Ceremony honoring him today at 4:00 PM-Interior Minister Shaked: Sugihara a hero to Jews; and The Complicated Politics of Hating Israel By Jonathan S. Tobin and Jews Could Use More Friends By JNS News Service and 80 years since Babi Yar: Making sure the Holocaust is not forgotten By Israel Hayom
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
80 years since Babi Yar: Making sure the Holocaust is not forgotten By Israel Hayom
When my father was six months old, my grandparents put him in a burlap sack and smuggled him out of Ukraine as they fled the pogroms of 1921. Their destination was Poland, which they considered a relatively safe haven. To make sure he stayed quiet and did not draw unwanted attention, they put a cloth on his mouth, fearing any sound that emerged from the sack could result in immediate death. They prayed that he would make it, and to their great relief, he did. Thanks to their determination to survive I am alive to tell their story, and that of Europe's Jews.
Several weeks ago, at the 100th anniversary of their escape, I became chairman of the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center and a great responsibility was placed on my shoulders. Having served as Israel's consul-general in New York for four years, I could easily cross international borders and enjoyed diplomatic immunity, unlike many European Jews in the early part of the 20th century, who had to hide their Jewish roots. I felt privileged because of this freedom, feeling emotional every time I saw the words "State of Israel" and the menorah—Israel's national emblem—on my passport and in my heart.
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The difference between my border-crossing experience and the story of my father and his parents is nothing short of amazing. This is just one example of the transformation that the Jewish people have undergone since those days. During the Holocaust, the world descended into the darkest abyss it has ever known, as two-thirds of the Jews of North Africa were murdered systematically. I consider myself one of the lucky Jews who were born because their family managed to escape before these tragic events. The Holocaust is part of our collective Jewish experience, and even though Yad Vashem belongs to the Jewish people, it bears great significance to all of humankind.
The 80th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre is marked this week. The event, in which Nazis and Ukrainian collaborators murdered 33,771 Jews, took place on Sept. 29-30, 1941, on the eve of Yom Kippur. As if that atrocity was not bad enough, for many years Nazis and then Soviets added insult to injury by actively trying to destroy any evidence that could attest to these horrors.
To mark this anniversary, I will be making my first official visit to Europe as the head of Yad Vashem. I will arrive at Babi Yar, where I will hold an academic discussion on this topic alongside the presidents of Israel, Ukraine, Germany and Albania. The event is organized by the Ukrainian government and held under the auspices of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, which is building a museum there. I will represent the memory of those who were murdered there and the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. There is a Jewish, human and moral imperative to remember those who were murdered in the ravine of death and to make sure that their names never disappear into oblivion.
We must ensure that wherever the Holocaust is memorialized—especially in a place that some wanted to erase from history—historical truths live on forever and remain protected. Yad Vashem will not allow the memory of the Holocaust to fall by the wayside. It is committed to preserving this memory and instilling it today and for posterity, both among Jews and among humanity as a whole.
Dani Dayan is chairman of the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
{Reposted from the Israel Hayom website}
Jews Could Use More Friends By JNS News Service
Winston Churchill famously said that "nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result." In the last several days, those of us who are part of the Jewish and pro-Israel communities have been repeatedly reminded of Churchill's maxim. While the bullets flying in our direction are metaphorical rather than ballistic, we've spent a lot of time recently dodging incoming political missiles with the potential to do great damage to the Jewish people and homeland.
Most visible in the latest fusillade was last week's congressional fight over whether the United States should provide financial assistance to help the Israeli military restock its Iron Dome defense system after their war with Hamas earlier this year. A small group of progressive Democratic House members forced their leadership to eliminate a $1 billion earmark from a must-pass government funding bill, and although the spending was later approved in a separate measure, it provided an opportunity for a vocal and growing faction of Israel's congressional foes to air their grievances with the Jewish state's efforts to defend its people against thousands of missiles fired at civilian targets.
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In California's state capitol, meanwhile, legislation creating a mandatory ethnic studies course for the state's public schools was awaiting Governor Gavin Newson's signature. The bill is a vast improvement over the original version, which included a curriculum that neglected to mention anti-Semitism as a type of racial or ethnic hatred and uncritically held up the anti-Zionist BDS crusade as a worthwhile social movement. But it still allows for that objectionable earlier draft to be taught in local schools, and there is a well-organized advocacy effort to persuade school districts to use it.
