Wednesday, December 14, 2022

12/14 Links Pt2: No, Zionism isn’t out of date: Why the US arrests some terrorists but ignores others; Professor reveals pervasive antisemitism at University of Toronto Medical School

From Ian:

No, Zionism isn’t out of date
Ha’aretz columnist Anshel Pfeffer does not believe in Zionism. He doesn’t oppose it, he just thinks talking about it is a category mistake:

You cannot be either a Zionist or an anti-Zionist, he says, just as you cannot be a veteran of Iwo Jima unless you were born at least 90 years ago and fought in that battle. Zionism isn’t an ideology. It’s a program, or an ideological plan, to establish a state for Jews in the biblical homeland. And that program was fulfilled on May 14, 1948, when David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s independence at the old Tel Aviv Museum. That’s it. Done.

"…believing that on the whole, founding the State of Israel was the right thing to do, doesn’t make you a Zionist any more than thinking that Oliver Cromwell was right to overthrow King Charles, makes you a Roundhead. It simply doesn’t matter what you think about long-ago events you didn’t take part in. Israel is a reality and it’s not going anywhere."

He’s wrong. There absolutely is such a thing as Zionist ideology, a set of basic principles that Zionists believe. And here they are:
-There is an am Yehudi, a Jewish people. You might think this is obvious, but Mahmoud Abbas denies it, and so do the “[insert nationality here] of the Mosaic persuasion” crowd, which includes the American Reform Movement.

-The survival of the Jewish people requires the Jewish state, a state that is more than just a state with a Jewish majority. The precise meaning of “more” differs according to the faction of the Zionist movement to which one belongs, but the Nation-State Law that was passed by the Knesset in 2018 is an example of a secular attempt to explicate that.

-Only in the Jewish state can a person fully realize his Jewish identity. You can still be a Zionist if you don’t believe that all Jews ought to live in the Jewish state, but Zionism includes the idea that diaspora life is sub-optimal even when it is not actively dangerous.

-One needn’t be a Jew to be a Zionist. Agree with the principles above and you are a Zionist, regardless of your own religion or ethnicity.

Pfeffer points out that there were religious and secular, socialist and revisionist Zionisms. This was true before 1948, and it’s still true today. But all of them affirm the principles above. The existence of factions doesn’t negate the truth behind an ideology. After all, these are Jews we are talking about!
Tom Stoppard and the Failure of ‘Diasporism’
As much as the contributions of Diaspora Jews should inspire pride and celebration, it has become clear that there has emerged no serious alternative other than Israel for those who would sustainably perpetuate specifically Jewish achievement and inquiry. Those of us in the Diaspora will not all move there—although Stoppard is here to remind us that Jews will always require a refuge from the forces of hatred that now seek Israel’s destruction. But we are called upon to support the Zionist project not only as a form of self-defense but also to continue providing the wider world with the fruits of Jewish labors. Leopoldstadt’s invocation of a potential Jewish state at the play’s beginning, and Israel’s existence at its end as the tiny remnant of the Merz and Jacobowicz families gathers in the once-grand apartment of assimilation in 1955, mark it as one of the most profoundly Zionist documents of our time.

It is a reflection of the durability and power of anti-Semitism that, even if the playwright had uncovered the facts of his own Jewish past in 1955 the way his young British character does, rather than in the 1980s, he would have risked a great deal by writing Leopoldstadt as a young man in the wake of his career-making success with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1966. He likely would have become known as a Jewish, rather than a British, playwright—a dramatist making a special pleading due to the tragedy visited upon his own family. No, it was his established reputation as the greatest living English dramatist that has enabled this unlikely production—among other things, Leopoldstadt has a cast of 38, the largest any play on Broadway has seen in generations. Therein lies yet another lesson about the limits of Diasporism.
The Hanukkah Queen Who Saved the Jews
A generation after the Hanukkah miracle, in the midst of great turmoil, Salome Alexandra defended Judaism and restored Jewish practice.

The story of Hanukkah is one of the best-known in Jewish history: how a small group of faithful Jews, led by the Maccabees, revolted against their Hellenist Greek rulers during the years 167-160 BCE, and restored the Temple in Jerusalem to Jewish worship once again.

Their unlikely military victory and the miracle of a single jug of oil burning in the Temple’s golden Menorah for eight days are celebrated during the holiday of Hanukkah. Less known is what came next.

The “Maccabee” brothers (named after one brother, Judas Maccabeus) established the Hasmonean royal dynasty that ruled the Jewish kingdom of Judea for over 200 years. Far from presiding over a peaceful nation, the Hasmonean rulers were mercurial, autocratic, and ruled a land continually on the brink of civil war. It fell to Queen Salome Alexandra - also known as Shlomit Alexandra and as Shlomzion - to stand up to some of the most terrifying dictators imaginable, champion traditional Judaism, and restore peace to Judea.

