Babi Yar wasn’t bombed - but Zelensky finds a useful tool to rally Jews to his cause

 

Zelensky at Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s direct and emotional appeal to the world’s Jews on Wednesday marked something of a departure for him.

Before and during Russia’s war on his country, Zelensky had spoken plainly to civilians on both sides of the conflict, but he hadn’t directly addressed those outside the country. And for his entire career, he has not been outspoken about his Jewish identity.

So when he and his aides repeatedly drew attention to what they said was happening to sites of Jewish significance this week, some saw a strategic decision at a perilous time for Ukraine.

“He’s using the Jewish angle – and it’s absolutely kosher,” Roman Bronfman, a Ukraine-born former Israeli lawmaker and the author of a book on the immigration of Russian-speaking Jews to Israel, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Zelensky has never hidden his Jewish identity, but he has never called attention to it, either. At a ceremony last year in Babyn Yar, the site near Kyiv of a massacre of Jews during the Holocaust, Zelensky did not mention the fact that some of his relatives were murdered there, delivering a speech that could have come from any of his non-Jewish predecessors.

During his presidential campaign, Zelensky, a comedian turned politician, dismissed the subject of his Jewish identity with typical self-deprecating humor.

In a 2019 interview with Bernard-Henri Levy, a French-Jewish philosopher, Zelensky declined to explore his Jewish identity at any length, responding to a question about it by saying: “The fact that I am Jewish barely makes 20 in my long list of faults.”

Bennett meets Putin at the Kremlin

 

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with  Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Saturday night  to discuss Ukraine crisis, a Kremlin spokesperson said.

 The Israeli Prime Minister left Israel in the Mossad's private jet early on Saturday morning, when Jewish law usually forbids travel, in light of a conversation held between himself and Putin on Wednesday.

Participating in the meeting is Construction and Housing Minister Ze'ev Elkin, who accompanied former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his meetings with Putin and who serves as translator. Also participating in the meeting are National Security Council chief Dr. Eyal Hulata, diplomatic adviser Shimrit Meir, and the Prime Minister's spokesman, Matan Sidi.

According to Kan 11, both the Ukraine and the US were updated prior to the Bennett-Putin meeting, and the American government gave Bennett their blessing prior to his meeting with Putin.

On Sunday, Bennett spoke with Putin about the war with Ukraine, and said that Israel is ready to assist as much as is needed and at any time in resolving the crisis and bringing the parties closer.

According to the Kremlin, in the conversation between the leaders, Bennett suggested mediating talks between Russia and Ukraine, but Putin refused the offer.

While Ukraine is Burning Biden ready to making worst deal ever with Iran

 

As the civilian death toll mounts in Ukraine and the world prepares for unspeakable crimes against humanity yet to come, the Biden administration said Friday it’s close to announcing a Russian-brokered deal with Iran that will flood the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism with billions of dollars and leave Tehran on the nuclear weapons threshold.

While the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was bad enough, the coming deal is even worse.

Zera Shimshon Parshas Pekudei

 

Nathan Sharansky's Interesting take on the Russian-Ukraine Conflict

 Natan Sharansky spoke at a Sheva Brachot gathering in honor of the wedding of Benaya and Neta Dickstein. Benaya's parents, Yossi and Chanah, were murdered in a terrorist attack when he was seven years old. It's too bad that only those in attendance heard Sharansky, the famous prisoner of Zion, speak as follows:

"When I was growing up in Ukraine, in Donetsk, there were many nations and nationalities. There were those with identity papers that read 'Russian,' 'Ukrainian,' 'Georgian,' or 'Kozak.' This was not so important since there was not much difference between them. The single designation that stood out was 'Jew.'  If that was written as your identity, it was as if you had a disease.

"We knew nothing about Judaism. There was nothing signficant about our Jewish identity other than the anti-Semitism, hatred, and discriminatory treatment we experienced because of it. When it came to a university application, for example, no one tried to change his designation from 'Russian' to 'Ukrainian' because it did not matter. However, if you could change your designation of 'Jew,' it substantially improved your chances of university admission.

