Tuesday, November 21, 2017
College to host Linda Sarsour at 'women of color' conference
Mount Holyoke College will host a leadership conference next semester exclusively for “women of color,” featuring known anti-Zionist Linda Sarsour.New School under fire for putting Linda Sarsour on anti-Semitism panel
Sarsour, one of several leaders behind the record-setting Women’s March in Washington D.C., allegedly supports the implementation of Sharia Law, endorsed the throwing of rocks at Israeli cars, and even called Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu “a waste of a human being.”
"If students do not show up and claim space, they are making a choice and sending a message that they don’t need it."
The 2018 Women of Color Trailblazers Leadership Conference will be open to students and community members and will ultimately “provide a space to celebrate the lives and accomplishments of women of color.”
The conference will be keynoted by the founders of the anti-Trump Women’s March, including Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez, and Sarsour, a frequent critic of Israel whom many people consider to be anti-Semitic.
In the spirit of inclusivity, the event is open to “all individuals (from ages 4 and up) who self- identify as women of color,” according to its event page. No men of color, nor white women, will be permitted to attend.
A private university in New York City is hosting a panel on combating anti-Semitism -- but there's at least one glaring problem, according to critics: an avowed anti-Zionist protester is among the so-called experts.
Brooklyn-born Muslim activist Linda Sarsour is set to be a panelist at the New School's Nov. 28 event, "Anti-Semitism and the Struggle for Justice."
Sarsour has previously said “nothing is creepier than Zionism,” has lauded National of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan and objected to the Jewish right to return to Israel.
Further, the event, which is moderated by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, appears to reject anti-Semitism while also exhibiting an anti-Israel stance.
“When anti-Semitism is redefined as criticism of Israel, critics of Israeli policy become accused and targeted more than the growing far-right,” the event description reads.
The New School, which says it was founded on principles of tolerance, social justice, and free intellectual exchange, told Fox News, in a statement, the school has “been contacted by several individuals who have expressed their concerns about the university’s participation.”
The New York Post Editorial Board labeled the event an Orwellian “fake panel...meant to promote Israel-bashing.”
The Jerusalem Post Editorial Board slammed it as “a forum of ‘antisemites on antisemitism’” that “makes as much sense as a KKK forum on civil rights.”
Mass-murdering Charles Manson and mass-murdering Ahlam Tamimi: Who's more monstrous?
Manson's conviction arose from the murders of nine people. By comparison, our daughter's murderer was convicted in an Israeli court - after confessing to all the charges - of the murder of fifteen people. (A sixteenth person, a young mother, has been comatose from the moment of the Sbarro pizzeria explosion more than 16 years ago until today.) Tamimi has said for the record that she wished the toll were higher.
Like Manson, Ahlam Tamimi is a woman with a mission. But unlike Manson, she never needed to ask for parole which, in any event, the court which tried and sentenced her strongly recommended should be perpetually refused. But she walked free anyway, thanks to the catastrophic Gilad Shalit Deal of 2011 ["19-Oct-11: Haaretz: Shalit prisoner swap marks 'colossal failure' for mother of Israeli bombing victim"]. And did we mention that she is regarded as a national hero throughout the Arab world? And had her own TV program to propagate her values throughout the Arabic-speaking world from January 2012 until September 2016? (The program continues but she is no longer its presenter.)
Living free as a bird in Amman, Jordan, where she was born and where her family lives, she has happily (very happily) boasted of the central role she took in the planning and execution of the Sbarro pizzeria massacre. She has spoken of the pride she felt when fleeing the scene of the massacre that awful day, in the company of exultant fellow Arabs who were elated by the fresh news of a massacre in the center of Jerusalem. She has said on camera that she wished she could have told them it was she who did it.
She presented the evening news a few hours later on a Palestinian Arab television station in Ramallah called Istiklal, opening naturally enough with big news of a "resistance" activity in "Occupied Jerusalem" and the many dead Jews, especially the many dead Jewish children. How that evil creature's heart must have soared.
