One of the acute dangers of advanced technology is the potential increase in identity theft.
We’ve been warned about hackers who manage to access our personal information such as ID numbers, bank account and credit card numbers, plus a lot more.
Some hackers do it just for the mental exercise and make no use of the information. Others are scam artists and use the information to withdraw money from people’s bank accounts or to open fake accounts using much of the personal information that they have accumulated.
Of course, there are many people who have the same name – especially those with surnames such as Cohen, Levy, Smith, or Fitzgerald. But people with uncommon surnames seldom have doubles, and when their names appear in an unusual context, some people smell a rat.
That’s what happened to Guy Rolnik, the founder and editor-in-chief of TheMarker, the business supplement of Haaretz. Some swindler accessed a fairly recent photo of Rolnik, and attached it to an Instagram post with his name and alleged new role as an investment consultant for people wanting to invest in companies listed on the stock exchange. Rolnik subsequently received numerous WhatsApp messages from friends, colleagues, relatives and total strangers – some who took it as a joke, some who queried whether it was true, some who took it for granted that it was a hoax, and others who actually sought his advice.
At first, Rolnik was inclined to laugh it off, considering that he hadn’t used Instagram in years. But out of curiosity, he decided to take a look and was horrified by how real the fake notice appeared to be. He wrote a complaint to Meta, which owns Instagram and which is now the name of what was previously Facebook. After that, he tried to access Instagram again, but to his amazement discovered that he was blocked from accessing an account that bore his name.
At the time of writing, the problem had not been resolved, and the post had not been removed from Instagram.
Netanyahu-Bar spat on Shin Bet
■ THE ONGOING public conflict between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar may ease up slightly now that Bar has announced that he will be stepping down in mid-June, but anything could happen between now and then.
■ ANYONE LOOKING at the window displays of clothing stores in Israel will draw the conclusion that the key color for summer is white. But that’s not so in the communities campaigning for the release of the hostages, where the key color is yellow.
It started with the yellow ribbon, then the yellow chair symbolizing hostages who are still captive in Gaza, yellow tablecloths, yellow T-shirts, which are somewhat problematic for those people who remember the yellow T-shirt with the black print of the clenched fist that was worn by Kach supporters. (Kach is an outlawed racist political party that was founded and led by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane.)
Now, fashion designers sympathetic to the cause of the hostages are designing yellow dresses, one of which was worn by released hostage Noa Argamani when she attended the gala event hosted by Time magazine in celebration of the 100 most influential people in the world, of which she is one.
Argamani’s partner, Avinatan Or, is still in captivity, a factor that strengthened her determination to wear a yellow evening gown. Designed and fashioned by Eli Tala in a period of three days, it captured all eyes as Argamani strode the red carpet.
■ EVERY YEAR between Holocaust Remembrance Day and Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars, the family of the late Isi Leibler sponsored a kiddush in his memory at the Hazvi Yisrael Synagogue in Jerusalem’s Talbiyeh neighborhood. This year was no exception, and the kiddush took place last Saturday.
A few words were said about Leibler having done a lot for the congregation, but what he did was not specified.
For the record, he was a renowned world and Australia and Pacific Jewish leader, and following his arrival in Israel he wrote a regular analytical column for The Jerusalem Post for some 20 years.
He was an instrumental figure in the struggle for Soviet Jewry, and not only went to Russia to meet Soviet Jews but aided them after the fall of Communism and maintained friendships with many of those who came to Israel, and hosted them in his home.
The period of the anniversary of his death ties in with the beginnings of his personal story.His mother, Rachel Leibler, left Belgium just before the outbreak of the Second World War, taking her young son with her. They were reunited in Australia with Leibler’s father, who soon after their arrival became a Jewish community leader.
Isi Leibler not only followed in his father’s footsteps, but surpassed him, rising from student leader, Bnei Akiva leader, prominent figure in the Victorian Jewish Board of Deputies, to president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and vice president of the World Jewish Congress.
His mother founded Emunah in Australia in which his wife, Naomi, was active, and after making aliyah, Naomi became president of World Emunah.
