Thursday, March 02, 2023
Howard Jacobson: Is it time for Jews to do less yearning and more living?
This week, one of our greatest living authors delivered Jewish Book Week’s keynote speech. Howard Jacobson’s address argues for a new positivity towards Jewishness and Israel. Today, the JC publishes it in full.The Aboriginal leader who spoke up for the Jews
If asked to name what Jews were best at, I used always to say “argument”. Disputatiousness is our element, I insisted, but I don’t expect you to agree with me.
Today, less glibly, I’d say something different. Today I’d say that what defines Jews essentially is disappointment. Disappointment, the non-fulfilment of expectation, is the mournful poetry of the Jewish soul. Not only what we’re good at, but what explains — what helps explain, at least — how it is, to the disappointment of others, that we are still here.
I am not a scholar of Jewish thought, unless being an old Jew makes me one. I am a novelist: I read a bit, listen a bit, and make the rest up. The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks once told me he thought I’d make a great rabbi. I told him I thought he’d make a great novelist. We were only half-joking. Jews only ever half-joke. Which is a subject for another lecture. So I’ll add “rabbinic potential” to the list of what qualifies me to give this one.
The subject of my novel this evening is the story of ourselves we’ve been telling since we let God down at the dawn of time, five or 6,000 years ago by the Jewish calendar, an approximation that might be on the short side but is still long enough for disappointment to have become a habit.
In November 1938, Kristallnacht saw the destruction of synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses and homes and marked the first time the Nazis imprisoned Jews on a mass scale.You can’t say anything about Israel any more
Historians have noted that the passivity with which most Germans responded indicated to the regime that the public would have no problem accepting more extreme persecution.
But within a month, a remarkable act of protest and solidarity would come from the most unlikely of places. A 77-year-old man — who was yet to secure his own civil rights — wanted to express his horror at the pogrom, despite living 10,000 miles away and likely never having met a Jew in his life.
William Cooper, an elder from the Yorta Yorta clan, led a deputation of the Australian Aborigines’ League that walked six miles from his home in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray to the German consulate in the city to deliver a written resolution that voiced, “on behalf of the aborigines of Australia, a strong protest at the cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi Government of Germany”.
It is believed to have been the only such demonstration by non-Jews anywhere in the world. But in the Melbourne newspaper The Argus it made just four paragraphs, and by the end of the century one Aboriginal academic said the event had been “almost completely forgotten in Australian history”.
So who has been silenced from speaking about Israel? In reality it is those who defend themselves from anti-Jewish hatred — mainly Jewish people in the diaspora — who are often compelled to remain silent. You can’t easily criticise the actions of the Israeli government if you’re constantly fighting off preposterous allegations that treat Israel as uniquely evil and veer into classic antisemitism. Most Jews support the existence of Israel and don’t want their views distorted, supplying cheap ammunition to those who want to dismantle the Jewish state.
Many diaspora Jews, for example, are upset and angry about the far-right elements in the latest Israeli government, to the extent that some won’t even visit until they are replaced. But where is the space to express those concerns in non-Jewish spaces, when Israel has been accused of being an illegitimate fascist or Nazi state for decades?
Getting Jews to shut up has been a particular success of anti-Zionist ideology. It doesn’t help Palestinians or pressure Israel into making reforms. It does the opposite, cheerleading hate and silencing Jewish voices because it has made it so difficult for rational criticism to be voiced.
The Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC) recently posted a digital pamphlet to their 18,900 followers, claiming that Zionists (almost all British Jews) are a “racist minority” who are immoral, insane and responsible for “genocide”. They called on people to get “Zionists” sacked from their jobs. This campaign of demonisation and exclusion has echoes of 1930s Germany, serving to remind us exactly why a Jewish state is necessary.
Amnesty used Valentine’s Day to accuse Israel of a “war on love”. A week later, Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo told his 8.3 million followers that Israel was “dangerous to world peace”. Yes, you can’t say anything about Israel anymore.
