(Jerusalem, June 23, 2020)--The B'nai B'rith World Center and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust announced that they will bestow their joint Jewish Rescuers Citation on 16 nominees, all but two posthumously.  
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Alan Schneider, director of the B’nai B’rith World Center, said, “B’nai B’rith is honored to bring to light the phenomena of Jewish rescue and the instructive stories of thousands of Jews who risked their lives to save their endangered brethren throughout Europe. 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 a safe heaven, and in doing so foiled the Nazi goal of total genocide against the Jews. They are role models of Jewish solidarity and courage.” 

Recipients of the citation are:

1. Fred Șaraga (1891-1961) – A leader of the Jewish community of Romania who led rescue missions to Transnistria,, negotiating the release of some 2,000 orphans from life-threatening conditions.
2. Yitzhak Artzi (1920-2003) – - A leader of the Zionist Federation in Romania who participated with Fred Saraga in a mission to Transnistria and the rescue of Jewish children.
3. Beate Berger (1886-1940) – Founder of a boarding school for orphans and abandoned children in Germany. Recognized the danger posed by the Nazi regime and brought all 300 children at the boarding school to pre-state Israel.
4. Vladka Meed (1921-2012) – Arranged hiding places for Jews who escaped from the ghetto in Poland, mostly women and children, and smuggled weapons and documents.
5. Rabbi Itzack Cassuto – Rabbi in Larisa, Greece. Warned his community to escape the city. Some 950 Jews escaped and 255 Jews were arrested. He remained but refused to compile a list of members of the community for the Germans.
6. Jacob Gutfrajnd (1909–1991) – Established the first Jewish partisans group in Brussels, targeting Jewish collaborators and informers and destroying Jewish community records to prevent their discovery and deportation.
7. Sara Gutfrajnd (1909-1993) – A member of Committee for the Defense of Jews (CDJ) in Belgium. She smuggled weapons, placed Jewish children in monasteries and Christian homes and furnished false documents, money and food.
8. David Liwer (1903-1968) – Leader of a resistance group in Bedzin, Poland. Hid Jews in his home and helped many escape from the ghetto. Provided passports from Latin American countries to members of the Zionist movements that aided in their rescue. Fled with his family to Budapest, where he became active in the Zionist movement.    
9. Yosef Givon (1923-1968) – Smuggled food and medications to Jews from a hospital storeroom where he worked and led Jews incarcerated in the hospital to safety.
10. Shulamit Roitman Einhorn (1924-2020) –Member of the Jewish Resistance in France. Aided families in hiding and provided them with falsified documents.
11. Leon Roitman (1925-1993) – Member of the "Jewish Army." Only 16 years old, he rescued children detained in the camps and transported Jews to the south of France. Recruited by Dr. Eitan Guinat, he worked in the lab to falsify documents and recruited others to work there.
12. Jack Roitman (1922-1988) – Member of the Jewish Resistance and Jewish Army in France. Transported Jews across the border to Spain.
13. Arthur Einhorn (1923- ) – Member of the Youth Zionist Movement of the Jewish Resistance in France. Smuggled Jews across the border to Spain, falsifiedand distributed documents and helped locate hiding places for Jews in villages in the area. Lives in Washington D.C.,.
14. Erna Einhorn (1929-2007) – Sister of Shulamit and Arthur Einhorn, she was a member of the Jewish Resistance in France. Einhorn falsified and issued documents and provided food to families in hiding.
15. Oscar Neuman (1894-1981) – Leader of the Zionist Movement in Slovakia. Founded the "Working Group" that disseminated information about the massacre of Jews in death camps; established three work camps where 4,000 Jews were employed, saving them from deportation to death camps; bribed German officers and clerks to prevent deportations; and aided the escape of 12,000 Jews to Hungary.
16. Hetty Verolme (1930 - ) – At age 14, served as a "little mother" for children in Bergen Belsen. She stole food and hid it in her coat, risking her life to help the children survive until liberation. Lives in Perth, Australia.

The Jewish Rescuers Citation was established in 2011 in an effort to help correct the generally held misconception that Jews failed to come to the aid of fellow Jews during the Holocaust. To date, 330 heroes have been honored for their rescue activities in Germany, France, Hungary, Greece, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Holland, Italy, Morocco, Romania, Belgium, Ukraine, Latvia and Austria.

