H eadlines
NEWSBRIEFS British Labour Party Suspends 14 Members for
Alleged Antisemitism
THE LABOUR PARTY in Britain suspended 14
members for alleged antisemitic rhetoric, JTA reported.

In addition, a Conservative Party spokesperson
said the party will suspend a Cambridge politician for
similar remarks.

Seven of the Labor lawmakers are on the govern-
ment councils of the City of Peterborough and North
Cambridgeshire, municipalities north of London, the
Jewish News reported.

The report didn’t specify what the councilors said,
wrote or did to prompt the allegations, nor how they
reacted to it.

Labour and Conservative spokespeople said the
suspensions are part of zero tolerance policies toward
antisemitic rhetoric in their ranks.

Under former leader Jeremy Corbyn, antisemitic
rhetoric became more common with Labour. His successor,
Keir Starmer, suspended Corbyn from the party.

Paris to Name Street for Sarah Halimi
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the city will inaugu-
rate in its historic Jewish quarter a street named for
Sarah Halimi, whose killing has drawn protests over
the way authorities handled it, JTA reported.

Halimi’s alleged killer, a 31-year-old Muslim man
with a history of antisemitic behavior, won’t stand
trial because the high court ruled that the marijuana
he smoked before the murder made him temporarily
psychotic. Previous rulings found that Kobili Traore
was motivated partly by his hatred of Jews
“We need to honor Sarah Halimi’s memory. And
that’s what we’ll do,” Hidalgo said in a statement.

“There will be a Sarah Halimi Street. It will be a way
of achieving justice for her.”
The street will be in the 4th District, which before
the Holocaust was the heart of Jewish life in Paris. It
also is known as the Marais.

academics and authors such as Stephen Pinker and
Daniel Gordis; and leading rabbis like David Wolpe
of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, who is the son of the
late longtime Har Zion Temple Rabbi Gerald Wolpe.

“Jewish tradition cherishes debate, respects
disagreement, and values questions as well as
answers,” the letter says. “We members of the Jewish
community add our voices to the growing chorus
supporting our liberal principles, opposing the
imposition of ideology, encouraging open discussions
of challenging topics, and committing to achieving a
more just America.”
Prominent Jews Sign ‘Jewish Harper’s Letter’
About 50 prominent Jewish Americans signed an
open letter warning of the rise of “social justice
ideology,” JTA reported.

The social justice ideology is described as a “perni-
cious” force that is “antithetical to Judaism” and
threatens to stifle free debate and democratic values
in the United States.

Organizers of a new initiative called the Jewish
Institute for Liberal Values said they were inspired by last
year’s Harper’s letter, which made a similar argument
about public censorship of unpopular opinions.

Signatories include prominent conservative
writers Bret Stephens, Bari Weiss and Seth Mandel;
Hate Crimes Up 73% in NYC Thus Far in 2021,
Asians and Jews Targeted Most Frequently
The number of hate crimes reported in New York City
between Jan. 1 and May 2 climbed 73% compared to a
year ago, JTA reported.

Jews were targets of 54 hate crimes, down from 58
incidents in the same period in 2020, according to
New York Police Department statistics.

But Asians, who were targeted 16 times in that
period in 2020, were targets 80 times this year.

In all, there were 180 hate crimes through May 2
in New York City, compared to 104 such crimes in the
same period in 2020. l
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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H eadlines
ISRAELBRIEFS El Al and Others to Add Flights From Tel Aviv to US
EL AL ISRAEL AIRLINES will increase the number of daily and
weekly flights from Tel Aviv to the United States, Globes reported.

That includes going from three daily flights a day to New York
(including Newark Liberty International Airport) to four and
increasing the weekly flights to both Miami and Los Angeles
from three to five.

El Al will be facing competition from rival airlines Delta,
United Airlines and American Airlines. In all, there will be 10
flights per day between Tel Aviv and New York.

Delta will go from seven weekly flights between Tel Aviv and
New York to 10. United will increase from 13 weekly flights
to 24, including the renewal of a Tel Aviv-Chicago route. And
American will launch daily flights between Tel Aviv and New
York, three weekly flights between Tel Aviv and Miami and, in
November, three weekly flights between Tel Aviv and Dallas.

Congratulations To
Israel to Open Borders to Some Countries
Vaccinated or recovered tourists from 14 countries will be allowed
to visit Israel starting May 23, according to The Times of Israel.

The countries are the United States, the United Kingdom,
France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Iceland, Denmark, Ireland,
Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Tourists will be required to take what’s known as a polymerase chain
reaction coronavirus test before boarding a plane to Israel. Once they
arrive in Israel, they will have to take both a PCR test and a serological
test; the latter proves the existence of coronavirus antibodies.

The pandemic caused Israel to record an 81% drop in tourism
in 2020 compared to 2019, the Tourism Ministry said.

Israeli Man Visiting Baltimore Shot and Killed
An Israeli man visiting Baltimore for a wedding was shot and
killed early May 3 in a robbery outside the house he was staying
in the city’s heavily Jewish Fords Lane area, JTA reported.

Video surveillance shows three youths approaching Efraim
Gordon, 31, as he exited a car and moved toward his aunt and
uncle’s house. Gordon is then shot by one of the youths. Gordon
died later that day at a hospital.

Chabad Online said he was a Jerusalem tech entrepreneur
affiliated with Chabad-Lubavitch.

Gordon was buried in Israel and an online effort to raise
money for his return and funeral quickly produced far more
than the $15,000 sought.

Youngest Survivor Who Testified Against Eichmann Dies
Yosef Kleinman, who was the youngest Holocaust survivor to
testify at Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann’s trial, died May 4 in
Jerusalem, JTA reported. He was 91.

Kleinman, then 31, was one of 110 witnesses at the 1961 trial of
the most-senior German official in charge of Jewish extermination.

His testimony — delivered right after another witness fainted
— was about the fate of Jewish youths at Auschwitz. It included a
description of notorious Auschwitz physician Josef Mengele’s tactics.

Kleinman was deported to Auschwitz in 1944 from Budapest,
Hungary, when he was 14 and saw his mother and younger sister
sent to their deaths.

After liberation, Kleinman and a brother traveled around Europe.

They joined a ship in Cyprus, where they were interned until
allowed to immigrate to pre-state Israel in 1947. He served in the
Israeli army, later opening a carpentry business with his brother. l
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 2021
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