During Pope Francis' historic visit to Israel and the Middle East last week, he was greeted by a delegation at the Western Wall that included B'nai B'rith International director of United Nations and Intercommunal Affairs David Michaels.

Michaels had a front-row view for many of the meetings and greetings during the two-day visit, and was a quoted source in a Q&A published in The Jewish Week after the trip.

Read an excerpt below and click through for the full story:

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Also in Israel for the visit was David Michaels, director of United Nations and Intercommunal Affairs for B’nai B’rith International. He pointed out also that there was a diversity of religious leaders at the presidential residence — including Muslims who knelt in prayer.

There were leaders of the Hindu faith, Sufis among the Muslim leaders, Sikhs, Christian Orthodox leaders and many others in the audience. That to me signaled that the pope is universally admired, and that people are very hopeful that he may be able to achieve a greater level of comity among the different faiths.

On the latest edition of Radio JAI, Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, discusses several important issues facing the continent's Jewish population. 

The topics this week focus on the recent European Parliament elections and the increasingly brutal anti-Semitism in Europe. Of particular concern to Kohn are the shooting in Belgium, attacks against Jews in France and thousands of anti-Semitic tweets after Maccabbi Tel Aviv won the Cup in Spain.


Listen to the full podcast:

En su columna habitual en Radio Jai, el director ejecutivo de Bnai Brith para América latina, Eduardo Kohn, manifestó su preocupación por el antisemitismo creciente en Europa, e hizo mención al atentado al Museo Judío de Bruselas en el que murieron cuatro personas. 

El analista comentó sobre las elecciones del Parlamento Europeo, y afirmó que la tercera parte del organismo estará compuesta por parlamentarios de ultraderecha y neonazis, provenientes de Francia, Alemania, Grecia, Hungría y Austria, entre otros. 

''El nuevo Parlamento de la UE tendrá derechistas maquillados y derechistas orgullosos de su nazismo'', expresó.

Zack Varrato was casual about winning a $1,000 college scholarship, but that’s to be expected from the easygoing Sussex Technical High School sophomore.

B’nai B’rith International, a nonprofit Jewish human rights group, awarded Varrato the third-prize scholarship for its Diverse Minds Youth Writing Challenge on May 27. 

The contest challenged high-schoolers throughout Delaware, as well as students in 10 counties in Maryland, to write and illustrate a children’s book about diversity and tolerance. The first-prize book will be published by Self Publishing Inc. and distributed in local schools and libraries.

[...]

While Varrato describes himself as outgoing rather than mellow, he identifies with the main character’s diverse group of friends.

“I’m from a diverse family,” he said. “I have a sister who is adopted, an uncle who is blind, an uncle who is gay. I’ve been raised to accept those differences.”

[...]

“For the younger kids, they have to realize others have to be accepted,” he said. “For the older kids, they have to include themselves in groups and it’s OK they’re different.”

Congratulations to Kayla Trinh of Clarksburg High School and David Ng of Damascus High School, who were awarded first place in the 2013-14 Washington, D.C. Diverse Minds Youth Writing Challenge.

Their winning book, "Cake Kingdom," embodies the purpose of the challenge: promoting tolerance and communicating a message of equality among all citizens, regardless of race, religion, national origin, gender or sexual orientation. 

The end result was an appetizing story of pastries that put aside differences in order to live in harmony. For their efforts, Trinh and Ng will share a $5,000 college scholarship and become published authors with their first official book signing at the Pepco Edison Place Gallery in downtown D.C.

Here is a gallery from last night's awards ceremony:

Despite a deadly shooting that claimed the lives of four in the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels on Saturday, members of the Jewish community gathered outside on Sunday, placing flowers, lighting candles and singing Hatikva.

Via Associated Press photographers, here is a gallery of the peaceful demonstration for remembrance of those lost:

On the latest edition of Radio JAI, Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, discusses several important issues facing the continent's Jewish population. 

The topic this week revisits the 1994 AMIA bombings in Buenos Aires, the denial of involvement by Iran and B'nai B'rith's response to an Argentine court's decision to dissolve the fictitious "Truth Commission."

