Certificate of Merit: Roi Kais (Kan 11), Avital Indig (Makor Rishon)

The B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem has announced the recipients of its Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage for 2025.

Award winner Yuna Leibzon, a news correspondent for Channel 12 News, was chosen for her series of articles on the Jewish community in the United States. Leibzon was appointed as a U.S.  correspondent for Channel 12 News in 2019 and has been covering U.S. Jewry, anti-Semitism and—since Oct. 7th—the surge in anti-Semitism in the United States, along with the Jewish community’s campaign for the hostages and its fight against hate.

A Certificate of Merit will be awarded to Roi Kais of Kan 11 and Avital Indig of Makor Rishon. Kais was chosen for his series of articles on Jewish communities in Arab countries, while Indig will be honored for her series focused on the Jewish community in New York, published in Makor Rishon and in the English edition of Israel Hayom.

Since its establishment in 1992, the B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism has recognized excellence in reporting on contemporary Diaspora Jewish communities and on the state of Israel-Diaspora relations in Israeli print, broadcast and online media. The award is widely recognized as the most prestigious prize in the Israeli media industry for Diaspora reportage and was established to help strengthen the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. The award highlights the important contributions the media can make toward strengthening the relationship between Israel and world Jewry by encouraging quality reporting on Diaspora communities and Israel-Diaspora relations.

The distinguished members of the award jury include Dr. Yehudith Auerbach, former head of the Department of Journalism and Communication Studies, Bar Ilan University; Yaron Deckel, a previous Diaspora Reportage Award winner and regional director for the Canadian Jewish Agency for Israel; Professor Uzi Rebhun, Shlomo Argov chair in Israel-Diaspora Relations and head of the Division of Jewish Demography & Statistics, The A. Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry director, Florence Melton Institute, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Professor Gabriela Shalev, former Israel ambassador to the United Nations; Journalist Yair Sheleg; and Asher Weill, publisher and editor of “Ariel,” The Israel Review of Arts and Letters (1981-2003).

The award is presented in memory of the late Wolf Matsdorf, editor of the World Center’s journal “Leadership Briefing” and a journalist in Israel and Australia, and his wife Hilda, a pioneer in social work in both countries and in memory of Luis and Trudi Schydlowsky. An award ceremony will be held later this summer.

For further information, please contact:

Golan Yossifon, Spokesperson, B’nai B’rith – +972525625135

Alan Schneider, Director, B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem: 02-6251743; 052-5536441

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Read more at Breaking Defense.

As ties between Israel and Greece have improved over the last decade, defense firms here have begun to eye Athens as a potentially growing market.

That interest was on full display last week, when Greece held its DEFEA defense exhibition in Athens. Israel’s Ministry of Defense, through its International Defense Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT), brought 25 defense companies to the show.

“The impressive Israeli participation highlights the country’s position as one of the global leaders in defense technology and underscores the partnership between Israel and Greece,” Israel’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

There is a strategic reason Israel and Greece have begun tying together — and, according to Gallia Lindenstrauss, a senior research fellow with the Institute for National Security Studies, that reason is spelled “Turkey.”

“Greece is both a buyer of Israeli defense products and a security partner of Israel,” she said. “The Turkish threat seems to solidify the shared interests between Israel and Greece in the security realm for many years forward.”

“Israel and Greece have had especially close ties for the past decade,” said Lahav Harkov, a senior research fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist strategy, but ties have only improved as Israel’s relations with Turkey have been on the rocks.

Still, said Harkov, “This is more than ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ The countries [Greece and Israel] have done military exercises together and share intelligence.”

Dan Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, noted that Israeli ties with Greece, as well as Cyprus, have withstood the challenges of the recent conflict in Gaza. (In 2021 Greece, Cyprus and Israel signed a program of tripartite military cooperation, and there are also plans for a possible natural gas pipeline that would link Israel via Cyprus and Greece to Europe.)

“Save for some votes at the United Nations related to the war in Gaza, whether it be in the field of energy, civil aviation, military-to-military ties, ministerial visits, or in the tourism sector, relations amongst Israel, Greece, and Cyprus have remained relatively positive,” he said.

