Monday, December 07, 2020

12/07 Links Pt2: ‘Goodbye to Hannukah,’ Says a Headline in the Post-Judaism New York Times; NYT and CNN Pundit Defends Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s Genocidal Tweet

From Ian:

‘Goodbye to Hannukah,’ Says a Headline in the Post-Judaism New York Times
The author, Sarah Prager, explains that she celebrated Chanukah as a child because her father was Jewish. “Each of those eight nights we’d recite the Hebrew prayer about God while lighting the menorah. We memorized the syllables and repeated them, but they had no meaning to us and my parents didn’t expect, or want, us to believe what we were reciting.”

The Times article goes on “I married a woman who was raised Catholic but who, like my parents, had left her family religion as an adult. She and I are part of America’s ever-growing ‘nones’ with no religious affiliation at all. Before we had kids, we imagined we’d choose a religion to raise them in, maybe Unitarian Universalism or even Reform Judaism. But when our first child was born four years ago, we realized that going to any house of worship and following a religion just for our children to feel a connection to something wouldn’t be authentic. We couldn’t teach them to believe in anything we didn’t believe in ourselves.”

Though she claims she is “none,” her family actually slides into the Christian dominant culture: “our two daughters will celebrate Christmas and Easter because that’s what my extended family still celebrates.”

The article says the author respects tradition. “I respect the incredible value of keeping traditions alive, especially those that centuries of persecution have sought to erase. But while I have more of a connection to Judaism than some, I am not Jewish and it doesn’t feel authentic to celebrate a Jewish holiday religiously. My kids may end up playing dreidel sometimes, but they won’t learn the prayer that begins Baruch atah Adonai, sacred words that are nonetheless empty to them,” the Times article says. “Discontinuing my family’s Hanukkah celebration fits right in with our family’s tradition of bucking tradition.”

The article was met with scorn by Jewish readers. “Oh, is it NYT publishes thin, uninformed, somewhat self-hating article on Chanukah o’clock again? I can’t even look,” tweeted Rabbi Jill Jacobs.

Rabbi Marisa Elana James tweeted, “It is an INTERESTING choice for the NYT to publish a piece ostensibly about Hanukkah where 2/3 of the way in the author writes ‘I’m not Jewish.’ Just one piece on Hanukkah by someone who is Jewish and *likes* being Jewish would be great!”

Arsen Ostrovsky wrote, “Of all the essays @nytimes could publish for #Chanukah, they chose this by @Sarah_Prager , who does not even identify as Jewish, about why she’s choosing not to celebrate this beautiful holiday. Could the NYT have any more contempt for the Jewish people?”


NYT and CNN Pundit Defends Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s Genocidal Tweet
Where openly anti-Israel rhetoric is aired by woke politicians, media elites all too often are close behind to follow up and justify their words.

Instead of criticizing the invocation of a notorious dog-whistle calling for the destruction of Israel, CNN pundit and New York Times contributing opinion writer Peter Beinart last week defended it.

The call “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has long been understood as a euphemism for the elimination of the world’s only Jewish state. So when Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) retweeted a social media post, those words were met with strong opposition from many Jews and Israelis.

The Democratic Majority tweeted, “@RashidaTlaib is not just opposed to Israeli control of the West Bank — this slogan means she sees the entire State of Israel as illegitimate and wants it eliminated. That’s an immoral and reprehensible position.”

In response, Beinart used his public position to espouse the spurious perspective that this call for the destruction of Israel actually means something else entirely: the establishment of a state in which Jews and Palestinians would live equally.

“@RashidaTlaib supports 1 state where Jews + Palestinians live equally, under the same law. Why is that less moral that the current 1 state: Where millions of Palestinians lack citizenship, due process, free movement + the right to vote for the govt that controls their lives?” Beinart opined.


Don’t Forget the Other Mideast Refugees: Mizrahi Jews
All refugees deserve a permanent home; governmental action is integral to the protection of this fundamental human right. Looking at the Middle East, we see two very different pictures: Israel’s handling of its Jewish refugees has led to their prosperity and integration, while Arab governments’ (including the two Palestinian governments — Hamas and the Palestinian Authority) handling, if not neglect, of their refugee populations has perpetuated stagnation and misery.