A key fact that’s often ignored in telling the Hanukkah story is that many Jews at the time embraced a Hellenist lifestyle, worshiping Greek deities and embracing Greek values. Within a generation of the Hanukkah miracle, the Jewish community was again riven into factions, most notably the Sadducees, who rejected the Talmud and many Jewish elements of a traditional Jewish lifestyle and who dominated the ruling classes, and the Pharisees who clung to Jewish traditions and lifestyles.

Queen Salome and her Wicked Husband
Queen Salome was born into a prominent scholarly family and married into royalty. She possessed incredible courage and calmness. Salome’s brother was Shimon ben Shetach, one of Judea’s most renowned rabbis and a champion of the Pharisee cause. When it became too dangerous for her brother to remain in Judea because of Sadducee persecution, Queen Salome hid him, as well as other rabbinic allies of traditional Judaism.


Jonqthan Tobin: Bibi’s book reminds us why he’s still in the fight
After his four decades as a public figure, and a soon-to-be-extended record run as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, is there anything we don’t already know about Benjamin Netanyahu? Though there are still plenty of questions for future historians to try to answer about his life and remarkable career, readers of his recently published autobiography, Bibi: My Story, will find few surprises in its more than 650 pages of text.

That’s not entirely a bad thing, as the work contains many elements that are clear reflections of the author’s personality. In the forefront is his unflinching loyalty to his family, including hero worship of his father and slain older brother, Yoni, as well as a willingness to go to bat to defend the much-battered reputations of his wife, Sara, and their elder son, Yair.

His insatiable thirst for getting even with a long list of political enemies is also on display. The score-settling with personalities like his former commander-turned-political-rival Ehud Barak (whom he eagerly claims was always a publicity hound undeserving of the title of “Israel’s most decorated soldier”) begins early in the narrative and never lets up. His often-scathing portrayals of Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid fall into the same category.

In his telling, the Israeli press, which he rightly regards as his real opposition, is largely a pack of politically biased hacks with no interest in accuracy. In his words, it lies about him with impunity—an allegation with which an impartial observer (if there is such a thing about Netanyahu) would have to agree.

Nor, with a few, not-very important exceptions, does he demonstrate much interest in soul-searching about decisions he’s made over the years. He is willing to acknowledge a few tactical political errors, including the way he treated other senior Likud leaders during his rocky first time as prime minister in the 1990s.
Why the US arrests some terrorists but ignores others - opinion
IT’S REMARKABLE that no journalists have called up Ross or Walker to ask them what they think about the US somehow managing to apprehend the Pan Am 103 bomber without any extradition treaty.

It’s also remarkable how many Palestinian Arab killers of Americans are hiding in plain sight. That is, the Israeli government has publicly identified them as employees of various branches of the PA – so if US agents went to arrest them, they would know exactly where to find them.

Some are officers in the Palestinian Security Forces. Amin el-Hindi, who was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre (in which US citizen David Berger was murdered) served as chief of the PA’s General Intelligence Service. Another killer, Hussain Fayadh, who was involved in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre (in which US citizen Gail Rubin was murdered), has served as an adviser to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

There’s Ahlam Tamimi, one of the participants in the Sbarro pizzeria massacre in Jerusalem in 2001 in which an American teenager, Malki Roth, was murdered. She has a $5 million (NIS 17.2 m.) price tag on her head through the US Rewards for Justice program yet she lives comfortably in Jordan, an American ally that refuses to turn her over for prosecution in the US.

And don’t forget about Muhammad Abbas, aka Abu Abbas, head of the Palestine Liberation Front, who publicly admitted that he masterminded the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking in which US citizen Leon Klinghoffer was killed. Abbas was convicted in absentia of murder in Italy in 1986. From 1998 to 2000, he lived openly in PA-controlled Gaza. Yet the Clinton administration failed to indict him or seek his arrest.

In April 2003, US forces in Iraq captured Abbas during the course of other military actions. Senior PA official Saeb Erakat denounced the US for arresting him, claiming that the Oslo Accords prohibited the prosecution of anyone involved in terrorism before 1993. That was a lie; the US is not a signatory on the Oslo Accords and the accords say nothing about the US prosecuting anybody.

According to The New York Times (November 3, 2003), during questioning by US officials, Abbas “admitted enough [about the Achille Lauro attack] to make him a co-conspirator.” Yet he still was not indicted. Eventually, he died of natural causes in Iraq.

