Coming to a Theatre Near Jews!
by Judy Gruen and Denise Koek

Jewish Film Festivals are growing in popularity. Watch local listings for the best cinema of 5769.

Star Shrek 3 -- Hideous but kind-hearted Jewish space ogre and lovely Earth-maidele meet when he beams down from his starship on a fact-finding mission. After beholding the enormous Star of David beneath his spandex uniform, she accepts his proposal and joins him beneath the intergalactic chuppah, to boldly going where no man has gone before.

Planes, Trains and Shidduchim -- All Tamara wants to do is get to her niece's bat mitzvah party in Long Island, but a well-intentioned bubbe named Sylvia whom she meets on the plane, insists Tamara take a detour meet her grandson Wacky situations ensue when Sylvia's grandson Herman declares that Tamara is his "basherte."

Jewrassic Park -- An innocent outing to the New York Jewish museum takes a terrifying turn when a 19th century Jewish family from Poland steps out from their photograph and relentlessly implores museum visitors to have a nosh and stay for Shabbos. "What, are you in such a hurry?" they ask.

An Inconvenient Truth -- Using a Powerpoint presentation, Al Gore traces the problem of melting polar icecaps to areas on Earth where cholent was left cooking for too long. In the process, he also discovers the beauty of Jewish wisdom, converts to Judaism, becomes a chassid and then sees his former running mate in a different light. "Who is he trying to kid? Lieberman's not so frum (religious)."

Changeling -- With increasing desperation, a small boy repeatedly tries to make change for his Hanukkah gelt at currency exchange after currency exchange across greater Los Angeles. But no one will accept his heart-wrenching plea to treat the chocolate coins as viable legal tender.

My Fair Zaidy: When the Karlinsy family moves Zaidy from Minsk to Iowa City, the neighbors are confused by his requests for a "glezzle tea" and call in noted linguist/anthropologist, Henny Higmans, to intercede when they see him trying to strangle himself with black leather straps attached to little black boxes in the living room.

Boychiks N the Hood: A close-knit gang of Brooklyn yeshiva boys resolve the tension in their lives as their paths diverge, with one becoming a commodities broker, another a podiatrist, one a Hollywood producer, and one a ballet dancer who won't perform on the Sabbath.

Nightmare

on AOL Street: When Nancy Gutstein innocently tries to cancel her internet service, she descends into a horrific battle with a "customer service" representative who refuses to release her from her contract. After four straight days on the phone, she falls asleep and Elijah Krueger appears to her in a dream. He implores her to abandon her quixotic mission and go to shul -- OR ELSE!

Sects In the City -- Best friends, Lubavitcher Louis, Ashkenazi Avraham and Bobov
Bernie spend their days shopping for the perfect fedoras and black coats, while bemoaning the lack of single women in greater New York with good job prospects or chic clogs.

Scrap Iron Man -- Tony Shtarker goes valiantly from shtetl to shtetl, wrapped in the bright red hood of a compacted '68 Mustang. He saves his neighbors from Middle-Eastern terrorists in the spare time he can muster after a hard day of collecting old tin cans.

Mission: Impossible: Cunning AIPAC members infiltrate the Al Jazeera network and rig the stations to play the Chabad Telethon 24 hours a day -- except on Shabbos.

Yeshivah School Musical -- Tzuri, son of the esteemed Cantor Boltonovsky, is the star cantorial student at East Fairfax Yeshivah but he dreams only of Talmudic scholarship. Can Tzuri respectfully side-step his father's dreams and become a rebel Rebbe while his fellow yeshiva bochers dance a frenzied Hora and belt out the hit single, "We're All In Tzitzis Together?"

There Won't Be Blood -- A lonely and obsessive Texas trillionaire spends every cent of his fortune in a misbegotten and peculiar bid to take over all the Kosher slaughterhouses in the West. Is he a visionary or a megalomaniacal mashgiach?

The Other Boleyn Girl's Sister's Cousin -- During Purim, Skokie Illinois' best King Achashverosh impersonator becomes frustrated when he can't find his own, real-life Queen Esther. That is, until the local matchmaker promises to fix him up with a mysterious young lady from Passaic, New Jersey whose relationships to everyone's cousins, aunts and acquaintances are so tenuous that no one can recall how they actually know her...

Hancock -- Whether he's rescuing Hadassah members precariously dangling in the John Hancock building's elevator shaft, or saving bar mitzvah boys from an out-of-control Hebrew School bus, President-Elect Barack Obama strives to safeguard his secret identity as a 10,000-year-old Ethiopian Jew.

No Country for Old Men -- Tom Belstein and Llewellyn Mosskowitz, a pair of retired Miami detectives travel to Japan, where they stumble upon a cache of stolen iPods, flat screen TVs, BlackBerries, Xboxes, digital camcorders and other newfangled, technological gizmos that they have no clue how to operate. But when Tom's pacemaker suddenly cuts out, his only chance at survival depends on whether Llewellyn can figure out how to program one of the stolen BlackBerries for the "pacemaker" setting.

Author Biography:
Denise Koek is a happily married actress, writer and mom, who’s contributed to Ladies Home Journal, The Jewish Journal, The Signal newspaper, local magazines and anthologies and forced herself to watch zillions of movies to "research" this article...

by Steve Lipman

Hundreds of Holocaust survivors never returned to Judaism and joined the Christian clergy.

Jaffa, Israel -- The embossed nameplate on the door of an apartment here a few blocks from the Mediterranean lists two occupants. The English letters identify Grzegorz Pawlowski; the Hebrew, Zvi Griner.

Only one man lives in the apartment. Grzegorz Pawlowski is the Polish name that Zvi Griner, a Jew, took while in hiding during the Holocaust. He survived by posing as a Catholic and later decided to become a priest.

Like many Jews who accepted -- or in the case of thousands of children during the Shoah, were raised in -- Christianity, Pawlowski says he is both. But as a member of the Christian clergy, his case has special poignancy for the Jewish community, which, more than 60 years after the end of World War II, is still dealing with the losses it suffered during the 12 years of the Third Reich.