During the 20th century, more than 800,000 Jews were expelled from their homes across the Middle East and North Africa. Displaced from their lands and robbed of their property, these refugees turned to the newly created Jewish state of Israel — a state that, to this day, serves as a refuge for Jews from all parts of the globe.

As Mizrahi refugees trekked to Israel in droves, the newly-created Israeli government provided the resources and support that these individuals needed. Ma’abarot, the immigrant and refugee absorption camps established in the early days of Israel’s founding, provided accommodations for the large influx of Jewish refugees. Although the Israeli government only had access to limited funding, its budgeting plans prioritized the absorption of this diverse population.

Moreover, Jewish non-profit groups supported these housing developments, particularly the Jewish Agency. In 1951, 127 Ma’abarot housed 250,000 Jews, of which 75% were Mizrahim.

Zionism’s importance was affirmed as these Jews, lacking access to their basic human rights, found support through the modern-day manifestation of Jewish self-determination. These Mizrahim, culturally attached to Israel by their Jewish identity, represented a diverse sector of Jews newly introduced to the Zionist endeavor. Their Jewish identity saved them from being stateless.

By contrast, surrounding Arab nations have left their Palestinian residents and neighbors to languish in United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)-run camps for decades. Settlement and integration are not offered; in fact, Arab countries refused Israel’s 1949 offer to unconditionally admit 100,000 Palestinians, because recognition of the State of Israel was too much to bear for the Arab governments. Instead, they have perpetuated the Palestinians’ plight, harnessing their poverty as a tool to attack Israel.

Importantly, the more than five million current Palestinian “refugees” — mostly descendants of those who fled or were expelled in 1948 — are currently awarded this supposed status by UNRWA.
US Holocaust museum launches program on Jews who fled to Iran from Nazis
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum, in partnership with the Chautauqua Institution, will launch starting Tuesday a jointly presented online program on Iran’s connection to Jews who escaped the Holocaust.

Taking the form of a two-part online live event and titled “The Tehran Children: Iran’s Unexpected & Suppressed Connection to the Holocaust,” the presentation is inspired by the 2019 memoir Tehran Children: A Holocaust Refugee written by Mikhal Dekel, who will participate in each segment of the program.

The memoir tells the story of over a million Polish Jews who fled the Nazis during the Holocaust into the Soviet Union – specifically focusing on the nearly 1,000 children who were sent to Iran. The author’s father, Hannan Teitel, was one of these children.

But despite the incredible story behind the event, not much is known about it, as Iran’s leaders actively work to suppress information about the Holocaust.

“Today we think of the Iranian regime’s Holocaust denial and antisemitism, but there is also a rarely told story about the Iranian people welcoming Jewish refugees during WWII,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum director Sara J. Bloomfield said in a statement.

“Exploring lesser-known aspects of this history can challenge our assumptions, which is what good education does,” she said.
UK minister: peace requires refugee restitution on both sides
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Cleverly said“ A peaceful future for the Middle East depends on a peace agreement that offers fair restitution for both sides ….”

Mr Cleverly was replying to two questions from Stephen Crabb MP. Mr Crabb asked the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether it remained the UK’s position that any settlement resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should include recognition of the plight of Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa as well as Palestinian refugees.

He also asked the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his international counterparts on recognition and restitution for Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa.

Both questions received the same answer and reiterated the words used by the previous secretary of state responsible for Middle East affairs, Dr Andrew Murrison MP. Dr Murrison was speaking at the first discussion of its kind on Jewish refugees, held in June 2019 at Westminster.

Mr Cleverly said: "We are clear that the status of refugees must be agreed as part of any final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. The United Kingdom is focused on working with international and regional partners to harness the changing Israeli-Arab relations to encourage a return to dialogue. The history of Jewish migration and displacement in the region is highly complex and cannot be ignored. We acknowledge that the Jewish community has experienced unacceptable suffering. We continue to support the aspiration for a Jewish homeland in the modern state of Israel, just as we support the objective of a viable and sovereign Palestinian state. A peaceful future for the Middle East depends on a peace agreement that offers fair restitution for both sides, and a willingness on the part of all countries in the region to respect the rights of minorities and build inclusive societies which enshrine and uphold those rights."

However, Mr Cleverly stopped short of endorsing the position of the US Congress and the Canadian Parliament, both of whom have demanded recognition for Jewish refugees.
94-Year-Old Gives $20 Million to Florida Atlantic University to Found Holocaust and Jewish Studies Institute
Florida Atlantic University has received a $20 million gift from a 94-year-old refugee from Nazi Germany in order to found an institute for Holocaust and Jewish studies education.

Kurt Wallach, whose family escaped in 1933 after Hitler took power, made the donation with his wife Marilyn, The Tampa Bay Times reported last month.

Wallach served in World War II and afterwards went into business, where he made his fortune.

He said of his gift and the institute he hopes to found, “We speak for those who cannot speak. We remember all the victims including our family members who perished needlessly.”

“No one should ever be subjected to such horror,” he asserted. “We hope that through the education we can provide that lives will be saved and history will not be repeated.”

FAU President John Kelly said the university is “honored and grateful” for the gift and that it would “ensure that Holocaust, Jewish studies, and human rights education will continue to build bridges of understanding and empathy for generations to come.”
What Time Won’t Tell You About BDS
Lost Irony: Who Gets to Define Antisemitism?

Mansoor gives a platform to the fringe anti-Israel, pro-BDS Jewish Voice for Peace, stating:
Stifling BDS is “not about Jewish safety,” says Stefanie Fox, executive director of Jewish Voice For Peace. “An opposition to Zionism is about an opposition to a specific government that has nothing to do with Judaism,” Fox says. As for Pompeo’s characterization, she says, “We won’t let white supremacists dictate what is and not anti-semitism.”

Leaving aside Fox’s unsubstantiated slur against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, her lack of self-awareness is totally astounding. Later this month, her own Jewish Voice for Peace will be hosting a panel discussion entitled “Dismantling Antisemitism, Winning Justice,” featuring a lineup of non-Jewish activists notorious for their anti-Jewish bigotry. As CAMERA’s Ricki Hollander observed, the panel is:
made up of those who seek the demise of the Jewish state, in order to redefine antisemitism. The panelists include Rashida Tlaib—a U.S. congress member accused of using antisemitic tropes of dual loyalty, spreading anti-Jewish blood libels, singling out politicians for criticism because of their Jewish identity, and having close ties to a Holocaust denying, conspiracy theorist and terror-supporting anti-Zionist activists; Barbara Ransby — a university professor in History, African American Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies who is prominent player in the BDS movement, supporting violent anti-Israel terrorists and using her platform to spread false and vicious anti-Israel propaganda; Marc Lamont Hill— BDS proponent and one-time CNN journalist who advocates the elimination of a Jewish state, justifies anti-Israel terrorism, and is associated with the notoriously antisemitic Louis Farrakhan. The single Jew on the antisemitism panel is Peter Beinart — an “as a Jew” Jew who has made a career of vilifying the Jewish state and advocating its abolition.

BDS supporte Tlaib makes an appearance in Mansoor’s BDS explainer. But don’t expect the Time reporter to let on about the Congresswoman’s record of blatantly antisemitic remarks. Mansoor whitewashes Tlaib and her colleague Ilhan Omar as “outspoken on Palestinian human rights and fierce critics of Israel.”

In short, Sanya Mansoor’s BDS explainer is about as informative and reliable as Rashida Tlaib’s insights on antisemitism. Those who really “need to know about BDS” should look elsewhere.
Nick Cannon Takes Another Step to Atone for Antisemitic Remarks
American comedian, rapper, and host of The Masked Singer, Nick Cannon, has taken another important step to atone for his recent antisemitic remarks and says, “It’s time to #EndJewHatred.”

I recently interviewed Cannon about various issues relating to the Jewish community and antisemitism.

Regarding his comments this past July on his YouTube podcast Cannon’s Class about the world “giving too much power to ‘the Zionists, the Rothschilds … the 13 families, the bloodlines that control everything even outside of America,” Cannon says he is “determined to change a negative experience into a positive one and help to end any type of discrimination and hatred.”

According to Cannon, antisemitism is not just a Jewish problem. It hurts our larger society, and both Jews and non-Jews should speak out against it: “We all know that we are part of the great collective and what happens to one group affects us all. If you see someone being hated on, it resonates in your own system and you have to say something. We are greater when we come together. When your brother is being mistreated, you must speak up for your fellow humans.”

Posing in a photo with a prominent supporter of the #EndJewHatred movement, Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Cannon held up a sign that read “StopJewHatred.”

#EndJewHatred is a civil rights movement dedicated to ensuring Jewish liberation from centuries of persecution and achieving justice for the Jewish people through peaceful direct action.


BDS is failing - the never-ending story (Dec. 2020)
Political BDS Fails
Report: Israel to procure, transfer millions of COVID-19 vaccines to Palestinians
The PA warned, however, that it still expects to see a shortage of the treatment, especially in Gaza
A senior Palestinian Authority official claimed on Sunday that Israel has agreed to transfer millions of doses of COVID-19 treatment to Ramallah in the coming months, according to Israeli daily Israel Hayom.
Some three to four million coronavirus vaccines are expected to reach Palestinian medical workers as part of a deal Israel has reached with pharmaceutical companies.

Israel Eases Path to Citizenship for 20,000 East Jerusalem Palestinians
Following legal challenge, Interior Ministry agrees to implement 1968 clause that would make it faster and easier for young Palestinians to obtain Israeli citizenship
Around 20,000 young Palestinians will be eligible to expedite their requests for Israeli citizenship after a court forced the Interior Ministry to publish guidelines for the scheme on Monday.
According to experts, the updated procedure should allow another 7,000 or so young Palestinians to obtain citizenship each year as well.

Israeli prime minister makes historic visit to Saudi Arabia, intelligence official confirms
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a secret trip to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, according to a Middle Eastern intelligence official, a watershed visit in the historically hostile relations between the two countries.
According to the Israeli publication Ynet, Netanyahu spent a few hours late Sunday in the Saudi coastal city of Neom, where he met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Netanyahu reportedly traveled with Yossi Cohen, the head of Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, a key figure in emerging efforts to broker diplomatic relations with the kingdom.

Malawi vows to open embassy in Jerusalem by next summer
Malawi plans to open an embassy in Jerusalem by next summer, the southeast African country’s foreign minister, Eisenhower Mkaka, announced Tuesday during a visit to Israel.
It would be the third embassy in Jerusalem, after the United States and Guatemala, and the first of an African country.

Pompeo: US declares BDS antisemitic


HRC Quoted In Toronto Sun: Foodbenders Shuts its Doors in Fight Against Zionists
In the Toronto Sun today, investigative columnist Sue-Anne Levy covers how the antisemitic Foodbenders restaurant claims it’s closing down, as the owner, Kimberley Hawkins, says she has to fight four legal cases against her.

In the article, HRC Executive Director Mike Fegelman is quoted as follows:
“Mike Fegelman, executive director of HonestReporting Canada, said if she is indeed closing, it’s positive and just.’What’s really concerning is that she used this whole controversy to leverage her profile on her Instagram account (and raise $47,000),’ he said. ‘What this says to us is that there’s a base out there who supports her toxic agenda.’”
An Exclusive Facebook Group Purged Its Jewish Members
Once a fixture of American life, the restricted social club has long been assumed to be a thing of the past. But the phenomenon seems to have made a return, in a 21st-century version, in the form of a Los Angeles all-female by-invitation-only Facebook group known as Girls’ Night Out (GNO). The exclusive group has over 30,000 members, and besides being a hub for restaurant recommendations and informal conversations, has also served to help small businesses find customer, actresses auditions, and so forth. Following the killing of George Floyd, GNO endorsed the Black Lives Matter movement and became more political—and then, writes Emily Benedek, it came for the Jews:

On August 22, a young Jewish group member saw a sign hanging over the heavily trafficked 405 freeway in LA that read, “The Jews want a Race War.” It upset her, and she asked in a GNO post what others thought about it. A member suggested some Jewish representation was also needed in the group, after noticing some “fishy anti-Semitic stuff.” At first, the comments responding to this suggestion were positive.

Then, on August 29, a member posted: “I feel that the Jewish administrator who is appointed must also acknowledge the occupation of Palestine.” Within hours, every Jewish member who had tried to explain why a litmus test for a “good Jew” was anti-Semitic was thrown out. Every Jewish member who asked why an American Jew should have an opinion on a foreign matter (however incoherently phrased) was expelled. Anyone who made a comment supporting Israel, explaining the history of Israel, or who “liked” such a comment, disappeared.

Soon it became clear that a single administrator was carrying out the resulting purge. Benedek continues:
[This administrator] threw out both a Black Jewish woman who attempted to explain the Jewish point of view, and a Black Christian woman (and an administrator) who objected to anti-Semitism on the site. But no one who expressed anti-Semitic views was expelled.

Of the numerous GNO members with whom Benedek spoke or corresponded, only one was willing to give her name.
BBC NEWS COVERAGE OF TERRORISM IN ISRAEL – NOVEMBER 2020
Since the beginning of the year visitors to the BBC News website have seen coverage of 4.5% of the terror attacks against Israelis which actually took place and reporting of 50% of the resulting fatalities. Of 35 separate incidents of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the year, the BBC has reported just six. Eight of the first eleven months of 2020 saw no BBC reporting on Palestinian terrorism at all.
Plight of the Disabled in Gaza: VOA, AFP Blame Blockade, Not Hamas
Voice of America (VOA) on December 3 republished an article by Agence France-Presse (AFP) that blamed the Israeli blockade — without bothering to note Egypt’s participation in it — for the dire state of people with disabilities in the Gaza Strip. But by confusing correlation with causation, the author seemingly deems it unnecessary to hold Hamas accountable for the daily horrors it inflicts on residents of the Palestinian enclave, and also fails to stress that the blockade is the result of the terror group’s ongoing commitment to destroying the Jewish state.

Hamas Depicted as Gaza’s Absentee Landlord
The piece, In Gaza, Life ‘Extraordinarily Difficult’ for the Disabled, Watchdog Says, begins with this paragraph:
People with disabilities lead an “extraordinarily difficult” life in the Gaza Strip because of the Israeli blockade and the lack of assistance from ruling Hamas, Human Rights Watch said Thursday on World Disability Day.

Note how Israel is portrayed as the primary cause of the misery experienced by Gazans with disabilities, whereas Hamas is painted as unwilling, if not totally helpless, to lend a helping hand to those it subjugates with an iron fist. Moreover, the article provides no background information about the terror organization, nor does it explain in detail why the blockade was in the first place implemented “to contain” Hamas:
According to HRW, people with disabilities suffer particularly from the blockade imposed by Israel since 2007 to contain the armed Islamist movement Hamas, its enemy in power in the enclave.

Perhaps it would have been appropriate to mention that the naval blockade on Gaza was imposed following the interception of two arms shipments allegedly originating in Iran. That is, the theocracy whose supreme leader regularly calls for the eradication of the “cancerous tumor” (i.e. Israel).
Swiss Jews Nervous at Use of Holocaust Symbols by Covid-19 Conspiracy Theorists
Dina Wyler, the managing director of the Zurich-based Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism (GRA), explained in an interview with Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) on Monday why Jews are often made the scapegoats in times of crisis («Leute, die sich gegen die Maskenpflicht wehren, vergleichen sich mit Sophie Scholl. Das ist absurd!»).

Wyler pointed out that people who had both swastikas and Jewish stars printed on their clothing took part in an anti-corona demo in Zurich in the fall. The picture was similar in Lachen in the canton of Schwyz at a demonstration a few weeks ago: individuals wore yellow Jewish stars on their masks or T-shirts. And in November, people demonstrated in Basel with signs comparing anti-corona measures with National Socialism.

Using the Holocaust as a metaphor for “oppression” against Covid-19 regulations has received a boost in the past few months in Switzerland, and in some cases, this developed into open anti-Semitism. At an anti-corona demonstration in Zurich, a man said to a journalist: “The Rothschilds are behind the corona measures.”

The Central Council of Jews in Germany has also expressed concerns, as has the US Anti-Defamation League. GRA has now launched the Internet portal “Stop anti-Semitism,” and Dina Wyler was asked to further describe how the Corona crisis has increased incidents of anti-Semitism.

“In times of crisis, anti-Semitism is booming,” Wyler said. “When people are insecure, age-old conspiracy theories come up again. They simplify reality, they divide people into friend and foe. A scapegoat helps deal with the feeling of powerlessness. Unfortunately, this scapegoat is often Jewish.”
The particular universality of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
A few times in life’s journey, you have the privilege of connecting with a soul who leaves an impression and impact on you that somehow is heightened, spiritual, and seemingly indelible. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, was one of those truly remarkable individuals. My times with him are etched in my heart and, even in his absence, continue to call me higher. As we mark his shloshim, I offer, from a non-Jewish perspective, a tribute and reflection on his life and the example he has left for us all.