Naomi Leibler is the daughter of Jerusalem-born Rabbi Israel Porush, who was the chief rabbi of the Great Synagogue in Sydney and head of the Sydney Beth Din (Rabbinical Court). She is now the matriarch of a four-generation family, most of whose members now live in Israel.
Romy Leibler, one of the four Leibler siblings – all of whom are living in Israel – said that his father’s leadership was not one of privilege, but one of obligation to help the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
Farewell to Efraim Zuroff
■ THE SIMON Wiesenthal Center and the Begin Heritage Center joined forces for a farewell tribute to Efraim Zuroff, Israel’s best known Nazi hunter and Holocaust historian after the late historian Yehuda Bauer, who died in October 2024.
Bauer was a brilliant intellectual, with a sometimes acerbic tongue, but also with an unfailing sense of dry humor. Zuroff worked very closely with him, and misses him greatly.
The tribute event took place at the conclusion of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was the most appropriate time in which to honor Zuroff on his retirement after four decades of tireless pursuit of justice, and a life devoted to memory, truth, courage, and action.
Zuroff, born in New York, was the inaugural director in 1978 of the newly established Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. Some months after taking up his appointment, he met Wiesenthal for the first time at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. The meeting led to a close collaboration that lasted until Wiesenthal’s demise in September 2005.
Zuroff headed the Simon Wiesenthal Israel office in Jerusalem for more than three decades.
In appreciation of what he has done to bring Nazi war criminals to justice, his colleagues published a tribute booklet with messages from some of the many people around the world with whom Zuroff worked over the years. Some of the messages came from heads of state and government, past and present.
The opening page of the booklet features a photograph of Zuroff together with Wiesenthal, and the first message is from Wiesenthal’s daughter, Paulinka Kreisberg-Wiesenthal, in which she writes: “Not unlike my late father Simon Wiesenthal, Dr. Zuroff had a goal in life, to bring the perpetrators to court and hope that true justice would prevail. While remembrance of the Holocaust and keeping the memory of the victims alive is an important issue, Dr. Zuroff, like my father, put the emphasis on finding the murderers.
In conversation with Paul Gross, a Begin Center senior fellow, Zuroff clarified that when he speaks of Nazi war criminals, he is not necessarily referring only to Germans, but also to collaborators in different countries that had been occupied by the Germans, and who were no less responsible for brutally murdering Jews and others.
Finding such people and tracking them down was not easy, and it was often more difficult to get the cooperation of governments in their home or host countries to prosecute them. Sometimes, governments that wanted to cooperate with Zuroff were prevented by legal obstacles from fully doing so.
Other governments feigned cooperation, but this was just an effort to fend off Zuroff. They kept telling him that they were investigating. But if they found anything, they did not share the information.
Disheartening as this was, Zuroff persevered, and discovered some unpleasant facts in Lithuania, which put him one step away from being declared persona non grata. He is extremely unpopular with Lithuanian officialdom.
Small wonder given the brief facts that he revealed to the large audience at the Begin Center.
Even before World War II, there were 142 physical attacks against Jews in Lithuania. At the time the Lithuanian Jewish population numbered in the range of 120,000. Of these, only 8,000 survived, said Zuroff.
In his travels and research, Zuroff also discovered that several countries had admitted both German and non-German Nazi war criminals and given them a safe haven. It’s well known that South America was a favored destination for Nazi war criminals, especially those who were German citizens.
But among the countries that accepted non-German Nazi war criminals, the United States surprisingly took in the most – 10,000, said Zuroff. This was largely due to the fact that their papers permitting their entry into America were not properly checked, Zuroff observed.
America also took in German war criminals, but this was done voluntarily at the start of the Cold War, as a means of defense. The Germans had the most advanced technology for ballistic missiles, Zuroff explained, so German technologists were required in the US.
Prof. Gerald Steinberg, a political scientist who tracks latter-day war criminals who have been involved in terrorist attacks against Israel, is a great admirer of Zuroff, and extolled his courage and tenacity in pursuing the goal of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, after which Zuroff received a sustained standing ovation.
