Big New Torah Celebration at Chabad Rehavia Tonight and A lesser-known history: Romania’s key role in Holocaust explored in a new book and Israeli-York U Study Examines How COVID-19 Masks Impacts Children’s Social Interactions and Unless Israel can Be Blamed, Human Rights Violations Never Happen By Dexter Van Zile and Israel is Navigating Perilous Diplomatic Path in UkraineBy Amb. Michael B. Oren
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.
Unless Israel can Be Blamed, Human Rights Violations Never Happen By Dexter Van Zile
Photo Credit: Ludovic Courtès / Wikipedia
Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room of the Palace of Nations, Geneva (Switzerland). It is the meeting room of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The way that anti-Israel activists describe Palestinians, you'd think that the people who live in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are the most peaceful, kind, hospitable, folks you've ever met.
The people who launch rockets, stab and try to run over Israeli civilians with their cars? That's all fine — because attacking Jews to obtain what has repeatedly been offered at the negotiating table (statehood) is a human right.
But Jewish self-determination, by way of comparison, is a crime against humanity.
As a result, Palestinians can do terrible things to Jews without much damage to their reputation among "human rights" activists.
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But when Palestinians do bad things to each other? Well, that scares people in ways that attacking Jews does not.
This helps explain why the "peace" and "justice" crowd has responded so energetically to a January 28 attack on Daoud and Daher Nasser, the proprietors of the "Tent of Nations" in the West Bank.
The attack, perpetrated by Arabs from the nearby village of Nahalin, is a public relations disaster for the "human rights" crowd because the Tent of Nations has, through the years, served as a theme park of anti-Israel propaganda.
For example, a few years ago, folks at the Tent of Nations planted trees on nearby land, which had been uncultivated for decades, to prove it was theirs. When Israelis cut the trees down, attorney Jonathan Kuttab — who, in 1989, defended a Palestinian terrorist who drove a bus filled with passengers into a ravine, killing 16 Israelis — sent out a statement to churches in Europe and North America alerting them to the mean things Israelis were doing to poor farmers at the Tent of Nations.
It was a hugely successful PR campaign, in part because thousands of Christians have visited the farm, and had their pictures taken with the Nassars during their visits. Judging from the smiling selfies Westerners posted online, most of them were just there for an ill-informed self-righteous photo opp based on false and distorted facts.
But now that a mob of masked Arabs have attacked the Nassars, "activists" are doing everything they can to portray Israeli Jews as somehow responsible for the attack or otherwise change the subject.
It's pretty bizarre, but they have a brand to protect.
Exhibit one: Two days after the attack, Alice Rothchild, an obstetrician from the US who does everything she can to blame Israel for Palestinian suffering (without paying much attention to the failings of Palestinian leaders or Palestinian terrorism) tweeted that she was "heartbroken and outraged, but this is the reality of the Israeli occupation and the state condoned violence of the settlers."
You read that right. Palestinians attack their fellow Palestinians and Rothchild bangs on about Israeli settlers.
Exhibit two is Jonathan Kuttab's response to the attack. Writing on behalf of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, Kuttab makes it clear that he won't be defending the perpetrators in court, stating the attack was carried out by "fifteen masked criminal thugs" who beat the Nassars "with sticks and knives."
These thugs, Kuttab wrote, "have previously made spurious claims to the land and have attacked the Nassars before" and are "under court orders from the Palestinian courts to stay away from the land, as they have absolutely no supporting documents or legitimate rights to it."
Interesting. Would this attack have been prevented if Kuttab had been as vociferous in condemning the Arab attackers from Nahaleen as he had been in his condemnations of Israel?
Kuttab then chides both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority (PA) for failing to protect the Nassars from the attackers, and in reference to the PA, states that it "has shown little interest in protecting or defending the Nassars with anything like the zeal in which they cooperate in protecting any Israeli settler who strays into a Palestinian town or village."
Forgive me, but I can't help but wonder if Kuttab begrudges the protection afforded to Israelis by the PA.
