Weekly roundup of world briefs

Idaho to gets first ‘mikvah’ as part of $3.5 million Chabad construction project

(JNS) — A new $3.5 million construction project at Chabad Lubavitch of Idaho in Boise will include the state’s first Jewish ritual bath, also known as a mikvah, reported the local KTVB 7 news.

“This is a tremendous milestone that we are here today to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Chabad Jewish Center,” said Rabbi Mendel Lifshitz at a ceremony on Wednesday.

The center opened in 2004. The Jewish population in Idaho is about 0.1 percent of the state’s total population, according to the U.S. Census.

“When we [first] moved to Boise, it had a small Jewish community. It still is a very small community, but it did not have any traditional representation within the Jewish community,” said Lifshitz, who co-directs the center with his wife, Esther. “During the pandemic, our community has grown tremendously, and we are now looking at being able to provide more services.”

Boise Mayor Lauren McLean spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony and said the announcement of the new Chabad center “more than symbolizes the importance of community, the importance of coming together around the importance of shared values, the importance of having a place.”

The new Chabad Jewish Center will also have a children’s library to honor a community member who passed away six years ago, according to KTVB 7.

Austrian Chancellor in Israel to discuss energy cooperation

(JNS) — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer arrived in Israel for a visit on Monday alongside Austrian Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner in order to discuss security, energy cooperation and Russia’s war on Ukraine, as well as to sign a strategic partnership treaty, according to a report by Euractiv, which covers developments in the European Union.

“A deal with Israel, a historically close partner of Austria, could cover [Israel’s] gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea as Austria is looking for alternate gas suppliers,” said the report.

On June 15, Egypt, Israel and the European Union signed a deal to increase liquified natural-gas sales to E.U. countries that want to end their dependence on Russian energy supplies.

In a written statement released on Friday, Nehammer stated, “Israel is a particularly important partner and friend of Austria. We, therefore, want to further deepen our close relations at all levels.”

In his statement, Nehammer also said, “After the unimaginable atrocities of the Shoah, Austria bears a special historical responsibility and has an obligation for the security of Israel and its citizens.”

On Tuesday, Nehammer visited Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, and met with Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan.

The Chancellor, who previously visited Yad Vashem in November 2021 as Interior Minister, toured the Flashes of Memory exhibition of Holocaust photography, according to the Israeli Government Press Office, and participated in a memorial ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance.

An official press release said that, in an emotional statement, Prime Minister Yair Lapid said to Nehammer, “When I took office just last week, somebody asked me what was the most exciting or emotional moment I had in this past year since we formed a government. I didn’t even hesitate for a second, and I said: ‘The most emotional moment I had was with you in Mauthausen concentration camp, when you told me that on behalf of the people of Austria, you apologize for the killing of my grandfather who died there.’”

“I didn’t know it at the time, my mother was watching this at home and she cried,” Lapid said. “She told me she cried like a child. So this is the most significant moment for me in office, and I thank you for this again.”

Israeli judoka Sagi Muki loses match against friend, Iranian defector Saeid Mollaei

(JNS) — Israeli judoka Sagi Muki and his counterpart, Saeid Mollaei, an Iranian defector who now competes for Azerbaijan, faced each other for the first time this weekend after the latter was forced three years ago to forfeit a match with the athlete from Israel.

The judokas battled it out in the quarterfinals of the Budapest Grand Slam on Saturday in Hungary with Mollaei coming out victorious. The competitors, who have become friends over the years, also hugged and shook hands after the bout.

Muki said in an Instagram post that even though he didn’t win, it was a “victory of sport over politics.”

He added that “the great message that passed today is a message of friendship against all odds and thus the ability of sport and friendship to bridge all the gaps.”

At the 2019 World Championships, Mollaei, who was then competing for Iran, claimed he was pressured by Iranian officials to deliberately lose in the semi-finals to avoid a possible bout with Muki, who ended up winning the gold medal.

The judoka then fled Iran, was granted refugee status in Germany and competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics under the Olympic flag of athletes without nationality. He later received Mongolian citizenship and now competes under the Azerbaijani flag.

Mollaei eventually moved on to the finals of the Budapest Grand Slam over the weekend, where he won the silver medal in the men’s under-81-kilogram category. Israeli athletes took home a total of six medals in various categories of the competition.

