A delegation of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress takes part in the Jerusalem Post conference in London.

The Business, Sports and Tolerance Conference is the first international event of its kind at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, dedicated to economics, politics and the fight against anti-Semitism. It is attended by high-ranking Israeli and British officials, politicians, diplomats and businessmen. Among them are the President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Dr. Michael Mirilashvili, the President of the World Jewish Congress, Ambassador Ronald. S. Lauder, Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, Head of the Bank of Israel prof. Amir Yaron, Israeli Minister of Communications Yoaz Hendel, Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs Nachman Shai, as well as other prominent politicians and entrepreneurs.

The conference was sponsored by the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, the World Zionist Organization, the World Jewish Congress, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and others.

Live translation: https://www.jpost.com/conferences/upcoming-events/article-701119.

International Jewish student organization Hillel CASE works hard helping Ukrainian Jews to overcome the large humanitarian crisis. Today Hillel Odessa staff and students are actively interacting with the charitable foundation Hesed Shaarei Zion, which helps elderly Jews and Holocaust survivors.

Here are some results of the volunteer work of Hillel Odessa:

• Volunteers have prepared more than 520 food packages and started issuing 3,000 packages of matzah. In coming days, volunteers will prepare another 500 food packages.
• Hillel Odessa helped more than 20 large families;
• Organizations’ employees provide advice on evacuation, repatriation and other issues;
• Hillel Odessa helps with the evacuation;
• Hillel Odessa hold online meetings for the elderly so that they will not feel lonely;

Hillel CASE is an International Jewish student organization that unite the Jewish student centers of Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) actively support this organization and its major projects.

The non-profit organization “Lemeanchem” (“For you”), with the support of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC), has opened a special telephone helpline for Jews from Ukraine who are applying for the status of repatriates in Israel. The hotline is designed to facilitate bureaucratic procedures when registering at medical institutions for immediate care.

Hotline phone is *6884. Russian-speaking doctors and volunteers will help those who have already arrived in Israel, but have not yet received an id, navigate in the field of health insurance and related services.

Since February 24, due to the war in Ukraine, several thousand Jews came to Israel. Only last week, hundreds of refugees have arrived in the Jewish state, and more are expected in the coming days. These people found themselves in a difficult situation: their status has not yet been determined, but some of them may be in dire need of medical care. Among the evacuees are children of the Odessa Jewish orphanage. In addition, these days the 2nd World War veterans are being evacuated from Kyiv.

Humanitarian initiative has been launched in Austria to help Ukrainian refugees with the resettlement, providing them with primary counseling assistance, medicines and food. The initiative is headed by the newly elected Vice President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Matvei Hutman. The project was founded under the auspices of the famous textile brand Palmers.

“Everybody suffers in a war, regardless of nationality, religious views  or anything else. That is why we help everyone. We act in strict accordance with the law and ethical standards”, points out Matvei Hutman.

Throughout these difficult days, the leaders of the EAJC help to cope with the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

According to head of the UN refugee agency, 2 million people have already left Ukraine. Most of them are now in the EU. Among those people, of course, are members of the Jewish community as well, who are already receiving aid in a number of European countries.

Euro-Asian Jewish Congress appeals to all our fellow organizations and communities to provide as much help as they can.

Anyone who would like to help Ukrainian refugees in Austria can do so via bank transfer. Beneficiary details:

Spendenkonto ltd.auf: Palmers Textil AG A-1220 Wien, Donau-City-Straße 11

Raiffeisenbank Region Amstetten, Austria Raiffeisenplatz 1, 3300 Amstetten

IBAN: AT32 3202 5000 0011 2581 BIC: RLNWATWWAMS

We also remind you that EAJC has opened its own humanitarian aid fund for the Jews of Ukraine.

Photo Credit: © European Union, 2022. Flickr.com

Euro-Asian Jewish Congress pays sincere condolences to Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, and his family on the passing of his mother and wife of the sixth president, Chaim Herzog, Aura Herzog. She was 97.

It is truly irreversible loss for Israel and for the Jewish people. Aura Herzog was a prominent public figure, one of the most active figures in the Israel society. Among her other achievements, it is worth noting the establishment in 1969 of The Council for a Beautiful Israel, aimed to improve the quality of life of all people in Jewish state.

Aura was born in Egypt. She immigrated to Israel in 1946 and joined the Haganah movement. Then she started studying at the diplomatic school just founded by the Jewish agency. In 1947 Ora married the future president Chaim Herzog. During the Independence War Ora Herzog served in intelligence.

In the 1950s and 1970s she lived in the US, during the service of Chaim Herzog as military attaché in Washington and Israel’s ambassador to the UN.

From 1983 to 1993 Aura Herzog was the first lady of Israel. At the end of her husband’s second presidential term in 1993, she headed the public commission for organizing official events in honor of the 50th anniversary of independence and worked for various public organizations.

