Wednesday, April 20, 2022
David Friedman: America’s biblical roots
The following is an abridged version of the Distinguished Rennert Lecture, delivered on April 19 by Ambassador David Friedman upon receipt of the Guardian of Zion Award from Bar-Ilan University’s Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies.Pre-Pesach Rescue of Three Holocaust Survivors From Ukraine Is a Sign of Hope
One of the most common forms of anti-Semitism in America is the accusation that Jews have dual loyalty, that they support Israel more than America. In the four years that I was ambassador to Israel, I was on the receiving end of that terrible canard more than a few times—oddly enough, often by groups of Jewish Americans.
It’s shameful and it’s nonsense. Not only does support for Israel by American Jews not compromise or undermine support for our host country, but support for Israel is actually a quintessential American value. Indeed, the Bible, so much of which is predicated upon God’s covenant to our forefathers to install, and then later to restore, the Jewish people in the land of Israel, is foundational to the principles upon which America was founded.
While America, unlike many other countries, has no national religion or house of worship, make no mistake that the values of the Bible are deeply infused within our foundational roots. And, it is the God-given nature of those values that makes them unique and that makes America so great.
The Bible is God’s gift to humankind—the formula for how to lead a just, fulfilling and meaningful life. By many accounts—certainly mine—it is the most important written work of all time.
What’s in second place?
Well, we can debate that, but here’s my suggestion—The United States Declaration of Independence. That brilliant document fundamentally changed the way in which we think about the relationship between a government and its citizens.
The Declaration of Independence provided that every human being was created equal and endowed by their creator—remember those words—with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The notion that essential human rights came from God and not man was a revolutionary concept. It made those rights permanent, undeniable, non-negotiable and immune from the vagaries of politics.
How did our founding fathers know which rights God considered unalienable? Our founders knew, because they all read the Bible. There can be no question that the American Republic was sculpted from the lessons of the Bible.
Earlier this month, amid air raid sirens and bombings, we were fortunate enough to rescue three Holocaust survivors from Kyiv and bring them to safety in Poland.NGO Monitor: Ken Roth’s Legacy: Distorting and Exploiting Human Rights to Demonize Israel
As part of a major rescue operation that spanned two days, I, together with other members of United Hatzalah’s Operation Orange Wings rescue mission, took three ambulances into Kyiv in order to rescue the survivors and bring them to safety across the Polish border.
This wasn’t my first covert rescue mission inside Ukraine, I’ve been rescuing people with difficult medical conditions continuously for the past month.
My first mission involved rescuing a surrogate baby from a bombed hospital in Kyiv, and reuniting it with its surrogate parents in Romania. Others involved rescuing entire families and bringing them safely across the border and then to Israel.
In the latest operation, we managed to rescue three Holocaust survivors, two of whom were bed-ridden; the other one was able to walk with great difficulty. They were living in different senior residences and nursing homes, and they were in danger as the violence encroached upon their homes.
Utilizing the three ambulances that our organization recently bought for the purpose of these types of rescue missions, we drove from the Moldovan and Polish borders to Kyiv, with medical teams on board. Along the way, we delivered much-needed food and medical supplies to hospitals and care centers that had asked for our help in providing these items. The deliveries included supplies, bandages, and medications that are in short supply in Ukraine such as insulin, and others. It took us three days to make the round trip.
In his 29-year reign as head of HRW (from 1993), Ken Roth has obsessively distorted and exploited human rights to demonize Israel. His language reflects a deeply personal hostility to Judaism and Jewish self-determination, regardless of policies, and he has hired many staffers who share this antipathy, amplifying the structural bias against Israel in the UN and other institutions. By abusing HRW’s power and $129 million annual budget (as of 2021) to systematically single-out Israel, and in applying double standards, Roth has caused major damage to the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
For the past 20 years, I have documented and written extensively on Ken Roth’s powerful role as head of HRW, demonstrating his obsessive and deeply personal hostility towards Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and the damage this has inflicted to the moral standing of universal human rights principles worldwide.
