Gilad Shalit, the 26 year old former Israeli soldier who was released one year ago after spending over five-and-a-half years in Gaza incommunicado after being abducted by Hamas in a cross-border raid in October 2006, traveled to London on November 15 as guest of honor of the sixth annual B'nai B'rith Europe Young Jewish Adults Forum (YJAF).

B'nai B'rith World Center director Alan Schneider, who extended the invitation to Shalit and accompanied him during the visit, traveled with him from Israel together with childhood friend Ben Drori. Shalit's visit to London began only a day after one of his principal captors - Hamas military head Ahmed Jabari - was killed in an IDF air raid following incessant Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilian population centers.

Over 170 young people from 20 western and eastern European countries including Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia, France, Holland and Great Britain – many of whom had participated in the campaign for Shalit’s release - attended the three-day event and had the opportunity to interact with him. At the outset of the YJAF gala dinner, Shalit thanked the group for their warm reception and received honorary B'nai B'rith membership from international president Allan J. Jacobs and B'nai B'rith Europe president Ralph Hoffman.

Accompanied by Hofmann and YJAF initiators John Reevs, Simone Hofmann and Schneider, Ralph and Shalit met at the Foreign and Commonwealth office with MP Alistair Burt, Minister for Middle East and North Africa and MP Mike Freer for representing the heavily Jewish Finchey and Golders Green neighborhoods. Burt said that he and other concerned MPs ensured that Gilad’s plight was raised in Parliament every week of his incarceration. Shalit was also feted by Israeli ambassador to Great Britain Daniel Taub at a private meeting and reception at his residence with the participation of many local Jewish and non-Jewish Londoners who were active in the campaign for his release, including Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.  Both the Chief Rabbi and Ambassador Taub spoke movingly of Gilad as a symbol of Israeli and Jewish values that places the life of one of its soldiers above the potential threat from the release of over 1,000 convicted terrorists.

Schneider made a presentation to the YJAF participants on the activities of the World Center. As a keen football fan and sports writer for Yedioth Ahronoth, Shalit also attended the Premiership derby between Arsenal and Tottenham.

YJAF program combined an in-depth discussions on Jewish values along with an opportunity for the participants to socialize with their peers from all over Europe while providing insight into B’nai B’rith’s work and goals. The program this year featured addresses by B'nai B'rith International executive vice president Daniel Mariaschin and Ishmael Haldi, Counselor for Civil Society Affairs at the Israel Embassy in London and the first Bedouin diplomat in Israel's history.

News of the visit appeared in the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News and Yedioth Ahronoth.

On Nov. 5-8 the B'nai B'rith World Center in Jerusalem co-sponsored a consultation with twenty Christian pastors, laymen, activists and intellectuals from the Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Dutch Reform, United Church of Canada and other Christian denominations to discuss anti-Israel attitudes that have infused Mainline Protestant Churches over the past 20 years or more.

The consultation was co-sponsored by the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity as part of the activities of the joint World Center-Ecumenical Fraternity "Liaison Committee" forum.

The purpose of the consultation, which has been in the planning for three years, is to create a bridge of understanding between the State of Israel and these denominations and affect the biased positions they have adopted regarding the Israel-Palestinian conflict, in consultation with individuals who have shown their support for Israel in the past.

The participants are currently formulating a joint concluding declaration as a point of departure for future activities.

The consultation took place at a significant juncture in the storied relationship between the Jewish community and the Mainline Protestant Churches, just three weeks after seven U.S. leading Jewish organizations – including B’nai B’rith International – canceled a long-planned meeting of a joint dialogue with representatives of these churches in the United States after leaders of their denominations sent a letter to Congress accusing Israel of war crimes and calling for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. B’nai B’rith International is co-chair of that dialogue.

Participants in the consultation represent churches, movements and institutions in the U.S., Canada, Finland, Norway, the U.K., Uganda, Germany and Holland.