Today, Pawlowski, who wears a collar and conducts Mass in his Roman Catholic church here, is a stark reminder of one of the realities of the Holocaust. Jewish lives could often find refuge in Christian hands, but their spiritual future was in doubt.

Like him, many survived. Like him, many never returned to Judaism. Like him, many, out of belief or gratitude, became priests or nun.

Today, many of these men and women have died, the rest are aging, and many have chosen to serve as living bridges between their religion of birth and their religion of choice.

An estimated several hundred Jews who are still alive took their Catholic or Protestant vows, especially in Poland, a phenomenon little known and scarcely documented.

The number is at least "a couple hundred," says Rabbi Chaskel Besser, a Holocaust survivor who has served as director of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation's activities in Poland and has reconnected "hidden Jews" with their unknown or long-forgotten Jewish roots.

Jews in Poland alone talk of several hundred contemporary priests -- and a like number of nuns -- who are Jewish.

"This is primarily a Polish story," says Holocaust historian Michael Berenbaum. That's where the most Jews lived before the Holocaust, where the most Catholics honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Gentiles lived during World War II.

And outside of Holocaust history circles, it is largely an unknown story.

As a hidden cost of the Shoah, these members of the Christian clergy -- many, raised as Christians, probably remain unaware of their Jewish roots -- present a conundrum to Jews who honor the risks taken by Christians in occupied Europe to save Jewish lives, but condemn any attempt to take Jewish souls.

Uncounted thousands of Holocaust survivors owed their lives to Christians -- lay believers and members of the clergy -- who joined the ranks of wartime Righteous Gentiles.

"There is hardly a Jew who survived," said Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, the late, Jewish-born Archbishop of Paris, " who did not, in one way or another, one day or another, receive help from a Catholic or a priest, or from a network connected with Catholicism or Protestantism."

Cardinal Lustiger, who spoke Yiddish and had the Kaddish recited at his funeral in 2007, is the best-known Holocaust-era priest who was born Jewish and openly maintained his Jewish identity.

Others with similar stories include:

• Brother Daniel, the Carmelite monk who was born Oswald Rufeisen in Poland and rescued several Jews from the Nazis. Hidden in a monastery for a year, he converted to Catholicism; his attempt to make aliyah became a test case of Israel's Law of Return.

• Israel Zolli, the controversial chief rabbi of Rome during the Nazi occupation who became baptized in 1945 and took the name Eugenio, the original name of Pope Pius XII, whom Zolli credited with saving thousands of Jews under the auspices of the Vatican.

• George Pogany, the priest raised by convert parents in prewar Hungary. The story of his twin brother's return to Judaism is told in Eugene Pogany's "In My Brother's Image: Twin Brothers Separated by Faith After the Holocaust" (Penguin Books, 2000).

Many of the Jews who survived the Shoah with Christian help were children, given by their parents to Christian families or to convents or monasteries as the Nazi noose tightened.

"Most of us came from secular homes," says Nechama Tec, Holocaust survivor and author of a biography of Brother Daniel. "Jewish Orthodox children hardly ever made it to the Christian world."

As death at the hands of the Nazis approached, Jewish parents in Nazi Europe faced a crucial decision -- trust their children with Christian friends or strangers, or keep the family intact and likely consign them to death?

Rabbis -- notably Ephraim Oshry in the Kovno ghetto, author of "Responsa from the Holocaust" (Judaica Press, 1983) -- had to answer such questions daily.

"In the case of uncertainty" -- will the children emerge as Jews? -- "regarding matters of life or death one should be lenient ... and allow parents ... to entrust their infants to non-Jews," Rabbi Oshry wrote.

These issues "were examined ... by groups of rabbis who acted as public leadership," according to Esther Farbstein in "Hidden in Thunder: Perspectives on Faith, Halachah and Leadership during the Holocaust" (Mossad Harav Kook, Jerusalem, 2007).

Today the Jewish community faces an inevitable question: how do we regard these Jews who forsook, or never knew, their Jewish identities?

"Children who didn't know anything [about their true identities] certainly are tinnuk b'nishbah," says Rabbi Yitzchak Guttman, compiler of a recent CD on "Respona of the Holocaust" issued by Israel's Machon Netivei Ha'Halacha, using the Hebrew term for a Jew taken into captivity and raised without a Jewish upbringing.

"You can't judge them. Nobody can judge them," says Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. He was saved by a Catholic nanny who had him baptized and raised him as a practicing Catholic.

"Had my parents not survived" and reclaimed him, Foxman says, "I wanted to become a priest or the cardinal of Warsaw."

Foxman says he doesn't condemn these individuals, but he mourns their loss to the Jewish people. "It's still part of the price of the Shoah that we continue to pay."

FROM LUBLIN TO ISRAEL

Pawlowski was raised in a "very religious" family. His parents ran a small wood-and-coal trading business. "We celebrated all the holidays. I have very good memories," he says, sitting in the darkened library of the church where he has served since 1970.

Jakub Hersch -- Zvi is the Hebrew version of Hersch -- was 8 when the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939, starting World War II.

The Jews of Hersch's shtetl, Zamosc, near Lublin, were herded into a ghetto. His father was taken away for forced labor and did not return. His mother and two sisters were killed near a ravine.

The next six years, until the end of the war, were a succession of close calls, betrayals and escapes as he hid on farm after farm in the Polish countryside. At one point, a Jewish boy undercover provided a false baptismal certificate, explaining that "If you want to survive, that's they way to do it," by posing as a Catholic.

Hersch's new identity was as Grzegorz Pawlowski. Catholic neighbors in Zamosc taught him Catholic prayers. Homeless at the end of the war, he was placed in a small orphanage run by nuns. At 13, he was baptized. By then, he says, "I believed in it. I didn't remember anything about Judaism." He converted because "I didn't want to be different from the [other, Catholic] kids." Zealous in his adopted faith, he studied for the priesthood; ordained in 1958, he worked in various villages around Lublin.