All of this brings us back to the question I asked at the start of this article: Why the double standard? The answer is that sending US agents into PA territory to arrest killers of Americans – or even arresting them in Jordan or Iraq – would anger the Palestinian leadership, create tension in America’s relationship with the PA, and thereby undermine the Biden administration’s goal of giving the PA a sovereign state along Israel’s old nine-miles-wide borders.

And that’s why the Pan Am 103 suspect is being brought to trial, while Palestinian Arab killers of Americans are still walking free.
New Leila Khaled talks remain on YouTube despite her praise for terrorism
“So, the first mission I was asked to do is hijack a plane,” convicted Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled recounted to students at a Dec. 7 talk at Lebanese American University (LAU) posted on YouTube last week. “It took time to know how to hijack, and I had to read more about aviation.”

Khaled hijacked a TWA flight from Rome to Tel Aviv in 1969 on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), diverting the plane to Damascus. She hijacked an El Al flight from Amsterdam in 1970. An accomplice, Sandinista comrade Patrick Arguello, was killed by Israeli air marshals in an in-flight scuffle.

Though she came to fame more than five decades ago, anti-Israel actors today can’t seem to get enough of Khaled’s story. In addition to the LAU talk, Khaled further detailed her terrorist escapades during an interview with Breakthrough Media journalist Rania Khalek. The interview was posted to YouTube on Dec. 6.

Khaled’s campus and online lectures have generated protests in recent years. Online meeting sites and social media pages have blocked or removed several events, such as at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and the University of California Merced.

So far, however, the talks remain available on YouTube even though the platform’s guidelines explicitly state: “Content that violates our policies against violent extremism includes material produced by government-listed foreign terrorist organizations.”
DEBATE: How much antisemitism is there in UK politics?
Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead, Phil Dave and David Mencer discuss the state of antisemitism in the UK and how it is affecting politics and daily life.


Professor reveals pervasive antisemitism at University of Toronto Medical School
One Canadian medical school is certainly not immune to the current epidemic of rising antisemitism, Dr. Ayelet Kuper has revealed.

Kuper, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, last week published her findings from a year spent investigating antisemitism experienced by students and faculty.

From June 2021 to June 2022, the professor served as senior advisor on antisemitism for the Temerty Faculty of Medicine (TFOM), a position created in response to increasing antisemitism on campus.

On Dec. 5, her findings were published in the Canadian Medical Education Journal. In her article, Kuper describes antisemitic statements and viewpoints she experienced herself, and notes her family’s need to conceal their Jewish heritage when not in Jewish settings.

She writes, “My husband and I, as well as our three Jewish school-aged children, are white-passing in appearance; I increasingly use that privilege to hide our Jewish identities under professional and personal circumstances when we are outside the Jewish community, including on or near the U of T campus.”

Kuper relates how COVID-19 exacerbated antisemitic conspiracy theories, prompting antisemites to blame Jews both for the virus and for promoting vaccines.

However, she also cites another rationale: “I was told dozens of times that the current environment of growing antisemitism at TFOM was triggered by the war in Gaza in the spring of 2021, which implies (as was sometimes said to me explicitly) that the cause of TFOM’s ‘antisemitism problem’ is Israel government policy.”

Kuper disputes this timeline, pointing out that rising Canadian antisemitism preceded Israeli actions in Gaza. She writes, “From my personal experience and that of Jewish friends and colleagues at TFOM with whom I used to commiserate prior to taking on the Senior Advisor role, hateful attitudes about Jews have been on the rise at TFOM for at least three years.” Kuper links this rise in campus antisemitism to an increase in antisemitism in Canada as a whole. She points to the 2,799 reported antisemitic hate crimes in Canada in 2021 and notes this was the sixth year in a row to see an increase in incidents.

“I personally experienced many instances of antisemitism, including being told that all Jews are liars; that Jews lie to control the university or the faculty or the world, to oppress or hurt others, and/or for other forms of gain; and that antisemitism can’t exist because everything Jews say are lies, including any claims to have experienced discrimination,” Kuper writes.


Jenna Ortega vs. Kanye: Whose antisemitic hate is worse?
Who’s more dangerous to the safety of Jewish people, Kanye West or Jenna Ortega?

Easy, right? Kanye is an open Jew-hater. He creates tweets that are both incomprehensible and threateningly antisemitic, spews Black Hebrew Israelite and Nation of Islam propaganda, and declares his love for Hitler and the Nazis. He even appeared to cause discomfort for even Alex Jones, the guy who attacked the survivors of the Sandy Hook shooting. Ortega, who plays Wednesday Addams in the current Netflix series, is, according to those who work with her, genuinely nice. While West uses his social media for self-aggrandizement, unhinged rants, declarations that he is a god, and, most troublingly, Jew-hatred, Ortega uses hers to promote her work and humanitarian causes. She seems to genuinely want to help others.

