Thursday, January 24, 2019
Don’t Believe Ilhan Omar
She “unknowingly” offended Jews by saying that Israel hypnotized the world not to see its evil? Nonsense. In the Greater Middle East, from which Omar’s family hails, conspiracy theory is the coin of the realm, and much self-inflicted grief is blamed on dark Jewish magic. It’s ludicrous to think that she didn’t know what she was saying. Omar composed her offending tweet during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza and was, in all probability, speaking foremost to an audience that truly believes in the evils of Jewish sorcery.
We’re talking here about people who embrace a strain of superstitious anti-Semitism that sees Jews as non-human agents of the Devil. In January 2015, for example, after Islamist terror attacks rocked Paris, a Daily Beast writer interviewed some French Algerians who blamed the attacks on “magical shape-shifting Jews that were master manipulators that could be everywhere at the same time.” We’re talking about the Iranian cleric and Tehran University professor who went on television and claimed: “The Jew is very practiced in sorcery. Indeed most sorcerers are Jews.”
This is the crowd that Ilhan Omar—an American congresswoman who now serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee—was speaking to. In their language.
The history of mystical anti-Semitism is long indeed. It predates Christendom and thrived, at times, long afterward. Martin Luther wrote that “a Jew is as full of idolatry and sorcery as nine cows have hair on their backs, that is: without number and without end.” Such notions were popular throughout Medieval Europe and survived in various forms into the modern age. The Third Reich was, in part, an occult operation. Official Nazi publications discussed phenomena such as the “Jewish evil eye.”
Omar’s talent for untruth is evident in the way she went about pretending not to be a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, which advocates actions aimed at delegitimizing the existence of the world’s only Jewish state. After she was safely elected, Omar freely confessed her support for the BDS movement—a tacit acknowledgment of its controversial nature.
Rachel Riley: Why I spoke out about Labour’s anti-Semitism shame
You need to know next to nothing to propagate Nazi or Soviet Jew-hating propaganda, reframed to fit today’s narrative, which spreads like wildfire and is dangerous. But you need to know nearly everything in order to combat it. The odds are stacked in the anti-Semite’s favour. Every Labour official who labels this a smear, every disciplinary decision that gives the perpetrator a free pass while its victims are abused or even disciplined themselves, is a disgrace. My level of engagement in this issue is directly proportional to the amount of anti-Semitism and hostility to Jews and their allies I’m witness to, which is why it’s currently consuming my life.Joe Rogan: NY Times Writer Details Anti-Semitism by Progressives
Since speaking out, I’ve attracted the attention of a Who’s Who of anti-Semites and apologists, who’ve publicly criticised me. Neo-Nazis, naturally, have also shown their interest. A local Labour Party secretary repeatedly libelled me to Channel 4, ignoring my requests for her to check her facts and stop. Labour supporters have taken it upon themselves to contact my employers, calling for me to be sacked, suggesting we should rename our show ‘8 out of 10 Cats does Paedophilia’ in my honour. I’ve seen thousands of untrue slights against my character, with those making them knowing they can do so to praise from their echo-chambers, in all likelihood with impunity – yet one misplaced word from me could be ruinous.
We need to re-stack those odds. No-one should have to risk their safety and jeopardise their career speaking out against anti-Semitism in Britain in 2019. This has been happening to others for the last three years. Campaigners – the large majority ex-Labour people, deeply hurt by what they are seeing – have been called every name under the sun. They’ve postponed careers, degrees, lost businesses through harassment and, in recent weeks, I’ve even seen three people baselessly libelled as paedophiles in a desperate attempt to discredit and silence them, and it’s all been allowed to happen in quiet.
It’s lonely speaking out about this. And we can’t win this fight alone, nor should we have to try. We’ve seen where anti-Semitism can lead from centuries of persecution. It never ends well. We need to remember our history and I am so grateful to groups like the Holocaust Educational Trust and speakers like Eva Clarke, who, by sharing their stories, help in the only way we know how to safeguard future generations from this ever being allowed to happen again.
This needs a bigger spotlight. This should be a national scandal. We need action rather than words. I call on all people, the media and politicians from every side to stand with us and Be Louder against anti-Semitism. Enough is enough.
