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Friday, December 09, 2022

12/09 Links Pt2: The Toxic Stew of Anti-Semitism; Can J Street still get away with pretending to be ‘pro-Israel’?; Rep. Ritchie Torres: ‘Holocaust deniers are the scum of the Earth’

From Ian:

The Toxic Stew of Anti-Semitism
Jew haters use the code words of "Zionists" and "Zionism" to condemn Israel, when what they're really voicing is their hatred of Jews and Judaism. Thinly-disguised hatred of Israel has helped to fuel anti-Semitism, to the point where many synagogues now arrange to have police officers on duty outside their places of worship during the high holidays.

It's become a necessary precaution, given that Jews were once again the most targeted religious group for hate crimes in Canada last year, according to Statistics Canada data. To pretend that hatred of Jews isn't linked to hatred of Israel is absurd. As the late British Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, head of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, wrote, this is just the latest example of how anti-Semitism survives by mutating over time.

Today, with human rights the paradigm, Israel is falsely accused of being the world's worst human rights violator - including at the UN General Assembly - which every year passes more resolutions condemning Israel than all other nations on earth, combined. Selectively holding Israel to a higher standard of moral behavior than any other country is anti-Semitism.
Jonathan Tobin: Can J Street still get away with pretending to be ‘pro-Israel’?
In order to be pro-Israel, you don’t have to support Netanyahu, the Likud Party or his new government. You can hope for Israel’s defeated left-wing factions eventually to prevail.

You can dream of a two-state solution with a peaceful, progressive and democratic Palestinian-Arab state living in harmony beside Israel (even though, in order to harbor the fantasy, you have to ignore the workings of Palestinian politics and a culture that glorifies the shedding of Jewish blood, and war to the death against Zionism).

But you can’t really be really be considered pro-Israel if, like J Street, you declare that Israel’s voters, the vast majority of whom have long since rejected the land-for-peace myth for the foreseeable future, don’t have the right to decide their country’s future.

You can’t be considered pro-Israel if, like J Street, your purpose is to promote policies that Israelis oppose, and back the use of brutal pressure and the threat of aid cutbacks to get your way.

You can’t be considered pro-Israel if, like J Street, your goal is to promote appeasement of despotic, terrorist-supporting Iranian regime that has as its stated goal the elimination of Israel.

You can’t be considered pro-Israel if, like J Street, your campus groups and many of your activists make common cause with antisemitic BDS groups whose goal is Israel’s destruction.

You can’t be considered pro-Israel if, like J Street, you support intersectional ideology, which gives a permission slip to antisemitism and depicts Israel as a “white” country that is an “apartheid state.”

Strip away the thin veneer of liberal Zionism that it still seeks to maintain, and all you have is a group that exists to wage political war on Israel’s democratic leadership, to force it to bend to policies imposed by Democrats. Ultimately, this makes it too radical an organization to be supportive of a relative moderate like Blinken, in an administration whose lower echelons are composed of doctrinaire leftists far more hostile to Israel than those at the top. It’s nevertheless a dangerous foe that’s in sync with the intersectional progressives who view Netanyahu as the head of an illegitimate red-state nation.

J Street is irrelevant to what is happening in Jerusalem. But with the far-Left on the rise among Democrats, those who are interested in building support for the Jewish state need to regard the organization as a malevolent and treacherous enemy, whose malign influence is a genuine threat to the U.S.-Israel alliance.


Congressman Ritchie Torres: ‘Holocaust deniers are the scum of the Earth’
You are known for your love of Israel, and you have been noted for not joining other progressives such as ‘the squad,’ why?

I'm independent and I call myself a pragmatic, pro-Israel progressive; I come to my own conclusions. You know, my view is people should be careful not to rush to judgment against Israel, that before rushing to judgment you should actually go to Israel and speak to both Israelis and Palestinians, and within Israel speak to both Jews and Arabs and listen to a variety of perspectives and then come to your own conclusions.

But what I often find is that people who know nothing about Israel, who know nothing about the region, have some of the strongest opinions and are quick to demonize Israel as a Jewish state, and so much of the criticism comes not only from malice but also from just sheer ignorance.

