Bnai Brith Magazine Spring 2012 : Page 3
B’nai B’rith M a g a z i n e 6 The Message of Passover From the President 14 The State of Aliyah Spring 2012 By Allan J. Jacobs, President, B’nai B’rith International The number of individuals immigrating to the State of Israel is at an all-time low, and the future of aliyah is uncertain. Threats like anti-Semitism that compelled earlier generations to relocate to the Jewish homeland are less of an issue. And with many Israeli citizens emigrating to other countries, the Israeli government faces a double demographic challenge: how to increase immigration to the Jewish state while luring expat Israelis back home. By Uriel Heilman 41 42 BBI Organizes Holocaust Remembrance Events B’nai B’rith held events at the German consulate in New York and throughout Latin America in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. By Seth Shapiro 20 The Jews of Berlin Policy Conference in Uruguay Before the Holocaust and the Third Reich, Berlin had a large Jewish community. Though most Jews fled before the war or were deported to death camps, the city has recently seen a Jewish renaissance. Today, there are active synagogues, classes in Hebrew and Jewish culture, and even a growing number of converts. But with a prominent Holocaust memorial in the middle of the city, there are also many visible reminders of the horrors visited upon earlier generations. By Eugene L. Meyer B’nai B’rith’s 2011 policy conference, the organization’s first-ever interna-tional event hosted in Latin America, featured discussions on Iran’s presence in the region as well as other global threats of anti-Semitism. By Dara Kahn 26 Postcards From the Holocaust 44 Haifa Fire Scouts Clubhouse Torkel Wächter found a box with 32 postcards hidden in his deceased father’s Stockholm attic. They chronicle his father’s correspondence in German—a language Wächter refused to learn or be associated with until recently— with relatives in Hamburg. The discovery of the postcards has led to an extraordinary project to bring this important part of German-Jewish history to light: Wächter created a website, where the postcards were released in “real time,” only 70 years later on a digital platform. By Dara Kahn B’nai B’rith funded the Fire Scouts clubhouse in Haifa, dedicated in honor of Elad Riven, a volunteer Fire Scout who lost his life in the wildfire that broke out in the Carmel region of northern Israel in December 2010. By Seth Shapiro Cover image by Getty Images. dePArtments For additional stories, visit the magazine section of B’nai B’rith International’s website at www.bnaibrith.org/magazines From the EVP Jewish Geography 8 32, 48 Letters to the Editor 10 Medicare Premium Support 50
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