Friday, August 18, 2017
IsraellyCool: Message to Richard Spencer, Racist
Not-so dear Richard Spencer,Judean Peoples Front: Berl Katznelson On Self-Hating Jews
I am sure you are as surprised as most of us that you got your say on Israeli television (the one place in the world the Jews really do control the media). Not only that, but the anchor was way too polite to you, considering your detestable views on Jews and other groups.
But I want to specifically address your calling yourself a White Zionist during that interview in the sense of claiming you care about “your people” (i.e. Whites) and want a secure homeland for yourselves.
Sure, there are those who think you have a point – even some fellow Jews. But I hate to break it to you – they don’t understand what Zionism – or even Judaism – is truly about.
As someone who does, allow me to educate you.
Zionism is nothing more than the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. You see, since we were exiled thousands of years ago, we never gave up hope of returning. This is expressed in our Jewish prayers and religious observance.
Zionism is not about racial superiority or making life hell for others – despite the claims of your fellow antisemites and ignoramuses (including some of my fellow Jews). It is about our history, our religion, our beliefs. We are taught not to “oppress a stranger” – we are to live in peace with our fellow non-Jewish citizens. Except those who try to kill us – the Torah also gives us the mandate to defend ourselves. After all, the 10 Commandments say “Do Not Murder”, not “Do Not Kill” – an acknowledgement of killing in self-defense.
There is a movement among Zionists on the Left in Israel to commemorate Labor Zionist leader Berl Katznelson with his own day of remembrance, in the same way that Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky is. While I am firmly in the Revisionist camp, I recognize that Israel would not have been reestablished without the hard work, steadfastness and vision of many pioneering Zionist leftists like Katznelson and he is surely worthy of a day in his honor.Caroline Glick: Trump and the Jews
We were again reminded of the clarity of thinking when we saw the latest article by Naomi Dann of Jewish Voice forPeacePalestine in the Forward.
We won’t link to it because we don’t want to drive traffic to such a disgusting screed. But you can find it here:
http://forward.com/opinion/380384/richard-spencer-might-be-the-worst-person-in-america-but-hes-right-about-is/
Suffice it to say that Dann has decided that she does in fact agree with Alt-White leader Richard Spencer on one thing: anti-Zionism. Rather than engage in serious introspection at the fact that the core of her identity is shared by a rabid racist & Jew-hater, Dann instead argues that in just this one instance, Spencer is correct.
I have already explained why Zionism is in no way comparable to white nationalism, but am not surprised Dann hasn’t read it. Jew-hatred, like all forms of bigotry, clouds the mind and blinds one’s vision to anything that contradicts it. JVP’s entire reason for being is to act as a blue-and-whitewashing shield for Jew-haters and after defending Jihadists for years, it is not surprising they are now doing so for Nazis as well.
Sadly Dann and JVP are not special or new as Jewish Jew-haters have been around as long as Jews have.
In other words, for the Forward, pro-Israel American Jews of the type assaulted by antifa and its comrades, and pro-Israel presidential advisers are more dangerous to the community than Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and of course, Sarsour herself who embraces Jew-killing terrorists and says that Jewish Israel-supporters must be shunned.
Trump’s electoral victory was a revolutionary event in US history. Tens of millions of American voters supported Trump because he promised to “drain the swamp,” in Washington and serve the needs of the people who the swamp cast asunder.
A big part of that swamp is the Left that insists it is above criticism while its opponents on the Right are deplorable racists unworthy of consideration. When Trump called out the far Left along with the neo-Nazis for their violence at Charlottesville, he was keeping his pledge to his voters and upending one of the most cherished myths of the hated “establishment.”
Given that the white supremacists and radical leftists converge in their hatred of Jews, it is important for the American Jewish community and for America as a whole to embrace Trump’s actions. He is not engaging in moral equivalence between good and evil. He is exercising moral clarity. Without such clarity, the forces of Jew-hatred in the US will never be defeated. Without such clarity, the political position, security and freedom of American Jews will grow increasingly imperiled.
Israel’s job, to the extent it has one in the current fight plaguing the US, is to point out this truth, not join the bandwagon in obfuscating it. Trump is far from a perfect mouthpiece for this essential battle against Jew-haters on the Right and the Left.
But at least he is using his mouth to sound the battle cry. For this he should be applauded by Israelis and American Jews alike.