The Independent Catholic News (ICN), a media outlet headquartered in England, brings us exhibit three. The ICN reprinted, almost verbatim, a press release issued by the American "peace" group, Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP).
Interestingly enough, when republishing CMEP's press statement, ICN omitted a crucial sentence that revealed the attack against the Nassars was likely perpetrated by Arabs living next to the Tent of Nations. The deleted sentence states, "It is believed — though not yet confirmed — the attack was perpetrated by Palestinian residents of the neighboring village." (Obviously, the Palestinian identity of the attackers has since been confirmed.)
The upshot is this: Yes, the Nassars were attacked by their Palestinian neighbors, and yes, both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority have an obligation to apprehend the perpetrators. But pro-Palestinian activists have every obligation to condemn the attack, just as Israeli and American Jews have condemned settler violence. The cause of peace and justice in the Holy Land requires an authentic inventory of the misdeeds of both sides of the conflict.
But that's not what the people who run the Tent of Nations want.
They have a brand to protect, just like Ben & Jerry's.
A lesser-known history: Romania's key role in Holocaust explored in new book
Decades under a communist regime erased the memory of Romania's position as a principal Nazi ally in oppression and murder of Jews
An actor of the Romania's Jewish State Theatre rehearses the musical drama 'The Lights of the Ghetto,' a mix of music and stories by Holocaust survivors in Bucharest, Romania, January 26, 2019. (AP Photo/ Vadim Ghirda, File)
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Maksim Goldenshteyn recounts a story his grandmother once told him about how, as a 4-year-old child, she snuck out of a Jewish ghetto during World War II to retrieve her favorite dolls that had been left behind, when her family was forcibly evicted from their home in occupied Soviet Ukraine.
"She knew, even at that age, that because she had lighter hair and blue eyes, she could pass for a local Ukrainian girl," said Goldenshteyn. "She put on a kerchief and slipped out of the ghetto."
It is one of the stories that Seattle native Goldenshteyn tells in his book, " So They Remember," which recounts — with a blend of intimate family memoir and historical research — the Holocaust in Transnistria, a territory in occupied southern Ukraine that was controlled by Romania, a close ally to Nazi Germany for most of the war.
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In that territory, where around 150 camps and ghettos operated, a lesser-known but equally sinister chapter of the Holocaust played out, with hundreds of thousands of Jews brutalized, exploited, and murdered. Many died of starvation; some succumbed to disease or exposure; some were executed.
Goldenshteyn, 33, whose family moved to the US from the former Soviet Union in 1992, says he heard fragments of his family's past while growing up, but he never linked it to one of humanity's darkest chapters.
"They didn't really align with the image of the Holocaust that I thought was representative," he said. Then, 10 years ago, his mother told him the story.
A man walks inside the Holocaust memorial after the National Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012 (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)
"I was shocked at first," he said.
Moved by what he had learned, Goldenshteyn embarked on a decade-long journey, researching a part of the Holocaust he feels is largely overlooked.
His starting point was to interview his grandfather, Motl Braverman, in his Seattle home. Braverman, who died in 2015, languished as an adolescent with his family in the remote Pechera death camp.
"My grandfather spoke with a certain detachment, as if relating someone else's experiences," Goldenshteyn wrote. "Later, he assured me that the death camp he survived was never far from his mind."
All of the comforts that his grandmother, Anna Braverman, had known while growing up "evaporated overnight," when her family was imprisoned in a ghetto in Transnistria in 1941.
Romania's role in the Holocaust is far less known, at home and abroad, than that of the Nazis. But in Romanian-controlled territories under the military dictatorship of Ion Antonescu, between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews, plus some 12,000 Roma, were killed during the war. The decades of communism that followed all but erased memories of the Holocaust.
"I don't think many people realize that Romania was Germany's principal ally in the East," Goldenshteyn said, adding that the country's communist period under dictator Nicolae Ceausescu became the "traumatic history that is more immediate" to Romanians.
