To Combat Antisemitism, We Must Oppose Anti-Zionism—at Home and Abroad
This ideology—antisemitic anti-Zionism—is on the march. It is an ideology rooted in ancient hatreds which targets for hate and opprobrium the modern-day State of Israel. And tragically, in the West, it is Europe—in whose bloodlands six million Jews were murdered eight decades ago—which is at its epicentre.Melbourne survivor takes Whoopi to task
Last week, for instance, Amnesty International published a report which compared Israel to apartheid-era South Africa. Factually inaccurate and intellectually dishonest, the report has little to do with legitimate concerns about the plight of the Palestinian people. Instead, it's part of a continuing effort by some on the Left to demonize and delegitimize the world's sole Jewish state.
The "apartheid smear" originated in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign, a movement which focuses obsessively and exclusively on Israel's "crimes" and which has done nothing to further the cause of peace in the Middle East. That's not their goal. As Bassem Eid, the founder of Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, has argued, "The agenda of the BDS campaign is to try to destroy Israel."
It has, moreover, inspired a welter of anti-Israel campaigning on university campuses which has stifled debate and led to an atmosphere of fear and intimidation among many Jewish students. Last November, the CST, which monitors Jew-hate in the UK, reported that 2019-20 has seen the highest number of antisemitic incidents on campus in a single academic year, despite the year being cut short because of the pandemic.
The Oxford University Labour Club's 2016 decision to support "Israel Apartheid Week" lifted the lid on the underbelly of antisemitism which had infected some elements of the student body. "The student left produces the most aggressive and virulent propagators of antisemitism on campus," wrote the former president of the university's Jewish Society.
The new hard-left leadership of the Labour party had empowered and emboldened a racist fringe which now attached itself, limpet-like, to my party.
Alongside others, I fought the scourge of antisemitism within the party for three years before concluding that I couldn't tell voters in my constituency that Corbyn was fit to be Prime Minister. Thankfully, the British public agreed with that judgment. Research afterward showed that the party's association with Jew-hate made it simply too toxic to support. A year later, Britain's human rights watchdog concluded its investigation by determining that, Labour had become "institutionally antisemitic" on Corbyn's watch.
Repairing the moral damage the Corbynites inflicted on Labour will take time and determination. But the sheer speed with which a small far-left fringe was able to capture power in Labour offers a warning to those who are complacent about, or willing to indulge, the activities of the "The Squad" in the Democratic Party. The case of Labour demonstrates the need to set clear red lines and to call out each and every instance of antisemitism at the earliest opportunity.
The lesson of Corbyn showed the need not just to condemn antisemites but also to hold their fellow travelers to account. Jew-hate will never be snuffed out in an environment in which anti-Zionism is tolerated and condoned.
Born in Czechoslovakia in 1924, Annetta and Stephanie – who passed away in 2019 – were transported to Theresienstadt in 1942. The following year, they were sent to Auschwitz, where Mengele, known as “the angel of death”, immediately started his experiments on them.
At the end of the war, the pair returned to Czechoslovakia where they learned their entire family had perished. They subsequently moved to Israel, before Annetta relocated to Melbourne in the early 1960s.
In the video, Annetta, who celebrated her birthday last Friday with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, said, “It was about race. It was about my race and that of my sister and parents and all who can’t speak today.
“Today, I am the oldest surviving twin of the murderous Dr Mengele. I shudder to call him doctor. My sister and I were part of his experiments and no one can claim this did not happen. We lived to tell of the horrors we went through.
“My sister would say more and better, and I’m sure she would be proud of me for speaking out today. It is not easy for me to do this. She was stronger than me. I always cry when I think of our family and their terrible end.
“Whoopi Goldberg and all others, be careful with the words you choose and use. Be careful with the effect they have.
“In a world of fake news, be careful not to bring back the horrors of the past. The Holocaust was about the Nazis’ policy to rid the world of the Jews in the cruellest-possible way. The Jewish race.
CST: Antisemitic Incidents Report 2021
CST’s Antisemitic Incidents Report 2021 , published today, shows 2,255 anti-Jewish hate incidents reported nationwide in 2021. This is the highest annual total that CST has ever recorded and is a 34% increase from the 1,684 antisemitic incidents reported in 2020. This is the first time CST has ever recorded over 2,000 incidents in a single year and is 24% higher than the previous record annual total of 1,813 incidents in 2019. The UK has seen record annual totals for antisemitic incidents in five of the past six years. CST has recorded antisemitic incidents since 1984.
