B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith welcomes the decision by clothing retailer H&M to remove from its stores a shirt featuring a skull embedded inside a Star of David. 

As the symbol of the Jewish people, the Star of David should be treated with dignity and respect.

In a statement, H&M addressed the issue: “We are sincerely sorry if the T-shirt print has offended anyone, it was not our intention to provoke such a reaction.”                                                                                     

Though H&M responded relatively quickly to remove the shirt and cancel future orders, we remain dismayed that the shirt was created, approved and sold in the first place. Education and ongoing remembrance of the Holocaust is vital to ensuring sensitivity.

B’nai B’rith International decries the reported selection of Goldstone Report coauthor Christine Chinkin to replace Richard Falk as the U.N. Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories. During Falk’s tenure as special rapporteur, he repeatedly directed acute animosity and conspiracy theories at Israel, and new vitriol could be expected from Chinkin—an Arab League-backed appointee.

Chinkin has long demonstrated a virulent bias against Israel, coauthoring the inflammatory Goldstone Report in 2009. The report was meant to offer an assessment of events during Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s defensive operation in the Gaza Strip that ended in January 2009. Undertaken with a biased mandate, the report’s conclusions were quickly discredited. Richard Goldstone, for whom the report is titled, renounced key elements of the report two years after releasing it.

In recent weeks, former Indonesian U.N. Ambassador Makarim Wibisono, who also had a record of one-sided, anti-Israel statements, had been floated as a possible Falk successor. This was in apparent disregard for the nominee advanced by a consultative group to the council president, who was pressured to opt for a more overtly partisan choice.

“The very position held until now by Falk—authorized only to scrutinize Israeli practices—epitomizes the Human Rights Council’s obvious bias against Israel,” B’nai B’rith International President Allan J. Jacobs said. “Even when given the opportunity to appoint a new, relatively untainted individual to this inherently discriminatory position, the council clearly has no interest in so much as the appearance of a more responsible approach. At the expense of true peacemaking and of U.N. credibility, candidates like Chinkin are poised to represent more of the same gross politicization of human rights.”

Beyond the nomination of Falk’s successor at the Human Rights Council, it appears that his own wife Hilal Elver, of Turkey, is being appointed as the Council’s special rapporteur on the right to food. Elver shares her husband’s malignant anti-Israel and anti-American convictions.

“It’s not surprising the Human Rights Council is looking to appoint a new pair of anti-Israel rapporteurs and the world needs to take notice,” B’nai B’rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin said. “It’s clear the council would rather take ‘guidance’ from some of the international community’s worst human rights offenders than actually focus on combating their egregious abuses.”

Active at the United Nations since its inception, B’nai B’rith International will continue to monitor U.N. activities in New York, Geneva and elsewhere to call attention to anti-Israel bias and discrimination.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith condemns the Arab League’s declaration of the “absolute and decisive rejection to recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.” This statement—released by the 22-nation Arab League following a two-day summit in Kuwait—illustrates a major obstacle to Middle East peace, namely the Arab world’s blanket repudiation of the sovereign right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.

This latest iteration of Arab League doctrine seemingly lays out its strategy in the current round of peace talks—refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, while blaming Israel for the lack of progress in peace talks. This policy highlights its intransigence, coming even at a time when the United States is trying to secure a peace deal.

The Arab League's statement causes a regression in the peace process.

Recognition of Israel as a Jewish state would address the issue of a renunciation of claims and an end of conflict.

The summit also featured an address by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas who--in step with the rest of the Arab League--falsely accused Israel of obstructing the peace talks, thereby deflecting attention from the Arab League’s own rejectionist decision.

Recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is a key element to any lasting peace agreement.   

Spring 2014 Issue Also Explores the Fort Ontario Project and the Evolution of the Israeli Peddler

Deep analysis of the first comprehensive survey of American Jews in more than a decade reveals findings at odds with the initial negative headlines in October.  The early reports on The Pew Research Center’s study focused on such findings as 71 percent of non-Orthodox Jews marry out of faith, 22 percent of Jews describe themselves as Jews of no religion and only a quarter say religion is very important in their lives.

