Israel’s Ambassador in Moscow Alexander Ben-Tzvi held a meeting last week with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov on the issue of Jews gathering in Uman for Rosh Hashanah. Ben-Tzvi informed Bogdanov that although Israel issued travel warnings to Ukraine and Ukrainian officials warned Israeli not to come, there are already several thousand Israelis in Uman. Israel’s Channel 12 News reported that Bogdanov told Ben-Tzvi that Russia won’t guarantee the welfare of the Jews in Uman. “This is a real danger,” Bogdanov said. “Russia cannot guarantee the Israelis’ safety.” Nevertheless, Bogdanov asked for further information about the Israeli presence in Uman so that he could pass it on to the relevant authorities in the Russian army.

Germany’s Lufthansa Airlines announced last week that it plans on adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Anti-Semitism, JNS reported on Sunday. Lufthansa also announced its joint initiative with the American Jewish Committee (AJC) which will see AJC staff assisting in training the airlines’s employees on anti-Semitism. The announcement is the latest step taken in the wake of the incident in May when an entire group of frum Jews was discriminated against for the behavior of a few individuals. In July, Lufthansa announced that it would create a senior management position dedicated to the prevention of antisemitism and discrimination.

King Charles scheduled a multifaith meeting on Friday at Buckingham Palace but its scheduled time of after 6 p.m. was too late for Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis to attend and return home in time for Shabbos. But King Charles was determined that Rabbi Mirvis would attend and had the palace change the schedule so the event could begin at 5:30 p.m. Rabbi Mirvis told the story on BBC on Sunday morning. “When the king entered, he first spoke, and then said: ‘Chief Rabbi, you can now leave,'” Rabbi Mirvis said. “But I said, no, no. I will respect protocol. I will only leave after His Majesty leaves.” “He said: ‘No, no, no you can go now. You have to go home for the Sabbath.'” “But I still stayed since the time was made earlier,” Rabbi Mirvis continued.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, HaRav Moshe Reuven Asman, the chief Chabad Rav in Kyiv, has been tirelessly working to assist the people of Ukraine and provide humanitarian aid to refugees. Under his leadership, members of his kehilla helped evacuate the wounded from Chernihiv to hospitals, provided the city of Nikolaev with water purifiers, helps clean rubble in Nizhny, established a free mobile clinic in Kyiv and more recently, supplied air conditioners to hospitals in need of them. His devotion did not go unnoticed by Ukrainian government officials, and last week, Rav Asman received the Defense Ministry’s medal of honor for his selfless work. “It was a true surprise for me, such a great honor for my modest activities,” Rav Asman said.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told Israel’s Kan News that “Russia will deliberately fire missiles at Uman on Rosh Hashanah.” In an interview with Kan on Friday, Podolyak said that the Russian army will deliberately fire missiles at Uman when Jews are gathered there and therefore he doesn’t recommend that anyone travel to the area for Rosh Hashanah. “We have no doubt that some chassidim will make efforts to reach Uman on foot,” he said.

Eyal Haddad, h’yd, a Jewish resident of France who was brutally murdered by a Muslim on August 20 was brought to kever Yisrael in Israel on Thursday. He was buried in Beer Sheva, where his family members, who are originally from Djerba, Tunisia, live. The murderer, Mohamed Dridi, who lived in the same apartment complex as Haddad and knew him well, confessed to the murder. He first claimed that he killed Haddad over a debt of $100 but later admitted that he killed him due to his Jewishness.

The war in Ukraine has been raging for over six months and the hostilities have taken a heavy toll on the Jewish population in the country. At least 70 Jews lost their lives in the war, according to an estimate by the Federation of Jewish Communities in Ukraine (FJCU). About a third of the casualties were killed in Mariupol and the rest in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Bucha as well as Jewish soldiers on the battlefield. Four hundred Jews were wounded since the war began and about 50,000 Jews were uprooted from their homes. At least 150 Jewish families lost their homes in Russian strikes. Additionally, out of Ukraine’s 180 Jewish communities, 27 of them are now living under Russian occupation.

A Moscow court on Tuesday handed a 15-day prison sentence to a Jewish politician who drew parallels between Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s regime and Nazi Germany. Leonid Gozman, 72, who also holds Israeli citizenship, was sentenced for his 2020 Facebook post, in which he mocked the Russian legislation that banned likening the Soviet Union to Nazi Germany, saying that “it’s wrong to put an equal mark between them — Hitler was an absolute evil and Stalin even worse.” On Tuesday, Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court ruled that Gozman’s remark violated the law. Gozman, a vocal critic of the Kremlin’s campaign in Ukraine, left Russia when it started but returned in June in what he has described as a “moral” choice.

As Jews around the world fret over the pending nuclear deal with Iran, frum Jews in Tehran held a joyous celebration on Sunday. The kehilla gathered together for a hachnasas Sefer Torah and a Siyum Mishnayos. The celebration was an especially joyous one as it comes after two years of COVID lockdowns and limits on gatherings. Rav Yehudah Gerami, the Rav of Tehran, has revolutionized the kehilla by providing a bounty of Torah shiurim, raising the level of chinuch, and establishing an extensive kashrus system throughout the country. Prior to the COVID pandemic, there were 60 operating shuls in Iran. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Eyal Haddad, h’yd, a 34-year-old Jewish resident of the French town of Seine-et-Marne (Longperrier) in northern France, was brutally murdered by his Muslim housemate, Mohamed Dridi, over a week ago. Dridi killed Haddad by crushing his skill with an axe. He then burned his face and began burying the body in a wooded area near his home. The murder was discovered after Haddad’s family, who live in Be’er Sheva, became concerned after not hearing from him for two days. They called Haddad’s housemate – the murderer – who subsequently turned himself in to the police, confessed the crime and told them where to find the body. According to Jewish sources in France, the media and the government have maintained silence on the grisly incident, which occurred on August 20.