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German government boosts annual funding to main Jewish organization by 70%
(JTA) — Germany has boosted the annual subsidy to Germany’s Jewish umbrella organization by 70%, in a move intended to shore up security and support a new center for Jewish intellectual life inspired by one closed by the Nazis.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany, which distributes government funds to Jewish communities and institutions, will get 22 million Euros (about $24 million) from Germany starting next year, up from 13 million Euros this year.
Most of the increase — 16 million Euros — will benefit the operation of the Jewish Academy in Frankfurt, according to Central Council President Josef Schuster. The new institution — envisioned as an inheritor of the Jewish House of Free Study, or Lehrhaus, founded in 1920 by Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig — has been in the works for more than a decade and is scheduled to open in 2024.
Once open, the academy will “formulate Jewish perspectives on debates in society at large” and within Jewish contexts, Schuster said on Monday during a ceremony in Berlin to celebrate his group’s agreement with the government. “It will thus make an important contribution to anchoring Jewish thinking and Jewish values in our society.”
The German government and the Central Council first entered into a contract back in 2002, putting the Jewish organization for the first time on a par in terms of funding with the Catholic and Protestant churches. (The state does not have a contract with Muslims in Germany, who have more than one umbrella organization.)
“Protecting and supporting Jewish life is an important part of our responsibility today,” Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said during Monday’s signing ceremony, adding that the increased funds would “strengthen the educational and commemorative work, as well as the security of Jewish communities.”
The council is also creating a nationwide training program for security personnel at Jewish institutions, in cooperation with the Chamber of Industry and Commerce; and is dedicating funds to projects dealing with antisemitism in schools, including training for textbook authors and the assessment of textbook manuscripts for antisemitic content.
The first government contract, signed in November 2002 with then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, cemented the legal relationship between the German government and the Central Council for the first time since World War II.
Germany was already subsidizing the Jewish umbrella group but tripled its commitment at the time to nearly $3 million to help meet the needs of a Jewish population that had surged after 1990 with the arrival of emigres from the former Soviet Union.
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 USA or Israel, there were some 25,000 Jews in former West Germany, most of them survivors from Eastern Europe. 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.
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Qatari PM Meets Iran’s Larijani in Tehran, Discusses Easing Regional Tensions
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani speaks after a meeting with the Lebanese president at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Emilie Madi
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met with top Iranian security official Ali Larijani in Tehran and reviewed efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region, Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Saturday in a statement.
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Tesla Receives Approval to Test Autonomous Driving in Israel
March 12, 2025, Seattle, Washington, USA: A row of brand-new Tesla Cybertrucks stands in a Tesla Motors Logistics Drop Zone in Seattle, Washington, USA, on Wed., March 12, 2025. Photo: ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
i24 News – The Ministry of Transport announced on Sunday that it has granted Tesla official approval to conduct trials of its autonomous driving system on Israel’s roads. The move comes as part of an effort to examine how the car manufacturer’s advanced technology can be integrated into the local driving environment, with full support from the ministry.
The trials will focus on Tesla’s Fully Self-Driving (FSD) system, a supervised autonomous driving platform. Under the terms of the approval, a driver must remain present in the vehicle at all times to supervise the system, despite its autonomous capabilities. This ensures safety while allowing the technology to be tested in real-world conditions.
The Ministry of Transport described the approval as a significant step toward advancing vehicle regulation in Israel. Officials said the initiative aims to create a regulatory framework that will allow for the routine, supervised use of autonomous driving systems in the future, safely and efficiently.
Tesla will use the trials to assess how the FSD system interacts with Israel’s road infrastructure, traffic patterns, and local driving behaviors. Data collected during the experiment will help refine the system and inform potential regulatory updates to accommodate autonomous vehicles.
The ministry emphasized that the pilot program is limited in scope and strictly monitored. It noted that all necessary safety protocols are in place and that public safety remains the top priority throughout the testing period.
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Reopening of Gaza’s Rafah Crossing Expected Monday, Officials Say
An aid truck moves on a road after entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 1, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Gaza’s main border crossing in Rafah will reopen for Palestinians on Monday, Israel said, with preparations underway at the war-ravaged enclave’s main gateway that has been largely shut for almost two years.
Before the war, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt was the only direct exit point for most Gazans to reach the outside world as well as a key entry point for aid into the territory. It has been largely shut since May 2024 and under Israeli military control on the Gazan side.
COGAT, the Israeli military unit that oversees humanitarian coordination, said the crossing will reopen in both directions for Gaza residents on foot only and its operation will be coordinated with Egypt and the European Union.
“Today, a pilot is underway to test and assess the operation of the crossing. The movement of residents in both directions, entry and exit to and from Gaza, is expected to begin tomorrow,” COGAT said in a statement.
A Palestinian official and a European source close to the EU mission confirmed the details. The Egyptian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
STRICT SECURITY CHECKS
Israel has said the crossing would open under stringent security checks only for Palestinians who wish to leave the war-ravaged enclave and for those who fled the fighting in the first months of the war to return.
Many of those expected to leave are sick and wounded Gazans in need of medical care abroad. The Palestinian health ministry has said that there are 20,000 patients waiting to leave Gaza.
An Israeli defense official said that the crossing can hold between 150-200 people altogether in both directions. There will be more people leaving than returning because patients leave together with escorts, the official added.
“(The Rafah crossing) is the lifeline for us, the patients. We don’t have the resources to be treated in Gaza,” said Moustafa Abdel Hadi, a kidney patient in a central Gaza hospital, awaiting a transplant abroad.
“If the war impacted a healthy person by 1 percent, it has impacted us 200 percent,” he said, sitting as he received dialysis treatment at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. His travel request, he said, has been approved.
Two Egyptian officials said that at least 50 Palestinian patients will be processed on Sunday to cross Rafah into Egypt for treatment. In the first few days around 200 people, patients and their family members, will cross daily into Egypt, the officials said, with 50 people returning to Gaza per day.
Lists of Gazans set to pass through the crossing have been submitted by Egypt and approved by Israel, the official said.
NEXT PHASE OF TRUMP’S GAZA PLAN
Reopening the border crossing was a key requirement of the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Israel-Hamas war.
But the ceasefire, which came into effect in October after two years of fighting, has been repeatedly shaken by rounds of violence.
On Saturday, Israel launched some of its most intense airstrikes since the ceasefire, killing at least 30 people, in what it said was a response to a Hamas violation of the truce on Friday when militants emerged from a tunnel in Rafah.
The next phases of Trump’s plan for Gaza foresee governance being handed to Palestinian technocrats, Hamas laying down its weapons and Israeli troops withdrawing from the territory while an international force keeps the peace and Gaza is rebuilt.
Hamas has so far rejected disarmament and Israel has repeatedly indicated that if the Islamist terrorist group is not disarmed peacefully, it will use force to make it do so.