A few years ago, the New York City Democratic Socialists of America circulated a questionnaire to city council candidates, and it was about 14 pages and on the final page it was a foreign policy section. And the foreign policy section only had two questions. Question number one: Do you pledge never to visit Israel if elected to the city council? And question number two: Do you pledge to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement? And I found that question to be blatantly antisemitic, but it also was telling because there's nothing that the BDS Movement fears more than people actually going to Israel and seeing the truth with their own eyes, rather than allowing themselves to be brainwashed by the propaganda that is amplified on social media.

Speaking of propaganda, what do you say to Holocaust deniers?

To Holocaust deniers? Holocaust deniers are the scum of the earth. I think the Holocaust is one of the greatest atrocities ever perpetrated in humankind. It has left deep scars, not only in the Jewish community but on humanity. Anyone who denies it is engaged in a profound evil. I have no patience, no tolerance for Holocaust denial – it's the worst form of conspiracy theory.


Caroline Glick with Robert Spencer: The Abraham Accords and Anti-Semitism
Israeli journalist Caroline Glick speaks about the Abraham Accords and anti-Semitism. Robert Spencer adds some brief remarks. David Horowitz Freedom Center's Restoration Weekend, November 13, 2022. (h/t Max Mendelbaum)


Important AMCHA study on Jewish identity goes beyond Harvard
The “assault on Jewish identity” taking place on U.S. college campuses, which AMCHA documented in a new study released this week, is noteworthy for its breadth and scope. The media headlines, however, have focused on one college, Harvard, because more incidents were reported on that campus.

As important as Harvard is, though, it’s equally important to draw attention to everything else in the study, which includes “the nature, scope and trajectory of the threats to Jewish identity on over 100 college and university campuses most popular with Jewish students.”

Among some of the major findings:
1. Incidents involving the suppression, denigration or challenges to the definition of Jewish identity were found on nearly 60% of the campuses most popular with Jewish students, with several schools playing host to 10 or more such incidents in the 2021-2022 academic year.

2. Incidents involving attacks on Jewish identity increased 100% to 200% in the academic year following the Israel-Hamas war, with the number of affected schools also increasing dramatically.

3. Faculty and academic departments played a significant role in attacks on Jewish student identity: schools with academic BDS-supporting faculty were three to seven times more likely to have such attacks, and more than one-third of anti-Zionist challenges to well-established definitions of Zionism, Judaism and antisemitism took place in programs sponsored by academic departments.

4. Jewish anti-Zionist individuals and organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) played a significant role in attacks on Jewish identity, with the presence of a JVP or similar Jewish anti-Zionist group more than doubling the likelihood that a campus will play host to incidents involving the redefinition or denigration of Jewish identity.

Beyond the individual campuses, the most crucial finding in the study is the “insidious phenomenon that has taken root on college campuses of late: a pervasive and relentless assault on Jewish identity that is likely to have dire consequences for the Jewish community in the years to come.”

I wrote about this phenomenon recently when the Journal reported on the nine student law groups at UC Berkeley that changed their bylaws to eliminate any Zionist speakers. This was a “different type of antisemitism,” I wrote, “and it caught much of the community off guard.”
Canceled: How Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Silence Israel Online
Even HonestReporting has borne the brunt of the pervasive culture of anti-Israel censorship online.

Our work as a media watchdog has resulted in our official Facebook page, which currently has close to 80,000 followers, being suspended without any explanation given on September 18 of this year.

Disturbingly, Facebook’s policies for appealing such decisions clearly stated that if the company did not address the appeal within 30 days, HonestReporting could have been permanently banned from the platform.

It was not until October 2 that the account was fully reinstated — and only after we circumvented their standard process by engaging outside help.

While the above are just a handful of examples of how those who voice support of Israel or condemn Palestinian Islamist terrorism are targeted online, they are a chilling reminder of how the war being waged against the Jewish state exists in the virtual as well as the physical sphere.

The late US President Ronald Reagan once described information as the “oxygen of the modern age” and predicted that the “Goliath of totalitarianism will be brought down by the David of the microchip.”