"This week, I was reminded of those days when I saw thousands of people standing at the borders of Ukraine trying to escape. They are standing there day and night and there is only one word that can help them get out: 'Jew.' If you are a Jew, there are Jews outside who care about and are waiting for you. There is someone on the other side of the border who is searching for you. Your chances of leaving are excellent.

"The world has changed. When I was a child, 'Jew' was an unfortunate designation. No one envied us. But today on the Ukrainian border, identifying as a Jew is a most fortunate circumstance. It describes those who have a place to go, where their family, an entire nation, is waiting for them on the other side."

10K Seminary Women Block 100s WOW, Reform & Conservative at Rosh Chodesh Adar-B War on the Kotel

 Hundreds of members of the Reform and Conservative movements from Israel and the United States arrived on Friday morning at the Kotel plaza for the Rosh Chodesh Adar B prayer. They were met with enormous resistance from mostly Haredi Jews, including an estimated ten thousand seminary women who followed the instructions of two leaders of the Haredi Lithuanian public, Rabbis Chaim Kanievsky and Gershon Edelstein, to protest the Reform and Conservative presence. Large police forces separated the two parties of obviously God-loving Jews.

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The Reform prayer was held in the presence of the President of the Reform Movement in the United States, Rick Jacobs, who is on a visit to Israel.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with the leaders of the Reform movement in Israel and the Diaspora and stressed the need to allow the Reform members to enjoy equality in their prayer at the Kotel plaza, “the remains of our Temple.”

Just a reminder: the remains of our Temple are several yards up from the Kotel plaza, and Jews up there still have to struggle every day for their right to equality in prayer, but that’s not anything that seemed to bother Bennett or his Reform guests.

US Ambassador Throws Israel Under the Russian Bus

 

US Ambassador to Jerusalem Tom Nides was trying his best to get Israel deeper in trouble with its neighbor to the north, Vladimir Putin, by tweeting glowing praise giving it credit for its wonderful work against the nasty Russians: “Enormous thanks to Israel for helping rally more members to stand with Ukraine in today’s historic UN vote. Over 141 votes to hold Russia accountable. Diplomacy matters.

 

Enormous thanks to Israel for helping rally more members to stand with Ukraine in today’s historic @UN vote. Over 141 votes to hold Russia accountable. Diplomacy matters. pic.twitter.com/ZIsO8XYe0z

— Ambassador Tom Nides (@USAmbIsrael) March 2, 2022

 Gee, thanks, Tom.

Biden's Black Supreme Court Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is a "Heartless Calculating Political Opportunist"

 

While running for the Presidency in 2020 Joe Biden promised to appoint the first black, female Supreme Court justice. In January when a place opened up on the court, he repeated that pledge. To only murmurs of concern. Is this really how things have to work in America?

Last week the president announced that he was going to put forward Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the lifetime appointment. Democrats were thrilled. Most Republicans saw a trap and kept away. Almost no one dug any deeper. But they should.

Because if they did, they would find out a number of things. Not just that there are far better qualified candidates, including better qualified black female candidates. But that Jackson’s own career shows she is unsuitable for the role.

It is now eight years ago since Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 crashed into the sea, killing all 239 people on board. Among them was one American man, Philip Wood, a 50-year-old IBM executive from Texas.

In the traumatic months after the crash, Wood’s family sought to gain justice for their family in the courts. They imagined the American court system would help them. They were wrong.

Why are so many Idolizing Zelensky and Ukraine?

 

Chelmanetski Statue Still Standing in Kiev

The following article is from the Leonupsidedown Blog!

If my dear mother, a Holocaust survivor, was alive, she would have this to say about Ukraine: 'Loz em brennan' (let them burn).

To help understand her statement, you might recall one of the most terrible events in WWII, known as Babi Yar. It's a deep ravine in the main city, Kiev in Ukraine. In 1941 in the period of just 2 days, almost 34,000 Jews were murdered there! Think about that number. And it was all done by men shooting at innocent civilians. A very personal way to commit mass murder. 

