Uncategorized
Citing Brexit, European rabbinical group moves headquarters from London to Munich
(JTA) — One of Europe’s most prominent associations of Orthodox rabbis is moving its headquarters from London to Munich in a ripple effect from the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union.
“Germany is one of the only countries in Europe where the Jewish community is growing and the political climate is conducive to build Jewish life there,” Conference of European Rabbis President Pinchas Goldschmidt told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an email on Wednesday, confirming that Brexit was a leading factor in the move.
The rabbinical group had been based in London since it was founded in 1956 and has around 1,000 member rabbis from across Europe, from Dublin to Vladivostok.
The announcement came on Tuesday, as the CER presented its Lord Jakobovits Prize to Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder for his “outstanding commitment to the protection and promotion of Jewish life in Europe.” The ceremony took place in Munich’s Ohel-Jakob Synagogue, which was completed in 2006 in the center of the city.
The synagogue and its community center will also be home to the CER’s planned Center for Jewish Life, which will offer educational opportunities for traditional rabbis and their spouses.
In addition, the CER plans to host international conferences in the city. The Center is to be funded mainly by the Bavarian State Government, with additional funds coming from private donors, Goldschmidt told JTA.
At Tuesday’s award ceremony, Söder reiterated his commitment to fighting antisemitism. He emphasized that the new Center was about celebrating Jewish life, which “should be able to develop free and safe in Bavaria.”
The move has been a few years in the making. After Brexit, the CER leadership “felt that the headquarters should be in the center of Europe,” Goldschmidt said. Then, the Bavarian government invited the CER to hold its 32nd congress in Munich, and Söder and Munich Jewish Community President Charlotte Knobloch invited the group to move in.
Goldschmidt said his group has been working closely with the German Jewish community, on the local and national levels, as well as with the country’s Orthodox Rabbinical Conference.
Central Council of Jews in Germany President Josef Schuster, who also hails from Bavaria, told the JTA in an email that his group was pleased with the decision by the CER, “whose goal is to promote and protect Jewish life throughout Europe.”
“The fact that it will do this from Germany in the future …will enrich and strengthen Jewish discourse in our country,” he wrote.
Knobloch, president of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, said at Tuesday’s award ceremony that she was “proud and happy to see that my hometown of Munich has become one of the most important Jewish centers in Europe today.”
Before Hitler came to power in 1933, there were about 500,000 Jews in Germany. After World War II, when most Holocaust survivors left Europe for the United States or Israel, there were some 25,000 Jews in former West Germany. Today, there are about 90,000 members of Jewish communities in Germany and as many as 100,000 more who are unaffiliated. The vast majority have roots in the former Soviet Union. In the past decade, many Israelis have also made Germany their home. More recently, a few thousand Ukrainian Jews have found refuge in Germany.
The current Jewish population of Munich is about 9,000, according to the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
Goldschmidt, the former chief rabbi of Moscow, himself fled to Israel last year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the future, he will be shuttling between Israel and Germany. He said that he and Schuster had been “discussing how to integrate rabbis, rabbinical schools and refugees from Russia and Ukraine in Germany.”
“To be a refugee and emigrant is never easy,” Goldschmidt said. “However, I see it as my mission to utilize these challenging times and waves of dislocated Jews and communities, to strengthen the Jewish communities of Europe. It is a one in a lifetime opportunity.”
—
The post Citing Brexit, European rabbinical group moves headquarters from London to Munich appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
UK adopts sweeping measures against antisemitism in schools
(JTA) — The U.K. has adopted sweeping measures to combat antisemitism in English schools, prompting pushback from the country’s largest teachers’ union.
The move came after a new government-commissioned review found that three in five Jewish students reported experiencing antisemitism in English schools. The most common incidents were jokes, stereotypes and comments about Jewish people. About half of respondents who witnessed or experienced antisemitism said the incidents were not reported, most often because they did not think they would be taken seriously.
The government on Wednesday accepted 27 recommendations from the report, including dedicated antisemitism training for leaders and staff, improved recording of antisemitic incidents and moves to build a better understanding of Jewish life, identity and contemporary antisemitism.
The government commissioned the report following a spate of high-profile attacks on Jews in Britain, including an attack on a synagogue in Manchester last year that left two men dead.
The report’s author, Sir David Bell, the vice chancellor of the University of Sunderland and former chief inspector of schools in England, recommended addressing antisemitism distinctly from other forms of racism. He argued that antisemitism was a “uniquely complex” problem because of intertwined racial and religious dimensions, since Jewish identity can encompass both an ethnicity and a religion, along with expressions of prejudice that hold all Jews responsible for the actions of Israel.
The government will also encourage English schools to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. The definition is supported by many mainstream Jewish organizations and has been adopted by 47 countries, including the U.K., but critics say that it conflates some forms of antisemitism with criticism of Israel.