Prof. Phyllis Chesler: They'll try anything: Indoctrinating US children against Israel
Golbarg Bashi is in the news for her children’s book “P is for Palestine,” which has been described an anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish screed addressed to children.Rutgers President Defends ‘Academic Freedom’ of Three Professors Blasted for Comments on Israel, Jews
Believe it or not, Bashi and I go way back.
In August of 2013, a publicist was arranging interviews for me to discuss the issues raised in my just released book, “An American Bride in Kabul.” CSPAN had tendered a special offer just for me.
“They want to give you a full hour, one on one, with an interviewer. You should grab this.”
“Who is the interviewer?” I asked.
“Golbarg Bashi.”
I had no idea who she was. And so I said:
“Ok, give me five minutes and I’ll get back to you.”
Within five minutes I had determined that Golbarg Bashi was an Iranian, married to Hamid Dabashi, another Iranian, and the professor who had stepped into Edward Said’s shoes at Columbia. Bashi was a professor at Rutgers, the very institution that has succored the likes of Puar Jabari whose book of Big Lies against Israel has just been published by Duke University Press
Bashi herself was a protégée of American born “Palestinian” Lila Abu-Lughod, whose American-born mother and British Mandatory born father both enjoyed long academic careers in America, not in “Palestine.”
Barchi began his address by illustrating the difference between free speech and harassment, noting that placing “a swastika on the side of a building on campus” would not be a violation of the First Amendment, even if it might breach university policies against vandalism.Rutgers Cannot Defend Hiring Assad Spokesman, Antisemite
His argument drew an objection from a woman in the crowd, who said to applause, “it is not free speech.”
“If you take that swastika and put it on the door of a dormitory, that’s not protected,” Barchi argued in return, “but if it is a general building on the university, by first amendment rights, it’s protected.”
He went on to address the ongoing controversies surrounding Chikindas, Puar, and Adi, noting that “the one thing that is common to all of these is that they were all brought forward by The Algemeiner.”
Barchi called The Algemeiner — a newspaper in circulation for over 40 years — “a blog out of New York, which is the follow-on to what was a Yiddish-language newspaper that folded 10 years ago. They are the ones that have researched each one of these stories that have been picked up elsewhere.”
The Algemeiner’s print edition — which features English and Yiddish-language articles — has never gone out of business. Moreover, while The Algemeiner was the first to interview Chikindas, his postings were initially exposed by the Israellycool blog.
Barchi acknowledged that Chikindas — who described Judaism as “the most racist religion in the world” — made “crude jokes about Israel, Judaism, women, homosexuality, a whole lot of things which most of us would find repugnant.” (h/t Jewess)
We question the university’s decision to hire Adi in the first place, and want to know why both professors are still employed at the university. We also believe it’s unacceptable that Rutgers has yet to properly address the troubling actions of both professors.Yes, Muslim Antisemitism Exists in the US
Adi was hired at Rutgers in 2015, after working for the Assad regime in Syria for over 16 years. He had a hand in defending Syria to international bodies such as the UN, and has “justified the war crimes of the genocidal Assad regime,” according to UN Watch. Ironically, he is scheduled to teach a class on “International Criminal Law and Anti-Corruption” next semester. Rutgers has responded to demands to fire Adi by saying that, “Rutgers will not defend the content of every opinion expressed by every member of our academic community, but the University will defend their rights to academic freedom and to speak freely.”
But, we have to ask ourselves, should an “apologist for … mass murder” be given the platform to speak freely in the context of a political science class about anti-corruption, while being so blatantly a part of it? And if Adi really opposed what was happening in Syria, why did he continue working for Assad years into the civil war (and that’s ignoring Syria’s blatant war crimes and other indefensible behavior prior to the civil war). Adi clearly has a biased and unethical world worldview, and it should not be shared at our university.
Furthermore, according to The Algemeiner, a former student has claimed that Adi defended Palestinian terrorism in class as a legitimate form of “resistance” to Israeli “occupation.” Clearly, Adi’s positions cannot be part of the fabric and culture of inclusion and peace that Rutgers University promotes. The university defends its decision to hire Adi based on “his expertise in international law and diplomacy, and other fields.” But is genocidal diplomacy the type of politics that we want taught at our university? Where is the line drawn?