Reagan was, of course, correct. How sad that the David that is Israel is up against a new Goliath that comprises social media.
What I learned lecturing on Israel and the Middle East at Columbia and Yale
I also asked the students to put aside preconceived notions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when I discussed a non-politicized analysis of international law. I explained why the West Bank is more appropriately defined as the occupation of a disputed territory, whether or not one considers it unwise for Israel to hold on to it.

I presented graphic evidence of how the Palestinians preach hatred and incite their young people against Israel, and showed them that Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas says point-blank that he cannot accept a Jewish state.

When I showed former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s map that offered the Palestinians 100% of the West Bank with land swaps and eastern Jerusalem as their capital—which Abbas rejected—as well as numerous P.A. maps that erased Israel completely, it seemed to make a strong impression. At Columbia, I also showed evidence that the BDS movement on their campuses is not about two states for two peoples but rather about destroying the Jewish state.

To help the students understand Iran’s grand scheme, I shared a map showing how the Islamic republic encircles Israel through proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza. I explained that keeping control of the Jordan River valley is essential for Israel’s security if Jordan is the next domino to fall. I next showed photos of Hezbollah and Hamas military structures embedded in civilian areas, setting the scene for cries from the international community of alleged Israeli war crimes in the inevitable next war.

At both Yale and Columbia, students stayed well after the Q&A session, wanting to discuss the topics and share their viewpoints. Given what has recently happened to some non-woke speakers on campus, I was relieved that there were no disruptions and that only a few students left during my talk. I was also pleased to receive inquiries by email in the days that followed.

What I learned at Columbia and Yale was that as bad as cancel culture is on many campuses, there are still opportunities to present facts and analysis in context and to respectfully discuss complex issues with a receptive audience of very impressive young adults.
Jewish students want change after NUS antisemitism claims
Amy Cregor, a drama student at the University of Leeds, was on her way to campus for a crunch-time rehearsal when she heard the antisemitic slur.

The next thing she knew, her hair and clothes were covered with barbecue sauce. Then her attackers drove away.

"I was a bit in shock," she said. "I had a bit of a cry to myself, but I was just like, 'Pull yourself together'."

Amy had been wearing a Star of David necklace that day, which all four of her grandparents had clubbed together to buy her when she was a baby.

She doesn't wear it around her university city any more.

The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) says it has lost confidence in the UK's top student activists to fight for the rights of its members like Amy - after a series of controversies at the National Union of Students (NUS).

A report into claims of antisemitism within the NUS is due out in the coming weeks. The UJS hopes it will bring about change, and the NUS says it is prepared to take action.

The controversies that sparked investigations this year include a planned appearance by "the UK's most political rapper" at an NUS event, and the election of a president who had made controversial comments in the past. They relate to tensions rumbling on more than 2,000 miles away - between the state of Israel and Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank.

The rows have centred on what constitutes criticism of Israel, the world's only state with a majority Jewish population, and what can be described as antisemitism.

The investigations are adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, which, in part, describes it as "a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred towards Jews".


Cincinnati Hillel House Vandalized
The Cincinnati Police Department (CPD) is searching for two suspects filmed vandalizing the Rose Warner Hillel House (RWHH), which serves Jewish university students in the area.

During the early morning hours of Sunday, December 4, two men walked up to the Jewish center toppling trash bins, shattering spotlights, ravaging plant beds, and hurling dirt at the building.

“The vandalization of our building has shaken our Jewish student community,” RWHH said on Wednesday in an Instagram post. “Jewish students came to the building on Sunday morning with plans to relax and study for finals and found their Hillel had been targeted.”

“For our students Hillel is a safe space,” the post continued. “It should remain that way always. It breaks my heart that our students’ sense of safety was broken.”

Anyone with knowledge of the incident is being asked to contact CPD investigator Mike Morrissey.

Ohio recorded the fifteenth most antisemitic incidents in the country in 2021, tallying 50, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) “Audit of Antisemitic Incidents,” which was the highest in the state’s history. Since 2018, antisemitic incidents have increased by 61 percent.
German Elite Fraternity Students Responsible for Antisemitic Assault Receive Suspended Sentences
Three German students from an elite fraternity who were charged with beating a Jewish student and subjecting him to antisemitic insults have been handed suspended sentences by a court in the city of Heidelberg.

