Serving Memphis and Mid-South Jewry Since 1925 Vol. 99, No.24 50 Cents Per Issue February 25, 2021 • 13 Adar, 5781 MEMPHIS, TENNESEE In a Texas battered by cold, Jewish communities join a desperately needed response By Andrew Lapin NEW YORK (JTA) — One year ago, Dallas’s Jewish com- munity convened a “health crisis management team” to coordinate the local response to the brand- new COVID-19 pandemic. Now the community has repur- posed the team, consisting of rab- bis from each denomination and House impeachment managers proceed through the Capitol the CEOs of local Jewish agencies, Rotunda on February 9, 2021. Credit: Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images to take on a very different kind of crisis: the unfolding effects of an unusual winter storm that has Republican official deletes comment suggesting crippled large swaths of Texas and left millions of people without Kosher Palate, a kosher restaurant in Dallas, prepares thousands Trump’s trial was less fair than Nazi show trials reliable access to heat, electricity of free hot meals to serve to Orthodox families affected by power outages By Ben Sales actual criminals, unlike the current or clean water. during Winter Storm Uri, Feb. 17, 2021. WASHINGTON (JTA) — A debacle.” So far, the group has gotten Courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas member of the Republican Na- In the show trials, Nazi pros- aid to seniors and people without tional Committee from Virginia ecutors tried people accused of electricity. Synagogues and their 2019, a Category 3 tornado struck morning, February 18, as he joined has deleted a Facebook comment political offenses; virtually all congregants are offering shelter Dallas, bringing more property apparently suggesting that Nazi many Texans in asking why the were convicted, most receiving to those without power. And the damage to Jewish communities. state’s energy grid was not pre- show trials were fairer than the death sentences. The Senate on Jewish Federation of Greater Dal- And of course the pandemic has recent Senate trial of former Presi- pared for sub-zero temperatures. Saturday, February 13, acquitted las partnered with Kosher Palate, a challenged every aspect of Jewish “It’s too much to ask of anybody. dent Donald Trump. Trump in his impeachment trial. local kosher restaurant, to deliver and communal life. A top Republican Jewish leader People are angry and confused and Denver Riggleman, a former thousands of meals to Jews without The toll of the latest disaster — frustrated, and I am, too.” called the comment “outrageous Republican congressman from power — a project the restaurant rare in a state with a generally tem- and indefensible” before Patricia For many, the anger is being Virginia who has been an outspo- began on its own and accelerated perate winter climate — is still tak- driven by what they perceive as Bast Lyman, the Republican com- ken critic of anti-Semitism, called with the federation’s aid. ing shape. As of Thursday morn- mitteewoman, apologized and said a lackluster response by state out the comment as “virulently an- “I keep saying this is what ing, February 18, nearly 500,000 leaders. Former governor Rick she had been misinterpreted. ti-Semitic.” (In his Twitter thread, Federation was built for,” said homes and businesses remained Lyman was commenting on a Perry suggested that Texans would Riggleman initially mistook the Mariam Shpeen Feist, the group’s without power, with large swaths prefer a few days without heat to Facebook post from another Vir- comment to be about the Nurem- president and CEO. “We were built of the state’s grid remaining down. ginia Republican official, Steve federal intervention in their power berg Trials, in which Nazis were to respond to crisis.” Hospitals are running out of water. system, and Sen. Ted Cruz flew to Knotts, which appears to also have the defendants, not the prosecu- Texas is home to around Some 7 million residents are under been deleted. In her comment, Ly- Cancun for a planned vacation on tors, before correcting himself.) 130,000 Jews, the majority lo- a boil-water advisory. At least 30 Wednesday night, February 17, in man wrote, “At least some of those So did the Teenage Republican cated in the Dallas and Houston deaths linked to the storm have tried by the Nazis may have been (See Trial Page 2) the Mexican resort city. Both are areas. The state, and its Jewish been reported. And residents are Republicans. population, has experienced no burning furniture to stay warm, Jewish communities, like oth- shortage of recent crises. In 2017, according to reports. ers across the state, are taking steps In Holland, a Torah scroll returns Hurricane Harvey decimated the Meanwhile, another storm is to address their own needs. In Dal- Houston area, flooding thousands on the way. las, one of the region’s two Jewish to Jewish hands 80 years after it of Jewish homes and causing mil- “It’s pretty dire in the city right senior living centers lost both its lions of dollars in catastrophic