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Monday, July 12, 2021

07/12 Links Pt2: Clubhouse of Antisemites; Arizona's Holocaust education does not protect Jews; 3,000-year-old inscription bearing name of biblical judge found in Israel

From Ian:

Clubhouse of Antisemites
As a Jewish educator and rabbi who could speak authoritatively on the historical roots and applications of Jew-hatred, I began to get pinged or invited to join such rooms by other Jews who wanted a defense of our community.

One afternoon, I was called into a room discussing Israel and her struggles against Hamas and other terrorist organizations. One person in the discussion suggested that if Israel ever had the upper hand militarily, they would kill all Arabs in the region. I gently pointed out that since the late 1960s, Israel has had—as policymakers call it—a qualitative military edge, but despite that advantage, Israel instead pursued peace with its Arab neighbors in the region. A pointed exchange, but a purely political one.

Then a young man who was known for frequent antisemitic outbursts joined the virtual stage, and not only condemned my view, but equated my acknowledgement of Israel’s military might with a call for genocide. Despite everyone present pointing out that this was not what I said, the young man went on a tirade against Jews in general and their innate desire for blood and vengeance.

That night, a room began, hosted by several anti-Israel voices on Clubhouse including the fellow I met earlier that day. The room suggested that all Jews sought to murder Arabs living in Israel or the territories, and then the topic turned to me personally. I was quickly identified as a problem because “no one is able to counter his views.” Two solutions were proposed. The first was to use the reporting feature that Clubhouse includes to flag problematic content to mass report my account, with the hopes of having me removed from Clubhouse. The second was to “dox” me personally. My home address, where I live with my wife and five children, was publicly announced in the room. While as the Chabad rabbi of the University of Kentucky and the Lexington area, my address is fairly easy to find by design, to hear it announced in this fashion along with calls for “someone to do something about him” was certainly jarring.

The campaign to mass report me bore fruit and Clubhouse restricted my ability to begin conversations for 24 hours. My rights were thankfully restored after an appeal, but nothing was done to moderate the violent threats being made against me or other members of the Jewish community.

In the aforementioned Nation of Islam room led by LaKeith Stanfield, I was pinged in on a Saturday night following hours and hours of conversation on the app over Shabbat when many Jews were not there to defend themselves. After laying out academically how The Secret Relationship, the nation of Islam’s hateful pseudo-history book, has long been debunked, I was immediately inundated with vicious attacks, including references to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Holocaust denial, and death threats in my inbox.
Arizona's Holocaust education does not protect Jews - opinion
Obviously, there is little value to Holocaust education if we don’t teach students to identify antisemitism when they see it today. As HB2241 proceeded through the Senate, a video of House Minority Whip Athena Salman using an antisemitic blood libel on the floor of the Arizona House surfaced. Suspiciously, Salman was also a co-sponsor of HB-2241, an oddity that hardly makes sense to those who understand the issue of contemporary antisemitism. The prime House sponsor of HB-2241, Rep. Alma Hernandez, was privately approached and surprisingly refused to engage in a discussion of the policy and practical concerns raised by her bill’s exclusion of the IHRA definition. This was unlike her, given her history of strong national leadership within the Jewish community and in supporting the IHRA definition.

SOON ENOUGH, another video emerged of Minority Whip Salman claiming credit for having stopped the IHRA Definition in 2020. This was an attack effort she pursued in partnership with the ACLU. Suddenly, the suspicion surrounding HB-2241 gave way to an understanding of what was taking place. The price paid to clear Holocaust education with Salman and other progressive House leaders was for moderate Democrats to detach and hand over control of the serious issue of antisemitism to the ACLU. What we see clearly reflected in this bill is the fact that many of Arizona’s fine Democratic legislators have politically been taken hostage by extremists, a trend taking place all around the country.

Antisemitism in America today has no greater asset than the sophisticated legislative and legal support it receives from the ACLU. One need look no further than their unabashed activities and affiliations in Arizona in recent years to gather this fact. Their aligning efforts with hate groups that persecute Jewish persons on the basis of national origin showcase a stunning lack of objectivity, an embrace of bigotry packaged in deceitful narratives of victimhood and anti-racism, and double standards applied to suit their extremist political agenda.

