Weekly roundup of world briefs

Michigan imam calls to ‘join hands’ with Jews that wish Jerusalem to be retaken

(MEMRI via JNS) — A Michigan imam said in a sermon earlier this month that Muslims should not be afraid to join hands with those who share the cause of recapturing Jerusalem, even if those individuals are Jews.

Imam Mustapha Elturk, Ameer of the Islamic Organization of North America (IONA) Elturk, said that while most Jews are disobedient to Allah, some Jews and Christians were, in fact, “doing the work for us.”

He made the remarks during a Friday sermon at the IONA in Warren, Mich. The sermon was posted on IONA’s official YouTube account on March 8. (The version of the sermon posted on IONA’s YouTube account seems to have been edited.)

“Unfortunately and sadly, what was captured by [Caliph] Omar is now under the custody of the Jews, of the Zionists,” said Elturk, adding, “But inshallah, the Muslims will eventually take Jerusalem back.”

“Do not be afraid to join hands with like-minded people, be them—yes—Jews. There are Jews who are with you on this cause,” he said. “Yes, not all of them are bad,” he added.

Elturk immigrated to the United States from Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war and is active in interfaith initiatives in the Detroit area. On March 8, 2020, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) retweeted a video of Imam Elturk endorsing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for president.

Netanyahu: UAE to invest $10 billion in Israel

By Ariel Kahana and JNS staff

(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Thursday that the United Arab Emirates, with which Israel signed a peace deal in September, plans to invest $10 billion in the country.

Speaking during a press conference with his Hungarian and Czech counterparts in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that Israel’s economy would “take a leap forward” due to the investment, and that “specific projects” were already under discussion.

The press conference came just hours after a planned visit to the UAE was canceled due to a delay in obtaining Jordanian permission to traverse its airspace. According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, the delay was linked to the cancellation of a planned visit to the Temple Mount by the Jordanian Crown Prince due to a disagreement over security arrangements.

“It took us a good couple of hours to set things straight with Jordan,” he said. “We can fly, and I can fly over Jordan, but [due to the delay] until this coordination was achieved, today’s visit was not possible,” he added.

“Accordingly, I just spoke with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, a great leader, the leader of the UAE, and we agreed on three things: One, to carry out another visit soon; two, to advance the ‘Green Passport’ [program] between Israel and the UAE; and three—and this is very important news for the citizens of Israel—regarding the UAE’s intent to invest, by various means, the staggering sum of $10 billion dollars in Israel,” he said.

Earlier on Thursday, the Czech Republic opened a branch of its Israel embassy in Jerusalem in a ceremony attended by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi.

Two statues in New York City honor late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

(JNS) — Two statues honoring the late Jewish Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg are being unveiled in her home city of New York.

A bronze statue of Ginsburg in Central Park will be unveiled on Friday, the seventh installment in a series of statues at the park that celebrates women.

It takes place during Women’s History Month and mere days before what would have been Ginsburg’s 88th birthday on March 15.

A second statue was also welcomed on Friday at the City Point development in downtown Brooklyn. The indoor sculpture will be on public view daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Artists Gillie and Marc (Schattner) designed the Brooklyn statue with Ginsburg’s participation and approval as part of their “Statues for Equality” series. According to a statement obtained by The Gothamist, City Point was chosen by the artists to honor Ginsburg’s Brooklyn roots.

“The location was chosen because you can see it from Flatbush as you enter Brooklyn from the Manhattan Bridge, which is a prominent way to celebrate Justice Ginsburg, who was self-proclaimed ‘born and bred in Brooklyn.’ ”

Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams will also declare March 15 as “Justice Ginsburg Day.”

Steven Spielberg to write, direct film loosely based on his childhood in Arizona

(JNS) — Longtime director, producer and screenwriter Steven Spielberg, who is also the founder of the USC Shoah Foundation, is planning to co-write and direct a film about his life, sources told Deadline on Tuesday.

The yet-untitled project with Spielberg’s production company, Amblin Entertainment, will be loosely based on his childhood growing up in Phoenix, Ariz.

Insiders hinted that actor Michelle Williams is in talks to play a character inspired by Spielberg’s mother, Leah Adler. The film is scheduled to begin shooting this summer and expected to be released in 2022.

According to Variety, the film “will focus on a main character, who is not named Steven, as a young child and teen. The protagonist will be living in Phoenix, Arizona, which is where Spielberg lived in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The film will also examine the character’s relationship with his parents and be split across time periods.”

