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By Daniel Pipes, www.DanielPipes.org

Glamorous Muslim Political Women

In “Hijabs on Western Political Women” (see pictorial that follows below), I displayed a brood of queens, princesses, first ladies, members of congress, foreign ministers, journalists, and even movie stars looking anywhere from faintly ridiculous to outlandishly bad as they wear some variant of a hijab.

It then occurred to me, what about Muslim political women – are they all in hijabs, chadors, jilbabs, niqabs, and burqas? A little research found that at least some of them not only avoid any Islamic apparel but fit a Western standard of beauty and glamor, making a sharp contrast to those Europeans and Americans in their tatty hijabs.

Beyond making this contrast, offering their pictures here suggests that, at least in the highest political circles, the Islamists will meet strenuous opposition from women. So, bring on the sequined gowns, jeans, jewelry, curling irons, and make-up.

Let’s start with Khadiga el-Gamal, wife of Gamal Mubarak, daughter-in-law of Husni Mubarak, and possible future first lady of Egypt.

Khadiga el-Gamal.

Queen Rania of Jordan:

Queen Rania of Jordan.

Sheikha Mawza, wife of Hamd bin Khalifa, ruler of Qatar

Sheikha Mawza of Qatar.

Mehriban Aliyeva, wife of the president of Azerbaijan:

Mehriban Aliyeva.

Asma Al Assad, wife of Bashar Al-Assad, ruler of Syria:

Asma Al Assad.

More Asma Al Assad.

Princess Consort Lalla Salma, wife of Muhammad VI, king of Morocco:

Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco.

Princess Haya, wife of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai:

Princess Haya of Dubai.

Aesha Qaddafi, daughter of Mu’ammar, ruler of Libya:

Aesha Qaddafi of Libya.

Princess Amira Al-Taweel, wife of Saudi prince Waleed bin Talal:

Princess Amira Al-Taweel of Saudi Arabia.

Farah Diba, former empress of Iran:

Farah Diba of Iran.

Benazir Bhutto, the late prime minister of Pakistan:

Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan.

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Definitely not looking as glamorous, here are

Hijabs on Western Political Women

For fun, how about collecting those instances when female political leaders don the hijab (Islamic headscarf)?

Oriana Fallaci, interviewing Ayatollah Khomeini in September 1979 in Qum, Iran. The interview lasted six hours and at one point, an indignant Fallaci removed her chador and threw it at Khomeini.

Oriana Fallaci interviewing Ayatollah Khomeini, before she threw her chador at him.

Princess Diana during a 1996 visit to a cancer hospital in Pakistan. .

Princess Diana in hijab in a Pakistan hospital.

Hilary Clinton, when she was still wife of the U.S. president in 1997, traveled to Eritrea and put on a headscarf. Interestingly, her daughter Chelsea, seen in the background, did not.

Hillary Rodham Clinton traveling in Eritrea in 1997 with a headscarf on.

But on another occasion, Chelsea joined her in wearing a headscarf.

Mother and daughter, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, wearing headscarves.

Mona Sahlin, leader of Sweden’s Social Democratic Party, donned a headpiece when visiting a mosque on September 14, 2001.

Swedish Social Democratic Party leader Mona Sahlin (right) in headscarf, speaking with Mahmoud Aldebe, chairman of the Swedish Muslim Association, on visiting a mosque in Stockholm.

Prince Charles’s wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, got into complete Egyptian Muslim garb, including hijab, on a visit to Al-Azhar.

Camilla Parker Bowles with Prince Charles in Egypt.

Antje Vollmer, Green Party member and vice-president of the German Bundestag, visiting Riyadh as part of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s delegation in March 2005.

Antje Vollmer, Green Party member and vice-president of the German Bundestag, in Hijab.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visiting a mosque in Dushanbe, Tajikistan in October 2005, wearing a black cover on her hair.

Diane Sawyer of ABC’s “Good Morning America” television program interviewed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wearing a hijab in February 2007.

Diane Sawyer interviewing Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, donned a headscarf when she visited Damascus in April 2007.

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, in Damascus.

Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, a former Danish minister of culture, wore a hijab near the parliament in April 2007. She is the only woman on this page wearing the scarf correctly, completely covering the hair.

Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, a former Danish minister of culture.

In June 2007, three senior Bush administration staffers wore makeshift hijabs as they listened to the president address an audience at Washington’s Islamic Center.

Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Fran Townsend (far left), NSC Senior Director for European Affairs Judy Ansley (left), and Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes (right) listen to President Bush.

