Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Elan Carr Calls Out BDS: ‘Hatred of the Jewish State Is Hatred of the Jewish People’
Elan Carr, the recently appointed State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, criticized the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement during an April 16 press conference for promulgating “hatred of the Jewish people.”
Carr was asked by a reporter if he viewed the BDS movement as anti-Semitic rather than just criticism of the Israeli government.
“If there is an organized movement to economically strangle the state of Israel, that is anti-Semitic, and the administration’s gone on the record as being opposed unequivocally to the BDS movement,” Carr said. “And the idea that somehow there can be movements organized to deny Israel its legitimacy and not to allow Israel to participate in economic commerce in the world, sure that is [anti-Semitic].”
“Hatred of the Jewish state is hatred of the Jewish people, and that’s something that’s very clear and that is our policy,” Carr added.
The new US envoy for combatting antisemitism Elan Carr speaks out and calls out BDS for #antisemitism: pic.twitter.com/2aQRJqHljZ
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) April 15, 2019
In the Journal’s February 8 issue cover story, Carr made similar comments to the Journal regarding the BDS movement.
“The idea that Israel should be singled out for disparate treatment and should be subjected to boycotts and to demonization is anti-Semitism,” Carr said. “An obsessive hatred of the Jewish state is nothing more than an obsessive hate for the Jewish people.”
You cannot fight antisemitism without attributing Israel’s success under a Benjamin Netanyahu
In 2016 a report was released, the first of its kind demonstrating that anti zionist activities including the boycott divestments sanction movement (BDS) and anti-Israel student groups faculty who alongside an academic board is at the heart of the rise of campus anti-Semitism.(AMCHA)An Open Letter on Israeli ‘Pinkwashing’ and True Discrimination Against the Arab Gay Community
Understanding the report fully and how the scope of antisemitism on US campuses this report initiated and investigated over a year assessed levels of campus antisemitism by measuring the students attitudes and reports and anti-Semitic activity by focusing on incidences compiled from eyewitness reports and media accounts.
Different types of activity were equated to the rise of antisemitism this included anti-Semitic expression, tropes included imagery and incidents, the targeting of students behaviour including physical harm and physical assault, harassment, destruction of property and the boycott divestment sanction activity which endorsed the anti-Israel boycott-rhetoric and imagery intended to demonise and delegitimise Israel and the expression which is consistent with that of the United States government definition of anti-Semitism at the time.
So let’s look at what the basic idea of Zionism is. Zionism is simple. It is a movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel.
Simple clarification of terminology for being pro Israel should be easy to understand, that in order for a homeland of Israel to exist, a successful environment for Jewish people to return to and to live in, we have to understand that the undermining of the present and returning elected Israeli Government,The Likud party with PM Benjamin Netanyahu at its helm, signifies two things
A strong and economically successful country, and the people of Israel freely making a democratic elected choice of Government.
However, an example of those that seem to be on the “fighting antisemitism” bandwagon, particulary groups that are on the political left, who for example expose Jeremy Corbyns antisemitism are constantly berating and criticising Netanyahu even admitting They know nothing about Israeli politics .
We know too well that there is no separation – anti Zionism is antisemitism
The signatories of this letter seek to address an open letter sent to Eurovision’s Irish entrant, Sarah McTernan. The letter, signed by individuals such as David Norris and Ailbhe Smith, asks Ms. McTernan not to aid in Israel’s “pinkwashing” tactics.
The Ireland Israel Alliance is saddened by the bullying that Sarah McTernan continues to receive — this time by “human rights campaigners who have long been involved in LGBTQIA activism in Ireland” — since her announcement as Ireland’s Eurovision entrant. This year’s event will be held in Israel in May.
We believe that in publicly targeting Sarah, and in attempting to pressure her into not participating, the signatories have devalued the battle fought by the gay community, and others in Israel, for recognition of their rights, not to mention the progress made so far and the battles which remain to be fought.
Instead of celebrating Tel Aviv’s annual Pride parade — and acknowledging that it and the annual Pride parade held in Jerusalem are the only annual Pride events in the entirety of the Middle East — the signatories felt compelled to enter an alternative reality and condemn the Tel Aviv parade and the Israeli government’s support of it as “pinkwashing.” Instead of celebrating the courage of those who fought against prejudice and violence to ensure an annual Pride event in Jerusalem, the signatories chose to ignore that too.
