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Tuesday, July 19, 2022

07/19 Links Pt2: Radical left NGOs failed to follow law, owe millions in fines; Morningstar Relies on Research From Anti-Israel Org; J Street’s #metoo problem

From Ian:

Cary Nelson and Joe Lockard: The Modern Language Association, Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism
The MLA Executive Council have hit a new low by acting in secret, without notice and without membership approval, to conflate support for the IHRA definition of antisemitism with American racism. Cary Nelson, Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Joe Lockard, associate professor of English at Arizona State University, set out the facts and call on MLA members to reform the organisation.

For many years, the Modern Language Association’s members voted overwhelmingly to reject resolutions condemning Israel. Now the MLA’s main governing body, the Executive Council, has joined with its Committee on Academic Freedom to endorse anti-Zionist complaints about the most widely adopted definition of contemporary antisemitism. Realising that the members would likely vote down their statement, the members of these two committees acted in secret, without notice and without membership approval.

We are both long-time MLA members, one of us since 1969, the other since the early 1990s. One, Cary Nelson, is a former member of the MLA Executive Council, as well as a former president and current lifetime member of the AAUP. We are deeply troubled by the MLA’s decision to do an end run around the membership and make a flawed understanding of antisemitism and Zionism part of the MLA’s public profile.

The definition at issue is the one adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in 2016. In addition to misrepresenting the IHRA definition, they have joined the national American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in slandering those who find the IHRA definition’s examples helpful in understanding the contemporary world. Worse still, they link the IHRA definition with international racism: ‘Proponents of overly broad definitions of antisemitism and proponents of eliminating teaching about the history of racial and other violence share a desire to mobilise the government to enforce particular, emaciated accounts of history, harm, and injury.’ The AAUP and the MLA have conflated legislative efforts to block discussions of racism with a statement designed to do exactly the opposite: encourage discussions of antisemitism. Though the MLA leadership was not honest enough to complete the implicit equation, the intent is clear — to invoke the antisemitic claim that ‘Zionism is racism’.

To be clear: racism is the founding wound of US history and must be taught forthrightly throughout the educational system. Structural racism remains a potent force in many American institutions. We reject efforts to block the need to confront that history. Indeed, anti-racism has been foundational in our teaching and scholarship.
Radical left NGOs failed to follow law, owe millions in fines
Im Tirtzu's Research Division has released a report that shows 5,264 charity reports that do not meet the qualifications of the law. The fines that these radical left non-governmental organizations (NGOs) should, by law, receive for these reporting infractions total more than 150,000,000 shekels.

The law was originally passed as a way to provide the public with clarity on which NGOs are receiving foreign government support. Since the inception of the law through 2021, approximately 74% of reports filed by these NGOS did not meet the law's requirements.

However, the Ministry of Justice has not been enforcing the law.

Alon Schvartzer, Head of the Research Division of Im Tirtzu, explains, "In Israel there are NGOs that receive most of their funding from foreign governments, mainly European, as well as the United Nations and the European Union. Between 2012-2021 NGOs that are usually identified as leftist and many that are far-left groups have received more than 750 million shekels in foreign funding. These include, 'B'Tselem,' that received 63 million shekels, 'Yesh Din' and 'Hamoked,' that each received 50 million shekels, and, 'Breaking the Silence,' which has received 35 million shekels."

"These NGOs all share the goal of opposing or uprooting Zionist values. Their agenda is to mislead the Israeli media and legal divisions to act against the will of the Israeli public regarding topics such as the fight against terrorism, nationalism, immigration, military interventions, and more.

"The revelation of the agendas and the funding of these organizations was instrumental in the successful effort to have legislation passed in the Knesset that requires these organizations to disclose their funding from foreign governments. These laws were enacted in order to enable the Israeli public to identify Israeli organizations that are representing foreign interests."
Col Kemp: Special forces of Zionist youth
Watching the high school teens of Club Z in dialogue with pro- and anti-Zionists in Israel was an education in itself. Even the most ardently Zionist speakers approached their topics with caution, more used to American students that get triggered, fleeing to safe spaces and crying rooms, if faced with too strong a dose of the truth.

This lot had no use for safety and their tears were reserved for Rachel Frankel and Miriam Fuld who told stories of their loved ones brutally slaughtered by jihadist fanatics. Every speaker was left awestruck by the students’ unyielding stance, unexpected knowledge and deep-penetrating questions.

