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How ‘Olim’ Are Helping Israel’s War Effort, Part 1: A Volunteer-Run Online School for Israeli Children
Educator and founder of Sha’agat Arieh Nike Silberstein in New York. Photo courtesy of Nike Silberstein
Since the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre, immigrants who moved to Israel (olim in Hebrew) have been helping the Jewish state’s war effort in crucial ways beyond the battlefield. The Algemeiner has spoken to several of these individuals — natives of the US, Europe, and elsewhere — gathering their stories of courage and resourcefulness to help Israel prevail over Hamas in Gaza. Over the coming weeks, The Algemeiner will share some of these stories as a new series on how olim are helping Israel’s war effort.
Two days after Hamas’ violent assault on Oct. 7, New York native Nike Silberstein opened an online school for Israeli children.
Silberstein, who made aliyah — the process of Jews immigrating to Israel — in 2013 and divides her time between New York and Tel Aviv, said that she “felt desperate” watching the horror unfold from afar and knew she had to contribute to the war effort.
“It wasn’t a choice; I felt the anguish, the intense worry of parents in Israel. I needed to support them,” Silberstein, who has more than 20 years of experience as an educator both in New York and Israel, told The Algemeiner. “I knew anyone with kids in Israel was not going to be able to function regularly and that I needed to jump in.”
For more than a month after the attack, there was no school at all in most Israeli cities. Some resumed studies remotely, but even now, a good solution remains elusive, with many schools still operating under the threat of rocket fire and the call-up of vast numbers of faculty members to the army.
On Oct. 8, Silberstein put out a call for volunteer teachers, and by Oct. 9, the school was up and running. She named the school, which operates on Zoom, Sha’agat Arieh (which translates to “the lion’s roar”), inspired by her late father, Arieh, who she said “roars from above like a lion.”
Silberstein gave another reason too: “Ask a child to roar, and when they do, there’s a second they really believe they’re lions and it’s amazing to witness. They feel empowered, and I wanted to strengthen the children of Israel.”
More than a thousand children have attended Sha’agat Arieh to date, and not all are in Israel. Some are the children of Israelis who either fled Israel after the war to countries like Greece and Portugal or others who reside abroad permanently. The classes include everything from academic studies like math and science to enrichment classes such as karate and art. They are all taught by volunteer teachers, many of whom must either go to bed at extremely late hours or wake up very early to allow for the time difference.
Even as Israeli schools resume normal functioning, many students have still decided to take Sha’agat Arieh’s classes after returning home. Silberstein also said the school has expanded to other functions as the needs evolve. For example, she has partnered with Israel’s Education Ministry to twin Israeli schools with Jewish schools abroad and has developed a mentoring program matching high schoolers with kindergarten-aged children. Volunteer teachers are also giving private tutoring to Israeli children who are struggling.
“We all are just trying to help where we can,” Silberstein said. “I’m just trying to stay completely open to all the education-related needs in Israel and how I, from abroad, can help.”
The post How ‘Olim’ Are Helping Israel’s War Effort, Part 1: A Volunteer-Run Online School for Israeli Children first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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