Wednesday, December 07, 2022

12/07 Links Pt2: Every Time You Wish Someone ‘Happy Hanukkah’ You Acknowledge The Historic Jewish Claim On Jerusalem; Israel is 5th safest country in the world for tourists

From Ian:

'Herzl is our George Washington and Thomas Jefferson all wrapped in one'
"Today, Theodor Herzl is best known for his beard, not his books," laments Gil Troy, editor of "The Zionist Writings of Theodor Herzl," in his introductory essay to a new edition of Herzl's diaries.

Troy, a professor of history at Canada's McGill University now living in Israel, wants to make Zionism's founders come alive for the next generation. His latest effort is a three-volume collection of Herzl's writings.

The brainchild behind the series is Matthew Miller, owner of Koren Publishers, a Jerusalem publishing house producing mainly religious texts. Drawing inspiration from the Library of America, a publisher of notable American classics and historical works, Miller decided to create a Library of the Jewish People to bring together the best writings from Jewish history in the fields of religion, the arts and politics.

"The Zionist Writings" are the first titles in that ambitious effort. They include a fairly comprehensive collection of Herzl's diaries and other works, including his play "The New Ghetto" (1894), of which Herzl biographer Alex Bein said, "Herzl completed his inner return to his people"; Herzl's 1896 manifesto "The Jewish State"; and important essays, like "The Menorah" (1897), showing how, through Zionism, Herzl reconnected with his Judaism.

The series uses translations from the original German made by historian Harry Zohn in the 1960s. Other works, like "The New Ghetto," are newly translated by Uri Bollag.

Troy, who spoke to JNS the day after the book launch at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, said the Herzl series is his fourteenth book project and the first where he stood before an audience and said "Shehecheyanu" – a Jewish prayer to give thanks for special occasions – both to mark the 75th anniversary of the date the UN General Assembly voted in favor of a Jewish state (Nov. 29, 1947) and to celebrate the launch of Library of the Jewish People.

"It's an attempt to invite the Jewish people to build a bookshelf, because we've been building a bookshelf for thousands of years, but most of us don't know the Jewish texts, the Jewish canon," he said.

Troy sees no better place to start than Herzl. "He's our George Washington and our Thomas Jefferson all wrapped in one," said Troy. "Washington's diaries are interesting, but they're not ideological. That's why, when talking about Herzl in American terms, we say he's a cross between Washington and Jefferson, because he's also a conceptualizer."

Troy, who pored through 2,700 pages of Herzl's diaries, described them as "a political-science version of an artist's sketchbook."

"Herzl draws in the contours of the Jewish state. He plans different dimensions from a flag to the architectural aesthetic, from labor-capital relations to the dynamics between rabbis and politicians," Troy writes in one essay.
Every Time You Wish Someone ‘Happy Hanukkah’ You Acknowledge The Historic Jewish Claim On Jerusalem
On Hanukkah eve, I tweeted out a somewhat reductionist thought commemorating the bloody Maccabean rebellion against the Seleucid Empire and their traitorous Hellenized Jewish accomplices. It seemed to upset some of my followers.

Every time you wish someone a Happy Hanukkah you are acknowledging the historic Jewish claim on Jerusalem. — David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) December 12, 2017

Why are you politicizing such a pleasant holiday? Does wishing someone a “Merry Christmas” now mean that you accept Jesus as your lord and savior?

Well, first of all, the story of Hanukkah isn’t pleasant. Violent, brutal, and passionate, maybe. But not pleasant. And of course wishing someone a “Happy Hanukkah” isn’t an endorsement of any theological position, any more than wishing someone Merry Christmas is (although we appreciate the recognition of the Jewish presence in ancient Bethlehem). Mostly it’s convention and good manners. Thank you.

Fact is, there isn’t a ton of theology to worry about. Hanukkah is not a Jewish “yom tov,” which in the literal translation means “good day” but in religious terms means the holiday was not handed to the Jewish people through the Torah. Unlike Passover or Yom Kippur, there are no restrictions on work. The two books that deal with the Maccabees aren’t Jewish canon. The “miracle of the lights” — which you might be led to believe is the entire story of the holiday — is apocryphal and was added hundreds of years later in the Talmud. (To be fair, the story of miraculous oil is far more conducive to the holiday gift-giving spirit than, say, the story of the Jewish woman who watched her seven sons being tortured and slaughtered by Antiochus because she refused to eat pork.)

