Grapevine, August 29, 2025: Keep kids away from Uman

IT IS bad enough that the government is helping participants, including draft dodgers, get to the annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to Uman in Ukraine, but it has not announced that it is not allowing them to take their children.

Going to a dangerous area during a period of conflict and a spike in antisemitism to pray at the grave of Rabbi Nachman borders on idolatry, which is a forbidden practice in Judaism. To take children there and risk their lives is a crime.

Attention will shift from the hostages to Uman, and that would be outrageous.

Hostages and their families have already been put through hell. It is inexcusable to make their suffering any worse.

UMAN IS not the only place of pilgrimage in Eastern Europe. Descendants of the Jews of Piotrków go on annual tours to visit the remaining Jewish sites, including the Jewish cemetery where some of their ancestors are buried. Some of their relatives were sent to a harsh labor camp in Częstochowa, which this year will be one of the options for those who want to go there. Czestochowa is less than an hour’s travel time by train and slightly longer by bus.

Those who don’t go to Czestochowa can participate in the Piotrkow Shabbaton (Shabbat weekend) that will take place from October 23-26, beginning Thursday night.

According to Irving Gomolin, one of the key coordinators of the visits to Piotrkow, “The shabbaton is the best way to honor our families from the city, learn about the history of Piotrkow and its Jewish heritage, meet other descendants and residents of Piotrkow, and especially for the upcoming Shabbat, to honor the Polish Righteous Among the Nations from Piotrkow and the surrounding area who saved lives during World War II, and also meet their descendants.”

Two of the best-known Holocaust survivors who were born in Piotrków are former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and Jerusalem-based Rena Quint, both of whom are intensely active with Yad Vashem.

Participants who also choose to visit Częstochowa will get to meet the small Jewish community there and will be given a guided tour of the Częstochowa Jewish Museum. They will also go on a walking tour of Jewish sites accompanied by members of the Czestochowa municipality.

The Hasag Pelcery slave labor camp, where Piotrokow Jews, together with their co-religionists from Czestochowa, were interned, will be the penultimate stop before concluding the visit with a memorial ceremony at the Willenberg Holocaust monument, which was designed by Czestochowa-born artist Samuel Willenberg, who was one of the few survivors of the Treblinka revolt and who, after the war, migrated to Israel.

Kushner, who charged that Macron is not doing enough to quell antisemitism, wrote: “Today, many French Jews fear that history will repeat itself in Europe.”

Kushner may be more sensitive to the issue than some of his diplomatic colleagues, not only because he is Jewish but also because he is the son of Polish Holocaust survivors. ONE CAN’T help but wonder whether Netanyahu’s long-overdue recognition of the Armenian genocide has anything to do with the fact that Turkey has banned all Israeli-owned yachts and boats from docking at Turkish wharves and marinas. Israel now feels the animosity emanating from Turkey, especially from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Throughout the years, there was one Israeli legislator who remained constant in being a voice for the Armenian people and was a frequent critic of Israeli hypocrisy in its failure, for diplomatic and economic reasons, to acknowledge what the Turks had done to the Armenian population.

In 2000, Yossi Sarid was the first Israeli minister to attend a memorial ceremony in Jerusalem that commemorated the genocide perpetrated by the Turks against the Armenians.

As education minister, he was a firm believer that every Israeli child should be educated on the Armenian genocide. Members of Israel’s Armenian community who attended his funeral in 2015 praised his integrity and his courage.

ALTHOUGH THERE were some conversations in English and Hebrew, the language most commonly heard among guests at the reception hosted by Uruguayan Ambassador-designate Manuel Etchevarren, marking his country’s 200th anniversary of independence, was Spanish. In addition to members of the Uruguayan community in Israel, there were representatives of several Latin American states who came together at the Benjamin Hotel in Herzliya.

There was no representative of the government of Israel because Etchevarren had not yet presented his credentials to President Isaac Herzog. Chief of State Protocol Gil Haskel was present but did not make a speech for the same reason. In the past, Haskel and his predecessors have stood in for government ministers when the latter did not attend a national day reception hosted by a foreign ambassador.

