Tuesday, September 17, 2024

09/17 Links Pt2: Bad News for the Jews; Beware distinguished professors rewriting history; Fetterman rips NYTs for spreading Hamas propaganda

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Bad News for the Jews
What ought an American Jew think when reading the news every day? It is a discouraging way to start a Monday morning. But we are way past that. Because this type of news consumption is also a Tuesday morning thing, and a Wednesday morning thing, and on and on. If you spend Shabbat offline, it is getting difficult not to wince when turning the phone back on each Saturday night.

Which is, I think, a point that goes ignored outside the Jewish community. There isn’t a particularly outrageous story that has singularly instilled fear in the Jewish community. There is, instead, an unlifting smog blanketing public life. It’s ugly, it’s unhealthy, and it narrows a person’s scope of vision.

It’s also selective. Take tomorrow’s congressional hearing on hate crimes. Republicans in the House hold the majority, so they have been able to hold House hearings exclusively on outbreaks of institutional anti-Semitism, such as those that occurred at universities around the country. GOP senators would like the upper chamber to follow suit, but Democrats hold the Senate majority so any focus on anti-Semitism must be watered down to an insulting degree.

“Tuesday’s hearing is a first for the Senate since Oct. 7 and the proceedings are not shaping up as a bipartisan effort,” reports Jewish Insider. “Judiciary Committee Republicans have been urging Democrats for months to convene a hearing on how the uptick in antisemitism on college campuses is violating the civil rights of Jewish students — similar to their House GOP counterparts’ hearings with embattled university presidents earlier in the year.”

You’d think it would be a no-brainer, but you’d be wrong. Every single instance of anti-Semitism listed above is the result of progressive ideological activism, and therefore Democrats have decided to make the hearings about the “rise in hate incidents across the country, particularly targeting the Jewish, Arab, and Muslim communities.”

There is no trend of hate crimes against any community that is comparable to what the Jewish community has been experiencing. Jews and only Jews are seeing their civil rights come under relentless attack on campus. Tomorrow, thanks to Democratic leaders such as Dick Durbin, the United States Senate will invent a false equivalence between the victims of anti-Semitism and the perpetrators, so that criticizing anti-Semitism itself will be seen as a violation of Americans’ rights.

So that’s where we are: Monday’s news was full of reports of Jews being attacked with little or no concern expressed by the authorities. Tuesday’s news will be about the Senate making a public mockery of Jewish concerns. What’s the forecast for Wednesday? Expect more smog.

It’s absurd that anybody would be comfortable with this being Jews’ daily experience in America for even a week. It’s now been that way for nearly a year. Let’s not get used to this.
Why Bernard-Henri Lévy thinks supporting Israel is a matter of human rights
Despite the sobering title of his new book, Israel Alone, the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy does not truly believe the Jewish state is lacking in friends. In fact, he thinks all democrats — with a lowercase “d” — should be aligned with Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks as the Jewish state stares down an increasingly tangible Iranian threat.

“It is not only the Jews who are concerned. It is really in the existential interest of the West. But not only the West — the Global West,” Lévy told Jewish Insider in an interview on Monday amid a spate of public appearances in the United States to promote his new book’s publication in English.

That’s not because Lévy expects people around the world who support democracy to reflexively back Israel. He knows that would be naive. Instead, he thinks supporting Israel is needed because Hamas’ murderous incursion into southern Israel last year represents a turning point for the cadre of anti-democratic forces gaining ground around the world.

“I knew that there was a constellation of forces which were aligning with each other — Iran, China, Russia, Turkey, radical Islam like the Taliban and [the] Muslim Brotherhood. But I was not sure that the process was so advanced,” Lévy explained. By “Global West,” he means supporters of democracy anywhere, even those living under authoritarian regimes.

Israel’s battle against Hamas in Gaza is more than a small regional fight against a terror group, Lévy argues. It’s an existential battle for all of the West against Iran, and the other authoritarian nations with which Tehran aligns itself.

“I think of my friends, Iranian women who go to Tehran and Isfahan with fire in the wind, if I think of my friends — lawyers in jail in Turkey — I’m really concerned for them if Iran wins,” said Lévy. “If Israel happens to lose, it will be a disaster for all of them, for all the militants of human rights all over the world.”

Israel Alone is a relatively slim volume, using sparse prose to describe the horrific events of Oct. 7 and their world-shattering impact on Israelis and Jews and, Lévy hopes, for democrats the world over. Lévy, who first traveled to Israel in 1967, flew to Israel on the morning of Oct. 8. At the time, he didn’t know that a book would come from it; that decision came a few days later, after visiting Kibbutz Be’eri and, later, a meeting with Yoni Asher, whose wife and two young daughters had been taken hostage. (They were freed in November.)

“I realized with a chill that the world had just witnessed an event whose shockwaves and blast effect would change the course of all our lives — including my own,” Lévy wrote toward the start of the book.

The book raises several questions stemming from the Oct. 7 attacks: Why Israel? What to make of the settler-colonial narrative targeting Israel? Why has there been such fierce denial of the attacks? And, most painful for Lévy, how should Israel’s backers make sense of the innocent Gazans killed in the ensuing war? Lévy attempts to answer them with a philosophical precision, placing the events of the past year in a broader historical context.

This moment, Lévy argued, should be one of moral clarity. “Even during the Cold War,” he stated, “we have never been in such a critical situation, we democrats.”
$1M offered to LGBTQ advocacy groups to host Pride parade in Gaza, West Bank
A watchdog group that aims to expose hypocrisy announced Monday that it would donate $1 million to “Queers for Palestine” or any US LGBTQ advocacy organization to host a gay pride parade in Gaza or the West Bank.

Anti-Israel groups such as “Queers for Palestine” have surfaced across America since the Hamas terror group attacked Israel on October 7, but homosexuality remains deeply taboo in the Palestinian territories.

Gay and transgender people in Gaza and the West Bank face a significant level of persecution and are often subjected to horrific acts.

New Tolerance Campaign (NTC) President Gregory T. Angelo, who is gay and the former president of Log Cabin Republicans, said the campaign is a “wake-up call” to anyone who identifies as part of the “Queers for Palestine” or “Gays for Gaza” movements.

