The Israel Brief – 15 March 2021 – Are masks soon a thing of the past? Yeduda Meshi Zahav to be investigated. Kosovo opens Embassy in Jerusalem.
The Israel Brief – 16 March 2021 –Travel opens (at least a little). Were Meshi Zahav allegations historically covered up? Israel’s envoy to UN launches campaign to get institution to accept IHRA.
The Israel Brief – 17 March 2021 –Who will be next to normalize ties? Who will be the kingmaker in the elections? Latest Covid updates – and they are all positive!
The Israel Brief – 18 March 2021 –Diplomatic hurdle with UAE? ICC sent formal letter of investigation. Rubi in Europe.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO)
UN steps up to the plate at special virtual Conference
By Yair Chelouche
At Monday’s United Nations Alliance of Organisations (UNAOC) virtual conference on “Exploring Holistic Approaches to Combating Antisemitism”, Lay of the Land’sRolene Marks addressed the impressive gathering, which UN leading official Miguel Moratinos, called for “greater international recognition of antisemitism and more focus on the role of social media in the spread of online hate.”
Rising to the Challenge. “Antisemitism is a global problem,” says UN High-Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations Miguel Moratinos in Virtual Conference on Fighting Anti-Jewish Hatred (Photo: Screenshot)
Other speakers included Malcolm Hoenlein, Vice Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Katharina Von Schnurbein, Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life at the European Commission; Lord Eric Pickles, the UK’s Special Envoy for Post Holocaust Issues; Irwin Cotler, Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism Nihal Saad, Chief of Cabinet and Spokesperson for the High Representative of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and UNAOC goodwill ambassador Rabbi Arthur Schneier.
Talking Heads. Participants at the UN virtual conference on anti-Semitism with Lay Of The Land’s Rolene Marks 6th from the left at the bottom of the screen.
Moratinos, who was appointed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in February 2020, to serve as the UN focal point for monitoring antisemitism and improving a system-wide response, said that although the majority of anti-Semitic attacks have taken place in Europe or the US, “our outreach efforts should extend beyond those regions to Africa, Asia and Latin America.”
He also stressed that “it is equally important that any criticism directed towards the government of Israel is not used as an incitement towards Jews or sacred Jewish sites.”
Stressing the urgency, Dr. Robert Williams, Deputy Director of International Affairs at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum said “Antisemitism is worse now than at any point since 1948. So the time to act is now before it is too late and we must do it together.”
Lay of the Land’s co-founder Rolene Marks addresses at the United Nations Alliance of Organisations (UNAOC) virtual conference on “Exploring Holistic Approaches to Combating Antisemitism”
Representing the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO), hereunder follows Lay Of the LandRolene Mark’s address to the UN conference:
“Your Excellency’s, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen
It is a great honour to speak here today on behalf of WIZO, the Women’s International Zionist Organisation.
During our century’s worth of work in civil society, WIZO has demonstrated the ability to recognize antisemitism in our Federations around the world and adapt and respond accordingly as well as work closely with the UN on the various bodies and cities where we are represented. Throughout history, antisemitism – the oldest hatred – has always manifested itself in different ways and often adapts to fit the unique political situation of a country. In our organisation’s 100 year history, our global family has endured fascism, communism, Apartheid, the rise of the BDS movement that aims to challenge Israel’s sovereignty, and conflict in Israel and with that, the usual scapegoating of Jewish communities – many times resulting in violence and even death. We have lost federations to the Holocaust but never the values and the will to ensure that we are in the forefront of fighting hatred.
Today, against the backdrop of the global Covid pandemic and the role of social media in creating communities of hate and propagating conspiracy theories, misinformation and sometimes sanctioning violence, civil society organisations like ours that have always responded to the needs of society, especially the most vulnerable, including minority communities, are committed to including education, resource sharing and the empowerment of our members to be able to confront the issues threatening both their communities and assaults on the legitimacy of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. We need to recognize the threats that come from the far left, who are often the leading voices on the assault on the legitimacy of Israel as much as the far right who are seen as the purveyors of a more sinister form of antisemitism.
