February 22, 2012 | 12:50 pm

On the day after, not much can be done- if Iran will….

Posted Veronique Brüggemann

According to the latest Gallup poll, Americans perceive Iran as the United States greatest enemy, 25 percent listed Iran before others. It also found that Republicans are more likely to support this view than Democrats.
Yet, while very few Americans would wish for a nuclear Iran, it seems highly unlikely they would support military action to prevent a proliferated Islamic Republic. After Afghanistan and more so Iraq it appears Americans are tired of seemingly endless wars in the Middle East.
No doubt American Jews try their best to rally against a nuclear Iran and will continue to do so in the future. And I am sure that Jewish Students at Cornell and other universities would protest a nuclear Iran, as they do now.
Beyond that, I sense a resignation in Ithaca students. To many it feels like little can be done, like Iran almost won the race anyway, like the wrong war has been fought in the last years. Additionally, many worry a nuclear Iran might destabilize the region and lead to an arms race.
“What would happen if…?“ is always a difficult, if not impossible question to answer and at the moment none oft he outcomes are clear. What if Iran could be stopped? Would it be stopped forever? Unlikely. And what really can be done once a country has nuclear weapons?
As we have seen with North Korea and Pakistan, the time for action is before, not after a country proliferates. And generally, international communities silence once the point is reached.
The real concern on the day after will not be Iran, and what threat its proliferation poses to Israel and others. It will be too late for that.
The pressing question on the day after will be how to prevent others from following. A nuclear Iran would not only challenge the security of the entire region, it would challenge the authority and validity of the NPT regime. How can the integrity of the Nonproliferation Treaty be restored after yet another member has decided to break its agreement?
Unfortunately, this concern seems more European than an American. Maybe that would change, “if” Iran acquired Nuclear weapons. But in my opinion, “What if?” is the wrong question.

More of our opinions here:  http://www.ajc-access.org/index.php?option=com_lyftenbloggie&view=lyftenbloggie&category=0&Itemid=176

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February 20, 2012 | 6:38 am

Iran-  voice of a citizen from Israel

Posted Dana Hadadi Israel

Why protesting won’t work?
Besieged by international sanctions over the Iranian nuclear program, including a planned embargo by Europe Iran warned its 6 largest European buyers to act first- cutting them of Iranian oil. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the era of bulling Iran about its nuclear program was over. Protesting against their nuclear intentions is not something they are intimidated by.
Where will it go wrong?
Boycotting Iran has a negative effect on people’s mind, since everyone knows Israel and USA own nuclear technology already, and preventing this technology from an Islamic-Arabic country is perceived as aspiration for domination by the other side.
In the world of 2012 real war ends with the public opinion.
How could it get even worse?
Israel, a nuclear weapons state, regards Iran as threat to its existence and hints at the possibility of a military strike on Iran’s facilities, and already pointed to 4 Iranian scientists. An attack on Iran, off-course will victimize and justify the already existing point of view on the Arabic world on the Western world. (Christian and Zionistic)- Could trigger recursion of the entire-Islamic world to a war against it.
What could be done?
Drop the nuclear threat approach, and start speaking about the influence of Iran on the world politically. Destroying Israel is a political tool by Ahmadinejad to show superiority of the Shia where the Sunni failed. This is a crucial step in becoming an empire.
The world should talk to the Arab-world with this perspective- preventing from this to happen- by encouraging the free minds in Iran and the opposition. Supporting Iranian immigrants in Europe, and let them unite and solve the problem from their side – to take down this leader without external active interference.
No real Islamic would like the scenario of Ahmadinejad to take over the world to happen- Iranian themselves fell he’s bad publicity for them too.
When it’ll happen people will go out on the street dancing, because the nature of human kind is targeted to the wish to be free. 
Sanctions won’t make Iran to stop working for nuclear weapon, and for sure we wouldn’t be able to save ourselves if we’ll start a war.

If you want to read more about Iran and our opinions visit :http://www.ajc-access.org/index.php?option=com_lyftenbloggie&view=lyftenbloggie&category=0&Itemid=176

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February 15, 2012 | 8:04 am

More then a double trouble- Komarno community in Slovakia

Posted Ian Shulman/ Austria

Tamas Paszternak

I was aware from the very beginning that my first stop in Slovakia is not going to amaze me by its architectural or landscape beauty. However, I knew beforehand that it is going to be something special due to certain fascinating geographical, national and linguistic reasons. If only I’d have remembered the main factor, which can make any god forsaken place special. The human factor.

The town of Komarno was a must see. It lies on the magnificent Danube, which is a natural border between Slovakia and Hungary. In addition to that, the town is equally (around 100km) away from the capitals of both states - Bratislava and Budapest. But despite of the great location, which turned Komarno into an important military and trade port some centuries ago, the city’s 35,000 population is rapidly declining. 40 of those people are members of local Jewish community. It may seem to be a miserable particle of the famous community which the city hosted before the WWII, but would you think that it almost doubled during the last 15 years?

