Uncategorized
In Ukraine, Hanukkah candles are a lifeline in the midst of power outages
(JTA) — In the days before Hanukkah, which starts Sunday night, a few men and women from two Conservative institutions in Israel will travel to the small Jewish community in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, with a supply of needed items.
Amid the power outages stemming from Russian attacks, the volunteers will have blankets and sweatshirts for the cold, as well as menorahs and kippahs for religious observance purposes.
The 300 boxes of Hanukkah candles will do double duty.
These days, the power in Chernivtsi, a city of around 250,000 (before the war) in western Ukraine, is more off than on. So the candles will do more than allude to the story of the Maccabees — they will help light Jewish homes across the city.
“This year it’s really important” to have and use Hanukkah candles, said Lev Kleiman, leader of the city’s Conservative Jewish community, in a recent Zoom interview.
Although the need is urgent, “We will hold onto the candles until Hanukkah,” Kleiman added, his words in Russian interpreted by Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya, the Russian-born and Jerusalem-based “circuit rabbi” of the Conservative movement’s Schechter Institutes and executive director of its Midreshet Schechter Ukraine. The organizations are coordinating the transport of holiday supplies to Chernivtsi.
Among a few “couriers” bringing needed items to Jewish communities in Ukraine, Gritsevskaya has made several trips there over the last 10 months. At the start of the war, she urged Jews in other cities to make their way to Chernivtsi, which was far from the intense fighting on the eastern border.
Chernivtsi, which served as a place of refuge for thousands of displaced people from elsewhere in parts of the Soviet Union threatened by the Nazi army during World War II, is again attracting refugees from throughout the country. Earlier in the current war, Kleiman turned his synagogue into a refugee center for some of the millions of Ukrainians fleeing their homeland. The city also became a gathering site for worldwide faith leaders who have denounced the violence and expressed solidarity with the embattled Ukrainians.
In addition to no heat and light in Chernivtsi, lack of electricity means lack of TV and radio use, along with spotty internet service. (Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Located on the Prut River, Chernivtsi (known at one time as “Jerusalem upon the Prut” for the strength of its Jewish community) is 25 miles north of the Romanian border and home to one of the country’s most active Conservative communities. The city’s Jewish population before the war began was estimated at 2,000, including many Holocaust survivors.
And today, following the invasion? The number could be larger or smaller, no one is counting — but some western cities have experienced population growth due to all of the migration.
“No one knows,” Kleiman said. “Many left, but many came.”
As in other Ukrainian cities, many Jews in Chernivtsi — especially women, senior citizens and children, everyone except draft-age males — have migrated. But uncounted other ones have come to a place of relative safety, either renting apartments or staying in ones under the auspices of the Jewish community. Most of the Jews in Chernivtsi now are those exempt from military service, Kleiman said. Others stayed in order to be with their husbands and fathers who joined the Ukrainian army after the war began, or to care for their aged parents.
Despite signs of war — rifle-carrying soldiers and policemen on the streets, empty shelves in stores because of shortages, people hurrying to safety when they hear sirens — Jewish life there has continued, according to Kleiman. The most active organizations in the city are the local outpost of the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement, the JDC-supported Hesed Shoshana Welfare Center and Kleiman’s Kehillat Aviv Synagogue (his official title is coordinator), which sponsors daily Jewish activities.
The synagogue — located near the Chabad center, with which it cooperates on relief activities — is housed in a small, two-story building that contains an office, a kitchen and a large multi-function hall. Kleiman says Hanukkah in 2022 will be more important than in past years because in addition to its ability to bring people together,the holiday also asserts Jewish survival.
“There are a lot of parallels,” Kleiman said of the holiday and his community’s current situation.
Electricity in Chernivtsi flows only a few hours each day, and at night, no street lights are on, thanks to incessant Russian bombing of Ukraine’s infrastructure, and to government-imposed restrictions designed to conserve the little available resources.
A holiday of lights sans lights? “We’ve never done it before,” Kleiman said, adding that the Jews in his city understand the holiday’s symbolism.
Some will come to the synagogue for a communal candle-lighting, according to Kleiman. Others will light their candles at home, in their windows. Like all other buildings in Chernivtsi, Kleiman’s office and apartment are subject to periodic electricity blackouts, often announced in advance.
“With G-d’s help we will soon have a generator” – and 24/7 lights and heat in the synagogue, he said. Until then, he and the other residents of Chernivtsi will shiver. The temperature in the city was 29 degrees Fahrenheit during the Zoom interview, and a light snow was falling.