In 1970 he moved to Israel to be near his brother, who had survived the war and lived in Haifa. Pawlowski was assigned to Jaffa, where he served the country's Polish-speaking Catholics. His job does not call on him to bring Jews to Christianity, he says. "I am not a missionary." Pawlowski is a citizen of Israel, his Jewish identity widely known. Sometimes he is invited to synagogue services and Passover seders. His apartment, whose doorpost bears a mezuzah, features photographs of Jesus as a shepherd and of the memorial monument in Poland he and his brother erected for their martyred family members. "I didn't forget" my roots, he says.

Pawlowski, 79, who recently marked his 50th year in the priesthood, has arranged to be buried near Zamosc, next to his relatives, when the time comes. A gravestone, inscribed in Hebrew and Polish, already stands in the cemetery. It bears two names: Father Grzegorz Pawlowski. And Jacob Zvi Griner.

A longer version of this article originally appeared in The Jewish Week.

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 Dec. 4, 2008

Indian MD: Jewish Hostages Weren’t Tortured

By Israel Faxx News Services

The Jewish victims from the Mumbai Chabad House siege showed no indications of torture, a Mumbai doctor said. Dr. Ganjanan Chawan saw the bodies when they arrived at JJ Hospital in Mumbai. A hospital doctor was quoted Sunday on the Rediff Indian news site as saying that the bodies of the Jewish victims bore torture marks.

Chawan’s statements in Wednesday's Jerusalem Post contradicted an interview with a morgue employee of the hospital printed the previous day by the newspaper. The morgue employee had said the Jewish victims had more injuries than the other victims in last week's terrorist attacks on the Indian city.

Pakistani TV: 'Hindu Zionists' and Mossad Behind Mumbai Massacre

By IsraelNationalNews.com

A Pakistani TV station has claimed "Hindu Zionists" and the Mossad carried out the Mumbai terrorist attacks, which it said were a "botched" imitation of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

The terrorists looked like Hindus and "no Pakistani speaks the language they chatted in," said security expert Zaid Hamid on the television's "I Differ" news channel show.   

Hamid said that it was a "badly planned" operation that had gone horribly wrong. "The Americans executed the 9/11 attack perfectly. They managed the media very well. The Indians tried to repeat the formula but goofed up. The idiots made a complete mess of it," he argued.

He maintained that that the attackers wore saffron Hindu Zionist bands and that during the first five minutes of the attack, three Indian counterterrorist officers were killed by authorities in order to halt their investigations of a terror network within India's security agencies. Another reason to end the probe, he said, was to divert attention to terrorism originating in Pakistan.

Pakistani leaders have rejected criticism for the Mumbai attacks, and President Asif Ali Zardari said his country is not to blame. He also said that the attack may be a tactic to divert attention from the ongoing war between Pakistan and terrorists.

Interior Ministry advisor Rehman Malik stated, "The Mumbai attacks were designed to force Pakistan to deploy its troops on the country’s eastern borders, thereby clearing the western borders for infiltration” into Afghanistan.

The Pakistan Daily Times editorialized that despite the confession of the single terrorist who was not killed by Indian commandos, "'confessions'" [are] no more credible than 'confessions' in such situations."

Blair: Conditions Must Change for Israelis and Palestinians to Make Peace

By Meredith Buel (VOA-Washington)

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians will not succeed until the reality on the ground improves for both sides. Blair made the remarks during a speech in Washington.

On the same day that Tony Blair resigned after 10 years as British Prime Minister he was appointed as representative of the Middle East Quartet to help the Palestinians build their institutions and economy.

The Quartet, which consists of the United Nations, European Union, Russia and the United States, has been trying to improve conditions for peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

But Blair said everyday realities must improve for both sides before any agreement is possible. "The problem is that until now the reality on the ground for Israelis and Palestinians has not passed what I would call the minimum threshold of credibility for the political negotiation to succeed. Not for the Israelis on security, not for the Palestinians on lifting the occupation>”

Blair, who has been the Quartet's representative for the past 18 months, said there recently have been small improvements in the West Bank. He said Palestinian security forces have successfully deployed in the West Bank cities of Jenin, Nablus and Hebron, adding that the PA’s economy is improving and its unemployment rate is falling.

But in his speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Blair said conditions continue to deteriorate in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the militant group Hamas. He said there cannot be a Palestinian state until the situation in Gaza is resolved.

"There can only be one Palestinian state. It will combine Gaza and the West Bank. However much we are tempted to set Gaza to one side because of the chaos it causes to Palestinian cohesion, it cannot be. But neither is its predicament inevitable. It can and it must be reversed," he said.

Blair said the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank must prove it can maintain security and that Israel must also stop building Jewish settlements there. Ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains key to solving other problems in the region.

Islamic Extremists Getting YouTube Tutorials

By Reuters 

Islamic extremists are being instructed on how to use the popular video-sharing site YouTube as a way to disseminate propaganda videos, a U.S.-based terrorism monitor said. Militants are being encouraged to use the online site through postings on other Islamic forums on the Internet, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

Last week, an extremist authored step-by-step instructions on posting video to YouTube, which he described as "one of the most famous and biggest international sites that publish sections of videos from all over the world."

The posting encourages readers to post scenes of Western forces coming under attack to, it says, "shame the Crusaders by publishing clips of videos showing their losses, which they hid for a long time."

Islamic extremists have long used the Internet as a tool to communicate with supporters and distribute propaganda but the latest posting specifically coaxes militants toward YouTube and touts it as a user-friendly tool.

"I say that the YouTube site is one of the easiest sites to record and upload the clips," the posting states, pointing readers to the software they might need to publish on the Internet. "I ask you, by Allah, as soon as you read this subject, to start recording on YouTube, and to start cutting and uploading and posting clips on the jihadist, Islamic, and general forums," the posting states.

YouTube, a unit of Google Inc., could not immediately be reached for comment on how it might respond to the types of postings described in the message.

