A7News: Tekoa: Terrorist shouts 'Allahu Akbar' and attacks

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Sunday, Sep. 02 '18, כ"ב באלול תשע"ח



HEADLINES:
1. TEKOA: TERRORIST SHOUTS 'ALLAHU AKBAR' AND ATTACKS
2. BELGIUM'S WAY OF DIVIDING JERUSALEM
3. WATCH: TERROR ALERT DURING OPENING OF SCHOOL YEAR IN TEKOA
4. 'BEGINNING THE JOURNEY TO WORDS AND NUMBERS'
5. MEGHAN MCCAIN MOCKS TRUMP DURING EULOGY FOR HER FATHER
6. A SECRET MISSION TO IRAN
7. EXPLOSIONS HEARD AT SYRIAN AIRBASE
8. 'NO REASON LYUBAVICHI SHOULDN'T SURMOUNT UMAN'


1. TEKOA: TERRORIST SHOUTS 'ALLAHU AKBAR' AND ATTACKS
by Arutz Sheva Staff

An attempted attack was thwarted Sunday morning near the community of Tekoa in eastern Gush Etzion after an Arab tried to attack a Jewish resident with an iron bar.

An initial investigation revealed that the terrorist attacked a resident at the Tekoa Forest parking lot with stones, shouting "Allahu Akbar," meaning "God is great" in Arabic.

At this stage the terrorist fled, crossed the fence of the community, grabbed a metal object and tried to attack a resident. The resident, who was armed, managed to subdue the terrorist with the help of two other residents who were in the area, as well as with the assistance of the community's security coordinator, who arrived to the scene within a short time.

The IDF said, "A short while ago, IDF soldiers arrested a Palestinian who tried to attack a resident with an iron bar near Tekoa. Nobody was injured."

The community's emergency squad is scanning the area, including near the schools and kindergartens where the school year began today, in order to ensure that there are no more casualties in the incident.

Until the searches are completed, security forces have instructed residents of Tekoa to stay in their homes.


2. BELGIUM'S WAY OF DIVIDING JERUSALEM
by Arutz Sheva Staff

A Jerusalem family holding dual Israeli-Belgian citizenship was surprised last week when they received a letter from the Belgian consulate addressed to the mother as a resident of "Jerusalem," but to the children as residents of the "Palestinian territories."

Yediot Aharonot reported that the Tenzer family of the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood of Jerusalem received the letter regarding their voting rights ahead of elections in Belgium. While the mother, Annabelle Herciger Tenzer, received the letter to the address "Jerusalem," her children, Tehilla and Gilad (ages 24 and 26), who live with her in the same apartment, received letters addressed to the "Palestinian territories." Up until now, all letters the family received from the consulate were addressed to "Jerusalem."

According to the report, the family believes that the change stems from the US decision to transfer its embassy to Jerusalem - a move which was rejected by EU countries.

Alex Tenzer, the father of the family, told Yediot Aharonot, "Not only is Belgium dividing Jerusalem, they are also trying to separate between my children and my wife. We always lived in northern Jerusalem and we are part of Jerusalem. Up until now, we received all letters to the address 'Jerusalem.' I hope that this is not a change in the Belgian policy. I demand explanations and ask that new letters be sent, addressed to 'Jerusalem.'"


3. WATCH: TERROR ALERT DURING OPENING OF SCHOOL YEAR IN TEKOA
by Arutz Sheva Staff

[youtube:2046811]

A ceremony marking the opening of studies for students in the Gush Etzion community of Tekoa was rudely interrupted by a terror alert siren as a result of the attack in the community this morning, Sunday.

The school ceremony also saw the attendance of Tourism Minister Yariv Levin (Likud).

Levin told Arutz Sheva that the "powerful" opening of the school year "proves that nothing will prevent us from realizing our right to this land, to fulfill Jewish life in this wonderful and special area."


4. 'BEGINNING THE JOURNEY TO WORDS AND NUMBERS'
by Mordechai Sones

President Reuven Rivlin arrived this morning in the city of Netivot, where he opened the 5779 school year with first graders and teachers at the Noam Eliyahu religious school in Netivot.