Read the full article at Breaking Defense.

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Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, a Chicago native, was elected as the new pope of the Catholic Church on Thursday. He will be called Leo XIV.

The first U.S.-born pope is also a Peruvian citizen and was previously archbishop of Peru, the Associated Press reported.

Most recently, the new pope was prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, “one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church,” the AP reported, as “the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world.”

Prevost had “a prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals have,” it added.

“We have to seek together to be a missionary church. A church that builds bridges and dialogue,” the new pope said in his remarks from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, CNN reported.

*****

Robert Spitzer and Daniel S. Mariaschin, president and CEO, respectively, of B’nai B’rith International, stated that “we look forward to continuing to work extremely closely with the Catholic Church and community during this new papacy, at a time of manifold common challenges.”

Read the full article at JNS.org.

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B’nai B’rith President Robert Spitzer and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International—the world’s oldest and most widely known Jewish communal organization, with a presence across six continents—extends its warm wishes to our Catholic partners and friends around the world on the election of Pope Leo XIV.

The new Pope, until this afternoon Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, is the first Catholic pontiff to be elected from the United States—where B’nai B’rith was founded in 1843 and is headquartered—and previously served in Peru, a predominantly Catholic country where B’nai B’rith has a longstanding chapter.

B’nai B’rith is profoundly committed to interreligious cooperation, dialogue and harmony, and has been at the forefront of strengthening Catholic-Jewish ties globally, at all levels, for decades.

“We congratulate Pope Leo XIV and all our Catholic partners on this historic occasion,” said B’nai B’rith President Robert Spitzer and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin. “We look forward to continuing to work extremely closely with the Catholic Church and community during this new papacy, at a time of manifold common challenges.”

David J. Michaels, B’nai B’rith’s director of United Nations and intercommunal affairs, added, “The Catholic-Jewish friendship is indispensable—and its flourishing over the past 60 years in particular can serve as a model for reconciliation and vital interreligious engagement. We affirm our commitment to this bond and hope to engage with Pope Leo XIV, as we have his predecessors.”

B’nai B’rith, distinguished by a dynamic presence in Rome, met on numerous occasions with the recently departed Pope Francis, and stands ready to further strengthen the Catholic-Jewish relationship during this new pontificate.

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This category of victim had not previously been officially acknowledged by the Israeli government and the April 28 event took place just one day before Israel’s Memorial Day. Wybran is one of 250 victims who have been approved for recognition by a special committee under the new law.

Members of the committee include Chairman of the World Zionist Organization Yaakov Hagoel; Jewish Agency Secretary General Josh Schwartz; Diaspora Ministry Director General Avi Cohen Scali; and B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem Director Alan Schneider.

Wybran’s widow, Emmy, was the first representative of five victims murdered in Wales, France and Belgium to be presented with a certificate and letter by Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Anti-Semitism Amichai Chikli; Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog, chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive; and Hagoel. Chikli has also sent a letter to Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever urging him to block the repatriation of Wybran’s convicted murderer and reopen the case. Read the full letter here.

All of the representatives immigrated to Israel following the deadly incidents.

“This is a historic event,” Chikli said, “After the terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing wave of anti-Semitic violence around the world, it is clearer than ever that the attack was aimed at the entire Jewish people that is engaged in a struggle for legitimacy and the right to identify with the State of Israel.”

Almog said, “This recognition is a correction to the past situation in which victims of this category were not officially recognized. This recognition brings hearts together in Israel and the Jewish world and illustrates Israel’s responsibility for Jews around the world.” Almog—who has lost seven family members in terrorist attacks in Israel—added that “your presence illustrates that we are tied to their legacy—a determination, founded on great pain and sense of loss—to create an exemplary society. Our unity is more important than ever.”

Hagoel—who pushed the legislation through numerous hurdles—said that it strengthens the notion that Israel is the home of all the Jewish People.