“I don’t want people to just shrug off this campaign as some kind of publicity stunt or something that is supposed to be comical. It actually is a legitimate offer,” Angelo told Fox News Digital.

“This campaign emerged to call out these purported advocates of LGBT equality and put our money where their mouths are,” he continued. “I think that this is a real opportunity for these groups to legitimately step up and host an event that would either highlight the fact that the Palestinian territories are not indeed a good place for LGBTQ individuals to be living, or it could be a breakthrough moment for pluralism and peace in the Middle East.”

The New Tolerance Campaign said it secured commitments for the $1 million prize and will begin publicizing the offer with mobile billboards circulating around Columbia University in New York City, the headquarters of the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C. and UCLA in Los Angeles.

“Obviously, the $1 million prize is something that is flashy. It was designed to get attention; it was designed to turn heads. But the greater drive behind this project is one of equality and broad human rights,” Angelo said.


Beware distinguished professors rewriting history
To make the facts fit his thesis that “the Zionists” were to blame for the Jews’ flight, Shlaim brazenly writes that the Iraqi government “had extended the deadline for registration from March until the end of July” to encompass the last three bombings.

How does Shlaim’s hypothesis of Zionist culpability square with an amply documented history of anti-Jewish persecution? It is a history to which Shlaim’s own family bears witness. In the late 1940s, persecution of the Jewish population intensified in response to the imminent establishment of the Jewish state. But Shlaim claims that were it not for the “Zionist” bombs, “less than a fifth” of the community would have left Iraq.

Iraqi Jews already had reason enough to seek a haven in Israel—rising pro-Nazi sentiment in the 1930s; the memory of a vicious Baghdad pogrom in 1941; the execution of the wealthy non-Zionist businessman Shafik Ades in 1948; and the arrests, extortion and racist laws persecuting and dispossessing them.

Why is all this important? Because Shlaim is trading on his reputation as a distinguished and prominent historian to spread his falsehoods.

Mostly far-left and Arab-propaganda sites have been platforming him. For instance, Jewish Voice for Peace is propagating a revisionist history of the Iraqi Jews based on Shlaim’s distorted claims.

But the plaudits have also been flowing from “respectable,” mainstream reviewers of Shlaim’s book. Eugene Rogan, author of The Arabs, called Three Worlds the best book he had read all year.

Max Hastings had this to say in the Sunday Times: “This remarkable upside-down tale. … A personal story, not a polemic … provocative … His personal odyssey confers on Shlaim an exceptional authority for his words; he can say things that others of us cannot … his thesis deserves to be considered with respect.”

Even the atrocities of Oct. 7 have not attenuated Shaim’s hostility to Israel. He lazily bandies about the propaganda terms “settler colonial,” “genocide,” “second Nakba” and “apartheid,” advocating a one-state, secular democratic state in place of the Jewish state—without pausing to examine whether Hamas wants such a political solution.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that in the twilight of his long career, Shlaim has transitioned from bona-fide scholar to Israel-bashing propagandist.
Comedy Cellar USA: Historian Andrew Roberts - Churchill & WWII. Is the Tucker/ Darryl Cooper Interview Anti-Semitic?
Noted historian and Churchill Expert Lord Andrew Roberts gives us his take on the recent Darryl Cooper (@MartyrMade) interview controversy. Was Churchill the villain of WWII? Is Cooper's take anti-semitic?

Roberts' books, including Churchill: Walking with Destiny, are available on Amazon and everywhere else.

“Unarguably the best single-volume biography of Churchill . . . A brilliant feat of storytelling, monumental in scope, yet put together with tenderness for a man who had always believed that he would be Britain’s savior.” —Wall Street Journal


EU’s hawkish new leadership announced, without Israel critic Borrell
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen unveiled in Strasbourg on Tuesday her new senior team to lead the EU through the next five years.

The proposed commission offers a tough front to Russia, with the new defense brief going to former Lithuanian prime minister Andrius Kubilius, one of several hawkish Russia critics in eastern Europe to receive a prominent role.

Another was Estonia’s ex-premier Kaja Kallas, who had already been selected as the bloc’s new foreign policy chief. She will replace Spain’s Josep Borrell, whose tenure was marked by pointed criticism of Israel.

Kallas has not been generally outspoken on Israel, and has focused on the threat Russia poses to the Baltic states and the rest of Europe.

She firmly denounced Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel in April, calling it “unjustified.”

Kallas also blasted Hamas after the October 7 attack that started the ongoing war in Gaza.

“Hamas is waging a ruthless campaign of terror with zero regard for human life, including the lives of Palestinians,” she said in November. “Israel is fully entitled to defend itself. But it must do so in a way that spares innocent lives and adheres to the norms of international law.”

“Kallas knows firsthand the implications of living in an unstable region and experiencing foreign aggression,” said ELNET, an organization that works to foster closer ties between Israel and Europe.

“Kallas has a deep understanding of foreign aggression and terrorism, and what Israel is going through since Oct. 7, just as the Russian threat looms over Europe, the Iranian threat destabilizes the Middle East, highlighting the need for a united front against these common challenges,” the statement continued.

Estonia under Kallas has been one of Europe’s most vocal backers of Ukraine following the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022.

Kallas, Estonia’s first female prime minister, handed in her formal resignation in July to replace Borrell.

On Saturday, Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused Borrell of “antisemitism,” after the top diplomat expressed outrage over Israeli strikes in the central Gaza Strip last week, in which the UN said six of its staffers were killed.


Anti-Israel Activist Says Calls for 'Intifada' are 'Not Hate Speech' During Senate Anti-Semitism Hearing
An Arab-American activist invited by Senate Democrats to testify at an anti-Semitism hearing on Tuesday defended calls for "intifada" and praise for Hamas "martyrs" on college campuses, telling lawmakers these chants are "not hate speech."

Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, said such calls were ambiguous and could "mean different [things]."

"I don't think it's automatically hate speech," she said. "The problem is that there's nuance, I'm trying to introduce to this conversation."

Berry was one of two witnesses invited by the Democratic leadership on the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify at the hearing on "Stemming the Tide of Hate Crimes in America." She described the anti-Israel protests as a "national organic student movement" that has "come together to support Palestinian human rights."

