Netanyahu writes final letters of Torah scroll in memory of soldiers
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday wrote the final letters of a Torah scroll dedicated to Israel’s fallen soldiers.
The scroll was one of 73 scrolls donated in August and showcased at the Western Wall before being sent to chapters of Yad Lebanim, the organization tasked with memorializing Israel’s fallen. Some of the scrolls were found in the basement of a European synagogue after years of neglect and are still undergoing restoration.
Representatives of bereaved families such as Miriam Peretz, the mother of two slain soldiers, attended Thursday’s event.
“The completion of this Torah scroll represents the sanctity of life and the great pain that we feel over the loss of our sons and daughters. But this is the price of the lives we live….You know this, Miriam [Peretz]. I know it. This is a terrible price but it is the price of life,” Netanyahu said.
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Police disperse Jerusalem meeting of outlawed Islamic Movement branch
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli police on Thursday forcefully dispersed a gathering in Jerusalem of members of the recently outlawed Islamic Movement in Israel’s Northern Branch.
Police learned that the banned group planned to hold a meeting at the Commodore Hotel in eastern Jerusalem, and informed organizers that the meeting would not be allowed to take place. Subsequently, dozens of Northern Branch activists gathered outside the hotel to protest the cancellation of the meeting.
According to police, the protest quickly turned into a riot. After rioters refused to leave the scene, police used crowd-dispersal means, including stun grenades. One senior Northern Branch official was arrested.
Israel outlawed the Northern Branch in November over activities including the “mendacious campaign of incitement under the heading ‘Al-Aqsa is in danger’ that falsely accuses Israel of intending to harm the Al-Aqsa mosque and violate the status quo.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri signed an order prohibiting Sheikh Raed Salah, the Northern Branch’s leader, from leaving Israel. The travel ban also applies to Salah’s deputy, Kamal Khatib, as well as several other Northern Branch activists. Deri’s move stemmed from concerns that overseas travel by the banned individuals could harm national security.
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IDF officer stabbed near Nablus, second attack foiled
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian terrorists on Thursday in two separate stabbing attacks.
The first attack took place in Beit Anun, near Hebron, when a Palestinian terrorist tried to stab Israeli soldiers. He was shot and killed before he could harm anyone. The attack came two days after a similar attempted stabbing in the same area. The attacker in that incident was also shot and killed.
Thursday’s second attack took place near Nablus around 1:20 p.m., when Israeli soldiers who were driving through the area noticed an object being thrown on the road. When they got out of their vehicle to determine who threw the object, a Palestinian terrorist wielding a knife approached them and stabbed a company commander at the IDF’s main officer training base, Bahad 1. The officer was lightly wounded and received medical treatment at the scene.
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‘Harry Potter’ actor Rickman, who directed play on pro-Palestinian activist, dies
(JNS.org) British film and stage actor Alan Rickman, best known for his roles as villain Hans Gruber in “Die Hard” and Professor Snape in the “Harry Potter” films, died from cancer on Thursday at age 69.
Rickman sparked an Israel-related controversy in 2005 over a play he directed, My Name Is Rachel Corrie, which was based on the diaries and emails of a pro-Palestinian American student activist who was killed in 2003 when she stood in front of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bulldozer to prevent the razing of a building. The IDF claims that Corrie’s death was an accident and that the building the military targeted contained exits to tunnels used for weapons smuggling.
Rickman, whose play garnered criticism from Jewish and pro-Israel groups, told Haaretz in 2007 that he was not trying to make a political statement through the work.
“I never imagined that the play would create such acute controversy,” he said. “Many Jews supported it. The New York producer was Jewish and we held a discussion after every performance….Both Israelis and Palestinians participated in the discussions and there was no shouting in the theater. People simply listened to each other.”
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Survey: Turkey’s citizens view Russia, not Israel, as biggest threat
(JNS.org) Russia has overtaken Israel as the greatest perceived threat among Turkish citizens, according to findings from the Global think tank’s newly released “Turkey Social Trends” survey.
Istanbul-based Kadir Has University conducted the survey in 26 Turkish cities through face-to-face interviews with 1,000 adult participants from Dec. 9-17, 2015.