And here in Los Angeles, a faction of United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) union members had introduced a motion to be considered by the organization that would have put them on record in support of the BDS movement, following similar successful efforts by the Seattle and San Francisco teacher unions. The Jewish Federation L.A. effectively marshalled a broad-based opposition campaign and was able to convince union leadership to indefinitely table the proposal, but the fact that such a fight was necessary provided an uncomfortable reminder of the pervasiveness of anti-Zionist and and-Semitic sentiment in political circles.
Along with the excitement that often accompanies such near-misses, narrowly averted disasters can also provide a false sense of security and safety. But these missives show no sign of abating in the future. A recent poll from the Louis Brandeis Center found that a majority of the Jewish college students surveyed had experienced anti-Semitism on their campuses and more than 60 percent had felt unsafe as Jews during their college experience. Half of the respondents have felt the need to hide their Jewish identity on campus or in virtual campus settings. More than half said they "are somewhat or very reluctant to share their views on Israel."
The Brandeis poll also showed that about a third of Jewish students said they're worried about online harassment or being "marginalized or penalized" by a professor. Which means that many of this country's future leaders are actually being taught that demonizing Israel and denigrating Jews is acceptable behavior.
While most of these attacks are not hitting their targets, it is increasingly clear that our community is perpetually playing defense. It is also clear that there aren't many others willing to stand with us, even those who face similar challenges to our own.
Some of this is our own doing. Compared to previous generations of Jewish-Americans, our outreach to other minority and underrepresented communities is insignificant. We have never found a cohesive way to establish ties with evangelicals and other religious groups that share our commitment to Israel. And as Muslims face abhorrent persecution in Northwest China and elsewhere, Jewish efforts to stand with them against such oppression are sporadic at best.
Jews represent approximately two percent of this country's population. If we want to escape our ongoing exposure to Churchill's definition of exhilaration, then perhaps American Jews should renew our commitment to building alliances with others who are subject to such threats. There are times when even the chosen people need a few more friends.
(Dan Schnur teaches political communications at UC Berkeley, USC and Pepperdine. He hosts the weekly webinar "Politics in the Time of Coronavirus" for the Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall)
Minister Ayelet Shaked speaks at the Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum in
Japan, the first visit by an Israeli minister (courtesy)
Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked personally intervened last Thursday to secure an entry visa for the son of a Japanese envoy who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis, after his request was initially denied over missing COVID-19 documents.
Israel reversed course on Friday morning, granting the son of Chiune Sugihara an entry visa to attend a ceremony on October 11 naming a Jerusalem square after the Japanese diplomat.
After reading The Times of Israel's coverage of the bureaucratic foul-up, Shaked instructed officials in her ministry to do what they must to allow Chiune's 72-year-old son Nobuki Sugihara and four other family members and friends to enter Israel.
"Sugihara is one of the Righteous Among the Nations who saved thousands of Jews," Shaked told The Times of Israel. "The State of Israel owes him a great debt. I saw the article and immediately acted to allow his son and members of his delegation to reach Israel. It is a great honor for us."
Shaked was the first Israeli minister to visit the Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum in Japan, which focuses on Sugihara's efforts to save Jews during World War II.
Nobuki Sugihara had applied for an entrance visa on September 28 through Israel's embassy in Brussels.
Nobuki Sugihara (center) in Jerusalem for
the ceremony in which his father, Chiune, was named a Righteous Among
the Nations, 1985. (courtesy Nobuki Sugihara)
"Examination of your application shows that it does not meet the criteria that allows a permit to arrive in Israel during this period of the COVID-19 pandemic," the response read.
It took the intervention of sympathetic Israeli officials on Thursday to overcome the bureaucratic obstacles.
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In the end, Eyal Siso — who sits on the interagency exceptions committee set up to handle appeals to the COVID-19 restrictions — signed off on the entry document.
Altea Steinherz, a Jerusalem resident whose grandfather Itche Topola was saved by Sugihara, told The Times of Israel on Friday that she was relieved that the "injustice and embarrassment is now behind us."