A further 752 reports of potential incidents were received by CST in 2021 but were not deemed to be antisemitic and are not included in this total of 2,255 antisemitic incidents. Many of these 752 potential incidents involved suspicious activity or possible hostile reconnaissance at Jewish locations; criminal activity affecting Jewish people and buildings; and anti-Israel activity that did not contain antisemitic language, motivation or targeting.
CST’s Incidents Department receives reports of antisemitism from victims, witnesses, or individuals and organisations acting on their behalf. Every incident reporter (who has not come through an anonymised police report) is contacted by one of the Incidents Team. Emotional support is given, as is sensible and practical advice. If required or requested, CST will signpost or refer the reporter to further assistance, including more extensive psychological aid in the event of a particularly traumatic incident. In 2001, CST was accorded ’Third Party Reporting’ status, which allows CST to report antisemitic incidents to the police and to act as a go-between for victims who are unable or unwilling to report to the police directly. Data sharing agreements are also in place with various police services around the country, which has proved vital in gaining a more accurate and detailed picture of where and how antisemitism happens in the UK.
The record figure of 2,255 antisemitic incidents in 2021 is driven by the significant spike in anti-Jewish hate reported during and following the escalation in violence in Israel and Gaza last year. In May 2021, the month when the conflict in the region intensified, CST recorded a record 661 antisemitic incidents, and in June CST recorded the fifth-highest ever monthly total of 210 incidents. Together, May and June’s totals account for 39% of the annual total. When there is a trigger event, it consistently affects the levels of anti-Jewish hate directed at the diaspora Jewish community in the UK.
HonestReporting: CEO Pomerantz on FOX: HonestReporting Study Shows US Media Underreports Hate Crimes Against Jews
HonestReporting CEO Daniel Pomerantz on February 9 appeared on the FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition podcast, during which he discussed HonestReporting’s research on media coverage of hate crimes in the United States.
Jews are victims of more hate crimes per capita than all other groups in the United States, as tracked by the FBI. However, anti-Jewish hate crimes receive disproportionately little news coverage, by a disturbingly large margin.
CAIR Doubles Down on 'Illegal Surveillance' Charges
Ever since the Ohio headquarters of the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) went public in December with accusations that Steven Emerson's Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) was illegally surveilling the Ohio Muslim community, CAIR has driven the public narrative with the assistance of a gullible and ignorant media.Expansion of Tampa Palestinian Islamic Jihad Remnant Aided by Tarnished Ex-CAIR Leader
Like a fox demanding an investigation of the henhouse, CAIR sent a letter to the Department of Justice on January 31, calling for it to "launch an investigation to determine whether Steve Emerson or IPT broke any federal civil rights statutes or criminal laws by targeting the Muslim Community."
The letter, addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Inspector General Michael Horowitz, and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke, expands on the original accusations of spying at CAIR's Ohio headquarters and the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Northern Virginia. The new claim is that the IPT's "systematic campaign of spying touched nearly every prominent Muslim organization in the United States."
With CAIR's usual all-bluster, no-evidence style, its letter calls the IPT a "hate group" three times and labels Emerson an "anti-Muslim extremist." The second paragraph refers to his think tank as "the so-called Investigative Project for [sic] Terrorism." In that spirit, perhaps we should call CAIR the Council on American–Islamist Relations, or the Council Against Islamic Relations.
CAIR officials must believe that their most damaging accusation is that Emerson is an agent for the government of Israel, for which they cited email evidence provided by a "whistleblower" of contact with Israeli intelligence.
I spoke with Steven Emerson recently about this charge, and he explained that his "cooperation with the government of Israel consisted of responding to requests for information by sending articles we published at the IPT website." Emerson's emails prove his claim, showing that he responded to the requests with links to the articles.
The Tampa-based American Youth Academy (AYA) has gone from (alleged) fundraisers for Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and suicide bombings to basketball camps and a brand new $25 million campus. Brought in to raise money for the facility was former CAIR-Florida Executive Director Hassan Shibly, who recently left CAIR following charges of domestic violence by his then-wife. While touring AYA, Shibly and convicted PIJ member Hatem Fariz came in close contact with over 100 children. Given the school’s history, parents should be concerned about AYA’s kids, and the community should be concerned about Tampa’s thriving PIJ remnants.Unilever expects new Ben & Jerry's 'arrangement' for Israel by year-end
AYA was founded in 1992 as the Islamic Academy of Florida (IAF). The name was changed, as a result of the school being dropped from Florida’s state voucher program, a taxpayer funded plan that pays portions of eligible private school tuitions. Legislators voiced concern that IAF had been named in an indictment as part of a terrorist enterprise to aid PIJ. According to the indictment, IAF was used “to raise funds and provide support for the PIJ… in order to assist its engagement in… violent attacks...” Reincorporating under a new (and patriotic) name gave the school cover to continue to collect vouchers. The school even adopted the eagle as its mascot.