The ACLU and antisemites of all ideologies oppose the IHRA definition because it objectively exposes the true nature of stylized contemporary antisemitism. We all know that antisemites often use the pretense of referring to Israel or Zionists when the public perception they seek to cultivate speaks to the Jewish people as a collective. Contrary to the ACLU’s false claims, the IHRA definition doesn’t prevent antisemitic speech, it merely highlights its bigoted nature for those who lack a proper understanding of this unique form of racism.

To be clear, the overwhelming majority of Democrats oppose antisemitism and wish to combat it. However, if they are unable to stand up to the ACLU and antisemites in legislatures, they will certainly be unable to do so in classrooms. Arizona’s Democrats now face a heavy moral responsibility for the fate of a Holocaust education mandate that includes no safeguards from abuse at a time of crisis for Jewish students. HB2241 is therefore a cause for soul-searching rather than celebration.
Failed Louisiana Holocaust education bill was used to pan critical race theory
He soon began telling fellow board members at Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation, in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, that the bill was more complicated than it appeared.

The Shir Chadash board decided not to weigh in on the legislation. And it wasn’t alone: While the regional chapter of the Anti-Defamation League and the New Orleans Jewish Federation backed the bill, several of the state’s Jewish community leaders declined to endorse it.

Ultimately the bill died in the State Senate. Still, its short life was notable because of how it functioned as a front in the battle between right-wing white lawmakers and progressive Black lawmakers over critical race theory, an academic framework for teaching race and history that has become a target for conservatives at statehouses and school board meetings across the country.

The Holocaust education bill seemed potentially uncontroversial when Hodges introduced the measure in April. The original text simply called for “instruction regarding World War II and the Holocaust for middle and high school students and training for teachers relative to such instruction.”

Many Jewish groups have called for exactly that kind of requirement, arguing that education is the key to increasing tolerance and preventing genocides in the future. Currently, 17 states require some form of Holocaust education in schools. Louisiana, which one study pegged as having one of the lowest percentages of Holocaust-aware young people in the US, is seen as especially in need of similar mandates. The state also recently became the new home of the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, boosting the visibility of Jews in the region.

But as lawmakers held hearings on the bill, it became clear that many of its supporters had a different vision — starting with Hodges, an evangelical ex-missionary and prominent conservative who has served in the Louisiana State Legislature for a decade. Hodges initially accepted, then declined, an interview with JTA.

On her professional Facebook page during the bill’s debate period, Hodges shared an image of Hitler with a caption calling him “everything today’s liberal craves.” Another post compared Nazi Germany to critical race theory and the New York Times’ 1619 Project, writing, “World War II was about RACE, yet liberals objected to it being included in my bill … Hitler had been laying the groundwork for at least 15 years before the Holocaust. It began with the organization of college students who would be the ones to help him implement his reign of horror.”


New York Times Belatedly Finds Stabbing of Chabad Rabbi Fit to Cover, at Least Online
Better late than never.

Two days after an Algemeiner column faulted the New York Times for failing to cover the July 1 stabbing of a rabbi in Boston, the Times waddled in with an online-only article bringing its readers up to date on the story.

The Times article, headlined, “Man Charged With Hate Crimes in Stabbing of Rabbi in Boston,” includes four paragraphs from the accused assailant’s defense lawyer, Stephen J. Weymouth, who told the Times the new hate crime charges were “based on some very weak evidence.”

The attack had drawn immediate coverage from outlets including the Associated Press, CNN, Fox News, and the Daily Mail, even as the New York Times skipped it. A rally against antisemitism, organized in response to the attack, attracted Boston’s acting mayor, the district attorney, and a member of Congress.

The Algemeiner column had speculated that the Times might have been ignoring the story because “a fair-minded, thorough investigation into such attacks might eventually force the newspaper to examine unflinchingly the role that the Times’ own coverage has played in inciting the violence.” It also wondered whether the Times had lost interest in the antisemitism issue “now that antisemitism is not so readily blamed on Donald Trump.”
Pro-Israel Democrats Battle Bernie Sanders, AOC, for Ohio Seat and Party’s Future
A special election to fill the seat representing Ohio’s 11th Congressional District in the US House will be held in November, and the party primaries are scheduled for August 3. The winner will replace former Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, who was appointed by President Joe Biden to be his Secretary for Housing and Urban Development.

