Friday, July 29, 2022

07/29 Links Pt2: Inside the Anne Frank Trust: how the charity lost its way; NBA’s Enes Kanter in Israel to Run Jerusalem Basketball Camp With ‘Jewish Jordan’ Tamir Goodman

From Ian:

As the Holocaust raged, US newspapers buried reports on Hitler’s Final Solution
On June 29, 1942, the Chicago Daily Tribune devoted one paragraph to Germany’s “Final Solution” in Europe:

“The British section of the World Jewish Congress estimated today that more than 1,000,000 Jews have been killed or have died as the result of ill treatment in countries dominated by Germany,” read an Associated Press brief on page six.

Like other US newspapers that summer, the Daily Tribune allocated a bare minimum of inches to reporting on the annihilation of Europe’s Jews. Literally burying the story, dailies placed news of the slaughter away from their front pages — and usually mixed in among other news briefs.

“If the news in June 1942 about 1 million Jews being slaughtered was considered sufficiently credible to publish, then according to conventional editorial standards, it should have been treated as front-page news or something close to it,” said Rafael Medoff, author of the book “America and the Holocaust: A Documentary History,” published this year.

Like the Chicago Daily Tribune, The Los Angeles Times published the “1 million killed” Associated Press brief at the end of June. However, the milestone in Germany’s “Final Solution” was placed on page three, underneath a story about British soldiers taken captive by Germany: “Nazis Kill Million Jews, Says Survey.”

By this point in the Holocaust — the summer of 1942 — the American Joint Distribution Committee had issued a report, based on local sources, about the massacre at Babyn Yar (Grandmother’s Ravine) outside Kyiv. In graphic detail, the report described how the earth moved for days after the execution, even with the mass grave of 33,771 victims covered by several feet of sand.

“In the spring of 1942, as the reports of mass murder multiplied and many additional details were relayed to the Free World by reliable sources, a new and disturbing picture began to emerge,” wrote Medoff, who directs the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

“But instead of questioning Roosevelt administration officials about the emerging genocide, journalists usually avoided the subject altogether,” Medoff told The Times of Israel, adding that many reporters and public officials believed reports of the slaughter were exaggerated.

This September, PBS International will air “The US and the Holocaust,” a three-part series directed by Ken Burns. Voice actors in the documentary include Hope Davis, Werner Herzog and Meryl Streep. In addition to then-president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the series will depict broadcaster Dorothy Thompson, a notable exception to the rule regarding American media coverage of Nazi Germany.

“Few American journalists ever questioned president Roosevelt or his senior aides about their no-rescue policy during the Holocaust,” said Medoff. “That was both an abdication of their responsibility as journalists and a moral tragedy.”
Jewish History Soundbites: Jewish Saviors of the Holocaust Part I: Monsieur & the Belgian Orphans
Jewish History Soundbites is proud to launch a special series entitled ‘Jewish Saviors of the Holocaust’. It will explore the narratives of Jews under Nazi occupation risking their lives to save others during the Holocaust. Each unique profile will explore another story, angle and individual (or group of individuals) who though their own lives were at risk still did everything in their power to save others.

The series opens with the story of Yona Tiefenbrunner, known to the orphans he saves as ‘Monsieur’. Born in Germany, he arrived as a refugee in Belgium shortly before the war’s outbreak. He initially opened an orphanage at his own expense in order to assist German Jewish refugee children. With the Nazi occupation of Belgium and the subsequent deportations in 1942, his Brussels orphanage emerged as an island of rescue, as the Nazis miraculously allowed the orphanage to operate and spare the children from deportation to the east. Maintaining a semblance of normalcy under increasingly challenging conditions, Yona managed to care for the orphans' physical and religious welfare until liberation. Following the war, the orphanage relocated to Antwerp and cared for children survivors until its closing in 1960.
Jewish History Soundbites: Jewish Saviors of the Holocaust Part II: From a Tunnel in Novogrudok to the Bielski Partisans
On the night of September 26, 1943 232 Jews escaped through a tunnel from the Novogrudok Ghetto. Nearly 170 survived, primarily by joining the Bielski partisans who operated nearby in the Naliboki forest. This was likely the greatest escape in Nazi occupied Europe throughout the entire war and Holocaust.