The three convicted individuals — who all received suspended sentences of eight months and no financial penalties in Thursday’s court verdict — were members the right-wing nationalist Normannia student fraternity. A fourth member of the group accused of involvement in the assault was acquitted.

The incident occurred at a party at the Normannia fraternity’s mansion at the University of Heidelberg on Aug. 29, 2020. A 25-year-old student in attendance who spoke about his Jewish ancestry was berated with antisemitic abuse, whipped with belts and pelted with metal coins by the four assailants.

During the trial, the defendants insisted that the assault on the Jewish student had been light-heartedly intended, claiming as well that the victim knew in advance that the practice of “belting” was a fraternity tradition he might be subjected to at the party, according to German media outlets.

Judge Nicole Bargatzky demurred, however, stating that “from fun to bitter seriousness, [the victim] was placed in a corner as a Jew.”

During the proceedings, investigators complained about a “wall of silence” from witnesses who were at the party, with many claiming they were too inebriated to remember clearly what had happened, German broadcaster SWR reported. Lawyers for the accused asserted that while the four students had engaged in an “inexcusable act” triggered by a “toxic mixture of worldview and drunkenness,” the lack of reliable witnesses meant that it was impossible to determine who was responsible for the assault.

Last year, the German newsmagazine Spiegel published an exposé of the antisemitism and glorification of Germany’s Nazi past that prevailed at the Normannia fraternity.


World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder calls for Apple, Spotify to remove Kanye’s music
President of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder is calling for Kanye West’s music to be removed from streaming services, saying the rapper is “espousing Nazism” and must be deplatformed.

In a letter exclusively obtained by the Post and sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek on Wednesday, Lauder called it “unacceptable that neither Apple Music, nor Spotify have removed Mr. West’s music” as the rapper now known as Ye continues to espouse virulent anti-Semitism.

“Kanye West’s antisemitic tirades go beyond trafficking in conspiracy theories. He is espousing Nazism in its purest, most hateful form, and is perhaps the singular embodiment of the alarming rise of Jew hatred in America,” the billionaire philanthropist wrote.

“As long as his hateful voice is carried on Apple and Spotify’s music streaming platforms, they are in league with those who wish harm to Jews the world over,” he said.

The heir to the Estée Lauder fortune also said that by continuing to host Ye’s on their platforms, the Apple and Spotify are “profiting off of Jewish hate.”


Jewish Non-Readers Showing “Solidarity” With New York Times Labor Union, With Humor, Glee
Long-suffering Jewish readers and non-readers of New York Times are greeting the one-day walkout of 1,100 of the paper’s unionized staff with a classic Jewish response—humor, cloaking deep frustration with the newspaper’s biased and inaccurate coverage of Israel and Jewry in general.

“Orthodox Jews will be safer with the chance that the New York Times won’t be able to put out another biased story,” tweeted Yaakov (Jack) Kaplan, the vice chair of Community Board 12 in Brooklyn, in response to the New York Times Guild’s work stoppage pledge.

In response to a union plea that readers avoid the newspaper’s products for the day, another Jewish community leader, Chaskel Bennett, said wryly, “Many of us had a head start. Since your nasty one-sided hit piece against Yeshivas, we have not visited any of your platforms. Consider us standing in solidarity as we boycott the @nytimes.”

Another Orthodox Jewish Times reader (or former reader) expressed hope that the journalist walkout, or reader timeout, might last longer than just 24 hours. “Stand in more solidarity! Keep this up for a complete year!” quipped one tweeter, from an account @ @HaMeturgeman.

“Tough one,” the blogger Daniel Greenfield remarked. “Do I continue boycotting the New York Times or break my boycott to spite the even worse NYT union?”
NPR Shows Its Bias Yet Again
Following last month’s elections in Israel that brought former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu back to power along with right-wing and religious parties, NPR featured multiple stories expressing concern and prognosticating over the future of the Jewish state and its relations with the U.S. The most recent foreboding came on Dec. 6, on All Things Considered and in an expanded version on NPR’s Consider This podcast.

