Diaspora Jewry
“This is a historic process which is reconnecting the Jewish and Portuguese people who have such a long and illustrious mutual heritage,” said Ashley Perry (Perez), president of the Reconectar organization.
“We know what it means to defend one’s own state and land with weapons in hand at the cost of our own lives,” said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Both Ukrainians and Jews value freedom, and they work equally for the future of our states to become to our liking and not the future others want for us. Israel is often an example for Ukraine.”
“I developed a waiting list, and I couldn’t keep up,” said Edward Ilyasov, 29, adding that at one point 600 people were waiting for his vinegary fare.
What remains up for debate is how much, if at all, Zemmour’s Jewish identity plays a role in his positions, popularity and electability among Jews and non-Jews alike.
“Israel is the only country in the world that has a country, Iran, seeking its destruction and building the means to do it,” stated Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
The choice of the 40-year-old Green Party member leaves analysts and the media unsure over effects on the domestic Jewish community, anti-Semitism and Israel policy, among other things.
“We now have a culture minister who is a close friend of the Iranians and who has bowed her head wearing a headscarf in front of the mullah regime, in addition to being a supporter of the boycotters of Israel,” said Sacha Stawski, head of the pro-Israel watchdog group Honestly Concerned.
“Having events for people with a similar background, language and culture to discuss the society they are becoming a part of—and their importance in that—gives us a support network,” explained Steve Reich, 31, originally from Philadelphia.
The world body has “the audacity to hold a solidarity event for the Palestinians on the anniversary of the Palestinians’ own decision to choose violence,” said Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations.
“At its peak, during the Ming Dynasty, Kaifeng had as many as 5,000 Jews,” said Michael Freund, founder and chairman of Shavei Israel.
“Finally, parents, children, siblings and orphans will be reunited with their families after decades of waiting,” says Immigration and Absorption Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata.
The Portugal-based International Observatory of Human Rights ceremony took place at the Oporto Holocaust Museum in the presence of 200 teenagers from the city’s schools.
