Arsen Ostrovsky-True Zionist-Motivated by Daniel Pearl

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

Arsen Ostrovsky--Human Rights Lawyer and Political Analyst ; age 36 when Adam Cailler interviewed Arsen about feeling home when he watched the IDF ceremony at the Kotel.  He made aliyah to Israel about 10 years ago.  "I knew after the first week that this was the right place for me."

Arsen admitted that, although he comes from a "very Zionist family", the journey was one he took on his own.

He said: "Initially it was by myself because I needed to know where I stood.

"My parents know the history and are very supportive of Israel, but they know what antisemitism is first-hand.

"They used to tell me stories about how a Soviet passport had no references to religion, but there was a line under nationality that said Soviet . . . unless you were Jewish.

"It said their nationality was 'Jew'. They wanted a future for me where I didn't have to live with that."

Arsen found himself living in Jerusalem, while working at the Knesset. He continued: "It really reaffirmed that this was my country and my people.

"I am exceptionally grateful for the life and opportunities that Australia had given me, but it was coming to Israel when I truly felt a sense of belonging.                                        

Shahar Azani of JBS's Eye on Israel program  introduced a real Zionist to his followers on Youtube today, Arsen Ostrovsky.  He's a Russian born-in Odessa-whose family left the minute the Russian ruler died and migrated to Australia.  There, Arsen grew up happily and became a lawyer with a practice, but something was missing.  He was a man who needed a mission, a purpose in life.  His family was Jewish but coming from Russia, knew very little nor understood their own religion; only a few of the practices were kept in the family.                                         

       Daniel Pearl b: October 10, 1965  New Jersey d: February 1, 2002 Karachi, Pakistan                

Daniel Pearl stating his identity in the video produced by his captors. The text reads اسمي دانیال بیرل، انا یھودی امریکی (My name is Daniel Pearl, I am an American Jew).

Through a few of Israel's programs, Arsen was able to visit Israel.  What really turned him on was seeing the death of Daniel Pearl on TV. Daniel Pearl was a Jewish journalist for the Wall Street Journal  captured by the terrorists.  Just before he died, he stated that his father was Jewish and his mother was Jewish and that he was a Jew.  Then he was beheaded. Following these statements, Pearl's throat was slit, and his head was severed. 

In fact, Daniel Pearl's father's family was from Poland and mother was from Bagdad,  Iraq, Jewish people, a Mizrachi and an Ashkenazi. His family moved to Encino, a neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles, when his father took a position with the University of California, Los  Angeles as professor of computer science and statistics and later director of the Cognitive Systems Laboratory. In 2011, Judea Pearl received the Turing Award, the 'Nobel Prize for Computer Science'. The history of the family and its connections to Israel are described by Judea Pearl in the Los Angeles Times article, "Roots in the Holy Land".

 Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British national of Pakistani origin, was sentenced to death by hanging for Pearl's abduction and murder in 2002, but his conviction for murder was overturned by a Pakistani court in the summer of 2020. Go figure.  We all saw it happen on TV. 

Arsen  Osetrovsky on Shahar Azani's Eye on Israel program 

That experience set off an explosion in Arsen's heart of wanting to defend Israel.  So he made Aliyah only about 10 years ago and is doing so much as a great lawyer to help Israel.  

For one thing, instead of dodging the bullet shot at them by the Human Rights Council of the UN, they are catching that bullet and they are suing everyone for what they have been doing to Israel.  What they do, whether it be education or suing, is getting results.  They are managing to get out Israel's true narrative, and smashing the lies told about Israel.

Arsen Ostrovsky is a leading human rights lawyer, who currently serves as CEO of The International Legal Forum (ILF), an independent Israel-based pro-active global network of over 4,000 lawyers and activists in 40 countries, standing up for Israel and leading the fight against Antisemitism, BDS and terror in the international legal arena.