David Collier: Hansard shows British obsession with Israel, Jews and antisemitism
Delving into Hansard, the record of Parliamentary debates, turned up astonishing results on Israel, the Levant, Jews and antisemitism. It highlights a total obsession with Israel in Parliament and suggests antisemitism is a growing problem, of which Corbyn is merely a symptom. It has something to say on ‘Palestine’ and Israeli settlements too. Take a look:Morton A. Klein: Rep. Tlaib's vicious anti-Semitism
Hansard
Hansard provides official transcripts of Parliamentary Debates in Britain. The digital archive is online and searchable. Like many things associated with the British Parliament, Hansard’s own history is built upon the bedrock of people fighting for freedom. Thomas Curson Hansard was one of the original pressmen who fought for the right to publish reports of Parliamentary proceedings.
Hansard opens a window into the beating heart of British democracy. Through use of the archives from the 1800s, these discussions can help recreate the world vision, of what was at the time, the most powerful nation on the Planet.
We start with searching the terms of ‘Palestine’ and ‘Jerusalem’.
O Palestine, Palestine, where art thou Palestine?
If anti-Israel propaganda is to be believed, ‘Palestine’ was the name used to describe this region, long before the ‘British Mandate’ was created. Except Hansard records show that there is almost no mention of ‘Palestine’, before the 1920s (when it was created as the legal vessel to enable the Jewish people to return to their historical homeland). If the British considered this area ‘Palestine’ and they were certainly active within it, then why is it hardly mentioned? Perhaps, you might weakly suggest, that the British were simply not talking about the region or foreign affairs at all. You would be wrong:
Rep. Tlaib has displayed her extreme anti-Israel, anti-Jewish animus before. Her record on Israel includes the following:
- In August last year, she told Haaretz, “It has to be one state. Separate but equal does not work. I’m only 42-years old, but my teachers were of that generation that marched with Martin Luther King. This whole idea of a two-state solution – it doesn’t work.” In other words, there is no room for an independent Jewish state, only one dominated by Arabs. Martin Luther King, meanwhile, was a principled and unambiguous supporter of Zionism and Israel. For her to associate Dr. King’s name with her illiberal and vicious anti-Semitic political views is an utter disgrace.
- In that same interview with Haaretz, Tlaib called Israel a “racist country” on the basis of the lie that Israel discriminates against those who are “darker skinned.” She has also stated that Israel does not observe human rights and does not deserve U.S. aid.
- Tlaib is known to openly support the BDS movement, which is committed to the international ostracism and weakening of Israel with a view to its eventual elimination.
- Rep. Tlaib identifies with Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, a hostile, anti-American regime that has named schools and streets after terrorists and has provided stipends to the families of deceased terrorists in proportion to the amount of Jewish blood they have shed.
PA-controlled media, mosques, schools, and camps are suffused with the glorification of terrorism and incitement to hatred and murder as children are educated to aspire to murdering Jews as a national and religious duty. PA terrorism, meanwhile, has claimed the lives of U.S. citizens.
None of this, however, appears to bother Rep. Tlaib.
The truth is, there were no grounds to hope that Rashida Tlaib would abandon her extremist, anti-Israel views or her desire to see the elimination of the independent Jewish state of Israel. Her record of support for it is clear and unambiguous. It is nonetheless striking, though, that we didn’t need to wait even a day before her horrible extremism was on display – literally – on her office wall.`
I don’t know why people don’t understand that genital mutilation, concubinage, underage marriage and sanctioned rape aren’t the real issues— it’s attacking the solitary democracy in the Middle East that will free women. https://t.co/Sd6ZYgWXan— David Wolpe (@RabbiWolpe) January 20, 2019
IsraellyCool: Nick Cave’s Priceless Quip About Roger Waters
Nick Cave recently held a Q&A-style speaking event in Adelaide, Australia. The subject of BDS and Roger Waters came up, given Nick’s outspoken opposition to BDS.Insisting it’s not anti-Semitic, NJ group launches anti-ultra-Orthodox campaign
His response was priceless.
