Argentine Jews ask for Netanyahu’s help with rampant assimilation
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Leaders of Argentina’s Jewish community have warned that accelerated assimilation by Jews in the South American nation and worldwide is “placing the Jewish people’s future at risk.” The phenomenon, they said, is akin to “quiet terrorism.”
Buenos Aires is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, numbering nearly 300,000 people. Recent data, however, suggests that more 50 percent of young Jews in the country lose touch with their heritage. Community officials said the issue transcends the “classic assimilation” of mixed marriages, and that it seems young Jews increasingly choose to shun their religion and even distance themselves from the State of Israel.
In a letter sent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, Argentine Sephardic Rabbi Isaac Saka wrote, “This painful situation will lead to future generations, millions of Jews, who will be oblivious to their Jewish identity, and have no affiliation with the State of Israel. Millions of others might know they are Jewish, but they will lack any understanding of their heritage.”
Saka urged Netanyahu to form a special forum comprising the heads of Jewish communities and organizations worldwide to prevent accelerated assimilation, and suggested an international effort“to discuss this urgent, important, and dramatic issue’s implications on the Jewish people’s future.”
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Israeli deputy minister denounces portrayal of PM Netanyahu and wife as pigs
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Member of Knesset Yaron Mazuz (Likud), an Israeli deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, denounced an exhibit he visited Thursday at the Haifa Museum of Art that portrayed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, as pigs. Israeli Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev was portrayed as a mafia member, wearing gold chains and a shirt bearing a picture of herself.
The caricatures, on display within an exhibit of the works of Any Warhol, are the creations of artist Ido Shemi. Mazuz asked Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav to remove the exhibit immediately and summon the museum director for a hearing. In a letter to Yahav, Mazuz wrote, “Not only does this false portrayal not comprise an original, true, or beautiful exhibit as the museum claims, [but] we are talking about nothing less than a disgrace to freedom of expression….Even art has to have certain boundaries.”
“Creations like these, if they can be called creations, are responsible for [Israel’s] negative image in the world,” added Mazuz. “If we express ourselves this way about our public officials without any bearing in reality, we mustn’t be surprised when media outlets in other countries present us in a negative light.”
Shemi defended his work on Facebook, posting, “In this artwork, I respond to things that are happening in Israel and in my opinion, lead to funny, interesting results. The artwork was created in the spirit of pop art and they should be treated as such. They are simple, funny, works of art. There is no political criticism of one side or another. Figures from the right and the left are pictured in the exhibit.”
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Brother of Brussels bomber won a taekwondo championship in Israel
(JNS.org) The older brother of suspected Islamic State terrorist Najim Laachraoui—who reportedly carried out this week’s suicide bombing at the Brussels airport and helped plan the Paris attacks last November—is taekwondo fighter Mourad Laachraoui, who came to Israel in September 2015 for the 13th Israel Taekwondo Open Championships 2015 and won a gold medal.
The terrorist’s family this week condemned Najim’s acts, according to The Daily Mail. The father of the family also expressed concern that the terrorist attack will hurt the professional career of older brother Mourad, who is also on the Belgian Olympic team.
Israel Taekwondo Federation President Michel Madar confirmed to Israel Hayom that Mourad indeed won the gold medal in the 2015 Israeli championships, but could not confirm whether he was indeed the brother of the suspected Brussels terrorist.
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Pro-Palestinian activist filmed tearing Israeli flag at Brussels memorial
(JNS.org) In a French television report on a memorial service held for the Brussels terror victims in the city’s Place de la Bourse Square, a pro-Palestinian activist was filmed removing and tearing up an Israeli flag that had been placed at the scene in solidarity with the victims.
The French TV channel RTL aired footage from Wednesday’s memorial service, showing the activist taking the flag from among several flags of other countries, crumpling it, tearing it up, and then hiding it under a Palestinian flag.
“I got the video from a Jewish student in Brussels, who happened to be watching TV and saw it on the live broadcast from the scene of the attack,” said Ido Daniel, who heads efforts to combat anti-Semitism for the National Union of Israeli Students.