On a trip to Saudi Arabia in October 2007, George W. Bush’s wife Laura wore a particularly severe-looking hijab.

Laura Bush in Saudi Arabia.

Actress Angelina Jolie also serves as a “Goodwill Ambassador” for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; in the latter capacity, she visited a earthquake-struck village in Pakistan in August 2007.

Angelina Jolie, UNHCR goodwill ambassador, in a Pakistani village in August 2007.

Switzerland’s Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey wore a full hijab in Tehran in March 2008 as she signed a natural gas deal with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (March 19, 2008)

Switzerland’s Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey meets with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom wore a headscarf while visiting the Green Mosque in Bursa, Turkey.

Queen Elizabeth in a Turkish mosque.

Norway’s Queen Sonja wore a headscarf as she visited the mosque of the Islamic Cultural Centre Norway in Oslo.

Norway’s Queen Sonja.

Hillary Clinton, now U.S. secretary of state, donned a hijab to tour the Sultan Hassan Mosque in Cairo along with Barack Obama.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Sultan Hassan Mosque in Cairo.

By Todd Baker, To The Jew First mission fund

Later in the evening of the same day my phone was taken, Pastor Ralph Conn gently took me aside and said he felt led of the Holy Spirit to pray with me that God heavily convict this woman, who took the phone, so that she would give the phone back or discard it so that it could be found and returned. Two hours later in an amazing answer to this bold prayer of faith, Tamar Keres, an old friend of mine for many years, called me at the hotel from Tel Aviv to say, “A miracle has happened.” She then explained that an Orthodox man found my old phone on the street called the last number on the phone log, which happened to be Tamar’s number. She informed me that since the man could only speak Hebrew, I should therefore arrange for the phone to be delivered to the hotel by taxi. The man told her that he found the phone lying on the sidewalk next to the bank some two blocks away from the tourist center where I left the phone. I was not at the bank location at anytime and obviously the hostile woman that I talked with at the tourist center must have taken the phone and threw it there. God used this spiteful act from someone having a spirit of anti-Messiah to further give other Jewish people the opportunity to hear about the Messiah’s redemptive love for them, who would not have heard it any other way. Indeed, Psalm 76:10 is true in the case of this spiteful woman when it says: “Surely the wrath of man shall praise you, the remainder of wrath you shall restrain.” The next day our witness for Messiah Jesus continued in Tiberius with a journey to Nof Ginosaur—a beautiful kibbutz in northern Galilee. There we met a young Israeli man working at the café. His name was Iddo.

Iddo and Todd

When I went up to pay for my lunch, I said to him that coming to Israel was like coming home because this was the homeland of my Messiah Yeshua.

I then offered Iddo and the female cashier a Messianic Gospel tract entitled “Love the Jewish People”. When giving this to him, I said that our outreach team does love Israel for what they have given the rest of the world—the Hebrew Scriptures and the Jewish Messiah. Iddo was very excited about hearing this. When I inquired if he had read the Tenach (what Christians call the Old Testament) Iddo immediately replied that he had. I then asked him if he ever looked at the New Testament to learn about Yeshua’s life and ministry in Galilee—a place where He did so much of His ministry. Iddo said he only read excerpts from the New Testament in high school. I decided to offer him a free copy of the New Testament in Hebrew (Brit Hadashah) to which he gladly and gratefully accepted this gift. When giving him the inspired text, I said to Iddo that many Jewish pretenders came to the Jewish people proclaiming to be the Messiah and only one is the true Messiah. He listened with obvious interest and openness. I also remarked that God provided a foolproof method for identifying whom that true Messiah would be when He comes. That method was found in the Messianic prophecies contained in the Tenach that Messiah would fulfill when He came to Israel. Some of these prophecies were: (1) Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:1-2); (2) Messiah would die by crucifixion and rise again (Psalm 16:10; 22); (3) Messiah’s ministry would begin in the region of Galilee (Isaiah 9:1-3). I then plainly told him these and many other Messianic prophecies were historically fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Nazarene. He is alive today and wants to bring the Jewish people to Himself. Iddo could learn of this now by reading the New Testament I gave Him. Iddo was touched by these truths and was very grateful for the gift of the Scriptures he received from this ministry.