The conversation roams widely, from his history of addiction (“It seemed like a good idea at the time, until it didn’t seem like a good idea. But then I couldn’t stop because I was addicted.”), to a public dispute with Brian Eno and Roger Waters over the BDS movement (“Brian Eno is an endlessly interesting, compassionate, fair-minded individual and Roger Waters is… not.”).
Snap!
The video, with suspenseful music playing in the background, opens with footage of a crowd of Orthodox Jews. Then it paraphrases a classic poem about the Holocaust.IfNotNow Does Not Support Peace — or Israel
“First they came for my house, but I did not speak up,” the narrator says. “I said I am not willing to sell, and closed my door. … Then they came for my forests, but I did not speak up, because I thought I had no vested interests in the forests.”
The script is a riff on the Martin Niemoller work lamenting the perils of inaction in the face of Nazi atrocities.
But the video, which was posted this month, isn’t meant to denounce Nazis. Instead its purported villains are Orthodox Jews looking to move to the Central New Jersey suburbs.
“The process by which Lakewood was lost was a simple one and has been seen in other parts of the Northeast over the last few years,” the description below the video says, referring to a nearby city with a large haredi Orthodox community and rapid population growth. “Offer generous amounts of money to acquire existing homes through pressure sales, build new homes at the expense of the environment, elect a majority to governing bodies and sieze [sic] control.”
The group behind the video is Rise Up Ocean County, which aims to galvanize residents of Central Jersey to stop haredi Orthodox families from buying real estate in the towns surrounding Lakewood. It says it is producing a documentary and mobilizes locals to attend town meetings. Rise Up Ocean County, whose leaders are anonymous, wrote in an October statement that it does not want the quiet, comfortable suburbs to go the way of Lakewood.
The INN’s chosen symbol is Moses’ Burning Bush. In Chapter 3 of the Book of Exodus, the Angel of the Lord appeared in a blazing bush that was miraculously not consumed. The Lord then said to Moses: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt … and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”Federal court upholds anti-BDS bill in Arkansas
The problem for INN is the consensus among Biblical scholars that the Lord was promising the whole of the land to the Hebrew children, whereas IfNotNow appears to believe that the Lord wants us to give it all back.
INN propaganda never once mentions Jerusalem, much less any Jewish claim to it. INN also ignores the history of Arab armies invading Israel and Palestinian terrorism, and nowhere recognizes Israel’s “right to exist.”
Peter Beinart, a born-again anti-Zionist, has favorably compared IfNotNow to Black Lives Matter (BLM). BLM’s founding manifesto accuses Israel of genocide. Some comparison.
When it comes to defending Israel from its enemies, INN’s answer to Hillel’s question — “If Not Now When?” — is never to defend the Jewish state or people. The only thing that matters is “liberating” Israelis and — more importantly — young American Jews from alleged sins against the Palestinians, including their parents’ complicity in supporting Israel.
The INN’s chosen symbol is Moses’ Burning Bush. In Chapter 3 of the Book of Exodus, the Angel of the Lord appeared in a blazing bush that was miraculously not consumed. The Lord then said to Moses: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt … and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”Irish bill to criminalize West Bank settlement activity advances
The problem for INN is the consensus among Biblical scholars that the Lord was promising the whole of the land to the Hebrew children, whereas IfNotNow appears to believe that the Lord wants us to give it all back.
INN propaganda never once mentions Jerusalem, much less any Jewish claim to it. INN also ignores the history of Arab armies invading Israel and Palestinian terrorism, and nowhere recognizes Israel’s “right to exist.”
Peter Beinart, a born-again anti-Zionist, has favorably compared IfNotNow to Black Lives Matter (BLM). BLM’s founding manifesto accuses Israel of genocide. Some comparison.
When it comes to defending Israel from its enemies, INN’s answer to Hillel’s question — “If Not Now When?” — is never to defend the Jewish state or people. The only thing that matters is “liberating” Israelis and — more importantly — young American Jews from alleged sins against the Palestinians, including their parents’ complicity in supporting Israel.