Honest Reporting: Academic Denies Jewish History on Temple Mount
Writing in The Guardian, academic Mick Dumper states that the Jewish historical presence on the Temple Mount is merely an “increasingly strident claim.” He also believes that: “Flushed with his electoral victory, and politically tooled-up with US support for his annexationist dreams, Netanyahu has the Islamic sites of Jerusalem in his line of fire. He exhibits all the hallmarks of a politician about to go rogue.”NY Times Article: Jesus Was Likely A 'Palestinian,' Not White
According to Dumper:
A particular flashpoint is the al-Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest shrines in the Islamic world… known as the Haram al-Sharif.
Note that nowhere does Dumper also refer to the site as the Temple Mount. The reason why becomes apparent when he addresses increasing demands from some Jews for greater access and rights on the site:
They are driven by the increasingly strident claim that the al-Aqsa mosque and other Islamic sites in the Haram al-Sharif were built upon the ruins of Solomon’s Temple.
Clearly Dumper is not a professor of history or archaeology. It’s undeniable that there were two Jewish temples on the site. This is not an “increasingly strident claim” as Dumper says, but is an established and provable fact.
No wonder Dumper cannot bring himself to acknowledge that the Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site. In the best traditions of Palestinian extremists, he denies that there was ever a Jewish temple there at all.
On Friday, The New York Times published a piece by a writer who has reported for the Times as well as edited at The New York Times Magazine in which he never acknowledged that Jesus was Jewish, said it was unlikely he was white, and said he was likely to have been a “Palestinian.”Wiesenthal Center: ‘Grotesque’ for Omar, NYT to Say Jesus Was Palestinian
Eric Copage, who is black, wrote, “As I grew older, I learned that the fair-skinned, blue-eyed depiction of Jesus has for centuries adorned stained glass windows and altars in churches throughout the United States and Europe. But Jesus, born in Bethlehem, was most likely a Palestinian man with dark skin.” In the 600-plus words of Copage’s piece, he never acknowledges that Jesus was Jewish, which is obvious from every text of the Bible; instead, neatly aligning his perspective with the New York Times penchant consistently siding with Palestinian Arabs in disputes with Israel, he only resorts to calling Jesus a Palestinian.
Copage opined, “Now, even though cultures across the world may at times show a Jesus that reflects their own story, a white Jesus is still deeply embedded in the Western story of Christianity. It has become often impossible to separate Jesus and white from the American psyche. … I am also interested in how white Christians feel about images of Christ. How do you feel about the possibility that Christ may not have looked the way he has been portrayed for centuries in the United States and Europe? If you’ve seen Christ depicted as a man of color, what was your reaction?”
As Noah Pollak succinctly noted on Twitter, “The ‘Palestinians are indigenous to Israel’ lie is more commonly believed than I thought. History lesson for NYT editors: Palestinians are Arabs. Arabs didn't conquer the area until 700 years after Jesus was crucified. Jesus was not an Arab.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate and director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, called out Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and The New York Times for promulgating the notion that Jesus was a Palestinian.Omar claims US forces killed 'thousands' of Somalis in 'Black Hawk Down' mission
Omar re-tweeted an April 20 tweet from Omar Suleiman, an adjunct professor for Islamic Studies at Southern Methodist University, who said a Palestinian relative told him regarding the “Christian right”: “Don’t they know we’re Christian too? Do they even consider us human? Don’t they know Jesus was a Palestinian?”
Similarly, an April 19 New York Times piece focusing on various depictions of Jesus Christ’s skin color stated, “Jesus, born in Bethlehem, was most likely a Palestinian man with dark skin.”
Cooper told the Journal in a statement via email that it’s a “grotesque insult to Jesus born in the land of Israel and to Christianity” to say that Jesus was a Palestinian.
“Palestine was a name made up by Romans after they crucified thousands, destroyed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and exiled the People of Israel from their homeland,” Cooper said.
