Briefs

FASHION GIANT ZARA CONDEMNS JEWISH DESIGNER FOR LASHING OUT AT PALESTINIAN MODEL WHO CALLED ISRAEL ‘EVIL’

The fashion retailer Zara condemned one of its Jewish designers for telling a Palestinian model that “maybe if your people were educated then they wouldn’t blow up the hospitals.”

Zara made the statement about Vanessa Perilman, the head designer for Zara’s women’s department, who wrote the comment on Instagram to model Qaher Harhash, who is from eastern Jerusalem. Perilman initiated the discussion because Harhash had called Israel “evil,” according to reports. He has claimed falsely that Israel withholds drinking water from Arabs in Jerusalem while providing it readily to Jews.

“Israelis don’t teach children to hate nor throw stones at soldiers as your people do,” Perilman wrote to Harhash in one of several private messages on Instagram that were screenshot and later shared publicly.

“I think it’s funny that you are a model because, in reality, that is against what the Muslim faith believes in and if you were to come out of the closet in any Muslim country, you would be stoned to death,” she added.

Harhash wrote in response to Perilman: “Does your little brain teach you about power dynamics and how this could possibly hurt me?” and shared the correspondence, leading to criticism of Zara online.

“We condemn these comments that do not reflect our core values of respect for one another, and we regret the offense that they have caused,” Zara said in a statement about Perilman’s words.

Perilman has apologized to Harhash in private messages on Instagram, saying she spoke out of “anger” over alleged vitriol against Israel during and after its 11-day skirmish with Hamas last month. (JTA)

TRUMP SAYS AMERICAN JEWS ‘DON’T LOVE ISRAEL ENOUGH’ AND SHOULD HAVE VOTED FOR HIM

Donald Trump is still trying to figure out why more American Jews didn’t vote for him, arguing in a haredi Orthodox magazine interview that they “don’t love Israel enough” and the Israel-related moves he made as president should have earned him a larger share of the Jewish vote.

“You know what really surprised me?” Trump told Ami Magazine. “I did the Heights, I did Jerusalem, and I did Iran— the Iran Deal was a disaster, right? And I also did many other things. Jewish people who live in the United States don’t love Israel enough. Does that make sense to you? I’m not talking about Orthodox Jews. I believe we got 25% of the Jewish vote, and it doesn’t make sense. It just seems strange to me.”

Trump referred to his decisions to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, which Israel’s government loathes.

Exit polls election night found Trump scored between 21% and 30.5% of the Jewish vote. He is also correct that an overwhelming majority of Orthodox Jews voted for him.

Jewish groups slammed Trump in 2019 after he said that Jews were disloyal for voting for Democrats and doubling down on the claim. (JTA)

ISRAELI AND AMERICAN JEWS KNOW LITTLE ABOUT EACH OTHER, NEW STUDY FINDS

American and Israeli Jews don’t know much about one another, according to a study released this month.

Still, both groups expressed an affinity for the other in the poll by the American Jewish Committee.

Among American Jews, a total of 40% said their knowledge of Israelis was either nonexistent or weak, and another 21% ranked their knowledge of Israelis as medium, while 37% said they received a “strong” education about Israel.

Among Israeli Jews, a total of 69% said they did not receive any education about Diaspora Jews or it was “not comprehensive,” while 20% said it was “so-so” and 11% said it was comprehensive.

Officials of the new government led by Bennett say that Netanyahu damaged relations with the Jewish Diaspora through his close alliances with right-wing leaders overseas and his policies catering to the haredi Orthodox. They have vowed to repair ties, in part by educating Israelis about Diaspora Jews.

Among American Jews, 60% said being connected to Israel is important to their Jewish identity. Among the Israelis, 75% see a thriving Diaspora as vital to the future of the Jewish people.

Those Israelis who had learned more about Diaspora Jews in formal settings showed a greater interest in learning more about Diaspora Jews than those who had learned less.

The survey of Americans was conducted March 25–May 9 and the one in Israel in May. Both had 1,000 respondents. The margin of error is 3 percentage points. (JTA)

TOM NIDES, A FORMER TOP OBAMA STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL, NAMED AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL

President Joe Biden nominated Tom Nides, a deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, to be his ambassador to Israel.

Nides, a banker, was the deputy secretary of state for management and resources from 2011 to 2013 and had good relations with Israeli diplomats, although he was less involved in substantive diplomacy.

Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to Washington, in his book, Ally chronicling his ambassadorship, described Nides as “irreverent, hard-working, highly intelligent, and warm.” Oren said Nides quickly earned his “affection and trust.”

Nides, who is Jewish, is a Minnesota native who has been close to Joe Lieberman since running his vice presidential campaign in 2000. Lieberman, then a Connecticut senator, was Al Gore’s running mate and the first Jewish candidate on a major party presidential ticket.

Some in the centrist and liberal pro-Israel communities had pushed to have Biden tap Robert Wexler, a former Florida congressman who now heads a nongovernmental group advocating for Israeli-Arab peace, to the post. (JTA)

JARED KUSHNER SIGNS TELL-ALL BOOK DEAL

Jared Kushner is writing the “definitive” account of the Trump presidency, his publisher says.

Broadside Books, a conservative imprint of HarperCollins, said in a release that Kushner’s book “will be the definitive, thorough recounting of the administration—and the truth about what happened behind closed doors.”

Broadside said the book, to be released in early 2022, would describe Kushner’s role “in the administration’s most significant accomplishments.”

Kushner, who is Jewish and married to former President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, helped shape Trump’s Middle East policy, worked on criminal justice reform, led the effort to contain the COVID pandemic, and took a lead role in Trump’s presidential campaigns. (JTA)

POLISH CHILDREN DESTROYED JEWISH HEADSTONES TO BUILD A FORTRESS

Several children in Poland toppled 63 headstones of Jewish graves because they wanted to use the slabs to build a fortress, they told police.

The group of five 12-year-olds had been working on the project for several days at the disused graveyard in Wroclaw, in western Poland. Police stopped them upon hearing hammering noises. Some headstones were smashed. Others were partially damaged and knocked down.

In a separate incident in eastern France, graffiti saying “Allah akba,” or God is great in Arabic, was left at the entrance to a Jewish cemetery in Strasbourg. There are no suspects.

In eastern Poland, a headstone from a Jewish grave that was used decades ago as construction material in Krasnik was extracted from a sidewalk and placed at the local Jewish cemetery. The headstone was discovered three years ago after the pavement over it cracked.

In southern Poland, the city of BielskoBiala is planning a commemorative space featuring Jewish headstones in recognition of the destruction of the Jewish cemetery there in the 1960s. A sports center was built on the site. (JTA)