Ireland’s lower parliament voted 78-45, with three abstentions to advance a bill that would criminalize West Bank settlement activity.Eli Lake: Ireland’s Boycott-Israel Bill Could Have a Serious Impact—on Ireland's Own Economy
The private members bill has enough parliamentary support to be passed into law. The minority government opposes the bill, but has not been able to halt its passage through the parliament because of its minority standing.
Immediately after the vote, Irish Senator Frances Black tweeted, “Ireland will always stand for international law + human rights, & we're one step closer to making history. Onwards!”
“We have now united every opposition party behind this bill, because it is *not* a radical ask: we want to give effect to basic provisions of int law & human rights,” she wrote.
Immediately after the vote, Irish parliamentarian Maurice Quinlivan called on the government to recognize the state of Palestine.
“It’s now time to implement the will of the Dáil by recognizing the state of Palestine," he tweeted.
The bill is called the “Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018.” It makes it a criminal “offense for a person to import or sell goods or services originating in an occupied territory or to extract resources from an occupied territory in certain circumstances; and to provide for related matters.”
A bill currently before the lower house of the Irish parliament would make it a crime to import or sell items produced by Israeli businesses in territory acquired by Israel in the Six-Day War. Such legislation, unprecedented for any Western country, might have very real consequences. But, writes Eli Lake, those consequences could harm Ireland more than they harm Israel:Ireland Risks Seeming Anti-Semitic with Israeli Settlement Boycott Bill
Because of Ireland’s low corporate tax rates, many of the world’s largest companies keep their wealth there. U.S. companies accounted for 67 percent of all foreign direct investment in the country in 2017, and Ireland is especially popular with America’s tech giants. Apple is Ireland’s largest company. Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are also in the top ten.
Which brings us back to Israel. A big reason why Israel’s economy has boomed [in the past two decades] is because America’s tech giants have set up branch offices and bought promising Israeli tech startups. The Irish legislation, if it becomes law, would force Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook to choose between their Irish tax haven and their business in the Jewish state.
While the proposed law only targets the West Bank territories, not all of Israel, in practice it would be difficult to enforce that distinction. . . . It would probably violate the proposed law if Apple allowed an Israeli employee living in the West Bank to telecommute. The distinction becomes even thornier given that Ireland considers all of eastern Jerusalem to be “occupied territory.”
This would place U.S. companies in a bind. If they follow Irish law, they would either have to fire the telecommuting employee or have to forbid the employee from working from home. If they did that, however, the companies would be participating in a boycott not sanctioned by the U.S. government. And that . . . would in turn risk violating the anti-boycott sections of U.S. export regulations. (h/t messy57)
The stated purpose of the Bill, currently being debated in the Dáil, is “to give effect to the State’s obligations arising under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and under customary international humanitarian law.”NGO Monitor: Letter to OHCHR High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet Regarding the BDS Blacklist
If that is its purpose, then the reach of any law that criminalises certain trade should seek to include other major violators of international law.
The state of Israel is not the only occupying force. What about the occupied territories of Russia (Ukraine, including Crimea, from 2014, also parts of Moldova – 1992 - and Georgia - 2008), Turkey (northern Cyprus from 1974 and parts of Aleppo in Syria since 2016), Morocco (most of the Western Sahara since 1975)?
All of these territories are either under direct occupation of a foreign power or have been occupied by an armed group with the support of a foreign power.
If our legislators are serious about using economic boycott to make a political point, they should broaden the debate to include all of those occupied territories.
There is also an inherent contradiction in continuing to trade with a nation whose government continues to breach international law while, at the same time, banning trade that is likely to hurt Palestinians as much as Israelis.
Dear Commissioner Bachelet,How Al Jazeera Dresses Up Its Anti-Americanism and Anti-Semitism for an English-Speaking Audience
We are writing to express our significant ongoing concerns regarding OHCHR’s preparation of a “database” of business entities based on Resolution 31/36.
Although called a “database” ostensibly about companies “directly and indirectly, enabled, facilitated and profited from the construction and growth of the settlements,” this discriminatory blacklist will defame and economically damage companies for doing business with Israel. The ultimate goal is to isolate, demonize, and harm the Jewish state, as part of the antisemitic BDS campaign.