Following the ceremony, Emmy Wybran; Schneider; Jacques Heller, former president of B’nai B’rith in Belgium and close friend of Dr. Wybran; and B’nai B’rith CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin, met with Belgian MP Sam van Rooy to discuss the release of Wybran’s convicted murderer, Abdelkader Belliraj, on March 30, by King Mohammed VI of Morocco. Belliraj, a dual Belgian/Moroccan citizen who was convicted of having  led a team of terrorists affiliated with the Abu Nidal terrorist group, had served 17 years of a life sentence (later commuted to 25 years) on charges related to a plot to overthrow the monarchy, collusion with Al-Qaeda and six murders in Belgium, including Wybran and the Grand Mufti of Brussels. Van Rooy pledged to support B’nai B’rith’s appeal to the prime minister of Belgium that Belliraj be prevented from returning to Belgium and to expel him if he has already entered the country.

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The ceremony took place at the B’nai B’rith Martyrs Forest “Scroll of Fire” Plaza and was streamed live on the B’nai B’rith International Facebook page. The event was reported widely in Israel and abroad in print, online and broadcast media; an overflow crowd of some 800 people were in attendance.

During the ceremony, the Jewish Rescuers Citation was conferred on 14 rescuers who operated in France, Hungary, Libya, Holland and Poland. The citation—a joint program of the B’nai B’rith World Center and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers during the Holocaust—has recognized 658 heroes since its inception in 2011 in an effort to help correct the generally held misconception that Jews failed to come to the aid of fellow Jews during the Holocaust.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Hungarian Ambassador Zoltán Szentgyörgyi, rescued hostage Luis Har and others paid tribute to their extraordinary courage.

Read more about the ceremony and honored rescuers here.

See how media outlets have covered the ceremony and recipients of the citation:

Aurora Israel (Spanish):
Zvi Henryk Zimmerman, promoter and co-participant in the salvation of thousands of Jews

Baltimore Jewish Life (English):
In 1st speech as U.S. ambassador to Israel, Huckabee pledges: ‘I stand not behind you, but with you’

Diario Judío (Spanish):
The B’nai B’rith World Center and the Jewish National Fund Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael will honor heroic Jewish rescuers at a Holocaust memorial service

eJewishPhilanthropy (Jewish Philanthropy News; English):
In 1st speech as U.S. ambassador to Israel, Huckabee pledges: ‘I stand not behind you, but with you’

Israel Business News (Hebrew):
The B’nai B’rith World Center and Keren Kayemet Le’Israel held a ceremony on Holocaust and Heroism Day, the only one of its kind in Israel and the world

Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation (English):
Segment on the B’nai B’rith World Center and Keren Kayemet Le’Israel Ceremony (46:25-50:55)

Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation (Hebrew):
Segment on the B’nai B’rith World Center and Keren Kayemet Le’Israel Ceremony (17:03-33:31)

Jewish News Syndicate/JNS Wire (English):
B’nai B’rith World Center, KKL-JNF honor rescuers at Holocaust remembrance ceremony

KAN en Français/Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation (Hebrew):
Honoring the Righteous Among the Nations Speaking with Yael Bornstein

Kikar HaShabbat (Hebrew):
Holocaust Memorial Day ceremonies opened this morning – a siren will sound at 10:00 AM

Knoxville Daily Sun (English):
B’nai B’rith World Center and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Celebrate Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During Holocaust

The Times of Israel (English):
Huckabee at Holocaust Remembrance event: Israel is ‘everything we hope the world will be’

YNet (English):
Uniting with millions of our brothers: Tonight – Opening of Holocaust Remembrance Day events

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The B’nai B’rith Martyr’s Forest is the world’s largest Holocaust memorial and the most significant joint B’nai B’rith–KKL-JNF project, memorializing the victims of the Holocaust with six million trees planted on 4,500 acres in the picturesque Jerusalem mountains near Moshav Kesalon. At the pinnacle of the forest stands the “Scroll of Fire,” created by renowned sculptor Nathan Rapoport, which invokes the destruction of the Jewish people in the Holocaust and its revival in the State of Israel.

