COVID Diary- Reflections from Our Advisory Board Member Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs

January 22, 2021

Every Day during the Corona crisis our Advisory Board Member Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs (NL) writes a diary, on request of the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam, which is published on the website of the NIW, the only Jewish Dutch Magazine. Rabbi Jacobs is the head of Inter Governmental Relationships at the Rabbinical Centre of Europe. We will be regularly publishing a selection of his informative, sometimes light hearted, but always wise pieces.
For our Dutch readers you can follow the diary every day at NIW home page: https://niw.nl
Diary 20 Jan. 2021
That such a figure should commemorate my family …….
It is now 23:15 on Wednesday. I just got home. Gave a lecture in Gorinchem. Of course without a visible audience, but in a professional studio and several hundred who were watching at home and many thousands of them are expected to watch the broadcast at a later date. I am used to it by now. If I can immediately speak to visible people again, it will take some getting used to giving a lecture to real listeners.
A lecture with a 15-minute break with tea in the middle. Audience that can just see me in real life and I can look at those present. Now you should know that I used to read from the faces whether I needed to dig deeper into the matter, whether it was time for a parable or a joke to keep people on their toes.
Since I am now starting to realize that we can hardly go outside at the end of this week (good for my health? Not so much.) Today I did my fast walk of one hour instead of the usual 25 minutes.
In the meantime, the condolences keep coming in by e-mail (Chief Rabbi Jacobs recently lost his son – Editor), on facebook (so I was told, because I don’t get on facebook myself) and the phone hardly stops ringing. So many warm and beautiful words.
Also an email advising me to repent. Well-intentioned, but I firmly rejected the proposal without any consideration. Should the author of that lengthy e-mail read this diary, she will hear that I was not charmed by her attempt at conversion, nor did I bother to respond to her e-mail.
Conversion is a loaded topic for us Jews that are still alive. “But”, I hear you think, “you are so good with the Christians for Israel, aren’t you?” Dear people, they do not seek to convert! I know their motives, I know their background, I am aware of their statutes and I am in almost daily contact with them. Together we fight for Israel and against anti-Zionism. To convert? They have many fellow believers who strongly disapprove of their pro-Israel action and point out their flaw that they do not serve as missionaries amongst Jews. But they do try and convert, but of a very different kind. They are trying to convert the churches to change their anti-Israel stance to a pro-Israel approach!
Why am I raising that now? Not because of that dorky letter from that lady, but because the Jewish Agency has stopped working with a Canadian Christian organization called Return Ministries because of a rumour that they are trying to convert people. The president of that organization is a Messianic Jew. And although every person is responsible for himself and is allowed to do what he cannot resist, this is disturbing.
A Messianic Jew who wants to bring Jews to Israel? Who himself has thrown his Judaism overboard? For me a contradiction interminis! And so, I fully understand the Jewish Agency.
And while that lady tries to swindle me away from Judaism, I read today in the authoritative British daily the Guardian that a recent survey shows that many British Jews are afraid to show signs of their religion, such as wearing a kippah or a Star of David in public. Rising anti-Semitism, which is increasingly becoming the “normal”! Let that converting lady spend her time on that and leave me alone. Linking this conversion attempt to the death of our son is unsavoury to say the least.
In the meantime, the sheer number of statements of support resulting from my diary shows that I have built up a wide readership. Apparently, I’m not the only one who knows that.
Because, and now it comes, today I have been approached from four different sides with the request to pay attention in my diary to the choice of the speaker at the annual National Remembrance Day on May 4. The Committee for 4 and 5 May actually chose a figure who has made anti-Semitic remarks on various occasions. The Jewish Telegraph Association (JTA), which is generally well-informed and meticulous, has devoted an entire article to it, and the statements the speaker is said to have made do not lie. I am sure that this week’s NAV will also pay substantial attention to it.
It is incomprehensible that this Abdelkader Benali, who has nothing to do with the 1940s and 45s, will speak at the same commemoration where last year our King Willem Alexander brilliantly expressed exactly what the especially Jewish Netherlands had been waiting for, for so long. What an encouragement that was! And now this figure comes…? I don’t get it, I feel like May 4 is being taken away from me, but I hope I misunderstood everything, that the JTA was misinformed and the various quotes emails that are far from Jew-friendly just on a misunderstanding and were never expressed.
But in the unlikely event that everything is right: That such a figure should commemorate my family … this I just don’t understand.

