Weekly roundup of world briefs

Algerian judoka quits Olympics to avoid Israeli opponent

By Gabe Friedman

(JTA) — An Algerian judoka reportedly pulled out of the Olympics on Thursday after seeing his tournament draw, which would have pitted him against an Israeli opponent in the second round.

“We were not lucky with the draw. We got an Israeli opponent and that’s why we had to retire. We made the right decision,” Fethi Nourine’s coach told Algerian media.

Nourine would have had to face Tohar Butbul in the under 73 kg division. He similarly pulled out of the 2019 World Championships in order to avoid Butbul, according to The Times of Israel.

Nourine is not the first athlete to intentionally evade an Israeli judoka. Iran’s judo federation has long forced its athletes to throw matches to avoid competing against Israelis. The International Judo Federation banned the Iranian team from international competition for a few days this spring over the policy but reinstated them on March 2.

At the 2016 Games in Rio, an Egyptian judoka refused to shake hands with Israeli Ori Sasson after losing to him. Sasson would go on to win a bronze medal in the over 100 kg group.

Butbul is one of several judokas on the impressive Israeli squad, which has a chance of taking home some medals in the sport during the Tokyo Games.

US authorities seize Judaica from Brooklyn auction house in probe of Holocaust loot

By Shira Hanau

(JTA) — Federal authorities in New York seized 17 items from a Brooklyn auction house that they suspect were looted from their rightful owners during the Holocaust.

The scrolls and manuscripts include community ledgers, memorial books and records from Jewish communities in Romania, Hungary, Ukraine and Slovakia. Among the items is a valuable record of Jewish burials from the community of Cluj in Romania.

The Justice Department began investigating Kestenbaum and Company, the auction house selling the artifacts, in February after allegations that 21 items were being sold without permission or documentation from their rightful owners. Four have already been sold.

“The Scrolls and Manuscripts that were illegally confiscated during the Holocaust contain priceless historical information that belongs to the descendants of families that lived and flourished in Jewish communities before the Holocaust. This Office hopes that today’s seizure will contribute to the restoration of pre-Holocaust history in Eastern Europe,” Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis said in a statement.

At least one of those items was sold after the auction house was contacted by law enforcement officials.

No one has been criminally charged in the case, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York told The Washington Post. The Department of Justice statement does not say who confiscated the scrolls nor name the seller.

Daniel Kestenbaum, chairman of the auction house which specializes in Judaica, said the seller “rescued” the artifacts after they were “tragically” abandoned in Soviet-bloc countries. He said in a statement that the auction house supports federal authorities’ efforts to resolve “this meta-historical problem.”

Jared Kushner to leave politics to set up investment business with Israel focus, report claims

By Ron Kampeas

(JTA) — Jared Kushner, former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and onetime senior adviser, is quitting politics to focus on investment, particularly on businesses that advance Israeli-Arab peace, according to a report.

Kushner’s business will be called Infinity Partners and will be based in Miami, where Kushner and his wife Ivanka now live, Reuters reported, quoting anonymous sources. The couple are about an hour’s drive from Trump’s Palm Beach home.

Kushner will also open an office in Israel that will promote business ties between Israel, India, Persian Gulf states and North Africa.

One of Kushner’s last acts as an adviser to Trump was leading the brokering of normalization deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.

Much of Kushner’s emphasis while shaping his father-in-law’s Middle East policy was on peace nurtured through investment and economic development. It was a winning formula with what he dubbed the “Abraham Accords,” but failed to bring about a breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Kushner also took a leading role in running Trump’s campaigns in 2016 and 2020, but has signaled that he is not going to be involved in a possible Trump campaign in 2024.

Kushner is a third generation principal in a family real estate empire founded by his grandfather, a Holocaust survivor. The company has done extensive business in Israel.

4 dead, including 3 Jerusalem yeshiva students, in Ukraine plane crash

By Asaf Shalev

(JTA) — Three Jerusalem yeshiva students and their pilot died when their small plane crashed into a house in western Ukraine on Wednesday, according to reports in Ukrainian and Haredi media. 

Media reports have identified the three Jewish passengers as Amrom Fromowitz of Monsey, New York, Hershy Weiss of London, U.K. and Lazer Brill of Brooklyn, New York. 

The three young men were fellow students at Mir Yeshiva, an Orthodox yeshiva in Jerusalem.

They were in Ukraine on a tour of Jewish holy places and had taken a sightseeing flight on Wednesday afternoon, The Yeshiva World reported. 

Their plane struck a house near the village of Sheparivtsi in the Prykarpattia region. The cause of the crash isn’t yet known.