Hatem Naji Fariz is the Director of the school’s adjoining mosque, the Islamic Community of Tampa (ICT), a.k.a. Masjid Al-Qassam. Both AYA and Al-Qassam – named after Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, the man who was the inspiration for the founding of PIJ – were established by PIJ co-founder and then-North American PIJ leader, Sami al-Arian. Today, al-Arian resides in Turkey, where he was deported in February 2015. As a result of the Tampa trial regarding PIJ and the school, both Fariz and al-Arian were convicted of providing material support to PIJ.
According to the indictment against Fariz and al-Arian, Fariz “was a PIJ member” and did “conspire… to commit offenses against the United States… by making and receiving contributions of funds, goods, and services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.” Among other things, the indictment discusses how Fariz laughed and made light of a June 2002 PIJ suicide bombing that had just taken place in northern Israel, which ended the lives of 17 people and which his PIJ colleague described to him as being “successful.” That colleague, Ghassan Ballut, just this past December, had photos taken of himself in front of AYA’s building.
The board of Ben & Jerry's aims to work out a "new arrangement" for sales in Israel before the end of the year, Unilever PLC's CEO said on Thursday, after the US-based independent ice cream brand last year committed to halting sales in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.University of Chicago Condemns ‘Anti-Palestinian Bias’ in Response to SJP Post Urging Boycott of ‘Sh*tty Zionist Classes’
"Our absolute focus right now is to figure out what the new arrangement will be for Ben & Jerry's," CEO Alan Jope said on a conference call with journalists after the company announced earnings.
Jope's comments were the most specific he has given about the actions of the ice cream brand, based in the state of Vermont. Ben & Jerry's said in July that it would halt sales in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, a protest against Israeli settlements that has sparked some backlash including divestments by US pension funds.
Jope did not directly criticize the sales limit but said, "On subjects where Unilever brands don't have the expertise or credibility, we think its best that they stay out of the debate."
"Ben & Jerry's is a great brand - most of the time they get it right - they have a great track record of campaigning on important issues that are relevant to their consumers," Jope added.
Investors are watching the ice cream controversy as a test of Jope's ability to balance his emphasis on marketing tied to social issues with financial results.
If one needed any further evidence of the widespread antisemitism and anti-Israel hostility on college campuses in the United States, you would only have to look at the University of Chicago’s response to a recent Instagram post by the UChicago Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).Look who’s guarding the henhouse
The January 27 multi-slide upload – witlessly titled, “Don’t take sh*tty Zionist classes,” in perhaps not the most ringing endorsement of the educational standards at a college where fees trend upwards of $50,000 – warns the student body that said courses “serve as vehicles to spread Zionist propaganda.”
Calling on students to show their support for the “Palestinian movement by boycotting classes on Israel or those taught by Israeli fellows,” the SJP claims that attending such lessons is tantamount to “participating in a propaganda campaign that creates complicity in the continuation of Israel’s occupation of Palestine.”
It continues:
Many courses which proclaim to be about aspects of ‘Israeli culture’ make no mention of Palestine or Palestinians, preferring the term ‘Arab minority’ at most. There is no mention of the fact that Israel is an apartheid state. Israel’s history is framed as a conflict between two equals in an effort to legitimize its existence to uninformed students. None of the course descriptions acknowledge the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing which reached its peak in 1948 but continues to this day, and that served as the foundation for the establishment of the Israeli state. Instead they use the deceitful and propagandistic term ‘1948 Arab-Israeli war’.”
The mendacious assertion that “ethnic cleansing” reached its peak in 1948 and continues to the present day is, of course, nonsense. As HonestReporting has evidenced, the population growth of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip tells an entirely different story.
Moreover, the reference to Israel’s birth year and the “Nakba” (the Arabic word for “catastrophe”) suggests SJP believes the very existence of the Jewish state is a crime and its creation was the original sin.
The ADL is offering a reward of up to $7,500 for information surrounding two recent assaults against Chassidim in Williamsburg. Two days ago, Scott Richman, the ADL regional director for NY/NJ, said, “Attacks against visibly identifiable Jews here in New York and New Jersey have become practically a weekly occurrence.”Guardian corrects false claim about anti-BDS law
The reward seems an admirable gesture. However, anyone who has been following the political trajectory of the ADL will understand why such an offer is not only too little too late but two-faced as well.