Tamas Paszternak, the leader of Komarno’s community, knows how hard it is to attract new people to a small town in one of the poorest regions of one of the poorest European countries. Even trying to retain the current residents is already a challenge - Tamas himself lives in Budapest. Is a good old word ‘duty’ able to describe the strange force which makes Tamas put all his efforts on sustaining and developing this community? He started with a simple rule - at least one event per month needs to be organized in a former community building, which the community managed to reclaim from the state in the 1990s. Be it a major Jewish holiday, a klezmer concert, an art exhibition or a lecture - one event per month is just like a pulse of the community, a monthly confirmation of its existence. The signal was received and accepted. Today the Jewish center on Eötvösova street attracts dozens of people, many of which come from outside of the community - simply because this organization became probably the most vibrant place of the town.

But Paszternak goes further. Newly restored synagogue, the only monthly Jewish community magazine in Slovakia with 400 printed and numerous e-mailed copies, different activities for all age groups, assistance in roots search - this is only a part of what the community has achieved now. However, not everything goes that smooth. While the involvement of non-Jewish population is high, a certain degree of hostility is still there, claims Tamas. Thus, while some highschools invite him to teach about the history of Jews in Komarno, universities are not willing to have any Jewish-related input to their history course programs. Paszternak’s attempts to prevent a Hungarian Neo-Nazi band from performing in the town was unsuccessful too. But it seems that for this person there is no aim which is too high, there are only aims which he has to reach.

“Being a Hungarian-speaking Jew in Slovakia is not even a double trouble” - smiles Tamas. I remembered these words while walking the empty streets of Komarno’s cozy old town towards the station, hoping deep inside that the freezing wind is the only reason why I hardly met a person in this town. The oddly-yellow building of the town hall, arty-crafty newly-built Europa square with its pretentiously pan-European buildings, the ruins of medieval Komarno fortress, which used to host Soviet barracks, dull docklands, beautiful Danube, and this wind, which can spoil the impression of any city. Is this ‘triple trouble’, is this ruin actually the force which made this man dedicate all his life to the tough mission of revival, which results can only be visible locally, since 100 km is way to far and numbers of 35,000 and 40 are way to small? Is this actually a revival? And will this revival go on?

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February 13, 2012 | 8:42 am

Iran: personal problem? (Voice from Vienna)

Posted Ian Shulman/ Austria

Iran nuclear threat seems to receive an obvious response by all groups of people worldwide. The war is very probable, and while Americans see it clearly due to being a part of the conflict, Europeans may stay a bit aside but still realize the riskiness of the situation. But those who do truly realize this riskiness are Israelis. They are the first probable victims of Iran’s aggression. And being pro-Israeli or not, all Jewish communities and each Jewish person ought to be on Israeli side here. Since a danger for Israel means a danger for the Jewish people, and Iran represents an absolute danger.

Such views are natural for most of communities, including mine. In Vienna, such concerns resulted in forming an organization called ‘Stop the bomb’, aimed at preventing Iran from realization its nuclear program. The organization is actively initiating different protest actions, however it does not obtain a true support neither from generally Iran-friendly Austrian government, nor from overall Austrian society. The movement was supported (and actually partially run) by Jewish community though, but people from outside did not show much of enthusiasm or liking.

Apart from anti-semitism, Middle East controversy or hostility to foreigners there are more common and simple reasons for people to keep aside from the Iranian problem. Each person as well as each country has tangible personal problems, which need to be solved urgently. All other problems, even those of the global scope, naturally remain out of focus. This applies to the Jewish communities as well. People in communities like mine, and most probably elsewhere, feel a certain need to voice against the threat, feel relieved after having fulfilled their one-time duty and easily go back to their routine tasks.

There is also another, neglected but nonetheless important point in Jewish resistance towards the nuclear Iran. Apart from clear personal reasons which make Jewish people one of the most active group of protesters, such as Iranian threat to Israel, Holocaust denial etc, Jewish society should emphasize another, crucial point which can make them stand up - Iranian threat to piece, humaneness and equality in the whole world. This is what lies in Jewish values as well as in human values in general; this is what touches everyone, regardless of his or her national attribution or political views. Finally, this is what is valid for everyone. And this is what war really threatens.

( This article was written for AJC Global Voices Blog and you can find similar articles also here:http://www.ajc-access.org/index.php?option=com_lyftenbloggie&view=lyftenbloggie&category=0&Itemid=176)

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February 12, 2012 | 7:42 pm

Iran does not hit the headlines

Posted Pavel Pustelnik- Cardiff

In the United Kingdom the news from Iran have been present in media but their importance has been blurred by the growing tensions in relation to Falklands. Once again Argentina seems to be in a mood for war. The Brits are still proud of Margaret Thatcher who won the previous war and would definitely push the current prime minister David Cameron to act decidedly if the situation worsened. How about Iran? Is the UK ready to oppose illegal nuclear power proliferation and appease to a potential threat?