But whatever reasons you have for offering good wishes, Hanukkah itself is a reminder that Jews have a singular, millennia-long historic relationship with Jerusalem. By the time Mattathias rebelled against Hellenistic Syrian king Antiochus, who had not only ordered a statue of Zeus to be erected in the Holy Temple but that swine be sacrificed to him, Jerusalem had likely been a Jewish city for more than 1,000 years. As some readers have suggested, Hanukkah might be the only Jewish holiday that celebrates events confirmed by the historical record. The Hasmonean dynasty, founded by Mattathias’ son Simon, is a fact.


White House to Host Roundtable on Antisemitism
The Biden administration on Wednesday will host a roundtable at the White House with Jewish leaders on how to combat antisemitism, led by Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, and joined by Susan Rice, Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and Deborah Lipstadt, the Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism.

The discussion will host leaders from 13 Jewish organizations including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), American Jewish Committee (AJC), and Jewish on Campus. “The roundtable will include leaders of Jewish organizations fighting antisemitism that represents the wide range of Jewish community from students to seniors, and including Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox denominations,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

AJC’s CEO Ted Deutch said the meeting is proof that the Biden administration is taking the threat of antisemitism seriously. “Antisemitism is not a problem for the Jewish community alone. Venomous hate targeting Jews threatens American society, indeed our democracy,” Deutch said. “By convening this important roundtable, the Biden administration has demonstrated that it recognizes the severity of the problem and is committed to taking additional steps, in partnership with the Jewish community, to more effectively confront antisemitism in all its forms.”

President Biden is not expected to attend the meeting, but recently spoke out against antisemitism in response to Kanye West’s antisemitic media rants following his dinner at Mar-a-Lago with former President Donald Trump. “The Holocaust happened. Hitler was a demonic figure. And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides,” Biden wrote.

While West’s comments have been among the most prominent displays of public antisemitism in recent years, the rise in antisemitism in the US has also been documented by the FBI and Jewish groups. The Anti-Defamation League’s Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2021, published in March, recorded 2,717 antisemitic incidents throughout the United States in that year, a 34% increase from 2020 and the highest number of such incidents that the ADL has recorded since it began tracking them in 1979.
126 Members of Congress Send Letter Urging Unified National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism
A bipartisan group of 126 Senators and Congressional Representatives sent a letter to the Biden administration on Tuesday recommending the development of a unified national strategy to combat antisemitism along with the creation of an interagency task force.

“Combating a growing threat of this magnitude, particularly here at home, requires a strategic, whole-of-government approach,” the letter says. “Interagency coordination also could benefit from considering a broadly understood definition of antisemitism, as several agencies have adopted or recognized individually. Because many individual agencies play a critical role in combating antisemitism, closer coordination is needed to share best practices, data, and intelligence; identify gaps in efforts; streamline overlapping activities and roles; and execute a unified national strategy. The strategic collaboration of such entities would also send a key message to the American people and the international community that the United States is committed to fighting antisemitism at the highest levels.”

The letter was drafted by the co-chairs of the Senate and House Bipartisan Task Forces for Combating Antisemitism: Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) and Reps. Kathy Manning (D-NC) and Chris Smith (R-NJ).

The letter cites the alarming rise in antisemitic violence as proof of the need for such action, including FBI statistics that show that antisemitic hate crimes make up 60% of all such incidents based on religion.
The US and France Must Both Tackle Antisemitism
There is a common French expression used when a task seems futile — “pisser dans un violon.” Sadly, combating the hatred of Jews and denial of the Holocaust often seems futile. In English, we have a less crass expression — “one step forward; two steps back.”

The recent visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Washington sent a strong signal about the enduring alliance between France and United States, and showcased the diversity of our democracies and our shared values, including a commitment to pluralism and religious liberty.

The visit came as antisemitism and Holocaust denial spiked in both countries.

Immediately after the state visit of President Macron, President Joe Biden publicly reminded the world that the Holocaust did happen, and that Adolf Hitler was “a demonic figure.”

