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Israeli Soccer Player Manor Solomon Signs With Leeds United on Season-Long Loan Deal

Manor Solomon of Tottenham during the Premier League match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, England, 30th September 2023. Photo: David Klein / Sportimage via Reuters

Leeds United confirmed on Tuesday that Israeli soccer player Manor Solomon has joined the English soccer team on a season-long loan deal from the Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.

Solomon, who was born in a Sephardic Jewish family in Israel, will wear the number 14 jersey for Leeds United. He began his professional soccer career with the Israeli Premier League soccer team Maccabi Petah Tikvah in 2017. Two years later he was signed by the Ukrainian soccer team Shakhtar Donetsk. He helped the Ukrainian club win the Ukrainian Premier League twice, as well as the Ukrainian Cup and the Ukrainian Super Cup. He also competed in the UEFA Champions League, the top soccer competition in Europe – during his three seasons with Shakhtar, and became the the youngest Israeli to score in the UEFA Champions League when he scored a goal in Shakhtar’s group-stage game against Atalanta in October 2019.

“I am really happy to be here,” said Solomon, 25, who is the sixth player to be signed this summer by Leeds United. “I’ve heard a lot about the club, about its fans, about the heritage, the history. I know it’s a massive club in England and I’m looking forward to seeing the fans and to meet them all.”

“As soon as the interest from Leeds came, I started to look for the players, for the coach and I’ve spoken with the manager and he explained to me about the style of playing, about the players that there are in Leeds,” Solomon added. “I know there is a group of great lads, young people with great desire, with great techniques and I’m looking forward to playing with them and to help them in the best way I can. I just want to get going.”

In July 2022, after fleeing Ukraine at the start of the country’s war with Russia, Solomon moved to the west London side Fulham on a season-long loan deal from Shakhtar. He made 24 appearances and scored five goals in five consecutive games while playing for Fulham. He was also nominated for the Premier League’s Player of the Month award.

Solomon joined Tottenham Hotspur as a forward on a five-year deal in July 2023. His last season was cut short in September due to an injury but he returned to play for the Spurs in pre-season earlier this summer. Solomon said this week, “now I am fit and I’m ready to go, I’m ready to show myself again.”

“I’m ready to go back to the biggest levels again and hopefully we’ll have a great season here at Leeds,” he said. “We have one goal and everyone knows our goal, hopefully we’ll do it together.”

The post Israeli Soccer Player Manor Solomon Signs With Leeds United on Season-Long Loan Deal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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What Is the Future for Russian-Speaking Jews in America?

Morris Abram (left), chairman of National Conference on Soviet Jewry, with Ed Koch, former Mayor of New York City, and Natan Sharansky, former Prisoner of Conscience. Photo: Center for Jewish History via Flickr.

The Russian-speaking Jewish community (RSJ) has traveled a long road to America.

From pogroms and World Wars to Soviet repression, our families fled in search of freedom and opportunity. New immigration to the US has slowed, and today, the future of the community rests with the children of those who arrived decades ago. What will their identity look like?

To find out, the American Russian-Speaking Jews Alliance (ARSJA) surveyed RSJ parents and received over 250 responses summarized in a new report.

The findings show a community deeply committed to raising Jewish children — even if traditional religious observance is not at the center.

Although 54 percent of the respondents do not keep kosher and only 3 percent attend synagogue daily, 89 percent of parents expect their children will have a “Very strong” or “Somewhat strong” Jewish identity.

Community life seems to be more popular than ritual. More than half of those surveyed attend RSJ gatherings or Israel-related events, and 67 percent go to synagogue on the High Holidays.

Shaul Kelner, professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Vanderbilt University, reminded us that, “American Jews are a diverse population, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. It’s important that organizations like ARSJA are working to identify and respond to the specific needs of the Russian-speaking Jewish community.”

The “Russian-speaking” part of the identity is more complicated.

Most parents (58 percent) want their children to speak Russian mainly to communicate with grandparents.

Grandparents (75 percent) and parents (70 percent) are the people children use Russian with most often.

Yet only 60 percent of parents believe their children will maintain a strong RSJ identity. For some, the label recalls a painful past. One respondent said that they “see [their] Russian-speaking identity as really more of being raised in the former USSR, a totalitarian regime, the type of which we hope our children will never experience.”

Still, the community is finding new expressions of identity. Judi Garrett, COO at Jewish Relief Network Ukraine, points out that RSJs have played an active role in fundraising efforts. She noted that American-born RSJs organized campaigns that raised significant support for humanitarian aid in Ukraine. Philanthropy may become one of the ways that the next generation expresses who they are.

Parents also voiced deeper concerns. When asked what they worried about most regarding their children’s Jewish identity, the most common answers were antisemitism and assimilation. These anxieties echo across the wider American Jewish community and underscore how forces outside the family shape identity.

The survey does not provide simple answers. It does, however, spark an important conversation. For RSJs in America, the challenge is not only how to preserve their heritage, but how to pass down a Jewish identity rooted in belonging, pride, and purpose.

Mariella Favel leads data analysis at ARSJA, as well as research into how various communal and national organizations are influencing civic discourse.

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The Media’s Latest Blood Libel: How Distorted Data Turns Terrorists Into ‘Civilians’

Palestinians, displaced by the Israeli offensive, shelter in a tent camp as the Israeli military prepares to relocate residents to southern Gaza, in Gaza City August 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

A joint +972, Guardian, and Local Call article “reveals” that 83 percent of casualties in Gaza since October 7th have been civilians. The shocking headline would be horrifying if true. Except, it’s not.

