Ceremony Dedicated to Rescue Efforts of the Jewish Defense Committee (CDJ) in Belgium
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The B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL-JNF) will hold, for the 17th consecutive year, a unique joint Holocaust commemoration ceremony on Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah, Thursday, May 2nd). This is the only event dedicated annually to commemorating the heroism of Jews who rescued fellow Jews during the Holocaust. Jerusalem-area schools and pre-army preparatory academies will attend the ceremony together with Jewish rescuers and survivors, and the Border Patrol will provide an honor guard. The ceremony will take place at the B’nai B’rith Martyr’s Forest “Scroll of Fire” Plaza at 10:00 a.m. Israel time.

This year's ceremony will be dedicated to rescue efforts undertaken by the Jewish Defense Committee (CDJ). Speakers in the ceremony will be: Mr. Danny Atar, world chairman, Jewish National Fund; Dr. Haim V. Katz, chairman of the B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem; Brigadier General Yehuda Yehoshua, commander of the Border Guard Combat Training Center; H.E. Olivier Belle, ambassador of Belgium to Israel; and Michel Werber, son of CDJ founding members Abusz and Shifra Werber.

The Jewish Defense Committee in Belgium was founded in September 1942 in reaction to the start of the deportation of Jews by the Gestapo in August 1942 in Brussels and Antwerp. The goal of the CDJ was to operate clandestinely to save as many Jews as possible. The CDJ united Jews from a broad ideological spectrum (including communists, revisionists, General Zionists, members of "Left Zion Workers", "Zionist Youth") and from different swathes of society (among them Belgian citizens and foreigners, secular and religious Jews and even some non-Jews, such as the teacher Andree Geulen) to engage in joint rescue operations. The CDJ urged Jews to disregard the orders of the local Judenrat – the AJB - and go underground instead, and also endeavored to win the support of the general public for persecuted Jews. Some of the CDJ members held positions in the AJB and secretly passed on vital information to foil the German's nefarious plans.

The committee managed to rescue 3,000-4,000 Jewish children – half of all the Jewish children who survived the Holocaust in Belgium – and provided life-saving assistance to 10,000 adults, including hiding places and forged documents. This activity endangered the lives of the CDJ members; some of them were captured, tortured and deported to concentration camps. Some did not survive. The CDJ operated as an adjunct of the "Independence Front" – the most significant resistance organization, founded in Belgium in March 1941, that united 17 different ideological and religious groups lead by the Communist Party in response to the German invasion of the USSR. At the time of the German invasion of Belgium – May 10, 1940 – 66,000 Jews lived in the country, of whom only 10 percent were Belgian citizens; 34,801 were arrested during the Holocaust (among them 5,092 children under the age of 16); 28,902 were murdered – 44 percent of the entire Jewish population in Belgium; 24,906 were imprisoned - usually for several days – at the transfer camp Mechelen-Malines and deported from there on 28 transports to Auschwitz beginning in summer 1942. Only 1,337 survived the camps.

The number of CDJ members reached 300. It operated an impressive administrative network to handle finance, forged papers and food coupons, clandestine press and concealment of children and adults. The department for forged papers was so successful that it also provided papers for non-Jews trying to avoid forced labor. The principal feature of CDJ – cooperation between groups across the ideological and political spectrum - was the basis of an organization unique in Western Europe. The main chapter of the committee was in Brussels. Other chapters were in Charleroi and Liege. In Antwerp, the committee was founded in 1943, when three independent groups started to collaborate. 55 percent of Belgian Jews survived thanks to the swift response of individuals who went underground independently, to the heroic operation of members of the CDJ and to the support of the local Belgian society at large, including many clergy. It should be noted that Jews also operated outside the CDJ in various resistance organizations in smuggling, intelligence, sabotage and clandestine press. The unequivocal conclusion resulting from the events in Belgium during the war is that passivity of the Jews facing the horrors of the Holocaust is a myth.    

