Thursday, December 10, 2020
Arsen Ostrovsky: Religious freedom as a universal message of Hanukkah
On Thursday evening, Jews around the world will begin the eight-day celebration of Hanukkah, one of the most beautiful and meaningful holidays in Judaism.Western Wall Hanukkah candle lighting to continue amid COVID-19 pandemic
Although Hanukkah is a uniquely Jewish story, its lessons about the importance of preserving our religious freedom are universal, irrespective of individual faith or background.
The ancient story of Hanukkah itself occurred more than 2,000 years ago, around the 2nd century B.C., when the Jews, led by Judah Maccabee, successfully repelled their Greek-Syrian oppressors, led by the tyrant, Antiochus, who ruled the Land of Israel at the time.
Prior to the rebellion, Antiochus sought to forbid the practice of Judaism, and ordered the Jews to turn instead to the Greek gods and pagan-worship, the very antithesis of the Jewish faith, which gave birth to monotheism. Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories
In a miraculous victory against all odds, the Jews fought back, defeating Antiochus’s army—restoring their right to worship, and rededicating the Second Temple in their ancient capital, Jerusalem.
But what does this struggle for religious freedom teach us today?
The lighting of the large hanukkiah (candelabra) by the Western Wall will take place this year on Thursday with a small gathering of rabbis and public figures due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Rafi Peretz and Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel will take part in the Hanukkah candle lighting. The event will take place according to Health Ministry guidelines.
Tours of hanukkiot in Jerusalem will also take place throughout the holiday, both in person according to Health Ministry guidelines and online. More details are available at the Western Wall's website or by calling *5958.
It is still unclear if the government will impose new restrictions and what those restrictions could be, so tours and other activities during the holiday may be affected. The government is set to convene on Thursday to discuss tightening restrictions over the Hanukkah holiday.
The lighting of the Hanukkah candles by the Western Wall will be livestreamed Sunday through Thursday on the Western Wall's website, YouTube channel, Facebook and other media platforms.
The bronze hanukkiah used at the Western Wall is two meters high and about two meters wide, weighs about a ton and took about seven months to make. The candles will use olive oil and will be in special wind and rain resistant vessels in order to stay lit throughout the night.
Jews are asking for protection from their universities from antisemitism. David Feldman’s ‘All Lives Matter’ response is not helpful
This is a response to an article by David Feldman, ‘The government should not impose a faulty definition of antisemitism on universities’, published by The Guardian on 2 December 2020. David Hirsh is author of Contemporary Left Antisemitism (Routledge 2018). This opinion piece first appeared at the Engage blog and is reproduced here with thanks to David.CUNY Professors Attempted to Bar Orthodox Jewish Professor from Meeting, Report Says
After recently co-writing a decent article on antisemitism, David Feldman, the Director of Birkbeck’s Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, has now reverted back to the politics that drove his meek complicity with the Chakrabarti whitewash of Labour antisemitism in 2016. And he didn’t even get a seat in the House or Lords.
The Union of Jewish Students and other institutions of the Jewish community, as well as the government’s independent advisor on antisemitism John Mann, have been campaigning for universities to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism. They say that the adoption of IHRA would give Jewish students and members of staff some confidence that they could hope for protection if they experienced antisemitism on campus.
And such antisemitism is commonplace in UK universities. Last week I was contacted by a student whose lecturer taught that IHRA was a pretext to silence criticism of Israel and by another whose Masters dissertation was failed because she wrote in the ‘wrong’ framework about Israel and Palestine. This kind of antisemitism is harder to sustain in institutions which have adopted IHRA.
In the Guardian article, Feldman characterises the universities which make a point of not allowing IHRA to be part of their official armoury against antisemitism as ‘refusenik’.
The refuseniks were overwhelmingly Jews in the Soviet Union who were refused permission to go to Israel, although there were others too who were refused permission to leave. They were denounced as Zionist agents of imperialism, they were purged from their jobs, they were deported to Siberia, they were imprisoned, murdered and tortured. The refuseniks were victims of antisemitism at the hands of a totalitarian state which called itself ‘Marxist’ and which demonised Zionism as the enemy of mankind.
Feldman turns this upside down. Today, for him, the refuseniks are the ideological descendants not of the Soviet Jews but of their oppressors, the apparatchiks and Party men who denounced Jews as particularist, pro-apartheid and privileged.
The New York Post has obtained a report providing evidence that a group of progressive professors at the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Kingsborough Community College (KCC) attempted to bar an Orthodox Jewish professor from attending one of their meetings.
The December 7 Post report stated that the Orthodox Jewish professor and head of KCC’s department of business, Jeffrey Lax, filed a complaint in March 2018 claiming that the Progressive Faculty Caucus (PFC) on campus intentionally scheduled a meeting during Shabbat so Lax would be unable to attend. The KCC proceeded to hire the Jackson Lewis law firm to investigate the matter and produced a report in June; it is this report that the Post obtained.
