Jewish news briefs: August 27, 2015

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WWII-era Jewish café reopens in Shanghai

(JNS.org) A café that was a popular spot for Jewish refugees in Shanghai during World War II has been rebuilt and reopened in the city’s Hongkou district.

The Zum Weissen Rossi’l café, better known as the White Horse Café, first opened in 1939. On hand for the reopening were city and district government officials, the consulate general of Israel in Shanghai, and family members of the original owners.

“The feeling is excellent, like going back home,” said 74-year-old Ron Klinger, one of the family members, Xinhua reported.

“Our families are very grateful to the city and district government for restoring the cafe,” Klinger said.

Klinger’s grandparents, who fled to Shanghai from Vienna in 1939, ran the café until 1949, when they relocated to Australia. Klinger’s parents also met at the café and got married in February 1941. He was born the same year.

It is estimated that around 23,000 European Jews fled to Shanghai during World War II to escape Nazi persecution, joining already established Chinese Jewish communities from Baghdad and Russia. The Jewish refugees were restricted to a small area that became known as the “Shanghai Ghetto” by the Japanese, who had occupied the city in 1937. Nearly all of Shanghai’s Jewish community left the city following WWII and the Chinese Communist revolution in 1949.
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Pew: Orthodox Jews in some ways resemble evangelicals more than other Jews

(JNS.org) A new report published by the Pew Research Center claims that Orthodox Jews more closely resemble evangelical Christians in their religious and political beliefs than other American Jews.

“Indeed, in a few ways, Orthodox Jews more closely resemble white evangelical Protestants than they resemble other U.S. Jews,” the report stated.

According to Pew, Orthodox Jews tend to identify as Republicans and take more conservative positions on social issues such as homosexuality than most other American Jews, who tend to be more politically liberal.

“For example, similarly large majorities of Orthodox Jews (83%) and white evangelicals (86%) say that religion is very important in their lives, while only about one-fifth of other Jewish Americans (20%) say the same,” Pew said.

The center added, “Roughly three-quarters of both Orthodox Jews (74%) and white evangelicals (75%) report that they attend religious services at least once a month. And eight-in-ten or more Orthodox Jews (84%) and white evangelicals (82%) say that Israel was given to the Jewish people by God – more than twice the share of other American Jews (35%) who express this belief.”

While Orthodox Jews only comprise about 10 percent of the estimated 5.3 million Jewish adults in the U.S., their numbers are rapidly growing, according to Pew. Orthodox Jewish adults are on average a full decade younger than the median age of other Jewish adults (52), and bear at least twice as many children as other Jews (4.1 versus 1.7). Additionally, 98 percent of Orthodox Jewish parents say they are raising their children Jewish, compared with 78 percent among other Jewish parents.

If this trend continues, Orthodox Jews “gradually could shift the profile of American Jews in several areas, including religious beliefs and practices, social and political views and demographic characteristics,” Pew concluded.
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Amid Syria tension, IDF chief tours Golan border area

(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot toured the Golan Heights region on Wednesday, including the Mount Hermon area that overlooks Syria.

Eizenkot was briefed on the ongoing Syrian civil war and its security implications for Israel. A number of high-ranking IDF officers, including GOC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, accompanied Eizenkot on his tour of the Golan.

Just last week, the IDF struck more than a dozen Syrian military targets in response to rockets fired from Syria into northern Israel by the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad terrorist group. The cell that fired the rockets was also targeted and eliminated by the IDF.
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Israel destroys Hamas weapons facility in response to rocket attack

(BreakingIsraelNews.com/JNS.org) The Israeli Air Force carried out an airstrike Thursday morning in the central Gaza Strip in response to a rocket attack on Israel on Wednesday evening. A rocket launched from Gaza exploded in an open field in the Eshkol Regional Council of the western Negev. No damage or injuries were reported.

The Israel Defense Forces said it responded by striking a Hamas weapons facility, in line with Israel’s policy that all rocket fire from Gaza is the responsibility of Hamas, the terrorist group that rules the Palestinian enclave.

Security officials told the media that the missile landed near the border fence and did not pose an immediate threat to Israeli residents. Therefore, warning sirens were not triggered. It remains unclear which terror group is directly responsible for the attack.

The IDF noted that since the beginning of August, eight rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israel. IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the army would “not tolerate any attempt to undermine the security of southern Israel. The Hamas terror organization is responsible for today’s attack against Israel.”

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Nearly 200 retired generals and admirals urge Congress to reject Iran deal

(JNS.org) A group of nearly 200 retired generals and admirals sent an open letter to Congress urging U.S. lawmakers to reject the Iran nuclear deal.