However, B’nai B’rith Magazine’s cover story highlights more encouraging news: Writer Uriel Heilman takes a nuanced look at the numbers—and uncovers some interesting facts. The number of Jews in America has reached a record high of 6.7 million, and the survey did not count the 1.2 million people without Jewish ancestry who still consider themselves Jewish.

In the “From the Vault” section, writer Cheryl Kempler delves into the little-known Fort Ontario Project. From 1944-1946, nearly a thousand Jewish European refugees lived in Fort Ontario—a previously vacant army base in Upstate New York. Kempler tells their story and B’nai B’rith’s role in helping them.

After a law banning animal carts was passed in Israel, it may have seemed that the alte zachen (door-to-door merchants in used goods) were going to be things of the past. A story by Deborah Rubin Fields explains how this occupation has evolved with the times and remains stronger than ever.

On the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, B’nai B’rith Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin dedicates his quarterly column to the Jewish role in the war, on both sides—and the role of B’nai B’rith in providing recreational activities and religious opportunities.  

To commemorate B’nai B’rith’s 170th anniversary last year, members from all around the world attended the 2013 B’nai B’rith Policy Forum. Taylor Schwink reports on the event.

B’nai B’rith International President Alan J. Jacobs also writes about the policy forum, describing what he took away from the presentations of six former B’nai B’rith presidents.

All this and more can be found in the current issue of B’nai B’rith Magazine.

And for exclusive digital content, visit the magazine website. 

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International condemns Iran’s Supreme Leader Seyed Ali Khamenei for his repulsive comments, again denying the Holocaust both on Twitter and in a speech on March 21.

Following the remarks he made in a speech given for the Persian New Year, Khamenei wrote on Twitter: “#Holocaust is an event whose reality is uncertain and if it has happened, it’s uncertain how it has happened.”

Khamenei’s inciteful statements are nothing new. By denying the Holocaust, Khamenei’s comments further underscore his shameful denial of history. Such comments cannot hide the true nature of the Iranian regime, which in addition to its pursuit of nuclear weapons, is the largest state-sponsor of terrorism and a serial human rights abuser of its own people.

B’nai B’rith International leaders sent a letter to CBS Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves expressing concern about an inflammatory scene in the March 16 episode of “The Good Wife” where a character used a blatantly anti-Semitic remark.

In the letter, B’nai B’rith President Allan J. Jacobs and Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin wrote: “That a major television network would provide a platform for such polemics, even in the guise of humor, is quite disturbing.”

Click here to read the letter.

As a member of the Elderly Housing Coalition, B’nai B’rith International organized a luncheon and a trip to Capitol Hill to attend a Congressional briefing on affordable senior housing and the federal role of aging in place for residents of two local senior housing buildings.

Residents from the B’nai B’rith Homecrest House in Silver Spring, Md., and St. Mary’s Court in Washington, D.C., gathered at St. Mary’s Court to receive advocacy training from B’nai B’rith professionals, teaching residents how they can speak up for the programs and services that keep millions of seniors healthy at home.

B’nai B’rith Director of Aging and Health Policy Rachel Goldberg spoke to attendees about the importance of federally-funded programs and informed them of the adversity facing many seniors, with 1.47 million elderly households below the poverty line and elderly homelessness expected to rise 33 percent by 2020.

“Our residents know first-hand how important the subsidized housing program is,” Associate Director of the B’nai B’rith Center for Senior Services Janel Doughten said. “And they also know how programs throughout the aging network make it possible for them to age in their own homes. We wanted to paint a bigger picture of the problems facing low-income seniors and give them the tools to keep these programs alive. I think we’ve accomplished that here today.”