The message author calls for a "YouTube Invasion" by militants and includes several screenshots showing step by step instructions on how to create a YouTube account and to upload material. The video-sharing site has often been a chosen venue for users to post controversial clips and other material. In March, Pakistani authorities ordered Internet service providers to block the website after it ran material deemed insulting to Islam.

Warning Demonstrations

By Ed Ziegler (Commentary)

Every organization or group has a purpose or goal, written or not. Most often their goals and actions are peaceful and respectful. However, when the group consists of fanatics it is more likely their goals will call for aggressive action.

It is not likely that you have seen or read about many Islamic demonstrations in the media. That is because the media allocates limited space for such information,

On Sep. 17, 2008 the Associated Press reported on a speech given by Pope Benedict XVI in which he referenced a medieval text that characterized some of the teaching of Islam’s founder as “evil and inhuman.” As a result of a world wide Muslim outcry the pope offered his sincere regrets for his reference. Unfortunately, this did not seem to satisfy some Muslims such as Anjem Choudary, a notorious Muslim extremist.

Outside Westminster Cathedral, in London, Choudary told the demonstrating crowd “The pope should face execution.” It seems that such Muslims do not show any forgiveness but rather advocate violence.

Many people check “Snopes.com” to verify the validity of world-wide events and statements. Snopes.com confirms that during the Feb. 3, 2008 London demonstration, signs were carried that were advocating violent and murderous actions.

The signs read “Slay Those Who Insult Islam,” “Butcher Those Who Mock Islam,”  “Behead Those Who Insult Islam,” Be Prepared For The Real Holocaust,” and “Freedom Go To Hell.” To see these signs go to. http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/muslimprotest.asp.

To realize the scary intensity of the Islamists go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_kyNIevsIs. In your mind combine the signs and the frightening emotions they evoke, and then decide if we need to be fearful of Islamist fanatics.

The Committee For Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America reported that in September 2002, pro-Palestinian activists at Concordia University in Montreal resorted to force and intimidation to prevent former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking on campus.

Blocking the only entry into the lecture hall, student and non-student activists took over the building and pushed, spat on and, in some cases, hit and kicked those determined to hear the speaker. Outside, anti-Israel demonstrators broke a series of windows prompting police to cancel the lecture because of safety concerns.

On April 21, 2006 the Islamic Thinkers Society held a rally outside the Israeli consulate in New York City. The demonstrators chanted, “The mushroom cloud is on its way, The real holocaust is on its way" and "With our blood and our lives we will liberate al Aqsa." There were signs showing a picture of an Islamic flag flying over the White House.

Even the thought of a Muslim demonstration is scary. On April 21, 2008 a number of media reported that, in 2006, the Church of England considered removing the statue of St. George as Patron Saint of England because he was too offensive for modern day Muslims. More recently, British officials cancelled the April 23, 2008 long standing annual St. George's Day Parade in Bradford in fear that Muslims would riot.

We keep hearing that the Islamic terrorists represent only a small number of Muslims. According to AFP World News “A group of 70,000 hardliners rallied for world Islamic rule” in August 2007 in Jakarta. The supporters classified the event as a “civic education" for Indonesian Muslims. Are we expected to consider 70,000 people in only one location as small?

Peace loving people of the world need to realize that these actions of Islamists are not isolated instances but rather a piece of the overall picture of an enormous number of actions. Head the WARNINGS. Become informed and protect our freedom. Remember. “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people do nothing.” There are things you can do.

Ed Ziegler is a columnist for the Florida Heritage Jewish News. He can be reached at Brooklyn13@embarqmail.com

Rabbi Permits Double Dating 'For Marriage Purposes'

By YnetNews.com

The rising age of marriage in the religious public, and the dilemmas that accompany this phenomenon, continue to preoccupy rabbis and religious singles alike.

After Rabbi Shlomo Aviner recently ruled that double dating was prohibited, another rabbi, Ramat Gan's Chief Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, now claims that the practice is permissible so long as the purpose of the dating is marriage.

Ariel issued the ruling in response to a question posted by a surfer on the "Yeshiva" website. The surfer wrote: "We are a group of 21-year-old girls and boys. The boys are all yeshiva students and the girls modest and God fearing. Are we allowed to hold joint outings? (Not for a certain purpose, just for fun).

In his reply, Ariel wrote: "If the gatherings are done for the purpose of marriage – so be it. But if it's just for fun – this isn't recommended."

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner had ruled that a couple on a date should not meet with another couple, be they married or single, even if the reason for such an outing were to observe the other's behavior in a standard social environment.

"It's out of the question," he said, suggesting instead that the interested subject ask friends and teachers about the person they are dating.

 Dec. 3, 2008

Report: Rivka Holtzberg Was 5 Months Pregnant

By IsraelNationalNews.com

Rivka Holtzberg, the slain Chabad representative in Mumbai who was laid to rest in Jerusalem's Mount of Olives cemetery along with her husband Gabriel on Tuesday evening, was five months pregnant at the time of her murder, according to Shimon Rosenberg, her grieving father.

Rosenberg and his wife will continue to care for Moshe, their 2-year-old grandson.  The Rosenbergs have acquired an Israeli visa for Sandra Samuel, the Indian nanny whose rescue of the Holtzberg's son was praised as heroic by several rabbis at the Holtzberg's funeral.  

Police Arrest Three Arabs, Call Off Tel Aviv Terror Alert

By IsraelNationalNews.com

Metropolitan Tel Aviv was brought to a standstill Tuesday morning due an alert of an imminent terrorist attack. Police arrested three Palestinian Authority Arabs and the city is returning to normal following a downgrade of the threat. However, terrorists in Gaza have turned their weapons on southern Israel residents again, firing two more Kassam rockets.

Police called off the alert after nabbing three unarmed Arabs near the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station.

The alert in Tel Aviv brought the city to its knees, snarling traffic as police and volunteers at several entrances checked every vehicle and helicopters hovered overhead. Rush-hour traffic was reduced to a turtle-like crawl on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway Number 1, as well as the north-south routes in and out of the city.

The alert, the highest possible, was the first issued in the city for a long time and came after a recent threat by Islamic Jihad terrorists to carry out a suicide bombing in the area.

