Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Yad Vashem showcases Muslims who saved Jews
Originaly Posted On: 2007-10-29 12:57:00

Albania’s 200 Jews were saved from the Holocaust by Muslims acting according to a traditional code of honour. The Jerusalem Post reports that Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, is about to pay tribute to them with a special exhibition (with thanks: Lily) :

Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Jews of Iran caught ‘between hammer and devil’
Originaly Posted On: 2007-10-30 08:17:00

On October 3rd Yedioth Ahronoth published an article in Hebrew by Ariela Ringel Hoffman entitled “Between the Hammer and the Devil” about the current situation of Jews in Iran. Jews do not want to leave, but feel they are sitting on top of a powder keg: ( with thanks Daled Amos, via Israpundit)

Some highlights of the article:

• According to Hoffman, between the years 2000 and 2007–approximately 1,200 Jews arrived from Iran. In 2000: 384, 2001: 207, and year by year the numbers have diminished. However, while 65 Jews arrived from Iran in 2006, thus far this year 77 have arrived.
• This is despite The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, of which Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein is president, which guarantees a grant of $10,000 to each Iranian Jew who comes to Israel. Efforts are being made to put together a package of incentives to entice them further.
• Yossi Shraga, Director of Middle East immigration at the Jewish Agency, there are between 25,000 and 28,000 Jews now living in Iran–though the Iranians themselves put the number much higher: 100,000. Either way, averaging 100 Jews from Iran per year is a minuscule amount.
• Hoffman describes the situation as a conflict between fear of life in Iran and the ability to adapt and lead a normal life there; between the worry of leaving everything behind and the desire to lead a new life in Israel.
• According to Jeff Kaye, an official of the Jewish Agency, there good reason to worry about the fate of the Jews of Iran–the same reasons that pushed Israel to bring Jews out of Syria, Lebanon and Iraq to Israel or the US exist also in Iran.
• One Iranian Jew interviewed by Hoffman said that Jews in Iran know they are sitting on a powder keg–at least half of them think that either Israel or the US will attack Iran’s nuclear reactors. And when they do, the Jews of Iran will pay the price. Even without encouragement from the government, the Iranians on the street will take it out on the Jews.
• Another Iranian Jew tells Hoffman that it was not the threat of war that brought him to Israel, but the desire to live as a Jew. “There, it is difficult to keep Mitzvot, to keep Kosher, to pray and to learn about Judasim. On Shabbat the children have to go to school–everything there is more difficult.
• He continues, saying that it is the Israeli government that Iran hates–and not the Israelis themselves. He believes that things are better than they were 10 years ago–when there was a water fountain in the marketplace in Tehran with 2 faucets: one for Muslims and one for Jews. If a Jew dared to drink from the faucet for Muslims he would be beaten up. Today it is different.
• Another Iranian Jew shows Hoffman his passport. On the last page–as will all Iranian passports–it reads:



• Another Iranian Jew describes how most of his friends at the university were Muslims–some of whom expressed the wish to visit Israel. He draws a distinction between the Iranian on the street and those in the university, where instructors openly question Iran’s need for a nuclear reactor. He believes that Anti-Semitism is something encountered only on the street, where calling someone a Jew is the equivalent to someone in Israel calling someone a Nazi. Yet he admits that Jews cannot hold government posts.
• Hoffman reports that the economic situation of Jews in Iran is good relative to the rest of the population, and has in fact improved during the last few years–even while the poverty level has increased.
• In Iran, the Internet is censured. Soon after a new site pops up, the authorities find out about it and it is blocked. Likewise, families watch CNN–until the government comes around and takes down their TV antenna. In previous years there was a punishment too, but no more. One of her interviewees tells Hoffman that he has a friend, a lawyer, who was involved in the compensation when 60 died from an explosion–but the explosion was never reported on the news.
• Despite the small size of the Jewish community in Iran and the difficulty in finding a shidduch, intermarriage is relatively rare.
• In Iran, serving in the army is mandatory. Many Jews avoid service by paying someone off–something that is not limited to the Jews alone. One who ended up serving in the army recounts how the Iranians who served were religious and treated him like someone impure, and gave him the hardest jobs. Though service is for 24 months, after 20 months he got disgusted and deserted.

Hoffman concludes:

The problem is that the Iranian Jews don’t want to leave, I say to him [Yossi Shraga]. That is true, he says–they may not say it, but that does not free us. This is similar to the situation the Jews faced in Europe before the rise of the Nazis. Jews have the tendency, says Shraga, to believe that everything will turn out all right. But back then, there was no Jewish state, no government. Today there is, and we will not be able to forgive ourselves if something happens.

Blogger: Persecution of the Baha’is of Iran
Article: Baha’is celebrate Birth of the Bab
Originaly Posted On: 2007-10-20 11:00:00

Baha’is celebrating the Birth of the Bab, the first of the two divine teachers central to the founding of the Baha’i Faith.

The Bab born on 20 October 1819 in Shiraz, Iran, then called Persia.

On 23 May 1844 The Bab was sent forth heralding and proclaiming the Kingdom of God, announcing the glad tidings of the coming of Baha’u'llah and withstanding the opposition of the whole Persian nation. (Abdu’l-Baha)

The appearance of the Bab resembles the dawn, for the dawn holds the promise of the sun. The dawn of the Bab promised the rising of the sun of truth that is to envelop the whole world.
ظهور حضرت باب مانند سپیده دم است زیرا سپیده دم نوید طلوع آفتاب را میدهد و حضرت باب نوید ظهور شمس حقیقت را دادند که سراسر دنیا را فرا میگیرد
(Abdu’l-Baha)

The Bab, whose teachings attracted tens of thousands of followers, was executed in 1850 in the public square in Tabriz, Iran, on the order of the government.

Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Yemen airlift pilot to receive honour
Originaly Posted On: 2007-10-26 07:36:00

(JTA) An airline pilot who helped rescue 40,000 Yemenite Jews will be honored.

Warren Metzger, 87, an Alaska Airlines pilot from Washington, will be honored Nov. 1 by the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America.

Metzger was one of the pilots in Operation Magic Carpet, the secret mission that transported virtually all of Yemenite Jewry to the newly established State of Israel in 1949. Metzger’s wife, Marion, a flight attendant for the airline, also will be honored.

Read Warren Metzger’s story here

Blogger: Baha’i Faith in Egypt
Article: Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights Prepares for Court
Originaly Posted On: 2007-10-25 20:55:00

Two critical lawsuits concerning the Baha’is of Egypt will be ruled on by the Court of Administrative Justice in Cairo this coming Tuesday, 30 October 2007.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a human rights organization led by Mr. Hossam Bahgat (pictured here), had filed these lawsuits on behalf of the Egyptian Baha’is.

In order to understand the background, the significance and the current status of these lawsuits, below is a Press Release published by the EIPR on 5 September, a day after the court had postponed its decision for the third time. The cases were also described in details in these previous posts.

It is hoped that the court will uphold its revered legal responsibility and duty to guarantee civil rights to all Egyptian citizens–including the Baha’is–as mandated by Egypt’s constitution. Any lesser judgement would be in violation of all acceptable norms of justice, human rights and of the Egyptian law itself. Without identification documents, Egyptian Baha’is face dire consequences as they would be considered non-existent in their own homeland. These consequences have been already suffered by many since the enforcement of the 30 September 2007 deadline, by which all Egyptian citizens must have been in possession of the new computerized ID cards.

Here is the press release:

Right to Privacy Program
News Update - 5 September 2007

Court Decisions on Baha’i Egyptians Postponed to 30 October

The Court of Administrative Justice in Cairo decided yesterday to postpone to 30 October its decisions on two lawsuits addressing the rights of Baha’i Egyptians to basic identity documents and education.

The first lawsuit (no. 18354/58) involves the 14-year-old twins Imad and Nancy Rauf Hindi who remain unable to obtain the new computer-generated birth certificates unless they convert to Islam or Christianity. The father of the two children had obtained birth certificates for them when they were first born in 1993 recognizing their Baha’i religious affiliation, but new certificates carrying the national number (raqam qawmi) are mandatory and Baha’i children are unable to enroll in public schools without them.

In December 2006, the Supreme Administrative Court considered a similar lawsuit and found that the state had the right to deny Baha’i Egyptians identity documents recognizing their Baha’i religious affiliation. Accordingly, last January the lawyers of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) modified the requested remedies in the Hindi case so that the issue currently before the Court of Administrative Justice is whether Baha’i Egyptians have a right to obtain documents without any religious affiliation and without being forced to falsely identify as Muslim or Christian.

The second lawsuit (no. 12780/61) was filed by the EIPR last February on behalf of Hosni Hussein Abdel-Massih, born in 1989, who was suspended from the Suez Canal University’s Higher Institute of Social Work due to his inability to obtain an identity card recognizing his Baha’i faith. Baha’i students in post-secondary education often face suspension or expulsion because of their failure to obtain ID cards or military service postponement papers.

The Egyptian government has a legal obligation to protect citizens from religious discrimination and coercion under the Constitution as well as international and regional treaties it ratified, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The government is also obliged to protect the right to education without distinction on any basis, including religion or belief, under the African Charter, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

All rights reserved © Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
e-mail: eipr@eipr.org

Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Christian group offers cash to Iranian Jews to move
Originaly Posted On: 2007-10-22 14:00:00

The news that an evangelical Christian charity is offering $10,000 to each Iranian Jew to move to Israel is splashed all over the media today: (with thanks: a reader)

(AP):”Evangelical Christians in the U.S. have helped convince dozens of Iranian Jews to move to Israel in recent months, offering cash incentives and claiming that Iran’s tiny Jewish community is in grave danger.

“The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a charity that funnels millions of dollars in evangelical donations to Israel every year, is promising $10,000 to every Iranian Jew who comes to Israel, said the group’s director, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein.

“The project is another example of the alliance between the Jewish state and evangelical American Christians, many of whom see the existence of Israel and the return of Jews to the Holy Land as a realization of biblical prophesy that will culminate with Christ’s Second Coming.

“But an Iran expert said the money would not be enough to draw Iranian Jews, who generally do not perceive themselves to be in great danger in the Islamic republic.

About 25,000 Jews are left in Iran — an overwhelmingly Muslim nation of 65 million — the remnants of a community with origins dating to biblical times. Most Iranian Jews left for Israel or the U.S. over the last 50 years.

“Still, Iran’s Jewish community is the largest in the Middle East outside Israel, and Iranian Jews have some legal protection. But Israel and Iran are staunch enemies and do not have diplomatic relations. Eckstein argued that calls by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel’s elimination, coupled with Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program, represent danger.

“Is this not similar to the situation in Nazi Germany in the late ’30s, where they (Jews) also felt they could weather the storm?” he asked. Instead, 6 million were killed in the Holocaust, which Ahmadinejad has called a “myth.”

“Eckstein said his group has helped bring 82 Jews to Israel from Iran since the project began this year, and hopes to bring 60 more by year’s end.

“The charity, based in Jerusalem and Chicago, has raised $1.4 million for the project, Eckstein said. The IFCJ initially offered $5,000 per immigrant, but doubled the amount when response was lower than expected, he said. Immigrants also receive government aid upon arriving in Israel.

“One of the recent arrivals, a 31-year-old widow with three children, said she was not in danger in Iran but was concerned for her children’s future.

“At the end of the day, this is the place for the Jewish people,” she said, referring to Israel. She is living in the southern port city of Ashdod. Though she claimed to have felt safe in her hometown of Isfahan, she asked that her name be withheld to protect family remaining in Iran.

“The grant from the IFCJ was what enabled her to come to Israel, she said. Most Jews in Iran have heard about the grant through word-of-mouth and Israel Radio’s broadcasts in Farsi, she said.

“Iranian government officials would not comment on the new project.

“Iran’s Jewish community is technically protected by the Islamic Republic’s constitution, and has one representative in a 290-seat parliament.