That was nothing like carpet bombing a city from the air.  As far as we know, that extreme murder rate had never been achieved until then. Of course the Nazis organized the killing. But it was the Ukrainians who actually did the killing. You see, the Ukrainians had such a blood lust for killing Jews that even the Nazis had to stop them. The Germans were in love with organized killing and documenting every 'perfect' thing they did. So when the Ukrainians were running around trying to murder every Jew they saw, the Nazis intervened and instructed them on how to do it efficiently and more organized.

Since then the Germans have laws (serious laws) against joining any neo-Nazi party. They have also paid out millions of dollars to Holocaust survivors and their families. The Ukrainians have literally gotten away with murder. 

Today, decades after the war, Ukraine has more neo-Nazi groups than any other country in the world! (Yet another world record) And they are not forced underground in any way. The largest of these, Azov, is unofficially part of their parliament. Many fools consider them to just be nationalistic. Although some members might be, most are thugs. Their flag is similar to a swastika and they are antisemitic to the core, just like their grandfathers were.

Azov flag

When Putin says he wants to de-nazify Ukraine, he's not lying. I have no doubt that we will soon be hearing of stories leaked out of Ukraine, blaming it's small Jewish population for the trouble they are in now. I already have heard some.

Will the Real "Chief Rabbi" of Ukraine Stand Up?

 

The chief rabbi of Ukraine is a 57-year-old U.S.-born former member of Israel’s Karlin-Stoliner Hasidic sect who was once an executive member of the World Jewish Congress.

The chief rabbi of Ukraine is a 55-year-old Russian-born member of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement who is close to associates of former President Donald Trump and recently created “Anatevka,” a village for displaced Jewish families inspired by “Fiddler on the Roof.”

The two men – Rabbi Yaakov Bleich and Rabbi Moshe Azman – have since the Russian assault on Ukraine began a week ago each posted a series of dramatic videos about their efforts to evacuate Jews and raised millions of dollars to support them. Their dueling claims to be the country’s top Jewish leader date back two decades, a fraught history involving many questionable characters.

“Remember that he who does not care and he who agrees silently — that is an accomplice to a crime, a war crime, a crime against humanity!” Rabbi Azman declared in a video posted on Wednesday, of him holding a Torah scroll in front of the ark in a Kyiv synagogue.

Warning Russian Jews that their silence would be remembered and pledging to stay and care for those unable to flee, he added in Russian: “I never thought, even in my worst nightmare, that I might have to perish under the shells of Russia, where I was born, where I went to school, where I have many friends, who are silent.”

Meanwhile, Bleich has been publishing “live updates” via YouTube on a daily basis, using an Ukrainian flag as a backdrop.

“We already have evacuated some people,” he said when the assault began last Thursday. That evening, he released another video, pleading for help: “We are sheltering in place outside of Kyiv in our camp until tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. when we hope we will be able to hit the road,”

For viewers, it might seem as if Bleich is on the ground assisting his flock at a time of great need. In fact, he has been making the videos from his home in the Hasidic enclave of Monsey, New York, where he received a call from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this weekend and, as of Wednesday morning, had raised more than $1.4 million online for Kyiv’s Jewish community.

Bleich didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the Knesset today

 

Heroic Chief Rabbi of Odessa Rescues 250 Orphans by Traveling on Shabbos

 

Now! That's a real hero!

This past Shabbos, the Chief Rabbi of Odessa heroically rescued 250 orphan children from potential tragedy. Rabbi Shlomo Baksht determined that it was permissible to travel on Shabbos in order to flee the country.

The terrifying drama began Thursday evening, when heavy Russian bombings rocked the area near the orphanage.

“We just received an update that there were three terrible explosions near the orphanage. The girls were very anxious, sitting and crying. We are trying to move them to the city center next to us. The situation is becoming more dangerous from one moment to the next,” said Rabbi Baksht.

After speaking with senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Jewish community decided to flee westward.

On Friday morning, eight buses set off, with all of the orphans onboard, as well as the orphanage staff, Rabbi Baksht, his daughter Shira and his partner Rabbi Rafael Kruskal.

A few hours after they fled Odessa, Russian missiles landed near the Jewish community where they had been located hours earlier.

“We had a great miracle that we got out of there on time,” said Rabbi Baksht, “a really great miracle.”