Shortly after the alert was called off, Gaza terrorists fired two Kassam rockets, one of them landing near the Kerem Shalom crossing. No one was injured in the explosions and no damage was reported.

Israel Buries Jewish Victims of Mumbai Attack

By Luis Ramirez (VOA-Jerusalem)

The bodies of six Jews killed in the attack on a Jewish center in Mumbai were laid to rest in Israel. Memorial services took place Tuesday as Israel tried to contain public criticism of the way Indian commandos handled the raid on the Chabad House in Mumbai.

The bodies of six Jewish victims arrived in flag-draped coffins aboard an Israeli air force plane, late Monday. Also on board, two-year-old Moshe Holtzberg, the son of slain Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka - both of whose bodies were buried at Jerusalem's Mount of Olives. Thousands of people attended funeral services. 

The attacks on the Chabad Jewish center in Mumbai have been a grim reminder for Israelis of the security threats that they continue to face around the world. Along with grief, there is anger among some Israelis. Newspapers here have been carrying stories of public outrage, with some accusing India of mishandling rescue efforts. 

The head of Israel's disaster victim identification group - a non-government agency, ZAKA - was quoted this week as saying Indian commandos may have killed some of the Jewish victims at the Chabad house in Mumbai.

The Israeli government has refrained from criticizing India and has blasted ZAKA and others for making what it says have been irresponsible comments. On Tuesday, Israeli foreign ministry officials said ZAKA and others are jeopardizing Israel's relations with India by suggesting Indian forces mishandled the assault in Mumbai.

Mumbai Terrorists Were on Cocaine and LSD

By IsraelNationalNews.com

The Islamic terrorists who carried out the bombings and three-day reign of terror last week in Mumbai may have used strong drugs to keep killing for so long.

Indian Police found multiple syringes of cocaine and LSD left behind by the terrorists, and forensics investigators later detected traces of drugs in the terrorists' bodies. There was also evidence of steroid use, which implies heavy training prior to the attack.

A source in India's police told the Mirror "this explains why they managed to battle commandos for over 50 hours with no food or sleep." The source said that one of the gunmen probably took mega-doses to be able to continue functioning after having been wounded. Only one terrorist survived the attack. He is on life support.

Report: Obama to Appoint Anti-Israel Adviser

By WorldNetDaily.com

President-elect Barack Obama is considering appointing his top Mideast adviser, Daniel Kurtzer, as U.S. envoy to the Middle East, a senior Israeli diplomatic source told Israel's Ha’aretz newspaper.

Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, long has been seen in Jerusalem as one of the Jewish state's greatest foes in Washington. He has been identified by Jewish and Israeli leaders, including prime ministers, as biased against Israel and is notorious for urging extreme concessions from the Jewish state.

The Ha’aretz report follows WND articles quoting officials in Jerusalem who stated Kurtzer was likely to become Obama's envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Kurtzer came under fire last summer when he traveled to Damascus where he reportedly urged Syrian officials to fast-track negotiations with Israel aiming at an Israeli withdrawal from the strategic Golan Heights. Kurtzer at the time stressed he was not in Damascus as part of Obama's campaign but instead visiting as a private expert attending an international lawyers conference.

Obama's transition team did not immediately return a WND e-mail and phone message seeking comment on Kurtzer's possible appointment. Ha’aretz noted Obama's purported decision to appoint a special envoy to the Mideast reporting to him directly, rather than to the secretary of state, indicates the president-elect attaches special importance to the region.

Kurtzer long has been identified by Israeli leaders speaking on the record as one of Israel's greatest foes in Washington, and his appointment as a primary Mideast adviser to Obama first raised some eyebrows in the pro-Israel Jewish community.

"We oppose the appointment of Kurtzer, because of his long, documented record of hostility to and severe pressure upon Israel," said Zionist Organization of America National Chairman Morton Klein.

Kurtzer has been blasted by mainstream Jewish organizations, including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. He has angered Israeli leaders many times for pushing Israel into what they described as extreme concessions to the Palestinians. "With Jews like Kurtzer, it is impossible to build a healthy relationship between Israel and the United States," Binyamin Netanyahu was quoted saying in 2001 by Ha’aretz.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said Kurtzer "frequently pressured Israel to make one-sided concessions to the Arabs; he constantly blamed Israel for the absence of Mideast peace, and paid little or no attention to the fact that the Palestinians were carrying out terrorist attacks and openly calling for the destruction of Israel."

Kurtzer first rose to prominence in 1988 when, as a State Department adviser, he counseled the Reagan administration to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasir Arafat. The PLO had carried out scores of anti-Western attacks, but in the late '80s Arafat claimed to have renounced violence.

In 1988, Kurtzer was noted as the principal author of a major policy speech by then-Secretary of State George Shultz in which the U.S. government first recognized the "legitimate rights" of the Palestinians.

Dec. 2, 2008

Holtzberg Funeral Postponed to 1 p.m. Tuesday

By IsraelNationalNews.com

The funeral of Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, who were murdered in last week's terror attack on Mumbai, will take place at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Israel Railways announced that trains would stop to take on and unload passengers at Kfar Chabad an hour before and after the funeral.

Norma Schwarzblat-Rabinovich, the 50-year-old Mexican who was murdered in the terrorist attack just before she was to come on aliyah to Israel, will be laid to rest Tuesday morning at 11:30 at the Har Hamenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem. The Jewish Agency's fund for terror victims is paying for all the funeral arrangements.

Israel Turns Back Libyan Ship Carrying Aid Supplies to Gaza

By VOA News & IsraelNationalNews.com

The Israeli navy has ordered a Libyan ship carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip to turn back. Officials said the ship, the Al Marwa, was carrying some 3,000 tons of aid when it was stopped by the navy.

Israel said there was no physical confrontation when it ordered the ship to turn around. Palestinian officials said the ship is now sailing to the Egyptian port of El-Arish. Gaza's borders have been largely sealed by Israel and Egypt following a violent takeover by the terrorist Hamas regime last year.