The ADL professes to have “unquestioned credibility” in the fight “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.” For those who don’t know any better about the subject, which includes the majority of Americans, their trustworthiness goes unquestioned.
What the majority of Americans probably do not know is that the ADL of today is not our parents’ ADL. What might have once begun as a mission to protect America’s Jewish people has morphed into a progressive outfit parading as a Jewish watchman.
The ADL’s obsession with securing “justice and fair treatment to all” seems to have eclipsed their involvement with anti-Semitism. And their promotion of progressive policies has likely contributed to the environment that those “identifiable Jews” now find themselves in.
Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL’s chief executive, has been at the forefront of America’s far-left preoccupation with identity politics. Official ADL statements read like a handbook of far-left agendas. The ADL website lists 18 objectives on their to-do list, of which only three are related to Jews. The rest is a litany of progressive talking points including Race and Racial Justice, Criminal Justice Reform, Voting Rights, LGBTQ Rights, Immigrant and Refugee Rights, etc.
A Guardian article written by their former Jerusalem correspondent Chris McGreal (“Rightwing lobby group Alec driving laws to blacklist companies that boycott the oil industry”, Feb. 8) focused on a US lobby group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) that’s “driving a surge in new state laws to block boycotts of the oil industry”.US Lawmakers Call on Dept. of Education to End Delay of Campus Antisemitism Guidance
But, McGreal also pivots to Israel, claiming that versions of “laws drafted by Alec [have been] adopted in more than 30 states to block support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians”.
However, according to communication we had with legal scholar Eugene Kontorovich, professor of law at George Mason and head of the international law department at Kohelet Policy forum, and one of the foremost experts on anti-BDS laws, Alec was NOT in fact responsible for drafting that legislation.
McGreal also errs in the penultimate paragraph of the article, when he writes that the “anti-BDS legislation has faced legal challenges after residents of Dickinson, Texas, were required to sign pledges not to boycott Israel in order to receive hurricane damage relief”.
In fact, as was was widely reported at the time, that requirement, apparently included in error, was promptly removed by city council shortly after it went into effect.
Thirty-nine members of the US Congress have urged the Department of Education to issue promised Title VI guidance to protect Jewish students from antisemitism on college campuses, and to resolve long-outstanding complaints of discrimination.
“Antisemitism has been on the rise in the United States and around the globe,” said the letter, sent Friday to the department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), in an effort led by Democrat Ted Lieu of California. “This wave of antisemitism has had a detrimental impact at many American colleges and universities.”
The letter noted reports of Jewish students increasingly concealing their identity and avoiding social activities or classes that may expose to them to antisemitic bullying and harassment. It also cited a recent survey by Alums for Campus Fairness in which 75% of 500 respondents said that antisemitism remains a “very serious problem.”
“This demonstrates that Jewish students need assistance and protection from the growing threat of antisemitism on American campuses,” said the letter.
The lawmakers called on the Biden administration to quickly issue new rules based on the previous administration’s Executive Order on Combating Antisemitism (EO 13899), which directed the OCR to apply Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to complaints of antisemitic discrimination and base them on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism.
The Biden administration has postponed action on EO 13899 until December 2022, and experts on Wednesday praised the lawmakers’ call to end the delay over its implementation.
.@tedlieu spearheads bipartisan letter of nearly 40 members of Congress calling on the Education Dept. to end delays on their investigations of antisemitism complaints on college campuses and codifying the Trump EO on combating antisemitism https://t.co/AgvJQwlByk pic.twitter.com/IQpjVIuI35
— Aaron Bandler (@bandlersbanter) February 9, 2022
?? Seattle, WA - “White Jewish” and “White Co-Conspirators”
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) February 10, 2022
Insanity compliments of the @SeattleEdAssoc pic.twitter.com/eekAnPiyS1
Mohammed El Kurd again lying about his identity claiming hes "indigenous" when Arabs literally colonized the JEWISH kingdom. Its Jews who are indigenous to the land of Israel. The co-opting of Jewish history is pathetic, disgusting, and attempts to erase Jewish indigenous history pic.twitter.com/3pExDrJYsX
— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) February 9, 2022
PreOccupiedTerritory: People Keep Seeing Through My Jew-Hate Disguised As Hate For Jewish Security By Marc Lamont Hill, activist (satire)
I’m a proud anti-racist, a fighter for social justice who seeks to uphold the rights and narrative of oppressed minorities. As such, I carry heightened sensitivity to accusations that I express, or even harbor, discriminatory attitudes. I must therefore dress up my animus toward Jews as opposition to Zionism, a movement that I must therefore, in turn, define in the most distorted, malicious terms. Only thus can I conceal my loathing for those of the Hebrew persuasion. Unfortunately, it turns out that opposing the movement for Hebrew liberation and sovereignty offers too flimsy a mask behind which to hide that loathing, and far too many observers have perceived the truth.Media Obfuscate Palestinian Authority Chief Abbas’ Ties to US-designated Terrorist Group
It certainly does not help that I have expressed admiration for, and defended, avowed antisemite Louis Farrakhan, as a stalwart fighter for the rights of the African-American community, as long as that comes at the expense of whites. Still, with that as the sole data point, one might have thought I could use my phobia of Jewish control of Jewish security and safety as sufficient cover for my actual sentiments. Numerous other public figures pull off the same feat; the mainstream, left-leaning media tends to take a soft approach to progressives. Apparently, however, my robust denunciations of the world’s only Jewish state, and by extension of all who I assume to support it merely by dint of their common heritage, fail to shield my underlying antisemitism from detection.