The journey lasted through Friday night into Shabbos morning, and the Rabbi decided that the proper decision was to continue traveling for pikuach nefesh.

“I told them that we are here to fulfill God’s will, and on this Shabbat, His will is for us to escape to save lives,” he said

On Friday the Rabbi told community members, “We will continue to travel on Shabbos because it is a matter of mental supervision. Everyone will turn off their mobile phones, but on every bus there will be one mobile left open in case of an emergency.”

At one point they stopped in the dark and Rabbi Raphael Kruskal recited Kiddush, adding a taste of the Shabbos atmosphere during an unthinkably difficult time.

Rabbi Baksht described the superhuman effort of the staff.

“The babysitters on the baby bus held the toddlers in their arms for many hours. It was not easy.”

Monkey Eating Strawberries From Shmitah .. Where is R' Yair Hoffman's "psak?"

 

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Hamas Flag Flying Proudly in Meah Shearim

 

Gedolim Point to Signs of Mashiach’s Arrival Amid Ukraine Crisis

 BNEI BRAK: The Gadol Hador, Hagaon Reb Chaim Kanievsky Shlita was asked by many what should one be Mechazek in due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

His Response was – to Daven and learn Torah B’Hasmada.

Reb Chaim also pointed out to a Medrash in Parshas Lech Lecha which says – “If you have seen kings provoking one another, expect the footsteps of Moshiach.” — “אם ראית מלכיות מתגרות אלו באלו צפה לרגלו של משיח”.

Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel, Rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Gedolah Zichron Moshe of South Fallsburg, as well echoed the message of R’ Chaim last week once the invasion had began.

R Elya Ber had put on Shabbos clothing last week when he heard news of the movement of Russian warships. The response of the rosh yeshiva is based on a Kabbolah that he has that when the Russians will cross the Dardanelles River, it will trigger the start of a series of events before Moshiach comes, and therefore, in his words, “Men ken shoin untun Shabbosdike kleider.”

5 TownsCentral Editors Note: There have been many points in history when Gedolim informed of the imminent arrival of Mashiach and it didn’t happen. However, that does not mean we should become skeptical, rather it truly could have been the right time, only that Klal Yisroel was not deserving. Hashem runs the world with cheshbonos that we can not understand.

We hope that this time our generation is worthy and that this current period of conflict ushers in the Geulah Shleima.

Colorized Photo of Jewish New York Market from the 1900's

 

A fascinating but little-known chapter in the history of a campaign by a Brooklyn Housewife to help create the State of Israel.

 

"Irish, sympathetic, hates British, will definitely help.” So read an entry in the diary of Brooklyn housewife Esther Kaplan, after meeting with Rep. John J. Rooney, an Irish-American congressman from New York City, seventy-five years ago this week.

Mrs. Kaplan had no background in lobbying or political activism, but when her son David was arrested by the British for trying to smuggle Holocaust survivors into Palestine in 1947, she reinvented herself as a Zionist lobbyist and took her case straight to Capitol Hill.

The arrest of David Kaplan and other crew members of the S.S. Ben Hecht, and the protests that ensued in the United States, comprise a fascinating but little-known chapter in the history of the campaign by Americans to help create the State of Israel.

On a chilly morning in late February 1947, six hundred Holocaust survivors trudged up the gangplank of the S.S. Ben Hecht in the French harbor of Port de Bouc. The ship was sponsored by the activist Bergson Group, and named in honor of the journalist and Hollywood screenwriter who authored the group’s most controversial newspaper ads denouncing British rule in Palestine (the name of the region and not connected to a specific people).

The ship’s captain was Robert Levitan, a burly six-foot-four former Merchant Marine who said he “jumped at the chance” to participate in the mission because he had "felt impotent in the 1930s and early 1940s, hearing about Hitler's persecution of the Jews and not being able to do anything about it.”

"We had twenty men, with twenty different reasons for joining up," Levitan remembered. "We had some very young boys who were reared in Zionistic homes and were gung-ho Zionists. We had an Irishman who hated the British, and he volunteered just because it was against the British. Our cook was a black man, one of the gentlest men you could ever meet, and he just liked helping out the underdog."