There are a number of substantive flaws regarding the “database,” which we highlight below. These include the promotion of antisemitism, disregard for human rights, multiple legal fallacies, and disregard for international peace agreements.1
The mandate of Resolution 31/36 was fulfilled with the publication of OHCHR’s January 2018 report. There is no moral, legal, or ethical basis for this project to continue and we urge you to order its conclusion immediately.
Antisemitism
- The blacklist is antisemitic in both intent and effect. No other conflict situation is singled out by the UN or OHCHR in any comparable manner, nor have any other countries been targeted for boycotts. Although UN officials and NGOs working with the UN claim this is a “first step,” there are no efforts underway by OHCHR to similarly address additional conflict zones.
- In creating the blacklist, OHCHR is contributing to yet another round to the long history of boycotts targeting Jews and Jewish businesses. Based on our conversations with officials directly responsible for preparing the list, OHCHR has not taken into account the impact of this list on global antisemitism, and increasing harassment and violence against Jews worldwide. Several research studies have concluded that where there is BDS, there are attacks on Jews.
Sponsored by the government of Qatar, and sharing the emirate’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Jazeera has succeeded in gaining not only immense popularity among Arabic speakers but also respectability for its somewhat newer English-language television channel and website. To these, it has more recently added AJ+, a web-only news platform directed at younger audiences. Samantha Rose Mandeles explains how the naked anti-Semitism of the network’s Arabic-language channel is put into polite form for Anglophone audiences:HR on i24 News: Martin Luther King Day, the New York Times and more
[Since] Qatar and Al Jazeera have long portrayed themselves as defenders of the Palestinian cause, much of Al Jazeera English’s anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism is disguised as anti-Zionism or anti-imperialism. . . . For example, Al Jazeera English mostly avoids its Arabic counterpart’s fascination with “Jewish power,” preferring to discuss “Zionist influence” instead. One recent Al Jazeera English article argues that “every American administration over the past three or four decades was subject to major Zionist influence.” . . .
AJ+, [by contrast], takes the most care of all Al Jazeera sectors to spread anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism with an “anti-racist” slant; one AJ+ video in this vein is called “Why White Feminism Is Racist.” In the clip, a pink-haired journalist named Zab Mustefa claims that the racism of “white feminism” is exemplified by [the] Israeli actress Gal Gadot. Mustefa contends that Gadot’s feminism—and indeed, Gadot herself—is racist because she “supports the Israeli army, which oppresses Palestinian women on a daily basis.” . . . [T]he clip then launches into an interview with the Women’s March coordinator Tamika Mallory, whose association with the notoriously bigoted Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has recently made headlines.
HR's Daniel Pomerantz joins host Michelle Makori on i24's "Clear Cut," live from Times Square in NYC: to discuss a NYT op-ed slamming Israel for Martin Luther King Day, our in-depth critique of the Columbia Journalism Review and an update on our Airbnb legal action.
Robert Fisk: Politicians are “blackmailed” by charges of antisemitism to silence Israel criticism
Robert Fisk’s latest anti-Israel diatribe at the Independent promotes a recent op-ed in the NY Times by academic Michelle Alexander – titled “Breaking the Silence on Palestine” – that was demolished by our colleague Tamar Sternthal.IsraellyCool: Electronic Intifada Paints Vaporized Terrorists As Innocent Civilians
You can read Sternthal’s piece here.
However, Fisk, among those who seriously believe there’s a “silence” about “Palestinians” to break, added his own take on Alexander’s ‘insights’ into the debate over the Israeli-Palestinian issue, including the following charge against those who support Israel.
Though he’s referring to American politics, the accusation that supporters of Israel engage in false charges of antisemitism to silence criticism of the state is a smear used by many of Jeremy Corbyn’s most ardent supporters to deflect charges that he’s hostile to Jews. So, it’s not a stretch to conclude that Fisk may likely believe, for instance, that the 85% of British Jews who think Corbyn is indeed antisemitic are not genuinely concerned about the future of Jewish life in the country, but are, instead, acting in bad faith.
Antisemitic hate rag The Electronic Intifada has reported about the IDF’s latest “crime”: killing a couple of young palestinian men.Herzog's speech in France reveals heroic thwarting of antisemitic attack
Let’s start with the first one:
Israeli forces have killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip on this week.