Arsen has spoken before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, in parliaments across Europe and to audiences in North America and around the world. He often appears on TV and in the press as an expert commentator on Israel, international law, global antisemitism and Middle East foreign policy.

Arsen has been published and/or quoted by the New York Times, BBC, AFP, Washington Post, Fox News, The Telegraph Deutsche Welle and other major press agencies. He is also a regular columnist at Newsweek Magazine.

In 2018, Arsen was awarded the prestigious Nefesh B'Nefesh Bonei Zion prize in 'Israel Advocacy' and has been recognized by numerous publications, including Jerusalem Post, JTA, Jewish Journal and JNS, as a global leader in Israel advocacy and digital diplomacy.

Previously, Arsen was a Research Fellow at the Hudson Institute in New York, where his research focused on Israel, United Nations and International Law, and before that, practiced as a litigation attorney in Australia.

Thank you Shahar, for interviewing such  an important man.  He validates all that I have been doing in writing articles defending Israel.  It makes me feel connected in our thoughts and hopes for Israel to both of you.  Whatever would I do without listening to your program?  When I watch, I'm in company with friends who think like me.  It's fantastic !!  For this 88 year old lady, it's very comforting.  Whatever happens, I know that Israel is in good hands.  

March 23, 2022

International Legal Forum quoted in JNS on Israel 'apartheid' allegations

Arsen Ostrovsky, Chair and CEO of the International Legal Forum, called Lynk’s report (from UN) “the latest in a litany of one-sided, baseless reports, vilifying Israel and engaging in a full-scale lawfare assault on Israel’s very existence as a Jewish state.” 

Resource:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYM1EeGyEaw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Pearl

https://www.facebook.com/arsenostrovskypublic/

https://il.linkedin.com/in/arsen-ostrovsky-9309a13

https://www.jewishtelegraph.com/prof_361.html

The Jews of New Zealand

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                       

New Zealand has been under British dominion.  Jews originally from England arrived in New Zealand in the first immigrant ships in 1840.  They had been in other places since since they were expulsed from England in 1290, and would not be allowed to return to England until 1655.  

From the late 18th century, the country was regularly visited by explorers and other sailors, missionaries, traders and adventurers. By 1831-1837, Joel Samuel Polack, Jewish,  arrived who was one of the earliest writers about New Zealand. "Joel Samuel Polack, an Anglo-Jew, wrote two widely read books on his 1831–1837 travels. He detailed his interaction with the Maori people, made notes on flora and fauna and concluded that commercially lucrative flax production on an immense scale was possible."

"As early as the 1820s, Jewish traders were among the shifting group of whalers, whaling crews, mariners, and missionaries who explored New Zealand. Three Jews came in the first 700 colonists to settle at Port Nicholson. 

"In 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the British Crown and various Māori chiefs, bringing New Zealand into the British Empire and giving Māori the same rights as British subjects. However, disputes over the differing translations of the Treaty and settler desire to acquire land from Māori led to the New Zealand Wars from 1843."  "By 1848 there were 61 Jews in the colony of Port Nicholson. Ten years later there were 188, mostly in Auckland."

 "Quite a number arrived during the gold rush days and were to be found predominantly on the West Coast of the South Island. In 1890 Polish and Russian Jews arrived, fleeing oppression under the Tsar."  The first Aliyah to Palestine had already started in 1880.  The would be four more throughout the years.  Jews were also starting to immigrate to the United States during that deplorable period.                                                            

"Abraham Hort Senior saw New Zealand as a possible haven for impoverished English Jews and a potential refuge for oppressed Jews of eastern Europe and elsewhere. ""The first Jewish settlers to arrive were Abraham Hort, Jr along with two brothers, Solomon and Benjamin Levy in 1840. 
Elizabeth Levy and Esther Solomon: The Jews' Hospital (Neveh zedak, which was largely funded by the Goldsmid family) sponsored two Jewish women to emigrate (from England to New Zealand)  in 1841 on the ship, "the Birman" :The Jewish community in WELLINGTON was founded by Abraham Hort of London under the authority of the chief rabbi in 1843.  "About 500 came to Wellington. " "David Isaacs, came with Abraham Hort, also an alumnus of the Jews Hospital."  