People around the world are having important and necessary and long overdue conversations about racism and the imperative of tolerance. Antisemitism has to be a part of that conversation. WIZO has identified the need to expand the scope of our work to ensure that our federations have the tools and resources that are specific to the to the threats and challenges in their countries and knowhow to confront them as well as increase our outreach to other minority communities with similar concerns.
We have ensured that we are very much a presence wherever the opportunity to confront antisemitism and anti-Zionism presents itself. More often than not, having the word Zionism in our name makes us a target for antisemitism. Education about Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people could also be explored when putting together educational curriculum.
One of the areas needing greater focus is social media. If users are mandated by law to join using their full and proper names, as well personal images, it makes it that much more difficult to hide behind avatars and fake identities and easier to trace if they are hate speech super spreaders. Our young people, vulnerable to the rhetoric on social media are in the frontline of this battle – and many of them are too fearful to identify as Jewish, lest they are targeted. University campuses are hotbeds of hatred – especially during this month when the BDS led, Israel Apartheid Week that exploits the suffering of the victims of apartheid to push a hate filled agenda of delegitimisation winds its way across the world.
The adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism and the inclusion of Holocaust education in schools and universities around the world is vital in helping to combat this spreading virus of hatred. It is also recommended that traditional and social media platforms adopt IHRA so that they can better understand antisemitism, which is the forbearer of other hatred, while still providing a platform for free speech – just not hate speech.
We need to engage with and mobilise civil society organisations, work with educators and policy makers and leaders, business owners and social media influencers. It is particularly alarming to learn how many young people have little or no knowledge of the Holocaust. The next generation understands the language and message of social justice – we need to ensure that the dangers of antisemitism are part of that understanding by continuing to engage with them in the language that they speak. Human rights icon, Natan Sharansky spoke of the 3 D’s of antisemitism – demonization, delegitimatision and double standards. We need to engage the next generation in another D – defeating it.
We said never again. Never again is now!
Thank you.”
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO)
Celebrating the centenary of Isaac Ochberg’s 1921 daring rescue of orphan children from war-torn Eastern Europe
By David E. Kaplan
Chairman of the Isaac Ochberg Heritage Committee (Israel)
Motorists in the Megiddo region could once have been excused when driving past signs marked “EVEN YITZCHAK”, designating a picturesque plateau of rolling green hills in Israel’s Lower Galilee, and wondering:
“Which Yitzchak?”
Is it the Isaac from the Bible or the late Prime Minister, war hero and pursuer of peace – Yitzchak Rabin? Apart from local residents, few would have known it honoured the South Africa businessman, philanthropist, saviour of Jewish children and Zionist visionary – Isaac Ochberg.
No more …..
Man with a Mission. Isaac Ochberg (1878-1937) Ukrainian-born South African businessman, Jewish community leader, saviour of Jewish orphans in Eastern Europe and passionate supporter of a Jewish State in Palestine.
Finally, one of South Africa’s greatest Jews, Isaac Ochberg (1878-1937), received the recognition he deserves when an estimated 13,000 people across the world linked on through Zoom and YouTube on the 14 March 2021 to participate in the South African Jewish Report webinar marking the centenary of his heroic rescue of Jewish orphan children from Eastern Europe in 1921.
“Daddy Ochberg”. Isaac Ochberg (centre) wearing a hat with the selected orphans before leaving Eastern Europe for the UK on route to Cape Town, South Africa in 1921.