At first I thought perhaps the veil of intolerance for Jewish sovereignty in the ancestral homeland, a veil that I kept in place as best I could, was simply too thin, meaning I had to apply more layers of anti-Zionist social justice rhetoric: that Jewish liberation perforce means dispossession of brown Palestinians, and how that mirrors US racial politics; that Jews in the US who fail to denounce Zionism with enough gusto are complicit in ethnic cleansing; that American Jews must, by default, bear suspicion of colonialist sympathies unless and until they demonstrate otherwise, and until then must not gain entry to respectable progressive circles. That assumption led me to embrace Minister Farrakhan harder, for example, and to impugn the progressive credentials of any Jew who challenged me on that. But somehow, and I remain at a loss to explain this, the veil still failed to cover my Jew-hate.
The Brigades’ Intimate Connection With PA
Nevertheless, the Associated Press in an article about the Israeli operation described the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades as “an armed group loosely tied to [Palestinian Authority] President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party.” [emphasis added]
Other outlets did not connect the dots at all and instead presented the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades simply as the armed wing of Fatah, with no mention that Abbas leads the Palestinian faction that, in turn, rules the PA. In a February 9 article, CNN reported that the three men killed in Nablus “belonged to the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade[s], the armed wing of the Fatah organization.” The British Broadcasting Corporation, for its part, described the terror group as “the military wing of the Palestinian Fatah faction.”
None of the articles mentioned that the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades is widely designated as a terrorist organization and has committed numerous deadly attacks on Israeli civilians (see, for example, here, here and here).
‘The Rifle Exists Alongside Fatah’s Political Track’
As HonestReporting pointed out in a Twitter thread, it is imperative to note that the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades is not just “loosely tied” to Fatah and the Palestinian Authority.
In fact, the distinction between the two is artificial.
Just ask former PA prime minister Ahmad Qurei, who in 2004 openly acknowledged that “we are committed to them [the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades] and Fatah bears full responsibility for the group.” The IDF previously highlighted Fatah’s “systematic, institutionalized and ongoing financing” of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. An investigation found that Fatah allocated up to $50,000 a month to the terror group.
In a statement issued during the 2014 Hamas-initiated conflict with Israel, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed that “Fatah’s Central Committee, Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, and the regional Fatah leadership are supporting us, and they praised our Brigades’ efforts to attack the oppressing enemy.”
The Chinese embassy subtly threatens me in response to my article about the #GenocideOlympics:
— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) February 10, 2022
“What forces are behind this author to support the long-term groundless and malicious attacks on #China?”
Wow, it must suck to not be able to control the press right China? pic.twitter.com/C064U9Wmde
Toss up between Malkin saying 'zio shill' and the host's suit/shirt/tie combo for Most Offensive Groypering https://t.co/cdU40s7Knr
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 9, 2022
Why Accusing Jews of Exaggerating the Holocaust Is Anti-Semitic
The accusation that Jews as a people or Israel as a state invented or exaggerated the Holocaust to serve their own purposes is an example of anti-Semitism related to Holocaust denial or distortion.Bucharest Jews Were Tortured, Killed in Holocaust Pogrom
Distortion of the Holocaust - the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis and their accomplices during World War II - refers to efforts to excuse or minimize the Holocaust; gross minimization of the number of victims; attempts to blame the Jews for causing their own genocide; and statements that cast the Holocaust as a positive historical event, such as suggesting that the Holocaust did not go far enough in accomplishing its goal.
Holocaust distortion minimizes the role of the aggressors, trivializes the harm done, and shifts blame to the victims.