Jonah Goldberg: The Alt-Right Is Bad — And So Is ‘Antifa’
Since when is being less bad than the Klan a major moral accomplishment?AIPAC in rare non-Israel statement rebukes Trump over Charlottesville
If you haven’t figured it out yet, this seemingly ancient history is relevant today because of the depressingly idiotic argument about whether it’s okay to equate “antifa” — anti-fascist left-wing radicals — with the neo-Nazi and white-supremacist rabble that recently descended on Charlottesville, Va. The president wants to claim that there were “very fine people” on both sides of the protest and that the anti-fascist radicals are equally blameworthy. He borrowed from Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity the bogus term “alt-left” to describe the antifa radicals.
The term is bogus for the simple reason that, unlike the alt-right, nobody calls themselves “the alt-left.” And that’s too bad. One of the only nice things about the alt-right is that its leaders are honest about the fact that they want nothing to do with traditional American conservatism. Like the original Nazis, they seek to replace the traditional Right with their racial hogwash.
The antifa crowd has a very similar agenda with regard to traditional American liberalism. These goons and thugs oppose free speech, celebrate violence, despise dissent, and have little use for anything else in the American political tradition. But many liberals, particularly in the media, are victims of the same kind of confusion that vexed so much of American liberalism in the 20th century. Because antifa suddenly has the (alt-)right enemies, they must be the good guys. They’re not.
And that’s why this debate is so toxically stupid. Fine, antifa isn’t as bad as the KKK. Who cares? Since when is being less bad than the Klan a major moral accomplishment?
In these tribal times, the impulse to support anyone who shares your enemies is powerful. But it is a morally stunted reflex. This is America. You’re free to denounce totalitarians wherever you find them — even if they might hate the right people.
In a rare statement unrelated to Israel or the Middle East, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee implicitly rebuked US President Donald Trump for drawing an equivalence between the sides in the Charlottesville clash.Son of Rupert Murdoch, Apple CEO pledge $1 million each to ADL
“AIPAC shares the outrage and deep concern of our fellow Americans about the inexcusable violence and sickening displays of racism and anti-Semitism in Charlottesville this weekend,” the prominent Israel lobbying group said in a statement posted on Twitter.
“The vile hatred expressed by neo-Nazis, the KKK and white supremacists must be categorically and unambiguously rejected. We urge all elected officials to reject moral equivalence between those who promote hate and those who oppose it. There must be no quarter for bigotry in our country.”
AIPAC joins the virtual gamut of Jewish groups — encompassing all religious streams — that have issued similar statements after Trump forcefully reiterated in a news conference Tuesday that both sides were to blame for the deadly violence on Saturday surrounding a march by members of the far right, and there were “very fine people” in both camps.
Anti-hate watchdog the Anti-Defamation League got two high-profile pledges of $1 million each from business leaders in the wake of the violent far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, including from the son of a Trump ally.American Friends of MDA moves fundraiser from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
James Murdoch, CEO of 21st Century Fox and son of Rupert Murdoch, sent a letter to friends announcing the donation from him and his wife Katherine and expressing dismay over both the violent white nationalist march and US President Donald Trump’s reaction to it.
“What we watched this last week in Charlottesville and the reaction to it by the President of the United States concern all of us as Americans and free people,” he wrote according to The New York Times, which obtained the letter.
“The presence of hate in our society was appallingly laid bare as we watched swastikas brandished on the streets of Charlottesville and acts of brutal terrorism and violence perpetrated by a racist mob. I can’t even believe I have to write this: standing up to Nazis is essential; there are no good Nazis. Or Klansmen, or terrorists. Democrats, Republicans, and others must all agree on this, and it compromises nothing for them to do so,” he added.
Murdoch also urged others to donate to the ADL.
A group raising money for Israeli emergency medical service Magen David Adom joined two other charities Thursday in shunning Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, amid simmering anger over the US president’s statements in the wake of a white supremacist rally in Virginia.Ivanka and Jared targeted with vivid anti-Semitic rhetoric in ‘Vice’ doc
The American Friends of Magen David Adom announced Thursday night it had decided not to hold its 2018 fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, after the Cleveland Clinic and American Cancer Society also said they were canceling fundraisers at the glitzy Florida resort.
The group, which raises money for the MDA ambulance service in Israel, has been holding its annual gala at the resort since 2012.
Some 600 people attended the Palm Beach Celebration of Life gala on February 26, 2017, where the group raised $1.3 million, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Its spokesman, Erik Levis, gave no reason but said the decision came after “considerable deliberation.”
His statement noted the organization is “apolitical.”
