THE LUBAVITCHER REBBE
OFFICIAL MEDAL
First in the "Jewish Sages" Medal Series
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, was one of the most important Jewish spiritual leaders in modern times. While he was the leader of the Lubavitcher (Chabad) Hasidic Movement, his influence was, and still is, felt far beyond the limits of "Lubavitch" alone.
The Rebbe was a child prodigy, devoting all his energy to the study of Torah. He later acquired a secular higher education at the University of Berlin and the Sorbonne in Paris.
In 1941, he managed to escape the horrors of the Holocaust and arrived in the United States with his wife. He then began intensive efforts towards rehabilitating the Jewish people and establishing Jewish educational organizations and institutions, both in the United States and throughout the world. In addition, the Rebbe strove to enhance Jewish awareness through his special "Mitzvah Tanks", promoting "Tephillin", "Ahavas Yisroel" (a love for the people of Israel) and "Moshiach" (Messiah). His immense work in the field of education gained such worldwide admiration, that the President of the United States designated the birthday of the Rebbe as National Education Day.
The medal face bears a portrait of the Rebbe. The reverse design, which will be common to all the medals in the "Jewish Sages" series, represents the wisdom and holiness that have emanated from the works of our Jewish Sages, throughout the generations.
Future medals in this series will feature Maimonides (the Rambam) and Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan (the Hafetz Haim). We urge you to place a standing order for all the medals in the series, so as to be sure you will not miss any of them. In addition, you will benefit from special discounted medal prices and save on shipping costs of the next shipments. With a standing order for the bronze medals, together with the second medal issued, you will receive a special album to house all the medals in the series in their plastic protective cases. Subscribers to the silver and gold medals will receive a prestigious box for display of the medals. To place a Standing Order for the series, send an email message to medals@coins.co.il
Design: Medal Face – Tamar Tsohar, Common Reverse – Aharon Shevo
Medal Specifications:
Metal: Pure Silver Diameter: 39mm Weight: 31.1g Maximum Mintage: 770
The Israel Coins and Medals Corporation (ICMC)
The Corporation was established in 1958 by Prime Minister Ben Gurion and has remained under the full ownership of the Israel Government ever since, with the purpose of commemorating the history and achievements of the State of Israel, and paying tribute to those personalities who have paid an important role therein. ICMC distributes the Commemorative Coins and Circulation Coin Sets issued by the Bank of Israel and has the exclusive rights to issue the official medals of the State of Israel.
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Monday, December 15, 2008
`Insensitive' govt continues to ignore Jewish deaths in Mumbai
15 Dec 2008
NEW DELHI: Two-year-old Moshe Holtzberg tugs at your heartstrings, crying for his mother who was brutally killed by Pakistani terrorists at Nariman House in Mumbai during the three-day terror attacks. In many ways, Moshe is the face of the trauma that wracked the city.
Moshe's Israeli parents, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his pregnant wife, Rivkah, 28, were killed along with other hostages. His story of being whisked away from his dead parents, soaked in blood, by his nanny has brought tears to most hardened hearts all over the world.
The Indian government, however, has remained completely immune to all this. In a display of crass insensitivity as well as an enduring sign that the government continues to pander to the politics of the Muslim-Jew divide, minister of state for external affairs E Ahamed did not mention the Nariman House attack in his statement to the UN Security Council last week. And this from an India which officially maintains that terror has no religion and all victims are equal.
In his speech to the UNSC asking for the world to ban the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Ahamed referred to "pre-selected targets which included a cafe popular with Indian and foreign tourists and two major hotels". There was no mention of the Jewish Chabad Lubavitch centre, which was specifically chosen by the terrorists to attack Jews.
The Nariman House siege was even more horrific as it was the only one where the entire world was witness to NSG commandos rappelling down from a helicopter and blowing up the building with grenades after a 56-hour battle. It was also the only place where another Jewish leader from New York actually conducted a conversation with one of the terrorists.
While there is no official reason for this omission, sources said it was "inadvertent".
In the aftermath of the attacks, India showed a lot of insensitivity, this was just one more of them. For instance, the Maharashtra government sent official letters of condolence to the families of victims. Singapore found that the name of its lone victim was misspelt badly. The letter had to be returned to get the name right. In Delhi, the Malaysian high commission found that it had not been invited to the government's condolence briefing because its citizen who died in the attacks was of Indian origin, so the government thought he was Indian!
But was Ahamed's omission of the Jewish house in his speech a function of the utterly improbable relationship that India enjoys with Israel or was it a function of the fact that the government didn't want to "anger" Muslims by sympathising with the Jews. Sources said it could be both.
India's relationship with Israel resembles an irresistible, clandestine affair -- where the linkages are growing in many spheres but all below the radar. So, while the government is perfectly happy to have a huge defence relationship with Israel and an intelligence synergy that is seemingly bottomless, a strong fear of angering the Muslim keeps it from acknowledging this relationship openly.
Little Moshe did not even comprehend the nature of his parents' deaths. But for those who hoped for a word of sympathy for an orphaned child, the Indian government has decided not to oblige.
NEW DELHI: Two-year-old Moshe Holtzberg tugs at your heartstrings, crying for his mother who was brutally killed by Pakistani terrorists at Nariman House in Mumbai during the three-day terror attacks. In many ways, Moshe is the face of the trauma that wracked the city.
