Friday, August 04, 2023

08/04 Links Pt2: Divided Israelis can't forget: Nowhere else is safe for the Jews; What I learned at the Pittsburgh courthouse; Rolling Stone Jumps on Pro-Terrorist Bandwagon

From Ian:

Divided Israelis can't forget: Nowhere else is safe for the Jews
Those born in Israel may not remember that the Jewish state is the only place where we can go

Is our individual place of birth a factor in our view of Israel? Can we expect someone privileged to be born here to fully comprehend the challenges of being a minority in another country? How different was my childhood in Britain from that of Israeli children today: There were few Jewish schools in existence in my youth, and certainly none in the area where I lived. I went to the local state primary school, where my schooldays were spent as “the odd one out,” viewed as a strange pupil who did not show up for school on Jewish holidays and left early on Fridays.

Could this have been the reason (although not the excuse) for classmates to tell me to “Go back to where you came from”? Born in Britain, I was never sure where I “came from” because, at the time, there was no State of Israel – it was still a dream. Here, whether you are an observant Jew or not, you know that when it is Shabbat or a Jewish holiday, the schools are conveniently closed for all.

Today in the United Kingdom, a high proportion of Jewish children attend Jewish day schools, but increasing rates of antisemitism present other challenges. Too many Jewish pupils, traveling to school on public transport, have experienced antisemitic abuse.

The level of antisemitism in the UK has risen to the point that the government now allocates £15 million a year to the Community Security Trust (CST) – the major Jewish organization created to ensure the safety of Jews in the UK. Specially trained security guards stand outside Jewish schools, synagogues, and all places where Jews congregate in large numbers.

Conversely, what is special here for our Israeli kids – that they understandably take for granted – is the safety of walking to school on their own, even at a comparatively young age. And yes, our schools and synagogues do not require security guards to ensure the safety of those within.
Conservative values can unite a divided Israel
This sense of alienation is at the heart of their request today for judicial reform that will give more power to elected officials that they feel represent them more than the elites.

It seems that most points of contention arise from areas where the government intervenes. Therefore, a shift towards more free-market and conservative philosophies could alleviate many of the internal conflicts in Israel. Even on contentious economic matters, such as the redistribution of wealth from the workforce to the ultra-Orthodox Jews who choose not to work, free-market principles can offer solutions.

In the face of the current crisis, some fringe groups have suggested separating into two different countries – one religious (Judea) and one secular (Israel), echoing the biblical schism in Israel from three thousand years ago. This is not the solution I propose. I believe in one strong Israel, which unites us through our common past and heritage. Instead, I advocate for more autonomy for local authorities and the application of free-market principles in this one united state.

As a free-market party, the Likud should lead the way in this endeavor. By embracing conservative principles, we can address the concerns of all sectors of Israeli society, from secular to religious and from liberal to conservative. We can ensure that Israel remains a Jewish and democratic state, where every individual has the freedom to define their lifestyle and every community can shape its own character.

The ongoing protests are not just about judicial reform. They are a call for a broader conversation about the future of our nation. Let us seize this opportunity to foster unity through diversity, guided by the principles of individual freedom, local autonomy, and minimal government intervention.

This is the path forward for Israel, a path that respects the diverse identities of its citizens while upholding the principles of a Jewish and democratic state.
Israel passed the ‘banana republic’ test - opinion
At long last, Israel showed that it is a country with a military, not a military with a country. Time will tell whether amending the “Basic Law: The Judiciary” by reducing its reasonableness clause will help create a better balance between Israel’s three branches of government. But something much more important has already been achieved.

Despite facing mass protests and unprecedented pressure generated by former IDF generals and reservists – who warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if he didn’t halt the bill, they would cease doing their military duty – the Knesset passed the legislation. By doing so it didn’t bow to blackmail.

That is great news for Israel’s democracy.

The IDF is a “people’s army” with a compulsory draft for most eligible 18-year-olds, both male and female. With every citizen either having served in its ranks, or having friends and family who did, it is arguably the most trusted institution in the country.

In a cynical effort to impact a key policy of the elected parliament, a number of former security chiefs – backed by big bucks, fawning media, and a sophisticated public relations campaign – breached that trust. Thankfully, their endeavor failed.