According to the Post, three witnesses said in the report that the PFC attempted to schedule the meeting during Shabbat because Lax tended to be critical of the PFC during these meetings. The PFC also disliked Lax because, according to a witness in the report, “he was pro-Trump, pro-Israel, he’s a Zionist, conservative American,” although he does have some progressive stances on social issues.
“Although the primary objective was to exclude Lax, the PFC’s decision to schedule the meeting at a time that [Lax] could not attend due to his religious observance had the potential of creating a disparate impact on other Jewish faculty who observe the sabbath who wanted to attend the PFC meeting,” the report stated. “Allegations that respondents discriminated against them based on their religion can be substantiated in part…Observance of the Jewish Sabbath was at least part of the reason for the PFC to schedule a meeting on a Friday night.”
Ultimately, the meeting was canceled following backlash over the matter.
Jonathan S. Tobin: No one needs posthumous apologies from an anti-Semitic writer
The apology was as gratuitous as it was unsatisfactory. Some 30 years after author Roald Dahl’s death, his family and the Story Company that markets and profits from his literary legacy, as well as manages the museum built in his honor in England, issued a statement saying that they “deeply apologise for the lasting and understandable hurt caused by some of Roald Dahl’s statements.”Warnock compared Netanyahu to segregationist in 2016 sermon
The reason for this belated mea culpa from people who actually had nothing to do with the statements in question was Dahl’s open anti-Semitism. Dahl may be the author of beloved books and stories like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda and The Witches, in addition to the screenplay for “Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang,” as well as many screenplays and works for adults (including one of the classic James Bond films with Sean Connery). But he also hated Jews.
In a 1982 interview in The New Statesman, he said, “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean there is always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.” In 1983, he wrote in the Literary Review that America was in thrall to “powerful American Jewish bankers,” and that Jews “controlled the media” since “there aren’t any non-Jewish publishers anywhere.” In 1990, he told The Independent, “I am certainly anti-Israel, and I have become anti-Semitic.” He went on saying, “We know all about Jews and the rest of it.”
Yet should this mean that we stop reading his stories to children?
Dahl isn’t the only famous artistic figure to be guilty of anti-Semitism, as the ongoing ban on playing Richard Wagner’s music in Israel indicates. But perhaps in the wake of the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has led to a surge in iconoclasm and attacks on literary giants of the past such as Walt Whitman and Laura Ingalls Wilder for some of their comments about African-Americans, it’s possible that Dahl’s family feared that he, too, would be toppled from his pedestal as one of the great children’s authors.
After a Senate candidate in Georgia backtracked on his harsh criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians Tuesday, another clip surfaced in which he used controversial language to describe Mideast tensions.
In a 2016 sermon, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to a two-state solution for peace in the region.
He called Netanyahu’s stance “tantamount to saying occupation today, occupation tomorrow, occupation forever,” a line similar to former Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s call for, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.”
He went on to argue that there could be no democracy in Israel without a two-state solution because of the disenfranchisement of Arab voters.
“If you don’t have a Palestinian state, you cannot have a Jewish democracy,” he said. “That state will either be Jewish, or it will be a democracy. It cannot be both.”
He continued, “If you do not have a Palestinian state, you will have to have apartheid in Israel that denies other citizens, sisters and brothers, citizenship.”
A spokesman for the Warnock campaign reiterated the candidate’s backtracking from the apartheid remarks Wednesday night.
.@ReverendWarnock were you lying then, or are you lying now?
— RJC (@RJC) December 9, 2020
Don't you think the voters have the right to know?#FlipFlop #GArunoff #GAsen https://t.co/kheWjXg7Bg pic.twitter.com/Qcx1qJSGPD
Center-left, pro-Israel PAC backs Georgia candidate criticized for Israel views
Warnock responded to the endorsement in a tweet thanking DMFI. “I’m proud to receive your endorsement & I’m grateful for the work you do to support our party’s values. Echoing Dr. King, as senator I’ll stand for Israel’s security & will work to strengthen the alliance between our nations,” the Democratic candidate said.
Loeffler throughout the campaign has highlighted a 2018 sermon Warnock delivered days after Israeli troops fired on Palestinians during violent protests at the Gaza border against the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
“We saw the government of Israel shoot down unarmed Palestinian sisters and brothers like birds of prey,” Warnock said in the speech.
A Hamas official later said that 50 of 62 Gazans killed in the days of riots and clashes were its members; another three were members of Islamic Jihad.
Speaking at a candidates’ forum organized by the Jewish Democratic Council of America on Tuesday, Warnock addressed the criticism sparked by his remarks. “I was speaking to the issue of activists and human rights, and the ability of people to be heard,” he said.
“At the same time, I have an increasing recognition of Hamas and the danger that they pose to the Israeli people,” he added, asserting that he also supported “non-violent resistance.” “My opponents are trying to use Israel as yet another wedge issue in this campaign,” Warnock said.