Additional Articles

Taking Action Following the Murder of Yeshiva Student, Dvir Sorek (ת.נ.צ.ב.ה)

A day after Dvir funeral EJA chairman, Rabbi Margolin had sent letters to High Representative Mogherini, H.E. Mr. David Maria Sassoli MEP, H.E. Mr. Donald Franciszek Tusk and Mr. David James McAllister MEP, urging them to condemn the glorification of violence and radicalisation by the Palestinian Authority, and make clear that incitement will not be tolerated by the EU, in order to ensure that the murderer of the 19-year-old Dvir Sorek does not receive such payments/stipends.

 

Saying ‘Never again is now’ to European Jews is an insult

Never again? If European governments are not prepared or are unwilling to turn words into action, these important words will have just been a platitude. And an insulting one at that.

A DEMONSTRATOR holds a sign that reads “Never Again is Now” during a protest against right-wing extremism and the far-Right opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD), in Cologne, in January.
(photo credit: Jana Rodenbusch/Reuters)
Never again. Everybody knows those words. They are on every politician’s lips on Holocaust Memorial Day.And in 2025 we will mark the 80th liberation of the camp that prompted these words to be uttered: Auschwitz.

What exactly do they mean? No more concentration camps? No more mass murder? One would certainly hope so, given Europe’s turbulent and bloody treatment of the Jewish people.

And what about never allowing the circumstances that led to these barbaric and inhuman manifestations of hate to happen again? Does “Never again” mean that too?

The Jewish communities across Europe certainly thought so. It appears that we were laboring under a misapprehension, brought into vivid and stark relief in the aftermath of October 7.

Antisemitism continues to rise at alarming rates

Since the Hamas pogrom, reported cases of antisemitism have gone through the roof – in the UK, Spain, and France the percentage rise is over 1000%. Today, as I write this, Jews are facing levels of antisemitism last seen in 1939 in Nazi Germany.

Protesters participate in a demonstration against antisemitism in Parliament Square in London, Britain, March 26, 2018 (credit: HENRY NICHOLLS/REUTERS)

This is an unbelievable and incredible sentence to have to write.

Things were already bad. Like a dormant volcano before October 7 , there were regular tremors and some eruptions, but we hoped for the best. The war awoke it. Jewish Communities are daily facing molten streams of hate everywhere across the continent.

In Holland, earlier this year, they canceled Holocaust Remembrance Day events at universities over security concerns and because of vociferous opposition to the memorializing. Just recently, in Amsterdam, there were protests at the opening of a new Holocaust museum.

Rabbis are slapped in the street and verbally abused. In capitals across the continent – mainly in those with significant Muslim populations – there are regular protests displaying Nazi images referring to Jews, images drawing parallels between Gaza and Auschwitz, and you can hear calls for Jewish genocide and ethnic cleansing “From the river to the sea.” You can read placards calling Jews terrorists, and the blood libel of “child killers” is regularly used.

Death threats against rabbis are common. Jews are insulted on the street on a daily basis and our children cursed at.

Those European citizens who have served in the IDF are outed in their communities through letter campaigns pointing out that a “child killer” is living next to them; flights arriving from Israel are tracked and met by protesters.

The Jewish community president in Porto takes his child to nursery wearing a bulletproof vest. The principal Jewish organizations here in Belgium have had to write to their prime minister, urging him not to abandon them.

A Brussels commune, in which NATO HQ is located, just this week raised the Palestinian flag above their town hall.

To paraphrase Nietzsche, as Israel stared into the abyss, Jews in Europe have seen the abyss staring back at them in their neighborhoods in London, Paris, Madrid, and Brussels. Just because they are Jews.

At least Israel can fight back. What can we do? We place our lives and our trust in the hands of our respective governments. Are we right to do so? Let’s take a minute to look at the evidence.

Back in 2021, amidst a spike in COVID-related antisemitism, the EU published a detailed strategy for combating antisemitism. The strategy was handed over to the member states, and they in turn were to adopt measures and develop national plans for combating antisemitism. Many did. A great many also signed up to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, patting themselves on the back.

But any strategy must ultimately pass the test in the real world. So how have these strategies, plans, and IHRA adoption held up upon meeting the post-October 7 landscape from what you have read so far?

That’s right. They have no visible or demonstrable practical application across Europe today. Or to put it as eloquently and simply as a Dutch Jewish community president put it: “They are not worth the paper they are printed on.”

The reality is that police departments are hamstrung at openly antisemitic protests, unsure and therefore unable to stop public manifestations of hate and overt antisemitism.

A swastika is allowed because it is “context-dependent”; “From the river to the sea” is allowed in some capitals, because it isn’t explicit enough to count as hate speech. (Would they just prefer “Burn, Jew, burn”?).

The courts too, seem to have little to no frameworks available to prosecute the anti-Zionists and antisemites who are making our collective Jewish life here in Europe hell.