We were heartened to learn that a Philadelphia synagogue is offering an adult education course about antisemitism — a timeless scourge that every generation must combat.Ben-Dror Yemini: When you get money from pro-BDS bodies, you
But why is the course seemingly prompted, as its website suggests, solely by Christian sources of Jew-hatred and August’s despicable anti-Jewish events in Charlottesville — rather than July’s equally despicable calls in two California mosques for Jews to be slaughtered, or even the continuous despicable Jew-hatred from Nation of Islam leaders?
Are Jew-hatred and threats from some Muslims in America less vile, less threatening or less problematic than the same actions from white supremacists?
To some in the Jewish community: yes, apparently.
In a brief description of the course on the Society Hill Synagogue’s website, these are among the questions posed: “What is the role of Christianity and the Church in antisemitism? How has antisemitism morphed over the centuries? In the shadow of Charlottesville we must ask, to what extent does antisemitism threaten the Jewish people in this country? Is it confined to isolated, albeit frightening and horrific, incidents? Is it a larger threat?”
While acts of antisemitism have been and continue to be perpetrated by some Christians, there seems to be a tendency by many Jews to brush aside, downplay or even ignore Jew-hatred from some Muslims; some of these hatreds are motivated by aggressive mosques or certain interpretations of Islam.
Israel should be proud of itself for having active human rights organizations in the country, including Breaking the Silence. Soldiers are allowed to expose the wrongs, and there are wrongs. The problem is that in the past few years, the organization has undergone a complete changeover.Haaretz's Gideon Levy and HR's Daniel Pomerantz Live on i24 News
The organization, which started off by exposing wrongs in a bid to fix them, has turned into an organization that is ceaselessly spreading lies against the State of Israel. This isn’t about the organization’s spokesman, Dean Issacharoff, who has been caught telling a blatant lie. It’s about the system. It’s about the organization.
Breaking the Silence Director Avner Gvaryahu responded to the exposed lie by insisting that the story about Issacharoff brutally attacking a Palestinian during his military service was true. Issacharoff’s comrades testified that it never happened. The Palestinian testified that it never happened. But that doesn’t matter, because instead of insisting on exposing the truth, the organization is insisting on spreading lies.
There are serious incidents which should be exposed. The problem starts when the organization’s leaders turn IDF soldiers into bloodthirsty monsters interested in committing nonstop war crimes.
Noam Chayut, one of the organization’s three board members, published an article titled “The exceptional person is one who is unwilling to kill civilians.” He is the moderate of the three. The other two are supporters of the anti-Israel boycott campaign. There is no surprise, therefore, in the fact that Issacharoff and Gvaryahu have gone from exposing wrongs to disseminating lies. When you get money from pro-BDS bodies, you act like the BDS movement.
When controversial Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy was hosted on i24 News television, HonestReporting was there: holding the media to account and setting the record straight. We are the only organization working to change the conversation about Israel at every stage of the news cycle: before, during and after.
IsraellyCool: Latest Blood Libel: The Case Of The Israeli Border Police & The Boy
I have mentioned before the Palestinian Information Center, an antisemitic website that sure loves a good blood libel against Israel (its Facebook page is in fact where I happened across a comment by antisemitic Rutgers professor Michael Chikindas, ultimately leading to his exposure).Yisrael Medad: Professor Erekat, Where'd "Israel" Go?
Their latest libel is this:
The implication is clear: Israeli forces captured or detained a small palestinian boy, making them cruel monsters.
Besides the Jews, I think the Palestinian Information Center’s greatest enemy is reverse image search, because it helps us find the sources of their photos, in this case here.
Escorted from a crime scene in Jerusalem
Israeli border policemen escort a boy away from a blocked alley after a stabbing attack inside the old city of Jerusalem according to Israeli police, April 1, 2017. (Photo: Ammar Awad/Reuters)
The professor further claims there thatGround the anti-Semites: Kuwait Airways won't let Israelis fly; Germany must stand up to the prejudice
Israel has used UN Security Council Resolution 242 to retroactively legitimate [its] colonial takings
There are two ways to counter her arguments besides discounting her use of "colonial".