And therein lies the problem.

The antisemitism of the well-intentioned but uninformed
West understands antisemitism perfectly well. He hates Jews. Whatever else is going on in his addled mind, that much is clear. Jenna Ortega presumably sincerely believes that antisemitism is evil, no less so than sexism, homophobia, hatred of Muslims, or other forms of racism and xenophobia. The idea that she promotes anti-Jewish causes would likely make her shudder. The problem is that, like millions of other well meaning Americans, she has no real understanding of antisemitism, and therefore is unlikely to recognize it in at least some of its forms. And, also like millions of other Americans, she likely doesn’t do much investigation into a cause before she posts it to social media. (The number of celebrities who at least in part handle their own social media is astounding.)

Earlier this year, someone forwarded a link to a group chat, horrified that “the girl from Scream” (the Netflix series hadn’t yet been released) would post something like it. (My friend, a Russian-speaking Israeli Jew, used far more vividly descriptive and colorful language which I avoid repeating here.) The link was to a Jenna Ortega Tweet that read simply “Decolonize Palestine,” with an embedded link to a website bearing the same moniker. Decolonize? Was this a clumsy attempt at supporting a two-state solution? I clicked the link.

And I was horrified.

Hamas-style propaganda
I found a site that was extremist propaganda (sadly not uncommon, even on Netflix), advocating for the same position Hamas holds: abolition of the State of Israel — the world’s only Jewish state, existing only in part of the land to which Jews are indigenous. The site tells a fictional story in which Jews from Europe were and are foreign invaders who violently displaced a pacific Palestinian people. For example, the following appears in the “Palestine 101” section:
Aiming to establish an exclusive Jewish ethnocracy, the Yishuv had to contend with the fact that the entirety of the land was inhabited by the native population. This is where the settler “logic of elimination” came into play. Coined by scholar Patrick Wolfe, this means that the settlers needed to develop not only moral justifications for the removal of the natives, but also the practical means to ensure its success. This could take the form of ethnic cleansing, genocide or other gruesome tools of ethnocide.


Swedish game show presents map of Palestine, not Israel
A famous Swedish television game show presented a map of Israel with “Palestine” written on it alongside a Palestinian flag in one of its trivia quizzes.

During the semi-finals of the game show “Free for All” presented on Sweden’s Channel 5 on Monday, contestants were presented with a quiz on famous Swedish singer Laila Bagge Wahlgren, whose mother is Swedish and father a Palestinian.

The map was presented following a question asking contestants to answer where Wahlgren’s father was born, and detailed only Arab and mixed cities, alongside ancient sites like Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Nazareth, Ramallah, Gaza, and more. Tel Aviv was excluded from the map.

The Israeli Embassy to Sweden posted a question in a format similar to the gameshow, on their Twitter account, asking: “what should Channel 5 and the show’s producer do when they present a map with no mention of Israel? 1. Check the graphics, 2. Do more research, 3. Apologize, 4. All of the above.”

The game show’s producer apologized following the post. “It was a mistake, we’ll fix it as soon as possible, I apologize,” he wrote on his Twitter account. Swedish media also reported the incident. (h/t Jzaik)
Washington Post sympathy parade for Palestinians takes new angle
In “Rise of Israel’s far right puts focus back on the West Bank” (12/11/22), it’s The Washington Post that puts the focus back on the West Bank. The article begins with a description of an awful event where an Arab woman was struck by Israeli stone throwers. If the Post were to write articles about rocks and boulders being thrown by Arabs at Jews, there would be 365 articles a year. The biased Post reporter ignores that fact by singling out this one instance where the victim was Arab. How are Post readers supposed to put the conflict in context!

So, what, if any, will be the influence of the two far-right Israeli ministers in Israel’s new government? The Post alleges that according to “MANY (emphasis added), Hebron’s bloody, biblically tinged conflict between its 800 hardline Israeli settlers and its 200,000 Palestinians, is a test case for the future of relations between the two peoples under the next government.” The Post does not identify who these “many” are. There is no cited population sample, no NGO survey, no evidence whatsoever. This, from a paper once known for its investigative journalism. And why are Israeli citizens in Hebron called “hardline?” Moreover, why aren’t the Palestinians in Hebron called “militant,” consistent with their behavior? The Post can’t hide whose side they are on.

The Post states that “Israel’s most far-right government and pro-settler government in its history is being sworn in during one of the deadliest years for both Israelis and Palestinians.” But then the Post admits to the cause of “one of the deadliest years.” It explains that “[s]ince last spring, a string of Palestinian attacks in Israeli cities and many military posts” has occurred. And yes, Israel has responded in self-defense, fulfilling the obligation of every country to defend its citizens. In the Palestinian-sparked exchanges of blows, some Palestinians have been killed. As everyone knows, actions have consequences. What does the Post think—that Israel should just submit to the terrorism? Should any country?

The Post quotes one fringe anti-Israel Israeli group notorious for misinformation—Breaking the Silence—as saying that “MANY (emphasis added) Israelis are shocked by the images coming out of Hebron.” But “MANY” can mean 10—it’s an “indefinite” number, according to Webster’s dictionary. By the Post’s own logic, the entire population of Israel may be shocked by the Palestinian terrorist attacks while only a limited few are shocked by Israel’s actions. The Post’s insidious spin on Israeli public opinion is likely the opposite of the reality on the ground.

The Post disparages the new Israeli ministers, saying “[Bezalel] Smotrich and [Itamar] Ben-Gvir were both suspected of being involved in terrorism in their youth.” The word “suspected” does not mean the individuals were guilty of anything! On what other occasions has the Post inferred guilt when the named parties were mere suspects? What animus from the Post reporters!
New York Times Escalates Its War on Yeshivas With New Focus on Children of Divorce
The New York Times is escalating its ongoing war against Jewish education, devoting a front-page article and two pages inside to the not-exactly-earthshattering news that when parents get divorced, sometimes they have conflicts over their children’s education.

In classic Times fashion, the newspaper makes it out so that the real problem for the children isn’t the parents’ divorce, but the yeshivas. Instead of framing this issue to also include non-Jewish divorced parents disagreeing over what school their children should attend, the Times chooses to focus exclusively on Orthodox Jewish schools.

In so doing, the paper displays the sloppiness and tendentiousness that has characterized its coverage of ultra-Orthodox Judaism all along.

The Times can’t seem to decide how divorce works in Judaism. First the Times writes, “The dynamic plays out most vividly in cases of divorce, which in the Hasidic community are conferred by a rabbinical court known as a beth din.” Later on in the same article, the Times writes, “Hasidic women can find themselves at a disadvantage when negotiating in the beth dins, as only husbands can confer religious divorces.” Who confers the divorce, the beth din or the husband? The Times offers its readers conflicting, and unreconciled, accounts. (The paper already published one correction on the general topic of Jewish divorce, unrelated to this latest yeshiva article, in January 2022.)

The Times also doesn’t seem to understand that religious divorce, and the bet din, is not limited to Orthodox Judaism. The article says, “Rooted in centuries-old legal tradition, beth dins serve as an alternative to civil courts for Orthodox and Hasidic Jews worldwide, by mediating business conflicts and divorces, among other disputes.” Actually Conservative and Reform Jews also have beit dins for divorces. Some years ago, when I was a member of a Reform synagogue, I served on a beit din that witnessed the issuance of a get, as a Jewish religious divorce document is known. The Times inaccurately makes it sound like only Orthodox Jews have religious divorces, or have beit dins.
Press Advisory BBC ‘Read the Riot Act’ to Journalists Following CAMERA Arabic Scrutiny
CAMERA issued the following press advisory on Monday, Dec. 12, 2022:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: BBC ‘Read the Riot Act’ to Arabic Service Journalists Following CAMERA Arabic’s Research and Revelations

CAMERA Arabic’s intensive scrutiny of BBC’s Arabic coverage of Israel and the Middle East and the systematic documentation of its egregious shortcomings in reporting have resulted in significant behind-the-scenes reforms at the Arabic-language news platform.

According to the London-based Jewish Chronicle, which has extensively published CAMERA Arabic’s findings about BBC’s deeply flawed Arabic service, Mohamed Yehia, BBC Arabic’s head of multimedia output, emailed staff reiterating the imperative to adhere to BBC guidelines.

His letter reportedly rebuked journalists for the precise issues that CAMERA Arabic documented over the last year in complaints submitted to the network: the derogatory mislabeling of communities within internationally-recognized Israeli territory as “settlements”; delegitimizing all Israelis as “settlers”; falsely reporting that Israelis on the Temple Mount have entered the Al-Aqsa mosque; citing Tel Aviv as shorthand for Israel, thereby misidentifying Israel’s capital; and inaccurately referring to the Western Wall as the “Wailing Wall.”

In addition, according to the Chronicle report, BBC has discontinued engaging pundit Abdel Bari Atwan given the extensive antisemitic and pro-terror sentiments that he has expressed over decades, many of which were first translated into English by CAMERA Arabic. For example, CAMERA Arabic exposed Bari Atwan’s April 2022 YouTube video in which he praised the murder of three Israeli civilians in a Tel Aviv terror attack as a “miracle.”
Lost in Translation AFP’s Arabic Coverage of Political Turmoil at 2022 World Cup Games
The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is likely to be remembered as one of the more politically–charged international sports competitions of recent decades. It seems that even Western news agencies are taking part in the political games, abandoning their professional role as impartial observers on the sidelines.