 During the ceremony, the “Jewish Rescuers Citation” will be conferred on 11 leading members of the CDJ and four other rescuers who were active in Poland: David Ferdman, Hertz Jospa, Hava Jospa, Abraham Manaster, Chaim Pinkus Perelman, Fela Perelman, David Trocki-Muscnicki, Paulina Avstritski, Trocki-Muscnicki, Josef Sterngold, Abusz Werber, Shifra Werber and Shraga Dgani, Miriam-Mania Zeidman, Yaacov Segalchik, and Bela Yaari-Hazan. Since the establishment of the Jewish Rescuers Citation in 2011, nearly 270 heroes have been honored for rescue activities in Germany, France, Hungary, Greece, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Italy, Holland and Belgium.

The B'nai B'rith Martyr’s Forest is the largest joint B’nai B’rith and KKL-JNF project, which memorializes the victims of the Holocaust with 6 million trees planted in the picturesque Jerusalem mountains near Moshav Kesalon. At the pinnacle of the forest stands the “Scroll of Fire,” created by renowned sculptor Nathan Rapoport, which invokes the destruction of the Jewish people in the Holocaust and their redemption in the State of Israel. The event will commence with personal testimonies by Holocaust survivors to classes of soldiers and students.

The phenomena of Jewish rescue and the instructive stories of thousands of Jews who labored to save their endangered brethren throughout Europe have yet to receive appropriate public recognition and resonance. Many who could have tried to flee preferred to stay and rescue others; some paid for it with their lives. With great heroism, Jews in every country in occupied Europe employed subterfuge, forgery, smuggling, concealment and other methods to ensure that Jews survived the Holocaust, or assisted them in escaping to safe havens, and in doing so foiled the Nazi goal of total genocide against the Jews. The organizers of the ceremony view it as especially important to expose Jewish youth to these narratives as a model for Jewish solidarity and courage.
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Program
 
09:00-09:30 a.m.         Personal testimonies by Holocaust survivors to soldiers in the Forest
09:45 a.m.                    Coalesce in “Scroll of Fire” Plaza
10:00 a.m.                     Siren peal and ceremony commencement
11:00 a.m.                      Ceremony conclusion
11:00-11:30 a.m.             Personal testimonies by Holocaust survivors to students in the Forest

For interviews and more details, please contact: B’nai B’rith World Center Director Alan Schneider at 052-5536441 or aschneider@bnaibrith.org; Golan Yosiffun 052-4625135.
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B’nai B’rith International has advocated for global Jewry and championed the cause of human rights since 1843. B’nai B’rith is recognized as a vital voice in promoting Jewish unity and continuity, a staunch defender of the State of Israel, a tireless advocate on behalf of senior citizens and a leader in disaster relief. With a presence around the world, we are the Global Voice of the Jewish Community. Visit www.bnaibrith.org

(Washington, D.C., Jan. 28, 2019)--B’nai B’rith International and the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations hosted a joint event entitled, “India: A Distant Haven During the Holocaust” on Jan. 28 at the headquarters of the world body in New York. The event, commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day, featured Dr. Kenneth Robbins, an expert on the Indian Jewish community, and Stephen Tauber, a Holocaust survivor whose family fled from Austria to India. Indian Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin and B’nai B’rith International President Charles O. Kaufman gave opening remarks. CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin introduced Robbins and Tauber.  
 
The two guest speakers discussed Jews in India on both a macro and a personal level. Robbins spoke about minorities’ contribution to Indian society, and India’s history of religious tolerance. He also outlined the movement of Jews to India during different periods of history.  
 
Tauber told a more personal story of his own family, which left Vienna and traveled to India on an Italian ship. His family worked to maintain its Jewish traditions in a tiny community. In 1941, the family settled permanently in the United States.
 
“Ken is a font of knowledge about India, and particularly the intersections between Indians and Jews… Ken’s work epitomizes the phrase ‘labor of love,’” Mariaschin said, praising Robbins. Mariaschin addressed Tauber by expressing his thanks “for your presence, for your story – and that you and your family were fortunate to find rescue in India and ultimately a new life here in the United States.”  
 