The B'nai B'rith World Center and  the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust published a book on Jews rescuing Jews which you can find here. Additional information published by Yad Vashem is available on Yad Vashem website Hebrew and English.

For more information please contact: Alan Schneider, Director, B'nai B'rith World Center aschneider@bnaibrith.org 
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., June 16, 2020)-- B’nai B’rith representatives delivered two statements to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Tuesday, calling out the hypocrisy and anti-Israel bias of standing agenda Item 7, which is devoted exclusively to demonizing Israel. No other UN agenda item is exclusively devoted to one country. 
 
B’nai B’rith representative Nurit Braun delivered a statement attacking the body’s unprecedented move of creating a blacklist of companies doing business with Israelis. View a video of her remarks or read a transcript here.
 
“Threats against doing business with Israel are not new, and boycotts against ‘Jewish-owned’ businesses go back even further,” Braun said. “To those who vote in favor of economic warfare against the Jewish state, we say: We are not intimidated and we will not be defeated. Israel will continue to thrive economically, culturally and as a humane, diverse and democratic state.”
 
B’nai B’rith representative Sonia Elkrief’s statement emphasized that, especially in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, it is unconscionable that the UNHRC continues to waste its time singling out Israel for unjust criticism instead of calling out actual human rights violators. Watch a video of her remarks or view a transcript of her statement here.
 
“As the world is dealing with true emergency conditions, all of us are forced to sit through yet another of these sessions dedicated solely to bashing the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel,” Elkrief said.  “Come natural disasters, wars and pandemics, Item 7 is always with us, at each and every regular session. This council never seems to want to miss an opportunity to obsessively attack the nation-state of the Jewish people.”
 
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
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B’nai B’rith International and the World Zionist Organization Will Host a Live Broadcast from Major Sites in Israel’s Capital in Honor of Jerusalem Day, Thursday, May 21st

(Jerusalem, May 20, 2020)--In light of the coronavirus pandemic, this year's Jerusalem Day will be celebrated differently from past years. Thousands of people from all over the world who would have visited  the Western Wall, the Old City, the Shuk  and the old neighborhoods of Jerusalem on this festive day are unable to attend this year due to restrictions imposed by Israel's Ministry of Health on assemblies and tourist travel.

To fill this gap, the World Zionist Organization and the B'nai B'rith World Center-Jerusalem will provide a unique opportunity to visit some of the major sites associated with Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) from the comfort of your home through a live internet broadcast.

The two-hour program will feature special sites in Jerusalem, along with history, heritage and interviews with those who fought in the Six Day War of June 1967 when the city was reunited.

The event will be broadcast on the Facebook pages and YouTube of the World Zionist Organization, Yaakov Hagoel and B'nai B'rith International on Thursday, May 21st from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Israel time (7 a.m. – 9 a.m. ET).

Two expert guides will lead the virtual tour in English, beginning at the courtyard of the National Institutions in Jerusalem and concluding at the Western Wall. Yaakov Hagoel, vice and acting chairman of the World Zionist Organization and Alan Schneider, director of the B'nai B'rith World Center-Jerusalem who initiated this event, will deliver greetings.

The virtual tour will continue in the neighborhood of Rehavia, Tzahal (IDF) Square, Mamilla, Jaffa Gate, The Jewish Quarter, Mount of Olives, Golden Gate, the Monument of the Injured Bird, Lions Gate, the Photographer's House Observation Point and the Little Kotel, among other sites. The tour will conclude with singing and the blowing of the shofar in the courtyard of the Western Wall.

Hagoel said: "As is written in the Talmud, 'Ten cubits of beauty fell upon the world, nine of them on Jerusalem' and on Jerusalem Day we see the beauty of the city in all its glory. In order for those in the diaspora who are unable to feel Jerusalem physically on this special day, in the re-establishment of the State of Israel, we have designed a unique live tour that will make available to our viewers, if not to smell Jerusalem and its fragrances and pure air, then at least to see the pastoral views and stories of the heritage of Jerusalem our eternal Capital, on this day that we mark the reunification of Jerusalem for eternity as the Capital of the Jewish People and those in the diaspora."

