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Tuesday, November 01, 2022

11/01 Links Pt2: Hatred of Israel drags us back to the Middle Ages; Radical social justice ideology is fueling US antisemitism; Edward Said’s Jews

From Ian:

Hatred of Israel drags us back to the Middle Ages
Since it was established in 1948, Israel has endured numerous wars and hundreds of bloody terrorist attacks. It has been forced to defend itself against continual attempted invasions by its neighbors.

Most importantly, it has sought a peace agreement with the Palestinians many times. Each time, it has been rejected by the Palestinians, who hope Israel will simply disappear.

But there is an even more important reason for Magni to consult with history: Today, there is a large alliance of forces that former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer has called “medievalist.” They are autocratic, confessional and terroristic. Many of them have Iran has a primary sponsor. They persecute women, homosexuals, ethnic and religious minorities and others. They almost uniformly back Russia’s violently anti-Western policies.

Aligned against this unholy alliance are the forces of modernity. Today, they are united more than ever in the need to defend democracy, the rule of law and coexistence in the face of brutal aggression, whether by Iranian terrorism or the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

At the U.N. last week, however, many nations—including Italy—defended Israel from the anti-Semitic U.N. Commission of Inquiry into the May 2021 Israel-Hamas conflict, which is dedicated solely to condemning Israel.

In other words, times are changing. Those members of the Italian parliament who hate Israel should realize they are on the wrong side of history. Indeed, when will the left understand that, especially since the signing of the Abraham Accords, embracing hatred of the Jewish state only drags us back to the Middle Ages?
Radical social justice ideology is fueling US antisemitism
Even while many Jews back social justice movements calling attention to police abuse and mass incarceration, some worry that rhetoric characterizing America as a white supremacist society and demonizing whiteness has and will continue to spill over into hostility toward Jews. As proponents of this ideology tend to view Jews as white, how could it not?

We worry that supposedly white adjacent groups with higher average incomes and educational achievements, such as Jews and Asians, are being implicated in white supremacy for allegedly succeeding on the backs of marginalized communities.

Moreover, it strikes us that the new social justice activism is not just a call for a much-needed shift in policy priorities but a fundamental challenge to the liberal order, which would render everyone, Jews especially, more vulnerable. The ideologues in the movement often don’t seek to fix institutions but to tear them down, as was evident in the campaign to defund the police. Those of us who have studied the history of antisemitism know that when illiberalism sets in, whether on the political right or the left, resurgent antisemitism is never far behind.

The hypothesis that radical social justice ideology foments antisemitic sentiment on the Left is supported by a new survey of 1,600 likely voters. The survey shows that self-described progressives and very liberal Americans who believe that America is a structurally racist nation also tend to see Jews and Asians as white adjacent to the tune of 80%. That same subset views Jews as having too much power and privilege by nearly 2-1 over comparable groups, such as Black, Asian or LGBT Americans. These percentages on both questions steeply decline among moderates and conservatives.

The survey also indicates that on the far Left of the American political spectrum, Israel is being increasingly viewed as a colonizer, which calls into question the country’s very right to exist. A plurality of progressives now views Israel in these very extreme terms. While the new data is not a smoking gun that the spread of radical social justice ideology is driving antisemitic sentiment on the left, it comports with what many of us have observed with our own eyes.
Adam Levick's London talk on Critical Race Theory and antisemitism
The inevitable course of the CRT understanding of the West also includes a likely antisemitic outcome:

Ibram X Kendi’s “How to be an anti-racist” (a dumbed down version of CRT) promotes the ideology’s belief that racial disparities in outcomes are, by definition, evidence of systemic racism – bigotry that, in his rejection of liberalism, must be combated by “anti-racist discrimination” against ‘whites’ (including, it follows, against Jews) – that is, the institutionalisation of preferential practices based on overtly racial and (per such racial essential-ism) antisemitic criteria.

Equality under the law and colour-blind admission standards in education, for Kendi, insofar as such traditional liberal expressions of anti-racism don’t produce equal results, is in fact racist.

While liberalism seeks traditional justice, CRT proponents seek what Thomas Sowell calls “Cosmic Justice”, a Utopian concept that, by demanding not just a fair and transparent process, but the desired result, is irreconcilable with personal freedom based on the rule of law.

CRT turns the Greek saying “character is destiny” on its head, and posits instead that “colour is destiny”.

CRT embraces fatalism and cynicism over liberalism’s agency and optimism.

CRT is obsessed with identity, while liberalism’s project has always sought to transcend identitarianism and the obsession with who we are as the result of mere accidents of birth.

The CRT inspired myth of the white-adjacent, white or even hyper-white Jew helps explain why some anti-Zionists obscenely characterize Israel as a “white supremacist state”, which brings us to a powerful observation by the Israeli writer Yossi Klein Halevi:
Anti-Semites have typically “turned Jews into the symbol of whatever it is a given civilization finds as its most loathsome quality.
Under early Christianity, the Jew was the Christ killer. Under communism, the Jew was the capitalist. Under Nazism, the Jew was the ultimate race polluter.
Now we live in a civilization where the most loathsome qualities are racism, and, lo and behold, Jews have become “white people” oppressing “people of colour”.

This represents, Halevi concludes, a “classical continuity of thousands of years of symbolising the Jew”.

Moreover, the message of Jewish tradition is that none of us are at the mercy of qualities or characteristics that can never change. Our message has always been one of action and hope—each one of us is a work in progress, even kings and great leaders.

CRT nullifies this powerful and liberal idea—that we are individuals with the power to make a difference in our own lives.

Equality before the law, regardless of class, colour, or creed, is not just the only answer that has worked for Jews, and the greater good, over the long run, it’s also the only solution with any moral authority – the only idea that has proven itself to be most likely to result in human flourishing.

It is not by chance that Jews in particular tend to thrive in societies in which liberalism is enshrined in law and civic culture:
The veneration and codification of individual as opposed to group rights, which are protected via the neutral application of laws.
The idea that we should judge each person not by their station or their family lineage, but by their decisions, actions and achievements.
The sacredness of the individual over the group.
Human agency over fatalism.

It is the idea that all men are created in the image of God, that freedom is a natural self-evident right which precedes the state, and is shared by all individuals—revolutionary ideas originating in the Torah, but ushered into the West by Locke, Mill, Montesquieu and the drafters of the US Constitution – which offer the only real protection against increasing threats to Jewish freedom and the liberal values that serve as a bulwark against racism and tyranny throughout the world.


Edward Said’s Jews
Places of Mind, Timothy Brennan’s recent biography of Edward Said, is fundamentally a celebration of the Palestinian intellectual’s life and mission. Brennan, a scholar who studied under Said at Columbia University, draws from a sensibility rooted in social and racial justice and an academic career inspired by his teacher. His examination of Said’s personal relations and conduct often seems protective of Said (against others) or his family (against others and Said). While not ruthlessly probing into the most uncomfortable and unpleasant aspects of Said’s personality, however, Brennan is willing to at least acknowledge them.

Brennan notes while describing the “special challenge” of his endeavor that none of the many books that have been written about Said “paints a full picture of his Arab and American selves as they come together, or accounts for the ways that Said’s writings on Palestine, music, public intellectuals, literature and the media intertwine.”

That Jews are missing from that fullness is significant, for the Jewish echoes in Said’s life were numerous and pronounced: He was rooted in the experience of exile, inspired by Jewish intellectualism, and driven by a central obsession with the Jewish state.

Jews were important at every stage of Edward Said’s life. He was delivered in Jerusalem by the midwife Madame Baer. Growing up in Cairo, one of his closest friends was psychoanalyst Andre Green; he took lessons and shared meals with the exacting Polish pianist Ignaz Tiegerman.

Most of Said’s close friends at Princeton were Jews; there he was inspired by the experimental approach of Milton Babbitt and would study under the composer Erich Itor Kahn, who had fled the Nazis. Monroe Engel and Harry Levin, his dissertation supervisors at Harvard, were essential in shaping his academic perspective. At Columbia, many of those who concerned themselves with his burgeoning Palestinian identity were Jews, including David Lehman, who dedicated a series of poems to him, and theologian Alan Mintz.

His work first appeared in publications led by Jewish writers. Mary-Kay Wilmers, editor of the London Review of Books, offered him a refuge for his perspective. Jean Stein named a room in her apartment, filled with Oriental décor, after him.

But Said’s long engagement with Jews and Jewishness largely amounted to a set of crass positions: incuriosity, relativism, blankness, replacement. Brennan charts many of Said’s seemingly innumerable relationships with individual Jews. But he largely echoes Said’s perspective on the Middle East (the book is dedicated “for the Palestinian people”) and the infecund nature of Said’s encounter with Jewishness.
Head of national UK student group fired following antisemitism probe
The president of the National Union of Students (NUS) Shaima Dallali has been dismissed from her role – following an independent investigation into antisemitism claims against her and the student body.

Jewish News has learned that an NUS disciplinary panel has concluded that Dallali should be removed from her post after reviewing the recommendations of KC Rebecca Tuck’s report into the scandal.

Dallali – who once shared a tweet which included an Islamic battle cry historically used when attacking Jews – was suspended as the student body’s president in September to allow the KC Rebecca Tuck to complete her probe.

The 27 year-old student leader is said to have “strenuously denied” claims of antisemitism made against her, insisting she had apologised for errors of judgement made on social media when she was younger.

But sources told Jewish News the KC’s report backed claims Dallali’s conduct in allegations involving claims of antisemitism went “way beyond just standing up for Palestinian rights.”

She has repeatedly expressed support for former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, claimed he should “never have been suspended in the first place” from the party.

The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) had submitted a substantial dossier to the inquiry detailing allegations of misconduct both by Dallali and within the NUS over many years.

In a statement released following the president’s dismissal UJS said it “respects the decision of the NUS to dismiss their president.”
Exclusive: Federal Government Gives Nearly $30,000 in Grants to Anti-Israel Publications
In August, Laith Marouf’s cover was blown wide open.

Marouf is a Beirut-based founder and employee of the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC), which bills itself as having the mission “to disrupt settler colonialism and oppression in the media.” Marouf’s social media was rife with anti-Israel propaganda and antisemitic hate, and thanks to investigative work conducted by media consultant Mark Goldberg and journalist Jonathan Kay, it was revealed that Marouf’s organization had also been the recipient of significant federal funding.

Soon, widespread condemnation of Marouf’s hate erupted, his Twitter profile was removed and the federal government ceased funding his organization.

Despite the defunding of CMAC, an exclusive HonestReporting Canada investigation reveals that the federal government has funded other deeply problematic anti-Israel publications.

According to a 2021 report compiled by Canadaland.com entitled: “Which Media Benefitted From The Trudeau Government’s Covid-19 Funds?” there are at least two media outlets with extensive history of publishing anti-Israel, and in our view, antisemitic propaganda, who have received Covid-19 related relief payments from the federal government between 2020 and 2021.

Mississauga-based Arabic-language newspaper Meshwar Media received $2,000 from the federal government according to the dossier.

As documented by HonestReporting Canada multiple times in recent months and for over a decade, Meshwar Media has repeatedly delved into spreading hateful anti-Israel and antisemitic content. In fact, Meshwar is so hateful that several complaints have been filed with police hate crime authorities in Peel Region due to its anti-Jewish content.

In August 2022, Meshwar published an article on its website, written by Editor Nazih Khatatba, where he claimed that the Israeli Mossad agency committed the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, Germany. In reality, the perpetrators were members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September.
'Fight antisemitism:' Protestors heckle Kyrie Irving at Nets game
A group of Jewish protestors was spotted at Monday's Nets game sitting courtside with T-shirts that read "Fight Antisemitism." They were responding to Kyrie Irving's recent support of the film, Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America, which purportedly promotes antisemitism and general misinformation.

Written, directed and produced by Ronald B. Dalton Jr., the film is based on a book of the same name that he wrote. The author-turned-director openly holds beliefs in line with the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, defined by the Anti-Defamation League as "a fringe religious movement that rejects widely accepted definitions of Judaism and asserts that people of color are the true children of Israel."

According to the New York Post, the group heckled Irving throughout the game, and in return, he gave them a thumbs up and said he was "thankful for you guys."

Irving and the Nets' management have been doing PR damage control for the last several days since his comments about the film; for this reason, Irving was not able to have any direct interaction with the press on Monday night.


Jewish groups welcome Morningstar's new commitments to Israel
Morningstar, the multi-billion-dollar Chicago-based investment research firm has begun distancing itself from the BDS movement, according to an announcement during the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in Chicago on Monday.

In attendance at the assembly were The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), Anti-Defamation League (ADL), American Jewish Committee (AJC), JLens, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, in coordination with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (COP), Hadassah the Women’s Zionist Organization, Jewish Funders Network (JFN), Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago (JUF) and UJA-Federation of New York.

"We appreciate Morningstar's engagement with our communities, as well as its leadership’s strong rejection of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to discredit Israel," JFNA president and CEO Eric Fingerhut said. "Anti-Israel bias is a pernicious problem and requires vigilance to combat. We will continue to work with Morningstar to ensure implementation of these important reforms and their effects on ratings.”

Fingerhut also personally thanked Morningstar executive chairman Joe Mansueto and CEO Kunal Kapoor for their engagement and goodwill. Morningstar's checkered past

JLens first identified Morningstar's ties to BDS in April 2020, when the Chicago company announced it was acquiring full ownership of Amsterdam-based Sustainalytics, one of the main global firms offering Environmental, Social and Governance ratings, in an attempt to get a hold on the fast-growing and lucrative ESG market.

The acquisition prompted Jlens to share its longstanding concerns about Sustainalytics’ alleged bias against Israel with Morningstar, which ultimately ignored Jlens and closed the deal. A few months later, Jlens began a dialogue that ended in January 2021 with the pro-Israel investor network, placing Morningstar on its “Do Not Invest” list.


Dems Accuse Lee Zeldin, Who is Jewish, of Antisemitism for Criticizing Soros
The only antisemitism that Democrats seem to care about is criticizing Soros. And they're happy to accuse Jews of antisemitism for saying anything negative about a global sponsor of antisemitism.

Soros grew up in a “Jewish, anti-Semitic home”. He called his mother a “typical Jewish anti-Semite” who hated his first wife because she was “too Jewish”. He blamed Israel for anti-Semitism in Europe and argued that, “America and Israel must open the door to Hamas”.

“My understanding is that you went … went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews,” Steve Kroft asked Soros on 60 Minutes.

“Yes, that’s right. Yes,” Soros replied.

But Soros insisted that he felt no guilt whatsoever for his actions. “There was no sense that I shouldn’t be there, because that was well, actually, in a funny way, it’s just like in markets that if I weren’t there of course, I wasn’t doing it, but somebody else would.”

Soros described, what was a terrible time for most actual Jews as, “the most exciting time of my life.”

And he has defended anti-Semitism on the left, writing that, “The fact that constructive critics of Israel say things that, when taken out of context or paraphrased in provocative ways, can be made to sound similar to the comments of anti-Semites does not make them anti-Semitic.”

Now, absurdly, Democrats and leftists are attacking New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin over Soros.

That’s in addition to the usual narrative.

Zeldin is Jewish, the grandson of an Orthodox rabbi, and he’s being backed by the Orthodox Jewish community in New York, leading to scenes like these.


An evangelical GOP House candidate in Texas wrote a novel about Anne Frank finding Jesus
The Republican nominee for Congress in Texas’ 7th district is a self-proclaimed history buff, but his take on Anne Frank is not one that most historians would endorse.

Johnny Teague, an evangelical pastor and business owner who won the district’s primary in March, in 2020 published “The Lost Diary of Anne Frank,” a novel imagining the famous Jewish Holocaust victim’s final days in the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps as she might have written them in her diary.

The kicker: In Teague’s telling, Frank seems to embrace Christianity just before she is murdered by the Nazis.

Published by Las Vegas-based publisher Histria Books, the speculative book attempts to faithfully extend the writing style of Frank’s “original” diary entries into her experiences in the camps: it “picks up where her original journey left off,” according to the promotional summary. Teague claims to have interviewed Holocaust survivors and visited the Anne Frank House, multiple concentration camps and the major Holocaust museums in Washington, D.C., and Israel as part of his research.

“I would love to learn more about Jesus and all He faced in His dear life as a Jewish teacher,” Teague’s Anne Frank character muses at one point, saying that her dad had tried to get her a copy of the New Testament. Anne’s father Otto Frank, who in real life did survive the Holocaust, seems to have been spared a tragic fate in Teague’s telling because of his interest in learning about Jesus.

Later, Anne does learn about Jesus through other means, reciting psalms and expressing sympathy for Jesus’ plight.

By book’s end, Anne is firm in her belief that “every Jewish man or woman should ask” questions like “Where is the Messiah? … Did He come already, and we didn’t recognize Him?”


Dutch Justice Minister Calls for Ban on Antisemitic Conspiracy Theorist David Icke Ahead of Planned Weekend Rally
The Dutch Minister of Justice has declared her support for efforts by the municipality of Amsterdam to prevent David Icke, a notorious British antisemitic conspiracy theorist and Holocaust denier, from speaking at a rally in the city on Sunday.

Delivering a lecture hosted by the Dutch Jewish community on Sunday night, Dilan Yeşilgöz — the Minister for Justice and Security of the Netherlands — condemned Icke’s planned appearance, complaining that protests had been “too late and too limited.”

“Again it was the Jewish organizations that signaled this and protested against it,” Yeşilgöz remarked. “Again, it had to be explained why this is a problem. Again there is a double standard, because we all know what would happen if it were an imam.”

A former professional soccer player and television presenter, Icke has spent more than 25 years pushing occult conspiracy theories holding that the world is governed by a race of reptiles in thrall to the power of the “Rothschild Zionists.” Icke has also promoted Holocaust denial, claiming in a 1995 book that “alternative information to the official line of the Second World War” had been suppressed. A March 2019 speaking tour of Australia that Icke had planned to undertake was canceled after he was banned by the government, which cited concerns about the impact of his presence on the Jewish community, from entering the country.

Icke’s outlandish views were amplified earlier this month by a far-right Dutch MP in an interview with an extremist website.

“I am definitely a conspiracy theorist,” Thierry Baudet of the Forum for Democracy (VVD) said. “I believe we are ruled by a global conspiracy of evil reptiles.”
Nazi and Jewish version of Romeo & Juliet being produced by UK theatre
A version of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet in which the main characters and the factions dividing the lovers are Nazis and Jews is being produced by the United Kingdom-based theatre group Icarus Theatre Collective.

Set in 1930s Germany, the Icarus version of Romeo & Juliet will reimagine Romeo as a member of the Hitler Youth and Juliet as a "young, naive, innocent" Jewish girl.

Promotional images for the play show a Nazi Reichsadler eagle rising from the "M" in Romeo and a star of David dotting the "I" in Juliet.

In Shakespeare's original play, set in Verona, Italy, told the tale of young lovers attempting to pursue their burgeoning romance despite the intense rivalry between their respective noble houses, Montague and Capulet.

"In defiance of their entire society and in secrecy from their closest friends, hopeful young lives burn amidst a cataclysmic backdrop of impending war. Sun and moon shine down on star-crossed lovers as a Jewish girl falls for a member of Nazi Youth and the boy questions everything he was taught to believe," Icarus explained in their job postings. "They hide their passion and sexuality from their warring families and their closest friends. Misadventure, family pride, and antisemitism abort and bury the most joyous of beginnings, the most hopeful of love stories as Romeo and Juliet, driven apart, find their world becoming a constricting, single mausoleum of fate and death."

Other characters, such as Tybalt, Juliet's Nurse and Lady Capulet will also be portrayed as Jewish. Friars Lawrence and John will be reordained as rabbis.

Despite taking place in 1930s Germany, in which the Nazi party emphasized Aryan ethnic supremacy, the theatre said "For many roles we are cross-casting and specifically looking for non-binary artists, and/or those of Global Majority, black or Asian heritage, as part of our ongoing efforts to ensure our on-stage team is representative of the wider UK population."


The Story of Israel’s First Cyberwarfare Operation
Today, the Jewish state leads the world in its defensive and offensive cyberwarfare capabilities, and the IDF’s prestigious 8200 Unit is considered the destination of choice for young Israelis aspiring to careers in high-tech. But in the early 1990s, when Israel carried out its first digital operation, such an infrastructure did not exist, and “cyberwarfare” wasn’t in the vocabulary of militaries. The soldier responsible for the operation, identified only as Second Lieutenant B.—after his rank at the time—spoke with Yoav Zitun about what happened, although many of the details remain classified:

Second Lieutenant B. . . . was part of a small team in charge of drawing up a plan that would be the first of its kind in the IDF—secretly infiltrating a stronghold of one of Israel’s enemies and gaining access to a substantial intelligence source. This operation allowed Israel to get its hands on information that would remain useful years later, without sending a single soldier to risk his or her life, and all while remaining under the radar.

Instead of waiting for a bug in the enemy’s cyber system and “breaking in” during the short time window, the tactic the IDF had adopted prior, Lieutenant B. and his team wanted to enter through a blind spot [in digital security], take what they needed, and “exit” before they could be noticed. The target they were after at the time was one of five most wanted for the Intelligence Directorate.

Already as a young trainee, B. was plotting a largescale intel mission that none of the higher-ranking officers were aware of. “Nothing good ever comes out of closing a bunch of colonels and lieutenant colonels in a room and telling them to solve a problem,” he said. “All the good ideas, even in years past, came from lower ranks.” The new system the enemy was developing made B. understand that innovative tactics had to be brought up in order to collect data—and immediately he started brainstorming technological models.

For two whole years, B. and a few of his comrades recreated the system the enemy had at hand at the time, running endless tests to make sure what they had developed was accurate. The biggest concern was that they would get caught by the enemy, and someone on the other side of the screen would “turn off the lights forever,” and seal the data with a break-proof security system. . . . Since then, the tech gateway that B. and his team created has grown to be more advanced, and paved the way for other IDF cyber operations.

The operation succeeded, and the still-anonymous B. was awarded the Israel Defense Prize for his efforts.
'Hydro-diplomacy:' A new frontier for Israel-Morocco ties
For the first few decades of Israel's history, water scarcity was one of the core challenges that the Jewish state had to face.

Today, Israel is one of the world’s leaders in water technologies, reusing nearly 90% of its wastewater, and producing almost 80% of its drinking water through desalination plants. The expertise of Israel’s research centers and companies can offer a unique contribution to its partners and allies.

For Morocco, water stress has become an increasingly alarming problem.

Earlier this year, Minister of Equipment and Water Nizar Baraka warned that by 2050, the country will lose 30% of its water resources. To address the issue, Baraka emphasized the need for “hydro-diplomacy.”

At the beginning of this year, the Moroccan government allocated $260 million dollars for its 2021-2022 water emergency plan, as reported by the Morocco World News. At the same time, the country’s leaders called for more structural actions to tackle the issue, such as updating irrigation systems and water infrastructure. In addition, Morocco is already building what it claims to be the world’s largest desalination plant near Casablanca.

By 2030, the country aims at establishing 20 desalinations plants.

Water technologies have been one of the main areas of cooperation between Jerusalem and Rabat since the establishment of the Abraham Accords.
‘I feel at home’, Egyptian professor tells Israeli Jews
On 27 October 2022, Professor Kamal Abdel Malek from Alexandria addressed the Association of Egyptian Jews in Israel, whose President is Levana Zamir. After being given a warm welcome, Professor Abdel Malek lectured on the subject “The Pyramids and The Star of David – by an Egyptian in Israel.”

The lecture took place before a packed house at the Heritage Center of Egyptian Jewry in Tel Aviv.”I feel at home with all of you here !” Professor Abdel Malek exclaimed after chatting briefly with the audience. “I feel like I am meeting family relatives I have not seen for a long time…”

Professor Abdel Malek is teaching at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for one semester. Eminent Israeli professors, experts on the history Jews of Egypt, attended the lecture. They included the 2022 Israel Prize Laureate and Tel Aviv University Professor Shimon Shamir, Professor Elie Podeh of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Professor Itzhak Reiter, President of The Middle East and Islamic Studies Association of Israel, Dr Eyal Sagi and Dr Eran Goldenberg of Haifa University.

The Ambassador of Israel to Egypt, Amira Oron, whose mother was born in Egypt, was also present. In less than two years she has managed to drive forward many important Israel-Egypt projects, including this academic one.

Professor Kamal Abdel Malek is an expert in Arabic literature. His speciality is “Encounters between Israelis and Egyptians, in Literature and Cinema.” This is a special course he is teaching with Professor Elie Podeh, Head of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University, whose main fields of interest are modern Egypt, inter-Arab relations, the Arab-Israeli conflict and education and culture in the Middle East.
"US Soldier to be Honored as ‘Righteous Among Nations’"
The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR) has announced it will honor an American soldier as “Righteous Among the Nations,” together with the Holocaust Center of Kean University. The event is set for November 9 — the anniversary of Kristallnacht — and two days before Veterans Day.

Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds is the only American soldier ever to be recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations.” Advertisement

Pastor Chris Edmonds, the son of Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds, will deliver the keynote speech at the virtual event.

The younger Edmonds will recount the story of his father’s heroism in saving the lives of 200 Jewish American soldiers during World War II, as well as the story of how he discovered his father’s heroism years after his passing.

The program will also include a screening of the JFR’s award-winning short documentary, “Following the Footsteps of My Father,” recounting the story of rescue through the lens of Pastor Edmonds.

To date, Edmonds is the only US soldier to have been recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Center.

On Dec. 19, 1944, Master Sgt. Edmonds was captured by the German Army during the Battle of the Bulge and sent to the Stalag IXA Prisoner Of War (POW) camp. As the highest-ranking American soldier in the camp, Edmonds was responsible for the camp’s 1,292 American POWs.

The camp’s commandant ordered Edmonds to identify the Jewish soldiers in order to separate them from the other prisoners. Instead, Edmonds refused, and when the German commandant placed his pistol against Edmonds’ head, demanding that he identify the Jewish soldiers, Edmonds responded, “We are all Jews here,” refusing to identify the Jewish soldiers and thereby saving their lives.




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