Following lunch, residents travelled across town to the Rayburn House Office Building for a briefing on the role of supportive housing in the nation’s long-term care system. The briefing highlighted the shift in national policy as it moves in the direction of consumer choice and aging-in-place, as well as the dwindling number of supportive housing options for seniors and persons with disabilities.

“We hope this briefing will raise awareness about the critical role affordable housing for older adults plays in creating a successful, cost-effective long-term care delivery system in which people can age in place,” Goldberg said.

At the briefing, Homecrest House resident Trudi Addison addressed attendees, as did Morgan Gable, president of the Board of Directors of St. Mary’s Court; Kathleen Whalen, policy analyst for the Public Housing Directors Association (PHDA); Joe Belden, deputy executive director of the Housing Assistance Council (HAC); and Sarah Tribe, director of the Information and Referral/Assistance Support Center at the National Association of States United for Aging and Disabilities (NASUAD).

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

The vote by the student government at Loyola University Chicago in favor of a resolution urging the school to cease investing in companies that do business in Israel is a clear and concerted effort to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state.

The vicious, ongoing campaign by anti-Israel activists in the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement singles out Israel for isolation from the international community. Israel’s status as a bastion of academic freedom, as a democracy in a sea of unrest and as a medical, agricultural and technological wonder is ignored by a community of hypocrisy which disregards serious issues in the region to focus attention on Israel.

The unanimous vote, reportedly undertaken suddenly and with no effort at debate, says more about the voters than about Israel. 

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International participated in a remembrance ceremony for the 22nd anniversary of the Israeli Embassy bombing in Buenos Aires. On the afternoon of March 17, 1992, a suicide bomber drove a truck loaded with explosives into the corner of the embassy and then detonated multiple bombs. The attack killed 29 people, injured 242 and also destroyed a church and a school.

The event took place at the site where the embassy formerly stood; starting at 2:45 p.m. local time, with a sharp siren cutting through the air, signifying the moment the bombing occurred.

B’nai B’rith Argentina President Mario Wilhelm and other B’nai B’rith members and supporters were in attendance, as was the Israeli Head of the Latin American and Caribbean Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Itzhak Shoham and Israeli Ambassador to Argentina Dorit Shavit. The Argentine government was represented by Minister of Justice Julio Alak, members of congress and Buenos Aires city officials.

The embassy bombing was deadliest terror attack in Argentina until the Argentine-Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) building was bombed in 1994. That attack killed 85 people and wounded 300. Iran has been linked to both bombings, but none of the perpetrators have been brought to justice.

B’nai B’rith remains committed to remembering this terror attack and calling for those responsible to be held accountable.

An IsraAID mission to Sofia, Bulgaria, led by B’nai B’rith World Center Director Alan Schneider will be assisting Bulgaria as it deals with the large influx of Syrian refugees. The program is a joint-effort between B’nai B’rith International, the American Jewish Committee and the Shai Fund, under the IsraAID banner.

The IsraAID mission was sparked after Bulgaria, overwhelmed by the mass of people crossing through Turkey into the country, appealed for international aid, while the the United Nations declared a “human emergency” along its border. About 11,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Bulgaria, many taking up residence in deteriorating, overcrowded camps.

B’nai B’rith and its IsraAID partners will provide food and other supplies for immediate relief to the Syrians, as well as support for Bulgarian authorities in launching a psycho-social program. IsraAID's Dr. Shlomit Bressler is developing a psycho-social program to strengthen the knowledge of Bulgarian governmental and non-governmental bodies as they struggle to cope with the mental-health needs of the refugees.

IsraAID is the first Israeli-aid organization to reach out to assist the burgeoning refugee population in Bulgaria.

B'nai B'rith Bulgaria President Solomon Bali was instrumental in arranging the mission. Bali has been engaged in assisting refugees since their arrival and he played a large role in organizing a series of high level meetings with Bulgarian national, local officials and NGOs responsible for the treatment of refugees. The meetings and visits to refugee camps will provide the basis for a detailed plan that IsraAID will submit for future activities.