The anti-Zionists thought their words would elicit the standard sympathetic nods and murmurs, as they spun their halftruths and outright falsehoods to hand-wringing youths who would scurry back home and parrot them to gullible school friends.

Instead, they got an audience that saw straight through the tired narrative, and vigorously but politely pushed back against every fake tale of woe and fabricated legal recitation with the most powerful weapon in their armory: the truth.

Yes, they knew all about the Fourth Geneva Convention but unlike the self-proclaimed peace activists, fully equipped with bushy beards and patronizing clichés, they also knew it doesn’t come close to applying in Judea.

Nor, in contrast to many high school and college students, did they buy the flimsy, anonymous and unconvincing stories of IDF abuse that have been bought and paid for by foreign funds to undermine the legitimacy of Israel.

Until it was too late, the Israel-haters didn’t realize these kids are the special forces of Zionist youth. Preparing to face the antisemitic bile so prevalent on US campuses, they have been trained by experienced instructors while at high school and they practice their skills on the battlefields of Israel Apartheid Weeks and Jew-hating street demos. In Israel, they were on reconnaissance: seeing, hearing, touching and smelling the reality of the conflict for themselves.


Financial Giant Morningstar Relies on Research From Anti-Israel Orgs
The financial services firm facing accusations that it promotes Israel boycotts relies on research produced by "a leader" in the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) and other anti-Israel sources, according to an analyst tracking the situation.

The research arm of Morningstar Inc., a firm that advises investors, relies on research produced by a pro-BDS organization called Who Profits, which is known to push Israel boycotts, according to Richard Goldberg, a former U.S. national security official and Middle East expert who recently published an independent analysis on the matter for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.

Morningstar is already fighting charges that its research arm, Sustainalytics, downgrades companies that help Israel combat terrorism, thereby bolstering the BDS movement's drive to economically damage the Jewish state. Sustainalytics employees who were interviewed as part of an investigation into anti-Israel bias at the firm indicated they have a close relationship with and rely on research produced by Who Profits, which has been cited by a watchdog organization as one of the leading pro-BDS nonprofit groups. The findings related to Who Profits raise new questions about how deeply Sustainalytics relies on organizations with direct ties to the BDS movement.

"Morningstar's ratings system uniquely relies on a group that's at the forefront of the BDS movement to blacklist Israel-connected companies," said Goldberg.

Who Profits "maintains a public database of businesses that are often targeted in international BDS campaigns," according to NGO Monitor, a watchdog group that monitors pro-BDS outfits. The reliance on Who Profits and other anti-Israel groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, is raising questions about Morningstar's commitment to rooting out anti-Israel bias in its ratings products, Goldberg said.

Who Profits "is a leader in BDS efforts against Israeli and foreign companies," according to NGO Monitor, and was founded "in response to the Palestinian call for boycott[s]" against Israel. The organization is dedicated to "exposing the commercial involvement of Israeli and international corporations in the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Syrian lands," according to information published on its own website.

Goldberg analyzed evidence presented in a 134-page review of Morningstar's methods conducted by the law firm White & Case that cleared Morningstar of any wrongdoing.


Honest Reporting: Do Young Americans Really Dislike Israel? A Second Look at the Pew Report on American Views of the Jewish State
When this Pew survey on American views of Israel was recently published, one of the most concerning results was the finding that the majority of younger Americans view Israel unfavorably.

However, it is clear that this finding is not as troubling as it initially appears.

These anti-Israel views are part of a larger trend among younger Americans who are critical of the United States. It demonstrates that this result has less to do with Israel itself and more to do with their broader political worldview.

Additionally, an examination of the data reveals apolitical views among young Americans, who favor either neither Israelis or Palestinians.

Finally, a fairly recent Pew survey found that, while viewing the Israeli government unfavorably, a majority of younger Americans still view the Jewish state in a positive light.

With the above-given context, it is now clear that while news outlets may go for eye-catching headlines about younger Americans viewing Israel unfavorably (see here and here), the actual reality is not so peculiar or dire.

Nevertheless, it still behooves pro-Israel voices in both the United States and Israel to appeal to the younger generation of Americans.