An August 14 Vice documentary screened on HBO and detailing the events of the violent Charlottesville protest weekend shows that the Jews are a clear target for leading voices in the united far-right movements.Top Trump aide Bannon dismisses white nationalists as ‘clowns’
The documentary begins with the now-notorious images of tiki-torch bearing, polo shirt-wearing white men chanting, “Jews will not replace us!” It quickly moves to an interview with Christopher Cantwell, an extremely pumped speaker for Unite the Right, who frankly discusses his disgust with US President Donald Trump, who “gave his daughter to a Jew.”
Cantwell asks Vice News’ reporter Elspeth Reeve, “Do you think you could feel about race like I do and watch that Kushner bastard walk around with that beautiful girl?” (Without mentioning that the beautiful girl Trump adviser Jared Kushner married, Ivanka Trump, is now herself a Jew.)
In interview after interview with random white nationalists and thought leaders, Reeve receives similar comments.
Sporting a hillbilly beard and ball cap, Daily Stormer reporter Robert “Azzmador” Ray, says the cancellation of portions of the Charlottesville protest is “because this city is run by Jewish communists and criminal niggers.” Another white nationalist, Matthew Heimback, says it’s because of “the radical left, the corporations and the state are all on the same Jewish side.”
In a YouTube video, former Imperial Wizard of the KKK David Duke likewise says that the American media, political system and federal reserve are “dominated by a tiny minority — the Jewish Zionist guard, which supports Israel, which is the Jewish ethno-state.”
US President Donald Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon dismissed the white supremacist movement, whose march on Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend led to deadly violence, as “losers,” “a fringe element” and “a collection of clowns.”Charlottesville says it provided protection to synagogue, refuting initial account
In an interview with The American Prospect posted online Wednesday, Bannon talked about purging his rivals from the Defense and State departments and told the liberal publication that the US is losing the economic race against China.
Bannon also said there’s no military solution to the threat posed by North Korea and its nuclear ambitions, despite the president’s recent pledge to answer further aggression with “fire and fury.”
Local officials said police provided protection to a synagogue during a far-right rally last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, refuting a claim by a Jewish community leader that they had refused to do so.Charlottesville Is the New Cudgel Against the Israeli PM
On Friday, Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones said it “is simply not the case that Congregation Beth Israel was left unguarded” during Saturday’s event, when neo-Nazis and white supremacists gathered in the city. The synagogue’s senior rabbi also seemed to confirm the police statement.
“Police stationed an officer on the corner of the block where the synagogue is located, plus another 32 officers about one block away in the other direction,” Jones said in a statement to JTA. “In addition, we had snipers on a rooftop in close proximity whose primary responsibility was to monitor a two-block radius which included Beth Israel.
“We also had a group of Virginia State Police officers who were walking a four-block radius between two of our parks on a route that passed the synagogue on several occasions throughout the day’s events.”
The synagogue’s president, Alan Zimmerman, had written in a blog post earlier this week that “[t]he police department refused to provide us with an officer during morning services.”
It took no time at all for the mainstream media to transform the tragic events in Charlottesville, VA -- or rather the reaction to them -- into a cudgel with which to beat Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.Europe- Anti-Israel, Antisemitic Terror Hotbed, USA No Better
Does Netanyahu support white supremacists and neo-Nazis? Of course not.
Did he condemn them? Yes, below is his tweet from the Prime Minister's office.
So what has spawned all these articles critical of Netanyahu? Obviously, it does not take much to trigger articles condemning Netanyahu, but let's take a look at the specific criticism.
NPR
Only after Trump delivered a statement Monday against "the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups" did Netanyahu tweet his own condemnation: "Outraged by expressions of anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism and racism. Everyone should oppose this hatred."
Critics pointed out that Netanyahu tweeted his statement in English — not to Israeli followers in Hebrew — and from his official "PM of Israel" Twitter account of 494,000 followers rather than his more popular personal account of 1.07 million followers.
Yesterday's terror attacks in Spain are shocking but no real surprise. Even though Israel is labeled "dangerous" and "threatened by terror," it seems to me that Europe and the USA are a lot worse, for Jews and for absolutely anybody.Tom Lehrer National Brotherhood Week
Right, Left and Center, no matter who is being violent, they all hate the Jews.
No joke, though the song has its humor it's full of truth.
It didn't take long for media sleuths to discover that one of the Barcelona terrorists had RANTED RECENTLY AGAINST ISRAEL ON FACEBOOK. And in America not long ago, the "dyke inclusion march" viciously attacked the lesbians who showed up with a version of the Israeli flag. But the media just blames the "Right" for antisemitism.