Moshe's Israeli parents, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his pregnant wife, Rivkah, 28, were killed along with other hostages. His story of being whisked away from his dead parents, soaked in blood, by his nanny has brought tears to most hardened hearts all over the world.
The Indian government, however, has remained completely immune to all this. In a display of crass insensitivity as well as an enduring sign that the government continues to pander to the politics of the Muslim-Jew divide, minister of state for external affairs E Ahamed did not mention the Nariman House attack in his statement to the UN Security Council last week. And this from an India which officially maintains that terror has no religion and all victims are equal.
In his speech to the UNSC asking for the world to ban the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Ahamed referred to "pre-selected targets which included a cafe popular with Indian and foreign tourists and two major hotels". There was no mention of the Jewish Chabad Lubavitch centre, which was specifically chosen by the terrorists to attack Jews.
The Nariman House siege was even more horrific as it was the only one where the entire world was witness to NSG commandos rappelling down from a helicopter and blowing up the building with grenades after a 56-hour battle. It was also the only place where another Jewish leader from New York actually conducted a conversation with one of the terrorists.
While there is no official reason for this omission, sources said it was "inadvertent".
In the aftermath of the attacks, India showed a lot of insensitivity, this was just one more of them. For instance, the Maharashtra government sent official letters of condolence to the families of victims. Singapore found that the name of its lone victim was misspelt badly. The letter had to be returned to get the name right. In Delhi, the Malaysian high commission found that it had not been invited to the government's condolence briefing because its citizen who died in the attacks was of Indian origin, so the government thought he was Indian!
But was Ahamed's omission of the Jewish house in his speech a function of the utterly improbable relationship that India enjoys with Israel or was it a function of the fact that the government didn't want to "anger" Muslims by sympathising with the Jews. Sources said it could be both.
India's relationship with Israel resembles an irresistible, clandestine affair -- where the linkages are growing in many spheres but all below the radar. So, while the government is perfectly happy to have a huge defence relationship with Israel and an intelligence synergy that is seemingly bottomless, a strong fear of angering the Muslim keeps it from acknowledging this relationship openly.
Little Moshe did not even comprehend the nature of his parents' deaths. But for those who hoped for a word of sympathy for an orphaned child, the Indian government has decided not to oblige.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Torah scrolls confiscated from Ukrainian community
KIEV — As their Torah scrolls were packed into black plastic garbage bags and carried out of the Jewish school, the students and adults continued to pray, many with tears in their eyes.
The scrolls originally belonged to the Jewish community of Zhitomir in central Ukraine, but were acquired by the local state archives through communist and Nazi looting.
Since then, in the absence of a restitution law, the archives had lent the scrolls to the community — but on shaky terms.
On February 14, the community was forced to return 10 scrolls it had received more than two years ago.
Representatives of the archives carried them out of the Ohr Avner Jewish Day School, leaving the community without any scrolls.
“This was like the medieval times, this was like a nightmare,” said Oleg Rostovtsev, a spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, the country’s leading Jewish umbrella group.
The seizure was the result of a controversy that was triggered a few months ago when the officials at the Zhitomir Regional State Archives demanded the return of the scrolls, citing concern over their safety.
In 2004, the archives handed over 17 out of 290 Torah scrolls in its possession to be used by the local Jewish community run by Chabad.
The scrolls had been the property of the many synagogues and private Jewish households in Zhitomir, and were confiscated by communist authorities during anti-religious campaigns or seized by the Nazis during the occupation of Ukraine in World War II.
For two-and-a-half years, the scrolls were kept in a specially designated room at the Ohr Avner school.
Without a restitution law, many Jewish communities in the post-Soviet Ukraine were allowed to temporarily use Torah scrolls confiscated by the Bolsheviks, while most of the scrolls remain the property of state-run museums and archives.
Such loans do not always satisfy the Jewish community.
The Zhitomir community had previously expressed its concern that in the absence of a proper restitution act, they could not repair the borrowed scrolls in accordance with Jewish law.
In addition, representatives of the community had to submit a petition every three months that would allow them to keep the scrolls.
In October, representatives of the archives checked the scrolls kept in the Zhitomir school and demanded their return, claiming that at least seven of the scrolls may have been damaged while in the community’s possession.
Archive Deputy Director Natalia Shimchenko said that the archive’s curators had established that the “number of units” registered with the archives “did not correspond with those in the community safe.”
Local Jewish leaders deny the accusations of improper care or alterations and said the scrolls — some of them fragmented — were improperly catalogued in the archives.
But the community chose not to argue, and last month returned the seven scrolls in question to the archives.
The archives then refused to prolong the loan agreement on the remaining 10 scrolls and confiscated them Wednesday despite protests from the Jewish community and the local governor.
“We are law-abiding citizens of Ukraine and we have not violated any laws,” community leader Vladimir Rozengurten said, adding that allegations of improper care and damage were “slander.”
“The statements that we have damaged the scrolls are outrageous,” Zhitomir Chief Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm said. “This is a groundless accusation, and we still have no results of the examination” of the scrolls.
But community leaders said they had to back off, apprehensive of possible use of force by representatives of the archives.
“I’m sure we are not saying goodbye for a long time to the Torah scrolls,” Rozengurten said.
He and other community leaders are hoping that legislation will be adopted in Ukraine dictating the return of the scrolls that were confiscated by the Bolsheviks and the Nazis.
JTA
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