The Ohio 11th is a blue district and a safe seat for Democrats – out of the 15 candidates running in the special election, 13 are Democrats, only two Republicans.

The two major Democrats in the race are Shontel Brown, the establishment candidate, a Cuyahoga County councilor and Chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party; and Nina Turner, the progressive candidate, president of Our Revolution, former state senator, former Minority Whip of the Ohio Senate, former Cleveland City Councilor, national co-chair of the 2016 and 2020 Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns, and nominee for Ohio Secretary of State in 2014.

AOC told the press back in March about Turner: “I need her alongside me in Congress in the fight for racial, economic, social, and environmental justice.”

In a May poll of 600 likely Democratic voters, Turner received 50% followed by Brown with 15%.

That was in May. Since then, the Ohio 11th special election has become a proxy war between Sen. Bernie Sanders’ protégé Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who backs Turner, and Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment who support Brown.

And, also naturally, wherever one finds Sanders and AOC, the issue of US support for Israel permeates the local debates, resulting in support for Brown from pro-Israel Democrats, including Reps. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), Ted Deutch (Fla.), David Trone (Md.), and Brad Schneider (Ill.).


Group of Syracuse Students Harassed With Antisemitic Slurs, Pelted With Eggs From Car
A group of students walking near the Syracuse University campus were pelted with eggs and heckled with antisemitic slurs, according to a bias incident report by the school’s Department of Public Safety (DPS).

The incident occurred on Saturday around 1 a.m. between Waverly Avenue and University Avenue, when the students were approached by unknown individuals in a silver SUV.

No one was injured, the report said, and the students were unable to identify the driver or details about his car.

“Although we have no way of knowing just yet whether the perpetrators are affiliated with our university, one thing is certain, this kind of hate is not welcome in our community,” said DPS Chief Bobby Maldonado.

“We appreciate the students reporting this incident right away as it gives us a better chance of identifying those responsible,” he said.


Open Letter to Los Angeles Times Leadership
As the world’s oldest and largest Middle East media monitoring group, CAMERA joins with many other Los Angeles Times readers to convey grave concern about the open letter “From journalists, to journalists: Why reporting on Palestine has to change” (the “Open Letter”) signed last month by some 500 media practitioners, including nine Times journalists (two of them anonymous).

As of this writing, we are unaware of any action by The Times to deplore the content of the letter or its signatories’ endorsement of it.

According to your journalists who signed the Open Letter, coverage of Israeli-Palestinian issues should be filtered through the distorting prism of “Israel’s military occupation and its system of apartheid.” By signing onto such a politically motivated and bigoted statement, they are taking a disgraceful stand against the ethical framework that has guided responsible journalism for the better part of a century: namely, the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics (SPJ Code), which clearly sets forth the position that “impartiality should still be a reporter’s goal,” even in today’s “superheated political environment.”

You have no doubt seen the alarming findings of the recently published report by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, revealing that out of 46 surveyed countries, the United States ranks dead last (29 percent) in terms of public trust in news media. As members of the public who deeply cherish the media’s traditional role—as described in the SPJ Code to practice ethical journalism in the service of “public enlightenment as the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy”—we are greatly troubled by the ailing relationship between the American public and its media. We are certain you share this concern.

Regrettably, The Los Angeles Times journalists who signed the Open Letter do not share that concern and their call to subvert core journalistic norms will worsen the media’s disastrous standing in public opinion and your paper’s reputation in particular.

That is why we urge you to denounce the sentiments of the Open Letter and underscore there will be no abandonment of essential adherence to fact, impartiality and balance.

There is no ambiguity in the Letter’s call for subverting of such journalistic principle. It urges you to substitute propaganda for objectivity and fact.
Antisemitism Up Over 900 Percent on Social Media Giant TikTok, Finds University of Haifa Study
Antisemitic activity on the hugely popular social media app TikTok has skyrocketed over the past year, a new study by the University of Haifa revealed.

