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There’s no beer at the World Cup in Qatar, but there are kosher bagels
(JTA) — Qatar may have caused an uproar by banning alcohol at the World Cup soccer tournament in Doha this month, but for religious Jewish fans, some kosher offerings will be available, thanks to two rabbis.
Rabbi Marc Schneier, from New York, and Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s emissary to Istanbul, worked with Qatari officials to create a kosher catering program to provide for observant Jews who may attend the games. And despite a report that has echoed around the world claiming that Qatar banned the production of kosher food after promising it would be made available, the rabbis say all is still going as planned.
It won’t involve five-course meals or fine dining, but the duo arranged for kosher bagels to be baked in a catering space provided by Qatar Airways and delivered to those who need them during the World Cup.
“We decided to go with the theme of bagels, because while they are not well known here in Qatar, they are very well known in the U.S. and ethnically identified with Jews,” Schneier told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “They’re probably the first kosher bagels being produced and baked here in Qatar.
The kitchen is under the supervision of Chitrik, who manages kosher certification operations in Turkey — one of the world’s largest food producers — on behalf of the Orthodox Union, the Israeli Rabbinate and the Turkish Rabbinate. He has also helped facilitate kosher operations elsewhere in the Middle East, such as the United Arab Emirates. Chitrik’s son Eli, also a rabbi, will stay in Qatar for the duration of the tournament to supervise the facility.
Neither rabbi said they know how much demand there will actually be for kosher food.
“It was really, you know, taking a leap of faith,” said Schneier, rabbi at the Hampton Synagogue on Long Island in New York. “I don’t know if one person needs a kosher meal or if 100 people will need a kosher meal.”
Chitrik, who has been involved in similar projects in the Gulf region in the past, told JTA that he received many phone calls asking if there would be kosher food available.
“From phone calls to actuality, you don’t know what will be, but there were a lot of requests,” he said. “As rabbis in the region, we felt it was our responsibility to respond to those requests and make sure that people have what to eat if they are coming to the games. Some people are staying for a month.”
The kitchen will be operational for the full 30 days of the World Cup tournament. Both rabbis said that if they see high demand, they hope to increase the offerings beyond just bagels.
The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday that Qatar has banned cooked kosher food at the World Cup, and World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder released a statement saying he was “outraged.” Both Chitrik and Schneier denied that claim.
“The whole thing was not very organized. Nobody actually came saying they would put up the money to establish a kosher restaurant. Everybody is demanding the Qataris to open a kosher restaurant, and no, they didn’t open a kosher restaurant. I’m sure if someone came with the business plan to open a kosher restaurant, they would have no problem with that. At the end of the day they did open up a kosher kitchen, but it was very last minute so there is no meat. That’s it for now,” Chitrik told JTA.
Schneier believes that the project has value beyond just filling empty stomachs — the bagels could be a step towards normalizing Jewish life in Qatar, which is currently nonexistent.
Both Chitrik and Schneier work in the realm of building Jewish-Islamic relations. Schneier is the president and founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, a nonprofit devoted to improving Jewish-Muslim relations, while Chitrik leads the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States.
Rabbi Marc Schneier, holding paper, and Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, third from left, worked together on the initiative. (Courtesy of Schneier)
Currently, Qatar has no relations with Israel, and its state broadcaster, Al Jazeera,which is often accused of serving Qatari foreign policy, has long taken a hard line against the Jewish state.
Nonetheless, Schneier worked with his Qatari contacts to help bring the first direct flights from Israel to the gulf nation so that Israeli soccer fans could watch the games, unhindered by regional politics. Despite the lack of formal relations, the Israeli foreign ministry negotiated the establishment of a temporary diplomatic mission and consular office to serve their citizens for the duration of the games.
“The leadership of the State of Qatar is performing a ‘mitzvah’ by making kosher food available for members of the worldwide Jewish community, including those traveling from Israel,” Schneier said in a statement. “Furthermore, the Qataris have stood by and followed through on every commitment that was made to welcome Jewish fans to this prestigious event.”
The World Cup isn’t Schneier’s first foray into getting kosher food into sporting events. In the 1990s, when he served as president of New York’s Board of Rabbis, he was involved in the initiative to establish a kosher food stand at Yankee stadium. Since then, kosher food options have become available at many stadiums around the United States.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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