We have a duty to ensure that the next generation of American leaders will be just as educated and supportive of Israel as previous generations and that President Biden’s visit to the region will not be the last visit made by a staunchly pro-Israel president.
Ten of the Most Shocking Instances of Campus Antisemitism This Year
Many college campuses across the United States have become hotbeds for antisemitism, as HonestReporting has documented extensively in our recent series. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that there were 155 reported antisemitic incidents on college campuses in 2021, a 21 percent increase from 2020. With the 2021-2022 academic year behind us, let’s examine some of the more noteworthy and perhaps less documented antisemitic incidents which impacted Jewish students across America.

8. Former University of California Los Angeles Lecturer Threatens Mass Shooting, Releases 803-Page Antisemitic Manifesto
Matthew Harris, a former philosophy lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, was arrested in May after releasing an 803-paged manifesto that made mass shooting threats against the school. Along with espousing hatred and containing threats of violence towards Asians, women, white people, and various other groups, the manifesto targeted Jews as well.

One line from the manifesto reads, “Violence against Jews should happen. Retaliation and retribution for what they have stolen is legitimate and a good thing.” Another line reads, “Whites and Jews shall die,” while one of the chapters of the manifesto is entitled, “The perfect holocaust is a completed one.” The manifesto repeatedly uses antisemitic and racist slurs.

9. “Long Live the Intifada” Painted on Campus Landmark at Boston University
Boston has already made headlines in recent months with its BDS chapter’s antisemitic mapping project. However, antisemitism at universities in the area has been pervasive in ways that have been ignored by the media. At Boston University in December, members of SJP spray painted “Long Live the Intifada” on the landmark BU rock on campus.

The message makes reference to two violent Palestinian uprisings, the second of which featured several years of Palestinian suicide bombings of Israeli civilians. SJP at BU proceeded to justify its message on Instagram, writing in a post that “The Intifada is an action that lives within the Palestinian people everyday, and exists as a permanent source of inspiration against Israeli occupation and apartheid.”

10. Yale Speaker Claims FBI Inflates Jewish Hate Crime Statistics
Ericka Hart, a self-described diversity and sexuality trainer brought to speak by the Yale Law Journal, spoke to law students in September on topics such as racism and privilege. When asked by a law student why she had not mentioned antisemitism as a form of discrimination among the several other related topics brought up during the talk, she replied that she had already covered antisemitism because some Jews are black.

Furthermore, she addressed FBI statistics that show that Jews are victims of hate crimes more than any other group by suggesting that those who compiled this data had an “agenda.” Three journal editors described her presentation as “shocking,” “offensive,” and “upsetting,” and 82 percent of those in attendance said she should not be invited back to the school under any circumstance, according to a survey.
Penny Mordaunt – Boycotting the only Jewish state is rightly seen as antisemitic
Writing for Jewish News, the Tory leadership candidate speaks out on the BDS movement, the two-state solution, the Abraham Accords and reflects on her visit to Auschwitz

I believe in a two-state solution. I believe for that to be achieved, both sides have to take necessary and sensible steps towards building a relationship and peace. So that Israeli and Palestinian children do not wake up listening to the sound of mortars or sirens. So that the playgrounds aren’t littered with bomb shelters.

It starts with a recognition of Israel’s right to exist. A mutual recognition. An end to barbaric terror attacks on ordinary Israeli’s in their sleep. And the end of building of illegal settlements. There has to be a focus on building the peaceful relationship so many have fought for, and so many deserve.

I stand firmly with our friends in Israel. As prime minister, I have said I will stand up to the world’s bullies. This is something Israel has to grapple with every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day. And they have done since the state’s very inception.

I will continue to support Israel’s right to self defence.

I see hope. The Abraham Accords, a UK Israel Trade Deal, the cooperation between nations during a global pandemic. We have more opportunities than ever to build relationships between nations who all have common goals – peace, prosperity and freedom.
J Street’s #metoo problem
TheForward described a disturbing episode of sexual harassment that had taken place two years earlier, in 2014. It involved Israeli journalist Ari Shavit, a prominent advocate of Palestinian Arab statehood. J Street sponsored a U.S. speaking tour for Shavit and sent one of its female staff members to meet him at the airport when he arrived.