"Even today, when I'm already a grandfather, I remember very well the day I entered first grade and met the teacher Chava," the President told the excited first graders who greeted him with song and flags.

Afterwards, the President participated in the first class of the first grade students of the teacher Rachel and blessed them. The President was accompanied by Netivot Mayor Yechiel Zohar, school Principal Chaim Ken, and the President's Residence manager Harel Tobi. In the class, the students who hosted the President sang Naomi Shemer's song In Our Backyard.

Rivlin in 1st grade with Morah Rachel
Flash 90
The President told the excited students about his first day in first grade and the children proudly told the President that they already knew the alphabet. "When you'll be ministers, prime ministers, and even mayors you'll remember your teacher and this special day. Have great success, dear children, and a wonderful year for everyone," the President told the students.

In a ceremony held at the school yard attended by all the students the President said: "The opening of the school year is perhaps one of the happiest days of the year, a day of new beginnings for so many people - parents, teachers, and especially students who are taking a step further to learn, grow, and expand horizons."

The President added, "You, the students: You came to a festively decorated school today, with festooned classrooms, but know that this didn't happened on its own. For weeks now our teachers and principals have been working hard to make this school year the best. Dear teachers, administrators, maintenance, and all the staff, I'd like to dedicate this day to you and thank you. We know that it all starts with education, but we don't always understand the weight of the educational mission that the men and women in education carry on their shoulders every day, every hour.

"The boys and girls here are the future of the State of Israel, and the young generation that grows up here in Netivot will lead the State of Israel, I have no doubt about it," said the President. "They're beginning the great journey of their lives, the journey to words and numbers. They're still stepping hesitantly, but a day will come and they will pave the way, they will lead and they will navigate," added Rivlin.

The President concluded: "We're in the month of Elul, just before Rosh Hashanah, and wish all the residents of this unique city and all the people of Israel a year of happiness and growth, a year of peace, a year of security, and a year of education when we'll all be proud of you. Good and sweet year to you all."

Rivlin greets children on 1st day of school
Flash 90



5. MEGHAN MCCAIN MOCKS TRUMP DURING EULOGY FOR HER FATHER
by Mordechai Sones

Senator John McCain's daughter Megan McCain used the eulogy for her father to snipe at President Donald Trump on Saturday. Trump did not remain passive and answered her on Twitter.

"We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness; the real thing," McCain said. "Not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served."

[youtube:2046791]

"The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again, because America was always great," she added.

Other speakers at the funeral also used the stage to criticize Trump.

Trump replied to McCain with a tweet in which he only wrote: "Make America great again!"

There was fierce hostility between McCain and Trump since the Republican primary in the last presidential race. At McCain's request, Trump was not invited to the funeral.

[twittervideo:2046795]


6. A SECRET MISSION TO IRAN
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Arutz Sheva has discovered that Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar recently visited Iran on a secret diplomatic mission.

He was sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

All official sources have refused to confirm details such as the purpose of the visit and the exact dates.

It is possible that Rabbi Lazar's visit to Iran is connected to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's attempts to prevent Iran from establishing itself in Syria.

Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of both Iran and Syria signed an agreement to tighten military and security cooperation between their countries.


7. EXPLOSIONS HEARD AT SYRIAN AIRBASE
by Elad Benari

A number of loud explosions were heard on Saturday night at the Mezzeh airbase near Damascus.

Local media outlets reported that there were deaths and injuries as a result of the explosion at the base, which has been attacked in the past.

According to the reports, "the air defense operated against a missile attack that came from outside Syria." The Lebanese Al-Mayadeen network, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, claimed that Israel attacked the airbase with missiles.

The Arabic-language Sky News network reported that the attack targeted ammunition depots and a military position belonging to Iranian forces and Shiite militias operating at the airbase.

However, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported that the explosions were caused by an electrical problem that was caused by a technical malfunction rather than an Israeli attack.

In late July, Arab media outlets claimed that Israeli fighter jets hit targets in Syria's Hama province.

Lebanese media outlets claimed that Israeli aircraft were spotted over Lebanese airspace, while Syrian sources claimed that targets had been hit Sunday evening outside of the city of Masyaf, located in the Hama province in northwestern Syria.