Schneider noted: "B'nai B'rith began its activities in Eretz Israel in Jerusalem in 1888 with the purpose of creating a union to promote the concept of Jewish nationalism and countering missionary activities. It is still active and is among the international Zionist organizations that are members of the World Zionist Organization. Jerusalem Day is a significant watershed that signals the return of the Jewish people to ancestral places and that is celebrated in the shadow of the continuing struggle over Israeli sovereignty in its capital city. By way of the tour we wish to provide an opportunity for members of B'nai B'rith around the world and to our brothers and sisters in Jewish communities to experience this exciting city that the Jewish people have prayed for and have shown loyalty to for so many generations."

For further information please contact:
Alan Schneider, B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem Director: +972-52-5536441
Liron Yehezkel, WZO Spokesman: +972-52-8259892
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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

Branu Tegene and Danny Kushmaro (Channel 12 News) and Dina Kraft (Haaretz) Recognized

(Jerusalem, May 6, 2020)--B’nai B’rith International has announced the winners of the 2020 B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage: Branu Tegene and Danny Kushmaro of Channel 12 News and Haaretz correspondent Dina Kraft.

Tegene, a correspondent for Channel 12 news, and  news anchor Kushmaro will receive the award in the broadcast media category in memory of Wolf and Hilda Matsdorf for a 5-part series entitled "Mefotzalim" (Split Up: The Story of the Ethiopian Jewish Community) that follows the lives of Jewish Ethiopians left behind after the community's mass immigration to Israel, members of their family in Israel and their reunion in Ethiopia (link here). Kraft will receive the award for print media in memory of Luis and Trudi Schydlowsky for articles on Jewish communities in the United States and Great Britain (The Pittsburgh Playbook; How a Community Began to Heal ; The Status of Anti-Semitism in Contemporary America and Britain.) 

B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem Chairman Haim Katz and Director Alan Schneider noted that "Even in the trying times when Israel and Jewish communities around the world are focused on facing the medical, social and economic fallout of the coronavirus epidemic, efforts must continue to maintain and strengthen the relationship between Israel and Diaspora communities around the world. The B'nai B'rith World Center-Jerusalem remains dedicated to that mission through the Award for Journalism and other significant programs that have been adapted to fit our new reality".
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Since its establishment in 1992, the B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism has recognized excellence in reporting on contemporary Diaspora Jewish communities and on the state of Israel-Diaspora relations in the Israeli print, broadcast and online media. The award is widely recognized as the most prestigious prize in the Israeli media industry for Diaspora reportage and was established to help strengthen the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. The award highlights the important contributions the media can make toward strengthening the relationship between Israel and world Jewry by encouraging quality reporting on Diaspora communities and Israel-Diaspora relations.

The distinguished members of the award jury are: Ya'akov Ahimeir, past editor and anchor, Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation and Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2016; Professor Yehudith Auerbach, School of Communication, Bar Ilan University; Professor Sergio DellaPergola, The Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University; Sallai Meridor, former Israeli ambassador to the United States and former chairman of the Zionist Executive and Jewish Agency for Israel; Professor Gabriela Shalev, Higher Academic Council, Ono Academic College and former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations; journalist Yair Sheleg; Asher Weill, publisher and editor of “Ariel” The Israel Review of Arts and Letters (1981-2003).
 
The Awards are presented in memory of the late Wolf Matsdorf, editor of the World Center-Jerusalem’s journal “Leadership Briefing” and a journalist in Israel and Australia, and his wife Hilda, a pioneer in social work in both Australia and Israel, and in memory of Luis and Trudi Schydlowsky. The award is made possible through donations from the Matsdorf family and B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem board member Daniel Schydlowsky.
 
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., April 28, 2020)--In response to the implementation of social distancing measures and stay-at-home orders, B’nai B’rith has increased our production of online content, including podcasts, webinars and one-on-one interviews with experts in a variety of fields. We have talked about how anti-Semitism has spread along with the spread of the coronavirus; the challenges facing older adults in subsidized housing; the latest medical information about the coronavirus; and resilience, among many other topics.