Some Jews had been subsidized by a Jewish charity in London which had a mission of caring for the poor and orphaned young people in the community. These "subsidized" Jewish immigrants were also intended by their benefactors to be devout members of the fledgling Jewish community in Wellington, to which the respected English business leader Abraham Hort, Senior, was sent from London to organize along London religious lines. The difficulties of life in early colonial New Zealand, together with historically high rates of intermarriage, made it hard to maintain strict religious observation in any of the new congregations.
                                                           

Subsequent small waves of immigration were associated with the Hungarian uprising in 1956 and the attempts by HIAS (the Hebrew Immigration Assistance Society) to bring Jews here from the former Soviet Union. Most recently there has been a small influx from South Africa, most of whom settled in Auckland. A great many South Africans were from Lithuania.   A number of Israelis have also settled in New Zealand in recent years."

Jewish Communities were later established in AUKLAND and other centers.  Jews have actively collaborated in New Zealand public life and have occupied the highest positions including those of administrator, prime minister and chief justice.                                                                         

Julius Vogel Sir Julius Vogel  (24 February 1835 – 12 March 1899) was the eighth Premier of New Zealand. His administration is best remembered for the issuing of bonds to fund railway construction and other public works. He was the first Jewish prime minister of New Zealand.   Benjamin Disraeli, of Jewish descent but Anglican, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom contemporaneously to Vogel's premiership. 

 "Sir Julius Vogel, who served twice during the 1870s, was the only Premier (Prime Minister) to practice Judaism." "In this respect the most notable was Sir Julius Vogel, who at various times held the portfolios of colonial treasurer, commissioner for stamps and customs, and postmaster-general. He served as premier from 1874 to 1876, and held the office of agent-general in London from 1876 to 1881. He is best remembered for his vigorous policy of public works, by which the North Island was opened up. To him also are due the establishment of the San Francisco and New Zealand mail service, the completion of the London and New Zealand cable, the system of government life-insurance, and the creation of the Public Trust Offices."
                                           

Sir Dove Myer Robinson
June 15, 1901 in Sheffield, England
August 14, 1989 in Ackland, New Zealand

      Sir Dove-Myer Robinson was Mayor of Auckland City from 1959 to 1965 and from 1968 to 1980, the longest tenure of any holder of the office. He was a colourful character and became affectionately known across New Zealand as "Robbie"
                                                             

 Sir Arthur Mielziner Myers 
(19 May 1868 – 9 October 1926) 

 Myers was a New Zealand politician and Mayor of Auckland from 1905 to 1909, and   member of the House of Representatives from 1910 to 1921, and a Cabinet Minister. Today he is remembered mainly for the public works constructed in Auckland during his term as Mayor, and partly from his donations, including Grafton Bridge and Myers Park..
                                                  

 John Phillip Key, Current Prime Minister of New Zealand, whose mother was Jewish.  Key was born in Auckland, New Zealand, to George Key (1914–1969) and Ruth Key (née Lazar; 1922–2000), on 9 August 1961. His father was an English immigrant and a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Key and his two sisters were raised in a state house in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr, by his mother, an Austrian Jewish immigrant. Key is the third prime minister or premier of New Zealand to have Jewish ancestry, after Julius Vogel and 
                                                     

                                              Francis Bell.
                             March 31, 1851-March 13, 1936 
    Bell was born in Nelson, the eldest son of Sir Dillon Bell. His mother was Margaret Hort (who was Jewish, but became a Christian).  He  was a New Zealand lawyer and politician who served as the 20th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 10 to 30 May 1925. He was the first New Zealand-born prime minister, holding office in a caretaker capacity following the death of William Massey. 