Jewish community representatives in the United States are in touch with local authorities about ensuring a timely religious burial for the three Jewish men.

US officials denounce antisemitism after swastika is found in State Department elevator

By Philissa Cramer

(JTA) — President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are among the top U.S. officials to make statements condemning antisemitism after a swastika was found in a federal office building on Tuesday.

The swastika appeared in an elevator in the State Department building in Washington, D.C., according to a report first published in Axios.

Blinken, whose stepfather survived the Holocaust, condemned the graffiti in a series of three tweets Tuesday evening:

Hate has no place at the @StateDept. The hateful graffiti has been removed and this incident will be investigated. As this painfully reminds us, anti-Semitism isn’t a relic of the past. We must be relentless in standing up and rejecting anti-Semitism.

We also know from our own history and from the histories of others that anti-Semitism often goes hand in hand with racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and other hatreds. None of these ideologies should have a home in our workplace or our nation.

To our Jewish colleagues: please know how grateful we are for your service and how proud we are to be your colleagues. And that goes for our entire diverse, dedicated team in Washington and around the world. It’s an honor to serve alongside you on behalf of the American people.

Biden echoed those comments in a tweet Tuesday night when he shared a CNN story about the swastika.

The swastika appeared in the government building on the first day of hearings by the House of Representatives panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

It also comes as the Biden administration says it is weeks away from naming an antisemitism monitor who would be responsible for reporting on antisemitism overseas and pressing foreign governments to adopt measures to mitigate antisemitism.

Is Tokyo Olympics gold-medal swimmer Lydia Jacoby Jewish?

By Emily Burack

(JTA) — Lydia Jacoby, the 17-year-old swimmer from Seward, Alaska, surprised many when she came from behind to win the 100m breaststroke at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday night. Even Jacoby herself couldn’t believe it: Her jaw dropped when she removed her goggles and saw her time of 1 minute, 4 seconds.

Jacoby’s underdog status, as the first-ever Olympic swimmer from Alaska, which has just one Olympic-sized pool, meant that Jewish viewers may have wondered for the first time: Is Lydia Jacoby Jewish?

Jacoby, also spelled Jacobi, is a surname of Ashkenazi Jewish or German origin. Ancestry.com lists the name as “Jewish, English, and German,” a variant of Jacobi, and according to a baby names site, “Jacoby is most likely the transferred use of a patronymic Jewish surname derived from the Hebrew personal name ‘Yaakov’ which was eventually Latinized to Jacob.”

Some of the notable Jacobys in history were Jewish, including one who fled the Nazis in Germany to become an influential Israeli composer, but many others were not. The swimming phenom does not appear to be Jewish.

Her parents, Richard and Leslie, are both boat captains and self-described “boat people.” Leslie’s parents, Jerry Hines and Janet Hines (nee Miles), were active in St. John United Methodist Church in Anchorage, according to their obituaries. While names cannot prove who is Jewish, public records show that Richard’s father is also named Richard and he has a brother named Christopher, both unlikely for Jewish men.

Jacoby’s hometown of Seward — where her high school classmates went viral for how they cheered her on — has a population of roughly 2,773 people; the majority of the state’s Jews live in Anchorage.

First commercial direct flights from Israel land in Morocco

By Ron Kampeas

(JTA) — Two Israeli airlines have started what looks like a beautiful friendship with Morocco.

Israir and El Al flights from Tel Aviv landed in Marrakesh on Sunday, Agence France Presse reported. The debut flights to Morocco are an outcome of the normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab states.

Israir is planning three flights a week to Marrakesh, the agency quoted the airline’s officials as saying, and El Al five flights a week, to Marrakesh and Casablanca.

Israelis, many of Moroccan descent, have routinely traveled to Morocco since the relaxation of restrictions in the 1990s, but via third countries. There have been a handful of direct flights having to do with affairs of state.

The direct flights are a result of the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements brokered last year by the Trump administration between Israel and Morocco as well as Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Sustaining and expanding the accords is one of the few areas of foreign policy agreement between the Trump and Biden administrations.

Pinhas Moyal, who arrived on the Israir flight, descended wearing a mask and carrying a bag in the Moroccan colors.

“I am originally from Marrakesh,” he said. “I’ve come back here around 30 times, but this time, the trip has a special flavor. It’s as if it were the first time!”

3 Jewish fencers fail to medal in individual events at Tokyo Olympics

By Emily Burack

(JTA) — Eli Dershwitz returned to the Olympics for redemption after losing in the opening round of the 2016 Rio Games.

