The Kriegsmarine Black Sea Fleet ship was among 200 vessels the Nazis scuttled in August 1944 to prevent them being captured by the advancing Red Army. Some 8,000 German soldiers and civilians who had been on board fled on foot to escape capture by the Soviets.

The shipwreck will be checked for remaining explosives and then displayed to the public.

“Every ship that is extracted undergoes a thorough inspection with the dismantling of any remaining explosives,” Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport, and Infrastructure Goran Vesić said. “This process takes about 10 days.”

Serbia plans to salvage another 21 of the vessels from the Danube in the E.U.-funded project in the coming months, with an estimated 80 others slated to be removed at a later date.

As the water level in the river drops due to summer heat and drought, parts of these wrecks often emerge, hindering navigation.

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“We are here on Tisha B’Av, at the Temple Mount, to commemorate the destruction of the Holy Temple. As I said—our policy is to allow prayer,” he said.

The minister added that he had visited the Temple Mount to pray for “the return of the hostages, the peace of the soldiers and victory in the war.”

Fellow Otzma Yehudit Party member and Development of the Periphery, the Negev and the Galilee Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf joined Ben-Gvir, along with hundreds of other Jewish worshippers. Dozens of pilgrims prostrated themselves in prayer, in violation of the status quo that forbids Jews from praying on the Temple Mount.

Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee member Amit Halevi of the Likud Party also visited the site.

Following Ben-Gvir’s visit and remarks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement emphasizing that “it is the government and the prime minister who determine policy on the Temple Mount. There is no private policy of any minister—not the national security minister or any other minister—on the Temple Mount. Thus it has been under all governments of Israel.”

The statement continued: “This morning’s incident on the Temple Mount deviated from the status quo. Israel’s policy on the Temple Mount has not changed; this is how it has been and this is how it will be.”

Police detained 40 Israelis who visited the site after waving Israeli flags, kneeling or lying on the ground. Twenty-nine of them were warned and 11 were detained for investigation, according to Kan News. Some of the visitors sang Israel’s national anthem.

No security incidents were reported.

A spokesman for Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas described Ben-Gvir’s ascent as a “provocation” and warned of violent consequences.

“We demand that the U.S. administration intervene immediately to force the occupation government to stop these provocations against the holy religious sites, preserve the historical and legal status in the city of Jerusalem, and stop the aggression against Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and the attacks in the West Bank [Judea and Samaria] if it wants to prevent the region from exploding in an uncontrollable manner,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also criticized the visit, saying that “there is a fireman sitting in the Israeli government who is trying to set fire to the Middle East. He opposes any negotiations, to bring him into the War Cabinet—this will allow him to realize his plans,” he said, apparently referring to Ben-Gvir.

MK Moshe Gafni, head of the United Torah Judaism Party, said, “The damage [Ben-Gvir] is causing to the Jewish people is unbearably great, and this adds to the gratuitous hatred on the day of the destruction of the Temple.” He added that UTJ “will have to check … if we can be partners with him, and we will make this clear to the prime minister as well.”

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has upheld a Halakhic (Jewish legal) prohibition on Jews visiting and praying at the Temple Mount.

“The elders of the generation and the Chief Rabbinate Council of Israel have already enumerated and decreed and agreed with all force to erect a fence and warn with a stern warning that no one should enter the Temple Mount area,” said Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of the Shas Party.

Opposition leader and Yesh Atid Party head Yair Lapid also slammed the visit.

“Ben-Gvir’s election campaign on the Temple Mount, in complete opposition to the position of the security forces, during a war, endangers the lives of Israeli citizens and the lives of our soldiers and policemen,” he said.

“The group of irresponsible extremists in the government is trying hard to drag Israel into an all-out regional war. These people cannot run a country,” he added.

In June, Ben-Gvir said he intends to allow all Jews to openly pray at Judaism’s holiest site, changing the status quo that has existed there since 1967.

The status quo against Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount was never ratified in legislation. There are various references to it over the years by all branches of government, but not in a way that grants it an independent legal status.

In response to that statement, the Israel Police declared that Jewish prayer remains prohibited on the Temple Mount. The PMO also disavowed Ben-Gvir’s words.

Since the beginning of the Hebrew year, nearly 48,000 Jews have visited the Temple Mount, according to data compiled by Beyadenu, an Israeli NGO dedicated to strengthening the Jewish connection to the site.

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“As the State of Israel is in the midst of a war, and our soldiers are fighting side by side, we must all do our part to increase unity in the nation,” Eli Cohen, the Israeli minister of energy, told reporters.

“The decision of the municipality to ban Yom Kippur prayers in public spaces is puzzling, divisive and must be reversed,” added Cohen.

Israeli Minister for Social Equality and Advancement of the Status of Women May Golan, a fellow lawmaker for the ruling Likud Party, denounced the local government’s decision as “despicable.”

