nation / world
Dozens of Jewish Graves Damaged in 600-year-old Turkish Cemetery
Dozens of Jewish graves were damaged or destroyed in the 600-year old cemetery
of Istanbul’s Hasköy neighborhood last week, the Turkish Jewish community
announced via Twitter, JTA reported.

“Our Hasköy Cemetery was entered at midnight, and 36 of our tombstones were
destroyed,” the community’s official Twitter account said on July 14. The Turkish
Jewish weekly Şalom Gazetesi later put the number at 81. “The matter has been
conveyed to the relevant authorities with all the pictures and night recordings, and
we expect the perpetrators of this vandalism to be caught as soon as possible.”
The incident garnered a quick response at the highest level. Ibraham Kalin, the
spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, strongly condemned the
vandalism in a tweet, calling it a “heinous attack.”
Shortly after, Turkey’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, tweeted that two
suspects had been caught and detained by Istanbul’s police department. Turkish
media reported that they were children.

Israeli Reporter Sneaks into Mecca, Triggering Outcry, Apologies
It was billed as a historic news scoop: the first Jewish Israeli reporter to document
the annual Muslim pilgrimage of Hajj on an unprecedented visit to the holy city
of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, JTA reported.

But when the footage of Channel 13 correspondent Gil Tamary in Mecca aired on
July 18, the public’s reception in Israel and in the Muslim world was sharply critical.

As Tamary states on air, entry to Islam’s holiest site is forbidden to members
of other religions and illegal under Saudi law. Tamary, who was in the country
on a special invitation by the Saudi government on the occasion of President Joe
Biden’s diplomatic visit to the region, entered Mecca without permission in search
of an exclusive story for his news outlet.

By the next morning, social media was ablaze with outrage over Tamary’s act
and the outlet’s decision to air the footage. Both the reporter and Channel 13
issued apologies, saying they didn’t mean to offend, but defending the segment as
“an important journalistic accomplishment” and “great journalism.”
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Israel Says US Sex Offender Won’t Get Citizenship
Israel’s top immigration official says the country will not award citizenship to Baruch
Lanner, a rabbi and convicted sex offender from the United States, JTA reported.

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked’s July 19 announcement came a day after nearly
200 American rabbis and Jewish scholars sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister
Yair Lapid urging him to reject Lanner’s citizenship application.

Lanner, an American rabbi and former official of the Orthodox Union’s NCSY
youth group, served a three-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting students
at a Jewish high school in Jersey in the 1990s. He is staying in Israel on a tempo-
rary residency visa pending a decision on his citizenship application by Israel’s
Interior Ministry. He is seeking to take advantage of Israel’s Law of Return, under
which Jews from anywhere in the world can be granted Israeli citizenship.

News of Lanner’s status in Israel broke earlier in July and triggered an outcry
among advocates of victims of sexual abuse in Israel and the United States. Online
petitions calling on the government to reject Lanner’s application have cropped up.

Surf Lifesaving Competitions Debut at Maccabiah Games
Surf lifesaving competitions are being held for the first time at the Maccabiah
Games in Israel this summer, jns.org reported.

Surf lifesaving combines swimming, lifesaving techniques and general fitness. The
competitions involve running and then swimming or board-paddling to rescue some-
one at sea in the shortest amount of time. There are both individual and team events.

The exhibition events, held July 20 and 21 on the Netanya beach, are an ini-
tiative of the Israel Life Saving Federation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to
prevent drownings through education and practical courses.

Paul Hakim, an Australian native, and his brother, Danny, started the ILSF in
2020. Their organization runs year-round water safety and surf-rescue courses
training children and adults to be volunteer first responders in the water. JE
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