The story of Iranian Jews

Purim costumes, Tehran, 1964

To get to the Fowler Museum on the campus of UCLA,you might drive through Westwood, and the many signs and restaurants that herald one of Los Angeles’ constituencies: Persian Jews.

The community is 50-thousand strong in the metro area–the largest of its kind in the world outside Israel.  Though the diaspora from Iran began in 1979 with the fall of the Shah, it’s now being celebrated at the Fowler with a new exhibition called Light and Shadows.

The exhibition’s been imported from the Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, and has been embellished to include local history.  In the galleries you’ll see the story of the Persian Jews told through ancient artifacts alongside modern ones.

Zionist Federation, Iran, 1920

How did Jews manage to practice their faith after Muslims conquered Persia? How does the small community of Jews that remains in Iran co-exist with Muslims today?  A walk through the galleries of the Fowler will answer these questions, and more.

Torah case, western Iran, 1867

Through March, there will be a number of public talks and celebrations.  Check the Fowler website.  Here’s a brief overview with Fowler museum director Marla Berns:

Meeting with Andor Schmuck, former president of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party.

I had the privilege of meeting with Andor Schmuck, former president of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party and a courageous gentleman committed to exposing antisemitism in Hungary. During the meeting, I was exposed to horrifying revelations about the connection neo-Nazi groups and their alleged link to government officials in Hungary. According to Mr. Schmuck, neo-Nazi groups such as Betyarsereg are working in cooperation with the Jobbik party, a major political force in the Hungarian government. In addition, Mr. Schmuck argues that even the president of Betyarsereg declared publicly that his organization maintains relations with both the Hungarian police and Jobbik public officials in office today. Rather than succumb to such pressures, Andor Schmuck founded a civil movement dedicated to finding and exposing neo-Nazis amongst the police and government officials. Andor Schmuck is determined to fight prejudice and hatred wherever it is, and we agreed to work together to research and expose these disturbing relations to the public. Yaakov Hagoel

Yaakov Hagoel 

Erdoğan views PYD as threat, prefers ISIL control in northern Syria

Rattled by new flux of refugees fleeing the raging war between the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the northern Syrian city of Tel Abyad near the border, Turkey's leader expressed concern over the YPG takeover of the town, implying that he would rather prefer ISIL control over the strategic border city.

The ISIL and YPG, the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), are vying for control over Tel Abyad in an episode in the long struggle for supremacy in northern Syria. Backed by air forces from the global anti-ISIL coalition, the YPG recently made swift gains and pushed back radical militants after a withering months-long siege of the Kurdish city of Kobani, which proved to be a turn in the tide against ISIL. Turkey had to absorb more than 150,000 civilians during ferocious battles in and around Kobani in late 2014.

A similar fierce showdown is in the air, this time in Tel Abyad, a key border town just opposite of Akçakale, a Turkish border town in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa. Barbed fences and a wall divide the two towns.

The YPG advance toward Tel Abyad prompted a new mass exodus of refugees, sparking a humanitarian crisis across the border. The town is of strategic importance to the militant group, which regards as its only gateway and supply line through the border with Turkey.

Losing Tel Abyad, some 80 kilometers north of the ISIL stronghold of Raqqa, would deprive the group of a direct route to bring in new foreign militants or supplies. The Kurdish advance, coming under the cover of intense US-led coalition airstrikes in the area, also would link their two fronts and put even more pressure on Raqqa as Iraqi forces struggle to contain the group in their country. Reports on Monday suggested that the YPG totally encircled the town.

A Today's Zaman reporter in Akçakale said the ISIL militants began to withdraw to Raqqa to prepare for the next round of the battle, which will probably take place in or around Raqqa, the provincial capital of ISIL. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict, said there were only around 150 Islamic State fighters in Tel Abyad.

Already battered by endless waves of refugees, Turkey allowed more than 3,000 refugees who were fleeing the fighting in Tel Abyad to enter the country, reversing its earlier decision of closing its borders to new refugees.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in a reflection of the widely-held opinion of Justice and Development Party (AK Party) senior figures, views the looming battle from a different angle. Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian arm of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an outlawed militia that has fought a 30-year insurgency against the Turkish state to establish regional autonomy in southeast Turkey. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by the US, Turkey and EU.

Erdoğan spoke to reporters from pro-government media outlets during his return from Azerbaijan and addressed the steep challenges Turkey faces across the Turkish-Syrian border.

Offering a bleak assessment of the security situation in northern Syria, the president, however, appeared uneasy about the ascendant YPG, which has systematically rooted out ISIL groups from towns and villages as part of a steady campaign since January when it defeated the militant group in Kobani.

Erdoğan portrayed the YPG's ascendancy on the battleground as a threat to Turkish national interests, accusing the Kurdish militia of deliberately targeting the indigenous Arab and Turkmen population in northern Syria.

The Turkish president said the US-led coalition fighting ISIL militants in Syria was bombing Arabs and Turkmens near Turkey's border.

"On our border, in Tel Abyad, the West, which is conducting aerial bombings against Arabs and Turkmens, is unfortunately putting terrorist members of the PYD and PKK in their place,” Erdogan said.