Together, we can navigate this crisis and combat feelings of social isolation. Please find some of our offerings below.

We held a webinar to discuss the explosion in anti-Semitism in the EU during the coronavirus pandemic, with special guest Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism The webinar, hosted by CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin can be viewed here.

The Jerusalem Post’s Op-Ed editor and Middle East affairs analyst, Seth Frantzman joined Mariaschin on the B’nai B’rith podcast to discuss his new book, how his experiences reporting in the Middle East have shaped his analysis of recent events on the ground, Iranian hegemony and coronavirus’ impact in the region. The full podcast is here. We also welcomed from the Jerusalem Post Omri Nahmias, along with our World Center-Jerusalem Director Alan Schneider for a discussion on Israel’s coalition government.

In partnership with Yad Vashem, B'nai B'rith commemorated the six million Jews who perished during the Holocaust, including one and a half million children. As part of the North American Unto Every Person There is a Name program, we read names of Holocaust victims, ensuring these people would always be remembered. Due to COVID-19, this was a virtual ceremony broadcast live on Yom Hashoah.
 
Eric Fusfield, director of legislative affairs and deputy director of the B’nai B’rith International Center for Human Rights and Public Policy spoke with Mariaschin as part of our One-On-One interview series about “The Plot Against America,” HBO's miniseries adaptation of Philip Roth’s 2004 novel of the same name and explored what the series says about Jewish identity in America, both in the 1940s and today. The six-part limited series imagines that Charles Lindbergh became president in 1940, leading to the widespread persecution of Jews in the United States. Watch here.

Mariaschin spoke with MEP Sergey Lagodinsky. A Member of the European Parliament for Germany since 2019, Lagodinsky is a lawyer and member of the German Green Party. They spoke about European Union's efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic, how the parliament approaches anti-Semitism and what role the Working Group on Anti-Semitism plays in setting the parliament’s agenda. They also talked about threats to the Jewish community and the rule of law in Europe during this crisis. Watch here.

Israel's Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi joined Mariaschin for our One-On-One series to discuss the coronavirus' impact on Israel and its economy, regional cooperation during the crisis, and how Israel's relationship with the rest of the world has changed in the midst of a global pandemic. Hanegbi also provided updates on the formation of the new Israeli government. Their full conversation is here.
 
Eduardo Kohn, B’nai B’rith’s director of Latin American Affairs, visited our One-On-One program to talk about how Latin America is responding to the coronavirus pandemic, how the Jewish community is handling the outbreak, and what B’nai B’rith is doing to help Jews across Latin America during this time. See the conversation here.

We held a webinar with members of B'nai B'rith’s Center for Senior Services team to discuss how they are guiding our senior housing communities through the coronavirus crisis, emergency and disaster training for B’nai B’rith housing staff, and its efforts on Capitol Hill advocating for seniors during the coronavirus crisis. Panelists from the Center for Senior Services included Director Mark D. Olshan, Associate Director Janel Doughten and Legislative Director for Aging Policy Evan Carmen. Watch the webinar here. What are the special challenges frontline staff are facing at these buildings? This conversation addresses that question.

Mariaschin spoke to David Michaels, B’nai B’rith’s director of United Nations and Intercommunal Affairs, about how the coronavirus has affected B’nai B’rith’s U.N. initiatives, how the virus has changed the U.N.’s priorities and deliberations, and what impact this crisis has had on relations between member states. They also talked about the World Health Organization’s role as this crisis continues to worsen. Watch here.

​​​​Israel is at the forefront of innovative research and treatment when it comes to coronavirus. Yoel HarEven, the director of the international division and resource development at Sheba Medical Center in Israel, joined Mariaschin on the B’nai B’rith International Podcast for a discussion on the coronavirus response at his hospital, in Israel more broadly and the sharing of best practices around the world. Listen here.

B’nai B’rith is committed to providing insightful and enlightening content during this difficult time. Visit our Extra Page to see what programs are coming up and what you may have missed.
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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., April 20, 2020)—B’nai B’rith International President Charles O. Kaufman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:  
 
We commend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz for coming together to form a unity government. In a time of crisis, the two political leaders put the country first. Once again, Israel’s vibrant democracy has resulted in a diverse coalition. Under the terms of the agreement, Netanyahu will remain prime minister for 18 months. After that, Gantz is set to succeed him.
 