The Jewish community, at first mainly English, was reinforced by immigrants from Eastern Europe from 1882 and Central Europe from 1933 at the start of Germany leading into WWII and onward.  

The Jewish population of New Zealand in 1990 was 4,800.  People were living in 
1. Wellington:  2,300.
2. Auckland:    2,350
3. Christchurch:    80
4. Dunedin:          60
5. Hastings:         50

"The largest centre of Jewish population in New Zealand is Auckland, which, with a population of around 1.1 million, is New Zealand’s largest city. New Zealand’s total population is 3.7 million. Three quarters of the resident population lives in the North Island. The self-identified Jewish population is around 4,700 (1996 census) which is 0.13% of the overall population. (Jews of the USA make up 2% of that population.)  Numbers have been higher (around 5 – 6,000) but many Jewish families, or young people, have moved to larger communities overseas (especially Australia)."  My neighbor in Israel was from Australia, so even those Jews had lost some to making Aliyah to Israel, but it has continued to grow.                            

                                                                         
With this, anti-Semitism is on the rise, even on these two small islands.  
"Anti-Semitism is increasing in New Zealand and those responsible need to better understand the implications of their actions, a Jewish leader says.

New Zealand Jewish Council president Stephen Goodman said hate speech towards Jews was particularly prevalent on social media.

"A lot of anti-Semitism comes out of ignorance and thinking this is a fashionable thing to do," Goodman said. 

"I don't think that legislating really works. The real issue is education."

"Police have made contact with two men after anti-Semitic posters were placed around Queenstown Resort College.

A security camera image posted earlier on the Southern District Police Facebook page shows two men – one in dark glasses, camo pants and wearing a "Trump" t-shirt – entering the tertiary institute last week. The photo has since been removed from the police Facebook page."

Maoris pictured in Dance

 "New Zealand and a few others stepped forward to lead the battle cry against Israel at the United Nations Security Council. That this resolution came about in the waning days of the Obama administration speaks volumes.  Israel and New Zealand are on relatively equal footing in terms of quality of life, modern conveniences, and social status.  

New Zealand took a part in helping Israel to be re-established in 1948. They were one of the honorable nations who voted for the Partition Plan in 1947. There would be two nations, the plan offered – a Jewish one on about half the land. Yeah, we got the desert and the swamps, but never mind because we took lemons and made lemonade. We took desert and made it bloom; we took swamps and drained them. And an Arab one on about half the land (not including 2/3 of the land of “Palestine” that had already been given to the Jordanians).

According to the resolution sponsored, in part, by New Zealand, Israel has no legal right, no claim, to the land our forefathers walked, the place where they are buried, where they worshiped and where, to this day, we pray every day.

Have they since changed?"  

 There has been substantial assimilation, perhaps inevitable in a small diaspora community.

The 2006 census data gives the Jewish population as 6,858 out of the total New Zealand population of 4 million.

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_New_Zealand
facts about Israel
http://www.sinai.org.nz/jewish-new-zealand/
https://shalom.kiwi/2016/07/personal-perspective-anti-semitism-new-zealand/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/91187873/queenstown-police-pursue-alleged-antisemitic-poster-plasterers?rm=m
https://www.geni.com/projects/Jews-in-New-Zealand/14502
https://www.israellycool.com/2016/12/27/an-open-letter-to-new-zealand/
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11503-new-zealand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Key
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Vogel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove-Myer_Robinson

Jews From Australia: Amazing Pioneers Now Facing Anti-Semitism

Nadene Goldfoot                                       

The British Empire were the first to establish colonies in Australia.  Jews didn't move there until 1817 when the nucleus of its first congregations was established in Sydney.  

" Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and initially settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788, a date which became Australia's national day.   The first Jews came to Australia as 8 of the convicts transported to Botany Bay in 1788 aboard the First Fleet that established the first European settlement on the continent, on the site of present-day Sydney.  The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored and an additional five self-governing crown colonies established."  So one can see that Jews arriving there were true pioneers in a new country.

