NCSEJ WEEKLY NEWS BRIEF Washington, DC
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NCSEJ WEEKLY NEWS BRIEF Washington, D.C. January 19, 2017 Polish president meets with Jewish community leaders ahead of Israel visit JTA, January 15, 2017 http://www.jta.org/2017/01/15/news-opinion/world/polish-president-meets-with-jewish-community- leaders-ahead-of-israel-visit WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — Polish President Andrzej Duda met with representatives of the country’s Jewish community, ahead of an official visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Duda, during his meeting with Jewish officials on Thursday explained that this year there was no traditional Hanukkah meeting at the presidential palace because Hanukkah coincided with Christmas. The President said that since 1989 and the fall of communism, Poland has worked to develop Jewish culture and that now many people in Poland are interested in it. Duda said that Jews have made a large contribution to Polish culture, science and Polish independence. Referring to Poland as the Republic of Friends, President of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities Leslaw Piszewski said that Poland “has a chance to be an example for other nations.” The meeting was attended by Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich; chairman of Jewish Social-Cultural Association in Poland, Artur Hofman; Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari; the head of From the Depths foundation Jonny Daniels; and leaders of other Jewish organizations. Duda and his wife will travel to Israel on Monday. On Tuesday, the Polish President will meet in Jerusalem with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, then he will visit Yad Vashem and the Western Wall. In the evening, he will present the highest Polish decorations, the Order of the White Eagle, to Shevah Weiss, former chairman of the Knesset and the Israeli Ambassador to Poland. On Wednesday Duda will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem. JERUSALEM, WARSAW SEEK ENHANCED TIES AS POLISH PRESIDENT VISITS ISRAEL BYGREER FAY CASHMAN Jerusalem Post, January 17, 2017 http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Jerusalem-Warsaw-seek-enhanced-ties-as- Polish-president-visits-Israel-478727 Both Israel and Poland are interested in enhancing relations at all levels and President Reuven Rivlin and Polish President Andrzej Duda each expressed this ambition at a welcome reception that Rivlin hosted for Duda on Tuesday. In greeting Duda, Rivlin underscored the value that Israel places on its relations with Poland and the European Union and noted that the first country that he visited as president was Poland. Meetings with Poland’s leadership are always relevant, said Rivlin. He also mentioned that Duda was in Israel for the second time in a four months period, having previously come to attend the funeral of Israel’s ninth president Shimon Peres, which was a greatly appreciated gesture. The reference to Peres gave Duda the opportunity to expand on his remarks about what Jews had contributed to Poland’s culture and economy over the centuries, and to the defense of Poland against the Nazis in a more contemporary era. He hailed Peres as a native son of the Second Polish Republic and spoke of the contribution of Polish Jews to the creation and development of the State of Israel. In his praise of Jews, Duda was doing more than merely paying lip service. His wife, Agata Kornhauser Duda, is of Jewish background. Her paternal grandfather Jakub Kornhauser was Jewish and her father Julian Kornhauser, a professor at Krakow’s Jagellonian University and a well-known writer, translator and literary critic describes himself as a Polish Jew. Duda’s entourage includes Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich as well as a delegation of young entrepreneurs who want to interact with their Israeli peers. This will be helpful not only to political relations between the two countries, but also to economic relations, said Duda. Each president spoke of the historic thousand-year symbiosis between Poles and Jews, and Rivlin made the point that relations between the two countries, though sometimes stained with blood in the past are today very close. The two presidents agreed that in order to ensure that there is continuity to the excellent relations that currently exist between their two countries, young Israelis must visit Poland to learn to understand the people and the culture and young Poles must come to Israel for the same purpose. When Rivlin went to Poland it was attend the opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. When Duda, after his meeting with Rivlin went to Yad Vashem, he saw evidence of the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jews on Polish soil. Later in the day, at his own