Unconfirmed reports claimed that the targets hit included weapons development centers run by the Assad regime.


8. 'NO REASON LYUBAVICHI SHOULDN'T SURMOUNT UMAN'
by JTA

At the age of 92, Valentina Prilashkevitch and her twin sister, Claudia, need to cautiously negotiate the dirt road leading to their wooden home in this tiny village near the Belarus border.

In winter, frost could easily mean a broken hip for the twins. The risk of falling returns in summer, when the swampy earth turns to soft powder.

Asphalt is one of many basic amenities missing from this horsefly-infested village of 200. Its dilapidated houses lack electricity, running water, central heating, indoor toilets and a steady supply of cooking gas.

Some members of the graying population here are so poor that they still use horse-drawn vehicles and rely on backyard farming for sustenance.

But things are beginning to turn around for Prilashkevitch and her neighbors because their village is the cradle and namesake of Chabad-Lubavitch – one of the largest and most influential hasidic movements in Judaism.

In recent years, the village has started to attract hundreds of visitors every month, prompting the local authorities to undertake what in local terms is a massive investment in infrastructure with the aim of cultivating an unlikely source of income: Western tourism.

The Prilashkevitch sisters, for their part, are about to have their street paved for the first time since the village was established. The reason? It leads to an ancient Jewish cemetery.

"It is all thanks to the Jews," said Valentina Prilashkevitch's grandson, Sergey Levashov.

Standing shirtless amid the chickens roaming his grandmother's yard, he said "I think it's a very good that this place is beginning to become known internationally for its tradition of coexistence with the Jews. More good things can come to us for it."

More good things are already happening to Lyubavichi, according to Yuri Ivashkin, the mayor of the district where the village is located.

"A deal to lay down cooking gas pipes was signed this summer, there's a new hotel that's about to be built here. Come back in five years. You won't recognize this place," he told JTA.

Ivashkin, who lives in the nearby city of Rudnya, came to Lyubavichi on Sunday to attend the dedication of a fence around another Jewish cemetery. It contains the remains of two 19th-century rabbis, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn and Shmuel Schneersohn -- respectively the third and the fourth great sages of the Chabad movement, which was based here for a century before World War I. Chabad has only had seven supreme spiritual leaders.

The fencing was a preservation project headed by the European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, or ESJF. The nonprofit organization has completed similar projects in 102 cemeteries across Eastern Europe with funding from the German government.

"Initiatives like these are vital because of neglect, economic and agricultural development, and vandalism," said Rabbi Isaac Schapira, the founder and chairman of the ESJF board.

Separately, Chabad has undertaken another project at the cemetery -- to pull up headstones swallowed by the marshy ground.

While the cemetery certainly attracts some pilgrims, the real engine behind the growth in Jewish tourism is Chabad's 2008 opening of an information center. About 12 people are based permanently at the center, which is called Hatzer Raboteinu Nesieinu Belubavitch.

That fenced compound, where in 2016 about 500 Chabad rabbis from across the former Soviet Union convened for a conference, is located in a part of Lyubavichi where the town's Chabad sages had once lived with their families and disciples.

Visitors explore one of the Jewish cemeteries in Lyubavichi, Russia. Cnaan Liphshiz

Lyubavichi was founded approximately 500 years ago, according to some accounts, by a Rabbi Meir who named it in reference to his people's love ("lyubov" in Russian) of God. For Jews in czarist Russia, it was prime real estate because it was one of the points closest to Moscow within the Pale of Settlement – the western provinces to which Jews were restricted until the communist revolution of 1917.

Hundreds of them settled in Lyubavichi, which became a major shtetl – Yiddish for a predominantly Jewish town. In the early 19th century, Lyubavichi became home to Dovber Schneuri – Chabad's second supreme spiritual leader, or admor.

He turned Lyubavichi into a hub of Jewish learning. Jews from across Eastern Europe would come to seek advice and guidance, many of them settling to join the hard core of the Chabad movement, according to the late historian Moshe Tzinovitch, who published an essay about the town's history in 1943.

