NEW YORK – A solidarity mission of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) got underway on Wednesday as 57 international Jewish community leaders arrived in Jerusalem for meetings. A further 21 Israeli leaders and WJC staff also took part in the mission, which was organized at very short notice.
by Nerijus Povilaitis
July 15, 2014
The fighting in Israel doesn’t end. Fighters of the terrorist organization Hamas based in the Gaza Strip are attacking the Jewish state with rockets more fervently than ever. Israeli aviation is responding with attacks on terrorist targets, with civilian casualties unavoidable.
Hamas attacks on Israel haven’t caused any great damage yet, with Israel’s Iron Dome defense system knocking most of them out of the sky before they reach the ground, but Israelis are living under continuous stress.Tuesday a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip fatally wounded an Israeli civilian.The 38-year-old man was providing food for soldiers serving in that zone. He is the first Jew to die in eight years of daily violence from both sides of the border. The rocket killed the man near the border crossing point at Erez into Gaza.
The continual whine of the air-raid sirens in the country’s larger cities and running for the bomb shelters have become a dismal part of daily life for Israelis and visitors to Israel.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chair Faina Kuklianksy, who has visited the war zone that Israel has become and will soon be going back at the invitation of the president of the World Jewish Congress, told Lietuvos Rytas [newspaper] that Israelis are standing firm like never before in the face of the danger posed by rockets flying out of the Gaza.
What impressions have you brought back from Israel at war?
More than 100 correspondents, editors, bureau chiefs and publishers of many of the top Jewish media outlets in the world will gather in Jerusalem for the first Jewish Media Summit (JMS) beginning Sunday.
Over 25 countries are represented at the gathering which was organized by the Government Press Office, the Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry in cooperation with the Tourism Ministry, JNFKKL and the Jewish Agency.
France’s Jewish community on Sunday elected the Jewish chaplain of the French army as its new grand rabbi, as it grapples with rising anti-Semitism.
Haim Korsia, 51, was elected to a seven-year term by members of the Central Consistory, the top Jewish religious authority in France, defeating Olivier Kaufmann, the head of a rabbinical school, by a vote of 131 to 97.
The Anti-Defamation League commissioned First International Resources to research attitudes and opinions toward Jews in over 100 countries around the world.