“We did not establish a Jewish nation-state for Jews to be afraid to observe mitzvot [‘commandments’] openly in the only land that was given to them by virtue of our ancestors,” she said.

Golan accused Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai of “trampling on those who uphold the tradition” and banning the public Yom Kippur prayer services “to intentionally cause pain.”

In a letter sent to organizers last week, which became public in recent days, the Tel Aviv Municipality informed organizers that city hall “sees no place” to approve public prayer events during the High Holidays, a practice that started during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The solution for holding Yom Kippur prayers is through the hundreds of synagogues scattered throughout the city,” wrote the municipality’s deputy director-general, Ruby Zaluf, in response to dozens of permit applications.

Last year, secular protesters forcefully prevented Rosh Yehudi, a Jewish outreach group, from holding an outdoor Yom Kippur service with separate sections for men and women at Dizengoff Square.

Huldai had barred Rosh Yehudi from holding gender-segregated prayer services on Yom Kippur. The Israeli High Court of Justice upheld the ban.

Seeking to uphold its traditional understanding of Jewish law while keeping in line with the court ruling, the group instead constructed a makeshift barrier of Israeli flags between men and women.

Following the events on Yom Kippur, the Tel Aviv Municipality revoked Rosh Yehudi’s permits to hold public events during the Sukkot holiday.

The Coalition for Jewish Values, which represents more than 2,500 Orthodox rabbis in the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom, accused Huldai of discrimination last year, noting that the mayor has repeatedly authorized gender-separated events for Muslim holidays.

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The decision by the two American legacy carriers follows the back-to-back assassinations of a top Hezbollah leader in Lebanon and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, which again leaves Israel’s flagship carrier El Al as the only airline offering direct service to and from the United States.

“Beginning with this evening’s flight from Newark Liberty to Tel Aviv, we are suspending for security reasons our daily Tel Aviv service as we evaluate our next steps,” United Airlines said in a statement sent to JNS.

“We continue to closely monitor the situation and will make decisions on resuming service with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews,” it added.

The statement did not specify when flights would resume.

Delta Airlines said it was suspending its daily New York flight to Israel through Aug. 2 “due to the ongoing conflict in the region,” but noted that the flights can be rebooked on partner airlines El Al and Air France.

At least five other carriers—Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Air India and FlyDubai—also canceled flights to the Jewish state.

Most foreign carriers suspended service to Israel following Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Oct. 7 and the ensuing war, but then slowly resumed service this spring.

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The unusual dig, which first began last decade, has also uncovered two huge concrete basins under the synagogue’s bathhouse and a Jewish ritual bath, or mikvah, according to the IAA.

The august synagogue, built between 1630-1633, was in continuous use for 300 years until World War II. Constructed in the Renaissance-Baroque style, the large and magnificent synagogue was the oldest and most significant building for Lithuanian Jewry.

During its heyday, the synagogue was surrounded by a complex of other synagogues, ritual baths and community institutions that formed a large center of Torah study and community life—the beating heart of Lithuanian Jewry. Among the buildings in the complex were the community council building, the home of Rabbi Eliyah, aka the Vilna Gaon, the famous “Strashun” library and a bathhouse, according to the IAA.

The synagogue was looted and burned by the Nazis, and its remains were completely destroyed by the Soviet authorities in the 1950s, who built a school on the site.

Over the last decade there have been five excavations carried out at the site in the wake of a ground-penetrating radar survey showing significant remains below the surface, revealing the complex’s rich past.

“The magnificent remains we are discovering—the synagogue Bimah that was uncovered during the previous excavation seasons, as well as the colorful decorations of the floor and walls—bring back moments in the life of a lost vibrant community,” said excavation co-directors Jon Seligman of the IAA and Justinas Rakas of the Lithuanian Archeological Society. “The architectural wealth and vitality we encounter—alongside the destruction of impressive giant columns that collapsed during the destruction of the synagogue by the Nazis and the Soviets, tell the tragic story of a community that lived here, that is no more.”

IAA Director Eli Escusido said that the excavations of the site have taken on added significance this year in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.

“In the face of rising anti-Semitism and attempts to deceive and deny, there is one undeniable truth, both simple and tragic, which tells us about an entire magnificent community that was destroyed due to hatred of Jews—Never Again,” he said.

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Israeli President Isaac Herzog welcomed the “important speech” in a post on X.

“The immediate and urgent return of the hostages must be at the heart of the world agenda, as must the global threat from the Iranian evil and terrorist empire,” the Israeli head of state wrote.

“It’s important to reiterate this before the elected leaders of our greatest and most important ally,” Herzog stated, adding that Jerusalem and Washington must “stand together against the Tehran-led-terror that threatens the Middle East and the entire world.”

Netanyahu’s “powerful and moving speech, along with the overwhelming support from members of Congress, attests to the strength of the U.S.-Israel alliance,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.