“As soon as I got the video, I made sure to spread it across social media. This is the only way we can fight and reveal the true faces of these activists and what they’re focusing on at such a dire time,” he said, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
The activist, added Daniel, “didn’t really care about the terror victims or the catastrophe that occurred in her city only 24 hours before. What bothered her most in this terror attack was the fact the Israeli flag was there as part of a show of solidarity with the Belgian people. This is the essence of the anti-Israel obsession.”
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Netanyahu, IDF, MKs condemn shooting of incapacitated Palestinian terrorist
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with other Israeli politicians and representatives of the Israel Defense Forces, have condemned the actions of an Israeli soldier who shot dead a Palestinian terrorist in Hebron after the terrorist was already lying wounded and incapacitated on the ground.
The Palestinian man was one of two terrorists who stabbed an Israeli soldier on Thursday. They were initially shot and neutralized by IDF soldiers from the Kfir Brigade. In a video showing the aftermath of the incident, which was filmed by the left-wing NGO B’Tselem, an IDF soldier then shoots one of the wounded terrorists who was lying on the ground in the head. The B’Tselem volunteer who captured the video footage said the man was still alive when he was shot.
“What happened in Hebron doesn’t represent the values of the IDF,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “The IDF expects its soldiers to behave level-headedly and in accordance with the rules of engagement.”
“An initial investigation into the incident found this to be a very grave incident that contravenes the IDF’s values and what is expected of its soldiers and commanders. In light of the findings of the initial investigation done by the commanders at the scene, the investigation was passed on to the IDF’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID),” the IDF said in a statement.
“The [IDF] chief of staff [Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot] views the incident with severity and has ordered a full probe,” added IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz. “This is not the IDF, these are not the values of the IDF and these are not the values of the Jewish people.”
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said the soldier’s apparent actions were “in utter breach of IDF values and of our code of ethics in combat,” and that “even when the blood boils” in the face of ongoing Palestinian terror, “we must not allow such loss of reason and such loss of control.”
Israeli opposition leader Member of Knesset Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) said the shooting had “dire markings,” and MK Ofer Shelah (Yesh Atid) said, “The murderous loathsomeness of the terrorists is no reason for the IDF to lose its morals.”
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U.N. taps anti-Israel Canadian lawyer as new rapporteur for disputed territories
(JNS.org) A Canadian legal expert who has expressed anti-Israel views is set to be appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to the post of special rapporteur on human rights issues affecting the Palestinians.
Michael Lynk, who is currently an associate professor on faculty of law at Western University in London, Ontario, will replace Indonesian diplomat Makarim Wibisono, who announced his resignation in January, citing Israel’s refusal to grant him access to the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a factor in his decision.
The U.N. appoints a special rapporteur for the purpose of examining alleged Israeli human rights abuses against Palestinians. Israel has long blasted the U.N. for anti-Israel bias and has decried the world body’s post of an independent investigator for the Palestinian territories, without the presence of any similar positions for other sensitive global conflict zones.
Lynk has made controversial statements about Israel in the past. In a 2013 article, he advocated for bringing Israel before the International Criminal Court. He has also worked in Palestinian refugee camps with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
In Lynk’s application for the post, he wrote, “The value of thinking about the Israel-Palestine conflict through the lens of international law is that it brings an indisputably impartial, universally accepted, and forward-looking perspective on how to analyze this predicament.”
“The heart of modern international human rights and humanitarian law is meant to protect those who lack the effective power to defend themselves from arbitrary state conduct, from the denial of their personal and national dignity,” he added.
UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog group, criticized Lynk’s nomination and accused him of bias.
“The U.N.’s selection of a manifestly partisan candidate—someone who three days after 9/11 blamed the West for provoking the attacks on the World Trade Center—constitutes a travesty of justice and a breach of the world body’s own rules,” said UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer.
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Israeli firm develops solar technology to replace batteries
(JNS.org) An Israeli company says it has developed solar energy technology that is powerful enough to replace batteries.
The company, 3G Solar, created an advanced form of dye solar cell (DSC) technology that uses glass-printed photovoltaic cells to power common household electric items.
“3G Solar has invented a device that will be connected or built in new wireless electronics so there will be no need to ever change a battery or to recharge a battery. So when you have thousands of sensors for instance in a building, which is going to happen in the next few years, you’ll never have to change a battery again,” said 3G Solar CEO Barry N. Breen.