As head of HRW since 1993, Roth is among the world’s most influential unaccountable political actors, with massive funds, favorable media coverage, and direct access to the UN and world leaders. He also hired many other obsessive anti-Israel activists. Roth adopted and amplified the Soviet-led effort to equate Zionism with South African apartheid, as well as many of the methods, and in late 2001 and early 2002, he oversaw HRW’s central role in the blatantly antisemitic NGO Forum of the Durban conference. Building on this foundation, he led HRW’s political campaigns based on false allegations, including “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity,” to delegitimize Israel’s response to mass terror attacks. He has disproportionately channeled HRW’s resources into lobbying the UN Human Rights Council to create and conduct one-sided “investigations,” such as the discredited 2009 Goldstone report on the Gaza conflict. In parallel, he has pressed the International Criminal Court prosecutors to adopt false versions of international law in order to justify investigating Israelis, including using an invented version of apartheid. He has used the term “primitive” in the context of Jewish religion and tradition (2006), and among hundreds of tweets denouncing Israel, has blamed Jews for antisemitism. HRW’s April 2021 “report” claiming that Israel had “crossed the line into apartheid” is a reiteration of this 20 year history.
My work as an academic focusing on soft power, particularly in the Middle East, has included researching and publishing analyses of the unchecked power of the NGO industry, as exemplified by Roth’s behavior and impact. Beginning in 2004, I corresponded with and met Robert Bernstein, the founder of HRW, who expressed his intense disagreement with the political direction that Roth had taken the organization, specifically regarding singling out Israel. The frequency and intensity of our discussions increased and expanded to include other board members. Roth’s and HRW’s obsessive campaigns grew. In 2009, following the 2009 Goldstone report episode, Bernstein took the unprecedented step of denouncing HRW in a NY Times column and in a series of speeches, which repeated key points from our conversations. Also, many of HRW’s donors ended their support.
Why the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism Is Important on Campus
These propagandist events demonizing Israel went ahead without challenge.SJP Forum Hypes Palestinian ‘Genocide’ While Advocating for Israel’s Elimination
But when the UCL Friends of Israel Society hosted ex-IDF, LGBTQ+, and Israel advocate Hen Mazzig in 2016, it was met with violent protests and resistance, so much so that the police were called.
Moreover, Students for Justice in Palestine has effectively been able to bash the IHRA for “silencing” students, all while continuing to levy gross criticisms and lies at Israel. Far beyond the realm of any logical, rational criticism of Israel, they have affirmed ridiculous and unfounded claims such as “Zionists have justified their political ambitions on colonialist principles of superiority in culture and knowledge“; “Zionism is a settler-colonial movement”; and much more.
Is it really valid criticism they are so fearful will be silenced?
To me, as a Jewish student, there are two further and equally significant reasons why I care so much about the IHRA working definition, and it being honored by UK universities.
First, it is reassuring to know you are attending an institution where the interests of its Jewish students are considered and respected. Second, as a more general concern, Jews should be treated no differently than any other ethnic minority: so in 2022, it goes without saying that Jews should have the ability to define our experience of Jew-hatred without others attempting to silence us.
Both our UCL Jewish Society and Israel Society do not disclose the locations of our events for security reasons stemming from the aggressive actions of pro-Palestinian protestors. Yet simultaneously, the Palestine Society does not face this dilemma, nor does it face protest or violence on our part.
So, is the IHRA really silencing valid criticism of Israel on campus? I would argue that it is simply ensuring protection and security for our Jewish students. And maybe that’s what our opponents want so desperately to stop.
If a seminar last Wednesday organized by the anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is any indicator, City University of New York (CUNY) law students may be challenged both in vocabulary and in irony.Pro-Palestinian group at NYU Law alleges ‘Zionist grip on the media’
Palestinians are resisting “genocide,” third-year CUNY law student Nerdeen Kiswani said during the seminar. According to her, the only acceptable answer is to reject any peace efforts, and to work towards eliminating Israel.
No serious scholar includes Palestinians among victims of genocide. The Palestinian population has only grown since 1948, with its own arts and literature communities thriving, among countless other factors.
It’s a particularly tone deaf comment coming as the world debates whether Russia’s ongoing slaughter of tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, or China’s mass detention, forced sterilization, and indoctrination of Uyghur Muslims reach the threshold of genocides.
That’s because Israel has the military might to do exactly what Russia is doing today in Ukraine. But it has never come close, nearly 75 years after its founding, and 55 years after it took control in parts of the West Bank, and previously in Gaza.
At some point, even Israel’s greatest foes should acknowledge that if it wanted to inflict such horror, it would have happened by now.