Thank you to my friends at @DemMaj4Israel. I’m proud to receive your endorsement & I’m grateful for the work you do to support our party’s values. Echoing Dr. King, as senator I’ll stand for Israel’s security & will work to strengthen the alliance between our nations. https://t.co/amXY2Vmvmm
— Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) December 10, 2020
Jewish Group Condemns Warnock Comparing Netanyahu To George Wallace
The Republican Jewish Coalition responded to the report of Warnock’s 2016 sermon. RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks stated:
Rev. Warnock recently told a Jewish group that he supports Israel, but he has a long history of statements that testify to the fact that he does not. His 2016 comparison of Prime Minister Netanyahu to segregationist George Wallace in front of an African American audience was simple hatemongering.
Warnock claims to have recently come to understand that Hamas is a violent enemy threatening Israel. There is a great deal more that he needs to learn about the Palestinians’ goal of genocide and Israel’s history of sacrificing for peace, before the Jewish community could ever begin to trust his newly announced “support” of Israel. The preponderance of anti-Israel statements in his past argues that he will side with Israel’s opponents in the Democratic Party and against Israel at every opportunity. In fact, Linda Sarsour, a close friend of the antisemitic “Squad” in Congress, endorsed Warnock’s comments about Netanyahu, just as “Squad” members Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar have supported his campaign.
Warnock is the wrong choice for Georgia and for the US Senate. Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler is a good friend of Israel and the Jewish community, and we hope the voters of Georgia will re-elect her to the Senate on January 5.
This cuts the other way.
— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) December 10, 2020
Progressive except when…
🇵🇸 Hamas kill gay people
🇵🇸 Hamas murder Jewish children
🇵🇸 Witnessing Palestinian antisemitism
🇵🇸 Hearing of sexism in Gaza
🇵🇸 Jews are ethnically cleansed from Muslim areashttps://t.co/w4oPuUdhcf
NGO Monitor: France and Germany award the director of a terror-tied Palestinian NGO
On December 8, 2020, Palestinian NGO Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights announced that its director, Issam Younis, was awarded the “Franco-German Human Rights and the Rule of Law Prize.” This is a joint French and German prize created in 2016, which “is awarded every year to human rights defenders around the world, but also to lawyers who represent the human rights defenders and journalists who work to make the truth known. Through this prize, France and Germany wish to show their support for the work of these individuals.” The selection is made by the French and German foreign ministries, “based on joint proposals from the French and German embassies around the world” (translation by NGO Monitor).The Tikvah Podcast: Ambassador Ron Dermer Looks Back on His Years in Washington
Al-Mezan ties to terrorist organizations, incitement, and lawfare
In contrast to the lofty language of human rights and the rule of law, the selection of Al-Mezan represents the polar opposite of these principles. This Palestinian NGO, heavily funded by European governments, uses the façade of human rights to exploit courts and international legal bodies and to demonize Israel. Their lawfare campaigns seek arrest warrants against Israeli government officials, initiate lawsuits against companies and governments doing business with Israelis, and lobby for cases against Israelis at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
More disturbingly, a number of Al-Mezan officials and employees have ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), while another had been publicly linked to Hamas – both EU-designated terrorist organizations. For more information on Al-Mezan’s ties to terror organizations and celebration of violence by its employees, read NGO Monitor’s report, “Al Mezan Center For Human Rights’ Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
Additionally, the group and Younis have engaged with members of Hamas, the PFLP, and Islamic Jihad, including by hosting them at a public event to discuss strategies for attacking Israel at the ICC. In 2015, Al-Mezan’s “Palestine and the Expected Justice: The International Criminal Court” conference featured as speakers representatives from all three of these terrorist groups. In 2016, Issam Younis participated in a meeting hosted by the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), which included senior Hamas official and spokesperson of the Hamas government, Taher Al-Nunu, and then-leader of the PFLP in Gaza, Rabah Muhanna.
As detailed in NGO Monitor’s report, Al-Mezan employees and officials regularly engaged in the glorification of terrorism and incitement of violence:
From the Iran Deal to the rise of and fall of ISIS, from Israel’s year of inconclusive elections to a pandemic that has ravaged globe, the second decade of the 21st century has been history-making for both the United States and Israel. And for the better part of these last 10 years, Ron Dermer has served as the Jewish state’s ambassador in Washington, D.C. He is not the first native-born American who emigrated to Israel, rose to political prominence, and was then sent back here on behalf of his chosen nation. But his intimate understanding of America and the sensibilities of its citizens—both Jewish and non-Jewish—has helped him in his service and made him all the more effective.De Blasio Threatens To Shut Down Non-Compliant Orthodox Synagogue ‘Once And For All’
Ambassador Dermer is now preparing to leave his post and return home to Jerusalem. Before he goes, he joins the Tikvah Podcast to discuss what he’s done, what he’s proud of, the basis of the U.S.-Israel relationship today, and why he remains hopeful about the alliance between America and Israel in the 21st century.
Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio warned an ultra-Orthodox synagogue in Brooklyn on Tuesday that he will shut them down “once and for all” if they continue to flout his lockdown orders.Labour must expel likes of JVL
During a Tuesday press conference, de Blasio was asked about a large indoor funeral held Monday by Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, a prominent synagogue in Williamsburg that was also recently fined $15,000 for secretly conducting a large indoor wedding in November.