NPR stories routinely depict Palestinians as victims of a rapacious and violent Jewish regime, without agency of their own, and the Dec. 6 broadcast was no different, implying that Israeli Jews, the Israeli government and its policies are to blame for violence in the Holy Land.

Host Juana Summers began with “the most combustible place on earth” which she identified as “the Al Aqsa Mosque compound,” using Palestinian Authority-mandated terminology to describe the site. With no mention that this is Judaism’s holiest site and by referring to the site exclusively in Arab terms, the implication is that the Muslim claim to the site supersedes the Jewish one.

Reporter Daniel Estrin bolstered that implication, declaring:
“Yeah. This is the most revered holy site in the Holy Land. It is often the eye of the storm here. This is a place that’s sacred to Muslims around the world. It’s associated with the Prophet Muhammad. It’s also sacred in Jewish tradition as the spot where the ancient temple stood in biblical times. And nationalist Jewish groups have been asserting their presence at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound more and more. They want the right to pray there. Whenever we’ve seen that Palestinians perceive Israelis are encroaching on this site, we’ve seen violence, and that violence spreads.”

He, like Summers, neglected to mention that the site in question is, and has been throughout millennia, Judaism’s holiest site. Instead, Estrin prioritized the Muslim claim by associating it with the founder of Islam and asserting its importance to Muslims globally while relegating its importance in Judaism to having been the site, once upon a time, of an ancient temple.
MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin Justifies Xenophobia
Is xenophobia okay if one really dislikes the policies of a country and takes it out on individuals with that nationality? That’s what MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin implied in a new column published on December 7, titled “The media is getting pro-Palestinian expression at the World Cup all wrong,” writing:
“When outlets point out how Israelis are not feeling welcomed at the first World Cup in the Arab world, it is yet another reminder of how out of touch the Western narrative is when it comes to the Arab world. Implying that Israeli journalists or fans are simply unwelcome guests in Qatar is an obfuscation of the underlying resentment Arabs feel toward a country that has been accused of committing apartheid against the Palestinian people.”

By “not feeling welcomed,” Ayman is referencing incidents like fans interrupting Israeli reporters by chanting “go home” or shouting “you are not welcome here.” Other incidents included a Qatari police officer telling an Israeli – who hid his identity – that if he was Israeli the officer would refuse to drive him. Elsewhere, a taxi driver kicked out an Israeli journalist, who was later escorted out of a restaurant and had his phone taken from him. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has even had to warn Israelis traveling to attend the World Cup to “downplay your Israeli presence and Israeli identity for the sake of your personal security.”

Whether or not Arabs feel legitimate resentment towards the policies of the State of Israel, the targeting of individual Israelis for hatred and hostility because of their national origin is textbook xenophobia. In his commentary, Ayman argues that making “Israelis,” in their individual capacity, “not feeling welcomed” is fine because of “resentment…toward [their] country.” It’s a classic case of holding individuals responsible for the alleged actions of others.

In making and publishing this argument, Ayman and MSNBC are openly promoting and justifying bigotry.


Former NFL Star Julian Edelman Talks Antisemitism and Jewish Life at Syracuse University
Former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman and Super Bowl LIII MVP on Wednesday spoke at Syracuse University about Judaism’s centrality in his life and his efforts to fight antisemitism.

Edelman recounted reading Torah as a young man and meeting with a Rabbi, adding that when hate emerges he practices “pro-Semitism,” which, he described, is a way of sharing Jewish culture and values with the world.

“The stories of Judaism were so parallel to my life, my career, always being the underdog, I connected with it,” Edelman told students at the university’s Goldstein Auditorium, according to The Daily Orange, a campus newspaper. “I don’t worry about the hate, I worry about what I can do to inspire people and worry about the good things you can and that our community does.”

The Daily Orange added that Edelman called for civil discussions about “insensitive comments.”

“We all need to have uncomfortable conversations, that’s where it starts,” he continued. “When you learn about people you realize we’re all a lot more similar than you think.”
Tackling Antisemitism Through College Football
Sam Salz donning his jersey and his kippah on the sidelines of a Texas A&M game is a perfect counter to rising antisemitism. Ostensibly the first sabbath observant player in college football history, Salz took Jewish social media by storm.

