Briefs

ISRAEL TO ALLOW US VISITORS IN FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE NOVEMBER

Israel lifted its COVID-related travel ban on visitors from the United States, United Kingdom, and several other countries for the first time since restrictions were put in place in November.

According to Israeli media, the restrictions on countries given a “red” status because of their high rates of COVID cases were lifted January 6.

Visitors are allowed to enter provided they show a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of their flight. Visitors are still be required to quarantine upon arrival until receiving a negative COVID test result.

The ban on foreign travelers had been a controversial issue in Israel. American immigrants to Israel have been especially vocal about the bans, which have kept their family members out of the country, even for lifecycle events such as weddings or the birth of a grandchild.

While the travel bans were initially imposed to keep the rapidly-spreading Omicron variant out of the country, Israel’s health minister has admitted that “there is no point in stopping [Omicron’s] entry from abroad” in an interview with the country’s public broadcaster, according to The Times of Israel. (JTA)

NEO-NAZI LEADER SENTENCED TO 7 YEARS IN PRISON FOR DISTRIBUTING ANTISEMITIC FLYERS

The leader of a Neo-Nazi group that distributed threatening antisemitic flyers to local Jewish residents, journalists and activists who tried to expose antisemitism in Seattle was sentenced to seven years in prison earlier this month.

Kaleb Cole, a leader of the Neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen, was convicted on several counts, including interfering with a federally protected activity because of religion, mailing threatening communications and conspiring to commit offenses against the United States.

“The defendant led a multi-state plot by a neo-Nazi group to threaten and intimidate journalists and advocates who were doing important work to expose anti-Semitism around the country. The Justice Department will continue to investigate and prosecute these hateful acts,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, Atomwaffen is a Neo-Nazi group that was formed in 2016 and has already been connected to several murders as well as numerous antisemitic actions. The word “Atomwaffen” is German for atomic weapons and the group’s logo includes a Nazi Waffen SS symbol.

Cole created posters that read, “you have been visited by your local Nazis” that were then distributed to local Jewish residents, journalists, and activists in January 2020. The flyers also contained images, including one of a Molotov cocktail being lobbed at a house.

Some of the people targeted by the Atomwaffen flyers moved out of their homes or installed security systems after receiving the posters, according to the Justice Department. (JTA)

4TH CORONAVIRUS SHOT INCREASED ANTIBODIES FIVEFOLD, PRELIMINARY DATA FROM ISRAEL SHOWS

A fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine increases antibodies fivefold in patients who receive the shots, preliminary findings from an Israeli study show.

Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced the news at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, alongside Dr. Gili Regev-Yochay, a lead researcher on the study. The results have not been peer reviewed.

“We know that a week after administration of a fourth dose, we see a five-fold increase in the number of antibodies in the vaccinated person,” Bennett said, according to Haaretz. “This most likely means a significant increase against infection and… hospitalization and [severe] symptoms.”

Israel began administering fourth doses of the coronavirus vaccine this month as a second booster shot to adults ages 60 and up, as well as medical workers who have gone at least four months since their first booster shot. Nearly 100,000 people already received or were scheduled to receive a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine as of January 4, The Times of Israel reported.

The World Health Organization, Dr. Anthony Fauci and others have expressed concern about the aggressive booster program.

Professor Galia Rahav, the head of Sheba’s infectious diseases center, spoke to an Israeli news channel, Channel 12, to address the criticism.

“We’re always ahead of the rest. That’s been the case the whole way. We learned a lot about the third shot before the rest. And we saw its amazing effect—reducing illness in the most impressive way,” Rahav said according to The Times of Israel. (JTA)

PRINCE CHARLES COMMISSIONS HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR PORTRAITS FOR BUCKINGHAM PALACE

The United Kingdom’s Prince Charles has commissioned portraits of seven Holocaust survivors to be displayed at Buckingham Palace for International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Charles, the Prince of Wales, commissioned the portraits as part of his service as the royal patron of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, a position he took over from Queen Elizabeth in 2015. The portraits will be displayed in the palace’s Queen Gallery ahead of Jan. 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945 and a date that the United Nations has designated as Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The paintings will later become a part of the Royal Collection. The survivors are all in their 90s, all survived Nazi camps, and have all since lived in the U.K.

“As the number of Holocaust survivors sadly, but inevitably, declines, my abiding hope is that this special collection will act as a further guiding light for our society, reminding us not only of history’s darkest days, but of humanity’s interconnectedness as we strive to create a better world for our children, grandchildren and generations as yet unborn; one where hope is victorious over despair and love triumphs over hate,” Charles said in a statement.

The BBC filmed the making of the portraits for a television program scheduled to be aired next month.

Last year, the Imperial War Museums in London displayed a series of Kate Middleton’s photographed portraits of Holocaust survivors. Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is the wife of Prince William. (JTA)

BIDEN YANKS TRUMP APPOINTEE WHO SPOKE TO WHITE SUPREMACISTS FROM COMMISSION THAT MONITORS HOLOCAUST SITES

President Joe Biden removed from a commission that monitors Holocaust sites a Trump appointee with ties to white supremacists.

The White House asked Darren Beattie on Jan. 14 to resign from the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad by the end of the day or be removed.

The commission identifies and works to secure the preservation of historical sites in Europe, such as cemeteries, monuments and Holocaust killing sites, that are associated with the heritage of U.S. citizens.

Former President Donald Trump’s appointment of Beattie to the commission in 2020 stirred controversy among Jewish groups and led to demands for his removal. It was one of several appointments of young loyalists to prestigious commissions that Trump made after he lost the election.

Beattie, who is Jewish, had been a speechwriter for Trump until it was revealed in 2018 that he had attended a conference of the H.L. Mencken Club. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the conference “has hosted some of America’s most prominent white nationalist ideologues, and serves as a safe space for professors to vent their racist views.”

Beattie appeared at the conference on a panel with Peter Brimelow, a white nationalist who runs the anti-immigrant website VDare. Beattie defends Trump’s policies limiting the entry of Muslims into the U. S.

The same day he sacked Beattie, Biden named seven new commissioners to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, including two with ties to Jewish organizations.

Nancy Kaufman is a former longtime CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women and executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston. C. Jonathan Greenwald, a former diplomat, is active with J Street and has worked in negotiating Holocaust reparations. (JTA)