A late 2021 study by the National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania showed that 40 percent of respondents were not interested in the Holocaust. Nearly two-thirds of the 32% who agreed that the Holocaust took place in Romania mistakenly identified the deportation of Jews to "camps controlled by Nazi Germany."
Stefan Cristian Ionescu, a historian and Holocaust expert at Northwestern University, said that most Romanians "think that it's a responsibility of Nazi Germany."
"I think a lot of Romanians still have a problem accepting that the Antonescu regime and the Romanian authorities… were involved in the Holocaust," he said. "In the mass murder, deportation, and dispossession of Jews in Romania, and in occupied territories such as Transnistria."
In a push for wider public awareness, Romanian lawmakers passed a bill last fall to add Holocaust education to the national school curriculum, a move that was applauded by many. But in January, the far-right Alliance for Romanian Unity, which holds seats in parliament, called it a "minor topic" and an "ideological experiment."
Silviu Vexler, a member of parliament representing the Jewish community speaks, backdropped by members of an honor guard, outside the Holocaust memorial during the National Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations in Bucharest, Romania, October 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)
David Saranga, Israel's ambassador to Romania, strongly condemned the party's comments, saying that such statements are "outright proof of either a lack of taking responsibility, or of ignorance."
Goldenshteyn believes that Romanian authorities have made progress in recent years in acknowledging the country's role in the Holocaust. He said he was troubled by the party's comments, but also encouraged by the reaction of the diplomatic community.
"It's important for any country with a dark past to confront it," said Goldenshteyn, the father of two small children. "Because it's impossible to chart the way forward without knowing where you've been. There is not enough knowledge about what happened during the Holocaust in Eastern Europe."
Last month, at a Holocaust memorial at the Choral Temple Synagogue in Romania's capital, Bucharest, President Klaus Iohannis said that the pandemic has "amplified the virulence of antisemitic attacks" and warned against "conspiracy theories and misinformation."
"Let us not close our eyes to these real dangers, which are often cleverly hidden behind a claimed freedom of expression," Iohannis said.
At the Pechera camp, whose gates had a wooden sign that read "Death Camp," hunger was such that cases of cannibalism were reported. As an adolescent, Motl Braverman would evade guards and take perilously long walks in sub-zero temperatures to return with small amounts of food to keep his family alive. He would later help others escape from the camp to relatively safer ghettos.
Goldenshteyn said what affected his grandfather most was that "his story was never validated" because of taboos about discussing the Holocaust. "So They Remember" tells that story, and it is as much about human bravery and kindness as it is about the depraved indifference to human suffering.
"I think the strength of this book is that it combines this personal, family story… with historical research. It makes it interesting for the general public, not just for a small circle of scholars," Ionescu said. "There is still a lot to be uncovered about Romania's participation in the Holocaust — specifically this territory of Transnistria."
Goldenshteyn says for years after his grandfather died, he avoided listening to the audio recordings of their interviews. Then, in 2017, when he did finally press play, he was struck by his late grandfather's words.
"You should write this so that no one forgets," his grandfather said. "So they remember."
Israeli-York U Study Examines How COVID-19 Masks Impacts Children's Social Interactions
Photo Credit: 123rf.com
Children are having difficulty recognizing faces that are partially covered by masks, and this could potentially impact social interactions with peers and educators, as well as the ability to form important relationships, according to a new study by York University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Previous research found mask-wearing hindered facial recognition in adults. This new study by researchers at York University and Ben-Gurion University looked at 72 children, ages six to 14, to see if their experience was like that of adults. Faces were presented with or without masks, both upright and inverted.
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"Faces are among the most important visual stimuli. We use facial information to determine different attributes about a person, including their gender, age, mood, and intentions. We use this information to navigate through social interactions," says York University Assistant Professor Erez Freud of the Faculty of Health, the study's senior author.
The research shows children's face-perception abilities are not only profoundly impaired when people are masked, but their level of impairment is greater than that experienced by adults. Children have a 20% impairment rate for recognizing masked faces, compared to about a 15% rate for adults.
