The Gerrer Rosh Yeshivah, HaGaon HaRav Shaul Alter, has received a personal invitation from President-elect Donald Trump to visit the White House. The visit is scheduled for after the inauguration. About a week ago, HaRav Altar received the invitation personally from the president’s envoy, Rabbi Yehuda Kaplan, a Chabad businessman residing in Miami, who is part of Trump’s close circle of advisors. The connection between HaRav Altar and Trump began when the Rosh Yeshivah was sitting shiva for his mother, during which Trump sent him a letter of condolence through Kaplan. The Satmar Rebbe also received an invitation to visit Trump at the White House from Kaplan.

In the first comments from a Jewish resident of Syria since the fall of the Assad regime, one of the three or four Jews living in Damascus spoke to Kan News on Sunday morning, M. said that despite the initial anarchy when the rebels first took over, including home break-ins and car thefts, Jews were not targeted. “I am here in Damascus, and no one has entered Jewish shuls or properties,” he said. He noted that the Jews are not afraid of the rebels despite the Islamic ideology of the rebels. “Recently I walked down the street, and one of the rebels said hello to me. Everything is normal. It might be better than it was.” However, he didn’t have any particular complaints about the Assad regime either.  “I was satisfied during Assad’s time,” he said.

Many Jews in Israel of Syrian origin, along with Syrians throughout the world, rejoiced in the fall of the brutal 54-year Assad regime that began with the cruel iron-fisted rule of President Hafez al-Assad in 1971 and continued with his son Bashar’s ascent to power in 2000. Yaffa Levy told Ynet that she could feel the heavy burden her father, Marco (Mordechai) Khalifa, carried for the rest of his life after enduring the cruelty of the Assad regime. “It’s a shame my father isn’t here to witness this meaningful closure,” she said. “My father was born into a wealthy family in Syria. They owned a nigella seed factory and lived well. His name was Mordechai Cohen, but he changed it to Marco Khalifa to hide his Jewish identity from Muslims.

The Assad regime, both father and son, was hostile to all Jews, viewing them all as “Zionists” and not only those who were connected to Israel. Ynet quoted Prof. Yaron Harel from Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, who studies Jewish communities in Islamic countries during the modern era. “The regime viewed all Syrian Jews as hostages,” he explained. “During the reign of both Assads, no Jew identified publicly as Zionist. But every Jew was a Zionist to the Syrians.” “On one hand, the Assad regime protected Jews from harassment by Palestinian refugees who arrived in Syria after 1948 and 1967, aiming to maintain order and stability. But the regime itself persecuted them,” Harel added.

The murder of Rabbi Tzvi Kogan, H’yd has left the Jewish kehilla in the Emirates shaken. UK’s Guardian reported that Rimon Market, the small kosher supermarket managed by Rabbi Kogan, H’yd, in Dubai was closed on Sunday. The store had suffered online harassment from Palestinians over the past year. An Associated Press journalist who visited the site on Sunday said that the mezuzahs on the front and back doors of the supermarket appeared to have been ripped off. The Israeli and Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates began operating openly in 2020, when the UAE became the first Arab country in 30 years to establish official relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords, brokered by the US during the Trump administration.

Emirati Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba issued a statement on Sunday condemning the murder of Rabbi Tzvi Kogan, H’yd, adding that it was “a crime against the UAE.” “Today the UAE mourns for Rabbi Zvi Kogan,” he wrote. “Our thoughts are with his family, friends and community over his senseless death.” “Zvi Kogan’s murder was more than a crime in the UAE – it was a crime against the UAE. It was an attack on our homeland, on our values and on our vision. In the UAE, we welcome everyone. We embrace peaceful coexistence.

Rav Tzvi Kogan, a Chabad shaliach in the Emirati city of Abu Dhabi, has been missing for several days and Israeli security officials fear he was abducted or murdered, chalilah. Kogan, who serves as an assistant to the Chief Rabbi of the UAE, Rav Levi Duchman, has not been in touch with his wife since Wednesday. The Mossad is involved in the case and they believe that Rav Kogan may have been under surveillance by hostile terrorist elements on behalf of Iran. It appears the murderers may have escaped to Turkey, but it is unclear where his body was transferred. Israeli intelligence officials have traveled to the Emirates to investigate the case together with Emirati authorities, who are leading the investigation.

Six young Arabs were arrested on Sunday near the Chareidi neighborhoods in Antwerp for planning to attack Chareidi Jews. Antwerp police confirmed the information to local media. “A few young people planned yesterday to carry out a similar action as in the Netherlands (an hour and a half drive from the Netherlands) in the Jewish quarter of Antwerp, and as a result, we increased patrols,” said Antwerp police spokesperson Wouter Bruyns. The police arrested six suspects, including several minors. Some of the suspects were caught in a local park and others were caught in the Chareidi neighborhood itself. “Suspects with suspicious items in their pockets, or flags, were detained for several hours,” Bruyns said.

As the conflict between Israel and Iran continues to deepen, Jewish life continues in both countries. The Jewish kehilla in Iran, headed by HaRav Yehudah Gerami, held a party for children in a sukkah on Chol Hamoed, and various Sukkos events were held in several cities, including Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz. Israeli media reports on Monday said that seven Israelis were arrested last month for alleged espionage for Iran – the most severe espionage case ever seen in Israeli history. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

A Belgian court on Monday sentenced two members of a Muslim terrorist cell to prison sentences after being indicted of planning terror attacks against local Chareidi Jews and other targets. The main culprit, a Chechen national identified as Abubakar S., 26, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and another 10 years of police supervision. His wife and accomplice, 35, was sentenced to eight years in prison. Four other members of the cell received suspended sentences and fines. The defendants had formulated a detailed plan in the summer of 2023 to carry out terror attacks in a Chareidi neighborhood in Antwerp along with other locations, including crowded areas, a police station, a NATO building, and a Toeiva bar.