There is the easy way which is to point to the website of Jadaliyya where Ms. Erekat serves as co-editor. I signed up to receive its newsletter but I had to note I reside in "palestine" (yes, with a small P) which is not a country nor a state but a region.
Why?
Well, Israel isn't listed:
Not nice.
And she complains about Israel, which is a real state? I hope I'm updated.
The second way, as she lectures in law, is to be a bit more serious.
We get it: Kuwait doesn’t like Israel. Boycotts it, in fact. But state-owned Kuwait Airways should not be able to peddle that poison in other countries.Reverse BDS
Like, of all places, Germany, where the airline bars anyone with an Israeli passport from boarding its planes.
They tried the same stunt here at JFK last year. The federal government, standing on principle, said no way. So the airline pouted and pulled out.
In Germany, a Frankfurt court has okayed the blatant discrimination, ruling Thursday that the airline was well within its rights to cancel a Frankfurt-to-Bangkok ticket sold to an Israeli because it acted not based on race, ethnicity or religion, but on the traveler’s citizenship.
The mayor of Frankfurt is correctly outraged.
Step eins: Change German law to include citizenship in the protected groups. Step zwei: Bar any airline from operating out of Germany unless it accepts all passengers willing to buy tickets.
Step drei: Tell the world sneaky Israel-hating anti-Semitism has no home in 21st century Deutschland.
Since 2002, student activists have tried to pass anti-Israel divestment resolutions at the University of Michigan. This month, they succeeded on a 23-17 vote of the university’s Central Student Government. But opponents of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement should not be demoralized by this result.Roger Waters: Artists’ boycott of Israel is 'about human rights'
In spite of favorable circumstances for BDS in the United States, where fervent opposition to Donald Trump has opened a space for even marginal elements on the left, the BDS brand has not been selling at our colleges and universities. Perhaps it is the flirtation with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Perhaps it is BDS’ effective endorsement of violence against Israeli civilians wherever they may reside. Or perhaps it is BDS’ romance with unrepentant terrorists. But the University of Michigan’s resolution mentions the call of “Palestinian civil society” that supposedly initiated the BDS movement just once. And Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), whose very name obscures its primary purpose, the promotion of BDS, didn’t mention “Palestinian civil society” at all in its statement of support for divestment.
For BDS to triumph with students, it has to obscure just what it is students are being asked to vote for. One supporter of the resolution described its effect this way: “I understand the very deep connection many, many students have with Israel . . . I want to emphasize over and over again that this resolution emphasizes the voices of Palestinian students . . . and to give this community a voice for the first time in CSG history is to not take away from any other community.” That this claim, by no means limited to one student, had any purchase suggests that some proponents were not clued in to the resolution’s intent, however softened for pragmatic reasons. This is a movement dedicated to casting Israel out of the family of nations.
To make sure that representatives would be as clueless as possible, the resolution’s supporters successfully persuaded student government to deny history professor Victor Lieberman the opportunity to speak. Lieberman, who has written about and taught courses on the Arab-Israeli conflict, has apparently been too effective in opposition to BDS in the past. University of Michigan’s Hillel has rightly condemned the student government’s positive aversion to hearing from someone who has devoted years to studying a conflict on which these students have now pronounced their verdict, although most have presumably not studied it at all.
Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters responded to criticism from Australian singer Nick Cave, telling him the artists’ boycott of Israel “isn’t about music – it’s about human rights.”IsraellyCool: Roger Waters Whining Response to Nick Cave: “A Mixture of Sorrow, Rage and Disbelief”
Cave and his band, The Bad Seeds, played to sold-out crowds on Sunday and Monday in Tel Aviv.
Prior to his concerts, Cave told a news conference that he was performing in Israel to take a stand against BDS, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel.
He took a dig at Waters, saying: “If you play Israel, you have to go through a sort of public humiliation from Roger Waters and Co., and no one wants to be publicly shamed. It’s the thing we fear the most, in a way, to be publicly humiliated.”