And these Jew-haters are emboldened because they can act with total impunity. They simply moved the goalposts and – when they can be bothered – have just replaced Jew with Zionist, thereby rendering the vast majority of Jews in Europe as the Azazel for their hate. It must be such a relief for them to finally give air to their sulphurous pent-up poison.

As I write this, an image from a community in Dortmund has just popped up on WhatsApp. It shows a large graffiti of a Star of David with a swastika inside it.

Never again? If European governments are not prepared or are unwilling to turn words into action, these important words will have just been a platitude. And an insulting one at that.

The writer is chairman of the European Jewish Association, which represents hundreds of Jewish communities across the continent.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-796594

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Supravieţuitor al ghetoului din Terezin: ‘Trebuie să luptăm pentru o lume mai bună, împotriva urii de orice fel’

„Trebuie să luptăm pentru o lume mai bună, împotriva antisemitismului, împotriva urii de orice fel împotriva oricui, minoritate sau religie, putem să o facem, voi puteţi să o faceţi, şi copiii, şi nepoţii voştri”, a declarat Gideon Lev, în vârstă de 87 de ani, un supravieţuitor al ghetoului din Terezin, cu prilejul unei conferinţe organizate de European Jewish Association (EJA), la Praga şi Terezin, înainte de comemorarea, vineri, a Zilei Internaţionale de Comemorare a Victimelor Holocaustului, transmite agerpres.

Rabinul Menachem Margolin, preşedintele EJA, a declarat, în cadrul unei întâlniri cu jurnaliştii, că „fiecare loc are un mesaj diferit”, iar „principalul mesaj al Terezin pentru noi este ‘fake news’, faptul că naziştii încercau să pretindă că i-au tratat pe evrei într-un mod foarte bun”.

„Aceste ştiri false i-au ajutat să fie elogiaţi de mulţi oameni, în loc să fie atacaţi şi arestaţi şi Terezin eliberat. Întrucât astăzi ne confruntăm cu multe ‘fake news’, care sunt unul dintre lucrurile ce le permite antisemiţilor să incite, este important pentru noi să abordăm acest lucru în special”, a adăugat Menachem Margolin.

Peste 100 de parlamentari, oficiali guvernamentali, ambasadori şi lideri ai comunităţilor evreieşti europene au făcut, la începutul acestei săptămâni, front comun împotriva ştirilor false antisemite şi s-au angajat să promoveze iniţiative educaţionale împotriva urii în cadrul conferinţei EJA de la Praga şi a unei vizite la ghetoul de la Theresienstadt.

Citeşte şi: Boris Johnson a primit 510.000 de lire ca avans la memorii, în timp ce avocaţii săi costă bugetul 220.000

Ghetoul de la Theresienstadt a fost prezentat de nazişti ca fiind o „aşezare evreiască” şi un „ghetou luminat”, dar faptele istorice dovedesc că acestea au fost „fake news”, deşi filmele de propagandă naziste şi pregătirile făcute la faţa locului în scopul de a ascunde cruda realitate au reuşit să păcălească inclusiv o delegaţie a Crucii Roşii venită în vizită la faţa locului în timpul războiului. Circa 120.000 din cei 160.000 de evrei care au fost trimişi aici au murit în timpul Holocaustului, între care 14.000 de copii. Unii dintre ei au fost trimişi în camerele de gazare de la Auschwitz, în timp ce mulţi au murit de foame şi de boli. Circa 40.000 de oameni au murit în ghetoul de la Terezin.

„Fake news”, teoria conspiraţiei şi rolul reţelelor sociale

Directorul organizaţiei britanice „Labour Against Antisemitism”, Alex Hearn, a vorbit în cadrul conferinţei EJA despre cum ştirile false despre evrei reprezintă un tipar la fel de vechi ca antisemitismul însuşi. Hearn a subliniat că antisemitismul merge dincolo de orientările politice şi este folosit de oameni pentru a câştiga putere sau pentru a se simţi puternici. El a vorbit, de asemenea, despre teoriile contemporane ale conspiraţiei antisemite şi despre rolul social media în diseminarea lor.

„Sunt atât de multe lucruri de care evreii sunt acuzaţi, inclusiv de faptul că nu joacă un rol în acest război oribil între Rusia şi Ucraina”, a spus la rândul său Menachem Margolin.

În cadrul conferinţei, o serie de parlamentari şi lideri ai comunităţilor evreieşti au vorbit despre influenţa reţelelor sociale în calitate de catalizator al adoptării teoriilor antisemite care reprezintă o ameninţare directă pentru siguranţa personală a evreilor europeni.

