September 15, 2019

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The office of the European Union’s delegation in Israel was vandalized with graffiti reading “Get out EU” and “German money kills Jews.”

The graffiti was spray painted in red paint on the offices in Ramat Gan, located next to Tel Aviv on Sunday.

A right-wing Israeli activist and anti-asylum seekers activist, Sheffi Paz, filmed herself committing the vandalism, and later admitted to it. Paz is a former member of the left-wing Meretz party. She is the head of the South Tel Aviv Liberation Front, committed to the deportation of all asylum seekers from Israel.

In the video, broadcast on Israeli’s Channel 12, Paz says: “Stop subsidizing terrorists, stop financing illegal immigration and get out of Israel.”

EU Ambassador to Israel Emanuele Giaufret said in a statement: “Today the lobby of the EU Delegation was vandalized with threatening slogans on the walls. No one of my colleagues was in the office as we are closed on Sunday. This incident is deplorable and has to be condemned. We will continue to do our job.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned the attack.

“I am appalled by and condemn the disgraceful vandalism of the EU Mission in Israel. Israel is committed to maintaining the security of all diplomatic missions The Israeli police are investigating the case, and I expect the culprits will be swiftly brought to justice,” he said in a tweet.

Delegation staff members gave the police footage from the building’s security cameras and filed an official complaint to the Foreign Ministry.

(JTA) — President Donald Trump submitted the first congressional report mandated under the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act.

The report was submitted to Congress on Thursday.

The report provides an overview of the United States government’s current and planned efforts to prevent, mitigate, and respond to mass atrocities globally, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. “Specifically, the report highlights how the Department of State uses foreign assistance, diplomatic advocacy, and multilateral engagement, as well as training for our diplomats,” the statement said.

The report marks the launch of the Atrocity Early Warning Task Force, an interagency mechanism led by the White House. The task force will meet regularly, according to a senior Trump administration official, and not just be activated during times of emergency.

The Wiesel Act was signed into law in January 2019, after receiving bipartisan support in both houses of Congress.

It requires the executive branch to report annually to Congress on identifying early warnings of genocide, training U.S. officials in identifying potential areas where genocide may occur and how any administration is mitigating genocide through U.S. mediation, among other means.

(JTA) — Israel’s national baseball team came in fourth place in its first European Championship tournament.

Israel lost to the Spanish national team in the battle for the bronze medal on Saturday night.

The team can still qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at the World Baseball Softball Confederation Olympic Qualifier Europe-Africa tournament in Parma, Italy, which starts on Sept. 18.

The top five teams from the European Championship will now advance to the Parma qualifier. The sixth team playing in that tournament will be South Africa, which won the 2019 African Baseball Championship.

The Israeli team, which is packed with Jewish-American college players and some pros, had the country’s best showing in the last World Baseball Classic in 2017, surprising many by making the main tournament, where it finished sixth.

While the World Baseball Classic only requires that players be eligible for citizenship of the country they represent, for Olympic qualifying tournaments and for the actual Olympics players must be citizens of the country they represent. The majority of the national team players is Jewish Americans who received citizenship in order to play or Israelis who live in the United States. Among the former pros on the squad are Danny Valencia, 34, and Jeremy Wolf, 25.

(JTA) — The parents of Jewish American college student Otto Warmbier had dinner at the White House with President Donald Trump.

The dinner was held on Saturday night, according to reports.

Otto Warmbier was detained in North Korea for over a year and died shortly after his return home to Cincinnati, Ohio, in June 2017 in a coma. He was 22.

The University of Virginia student had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster on what North Korea claimed were orders from an Ohio Methodist church. Upon his release, North Korea said Warmbier’s health had deteriorated after a bout of botulism. Warmbier’s doctors in the U.S. said he suffered extensive brain damage.

Earlier this year, Fred and Cindy Warmbier criticized Trump for what they called his “lavish praise” of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Kim Jong Un “and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto,” as well as “unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity,” Fred and Cindy Warmbier wrote in a statement on February 28. “No excuses or lavish praise can change that.”

Trump met Kim in Hanoi, Vietnam, in late February for talks on the lifting of sanctions from North Korea in exchange for its disarmament from nuclear weapons. The president, who called the dictator “my friend Kim,” quit the talks prematurely with no agreements.

Trump told reporters in Hanoi that he believes Kim was not aware that Warmbier was in bad shape.

(JTA) — A suspect was arrested in connection with the fire that burned to the ground a historic synagogue in northern Minnesota.

The Adas Israel Synagogue in Duluth, Minnesota caught fire early on the morning of September 9. The building was more than 100 years old.

Matthew James Amiot, 36, was arrested on Friday on a first-degree arson charge, according to Sgt. Matt Donnelly, with the St. Louis County Jail. Amiot will appear in St. Louis County court in Duluth on Monday, according to reports.

A news conference had been set for late Sunday morning to discuss the case. It originally had been scheduled for Saturday, but was rescheduled in order to respect the Jewish Sabbath, the Duluth News Tribune reported.

“We became aware of the arrest heading into Shabbat and will continue working with the Duluth Police Department to inform the Jewish community of the nature of this arrest as the investigation continues,” Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said in a statement Friday. “We will await issuing further comment until charges are filed. We wish the Duluth Jewish community a peaceful and restful Shabbat as we continue to offer our full support.”

The Modern Orthodox synagogue has around 75 members. The local Jewish federations have started a fundraising campaign on behalf of the synagogue, and another local synagogue, Temple Israel, has offered Adas Israel temporary space.

