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Wednesday, August 03, 2022

08/03 Links Pt2: Missouri AG Investigates Morningstar Over ESG, Compliance With Anti-BDS Law; How the ‘awokening’ of the media erased the working class and the Jews

From Ian:

Missouri Attorney General Investigates Morningstar Over ESG, Compliance With Anti-BDS Law
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has launched an investigation into whether Morningstar Inc violated a state consumer-protection law through its evaluations of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, his office told Reuters.

The review is two-pronged, covering ESG matters as well as whether the financial research firm violated a separate Missouri law aimed at protecting Israel from a campaign to isolate the Jewish state over its policies towards Palestinians.

Staff for Schmitt said it is the first instance of a state looking into ESG ratings products potentially breaching such laws, on the books in more than 30 US states.

“Missouri has been a leader in pushing back against woke ESG investing, and my office will continue to look out for consumers,” Schmitt — a Republican who on Tuesday won his party’s nomination for a US Senate seat — said in a statement.

Morningstar Chief Executive Kunal Kapoor said the company was evaluating Schmitt’s action.

“Sustainability introduces new choices for investors; Morningstar provides the data and insights to help investors of all types weigh those choices in their decision making,” Kapoor said in a statement.

In a pair of July 26 civil investigative demands to Morningstar and to its Sustainalytics ESG-ratings unit, Schmitt said they may have violated the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act such as by misrepresenting or omitting facts.
Jonathan Tobin: How the ‘awokening’ of the media erased the working class and the Jews
This was also made possible because most journalists themselves were different from their predecessors. Up until fairly recently, most members of the press came from working-class backgrounds, not elite universities. But by the 21st century, those joining top mainstream journalism outlets became almost exclusively filled with such graduates, more likely than not coming from upper-middle-class and wealthy families.

The focus on race and the acceptance of woke ideological constructs like critical race theory and intersectionality that young journalists have embraced was exemplified by the Times’ “1619 Project,” which falsified American history in order to present a view of the United States as not merely having a flawed past but as irredeemably racist. These theories aren’t motivated by a desire for greater equality as those 19th-century papers that reflected their working-class readers’ views did. CRT and intersectionality oppose equality since they see race as a permanent and insuperable barrier between people.

What Ungar-Sargon points out is that this allows elites to ignore economic inequality and “transforms economic guilt into racial guilt.” Obsessing over a problem that can’t be solved also allows the affluent to keep their status and to think it is a function of their own “superior virtue.” One of the great ironies of our age is the way that the left perpetuates inequality and undermines democracy all the while claiming to be defending these values.

In this way, the working class, which liked Trump, was erased by the racial moral panic. But as she also writes, it also accounts for the way the same liberal elites in journalism are willing to mainstream critical race theory that grants a permission slip for hatred of Jews as beneficiaries of alleged “white privilege.” In this manner, the great “awokening” in the press has also mainstreamed anti-Semitism while elite liberal Jews look the other way or ignore this tragic development.

The picture she paints of a smug mainstream press staffed by well-off members of the educated classes is a disturbing one that explains a great deal about what’s wrong with journalism and America in the 21st century. She hopes that this can be corrected by consumers of the news choosing to “starve the people making money off your emotions” and rage, and seek to understand those with different points of view and carve nonpolitical spaces in people’s lives. But as long as major media outlets are not only exacerbating our divisions but profiting from them, it’s difficult to see a path out of this abyss of wokeness.


ADL must listen to its critics
It is ADL policy then, expressed by Hershenov herself, that Muslims are "vulnerable" and "marginalized," that they need to call out Jew-hatred in their community on their own, there's nothing for the ADL to do about it, and that Jewish "Islamophobia" is a parallel phenomenon. She then cites rises in hate crimes against Muslims (third highest year) but not the much greater rise of hate crimes against Jews (68% of all religious hate crimes), many committed by Muslims.