Good generals know how to wage war. But by the very nature of their positions, which entail spending the bulk of their adult lives in or under the command of others, they often know little about the workings of democracy. At any rate, governments beholden to a class of military elites are traditionally known as “banana republics.’’

And the fact that Israel’s duly elected government did not cave to coercion on the part of former generals and security chiefs is much more important to democracy than curbing the ability of judges to overrule laws on the grounds of the subjective standard of “reasonableness.”

To set the record straight: In Israel, all executive decisions are subject to judicial scrutiny. The Supreme Court has the authority to invalidate any decision found to be unlawful, based on specific stipulations in the law. Over the course of the past three decades, however, the Israeli judiciary went a step further with its “reasonableness” doctrine, which is broader in scope than in any Western democracy.


In ‘This is Europe,’ Ben Judah defies today’s landscape of books
On this week’s episode of JI's podcast, Rich and Jarrod are joined by author and journalist Ben Judah, for a conversation on his newest book, ‘This Is Europe: The Way We Live Now,’ and the continuous changes facing the region's Jewish communities

British-French author and journalist Ben Judah, who sat down with Jewish Insider last month to discuss the launch of his third book, This Is Europe: The Way We Live Now, joined JI podcast co-hosts Rich Goldberg and Jarrod Bernstein to delve deeper into his new book, which traces the impact of immigration throughout Europe, and discuss his writing process and the ever-changing landscape for Jews on the continent.

Below are excerpts of the conversation. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Rich Goldberg: Your new book, This Is Europe, a follow-up to a very similar genre, which was critically acclaimed, This Is London: Life and Death in the World City. I’m curious, how did you come to writing this kind of book, and especially this kind of series?

Ben Judah: I first decided to write my book on London when I had returned mentally and physically to the city after spending a lot of time working on Russia, and I felt that I didn’t recognize the London that I’d grown up in. The city had been so transformed by a giant influx of migration and money from the rest of the world, and I wanted to bring some of the techniques of a foreign correspondent to London, and the chief amongst them was the assumption that you don’t know what you’re facing, and that you approach things with an open mind. So my book, This Is London, it’s a journey around London with me, as a narrator… And when I wanted to write a follow-up book, I decided I wanted to write a book about Europe, and I decided that I wanted to push that technique one bit further, and that is by getting rid of the narrator. I felt that the narrator is the sort of old-fashioned European travel writer, this sort of great white male wandering around in tweed across Europe or the Middle East; it sort of got in the way of speaking and listening to the people I’ve met.

Goldberg: What is the trajectory today for French Jews?

Judah: So the first thing is, that is a reasonably large Jewish community. That is, by some measures, the third-largest Jewish community in the world after Israel and the United States — it’s got scores of schools and synagogues, and per capita, like more kosher restaurants than the United States… So looking at this, what’s happened? You know, France has been in a cycle, where you get a cycle of people who don’t have any jobs in the suburbs, they’re angry and upset, they’ve been policed by people who are very violent and racist, you know, then you get explosions of anger, the police crack down even harder, this spirals up and up and up. In various of these spirals that have been going on since about 2005, various synagogues have been attacked and Jews have been accused or viewed as like metaphors for the state, for the elites, for money, for banking, you know, and whenever things go wrong in the Middle East, because you’ve got predominantly Sephardic Jewish communities in these areas very close to Israel, abutting North African, Arab Berber communities, you get a lot of tension that rises very quickly there. So that’s sort of the big thing that’s going on.
Spiritual support: What I learned at the Pittsburgh courthouse
As a chaplain at the Pittsburgh federal courthouse for the trial for the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue building where three congregations held Shabbat services on October 27, 2018, I discovered that the courthouse can be a place of healing.

The role of the team of seven trained and certified chaplains from across the Jewish denominations was to provide spiritual care and comfort during the trial. (See Chaplains lend an ear and offer help during synagogue shooting trial | The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle (timesofisrael.com)) This group of trained professionals, with numerous years of experience dealing with trauma, came together and formed an almost unprecedented team to provide spiritual care at the courthouse and in the community for the duration of the trial. While so many in the courtroom were focused on the victims and the accused, our job was to focus on the experience of the trial for survivors, families of victims, witnesses, first responders and others dealing with the aftermath of this tragedy.