The opening session of the consultation included a keynote address by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Chancellor and Founder of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation on “The State of Israel as the Fundamental Component in Jewish-Christian Relations Today”. In a brilliant speech, Rabbi Riskin said that Jews and Christians should focus on many things that are common to their religions, particularly teachings about the god of love, morality and peace. “What unites us is far more important than what divides us, especially against fundamentalist Islam whose god is a god of power, not love, and who preaches jihad and war. Islam does not have to be like that, and in the far past it was not. Wahabi Islam that has taken over the Middle East is not monotheism but mono-Satanism. We have to have a united voice that talks about a god of love; then perhaps, with Jews and Christians united in this mission, we can teach it to the world and give strength to the moderate Moslems to join us.” Rabbi Riskin noted that Bethlehem has become a ghost-town for Christians today after most of them were killed or banished.  

In his response, Rev. Paul Wilkinson, Ph.D., Associate Minister, Hazel Grove Full Gospel Church, England - a small pro-Israel church - said: “Today there is a propaganda campaign being waged by the Palestinian Authority, the Islamic world and by the Protestant church, including the evangelical church, not only propagating replacement theology and its new manifestations, but the Islamic world is now claiming Jesus for itself – a Jesus of Islam who is coming to destroy every Jew on earth. That is the eschatological end-times teachings of Islam. But there are Christians who know a different Jesus, read a different bible, and understand Israel in a completely different way. The big lie is Christian Palestiniaism, the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian crusade going on in the church today that will say from one corner of its mouth “we love the Jewish people” and from the other corner of its mouth “we hate Israel.” That is not possible. You cannot love the Jewish people and hate Israel. I am completely pessimistic about our ability to overturn 2000 years of erroneous theology that has manifested itself in all kinds of diatribes and anti-Semitic actions. A Goliath of replacement theology and Christian Palestinianism, taunts, goads, accuses and condemns Israel and those Christians who stand with Israel. That Goliath cannot be felled with a stone and a sling as in the times of King David, because the problem is a spiritual one.”

The consultation included additional sessions on "The Case for Israel", "The Conspiracy Against Israel" and the plight of Christians in the Middle East. Presenters included Israeli academics, legal experts, diplomats and activists. The group also enjoyed an audience with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem and a presentation by the Custos of the Holy Land, toured the Old City of Jerusalem and Christian sites around the Sea of Galilee, and visited the Neighborhood League Jerusalem youth co-existence project. 

News of the event was carried in The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, Arutz 7 , Makor Rishon and The Algemeiner.

Shocking testimony about, murder, forced conversion, abductions and other gross human rights violations inflicted on Christian minorities in the Middle East was presented on Nov. 8 at a symposium sponsored by the B'nai B'rith World Center and the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity under their joint “Liaison Committee” forum.

The title of the symposium, held in cooperation with the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, was "The Present and Future of Christians in the Middle East".

Over one hundred people attended the session that focused on the dislocation and violence by Muslims targeting Christians in the Middle East – a long-running phenomena that has increased since the Arab Spring.

The symposium exposed the predicament of Christian minorities in Iraq, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Pakistan, Lebanon and other countries in the area and the implications for the State of Israel.

Raymond Ibrahim, a U.S.-based expert in Islam and the Middle East of Egyptian-Coptic descent and author of "The al-Qaida Reader", said that Christians are suffering unprecedented persecution in the Middle East. Ibrahim spoke of the harassment in Egypt against the Coptic Church which predates Islam, including forced conversions. He noted that in Iraq, for example, there is widespread dislocation based on religious identification against the Christian minority. He referred to the State of Israel as "the one Dhimmi that got away."

Juliana Taimoorazy - an Assyrian Christian and Founder and President of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council – noted that the gruesome attacks taking place against Christian minorities in Iraq and others countries in the Middle East must be brought to world attention.  The U.S. government should press the Iraqi regime to prevent attacks against the Christian minority and to protect it, she said, and called on Jews and Christians to strengthen their ties in the face of this danger.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar from Bar Ilan University, an expert on Islam, noted that Moslem hatred towards Jews and Christians has grown in the light of the success of the West.

