Serving Memphis and Mid-South Jewry Since 1925 Vol. 99, No.25 50 Cents Per Issue March 4, 2021 • 20 Adar, 5781 MEMPHIS, TENNESEE Israel to spend $50M compensating families of children who disappeared in state’s early years By Asaf Shalev JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Is- raeli government approved a plan Monday. February 22, to provide compensation of up to $60,000 to some of the families of children who went missing while in state care in the 1950s. But advocacy groups and sev- eral of the families have already rejected the plan, calling it a cyni- The sculpture “Le Deporté” by Françoise Salmon can be seen on cal move designed to silence their the site of the former concentration camp Neuengamme. larger demands for accountability. Credit: Markus Scholz/picture alliance via Getty Images) They are demanding an official apology, an expansion of the eligi- US deports 95-year-old former Nazi bility criteria, and further access to state records that might shed light A view of Yemenite Jews who were flown into Israel in 1950 under concentration camp guard back to Germany on the fate of their relatives. “Operation Magic Carpet.” Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images By Philissa Cramer Amendment that bars anyone who The compensation plan — NEW YORK (JTA) – A year participated in Nazi-sponsored amounting to roughly $50 million kidnap children from hospitals and The window to apply for money after an immigration judge ordered persecution from entering or living — represents a new phase for what clinics and deliver them to Ashke- runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, and him deported to Germany because in the United States. An appeals Prime Minister Benjamin Netan- nazi families. applicants must sign a waiver of his work as a Nazi guard, Fried- board upheld the decision in No- yahu last week said was “among Families were told their missing releasing the government of any rich Karl Berger is back in his vember 2020. the most painful affairs in the his- children died from illness but most further liability. native country. “This case shows that the pas- tory of the state of Israel.” were never shown a burial site. In cases where it is clear that a Berger, 95, served at a subcamp sage even of many decades will Over the years, hundreds and Suspicions were inflamed in the child died and the family was not of the Neuengamme concentra- not deter the [U.S. Department perhaps thousands of Jewish 1960s as many families received notified, families are eligible for tion camp system near Hamburg, of Justice] from pursuing justice families from Middle Eastern mailed military enlistment orders about $45,000. In other situations, where an immigration court in on behalf of the victims of Nazi countries, chiefly Yemen, reported ahead when the children would where the child’s fate is unknown, early 2020 found that Jews and crimes,” Acting Attorney General that their babies and small children have come of age for service. the payment is about $60,000. others had been held in “atrocious” Monty Wilkinson said in a state- disappeared in the decades follow- Three government-appointed The statement announcing conditions. He entered the United ment. ing Israel’s establishment. commissions that looked at the the decision said the government States from Canada in 1959 and Berger’s deportation comes as Many suspected that hospital claims said they found no evidence “regrets” what happened and “rec- lived for many years in Tennessee, the window closes to prosecute and social work officials abducted of collusion to disappear the chil- ognizes the suffering” of families. receiving a pension throughout individual perpetrators of the Ho- their children and gave them away dren. Journalists and independent “It is not in the power of a financial from Germany for his military locaust. He was 19 when he was to Ashkenazi families in Israel researchers have since repeatedly plan to provide a remedy to the service. assigned to guard prisoners shortly and the United States, who were surfaced evidence that pokes holes suffering caused to families,” the Last year, a judge ordered before the camp was liberated by thought to be better caretakers and, in the commissions’ findings. statement said. “However, the Berger removed under a 1978 Allied forces. Last month, Ger- in some cases, had lost their own To be qualified for the new pay- State of Israel hopes that it will law, known as the Holtzman (See Guard Page 2) children during the Holocaust. ments, a family must be among the be able to assist in the process of A full inquiry into the allega- 1,000 or so who have previously rehabilitation and healing of the tions has never been carried out, reported their case to authorities. (See Families Page 2) Israel delivers thousands of vaccines but several state commissions concluded that most of the