The ADL has been fixated on threats from the right because they are clinging to an outdated paradigm that supposes victim groups with a leftist orientation welcome Jews as allies, and they do not want to alienate those groups by criticizing them. The ADL seems paralyzed by the left's shift to woke-think, which casts Jews as undeservedly privileged and "white adjacent" oppressors who support "racism and genocide" against the "darker skinned" Palestinians. Indeed, it signed a petition supporting the "Black Lives Matter Movement" (which accuses Israel of genocide in its platform), a petition signed by violently anti-Israel (and hence anti-Semitic) groups like JVP and Anti-Zionist Shabbat.

Generals tend to fight the last war. Here the ADL has shown an adamant reluctance to analyze leftist Jew-hatred like they do, should do and have always done with white supremacist bigotry. Recently, Greenblatt has announced some dramatic changes in the ADL's attitude towards left anti-Semitism, but will he walk the walk?

We need to see that the ADL is developing a genuine strategy to combat modern anti-Semitism in all its forms, not just creating some catchy buzzwords. Will Greenblatt re-educate ADL staff about leftist, Islamist and black supremacist anti-Semitism? Will he revamp ADL workshops to include these forms of Jew-hatred, instead of focusing almost exclusively on the threat from white supremacists? Will he take action based on his newer understanding about the left? Will the ADL, for example, seek to have frank discussions with black pastors about black anti-Semitism and urge them to educate their congregations? There is so much to do, and so much ADL can do.

But until the ADL alters its strategy and begins to educate the Jewish community, and the black, gay, trans, feminist, Muslim and Hispanic communities, about the rise and dangerous nature of modern-day Jew-hatred, they deserve all the criticism they are getting, and more.
Caroline Glick: ‘Jewish leaders have betrayed, failed our community’
834 views Premiered 23 hours ago Jewish community leaders have “betrayed and failed” their constituents, according to Avi Goldwasser of the Jewish Leadership Project. He says they are either “cowards or delusional or both.”

In a conversation with his colleague, Charles Jacobs, and Caroline Glick on this week’s “Mideast News Hour,” Goldwasser stresses the leadership’s unwillingness to confront the problems facing the Jewish people.

They also talk about the challenges leaders face - their fears of both losing their jobs, harming relations with donors and simply not knowing what to do.

Jacobs says that when anti-Semitism rises, a lot of people run away - including Jewish leaders.

“They're paralyzed,” according to Jacobs. “They're like deer in the headlights. The train is coming, and they are stuck.”


Pelosi, her father, Taiwan and the Holocaust
Is Nancy Pelosi’s courageous decision to visit Taiwan connected to her father’s actions during the Holocaust?

Page, USA Today’s Washington D.C. bureau chief, told CNN on August 2 that Pelosi’s willingness to stand up to China’s threats over her Taiwan visit likely was inspired by the actions of her late father, Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., in the 1940s, “who was a loyal Democrat, but stood up to FDR on the issue of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust.”

Some years ago, while researching the activities of the Holocaust rescue advocates known as the Bergson Group, I discovered that D’Alesandro, Jr., a Democratic congressman from Maryland, had been a supporter of the group.

Rep. D’Alesandro was a loyal backer of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He even named his first son—Nancy’s eldest brother—Franklin Roosevelt D’Alesandro. But he broke ranks with FDR over the Holocaust. While the president was insisting that nothing could be done to rescue Jewish refugees, D’Alesandro was signing on to full-page newspaper advertisements by the Bergson Group urging America to grant haven to Jews fleeing Hitler.

Those ads—more than 200 of which appeared in newspapers around the country in the 1940s—were a crucial part of the Bergson Group’s rescue campaign. Signed by celebrities, prominent intellectuals and members of Congress, they demonstrated that a wide cross-section of Americans supported rescue.

Having the names of loyal Democrats such as D’Alesandro was particularly powerful, because it showed the president that the issue of rescuing the Jews was not some partisan jab by his opponents, but a vital cause that was close to the hearts of his own allies.

It was politically risky for D’Alesandro and other Democratic congressmen to publicly diverge from the president’s harsh policy toward Jewish refugees. It is testimony to their humanitarianism that they were prepared to alienate the president whose support they needed for their personal political success.
UK Labour ex-chief Corbyn claims support for Palestinians led to antisemitism charge
Former British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has claimed that his support for the Palestinian cause contributed to accusations of antisemitism that eventually led to his downfall and his ongoing suspension as a member of parliament for the party.

