RSS
Thousands of Germans and wide range of politicians show up to pro-Israel Berlin rally
(JTA) — Several thousand Berliners joined a rally in support of Israel and against antisemitism on Sunday at the city’s famed Brandenburg Gate as incidents targeting Jews, tied to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, continue to rise across the continent.
Organizers estimated over 20,000 participants turned up for the rally, which included exhortations from politicians, Christian leaders and relatives of families held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. Police did not report any disruptions but estimated a crowd closer to 10,000, which would still make the gathering likely the largest in Europe since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.
The rally came against the background of a surge in antisemitic incidents in Germany, as well as several large anti-Israel protests across the country. A subsequent crackdown on hate speech related to Israel and Jews has drawn resentment from some on the left who say German authorities are curbing their freedom to criticize Israel.
But speakers at Sunday’s rally urged Germany to take an even tougher stand against those who call for Israel’s destruction and who threaten Jews living in Germany.
Speakers, including Germany’s president, Jewish leaders and Israel’s ambassador to Germany, stood up for Israel’s so-called special relationship with Germany, as an outgrowth of the Holocaust. Pacifists and hawks alike agreed that Israel has the right to defend itself and that Jews in Germany must be protected from antisemitic acts. And several called on German and European politicians to harden their positions against Iran, which they described as an exporter of terror.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that protecting Jewish life was a “civic duty” as well as a federal mandate. “Nothing has been the same since Oct. 7th,” he said at the event, which was broadcast live.
“Never since the end of the Shoah have so many Jews been murdered in an attack. Israel has the right to defend itself against this terror,” Steinmeier said, turning to address relatives of German-Israeli hostages, who stood with him on the stage. “We Germans are suffering, we are praying, we are pleading with you.”
Many speakers referred to the suffering of Gazan civilians under Hamas and called for humanitarian corridors to be set up. Steinmeier said Hamas only “pretends” to represent the population under their control. It is left to others, like Germany, to protect them.
In Germany, Jews and their institutions must be protected from terrorist threats, said Daniel Botmann, managing director of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, noting that perpetrators tried to firebomb a synagogue in Berlin last week.
“The mobs in the streets of Germany don’t represent the Palestinian people,” Botmann said. But perpetrators and agitators who turn out not to be citizens should be deported, he said, and there should be severe punishment for those who are citizens, so that they will think it over “100 times” before trying something like this again.
“We need more than just empathy and promises of solidarity. We need action,” he said.
If Germany does not crack down on extremists in its midst, “the terror from the Gaza Strip will also reach Germany,” said Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to Germany.
“Synagogues in Germany have become targets. Stars of David have been painted on houses where Jews live. This cannot be tolerated,” he said.
“We will be measured by deeds and not just words,” continued Prosor, whose grandparents and father fled Nazi Germany. “All of us here are on the right side of history and we are strong if we stand together.”
Much mention was made of Germany’s support for Israel and Jewish life, given the history of the Holocaust. “There is a clear line between good and evil,” said Green Party leader Omid Nouripour, who is Muslim. “Hamas is evil, and we have to reject it.”
“It is high time that all those who were abused and taken away, all those whose suffering … come home,” he added. “We have to do everything possible” to that end. “We stand firmly on the side of Israel and democracy.”
In Berlin “there were people who were happy, who handed out candy and celebrated” after the events of Oct. 7, said the Iranian-born politician Bijan Djir-Sarai, who is general secretary of the Free Democratic Party. “We don’t want these people here.”
But most Muslims in Germany reject such attitudes, emphasized Social Democratic Party leader Saskia Esken. “The Muslims who live with us do not deserve this hatred,” she said, warning against allowing right-wing extremists to whitewash themselves by “turning the Hamas’ terror into a fundamental hatred of Islam.”
The event included words by relatives of Israeli hostages who hold dual citizenship with Germany, musical performances, and recitations of Jewish prayers for healing and mourning, led by Yitzchak Ehrenberg, a local Orthodox rabbi.