Jewish students at New York University School of Law have called on the university to investigate a pro-Palestinian group for emails they say crossed the line between criticism of Israel and antisemitism.Emptiness of Leeds University’s adoption of International Definition of Antisemitism laid bare as it fails to act over professor’s tweets
Sent following an attack in Tel Aviv on April 7 in which two people were killed, the emails sent out by NYU Law Students for Justice in Palestine on a student listserv accused Israel of being an “apartheid regime,” and said the violence by a presumed Palestinian gunman was “a direct result of the Israeli occupation.”
The pro-Israel critics said one email trafficked in antisemitism when it said “the Zionist grip on the media is omnipresent,” and by allegedly justifying the targeting of Jewish civilians in the name of Palestinian resistance.
In the same email, obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, NYU LSJP acknowledged the concern over language that is in line with antisemitic tropes over Jewish control of the media, but added that “Zionism does, in fact, intentionally and strategically use US and Western media as propaganda.”
A group of 100 students expressed concerns over the language used by NYU LSJP, in an open letter that was sent to the law school’s dean, Trevor Morrison.
The emptiness of the University of Leeds’ adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism has been laid bare, after the institution failed to take any meaningful action against a professor with a record of tweets that breach the Definition.Fresno State University Report Exposes Virulent Antisemitism of Library’s Namesake
Last year, Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to the University regarding Ray Bush, who was then a Professor of African Studies and Development Politics. Prof. Bush appeared to have tweeted from the Twitter handle “@raymondobush” a large number of tweets that breach the Definition. Prof. Bush’s profile page on the University’s website links to the offending Twitter handle.
There were three types of breaches.
First, the tweets stated that Israel’s existence itself is unacceptable, using the exact language of the Definition in referring to Jewish self-determination as “a racist endeavour”. The Definition states that “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” is antisemitic. This claim was repeated on numerous occasions:
“#DefyIHRA the state of #Israel is a #racist endeavour”
“#defyIHRA the state of Israel is a racist endeavour. The IHRA definition of antisemitism is a threat to free expression | Ash Sarkar https://theguardian.com/commentisfree/”
“#racistendeavour #warcrimes #Israel join the dots and understand why Israel is a zionist entity and settler colonial regime that exists solely because of US money and European guilt. #endtheoccupation”
“#Labourparty #NEC big mistake with #IHRA #Israel is a racist endeavour and what about other discrimination? Is NEC recognising defined discrimination and racism of #BAME ? #Corbyn got outflanked by #Zionists time to recalibrate and take offensive against occupation of #Palestine”
“So, @Keir_Starmer prefers a #LabourParty without @RLong_Bailey. Shane [sic] on him and all the other #labourparty members failing to recognise #zionism as a pernicious #racist ideology promoted by zealots to dehumanise #Palestinians”
“So it continues, use an anti Semite smear, stop progressive politics #Zionism is #racism amongst other things ….”
“Of course @MarkSerwotka is right #Israel #hasbara #zionism #racism”
A preliminary report released on Monday by Fresno State University (FSU) has uncovered the shockingly antisemitic and pro-Nazi views of former university librarian Dr. Henry Miller Madden, after whom the school’s main academic library is named.
The revelations were discovered by the “Task Force to Review the Naming of the University Library” in papers Madden donated to the university after his death in 1982. A reevaluation of Madden’s legacy began after Fresno State University professor Dr. Bradley W. Hart discussed his antisemitism in a book published in 2018.
Dr. Hart shared his research on Madden with students last November, prompting FSU President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval to form the task force and charge it with considering whether the library should be renamed.
“When Dr. Madden died in 1982, his papers were sealed for 25 years,” the report said. “So there was effectively no way for the Fresno State community, the Board of Trustees, or the community members and political figures who wrote letters in support of the decision to know the depth and extent of his antisemitism, Nazi sympathies, and otherwise racist views prior to his death. The decision to name the library was thus unfortunately made without a full understanding of the man who would be honored.”
Born in 1912 in Oakland, California, Madden’s early views were influenced by a friendship with a German exchange student, who wrote letters describing Jews as those “who damage and prejudice the German economy.” By 1933, after Hitler’s ascent to power, Madden, then a graduate student at Columbia University, was seeking “leaflets concerning the conditions in Germany” from New York’s Nazi Party representative, Oscar Shilling.