“If we see another confirmed situation in which an inappropriate event is happening in that same building, then we’re going to have to move to shut down the building once and for all,” de Blasio said, according to Gothamist. “That would be the next step if we see non-compliance.”
“I do think there’s an ideological factor that’s making things a lot harder,” de Blasio also said, seeming to imply that the Hasidic community’s continued non-compliance with state and city lockdown orders stems from their widespread support for President Donald Trump.
A unnamed source in the community told Gothamist that de Blasio’s threats were “laughable,” adding, “These tactics were available to him the entire time. I don’t see any reason to think he’s going to do it this time.”
Antisemitism is frightening because it is irrational. Some Jews are tempted to believe that they live in a world where antisemitism is a rational response to the bad behaviour of Jews. It is tempting because then Jews could make things better by being good. Sometimes taking on an antisemitic logic saves Jews from the fear of living in an antisemitic world. Jewish antizionism is one way of dealing the stress of living in an antisemitic world. It is understandable as such, but it makes things worse, not better.Koch and Soros-Backed Think Tank Honors Former Black Panther for ‘Responsible Statecraft’
Jews are often especially interested in Israel and sometimes Jews can become obsessive about the faults and crimes of Israel — real, exaggerated or invented. Some Jews export their Jewish obsession into non-Jewish spaces and insist that non-Jewish organisations adopt an ideology and culture which puts the crimes of Israel at the centre of their worldview.
The Israeli left adopts the old Bolshevik slogan, ‘the main enemy is at home’ and sometimes they get an enthusiastic hearing outside Israel, where others agree heartily that the main enemy of the oppressed everywhere, is Israel.
Viewed in this frame, the organisation Jewish Voice for Labour serves to kosherize Jeremy Corbyn’s antisemitic politics and to smear anyone who says they have experienced antisemitism in the Party. That is its function, that is why it exists. It is there to pretend that Labour Jews are split on the question of antisemitism.
Last week, in an effort to help people boycott Israel, JVL advertised Chanukah candles made in China. ‘Jewish Voice for Forced Labour’ was the meme around social media.
JVL has been an effective voice for antisemitic politics in Britain. If Labour is to save itself it will have to create a culture in which asaJews who fight for antisemitic politics are understood to be threatening not only to the Jewish community but also to Labour’s democratic heart, and to its hopes of creating a plausible alternative government.
The Labour Party appears committed to expelling and opposing members who fight for antisemitic politics. That must include Jewish members who sow confusion about what is, and what is not, antisemitic.
The Quincy Institute, a think tank funded by billionaires George Soros and Charles Koch, handed its first-ever "responsible statecraft" award to a far-left former Black Panther who has called for defunding the Pentagon and preventing U.S. military forces from defending themselves against terrorist attacks.JVP Criticized for Tweeting “L’Chaim Intifada” Poster
The Quincy Institute, known for its isolationist advocacy, awarded Rep. Barbara Lee (D., Calif.) last week for "her advancement of ideas and actions that move U.S. foreign policy away from endless war and toward vigorous diplomacy in the pursuit of international peace," according to a press release from the think tank.
Quincy's selection of Lee, who has called for defunding the Pentagon and voted against measures to condemn the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, further positions the organization as one of Washington's loudest isolationist voices. While pushing for what it calls a more restrained foreign policy approach, Quincy has been engulfed in controversy since its launch in late 2019 for hiring anti-Israel voices who have attacked American Jews as warmongers.
Lee, a former Black Panther whom the FBI investigated for her ties to the militant group known for its violent tactics, was the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization for use of military force in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York City.
"I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States," Lee said of her vote on Sept. 14, 2001, just days after the attacks by al Qaeda.
Lee has also called for defunding the Pentagon and has repeatedly pushed to defund American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. She has further advocated for the creation of a "U.S. Department of Peacebuilding" dedicated to "the study and advancement of peace."
Lee served as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, where she has made common cause with Reps. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.).
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), an organization that supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), has come under fire for a since-deleted tweet that appears to glorify the First Intifada.BDS’s Latest Tool: Anti-Cop Sentiment
The December 8 tweet featured a poster from a JVP member stating “where there is oppression, may there thrive resistance” and “L’Chaim Intifada.” JVP described the First Intifada in the tweet as “a series of mass protests against Israeli settler-colonialism and occupation.”Various pro-Israel users on Twitter condemned JVP’s tweet.277 Israelis were murdered during the first intifada.
— Elder of Ziyon 🇮🇱 (@elderofziyon) December 9, 2020
Today, the repulsive "Jewish Voice for Peace" is celebrating every one of those deaths. pic.twitter.com/AbbmUIa6u3
“277 Israelis, mostly civilians, were murdered during the First Intifada,” Avi Mayer, director of global communications for the American Jewish Committee, tweeted. “What do you call a group that celebrates the deaths of Jews?”
He added in a subsequent tweet that the poster in the JVP tweet “equates Palestinian rioters with partisans during World War II, suggesting that Israel is akin to Nazi Germany. As a reminder, this is defined as a form of antisemitism by the [International] Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.”