It might well be that Iran is just playing with the international community and the political elites know well that the Islamic Republic already is another trouble spot on the nuclear map. However, as long as the information is not made public we tend to underestimate the consequences. I truly doubt whether the society would strongly oppose to Iran becoming a nuclear power officially. The political correctness and involvement in the ‘occupy’ movement are both harmonically playing the first fiddle. Nevertheless there might have been an answer from pacifistic environments, the general public would remain thoughtfully silent. Why should we risk if we are not at risk – this could be an argument. The reaction to the attacks on the British embassy in Teheran was laud, but not many specific steps have been taken. The uneasy relationship has remained bruised as always but still keeps going on.

As usually when it comes to controversies related to obtaining nuclear power in the Middle East, the Jewish milieu would be more inclined to share concerns. In this particular case of Iran the answer should be more determined. However, given the fact that the calls to stop construction of the nuclear power plants in Iran were not answered, the further appeals might not be equally strong. Even though the situation is more and more complicated it does not really seem that lay Jewish public is ready to oppose forcefully to the situation taking place in Teheran. Diagnosing the passiveness is an uneasy task but I would be inclined to believe that being silent can be read as being on alert to act if the things went really wrong.

( This article also on http://www.ajc-access.org/index.php?option=com_lyftenbloggie&view=lyftenbloggie&category=0&Itemid=176)

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February 12, 2012 | 9:00 am

Berlin of the Israelis

Posted Dana Hadadi/ Israel/Europe

-Where do you come from?
-Eilat.
-Ah, I know a guy down there. Actually Uri is here, he has relatives in Eilat. Don’t you know Uri? Tell them what’s the name of that cousin of yours?

- I’m a senior. I`ve stopped working. I can afford myself to travel a lot. I enjoy my free time.

- You know, in my age I could have become a senior by now. But I don’t want to.
-Yes, but he worked really hard, Haim. For many years.
- I’m still considered to be relatively young.
-Ha, everything is relative.

-So, everybody’s here?
-Whoever’s not here- so he’s not here. Ha ha.
-Where’s Yaron?
-Who’s he?
-He’s the guy with the… coat.
-The guy with the coat? Sure he’s not the one with the head? Ha, ha.

-Not all here are couples. Here, there’s a single man over there, we should fix him.
36 Israelis straight out of the fresh delivery of the latest hot travel agency’s deal get on a bus in the coldest time of the winter of Europe, to explore Berlin.  Berlin of the time they knew is quite different kind of deliveries, and also to explore some Berlin of the time of today. (Shopping time).
Everywhere in the world Israeli will try to make themselves feel at home.
Maybe after years of exiles we developed a ‘strangerophobiya’.  We just cannot bear not to own the place. You either move there to open the next Falafel place, or simply tour it, but with a bag of ‘Bamba’ snack in your hand.
In this case, it was not so far from the truth. Berlin serves perfectly the need of the Israeli to claim it. It does it by wearing a big invisible coat of guilt.

Israelis say: “B’Ktana”, which means- symbolically like, not biggy- just a hint. So, Berlin is very tasteful with its demonstration of guilt.
Here, B’ktana- golden stones integrated in the pavement with names on it in some streets where you go. There, B’ktana- some signs indicate couple of the most significant Nirenberg rules.  And did you know here, where there’s an elementary school, used to be a synagogue. No Jews now, but pupils still must write a biography of a selected Jew in order to graduate.
Quietly and modestly but shameless, Berlin will show you how it faces its disgraceful history proudly, like intellectuals do.  They reconcile by living in between the monuments, so they could “think about what they did”. Berliners of today are afraid of nationalism (not big fans of flags, and never say: “I’m German”), so how could a collective state of mind be changed in less than 3 generations?
They say Germans love the system.  They say they are loved to be told what to do.
Maybe this is the new system of what they are supposed to do?
Is it possible Germans never had whatsoever actual feelings for Jews? As they were following voices who called for their culture’s destruction now they obey the voices that call for Jews’ culture preservation?
I wouldn’t know.
I only know- on the same supermarket where the system listed for me how many cents per gram for every product listed in the shop, between the aisles, I had a small chat with one old lady, who didn’t know I don’t speak German. And she was looking at the box of the cookies I was holding in my hand, trying to develop a conversation as it goes: “Cookies in a box. Would you believe it? How marvelous”! Because eventually it all goes done to that.