In an interview with Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese network that is close to the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups, Corbyn said that ever since he ran to become Labour leader in 2015 he faced “powerful forces,” and named Israeli then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as one of them.

“I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that my clearly stated support for the right of Palestinian people to be able to live in peace free from occupation, free from being under siege as in Gaza, and for those living in refugee camps… played a factor in all this,” Corbyn said in the interview, broadcast Sunday.

“Benjamin Netanyahu couldn’t wait to condemn me for my support of the Palestinian people,” he said.

“It was very clear to me since I was a candidate for the leadership of the Labour Party, that I was dealing with powerful forces that oppose me because I was proposing a different approach in dealing with foreign relations and international policies,” he said.

“I faced clear threats from some military figures when I was elected. First, there were statements against me from Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, and a group of other personalities, and it showed me how strong the forces opposed to me were,” Corbyn said.

Regarding his ejection from the Labour Party he said it was “disgraceful, and the allegations that have been made against me are disgraceful.”


The Next Ethnic Studies Battleground: Look Who’s Teaching the Teachers
It looks like the California Jewish community has dodged a major bullet in the war to keep antisemitic “critical” ethnic studies curricula out of high school classrooms. At least for now.

A University of California proposal requiring high school students to take a highly politicized, “critical” ethnic studies course to be considered for University of California (UC) admission, which was on track to be approved by the systemwide Academic Senate and the Regents in the Spring, was derailed after it met with strenuous opposition from UC faculty and members of the public.

The objections to the proposal were numerous and substantial.

Critics pointed out that there was absolutely no justification for adding to UC’s nearly century-old, universally accepted lineup of admission requirements (that include math, science, English, etc.) an ethnic studies course that — judging from the proposal’s accompanying course criteria — would be extremely controversial, ideologically driven, and without educational merit. They also exposed the proposal as an unethical attempt by a small group of activists to circumvent state law and manipulate the UC governance process in order to coerce every public and private high school in the state to adopt a “critical” ethnic studies curriculum, which was already rejected by the State Board of Education and governor because of its overtly anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist content.

Finally, critics warned that the forced adoption of such a course couldn’t help but incite ethnic division and bigotry, particularly antisemitism, in high schools throughout the state.


Is the Israeli government unknowingly funding a far-left institution?
Although the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute was established by the Israeli government, which required the enactment of a special law, and received land in the heart of the capital estimated and hundreds of millions of shekels, it has since become affiliated with the Left.

"Van Leer started out as a Zionist institution," Uri Cohen, sociologist and historian at Tel Aviv University, said. "Today, it affiliated with the far left, and has aggressive post-Zionist activity that lays the groundwork for endless attacks on the Israeli public, its roots, and culture."

Professor Gabriel Motzkin, who became director of the Van Leer institute in 2007, said that already then the intuition was left-wing, which he "tried to balance, but couldn't find a single right-wing or centrist researcher."

The challenge of finding such a figure among the people working for the institution persists. An Israel Hayom analysis revealed that of Van Leer's 27 research fellows, 19 are ardent leftists, most of whom are active in far left movements. This means that 70% of the institute's researchers hold left-wing views; 30% were unsure, and not a single person said to be a rightist.

The institute's budget, which stands at 24 million shekels yearly,

The institute receives most of its budget, which stands at 24 million shekels yearly, from a private Dutch foundation. Another NIS 100,000 comes from the Israeli government and NIS 200,000 from the German government.
Ben & Jerry’s, Unilever fail to settle lawsuit with mediation
Attempts at mediation in the lawsuit filed by the board of ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry’s against its parent company Unilever for transferring the rights to produce its ice-cream in Israel to an Israeli distributor have failed.

According to the New York Post, an attorney from Ben & Jerry’s wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter asking to restore the company’s request for a preliminary injunction, as no agreement could be reached between the two sides to settle the case out of court.