I can relate to Salz’s experience. My journey to earning a spot as a kicker on the University of Maryland’s football team was unusual, considering I had never played organized football. I was captain of the soccer team at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland — a school without a football team.

Joining the Maryland football team in 2006 allowed me to engage with teammates of different religious, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. I also discovered that I was not the only Jew on the team. Senior Adam Podlesh, who would go on to punt in the National Football League, served as a mentor. Before games, which were played on Saturday, we wished each other a “Shabbat Shalom.”

Surprisingly, when I met Edwin Williams, a 300-pound African American lineman, he embraced me with a hearty “Ma Nishma?” — Hebrew for “what is going on?” An Israeli-American academic advisor for the team taught him some useful Hebrew phrases, and also advised players on how to spell their Hebrew-letter tattoos, which were mostly correct.

But at my first game, I truly felt like an outsider. The team huddled in a circle in the locker room and took a knee. Suddenly, I felt a tug from behind me. Cornerback Adam Kareem, a Muslim teammate, pulled me to a side nook. He knew the drill. The team started in prayer: “Our Father who art in heaven” — the Lord’s prayer. Never having witnessed a Christian prayer circle, I didn’t know what to do. Seeing Adam mumbling a Muslim prayer, I did the only thing I could think of: I recited the “Sh’ma” with my eyes (and ears) closed next to my Muslim teammate.
‘This is Antisemitism,’ Finnish Bishop Declares as Artists Boycott Helsinki Museum Over Links to Israeli Businessman
More than 200 artists have signed a statement pledging to boycott Finland’s leading gallery of contemporary art because of its links with a Finnish-Israeli philanthropist, in a move denounced as “antisemitic” by the Bishop of Helsinki and other public figures.

In the statement, the signatories pledged to “refuse to sell our labor and art” to the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki as long as it maintained links with the Zabludowicz Art Trust, an initiative of Chaim “Poju” Zabludowicz, a London-based billionaire who hold dual Finnish and Israeli citizenship.

“Our stance is based on the fact that organizations Chaim ‘Poju’ Zabludowicz funds support the apartheid regime imposed on Palestine and the Palestinian people by the State of Israel,” the statement declared.

Responding to the statement on Thursday, Helsinki’s Lutheran Bishop charged the artists with having adopted an antisemitic stance.

“If an individual Jew is held responsible for the actions of the state of Israel, or if an individual Jew is prohibited from supporting Israel, or if Israel as a state is required to do something more than other democratic states, we are guilty of antisemitism,” Bishop Teemu Laajasalo told Finland’s Helsingin Sanomat news outlet.

In a separate tweet, Laajasalo commented that “antisemitism has many faces. A neo-Nazi or an Islamist is identifiable. It is more difficult to recognize the Jew-hatred of the Academy or [among] culture workers.”
Every third Norwegian believes Israel treats Palestinians like Nazis treated Jews, study says
Every third Norwegian believes that Israel treats the Palestinians as badly as the Nazis treated the Jews, according to a survey by the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies.

The survey also found that one in ten Norwegians believes violence against Jews is justifiable and that 63.3% of Muslims living in Norway agree that the Israeli treatment of Palestinians is similar to that of the Nazis toward Jews in World War II.

However, the study showed that antisemitism in Norway was on the decline. In 2011, the first year of the study, 12.5% of Norwegians had expressed prejudice toward Jews. This year, the number dropped to 9.3%.

The study further revealed that 14% of Norwegians believe that Jews secretly conspire to promote their interests and that they have too much influence on the international economy. Eight percent of Norwegians think the Jews themselves are guilty of being oppressed.

When asked which side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict they come down on, 23% of Norwegians said they side with the Palestinians while 9% sided with Israel. The rest said they supported neither.

Ervin Kohn, head of the Jewish community in Oslo, said that the figures regarding Jews were concerning. "We will never get rid of antisemitism. Even the Holocaust couldn't do that. Antisemitism must be fought continuously through information and creative work. Antisemitism must be illegitimate", he said.