It's not just that Walker's bigotry is buried. It's that it's covered so elliptically that the reader has no idea what Walker has actually done, from writing an antisemitic poem about the Talmud to pushing a book that claims the Jews bankrolled the Holocaust and control the KKK.
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) April 19, 2022
Philip Spencer - on a certain kind of anti-imperialist rhetoric and antisemitism - after 9/11https://t.co/EEW4CwUAMh pic.twitter.com/ciOt0tIov4
— David Hirsh (@DavidHirsh) April 20, 2022
This lie not only defames Israelis - ie Jews, Muslims, Christians and secular, it also diminishes what black South African’s experienced. The situation for the Palestinians will only be helped through fair and objective approaches to the situation made by people of good faith https://t.co/Ijq4I07miM
— Neil Blair (@NeilBlairTBP) April 19, 2022
Media Myth: Mob Violence in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Unrest Triggered Hamas Rocket Fire at Israel
Coverage of the spike in violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s terrorist rulers Hamas has been predominantly depicted as somehow connected to the clashes that have erupted in Jerusalem, especially since the beginning of the Passover holiday.BBC COVERAGE OF VIOLENCE IN JERUSALEM – PART TWO
To drive home the point, media outlets have focused on the fact that a rocket launched from Gaza this week – as tensions in the Old City peaked – was the first attack against Israel from the coastal enclave in nearly four months.
However, news organizations are failing to report that Hamas has been anything but quiet during this period. Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
To read the reports by some of the world’s most widely read news publications, one could be forgiven for thinking that steps taken by Israeli security forces to protect worshippers in Jerusalem during a period when Passover, Ramadan and Easter converged are the primary provocation for Hamas.
Such a depiction becomes possible when the media choose to ignore crucial facts about how the rulers of the Gaza Strip have been continuously inciting, and acting, against the Jewish state.
On April 14, the leaders of several Gaza Strip-based Palestinian terror groups issued a unified call for an escalation of violence against Israel, causing concern ahead of Ramadan prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque located atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Related Reading: Associated Press and Others Obscure Palestinian Incitement That Encourages Mob Violence
The Palestinian Authority’s leading faction Fatah joined this clarion call, telling the Palestinian public to “confront IDF forces and settlers throughout the West Bank.”
Indeed, Hamas and the PA repeatedly spread the lie that the Muslim holy site is being threatened by Israel.
Once again BBC audiences are given no relevant information concerning the pre-planned and organised nature of that morning’s rioting or the fact that false allegations concerning the supposed need to “protect” the site have been used as a pretext for violence for over a century – including in May 2021.Actor Mark Ruffalo Quotes Notorious Anti-Israel Activist, Blames Israeli ‘Occupation’ for Temple Mount Violence
The results of the pre-planned violence on Temple Mount that Hamas and other terrorist organisations had been inciting for over a month were also the topic of several BBC radio reports on April 15th.
The lead item in the afternoon edition of the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Newshour’ (from 00:11 here) was portrayed as follows:
“Tensions are high in the holy city of Jerusalem after violence between Israeli police and Palestinian protestors left more than one hundred and fifty people injured. We hear the latest from there.”
Presenter James Menendez opened the item:
Menendez: “And we’re gonna start today in the Middle East and violent clashes in Jerusalem in the Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City. It is a site sacred to both Muslims and Jews. For Muslims it’s the Haram al-Sharif or noble sanctuary, the third holiest site in Islam. For Jews it’s known as the Temple Mount and revered as the location of two ancient temples. Add to that an unusual confluence of religious festivals – Passover is about to start, it’s the middle of Ramadan and it’s Easter weekend – and already high tensions after a deadly spate of attacks by Palestinians and Israeli Arabs on Israelis and retaliatory raids on Palestinian areas. Well, the clashes today began early in the morning after morning prayers. Footage from the mosque shows young Palestinians, some masked, letting off fireworks and throwing stones.”
Menendez refrained from providing any details concerning the identity of those “young Palestinians” or how they obtained the fireworks and rocks they used as weapons.
“The Adam Project” star Mark Ruffalo drew a flurry of responses on Tuesday after tweeting about violent clashes taking place between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount.
“’Starting on Friday, almost 500 Palestinians were arrested by the Israeli occupation authorities from Al-Aqsa Mosque, and, as you said, 170 were injured, several of whom were in critical condition and several of whom were journalists…targeted by design by the Israeli soldiers,'” the actor tweeted, quoting Mohammed El-Kurd, who made the comments on Monday during an interview with Democracy Now!
El-Kurd, the “Palestine correspondent” for The Nation magazine, has a history of glorifying terrorism against Israel and employing antisemitic tropes, including comparing Israelis to Nazis and falsely accusing Israelis of eating the organs of Palestinians.
StandWithUs Executive Director Michael Dickson responded by criticizing Ruffalo for spreading misinformation about the situation in Jerusalem. “Terror orgs push a lie that Al Aqsa is in danger to incite violence between Muslims & Jews. Western slacktivists like @MarkRuffalo give that lie a massive audience,” Dickson wrote. “The result is violence. And if there is bloodshed, Mark will have some blood on his hands.”
Here’s how it works:
— Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) April 20, 2022
Terror orgs push a lie that Al Aqsa is in danger to incite violence between Muslims & Jews.
Western slacktivists like @MarkRuffalo give that lie a massive audience.
The result is violence. And if there is bloodshed, Mark will have some blood on his hands. pic.twitter.com/8sjl4rOWwt
Journal de Montréal Publishes Misleading Headline on Current Conflict with Palestinians
In today’s publication of The Journal de Montréal, an article was published with the headline “Exchanges of fire between the Gaza Strip and Israel”. This headline was highly misleading and failed to explain that Palestinian terrorists from Gaza FIRST launched a rocket at Israel which then led to an Israeli counterstrike on a Hamas weapons site in the Gaza Strip.
In response to this headline, our Digital Director, Rick Firth has written the following letter to the Editor:
Your April 19 Headline on the current Israeli/Palestinian conflict is misleading.
On page 30 of the April 19th edition of The Journal de Montréal, an article with the headline “Exchanges of fire between the Gaza Strip and Israel” was published. This headline was highly misleading as it leaves out crucial information that is imperative to what is actually happening right now in the Middle East.
It is vital that readers clearly understand that Palestinian terrorists from Gaza FIRST launched a rocket at Israel. Only after the rocket was launched did the IDF respond with a counterstrike on a Hamas weapons site in the Gaza Strip. This whole situation was initiated and orchestrated by Palestinian terrorists, trying to provoke Israel into another major conflict.
It is also important to know that when the IDF (Israel Defense Force) does attack strategic terrorists’ sites in the Gaza Strip, they go out of their way to try and mitigate any loss of innocent life. They do this in many different ways, for example, by issuing phone calls, or sending warning strikes before they actually hit any targets in Gaza.
The same cannot be said about Palestinian terrorists, who purposely go out of their way to try and murder as many innocent Israelis as possible. When Palestinian terrorists send rockets into Israel, they fill each rocket with nails, screws, and other small sharp objects, so that when the rocket explodes on impact, the dangerous contents from inside can kill massive amounts of people.
Palestine comes from the Roman name for the entire region (Syria-Palestina). But he's only off by over 1,000 years. No big deal.
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) April 20, 2022
Soaring Antisemitic Outrages in Germany Are ‘Tip of the Iceberg,’ Intelligence Chief Warns
The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service has warned that antisemitic outrages are continuing to soar, and that those incidents which are reported to the authorities are merely the “tip of the iceberg.”35% rise in antisemitism in Australia - report
Thomas Haldenwang — the president of Germany’s federal office for the protection of the constitution (BfV) — remarked on Wednesday that it was “frightening that antisemitic narratives are sometimes embraced by people in the middle of German society, serving as a link between social discourse and extremist ideologies.”
Haldenwang was speaking at the launch of the BfV report covering manifestations of antisemitism in Germany from the summer of 2020 through the autumn of 2021 — a period that included the COVID-19 pandemic, a war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and other significant events that were exploited by antisemitic conspiracy theorists.
Antisemitic tropes had surfaced “at the protests against the pandemic protection measures, and at rallies about the Middle East conflict,” Haldenwang said.
“Currently, we are also seeing it in connection with Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine,” Haldenwang added. Moreover, antisemitic ideology was present on the far right, on the extreme left and among Islamists.
The intelligence chief noted with alarm that while antisemitic incidents in Germany continued to increase year on year, the majority went unreported. “The dark field is much larger — those incidents that are not reported in the first place for various reasons,” Haldenwang commented.
Antisemitism in Australia rose by 35% in 2021, according to a recent report published by an Australian Jewish umbrella organization.New Jersey man charged with federal hate crimes for alleged antisemitic attack spree
During the 12-month period from October 1, 2020, to September 30, 2021, there were 447 antisemitic incidents logged across Australia by volunteer Community Security Groups (CSGs), official Jewish state roof bodies, and the Executive Council of American Jewry (ECAJ). The report was published first on the Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism (CFCA) site monitoring antisemitism.
The total figure consists of 272 attacks (physical assault, verbal abuse, harassment, vandalism, graffiti) and 175 threats (by email, telephone, postal mail, posters, stickers).
In the previous 12-month period, ending September 30, 2020, these same bodies logged 331 incidents. Accordingly, there was an increase of 35% in the overall number of reported antisemitic incidents in Australia compared with the previous year.
Overall, from 2020 to 2021, there were substantial increases in the number of reported incidents in four categories: abuse and harassment (up 14% from 128 in 2020 to 147 in 2021), graffiti (up 152% from 42 to 106), stickers/posters (up 157% from 28 to 72), and a smaller increase in vandalism (up 10% from 10 to 11).
Physical assaults remained at the same number. There were minimal decreases in the number of incidents of postal and telephone threats and a larger decrease in the number of email threats.
The average number of reported antisemitic incidents each year from 2013 to 2020 was 280. As such, the number of reported incidents in 2021 is above that average by 167 incidents.
The US Department of Justice filed federal hate crimes charges on Wednesday against a New Jersey man accused of attacking Jews in a violent crime spree earlier this month.Apple Watch now monitors your health with Israeli pee-analysis tech
Dion Marsh, 27, was charged with four hate crimes for “a series of violent assaults on members of the Orthodox Jewish community,” the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said in a statement.
Marsh was charged with willfully causing bodily injury to four victims, and attempting to kill three with dangerous weapons, “all because they were Jewish,” the statement said.
He was also charged with one count of carjacking.
The three hate crime charges, which include an attempt to kill, carry a maximum term of life in prison. A fourth charge of assault carries a maximum 10-year term. And the carjacking has a maximum 15-year term. All of the charges have a maximum $250,000 fine.
The attacks on April 8 critically injured two Jewish men, who survived, and seriously injured a third.
Olive WatchOS, an app that communicates via Bluetooth with Olive Diagnostics’ KG toilet-mounted sensor to display real-time health data based on passive urinalysis, is now available on the Apple Watch.Ukrainian Academics Arrive at Hebrew University Under Emergency Aid Program
The app, which is free for individual use, is available by monthly subscription to registered caregivers who have been trained to use the Olive KG and can use the app to track the measurements of multiple users.
Jerusalem-based Olive Diagnostics’ KG sensor uses advanced optics to analyze molecules in urine, including various proteins, ketone and creatinine, as well as red blood cells. KG also measures the volume, pressure, color and frequency of urination (which can indicate dehydration or a urinary tract infection), as well as pH levels.
KG can translate the biomarkers in urine into warning signs for more than 600 medical conditions relevant to such illnesses as heart failure, kidney stones and renal failure.
“Olive Diagnostics enables quick and early detection of conditions and diseases that could negatively impact the health of a person and place an unnecessary load on healthcare professionals,” notes Guy Goldman, CEO of Olive Diagnostics.
Bluetooth connectivity with third-party devices was enabled in WatchOS version 8, released in September 2021. As a person wearing an Apple Watch approaches the toilet, the watch pairs with the Olive KG device mounted on the rim of the bowl.
As part of a donor-funded emergency-aid program established at Hebrew University, 18 Ukrainian refugees have been accepted to programs to continue their studies.Israel Agrees to Supply Helmets, Vests to Ukraine Rescue Services
Ten of them have already begun, including Anastasiia Zinevych, who has a Ph.D. and recently arrived in Israel with her husband. During the first day after winter break at Odessa National Economic University, the buildings shook as bombs fell. She said with “supermarket shelves bare and pharmacies out of medicine,” she and her husband decided to leave Ukraine.
“All we took with us were two laptops and a copy of my husband’s poetry,” she said. In need of medical attention, the couple chose Israel because they “heard good things about Hebrew University-Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.”
After a harrowing trip crossing into Poland, the couple arrived in Israel. “I literally exhaled for the first time in weeks when our plane touched down in Israel and knelt down to touch the earth. I’m not Jewish—my husband is—but I felt such gratitude for this country and to Hebrew University for taking us in.”
Zinevych has been living in a university-affiliated apartment and is working with Professor Ran Hassin at the Center for the Study of Rationality.
Israel’s defense minister on Wednesday authorized the supply of helmets and vests to Ukrainian rescue services after speaking with his Ukrainian counterpart, an official Israeli statement said, signaling a shift in Israel’s position on providing such equipment.Hitler’s Perfect Jewish Baby
“In the light of the request made by the Ukrainian side, Israel will provide protective gear for the needs of Ukrainian rescuers and emergency services,” an English-language statement by the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel said, echoing a statement by an Israeli official.
A mediator in the Ukraine-Russia crisis, Israel has condemned the Russian invasion but has limited itself to humanitarian relief. It has been wary of straining relations with Moscow, a powerbroker in neighboring Syria where Israel coordinates strikes against Iranian deployments.
Both the Israeli and Ukrainian officials stressed that the shipment is meant for rescue services and civilian organizations.
Ukraine previously voiced frustration with Israel’s refusal to provide what it deems defensive aid against Russia. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said Israel’s “measured and responsible approach” allows it to be “a credible player, one of the few that can communicate directly with both parties, and assist as required.”
In the winter of 1935, a few months after the German government passed the anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws, the Nazi family magazine Sonne ins Haus (“Sun in the Home”) sponsored a photographic competition to find “the perfect Aryan child.” On Jan. 24, 1935, the magazine published a front-page photograph of the winner, a beautiful 6-month-old baby girl named Hessy Levinsons. Nazi propaganda showcased the baby as “the perfect Aryan baby.” Unbeknownst to the judges, Hessy was Jewish.Moroccan Jew’s ‘Hitler Haggadah’ creates a rumpus in Australia
Hessy had been born in Berlin on May 17, 1934, to Jewish parents Jacob and Pauline Levinsons. The couple, originally from Latvia, where they both had studied classical music, married before immigrating to Berlin in 1928. Both were singers: Jacob was a smooth-voiced baritone; Pauline had studied at the renowned Riga Conservatory in Latvia.
Jacob had accepted a position at a local opera house and taken the stage name of Yasha Lenssen to conceal his Jewish identity, since this was a time of intensifying antisemitism in Hitler’s Berlin. However, when the opera directors found out that Jacob’s family name was really Levinsons and he was Jewish, they canceled his contract.
Without money, and living in a cramped one-room flat, Pauline gave birth to Hessy. She was so beautiful that when she was 6 months old, her parents decided to have her picture taken. “My mother took me to a photographer,” Hessy recalled. “One of the best in Berlin. And he made a very beautiful picture.”
Hessy’s parents liked the portrait so much they had it framed and propped it up on the piano that Hessy’s father had given her mother as a present after Hessy was born. Her parents thought the picture would remain a private family photo. They were unaware that Hans Ballin, the well-known Berlin photographer who had taken it, had entered the picture in a photo contest of the Nazi magazine Sonne ins Haus.
You may have heard of the Hitler Megilla, which celebrates the liberation of North Africa by the Allies as a mini-Purim. Now comes discovery of a Hitler Haggadah, composed by a Moroccan Jew in Judeo-Arabic in 1943, which uses the structure of the Passover story to do the same. However, a discussion featuring the translator at the recent Jewish Writers’ Festival in Sydney drew ‘ inflammatory and racist comments’ on social media and forced Shalom, the organisers, to close off comments and make a statement denouncing the objectors. (With thanks: Leon)Symphonic Poem ‘Auschwitz’ by Greek Holocaust Survivor to Debut at Carnegie Hall Concert
Jonnie Schnytzer, a PhD student at Bar Ilan University, who recently discovered and translated the Hitler Haggadah.
Prior to the event taking place, Shalom issued the following statement:
”The event in question entails the Jewish Holocaust Centre’s Head of Education Dr Simon Holloway interviewing the translator of The Hitler Haggadah. This book was published in 1943 by Nissim Ben Shimon, a Moroccan survivor of the Nazis, and has recently been translated into English by Jonnie Schnytzer, a PhD candidate at Bar Ilan University. It is a renowned work and has been recently profiled and discussed by other distinguished Jewish organisations such as the Jewish Book Council and Centre for Jewish History. An original is contained in the Haberman Institute Collection.
The work describes Ben Shimon’s feeling of liberation by the allied forces, using the scaffolding of the Haggadah, in a similar way to the Survivor’s Haggadah which encapsulated the feelings of survivors in 1946 who were liberated from Concentration camps by Allied forces. This is consistent with many family sederim, where—as the sages encourage us to do so—we retell the story of our being slaves in Egypt and the Exodus and link these to other genocides of our people, including the Shoah.
”The social media response to our posts included negative reactions to the title and to a quote from his book, where he compares the four sons to world powers at the time.
”As is typical of social media, some commenters assumed bad intent on the part of the poster, rather than enquiring as to the credentials of the work in question. Some of the comments used inflammatory, racial epithets aimed at our Jewish employees and volunteers. Shalom does not tolerate racism of any kind, including from fellow Jews. Accordingly, we elected to close off the comments.”
A symphonic poem written by an Auschwitz survivor from Greece, who wrote the orchestral music in honor of those killed during the Holocaust, will make its debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City on Wednesday.Marvin Chomsky, who won Emmy for influential TV series ‘Holocaust,’ dies at 92
Michel Assael wrote the symphonic poem “Auschwitz” in 1947, after being freed from the Nazi extermination camp, but it will heard for the first time publicly this week.
The Carnegie Hall concert is sponsored by the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, and also pays tribute to Austrian composer and conductor Viktor Ullmann, who was killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. The event will honor two Holocaust victims — one who survived and one who was murdered.
“It’s powerful. The first few minutes feels very unresolved and that must be the fear in the beginning of what he was trying to express,” Assael’s daughter, Deborah Assael-Migliore, told CBS News after hearing her father’s 100-plus-page work during a rehearsal. “His whole experience of what he told me when I was growing up, all the stories I’m hearing in his musical language.”
Assael, a Jewish musician and composer from Salonika, Greece, was deported to Auschwitz in 1943, where he played the accordion in an orchestra of prisoners. Assael’s two sisters also survived the war because they were musicians performing in the group.
Dr. Albert Menache, a physician and fellow prisoner at Auschwitz, also played in the orchestra and recommended for Assael to join the group. After his liberation, Dr. Menache wrote a memoir, which inspired Assael to pen a score in memory of all the victims of the Holocaust. The score remained in a box since 1946, never transcribed or performed, until its recent rediscovery. Both Assael and Menache moved to New York after the war.
Marvin Chomsky often relayed one searing memory from the set of his 1978 miniseries “Holocaust.”
While shooting sequences in Austria to dramatize the mass murders of Jews both at Nazi concentration camps and in the Babyn Yar ravine outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Chomsky recalled how a young camera operator had challenged the narrative of what they were filming.
“Mr. Marvin, you are making this up for the movie,” the cameraman said, as Chomsky recalled in a video remembrance of his career for the Director’s Guild of America. “This didn’t really happen.”
So Chomsky turned to a nearby German crew member. “Is it true or not true?” he asked.
“And all eyes went right to him, and he thought and he said, ‘Ja, das ist war,’” German for “Yes, that’s true,” Chomsky recalled. “All the kids, the young ones, just ran off crying their hearts out, they didn’t believe it. And I didn’t say another word.”
Thanks to Chomsky, who died March 28 in Santa Rosa, California, at the age of 92, “Holocaust” showed millions of people — including around 20 million Germans — that the Holocaust did indeed happen.
When it aired in the United States and West Germany, the four-part miniseries attracted upwards of 120 million viewers and helped spark broad public dialogue around the causes and consequences of the genocide of European Jews. Many Germans called into their TV stations in tears to express their shame at the events depicted onscreen, and some former Nazi soldiers were even moved to confess details of their crimes.
Frank Bösch, a German historian, told the BBC that he believes the miniseries’ broadcast on German TV in 1979 ranked alongside the Iranian Revolution and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s election as one of the key events of that year that transformed the world.
So cool! Jerusalem's Chords Bridge is illuminated with the 10 biblical plagues that we recount at the #Passover seder. pic.twitter.com/QlrdXmS2xx
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) April 19, 2022
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