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"I don't want to have to make this video, but I do," Scottish journalist and political commentator Leah Benoz began the story she shared on Tuesday with thousands of her Instagram followers, telling about the severe antisemitic attack her 13-year-old son experienced at the school where he studies in Scotland, all because of his Judaism.

"I'm going to ask you all to watch it and to share it as widely and as loudly as you are able," she urged her followers, then recounted the sequence of events, whose timing was, of course, not coincidental – October 7. "This morning, the anniversary of the October 7th attacks and days after two Jewish men were murdered in Manchester."

Pro-Palestinian protesters in Edinburgh Waverley break through police barriers. Comes after Scots on the Global Sumud Flotilla were detained by Israel. pic.twitter.com/q9YMlqXHnz

— Andrew Learmonth (@andrewlearmonth) October 2, 2025

Later, she added about the incident: "My child called me from his high school in Edinburgh to tell me that another child had threatened to stab him in the classroom. Yesterday, my child had come home upset saying that this other kid had demanded that he give a position on the Israel-Palestine conflict, that he explain his position on the conflict and with as much nuance and compassion that a frightened 13 year old was able to, he explained that the war is awful and he wants it to end but that he does feel a deep connection to Israel because he's Jewish."

"This child then harassed my son for hours, told him that all Israelis are terrorists, that Israelis shoot babies in the head, that he is a terrorist, that he told other children that my son believes that all Palestinians should die," she shared. "That is what it means to be Jewish in Scotland right now, and simultaneously, right at the same time, students at Edinburgh University are calling for an intifada. What does that mean? They are chanting right now in support of the kind of beliefs that think that a 13-year-old Jewish boy should die because of a war 3,000 miles away. This child that attacked my son, he's been radicalised at home, he is a product of an ecosystem of hate that has been allowed to fester. We cannot allow this to continue."

She ended by conveying "a final note for anti-Zionists, I'm going to take my exceptional child and I'm going to move to Israel and we are going to spend the rest of our lives committed to our homeland."

The video gained more than 42,000 views within hours and thousands of likes and comments expressing shock and anger at the story she shared, calling for her to file a police complaint, including American Emmy-winning actress and voice actor Tara Strong, who herself went viral about two years ago when she shared that she was fired from a series she voiced because of her Judaism and the fact that she expressed support for Israel. "What does the school intend to do? This is a death threat. What will the police do? I'm so sorry you're going through this," she wrote in response.

Benoz updated that a complaint was indeed filed with police, and she is waiting for a response from law enforcement officials. Other followers wrote in despair that it's likely that not only will they not handle her complaint, but there's a chance that she will find herself on the investigated side, since they will claim her words are Islamophobic, and that schools don't really act to handle death threats of this type.

"They enable and forgive displays of racism and violence against Jews and incite them. This is the spirit. This is global and systematic." Others encouraged her to stand behind her words and indeed make aliyah, while Benoz, who for now doesn't want to reveal the school's name in order not to expose her son to additional displays of violence and hatred, asked to clarify that she won't let the matter rest until it's handled and wrote: "They messed with the wrong mother."

The post 'They messed with the wrong mother': Jewish child attacked in Scotland appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The letter, sent by the organization "Scotland Against Antisemitism" and signed by approximately 3,000 people, warns that the Scottish government's recent announcements will further endanger the Jewish community in the country.

"Modern blood libel"

Last week, Swinney announced the freezing of new public funding to arms companies whose products are supplied to countries where there is "reasonable evidence" they are committing genocide, meaning Israel as well. In response, Jews accused the government of a "modern blood libel."

"The accusation of genocide is one of the gravest under international law. It requires an exceptional standard of proof that can only be met in a court of law by producing irrefutable evidence of intent," the letter stated.

The organization continued: "For the Scottish Government to endorse this modern-day blood libel will not save a single innocent life in Gaza, but it will embolden those who now use the language of genocide to justify the harassment and intimidation of Jews here in Scotland."

The letter emphasizes the vulnerability of the Scottish Jewish community: "We number around 5,000 people, just 0.093% of Scotland's population, yet we were the victims of approximately 17% of all religiously motivated hate crimes last year. That figure alone should be a matter of national shame."

The community accused the government of acting "to appease a small, extremist, and increasingly aggressive fringe of the activist class, a group whose support is being courted for political reasons," and that it calculated that "the cost of alienating Scotland's Jews will be outweighed by electoral rewards."

