with disabilities in the Jewish community, this week announced the five Jewish organizations from around the world who are slated to receive its fourth annual Ruderman Prize in Inclusion. The winners will equally split the $250,000 prize.

This year’s prize recipients include: the Yavne Institute of Montevideo, Uruguay, the only inclusive Jewish school in that country; the YouthAbility Program at Jewish Family Service Association of Cleveland, Ohio, which serves at-risk youths and youths with disabilities ages 16-26 by engaging them in volunteer service, vocational activities, wellness education, and social enrichment; Kisharon’s Adult Employment Programme in the U.K., which helps people with learning disabilities obtain work experience and paid part-time jobs through creating partnerships with local businesses; Room on the Bench of Brooklyn, N.Y., which works to engage teachers, outside service providers, and parents to create more inclusive schools; and Beit Hillel of Ra’anana, Israel, a think tank that has focused on the standing, status, and stature of people with disabilities in religious communities.

“It is our hope that these awardees not only serve as the gold standard for disability inclusion in their communities, but for the entire Jewish community across the globe,” said Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation.
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Obama mulls pulling U.S. peacekeepers from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula

(JNS.org) Reports indicate that President Barack Obama is quietly reviewing the future of U.S. military peacekeepers in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula as the threat of Islamic State-affiliated terrorists grows there.

The U.S. peacekeepers serve as part of a larger contingent of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), which was established following the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.

“The U.S. is concerned over deteriorating security conditions in an area of northeastern Sinai where Egyptian security forces as well as civilian and military elements of the MFO, including the U.S. military forces stationed at the MFO North Camp, are exposed to potential risk,” U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, theAssociated Press reported.

Given the growing threat of Islamic State terrorists, some have questioned the need for a peacekeeping force that appears to be a relic of a bygone era. The U.S. peacekeepers are lightly armed and do not have the weapons necessary to confront Islamic State terrorists.

Under Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, relations between Egypt and Israel have improved significantly. The two countries cooperate closely on military and intelligence issues such as addressing Islamic extremism, and Israel has allowed Egypt to beef up its military presence in the Sinai to confront the Islamic State terrorists.
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Four rockets fired from Syria strike northern Israel

(JNS.org) Four rockets were fired from Syria struck northern Israel on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said.

According to the IDF, the rockets landed in the northern Galilee and Golan Heights. No injuries were reported, but the rockets did spark a small fire. The IDF responded by launching artillery fire at targets in Syria.

Over the course of the Syrian Civil war, Israel has been hit numerous times by rocket fire—sometimes intentional attacks and at other times errant fire from factions fighting each other in Syria. But Thursday’s strikes landed much deeper into Israeli territory than previous rockets, and the IDF said the firing was intentional.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist forces supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been present in Quneitra, which is on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, where they have been battling rebel forces. In January, the IDF reportedly carried out an airstrike in Quneitra that killed a top Iranian Revolutionary Guard general and several Hezbollah fighters.
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New DC bible museum to display Israeli artifacts

(JNS.org) The new Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, will display a collection of biblical artifacts discovered in Israel after reaching an agreement with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

The artifacts—stone and alabaster vessels, figurines, glassware, jewelry, and more—come from different eras, including from the First and Second Temple periods as well as the Canaanite period, according to Micky Saban, head of the IAA’s National Treasures Department.

“The Israel Antiquities Authority is thrilled and proud to partner with the Museum of the Bible on this landmark project,” said IAA Director Israel Hasson. “Making the archaeological heritage of the land of Israel and the vital archaeological work conducted by the IAA available and accessible to people around the world is our mission. The rare opportunity to have a long-term exhibition in the U.S. Capital of a large selection of archaeological treasures that were excavated in Israel and illuminate the story of the bible is remarkable. We hope that the many expected visitors will enjoy the archaeological exhibits and learn about the periods and descriptions of the bible and the rich and diverse history and the archaeology of the Holy Land.”

Museum of the Bible President Cary Summers added, “When we set out to build the most advanced museum in the world, we knew we could do even better if we joined forces with one of the greatest collections in the world.”

The private museum is set to open in 2017 near the National Mall in Washington and is intended to engage visitors with the bible through its exhibits, scholarly research, and educational initiatives. Approximately $400 million has been invested in the 430,000-square-foot museum.

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World’s oldest Jew dies at age 114

(JNS.org) The Jewish woman believed to have been the world’s oldest member of her religion, Goldie Steinberg, died this week in Long Beach, N.Y., at the age of 114.

Steinberg was born in 1900 in Chisinau (also known as Kishinev), a city in the Russian Empire that is now the capital of the Republic of Moldova. Before she even came to the U.S. as a child, she survived the 1903 Kishinev pogrom spurred by the death of a Christian boy and a blood libel against the city’s Jews, and another anti-Jewish massacre two years later. Steinberg was the last survivor of the two massacres. She came to the U.S. at the age of 23.

In addition to being the world’s oldest Jewish woman, Steinberg was also the oldest person born in the Russian Empire and the second-oldest person living in the U.S. She is survived by four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

“My grandmother’s life, surviving the pogroms, losing siblings in the Holocaust, it was a history lesson. She was a very selfless person; she always thought of others. She lived on her own in Bensonhurst until she was 104 and refused to move in with my mother because she didn’t want to be a burden on her. That tells you something about her,” said Peter Kutner, Steinberg’s grandson, Chabad.org reported.

On the day of Steinberg’s death, Kutner was notified that she felt ill and traveled to her nursing home with his mother, where they were able to say goodbye before she died. According to Kutner, since not all of her family members were able to make it there in time, “after she spoke with my cousin Stephen, and hung up the phone, we saw that she had passed away. She waited until she parted from the last relative.”

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