Waters is a leading proponent of the BDS movement against Israel and has been active in urging fellow artists to boycott performing in the country.
“Nick thinks this is about censorship of his music? What?” Waters wrote in a statement following Cave’s concerts in Israel. “Nick, with all due respect, your music is irrelevant to this issue. So is mine, so is Brian Eno’s, so is Beethoven’s. This isn’t about music – it’s about human rights.”
“We hurl our glasses into the fire of your arrogant unconcern, and smash our bracelets on the rock of your implacable indifference,” Waters also wrote, adding “if at some point in the future you want to climb out of the dark, all you have to do is open your eyes, we, in BDS will be here to welcome you into the light.”
As I posted earlier, Nick Cave’s outspoken support of Israel and opposition to BDS has sure rubbed the BDS-holes the wrong way.Coldplay’s Chris Martin enjoys Nick Cave show in Tel Aviv
Now some high-profile BDS-holes have responded publicly, including Roger Waters, who had this to say (and naturally it is full of lies):
Yup, he really did just mutter the words “we, in BDS will be here to welcome you into the light,” without the slightest hint of irony.
There are also comments from fellow haters Brian Eno, Ken Loach and some others I have never heard of. I’m just glad to see this scum and villainy get their panties in a bunch.
Among the thousands who packed Tel Aviv’s Menorah Mivtachim Arena for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ show Sunday night was Coldplay vocalist Chris Martin.IsraellyCool: Double Whammy for BDS! Coldplay’s Chris Martin Was At Nick Cave Concert in Israel
Martin was spotted backstage at the well-received show, but had already been seen in Israel over the weekend in Herzliya, together with 50 Shades of Grey star Dakota Johnson, with whom he has been romantically linked. According to Ynet, Martin and Johnson dined in Tel Aviv with Cave, who was making his first visit to Israel in some 20 years.
Martin has been a frequent visitor to Israel according to entertainment industry insiders, and late last year reports proliferated about a planned concert by Coldplay at the Dead Sea or another venue in the country. So far, there has been no official announcement about such a show, but could Martin’s presence at the Cave show be a precursor of things to come? If so, Coldplay will join the Australian singer/songwriter and other performers who have raised the ire of BDS supporters and bucked Israel boycott calls.
At a pre-show press conference on Sunday, Cave said his two performances in Israel on Sunday and Monday marked a "a principled stand against anyone who tries to censor and silence musicians." In response, two of the most vocal public figures supporting BDS, Roger Waters and Brian Eno criticized Cave.
What makes this even sweeter: Besides Coldplay being one of the world’s biggest bands, they were at one time regarded as the great white hope for BDS-holes everywhere when they posted link to a pro-palestinian song on their Facebook page back in 2011.‘Tariq Ramadan's victims could be in their hundreds’ – new exposé
But since then, they have been a major disappointment for BDS-holes. After removing the link to the song from their Facebook page, they invested in an Israeli company, employed an Israeli visual design company to produce a video clip, and hired Israelis to direct a video clip. Chris Martin was also here last year checking things out.
So yes, this has been a hell of a bad week for BDS. May the trend continue!
The victims of Oxford professor Tariq Ramadan are in the tens, if not hundreds, stretching back over more than two decades, according to a new exposé.Naturally, the Guardian lauds Jackie Walker’s play “The Lynching”
Majda Bernoussi, a woman of Moroccan origin, kept a daily journal throughout her tumultuous relationship with the prominent Islamic scholar, extracts of which have been unveiled in French magazine Le Point.
While Ms Bernoussi was herself not raped or beaten in the five year relationship, which lasted from 2009 to 2014, she claims to have been threatened by his fans when she tried to denounce him for his “predatory” behaviour towards women.
She is now planning to publish her journal, entitled: A voyage into troubled waters with Tariq Ramadan.