Throughout the trial and since the announcement of the sentencing, the question of the death penalty loomed with strong opinions both in favor and in opposition. As so often happens in our judicial system, another ethical question embedded in this trial was about the impact of the trial itself on those most directly affected and how others care for and support them.

The Pittsburgh Jewish community leaned on and learned from another wounded community stricken by an act of hateful violence: the Mother Emanuel Church (Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church) in Charleston, SC, which had drawn from their faith and spirituality as an important aspect of healing and recovery after the June 17, 2015 anti-Black attack that killed nine people. Specifically, Pittsburgh Jewish leaders learned that the US attorney had established a team of chaplains under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Eric Skidmore, a chaplain for the State Police of South Carolina, to provide spiritual care at the courthouse in Charleston and in the community for the duration of the trial.
MEMRI: As Tree Of Life Synagogue Shooter Bowers Is Sentenced To Death, Justice Demands Closure Of Gab – The Social Media Platform At The Center Of His Attack Where It Is Still Celebrated Daily, And Where Users Continue To Post Violent Threats Against Synagogues And Jews, Call For Assassinating Politicians, Overthrowing The U.S. Government
The social media platform Gab is a breeding ground and a gateway for radicalization and violence. Law enforcement and those who study online hate are well aware of the content posted on Gab. Yet nothing has been done about it – not even after Robert Bowers entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh with multiple firearms on October 27, 2018, shouting "All Jews must die" and killing 11 worshipers.

Bowers was an active consumer and disseminator of hate on Gab; minutes before his murder spree, he posted on it: "I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in." His words are now a rallying cry for hatemongers on the platform, where he is canonized as a neo-Nazi "saint" whom others aspire to emulate.

Gab prides itself on being "the home of free speech online." But this really means that its users are free to openly call for murder, with impunity. A meme recently posted there claimed, "Jewish power hates free speech because when people are free to speak the truth, the most obvious truth is that Jews are a threat to our societies." As one woman posted on her account, "I joined Gab last year and first learned about the Jews... Now we name the Jew and hang swastikas and fight every day."

Most first heard of Gab after the Tree of Life synagogue attack, which became a rallying cry on the platform and fueled its use by neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and anti-government types as a safe haven online. Every October 27, users celebrate the attack's anniversary with messages supporting Bowers and his actions, and with more calls to murder such as "Take a moment to reflect on his sacrifice today" and "[synagogues are] a justified military target in which Jews of all branches conspire to deprive our people of their birthright." Also, there are annual birthday celebrations for Bowers on the platform, which underline his "courage to take the fight to 11 kikes on his day of action" and his "inspiration to 1,000 more saints."

In a cowardly attempt to distance itself from the attack, Gab issued a semi-apology, stating that it "unequivocally disavows and condemns all acts of terrorism and violence" and that it was "saddened and disgusted by the news of violence in Pittsburgh." The statement has since been removed by the company, and not a day has gone by without countless threats on the platform to carry out attacks similar to the Tree of Life massacre.

Fast forward five years. On June 12, 2023, day nine of Bowers' trial, as he faced 63 federal charges and the government sought the death penalty against him, Gab's openly antisemitic CEO Andrew Torba was forced to testify. He told the court that the free speech for which he had established his platform can include antisemitic content "if it's protected by the First Amendment." Asked whether there are antisemitic posts on Gab, Torba answered, "I guess it depends on how you define antisemitism." Asked whether he personally posts "crazy" or antisemitic content on Gab, he lied and denied doing so.

In an ironic turn, some of the most ferocious neo-Nazis and white supremacists on Gab have now begun cannibalizing Torba just as they attack and express their hatred for Jews and minorities. Following Torba's testimony, an increased number of Gab users are mocking him on the platform. Their attacks include labeling him a "hypocrite narcissist" who "is a liar and spreads lies" and has "sold our meta-data to kikes." Gab, it was alleged, "block[s] or hide[s] anything that destroys" its own arguments, and "is a cash burning scam" on which "3rd party software has been profiling and databasing everything." Others added that since Gab is seeking investors, it is "selling out to kikes." "You can kiss your free speech goodbye," some asserted.


