A rare illustrated machzor from the early 15th century, plundered by the Nazis from the Rothschild banking dynasty during the Holocaust, is slated for auction next year and is expected to fetch at least $5 million.
The machzor, created in 1415 by Moshe ben Menachem, a Jewish scribe and artist, was written for the Yamim Nora’im. It features Hebrew text adorned with bird illustrations, silver and gold leaf, and decorative elements designed to make the pages shimmer. Eventually, the manuscript made its way to the international Rothschild family, where it remained until it was seized by the Nazis in the early years of World War II.
After sitting for decades on a library shelf, the manuscript was recently returned to the Rothschild heirs by the Austrian government and will be sold by Sotheby’s, with experts estimating a sale price between $5 million and $7 million.
“Illuminated Hebrew manuscripts are extraordinarily rare,” said Sharon Liberman Mintz, a Judaica expert at Sotheby’s. “They were costly to produce, so only a small number were created.” Mintz explained that Jewish communities throughout history were often destroyed or expelled, leaving their books behind. “Between destruction, upheaval, and migration, the fact that this survived 600 years is nothing short of miraculous,” she added, noting that crafting such a manuscript on parchment would have taken more than a year.
Dr. Katrin Kogman-Appel, a medieval manuscript scholar and professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Münster who examined the book for Sotheby’s, said the survival of any such volume from that era is exceptional. If the machzor is sold to a private collector, she said, it is critical that the buyer “make it accessible and visible at least to the scholarly community, and hopefully to the wider public.”
The New York Times reported that little is known about the manuscript’s first 400 years. It will be displayed at Sotheby’s in New York from December 11–16 ahead of its February 5 auction. In 1842, it was purchased for 151 gold coins by Salomon Mayer von Rothschild, a prominent Jewish banker in Austria and founder of the Vienna branch of the Rothschild Bank, as a gift for his son, Anselm Mayer von Rothschild. The machzor remained in family ownership for generations and eventually entered the library of French financier Mayer Alphonse James Rothschild.
During Germany’s annexation of Austria in March 1938, Baron Louis de Rothschild was detained at the airport while attempting to flee the country and was later imprisoned. The Nazis held him hostage for a year, forcing him to sign over his property and art collection. At the same time, Alphonse Rothschild and his wife Clarice were in London, and in their absence, the Gestapo emptied their Vienna palace—including the treasured machzor.
According to the New York Times, many of the Rothschilds’ finest artworks were shipped to Germany, while others were incorporated into Austrian museums. The machzor and additional volumes were transferred to the Austrian National Library.
After World War II, the Rothschild family managed to recover portions of their looted property. Austrian restitution laws eventually changed, leading the government in 1999 to return hundreds of artworks, furnishings, and jewels to heirs of families whose assets had been confiscated.
But the Rothschild manuscripts in the National Library went unnoticed and remained locked away for decades. In 2021, the Jewish Museum Vienna mounted an exhibition dedicated to the Rothschilds, which drew attention to the forgotten volumes.
“It sparked everyone’s curiosity about how the manuscript ended up in the library,” Mintz said. “The Rothschild family didn’t even know it was there. It sat on a shelf for 60 years and was never cataloged.” Following the exhibition, the Austrian government investigated the manuscript’s provenance and voluntarily agreed in 2023 to return it to the Rothschild heirs.
{Matzav.com}IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi issued an unusual set of sweeping restrictions today, ordering a halt to weekend releases, a ban on field navigation exercises, and significant limitations on troop movement and training until Friday morning, subject to ongoing operational assessments.
According to a report on i24, the directives took effect late Thursday afternoon as the military prepared for a powerful storm system expected to hit the country in the coming days. The goal, the army said, is to reduce movement and minimize risk to soldiers during hazardous weather conditions.
The orders sent to commanders prohibit releasing soldiers from their bases to return home from Thursday at 20:00 until Friday at 06:00. All foot or vehicle-based training is suspended unless a division-level general grants a specific exemption. All navigation exercises—of any kind—are completely forbidden, and marches or outdoor overnights are banned unless defined as essential operational needs by a regional division commander.
Physical training may continue only indoors, and operational activity will be restricted to essential missions. Movement of forces has also been sharply limited: operational foot or vehicle movements will require a demonstrated critical need, while administrative vehicle movement will require authorization from a colonel or branch commander.