Jewish tourists and business people who go to Europe are constantly warned not to wear obviously Jewish clothes like kippot. They shouldn't be easy targets. From what I've heard, most don't pay attention to the warnings. And that's because the terror attacks have been so general that it's hard to see an obvious target.
There's a general violent anarchy spreading in the world, which some people like to blame on Israel and Jews. Unfortunately, too many people like to accept Israeli policy as the cause of the terror, but the truth is that the violence is promoted by extreme ideologues and religious leaders, especially Arab Muslims. Israel isn't the cause, it's just the victim of hatred.
NYT Magazine: Breitbart Maintains ‘A Borderline Fanatical Advocacy for Israel’
The New York Times Magazine concludes in a lengthy article that Breitbart News has made a “fundamental commitment” to advocate for Israel.Islamist Ordered To Pay $3 Million For Destroying Historic Landmarks
Wil S. Hylton writes in a rare in-depth feature article Breitbart News:
No criticism of Breitbart irritates its leadership more than the charge of anti-Semitism. That’s partly because many of the top figures at Breitbart, including Andrew Breitbart, Larry Solov and the entire editorial team when the site relaunched in 2012 — Joel Pollak, Ben Shapiro and Alex — were all of Jewish descent, but also because a fundamental commitment on the site is to a borderline fanatical advocacy for Israel.
Islamist militant Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi is liable for more than $3 million dollars in reparations for ordering the destruction of ancient landmarks in Timbuktu, Mail, the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled Thursday.Anti-Israel pro-BDS profs organizing Antifa campus network
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Mahdi is the first Islamist to ever be tried by the ICC for war crimes related to the destruction of cultural heritage. He was sentenced to serve nine years in prison last September after pleading guilty to destroying historic shrines at a world heritage site in Mali in 2012.
The court, located in the Hague, said attacks on historic sites “destroy part of humanity’s shared memory and collective consciousness, and render humanity unable to transmit its values and knowledge to future generations.”
Judge Raul Cano Pangalangan said the $3.1 million will cover reparations for the destruction of five buildings and go to the local community to help it protect the sites in the future.
The anti-Israel Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is notorious for campus violence and disruption directed at Israelis and pro-Israeli students and faculty.Noam Chomsky Crushes Left's Antifa Narrative
We have featured dozens of incidents of shout-downs and disruptions of events, including physical acts of intimidation. Many of these incidents are discussed in our post, With campus shout downs, first they came for the Jews and Israel.
In an extremely dangerous development, anti-Israel pro-BDS faculty are organizing a nationwide campus Antifa network.
Mullen also is one of the most aggressive BDS faculty activists, well known for his BDS activities at Purdue.
This fits a pattern of anti-Israel activists co-opting and hijacking other movements, something we explored in If you are surprised #BlackLivesMatter joined war on Israel, you haven’t been paying attention.
Under the leadership of anti-Israel, pro-BDS faculty, expect the campus Antifa network to be re-directed against Israel, Israelis and Jews. We’ve seen this in Chicago, where Jewish symbols were banned at an LGBT event, and Jewish LGBT groups have been attacked.
Yesterday, before learning of this campus Antifa network, I warned that I expect violence on campuses this semester.
Antifa has been weaponized, expect violence on campuses this year directed at anyone in the center or right of center https://t.co/eFu4jIbAMB
— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) August 16, 2017
We have seen what Antifa is capable of in Berkeley, Seattle, Portland and elsewhere.
The teaming of the BDS and Antifa movements is the single most dangerous development I have witnessed in the many years I have been covering campus BDS. Antifa will give BDS even more muscle to intimidate and threaten those who oppose the BDS agenda. (h/t MohammedTheTeddyBear)
A "major gift to the Right," "often wrong in principle," and "generally self-destructive."US to deport Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh to Jordan
MIT linguistics professor, anti-capitalist activist and leftist icon Noam Chomsky disrupted the narrative being pushed by his colleagues on the Left about the "anti-fascist" Antifa movement. Rather than being the heroic defenders of the disenfranchised against the forces of fascism, as the left-leaning media is attempting to portray them, Chomsky described the group as a "major gift to the Right," "often wrong in principle," and "generally self-destructive."
The frequently violent, free speech-suppressing Antifa has become the darling of the left-wing media after the horrific events in Charlottesville and President Trump's insistence on blaming both the alt-right and the "alt-Left" for the violence. The famous professor talked with the Washington Examiner about the movement and pointed out several ugly realities that many liberals are willfully ignoring.