In his remarks, Kaufman emphasized the U.N’s role in fighting hatred and violence. "Although the U.N. does not always live up to its original promise, that promise remains and so does our commitment to see it realized. This is particularly so as anti-Semitism, other forms of hatred and even mass atrocities persist on our planet. Even worse, anti-Semitism persists as Holocaust-denial,  that grave injustice, only stands to intensify as more time following World War II passes and we lose more of the survivors, the first-hand witnesses to the unthinkable crimes of the Nazis. And as memory fades, so do lessons – which is something that our world cannot afford."
 
B’nai B’rith, distinguished for its exceptional role at the United Nations since the body’s very founding, has annually marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day and maintained longstanding ties to India. B’nai B’rith leaders have visited the country, met with senior Indian government and other officials, dispatched humanitarian aid in India during periods of emergency and sponsored a traveling exhibition on intercommunal coexistence in the Indian city of Cochin (Kochi).

​To view an archived video of the event, click here.
 
B’nai B’rith International has advocated for global Jewry and championed the cause of human rights since 1843. B’nai B’rith is recognized as a vital voice in promoting Jewish unity and continuity, a staunch defender of the State of Israel, a tireless advocate on behalf of senior citizens and a leader in disaster relief. With a presence around the world, we are the Global Voice of the Jewish Community. Visit www.bnaibrith.org

​(Jerusalem, Dec. 5, 2018)— The B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jews who Rescued Fellow Jews During the Holocaust announced during the Chanukah holiday that they will posthumously honor with their Jewish Rescuers Citation 18 Jewish heroes who risked their own lives to rescue fellow Jews. Seventeen of the honorees are leaders of the Comité de Défence des Juifs en Belgique (CDJ), the joint Jewish/non-Jewish Jewish Defense Committee in Belgium: Abusz Werber, Chaim Perelman, Maurice Heiber, Benjamin Nykerk, Ghert Jospa, Yvonne Jospa, Esta Heiber, Sophie Werber, Fela Perelman, Ida Sterno, Abraham Monastir, Joseph Sterngold, Pauline Trocki, George Livchitz, Leopold Flam, Erna Stern and Israel Tabakman.

The CDJ was established by five disparate Jewish organizations and one non-Jewish organization following the first deportations from Antwerp and Brussels by the Nazis in August 1942. Until then, the different organizations had undertaken independent rescue operations. It operated as an underground resistance group with the purpose of helping Jews – especially children – evade deportation through various illegal methods, mainly hiding, but also the provision of false credentials.

Six of the eight founding members were eventually arrested and deported, and only two of them survived. The Committee was the single largest Jewish clandestine organization in wartime Europe, with 768 activists. It is credited with ensuring the survival of 3,000 Jewish children and as many as 10,000 adults. Some 55 percent of Belgium’s prewar Jewish population of 66,000 (90 percent of them non-citizens) survived the war due to staying hidden, the actions of the committee and the heroism of Belgian non-Jewish rescuers, many of whom have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. CDJ assumed the task of conveying the children to new homes and keeping tabs on how they were cared for. This task necessitated a great deal of travel and was therefore the province of non-Jewish women members, who were the least likely to raise the suspicion of the Germans and their Belgian collaborators.

The eighteenth rescuer to be honored with the Jewish Rescuers Citation is Mania Zeidman, who endangered herself to rescue fellow Jews while working in the Ober Altstadt Concentration Camp infirmary in Germany. Zeidman allowed recovering women to remain in the infirmary so that they would not have to face the hardship of work outside that would have surely lead to their death in the harsh conditions. By these actions she endangered herself, earning the wrath of sadistic doctors who beat her often.

More than 200 Jewish rescuers from 14 countries – now including Belgium – ­ have been recognized by the Jewish Rescuers Citation since its inception in 2011 for their demonstration of human and Jewish solidarity, which they demonstrated by endangering their lives to rescue others.

For more information about the Jewish Rescuers Citation, please contact Alan Schneider, director, B’nai B’rith World Center—Jerusalem 02-6251743.