„Adevărul nu mai este bazat pe fapte ştiinţifice, ci pe ştiri virale şi social media. Lucrurile se întâmplă mai repede. Trebuie să luptăm împotriva unor ştiri false care ne apar repede pe telefon. Macron însuşi a fost prezentat ca o marionetă a evreilor pentru că este fost bancher şi are bani. Ştirile false folosesc aceleaşi stereotipuri împotriva evreilor, din nou şi din nou. Trebuie să luptăm împotriva oricărei ştiri false. Dacă nu le combatem, se răspândesc, şi se răspândesc foarte repede”, a declarat parlamentarul francez Prisca Thevenot, purtătoare de cuvânt a partidului Renaissance, al preşedintelui Emmanuel Macron.

„Trebuie să înţelegem că social media lucrează extrem de repede. Nu este suficient să faci legi să ţii pasul cu provocările tehnologice, trebuie să fim rapizi în a interzice discursurile care incită la ură de pe social media”, a afirmat la rândul său parlamentarul austriac David Stogmuller.

În ceea ce-l priveşte, parlamentarul portughez Alexandre Poco a subliniat importanţa educaţiei în combaterea antisemitismului. „Deşi problemele noastre ar putea să nu fie atât de mari ca ale altor ţări, trebuie să continuăm să investim în educaţie. O atitudine proactivă continuă să fie necesară. Avem legături puternice cu comunităţile evreieşti. Continuăm să promovăm viaţa evreiască, deşi suntem o ţară catolică”, a spus el în cadrul conferinţei.

„Dacă le permitem duşmanilor democraţiei să strige, atunci riscăm sfârşitul democraţiei. Antisemiţii trebuie făcuţi să simtă că nu au nicio şansă şi că vor fi făcuţi să plătească consecinţele”, a avertizat la rândul său comisarul pentru antisemitism pentru comunitatea evreiască din Berlin, Sigmount Königsberg.

La rândul său, Joel Mergui, preşedintele Consistoriului din Paris, care conduce de „20 de ani cea mai mare comunitate evreiască din Europa”, a spus că a decis să încurajeze membrii acestei comunităţi să continue să trăiască pe Bătrânul Continent atâta timp cât îi vor avea alături de ei pe decidenţi în lupta împotriva antisemitismului şi a islamismului radical. „Din cuvintele şi din acţiunile dumneavoastră vom avea certitudinea că avem un viitor în Europa”, le-a transmis el oficialităţilor prezente la conferinţă.

Citește și: Mark Rutte vrea înăsprirea regulilor privind migraţia – Black News

https://blacknews.ro/supravietuitor-al-ghetoului-din-terezin-trebuie-sa-luptam-pentru-o-lume-mai-buna-impotriva-urii-de-orice-fel/

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Jewish group seeks to ban Israeli auction of Nazi memorabilia

A prominent European Jewish group on is demanding for Israel to ban an auction offering Nazi memorabilia, which is set to take place in the country.
The European Jewish Association filed a cease and desist letter on Wednesday against the Israeli auction house “Pentagon,” which is offering several Holocaust-related items for sale to the highest bidder.

זוג גלויות נאציות שעומדות למכירה, החל מ-50 דולר

Nazi postcards from World War II on sale at the auction
(Photo: Bidspirit)
The auction includes items such as a Jewish passport, Nazi leaflets, Nazi stamps, as well as an Austrian Nazi cigarette box with a relief of an eagle emblem and a swastika, with prices ranging from dozens to hundreds of shekels.
Pentagon’s controversial auction comes weeks after Israel’s court suspended an unrelated auction of a partial tattoo kit billed as having been used on inmates at the Auschwitz death camp, following outcry from Holocaust survivors.
“The State of Israel must enact a law against auctions of Nazi memorabilia,” wrote the head of the EJA, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, in his appeal to both the Justice Ministry and Yad Vashem.
“My association is working with heads of state, ministers and senior members of parliament in EU countries, in order to prevent the cultivation of the Nazi heritage by putting such despicable items for sale at a high price.

סרט בד של עובד במחנה הריכוז דכאו הועמד למכירה

A canvas band of a Dachau concentration camp employee on sale at the auction
(Photo: Bidspirit)
“But shamefully, it seems that in the Jewish state of Israel, there are those who do not mind selling these items to the highest bidder,” wrote Margolin.
He further suggested a legislative outline to “end the despicable phenomenon of making money, while belittling the memory of the Holocaust.”

גלויה נדירה של הצורר אדולף היטלר, החל מ-50 דולר

Postcard with Adolf Hitler on it
(Photo: Bidspirit)
The Justice Ministry has yet to provide a response to the EJA’s appeal.
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