An Antifa ("anti-fascist") counter-protester hurls a newspaper box toward white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally outside Emancipation Park August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"As for Antifa, it's a minuscule fringe of the Left, just as its predecessors were," Chomsky said of the movement, composed of a ragtag group of loosely affiliated socialists, Marxists, racial activists, and anarchists who are willing to use force to promote their agenda. "It's a major gift to the Right, including the militant Right, who are exuberant."
"[W]hat they do is often wrong in principle — like blocking talks — and [the movement] is generally self-destructive," he said. Their violent tactics, predicted Chomsky, will inevitably lead to their destruction because the "toughest and most brutal" always win, which Chomsky suggests is the white supremacist fascists they purport to be combating.
A Palestinian woman who perpetrated a 1969 supermarket bombing and later immigrated to the United States had her citizenship revoked on Thursday and was sentenced to deportation to Jordan by a US federal court in Detroit.More Than 1,000 Leftists Gathered In Chicago To Cheer A Convicted Murderer Who Hates Israel
Rasmea Odeh was convicted of immigration fraud as part of a plea deal by the same court in April with Thursday’s deportation sentence being mostly a last formal step before she is sent on her way.
The terrorist attack killed two people – Hebrew University students and roommates Leon “Arie” Kanner, 21, from Netanya, and Edward Jaffe, 22, formerly of Cape Town and living near Tel Aviv – at the Shufersal supermarket on Agron Street in Jerusalem.
Odeh was sentenced to a life term.
“Hopefully, this will be the final chapter in the tragic story of this still-dangerous and unrepentant PFLP terrorist who tried to fraud the US immigration services,” Shurat Hadin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, who represented Edward Jaffe’s brother Harold and assisted the US Department of Justice with compiling evidence, said on Thursday in advance of the hearing.
“We applaud the work of the American Department of Justice and in particular Assistant US Attorney Jonathan Tukel, who really pursued Odeh with vigilance, exposed her lies and assured that her Jewish victims received a measure of justice and closure,” she said.
More than 1,000 people packed Chicago’s International Union of Operating Engineers hall on August 12 for “A Farewell to Rasmea Odeh Featuring Angela Davis.” The event was described as a chance to say goodbye to Odeh, a convicted murderer who will soon be deported for lying to get U.S. citizenship.Major Feminist Site: Jew-Killing Terrorist is the Real Wonder Woman
Odeh masterminded a Palestinian terrorist group’s 1969 bombing of a Jerusalem supermarket that killed two Israeli college students. Her supporters on Saturday included dozens of progressive advocacy groups and anti-Israel organizations who sponsored the event, such as Code Pink, Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine and Black Lives Matter.
The convicted terrorist received well-wishers like the bride at a wedding and paused to meet children like a celebrity. Have your kid’s picture taken with a killer! Attendees appeared to be mostly young and of Middle Eastern descent. Quite a few of the women wore hijabs, but many others wore fully modern clothing. The room was generally young, energetic, organically diverse and united around a narrative that included a common enemy: Israel.
An Attorney Praised Odeh’s ‘Militancy’
Hatem Abudayyeh, executive director of the Arab American Action Network, began the program by welcoming Odeh and Davis. He then thanked Odeh for “her over 50 years of community organizing for the liberation of Palestine.” The bombing for which Odeh was convicted took place 48 years ago.
Odeh’s attorneys were honored and took the stage. Michael Deutsch, a Chicago attorney, said Odeh’s “militancy” had been an inspiration to him. At first, it seemed that word choice might have been a Freudian slip, but as he spoke, it became clear it wasn’t. Deutsch was the first speaker of the night to openly—if carefully—cast terrorism as morally acceptable. He was proud, he said, to “bring out in the federal court and in the public that the Israeli government systematically tortures political people… and most importantly, we were able to put forward the idea that Palestinians have the international law right to struggle against a brutal, illegal occupation by any means necessary.” The crowd cheered.