Due to the importance of the occasion, or perhaps in line with new fashion trends, there were more women in dresses than in pants, and most of the dresses were maxi length. The male diplomats all wore suits, but most of the Israeli men chose more casual attire.

Of the non-Latin American diplomats in attendance, Russian Ambassador Anatoly Viktorov, sporting a healthy tan, stood out. Viktorov is one of the longest-serving ambassadors currently in Israel. He has been in the country for over seven years and hosted his first reception in Jerusalem in the first week of his arrival.

In his address to his guests, Etchevarren said that no one could have imagined after the fearful events of October 7, 2023, that so much misfortune would follow.

It was difficult to express optimism in such troubling times, he continued.

Still, a 200th anniversary of independence is something to celebrate, and in this spirit, a video of a musical jam session led by one of Uruguay’s greatest percussionists, Ruben Rada, was screened. However, nearly all those present were more interested in resuming their conversations and did not pay any attention to the music.

This has happened at other diplomatic receptions, even those featuring live performances. Some ambassadors have wisely taken the decision to hold their national day events in a theater auditorium, where everyone is seated, and guests actually do listen to musicians and singers.

JUST AS it’s an annual tradition in Israel, around a month before the start of the new school year, for teachers to threaten to go on strike, it’s also an annual tradition for philanthropists and institutions to provide school bags for first graders. It’s almost a symbolic rite of passage from the kindergarten to the classroom – a sign of maturity.

For over twenty years, Ami and Tzvia Zoglobek have been donating new school bags to first graders, and this year was no exception. In addition, for the past 17 years, they have been donating scholarships to students studying for industrial professions.

This year, at a ceremony at the ORT school in Shlomi held in conjunction with the Shlomi Municipality, they distributed 130 school bags filled with all the classroom equipment that a first grader needs. They also donated 10 scholarships valued at NIS 1,500 each.

“Our purpose is to encourage education in [the] peripheral areas of Israel,” said Ami Zoglobek. “The idea of giving schoolbags to first graders was to ensure that every child begins the road to education on the same footing, regardless of his or her family’s economic status.”

The Zoglobek Group, one of the country’s largest processors of meat and vegan products, also provided delicacies at the reception following the ceremony.

ALTHOUGH JERUSALEM’S International Convention Center, popularly known as Binyanei Ha’uma (the People’s Buildings), has already undergone major renovations, it was only the first step in a large-scale project that includes construction of up to 40 floors, plus a 200-room hotel. Up until now, the convention center has been the scene of large-scale international events, particularly those hosted by OurCrowd, the highly successful venture capital organization that is headed by Jon Medved.

The construction plan also calls for a 300-unit sheltered living facility, which will vie with other retirement homes nearby. There are also more than half a dozen hotels within easy walking distance of the convention center. Some are bound to lose business to the hotel that will be integral to the convention center.

But Jerusalem is already in the process of making provision for new residents and an influx of tourists.

The residential towers that have sprung up all over the city will accommodate at least another 50,000 people. The current population is already in the range of one million souls. Accommodation will be a problem only for those for whom living in Jerusalem is too expensive in relation to their income.

As for attractions, Jerusalem has beefed up its cultural activities both in the center of town and in suburbia, and such events, as well as numerous sporting events, are well attended by locals and tourists alike. With the large French aliyah, there has also been an increase in coffee shops, patisseries, and butcher shops.

Jerusalem has not yet caught up with Tel Aviv with regard to a performing arts center, even though there are varied performing arts and other cultural events at the Jerusalem Theater, the International Convention Center, Pais Arena, and Beit Ha’am, among others. But it’s not like a multi-disciplined arts center all in one place.

Any developers who may be thinking of an arts complex should take into account that, like Tel Aviv, it should encompass a cluster of buildings that includes an opera house, a dance theater, a drama theater, a concert hall, and a music shop, plus shower and toilet facilities for performing artists. In addition, such a center in Jerusalem could also include a coffee shop, a wine bar, and a high-class restaurant.