A delegation of 45 Sinai Temple members returned this week from a 4-day mission to Azerbaijan where they dedicated a Torah scroll which they had previously presented to the Mountainous Jewish Synagogue.
Azerbaijan went to the polls earlier in the week in an event that was shunned by both the country’s main opposition parties and even by international election monitors.
This time of year, we remember the Holocaust; the genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda and sadly, many other places.
California and Azerbaijan Jews share a special bond, and our special friendship is becoming better known this year, as a number of important events have taken place that commemorate our connection.
On January 28, addressing the United Nations General Assembly on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Reuven Rivlin of Israel said: “On this day we must ask ourselves honestly, is our struggle, the struggle of this Assembly, against genocide, effective enough? Was it effective enough then in Bosnia? Was it effective in preventing the killing in Khojaly?… Are we shedding too many tears, and taking too little action?”
Diplomats from the world’s only Jewish state and a predominately Shiite nation met in Westwood Feb. 3 — and got along perfectly.\n
Audience members at the American Technion Society’s (ATS) “An Evening of Innovation and Inspiration” were presented with a moving sight on Oct. 29 as U.S. Marines Capt. Derek Herrera walked across the Museum of Tolerance stage wearing an Israeli-designed-and-built ReWalk robotic exoskeleton.
Buried deep beneath Azerbaijan’s bucolic landscape lie secrets behind the ancient Muslim-Jewish friendship that prevails in this South Caucasus largely Shiite country.
With the article “Inside the Fog of War” (Sept. 12), the Jewish Journal joins many other media outlets in publicizing Palestinian suffering.
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