Dye solar cells, also known as Graetzel cells, were originally developed more than 20 years ago by Michael Graetzel, a professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne university in Switzerland. These cells produce power from indirect indoor lighting without the need for semiconductors, similar to how chlorophyll turns sunlight into energy using photosynthesis.
“What we offer in our cells, in our light power devices, is a solution that gives three times the power of anything else that exists, and we’re talking indoors, where most the electronics are used. So three times the power to run these new electronics, the new censors, the smart watches, and other wearables. So it’s a way to keep those powered that couldn’t be done before,” Breen said.
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Book of Esther scrolls found in hidden synagogue in former Warsaw Ghetto
(JNS.org) Three Book of Esther scrolls read on Purim during the Holocaust were recently found in a hidden synagogue at the former Warsaw Ghetto site after a wall in an old building in the ghetto collapsed.
Researchers at the Shem Olam Institute, also known as the Faith & Holocaust Institute for Education Documentation and Research in Kfar Haroeh, discovered the scrolls.
The scrolls were transferred to a storage archive at the institute. Two of the scrolls were in good condition, but the third was burnt and nearly disintegrated.
Rabbi Avraham Krieger, head of Shem Olam, said, “The more we investigate the life of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, we discover the courage and mental strength the Jews exhibited to keep the faith alive despite the grief and the threat of death that surrounded them from all directions. These scrolls, which relate the Jews’ miraculous rescue from those who sought their destruction, survived the Nazi hell.”
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Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman. Comments intended for publication in the space below must be accompanied by the letter-writer’s first and last name and his/her city and state of residence (city and country if outside the U.S.)
The following news release was received from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations concerning Canadian lawyer Michael Lynk:
.The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (COP) today sharply criticized the nomination of Professor Michael Lynk of Canada to the position of United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 because of his “well-documented record of harsh and incendiary criticism of Israel demonstrating an overwhelming prejudice against Israel.”
The current President of the UNHRC, Ambassador Choi Kyong-lim of the Republic of Korea, is responsible for filling the position which is being vacated at the end of this month by the current Special Rapporteur Makarim Wibisono.
Stephen M. Greenberg, COP Chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO said, “The nomination of Professor Michael Lynk by the President of the UNHRC continues the recent record of Special Rapporteurs whose prior anti-Israel biases inevitably predetermined the outcome of their investigations further damaging the credibility and weakening the effectiveness of the Human Rights Council. Of particular concern are We are reports that undue pressure to move forward with the nomination of Professor Lynk was exerted on President Choi Kyong-lim by some Arab and Muslim member states.
“We are extremely disappointed that the Council President did not even consider nominating one of the several qualified human rights experts among applicants for the position of Special Rapporteur with no record of expressing views on the subject they would be investigating and reporting on.
“The nomination of Professor Lynk comes amid an intensification of the annual irrational frenzy of anti-Israel resolutions under the Council’s Agenda Item 7 which this year reached a new low by calling for the creation of a “blacklist” of companies doing business in or with Israelis living in settlements, is a further stain on the legitimacy of the Human Rights Council and stands as yet another insult to the millions of victims of human rights violations around the world whose desperate plight the Council has neither the inclination nor the time to address because of its lopsided focus on Israel.”
In a letter to President Choi Kyong-lim, Greenberg and Hoenlein wrote “Contrary to your conclusion that Professor Lynk is impartial and objective, in fact he has a well-documented record of harsh and incendiary criticism of Israel demonstrating overwhelming prejudice against Israel. This alone should preclude him from a position where an unbiased observer is needed to report on the status of human rights.”
Greenberg and We express our appreciation to the U.S. for its continued efforts to defend Israel against the tide of one-sided resolutions at the United Nations. As U.S. Ambassador Keith Harper noted yesterday in remarks on the 31st Session of the UNHRC “Especially disturbing is today’s resolution calling on OHCHR to implement a database of businesses operating in settlements. This is an unprecedented step taken by the Council, one not applied to businesses operating in the DPRK, Eritrea, or any other state. This only serves to reinforce the one-sided nature of the Council’s actions against Israel and its biased agenda item 7 directed exclusively at Israel. We also remain deeply concerned by the call for such a database because it is far outside this Council’s scope of authority and because of the enormous waste of resources that it will involve.”