The profound conundrum of Judaism and the Jewish people, it seems to me, is the never-ending tug-of-war between uniqueness and universality. The children of Israel are “a people who dwell alone”, and yet they are to be a “light to the nations”. Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people, and yet, it is destined to be a “house of prayer for all nations”.

It seems to me that the burden of a Jewish person, when their Jewishness is taken seriously, is to bear the weight of walking in “chosenness” while at the same time actively pronouncing to the world that certainly ALL are invited to chosenness, by discovering and cultivating the “image of God” we are each created in.

No one in our generation, in my non-Jewish opinion, accomplished this divine balancing act with greater grace and impact than Rabbi Sacks. He was simultaneously profoundly rooted in the Jewish worldview, while constantly zooming out to help us see what that worldview has to say to the whole world, to all the human family.


Rare menorah engraving dates back to Hasmonean era
A rare graffito of a seven-branched menorah found decades ago at the entrance to a tomb on the outskirts of the Arab village of Mukhmas, northeast of Jerusalem, has been highlighted by Dr. Dvir Raviv of Bar-Ilan University’s Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, in a paper published in the archaeology and history journal In the Highland’s Depth, released just in time for Hanukkah.

The menorah was discovered in the 1980s during a survey initiated by the Staff Office for Archaeology in Judea and Samaria, and was archived. Raviv reported that the menorah engraving found in Mukhmas dates back to the period between the Hasmonean era and the Bar-Kochba revolt, and is considered an unusual find because decorative use of the Temple menorah was rare during this period.

The most prominent examples found to date include depictions of a menorah on coins of the Hasmonean ruler Mattathias Antigonus, on objects and remnants from Jerusalem, on a stone table in Magdala north of Tiberias and on the Arch of Titus in Rome.

The Mukhmas engraving resembles paintings of two seven-branched menorahs documented in the al-Aliliyat caves, a group of caves nearby that served as a hiding place and refuge during the Second Temple period and the days of the Jewish revolts against Rome.


MTV crowns Israeli Wonder Woman Gal Gadot best-ever 'she-ro'
Gal Gadot was honored at the MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time awards on Sunday, according to MTV News. The Israeli star, known for her role in the Wonder Woman movies was named the best she-ro in film history, MTV announced.

Gadot thanked MTV for the award, saying "thank you so much, MTV, for honoring me with the first-ever golden GOAT she-ro award. It's been one of the greatest joys in my life to play this character." "She means so much to me and I know how much she's loved by all of her fans, so to be part of her legacy is truly, truly, truly special. I'm so excited for Wonder Woman fans to take this next journey with me in Wonder Woman 1984. I can hardly believe we finally get to experience it," Gadot went on to say.


‘I am Anne Frank’ demystifies hero to make Holocaust accessible to young readers
In time for the pandemic’s first Hanukkah, a children’s book about Anne Frank zooms in on resilience and optimism during tumultuous times.

“I am Anne Frank” was written by Brad Meltzer and illustrated by Chris Eliopoulos for the “Ordinary People Change the World” series. Prior installments in the best-selling series also penned by Meltzer and Eliopoulos include books on Amelia Earhart, Walt Disney, and Gandhi.

“Last year had the highest increase of anti-Semitic incidents in 40 years,” said Meltzer. “Millennials don’t know basic facts about the Holocaust. Our kids need hope right now. That’s Anne Frank’s main message — and the message of the book,” Meltzer told The Times of Israel.

As with most accounts of the diarist’s short life, ‘I am Anne Frank’ opens with the Nazis’ anti-Jewish measures in Amsterdam. The harsh edicts contrast with the joyful scene of Anne’s 13th birthday party at home. Within weeks of that gathering, the family “disappeared” into hiding.

To make the heavy subject more palpable, the book overtly consoles and comforts its readers. Special attention is given to the Dutch “helpers” who sustained the Jews in hiding. Some of their acts of heroism are described, including Miep Gies supplying the “Secret Annex” with both food and friendship.

Of the holidays celebrated in the “Secret Annex,” Hanukkah and Christmas get the most attention in Anne’s diary. Near the end of “I am Anne Frank,” a shabby-looking Anne stands next to a lit Hanukkah menorah. On a barrel to her right, Shabbat candles pierce more of the darkness:

You can always find light in the darkest places.
That’s what hope is.
It’s a fire within you.
You decide when to light it.
And when it burns bright…

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

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