The Forward’s article—which was never denied by either Shavit or J Street—reported that Shavit sexually harassed the J Street staffer. She reported the harassment to Ben-Ami and his fellow-J Street leaders. They then quietly cut their ties to Shavit—but they didn’t alert any of the various other Jewish groups that were co-sponsoring the tour.

Think of all the innocent women who might been put at risk because J Street failed to alert their organizations that they would be interacting with a known sexual harasser.

Every woman staff member at every Jewish organization co-sponsoring Shavit had a right to know what Shavit did to the J Street staff member. They had to a right to be able to protect themselves against him. They were deprived of that right by J Street’s awful silence.

This is exactly why the #MeToo movement arose—because too many people were getting away with sexual harassment or assault while bystanders looked away, finding all kinds of excuses to remain silent.

Silence in the face of injustice is wrong. Silence in the face of danger to women is wrong. J Street’s silence was wrong.

And that silence was not just for some brief period. It went on for nearly two years. The harassment of the J Street staffer took place in 2014. The Forward’s public exposure of Shavit was in 2016. For two years, J Street knew and said nothing.
Rashida Tlaib campaign events in 2018 were organized by alleged terror financiers
Two men who held key positions at nonprofit groups that were found liable in a Hamas terror financing scheme helped organize campaign fundraising events for Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) in 2018.

The men, who organized events that were paid for by Tlaib's campaign, were associated with a network of nonprofit groups that were found liable by a federal jury in 2004 for financing the terrorist slaying of an American teenager, David Boim, at a bus stop in the West Bank in 1996. A federal judge ordered the three groups to pay Boim's parents a $156 million judgment for funding Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

The groups — the Holy Land Foundation, the American Muslim Society, and the Islamic Association for Palestine — never paid up. They shut down shortly after they were ordered to pay the landmark judgment to the Boim family. The Holy Land Foundation ultimately had its monetary assets seized by the United States, and five of its leaders were sentenced to decades in prison in 2008, for providing material support to Hamas.

The first Tlaib campaign organizer, Rafeeq Jaber, testified during a deposition in 2003 that he served as president of the American Muslim Society and the Islamic Association for Palestine. Jaber testified that the two groups, while under his control, worked to "promote [Holy Land Foundation] in every way we can" and also distributed pro-Hamas documents, including an August 2001 editorial that advocated martyrdom operations and the killing of Jewish people.

Jaber was identified as a member of the "Hosting Committee" for a Tlaib campaign fundraiser in July 2018, according to a flier posted on Facebook. The event was paid for by Tlaib's congressional campaign, the flier stated.

Jaber was also filmed sitting in the front row of an intimate Tlaib campaign fundraising event in March 2018, footage of the event uploaded to Facebook shows.

Jaber later urged his followers to support Tlaib's reelection campaign in 2020, writing in a July 2020 Facebook post that the pro-Israel AIPAC, "radical right wingers and the white supremacists" want Tlaib out of office.


‘This Bias Against Israel Is the Reason People Have Stopped Subscribing to the Times’
Given Jonathan Weisman’s history, you’d think that his editors at the New York Times would have him on a short leash.

In 2019, Times management publicly rebuked him, saying, “Jonathan has repeatedly displayed poor judgment on social media and in responding to criticism.”

In 2018, this column reported that several Jewish leaders and other journalists described a Weisman op-ed in the Times as “weird,” “odd,” “partisan,” or “inane.” The op-ed criticized Jewish organizations for supposedly having failed to speak out against antisemitism.

In 2015, Weisman claimed responsibility for a New York Times chart that labeled Jewish senators and congresspeople opposed to the Iran deal in the color yellow. He advised Jews upset about it to “chill out.”

The Times later published an “editor’s note” undercutting Weisman. It conceded, “Many readers and commenters on social media found that aspect of the chart insensitive. Times editors agreed and decided to revise it to remove the column specifying which opponents were Jewish.”

Weisman also claimed responsibility for having edited a front-page Times article in September 2018 about how the federal Education Department was handling an antisemitism case at Rutgers University. That article had significant flaws, but Weisman defended it “100%.”

He’s hardly a neutral observer, having published a 2018 book arguing that, as one article described it, “American Jews need to focus less on Israel and more on social justice.”
The Guardian on the 'dark side' of Israel's constant baby boom
An article in the Guardian (“The women who wish they weren’t mothers: ‘An unwanted pregnancy lasts a lifetime’”, July 16) provides stories of “women from across the world who felt pressured to have children”, in the context of the US Supreme Court overturning of Roe v Wade.