The blockade has been stepped up in recent weeks due to a surge in border clashes between the Israeli military and Palestinian terrorists.

"The Navy warned the ship that it was approaching prohibited waters and it decided to turn back," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levi said.

The ministry earlier stated it would not allow the ship to land because Libya is "a hostile state...and what guarantees do we have that the boat is not carrying weapons and explosives for Hamas?"

The Olmert administration previously has not carried out threats to stop pro-Arab activists from landing at Gaza. "We will treat this boat differently than the earlier ones that were allowed into Gaza," one official told United Press International.

The Libyan ship last week left the port of Zouara, approximately 75 miles west of Tripoli, on Tuesday. The Libyan Fund for Aid and Development in Africa donated 500 tons of oil, 750 tons of milk, 1,207 tons of rice, 500 tons of wheat flour and 100 tons of medicine. It was due to arrive in Gaza in one week, according to Lakhdouri Abdelhamid, director of the fund.

Six Bodies of Mumbai Chabad Victims Arrive in Israel 

By Ha’aretz

An Israel Air Force plane carrying the remains of six Israelis and Jews who were killed in the attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai last week landed at Ben Gurion Airport late Monday night.

Four of the coffins were wrapped in an Israeli flag while that of Aryeh Leibish Teitelboim and Norma Schwarzblat-Rabinovich, a Mexican citizen, were wrapped in the traditional Jewish prayer shawl.

Teitelboim's family has rejected Israel's offer to hold an official memorial ceremony for him along with the other Jewish and Israeli fatalities. The family has also said that it does not want Teitelboim's coffin wrapped in an Israeli flag before it is boarded onto the plane in India later Monday, as those of the other Jewish and Israeli victims will be.

Teitelboim's relatives and members of his Toldot Avraham Yitzhak community have also asked that his coffin not be included in the official ceremony which will be held upon landing at Ben Gurion International Airport.

Teitelboim grew up a member of the Hasidic Satmar sect and married into the Toldot Avraham Yitzhak sect - two communities which oppose Zionism and do not recognize the State of Israel.

Teitelboim, who holds an American passport along with many other Satmar followers in Israel, disavowed his Israeli citizenship despite residing in Jerusalem. His wife and eight children hold Israeli citizenship.

"The murder victim was educated in the ways of Satmar, which opposes the State of Israel," one of Teitelboim's relatives told Ha’aretz. "How can he turn into a symbol of the State of Israel? The family is very concerned about what will happen here at the ceremony. They are angry about the whole matter; it is a very sensitive issue."

Doctors: Terrorist Torture of Jewish Victims 'Beyond Words'

By IsraelNationalNews.com

Mumbai doctors who examined the bodies of the victims of the Muslim terror massacre said the victims were tortured before being slaughtered. "Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks," a doctor who examined the bodies told the Indian news website Rediff.com.

"It was clear that they were killed on Wednesday. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again," he said.

Another doctor commented, "It was very strange. I have seen so many dead bodies in my life, and was yet traumatized. A bomb blast victim's body might have been torn apart and could be a very disturbing sight. But the bodies of the victims in this attack bore such signs about the kind of violence of urban warfare that I am still unable to put my thoughts to words," he said.

Intelligence officials confirmed the doctors' observations. Ajmal Kamal, the only terrorist who was not killed after he and his gang had managed to murder nearly 200 people and wound hundreds others, told officials that the terrorists "were specifically asked to target the foreigners, especially the Israelis."

Intelligence Bureau sources were quoted as estimating that the terrorists did not want to keep them alive in order not to attract international attention. "They also might have feared the chances of Israeli security agencies taking over the operations at the Nariman House," otherwise known as the Chabad House, he reasoned.

One of the few objects in the Chabad House that was unscathed in the massacre was a picture of the revered Chabad Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, whose past spiritual leadership still provides unending faith for hundreds of thousands of Jews worldwide.

Eerie Sight: Bullets Riddle Torah Chapter Alluding to Death of Righteous People

By IsraelNationalNews.com

Israeli officials who were in Mumbai to assist in the transfer of the bodies of the Chabad emissaries in Mumbai Rabbi Gabriel and Rivka Holtzberg, later told Shturem.org that when they opened the Holy Ark that was damaged by bullet shots they found the Torah scroll inside riddled with bullets as well.

But what shocked and stunned Jewish searchers most was that when they opened the Torah Scroll they saw that the bullets had hit and damaged precisely the chapter in Leviticus 16:1: "God spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron's two sons etc."

This refers to Aaron's righteous sons Nadav and Abihu who, as we are told earlier in Leviticus 10:1-3, were consumed by a fire that came forth from God and Moses tells Aaron this is what God meant when he said "I will be sanctified through those who are close to Me."

Throughout the ages Jewish Sages would use this chapter to explain why righteous people die in unnatural deaths.

Parents of Mumbai Terror Victim: We May Take Rivka's Place as Chabad Envoys 

By Ha’aretz

Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg and his wife, Yehudit, on Monday said they are considering becoming Chabad's new emissaries to Mumbai, Army Radio reported.

Earlier on Monday, the bodies of Rivka Holtzberg and five other Israelis killed last week when Islamist terrorists attacked the Chabad House were flown from Mumbai to Israel.

Also Monday, the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem announced that the final two Israelis who had been unaccounted for in Mumbai since a small army of terrorists struck the city have been located alive and healthy.

Seven members of the Israel Police's victim identification unit had flown to India on Sunday to assist in locating the two missing Israelis, who were feared killed in one of the terror attacks that struck the city.

Meanwhile, dozens gathered at the Knesset Eliyahu synagogue in Mumbai for an emotional ceremony in memory of the six Jews killed last week when Islamist terrorists attacked the city's Chabad headquarters.

Rosenberg, whose daughter Rivka and son-in-law Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg both died in the attack, called on the mourners to continue the work his children had begun as the Lubavitch movement's emissaries to Mumbai and vowed that Chabad would continue to operate in the city despite the bloody acts.