“Although Israel had been at the top of the list of countries thought to ‘pose the biggest threat to Turkey’ since 2011, this year the Russian Federation replaced Israel on [the top of] this list. The percentages of those who consider the Unites States, Syria, and Israel to pose a threat to Turkey have fallen in 2015,” Kadir Has University said in a statement, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported.
This shift in public opinion may have been influenced by Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane near the Turkey-Syria border last November, an incident in which a Russian pilot was killed. Turkey said the plane violated its airspace, while Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident a “stab in the back” and imposed retaliatory economic sanctions on Turkey.
Though Turkey and Israel have had a tense relationship since the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a history of hostility toward the Jewish state, the two countries have recently been nearing a normalization of diplomatic relations.
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Aliyah from Western Europe hits an all-time high, Jewish Agency says
(JNS.org) A record number of Jews made aliyah to Israel from Western Europe in 2015 due to a rise in anti-Semitic attacks, according to the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Most of the Jewish immigrants from Western Europe—about 8,000 among 9,880—have moved to Israel from France, where this week the head of the Jewish community in the city of Marseille urged local Jews to avoid wearing a kippah in public following an attack on a Jewish teacher by an Islamic State-inspired Muslim. The teacher was wearing a kippah when he was attacked.
France has the largest Jewish community in Europe—about 500,000 people. Due to increasing anti-Semitic attacks and harassment, most often by radical Muslims, Jewish institutions in France are heavily guarded. French officials say more than 50 percent of all reported racist attacks in the country in 2014 were directed against the Jewish community, the Associated Press reported.
Elsewhere in Western Europe, nearly 800 Jews have immigrated to Israel from the United Kingdom, with significant aliyah also coming from the Jewish communities of Italy and Belgium.
“That a record number of European Jews feel that Europe is no longer their home should alarm European leaders and serve as a wake-up call for all who are concerned about the future of Europe,” said Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, who added, “At the same time, the fact that Israel has become the number one destination for European Jews seeking to build a better future elsewhere is a tribute to the appeal of life in Israel and the values the Jewish state represents.”
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Renowned Indian-Jewish military official JFR Jacob dies at 93
(JNS.org) Lt. Gen. Jacob-Farj-Rafael Jacob (also known as “JFR” Jacob), a renowned Indian-Jewish military official who played a major role in the creation of Bangladesh, died Wednesday at age 93.
A recipient of many honorary awards from the Indian and the Bangladeshi governments, JFR Jacob is best known in India for his role in the 1971 war that brought about the independence of Bangladesh through negotiating the surrender of 90,000 Pakistani soldiers.
In a 2012 interview with OpenTheMagazine, Jacob said his family originated in Iraq but immigrated to India in the 18th century.
“I have never been a very religious man. I believe in God, I can say a few Jewish prayers, but that’s it. When we were young, our parents hired tutors to teach us Hebrew. Unlike my brothers, I was not bothered to learn. I regret that now,” he told the magazine.
While JFR Jacob frequently visited Israel, where he engaged in behind-the-scenes diplomacy to foster Indo-Israeli relations with various Israeli leaders, such as former president Shimon Peres, he was also a staunchly nationalistic Indian.
“Israel has outstanding military leaders of their own, they do not need me. Besides, India has always been very good to us. I am proud to be a Jew, but am Indian through and through. I was born in India and served her my whole life. This is where I want to die,” Jacob had said.
Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon told India’s The Tribune that Jacob “shall forever be remembered as a human bridge between our peoples.”
JFR Jacob was a “pillar of military leadership and personified the best qualities of a soldier and a statesman,” said the Dalbir Singh Suhag, the chief general of the Indian army.
In 2013, Jacob received the Global Leadership Award from the American Jewish Committee (AJC). He was “for decades the most prominent member of his country’s Jewish community,” AJC said in a statement on his death.
India has a small Jewish community of about 5,000 people, according to the Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv. A new study conducted by the the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, India, shows most Indian Jews have Middle Eastern ancestry that is mixed with ancestry from surrounding Indian populations. The first Jews likely arrived in India about 1,500 years ago, according to the study, the Indian IANS news service reported.
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Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman.