H eadlines
NEWSBRIEFS Russian-Israeli Tennis Player Makes
Australian Open Semis
UNHERALDED RUSSIAN-ISRAELI tennis player
Aslan Karatsev made the Australian Open semifi-
nals, losing in straight sets to top seed and eventual
champion Novak Djokovic, JTA reported.

Karatsev, 27, defeated top-10 Jewish tennis player
Diego Schwartzman in the third round of the tourna-
ment. His performance vaulted him from a worldwide
ranking of 114th to 42nd.

“It gives me more experience, more confidence,”
Karatsev said. “Now I will be playing all big tourna-
ments without playing the qualifiers. So I’ll get this
confidence and just keep playing, keep practicing. I
am starting to believe more in myself that I can play
with everyone.”
Karatsev was born in the North Caucasus region
of Russia, and his maternal grandfather is Jewish.

“I moved to Israel when I was 3 years old with
my family, and then I started to practice in Yafo, Tel
Aviv-Yafo,” he said. “I grew up there, practicing there
until 12 years old, and then I moved back to Russia
with my father.”
was rediscovered recently and returned to the Jewish
community, JTA reported.

The scroll, which is intact and in excellent condi-
tion, belonged to a synagogue in the city of Dordrecht,
Chris den Hoedt, chairman of the Jewish Community
of Rotterdam, or NIG, said.

After the Nazis shut down the synagogues in
1940, the scroll and others apparently were kept
by a Jewish man who owned a metal factory, JTA
reported. Another tradesman bought the factory,
then gave the scrolls to Kees Pennings, a teacher who
died in 2001. His widow, Tineke, told local historian
Kees Weltevrede about the scrolls. Weltevrede then
informed NIG.

“For decades, no one knew what happened to the
scroll in Dordrecht. It was simply presumed lost,
like so many other religious artifacts lost in the
Holocaust,” he said.

Jewish Celebrities Read Purim Story for Charity
Several Jewish comedians teamed up for a Purim event
to raise money for the Met Council, a Jewish charity
fighting poverty in New York City, JTA reported.

Howie Mandel, Bob Saget, Jeff Garlin, Susie
Essman, Jeff Ross, Judy Gold and others performed
Dutch Torah Hidden During WWII Resurfaces
A Torah scroll that disappeared from a Dutch an online Purim spiel on Feb. 22.

“The story of Purim is a story of perseverance and
synagogue after the Nazis invaded the Netherlands,
hope — just what we need during these dark COVID
times,” Met Council CEO David Greenfield said.

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a puppet character
voiced by Jewish comedian Robert Smigel, made an
appearance, as did standup comedian Russell Peters
and Pennsylvania native Bari Weiss, the former New
York Times opinion editor.

Auction House Suspends Sale of 19th-Century
Document Believed Stolen During Holocaust
Kestenbaum & Company, a Brooklyn, New York,
auction house specializing in rare Judaic material
culture, pulled from its catalog what the Jewish
Community of Cluj, Romania, said is a 19th-century
ledger from its Jewish burial society.

“The handwritten register has great value as a
historical document, covering over 50 years of the
history of the Orthodox Jewish Community, right
from the year of the founding of the Society in 1836,
but it is also a valuable art object, due to its excep-
tional aesthetic presentation,” the Jewish community
wrote. Because the ledger disappeared during the
Holocaust, it thus is stolen property, the letter said.

The World Jewish Restitution Organization also
asked that the item not be sold. l
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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