*This review was written thanks to Ido Porat and Berlin Tours Leah

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February 8, 2012 | 12:37 pm

The spark that illuminates the abyss-67 anniversary of the liberation the Auschwitz-Birkenau…

Posted Katarzyna Odrzywołek/Poland

fot. Marcin Kaczor Thanks to Tadeusz Smreczynski

We will always feel robbed, empty and incomplete in the confrontation with the memory of the Holocaust, but the testimony offered by your presence here is the spark that lights up this abyss a little. (...)

Mark A. Rothman

On January 24th, 2012 year in the afternoon in the Auditorium of the Collegium Novum of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow a formal meeting of the Cracow Medical Society, organized on the occasion of 67 anniversary of the liberation the Auschwitz-Birkenau and the International Day for the Holocaust was held. The meeting was opened by Professor Karol Musiol, Rector of the Jagiellonian University and led by the TLK chairman prof. Igor Gościński. This year’s ceremony was organized with the cooperation of the Medical Society of the Krakow Jagiellonian University Medical College, Center for Holocaust Studies at the Jagiellonian University and the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau.

I feel robbed and filled with the optimism in the same time[...]

The Director of the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles, Mark A. Rothman started his speech with these words. Thanks to modern technology Royal City of Krakow joined with the City of Angels for about 20 minutes long videoconference.

Robbery was the key word there, it helped the speaker to describe the situation of complete chaos, which took place during and after the Shoah. Mark Rothman as he admits feels robbed, because due to the quickly passing time (67 years) he is still unable to answer the question embarrassing him - why? It is believed that the only way to understand the Holocaust is to take for granted the fact that we were robbed and we will never fully understand how and why the Holocaust took place. Rothman also pointed out that the work and lives of most people present in the conference room is devoted to moving these boundaries, exposing and maintaining the truth.

People endowed with the gift of history ...

In this way Mark Rothman has called all the participants of the conference who did not directly experience the atrocities of war, but got the great mission-the mission of transmitting history. By participating in these celebrations we have become the witnesses of the witnesses, we are blessed with a magnificent gift.

At the meeting we heard the stories of two witnesses, former prisoners of concentration camps. These were the people concerned with concentration camp traumatic experience and actively involved in helping the former prisoners . The first of them, Dr. Witold, MD, Krzyzanowski worked in France for the construction of the Atlantic Wall, then in Paris, he was a member of the Resistance actively involved as a member, unfortunately captured by the Gestapo, interrogated and beaten, imprisoned, he was put in prison in Bordo. Then in January 1944 he was sent to Buchenwald, where he got the number 44 320. In June 1946 he returned to Poland, and after six years (1952) completed his medical studies. He was awarded with the Order of Knight of the League of Honour and the Cross of Auschwitz. Another survivor was Dr. Thadeus Smreczyński MD. During the occupation he was deported to forced labor in Saxony, where he worked at repairing railroad tracks, but soon decided to run away. His escape plan to get through the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to Romania, then Hungary and from there to Britain failed : he was arrested while crossing the border. He managed to hid the fact of escape and thus was employed in the quarry, he decided to run away again, to get to Kraków, and helped the escapes of Poles who worked in the Third Reich. Arrested in December 1943 he was put in prison by Gestapo in Myslowice, then he was transported to Auschwitz, soon sent to Mauthausen sub-camp /Linz III No. 78 731/ .He did different jobs – for example he worked in the kitchen. After the war he returned home and graduated at the Medical Department of the Jagiellonian University.

The next stage of the conference was devoted to the camp artists. Auschwitz Museum staff discussed the work of Mieczyslaw Koscielniak and Janina Tolik, in turn, Prof. Assoc. B. Alexander, MD, Joseph Bau Skotnicka. The whole conference was enriched with a recital by Maria Slawek and Peter Rozanski of the Academy of Music.

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February 2, 2012 | 9:36 am

BUDAPEST Vs. ???

Posted Dana Hadadi/ Israel- Europe

The writer would like to apologize on her last article referring certain affairs in the Jewish community in Budapest.
I should never assume people have any other interest for running and/or attending events in the community, rather than their genuine aspiration for closeness.
If my words offended some individuals or organizations by implying that their motivation is different than the defined above, it was merely because I might mixed them with my own perspective. They say: “Ha possel B’mumo Possel”, which means: flaws you find in others are just a reflection to yourself.
As for myself, I was, not once, forgetting the essence of spontaneous togetherness in my own organization. I’ve sinned against my members dictating for them events that were not for them.
No real Hanuka event was discussed on this article, for sure not one of a specific organization. The article itself was not aimed to put a negative light on the Jewish community of Budapest- I got my best friend for life form this community. I’ll forever feel it’s my family and the origin for all that I am today.
Maybe, that is the reason I feel I could describe the atmosphere there when comparing it to what I have learnt in Szczecin.
When you love your house very much, you wish for its residence the best, sometimes you come out harsh.
Israelis should know this better than everyone else.

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