missing to Palestinians after facing international pressure children must have simply died Biden’s first military action: By Ron Kampeas vaccine program to Palestinians in and were hastily buried. The com- JERUSALEM (JTA) — Is- areas controlled by the Palestinian missions dismissed claims of any strike on Iranian-backed targets in Syria rael has delivered thousands Authority. Israeli officials have conspiracy to abduct the children. By Ron Kampeas regime during Syria’s decade-long of coronavirus vaccines to the said that under prior agreements Still, Netanyahu said, “The WASHINGTON (JTA) — Pres- civil war and maintains a presence Palestinian Authority, the Czech and international law, it is under time has come for the families ident Joe Biden ordered last week in the country. Israel has said that Republic, Guatemala, and Hon- no obligation to do so whose infants were taken from an airstrike on Iranian-backed Iran must leave Syria altogether duras, joining a number of other Axios reported U.S. Secretary them to receive recognition by the militias in Syria, his first military and sees Iran’s presence north of countries that are successfully of State Antony Blinken had asked state and government of Israel, and action. its border as an inherent threat. vaccinating their populations and Israel on Monday, February 22, to financial compensation as well.” The strike Thursday, February The decision to order the U.S. are now assisting others with their deliver vaccines to the Palestin- Roughly a million Jews from 25, at a point near Syria’s border airstrike, reportedly the smallest surpluses. ians. Middle Eastern countries arrived with Iraq was in retaliation for target among options the Pentagon Israel had come under criticism “In light of the successful in Israel after the country’s found- a February 15 rocket attack on a presented to Biden, signaled the for not extending its successful (See Vaccines Page 2) ing in 1948. Many of these Mizrahi U.S.-led military base near Erbil, precariousness of Biden’s mission immigrants were relegated to poor the capital of Iraq’s semi-autono- to contain Iranian adventurism in and crowded housing conditions or mous Kurdish region, that killed the region while working to bring to tent dwellings in the country’s a civilian contractor who was not Iran back into compliance with the periphery while Ashkenazi im- a U.S. citizen and wounded an 2015 Iran nuclear deal. migrants from Europe received American serviceperson. Iranian- In 2018, Biden’s predecessor, preferential treatment in employ- backed militias are believed re- Donald Trump, pulled out of the ment, education, and other areas. sponsible for that attack. international deal, which traded This painful period contributed Iran helped prop up the Assad (See Biden Page 2) to an ethnic divide that persists in Israel to this day, as seen in voting patterns, for example. Netanyahu’s Likud party found a formula for electoral success by appealing to the historic wounds of Mizrahi Jews. Among Yemenite Jews in Israel COVID-19 vaccine vials stored at -80 degrees Celsius in the today, it is common to hear stories pharmacy at Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago, Dec. 18, 2020. of relatives who died mysteriously Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images at a young age or went missing without explanation. Some in government and academia have suggested that whatever happened was not malicious but rather the tragic result of the chaos of Israel’s early years, when the country was A worker clears the shattered glass outside a damaged shop poor, war-torn and overwhelmed following a rocket attack the previous night in Erbil, the capital of by the influx of immigrants. the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region, on Feb. 16, 2021. - A Many believe, however, that volley of rockets targeting an airbase in Iraq’s Kurdistan region on some officials took advantage of February 15 killed a foreign civilian contractor and wounded five the chaos and the linguistic barri- others and a US soldier, according the US-led coalition. ers of those days to systematically Credit: Safin Hamed/AFP via Getty Images Page 2 THE HEBREW WATCHMAN Thursday, March 4, 2021 Bess Soffer, 68, Jewish community leader whose last words, by FaceTime, were ‘group hug’ By Shira Feder many people all over the country. Carolina who were also shedding of a heart. “It was all she could NEW YORK (JTA)—Over Everyone felt important when tears. He hadn’t even known that get out,” said Matt. “When I think 1000 people logged in for Bess they were around her,” said her his mother knew them. about how she would want to be Soffer’s Zoom funeral. Her chil- son, Matt Soffer, senior rabbi at The funeral came at the end of a remembered, it’s with that image.” dren knew she was beloved, but the Judea Reform Congregation in grueling ordeal.