The hearing comes as Republicans on the committee have spent months calling for an inquiry into the nationwide surge in anti-Semitism. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) expanded the hearing to cover the more general topic of "hate crimes in America."

During the hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) showed photos of pro-Hamas activists waving signs that read "Long Live the Intifada," and asked Berry whether she would condemn this as a call to violence against Jews.

"I don't know that person, and I don't know that sign," said Berry. "Long live the Intifada can mean different [things] ... Intifada also means ‘uprising’ for Palestinians."

The First and Second Intifadas were violent Palestinian uprisings that targeted Jewish civilians in terror attacks, killing over 1,000 Israelis in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Berry also declined to condemn a slogan, projected on the side of a George Washington University building after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, that read "Glory to Our Martyrs." She said banners reading "Free Palestine from the River to the Sea"—a reference to the destruction of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian state—were "not hate speech."


Susan Wild Apologizes for Smearing Her Own Constituents, Defends Contradictory Israel-Gaza Letters to Jewish Constituents
Democratic Rep. Susan Wild (Pa.) admitted during a congressional debate Sunday that she failed to "think" before disparaging her conservative constituents. She also offered an unusual defense for sending an anti-Israel letter to a constituent asking her to support the Jewish state.

Republican representative Ryan Mackenzie brought up both issues during the debate to portray Wild as a "radical partisan" who wavers in her support for Israel.

Mackenzie, who narrowly trails Wild in the race, referred to a Washington Free Beacon report that found Wild sent dueling letters to two Jewish constituents—a mother and daughter—who sought her support for Israel. In one letter, Wild said, "Israel has a right to defend itself" and pledged to "do everything I can" to ensure Israel’s security. In the other letter, Wild struck an anti-Israel tone, accusing the Israeli government of "inflicting devastation" on civilians in Gaza.

"She was caught red-handed, taking both sides of a serious issue like this to her constituents. That kind of deception should not be allowed, and I think it’s reprehensible," Mackenzie said during the debate.

Wild addressed the accusation, though she didn't explain how an anti-Israel letter was sent to a pro-Israel constituent.

"We don’t have a one-size-fits-all letter that we send to all constituents on any given subject. We try to address the concerns that are actually being voiced in whatever communication that we get," Wild said.

Mackenzie used the location of the debate, Carbon County, to address how Wild disparaged voters in the Republican stronghold.

In 2022, Wild said she would have "to school" her conservative constituents, and in a leaked conference call earlier this year, she lamented that voters in Carbon County "drank the Trump Kool-Aid."

Wild apologized for the remarks and said she had failed to "think" before speaking.
But No Boycotts on Russia, China or Iran: The Staggering Hypocrisy of Starmer, Trudeau and Scholz
[T]he UK government announced that it is imposing an "immediate" weapons embargo against Israel. The statement followed almost a year of relentless attacks on Israel, not only by Iran's proxies -- Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis -- but by Iran itself, and probably several tons of unverified propaganda by Hamas that Israel is supposedly committing "war crimes."

Even South Africa is seeking to extend the deadline for presenting evidence against Israel at the International Court of Justice, for lack of evidence of its allegations of genocide. So far, all evidence points to Israel being "the world's most moral army." Meanwhile, the same cannot be said for the entities attacking it.

The UK suspended "around 30 licences for items used in the current conflict in Gaza which go to the IDF, from a total of approximately 350 licences to Israel" allegedly because of Hamas-induced fear that they "might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law." [emphasis added]

Hamas, on the other hand, continues to receive Britain's support: Although UNRWA has proven itself to be identical with Hamas, with roughly 10% of its members proven to have been terrorists or with ties to terror groups, and having used its entire Gaza infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, for the purpose of facilitating terror and missile attacks against Israel and its civilians...

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, in his announcement of the weapons embargo to the House of Commons, said, "in July, I told this House that this government's priority in the region would be to advance the cause of peace" -- apparently because nothing spells peace more than emboldening terrorists.

The UK government worries about Red Cross access to terrorists who participated in the most gruesome crimes, while the ICRC's blatant lack of interest in the Israeli hostages held by Hamas did not even merit a mention by Lammy.

The UK's arms embargo appears to represent nothing so much as pure racist perfidy. Lammy completely ignores the extreme lengths to which Israel has gone to avoid civilian casualties, as well as the huge amounts of humanitarian aid it has facilitated into the Gaza Strip.

Spain has also suspended arms export licenses to Israel since October 7. Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said the Gaza war "made us realize the importance of a fair and lasting solution" to the Palestinian conflict with Israel. Fair and lasting, evidently, means siding with terrorists. It is particularly unbecoming of Spain, after 60 years of having combated the terrorist group ETA, to throw the first stone.

By contrast, Germany is massively arming Qatar, which, alongside Iran, is the most significant backer of Hamas, and effectively every other Islamic terrorist group.

What will be the result of the embargoes? Western leaders claim to want de-escalation, but placing Israel under arms embargo only serves to strengthen and empower Qatar, Iran and Iran's terrorist proxies -- which in turn can lead only to further destabilizing the Middle East, particularly after Iran regime succeeds in acquiring nuclear weapons.


The impact of 'I am Hamas' on South Africa's Jewish community
According to dictionary.com, the word “humane” is characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy, especially for the suffering or distressed. It is synonymous with being benevolent, gentle, kindhearted, and merciful.

But if you wanted to find a complete mirror image opposite, look no further than the savage terrorists of Hamas whose sole purpose is to brutalize others by committing heinous atrocities while being impervious to the cries and anguish of their fellow man.

And while no one can really grasp the depth of evil and base impulses that cause one human being to turn their back on all manner of reason and goodness, as a result of the hateful indoctrination deposited into their hearts and minds from birth, it defies all understanding to digest the fact that anyone would choose to align with that level of depravity, preferring it to sanity and rationale.

Yet, that was the clear direction that the president of South Africa’s Muslim Judicial Council, Sheikh Riad Fataar, took when he expressed the words, “I am Hamas, we all are.” Not only did he speak for himself, he also included all of Cape Town, South Africa, as being Hamas, essentially enjoining each resident of the country’s capital as those who share his hateful viewpoint.