Diverse Americans alive today have fathers and grandfathers who fought and bled on French soil to defeat Nazism. American GIs courageously fought Hitler’s troops on the shores of Normandy. In Operation Dragoon, they seized Nazi control of Provence. Ultimately, in the Vosges Mountains, they moved north of Dijon into Germany.

Less than 80 years after these heroic actions by diverse American soldiers, “swastika” was one of the most popular online search terms last week. it is time for deep introspection by the United States, France, and all allied democracies committed to a free and open internet to examine how and why.

France has certainly not been immune to online antisemitic rhetoric and hate-fueled violence.

President Macron, who has been attacked by political opponents using vile antisemitic tropes, has attempted to confront the hatred of Jews and Holocaust denial head on.

At the Great Synagogue in Paris, he was the first sitting French President to make a pre-Rosh Hashanah visit.


BDS Fails, Dec. 2022 Stories you won't read in the British media
Economic BDS Fails
Yahoo and Taboola have entered into a 30-year, exclusive commercial agreement
NEW YORK, November 28, 2022 – Yahoo and Taboola (NASDAQ: TBLA), a global leader in powering recommendations for the open web, today announced that they have entered into a 30-year, exclusive commercial agreement. Taboola will exclusively power native advertising across all of Yahoo’s digital properties and will be available to buy through the Yahoo DSP, establishing Taboola as a leading native advertising offering for advertisers, publishers and merchants on the open web.

Scottish Halo Kilmarnock has signed a global partnership with Israel’s EnergyCom
The Scottish venture, on a site formerly home to whisky giant Johnnie Walker and aiming to boost the economy by £205 million, has signed a global partnership with EnergyCom, which it bills as Israel‘s largest entity in energy production and conservation, in a bid to create a framework that will provide access to the skills and capabilities of both parties to support innovation, skills support, and the development of power and net zero solutions. The tie-up also intends to open commercial opportunities for both the Halo and EnergyCom through increased collaboration between the UK and Israel, driven through know-how across the likes of energy, construction, digital skills and cyber security.

Israel, Japan make strides towards free trade agreement
Israel and Japan took a major step towards a free trade agreement on Tuesday.

The countries decided to launch a joint study group, looking into the possibility of a Japan-Israel Economic Partnership Agreement, a senior official Israeli said.

The study can be viewed as a declaration of intent to eventually sign a free trade agreement and will look into the potential points of cooperation between the countries.

Israel and Japan have a relatively large volume of trade, with $1.24 billion in Israeli exports to Japan and $2.3 billion in the other direction. Japan has invested $13 bn. In Israeli hi-tech since 2000, and 85 Japanese companies are active in Israel to date.

Without trade with Israel the Palestinian economy would completely collapse El Al to start Dublin route to connect tech hubs
JERUSALEM, Nov 7 (Reuters) – El Al Israel Airlines (ELAL.TA) said on Monday it will launch nonstop flights between Tel Aviv and Dublin early next year, connecting Israel’s and Ireland’s robust high-tech sectors and encouraging Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

El Al will operate three flights a week on the route beginning March 26, the Israeli flag carrier said.

“A large Israeli community lives in Dublin, mainly high-tech workers who work in international tech companies that are based in Dublin to serve Europe and the Middle East,” noted chief executive Dina Ben Tal Ganancia.


Yale University Students Launch Campus’ First Ever BDS Campaign
A Yale University student group has launched the school’s first ever boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign, according to a report by the Yale Daily News.

“Yalies 4 Palestine” (Y4P), a group founded in 2019, is calling for the university to sever ties with G4S, a British security company providing technology for the campus’ police department, as well as its surveillance and scanning systems. G4S is a frequent target of BDS activists over its partnerships with Israeli prisons.

“Discourse around Palestine is so contentious and misconstrued at Yale that there has never been [a BDS campaign],” Y4P member Ruqaiyah Damrah told the Yale Daily News. “We’re hoping that our campaign will generate important discussions around what it means to stand in solidarity with oppressed and colonized people around the world and what we mean when we say that all struggles are fundamentally connected.”

“We’re hoping to increase pressure on Yale’s administration to question their affiliation with a company that so blatantly participates in human rights violations and imperial violence around the world,” she continued.