Leah Benoz, founder and director of "Scotland Against Antisemitism," said: "The Scottish Government has no power over foreign policy, and the proposed funding cuts are tiny and will have no effect on events in the Middle East. Not one Palestinian life will be saved by these measures, but Jewish life in Scotland will be put further at risk. Our question to Mr Swinney is simple; is our safety really a price worth paying for this kind of gesture politics?"

The letter concludes with a plea: "We call on the Scottish Government to retract its inflammatory language and meet with the Jewish community to discuss how the government plans to protect us – not just in words, but in action."

Government response

A Scottish government spokesperson replied: "As the first minister has made clear, the Scottish government greatly values its relationship with Scotland's Jewish community, and it is vital that they feel safe and supported. There is no place for antisemitism or hatred of any kind in Scotland." She added that "the International Court of Justice found preliminary grounds that Israel's government is committing genocide, and the first minister, along with many international leaders, shares concerns that Israel's government's actions in Gaza constitute genocide."

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Following the Canadian government's announcement of its intention to accept 5,000 refugees from Gaza, we set out to examine the international stance on Palestinian refugees from Gaza and the actions being taken in this regard.

The Spanish quandary

Spain has found itself in a predicament. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a left-wing politician who, to form a coalition, allied with several far-left figures, lending his government an intensely anti-Israeli hue.

Even before the fighting in Gaza began, members of the coalition, including Sánchez himself, repeatedly condemned Israel, accusing it of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, genocide, and other grave accusations. However, the frequent use of the term "genocide" about the events in Gaza could backfire.

According to a report by the liberal-conservative newspaper OkDiario, the Spanish Foreign Ministry has requested ministers to refrain from using the term "genocide" in the context of the Gaza conflict. This request stems from concerns that a Supreme Court ruling regarding the admission of refugees could effectively compel the Foreign Ministry to fly applicants to Spain. The report suggests that the request arose from fears of triggering a massive influx of Gazan immigrants into the country.

The Canadian share

Back in December, Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Marc Miller announced that Canada would begin granting temporary residency to extended family members of Canadians residing in the Gaza Strip who wish to flee the area. On May 27, Miller announced that Canada had increased the number of Gazans eligible for entry and resettlement as temporary residents from 1,000 to 5,000.

According to a spokesperson from the Canadian Immigration Department, as of May 20, 2,903 applications had been received, and 41 individuals had actually entered the country. At this early stage, less than one percent of the 5,000 had crossed into Canada. We will continue monitoring the situation.

The American dilemma

According to internal US government documents, the contents of which were reported by CBS a month ago, senior officials from various federal agencies discussed practical options for admitting Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who have first-degree relatives who are American citizens or permanent residents.

Palestinians from Gaza who undergo a series of eligibility, medical, and security checks would be eligible to fly to the US with refugee status, offering beneficiaries permanent residency, resettlement assistance like housing aid, and a pathway to American citizenship. The report suggests that the number of eligible individuals is expected to be relatively small.

As expected, the reports sparked a wave of criticism. One of the harshest critics was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who stated, "I don't even think Biden's crazy enough to be letting a bunch of Palestinian Arabs from Gaza into the United States," adding that their admission would introduce "bloody conflicts into the country."

DeSantis' criticism came in the wake of data released by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) just a month earlier, showing that nearly 326,000 immigrants had arrived in Florida during Biden's tenure as part of an expanded program.

Immigration remains one of the hottest topics in the US presidential race, with data reported by FOX News indicating that between 2021 and 2023, approximately 1.6 million illegal immigrants entered the country – more than the 1.4 million who arrived in the preceding decade.

Recently, Biden issued an executive order limiting the entry of illegal immigrants into the US. Over the past decade, the US has admitted more than 400,000 refugees fleeing violence and war zones worldwide, with fewer than 600 being Palestinians.

The Scottish predicament

Even before the ground offensive began, some had declared their intention to admit Gazan refugees into their countries. One of the most prominent figures was Humza Yousaf, the former first minister of Scotland, who stated on October 18 that "Scotland is ready to be the first nation in Britain to take in refugees from Gaza."

Yousaf resigned from his position in April, while Gazan residents remained far from Glasgow. His statement proved to be an empty promise.

The post Some countries will welcome Palestinian refugees; here is a breakdown appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The claims were first made on a special Facebook page.

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"Accusations leveled at members of the fraternity, which include at least nine separate rape claims, were among more than 50 first-hand accounts posted on the page," the Jewish Chronicle reported. "Many of the allegations, especially those dealing with Alpha Epsilon Pi, have since been removed after St. Andrews University was advised about the potential legal implications of stories being publicly shared," the report said.