But to assume that Fataar’s abhorrent sentiments and identification with a violent terror group is espoused by all of Cape Town doesn’t take into account that there is a sizable Jewish community, estimated at 12,500, who also call that city home, comprising 23.9% of all its residents. For them, it’s been a year of increased attacks following the October 7th massacre, which has manifested itself by the burning of Israeli flags, calls for the deaths of Zionists, as well as antisemitic graffiti, protests outside synagogues, and flagrant intimidation by chanting, “From the river to the sea." (“Cape Town Jews doubly victimized as antisemitism rages,” Jewish Report, October 19, 2023).

So, if you’re a member of that community, feeling the daily intensity of animus that is being leveled on a fever-pitch scale, you may, indeed, begin to realize that Cape Town is no longer a welcoming venue for your people. If the statement, “We are Hamas,” can stand, without being disavowed by the other 4,760,500 residents, who are not necessarily of the Muslim faith, it begs the question as to whether they also acquiesce to being included in that point of view.
Ritchie Torres Calls for All Universities to Enshrine Protection of Zionist Students in Official Conduct Codes
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) released a video over the weekend, calling for all American universities to adopt the official International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

In the video, Torres praised New York University (NYU) over their decision to “modernize” their hate speech policies by adding protections for students that identify as Zionist. Torres argued that these changes are necessary “in response to the increasingly complex and ever-evolving reality of campus antisemitism.” He called on university administrators nationwide emulate NYU and bolster protections for Jewish students.

“NYU’s decision to adopt a fuller understanding of antisemitism sets an example that others in academia should follow for the safety of their Jewish students,” Torres said.

Torres continued, calling antisemitism “an ancient virus that mutates over time.” He urged universities to be “nimble” in responding to the new iterations of antisemitism arising on their campuses. He asserted that antisemitism can manifest itself in hatred of Jews both “as a religion” and “as a nation.”

“Anti-Zionism and antisemitism are indeed intersectional, and cannot be so easily compartmentalized in the real world as they can be in academic spaces,” Torres said.

Torres argued that modern antisemites replace use “Zionist” as a replacement word for “Jew.” He added that discrimination against “Zionists” is indeed antisemitism in both “intent and effect.”

“Rejecting moral clarity about right and wrong does not weaken the academic enterprise; it strengthens it,” Torres added.

Torres has repeatedly lambasted universities for fostering a hostile environment for Jewish students in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel. He has called anti-Israel campus activists and academics “pseudo-intellectuals” and condemned them for peddling antisemitism in the name of social justice.


Rich Lowry: Cornell hate prof is a stain on the academy — and there are hundreds just like him
The remarkable thing about Russell Rickford is that there is nothing extraordinary about him.

The Cornell University prof gained notoriety in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7 by declaring that he found the terror attack “exhilarating.”

He wasn’t specific about what was more exciting to him — the slaughter of hundreds of people at a music festival, including wounded people at point-blank range, the mass hostage-taking, the burning of people alive or the horrific sexual violence.

For the committed anti-Zionist, there must be so many thrilling moments to choose from.

Afterward, Rickford apologized for his “horrible choice of words.”

But his remarks at a pro-Palestinian rally at the Ithaca Commons on Oct. 15 weren’t a matter of mere vocabulary. He didn’t say “exhilarating” when he meant to use a word that means the opposite, or something less positive.

He was affirming throughout about a cruel massacre. He said that “Hamas has challenged the monopoly of violence,” that “Hamas has shifted the balance of power,” that “Hamas has punctured the illusion of invincibility” and that “Hamas has changed the terms of the debate.”

All of this was praise.

Cornell prof who lauded Hamas attack as ‘exhilarating’ is back at school after dodging punishment
Then Rickford added to his toxic brew the contention that Palestinians and Gazans on that day “were able to breathe, they were able to breathe for the first time in years. It was exhilarating. It was energizing. And if they weren’t exhilarated by this challenge to the monopoly of violence, by this shifting of the balance of power, then they would not be human. I was exhilarated.”

The problem with this passage isn’t that the sentiment is expressed imprecisely — it’s the sentiment itself.

Sadly, Rickford was correct that many Palestinians exulted in innocent Israeli civilians getting gunned down in cold blood, but this was the perverse reaction of a people twisted by hatred that no one with an ounce of humanity could excuse, let alone share in.

Rickford stipulated that he “abhors” violence and the targeting of civilians.

This caveat doesn’t mean much, though, if you are full of admiration for . . . a violent attack that targeted civilians.

It’s a little like saying, “I wholeheartedly oppose harm coming to any Olympic athletes, but the 1972 Munich massacre sure was thrilling. I have never felt so excited.”
Educate Americans First
Yet it is telling that universities have been visibly complicit in assisting international students in seeking to avoid consequences. For example, MIT publicly announced its reluctance to discipline rule-breaking foreign student protesters for fear that their suspension might cause them to be deported. Most other universities have been very reluctant to call in the police to shut down rule-breaking protests in part out of fear that arrests of foreign students could result in deportations.

Because of these efforts to conceal the role of foreign students in campus protests, we cannot quantify their participation, but we have plenty of anecdotes of their pivotal involvement. For example, Al Jazeera profiled Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian raised in Syria who is enrolled at Columbia University. According to that report, Khalil avoided joining the encampment for fear of suspension and deportation and instead took a role behind the scenes as “lead negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest.” Despite his effort to assist the protests without directly participating in them, Khalil was suspended, but that suspension was quickly rescinded. According to Al Jazeera, Khalil “even received a call from the Columbia University president’s office, apologizing for the mistake.” Like MIT, Columbia officials were eager to avoid punishments for international students that might result in deportations.

The USC Annenberg Media similarly profiled Yousef Khafaja, a Palestinian raised in Germany, who was active in the UCLA encampment. According to that report, “the fear of the consequences he could potentially face as an international student participating in protests has never stopped him from doing so,” then it quoted Khafaja as saying, “Whatever happens to me is not going to be as important as the cause.” But the story acknowledges this sentiment as exceptional, noting “the general fear among pro-Palestinian protesters, who are covering their faces to hide their identity” with concerns about their visa status.