The study also revealed children process faces differently when the face they are looking at is masked, compared to one that is not. Their ability to holistically process faces, which is necessary for face perception, was disrupted and became more analytical.
Typically, humans process the face as a whole rather than by its individual features.
"Not only do masks hinder the ability of children to recognize faces, but they also disrupt the typical, holistic way that faces are processed," says Freud.
The researchers used the kids' version of the Cambridge Face Memory Test – the most validated measure of face perception abilities in humans – to test the ability of school-aged children to recognize faces with and without masks, both upright and inverted.
"If holistic processing is impaired and recognition is impaired, there is a possibility it could impair children's ability to navigate through social interactions with their peers and teachers, and this could lead to issues forming important relationships," Freud explained. "Given the importance of faces to social interactions, this is something we need to pay attention to."
With children back to school with mask mandates, future research should explore the social and psychological ramifications of wearing masks on children's educational performance, he says.
The paper was co-authored by Professors Tzvi Ganel and Galia Avidan in the Department of Psychology at Ben-Gurion University.
Israel is Navigating Perilous Diplomatic Path in Ukraine
Ever since biblical times, the people of Israel have had to navigate the harsh terrain between clashing global powers. Now, here we are again, in Ukraine, having to maneuver between Russia and the West. The terrain this time around is exceedingly difficult, with significant security and ethical pitfalls along the way.
On one hand, our security situation requires us to keep all channels with Russia open. For the past seven years, ever since Russian forces entered the Syrian civil war, the IDF has managed to avoid any head-on collisions with Moscow, despite Israel's intensive campaign to dislodge Iran from the war-torn country.
Unequivocally condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine could give the Kremlin pause and perhaps even push it to terminate this cooperation.
Moreover, as the nation-state of the Jewish people, Israel must take into account the wellbeing of the nearly 800,000 Jews living in Russia, in addition to the 200,000 Jews living in Ukraine who could find themselves under Russian occupation. In light of these considerations, it's easy to understand Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's decision to refrain from denouncing Russia and its aggression in Ukraine.
However, a strong counter aspect to these considerations is in play, especially in light of the Ukrainian people's determination to fight the Russian army tooth and nail. Can Israel, as a freedom-loving country, maintain neutrality? Can the Jewish state stand idly by as a popular rebellion—led by a Jew—fights tanks and jets with small arms and Molotov cocktails?
And yet, there are strong strategic and security-related counterpoints to these moral arguments, as well. Case in point: Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen wondered on CNN over the weekend: "Where is Israel on the Ukrainian issue, when it says it's our most important ally in the Middle East." Maintaining complete neutrality could also harm support for Israel among U.S. Jews, which is strained to begin with these days.
Finally, perhaps it's also fitting to ask: Why is Israel so afraid of the Russian military presence in Syria? After all, this force consists of some 4,000 troops and a few dozen planes. Does our seemingly constant projection of trepidation damage our image and deterrence capabilities in the region?
It's important to note here that despite our repeated requests, Moscow has chosen to continue selling some of the most advanced weapons systems in the world to our enemies. Hezbollah in Lebanon, and even Hamas in Gaza are equipped with Russian weapons, and Russia built the nuclear plant in Bushehr, Iran, and has promised to build another eight in the Islamic Republic.
As stated, navigating this environment is exceedingly perilous and requires Israel to tread very lightly. On one hand, it must keep as many channels with Russian President Vladimir Putin open and must continue caring for the welfare of Ukrainian and Russian Jewry, including the possibility of a mass absorption of immigrants.
On the other hand, Israel mustn't remain silent—not in the face of the Ukrainian people's courageous fight, which could be reminiscent of the dogged resistance to Soviet occupation after World War II; and not in the face of public opinion in the U.S., our most important ally. Israel should continue offering its services as a mediator and continue providing humanitarian and medical support to the Ukrainian people. We should also uphold our purpose as a strong and ethical Jewish state.