British Education Secretary Lucy Powell called Bell’s review a “generational moment” and said that “implementation is now my priority.”
However, the National Education Union, the largest union representing teachers, lecturers, teaching assistants and support staff in the United Kingdom and Europe, raised concerns on Wednesday about recommending the IHRA definition for schools. NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said in a statement that the definition “risks deepening the problem rather than tackling it, and actively undermining efforts to confront antisemitism.”
“The IHRA’s contested framing risks blurring the line between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and the genocide in Gaza, leaving teachers with uncertainty when they need clarity,” said Kebede. He cited a risk that “children who cannot critically explore issues through classroom discussion will instead seek their answers in online and unsafe groups.”
Kebede also encouraged Britain’s Department for Education to strengthen guidance on all forms of racism, not only antisemitism, saying that 65% of teachers report they have not received any antiracism training in the past year.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, an umbrella organization for British Jewish communities, celebrated the antisemitism report and the government’s adoption of its proposed measures. The group specifically praised the report’s “clear recommendations that schools and local authorities follow government guidelines by adopting the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism as a tool to deepen understanding of contemporary antisemitism.”
“We remain concerned about undue external influence on schools driven by narrow political agendas, and tendentious materials seeping into schools and increasing disharmony, and we will continue to press for vigilance against this,” said the Board of Deputies.
The post UK adopts sweeping measures against antisemitism in schools appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Orthodox Jewish man stabbed in midtown Manhattan
(New York Jewish Week) — An Orthodox Jewish man is in stable condition after being stabbed on Wednesday evening in the Diamond District of midtown Manhattan. Police are investigating the attack as a possible hate crime.
Police told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident as a possible antisemitic attack, and Manhattan Shomrim — the Jewish community watch group — has asked people to share footage as police search for the suspect. No arrests have been made.
The victim was identified by police as a 26-year-old man, and Orthodox Jewish outlet COLLive identified him as a resident of Crown Heights, the neighborhood that is home to the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement’s headquarters.
He was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Police said they were called at about 5:50 p.m. on Wednesday after the man was stabbed in the back with “an unknown sharp object” on 47th Street near Fifth Avenue. ABC7 reported that the victim told investigators he believed he was stabbed with a needle or syringe.
According to the Chabad website, which published an interview with the victim, he is a recently ordained Hasidic rabbi named Joseph, who commutes to Midtown each day to wrap tefillin with Jewish merchants. The attacker, Joseph told the website, was a woman who seemed to be following him prior to the stabbing.
The attack comes as Jewish New Yorkers have been targeted in more than half of the hate crimes committed in New York City this year, despite making up about 12% of the city’s population.
In July, an assailant stabbed two men on the Upper West Side, including one who was leaving a synagogue, while yelling “Allahu akbar,” and was charged with committing hate crimes.
Louis Keene contributed reporting.
The post Orthodox Jewish man stabbed in midtown Manhattan appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
VIDEO: A Hasid gives us a tour of Morocco in Yiddish
דער ירושלימער יוטוב־שטערן וועלוול קירשנבוים האָט לעצטנס אַרויסגעשטעלט אַ ווידעאָ אויף ייִדיש פֿון אַ פּרעכטיקן וויזיט, וואָס ער האָט געמאַכט אין מאַראָקאָ. עס באַגלייט אים זײַן חבֿר אַבֿרהם פּרץ.
אינעם ווידעאָ זעט מען ווי קירשנבוים דאַוונט שחרית מיט די אָרטיקע ייִדן און באַזוכט אַ גוט אָפּגעהיטענעם בית־עולם, וווּ עס ליגן באַערדיקט גרויסע צדיקים ווי למשל הרבֿ חיים בן עתר (1696–1743), באַקאַנט ווי דער „אור החיים“. „מענטשן מיינען, אַז נאָר אין אייראָפּע זענען דאָ קבֿרים פֿון צדיקים!“ זאָגט קירשנבוים.
מיר זעען אַ גרויסע, שיינע שיל מיט אַ פֿײַנער אַרכיטעקטור אין קאַזאַבלאַנקאַ; דעם גרויסן אַראַבישן שוק, וווּ קירשנבוים קויפֿט זיך אײַן מלבושים פּונקט ווי די מאַראָקאַנער גייען אָנגעטאָן. ער באַוווּנדערט אויך די שיינע טיי־גלעזער און טשײַניקן, וואָס מע פֿאַרקויפֿט דאָרט, און באַקענט זיך מיט אַ ייִדישן סוחר וואָס האַנדלט מיט זילבער און גאָלד, פּונקט אַזוי ווי זײַן טאַטע און זיידע האָבן געטאָן פֿאַר דור־דורות.
The post VIDEO: A Hasid gives us a tour of Morocco in Yiddish appeared first on The Forward.
