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Tens of thousands of Jews flock to Uman for Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage despite another year of wartime warnings
(JTA) — The U.S., Israeli and Ukrainian governments have all called it an extremely dangerous voyage into the heart of an ongoing war.
But despite the warnings, tens of thousands of Jewish men and boys are expected to travel to Uman, Ukraine, for an annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage that pays tribute to the influential Hasidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov.
Haaretz reported that 11,000 Jewish pilgrims had already been counted in the small town as of Wednesday morning, just as a video began circulating online of a pilot joining his Hasidic passengers in song.
Each fall, the thousands of Jewish visitors — who congregate to pray and celebrate at Rabbi Nachman’s grave — overwhelm the normally sleepy city’s infrastructure, filling its streets and vacant apartment buildings. Pandemic-era travel restrictions lessened but did not stop the pilgrims in 2020 and 20221, and they showed up en masse last September, for the first Rosh Hashanah since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, against the urging of Ukrainian officials.
This year, Israel — the home for many of the pilgrims — and Ukraine agreed to jointly shore up security at border crossings near Uman after weeks of tensions over the pilgrimage. Many municipal roads in and near the city have been closed for safety reasons, to the dismay of year-round residents. Israel’s government also approved a $1 million package to aid those making the trip, and as has long been the case, United Hatzalah, the Israeli emergency response service, has ramped up its presence in the city.
Yet even though he had a friendly phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a stern warning of the dangers that travel to Uman poses this year.
“God has not always protected us, not on European soil and not on Ukrainian soil,” he said, adding that “there are no shelters and there is no protection” from bomb attacks in Uman.
The town has come under Russian fire as recently as June, the U.S. embassy in Israel noted in a statement last week entreating Americans not to make the trip.
“There are continued reports of Russian forces and their proxies singling out U.S. citizens in Ukraine for detention, interrogation, or harassment because of their nationality,” the statement read. “U.S. citizens have also been singled out when evacuating by land through Russia-occupied territory or to Russia or Belarus.”
Netanyahu’s comments angered haredi Orthodox commentators and lawmakers, including the Shas party, who said “God has always protected the people of Israel.”
“For more than a century, the God of Israel has saved the Land of Israel from the idolatry of power, from the vulgarity and assimilation of the secular regime,” said Yisrael Eichler, a member of the United Torah Judaism party.
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The post Tens of thousands of Jews flock to Uman for Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage despite another year of wartime warnings appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran Currency Plunges to Record Lows Amid Escalating US Tensions
ILLUSTRATIVE: The Iranian flag waves in front of the IAEA headquarters before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Lisi Niesner
Iran’s currency fell on Saturday to a new all-time low against the US dollar after the country’s supreme leader rejected talks with the United States and President Donald Trump moved to restore his “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran.
The rial plunged to 892,500 to the dollar on the unofficial market on Saturday, compared with 869,500 rials on Friday, according to the foreign exchange website alanchand.com. The bazar360.com website said the dollar was sold for 883,100 rials. Asr-e-no website reported the dollar trading at 891,000 rials.
Facing an official inflation rate of about 35%, Iranians seeking safe havens for their savings have been buying dollars, other hard currencies, gold or cryptocurrencies, suggesting further headwinds for the rial.
The dollar has been gaining against the rial since trading around 690,000 rials at the time of Trump’s re-election in November amid concerns that Trump would re-impose his “maximum pressure” policy against Iran with tougher sanctions and empower Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump in 2018 withdrew from a nuclear deal struck by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 and re-imposed U.S. economic sanctions on Iran that had been relaxed. The deal had limited Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, a process that can yield fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Iran’s rial has lost more than 90% of its value since the sanctions were reimposed in 2018.
The post Iran Currency Plunges to Record Lows Amid Escalating US Tensions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Envoy’s ‘Zionist’ Ring Sends Shockwaves on Social Media
Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun walks after being elected as the country’s president at the parliament building in Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
i24 News – A photo showing US President Donald Trump’s deputy Middle East envoy donning a ring embellished with the Star of David to a meeting with Lebanon’s leader triggered outrage in Arabic social and broadcast media.
As Morgan Ortagus, who is Jewish, shook hands with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, her Star of David ring was visible in the frame, sparking accusations such as her being “more Zionist than her predecessors.”
Her direct superior, Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, is likewise Jewish-American, as is his predecessor Amos Hochstein, who was born in Jerusalem and served in the Israel Defense Forces.
Ortagus is the first senior Trump admin official to visit Lebanon amid the fragile ceasefire agreed by Israel and the Lebanon-based Shiite jihadists of Hezbollah.
The post US Envoy’s ‘Zionist’ Ring Sends Shockwaves on Social Media first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UK: Pro-Palestinian Activists Applied for a March Permit on Oct 7 as Massacre Was Ongoing
Supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir at a pro-Hamas rally in London. Photo: Reuters/Martin Pope
i24 News – Anti-Israeli activists in Britain applied for a permit to stage a demonstration through London on the morning of October 7, 2023, as Gazan jihadists were rampaging through southern Israel and slaughtering civilians, the Daily Telegraph reported.
At 12:50 PM, as the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust was still ongoing, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) notified the Metropolitan Police that they intended to hold a rally the following week.
Reports and videos of the Hamas-led onslaught began appearing on social media, and Israeli and then international broadcast media, several hours earlier.
“The Met was contacted on Saturday Oct 7 at approximately 12.50pm via telephone call and informed of the intention to protest,” a police spokesman was quoted by the Telegraph as saying. “The Met committed this to our systems on the same day and are satisfied being contacted by telephone was a sufficient means in which to notify the MPS as the event was taking place seven days after notification.”
The group’s spokesperson defended the move, telling the Telegraph it was “clear” as early as Saturday noon that “the Israeli attacks on Gaza would be of an indiscriminate violence we had not witnessed before, and that 2.3 million people in Gaza – more than 50 percent of them children – were at severe risk.”
The post UK: Pro-Palestinian Activists Applied for a March Permit on Oct 7 as Massacre Was Ongoing first appeared on Algemeiner.com.