Speaking at the ceremony, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in his first speech since presenting credentials to President Isaac Herzog earlier this week, “The ceremony today is a beautiful reminder that God has been at work in this land; prophecies have been fulfilled—dry bones live again and the desert blooms…From the beginning of time, God had a people, and he had a place and he had a purpose. The Jewish people are those people; this is the place, and the purpose is to be His light and his presence in this world. I come today with an extraordinary sense of awe and wonder of the resilience of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Nothing less than a miracle.” Huckabee added, “I do not understand anti-Semitism or the hatred that history has inflicted upon the Jewish people. The animosity toward them makes no sense; it is irrational, baseless, and directed at those who have done no wrong. I come today not as a Jew, but as one who believes in ‘The Book,’ and I believe that those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed. I come to bring blessing, and I stand not behind you, but with you—because you are everything we hope the world will be.”

Amb. Zoltán Szentgyörgyi, ambassador of Hungary to Israel, said that the bravery of the Jewish rescuers who risked their lives to save others challenges the false narrative that Jews were only victims—they were also resisters, rescuers, fighters and protectors. Their legacy stands as a testament to integrity and moral courage in the face of absolute evil…But remembrance must also be paired with responsibility—not only individual, but national. Hungary, like all nations, carries the burden of confronting its past. There were times in our history—including during the Holocaust and the Second World War—when the state failed to protect all its citizens. That failure has left wounds we must continue to acknowledge and address. Today, there is a clear and unequivocal understanding that the state has a moral and political obligation to safeguard every one of its citizens, regardless of their origin, religion, or background. Discrimination, anti-Semitism and humiliation have no place in a just society, and cannot be tolerated. Confronting the crimes of the 20th century is not just a historical task, but a living responsibility—one that defines the kind of country we aspire to be.”

Reflecting on Hungarian citizen Omri Miran who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and remains in captivity, Szentgyörgyi said that “as we reflect on the past, we are also painfully reminded that the work of remembrance, vigilance and protection is not over…Never again” must not become an empty phrase we utter once a year. It must be a living commitment—one that obliges us to stand against terror, to speak out against anti-Semitism wherever it emerges and to fight for the safety and dignity of every human being.”

Luis Har, who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, and released in a daring IDF military operation after 129 days in captivity, said, “How much our people suffered throughout the generations, and yet we are here. This is wisdom in the fact that when we are truly together, we are capable of anything, despite it all. We never lost hope and we always knew that the Jewish people don’t leave anyone behind. What kept us going in captivity was our faith, the knowledge that we would come out. The very fact that I am here is proof of that.” He called for all the remaining 59 hostages—living and dead—to be rescued. “I ask everyone to be a united and special people—and to save them all.”

Other speakers included Mira Zar of KKL-JNF; Haim Katz, chairman, B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem; and Brigadier General Barak Mordechai, Border Police training base commander. Holocaust historian Professor Patrick Henry (editor, Jewish Resistance Against the Nazis, Catholic University Press, 2014) lit the memorial flame.

David Schoenfeld, son of rescuer Oscar Schoenfeld, recited Yizkor and Josef Jan, grandson of rescuer Rabbi Josef Gean, recited Kaddish. Testimonials about individual rescuers were presented to small groups by relatives and affiliates: Michal Deutch (Oscar Schoenfeld), Yoram Goren (Lore Durlacher), George Saltzberg (Peter Jablonski), Avigdor Zajdman (Witold Gora), Izzak Weinberg (Naomi Mayer, Shefer Ganiram (Lolek Lehrer), Riki Ostrovsky (Pinchas Ostrovsky), David Schoenfeld (Oscar Schoenfeld) and Josef Jan (Rabbi Josef Gean). A Border Police honor guard accompanied the ceremony.

During the ceremony, the “Jewish Rescuers Citation” was conferred posthumously on 14 rescuers who operated in France, Hungary, Libya, Holland and Poland. The citation—a joint program of the B’nai B’rith World Center and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers during the Holocaust—has recognized 658 heroes since its inception in 2011 in an effort to help correct the generally held misconception that Jews failed to come to the aid of fellow Jews during the Holocaust. Past rescuers have operated across numerous countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, France, Slovakia, Greece, Russia, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Austria, Belarus, Italy, Poland, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Hungary, Denmark, Czechia, Lithuania and Belgium.