The article (an edited extract from the book ‘Undo Motherhood’ by Diana Karklin) included one story from Israel, which opened thusly:
Here, a woman who doesn’t want to have children is a threat to the social order. The reasoning goes: in order to have a bigger population than the Arabs, you need to have more Jewish babies. If you aren’t a mother, you are betraying your homeland.

The message conveyed by the quote seems clear: there’s immense social pressure put upon Israeli women to have children, motivated, in large measure, by the racist attitudes towards Arabs. This may be the opinion of one Israeli, but it also comports to the Guardian’s narrative of the Jewish state, one that doesn’t even remotely resemble reality.

First, based on comparative analyses and surveys, Israel ranks very high in the area of gender equality – which measures women’s participation in political and corporate leadership, gender wage gaps, legal support, maternity leave, etc. Further, any understanding of Israeli social phenomena relating to women must take into account their agency: As such, anyone who lives in the country, or has spent a serious amount of time here, would also know that, by and large, Israeli women are empowered, confident and make their own decisions – often independent of others’ expectations or other outside social factors.

Nonetheless, let’s address some of these externalities.

First, while in Haredi communities, motherhood is indeed seen as religious duty, the reason why Israel has the highest fertility rate in the OECD (at 3.1 children per women) is likely based on many factors. These include: an efficient healthcare system which prioritises pre-natal care, thus producing very low infant mortality rates; heavily subsidised fertility treatments and in-vitro fertilisation, paid maternity leave; workplaces which adopt family friendly policies, and subsidized pre-school which has results in a higher enrollment rates than the OEDC average.

As such, Israel often ranks relatively high on lists of the best countries to raise a family.
BBC wind in the ‘apartheid’ smear's sails
Introducing Yolande Knell at 05:37, presenter Audrey Brown claimed that the same signs had been placed by Palestinians rather than by a political NGO:
Brown: “So Yolande, there’s been a lot of opposition to the visit with Palestinians hanging out banners saying they live under apartheid…”

At 08:26 Brown introduced her sole non-BBC interviewee, Mariam Barghouti, who was presented to listeners as a “Palestinian writer and researcher”.

After asking Barghouti about the “similarity between Palestinian protest against oppression and the Black Lives Matter movement in the US”, Brown noted that it has been sixteen years since the last Palestinian election, to which her interviewee replied:
Barghouti: “…and do you expect us to be able to do anything when there is an apartheid system functioning? When we’re focusing on not being dispossessed?”

The BBC is of course well aware that the ‘apartheid’ smear is deliberately employed by anti-Israel pressure groups and their supporters (such as Mariam Barghouti) with the aim of delegitimising Israel and turning it into a pariah state. Despite knowing just how incendiary the trigger terminology of ‘apartheid’ is, the BBC has nevertheless facilitated its amplification and mainstreaming for years, be it by BBC journalists themselves, by selected interviewees or by political NGOs.

As we see above, in just two days of BBC coverage of Joe Biden’s visit to the region, such banal amplification was evident on multiple BBC platforms, indicating that BBC editors continue to be entirely unperturbed by the fact that they are facilitating the mainstreaming of a politically motivated lie that deliberately hinders audience understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Antisemitism rampant in US entertainment, sports industries – report
Antisemitism is a serious problem in the sports and entertainment world, according to a report from US-based NGO Creative Community for Peace (CCFP). The organization focuses on combating BDS efforts toward Israel from performing artists and combating antisemitism in the entertainment industry.

The report, titled “Fomenting Hate: How the Entertainment and Sports Industries Can Address the Growing Threat of Antisemitism,” is the first ever report to exclusively focus on antisemitism in the entertainment industry, according to CCFP.

It lists examples of antisemitic incidents involving professional athletes, musicians, television shows and more and includes recommendations on how to stem the tide.

“These incidents have reached millions of people, and have normalized and desensitized the public to antisemitic tropes,” the report stated, noting that the prevalence of antisemitism in the entertainment world is an anomaly compared to the progress made to increase representation and diversity within the industry for other minorities.
Antisemitism in South Asia spread by Christian sources
A young Singaporean has been detained for planning an attack against the Jewish community. While such crimes are rare, antisemitism has been rising in the Far East, although there are almost no Jews still living there. Paul Hedges in New Mandala has this useful round-up of the origins of the phenomenon.

To understand the connection to Southeast Asia, however, requires understanding how European colonialism spread antisemitism, particularly around Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This led first to Arab Christians adopting antisemitic ideas, which seeped into secular Arab nationalism then into Islamic Arab nationalisms, and into a full-blown Islamic antisemitism. This latter move came during the 1930s, and two key figures were the mufti of Jerusalem Hajji Amin Al-Husseini and Syed Qutb of the Muslim Brotherhood. Qutb wrote a tract called Our Struggle With the Jews in in 1950 which still circulates in Southeast Asia today and defined an eternal enmity between Jews and Muslims, but drew on Western antisemitic tropes.

Alongside this, the importance of the current Palestine-Israel conflicts cannot be underestimated for how Muslims globally view Jews. Hence, in Southeast Asia, as elsewhere, the narratives on this shape discourses, with many Muslims perceiving what is often termed the “settler colonialism” and “apartheid” of Israeli state policy, and a certain form of Zionism, as driving a wedge between the communities.

Before proceeding, several caveats need noting. Firstly, accusations of Israel as a “settler colonial” state and engaged in “apartheid” are hotly contested, so I am only noting here a perception of this without arguing either way. Secondly, Zionism names a range of attitudes of Jewish people towards a homeland that may or may not be Israel (some early Zionists suggested South America may make a good homeland). As such, the excesses of militant Zionist settlers is far from definitive of all Zionisms. Thirdly, opposition to Israeli policies vis-à-vis Muslims is not itself antisemitic, nor does it entail hatred of Jews, and many local Muslims recognise this, especially in relation to their tradition, a matter we can unpack further.
Oporto Jewish community accuses Portugal of waging antisemitic campaign
"It's just painful to see state representatives retreat hundreds of years, pursue powerful people in Portugal just because of their Jewishness," says community president Gabriel Senderowicz.

The Oporto Jewish Community on Monday again accused the Portuguese state of conducting an "ongoing antisemitic campaign," after police raided the offices of several law firms and the home of the curator of the city's Jewish Museum in connection with alleged corruption surrounding Portugal's so-called "Spanish Law."

The campaign is being orchestrated by "agents of the state" seeking to abolish the 2015 Nationality Law for Portuguese Sephardic Jews, which grants Portuguese citizenship to descendants of Jews expelled from the country in the 15th century, the community said in a statement.

Police are searching for evidence against several prominent Jews who received Portuguese citizenship under the law, according to Oporto Jewish Community President Gabriel Senderowicz.

"The lawyers [of the raided offices] were presented with a list of about 20 names of well-known and powerful Jews who are at the center of a criminal investigation on suspicion of having obtained their Portuguese citizenship illegally," he said.

Among the names presented to the lawyers were Patrick Drahi, a French-Israeli businessman who received his Portuguese citizenship from the Lisbon Jewish community in 2015; Michael Kadoorie, a British-Portuguese citizen whose family built the Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue in Oporto; and Jewish philanthropist Andrei Rappoport, who received Portuguese citizenship in 2016, according to Senderowicz.

"All the names mentioned, with the exception of Mr. Kadoorie, paid a fee of €250 legally, as is charged to anyone applying for Portuguese citizenship," said Senderowicz. "The community decided not to charge Mr. Kadoorie and offered him the certificate as a token of appreciation for his family's contribution to the Jewish Community of Oporto," he added.

"I regret that the 'Spanish Law' has become an antisemitic weapon against wealthy Portuguese citizens," said Senderowicz. "This is nothing more than deception by some powerful state officials in the country who seek to disguise their antisemitic attitudes [with the claim] that these businessmen received their citizenship insincerely."
Judge gives Brazilian pastor who called for a second Holocaust historic 18-year prison sentence
A pastor who was filmed two years ago praying for another Holocaust was sentenced to 18 years and six months in prison, a historic penalty that made headlines across Brazil.

“A historic sentence in the fight against anti-Semitism. It is the largest penalty applied in Brazil for this type of crime, which will help to inhibit this odious practice,” said Ricardo Sidi, legal director at the Brazilian Israelite Confederation, the country’s umbrella Jewish organization, who acted as assistant to the prosecution.

Tupirani da Hora Lores, who heads the Pentecostal Generation Jesus Christ Church in Rio, came under spotlight for inciting his small but fervently radical religious audience.

“Massacre the Jews, God, hit them with your sword, for they have left God, they have left the nations,” da Hora Lores prays in a sermon captured. His congregants are heard repeating his words passionately.

“They contrived, went with prostitutes, and when they were told to repent they said they’d do it but they lied,” the pastor added, possibly in reference to the forced conversions to Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition. “God, what you have done in World War II, you must do again, this is what we ask for in our prayers to you: Justice, justice, justice!”

Last year, federal police raided his church and confiscated literature from it as part of an operation titled “Shalom.”
Swastika drawn outside Croatian hotel hosting French Jewish teens
French Jewish kids staying in the southern coastal town of Trilj in Croatia woke up Monday morning to find a large red swastika plastered on the pavement in front of their hotel. Police are actively investigating the antisemitic incident.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the Brussels-based European Jewish Association (EJA) said: “This will be an unforgettable holiday and experience for these children, for all the wrong reasons… A reminder that we can never become complacent or let our guard down when it comes to antisemitism.

“Whilst I am certain that the views of the individual and group responsible for painting a giant swastika are not representative of the vast majority of Croatians, the act and nature of this attack — because that is what it is — is still a deep cut to Jews everywhere,” Margolin added.

“As adults, we are sadly used to hate, yet we continue to do all that we can to shield our children from it. That a group of French Jewish Children on holiday in Croatia have had such a vicious and visible introduction to this hate is tragic. This attack is a reminder that we can never afford to be complacent and let our guard down.”
World’s most senior Nazi hunter: Let Serbian President visit death camp in Croatia
Diplomatic tensions escalated between Serbia and Croatia on Sunday since Zagreb would not allow the Serbian president to visit a Holocaust memorial site in Jasenovac, which was once considered the “Croatian Auschwitz.”

Jasenovac was a concentration camp established in the then-Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in occupied Yugoslavia during World War II. The camp operated as part of the then-Ustase regime which was the only country that collaborated with the Nazis in operating their own concentration and death camps. The Jasenovac camp killed hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and smaller ethnic groups such as Roma.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic asked to visit Croatia privately and pay tribute to his grandfather that was murdered at the Jasenovac camp. Yet, Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić-Radman responded to the reports in the media of this planned visit and said that “the president of a country is a protected person and such an arrival requires the involvement of the Croatian authorities,” according to local Croatian media.

Sources in Croatia’s Foreign Ministry also were quoted saying, “The fact that Croatia has not been officially notified about the visit is unacceptable.”

According to reports, Vucic has canceled the visit and Serbia officials explained that the reason is “for the sake of good relations.”

In addition, Croatia officials said that they heard of this visit through “unofficial” sources and not through diplomatic channels as is usually the protocol. Gerlich Redman was also quoted saying that they see the media reports around the planned Vucic visit as a “provocation,” which, in his view, “do not honor the victims [of the Jasenovac camp].”


Muslim-German women's delegation visits Israel to learn about women's religious study
It’s not every day that you’d expect to find a group of women fully dressed in their traditional hijabs sitting in a Talmudic study hall alongside Jewish texts. But that is exactly what one saw upon entering the Midreshet Lindenbaum Seminary of Ohr Torah Stone earlier this month, when a delegation of 20 Muslim women came to visit.

The women were in Israel as part of the Alliance of German Dialogue Institutions (BDDI), an Islamic union that works across Germany to develop relationships between people of different faiths. Their time in Israel included visiting institutions of higher learning for women in an effort to better understand various perspectives on women’s religious study.

The Israel mission, an initiative of the Stuttgart Fund for Interreligious Dialogue under the direction of Karl Hermann Blickle, was coordinated with the Israeli Blickle Institute for Interfaith Dialogue. A division of the Ohr Torah Stone network, the Institute's fellows include men and women who are active in positions of spiritual and halakhic leadership throughout Israel.

The Israel mission, an initiative of the Stuttgart Fund for Interreligious Dialogue under the direction of Karl Hermann Blickle, was coordinated with the Israeli Blickle Institute for Interfaith Dialogue. A division of the Ohr Torah Stone network, the Institute’s fellows include men and women who are active in positions of spiritual and halachic leadership throughout Israel.

The BDDI visit to Midreshet Lindenbaum began by meeting with students in the Women’s Institute for Halachic Leadership, and an opportunity to meet with its director, Rabbanit Devora Evron, regarding developments in integrating women into positions of communal leadership and how women are increasingly being found in roles previously reserved for men.
Quantum Machines to Establish Israeli Quantum Computing Center in $30 Million Deal
The Israel Innovation Authority has chosen Israeli startup Quantum Machines to establish the Israeli quantum computing center with a budget of 100 million shekels (approximately $29 million) for three years. Israeli company Classiq will act as a consultant, with Elbit Systems serving as a strategic partner in the venture.

The quantum computing center will enable access to conducting research and development in all layers of hardware and software on three different quantum processing technologies — superconducting qubits, cold ions and optic computers. The center will provide services to the Israeli quantum computing community in both industry and academia by providing a full stack quantum computer at their service, to run direct computations with a future option for cloud accessibility.

A quantum computer is based on the properties of quantum particles, and can perform many calculations using the same algorithm at a great speed, such as image processing, simulations and the decoding of codes.

Quantum Machines has raised $83 million to date from investors Avigdor Willenz, the investment arm of Samsung, Samsung Next, and Israel’s Red Dot Capital Partners. Quantum Machines was founded in early 2018 by CEO Dr. Itamar Sivan, Dr. Yonatan Cohen, who serves as the company’s CTO, and Dr. Nissim Ofek, who serves as the VP R&D.

All three are doctors of physics with a specialization in quantum computing and quantum electronics, who conducted their research in the field of quantum computing, with an emphasis on quantum electronics, at the Submicron Institute in the Faculty of Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science under the supervision of Prof. Moty Heiblum.
First map of Israeli desert tech identifies over 300 companies
More than 300 Israeli start-up companies are developing technologies either specifically geared to, or potentially adaptable for, desert environments, according to the first annual report of DeserTech and Start-Up Nation Central, published Monday.

Noting that more than 2 billion people live in deserts and drylands, which cover approximately 40 percent of the earth’s surface, and that Israel is one of the only countries in the world that has managed to reverse desertification via innovative solutions, the report provides an analysis of the companies involved in agriculture, energy, water, and infrastructure.

It is aimed at exposing Israel’s strength and potential for tackling desert challenges.

Of the 303 start-up companies mapped, 66 are focused on addressing desertification challenges as part of their core business, the report says.

Over the past five years, 22 of these 66 have raised $374 million. Most of them are involved in agriculture and infrastructure and are at the early development stage.

By contrast, half of the companies working in water and renewable energy are at an advanced stage of development. They are mainly focused on smart irrigation and smart building solutions for a desert environment.
Closed IDF base guards world's largest Torah collection
Hundreds of Torah scrolls, some more than 700 years old, are housed at a surprising location – a closed IDF base. Israel Hayom was allowed a rare look at the enormous storeroom at the IDF Rabbinate's Shura where over 400 Torah scrolls are being safeguarded.

Lt. Col. Shoham Orkaby, head of the Military Rabbinate's Halacha (Jewish law) department, says "There's nothing like this in the world. The sense inside is as if you've gone down a time tunnel through the history of the Jewish people."

Because the scrolls are sacred, they cannot be displayed in a museum, and because they are housed on a closed military base, the general public cannot see them.

"We're happy to tell the story of the largest holy ark in the world through you [Israel Hayom], Orkaby says.

The scrolls are housed on long industrial metal shelves in a warehouse known as the "Torah Treasury."

"We have scrolls that are 750 years old, written on parchment, thicker than what exists today. There are few scrolls like these in Israel, and we have dozens," Orkaby says.

Most of the Torah scrolls were used by Jewish communities that were destroyed. One was donated by Holocaust survivor Edward Mossberg after he took part in a Witness in Uniform delegation to Auschwitz.

"He bought the scroll from a Romanian peasant, who had hidden it in a barn, and made a cover for it that included the names of all the camps where his relatives had been, along with the numbers of whose survived, including his own. Today, the scroll is used by the delegations to Poland," Orkaby says.




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