Last week, he accused the West of backing "Kurdish terrorists" in northern Syria. The YPG has emerged as the main military partner for the US-led campaign against ISIL in Syria. Erdoğan's views reflect a concern over the revival of probable separatist sentiment among Turkey's Kurdish community, which closely follows YPG movements in Syria.

Erdoğan's refusal to help the besieged Kurds in Kobani fight ISIL touched off nationwide protests in Turkey on Oct. 6-7, 2014, leading to the death of more than 40 people in street clashes. The AK Party government, sources close to the party say, does not want to see a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria that could control Turkey's border and thus transport routes to Arab Syria.

The president's comments came at a time when the Cumhuriyet and the Birgün newspapers ran news stories involving video and photo footage that appeared to be evidence of the AK Party government's links to ISIL in northern Syria. In one incident, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), transported ISIL militants on buses through the Akçakale border gate as reinforcements in the fight against Kurdish forces.

Rebels accuse Kurds of deliberately displacing Arabs

More than a dozen Syrian rebel groups on Monday accused the country's main Kurdish militia of deliberately displacing thousands of Arabs and Turkmens as it pushes deeper into ISIL strongholds in northern Syria.

 

The Kurdish advance has caused the displacement of 18,000 people who fled to Turkey in the past two weeks. On Monday, up to 3,000 more refugees arrived at the Akçakale border crossing, according to the state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT). An Associated Press photographer saw large numbers of people at the border and thick smoke billowing across as US-led coalition aircraft targeted ISIL militants in Tel Abyad.

The accusation, which was not backed by evidence of ethnic- or sectarian-related killings, threatened to escalate tensions between ethnic Arabs and Kurds as the Kurdish fighters conquer more territory in northern Syria.

Since the beginning of the year, the YPG have wrested back more than 500 mostly Kurdish and Christian towns in northeastern Syria, as well as strategic mountains seized earlier by ISIL. They have recently pushed into Raqqa province, an ISIL stronghold where Tel Abyad is located.

"YPG forces ... have implemented a new sectarian and ethnic cleansing campaign against Sunni Arabs and Turkmen under the cover of coalition airstrikes which have included bombardment, terrorizing civilians and forcing them to flee their villages," the statement issued by rebel and militant groups said. The YPG, however, denies these claims.

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the people who had fled into Turkey were escaping fighting and there was no systematic effort to force people out.

He said also said there were no Turkmen in the area, stating, "There are violations [referring to acts of abuse] by individuals from the YPG, but not in a systematic way."

SOURCE

Fascist Demonstrators to Burn Talmud at London Rally in Jewish Neighborhood

The extreme right-wing organizers of a Saturday protest in a predominantly Jewish London neighborhood plan to burn Israeli flags and even a copy of the Jewish Oral Law, or Talmud, the UK’s Jewish Chroniclereported on Tuesday.

Right-wing activist Joshua Bonehill-Paine called on demonstrators through his website to bring Israeli flags to the July 4 demonstration in the mostly Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Golders Green to “dismember … by hand,” which apparently sidesteps the legal complications of burning national flags.

“This will be a show of solidarity by English people who recognize that Israel is a corrupt state which is responsible for horrific war crimes,” wrote Bonehill-Paine.

Additionally, the activist said there would be a private meeting held before the demonstration in which copies of the Talmud could be burned “in recognition of its racist Anti-White [sic] teachings.”

Bonehill said the purpose of the July 4 protest, which will take place on the Jewish Sabbath, was to demonstrate against the Jewish Shomrim, or Jewish civilian patrols set up to combat, inter alia, antisemitic crime, burglary, vandalism, assault and domestic violence.

White supremacy group the New Dawn Party posted to its Twitter page an advertisement for the July 4 protest with a banner that read: “This is London, not Tel Aviv.”

Another post, dated to Sunday, said the protest was meant to demonstrate against “Jewish privilege.” It ridiculed Jews for having “their own Police force” that “receives training and funding from our own Police force.”

A longtime right-wing and white-supremacist commentator on the Internet, Bonehill-Paine has been investigated by police before on charges of harassment, antisemitic speech and hoaxing.

He had previously planned a Stamford Hill march against the “Jewification of Great Britain,” but those plans were postponed and ultimately scrapped.

According to the British Independent newspaper, the London Shomrim consists of about 80 volunteers and focuses its efforts on neighborhoods with strong Jewish populations, such as Golders Green, Hendon and Barnet. Volunteers are trained by police and don knife-proof vests, and the network boasts a 24-hour hotline.

The Community Security Trust, with about 10 years of experience working to protect British Jewish communities, has said it is “fully aware of this explicitly antisemitic demonstration” and was in contact with police and government officials over the issue, according to the JC.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/06/16/fascist-demonstrators-to-burn-talmud-at-london-rally-in-jewish-neighborhood/

A letter to Henry Morgenthau

The First World War was a difficult time for the Yishuv. At the beginning of the War, Turkey remained neutral and did not take an active part in it. Germany pressured Turkey to join the Central Powers, and succeeded in October 1914. At this point, the Ottoman Empire’s treatment of the Jews changed.

