Weekly roundup of world briefs

Randi Weingarten, teachers’ union leader, joins J Street board

By Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA) — J Street announced that Randi Weingarten, a teachers’ union leader who has become a prominent voice in national debates over COVID-19 and education, is joining its board.

The liberal Israel lobby’s announcement on Wednesday said Weingarten would be joined by John Yarmuth, a retired Jewish Democratic congressman from Kentucky; Cary Sherman, a former top recording industry executive; and Jon Greenwald, a veteran diplomat.

J Street also announced that its longtime chairman, Alan Solomont — an eldercare entrepreneur, former ambassador to Spain and major donor to Democratic campaigns — would be replaced by Peter Frey, a New York City-based investor who is currently the group’s vice chairman.

Weingarten, 65, who has served as president of the American Federation of Teachers for 15 years, has been an outspoken advocate for union engagement with Israel and within the labor movement, and has pushed back against efforts to boycott or isolate the country.

She has also been a critic of its right-wing governments, and this year has joined leading American Jews who have endorsed the Israeli mass protest movement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to overhaul Israel’s courts. Weingarten has appeared in the past at J Street conferences and has aligned with the group’s effort to lobby Congress to speak out more forcefully against Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

Other stances Weingarten has taken have thrust her into culture-war debates. She became a lightning rod for conservative critics of teachers’ unions during the pandemic when she advocated keeping schools closed due to the spread of COVID. She has also been targeted for advocating for gender and racial equity within school systems. Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state, recently called her “the most dangerous person in the world”.

Conservative Party candidate says Jews are ‘frightened’ by London’s Muslim mayor

By Gabe Friedman

(JTA) — The British Conservative Party’s candidate for London mayor said that Sadiq Khan, who currently holds the post, is “divisive” and has therefore “frightened” some of Britain’s Jewish community.

“I will ask for as much help as I can get in London because we need to defeat him,” Susan Hall said Monday night at a Conservative Friends of Israel event in Manchester that was part of the Tory party’s annual conference. “Particularly for our Jewish community.”

British Jewish groups quickly issued statements condemning Hall and defending Khan, who is London’s first Muslim mayor and has Pakistani ancestry. The Board of Deputies of British Jews said that Khan has always treated the Jewish community “with friendship and respect.” Longtime Jewish Labour parliament member Margaret Hodge called Hall’s comments “dog-whistle politics” and said “Khan has always called out antisemitism, wherever it has reared.”

Since being elected mayor in 2016, Khan has prioritized ties with British Jewry, repeatedly calling out his own party over its handling of the antisemitism controversy that plagued its former leader, Jeremy Corbyn. He attended a community program commemorating the Holocaust as his first official public engagement, joined the Jewish Labour Movement and has made several pro-Israel pronouncements.

When asked by Sky News if she would apologize for her comments in the wake of the criticism she has received, Hall said: “I will never apologize for standing up for our Jewish community.”

Hall, a member of the London Assembly, also said that she has Jewish friends who have considered immigrating to Israel because they feel unsafe in the city.

“Since Sadiq Khan has taken over, these sort of attacks have doubled — literally doubled, over 1,000 or around about 1,000 this year,” she told Sky News, without specifying if she meant antisemitic attacks.

Disgraced Hollywood director Brett Ratner immigrates to Israel

By Ron Kampeas

(JTA) — Brett Ratner, the director and producer of Hollywood blockbusters who is seeking a comeback from allegations of sexual misconduct, has emigrated to Israel.

Last week, Ratner posted an Instagram story showing the passbook that Israel issues to new immigrants, granting them tax breaks and other benefits. He captioned it in Hebrew, “Brett Shai Ratner.”

The Instagram posts came just a week after he published a photo of himself, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Sara Netanyahu and Alan Dershowitz together at the United Nations. Ratner and Dershowitz were special guests of Netanyahu at his speech to the body. The director was for a time a business partner of James Packer, the Australian media mogul who is close to the Netanyahu family.

Ratner — who directed blockbusters, including the “Rush Hour” series, and produced others, including “Horrible Bosses” — was swept up in the early wave of “#MeToo” allegations about powerful Hollywood figures. In 2017, six women accused Ratner of sexual harassment and misconduct. He denied all charges but major studios cut ties with him.

In 2021, Hollywood media reported that Ratner hoped for a comeback and was signed on to direct a biopic about Milli Vanilli, the early 1990s R&B duo who were revealed to be lip-syncing their songs. Pushback from women’s defense groups that arose out of the #MeToo movement led the production company to nix the project.

Ratner was well known as a supporter of Jewish and Israeli organizations and has been honored for his Jewish philanthropy and other humanitarian efforts.