Repeating Linda Sarsour’s odious claim that one cannot be both a Zionist and a feminist, the article argued that “feminism is built on the liberation of all women and their families and requires peace, dignity, and security for all—things which the Israeli occupation of Palestine goes directly against.” It then called on readers to resist normalizing Gadot’s “Zionist feminism,” and offered instead alternative wonder women to adore. Rounding up the list? Rasmea Odeh.The Anti-Semitic Jewish Media
Odeh, Everyday Feminism breathlessly told its liberal-minded readers, was “a courageous freedom fighter” targeted “because she was a Palestinian woman.” Not mentioned in the article was the pesky business of the bomb Odeh had laid in a crowded Jerusalem supermarket in 1969, killing 21-year-old Leon Kanner and 22-year-old Eddie Joffe, two Hebrew University students buying groceries for a field trip, and injuring nine others. Odeh, a member of the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was arrested shortly thereafter and confessed her involvement in the attack and in another bombing, several days later, targeting the British Consulate in Jerusalem. She was released in 1980 together with 77 other convicted terrorists exchanged for an Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon, and eventually emigrated to the United States. She did not reveal her arrest and conviction to federal authorities, and in October of 2013, was indicted for failing to do so and arrested a few days later. After a lengthy legal process, she accepted a plea bargain in March of this year, was stripped of her American citizenship, and will soon be deported.
That a publication dedicated to equality and justice would throw its weight behind a convicted terrorist should, at this point, surprise no one who’s been paying attention to the regressive left’s animosity towards Israel and the Jews alike. Maybe the Wonder Woman sequel, soon to kick into production, could have Diana Prince address this problem, busting a few murderous terrorists along the way and showing the world, again, what real kickass feminism looks like.
For years now, Jews across western Europe have been the targets of harassment by Muslims. Police officers stand guard outside of synagogues. Recently, when I stayed in the Jewish Quarter in Rome, I couldn't help notice the presence of multiple police kiosks, each manned by an armed cop. Many Jews in European cities have long since ceased wearing yarmulkes or Stars of David. Jewish kids are instructed by their parents to avoid identifying themselves as Jews at school lest they be beaten up by their little Muslim friends.Vandalism at Temple Israel in Alameda; windows smashed
Meanwhile, almost everyone in a position to do something is a coward. Politicians continue to recite the mantra that "Muslims are today's Jews," even though in Europe today Muslims are far more often the tormentors than the tormented, and Jews lead the list of victims of public abuse. Police prefer not to prosecute Muslim perpetrators for fear of being called "Islamophobes." Teachers don't want to deal with Muslim bullies in their classes for the same reason.
Yet you would hardly know this to read much of America's Jewish media. On August 2, the Jewish Journal ran a piece slamming Trump adviser Stephen Miller for dismissing (quite properly) the suggestion by CNN's Jim Acosta that the new immigration bill favoring English-speakers violated the "spirit" of Emma Lazarus's Statue of Liberty poem, "The New Colossus," and emphasizing, as if it had anything to do with the issue, that Miller himself is the great-grandson of Jewish immigrants. This was not the first time the Jewish Journal had gone after Miller for being a Jew who supports immigration reform. In March, another piece in that publication, headlined (I kid you not) "From Hebrew School to Halls of Power," noted that Miller was "a principal author of Trump's draconian immigration measures, including the executive order the president signed in late January targeting immigrants from Muslim-majority countries," even though "[t]hese politics are generally reviled in the liberal circles of his Jewish upbringing."
Police in Alameda are investigating what appears to be vandalism at Temple Israel in Alameda.Canada: Anti-Semitic graffiti found in Winnipeg
At about 6pm on Aug. 17, congregational president Genevieve Pastor-Cohen sent an email letter to the congregation stating, “in the morning, it was discovered that two classroom windows had been smashed,” and noting that police and Harbor Bay Security had been notified.
“During our Weds. Aug 16th Board of Directors meeting, we discussed the possibility of our synagogue being a target in our small town of Alameda especially with the ongoing expression of bigotry and anti-Semitism,” the letter continued. “It breaks my heart and soul to be exposed to this type of mindless and senseless action especially aimed at the community I (we) love.”
Congregant Mel Waldorf went to the synagogue after he received the email, and told J. that one of the windows that had been smashed “was where kids had painted Stars of David.”
He also said that another window that noted this was “the new Temple Israel” had been smashed, and he said that police took away a rock the assailants had used to try and smash in the front door.
“There’s no question that the attacker knew this was a Jewish institution,” he told J.
Anti-Semitic graffiti was found at multiple spots around the Canadian city of Winnipeg on Wednesday, Global News reports.Archaeologists uncover the heart of Nazi-razed Vilnius synagogue
Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman condemned the incident and called on locals to denounce acts of hate.
The graffiti read “Lost white civilizations” and “Soros wants you dead”, according to Global News.