Later in the evening, I remembered an old fishing hole (a term I use for a good place in Israel where Jewish people are open to the Gospel of Yeshua). This place was at the restaurant located in the Caesar Hotel in Tiberius. Several past issues of Search the Scriptures (at www.brit-hadashah.org) in the past years have documented these witnessing encounters. When our outreach team arrived, our waitress who came to our table proved to be a very gentle, open, and sensitive soul. Her name was Tohar (which is the word for purity in Hebrew). We asked her how life in Israel was going in the last year after the war in Gaza. Tohar’s response was that life seemed difficult. We encouraged her that the God of Israel will not let His Chosen People be destroyed nor forsaken. He will defend and vindicate them until the end of the present age when Messiah will come and rescue them from the gentile nations’ attempt to eradicate Israel at the battle of Armageddon. Ralph, Debbie, David, and I unanimously expressed our sincere gratitude and deep love for the Messiah’s people to her.

Tohar and To The Jew First missionaries

Tohar was visibly touched to the point of tears. To pay our gratitude of debt to her people, we offered her a copy of a complete Jewish Bible containing both the Old and New Testaments (Tenach and Brit Hadashah). Tohar received it with such reverence that she and three of her co-workers kissed the Scriptures with humble reverence with the same gesture that is regularly done in the Synagogue when the Torah Scrolls are passed around among the attendees. Later on, Tohar came back to our table and said that she did the same thing when praying over her food, like when she ate bread that God gave to sustain her physical life. She then cupped her hands as if she had bread in them and kissed it to show her thankfulness to God for giving her food. And now she was showing the same reverence for the New Testament Scriptures that tell of the Messiah of Israel. We were greatly moved at her response. Right away we pointed out to Tohar that Yeshua compared Himself to physical bread when calling Himself the Bread of Life in John 6. Thus, He meant to say by this metaphor, that when a person receives Him as Lord and Messiah, he or she would have eternal life with God. Deborah Conn plans to keep in touch with this precious young lady in the hope of further teaching her in the ways of Yeshua the Messiah.

By Yoram Ettinger, www.YNetNews.com

‘War-torn’ land is in fact an economic, scientific, cultural powerhouse

1. Bankruptcy rate in Israel is one of the lowest in the world (19% increase during the first half of 2009), compared with the US – 45% increase, Spain – 58%, Spain – 75% and Switzerland – 15% (Yedioth Ahronoth, July 27, 2009).

2. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has rebounded to its September 10, 2008 (meltdown) level, scoring a 50% surge (Yedioth Ahronoth, July 27).

3. Sequoia Capital and Tanya Capital led a $15.5MN round of private placement by Israel’s Kontera (Globes, July 24). Intel Capital, Cisco, Greylock Ventures and Menlo Ventures participated in a $13MN round by Israel’s AeroScout (Globes, June 29). The Boston-based media giant, Medtronics, invested over $10MN in the Israeli VC fund, TriVentures (Globes, June 23). Motorola Ventures, Stata Venture Partners, Argonaut and Walden participated in a $10MN 4th round by Israel’s Amimon (Globes, July 15). Arts Alliance Digital Ventures invested $9MN in Israel’ YCD Multimedia (Globes, June 23). Innogest, Italy’s largest venture capital fund, invested $8MN in the Israeli-Italian company, beeTV (Globes, June 4). The Boston-based Globespan Capital and Spark Capital invested $7.5MN in Israel’s 5min, their 3rd investment in Israel (Globes, July 24).

4. Intel Vice President for Technology and Manufacturing Group and General Manager of Intel Israel (6 plants, 6,500 employees!), Maxine Fassberg: “We have developed breakthroughs in Israel that have changed the face of computerization…In Israel, we are developing and manufacturing network and communication products as well as microprocessors – in parallel to spearheading the mobile domain in Intel Corp. Among the technologies developed here are MMX, which constitutes the basis of the Pentium processor, platforms for Intel Centrino mobile computers and the Intel Core 2Duo processor. In addition, the first fast Ethernet and first wireless LAN (Local Area Network) were developed here…(Jerusalem Post, May 23, 2009).