How Ukrainians Murdered 100,000 Jews 20 Years Before the Holocaust

 

Statue of Bohdan Chmelnytskyi  Still Standing Kiev 

In the early 1920s, thousands of Jewish child refugees flooded into Moscow from Ukraine, fleeing a terrifying series of pogroms. Legendary Jewish artist Marc Chagall remembered giving art lessons to some of the refugees at a Jewish orphanage outside the Soviet capital. He recalled the horrifying atrocities they spoke about — their parents murdered, their sisters raped and slain, and the children themselves chased out in the cold, threadbare and starving.

Unlike the Holocaust, this earlier wave of antisemitic violence has largely been forgotten by history. Yet at the time, it was front-page news. From 1918 to 1921, more than 1,100 pogroms killed over 100,000 Jews in an area that is part of present-day Ukraine. Such large-scale violence led to fears that six million Jewish lives across Europe were at risk from antisemitic hate. Those who made such dire predictions included writer Anatole France; less than 20 years later, these fears were realized.

The story of these fateful pogroms is chronicled in a new book, “In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust,” by University of Michigan history and Judaic studies professor Jeffrey Veidlinger.

“I think right now they’re not very well-known at all, mostly because they’ve been so surpassed by the Holocaust,” Veidlinger told The Times of Israel in a phone interview. “In the interwar period, they were very well-known. In some ways, it seems like it was all anybody was writing about then.”

Rooted in a previous linguistic research project with elderly Yiddish-speaking Jews in Ukraine who told Veidlinger about surviving the pogroms, the book takes readers back to this disturbing moment in history during the Russian Civil War.

“It’s terrifying and horrifying,” Veidlinger said. “It takes a toll on you to write [down] that testimony. I’m sure it takes a toll on the reader… It was difficult for me to hear, and probably difficult for them to tell.”

The title phrase comes from France’s fears for the future of European Jewry. The French poet and journalist noted that some of the pogroms occurred at the same time as the peace talks at Versailles tasked with ending World War I. One was perhaps the largest single mass murder of Jews in modern history up to that point — the pogrom of Proskuriv on February 14, 1919, with 911 listed deaths, which Veidlinger estimates is one-third of the actual total.

“I think it was almost genocidal,” Veidlinger said of the Proskuriv pogrom. “It shows how the violence escalated during the very short period of time between November 1918 to February 1919.”

Chief Badatz Extortionist of Kosher Cell Phones Arrested and the Badatz Backs the Chareidie Mafia

 

This is pathetic.

The phones should be under “supervision,” not the stores. There is no reason to believe that a store owner would substitute a type-B phone or account for a customer requesting type-A service.

Maybe the situation on the ground will change when the shop owners organize themselves. Learn something from the Ukrainians.

Hours after the arrest of a senior leader of the Comunications Vaad on charges of extortion and harassment of cell phone stores, the BADATZ has released a letter, saying that kosher cell phone stores are currently not being supervised. 

Following the detention of the Supervisor of Cellular Stores, the BADATZ Eidah Charedis issued a special warning to the public.

Under the headline “Warning to parents and educators”, the Rabbanim wrote that “After the authorities arrested the supervisor of cellular stores, and extended his detention for a week, there is currently no supervision of cellular stores in Yerushalayim.”

They added that it is incumbent upon parents and educators to supervise children regarding this matter. 

The judge who extended the detention said at the hearing: “On numerous occasions the defendant extorted and threatened cell phone shop owners while asking them to pay him money to get kosher. The shop owners who did not pay were allegedly attacked.”

Single Mom forced to sell home after Bnei-Braker conman Copycat tricked her out of $100K

 

A mom was forced to sell her home after her own slippery “Tindler Swindler” conned her out of more than $100,650.

Jordan Alexander, 54, was left heartbroken when her whirlwind romance came crashing down — leaving her with a mountain of debt.

She thought she had met the man of her dreams after connecting with “millionaire” businessman James on a dating website.

The single mom-of-two, who lives in New Zealand, was duped by the cruel crook after signing up to the site in 2012.

James painted himself as a hardworking dad who traveled around the globe as a railway consultant while raising his teenage son.