Soldiers shot and killed a man identified as Muhammad Fawzi Adwi, 36, at Huwwara checkpoint near Nablus in the northern West Bank on Monday.
The Israeli military claimed that the man had attempted to stab a soldier before he was shot dead. No Israeli soldiers were injured during the incident, as in many such past cases in which an alleged Palestinian attacker was killed.
The human rights group B’Tselem recently reiterated its condemnation of Israel’s “reckless open-fire policy” which “includes, among other things, shooting to kill incidents defined as ‘attacks.’”
Note how Adwi is portrayed as an “alleged stabber” only, and the fact he did not injure anyone mentioned to show the IDF was out of line in killing him. But experience shows us these stabbings and attempted stabbings are all too real.
But it is the depiction of the second fatality that is even more dishonest.
A security guard thwarted an assault on the top representative of the Jewish Agency for Israel in France in what one witness said was an antisemitic incident.Classic Holocaust TV miniseries to be shown in Germany
The October episode took place on a Saturday night on the Champs-Elysees, a well-known shopping area, according to Josh Schwarcz, the secretary-general of the Jewish Agency.
“We were there with six lawmakers from Israel and Daniel Ben-Haim,” Schwarcz told JTA in Brussels, where the Jewish Agency chairman, Isaac Herzog, alluded to the incident in a speech Wednesday to the European Parliament. He described what he called a “raging crisis” of antisemitism in Europe today.
Schwarcz said a passerby noticed that Ben-Haim was wearing a kippah.
“We were all speaking Hebrew and this guy started moving in our direction from the back, clearly planning to attack Daniel,” he recalled.
The security guard wrestled briefly with the man, who fled.
For Sigmount Koenigsberg, the most searing scene in the U.S.-made “Holocaust” miniseries broadcast here 40 years ago was when a German child throws photos of a Jewish family into a fireplace. The pictures curl up and melt in the flames.German far-right lawmakers walk out of speech by Holocaust survivor
The moment “somehow burned into me,” recalls Koenigsberg, 58, a Jew who lives in Berlin.
In fact, the four-part series starring a young Meryl Streep and James Woods – first shown in the United States in 1978 – burned itself into the consciences of many Germans at the time, helping bring about a shift in the country’s approach to its history.
This month, ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, WDR (West German Broadcasting) is marking the 40th anniversary of that groundbreaking broadcast by bringing Streep, Woods, Tovah Feldshuh, Michael Moriarty and the program’s other stars back into German living rooms.
Journalist Jorg Schonenborn, the head of TV programming for WDR, said the rebroadcast was triggered by a new documentary by writer Alice Agneskircher about the 1979 screening.
“I realized right away that this would not be enough,” he recently told the educational Gerda Henkel Foundation. “We have to show the entire series again,” even if reactions today might not be the same.
More than a dozen state lawmakers from a German far-right party walked out of the Bavarian parliament during a tribute to Holocaust victims Wednesday after a Jewish leader accused the Alternative for Germany of playing down the crimes of Nazis.If the Allies had lost: Canada obtains Hitler-owned report on N. America’s Jews
The state lawmakers stood up and walked out after Holocaust survivor Charlotte Knobloch, the former head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, called the party out by name, saying “this so-called Alternative for Germany bases its politics on hate and marginalization.”
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Knobloch said Alternative for Germany “has downplayed the crimes of the Nazis and has close connections to the extreme right.”
Lawmakers from other parties rose to their feet and gave her a standing ovation.
The AfD, as it is known by its German initials, first entered the Bavarian parliament last year and is currently in opposition with 22 of 205 seats.
Katrin Ebner-Steiner, who heads the party’s state parliamentary delegation in Bavaria, said in a statement sent to The Associated Press that the walkout was an “appropriate response.”
“The scandal is that the president of the Greater Munich Jewish Community, as a guest of state parliament, abused a memorial service for the victims of the Nazis in order to defame the complete AfD and its democratically elected representatives with the worst blanket insinuations,” Ebner-Steiner said.
