nation / world
Israeli Families of Munich Olympics Massacre Victims to Boycott
German 50th Anniversary Ceremony
All but one of the family members of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered during the
1972 Munich Olympics plan to boycott a ceremony marking the incident’s 50th
anniversary, calling the financial compensation that the German government
will offer them “a joke,” JTA reported.

According to a German government memo obtained by The New York Times,
various agencies have thus far paid $4.8 million to the families, and Germany is
expected to offer an additional $5.6 million.

The families are reportedly asking for a sum about 20 times larger than that
and are urging Israel’s government to join in boycotting the ceremony, saying
that Germany’s actions before, during and after the incident were insufficient and
left the Israeli athletes at risk. Details have emerged suggesting that Germany had
advance notice of a threat of violence.

“The level of state responsibility of Germany, as we know it now, is far more
extensive compared to the facts which were known in 1972-2020,” a lawyer rep-
resenting the families told the Times. “Ample evidence was recently discovered
which shows that the government not only failed in the protection of the athletes
but was also instrumental in the cover-up of its failure.”
During the second week of the 1972 Games, in the incident now known as the
Munich Massacre, the Palestinian terrorist group Black September held six coaches
and five athletes from Israel’s team hostage in their Olympic village apartment
before brutally killing them. A West German police officer was also killed.

Foreigners to be Barred From Studying Medicine in Israel
The Israeli government is barring foreigners from studying medicine in the country
as part of an effort to curb the “brain drain” caused by citizens becoming doctors
abroad due to difficulties getting accepted into local programs, jns.org reported.

According to the Council for Higher Education in Israel, a supervisory body for
universities and colleges, the graduating class of 2026 will be the last in which for-
eigners will receive four-year medical degrees offered at Tel Aviv University, Ben-
Gurion University of the Negev or the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology.

The CHE’s decision, issued in conjunction with the Health and Finance
Ministries, comes after the organization made the recommendation in 2018 after
finding that many Israelis were traveling to Europe for medical school because
they could not get into programs at home.

Some 900 Israelis reportedly enter medical schools in Israel each year, a num-
ber the government wants to raise to 1,200.

Judge Who Signed the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago Warrant Faces Violent
Antisemitic Threats
Bruce Reinhart, the federal judge in Florida who signed the warrant allowing the
FBI to raid former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property on Aug. 8,
was hit with a wave of antisemitic threats online, JTA reported.

The outburst has appeared on right-wing social media platforms and message
boards, where users have published the judge’s name, address and personal informa-
tion. Threats have been directed at his children and supposed family members as well.

Reinhart, who appears to be a member of the board of Temple Beth David in
Palm Beach Gardens, has been a magistrate judge for the Southern District of
Florida since 2018.

Israelis Marry Less, at Younger Ages in 2020
The number of marriages in Israel dropped 17% in 2020 compared to the pre-
vious year, and those that did marry were slightly younger, The Jerusalem Post
reported, citing Central Bureau of Statistics data.

The bureau attributed at least some of the differences to COVID-19 restrictions.

Just under 40,000 Israeli couples married through religious institutions in
2020. About 68% of those couples were Jewish, a decline of 19% compared to a
year earlier.

The average age of Israeli men first getting married fell to 26.9 years in 2020 from
27.3 years in 2019. For women, the average age was 24.6 versus 24.9 a year earlier. JE
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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