The concerted effort to smear Israel quickly unravels once the numbers from the investigation are pulled apart and looked at critically.

At the start of the war, the IDF reportedly held a database with an estimated 47,000 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists operating in the Gaza Strip; the IDF worked to keep track of those who were successfully targeted.

By May 2025, the number of positively identified terrorists stood at 8,900. This number was included within the IDF’s broader estimates of more than 20,000 terrorists eliminated at the time.

In May 2025, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health claimed the death toll in Gaza was 53,000. The three news outlets took this (disputed) number and put it next to the known 8,900 terrorist deaths confirmed by Israel.

+972, The Guardian, and Local Call presented the remaining 83% of deaths as civilians. In doing so, these outlets effectively fell for Hamas’ propaganda and obscured the reality of guerrilla warfare in Gaza.

The statistic built was void of the most important context: the number represented only terrorists Israel had already confirmed by name — and ignored the many thousands still under review or not yet identified.

The faulty 83% statistic also only included Hamas and Islamic Jihad, despite other terrorist organizations and independent actors existing in the Strip. In other words, anyone not on Israel’s confirmed terrorist list was automatically counted as a civilian — including unidentified combatants and the thousands of newly recruited members of Hamas, who wouldn’t yet be identified on the IDF’s list.

The IDF, too, acknowledged the flaws in using Hamas’ casualty figures to determine the success of IDF operations over the course of the war, emphasizing that the claims in the article are not only “false but also reflect a fundamental lack of military understanding.”

Being that terrorists in the Gaza Strip deliberately embed themselves in the civilian population by wearing civilian clothing and don’t walk around with a name tag or identity card, it is impossible to know the exact number of terrorists that have been killed during IDF operations.

As of August 2025, the Hamas-provided casualty number stands at 62,000, while the IDF believes it has targeted over 22,000 terrorist operatives.

Despite the flaws in Hamas’ casualty figures — Hamas is well known for routinely inflating the casualty figures, a key element of its propaganda war against Israel — if we are to look at them at face value, the civilian to combatant ratio is an astonishingly low 2:1.

The UN estimates that the average civilian to combatant ratio in urban warfare is 9:1. By attempting to stretch the casualty ratio, +972, The Guardian and Local Call seek to warp reality and falsely accuse Israel of committing genocide.

Not only is it an incredibly impressive feat for the IDF to be able to identify terrorists, but it also sheds light on the war the IDF is fighting. While the media attempts to slander the IDF for deliberately targeting civilians, the IDF is working to maintain precision and minimize civilian harm, going so far as to keep track of combatant deaths where possible.

The data undercuts the headline, banking on readers seeing only the flashy, misleading figure rather than engaging with the full picture.

This is exactly how +972, The Guardian, and Local Call push a narrative that their own reporting can’t back up, and turn selected numbers into a supposed indictment of Israel’s conduct in the war.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

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Belgian Prime Minister Shows Solidarity With Jewish Community, Calls for Caution on Palestinian State Recognition

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever attends a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (not pictured), at the Chancellery, in Berlin, Germany, Aug. 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

Amid rising antisemitism across Europe and increasing hostility toward Israel from several European governments, Prime Minister Bart De Wever expressed Belgium’s sympathy and respect for the Jewish community this week, honoring the millions of victims of the Holocaust.

During his trip to Berlin on Tuesday, De Wever visited the Holocaust Memorial and left a moving message in its guestbook.

“On behalf of the Belgian government and all people and communities living together in peace in Belgium, I express my deepest sympathy and my respect,” the Belgian leader wrote in a note in German.

“We will remember all the victims. I stand here humbly at this place of remembrance. The Jewish community will always have a home in Europe,” he continued.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association (EJA), commended De Wever’s remarks and his support for the Jewish community, highlighting his leadership as a model.

“We sincerely thank Prime Minister De Wever for his moving message in Berlin. At a time when antisemitism is once again spreading across Europe, his clear and unwavering statement that the Jewish community will always have a home here is deeply important,” Margolin said in a statement.

“Such leadership not only honors the memory of the six million victims of the Holocaust but also strengthens the sense of security and belonging for Jews in Belgium and across the continent,” he continued.

“We also commend the Prime Minister’s principled leadership on Israel, where he consistently calls for security guarantees and a realistic path to peace. His voice carries moral weight in Europe, and we deeply appreciate it.”

During his visit to Berlin, De Wever met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to discuss the recent push by several European countries to recognize a Palestinian state at next month’s UN General Assembly.

At a joint press conference, De Wever stressed that recognizing a Palestine state is only meaningful under strict conditions, warning that doing so without such guarantees would be “pointless and even counterproductive.”

“Hamas must disappear completely, there must be a credible Palestinian Authority, an agreement must be reached on borders, and Israel must receive security guarantees. Without that, recognition makes no sense,” De Wever said.

In Belgium, De Wever’s more cautious approach to Palestinian statehood and support for Israel have fueled clashes within the government, with Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot threatening to block government initiatives if the coalition continues to hinder a firmer stance on Israel and the recognition of a Palestinian state.

“If there is no stronger tone within the government regarding the human rights violations committed by the Israeli government, or if no measures are taken in favor of recognizing Palestine, a major crisis is looming,” Prévot said during an interview with De Standaard.

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