“The agreement will enable Iran to become far more dangerous, render the Mideast still more unstable and introduce new threats to American interests as well as our allies,” states the letter, which was first reported by the Washington Post.

The letter, addressed to Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, is a response to one sent last week that was signed by 36 retired senior military officers who supported the nuclear deal.

The group of retired high-ranking military officials include William G. “Jerry” Boykin, the former undersecretary of defense for intelligence under president George W. Bush; John Poindexter, who served as national security advisor under president Ronald Reagan; and former Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, who was vice commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe.

“What I don’t like about this is, the number one leading radical Islamic group in the world is the Iranians,” McInerney told the Washington Post. “They are purveyors of radical Islam throughout the region and throughout the world. And we are going to enable them to get nuclear weapons. Why would we do that?”
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Palestinian man stabs Israeli police officer in Jerusalem

(JNS.org) A Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli Border Police officer outside of Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday evening, lightly wounding the officer.

According to Israeli police, the incident outside of the Damascus Gate occurred when the man approached the police officers, shouted at them, and swung an axe at them. He then escaped, and when officers caught him and tried to restrain him, he stabbed one of the officers.

The suspect was a 56-year-old man from Hebron who had previously served a prison sentence in Israel for the murder of an Israeli in Jerusalem, but was released in 2013 as part of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Haaretz reported.

Separately, a firebomb was thrown at a Border Police vehicle in the A-Tur neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem. No injuries were reported.
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India voices support for Palestinians while pursuing stronger ties with Israel

(JNS.org) A week after an Indian warship docked at Israel’s Haifa port as a sign of increasingly “robust” ties with the Jewish state, India’s foreign minister expressed her country’s continued support for the Palestinian cause while on a visit to Egypt.

“Our strong traditional support to the Palestinian cause remains unwavering even as we pursue good relations with Israel,” Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj said Tuesday in a speech to the Egyptian Council for Foreign Relations. She added that India has “strong interests in the Arab world and [has] been strongly committed to its various causes,” and has “been supportive of your aspirations regarding the resolution of the Palestine-Israel issue,” the Jerusalem Post reported.

Swaraj is expected to visit Israel before 2016, as is the case for both Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Aug. 19, the Indian warship INS Trikand, dubbed the ”frontline warship of the Indian Navy,” docked at Israel’s Haifa port with the aim of “bolstering the robust ties between Israel and India,” according to the Indian Ministry of Defense.

India has recently abstained in votes on two different United Nations resolutions that ran counter to Israel’s interests.

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Israels Shenkar design school ranked fifth-most influential worldwide

(JNS.org) Israel’s Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art in Ramat Gan has been ranked as the fifth-most “influential” design school in the world and the 11th-best school of its kind overall, according to rankings compiled by theBusiness of Fashion (BoF) publication.

“Situated within the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv, Shenkar blends both the technical and conceptual in its curriculum. During the four-year undergraduate fashion design course, students are exposed to small group peer and faculty critique, where they must defend their concepts and processes in arriving at their finished projects,” the publication wrote regarding the Israeli school.

At Shenkar, “students were satisfied with the quality of the teaching and how faculty members taught technical skills,” BoF wrote, though noting that students “scored the college’s business and marketing education poorly.”

“Nonetheless, graduates leave the college feeling equipped for a profession in the fashion industry, with 83 percent reporting in BoF’s survey that they secured jobs in the industry within six months. The college’s students expressed concerns about its links to the global industry, although one notable alumnus, Alber Elbaz, has achieved great success on the world stage,” added the publication.

Shenkar President Prof. Yuli Tamir called the ranking “an unprecedented international achievement, particularly regarding the design industry,” according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

“I’m proud of Lea Peretz, the head of the department, the devoted and professional academic staff, and each of our students and alumni. They each have a place of honor in this prestigious win,” Tamir said.

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Egypt and Russia close to signing nuclear power deal

(JNS.org) Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Moscow on Wednesday, with reports indicating that the two countries are on the verge of signing a nuclear deal.

According to Russia’s state-run Sputnik News Agency, a government source believes “it is possible” that the two sides could sign a deal. The latest reports follow rumors over the past year that Russia and Egypt were on the verge of such an agreement. In June, Rosatom, Russia’s state atomic energy agency, submitted a business proposal on the construction of a nuclear power plant to El-Sisi.

Also visiting Moscow this week is Jordan’s King Abdullah and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.

During the visits, Putin and the Arab leaders are expected to discuss regional issues such as the Syrian civil war, terrorism, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Al-Arabiya reported.

While all three countries are closely allied with the United States, Putin has been attempting to forge closer relations with Arab leaders to signal to the West that Russia is not as isolated as the public believes it is, while the Arab leaders are attempting to bolster their nation’s economic and military strength to counter the Iran nuclear deal.

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