The Israel Advocacy Movement, a pro-Israel group in Britain, similarly tweeted: “This utterly repulsive antisemitic tweet from JVP will shock you. In it they compare the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade terror group and [Leila] Khaled (a terrorist who hijacked a plane) to Jews who resisted the Nazi genocide. This is disgusting, even by their standard.”
International human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky also tweeted, “[The] 1st Intifada was a brutal and violent Palestinian uprising. But trust [JVP] to stand up and glorify the terrorists.”
The anti-Israel movement is capitalizing on anti-police sentiment to expand its boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign against the state of Israel.Why Black conservatives in academia have supported Israel for decades
Activists—including university professors—are arguing that the "anti-Black" sentiments in the American policing system stem from lessons learned in police officer exchange programs with Israel. Such activists claim that the only way to stop the alleged "militarization" of American law enforcement is for the country to divest entirely from the state of Israel.
The U.S.-Israel police exchange program was launched to address the counterterrorism needs of local law enforcement in both countries following the September 11 attacks. More than 200 U.S. federal, state, and local officers have traveled to Israel to discuss effective counterterrorism techniques. Contrary to activists' claims, the program does not have a "field training" component nor does it teach officers how to use physical restraints.
In 2018, the Jewish Voice for Peace group founded the "End the Deadly Exchange" campaign, which aims to end international police conferences between the United States and Israel. The group claims that the exchange programs promote "worst practices" that "are shared to promote and extend discriminatory and repressive policing practices that already exist in both countries." Following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of the police, the "Deadly Exchange" campaign has gained traction, particularly on college campuses.
Steven Pomerantz, director of the Homeland Security Program at the Jewish policy think tank JINSA and former assistant director of the FBI, told the Washington Free Beacon the "Deadly Exchange" campaign is gaining momentum because of a burgeoning alliance between anti-Israel and anti-racist organizers. "[Jewish Voice for Peace] sees this opportunity to marry these two hot issues—Israel and alleged police brutality—and they have done that," Pomerantz said. "They're growing with allies in the Black Lives Matter movement and certainly on college campuses … where law enforcement is unpopular."
The death of Dr. Walter E. Williams (1936-2020) at age 84 in early December presents an opportunity to examine why so many Black conservatives in academia and media have supported Israel for decades compared to Israel-haters like Marc Lamont Hill.UK Pop Icon Boy George Claps Back at BDS Activists in Duet With Israeli Singer
Williams was Professor of Economics at George Mason University, as well as a syndicated columnist.
From 1973 to 1980 Williams was an economics professor at Temple University. He promoted free market ideas and in its December 2 obituary, the Wall Street Journal noted that "America has lost one of its greatest economists and public intellectuals."
By contrast Lamont Hill, age 41, says he is "Present Assistant Professor of Urban Education & American Studies (at) Temple University (Affiliated Professor of Anthropology) (Affiliated Professor of American Studies)" on the CV on his website.
That is a stark reminder of what Temple and so much of academia has become. A change from Economics taught to understand the destructive nature of socialism has become to. "Urban Education & American Studies" taught to denigrate America at every turn.
But, there is more. Much more.
You see, while Williams supported Israel and wanted to see a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, Lamont Hill demanded at the UN two years ago “a free Palestine from the river to the sea." Clearly calling for the elimination of Israel.
Lamont Hill has long defended his relationship with Farrakhan and has been a very vocal advocate of the conspiracy theory that convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal is wrongly imprisoned.
Conversely, some snapshots of Dr. Williams's opinions on Israel from his columns are well worth sharing:
British pop icon Boy George has released a new single that he wrote and sang in collaboration with Israeli artist Asaf Goren in response to the hate he received from BDS supporters for performing in the Jewish state several years ago.
“Rainbow in the Dark” was released on Dec. 3 and has lyrics in both English and Hebrew. In the song, Boy George sings: “Let your head speak to your heart. Don’t let no one tell you who you are. Meditate, be beautiful and smart. Yeah I hope you see my rainbow in the dark.”
Boy George, who is also the lead singer of the pop band Culture Club, received a number of vicious messages following his performance in Israel in 2017 and wanted to push back against BDS activists, Goren said.
The Israeli singer told Ynet, “He got a lot of heat from the BDS [movement] so he decided to do something and collaborate with an Israeli musician.”
The two artists first connected on social media. Goren, who appeared on Israel’s reality show “Big Brother,” said Boy George liked his solo album and tagged him in a post on Instagram.
The two then corresponded via email and chatted on Zoom, and began working on the track together, by sending recorded pieces to each other.
Boy George also insisted that he wanted some Hebrew in the song, according to Goren.
Palestinians Re-writing history: Life Magazine
During its prime, Life Magazine featured some of the greatest writers, editors, illustrators and photographers of the time. Life chronicled daily life in America and across the world. It profiled celebrities- from world leaders to entertainers. And it documented a world at war.