We wish the new government well in facing the battle against COVID-19, as well as other urgent challenges, such as the strategic threats posed by Iran and Hamas terrorists.
 
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.
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(Jerusalem, April 20, 2020)--The B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust will hold a Zoom meeting on Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah, Tuesday, April 21) to extol the heroism of some 20 Jews who endangered themselves during the Holocaust to rescue fellow Jews. Relatives and representatives of the now-deceased rescuers will address the meeting, and the Jewish Rescuers Citation – a joint project of the World Center and the Committee – will be conferred virtually on them. The event will be carried live on B’nai B’rith’s Facebook page and will primarily be in Hebrew, with some English.

The rescuers include:

• Moussa and Odette Rosenstock Abadi (Marcel Network), two Jewish doctors who married after the war, rescued 527 Jewish infants, children and teenagers with the help of  Bishop of Nice, France, Paul Remond (recognized as Righteous Among the Nations) in 1943-1945. The children were sheltered in Catholic institutions and Christian homes. Odette was denounced, arrested and tortured, but she did not reveal the network. She was deported to Auschwitz and then to Bergen-Belsen where she was liberated in April 1945;
• Joseph Bau, a graphic artist who forged documents for the Jewish underground in Krakow, Poland, and later in Oscar Schindler’s factory camp in Brněnec in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia;
• Rebecca Bau, a nurse who served as the manicurist of Amon Goeth, the ruthless Nazi who ruled over the Plaschow concentration camp. She shared secrets she overheard that helped many inmates survive while also providing them with moral and physical support;
• Fella Meiboom-Cajtak, who served for two years as a nurse in the dentistry clinic in Birkenau and was transferred to Auschwitz as punishment by Josef Mengele, where she was appointed head of Block 8 and was responsible for 1,000 children aged 12-16, many of whom she helped evade Mengele’s deadly selections;
• Ahron Roza, a Greek-Jewish pharmacist who worked in the SS’s pharmacy in Auschwitz. He endangered his life smuggling drugs to sick inmates, saving their lives;
• Lena Kuechler Silberman, who lived under an Aryan identity in occupied Warsaw and rescued twins from the Warsaw ghetto, placing them in a Catholic institution;
• Fredy Hirsch, a celebrated sportsman and educator in pre-war Germany. Through sports and physical training, he provided support and hope to Jewish children in the Theresienstadt concentration camp and later in the children’s block he established in Birkenau;
• Gisi Fleischmann, a Zionist activist and the leader of the Bratislava Working Group, one of the best known Jewish rescue groups during the Holocaust. Fleischmann was arrested on Oct. 15, 194,4 and murdered in Auschwitz three days later;
• Noach Kleiger, who served as a runner in the Belgian anti-Nazi underground and in an underground cell of the Zionist youth movements that conveyed Jewish children to Switzerland via France;
• Semyon Rozenfeld, the last surviving participant in the uprising in the Sobibor death camp that resulted in the escape of hundreds of inmates. 300 survived Nazi pursuit into the surrounding forests;
• Haidi Kornfeld, who undertook various missions for the Jewish underground in Hungary, including providing documents to Jews that allowed their survival and protected them from deportation to concentration and death camps;
• Aron Menczer, who was active in “Youth Aliya” in Vienna before the war. Deported to Theresienstadt, he was appointed to care for 1,200 children brought there from Bialystok and from there to Birkenau, where he was murdered;
• Helen Cazes-Benathar, the first female attorney in Morocco, who established the Committee to Assist Foreign Refugees in Casablanca under the German-puppet ant-Ssemitic Vichy government and engaged in clandestine illegal activities for an extended period to rescue fellow Jews.

