Coronavirus heavily impacts French Jewish community, ZAKA buries victims

March 27, 2020

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Peretz, head of ZAKA France, alerted the Jewish community, saying that “We are counting bodies, and you are still debating the quarantine measures” 

As of Wednesday night, France reported that 11,539 people were hospitalized after testing positive for coronavirus and 1,331 people  died from the virus, including some Jewish people.

On social media, including many Facebook groups, a list of French Jews infected with the coronavirus was published and is being updated almost daily, people urging the community to pray and read tehillim for them.

In a recent statement, ZAKA claimed that many victims from the coronavirus in France are Jewish and that the organization’s volunteers are burring Jewish victims every day. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Peretz, head of ZAKA France, alerted the Jewish community, saying that “we are counting bodies, and you are still debating the quarantine measures.”
“We are in difficult times, we have a very hard job as we take care every day of the Jews who died as a result of the virus,” he added. “It is very difficult to describe the situation with what we face here every day.”
Rabbi Peretz said that important Rabbis from the community are among the victims.
“Last Saturday, Rabbi Touboul, head of the Beit Hanna and Chaya Mushka schools in Paris, some of the largest Chabad schools for girls in Europe, died suddenly,” he said.
“We worked to fulfill Rabbi Touboul’s will to be buried in Israel. We were able to reach an agreement with the Israeli Ministry of Health, we received very strict instructions on how to treat the deceased according to Jewish law and the Health Ministry guidelines in order to bury him in Israel.”
Rabbi Touboul was buried on Tuesday at the Mount of Olives Cemetery in Jerusalem.
ZAKA’s French head also added that tonight, a French aircraft will land at Ben Gurion Airport, carrying three coffins with the bodies of Jews who died in France from the coronavirus to be buried in Israel.
Among them will be Rabbi Hamou, a major rabbi and community leader of the Mekor Chaim community in Paris, who fought for his life for about a week in the hospital.
In the statement ZAKA begs the Jewish community in France, in Israel, and around the world, to stay home.
“Please, for your own benefit and for your families, apply the Ministry of Health guidelines to stay home, to stay alive,”  ZAKA said.
Actualité Juive, a major Jewish newspaper in France, asked in a recent report if the Jewish community is over-represented among those infected with the coronavirus in the country.
“There was, without any doubt, a certain skepticism in the community,” recognized the Chief Rabbi of France Haïm Korsia. “At first, people may have thought that the risk could not exist in their immediate family,” he added.
But today, the Jewish community has realized the emergency of the situation and the importance of staying at home, according to Actualité Juive.
The article was published in the JPost

Additional Articles

Passing Away of Our Dear Board Member- Dr. Emil Avramov Kalo

It is with deep sadness that we learned of the passing of EJA Board Member Dr. Emil Avramov Kalo. A larger than life character, well know and respected in his native Bulgaria and a fierce and proud advocate for his country and for European Jewry as a whole. He was always there for us with valuable and wise counsel. We extend our condolences to his family at this difficult time.
ת.נ.צ.ב.ה

RCF_Radio_Logo

27 janvier : Journée de la mémoire de la Shoah. Le Reportage de RCF Loiret dans un ghetto juif

La rédaction de RCF Loiret a pu visiter le camp de concentration de Theresienstadt, situé aux portes de Prague. Parmi les milliers de personnes qui y ont été enfermées, un jeune juif, Zelman Brajer provenait d’un camp d’internement et de transit Loirétain. Le journaliste Gabriel Laprade a retracé le chemin de déportation de cet homme, jusqu’au lieu de sa libération.

Soixante-dix-huit ans après la fin de la deuxième Guerre mondiale, on tend malheureusement à oublier que ce conflit et la Shoah ont eu sur la vie quotidienne de millions d’homme et de femmes. Il ne faut pas penser que l’holocauste du peuple juif soit juste une notion contenue dans les livres d’histoire. Cette tragédie a touché des personnes communes qui ont été arrachées de leur quotidien, de leurs familles, de leurs amis.
L’une de ces personnes – l’artiste polonais Zelman Brajer – a été arrêté à Paris en 1941 et transféré dans l’une des “portes” des camps de la mort nazis, qui étaient situés dans le Loiret. En effet Zelman Brajer (1919-2003) est prisonnier du “camps d’internement et de transit”, comme l’appelaient les nazis, de Beaune-la-Rolande. Avec son jumeau de Pithiviers, lui aussi situé dans le Loiret, ce camp a été le point de départ de plus de 18.000 personnes. Presque toutes ont trouvé la mort dans les “lager” de Hitler.

Zelman Brajer est d’abord prisonnier à Auschwitz, puis transféré à Terezin. Le 8 mai 1945, l’artiste polonais retrouve sa liberté.