It was organized under the motto “Stand up against terror, hatred and anti-Semitism – in solidarity and compassion with Israel,” and it included a broad alliance of political initiatives and parties, trade unions and religious groups — including the Council of the Protestant Church of Germany and the German Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
—
The post Thousands of Germans and wide range of politicians show up to pro-Israel Berlin rally appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
Iran Executes Man Accused of Spying for Israel Amid Rising Crackdown, International Outcry
An Iranian protester waves an Iranian flag while participating in an anti-Israeli multinational rally at the holy mosque of Jamkaran near the holy city of Qom, 156 km (97 miles) south of Tehran, Iran, on April 15, 2025. Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl via Reuters Connect.
Iran has executed a man accused of spying for Israel despite international condemnation over what human rights groups called an “unfair trial,” marking the latest escalation in the regime’s crackdown on dissent.
On Wednesday, a 41-year-old man named Pedram Madani was hanged outside Tehran following his transfer earlier this week from a prison in the capital.
“After identification, arrest, and judicial proceedings against Pedram Madani, who was spying in favor of the Zionist regime, and following the complete process of criminal procedure and the final confirmation and upholding of the verdict by the Supreme Court, he was brought to justice and executed,” a report from the Iranian judiciary news outlet Mizan stated.
Arrested in 2020, Madani was accused of transmitting classified information on strategic Iranian sites to Israel and obtaining money through illicit means.
He is the second individual Iran has executed on espionage charges linked to Israel in just two months, with activists warning that the rising executions are part of a broader campaign to intimidate the population.
Human rights groups and Madani’s family have condemned the case against him as deeply flawed, emphasizing that he was even denied the right to appoint his own lawyer throughout the legal proceedings.
Madani “was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court without access to a lawyer of his choice, through an unfair and non-transparent process orchestrated by security agencies,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of Iran Human Rights (IHR) — a Norway-based NGO which tracks the death penalty in the country — told AFP.
“The Islamic Republic’s goal in executing Pedram Madani and others who are hanged daily is solely to instill fear within society and to conceal the regime’s widespread corruption and systemic failures,” he continued.
According to IHR, there have been at least 478 executions in Iran this year, including more than 60 hangings in the past 10 days. Most of those executed were accused of collaborating with Mossad — Israel’s national intelligence agency — and aiding covert operations in Tehran, such as assassinations and sabotage targeting the country’s nuclear program.
Among other activists condemning Madani’s trial, Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, currently on temporary release from prison, also denounced the regime’s escalating repression.
“The Islamic republic uses the death penalty as a tool to instill fear and intensify repression against the people,” Mohammadi said in a video statement.
“There was not even a chosen lawyer on the case. Pedram’s cellmates testified he confessed falsely and under pressure. In Revolutionary Courts, these false confessions serve as the basis of death sentences,” she continued.
The regime’s growing crackdown unfolds amid rising tensions with Israel over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Iran — the chief international backer of Hamas and Hezbollah, providing the terrorist groups with weapons, funding, and training — has consistently pledged to destroy Israel.
For its part, Jerusalem has declared it will never allow the Islamist regime to acquire nuclear weapons, as the country views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat.
The post Iran Executes Man Accused of Spying for Israel Amid Rising Crackdown, International Outcry first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Monroe Milsten, Founder of Burlington Coat Factory, Dies at 98
Burlington Coat Factory exterior. Photo: Flickr
Monroe Milstein, the enterprising businessman who transformed a modest New Jersey coat store into the national retail powerhouse Burlington Coat Factory, passed away earlier this month at the age of 98 from dementia.
Monroe Gerald Milstein was born on Jan. 14, 1927, in the Bronx, New York, to his mother, Ann Milstein, and father, Abe Milstein — founder of Amherst Fashions. When Monroe was 11, the family moved to Manhattan. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and earned a bachelor’s degree in business from New York University in 1946.
In 1949, Milstein married Henrietta Haas, an elementary school teacher who had fled the Holocaust. Henrietta later played an integral role in shaping Burlington’s children wear division. She passed away in 2001.
In 1972, Milstein and his wife purchased a defunct factory in Burlington, New Jersey, for $675,000 with the goal of transforming it into a retail destination. The venture became Burlington Coat Factory, selling discounted designer and brand-name coats for women, men, and children. Eventually, the store’s offerings grew to include home linens, menswear, baby clothes, and shoes, laying the foundation for a nationwide retail empire.
Three years after the initial purchase, Burlington Coat Factory opened its second location in Copiague, Long Island. According to Family Business Magazine, Milstein’s eldest son, Lazar, was the store manager and, as an Orthodox Jew, would not open the store on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath.
In 1982, Milstein shut down Burlington’s wholesale operations and reoriented the company’s focus entirely to discount retail. Just a year later, in 1983, he took the company public when it operated only 32 stores — injecting the capital needed to fuel a rapid retail expansion.
In 2006, Bain Capital bought the company for $2.06 billion, with the Milstein family cashing out its stake for $1.3 billion. Milstein exited the business., and two of his sons, Andrew and Stephen, continued in executive positions for a period. The company returned to the public market in 2013.
“I’m a very average fella,” Milstein said on his 80th birthday regarding his business ventures. “I got lucky.”
During Milstein’s tenure, Burlington Coat Factory carved out a niche in the retail world by delivering brand-name goods at significant discounts. By the early 2000s, when he transitioned out of day-to-day management, the business had evolved into a national chain with hundreds of stores and a customer base numbering in the millions annually.
Burlington has grown to become the third-largest off-price retail chain in the US, following industry leaders TJX Companies (which operates TJ Maxx and Marshalls) and Ross Stores. Today, Burlington operates around 1,100 locations across the US, raking in roughly $10.6 billion in sales over the past 12 months.
He is survived by his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, many of whom continue to carry forward his values of hard work and integrity.
The post Monroe Milsten, Founder of Burlington Coat Factory, Dies at 98 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Trump Says He Told Israel’s Netanyahu Not to Act Against Iran
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, US, Feb/ 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week not to take actions that could disrupt nuclear talks with Iran.
“I told him this would be inappropriate to do right now because we’re very close to a solution now,” Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office. “That could change at any moment.”
Israel earlier rejected a report in the New York Times that Netanyahu has been threatening to disrupt talks on a nuclear deal between the United States and Iran by striking Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities.
Citing officials briefed on the situation, the newspaper said Israeli officials were concerned that Trump was so eager to reach a deal with Iran that he would allow Tehran to keep its nuclear enrichment facilities, a red line for Israel.
Israel was particularly concerned about the possibility of any interim deal that would allow Iran to maintain its nuclear facilities for months or even years while a final agreement was reached, the paper reported.
US officials were concerned Israel could decide to strike Iran with little warning and said US intelligence estimated that Israel could mount an attack on Iran in as little as seven hours, the paper reported.
Netanyahu’s office issued a statement in response to the article which said simply: “Fake news.”
The New York Times said it stood by the report.
“The New York Times reporting on this matter is thorough and based on discussions with people directly familiar with the matter. We remain confident in what we published,” a spokesperson said in an email.
The paper said Netanyahu’s minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, and David Barnea, head of the foreign intelligence agency Mossad, met Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in Rome on Friday.
The two then traveled to Washington for a meeting on Monday with CIA director John Ratcliffe, before Dermer met Witkoff again on Tuesday.
One of the main sticking points in the talks between US and Iranian officials has been US insistence that Iran give up its nuclear enrichment facilities, a demand Iran rejects.
On Monday, US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said she had a “very candid conversation” with Netanyahu on the negotiations with Iran.
She said she told the Israeli prime minister that Trump had asked her to convey “how important it is that we stay united and let this process play out.”
Trump bypassed Israel on his trip to the Middle East this month and has made policy announcements that have shaken Israel‘s assumptions about its relations with the US.
Netanyahu has dismissed speculation about a falling out with the US administration, while Trump has also brushed off any suggestion of a break.
The post Trump Says He Told Israel’s Netanyahu Not to Act Against Iran first appeared on Algemeiner.com.