B’nai B’rith International has advocated for global Jewry and championed the cause of human rights since 1843. B’nai B’rith is recognized as a vital voice in promoting Jewish unity and continuity, a staunch defender of the State of Israel, a tireless advocate on behalf of senior citizens and a leader in disaster relief. With a presence around the world, we are the Global Voice of the Jewish Community. Visit www.bnaibrith.org

B’nai B’rith Urges Dismissal of Marc Lamont Hill Over Call to Erase Israel

(Washington, D.C., Nov. 28, 2018)--B’nai B’rith International calls for the immediate dismissal of CNN commentator and Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill over explicitly anti-Semitic statements he has made as featured speaker at the primary United Nations event marking the body’s yearly International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

Coming in the aftermath of CNN’s release of a survey showing the persistence of global anti-Semitism—whose most lethal strain is now the demonization and delegitimization of the world’s only Jewish state—Hill endorsed the anti-Jewish discrimination of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and justified all forms of Palestinian “resistance,” which largely refers to terrorism against Israeli civilians. Most shockingly, he echoed the jihadist aspiration of erasing Israel completely, asserting that justice requires “a free Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.”

Ironically, today’s Palestinian solidarity event marks the day in 1947 on which the U.N. General Assembly endorsed the right of Jews to a homeland in Israel—a right that continues to be rejected by Middle East extremists.

Hill has regularly engaged in anti-Semitic rhetoric at events hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a radical activist group that has advocated the destruction of Israel. SJP actively promotes support for terrorists, including Rasmea Odeh, who participated in a grocery store bombing that killed two students in Israel, and Ahmed Manasara, who indiscriminately stabbed Israeli civilians on a street in Jerusalem and told police officers he “went there to stab Jews.”

Hill has also been an open proponent of the BDS campaign, whose founding was motivated by a desire to isolate, harm and ultimately eradicate Israel by promoting economic warfare against it. 

Additionally, he has had a longstanding relationship with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a foremost purveyor of modern anti-Semitism, who has called Judaism a “gutter religion” and Jews “satanic.” In 2016, Hill posted online a picture of himself smiling with Farrakhan, adding the caption, “Been blessed to spend the last day with Minister Louis Farrakhan. An amazing time of learning, listening, laughing, and even head nodding to music. God is Great.” Last month, when challenged on his association with Farrakhan after the latter compared Jews to termites, Hill tweeted: “Although I disagree with the Minister on those important issues, I will not allow that to be an excuse for allowing dishonest media or poorly intentioned observers to create unnecessary division. I will not be told who to speak to, sit with, or engage.”  

Hill’s continued career at CNN, and as a professor of media studies and urban education at Temple University in Philadelphia, is especially ironic in light of the network’s recent survey highlighting widespread anti-Semitism in Europe. The poll revealed that many Europeans continue to believe in anti-Semitic tropes. Over a quarter of those surveyed said they think Jews have too much influence in business and finance. Nearly one in four said that Jews have too much involvement in armed conflicts and wars worldwide. The survey also revealed a troubling lack of knowledge surrounding the events of the Holocaust. Although the Nazi genocide resulted in the murder of six million Jews on European soil, a third of the survey’s respondents said they knew little or nothing about the Holocaust. Nearly a third blamed Israel’s actions for anti-Semitism in their countries, and 18% blamed the behavior of Jews in general.

It is intolerable that Hill, who describes himself as “one of the leading intellectual voices in the country,” has enjoyed important platforms to spread his bigoted views. His association with anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic groups and figures prevents him from speaking with any moral authority on peace and justice, particularly to a global television audience and to students. He must be swiftly repudiated and replaced by CNN and by Temple University. ​

B’nai B’rith International has advocated for global Jewry and championed the cause of human rights since 1843. B’nai B’rith is recognized as a vital voice in promoting Jewish unity and continuity, a staunch defender of the State of Israel, a tireless advocate on behalf of senior citizens and a leader in disaster relief. With a presence around the world, we are the Global Voice of the Jewish Community. Visit www.bnaibrith.org

(Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2018)—B’nai B’rith International President Charles O. Kaufman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:   
 
We are gratified that France will not include Marshal Philippe Pétain, who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, in its Armistice commemoration this weekend.