The phenomena of Jewish rescue and the inspiring stories of many hundreds of Jews who labored to save their endangered brethren throughout Europe from deportation and murder have yet to be fully researched and receive appropriate public attention. Many who could have tried to flee or hide themselves decided to stay, which exposed them to danger as they endeavored to rescue others; some paid for it with their lives. With great heroism, Jews in Germany and every country across Axis and occupied Europe employed subterfuge, forgery, smuggling, concealment and other methods to ensure that Jews survived the Holocaust or assisted them in escaping to a safe haven. In doing so, they foiled the Nazi goal of total annihilation of the Jews.

Recipients of the citation this year are:

1. Helena Merenholc (1907-1997, Poland)–Provided false documents and found hiding places for Jews with the Polish Council to Aid Jews (Żegota).
2. Janina Rechtleben-Wojciechowska (1900, Poland-1980, England)–Her apartment served as a hiding place for fugitive Jews, weapons and money, and as a meeting place for members of the Polish resistance movement.
3. Maurycy Herling-Grudziński (1903-1966, Poland)–Smuggled Jews out of the Warsaw Ghetto and hid them in his home. Established a program of financial assistance for Jewish refugees hiding on the Aryan side of Warsaw.
4. Madeleine Dreyfus (1909-1987, France)–As a member of the “Circuit Garel” she found hiding places for Jewish children with Christian families in villages and led groups of Jewish children by train to the hiding places.
5. Lore Durlacher/ Ora Goren (1920, Germany-1992, Israel)–As a member of the Westerweel group in the Netherlands, she provided food stamps and forged papers to Jews in hiding and helped smuggle them out of the Westerbork detention camp.
6. Naomi Mayer (1924, Hungary-1945, Switzerland)– Took under her wing two Polish Jewish brothers aged four and five, who traveled as stowaways on the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee train, hiding and caring for them throughout their detention in Bergen-Belsen.
7. Peter Jablonski (1921, Poland-2011, Canada)–Rescued a wounded child and two other Jews in a bunker he had built himself in Warsaw.
8. Oscar Schoenfeld (1923, Hungary-2004, Israel)–Found safe houses and provided food, water and suitable clothing for Jewish refugees who escaped to Hungary from Poland and Czechoslovakia.
9. Witold Góra (1900-1994, Poland)–Stole documents from the Gestapo station located in the same building that housed a laundromat where he worked and used them to forge identity cards that saved dozens of Jews from death in the Treblinka extermination camp. He rented and financed safe houses for escapees from the Warsaw ghetto.
10. Pinchas Ostrowski (1922, Poland-1983, Israel)–Exploited his position as director general of a provincial Ministry of Agriculture in eastern Poland (during Soviet rule after the war) to initiate a dangerous diversionary measure in order to extricate a 10-year-old Jewish orphan held at the home of his Polish rescuer. He also issued travel documents that allowed 70 Polish Jewish refugees to leave for Israel.
11. Rabbi Josef Gean (1882, Libya-1960, Israel)–Established an illegal hospitality enterprise for hundreds of Jewish refugees who arrived in Libya from Europe during the anti-Semitic Italian regime.
12. Lolek Lehrer (1916-1943, Poland)–Under a false identity as a railway worker, he helped Jews escape from Poland to Slovakia.
13. Jean-Charle Leon Lachtchiver (1931, France-2019, Israel)–As a child, he was active in the underground arm of the “Hanoar Hatzioni” Zionist Youth movement. He hid forged documents and identity cards in his textbooks and passed on information about what was befalling the city’s Jews.
14. Zvi Henryk Zimmerman (1913, Poland-2006, Israel)–Zionist activist and member of the “Sneh” rescue underground in the Krakow ghetto, he infiltrated Hungary and approved the veracity of thousands of forged Polish Aryan papers for Jews as a diplomat appointed by the head of the Polish Delegation, Righteous Among the Nations Henryk Slawik, endangering his life. Along with Slawik, he established an orphanage, rescuing 100 Jewish children by placing them under Christian identity.

Click here to read more about recipients of this year’s Jewish Rescuers Citation.

Click here to watch the full commemoration ceremony.

Contact:

Alan Schneider, Director, B’nai B’rith World Center +972-52-5536441

Golan Yossifon, Spokesman +972-52-5625135

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