After Mollaei revealed the pressures he faced from Iranian officials at the 2019 World Championships, the International Judo Federation responded by issuing a four-year ban against the Iranian Judo Federation for trying to stop its athletes from facing Israeli competitors.

Groups condemn Amnesty International products linking Israel to apartheid

(JNS) — The Simon Wiesenthal Center has blasted the NGO Amnesty International UK for releasing a new collection of anti-Israel merchandise to be sold on its website.

Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s campaign manager for Israel/Palestine and Syria, made the announcement about the new products Monday on Twitter. The merchandise includes T-shirts, placards, a briefing document and stickers, all of which feature the slogan “End Israeli Apartheid,” with “more coming soon,” according to Benedict.

The briefing document says, “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians” is “a crime against humanity.”

“While human rights are under assault from China to Nigeria to Venezuela, Amnesty fights for human dignity by hawking apartheid big lie on T-shirts. Monetizing anti-Semitism,” said SWC’s associate dean and director of global social action Rabbi Abraham Cooper.

He added, “Amnesty accuses Israel as guilty of crimes against humanity for the crime of existing. In fact, it is Amnesty whose behavior borders on the criminal by knowingly and willfully playing a central role in the international campaign to cast the Jewish state as an illegitimate state.”

The Israel Advocacy Movement called Amnesty International “shameless” on Twitter for releasing such products and further criticized them for “profiting from anti-Zionism.” StopAntisemitism.org said the NGO is “truly pathetic” for “resorting to selling merch[andise] falsely libeling the world’s only Jewish nation.”

Benedict told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that Amnesty International expects the merchandise to be “popular.”

He said that “the first set of T-shirts will be available in the coming days with more in development in partnership with Palestinian artists.”

Biden to be given Presidential Medal of Honor during upcoming visit to Israel

(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog plans to present one of the Jewish state’s top honors to U.S. President Joe Biden next week during his first visit there since he took office.

According to a news release, Biden will be given Israel’s Presidential Medal of Honor for his decades-long support and friendship towards Israel and its people, and his commitment to Israel’s security; his contributions to deepening, strengthening and enhancing a strong U.S.-Israeli alliance; and his work to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias throughout the world.

Created by former Israeli President Shimon Peres and first awarded in 2012, the medal has so far been awarded to 26 individuals who have made lasting contributions to the State of Israel and the world on the recommendation of an advisory committee led by the late retired Israeli Supreme Court president, Justice Meir Shamgar.

Herzog reconstituted the advisory committee when he took office under the chairmanship of retired Supreme Court Justice Yoram Danziger.

“President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is a true friend of the State of Israel and the Jewish people,” the committee wrote as its reasoning for giving the award. “The United States of America is Israel’s closest ally, a fact to which the president of the United States gives expression in word and deed. Since the start of President Biden’s career in public service in the 1970s, he has established himself as a person who loves Israel and is a true friend of the whole Jewish people.”

“For half a century, the president has stood by the State of Israel, has given his unconditional support to its right to exist and has fought with determination to expand U.S. assistance to Israel,”  it continued. “In this, the president gives expression in word and deed to the importance of the alliance between Israel and the United States, to his commitment to deepen the cooperation between them, to his support for Israel’s security and to his commitment to firmly confront anti-Semitism.”

Biden will be presented with the award at a ceremony at the official Israeli president’s residence in Jerusalem.

Among those who have received the award are former President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.

Israeli teen dance team wins gold medal at international competition in Spain

(JNS) — An Israeli teen senior dance team took home the gold medal in the hip-hop commercial mega crew category of the 2022 Dance World Cup (DWC) finals in San Sebastian, Spain, reported The Jerusalem Post.

The Chopskicks from the Nirit Dance Studio in Modi’in won for their hip-hop performance called “Zombieland.”

The Dance World Cup—also referred to as the “Olympics of dance”—took place from June 24-July 2. Its competitions are held in the genres of ballet, modern, contemporary, lyrical, jazz, tap, song and dance, street/hip-hop and national.

The Chopskicks traveled to San Sebastian with three choreographers, as well as staff from the dance studio and parent chaperones, according to The Jerusalem Post.

German president honors Holocaust survivor with lifetime achievement award

(JNS) — German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier awarded Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer with the country’s Walther Rathenau Prize for outstanding lifetime achievement in foreign policy, reported Deutsche Welle.

Born and raised in Berlin, Friedländer, 100, was the sole member of her family to survive the Holocaust. Her mother, father and brother were killed in Auschwitz while Friedlander was sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she eventually met her husband. The two of them survived the war and in 1946 moved to the United States.