State Department pooh-poohs Khamenei ‘losing horse’ line

(JNS) — Vedant Patel, principal deputy U.S. State Department spokesman, was asked during Tuesday’s press briefing about Iranian leader Ali Khamenei’s statement that Arab countries that embrace Israel are “betting on a losing horse.”

“What I will just say is that I’m not sure that we are really interested in the supreme leader’s point of view on this when it comes to what we think could be a potentially transformative normalization agreement for the region,” Patel responded.

“What I will also just add is that part of this, of course, with these countries—with Israel, with, of course, Saudi Arabia—the nexus of our bilateral relationships with both of these countries is, of course, the role that they play in countering and combating against the malign and destabilizing activities that the Iranian regime partakes in in the region,” Patel added.

Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also dismissed the Iranian leader’s statement.

“While Khamenei’s terrorist regime exports ruin and destruction, Israel is advancing progress and peace,” he said.

IAI signs $120 million satellite deal with Azerbaijan

(JNS) — Israel Aerospace Industries and the Space Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azercosmos) on Tuesday announced the signing of a cooperation agreement for the sale of two advanced IAI satellites. According to Azerbaijan, the deal is valued at $120 million.

The “cutting-edge” satellites offer native imaging resolution better than 1.6 feet, according to a statement from the Israeli defense firm. Under the terms of the agreement, IAI will also provide “technology and knowledge for the construction and the operation of the satellites,” according to the statement.

The agreement includes a long-term business partnership between IAI and Azercosmos, reflected in the establishment of innovation, entrepreneurship, academic and study ecosystem in the field of space in Azerbaijan over the years.

“This landmark deal represents a significant step forward in space technology and cooperation between the two companies,” said IAI. “We are proud to have made significant contributions to this cooperation for Azerbaijan, and we are sure that this collaboration will propel us to new heights.”

Israeli child wounded by Palestinians near Huwara

(JNS) — An Israeli child was lightly wounded on Wednesday morning when Palestinian stoned Israeli vehicles on a road in the area of Huwara, according to Israel’s Army Radio.

The three-year-old girl was treated on the scene by Israel Defense Forces medics in the area and did not require evacuation to a hospital, the report added.

Four Israelis have been killed in Huwara in the past year—brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv in February and father and son Shay Silas and Aviad Nir Nigrekar in August.

Duel Israeli-U.S. citizen David Stern, 41, narrowly survived a shooting on March 19 while he was driving through Huwara with his wife on their way to Jerusalem.

Two Israeli soldiers were also wounded in a drive-by shooting in the village on March 25. A few days later, dozens of Arabs stoned cars traveling through Huwara bearing Israeli license plates.

Route 60, the main north-south highway in Judea and Samaria, runs through the village, which is located just outside Shechem (Nablus). The main section of a road that bypasses the town is scheduled to open later this month.

Work on the road began approximately two years ago, with several delays in the beginning. The construction received a boost in the form of an additional 50 million shekels ($13.2 million) following the murder of the Yaniv brothers and was initially planned to be completed by December.

Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev has lauded the project, saying the bypass road “will save lives and give residents a sense of security.”

Romanian ambassador, brother save Holocaust site from becoming parking lot

(JNS) — Even many who have an extensive Holocaust education may know little about the massacre of thousands of Romanian Jews in June 1941 in the Iași pogrom.

Andrei Muraru, the Romanian ambassador to the United States, and his twin brother Alexandru, a historian, learned about the pogrom from their grandfather, who observed it as a 20-year-old. “He told us he saw rivers of blood coming from the police station,” Alexandru told the Telegraph. “The brutality of the killings surprised even the Germans.”

The death toll was reported to have exceeded 13,500 Jewish men, women and children. At that time, almost 45,000 Jews lived in Iași.

The Murarus, who are not Jewish, teamed up to prevent a train station in the city of Iași near the Romanian-Moldovan border from being turned into offices, and the adjacent courtyard from becoming a parking lot. Mass graves nearby memorialize the many Jews, whose corpses were thrown from train cars en route to death camps. (There has been a Pogrom Museum at the former police station on site since 2021.)

“An estimated 380,000 Jews were killed in Romania during the Holocaust, and the country has never faced up to its role in the atrocities,” the Telegraph reported. “But things appear to be changing.” For the first time this year, Romanian students will learn about their countrymen’s role in killing Jews during the Holocaust in a new, compulsory curriculum.

“A country without minorities is a country without a future,” Muraru told the paper, adding that he hopes the country’s Jewish community will grow. 

“We in Romania,” he said, “definitely feel the absence of our Jewish minority.”