It’s apparently the first time since 2001’s “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence” that Spielberg, renowned in Jewish circles for “Schindler’s List,” will participate in the screenwriting process of a film.

According to Deadline, he will co-write the script with Tony Kushner, who penned “Munich,” “Lincoln” and “West Side Story” for the multiple award-winning director.

Israeli real-world data shows vaccine is 97 percent effective

(JNS) — The Israeli Ministry of Health, Pfizer and BioNTech said on Thursday that data from Israel’s national vaccination campaign demonstrates that their vaccine is 94 percent effective in preventing asymptomatic infections.

They also said that Israeli data shows that vaccinations prevented symptomatic disease, severe cases and death with 97 percent effectiveness, according to a statement released by the companies and the Health Ministry.

More than 5 million Israelis, or about 55 percent of its population of 9 million people, have received the first shot of the vaccine, and nearly 4 four million, or 43 percent, have gotten the second shot.

The analysis was derived from data collected by Israel’s Health Ministry from Jan. 17 until March 6.

“Israel’s strong health system and an unprecedented societal mobilization and awareness allowed us to achieve high national uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine in a short period of time. Thanks to our comprehensive public-health surveillance program, we have been able to document the remarkable success of the nationwide vaccination campaign with the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Professor Yeheskel Levy, director of Israel’s Ministry of Health.

He added: “Incidence rates in the fully vaccinated population have massively dropped compared to the unvaccinated population, showing a marked decline in hospitalized cases due to COVID-19.”

Blinken says Abraham Accords are ‘something we want to build on’

(JNS) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday complimented the Trump administration for the Abraham Accords that normalized relations with Israel and several Gulf states and Muslim nations.

Blinken was testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Biden administration’s foreign-policy agenda when U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) asked him what he thinks his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, did correctly.

In his response, Blinken referenced technological advances and the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords.

“Trying to help bring the State Department into the 21st century, the use of technology and empowering some of our people with technology, [which is] something we really want to follow through,” he said. “And as we were talking about earlier, I think the initiatives that led to steps by countries to normalize relations with Israel were a very good thing and something we want to build on.”

The U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were signed on Sept. 15 in Washington, D.C.

Sudan and Morocco followed suit just months afterwards.

Czech Republic opens branch of its embassy in Jerusalem

(JNS) — The Czech Republic opened a branch of its Israel embassy in Jerusalem on Thursday in a ceremony attended by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabi Ashkenazi.

“We, the Czech Republic, are opening here in Jerusalem on Washington Street our diplomatic representation,” said Babiš.

While Babiš noted that the country’s official embassy remains headquartered in Tel Aviv, the development serves as an indication of the Eastern European country’s tacit acceptance of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“We will have a full-fledged diplomatic mission here in Jerusalem,” he said. “It will deal with a lot, ranging from politics and economic cooperation to the consular agenda and other topics. It will have its permanent staff and work under the lead of our embassy in Tel Aviv.”

Babiš added that “it represents another milestone in our cooperation and gives evidence that we see the importance of this great city.”

The Czech Republic announced in December that it planned to open the branch in Jerusalem.

In 2018, Czech President Miloš Zeman announced a three-step plan to relocate the country’s embassy to Jerusalem. Zeman, who has limited powers as president, faced opposition from Babiš, who cited European Union policy against opening diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.

Nevertheless, the Czechs opened a cultural and economic office in November 2018, which has now been upgraded to the Jerusalem branch.

Ashkenazi praised the opening, saying it shows “additional proof of the depth and the scope of the friendship we share with the Czech people, and the Czech Republic and government.”

The foreign minister also said he appreciates the Czech government for “leading the change in Europe towards the city of Jerusalem as a whole and towards the connection with the State of Israel.”

US, Israeli navies conduct joint security patrol in Eastern Mediterranean

(JNS) — The United States and Israel conducted a joint security patrol on Monday in the Eastern Mediterranean, the U.S. Navy said in a statement.

The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG-61) joined Israeli Sa’ar 4.5-class missile boats for the patrol, which according to the U.S. 6th fleet “enhanced interoperability” between the two nations’ naval forces.

The U.S. and Israeli navies collaborate on a number of military exercises in the Mediterranean, including the Noble Dina, Noble Melinda and Juniper Cobra exercise serials. Noble Dina 2021 was conducted last week, joined for the first time by vessels of the French and Cypriot navies.