But Chabad followers fled the town in World War I as the German army advanced on it. Hundreds of Jews remained in the interwar period until the Nazis killed them in 1941. The center of the movement shifted from Russia to Poland and, following World War II, to the United States.

Few Jews visited this place under communism, when it was behind the Iron Curtain. But the visitors began trickling in during the early 1990s. By 2000, the town was seeing dozens of visitors each month. Since then, the number of visitors to Lyubavichi has climbed to about 10,000 annually, according to Gavriel Gordon, a Chabad rabbi tasked with preserving the movement's heritage sites.

Gordon said plans are underway to restore, based on archived maps, a part of the original shtetl, whose houses were taken apart and used for construction during communism.

For now, though, the most authentic characteristic of shtetl life seems to be the horse-drawn carriages used by some of the villagers. They regularly come out to greet large groups of Jews, offering short rides and selfie moments for tips.

In recent years the village changed the names of some of its roads to highlight its Jewish heritage. The main road is now called Derech Lubavitch, Hebrew for Lubavitch Way. Another is now Chabad Street. The Prilashkevitch twins live on Schneersohn Road, carrying the last name of five generations of Chabad leaders.

Some of the village's houses boast a fresh coat of paint, including bright yellow, pink and green – a common scheme in Belarus and western Russia. But even newly painted houses here are so old and poorly maintained that they lean outward at strange angles, seemingly ready to collapse.

The residents collect water in buckets from faucets, or water points, on main roads.

Many of the visitors to Lyubavichi today are devoted Chabadniks.

One is Jehoshua Raskin. The Russia-born rabbi moved to Israel in 1967, only to return to Russia after communism to "make Judaism great again" there, as he put it. He has one son serving as an emissary of Chabad in Uganda, another in Cyprus and a third in Budapest.

Today, the 70-year-old Raskin travels across Russia and beyond giving lectures about Judaism to far-flung Jewish communities.

"I am brought in to give strength to communities from Brazil to Australia," he said on the six-hour car ride from Moscow to the fence-dedication ceremony, which he said he decided to join at the spur of the moment when a friend told him about it. "Lyubavichi is where I draw that energy. I come when

Rabbi Jehoshua Raskin shares a ride with other visitors to Lyubavichi, Russia. Cnaan Liphshiz

ever I can."
But even with devotees like Raskin, the number of visitors here is a fraction of the traffic to the site of Europe's largest Hasidic pilgrimage: the Ukrainian city of Uman, located 500 mile south of Lyubavichi.

About 30,000 visitors, mostly from Israel, arrive in Uman each year on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, to visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman, an 18th-century luminary who founded the Breslov hasidic movement.

But whereas Uman is an established destination, Lyubavichi has yet to realize its potential, said Ivashkin, the district mayor.

"I know Uman. There is no reason why Lyubavichi shouldn't match and surmount it in terms of attracting Jewish tourism," he said.

Ivashkin's favorable attitude to Jewish tourism -- a common approach by officials in Russia under President Vladimir Putin -- is in and of itself a major difference to the one prevalent in Uman, where many of the city's 70,000 residents resent the local pilgrimage and the crowds, noise and even crime that it brings.

Uman has seen several protests featuring anti-Semitic rhetoric in recent years, as well as agitation by the xenophobic far right.

This hostility is exacerbated by some rowdy Jewish visitors, but it is unfolding amid a dramatic increase in nationalism and anti-Semitic incidents in Ukraine following a 2014 revolution in which the far right played a prominent role.

By contrast, Lyubavichi has seen almost no anti-Jewish agitation.

Earlier this month, anti-Semitic graffiti appeared on the external wall of the Chabad compound here. But Ivashkin said the suspect in that incident was a man from the city of Murmansk, hundreds of miles north of Lyubavichi.

Russian authorities are quick to punish perpetrators of anti-Semitic hate crimes. Chabad leaders enjoy a high degree of access to Putin, and under him have become the undisputed leading force in Jewish communal life in Russia.

"There are certainly challenges attached to making a place like Lyubavichi a major site for pilgrimage," said Gordon, the Chabad caretaker. "But it can make a huge contribution to the spirituality of the Jewish people, and to the material situation of this very poor village."




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