Double Crossed
New York City’s Stuyvesant High School, the crown jewel of the city’s public education system, was once 90% Jewish. By the time I entered Stuyvesant in 2013, it was 70% Asian. In the black-and-white photos that adorned the walls, rows of Steins and Cohens looked upon the newest crop of children from working-class immigrant families. Asians are ascendant in many once heavily Jewish domains: specialized high schools; elite colleges; medical schools. Like the American Jewish community, debates now rage within Asian American communities over whether we are “real minorities” or white-adjacent, and we even write Tablet articles about being the victims of violent hate crimes.'Mapping Project' Originally Targeting Jewish Groups May Be Aimed At US Security Institutions, New Report Finds
American Jews and Asian Americans share something else in common: Both have been sold out by activist organizations that are more interested in catering to the sensibilities of the wealthy elite that dominate the Democratic Party than in advocating for ordinary working-class constituents. Leading Jewish and Asian American organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC) have demonstrated their real priorities in how they have responded to two of the biggest issues in their respective communities: a wave of violent hate crimes and discriminatory education policies.
“In New York, street harassment, minor assaults, and even full-on beatings of visible Jews are almost a banality now, too frequent over too long of a period to be considered an active crisis, even in the communities most affected,” wrote Armin Rosen in the summer of 2022. Virtually the same thing could have been said about Asians. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, there emerged one grainy video after another of Asians on the streets of American cities being beaten, occasionally to death. The victims were typically senior citizens or women, and they usually lived in coastal metropolises with high Asian populations. One attack involved an elderly Asian woman being called an anti-Asian slur before being punched in the head 125 times.
As The Scroll pointed out last year, “the rise in hate crimes [in New York] targeting highly visible and vulnerable groups like religious Jews and Asians tracks to the increase in the overall level of violent crime and disorder in the city.” Many working-class members of minority groups have reacted by advocating for stricter criminal justice policies given crime disproportionately affects them. But the groups that claim to speak for these vulnerable working-class Jews and Asian Americans, such as the ADL and AAJC, don’t advocate for these policies because they’re afraid to risk alienating the donor class and progressive base of the Democratic Party—groups that have consistently called for “restorative justice” policies and to defund the police. The ADL and AAJC has chorused those calls, virtue-signaling instead of fighting for the interests of the communities they claim they represent.
The Mapping Project, which was originally thought to be a website targeting Jewish communities in Massachusetts, may be a front for a foreign power to map out “U.S. security institutions,” according to a new report released Wednesday.
The Mapping Project was initially started in Jun. 2022, after a website tied to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, an organization dedicated to getting businesses to cut ties with Israel in protest of alleged human rights abuses towards Palestinians, was created with the exact locations of dozens of Jewish community centers, schools and synagogues, according to the American Jewish Committee. Zachor Legal Institute, a legal think tank and Jewish advocacy organization fighting the BDS movement, published a report Wednesday showing that the Mapping Project, which was originally deemed an antisemitic BDS ploy, may be a front for foreign powers such as Iran to create a strategy for taking out military and security targets, according to a press release. (RELATED: Supreme Court Declines To Hear Case Against State Law Banning Anti-Israel Boycotts)
The report explains that the Mapping Project currently shows 500 exact addresses of organizations that are accused of supporting Israel or U.S. funding for Israel. Out of the original 500, 298 are “American strategic security assets and institutions” as well as the locations of several dozen Jewish organizations in the state of Massachusetts.
“This includes institutions such as police stations, air force bases, naval installations, the U.S. Secret Service, FBI, Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals, and other government offices,” the report reads. “This raises concern that the true goal of the project is to map the American security apparatus and that the targeting of the American Jewish community – while real and troubling – may be a façade to obfuscate this plan.”
The report notes that there is “considerable evidence that Iranian elements” may be aiding or potentially even behind the Mapping Project. When the project launched, social media groups, including several with ties to Iran, such as the Iranian State-owned media outlet PressTV and Hezbollah affiliate Al Mayadeen, immediately promoted and endorsed the website.
“In addition to these organizations, U.S. terror-designated Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) itself published a ringing endorsement of the project on June 24, as did the Iranian regime-owned PressTV, which published a supportive column on Jun. 26 and a 30-minute video segment about it on Jul. 9 as part of its Palestine Declassified program,” the report said. “The program hosts lauded the Mapping Project, encouraged its replication, and explicitly accused the ADL of espionage on behalf of the Israeli Mossad.”
StopAntisemitism is proud to endorse a new report by Zachor Legal Institute (@ZachorLegal) outlining Iranian threats against U.S. targets that include the Boston Police Department, the FBI and numerous Jewish organizations.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) March 1, 2023
Full report here: https://t.co/wsYeF28fit
This includes institutions such as police stations, air force bases, naval installations, the US Secret Service, FBI, Homeland Security, US Marshals, and other government offices.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) March 1, 2023
Dozens of Jewish NGOs, schools, and synagogues are also listed among the project’s targets.
Startling info reveals out of the roughly 500 entities publicly listed on the Mapping Project website, 298 are American strategic security assets and institutions.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) March 1, 2023
Shockingly, one of those involved in the U.S. - Calla Walsh - is seen here with Senator Elizabeth Warren @SenWarren pic.twitter.com/PlS5ZcYAjw
Palestinian who killed Robert Kennedy denied parole for 16th time
Sirhan Sirhan, the Jerusalem-born Palestinian who assassinated then-U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, was denied parole on Wednesday, Reuters reported.Was Mahmoud Abbas involved in the murder of two American diplomats 50 years ago?
A review board ruled in 2021 that Sirhan was eligible for parole, but was overruled by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
“After carefully reviewing the case, including records in the California State Archives, I have determined that Sirhan has not developed the accountability and insight required to support his safe release into the community,” Newsom wrote in an op-ed at the time explaining his decision.
Sirhan subsequently sued the state, arguing the governor’s action was illegal.
It was not immediately clear how Wednesday’s ruling would impact the lawsuit.
Sirhan was convicted of murdering Kennedy, 42, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, just minutes after Kennedy had given his victory speech for winning the California Democratic presidential primary. Kennedy died in hospital the following day.
His older brother, former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas in 1963.
Sirhan has claimed he has no recollection of shooting Robert Kennedy, although he is on record as saying that he was motivated to kill him due to his support for Israel.
He was sentenced to death in 1969, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison following California’s banning of the death penalty.
Did Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas play a role in the murder of two American diplomats 50 years ago today? Or did he at least have advance knowledge of the plot and fail to warn the United States?Prince Harry's guest compared Hamas terrorists to Warsaw Ghetto fighters
It is very likely that the answers are yes and yes.
On March 1, 1973, Palestinian Arab terrorists stormed the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum, Sudan where a party for diplomats was underway. The terrorists took a number of diplomats hostage, including U.S. Ambassador to Sudan Cleo Noel and his Charges D’ Affaires, George Curtis Moore.
The Palestinian Arabs demanded the release of Palestinian Arab murderers and other terrorists imprisoned in multiple countries, including the United States. Among them was Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 due to Kennedy’s support for Israel.
President Richard M. Nixon refused to negotiate with the Palestinian Arab terrorists or accede to their demands, so the next day the terrorists murdered Noel, Moore and Belgian diplomat Guy Eid. According to multiple sources, this was done under the direct orders of PLO and Fatah Party leader Yasser Arafat. Noel and Moore were machine-gunned to death.
No one has ever faced American justice for the murders of these diplomats or for any role in the plot.
At the time, Mahmoud Abbas was a member of the Central Committee of the Fatah movement and had been since 1964, according to official Palestinian Authority websites.
Prince Harry is planning to hold an “intimate” public conversation with a hard-left trauma expert who has compared Hamas terrorists to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.Archbishop reveals revulsion for Corbyn at JW3 event with Chief Rabbi
Gabor Maté, who will take part in the livestreamed discussion with the prince on Saturday, wrote in a 2014 article for the Toronto Star: “The Palestinians use tunnels? So did my heroes, the poorly armed fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto.”
In the same article, he defended Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli civilians. “Out of impotent defiance, they fire inept rockets, causing terror for innocent Israelis but rarely physical harm,” he wrote.
During the 2021 Gaza conflict, Maté, 79, said in a livestream broadcast that Hamas was “nothing compared to the terrorism of the Israeli government”, claiming that Israel wanted to take over the whole land of “biblical Palestine” beyond the Jordan.
He also appeared on Russell Brand’s podcast, saying of Israel: “It’s the longest ethnic-cleansing operation in the 20th and 21st centuries. It’s still going on.” He went on to describe Gaza as “the world’s largest outdoor prison”.
Prince Harry is planning to hold an “intimate” public conversation with a hard-left trauma expert who has compared Hamas terrorists to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Gabor Maté, who will take part in the livestreamed discussion with the prince on Saturday, wrote in a 2014 article for the Toronto Star: “The Palestinians use tunnels? So did my heroes, the poorly armed fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto.”
In the same article, he defended Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli civilians. “Out of impotent defiance, they fire inept rockets, causing terror for innocent Israelis but rarely physical harm,” he wrote.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said he would never have forgiven himself if he had not supported the Chief Rabbi’s dramatic warning about Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party in the run-up to the 2019 general election.PragerU: Arab-Israelis: Where Would You Rather Live?
The Chief Rabbi had questioned the then Labour leader’s fitness for office as Prime Minister over the party’s handling of antisemitism allegations.
Recalling the events in a public conversation with Sir Ephraim Mirvis this week, Archbishop Welby said the Chief Rabbi had forewarned him that he had to speak out.
“I said immediately I will support you,” the Archbishop said.
When he had consulted his staff about his decision, he recalled, “Without hesitation, everybody around me said, ‘Good’.”
After the Chief Rabbi’s unprecedented intervention in the election campaign, Archbishop Welby released a statement to highlight “the deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews”.
Sir Ephraim was loudly applauded by an audience at the JW3 centre in London on Tuesday when he observed “The Archbishop of Canterbury volunteered to issue his voice… There was an enormous amount of courage and we appreciated it enormously”.
To which the Archbishop responded, ”I think it would have been cowardice not to say something. It was so obviously right I knew I would never forgive myself if we didn’t speak clearly…I know my history…You have to cut off these things off straight away because if you don’t, they become overwhelming.”
What is life like for Arabs in Israel? Are they living under an apartheid state or treated like second-class citizens? Ami Horowitz interviews residents of an Arab village inside Israel about their work, lives, income, relations with Israelis, and whether life would be better in an Arab country.
EXCLUSIVE: Israel considering flights for Palestinian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia
Israeli officials are considering a proposal to allow Palestinians who wish to perform the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca to fly from Israel's Ramon airport in Eilat, as a measure to help reduce tensions.
Mark Ruffalo – The Sorry, Not Sorry Jew-Hater
Mark Ruffalo is an American actor who spends his free time spewing antisemitic rhetoric and dangerous anti-Israel propaganda to his nearly 30 million social media followers. Ruffalo regularly aligns himself with antisemitic positions and fans the flames of Jew-hatred masked as pro-Palestinian activism.Social media firms cash in on Jew-hate, says Rachel Riley
In 2018, Ruffalo tweeted his outrage over CNN’s firing of antisemite Marc Lamont Hill. Hill was caught inciting violence against Israel and the Jewish people by reciting rhetoric that called for the dissolution of the Jewish people and the only Jewish nation. Ruffalo stated Hill was advocating for Palestinian rights, when in reality Hill openly called for the elimination of Israel, encouraged Palestinians in their “resistance,” and was later linked to notorious antisemite Louis Farrakhan.
In 2019, Ruffalo signed a letter of support for the UK’s Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Despite Corbyn being a staunch antisemite, Ruffalo described him as a “beacon of hope against racism.” The Labour Party, particularly under Corbyn, was discovered to harbor deeply anti-Jewish bias, which led to Corbyn’s dismissal.
In 2020, Ruffalo grew agitated and whined about being labeled antisemitic for falsely accusing the State of Israel of being an apartheid nation during his time on the Mehdi Hasan Show. Mehdi Hasan, another notorious antisemite, is an avid Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) supporter who within one week of launching his show on MSNBC invited guests to spew antisemitic & anti-Israel propaganda.
In 2021, Ruffalo boasted he was “proud” to add his name to support the ending of genocide at the hands of Israel. Unfortunately, the organizations he aligned himself with to “protect Palestinians” called for the destruction of Israel and America. Instead of supporting human rights groups, Ruffalo was openly supporting terrorist organizations whose mission is to destroy the world’s only Jewish nation.
Mark Ruffalo’s outrageous comparison of Israel to genocide and apartheid was met with harsh criticism around the world, leading Ruffalo to issue an apology. In a tweet, Ruffalo says he regrets using the term “genocide.” He said his description was inaccurate, inflammatory, and disrespectful and does not justify antisemitism.
Rachel Riley has warned Jewish schoolchildren about rising levels of antisemitic abuse online.Melbourne school showed ‘dereliction of duty’ to students alleging antisemitic discrimination, court told
The Countdown star claimed social media companies were using hate to boost profits.
“Companies are making money from this,” she said. “They are actively spreading, promoting a lot of it, because hate keeps people engaged online for longer, and keeping people online for longer is what makes these social media companies money.”
She added: “The Holocaust wouldn’t have happened if there weren’t the train lines to take Jews to mass extermination camps.
“The railways in themselves aren’t bad, but all the people that worked on the railways and let it happen… I see the internet in a similar way.”
She was speaking at a conference organised by StandWithUs, an antisemitism educational charity, attended by 150 pupils from the Yavneh College, JFS and Immanuel College Jewish schools.
Its aim, organisers said, was to provide students with the ability to tackle misinformation and hatred online. Statistics from Bright Data, a not-for-profit that collects examples of antisemitism online, revealed that last year less than a quarter of antisemitic posts were removed by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
The leadership at Melbourne’s Brighton Secondary College has been accused of a “dereliction of duty” on the final day of a court case in which it is alleged they failed to protect five Jewish students from antisemitic discrimination and bullying.Lawmakers Mum As Ticketmaster Doles Out Tickets For Farrakhan Hate Rally
The federal court on Thursday heard the closing submissions in the case brought by the five former students, who are suing the state of Victoria and the government-funded high school for negligence and failing to protect them as Jewish students from racial discrimination.
The plaintiffs allege their former school and the state of Victoria failed in their obligations under Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act and the UN convention on the rights of the child.
The respondents deny all allegations.
Barrister Adam Butt, representing the former students, told the court the alleged failure of the high school principal and teachers to act on his clients’ complaints equated to a “dereliction of duty”.
Chris Young KC, acting for the school and the state of Victoria, argued the defence had not properly outlined what steps should have been taken.
However, Butt pointed to submissions on expulsion and restorative justice principle as possible courses of action.
“They didn’t do anything in any cases … It’s not a question of what they should have done. It’s a question of they should have done something,” Butt told the court.
The ticketing giant hated by Taylor Swift fans and everyone else who has ever tried to buy concert tickets is now under fire from Jewish activists for selling tickets to a Louis Farrakhan event in which the minister defended Adolf Hitler and predicted another Holocaust against Jews. But many of Ticketmaster's biggest critics on Capitol Hill don't seem to care.
Ticketmaster, which charges service fees on each ticket it sells, raked in money selling tickets to Farrakhan's annual Saviours' Day conference in Chicago last weekend. During his speech at the event, Farrakhan assailed the "stranglehold that Jews have on this government" and claimed "Jewish power is what has all of our people of knowledge and wisdom and talent afraid."
The event was met with crickets on Capitol Hill, with almost no one in Congress speaking out against Ticketmaster for making money off of the Farrakhan event. The reaction is a stark contrast to lawmakers' response when Ticketmaster bungled sales last year for Taylor Swift's much-anticipated concert tour. That fiasco was in the news cycle for weeks and led to a Department of Justice investigation as well as a Senate hearing. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say Ticketmaster and its parent company, LiveNation, have a monopoly over the ticket industry, leading to price-gouging and a failure to crack down on automated scalping.
"Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, it’s merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in [sic]," wrote Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) in a Twitter post in November. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) called on the Department of Justice to investigate. None of their offices responded to a request for comment on Ticketmaster's Farrakhan sales.
Only Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.)—who also spoke out about the Taylor Swift debacle—weighed in on the Farrakhan controversy when contacted by the Washington Free Beacon.
"It is extremely concerning that Ticketmaster is choosing to use its platform to elevate and promote a well-known anti-Semite. The targeting of the Jewish people has gone on far too long and must stop," she said.
Dimitri Love graduated from @UofIllinois & was affiliated with SJP. Love went to grad school to become a teacher. "Armed resistance [is] so pivitol [sic] to our history. Imma make sure I fit it in the curriculum ..." https://t.co/hEmYrsjKWa pic.twitter.com/5dF9pUVOsA
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) March 1, 2023
PreOccupiedTerritory: Vandalism Of Dorm Rooms Really Took Rothschilds Down A Peg (satire)
Two weeks after antisemites tore ritual objects off the doorposts and smeared pork all over the residences of Jewish students here, the perpetrators voiced satisfaction that those actions have crippled the vast global cabal that controls the media, banking, entertainment, pornography, global economics, entire governments, and the minds of countless sheeple the world over.Antisemitism in Switzerland Continues to ‘Persist and Grow’: New Report
The anonymous vandal boasted to PreOccupied Territory today that his – of course it was a he – heroic blow at the University of Denver on behalf of liberty-seeking people everywhere has struck fear into the hearts of the Rothschilds, Epsteins, Adelsons, Soroses, and Weinsteins of the world, such that they now think twice before pulling the strings to manipulate markets, keep the people stupid, and profit from international political chaos.
“That’ll show ’em,” declared the vandal, striking his fist on a table. “You can’t just flood the American market with mind-numbing porn just so you can keep the people too titillated and distracted to notice you’re controlling them, and face no consequences. My brave, decisive action will have decisive repercussions among that Zionist conspiracy. And there’s more where that came from. They better not forget it.”
Police suspect that former Chula Vista resident Robert Wilson could be responsible for an incident that shocked the public on several continents in February, when an antisemitic message was displayed on the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.San Diego neo-Nazi suspected in Anne Frank House incident
Wilson is a public figure of the Goyim Defense League, an American neo-Nazi hate group that spreads antisemitic messages online, with flyer distributions and through street demonstrations. GDL members participated in at least 450 antisemitic campaigns across 42 states last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League, and are connected to 11 arrests or criminal cases nationwide.
The 41-year-old Wilson, who is originally from Canada, was supposed to stand trial in San Diego County for allegedly assaulting his next-door neighbor while yelling homophobic slurs in late 2021. inewsource reported in February that Wilson escaped prosecution and fled to Poland last year, where he has continued to spread white supremacist messages.
In September, a social media image went viral showing Wilson standing outside the Auschwitz Memorial in Poland while holding a sign with an antisemitic statement.
Antisemitic rhetoric and hate incidents are on the rise across the U.S. and in other countries. In the Netherlands, laser displays featuring white supremacist messages started appearing on buildings a few months ago. One of the first incidents occurred during a nationally televised New Years’ Eve celebration, when the text “White Lives Matter” was projected on the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, along with antisemitic language.
On Feb. 6, blue lasers were used to display a message on the house in Amsterdam where thirteen-year-old Anne Frank chronicled her experience during the Holocaust. The antisemitic text, appearing on the building in Dutch and English, stated that Frank was the “inventor of the ballpoint pen.” The message referenced a false conspiracy theory that alleges Frank’s diary was a forgery, claiming it was written with a ballpoint pen, which was not common in Europe until after World War II.
Police suspect that former Chula Vista resident Robert Wilson could be responsible for an incident that shocked the public on several continents in February, when an antisemitic message was displayed on the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.Antisemitic Flyers Dropped in Baltimore Neighborhood
Wilson is a public figure of the Goyim Defense League, an American neo-Nazi hate group that spreads antisemitic messages online, with flyer distributions and through street demonstrations. GDL members participated in at least 450 antisemitic campaigns across 42 states last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League, and are connected to 11 arrests or criminal cases nationwide.
The 41-year-old Wilson, who is originally from Canada, was supposed to stand trial in San Diego County for allegedly assaulting his next-door neighbor while yelling homophobic slurs in late 2021. inewsource reported in February that Wilson escaped prosecution and fled to Poland last year, where he has continued to spread white supremacist messages.
In September, a social media image went viral showing Wilson standing outside the Auschwitz Memorial in Poland while holding a sign with an antisemitic statement.
Antisemitic rhetoric and hate incidents are on the rise across the U.S. and in other countries. In the Netherlands, laser displays featuring white supremacist messages started appearing on buildings a few months ago. One of the first incidents occurred during a nationally televised New Years’ Eve celebration, when the text “White Lives Matter” was projected on the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, along with antisemitic language.
On Feb. 6, blue lasers were used to display a message on the house in Amsterdam where thirteen-year-old Anne Frank chronicled her experience during the Holocaust. The antisemitic text, appearing on the building in Dutch and English, stated that Frank was the “inventor of the ballpoint pen.” The message referenced a false conspiracy theory that alleges Frank’s diary was a forgery, claiming it was written with a ballpoint pen, which was not common in Europe until after World War II.
The Baltimore County Police Department (BCPD) last weekend received several reports that antisemitic flyers were dropped across the Parkville section of the city, a local CBS affiliate reported on Tuesday.
“These flyers are basically an attempt to intimidate and harass the Jewish community, Jewish residents,” Howard Libit, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council told WJZ, adding that he believes the flyers are related to a “day of hate” neo-Nazis participated in last weekend. “I know a lot of synagogues added an extra guard, added an extra precaution, spent more time thinking about security.”
On Wednesday, StopAntisemitism, a nonprofit that documents domestic and international incidents of antisemitism, said it identified the flyers as those previously distributed by a group calling itself the Goyim Defense League (GDL).
GDL’s recent activities include dropping flyers at a Daytona 500 speedway race that took place on Feb. 18-19. The group also displayed banners denouncing the Jewish people. One of them said “Henry Ford was right about the Jews” while another said “communism is Jewish,” a slogan reminiscent of those used by the Nazi Party during Hitler’s rise to power in the late Weimar Republic.
Sarkisian is being charged with aggravated harassment and criminal mischief with a hate crime enhancement.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) March 1, 2023
He was released on recognizance and is due back in court on April 17th 9am. pic.twitter.com/AhDAkxX3kZ
Garage rock duo The Black Keys book first performance in Israel
Garage rock duo The Black Keys announced their first-ever show in Israel, on July 10 in Rishon Lezion’s Live Park, at the tail end of their Dropout Boogie tour, which is taking them across Europe.Palestinian Basketball Player Joins Women’s Israeli Premier League in Historic First
The July 10 show will feature Israeli singer Ninet Tayeb as a special guest.
The American pair, singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach and percussionist Patrick Carney, have been performing together for the last 22 years. They met as kids when they were neighbors in Akron, Ohio.
They began as an independent act, recording in basements and producing their raw blues rock sound in their first albums.
Their commercial breakthrough came in 2010 with the album “Brothers” and its popular single “Tighten Up,” which won three Grammy Awards and garnered an MTV Breakthrough Video award for its unusual cast, which included Auerbach and Carney’s sons, each of whom bears an uncanny resemblance to his dad.
The setting is a playground, and the kids lip-sync the words about love and loss, crooning to one specific girl, until they end up fighting over her before their dads get involved.
Mirna Al Saih has made history by becoming the first female Palestinian basketball player to join Israel’s Premier League, the Israeli outlet Ynet reported.80 years on, Greek film festival will pay tribute to deported Jews
The 22-year-old from Bethlehem, who was named MVP of the Palestinian league two years ago, made her debut in the Israeli Premier League on Sunday as part of the team ASA Jerusalem in its game against the Elitzur Ramla basketball team, which ended with a win for the Ramla-based team.
“The bar is much higher in Israel, I really wanted to play here,” said the accounting student, according to Ynet. “It’s very different in every aspect. In Israel, the coaches teach you so many things, how to play offense and how to play defense. In the Palestinian league, there is nothing like that.”
Ohad Gal, coach of ASA Jerusalem, said Al Saih is “very committed and very willing” to learn and improve her skills.
“Physically it might be a little difficult for her, but technically she is great,” he explained. “She is a guard, technical, with good control of the ball and excellent shooting. She comes with a very positive attitude. It is impossible not to like her. She makes an effort to come to every practice, certainly when she has to make the journey from the Bethlehem area.”
Al Saih, who began playing basketball at the age of six, came to Jerusalem last season and joined a local team in the national league before being given the opportunity to play in the Premier League. She holds an Israeli identity card and is not considered a foreign player, according to Ynet.
On March 15, 1943, the first train bound for Auschwitz departed from the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, once home to one of the largest Sephardic Jewish communities in the world.On Purim, Remembering Amalek Means Remembering the Holocaust and Confronting Hate
Eighty years later, the city’s documentary film festival is paying tribute to Jews killed during the Holocaust and to the Jewish community’s enduring importance to the city.
The Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, which runs March 2-12, will feature several documentaries about the Holocaust and the Jewish experience in Greece, along with panel discussions and other screening events — in-person and online — on the subject. The full tribute is called “Adio Kerida,” the name of a traditional Sephardic love song in Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish language once commonly heard throughout the city’s streets.
“Legend has it that the members of the Jewish community sang it just before getting on the trains that would take them to the Nazi concentration camps, saying goodbye to their own people and their beloved Thessaloniki,” said Orestis Andreadakis, the festival’s director.
The documentaries to be shown include “By-standing and Standing-by” (2012), which traces the history of Thessaloniki’s Jewish population and the lesser-known community in nearby Katerini; “Salonique, ville du silence” (2006), in which Thessaloniki-born director Maurice Amaraggi brings together modern images of the city with testimonies from Holocaust survivors; “Kisses to the Children” (2011), which follows the stories of five Jews who were taken in by Christian families during Germany’s occupation of Greece; and “Heroes of Salonika” (2021), which highlights the brutal experiences of six Holocaust survivors from the city.
The Shabbat before Purim is always called Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat when we remember. What are we to remember? Exodus Chapter 17:14, and Deuteronomy Chapter 25:19 both refer to the battle against Amalek that took place when the Children of Israel came out of Egypt. They intentionally took a detour to avoid running into Amalek on the way out toward Canaan.The Jews of Iran: 10 Amazing Facts
In Exodus, after Joshua retaliated and defeated Amalek the text includes these words: “And Joshua overwhelmed the people of Amalek. Then God said to Moses, ‘Inscribe this in a document as a reminder, and read it aloud to utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven!’ Moses built an altar and named it Adonai-Nissi, God will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.”