On January 21, 1941, Iron Guard Legionnaires in Romania carried out a pogrom in Bucharest, killing 125 Jews. At the time, Bucharest was home to 100,000 Jews. The city was also home to the Iron Guard, a nationalist fascist paramilitary organization that was founded in 1927 and was staunchly anti-Semitic. Iron Guard leader Horia Sima held political power alongside fascist dictator Ion Antonescu. Both were in favor of taking Jewish property, but the Iron Guard wanted to take everything immediately. Antonescu wanted it to be a gradual and orderly process done through the law.The Murder of American Jewish Soldiers in World War II
The Iron Guard rebelled against Antonescu, storming government buildings and fighting soldiers. At the same time, the Legionnaires deliberately began a pogrom against the city's Jews. Mobs stormed homes and synagogues, Jews were captured and tortured at Iron Guard headquarters. Homes and neighborhoods were set ablaze as the city's Jews were funneled to specific areas where the men were tortured, women were raped and property was stolen. Jews were sometimes thrown out of buildings or killed in slaughterhouses.
Eventually Antonescu quelled the rebellion. But months later he ordered the beginning of the Iasi pogrom that saw over 13,000 Jews massacred. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Romania was directly responsible for the murder of more Jews in the Holocaust than any country other than Germany.
600,000 Jews served in the U.S. armed forces in World War II; 35,000 were killed, wounded, captured, or missing; 8,000 died in combat. Among those who were captured, some became victims of the Holocaust - singled out for death because they were Jews. I documented many of the cases in Forgotten Victims: The Abandonment of Americans in Hitler's Camps.US campus antisemitism survey: University of Vermont had most reported cases in 2021
On Dec. 20, 1944, 300 U.S. soldiers were captured near Bleialf, Germany, by the Germany Army, along with 30 Germans who had been prisoners of the Americans. The former German prisoners informed the German commander that there were two Jewish soldiers among the captives who spoke good German and had interrogated them. Jewish GIs had an "H" on their dog tags to identify them as "Hebrews." The two Jews, Staff Sergeant Kurt Jacobs and Technician Murray Zappler, should have been treated as prisoners of war. Instead, they were shot.
A survey of US college antisemitism released on Monday found that most incidents in 2021 took place in person, not online, and that the worst-affected region was the US northeast.French Jewish group reports 75% increase in antisemitic incidents in 2021
The college leading in incidents was the University of Vermont, with 58 reported cases of antisemitism.
The advocacy group Jewish on Campus collected testimony of antisemitic incidents from students last year and collated the data for Monday’s report.
The report largely focused on the US and Canada, which made up 95.5 percent of reports. It included reporting from several other countries, but very few reports were submitted to the group outside North America.
There were 544 total incidents from 11 countries, 41 US states and 228 universities. The incidents were self-reported by students, not collected in a formal survey.
Jewish on Campus was founded in 2020 and partnered with the World Jewish Congress last year.
The report said 72 percent of incidents took place in person and 28% happened online, despite many classes taking place virtually. Most incidents involved the use of traditional antisemitic tropes and the demonization of Israel.
An increasing number of French Jews believe that antisemitism is widespread in their country, according to a new survey conducted by the American Jewish Committee.“I wish I had a gun to shoot you” Jewish schoolchildren reportedly assaulted in Stamford Hill
According to the study, conducted in late 2021, 85% of Jews said that antisemitism is widespread. That number is up nearly 20 points from a similar survey conducted just two years earlier that found 67% of French Jews said Jew-hatred was widespread.
Further, 73% of Jews have been victims of antisemitism. While the vast majority of incidents were derogatory remarks, some 20% of the reported incidents were labeled as "physical violence."
According to Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, director-general of AJC Europe, there was a "75% increase in antisemitism" in France in 2021.
"More than the actual numbers of antisemitic hate crimes," she said. "I believe it has to do with the prevalence of antisemitic conspiracy theories during the anti-vax movements with demonstrators branding an infamous 'who' sign, suggesting Jews were behind coronavirus or the vaccine, depending on the form of conspiracy theory … ."
The increase of such conspiratorial theories on social media, she said, "means that more and more Jews and non-Jews have been directly or indirectly been exposed to antisemitism."
Other findings show the impact these instances are having on religious life. For instance, 41% of Jews polled said they avoid displaying mezuzahs and other religious symbols – up from 37% in late 2019 – and 45% of parents ask their children not to tell others they are Jewish.
Additionally, 32% of parents say their children have been the target of antisemitic insults, with 18% say their children have been physically attacked.
It has been reported that Jewish schoolchildren were reportedly assaulted in Stamford Hill, North London.
