All posts tagged: Jewish

Extremist Jewish settlers eye Gaza, seek to expel Palestinians from enclave

Extremist Jewish settlers eye Gaza, seek to expel Palestinians from enclave

Published by Sam Flores

GAZA BORDER, Israel — A river of Israeli flags winds through a desert path as hundreds of people, young and old, march toward the border in a display of their determination to build new Jewish settlements atop the rubble of northern Gaza. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. So few buildings are left standing after Israeli bombardment that the Mediterranean is visible in the distance. Daniella Weiss, founder of the radical right-wing settler group Nachala, sums up the crowd’s intentions. “We are here on the way to new Jewish communities in Gaza,” she told NBC News in an interview at the border in late April. “What we did in Judea and Samaria, we are going to do the same thing here,” Weiss added, a reference to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where illegal Jewish outposts and settler violence against Palestinians have grown dramatically in recent years. Right-wing Nachala movement settlers march near the Gaza border on April 22 near Kibbutz Nir Am, Israel. Erik Marmor / Getty …

Man pleads guilty to ramming car into Chabad Lubavitch headquarters in New York City

Man pleads guilty to ramming car into Chabad Lubavitch headquarters in New York City

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK (AP) — A man pleaded guilty Wednesday to repeatedly ramming his car into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in New York City, telling a judge he did so because he was intent on damaging the Jewish landmark. Dan Sohail, 36, plowed an entrance to the packed Brooklyn synagogue with his car five consecutive times in January after clearing away stanchions and urging people to move out of the way, federal prosecutors said. He caused about $19,000 in damage, which he must repay. Sohail, of Carteret, New Jersey, resolved the case without a hate crime conviction, pleading guilty to a charge of intentionally damaging religious property. He faces a maximum sentence of up to three years in prison, but federal sentencing guidelines call for up to six months in prison, prosecutors and Sohail’s defense lawyer, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, said. Vitaliano did not set a date for sentencing. Jailed since his arrest, Sohail has already served more than three months behind bars. Watching from the courtroom gallery as Sohail pleaded guilty, Chabad Rabbi Yaacov Behrman came …

UK Man Appears in Court Over Stabbing of Two Jewish Men in London

UK Man Appears in Court Over Stabbing of Two Jewish Men in London

Published by Sam Flores

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) – The ⁠trial ⁠of a 45-year-old ⁠man charged with attempted murder over a ​knife attack during which two Jewish men were ‌stabbed will take place ‌next March, a London court ⁠heard on ⁠Friday. Essa Suleiman, a British national who was born ​in Somalia, is alleged to have tried to kill two Jewish men on April 29 in ​north London’s Golders Green area, which is home ⁠to ⁠a large Jewish ⁠population. The ​incident was the latest in a spate of attacks ​targeting Jewish ⁠premises in the area, which have left Jewish communities fearing for their safety, prompting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to vow stronger ⁠action. Suleiman is also charged with a third count of ⁠attempted murder, relating to an unconnected incident at the home of a former acquaintance earlier the same day, and with possession of a bladed article. He appeared at London’s Old Bailey court on Friday and was not asked to enter pleas ⁠to any of the four charges he faces. A date of March 1, 2027 was set …

Why Jewish values oppose Israel’s unequal death penalty law

Why Jewish values oppose Israel’s unequal death penalty law

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Judaism is a religion that values all human life equally. The foundation is written in Genesis 1:27, which states that humans were all created in the image of God. And while all the religions that hold Genesis in their canon of sacred texts differ in interpretation, Judaism is clear that every human life is a world unto itself, a line well known from the Mishnah (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5) quoted in the movie “Schindler’s List.”  So how can it be that lawmakers in Israel — a country that purportedly bases itself on Jewish teachings and values — approved a death penalty law and tribunal that only apply to one class of people? As part of a congregation that lost 11 members in a violent antisemitic attack against our synagogue and two others in Pittsburgh in 2018, I know the pain of loss through terror. But perhaps the best rationale against the death penalty is that given by the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel in a speech at Wesleyan University …

German artist lays ‘Stolpersteine’ to honor Holocaust victims

German artist lays ‘Stolpersteine’ to honor Holocaust victims

Published by Sam Flores

BERLIN (AP) — Artist Gunter Demnig carefully placed a palm-sized Holocaust memorial brass plaque into the sidewalk on a busy street corner of Berlin. It said: “Johanna Berger, born in 1893, lived here; deported on Nov. 17, 1941, murdered on Nov. 25, 1941.” After Demnig had swiped the sand off Berger’s memorial stone and those for her husband and two sons, a dozen relatives drew closer around the four plaques, which are called Stolpersteine, or “stumbling blocks,” in German. They put down white roses and recited the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, while traffic roared by on a rainy spring day. Demnig installed the first plaque in the German capital three decades ago. By now, one can find more than 11,000 of his memorial stones all over the city. But Demnig’s decentralized Holocaust memorial goes much further than that — the artist and his teams of supporters have laid 126,000 stones in Germany and 31 other countries across Europe. The first stone was installed in 1992 in the western German city of Cologne. …

Foreign visitors return to Jewish pilgrimage in Tunisia under tight security

Foreign visitors return to Jewish pilgrimage in Tunisia under tight security

Published by Sam Flores

DJERBA, Tunisia (AP) — The annual Jewish pilgrimage to the 26-century-old El-Ghriba Synagogue in Tunisia drew a modest but notable return of international visitors this year, worshipping together under tight security after a deadly 2023 attack disrupted the festival. Visitors came from France, China, Ivory Coast and Italy, including France’s ambassador to Tunisia, a symbolic gesture after two French citizens were among those killed in the 2023 attack. A national guardsman shot and killed five people at the El-Ghriba synagogue soon after the festival that year, spreading fear among the local Jewish population and international pilgrims. Participants said about 500 people have attended this year’s pilgrimage, held on the Mediterranean island of Djerba from April 30 to May 6 to celebrate the Lag B’Omer Jewish holiday. Jews have lived in Tunisia since Roman times, and the pilgrimage remains central to the country’s small but long-standing Jewish community. Inside the synagogue, the atmosphere was calm and devotional, while also buzzing with conversations and social exchanges. Worshippers lit candles, read sacred texts and wrote wishes on eggs …