H eadlines
NEWSBRIEFS Polish Children Knock Over Jewish
Headstones to Build a Fortress
SEVERAL POLISH CHILDREN told police they
toppled 63 Jewish grave headstones because they
wanted to build a fortress with them, JTA reported.

Five 12-year-olds worked on the project for several
days at the disused graveyard in Wroclaw in western
Poland when police stopped them on June 23 after
hearing hammering noises.

Some of the headstones were smashed, while
others were partially damaged and knocked down.

Meantime, in eastern Poland, a Jewish headstone
used decades earlier as construction material in
Kraśnik was extracted from a sidewalk, then placed at
the local Jewish cemetery. The headstone was discov-
ered three years ago after the pavement over it cracked.

And in southern Poland, the city of Bielsko-Biała
is planning a commemorative space that features
Jewish headstones to recognize the destruction of a
Jewish cemetery there in the 1960s.

Jewish Philanthropist, Former Hedge Fund
Executive Sentenced to Seven Months
Hedge fund founder Murray Huberfeld, a major
donor to Orthodox Jewish causes, was sentenced to
seven months in prison for involvement in a scheme
to bribe the New York City prison guard union leader,
JTA reported.

Huberfeld, 60, was sentenced June 22 after pleading
guilty to wire fraud conspiracy related to a $60,000
payment to Norman Seabrook, the former head of
the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, who
also was convicted. The payment was a kickback
to Seabrook for steering $20 million in the union
members’ retirement money to Platinum Partners,
Huberfeld’s hedge fund.

Huberfeld told the court that he repaid $5.5 million
in union money lost on bad investments and planned
to return an additional $1.5 million.

Huberfeld was known for giving away millions of
dollars philanthropically, especially to synagogues
linked to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and to
haredi Orthodox institutions in Brooklyn.

Polish Bill to Limit Holocaust Restitution
Advances in Parliament
Polish lawmakers passed a bill through the lower
house of its parliament that would limit the ability of
claimants to seek restitution for property they owned
during the Holocaust, JTA reported.

Under the bill, courts may only consider appeals
about administrative decisions if they were made in
the past 30 years — precluding appropriations by
the communist governments that confiscated and
distributed the property. About 3.3 million Jews lived
in Poland before the Holocaust.

No date was set for a Senate vote, but in the Sejm,
309 of 460 lawmakers supported it.

Diplomats representing the United States and
Israel condemned the bill. Bix Aliu, the chargé
d’Affaires, at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, wrote Sejm
Speaker Elżbieta Witek, noting “deep concern about
the law, which, if adopted, will cause irreparable
damage to Holocaust survivors and their families.”
US, Germany Join Holocaust Education Push
The Biden administration and German Chancellor
Angela Merkel’s government signed a letter of intent
on June 24 to share information and strategies for
advancing Holocaust education, JTA reported.

The letter was signed by Secretary of State Antony
Blinken and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas
at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in
Berlin. Holocaust survivors attended the signing.

The main Holocaust study institution in each
country — the Berlin memorial in Germany and the
United Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington,
D.C. — would be involved in developing and sharing
materials. Cherrie Daniels, the State Department’s special
envoy for Holocaust issues, said the cooperation
would likely begin with the training of government
workers. — Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
ISRAELBRIEFS New Human Species Found in Israel
ISRAELI SCIENTISTS ANNOUNCED June 24 the
discovery in Israel of a new type of early human, The
Jerusalem Post reported.

Researchers believe the Neanderthal ancestor of
the new “Homo” species intermarried with Homo
sapiens. The findings were published in the academic
journal Science.

A dig site near the modern-day city of Nesher
Ramla revealed animal bones, stone tools for making
fire and butchering, and human bones, including
skulls, Tel Aviv University anthropology professor
Israel Hershkovitz said.

“We know that modern humans — or Homo
sapiens — arrived in this area some 200,000 years
ago,” he said. “When we started excavating and
examining the different archaeological layers, we
found that they dated back between 140,000 and
120,000 years ago, so we expected to find remains of
Homo sapiens. We did not realize that another form
of human was living alongside them.”
Minister Naftali Bennett’s government to delay vacci-
nated foreign tourists from entering the country
before Aug. 1, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Vaccinated tourists were originally going to be
allowed into Israel on July 1, but the Delta variant has
hit hard in recent days. On June 24, there were 554
active cases in Israel — a climb from less than 200 in
recent weeks.

“Our goal at the moment, first and foremost, is to
protect the citizens of Israel from the Delta variant
which is raging in the world,” Bennett said. “At the
same time, we want to reduce as much as possible
the disruption to daily life in the country. Therefore,
we decided to act as early as possible — right now
— so as not to pay a heavier price later on, by taking
responsible and quick actions.”
In addition, an indoor mask mandate was
reinstated on June 25, as Israel registered 227 new
cases the day before, which has the highest figure in
more than two months.

Police Prevent Terrorist Attacks at Tel Aviv
COVID-19 Uptick Delays Entry of Vaccinated
Pride Parade on June 25
Tourists, Mask Mandates Reinstated
Police said they prevented multiple terrorist threats
An uptick in coronavirus cases prompted Prime and attempts to disrupt the Tel Aviv Pride parade on
6 JULY 1, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
June 25, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Police said two Palestinian Authority residents,
who were in Israel illegally, were arrested for carrying
a knife. A Tel Aviv resident was detained after he
was found heading to the parade carrying multiple
weapons. In addition, a couple who protested the parade and
tried to force their way into it was arrested, as were
three other people for illegally operating a motorized
paraglider near a parade gathering point.