Netanyahu’s words “represent every Israeli who wants to live in security and believes in the righteousness of Israel’s fight for existence. We are here, we will fight, and we will win,” added the top diplomat.

‘A painful and clear truth’

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich tweeted that “all of our Jewish and Israeli hearts were moved and filled with pride,” adding that the premier spoke “with brilliance and faith, with sharp and clear words.”

Smotrich also praised the warm welcome U.S. lawmakers gave Netanyahu, which he said “reflects a deep and wonderful partnership between Israel and the United States of America.

“Am Yisrael Chai! Onto victory!” tweeted the Religious Zionism leader.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads the Otzma Yehudit Party, tweeted: “Israel [hearts] Netanyahu.”

Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, hailed Netanyahu for delivering the “historic” address despite facing “rivers of hatred” domestically and abroad.

“A moment of leadership, and a painful and clear truth, spoken in the name of the people of Israel in the spirit of Netzach Yisrael [the Eternal One of Israel],” tweeted Chikli.

Meanwhile, Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid panned the speech for failing to announce an immediate hostages-for-ceasefire-and-terrorists-release agreement with Hamas.

“Disgrace! An hour of talking without uttering the single sentence: ‘There will be a kidnapping deal,’” said Lapid.

In the first half of the speech, Netanyahu vowed not to rest until the 120 remaining hostages were freed from Gaza’s “dungeons.” Negotiations to secure their release are “taking place right now,” he said.

Netanyahu received bursts of applause and frequent standing ovations—often from both sides of the aisle—as he delivered an address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

In his remarks, which ran about an hour, Netanyahu praised the longevity and closeness of the U.S.-Israeli relationship and called for a decisive victory over the Hamas terror group. He also urged the United States to help defeat the Iranian regime that continues to threaten both the Jewish state and the rest of the world.

The Israeli prime minister surpassed British wartime leader Winston Churchill as the foreign leader who has addressed a joint session of Congress the most. Netanyahu addressed that body in 2015 and 2011, and more than a decade earlier in 1996.

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CAIR called on the International Olympic Committee to ban Israeli athletes from participating under an Israeli flag in the 2024 Summer Olympics, which opens in Paris on July 26.

In a letter penned by CAIR’s Deputy Executive Director Edward Mitchell, the organization wrote, “Allowing the Israeli government to officially participate in the Olympics undermines the very principles upon which the Games are founded. It conveys a message that the international community is willing to overlook genocide and war crimes when the victims are not Europeans. This is unacceptable.”

The letter was addressed to IOC President Thomas Bach.

Mitchell continued to claim that “more than 38,000 Palestinians, including at least 15,000 children, have been mercilessly killed in the Israeli government’s indiscriminate attacks on Gaza.”

The Gaza Health Ministry has been recognized, even by the U.N., to have grossly inflated the number of casualties, especially concerning women and children.

In February, 26 French lawmakers from left-wing parties sent a similar letter to Bach demanding that Israeli athletes be stripped of the flag and national anthem due to their country allegedly committing genocide.

Bach told the press in early March that there was no issue with Israel or its athletes participating in the summer games this year. When a reporter from the Associated Press asked whether Israel will be put under the same ban as Russia, Bach responded, “No, there is no question about this.”

In December 2023, two months after the war began and as calls to prevent Israel from participating were already circulating, Yael Arad, president of the Olympic Committee of Israel, told French sports daily L’Équipe that Israel and its athletes will “100% be present in the Paris Olympics.”

‘May there be many medals’

In June 2024, Minister of Culture and Sport Miki Zohar announced that any Israeli athlete who brings home a gold medal will receive a stipend of 1 million shekels (about $273,000). He added that stipends for silver and bronze medals will amount to 700,000 (some $191,000) and 500,000 shekels ($137,000), respectively. Zohar added that these stipends will be tax-free.

“We yearn for pride in these games,” Zohar told reporters. “It is very important for the State of Israel at this time. Just so there is no doubt, the grants are also for Paralympic athletes. May there be many medals; we will raise the money for everyone. Just create the problems for me. The coaches will receive 50% of the total amount, and for them, it’s taxable.”

The 2024 Summer Paralympics begins in Paris on Aug. 28.

CAIR has been an antisemitism strategy partner of the U.S. government in the past but was recently removed from the list of partner organizations after making inflammatory statements about Israel’s role in the current war against the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.

Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR, responded on Tuesday to reports that there is U.S. intelligence Iran is trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump.

“Are you sure this is not an Israeli plot to ignite another war between the U.S. and other countries in the Middle East at its behest?” Awad wrote on social media.

Jason Greenblatt, a former Middle East envoy in the Trump White House, noted that CAIR is a nonprofit. “What kind of crazy, irresponsible talk is this?” he wrote. “The U.S. government should immediately investigate CAIR’s tax-exempt status.”