“In a speech at Columbia University in New York last month, the Iranian president insisted that Iranians “are friends of the Jewish people. There are many Jews in Iran living peacefully with security.”

“Nonetheless, the Jewish community has led an uneasy existence under Iran’s Islamic government.

“In 2000, Iranian authorities arrested 10 Jews, convicted them of spying for Israel and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from four to 13 years. An appeals court later reduced their sentences under international pressure and eventually freed them.

“Generally, Jews are free to practice Judaism inside Iran,” said Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli analyst whose family emigrated from Iran in the 1980s. Iranian Jews, however, are increasingly concerned about the intensity of attacks on Israel by the Iranian press, which they view as bordering on anti-Semitism, he said.

“Such attacks have not led to a mass exodus from Iran, because the majority of Iranians are hospitable to the Jews and most Jews in Iran are economically comfortable, Javedanfar said. However, he noted, “the level of concern has increased” because of Ahmadinejad’s statements.

“This is not the first time evangelical Christians have taken part in bringing people to Israel. Eckstein’s charity also played a role in funding the immigration to Israel of 7,000 members of the Bnei Menashe, a group in India claiming descent from one of the Biblical “lost tribes” of the Jews.

Read article in full

Same article in The Jerusalem Post

Same article in Haaretz

Blogger: Baha’i Faith in Egypt
Article: An Egyptian Journalist’s View on Tolerance
Originaly Posted On: 2007-10-17 16:36:00

[Translator’s notes appear in square brackets [ ].]

An Egyptian Baha’i, Mrs. Wafá’ Hindi Halim, sent an email to Dr. Khalid Montasser (a medical doctor and writer for a number of newspapers, including Sawt Al-Umma; to express her sorrow that the fabric of Egyptian society should constitute only two religions, Islam and Christianity; she asks him how their society can reach the goal of accepting “the other” and briefly explains the plight of Egyptian Baha’is. Dr. Montasser has responded by writing this article, which was published by the independent weekly Egyptian newspaper Sawt El-Umma [Voice of the Nation] on 3 September, 2007. The headline reads:

A letter from a Baha’i citizen: we suffer a moral killing and a civilian death

Underneath the picture of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a lead-line by Dr. Montasser reads:

My acceptance of a Baha’i is [reflects] confidence in myself as a Muslim

The author introduces Mrs. Halim’s letter as follows: “We will not enter civilization or take part in any progress unless we memorize, comprehend and apply this word which was sculpted by Europeans; a word which we translated only in form and assassinated its meaning. The word is TOLERANCE; tolerance and acceptance of the other. We need to understand that the universe is not only for us; that my existence is not necessarily tied to another’s extinction; that the secret of my strength, as a Muslim, is confidence in myself and not fear and mistrust of the other. The concept of two pavilions, one for believers and one for infidels, is an old, out-worn understanding which has been overtaken by civilization; the concept of citizenship must reign and not be set aside. We have to deal with Baha’is through these understandings; no matter how much we disagree with them, they do have the right to life. Society has killed them, morally, when it deprived them of the identification card, birth certificate, death certificate, appointing a lawyer, etc. It is a crime of Nazi-style annihilation that future history—for assuredly progress will be victorious—will not forgive. They [the Baha’is] are not a terrorist organization, they are just ideologically different; this is their only crime. Let us read together the letter from the Baha’i citizen—or rather, non-citizen—Wafá’ Hindi Halim….” [her letter to Dr. Montasser , in which she quotes part of a statement by a civic group calling itself “Egyptians against discrimination”, is then printed in its entirety.]

Blogger: Baha’i Faith in Egypt
Article: President Mubarak Calls for Religious Discourse & Tolerance
Originaly Posted On: 2007-10-09 16:24:00

In a speech posted today on Egypt State Information Service, President Hosni Mubarak “renewed his call for an innovative and elevated religious discourse that concentrates on the essence of the faith, spreads the values of moderation and tolerance and rejects extremism and bigotry.”

