Friday, April 29, 2022
Mark Regev: Why the Left went from being pro-Israel, Zionism to opposing them
This Sunday, socialists across the globe will be proudly waving red flags at May Day parades to mark International Workers’ Day.Time for anti-Israel human rights NGOs to change their tune
Once widely celebrated by labor, social democratic and socialist parties worldwide (including extensively in Israel), today May Day is primarily associated with the regime-sponsored events in authoritarian socialist countries and with the familiar radical left demonstrations across the West and the Global South.
This year in cities from Johannesburg to Toronto, and from Dhaka to Athens, protesters will be advocating revolutionary change, a world liberated from the capitalist system “that puts profits before people.” Overwhelmingly, May Day 2022 marchers will also self-identify as staunch enemies of the Jewish state.
This anti-Israel hostility is not limited to strident criticism of Israel’s behavior but encompasses the repudiation of Zionism itself. Today’s militant socialists reject the legitimacy of the Jewish state, the very right of the Jews to national self-determination in their homeland.
Across the contemporary radical left, including Europe’s Mélenchonists, Podemitas, Corbynistas and Sinn Féiners, it is widely believed that the Jewish state should never have been established. They often erroneously view Israel as an illegitimate colonialist creation, a state founded on racist precepts and built on the dispossession of the land’s rightful Palestinian inhabitants.
Some remain stuck in a Marxist Cold War narrative that sees Israel as an imperialist outpost to ensure Western domination of the Middle East’s people and resources.
Sadly, today’s leftist anti-Zionism is not confined to the hard-core militants, but in its more presentable manifestations, is an all-too-fashionable liberal-progressive worldview.
NGOs have also played an influential role in lobbying the UN Human Rights Council to create a commission of inquiry to examine the charge of apartheid. The inquiry, set to convene in June, is made up of members with long-documented anti-Israel biases and extensive connections to politicized NGOs. The NGOs hope that UN involvement will create legal and political precedent for applying the "apartheid" label and reinforce NGO lobbying of the International Criminal Court to follow suit.Human Rights Watch Executive Director Stepping Down, but Remaining Israel-Bashers Stand to Carry on Legacy
Most disturbingly, as shown in research by NGO Monitor, these campaigns are often financed by multiple European governments, including Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. Since 2014, 13 NGOs promoting the apartheid label have received $50 million through various European governmental programs, including six NGOs affiliated with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine that Israel designated as terror fronts in late 2021.
Delegitimization, antisemitic rhetoric and terror are all tools that have long been a part of the anti-Israel arsenal. Yet, they have failed miserably. Israel in 2022 is a diverse, thriving and prosperous society. In practical terms, the BDS movement has failed to gain significant traction outside of fringe political movements. And in contrast to tired narratives of international isolation, Israel continues to form new alliances and important regional partnerships that were unimaginable only a few short years ago.
Perhaps it is time for HRW, Amnesty and their ilk to recalibrate. The future of Israel will not be shaped in offices in New York or London. Rather, it is being written in forums such as last month's Negev Summit with signatories to the Abraham Accords; the corridors of Tel Aviv startups; and the Knesset, which houses the country's most diverse government to date, with Jews and Arabs working together to make Israel a better society for all.
Ahead of Israel's Independence Day, Israel's NGO detractors should reflect on whether their rhetoric is helping to facilitate a better future, or whether they are perpetuating a narrative that has long belonged to the past.
HonestReporting has documented HRW’s anti-Israel libels at length; it is an animosity that has culminated in the NGO releasing numerous flawed reports and articles that peddle unfounded accusations.
In July 2021, we deconstructed a 6,500-word report titled, “Gaza: Apparent War Crimes During May Fighting,” which ostensibly detailed an investigation into the actions of the Israel Defense Forces and Gaza-based Palestinian terrorist groups during last year’s conflict that allegedly “resulted in high numbers of civilian casualties and where there was no evident military target.”
We noted that a thorough examination of HRW’s claims revealed the entire foundation upon which the report was constructed used recycled allegations from other unnamed NGOs and The New York Times, and failed to present any concrete evidence to support its accusations.
In addition, we criticized the report’s exoneration of US-designated terrorist group Hamas of all responsibility for deaths that had occurred in Gaza, despite controlling the territory with an iron fist and the well-documented fact that it uses civilians as human shields.
In December 2021, HRW continued its assault on Israel’s legitimacy — this time targeting what it deemed “discriminatory” policing during the May hostilities in which Arab Israelis carried out what many described as “pogroms” against Jews and their property.