5. The Med’s best-kept secret (excerpts of Willy Stern, The Weekly Standard, July 27, 2009):

“Perhaps nowhere else on the globe does there exist a greater discrepancy between perception and reality than Israel. The press portrays the country as a savage land racked by war and terrorism… The reality, though, is a country of 7.4 million people whose stock market and economy are humming along quite nicely (at least in contrast to the rest of the globe) and whose citizens revel in their chic Mediterranean lifestyle…

“In Israel, life goes on. The Western newspapers just don’t notice… Israel today has become a vibrant, functioning jewel of a nation tucked into the eastern flank of the Mediterranean. Tel Aviv looks more like San Diego or Barcelona than Baghdad or Kabul. On a recent five-mile run along Tel Aviv’s Gordon Beach, I saw Israeli yuppies cycling the boardwalk on $1,500 Italian mountain bikes, teenagers in full-body wetsuits surfing the breakers, a deep-cleavaged Russian model (nobody seemed to know her name) doing a photo shoot in a skimpy bikini whilst middle-aged Israeli men with potbellies and hairy chests shamelessly gawked, rows of high-priced yachts docked at the Tel Aviv marina, an endless stream of private planes on final approach to small Sde Dov Airport, and two Israeli soldiers in drab green uniforms making out in the sand and drinking Heineken. A nation at war? It seemed more like high season at Coney Island…

“Israel has a world class cultural scene. Want to see Franco Zeffirelli and Daniel Barenboim? No problem. The Alvin Ailey Dance Company visits. The opera plays to audiences at 97 percent capacity. Even at lower pay, (Israel) attracts the best talents from around the globe…

“Israel enjoys top universities, upscale restaurants, million-dollar homes, hoity-toity architecture, and the like. In the fourth quarter last year, when the global economy went all to hell, Israel’s annual, quarter-over-quarter rate of GDP was only off 0.5 percent, the best figure in the industrialized world. (The United States was off 6.3 percent and Japan 12.1 percent.) ‘Think about the resistance of our economy in recent times,’ suggests Zvi Eckstein, deputy governor of the Bank of Israel. ‘Our prime minister (has a stroke). The war in Gaza. The war in Lebanon. The government gets replaced. But we’ve maintained a stable macroeconomic structure and a strong high-tech sector…’

What’s the secret? A very conservative banking system…No mortgage crisis…A current account surplus since 2003…Negligible inflation…Prudent governmental fiscal policy… Healthy integration into the world economy. Last year, 483 Israeli high-tech companies raised a whopping $2.08BN (only US companies raised more). All the major tech players – Google, Microsoft, IBM – have large research centers in Israel. They go where the talent is…’Israel is today the third-hottest spot (after Silicon Valley and Boston) for high-tech venture capital in the world…’ Israel produces more science papers per capita than any other country. Israel lags behind only the United States in number of companies listed on NASDAQ. Twenty-four percent of Israel’s workforce has a university degree; only the United States and Holland have a higher number. Israel leads the world in scientists and technicians per capita…

“The cell phone? Developed in Israel. Ditto for most of the Windows NT operating system and for voice mail technology. Pentium MMX Chip technology? Designed in Israel. AOL Instant Messenger? Developed in Israel. The list goes on. Firewall security software originated in Israel. The latest breakthrough is the “PillCam,” a video camera that can be swallowed and aids physicians in diagnosing intestinal cancer…it seems the other Israel — the land not of terrorists but of milk and honey and goats — may finally be being discovered.”

Below, Stephen Schwartz updates information that Zola wrote in the February 2005 issue of the Levitt Letter (pp. 28-30). You can read Zola’s article in the levitt.com archives.

By Stephen Schwartz, www.AmericanThinker.com

In an important development in the fight against extremist Islam in the West, the Dutch city of Rotterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam recently dismissed Tariq Ramadan, the Swiss-born Islamist academic, from his two local jobs.

Born in Switzerland, Ramadan is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the radical Muslim Brotherhood.  He is a close associate of the fundamentalist Muslim theologian Yusuf al-Qaradawi, with whom he collaborates in the so-called European Council for Fatwas and Research [ECFR], a Brotherhood-oriented body.   Al-Qaradawi is the leading theorist of a “European Islam” that would abuse Western standards of religious freedom by erecting a parallel system of sharia law alongside established civil law, coupled with aggressive da’wa or Islamic proselytizing.  Ramadan has endorsed this strategy. The ECFR scheme, and Tariq Ramadan’s involvement in it, are documented in the recent Center for Islamic Pluralism report, A Guide to Shariah Law and Islamist Ideology in Western Europe, 2007-2009.

Ramadan has been barred from entry into the U.S. since 2004, when he was invited by the University of Notre Dame to become the Henry R. Luce Professor at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.  That ruling was based on Ramadan’s financial contributions to two Palestinian groups designated by the U.S. Treasury as fundraising agencies for the terrorists of Hamas.  Early in July of this year, however, given the new atmosphere of outreach to Muslim radicals under President Barack Obama, the Second Circuit U.S. Appeals Court reversed the lower-court ruling, effectively nullifying the prohibition on an American visa for Ramadan.