The Washington Post described the experience of two Cornell University international students, Momodou Taal and Bianca Waked, who both served as negotiators for protesters. Despite their efforts to avoid breaking rules by directly participating in protest actions, both nevertheless received suspensions. As they told the Post, they were “only in the encampment area the night before receiving the suspension letter to negotiate with the administration.” Like the claim that there is a distinction between the political and military wings of Hamas, university officials may not believe that negotiators are different from protesters.

Even if the involvement of international students in the protests cannot be fully documented, it is still clear that many foreign students were key contributors to those protests. As the Post put it, “The Post could not verify how many international students participated in the ongoing campus protests. Students at various universities, however, told The Post international students had been playing significant roles as speakers, teachers and general supporters, while avoiding encampments and other areas where the risk of arrest or suspension was high.”

International students have also played a longer-term indirect role in contributing to the wave of anti-Israel protests because many foreign students holding bigoted views imported from their home cultures eventually become professors at American universities where they further normalize hateful doctrines foreign to American culture. For example, Joseph Massad, a Columbia professor who was lambasted during congressional hearings as contributing to the antisemitic culture at the university, had previously been an international doctoral student at Columbia. A critical mass of anti-Israel international students eventually leads to a critical mass of anti-Israel faculty, who in turn recruit U.S. students to their cause. According to a 2019 report by George Mason University’s Institute for Immigration Research, 22% of university faculty are foreign-born, of whom over half remain foreign citizens.

Universities have shown little sensitivity to the potential problem of excess foreign influence. The amount of money they receive directly from foreign students and indirectly from foreign gifts, grants, and satellite campuses is too attractive for them to restrain themselves. And as they become globalized institutions, they feel even less obligation to attend to whether the education they offer serves American rather than foreign interests.

Yet despite all the money America universities receive from abroad, they receive even more from American taxpayers. If U.S. universities prove unable to distinguish between healthy and poisonous doses of foreign influence, policymakers may have to. Certainly, if universities wish to continue receiving large public subsidies, they will eventually be forced to ensure that they are serving American purposes by educating American students in American values and limiting foreign influence over the nature and content of the educations they are providing to foreign- and native-born students alike.
The Tikvah Podcast: Marc Novicoff on Why Elite Colleges Were More Likely to Protest Israel
The academic year of 2023-2024 was an annus horribilis for Jewish students on American campuses. But, for all the attention paid to the likes of Columbia and UCLA, one can zoom out and ask whether the protest activity was evenly distributed across American colleges and universities, or whether it was concentrated at certain kinds of schools?

Marc Novicoff, the associate editor of the Washington Monthly and a freelance writer, asked that question in June, and found that the protests and encampments were correlated with the tuition price, the level of student-body wealth, and the prestige of the university. As the school year begins once again, Marc sits down with host Jonathan Silver to explain his findings, and describe how he tested the proposition that elite colleges are much more likely to be the home of pro-Hamas, anti-Israel demonstrations.


Fetterman rips liberal paper for spreading Hamas propaganda after interview with terrorist
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., accused the New York Times of spreading Hamas propaganda after the paper quoted Khaled Meshal, one of the terror group's most senior officials, in a new report Tuesday.

The Times story, headlined "Hamas is surviving war in Israel. Now it hopes to thrive in Gaza again," centers around an interview with Meshal, who insisted Hamas "is winning the war and will play a decisive role in Gaza’s future" despite Israel's commitment to eradicate the terror group responsible for killing 1,200 people on October 7.

The Times interviewed Meshal for two-hours in his living room in Doha, Qatar, where he "offered rare insights into the thinking of Hamas officials," the report reads.

"In the interview, Mr. Meshal made clear that Hamas officials are not in a rush to conclude a cease-fire with Israel at any price, and will not give up on their main demands for an end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal," the Times wrote.

Fetterman posted a screenshot of the story's headline on X, rebuking the outlet for giving one of Hamas' most senior leaders a platform to promote the group's message.

"No idea why NYT would platform this propaganda from a terrorist. Undoubtedly, Israel will hold him accountable," the lawmaker wrote. "Hamas is no different than WWII Nazis and I fully support Israel’s commitment to neutralize them."

The Times report notes that the U.S. accused Meshal and other Hamas leaders of playing "a central role in planning and carrying out the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel." Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel.

Still, the paper features quotes from Meshal insisting that the terror group "has the upper hand," and "has remained steadfast" while bringing the Israeli military into 'a state of attrition."

"Hamas’s reasoning is simple — winning simply means surviving and, at least for now, the group has managed to do that, even if it is severely weakened," the Times writes.


Bernie Moreno campaigned with two individuals condemned for Nazi, Holocaust comments
Bernie Moreno, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, has attended two fundraisers in recent months co-hosted by individuals who have been condemned for their comments about the Nazis and the Holocaust.

State Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur was a co-host of a July 28 fundraiser attended by Moreno — listed second on event invitations — and can be seen in a photo from the event.

Fowler Arthur was photographed a day later standing next to the lectern at another Moreno event. She was photographed with Moreno at a third campaign event in August and posted a message praising him.

Fowler Arthur faced backlash from the Jewish community and the Republican Ohio House speaker in 2022 for suggesting in an interview that the Holocaust should be taught in part “from the perspective of a German soldier” in addition to the perspective of victims.

Based on a clip posted by News 5 Cleveland, which conducted the interview, Fowler Arthur initially brought up the Holocaust unprompted in an interview about a bill regarding teaching “divisive concepts” in public schools.

“You should talk about these atrocities that have happened in history, but you also do have an obligation to point out the value that each individual brings to the table,” she said.

During the interview, Fowler Arthur also mischaracterized key facts about the Holocaust, including how many people were killed, as well as the Nazis’ stated reasons for their actions, while also stating that teachers should not tell students that the Nazis were correct.

“What we do not want is for someone to come in and say, ‘Well, obviously the German government was right in saying that the Aryan race is superior to all other races, and therefore that they were acting rightly when they murdered hundreds of thousands of people for having a different color of skin,’” she said.

Fowler Arthur later apologized and said that her views had been mischaracterized, while claiming that “politicians and left-wing special interests [were] advancing a false narrative to kill the bill and raise money.”
Chicago mayoral aide apologizes for mocking police, denies heckling lone Jewish City Council member
A top aide to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson apologized for referring to police as “f***ing pigs” but denies charges that she heckled the only Jewish member of the Chicago City Council, WTTW News reported.