Recently, Palestinian activists have been re-purposing the iconic photos of Life Magazine, in an effort to create a history that hadn't existed before.
The Palestine Project has reproduced and recaptioned photos from Life Magazine, replacing references and captions of "Arabs" with "Palestinians", and removing the photos from their historic context. They are literally re-writing history.
The Life Magazine archives are fully digitized and are available on Google books for future reference. Interestingly enough, in their attempt to re-write history, the Palestine Project neglected to include this very interesting photo and caption, which describes the principal Arab field commander Fawzi Bey, an ally of the Nazis during World War II.
Police in Idaho Investigating Vandalism of Anne Frank Statue With Nazi Symbols
Police in Idaho are investigating the defacing of a statue of Anne Frank — the Dutch Jewish girl who kept a diary while in hiding from the Nazis during World War II — by suspected neo-Nazis.Jersey City to remember victims of anti-Semitic attack on one-year anniversary
The life-size bronze statue of Frank, which is installed at the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights in Boise, was plastered with antisemitic and racist stickers on Tuesday. The stickers included Nazi and racist symbols alongside the written warning, “We are everywhere.”
The statue of Frank is the only memorial in the US that is dedicated to her specifically.
Other items vandalized included a statue representing the “spiral of injustice” that emanates from the use of hateful speech, as well as a photograph of the center’s founder, Bill Wassmuth — a Catholic priest from Idaho who left the priesthood to focus on fighting white supremacists and the Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi group that at the time was based in northern part of the state.
“What makes this event actually so sad was the blatancy where the stickers were placed, how they were placed and the message they were proclaiming,” Dan Prinzing — executive director of the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights — told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Prinzing noted with regret that the vandalism had occurred just as the Jewish community was preparing for the first night of the Hanukkah holiday on Thursday.
“I think what we’re seeing, we have to take seriously — such acts aren’t just random,” Prinzing said. “In the sticker, they are proclaiming that they are everywhere. We have to remind people that good people are everywhere, that good exists, and now is the time for good to come together.”
Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee called the vandalism “absolutely reprehensible.”
Jersey City will pause Thursday to mark the one-year anniversary of an anti-Semitic attack that killed a police officer and three people in a Jewish grocery store.German Judge Silences Neo-Nazi Gunman Who Attacked Synagogue on Yom Kippur After He Denies Holocaust
A ceremony will honor Police Det. Joseph Seals at the cemetery where he was shot and killed on December 10, 2019, during a chance meeting with assailants David Anderson and Francine Graham.
Anderson and Graham then drove to the kosher market where they shot and killed three people including the store’s owner, 31-year-old Mindel Ferencz, and store employee Douglas Miguel Rodriguez, who held the back door open for a wounded customer to escape before he was shot. The third victim was Moshe Deutsch, 24.
Seals, a 40-year-old married father of five, was lauded as a model officer who helped get guns off the streets of the city of 270,000 that sits across the Hudson River from New York City.
Anderson and Graham barricaded themselves inside the store and were killed after a lengthy gunfight with police. Authorities said notes and online posts by the pair reflected a hatred of Jews and law enforcement.
It wasn’t certain what prompted the attack, though authorities have speculated Seals may have stopped the U-Haul van Anderson and Graham were driving because it fit the description of a vehicle connected to the slaying of a livery car driver a few days earlier. In doing so, Seals may have thrown off their plans and prevented more bloodshed.
The neo-Nazi on trial in Germany for an attempted massacre in October 2019 of worshipers attending Yom Kippur services in the central city of Halle was silenced in court by the presiding judge for remarks in which he denied the Holocaust.Germany drops investigation into former Nazi guard living in US
The accused, 28-year-old Stephan Balliet, claimed that the Holocaust was a myth as he delivered his final testimony to the court. Holocaust denial is a criminal offense in Germany and several other European countries.
Balliet told the court in Magdeburg that the proceedings against him were a “show trial” and denied the Holocaust, drawing shouts of protest from the co-plaintiffs on the benches.
Judge Ursula Mertens promptly reminded him that denying the Holocaust was illegal before cutting him off.
“I explained this to you, you must not repeat it,” Mertens told the defendant, as prosecuting attorney Alexander Hoffman called out, “This is a criminal offense, and he should do time for it again,”
Unrepentant neo-Nazi Balliet had previously denied the Holocaust during the trial, while also spouting racist and misogynist conspiracy theories and confirming that “attacking the synagogue was not a mistake, they are my enemies.”
On Oct. 9, 2019, as the Jewish community marked the holy day of Yom Kippur, Balliet drove to the synagogue on Halle’s Humboldtstrasse just before noon, as more than 50 worshipers inside the sanctuary held religious services. Balliet was equipped with eight firearms, several explosive devices, a helmet and a protective vest for the attack.
Germany has dropped a probe into a former Nazi guard who was slated to become “possibly the last” suspect deported from the US for alleged complicity in the Holocaust, prosecutors said Thursday.French man who stabbed neighbor to ‘kill a Jew’ declared unfit to stand trial
Friedrich Karl Berger, 95, had been accused of aiding and abetting the killing of prisoners as a guard at two concentration camps in northern Germany, in particular by overseeing a brutal evacuation march.