Rolling Stone Jumps on Pro-Terrorist Bandwagon
Although they’re slightly late to the party, Rolling Stone seems to have gotten the memo that the latest trend in antisemitic agitation posing as journalism is glamourizing young Palestinian terrorists. A nearly 6000-word piece by Jesse Rosenfeld – who has previously written for +972, The Nation, and Al Jazeera – fails to inform readers of Palestinian rejectionism, payments of salaries to convicted terrorists, or the effect of terror on Israeli society.

Instead, Rosenfeld portrays “Gen Z” terrorists as having no alternative but to take up arms against Israeli civilians: “‘Israel has left us no choice,’” he quotes his 22 year-old interview subject, a member of a Jenin-based terror cell, saying. “‘The occupation has proven that the more we are silent, the more it will take from us.’” What Israel has attempted to give to the Palestinians – that is, independence – isn’t mentioned.

And at the same time, the article portrays Israeli actions as wantonly evil. (“Generals, Peaceniks, and Palestinian Fighters Agree: Bibi Must Be Stopped,” July 22, reprinted on Yahoo.)

The piece brings to mind the adage that “a half-truth is a whole lie.” Consider the following passage from Rosenfeld’s article:
Elias and Mohammad al-Ashqar are in a state of shock. Sitting in the living room of their modest ground-floor family apartment in the Askar refugee camp on a brisk winter evening, they are surrounded by men from the community. The al-Ashqar brothers’ father, 61-year-old Abdel Hadi, had been shot and killed during an Israeli-army raid in the adjacent northern West Bank city of Nablus hours earlier.

The Israeli army stormed the crowded city at 10 a.m., opening fire as residents scrambled, abandoning their midmorning shopping to run for their lives down the winding streets.

Several paragraphs later, Rosenfeld does add that “the bloody Feb. 22 raid-turned-firefight was directed against the Lions’ Den.” From his description of events, however, a reader could easily think the IDF opened fire on Palestinian civilians for no reason at all. In fact, the Times of Israel reported, “The Israel Defense Forces said troops had entered Nablus to arrest [Hussam Bassam] Isleem, a senior member of the Lion’s Den terror group, who was allegedly the third member of a cell that killed Staff Sgt. Ido Baruch during a shooting attack in October.” According to a military source, “soldiers surrounded a home where three suspects, all members of the Lion’s Den terror group, were holed up, demanding they turn themselves in,” a gun battle broke out between the members of the terror cell and the IDF, and civilians were tragically killed in the crossfire. But Rolling Stone would prefer its readers to think the Ashqar brothers’ grief is solely a result of gratuitous Israeli violence.
FT doesn't let an absence of evidence dissuade it from desired anti-Israel conclusion
Financial Times writer Simon Kuper had an idea for a column. He wanted to show the parallels between the democratic “identity crisis” currently plaguing both the US and Israel, a thesis which would serve an indictment of both countries, especially the latter.

However, in doing so, Kuper resorted to what many columnists do when contemplating a seemingly brilliant idea, but one which is fundamentally flawed: cherry picking and distorting those historical and political dynamics which putatively support the pre-determined conclusion, while ignoring all evidence contradicting it.

The Aug. 3 piece is titled “Israel and the United States are battling identity crises”, with the strap line culled from the opening paragraph: “Could they both end with the dismantling of democracy?”.

After setting up the piece by alleging that “Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid to defang Israel’s Supreme Court prefigures Donald Trump’s plan to create an almighty American executive, with a justice department loyal to him”, his pseudo-historical analysis begins:
Both states were founded by a persecuted minority fleeing Europe. In both countries, the new arrivals killed or drove from their homes many of the inhabitants already living there. Both countries began as ethnostates which privileged the dominant ethnicity. In the early US, only white men with property were routinely allowed to vote. Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948 called it the “Jewish State”

To narrowly describe the events surrounding Israel’s founding as one in which Jews “drove from their homes many of the inhabitants already living there” in a manner similar to how the early Americans did so completely erases Jews’ indigenousness and continuous presence in the land.

It also ignores the fact that the war which resulted in the displacement of Palestinians was the result of the decision of Arab and Palestinian leaders to invade the nascent Jewish state after rejecting the UN plan to create both Jewish and Arab states – motivated by the antisemitic belief that even a tiny Jewish presence in the region was intolerable.
Jewish students threatened with a knife and vilified on Melbourne [Australia] bus
Police are investigating an incident in which a group of Jewish students were threatened with a knife and subjected to antisemitic comments on a bus in Elsternwick on Thursday afternoon.