It did not matter that it was 4.00am in Sydney, 2.00am in Perth, 5.00pm in the UK, 7.00 pm in South Africa and Israel or 12.00 pm noon in New York City, the descendants of those rescued children joined a global viewership, enthralled by the wonders of a man that to this day, impacts the lives of so many thus embodying the dictum from the Talmud:
“He who has saved one life is as if he has saved the entire world”
Ochberg Centenary. Ochberg orphan descendants and members of the South African community in Israel join representatives from JNF-KKL, Knesset, Telfed, the Megiddo Regional Council and members of the Isaac Ochberg Heritage Committee at an Ochberg centenary ceremony at the Ochberg Park, Megiddo on the March 2021. Covered by the national Hebrew daily, Yedioth Ahranot, the writer together with Hertzel Katz (front left) hold up a portrait of Isaac Ochberg. (Photo D.E. Kaplan)
With the Covid pandemic preventing a planned centenary celebration at the Ochberg Park – inaugurated at the 90th anniversary in 2011 with visitors attending from all over the world – the Centenary instead was brought into the homes of thousands across the world. Initiated and organized by the Isaac Ochberg Heritage Committee, the Megiddo Regional Council and supported by the JNF-KKL that had originally sponsored the creation of the Ochberg Park, the Centenary webinar was hosted by the SA Jewish Report with Howard Sackstein moderating a panel of speakers ranging from historians, members of the Ochberg family to descendants of the Ochberg orphans. This was followed by a ceremony from the Ochberg Park filmed by Dr. Les Glassman in Megiddo with addresses from the State President in Israel, Reuven Rivlin, the Chairman of the Jewish Agency, Isaac Herzog, Chairman of KKL, Avraham Duvdevani, the Mayor of the Megiddo Regional Council, Itzik Kholawsky, Megiddo Planning & Development, Ayal Rom, Member of the Knesset, Ruth Wasserman Lande, the Chair of Telfed, Batya Shmukler and the Chairman of the Isaac Ochberg Committee, David Kaplan. These addresses were interspersed with singing from youth choirs from Megiddo and the event concluded with the national anthems of Israel and South Africa, signifying the bridge built by Ochberg between his two pursuits – helping South Africa and helping the creation and development of a future State of Israel.
Member of Knesset, Ruth Wasserman Lande addresses the gathering in front of the memorial to Isaac Ochberg Megiddo at the centenary event.(Photo D.E. Kaplan)
Apart from the daring rescue of 187 Jewish orphans and bringing them safely to South Africa, and whose names are embedded on plaques on the ‘Hill of Names’ at Megiddo’s Ochberg Park, what was largely forgotten was his substantial support for a Jewish state, in the days when it was still a farfetched dream. The bequest he left in 1937 through Keren Hayesod to KKL- JNF – the largest to date ever made by an individual – was used to acquire the land that became two large kibbutzim in this area, Dalia and Gal’ed, both established before Israel’s independence and by Jewish youth movements, and both absorbed survivors from the Holocaust – precisely fulfilling Ochberg’s legacy of Jewish salvation. If Ochberg personally saved lives of children in 1921, his legacy ensured that next generations of Jews were saved in the turbulent years that followed. Is it little wonder as Megiddo Mayor Kholawsky reminds us why huge swathes of this region was called ‘Even Yitzchak’ – Hebrew for the ‘Stone of Isaac”. How appropriate that the Ochberg saga is solidly embedded in the topography of Megiddo.
Past Preserved. Erin Kumin, points to the plaque of her great-grandmother, Janie Odes, one of the orphans saved by Isaac Ochberg in 1921 at centenary event at the Ochberg Park on the 12 March 2021.(Photo D.E. Kaplan)
The Megiddo Regional Council and the Ochberg Committee are planning an expansion of the park with a promenade and facilities to perpetuate the Ochberg legacy and attract tourism – a message that Ochberg himself conveyed way back in 1926. In an interview with South Africa’s The Zionist Record following his visit to Palestine with his beloved wife Polly that year, Ochberg urged all South Africans to spend their holidays in Eretz Yisrael, saying:
“Even outside of political and national reasons it is well worth while. The glorious scenery, the fine climate, and its many historic places make a visit to this land a most enjoyable and certainly an unforgettable experience.”
Field of Dreams. Ochberg dreamt of a green fertile Israel such as this field with youngsters cycling at the Ochberg Park, Megiddo.(Courtesy Megiddo Regional Council)
What is quite fascinating is the entrepreneur and visionary characteristics of Ochberg’s personality being revealed in this same 1926 interview when he says:
“I came away with a feeling of confidence that the Jewish problem can and will be solved ultimately in Eretz Yisrael and in Eretz Yisrael only.”
Alive Because of One Man. Descendants of Ochberg orphans from all over the world attend the inauguration of the Ochberg Park, Megiddo in 2011 are seen here at nearby Kibbutz Gal’ed, founded in 1945 by members of Habonim from Germany. The kibbutz was built on land purchased by the JNF-KKL from the Isaac Ochberg bequest. (Photo D.E. Kaplan)
He then continues:
“As a commercial man, I could not help but be genuinely impressed by the fine progress of industrial development in so young a country. There is every prospect of most important industrial development in Palestine as the country grows.”