Meanwhile, Britain in 2005 allowed Ramadan to take up a position at Oxford University, where he is the His Highness Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Chair in Contemporary Islamic Studies.

Ramadan is an indefatigable self-promoter.  Few who have observed him paid attention to his work in The Netherlands as an integration adviser for the city of Rotterdam and a professor of “Citizenship and Identity” at Erasmus University.

Yet while the U.S. authorities now seem inclined to allow him on our shores, and Britain appears untroubled by his presence – although the UK bars his associate al-Qaradawi — the Dutch have taken action to curb Ramadan’s ambitions.

His simultaneous dismissal from the Rotterdam city post and the Erasmus appointment was announced on August 19.  The specific reason: his weekly television program on PressTV, an Iranian government media network which operates studios in Britain and the U.S. in addition, of course, to the Middle East.  PressTV also employs British politician George Galloway of the leftist-Islamist electoral alliance known as the Respect Party, and Yvonne Ridley, a former captive of the Taliban who became Muslim after her kidnapping.

Ramadan’s PressTV show was titled “Islam and Life” — not very different, one might note, from the notorious “Shariah and Life” feature run by al-Qaradawi on Al-Jazeera.  Al-Qaradawi has used that platform for outrageous sermons against Jews and Judaism, among other objectionable opinions that support the British decision to keep him out.

In an official statement, Erasmus University stated:

The Municipality of Rotterdam and the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) have decided to terminate the appointment of Dr. Tariq Ramadan… The reason for this is his involvement in the Iranian television channel PressTV, which is considered to be irreconcilable with his positions in Rotterdam…

….

Press TV is a channel financed by the Iranian government. The excessive force used by this government in June against demonstrators, many of whom were students, prompted a number of journalists to cut their ties with the channel. However, Tariq Ramadan chose not to do so, and has since justified his decision in a statement…

[T]here is no longer the essential public support for the contribution to the city and the university and…the credibility of Dr. Ramadan’s continued work for the city and the university has suffered lasting damage.

Tariq Ramadan has always been extremely capable in his manipulation of Western public opinion, but the problematical items on his CV are not limited to his link with PressTV.  As if his association with Al-Qaradawi were insufficient, Ramadan was also criticized in France in 2003 when he published a Jew-baiting attack on several leading French intellectuals, including Bernard-Henri Lévy and André Glucksmann.  Ramadan claimed it was “curious” that that these two individuals were the most important Western European defenders of the Bosnian Muslims during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s, as well as of the human rights of the Chechens, but also supported the U.S. intervention in Iraq.  According to Ramadan, the removal of Saddam Hussein was intended to guarantee “a greater security for Israel with assured economic advantages.”

In the same article, Ramadan falsely alleged that Israeli military advisers participated in the Iraq war, and labeled Paul Wolfowitz the “notorious Zionist” allegedly responsible for the invasion of Iraq in the interest of Israel.  He accused Lévy and Glucksmann of abandoning universal principles and acting “as Jews, or nationalists, as defenders of Israel.”  Publication of this screed was refused by the Parisian dailies Le Monde and Libération,  but it was eventually posted on an Islamist website, http://www.oumma.com/.

Tariq Ramadan hides his extremist views in plain sight.  Why do the British and now, unfortunately, the American authorities fail to comprehend the evidence in front of them?  The U.S. ban on him should be reviewed again… and upheld.

By Yehuda Lahav and Nir Hasson, www.Haaretz.com  [see follow-up article posted on Sept 22, 2009]

In 1939, Sir Nicholas Winton was a 30-year-old stockbroker at a British bank planning to take a vacation in Switzerland. At the time he had no diplomatic connections, no secret contacts and was not being sent anywhere on behalf of anybody.

But when German troops invaded Czechoslovakia in March that same year, Winton followed his heart and changed his travel destination from Switzerland to Prague.

By that time, thousands of children — many of them orphans — were already awaiting their fate in various camps in the Czechoslovakian capital.

Winton was not Jewish, but felt a responsibility to help those struggling during the war. He turned first to his own government, then to the governments of neighboring states, but was met with rejection by all. In their eyes, his fears appeared exaggerated or unfounded.

Of his own accord (and initially at his own expense), Winton founded an aid association for the children of Czechoslovakia. He was its president, treasurer and only employee.