For days, there seemed to be confusion within the French government about the status of an honor for Pétain. It is important that the choice was made not to recognize him as a war hero for his World War I service. The confusion points out the continued need to educate future generations about the Holocaust and the events that led up to this horror against the Jewish people and so many others.
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While he was the prime minister of the collaborationist government Vichy France, Pétain’s government and police force deported more than 75,000 French Jews to concentration camps. More than 72,000 of them were killed.
 
Pétain was convicted of treason for his crimes during the war and ultimately sentenced to death. His complicity in the murders of French citizens and collaboration with the genocidal Nazi regime cannot be whitewashed.
 
Israel has recognized almost 4,000 French citizens as Righteous Among the Nations. These men and women bravely risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. They are the true heroes, not Pétain.
 
B’nai B’rith International has advocated for global Jewry and championed the cause of human rights since 1843. B’nai B’rith is recognized as a vital voice in promoting Jewish unity and continuity, a staunch defender of the State of Israel, a tireless advocate on behalf of senior citizens and a leader in disaster relief. With a presence around the world, we are the Global Voice of the Jewish Community. Visit www.bnaibrith.org

B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:
 
B’nai B’rith International strongly condemns Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for declaring that the Jewish people caused the Holocaust due to their “social behavior.” Abbas gave a speech yesterday at the National Palestinian Council in Ramallah, and referred to his remarks as a “history lesson.” Characterizing his inaccurate remarks as a lesson in history demonstrates a dangerous disregard for the undisputed and undeniable facts surrounding the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews.
 
Nazis and their collaborators are solely responsible for the Holocaust.
 
Abbas’ anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric is the height of maliciousness, and no one can expect to arrive at an agreement with a leader who peddles such anti-Semitic tropes. Abbas perpetuating vile conspiracy theories and falsifying ​history does nothing for the Middle East peace process. It does, however, elevate hatred to a new level.

B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:
 
B’nai B’rith International commends the House of Representatives for passing the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act (HR 1226/S.447), which calls on the U.S. State Department  to annually assess and report on the restitution of Holocaust-era assets in countries with outstanding obligations.
 
B’nai B’rith expressed its support of the bill in a letter sent to Congress.
 
The bill “…directs the Department of State, with respect to covered countries, to annually include within either the relevant Annual Country Report on Human Rights, the International Religious Freedom Report, or other appropriate report an assessment of the nature and extent of national laws or enforceable policies regarding the identification, return, or restitution of wrongfully seized or transferred Holocaust era assets and compliance with the goals of the Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets and Related Issues…”
 
We hope this legislation will result in long overdue accountability by those countries that need to settle restitution obligations, and in the process, provides justice to survivors, their families and the Jewish communities as a whole. 
 
The act will now be sent to the White House, and B’nai B’rith encourages President Donald J. Trump to sign the bill into law.
 
B’nai B’rith is a founding member organization of the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO).

​B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:
 
B’nai B’rith International commends the German government for appointing Felix Klein commissioner for combating anti-Semitism, a newly created position.
 
Klein, who currently serves as special representative for relations with the Jewish community, will be charged with coordinating the government's activities to fight anti-Semitism within Germany. He also has headed Germany's delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and played a leading role in prompting his government's adoption of IHRA's working definition of anti-Semitism.
 
It is vitally important that the German government place its prestige and resources behind the pressing issue of anti-Semitism, as it is doing with the creation of the anti-Semitism commissioner post. In 2017 Germany experienced 1,453 anti-Semitic hate crimes, according to government data, as well as a continued mainstreaming of anti-Semitic attitudes, which Klein has vowed to oppose.
 
B'nai B'rith encourages other governments to create similar positions and to work with stakeholders in civil society to vigorously fight anti-Semitism.