The tenacity and courage of the last Jews of the Novogrudok ghetto to dig a 250 meter tunnel leading to the forest, combined with the capability of joining Tuvia Bielski and his partisans, facilitated one of the most astounding stories of Jewish survival during the Holocaust. Tuvia Bielski famously said that he prioritizes saving lives over killing Germans. The result was that his partisan unit was a family camp which saved over 1,200 Jews, among them the escapees of the Novogrudok tunnel.
Jewish History Soundbites: Jewish Saviors of the Holocaust Part III: The Sobibor Revolt
Within the framework of Operation Reinhard, the Nazi extermination of Polish Jewry, the SS built three death camps in Eastern Poland - Belzec, Treblinka & Sobibor. The latter was the smallest of the three, and a quarter of a million primarily Polish and Dutch Jews were killed in its gas chambers during its year and a half of existence. It was at Sobibor that on October 14, 1943 a great prisoner escape took place. Led by the son of a Polish rabbi named Leon Feldhendler & a Soviet Jewish Red Army officer named Sasha Pechersky, these two unlikely leaders joined together to formulate a plan to save not just themselves but to give all of the 600 inmates at Sobibor an equal chance to escape.

The revolt killed several SS officers, 300 Jewish prisoners made it to the forest and nearly 50 survived the war. As they broke for the fences, Pechersky demanded that anyone who survive should tell the world what went on in Sobibor.


Inside the Anne Frank Trust: how the charity lost its way
An equalities plan provided by the Trust in 2020 discloses that just nine per cent of its employees identified their religion as Jewish, while 40 per cent were Christian. Fewer than half of its trustees are Jewish.

This is not necessarily a problem in itself. But tackling antisemitism no longer appears to be the charity’s top priority.

Other forms of racism are being prioritised, accompanied by trendy buzzwords such as “lived experience”.

In 2020, recruitment agency Peridot Partners posted online: “The Anne Frank Trust is looking for trustees as they embark on a new strategy targeted at young people with lived experience of prejudice.”

Astonishingly, it added: “The Trust is particularly keen to address anti-black racism as a priority.”

Critics say that all of this points to a cultural malaise at the charity, fearing that the organisation entrusted with Anne Frank’s legacy has lost its way.

A spokesperson from the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The Anne Frank Trust’s association with Nasima Begum could be shrugged off as a simple lapse in due diligence if it were a one-off incident. But it isn’t.

“Time after time, the Trust has platformed or boosted people with horrifying views about Jews. For any charity, let alone one charged with education against prejudice, this would be gravely concerning.

“For an organisation that purports to act in the name of a Jewish girl murdered by the Nazis because she was Jewish, it is scandalous.

“This is a wake-up call for the Anne Frank Trust, not just to review its processes but to reexamine its goal of universalising the Holocaust, which has time and again led it to amplify the voices of people prejudiced against Jews.

“It is hard to imagine what Anne Frank would have made of the Trust that has appropriated her name and claims to act in her memory.”

A scan of the biographies of the Trust’s 33-strong team appears to suggest a narrow political culture at all levels of the organisation.


Ben & Jerry’s, Unilever Talks on Out-of-Court Deal on Israeli Dispute Break Down
Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company Unilever Plc did not reach an out-of-court agreement on a dispute over the sale of the ice cream maker’s Israeli business to a local licensee, a source with direct knowledge said, sending the issue back to a federal judge.

The maker of Chubby Hubby ice cream sued Unilever this month to block the sale of the Israeli business to the licensee, Avi Zinger, saying Unilever had guaranteed Ben & Jerry’s the right to protect its brand when buying the company in 2000.

The Burlington, Vermont-based Ben & Jerry’s said last year it was ending sales in what it called “Occupied Palestinian Territory” because it was “inconsistent” with its values, a move that ultimately led to the sale to Zinger.

Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever agreed in mid-July to try to reach a deal out-of-court by July 28.

The talks did not work out because Ben & Jerry’s does not want to “cave” on its social mission and stance on Palestinian human rights, a source said.

Unilever’s chief executive Alan Jope said this week on the company’s quarterly earnings call that Ben & Jerry’s “long-term future” is “squarely as part of Unilever.”

“There is plenty for Ben & Jerry’s to get their teeth into in their social justice mission without straying into geopolitics,” he said.

Jope’s statements were made during the mediation, said the source, who could not be identified because he was not authorized to talk to media.
McGill University Facing Lawsuit Over Israel Boycott Referendum
A McGill University student is suing the school for allegedly reneging on a pledge to defund a student government body over an Israel boycott measure, according to a Canadian Jewish group.

In March, McGill University officials promised to “take action” against the Student Society at McGill University (SSMU) for approving a policy accusing Israel of imposing “settler-colonial apartheid” against Palestinians, and backing a boycott of “all corporations and institutions complicit” in the supposed practice.