Listen to the full podcast:

Daniel Mariaschin, vicepresidente y CEO de la B'nai B'rith Mundial, concedió una entrevista al diario “El País”, en que expresa el descontento de la organización con el acercamiento entre Uruguay y Palestina –materializado en los votos en la ONU a favor del Estado Palestino-, alegando que es necesario que Palestina no se sienta respaldada cuando negocia con el Estado israelí. 

Habló también de la preocupación por la posibilidad de que presos de Guantánamo sean recibidos en Uruguay, y se refirió al crecimiento del antisemitismo en el mundo. También, en más de una ocasión, alude a Irán en términos que el comunicado define como mentiras infundadas: 

“Hemos estado seriamente preocupados en los últimos años sobre la penetración de la influencia iraní, sobre todo en América Latina. Los países de este hemisferio son democracias que verdaderamente no tienen nada en común con el régimen iraní, no deberían tener nada en común. Irán es un abusador de los derechos humanos, es un Estado patrocinador del terrorismo, y está trabajando en un arma nuclear", expresa Mariaschin. 

"El 18 de julio es el 20 aniversario del atentado a la AMIA en Buenos Aires. Los iraníes estuvieron profundamente vinculados en este crimen, las huellas digitales están allí, e Irán no ha demostrado un interés demostrable de cambiar sus modos. Ahora mismo están apoyando a Hezbollah, que es instrumental del apoyo de Bashar Al Assad en Siria, con la continuación y perpetuación del régimen sirio que ha matado a 150 mil personas”, agrega el vicepresidente y CEO de la B'nai B'rith Mundial.

The European Parliament elections are taking place this weekend, drawing concerns from the global Jewish community as radical political groups could upset the balance in Europe.

Nuno Wahnon, director of European Union Affairs for B'nai B'rith, was a guest on So Much To Say on TLV1, an English-language internet radio broadcast from Tel Aviv.


Wahnon noted that while these parties and politicians may resonate with voters during uncertain economic times, the established parties will regain their footing.

Listen to the excerpt below, and check out the full episode of So Much To Say:

Last week, a delegation from B‘nai B‘rith International, including President Allan J. Jacobs and Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin, visited Latin America, meeting with local B’nai B’rith leadership and Latin American government officials.

Click on the presentation below to see a visual recap covering the important business accomplished during the week-long visit:

The following note appeared in The Gazette: Maryland Community News Online, announcing two new grants for B'nai B'rith Homecrest House:

The B’nai B’rith Homecrest House in Silver Spring received a $60,000 grant from the state of Maryland for improvements to its Edwards Building, which provides services for low-income seniors.

Improvements will include replacing the carpet and flooring.

The house also recently received an unspecified grant from the Washington, D.C.-based Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation to help with medication and therapeutic massage costs.

Homecrest House is an interfaith, nonprofit senior residence on 10 acres of land, with its own lake. Three buildings provide 235 apartments for independent seniors and 42 apartments for personal care services. There also are some apartments for adults with physical mobility challenges.

B'nai B'rith is the largest Jewish sponsor of federally subsidized housing for the elderly in the United States with 42 buildings in 27 communities. 

Each of the B’nai B’rith buildings has dedicated staff that are continually looking for ways to enhance the lives of the residents, and being able to provide medication and therapeutic massage to the residents, as well as improving the aesthetics of the building accomplishes that goal. 

People helping people, that's what B'nai B'rith is all about.  The success of our program cannot be measured by the number of apartment units we have built, because buildings are more than just bricks and mortar.  

Our success is measured by the many lives we have touched and indeed, enriched.

The award honors a “lifetime of outstanding community service that exemplifies the American way of life.”

Mr. Wenzel enthusiastically said yes; he was very excited when he found out he won the award in January.

Familiar with the award, he said when he was mayor he presented it a few times and always posed for a photo presenting each with a proclamation.

[...]

“I felt there was a responsibility I had toward the nation, and then when I came back there was a responsibility for all the people who did so many nice things for me in the city and also the state,” he said.

Currently a teacher at the Schemel Forum at the University of Scranton, Mr. Wenzel said it’s like continuing education, noting he just co-hosted a six-session series on World War I.