Another letter, from attorneys representing Unilever, confirmed that talks had broken down but pushed back at accusations that they declined to confer with the plaintiffs.

Ben & Jerry’s had sued Unilever on July 5 after the parent company announced it would be selling the rights to produce the dessert products in Israel to American Quality Products Ltd., owned by businessman Avi Zinger, which had produced and distributed the ice-cream in Israel and Judea and Samaria for decades.

The settlement came as a result of a lawsuit by Zinger against Unilever after Ben & Jerry’s cut its distribution contract with American Quality Products when the company did not agree to stop selling its ice-cream in Judea and Samaria, which would violate Israeli law.
New York City Council Member Urges NY Governor to Address ‘Hostile Climate’ for Jewish CUNY Students
The Brooklyn Republican asked that CUNY pledge to maintain its academic exchange programs with Israeli universities, following a call in May by CUNY law school faculty to terminate them.

Vernikov also noted that she had recently met with CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodríguez, who had come under fire for missing a June City Council hearing on the antisemitism complaints.

“While we are pleased that the meeting with the Chancellor was productive, this does not change the reality of a hostile climate at CUNY overnight,” Vernikov added.

Calls for action on antisemitism at CUNY from faculty, staff, and students grew louder last June, after the school’s faculty union passed, during hostilities between Israel and Hamas, a resolution supporting the Israel boycott movement and accusing the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing and “apartheid.”

In July, the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) filed a Title VI complaint with the US Department of Education alleging that it has intentionally ignored “a sustained pattern of antisemitism.”

The complaint detailed a number of alleged incidents at CUNY going as far back as 2013, including Jewish faculty and students having their property vandalized, receiving threats and verbal abuse, and being held responsible for actions of the Israeli government.

In February, the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights launched a investigation into additional antisemitism complaints at Brooklyn College, part of the CUNY system.
UC Irvine Gets Millions to Educate on Holocaust, Antisemitism
The University of California, Irvine, has received a $4 million matching pledge donation to its Center for Jewish Studies, announced the school.

The gift from Henry and Susan Samueli is the largest donation made in support of Jewish studies at UC Irvine, the university said on Monday.

It will be used to increase three areas: programming that supports educators of grades kindergarten-12 who teach about the Holocaust; funding for an endowed chair in the study of contemporary antisemitism and another in Israeli studies; and partnerships with universities in Israel to bring scholars to UC Irvine.

“Expanding Jewish studies on campus falls under a campus-wide priority of ‘growth that makes a difference,’ facilitating interdisciplinary, problem-based scholarship and teaching,” said UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman. “Susan and Henry Samueli’s deep generosity will catalyze community support for Jewish studies at UCI and help it become a model for tolerance and appreciation of cultural and religious pluralism.”

Henry Samueli, whose parents were both Holocaust survivors, said about the donation: “Susan and I enjoy supporting innovative solutions through many areas, ranging from engineering to health, but this is an area that uniquely touches our hearts.”


The Guardian Publishes One-Sided Portrayal of Israel’s ‘Bureaucratic Power’ Over the Palestinians
What is the nature of Israel’s Civil Administration in the West Bank? What do the soldiers who serve as liaisons between Israel and the Palestinians think of their military service? These are the questions that Bethan McKernan claims to answer in her latest piece for The Guardian titled, ‘‘The power we had was astonishing’: ex-soldiers on Israel’s government in the occupied territories.’

However, rather than provide a well-rounded and informative take on Israel’s activities vis-à-vis the Palestinian residents of the disputed territory, McKernan’s article seeks to stigmatize the Israeli bureaucracy, makes misleading claims that are lacking in context, and is overall terribly one-sided and skewed against Israel.

Boring and Brutal: The Guardian’s Take on Israeli Bureaucracy
For her report, McKernan quotes a number of Israelis who spent their military service in the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli unit dedicated to arranging all civilian issues between Israel and the Palestinians.

Throughout the article, these former soldiers make numerous complaints about their time in COGAT, asserting that their work reduced the Palestinians passing between the West Bank and Israel to “just numbers,” that it took the sense of independence away from the soldiers and turned them into a “part of the system,” in addition to being “so boring.”

One soldier also lamented the fact that their position allowed them to view details about individuals by merely typing in their identification numbers.

While The Guardian attempts to use these testimonies to disparage the Israeli administration in the West Bank, they are actually painting a picture of a normal bureaucracy that is commonly found in democratic countries.
BBC ignores report refuting allegations it promoted six months ago
Readers may recall that back in early February the BBC produced written and audio reports on the topic of the announcement of an investigation into allegations published by the Israeli business newspaper ‘Calcalist’. Listeners to BBC World Service radio, for example, were told that:
“Israel’s government says it will set up a commission of inquiry to examine allegations that the police used spyware to hack phones of Israeli public figures without authorisation. Officials, protesters, journalists, the son of the former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and a witness in Mr Netanyahu’s corruption trial were all targeted without court orders according to reports in the Israeli newspaper Calcalist. The police are alleged to have used Pegasus software, developed by NSO – an Israeli surveillance firm which had previously faced widespread criticism for selling the product to authoritarian governments across the world.”

When the results of an interim investigation were made public two weeks later, the BBC News website published a report headlined “Israeli inquiry finds no indication police used spyware unlawfully” but failed to add a footnote to its February 7th article to advise readers that the information that the BBC had reproduced from an unevidenced third-party newspaper report had been shown to be untrue.
Guardian again grossly misleads on Masafer Yatta evictions
As we noted in a previous post, refuting an error-ridden Guardian article on issue, in May, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously, that the Palestinian petitioners of Masafer Yatta didn’t prove that they lived in the villages as permanent residents ( “for generations”) before the army declared it a training zone in the early 1980s. It found that the petitioners only occasionally entered the area during seasonal migration and that the villages were only inhabited by Palestinians permanently since the 1990s.

The Guardian contributor again misleads readers when, in the context of suggesting that Israeli settlers attack Palestinians in the greater Masafer Yatta area with impunity, she recounts one episode that occurred last September in which nine Palestinians were injured in violence perpetrated by Jews from nearby communities. However, omitted is the fact that three of the attackers were arrested, with two remaining in custody, and that Israel’s foreign minister Yair Lapid condemned the attacks as an act of “terrorism”.

Later, the journalist writes the following about illegal West Bank outposts:
“Although outposts are not officially recognised, the government provides settlers there with security, roads, water, electricity and financial subsidies.

In fact, the Knesset voted to rejects bills over the past two years that would have connected such illegal outposts to the national water and electricity grids. We also reached out to a spokesperson for Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz, who told us that there are, in fact, no such government subsidies provided to illegal outposts by the government.

Once again, the Guardian has published an article promoting the Palestinian cause without acknowledging facts and nuances about the issues that undermine the desired narrative.


This American rabbi fights Jewish stereotypes via China’s version of TikTok
With two degrees in Asian studies and 15 years of his life spent living and working in China (everything “from acting to the diamond business to real estate”), Rabbi Matt Trusch has a lot of experience with China.

But antisemitism wasn’t one of those experiences until he began posting on Douyin, China’s TikTok, from his home back in Texas in 2021.

Speaking in fluent Mandarin peppered with Chinese idioms and filmed in front of a bookshelf lined with Jewish texts, Trusch passionately shares Jewish parables from the Talmud and the Tanya — a book of Hasidic commentary by the rabbi who founded the Chabad Orthodox movement — and the life and business lessons they may offer Chinese viewers. With nearly 180,000 followers, his videos have accumulated nearly 700,000 likes.

But the comment section under Trusch’s videos is revealing. In China, the line between loving Jews and hating them for the same stereotypical traits can be thin. On his most viral video, which has over 7 million views and explains how China helped give refuge to Jews escaping Europe during World War II, comments laced with antisemitic tropes seem to outnumber the ones thanking Trusch for sharing Jewish culture and wisdom.

“You don’t want to take my money, do you?” reads one top comment.

“Wall Street elites are all Jews,” another comment says; others call Jews “oily people,” a play on the Chinese characters that spell out the word for “Jew.” Many blame Jews for the mid-19th century Opium Wars between China and foreign powers, or for inflation in pre-World War II Germany. Other commenters repeatedly ask Trusch to address Palestine on videos that have nothing to do with Israel.

The comments reflect the fact that in the minds of many in China, the Talmud is not a Jewish religious text but a guide to getting rich. The belief has spawned an entire industry of self-help books and private schools that claim to reveal the so-called money-making secrets of the Jews. (h/t jzaik)
Local Students Shine A Light On Antisemitism With New Art Exhibit in Lobby of TMOB
The City of Tampa and Mayor Jane Castor invite the public to view a new art exhibit, Shine A Light Youth Art Contest, produced by the Tampa JCCs & Federation.

This exhibit, on display now in the lobby of the Tampa Municipal Office Building, is helping raise awareness about antisemitism, share educational resources and empower individuals to stand against the hatred of Jewish people through the power of art.

Mayor Jane Castor and the Tampa JCCs & Federation will honor the winners with a short ceremony on Thursday, July 14 at 1:30 p.m. on the first floor of the Tampa Municipal Office Building, located at 306 E. Jackson St.

The Shine A Light Youth Art Contest was held in March 2022. The contest was developed to raise awareness of antisemitism, share educational resources and empower individuals to stand against the hatred of Jewish people through the power of art.

“We were curious to see what these remarkable students would do if we tasked them with the challenge of helping combat antisemitism through art,” said Jeffrey Berger, President, Tampa JCCs & Federation. “As you can see from the inspired and inspirational artwork on display here, our students were up to the challenge – they did not disappoint! We thank and applaud all of our contest participants for their thoughtful and creative submissions and congratulate the winners for their valuable contributions.”

"We need to remember lessons from history," Mayor Jane Castor said. "Even in 2022, synagogues, Jewish cemeteries and Jewish people have been attacked. Community projects like Shine A Light help in raising awareness about the human cost of antisemitism."
Canadian Jews under attack: Close to 50% rise in hate crimes towards Jews in 2021
Jewish Canadians remain the most targeted religious minority for hate crime, and second overall, according to Canada’s national statistical agency.

Statistics Canada released data on Tuesday showing that overall, hate crimes in 2021 targeting religious groups increased 67% from 2020, breaking a three-year downturn. Incidents targeting the Jewish community grew a dramatic 47% since 2020, and cumulatively 59% over the last two years. This reflects that 1.3 people out of every 1,000 members of Canada’s Jewish community report being the target of a hate crime in 2021.

There are approximately 380,000 Jews in Canada, representing barely 1% of the population, yet members of the Jewish community were victims of 14% of all reported hate crimes in 2021.

“Statistically, Canadian Jews were more than 10 times more likely than any other Canadian religious minority to report being the target of a hate crime,” said Shimon Koffler Fogel, president and CEO of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs. “This is alarming. This report should be a call to action for all Canadians to stand against antisemitism and all forms of hate. Like the Jewish community, many racialized and minority communities experienced a spike in hate crime last year, further underscoring the need for concerted efforts to stop this worrying trend.

“We are grateful that police services across the country take these incidents seriously, but more needs to be done to protect vulnerable communities. This includes greater support for security and safety at community institutions such as houses of worship; equity, diversity, and inclusion education that includes training on antisemitism; and a national strategy to target online hate and radicalization.

“Although Canada remains one of the best countries in the world in which to be Jewish, or any other minority for that matter, these numbers should concern all Canadians. One hate crime is one too many.”
Rapper apologizes for performing in swastika-adorned T-shirt
The British rapper Slowthai apologized for donning an “anti-fascist” T-shirt with the word “destroy” above a Nazi swastika during his July 30 performance at the Osheaga Music and Arts Festival in Montreal.

“I’m sorry to anyone who is offended by me wearing an anti-fascist/anti-regime T-shirt and the use of the symbol it represents,” tweeted the 27-year-old musician, whose real name is Tyron Kaymone Frampton, on Monday.

His stage moniker apparently originates from his childhood nickname given to him due to his slow speech and drawled tone: “slow ty.”

“I want you to know I stand firmly against anti-Semitism and fascism of any kind, something the T-shirt was meant to illustrate with the word ‘destroy’ above the symbol,” he said.

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center tweeted in response: While @slowthai’s intent at @osheaga may have been to denounce Nazism, the message was very badly executed.”

“This ambiguous display of the swastika was frightening for Jews and others and should never have made it to the stage,” said the statement.
£25,000 worth of damage reported following attacks on Jewish-owned shops in Stamford Hill
£25,000 worth of damage has been reported following attacks on Jewish-owned shops in Stamford Hill.

Images uploaded online appear to show shops boarded up after the windows of the buildings were smashed in.

The incident was reported on Sunday by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.


Air Seychelles becomes first airline to fly from Israel over Saudi Arabia
Air Seychelles announced Wednesday it became the first airline to receive approval for flights over Saudi Arabia on route from Israel.

The first flight from Tel Aviv to the island country of Seychelles in the Indian Ocean took off today from Ben-Gurion International Airport and crossed over Jordanian and Saudi airspace, according to the airline's press release. The flight takes 6 hours and 20 minutes.

Air Seychelles operates three weekly direct flights between Tel Aviv and Mahe, the capital of the Republic of Seychelles. It was previously forced to fly over international waters taking an indirect route at suboptimal altitude. The flights are carried out using Airbus A320neo.

"We are happy about the change in Saudi policy and the effect it has on the route between the two countries. The fact that the flight can take a more direct route and at a higher altitude means a reduction in fuel burn," Charles Johnson, CCO of Air Seychelles was quoted as saying.

Apart from the environmental advantage, the new route "will allow us to carry up to 20 more passengers on each flight" Johnson added.

The airline is the first to obtain Saudi approval to operate flights from Israel over Saudi airspace, not destined for the Emirates. Earlier in July, Israel's national carrier El Al submitted an official request to Saudi Arabia's aviation authorities to pass through the Gulf state's airspace. Riyadh repeatedly stressed that the move to open its skies was not a step toward normalization of relations with Israel.
Netflix Co-Founder Wears Tefillin for the First Time, Celebrates Bar Mitzvah
Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph recently put on tefillin (phylacteries) for the first time with the help of two Jewish entrepreneurs interviewed on his podcast series “That Will Never Work.”

After the episode, the guests — brothers Yossi and Levi Chayo, who run Bellissimo Custom Hats in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn — asked Randolph, 64, about his upbringing, COLlive.com reported.

The Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor mentioned that he grew up in a Jewish family in Chappaqua, New York.

When the brothers asked Randolph if he ever wore tefillin before and he said no, they offered to help him put the religious leather straps onto his arms and forehead, and he agreed. They then assisted Randolph in reciting the necessary blessings when wearing tefillin, including “Shema Yisroel.” The three then danced together to celebrate Randolph’s bar mitzvah, which is the customary time when a Jewish boy first wears tefillin.

“He was very emotional and grateful,” the Chayo brothers told COLlive.com.
StandWithUs' very own Noah Shufutinsky, aka rapper Westside Gravy
"For me, it's really important to represent my roots being a Black-Jewish man, obviously having a connection to my homeland..."

StandWithUs' Education and Outreach Manager Noah Shufutinsky, aka rapper Westside Gravy’ speaks to i24NEWS about the significance of his music as a channel to express his connection with his identity and with Israel.




Memories of the 1958 Iraqi revolution
Not many Jews have recorded their memories of the 14 July 1958 revolution in Iraq, when a bloody army coup d’état led by Abdul Karim Qasim overthrew the Hashemite monarchy. Tamara Ruben interviewed her aunt Amy, a young woman at the time, to record her memories of this period as part of Tamara’s efforts to raise awareness of the plight of Jews from Arab countries. The events she lived through were so traumatic that her aunt Amy, who now lives in England, resolved to depart from Iraq, even if it meant leaving her parents behind – an act that demanded much courage. These are her aunt’s words (With thanks: Nancy): The young King Faisal II, murdered in the 1958 revolution aged 18

The revolution in Iraq of 1958 took me back to one of the scariest and most agonizing times of my life. This is because the Iraqi masses believed that killing and abusing Jews would be a safe bet at a time when the new military government was busy consolidating its power and grip on the country.

The Jews had their telephones cut off, Jewish government officials were fired (if there were any left after the establishment of Israel), and several Jewish homes, including ours, were raided. We waited in fear for them to take us and throw us in jail. Some prominent Jews were left to rot in prison. Six soldiers armed with rifles raided our house. It was three storeys high. They searched every corner. One soldier asked my father to sit at the table and sign a document. My father, horrified and grey-faced, was ready to sign. When I mustered enough courage to ask the soldier what document he was signing, the soldier replied, “We couldn’t find any spy equipment.” After they left, I told my father that I was leaving Iraq and that he had to leave too. He refused because of his age and my mother’s various illnesses.

I was told that the Chief Rabbi of Baghdad was so concerned that he complained to the leader of the revolution, Abdul Karim Qasim, who had pledged to protect the Jews. Qasim tried to keep his promise until he was assassinated in his office in the Ministry of Defence. This was the counter-revolution of February 1963. Power was passed to his assistant and revolutionary collaborator,ʿAbd al-Salam ʿArif, who died three years later in what they believed to be a ‘planned’ helicopter accident….

In the 1958 revolution, the entire royal family was put to death.
Great jugs! 5 Talmudic-era storage vessels unearthed in Shiloh
A century after the first archaeological excavations at the site of ancient Shiloh in the Binyamin region, a new dig has unearthed a number of rare finds, including five intact jugs that date back some 2,000 years to the time of the Talmud.

The jugs were in a row, underneath a floor, most likely to keep their contents cool. Their location is also likely what kept the vessels intact.

Dr. Reut Ben Arie, a resident of Shiloh, directed the excavation.

The Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, which operates the Shiloh antiquities site, said that the dig was attempting to determine the location of the ancient wall and the entrance to the city. Workers dug a trench on the edge of the southern tel (mound) and exposed layers from all the periods of history when the site was active, from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman Empire. The Canaanite wall itself was first uncovered by a group of Danish archaeologists 100 years ago.

The excavation also turned up a number of coins, a key apparently used to unlock a chest, and even wooden dice identical in shape to dice used today.

The discoveries were presented at the 12th Shiloh Conference to mark a century since the site was first excavated, along with other research.
Unpacked: Next Year in Jerusalem: Why Is This City So Important? | Zionism Revisited
Jerusalem has, is, and will continue to be, a central location of religious significance to Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Through a deeper dive of Judaism’s four nicknames of the city, the multifaceted characteristics of the city are explained and explored. Whether walking on cobblestone or pavement, Jerusalem’s complex and centuries long history can be felt through the entirety of this ever developing modern city.


Anne Frank House Releases English Video Series About Fate of Young Diarist After Her Arrest
The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam will release an English-language video series on Thursday in which an actress playing the young Jewish diarist describes the final six months of her life after she was arrested by Nazi forces and sent to a concentration camp.

The English version of “Anne Frank – After the Arrest,” previously shown only in Dutch, will premiere on Aug. 4, exactly 78 years since the arrest of Frank, her family, four other Jews who hid with them in a secret annex of a house in Amsterdam and two of their non-Jewish helpers.

The videos pick up where Frank’s diary left off, which she wrote in while in hiding. In three episodes, each about 15 minutes long, actress Luna Cruz Perez delivers monologues as Frank, describing her arrest, transportation and the broader conditions Jews faced in the concentration camps.

“It makes a deep impression to look through Anne’s eyes at the last months of her life; the terrible time in the camps,” Ronald Leopold, Anne Frank House Executive Director, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Dutch public broadcaster NTR helped develop the series while the book “Na het Achterhuis” (“After the Secret Annex”) and other sources, including eyewitness accounts and documents, informed the basis for the episodes about what took place after Frank’s arrest.

“With this sequel, we’ve answered the questions of many young people about what happened to Anne after her arrest, the period she couldn’t describe in her diary,” Leopold added.




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