The Chiune Sugihara family on a sky holiday during his service in Japan's Foreign Ministry in Europe. (courtesy Nobuki Sugihara)
Steinherz worked the phones all day on Thursday after being told by Sugihara that his application had initially been denied. Some of the bureaucrats she spoke with initially failed to see the larger picture, she said, asking if Sugihara has a first-degree relative in the country, a key criterion for entry for a standard traveler.
Four other family members and friends — Esin Ayirtman, Haruka Sugihara, Oliver Van Loo and Philippe Bergonzo — all of whom received two COVID-19 shots and submitted their vaccination papers, had initially had their entry requests rejected, but were later accepted.
The ceremony, organized by the municipality, is slated to take place on October 11 at 4 p.m. and will be attended by Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion and Japan's ambassador to Israel Koichi Aiboshi. The intersection of Kolitz Road and Panama Street in the Ir Ganim neighborhood will become Chiune Sugihara Square.
The initial rejection stemmed from a disagreement over who was supposed to handle Sugihara's quarantine and health insurance documents.
Avraham Cimerring, a Jerusalem businessman whose father was saved by Sugihara, said Thursday that Nobuki simply refused to submit the necessary documentation and refused Cimerring's repeated efforts to help him file them properly.
Sugihara did not dispute that documents were missing, but insisted that it was the municipality's responsibility as host to handle his entry.
"I sent him all the documents, except two things," Sugihara explained. "One is where I would quarantine in case I am infected. The host has to guarantee, not I."
Sugihara stressed that he has no friends or family in Israel with whom he could quarantine, and saw this entirely as a problem for the city of Jerusalem to handle.
The other missing form was a health insurance document.
"The host of the ceremony should apply for us," Sugihara insisted.
Illustrative: Students of the Mir
Yeshiva's primary school, in Shanghai after escaping WWII Europe through
a visa issued by Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara. (Courtesy of the
Bagley Family)
During his short stint in 1939-40 as the Japanese vice-consul to Kovno (today Kaunas), Lithuania, Sugihara is credited with issuing up to 3,500 transit visas to Jewish refugees and families who had fled Nazi-occupied Poland ahead of Germany's invasion of then-independent Lithuania.
With these visas, and a complex mechanism of aid from other consuls, companies and individuals, up to 10,000 Jews are thought to have been saved from WWII Europe.
Sugihara's deeds were recognized in 1984 by Israel, which bestowed upon him the title of Righteous Among the Nations, and posthumously by Japan, in 2000.
Today, Sugihara is lauded internationally as an anti-establishment figure who went against orders in lockstep Japan to save the Jews, though historians and Nobuki say that this part of the story is mere myth.
Thursday, Sept. 23 was a banner day for pro-Israel Democrats. But in the aftermath of the party leadership's swift move to undo what had seemed like a stunning triumph on the part of their leftist wing, the question to be asked is not why Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wept on the floor of the U.S. House of the Representatives. Rather, it is whether the Democratic establishment will have many more such victories over the increasingly loud voices being raised against the Jewish state by their activist base.
The surprise vote came only two days after the House leadership bowed to the demands made by the ringleader of the leftist "Squad" to remove the provision to pay for the missile-defense system from a stopgap budget bill needed to fund the government. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had included the Iron Dome in that massive piece of legislation as a ploy to embarrass Republicans. But she failed to account for the fact that a significant minority of her own party would vote against it because it included a provision that supported Israel. Faced with the certainty that enough left-wingers would defect to sink the legislation, she backed down.
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While it was assumed that the funding would be approved later in the session, it was nonetheless an embarrassment for pro-Israel Democrats and a personal humiliation for both Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. The octogenarian pair know that as long as they stay in their posts, the one thing they can't afford is to be portrayed as weak with respect to the business of running the House.
The Democratic leadership has tolerated "The Squad," whose numbers have grown from the original quartet since the 2020 election because they understand how popular AOC and her radical comrades like Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) are with the party base, as well as with its pop-culture cheering section on the late-night comedy shows. While they've never hesitated to label Republican outliers as beyond the pale, they've been careful to avoid being similarly frank about Omar and Tlaib's predilection for anti-Semitism and allowed the former to escape censure for some of her more egregious hatemongering.
