Weekly roundup of world briefs

Biden administration floats Iran agreement that would ease some sanctions

(JNS) — Move over JCPOA. There could be a new Iran nuclear deal in town.

Biden administration officials have been floating a proposed agreement with Tehran among European and Israeli partners. The terms “would include some sanctions relief in exchange for Tehran freezing parts of its nuclear program,” Axios reported.

An Israeli official and a Western diplomat told Axios that Iran has rejected the proposal.

The Republican Jewish Coalition also rejected it. “The Biden administration doesn’t have a clue,” tweeted the RJC. “The only way to effectively re-engage with Iran must be with a new, broader, stronger and permanent deal.”

Jason Brodsky, policy director at the nonprofit United Against Nuclear Iran, tweeted that Tehran’s response was unsurprising. “Iran has rejected an interim deal multiple times since 2021,” he wrote.

Matthew Brodsky, a Gold Institute for International Strategy senior fellow, wrote: “While I wait to hear more details on the deal, I know it will be bad for the U.S. and our allies.”

UAV from Syria downed by IDF likely of Iranian origin

(JNS) — The object the Israel Defense Forces brought down on Sunday after it crossed into Israeli airspace from Syria was an unmanned aerial vehicle most probably of Iranian origin, the military revealed on April 3.

Debris from the drone was collected and is being examined, according to the IDF, which initially declined to describe the nature of the aircraft.

It was downed using “electronic warfare” after helicopters and fighter jets were scrambled to intercept it over open territory in northern Israel.

The drone did not pose a threat and alarms were not activated in nearby communities, the IDF said.

The incident comes after a series of airstrikes in recent days against Iranian targets in Syria attributed to Israel.

Pakistan denies trade ties with Israel after local Jew’s tweet

(JNS) — Pakistan denied on Sunday the existence of trade ties with Israel after a Karachi-based Jewish businessman tweeted about exporting food to Jerusalem and Haifa.

Fishel Benkhald, a Pakistani Jew, went viral last week with a tweet about his first kosher food shipment to Israel despite the two countries’ lack of diplomatic relations.

“Congratulations to me as a Pakistani. I exported the first batch of Pakistan food products to Israel market,” he wrote.

He also shared a video clip of his visit to an Israeli market.

“There is no change in the policy,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said on Sunday in response to queries from reporters.

Pakistan’s Commerce Ministry denounced rumors of bilateral trade as “sheer propaganda.”

“Neither do we have any trade relations with Israel nor do we intend to develop any,” the ministry said in a statement.

Benkhald converted to Islam from Judaism in 2017. While his Pakistani passport is valid for travel to all countries except Israel, he is the first Pakistani to have officially performed a pilgrimage to the Jewish state with permission from Islamabad.

According to Pakistani authorities, he sent food samples to three businesspeople in Israel via the United Arab Emirates, where they had met at food exhibitions.

The shipment was not supported by the Pakistan government or any other official channel or bank system.

Pakistan has a small kosher industry exporting food to various destinations.

IAF downs unidentified aircraft after it crosses Syrian border

(JNS) — The Israeli Air Force downed an unidentified aircraft on Sunday after it crossed from Syria into Israeli territory, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

Helicopters and fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the drone, which was monitored by the IAF, and it was brought down over open territory in northern Israel.

The drone did not pose a threat and alarms were not activated in nearby communities, according to the IDF.

The military is investigating the incident, which comes after a series of airstrikes in recent days against Iranian targets in Syria attributed to Israel.

Five Syrian soldiers were wounded on Sunday in Israeli airstrikes in Homs province, according to the Syrian Defense Ministry.

Also on Sunday, Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that a second Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member, identified as Meqdad Meqdani, had died of wounds sustained in a March 31 airstrike on the outskirts of Damascus also attributed to Israel.

Citing a military source, Syria’s official Syrian Arab News Agency reported on Friday that “bursts of missiles” had been launched from the direction of the Golan Heights shortly after midnight.

The IRGC said in a statement the same day that Milad Heidari, an IRGC military adviser, had been killed in the attack, according to Mehr.

Israeli military intercepts unidentified object over Gaza

(JNS) — An Israeli fighter jet intercepted on Monday an unidentified aircraft over the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

The object was identified upon takeoff and followed by control units on the ground until it was shot out of the sky, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

The object did not cross into Israeli territory and did not pose a threat, according to the IDF.

On Sunday, the Israeli Air Force shot down another unidentified aircraft, after it crossed from Syria into Israeli territory.

Helicopters and fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the drone, which was monitored by the IAF, and downed it over open territory in northern Israel.

The aircraft did not pose a threat and alarms were not activated in nearby communities, according to the IDF.

The military is investigating the incident, which comes after a series of air strikes in recent days against Iranian targets in Syria attributed to Israel.

The military also intercepted a Hamas drone over Gaza on March 22.

Noa Tishby removed as Israel’s antisemitism envoy

(JNS) — Israeli actress Noa Tishby revealed on April 2 that she was dismissed from her position as Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism.

The move comes just weeks after she denounced the government’s judicial reform program as a “coup.”

“It is with disappointment and sadness, but an enduring determination, that I can confirm that the current Israeli government has dismissed me as Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and the Delegitimization of Israel,” Tishby wrote in a letter posted to social media.

“It is not possible for me to know if their decision was driven by my publicly stated concerns about this government’s ‘judicial reform policy.’ But given the reality that antisemitism continues its dangerous rise globally, and the threat to Israel’s existence through delegitimization policies has not slowed, it is difficult to come to any other reasonable conclusion,” she added.

Tishby was appointed to the role in April 2022 by then-Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

Last month, Tishby wrote in a Hebrew-language article in Ynet of the reform initiative, “I will say it in the sharpest and clearest way: Diaspora Jewry and Israel’s supporters in the world are shocked. They are shocked.

“With great pain they look and see how the country they fiercely defended—in Congress, in the media, on the networks or in front of foreign—is changing its face.” This is “not a reform, but a coup,” she added.

At the time of her appointment, Lapid’s Foreign Ministry described Tishby as “a leading voice in the United States and abroad” in fighting antisemitism.

‘Indiana Jones’ again faces Nazis in Harrison Ford’s final performance of iconic role

(JNS) — The forthcoming film “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which was invited to screen at Cannes, is reportedly set in 1969 and will include another “mystical relic.” The snake-fearing, whip-wielding archaeologist (Harrison Ford) will again take on Nazis—this time evidently those who have infiltrated NASA during the Cold War space race.

It’s said to be Ford’s final appearance in the iconic role of the series that began in 1981, again teaming up with executive producers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. (It’s being produced by Lucas Films, now owned by Disney). The new movie is directed by James Mangold, who also co-wrote the script.

“Indy” faced Nazis in the very first “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981) and again in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989). “Nazis. I hate these guys,” he says at one point.

The forthcoming flick also stars actors Antonio Banderas and John Rhys-Davies, the latter who played Sallah in “Raiders” and “Last Crusade.”

Speculation from fans about the relic includes the ancient Greek Antikythera mechanism, and the film’s trailer seems to suggest some time travel.

Could it involve Nazis who survived World War II attempting to travel back in time to save the Third Reich from defeat?

Only time will tell … until June 30 that is.

Stanford University digitizes thousands of pages of Nuremberg trial documents

(JNS) — Stanford University has digitized thousands of pages and documents from the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which followed the defeat of the Nazis and the end of World War II in 1945.

The archive is a collaboration with the library of the International Court of Justice in The Hague. It relied on funding from Taube Philanthropies and cataloging assistance from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

“The idea is to present to the public, without any cost, information that is directly derived from these trials, directly derived from the prosecution of people who have committed crimes against humanity,” Michael Keller, a librarian at Stanford, told NBC’s Bay Area affiliate.

The Taube Archive of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, 1945-46, includes a digital version of Nuremberg courtroom proceedings, films, audio recordings of the proceedings, and about 250,000 pages of digitized English, French, German and Russian documents, according to its website.

The more than 9,900 items—searchable and viewable in digital form—also include “evidence exhibits filed by the prosecution and the defense” and “documents of the Committee for the Investigation and Prosecution of Major War Criminals,” as well as the judgment.

National Library of Israel expands Sephardic-heritage, Spanish-language offerings

(JNS) — The National Library of Israel announced the online availability of its Sephardic Heritage and Spanish-language resources. In time for Passover, these resources include a large selection of Haggadot in the Sephardic tradition, available for download.

On March 31, 1492, the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella signed the Edict of Expulsion ordering the Jews to leave Spain, where the Jewish community had thrived for some 800 years.

After the Expulsion, Jews of Spanish origin established communities wherever safe haven was to be found—in Italy, Greece, the Balkans, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and the Land of Israel. They continued to speak Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) and maintained their deeply rooted traditions.

To mark this watershed in history, NLI has launched a webpage dedicated to the Jewish Expulsion from Spain. The site presents items from its collection of pre-and post-expulsion Sephardic manuscripts, early printed books, Ladino materials, poetry and prayer, as well as other oral documentation.

Passover Haggadot in this collection include:

14th-century Haggadah from Catalonia, Spain

15th-century Haggadah from Guadalajara, Spain

17th-century Haggadah in Ladino and Hebrew, from Venice, Italy

20th-century Haggadah from Fez, Morocco.

New archives of Sephardic Heritage have been added to NLI’s collection of personal archives, including the writings and personal estates of rabbis and community leaders, archives of institutions and Mizrahi-Jewish communities whose members are descendants of the expelled Jews, archives of scholars of Sephardic Jewry and more.

Among the newest archives, cataloged and scanned thanks to the generous support of the Samis Foundation of Seattle, are those of historian Moshe David Gaon (father of singer Yehoram Gaon); journalist Robert Attal; Yechiel Habshush, who helped to bring the Yemenite community to Israel; and parts of the personal archive of Abraham Shalom Yahuda, who established NLI’s collection of Arabic and Islamic works.

New novel imagines a world with Jews in hiding

(JNS) — Author, poet, documentarian and retired lawyer Betsy L. Ross penned her debut novel, “The Bones of the World,” in response to antisemitism, which she calls one of the most enduring forms of suffering, she told Idaho Press.

Rachel, the protagonist, hides in a mansion near a cemetery to survive a global assault on Jews. Another Jewish character struggles to understand and respond to antisemitism.

“What does it mean to be the Chosen People? You might say we were chosen to be persecuted and to suffer,” he says. “How then do we act in the moments of persecution? Do we fight back, or are we docile in accepting our fate?”

Ross previously wrote and directed a 2017 documentary, “Looking for David,” about her son’s death in 2012 from an opioid overdose. Grappling with that loss, she realized that “there was something else in suffering, a gift of some kind.”

According to Ross, “that is worked out in the book.”

Jewish family sues Michigan high school for scheduling graduation on Shavuot

(JNS) — For the last decade, the family of 18-year-old Minaleah Koffron says it shared advance notice of Jewish holiday schedules with the Portage Public Schools—a school district in southern Michigan almost halfway between Chicago and Detroit—via letters, phone calls and in-person meetings.

Portage Northern High School still scheduled this year’s graduation on Friday, May 26—the first day of Shavuot. The holiday starts on the evening of Thursday, May 25 and lasts through sundown on Saturday, May 27.

“The message was and remains clear—my religious identity is not as important as the identities of Christian kids at my school. In the eyes of the school district, I am a lesser citizen,” said Koffron, who will have to be a no-show at her own graduation. She also had to skip the junior prom, which was scheduled on April 6, the first day of Passover.

When the Koffron family met with Nate Ledlow on March 3 to discuss the problem, the interim principal said he worried about getting “300 angry emails” from other parents, according to the family. He said he would look into other dates.

In a follow-up meeting on March 8, the Koffron family alleges, Ledlow acknowledged that he had never intended to consider switching dates and wouldn’t do so barring an order from the district superintendent.

“Even if the decision to schedule graduation on a Jewish holy day was an oversight, the decision to keep it is not,” said Koffron.

She has sued, alleging that the principal violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as the state and U.S. constitutions. A judge granted a restraining order with arguments slated for May 12.

German museum removes Picasso portrait amid World War II-era ownership dispute

(JNS) — Claudia Roth, Germany’s culture minister, recently persuaded the Pinakothek der Moderne modern art museum in Munich to remove a Pablo Picasso painting with suspicious provenance.

The Jewish art collector Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy owned the 1903 painting of the wife of the Spanish painter’s tailor friend. Amid rising antisemitism in the early 1930s, the collector sent it and other artworks to art dealer Justin Thannhauser in Switzerland. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy died in 1935.

In 1964, Thannhauser sold the portrait to Bavaria in southeast Germany, which has been displaying it at the state museum ever since.

Despite claims of Julius Schoeps, a descendent of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and historian who wrote a book on “Madame Soler,” the museum claims that the sale of the artwork was kosher, rather than the result of Nazi coercion.

Schoeps has sought to reclaim other works by Picasso, including unsuccessfully from New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Foundation. He also failed to recover a Picasso work now owned by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation.