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Netanyahu fires defense minister who called for a stop to Israel’s judiciary reforms
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, exactly a day after Gallant called for a stop to radical reforms to the judiciary that have divided the country and that the defense minister said posed security risks to Israel.
The dramatic move could accelerate a crisis that Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, who has also called for a stop to the legislation, has said could culminate in a bloody civil war. It could also further fray ties with the United States, where Gallant has been steering coordination on defense cooperation with his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided, this evening (Sunday, 26 March 2023), to dismiss Defense Minister Yoav Gallant,” Netanyahu’s office said in a single sentence just after 9 p.m.
“The security of Israel always has been and always will be my life’s mission,” Gallant, a decorated general, said in a statement.
In a surprise address late Saturday, Gallant had called for a pause to the judiciary reforms, saying that the divisions they were sowing among Israelis were making the country vulnerable to security threats, including from Iran, Palestinian terrorists and Hezbollah, the terrorist movement in Lebanon.
The firing comes at a potentially vulnerable moment, as the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan begins and less than two weeks before Passover. The coincidence of the two has in the past spurred tensions and led to violence.
“This is an insane act. This man is leading us to the destruction of the Third Temple,” Avigdor Liberman, one of coterie of onetime confidants of Netanyahu who turned against him and joined or established opposition parties, told the Israeli government broadcaster, Kan, about the prime minister. “This man is dismantling the entire defense infrastructure.”
Israeli media said Netanyahu was especially furious for two reasons: Gallant delivered his address while Netanyahu was in London, and did not give Netanyahu advance notice; and Gallant had made clear he would vote against the first major reform, which is due to come to a final vote on Monday.
The vote Monday will be on a law that would drastically reduce the influence of the courts in naming judges, and reserve it almost entirely for the governing coalition. Another law Netanyahu hopes to pass soon would effectively gut the power of the Supreme Court to review legislation.
The court is seen as a bulwark defending the rights of vulnerable populations, including women, the LGBTQ community, Arabs and non-Orthodox Jews.
Gallant’s speech Saturday night had laid bare divisions within Netanyahu’s Likud party. Two other Likud lawmakers immediately echoed his call for the legislative process to be suspended until the end of April and for talks with the opposition. It was not clear whether the two, Yuri Edelstein and David Bitan, would vote against the judiciary appointments law on Monday. If they do, that would give Netanyahu a bare minimum majority of 61; a single further defection would stop the legislation.
There had been speculation that Avi Dichter, like Gallant, a veteran of the security establishment, would join Gallant. Now, the media is reporting that Netanyahu planned to ask Dichter, the agriculture minister, to replace Gallant, a signal that Netanyahu believes he has won over Dichter.
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The post Netanyahu fires defense minister who called for a stop to Israel’s judiciary reforms appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Yad Vashem says it has identified 5 million Holocaust victims: ‘Behind each name is a life that mattered’
Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, says it has reached a major milestone in its efforts to uncover the identities of all of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust, crossing the 5-million name threshold with the help of AI.
That leaves 1 million names still unknown from the tally of 6 million murdered Jews that is synonymous with the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II.
Two years ago, Yad Vashem inaugurated a 26.5 foot-long “Book of Names,” which included the names of 4,800,000 victims of the Shoah, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
Since then, researchers deployed AI technology and machine learning to analyze hundreds of millions of archival documents that were previously too extensive to research manually, according to Yad Vashem. In addition to covering large amounts of material quickly, the algorithms were taught to look out for variations of victims’ names, leading to the new identification of hundreds of thousands of victims.
Yad Vashem estimates an additional 250,000 names could still be recovered using the technology.
“Reaching 5 million names is both a milestone and a reminder of our unfinished obligation,” said Dani Dayan, the chairman of Yad Vashem, in a statement. “Behind each name is a life that mattered — a child who never grew up, a parent who never came home, a voice that was silenced forever. It is our moral duty to ensure that every victim is remembered so that no one will be left behind in the darkness of anonymity.”
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The post Yad Vashem says it has identified 5 million Holocaust victims: ‘Behind each name is a life that mattered’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Trump calls on Orthodox Jewish voters in NJ to vote for Republican gubernatorial candidate
(JTA) — President Donald Trump on Sunday urged Orthodox Jewish voters in Lakewood, New Jersey, to vote for the Republican candidate in the state’s gubernatorial race.