It was condemned by B’nai Brith Canada, whose spokesman Ran Ukashi said, “Having these kind of symbols for children and families to see is distressing. It’s very concerning that people have this way of thinking, because it can lead to more serious issues in the future.”
Some places were covered with symbols like the Star of David, and “Jewish supremacy” written underneath. Other benches made direct references to Nazi symbols, according to Global News.
“It was just riddled with swastikas, white pride,” Ukashi said.
Winnipeg police are aware of the incidents and said an officer who works directly on hate crimes is investigating.
A team of Israeli, American and Lithuanian archaeologists have uncovered the heart of the Great Synagogue in Vilnius, which was razed by the Nazis 70 years ago. The discovery of the ritual baths, considered a vital part of an active Jewish community, is the most exciting find in this second year of excavations at the site.Israel's Sam Spiegel named one of world's best film schools
The Great Synagogue is actually a large compound that was considered the beating heart of Lithuanian Jewry for some 300 years. It contained the renowned Strashun Library, 12 synagogues, Jewish schools, ritual baths, the local Jewish community council building, and even kosher food places. When Nazi soldiers occupied the city in June 1941, these Jewish buildings were burned to the ground.
Vilnius, a community of some 70,000 when World War II broke out, supported over 100 synagogues and half a dozen Jewish dailies and was known as the “Jerusalem of Lithuania.” Under Nazi occupation, 95 percent of Lithuanian Jewry was murdered in the Holocaust and Soviet rule drove out many who survived. In the 1950s, the synagogue compound was turned into a basketball court and kindergarten.
After the Nazis destroyed the compound, three pieces from the Great Synagogue of Vilna survived: a bas-relief with the Ten Commandments, a door from an Ark where Torah scrolls were kept, and a table upon which the scroll was read. All other traces of the compound virtually disappeared.
The Sam Spiegel Film & Television School has been named one of the world's top 15 film schools by the Hollywood Reporter magazine.In IDF first, chief medical officer hails from Druze community
The industry magazine publishes an annual list of the top film schools in the U.S., and another list of the leading film schools in the world. The No. 1 spot in the U.S. film school ranking went to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
In its description of Sam Spiegel, the Hollywood Reporter mentioned that its honorary fellows include directors David Lynch and Wim Wenders. The institution was founded in 1989 under the directorship of Renen Schorr, and since 1996 has been called the Sam Spiegel School of Film and Television, after the legendary three-time Oscar winner who produced "On the Waterfront," "The Bridge on the River Kwai," and "Lawrence of Arabia."
Notable Sam Spiegel graduates who have made their mark in international film circles include Rama Burshtein ("Fill the Void," "The Wedding Plan,") Tamar Kay ("The Mute's House"), Yaelle Kayam ("Mountain"), and Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun, who directed "Aya," which was nominated for an Oscar for best short film in 2015.
Brig. Gen. Dr. Tarif Bader was sworn in Thursday as the Israel Defense Forces chief medical officer, marking the first time in the country's history that the position is manned by a Druze officer.Teaching the world how to make the desert bloom
Bader replaced Brig. Gen. Dr. David Dagan, who had served in the post for the past three years.
"It is our duty to preserve the lives of our soldiers and grant the necessary medical treatment to them and to anyone who needs it, across all parameters: routine missions, operational activity, and in times of emergency. This is the challenge that we face and that obligates us to be at our best at all times," Bader said during the transfer of office ceremony.
"I believe and have confidence in your abilities. Always remember, 'My brother's keeper I will forever be,' whether in battle, on the stretcher or by his bedside," he said.
In his previous positions, Bader headed the IDF's medical mission to treat wounded Syrians on the northern border, and commanded three IDF humanitarian delegations: to Haiti in 2010, Nepal in 2015 and Turkey in 2016.
At the Ramat Negev Agro-Research Center, acacia trees bloom, casting long shadows by the greenhouses, and fat pumpkins ripen on the ground. Everywhere you look, jewel-like cherry tomatoes dangle above the sand, on vines strung to wires, carefully irrigated and nourished.In Medical First, Israeli Man Gets Lab-Created Bone Tissue Injected Into Injured Arm
While tiny tomatoes have been around for centuries, certain varieties of cherry tomatoes – including the popular tomaccio – were developed in Israel back in the 1970s. Here they grow in abundance, as do sweet peppers of all colors – yellow, green, red, chocolaty-brown, and purple.
The Ramat Negev Regional Council oversees this center, and agricultural experiments are conducted by onsite researchers as well as by scientists from Ben-Gurion University, the agriculture faculty of the Hebrew University, the Volcani Center, and elsewhere, in consultation with the Israeli Extension Service. It is a hotbed of innovation and discovery.