TikTok has 1.2 billion users and is used predominantly by young people, with over 41% of users between the ages of 16 and 21. At the same time, the enormous number of users and minimal content moderation has helped lead to a proliferation antisemitic, racist, extremist, and neo-Nazi activity.

The Haifa study found that problem is getting steadily worse, with a shocking 912% increase in antisemitic content over the past year.

This included a 41% increase in antisemitic posts and a 1375% increase in usernames with antisemitic connotations — such as @holocaustwasgood or @eviljews.

Antisemitic content found by the study included videos of users giving the Nazi salute; stereotypical images of Jews; Holocaust denial or minimization; and texts like “I have a solution, a final solution.”

Even when TikTok attempted to counter the trend, such as by posting an educational video on Holocaust Memorial Day, the content was immediately targeted by huge numbers of antisemitic comments.
AFP Misleads on ‘Newly-Established’ Eviatar
As AFP itself reported the day of the evacuation (“Israeli settlers leave West Bank outpost after govt deal,” July 2):
Israeli settlers left an illegal outpost in the occupied West Bank Friday in adherence to an agreement struck with nationalist premier Naftali Bennett’s new government, AFP reporters and a settler leader said.

With Israeli military and police on site, the last cars streamed out of Eviatar — near the Palestinian city of Nablus — in compliance with the 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) deadline to leave the outpost.

Why don’t the captions give any indication that the outpost its emptied of residents, selectively and misleadingly reporting only that it’s “newly-established”? CAMERA has contacted AFP to request modification of the captions to make clear that the outpost has been evacuated.
Antennas and sunlight-cooling nanoparticles win top Florida-Israel space prize
Among the aerospace technologies that have won funding from a joint research and development program set up by Space Florida and the Israel Innovation Authority are an innovative antenna for satellites and nanoparticle materials to cool down objects using sunlight.

Space Florida, the aerospace and space development authority for the State of Florida, and the Israel Innovation Authority, in charge of fostering Israel’s tech ecosystem, on Monday announced the four winners of the program to promote joint US-Israeli R&D projects in the field of aerospace and related technology.

Space Florida-Israel Innovation Partnership Program was set up in October 2013 with a $2 million recurring joint fund to support research, development, and commercialization of aerospace and other technology projects that benefit both Israel and Florida.

For the latest funding round, the program’s eighth, 20 joint proposals were submitted by teams of for-profit companies in Florida and Israel, out of which the four winning teams were selected.

“Florida’s space industry is rich in innovation, research and development, and collaborations like the program with Israel help to ensure a bright future in space,” said Florida’s lieutenant governor Jeanette Nuñez. “I look forward to seeing the results from this year’s winning companies.”
Coca-Cola Israel invests in Biomilk to develop cultivated milk products
The Central Bottling Company, also known as Coca-Cola Israel, has signed a strategic agreement with Israeli startup Biomilk to invest and collaborate with the firm to develop products based on its cultured milk technology.

The Central Bottling Company is a private Israeli maker and distributor of soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and dairy products. The firm has the Israeli franchise of Coca-Cola products from Coca-Cola International.

Biomilk, whose shares are traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, said in a filing that the collaboration will help boost its R&D operations. Biomilk isolates the milk-producing cells from cows’ udders and transfers them to a bioreactor, where they are exposed to materials patented by the firm to produce milk, but without needing a cow in the final milk-producing process.

Under the memorandum of understanding signed between the parties, the Central Bottling Company will invest a total of $2 million in Biomilk. Half of the amount will be invested when a final agreement is signed, with the remaining $1 million to be invested when milestones are met.

For the initial investment, the Central Bottling Company will get shares, at a price of NIS 6.24 a share, and options in Biomilk. The Central Bottling company will provide Biomilk with access to its experts and the two firms will work together to further develop the cultured milk products, which will be then tested in the dairy manufacturing plant of the Central Bottling Company.