It didn’t work out that way for the American Jewish fencer.

On Saturday, he lost in the second round of the individual saber competition at the Tokyo Games to South Korea’s Kim Jung-Hwan. Dershwitz, who was considered a medal favorite, aimed to be the first American man to win gold in saber fencing.

He does have a second chance at medaling, however: This year’s Olympics feature a team competition. He will compete on Wednesday with Team USA fencers Daryl Homer and Andrew Mackiewicz, both of whom also lost in the individual event. The trio is ranked eighth in the team competition.

Dershwitz’s teammate Jake Hoyle, also Jewish, failed to advance past the first round on Sunday in epee. Hoyle, too, will have a second chance in the team epee on Friday.

“Many of the teammates and coaches that I’ve worked with over the years have been Jewish. To me, the world of Team USA fencing feels like one filled with support for Jewish athletes,” Hoyle told Alma ahead of the Olympics. “I’m proud to be a Jewish fencer, and to be part of a community that prioritizes sportsmanship and camaraderie.”

Another Jewish fencer, Eli Schenkel of Canada, also failed to advance past the first round in the men’s individual foil competition. Yet he took it in stride, posting to his Instagram story after the event, “Dream of rocking a Jewfro at the Olympics? [Check emoji].”

Schenkel, too, will compete in the team competition on Sunday.

Anti-Defamation League partners with PayPal to research how extremists share money online

By Gabe Friedman

(JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League has joined with PayPal to research how extremists use financial platforms to fund criminal activity.

The partnership will focus on “uncovering and disrupting the financial pipelines that support extremist and hate movements” by targeting “actors and networks spreading and profiting from all forms of hate and bigotry,” according to an ADL news release published Monday morning.

Their findings will be “shared broadly across the financial industry and with policymakers and law enforcement,” according to the release.

The ADL’s Center on Extremism will be one of multiple partner organizations in the effort for PayPal, a San Jose company that has become one of the world’s largest online payment platforms. The news release also mentions the League of United Latin American Citizens.

The ADL, a nonprofit headquartered in New York City, specializes in combating antisemitism and other forms of hate. The PayPal partnership is the second it has announced in the last week: It also announced a new relationship with the Union of Reform Judaism to launch an antisemitism reporting tool that both the ADL and URJ will monitor. That announcement comes amid criticism from the left that the group too freely identifies criticism of Israel as antisemitism.

19-year-old taekwondo fighter wins Israel’s first Olympic medal in Tokyo

By Gabe Friedman

(JTA) — Avishag Semberg, a 19-year-old taekwondo fighter, won bronze in the women’s under 49 kg category on Saturday, giving Israel its first medal of the Tokyo Olympics and its first ever in the sport.

Semberg was not predicted to medal, but she earned the bronze after defeating Turkey’s Rukiye Yldrm. After the match, she embraced Yael Arad, a former judoka who was Israel’s first Olympic medalist in 1992, in the stands, The Times of Israel reported.

“I said to myself, ‘I want this medal more than she does,’ and I did it… I have an Olympic medal at 19, it’s a dream come true,” Semberg said after her win.

Semberg’s first win earlier in the day was Israel’s first ever Olympic win in any taekwondo category. She had won gold in the European championships earlier this year.

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art that involves punching and kicking, often at head height, and sometimes in spinning fashion. Israel is expected to win at least one medal in judo, a Japanese martial art that features wrestling techniques.

IDF increases number of Palestinians eligible to work inside Israel

By JNS staff

(JNS) — The Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, informed Palestinian Authority senior officials of a rise in the number of Palestinians eligible to work in Israel, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Wednesday.

The decision by COGAT follows a conversation held last week between Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas.

The discussion led to administrative preparation work in coordination with the Israeli Ministries of Housing, Finance, Defense and Regional Cooperation, which led to a decision to increase the number of West Bank Palestinians eligible to work in the construction sector in Israel by 15,000. The number of West Bank Palestinians eligible to work in the tourism industry rose by a thousand, following joint preparations with the Tourism Ministry.

A security official said that “the number of Palestinian workers in Israel and in the Jewish communities across Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] will stand at approximately 136,000 after the current addition.” Currently, he said, some 90,000 Palestinians work in Israel and a further 30,000 who work in settlements.

Alian noted that the Israeli defense establishment would “complete preparations” to ensure that checkpoints will be able to handle the increased traffic of Palestinians to and from Israel.

He added that in light of the talks between Gantz and Abbas, additional steps designed to strengthen economic ties between Israel and the P.A. are expected.