 

The letter below was sent from the Central Zionist Office to Henry Morgenthau, the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in November 2014 – just after the Ottoman Empire had entered the war. This intriguing letter outlines the main concerns of the Jews in Palestine in light of the new situation they had entered:

 

-       What will happen to the Jews that have Russian citizenship (since Russia is now an enemy of Turkey)?

-       How will the Jews in Palestine manage financially if they won’t be able to export their crops to Europe or to

     receive money from Europe and Russia?

-       What will happen if the war reaches Palestine?

America remained neutral at the beginning of the First World War,which is why she had an ambassador in Istanbul. After Morgenthau heard about the state of the Yishuv, he saw to it that the Jews in America and the US government immediately send financial assistance to Palestine. The financial aid from America helped theYishuv for a while.

 

The concerns of the Jews expressed in the letter actualized as the war continued. Jews with foreign citizenship were forced to take on Ottoman citizenship or to leave the country (see: “The Tel Aviv deportation”). The Ottomans placed restrictions on the Jews and they suffered from a severe shortage of food and clothing. This situation continued until the British conquered Palestine in 1918.

http://www.zionistarchives.org.il/en/Pages/Morgenthau.aspx

On two year anniversary of Toulouse shooting, France remembers tragedy

Events were held in memory of seven persons who were murdered, among them four Jews, by Islamist Mohammed Merah. Francois Hollande paying tribute to the victims of 23-year-old gunman Mohamed Merah in Toulouse. Francois Hollande paying tribute to the victims of 23-year-old gunman Mohamed Merah in Toulouse. Photo: REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Rallies were held across France to mark the tragic events of two years ago in Toulouse, in memory of seven persons who were murdered, among them four Jews, by Islamist Mohammed Merah. In Paris on Wednesday, Manuel Valls, the French interior minister, called anti-Zionism “an invitation to anti-Semitism.” The old anti-Semitism of the French extreme Right is renewed: It feeds off hatred of Israel. It feeds off anti-Zionism, because anti-Zionism is an invitation to anti-Semitism,” he said. Valls was speaking at a rally organized by the umbrella group for French Jewish communities, the CRIF, held in Trocadero Square near the Eiffel Tower, where more than 1,000 people gathered. “Criticism of Israel that is based on anti-Zionism – that’s anti-Semitism today – is the refuge of those who do not accept the State of Israel,” he continued. In France, with its strong tradition of egalitarianism, it is more usual for politicians to speak of their commitment to fight anti-Semitism in connection with other forms of racism; such a specific official statement was unusual. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced that his attendance was “paying homage in the name of the government and the entire republic, a call to action against all forms of racism, anti-Semitism, hatred and violence.” In the morning, a closed ceremony was held at the school where the four Jews were killed in Toulouse, in the presence of the pupils and Mayor Pierre Cohen. In the evening, another public ceremony was held at the Halle au Grain concert hall in Toulouse, organized by the CRIF. Ayrault and European Parliament President Martin Schulz were the guests of honor. In Bordeaux, CRIF organized another rally attended by, among others, the city’s mayor, former foreign minister Alain Juppé. Ari Bensemhoun, the president of Toulouse’s Jewish community, has gone so far as to encourage young Jews to leave France. They should leave as it was no longer possible to practice Judaism openly and without fear in Toulouse, he told i24news TV on Monday. “I won’t deny that. Yes, I encourage the younger people to make aliya to Israel or go elsewhere, where they can thrive in open Judaism. Emancipated and without constantly fearing over what tomorrow will bring.” There has been a marked increase in the number of French Jews who have moved to Israel since the killings two years ago, from fewer than 2,000 in 2012 to more than 3,000 last year. President Moshe Kantor of the European Jewish Congress, in a statement on Wednesday, commended the French authorities for their efforts to curb anti-Semitism and urged officials to “preempt the next murders by continuing to invest in education, law enforcement against those who preach hate and incitement, and to combat the extremists.” The SPCJ, the security unit of the French Jewish community, says the murders triggered a wave of 90 anti-Semitic incidents in the subsequent 10 days. Two years after the most traumatic Islamic terrorist attack on its territory, France continues to remember the killings in Toulouse. French websites and France 2 television reported Wednesday’s two ceremonies. On March 19, 2012 the French-Algerian Merah shot and killed three Jewish children and the father of two of them at the entrance to the Ohr Torah school in Toulouse. He had previously gunned down three French soldiers in the nearby town of Montauban. The police’s anti-terrorist unit eventually shot Merah dead. On the first anniversary of the killing last year, French President François Hollande and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attended the commemoration. In 2012, just after the attack, then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy came to the ceremony.


http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/On-two-year-anniversary-of-Toulouse-shooting-Europes-Jews-still-wary-of-terrorism-345844

Congress of French Jewish communities

Over 3,000 people attended the second edition of the Congress of French Jewish communities in Paris which gathered representatives of the French diaspora. An opportunity to meet, exchange and also discuss different issues related to the situation of Jews and Israel in today's society.