■ IT WAS somewhat ironic last week that the largest display of Jewish unity was on Polish soil. All things considered, it was not so ironic. Even though they had their differences, there were more Jews in Poland than in any other country. They engaged in every profession, and were well integrated into Polish society. Yet more Jews were murdered by Nazis and Polish antisemites than by war criminals anywhere else.
■ NEXT WEEK, veterans of the Red Army, and ambassadors from the countries whose men and women fought in the Red Army, will join in celebrating VE Day, which commemorates the victory of the Allies in Europe and Germany’s unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945. The 80th anniversary of VE Day will also be celebrated by veterans of the Allied forces. This is probably the last milestone year in which they will get together in Israel, Europe, and the United States.
Because the signing of surrender by Germany took place in Berlin in the evening, Russia and 15 former republics of the Soviet Union have traditionally celebrated VE Day on May 9.
Because of the difference in time zones, it was already May 9 in the Soviet Union. The Russian time zone is ahead of that in Germany. As there were large numbers of Red Army veterans in Israel, May 9 was designated as the date for commemorating VE Day.
■ WHILE ISRAELIS are vacationing, frequenting tavernas and buying up property in Greece, the culture and flavor of Jewish Greece can be sampled at the upcoming annual Greek Jewish Festival in New York on Sunday May 11. The multidimensional event, which includes music, dance, food, and an outdoor marketplace, attracts thousands to the Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum at 280 Broome Street, between Allen and Eldridge streets on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Among the many musicians set to play Greek, Turkish, Persian, and Ladino music, as well as that from other parts of the Mediterranean, is acclaimed bouzouki and guitar virtuoso Avram Pengas, who was born in Greece, and who has been a staple of the New York music scene for more than 20 years.
■ AT THE annual memorial ceremony held by AACI prior to Remembrance Day for the Fallen, eight new names were added to the list of North American citizens who either fell in battle or were victims of terrorism. The additional names are: Regev Amar, Yaron Eliezer Chitiz, Netta Epstein, Omer Neutra,Yona Betzalel Brief, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Nadav Elchanan Knoller, and Eliyahu Moshe Zimbalist.
■ IT WAS a gathering that looked more like a journalists’ convention than a birthday party, with representatives past and present of most Israeli English-language media outlets. Most had at one time or another worked at the Post, but before or after were also affiliated with other English-language media, but continued to maintain friendships or to bump into each other at social events.
The party, jointly organized by Liam Forberg, Maayan Hoffman, and Noa Amouyal, was in honor of the 65th birthday of Steve Linde, who, before taking up his current position as features editor at JNS, was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Report, and prior to that editor-in-chief of the Post. Before that, he had spent some 20 years with the English-language division of Israel Radio.
Among the familiar faces were former editor-in-chief of the Post Avi Mayer and former editor-in-chief of the Report Hirsh Goodman, who came with his wife, Isabel Kershner, who is a correspondent for The New York Times; Linda Lipshitz; Ruthie Blum, looking much younger than she did 10 years ago despite ignoring all the warnings of the evils of smoking; Margot Dudkevitch, Liat Collins, Tovah Lazaraoff, Sharon Altshul, Orly Halpern, Rebecca Zeffert, Laura Cornfeld, Susan Lerner, Linda Epstein, Idele Ross, David Geffen, Erica Schachne, and former South African relatives and friends of the birthday boy such as Meron Reuben and Michael Jankelowitz.
Missing was Yaakov Kirschen, the famous American-born Dry Bones cartoonist, who died on April 14. Geffen reminded everyone that Kirschen had also been creative in the software field. Geffen later distributed first-day covers of the envelopes designed by Kirschen for the 30th World Zionist Congress, which took place in Jerusalem in December 1982.
The beautifully catered party was an afternoon affair held in the spacious courtyard of the apartment complex in which Hoffman resides. Conveniently situated around the corner from the US Embassy and adjoining the impressive Chabad center of Arnona, the event was a perfect occasion for reunions.
On display was the front page of a mock newspaper called The Linde Times, featuring a portrait of the birthday boy plus 65 reasons that he is liked and admired. There were many more positive comments, said Amouyal, who had compiled them. Forberg, who had requested that people send in brief reasons for liking Linde, said that even though Linde wasn’t perfect and had some annoying idiosyncrasies, his good points by far outweighed those that were irritating to some people. Forberg cited Linde’s ability to always greet people cheerfully and his readiness to help anyone in trouble.
