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Before election, Israel approved $2.3 million plan to improve its image among Reform and Conservative Jews: Report
(JTA) — Concerned that progressive values widely held by American Jews were fueling growing skepticism about the Jewish state, the Israeli government launched an unprecedented plan to counter the trend, according to internal documents obtained by the Israeli watchdog newsroom Shomrim.
The documents reveal a $2.3 million partnership between Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and the Reform and Conservative movements in the United States focused on pro-Israel advocacy among young and liberal American Jews.
Shomrim’s Uri Blau reported that the fate of the plan is uncertain following Israel’s recent election, which saw major gains for the far right, including a politician who has called Reform Judaism a “fake religion.”
With negotiations among political factions underway, the final shape of the country’s next government has not yet been determined, but the various scenarios on the table have made many American Jews uneasy because of the racism and homophobia espoused by some of those who were elected. Reform leaders have said Israel’s democracy is in peril.
A government that includes ultranationalists “will almost certainly lead to challenging moments in U.S.-Israel relations and will be painful for Jews worldwide who will not see the Israel they love and believe in reflected in these leaders, nor in the policies they pursue,” the Union for Reform Judaism said in a statement about the election.
Israeli’s outgoing minister of diaspora affairs, Nachman Shai, told Shomrim that while past Israeli governments have been reluctant to engage with the Reform and Conservative movements, he made it a priority of his office. He said the tensions between the two sides have to do with values.
“That’s why it was very important for the current government to emphasize values shared by both us and them, such as diversity and minority representation,” Shai said. “We want to demonstrate that we nevertheless share common values.”
The leaked documents from Shai’s ministry show that he and other Israeli officials are paying attention to evidence that American Jews have grown more critical of Israel over time.
Whoever authored the analysis in the documents blames the embrace of progressive values among U.S. Jews for rising anti-Israel currents in the community. The situation is the result of “the internalization of the progressive discourse framework among a growing number of Jews,” the documents say, according to Shomrim.
The analysis also says that American Jewish identity, unity and communal character are under threat amid changing attitudes toward Israel.
The budget for the plan is reportedly earmarked toward bringing American youth to Israel for trainings and educational trips, holding community events in the United States and other related advocacy.
The documents obtained by Shomrim make no mention of the issues that many American liberal Jews say bother them about Israel, including religious pluralism and the occupation.
“The terms ‘Palestinians,’ settlements,’ ‘Western Wall, ‘equality,’’ and ‘intermarriage,’ and a long list of topics that are at the root of the conflict with American Jewry are not in there,” Blau reported.
Leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements were interviewed by Shomrim before the election but declined to speak on the topic further after the Nov. 1 vote, which has positioned Benjamin Netanyahu to return to power with the support of the Religious Zionists political bloc.
On Tuesday, the Zionist arm of the worldwide Masorti-Conservative movement, MERCAZ Olami, released a statement suggesting that a coalition including far-right extremists could threaten the ties that the government initiative was meant to strengthen.
“It is impossible to ignore the fact that the coalition which appears to be in the making, will include politicians whose positions regarding basic elements of democracy and diversity (such as Jewish pluralism, LGBTQ and vulnerable minorities) significantly differ from the values which have guided Zionism since its inception,” read the group’s statement, which was endorsed by nearly a dozen groups associated with the Conservative movement.
It went on, “The bridges between Israel and world Jewry could be severely damaged if a step back will be taken on sensitive issues like the Egalitarian Kotel, conversion, and who is a Jew.”
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New York’s Met Museum Sued for Selling Van Gogh Painting Allegedly Looted by Nazis From Jewish Couple
View of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Met, founded in 1870, the largest art museum in the Americas, New York City. Photo: IMAGO/robertharding via Reuters Connect
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is being sued for selling a Vincent van Gogh painting that was allegedly seized by the Nazis from a Jewish couple during World War II.
The iconic museum acquired “Olive Picking” (1889) in 1956 for $125,000 from the Knoedler Gallery and sold the artwork to a Greek collector in 1972, according to the lawsuit, which was first reported by The New York Times. The suit, reportedly filed Monday in the Federal District Court in Manhattan, argues that The Met should never have had possession of the painting because it allegedly belonged to Hedwig and Frederick Stern, a Jewish couple who lived in Munich, Germany, until December 1936, a year after they purchased the artwork.
The Sterns fled Germany with their six children to save themselves from Nazi persecution during the Holocaust. They were unable to take the Van Gogh painting with them because Nazi officials considered the artwork “German cultural property,” according to the lawsuit. After the painting was sold, the funds were put in a “blocked account” and later seized by the Nazis.
“In the decades since the end of World War II, this Nazi-looted painting has been repeatedly and secretly trafficked, purchased and sold in and through New York,” claimed the lawsuit filed by Judith Anne Silver, the heir of the Stern family. She also argued that The Met curator who bought and later sold the painting, Theodore Rousseau Jr., should have known the Van Gogh artwork was likely looted by the Nazis because he was “one of the world’s foremost experts on Nazi art looting,” noting his tenure as a lieutenant commander in the US Navy during World War II. Rousseau served in the Office of Strategic Services during the war and authored a report for the Art Looting Investigation Unit.
Silver is not only fighting to have the painting returned to her family but also seeking damages “for taking and detaining it,” as well as other fees.
The lawsuit targets The Met as well as the Athens-based Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, which is named after the Greek collector who bought “Olive Picking” from the New York institution. The foundation operates two museums – on the island of Andros and in Athens – and the oil on canvas painting is currently on view at the museum in Athens. According to the painting’s provenance listed on the foundation’s website, the Marlborough Fine Art gallery in London purchased “Olive Picking” from The Met before it was sold to the Goulandris private collection in 1972.
Heirs of the Stern family previously sued The Met and the Goulandris Foundation over the same painting in 2022 in California, but a judge dismissed the case. The family has now filed its lawsuit in New York.
‘To this day, the Goulandris Defendants continue to conceal how and when the BEG came into possession of the Painting; the Stern family’s ownership of the painting from 1935 to 1938; and the facts that the Nazis looted the painting from the Stern family, coerced the Sterns into selling it via a Nazi-appointed agent, and confiscated the proceeds of the sale,” the new lawsuit claims.
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Germany Allocates More Than $1 Billion in Home Care for Holocaust Survivors Globally
Negotiations between the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the German government, held this year in Berlin, Germany. Photo: Claims Conference
Germany has agreed to allocate more than $1 billion for home care for Holocaust survivors around the world in 2026, a nonprofit organization that negotiates and secures compensation for survivors of the Nazis’ atrocities announced on Wednesday.
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) said that following its latest negotiations with the German Federal Ministry of Finance, Germany agreed to increase home care funding for Holocaust survivors worldwide, bringing the total for next year to $1.08 billion. The amount is the largest budget secured for Holocaust survivor home care in the history of the Claims Conference. The assistance will better allow Holocaust survivors to live safely and comfortably in their own homes.
“It is deeply meaningful that, 80 years after liberation, the German government maintains its responsibility to those who suffered and survived,” said Ambassador Colette Avital, a Holocaust survivor and Claims Conference negotiation delegation member. “Every survivor — and every rescuer — deserves to live with dignity and to be seen, heard, and cared for.”
“This historic increase to home care funding reflects the complex and growing needs of Holocaust survivors worldwide,” Claims Conference President Gideon Taylor added in a statement. “While we are losing survivors at a rapid pace each year, those who remain are older, frailer, and in greater need than ever before. This budget is critical in providing each of them the opportunity to age in place, a dignity that was stolen from them in their youth.”
The average age of Holocaust survivors who receive home care through funding secured by the Claims Conference rose from 86 in 2018 to 88.5 in 2024. During the same time period, the number of survivors who qualified for full-time home care assistance due to a severe disability — such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, and dementia — nearly doubled.
“I’m almost blind and have the use of only one arm. Since my wife passed away several years ago, life hasn’t been easy,” said Holocaust survivor Simon Reznik. “My caregiver is my light — I wait for her to bring life back into my days. Without her help, I couldn’t manage even the basics. She means the world to me.”
The German government has also committed $205 million over the next four years to support Holocaust education, the Claims Conference announced. The funding will be used for Holocaust education programs that will include teacher training, academic research, and virtual reality experiences, which can potentially spread the reach of Holocaust education to a wider audience.
“It is imperative that we invest in the future of Holocaust education while we still have living witnesses who can share their first-hand testimonies of survival,” said Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference. “Building strong curricula, forging new partnerships, and employing cutting-edge technology to preserve and share survivor testimonies will ensure the lessons of the Shoah are not forgotten. This is our moral obligation to the survivors of the Holocaust and to the six million who were murdered.”
Following negotiations with the Claims Conference, the German government also committed to extending Hardship Fund Supplemental Payments, which they previously pledged to pay annually to eligible Holocaust survivors through 2027. It has been extended through 2028 and will help more than 127,000 survivors worldwide. Also, non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, known as Righteous Rescuers, who are currently receiving a monthly pension from the Claims Conference will be eligible to receive home care similar to that provided to Jewish Holocaust survivors.
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Turkey’s Eurofighter Typhoon Jet Deal With UK Includes Weapons Package, Source Says
A Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet flies vertically over a beach during an airshow in Torre del Mar, southern Spain, July 31, 2016. Photo: REUTERS/Jon Nazca
Turkey’s deal to buy 20 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets from Britain for 8 billion pounds ($10.7 billion) also includes a comprehensive weapons package, including MBDA Meteor air-to-air missiles and Brimstone ground attack missiles, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
NATO allies Turkey and Britain signed the deal at a ceremony in Ankara on Monday, in a move aimed at deepening bilateral ties and bolstering Turkish air defenses. Ankara has said it was also seeking 24 more jets, albeit lightly used, from Qatar and Oman.
Some analysts called the deal expensive, although details have not yet been disclosed officially by either party.
“The deal includes a comprehensive weapons package, including the MBDA Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, advanced short-range air-to-air missile and Brimstone ground-attack missile,” the person told Reuters.
The deal comes as Turkey, which is enjoying its warmest ties with the West in years, seeks to take advantage of the advanced warplanes to make up ground with regional rivals such as Israel, which has unleashed strikes across the Middle East this year targeting Iran-backed terrorists.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government have said Turkey would receive the first of the batch of 20 Typhoons in 2030, and that the deal, for which talks began in 2023, included an option to buy more.