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www.jewishnews.co.uk
Jewish News 13 August 2020
World News / Spy case / Shul debris / Virus concern
Heroic Saudi spy accuses state of trying to kill him A former Saudi spy boss who tipped off US authorities about bombs addressed to Chicago synagogues has accused the kingdom’s rulers of trying to kill him. Saad Aljabri, who now lives in Canada, was one of Saudi Arabia’s highest-ranking intelligence officers for two decades and is credited with saving “hundreds if not thousands” of Jewish lives in 2010, court documents say. Having fallen out of favour with the new regimeofCrownPrinceMohammedbinSalman, he says a Saudi hit squad came to Canada in 2018 to kill him, just two weeks after Saudi-born Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered. Aljabri’s lawyers say he led a team of spies
Former Saudi spy Saad Aljabri
who infiltrated Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, learning of a 2010 plan “to bomb two US-bound cargo planes through packages with explosive-laden computer printer cartridges”. The bombs were “addressed to synagogues near Chicago, Illinois and sent by FedEx and UPS”.
Beirut synagogue escapes blast A photograph said to be of Beirut’s only synagogue shows minor damage to the interior of the 95-year-old building from last week’s blast in the city. The image of the Maghen Abraham Synagogue appeared Thursday on the page of a Facebook group called the Lebanese Jewish Community Council. Lebanon has no organised Jewish community and very few Jewish residents, if any. More than 150 people died in the blast, which authorities initially said occurred at a storage facility for ammonium
Maghen Abraham Synagogue
nitrate. But last Friday President Michel Aoun said the possibility of “foreign intervention” was also being examined. The blast obliterated some buildings and heavily damaged thousands more, rendering a reported 300,000 people homeless.
COVID WARNING ON SHOFARS
The shofar should only be blown sparingly and outside this year because of the coronavirus, Dutch rabbis have said. The advisory on the blowing of the ram’s horn, a core practice associated with the upcoming celebration of Rosh Hashanah, came last Friday from the Dutch Conference of Rabbis, or NCRZ, the country’s highest Orthodox rabbinical body. Rabbis “should consider inviting congregations to go out to the synagogue’s yard and blow the shofar there, outside the actual building”, the advisory read. It also recommended blowing
the shofar outside people’s homes if they cannot attend synagogue services, which are limited to a few dozen people because of the virus. The organisation of Jewish Communities in the Netherlands asked the NCRZ to consider the issue ahead of the start of the Hebrew month of Elul, which begins on 21 August this year. It is customary to blow the shofar daily throughout Elul, although this is “by no means required”, the advisory said. Hearing the shofar blown on Rosh Hashanah itself, which begins this year on 19 September, is considered a religious obligation.
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The photograph shows some debris and dust on the floor of the synagogue and on plastic sheets covering the pews. The walls show no cracks and it is unclear whether the windows were shattered, but the frames seem to be in place. The explosion occurred about a mile west of the synagogue, which is adjacent to the Grand Serail government palace. That building sustained more significant damage, including doors torn from their hinges. The synagogue reopened last year following extensive renovations.
ISRAEL ICE HOCKEY CAPTAIN SIGNS TO PLAY FOR OSWIECIM When the captain of Israel’s ice hockey team takes the ice for the coming season he will be a short walk from Auschwitz. Eliezer Sherbatov, 28, has signed for the team in the southern Polish town of Oswiecim. He said: “I am happy to make this history and of course want to help not forget the Holocaust.” Sherbatov has played hockey since moving from Israel to Canada as a child.