The latest development follows a string of damning allegations about Mr Ramadan, who is a professor at Oxford University and the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Three women have accused him of rape or sexual assault in the past month, providing graphic details in interviews and on social media. Four of his former students also claimed he seduced them when they were just teenagers
The play also features a trope known as the Livingstone Formulation (the charge that Jews cynically use false charges of antisemitism to silence debate about Israel):BBC star Reggie Yates apologises after saying music artists should not be managed by “some random fat Jewish guy from north west London”
“If you attack Israel, they say you are an anti-Semite … we must be free to criticise any political ideology that advances the right of one people over another. And that includes Zionism”
And of course the accusation that those who accuse Walker of antisemitism “are really trying to destabilise Corbyn………..”
In the post-show discussion at SOAS, Walker suggested that the Jewish Chronicle newspaper was in cahoots with the compliance department of the Labour Party (the unit which deals with disciplinary issues, including accusations of antisemitism) – a nasty innuendo about Jewish power in UK politics.
But her nastiest comment in the post-show discussion at SOAS was this:
“Those people who write in the Jewish Chronicle, who do the harassing, those people, they are not the friends of the Left, they are what I call protofascists … One thing I know, the same people who are Jewish essentialists are the same sort of people who are white nationalists – and they are all our enemy.“
Sayle of course has form ……………
He has also compared Israel to a prolific sex offender
He is a Patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
And (like Walker) he believes that antisemitism in the Labour Party is “fabricated”.
They deserve each other don’t they…
The BBC’s rising star, Reggie Yates, has apologise after remarking that it is “great” that the young generation is not “managed by some random fat Jewish guy from north west London, they’re managed by their brethren”, adding that they were “idiots”, “dickheads” and not “your people.Prominent French Socialist Faces Potential Legal Action Over Antisemitic Tweet Depicting Macron as Agent of Jewish Conspiracy
Mr Yates was talking about grime music artists when he made the comments. During the programme, which was recorded a month ago, he said: “Like I said it’s about perspective. The thing that makes it great about this new generation of artists is that they ain’t signing to majors. They’re independent, they’re not managed by some random fat Jewish guy from north west London, they’re managed by their brethren. Wretch, Stormzy, Skepta, its all – you know what I mean – these are all people that we’ve all known, that we’ve all come up with, from time. So it’s amazing to see now the example isn’t get hot and then give all of your publishing to these idiots. Or go and give all of your rights to these dickheads over here. It’s now get hot, bring the family in, keep the family close, and win with your people. That’s the example now in music.”
The comment was brought to light by Telegraph journalist Camilla Turner in an article yesterday. In response, Mr Yates said: “I am hugely apologetic for this flippant comment. It was not my intention to offend or reinforce stereotypes, but I’m aware that this could have been interpreted that way and for that I am also deeply sorry. What I was actually trying to say was how proud I am of the new generation of artists making their success independently on their own terms and without giving away control or their rights to major labels.”
A leading French Socialist Party (PS) politician was on Monday facing expulsion and possible legal proceedings following a crudely antisemitic tweet which displayed France’s president, Emanuel Macron, in the grip of a Jewish financial conspiracy.Cathay Pacific Airways to Open Israel Office, Upgrade Tel Aviv-Hong Kong Route
Gérard Filoche — a member of the PS National Bureau and veteran labor unionist — posted the offending tweet on Friday night. An accompanying photo montage showed Macron wearing a Nazi armband with the swastika altered to a dollar sign. Looming behind Macron were three leading French Jews — the economist Jacques Attali, and the investors Patrick Drahi and Jacob Rothschild — flanked by the American and Israeli flags. Filoche added as a comment, “A dirty guy, as all the French people will know soon enough.”
Filoche deleted the tweet shortly after posting it — but not before it had been widely shared. On Monday, he told the French newspaper Liberation, “I withdrew this message and I apologized, it was bullsh*t.”
Filoche claimed that he had not posted the tweet himself, and that it had been removed as soon as it was brought to his attention. He blamed “Macron and the right-wing of the PS” for drawing attention to the tweet to gain political advantage.
“Where is the problem?” he complained.