The perpetrator is alleged to have harassed Jewish people before and is understood to have shouted “You Jews are so bad” and “I wish I had a gun to shoot you.” CCTV footage appears to show a visibly angry man yelling at Jewish schoolchildren as a Jewish man shields them as they walk.
The incident is believed to have occurred on 6th February and was reported today by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews more than four times likelier to be targets of hate crimes than any other faith group.
#HateCrime #ChildAbuse #Assault
— Shomrim (Stamford Hill) (@Shomrim) February 10, 2022
Serial offender harasses, abuses & assaults young school children
Over 10 incidents
Ravensdale Rd #N16
Shouts "You Jews are so bad" "I wish I had a gun to shoot you"@MPSHackney
CAD 4417 06/02/22 pic.twitter.com/bN0tZXnpyj
Fury as Brighton Labour readmits councillor suspended over antisemitism, while Labour councillor in Dudley yet to face sanction over his social media activity
The Labour Party in Brighton has stoked controversy by readmitting a councillor suspended in connection with allegations of antisemitism.
Cllr Anne Pissaridou was suspended from Labour in 2020, reportedly in connection with antisemitism allegations, and a Facebook post in particular.
At the time, she said: “I am deeply sorry for my actions and any distress I have caused to the Jewish community. This happened several years ago, before I was a councillor, and the posts I shared do not reflect my views. I do not seek to excuse my mistake. I deeply regret not properly reading information before sharing such hurtful links. I am aware of the complaint that has been made to the Labour Party and will fully co-operate with any investigation.”
In 2021, when her suspension was due to end, her colleagues wrote to the Council’s Chief Executive to exclude her from their faction. They have now reversed themselves, however, welcoming her reinstatement.
In a statement, Brighton and Hove Labour Group of Councillors said: “The Brighton and Hove Labour Group of Councillors have decided to readmit Cllr Pissaridou into the Labour Group after a period of exclusion. The Labour Group have made this decision as they feel Cllr Pissaridou has made conscious and sustained efforts to educate herself on issues around antisemitism and antisemitic tropes. She has also begun rebuilding trust with members of the local Jewish community and has apologised wholeheartedly for her actions that led to her initial suspension from the Labour Party.
Vandals spray-paint swastikas on home, side of bus in Brooklyn https://t.co/C1F0r1PFpU pic.twitter.com/1BTCd6XJqr
— New York Post (@nypost) February 9, 2022
First Whoopi Goldberg’s vile rant about the Holocaust and now NFL player @jonallen93_ wants to have dinner with Hitler because he’s “a military genius”?!
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) February 9, 2022
Hitler gassed, starved and murdered MILLIONS of people in his pursuit of the master race you dolt! pic.twitter.com/enjkV5FxBH
Nation Of Islam Leader Farrakhan Recounts Speaking With Coldplay Singer Chris Martin And His Jewish Friends: I Was Prepared To Challenge Satan And Defeat Him (Archival) pic.twitter.com/gsQsZA0AJm
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 9, 2022
Yad Vashem: Unlikely purported 'Auschwitz tattoo kit' was used on Jews
A partial tattoo kit offered at auction in Israel as an Auschwitz artifact is highly unlikely to have been used on Jews at the Nazi concentration camp, a court-ordered investigation has found, following an outcry from Holocaust survivors.Israeli team to produce Disney+ show on Anne Frank
The eight fingernail-sized steel dies, each lined with pins to form numerals, were offered last year by a Jerusalem auctioneer who described them as "the most shocking of Holocaust items" with a projected $30,000 to $40,000 price.
But the Tel Aviv District Court granted a request by survivors to suspend the sale in November.
It asked the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem to try to authenticate the kit before the court rules whether the auction can proceed.
The resulting five-page report, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, said: "It would appear highly unlikely that these dies were used to tattoo Jews, though this cannot be determined with absolute certainty."
The Yad Vashem report was due to be submitted to the court on Thursday. A court ruling is expected at a later date.
Israel becomes 1st country to allow large, high-flying drones in civilian airspace
The Transportation Ministry certified the Elbit defense contractor’s StarLiner drone to fly in civilian airspace, making Israel the first country in the world to allow unmanned aerial vehicles of this type to do so, the company said Wednesday.Pfizer extends cooperation deal with Israeli AI drug development firm CytoReason
The Civil Aviation Authority of the State of Israel issued its permit in late December after a more than six-year evaluation period, though the company only announced the regulation change on Wednesday.