Deuteronomy embellishes the details. “Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt, how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear. Therefore, when your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!”
Why does the text say both “remember” and “do not forget”? Aren’t they the same thing? And why is it so important to write it down in a document? The battle with Amalek was an example of a brutal attack for no valid reason, other than to kill or enslave. Amalek is picked out specifically as an example of needless hatred, the forerunner of genocide.
Just in time for Purim!How the Spanish Inquisition persecuted descendants of converted Jews
1. Jews Have Lived in Modern-Day Iran for Almost 3,000 Years
Today, Iran is the world’s largest Shiite Muslim state, with a theocratic regime that espouses religious fanaticism. But religious diversity and tolerance were some of the cornerstones of ancient Persian history.
Before Islam, Zoroastrianism was the official state religion of several major Persian dynasties. Judaism predates Islam in modern-day Iran by over 1,000 years, and Jews are one of the oldest religious minority communities in the country, known until 1935 as Persia (Jews have had a continuous presence there for 2,700 years). The first Jews arrived as Babylonian captives after the fall of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E., when the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Jerusalem.
Jews mourning the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem. From "Our day in the light of the prophecy," 1921.
2. Cyrus the Great was an Ancient Zionist
When Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 B.C.E., he felt a divinely-inspired responsibility to enable his Jewish subjects to return to Jerusalem and build the Second Temple. The Book of Isaiah says that Cyrus was appointed by God, while the Book of Ezra offers an account of Cyrus’s words upon his decree of building the Second Temple as follows:
“All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord, the God of heaven, has given to me and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.”
Incredibly, Cyrus even sent his returning Jewish subjects sacred vessels from the First Temple (which had been destroyed decades earlier) and a large sum of money for rebuilding purposes. Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire, is mentioned in a number of ancient Jewish texts, and by allowing Jewish to return to Jerusalem, he brought the First Exile to an end.
The Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient clay cylinder, has been hailed as the earliest recorded declaration of human rights, and references Cyrus’s decree that all deported people and slaves be allowed to return to their homes.
The Spanish Inquisition was founded near the end of the 15th century in Spain in order to enforce Catholic orthodoxy across Spain-controlled territories.Unpacked: The 500-Year Spanish Mystery: What Forced Sephardic Jews Out?
To achieve that goal, thousands of Jews were persecuted across the kingdom and given two options: renounce the Jewish faith and become Christian or be deported from Spain. Many Jews chose to convert, becoming Conversos.
Documents recently uncovered by the National Library of Israel showcased the ways in which the Inquisition persecuted descendants of Spanish Jews even after they had been forcefully converted to Christianity.
Dr. Aliza Moreno, a historian focusing on Judaism and the Inquisition, says that revealing lists made by Spanish clergymen make it clear they wanted to torture, question, and execute Jews who fled Spain and Portugal and continued to follow Jewish rites.
Jews in Portugal were forced to convert – unlike those in Spain who were also given the option to leave the kingdom – therefore the Inquisition believed that many Jews who converted only did so in order to avoid danger, and were continuing to follow Judaism in secret.
"The presence of the Inquisition in South America has been known in the research community for years," Moreno says. "However, despite the fact that I have long been researching this field, every time, I discover new things, thanks to their meticulous record-keeping."
"The Inquisition was a bureaucratic entity," Moreno notes. "The Conversos (Jews who were forced to convert) who were tried by the Inquisition in South America in the 17th century were more than a century removed from the time of their ancestors' expulsion or forced conversion. These people were born into Christianity and never or had any contact with Judaism.” (h/t jzaik)
How can a government apologize for an atrocity?
In 2015, the Spanish and Portuguese governments began accepting applications from the descendants of the Jews once forcibly converted, massacred, and expelled from the Iberian Peninsula.
But why offer citizenship? Why not leave the past in the past?
Because Sephardic Jews still carry the memory and the legacy of the centuries of vibrant Jewish life in Spain. This video honors the astonishing resilience of a community that refused to be destroyed.
This photo is around a hundred years old...
— National Library of Israel (@NLIsrael) March 2, 2023
It displays the reading hall at one of the National Library's former locations - the Beit Ne'eman building on B'nai B'rith Street in Jerusalem.
This was the early 1920s.
The Library was actually founded well before that, in 1892. pic.twitter.com/3AsVvIah4l
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