"The claim that Israel treats Palestinians as bad as the Nazis treated the Jews is fundamentally wrong."
‘Jewish’ policeman mistreated me, claims man arrested over hate convoy
One of the men arrested for being part of a pro-Palestine convoy filmed blaring “rape Jewish daughters” as it passed through North London has claimed he was mistreated by a “Jewish” policeman after the incident.

Another complained officers had forced them to stand in the rain and cold despite his asthma after they were stopped following the protest in which shouts of “F*** the Jews. F*** all of them. F*** their mothers, F*** their daughters” could also clearly be heard.

Another of those arrested protested his dog phobia was ignored after the police used the animals during his detention.

“I was mistreated by a policeman. I think he was of Jewish background,” said Asif Ali, 26, one of those arrested in a car identified by a police investigation into the incident.

“He was so against me that he didn’t want to take me into his car. He put me in handcuffs, threw me around, looked at me with hate. Treated me as a terrorist or a killer,” he added.


Fugitive French Holocaust denier refuses to consent to extradition to France
A notorious French Holocaust denier living in Britain has denied his consent to being extradited to France, following his recent arrest by Police Scotland officers in Anstruther.

The arrest of Vincent Reynouard, 53, came after he spent two years on the run.

Mr Reynouard was sentenced to jail for four months on 25th November 2020 by a court in Paris and again in January 2021 for six months, in addition to fines. His latest conviction is in relation to a series of antisemitic postings on Facebook and Twitter and a 2018 YouTube video for which fellow French Holocaust denier, Hervé Ryssen (also known as Hervé Lalin), received a seventeen-month-jail term earlier that year.

However, Mr Reynouard fled the country before serving his sentence and settled in the UK, where he reportedly worked as a private tutor teaching children mathematics, physics and chemistry. Private tutors are not required to undergo background checks.

According to far-right activist Fabrice Jérôme Bourbon — who was himself convicted in December 2021 in connection with denial of war crimes and defending Hervé Ryssen and fined €8,000 — Mr Reynouard was visited by local police and Interpol on 25th October 2021.

Mr Bourbon elaborated in his far-right weekly magazine, Rivarol, claiming that police and Interpol visited Mr Reynouard’s flat at the time, believed to be in Kent, at around 16:00 in order to apprehend him and potentially initiate extradition proceedings. Mr Reynouard allegedly concealed his identity and fled the scene, remaining at large.

In November, he was finally arrested near Edinburgh. In the intervening months, Campaign Against Antisemitism has been cooperating with French Jewish groups seeking Mr Reynouard’s extradition to France. Along with Lord Austin, an Honorary Patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism, we have corresponded with police forces and prosecutors in the UK and Interpol in an effort to locate Mr Reynouard and bring him to justice. We are delighted that he has finally been caught.
Radiation protection from Kyiv to the moon: Israeli space tech to shield Ukrainians
While anti-radiation shields of an Israeli company are still being tested in space on NASA’s Artemis 1 rocket, one of its founders along with US astronaut Scott Kelly embarked on a mission to personally deliver the protective kits to first responders in Kyiv.

Oren Milstein, co-founder of Israeli company StemRad — a developer of radiation protection suits for space explorers, emergency responders, and nuclear industry workers — and Kelly, a former NASA astronaut, traveled at the end of November to war-torn Kyiv to donate the first batch of 20 wearable kits to help shield first responders against potentially lethal gamma radiation in the event of a nuclear accident.

The trip comes less than two weeks after the uncrewed Artemis I space mission launched its debut flight, aboard which were dummies wearing StemRad’s AstroRad, an anti-radiation suit co-developed with Lockheed Martin to protect vital organs from gamma radiation.

“The Artemis launch was the most exhilarating moment, for me, and for my family. And then so shortly after, to be on this train going from Poland to the darkness of Ukraine, arriving in Kyiv and providing this pivotal protection, while our space-based technology is still circling the moon, to be able do this here on Earth corresponds with our mission to provide radiation protection on Earth and beyond,” Milstein told The Times of Israel. “The timing was amazing.”