Library and Archives Canada announced Wednesday it had acquired a rare 1944 book that once belonged to Adolf Hitler.Over 20% young Canadians have never heard of the Holocaust
Written in German, “Statistics, Media, and Organizations of Jewry in the United States and Canada” is a 137-page report produced in 1944 by Heinz Kloss, a famed German linguist who had contact with US Nazi sympathizers.
The book details certain cities’ population statistics along with organizations and media outlets key at the time to North America’s Jewish communities, Library and Archives Canada said in a statement.
“This work hints at the story of what might have happened in Canada had the Allies lost World War II. It also demonstrates that the Holocaust was not a purely European event, but rather an operation that was stopped before it reached North America,” it added.
More than 20% of Canadian young adults, aged 18 to 34 have never heard of the Holocaust, according to a study released on Thursday.Lithuanian church removes Jewish headstones used as stairs
The study, “Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Survey of adults in Canada,” was released as part of a larger report published by The Azrieli Foundation in partnership with the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also known as the Claims Conference.
Similar to the survey conducted in April 2018 in the United States, the Canadian study found major gaps in the awareness of basic historical facts and detailed knowledge of the Holocaust.
It was revealed that over half of those surveyed (54%) were unaware that six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Of the millennials – who the researchers defined as those aged 18 to 34 – who were interviewed, this number radically increased. Some 62% of millennials said that they did not know that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
Furthermore, 22% of millennials said they hadn’t heard or were not sure if they had ever heard of the Holocaust.
In addition, an alarming 52% of millennials were unable to name even one concentration camp or ghetto.
Lithuania’s Evangelical Reformed Church has removed Jewish headstones that had been used as stairs.Ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israel home to some 200,000 survivors
The removal of the headstones from the 9-meter (30-foot) staircase leading to the main entrance of the church building in Vilnius was completed last week, the Jewish Community of Lithuania has announced.
The headstones were installed when Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union.
“This represents a victory in the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s long-term efforts to ensure respect for the dead and the Jewish legacy in Lithuania,” the Jewish group said in a statement.
The headstones will be placed at a Jewish cemetery, the statement said.
Israel is home to some 200,000 individuals whose lives were impacted by the Nazi regime, with some one-third of them hailing from the Muslim world, according to official figures published Thursday ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls on Sunday.Israeli Marine Biologist Sees Seaweed as Future of Sustainable Farming
Nearly two-thirds of those, or 65 percent, hail from Europe, while 35% are from the Muslim world.
The figures are from 2017, the last year for which figures are available. Israeli state agencies define as survivors anyone “exposed” to the Nazi regime, including those who lived in countries conquered by Nazi Germany or were under direct Nazi influence in 1933-1945, as well as refugees who fled those areas due to the Nazis.
The figures published Thursday show an aging population of survivors that is dying off quickly. The Holocaust Survivors Benefits Authority in the Finance Ministry recognized 220,800 people as eligible for survivor benefits at the end of 2016. One year later, at the end of 2017, that figure had dropped by some 8,500 people, to 212,300 survivors.
Using demographic data as a predictor, the State of Israel expects the population of survivors to drop dramatically to 167,000 by next year, to 102,000 by 2025, and to just 53,000 by 2030, all of them over the age of 90.
Marine biologist Yossi Tal, the chief technology officer of algae farming company Seakura Ltd., sees seaweed as the future of sustainable farming — a way to produce more nutritious foodstuffs in a cost-efficient, environmentally friendly way.Athletes from 26 Nations Compete in Surfing Trials Held in Netanya
Now widely touted as a superfood, seaweed contains numerous vitamins and minerals, including iodine, the deficiency of which is still considered a public health concern even in places like the US. It is high in antioxidants, and considered a good source of dietary fiber and protein, though it does tend to be high in sodium.
Seaweed farming does not require cutting down forests, Tal said in a recent interview with Calcalist. Seaweed can be farmed in non-arable lands, rocky terrains, and on sandy coastal soil, where competition for resources is low, he explained.
Seakura farms seaweed on land, in pools with access to seawater.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, agriculture, forestry, and other land uses account for 24 percent of global greenhouse gas emission, with most of the emission occurring as a result of crop and livestock cultivation.
Seakura farms seaweed in filtered seawater, a virtuously endless resource. More seawater farming means less fresh water farming of crops like rice, corn, and wheat, according to Tal.
Surfers from 26 countries came to compete on Kontiki Beach in Netanya on January 18, 2019. The SEAT Pro Netanya was the first stop on the 2019 World Surf League European Qualifying Series.New Israeli App Can Evaluate the Quality, Ripeness, and Freshness of Fruits and Vegetables.
Following five exciting days of action, Eithan Osborne of California claimed victory in the final bout against Tristan Guilbaud of France held in three- to four-foot surf in Israeli Mediterranean waters.
“This feels incredible,” Osborne said afterward. “My grandpa’s brother and uncles live here and my mom’s grandpa was from here so we have family ties here. It’s my second time visiting and I always have an incredible time.”
The first 30 minutes of the final saw a disappearing swell until a good set gave both surfers an opportunity to improve their scores.
Israeli startup Clarifruit (listed as AclarTech) uses computer vision and machine-learning technology to quickly evaluate the quality, ripeness, and freshness of fruits and vegetables.Brewery’s new ‘Gaza Border Beer’ crafted in support of southern Israel’s farmers
Founded in 2016, Clarifruit has developed a produce-monitoring mobile app that scans fruits and vegetables and analyzes their condition to determine whether or not they are ready to go to market. According to the company’s website, the Clarifruit app can analyze data on such elements as the color, size, firmness, and sugar content of a fruit or vegetable. The app can also detect imperfections such as stains.
The app allows growers to instantly assess produce and transmit the data throughout the supply chain. The goal, the company said in a statement Wednesday, is to cut down on food waste and provide an alternative to expensive and time-consuming manual testing.
Israeli beer fans looking to indulge in a guilt-free pleasure can now sip in solidarity with Israel’s besieged southern farmers. Craft brewery Alexander Beer recently rolled out a special edition“Otef Aza” (Gaza Border) wheat beer, made in part from wheat harvested from fields belonging to Israeli communities bordering Gaza.‘Red Sea Diving Resort’ to tell of secret rescue operation
This spring and summer, large swaths of southern wheat fields were destroyed by fires sparked by incendiary devices launched by Palestinians from Gaza.
“I grew up in a farming family in Kibbutz Misgav Am in the north, and seeing fields burn makes me sad. I decided I had to do something to help. It’s not a political statement. It’s one of solidarity,” said Alexander Beer founder and CEO Ori Sagi in a recent interview at the brewery in the Emek Hefer industrial zone near Hadera. All profits from sales of the beer will go to the Israeli farmers, he said.
Since March 2018, more than a thousand acres of agricultural fields — mainly wheat — in the Gaza border area have gone up in flames. This has translated into at least $1.7 million in losses for Israeli farmers. In addition, thousands of acres of forest, woodlands and nature reserves have been destroyed.
Two decades ago, Israeli secret agents opened a fake diving resort on the Sudanese shores of the Red Sea, with the sole purpose of clandestinely rescuing Ethiopian Jews from Sudan and bringing them to safety in Israel.
Over several years the resort was in operation, about 6,000 Jewish refugees who had fled persecution, war and famine in Ethiopia were spirited by boat and plane to a new life in Israel.
Later this year, a feature film titled “The Red Sea Diving Resort” will bring this fabulous act of derring-do to the silver screen. The dramatized story was written and directed by Emmy Award-winning Israeli director Gideon Raff, the man behind TV hits such as “Homeland” and “Tyrant.”
“The Red Sea Diving Resort” stars Chris Evans, Haley Bennett, Michael K. William, Michiel Huisman, Alessandro Nivola, Greg Kinnear and Ben Kingsley.
The real-life mission began around 1978 and was codenamed “Operation Brothers.” Undercover Mossad agents posing as a European tourist company rented an abandoned resort village in Sudan, an enemy country to Israel.
Even though it was a front for the rescue it did accept actual tourists through a shell company in Switzerland so that the Sudanese authorities wouldn’t get suspicious. Among those guests were Saudi Arabian hawk-hunters, diplomats stationed in Khartoum, and British commandos.
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