Thus, on two separate occasions since the commencement of the games, AFP’s Arabic reporting from Qatar significantly diverged from the agency’s coverage in English, French and Spanish. In both cases, the Arabic reports concealed facts that were unflattering to the competition’s Qatari regime organizers, namely the way fans and authorities treated foreign sports journalists.

The first Arabic report, from Nov. 28, completely whitewashed the abuse directed at Israeli journalists and fans in Qatar during the tournament. After quoting an middle-aged Israeli fan, who said he feels “like I’m watching the World Cup in disguise. The atmosphere towards us is hostile,” AFP then falsely reported: “But with the exception of refusing to speak to Israeli media, no incidents against Israelis during their stay in Qatar have been reported.”

The English, French, Spanish and Portuguese versions of the same report did not contain this fabrication intended to undermine the Israeli’s statement about the hostility hurled at Israelis.

In fact, Israeli journalists encountered, documented and reported fans’ attempts to disrupt their broadcasts and intimidate them, including with the use of antisemitic slurs. The Qatari security services’ tolerance of this harassment targeting Israelis stands in stark contrast to the widely-reported clamp down against peaceful fans publicly expressing political opinions unrelated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


Jewish groups call on FBI to fix ‘useless’ 2021 hate crimes report
Jewish groups slammed the FBI’s annual hate crimes report for 2021, released on Monday, for grossly underreporting the rising number of antisemitic incidents.

Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said the blame did not fall solely on the FBI, but rather that the document depends on voluntary reporting from law enforcement agencies across the United States.

Twenty-two percent fewer agencies submitted data than in 2020. Among the cities that didn’t (New York, Los Angeles and Miami) are areas where most American Jews live.

“At a time of record antisemitic hate crimes, it is appalling that the FBI’s data-gathering has been so badly botched,” said Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

“The 2021 hate crimes data is essentially useless. The problem is so bad that record-high levels of antisemitism appear in the official data as actual declines, because major jurisdictions didn’t formally report it,” he continued.

Deutch tweeted, “The FBI’s report on hate crimes is one of the most anticipated federal government documents every year. Unfortunately, this year’s report suffers from inadequate reporting, completely undermining the gravity of the problem of hate in the U.S.”

Although the FBI report paints what is only a partial picture, the reported data still highlights a troubling trend.

“Despite the underreporting, it’s easy to extrapolate from this report what every Jewish community has been feeling, which is that antisemitic incidents are increasingly pervasive in our lives,” said Karen Paikin Barall, associate vice president for public affairs and executive director of the Advocacy Corps at Jewish Federations of North America.
US Antisemitism Envoy: Antisemitism ‘Like A Herpes Virus’
The US Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt, told lawmakers and human rights experts assembled in Washington on Tuesday that antisemitism is like a virus in testimony on rising antisemitism in the United States and abroad.

“I think of antisemitism as a virus, a virus almost like a herpes virus,” she said. Someone who was unlucky enough to get that virus, it’s very difficult to get rid of it,” Lipstadt told the Helsinki Commission, an independent US government commission compromising 18 members of Congress and and three currently-vacant executive branch appointees.

Formally known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Helsinki Commission holds annual hearings on antisemitism in recognition of Europe’s unique history of antisemitism, including the Holocaust, according to its website.

Lipstadt said for societies undergoing stress, that outbreak is often to resort to blaming Jews. “Because if they were to blame bicycle riders, people would say, ‘you’re nuts,'” Lipstadt added. “Now, there’s some medication that may get rid of it. But for many people who have it, a moment of stress, a job interview, their wedding, something happens and they wake up that morning and they’ve got an outbreak, they’ve got a sore.”

In opening remarks to the commission, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) noted that 2021 saw the highest number of antisemitic attacks ever recorded and that 2022 appears to be on “the same trajectory.” Cardin also thanked Republican members of Congress who spoke out against Former President Trump’s dinner with antisemitic rapper Kanye West and Holocaust-denying alt-right figure Nick Fuentes.

The hearing follows the announcement by the Biden administration Tuesday of the creation of an inter-agency group to combat antisemitism.
“Disturbing” Swastika Incident at Canadian High School Prompts Hate Crime Investigation
An antisemitic incident at an Ottawa high school has prompted local police to launch a hate crimes investigations, a local outlet, Ottawa Citizen, reported on Tuesday.

On Dec. 1, a group of students found a swastika in a classroom at Sir Robert Borden High School, and upon seeing it, one of their group began pantomiming a Nazi salute.

“This is a blatant act of antisemitism, which is absolutely unacceptable,” principal Matthew Gagnier wrote to the community in a letter quoted by Ottawa Citizen. “Every student deserves the right to feel safe at school, regardless of religion/creed, race, background, ability, gender or sexual orientation.”

“This incident is disturbing and comes at a time when we are seeing examples of antisemitism in our community, on social media and around the world,” Gagnier continued, adding that the school “unequivocally” condemns antisemitism.

The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) was informed of the incident on Dec. 5 and is still investigating it, Ottawa Citizen said. In the interim, the school will discipline the students who staged the incident and educate them about hate and intolerance.

Last July, the Government of Ontario announced two new education programs on Monday to address growing antisemitism in Canadian public schools. Minister of Education Stephen Lecce said that the $327,000 initiative was an investment to “help us combat antisemitism in our homes, in our schools, and in communities right across Ontario.”
School board that banned Anne Frank book invited ‘rabbi’ charged with sexual assault
On Monday, the board of Keller Independent School District in Texas introduced that evening’s prayer leader as “Rabbi Griffin.”

A man wearing a suit and kippah then approached the podium and recited the priestly blessing in Hebrew. “Grant us, Adonai, your mind tonight so we can be a blessing to our community, to our children,” he continued. “Bring ‘Shalom,’ nothing missing, nothing broken, to this meeting tonight.”

But this was not an ordinary rabbi, nor an ordinary school board meeting. Keller is the district that, earlier this year, had ordered its libraries to remove all copies of a 2018 graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary from shelves. And “Rabbi Griffin” is Mark Aaron Griffin, a Messianic Jew who last year was charged with multiple counts of sexual assault.

“Last night we were shocked but excited when we saw a man who said he was a rabbi come up to pray,” Laney Hawes, a parent in the Keller district who regularly sounds off about the board’s policies, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. But, she said, “a quick Google search” revealed Griffin’s true identity.

Griffin, who heads a congregation in nearby Saginaw, Texas, that blends Christian beliefs and Jewish practices, is currently awaiting trial on four counts of sexual assault. According to reports of the indictment, he is accused of using his stature as a “rabbi” to sexually assault a woman in March 2020 after coercing her to become his “concubine” and citing Abraham and Jacob as examples of spiritual figures who enjoyed multiple partners. The victim claimed she had been assaulted in Griffin’s congregation, including in his office, which DNA samples seemed to corroborate, a warrant said.

First indicted in late 2020, Griffin faces trial next month, local county records indicate.
UK caterer slammed for ‘Anne Frankfurter’ vegan hot dog
A British caterer has apologized after facing intense backlash for naming its vegan hot dog the “Anne Frankfurter,” an offensive pun combining Anne Frank’s name with the word frankfurter.

Screenshots of the menu from the Viva Veggie Van, based in the West Midlands, containing the Anne Frankfurter hot dog were posted to Twitter this week, sparking fury on social media.

The £7 ($8.60 USD) plant-based sausage was going to be available at the Birmingham Brewery Company taproom over the weekend.

However, after the controversy erupted, the establishment cut ties with the caterer.

“A menu was shared last night by a 3rd party vendor who was booked to trade at our brewery tap room this weekend. We did not have sight of the menu before it was published and agree that the name of one of the dishes is totally inappropriate. The trader will not be trading with us,” it said in a statement.
Start-up offers reusable, 100% recyclable bowls for takeout food
Green-minded residents of Tel Aviv who like to order takeout food can now have it delivered in reusable, returnable, 100 percent recyclable, bowls.

This follows the creation this year and launch a couple of weeks ago of OPA — a start-up that takes its name from a Hebrew expression similar to “wow.”

OPA was established by Ran Doron, now CEO, and Dar Hasson, COO, who both held senior positions at Wolt, a Finnish food delivery company with branches in many countries including Israel.

Doron said their work brought them face to face with the massive waste generated by single-use containers, some seven million of which are discarded in Tel Aviv alone, every month.

OPA is already working with 20 Wolt-registered restaurants in Tel Aviv, and will soon expand to the suburbs of Herzliya, Ramat Gan, and Givatayim.

It is already in talks with the other main delivery company operating in Israel, 10bis, and is working with four large companies, with dozens more asking to join, Doron said.

Among the inquiries are many from people wanting to know whether the bowls are kosher. Jewish law demands the separation of meat and dairy-based foods.

The company is now consulting with rabbis to ensure that the bowls and the way they are washed will allow them to be used in kosher establishments.
Tel Aviv to host Abraham Accords-inspired Esports Peace Games
The United States Embassy in Israel, in partnership with philanthropist Sylvan Adams, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, LionTree LLC and the Israeli Esports Association, announced on Wednesday the first-ever Abraham Accords Esports Peace Games, to take place in Tel Aviv from January 26 to 28.

Esports Peace Games is a digital video-gaming championship in which national teams from regional countries will contest the world’s leading competitive Esports titles. The event will feature competitors from Israel, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, among others.

A prize fund of $82,000 will be distributed among the winners.

With an international industry value expected to reach $1.8 billion by 2025, Esports is a growing phenomenon that attracts an audience of some 400 million people worldwide, according to industry statistics.

Organizers announced plans to include up to 10 countries in the inaugural event at a production cost of $1.5 million, with the hope of expanding the competition in future years.

“The Abraham Accords are critical to the region’s stability and prosperity,” said U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, a co-chair of the Games, in reference to the 2020 agreements that normalized Israel’s relations with several Arab countries. “The Biden administration sees its job as taking the accords from a startup to a real operation. And one of the most important mechanisms to accomplish that is building people-to-people connections—the more people understand one another, the easier it is to resolve issues, especially among young people,” he added.
10 treasures from the New York Public Library’s 125-year-old Jewish collection
In the heart of Manhattan, you can page through the Passover story in an Italian haggadah from half a millennium ago, check out the posters for the most popular Yiddish plays of the 1920s and examine dried flower arrangements from the Holy Land made at the end of the 19th century.

Opened just two years after the New York Public Library itself, the Dorot Jewish Division of the New York Public Library is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year.

Today the collection, housed in the library’s main building on Fifth Ave., boasts over 250,000 materials from all over the world, with the earliest ones dating back to the 13th century.

“People don’t realize the amount of depth we have in this collection chronologically and geographically and it is still growing,” said Lyudmila Sholokhova, the curator of the collection. “I think we have been too modest about what we have here — this library is for everybody and the community needs to know that.”

To celebrate its 125th birthday and spread the word, the Dorot Jewish Division is putting some of its favorite materials on display for an event with librarians, scholars and writers from around the country to discuss the history of Dorot, and its future, on Wednesday, Dec. 14. The event is in person and online.

That history dates to November 1897, when banker and philanthropist Jacob Schiff donated $10,000 to the New York Public Library for the purchase of “Semitic literature” and the hiring of a curator of a Jewish division in the library. Schiff ended up donating $115,000 (nearly $4 million today) over the course of his lifetime.
Mizrahi Jews: The Beauty of Jewish Diversity and the Lie of Israeli ‘Colonialism’
This November, CAMERA on Campus observed Mizrahi Heritage Month through the latest iteration of our Mizrahi Stories campaign, a collaborative effort with numerous organizations and partners.

The campaign included participants from the United States, Canada, Israel, and the United Kingdom, and was a community-wide effort to bring visibility to the Jewish communities of North Africa and the Middle East, whose stories are not often represented in the media, academia, and the portrayal of Jews in popular culture.

The prominent role of Mizrahim in Israel’s founding counters the libelous claims by detractors such as Jewish Voice for Peace, Within Our Lifetime, and Students for Justice in Palestine, which often attempt to slander Zionism.

Anti-Israel detractors often claim that the State of Israel was founded on a “settler-colonial white supremacist ideology.” When the State of Israel was established in 1948, 850,000 Mizrahi Jews were either expelled from or left surrounding Arab and Muslim countries in response to violence, threats, and abuse by their Arab neighbors and rulers. Most found refuge and settled in the State of Israel, joining the diverse confluence of Mizrahi, Ashkenazi, and Sephardic Jews that emigrated earlier to the Levant in several waves between 1882 and 1948.

Contrary to the narrative propagated by the aforementioned anti-Zionist groups, Zionism has been a longstanding feature of Mizrahi Jewish communities. Many have long maintained their connection to Eretz Yisrael in their prayers, traditions, and festivities.
Traditional Hanukkah menorah placed in Western Wall Plaza
The traditional menorah was placed in the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem’s Old City on Tuesday in advance of the upcoming Hanukkah holiday.

The menorah stands over two meters tall, is nearly two meters wide and weighs about a ton.

The Hanukkah candles will be lit using olive oil and special weather-resistant utensils, allowing the menorah to remain burning throughout every night of the eight-day holiday.

The nightly ceremonies will be streamed live on the Western Wall Heritage Foundation’s website and Facebook page.

For the first time ever, the White House this year included a menorah in its annual Christmas decorations tradition.

The menorah was placed in Cross Hall, a broad hallway on the first floor of the White House, underneath a wreath. It is positioned between the portraits of presidents Jimmy Carter and Lyndon Johnson.

The menorah was constructed by the Executive Residence Carpentry Shop from wood leftover from the 1950s-era renovation during Harry Truman’s presidency.




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