A group of chassidic tourists from Israel was astounded when they visited a beis kevaros in the Netherlands on Friday and discovered the kever of a Jew who lost his life in the Titanic disaster – on that very day 110 years ago. The group visited the cemetery this past Friday, the 28th of Nissan. The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, which coincided with the 28th of Nissan that year, the yahrzeit of Yaakov [Jakob] Birnbaum, z’l. Birnbaum, who was aboard the Titanic after spending Pesach with his family in Antwerp, was one of the 1,517 people who died in the disaster.  After his body was found in the sea 12 days later, his body was transferred to his family in Antwerp and he was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Putte, Netherlands.

The daring rescue operations carried out by Chabad shlichim to evacuate Jews from the besieged city of Mariupol, which the Russians almost completely destroyed and is now under a renewed attack, were recently revealed in the Chabad weekly Kfar Chabad. In the lengthy article, Mariupol’s Chabad shaliach Rav Mendel Cohen and several survivors describe how Jews were extricated from the ruthless battlefield on the streets and brought to safety. The descriptions are appalling. Quite a few of the city’s Jews did not survive the inferno. Some died in horrible ways and some were buried hastily. But hundreds of them were miraculously saved via risky roundabout routes. The situation in Mariupol deteriorated so quickly that most people didn’t have a chance to flee before it was too late.

The caretakers of the Tree of Life synagogue intend to transform the site of the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history and expand its mission. Newly released design plans show a revitalized complex housing a sanctuary, museum, memorial and center for fighting antisemitism — unified symbolically and physically with a dramatic skylight running the length of the structure. Organizers are also announcing plans Tuesday for a new Tree of Life nonprofit organization that would work with the similarly named congregation, oversee the building complex and offer education, museum exhibits and programming to counter hatred aimed at Jews and other groups. The synagogue building —- located in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, the heart of Jewish Pittsburgh — has been vacant since Oct. 27, 2018.

Jews began flocking to the kever of Reb Shayele in Krestiner, Hungary on the yahrtzeit seven years ago but this year’s yahrtzeit on Tuesday night and Wednesday, gimmel Iyar, is expected to break all records, with thousands already arriving in Hungary in the past week. Most Jews couldn’t travel to Hungary in the past two years due to COVID, and some say that this year, over 20,000 Jews are traveling to Hungary on dozens of charter flights from Israel, the US, and Europe. Travel agents told B’Chadrei Chareidim that there has never been such a high demand for tickets. The fact that no one can visit Ukraine at this point is also a factor in the large number of Jews traveling this year.

Max Glauben, a Holocaust survivor who tirelessly shared his story and was among the founders of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, died Thursday. He was 94. Glauben, a longtime Dallas resident, died after being diagnosed with cancer, a museum spokesman said. Glauben is among Holocaust survivors who had their recollections recorded by the USC Shoah Foundation in a way that will allow generations to come to ask his image questions. “Max embodied the spirit of resiliency. He turned the atrocities inflicted upon him, his family, and six million Jews during the Holocaust into a message of kindness, love, and optimism,” Mary Pat Higgins, president and CEO of the museum, said in a statement.

In the wake of a series of explosions last week in Transnistria, a small, Russian separatist region of Moldova on the Ukrainian border, Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday issued an urgent warning to Israeli citizens in the area to leave immediately. “In connection with the deterioration of the security situation in the region and due to the inability to provide any assistance to Israeli citizens there, Israelis should immediately leave the region,” the ministry stated. Fears are high that Russia, which has about 1,500 troops [so-called peacemakers] stationed in Transnistria will use those forces to invade western Ukraine.

A Ukrainian refugee in Antwerp began accosting Chassidim on Friday night, shouting aggressive anti-Semitic comments at them. One chassid, who is a Shomrim volunteer, decided to take action and tackled the man to the ground, holding him down with the help of other chassidim until the police arrived. A video of the incident was taken by a non-Jew in a nearby apartment, who – judging by the laughter heard in the video – was quite amused by the turn of the events. The refugee was arrested by the police. According to a B’Chadrei Chareidim report, the refugee is not the only Ukrainian anti-Semitic refugee accosting Jews in Antwerp in recent weeks. One Shomron volunteer told B’Chadrei: “We caught several of them stealing bikes, breaking into apartments, and threatening Jews on the streets.

In the wake of a series of explosions in past days in the breakaway Russian separatist region of Transnistria, which is officially part of Moldova, thousands of people are fleeing the area, fearing that it is the next target for Russian President Vladimir Putin. About 5,000 Jews live in Transnistria out of a population of about half a million people, mainly in the capital Tiraspol but also in the smaller cities of Bendry, Dubăsari and Rîbnița. Rîbnița is well-known among Jews of the former Soviet Union as prior to World War II, Jews comprised 38% of the town’s population and it was the residence of the Ribnitzer Rebbe, the Tzaddik Rebbe Chaim Zanvil Abramowitz, z’tl. In past years, prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Chabad shlichim in Moldova were also active in Transnistria.

A Jewish civil rights organization’s annual tally of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. reached a record high last year, with a surge that coincided with an 11-day war between Israel and the Hamas terror group, according to a report released Tuesday. The Anti-Defamation League counted 2,717 antisemitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism in 2021, a 34% increase over the previous year and the highest number since the New York City-based group began tracking such incidents in 1979. ADL counted 297 antisemitic incidents that occurred between the May 10 start of military action and the end of the month, a 141% increase from the 123 incidents that it counted during the same period in 2020.

Billionaire Moshe Kantor has severed his longstanding ties to Tel Aviv University — joining a growing list of Russian Jewish oligarchs who have scaled back their philanthropic activities after coming under international sanctions for their ties to President Vladimir Putin. The sanctions have shaken up the world of Jewish philanthropy, which relies heavily on deep-pocketed donors like Kantor, and forced a number of prominent organizations to abruptly end partnerships with their benefactors since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Kantor, a Russian fertilizer magnate who also holds British citizenship, served as the longtime president of the European Jewish Congress, emerging as an outspoken fighter against antisemitism.