While Kennedy Bartley, 29, the mayor’s managing deputy for external relations, “apologized for her anti-police remarks, she declined to express regret for posting ‘From the river to the sea. Palestine will be free. Amen!’ on her private account on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Oct. 9—just two days after the Hamas attacks on Israel,” per WTTW.

“Bartley said she does not agree with some Jewish American groups that the phrase is antisemitic,” the news organization reported. “Bartley said it is a call for freedom for Palestinians and the establishment of a Palestinian state, not a call for the destruction of Israel.”

“Bartley said she did not understand when she made that post that the phrase ‘from the river to the sea’ had been ‘weaponized’ by those who want Israel to cease to exist. That is the stated goal of Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. government,” WTTW added. “While Bartley said she would be more ‘mindful’ of that context in the future, she declined to say she would never use the phrase again.”

Debra Silverstein, an alderman and the Chicago City Council’s lone Jewish member, said of Bartley’s post that “to me and, I’m sure, to the majority of the mainstream Jewish community, it was similar to a congratulations to Hamas, an internationally known terrorist organization,” per the Chicago Sun-Times.

Scott Waguespack, another city alderman, told the Sun-Times that he heard Bartley and others “snapping and whistling and jeering” while Silverstein spoke before the City Council, before the mayor cast the tie-breaking vote to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“That’s why I yelled. That was the first time I’ve sort of been like, ‘Hey, be quiet and don’t be disrespectful,’” Waguespack told the Sun-Times. “I thought it was extremely disrespectful and trying to shout her down.”

“I’m not Jewish, but I don’t understand this. I would think that the community would see that behavior as deep behavior that’s not gonna go away with an apology,” Waguespack told the paper.


Putin security chief meets Iranian president in Tehran as military ties deepen
Top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu held talks with Iran’s president and his Iranian counterpart in Tehran on Tuesday, Russian and Iranian media said, days after meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.

Russia has deepened ties with Iran and North Korea, both of which are hostile to the United States, since the start of its war in Ukraine.

The United States views the growing relationships with concern and says both countries are supplying Russia with ballistic missiles for use in the conflict, something Moscow denies.

Shoigu’s trips are taking place at a crucial moment in the two-and-a-half-year war, as Kyiv presses the United States and its allies to let it use Western-supplied long-range weapons to strike targets such as airfields deep inside Russian territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Western countries would be fighting Russia directly if they gave the green light and that Moscow would respond.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Shoigu on Tuesday that relations between Tehran and Moscow would develop in “a continuous and lasting way,” state media reported.

The Nour news agency, affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Shoigu also met his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Ahmadian. There was no immediate information on the outcome of the meeting.

Russia has repeatedly said it is close to signing a major agreement with Iran to seal a strategic partnership between the two countries.

Shoigu was Russian defense minister until May when he was appointed secretary of the Security Council, which brings together Putin’s military and intelligence chiefs and other senior officials.

Apart from meeting North Korea’s Kim last week, he also held talks in St. Petersburg with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Earlier this week, the Guardian newspaper reported the US and UK are concerned that Russia has been helping Iran develop its nuclear weapons program in exchange for the recent delivery of ballistic missiles it was provided by Tehran for use in its war against Ukraine, citing sources familiar with the matter.


Jewish comedian wins Emmy for HBO special about New York sit-down with neo-Nazis
Emotion overwhelmed comedian Alex Edelman while accepting an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special for his “Just for Us” HBO comedy special as part of the awards show on Sunday night.

Standing on the stage with the winged statue in hand, the 35-year-old began his acceptance speech with “Oh God, I’m going to cry in front of Carol Burnett, fantastic.”

Edelman credited his “great collaborator,” Adam Brace, who died on April 29, 2023, just before the show debuted on Broadway. He then thanked “this huge group who rushed in to fill that void,” giving a special shout-out to fellow nominee Mike Birbiglia, who produced the special.

Edelman credited his “great collaborator,” Adam Brace, who died on April 29, 2023, just before the show debuted on Broadway. He then thanked “this huge group who rushed in to fill that void,” giving a special shout-out to fellow nominee Mike Birbiglia, who produced the special.

“Just for Us” recounts the story of Edelman going undercover to attend a neo-Nazi meeting in Queens, N.Y. The special explores antisemitism, his Jewish identity and an eclectic group of neo-Nazis in a city not known for that sort of thing.

“This is really, really beautiful,” Edelman said. “And I really miss Adam, but this is the end of a seven-year journey with the show. I got to make something really funny with my friend, so thank you so much for this; I really appreciate it.”

Edelman, whose full name is David Yosef Shimon Ben Elazar Reuven Alexander Halevi Edelman, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter earlier on Sunday about the themes he sought to explore in the special.

“The show is kind of about what happens when we sit down with people who are fundamentally opposed to us, and what we learn about ourselves,” he said. “I think, given what’s going on in the country right now, given what’s going on in the world, I like the idea that people who are fundamentally opposed to one another, maybe even hate one another, can have productive conversations.”

The Crime Behind Germany’s Biggest Fortune
Klaus-Michael Kuehne is the richest man in Germany, heir to the freight-forwarding firm Kuehne + Nagel, which was cofounded by his grandfather and which he has stewarded for much of his life. A supporter of the centrist Christian Democratic Union (the party of the former chancellor Angela Merkel) and generous philanthropist, Kuehne lives the sort of life one expects from Europe’s super-rich: dividing his time among his estate near Lake Zurich, his chalet in the Swiss Alps, his yacht, and his villa in Mallorca. David De Jong takes a look at his company’s dark past, a story that begins in 1933, when Hitler took power:
In late April, the Kuehne brothers, [Klaus-Michael’s father and uncle], ousted their Jewish partner and co-owner Adolf Maass after he’d spent more than 30 years at the firm. Maass, fifty-seven at the time, owned 45 percent of the Hamburg branch of Kuehne + Nagel, which he had founded in 1902 and which was the largest and most profitable part of the firm. When Friedrich Nagel died heirless in 1907, his shares went to his cofounder, August Kuehne, the father of Alfred and Werner. He died in 1932.