Other Y4P members said the drawing power of G4S technologies is “rooted in its efficiency and capacity for violence,” the Yale Daily added, and insisted that anti-Israel politics “has less to do with Jewishness and more to do with ‘white supremacy’ modeled after European forms of colonialism.”

Damrah’s public statements about Israel have courted controversy before. In 2021, during the country’s war with Hamas, she co-authored a statement accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing, genocide, and apartheid while arguing that that “the fight against Israel’s apartheid is interconnected with the fight to defund the police in the US.”
An open letter to the editorial board of UConn’s The Daily Campus
In yet another astounding display of journalistic malfeasance, on November 11th you published an editorial entitled, “‘Israel Discovery Trip’ whitewashes human rights abuses.”

In it, you not only denounced the informational trip as “little more than a whitewashed tour of a state actively involved in settler-colonialism and apartheid,” but used the editorial (the third anti-Israel editorial the paper has run in the past 12 months) to toss about carelessly, and inaccurately, a litany of mendacious slurs against the Jewish state.

Not only did you denounce Israel’s self-defense as illegal, overly aggressive, and tantamount to war crimes, but you employed the tired, loaded language of Israel’s cognitive enemies, language which includes such terms, when describing Israel, as “colonial,” “occupation,” “siege,” “ethnic cleansing,” “settlements,” “settler violence,” “racism,” as well as the favorite slur leveled against the Jewish state that it is enforcing a new form of “apartheid” and that a country called “Palestine” will be “liberated” as a result of global advocacy for the Palestinian cause.

In fact, your editorial was replete with this identical vocabulary of falsehoods, contortions, historical inaccuracies, and a breathtaking dearth of facts, logic, and context. All of the damning allegations against Israel were presented as fact, when they are not, and there was a critical lack of nuance about the conflict, not the least of which is the Palestinian Arabs' own behavior and the Jew-hatred and genocidal ideology that animates their cause.

You began by attacking the very motives of the tour, audaciously warning the UConn community that they will be complicit in the long list of Israel’s predations if they support the trip at all—even though such trips not only benefit Jewish students by inspiring a deep connection with Israel, but also help to provide students with an accurate, and realistic, view of the facts on the ground, and how and where Palestinian Arabs and Israelis live amicably with one another. Birthright Israel trips, offered to young, first-time visitors to Israel, are valuable and inspiring for the same reasons.
Dems Secure Senate Majority as Anti-Israel Warnock Wins Georgia
Jewish organizations have been heavily involved on both sides of the Georgia Senate race, with the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) saying it shipped its entire “victory team” to Georgia to help the Walker campaign. Meanwhile, the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) advertised in Georgia’s Jewish community and supported Warnock’s turn out the vote operation.

On the denominational front, the Orthodox Jews were for the most part against Warnock, while the non-Orthodox supported him (169 Jewish Clergies Defend Senate Candidate Warnock Who Accused Israel of Apartheid, Said Jesus Was Palestinian).

For the record: a video from 2018 shows Warnock delivering a hate-filled rant against Israel and the Trump administration on the occasion of moving the American embassy to Jerusalem. He repeated the lie about Israel taking away water from the PA Arabs, and accused the Jewish State of shooting “unarmed Palestinian sisters and brothers like birds of prey. And I don’t care who does it, it is wrong. It is wrong to shoot down God’s children like they don’t matter at all. And it’s no more anti-Semitic for me to say that than it is anti-white for me to say that black lives matter. Palestinian lives matter.”

Ten years earlier, in 2008, Warnock defended President Obama’s anti-Semitic preacher, Jeremiah Wright, on Fox News, saying, “We celebrate Rev. Wright in the same way that we celebrate the truth-telling tradition of the black church, which when preachers tell the truth, very often it makes people uncomfortable.”

So, not necessarily a friend.


The Israel Guys: Why Kanye West is Dangerous for Israel and the Jewish People
“Antisemitism is always followed by violence against Jews, and violence against Jews is almost always followed by Jews dying.”




Candace Owens on Ye: ‘Please stop asking me to comment’
Candace Owens slammed critics of her continued friendship with Ye, despite the rapper’s continued history of antisemitic statements and actions.

“I don’t agree with every single thing that is being said and that is being done by my friends,” Owens said on her Daily Wire podcast Monday. “I just don’t. But because they are my friends, I try to deal with matters privately.”

Owens called fellow right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopolous “vindictive” amid his exit from Ye’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Without mentioning Ye’s Holocaust denial and pro-Nazi comments during his interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones last Thursday, Owens said that people should stop asking her to comment on the rapper’s comments.

“I am not his spokesperson!” Owens said. “Alright? I am not working on that campaign. Please stop tagging me in every single thing that he says while saying that my silence is violence.”

Owens admitted back in November that Ye’s comments at the time were antisemitic.
Don't let Kanye West open school on church land - over 10K Christians
Over 10,000 Christians from across the US are calling on California-based Pastor Ronald Nagin of Cornerstone Christian Church in Los Angeles to stop doing business with rapper Kanye West and stop his Donda Academy from operating on his church's land.

Kanye plans to rent space on Nagin's church grounds, located in Northridge in the San Fernando Valley, to open his Donda Academy.

Previously, the rapper's unaccredited music school had operated in Chatsworth.

The Christians, brought together by the organization Faithful America, have signed a letter to Nagin and condemned Kanye, also known as Ye, for his vocal antisemitism, appearances with white supremacist neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes and open praise of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

"There is no room in God's house for hatred. Allowing Ye's Donda Academy to operate out of a place of worship would give it and him credibility that at this point they do not deserve," the letter noted.

"As fellow Christians, we strongly object to the possibility of Cornerstone Church renting space to Ye, further normalizing antisemitism and conspiracy theories," noted Faithful America campaigner Karli Thompson in a statement.

"As long as Ye has a public platform, he will continue to twist the Christian faith to justify his antisemitic outbursts. We stand with our Jewish siblings against the scourge of antisemitism and declare hatred has no place in God’s house."
'Musk Twitter takeover worse than anything Hitler did' - Twitter parody account
Titania McGrath, the “radical intersectionalist poet and activist," a Twitter account created by British comedian Andrew Doyle, on Sunday said in a satire post that "Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter is far worse than anything Hitler ever did."

The account run by Doyle has over 740,000 followers. The sarcastic statement included a link to a larger column voicing the same opinion.

"I do not approve of mass genocide, but it pales in comparison to providing a social media platform where Eddie Izzard might be misgendered," Doyle wrote under McGrath's name in a column for The Critic.

"The whole point of Twitter is to ensure that the masses aren’t exposed to wild conspiracy theories. If tweets aren’t censored, people might start to think that Covid-19 could have originated from a lab in Wuhan, or that there was something dodgy on Hunter Biden’s laptop."

"I do not approve of mass genocide, but it pales in comparison to providing a social media platform where Eddie Izzard might be misgendered."
Titania McGrath

The column continues: "Musk has argued that Twitter ought to be a place where all political viewpoints can be aired. But keeping people informed can have dire consequences. Democracy has no chance of working properly if people keep insisting on voting for the wrong candidates."


Times of Israel Adds Important Data on Gaza Fishermen’s Growing Catch
In response to communication from CAMERA’s Israel office, Times of Israel has amended an Agence France Presse article claiming that the Israeli-led blockade has “suffocated” the Gaza Strip’s fishing industry, commendably adding essential data demonstrating that, to the contrary, the fishermen’s catch has significantly grown in the last 15 years.

The Dec. 5 AFP article by Rosie Scammall and Belal Alsabbagh, (“Gaza fishermen get boats back in ship-shape. . .”) cited a Gaza fisherman’s claim that the blockade’s restrictions on repair supplies for fishing boats has “suffocated us,” ignoring Palestinian data showing that Gaza fishermen have significantly increased their catch since the measure was introduced in 2007.

As CAMERA has previously noted, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported Gaza fishermen caught 1,524,913 fish in 2009. (See Table 3). After another decade of the Israeli blockade, that figure climbed to 3,943,369 in 2019.

In addition, the number of registered fishing boats in the coastal enclave has more than doubled during the 15-year-blockade.

In 2005, two years before the blockade was imposed in 2007, 707 fishing boats were in Gaza. By 2019, a dozen years into the blockade, that figure more than doubled to 1,739.
BBC Jerusalem bureau reporter commended by ‘Electronic Intifada’
The point of Bateman’s multiple cross-platform reports is of course to persuade BBC audiences that in this particular case, no such imminent threat existed and to amplify the claim promoted by B’tselem and other politically motivated actors whereby “Israel’s army almost always uses disproportionate force”.

In order to make that point, Bateman was quite happy to set aside journalistic values of transparency and to base his written, audio and filmed reports on edited video footage from sources that he is not prepared to reveal.

BBC editorial guidelines on accuracy include a section titled “Material from Third Parties”:
“3.3.14 We should only broadcast material from third parties who may have a personal or professional interest in its subject matter if there is an editorial justification. The source of this material should be identified. This includes material from the emergency services, charities and environmental groups.

We should be reluctant to use video and audio or other similar material from third parties. We do not normally use extracts from such material if we are capable of gathering it ourselves. The editorial significance of the material, rather than simply its impact, must be considered before it is used. If it is editorially justified to use it then we must explain the circumstances and clearly label the source of the material in our output.”

Nevertheless, Bateman’s reporting was repromoted by the BBC’s Middle East editor, a Gaza Strip based propaganda outfit and professional anti-Israel activist Ben White, in addition to being commended by an editor at the extremist anti-Israel ‘Electronic Intifada’.

That, of course, speaks volumes about Bateman’s long evident slide from journalist to political activist.


‘Not Among The Very Best’: Virginia Commission Issues Final Report on Antisemitism in The State
A commission created by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to study antisemitism in the state issued its final report on Monday.

“Though Virginia is certainly not among the worst states for antisemitic incidents, it is also not among the very best,” wrote the Commission to Combat Antisemitism, established through an executive order in January. “In recent years, Virginia has had fewer incidents than neighbors in Maryland and DC, but the national trend of increasing antisemitic incidents has not spared Virginia, and some of the most high-profile antisemitic incidents in recent history have occurred in the Commonwealth.”

The commission noted that despite there being no antisemitic assaults in Virginia since 2018, 411 antisemitic incidents, including harassment and vandalism, occured in 2021, a 71 percent increase when compared to data for 2020, when 292 were reported.

In other incidents, a swastika was graffitied on a Jewish family’s home in Burke and a student in Arlington airdropped a swastika image to his entire class and proceeded to play an online quiz game “using a swastika and a racial slur.” Most notable, however, was an incident from five years ago, the Unite the Right Rally, which took place in Charlottesville in 2017 and led to death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed when a white supremacist attending the rally intentionally crashed into dozens of counter-protestors.

“The painful memory of the Charlottesville tragedy significantly impacted both national and Virginia politics in the following years,” the report added. “References to Charlottesville persist in the national discourse on race, hate, and extremism in the US, which is constitutionally committed to Enlightenment ideals, including freedom from persecution.”

The commission issued recommended several steps to fight antisemitism in Virginia, including a state law to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, the establishment of an official operation for processing complaints of antisemitism in K-12 schools and universities, and expanded standards requiring that students receive a comprehensive education in Jewish history.
Antisemitism Rampant in UK Public Discourse, New Study Says
Antisemitism was a major theme in the United Kingdom’s “national discourse” in 2021, according to a new report by Community Security Trust (CST), an English nonprofit that provides counsel and security services to British Jews.

Released on Monday, the report, titled “Antisemitic Discourse in Britain 2021,” examined dozens of events in British society to demonstrate how discussions of antisemitism in media, politics, and campus activism intentionally and unintentionally affected the Jewish community, from students to political leaders.

“Antisemitic discourse influences and reflects hostile attitudes to Jews and Jewish-related issues. Hostile attitudes can lead to hostile actions and damaging impacts,” CST said. “Physically, antisemitic discourse may contribute to an atmosphere in which antisemitic hate crimes against Jews and Jewish institutions are more likely to occur. Psychologically, it can make Jews feel isolated, vulnerable, and hurt.”

Examples cited include the story of David Miller, a University of Bristol Professor who was fired for harassing Jewish students. During his lectures, Miller would call for the “end of Zionism” and insist that an Islamist terrorist was “an asset of the British state.” At his most paranoid, he accused Jewish university students waging a campaign of censorship on behalf of the Israeli government.

Miller’s behavior coincided with a general rise in antisemitism on UK university campuses, the report continued, a trend that peaked during Israel’s war with Hamas and prompted the government’s education secretary, Gavin Williamson, to urge universities to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
Notorious vicar ‘engaged in antisemitic activity’, church hearing concludes
Notorious Rev Dr Stephen Sizer engaged in conduct which “provoked and offended the Jewish community” and in one “serious allegation” was found to have “engaged in antisemitic activity”, a church disciplinary hearing has concluded.

In a complaint brought by the Board of Deputies, the now retired Anglican priest, who was vicar of Christ Church, Virginia Water, in Surrey, for 20 years, had denied antisemitism in relation to 11 allegations about his conduct between 2005 and 2018.

Out of the 11 allegations, a panel concluded that in four of them Sizer’s conduct was “unbecoming to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders, in that he provoked and offended the Jewish community.”

Following the historic announcement, the Church of England confirmed in a statement that Sizer “has committed misconduct under the Clergy Discipline Measure.”

It said the tribunal will “now determine a penalty.”

It added the Church is “committed to building cohesive communities and fostering strong interfaith relations built on trust and respect” and stressed “antisemitism has no place in our society and those in positions of power and influence must listen to concerns about it.”

In a decision announced on Tuesday, a tribunal concluded: “The most serious allegation against the Respondent relates to posting a link on Facebook in January 2015 to the article blaming Israel for 9/11.

“The tribunal finds the article in its tone and content truly shocking.”


NYPD Arrests Man Accused of Shooting Jewish Father and Son with BB Gun
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has arrested a suspect accused of shooting a Jewish man and his seven-year-old son with a BB gun outside a kosher market in Staten Island, a local Jewish community watch group reported on Tuesday.

According to Staten Island Shmira, a local crime prevention group, twenty-five-year old Jason Kish is charged with committing a hate crime, assault, and child endangerment.

Antisemitic hate crimes in New York City during the month of November increased by 125 percent when compared to last year, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) reported on Monday. According to their data, Jewish New Yorkers were the most targeted group, accounting for 60 percent of all hate crimes that occurred.

In April, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), reported that more antisemitic incidents are recorded in New York than in any other state, accounting for “an astounding 15 percent of the total reported antisemitic incidents across the country.”

“The scariest part of reviewing these numbers is the lack of a concrete plan or solutions on how to combat the hate crimes against the most discriminated ethnic minority in New York City,” New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov told The Algemeiner on Monday.
Success for CAA as London venue cancels appearance from notorious antisemite Alison Chabloz
A venue in South London has cancelled a scheduled appearance from the notorious antisemite Alison Chabloz, following action by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The Tea House Theatre, whose events have courted controversy in the past, promoted the “Year-End Review in Speech and Song” event on Twitter and Instagram, writing that Ms Chabloz “will talk about her own experiences in being cancelled”.

Lambeth’s Vauxhall Ward condemned the event, tweeting: “Shameful that @theatre_tea here in Vauxhall would welcome someone with such abhorrent views. The right to free speech is not a right to platform, and we hope they will reconsider this event.”

It added: “Antisemitism has no place in Vauxhall.”

Labour Party MP Florence Eshalomi, representing Vauxhall, expressed similar sentiments, writing: “This is worrying – #Vauxhall is a vibrant diverse constituency. I hope the venue in question will reconsider- free speech should not be a platform for people to share any form of hate, racism, discrimination or antisemitism.”

However, it has now been announced that while the event hosted by conspiracy theorist Ian Fantom will go ahead, Ms Chabloz will no longer be appearing.

Speaking to the JC, Tea House Theatre owner Harry Iggulden said: “I’ve looked now into her history a bit more, I understand a bit more of who she is and quite what a repugnant human being she is, and found myself in the position of this horrible person coming to my house.


Israeli innovation helps Ukraine's PTSD-afflicted children
As war rages on in Ukraine and a season of bitter coldness and erratic electricity commences, a center started by an Israeli-Ukrainian is administering developmental and psychological therapies to the nation's children.

“When we began seeing how deeply the children were suffering, we resolved to take action,” said David Roytman, who splits his time between Israel and his native Odessa, and founded the Kinder Velt (Children's World) Center nearly three years ago.

Roytman, an internationally-acclaimed artist and multimillionaire whose luxury Judaica company earned him the reputation as the ‘Jewish Louis Vuitton,’ is familiar with anxiety and trauma from war.

Born in Soviet Odessa and abandoned by both parents by the age of six months, he grew up as an orphan. Roytman went to Israel as a teenager where he enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces. During his military service, he battled the country’s enemies during Operation Defensive Shield, dodging rockets and bullets in the notorious Jenin refugee camps. After his discharge, Roytman suffered PTSD, yet eventually found his healing through art.

When Russia invaded Ukraine last February, many children fled. The center, which offered therapies including speech therapy, occupational therapy and emotional counseling, was shuttered. However, as war continued ravaging the country, claiming 30,000 lives and displacing over 12 million, Roytman reopened his center and is currently offering relief to hundreds of suffering children.

“We reoriented the Kinder Velt Therapy Centers, which before the war, were primarily art center therapies [converted] into trauma centers," Roytman recalled.
Steven Salen, a tailor who survived the Holocaust and dressed presidents, dies at 103
Nothing riled Steven Salen like a powerful man in a bad suit.

“‘That suit fits terribly!'” his daughter Elayne Landau recalled him as yelling at the TV, multiple times. “‘How’s he going to get elected? Elayne, send him a letter.’ He would dictate the letter. ‘I’m watching you on television. That suit fits horribly. You really look like you’re one-sided. Come see me!’

Sometimes, Landau recalled in an interview, she would even send the letter. And a couple of times there was a polite and friendly reply.

Salen, 103, died on Nov. 23 at a hospital in Manhasset, New York. He was a Holocaust survivor, a savvy war-era black marketeer, and then once landing in New York, he built up a reputation as an outfitter — a “bespoke tailor,” as his family put it — to the powerful and influential, working until he was 95.

Salen loved talking about the opportunities this country gave him, but like many survivors, he didn’t begin to open up about the horrors he witnessed and suffered until late in his life — in his case, in his 90s.

He enjoyed regaling his children and grandchildren about his clients and what he designed to make them look good, recalled his granddaughter, Rachel Landau Fisher. One time, he saw an old photo of a man on a tarmac in a trim gray overcoat. Salen said he had made the coat.

The photo was of President Richard Nixon shaking hands with Chinese premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing, the launch of a history-shaking visit that thawed U.S.-China ties.

“His grandchildren, Jake, Sofia, Rachel and Sam enjoyed his many stories, including a favorite of a Mafia client walking in on FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in his underwear during a fitting,” his granddaughter, Landau Fisher, wrote in a remembrance.
Israel is 5th safest country in the world for tourists - study
Violence and the prospect of an untimely death, it seems, are all around us.

Turn on the television news and you’ll hear about an attempted car ramming or a stabbing attack. Tune in to the radio and you’ll hear about a man clobbered with a motorcycle helmet in a road rage incident. Open up the newspaper and you’ll read about extortion and “protection” rings operating in the South.

Not to mention horrific reports of car accidents, polio outbreaks, and salmonella in Sabra hummus. It’s enough to make you shout out the title of that 1961 musical: “Stop the world – I want to get off.”

Surrounded by a drumbeat of negative news in this country, a recent survey on the least and most safe travel destinations around the world, by a US insurance comparison website called The Swiftest may come as a jaw-dropping surprise.

According to this study, Israel is the fifth safest among the 50 countries in the world most widely visited by tourists. No, you didn’t read that wrong. The fifth safest, not the fifth most unsafe country to visit.

And here you thought that all those studies and surveys that consistently place Israel among the top 10 happiest countries in the world were counterintuitive? If we kvetch so much, one might ask, how can we be happy? Yet study after study, year after year, shows that we are; that in terms of happiness, we are right up there with New Zealand and a bevy of Northern European countries that are the happiest in the world. Who would have thought?

And now this – Israel is the fifth safest travel destination for tourists.

Turns out that the question that many first-time visitors to Israel are asked by friends and relatives when they reveal their plans to visit – “Are you sure it’s safe?” – is misplaced. Not only is it safe, but it is very safe; safer, in fact, than visiting the US (ranked 30), Canada (21), Australia (18), France (15) and the United Kingdom (10).




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