Israel Gives Hero’s Welcome To Convicted Spy Jonathan Pollard
Jonathan J. Pollard, the American who served 30 years in prison for spying for Israel in a Cold War-era espionage case, arrived in Israel on Dec. 30 to a hero’s welcome from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met Mr. Pollard and his wife, Esther, at Ben-Gurion Airport.
The couple descended from a private jet provided by casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, kissed the tarmac and recited a Jewish prayer of thanks reserved for new experiences. The prime minister than handed Mr. Pollard, who was granted Israeli citizenship in 1995 while in prison, an Israeli identification card. “You’re home,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
A U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, Mr. Pollard gave a range of classified documents to Israel starting in 1984. CIA and Defense Department officials said that his disclosures exposed the abilities of American spy agencies, potentially damaged intelligence collection efforts, and risked exposing sensitive intelligence secrets.
The United States Parole Commission opted in November not to extend the travel restrictions on Mr. Pollard when he was released from a federal prison five years ago.
DC Street May Be Renamed To Honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Washington DC Councilmember Brooke Pinto, a Democrat, has introduced legislation to rename a street in the district in memory of Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If enacted, a portion of Virginia Avenue — between the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway and New Hampshire Avenue in the northwest part of Washington, DC — will become Ruth Bader Ginsburg Way.
That portion of Virginia Avenue was chosen because of its proximity to the Watergate complex, where the late justice lived.
Ginsburg was the second woman and the first Jewish woman to serve on the nation’s highest court. She died in September 2019 from “complications of metastatic pancreas cancer,” according to a statement from the Supreme Court shortly after her death.
Aliyah in 2020
More than 20,000 Jews from 70 countries made Aliyah over the course of 2020, The Jewish Agency reported. Most of the immigrants arrived from Russia, Ukraine, France and the United States. Pictured, Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog with immigrant children. David Salem photo
Nine-Year-Old Boy Discovers Gold Bead From Era Of First Temple
The Temple Mount Sifting Project allows non-specialists of all ages to aid archaeologists sorting through large piles of soil displaced from the area of Judaism’s holiest site. After suspending operations for some time due to the coronavirus, it recently resumed, which led a Jerusalem schoolboy named Binyamin Milt to discover a gold bead that the experts at first dismissed as a modern object. Later it was shown to Gabriel Barkay, one of the project’s directors.
When Barkay held the bead, his first response was, “I recognize this type of bead,” and he recalled that he had found several similar items when excavating burial systems from the First Temple period in Katef Hinom in Jerusalem. There the beads were made of silver, but were identical in shape and in their manufacturing method, called granulation.
Beads of this type were found also in several other sites over the country, and the layers in which they were found were dated to various periods, from the 13th century BCE [believed to be the era of the Exodus] up to the 4th century BCE [the early Second Temple period], with the overwhelming majority dating to the Iron Age [12th to 6th centuries BCE.] Several similar beads made of gold were also found at other Iron Age sites in Israel.
The bead is roughly cylindrical, with a hole at its center. Its diameter measures 6mm and its height 4mm, and it is built of four layers, each made of tiny gold balls adhered one to the other in a flower shape. Gold being a precious metal that does not tarnish or rust, the bead’s state of preservation is excellent.
Archaeologists believe the bead likely was used as a decoration on a priestly vestment.
Well-Preserved Hasmonean-Era Oil Lamp Found In Jerusalem
Archaeologists have unearthed an oil lamp from the Hasmonean Period in the City of David in Jerusalem. The 2,000-year-old lantern, which has been preserved in its entirety, was discovered during excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem, led by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and the Ir David Foundation.
Archaeologists were excavating the road that was used for pilgrimages in the days of the Second Temple. The road is nearly 600 meters (2,000 feet) long and eight meters (26 feet) wide. It connects the Siloam Pool in the south of the City of David and the foot of the Temple Mount.
The oil lamp is made of clay and has plant decorations on its tip, probably a branch with leaves. It is typical of the first century BCE, at the end of the Hasmonean rule during the Second Temple period.
IAA director of excavations Ari Levy said that these oil lamps and candles were used for different purposes, from simple everyday uses, such as lighting rooms and streets, to religious ceremonial uses like Shabbat. “We are used to finding only parts of them. It’s not every day that we get to find one preserved in its entirety,” Levy said.
Supreme Court Hears Two Holocaust Survivors’ Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court heard two cases concerning whether American courts have a role in deciding whether Hungary and Germany must pay for property said to have been stolen from Jews before and during WWII, the New York Times said.
The Hungarian case, Republic of Hungary v. Simon, was brought by 14 Holocaust survivors, four of them United States citizens, who said their property was stolen by Hungary and its state-owned railway, which deported hundreds of thousands of Jews to Nazi death camps in the summer of 1944.
The German case, Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp, concerns the Guelph Treasure, a trove of medieval religious art that was once owned by a consortium of Jewish art dealers in Frankfurt and that is now estimated to be worth $250 million.
A decision is expected in late winter or spring.
New Exhibit Focuses On Jews Who Fought Back Against Nazis
While the basic facts of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising are relatively well known, few are aware of the numerous other instances of Jewish resistance against the Third Reich, according to Mosaic, an online Jewish news site. A new exhibit at the Wiener Holocaust Library in London aims to set the record straight. The exhibit makes clear that in every European country which fell under Nazi rule, Jews resisted the Germans, their allies and their collaborators.
Warsaw and Bialystok, where several hundred Jewish fighters launched a short-lived uprising in August 1933, were just two of the seven major and 45 smaller ghettos in occupied Poland and the Soviet Union, where Jewish underground groups operated. In Krakow, Vilna, Kovno, Bedzin, and Czestochowa, Jews took up arms against their persecutors
The Minsk ghetto also saw an audacious effort to smuggle out Jews and sabotage German factories. The exhibition highlights the story of Mikhail Gebelev, who organized mass escapes, and helped 10,000 of the 100,000 imprisoned there successfully get away.
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