Eight of the synagogue’s 14 Torah scrolls were rescued from the blaze.

(JTA) — Yeshiva University has founded a new Holocaust and Genocide Studies Center.

The Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies will train both school and university educators, offering them interdisciplinary graduate programs in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, incorporating history, Jewish studies, literature, law, philosophy and social work, the university said in a statement.

Emil Fish, who was born in Bardejov, Slovakia, was sent with his mother and sister to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and was liberated from there in 1945. After reuniting with his father, the family immigrated to Canada and in 1955 moved to Los Angeles.
Fish is the founder in 2006 and president of the Bardejov Jewish Preservation Committee, whose mission is to “restore the Jewish properties of Bardejov, Slovakia”; “build awareness of the cultural and historical significance of Jewish life in Bardejov and Slovakia”; and “advance knowledge of Jewish ancestry and heritage.”

“We must know the history about what happened and why, and what the implications are for today,” Fish said in a statement. “The Center will educate young people and adults about a singular event in history that, regrettably, too few people understand, including what conditions existed before the Nazis ascended to power, how they rose to leadership positions and why they targeted Jews.”

A university spokesman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “The Fish Family has committed a generous amount of time, energy and resources to ensure the center’s success.”

(JTA) – A swastika made of freshly dug earth and flowers was laid out in front of the headquarters of the Jewish Community of Lithuania in Vilnius, the country’s capital city.

The incident Sunday is rare for Lithuania and it follows acrimonious debate in Lithuania about the honoring of collaborators with the Nazis, some of whom are widely seen as anti-Soviet heroes in Lithuania despite their role in the near annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry.

Online, some comments about the display suggested it was meant not only to offend, but to intimidate with elements evocative of burial.

In July, the city council of Vilnius voted to rename a street honoring a Nazi collaborator, Kazys Škirpa, despite protests by nationalists. In August, a plaque for another collaborator, Jonas Noreika, was removed from a university building in Vilnius on orders from the mayor.

Last week, nationalist protesters installed without permit another plaque for Noreika at the same place instead of the one that had been removed, Efraim Zuroff, the Eastern Europe director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “If this is the response of so-called patriots, then it is an indication that they have no intention to address Lithuania’s Holocaust past,” he said.

(JTA) — A hand-drawn swastika was found inside the Washington D.C. headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security.

The Nazi symbol was discovered on the building’s third floor on Friday. CNN first reported the incident.

Staff members were informed of the incident in an email from Brian Murphy, principal deputy undersecretary for the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, that was sent just after 5 p.m., according to CNN.

“(T)here is no room in the workplace for such symbols of hate. And there is no room in the workplace for those who ascribe to such a thing,” Murphy wrote in part.

“This display of hate and cowardice does not represent the dedicated hardworking men and women of the Department of Homeland Security,” Andrew Meehan, acting assistant secretary for Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to CNN. “It has no place in an organization that works tirelessly to protect the American people and combat hate in all its forms.”

Meehan also said that the situation was “immediately referred” to the Office of the Inspector General and “is currently being investigating to ensure that swift and corrective action is taken.”

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli government’s Cabinet approved a proposal to legalize a settlement outpost in the Jordan Valley.

The Cabinet meeting on Sunday, which was held at the Mevo’ot Yeriho outpost, is the current government’s final meeting ahead of Tuesday’s national elections.

Prior to the vote, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Cabinet would vote on “initiating the process of establishing a new settlement named Mevo’ot Yeriho in the Jordan Valley and that a final approval would be given by the next government.”

The vote came after Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit rescinded his opposition to the proposal, which he initially had said was being advanced to help Netanyahu in the upcoming election. Mandelblit changed his mind after receiving new information, according to reports.

About 300 people live in the outpost established in 1999, and built on what is considered state land.

“We will apply sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and the Northern Dead Sea as soon as the next government is established in the next Knesset,” Netanyahu said at the meeting, echoing an announcement he made on Thursday evening to a live television audience.

“The application of Israeli sovereignty will be to all the settlements in Judea and Samaria, including the blocs and the territory outside of the blocs, and other areas that are essential to our security and our heritage – these things will be part of (the Trump Administration’s) Deal of the Century, which will come out very soon after the elections,” Netanyahu also said.

(JTA) — A rock in the center of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville that students paint with inspirational messages was painted over with a message accusing Jews of being behind the 9-1 attack.

The graffiti painted on The Rock on Wednesday night read, “Jews did 9-11. Google: Dancing Israelis.”

The message that was painted over by the anti-Semitic graffiti was an image of the homemade Tennessee Volunteers T-shirt created by a young boy from Florida for his school’s “collegiate day” and who was bullied over it. The University later offered the fourth grader a four-year scholarship to the school. The University also printed 50,000 copies of the shirt with proceeds of its sale going to the charity Stomp Our Bullying.

In a statement condemning the message painted on the rock, University Chancellor Donde Plowman wrote: ” In one week, the Rock has brought out the best and the worst. We celebrated the outpouring of love for the young Volunteer who made his own T-shirt, and someone beautifully depicted the shirt on the Rock. Last night, someone covered that message of love with an anti-Semitic hate message. We condemn that hate aimed toward members of our Jewish community, and we understand that words are not enough.”

It is at least the third time in the last year the Rock has been painted with anti-Semitic messages or symbols, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported. The first occurred in November, when a vigil was held at the Rock after the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.