A court in March ordered his deportation from the US, where he has been living since 1959.
Berger had admitted guarding prisoners in the camps, which were part of the infamous Neuengamme network, but said he had not observed any mistreatment or overseen an evacuation.
“Berger was part of the SS machinery of oppression that kept concentration camp prisoners in atrocious conditions of confinement,” US Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said at the time.
But no further evidence is available and US investigations “have not linked the accused to any specific act of killing,” German prosecutors said. “No further information is to be expected from a hearing of the accused in Germany.”
A man who told police in France last year that he had stabbed his neighbor because he wanted “to kill a Jew” has been found unfit to stand trial.Chelsea launches exhibition about Jewish athletes and the Holocaust
He is the latest French defendant who has successfully used an insanity defense for an alleged anti-Semitic crime.
The 20-year-old stabber, whom French media have not named, told a judge that robots told him to “kill a Jew, who was the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler” before the attack in April 2019 in Bourdon, some 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Paris.
The man stabbed one of his neighbors, a 58-year-old man who is not Jewish. The victim survived the incident with moderate injuries.
The perpetrator was deemed to be not criminally responsible for his actions due to psychiatric problems and was ordered to remain at a psychiatric hospital, French publication Contact FM reported Tuesday.
In recent years, several perpetrators of allegedly anti-Semitic attacks have successfully used insanity defenses that allowed them to avoid standing trial for their violence. Many French Jews and organizations have protested these cases, which they say reflects a reluctance by the judiciary to confront anti-Semitism.
Chelsea Football Club, in partnership with the Jewish News and renowned British Israeli street artist Solomon Souza, on Wednesday launched the exhibition “49 Flames – Jewish Athletes and the Holocaust”.Dave Grohl, Greg Kurstin Announce ‘Hanukkah Sessions’ Covers Series
Last year, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich commissioned Solomon Souza to create a commemorative mural of Jewish soccer players who perished during the Holocaust. The final piece was presented during an event at Stamford Bridge observing Holocaust Memorial Day 2020.
The club has now worked with Souza to develop an extended exhibition featuring Jewish athletes who were killed by the Nazis during the Second World War. The art installation and virtual exhibition is part of Chelsea FC’s Say No to Antisemitism campaign and funded by club owner Roman Abramovich.
The name “49 Flames” refers to the number of Olympic medalists who were murdered during the Holocaust.
The exhibition aims to tell the story of the Holocaust through the eyes of Jewish athletes. Of the 15 athletes featured, profiles include Alfred Flatow and Gustav Felix Flatow, German Jewish gold medalists at the first modern Olympics held in Athens in 1896. The cousins, both gymnasts, would die of starvation in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Also featured is German Jewish track and field athlete Lilli Henoch, who set four world records and won 10 German national championships.
Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and producer Greg Kurstin have announced Hanukkah Sessions, with the pair celebrating the holiday by sharing eight covers of songs by Jewish artists.New parts of Herod’s palace unveiled, including 300-seat personal theater
Kurstin, who is Jewish, and Grohl, who is not Jewish, revealed their plans on Twitter Wednesday, the night before the start of the eight-day Festival of Lights at sundown Thursday.
“This year, instead of doing a Christmas song, Greg and I decided to celebrate Hanukkah by recording eight songs by eight famous Jewish artists each night of Hanukkah for you, so we hope you enjoy,” Grohl said.With all the mishegas of 2020, @GregKurstin & I were kibbitzing about how we could make Hannukah extra-special this year. Festival of Lights?! How about a festival of tasty LICKS! So hold on to your tuchuses... we’ve got something special coming for your shayna punims.
— Foo Fighters (@foofighters) December 10, 2020
L’chaim!! pic.twitter.com/baTduQYdBW
He added in a tweet, “With all the mishegas of 2020, @GregKurstin and I were kibbitzing about how we could make Hannukah extra-special this year. Festival of Lights?! How about a festival of tasty LICKS! So hold on to your tuchuses… We’ve got something special coming for your shayna punims. L’chaim!!”
Grohl and Kurstin did not reveal who they’ll be covering, but in the past, Foo Fighters have covered Jewish-ish artists like Rush (bassist Geddy Lee is Jewish), Kiss (Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley), and Van Halen (David Lee Roth).
Israeli authorities are set to unveil previously off-limits structures within King Herod’s palace-fortress Herodium, which the tyrannical Roman-era leader interred as his enormous burial plot.2,700 years ago, tiny clay piece sealed deal for Bible’s King Jeroboam II
Herodium, a hugely popular tourism destination, is near Bethlehem in the West Bank but falls in an area where Israel exercises full military and civilian control.
Archaeologists say Herod decided toward the end of his life to bury his palace, using ground from below the hill it was perched upon, until the outline of the structure was no longer visible.
Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority plans to open the revamped site on Sunday, allowing visitors to see for the first time Herodium’s arched stairway, foyer and private theater.