About 10 students from Leibler Yavneh College boarded a public bus on Clarence Street around 4.20pm, before a passenger began to discuss “Jews, money, and drugs”, according to a student on the bus.

“He was getting louder and louder, to the point of shouting ‘Nazi’ and my friends heard him call himself a Nazi,” said the student, who asked not to be identified.

“Then out of his bag he pulled out a massive, serrated knife approximately six inches in length. One of the boys on the bus told everyone to run and get off, and we were yelling at the bus driver, ‘Open the door, he has a knife’.”

The man pursued the students for a short distance near the corner of Orrong and Glen Huntly Roads before fleeing the scene.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman confirmed they were investigating the attack.

“It’s understood a number of school students were onboard the bus when the man, believed to be in possession of a knife, began behaving erratically and shouting offensive antisemitic comments.

“Police arrived at the scene and were unable to locate the victims or offender after extensive patrols of the area,” the police spokeswoman said.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani Uttered Crude Insults Against Jews, Court Documents Show
Rudy Giuliani — the former Mayor of New York and a leading attorney for former US President Donald Trump — is again facing critical scrutiny after he was recorded making vulgar remarks about Jews and other minorities.

According to documents in the lawsuit against Giuliani made public on Wednesday by his former employee Noelle Dunphy — who accuses the former mayor of having raped and sexually abused her — the comments were made over several months in 2019. Dunphy insists that Giuliani gave her permission to record their conversations, claiming that he even pressed the record button on her cellphone on one occasion.

In one conversation with Dunphy, Giuliani regurgitated a traditional antisemitic trope about the alleged sexual inadequacy of Jewish men. “Jewish men have small c— because they can’t use them after they get married,” Giuliani was recorded as saying, “whereas the Italian men use them all their lives so they get bigger.”

On another occasion, Giuliani complained about the Jewish holiday of Passover, which commemorates the exodus from Egypt of the ancient Israelites. “Jews. They want to go through that freaking Passover all the time,” Giuliani said to Dunphy on April 1, 2019, according to one transcript. “Man, oh, man. Get over the Passover. It was like 3,000 years ago. Okay, the Red Sea parted. Big deal. Not the first time that happened.”

The transcripts also revealed Giuliani’s obsession with homosexuality. In one conversation, he referred to actor Matt Damon as a “f–” while claiming in another that Michael Bloomberg, his successor as Mayor of New York, “goes with men.”
Rapper Cardi B tweets, then deletes, picture of Orthodox Jews after legal triumph
Soon after Cardi B learned that police in Las Vegas would not charge her in connection with an incident at a recent concert, she turned to Wikipedia.

The rapper tweeted a picture that illustrates the digital encyclopedia’s entry for “Jewish religious clothing.” The picture shows two Hasidic Orthodox Jewish men walking in Borough Park, Brooklyn. One wears a fur hat called a streimel as well as a tallit, a prayer shawl, over his clothes; the other has long peyos, the sidelocks worn by some Orthodox men.

“Remember … ” she wrote.

Fans immediately connected the post to a lyric in her 2018 song “Bickenheld,’ in which she sings, “Lawyer is a Jew, he gon’ chew up all the charges.” Jewish lawyers are a sustained theme in rap music, and Cardi B’s legal team on the Las Vegas incident included multiple Jewish attorneys. But even as some interpreted the tweet as praise for her Jewish lawyers, others decried it as offensive because Cardi B appeared to attribute her attorneys’ success to their Jewish identity, not their skills. (The men in the picture are not Cardi B’s attorneys.)


Counterpoint To Globe & Mail Column: Five Ways Canada Can Expand Ties With Israel
A recent commentary by Thomas Juneau, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa, published in The Globe and Mail on July 28, called on the Canadian government to downgrade relations with Israel, proposing that Ottawa look to “freeze or reduce co-operation with Israel on some issues.”

And while such calls are unlikely to be heeded, there’s no reason why the status quo should be maintained, either. Despite the continued presence of such short-sighted perspectives – which invariably fixate on Israel’s imperfections while glossing over the country’s strengths – Canada and Israel continue to enjoy close ties.