• Adolf Berman, a doctor of psychology and a Jewish community leader in Warsaw before the war. He was one of the leaders of the Jewish underground in the Warsaw Ghetto, a member of the presidium of the Underground National Committee and general secretary of the Polish underground Council for Jewish Aid (known by its code-name “Żegota”). He and his wif,e Basia Temkin-Berman, who was also a Zionist activist, were smuggled out of the ghetto on Sept. 5, 1942, under assumed Polish identities and endangered themselves assisting Jews who escaped the ghetto after its destruction;
• Aviva Igael Ingeborg Simon, born in Frankfurt, whose family fled to France when Hitler came to power. She joined the underground activities of the Jewish Scouts that rescued Jewish children in cooperation with the French underground. She served as counselor at a shelter for abandoned Jewish children whose parents had been arrested and deported and was a courier of weapons licenses, identity cards and other illegal papers made available to the underground by friendly municipalities and local governments. She also participated in dangerous missions to smuggle Jewish children from France to Switzerland;
• Buena Sarfatty, born in Saloniki, Greece, who was arrested and imprisoned in the Pablo Mela detention camp located near the German army headquarters. Shortly after her incarceration, she was freed in a daring operation of the Greek resistance. She found refuge in Komotini in northeastern Greece where she joined first the royalist and then the communist-aligned underground ELAS-EAM. She took part in various operations across Greece on behalf of the partisans and assisted Jewish families to escape Nazi persecution to Palestine via Turkey. She also located Jewish children, the wounded and pregnant women, assisting them to escape Greece under Nazi occupation.

The Zoom meeting represents a break from the traditional annual ceremony held by the World Center and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL-JNF) for the past 17 consecutive years in the B’nai B’rith Martyrs Forest.  It is the only event dedicated annually to commemorating the heroism of Jews who rescued fellow Jews during the Holocaust.

Since the establishment of the Jewish Rescuers Citation in 2011, 314 heroes have been honored for rescue activities in Germany, France, Hungary, Greece, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Italy, Holland and Belgium.

One of the most recent recipients of the Jewish Rescuers Citation, Frida Wattenberg, a member of the Jewish underground in Grenoble, France, during the Holocaust, contracted coronavirus and died in Paris on April 3, just three weeks shy of her 96th birthday. The citation was conferred on Sept. 23, 2019, at the Fondation de Rothschild seniors’ home where she resided. Tsilla Hershco, the author of the most authoritative book to date on the Jewish underground movement in France and a member of the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust, conferred the citation.

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 B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust produced a 32-booklet on Jewish rescue in advance of Yom Hashoah (Hebrew only).  Yad Vashem – the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel – has adopted Jewish rescue as the official theme of this year’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day under the title Rescue by Jews during the Holocaust - Solidarity in a Disintegrating World. Materials produced by Yad Vashem for the occasion can be seen here (English) and here (Hebrew).

Interviews with the last surviving Jewish rescuers in Israel, David Gur (Hungary) and Eliezer Lev Zion (France), can be arranged with prior notice.

Please contact Alan Schneider, director, B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem for further details - +972-52-5536441

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., Feb. 12, 2020)—B’nai B’rith International President Charles O. Kaufman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:
 
We are deeply appalled by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) shameful release of a blacklist of companies with business interests in Israeli territory captured during the defensive Six-Day War of 1967, which includes portions of Jerusalem. The thoroughly discredited U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) had mandated OHCHR to create the database. The list was released today with no notice to the companies affected.
 
OHCHR does not have the competency to compile such a list, nor does it have the jurisdiction. It, and the UNHRC, are mandated to deal with actions by states, not businesses. When it comes to Israel, however, a special standard is always applied at the U.N. There are plenty of other situations where territories are disputed, however, the only blacklist that exists targets Israel and it is likely that no other country will be targeted with a similar list.
 
The list, which targets some of the largest and most important corporations in Israel, including the largest banks and telecommunications companies, is clearly meant to serve as a clearinghouse of information for anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns targeting Israel. One hundred and twelve companies are affected; the vast majority – 94 – are based in Israel, but there are others headquartered in the United States, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Thailand and Luxembourg.
 
The U.N.’s single-minded obsession with Israel is completely unjustified. Instead of helping facilitate peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the world body continues to provoke tensions. Peace can only come from direct engagement between the two sides, not from discriminatory dicta issued by third parties. It is time for those who see the hypocrisy in these kinds of actions to stand up and speak out. 

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