Among the participants at the ceremony were Israel's ambassador to India and members of the Israeli rescue team, but all eyes in the room were on the Holtzberg's 2-year-old son, Moshe, who brought the room to tears when during the ceremony he cried out: "Mommy, mommy."

"It was pure raw emotion, tears of joy, tears of sorrow, incredible emotion, understandably out of control," said Robert Katz, a New York-based fund-raiser for an Israeli orphanage founded by the boy's family.

Asked about Moshe's condition, he said: I don't know that he can comprehend or that he will remember seeing his parents shot in cold blood.

The toddler has one older sibling who has Tay-Sachs, a genetic disorder

particularly prevalent in Jews of Eastern European origin. He is permanently hospitalized in Israel, Katz said. The couple's first-born child died of Tay-Sachs.

Sandra Samuel, an Indian resident who was the boy's nanny in Israel, will live with Moshe in Israel "so at least he has someone he knows and recognizes and loves," said Katz.

During the siege of the Chabad House, Samuel had locked herself in a laundry room when she heard Moshe's mother Rivka screaming, 'Sandra help!' "Then the screaming stopped, and it was quiet," Katz said.

She cracked open the door of her hiding place and saw a deserted staircase. She ran up one flight and saw the rabbi and his wife, covered in blood and shot to death. She snatched the crying boy, bolted down the stairs and out of the building. "She's been there with him throughout," Katz said.

Though Samuel has no passport or papers, Moshe's grand-uncle, Rabbi Yitzchak David Grossman, helped arrange for her to get a visa to Israel. In a sad coincidence, Grossman is founder of the Migdal Ohr, which says it is Israel's largest facility for orphaned and disadvantaged children.

Soldier Raped During Service Sues IDF to Classify Her as Disabled 

By Ha’aretz

A 20-year-old who was raped during her military service in the Israel Air Force is suing the Defense Ministry to classify her as disabled due to the emotional distress the attack has caused her.

The lawsuit says that the woman's commanders prevented her from receiving psychological treatment, "grounded" her when she was unable to fulfill duties on base and threatened her with a lawsuit or imprisonment. Ultimately, it states, she collapsed and was released after an army psychologist assigned her the lowest possible health "profile," or physical and psychological rating.

Attorney Anat Ginsburg, formerly deputy Tel Aviv district attorney and an expert in disability lawsuits, who is representing the plaintiff pro bono, said the woman is the daughter of immigrants from France, all of whose brothers and sisters served in the Israel Defense Forces. She said the woman was highly motivated and in good health when she started her military service, being assigned a health profile of 87.

The woman worked in maintenance for an elite air force unit in the north. In May 2007, she was raped and sexually molested by a soldier on her base. He was tried and reached a plea bargain in which he admitted to sexual molestation. He was sentenced to four years in prison, but effectively only had to serve one year.

Three days after the incident, the female soldier was hospitalized after fainting and vomiting. When she was released from the hospital, she requested psychological help and was referred to a military health officer. Ginsburg said that after the initial meeting, the mental health officer refused to meet with her again, saying she did not need treatment.

Several days later, the woman was told to report for kitchen duty. According to the lawsuit, "she was unable to function and went to the infirmary, but they did not want to accept her." For her refusal to report to kitchen duty, she was confined to the base for a week.

As the weeks passed, the soldier deteriorated. Still required to go about her routine on the base, she wore a jacket in the peak of summer and vomited, but was not given treatment. One day she felt she could not continue and went home, where she lay in bed for a full week.

Ultimately, she was referred to an army psychologist, who examined her and determined she should be released from military service. A committee of physicians accepted the recommendation, and she was released three months after the assault. The police's Criminal Investigation Unit has launched an inquiry into the case. 

Dec. 1, 2008

Iran Executes Alleged Spy for Israel

By IsraelNationalNews.com

Iran has executed Ali Ashtari, the 43-year-old computer and high-tech equipment buyer who was accused of spying for Israel. The Tehran regime wanted "to show that a new battle with the enemy’s intelligence services has begun," said the head of Iran's counter-espionage department. Israel has denied any connection with Ashtari.

Iran charged that he bought equipment overseas for the Iranian nuclear reactor that allegedly went through the hands of Israeli experts who inserted equipment allowing monitoring of the computer systems and viruses that could shut them down.

Terror in Mumbai 

By Ha’aretz, WorldNetDaily.com, IsraelNationalNews.com & YnetNews.com

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday that two Israelis believed to have been in Mumbai when the terror attacks struck India's financial capital last week have still have not contacted their families.

Two other Israelis who had not been heard from since the beginning of the attacks were located alive and healthy on Sunday evening. They had apparently been traveling elsewhere in India when the terrorists attacked.

Six people - most Israelis, some dual citizens but all of them Jews - were killed in an attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai, one of 10 targets hit by terrorists in a series of coordinated attacks across the city that left 173 dead and hundreds more wounded.

After checking hospitals and morgues in Mumbai, the Foreign Ministry officials said on Sunday that there do not appear to be any more Israeli or Jewish victims of the attacks apart from those that have already been identified as victims from the Chabad House.

The Ministerial Committee on Symbols and Ceremonies decided earlier Sunday to recognize the Israelis murdered in the Mumbai Chabad House as victims of terror attacks against an Israeli target, which will enable their families to collect National Insurance Institute (NII) benefits.

However, a woman slain in the Chabad attack will not be recognized as a terror victim. Norma Schwartzblatt-Rabinowitz was murdered one day before making aliyah, but the National Insurance Institute said her children, who had made aliyah, would not eligible for stipends.

The only terrorist captured by Indian authorities following the Mumbai attacks told interrogators during questioning that he and his men were sent specifically to kill Israelis to avenge "atrocities" against the Palestinians, the Times of India reported Sunday.

Amir Kasab, 21, told investigators that this was why they targeted the Chabad House, also known as the Nariman House in Mumbai, an outreach center meant for local Jews and Jews touring India, including Israelis. Sources said Kasab's colleagues killed in the operation had stayed at the Nariman House in the past.