With extensive relations, including 90,000 Canadian tourists visiting Israel every year, and annual bilateral trade totalling roughly $2 billion (CAD), there remain significant areas where Canada can not only maintain existing relations with the Jewish State, but should look to expand ties, not just for Israel’s benefit, but for the benefit of all Canadians.

Here are five ways Canada can deepen ties with Israel:
1. In no small part due to its limited geographic area (smaller than Vancouver Island with modest natural resources), Israel has never had the luxury of taking resources like water for granted. In recent decades, Israel has become a world leader, not just in water conservation and reuse, but in environmental stewardship in general. While Canada is abundantly blessed with natural resources, it has also identified environmental sustainability as a key priority, both domestically, and in its foreign aid and relations. Consequently, Canada can look to utilize Israel’s know-how, both at home and abroad.

2. Growing from a developing country in 1948 to the widely-respected “start-up nation,” Israel has become a beacon, not just in technological innovation, but in research and development (R&D) in general. Indeed, in 2022, National Research Council Canada established a project with the goal of increasing collaborative R&D projects. This initiative can become the basis for more extensive Canadian investments in Israeli technologies benefitting Canadians, such as earthquake detection systems, as was announced by Natural Resources Canada in June.
Israeli thriller series 'Broken Ties' sold to AMC
The Israeli thriller series "Broken Ties" was sold to the American cable network AMC, known for series such as "Mad Men" and "The Walking Dead," it was announced on Thursday.

The series aired last year on Yes, with Dalit Kahan serving as the main actress, creator, writer, director (alongside Ilan Aboudi) and co-producer.

The series is called "Yeladim Be'Ya'ar" ("Children in the Woods") in Hebrew and will be broadcast starting August 19 on the acclaimed streaming service "Sundance Now." The sale was carried out by Adam Berkowitz in conjunction with Kahan and Endemol Shine Israel.

The series was broadcast in February 2022, and throughout the last year was among the ten most-watched series on Yes. What is 'Broken Ties' about?

In the series, Kahan plays the homeless woman Chaya, who hardly utters a word, and is recruited against her will to become an undercover agent in the war on international baby trafficking, accompanied by an Israeli investigator (Yeftah Klein) who tries to get her into a children's farm located in a forest thicket in Europe. As they try to enter humanity's darkest places - they uncover dark places in their souls.

In 2018, the script of the series was chosen to be among the 15 most promising series in the world, out of hundreds submitted, as part of the MIA Film and Television Festival in Rome. In addition, the series participated in the Series Mania festival.

"I'm proud," said Kahan in response, "it's a respectable and flattering platform, and it's an achievement after many years of hard work with lots of partners. I wish I could be happy about it. Right now, nothing can make me happy, unless the people who are sleeping while standing will start to wake up and see that our country is simply being destroyed from every direction."
'The Stronghold': A gripping story of the Yom Kippur War - review
The Stronghold, which opens throughout Israel on August 3, is a gripping movie that dramatizes a true story of an IDF outpost that suffered heavy losses in the Yom Kippur War.

This fall will mark the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, in which the Israeli military had to defend against attacks on two fronts starting on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, provoking controversy over charges that -prime minister Golda Meir and defense minister Moshe Dayan ignored warnings of war.

An inquiry into the government’s behavior followed the war and it marked the first time that a large number of Israelis publicly questioned the government. For years, the war was rarely depicted on screen, and even then was usually shown in a scene or two in films focused on veterans’ recovery from shell shock.

Valley of Tears, the 2020 miniseries about a wide range of Israelis caught up in the war in the North, marked the first time that a major production focused on it. The series sparked an outpouring of reminiscences about the war from veterans, some of whom opened up about their trauma for the first time, and The Stronghold may further that conversation. Golda, the movie starring Helen Mirren as the former prime minister – which will open at the end of August – looks closely at how Meir handled the war, particularly in the south, where greatly outnumbered regular army units had to hold the line for days until reservists could be mobilized. The Stronghold tells the story of one such outpost, on the banks of the Suez Canal.

This movie, which is based on the memories of soldiers who were there and uses their real names, focuses on the human cost of the war, although the politics of how it was handled are never far away. In an unusual move, an expanded version of The Stronghold will be broadcast on KAN 11 as a series in the fall, and the movie will also be shown on the YES Israeli movie channel to mark the war’s anniversary, but I recommend people see it in theaters, where it will have the strongest impact.