A resurfaced tweet from Rep. Ilhan Omar saw the Minnesota Democrat claim U.S. forces killed “thousands” of Somalis during the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” mission -- despite multiple analysts concluding the number was much smaller.Sanders: Israel Is Run by ‘Racist’ Government Under Netanyahu
In the October 2017 tweet discovered by journalist John Rossomando, Omar was responding to a Twitter user who'd highlighted that more than a dozen U.S. soldiers were killed and another 73 were wounded in the Battle of Mogadishu, saying it was the “worst terrorist attack in Somalia history.”
Omar, a Somali refugee who was then a Minnesota state representative, refuted the tweet, insisting that “thousands” of Somalis were killed by American forces.
“In his selective memory, he forgets to also mention the thousands of Somalis killed by the American forces that day,” Omar tweeted.
She also included the hashtag, “NotTodaySatan.”
The number of Somali casualties in the Battle of Mogadishu is widely disputed. A representative of the Somali National Alliance estimated that only 133 militiamen were killed during a 2001 interview while “Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War” author Mark Bowden estimated roughly 500 Somalis were killed. As the Investigative Project on Terrorism also noted, the Rand Corporation reported that about 300 civilians were killed while others estimated nearly 1,000. (h/t MtTB)
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government "racist" Monday, saying the U.S. should treat the Middle East on a "level playing field."
Asked about his criticism of Netanyahu, whose Likud party won 35 seats in this month's election and assured him a fifth term in office, Sanders insisted he was not "anti-Israel."
"But the fact of the matter is that Netanyahu is a right-wing politician, who I think is treating the Palestinian people extremely unfairly," he said. "The United States gives billions of dollars in military aid to Israel—what I believe is not radical. I just believe that the United States should deal with the Middle East on a level playing field basis. The goal must be to try to bring people together, and not just support one country, which is now run by a right-wing, dare I say racist, government."
Calling Netanyahu racist is becoming en vogue for 2020 presidential candidates. Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D., Texas) also called Netanyahu racist after he pledged to annex portions of the West Bank. Support for Israel, the Middle East's sole true democracy, has dropped while sympathy for the Palestinians has surged among the base of Democratic voters.
Netanyahu and President Donald Trump have forged a strong alliance, in contrast to the testy relationship Netanyahu had with Trump's predecessor Barack Obama. Trump has made strong support of Israel a cornerstone of his Middle East policy, recognizing its sovereignty over the Golan Heights and moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
Sanders Supports Allowing the Boston Marathon Bomber to Vote: My Campaign Wants to Create a ‘Vibrant Democracy’
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) on Monday night said he supported the voting rights of felons, including the Boston Marathon bomber who killed four people and injured 264 others during the 2013 attack.
Anne Carlstein, a Harvard University student, asked Sanders at a CNN town hall in Manchester, N.H. about recent comments supporting felons and sex offenders voting while in prison.
"Does this mean you would support enfranchising people like the Boston Marathon bomber, a convicted terrorist and murderer. Do you think those convicted of sexual assault should have the opportunity to vote for politicians who could have a direct impact on women's rights?" Carlstein asked.
Sanders, who is running for president as a Democrat, prefaced his response by talking about how his campaign is seeking to create a "vibrant democracy." He claimed the United States has one of the lowest voter turnouts and that he wants to have one of the highest voter turnouts.
Sanders then used the same talking points he used at the Fox News town hall last week, saying "cowardly Republican governors" are trying to suppress the vote. He used the New Hampshire governor and legislature as an example and claimed they are trying to suppress the vote of young people.
#BernieBros pic.twitter.com/HitBZpHO7I
— jon gabriel (@exjon) April 23, 2019
Tlaib Tweets ‘Happy Passover’ Picture With Loaves of Bread
In Jewish custom, eating leavened bread is prohibited on Passover, but Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) shared a picture Friday with fluffy loaves of bread with the note "Happy Passover!"UK Labour MP uses footage of Guatemalan troops to castigate IDF
She followed the U.K.'s left-wing Labour Party, which tweeted and quickly deleted a similar picture with bread and wine Friday, not acknowledging it was the start of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Tlaib's picture is still up even after a helping of mockery and gentle correction.
"Tonight marks the beginning of Passover!" Tlaib tweeted. "To all our Jewish sisters and brothers, Happy Pesach! I hope it is a time full of joy and love with family and friends."
Like the Labour party, which recently had to insist it will deal with anti-Semitism in its ranks, Tlaib has a penchant for controversy related to anti-Semitism. Tlaib has met with anti-Israel radicals and defended fellow Muslim Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) when she was under fire for her own anti-Semitic remarks, such as accusing Jewish groups of paying off politicians to get support for Israel. She wrote an op-ed in notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan's publication Final Call in 2006, and she accused lawmakers who oppose the anti-Israel BDS movement of representing Israel over America. Accusations of dual loyalty are an infamous anti-Semitic canard. Tlaib replied to calls for an apology by saying she was talking about Republican politicians and not just Jewish people.
Labour MP tweets video of Guatemalan Army as 'IDF abuse,' apologizesA British Labour MP on Monday accused Israeli troops of beating Palestinian children, while citing four-year-old footage of Guatemalan soldiers violently assaulting unarmed teenagers.
“Marvellous, absolutely marvellous the Israeli Army, the best financed, best trained, best equipped army in the world caught on camera beating up Palestinian children for the fun of it. May God forgive them. What would Jim Royle say on an Easter Monday,” tweeted Grahame Morris along with the video.
The clip he shared, however, dates back to a 2015 incident, in which five Guatemalan troops were caught on camera beating two teenagers, prompting an investigation.
Many of Morris’s followers, including the Israel Defense Forces, quickly caught on to his blunder.
“The only marvelous thing here are your lies. These are not IDF soldiers. Apologies would be in order,” tweeted the IDF’s official account at Morris.
Despite being alerted to the mistake by hundreds of social media users, Morris had not removed the tweet or apologized as of Monday afternoon.
The only marvelous thing here are your lies.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 22, 2019
These are not IDF soldiers.
Apologies would be in order. https://t.co/ImIY9nD8lX
(h/t MtTB)
The Labour MP eventually did just that, tweeting his apologies “for sharing a post which purports to show the IDF hurting children but it was in fact the Guatemalan Army. My error demonstrates the dangers of fake news online, and I will be more diligent in future in checking my sources.”
The incorrectly labeled video was initially tweeted by Rachael Swindon and MP Morris retweeted it with his own comments on April 22. “Marvelous, absolutely marvelous the Israeli Army, the best financed, best trained, best equipped army in the world caught on camera beating up Palestinian children for the fund of it. May God forgive them,” he wrote. He then referenced “Easter Monday.”Swindon later deleted the video, but Morris’s comments were still on Twitter until April 23.
Swindon later deleted the video, but Morris's comments were still on Twitter until April 23.
Replies pointed out that the reference “may God forgive them,” may have anti-Jewish overtones. “Will Mr. Morris now address his next tweet to the Guatemalan army, seeing as the errors of his ways have been exposed? Or does he only address his conscientious tweets to Jews,” one man responded.
The same MP retweeted another video from Swindon the same day, that claimed to show “Gaza” but was actually a video from Hebron.
The same MP retweeted another video from Swindon the same day that claimed to show “Gaza” but was actually a video from Hebron. “May God forgive them” may be a paraphrase of Jesus’ last words as he is crucified on Easter Friday, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34).
Morris rarely tweets about God. A search of his tweet history shows he only used word 12 times since 2010, which points to it being employed particularly against Israel on Easter. The Labour party in the UK has been accused of ignoring antisemitism in the last several years.
Watch his verbal tripe link to hitting out with the right hand...when mentioning the Israeli Parliament. Watch his NVCs further, open palm gestures. Take his critical evaluation clusters on the full video (over 90% of comms)...link it this portion and one gets to see Jewish hate! https://t.co/vPK7qQeFoT
— David Kime (@Daithi_Kyme1) April 22, 2019
To each and every idiot calling for Corbyn to sue me for calling him an antisemite - you do realise we would absolutely LOVE that?
— Rachel Riley (@RachelRileyRR) April 22, 2019
It would mean an actual court scrutinising the mountains of evidence we have, and him having to answer for it, under oath, in public. YES PLEASE! 👍 https://t.co/c6Hnmj1KN5
Man with rod chases Jew down London street in alleged attempted hate crime
The Jewish Community Council of Northern London is complaining about an increase in crime in the community targeted against Jews.Irish Pro-Israel Groups Condemn BDS Boycott of Eurovision Song Contest
In a recent tweet, the JCC tweeted, “Crime in the community continues to increase” and then posted a video of an Orthodox Jewish man racing away from an individual pursuing him with a large rod.
“This is just one of many shocking incidents today which have occurred in the past few month [sic],” the JCC tweeted. “We appeal to @MPSHackney @MPSStamfordHill to act now and reassure the community with fast responses and extra patrols.”
In February 2019, just two months ago, a 69-year-old Jewish man was beaten in an apparent hate crime. The suspect in the crime, a 44-year-old man, attacked the 69-year-old victim after asking him if he was Jewish.
Several top Irish pro-Israel groups and leaders have signed an open letter condemning attempts by BDS groups and Irish LGBTQ activists to pressure the country’s Eurovision song contest contestant, Sarah McTernan, to boycott this year’s competition finals in Israel, which the signees accused of “pinkwashing.”
“We believe that in publicly targeting Sarah, and in attempting to [pressure] her into not participating, the letter’s signatories have devalued the battle fought by the gay community, and others in Israel, for recognition of their rights and for respect for difference, not to mention the progress made so far and battles which remain to be fought,” stated the letter by the Irish pro-Israel leaders, which includes Alan Shatter, former Irish justice minister; Jackie Goodall, director of the Ireland-Israel Alliance; and Irish folk musician Keith Faye.
The letter by the Irish pro-Israel leaders added that the Irish BDS and LGBTQ activists should instead focus on the discrimination the gay community faces elsewhere in the Middle East.
“The letter’s signatories might better occupy their time by focusing on the discrimination, oppression and brutality suffered by LGBTQIA persons throughout the Middle East. Perhaps they might apply their political activism to facilitate the holding of the first ever Palestinian Pride Parade in Ramallah or Gaza, and to end Palestinian oppression of gay Palestinians. We would be very interested to see how they fare!”
Neil Saville has resigned following antisemitic tweet-gate - but not for the reasons you may think https://t.co/sshEZCrAsa
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) April 23, 2019
Scary stuff from terror-supporting #Israel-haters @WOLPalestine https://t.co/NOuwGWvu2v
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) April 23, 2019
Australian comedian jokes about Nazi gas chambers, gets complaint, doubles down
Here’s a stand-up comedian’s email response to an email complaint about his material involving Nazi gas chambers: “If you can’t stand the heat get out of the oven.”Washington man jailed for plans to kill Jews in mass shooting posts more threats
Isaac Butterfield had asked his audience at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in Australia to “imagine the joy of people when they heard the Jews were sent to the gas chambers,” the city’s Herald Sun newspaper reported.
A Jewish woman who was in the audience wrote to the comedian.
“Sitting there hearing about Jews being gassed, eight million perished including children, watching family members being gassed or tortured or shot, is not remotely funny,” her email said.
We know his response.
Anti-Defamation Commission Chairman Dvir Abramovich said in a statement that “It’s never OK to spew such hate rhetoric, and Isaac Butterfield should be ashamed for his hideous remarks that crossed all lines and which trampled on the memory of the dead.
“It is beyond shocking to exploit the extermination of six million Jews in the Holocaust to generate despicable jokes. When you consider that the corpses of those killed with the poison gas were often cremated in ovens, Mr. Butterfield’s email response of ‘get out of the oven’ is disturbing and vicious,” Abramovich also said.
A Washington state man out on bail after being charged with two felonies for posting plans on Facebook to commit a mass shooting against Jewish targets has posted more violent messages and threats against Jews.
Dakota Reed, 20, had been out of jail on $50,000 bond since December. But in the wake of the new social media posts he was jailed again on April 8 and his bail raised to $500,000, the Washington-based Herald.net reported.
His new posts referred to killing the “ZOG,” or Zionist Occupied Government, a far-right conspiracy theory that says Jews control the US government.
“I’m shooting for 30 Jews,” Reed wrote in November. “No pun needed. Long ways away anyways. See you Goys.” Other posts referenced a plot to shoot up a synagogue in 2025.
He has not been charged with a hate crime.
Far-right rally for Hitler’s birthday attracts crowd of 20 https://t.co/tmMGSJ79Cs
— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) April 23, 2019
Intel launches its ‘most powerful’ laptop processors, sired by Haifa team
Intel Corp., the US tech giant, on Tuesday launched its “most powerful generation” of mobile processors for laptops -– the 9th Gen Intel Core -– designed for gamers and content creators who seek better performance and responsiveness for demanding games and heavy workloads like video editing. The new processors were sired by Intel’s team in Haifa.Facebook Creates Artificial Intelligence Team in Tel Aviv
The new processors bring more power to laptops: the processors have a performance that is 33 percent better than that of a three-year old PC, Intel said in a statement, and have up to 28% increased responsiveness.
The new products will provide gamers with an improvement of up to 56% in frames per second (FPS) for games like “Total War: Warhammer II” and will let them experience up to 38% faster turn time on games like “Civilization 6,” the statement said.
The new processors also have faster video editing power “to tackle heavyweight creative tasks on the go,” Intel said. They allow up to 54% faster 4K video editing compared to a three-year old PC, more storage capacity and also 63% faster content creation compared to a 3-year old PC.
Starting Tuesday, April 23, laptops of companies including Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and MSI will be equipped with the new processors, Intel said.
Facebook has formed an artificial intelligence team in Tel Aviv, announced the company on Tuesday.Shoah survivor and foster mother of 52 to light torch on Independence Day
The 10-person team, called “Data.AI,” will work on machine-learning “algorithms that can improve the company’s internal interface and create new tools for data analysis,” reported Calcalist, citing a statement from the social media network.
The new initiative will seek to improve Facebook’s platform, help engineers resolve issues, project upcoming events and issues, and access necessary data quicker.
More than 200 people are currently employed at Facebook’s research and development center in Tel Aviv, according to the firm.
Marie Nahmias, a Shoah survivor and a mother of 52 foster children from Afula, will light a torch at the annual Independence Day Ceremony, the Jerusalem’s post sister publication in Hebrew Maariv, reported on Tuesday.
"The choice of Marie Nahmias to celebrate the 71st Independence Day represents Israel’s open heart at its best. Marie, a Holocaust survivor, is a magnificent representative of the foster families in Israel,” Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev said.
Nachmias, 71, was born in Tunis and was smuggled out of her home right when she was about to be deported to Nazi Camps. She immigrated to Israel right after the foundation of the state, living in difficult conditions, in a transit camp in Hadera at first and then in one in Afula.
A mother of eight, Marie opened her house to many other children, including many with special needs, Regev further explained.
For those looking to support the Moscow yeshiva attacked by neo-Nazis on Passover eve -- please consider making a donation here: https://t.co/J2xa0DkURq https://t.co/g0QwXZmgqa
— Avital Chizhik Goldschmidt (@avitalrachel) April 22, 2019
Hundreds gather in former Warsaw Ghetto for first seder since its destruction
On Friday night, hundreds of Polish and Diaspora Jews gathered together to celebrate a Passover seder in the former Warsaw Ghetto, 76 years to the day after the Jews imprisoned there began a bloody last stand against the Nazis.
Known as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the fierce battle started on April 19, 1943, and saw the Jews hold control of the ghetto for nearly a month until SS-led German forces systematically burned it to the ground, block by block. It was the largest single violent act of defiance by Jews during the Holocaust.
The seder was held at Warsaw’s Hilton hotel, which overlooks the former ghetto boundary, and was conducted in parallel Polish and Hebrew versions by Poland’s head Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi, Shalom Ber Stambler, and his 13-year-old son Yossi Stambler.
Many of the roughly 300 visitors who flew in from abroad had relatives who at one point lived in the ghetto. They joined 100 local Jews in the retelling of the exodus story, and, towards the end of the seder, united in song.
Alan Stankowski, director of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, which is scheduled to open in 2023, said the ceremony had more than just symbolic importance for the locals who attended.
“This is a different experience than the Israelis have, for many Polish Jews, because in Israel you have many big families gathering a lot of the time — 10, 15, sometimes 20 people,” Stankowski said. “Here, many people are alone, many of them have a non-Jewish partner, and this is the moment when they can be together with the community, with their Jewish friends — and even if they’re not religious, this is a very special moment for them.”
The elder Stambler said that as far as the idea for holding the seder in such a historically significant location, things just fell into place.
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