request, Duda visited Peres’s tomb on Mount Herzl and placed flowers on it. He was accompanied by Peres’s grandson Nadav Peres. JEWISH AGENCY EMISSARY TO UKRAINE EXPECTS ALIYA TO RISE BYSTEVE LINDE Jerusalem Post, January 14, 2017 http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Shlichut-under-fire-Jewish-Agency-emissary-to-Ukraine-expects-aliya- to-rise-478427 “Although it is hardly reported in the media, two or three and sometimes up to 10 people are killed every day in clashes in the region of Donetsk in Ukraine,” says Jewish Agency emissary Max Lurye. “People who live in that area constantly hear explosions, and this has contributed to an unstable situation for all residents, including Jews.” Donetsk has come under heavy shelling from the Ukrainian Army since it was taken over by pro-Russian separatists in April 2014. While aliya from Ukraine was down to 5,500 in 2016 from over 7,200 the year before, Lurye says, he expects it to go up again. “After the war broke out in 2014, many Jews just fled and wanted to go to Israel immediately,” Lurye says in a telephone interview from his home in Dnipro (previously Dnepropetrovsk), the country’s fourth largest city almost 400 kilometers southeast of the capital, Kyiv. “Now thanks to our partnership with the Ofek Israel Public Company and Ministry of Aliyah and Absorption there are more options of doing seminars, learning Hebrew, meeting with Israeli representatives and planning for their future aliya more effectively. So I think the decrease in aliya is temporary.” No one knows exactly how many Jews there are in Ukraine today, says Lurye. “We think that there are about 200,000, but we are still receiving new requests from people who were not listed in our system before. In 2016 alone, we received 13,000 such requests for information on Israel from individuals eligible for aliya, thanks to the cooperation of the Jewish Agency with the Ofek Israel Public Company,” he says. Born in Ukraine 34 years ago, Lurye himself made aliya 10 years ago, completed his MA at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, married Nataly Nabitovsky and had three children. “I met my wife in Ukraine when she was sent here by the Jewish Agency to work in its camps,” Lurye says. “That’s why I always say I owe the Jewish Agency. We were sent together as Jewish Agency emissaries two and half years ago to Ukraine. I am the regional director, responsible for the eastern section of Ukraine and areas on the border with Russia, while she is responsible for other key areas. When we left, we had no idea of the war that was awaiting us, and that we were going to be doing our ‘shlichut’ (mission) under fire.” They arrived in Ukraine two weeks before Passover in 2014, and on the second day of the holiday, when the country’s fifth largest city Donetsk was taken over by pro-Russian separatists, all members of its Jewish community received written orders to register themselves with the municipality and pay a fine of 50 dollars. “Suddenly we understood that we were witnessing something that was not okay, and could cause harm to the Jews living in the communities in that area,” Lurye said. “So we began getting involved in all kinds of activities that I think most Jewish Agency shlichim (emissaries) are not involved in, including getting Jews out of war-torn areas. It was at that time that we also decided to set up a refugee camp in Dnipro for Jews who wanted to go to Israel.” He notes that the camp is still taking in about 30 to 100 new people every month. Jews from the war-torn areas have undergone severe trauma, and this needs to be dealt with before they go on aliya, he says. “We have to explain to them as best as we can how to deal with this trauma and prepare for their move to Israel,” he says. “It’s important for them to have a contact in Israel, where they know they can receive help. That’s why it’s important for the Jewish Agency and Diaspora Jewry to show that we care and are ready to provide a helping hand whenever we can.” Roman Polonsky, director of the Jewish Agency’s Department for Russian-speaking Jewry, says aliya from Ukraine has actually tripled itself in the last three years. “In 2013, there were about 2,000 olim, in 2014 it jumped to approximately 6,000, in 2015 it was more than 7,000, and in 2016, it was more than 5,500.” “The decrease last year is understandable,” he says. “The situation there is quieter than it was in the years of revolution, the annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war on the eastern border. People have become accustomed to the situation. But if the economic situation does not improve, this will be a major trigger for aliya from Ukraine. Unemployment is increasing, prices jumped substantially four months ago, and I know that the government is trying to eliminate corruption, but it’s very difficult.