According to a signed and dated contract in the Maass family archive in the Montreal Holocaust museum, Maass signed over his shares and claims to the Kuehne brothers on April 22, 1933, for no compensation. The reason? An alleged inability “to fulfill his capital obligations” to the Kuehnes and the company. Such accusations became a common method in Nazi Germany to oust Jewish shareholders from their own firms.

Nine days after ousting Maass, the Kuehne brothers became Nazi party members, according to their denazification files in the Bremen state archive. In the following years the Kuehnes developed their firm into a “national-socialist model company,” an honorary title that the Nazi regime awarded to Kuehne + Nagel in 1937, the year that Klaus-Michael was born.

During World War II, Kuehne + Nagel, led by Alfred and Werner, transported looted Jewish property, primarily furniture, books, and art, from occupied Western Europe to Nazi Germany.

Of course, almost all major German corporations participated in the enslavement, despoliation, and murder of the Jews—such is the nature of a totalitarian state engaged in such a massive project as the Holocaust. What is unique about Kuehne is that he hired historical investigators to research his firm’s wartime history, and then refused to publish the results.
TV Series Shows How Poland Expelled 16,000 Jews in 1968
The Polish state broadcaster Telewizja Polska (Polish Television) decided to make a drama about the events of March 1968, a seismic yet rarely dramatized moment in postwar Poland. The communist government of the time brutally clamped down on intellectual dissent and whipped up anti-Jewish sentiment. The authorities withdrew the citizenship of up to 16,000 Polish Jews, accusing them of being "fifth columnist" Zionists with dual loyalty to Israel. This led to forced migration on economic grounds.

Veteran filmmaker Krzysztof Lang's drama depicts a shamelessly antisemitic Polish government crushing a student revolt via the harshest of measures. Polish "Zionists" - it was still too close to the end of World War II to be flagrantly antisemitic and use the word "Jews" - were stripped of their citizenship, making them ineligible for work in Poland. The only solution was to emigrate, but the authorities would only allow them to leave if they said they were relocating to Israel (even though most actually moved elsewhere in Europe or the U.S.).

Why was Polish Television so accommodating? Lang says any criticism of the communist regime in '60s Poland would have been acceptable to the ruling Justice and Law party, sitting at the opposite end of the political spectrum to the government of Wladyslaw Gomulka, who was in office from 1956 to 1970.

There are two separate works: the originally commissioned film, "March '68"; and a four-part series for television retitled "End of Innocence."


Argentina posts 44% increase in reported antisemitic acts in 2023, most after Oct. 7
Argentina experienced a 44% increase in reported antisemitic incidents in 2023, mostly after the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel, according to a report issued Monday by the country’s Jewish umbrella organization.

The report makes Argentina the latest country to record a spike in antisemitism following the attack and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Antisemitism watchdogs in the United States, Germany and elsewhere across Europe have all recorded steep rises.

According to DAIA, which unveiled the report at the Buenos Aires City Legislature, 57% of all antisemitic incidents last year took place in the three months after the Hamas assault, in which some 1,200 people were murdered and 251 were seized as hostages.

What’s more, the organization found, Israel shot up as the cause of antisemitic incidents. In 2022, about 11% of antisemitic incidents in Argentina related to Israel. Last year, the proportion was 40%.

The rate at which in-person antisemitic incidents took place also rose, although most incidents that DAIA recorded took place online. In the nine months before the October 7 attack, 72 in-person incidents were recorded. In the three months after, there were 150.

Among the in-person incidents that DAIA logged in its report were the word “Hamas” and a crossed-out Star of David that was drawn on a student’s desk and a building that hung a sign reading, “Zionists out of Palestine. This did not start on 7/10. Hitler fell short.”

Incidents before October 7 included the inclusion on a restaurant’s menu of an “Anne Frank” hamburger and “Adolf” fries; the restaurant changed the items’ names after members of the Jewish community, including DAIA, criticized the menu for trivializing the Holocaust.

Marisa Braylan, the report’s author and the director of DAIA’s Center for Social Studies, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the tally reflected a sad reality for Argentine Jews since October 7.
North Dakota governor to visit Israel on ‘solidarity mission’
Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota, plans to travel to the Jewish state this week.

“At a time when Iran is at war with Israel on seven fronts, in the wake of Hamas brutally executing six hostages, including one American citizen, and as Israelis continue to battle the daily attacks from Hezbollah on their northern border, now is the time to stand with Israel—in Israel,” he said in a statement on Monday.

Blasting the Biden administration’s approach to Iran, the 68-year-old, who attempted a run for the presidency but ended his campaign in December, called to “restore the policy of maximum pressure on Iran with maximum support for Israel.” He thanked the Republican Jewish Coalition for sponsoring the trip.

A spokesman for Burgum confirmed to the North Dakota Monitor that the trip would not incur costs to the state and that the governor would go in a personal capacity. Dates for the visit have not been released.
Mark Podwal, doctor and artist whose witty drawings bear weight of Jewish history, dies at 79
Mark Podwal, a New York artist and dermatologist whose drawings and paintings often drew on Jewish history, including ritual practice and centuries of antisemitism, and who illustrated many of his friend Elie Wiesel’s books, died on Friday. He was 79 years old.

Podwal, who described himself as a “non-observant Orthodox Jew” who liked “things done the Orthodox way, as long as someone else does it for me,” first met Wiesel when the latter contacted him after seeing one of his drawings in The New York Times op-ed section, Elisha Wiesel told JNS.

That was “back when proud, non-self-hating Jewish perspectives weren’t verboten in the Times,” Elisha Wiesel, the son and only child of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, told JNS. “My father had written an op-ed criticizing the French government for ignoring the lessons of Auschwitz. Mark had drawn an Eiffel Tower dreaming of an oil well. Both pieces were in the wake of the Abu Daoud affair. That’s how they met.”

Thus began a 30-year friendship “and professional collaboration,” Wiesel told JNS. “Together, they explored Jewish storytelling and advocacy.”

“Mark was such a loyal friend. A talented doctor, he would drop everything to help my father find relief from mosquito bites,” Wiesel said. “Or accompany him last minute overseas if he wasn’t feeling well before important meetings with international dignitaries.”

Podwal created artwork for Elisha Wiesel’s bar mitzvah, as well as for the coming-of-age ceremonies of Wiesel’s own two children.