Speaking from Tampa, Florida, Milstein recounted that as he was following the developments of the war in Ukraine, including the repeated shelling of a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons, he was getting concerned about Ukraine needing protection in the event of a nuclear accident.
Gulf Jewry experiences renaissance after Abraham Accords
The Abraham Accords brought about a renaissance for Jewish communities in the Arabian Gulf states. They're coming out of the shadows, unafraid to be observant in public. Their situation is improving and brings a gust of hope for coexistence to other places as well.

According to estimates, somewhere between around 10,000-15,000 Jews live in Six gulf states: The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

UAE Chief Rabbi Levi Duchman says that ever since the Abraham Accords were signed, many Israeli businessmen and tourists began arriving, often in the hundreds. No less than 20 Orthodox Jewish weddings were ordained by Duchman in the past two years.

He himself recently married his wife Leah Hadad with 1,500 people in attendance — Abu Dhabi's biggest Jewish wedding to date.

Hundreds of Jewish students have signed up for various educational programs (revolving around Talmudic law, mostly) in the Gulf states, and eight Kosher restaurants are up and running, one of which is located in the world's tallest building — Burj Khalifa.

U.S.-born Rabbi Duchman started his journey in the Gulf eight years ago and has since established various Jewish institutions and communities, including a governmental Kosher agency, religious educational systems and community centers. Even a Kosher fountain with ice water flown in from Iceland in a logistically complex operation.

"We have a license to build a large synagogue called Beit Avraham, operating alongside a mosque and a church. We've built good infrastructure," he says.

According to Duchman, most Jews arrive from Israel, the U.S., Argentina, South Africa, France and England. "There's Kosher food, good education, places to pray, Kosher restaurants. Even a Jewish cemetery."


Meet the man whose challah will make you holla
Growing up in New York state, Freddie Feldman never made a challah. But the Skokie, Ill., resident is on a hot streak, having made a challah or matzah every Friday for the past 138 weeks. And he isn’t cooking up any regular kind.

The 48-year-old, who calls himself a “challah artist,” has made the breads in the shape of everything from George Jetson to the Targaryen symbol from “Game of Thrones” to the mask from “Black Panther” (as the sequel is currently in theaters).

So, why did Feldman feel the “knead” to do this?

“The pandemic hit, we were locked in, and people were baking everything,” Feldman told JNS. “It was funny that I realized I somehow never made a challah. I first made a honey challah. Then I made a Jewish star and a Hamsa. And I got more creative, and people would ask how I did it.”

Feldman explained that he uses food coloring and fingerpaints the dough, using pumpkin powder for orange or activated charcoal (which can be unhealthy in large amounts) for the “Black Panther” challah.

He said his mother was known as “The Hamantaschen Lady” and sent him tins of the Purim pastries when he left Rockland County in New York state and attended Northwestern University near Chicago. He moved to Skokie with his wife 14 years ago.


Yeshiva University Museum to display rare hand-drawn menorah from Maimonides manuscript
The Yeshiva University Museum has announced that its upcoming exhibition will feature a hand-drawn illustration of the Temple menorah from a manuscript that contains notes by the famed Jewish sage Maimonides (Rambam).

The exhibition, “The Golden Path: Maimonides Across Eight Centuries,” will run from May 9-Dec. 31, 2023, at the museum in New York City. It will also feature a copy of the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah that was reportedly personally signed by Maimonides. The Temple menorah drawing is found in a 12th-century copy of the Rambam’s “Commentary on the Mishnah,” with his handwritten notes in the margins.

The drawing of the Temple menorah shows seven straight, rather than curved, branches. This unique image of the holy gold candelabra may have been drawn by Maimonides himself, according to a press release from the museum.

Other items to be featured include rare pieces on loan from the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the British Library, the Royal Danish Library, the Mantua State Archive of the Italian Ministry of Culture and the National Library of Israel.

“The partnerships with international collections are unprecedented, and the exhibition stands to be one of the most impressive collections of Maimonides artifacts ever to be displayed together,” said Gabriel Goldstein, director and chief curator of the Yeshiva University Museum.




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