Past Americanism Award recipients, committee and community members dined on hors d’ oeuvres in the lobby of the JCC before taking their seats at round tables decorated with blue napkins. The head table added the red and white flowers for the patriotic theme.

“We only pick the best of the best,” said Richard Bishop, co-chairman of the dinner, who is a past recipient and has been involved in the lodge for 40 years, on Mr. Wenzel’s selection.

On Sunday, he received the B’nai B’rith Europe Lifetime Award of Merit, presented to him by B’nai B’rith Europe president Ralph Hoffman, who came from Frankfurt for the occasion.

[...]

The B’nai B’rith award is given to outstanding individuals who have dedicated at least 40 years of service to the well-being of the Jewish People and the State of Israel.

Peres was presented with a gold medal and a certificate that noted: “You are the face of Israel and of the Jewish People and you bring together the highest Jewish values of ethics, morality, tolerance, culture and the national unity of the Jewish People. The B’nai B’rith fraternity is also committed to these principles.”

In responding, Peres said every Jew deserves a medal of merit “because to be a Jew is to be committed to the spirit of humanity. It is not simple and it never was simple to be a Jew,” he said.

“A Jew today is a person who ensures his grandchildren are Jewish. That is what B’nai B’rith does, and it does it very well.”

Comedian Seth Rogen failed to see the comedy, calling Macklemore out on Twitter for wearing an "anti-Semitic costume" while performing his hit song "Thrift Shop."

"@macklemore, first you trick people into thinking you're a rapper, now you trick them into thinking you're Jewish?" he tweeted.

[...]


Macklemore responded:

"A fake witches nose, wig, and beard = random costume. Not my idea of a stereotype of anybody."

[...]


Rogen isn't buying Macklemore's "random costume" explanation. "@macklemore really?? Because if I told someone to put together an anti Semitic Jew costume, they'd have that exact shopping list."

[...]

B'nai B'rith International, a Jewish advocacy group, said the costume was "deeply offensive and propagates Jewish stereotypes."

"His costume choice and subsequent response demonstrate an utter lack of sensitivity," a statement from the group said. "Stereotypes are dangerous and offensive. Stereotypes dehumanize -- removing individuality and promoting intolerance."

Shalom TV Daily News featured B'nai B'rith International's statement praising the decision by an Argentine federal court to strike down the agreement between Argentina and Iran to create the “Commission of Truth.” 

The agreement called for an “independent” group that would investigate the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and wounded 300. The court ruled the agreement unconstitutional.

B’nai B’rith opposed the agreement the moment it was signed in January of 2013. As recently as this week, President Allan J. Jacobs and Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin met with the Argentine foreign minister to express their concerns over the agreement.

Read the full press release here.The story begins at the 3:08 mark in the video:

Astori recibió, por separado, a Laborde, director ejecutivo del Comité contra el Terrorismo de la ONU, al presidente mundial de la organización B´nai B´rith, Allan Jacobs, y a su vicepresidente, Daniel Mariaschin, y al embajador de Corea del Sur en Montevideo, Hanjun Yoo. Posteriormente hizo lo propio con el presidente de la Unión de Exportadores del Uruguay, Álvaro Queijo, y su secretaria ejecutiva, Teresa Aishemberg.

Sobre las 15:00 horas fue el turno de la primera audiencia, al reunirse Laborde en lo que fue su segunda visita de seguimiento para analizar las medidas contra el terrorismo en el país.

Tras la primera visita realizada en 2012 se evaluó la estrategia de seguridad del Gobierno en materia de lucha contra el terrorismo, para determinar si Uruguay está en posición de integrar el Consejo de Seguridad de Naciones Unidas durante el período 2016-2017.

Laborde explicó que esta reunión es para apoyar al Gobierno uruguayo para transformar a la realidad las recomendaciones realizadas en la primera visita. 

Explicó que, con el fin de controlar la amenaza del terrorismo en el mundo, el lapso entre una visita y otra se redujo, ya que antes se volvía a un país tras cinco o seis años de la primera visita.

Despite its charter’s solemn affirmation of “the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small,” the United Nations is the home of singular mistreatment for one member state, Israel, whose commitment to equality can rival that of virtually any country in the world.

The mistreatment of Israel manifests itself in myriad ways. A permanent Human Rights Council agenda item is dedicated to singling out Israel, alone among nations,  for hostile scrutiny. 

A U.N. “special rapporteur” is dedicated to publicizing only Israel’s alleged faults. In the case of the last person to hold that position, he overtly promoted economic warfare against Israel.

At least three entire U.N. bureaucratic bodies are dedicated to the worldwide advancement of Palestinian political goals and an anti-Israel narrative that is as simplistic as it is vile.

A permanent Human Rights Council agenda item is dedicated to singling out Israel alone for hostile scrutiny.The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) routinely lambastes Israel over, for example, its stewardship of holy sites in Jerusalem (a setting, for all its challenges, of exceptional multi-religious vibrancy in the Middle East). 

At the very same time, that agency – which Palestinians exploited by pressing for status as a “member state,” in order to evade direct peace negotiations with Israel – recklessly politicizes sacred places by recasting landmarks like Rachel’s Tomb and the Tomb of the Patriarchs as Palestinian and primarily Islamic.

Now, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is again threatening to expand his “internationalization of the conflict” with Israel by unilaterally enlarging Palestinians’ foothold in U.N. bodies that can then serve as political weapons against the Jewish state.

Although U.N. officials, like Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, should be expected to exercise principled leadership by speaking out unequivocally against all these abuses, such abuses are often driven by the U.N. voting membership, comprised in considerable part of Arab and aligned states. In the many areas where politics – not any sense of just, meaningful policymaking – carry the day, it is politics rather than rejection of discrimination that will prevail.

Sometimes, though, leaders like Ban are positioned to do more than raise objections. At times, they can, and must, implement actual changes for the sake of the U.N.’s own institutional credibility.

A case such as this is before us now, when a member of Ban’s own senior management team, Under-Secretary-General Rima Khalaf, is openly complicit not only in deplorable propagandizing against one nation in the international community, Israel, but also in demonstrating how effortlessly anti-Zionist incitement slides into anti-Jewish terrain.

In February, Khalaf, who serves as executive secretary of the U.N.’s Beirut-based Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, was in Tunisia to herald the release of a 310-page ESCWA report, “Arab Integration: A 21st Century Development Imperative.” Although the document’s name, size and official provenance would suggest a serious and forward-looking treatment of challenges in an Arab world beset by extensive political crisis and human suffering, the report represents yet one more misuse of vital resources to whitewash complexity and defer reconciliation.

It manages to invoke Israel over 150 times – yet, in decrying Israeli defense efforts and control of (some) Arab-claimed territory, there is not one mention of Hamas and Hezbollah, lethal terrorist movements that are directly responsible for these realities. 

Although Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has killed more Arab citizens in three years than any Israelis have since the development of modern Zionism well over 100 years ago, he too goes unmentioned. 

And Iran, whose war with Iraq claimed as many as one million lives and whose aggressive nuclear pursuit has (rightly) alarmed Arab leaders like little else has, gets negligible attention. 

By contrast, Israel is charged with posing a “nuclear threat” and a vague conspiracy to “divide the region into sectarian mini-States.”

Indeed, in all six instances where the grave crime of “ethnic cleansing” is alleged, it is democratic Israel – whose Muslim and Christian populations have risen continuously, in contrast to Jews and Christians elsewhere in the Middle East – that is the report’s target. And the report – which affords no attention to the dozens of countries whose state religion is, for instance, Islam – libelously claims that Israel has sought to be an “exclusive” Jewish country, thus promoting “the religious or ethnic purity of states, a concept that inflicted on humanity the worst crimes of the last century.”

As if this wasn't enough, the report also asserts that Adolf Hitler partnered with Zionism – whose supposed purpose was not to alleviate exile from a sole ancestral homeland but to “introduce an alien Jewish community in the heart of the Arab world.” 

Further adding insult to injury, Khalaf’s report mentions not once but three times Israeli aspirations to “Judaize” Jerusalem – when “Judaizing” Jerusalem,Yerushalayim, would be virtually akin to “Islamicizing” Mecca.

None of this is to say that the ESCWA report could not have made a constructive contribution – and this is precisely the point: By trafficking in slurs that are tired but still incendiary, Khalaf’s organization condemns not merely Israelis but also her own Arab constituency to a future no better than the past. In turn, she helps to mire the United Nations in a place not simply of irrelevance but of malignance.

Last November, Ban visited Auschwitz. There, he said: “Never again.… For our shared future, let us embrace our common duty as members of the human family to build a world of peace, justice, equality and human dignity for all.”

These were fitting words from the chief executive of the United Nations, which itself rose from the ashes of the Holocaust.

Increasingly, however, some in the international community have embraced denunciation of historical acts of hate while disregarding Jews’ continuing struggle to exist in the very heart of Jewish civilization across time, Israel. Palestinian leader Abbas recently conceded the enormity of the Holocaust – only to then announce partnership with Hamas, which denies both that historic genocide and Israelis’ right to live today.

While truly important, no commemoration of the Holocaust can compensate for abetting new expressions of demonization and delegitimization. The U.N. secretary-general has an opportunity to start ridding his house – our collective house – of prejudice by beginning with his own cabinet.

Derelict in upholding the founding values of the United Nations, Rima Khalaf’s role should be assumed by someone else: someone offering Arabs, as well as their neighbors, a better way forward.

"La comunidad judía sufre los mismos problemas que todos los argentinos. En 2001, iniciamos un programa de ayuda comunitaria a personas necesitadas. Puede ser que hoy la comunidad judía aquí esté algo mejor, pero cuando estamos mal, estamos todos mal." Es la apreciación de Allan J. Jacobs, presidente de B'Nai B'rith Internacional, que hizo una visita al país en su gira a Uruguay y Chile.

Líder de una de las organizaciones dedicadas a la asistencia social no sólo de la comunidad judía sino abierta a otras realidades, Jacobs viajó acompañado por el vicepresidente Daniel S. Mariaschin y el director para América latina con sede en Montevideo, Eduardo Kohn.

En Buenos Aires, además de dialogar con autoridades nacionales como el canciller Héctor Timerman, la cúpula de B'nai B'rith asistió a la ceremonia de asunción de las autoridades locales, encabezadas por Mario Wilhelm, que renovó su mandato, y de Jorge Burkman, como vicepresidente.

Primera organización judía en adquirir status de ONG ante la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA), B'nai B'rith funciona en 60 países y está reconocida por las Naciones Unidas y la Unión Europea.

En diálogo con LA NACION, Jacobs sostuvo que "B'nai B'rith trabaja muy bien en el campo social en la Argentina tanto dentro de la comunidad judía como fuera de ella". Y destacó que desde la crisis de 2001, la institución ha sido una de las principales entidades junto con organizaciones no gubernamentales norteamericanas que asistió a quienes necesitaban. "Con la Fundación OSDE tenemos un proyecto exitoso de entrega de medicamentos desde hace 12 años. Ya hemos repartido más de 80 millones de dólares en medicamentos en todo el país. Cuando fueron las inundaciones en Santa Fe como cuando comenzó la crisis en 2001, hicimos una ayuda abierta a todo el país", añadió.

El presidente de la B'nai B'rith Mundial, Allan Jacobs, y el vicepresidente y CEO, Daniel Mariaschin, llegaron a Uruguay en la noche del martes y hoy partieron a Chile. Pero en tan solo 24 horas mantuvieron reuniones con el vicepresidente Danilo Astori, los expresidentes Jorge Batlle y Luis Alberto Lacalle, la comisión de Relaciones Exteriores de la Cámara de Diputados y la comunidad judía en Uruguay. 

El objetivo fue transmitir su "preocupación" y "decepción" por el acercamiento de Uruguay a Palestina. En los últimos meses el país votó a favor del ingreso de Palestina a la ONU por considerar que es un Estado más. 

"Tenemos que ser coherentes con lo que ya hemos hecho, que es el reconocimiento a Palestina", resaltó el canciller Almagro en Nueva York. A esto se suma una visita oficial de Almagro a Palestina y el anuncio de la instalación de embajadas en Ramala y Montevideo. 

Astori escuchó ayer a Jacobs y Mariaschin y, según supo El País, le transmitió que Uruguay es un país que desea "la solución pacífica de las controversias sin poner en peligro las relaciones amistosas que tiene con todos los países del mundo". La B`nai B`rith transmitió también su preocupación por la posible llegada de prisioneros de Guantánamo a Uruguay y el antisemitismo mundial. A continuación un extracto de una entrevista de El País con Mariaschin.

-¿Cómo está actualmente la relación entre Israel y Uruguay?

-Tradicionalmente fue buena pero hay votos de Uruguay en la ONU que nos han decepcionado porque van en dirección contraria al buen relacionamiento que tenemos.

-¿Hay preocupación por esas decisiones de Uruguay?

-Sí, porque mientras que los palestinos sientan que la comunidad internacional los apoya en cada una de sus posiciones, no van a negociar y van a estar menos inclinados a dar las concesiones que son necesarias para un acuerdo. Los palestinos necesitan un mensaje: vengan a la mesa de negociaciones, negocien con Israel, Israel va a negociar con ustedes para llegar a un acuerdo.

Durante una visita a la Argentina esta semana, el presidente de la B’nai B’rith, Allan Jacobs, y su ejecutivo, vicepresidente y CEO, Daniel S. Mariaschin criticaron al memorandum de entendimiento sobre el atentado a la AMIA con Irán, en diálogo con la Agencia Judía de Noticias. "Dijimos públicamente este acuerdo es un error porque los iraníes están entre los expertos en engaños, y es exactamente lo que han hecho con el memorandum, no tienen más intenciones que firmarlo, y tal vez aumentar su aceptación en la comunidad internacional", expresó Mariaschin.
 
"Fue un gran error que no ha producido nada. Irán es lo que sabemos que es: un esponsor del terror, un violador de derechos humanos, un productor de armas nucleares", dijo. Además se refirió al 20º aniversario del atentado a la AMIA, en el que fallecieron 85 personas en 1994, y puntualizó que la institución decidió visitar al país y su comunidad judía para expresar su solidaridad sobre este crimen.
 
"Lamentablemente este capítulo de la actividad terrorista no está más cerca de resolverse. Estando tan cerca del aniversario vimos que era una buena oportunidad para venir y mostrar nuestra solidaridad. Si se hubiese tratado el tema del atentado, si los culpables hubiesen sido extraditados, si los cómplices locales hubiesen sido enjuiciados, tal vez se hubiese mandado un mensaje al terrorismo. Después de 20 años no tenemos ninguna resolución y estamos trabajando para ello", destacó.
 
Los líderes de la B’nai B’rith también expresaron que otra de las razones de su visita al país era para mostrar su solidaridad con la comunidad judía argentina. "Tenemos la obligación de unir al pueblo judío bajo el paraguas que cubre a todos, sin importar donde viven ni sus conexiones. Buscamos construir esta relación. Tenemos una B’nai B’rith en Argentina de la que estamos muy orgullosos", dijo Jacobs.
 
Por su parte, Mariaschin expresó que luego de esta visita irán a Montevideo y Santiago. "Debido a nuestra gran presencia en Latinoamérica venimos regularmente para interactuar con nuestra familia y también con la comunidad", dijo.

The e-mail invitation from the United Nations Division on Palestinian Rights (DPR) began with a genial “Dear Friends” salutation, and the writer noting “the pleasure” of inviting our organization “to participate in the United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Jerusalem,” taking place now in Ankara, Turkey.

The gathering is being sponsored by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the government of Turkey. The invitation noted that the theme of the two-day conference is “Strengthening international support for a just and lasting solution of the question of Jerusalem.” As an accredited non-governmental organization, we were on the invitation list.

We won’t be attending.

Innocuous as this gathering may sound, will there really be an open conversation? Both the Division and the Committee were established by the UN in the wake of the infamous Zionism= Racism resolution, which itself followed on Yasser Arafat’s appearance before the UN General Assembly in 1974. Together with another body, the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices, these committees serve as an in-house public relations operation for the Palestinian side in the conflict with Israel. Year-in and year-out, the General Assembly – now, by rote – routinely approves the funding for this operation, now amounting to over $6 million.

If they are really serious about investing in peace and not perpetuating conflict and hatred, they’d direct the $6m. to economic empowerment projects, like micro-financing for women-owned businesses.

On its website, the CEIRPP states that together with the DPR, the “secretariat” for Palestinian matters, the General Assembly “has gradually expanded the Committee’s mandate.” Indeed, the DPR is the only bureau in the UN’s Secretariat to be dedicated solely to one group, sitting aside, as it does, bodies devoted to geographically- based divisions for Africa, the Americas, Asia and Pacific, Europe, Middle East and West Asia.

The CEIRPP spends its time and funding on conferences like the one coming soon in Turkey, and photo exhibitions that regularly depict Israel as a heartless occupier and worse. No surprise there, because the committee exists only to exacerbate and prolong the conflict, not support or contribute to its amelioration.

You would not have found it on the sidelines cheering on the just-ended Kerry initiative, or out there calling now for a quick resumption of negotiations. It feeds on, and festers over the historic Palestinian narrative, with no time-out for reality checks along the way.

Shalom TV Daily News featured B'nai B'rith International's statements against the U.N. Human Rights Council’s actions to fill the role of departing anti-Israel special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, with former Indonesian U.N. Ambassador Makarim Wibisono.

B’nai B’rith International President Allan J. Jacobs said: “The position [Falk] occupied is inherently discriminatory, and with the appointment of Wibisono, based on his previous comments, it doesn't look like the situation will improve significantly.”

Read the full press release here.The story begins at the 6:17 mark in the video:

Months later, we’re still talking about our visit to Australia and New Zealand.

[...]

I was deeply impressed by the dedication of B’nai B’rith leadership at every stop. I listened to the reports made at the Convention, about projects that are meant to serve both the Jewish community and beyond. 

I was particularly impressed – and noted this in my speeches and presentations -with the Courage to Care program. With the number of survivors and eyewitnesses to Hitler’s brutality now sadly ebbing, the need to “educate and remember” is an obligation of history we must assume with increasing urgency. 

I was tremendously moved by hearing the testimonies of the school teachers who were able to spend some time at Yad Vashem, trips underwritten through the generosity of Courage to Care, as well as the descriptions of programs for school groups geared to hearing from survivors themselves or from videos that have been made in which they tell their stories. 

I was encouraged to learn of plans to grow the program; indeed, I took back materials with me to Washington to see if BBI can’t engage in a similar program here in the States.

[...]

Michal and I came away from our visit with a deep appreciation of the vitality of the Jewish communities in both countries, and especially by the special brand of dedication that our B’nai B’rith brothers and sisters bring to their important work. 

The well-known secret to our success over these many years (BBI is entering its 171st year) is the hard work and the caring of our many volunteers. BBANZ is carrying on that tradition into the 21st century. 

Yes, the years on the calendar have changed, but the imperative to reach out to our fellow Jews and the broader community is the same as when we were founded in 1843, and when the first lodge was founded in Australia in 1944.

El director ejecutivo de Bnai Brith para América latina, Eduardo Kohn, habló sobre el acuerdo firmado entre el grupo terrorista Hamas y Al Fatah para conformar una unidad nacional con plazo para el 1° de junio. 

La reconciliación entre ambas facciones islámicas se dio en varias ocasiones desde 2005 y suspendió las negociaciones entre Israel y la Autoridad Palestina. 

Además criticó al ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Uruguay, Luis Almagro, que había dicho que ese acuerdo "resuelve el 80% de todos los problemas de Medio Oriente". 

Over the weekend, the B'nai B'rith Young Leadership Network convened in Boston for the 2014 conference. The purpose of the retreat was to discuss social responsibility, centered around the weekend theme of Does Being Jewish Matter?

The goal of the B'nai B'rith Young Leadership Network is to support our Jewish communities locally, nationally and globally, bridging the gap between leaders of today and young Jewish leaders of tomorrow, by fighting intolerance, promoting humanitarian causes and delivering social programming for individuals 21-40 in local communities around the world.

In addition to fellowship and discourse, conference participants enjoyed an exciting weekend of charitable work throughout the Boston community.

Click through the official conference gallery: