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Briefs
BLUE AND WHITE LIGHTS IN US CITIES FOR ISRAEL’S INDEPENDENCE DAY
Landmarks in Boston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and other major U.S. cities lit up in the blue and white colors of Israel to mark that nation’s Independence Day on the night of Wednesday, April 14.
Chapters of the Israeli-American Council, an advocacy and community outreach organization, worked with local authorities to light up town halls and landmarks in areas with large Israeli-American concentrations. Other blue-and-white light exhibits were seen in Cleveland, Houston, Orlando, Atlanta, Denver, and Hollywood, Florida, as well as a number of municipalities in New Jersey, and Rockville, Maryland.
The coordinated event was a first for the Israeli-American Council and was a means of celebrating Independence Day, or Yom Haatzmaut, under pandemic conditions.
Follow-up events took place throughout the weekend, including drive-through celebrations in a number of cities, including Virginia Beach. (JTA)
ISRAEL TO ALLOW VACCINATED TOUR GROUPS STARTING IN MAY
Israel will be reopening its gates to fully vaccinated tour groups on May 23.
The Jewish state hopes to allow individual vaccinated tourists by early July.
Israel has vaccinated most of its own population, and largely reopened public and recreational spaces, while seeing the number of COVID cases plummet.
“It is time that Israel’s unique advantage as a safe and healthy country start to assist it in recovering from the economic crisis, and not only serve other countries’ economies,” Tourism Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen said. “Only opening the skies for international tourism will truly revive the tourism industry, including restaurants, hotels, sites, tour guides, buses, and others looking to work and provide for their families.”
The reopening to tourists will happen in three stages: Beginning on May 23, the country will let in a small number of tour groups, about 10 to 20 a day, led by licensed tour providers. Tourists will still need to test for COVID before the flight, and test for antibodies upon arrival.
After May 23, if case numbers remain low, the number of tour groups allowed in per day will rise. Israel then hopes to reopen to individuals and families who are vaccinated.
In 2019, some 4.55 million tourists visited Israel, and the country’s tourism industry employed some 200,000 people. But Israel closed nearly all entry to foreigners with the onset of the pandemic, and shut down its main airport completely earlier this year due to rising case numbers. (JTA)
EARLIEST EVIDENCE OF KOSHER DIET IN UK FOUND IN 800-YEAR-OLD ANIMAL BONES
Archaeologists in the United Kingdom discovered findings from a medieval Jewish community of Oxford that they said were the earliest evidence of a religious diet.
The findings, locked inside pottery fragments excavated in Oxford, go back to the 12th and 13th centuries following William the Conqueror’s invitation to Jews in Northern France to settle in England.
The fragments came from two former homes in Oxford’s center that belonged to Jews: Jacob f. mag. Moses and Elekin f. Bassina, according to a report in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences on the findings by the researchers from the University of Bristol.
“A remarkable animal bone assemblage was unearthed in this latrine, dominated by domestic fowl (mainly goose), and with a complete absence of pig bones, hinting at a kosher diet,” the researchers wrote.
Fish bones comprised only species such as herring, which are kosher, they added.
The lead author of the research, Julie Dunne from the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry, said about the study: “This is a remarkable example of how biomolecular information extracted from medieval pottery and combined with ancient documents and animal bones, has provided a unique insight into 800-year-old Jewish dietary practices.”
JUDGE HANDS JEWISH NAVY MAN REPRIEVE FROM SHAVING BEARD
An Orthodox Jewish Navy sailor doesn’t have to shave his beard—at least until the end of the month—thanks to a federal judge.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Edmund Di Liscia, who is serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in Asia, petitioned the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after being ordered to lose the beard despite a 2018 exemption due to religious practices, Stars and Stripes reported.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly stayed the order at least until April 29, by which time a decision could be made on the petition filed on behalf of Di Liscia, who is Hasidic, by attorney Eric Baxter of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
Beards may interfere with a gas mask’s seal, leading to frequent opposition by the armed forces to allow conscripts to wear them. But waivers are given on religious grounds and may be revoked only during an emergency. Di Liscia says he has passed safety inspections while wearing his gas mask with a beard.
The Navy says the waiver granted to Di Liscia has been reversed, but the sailor is disputing the claim.
Di Liscia had felt pressed to shave before during his service and regrets it, he wrote in a court declaration.
“Out of fear, I shaved,” Di Liscia wrote. “I regretted that decision and about five months later, I sought and received a no-shave chit,” meaning waiver. (JTA)
22 SENATORS URGE BIDEN TO NAME ANTI-SEMITISM MONITOR
The bipartisan Senate anti-Semitism task force urged President Joe Biden to name a State Department monitor to combat anti-Semitism.
“Tragically, 76 years after the end of the Holocaust, anti-Semitism remains a serious and growing danger for Jews in Europe, the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere in the world,” said the letter spearheaded by Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Jim Lankford, R-Okla, the task force chairs, and signed by another 20 senators on the panel.
“To combat the rising tide of global anti-Semitism, the State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism works to promote accurate Holocaust education, improve the safety and security of at-risk Jewish communities, ensure foreign public officials condemn anti-Semitic discourse, and strengthen foreign judicial systems in their prosecution of anti-Semitic incidents.”
The letter noted that a law passed just before President Donald Trump left office elevates the position to ambassador level, lending it more prestige and clout within the State Department. The new designation also means that any nominee requires Senate confirmation.
The task force brings together senators who otherwise would have little to do with one another in an increasingly polarized Senate. Among the signatories are Tom Cotton, the conservative Republican from Arkansas, and Raphael Warnock, the freshman liberal from Georgia.
Speculation within the organized Jewish community has been rife as to who will get the job. Some applicants for the job have made their interest public, although the Biden administration has not given any serious indication of any leading candidate.
Trump left the position unfilled for two years, until naming Elan Carr in early 2019 following multiple calls from Jewish groups and Congress members. (JTA)
Gulf Air, Bahrain’s state-owned airline, is launching direct flights to Tel Aviv in June, another marker in the country’s ongoing normalization of ties with Israel.
Globes, an Israeli business daily, first reported on Sunday, April 18 that flights would start on June 3. Gulf Air signed a code-sharing agreement with El Al, Israel’s national carrier in December.
Israel signed normalization agreements with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and other neighboring Arab countries last year. El Al has been flying to Dubai since August and Etihad, the UAE carrier, has been flying to Israel since February. (JTA)