After her husband’s death in 1997, Aura Herzog founded a non-profit organization Yad Chaim Herzog, whose mission is to perpetuate the legacy of Israel’s sixth president.

“Dear Mr. President, we deeply mourn with your family. Mrs. Herzog will forever remain in our hearts and in the blessed memory,” – said in his personal address to the Israeli President Itzhak Herzog Dr. Michael Mirilashvili, the president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.

On December 15, Tel Aviv University hosted a conference dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the restoration of Russian-Israeli diplomatic relations. The event was organized by Tel Aviv University in cooperation with the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, and attended by the Russian Embassy in Israel and the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Leading researchers, diplomats, statesmen from the Russian Federation and Israel discussed issues of cooperation between the two countries, analyzed the current state of affairs and presented reports on joint scientific achievements.

The conference was attended by the President of Tel Aviv University prof. Ariel Porat, Director of the Euro-Asian Department at the Israeli Foreign Ministry Yakov Livne, Ambassador of Russia to Israel Anatoly Viktorov, EAJC President Dr. Michael Mirilashvili, EAJC Board Chairman Aaron G. Frenkel, EAJC Director General Dr. Haim Ben Yakov and other guests of honor.

President of Tel Aviv University prof. Ariel Porat noted the special connection between Russia and Israel in the field of science and culture, which is a strong advantage in building diplomatic bridges. An illustrative example of this, according to him, is, in particular, a conference that took place at the Moscow State University in July 2018 “Mishpat Ivri: past, present and future”, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Society “Mishpat Ivri” in Moscow. The event summed up a long period of scholarly work in the field of Jewish law.

In addition, prof. Porat announced a unique exhibition in honor of the 100th anniversary of the “The Dybbuk” play premiere . The exposition “The Dybbuk, Vakhtangov and Habima” is a joint project of the Vakhtangov theater in Moscow and the Israel Center for Documentation of the Performing Arts at Tel Aviv University in partnership with the Gabay theatrical archive. Exhibition will present the full history of “The Dybbuk” – from premiere in Moscow and foreign tours of the 1920s and 1930s to the modern Israeli scene. Unique artifacts, sketches and scenarios, costumes and photographs – all this can be seen by the audience of the Vakhtangov theater from 1 to 12 February 2022. The organizers of the exhibition are the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, Tel Aviv University, Vakhtangov theater, Israeli Embassy in Russia and others.

“It should be noted that the USSR was the first country that de jure recognized the State of Israel in May 1948. Of course, there have been ups and downs in the history of our relationship. At the same time, today we can confidently assert that Russian-Israeli mutually beneficial cooperation has passed the test of time and continues to actively develop in all areas,” said Anatoly Viktorov, Russian Ambassador to Israel.

Welcoming the guests of the conference, Dr. Michael Mirilashvili stressed the importance of preserving information about the common history of Russia and Israel. He noted that the Congress has supported a number of research projects in this area in recent years. Among them is the declaration signed by the governments of the two countries in 2015 on the joint publication of Soviet-Israeli documents from 1954 until the break of diplomatic ties in 1967.

“The documents to be published in the near future will make it possible to comprehend the extremely tense relations between the USSR and Israel. It is important that reputable scientists from Russia and Israel are working together on this initiative. We are honored to support this project. As we can see, scientific contacts are playing a major role for the development of modern interstate relations, ” the EAJC President said.

The head of the Israeli editors, a researcher at Tel Aviv University, Dr. Boris Morozov, presented a project itself. According to the researcher, the state archives of Israel and Russia have declassified about 2,000 unique documents relating to the period 1954-1967. Among them – the code of the telegram of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, which led to a break in relations in 1967, as well as the decree on changing the “line towards Israel” from 1989 signed by the USSR Secretary General Gorbachev. The project will unveil documents related to the Suez Crisis, the Six Day War, the Israeli struggle for the repatriation of Soviet Jewry and the creation of a mass movement in support of it.

Yakov Livne, director of the Euro-Asian department at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, also commented on the project, drawing attention to the “deep nature” of relations between the two countries. “The main achievement in our relations is that now we can speak openly about what happened in the past, including not the most pleasant pages of our common history, as now we have nothing to hide,” Livne said.

EAJC Board Chairman Aaron G. Frenkel spoke about the dispatch of the first aircrafts for USSR repatriates, which were partially organized by him. “We worked in cooperation with Soviet airlines even before the restoration of diplomatic relations. These connections remain to this day. The history of the repatriation of Soviet Jews and relations between Russia and Israel is, in my opinion, a direct embodiment of the expression that dreams come true. In the late 1980s, we simply could not believe that the Russian ambassador would sit here at Tel Aviv University and talk about the close ties between our countries,” said Aaron G. Frenkel.

At the event Israeli scientists also made reports on the study of the Russian language at Tel Aviv University, as well as on joint interstate projects in the field of geology and archeology.