“The Israeli Navy, alongside our American counterparts, undertook a successful patrol to ensure the safety and security of Israel’s maritime borders. The Israeli Navy will continue to operate across all theaters to secure the safety of our citizens and the integrity of our sovereignty,” said Israeli Navy Commander Baruch Haviv.

U.S. Navy Capt. Joe Baggett, commanding officer of the USS Monterey, said that such joint efforts represented a “great opportunity” for the two nations’ naval forces to learn from each other.

“We share a common purpose — increase the security and stability in the region to achieve prosperity through enduring partnerships,” he said. “Regional security and stability are directly linked to enhanced cooperation, understanding and collaboration with our partners.”

“Through operations and training such as this, [the] U.S. and IDF [Israel Defense Forces] enhance existing cooperative relationships and take great strides in safeguarding the region’s vital link to the global economy,” said the U.S. commander.

Israeli researchers: COVID vaccine antibodies pass from pregnant mother to newborn

(JNS) — Israeli researchers have announced in a new study that antibodies produced from a COVID-19 vaccine can be passed from a pregnant mother to her baby.

The study by researchers from Hadassah University Medical Center, which has only been published in MedRxiv and thus not peer-reviewed, found that in 20 pregnant women in their third trimester who had received two shots of the Pfizer vaccine, the mothers and their newborns both had adequate levels of Immunoglobulin G antibodies.

“Neonatal protection from infection is primarily dependent on maternally derived antibodies transferred via the placenta,” said Dana Wolf, director of the Clinical Virology Unit at Hadassah and one of the study’s lead researchers, reported The Jerusalem Post. “We demonstrated an efficient placental transfer of IgG antibodies — the kind of antibodies that are triggered by infection or following vaccination.”

Wolf added that the level and type of antibodies were suggestive of “being able to sufficiently block the virus.”

The study was conducted in February soon after pregnant women in Israel began receiving the coronavirus vaccines. The study, which is ongoing, also evaluates the antibodies of women vaccinated earlier in their pregnancies.

The study is the latest evidence that vaccines can indirectly help protect newborn babies through their mothers. Earlier this month, a separate Israeli study found that vaccinated mothers who breastfeed can also pass antibodies through their breast milk to their nursing babies.

Tufts dental student disavows anti-Semitic tweets, put on ‘Ex-Canary’ page

(JNS) — Canary Mission, an organization that documents anti-Semitic individuals and organizations on North American college campuses, has removed the profile of a Tuft’s dental student who had for years tweeted virulent anti-Semitism and called for violence against Israelis and Zionists.

The organization said that after a “lengthy process,” Adam Elayan will now be featured on their “Ex-Canary” page due to the changes he has gone through since writing the tweets between 2012 and 2015. The Ex-Canary page is designed for individuals who have “shown moral courage to recognize their earlier mistakes, embracing tolerance and coexistence — despite social pressure from their peers,” according to the organization.

One crucial question it had for Elayan was what he meant by “anti-Semitism.”

“He confirmed that he meant the IHRA definition. After receiving his answer and being satisfied by the discussions he held with StandWithUs, it was appropriate to remove him from Canary Mission,” the organization said in a statement released on the JNS Wire on Monday.

Elayan says he wrote the tweets as an angry teenager after taking a trip to Jerusalem to visit family.

“With education and self-reflection, I learned I was unjustly blaming and demonizing an entire group of people,” he said.

Elayan says he subsequently removed the anti-Semitic comments from his Twitter profile.

Elayan recently reached out to StandWithUs, an organization that supports Israel and fights anti-Semitism. He particularly connected to Hussein Aboubakr, author of “Minority of One: The Unchaining of an Arab Mind” and an educator for the organization.

“We hope that this story helps others see what we see: That combating anti-Semitism is not just about pushing away hate but also bringing in new friends,” said the organization.

Rep. Ted Deutch’s daughter Gabby is now a Jewish Insider reporter

By Gabe Friedman

(JTA) — Gabby Deutch, the daughter of Florida Rep. Ted Deutch, is now a full-time Washington correspondent for Jewish Insider, the site announced last week.

The elder Deutch, who represents a southeast Florida district that includes Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton, is a leading voice on issues of Jewish concern in the Democratic caucus.

Gabby Deutch, 25, graduated from Yale and has previously worked for The Atlantic, CNN, the Toledo Blade and NewsGuard, a fact-checking watchdog that gives journalism outlets “trust ratings.” She also previously contributed to Jewish Insider.

The site’s “About” page describes its mission as covering “U.S. politics, philanthropy and business news with a Jewish angle.”

Deutch declined to comment on her hire.