Cathay Pacific, the flagship airline of Hong Kong, is set to launch an office in Israel as well as daily Tel Aviv-Hong Kong flights beginning in 2018.British Library publishes treasure trove of Hebrew manuscripts
“The company’s agenda is to allocate airliners to destinations for which we see strong demand, and it can therefore be assumed that we will also increase the frequency of the flights to daily,” said Cathay Pacific’s Israel manager, Jonathan Bailey, Globes reported.
Cathay Pacific’s first flight to Israel landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport in March. The airline currently offers around four to six weekly flights between Tel Aviv and Hong Kong, and uses the environmentally friendly 280-seat Airbus A350 planes on the route. Next year, the airline may introduce Airbus A350-1000 planes for the Israel route, increasing seating capacity by 10 percent, according to Globes.
“The [Israeli customer] segment that surprised us was business class, both in comparison with other countries and with the forecasts,” said Bailey. “Demand for business class was huge. The feeling is that the passengers, especially businessmen who fly a lot, appreciate what they get for their money.”
The British Library last week launched a new website showcasing 1,300 Hebrew manuscripts, ranging from ancient Torah scrolls and prayer books to philosophical, theological and scientific works.Hebrew University climbs to 62nd on global employability ranking
The new site is the library’s first bilingual online collection, allowing users to search for scans of the manuscripts in Hebrew and English.
“The British Library holds one of the world’s greatest collections of Hebrew manuscripts,” said Ilana Tahan, lead curator of the library’s Hebrew and Christian Orient Collections.
“Digitizing and making these beautiful and very important items available online is a huge step forward in opening them up to international scholars and a wider public audience. We hope that, by providing access to the articles and collection highlights in Hebrew as well as English, we will make them accessible to even more people, allowing them to learn more about our incredible collection of Hebrew manuscripts.”
The works searchable on the site include the Hispano-Moresque Haggadah from 13th century Spain, an illustrated edition of Maimonides’ Code of Law from 15th century Portugal, and the Lisbon Bible from 1482, 14 years before the Portuguese Jews were expelled from their homeland.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has been ranked 62nd in the Global University Employability Ranking published by The Times of London last Thursday, five places higher than it ranked last year.Israeli Christians in the IDF
The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology placed 113th, while Tel Aviv University ranked 135th.
The ranking, designed by French human resources company Emerging, is published exclusively by The Times. It lists the universities considered by human resource scouts in the economy's leading companies as the best at preparing students for the job market. The ranking surveyed 2,500 companies from 22 countries and 3,500 executives from a range of firms and industries around the world.
The survey asked participants to describe what they look for in candidates and which universities, in their opinions, provide the most employable graduates.
The first five spots on the prestigious list went to the California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Cambridge University.
"We're proud to be in first place among Israeli universities in the ranking of such an important subject. The ranking is a stamp of approval guaranteeing the quality of Hebrew University graduates," said Hebrew University's rector and vice president, Professor Barak Medina.
IDF Blog: A look inside the “Mazor Ladach” Field Hospital in the Golan Heights
For more than four years, the IDF has been helping injured Syrians who come to Israel’s northern border. Nearly a year and a half ago, Israel launched Operation Good Neighbor, which provides Syrians in need with medical, infrastructural, and civilian aid.Operation Good Neighbor: Inside the IDF’s effort to provide aid to Syria
“Mazor Ladach,” whose name translates to “Bandaging Those in Need,” is a field hospital where the staff treats injured Syrians. “The clinic has already cared for hundreds of Syrians and changed their lives,” said Lt. Col. A., Commander of Operation Good Neighbor.
The clinic itself is located in an uninhabited military post in the southern Golan Heights, in Israeli territory. The 210th Division helped train the staff and the clinic gradually became a real military field hospital.
The clinic began operating last September, and since then the staff has managed to treat hundreds of Syrians every day. “All of the organization’s members are unpaid volunteers,” said Lt. Col. A.
“Take, for example, a Syrian mother who comes with her children. At the end of the day, she leaves the clinic with healthier children and an aid kit from the State of Israel that includes food, basic hygiene products, and medicine. A day at the clinic also includes, time in the playroom and a hot meal. The Syrians also understand that the State of Israel is doing a great thing for them.”
