Check out the latest episode of People of the Pod!

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SPOTLIGHT
On this week's episode of People of the Pod [link removed], we sit down with Seth Mandel, Executive Editor of Washington Examiner Magazine, and Batya Ungar-Sargon, Opinion Editor at The Forward, to discuss the changing U.S. political landscape and what’s at stake for American Jews. Then, 75 years after the end of World War II, the fight to recover art and heirlooms looted by the Nazis and return them to their rightful owners and heirs continues. Joining us to discuss this important mission are Dr. Wesley Fisher, Director of Research for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the World Jewish Restitution Organization, and Olaf Ossman, the lawyer for the heirs of Richard Semmel, a family in South Africa that has been fighting since 1999 to recover lost art. Listen now [link removed]   

MUST-READS

Secretary of State Pompeo Makes Quick Jerusalem Jaunt
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The Washington Post / 2-minute read
In a whirlwind one-day trip to Jerusalem this week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partner Benny Gantz, as they prepared to install a new national unity government. Pompeo is the first senior diplomatic figure to visit Jerusalem since Israel closed its borders to international visitors to curb the coronavirus outbreak. But he received an exemption from Israel’s mandatory two-week quarantine for visitors. Pompeo and Netanyahu reportedly discussed joint endeavors to fight coronavirus, steps toward implementation of the Trump administration’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, and efforts to extend an international weapons embargo against Iran. Read more [link removed]

Father of Fallen IDF Soldier: 'He Was My Whole World'
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The Times of Israel / 1-minute read
An Israeli soldier whose battalion was completing a mission to arrest terrorists in the West Bank was killed this week after being struck in the head by a cement block. Sgt. First Class Amit Ben-Yigal, the first IDF soldier to be killed in action in 2020, was his parents’ only child, which required him to receive special permission to serve in a combat unit. He was posthumously promoted from staff sergeant to sergeant first class. Shortly after the funeral, armed guards were stationed at the cemetery after vandals disturbed his grave. AJC tweeted [link removed] : “Our hearts go out to the family of 21-year-old IDF Staff Sgt. Amit Ben Yigal, who was killed this morning when hit in the head by a rock while on an arrest operation in the West Bank.” Read more [link removed]

Swastikas on German Military Veterans’ Graves Cause Controversy
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Military Times / 2-minute read
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation [link removed], a group that advocates for religious liberty in the armed forces, is calling on the Veterans Administration to remove three German POW tombstones inscribed with Nazi swastikas and the epitaph: “He died far from his home for the Führer, people, and fatherland.” More than 800 German POWs are buried in 43 veteran cemeteries across the United States. The three grave sites in question are located at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery [link removed] in Texas and Fort Douglas Post Cemetery [link removed] in Utah. Veterans Affairs officials say they have a duty to preserve the historic markers. AJC tweeted [link removed] : “The swastika has no place in America or anywhere else. That is especially true in a cemetery for American heroes, who made the final sacrifice for democracy and freedom. We add our voice to those calling for the removal of these symbols of hate.” Read more [link removed]   

GOOD TO KNOW

Wisdom of the United Arab Emirates
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The Jerusalem Post / 2-minute read
AJC’s Director of Media Relations Kenneth Bandler writes in The Jerusalem Post that, in order to defeat COVID-19, leaders must set aside political differences and conflicts to focus on containing the spread of the disease, seek treatments to heal those stricken, and develop vaccines. As a positive example, he points to Lana Nusseibeh, the Ambassador to the UN for the United Arab Emirates, who recently shared in a rare public dialogue how her country is dealing with the pandemic, interfaith coexistence in her country, and Israel’s place in the region. The conversation between Nusseibeh and AJC Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer Jason Isaacson aired last week on Advocacy Anywhere [link removed], AJC’s digital platform. Read more [link removed]

Why Muslims and Jews Should Work Together
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The Jakarta Post / 3-minute read
Rabbi David Rosen, AJC’s Director of International Interreligious Affairs, writes in The Jakarta Post, that few religions have as much in common as Islam and Judaism. More importantly, few traditions have such a rich history of cooperation and collaboration. With that in mind, Muslim and Jewish leaders have a duty to their communities and faith traditions to push back against extremists who turn territorial disputes into religious conflicts, he wrote. “This requires that first and foremost, we educate ourselves genuinely about one another and not allow prejudice, bigotry, stereotypes and propaganda, to poison our minds.” Earlier this year, AJC launched 'An al-Yahud [link removed], or “About the Jews [link removed],” a groundbreaking Arabic-language online video series [link removed] aimed at increasing understanding of the Jewish people in the Arab world. The series, which has thus far garnered millions of views, includes an introduction to the Jewish people, a history of Muslim-Jewish relations, and an explainer about the Holocaust. Read more [link removed]

The Curious Case of a Palestinian Surgeon, Jewish Patient, and Nazi Text
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The New York Times / 3-minute read
At the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, Dr. Madi el-Haj uses the Atlas of Topographical and Applied Human Anatomy [link removed] to guide him through the tangled nerves of about 90 percent of his peripheral nerve procedures. But he always seeks his patients’ permission first as the textbook’s diagrams are believed to be based on the dissected victims of Nazi terror. The Times tells the story of how Dr. el-Haj successfully treated a Jewish settler in the West Bank who, as a teen, stepped on a mine planted by Palestinian terrorists. The injuries caused him to suffer excruciating pain for decades for which he blamed all Arabs. But the controversial atlas is just a piece of this story about an unlikely doctor-patient relationship that evolved into a friendship and a change of heart. Read more [link removed]   

TIDINGS

Mrs. Maisel’s Marvelous Brisket
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Jewish Dating Shows Yet to be Made
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Argentine Drama on Nazi Relocation
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The articles featured here do not necessarily reflect AJC’s positions. 

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