The restrictions will remain in place until Friday at 06:00, with further updates to be issued by the Operations Directorate and the Ground Forces Command as weather and operational assessments evolve.
{Matzav.com}
Knesset Member Boaz Bismuth, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, issued a sharply worded response on Wednesday to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara after she released a statement voicing her opposition to the government’s proposed draft law.
Bismuth accused the attorney general of attempting to divert public attention, writing on X: “Nice attempt, Adv. Miara, to deflect the discussion with your legal opinion, precisely on the day when dark questions are being raised regarding your involvement in the Sde Teiman affair. Nice try, but not this time.”
His comments came amid renewed controversy surrounding the investigation into the alleged leak in the Sde Teiman case. According to a report published yesterday by journalist Avishai Greenzweig on the i24NEWS website, Deputy Military Advocate for Operational Matters Gal Asael—appointed by Baharav-Miara to examine the leak—told police investigators that he acted with full coordination with senior officials in the State Prosecutor’s Office.
During his interrogation, when police accused him of conducting a negligent review, Asael reacted sharply and directed blame squarely at the attorney general.
“Not only am I not negligent, but there is no action I took for which I did not receive praise from the attorney general’s office,” Asael reportedly said. He added that senior prosecutors had described his review as “thorough and serious,” noting that the attorney general’s office had used that description in subsequent filings to the High Court. “So what do you want from me?” he asked.
Asael further insisted that every step he took was guided and supervised by the attorney general’s office. “All my actions were accompanied and directed by the attorney general’s bureau, which is well-versed in leak investigations and has far more experience than I do in this field. There is nothing criminal here on my part,” he said.
{Matzav.com}
A ruling from the Supreme Court has set off a political earthquake in Texas, clearing the legal obstacles for the state to overhaul its congressional map. According to Rep. Keith Self, the decision could translate into a significant windfall of House seats for Republicans in 2026 and dramatically alter the national electoral landscape.
Speaking with Newsmax, Self said the outcome was long expected and entirely logical. “Well, frankly, we knew it was going to happen. It makes sense,” he remarked on Wake Up America Early, projecting a substantial jump in GOP representation. “We will go from 25 to 30 Republicans. We will add to our largest Republican delegation in Congress, and we will have 30 seats.”
Even with several senior lawmakers preparing to retire, Self noted that the incoming seats would keep the Texas GOP delegation heavily fortified. “We’re going to lose some tremendous voices. Chairman [Michael] McCaul, Chairman [Jodey] Arrington, in the next term. But we’re going to add five seats. I think we will continue to be a major force.”
The conversation turned next to Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the Dallas Democrat now attempting to unseat longtime Republican Sen. John Cornyn. Her rising national presence, fueled by persistent media visibility, was characterized by Self as emblematic of a Democratic Party he views as led by its most ideological flank. “Look, the Progressive left controls the Democrat Party today. You look at AOC, you look at Jasmine Crockett. [Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders is now the patron saint of the Democrat Party,” he said. “I will tell you, I think that they are making waves across the Democrat Party.”
Self said the party’s centrists have been pushed to near extinction. “The moderate Democrat is almost a dinosaur today,” he argued, adding that he would be “delighted” to see Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Crockett leading the Democratic ticket in 2028. “They now rule the Democrat Party, the Progressive left,” he declared.
As immigration and cultural debates continue to dominate Texas politics, Self reiterated his long-standing warnings about ideological clashes with Western values. “It’s absolutely anathema, incompatible with the U.S. Constitution, with the ideas contained in the Declaration of Independence, with our rule of law, we are built on the freedom of the individual,” he said, referring to Islam and Sharia law.
He urged Americans to draw lessons from global history. “I mean, this is what they do,” he said. “History tells us we need to be very cautious about this, and we need to take the steps to defend our Western culture, our Western civilization, built on the freedom of the individual, consistent with civil society. They do not believe that.”
The discussion concluded with the economy, where Self credited President Donald Trump and GOP-led tax policy for early signs of improvement. “Well, I will tell you, the economy is starting to, we’re starting to see life in the economy,” he said. The Working Families Tax Cuts Act, approved less than half a year ago, is beginning to show results, he argued.
He predicted that the impact would soon become unmistakable. “I think the big change will come when they see their federal income tax returns,” he said. “So let’s just give it a few more months. We’re starting to see the green shoots of it. It’s going to explode soon.”