“The illustrations in the Haggadah they created together never fail to attract as much discussion at our seder as the commentary by my father, which Mark had no hesitation in driving my father to edit and improve,” Wiesel told JNS.

Podwal developed a strong connection with the Altneuschul—the synagogue in Prague that dates back to the 13th century—where he designed the ark and bimah covers for High Holidays and was proud to have his own seat. He spent many holidays there and often exhibited his work in Prague, as well as throughout the United States and Israel.

Podwal designed a Passover seder plate for the Metropolitan Museum of Art store, and sold many of his drawings and paintings through it.
Fourteenth century Hebrew Bible sells for $6.7 million
A rare, handsomely illustrated 14th century Hebrew Bible will soon go on public display after being sold at auction for $6.7 million at Sotheby’s New York on Sept. 10.

The Shem Tov Bible is described as “a tour de force of biblical and kabbalistic scholarship and a precious witness to the medieval tradition of Sephardic book art.”

It was completed by Rabbi Shem Tov Ibn Gaon in the northern Spanish city of Soria in 1312.

Sharon Liberman Mintz, Sotheby’s international senior Judaica specialist for books and manuscripts, said the 800-page Bible’s mixture of scholarship, mystical lettering and various artistic influences make it unique.

The book mixes three artistic and architectural traditions: “The architectural features mirror the mudéjar art of the time, while at the same time using artistic vocabulary from French gothic,” said Liberman Mintz.

The Bible sold at the high end of its $5-$7 million estimate.

The Shem Tov Bible also combines various Jewish streams of thought, citing the Hilleli codex, a legendary, lost Hebrew Bible, while containing about 2,000 Kabbalistic letters to which are attributed a secret meaning.



‘Greatest discovery since Dead Sea Scrolls,’ Megiddo mosaic goes on view at Bible Museum in DC
For hundreds of years, a mosaic lay hidden in Megiddo in northern Israel until, in 2005, it was found and preserved as a local prison sought to expand. The mosaic recently made the trip—in nearly a dozen pieces—across the ocean to Washington, D.C., where it is on exhibit at the Museum of the Bible.

At an opening reception for the exhibit on Sunday afternoon, Carlos Campo, CEO of the museum, said that the mosaic, which dates to around the year 230, like an Impressionist show that opened recently at the nearby National Gallery of Art, requires stepping back to take in the broader, unifying picture.

“Frankly, I’m still stepping back, because as I step back, I learn more about the power of this object and what it’s trying to say to me about ancient history, about the history of Christianity, about the place in Israel and so much more,” Campo said.

“This object really is a way for us to come together—a way for us to see that these tiny little tesserae, these tiny little chips, these beautiful pieces when placed together—they tell a remarkable story of unity,” he told those assembled. “We truly are among the first people to ever see this, to experience what almost 2,000 years ago was put together by a man named Brutius, the incredible craftsman who laid the flooring here.”

The mosaic, which contains a very early mention of the name of Jesus and includes an illustration of two fish, as well as a variety of geometric patterns, is “the greatest discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Campo said. (The exhibit “The Megiddo Mosaic: Foundations of Faith” is on view until July 6, 2025.)

Gil Lin, the head of the Megiddo Regional Council, agreed in his address at the reception.

“The Megiddo mosaic represents the most significant archaeological find since the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Lin said. “This mosaic, nearly 1,800 years old, is the earliest known house of prayer and the first physical proclamation of Jesus Christ as God. For billions worldwide, it’s not merely an artifact but a tangible link to shared history, tradition and faith.”

The “priceless treasure from antiquity” will return home and will be installed where it was found and where it can be best appreciated, he promised. “Megiddo will do everything to build an ideal home for the Megiddo Mosaic and preserve this invaluable piece of history,” he said.
Synagogue painting on view in major ‘birth’ of Impressionism show in DC
One of the more than 200 works that appeared in the first Impressionist exhibit, held at the Paris studio of the photographer Nadar 150 years ago, was a painting of a synagogue by the Jewish artist Jacques Émile Édouard Brandon.

“We tried to reassemble the entire contents of that exhibition on the Boulevard des Capucines,” Mary Morton, curator and head of the department of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, told JNS. “We had trouble finding pictures by Brandon, but did find this one, which may or may not have been the picture named in the catalog ‘Synagogue.’”

The picture that appears in the National Gallery’s exhibit “Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment,” on view through Jan. 19, shows dozens of figures—many of them clad in prayer shawls and top hats—in a vast synagogue adorned with a menorah and candles. It isn’t entirely clear what is happening in the service, as young men, clad in white hats and robes with blue sashes, appear to congregate on the dais.

Brandon painted many Jewish scenes, including a more detailed synagogue painting (1868-70) that is part of the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

“We found it quite striking that the only painting in the exhibition related to religion was Brandon’s pictures and were determined to represent that,” Morton told JNS. “Unfortunately there is very little work on his career and his oeuvre.”

The first exhibit of the Impressionists, Catherine Méneux, a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Paris, writes in the exhibition catalog that it “was not a major happening in 1874 and was seen as something exceptional only with the benefit of hindsight.”

Only 30 or so critics covered the 1874 show—compared to about 100 that would cover the Salon—and most of them were “somewhat close” to the artists.

Many of the pictures in the National Gallery exhibit, which was previously on view at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, feature the calming pastel tones and bright and energetic light for which the movement is known. But the exhibit also addresses the tumult during the Franco-Prussian War, and several pictures feature corpses and violence.

Three years before the first Impressionism show, “war and political turmoil destabilized life in Paris,” per an exhibit wall text. “Mounting tensions and power struggles between France and Prussia led the French parliament to declare war in July 1870.”

France’s “unprepared” army was “quickly overwhelmed,” and Napoleon III was captured and Prussian soldiers besieged Paris. “France surrendered six months later in January 1871,” per the wall text, which added that the crisis wasn’t yet over.

“When the French army tried to regain control two months later, a brutal civil war erupted,” it adds. “In one week, as many as 15,000 members of the commune were killed, and public buildings across Paris were set ablaze.” In 1874, as the Impressionist show was mounted, “ruins of structures throughout the city still showed scars of this conflict.” Édouard Brandon synagogue




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