In the wake of the accusations, the fraternity issued a statement saying, "Alpha Epsilon Pi St. Andrews was made aware of allegations of sexual assault, harassment and rape against multiple members of our fraternity, including incidents at chapter vents. We find the contents of these allegations abhorrent and are taking them extremely seriously."

The fraternity said it "immediately suspended those that acknowledged a role in the alleged incidents" and added that it would cooperate with authorities.

"As a Jewish fraternity, one of the values of our teachings we hold most important is that all human beings are fashioned B'tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. Therefore, it is wrong to treat anybody without dignity, no matter their gender, race, sexual orientation or religion. This obviously applies to sexual assault and harassment," the fraternity said.

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H. Forman & Son has long supplied some of London's finest restaurants, hotels and stores, including The Ivy, Fortnum & Mason, The Savoy, Harrods and Selfridges.

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Lance's great grandfather Aaron "Harry" Forman started in the salmon business back in 1905 with his son Louis. A Jewish immigrant from Ukraine, he settled in the East End of London and began smoking salmon to preserve the fish for friends and family, just as he had back home. In the beginning, he shipped the salmon over from Baltic Sea ports in barrels of salt.

Then he realized he could source his fish closer to home.

"It was only when he went to the fish market at Billingsgate and saw these beautiful wild salmon coming down from Scotland and thought, 'Why don't we just use the local fish? It'll be a lot easier," says Forman.

And the business was born. "I would say that smoked salmon, or what we today refer to as London cure smoked salmon, became Britain's first-ever home-grown gourmet food," Forman says.

The process then and now:

"You take the salmon, you fillet it, then you sprinkle the salmon fillet with salt," says Forman. "You leave it for 24 hours and the salt draws out all the moisture, and that's how you start to preserve it. You then air dry it. So, you have these fans just blowing warm air over the fish to draw out more moisture, and as it dries it becomes quite tacky and sticky. That's when you release the smoke, and the smoke sticks to the outside of the fillet and it creates a seal on the outside."

All of this is done by hand, Forman says, from splitting the fish to salting and hanging it on racks to the painstaking task of deboning.

"I worked out that since we've been in business, we've probably taken out about a billion bones literally by tweezer," he says. "We hand-slice it. We hand-pack it. And that means that you have an expert at every single step of the way, quality controlling the product."

Over the last 20 to 30 years, he says, much of the food industry has emphasized cost-cutting and mass production, instead of quality, meaning many old businesses like his have died out.

So what should consumers be looking out for in quality smoked salmon?

Read the label, Forman advises.

"There should never be sugar in smoked salmon," he says. "You know, there are two ingredients, salmon and salt. That's it."

Some modern smoked salmon is over-smoked, so producers add sugar to take away the bitterness, he says. Sugar also counterbalances the excess salt used to extend the fish's shelf life.

What's the future for H. Forman & Son? Lance has three children, but so far none is interested in becoming the fifth generation to run the family business.

"We thought, if we don't put pressure on them, they might rebel and want to do it," he says. "But they've actually taken us seriously, which I'm not sure is a great idea."

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Israel's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem estimates that 565,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust, most of them deported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland between May and July 1944.

Haining, who had taught Christian and Jewish girls at a boarding school of the Church of Scotland's Mission in Budapest, was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 and later died in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

"From April 5, we had to put on the yellow star. Miss Haining called in the children and she cried with us," said 83-year-old Agnes Rostas, one of Haining's former Jewish pupils, who was eight at the time of the Scottish missionary's arrest.

"Miss Haining was a very warm-hearted human being. I have never met anyone like her all my life."

Within half an hour of Haining's arrest, the remaining teachers packed up the children and shuttled them off to their parents, Rostas said.

Haining was born in 1897 into a poor farming family in southwestern Scotland. She did well in school and went on to business college in Glasgow.

She was among the generation of women who were able to join the workforce due to World War One, according to Mary Miller, the author of a new biography of Haining's life.

She decided to pursue working with children, influenced by her experience teaching Sunday school in Glasgow.

She was the only British person at the school when the Nazis occupied Hungary in March 1944. The Gestapo arrested Haining the following month on charges including political activity and espionage, which she denied.

Reverend Aaron Stevens, the head of the Scottish mission to Budapest, said Sunday's march remembering Haining presented an opportunity to speak up against prejudice, intolerance or fearmongering.

"Sometimes when we look at the messages people are promoting today about foreigners, it is not that different from the messages that were being spread about Jews some 75 years ago," Stevens said.

"[Haining's] example is a reminder to us to not become complacent or lazy," he said. "We also need to speak up and stand up in solidarity with those who might be victims of prejudice."

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