Theresienstadt est une forteresse fondée en 1784 aux portes de Prague qui, pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, a été utilisée par les nazis comme ghetto. D’abord, des juifs tchèques et des célébrités y ont été enfermés, puis des juifs venant du Danemark et des Pays-Bas y ont été envoyés.

 

Au total, plus de 140 000 personnes sont passées par le ghetto. 35 000 y ont perdu la vie, et 88 000 ont été déportées et assassinées.

 

Sur place, Gidon Lev, survivant de l’holocauste et de Theresienstadt de 87 ans, est retourné au ghetto pour en faire la visite. Il dédit aujourd’hui une partie de sa vie au travail de la mémoire, en sensibilisant les plus jeunes sur les réseaux sociaux Instagram et TikTok : TheTrueAdventures.

 

 

Meeting with European Commissioner for Education on Anti-Semitism

The EJA and our partners at Action and Protection Hungary Mr Kalman Szalai and Mr Ferenc Olti, were honored to have a meeting with European Commissioner for Education Navracsics Tibor and Ms Katharina Schnurbein, European Coordinator on combating antisemitism, on countering antisemitism through education.
Mr Ferenc Olti initiated and ran a successful project in Hungary, positively influencing the national curriculum and teaching children about Judaism and the important role played by Jews in Hungarian society.
As the EU wrestles with the challenge of rising antisemitism across the continent, we are working closely with the Commission with a view to setting up pilot education projects based on the Hungarian model in several European countries. We will keep you posted as this important initiative moves ahead in coming weeks.
 

EU JEWISH HEAD CHALLENGES CORBYN’S COMMITMENT TO ANTI-SEMITISM

EU JEWISH HEAD CHALLENGES CORBYN’S COMMITMENT TO ANTI-SEMITISM AS ONE OF HIS MEPS TO TAKE STAGE ON TUESDAY WITH FORMER IRA TERRORIST AND INFAMOUS BLAIR CITIZEN’S ARREST JOURNALIST AT ANTI-ISRAEL EVENT IN EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

EJA Head Rabbi Margolin says Corbyn must demand that MEP removes herself from event, lest all his statements on anti-Semitism are deemed “worthless, pointless, devoid of meaning, substance and fraudulent”.

Brussels 18 January 2019. Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the European Jewish Association (EJA) this morning wrote to Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn asking him to demand that one of his MEPs stand down from speaking at an anti-Israel event in the European Parliament on the 22 January. Labour MEP Julie Ward would be sharing the stage with  convicted IRA terrorist and Sinn Fein MEP Martina Anderson, who has described Israelis as “a rash”, and a journalist David Cronin who glorifies Hamas actions in his blog on the ‘Electronic Intifada’ website and who tried unsuccessfully to make a citizen’s arrest for former Labour Leader Tony Blair for alleged war crimes.

Rabbi Margolin’s call comes as Labour seeks to distance itself from accusations of anti-Semitism masked behind criticism of Israel.

Tuesday’s event in the European Parliament is called “Nation State Law – Occupation and discrimination in Israel” and is organised by the Europal Forum, a group that advocates for Boycotts and Sanctions against Israel and incites students on campus to take action.

In his letter to Mr Corbyn, Rabbi Margolin said,

“Despite many statements from you and your party regarding your commitment to fight anti-Semitism the actions of your members continue to fly in the face of such assurances.

“If you find it appropriate that an elected representative of your Party – MEP Julia Ward – should share a stage with an avowed Israel-hater and former convicted IRA terrorist who has described Israelis as “a rash”, and a journalist who has made it his life’s work slating the world’s only Jewish state and who tried to make a citizen’s arrest on your former Party Leader Tony Blair for alleaged war crimes in in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon and Serbia, that is your prerogative.

“If you find it appropriate that a Labour Party MEP take part in such a blatantly biased event that uses divisive terms “discrimination” and “occupation” in its title, instead of engaging in a civil and rational dialogue on issues pertaining to the peace process and Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that too is your prerogative.

“If this is the case, then you can rest assured that your statements, your pronouncements and your efforts to distance you and your party from accusations of anti-Semitism will be rendered worthless, pointless, devoid of meaning, substance and fraudulent, and will be judged as such by European Jewry.

“If on the other hand, having one of your MEPs speak at such an event, with such people alarms you, then you must demand that this senior representative of the Labour Party remove herself and your party name from this event, or remove herself from the party in whose name she will be advocating with those who support Hamas and the IRA and who make repeated vile and patently false statements about Israel and its citizens.

“I look forward to your reply”,  concluded Margolin.

     
Corbyn letter 1

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