San Francisco Giants fire Jewish manager Gabe Kapler

(JNS) — First, the Boston Red Sox canned its Orthodox Jewish chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, 40, a day before Rosh Hashanah. Now the San Francisco Giants has handed its Jewish manager (and former Red Sox player), Gabe Kapler, 48, his pink slip during the Sukkot holiday.

Also in line with the High Holiday season, some are calling Kapler a “scapegoat” for the Bay Area ball club’s woes.

“I felt like I had a chance to help people grow, and people helped me to grow, and I am thankful for that opportunity,” Kapler posted on Instagram.

“The Giants have fired manager Gabe Kapler after four seasons—and one Jewish Heritage Night bobblehead,” the J. The Jewish News of Northern California posted on social media.

A proud Jew, Kapler has Star of David and “Never Again” tattoos, and he is a former coach of Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic.

Kapler has also been a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. Following the lead of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Kapler became the first professional baseball manager to kneel during the national anthem. 

He also announced that he would skip the anthem after a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, as a protest against the “state of this country.”

Variety to hold a star-studded Hollywood summit on antisemitism

By Jackie Hajdenberg

(JTA) — Variety magazine is holding a Hollywood summit with Fran Drescher, Marc Maron, Alex Edelman and other stars focused on addressing antisemitism through “inclusive storytelling, thought leadership, and advocacy.”

Actor, producer and SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher will deliver an opening keynote address at the daylong event on Oct. 18. Subsequent panel discussions will cover topics ranging from the history of Jews in Hollywood to combating antisemitism through comedy and social media.

“The reason we decided to pursue something of this magnitude and scale is simple, yet vital and urgent,” Claudia Eller, Variety’s chief production officer, said in a statement on Thursday. “We wanted to encourage candid discussions about antisemitism, its disgraceful proliferation in the modern era, and how to encourage more thoughtful and accurate representation throughout the industry. Our hope for the day is to bring people together to make change happen.”

One panel is titled “The State of Antisemitism” and features prominent TV producers. Another, led by film historian Neal Gabler and “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner, will tackle the industry’s Jewish history and antisemitism during its early years. Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz, Alex Edelman and Marc Maron will participate in another panel on how to use comedy to open up discourse on contemporary antisemitism. Julianna Margulies will discuss her own personal experiences of antisemitism.

Variety will also publish a series of online essays in conjunction with the event, including writings by Maron, Kiss frontman Gene Simmons, Beanie Feldstein, Mayim Bialik, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and more.

Bruno Mars’ Tel Aviv concert includes classic Israeli children’s Sukkot song

By Philissa Cramer

(JTA) — The crowd of 60,000 Israelis assembled for the first of pop star Bruno Mars’ sold-out two-night stand in Tel Aviv got a local treat courtesy of Mars’ keyboardist: a performance of a classic Israeli children’s Sukkot song.

Video from the concert showed attendees singing along to “Shlomit Bona Sukkah” (“Shlomit Builds a Sukkah”). The song which describes a girl building a temporary structure for the holiday of Sukkot, underway now, and finding that her “sukkah of peace” can hold all of her neighbors.

The song was written by Naomi Shemer in 1971 and took on new significance after the Yom Kippur War because of its message of peace.

Its performance in Tel Aviv, by keyboardist Jon Fossit, comes as the country again is on edge, with some who fought in the Yom Kippur War saying they see echoes in the current crisis over the right-wing government’s efforts to weaken the judiciary.

The Bruno Mars concerts have been a rallying point for Israelis who are attuned to the decisions of some performers to skip the country, sometimes in protest of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. According to a Times of Israel report, Mars, who has one Jewish grandparent, also shouted out the city several times, including by altering the lyrics of his hit song “Marry You,” and said “I love you” to the crowd in Hebrew.

Rome event to address Vatican’s ‘historical, theological controversies’ during the Holocaust

(JNS) — Historians and theologians will gathered in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University from Oct. 9 to Oct. 11 to discuss the meaning of documents about the Vatican’s activities during the Holocaust, which the pope released in 2020, for Jewish-Christian relations. 

Conference sponsors included several Vatican bodies; the U.S. and Israeli embassies to the Holy See; the office of Ellen Germain, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy for Holocaust issues; the Italian Jewish Community; the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; Yad Vashem; and the American Jewish Committee.

The conference addressed the “millions of documents pertaining to the pontificate of Pope Pius XII (1939-1958),” which Pope Francis opened in March 2020.

“Judaism lays great value on memory,” Rabbi Noam Marans, the AJC’s director of interreligious and intergroup relations stated. “We are taught to remember both positive and negative events and use them as our reference for present and future actions.”