It was advanced despite the objections of the body’s own judicial board, which had repeatedly ruled that joining the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel would violate both the SSMU constitution and university’s policy on equity and inclusion. In May, the school announced that the SSMU would not ratify the policy.

On Wednesday, B’nai Brith Canada said it is assisting a third-year student with a lawsuit over the university’s failure to defund the SSMU, despite its assurances to do so.

“We’re standing up for this Jewish student, and through him, all Jewish students on campus who feel unsafe and unwelcome as a result of continued anti-Israel referendums by their student society,” CEO of B’nai Brith Canada Michael Mostyn said in a statement. “It’s inexplicable that McGill would allow one anti-Israel referendum after another and continue to fund activities which are in violation of its own policies. In doing so, it is participating in creating an antisemitic environment.”

In addition to McGill University, the Student Society at McGill University and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), a student group behind the policy, is also being sued.


Henry Ford’s ‘ghost’ opens up about his infamous antisemitism in new art documentary
Every year, Henry Ford sent a new Model T as a gift to his neighbor, Rabbi Dr. Leo Franklin. They lived on the same street in Detroit, and when Ford learned that the spiritual steward of Temple Beth El needed a new car, he added the rabbi to the list of Americans who had a Model T — which eventually topped 15 million.

In 1920, however, Franklin sent back the latest gift with a letter of explaining why. Ford had begun publishing a series of antisemitic articles in his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. It ran for nearly two years – 91 consecutive weeks. The series was derived from “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” although some of its headlines blamed Jews for domestic American issues, such as the “Moron Music” of jazz. Ford later published them as an internationally bestselling four-book series titled “The International Jew.”

But Ford never understood why the articles upset the rabbi, according to an unconventional new film, “10 Questions for Henry Ford,” directed by Andy Kirshner. The film will screen online at the oldest Jewish film festival in the United States, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, from August 1-7.

“I wanted to complete the picture of Henry Ford,” Kirshner told The Times of Israel. “I didn’t know the extent to which he was an influence on the early Nazi movement and in the last couple of years [before World War II], the influence he had on fascism around the world. It’s an important story to tell, kind of the underbelly of the American entrepreneurial myth.”

In the film, Kirshner creatively brings back Ford as a ghost. The phantasm Ford is played by John Lepard, who is not only an actor in theater, film and TV, with credits including “Scream 4” and “Chicago Fire,” but also the executive director of the Williamston Theatre.
DHL deliveryman throws package in driveway and claims it was “signed for by jews”
A deliveryman for DHL is claimed to have thrown a package in a driveway and recorded that it was “signed for by jews [sic]”.

The recipient of the package, who is a member of the Jewish community, reported to us that their package was left in the driveway by a representative of the delivery company. No attempt had been made to ring the doorbell, even though the recipient was at home.

The package was left in a damaged state, as evidenced in a photograph provided to us.

The recipient, who lives in a heavily-Jewish neighbourhood, received a notification claiming that the package had been signed for, which was apparently not true, and that it had been “signed for by jews [sic]”.

We are in touch with the victim and are writing to DHL.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “This is not the first time that deliverymen, from any company, have made racial comments about Jewish people. For someone simply waiting to receive a package and relying on a basic service to have to endure antisemitic abuse is intolerable. We are grateful that the victim has come forward and we will be writing to DHL and expect the company to take urgent action.”
Biden taps Shelley Greenspan as next White House Jewish liaison
Shelley Greenspan, a former staffer and board member for a number of national Jewish groups, is replacing Chanan Weissman as the White House liaison to the Jewish community.

Greenspan, 32, whose appointment was first reported Wednesday by The Forward, worked for a period in the mid-2010s in the legislative shop of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel powerhouse lobby, and has been a board member of the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish Women International.

A rapid response member of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, she then went to work for Amazon on its policy team. She joined the US State Department in 2020 and recently moved from there to the Biden National Security Council as a policy advisor for partnerships and global engagement.

In February, she helped launch Jewish Democratic Women for Action, which seeks to expand Jewish involvement ahead of the November midterm elections.

The White House liaison leads interactions with national Jewish groups.

Weissman is ending his second stint in the job, after closing out the Obama administration as its final Jewish liaison and then joining the Biden administration as its first. During his tenure, Weissman launched a number of online forums including frequent pre-Shabbat briefings for the community.
World’s largest ER opens in Israel, raising bar for tech and scale in emergency med
With self-triage upon check-in and robots to help you find your way, the world’s largest emergency room opened in Israel on Thursday.

The 8,000 square meter (86,000 square foot) facility, at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov), was inaugurated by President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, and philanthropist Sylvan Adams.

The facility was designed for both regular emergency needs and a sudden influx of casualties from war and terror. There are 100 inpatient emergency beds, more than any other Israeli hospital, and this can be doubled in an emergency scenario.

Special provision is made for psychiatric patients needing emergency care, and there’s a dedicated room for people who arrive after being subjected to sexual assault, where their needs can be met with extra sensitivity.

Adams, a Canadian-Israeli who has funded several high-profile projects in Israel over recent years, donated $28 million to the hospital, which is naming the ER in his honor.

He told The Times of Israel as the opening ceremony got underway: “Israel is already a leader on the world stage in medicine, with Israeli scientists and doctors bringing us some of the most important research, innovations and care solutions. So it’s befitting that Israel should be a trailblazer when it comes to the provision of emergency care, and I’m proud this new facility will lead by example.”

Both he and the hospital said it was the largest in world.
Israel’s NeuraLight, NeuroSense Therapeutics Collaborate to Detect ALS Using AI
Israeli companies NeuraLight, which develops objective and sensitive biomarkers for monitoring and measuring neurological diseases, and NeuroSense Therapeutics, a company that develops treatments for patients suffering from debilitating neurodegenerative diseases, have announced today a collaboration between them aimed at promoting the research of biological markers and the ability to diagnose and monitor degenerative neurological diseases, including Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

NeuraLight was founded by CEO Micha Breakstone and CTO Edmund Benami as well as scientific co-founder Gil Shklarski, who previously served as CTO of Flatiron Health. The company’s platform uses unique computer vision and deep learning algorithms to extract over 100 digital oculometric markers (microscopic measurements of eye movement) from video footage, using a standard webcam. Neurosense is conducting a Phase IIb PARADIGM trial using a double-blind sample and including a control group that received a placebo dose designed to identify the effectiveness of its combination drug PrimeC in the treatment of muscular dystrophy patients.

As part of the collaboration between NeuraLight and NeuroSense Therapeutics, the two companies will monitor patients and share data to improve diagnoses and use of digital biomarkers for ALS patients in a parallel trial conducted by NeuraLight. The collaboration marks NeuraLight’s first clinical trial, which was launched following the company’s $25 million round.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable neurodegenerative disease that causes complete paralysis and death within 2-5 years of diagnosis. In the US alone, over 5,000 patients are diagnosed yearly with ALS, and researchers anticipate the number of ALS patients in the US to grow 24 percent by 2040. The cause of ALS is unknown, making it difficult for researchers to develop disease-modifying therapies for the neurodegenerative disease.
Israeli Opera brings ‘Carmen’ back to Tel Aviv park
The Israeli Opera returns to Tel Aviv’s Ganei Yehoshua with a free performance of “Carmen” on Thursday, August 18, with more than 250 singers, musicians and dancers onstage.

Set in southern Spain, the comical opera — composed in four acts by French composer Georges Bizet — is based on the novella by Prosper Mérimée and tells the story of Don José, a simple soldier seduced by the wily gypsy Carmen.

José deserts the military and dumps his childhood sweetheart for Carmen, but loses her love to the bullfighter, Escamillo. The opera includes musical numbers separated by dialogue, making it a top pick for opera beginners, with catchy, familiar tunes and a dramatic plot.

The Israeli Opera last showed “Carmen” at Ganei Yehoshua in August 2009. This production with the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion will be conducted by maestro Dan Ettinger, and directed by Gadi Schechter.

Mezzo-soprano Na’ama Goldman reprises her “Carmen” role from the 2014 production at Masada.
Technion unveils its first autonomous electric Formula car
The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Formula racecar team unveiled the first-ever autonomous electric vehicle in the team’s history since 2012.

They designed and built it for the Formula Student International Design Competition in Europe next month.

The Technion team placed first at the Formula Student competition in the Czech Republic in 2019, and first place in the first Formula Student Race held in Israel last year. This team also holds the title for the lightest car in the history of the European competition (132 kg).

Team leader Muans Omari, a master’s student in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, explained that the car world is shifting to electric and autonomous vehicles, and the Formula Student competitions have embraced this trend.

Nevertheless, the transition from an internal combustion engine to an electric propulsion system “took a lot of work and learning,” Omari added.

The Formula Technion team’s autonomous electric vehicle (A-EV) is no longer red and black as in past years, but blue, white and gray to symbolize electric propulsion.
Israeli students win British prize for short film in live-action category
A short movie by Israeli film students has won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) North America award in the live-action category at the 2022 Yugo BAFTA Student Awards.

“Girl No. 60427” was directed by students Shulamit Lifshitz and Oriel Berkovits from the Ma’aleh School of Film and Television in Jerusalem. The 22-minute drama is about a young girl who visits her grandparents one summer in Tel Aviv, and finds and reads a secret diary her grandmother kept during the Holocaust.

Film finalists were chosen from 82 shortlisted films; “Girl No. 60427” was the first-ever finalist and winner from Israel.

According to the Ma’aleh School, the judges of the Yugo BAFTA Student Awards described “Girl No. 60427” as “a deep and emotional film that brings to extraordinary artistic expression the experiences of the third generation of Holocaust survivors.”

A ceremony was held last week in Los Angeles for the winners.
Annual Israel-Japan Event Mourns Shinzo, Praises Relations Between the Two Nations
The fourth annual “Big In Japan” event, hosted to celebrate technology and business opportunities between Israel and Japan, was held this week at the offices of Israeli law firm Pearl Cohen.

The event was divided into sections that included opening remarks from Ambassador of Israel to Japan Gilad Cohen and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Israel Mizushima Koichi, and a fireside chat with former deputy defense secretary Yasuhide Nakayama and Daniel Kolbar, Head of Israel’s Economic and Trade Mission in Japan. The end of the event saw two panels with leading investors and entrepreneurs from both countries.

Much of the event was sharing the grief for Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who many praised for the healthy strength of Israel-Japanese relations that was formed during his time in office. “Shinzo was an architect of modern Japan, under him 60 agreements were signed between Israel and Japan,” said Ambassador of Israel to Japan Gilad Cohen, who joined via a Zoom link from Tokyo. “Many of the things we do today are thanks to him.”

Relations between Japan and Israel have been steadily increasing ever since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit in 2015. In 2021, Japanese companies invested roughly $3 billion into the Israeli tech ecosystem, accounting for roughly 15% of its total investment. “Abe was truly a friend of Israel,” affirmed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Israel Mizushima Koichi to the crowd. “Before that watershed in 2015, the number of Japanese companies in Israel was below 30. Today it is 85.”

Recent years have seen the two nations experience somewhat of an expected business romance: Startup Nation, known for its nimble and sometimes clumsy innovation among young startups, can easily complement the large and long-term thinking that Japanese enterprises apply to their overall corporate strategies. A common adage among the ecosystems is that Israelis are good at the “zero to one,” whereas the Japanese can take those companies “from one to one hundred.”
NBA’s Enes Kanter Freedom in Israel to Run Jerusalem Basketball Camp With ‘Jewish Jordan’ Tamir Goodman
Turkish NBA player and human rights activist Enes Kanter Freedom landed in Israel on Thursday to lead a basketball camp in Jerusalem for Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Druze girls and boys.

The former Boston Celtics center, who is currently a free agent, posted a video on his Instagram story of his arrival in Tel Aviv, two days after the Enes Kanter Freedom Unity Basketball Camp began at the YMCA in Jerusalem.

The camp for youth ages 10-15 is being run along with the non-profit groups Athletes for Israel, Bnai Zion and Together Vouch for Each Other US, and with help from Tamir Goodman, an American-Israeli former professional basketball player and now coach who was dubbed “The Jewish Jordan” by Sports Illustrated in 1999.

The English-language camp is open to 40 campers, including local residents and tourists, and will run from July 26-August 5. It will feature top coaches from the NBA and NCAA D1 Auburn Men’s basketball team, and will “focus on fundamental basketball skills, strength and conditioning, faith-driven values, and life skills,” according to a press release.

Arab-Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad, who heads Together Vouch For Each Other US, will also speak to attendees about his experience playing sports as a child with Jewish, Muslim and Druze friends. The camp will additionally be filmed for an upcoming docuseries.

“I believe that we can use sports to promote tolerance, respect, and coexistence,” said Freedom, who has played for five NBA teams since entering the league in 2011 as the third overall draft pick. “By bringing children together on a basketball court, I know we can show them the importance of respecting people of all faiths while building camaraderie and developing relationships.”

He added, “I played in the NBA for 11 years as an observant Muslim, shoulder to shoulder with my Jewish and Christian brothers. We respected each other’s faith and I learned a lot from them and about them and their faith. I am looking forward to setting a positive example for the children of Jerusalem.”




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