With the loss of its American colonies in 1783, the British Government sent a fleet of ships, the "First Fleet", under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, to establish a new penal colony in New South Wales.  The British still control the Australians.  Settlers who came to Australia other than Jews were: from the British Isles, and a majority of Australians have some British or Irish ancestry. These Australians form an ethnic group known as Anglo-Celtic Australians.                                   
                                                                      

Besides Sydney, Jews were among the early settlers in Melbourne, Adaelaide, Brisbane and others where communities were organized shortly after their foundation.
                                                                        

The discovery of gold in the 1850s led to more Jews arriving in Australia, just like the Gold Rush in California and then Alaska.  Jewish congregations were created and many fell apart later. By the end of the 19th century the lack of Jewish communal connections and fear of assimilation led most Australian Jews in rural areas to relocate to the Jewish centers in cities.   As a result, the rapidly growing community in Sydney needed larger facilities, and built The Great Synagogue, located on Elizabeth Street, opposite Hyde Park, which was consecrated in 1878.   By 1901,  the Commonwealth of Australia  became a Dominion of the British Empire.  
                                                                            

Australian communal life is patterned on that of English Jewry.  Most congregations recognize the jurisdiction of the chief rabbi of the British Empire and are traditional Jews, such as Conservatives or modern Orthodox.  Liberal movements emerged in Sydney and Melbourne.  

Since 1935 at the beginnings of anti-Semitism in Germany, the Jewish population of Australia more then tripled  because of immigration from Europe.  In 1990 the Jews numbered 90,000 in Australia.  I know that Chabad, the Jewish outreach of Orthodoxy was there.  97% of the Jews live in the metropolitan areas which is common for Jews to do everywhere as they are not farmers;  40,000 lived in Melbourne;  30,000 in Sydney.  Religious and cultural life has been strengthened lately.  The Zionist movement is well organized and active. 

Jews in Australia have enjoyed full equality and freedom.  Anti-Semitism had not assumed organized proportions, at least to to 1992, but then anti-Semitism has been growing everywhere since then, too.  "Australia, although physically remote from most of the Jewish world, has a thriving and proud Jewish community of about 120,000. The Jewish community has the highest number of Holocaust survivors per capita in the diaspora, and greatly benefited from post war immigration as well as more recently, South African and Russian immigration."

As in South Africa, a former British Commonwealth until 1961, "A very high proportion of Jewish school students attend Jewish day schools for their entire school education."  "Nevertheless, the Jewish community is the only community within Australia whose places of worship, schools, communal organisations and community centers, for security reasons, operate under protective measures such as high fences, armed guards, metal detectors, CCTV cameras and the like. The necessity arises from the incidence of physical attacks against Jews and Jewish communal buildings over the last three decades, and continuing threats.  
                                                                     

Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs:
 b: August 6, 1855 Melbourne, Victoria
d: February 11, 1948 South Yarra, Melbourne, Victoria 

       3rd Chief Justice and 9th Governor-General of Australia.  Isaacs was the son of Alfred Isaacs, a tailor of Jewish ancestry from the town of Mława, Poland. Seeking better prospects, Alfred left Poland and worked his way across what is now Germany, spending some months in Berlin and Frankfurt.                                                             
As in other countries, Jews have been prominent in all walks of life.  Sir Isaac Isaacs was the first Australian -born governor-general and Sir John Monash commanded the Australian Expeditionary Force in World War I.  Both men were Jewish. 