The wave of antisemitic violence in cities including Lod, Acre, Jaffa, and Haifa was followed by a handful of attacks by Jewish extremists, who were denounced by Israeli politicians from across the political spectrum.
Yet, according to data from the Fire and Rescue Services, Arab violence against Jews formed the vast majority of assaults.
HRW chose to ignore these salient facts in its 5,000-word analysis, “Israel: Abusive Policing in Lod During May Hostilities,” and instead relied entirely on controversial pro-Palestinian sources to conclude that police had “forcibly” dispersed “Palestinians protesting peacefully.”
This, as Hamas-encouraged riots saw Arab Israelis set fire to at least 10 synagogues, 112 Jewish-owned homes, and 849 cars in the space of just five days.
Outside of his work leading HRW and overseeing the production of its anti-Israel propaganda, Roth has demonstrated his personal enmity towards the Jewish state on numerous occasions.
Why did the US ignore diplomats who boldly raised an alarm about Hitler before WWII?
In new book ‘Watching Darkness Fall,’ former US ambassador David McKean illustrates how antisemitism, apathy and internal politics set America back in the war against GermanyWhy did Hitler write a letter to a Jew?
In 1938, William Dodd, the United States ambassador to Nazi Germany, publicly declared that Hitler wanted to kill all the Jews not just in Germany, but the entire European continent. Months later, the Kristallnacht pogroms indicated he was right.
Despite Dodd’s perception, the US diplomatic corps overlooked a number of totalitarian threats at the time, according to “Watching Darkness Fall: FDR, His Ambassadors, and the Rise of Adolf Hitler,” a new book by David McKean.
The author is himself a former US ambassador to Luxembourg under the Obama administration. The inspiration for the book came while McKean was serving there from 2016 to 2017.
Although a relatively small country, Luxembourg has the second-largest military cemetery in Europe after Normandy; those buried there include Gen. George S. Patton. McKean was struck by how powerful the memory of World War II remained in Luxembourg, which was overrun twice by Germany. He eventually decided to write a book focusing on four members of president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s diplomatic corps during the leadup to war.
“I just thought it was such a different way of looking at our foreign policy during this period,” McKean told The Times of Israel. “To learn how these ambassadors, who for the most part came from fairly similar backgrounds, turned out to be very, very different in their approach to the job… It is an incredibly interesting perspective on our diplomacy at the time.”
On the positive side, there were Dodd and the colorful William Bullitt — a millionaire and bon vivant who served as ambassador to the USSR and France. Bullitt helped get Sigmund Freud out of Austria after the Anschluss, and made a questionable return home once Paris fell.
Former MK Rachel Azaria shared with his followers on social media that her great-grandmother, Frieda Friedman, received a handwritten letter from Adolf Hitler in response to a letter she had sent German President Paul von Hindenburg, who had appointed the Nazi leader as the head of the government in 1933.Yehuda Kurtzer joins ‘Limited Liability Podcast’
Azaria's post was in commemoration of her great-grandmother on Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, which was observed Wednesday night and Thursday. Azaria said that her grandmother that upon his rise to power, she wrote the German president about the new attitude toward Jews despite their contribution to the country.
She went on to explain that her fiance was killed in World War I, as were two of her brothers, while fighting for Germany. Her only surviving brother was blinded due to his injuries. All three brothers received medals for their sacrifice, she said, "but now there are open calls to take violent action against Jews. Is the incitement against Jews a sign of courage or cowardness, considering that Jews comprise just 1% of Germans."
The president said he took her complaints seriously and gave it to Hitler for comment. The newly appointed German chancellor wrote back, in handwriting, that she was making baseless accusations and that there were no calls for violence against Jews. The handwritten letter was later seized by the British as it is considered the first time Hitler publicly showed his handwriting as chancellor. It is now at an archive in Koblenz.
On this week’s episode of Jewish Insider’s “Limited Liability Podcast,” co-hosts Rich Goldberg and Jarrod Bernstein were joined by Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the New York-based Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, for a discussion on the Jewish community’s “tent,” anti-Zionism and antisemitism and the future of Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim relations.
Bernstein: Dr. Kurtzer, can you tell us about the correlation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism, and does one equal the other, and how do we parse that? I know that that’s something that gets a lot [of coverage] these days. I’m sure Rich and I probably have different definitions of certainly the former but not the latter, but interested to hear you weigh in here.
Kurtzer: Well, I think, by the way, that’s data in and of itself. If you and Rich have different categories, if you agree on one but disagree on the other, that’s data, because if Jews are going to disagree about this and can do so publicly, OK, well, then there’s what to talk about? Look, I don’t think the question is, is anti-Zionism antisemitism? I think the question is, when is anti-Zionism antisemitism?
Goldberg: States around the country are endorsing this definition [of antinsemitism]; the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. IHRA, for those who aren’t familiar, has a working definition of antisemitism. Yes, I would say, unfortunately, there are Jews who espouse views that fall under that definition. It feels weird to say you are a Jewish antisemite. I think we have a difficulty here. If you are Jewish Currents, if you are Peter Beinart, if you’re IfNotNow, and your whole MO is just to label Israel an apartheid state and isolate Israel, or undermine Israel, putting Jews at risks, I don’t know what we call that, otherwise. I don’t know how we normalize that as a community.
Kurtzer: That’s the work. Listen, some of the people you mentioned, they’re friends of mine, they’re colleagues of mine, I don’t characterize them as being antisemitic. I think what you just said, Rich, is too easy of a shortcut. Since I have a terminology, which is antisemite. I have to label them something in order to be able to really oppose them and fight against them. I just don’t think that’s true.
Charles Jacobs Asks "Where are America's Jewish Leaders?" on Islamist Antisemitism
Charles Jacobs, president of Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), spoke to an April 4 Middle East Forum Webinar (video) on the failure of America's Jewish leaders to address antisemitism in the Islamist-progressive alliance.
Jacobs said America's Jewish leadership refuses to confront the origins of the "surge of antisemitism" affecting Jews nationwide. FBI statistics show that Jews are twice as likely to be victims of hate crimes as are blacks or Muslims, four times more likely than Asians, and twenty times more than whites. Videos of "Jews being beaten up in the streets of New York" demonstrate this harsh reality.
Animus toward Jews comes from four "very large and powerful ideological camps," said Jacobs. The first, white supremacists and neo-Nazis, are the ones that "most Jewish leaders will attend to" because "it's the easiest thing for them" to since "no one's going to argue with them that Nazis are okay," or that "white supremacists should get a pass."
Jewish leaders rarely mention three other sources of animosity because they are "politically incorrect sources of Jew hatred." In ascending order of danger, these are: black supremacists, the "biggest exemplar" of which is Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam; radical leftwing anti-Zionists who condemn Israel and deny its right to exist; and Islamists.
Jacobs said Jewish organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Jewish Federations, the Jewish Community Relations Councils (JCRC), and the American Jewish Committee (AJC) "don't want to touch" Islamists and are therefore far less likely to condemn them.
He illustrated this reluctance with a story he "lived through here in Boston." In 2004, the Boston Herald exposed the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center's (ISBCC) proposal to build "the largest mosque on the Eastern Seaboard" and that it was to be "founded, funded, and run by the Muslim Brotherhood." Its original cast is a rogue's gallery of Islamists. The founder of the Cambridge "seed mosque" for building the mega-mosque, Abdul Rahman Alamoudi, was also "the most important of Al-Qaeda fundraisers in the United States." He pled guilty and received a twenty-three-year prison sentence by a federal court after "he was caught with a suitcase full of cash in an airport." Among other schemes, Alamoudi was "plotting to assassinate the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah."
West Virginia Treasurer Calls on Unilever to Put Stop to Ben & Jerry’s Boycott
West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore called on Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s, to end the Vermont-based ice cream maker’s boycott of Israel in a letter on Wednesday, saying its inaction amounts to tacit support.CPS reinstates racially_religiously aggravated element of assault charges against Abdullah Qureshi in face of communal outrage, after CAA revealed antisemitic element had been dropped
“The willingness of a major US corporation to protest a nation whose ideals have long served as a beacon of hope and a symbol for democratic principles in the Middle East sets a dangerous precedent,” wrote Moore. “As the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s, it is paramount for Unilever to step in and take control of this situation.”
The announcement last July that the ice cream maker would stop sales of its products in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank sparked global condemnation from pro-Israel organizations and state governments.
Moore, who supports Israel and has worked to limit future state investments in any company that participates in an ant-Israel activity, such as the BDS movement, added that Israel represents the freest and most democratic government in the region and is America’s strongest ally.
In the release, Moore confirmed that no taxpayer dollars in the more than $8 billion of the state’s operating funds controlled by West Virginia’s Board of Treasury Investments are invested in Unilever securities.
“I’m deeply concerned by the management philosophy of any company that participates in a harmful boycott of Israel and have confirmed that no Unilever securities are held with the taxpayer funds invested by my office,” wrote Moore.
With his support, West Virginia passed last year an anti-BDS law, House Bill 2933, becoming one of more than half of American states to do so.
Moore’s release also criticized what he considered Unilever’s and other companies’ hypocrisy in espousing Environmental, Social and Governance principles (ESG), which include sections on diversity and inclusion, as well as respect for human rights.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has reinstated the racially/religiously aggravated element of the assault charges against Abdullah Qureshi, after Campaign Against Antisemitism revealed earlier this month that the antisemitic element had been dropped and we and other communal organisations made representations to the CPS.
On 7th April, Abdullah Qureshi, 28, from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty at Thames Magistrates’ Court to four counts of common assault, one count of criminal damage and one count of wounding or grievous bodily harm. The charges related to a series of assaults on 18th August in Stamford Hill in which five religious Jews in the North London neighbourhood were violently attacked.
In one incident at 18:41, an Orthodox Jewish man was struck in the face with what appeared to be a bottle. In another at 19:10, a child was slapped on the back of the head, and in yet another at 20:30, a 64-year-old victim was struck and left unconscious on the ground, suffering facial injuries and a broken ankle. Two further incidents were also alleged.
The incidents received significant media attention at the time, and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, condemned “this appalling attack,” adding: “Let me be clear, racist abuse and hate crime, including antisemitism, have absolutely no place in our city.”
However, we reported that the CPS had dropped the religiously/racially-aggravated element of all of the charges, despite Mr Quershi having attacked only visibly Jewish people — including a child and a 64-year-old man — that day in one of Britain’s most diverse neighbourhoods. So the charges to which he pleaded guilty did not include the antisemitic aggravating element.
Following this revelation, Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, continued to support the victims and made representations to the CPS, as did we, the CST and other Jewish and local groups.
Today, the CPS has reinstated the religiously/racially-aggravated element of all of the charges in the face of unified communal outrage.
Muslim preacher refuses to greet Jew pic.twitter.com/qROKmwDLhI
— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) April 28, 2022
Charlotte, NC University Investigating Series of Swastikas Found in Dorms
Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina is working with local police to investigate several incidents of swastika graffiti in its residence halls.
The symbols were found on a “common space whiteboard” and the doors of students’ dormitories, according to a statement the university issued on Monday.
“The images used are despicable and do not reflect or represent our institutional values. They are in violation of our Honor Code, and we denounce them,” a university spokesperson said, posting on Facebook. “A full investigation is ongoing in partnership with law enforcement.”
The university encouraged students with knowledge of the incidents to contact campus police and the dean’s office, which will accept anonymous reports. It also announced an “Interfaith Gathering” that took place on Monday evening at the school’s Trexler Courtyard.
“Hate has no place here. We, as a Queens community, stand for fostering knowledge and cultivating relationships among people with different world views, championing the dignity of all people, and working together to create a more equitable present and future,” the university continued. “We hope you will join us in standing up for one another and for the larger Queens community.”
On Monday, Rabbi Judy Schindler Wallach, the university’s Sklut Professor of Jewish Studies, told a local news CBS affiliate that “the act of one individual or perhaps two individuals who scrawled these hateful symbols can be so devastating and shatter the sense of security for so many students.”
“It’s devastating when you have an act of hate aimed at you, a part of your identity, and I pray it will not happen to anyone else,” Wallach said.
NOW: Christians (and Jews) are being slaughtered in #Nigeria by radical Islamist gangs.
— David Collier (@mishtal) April 29, 2022
Chrisitans are under threat in much of Africa and Asia. In some places it has been called 'Genocide'.
You know the last time Amnesty bothered to tweet about *Christians*? - OVER 5 YEARS AGO. pic.twitter.com/sgiHOpIF1u
Elon Musk's Twitter challenge: Dealing with extremists - editorial
Big tech has clearly not done enough over the years to crack down on antisemitism. This includes genocidal hatred of Israel, because a certain amount of Jew-hate hides behind attacks on “Zionism” that includes calls to destroy Israel and drive “settlers” into the sea. What this means is that the users of social media may have learned how to get around key words that could get them removed.Will Elon Musk's promise of free Twitter speech withstand the Middle East test?
What concerns us is that antisemitic incidents were at an all-time high in 2021. Unlike during the Trump years, when major media would slam the White House for each antisemitic incident, today we have the highest levels of antisemitism but the media seems generally hesitant to critique the US political leadership for a failure to do anything about it.
There also seems to be a general reticence to admit that many violent antisemitic incidents in the US do not all come from “white supremacists” but also come from other groups, many on the Left. This results in the struggle against antisemitism being hampered by political divisions in the US and the use by each side of claims that the other side is antisemitic.
Musk says that he is “against censorship that goes far beyond the law,” and he wants Twitter direct messages to have “end to end encryption like Signal, so no one can spy on or hack your messages.”
All of this may improve user experience because arbitrary bans on accounts are not helpful. However, the company should be careful to not let “free speech” become a cover for antisemitism, as well as racism, hatred and other extremism that goes hand in hand with anti-Jewish hate.
Hopefully, Twitter will remain a robust forum of ideas and news, but we also want to see standards that result in the platform policing the hatred of regimes like Iran the same way it does politicians in the West.
We have hopes that Musk, who has praised Israel in the past, will understand the power of Twitter, and the need to keep an eye on extremists exploiting the platform.
Twitter buyer Elon Musk calls himself a free speech absolutist, but that could be put to the test in the Middle East where critics say authoritarian governments use the platform to track opponents and spread disinformation.BBC again edits the history of Moroccan Jews
In a region where the local media is often controlled by the state, millions of people rely on social media platforms to follow news and express their opinions.
Both Twitter and Facebook showed their potential to influence real-life events during the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, when they played an outsize role in social upheaval.
But many democratic gains were reversed, partly because governments could follow the activities of opponents on social media sites and make arrests if they were criticized.
Marc Owen Jones, author of the forthcoming Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East and a assistant professor of Middle East Studies at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar, said Twitter had been co-opted by some countries which use it to disseminate propaganda and intimidate activists.
"Elon Musk's ownership of Twitter will simply aggravate the problems we see in the region. It will increase the likelihood that Twitter will be exploited as a tool of surveillance and repression," he said.
"His 'anything goes' ideology will play into the hands of authoritarian states to just manipulate Twitter to create fake accounts and to intimidate others under the guise of free speech."
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how it might deal with Middle Eastern governments' use of the platform and what it might do to protect critics expressing their views on social media.
Clearly those accounts do very little indeed to inform listeners why Morocco’s Jewish population plummeted from some 265,000 to only a couple of thousand and the claim that the reason was worsening relations “between the Arab world and Israel” whitewashes other no less important factors.Edmonton Journal Publishes HRC Rebuttal Letter On Inappropriate Cartoon On Yom HaShoah
As we have had cause to note in the past when the BBC has similarly promoted narratives about Jews living harmoniously in Arab lands until Zionism and Israel came along:
“The Jewish community in Morocco had suffered periodic pogroms and forced conversions throughout history, including in the 18th and 19th centuries and in the early 20th century tens of Jewish families from Morocco had already emigrated to what was at the time Ottoman ruled Palestine. One event which was still within living memory at the time when the significant exodus of Jews from Morocco began was the pogrom in Fez in 1912. During World War Two, Morocco – at the time a French protectorate – came under pro-Nazi Vichy rule and Jews were subjected to anti-Jewish legislation.
Following a serious episode of anti-Jewish violence in Oujda and Jerada in June 1948, thousands of Jews emigrated. As Morocco moved towards independence in late 1955, new fears arose within the Jewish community and indeed between 1956 and 1961 Moroccan Jews were prohibited from emigrating to Israel. In the three years following the lifting of that ban, a further 80,000 Jews left Morocco for Israel.”
However, once again the real history of Morocco’s Jews has been edited out by the BBC in favour of a narrative that puts the focus on Israel.
On an average day, a commentary about Russia’s war and aggression in the Ukraine, and the similarities between Vladmir Putin and Adolph Hitler may be warranted, as both were aggressors and both invaded neighbouring countries in an effort to expand their national territory.Alaska Becomes 25th US State to Adopt Leading Definition of Antisemitism
However, the fact that Malcolm Mayes’ cartoon was published on the Jewish day for commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, was both tasteless and inappropriate, given that Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) is a time to reflect upon the murder of 6 million Jews and not to make modern day comparisons.
Holocaust distortion can take many forms, such as drawing inappropriate comparisons to contemporary events. Edmonton Journal readers deserve better and HonestReporting Canada has communicated this directly to the Journal.
It bears noting that Malcolm Mayes has a track record of illustrating odious cartoons that have offended the Jewish community and supporters of Israel, and that many felt crossed the line. HonestReporting Canada has previously met with Journal editors to sensitize them about these concerns.
In 2019, the Edmonton Journal issued an apology for publishing a Malcolm Mayes cartoon which was criticized by our organization, along with the Edmonton Jewish Federation and others, for its resemblance to antisemitic tropes prevalent in some anti-Jewish propaganda in Nazi Germany preceding the Holocaust.
A proclamation by Governor Mike Dunleavy of Alaska made the state the 25th in the US to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, Jewish leaders announced Thursday.British Authorities Urged to Deny Entry to Antisemitic Polish Politicians Planning to Speak at Community Event
“Almost eight decades have passed since the concentration camps were liberated, but the scourge of antisemitism remains with us,” the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said, as the Jewish world commemorated Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Half of all US states and the District of Columbia have now embraced the IHRA standard, the Conference noted, reflecting “the widespread view that it is critically important to recognize antisemitism in order to combat it successfully.”
“Yom HaShoah contains within it a balance — we memorialize the history of the past evil in order to secure a better future. Our work in fighting antisemitism continues and we are grateful that the majority of states, representing the entire political spectrum, adopted the IHRA definition as an important standard in the battle against antisemitism and Jew hatred.”
On Thursday, Governor Dunleavy told The Algemeiner, “the Holocaust must never be forgotten.”
“Antisemitism is an evil that threatens all of us as it challenges the core values that bind us as Americans,” he continued. “I issued a proclamation today that seeks to remind us of tolerance and to commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.”
An interfaith organization in the UK is calling on the British government to prevent the entry of two far-right Polish politicians accused of antisemitic and racist incitement.Toronto Police: Jewish Community Most Victimized by Hate Crimes
In a statement on Thursday, Faith Matters highlighted the planned presence of Janusz Korwin-Mikke, a former member of the European parliament, and Konrad Berkowicz, a serving member of the Polish parliament for the far-right Konfederacja party, at a Polish community event scheduled for Sunday in Manchester. Around 700,000 people of Polish descent live in the UK, with up to 30,000 located in the Greater Manchester region.
Faith Matters said it had submitted a dossier to the British Home Office that collected many of Korwin-Mikke’s inflammatory statements on social media, including a recent series of tweets suggesting that atrocities committed by Russian troops in Ukrainian cities such as Mariupol and Bucha were in fact the work of Ukrainian forces.
Korwin-Mikke has frequently promoted crudely antisemitic material, with one posting from 2019 showing a man dressed as a Hasidic Jew laughing cynically and the accompanying message “Stupid Goy” alongside the n-word. On previous occasions, he claimed that Adolf Hitler had been unaware of the Holocaust, opined that being a Jew or a Muslim was “worse for me than race mixing,” and urged the lowering of the age of consent for children on the grounds that there are “girls who are 12, 13, and completely mature.”
The Jewish community was the “most targeted” for hate crimes in Toronto, according to the Toronto Police Service’s 2021 Annual Hate Crime Statistical Report, which was released earlier this week.New York City home to 26 tech unicorns founded by Israelis — report
“The Jewish community represents 3.8% of the population in the City of Toronto but was victimized in approximately 22% of the total hate crimes,” the report stated.
Of a total of 257 hate crimes recorded last year throughout the Canadian city, 56 of them directly targeted the Jewish community. An additional 14 cases involving Jewish individuals were classified under a “multi-bias” criteria, as the victim also identified with another minority group, such as black, LGBTQ2S or Israeli.
“The new TPS report is deeply disturbing, even if not surprising, given the overall upsurge in anti-Semitism we’re seeing across Canada,” said Michael Levitt, president and CEO of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC). “Yet again, Toronto’s Jewish community has the unwanted distinction of being the most-targeted group of the city’s racists and bigots.”
Levitt added that “we know the situation is even worse than the official statistics as many victims of hate crime never report them to the police, especially when it comes to the widespread anti-Semitism and other hate-filled content online. The report underlines the urgency of training and providing tools to police, as well as additional efforts by government officials and schools, to combat this scourge which undermines the very fabric of our diverse society.”
Among the incidents last year were assaults on Jews in a local park and at a bakery, along with instances of vandalism, including one blaming Jews for the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001.
Following a record funding year in 2021 for Israeli tech companies, proceeded by a battering on Wall Street for those whose shares are traded publicly and a tumbling in tech valuations in recent months, New York is now home to 26 Israeli-founded unicorns — privately held companies valued at $1 billion or more — according to an annual report released Wednesday by the United States – Israel Business Alliance (USIBA).Founders of Israel’s AU10TIX in Negotiations to Sell Company at Over $1 Billion Valuation
Each of these companies’ global or US headquarters is based in Manhattan, making New York the city with the second most Israeli-founded unicorns in the world behind Tel Aviv, the organization said.
Since last year’s report, which tallied 21 Israeli-founded tech unicorns, 14 companies were added to the list, having reached a valuation of $1 billion or more, and nine companies listed their shares on the public markets (making them no longer private companies).
One of the reasons New York is such a top tech hub for Israeli entrepreneurs, suggested USIBA president Aaron Kaplowitz, is because the metropolis “supplies strategic resources that no single city can truly match,” offering “access to seemingly endless sources of capital, a well-traveled path to the rest of the America and global markets, a highly sophisticated workforce, cultural synergies – the list goes on.”
Given the travel disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic for two years, followed by other world events, the New York area “is the only place in the country with two airports that offer direct flights daily to Tel Aviv, so from the perspective of the executive who needs to travel back and forth frequently, New York has even more appeal,” he added.
Kaplowitz noted that since 2018, when the organization released its inaugural tally of Israeli tech unicorns based in New York, the list has grown tremendously.
Brothers Ron and Gil Atzmon, who hold a 70% stake in Israeli automated identity verification startup AU10TIX, are in negotiations to sell their holdings at a company valuation of $1.1-1.2 billion. AU10TIX, founded in 2010, has developed identity intelligence technology aimed at reducing fraud by verifying digital identities.Israeli field hospital ends Ukraine operations after six weeks
Several funds are believed to be interested in acquiring AU10TIX, with the deal estimated to be between $300-750 million depending on the stake to be ultimately bought from the Atzmons. The TPG fund currently holds a 7.5% stake in the company with Oak HC/FT owning 3% of the company’s shares. Both funds are also expected to sell their holdings together with the Atzmons.
Calcalist has learned that AU10TIX has hired the services of Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank to lead the process. The company has denied this.
Calcalist has also learned that around four months ago, AU10TIX was in advanced negotiations to merge with a SPAC at a valuation of $1.4 billion. However, concerns that the SPAC wouldn’t be able to raise the required PIPE investment led AU10TIX to pull out of the deal.
AU10TIX has never raised funds. The only time its founders sold shares was in 2019 when they sold a 30% stake in the company to two international funds for $80 million. The reason the company never required external funding was due to the fact that it was almost always profitable.
The Israeli field hospital "Kohav Meir" (Shining Star) has finished its operations and all volunteers have returned to Israel on Friday morning after spending six weeks in Ukraine and treating over 6,000 patients.Documentary takes film lovers behind the scenes of making ‘Fiddler on the Roof’
The hospital was a project led by the Foreign and Health Ministries, along with Sheba Medical Center and other Israeli hospitals and HMOs. The humanitarian aid project was supported by the Shusterman Fund as well as the Joint.
Israel will continue granting Ukraine humanitarian assistance, a Health Ministry statement noted.
The hospital opened on March 22 and is named after former prime minister Golda Meir, who was born in Ukraine and founded the Foreign Ministry’s Agency for International Development, Cooperation and Aid program, which oversaw the mission.
Over 60 members of Sheba’s medical staff are worked in the hospital and operated even under the threat of Russian missiles, at the request of Kyiv itself, which asked that the hospital be constructed as part of Israel’s humanitarian efforts to help Ukraine.
In the late 1960s, film director Norman Jewison was in despair about the political upheavals in America and around the world. Spiritually despondent, he was ready to quit Hollywood and stop directing.Cantor’s Song Recorded Decades Ago Lands Him a Role in ‘The Survivor’
An invitation from United Artists to adapt the successful stage play “Fiddler on the Roof” for film came just at the right moment. Jewison accepted the challenge, and the work healed him, he wrote in his 2005 autobiography, “This Terrible Business Has Been Good To Me.”
A new documentary film by Daniel Raim, “Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen,” opens in New York on April 29 and Los Angeles on May 6. As the title implies, it is about all that went into the making of the beloved, iconic 1971 film based on Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem‘s stories about Jews in the Russian Empire’s Pale of Settlement at the turn of the 20th century.
Raim’s film is ostensibly about how producer and director Jewison shaped “Fiddler,” but it is at its core about how “Fiddler,” with its themes of family, tradition and belief in God, shaped him.
“Jewison was at a tipping point. He saw ‘Fiddler’ as a way for him to really say something,” Raim said.
In conversation with The Times of Israel from his home in Los Angeles, Raim said Jewison was absolutely the right person to direct “Fiddler.”
“Norman was at the top of his game at that point, having just made hugely successful films like ‘The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming’ and ‘In the Heat of the Night,’” Raim said.
Acting isn’t easy, especially when you are a cantor with no acting experience. Having to lose 25 pounds doesn’t help, and being in a movie with heavy hitters like Ben Foster and Danny DeVito can add some pressure.Documentary on Pittsburgh Community After Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting to Premiere at Jewish Film Festival
So it was for cantor Erik Contzius, who has a small but meaningful role in “The Survivor,” airing now on HBO Max.
The film stars Ben Foster as Harry Haft, who the Nazi forced to box other Jews in Auschwitz; the winner would get extra food and the loser was killed. It’s based on a book by Haft’s son,
How did Contzius get the role where he sings a soulful “Avinu Malkeinu?”
In 1998, he recorded the song. Decades later, famed director Barry Levinson was on Spotify, and heard the digital version and felt it would be perfect.
In 2018, Contzius got a call to see if he was available to shoot a scene for the movie. And he was.
“I was nervous, but I got over my nerves after the first day of shooting,” Contzius said.
To slim down, the cantor drank weight-loss shakes, excluded carbs, and consumed 800 calories a day.
“Losing the first 10 was easy, but the rest was hard,” he said.
Contzius said Foster stayed in character on set, maintaining a Polish Jewish accent, and asking him about the different shakes.
After getting cantorial ordination from Hebrew Union College, Contzius was a pulpit cantor at Temple Israel in Omaha, Nebraska; Knesseth Israel in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; and Temple Israel in New Rochelle, New York.
“We never know the opportunities we will get in life, and this was a great one. It was such an honor. The director, the cast, and really everyone was so respectful and kind, so it was a great and unforgettable experience,” he said.
A documentary about how locals in Pittsburgh came together to support the Jewish community after the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill will make its world premiere next week at Pittsburgh’s JFilm Festival.'Star Trek' writer, IAF founder Harold Livingston dies at 97
The documentary, “Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life,” follows the city’s response and individual efforts to heal over the course of three years following the October 2018 shooting, in which 11 worshippers were killed by a far-right racist gunman in what was the worst single antisemitic attack against Jews in US history. The film’s title is a nod to the Hebrew phrase “tikkun olam,” or “repair of the world.” The screening on May 5 will be followed by a Q&A with director Patrice O’Neill and participants in the film.
“Through the voices of survivors, family members, diverse Pittsburgh residents, and area leaders, the film shows how the community responded not with fear but with courage and faced down hate with an unprecedented show of love and unity,” the film festival said in its synopsis of the documentary. “This powerful and moving documentary ultimately demonstrates that in a moment of crisis Pittsburgh proved to be a vibrant city that knows what it means to be ‘Stronger than Hate.’”
O’Neill told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he hopes the documentary will encourage audiences to take a stand against antisemitism. “I do not think standing up to antisemitism is a Jewish issue. It’s something that has to happen with everyone in this country,” he said. “It’s like saying fighting racism is just for Black people. That’s unconscionable and not true. The same is true of antisemitism.”
Jewish American sci-fi writer and founding member of the Israeli Air Force, Harold Livingston, passed away Thursday from natural causes at the age of 97 surrounded by loved ones, family members said. According to an obituary in Daily Star Trek News, he is survived by his son David, daughters Leah and Eve and nephew Robert.
Livingston had written for many TV shows such as the original Mission: Impossible and had written several books. However, his most famous work of fiction is easily 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the cinematic debut of the iconic and revolutionary sci-fi franchise, featuring the original TV series cast.
The film, while met with mixed critical views, was a major hit and spawned several more Star Trek films and TV series, helping keep the franchise running to this very day.
But in Israel, Livingston is remembered for something very different: Being among the founding members of the IAF.
He had joined as a Machal volunteer aiding the nascent Jewish state in the 1948 War of Independence - in fact, it would prove to be instrumental to Israel's victory.
Years before, Livingston had served in the US military as part of the transport squadron. This experience served him well when he joined the IAF's Air Transport Command, flying supplies, weapons and planes to Israel from Czechoslovakia.
“Listen, I wanted to fly again,” he said in a phone interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2015. “That afternoon I was in New York and didn’t go home for a year. We were breaking the Neutrality Act, and theoretically our citizenship was in jeopardy, but that made the adventure even more glamorous.”
His experience was recounted in the documentary Above and Beyond, directed by Nancy Spielberg, which focused on the American Jewish pilots who helped create the IAF.
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