German Chancellor Angela Merkel went to visit Yad Vashem, the official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, in Jerusalem on Thursday morning.
“Jews in Germany suffered from hatred and violence they had never known before,” Merkel somberly noted at Yad Vashem. “Since then, Germany is always responsible for remembering this crime and for fighting violence, xenophobia and hatred in general.”
Merkel was additionally given the honor of lighting the Eternal Flame and laying a wreath, part of a ceremony to commemorate those passed in the Holocaust, in the name of the German government.
Merkel landed in Israel on Wednesday evening, beginning a two-day visit to Israel. The government-to-government visit was delayed by a year and a half due to disagreements regarding Israel’s settlement policies and approach to the Palestinians.
With a busy schedule ahead of her, Merkel is expected to visit the Israel Museum, visit President Reuven Rivlin and receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa.
The article was published on JPost
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European Jewish community awards Roberta Metsola
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola was on Monday presented with the King David Award from the European Jewish Association (EJA) in recognition of her support to the Jewish community in Europe.
In an acceptance speech, she said the award will serve as a continuous reminder of heinous crimes committed against humanity, and to recall the importance of speaking up in defence of European common values.
The award was given after her visit commemorating the victims of the holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camps.
Metsola also laid a wreath at the so-called Death Wall and participated in a memorial ceremony.
Metsola pledged to honour the legacy of the Holocaust victims “by never forgetting, by never being indifferent, and by always, always speaking up”.
“At this place of horror, we must find hope. Our promise to those lost and to those who survived is to remember, to never be silent and to build a new world in their memory. We remember”, said President Metsola at the end of her visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camps.
COVID Diary- Reflections from Our Advisory Board Member Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs
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
Surcharge affairs
This diary, setup by the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Holland, was designed to get an impression of my life during the corona pandemic.
Every now and then I almost forget that there is corona, but around New Year’s Eve I was pressed hard on the fact. Overcrowded hospitals and the threat of doctors having to judge life and death. Who do we treat and who do we leave to their own devices?
In the meantime, I watched a New Year’s Eve show for the first time in my life because I was curious and because I also performed in it: “ Old and New of Christians for Israel. ” And although I had a little intention to look at the New Year’s Eve conference by Joep van het Hek, I didn’t do that after all.
Reason: 1: waste of time. 2: Although I am very good at jokes and can be ridiculed with anything and everything, I find swearing unacceptable. Just a short explanation on point 1: From Jewish thinking it is wrong to waste time. Relaxing is fine. I walk every day because it is good for body and mind. But really doing nothing at all or doing something that is completely meaningless, that is not the case. Why then do I read newspapers and listen to the news obediently, you ask. Because, let’s be honest, whether or not I am aware of the number of daily corona infections is not much use. On the contrary! It makes me quite depressed and so do many others. Even all those crazy conspiracy theories about the vaccine are not among my beloved reading.
On the other hand I need news information to know how to act when or to continue to be able to write my diary and / or give a Jewish view on current affairs.
But following the news every second is totally unnecessary. The meaningful use of time is an important Jewish commandment.
About 2, the swearing. I am on the Committee of Recommendation of the League Against Curses. I was approached for that at the time and said yes. I sit on many Committees of Recommendation (so I recommend a lot!), But I am never in any place to be in it, but only use my name if I endorse the purpose of the Foundation. And I find swearing unacceptable because it hurts. So: freedom of expression with a limit, so I obediently sit on the Committee of Recommendation of the heavily Christian League against Cursing.
Friday evening and Shabbat went like weekly, except I was worried about our Friday evening ‘regular guest’ who was clearly much more tired than usual, did not walk well and indicated that on New Years Eve he had eaten eleven donuts on his own, while he had a lot be careful with sugar.
Immediately after Shabbat I called him to ask how he had fared, but thank G-d he is doing well. My grandson from England, who is still trapped here between England and Israel, where he studies, actually knows very little about his Dutch ancestors. So I shared what I know and came to the conclusion that I myself know nothing at all about the 80% of my family who “did not return”. They were not talked about at home! While explaining the horrors the war has caused here, I decided to let him watch “The Menten Case” with English subtitles. In the meantime, I have also watched (along) for the umpteenth time. Apart from the war criminal and the war crimes that are shown and that should not be forgotten, I continue to be annoyed by the corruption surrounding Menten. Government officials who allow themselves to be bribed, are threatened with lawsuits, Hans Knoop who is fired, his photographer who must have made huge money from him and who eventually can also be bribed. I am thinking of the Supplement affair. How could this have happened in our country! And issues like this still happen, on a daily basis.
Corona is a plague, but so are the Supplement affairs. I deliberately write affairs in the plural. Because the surcharges affair has surfaced (thanks to the media!), But what else is going on in affairs that were and / or are invisible? I know a few more!
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.
SPANISH VICE-PRESIDENT ECHOES SPANISH EXPULSION, JEW BURNINGS IN “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA” CALL AND MUST RESIGN SAYS EUROPEAN JEWISH ASSOCIATION
SPANISH VICE-PRESIDENT ECHOES SPANISH EXPULSION, JEW BURNINGS IN “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA” CALL AND MUST RESIGN SAYS EUROPEAN JEWISH ASSOCIATION
Association calls on EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell to condemn and Prime Minister Sanchez to distance the government.In a statement this evening, the European Jewish Association, representing hundreds of Jewish Communities across Europe, said:“The Spanish Vice-President, Yolanda Diaz, is openly calling for the genocide of the world’s only Jewish State, Israel.“This cannot and must not stand. We immediately call on Josep Borrell to condemn this. EU Member States have obligations under the treaties not to call for the annihilation of third countries.
“We immediately call for Prime Minister Sanchez to distance the Spanish Government from these genocidal remarks.
“The Vice-President’s from the river to the sea call carries with it echoes of the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Spain in 1492, not to mention the thousands burned alive in auto-da-fe’s. Her statement is also an endorsement of Hamas’ ideology.“
She must resign.”
Ends.