Lev Kleiman is shown with his community’s Torah ark. (Courtesy of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies)
Though no Russian missiles have fallen inside Chernivtsi itself, some have reached the outskirts, causing damage to the area’s infrastructure and utilities. Other parts of the country have not escaped the Russian onslaught; two months ago more than 4,000 Ukrainian towns, villages and cities had experienced outages, and 40% of the country’s grid was crippled. The bombing of power stations is a major part of Vladimir Putin’s plan to weaponize Ukraine’s weather to bully the country into submission as winter sets in. (In addition to candles and other supplies, some Jewish groups are sending generators and heaters.)
Home in past years to such prominent Jews as actress Mila Kunis, the late Israeli writer Aharon Appelfeld, former Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein and the late poet-translator Paul Celan (born Paul Antschel), Chernivtsi has an honored place in the country’s history. On the eve of World War II, some 45,000 Jews lived in the city, about a third of the country’s total Jewish population. The collaborationist Romanian authorities, who ruled the area, established a ghetto in Chernivtsi where 32,000 Jews, including many from the surrounding region, were interned; from there, they were shipped to concentration camps in the nearby Transnistria area, where 60% died.
A third of the city’s Jews survived the war. The population grew to about 17,000 when widespread migration from the USSR began in the late 1980s. Like many cities in the former Soviet Union, Chernivtsi has experienced a modest Jewish revival since Communism fell and open expression of Judaism was allowed again. The revival was spurred largely by the arrival of Chabad emissary couples and programs sponsored by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
But though Chabad, an Orthodox movement, is the prime Jewish mover in Ukraine, there is also a growing non-Orthodox presence in the country. The Israeli branch of the Conservative movement sent its first full-time representatives to Ukraine a decade ago. The movement’s Jerusalem-based Masorti Olami organization sponsors a network of synagogues, schools, camps, youth groups and kosher certification services across Ukraine. A few decades ago, Kleiman attended the Midreshet Yerushalayim day school in Chernivtsi and Camp Ramah Ukraine.
In addition, the Reform movement’s World Union for Progressive Judaism has established 10 congregations in the country; the movement estimates that 14,000 Ukrainian Jews identify as members.
Even though the need is urgent, Kleiman said his community will wait to use the candles until the start of Hanukkah. (Courtesy of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies)
These are boring days in southwest Ukraine. TV and radio are only available when electricity is available, and internet and cellphone service is always spotty. Kleiman calls the war a test of the people’s mettle, a spur to their growing national unity. As a form of solidarity, many have switched the language of their conversations from Russian — the lingua franca during the Soviet days — to Ukrainian.
Nobody in Chernivtsi’s Jewish community is starving, Kleiman said. Kosher food is available at the synagogue, and volunteers bring supplies to people unable to travel. Overall, the morale of the Jewish community is good, he says. Native-born members of the community “support each other,” while some people from other parts of the country, separated from their families, with fewer personal connections, are depressed, he said.
In the boxes of materials that Rabbi Gritsevskaya is to bring to Chernivtsi from Israel are also some Israeli-style dreidels, whose Hebrew letters stand for the words “Nes gadol haya po”: “A great miracle happened here.” On dreidels used in the Diaspora, the last word usually is sham, “there.”
The linguistic symbolism in a land under siege is clear, said Kleiman, who plans to explain the message to the members of the community taking home a dreidel.
“I understand — they will understand too,” he says. “I hope the miracle will also happen in Ukraine.”
—
The post In Ukraine, Hanukkah candles are a lifeline in the midst of power outages appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
Attack on Michigan Synagogue Was Hezbollah-Inspired ‘Act of Terrorism,’ FBI Says
FBI agents work on the site after the Michigan State Police reported an active shooting incident at the Temple Israel Synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, US, March 12, 2026. Photo: Rebecca Cook via Reuters Connect
The FBI said on Monday that an attack on the largest Jewish temple in Michigan earlier this month was an “act of terrorism” inspired by Hezbollah.
Ayman Ghazali, a 41-year-old man who was born in Lebanon and became a US citizen in 2016, killed himself during the March 12 attack, when he crashed his truck into the Temple of Israel synagogue before opening fire on security guards and causing an explosion using fireworks, said Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Detroit field office.
No one else died during the attack on the synagogue where children were attending preschool.
Ghazali consumed pro-Hezbollah ideology prior to the attack, said Runyan, but the FBI has not been able to verify if he was a member of Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group. There is no evidence that he had co-conspirators, Runyan said.
Hezbollah, a radical Islamist organization, was founded by Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 1982. Both Hezbollah and the IRGC are designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the US. The US and Israel launched a war against Iran on Feb. 28.
“Had this man lived, I am convinced that my office would prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed the federal crime of providing material support to Hezbollah,” said Jerome Borgen, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Runyan said the day before the synagogue attack Ghazali started sharing photos on social media of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes last month. Then, on the day of the attack, while sitting in the parking lot of the Temple of Israel, Ghazali told his sister in a message that he planned “to commit a mass terrorist attack.”
Antisemitic incidents have spiked in recent years in the US, with anti-Jewish incidents accounting for nearly two-thirds of 5,300-plus religiously motivated hate crimes since February 2024, according to FBI data.
Uncategorized
US Lawmaker Calls for ‘Full Recognition of Somaliland’ Following Israel
US Rep. John Rose (R-TN) presents a flag to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, Sept. 5, 2025. Photo: Francis Chung/Pool/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
A US lawmaker from Tennessee now running for governor hopes that legislation he filed this month can lead to the United States following Israel in recognizing Somaliland, which has sought global support in breaking away from Somalia in the Horn of Africa for more than 30 years, as an independent and sovereign state.
In an exclusive interview with The Algemeiner, Rep. John Rose, a Republican who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, said that following outreach from Somaliland representatives, he and his team “started digging in deeper and ultimately decided that the cause of Somaliland was meritorious.”
“We think it’s in the best interest of the United States to develop a stronger relationship and to provide a path forward for what I would ultimately hope might be a full recognition of Somaliland as an independent nation,” he added.
Israel in December became the first country to officially recognize the Republic of Somaliland.
Noting the Jewish state’s decision, Rose said that he had “looked on with interest as both Israel and Taiwan have recognized Somaliland, and we think that it makes good sense because of the geopolitics and the demonstrated history of Somaliland in terms of its democratic institutions and its attempt to join the community of nations.”
Unlike most states in its region, Somaliland has relative security, regular elections, and a degree of political stability.
Filed on March 19, the Somaliland Economic Access and Opportunity Act would require the Treasury Department to submit a detailed report to the House Financial Services Committee and to the Senate Banking Committee outlining the challenges Somaliland faces in accessing the financial system. Co-sponsors of the bill include Republican Reps. Andrew Ogles (TN), Pat Harrigan (NC) and Addison McDowell (NC).
“So, what is the lay of the landscape? We want them to tell us that,” Rose explained to The Algemeiner. “And how would Somaliland — [with] its lack of broad international recognition — how does that affect its financial access? What is Somaliland’s current compliance with international banking norms, things like customer and anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing standards, other regulatory expectations of where are they and where do they need to get to be?”
Identifying numerous questions his bill would address, Rose asked, “What steps could we take as a government to facilitate responsible financial access? And how can we use our voice as a nation and our vote on international financial institutions to facilitate success for Somaliland? What steps would it take to incorporate Somaliland into the SWIFT [Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication] financial messaging and payment system which would really up their game in terms of what they could hope to accomplish?”
Founded in 1973, the SWIFT system connects more than 11,000 financial institutions around the globe, enabling quick transfers of funds.
Israel’s special envoy for water issues, Ambassador Rony Yedidia Clein, center, stands with Somaliland’s director-general at the Ministry of Water Development, Aden Abdela Abdule, second from the right, and other officials at a waste treatment facility in Israel, Feb. 25, 2025. Photo: Screenshot
Rose discussed Somaliland’s geopolitical importance and counter-terrorism role, calling the region “one of the most dangerous areas and along one of the most important sea lanes in the world.” He described partnering with Somaliland as “an opportunity to provide a way to respond to and answer what Beijing is doing in the Horn of Africa.”
Somaliland, which has claimed independence for decades in East Africa but remains largely unrecognized, is situated on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south and west, and Somalia to the south and east. It has sought to break off from Somalia since 1991 and utilized its own passports, currency, military, and law enforcement.
China has set up its only overseas military base in Djibouti, opening in August 2017 and capable of housing 10,000 troops. Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China has also invested in Djibouti’s Doraleh Multi-Purpose Port, which the China State Engineering Corporation financed and built, propelling an average growth of 6-7 percent in the nation’s GDP. China acts as Djibouti’s banker, holding 70 percent of the African country’s $1.4 billion in external debt.
In December, China announced its opposition to Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian asserting that “no country should encourage or support other countries’ internal separatist forces for its own selfish interests.”
However, Rose noted that Somaliland is a “functioning democracy” that has the potential to be a partner of the US.
“I think it’s also an important element that this is a relatively well-functioning democracy, and we think the United States should encourage that,” he said, “We’re not proposing that we get ahead of ourselves; we just think that we should acknowledge the efforts the Somalilanders have made and try to facilitate their ascension into the community of nations.”
For those skeptical of the US potentially supporting the breaking up an African country, Rose urged people to look closer.
“You have to understand the deep history” and grasp how Somaliland “came to be part of Somalia and how the hope and promise for a united Somalia was very quickly cut short,” the lawmaker said.
“Italian Somalia took over and reneged essentially on the promise of a peaceful Somalia, and so I think if you understand that and then realize that for 35 years Somaliland has been trying to assert its independence and has essentially maintained geographic integrity over that period of time. And I think this is a lot less controversial,” Rose added.
To explain to his constituents why they should be concerned about Somaliland, Rose pointed to how “so much of the world’s commerce passes through the Gulf of Aden and you want that to be peaceful. Obviously, it is a treacherous place in terms of piracy.”
Identifying the foreign threats in the region, Rose added, “When you consider the geopolitics as it relates to China and nearby Yemen, then you know that, we need — and it is in the interest of the United States — to develop peaceful relationships with the countries that are demonstrating the right path forward in terms of embracing democracy and freedom and peace.”
On Saturday, the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, a US-designated terrorist group, joined the war with Iran and launched a missile attack against Israel. Senior Houthi official Mohammed Mansour also threatened to shut down maritime traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a 70-mile-long chokepoint connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. In 2023, analysts estimated that 12 percent of the seaborne oil trade and 8 percent of the liquefied natural gas trade flowed through the corridor between Yemen and Djibouti.
The Strait of Hormuz “is the bigger oil shock point, but Bab el-Mandeb is the broader trade shock point,” said Nayeem Noor, vice president for business development at GMS, one of the world’s largest buyers of ships. “As the southern gateway to the Red Sea and Suez corridor, any serious threat there affects not only tankers but also container services, breakbulk, dry cargo movements, vessel availability, insurance, war risk premiums, and overall voyage economics on the Asia-Europe route.”
Somaliland also has significant mineral resources, and officials have said they are willing to offer the US a strategic military base at the entrance to the Red Sea and critical minerals as part of a deal that would include formal recognition.
Rose saw larger implications for his bill and the US’s engagement with Somaliland, saying it could provide “a blueprint, or a roadmap for how other nations that want to be peace loving and want to develop their economies, about how that could happen.”
“I think seeing Somaliland succeed is really what motivates me and knowing their earnestness for doing so and the struggle that they’ve had,” he added.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar meets with Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi on Jan. 6, 2026. Photo: Screenshot
The Abraham Accords, a series of Arab-Israeli normalization agreements started in 2020, loomed over the Israel-Somaliland diplomacy, as the move represented further progress in reconciliation between the Jewish and Muslim worlds.
“I think this does fit that mold,” Rose said. “And I think is another example of how countries that want to embrace peace and want to cultivate meaningful relationships and particularly economic relationships, I think it makes great sense. So, I do see this as fitting in a piece that fits into that larger puzzle.”
Regarding how domestic politics could shape Somaliland recognition, Rose expressed optimism about the potential for a bipartisan attitude among his colleagues in the House.
“Well, I think it’s a little early to tell, but I think there should be bipartisanship on this,” Rose told The Algemeiner. “I don’t think there’s any real political angle here that ought to cause either side to wince at this or be concerned about it or use it as a dividing line. I think it makes good sense for the United States, and I think it should make good sense on a bipartisan basis.”
Rose added, “There’s just a whole array of reasons that this makes good sense for the country, and I think it’s something we can do without compromising American interest.”
Discussing a personal connection to the region, Rose described meeting African students during his college years studying in West Lafayette, Indiana.
“I got a master’s degree in agricultural economics at Purdue University in the late ’80s, and a number of good friends were from that area of Africa — from Somalia, Ethiopia, the Sudan,” Rose said. “There was a lot of outreach from Purdue and other similar programs to try to assist. And so, I had a number of fellow students that I got to know and had good relationships with and worked with extensively from that region of the world.”
Rose said he came to understand and know about “some of the challenges that they face. So, I think there is a real opportunity to lift Somaliland in that regard and create a success story there for their independence and ability to feed themselves, all those things that that area and region of the world need to continue to advance.”
Uncategorized
Israel Targets Hezbollah Fighters Disguised as Paramedics as Terror Group Continues to Exploit Civilian Sites
Israeli soldiers walk next to military vehicles on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, amid escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in northern Israel, March 16, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
Israel on Sunday night intercepted a Hezbollah operation in southern Lebanon, targeting a terrorist cell disguised as paramedics who tried to transport weapons in an ambulance toward Israeli forces.
The Israeli strike further exposed the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group’s use of civilians and even medical vehicles as cover for attacks.
According to Israeli intelligence, Hezbollah has fired thousands of drones and rockets toward the Jewish state since joining the war in support of Iran earlier this month, brazenly using ambulances and medical facilities as cover and embedding their weapons and operation hubs in various civilian sites.
“This incident is another example of Hezbollah’s cynical and systematic use of medical infrastructure for military purposes,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
Last week, Israel discovered a tunnel used by Hezbollah in a church in southern Lebanon, where the terrorist group has spent years building infrastructure to attack the Jewish state.
Hezbollah tunnel at a church in southern Lebanon https://t.co/5mTGP7uSvz
— Matthew Levitt (@Levitt_Matt) March 27, 2026
Under international law, deliberately using medical teams and ambulances to conceal military activity constitutes a serious violation, as battlefield protections for medical personnel apply only when they act strictly within their humanitarian role.
As the conflict in Lebanon continues to escalate, Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that once ambulances and medical teams become part of Hezbollah’s weapons transport network, they lose their protected status and become legitimate military targets.
On Monday, the IDF destroyed more than 100 high-rise towers in southern Lebanon serving as Hezbollah’s command, control, and attack-planning centers against Israeli citizens – in what officials described as the terrorist group’s “cynical exploitation of Lebanese citizens,” embedding military infrastructure amid civilian areas.
PHOTOS: Israeli soldiers discover Hezbollah weapons cache—including RPGs, mortars, hand grenades, launchers, land mines, explosive bricks, and rifles—in southern Lebanon school. (IDF) pic.twitter.com/2HIpFtPLTQ
— Avi Mayer אבי מאיר (@AviMayer) March 27, 2026
With a ground maneuver underway to expand a defensive zone in southern Lebanon, the IDF says it has eliminated over 850 Hezbollah terrorists so far, while continuing to dismantle the group’s command and weapons infrastructure.
Last week, Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, after identifying Hezbollah operatives launching heavy rocket fire from residential neighborhoods, issuing the order ahead of airstrikes to safeguard civilians from the escalating attacks.
“Hezbollah, which has dragged you into this war in service of Iran’s agenda, is deliberately operating within your neighborhoods, putting your safety at grave risk and bringing destruction to your homes and communities,” the military’s Arabic spokesperson, Col. (res.) Avichay Adraee wrote in a post on X, appealing to Lebanese citizens.
For years, Hezbollah has embedded command posts, weapons depots, snipers, and troops within Shiite villages, situating them in the heart of civilian centers near schools, hospitals, mosques, and main roads to turn entire communities into battlefields.
“We found them hiding weapons in a children’s school. We found them building a tunnel in the complex of a church in al-Kiam,” IDF International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said during a briefing to journalists.
In recent weeks, Israel has intensified strikes targeting Hezbollah, particularly south of the Litani River, where the group’s operatives have historically been most active against the Jewish state.
Israel has long demanded that Hezbollah be barred from carrying out activities south of the Litani, located roughly 15 miles from the Israeli border.
The IDF is now moving into Lebanon to establish what officials described as a “forward defensive line,” targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and destroying buildings that were being used as operational “terrorist outposts.”
As reports surfaced of potential ceasefire talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials, Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem warned Wednesday that negotiating under fire amounts to imposed surrender, adding that his fighters are prepared to continue operations “without limits.”
In just the first month of the conflict, Israeli officials report that Hezbollah has carried out more than 900 coordinated attacks, marking a sharp increase in cross-border activity and a broader expansion of its operations across the region.
So far, Israel has demolished five bridges in the Litani River area and taken effective control of three others, aiming to dominate the area from the air and prevent residents from returning south of the river until the threat of Hezbollah is removed.