CAIR and other members of the United States Council of Muslim Organizations, which bills itself as the “largest American Muslim civil-society umbrella organization,” released a statement in October blaming Israel for Hamas’s massacre of some 1,200 people.

“The recent unprovoked and continuous attacks by Israel on Palestinian towns, cities and refugee camps have resulted in tragic loss of Palestinian lives,” the umbrella group stated, with no mention of Israelis murdered, raped, wounded and taken hostage.

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KBR Wyle Services of Titusville, Fla., and Purammon LTD of Israel will collaborate on new wastewater treatment technologies for crewed spaceflight. Lockheed Martin, based in Merritt Island, Fla., and Israel’s StemRad plan to develop protection for astronauts from radiation.

Boca Raton’s Guident Autonomous Intelligence and Israel’s Novelsat Limited will work on creating an autonomous vehicle communication system utilizing low-latency satellite services.

The fourth award went to SRF Consulting Group in Tallahassee and Israel-based Mobility Insight to create an artificial intelligence-centric traffic management service.

Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez said the program “paved the way for groundbreaking innovations that benefit both Florida and Israel,” adding that the state’s “continued commitment to this partnership ensures that we remain at the forefront of aerospace and technology innovation.”

Naming the companies involved as “the cutting edge of novel technologies,” Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority, called the collaboration a “beacon of international cooperation in the aerospace sector.”

He said the program provides “a platform that fosters cross-border innovation and technological advancements with a specific focus on the high-impact field of space technology.”

“This initiative not only strengthens the collaboration between Florida and Israel but also drives forward the research, development, and commercialization of groundbreaking aerospace technologies,” said Rob Long, president and CEO of Space Florida. “We look forward to seeing the continued advancements and economic benefits that these projects will bring to both of our regions.”

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The trip, arranged by the Jerusalem-based OneFamily organization in partnership with the Jewish community of Mexico City, brought together orphans of all ages who lost both parents to terrorism, including during the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, along with their adopted families.

Among the participants were eight-year-old Tilly, her aunt Elisa and Elisa’s children. An only child, Tilly was at home with her parents when terrorists infiltrated their community near Gaza on Oct. 7.

The terrorists broke into her house and murdered her mother and father. When neighbors finally arrived to rescue Tilly, they found her mother in front of the closet where the girl was hiding, having bled to death trying to protect her daughter.

Elisa, who also lost a brother years earlier during his military service, adopted her orphaned niece. The past nine months have brought significant challenges as she helped Tilly settle into a new life while coping with her own healing process.

“Your experiences marked by pain and sadness are also testimonies of resilience, hope, and the incredible capacity of human beings to overcome adversity,” said Isidoro Sirazi, president of the Magen David Mexico Community.

“All of us here are witnesses to the solidarity that characterizes the Jewish people, and this project is further proof of it. The entire community is here to give you honor, affection, hope and a big hug,” he added.

Mexico City resident Frieda Tuachi joined the group for Shabbat in Cancun.

“You helped me see that after so much loss and pain, it is possible to feel joy again, to live again. Despite your irreversible loss, I hope you understand that you have family in every corner of the world. You are my brothers and sisters,” she said.

Ella Danon, a trained therapist and OneFamily staff member, accompanied the group. She said the trip is just the beginning of a lifelong connection with the participants.

“This intense, extraordinary experience gave us an opportunity to get to know each other in a deep, vulnerable and real way. These bonds are for life. I check in with everyone weekly, and with some daily,” Danon said.

Vicki Jan, who lost both parents and an aunt and uncle in a 2011 terrorist attack, joined the trip to offer, and receive, support.

“Being with the group brought me back to the early days of being an orphan. Their pain is still very fresh,” she said.

“The complex reality for an orphan whose parents were killed made this trip abroad very liberating. Especially for those affected by October 7, it is difficult for them to disconnect in Israel. A week like this is equivalent to a year of therapy,” said Jan.

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In September, the auction giant will present items from the collection of billionaire Paul Allen, who died in 2018. The sale will include a letter written by Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard with a group of scientists, signed by Albert Einstein and sent to then-President Franklin Roosevelt. The item’s estimated value is between $4 million and $6 million.

It is regarded as the most desirable item up for bid in this particular sale. Still, the letter is unlikely to break a $13 million record set in 2021 for an item detailing Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

The letter, dated Aug. 2, 1939, urged the American development of an atomic bomb out of fear that Nazi Germany would make such a weapon first. In direct response to the warning, Roosevelt created a committee that would lead to the Manhattan Project.

Christie’s calls the item “arguably the most influential single letter of the 20th century.”

In 1947, Einstein said: “Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would never have lifted a finger.”

Later in life, he would tell American chemist Linus Pauling: “I made one great mistake in my life—when I signed a letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made.”

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