{Matzav.com}
Internal debate inside the Trump administration has intensified as senior officials explore imposing terrorism-related penalties on UNRWA, a move that has sparked fierce legal and humanitarian objections from within the State Department. Two individuals directly familiar with the conversations said the discussions have advanced far enough to alarm diplomats overseeing the U.N. portfolio.
UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for assisting Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, serves as a critical provider of education, food distribution, medical care, and emergency shelter. U.N. leaders and members of the Security Council have repeatedly described the agency as the backbone of humanitarian operations in Gaza, where the two-year conflict between Israel and Hamas has produced catastrophic suffering.
The administration has taken a sharply different view, insisting the agency is compromised by Hamas ties—an accusation UNRWA has forcefully rejected. Washington, once the agency’s principal funder, halted all support in January 2024 after Israel alleged that several UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas assault that set off the war in Gaza.
The confrontation escalated further when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio charged in October that UNRWA had become “a subsidiary of Hamas,” a statement that sent shockwaves through diplomatic circles. Despite this rhetoric, insiders say administrators have not settled on whether they are considering sanctions against the entire organization or targeting only specific personnel or operations.
Among the ideas circulating is an FTO designation—labeling UNRWA a “foreign terrorist organization.” The sources said this has been debated at various points, though it remains unclear if it is still under active consideration. Such a label would financially suffocate the agency and sever it from support networks worldwide.
Officials warning against the move caution that disrupting UNRWA outright could devastate relief efforts for millions of displaced Palestinians already struggling amid a severe funding shortfall. The consequences, they argue, could be swift and dangerously destabilizing for the region.
Sanctioning a U.N. agency on terrorism grounds would be a dramatic departure from precedent, particularly given that the United States serves both as a founding member of the United Nations and its host nation. UNRWA was established in 1949 through a U.N. mandate designed to address post-war displacement.
William Deere, who oversees UNRWA’s Washington office, said the agency would be “disappointed” if speculation about an FTO designation proves accurate. He stressed that such a step would be “both unprecedented and unwarranted.” Deere added, “Since January 2024, four independent entities have investigated UNRWA’s neutrality including the U.S. National Intelligence Council. While occurring at different times and from different perspectives, they have all come to the same conclusion: UNRWA is an indispensable, neutral, humanitarian actor.”
A State Department official, responding to a request for comment, took the opposite tack, describing UNRWA as a “corrupt organization with a proven track record of aiding and abetting terrorists.” The official added, “Everything is on the table. No final decisions have yet been made.” The White House declined to comment.
While Washington has a broad menu of sanctions tools—including targeted asset freezes and travel bans—an FTO designation ranks among the severest, typically used only for entities known for intentional attacks on civilians, such as branches of al-Qaeda or the Islamic State.
The possibility of labeling any part of UNRWA as terrorist-linked also raises thorny diplomatic questions about whether foreign governments that fund the agency could themselves be exposed to secondary sanctions. Many of America’s closest allies finance UNRWA’s operations.
The U.N. has acknowledged that nine employees may have been involved in the Oct. 7 attack and were dismissed. Additionally, intelligence later revealed that a Hamas commander killed in Lebanon held a job with the agency. The U.N. has pledged to investigate every allegation thoroughly and continues to request documentation from Israel, which it says has not supplied the evidence it asserts exists.
Those who have followed the internal deliberations say career diplomats and legal experts have repeatedly raised alarms over both humanitarian implications and the legal defensibility of such sanctions. They noted that political appointees have largely driven the push to penalize the agency, while seasoned State Department personnel have urged caution.
One source said the issue has recently been taken up by the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism and by members of the Policy Planning Staff, emphasizing how seriously some within the administration view the matter. Gregory LoGerfo, nominated to lead the counterterrorism bureau, has recused himself from all UNRWA-related deliberations pending Senate confirmation.
Israel has long advocated dismantling the agency, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branding UNRWA as an institution that fuels anti-Israeli hostility. As of Jan. 30, Israel formally barred UNRWA from operating on Israeli-controlled land—including East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed unilaterally—and suspended all coordination with its personnel. Despite a U.S.-mediated peace agreement between Israel and Hamas in October, ceasefire breaches remain frequent, and substantive advancements toward the agreement’s broader objectives have been slow.
The U.N. continues to report alarming casualty figures among its field staff, noting that more than 370 UNRWA employees have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began.
{Matzav.com}
