A nationwide swatting spree [generating a law enforcement response under false pretenses] targeting nearly 200 synagogues and Jewish institutions over the weekend of Dec. 15 and 16 appears to have been a coordinated effort by an entity based outside the United States, FBI spokesman Cathy Milhoan said in a memo to law enforcement agencies.

A record number of incidents and false bomb threats were tracked by the Secure Community Network across multiple states, including California, Arizona, Connecticut, Colorado and Washington. None of the email threats involved any explosive devices or harm to congregants.

According to SCN, swatting incidents are up over 540% from 2022, with about 450 taking place this year. Thirty FBI field offices are investigating the threats.

German chancellor Olaf Scholtz and Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal attended the ceremony to light the first candle of the Hanukkah menorah at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, on Thursday, Dec. 7.

AP Photo/ Markus Schreiber

Rabbi Gadi joined massive crowds of mostly Jews from across the country on Nov. 14 at the “March for Israel” held on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The march is believed to be the largest U.S. show of solidarity with Israel since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages. The demonstrators denounced antisemitism, and many speakers expressed sympathy for innocent Jews and Palestinians and their families suffering during the conflict. President Joe Biden said later that a deal was forming to release the hostages.

Just as the December issue of The Shofar was readied for distribution, news came of a breakthrough in the tense situation of the long-awaited release of hostages held by Hamas.

In exchange for the two dozen released from Gaza, Israel released 39 imprisoned Palestinians, completing the first exchange brought about during the temporary truce that halted the fighting after seven weeks, The New York Times reported.

The hostages released included 13 Israelis, several children among them, as well as 10 Thais and one Filipino.

Israel has said it would extend the cease-fire by a day for every 10 additional hostages that Hamas releases.

This is a developing story. Readers are advised to follow the news media for updates.

Photographs of Israelis being held by Hamas militants are projected on the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, November 2023.                                                       AP Photo/Leo Correa

Brandeis University has banned a student chapter of National Students for Justice in Palestine from its campus. The university notified the student group on Nov. 6 that it will no longer recognize it “because it openly supports Hamas, which the United States has designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.”

Brandeis is one of hundreds of universities roiled by demonstrations and counterdemonstrations in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,400 Israelis and the subsequent Israeli military strikes in Gaza that have killed an estimated 10,000 Palestinians. The tense atmosphere on many college campuses has led to spikes in both antisemitism and Islamophobia. The organization has 200 chapters at U.S. universities across the country according to its website.

The decision from Brandeis came two weeks after the Anti-Defamation League sent a letter to 200 universities, asking them to investigate the activities of SJP chapters for potential violations of the prohibition against supporting a foreign terrorist organization. The ADL, which tracks antisemitism and hate speech, alleged in its letter that “SJP chapters are not advocating for Palestinian rights; they are celebrating terrorism.”

As a result of Brandeis University’s decision, the SJP will no longer receive funding or be allowed to conduct activities on campus or associate itself with the Brandeis name or logo.

In a notice sent to the student organization, the university stated that Brandeis was dedicated to upholding free speech principles, but “…the university may restrict expression…that constitutes a genuine threat or harassment…or that is otherwise directly incompatible with the functioning of the university.” The letter added, “SJP has called on its chapters to engage in conduct that supports Hamas in its call for the elimination of the only Jewish state in the world and its people. Such expression is not protected by Brandeis’ principles of free speech.

When Flory Jagoda, the superstar of Ladino music, died in 2021, it was a wakeup call for Vladimir Mickovic, a Bosnian musician from Mostar, who realized that with Jagoda’s death, the music of Sephardic Jews was in danger of being lost forever. “The Sephardic music and culture, their proverbs and literature, is a part of our culture here in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Mickovic told Religion News Service.

Recently, he released a tribute album to her called “Kantikas de mi Nonna,” or “Songs of my Grandmother,” referring to Flory as the “nonna” of the pre-Holocaust musical tradition of the Balkans.

In the West, Jewish music is often associated with Klezmer, the folk music of Central and Eastern European Jews. But in Spain and across southern Europe, the entirely different music of the Sephardic Jews once thrived. Their language, Ladino or Judeo-Spanish, is a mixture of medieval Spanish, Hebrew and Aramaic, peppered with Turkish, Greek and Serbo-Croatian influences.

Most of Bosnia’s Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Today, fewer than 1,000 Jews remain. But Mickovic and other Bosnian musicians, none of them Jewish, have pieced together an authentic Bosnian sound, and now are researching the works of other Jewish composers.

Photo: Flory Jagoda in 2002, Tom Pich/Wikipedia/Creative Commons