Famously, Pelosi allowed herself to be photographed with Omar and AOC for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. That confirmed their status as party rock stars shortly after Omar accused Jews of buying Congress to support Israel with her "It's all about the Benjamins" comment. But getting pushed around over budget maneuvering, which is the essence of running the House of Representatives, is quite another thing. Allowing the radicals to win on Iron Dome would be the end of any hope that the elderly odd couple running the House could maintain even the semblance of party discipline on any issue.
So rather than wait to push through Iron Dome funding, Hoyer decided not to let the anti-Israel faction have any time to enjoy their victory. He rushed legislation to the floor and made it clear to his members that they opposed this measure at their peril.
The result was exactly what Pelosi and Hoyer intended. Even many of those who are open foes of Israel got the message and, contrary to the indications that led to the budget debacle earlier in the week, most of them flipped and voted for the Iron Dome funding with even AOC and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), another vicious Jew-hater who has referred to Israelis as "cockroaches," voting "present."
The final result in which the measure passed by a margin of 420-9, with only eight leftist Democrats and one Republican (Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a libertarian who votes "no" on all foreign aid and just about any other measure funding government activities) opposed, was a personal triumph for Hoyer and Pelosi.
During the course of the debate on the House floor, there was even a rare moment of verbal courage on the part of one Democrat regarding some of his colleagues. After Tlaib called Israel "a violent apartheid system," Rep. Ted Deutsch (D-Fla.) called her out, rightly asserting that she was not telling the truth about an American ally. Even more to the point, he correctly noted that those like Tlaib, who think that one Jewish state on the planet was one too many, were engaging in "anti-Semitism."
That's exactly what we've needed to hear from Pelosi or from President Joe Biden, who egregiously praised Tlaib earlier this year as a "fighter" and promised to keep her Palestinian relatives safe from the Israelis rather than denounce her, as he should have, as a purveyor of Jew-hatred and lies about the Jewish state.
Deutsch's speech didn't get as much attention as the pictures of AOC weeping on the House floor. Taking pleasure in another's pain isn't nice. AOC, however, is a vicious political bully, as well as a hypocrite who flaunts her undeserved celebrity (the champion of socialism who also makes appearances at gatherings of the mega-wealthy, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala while proclaiming her intention to "tax the rich") in the most unseemly manner. The sight of her crying over getting outmaneuvered brings to mind Oscar Wilde's wisecrack about the demise of one of Charles Dickens' most pitiable characters: "One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing."
But any schadenfreude over her discomfort notwithstanding, AOC's vulnerability to pressure was curious. Some initially saw her switch in voting from "no" to "present" as an indication that she was worried about losing liberal Jewish voters in a future primary challenge to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer or in holding her seat after redistricting. But that theory was exploded a day later when she issued a public apology for not voting against Iron Dome, reassuring progressives and the rest of the party base that she shared their antipathy for the Jewish state and its right to self-defense. Not unreasonably, she thinks being labeled as insufficiently anti-Israel is a greater threat to her political future in the Democratic Party than being seen as a moderate on the issue.
Yet it was telling that The New York Times, which has increasingly welcomed anti-Zionist voices on their opinion pages as well as allowing them to color their news coverage, sympathized with AOC. In the first version of the article about her decision, it said that she and other liberals were subjected to intolerable pressure from the "still powerful pro-Israel voices in their party, such as influential lobbyists and rabbis." That line was subsequently deleted from the article without noting the change in violation of the Times' own policies. But the casual slur, as well as the claim in the article that Hoyer was acting at the behest of the Israeli government, shows how willing the flagship of liberal journalism is to promote anti-Semitic narratives.
For now, the aged leaders of the Democrats are still in charge, and that has to be frustrating for AOC and the Times. Yet the problem is not just the ability of radicals to gain so much attention and applause even when they fail but what happens after Pelosi, Hoyer and Schumer (not to mention Biden) are gone from the scene.
It's by no means clear who will replace them as Democratic leaders. Indeed, one likely pro-Israel successor to Pelosi, former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) was ousted by AOC in 2018. One would like to think that relative moderates and supporters of Israel like Deutsch are the future of the Democratic Party. But until he is invited on nighttime comedy shows to repeat his denunciation of the hate exhibited by "The Squad"—something that is about as likely as an invitation to former President Donald Trump—we're entitled to wonder whether Thursday's victory for pro-Israel Democrats is not so much an indication of their contin