In an opening statement, B'nai B'rith World Center director Alan Schneider said that human rights organizations must not remain silent in the face of these reports of gross human rights violations against Christian communities in the Arab and Moslem world and should ensure that they reach the attention of the international community and world public opinion. Ecumenical Fraternity Director Rev. Dr. Petra Heldt also spoke at the event which was chaired by Dr. Mordechai Nisan of Hebrew University.

B’nai B’rith World Center director Alan Schneider presented a Jewish Rescuers’ Citation to Lili Guinat (89) on Oct. 25 for her heroic efforts rescuing Jews in Vichy and occupied-France during the Holocaust. A Jewish Rescuers’ Citation was also presented posthumously to her late husband Dr. Eitan Guinat.

Lili and her husband operated within the framework of the MJS organization (Mouvement de la Jeunesse Sioniste) of which Dr. Guinat, known by his nom de guerre “Toto,” was one of the founders and leaders. MJS was one of the most important organizations in rescue operations of Jews during the war, arranging hiding places for thousands of Jewish families and saving many hundreds of children through escape routes to Switzerland and Spain.

MJS also provided false identity papers to many thousands of Jews, enabling them to escape persecution by French authorities. Many children, now organized in a group named Les Enfants Cachés (The Hidden Children), owe their lives to this organization.

A number of MJS members were caught by French collaborationists and handed over to the Germans for interrogation and execution.

Dr. Guinat, a chemist by training, was an early and active member, along with the B’nai B’rith World Center, in the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jews who Rescued Fellow Jews During the Holocaust (JRJ). He was the featured speaker at the World Center/KKL Holocaust and Martyrs Commemoration Day event in 2004.

The Jewish Rescuers’ Citation was established in 2011 by the JRJ and the B’nai B’rith World Center to honor Jews who went beyond the call of duty to rescue fellow Jews living under Nazi occupation, Axis regimes and Nazi puppet-states during the Holocaust. To date, citations have been presented to 40 rescuers who were active in France, Hungary, Germany and Holland.

The first B'nai B'rith International Corporate Leaders Mission to Israel concluded on August 22 after a four-day intensive program of meetings and site-visits in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.

The meeting was led by B'nai B'rith International president Allan J. Jacobs and executive vice president Daniel S. Mariaschin. Participating corporate leaders included the chief executive officer of a major multinational company, the head of a large medical products firm and the chief executive officer of one of the country's major hospital neworks – all of whom have been honorees of B'nai B'rith. B'nai B'rith World Center chairman Haim Katz, Ph.D., and director Alan Schneider also participated.

Meetings were held with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Nobel Prize laureate Prof. Daniel Shechtman, Teva President and CEO Dr. Jeremy Levin, Jerusalem Venture Partners founder and CEO Erel Margalit, YESHA Council Chairman Dani Dayan, Ministry of Health Director General Prof. Roni Gamzo, Israel Parks Authority Director for International Relations Salman Abu Rukun, IDF Field Hospital Commander Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Ofer Merin and Deputy National Security Advisor Dr. Eran Lerman, among others.

Site visits included Yad Vashem, the City of David, Tefen Industrial Park, the Carmel Forest fire area, the Bahai Gardens, IDF elite Yahalom Unit combat engineers base, the community of P'duel in the Benjamin region and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.

The mission was crafted and executed by the B'nai B'rith World Center in Jerusalem.

B'nai B'rith International executive vice president Daniel S. Mariaschin said that the mission provided a unique opportunity for leading U.S. business leaders to learn and experience Israel candidly and without the distorting lens of the press. He expressed the hope that the visit would also help to advance business cooperation between those corporations represented and Israeli businesses.

The B'nai B'rith World Center in Jerusalem and the ‪Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel convened on September 4th the seventh meeting of their joint "Liaison Committee" - an informal Jewish-Christian initiative reconstituted in 2010 to foster better mutual respect and understanding between local Jews and Christians in a congenial atmosphere and as a platform for raising and resolving issues that impact on both communities. the meeting was dedicated to a presentation by Ambassador Mordechay Lewy, ambassador of Israel to the Holy See, who completed his tour of duty - and his 37-year diplomatic career - just two days earlier.

Ambassador Lewy's candid lecture on “Israel-Vatican and Jewish-Catholic Relations Today and into the Future” was followed by a lively Q & A and discussion session led by Ecumenical Fraternity director Rev. Dr. Petra Heldt among the participants who included leading Jewish and Christian  academics, municipal officials, journalists and institutional representatives.

Ambassador Lewy opened his presentation by praising the Liaison Committee for serving "as a spearhead in Jewish-Christian relations in Israel." He detailed the trials and tribulations of serving as Israel's representative to the Holy See and the special historic responsibility carried by the ambassador also as a representative of the Jewish people. World Center Director Alan Schneider opened the meeting by condemning the previous day's arson attack against the Trapist Monastery in Latrun near Ramle, attributed to "hilltop youth" protesting the court-ordered expulsion from the settlement of Migron. "Regardless of what is happening around us, there can be no justification for attacking any property, much less a religious institution and house of prayer and contemplation.  We must all call for an end to these despicable and deplorable acts of violence that gain nothing but further animosity for the settler movement."‪ 

‪​Mordechay Lewy joined the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1975. His appointment as Ambassador to the Holy See in May 2008 followed postings to Bonn, Stockholm, Berlin (as the first Consul General after the Unification), and later as DCM and Ambassador to Bangkok, as well as a 4-year assignment to the Jerusalem Municipality as the Mayor’s Special Advisor for Religious Communities. Lewy is a widely published scholar on Jewish/Israel-Catholic/Church relations and is also an enthusiast on the topic of tattoos of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land throughout the ages. His personal interest in Christian matters began with a Masters Degree in history, in which he researched the “Rise of monastic orders in the emerging medieval cities in Europe”.‪ He will now pursue a Ph.D. in ancient European history based on medieval maps.

B'nai B'rith International Honorary President Moishe Smith - a member of Jewish Agency Board of Governors Board committees and Extended World Zionist Organization Executive – represented B'nai B'rith at JAFI and WZO meetings held on October 28-31 in Tel Aviv.

Over the four-day parley Smith participated in meetings of a number of Board committees including Small Jewish communities; Holocaust restitution; Unity of the Jewish People and a Task Force on Anti-Semitism. 

The Board also approved JAFI's 2013 budget of $315m (reflecting a cut of $20 from 2012) and held a session on the Iranian threat. The Extended Zionist Executive heard in-depth reports on the organizations' expanding activities in Israel and the Diaspora.

B'nai B'rith World Center director Alan Schneider, coordinator of the B'nai B'rith International WZO/JAFI Committee, also participated in the meetings, attending the launch of a new JAFI Task Force on outreach efforts to Israelis living abroad.

The B’nai B’rith Fire Scouts Clubhouse, located at Haifa's central fire station, was officially opened for activities at a July 30 ceremony.

The clubhouse was built at the initiative of the B’nai B’rith World Center in memory of 16-year-old fire scout Elad Riven, the youngest of 44 Prison Service guards, policemen and firemen killed in the December 2011 Great Carmel Fire.

Participants in the ceremony included Haifa Region Fire Department Chairman Brig. Gen. Rami Dotan, Elad’s mother Tzvia Riven and three representatives of B’nai B’rith Israel: Nitza Niv, Chair, B’nai B’rith Haifa Regional Council, David Sirton, Deputy Chair, and Ilana Sirton, Mentor, Nitzanei Haifa Lodge.

The ceremony marked completion of the outfitting of the clubhouse and its transfer to the use of the fire scouts. B’nai B’rith invested $80,000 in the project from funds raised after the blaze by the B'nai B'rith Israel Emergency Fund and B’nai B’rith Europe. The clubhouse includes space for meetings, training and recreation.

The B'nai B'rith World Center was charged with implementing aid projects following the Carmel Fire. Shortly after Riven’s tragic death, the World Center learned that Haifa Region Fire Scouts officer Captain Avi Cohen had long dreamed of a dedicated clubhouse for the use of the fire scouts in Haifa - a project that allows teenagers to volunteer with fire departments across the country.

The World Center and the Haifa Region Fire Department cooperated closely for a year and a half to steer the project to fruition and realize Captain Cohen's dream.