The Judean Desert complex was built by the Roman-appointed king known both for his brutality and the magnificent structures built during his reign over Judea from 37 to 4 BCE.
The hilltop palace, its main entrance facing Jerusalem, was Herod’s favorite.
It was the only one he named after himself and where he chose to be buried, said Roi Porat, the Hebrew University archaeologist in charge of the excavations.
What is arguably the earliest inscribed clay seal impression from the Land of Israel — used at the court of Israelite King Jeroboam II — has been authenticated after years of strict laboratory testing under the supervision of Ben-Gurion University Prof. Yuval Goren. The inscribed clay, known as a bulla, was purchased without provenance from a Bedouin antiquities merchant in the 1980s and is now thought to be from Jeroboam II’s 8th century BCE reign.
“This bulla is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, inscribed bulla in the Land of Israel,” Goren told The Times of Israel ahead of the publication of a scientific study in Hebrew in a special edition of the Eretz Yisrael journal dedicated to epigrapher Ada Yardeni. It will later appear in English in the Israel Exploration Journal.
The oval bulla is almost identical to a rare — and now lost — much larger jasper stone seal that was found in 1904 by an archaeological excavation at Tel Megiddo led by Gottlieb Schumacher. Both the remarkable lost seal and the newly authenticated seal impression are adorned by a roaring lion that stands with his tail raised, over which is a paleo-Hebrew inscription, “l’Shema eved Yerov’am” (Belonging to Shema the servant/minister of Jeroboam). Jeroboam II is historically understood to have ruled from 788 BCE to 748 BCE.
The bulla has only a partial impression of the inscription, but Goren said it is clearly the same as what was incised on the jasper seal. The fact that the royal seal came in varied sizes is noteworthy and novel to this study, according to a Ben-Gurion University press release.
A synagogue in Siberia has a 10-foot menorah made of ice
A synagogue in Tomsk, a Siberian city in Russia, has unveiled a giant Hanukkah menorah made of ice.
The 10-foot menorah was erected Tuesday inside the synagogue yard. Tomsk, a city of roughly 500,000, is located about 2,000 miles east of Moscow.
The menorah was made by Seva Mayorov, a local non-Jewish artist whose work also features regularly at the annual Tomsk Ice Park exhibition, which attracts thousands of tourists to the city annually.
The victory of Light over Darkness.
— RedLehi (@LehiRed) December 10, 2020
“Jewish members of the US Army pray in Nazi Joseph Goebbels' home, 1945. Prayers were offered for soldiers lost by the 29th Division, U.S. 9th Army.
"We survived" - Victory.”#Hanukkah #Chanukah pic.twitter.com/mTfDNB47gK
Netanyahu and Eden Ben Zaken release duet to support Israel's elderly
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu partnered with Israeli singing sensation Eden Ben Zaken in an emotional duet, recorded to support the NGO Ken Lazaken, that works to help Israel's elderly. The video is focused on deepening intergenerational connections even during the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic.
"There are vaccines for corona, but there is no vaccine for loneliness. It is in our hands," said Netanyahu.
"I call on every young person to decide that he will visit his grandma, grandpa or the neighbor and help him get through this time. We have love in us for the older generation," Netanyahu said, in a play on the words of the song.
The clip features videos of internet personalities and grandparents while, in the background, Netanyahu's sultry baritone harmonizes with Ben Zaken's familiar vocal stylings as they sing Arik Einstein's Yesh bi ahava.
"This is an especially exciting project for me, in which we show that to help the elderly, even the Prime Minister is willing to sing," said Ben Zaken. "If because of my singing, there are elderly people who get through the winter in better condition, I will be happy.
Nissim Black’s ‘The Hava Song’ remakes ‘Hava Nagila’ in time for Hanukkah.
The latest single by Nissim Black, a pathbreaking Orthodox hip-hop artist, reimagines what may be the mostly widely known Jewish song.
“The Hava Song,” released on Black’s 34th birthday Wednesday, is a modern and bass-forward reimagining of the traditional “Hava Nagila.” It features Black rapping about gratitude, his place in Jewish society and even allusions to the coming Messianic age.
“Big house coming down / from the sky to the crowd / we’re gonna sing it out loud / Black, Jewish and proud,” he sings.
Black’s previous releases, including the popular single “Mothaland Bounce,” have racked up tens of millions of views on Youtube and are popular with Orthodox audiences.
Black has been producing music since his teens but has been exclusively creating Jewish music with religious themes since his conversion to Judaism in 2012. He moved to Israel in 2016, where he currently lives with his wife and six children.
The Story Behind the Hanukkah Menorah
New video series: Behind the Scenes at Yad Vashem
Michael Tal talks about the Hanukkah menorah that was hidden in a synagogue in Holland before the town's Jews were deported.
Curator Michael Tal is the Director of the Artifacts Department in the Museums Division at Yad Vashem.
Happy #Chanukah !
— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) December 10, 2020
Chag #ChanukahSameach to all of you! pic.twitter.com/jN95A4Z4yv