Like Golda, it opens with the interrogation of one of the main characters about his conduct during that conflict. The movie then flashes back to October 5, 1973, the day before the war broke out, when the hippy-ish Dr. Nahum Werbin (Michael Aloni) arrives at the remote Sinai outpost to the sound of blaring rock music, wearing white sneakers and pukka shell necklaces, and expecting nothing more taxing than giving out aspirin and blister cream. The outpost is commanded by Shlomo (Daniel Gad), a soldier from a hesder yeshiva, who is expecting that Yom Kippur deep in the Sinai will be as quiet as every other day, marked only by prayers and fasting.
A pop-up exhibit about Shanghai’s surprising Jewish history is on display in Lower Manhattan
Visitors to a Lower Manhattan office building renamed to reflect a lucky number in Chinese tradition can, for the next few weeks, get a firsthand look at how China was once a fortunate destination for tens of thousands of Jews.

A temporary exhibit at 28 Liberty Street’s Fosun Plaza showcases the 20,000 Jews who took refuge in Shanghai between 1938 and 1941 to escape Nazi persecution. China was the only country with an open-door policy at the time, allowing Jews without an entry visa to settle there.

Family portraits of milestones and the mundane, candid shots of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee handing out clothing, birth certificates, boat tickets, letters and more line colorful display walls at the exhibit, a pop-up satellite of the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum.

Jerry Lindenstraus, 94, fled to Shanghai with his family following Kristallnacht, and settled in Hongkew, one of the poorer areas near the port. He credits the Chinese people for the existence of his large family.

“If it wasn’t for Shanghai I wouldn’t be here and neither would they,” Lindenstraus said during an event this week kicking off the exhibit, which will be in place until Aug. 14.

The Shanghai museum was founded in 2007 and completed a major expansion in 2020. The new exhibit, titled “Shanghai, Homeland Once Upon a Time – Jewish Refugees and Shanghai,” draws on its collections to pull together more than 200 photographs and 30 pieces of replica memorabilia to tell the story of the brief period when the Chinese coastal city was a significant Jewish population center.

The exhibit features six sections: “Fleeing to Shanghai,” “Starting a New Life,” “Bittersweet Memories,” “After the War” and “New Look of the Homeland.”

Each section highlights excerpts from different refugees and or their descendants giving insight into their lives and experiences. In “Starting a New Life,” the exhibit highlights work in a tailor shop, the types of food eaten, arts, sports, music and Jewish education.




Monument Marking 100th Birthday of Shimon Peres Gets Unveiled Outside Childhood Home in Belarus
The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation marked what would’ve been the 100th birthday of its namesake, Israel’s late President Shimon Peres, by unveiling on Wednesday a monument in his honor in his Belarusian hometown of Vishnyeva.

The memorial installed in the yard of Peres’ former family home was made from Belarusian boulder and includes the emblems of Belarus and Israel. It also has a plaque with an inscription explaining Peres’ birthplace and calling him a man who was destined to become famous around the world, Belarus’ official website reported. After the memorial’s unveiling ceremony, attendees drank water from the well by Peres’ childhood home.

Peres, who was born in 1923 as Szymon Perski before changing his name, was raised in Vishnyeva until his family moved in 1934 to then-Mandatory Palestine. His grandfather who remained in Belarus was shot with many other villagers during the Great Patriotic War that took place from June 1941-May 1945. As often as he could, Peres visited Vishnyeva and his former family home, and drank from a local well, according to Belarus’ official website. Peres — who was Israel’s eighth prime minister, ninth president and also a Nobel laureate — died in 2016 at the age of 93.

At the monument’s unveiling ceremony on Wednesday, Minsk Oblast Deputy Governor Ivan Markevich praised Peres, saying he “always defended sovereignty and the interests of people. This politician, just like Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, did a lot for his native country.”

Lukashenko, however, is widely considered an authoritarian strongman and has a history of uttering antisemitic comments.

“The figure of Shimon Peres symbolizes the future in many ways,” added the Chargé d’Affaires of Israel in Belarus, Zvi Mirkin. “This man stood at the origins of the Jewish military industry; he did a lot for the development of Israeli fundamental science. In many ways he showed Israel the way to the future. This [monument] gives the place additional symbolism.”




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2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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