Using the association’s name, he tried to find British foster families for Czech and Slovakian children — most of them Jewish. Their journeys to Britain were organized by Czech friends of Winton.

As he explained years later, Winton searched for foster families via notices and mail correspondence. He recalled one Scottish family who requested a 10-year-old girl, preferably blond. Winton sent the family photographs of 10 children so that the family could decide which they wanted.

Using these methods, 669 children were brought to Britain from Czechoslovakia by Kindertransport in the summer of 1939. Many of them were torn away from their parents and close relatives at the Prague train station. Nobody knew where the children were going and if the parents would ever see them again. Many of the parents were later murdered at Auschwitz.

The last group was supposed to leave Prague on September 3, but was sent back — just two days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland and World War II began.

After the war, Winton managed to find homes around the world for the children from that group that survived, sending the refugees everywhere from Israel to South America. Winton chose not to maintain contact with the children, as he felt that by finding them a home he had finished his good work.

On Tuesday September 1, 2009 — the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion beginning of World War II — a train will head from Prague to the Liverpool Street station in London, on the same 1,300 kilometer route taken by the 669 children in their escape from the Nazi inferno.

The steam train being used for the journey is a replica of the trains used during World War II and will include carriages from that era, obtained from several European countries for the reenactment.

One of the carriages being used on the current journey is that which was used by Tomas Masaryk, the president of Czechoslovakia in the 1920s and 1930s.

The journey, which will take four days, will leave from Prague’s central train station — the same location at which Winton’s children parted from their parents.

The train will pass through Germany and Holland before arriving at the Dutch coast, where the passengers will board a ferry that will take them to Britain. Once there, they will board another historic train that will bring them to London.

The survivors and their families number some 5,000 people today, 240 of whom will be on the train on Tuesday, accompanied by diplomats and members of the public. Waiting for the passengers at Liverpool Street station will be Sir Winston himself, who in May celebrated his 100th birthday.

‘The child is crying’

Helen Zinger escaped the Nazis with the last group to successfully leave Czechoslovakia before the outbreak of the war. Zinger, whose family arrived in Czechoslovakia from Germany for after the Nazis rose to power in 1933, does not know how Winton got in touch with her parents. But she does remember boarding the train in July 1939, at the age of 14, and told Haaretz that she didn’t know where she was being sent.

Zinger was eventually brought to a German-Jewish family in the northern English coastal city of Hull. The city suffered from German bombing during the war, and in letters she sent to her family in Czechoslovakia during the war, she wrote the words “the child is crying,” a family code for being bombed.

Her sister Chana Vislovitz, who also survived the war, recalled receiving the letters with the special code.

She told Haaretz that her mother went crazy not knowing what had happened in the months between the writing of the letters and its passage through the British censors.

Zinger survived the war and also succeeded in her studies. Four years after arriving in Britain without knowing a word of English, she was accepted to Oxford University to study philosophy, economics and politics. Her mother and sister survived the Theresienstadt ghetto, but her father was sent out of the ghetto on the last train to leave for Auschwitz before the end of the war, where he was murdered.

Following the war, Helen was reunited with her mother and sister with the aid of a British soldier Chana met in the ghetto, who organized for a search to be conducted for Helen in Britain.

According to Vislovitz, their mother wanted her sister to return to Czechoslovakia from Britain after the war, but Zinger’s adoptive father asked that she stay an extra year to finish the degree.

Zinger eventually moved to Israel together with her family in 1962. She and Vislovitz both still live there today.

Winton was awarded a knighthood in 2002, but in his own mind the work he did to save the 669 children was natural, and he never even mentioned it to his wife Garda.

In fact, his name only became known around 50 years later, when Garda came across an old briefcase filled with papers from the wartime years, including the list of the 669 children, while searching for something in the attic of their house.

Garda called historian Elizabeth Maxwell following the discovery, and the BBC organized a meeting between Winton and several of the survivors. In recent years Winton’s story has gained much attention in Britain and other countries, and a Slovakian director even made a movie about him.

In 1998, then Czech president Vaclav Havel awarded Winton the Order of Tomas Masaryk. More recently, Czech schoolchildren began collecting signatures calling for Winton be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Some 53,000 signatures have already been collected.

Whether Winton wins the prize is open to question, but what is known is that his rescue actions have become educational material for school children in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, who are taught about the actions of a man labeled “the utmost inspiration.”

More than Czech 100 students participated recently in a literary competition named after Winton, in which they wrote, photographed and produced films with the aim of proving that even in today’s world one must stand