RSS
Daniel Lubetzky, Jewish Founder of KIND Snacks, Replaces Mark Cuban on ‘Shark Tank’ as Series Regular Investor
Daniel Lubetzky, CEO of KIND LLC, accepts the Civility and Compassion Award during The Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards Nov. 04, 2023. Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect
Jewish Mexican-American entrepreneur Daniel Lubetzky announced on Wednesday that after five seasons as a recurring guest investor on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” he will become a regular “shark” on the show when its new season premieres in October.
Lubetzky, the founder of the KIND snack company who is also the son of a Holocaust survivor, will replace billionaire Jewish American entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who announced last year that he will leave the show after season 16. Lubetzky is the first new regular cast member to join the show in over a decade. The “Shark Tank” panel of series regular investors includes Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, and Kevin O’Leary.
“It’s an honor to be part of a production that continues to educate, entertain, and unite Americans behind the spirit of building together,” Lubetzky said in a released statement about joining the “Shark Tank” team. “I am so excited to be part of this fun, hilarious, exceptionally smart cast and crew. Most of all, I am looking forward to partnering with entrepreneurs from all walks of life as they come to ‘Shark Tank’ for their chance to realize the American dream.”
He added that he hopes his Jewish Mexican mother Sonia is “proud” of him and that his late father Roman, who survived the Dachau concentration camp in Germany during the Holocaust, “is looking from above and seeing not just what I’ve achieved but how I’ve achieved it — by trying my very best to always follow the values he taught me.”
Lubetzky shared in 2021 that his mother was raised in Tampico, “a cattle-ranching region in Mexico, where her family was one of only a handful of Jewish families.”
“She’s always had an extra sensibility about her responsibility to be an ambassador of the Jewish people,” he said. “I admire the ways in which she helps our family preserve both our Jewish — and Mexican — values and traditions.”
Lubetzky was born in 1968 and raised in Mexico City, where he was taught Hebrew, English, Spanish, and Yiddish. He moved to the US with his family when he was a teenager but studied abroad in Israel during his college years. At Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, his 268-page thesis was titled, “The Influence of Economic Factors in Resolving the Arab-Israeli Conflict.”
Lubetzky founded the KIND company in 2004. He sold a minority stake to the candy giant Mars in 2017 and sold the entire company to Mars in 2020 in a deal reportedly worth $5 billion. In 2002, he founded OneVoice Movement, which is a grassroots movement that amplifies the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists with the vision for “an independent and viable Palestine and a secure Israel free from conflict.” He is also the founder of PeaceWorks Inc., a business that fosters cooperative ventures among neighbors in the Middle East.
In October 2023, shortly after the deadly Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel, Lubetkzy talked about being affected by the Israel-Hamas war.
“I literally have not been sleeping over the last two, three weeks because we’ve lost a lot of our family and friends to this war,” Lubetzky said in an interview in October. “We have Palestinian and Israeli staff and colleagues whose lives have been impacted. We have Palestinian staff in Gaza that we’ve been trying to evacuate, but Hamas has blocked the exits and prevented them from leaving. We have Israelis, both Jewish and Muslim Israelis, that were killed by the Hamas terrorists.”
According to the KIND website, Lubetkzy’s favorite quote is from Rabbi Hillel, who said: “In a place where there is no humanity, strive thou to be human.”
Season 16 of “Shark Thank” premieres Oct. 18 on ABC.
The post Daniel Lubetzky, Jewish Founder of KIND Snacks, Replaces Mark Cuban on ‘Shark Tank’ as Series Regular Investor first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
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.
RSS
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.
RSS
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.