now,” Steven Adler, the Jewish main power and backup generator, was hidden from the Nazis damage to several synagogues mayor of Austin, the state capital, forcing the staff to quickly relocate By Cnaan Liphshiz man of the Jewish Community of and other Jewish institutions. In told a local TV station on Thursday (See Texas Page 2) AMSTERDAM (JTA) — A Rotterdam, or NIG. Torah scroll that disappeared from The Pennings family from a Dutch synagogue following the Dordrecht kept it in storage for Nazi invasion into the Netherlands many years until one of the fam- ADL singles out Poland, Hungary, Russia has been rediscovered 80 years ily members mentioned to a local later and returned to the Jewish historian, Kees Weltevrede, that and British Labour Party in Europe anti-Semitism report community.The scroll, which ap- she has a Torah scroll of unknown By Cnaan Liphshiz longstanding antisemitic tropes. what it called the government pears to be intact and has been kept origins in her home. Weltevrede NEW YORK (JTA) — Authori- Juxtaposing ‘Polish’ and ‘Jew- campaign to “demonize George in excellent condition since World approached NIG, whose members ties in Poland, Russia, Hungary ish’ in this manner sends a signal Soros,” a liberal Jewish billionaire War II, belonged to a synagogue in were excited about this find. and some lawmakers in Britain’s that Jews in Poland are somehow who was born in Hungary and is the southern city of Dordrecht, ac- “For decades no one knew Labour Party used anti-Semitism not real Poles. Mr. Kaczynski’s funding causes that run contrary cording to Chris den Hoedt, chair- (See Scroll Page 2) for political means, according to statement implies that being a to the policies of the right-wing the Anti-Defamation League’s true Pole – as an identity – means prime minister, Viktor Orban. anti-Semitism report on Europe not accepting Jewish restitution One of those causes concerns published Thursday, February 18. claims. And, by extension, that the arrival of immigrants from the In Poland, presidential candi- being Polish means opposing those Middle East and Africa to Europe, date Rafal Trzaskowski was the Jewish claims.” which Orban opposes and Soros target of “antisemitic rhetoric” The ADL report did say that actively supports. In 2017, the this summer during an election Kaczynski’s remarks and others Hungarian government launched a in which he lost to the incumbent “proved a source of concern for billboard campaign against Soros Andrzej Duda of the right-wing many” both in Poland and abroad. featuring pictures of the business- Law and Justice party, ADL wrote In Hungary, the report noted (See Report Page 2) in the report titled “Choosing An- tisemitism: Instrumentalization and Tolerance of Antisemitism in Contemporary European Politics.” The report noted that Law and Justice’s leader, Jaroslaw Kaczyn- The lost Torah scroll of Dordrecht, the Netherlands, was kept in ski, said in a television interview good condition by a family. Courtesy of NIG that Trzaskowski is “without a Polish soul, a Polish heart and a Polish mind” for allegedly agree- ing to review restitution claims for Jewish property lost during or after the Holocaust. Trzaskowski is not Jewish. The report did not call the remark specifically anti-Semitic. Asked whether ADL considers This 2017 billboard in Budapest was part of a Hungarian Kaczynski’s statememt anti-Se- government campaign to “demonize George Soros,” the report said. mitic, an ADL spokesperson said: Credit: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images “His remarks certainly play into Page 2 THE HEBREW WATCHMAN Thursday, February February 25, 2021 Report... Jewish communities warned that Soros as policy-based and legiti- port, adding, “The most convinc- example of how antisemitic rheto- (Continued From Page 1) the campaign risks emboldening mate. ing answer is that the campaign ric surrounding Israel and Zionism anti-Semites, adding that Orban is But “Orban’s decision to target was premised on the receptiveness and other forms of antisemitism man and philanthropist smiling “not an anti-Semite.” The EMIH an American Jew rather than Euro- to antisemitic stereotypes in the were tolerated within a major and titled “don’t let him have the federation of Jewish communities pean Union officials with authority Hungarian public.” political party to accommodate a last laugh.” in Hungary disputed Mazsihisz’s over EU immigration policy raises On Russia, the report states that radical component of the party.” The Mazsihisz federation of warning, describing criticism of questions,” ADL wrote in the re- the country under President Vladi- As the party’s ranks swelled, mir Putin weaponizedanti-Semitism “incidents of anti-Semitic rhetoric Texas... by exaggerating its prevalence in and harassment by these new mem- live in areas that have avoided the bar mitzvah, the Robinson house- Ukraine, with which Russia has bers steadily rose,” with Corbyn (Continued From Page 1) worst of the outages, although the hold lost power, too.