“We are proud to issue the Type Certificate to the Hermes Starliner UAS, approving it to fly in civilian airspace as any other civil aircraft. As far as CAAI is aware, this is a world-first,” the head of Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority, Joel Feldschuh, said in a statement issued by Elbit. UAS stands for unmanned aircraft system.
Most currently available UAVs lack the necessary sensors to operate in civilian airspace without interfering with other aircraft. As a result, many countries have laws forbidding powerful drones that reach high altitudes from flying in civilian airspace.
Elbit’s StarLiner drone is a modified version of its Hermes 900, which is used by militaries around the world, that was made to comply with civil aviation requirements by installing sensors to identify other aircraft and avoid collisions with them, an additional warning system to prevent it from approaching or crashing into the ground, autonomous takeoff and landing systems in no-visibility conditions, and other modifications.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has extended an existing cooperation agreement with Israeli company CytoReason, a leading developer of computational disease models for drug discovery and development, the firm said Thursday.Google investment fund leads $140m round in Israeli cybersecurity startup
Pfizer and CytoReason first launched their collaboration in 2019 to use the Israeli company’s digital models of the human immune system and diseases in Pfizer’s pursuit of developing innovative drugs.
CytoReason said its solution has “provided Pfizer with multiple insights in a number of R&D programs across over 20 diseases.”
Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer and president of worldwide research, said the extension of the collaboration with CytoReason will “build upon our existing data science capabilities, and further enhance our ability to make data-driven decisions across our portfolio. We are excited to continue this successful partnership, which has helped us investigate challenging biological questions to potentially inform the development of new therapies for the benefit of patients.”
CytoReason’s CEO and co-founder David Harel said the company’s work with Pfizer “has demonstrated how our computational models can potentially match the right treatment to the right patient groups, across multiple therapeutic areas.”
“Through this collaboration and our growing customer base worldwide, we aim to establish our platform as the gold standard for drug discovery, development and portfolio management,” said Harel.
Israeli-founded cybersecurity startup Salt Security has pulled in new investment of $140 million led by CapitalG, the independent growth fund of Google parent company Alphabet, the company said Thursday.Why Do Locusts Form Devastating Swarms? Israeli Researchers Tackle ‘Mystery’ of Biblical Plague
Existing investors such as Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, S Capital VC and Advent International also participated in the round. The Series D investment values Salt Security at $1.4 billion, making it a unicorn, a private company valued at over $1 billion.
The round brings the company’s total funding to $271 million, with $210 million raised over the past 12 months.
Salt Security was founded in 2015 by entrepreneurs Roey Eliyahu and Michael Nicosia, and is headquartered in Palo Alto, with offices in Tel Aviv. The company developed software that detects risks and protects APIs (application programming interface, software that allows for connection between devices and programs). Salt Security says it uses machine learning and AI to automatically and continuously identify and protect organizations. It works with Fortune and Global 500 enterprises and its customers include Spanish multinational telecommunications company Telefonica, financial software company Finastra, and City National Bank.
Salt Security’s list of clients also includes a host of Israeli companies, or those founded by Israelis, such as TripActions, AppsFlyer, Payoneer, Gett, and Guesty.
The company said in a statement that it will use the capital to expand its investment in R&D, drive sales and grow its international operations. It said demand for API solutions has increased exponentially as they drive digital transformation, application mobilization, and other IT modernization initiatives.
Salt Security said that in the past year it has seen a 500% growth in revenue and grew its customer base by 300%.
Israeli researchers may have come closer to explaining the “mystery” of a plague that dates back to biblical times.
Tel Aviv University scientists developed a theory to explain why individual, harmless locusts radically change their behavior when they aggregate, forming huge swarms and devastating millions of hectares of land worldwide. Led by Prof. Amir Ayali from TAU’s School of Zoology, the study focused on the microbiome — all of the bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live in and on the body — and found that when a solitary locust joins a group, the bacterial composition of its gut undergoes a distinct transformation.
“The most significant change was observed in bacteria called Weissella, almost completely absent from the microbiome of solitary locusts, which became dominant soon after their hosts joined the group,” said Omer Lavy, a zoology PhD student and one of the study’s authors, in a press release on Wednesday.
For the purpose of the study, which was published late January in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Microbiology, the researchers reviewed the gut microbiomes of lab-raised desert locusts. They found a notable difference when individual, solitary-reared insects joined a group of some 200 locusts.
They then created a mathematical model to demonstrate “that swarming may be advantageous to the altered microbiome’s dominant bacterial species, which spreads by infecting large numbers of locusts,” the researchers noted. “In other words, the bacteria may in some way encourage their hosts to change their behavior and become more ‘sociable.'”