West Nile Fever Virus Found in
Northern Israel Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes discovered in northern Israel are infected
with the West Nile Fever virus, Maariv reported.

The Environmental Protection Ministry called on
the Lower Galilee Regional Council to monitor the
situation in Nahal Yavniel and conduct pest control
measures as needed.

West Nile Fever isn’t contagious and transmission
occurs only when a person is bitten by an infected
mosquito. The virus can be fatal, although most
people exposed don’t develop symptoms. l
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Entebbe Event to Remember Mission ‘Impossible’
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
RABBI ALBERT GABBAI
remembers exactly where he was
on July 4, 1976: in Manhattan,
watching a parade of boats
floating down the Hudson
River, American flag in hand,
celebrating the bicentennial of
the nation’s independence.

But he said the celebra-
tion was interrupted by an
announcement that
102 hostages, mostly Jewish and
Israeli, in Entebbe, Uganda, had
been rescued by Israel Defense
Forces commandos.

On July 5, Gabbai will host
Miracle at Entebbe, the 45th
anniversary commemoration
of the military operation at
his synagogue, Congregation
Mikveh Israel.

Operation Entebbe was
lauded by the United States and
other western nations as a neces-
sary and “impossible” mission.

Following the hijacking of an
Air France flight on June 27 by
members of the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine and the
Red Army Faction (a radical West
German group), the hijackers kept
106 Israeli and French passengers
as hostages, demanding the release
of 53 Palestinian and pro-Pales-
tinian hostages, many of whom
were prisoners in Israel, and a $5
million ransom.

Led by Lt. Col. Yonatan
“Yoni” Netanyahu, the older
brother of former Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
a 29-man assault unit — part of a
larger group of 100 commandos
— entered the Entebbe
Major Rami Sherman (center) in the back seat of a Mercedes — the lead
vehicle used to confuse Ugandan troops.
Courtesy of Lou Balcher
Lou Balcher (left) and former Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon
Peres at the 25th anniversary of Entebbe commemoration
Courtesy of Lou Balcher
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM International Airport terminal
and rescued the hostages.

The operation lasted only
53 minutes, and Yonatan
Netanyahu was the only casualty
among the commandos.

“It’s an amazing story of
creativity, of chutzpah,” said Lou
Balcher, the event’s organizer
and national director at
American Foundation Creating
Leadership for Israel.

From Entebbe, Gabbai
believes an important lesson can
be learned.

“Our rabbis tell us that Jewish
people are like a body. When
anything in the body hurts, the
whole body hurts,” Gabbai said.

“Therefore, we are in solidarity
together. We’ll go to the end of
the world to save our brothers
and sisters.”
For Balcher and Gabbai, the
connections between Philadelphia
and Operation Entebbe are
serendipitous, adding to the
significance of the event.

Yoni Netanyahu graduated
from Cheltenham High School,
and his father, Benzion Netanyahu,
was a Hebrew language professor
at Dropsie College.

For the past 30 years,
Congregation Mikveh Israel,
nicknamed “the Synagogue of the
American Revolution,” has hosted
the Miracle at Entebbe event every
five years. The synagogue’s fifth
location at 44 N. Fourth Street
opened on July 4, 1976 — the same
date as Operation Entebbe.

Operation Entebbe’s legacy is
also widely honored by the U.S.

military. “The raid made all countries
aware that special operations
forces could be in small groups,
could be successful, in daring
missions,” said U.S. Army Col.

Ken Brier, who will speak at the
event. However, for some Jewish
people, Operation Entebbe is
more than just a military victory.

“We all feel that remembering
our Jewish history, and our
Jewish past is vital to our contin-
uation and contributes to our
understanding of our values,”
JEWISH EXPONENT
Brier said. “Commemorating
significant events from our past
helps assure our future.”
Major Rami Sherman, one of
the special force operatives on
the mission, feels similarly.

A second-generation
Holocaust survivor, Sherman
remembers walking with
rescued hostages, in the dark
night in Entebbe, one of his most
emotional moments during
the operation. To Sherman,
Operation Entebbe serves as
a reminder of the Jewish fight
for existence that has been
ongoing for thousands of years.

This fighting spirit, he said, is
what drove him to carry out
Operation Entebbe.

The mission, Sherman said,
not only highlights the impor-
tance of Israel’s existence, but
also the mutual responsibility
Jewish people have, no matter
how far from one another.

“We are together: the Jews
in Philadelphia and the Jews in
Los Angeles,” Sherman said.

“We don’t know each other, but
there is something in common,
something connected.”
Sherman, having given more
than 500 lectures on Entebbe,
will share his story on July 5.

Miracle at Entebbe will be
an in-person event, but the
program also will be shown live
over Zoom.

The event begins at 11
a.m. at Congregation Mikveh
Israel with a seminar with
Ambassador and Consul
General of Israel to the New
York Consulate Ido Aharoni. It
also will feature a video address
by Benjamin Netanyahu. The
outdoor ceremony begins at
2 p.m. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com |
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