“I need ALL of my supporters in the Orthodox community in Lakewood and its surrounding towns to vote in HUGE numbers for Jack Ciattarelli,” wrote Trump in a post on Truth Social. “Jack needs every single Vote in the community, including all the Yeshiva students who turned out to vote for me last year.”
Ciattarelli received a joint endorsement last week from Orthodox Jewish leaders in Lakewood as well as the neighboring towns of Jackson, Toms River, Howell and Manchester, according to the Lakewood Scoop.
But Ciattarelli also faced backlash from his opponent, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, last month after his Muslim relations advisor said he wasn’t “taking money from Jews” at a campaign event.
In his post, Trump also touted his fierce backing in Lakewood, a center of haredi Orthodox life in the United States, during the 2024 presidential race. He boasted that Lakewood was “one of our biggest Wins anywhere in the Country with more than 90% of the Vote.” In fact, 87.8% of voters in the town cast their ballots for him.
Democrat Kamala Harris won New Jersey in 2024 with 52% of the votes, Ciattarelli is currently hoping to flip the governor’s mansion red. Sherrill is leading in polls, but some show a very tight race, according to an aggregation published by the New York Times.
Several top Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, visited campaign events in New Jersey over the weekend to rally behind Sherrill, in a sign that the party is concerned about the possible outcome of the election.
“Your Votes in this Election will save New Jersey, a State that is near and dear to my heart,” wrote Trump, before exhorting everyone to the polls in all caps.
The post Trump calls on Orthodox Jewish voters in NJ to vote for Republican gubernatorial candidate appeared first on The Forward.
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Harrisburg diocese condemns Auschwitz gates in Catholic school’s Halloween float
(JTA) — Catholic leaders in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, have apologized after a local Catholic school included a replica of the gates of Auschwitz in its Halloween parade.
“I was shocked and appalled to learn that the Halloween parade float from Saint Joseph Catholic school in Hanover included a replica of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp gate, bearing the words ‘Arbeit Macht Frei,’” Timothy Senior, the city’s top Catholic bishop, said in a statement on Saturday, after images of the display began going viral.
The words over the gate to Auschwitz mean “Work makes you free” and was intended by the Nazis as a cruel deception for the prisoners who entered through them, largely Jews who would be gassed and worked to death.
Senior said the feature had not been included in an approved plan for the float.
“The inclusion of this image — one that represents the horrific suffering and murder of millions of innocent people, including six million Jews during the Holocaust — is profoundly offensive and unacceptable,” he said, adding, “I express my sincere apology to our Jewish brothers and sisters and to all who were hurt or offended by this display.”
The Halloween parade, which was livestreamed on Thursday, showed around a dozen children marching alongside the float. Images of the display were shared on the Hanover Area Watch Group Facebook page, where criticism from local parents and residents resounded in the comments.
The display was the work of Galen S. Shelly, a York, Pennsylvania, resident who explained his use of the gates in a comment on the Facebook page early Saturday morning.
“I wanted to illustrate the idea none of us get out of this life alive,” Shelly told PennLive of the display. “I never intended anything to be like this. I couldn’t have anticipated it. I made a mistake and I ask everyone’s forgiveness.”
The display drew condemnation from the York Jewish Community Center, Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, which also thanked Senior for his acknowledgement of the display in a joint statement on Saturday.
“The recent use of Nazi imagery on a float in a Halloween parade in Hanover is another painful reminder that hateful symbols and rhetoric still find their way into public spaces,” the statement read. “These acts, intentional or not, contribute to fear and anxiety among Jewish individuals and all who understand the devastating history those symbols represent.”
The company that volunteered to pull the float, Metcalf Cleaning, issued its own apology on Facebook Saturday, writing that it was “not involved in the creation of its decorations or messaging.”
“Regrettably, the float contained a phrase in German that was later found to be derogatory,” the statement read. “At the time, we were unaware of its meaning and significance. We recognize that we should have taken a closer look at the float prior to the parade, and we are truly sorry for that oversight.”
The post Harrisburg diocese condemns Auschwitz gates in Catholic school’s Halloween float appeared first on The Forward.