Sir John Monash 1865-1931

 "In recognition of his enduring influence, Monash's face is on Australia's highest value currency note ($100). Monash's success in part reflected the tolerance of Australian society, but to a larger degree his success – in the harshest experience the young nation had suffered – shaped that tolerance and demonstrated to Australians that the Australian character was diverse, multi-ethnic and a blend of the traditions of the "bush" and the "city". According to author Colin MacInnes, as recounted by Monash's biographer, Geoffrey Serle, Monash's "presence and prestige...made anti-Semitism...impossible in Australia". He is also honoured in a Cantata for chorus, soloists and orchestra called Peace - A Cantata for John Monash by composer/conductor Dr David Ian Kram."
                                                             

     

Australia has six states—New South Wales (NSW), Queensland (QLD), South Australia (SA), Tasmania (TAS), Victoria (VIC) and Western Australia (WA)—and two major mainland territories—the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory (NT). In most respects these two territories function as states, except that the Commonwealth Parliament has the power to modify or repeal any legislation passed by the territory parliaments.

The Jews in each state have their elected Representative Board and these Boards elect the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which is the official representative body of the community.  

There were 97,335 Australians who identified themselves as Jewish in the 2011 census, but the actual number is estimated to be 112,000.  (An answer to the question on the census was optional.) The majority are Ashkenazi Jews, many of them refugees and Holocaust survivors who arrived during and after World War II, and their descendants. Jewish citizens make up about 0.5% of the Australian population.  
                                                                           

Melbourne, Australia beach

By the 2016 census, there are at least 7 cities with large Jewish populations.  They range from having 41.1% of the city being Jewish with 8,619 Jews down to 12.7% of the population being Jewish with 1,272 Jews.

 In the 2016 Australian census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were English (36.1%), Australian (33.5%), Irish (11.0%), Scottish (9.3%), Chinese (5.6%), Italian (4.6%), German (4.5%), Indian (2.8%), Greek (1.8%), and Dutch (1.6%.  
                                                                        

2013: On October 27,  Eight or so young men shouting anti-Semitics epithets viciously attacked four men and a woman – visibly Jewish – as they returned home from a Shabbat evening meal in Bondi Beach, Australia, this weekend.The Jewish group sustained injuries that include a fractured skull, facial fractures, a broken nose, cuts and bruising.  October in 2013 could have been during the High Holidays of Rosh Hashana-Yom Kippur.  
                                                                               

2017:  A rabbi in Canberra, Australia tells the newspaper that he doesn't feel safe in Australia anymore.  One of the recent incidents he had was:   On a Sunday afternoon in October, Rabbi Shmueli Feldman was hosting a small celebration at his home in a Canberra suburb. Suddenly, a car carrying four teenagers swerved in front of the house. One passenger leaned out the window and cursed Jews before the car sped off.  He has been egged, and a rock was thrown through his child’s bedroom window. Was this also during the High Holidays when more Jews could have been congregated in this city?  
                                                               

"Objects have been hurled through the window of his Jewish center on several occasions: rocks, a chair and, in one instance, the building’s security camera. In May, he told the police that swastikas had been scrawled in a park near his synagogue, but the graffiti was not removed until August."

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Australia

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/18535 Arutz Sheva

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/26/world/australia/australia-anti-semitism-racism.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Isaacs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Monash

References: 

 Major general histories of the Jews in Australia are Hilary L. Rubinstein and William D. Rubinstein, The Jews in Australia: A Thematic History (2 vols., 1991) and Suzanne D. Rutland, Edge of the Diaspora: Two Centuries of Jewish Settlement in Australia (2001; first ed. 1988). Each of these academic historians has written more concise general histories also. Rabbi John Simon Levi, co-author of Australian Genesis: Jewish Convicts and Settlers, 1788-1850 (1974), has authored the magisterial biographical directory These Are The Names: Jewish Lives in Australia, 1788-1860 (2013). The Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal (started 1939) appears twice a year, published in Sydney and Melbourne respectively. There are also a number of published monographs on aspects of Australian Jewish history, for a guide to which (as well as to Australian Jewish literature) Serge Liberman, A Bibliography of Australasian Judaica, 1788-2008 (2011) is a distinguished reference work.