“People come here from all over the world to study how we grow things in the desert and how to fight against the desert’s continuing conquest of their land,” Gadi Grinblat explains.
Medical history was made at Emek Medical Center in Afula this week when semi-liquid live human bone tissue grown in a lab from a 40-year-old patient’s own fat cells was transplanted into the patient’s arm by injection.Chloe Valdary: My Journey to Zionism
The patient had suffered significant bone loss in his arm as the result of a car accident and previously underwent several unsuccessful surgeries.
The procedure was part of an early-stage clinical trial of a revolutionary tissue-engineering technology developed by Bonus BioGroup of Haifa. A hospital spokeswoman told ISRAEL21c that it is too early to report results in this specific case.
In December 2016, Bonus BioGroup announced successful results of an early-stage clinical trial on 11 patients in which bone tissue grown from a small sample of each patient’s own fat cells was injected into their jaws to repair bone loss. Over a few months it hardened and merged with the existing bone to complete the jaw, according to the company.
Bonus BioGroup CEO and President Shai Meretzki said this week’s experimental procedure “sets a new standard of hope for rapid healing in a wide variety of cases.”
Emek Medical Center’s head of orthopedic surgery, Dr. Nimrod Rozen, is among three doctors on Bonus BioGroup’s scientific advisory board.
I’m not sure when I knew that I was a Zionist.A Captivating Tour of Jewish Life at the Moment before the Holocaust and Israel
Maybe it was when I heard James Wheldon Johnson’s Lift Every Voice and Sing, and saw the Jewish story wrapped up in my own — or maybe when I heard my father talk about Leon Uris. Or maybe it was when I watched Freedom Writers, a story about kids from broken homes who hated each other because they didn’t know the value of their own lives. Then they learned the story of Anne Frank, a young girl who was attacked for her identity, but still chose not to hate others. And then those kids learned to love.
It’s always the same story: An individual wrestling with imperfection or oppression or both, struggling with what it means to have a relationship with the Divine — to have a capacity to love even when that love is not always reciprocated. A person always trying to find meaning and significance and identity.
That is how my journey started.
I went to Rome for the first time last year. Rome has a way of surprising you with its grandiosity. But Rome is also fickle; it has a way of reminding you of your own mortality. I love Bernini, but when I saw his work, I was reminded that nothing good can last.
So as quickly as Rome excited my imagination, it depressed me and made me search the book of Ecclesiastes to explore Solomon’s confrontation with his own mortality.
If you’ve always longed to read a book capturing that very special moment in history when the European Diaspora still was the Jewish people, even as the state of Israel was looming on the far horizon—a book explaining, from within, that moment of incipient transition into two Jewish identities—it has existed since 1930. The problem is that it was written in French, and by a Gentile at that, and for decades nobody bothered introducing it to the English-speaking public.
But now the situation has been rectified. Albert Londres’ masterpiece, The Wandering Jew Has Arrived, has recently been published in a superb translation by Helga Abraham, an Egyptian-born graduate of Edinburgh University who now lives in Jerusalem. In her foreword, Abraham goes so far as to compare Londres with “such great documentarians as Mark Twain and George Orwell.” I couldn’t agree more.
In his French homeland, Londres remains to this day a national icon, whose name graces the French equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. He was born in 1884 in Vichy—then famous as an elegant health resort—to a working-class family; his father was a tinker, his grandfather a peddler. Thanks to the free, high-quality education network set up by the Third Republic, he was able to attend high school and thereafter dabbled in poetry and theater before settling on journalism at Le Matin, one of the country’s leading newspapers.
In 1914, at the age of thirty, Londres was found “too frail” for active military service and instead became a war correspondent, achieving instant celebrity with his eyewitness report on the Germans’ September 1914 bombing and burning of the Reims cathedral. Switching to Le Petit Journal, another top-selling paper, he covered the more exotic but no less horrendous fighting in Serbia, Greece, Albania, and Turkey.
After the war, now with Excelsior and finally Le Petit Parisien, he covered every hot spot in the world: Italy on the verge of turning fascist, Russia right after the Soviet takeover, Japan caught between the westernizing Meijis and military dictatorship, chaotic post-imperial China, Gandhi’s India, the Sahara, West Africa, French Guyana, Argentina, the Balkans again, China again. By then the highest paid journalist in France, he was the consummate professional and, frail or not, hardly rested even when back at home.