For 1926, prophetic words indeed!
Always a man of action, Ochberg puts his words into action following his visit to Palestine, where he was deeply moved by the new Hebrew University taking shape on Mount Scopus, and set about financially supporting practical education in Palestine by sponsoring Chairs of Agriculture – which he felt was essential for an emerging Jewish state – at the new Hebrew University and the Weizmann Institute.
Educating about Ochberg. Award winners of a 2019 Ochberg Essay Competition at Alon Shool, Ramat Hasharon Israel organized by Hertzel Katz and the Isaac Ochberg Heritage Committee and judged by Steve Linde, editor of the Jerusalem Report. The Ochberg Saga was the cover story of the Jerusalem Report, copies of which the winners are holding up. (Photo D.E. Kaplan)
Still on education, it was most revealing to note that in his will, the £10,000 bequest he left to the University of Cape Town for a trust in which the income was to provide scholarships, there was a condition that “there be no differentiation between the students by reason of colour, creed or race”. Clearly reflecting his character and his values, Ochberg specified that “should this policy ever be changed, the £10,000 would then devolve upon the Isaac Ochberg Palestine Fund.”
Forgotten Man Remembered
If my first article 20 years ago on Ochberg which was titled ‘Righting a Wrong’, today I can safely title an article on the same subject – ‘A Wrong Righted’.
Set Out To Save. Poster to the 2005 documentary about Isaac Ochberg’s rescue of Jewish orphans by Oscar award-winning director, Jon Blair.
Books, articles, a documentary “Ochberg’s Orphans” submitted for an Oscar, essay competitions, addressing conferences, lecturing students at schools in South Africa and Israel and the opening of an Isaac Ochberg Park in Megiddo that emblazons in plaques along its ‘Hill of Names’ the names of all the children Ochberg saved, have all contributed to ensure that “The man from Africa” as he was called before he arrived to save them and “Daddy Ochberg” ever after, is known to future generations.
All in the Family. Three generations of Ochberg Orphans at the Ochberg Park, Megiddo – Leon Segal, Benny Penzik , (both parents were Ochberg orphans), descendants of Archie Ruch and Cecil Migdal on the 12 March 2021.(Photo D.E. Kaplan)
The Isaac Ochberg Heritage Committee apart from the writer of Bennie Penzik, Hertzel Katz, Ian Rogow, Peter Bailey and Joel Klotnik (both on the advisory board to the Megiddo Regional Council), Leon Segal, Rob Hyde and Lauren Snitcher (Cape Town) and Lyanne Kopenhager (Johannesburg) are committed to preserving the legacy with the take away message that:
‘One good deed today can impact on the lives of many tomorrow’
Celebrating Ochberg. Members of the Ochberg Committee, (l-r) Hertzel Katz, Ian Rogow and Bennie Penzik (whose both parents were Ochberg orphans) together with family descendants of Isaac Ochberg, Tessa Webber and Cynthia Zukas at the 90th reunion in 2011 at Kibbutz Dalia, which was build on land purchased by the JNF-KKL through funding from Isaac Ochberg.(Photo D.E.Kaplan)
You have only to ask the over 4000 descendants of the orphans Ochberg rescued in 1921 or heard what some of them said on the SA Jewish Report webinar. Many with tears in their eyes, like Lauren Snitcher, Paula Slier and Andi Saitowitz said:
“If it weren’t for this one man, I would not be here today.”
Honouring Ochberg. Granddaughter of an Ochberg orphan, Lauren Snitcher (right) and daughter, Machala at the Ochberg memorial, Ochberg Park, Megiddo in 2011. (Photo D.E. Kaplan)
With his ‘family’ having expanded into the thousands, with Palestine being a Jewish State of Israel absorbing Jews from all over the world, its universities in the vanguard for superlative education, and thriving kibbutzim in Megiddo due to his vision and generosity, Isaac Ochberg can look down from his celestial perch and smile.
His legacy will always be identified with:
“He who has saved one life is as if he has saved the entire world”
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO)