Linde, who has spent the whole of his adult life in journalism, shares a birthday with another somewhat better known writer, whose forte was in drama. William Shakespeare was also born on April 23, but the year was 1564, not 1960.
On Sunday, at the inaugural JNS conference, Linde interviewed Danny Danon, Israel’s permanent representative to the UN, who also wished him Happy Birthday.
■ THERE WAS a long period in Israel when any journalist who left the employ of the Post had few options other than to write for institutional publications. Most advertising and public relations agencies worked solely in Hebrew, or with only one or two English-language clients.
In the media world the Post had no real competition until the advent of Haaretz in English, after which it was open sesame to the English-language media world. There were English-language broadcasts on radio and television public broadcasting services, but they were given very limited airtime. These days, thanks to the digital era there’s a plethora of English-language options online, in print, and on radio, television, and podcasts.
Journalists who can’t find a niche in existing media outlets create their own, as for instance Mayer, who launched Jerusalem Journal, which he describes as “a new platform for insights, analysis, and conversation about Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World,” hosted on Substack. For the time being, it’s free of charge, but eventually will probably operate with a pay wall if it becomes sufficiently popular.
Other news hounds who have started their own online news services have the word ‘Donate’ in large letters at the end of every post.
■ SOME CHANGES take place so subtly that we don’t notice them.
Before transistor radios came into vogue, all talk on public transport in Israel subsided into silence as the bus driver turned up the volume on his radio so that all the passengers could hear the news. There was always a buzz afterward, but during the broadcast hardly anyone said a word.
Would anyone smoke in a bus or the light rail today? No way, yet not so long ago people smoked like chimneys on board the bus.
Now something else is changing but not so subtly. The Independence Day torch-lighting ceremony was anchored in tradition till Miri Regev began directing the opening Independence Day ceremony. Just as people look forward to certain religious holidays in which the customs remain more or less the same year after year, many people looked forward to Independence Day with anticipation. But now there are a lot of people who will not be attending in person or watching on television. One of them is MK Gilad Kariv, who says that Regev has changed Independence Day from a state ceremony to a political one.
■ FOREGOING A very handsome performance fee for Independence Day in the US, Dudu Fisher came home because he felt that this was the time to be among his people and the right place in which to sing what has in Diaspora communities become the hostage hymn: the haunting “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables. It’s the song he’s asked to sing wherever he goes, says Fisher.
Aside from wanting to be with his own people at this time, Fisher, who spends a lot of his time in the US, where he is particularly popular, says that New York, which used to be a very pleasant place for Jews, is no longer comfortable, and many Jews are wary of walking in the street, for fear of attacks.
Under those circumstances, Israel is infinitely preferable – albeit not in Arab communities, where the death toll driven by senseless killings keeps rising.
■ EVER SINCE her release from Hamas captivity in January of this year, Romi Gonen has been advocating for the immediate release of the remaining hostages.
Like other released hostages, she has been invited to the President’s Residence, where it has become customary for President Isaac Herzog and his wife, Michal, to emphasize the urgency of releasing all the hostages, and call for this to be done immediately.
This may happen again when Gonen attends the traditional Independence Day presidential awards ceremony for 120 outstanding soldiers from all branches of the defense forces. But the main reason she will be there is because one of those outstanding soldiers, Cpl. Darya Gonen, happens to be her sister, who is serving with the Armored Corps.
■ THE PARDES Institute of Jewish Studies is launching the Ta’amei HaPardes Collection of interpretations of classic Torah, Mishna, and Talmudic texts that can be accessed live on Sefaria, and will help learners to connect Jewish tradition with the complexities of modern life.
The launch, on Tuesday, May 6, at Pardes, 29 Pierre Koenig Street, in Jerusalem’s Talpiot neighborhood, begins at 12:15 p.m. and will feature Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield, Rabbi Rahel Berkovits, Judy Klitsner, and Rachel Buckman.