"They have stayed in Nariman house on rental basis identifying themselves as Malaysian students.'' said a source. Police were trying to determine why Nariman House rooms were given to non-Jews, the Times of India reported.

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement confirmed that Israeli-born American rabbi, Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife Rivka, 28, were among the dead.

The Holtzbergs will be flown to Israel for burial, said Rivka Holtzberg's brother, Shmulik Rosenberg. A Chabad spokesman said they likely would be buried Monday.

Two other victims from the Chabad house who have also been positively identified are Bentzion Chroman, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, and Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, a U.S. citizen who lived in Jerusalem.

A fifth victim of the attack, Norma Schwartzblatt-Rabinowitz, was due to immigrate to Israel on Monday to join her two children who are already here - Jean, 24, a student living in Tel Aviv, who has been there for four years, and Manuel, 18, who arrived two months ago to study in a yeshiva in Bnei Brak. She also has another daughter, Orly, 21, who lives with her father in Mexico.

But before making the move, Schwartzblatt-Rabinowitz decided to treat herself to a few months of touring India. Last week, that trip ended in her death at the hands of the terrorists who attacked Mumbai's Chabad House.

According to the Jewish Agency, Schwartzblatt-Rabinowitz had contacted the agency in Mumbai and asked to be put on a flight to Israel on Sunday, to arrive here in time for her son's birthday. Agency chairman Zeev Bielski on Sunday offered his condolences on her death.

Rabbi Holtzberg, killed at Chabad House, was so fearful that his Jewish outreach center would be attacked he forbade media photographers from snapping pictures inside the building, believing terrorists were seeking information on the building's layout.

"[He] constantly spoke of his fear of a terrorist attack in the Chabad House," said Meie Alfasi, a photographer for Shterum.org, a news website affiliated with the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish outreach movement.

"Once I wanted to bring a Reuters photographer to document the Chabad House activities, but he was adamantly against the idea," said Alfasi. "He said that he was afraid of pictures, afraid of photographers and afraid of unnecessary public exposure that could harm the Chabad House that is located in a very sensitive area," said Alfasi, who spent time a few months ago India, staying for a few days at the home of the Holtzbergs.

The Holtzbergs and three other Israelis, as well as Jews from the U.S. and Mexico, were killed after terrorists stormed Nariman House. The Holtzbergs had dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship. It was not immediately clear whether the Jews were killed by terrorists or during an ensuing raid on the Chabad house by Indian security forces.

A top Chabad official, speaking to WND on condition of anonymity, said he believes the Indian forces were "not competent." The official was in close coordination during last week's drama with Indian officials as well as Israel's foreign ministry and the FBI.

Levi Shemtov, executive director of Chabad in Washington, D.C., told Israel's Army Radio Saturday after Shabbat that he talked several times by phone with one of the terrorists holed up inside Nariman House. He said a terrorist answered Holtzberg's cell phone and claimed the hostages inside were all alive.

"I tried and tried and tried, and in the end someone answered and said, 'hello,'" Shemtov said. Shemtov explained the man who answered said he was an Urdu speaker, so Shemtov found an Urdu translator and dialed again. The man who answered "sounded very calm" and said his name was Imran. "He didn't want to tell me what he wanted. He said the rabbi was OK, everyone was OK, that if they did what he wanted he would free them," Shemtov said.

Shemtov said the terrorist wanted to speak to the Indian government. He said asked the man not to hurt the hostages and promised to help him get in touch with Indian officials. "I asked if we could hear the voice of the rabbi, or someone who was alive there, and we only heard the voice of one woman screaming in English, 'please help immediately,'" he said.

"I asked him to pass the phone to the rabbi. He said, 'You've already asked for too much.'" Eventually, Shemtov said, the assailant said the cell phone battery was dying and hung up.

During the initial attack, the Chabad center's cook, Sandra Samuel, managed to escape with the Holtzberg's 1-year-old son, Moshe. "I took the child, I just grabbed the baby and ran out," said Samuel. She said that at the time the rabbi and his wife, along with two other unidentified guests, were alive but were unconscious.

Israeli and international media quoted Israeli security officials stating the Indian raid operations were premature and were carried out before collecting enough intelligence on the terrorists and hostages inside. The Israeli criticism was carried prominently by the Indian media.

Israel's Ha’aretz newspaper quoted Indian newspapers reacting angrily to the Israeli criticisms, claiming Israel has a bad record in other hostage-rescue operations, aside from a successful 1978 operation in which Israeli forces saved Jewish hostages held at an airport in Entebbe.

Norma Schwartzblatt-Rabinovich’s son, Manuel, will be sitting shiva, the traditional first seven days of mourning, in Bnei Brak instead of celebrating his 18th birthday with his mother. She had planned to make aliyah to Israel on Tuesday and to be with her son.

His older sister Jean, age 24, immigrated to Israel four years ago and studied in Tel Aviv before visiting Tokyo, where she learned the devastating news of her mother's death at the hands of Muslim terrorists.

Manuel's rabbi, Yosef Cohen, speaking for Manuel who was too overcome with emotion to talk with reporters, said that Norma left Mexico several months ago but was not sure until a short time ago that she wanted to move to Israel. She frequently visited the Jewish Agency office in Mumbai in order to facilitate her move to Israel and had a ticket in hand for the trip "home."

Tragedy in Mumbai

By Rabbi Dr. Daniel P. Aldrich (Commentary)

At times like this, words fail us. We are struck silent by the sheer barbarism and scope of the tragedy: the cold blooded murder of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg -- a young couple who left behind all of the creature comforts of life in the West to go and help other Jews -- four other Jews shot dead inside the Chabad House, another 167 people killed and 240 wounded.

I personally benefited from the self-sacrifice of the Holtzbergs. In 2003, they moved to Mumbai, giving up the comforts of the West in order to spread some light in one corner of the world. They purchased and renovated the building formerly known as the Nariman House into a beautiful five-story hotel, full of rooms for guests, dining rooms, and large pantries to hold all the kosher foodstuffs neces