Biomilk shares advanced almost 3% on Monday, at 4:55 p.m. in Tel Aviv, after surging close to 8% earlier in the day.
Made-in-Israel anti-viral nasal spray found effective against COVID
An anti-viral nasal spray called Enovid that was developed in Canada and tested in the UK can reduce the viral loads in confirmed COVID-19 cases by 95% in 24 hours and 99% in 72 hours, a press release said on Sunday.

The Israeli-manufactured spray can be used up to five times a day after coming in contact with viruses, according to the release. It's suitable for children as young as 12 years old, and the Ministry of Health approved it in January this year. It will go on sale in the coming week.

"The spray we developed has been proven not only as a virus blocker that causes Covid-19 but also as a killer," Dr. Gili Regev, CEO and founder of Snotize (the company that developed the spray) said.

Since most COVID-19 infections are nasal, SaNOtize believes this is an effective way to reduce the spread and infection of COVID-19. It has been able to suppress the SARS-CoV-2 virus within two minutes, including the Alpha and Gamma variants, according to the release. It is currently being tested against the Delta variant.

The spray employs nitric oxide as a mechanical and chemical barrier against viral infection in the nose, which is where respiratory diseases like COVID-19 infiltrate the body.

The spray is also effective against other respiratory viruses such as those that cause flu.
Man who rescued 669 Czech children from Nazis is now the hero of a kids’ book
When Vera, a young Jewish girl, was growing up outside of Prague in 1938, she had little on her mind besides her grandmother and love of animals. But her blissful childhood would change forever with the emerging crisis brought about by her country’s neighbor, Nazi Germany.

When Vera’s parents learned about an opportunity for Jewish children to escape to the United Kingdom organized by an Englishman named Nicholas Winton, they sent their 9-year-old daughter on a train out. Ultimately, 669 Jewish children were saved by the series of transports out of Czechoslovakia.

Winton, who kept quiet about his role, was surprised on live television decades later as fellow members of the studio audience revealed themselves to be children whose lives he helped save.

Winton, lived a long life, dying in 2015 at the age of 106 and now his moving narrative is being told in “Nicky & Vera,” a new book by award-winning children’s author and illustrator Peter Sis, released earlier this year. The book has been named to a summer reading list for children by The Times and The Sunday Times.

Collectively, those saved became known as “Winton’s Children” — one of whom, Vera (Diamantova) Gissing, is the real-life protagonist of the book. Winton saved others who would go on to be noteworthy achievers, including British politician Alfred Dubs (Baron Dubs), geneticist Renata Laxova and a co-founder of the Israel Air Force, Hugo Marom, who was born in Brno, the same hometown as Sis.

“Winton’s Children” are part of a wider story of the Kindertransports in which Jewish child refugees from Nazism came to the UK.
3,000-year-old inscription bearing name of biblical judge found in Israel
An inscription dating back some 3,100 years ago bearing the name of a biblical judge, Jerubbaal, was uncovered in the excavations at Khirbat er-Ra‘i, near Kiryat Gat in the Southern District of Israel, the Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced on Monday.

The researchers highlighted that while there cannot be any certainty on whether the inscription refers to the figure mentioned in the Book of Judges, this discovery offers important insights on the connection between the biblical text and historical reality.

Inscriptions from that period – the 12th-11th century BCE – are extremely rare. All the dating has been carried out through both pottery typology and radiocarbon of organic samples found in the same archaeological layer.

The writing, inked on a jug, marks the first time that the name Jerubbaal has been found outside the biblical text. It is believed that the owner penned his name on the jug.

“The name Jerubbaal is familiar from biblical tradition in the Book of Judges as an alternative name for the judge Gideon ben Yoash,” according to Prof. Yosef Garfinkel and archeologist Sa‘ar Ganor from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Garfinkel and Ganor co-direct the excavations at the site with Dr. Kyle Keimer and Dr. Gil Davies from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia – a partner in the dig together with the IAA.

“Gideon is first mentioned as combating idolatry by breaking the altar to Baal and cutting down the Asherah pole,” they explained. “In biblical tradition, he is then remembered as triumphing over the Midianites, who used to cross over the Jordan to plunder agricultural crops. According to the Bible, Gideon organized a small army of 300 soldiers and attacked the Midianites by night near Ma‘ayan Harod.”







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