Friedländer moved back to Berlin at the age of 88 after her husband’s death. She now speaks publicly to schools and organizations about her life under the Nazi occupation of Germany and during the Holocaust, according to DW.

“We cannot change what happened, but it must never be allowed to happen again,” said Friedländer last week at the award ceremony in Berlin.

Steinmeier applauded Friedländer’s courage and her efforts to share her experiences about the Holocaust with others. He told the Holocaust survivor: “Ever since your return, you have been tireless in telling your life story, in working for democracy and human rights and in fighting hatred and all forms of anti-Semitism and prejudice.”

The Walther Rathenau Prize is named after Germany’s first and only Jewish foreign minister, who was assassinated in 1922 by far-right assailants only three months after taking up the post.

Iran sending armed drones to Russia for use in Ukraine

(JNS) — Iran is providing unmanned aerial vehicles, including armed drones, to Russia for use in its war on Ukraine, U.S. National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan said on Monday.

“Our information indicates that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs, on an expedited timeline,” said Sullivan, according to AP.

Sullivan said that while it remains unknown whether Tehran has already delivered the military equipment, Washington has information indicating that the Islamic Republic is preparing to train Russian forces to use it, possibly in the next few weeks.

The senior U.S. official noted that Iran has in the past provided similar UAVs to Yemen’s Houthi rebels that were used to attack Saudi Arabia, according to the AP report.

The revelation comes ahead of this week’s trip by U.S. President Joe Biden to Israel and Saudi Arabia, where Iran’s nuclear program and support for terrorist proxies in the region will top the agenda.

Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that the Hezbollah drones recently intercepted by the Israel Defense Forces as they flew in the direction of Israel’s Karish offshore natural gas rig were made in Iran.

An Iranian drone attack last month in the northern Iraq city of Erbil reportedly targeted a Mossad unit.

Ashes of around 8,000 Nazi victims found in mass grave in Poland

By Madeline Fixler

(JTA) — The burnt remains of approximately 8,000 victims of the Nazis were unearthed in a mass grave outside the town of Działdowo, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance announced on Wednesday. 

It is believed that the victims were killed in 1939, and most were likely members of the Polish political elite, according to IPN head investigator Tomasz Jankowski. 

During the spring of 1944, in an attempt to hide the extent of their crimes, Nazis ordered Jewish prisoners of the Soldau concentration camp, where Jews and non-Jewish Poles were imprisoned, to dig up and burn the bodies. 

“It’s the evidence of how thoroughly the Germans tried to obliterate the traces of genocide they committed in Eastern Europe,” IPN said in a statement.

The estimate of 8,000 victims was based on the weight of the remains, a gruesome tally of over 17 tons.

The camp outside Działdowo, which was renamed Soldau during the German occupation of Poland, was part of the Nazi plan to eliminate Jews, political opponents and members of the Polish intelligentsia. 

Experts believe that approximately 30,000 people were killed at Soldau, but the true number has never been determined. A search is ongoing to determine if there are more mass graves in the area. 

PA to Israelis: ‘You must leave because you have no history in Jerusalem’

(JNS) — As Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials prepare to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday for a short meeting in Bethlehem, their message in Arabic remains undoubtedly antagonistic.

The P.A. denies the Jewish historical link to Jerusalem. According to Palestinian Media Watch, a filler program has aired on official P.A. TV from 2017 to the present that denies Jewish history.

The official broadcast narrator stated: “Our memories in this land are too long to be counted in years, and the occupier in our land has no memories. We remain here.”

Syrian military expert says only true deterrence against Israel: nuclear weapons

(JNS) — Syrian military expert Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Haytham Hassoun said in a July 3 show on Al-Ikhbariya TV (Syria) that the only way to create actual deterrence against Israel is by obtaining nuclear weapons.

According to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), he said that if Israel has nuclear weapons, Arab countries should as well. Still, Arab countries have been forced to make do with “passive defense” and conventional weapons.

Hassoun also said that “an active approach, in this case, means obtaining nuclear weapons. Who said the Zionist entity is entitled to possess such weapons, but Syria or Egypt are not?”

He continued: “It is no use saying, ‘I do not want to possess nuclear weapons.’ We must have this weapon if we can. I can present many examples. How come the U.S. does not dare to attack North Korea? Because North Korea has nuclear weapons.”