The headline states: “Mubarak calls for renewal of religious discourse to disseminate the Islamic values of moderation & tolerance and to encircle extremism.”

The report concludes with the following: “He said that Egypt is determined to build for its people, both Muslims and Copts, a better future that brings about progress and prosperity to them all. Egypt’s people are united and will always remain so, he asserted.”

“‘We will remain committed to our slogan ‘Religion is for God and the Nation is for all’. And we will also remain committed to calls for dialogue among people of different civilizations and faiths, he said noting that the world needs such a serious dialogue that is based on mutual respect and interests and common humanitarian principles for a future world that enjoys peace, amity, stability and justice.”

To read the entire report, please click here….

Blogger: Baha’i Faith in Egypt
Article: President Mubarak Calls for Religious Discourse & Tolerance
Originaly Posted On: 2007-10-09 16:24:00

In a speech posted today on Egypt State Information Service, President Hosni Mubarak “renewed his call for an innovative and elevated religious discourse that concentrates on the essence of the faith, spreads the values of moderation and tolerance and rejects extremism and bigotry.”

The headline states: “Mubarak calls for renewal of religious discourse to disseminate the Islamic values of moderation & tolerance and to encircle extremism.”

The report concludes with the following: “He said that Egypt is determined to build for its people, both Muslims and Copts, a better future that brings about progress and prosperity to them all. Egypt’s people are united and will always remain so, he asserted.”

“‘We will remain committed to our slogan ‘Religion is for God and the Nation is for all’. And we will also remain committed to calls for dialogue among people of different civilizations and faiths, he said noting that the world needs such a serious dialogue that is based on mutual respect and interests and common humanitarian principles for a future world that enjoys peace, amity, stability and justice.”

To read the entire report, please click here….

Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Little Tunis: an island of coexistence
Originaly Posted On: 2007-10-12 15:36:00

Relations in France between Jews and Arabs in general may be cool, but in the Belleville quarter of Paris Tunisian Jews and Muslims get on famously, Reuters reports: (with thanks: Jonathan)

PARIS (Reuters Life!) - On the map, it’s a tiny strip of eastern Paris along Boulevard de Belleville. But for the Tunisian immigrants who call it home, the packed Arabic-and Hebrew-lettered storefronts mark out ‘Little Tunis.’

In a country where relations between Arabs and Jews is often cool, the neighborhood is an island of peaceful coexistence where bakeries, grills and butcher shops sit side-by-side preparing food according to Muslim and Jewish dietary laws.

For the first time in years, Muslims are observing the holy month of Ramadan, when they fast from dawn to dusk, at the same time as the Jewish high holidays when Jews observe the holiest day of their calendar, the Day of Atonement fast day.

Eighty year-old Maurice Cohen, who has lived here for 25 years, said both religions were observing a time of reflection and solemnity side by side in Little Tunis.

“Despite what goes on in the Middle East, this is a Tunisian neighborhood par excellence, an example of good neighborly relations,” he said.

Many of the customs here are similar, brought over to France from North Africa.

At the Arab-owned Lamama pastry shop, a queue of people spill onto the street as bakers rush to keep up with orders for honey-soaked baklava, almond-stuffed cakes, and hot beignets.

Many immigrants reminisce about their times back in the old country, when Tunisia, which once had a large Jewish population and is home to the biggest synagogue (the Ghriba on Djerba is certainly the oldest - ed) in the region, was a shining example of peaceful coexistence.

Here, this nostalgia seems to play out on the street, where Muslim and Jewish men wearing traditional skullcaps stroll side-by-side during the pre-sundown shopping promenade.

“Both groups came here en masse following the successive Arab-Israeli wars ( the Jews did, at any rate - ed) but once they arrived in France they realized that Tunisian customs left them with much in common,” said Jean-Michel Rosenfeld, an official at the local city hall.

“I can’t think of any place in France where relations between Jews and Muslims are better,” he said. “I even know a Jewish-owned restaurant that stays open on the (Jewish) Sabbath because the owner passes the keys over to a Muslim friend.”

Read article in full