Pope Benedict announces resignation
(JNS.org) In a stunning announcement, Pope Benedict XVI said that he is resigning as pontiff on Feb. 28 after eight years at the helm of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, citing “advanced age” (he is 85) and deteriorating strength,CNN reported.
Amid the announcement, Jewish leaders were quick to praise the Pope for his work in continuing to improve Jewish-Christian relations, picking up where his celebrated predecessor Pope John Paul II had left off.
“During his period (as Pope) there were the best relations ever between the church and the chief rabbinate and we hope that this trend will continue,” Ashekenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger conveyed through his spokesman, Reuters reported.
“I think he deserves a lot of credit for advancing inter-religious links the world over between Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”
Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Park East Synagogue in New York City, whose hosting of Pope Benedict XVI in April 2008 represented the first-ever visit by a Pope to an American synagogue, called this Pope “a man of conscience” who “clearly understood that his physical limitations made it unfair for him to continue to serve.”
“I always viewed Pope Benedict XVI, as a man of great intellect, integrity and sensitivity,” Schneier said in a statement. “He reaffirmed the principles of Vatican II which denounced anti-Semitism.”
Israel and the Vatican recently reached a historic agreement that formalized diplomatic relations between the two nations. It included agreements on the status of the Catholic Church in Israel, sovereignty over Catholic sites, taxation and expropriation.
Pope Benedict XVI also became the first pontiff to make a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Jesus Christ. In his book Jesus of Nazareth-Part II, Benedict forcefully explained both biblically and theologically why there is no basis in Scripture for blaming Jews for Jesus’s crucifixion and death, the Associated Press reported. For centuries, some Christian leaders have used this argument to justify anti-Semitism.
Pope Benedict XVI’s tenure also included a trip to Israel in 2009, where he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.
Israel and the Vatican, however, have not agreed on the Palestinian issue. Late last year, the Vatican supported the Palestinians’ upgrade bid at the United Nations.
Pope Benedict XVI also frequently condemned violence against Middle East Christians and warned of their shrinking numbers in the religion’s birthplace.
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Hagel in newly surfaced comments: Israel, not Iran, would start ‘nuclear exchange’
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) While defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel awaited confirmation, his latest controversial statements on Israel surfaced Sunday with the revelation of video footage of a 2008 event in which the former Nebraska senator postulates that the Jewish state would be the first to wage a nuclear attack on Iran, not vice versa.
“Someone was asking me the other day about a nuclear exchange in the world, where that would come from,” Hagel says on the video, posted on YouTube (http://is.gd/TjJYFB). “I said well I’ll give you a scenario that’s very real. If Israel gets backed up enough into a corner and Israel uses a tactical theater nuclear weapon, you want to talk about seeing some things unravel in the world.”
Hagel goes on to say that in such a scenario, “the United States shouldn’t even be thinking about options of bombing Iran or anybody else.”
A report on the Breitbart.com website claims that one of the reasons Hagel failed to turn over documents on foreign contributions is that one of the names listed is allegedly “Friends of Hamas.”
Meanwhile, former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has leveled severe criticism at President Barack Obama’s new cabinet, accusing him of undermining U.S. national security.
“The performance now of Barack Obama as he staffs up the national security team for the second term is dismal,” Cheney said in comments to about 300 members of the Wyoming Republican Party. He said it was vital to the nation’s national security that “good folks” hold the positions of secretary of state, CIA director and defense secretary. “Frankly, what he has appointed are second-rate people,” Cheney said.
Cheney also claimed that Obama nominated Hagel because he “wants to have a Republican that he can use to take the heat for what he plans to do to the Department of Defense.”
Netanyahu: Meeting with Obama to focus on Iran, Syria, peace process
(JNS.org) At the start of Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu welcomed U.S. President Barack Obama’s plan to visit Israel in the near future.
“This an important visit that will highlight the strong alliance between Israel and the U.S.,” Netanyahu said, according to Israel Hayom. “I think the importance of this alliance is even more prominent in light of the great revolutions and earthquakes taking place around us.”
Netanyahu said his meeting with Obama would focus on three issues—Iran’s nuclear program, the unrest in Syria and efforts to promote the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. But last week, White House spokesman Jay Carney had said the peace process “is not the purpose of this visit” by Obama.
Citing sources in Jerusalem, Army Radio reported on Sunday that the main issue of discussion during Obama’s trip would be Iran’s nuclear program. Israeli officials told Army Radio that Obama was coming to Israel in order to personally tell Netanyahu in a clear manner to not order an independent Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Iran downgrades ties to Bulgaria over implication in terror attack
(JNS.org) Iran’s ambassador to Bulgaria, Gholamreza Bageri, rejected accusations that his country was behind the terror attack against an Israeli tour bus that killed five Israelis and one Bulgarian last summer in the seaside resort of Burgas, the Associated Press reported.
The Bulgarian government announced last week that it believes Hezbollah was behind the attack. The Lebanese terror organization is funded by Iran.
According to Bulgarian media reports, Iran is also downgrading its ties to Bulgaria and sending home Bageri, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Bageri told reporters in the Bulgarian capital Sofia that Iran “has nothing to do with this attack,” according to the AP.
U.S. and Israeli officials have long implicated Hezbollah as well as its benefactor Iran in the attack, and have urged the EU to label the group as a terrorist organization.
But despite the report on Hezbollah’s role in the attack on EU soil, the 27-member union is unlikely to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization due to opposition from countries such as France and Italy, AFP reported.
Rabbi David Hartman, promoter of Jewish pluralism, dies at 81
(JNS.org) Rabbi David Hartman, a prominent Israeli rabbi and philosopher of contemporary Judaism, has passed away at the age of 81, according to his family.
The Brooklyn-born rabbi was considered a leader of liberal Orthodox Judaism and was a strong promoter Jewish pluralism and inclusion.
“Rabbi Hartman was a visionary rabbi and scholar whose dedication to bridging the gaps of understanding among varying streams of Judaism have contributed enormously in strengthening the Jewish people,” AJC Executive Director David Harris said in a statement.
Hartman, who held rabbinic posts in New York and Montreal, moved to Israel in 1971.
“I moved here in 1971 out of a belief that we were creating a new history, a new Jew. So, yes, we have a State, but there is something missing. We are missing people to instill a spiritual vision,” he said in a 2011 interview with Yedioth Ahronoth.
He founded the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem in 1976 to be “a center of transformative thinking and teaching that addresses the major challenges facing the Jewish people,” according to the institute’s website.
Holocaust Survivors protest Allianz golf tournament in Florida
(JNS.org) Holocaust survivors joined by Jewish, Christian and other supporters held a large demonstration on the final day of the Allianz golf tournament in Boca Raton, Fla., on Sunday.
Allianz is a Germany-based insurance company that had connections with the Nazis. It insured facilities at Nazi death camps such as Auschwitz and also deprived many Jewish customers of money from their insurance policies, Holocaust survivors say.
In 2006, as part of a settlement by the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, Allianz and other insurance companies paid out more than $306 million to 48,000 claimants, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The Holocaust survivors and their supporters, however, claim that Allianz still owes nearly $2 billion.
“Not only haven’t I seen any money, this is already 70 years,” David Schaecter, 83, president of Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA, told the Sun-Sentinel
Schaecter’s family was sent to Aushwitz when he was 11, and his family had an insurance policy worth $1,500 in the 1930s.
In 2008, Allianz dropped a bid for the naming rights of the New Meadowlands Stadium (now Metlife Stadium) in East Rutherford, NJ, after outrage from New York-area Jewish groups and fans of the New York Giants and New York Jets—who play in the stadium—for Allianz’s ties with the Nazi regime.
Samsung to invest in Israel for product innovation
(JNS.org) Samsung Electronics has opened a $100 million fund dedicated to innovative applications of product systems and components of its various digital gadgets. Part of the fund will be directed to projects in Israel.
“We’re going to support early stage entrepreneurs and academia. We want to make sure we’re part of the disruptive forces sweeping the technology industry,” said Samsung Electronics chief strategy officer Young Sohn, according to Globes.
This renewed innovation can impact Samsung products ranging from televisions and mobile phones to computers and more. Some of the money will also be invested in projects in California’s Silicon Valley as well as Cambridge, Mass., and will address cloud infrastructure, human interface and mobile health.
British MP Ward called out over ‘the Jews’ Holocaust comment
(JNS.org) Fellow British Liberal Democrats called MP David Ward to question him on his recent controversial comments comparing Israeli actions to the Holocaust, saying that “further decisions” will be made.
Jewish leaders in Britain demanded that Ward answer for his comments in January at the signing of a Holocaust memorial book in the British parliament, where he said that he was “saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza,” according to the Jerusalem Post.
Ward was censured by Alistair Carmichael, chief whip of the Liberal Democrat party, but later posted on his website, “I will continue to make criticisms of actions in Palestine in the strongest possible terms for as long as Israel continues to oppress the Palestinian people.”
Specifically, controversy arose around Ward’s original statement in which he referred to the Jewish community as “the Jews.” When asked by Britain’s Jewish News when he will remove the new comments from his website, he said, “Can you ask the Board of Deputies [of British Jews] if they are in agreement that I should replace the words ‘the Jews’ with ‘the Jewish community’—if so, I am perfectly happy to do so.”
Britain’s Liberal Democrats have since said, “The Chief Whip (Alastair Carmichael) has assured us that Mr. Ward’s latest comments will be dealt with as a fresh issue.”
Israeli Chief Rabbinate tackles quandary of pastry fillings
(JNS.org) Members of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s Kashrut Division called a meeting this week to discuss the problematic and potentially misleading shapes of an Israeli bakery staple, the puff pastry that is stuffed with various cheeses, meat or vegetable fillings, Israel Hayom reported.
One such pastry, about the size of your palm and shaped as a triangle, is particularly worrisome, and the rabbis involved are seeking to alter its shape in order to differentiate between dairy, parve (neither meat nor dairy) and meat fillings.
Kol Chai Radio, which broadcast the unique discussion, reported that a number of bakers, pastry chefs and industrialists in the food industry were invited to the meeting alongside rabbis who certify eateries as kosher. The participants sat around a table laden with pastries and discussed the questions that arise from the pastry’s geometry.
Rabbi Hagai Bar Giora, who is chiefly responsible for industrial kashrut certification, addressed the physical separation between dairy and parve pastries, and stressed the gravity of clearly delineating dairy products on the shelves.
“That the cheese pastry is shaped like a triangle and the potato pastry is square has taken root in public consumer consciousness. We have received complaints from customers who bit into a triangular pastry under the preconceived notion that cheese was inside and discovered meat instead. Keeping kosher is of the utmost importance,” said Bar Giora.
The Chief Rabbinate is expected to release a new set of procedural guidelines to help the public distinguish between the dairy and parve fillings in like-shaped pastries, thus allowing customers to avoid breaking the laws of kashrut, and aiding those with lactose intolerance to avoid health issues.
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